On this day 250 years in Williamsburg, Virginia, the Virginia Gazette published this warning about the Royal Navy’s plans to intercept the goods Patriots were attempting to smuggle into America in lieu of the legal goods from Britain the Patriots were boycotting in adherence to the Continental Association:

A Caution of the Publick. Be it known that his Majesty’s armed schooner MAGDALEN, HENRY COLLINS, ESQ. commander, mounting four carriage guns . . .now lies moored opposite to Burwell’s ferry, for the purpose of brining to and searching all vessels going up and down the James river. (Note well, masters and owners, that the King pays no costs or damages in his Admiralty courts, whether your vessels, after seizure and libelling, be condemned or not).

Source: https://va250.org/james-city-county/

Also on this day 250 years ago in Boston, Loyalist Judge Robert Auchmuty wrote to former Governor Thomas Hutchinson that

On both sides large preparations are making . . . bloodshed and desolation seem inevitable.

Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride at 65.