Thomas Preston ( 1722 ) was a British officer , a captain who served in Boston in the Province of Massachusetts Bay . He commanded troops in the Boston Massacre in 1770 and was tried for murder , but he was acquitted . Historians have never settled whether he ordered his men to fire on the colonists . Preston was originally from Ireland ; his people were among the Protestants settled there
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
Thomas Preston (British Army officer)