On July 4, 1776, in a moment of particular historical irony, Thomas Hutchinson, the exiled royal governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, received an honorary degree from Oxford University. The same day, of course, the American Declaration of Independence was issued, decrying the King’s “long train of abuses and usurpations” which many believed had been enacted at Hutchinson’s hand. For Hutchinson, who watched revolutionary fervor consume his birthplace and uproot his family, those alleged abuses were not the causes of the revolution. Instead, they merely provided justification for the men who had conspired to break free of English rule. Such men, he felt, had no clear plan of action, but instead used “every fresh incident which could be made to serve [their] purpose . . . by alienating the affection of the colonies from the kingdom.” In the course of time, “many thousands of people who were before good and loyal subjects,” he wrote, “have been deluded and by degrees induced to rebel against the best of princes and the mildest of governments.”

Like many, Hutchinson never believed that war would come. He described such an event as “the most unnatural, the most unnecessary” war, and, throughout his service as chief justice, lieutenant governor, and then governor, he believed that calmness and reason would prevail, and that the colonies would not be separated from the United Kingdom. Yet as reports of the war arrived, he is said to have repeatedly muttered the words “bella, horrida bella.” Tormented by