William Brattle

Major General William Brattle (April 18, 1706 – October 25, 1776) was an American politician, lawyer, slaveowner, and militia officer who served as the Massachusetts Attorney General from 1736 to 1738. Born into a prominent Massachusetts family, Brattle inherited the estates of his father and uncle at a young age and attended Harvard College, fully graduating from the college in 1725. He proceeded to dabble in preaching, law, and medicine before switching to a career in politics and military service in 1729; Brattle was elected to the colony's House of Assembly and commissioned into the colonial militia both in that year.

Over the course of the 1730s, Brattle continued to be involved in politics. In addition to establishing his own private law practice, he was also appointed as the colony's Attorney General in 1736, though Brattle never prosecuted anyone as attorney general due to resistance from Governor Jonathan Belcher. In 1745, he was appointed as the commander of the garrison at Castle William after King George's War broke out, though Brattle saw no military action. He married twice, the first time in 1727 and the second in 1755. Though Brattle's marriages produced nine children, only two of them survived to adulthood.

During the early years of the American Revolution, Brattle was a leader of colonial opposition to the British Crown, though by the 1770s he had gradually shifted to the Loyalist camp. In 1774, Brattle unwittingly sparked the Powder Alarm, leading to a riot in which armed mobs forced him to flee to Boston. In 1775, the American Revolutionary War broke out, and the Continental Army began besieging Boston. When the British evacuated the city in 1776, Brattle went with them to Nova Scotia, where he died several months later. In the 21st century, Brattle's ownership of slaves has come under increasing scrutiny.