On this day 250 years ago the Pennsylvania Gazette published “A Lady’s Adieu to Her Tea Table” — a poem that, as the name implies, shows that the Patriots protesting the Tea Act were not all men.
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On the day 250 years ago America’s greatest supporter in Parliament, Edmund Burke, wrote future American General Charles Lee, who had recently emigrated to America, about Wedderburn’s “furious Philippic against poor Dr. Franklin” in the Privy Council a few days earlier.
Source: https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/01/brilliant-agony-edmund-burke-spring-1774.html
[sorry I am posting this one a little late]
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On this day 250 years ago, Charles Clinton Beatty wrote to his brother-in-law and fellow student Rev. Enoch Green about the destruction of tea earlier in the month at the College of New Jersey in Princeton: “to show our patriotism, we gathered all the Steward’s winter store of Tea, and having made a fire on the campus, we there burnt near a dozen pounds, tolled the bell, and made many spirited resolves.” They also made an effigy of Massachusetts Governor Hutchinson, which “shared the same fate as the Tea, having a Tea canister tied about his neck,” and burned it in front of Nassau Hall. Both Beatty and Green went on to serve as officers in the Continental Army with Green as a Chaplain and Beatty dying of an accidental gunshot as a Lieutenant.
[I included a previous report on the burning of the tea at Princeton. Beatty’s letter on this date is the primary source for that event.]
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On this day 250 years ago, posters went up in Boston signed by “Joyce Junior”, the Chairman of the Committee for Tarring and Feathering. The posters read simply:
Brethren and Fellow Citizens! This is to Certify, That the modern Punishment lately inflicted on the ignoble John Malcolm, was not done by our Order — we reserve that Method for Bringing Villains of greater Consequence to a Sense of Guilt and Infamy.
These posters were a clear indication that the leadership of the Boston Sons of Liberty believed that the mob they had stirred up had gone too far with their brutal treatment of John Malcolm.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/45kup0/information_on_joyce_junior/
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On this day 250 years ago, Benjamin Franklin appeared before the Privy Council in London. Franklin assumed he had been summoned to the Privy Council as agent for Massachuseito address the requests that the Massachusetts legislature had filed with the Privy Council to have Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson and Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver removed from office. Instead Alexander Wedderburn, British Solicitor-General, accused Franklin of being a “true incendiary” for making copies of letters written by Hutchinson that suggested Parliament restrict the liberties of the colonies and then leaking the letters to the press. Wedderburn grills an embarrassed Franklin for over an hour but Franklin makes no attempt to respond to the allegations against him.
His embarrassment before the Privy Council was a turning point for Benjamin Franklin. Up to this point, Frankin had been a voice of moderation within the Patriot leadership intent on reconciliation with the Mother Country. From this point forward, Franklin wholeheartedly supported every action of the Patriots that led to American Independence.
Sources: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/franklin/franklin-break.html; https://www.williamhbenson.com/2002/01/benjamin-franklin-in-the-cockpit/
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On this day 250 years ago, British Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord Dartmouth received a report from Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Leslie predicting that more soldiers were needed in order to maintain control in Boston.
Source: https://historyofmassachusetts.org/british-react-boston-tea-party/
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On this day 250 years ago, Massachusetts Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson’s official report on the Boston Tea Party arrived in London, along with a report from the First Lord of Admiralty John Montagu, who happened to be in Boston during the Desttruction of the Tea. Monatagu’s report identified John Hancock and Samuel Adams as the ringleaders of the Boston Tea Party.
Source: https://historyofmassachusetts.org/british-react-boston-tea-party/
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On January 26, 250 years ago [sorry I am posting late] William Bollan, the agent for Massachusetts in London presented a Petition to the King in Council that began with the assertion that
“perfect harmony between Great Britain and the colonies . . . [had] continued until it was disturb’d by the errors and innovations of your majestys ministers, who devised and pursued . . . measures . . . as were derogatory to [the] rights- and liberties of your majestys American subjects.”
King George III and his Council were not moved by Bollan’s Petition, and in the next few days would begin adopting measures that not only disturbed, but outright revoked the rights and liberties of Americans.
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On this day 250 years ago Loyalist John Malcolm was tarred and feathered by a Patriot mob in Boston. Malcolm was a customs official and outspoken supporter of British authority who was despised in Massachusetts and across New England for his arrogant behavior. He was threatening to strike with his cane a young boy sledding on the street in front of his house in Boston when Patriot George Robert Twelves Hewes intervened to defend the boy. Instead of striking the boy Malcolm instead struck Hewes in the head witth his cane, knocking Hewes out and leaving a bloody gash on his head.
Following the altercation a large crowd stormed his house and seized Malcolm. The mob stripped off Malcolm’s shirt, poured hot tar on his bare skin (tarring and feathering usually occurred when the victim was fully clothed, limiting the physical harm) and covered him with feathers, then paraded him through the streets of Boston for several hours in a cart as the crowd stoned Malcolm. He survived this very painful ordeal but was scarred for life.
Although the tarring and feathering of Malcolm served as a very effective threat to other Loyalists who defended the British government, Patriot leaders in Boston believed the mob’s torture ofMalcolm went too far and discouraged additional tarring and feathering. As feared by the Patriot leaders, the horrific treatment of Malcolm hardened the attitude of the British public and Government towards the Americans. The tarring and feathering of John Malcolm was cited, with the Boston Tea Party, as a cause for the Intolerable Acts that Parliament would soon enact.
Malcolm’s victim George Robert Twelves Hewes was a Patriot who should be remembered and celebrated by Americans today. In addition to his memorable name (in an age when almost everyone had only two names, he carried four including the unique “Twelves”), Hewes was a participant in all the great events in Boston that led to the Revolution. He was in the crowd at the Boston Massacre and one of its victims died in his arms. He was one of the “Indians” destroying the tea in the Boston Tea Party. And Hewes’s defense of a boy from assault by John Malcolm 250 years ago today also helped spark the Revolution.
Hewes was a common man, a shoemaker and in his later years, a farmer. He had very little formal education or wealth. He was born into poverty and died poor. He was not well-known to the public during his lifetime and commemorated for his contributions to the Patriot cause, as were John Hancock, Joseph Warren, Sam Adams, John Adams and Paul Revere. Yet he was one of the original members of the Sons of Liberty in Boston before the War, and fought for Liberty throughout the War. He escaped occupied Boston during the Siege of Boston, to carry supplies and three other Patriots to join the American forces and personally briefed General Washington on intelligence from the City. And he then served two tours on a privateer attacking British shipping, and four tours of duty as a member of the Massachusetts militia, despite having 15 children and a wife who needed his support.
On this day in 2024 I hope we all remember and celebrate the contributions of George Robert Twelves Hewes to America’s Independence.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Malcolm_(Loyalist); https://www.revwartalk.com/john-malcolm/;
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On this day 250 years ago, Philip Vickers Fithian writing in his journal at Nomini Hall plantation in Virginia where he was employed as a tutor to the wealthy Carter family, said that “There are great Professions of Liberty here expressed in Songs Toasts, &c. Yesterday News came of the Arrival of Ships with Tea; into Boston, New-york, Philadelphia. . . . Gentlemen here in general applaud & honour our Northern Colonies for so manly, & patriotic Resistance!”
Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/40044/pg40044-images.html
On This Day In The Revolution 