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.
