Webster Thayer was a judge of the Superior Court

Superior court

In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general competence which typically has unlimited jurisdiction with regard to civil and criminal legal cases...

 of Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, best known as the trial judge in the Sacco and Vanzetti

Sacco and Vanzetti

Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were anarchists who were convicted of murdering two men during a 1920 armed robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts, United States...

 case.
Thayer was born in Blackstone, Massachusetts

Blackstone, Massachusetts

Blackstone is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 9,026 at the 2010 census. It is formally a part of the Providence metropolitan area. Blackstone is the only municipality in Massachusetts to employ automatic cameras in traffic enforcement.- History :This...

 on July 7, 1857. He attended Worcester Academy

Worcester Academy

Worcester Academy is an independent coeducational preparatory school spread over in Worcester, Massachusetts in the United States. The school is divided into a middle school, serving approximately 150 students in grades six to eight, and an upper school, serving approximately 500 students in...

 and graduated from Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

 in 1880 where he captained the baseball and football teams. He learned law through an apprenticeship rather than by attending law school and was admitted to the bar in 1882. He enjoyed a modest career in local politics, first as a Democrat and later as a Republican.