Thomas Hutchinson entered public life as a Boston merchant and developed into one of Massachusetts's leading royal officials. Elected to the colonial assembly in 1737, he later served as speaker and promoted the withdrawal of depreciated paper currency in favor of specie. He represented Massachusetts at the Albany Congress in 1754, participating in discussions of intercolonial union and defense. He held judicial and executive offices despite lacking formal legal training.

Appointed lieutenant governor in 1758 and chief justice in 1760, Hutchinson defended the authority of the imperial constitution as he understood it. He questioned the wisdom of the Stamp Act but upheld lawful government rather than endorsing resistance to Parliament. In 1765 a crowd destroyed much of his Boston home, including valuable books and historical papers. The attack exposed his distance from colonial opponents.

He became acting governor after Francis Bernard's departure in 1769 and received his own commission in 1771. Disputes over troop deployment, official salaries, and the respective authority of Parliament and the colonial legislature intensified under his administration. Publication in 1773 of letters sent to Britain, in which he discussed restricting colonial liberties, further damaged his position. During the tea crisis he refused to permit ships to depart without complying with customs requirements; the confrontation ended in the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor.

Replaced by Thomas Gage in 1774, Hutchinson went to England and never returned. He advised British officials but found himself increasingly removed from the colony whose government he had served. He was also an important historian: his History of Massachusetts-Bay and collection of original documents preserved material from the colony's earlier development. A later volume covered the pre-revolutionary years. His writings supply a Loyalist perspective informed by documentary knowledge and personal involvement.