Born and raised in Plymouth, Massachusetts, James Warren graduated from Harvard in 1745. In 1754 he married Mercy Otis Warren, the sister of Patriot leader James Otis, and in 1757 he succeeded his father as Plymouth County sheriff. Warren became involved in state politics during the Stamp Act crisis of 1765; he began a 12-year term in Massachusetts General Court the following year. An outspoken opponent of British rule, Warren became an active Patriot and associated with John and Abigail Adams and Samuel Adams. After Joseph Warren's death at the Battle of Bunker Hill, Warren succeeded him as president of the Provisional Congress; he also served during the war first as Paymaster General, where he worked with George Washington in Cambridge, then as a member of the Continental Navy Board. After the war, Warren's fear that the ideals of the Revolution were being forgotten in the formation of the new government put him at odds with many leaders, particularly Gov. John Hancock, and made it increasingly difficult for him to gain election to state office.

Sources: Garraty, John A. and Mark C. Carnes, eds. American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Boatner, Mark Mayo III. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. New York: David McKay Company, 1966.