Harvard Governors of Massachusetts and Mayors of Boston

Sixteen of the forty governors of Massachusetts since 1780 were Harvard graduates, exclusive of those who received honorary degrees. They were John Hancock 1754, James Bowdoin 1745, Samuel Adams 1770, Increase Sumner 1767, Caleb Strong 1764, Christopher Gore 1776, Elbridge Gerry 1762, William Eustis 1772, Levi Lincoln 1802, Edward Everett '11, John D. Long '57, George D. Robinson '56, John Quincy Adams Brackett '65, William E. Russell '77, F. T. Greenhalge '63, and Roger Wolcott '70. From 1780 to 1807 every governor was a Harvard man.

Since the incorporation of the city of Boston in 1822, fourteen of the thirty-one mayors have been Harvard graduates. They were: John Phillips 1788, Josia Quincy 1790, Harrison Gray Otis 1783, Theodore Lyman 1810, Samuel Atkins Eliot '17, Jonathan Chapman '25, Martin Brimmer '14, John Prescott Bigelow '15, Josiah Quincy, Jr., '21, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff '31, Frederick O. Prince '36, Samuel A. Green '51, Nathan Matthews, Jr., '75, and Josiah Quincy '80.