by Nick Bunker
21. American reports of English opposition to the act, including the riot on June 22: Boston Post-Boy, Aug. 15 and 22, 1774; Connecticut Journal, Aug. 25, 1774; New York Journal, Aug. 25, 1774; New Hampshire Gazette, Aug. 26, 1774; and Pennsylvania Packet, Aug. 29, 1774.
22. Walpole on Dartmouth: Steuart, Last Journals of Horace Walpole, p. 322. Dartmouth to Gage: DAR, vol. 8, pp. 122–25.
Chapter Thirteen: THE REVOLUTION BEGINS
1. Greene to Samuel Ward Jr., July 10, 1774, in Showman et al., Papers of General Nathanael Greene, vol. 1, p. 65.
2. Elbridge Gerry and the militia: Gerry to the Boston Committee of Correspondence, April 4, 1774, in the committee’s papers, microfilm reel ZL-231-2, Bancroft Collection. Gerry and Pickering: Clifford K. Shipton, ed., Sibley’s Harvard Graduates (Boston, 1970), vol. 15, pp. 239–42, 448–51.
3. On the Centinel: Neil L. York, “Tag-Team Polemics: The ‘Centinel’ and His Allies in the Massachusetts Spy,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 3rd ser., 107 (1995), pp. 85–114. Hancock on the militia: An Oration Delivered March 5, 1774 (Boston, 1774), printed text annotated by Harbottle Dorr at MHS.
4. Hutchinson, ed., Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson, vol. 1, pp. 112–17.
5. The Minerva: Boston Newsletter, May 2, 1774.
6. Town meeting on May 13: Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, May 9–16, 1774.
7. Strategic significance of the Hudson valley: Gage to Lord Barrington, Feb. 7, 1766, quoted in John Richard Alden, General Gage in America (Baton Rouge, La., 1948), pp. 132–33; and Piers Mackesy, The War for America 1775–83 (London, 1964), pp. 58–59 and 143–44.
8. Criticisms of General Gage: Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) James Wemyss, “Sketches of the Character of the General Staff Officers … That Served in America,” transcript, file Hou.b. MS Sparks 22, Sparks Collection; and John Montresor, Journals, in Collections of the New-York Historical Society (New York, 1881), pp. 135–39. Also see John Shy’s incisive account of the general, in his A People Numerous and Armed (New York, 1976).
9. Gage’s swearing-in: Boston Evening-Post, May 23, 1774.
10. Gage to Lord Dartmouth, May 19, 1774, in CGG, vol. 1, p. 355.
11. Josiah Quincy Jr., Observations on the Act of Parliament Commonly Called the Boston Port Bill (Boston, 1774), pp. 10–19.
12. Alexander Leslie to the Earl of Leven, June 17–July 2, 1774, GD26/9/512/6, Leslie-Melville Papers, NAS.
13. The army in Boston: Details from the order book of General Gage, July 10–Dec. 9, 1774, microfilm, Lamont Library, Harvard University, photographed from the originals in the New York Historical Society.
14. Gage to Dartmouth, July 20, 1774, in CGG, vol. 1, pp. 361–62.
15. Charleston in July: Dispatch from Lieutenant Governor William Bull, July 31, 1774, in DAR, vol. 8, pp. 153–54.
16. For “A throne cannot be established,” see Marblehead Committee of Correspondence to the Boston committee, July 28, 1774, ZL-231-2, pp. 499–502, Boston Committee of Correspondence Papers, Bancroft Collection. Essex Gazette story: Aug. 2–9, 1774.
17. For “I hope the acts,” see Gage to Dartmouth, July 27, 1774, in CGG, vol. 1, p. 364; for “frenzy … of Popular rage,” see Gage to Dartmouth, Aug. 27, 1774, in ibid., p. 366.
18. Cooper to Franklin, Aug. 15, 1774, in BFP, vol. 21, pp. 273–76. In general, for the events of August–September 1774 in Massachusetts, see T. H. Breen, American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People (New York, 2010), chaps. 3–5; and Roy Raphael, The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord (New York, 2002).
19. Calley and the Molly: For Calley’s background, see Essex Gazette, Aug. 9–16, 1768, and June 4–11, 1771; for his role in August 1774, see Massachusetts Spy, Aug. 25, 1774; New York Journal, Aug. 25, 1774; New Hampshire Gazette, Aug. 26, 1774; and Connecticut Courant, Aug. 30, 1774.
20. The Salem town meeting: Ronald M. Tagney, A County in Revolution: Essex County at the Dawning of Independence (Manchester, Mass., 1976), pp. 92–93.
21. General Gage’s order book, note 12 above.
22. The Boston conference: Minutes of the meeting, microfilm reel ZL-231-1, pp. 702–5, Boston Committee of Correspondence Papers.
23. For “Popular fury,” see Gage to Dartmouth, Aug. 27, 1774, in CGG, vol. 1, pp. 365–68. William Brattle and the gunpowder: Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630–1877 (Boston, 1877), pp. 404–7, 499–500; Robert P. Richmond, Powder Alarm 1774 (Princeton, N.J., 1971), pp. 6–26; and General Gage’s order book. Brattle’s letter was printed in the Boston Gazette, Sept. 5, 1774.
24. For “When once the sword is drawn,” see letter from Marblehead, Aug. 31, 1774, microfilm reel ZL-231-2, p. 507, Boston Committee of Correspondence Papers.
25. Gage to Dartmouth, Sept. 2, 1774, in CGG, vol. 1, pp. 369–72.
26. For “Civil government,” see ibid.
27. Fortification of Boston: Gage’s order book, note 12 above, entries for Sept. 1774; and John R. Galvin, The Minute Men: The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution (Washington, D.C., 2006), pp. 68–72.
Chapter Fourteen: AN ELECTION IN ARCADIA
1. The party at the Oaks: Brownlow North to Lord Guilford, June 11, 1774, MS North.d.25, North Papers; Morning Chronicle, June 15, 1774; London Magazine, June 1774, pp. 299–300; and Alistair Rowan, “Lord Derby’s Reconstruction of the Oaks,” Burlington Magazine, Oct. 1985, pp. 678–87. For the text of the play as performed at Drury Lane, see John Burgoyne and David Garrick, The Maid of the Oaks: A Dramatic Entertainment (London, 1775). Stories in the American press: Rivington’s New York Gazetteer, Aug. 25, 1774, reporting comments by Edmund Burke and others on June 8.
2. For “smothered in roses,” see St. James’s Chronicle, June 7–9, 1774.
3. For “extraordinary,” see Dartmouth to Lord Dunmore, July 6, 1774, in DAR, vol. VIIII, p. 145.
4. Hutchinson’s meetings in July with George III and Lord North: Hutchinson, Diary and Letters of His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, vol. 1, pp. 157–82. Except where stated, this is the source for all quotations from Hutchinson.
5. For “cheerful, affable and easy,” see Ralph S. Walker, ed., James Beattie’s London Diary, 1773 (Aberdeen, 1946), pp. 86–88.
6. George III to Lord North, July 1, 1774, in CG3, vol. 3, p. 116.
7. Sir Lewis Namier, “King George III: A Study of Personality” (1953), in Crossroads of Power (London, 1962), p. 129.
8. For the quotations, see entry for Aug. 3, in Hutchinson, Diary and Letters of His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, pp. 203–4.
9. For “I am not a little perplexed,” see Rockingham to the Duke of Portland, Oct. 1, 1774, quoted in Donoughue, British Politics and the American Revolution, p. 180. Lord Suffolk and the election: His speech in the House of Lords, Jan. 20, 1775, in PDNA, vol. 5, p. 271.
10. George III and the election: George III to Lord North, Aug. 24, 1774, in CG3, vol. 3, pp. 125–26.
11. Generally, on the election of 1774: Namier and Brooke, History of Parliament, vol. 1, pp. 73–80. I have also drawn heavily on press coverage, especially from the Public Advertiser, the London Evening Post, and Berrow’s Worcester Journal.
12. Hume, Letters and Journals of Lady Mary Coke, vol. 4, pp. 407–8.
13. Entry for Oct. 10, 1774, in Hutchinson, Diary and Letters of His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, p. 259.
14. Gower and Rochford: Quoted in Donoughue, British Politics and the American Revolution, p. 205.
15. Entry for Oct. 14, 1774, in Hutchinson, Diary and Letters of His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, p. 261.
16. North and the highwaymen: North to Grey Cooper and John Robinson, Oct. 5, 1774, in Historical Manuscripts Commission, Manuscripts of the Marquess of Abergavenny, pp. 6–7.
17. Banbury election: Matthew Lamb (vicar of Banbury) to Lord Guilford, Oct. 3–18, 1774, MS North.d.15, fols. 199–215, North Papers.
18. Rockingham to the Duke of Portland, Oc
t. 1, 1774, file PwF 9084/2, Portland Papers, University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections.
19. Bull and the Catholics: London Evening Post, Sept. 24, 1774.
20. Politics in Worcester: From the files of Berrow’s Worcester Journal, Sept.–Nov. 1774; and Valentine Green, The History and Antiquities of the Town of Worcester (London, 1796), vol. 2, pp. 18–22, 43–44, 66–67, 290–91.
21. Boswell to Johnson, Jan. 27, 1775, in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (Oxford, 1946), vol. 1, p. 546. British public opinion in 1774–5: the leading authority is the American historian James E. Bradley, in two books, Popular Politics and the American Revolution in England (Macon, Ga., 1986) and Religion, Revolution and English Radicalism (Cambridge, 1990).
22. George III to Lord North, Sept. 11, 1774, in CG3, vol. 3, pp. 130–31.
Chapter Fifteen: THE ARMING OF AMERICA
1. Hugh Percy, second Duke of Northumberland, Sept. 12, 1774, quoted in his entry in the ODNB.
2. Yorke’s dispatches from The Hague and Lord Suffolk’s replies: From the British State Papers (Holland), June–Dec. 1774, SP84/543, NAK; and the Amsterdam intelligence reports at SP82/93. On Yorke: ODNB.
3. Benjamin Page, his role in the Gaspée incident, and the departure date of the Smack: Newport Mercury, Aug. 22, 1774, and Feb. 13, 1775; Rhode Island Republican, Aug. 26, 1824; and Page’s file, S.3629, Revolutionary War Records, U.S. National Archives.
4. The Suffolk Resolves: Middlesex Chronicle, Oct. 27–29, 1774, and Say’s Weekly Journal, Nov. 5, 1774. Text of the resolves and of the Continental Congress’s motion supporting them: Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress (Washington, D.C., 1904), vol. 1, pp. 32–40.
5. Governor Robert Eden: ODNB; and Bernard C. Steiner, Life and Administration of Robert Eden (Baltimore, 1898), pp. 82–88.
6. Barrington’s letter: Shute Barrington, Political Life of William Wildman, Viscount Barrington (London, 1815), pp. 148–50.
7. Hume, Letters and Journals of Lady Mary Coke, vol. 4, p. 441.
8. William Smith, quoted in Joseph S. Tiedemann, Reluctant Revolutionaries: New York City and the Road to Independence (Ithaca, N.Y., 1997), p. 200.
9. For “raised a universal flame,” see William Fitzhugh, Oct. 18, 1774, quoted in David Ammerman, In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774 (Charlottesville, Va., 1974), p. 12.
10. The Continental Congress: Ibid., esp. chaps. 3 and 4, and Jack Rakove’s review in New England Quarterly 48, no. 1 (May 1975).
11. Text of the Cambridge resolutions: Boston Gazette, Oct. 31, 1774.
12. For “I hope you will be firm,” CGG, vol. 2, pp. 663–64; his earlier letter to Barrington, asking for twenty thousand men, is on pp. 655–56, dated Oct. 3. For Gage’s order book, up to December 9, 1774, see note 12 to chapter 13 above. His order book for December 10, 1774–June 6, 1775, is in the manuscript collection at the Boston Public Library, file MS R 1.4.
13. All of these details come from Gage’s order book.
Chapter Sixteen: THE FATAL DISPATCH
1. The Druids: Morning Post, Jan. 3 and 9, 1775.
2. Debate on the army estimates, Dec. 16, 1774, in PDNA, vol. 5, p. 252. For the estimates themselves, see Journal of the House of Commons 35 (Dec. 12, 1775), and (for the navy) Parliamentary History of England (London, 1813), vol. 18, pp. 54–59. Reports from France: dispatches from Lord Stormont, Nov.–Dec. 1774, State Papers Foreign (France) SP 78/294, NAK, especially fols. 45, 53, and 165–71.
3. Burke on General Gage: In the Commons, Dec. 20, 1774, in PDNA, vol. 5, pp. 258–60. Rumors about Gage’s dismissal: London Evening Post, Nov. 29–Dec. 1, 1774, but also Morning Post, Jan. 1, 1775. Gower, Hillsborough, and Chatham: London Evening Post, Dec. 23, 1774.
4. For Franklin’s talks with Fothergill and Barclay, all the sources are collected in BFP, vol. 21, with the “Hints” on pp. 365–68. For a reference to the rumors in the stock market on December 23, see p. 405.
5. Barrington to Dartmouth, Dec. 24, 1774, D 1778 II.1035, SCRO.
6. The principal sources for the rest of this chapter are the reports of the parliamentary debates in PDNA; Thomas Hutchinson’s diary and letter book, not only the edition published by Peter Orlando Hutchinson in 1884, but also the unpublished letters in MS 2661, Egerton Manuscripts, British Library; the official papers of Sir Joseph Yorke and Lord Suffolk, including dispatches from the Royal Navy patrol off Amsterdam, SP84/546, State Papers Foreign (Holland), NAK; and the very extensive coverage in the London newspapers.
7. Jonathan Bliss: Boston Evening-Post, Sept. 12, 1774, reporting events at Springfield on August 30.
8. Quincy’s change of mood and the visit from Thomas Pownall: George H. Nash III, “From Radicalism to Revolution: The Political Career of Josiah Quincy Jr.,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 79, pt. 2 (1969), pp. 279–80.
9. For “fixed those who were wavering,” see Thomas Hutchinson to Jonathan Sewall, Jan. 27, 1775, from Hutchinson’s letter book, MS 2668, fol. 115, Egerton Manuscripts. Hutchinson also comments on the importance of the Charming Nancy dispatches in a letter to Thomas Flucker, Jan. 29, 1775, MS 2661, fol. 116, Egerton Manuscripts: “I am told that the last advices by Deverson … have removed all hopes of any terms of reconciliation & that something effectual is to be done.” Deverson was the Charming Nancy’s captain: Essex Gazette, Dec. 13–20, 1774. Prescott’s audience with the king was reported in Lloyd’s Evening Post, Jan. 13–16, 1775. From his dispatch to Dartmouth dated December 15, it seems clear that Gage wanted Prescott to brief the king and his ministers with an appraisal of the situation in Massachusetts that was too frank to be put down in writing: CGG, vol. 1, p. 388.
10. The interpretation of the Conciliatory Proposition given here follows that of Thomas, Tea Party to Independence, pp. 178–79, 198–206.
11. Letters to Dartmouth: All from his papers at SCRO. From “ZYX,” Jan. 13, 1775, file D(W) 1778/II, 1103; from Corbyn Morris, “A Systematical Plan,” Jan. 1775, D(W) 1778/II, 1096; and from Richard Oswald, “Thoughts on the State of America,” Feb. 9, 1775, D(W) 1778/II, 1139.
12. Germain in 1746: John Prebble, Culloden (London, 1996), pp. 198–202.
13. Attitude of George III: Letters to Lord North, Feb. 3 and 8, in CG3, vol. 3, pp. 170–71. The stepping up of military preparations can be followed through the minutes of the Treasury Board, T29/44, fols. 61–95 (Jan. 19–March 14 1775), NAK, and the accompanying memoranda at T1/513/8.
14. Dunmore’s dispatch: Dec. 24, 1774, CO 5/1353, NAK.
15. For the intelligence gathered by the navy in Holland, the key document is a letter from Captain Pearson of the sloop Speedwell, Feb. 26, 1775, and covering letter from the Admiralty, March 6, 1775, SP 84/546, NAK.
16. Falcon and Nautilus: Their captain’s logs, ADM 51/336 (Falcon) and ADM 51/629 (Nautilus), NAK; and St. James’s Chronicle, Feb. 21–23, 1775. We know from Gage’s own papers that he received the fatal dispatch on April 14, the day the Nautilus first saw Cape Cod, which means that she must have sent it on by small boat before entering harbor two days later. For the events that followed, the principal recent accounts are John Galvin’s The Minutemen (2006), David Hackett Fischer’s Paul Revere’s Ride (Oxford, 1994), and Nathaniel Philbrick’s Bunker Hill (New York, 2013), although J. L. Bell’s insightful and entertaining website www.boston1775.blogspot.com has established itself as the most accessible source.
Appendix One: THE MEANING OF TREASON
1. Contemporary definitions of treason: Giles Jacob, New Law Dictionary (Dublin, 1773); Edward Hyde East, A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown (London, 1806), vol. 1, pp. 37–141; and W. G. Holdsworth, A History of English Law (London, 1925), vol. 8, pp. 318–21. East deals with the Damaree case on pp. 73–75. Also helpful is E. N. Williams, The Eighteenth-Century Constitution (Cambridge, U.K., 1960), pp. 408–19. Lord Mansfield referred to Damaree’s case in the House of Lords on Feb. 7, 1775, in PDNA, vol. 10, pp. 388–89, 401.
Acknowledgments
Often it can be hard to fix the exact date at which a book begins to take shape, but in the case of An Empire on the Edge the moment took place in the autumn of 2011 at the top of the steeple of the First Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island. I owe a special debt of thanks to the sexton, Peter Forsstrom, a retired firefighter with a head for heights. Peter led me up the ladders inside the great wooden structure erected in 1774–75 by shipwrights and carpenters from Boston, some of whom probably took part in the destruction of the East India Company’s tea. I find it impossible to think about history without having in mind the precise physical setting in which events unfolded. That trip up the steeple kindled my enthusiasm to begin writing.
Elsewhere in Rhode Island, I am very grateful to two latter-day members of the Brown dynasty, Alice Westervelt and Henry A. L. Brown, and to Pam Cole and Paul Dimeo of Dimeo Properties, for giving me a tour of Namquid Point, the site of the Gaspée raid; and to Lee Teverow and her colleagues at the Rhode Island Historical Society, who found for me the microfilm of Henry Marchant’s journal. In Boston, my thanks are due to Jane Kamensky; to Jayne Gordon and Peter Drummey and their colleagues—especially Anna Clutterbuck-Cook—at the Massachusetts Historical Society; to Brenton Simons and his staff at the New England Historic Genealogical Society; to Ann Kardos of Heritage New England, Catharina Slautterback of the Boston Athenaeum, and Elizabeth Roscio of The Bostonian Society, for helping me find images of the pre-revolutionary town; to J. L. Bell; and to Walter Ferme, my landlord on Tremont Street, and his colleague Mike Eruzione.
As always, the Boston Public Library and the Houghton, Lamont, and Widener libraries at Harvard gave me free and courteous access to everything I required, including the unpublished order books of General Gage, which I was allowed to digitize and bring home to England in electronic form. I also have to thank the Harvard University Archives and the Baker Library at the Harvard Business School for permitting me to read manuscript materials connected with John Hancock. Two discussions over dinner with Maya Jasanoff helped me to clarify my thinking, but we had to agree to differ about John Wilkes, a subject on which I tend to concur with Benjamin Franklin. Elsewhere in the United States, I am grateful to Jasminn Winters of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; to Dawn Braasch of the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Martha’s Vineyard; to Sandra Hewlett, for genealogical advice; and in New York to Sherida Paulsen, Steve Margulis and the Margulis family, and to Didi and Andrew Hunter. I also wish to thank John Demos, who over lunch at his home in Tyringham, Massachusetts, encouraged me to carry on with the book.