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James Otis, Jr. (February 5, 1725 - May 23, 1783) was a lawyer in colonial Massachusetts who was an early advocate of the political views that led to the American Revolution. The phrase "Taxation without Representation is Tyranny" is usually attributed to him. He was born in [Barnstable], [Massachusetts] to James Otis, Sr. and Mary Allyne, the second of thirteen children and the first to survive infancy. His younger sister Mercy Otis Warren, his brother Joseph Otis, and his youngest brother Samuel Allyne Otis also rose to prominence, as did his nephew Harrison Gray Otis. Speaking of James Otis, John Adams said, "I have been young and now I am old, and I solemnly say I have never known a man whose love of country was more ardent or sincere, never one who suffered so much, never one whose service for any 10 years of his life were so important and essential to the cause of his country as those of Mr. Otis from 1760 to 1770." Perhaps not a single person more epitomized the complexities and contradictions of the pre-Revolutionary War period in Boston.
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