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John Temple, a British Imperial official, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1732, the son of Robert Temple, a colonial entrepreneur, and Mehitable Nelson. He grew up on the family "Ten Hills" estate near Boston; but spent much of his early adulthood in London, seeking a lucrative appointment through Richard Grenville, Earl Temple, and his brother George Grenville, later to be prime minister. In 1761 he was named Surveyor General of Customs for the northern district of America, with supervision of all the customs officers from Newfoundland to New Jersey, and lieutenant governor of New Hampshire, a position with neither pay nor duties "that was created purposely," he said, "to give me Rank in that Country."

This document is a resolution by officials in the colony of Rhode Island who claim that Temple had not taken the necessary oaths required to appoint officials in the colony and it is resolved “that those officers not be admitted & sworn in this colony until Mr. Temple by whom they are appointed hath first duly qualified himself for the Executor of his Office... and when the said Surveyor General himself hath been duly sworn in and Shewn the Governor hs Authority...then upon their Application they be also sworn.” Temple was a controversial figure, known for his epic fight with the royal governor of Massachusetts, Francis Bernard, whom he accused of collusion in extortion and fraud. Temple later was accused of theft of certain letters with which Benjamin Franklin was also inveigled. This document is a good example of the resistant and oppositional behavior of the colonies, and Rhode Island in particular, in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. (See Temple’s papers in the Massachusetts Historical Society; Bowdoin-Temple papers).