Peter Oliver was a Massachusetts jurist, businessman, and staunch loyalist who rose to become Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, the highest court in the colony. Born in Boston, he was part of the influential Oliver family of merchants and public officials. His acceptance of Crown‑funded salaries for judges in 1772, intended to free the judiciary from colonial influence, triggered a major constitutional crisis. The Massachusetts House impeached him, and he became a symbol of judicial corruption in patriot rhetoric.
Oliver lived for many years at his family estate in Middleborough, though he spent much of his professional life in Boston’s legal and political circles. As revolutionary sentiment intensified, he fled Massachusetts in 1776, eventually settling in England, where he wrote a detailed loyalist account of the Revolution titled Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion. He died in Birmingham in 1791.
He is not buried in Boston; his grave is in England, which distinguishes him from his brother Andrew Oliver, who rests in Granary Burying Ground.
