Index

1 For the breakup of the nonimportation agreements in New York and Philadelphia, see TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 479–81.

2 For suits against Bernard, Gage, and the customs commissioners, see TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 482 and 486.

3 For taxing the salaries of the customs commissioners, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 488.

4 For the resolutions and petition, see JHR, 45:168–73.

5 Robert Eccleshall and Graham Walker, eds., Biographical Dictionary of British Prime Ministers (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 58.

6 Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, pp. 143–44, 147–48.

7 For the message to disperse, see No. 509, below.

8 Zobel, Boston Massacre, pp. 177–79.

9 For allowing TH discretion concerning the place for convening the General Court, see No. 507, below.

10 For TH’s disapproval of sending troops to Boston, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 276.

11 Zobel, Boston Massacre, pp. 202–04. See also Nos. 534–36, below.

12 TH History, 3:197.

13 TH History, 3:198.

14 A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston (Boston: Edes & Gill and T. & J. Fleet, 1770).

15 For Hutchinson’s letter asking to be removed from consideration, see No. 560, below.

16 Zobel, Boston Massacre, pp. 222–26, 238–39.

17 For the House’s message and the prorogation, see JHR, 46:194–95.

18 For Hillsborough’s receipt of the news and response, see No. 579, below.

19 For TH’s doubts regarding his ability to transfer the prisoners, see No. 700, below.

20 For the Order in Council, see No. 649, below.

21 For the message of the House, see JHR, 47:63–71.

22 TH History, 3:21–23.

23 Zobel, Boston Massacre, pp. 264–66.

1 For Secretary of State Lord Hillsborough’s letter of instructions, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 451.

2 Lieutenant-Colonel William Dalrymple (see BD) was commander-in-chief of His Majesty’s forces at Boston. TH had previously requested the removal of the main guard (stationed directly opposite the Town House) during the meeting of the General Court. The troops’ presence had been a source of complaint during the last session of the legislature.

1 For Mauduit’s previous letter, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 452.

2 The Boston News Letter for 4 January, the Boston Post-Boy for 8 January, and the Essex Gazette for 9 January 1770 all printed an excerpt from the third paragraph of Mauduit’s letter No. 452 beginning with the words “The great end of all Government . . .” and ending with “. . . want of Imployment” with the omission of the following sentence: “But alas the great question now is, not what is it we ought to do, but what is it we can do? and the great Business of an opposition is to prevent a Minister from doing any thing; and then to abuse him for doing nothing.” There is also the significant substitution of the word “trade” for the final word “Imployment.” The passage was titled “An Extract from a Merchant in London to His Correspondent in Boston, Dated November 4, 1769.”

3 In all likelihood, TH is referring to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England (known as the New England Company after 1770), which had an English and American board. Incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1649, the society listed among its most lasting accomplishments the printing of John Eliot’s Algonquian Bible in 1663. Mauduit was involved with several dissenting charities.

4 Further description below in the letter suggests these initials stand for, among the laymen, Thomas Boylston (1721–1728), who had been active as a member of the Committee of Merchants enforcing the nonimportation agreement but had been noted in John Mein’s Boston Chronicle as nevertheless receiving imported goods; William Phillips Sr. (1722–1804), who had chaired the merchants’ meeting that extended the agreement; Thomas Flucker (see BD); and Harrison Gray (1711–1794), the treasurer of the province. The clergymen alluded to can be tentatively identified in order as Charles Chauncy (1705–1787), minister of the First Church in Boston; Samuel Cooper (1725–1783) of the Brattle Street Church; Samuel Mather (1706–1785) of the Bennet Street Church; and Simeon Howard (1733–1804) of the West Church, a political moderate who did indeed become a trustee for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England.

5 The bracketed words appear in TH’s cipher in the MS.

6 The letters “C” and “E” in this sentence may suggest “Clergy” and “English” constitution.

7 “Latet anguis in herba,” Latin, meaning “a concealed snake in the grass.”

8 Matthew Griswold (1714–1799) was deputy governor of Connecticut from 1769 through 1784.

1 For Hillsborough’s letter, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 451.

2 At the close in July of its last session, the General Court had passed a series of resolves challenging the supremacy of Parliament and petitioning for the removal of Governor Francis Bernard (JHR, 45:80–82, 85–87).

3 The Dft contains four lines following this sentence, crossed out but clearly legible: “What influence this measure will have upon the combination of the Merchants I am at a loss to determine. I would rather hope that it may tend to convince them that what they call legal and constitutional is illegal & contrary to any.” The rest of the paragraph is crossed out too thoroughly to be legible.

1 For the compliance of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York with the Quartering Act of 1765, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 489.

2 Interlined material appears at the bottom of the page. TH is alluding to the fighting that took place along the western border of Massachusetts with New York at Nobletown in July 1766 (Papers of Francis Bernard, 3:200–09).

1 None of TH’s surviving letters written during the fall or early winter of 1769 explicitly mention this concern.

2 For plans to move the main guard, see No. 494, above.

3 Material interlined without mark for position.

4 A letter by “Vindex,” whom Harbottle Dorr also believed to be Samuel Adams, appeared in the Boston Gazette, 8 January 1770.

1 TH’s promotion from acting governor to governor was by no means certain. Bernard was his chief advocate with Lord Hillsborough, the secretary of state for the colonies.

2 Before becoming a commissioner of customs, John Temple had been surveyor general of the northern customs district.

3 By “His brother and he,” TH meant Temple and his brother-in-law John Fenton.

4 Justice of the Peace Benjamin Pickman Sr. took a deposition from Sampson Toovey alleging Bernard’s involvement in corruption at the Salem Custom House. Benjamin Pickman Jr. looked into the matter for TH to see if the deposition had been falsified. See TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 444, 467, and 472.

5 Thomas Flucker believed himself to have been libeled by John Temple and John Fenton, the suspected authors of a satirical publication called A Dialogue between Sir George Cornwell . . . and Mr. Flint (Boston, 25 January 1769). In the Dialogue, Mr. Flint points out the characters of the various members of the government party, including TH. Flucker, who is mocked for putting on pompous airs after his marriage to an extremely wealthy widow, Hannah Waldo (1726–1785) threatened legal action but apparently did not proceed. See TH Correspondence, 2: No. 390.

6 George Meserve was stamp distributor for New Hampshire before he resigned the position during the Stamp Act riots. He was made collector of customs at Portsmouth, a post reportedly worth £600, as compensation for his loss of income as stamp distributor. Thus, Andrew Oliver, who had also resigned the same post in Massachusetts and had his house attacked, was the only sufferer in the Stamp Act riots for whom some compensation had not been made.

7 MS is blotted.

8 Mr. Pelham was probably Charles Pelham (1748–1829) of Newton, brother of the engraver Peter Pelham. Frank Bernard was the governor’s son, who was suffering from mental instability; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 457.

1 The Suffolk County Grand Jury had indicted Bernard, Gage, and the customs commissioners for libeling the province in letters sent to England and subsequently published in Boston in the summer of 1769; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 482.

1 On the night of 9 January, the House of Lords debated the substance of their address in response to the king’s speech at the opening of Parliament. “A Short Sketch of the Debate in the House of Lords, January 9, 1770” appeared in the Gentlemen’s Magazine for January 1770, closely mirroring Bernard’s account. General Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven (1714–1778), seconded by John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore (1730–1809), moved the address on behalf of the administration.

2 Bernard is making a reference to the refusal of the House of Commons to seat John Wilkes while he was in prison despite his repeated election by Middlesex voters.

3 The other speakers for the ministry included William Feilding, 6th Earl of Denbigh (1719–1800); William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot (1710–1782); George Fermor, 2nd Earl of Pomfret (1722–1785); Edwin Sandys, 2nd Baron Sandys (1726–1797); the Duke of Grafton (see BD); Lord Mansfield (see BD); John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792); and Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth (1734–1796), created Marquess of Bath in 1789.

4 Lord Chatham moved to amend the address, seconded by George James Cholmondeley, 4th Earl of Cholmondeley (1749–1827), later created Marquess in 1815. Other speakers included Lord Shelburne (see BD); Lord Temple (see BD); Lord Camden (see BD); Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond (1735–1806); and George Lyttleton, 1st Baron Lyttleton (1709–1773).

5 Lord Chatham alluded to the widespread petitioning movement of the previous summer calling for the resignation of the ministry and new elections.

6 The abbreviation “LM” refers to Lord Mansfield.

7 Lord Chatham replied to Lord Mansfield in the debate, urging that the Lords had both a right and a responsibility to intervene if the Commons acted unconstitutionally.

8 Bernard referred to Colonel Isaac Barré (see BD).

9 Bernard referred to Lord North (see BD).

10 Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt (circa 1717–1770), governor of Virginia, had implied in a speech to the Virginia Assembly on 7 November 1769 that he had the king’s assurance of the repeal of all the Townshend Acts.

11 Bernard referred to Lord Barrington (see BD).

12 The reversal of John Manners, Marquis of Granby (1721–1770), on Wilkes’s position in Parliament would lead to Granby’s resignation as commander-in-chief of forces and master general of ordnance.

13 John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland (1696–1779), was lord lieutenant of Leicestershire and father of the Marquis of Granby. Another son, Lord George Manners-Sutton (1723–1783), was a member of Parliament for Grantham.

14 John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton (1731–1783), was solicitor general since 1768, but his apostasy led to his dismissal.

15 Bernard referred to Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland (circa 1714–1786).

16 Charles Yorke (1722–1770), attorney general during Lord Rockingham’s administration, briefly became lord chancellor on 17 January 1770 following intense persuasion by George III after the dismissal of Lord Camden. Yorke had previously vowed never to take office under the Duke of Grafton, and overcome with shame, died three days later, some thought by his own hand.

17 Concerning the petitions, see note 5, above.

18 Bernard referred to George Montagu, 4th Duke of Manchester (1737–1788), and George William Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry (1722–1809).

19 Bernard referred to Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon (1729–1789).

20 Bernard meant that Lord Mansfield refused to become lord chancellor, the head of the administration.

21 Bernard referred to Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol (1730–1803) and bishop of Cloyne.

22 Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford (1721–1803), known as Earl Gower from 1754 through 1786, was an adherent of the Duke of Bedford and soon became a key member of the administration of Lord North.

23 Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow (1731–1806), became solicitor general after John Dunning (see note 14, above).

1 Despite the fact that TH wrote 1769 in his letterbook, this letter has been assigned to January 1770 based on internal evidence.

2 Most probably, TH meant Hillsborough’s letter, TH Correspondence, 2: No. 485, which informed TH that the actions of the merchants had been referred to the Privy Council.

3 Here TH proposed something akin to the Declaratory Act, which accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. If Parliament would repeal all the Townshend Duties including tea, it should be accompanied by a new law declaring combinations to undermine the acts of Parliament (like the nonimportation agreements) illegal.

4 TH believed tensions between the mother country and her colonies would relax if Parliament promised to pass no more revenue-producing legislation in America while still successfully finding a way to assert its supremacy.

1 Before the General Court was prorogued, it made a formal complaint to remove Bernard that had yet to be heard before the Privy Council; see Papers of Francis Bernard, 5: Appendix 6, for the text.

2 TH long contemplated that his brother-in-law Andrew Oliver would succeed him as lieutenant governor, although the post carried no emoluments with it as long as the governor resided in the province; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 391.

3 TH had been granted a salary of £200 a year for his post as chief justice to be drawn from revenue generated by the Townshend Duties; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 408.

4 Lord North would soon succeed the Duke of Grafton as first lord of the treasury.

5 The Treasury had long promised Andrew Oliver some compensatory reward for his sufferings during the Stamp Act crisis.

6 “My Friends LH and LB” refers to Lord Hillsborough and Lord Barrington.

7 Thomas Bradshaw (1733–1774) was secretary to the Treasury from 1767 through 1770 and confidential “man of business” to the Duke of Grafton.

8 The governor’s son Frank administered the Massachusetts naval office, recording the entrance and departure of ships in the habor, and would need permission to leave his post.

1 Concerning the pirate Thomas Austin, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 490. He was presumably apprehended by Colonel Josiah Quincy (1710–1784).

2 A letter from TH to Lord Hillsborough, dated 1 January 1770, concerning William Marshall is calendared but not printed in this volume.

3 The Boston Gazette for 22 January 1770 reported on these efforts at “persuasion.” See also Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, pp. 144–47, and Zobel, Boston Massacre, p. 167.

4 William Phillips showed TH a “minute” of the committee’s transactions with his sons, an action that was later presented by the opposition as if TH had, in some way, approved his sons’ response. Although theoretically TH might have been more effective protecting other importers once his sons were no longer involved, such turned out not to be the case (TH History, 3:192; Archer, Enemy’s Country, p. 171).

1 For the communication of this news, see No. 494, above.

2 Concerning the removal of the Main Guard, see also No. 494, above.

1 These letters are TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 422 and 431, respectively.

2 TH Correspondence, 2: No. 422, contains TH’s initial distribution list for TH Original Papers.

3 In TH Correspondence, 2: No.422, TH professed his ignorance of British party divisions and asked Jackson to correct his distribution list if any of the choices were inappropriate.

4 TH had long hoped that the merchants’ nonimportation agreement and their efforts to enforce it would be declared illegal; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 420.

5 For Lord Camden’s resignation, see No. 501, above.

1 Bernard provided a full account of the debate on the Address of the Lords in response to the king’s speech in No. 501, above.

2 For those letters, see TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 445 and 454, respectively.

3 Hillsborough’s order to prorogue the General Court was contained in TH Correspondence, 2: No. 451.

1 TH’s nephew Nathaniel Rogers was one of those importers who had begun to sell his goods despite the recent resolutions of the merchants’ meeting. See Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, pp. 147–48, and Archer, Enemy’s Country, pp. 160–61.

1 Dateline appears at the end of the letter.

2 Unable to persuade the Council to join with him in denouncing the actions of the merchants’ meetings and their committees of inspection, TH at last decided to act on his own. Upon receiving his messages, the merchants reaffirmed the legality of their actions and duly ignored the acting governor’s warning (Boston Gazette, 29 January 1770).

1 Lord Hillsborough’s order was so late in arriving that Williams had already left his home in Hatfield to attend the meeting of the General Court. For the late arrival of the order to prorogue, see No. 494, above.

2 Latin, meaning “May God avert the ill omen.”

3 Williams apparently joined with many patriots in regarding the commissioners of customs, who had been established at about the same time as the Townshend duties, as a needless provocation and additional expense.

4 “If the Grand Seignior wants Bashaws,” that is, if the sultan of the Ottoman Empire needs pashas or underlings. The use of the word expresses Williams’s contempt for Francis Bernard.

5 The “one instance,” the looting of TH’s house in 1765, was reimbursed by the General Court in 1766.

6 Jonathan Ashley Jr. (1739–1787) was a selectman and representative from Deerfield. He was later imprisoned as a loyalist. Jonathan Bliss (1742–1822) was a representative from Springfield in 1768 and 1769. He accompanied the British on the march to Concord in 1775, emigrated to New Brunswick in 1776, and became that province’s attorney general and later chief justice. Both men were appointed justices of the peace by TH in 1770.

7 The Reverend Samuel Todd (1717–1789) was chosen selectman at the first meeting of the freeholders of Lanesborough in 1765. He was an evangelical minister in present-day North Adams from 1766 though 1778 and was representative from that region to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention in 1779. Woodbridge Little (1741–1813) graduated from Yale in 1760 and preached briefly at Lanesborough before becoming a lawyer in 1764. He was indeed appointed justice of the peace by TH in 1770 and became a prominent government party spokesman in western Massachusetts. He fled to New York in 1775 but was forcibly returned to Pittsfield, where he took an oath of allegiance in 1777 and later served as a representative to the General Court. Joseph Bennet (b. 1720) of Coventry, Rhode Island, was one the early settlers of Lanesborough during the late 1760s. The extended interlineation was written in the margin and marked with a cross for insertion here.

1 This excerpt from TH’s letterbook appears to be a fragment or draft of another letter. Perhaps he had second thoughts about the advisability of mentioning William Phillips and John Hancock by name and revised the original. It appears to have been written soon after the merchants’ meeting on 23 January. The fragment seems to presume that the recipient had a certain familiarity with some of the principal merchant leaders, and the closing allusion to his thirty years of government service suggests the intended recipient might have been Sir Francis Bernard.

1 TH first described these renewed efforts of enforcement in the postscript to his letter to John Pownall, No. 504, above. The town meeting was restricted to meetings for certain specified legal purposes, and only those who met the property requirement might technically be admitted. The merchants’ meetings had gradually transformed themselves into a new entity, called the Body of the Trade, open to all and much larger than the town meeting itself. It wielded considerable popular authority (Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, pp. 143–44).

2 For Thomas Young, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 326.

3 TH gave a similar reason for allowing his sons to acquiesce to the demands of the committee of inspection in his letter to John Pownall, No. 504, above.

4 TH’s message to the meeting was No. 509, above. The meeting’s response was printed in the Boston Gazette, 29 January 1770.

1 This earlier report was contained within No. 496, above.

2 TH gave slightly different versions of his sons’ acquiescence to the merchants’ demands in his letters to John Pownall, No. 504, and to Thomas Gage, No. 512, above.

3 The DupRC reads “contest” not “contention.”

4 The DupRC omits “in the meeting.”

5 The message to the Body of the Trade was No. 509, above.

6 The DupRC omits the phrase “I am told that.”

7 The DupRC omits the phrase “Entred into here.”

8 Concerning the offer of the Scotch merchant, see Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, pp. 147–48.

1 Curiously, TH does not mention in his letter that John Bernard, son of the governor, was one of the merchants being proscribed as a violator of the nonimportation agreement.

2 An account of the meeting between TH and the committee of inspection, together with the final agreement of his sons, is included in the Boston Gazette, 22 January 1770.

3 The text of TH’s message, No. 509, above, together with the meeting’s reply was printed in the Boston Gazette, 29 January 1770. The same newspaper also recorded the summoning of the justices of the peace.

1 TH meant the American Board of Customs Commissioners.

2 The letter has not been found.

1 The text of this petition is in Bowdoin-Temple Papers, MHS Colls., 6th series (1897), 9:161–64. William Bollan presented the petition to the House of Commons in March under his own signature. See No. 541, below.

1 Bernard’s letters 6–9 are TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 459, 462, 463, and 464, respectively.

2 By this time, TH knew that the General Court’s petition for Bernard’s removal had been largely disregarded.

3 TH had been making an effort to encourage several of his most loyal supporters from the western part of the province to attend the next session of the General Court in mid-March.

4 TH clarified the meaning of this sentence in the final paragraph of this letter: he hoped that when people judged his performance as acting governor, they would remember how much the governor’s sphere of action was limited by the Massachusetts Charter.

5 Just before leaving the province, Bernard suspected TH of attempting to set some distance between his future actions and Bernard’s past conduct. See TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 379, 380, and 381. TH appeared anxious to assuage any lingering hurt feelings.

6 In TH Correspondence, 2: No. 450, dated 4 November 1769, Bernard mentioned proposing to Hillsborough that the Massachusetts governorship should be enlarged and accorded a salary suitable to “a person of rank,” and that under such circumstances TH would be content to remain as chief justice as long as the salary was augmented to £500. In that way, TH, though not appointed Bernard’s successor, would not appear to be neglected or rebuked.

1 Bernard described the debate in his letter to TH, No. 501, above.

2 I.e., custody of the Great Seal would be held jointly by a commission of judges, some of whose initials Bernard has listed incorrectly: Allen Bathurst (1684–1775), 1st Baron, was known as Lord Bathurst from 1712 until 1772 when he became the 1st Earl, and was lord chancellor from 1771 through 1778; Sir Sidney Stafford Smythe (1705–1778), judge, was chief baron of the exchequer from 1772 through 1778; Sir Richard Aston (1717–1778) was a judge; and Sir John Eardley Wilmott (1709–1792) was chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

3 John Cust (1718–1770), 3rd Baronet, Speaker of the House from 1761 through 1770.

4 Fletcher Norton (1716–1789), 1st Baron Grantley, Speaker from 1770 through 1780.

5 Nevertheless, the majority in favor of the administration was much smaller than the previous division on the same subject on 9 January 1770.

6 Actually, the Duke of Grafton had told the king on 22 January that he would resign on the 28th. The king had dismissed Lord Camden as lord chancellor on 17 January, so there was no “head of the law.” The Marquis of Granby, master of ordnance, also resigned on the 17th, leaving the army without a head.

7 Lord Chatham had brought the Duke of Grafton into office, and bridging the differences between Chatham, even after his resignation, and the other ministers had, at last, proved impossible. Lord Camden was Lord Chatham’s “intimate friend.”

8 “Mr. Greenville,” meaning George Grenville, who had been both first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer.

9 Colonel Isaac Barre, vice-treasurer under Chatham, had resigned from the ministry shortly after Chatham and Shelburne and gone into opposition.

10 For the Earl of Denbigh’s participation in the previous debate on 9 January, see No. 501, above.

11 “He” in this sentence pertains to Lord Camden.

12 For Lord Weymouth, see also No. 501, above. Wilkes had written an inflammatory introduction to a letter he had secretly obtained, written by Viscount Weymouth as secretary of state to the justices of the peace in Surrey, urging them to make early application for the use of force in the suppression of rioters. This breach of privilege was one of the reasons given for Wilkes’s expulsion from the House.

1 Concerning James Boies’s efforts at paper manufacturing, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 417.

1 William Tyng (1737–1807), a future loyalist, was sheriff of Cumberland County from 1768 through 1775.

2 In 1769, Tyng had married Elizabeth, the daughter of Alexander Ross, a Scot residing in Falmouth.

1 TH’s last letter to Gage was No. 512, above.

1 In early December 1769, Boston merchants had begun a campaign to limit the fees charged by the Custom House and the Naval Office to those specified by Massachusetts law. See TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 465 and 483. In the remainder of this letter, Bernard lays out his legal reasoning for why such an effort should be disregarded by the courts.

2 Nathaniel Taylor preceded Frank Bernard as deputy naval officer. He was included in the Massachusetts Banishment Act of 1778.

3 Latin, meaning “unwilling to pursue,” a formal declaration that the prosecutor is dropping the charges against the accused.

4 15 Car. II, c. 7, was “An Act for the Encouragement of Trade,” one of the principal Navigation Acts.

5 Mass. Acts and Resolves, 1:34–35.

6 7&8 Will. III, c. 22, was “An Act for Preventing Frauds and Regulating Abuses in the Plantation Trade.”

7 Benjamin Pemberton (1696/97–1782) kept a tenacious hold on the lucrative post since Governor Jonathan Belcher’s time until 1766, when he was persuaded to share the office with Frank Bernard, the governor’s son.

8 “An Act in Addition to, and in Explanation of Two Acts, Referring to the Regulation of Fees, etc.” (JHR, 1:220).

9 Robert Auchmuty, judge of the Vice Admiralty Court, and Jonathan Sewall, attorney general (for both, see BD).

1 Bernard’s last letter describing the ministerial crisis was No. 518, above.

2 I.e., the king’s support for Lord North.

3 Meaning the ministry would support the repeal of only the duties on paint, lead, and glass but not tea.

4 See Lloyd’s Evening Post, 8 January 1770, and Middlesex Journal, 8 February 1770. For “Full of sound, etc.,” see Macbeth, act V, scene 5.

5 To print proceedings in the House of Lords would be punishable by imprisonment. The newspaper has not been identified.

6 Pownall’s letter has not been found.

1 Letters No. 11 and 13 were TH Correspondence, 2: Nos. 473 and 490. TH’s letter No. 1 of 1 January 1770 has not been found. TH Correspondence, 2: No. 486, was the missing letter No. 12 that contained further information on the libel prosecutions against Bernard, Gage, and the commissioners.

2 TH Correspondence, 2: No. 473, covered a copy of a letter from the Boston merchants inviting the merchants at Salem to join with them in the extended form of the nonimportation agreement.

3 TH Correspondence, 2: No. 473, described the lawsuits against customs officers for excessive fees.

4 TH Correspondence, 2: No. 490, also described the efforts to tax the salaries of the customs commissioners.

5 In TH Correspondence, 2: No. 490, TH recommended not attempting to collect the Greenwich Hospital duty from Massachusetts fishermen because the duty had not been enforced for a long time.

6 This change of offices is described in greater detail in No. 518, above.

1 By the Mutiny Act, TH meant the Quartering Act of 1765, to which both New York and Massachusetts vehemently objected. The act establishing the American Board of Customs Commissioners was an important part of Charles Townshend’s American reforms.

2 The revised version of the letter makes clear that TH’s source was New York lawyer and councilor William Smith Jr.; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 286.

3 The Townshend duty on tea was accompanied by the Indemnity Act, which allowed a 25 percent drawback of duties paid when the tea entered England so long as it was re-exported to the colonies. The intent was to lower the cost of tea to consumers in America, allowing the East India Company to compete better against smuggled tea (Labaree, Boston Tea Party, pp. 20–21).

4 Councilor John Erving was reputed to be a smuggler (Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, pp. 30–32, 47–48).

5 This paragraph was written on a separate sheet (f. 439) and marked for insertion at this point.

6 TH had previously contemplated a Test Act, whereby colonial officeholders would need to take an oath acknowledging the supremacy of Parliament; see No. 502, above.

7 For more on 25 Geo. 2, c. 6, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 275n.

8 For the suppression of the Land Bank in which TH was a principal actor, see TH Correspondence, 1:66–67, Nos. 3 and 192.

9 The Currency Act of 1751 (25 Geo. 2, c. 53) forbade further emissions of currency in the New England colonies. See also TH Correspondence, 2: No. 275n.

10 TH gave his opinions on an American Parliament like that of Ireland (“the N Y scheme of general government”) in his letter to Bernard; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 438.

11 Here TH suggested that Parliament provide the colonies with a common penal code, since punishments varied widely from one jurisdiction to another.

1 In TH Correspondence, 2: No. 286, William Smith Jr. described the formula by which the New York Assembly had grudgingly complied with the letter, if not the spirit, of the Quartering Act. The other colonies complied more readily.

2 For Hawley’s denial of the right of Parliament to legislate for the colonies, see TH History, 3:190.

3 “Veniente occurrite morbo,” Latin, meaning “Oppose a distemper at its first approach.”

4 In a much-noted speech in the House of Commons on 14 January 1766 occasioned by the repeal of the Stamp Act, Chatham made a distinction between Parliament’s powers of taxation and legislation, the second being a permissible use of its power over the colonies, the first not. See TH Correspondence, 2: No. 305.

5 Molineux’s followers equated him with Pascal Paoli (1725–1807), the leader of the Corsican Revolution and an international symbol for the rise of independence and democracy during the later eighteenth century.

6 By instructions, TH meant the petition the council sent to Bollan; see No. 516, above.

7 The Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights was formed on 20 February 1769 to aid John Wilkes’s efforts to be reinstated in Parliament. The society called for the reform of the House of Commons based on “full and equal representations of the people,” the elimination of excise taxes, and no taxation for America without its consent (Arthur H. Cash, John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty [New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006], p. 295).

8 TH dispatched a copy of the council’s action to John Pownall in No. 516, above.

9 If the Council could continue to meet without the governor present, it was no longer acting as an arm of the executive assisting the governor but had resumed its role as the upper house of the legislature, despite the fact that the General Court had been prorogued.

10 The “Letter to the King,” first published on 19 December 1769, was one of a series of letters intended to embarrass the administration of the Duke of Grafton written by the pseudonymous polemicist Junius in the London Public Advertiser from 21 January 1769 through 21 January 1772. The letters, filled with vituperation and invective, generally aroused curiosity and amusement among the political classes, except for the “Letter to the King,” which strayed too far into lèse-majesté. The Boston News Letter reprinted the “Letter to the King” on 8 February 1770.

1 TH’s letter No. 1, dated 10 January, was No. 498. Letter No. 2, also dated 10 January, was No. 499, both above.

2 For Hillsborough’s suggestion, rather than order, to convene the General Court at Cambridge, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 485.

3 I.e., the duties on paper, paint, and glass but not the duty on tea.

4 Lord North.

5 Bernard’s last letter was No. 523, above.

6 Sir Fletcher Norton was the recently appointed Speaker; see No. 518, above.

7 After their July petition to the king to remove Sir Francis Bernard, the General Court failed to supply their agent Dennys De Berdt (see BD) with supporting evidence for their charges, prompting him to request an extension.

8 Oliver’s letter has not been found.

1 Arthur Savage (1731–1801), brother of the Boston insurance broker Samuel Phillips Savage, became comptroller of customs at Falmouth in 1755. After his life was threatened in 1771, he returned to Boston, later embarking with the British troops in March 1776. He died in England.

2 The letter has not been found.

3 The type of vessel was not further identified.

4 TH had already given his opinion on this subject to William Tyng; see No. 520, above.

1 TH probably made this statement based on a letter from Francis Bernard dated 8 December (TH Correspondence, 2: No. 484). He had not yet received an earlier letter from Bernard (TH Correspondence, 2: No. 475), which was more skeptical about the removal of the duty on tea. The order in which the letters were received is explained in No. 530, below.

2 William Molineux had begun to take a leading role in popular demonstrations (Deposition of William Jackson, National Archives UK, CO 5/759, ff. 42–43).

3 Theophilus Lillie (1730–1776) was a shopkeeper and importer who incurred the special enmity of the committee of inspection by publishing a stout defense of his liberty to trade in the Boston Chronicle, 15 January 1770.

4 Ebenezer Richardson (b. 1718), a principal informant and later an employee of the Boston customs service, was evidently one of Lillie’s neighbors (Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, pp. 38–40, 45, 61, 62, 149).

5 Christopher Seider (1759–1770). His funeral procession on 26 February was purportedly the largest ever seen in Boston. For more complete accounts of the demonstration outside Lillie’s shop and Seider’s death, see TH History, 3:193–94, as well as Zobel, Boston Massacre, pp. 173–79, and Archer, Enemy’s Country, pp. 179–81.

6 John Ruddock (1713–1772) was a shipbuilder, selectman, and justice of the peace.

7 TH first mentioned his sons acceding to the agreement in No. 504, above.

1 For the lack of resolution within the cabinet, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 484.

2 The AC reads, “they are to be called a party.”

3 The basis on which TH made this prediction is explained in the notes to the previous letter, No. 528, above.

4 For Hillsborough’s letter granting TH discretion over the site of the meeting of the General Court, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 485.

5 The AC reads, “to remove them.”

6 Concerning the Main Guard, see No. 494, above.

7 TH also described the shooting of Christopher Seider by Ebenezer Richardson in the previous letter, No. 528, above.

8 The AC omits the phrase “the measures of.”

1 For Bernard’s letter No. 13, dated 8 December 1769, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 484. Nos. 9, 10, 11, and 12 are Nos. 464, 475, 476, and 477, respectively.

2 TH described the demonstration at Lillie’s store and the death of Christopher Seider in the preceding two letters: Nos. 528 and 529, above.

3 TH believed the funeral was modeled on that of William Allen (1748–1768), an innocent bystander pursued and killed by soldiers in the St. George’s Fields Massacre, 10 May 1768, after John Wilkes had been committed to prison (TH History, 3:194).

4 The speeches made by councilors Royall Tyler and John Erving were not found.

5 Dalrymple had ordered soldiers stationed at the house of Nathaniel Rogers, TH’s nephew (Zobel, Boston Massacre, p. 170).

6 John Bernard, the governor’s son, was an importer.

7 By order of Lord Hillsborough, the meeting of the General Court had been prorogued until 14 March; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 451.

8 Frank Bernard, the governor’s eldest son, had been under treatment for a mental disorder since the summer.

9 The pamphlet or handbill has not been found. His sons may have obtained it from a member of the family of councilor James Pitts, a relation by marriage of the Bowdoins and Ervings.

10 John Temple was suspected previously of leaking information on the internal workings of the American Board of Customs Commissioners.

11 Hillsborough had granted TH this discretion in TH Correspondence, 2: No. 485.

12 The Massachusetts charter prevented the governor from removing either sitting councilors or justices of the peace without a vote of the Council, a provision that had limited both Bernard and Hutchinson in their struggles with the opposition.

13 Justice John Ruddock had committed Ebenezer Richardson to jail; see No. 528, above.

14 By “T. of B.,” TH meant the town of Boston. He still expected some parliamentary rebuke for its resolutions of 4 October 1769. See TH Correspondence, 2: No. 421.

1 Hillsborough’s instructions were conveyed in TH Correspondence, 2: No. 485.

2 By Court House, TH meant the Town House (the place where the General Court met). The Main Guard stood opposite on King Street.

3 In an earlier draft of the letter written before TH decided to convene the legislature at Cambridge, TH wrote the following instead of the preceding paragraph: “I shall meet with little or no trouble on account of the Troops and the discontent which sitting at Cambridge at this season of the year will occasion in the minds of the members must I think outweigh any advantage from the resentment shewn at the behaviour of the Town of Boston. Had I received His Majestys Commands to carry the Court out of Boston as a mark of the Royal resentment for the undutiful or disloyal behaviour of the Inhabitants this would have fallen with weight upon them but any thing short of that in these licentious times will have but little effect. As your Lordship is pleased to leave it to my discretion I have thought it most prudent not to alter the place of the General Courts meeting. The other part of your Lordships direction not to concur in the Election of any Councillors who shall have been active parties in the illegal combination I shall carefully observe. If your Lordship had extended your direction to all who are favourers of them, as I doubt whether I shall ever have any but such offered to me for my consent and I must be without a Council if I should strictly conform to them” (Massachusetts Archives, SC1/series 45X, 26:448–49). Otherwise the draft and the letter are virtually identical.

4 The AC reads, “your Lordship’s opinion in giving my consent to the choice of Councillors who have been active parties in the illegal combinations.”

5 The AC omits “If.”

6 The earlier draft reads, “This I had repeatedly done before and have no reason to expect any success from this renewal of it.”

1 The petition of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the removal of Francis Bernard as governor.

2 Dennys De Berdt was agent for the Massachusetts House.

3 Bernard referred to the repeal of the Townshend duties, the first three articles being the duties on paper, glass, and paint; the whole act would include the duty on tea.

1 The SC omits the phrase “since dead a fourth dangerously wounded.”

2 Samuel Gray, Crispus Attucks, and James Caldwell were the first victims of the Massacre to die. Samuel Maverick died by the following morning. A musket ball passed through the arm of Edward Payne (1722–1788), merchant, and lodged in the door post of his shop. What is purportedly that ball is now part of the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

3 For the message of the town meeting, see BTR, 18:1–4.

4 Maurice Carr (1730–1813) was lieutenant-colonel of the 29th Regiment.

5 The SC reads, “to consent.”

6 Benjamin Caldwell (1737–1820) was captain of HMS Rose stationed in Boston Harbor.

7 Councilors James Russell of Charlestown and Samuel Dexter of Dedham.

8 For the exact language in which the advice of the council was communicated, see No. 535, above.

9 The secretary, Andrew Oliver.

1 For the text of the circular letter promising repeal, see Bernard Papers, 5:263–64.

2 For William Beckford, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 395n.

3 For Alexander Mackay, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 348n.

4 For George Grenville, see BD.

1 The letter was not found.

2 Thomas Goldthwait (see BD) was commandant of Fort Pownall and the licensed truckmaster of the Indian trade in Maine.

3 LM, Lawful Money, meaning Massachusetts currency.

4 Great confusion surrounded the eastern boundary of the District of Maine. The French regarded the Kennebec River as the border between Acadia and Massachusetts, while the British claimed it was the Penobscot. Although the River St. Croix constitutes the modern boundary between Maine and Canada, that name was not commonly used by British settlers. Following the expulsion of the French, both Massachusetts and the newly established Council of Nova Scotia claimed the territory east of the Penobscot, in part because of confusion over the location of the St. Croix. Eager to assert its claim, the Massachusetts General Court had granted (but the Crown had not approved) titles to land bordering Passamaquoddy Bay, the mouth of the modern St. Croix. Among those speculating in land along the shores of the Passamaquoddy were Francis Bernard, John Pownall, Richard Jackson, and Benjamin Franklin.

1 Hillsborough refers to No. 496, above.

2 In No. 513, above, TH recounted his efforts to disperse the merchants’ meeting of the previous day.

1 This letter was probably written on either Wednesday, 7 March or 14 March. In No. 543, below, TH indicated that Robinson would deliver that letter to him, so 7 March is the more likely date.

2 Robinson proposed going to England in October 1769; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 448. When he departed on 16 March, he carried with him Dalrymple’s version of events, together with Andrew Oliver’s reconstruction of the Council meetings on 6 March and twenty-eight depositions sympathetic to the soldiers, which eventually were published in England as A Fair Account of the Late Disturbances at Boston (London: B. White, 1770).

3 A Massacre witness claimed seeing two guns fired from the second floor of the Custom House, thus implicating the commissioners in the event. The witness also alleged one of the shooters was a tall man with a handkerchief over his face. Robinson was well known for his unusual height (Zobel, Boston Massacre, pp. 212, 295–98). Edward Manwaring, an employee of the customs service in Quebec City and on the Gaspeé Peninsula before coming to Boston in 1767, was charged based on the evidence of his French servant boy Charles Bourgatte. Manwaring was eventually acquitted and Bourgatte punished for perjury (Hinderaker, Boston’s Massacre, p. 217).

4 No other record remains of a meeting at Andrew Oliver’s with the customs commissioners.

1 Stephen DeBlois (1799–1790) and his two sons, Gilbert (1725–1791) and Lewis (1727–1799) were all merchants. Lewis, who returned from London 30 April, was the courier the letter in question. Stephen remained in Boston during the Revolution, while his sons emigrated with the British fleet in 1776 and had their property confiscated.

2 For Lord North’s introduction of a bill to repeal the Townshend duties, see No. 533, above.

3 William Bollan’s petition on behalf of the Council is printed in the Bowdoin-Temple Papers, MHS Colls., 6th series (1897), 1:161–64.

4 The lord mayor was William Beckford.

5 The Privy Council officially dismissed the charges against Bernard on 7 March, calling them “groundless, vexatious and scandalous” (Nicolson, “Infamas Govener,” p. 206).

1 Captain Thomas Preston (1722?–1798?) of the 29th Regiment commanded the soldiers who were sent to relieve the lone sentry besieged by the crowd outside the Custom House.

2 Colonel Josiah Quincy (1710–1784) of Braintree was a justice of the peace and father of Josiah Quincy Jr.

3 The commissioners of customs and Vice-Admiralty Court Judge Robert Auchmuty.

4 Gage had ordered the 64th and 65th Regiments to Halifax in July.

5 TH’s letter to Gage was No. 536, above.

6 Benjamin Caldwell was captain of the Rose.

7 John Robinson had sought to go to England since his brawl with James Otis in October; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 448.

8 The so-called Battle of Golden Hill took place in New York on 19 January 1770, when scores of soldiers clashed with townspeople after soldiers removed a liberty pole a few days before. The Boston Gazette for 19 February 1770 reported the incident.

1 The chief skirmish took place on 2 March at John Gray’s ropewalk. The other incidents are detailed in Zobel, Boston Massacre, pp. 182–84.

2 The justices of the peace who heard Preston’s testimony were Richard Dana and John Tudor.

3 The AC, which appears to be a rough draft of this letter to Hillsborough with different paragraphing and minor variations, omits the previous three sentences. It picks up with “all the selectmen. . . .” However, the Dft does include these sentences. By this date, Samuel Maverick had succumbed to his wounds, but Patrick Carr, the fifth victim, was still alive.

4 MS is torn.

5 The words from this point until the end of the paragraph do not appear in the AC.

6 The sentence “The Soldiers themselves had also in many instances been very abusive” did not appear in the Dft, TH’s letterbook copy of this letter.

7 MS is torn.

8 The words from this point until the end of the paragraph, as well as the four following paragraphs, are not included in the AC, with the exception of the sentence beginning “Both Colonel Dalrymple and I . . . ,” which concludes the second succeeding paragraph.

9 When news of the Glorious Revolution arrived in Boston in 1689, the inhabitants rose up and seized Sir Edmund Andros, the governor of the Dominion of New England, and sent him in irons to England.

10 At this point, TH included a paragraph in the Dft that reads, “My friends say I could have done no Act of Government after my refusal. Whether I had been prevented by being compelled to withdraw to the Castle or in any other way it would have been of infinitely mischievous consequence at this time.”

11 The letter to Gage was No. 536, above.

12 In the RC printed here, TH, perhaps believing he was painting too bleak a picture, cut two paragraphs from the Dft: “I have represented to your Lordship that the authority of Government is gone in all matters wherein the Controversy between the Kingdom and the Colonies is concerned, There cannot be plainer proof of it than I have now given your Lordship. The King by his General orders a part of his Troops to Boston. The people oppose it, and they declare they will by force compell these Troops to leave that place where they are posted which if executed would be levying War against the King and one Species of High Treason. The great proportion by far of the Members of every branch of the Legislature or executive Power join in supporting the people in this measure and the few which remain are obliged to submit and unless the Troops were capable of maintaining the post by their own strength.

“In the present case every member of the Council the Justices of the Peace of Boston and divers of other Towns every Select Man of Boston all the Representatives of the Town who were in Town, the Colonel of the Boston Regiment besides other Officers and principal Inhabitants of the Town, and then the Town in a body when two or three thousand were present made their application to me to effect the Removal of the Troops and the temper was spreading for the next day application was made to me by the Town of Roxbury and although a great proportion of those who joined in application made for the Removal of Troops would not have dared to join in open opposition to them yet I know of none who would have joined in defending them. The written applications to me do not express by what means they would effect a Removal but many of the Committees of the Town declared to me when I was in Council that the people were determined to do it by their superior numbers and force and divers gentlemen of the Council declared they knew it also and I have strong evidence that I would have been secured immediately upon my refusal to comply with the advice of Council. I have not the command of the military of the Town. A military watch has been kept up for divers nights under a [illegible] although I sent for the Chief Officer of the Regiment who ordered it and had applied to me for directions and I refused to allow it and [illegible] a Large Committee of the Town told me to my face it should be [illegible] kept up until the Troops were all at the Castle. The contempt it would be impossible at this time to punish or to prevent the continuance of it. The body of the people being thus united and determined that the Troops shall not remain. The few who disapprove the measure dare not appear against it.” Joseph Jackson (1706–1790) was colonel of the Boston Regiment.

13 MS is torn.

1 It is not clear whether the following letter was an addendum to another or indeed whether it was ever sent. In TH’s letterbook, it immediately precedes a draft of the letter to Lord Hillsborough, No. 544, above.

2 Thomas Flucker had failed to be reelected to the Council in 1769 because of his opposition to the patriots.

1 For TH’s letter to Gage, see No. 536, above.

2 It is hard to imagine a more temperate and measured response to the Massacre by Gage but his use of the word “requisition” stung TH, who had gone through such agonies and contortions of logic to avoid the appearance that he had ordered the king’s troops to the Castle; see No. 549, below.

1 “Nil sibi conscrire,” Latin phrase loosely translated as “to have a conscience free from guilt.” “Nil desperandum,” Latin phrase paraphrased from Horace meaning “Never despair.”

2 New Hampshire.

3 Samuel Watts Sr. (1697–1770) was judge of the Suffolk County Court of Common Pleas and a member of the Council from 1742 through 1762.

4 There had been some discussion the previous winter that Nathaniel Rogers might become the new secretary, if Andrew Oliver became lieutenant governor.

5 John Wentworth, governor of New Hampshire; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 490.

1 At the last moment, TH elected to follow Bernard’s and Hillsborough’s advice to convene the General Court at Cambridge, a decision that would cause much controversy over the ensuing years; see No. 530, above.

2 For TH’s friends and political allies Israel Williams of Hatfield and Timothy Ruggles of Hardwick, see BD.

3 Most likely John Murray (1720–1794) of Rutland, a future mandamus councilor and loyalist absentee.

4 Ironically, by the time this letter was received in England, TH had already been appointed governor.

5 When Patrick Carr succumbed to his wounds nine days after the Massacre, the death toll stopped at five.

6 Samuel Gray may have been an active promoter of the riot, even though his hands were in his pockets when he was shot. Crispus Attucks was in the forefront of those confronting the soldiers. James Caldwell stood in the midst of the crowd. Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr may truly have been bystanders (Zobel, Boston Massacre, pp. 198–99).

7 Edward Payne was wounded in the arm standing on the doorstep of his house with fellow merchant George Bethune (1720–1785), later appointed a justice of the peace by TH and a future loyalist exile, and Harrison Gray Jr. (1741–1830), clerk to his father and another future loyalist.

8 Gage’s letter to TH was No. 546, above. TH’s response was No. 549, below.

1 For Gage’s use of the word “requisition,” to which TH took such exception, see No. 546, above.

2 For TH’s response to the delegation from the town meeting, see No. 534, above.

3 Samuel Adams. See Zobel, Boston Massacre, p. 207.

4 “He” in this instance refers to Dalrymple. At least one highly placed observer interpreted Dalrymple’s actions on 6 March as an attempt to curry favor with the people in the event he should be appointed governor to succeed Bernard. See Henry Hulton, p. 143. For the possibility of Dalrymple as governor, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 477.

5 The message in question was No. 535, above.

6 The proposal was contained in No. 546, above.

7 This is the language Hillsborough used in November when instructing TH to prorogue the meeting of the General Court; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 451.

8 Both Justices Cushing and Trowbridge were ill, so the patriots pressed TH to make temporary appointments to allow the trials against Preston and the soldiers to proceed right away at the March sitting of the Superior Court (Zobel, Boston Massacre, p. 216).

9 TH apparently sent a draft version of this letter to Andrew Oliver with the note, “The L G prays the S to look over the inclosed & note on a piece of paper any thing he sees exceptionable or wanting.” Oliver responded as follows: “May it no[t] be proper P. 1,—about two thirds down the Page after saying—‘I found Colo. Dalrymple’—to add—‘in the Council chamber’?

“Did Colo. D. express his readiness to remove all the Troops, while the Towns Comittee were present, in case you desired it? If so, You might possibly get it out of some of them. I think Deacon Tudor was one of them—I intend to sound Mr. Hubbard upon it in the morning. Perhaps Edes & Gill may assert it to morrow.

“I see nothing improper in the Draft: but inasmuch as You have entered thus far into the Motives of your Co[nduct] it would be very material to ascertain the foreme[ntioned] Fact, if you can be furnished with proper Evide[nce]” (Massachusetts Archives, SC1/series 45X, 25:462).

1 It was not clear if this letter was sent or to whom. TH described it as an addition to what he wrote on 12 March. The two people he wrote on that day were Bernard and Hillsborough, but letterbook placement suggests there was a third unknown recipient as well. This letter presumes a familiarity with specific members of the Council and their politics, making it unlikely it was intended for Hillsborough. Since the docketing says “Copy to Sr F. Bernard,” perhaps the best guess is that it was intended for the unknown recipient of 12 March. In TH’s letterbook, this letter and the following fragment appear immediately following his letter to Bernard of 18 March, No. 548, above.

2 Whether Royall Tyler stated that he had foreknowledge of a concerted uprising to remove the troops would eventually become one of the key points at issue among the various accounts of the Massacre and the consequent Council meeting once those reports arrived in Britain. Tyler was supported in the warning by the opinions of James Pitts and Samuel Dexter.

3 Andrew Oliver, secretary of the province, initially supported TH’s contention that he lacked the power to order the removal of the troops, but by the end of the afternoon urged him to join with the majority of the Council in expressing to Dalrymple a “desire” to transfer them to Castle William.

1 Caesar’s decision to lead his legions across the River Rubicon launched him on an irrevocable course toward civil war.

1 The letters to Hillsborough and Bernard, both dated 12 March, were Nos. 543 and 544, above.

2 A committee of the town composed of James Bowdoin, Samuel Pemberton, and Joseph Warren prepared A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston, published by Edes & Gill and T. & J., Fleet accompanied by ninety-six depositions. Copies of the Narrative were sent to England to counteract the government party and military versions of the event that accompanied John Robinson.

3 Among the selectmen, both John Ruddock and Samuel Pemberton were justices of the peace and heard a number of the depositions that accompanied the Short Narrative.

4 “Ex parte,” Latin, in this instance means evidence taken from one side of the dispute without the other being present or having the ability to cross-examine witnesses.

5 TH believed that the Massachusetts charter did not give him any authority to stop the proceedings without the support of the Council.

6 Boston was the county seat of Suffolk County.

7 JHR, 46:99–102.

1 Lord Chatham was referring to the dismissal of Lord Camden as lord chancellor; see No. 518, above.

2 Patrick Hume-Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont (1708–1794).

3 William Beckford, the lord mayor, presented a remonstrance from the livery companies of London to the king on 14 March, complaining that “a secret and malign influence” deprived the people of their rights and demanding a dissolution of Parliament to remove the king’s evil ministers. George III rebuked Beckford, saying the remonstrance was disrespectful to himself, injurious to Parliament, and irreconcilable with the constitution.

4 Sir Edward Blackett (1719–1804), 4th Baronet, and Sir Thomas Clavering (1719–1794), 7th Baronet.

5 The joint address to the king deplored the language of the city’s remonstrance and the “perversion” of the right of petition while attempting to overturn the principles of the constitution.

1 TH referred to his letter to Bernard of 18 March, No. 525, above.

1 TH informed Lord Hillsborough of his message to the merchants’ meeting, as well as the submission of his sons to the demands of the committee of inspection in No. 513, above.

2 No letter from TH to Hillsborough describing only the submission of his sons has survived. Perhaps Bernard meant No. 504, above.

3 Bernard detailed these arrangements for Andrew Oliver’s compensation in No. 503, above. They would need the approval of Lord North, who had succeeded the Duke of Grafton as first lord of the treasury.

4 Bernard also described the financial concessions he had made in No. 503, above.

5 The Massachusetts General Court had granted Mount Desert Island in Maine to Bernard in 1762. His son Frank had shared the income of the Massachusetts Naval Office with Benjamin Pemberton since 1766.

6 The Privy Council had dismissed the complaint of the Massachusetts General Court against Bernard on March 7. The pamphlet that Bernard wanted inserted into the House Journal was Copy of the Complaint of the House of Representatives of Massachuset’s-Bay, against Sir Francis Bernard: With Sir Francis Bernard’s Answer (Boston, 1770).

7 The others governors against whom complaints were presented were Robert Melville (1723–1809), governor of Grenada from 1763 through 1771 (complaint dismissed on 5 January 1770), and, possibly, Cadwallader Colden, lieutenant governor of New York (matter resolved on 10 November 1769) (W. L. Grant and James Munro, eds., Acts of the Privy Council of England: Colonial Series, 1613–1783, 6 vols. [London: Published by the Authority of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury, 1909–1912], 5:215–16, 221–28). The editors are indebted to Colin Nicolson for this information.

1 Hillsborough was responding to TH’s frustration at the limited means at his disposal to respond to the merchants’ meetings expressed in No. 513, above.

2 For the first news of the dismissal of charges against Bernard, see No. 555, above.

3 For the remonstrance and the king’s reply, see No. 533, above.

1 For Hillsborough’s letter to TH, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 485. TH’s response was No. 531, above.

2 Samuel Adams, town clerk William Cooper, and Joseph Warren, who were dining at John Temple’s, led a group of angry townsmen who burst into the Superior Court demanding that the Massacre trials proceed forthwith. Afraid to hold fast to its initial decision to hear the cases in June, the Superior Court adjourned until April. See TH History, 3:205.

3 Timothy Ruggles of Hardwick was one of TH’s strongest political allies.

4 Perhaps Elijah Williams (1712–1771) of Deerfield and Simeon Strong (1736–1805) of Hadley, lawyer, farmer, and future member of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, are meant here. TH’s good friend Israel Williams had been turned out of the Council in 1766.

5 Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren.

6 TH meant that any councilors appointed by the crown under a new charter would soon become as detested as the commissioners of customs.

7 By Judge Goffe, TH meant Edmund Trowbridge.

8 Jonathan Sewall, the attorney general, after drawing up the indictments against Preston and the soldiers at the behest of the grand jury, made himself notably absent from Boston and busied himself with the inferior courts at Charlestown and Ipswich, thus leaving Solicitor General Samuel Quincy to prosecute the Massacre trials (Zobel, Boston Massacre, p. 219).

1 Samuel Adams, the leader of the town delegation, made this statement (Zobel, Boston Massacre, p. 207).

2 Andrew Oliver, the secretary; Benjamin Caldwell, captain of the Rose; Lieutenant Colonel Maurice Carr of the 29th; and Dalrymple of the 14th were the four crown officers who met with TH independently from the Council; see No. 545, above.

3 See No. 548, above, for an assessment of the involvement of each Massacre victim in the event.

4 The letter was not found.

1 Gage’s letter to TH, No. 546, above, distressed TH by implying he had “required” the removal of the troops.

2 For TH’s sentiments on the disposition of the troops, see No. 549, above.

3 Presumably this letter was No. 552, above.

1 JHR, 46:99–102.

2 The depositions taken by the town were appended to its Short Narrative. For the letter of the House to their agent Dennys De Berdt, see JHR, 46:114. Bowdoin wrote to Bollan on 27 March describing the Massacre and telling him he would soon receive a printed copy of the pamphlet. He urged Bollan to send to Boston copies of any competing accounts and to urge the removal of troops from the province. See Bowdoin-Temple Papers, MHS Colls., 6th series (1897), 1:167–69.

3 See No. 557, above, for the town’s efforts to force the hand of the Superior Court.

4 The four civilians indicted for allegedly firing into the crowd from the second floor of the Custom House were Edward Manwaring (see No. 540, above); Thomas Greenwood, a waiter at the Boston Custom House; Hammond Green, the son of the Custom House messenger; and John Munro, who lodged at the same house as Manwaring and had provided him an alibi. The evidence against Manwaring was extremely weak, and the others may have been charged to pressure them to testify against Manwaring (Zobel, Boston Massacre, p. 218).

5 The patriots were very eager to establish a connection between the commissioners and the Massacre, hoping that they too, like the soldiers, might be expelled from the town (Henry Hulton, p. 287). As it was, Charles Paxton went to stay with friends in Cambridge, and Henry Hulton and William Burch fled first to Hulton’s country house in Brookline before going to Governor John Wentworth’s in New Hampshire, not returning until the end of April.

6 In the past, the patriots had exploited inconsistencies between the Quartering Act of 1765, which applied only to America, with the English Mutiny Acts. See, etc.

7 TH struck from the receiver’s copy the following words that appear in his letterbook: “and must humbly pray that I may be excused I may be allowed to resign my Office of Lieutenant Governor.”

1 Frank Bernard, the governor’s eldest son. For the letter of the council, see No. 560, above.

2 The House adopted the Short Narrative to serve as its own account; see No. 560, above.

3 Robert Auchmuty, judge of the vice-admiralty court; John Adams; and Josiah Quincy Jr., all served as counsel to Preston.

4 Presumably James Pitts delivered the hint. For rumors of Robinson’s presence at the Massacre, see No. 540, above.

5 The boy was Charles Bourgatte, Edward Manwaring’s French servant, who was later charged with perjury (Zobel, Massacre, p. 298).

6 Manwaring was apprehended on a warrant issued by Richard Dana, one of the most active patriot justices of the peace (Zobel, Boston Massacre, p. 212).

7 For Hulton’s and Burch’s trip to New Hampshire, see No. 560, above.

8 It is not clear what word TH intended in the space left blank.

1 For Gage’s letter, see No. 559, above.

2 Gage had provided in his letter No. 559, above, a summary of the events of the Massacre as he understood them. In the following paragraph, TH recorded his additions and corrections.

3 Richard Dana was the popular justice.

4 For the Council’s letter, see No. 561, above. Councilor John Erving was James Bowdoin’s father-in-law.

5 This final sentence was not included in the AC.

1 For the lord mayor’s feast, see No. 553, above.

2 For the debate in the Lords concerning the address to the king about the civil list, see also No. 553, above.

3 John Pownall, secretary to the Board of Trade.

4 For TH’s countermanding of the order to Richard Jackson, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 407.

5 As well as managing the effort for TH to succeed him, Bernard also promoted Andrew Oliver as a candidate to replace TH as lieutenant governor; see No. 555, above.

1 Hood’s letter of 24 March was not found.

2 Ultimately, it was the far more troublesome 29th, not the 14th, Regiment that left the province first.

3 TH may have been misinformed. Hulton and Burch were at Portsmouth and did not return until the end of April (Henry Hulton, p. 145).

1 Hood’s letter of 30 March was not found.

2 TH meant his provincial salary as acting governor.

3 For the death of Charles Yorke, see No. 501, above. For Sir Fletcher Norton, see No. 518, above. Norton became Speaker of the House, not lord chancellor.

1 For TH’s instructions, dated 23 November 1768, to Palmer to pay the fees for the commission, see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 345.

2 For Bernard’s proposal concerning how to fund Oliver’s salary, see No. 555, above.

3 TH received £200 from money generated by the Townshend duties as a supplement to his salary as chief justice. When the General Court learned of the supplement, it ceased to pay his regular salary. Presumably the next chief justice would encounter similar difficulties in receiving a salary from the province.

4 The Rhode Island Assembly appears from the record to have appointed a committee to investigate the fees of the Custom House and Naval Officer in September 1769 but not to have enacted any legislation; see John Russell Bartlett, ed., Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 10 vols. (Providence, R.I.: A. C. Greene and Brother, 1856–1865), 6:598. For Bernard’s thoughts on the fees charged by the Massachusetts Naval Office, see No. 522, above.

1 Presumably Bowdoin’s letter to Bollan of 27 March; see No. 560, above.

2 Presumably No. 552, above, was one of these letters. A second letter, TH to John Pownall, 26 March 1770, was not found.

1 During his last session with the Massachusetts General Court, Francis Bernard had insisted that voting the governor’s salary, according to royal instructions, should be the first order of business for the House. See TH Correspondence, 2: No. 379.

2 For TH’s instructions to the House, see JHR, 46:149–50. The House eventually voted a portion of his salary on 26 April.

3 Previously, Hawley had made statements challenging the supremacy of Parliament. If he did indeed make such a claim, it would be an even more radical step to propose obstructing the king’s will and pleasure (TH History, 3:190).

4 Thanks to some timely illnesses among the justices, TH was able to put off the arraignment of Preston and the soldiers until 7 September. Preston’s trial itself did not begin until 24 October.

5 For the putative removal of the 14th, see No. 564, above.

6 The annual elections for the new General Court would take place in late May; councilor James Pitts wanted to know whether TH’s instructions to meet the Court in Cambridge included the next assembly as well.

7 TH had not heard this opinion directly from Jackson but only secondhand through Francis Bernard; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 476. A notice in the Boston Gazette, 9 April 1770, expressed skepticism that Jackson would hold such views. Immediately above it, the Boston Gazette reported a rumor (correct in this instance) that TH had written to England seeking to be excused from appointment as governor.

1 John Tutte (d. 1775) was chief clerk in the Office of Trade and Plantations.

1 The resolves passed by the General Court in July 1769 had questioned the supremacy of Parliament; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 385.

1 The hint was contained in No. 556, above.

2 The transfer of the allowance to Oliver was part of a plan suggested to Hillsborough by Francis Bernard; see No. 503, above.

3 For the appointment of Rogers as secretary, see No. 566, above.

1 These letters from FB were Nos. 503, 518, 522, 523, and 526, respectively, above.

2 The Boston Evening-Post for 23 April placed on its front page an extract from a letter from London expressing disappointment that Parliament had not repealed the duty on tea and urging nonimportation be continued. The Boston Gazette for the same day also printed the same letter and reported that a merchants’ meeting on 17 April reaffirmed continuing commitment to nonimportation and adjourned until 25 April. The committee of inspection, in most cases, insisted that any newly arrived spring goods be shipped back to England. The names of those merchants refusing to comply would be published.

3 Since Thomas Cushing, the Speaker of the House, had fallen ill, the House chose John Hancock in his place. When TH vetoed that choice, it elected Colonel James Warren (1726–1808) of Plymouth. Warren, the husband of Mercy Otis Warren, would become president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and paymaster general of the Continental Army.

4 TH continued in office as chief justice as long as he was still acting governor and not governor in his own right.

5 The one letter from Jackson that survives from this period is No. 506, above.

6 Walter Logan was Bernard’s friend and agent. See TH Correspondence, 2: No. 394.

1 This action would have been in accord with the official instructions sent to Bernard, a source of contention during his last tumultuous meeting of the General Court. See TH Correspondence, 2: No. 379.

2 TH also described the resolutions of the merchants’ meeting in the previous letter, No. 572, above, to Bernard.

1 The letter was not found.

2 TH also described the merchants’ resolutions in No. 572, above, to Bernard.

1 Peter Oliver’s willingness to speak out when other justices were intimidated by the weight of popular opinion contributed to his appointment as TH’s successor as chief justice once TH became governor in his own right.

2 TH meant the decision of the merchants’ meeting was not yet known. The end of this sentence from “or such as” was not included in the AC.

1 TH first described the incident in No. 528, above.

2 Here TH was summarizing the contents of his letters Nos. 503, 518, 523, and 526, above.

3 In the AC, this phrase reads, “without this measure.”

4 In the AC, this phrase reads, “The only inconvenience.”

1 TH had previously expected the removal of the 14th Regiment, not the 29th; see No. 564, above.

1 Hillsborough’s letter No. 507, above, mentioned the insults to the troops. His second letter was dated 17 February, No. 524, above.

2 Bernard wrote to TH on 7 March, No. 537, above, but no letter from either John or Thomas Pownall written in either late February or early March has survived. TH’s description of his efforts to disperse the merchants’ meeting of the previous day were contained in No. 512, above.

3 This presumably was the vote on 28 February for an inquiry into the king’s Civil List (and the various pensions it included, which were often used as a means to build support for the ministry in the House of Commons). The motion was defeated by a vote of 262 to 175, or a majority of 97 (Parliamentary Debates, 5:253).

1 Letter No. 5 was No. 544, above, reporting the news of the Boston Massacre.

2 The town of Boston brought cases of libel against Gage and Bernard for their letters to British officials that became public the previous spring; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 482. “Noli prosequi,” Latin, meaning “I will not pursue,” was a formal statement by the prosecutor that he was abandoning the indictment.

1 These letters are dated 18 January and 17 February, Nos. 507 and 524, respectively, above.

2 Hillsborough’s letter, No. 507, above, included a copy of the king’s speech, which urged Parliament to enact firm measures against the associations for nonimportation in the colonies. Political upheaval in Parliament prevented the ministry from enacting any of those proposals.

3 William Molineux was attempting to revive the use of the Manufactory House for spinning to promote the domestic production of textiles as a response to nonimportation. Because of Molineux’s previous political conduct, TH vetoed the measure; see JHR, 46:192.

4 Hillsborough’s message of 18 February approved TH’s attempt to disperse the merchants’ meeting on 23 January; see No. 509, above.

5 In his letter No. 524, above, Hillsborough approved TH’s plan to omit fishermen from the six shilling Greenwich Hospital Duty.

6 The province had begun to tax the salaries of the commissioners; see TH Correspondence, 2: No. 488.

7 Samuel Adams was clerk of the House of Representatives.

8 For the letter previously informing Lord Hillsborough of the House’s reluctance to proceed to business, see No. 560, above.

9 In the AC, this phrase reads, “would endanger a Dissolution.”

10 Angered by TH’s veto of Molineux’s plans for the revival of the Manufactory House, the House responded to a message TH had sent it about a riotous attack on a customs official in Gloucester by composing a remonstrance that called TH’s actions in attempting to clear the Manufactory House for use by British regulars in 1768 as “against law.” TH enclosed the remonstrance with this letter and prorogued the General Court (JHR, 46:194–95). The message of the House can be found at JHR, 46:178–81, and TH’s answer at JHR, 46:194–96.

11 Probably Nicholas Boylston (Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, p. 152).

1 Robinson carried letters from TH to both Bernard and Hillsborough, dated 12 March, Nos. 543 and 544, respectively, above, but Bernard’s statement about their day of arrival is mistaken. The letter to Hillsborough, as well as a letter from William Dalrymple, Thomas Preston’s account of the Massacre, and Andrew Oliver’s version of the Council meeting of 6 March, are all docketed as received at the office of the secretary of state on 21 April.

2 “Felo de se,” Latin, meaning “a felon against himself,” or suicide.

3 Captain John Porteous commanded the guard at an execution in Edinburgh in 1736; when some spectators were killed, Porteous was tried, convicted, and reprieved but subsequently lynched; see Zobel, Boston Massacre, p. 216.

4 Presumably these are minutes of transactions in the House of Commons.

5 Bernard meant that TH’s commission was proceeding through the various steps of bureaucratic preparation.

1 Bernard’s letter No. 21, dated 7 March, No. 537, above, recounted Lord North’s motion for the partial repeal of the Townshend duties.

2 TH was referring to Bernard’s answer to the remonstrance of the Massachusetts House asking for his removal as governor; see Copy of the Complaint of the House of Representatives of Massachuset’s-Bay, against Sir Francis Bernard: With Sir Francis Bernard’s Answer (Boston, 1770). By “Report,” TH meant the final determination of the Privy Council in Bernard’s case; see No. 541, above.

3 Gilbert DeBlois, a leading importer who had once been part of the merchants’ committee, became the particular focus of patriot ire and was obliged to reship his goods (Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, p. 151).

4 The persons whose names were left out have not been identified but may well have been leading members of the opposition.

5 The king’s speech at the opening of Parliament and the addresses of each house in response had indicated that Parliament would take a firm line in quashing the nonimportation associations of colonial merchants.

6 TH could mean either Benjamin Greene or Francis Green, either Thomas or Nicholas Bolyston, and George or Nathaniel Bethune. All were merchants who had run afoul of the nonimportation agreement (Tyler, Smugglers & Patriots, p. 155).

7 For TH’s message on the riot in Gloucester and the General Court’s remonstrance, see No. 580, above, and TH History, 3:203–04.

8 Thomas Goldthwait, a loyal supporter of TH, had been truckmaster at Fort Pownall, controlling the province’s trade with the Indians in Maine. Thomas Hubbard (1702–1773), a longtime member of the House for Boston and subsequently a member of the Council, was treasurer of Harvard College and the previous commissary general before Cushing’s election. The office eventually fell to Edward Sheafe (1711–1771) of Charlestown.

9 The Court chose Jerathmiel Bowers of Taunton (see TH Correspondence, 1: No. 172n) to be one of two notaries for the ports of Freetown and Dartmouth on 30 March (JHR, 46:119). TH so objected to Bowers’s politics he vetoed him (as Francis Bernard had repeatedly done) when he was elected to the Council a month later.

10 TH believed that William Molineux, Thomas Young, John Hancock, William Phillips, William Cooper, and Samuel Adams effectively controlled the town.

11 John Rowe and John Hancock were both extremely wealthy merchants who TH warned might be exposed to suits for civil damages if they continued to support nonimportation.

12 By assemblies in England, TH was referring to the petitioning movement of the preceding summer, as well as the remonstrance of the London livery companies.

13 Henry Hulton owned a country house in Brookline. Robert Auchmuty, the vice-admiralty court judge, owned a house in Roxbury, a convenient meeting point between Boston and Brookline.

14 James Bridgham (1706/07–1776), graduate of Harvard College in 1726, was minister at Brimfield. Lady Bernard presumably came to know the family when she was taking the waters at nearby Brookfield, Massachusetts. His son Ebenezer (b. 1744/45), who was a crockery merchant, witnessed the Massacre and was an inspector of loyalist forces during the war.

1 Hood’s letter to TH was not found but must have included an offer to convey messages to England via a naval vessel.

2 Hillsborough’s message to TH of 18 January, No. 507, above, urged TH to find a way of ending insults to the troops.

3 The Lydia, one of John Hancock’s vessels, was filled with imported goods being shipped back to England; see No. 582, above.