Thomas Young for its president, was organized by Dr. Joseph Warren, who,
with one other person, drew up its regulations. Its usual place of
meeting was at William Campbell's house, near the North Battery, though
its sessions were sometimes held at the Green Dragon tavern. Here the
committees of public service were formed, and measures of defence, and
resolves for the destruction of the tea, discussed. It was here, when
the best mode of expelling the regulars from Boston was under
consideration, that John Hancock exclaimed, "Burn Boston, and make John
Hancock a beggar, if the public good requires it."
[4] Thomas Crafts was, in 1789, a painter and japanner, opposite the
site of the great tree (corner of Boylston and Washington Streets). He
became a member of the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew in 1762.
[5] Benjamin Edes, journalist, born in Charlestown, Mass., Oct. 14,
1732; died in Boston, December 11, 1803. In 1755, he began, with John
Gill, the publication of the "Boston Gazette and Country Journal," a
newspaper of deserved popularity, unsurpassed in its patriotic zeal for
liberty,--the chosen mouth-piece of the Whigs. To its columns, Otis, the
Adamses, Quincy and Warren, were constant contributors. Their
printing-office, on the corner of Queen (now Court) Street and Dassett's
Alley (now Franklin Avenue), was the place of meeting of a party of the
"Mohawks," on the afternoon of December 16, 1773. During the siege of
Boston, the "Gazette" was issued at Watertown. It was discontinued
September 17, 1798. At the opening of the war, Mr. Edes possessed a
handsome property, which was wholly lost by the depreciation of the
currency. Edes was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery
Company in 1760, and a prominent "Son of Liberty."
[6] Dr. Benjamin Church, physician, orator and poet, grandson of the
famous Indian fighter of the name; born in Newport, R.I., August 24,
1734; was lost at sea in May, 1776. He graduated at Harvard College in
1754; studied medicine in London, and after his return to Boston, became
eminent as a surgeon. For several years previous to the Revolution, he
was a conspicuous and leading Whig. He was a representative, a member of
the Provincial Congress of 1774, and physician-general to the patriot
army. Pecuniary embarrassment is supposed to have led to his defection
from the cause of his country. In September, 1775, an intercepted letter
of his, in characters, to Major Cain, in Boston, was deciphered; and
October 3, 1775, he was convicted by a court martial, of which
Washington was president, of "holding a criminal correspondence with the
enemy." Confined in jail at Norwich, Conn., he was released in May,
1776, on account of failing health; sailed for the West Indies, and was
never afterwards heard from.
[7] Gabriel Johonnot, born in Boston, 1748; died in Hamden, Me., October
9, 1820. Zacharie, his father, a Huguenot, was a distiller and merchant.
His dwelling-house and store was on Orange Street, and his distillery on
Harvard Street, directly opposite. At the bottom of the street was his
wharf, wooden distillery, storehouses, etc. The mansion house and store
were burned in the great fire, 20th April, 1787. Gabriel was a member of
St. John's Lodge, Boston, 1780, and a charter member of Hancock Lodge,
Castine, Me., 1794. He was chairman of a committee appointed by the
company of Cadets, of Boston, August 15, 1774, to proceed to Salem, and
return to Governor Gage, the standard presented to them; and was
Lieutenant-Colonel of the 14th Regiment of the Massachusetts line, known
as the Marblehead regiment, commanded by Colonel Glover. He removed to
Castine, Me., soon after the Revolutionary war; took a prominent part in
town affairs, and at one time represented the town of Penobscot in the
Massachusetts Legislature.
[8] Nathaniel Appleton, Commissioner of Loans for the State of
Massachusetts, a resident of Atkinson (now Congress) Street, son of Rev.
Dr. Nathaniel Appleton, of Cambridge; died in June, 1789, aged 66.
[9] The Scollays were an old Scotch family. A John Scollay, the first
mention of whom is found here, in 1692 leased the Winnisimmet ferry for
one year. John, whose name is conspicuous in the early Revolutionary
records of Boston, was a merchant, and was chairman of the Board of
Selectmen, from 1774 to 1790. His portrait, by Copley, represents a
portly, florid man, with a powdered wig, seated, his hand resting on a
ledger. Thomas Melvill married one of Scollay's daughters. Col. William
Scollay, apothecary and druggist, son of John, resided at first on or
near the spot where the Museum stands, and his garden extended back to
Court Square. He was associated with Charles Bulfinch and others, in the
improvement of Franklin Place, now Franklin Street, where they erected
the first block of buildings in Boston. Col. William was commander of
the Independent Company of Cadets.
[10] Francis Rotch, a Quaker merchant, part owner of the "Dartmouth" and
the "Beaver," was born in Nantucket, Mass., 30th September, 1750, and
died in New Bedford, in May, 1822. Joseph, his father, the founder of a
family of eminent merchants, was born in Salisbury, England, in 1704,
and died in New Bedford, 24th November, 1784. In early life he settled
in Nantucket, and rose from poverty to affluence by his industry, energy
and enterprise, gaining, at the same time, universal esteem for his
integrity. These characteristics he transmitted to his sons, William,
Joseph and Francis,--especially to William, whose commercial
transactions were of the most extensive character. All were largely
concerned in the whale fisheries of Nantucket, of which they may almost
be said to have been the founders. Francis was in England for a short
time in 1773, but had returned home before his tea ships arrived. This
affair was a very troublesome one for a young man of twenty-three to
manage, as there was a tremendous pressure brought to bear upon him by
Samuel Adams, and other influential patriots, to return the teas to
England. He yielded temporarily to this pressure, promising the meeting
of November 30th, that the tea should go back; but, probably after
consultation with his counsel, Sampson Salter Blowers and John Adams,
decided to withdraw his promise. Rotch pleaded that a compliance would
ruin him, and as he could not obtain a pass for his ships, they would
either have been sunk by the British batteries, or captured and
confiscated under the revenue laws. He succeeded eventually in escaping
loss in the affair, as the East India Company paid him the freight due
on the cargoes of teas. His ship, the "Bedford," is said to have been
the first to display the American flag on the Thames, after the war. The
family settled in New Bedford, in 1768. He married his cousin, Nancy
Rotch, who, at the time of her death, 24th April, 1867, was nine-two
years of age. The accompanying portrait is copied from a silhouette, by
Miers, profile painter, 111 Strand, London, apparently about 1795. It is
very delicately painted, on a hard plaster surface. The features are
well marked, and the lace ruffle at the bosom, and the queue, are
exceedingly well done. It is now in the possession of Mr. George H.
Allan, who received it from his uncle, A.A. Rotch.
[11] Jonathan Williams, a distinguished merchant and patriot, captain of
the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, in 1751; died March 27,
1788. Jonathan, his father, was a member of the Artillery Company in
1711.
[12] Judge Oliver Wendell, son of Hon. Jacob Wendell, was born in Boston
5th March, 1733; died, 15th January, 1818. Harvard College, 1753. His
daughter, Sarah, married Rev. Abiel Holmes, the father of the poet,
Oliver Wendell Holmes.
[13] William Cooper, son of Rev. William, and brother of Rev. Samuel, of
the Brattle Street Church, and forty-nine years town clerk of Boston;
died November 28, 1809; aged 89. The brothers were both active patriots
of the Revolution.
[14] Ezekiel Cheever, the great grandson of the famous schoolmaster of
that name, in the early days of New England, was born in Charlestown,
Mass., in May, 1720. He was by trade a sugar-baker (confectioner), and
from 1752 to 1755 was a selectman of Charlestown. Removing to Boston he
joined the Sons of Liberty, and was active in the ante-revolutionary
movements of the town, and prominent in its public meetings. He was
appointed commissary of artillery in the army before Boston, May 17,
1775. He died a few years after the conclusion of the war. His brother,
David, also a prominent Son of Liberty, was appointed moderator of the
Old South meeting of December 14, but declined. Ezekiel was a member of
the Committee that waited on the consignees and requested their
resignation.
[15] Probably the following handbill is referred to:
"Brethren and Fellow Citizens!
You may depend that those odious miscreants and detestable tools to
ministry and government, the TEA CONSIGNEES, (those traitors to their
country--butchers--who have done and are doing everything to murder and
destroy all that shall stand in the way of their private interest,) are
determined to come (from the castle) and reside again in the town of
Boston! I therefore give you this early notice that you may hold
yourselves in readiness on the shortest warning, to give them such a
reception as such vile ingrates deserve.
(Signed), JOYCE, Junior,
_Chairman of the Committee for Tarring and Feathering._
--> If any person shall be so hardy as to tear this down, he may expect
my severest resentment.
J., Jun."
[16] A merchant and a former selectman of Boston, member of the
Provincial Congress, President of the Massachusetts Board of War during
the Revolution, and from Nov. 2, 1775, till his death, a Judge of the
Court of Common Pleas for Middlesex County. He died at Weston in
December, 1797; aged 79.
[17] Quincy visited England in 1774, and died on the passage home, in
sight of his native land, April 26, 1775. He was a lawyer, and in
conjunction with John Adams, defended the perpetrators of the "Boston
Massacre."
[18] Lord Mahon, a candid British historian, thinks this concession
unwisely denied.
[19] John Rowe, a prominent merchant and patriotic citizen of Boston,
died February 17, 1787; aged 72 years. He was many years a Selectman,
Overseer of the Poor, and representative to the General Court, and was
chairman of the committee chosen June 16, 1779, to fix the prices of
merchandise, and to bring to punishment all offenders against the act
against monopoly and forestalling. He was a member of the First Lodge of
Freemasons, Boston, in 1740; master of the same Lodge in 1749, and fifth
Provincial Grand Master in 1768. When, in 1766, Rowe was proposed for
representative, Samuel Adams artfully suggested another, by asking--with
his eyes on Mr. Hancock's house--"Is there not another John that may do
better?" The hint took, and the wealth and influence of Hancock were
secured on the side of liberty. Rowe's mansion,--subsequently that of
Judge Prescott, father of the historian,--stood on the spot lately
occupied by Dr. Robbins' church, in Bedford Street. A wharf and street
once bore the name of this true friend of his country, but the wharf
alone retains the title. Since 1856, Rowe Street has been absorbed in
Chauncy Street.
[20] This punch bowl is now in the possession of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.
[21] Alexander Hodgdon, mate of the "Dartmouth," was subsequently
(1787-92) Treasurer of the State of Massachusetts. Stevens was at that
time courting his sister (they were afterwards married), and was
naturally desirous not to compromise himself or his friend.
[22] The proclamation of the "King of the Mohawks," which accompanies
this notice, appears to be in Proctor's handwriting. The original is in
the possession of Mr. Jeremiah Colburn, of Boston.
[23] See ante pp. XLIX., CVI.
[24] The East India Company was a famous joint stock trading
corporation, formed in England early in the seventeenth century, to
carry on commerce with the East Indies. They established stations in
various places, and in 1702, were newly chartered as "The United Company
of Merchants Trading to the East Indies." The executive power of the
Company was vested in a court of twenty-four directors, each of whom
must own £2000 of stock, and held office four years. This Company became
a great territorial power, and laid the foundation of the British Empire
in India. Its monopoly of the China trade was abolished in 1833, and the
Company was then deprived of its original character as a commercial
association. The Sepoy Mutiny, in 1857, combined with other causes,
induced Parliament to transfer the dominion of India to the Crown. This
change was effected in 1858, after strenuous opposition from the
Company. Trading companies to the East Indies were also chartered by
Holland, France, Denmark, and Sweden; that of Holland being the oldest.
[25] In this sample invoice the amount seems extraordinary. The editor
of this volume, however, considers his duty ended when he gives a
faithful transcript of the manuscript in his possession, allowing the
facts alone to appear.
[26] Sir Brook Watson, a merchant of London, and Lord Mayor in 1796,
born in Plymouth, England, February 7, 1735, died October 2, 1807. Early
in life he entered the sea service, but, while bathing in the harbor of
Havana, in 1749, a shark bit off his right leg, below the knee, and he
was obliged to abandon his chosen profession. A painting, by Copley,
represents this scene. Watson then became a merchant, and was a
commissary to the British troops in Canada, in 1755 and in 1758.
Visiting the American colonies just before the Revolution, he professed
himself a Whig, but intercepted letters showed his true character to be
that of a spy. In 1782, he was commissary-general to his friend, Sir Guy
Carleton, in America; held the same office with the Duke of York, in
1793-95, and that of Commissary-General of England, in 1798-1806. He was
a member of Parliament from London, in 1784-93; sheriff of London and
Middlesex in 1785, and was made a baronet December 5, 1803. As a reward
for his services in America, Parliament voted his wife an annuity of
£500 for life.
[27] Hon. Thomas Walpole, merchant, banker, and member of Parliament,
second son of Horatio, first Lord Walpole, and nephew of the famous
statesman, Sir Robert Walpole, died at Chiswick, March 21, 1803. He was
born October 25, 1727.
[28] William Ancrum, was a loyalist, of Charleston, S.C., He was
banished in 1782, and his property was confiscated.
[29] Richard, son of Francis Clarke, merchant, graduated at Harvard
College, in 1729, and died in London, at the residence of his
son-in-law, John Singleton Copley, the artist, February 27, 1795. He,
with his sons, Richard and Jonathan, constituting the firm of Richard
Clarke & Sons, did business in King (now State) Street, and became
exceedingly obnoxious to the people, on their refusal to resign their
appointment as factors of the East India Company's tea. The residence of
the Clarke's, on School Street, (corner of Chapman Place,) was mobbed on
the evening of November 17, 1773, but no serious damage was done. (This
incident is fully detailed on a previous page.) Jonathan Clarke was in
London in the summer of 1773, and received verbal instructions
respecting the consignment of tea from the directors of the East India
Company. Richard Clarke arrived in London December 24, 1775, after a
passage of twenty-one days from Boston. The Clarkes were included in the
Act of Proscription, and their estates were confiscated. Richard Clarke
was a nephew of Governor Hutchinson. His wife, Elizabeth, was the
daughter of Edward Winslow, of Boston. Susan, his daughter, married
Copley, the painter, and became the mother of Lord Lyndhurst. Another
daughter, Mary, married Judge Samuel Barrett. Copley's portrait of
Richard Clarke represents him as a man of commanding presence, with
features resembling, in a remarkable degree, those of Washington, in the
Stuart portrait.
[30] Grey, afterwards Sir Grey Cooper, studied law at the Temple,
London; became an efficient supporter of the Rockingham party, and held
the office of Secretary of the Treasury throughout the American
troubles, covering the administrations of Chatham, Grafton, and North.
He was made a Lord of the Treasury in 1783, a Privy Councillor in 1793,
and died at Worlington, Suffolk, July 30, 1801; aged seventy-five. He
was an able speaker and parliamentarian.
[31] Joshua Winslow, son of Joshua and Elizabeth Savage Winslow, born in
Boston, in 1737, died there in March, 1775, after an illness of only
three days. Joshua, his father, (1694-1769,) third in descent from
Governor Edward, of Plymouth, was the son of Colonel Edward Winslow,
sheriff of Suffolk County. In 1720, he founded a mercantile house in
Boston, in which his brother Isaac (the Tory) was a partner, from 1736
to 1757, and in 1760 admitted his son, Joshua, to a share of the
business, he himself retiring with an ample fortune, in 1767. This firm
carried on an extensive and profitable trade. With the proceeds of
consignments from Bristol, England, vessels were built in Boston, and
loaded with fish for Leghorn, or some other foreign port, return cargoes
being taken for Bristol. They also became considerable shipowners, and
had one ship constantly in the London trade. Their place of business was
on the corner of King and Broad Streets. Joshua Winslow, who was one of
the consignees of the tea, seems to have been present when they were
called upon by the Sons of Liberty, at Clarke's warehouse, but does not
afterwards appear, except by proxy. He must have absented himself from
Boston soon after that occurrence, as he did not go with the other
consignees to the castle. He married Hannah, daughter of Commodore
Joshua Loring, and left her a widow, with one son and four daughters.
[32] Abraham Lott, of New York, was treasurer of that colony, and died
in New York, 1794; aged sixty-eight. In September, 1776, he was ordered
by the Whig Convention to settle his accounts as treasurer, and pay over
the balance to his successor. In August, 1781, some Whigs went in a
whale boat to his residence, robbed him of six hundred pounds, and
carried off two slaves. In 1786, the Legislature of New York passed an
Act, "more effectually to compel Abraham Lott to account for money
received while he was treasurer of the colony, and for which he has not
accounted."
[33] Colonel John Erving, Jr., a flour merchant, on Kilby Street,
Boston, and a graduate of Harvard College, (1747,) was in 1778,
proscribed and banished, and in 1779 his property was confiscated under
the Conspiracy Act. His mansion, on the west corner of Milk and Federal
Streets, was afterwards the residence of Robert Treat Paine, a signer of
the Declaration of Independence. Prior to the Revolution Irving was
colonel of the Boston regiment. In 1760, he signed the Boston memorial
against the acts of the revenue officials, and was thus one of the
fifty-eight merchants who were the first men in America to array
themselves against the officers of the Crown. But, in 1774, he was an
addressor of Hutchinson, and was appointed a mandamus councillor. In
1776, he fled to Halifax, afterwards went to England, and died at Bath,
in 1816; aged eighty-nine years. His wife, Maria Catherina, youngest
daughter of Governor Shirley, died a few months before him. George
Erving, his brother, also a loyalist, died in London, in 1806; aged
seventy.
[34] Henry Lloyd, a merchant of Boston, agent of the contractors for
supplying the royal army, was an addressor of Gage, in 1775. In 1776, he
went to Halifax, and was proscribed and banished in 1778. He died in
London, late in 1795, or early in 1796; aged eighty-six. His place of
business was at No. 5 Long Wharf.
[35] Mansell was a South Carolina loyalist, whose estate was
confiscated, in 1782.
[36] The firm of Willing, Morris & Co., established in 1754, was the
most extensive importing house in Philadelphia. They worked actively and
zealously for the non-importation articles of agreement, after the Stamp
Act and the Tea Act were inflicted on this country. Robert Morris
(1733-1806,) was the well-known financier of the Revolution. Thomas
Willing, (1741-1821,) from 1754 to 1807, held successively the offices
of Secretary to the Congress of Delegates, at Albany; mayor of the city
of Philadelphia; Representative in the General Assembly; President of
the Provincial Congress; delegate to the Congress of the Confederation;
President of the first chartered Bank in America, and President of the
first bank of the United States. He was a man whose integrity and
patriotism gained him the esteem and praise of his countrymen. From the
beginning of the Revolutionary war, Willing & Morris were the agents of
Congress for supplying their naval and military stores. To the great
credit and well-known patriotism of this house, the country owed its
extrication from those trying pecuniary embarrassments, so familiar to
the readers of our Revolutionary history.
[37] Hugh and Alexander Wallace, brothers, were merchants, of New York,
and partners in business. Hugh was a member of the Council, and second
President of the Chamber of Commerce. He was arrested as a loyalist, and
confined to the limits of Middletown, Conn., and his estate was
confiscated. At the peace he went to England, and died at Waterford,
Ireland, in 1788.
Alexander, his brother, also a loyalist, whose property was confiscated,
had originally been a member of the committee of correspondence, and
undoubtedly sympathized with the Whigs, but like many others, ultimately
fell off from the great body of his countrymen, and clung to the royal
cause. In August, 1776, he was arrested and confined at Fishkill. At the
peace he went to England, with his brother, and died at Waterford,
Ireland, in the year 1800.
[38] James Hall, captain of the "Dartmouth," the first tea-ship to
arrive in America, was a Boston loyalist, and was consequently
proscribed and banished in 1778.
[39] These two letters following each other so closely, plainly manifest
the anxiety of the Company, in reference to their shipments of tea to
Boston.
[40] William Kelly is, I suppose, the person referred to in the
following paragraph in Leake's "Life of John Lamb," pp. 75, 76. "A
certain Mr. Kelly, former resident of the city, (New York,) then in
London, and canvassing some one of the Ministerial Boroughs for an
election to Parliament, ridiculed the apprehensions of those who refused
to insure the cargoes of tea from destruction, and declared that if
animosities should rise as high as during the time of the Stamp Act, the
tea might safely be shipped and securely landed. That then the Colony
had an old man to deal with (Colden); but now they would have to contend
with a vigorous military governor, (Tryon,) one who had shown his energy
in putting down insurrectionary movements in North Carolina. The
Committee of Vigilance took note of these offensive declarations, and on
November 5, called a meeting at the Coffee House. The people assembled,
denounced Kelly, and burnt his effigy, and after the representative was
consumed, a gentleman observed that it was matter of regret that the
principal could not be dealt with in the same summary and exemplary
manner."
[41] Thomas Wharton was a wealthy and influential merchant of
Philadelphia, and of the sect called Quakers. In the enterprise of
Galloway and Goddard to establish the "Chronicle," a leading newspaper,
he was their partner, and the parties supposed that Franklin, who was a
correspondent of Wharton's, on his return from England, would join them.
In 1777, he was apprehended, and sent prisoner to Virginia, and at a
later period was proscribed as an enemy to his country, and lost his
estate, under the Confiscation Acts of Pennsylvania. His son, Thomas
Wharton, Jr., was a distinguished Whig, and President of Pennsylvania.
In the early part of the Revolution, and indeed until the time when
blood was shed, father and son acted together, and were members of the
same deliberative assemblies and committees.
[42] A portion of this article, which fairly represents the views of the
consignees on the vexed tea question, is as follows: