9 July.—Assisted yesterday at the Middlesex General Quarter Sessions to carry into execution the late Act of Parliament for regulating the wages of journeymen weavers in Spitalfields, &c.; and the wages were then settled by a numerous and unanimous Bench to the entire satisfaction of those masters and journeymen weavers who appeared there. I sincerely hope this step will prove a radical cure for all tumultuous assemblies from that quarter. By this statute your Lordship has conveyed contentment to the minds of thousands of His Majesty’s subjects. The Act for appointing clergymen with proper salaries to attend the gaols, according to my proposals, was also carried into execution. This preventive step will, I am persuaded be attended with very salutary effects. I hope your Lordship will take advantage of my Lord North’s leisure to settle the affair regarding my preventive plan now lying before him for His Majesty’s approbation.
DESTRUCTION OF TEA (CARGOES) AT BOSTON (DECEMBER, 1773).
Source.—Calendar of Home Office Papers (1773-1775). Pp. 175 et seq.
Lords of the Admiralty to the Earl of Dartmouth.
27 Jan.—Enclosing a copy of another letter from Rear-Admiral Montague, dated at Boston, the 17th Dec. last, give an account of a mob having assembled and destroyed the tea exported from England by the East India Company.—Admiralty Office.
The enclosure. On the evening of 16 Dec., between 6 and 7 o’clock, a large mob assembled with axes, &c., encouraged by Mr. John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and others, and marched in a body to where the ships lay, and there destroyed the whole by starting it into the sea. During the whole of this transaction neither the Governor, Magistrates, owners, nor Revenue officers ever called for the Admiral’s assistance. If they had, he could easily have prevented the execution of the plan, but must have endangered the lives of many innocent people by firing on the town.
Lord Viscount Barrington to the Earl of Dartmouth.
28 Jan.—Enclosing copies of two letters from Lieut.-Col. Leslie, commanding the 64th Regiment at Castle William, Boston.—War Office.
The enclosures, dated respectively the 6th and 17th Dec., 1773. In the first Col. Leslie says that the four Commissioners of the Custom-house and the five tea agents had taken refuge with him that day week, and were likely to continue some time. The Governor had not mentioned any desire of marching the regiment to town. Only two of the tea ships had then arrived, and Mr. Hancock, “the Governor’s Captain of his Cadet Company,” was mounting guard on board them, to prevent the landing of that part of the cargo, “a most daring insult to his Excellency.” In the second letter he states that the Sons of Liberty had destroyed 340 chests of tea that lay altogether at one of the wharfs. The fourth vessel was stranded near to Cape Cod; but the tea was got safe on shore, and it was expected it had shared the same fate as the last. The regiment was ready, had it been called upon. The Council would not agree to the troops going to town. “However, it must end in that. Lenity won’t do now with the people here.” The gentlemen who had taken refuge in Castle William still continued there.
Chairman of the East India Company to Lord Dartmouth.
? 29 Jan.—Transmitting copies of several papers lately received relative to the tea affair in America.—East India House, Saturday night.