Born into a wealthy and politically powerful merchant family, he is best known as the official responsible for implementing the provisions of the Stamp Act, for which he was hanged in effigy.

Andrew Oliver was born in Boston, capital of the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, on March 28, 1706.

[3] On December 19, 1734, he married Mary Sanford of Newport, Rhode Island, the sister-in-law of Thomas Hutchinson.

He held many other local offices, and became a leader of the Hutchinson-Oliver faction, which dominated politics in colonial Massachusetts.

[7] Most of Oliver's family joined the Loyalists during the American Revolution and its success caused them to resettle to other parts of the British Empire.