Biddeford’s second attorney, after the departure of Governor James Sullivan, was the Honorable George Thacher (sometimes spelled “Thatcher”). Thacher served as a member of the Continental Congress. He went on to be elected to the first United States Congress in 1789, a Representative of the District of Maine – then a part of Massachusetts. He remained a Representative until 1801 when he accepted an appointment to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
He served there as a justice until 1820, when Maine attained statehood. He then left his position in Massachusetts to become a judge in the newly formed Supreme Judicial Court of Maine for the remaining four years of his life. On the home front he was a well-regarded citizen, the town’s only attorney for some years, and a founding member of the Biddeford’s Second Congregational Church.
Born April 12, 1754 in Barnstable, Massachusetts, Thacher was the second youngest in a family of 11 children. He graduated from Harvard College in 1776, studied law and opened a practice in York, Maine in 1778. Thacher married Sarah Savage of Weston at Biddeford in 1784. The Thachers had 10 children: Samuel, Sally, George, Lucy, Henry, Lewis, Anna, Josiah, Nancy, and Elizabeth.
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Mrs. Jane B. Thacher, Biddeford and Portland, ca. 1890
In memorializing him, a contemporary wrote of Thacher’s home life: “In domestic relations, he had no fault unless an excess of kindness and indulgence be one. Surrounded by his sons and daughters, and their children, and having the government of his family upon equal terms with a most examplary and excellent wife, his humble dwelling was the abode of peace, love and benevolence. It was also the scene of the most unlimited, frugal hospitality, where every human face was received with welcome.”
His nephew, Silas Lee, was also a resident of Biddeford and the two maintained a steady correspondence over the years while Thacher was away in congressional session. Their succession of letters reflect the blend of familial humor and public service that seemed to have been the hallmark of his life. After his death on April 6, 1824, Thacher was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in Biddeford.
