1. Benjamin Kent was a Massachusetts Attorney General and then acting Attorney General during much of Robert Treat Paine's tenure.
10 Facts About Benjamin Kent
1. 2.
Benjamin Kent was a member of the North End Caucus and prominent member of the Sons of Liberty, which formed to protest the passage of the Stamp Act of 1765.
3.
Benjamin Kent handled divorces, and represented numerous slaves in their attempts to gain their freedom, including the case of a slave Pompey suing his master Benjamin Faneuil.
4.
Benjamin Kent was the first lawyer in the United States to win a case to free a slave, Jenny Slew, in 1766.
5.
Benjamin Kent won a trial in the Old County Courthouse for a slave named Ceasar Watson.
6.
Benjamin Kent handled Lucy Pernam's divorce and the freedom suits of Rose and Salem Orne.
7.
Benjamin Kent was occasionally a guest at the Old Colony Club, whose members included John Adams.
8.
Benjamin Kent was a senior member of the Sons of Liberty in Boston and maintained correspondence with John Wilkes.
9.
Benjamin Kent's daughter Sally married Sampson Salter Blowers, who was a loyalist.
10.
Benjamin Kent died there three years later and is buried in the Old Burying Ground.