The Liberty Riot (episode 224)

Transcript

Music

Jake:
[0:05] Welcome to hub history where we go far beyond the freedom trail to share our favorite stories from the history of boston, the hub of the universe.
This is episode 224 the Liberty Riot.
Hi, I’m jake! This week, I’m talking about a 1768 riot that forced royal officials to flee Boston for their lives, saw a boat bodily carried onto Boston Common and burned, and in the end helped bring on the boston massacre.
Less than two years later, john Hancock, later a prominent patriot and owner of America’s most famous signature was at the center of the controversy, known then as a leading merchant and possibly the richest man in the british colonies.
Hancock would find himself on trial as a smuggler before a court that was originally set up to deal with pirates and defended by none other than future president john Adams.
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Jake:
[2:30] And now it’s time for this week’s main topic. At first glance, founding father john Hancock may seem like an unlikely smuggler.
Hancock was born into a comfortably middle class family and what’s now Quincy in 1737, just two years after his neighbor and future fellow founder john Adams,
john Hancock’s father died when john was just seven years old and the boy was sent to live with his uncle thomas Hancock who lived in a massive granite mansion on Beacon Hill overlooking boston Common.
It was the largest private home in boston and probably the most posh in the entire province to afford such a lavish home.
Uncle thomas and Aunt Lydia were obviously quite wealthy thomas ran a mercantile house that imported manufactured goods from Britain and exported colonial products like whale oil, dried cod lumber and rum.
He operated a fleet of ships and had offices in both boston and London, John Hancock worked in both offices from the time he graduated from Harvard in 1754 until becoming a full partner in 1763.
When thomas died the next year, john inherited the business, instantly becoming one of the most wealthy men in british north America.
He lived and entertained at Hancock Manor, eventually inheriting the mansion, also when Aunt Lydia died in 1776.

[3:57] You might ask why such a wealthy and upstanding citizen would become a smuggler, But basically every merchant was a smuggler. Back then, first of all, the relationship between Britain and her overseas colonies was set up to create a trading monopoly.
The colonies could only trade with the mother country and other british colonies, even if better goods were available at better prices in other markets, like the french spanish and dutch possessions in the caribbean,
and colonial ports like boston smuggling brought in the goods that people wanted to buy at the prices they were able to pay.
The practice was widely embraced by the locals.

[4:35] Local customs collectors reported to a commission headquartered in far away London, so it’s easy to pay them off to look the other way when bringing in an unauthorized cargo.
If that failed, it was also easy to land portions of a cargo in a smaller town without a customs house and then bring it into boston in small coasting vessels that weren’t subject to customs inspection.
If all else failed, the smuggler was actually caught. They were almost never convicted by a massachusetts jury.
All that began to change in the 1760s after the seven years War, what most of us knew as the french and indian war, when we learned about it.
In school, Britain was desperate to bring in revenue to pay off the war. Dad Parliament passed the Sugar Act in 1764, directly taxing the colonies. For the first time.
The sugar Act set a specific import duty on many products, including Madeira wine, which was one of john Hancock’s favorite imports.
The text of the law specified For every ton of wine, of the growth of the Madeiras or of any island, or place from whence such wine may be lawfully imported, and which shall be so imported from such islands or place.
The sum of £7..

[5:53] The Sugar Act was followed by the Stamp Act in 1765, which was met with massive protests in the colonies, especially in Boston.
With all the uproar around the stamp act forcing them to resign their positions and just generally rioting all the time.
The Sugar Act went overlooked for a time as thomas Hutchinson, the lieutenant governor, during the stamp act crisis and author of a history of the province of massachusetts bay, wrote,
The Act of Parliament, which imposed a duty of £7 per tonne unwise for Madeira was enforced at the time when the Stamp Act passed, and the duties have been generally paid and all the stir against the stamp act.
This being less grievous was not mentioned.

[6:39] After the stamp act was repealed in 17 66 Parliament in 17 67 turned to a series of bills known as the Townshend Acts, after the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, a cabinet position similar to our Secretary of the Treasury,
like the Sugar Act, the stamp act, and every act of Parliament.
The american colonists had no say in the passage of the townshend acts because the colonies had no elective representatives in parliament.
Now a far away legislative body that Bostonians had no voice in, was passing laws that seemed laser targeted at boston’s economy,
along with laws punishing new york city for not quartering the king’s troops and accepting the East India company from existing in new taxes on t,
the townshend acts included the Revenue Act, which implemented taxes on products like paint, paper, tea and lead, and gave officials broad rights to use warrants to suppress smuggling.
The Commissioners of Customs Act would replace the existing mostly ineffective system, where local customs officers in North America reported to a board in London, Now a customs board made up of five commissioners, will be dispatched directly to the colonies.
Three of the five commissioners will be working out of the board’s new headquarters in rebellious boston, Henry, Hulten Charles, Paxton and William Birch along with six customs officers working for them.

[8:03] Their patent technically went into effect in September 1767, but of course, they couldn’t begin their collections until they arrived in boston and set up shop.
The commissioners must have been apprehensive as they crossed the atlantic. On the thames that fall, rumors have been swirling on both sides of the atlantic that the sons of Liberty would not allow them to land in boston.
However, James taxation without representation is tyranny.
Otis of all people talk them out of it at a town meeting, he argued that a better course of action would be to work around the new customs duties, much as they had worked around the stamp tax.
To this end, many prominent Bostonians signed a pledge to avoid importing european goods with the highest duties like household furniture, ready made clothing, shoes, jewelry and much more.
While no effort was made to prevent them from landing. The date of the commissioners arrival in boston was perhaps inauspicious.
In 1940, paper on the Board of Customs for the American Historical Review, Dora Mae Clarke describes the day.

[9:11] November five, the day of their landing was celebrated in America and England Alike as Guy Fawkes Day.
The mischief makers were out in full force in spite of the rain.
A procession carrying figures of devils, Popes and pretenders met the travelers at the pier and proceeded them through the streets in honor of the board.
The marchers wore labels on their breasts, was shred, Liberty, property, and no commissioners Halton at least laughed with the crowd at this show, but he may well have thought it an unhappy omen.

[9:47] As we’ve discussed in past episodes of the show, Guy Fawkes Day or Popes Night in boston was not for the faint of heart, it was a drunken boisterous and often violent celebration of english history and anti catholic cinema.
But the worst thing that happened that evening was Charles paxton getting burned in effigy.
It was almost surprising that that despised customs officers escaped unscathed with thomas Hutchinson writing in a letter that month,
a few bad men upon the arrival of the Commissioners of Customs scattered their seditious papers with a view to inflame the minds of the people and to excite to malts, but failing of success.
The supposed authors or favors of this wicked attempt have turned around and condemned it and are declaring against mobs, riots, and all violent measures and are for doing nothing more than discouraging the importation of goods from England and Scotland.
The new customs office opened on November 17 and the new duties officially went into effect on the 20th.
No vessels carrying the duty products arrived in boston until after the new year, allowing anger in the province to subside and leading massachusetts governor Francis, bernard to believe that the storm had blown over.

[11:04] In January 1768.
However, the House of Representatives passed a measure condemning the commissioners of customs and the governor was forced to write to the Secretary of State apologizing for the impertinence contained in the petition they eventually sent to the King.
As winter turned into the spring of 1768, Smugglers began testing the patients and powers of the commissioners and John Hancock was among the Ringleaders,
with the Townsend acts, like the stamp act before it unpopular with many colonists, especially those aligned with the growing wig factor resisting the Commissioners of Customs act was good business and good politics.
In a letter to Nathaniel Rogers on april 17th, lieutenant Governor thomas Hutchinson described how Hancock publicly announced plans to defy the commissioners when his ship, the lydia came in.

[11:58] Mr Hancock has said and declared in the House of Representatives that when Captain Scott arrived no customhouse officers should go aboard.
Um However, he thought better of it and there was no opposition to the officers going aboard,
but after they were on board late in the evening, Mr Hancock went down with a number of attendants, Daniel Malcolm among them and found the officers in the steerage.
He asked if they wanted to search for any goods, they told him not at that time, but they were ordered to remain on board until the vessel was discharged.
He replied that they should remain upon deck and then ordered the ship’s crew to force them up, which they did by laying hands on them Malcolm, standing upon the warf in crying, damn them, throw them overboard.
Mr Hancock was escorted up the wharf, having the approbation of the Spectators and he was obliged to entreat them not to has a him through the town.

[12:54] Daniel Malcolm was himself a smuggler and after his death in 1769, he was famously buried at Cops Hill.
His headstone notes that he was buried in a stone lined grave 10ft deep and his epitaph calls him a true son of liberty and one of the foremost in opposing the Revenue Acts 1766.
He had turned his home into an armed fortress after customs officers accused him of hiding an illegal cargo there, gathering a mob and vowing to shoot any officers set foot inside.
When the new Commissioners of Customs first arrived, he boldly asked them how much the bride would be to off load a cargo without having to pay any duties.
And he was shocked when they told him that they would no longer accept bribes.
And a few weeks after the confrontation over the lydia, he landed another cargo that thomas Hutchinson felt was worth a mention in his history of the province, writing,
a cargo of Madeira wine was imported, landed in the night and carted through the streets of the town of boston Under a guard of 30 or 40 Stout Fellows Armed with Bludgeons.
And though it was notorious to the greatest part of the town, no officer of the customs thought fit to attempt a seizure.
Nor is it probable that he could have succeeded if he had attempted it.

[14:13] Now he had led the mob that at john Hancock’s direction had physically removed a customs officer from the lydia.
In a letter to the marquess of Rockingham dated june 17th 17 68.
Attorney General Jonathan Sewell describes this incident in more detail,
About 7:00 on Saturday evening the said Owen Richards went down into the steerage And in about 10 minutes the master came and laid his hand upon the shoulders and told them that they must go out of the steerage or he should lose his bread.
And they accordingly went out at about eight o’clock the Seto and went down into the steerage again and continued there until about 11 o’clock when mr Hancock came on board again, attended by eight or 10 people all unarmed,
and after demanding of the Seto and what business he had below deck and to come up upon his refusal.
He demanded sight of their orders which were shown him.
He also demanded the sight of their commissions, and the said Owen showed his to which he objected that it had no date.

[15:17] Hancock then demanded to know if they had any writs of assistance and being answered in the negative, he ordered the maiden Boesen to turn them out of the steerage, who accordingly took hold of him under the arms and thighs and forced him upon deck,
after which the companion way being fastened.
Mr Hancock demanded of him whether he wanted to search the vessel, to which he answered that he did not.
Mr Hancock then told him that he might search the vessel, but should not terry below.

[15:47] As with all our quotes from Jonathan Sewell’s letters in this episode, that was taken from a series of posts by JL bell, written on his boston 17 75 blog, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Liberty affair.

[16:01] In a letter, Henry Holten, one of the Customs Commissioners who had arrived in Boston in 1767, describes how the search of the Lydia helped set the minds of the people of Boston against the commissioners.
In the month of March 1768, Mr Hancock, an eminent merchant at Boston, most audaciously ran in a cargo of wines into Boston.
Many people were employed in landing them from the vessel and carrying them to the merchant seller, but no one dared to appear and give information of their proceedings, and the master the next day entered his vessel and ballast.

[16:39] Prosecutions were set on foot by the commissioners against Mr Hancock and several others concerned in the facts, which were defeated for want of evidence,
though a number of people who were said to have been present at the time and were summoned to give evidence, denied any knowledge of the fact which they were called upon to support.

[16:58] Perhaps emboldened by the dropped charges. Hancocks Loop Liberty arrived in boston and May.
It also carried a cargo, mostly made up of Madeira wine.
Customs officials again boarded his ship, but this time they had the proper writs of assistance.
Hancocks, Captain Nathaniel Barner declared that he was carrying a cargo of 25 barrels of madeira, about a quarter of the ship’s capacity, and he paid the duty on them to tide waiters.
Customs employees, whose job it was to monitor cargoes as they were offloaded, watched over the Liberty and certified that everything had been done in accordance with the law.

[17:41] Henry Holton’s letter continues describing the escalating protests against the Customs Commissioners in the spring of 1768.
From this time, there were frequent disturbances, bobs and alarms to distress the commissioners,
for several evenings in the month of March, a number of people armed with clubs assembled around the houses, with some of the Commissioners blowing horns, beating drums and making hideous noises so that the families quitted their houses, expecting the mob would proceed to violence,
And on 18 March, the day of the repeal of the Stamp Act, they paraded through the streets in the evening, making violent cries and noises at the houses of the governor and some of the commissioners.

[18:25] Thomas Hutchinson’s history of the province of massachusetts Bay also mentions the tumult that marked the stamp act anniversary,
18 March.
The anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act threatened fresh disturbances in Boston in the morning to stuffed images designed to represent one of the commissioners and one of the inspectors of the customs were hanged on the Liberty tree,
But two or 3 persons who are known friends to liberty took them down in the evening.
A great mob assembled who made so much to molten, caused terror and stopping before the province House offered some abusive language to the governor and then dispersed.

[19:07] Boston’s history of political violence during the stamp act protests made those disturbances, mobs and alarms seem all the more disturbing to the men.
They were directed at Customs Commissioner Henry Holten later wrote an essay about the coming of the american revolution.
In it, he described how the growing unrest inspired the customs commissioners to request a british warship to be stationed in boston harbor to protect them and to keep the peace,
From the first outrageous in the year 1765, the governor and Magistrates have been losing their authority over the people,
As the new doctrines gained ground, many of the Executive Council adopted the popular opinions and stood forth as assertions of the rights of America,
and such of that board as it showed a disposition to support the authority of parliament had been left out in the next annual election of counselors and others returned in their place, whom the governor and negative,
most of the people of property were averse to the new laws of Parliament, and no magistrate would stand forth to support the officer whose duty it was to carry them into execution.

[20:17] The mob were ready to be assembled on any occasion, and every officer who was obnoxious to them was exposed to the resentment without the least probability of receiving any protection.
They’re being frequent disturbances in boston. And the Commissioners, the Customs, under continual apprehensions for their safety,
as the governor had often told them he could give them no protection, they wrote to commodore Hood commanding his majesty’s ships at Halifax for assistance, and he immediately sent a schooner,
And afterwards, the Romney Man of War of 50 guns, to Boston.

[20:52] Unfortunately far from keeping the peace, the arrival of the Romney on May 17 only served to further inflamed passions in Boston.
Captain john Corner made the dubious decision of impressing semen into service as they arrived in boston harbor, when a vessel of the Royal Navy was shorthanded due to deaths or desertions.
Her captain had the right within certain parameters to kidnap civilian sailors and forced them into the Navy service.
Two decades earlier, the captain of another british naval squadron Charles Knowles had visited boston and begun an indiscriminate impress mint, violating the parameters of his right, which is supposed to provide exceptions for local sailors.

[21:39] The boston mob rose up in retaliation, taking several naval officers hostage, storming the town house and forcing the governor and other officials to flee from the city.
With that recent history fresh in their minds, local sailors and dock workers were not receptive to the arrival of the Romney and Captain Corner.
There have been some scuffles between mid shipment and civilians during May, Keeping tensions high,
even Lieutenant Governor thomas Hutchinson recognized the folly of impressing sailors in boston, And a letter to Richard Jackson dated June 16,
It is unfortunate that in the midst of these difficulties, the Romney has been pressing semen out of all inward bound vessels,
and although he does not take men belonging to the province who have families yet, the fear of it prevents coasters as well as other vessels coming in freely,
and it adds more fuel to the great stock among us Before.
It is a pity that in peaceable times any pressing of semen should be allowed in the colonies.
If it was not, I believe the commanders would not have so many deserters as they now have.
Unfortunately for peace in the town of Boston, the Romney would take center stage and the confrontation that occurred after one of the tide waiters who had overseen the offloading of the liberty changed his story.

[23:03] On June 10 the Liberty was being loaded with an outgoing cargo of 200 barrels of whale oil and 20 barrels of tar and thomas Hutchinson’s history of the province.
He briefly mentions that several days passed and the vessel which imported the wines had taken on board a quantity of oil and tar as if it had been laden for another voyage.

[23:28] While the Liberty was being loaded, tied waiter, thomas Kirk gave a deposition to Justice of the Peace Samuel Pemberton, Which we also have via JL Bells, 1775 blog.

[23:40] I, thomas Kirk of boston do declare and say that being appointed one of the tides men on board the slope Liberty, Nathaniel Barnard, master from Madeira.
I went on board the said vessel the ninth day of May, last in the afternoon,
And about nine o’clock in the evening, Captain Marshall came on board the said vessel and made several proposals to me to persuade me to consent to the hoisting out several casks of wine that night before the vessel was entered,
to all which I peremptorily refused,
Upon which Captain Marshall took hold of me, and with the assistance of five or six other persons unknown to this declare, isn’t they forcibly hosed me down the companion into the cabin and nailed the cover down.
I then broke through a door into the steerage, and was endeavouring to get up on deck. That way it was forcibly pushed back again into the steerage and the companion doors of the steerage also fastened, and was there confined about three hours.
And during that time I heard a noise as of many people upon deck at work, and hoisting out of goods, as I distinctly heard the noise of the tackles, meaning blocking tackles used for hoisting.
When that noise ceased, Captain Marshall came down to me in the cabin and threatened that if I made any discovery of what had passed there that night my life would be in danger, and my property destroyed.

[25:04] The said captain Marshall then went away and let me at liberty, and I was so much intimidated by the aforesaid, threatening things that I was deterred from making an immediate discovery of the aforesaid transactions and the intervening weeks.
Captain Marshall had died suddenly and unexpectedly, which gave us threats to Kirk less weight Kirk now unburdened his conscience to his superiors at the Customs House and to a Justice of the Peace.
The other tied waiter, who had certified the liberties cargo, now claimed that he had been asleep at the time, tied waiters were actually allowed to sleep on board a vessel there are watching with the assumption that the noise of any unauthorized offloading would wake them.
Kirk, however, claimed that his compatriot had gotten drunk and gone home to sleep it off.

[25:54] With Kirk’s testimony. Customs Collector Joseph Harrison decided that the commission should seize Hancock’s boat from Harrison’s point of view.
This would be doubly beneficial.
It would both send a message that even someone as rich and influential as john Hancock wasn’t above the law,
and it would allow the commission to sell both the slope itself and its valuable cargo of whale oil, and even more importantly, it would allow Harrison to make a tidy profit.
Along with their meager salaries. Customs officers received a portion of each fee they collected and each seizure they made.
So the liberties cargo was tempting.

[26:38] Letter written by Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson notes the decision to seize this loop.
The Customs House officers seized a slew belonging to Mr Hancock, one of the boston representatives for making a false entry.
It has set a cargo of Madeira wine was landed in the night, and the next morning the master entered four or five pipes and swore it was the whole of his cargo.

[27:02] The problem was how to affect the seizure. Harrison proposed marking the ship’s mast with a broad arrow, three lines that came together to make an arrow pointing upward.
This was the symbol used to Mark British government property from the 14th century through the 1980s, and it was familiar in the New England colonies, from the three strokes of an acts that marked the king’s trees, that were reserved for making the mess for warships.
Comptroller Benjamin Hallowell thought the chopping of broad arrow in the liberties mast would only serve to enrage the boston mob.
Another letter from Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson notes the officers differed in opinion.
The collector thinking she might lay at the wharf after she had the broad arrow, but the comptroller thought it best to move her under the guns of the Romney, which lay a quarter of a mile from the shore and made a signal for the man of wars boats to come ashore.
The people upon the warf said there was no occasion she would lie safe and no officer had a right to move her.
In another letter, Hutchinson rather Riley reflects that it has pretended that the removal, and not the seizure, and since the people, it seems not very material which it was.

[28:23] In a letter from Customs Collector Harrison to the marquess of Rockingham Harrison very modestly describes his great personal valor that evening.

[28:35] So after sending onboard the Romney Man of war, which then lay in the harbor to request their assistance in case a rescue should be attempted, I proceeded to execute my orders,
first informing my brother Officer, Mr Hallowell, the controller of the service.
I was going upon, who generously declared that I should not singly be exposed to the fury of the populace, but that he would share the danger with me.
Accordingly we set out together towards the war for the vessel lay and in our way thither my son, about 18 years of age, accidentally joined us in the street and went along with us.
When we got down to the wharf, we found this loop lying there, and after waiting till we saw the Man of wars boat ready to put off the comptroller and I stepped on board, sees the vessel, and I put the King’s mark on the main mast.

[29:29] Midshipman Williams. Sin House was in the landing party from the Romney and in a memoir dug up by JL Bell. He remembers that by the time he got to the liberty, a mob had already kicked Hallowell and Harrison off the boat and reclaimed it in the name of Hancock.

[29:45] Our boats, manned unarmed, were accordingly dispatched, under the command of Mr Callender, who is master of the Romney.
Mr, calmer, one of the mates and myself.
We proceeded directly to this loop which was laying alongside of the warf and found her in possession of the townspeople who on our near approach pelted us very severely with stones.

[30:09] Leading the mob, who pelted the landing party with stones was our friend, the true son of Liberty.
Daniel Malcolm, In his 1856 history and antiquities of Boston Samuel Gardner Drake wrote the most conspicuous man on the part of the mob was Captain Daniel Malcolm.
A traitor in Fleet Street, who it is said was deeply interested in the wines, attempted to be smuggled.
The revenue officers knew him well, and modem no goodwill for very good reasons,
For some 18 months before they undertook to search his premises for contraband goods, who are obliged to retreat before deadly weapons without affecting their object,
and from his manner, and out of those about him.
The officers did not think it’s safe for prudent to attempt again to renew the search.

[31:03] On the occasion of the seizure of the liberty, he headed the party of men who exerted themselves to prevent her removal to the Romney.
No wonder the red coats ended up using his headstone for target practice during the occupation of boston, the midshipman’s account continues.
We nevertheless boarded the vessel, drove the mob onshore Qatar fists, or more rings, and carried her off in triumph, bringing her to an anchor under the guns of the Romney.
Notwithstanding the rude reception we expected from the people of the town.
We had received special directions not to fire upon them, but in the very last extremity.
Billy Culmer, however, though he knew well how to obey, was extremely urgent with the master for his orders to fire, and had this honest bad man been gratified in his wish, a terrible slaughter, no doubt would have succeeded,
as it was.
We happily accomplished our purpose, at the expense of only some blows and bruises of no great consequence.
In a letter to the marquess of Rockingham Collector Harrison describes how he and comptroller Hallowell attempted to exploit the sailors difficulties in clearing the mob from the liberty.
By this time the people began to muster together on the war from all quarters, and several men have got on board in order to regain possession just as the man of wars boat, well manned, unarmed, and got alongside.

[32:31] They soon drove the intruders out, and I delivered the vessel into custody of the commanding officer.
We then went ashore and walked off the wharf without any insult or molestation from the people who are eagerly engaged in a scuffle with the man of wars men, and endeavouring to detain the slope at the wharf.

[32:50] The mob, however, didn’t remain distracted by their scuffle with the sailors, for long Harrison’s account continues,
but we had scarce got into the street before we were pursued by the mob, which by this time was increased to a great multitude.
The onset was begun by throwing dirt at me, which was presently succeeded by volleys of stones, brick bats, sticks, or anything else that came to hand In this manner. I ran the gauntlet near 200 yards.
My poor son following behind, endeavoring to shelter his father by receiving the strokes of many of the stones thrown at them,
until at length he became equally an object of the resentment was knocked down, and then laid hold of by the legs, arms and hair of his head, and in that manner dragged along the kennel in a most barbarous and cruel manner,
until a few compassionate people happening to see him in that distress formed a resolution of attempting to rescue him out of the hands of the mob,
which with much difficulty they affected, and got him into a house, though this pulling and hauling between friends and enemies had like to have been fatal to him.

[33:59] About this time I received a violent blow on the breast which I’d like to have brought me to the ground, and I verily believe if I had fallen, I should never have got up again that people to all appearance being determined on blood and murder.
But luckily just at that critical moment a friendly man came up and supported me and observed that now was the time for my escape.
As the whole attention of the bob was engaged in the scuffle about my son, who he assured me would be taken out of their hands by some persons of his acquaintance.
He then bid me to follow him, which I accordingly did, and I, suddenly, turning the corner of a street, was presently out of sight of the crowd, and soon after got to a friend’s house, where I was kindly received, and on whom I could depend for safety and protection,
and in about an hour’s time I had the satisfaction of hearing my son was in safety, and had been conducted home by the persons who rescued him from the mob,
but in a miserable condition, being much bruised and wounded, they’re not dangerously, and I hope will soon get well again.

[35:06] While the Collector of Customs was hiding out at a friend’s house and learning that his son had also been rescued, the mob descended on the comptroller’s house, as described in a letter from Governor Bernard to the Earl of Hillsborough, dated june 11th.
After this they went to Mr Hala Wells House and began to break the windows to force an entry, but we’re diverted there from by assurances that Mr Hallowell was almost killed and was not at home.
Then they went to Mr Harrison’s house and broke his windows, but he not being at home and the owner of the house and treating them to depart, they left it.

[35:42] Harrison then describes how the mob gave the home of a third customs official the same treatment.

[35:49] Finding this opposition within, they concluded the visit with breaking the windows and then marched off, but in passing by the house of Mr Williams.
What are the Inspectors General of the Customs? They served it in the same manner,
after this, in all probability the mob would have dispersed if some evil minded people had not informed them that I had a fine sailing pleasure boat, which I set great store by that they lay in one of the docks.
In Governor Bernard’s letters, he describes it as a pleasure boat belonging to Mr Harrison, built by himself in a particular and elegant manner.

[36:29] Harrison continues upon this intelligence.
The whole crowd posted down to the waterside, hauled her out of the water and dragged her through the streets to the Liberty Tree, where she was formally condemned, and from thence dragged up into the common and they’re burned to ashes.

[36:49] Governor Bernard’s letter to the Earl of Hillsborough says By this time there are about 500, some say 1000 men gathered together whilst the boat was burning.
While Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson’s letter to Richard Jackson estimates the mob at quote, two or 3000 chiefly sturdy boys and negroes.

[37:10] Governor Bernard’s letter continues, we’ll stare upon the common. They got some rum and attempted to get more if they had procured it in quantity.
God knows where this fury would have ended.

[37:25] Hutchinson’s letter to Jackson on June 16 notes that the crowd of the common dispersed at about one. a.m.
I assume that’s about the time the fire went out and the rum was all gone.

[37:38] Hutchinson then writes, it is very natural to ask where the justices and sheriffs are upon these occasions.
The persons who are to assist the sheriff in the execution of his office are sons of Liberty, and determined to oppose him in everything which shall be contrary to their schemes.
Some of the justices are great favors of them and those who are not are afraid of being sacrificed by them and we’ll issue out no warrants to apprehend them.
Latin officer, behave ever so ill. Even if he was to a bet the disorders he ought to suppress.
I do not think it would be practicable to remove him, seeing it cannot be done without the advice of counsel and they would be afraid to give the evidence back.
In 17 47 thomas, Hutchinson had been a boston selectman during the impress mint riots and he had watched Governor Shirley attempt to call out the militia to support the sheriff and suppress the riot, only to have the militia joined the rioters.
That riot had also ended with the boat being burned on boston common, and it made a lasting impression on Hutchinson, Now 20 years older and wiser and a senior member of the provincial government.
He had no illusions of his authority over a Boston mob.

[38:55] After a friday night of mob violence that ended in a drunken boat burning on the common, nobody knew what to expect when the sun rose the next morning.

[39:05] Hutchinson’s June 16 Letter, says the Commissioner’s Holten birch, paxton and Robinson remained pretty easy saturday and sunday,
but monday morning early they sent a card to the governor to let them know they were going aboard the Romney, and desired his orders for their reception at the castle, which he readily gave,
the collector and comptroller and most of the other officers of the customs are also withdrawn, and it is by no means advisable at present for any of them to return.

[39:37] Anyone who’s read the colonial history of massachusetts will recognize this pattern from every time a royal official found himself in trouble in boston, From Governor Andrew since 1689, to Governor Shirley in 1747.
Right through the British evacuation of Boston in 1776, government officials who ran afoul of the boston mob would flee to Castle William on castle island.
Governor Bernard gives the specifics of this round of retreats. In another letter to the Earl of Hillsborough, dated June 13 this morning.
Early, I received a letter from the Commissioner’s informing me of some particulars from whence they concluded that they were immediately exposed to further violence is, and therefore they took shelter on board the Romney men of war,
that it being necessary to provide for their further security.
They desire that their families and officers may be received accommodated and protected at the castle.
I immediately answered this by enclosing in order to the captain of the castle to receive them.
Accordingly, over a month later, the customs officers were still at the castle.
When Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson wrote to William Bolin on july 14th.

[40:52] The commissioners of the customs except Mr Temple are still shut up in the castle, which is surrounded with the Romney, the beaver, the Senegal, and two cutters.
There were rumors of extravagant words that the castle might be taken, and an express was sent after me to piscataqua, which occasioned my return to boston.
I could not conceive it possible for any person to have ever had a serious thought of such an attempt, and convinced the governor that I had better proceed to Casco Bay on the circuit than to remain in town, and with his consent, I immediately went back again.

[41:29] The same day. He wrote to richard Jackson mobs, which may vent their rage upon persons obnoxious for not thinking as they do, we are exposed to,
But I cannot think it possible that any of the people should be so mad as to take up arms to conquer the king’s forts or oppose any of his forces.

[41:48] In another letter, a week later, Hutchinson writes, we have not been without whispers that if any forces should come, the country would all come in upon an alarm to be made in boston.
This would be something beyond madness itself, and I cannot bring myself to believe that any number of people worth regarding have ever had a serious thought of this sort or would dare fire a gun upon the King’s forces.

[42:16] It’s worth noting that the battles at Lexington and concord followed almost exactly that template.
Less than a year after Hutchinson’s own tenure as governor ended at the same time, that Governor Bernard was making accommodations for the customs officers at Castle William.
A handbill was being circulated in boston the monday after the riot,
Boston, 13, The Sons of Liberty request all those who in this time of oppression and distraction,
wish well to, and would promote the peace, good order and security of the town and province, to assemble at Liberty Hall under the Liberty Tree on Tuesday the 14th instant at 10 o’clock four noon precisely.

[43:00] That monday Governor Bernard asked his Executive Council what actions he should take to secure the town, and whether he should request additional troops to be sent from new Yorker Halifax.
The council didn’t want to be on the hook for requesting troops, and thus suggested that he lay the matter before the Legislature.
To that, he responded, I called for the Journal of the House and showed them that when I pursued this method upon the stamp act riots with the advice of the Council.
I was told by the House that it was the business of the executive government to quell riots, and that the legislature had no right to interpose unless new laws were wanted.
That there was as much reason for them to give the same answer now, and I did not care to receive it twice.
I told them that if this had been the first business of the kind, I should have asked their advice whether I should not send to the general for troops.
But having tried it at a time when there was at least as much danger as now, and found them utterly averse to it.
Let the danger be ever so great an eminent! It would be in vain to repeat the question.
However, I was ready to do it. If anyone gentleman would propose it, I was answered that they did not desire to be knocked on the head.
I said that I did not desire that they or I should.

[44:21] On Tuesday the 14th, a group estimated by Bernard at 4000 people and by the boston gazette, as a larger number than was ever known on any occasion met under the liberty tree as the sun’s it requested,
finding that it was too hard to hold a meeting like that outdoors, they repaired to Faneuil Hall.
Soon they realized that nobody had officially called a town meeting.
So they took another recess to allow the Selectmen to call a town meeting whose decisions would be legally binding when they reconvened in the afternoon.
The group was too big for Faneuil Hall, so they moved to Old South meeting house with firebrand James otis as moderator.
If Bernard’s letter to the Earl of Hillsborough is to be believed, many wild and violent proposals were made but warded off.
Among these were that every captain of a man of war that came into this harbor should be under the command of the General Court.
Another was that if any person should promote or assist the bringing of troops here, he should be deemed a disturber of the peace and a traitor to his country.
In the end, though, the meeting mostly fizzled. After all the wild and violent proposals, the most the sons of Liberty in the town of Boston could muster as a response was a petition and a letter of protest to the governor.

[45:47] The text of the petition was printed in the June 20 edition of the Boston Gazette Outlined essentially three demands.
The first was no taxation without representation. Your petitioners consider the british constitution as the basis of their safety and happiness.
By that is established. No man shall be governed by laws nor taxed, but by himself or representatives, legally and fairly chosen, and to which he does not give his own consent.

[46:20] The second demand was for the right of petition for redress of grievances.
After their previous petition to the king was denied because it wasn’t sent to the governor and his counsel.
Beautiful petitions have been preferred to our most gracious sovereign, which, though to the great consternation of the people, we now learn, had been cruelly and insidiously prevented from reaching his royal presence.
We have waited to receive a gracious answer to with the greatest attention to the public peace.

[46:49] And the third demand was for the removal of the Romney from boston Harbor as the Board of Customs have thought fit of their own motion to relinquish the exercise of their commission here.
This statement is a little bit cheeky stating, without any context, that the Customs commissioners have decided of their own free will to quit their jobs.
Of course, if there were no more Customs Commissioners, there was no need for a man of war to protect the commissioners.
So the position continues, we find ourselves invaded with an armed force, seizing, impressing and imprisoning the persons of our fellow subjects contrary to the express acts of Parliament.

[47:31] We flatter ourselves that your excellency will, in tenderness to this.
People use the best means in your power to remove the other grievance.
We so justly complain of an issue your immediate order to the commander of his majesty’s ship, Romney, to remove from this harbor until we shall be ascertained of the success of our applications.

[47:52] 21 men were elected to carry the letter and petition to the governor, and Bernard continues The same evening. The committee, which was in general very respectable, attended me in a train of 11 chases.
I received them with all possible civility, and having heard their petition, I talked very freely with them upon the subject, but postponed giving a formal answer till the next day, as it should be in writing.
I then had wine handed around and they left me highly pleased with their reception, especially that part of them, which had not been used to an interview with me the next day.
Mr Otis, having received my answer in writing, reported the whole, took notice of the polite treatment they had received from me and concluded that he really believed that I was a well wisher to the province.
This from him was uncommon and extraordinary.
The answer was universally approved so that just at this time I am popular.

[48:53] So in the end the governor wined and dined the rubes, sweet talk the radicals, and got away with nothing more than vague promises and well wishes.
In a series of articles for the 250th anniversary of the liberty affair, jail bell concludes the town meeting. Thus didn’t achieve any of its goals, john hancock sloops, Liberty remained in royal custody.
The Customs Service continued to collect tariffs even if top officials were working out of Castle William.
The Romney had already stopped drafting sailors because of the Liberty riot, and the governor had already promised the Selectmen that he’d speak informally to the warships captain.
Nonetheless, the town’s formal invisible protests showed the people that the local political and mercantile establishment was pushing back and that forestalled further violence.

[49:47] The Liberty affair may have been over for Governor Bernard and the rioters, but not for john Hancock.
Along with Daniel Malcolm, john Hancock’s braised an announcement that he wouldn’t even allow a customs officer to set foot on his ships.
Wasn’t one of the most incendiary statements of the conflict, and the provincial government was looking for a way to punish him for it.
In a note in the papers of john Adams, the editors of that collection described the difficulty of trying to press charges against the smugglers and rioters involved in the Liberty affair.

[50:21] The focus now shifted to those responsible for running the wine and fomenting riots,
efforts to indict the rioters before the Suffolk grand jury in august were effectively forestalled when boston returned, Captain Malcolm and other alleged participants as jurors.

[50:39] Luckily for the province, there was a parallel system of justice that could bypass the inconvenience of local juries.
In july of 17 68 the parliament passed 1/5 Townsend Act, the Vice Admiralty Court Act.
This law gave admiralty courts legal system operating under the auspices of the Royal Navy, sole jurisdiction over enforcing customs laws.
Now, john Hancock was to be tried in an admiralty court.
The system that was originally set up to deal with pirates who were arrested in boston after the notorious Captain Kidd was taken into custody in boston on possibly trumped up charges, he was shipped off to London to stand trial,
because they missed out on the spectacle of trying and hanging a famous pirate and because they continue to capture pirates with regularity,
Many Boston’s welcome the act for the more effective suppression of piracy.
There was passed in 1698.
This law for the first time established admiralty courts in Britain’s overseas colonies and the first admiralty trial outside Britain was held in Boston in 1704,
where a pirate captain named john Quelch was convicted, hanged and buried below the high tide line.
In his biography of Quelch Clifford Beale describes the appeal of an admiralty trial.

[52:03] The intent was to circumvent trial by jury, thus bypassing sympathetic local courts and gaining more convictions as well as confiscated treasure,
considered throughout the colonies as a violation of the freeborn right of all englishmen to fair trial.
The new admiralty court powers created a stir similar to that of the recent US Guantanamo Bay military tribunals for suspected terrorists.
Then as now, the tinkering with long established legal conventions for reasons of judicial expediency was regarded with great suspicion and general hostility.
The statute allowed for trial without a jury trial without an attorney and trial under maritime law rather than the laws of the province of massachusetts bay.

[52:51] However, the first Massachusetts Admiralty courts set some precedents that carried over to Hancock’s trial 64 years later.
First, while the court would be steered by maritime law and the verdict would be returned by the judges rather than a jury.
The composition of the panel of judges is revealing.
It was made up with the governor and lieutenant governor of massachusetts, the lieutenant governor of new Hampshire, our old friend Samuel Sewall, the Salem witch trial judge who later apologized and a newly appointed judge of the local admiralty court.
This lent more of an air of legitimacy to the court than it would have gotten from unknown judges.
Plus very importantly, though, the statute did not provide for a defense attorney.
On the first day of the trial, the court appointed an attorney named James Mines is to defend Quelch.

[53:44] When it was Hancocks turned before the admiralty. His prosecutor was massachusetts. Attorney General, Jonathan Sewell, whose uncles uncle had been the famous Witchcraft Judge.
At the arraignment on November seven Sewell described the surreptitious unloading of the liberty and then charged that,
john hancock of boston a foresight, esquire was then and there willfully and unlawfully aiding and assisting and unsure ping and landing the same 100 pipes of wine,
he said john Hancock at the same time.
Well knowing that the duties there on were not paid or secured and that the un shipping and landing the same as a force said, was with intent to defraud that, said Lord the King as a force said.
And contrary to law against the peace of the said Lord the King, and the form of the statute in such case made and provided,
whereby and by force of the same statute, the said john is forfeited, treble the value of the said goods so on shipped and landed as a force said, amounting in the hold of the sum of £9000 sterling money of great Britain.

[54:51] On the other side of the aisle, Hancock was defended by a young lawyer who is becoming recognized as one of the great legal minds of the colony.
John Adams was a close personal friend of Attorney General Sewell, who had offered Adams the position of Advocate general of the Admiralty court A few years before.
Adams had declined and now found himself facing stool in court.
He later wrote in his autobiography, a painful drudgery I had of Hancock’s cause.
There were a few days through the whole winter when I was not summoned to attend the court of Admiralty.
It seemed as if the officers of the crown were determined to examine the whole town as witnesses almost every day, A fresh witness was to be examined upon in derogatory Z’s.
They interrogated many of his near relations and most intimate friends, and threatened to summons his amiable and venerable aunt, the re elect of his uncle, thomas Hancock, who had left the greatest part of his fortune to him.
I was thoroughly weary and disgusted with the court, the officers of the crown, the cause, and even with the tyrannical bell that dangled me out of my house every morning.

[56:02] Depositions were taken on both sides, but the court moved frustratingly slowly, with many unexplained delays, continuances and recesses,
john Adams ably defended his client, and he took every opportunity to remind the court Spectators about the fundamental injustice that he and his fellow wigs saw in the customs laws, arguing, for example,
among the group of hardships which attend this statute, the first that ought always to be mentioned and that ought never to be forgotten.
Is that it was made without our consent.
My client, Mr Hancock, never consented to it.
He never voted for it himself, and he never voted for any man to make such a law forum in this respect. Therefore, the greatest consolation of an englishman suffering under any law is torn from him.
I mean, the reflection that it is a law of his own making law that he sees the necessity of for the public.

[57:01] Finally, on March 25, the charges against John Hancock were dismissed.
There was no denying that the cargo of Madeira had been offloaded without paying the duties so the Liberty would remain forfeit.
However, the evidence against Hancock personally was scanned and the testimony was suspect,
so he would not be forced to pay treble damages and the cargo of whale oil and tar was returned to him.

[57:28] As the law provided the slope Liberty was put up for auction and the Commissioners of Customs ended up placing the winning bid out of spider necessity.
The former smuggler was outfitted as a customs vessel and rechristened the H. M. S. Liberty In the summer of 1769, it was sent to patrol the waters around Newport Rhode Island and it intercepted to smuggling vessels. On July 10.
In the process, the captain of one of the two ships was treated so badly that he raised a mob dragged the liberties boats into town and burned them.
And then, as the July 24 Boston Gazette reported on Wednesday afternoon, they went on board the liberty as she lay at anchor in the harbor and cut her cables and let her drift ashore.
They then set her on fire. But being informed a considerable quantity of powder was on board, for fear of endangering the town, They extinguished it again.
They then cut away or masked through our guns and stores.
Overboard, entered the cabin and destroyed the captains and his wife’s clothes, beddings, et cetera,
broke the tables, chairs, china, and other things there in, and did not quit until three o’clock the next morning, when, after scuttling the vessel, they left her a mere wreck.
A few days later, a high tide refloated the boat not drifted to a sandbar goat island.
That night it was burned again, bringing the saga of the liberty to an end.

[58:58] Back in boston. Governor Bernard for months continue to wrestle with the question of whether to request troops to occupy the town and keep the peace and his public and private writings.
He seems convinced that the military was the best way, perhaps the only way to prevent further riots in boston or worse.
But he also knew that signing his name to a letter asking for troops would mean the end of his political career. If not his life.

[59:26] In his history of the province, thomas Hutchinson describes the quandary the governor found himself in by the july packet from England general gage at new york was directed to remove one or two of the regiments at Halifax to boston and to the castle.
The withdrawing of the commissioners to the castle could not be known in England when these orders were given.
The governor’s enemies did not charge him with proposing the measure, but with making such representation of the disorderly state of the province as induced to it.
He knew that nothing would more enrage the people against him than an application for troops.
General gage had ordered several months before to send them whenever the governor desired.
He enjoyed the council secrecy upon their oaths before you would acquaint them with these orders.
When he asked their advice whether you should apply for troops, they would not advise to it, and he would not apply without.
These first troops were ordered by the government in England of their own mere motion when the news arrived at their seizure of the vessel of Madeira, the riot which ensued, and the withdrawing of the commissioners.
They gave orders for two regiments more from Ireland.

[1:00:38] These troops landed at Long Wharf in October 1768, as famously depicted in an engraving by Paul Revere far from diffusing tensions in the rest of city and province.
Their presence caused the conflict to spiral out of control Francis. Bernard was recalled to London amongst the fallout from the Liberty affair and the arrival of the troops.
That meant that it would be governor thomas Hutchinson’s problem when less than two years after the Liberty riot, a party of soldiers opened fire on a crowd of unarmed civilians right under the windows of the Customs House.
In an event we remember as the boston massacre.

[1:01:19] To learn more about the smuggler, john Hancock and the Liberty riot.
Check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 2 to 4.
I’ll have links to online copies of thomas Hutchinson’s collected letters and his history of the province of Massachusetts bay.
To the letters of Francis, Bernard, Customs Commissioner, Henry Holton’s history of the seeds of revolution in boston and contemporaneous newspaper coverage of the riot.
I’ll post a photo of a recreation of john Hancock’s mansion on Beacon Hill and a historic map showing the location of Hancocks, Worf where the riot began.
I’ll include a link to jail bells series about the liberty affair for its 250th anniversary as well.
I’ll also link to our past episodes about Pope’s night violence in boston.
The 17 47 impress mint riot in boston, the 17 68 occupation of boston, the 17 70 boston massacre and our episode about piracy in boston, Which includes the 1704 admiralty trial of John Quelch.

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Music

Jake:
[1:02:54] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there listeners.