Mayor of Boston

City Seal

The first Mayor of Boston

The former Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino.

The Mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a mayor-council system of government. The Mayor’s Office is in Boston City Hall, in Government Center. There was no Mayor of Boston until 1822 because up to that point Boston was still incorporated as a town. (In Massachusetts, a town is typically governed by a town meeting.) The current mayor is Martin J. "Marty" Walsh.

Since 1952, the mayoral term has been four years.^[1] There are no term limits.

Boston mayoral elections, like all municipal elections in Boston, are nonpartisan. The two candidates with the highest number of votes in the preliminary election run against each other on the general election ballot. However, every mayor since 1930, and all but one mayor since 1902, has been known to be a Democrat.

List of mayors

"A" denotes an acting mayor:

#	Mayor	Picture	Term	Party	Notes
1st	John Phillips		May 1, 1822 – May 1, 1823	Federalist
2nd	Josiah Quincy III		May 1, 1823 – January 5, 1829	Federalist
3rd	Harrison Gray Otis		January 5, 1829 – January 2, 1832	Federalist
4th	Charles Wells		January 2, 1832 – January 6, 1834	Whig
5th	Theodore Lyman		January 6, 1834 – January 4, 1836	Democratic and Workingmen parties[2]
6th	Samuel T. Armstrong		January 4, 1836 – January 1, 1837	Whig
7th	Samuel A. Eliot		January 1, 1837 – January 6, 1840	Whig
8th	Jonathan Chapman		January 6, 1840 – January 2, 1843	Whig
9th	Martin Brimmer		January 2, 1843 – January 6, 1845	Whig
A	William Parker		January 6, 1845 – February 27, 1845	Whig[3]	From the close of Mayor Brimmer's term on January 6, 1845 until his successor Thomas Aspinwall Davis assumed office on February 27, 1845, William Parker, Chairman of the Board of Aldermen, performed the duties of mayor. Parker ran for mayor but lost to Davis in the election held on February 21, 1845.[3]
10th	Thomas Aspinwall Davis		February 27, 1845 – November 22, 1845	Native American Party[3]	Died in office, November 22, 1845
A	Benson Leavitt		November 22, 1845 – December 11, 1845	Whig	Chairman of the Board of Aldermen served as acting mayor from November 22, 1845 to December 11, 1845.
11th	Josiah Quincy, Jr.		December 11, 1845 – January 1, 1849	Whig	After he was elected mayor on December 8, 1845, for the term beginning January 5, 1846, Quincy was appointed by the City Council, on December 11, 1845, to serve out Mayor Davis' term.
12th	John P. Bigelow		January 1, 1849 – January 5, 1852	Whig
13th	Benjamin Seaver		January 5, 1852 – January 2, 1854	Whig
14th	Jerome V.C. Smith		January 2, 1854 – January 7, 1856	Native American Party[4]
15th	Alexander H. Rice		January 7, 1856 – January 4, 1858	Republican and Citizens
16th	Frederic W. Lincoln, Jr.		January 4, 1858 – January 7, 1861	Republican and Fanueuil Hall Candidate	A Republican, in the 1857 election Lincoln was a so-called Faneuil Hall candidate; he was put forward by a group of citizens who had gathered at Faneuil Hall.[5]
17th	Joseph Wightman		January 7, 1861[6] January 5, 1863[7]	Democratic[7]	Two terms
18th	Frederic W. Lincoln, Jr.		January 5, 1863 – January 7, 1867[7]	Republican	Second time
19th	Otis Norcross		January 7, 1867 – January 6, 1868[8]	Republican; former "Webster Whig"	His time in office was "conducted upon purely business principles, employing the adoption of a 'rigid economy'." [9]
20th	Nathaniel B. Shurtleff		January 6, 1868 – January 2, 1871[10]	Democratic	Shurtleff, who had been the defeated Know-Nothing candidate in 1855, was elected mayor in 1867 as a Democrat.
21st	William Gaston		January 2, 1871 – January 6, 1873	Democratic
22nd	Henry L. Pierce		January 6, 1873 – November 29, 1873	Non Partisan	Normally a Republican, Pierce was elected mayor as an independent non-partisan candidate. Pierce resigned after he was elected to fill the vacancy in the United States House of Representatives caused by the death of William Whiting.
A	Leonard R. Cutter		November 29, 1873 – January 5, 1874	Democratic	Acting mayor after Pierce resigns to serve in Congress.
24th	Samuel C. Cobb		January 5, 1874 – January 1, 1877	Non Partisan
25th	Frederick O. Prince		January 1, 1877 – January 7, 1878	Democratic
26th	Henry L. Pierce		January 7, 1878 – January 6, 1879	Republican	Second time
27th	Frederick O. Prince		January 6, 1879 – January 2, 1882	Democratic	Second time
28th	Samuel A. Green		January 2, 1882 – January 1, 1883	Republican and Citizens
29th	Albert Palmer		January 1, 1883 – January 7, 1884	Democratic
30th	Augustus P. Martin		January 7, 1884 – January 5, 1885	Republican and Citizens
31st	Hugh O'Brien		January 5, 1885 – January 7, 1889	Democratic	First Irish Mayor of Boston
32nd	Thomas N. Hart		January 7, 1889 – 1890	Republican
33rd	Nathan Matthews, Jr.		1891–1894	Democratic
34th	Edwin Upton Curtis		1895–1895	Republican
35th	Josiah Quincy		1896–1899	Democratic
36th	Thomas N. Hart		1900–1902	Republican	Second time
37th	Patrick Collins		1902–1905	Democratic
A	Daniel A. Whelton		1905–1906	Democratic	Acting mayor after Collins died in office; First native born Irish Mayor; First native born Catholic Mayor
38th	John F. Fitzgerald		1906–1908	Democratic
39th	George A. Hibbard		1908–1910	Republican
40th	John F. Fitzgerald		1910–1914	Democratic	Second time
41st	James M. Curley		1914–1918	Democratic
42nd	Andrew J. Peters		1918–1922	Democratic
43rd	James M. Curley		1922–1926	Democratic	Second time
44th	Malcolm Nichols		1926–1930	Republican	Last Republican elected to date.
45th	James M. Curley		1930–1934	Democratic	Third time
46th	Frederick Mansfield		1934–1938	Democratic
47th	Maurice J. Tobin		1938–1945	Democratic
A	John E. Kerrigan		1945–1946	Democratic	Acting mayor after Tobin elected Governor
48th	James M. Curley		1946–1950	Democratic	Fourth time; jailed for 5 months during term
A	John B. Hynes		1947	Democratic	Acting mayor during incarceration of Curley
49th	John B. Hynes		1950–1960	Democratic	Three terms
50th	John F. Collins		1960–1968	Democratic	Two terms
51st	Kevin H. White		1968–1984	Democratic	Four terms
52nd	Raymond L. Flynn		January 2, 1984 – July 12, 1993	Democratic	Elected to three terms but resigned in the second year of his third term to become United States Ambassador to the Holy See.
53rd	Thomas M. Menino		July 12, 1993 – January 6, 2014	Democratic	Five terms; longest-serving mayor to date; as President of the Boston City Council, became acting mayor in July 1993 following Raymond Flynn's appointment as United States Ambassador to the Holy See; elected to his first four-year term in November 1993
54th	Martin J. "Marty" Walsh		January 6, 2014 – Present	Democratic	Incumbent; first term

Living former mayors

Currently, there is one living former mayor of Boston, Raymond Flynn. The most recent mayor to die was Tom Menino, on October 30, 2014.

Name	Mayoral term	Date of birth
Raymond L. Flynn	1984–1993	July 22, 1939

See also

• Past Members of the Boston City Council
• Mayors of Charlestown, Massachusetts
• Mayors of Roxbury, Massachusetts
• Timeline of Boston

References

1. http://www.cityofboston.gov/archivesandrecords/facts/mayors.asp
2. Curry, Leonard P. (1997), The Corporate City: The American city as a Political Entity, 1800–1850, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, p. 96., ISBN 0-313-30277-4
3. Winsor, Justin (1881), The Memorial History of Boston, Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts 1630–1880., Volume III, Boston, MA: James R. Osgood and Company, p. 250.
4. From Our Own Correspondent (January 5, 1868), BOSTON.; The City and Its New Mayor—The Past Mayors of Boston and Who They Were—Distress in the City—Personal., New York, NY: New York Times, p. 3
5. Winsor, Justin (1881), The Memorial History of Boston, Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts 1630–1880., Volume III, Boston, MA: James R. Osgood and Company, pp. 262–263.
6. Vrabel, Jim (2004), When in Boston: A Time Line & Almanac, Boston, MA: Beacon Press, p. 173
7. Vrabel, Jim (2004), When in Boston: A Time Line & Almanac, Boston, MA: University Press of New England (UPNE), p. 175
8. A Catalogue of the City Councils of Boston, 1822–1908, Roxbury, 1846–1867, Charlestown 1847–1873 and of The Selectmen of Boston, 1634–1822 also of Various Other Town and Municipal officers, Boston, MA: City of Boston Printing Department, 1909, pp. 257–258
9. In Memoriam: Otis Norcross. 1883, pp. 82 – 83.
10. A Catalogue of the City Councils of Boston, 1822–1908, Roxbury, 1846–1867, Charlestown 1847–1873 and of The Selectmen of Boston, 1634–1822 also of Various Other Town and Municipal officers, Boston, MA: City of Boston Printing Department, 1909, pp. 258–261

External links

• Lists of Mayors of Boston at The Political Graveyard