[1] He graduated from Harvard College in 1718 and then studied law and passed the bar.

[3] Dana became a prominent lawyer[4] and during the early stages of the Revolution, the city of Boston depended on his legal advice, serving as a member of the committee that investigated the Boston Massacre in 1770.

[1] He was a founding member the Sons of Liberty, and led Massachusetts opposition to the Stamp Act.

[5] He served one term in the Massachusetts Assembly,[6] representing Marblehead in 1738.

[2] Through his son Francis, he was the grandfather of Richard Henry Dana Sr., a lawyer, poet and literary critic,[8] and the great-grandfather of Edmund Trowbridge Dana (1818–1869) and Richard Henry Dana Jr. (1815–1882), also a noted lawyer and author who served as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts and wrote the classic Two Years Before the Mast.