What If Preston Were Found Guilty?

1 TH gave a similar account of the meeting in No. 589, above.

1 This letter was not found but must have pertained to Jackson’s continuing interest in speculation in undeveloped Maine lands. He had previously purchased land together with Francis Bernard, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Pownall, and others at the mouth of the St. Croix River in territory disputed by Massachusetts and Nova Scotia. See Papers of Francis Bernard, 1:337–38; 2:72–74, 143–44, 231, 289–99; 3:6, 64, 84–86, 86–89, 102, 118, 123, 146–47, 169, 229, 319, 321n.

2 Samuel Waldo (1723–1770), son of the victor of Louisbourg, continued to develop his father’s lands in Maine between the Penobscot and Muscongus Rivers by actively recruiting German settlers. Thomas Flucker was his brother-in-law.

3 Jackson’s January letter, received after the missing one from February, was No. 506, above.

4 TH also mentioned the same inquiry from James Pitts in No. 568, above.

5 The statement about Jackson was reported in the Boston Gazette, 9 April 1770. TH evidently presumed that John Temple was the author of an anonymous letter on the preceding page concerning the recent activities of the customs commissioners.

1 The Corporation comprised the president and fellows of Harvard College. John Winthrop (1714–1779), Harvard College graduate in 1732, an astronomer and mathematician, enjoyed a reputation second only to Benjamin Franklin as America’s foremost scientist. He was acting president of Harvard in 1769, and as Hollis professor would have been an influential voice within the Corporation. The protest of the Corporation, dated 3 May, can be found in National Archives UK, CO 5/759, f. 196. See also TH to the Corporation, 11 May 1770 (calendar only).

2 The Old College at Harvard burned on the night of 24 January 1764, destroying much of the college’s library. See TH Correspondence, 1: Nos. 53 and 65.

3 TH discussed the meeting of the Overseers in his letter to Hillsborough dated 3 May, No. 590, above.

4 The paragraph quoted here pertained to the mysterious order for four thousand military badges; see No. 588, above.

5 TH believed that the order for cap badges might pertain to a sudden interest in adding a company of grenadiers to the provincial militia; see No. 595, below.

6 For the movement of the 29th to New York, see No. 585, above.

1 John Hancock, John Rowe, and William Phillips were three of the wealthiest patriot merchants in Boston.

2 TH’s distinction was only partly accurate. Although the petitioning movement of the previous summer did indeed primarily seek the removal of the Duke of Grafton’s administration, some groups like the Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights aimed at a broader reform in parliamentary representation but did not contest the power of Parliament itself.

1 The General Court had passed a series of bold resolves the past summer; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 382.

2 This complaint was among the items in the remonstrance presented to TH on 23 April; see No. 580, above.

3 Rumors circulated that TH would soon succeed Bernard as governor.

1 Gage’s previous letters were dated 28 and 30 April, Nos. 585 and 588, above.

2 Gage had inquired about cap badges ordered in England by someone from the colonies; see No. 588, above.

1 TH’s recent letters to Bernard were Nos. 582, 589, and 592, above. The letters to Hillsborough and Pownall were Nos. 590 and 593, respectively, above.

2 Presumably St. Petersburg, Russia, a circuitous route to England, but confirmed by the Boston Gazette, 29 October 1770.

3 Legal action against excess fees charged by the Custom House and the Naval Office had begun in early December 1769. See TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 465 and 473. The governor’s son Frank shared in the profits of the Massachusetts Naval Office. Bernard had written TH his legal opinion on the challenge in No. 522, above.

4 Lady Bernard and her children were preparing to join her husband in England. Frank Bernard had been showing signs of mental illness, and John Bernard was nearly bankrupt. TH attempted to arrange naval transport for her with Commodore Hood; see No. 583, above.

5 Boston chose as its members James Bowdoin, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock.

1 TH’s sons, Thomas Jr. and Elisha, were forced in January to store their imported goods under the supervision of the merchants’ committee; see No. 504, above.

1 It is not clear whether TH understood at the time he was writing this letter how large a role Pownall played in urging that imported goods be reshipped to Boston; see No. 587, above, and No. 607, below. He would not yet have heard of the leading role taken by Pownall in the parliamentary debates of 8 and 9 May criticizing the conduct of the ministry and defending Massachusetts Bay.

2 “Sic volumus,” Latin, meaning “We will it thus.”

3 For TH’s veto of Hancock and the others, see No. 580, above.

1 Robert Wilsonn (see BD), TH’s London friend and agent, was evidently a member for his ward of the Common Council, London’s governing body, and distinguished himself by supporting the ministry rather than joining William Beckford, the lord mayor, and many of the livery companies in their support of John Wilkes.

2 Chatham and Camden both declared Parliament had the right to legislate for, but not to tax, the colonies.

1 TH’s letter to Hillsborough was No. 513, above.

2 The card from Bernard was not found.

3 For the response of Parliament to the remonstrance of the London livery companies, see No. 563, above.

4 For the possibility of TH succeeding Bernard, see TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 450 and 464.

5 TH asked to be excused from consideration for the governorship in No. 560, above.

6 The 14 May addendum was not included in the AC.

1 Hillsborough’s letter No. 33 was No. 539, above.

2 Shortly before Bernard prorogued his final session with the General Court, the House adopted a set of resolutions, one of which declared that no one was obliged to obey laws passed by a body in which he was not represented (TH History, 3:172–73). The Council, which continued to meet despite the prorogation, sent its own petition to its agent, William Bollan, but when he attempted to present it before Parliament, he was denied, since the Council meeting on its own, outside of a legislative session, without the governor present, could not be considered a legal body. Bollan eventually presented the complaint as his own petition, but it failed to generate much notice; see No. 541, above.

3 Concerning TH’s veto of two councilors, see No. 596, above.

1 TH communicated this news to Bernard in No. 554, above, which Bernard immediately passed on to Lords Hillsborough and North.

2 The letter of appointment was No. 571, above.

3 The governors of Rhode Island were elected annually and had little executive power. Real power lay with the colony’s General Assembly.

4 This exchange took place on 26 April. See Parliamentary Debates, 5:308–09.

5 This effort was the occasion of Thomas Pownall’s long speech examining the lack of clarity in royal instructions concerning the command of regular troops within a colony; see Parliamentary Debates, 5:312–24.

6 On 9 May, the North ministry withstood several resolutions critical of its handling of North American affairs, including a pledge not to tax the colonies, which was defeated by a majority of 197 to 99. See Parliamentary Debates, 5:332–36.

7 FW, the parliamentary reporter, has not been identified.

1 The Boston Gazette for 30 April 1770 carried the following paragraph: “Last week Mr. IMPORTER ROGERS, of the CABAL, and another Sensitive Plant of the Imitating Order (a Man of Thubstance to pay for the Fat Ducks) set out as Charge D’fairs for the City of New York.” Harbottle Dorr identified the “Man of Thubstance” as Andrew Faneuil Phillips. Rogers, it was presumed, came to New York to persuade the merchants there to abandon nonimportation. For an account of the burning of the effigy, see Boston Gazette, 21 May 1770.

2 Charles Ward Apthorp (1729–1797) was born in Boston, the son of a prosperous military contractor Charles Apthorp (1698–1758). After marrying a woman from New York, the son moved there and became a member of the Governor’s Council from 1763 through 1783. His property in Massachusetts was confiscated as an absentee loyalist. The Apthorp Farm in Bloomendale, an eighteenth-century suburb of New York, occupied the land from present-day 89th to 99th Streets and from Central Park to the Hudson River.

3 Oliver DeLancey (1718–1785) was a merchant, military contractor, and member of one of New York’s two dominant political families (the other being the Livingstons). In 1768, he was at least temporarily allied with Isaac Sears and the Sons of Liberty, although he opposed nonimportation. He later raised a loyalist regiment, and his land was confiscated.

4 Shelter Island is located in between the two forks of eastern Long Island.

5 At their meeting on 14 May, the Philadelphia merchants, under heavy pressure from the artisan community, decided to postpone a final decision until 5 June to allow time to send inquiries to Boston and New York (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution, 1763–1776 [New York: Atheneum, 1968], 219).

6 Isaac Sears (1730–1786) was a successful privateer in the French and Indian War turned merchant. He became a leading figure in the New York Sons of Liberty and a key participant in the “Battle of Golden Hill,” where he and his followers contested the removal of a liberty pole, injuring a number of British regulars.

7 David Van Horn[e] (1715–1775) was a New York merchant with Boston business connections and privateering interests during the French and Indian War; though he eventually cast his lot with the patriots, he had been part of a committee of merchants who attempted to mitigate violence following the New York Stamp Act riots (Virginia D. Harrington, The New York Merchant on the Eve of the Revolution [Gloucester, Mass.: P. Smith, 1964], 326, 350). Ebenezer Pemberton, TH’s friend and clergyman (see BD), was minister of a Presbyterian church in New York before arriving in Boston in 1754.

1 TH’s cover letter to Wanton was not found. Most probably the packet contained TH’s letters of 28 February to Bernard and Hillsborough, Nos. 530 and 531, respectively, above, in which he described the death of Christopher Seider. In those letters, he expressed considerable frustration with the Council’s unwillingness to support any action against the continuing demonstrations outside the homes and shops of the importers, mentioning several councilors by name and enclosing transcripts of their remarks. The same letters also made clear that Hillsborough had granted TH discretion not to convene the General Court at Cambridge if he thought otherwise. TH had since presented the choice of Cambridge as “His Majesty’s pleasure.” Therefore, the contents of these letters would cause him considerable embarrassment if they fell into the wrong hands.

2 Newport’s support of nonimportation had been at best half-hearted. Rumors were rife by early May of frequent and open violations. The merchants of Newport voted a formal end to nonimportation on 26 May (CSM Pubs., 19:236).

3 When the news of Newport’s final defection spread, Boston and other towns responded with declarations of nonintercourse with Rhode Island.

1 These are the famed instructions of the Town of Boston written by Josiah Quincy Jr. (For the text, see Portrait of a Patriot, 6:53–61.) TH thought the instructions so significant he included a copy in TH History 3: Appendix R. For the protest of the Corporation of Harvard College against the use of their facilities by the General Court, see No. 592, above.

2 The text of the address of the Corporation can be found in CO 5/759, f. 196.

3 John Hancock had offered to convey returned goods aboard one of his ships free of charge; see No. 582, above.

4 In the DupRC, this word is “damage.”

5 In the AC, this phrase reads, “to keep up this pact now.”

6 In the DupRC, this phrase reads, “I will neglect nothing which is within my power but this is very little more than a negative upon Elections.”

1 For Quincy’s instructions from the Town of Boston, see the preceding letter, No. 605, above.

2 Thomas Lundin (d. 1781) assumed the title Lord Drummond in 1760 and came to America in 1768 to protect his family’s claims to land in East Jersey. He later initiated a last-minute effort to reconcile the colonies and Great Britain in 1775. James Robertson (1717–1788), lieutenant-colonel of the 60th Regiment and barracks master at New York, was later promoted to major general and civil governor of New York from 1779 through 1783. For the movement of the 29th to New York, see No. 585, above.

1 Presumably Thomas Pownall; see No. 587, above.

1 On the afternoon of 18 May, Owen Richards, the same tidewaiter who had been involved in the Lydia affair, seized the schooner Martin from New London. Later that evening a crowd accosted him in Dock Square and tarred and feathered him in front of the Custom House before parading him around town. Meanwhile, another group carted away the contraband from the Martin (Zobel, Boston Massacre, pp. 229–31).

2 Richard Dana chaired both the justices of the peace and the town committee assigned to prepare the inflammatory instructions (written by Quincy).

3 These events are described in No. 603, above.

1 The letter was not found.

2 The assurances from Bernard came in TH Correspondence, 2: No. 484. Letters TH received from John Pownall written in fall 1769 do not mention TH’s prospects to succeed to the governorship. No letters from Benjamin Franklin written around the same time were found.

3 TH’s letter expressing this wish was No. 560, above.

4 Chatham made a distinction between Parliament’s powers of taxation and legislation, which TH commented on in the same letter to Bernard, No. 525, above.

5 TH meant that after the repeal of the Stamp Act, Charles Townshend devised his duties in a way that reflected a distinction between internal and external taxation, last made by Benjamin Franklin in testimony before the Commons in February 1766, but which many in the colonies no longer regarded as significant.

6 Captain James Smith was commander of HMS Mermaid on station in Boston. Benjamin Caldwell, captain of the Rose, assisted at the deliberations following the Boston Massacre.

1 Gage’s letter of 18 May was not found.

2 Concerning the puzzling order for badges, see Nos. 588 and 595, above.

3 William Rawle (1721?–1789) was a “celebrated maker of military accoutrements” in the Strand. He subsequently appeared before the secretary of state’s office testifying that “a Gentleman he understood to be an agent of the People of Boston, whose name he could not recollect” placed the order in the fall. Rawle delivered a pattern for the badges but never received permission to proceed. The gentleman had complained of “hardships put upon the Americans” and “seemed to imply an intention of resistance” (“Information of Mr. Rawle Regarding Pattern for Military Uniforms and Supplies for Troops,” 10 February 1770, National Archives UK, CO 5/88, ff. 38–39).

4 For an account of Rogers’s reception in New York, see No. 603, above.

5 The letter to Rogers was not found.

6 For the strong reaction against the London remonstrance, see No. 563, above.

1 For the tarring and feathering of Owen Richards, see No. 608, above.

2 The justices promised to inquire into the incident; see also No. 608, above.

3 Councilors John Erving Sr. and James Pitts.

4 John Temple. The unnecessary flight of the commissioners was the subject of the anonymous letter in the Boston Gazette, 9 April 1770, which TH attributed to Temple; see No. 591, above.

5 Any goods that had received a rebate of duties on export might be subject to confiscation upon reentry into Britain. The same problem arose with sending back the tea in 1773. The purpose of the law was to prevent fraud in exporting and reexporting the same goods over and over again to obtain the drawback (Smith, Writs Case, p. 106; Thomas C Barrow, Trade and Empire: The British Customs Service in Colonial America, 1660–1775 [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967], pp. 149–51).

6 The Philadelphia merchants had discussed alterations in the agreement and voted on 14 May to send to Boston to ask for the opinions of the merchants there.

7 For Rogers’s treatment in New York, see No. 603, above.

8 Robert Auchmuty was one of the three lawyers defending Captain Preston.

9 Colonel Thomas Goldthwait was truckmaster at Fort Pownall. There were several merchants in Boston in 1770 named John Brown[e].

10 For the address of the College Corporation, see No. 592, above.

11 Josiah Quincy Jr. was the author of the instructions of the Town of Boston to its representatives.

12 Dr. Thomas Young.

13 The Treason Act of Henry VIII allowed for offenders to be tried in London in the criminal court there known as Old Bailey. Richard Dana chaired the committee that reported Quincy’s instructions.

14 Timothy Ruggles and Daniel Oliver (1743–1828) were both chosen as representatives from Hardwick in 1770.

15 Eliphalet Pond (1705–1795) represented Dedham in the General Court in 1761 and 1765. He was appointed colonel of the Suffolk County militia in 1773 and signed the Farewell Address to TH, but later recanted the action, Boston Gazette, 12 September 1774.

16 This was the second meeting of Boston merchants eager to end nonimportation, but they were no more successful than the previous attempt (Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, pp. 155–56).

17 TH’s assessment of the Philadelphia merchants’ position is not quite accurate; see note 6, above.

18 Presumably Francis Greene or Joseph Green.

19 For John Ruddock, see No. 528, above.

20 Again, either Francis Greene or Joseph Green and Nicholas Boylston.

21 Bernard’s card of 19 March was not found.

22 For TH’s letter on the District of Maine, see No. 613, below.

1 Quincy’s instructions in TH’s mind went much further than any preceding document to advocate a “general revolt” to royal authority (TH History, 3:209).

2 It is not clear whether TH meant the blank to be filled with the words “four” or “five.” The constitutional function of the town meeting was to elect representatives, choose local officers, and manage the ongoing expenses of the town.

1 Samuel Adams was the clerk of the House of Representatives.

2 The timbering settlement of Machias was located on the coast in the extreme eastern part of the District of Maine about forty miles from the St. Croix River, the putative border with Nova Scotia.

3 Charles Cushing (1734–1810) was appointed sheriff of Lincoln County by Francis Bernard in 1760 and continued in that office through 1780.

1 John Penn (1729–1795) was governor of Pennsylvania from 1763 through 1771 and again from 1773 through 1776.

2 The meeting of merchants eager to renew importations was described in No. 611, above.

3 The letter from the Philadelphia merchants inquired about the depth of commitment to nonimportation at Boston; see also No. 611, above.

1 The meeting was described in No. 611, above.

2 TH made his inquiry to Penn in the preceding letter, No. 614, above.

1 Robert Jameson (1741–1816) arrived in Boston in 1759 from Drumoak, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The editors are indebted to Donald Friary for this information.

2 A North Briton, meaning a Scot.

3 “Nemine contradicente,” Latin, meaning “no one contradicting.”

4 These are the words in the Vulgate spoken by Christ on the Cross: “fiat voluntas tua,” Latin, meaning “thy will be done.”

1 To protest the meeting of the General Court at Cambridge, the Reverend Charles Chauncy (for whom see No. 495, above) gave the traditional Election Day sermon in Boston, apparently at the request of Dr. Thomas Young.

2 JHR, 47:6–7.

3 George Leonard Jr. (1729–1819) of Norton, Harvard College graduate of 1748, later served in the first US Congress and became chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. James Gowen (1715–1781) of Kittery was later appointed to the York County Court of Common Pleas by TH. James Humphrey (1711–1798) of Weymouth and Stephen Hall Jr. (1704–1786) of Medford both sometimes followed the political lead of Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

4 For TH’s opinion of Jerathmiel Bowers, see No. 582, above.

5 Artemas Ward (1727–1800) of Shrewsbury, Harvard College graduate of 1748, later commanded the American forces laying siege to Boston before George Washington’s arrival and afterward served in both the Massachusetts and U.S. Houses of Representatives. Thomas Sanders Jr. (1729–1774) of Gloucester, Harvard College graduate of 1748, was a prosperous merchant and farmer.

6 Joseph Gerrish (1708–1776) of Newbury was vetoed by Bernard but declined to serve in the Council when elected in 1770.

7 Timothy Ruggles and John Worthington were both strong government party men from the central and western parts of the province. For Worthington, (see BD).

8 Peter Oliver, Edmund Trowbridge (Goffe), and Thomas Flucker all had served previously on the Council but failed to be reelected because of their government party loyalties.

9 Andrew Oliver (the secretary), Edmund Trowbridge (Goffe), and Joseph Lee (1711–1802) of Cambridge, Harvard College graduate of 1729, judge of the Middlesex County Court of Common Pleas, and a future mandamus councilor, were all part of the delegation urging TH to accept more patriots into the Council.

10 William Phillips chaired the meetings of the merchants that enforced the extension of the nonimportation agreement.

11 TH accepted Thomas Cushing as Speaker of the House but not as commissary general; see No. 580, above.

12 TH would not yet have received Hillsborough’s order of 26 April ordering him to delay execution of the sentence of Preston until the king had time to review the transcript of the trial.

13 Fort Hill was a promontory on the southeastern part of the town that was fortified in the seventeenth century but since abandoned.

1 Initially, the Superior Court was due to meet on 13 March. Soon after he drew up the indictments against Preston and the soldiers, Attorney General Jonathan Sewall left town. Justices John Cushing and Edmund Trowbridge then announced they were sick. The town of Boston pressed TH to appoint special justices so the trials could proceed, which he refused to do. After the trial of Ebenezer Richardson, the court adjourned until 29 May. On that day, only Justices Cushing and Benjamin Lynde were present; Peter Oliver had fallen from his horse, and Trowbridge was still ill. Attempting to meet again on 31 May with only two justices present, the court adjourned. After that action, the earliest the trials could be heard would be 28 August when the court next met in Boston (Zobel, Boston Massacre, pp. 217–31).

2 The AC does not include the postscript.

1 For the overturning of the merchants’ decision, see No. 611, above.

2 For the letter from the Philadelphia merchants, see also No. 611, above.

3 TH’s letter to Penn was No. 614, above.

1 Based on the way in which TH numbered his letters, this letter must have been written after 1 June and before 8 June. It appears in the letterbook immediately after TH’s letter to Cadwallader Colden, 2 June, No. 619, above.

2 These letters would be Nos. 553, 555, and 563, respectively, all above.

3 For TH’s letter of 8 September 1769, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 406.

4 TH’s letter to Jackson that was enclosed within the letter to Bernard appears in TH Correspondence, 2: No. 407. TH’s previous arrangements with both Jackson and Palmer for taking out and paying for the commission are described in TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 344 and 345.

5 Words missing from the AC here and below due to a torn MS have been supplied from the Boston Gazette, 8 January 1776.

6 TH’s letter to Hillsborough requesting not to be appointed governor was No. 560, above.

7 TH recovered from nervous exhaustion by a similar method in spring 1767; see TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 259–61.

8 TH wrote to both Hillsborough and Bernard on 12 March, Nos. 543 and 544, respectively, above. These letters left Boston with Robinson on 16 March and arrived in London on 21 April.

1 Palmer’s letter to TH was No. 569, above.

2 Lord Dunmore was the new governor of New York. TH informed Hood of this plan in his letter of 8 June, No. 623, below.

3 John Worthington, a government party member of the House.

4 For Hillsborough’s order to TH to meet the General Court in Cambridge, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 485.

5 TH addressed these topics in his letter to Pownall of June 8, No. 624, below. For William Rawle and the caps, see Nos. 588 and 610, both above. For the sale of Fort Hill, see No. 617, above.

1 TH vetoed Hancock and Jerathmiel Bowers; see No. 617, above.

2 Bernard had previously vetoed Artemas Ward, Thomas Sanders, and Joseph Gerrish, but TH accepted them into the Council; see also No. 617, above.

3 These messages and counter-messages consume most of the record of the session; see JHR, 47:6–7, 12–13, 15–16, 18–24.

4 For the means by which TH was able to delay the trials, see No. 618, above.

5 For the dismissal of charges against Bernard, see No. 556, above.

1 For these arrangements, see No. 621, above.

1 Samuel Stillman (1738–1807), pastor of the First Baptist Church, gave the sermon before the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company on 4 June. The text was later printed as A Sermon Preached to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in Boston, New-England, June 4, 1770 (Boston: Edes & Gill, [1770]).

2 The first excerpt was apparently taken from No. 610, above, pertaining to the alleged order of four thousand cap badges from William Rawle, a military supplier in London.

3 For the sale of land on Fort Hill, see No. 617, above.

4 For TH’s suggestion of a royal commission, see No. 548, above.

5 This is a now obsolete spelling of the word “policy.”

6 In 1664, Charles II dispatched Colonel Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick as a royal commission to seize Manhattan from the Dutch and hear complaints against the various New England colonies involving land disputes, Indian affairs, and religious persecution. The arrival of the commission, replete with judicial powers, struck great fear in Massachusetts for the loss of its charter, although that did not actually occur until the establishment of the Dominion of New England twenty-two years later.

1 TH’s letter No. 13 was dated 12 April, No. 568, above, and described the failure of the previous assembly to vote any salary for TH as acting governor or for the judges.

2 Hillsborough’s letter appointing TH governor was dated 14 April, No. 571, above.

3 Accepting TH’s decision to refuse the governorship, Bernard was relying on earlier letters stating TH could be more effective as chief justice. His previous royal salary for that post was £200.

4 Although the writ of habeas corpus is generally used to compel a prisoner to be brought to trial, it can also be used to transfer the accused from the prison of an inferior court to a superior one. Since Preston was already under the jurisdiction of the colony’s highest court where he was, it is not clear that Bernard’s suggestion would apply.

5 TH had told the Council that he had heard Jackson opposed colonial assemblies meeting in a colony’s principal town; see No. 568, above.

6 Jackson was appointed counsel, not comptroller, to the Board of Trade in April 1770 (House of Commons, s.v. Richard Jackson).

1 TH’s letter No. 6, No. 560, above, contained his request to be excused from the consideration for the governor’s post. No. 7, No. 573, above, concerned the reshipment of recently arrived goods to Great Britain as part of the continued enforcement of the nonimportation agreement. The letter of 21 April, No. 575, above, conveyed the news of the conviction of Ebenezer Richardson for the murder of Christopher Seider.

1 Given the content of the letter, Commodore Samuel Hood was the likely recipient.

2 Captain James Smith of the Mermaid.

3 James, Patrick, and John McMasters had long defied the nonimportation agreement. Their store and homes had been attacked. Patrick had been driven out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, when he attempted to sell goods there. A similar thing happened to another family member in Marblehead, and they were warned to leave the province. On 6 June, they petitioned TH for protection (Petition of James, Patrick, and John McMasters, 5 June 1770, CO 5/759, ff. 271–72, docketed, “In Lt. Govr. Hutchinson’s to Mr. Pownall of 19 Aug. 1770”). On 19 June, Patrick McMasters was seized, placed in a cart with a barrel of tar and a bag of feathers, and taken to King Street, where he fainted. As he was recovering in a nearby house, he vowed to leave Boston and never return. He was carted to the Roxbury town line, frightened but unharmed. (For 19 June, ff. 271–72, docketed, “In Lt. Govr. Hutchinson’s to Mr. Pownall of 19 Aug. 1770”). James, Patrick, and Daniel McMasters (the youngest of the four brothers) all subsequently sought refuge in the Castle (Boston Evening-Post, 25 June 1770). Banishment as a penalty for importers represented an escalation in the intensity of enforcement, permissible perhaps in this case because the victims were Scots and, therefore, perceived as outsiders.

1 The letter would have been No. 579, above, written shortly after the news of the Boston Massacre was known in London.

2 The Prussian officer was not identified.

1 The RC adds “the printing them” at this point.

2 The Council also protested sitting in Cambridge. TH responded to the Council, who transmitted his response to the House. The House then reiterated its position. This second response was initially sent to the Council but later to TH as well. The whole exchange was printed in the Boston Evening-Post, 18 June 1770.

3 The House requested an adjournment on 15 June; see JHR, 47:37.

4 The RC instead reads, “I am satisfied.”

5 TH’s letter to Cadwallader Colden was No. 619, above. Colden’s response was not found.

1 TH’s letter to Penn and Colden were Nos. 614 and 619, respectively, above.

2 Colden’s letter was not found.

3 The address of the Council on 12 June was printed in the Boston Evening-Post, 18 June 1770. Harrison Gray, Thomas Hubbard, and James Russell (1715–1798) of Charlestown opposed the address. Russell was the brother of Chambers Russell and had been a member of the Council since 1761. John Temple’s relations by marriage on the Council were John Erving, James Pitts, and James Bowdoin, now restored to a seat on the board.

1 This policy would be consonant with TH’s letter to [Samuel Hood], No. 627, above.

1 For James Murray, see TH Correspondence 2: No. 492.

1 TH’s letter No. 19, No. 607, above, contained the hint that Thomas Pownall wrote to Boston merchants urging them to reship, rather than store, goods that were imported contrary to the agreement, thus hoping to place additional pressure on British merchants and manufacturers. Thomas’s brother John was undersecretary of state for the American Department.

1 TH received these instructions from Hillsborough in No. 579, above.

2 TH was concerned for the safety of Captain Preston; see No. 636, immediately below.

1 These orders were contained in Hillsborough’s letter of 26 April, No. 579, above, which TH had recently received.

2 These sentences are paraphrases from Bernard’s letter of 28 April, No. 582, above, written immediately after receipt of the news of the Boston Massacre.

3 The source of this quotation was not found.

1 Stephen Greenleaf (see BD).

2 The enclosed letter prompted TH’s response to James Murray, No. 633, above.

1 Those orders were contained in No. 637, above.

2 London friends had arranged for “The Case of Captain Thomas Preston” to appear in the London Public Advertiser on 28 April. The same version of the account was reprinted in a supplement to the Boston Evening-Post, 23 June 1770.

1 In his letter No. 15, No. 582, above, TH described his veto of Hancock as Speaker and the dismissal of Thomas Goldthwait from his post as truckmaster at Fort Pownall.

2 A Latin legal phrase, meaning “as often as the occasion arises.”

3 John Preble (1742–1787), the son of Jedidiah Preble, the original commander of Fort Pownall from 1759 through 1763, did indeed succeed Goldthwait as truckmaster, although just for a year before Goldthwait was restored (JHR, 46:118).

1 The messages of both the House and Council were printed in the Boston Evening-Post, 18 June 1770; see No. 629, above.

2 John Temple was related by marriage to the Bowdoin, Erving, and Pitts families.

3 The message from the Council, written by James Bowdoin, challenged whether the Crown could give instructions to the governor that conflicted with the charter. It also argued that since the purpose of the royal prerogative was to promote the public good, any exercise of the prerogative not conducive to the public good would be void.

4 Massachusetts responded by issuing boycotts against New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Virginia after merchants in those colonies made modifications to the nonimportation agreement. It was not yet clear what Pennsylvania and New York would do.

5 John Hancock is most likely the person intended by “H______.” John Mein referred to him as “Johnny Dupe” because he so readily followed Samuel Adams’s political lead (Boston Chronicle, 23–26 October 1769).

6 Councilor John Erving’s two sons were John Jr. and George, both of whom ultimately became loyalists (along with their father). John Temple eventually became the first British consul-general to the United States.

7 Thomas Young, William Cooper, William Molineux, James Pitts, and Samuel Adams were all leading patriots whom TH would have been happy to see investigated by a royal commission.

8 Henry Hulton, one of the customs commissioners, recounted the attack on his Brookline farm in Henry Hulton, pp. 145–46.

9 James Bowdoin and James Pitts evidently made this extraordinary and rather nonsensical accusation.

10 The wife of William Burch, another commissioner, was with Hulton at the time of the attack.

11 Thomas Oliver (1734–1815), Harvard College graduate of 1753, owned a house in Dorchester before moving to Cambridge in 1766. He was a member of the mandamus council and the last lieutenant-governor appointed by the Crown. (He was no relation to Andrew Oliver.)

12 John Porter was comptroller general and arrived with the customs commissioners in 1767 (Henry Hulton, p. 48n).

13 James Bowdoin. An article by “Honestus” on the third page of the Boston Gazette, 26 June 1770, criticized the commissioners for their failure to hold meetings for fear of popular demonstrations and resentment, and mocked John Porter’s claim (unsupported by witnesses) that he was assaulted by several men at night. See also No. 643, below.

14 Another article on the back page of the same issue of the Boston Gazette ridiculed Charles Paxton. TH was assuming John Fenton wrote the article under the direction of John Temple; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 390.

15 Paxton is once again intended.

16 “Dabit deus his quoque finem,” Latin from the Aeneid, book 1, line 199, meaning “God will also give an end to these things.”

1 Hillsborough’s letter No. 35, No. 571, above, informed TH of his appointment as governor. Letter No. 36, No. 579, above, acknowledged receipt of the first news of the Boston Massacre.

2 This was perhaps TH’s interpretation of a letter Lord Shelburne wrote to Francis Bernard in 1766; see Papers of Francis Bernard, 3:224–25.

3 See No. 627, above, for the need for at least one ship to be present in the harbor. For Captain Smith, see also No. 627, above.

4 No. 579, above, contained an order to delay executing the sentences of Preston and the soldiers if they were to be found guilty.

5 The same letter also contained instructions to order the attorney general to drop the indictments against Bernard, Gage, and the others for libeling the town of Boston in their reports sent to England.

6 The messages are printed in JHR, 47:49–55.

1 TH and the House remained deadlocked on the issue of its refusal to do business in Cambridge. Twice they had asked to be adjourned, and twice TH had refused, stating that he anticipated receipt of important news from England, presumably in response to the Massacre (JHR, 47:38, 44).

2 The “Gentleman of Candour” was most probably Joseph Hawley.

3 The source of the anecdote about Belcher has not been found.

4 I.e., his commission as governor.

5 Williams had stated Todd’s name correctly in his letter, No. 510, above, suggesting him for the Berkshire Court of Sessions.

1 Hillsborough’s letter of 26 April, No. 579, above, was the first communication TH received after the arrival in Great Britain of the news of the Boston Massacre.

2 TH’s letter of No. 560, above, asked that he be removed from consideration for the governorship.

3 Either John Temple or James Bowdoin. Both were members of the same family and both had clashed openly with Francis Bernard.

4 There had been an attack on the house of Henry Hulton, one of the customs commissioners, on 19 June. William Burch, another commissioner, and his family also sought shelter at the Castle after the attack (Henry Hulton, p. 196).

5 James Bowdoin was Temple’s father-in-law, and James Pitts was the brother of Bowdoin’s wife. They both alleged that Hulton engineered the attack on his own house in order to justify fleeing to the Castle; see No. 640, above.

6 John Porter, the comptroller general of customs, claimed to have been assaulted; see No. 640, above.

7 In other words, Bowdoin and Erving agreed to the proclamation in the hope of learning about what they thought had been a staged attack on Hulton’s house.

8 John Temple was the one commissioner who had opposed the actions of all the rest.

RC (Massachusetts Historical Society, Israel Williams Papers).

1 In his letter dated 21 June, No. 635, above, TH informed Gage that he had instructed the attorney general to enter a plea of noli prosequi in the cases of Bernard, Gage, and other royal officials for libeling the province.

2 In his letters dated 22 and 23 June, Nos. 636 and 638, respectively, above, TH reported rumors that Captain Preston might be lynched.

1 William Molineux (see BD).

1 The Council records pertained to the tarring and feathering of Owen Richards in May and the petition of the McMasters brothers in late June. The proclamation, printed in the Boston Evening-Post for 2 July 1770, offered a reward of £50 for the apprehension of those persons who had threatened Henry Barnes, an importer in the town of Marlborough, with arson, as well as tarring and feathering, if he did not desist.

1 TH requested to be removed from consideration for the governor’s post in No. 560, above.

2 TH evidently expressed this sentiment to Williams on several occasions; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 466.

3 “Dedimus,” short for “dedimus postestatem,” was a commission to a judicial officer to take a deposition, or in this case swear in the new officers in Berkshire County. Williams requested the dedimus lest the validity of the officers’ commissions be called into question, should the ministry elect to supersede TH with a new governor.

1 These letters were respectively Nos. 580, 590, 601, 605, 608, and 613, above.

2 Although TH mentioned Goldthwait’s failure to win reelection in No. 613, above, TH first wrote Bernard a fuller account of the subject on 28 April, No. 582, above. Bernard subsequently told TH in a letter dated 23 June, No. 639, above, that he communicated that account to Hillsborough. In the same letter, Bernard also mentioned Hillsborough’s reservations about John Preble, Goldthwait’s successor.

1 Bernard was alluding to the tarring and feathering of Owen Richards on 18 May, an event TH described in No. 611, above.

2 The letter was not found.

3 TH first mentioned the rumor to Bernard in No. 607, above. In No. 634, above, Bernard reported that the rumor had reached Lord North through an anonymous source.

4 The loose paper was not found.

1 In No. 645, above, Gage advised removing Preston and the soldiers to the Castle to avoid their being lynched.

2 The right-hand column on the third page of the Boston Gazette for 9 July 1770 summarized two letters from London. Harbottle Dorr identified the author of the first letter as William Bollan and the second as Thomas Pownall (Massachusetts Historical Society, Dorr Collection). Catharine Macaulay (1731–1791), the author of the eight-volume History of England from the Accession of James 1 through the Revolution (1763–83), was a prominent supporter of John Wilkes and a friend to the colonies.

3 By depositions, TH meant those appended to The Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston, compiled by a committee of the town led by James Bowdoin. Evidently, The Fair Account had not yet been published by 14 May, although “The Case of Thomas Preston” had appeared on 28 April.

1 See No. 651, above

2 Presumably the letter was from Samuel Waldo; see No. 591, above. Once the commissioners had taken refuge at the Castle, speculation began concerning where they might relocate. Amboy, the capital of New Jersey, would have been more centrally located and perhaps less hostile to their presence. Bernard’s appointment to the American Board of Customs Commissioners never took place.

3 TH referred here to the comptroller in charge of receiving the fees for his commission as governor. William Palmer paid the £400 fee.

4 Actually, TH’s letters arrived with John Robinson on April 21; see No. 581, above.

5 Robert Linzee (1731–1804) became commander of the sloop HMS Viper in 1768, which often carried messages from Boston to Halifax. On 3 October 1770, he was made post captain and took command of the Romney, Hood’s flag ship.

6 TH detained the Mermaid during the previous month, not wanting Boston to be without at least one Royal Navy vessel; see No. 627, above.

1 TH first alluded to the return of Captain Andrew Gardner, who had carried the town of Boston’s account of the Massacre to London, in No. 651, above. Gardner returned with letters from Bollan, Pownall, and Macaulay.

2 Stephen Sayre (1736–1818) was an American merchant living in London and close political associate of John Wilkes, therefore at the opposite end of the political spectrum from Lord Hillsborough. In 1775, Sayre was accused of taking part in an alleged plan to kidnap George III. He left England in 1777 to serve as a U.S. diplomat in Prussia and Russia.

3 The General Court stood prorogued until 25 July 1770 when it would meet again in Cambridge.

4 Amelia Bernard and her family had still not embarked for London.

1 TH’s letterbook copy is dated 13 July and includes the underscored material below, which was omitted from the RC.

1 Gage first advanced the idea of removing the accused soldiers to the Castle in No. 645, above. TH’s response was No. 651, above.

1 Those letters were Nos. 634 and 639, respectively, above.

2 Bernard’s last letter was No. 650, above.

3 No letter from John Pownall on this subject has been found.

1 TH’s last letter to Hood was No. 652, above.

1 It is not clear which letter from Sir Francis Bernard TH was quoting.

2 TH’s letter to Colden was No. 619, above. Colden’s response to that letter was not found.

3 In the Remembrancer, this phrase appears as “he certainly has a strange aversion.”

4 In the Remembrancer, this phrase reads, “as well as preventing them destroying the mother country.”

1 Letter No. 29 was No. 602, above.

2 TH wrote two versions of this letter in his letterbook. They are essentially the same with minor variations except that in the one marked “not sent” he included at this point the following material: “I never murmur at disappointments. The state of the nation I have no doubt was sufficient reason for the Ministrys not pushing our Affairs the last session. It is however unfortunate. I have wrote you largely on what you call my Irresolution.”

3 Here also, the version “not sent” includes material cut from the final letter: “I have wrote you so particularly before upon this Subject that I need not now enlarge as something must have been determind before now. I am told that even Temples connexions have not been pleased with the report of a new appointment as they had no chance for such as they would have chose. Temple himself would not be long content with any body besides himself.” Here by “report of a new appointment,” TH meant rumors of someone appointed to be governor of Massachusetts instead of him.

4 TH’s letter to Hillsborough was No. 622, above.

5 The Tweed had been assigned to carry Lord Dunmore, New York’s new governor, across the Atlantic and return with Lady Bernard and her family.

1 Captain Robson commanded the vessel that carried Robinson to England together with accounts of the Massacre by TH, William Dalrymple, and Captain Thomas Preston (Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, 21 June 1770).

2 TH first reported this rumor to Bernard in No. 640, above.

3 Presumably TH meant Thomas Young and William Molineux. Ballad was possibly John Ballard (1715?–1794), wharfinger and proprietor of the British Coffee-House. He was prominent in the attack on Patrick McMasters, see No. 627, below.

1 These letters would be Nos. 617, 620, and 621, respectively, above.

2 Among the reforms in the Massachusetts constitution Bernard and Lord Hillsborough were considering was replacing the elected Council with one appointed by the Crown.

3 TH and Bernard differed concerning the legality of removing the soldiers to the Castle. Bernard first advanced a writ of habeas corpus as sufficient legal justification in No. 625, above.

4 TH explained in his letter of No. 620, above, that he did not put a stop to the payment of the fees for his commission, so the process could go forward.

5 “General Gage’s information” pertained to a rumored order from Massachusetts for military cap badges made in London; see No. 621, above.

1 TH wrote to Penn and Colden on 26 May and 2 June, Nos. 614 and 619, respectively, above. Their responses have not been found, but TH summarized Colden’s answer in Nos. 629 and 630, above.

2 The unanimous vote of the House was recorded in JHR, 47:62.

3 TH made his request for direction in No. 641, above.

4 TH and Bernard had previously discussed the idea of a royal commission, see No. 548, above.

5 I.e., commencement day at Harvard College.

6 Councilor John Erving Sr.

1 The text of TH’s speech can be found in JHR, 47:58–61.

1 Mackay’s letter was not found.

1 TH’s letter to Hillsborough was No. 663, above.

2 According to Harbottle Dorr, Councilors Harrison Gray, Thomas Hubbard, and James Russell had all voted to proceed to business. See Boston Evening-Post, 18 June 1770, Massachusetts Historical Society, Dorr Collection.

1 In other words, TH’s salary as governor would begin once the king appointed him, not after Hillsborough returned to issue the commission.

2 TH first alerted his superiors to the sale of land on Fort Hill in Nos. 617, 621, and 622, above.

1 Ebenezer Silliman (see BD).

2 TH’s sons Thomas and Elisha hoped to recommence selling tea after the expiration of the original nonimportation agreement on 1 January 1770. Not only were they forced to desist, but they had to agree to store newly arrived tea as well. See No. 504, above.

3 Silliman evidently offered to dispose of some tea in Connecticut, since its sale was forbidden in Boston.

1 For Barlow Trecothick, see TH Correspondence, 1: No. 81.

1 TH evidently assumed that both John Temple and John Robinson would need to be replaced and that the board would be strengthened by the addition of two local members if it moved to New York.

1 TH prorogued the House until 5 September. The abrupt adjournment prevented the Council from acting on Bowdoin’s address.

2 John Worthington of Springfield, Timothy Ruggles of Hardwick, and John Murray of Rutland were all staunch government party men who chose not to attend a session of the legislature they believed would be dominated by the opposition. Murray (1720–1794) was a future mandamus councilor and loyalist exile to St. John, New Brunswick.

3 TH began the session by urging the House to proceed to business. Their refusal can be found in JHR, 47:63–71. TH’s response is at JHR, 47:73–78.

4 In his response, TH singled out the House’s use of the word “impudent” when referring to Hillsborough’s order to rescind its circular letter in June 1768. The House preferred to regard the order to rescind as the mere motion of one of the king’s ministers and not an order from the Crown itself; see JHR, 47:73.

5 Quo warranto proceedings, initiated in cases of abuse or neglect of governmental privileges, led to the revocation of the first Massachusetts charter under Charles II. That Thomas Cushing, Speaker of the House, discounted the notion that the repeated refusal of the House to proceed to business would result in similar punishment arose during conversation at the home of Edmund Trowbridge, whom TH habitually called Goffe, his surname at birth.

6 James Bowdoin married the daughter of John Erving Sr. John Temple married the daughter of James Bowdoin. Thus, Temple, whom TH blamed as the source of much disruption, was the “grandson” of John Erving Sr.

7 TH, since he was acting governor, declined to preside at the Massacre trials, leaving the job to Benjamin Lynde Jr. Lynde, who of all the judges on the Superior Court appeared the most alarmed by threats of violence, continued to serve first as acting chief justice, and then as chief justice in his own right, for three years.

8 Perhaps a copy of No. 538, above, which contained a full description of conditions east of the Penobscot.

1 TH’s letters Nos. 17 and 18 would have been Nos. 629 and 641, respectively, above.

2 Hillsborough’s letter of 6 July, No. 649, above, enclosed an Order in Council mandating the transfer of Castle William to royal control.

1 The dispute that first broke out in 1766 over the rights of Massachusetts settlers to land sold them by the Stockbridge Indians within territory claimed by New York remained unresolved.

2 Thomas Flucker, an important government party ally and large landowner in Maine, would soon become secretary of the province.

3 For TH’s final agreement to his appointment as governor, see No. 622, above.

4 The letter to this point is in WSH’s hand. The final sentence, closing, and address are in TH’s hand.

5 TH noted that the legislature made no provisions for troops at Castle William in No. 654, above.

1 The message of the House can be found at JHR, 47:63–71.

2 TH’s response is at JHR, 47:73–78.

1 Letter No. 26, dated 2 July, No. 646, above, concerned an alleged meeting at the home of William Molineux to discuss forcible resistance to any landing of British troops in Boston after their withdrawal to Castle William.

2 The notice appeared in the Boston Gazette, 16 July 1770. Since Francis Bernard, together with a number of prominent British investors, had sought grants of land in the vicinity, the founding of a new town there would be of particular interest.

3 The grant to Bernard, made by the General Court in 1762, of Mount Desert Island still was not confirmed by the Privy Council. The president of the Council in 1770 was Granville Leveson-Gower (1721–1803), 2nd Earl Gower, who favored a hardline toward the American colonies and was a political adherent of the Duke of Bedford.

4 For TH’s letter to Bernard No. 24, see No. 630, above.

1 Rogers’s wife, Elizabeth, was a cousin of John Wentworth (1737–1820), governor of New Hampshire.

2 Edmund Quincy IV (1703–1788) did not share the political leanings of his nephew Josiah Quincy Jr.

3 Here the manuscript changes from TH’s hand to that of WSH.

4 Thomas Flucker did become secretary of the province instead of TH’s brother Foster.

5 TH in his response to the address from the House was quoted in Edes & Gill’s Boston Gazette for 6 August 1770 as saying, “Every order from the secretary of state must be supposed as coming immediately from the Crown.”

6 TH ordered Richard Draper, the official government printer, to change the word “immediately” to “mediately” when his response appeared in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, the official paper of record, on 9 August. Nevertheless, an anonymous piece (said by Harbottle Dorr to have been written by Samuel Adams) appeared in the Boston Gazette, 13 August 1770, challenging the notion that any ministerial order could be said to come immediately from the king.

7 Andrew Belcher (1706–1771), Harvard College graduate of 1724, was the eldest son of Governor Jonathan Belcher, who obtained for him the post of register of vice admiralty in 1740. From 1759 to 1765, he deputized William Story to actually carry out his duties.

8 The Latin phrase “communibus annis,” when translated into English, would mean “in ordinary years.”

9 For John Cotton, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 303n. For Sir Edward Hawke, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 281n. The letter to Hawke appears in the calendar dated 14 August 1770.

1 Gage received letters instructing him to place Castle William under royal control at the same time TH received similar instructions; see No. 649, above.

2 Thomas Harley (1730–1804) was a member of Parliament for London and lord mayor in 1768; he was active in suppressing the rioting in support of John Wilkes. Still smarting from the royal rebuke to their remonstrance of 23 May 1770, the citizens of London were in no mood to see their leaders present an obsequious address on the occasion of the birth of a royal princess. When on 28 May the lord mayor’s procession passed through the Temple Bar, the gates were shut against Harley and his carriage attacked. Once he had fled on foot, the crowd reopened the gates for the rest of the procession.

1 Rogers’s sister Sarah was the daughter of TH’s sister Lydia Hutchinson Rogers.

2 Brigadier William Brattle (see BD), one of whose many occupations was as a lawyer, was considered by some to have been a candidate for the same vacancy on the Superior Court that TH himself filled in 1760. A member of the Council, Brattle spent most of the 1760s as a sharp critic of Governor Francis Bernard and TH, but he had recently split with Bowdoin and come over to the government party. For TH’s reply to the House, see No. 677, above.

1 TH’s last letter to Gage was No. 668, above; only one letter from Gage during the intervening period, that of 12 August, No. 678, above, was found.

2 TH alluded to the transfer of Castle William to royal control.

3 For Philip Stephens, first secretary to the Admiralty Board, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 412n.

1 TH last wrote to Hood on 24 July 1770 (calendar only). Hood’s letters to TH were not found. Mr. Murray was not positively identified but is most likely to have been James Murray, a government party justice of the peace. Captain Benjamin Caldwell commanded HMS Rose.

2 Hillsborough’s letter was No. 626, above.

3 To this point, the letter was written by WSH; the remainder is in TH’s hand.

4 For an account of the mobbing of Alderman Harley, see No. 678, above.

5 James Gambier (see BD) would succeed Samuel Hood as commodore of the North American Station.

6 TH provided the most complete account of the death of his nephew Nathaniel Rogers in No. 677, above.

1 Royal governors habitually arrived and departed on transport provided by the Royal Navy. The Tweed was being held in reserve to transport Lord Dunmore, Virginia’s newly appointed governor.

2 The commissioners of customs dispatched Benjamin Hallowell, comptroller of customs, to London to report on the Liberty riot; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 420.

3 Captain Sir George Collier (1738–1795), later vice-admiral, was commander of HMS Tweed in 1770.

4 Timothy Ruggles of Hardwick (see BD) was a staunch government party ally in the House. Grey Cooper was a member of Parliament and undersecretary of the treasury, a key member of Lord North’s administration; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 263n.

5 In 1770, Benjamin Hallowell superseded John Temple, who had long been at variance with his fellow customs commissioners. Temple and Bernard had conducted a bitter feud since Temple first charged Bernard of being complicit in corruption with James Cockle, collector at Salem, in 1764. See TH Correspondence, 1: No. 72n.

6 Since the publication of John Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in 1768, which acknowledged the supremacy of Parliament but denied its right to tax the colonies, some colonial theorists suggested that royal charters granted by the king to his American subjects at the time of their settlement exempted them from the authority of Parliament. The reform of the Massachusetts charter by an act of Parliament would be a clear assertion of parliamentary sovereignty and be certain to engender further controversy.

1 William Parker (1703–1781) of Portsmouth was judge of probate as well as the vice-admiralty court in New Hampshire. He wrote TH a long letter on 20 August 1770 (calendar only) for advice concerning the administration of a bankrupt estate with creditors in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The New Hampshire creditors stood to gain three times more per pound of debt than the Massachusetts creditors. Should the same rate apply to all, or should there be a separate administration of the estate in each province? The details of the case need not concern us here. TH’s response is included because of his reflections in the penultimate paragraph on Massachusetts politics.

2 “Plene admnistravit” is a plea entered by an executor that he has not had in his possession any assets of the deceased. The plaintiff bears the burden of proof to show otherwise.

3 Parker alluded to long-delayed royal assent to legislation dividing New Hampshire into counties; see No. 688, below.

4 The contents of the packet have not been identified but may have been letters sent by the customs commissioners identifying James Otis Jr. as particularly active in opposing the execution of their duties. Rumors of the contents of these letters prompted the brawl between Otis and John Robinson in September 1769. Robinson did not finally depart for England until shortly after the Boston Massacre.

5 Peter Livius (1739–1795), born of German parents in Portugal, became a member of the governor’s council in New Hampshire in 1765 and a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He attempted to force the removal of Governor John Wentworth in 1771 but lost his seat on the bench instead. He read law at the Middle Temple, received honorary degrees from Harvard and Oxford, and became a fellow of the Royal Society. In August 1776, he became chief justice of Quebec but was later dismissed for secret correspondence with the American military.

1 TH’s previous letter to Gage was No. 681, above.

2 TH’s most complete account of the death of Nathaniel Rogers was No. 677, above.

3 TH to Philip Stephens, 4 August 1770 (calendar only).

1 Francis Bernard’s No. 30 was No. 625, above.

2 TH alluded to William Molineux, Thomas Young, Samuel or perhaps his brother William Cooper, and Samuel Adams as leading members of the opposition.

3 Gage’s letter was not found.

4 Gage suggested transferring the prisoners to the Castle in No. 645, above. TH replied that he thought the plan illegal in No. 651, above.

5 On the temerity of Lynde and Goffe (i.e., Trowbridge), see No. 671, above.

6 The threat to Peter Oliver was not found.

7 TH originally intended that the General Court should reconvene at Cambridge on 5 September 1770. The date was later moved back to 26 September.

1 Hillsborough’s letter No. 37 was No. 626, above.

2 Gage’s letter to TH was No. 678, above.

3 TH’s reply to Gage was No. 681, above.

1 Parker’s letter to TH was dated 20 August 1770 (calendar only). TH’s reply to Parker was No. 684, above.

1 For Patrick McMasters and his treatment, see No. 627, above.

2 New York merchants concluded a canvass in favor of importing on 9 July 1770 and two days later sent orders for all goods except tea and other articles on which a duty was charged.

1 The packet contained Hillsborough’s letter No. 649, above, ordering the immediate transfer of Castle William to royal control.

1 Benjamin Day (1710–1808), together with Worthington, was also a representative from Springfield.

2 For Timothy Ruggles and John Murray, see No. 548, above.

3 The “rump” was all that remained of Parliament after Thomas Pride purged it in December 1648 of members opposed to the execution of Charles I.

4 For the time allotted to TH to reconsider his decision about withdrawing his name from consideration as governor, see No. 661, above.

1 Hillsborough’s instructions were contained in No. 649, above.

2 From this point to the end of the letter, the Dft reads instead, “I told Colonel Dalrymple I had no doubt of my being obliged to commit the Custody & Government of this Fort & Island to such person as His Majesty immediately or mediately should direct to receive it, but that it appeared to me most regular that it should be done by Commissions from the Governor superseding the Commissions of the present Officers, otherwise those persons who are watching every opportunity to charge Administration with the least Irregularity would say this Fort & Island though plainly included within the bounds of the Charter, by force of an Order from His Majesty, were cut off from the Province.

“I have no doubt of the Royal Authority to give the General of His Forces power to command and order them in every Colony, but I should doubt whether a Commission to command the Militia of this Province granted by any other person than the Governor could consist with the Charter. The Authority to the Governor over Forts is just the Same as over the Militia. This Fort was erected and has been repaired by such authority, at the Expence of the Government, I speak of the works, most of the Artillery & Stores being the Gift of the Crown. My Instructions from time to time have been to proceed in a legal constitutional way and I am sure this is most agreeable to His Majesty’s pleasure. Colonel Dalrymple thought there was weight in the Observations I made, but it was a point of some Delicacy and we both agreed to state the matter to you for your consideration, as neither of us could see any material inconvenience from delaying the Execution of this Order a few days. In the meantime it will not be divulged. I would send you the Province Charter but as it has been prefixed to every Impression of the Laws it may, no doubt, be obtained at New York. I am sure you will understand me as aiming at a compliance with His Majestys orders in a way that is most unexceptionable and which shall fully agree with the Royal Intention.

“I had wrote thus far intending to delay exchanging the Garrison until I had received an Answer—but upon weighing the matter I feared I should not be able to justify the delay & went to Town from Milton to order the Exchange.”

1 Major John Phillips (1716–1785), Harvard College graduate of 1736, was appointed by Thomas Pownall to command of the Castle in 1759. After the intercession of both TH and John Temple on his behalf, Phillips was eventually commissioned fort major of Castle William in 1772.

2 William Burbeck [or Burbank] (1716–1785) soon received a civilian appointment in the Royal Artillery at the Castle. He was, however, a member of the Sons of Liberty and an alleged participant in the Boston Tea Party. At the outbreak of hostilities, he fled Castle William and helped to direct the American artillery during the siege of Boston.

3 William Salisbury (1731–1821) of Braintree, according to family tradition, was a friend of TH, and despite the fact that they parted ways politically, allegedly rowed him to a waiting British warship when TH left for England in 1774. Salisbury later served with the American forces at the Castle during the war (Elon Galusha Salisbury, The Salisburian: Historical, Biographical and Genealogical Records of the House of Salisbury [Phelps, N.Y.: Flintside Press, 1921], 1:38–39).

4 The letter forwarded to Hillsborough was No. 695, below.

1 Perhaps TH is referring to the twenty-eight depositions taken by Lieutenant-Colonel William White that accompanied John Robinson to England and were included in A Fair Account of the Late Unhappy Disturbance in Boston. See Hinderaker, Boston’s Massacre, p. 17. TH may not have known the identities of the persons heard by the Committee on Plantation Affairs on 26 June 1770: Captain James Scott (1746-1809), captain of Hancock’s vessel Lydia; Ebenezer Bridgham; Benjamin Hallowell Jr.; and John Robinson.

1 These letters would be Nos. 692 and 693, above.

2 TH expressed this concern in No. 693, above.

3 Hillsborough expressed his view that preventing the despoiling of the lands east of the Penobscot was the responsibility of Massachusetts Bay in No. 649, above.

4 For John Preble, see No. 639, above.

1 The letter was No. 694, above.

1 TH previously acknowledged Francis Bernard’s letter No. 30, No. 625, above, on 28 August; see No. 686, above. Bernard’s letters Nos. 31 through 34 were Nos. 634, 639, 650, and 656, respectively, above. Letter No. 35, dated 20 July (calendar only), was a private letter concerning Bernard’s efforts to obtain the reversion of the Naval Office for his son John. Letters No. 36 and 37 were Nos. 661 and 666, respectively, above.

2 Thomas Goldthwait was both truckmaster and commander of Fort Pownall at the mouth of the Penobscot River in Maine. Earlier in the spring, the House replaced Goldthwait with John Preble as truckmaster; see No. 639, above.

3 “Toties quoties” is a Latin legal phrase meaning “as often as the thing shall happen.”

4 The Order in Council was contained in No. 649, above, and was forwarded by Thomas Gage express from New York.

5 Major John Phillips commanded the provincial garrison at the Castle.

6 James Pitts raised the question in the Council.

7 Samuel Adams accused TH of violating the charter.

8 TH’s brother Foster Hutchinson gave this warning.

9 Francis Bernard took refuge at the Castle in the midst of the Stamp Act riots in August 1765 (Papers of Francis Bernard, 2:319).

10 The meeting of the Body of the Trade held the evening of 13 September 1770 was preoccupied by the question of trying to prevent Philadelphia from defecting from the nonimportation agreement (Boston Gazette, 17 September 1770).

11 The General Court reconvened in Cambridge on 26 September.

12 The Boston representatives were predicting that the House would once again refuse to proceed to business as they had in previous sessions.

1 For Benjamin Day, see No. 691, above.

1 The letterbook copy of TH’s letter to Gage No. 692, above, is marked “not sent,” but it did propose that TH as governor would grant Dalrymple a commission as commander of the Castle.

2 The southern fortification was not identified.

1 Francis Bernard wrote TH on 20 July (calendar only) concerning his efforts to obtain the reversion of the Naval Office for his second son, John, a merchant, since his older son, Frank (the present deputy), was disabled by mental illness.

2 Bernard previously persuaded Benjamin Pemberton, the serving naval officer, to accept an annual payment to make Frank Bernard his deputy; see No. 566, above.

3 TH enclosed Andrew Oliver’s version of the Council meeting of 6 March in his letter to Sir Francis Bernard, No. 543, above. Captain Scott of John Hancock’s ship Lydia arrived 13 September, bringing with him a copy of A Fair Account. The Boston Gazette printed Oliver’s narrative as an extract from that publication on 24 September 1774.

4 TH responded on 28 August that he doubted the legality of Bernard’s scheme to transfer Preston to Castle William advanced in No. 621, above.

5 TH outlined his plans for how to respond to a guilty verdict for Preston in his letter to Gage No. 694, above, and enclosed a copy of that letter to Hillsborough in No. 696, above.

1 In his letter No. 694, above, TH proposed that if Preston were to be found guilty, his counsel should move for an arrest of judgment while the evidence of the case was transmitted to England in the hope that a royal pardon would arrive before the court reconvened in the spring.

2 For the meeting of the committee of the Privy Council, see No. 694, above.

1 Gage’s letter of the 17th, No. 699, above, was a response to No. 693, above.

2 Captain John Montresor (1736–1799) was an engineer and cartographer with extensive experience in North America, dispatched by Gage to see what improvements were necessary at Castle William.

1 For the treatment of McMasters, see No. 627, above.

1 William Brattle had recently become disaffected from the majority of the Council led by James Bowdoin and began to renew his ties with TH and other members of the government party, in whose camp he would remain until he left Boston, together with General William Howe’s army, in March 1776.

2 John Erving Sr., well known as a smuggler, often sided with the patriots in the Council until this time. James Bowdoin married the sister of John Erving Jr., his Harvard roommate. John Temple married Bowdoin’s daughter, thus making Temple John Erving Sr.’s grandson.

3 James Bowdoin and James Pitts. The “pale and lean Cassius” was not identified.

4 Andrew Oliver’s record of the Council meeting of 6 March identified Royall Tyler as claiming to have certain knowledge of militia being raised in the countryside to drive all British troops from Boston after the Massacre.

5 For Stephen Sayre, see No. 653, above.

6 The Reverend Doctor Samuel Cooper was pastor of the Brattle Street Church and a leading patriot who corresponded with key figures in London.

7 TH still had not received any part of the supplemental grant he had been promised out of the income of the Townshend duties, despite being derided as a “pensioner” and having his regular salary cut off by the General Court.

8 In his letter No. 650, above, Francis Bernard proposed a number of reforms in the Massachusetts provincial government and solicited TH’s opinion.

9 John Brock was granted a pension by the General Court, as were John Phillips and Stephen Hall, the chaplain of Castle William in June 1771 (Mass. Acts and Resolves, 18:534–38). For William Burbeck [or Burbank], see No. 693, above.

10 Gage’s 17 September letter to TH, No. 699, above, laid out the formula by which Dalrymple would command the Castle.

1 The text of TH’s speech can be found in JHR, 47:80–82.

2 It took several months for TH to ascertain which of his letters were contained in this packet; see TH to Sir Francis Bernard, 16 February 1771 (Massachusetts Archives, SC1/series 45X, 27:120–21).

1 Neither letter from Pownall was found. TH last wrote Pownall on 29 August, No. 689, above.

2 TH made mention of the arrival of a new “budget of letters” in his 28 September letters to Bernard and Hillsborough, Nos. 704 and 705, respectively, above.

3 As one of the first acts of the session, the General Court voted on 29 September to set aside the following Wednesday as a day of “prayer and humiliation.” TH believed that in doing so, the General Court was adopting the style of the Puritan-dominated Long Parliament of 1641 (JHR, 47:83).

1 Badly advised or foolish (OED).

1 The letter of 5 June 1770 is calendared but not printed in this edition. In his letter of No. 591, above, TH mentioned alluding in Council to a “friend of the Colonies” whose opinion it was that the legislature should not meet in the chief commercial town of a colony. TH made the statement based on a letter from Francis Bernard written in 1769; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 476.

2 The letter in question was TH Correspondence, 2: No. 407.

3 In TH Correspondence, 2: No. 345, TH instructed William Palmer to remit the necessary money to Jackson on demand.

4 TH raised these questions in the final paragraph of his letter No. 591, above.

1 Whately’s letter of 28 May was not found.

1 TH’s letters to Hillsborough Nos. 19 through 22 were Nos. 654, 663, 674, and 679, respectively, above.

2 Here Hillsborough signaled his continuing commitment to far-reaching revision of the Massachusetts Charter; a draft of such legislation, prepared by his office, was now now well advanced.

3 Hillsborough wrote in No. 571, above, advising him of his appointment as governor, Andrew Oliver as lieutenant governor, and Nathaniel Rogers as secretary. TH’s letter No. 22, No. 679, above, informed him of the death of Nathaniel Rogers and the need to appoint a new secretary.

1 Christ Church on Cambridge Common, an Anglican mission founded by the Reverend East Apthorp, opened its doors in 1761.

2 Bernard’s agent was Walter Logan; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 394. David Phips (1724–1811) of Cambridge, a wealthy landowner, colonel of the militia, and future loyalist, was the son of Lieutenant Governor Spencer Phips.

3 Thomas Oliver (1734–1815) of Cambridge, Harvard College graduate of 1753, was unrelated to Daniel and Peter Oliver but became a mandamus councilor and later lieutenant governor after the death of Andrew Oliver.

4 Joseph Lee (1711–1802) of Cambridge, Harvard College graduate of 1729, became a warden of Christ Church from 1772 through 1774, married a daughter of David Phips, and became a mandamus councilor.

1 Letters Nos. 28 through 32 were Nos. 659, 662, 669, 671, and 677, respectively, above.

2 Bernard communicated this information in No. 661, above.

3 Benjamin Hallowell, the former comptroller, was made part of the American Board of Custom Commissioners, while his brother Robert (1739–1816), who was previously collector at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, succeeded his brother as comptroller at Boston. The two men are often confused.

4 Thomas Flucker.

5 TH’s brother Foster Hutchinson.

6 For Sir Edward Hawke, see TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 281 and 463. For Philip Stephens, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 463.

1 Oliver was expecting to see Charles Paxton, commissioner of customs, at the home of Nathaniel Hatch (1723–1784) of Dorchester, Harvard College graduate of 1742, who would become a mandamus councilor and loyalist exile. On 4 October, the Council first discussed Oliver’s private account of its meeting the day after the Massacre. The “exceptionable” part of Oliver’s record concerned Royall Tyler’s alleged statement that gentlemen of property and standing in the countryside had preconcerted a plan to raise the militia to drive the troops from Boston. Oliver presented a petition to the board on 5 October, justifying his conduct and requesting permission to defend himself in person and call witnesses on his behalf. Caldwell and Dalrymple gave depositions on Oliver’s behalf on 9 October (Proceedings of His Majesty’s Council of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay, Relative to the Deposition of Andrew Oliver, Esq; Secretary of the Said Province, Concerning What Passed in Council in Consequence of the Unhappy Affair of the 5th of March 1770 (Boston: Edes & Gill, [1770]), pp. 1, 12–13, 19–22).

2 TH in his opening address to the legislature had mentioned “Other Affairs of an interesting Nature, which had not yet come to our Knowledge and which may be determined before we can have another Opportunity of acting upon them.” This was presumably an allusion to ongoing proceedings in the Privy Council in response to the Boston Massacre and previous provocative statements by the General Court (JHR, 41:80). The House had asked for further explanation, Hutchinson refused, and a committee was appointed to draft a remonstrance (JHR, 41:84–88).

1 TH first advanced the idea a royal commission to inquire into North American affairs in No. 548, above.

2 TH had enclosed with his 4 August letter to Bernard, No. 671, above, a copy of a strongly worded message from the House, written by Samuel Adams, criticizing TH for violations of the charter and asserting their right to challenge misuse of the royal prerogative.

3 The message of the House described in the previous note was part of an extended debate between TH and the General Court concerning the governor’s right to convene the legislature anywhere other than Boston. TH believed that he had gained the upper hand in the argument (at least logically), but Bernard forewarned that many English readers would find the argument too tedious to follow.

1 TH had proposed John Cotton (his wife’s half-brother) for the soon-to-be-vacant post of registrar of the Massachusetts Vice-Admiralty Court in his letter to Sir Francis Bernard of 12 August, No. 677, above, without knowing that Bernard also sought it for his son John.

2 Bernard had recently obtained the reversion of the Massachusetts Naval Office for John Bernard, since his oldest son, Frank, the current holder of the office, seemed to be suffering some form of mental instability.

3 Bernard was reminding TH that he would soon be governor in his own right and able to reward Cotton, who at the moment was the mere deputy secretary of the House of Representatives.

1 In No. 706, above, TH suggested retaining the provincial storekeeper at Castle William with the understanding that Dalrymple should have access to whatever he needed in an emergency.

1 No private letter from Hillsborough dated 3 August has been found. Bernard Bailyn theorized that Hutchinson took the received copy of this letter with him when he went to England in 1774, Bailyn, Ordeal, 167.

2 The letter from Pownall has not been found.

3 Here TH expressed the hope that separate commissions for each councilor would not be necessary, since the expense might be too high for some potential councilors, who might, therefore, refuse the office.

1 The remainder of this paragraph was cancelled by TH.

2 A court of chancery follows looser, and ideally more expeditious, rules than a common law court and has the power to order remedies other than damages, such as writs and injunctions to enforce specific performance.

3 No. 649, above, contained an Order in Council to place Castle William under royal control.

4 TH referred to the decision of the New York merchants to recommence importing on 11 July 1770.

5 Here TH reverted to a familiar theme of his judicial career: reconciling provincial statutes and English common law. Such an act as he suggested would have, as he saw it, the additional benefit of forcing the colonists into acknowledging the authority of Parliament.

6 The Court of the King’s Bench was, together with the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of the Exchequer, one of the three highest common law courts of appeal.

7 The preceding paragraph is a response to the missing letter from Lord Hillsborough mentioned in n. 1, version 1, above. TH provided a summary of that letter in his diary for 14 March 1778: “I shewed him [Thomas Oliver] a private letter from Lord Hillsborough in 1770, in which he says he is extremely glad that I parted from those apprehensions which induced me to decline accepting the government; and he assured me he had never heard I declined it, and seemed surprized: asked the reasons? I gave them, ____ the prospect of increasing difficulties, and a desire to apply myself to the most agreeable office I ever sustained____that of Chief Justice, in which I thought I had done good, and had been very little abused for it. He complimented me by saying no one ever gave more general satisfaction; said it was impossible, after being thus drawn into the government, I should ever be left to suffer.” Diary & Letters, 2:192.

8 The postscript appears at the bottom of the second folio of the letter (f. 442).

1 The vote occurred on 9 October 1770; see JHR, 47:89–90.

1 Letters Nos. 33 and 34 were Nos. 686 and 688, respectively, above.

2 Benjamin Hallowell, the newly appointed commissioner of customs, would soon return to Massachusetts.

3 The phrase is drawn from a longer passage in Horace, epistle 20, line 16: “ridebit monitor non exauditus, ut ille/qui male parentem in rupes protrusit asellum/ iratus: quis enim invitum servare laboret?” Hor. It translates as, “Your monitor, from whom you turned away your ear, will then have his laugh, like the man who in anger pushed his stubborn ass over the cliff: for who would care to save an ass against his will.” The friends of government in Boston are here compared by Bernard to the owner of the ass. He further underscored the idea that they themselves needed to act by alluding to the story of Hercules and his encounter with a wagoner, who was reluctant to put his shoulder to the wheel of his own cart when it was stuck in the mire.

4 Bernard regarded the repeated refusal of the General Court to proceed to business as sufficient grounds for the forfeiture of the charter; see No. 661, above.

5 A Latin phrase that translates as “whenever it should occur or be necessary.”

1 Although this letter bears no specific date within the month of October, in TH’s letterbook it follows immediately after No. 718, above.

2 This Latin phrase translates as “with other conditions remaining the same.”

3 During the last two years of the Protectorate (1658–59), Cromwell established the Other House or Upper House, a second chamber of Parliament to replace the House of Lords, which had been abolished in 1649.

1 Gage wrote to TH on 30 September and again on 8 October, Nos. 708 and 717, respectively, above, concurring with TH’s suggestion to retain the provincial storekeeper at Castle William.

2 According to No. 672, above, Hillsborough was about to set out for Ireland in early August, but the content of that letter does not match the description here. Perhaps the matter was addressed in the missing private letter from Hillsborough, dated 3 August, that was mentioned in No. 718, above. TH also received assurance about the date on which his salary would begin from Sir Francis Bernard; see No. 666, above.

3 Concerning these depositions, see Nos. 694 and 701, above.

1 This letter is a response to No. 709, above.

2 For the letter to Francis Bernard, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 406. For the enclosed letter to Jackson, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 407.

3 The letter to Palmer is TH Correspondence, 2: No. 345.

1 Francis Bernard’s letter No. 38, No. 675, above, concerned the granting of land by the Massachusetts legislature for a new township at Machias in Maine. Letter No. 39 (9 August 1770, calendar only) concerned Bernard’s anxiety over his personal liability in having endorsed a note of hand by the near-bankrupt William Story.

2 TH remarked on Logan’s faithfulness in a private letter to Bernard, 17 October 1770 (calendar only), concerning Story’s bankruptcy and the note of hand.

3 Hillsborough’s instructions were contained in No. 649, above.

4 The secretary, a royal appointee, could not be dismissed by the General Court, but they could express their displeasure over his account of the proceedings in Council on 6 March by failing to vote him his salary.

5 The House’s message to TH can be found in JHR, 47:94, and his response in JHR, 47:100.

6 For William Burbeck (or Burbank), whom TH appointed storekeeper at Castle William, see No. 704, above.

7 For William Salisbury, promoted from serjeant to gunner, see also No. 704, above. It was the responsibility of the gunner of Castle William to make careful note for the Naval Office of all ships entering or clearing the harbor.

8 Latin, meaning “between us.”

9 A group of Boston merchants had begun legal proceedings against excess fees charged by the Naval Office and Custom House in December 1769. The two offices performed very similar functions; see TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 465, 473, and 483.

10 The statute of praemunire punished those trespassing on the prerogative of the Crown. Offenders risked death, but TH had previously suggested loss of civil privileges (voting, holding office, and access to the courts) as suitable penalties for those colonists who challenged royal authority; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 400.

11 Justices of the Peace Richard Dana and John Ruddock were both staunch patriots; see Nos. 528 and 611, above.

12 Bernard added both Robert Auchmuty and James Murray to the list of justices of the peace for Suffolk County in the hope that some magistrates might be willing to authorize regular troops to use force against civilians according to the provisions of the Riot Act. Justice of the Peace Samuel Gillam was indicted for murder after reading the Riot Act to the crowd assembled in St. George’s Field in London on 10 May 1768.

13 TH discussed the story of Rome’s twelve disobedient colonies, recounted in the 27th and 29th books of Livy, in his draft treatise of a “Dialogue between an American and European Englishman”; see TH Correspondence, 2: appendix 2.

14 TH first suggested the idea a royal commission to settle North American affairs in No. 548, above.

15 The complex relation of parliamentary statute, common law, and laws drafted by colonial assemblies was an important topic of No. 718, above.

16 The injustice to English creditors done by Americans’ absconding laws was raised in TH’s recent correspondence with William Parker, judge of probate, and the Vice Admiralty Court in New Hampshire; see No. 684, above.

17 Both Bernard and TH regarded the argument that the colonies were subject only to their own charters and not to the authority of Parliament as a logical absurdity; see No. 683, above.

18 The “late order of His Majesty in Council” decreed the transfer of Castle William to royal authority; see No. 649, above.

19 Concerning the town of Boston’s efforts to sell land on Fort Hill to prevent it being made into a royal bastion, see No. 622, above.

20 Just prior to receiving news of the Glorious Revolution in England, the citizens of Boston seized Fort Hill together with Sir Edmund Andros, governor of the Dominion of New England, appointed by James II.

1 These were evidently the words of Henry Cromwell, fourth son of the lord protector, to John Thurloe, secretary to the council of state; see DNB, 13:154.

1 These messages can be found at JHR, 47:94, 100.

1 The letter and its enclosures have not been found. Perhaps the enclosures were the depositions first mentioned in No. 694.

2 Perhaps this letter was No. 717, above, or a similar letter from Gage written to Dalrymple mentioned in the same letter.

1 This letter was No. 717, above.

2 The manuscript continues in TH’s hand from this point.

3 Riotous behavior often accompanied the celebration of Pope’s Day, 5 November, in Boston.

4 The Order in Council of 6 July 1770 was generally regarded as a response to these seeming “excesses” by the patriots.

1 The Council resolved on 24 October that Oliver was guilty of “breach of trust” and had “injured and abused its members.” They also dispatched a copy of their proceedings to their London agent William Bollan (JHR, 47:267). The House received the Council’s report on 25 October; see JHR, 47:115.

2 Oliver presented a third petition to the Council on 29 October, objecting to the way his testimony was summarized by the board (JHR, 47:12–13).

3 William Brattle chaired the committee deliberating on Oliver’s petitions and the evidence he presented (JHR, 47:268, 270–72).

4 TH continued to refuse to divulge the contents of Lord Hillsborough’s letter (No. 649, above) communicating the Order in Council of the same day.

1 The case went to the jury on Monday, 29 October, which announced its verdict the following day. Therefore the preceding Friday was the 27th.

2 The “cause” was Captain Preston’s trial for murder. The Old Bailey was the chief criminal court in London.

3 Robert Treat Paine would sum up the argument for the prosecution. Robert Auchmuty concluded for the defense.

1 For the missing, misdated letter, see No. 728, above.

2 “Ex necessitate rei” is Latin legal terminology meaning “from the necessity of the thing,” often used to excuse an otherwise irregular or objectionable procedure.

3 TH referred to the depositions that were appended to A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre, prepared by a committee of the town of Boston.

4 Although TH thought the trial of the soldiers might take place in a fortnight, it did not actually begin until 27 November.

1 It was Samuel Drowne in the Short Narrative who testified that he saw the flashes of two guns fired from the second floor of the Custom House. He did not testify at Preston’s trial, where his evidence would not have been relevant, but he did at the trial of Manwaring.

2 James Bowdoin was a leading member of the committee appointed by the town meeting to take depositions from witnesses and compile the Short Narrative.

3 Here TH referred to an attested manuscript copy of the proceedings of the Council made by John Cotton, the deputy secretary, which he enclosed in his letter No. 734, below. The House later ordered the same material to be printed in pamphlet form on 6 November, as Proceedings of His Majesties Council Relative to the Deposition of Andrew Oliver, Esq. (Boston: Edes & Gill, 1770).

4 James Bowdoin’s “Narrative” was the Short Narrative.

1 For the proceedings of the Council against Andrew Oliver, see No. 733, above.

2 No. 733, above, was apparently sent under cover of this letter to Hillsborough. This postscript was not included in the AC.

1 The discrepancy between the printed depositions attached to the Short Narrative and the evidence given at the trial is mentioned in No. 731, above.

2 For Barlow Trecothick’s letter, see No. 668, above. For Governor Thomas Pownall’s letter, see No. 726, above.

3 Hillsborough had sent explicit orders directing TH to delay executing the sentence, pending application for a royal pardon, if Preston was found guilty in No. 579, above.

1 For the amended language as approved by the Council, which tended to downplay the threat of an armed effort to expel the troops, see A Fair Account, p. 53.

2 TH mentioned requesting an account of the meeting and enclosing it in his letter No. 543, above.

3 The resolves of the Council condemning Andrew Oliver can be found in JHR, 47:267.

4 TH’s account here of his words to the Council corresponds closely with the language attributed to him in the Council’s report of its proceedings against Oliver (JHR, 47:270–71).

5 TH expressed his concern over the unauthorized publication of Oliver’s account of the meeting in No. 700, above.

6 Those non-Council members present at the meeting were Lieutenant-Colonels William Dalymple and Maurice Carr, as well as Benjamin Caldwell, captain of HMS Rose.

7 James Bowdoin evidently observed to Thomas Flucker that Andrew Oliver’s deposition had diminished the intended impact of the Short Narrative when it was printed in Britain.