Thomas Hutchinson served as Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts between 1771 and 1774, having previously been Lieutenant Governor from 1758. His tenure in those positions was marked by much turbulence in the British colonies in North America as discontent with the Parliament in Westminster turned into the American Revolution. As Hutchinson was loyal to the British, he became a focal point for opposition to the Crown. In 1765, his mansion in Boston was ransacked during protests against the Stamp Act, which had introduced unpopular taxes across the American colonies. The instability in Massachusetts culminated in the Boston Tea Party of December 1773, and Hutchinson was removed from office the following year when Parliament revoked the colony of its right to self-government in the hopes of managing the crisis. He lived the remainder of his life in exile in Britain.

Hutchinson was interested in the history of his native Massachusetts and published the first volume of his history of the colony at Boston in 1764 with this London edition following in 1765. The book covered its early history, from its founding as the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628 through to the union of it with the Plymouth and Maine Colonies in 1691. A second volume, covering the period 1691 to 1750, followed in 1767, with a London edition printed the next year.

Hutchinson followed these two volumes with a third, which he wrote in exile. It covered his time in office and explained his actions in government. The text remained unpublished at his death, appearing in print in 1828.