On This Day In The Revolution

I am taking a break from posting today because nothing happened on this date 250 years ago. There was no February 29 in 1774.

On this day 250 years ago from Mount Vernon, George Washington wrote to William Preston, County Surveyor for Fincastle County, which was the western county in Virginia constituting the frontier with Native American territory, regarding the survey of 13,000 acres in what is now West Virginia. Washington claimed this property from a land grant that…

On this day 250 years ago in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Mercy Otis Warren wrote a poem about the Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor. John Adams had requested that Warren write the poem and she mailed it to Abigail Adams. Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=Ancestor%3AADMS-04-01-02-0072&s=1511311111&r=2

On this day 250 years ago in London, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter responding to a critic who attacked him falsely claiming that Franklin had sought to benefit from the Stamp Act while publicly opposing it. Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2226%20February%201774%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=2&sr=

On this day 250 years ago Indian trader David Taitt wrote to John Stuart, the British Superintendent for Southern Indians, about a Talk between Indian trader George Galphin and his friend Young Lieutenant of the Creeks. Galphin warned Young Lieutenant that “You must take care to tell the Young People not to be frightening the…

On this day 250 years ago, the Massachusetts House of Representatives in General Court Assembled (more often referred to as the “Assembly” or “General Court”) adopted Articles of Impeachment against Chief Justice Peter Oliver. The Articles of Impeachment had been drafted by Assemblyman (and subsequent Signer of the Declaration of Independence and President of the…

On this day 250 years ago in Pittsburgh, Justice of the Peace Joseph Spear wrote to Chief Magistrate Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania that there had been “two or three musters” of about 20 Virginia militia at Redstone fort in Maryland under the command of Dr. Joseph Connolly and Capt. Michael Cresap. Although these militia…

On this day 250 years ago from South Carolina Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southern colonies John Stuart wrote colonial Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina of unrest on the frontier with the Creek and Cherokee Nations: I have received Letters from my deputies in the Creek and Cherokee nations, from which I am…

On this day 250 years ago in Boston, the Massachusetts General Assembly petitioned the Royal Governor to remove Peter Oliver, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court from his post. Oliver had accepted payment from the British government to supplement the salary approved by the Massachusetts Assembly, even though his fellow justices had refused the…

On this day 250 years ago in London, John Temple wrote to his father-in-law James Bowdoin in Boston that Dr. Franklin is dismissed from his office of Post-Master in America; but it is impossible the Province will let him be a loser by it, they must fall upon some Means of raising Money for paying…