James Trecothick Austin

James Trecothick Austin (January 7, 1784 – May 8, 1870) was the 22nd Massachusetts Attorney General. Austin was the son of Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, and Treasurer and Receiver-General of Massachusetts Jonathan L. Austin. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1824. He graduated from Harvard College in 1802. In 1837, he spoke at Faneuil Hall in praise of anti-abolitionists who had killed Elijah P. Lovejoy. He compared the mob to American patriots rising against the British and declared that Lovejoy "died as the fool dieth!" Family Austin married Catharine Gerry, the eldest daughter of Elbridge Gerry, they had a son, Ivers James Austin, born February 14, 1808, and a daughter, Marie Cornelia Ritchie Austin, born on March 8, 1821. Notes