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Primary sourceSpeech1770

Sermon at Cambridge before Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson

Samuel Cooke · 1770

An election-day sermon preached by Samuel Cooke in 1770 in the presence of Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Hutchinson, later printed by order of the House of Representatives.

Hutchinson was present as lieutenant-governor when this sermon was preached and later printed.

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Sermon at Cambridge before Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson
Samuel Cooke, Sermon at Cambridge before Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, 1770.

About this source

What it is

This is a printed sermon by the Reverend Samuel Cooke, delivered on 30 May 1770 at the annual election of the Massachusetts Council. It was preached before the General Court in the presence of Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Hutchinson. The House of Representatives, through its clerk Samuel Adams, formally thanked Cooke and asked for a copy to be printed.

Why it matters

Election sermons were a yearly ritual in colonial Massachusetts, reminding rulers of their religious and civic duties. That this one was preached directly before Hutchinson, and that Samuel Adams helped arrange its printing, shows how closely politics and religion mixed in the tense years before the Revolution. It reveals the expectations placed on a governor like Hutchinson by the colony's political and religious leaders.

Look closer

  • Why might a sermon be chosen as the way to address the colony's rulers?
  • What does it tell you that Samuel Adams, a critic of Hutchinson, arranged for this sermon to be printed?
  • What is missing from a printed sermon that you might want to know about the actual event?

This speech is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Thomas Hutchinson on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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