26 | To Thomas Boone

    Boston Feb. 2. 1761

    Sr.

    I was favoured with yours of Decr. 27th which I communicated to the Council153 who have desired me to give you their thanks for your endeavours to Serve the Sufferers at Boston. I Also Communicated it to the Select men &c. who also desire me to make their thanks Acceptable to you. I am also to signify, that they suppose that the Negative did not arise from a want of Charitable sentiments, but from a doubt of the power of Representatives to appropriate the public money to works of Charity. This was the Case in Connecticut, who therefore did the business very handsomely by way of breif or Church Collection. The Collections in Maryland & Virginia were also made in the same manner,154 they therefore hope, that as soon as the recess of Winter will Afford a proper oppertunity, you will be so good as to recommend the Collection to be made thro’t the Country in such manner as you shall think best.

    My regard for the Province of NJersey makes me very desirous that it should not be singular on such an Occasion. The loss fell Cheifly on those that were least able to bear it; & all the Collections that have been returned, which are near all that are Expected, amount but to 5 in the Pound.

    I am Sr. &c &c

    Govr Boone155

    L, LbC BP, 2: 97-98.

    A fire on 20 Mar. 1760 ravaged the centre of Boston: the four hundred buildings that were destroyed affected one-fifth of householders. Thomas Hutchinson reported that FB estimated property damage to be £100,000 sterling, twice as much as some observers were suggesting, but less than one-third of what the town’s newspapers were claiming. Gary B. Nash, The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge, Mass., 1979), 251; Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts, 3: 58.