Christopher Gore - District Attorney and Diplomat

District Attorney and Diplomat

In 1788, Gore was elected a delegate to the 1789 Massachusetts convention to ratify the Constitution. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (in which he served 1788–1789, and again in 1808). In 1789 President George Washington appointed Gore the first United States Attorney for Massachusetts, in which post he served until 1796. That year, Washington appointed Gore as a commissioner representing the United States to handle maritime claims under the terms of the recently-ratified Jay Treaty. As a result the Gores lived in England from 1796 to 1803. After his friend Rufus King resigned from the post of ambassador, Gore briefly headed the London embassy as chargé d'affaires for two months in 1803-1804.

In 1799, while in England, the Gores learned that their summer house in Waltham (built on land purchased with Rebecca's dowry) had burned down. Rebecca Gore was particularly interested in architecture, and used their exposure to European country estates to design a lavish new building. Designed with the assistance of French architect Joseph-Guillaume Legrand and probably also influenced by English architect Sir John Soane, the house that was built upon their return to the United States in 1804 (now known as Gore Place) is one of the finest extant examples of Federalist architecture.