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Thomas Melvill or Thomas Melville (1751–1832) of Boston, Massachusetts, was a merchant, member of the Sons of Liberty, participant in the Boston Tea Party, a major in the American Revolution, a longtime fireman in the Boston Fire Department, state legislator, and paternal grandfather of writer Herman Melville. ==Biography== Born in Boston to Scottish-born merchant〔Copy of the Merchants Petition to the Council March 25th 1760. Boston Evening Post.; Date: 04-07-1760〕〔Boston Gazette, Jan. 26, 1761〕 Allan Melvill (1728-1761) and Jean Cargill (ca. 1730-1759), Thomas Melvill attended to become a minister, and attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), from which he graduated in 1769.〔Hershel Parker, ''(Herman Melville: A Biography. Volume One, 1819-1852 )'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2.〕 In July 1773 he was awarded an honorary master of arts degree by Harvard College.〔Boston News-Letter.; Date: 07-22-1773〕 He married Priscilla Scollay in 1774.〔Priscilla Scollay (1755-1833) was the daughter of John Scollay, and sister of William Scollay.〕 A daughter married a brother of US Senator James De Wolf. Friends included Samuel Adams. "When the citizens of Boston began to evince a determination to resist the arbitrary, offensive and onerous exactions of the British government, Melvill was conspicuous among the ardent and gallant young men of the capital, for his zeal and intrepidity, during that momentous advent of ... national independence."〔Obituary notice of Major Thomas Melvill. Farmers' Cabinet, 10-05-1832〕 He participated in the Boston Tea Party, "that immortal band which in December, 1773, in presence of the Royal fleet, boarded the tea ships in Boston harbor, and threw their rich cargoes into the ocean."〔 In March 1776 when "the British fleet was driven from Boston harbor, Captain Melvill discharged the first guns at the hostile ships, from his battery, at Nantasket."〔 During the war he "served in the Rhode Island campaigns of 1777 and 1779."〔Drake. 1884〕 After the war he worked as a "naval officer" (1786–1820),〔〔Boston Directory. 1789, 1823〕 and "surveyor and port inspector of excise" (ca.1796) at the customhouse on State Street.〔Boston Directory. 1796〕〔Fleet's register and pocket almanack. Boston: T. & J. Fleet, 1800.〕 "When the custom house was established in Boston, in 1786, he was appointed surveyor; in 1789 was made inspector, and ... in 1814, he was appointed naval officer of the port."〔 He served as a town fireward (1779–1825);,〔〔 and for twenty-five years was chairman of the board;〔Parker (1996), 76〕 an incorporator of Boston's Scots Charitable Society (1786);〔An act for incorporating certain persons by the name of the Scots Charitable Society. 1785. Acts and laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 1785〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Scots’ Charitable Society of Boston website )〕 a founder of the Massachusetts General Hospital (est.1811);〔An act to incorporate certain persons by the name of the Massachusetts General Hospital. 1811. Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, from February 28, 1807, to February 27, 1813.〕 and president of the Massachusetts Charitable Society (ca.1825-1826);〔Independent Chronicle and Boston Patriot, September 8, 1824; September 7, 1825〕 "He was in the state legislature in 1832."〔 Melvill lived in Boston's West End "in an old wooden house on the south side of Green Street, between Staniford Street and Bowdoin Square. ... It was a wooden house of two stories."〔Descriptive catalogue of a map of the town of Boston in 1775. Boston: 1866〕 In 1830, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. published a poem entitled "The Last Leaf", which was inspired in part by Melvill, "the last of the cocked hats." Holmes would later write that Melvill had reminded him of "a withered leaf which has held to its stem through the storms of autumn and winter, and finds itself still clinging to its bough while the new growths of spring are bursting their buds and spreading their foliage all around it." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Melvill (American patriot)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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