Josiah Quincy Jr., often called Josiah Quincy II, was born on February 23, 1744, in Boston, the son of merchant Josiah Quincy Sr. and Hannah Sturgis Quincy. He belonged to a prominent Massachusetts family with commercial, legal, and political connections. His mother died when he was young, and family relatives played important roles in his upbringing. Quincy attended Boston Latin School and Harvard College, graduating in 1763. He studied classics, rhetoric, logic, theology, mathematics, and political thought. After college he read law under Oxenbridge Thacher, a respected Boston attorney whose opposition to writs of assistance helped shape Quincy’s constitutional views. Quincy was admitted to the bar and quickly gained a reputation for eloquence and intense principle. In 1769 he married Abigail Phillips, strengthening connections with another leading family. They had children, though Quincy’s poor health and growing political involvement placed strain upon domestic life. Tuberculosis or a similar chronic illness shadowed his adulthood. Quincy joined the Patriot cause but remained committed to legal fairness. After the Boston Massacre, he and John Adams defended the British soldiers. The decision exposed them to criticism but reflected the professional conviction that even unpopular defendants deserved counsel. At the same time, Quincy wrote forcefully against parliamentary power and communicated with resistance leaders. Before serving as a secret Patriot emissary to Britain, Quincy had been shaped by family prominence, maternal loss, Boston Latin and Harvard education, legal mentorship, marriage, illness, and the volatile politics of occupied Boston. His early life joined radical political conviction with respect for legal process. That combination made him one of the most intellectually compelling young Patriots before his death at thirty-one.