CAPTAIN JOHN MALCOMB.
There is not much known of this person. I find that he lived at Brunswick, Maine, and that in 1760 he married Abigail Trundy, of Falmouth (Portland). He was commissioned Ensign by Governor Shirley, and served under Colonel Waldo, in the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment against Louisburg in 1745. He was also Captain of a vessel that took despatches from there to Boston in the same year.
It was not often that the same man was tarred and feathered mere than once, but this unhappy experience twice befell John Malcom. His offence appears to have been in the exercise of his duty as custom house officer, of seizing a vessel at Falmouth, now Portland, for want of a register, and freely speaking of the actions of the "Sons of Liberty." We are informed by the papers of that period[265] "That John Malcom was genteely Tarr'd and Feathered at Pownalborough" (now Dresden, Maine) "on November first, 1773, and on January 25th, 1774, a mob in Boston tore his cloaths off, and tarr'd his Head and Body, and feathered him, then they set him on a chair in a cart, and carried him through the main Street into King Street, from thence they proceeded to 'Liberty Tree,' and then to the Neck, as far as the Gallows, where they whipped, beat him with Sticks, and threatened to hang him."
The "Sons of Despotism" detained him under the gallows for an hour. He was then conveyed to the north end of the town, and thence back to his house. He was kept stripped four hours, and was so bruised and benumbed by the cold that his life was despaired of. It was by such means that the disunionists made converts to their cause. His offence for this Boston outrage, was that he struck one of his tormentors, a tradesman who had frequently insulted him, when a warrant was issued against him, but as the constable had not been able to find him, a mob gathered about his house and broke his windows. Malcomb was in the house, and pushing his sword through a broken window, wounded one of his assailants. The mob then made a rush, broke in, and finding him in a chamber, lowered him by a rope into the cart, and treated him as before mentioned in the newspapers.