Isaac Royall Jr.

Isaac Royall Jr. (1719 – 1781) was an Antiguan-born merchant, politician and slave trader who spent the majority of his life in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

[5][6][2] In 1736, when Royall was 17, British colonial officials in Antigua gained wind of a planned slave rebellion among the colony's slaves, and responded with a brutal crackdown; "[a] total of 132 enslaved persons were convicted, and 88 executed: five by being broken on the wheel, six by gibbeting, and 77 by burning at the stake.

[8][7] Concomitantly, a series of events which affected Antigua, such as a drought in 1725, a hurricane in 1733, earthquakes in 1735, and a smallpox epidemic in 1737 severely impacted the Royall family's finances.

[10][3] From 1732 to 1737, Royall's uncle had gradually remodelled Ten Hills Farm to include a three-story Georgian mansion (expanded from an earlier, more modest structure), a carriage house, a stable, an outdoor kitchen, and a number of barns.

He purchased household silver from Paul Revere and high-quality porcelain and furniture from abroad, traveled in an elaborate coach with liveried footmen, and hosted lavish parties.

[13] He commissioned several paintings of his family; in 1741, Robert Feke completed a group portrait that depicted Royall with his wife, sister Penelope, sister-in-law Mary McIntosh Palmer, and daughter Elizabeth.

Although he was sympathetic to the Patriot cause, Royall's wealth was based on his ties to powerful Loyalist families and the Crown.

Failing to secure passage to Antigua, he sailed to Nova Scotia,[5] instructing a friend to sell his slaves in Medford to finance his exile in England.

For Harvard Law School, la Rose incorporated Royall's coat of arms, which was azure with three sheaves of wheat Or.