a Card Table, a Japan Tea table, a mahog.y stand, Desk & Case, 10 Chairs, 2 China Vases, 2 Family Pictures, a Lamp Tea Kettle. In the Entry. A Glass Lanthorn. On the Stairs. An oval Japan Tea Table. Middle Room. A Clock, a Breakfast Table, a Desk, a Look.g Glass, 1 Family Picture, 8 Metzitintos, 1 Fudling, 4 small red leather Chairs, 1 Hearth Brush. Kitchen. 3 Trammels, 1 pr. H. Irons, 1 Jack, 2 Spits, etc. 1 Checker Board, 1 Barn Lanthorn, a large and small Pine Table, 1 Brass Kettle, etc. 1 large wooden mortar, 1 flat tin & 2 iron Candlesticks, salt-Box, 1 pr. Snuffers, 1 Tobacco Jar, etc. In the front Chamber. 1 Chest of Drawers, looking Glass, 6 Chairs covered with Check, the Family Coat of Arms, 1 folding screen, Mr Jackson's picture. In the Entry. Chest of Drawers, Mehogony Fire Screene. In the middle Chamb'. Chest of Drawers, Lookg. Glass, 5 Chairs red covered with Callicoe, 1 Hearth Brush, 1 Family Picture. Kitchen Chamber. Lookg. Glass, 1 pr. Hd. Irons. In the Closet a View of the Colledges. In the three upper Chambers sundry beds etc. 32 metzitintos, 4 painted on Glass, 1 Sampler. On the Cellar Stairs, a Candle Box. In the Cellar a Bread Trough, pickling Tubs, Beer Barrell, etc. In the Shed 1 Fish Kettle. In the Wood House. I Washing Bench, etc."

By way of consolation Lovell once more expresses his confidence that the Country "nay this very Town will soon rise to Glory and Peace." Tories were as anxious to be within the protection of Boston as the Whigs to make their escape. May 15th, Lady Frankland (Agnes Surriage, born 1726) of Hopkinton (now Ashland) made application 1 for a pass for Thursday, stating that she wished to carry in with her six trunks, one chest, three beds and bedding, six wethers, two pigs, one small keg of pickled tongues, some hay, and three bags of corn. When the day arrived, however, she had so increased the quantity of effects it occasioned complaint; there being no less than four horses, two 1 Memorial History of Boston, III, 77.

2 American Archives, II, 4th ser., 810. Force.

chaises, one phaeton, six oxen, two carts, five sheep, one swine, about four hundred of hay, two barrels, and one hamper filled with bottled wine, one keg of tongues, the trunks, bedding and linen mentioned above, besides one gun, one pistol, one sword, one flask, with a small quantity of powder and lead; about ten bushels of Indian corn and a canister with a small quantity of tea. The matter was brought before the Committee of Safety and permission finally granted' for her to bring seven trunks, the beds and belongings, all the boxes, crates, barrels, the hamper and sundry small bundles; a basket of chickens and a bag of corn; two horses and two chaises, the phaeton, some tongues, ham and veal, but no arms and ammunition.

The British Chronicle 2 prints a portion of "A Letter of a respectable person in New England," dated May 27, running as follows: "Never was there a more dismal prospect than is now before us. Grim visaged war has taken entire possession of this once flourishing, peaceable and happy country. The barbarities committed by the Soldiery we imputed to the rage and shame of their disappointment and defeat. The burning houses, and slaughtering old men, and children, though done in hot blood, were bad enough. But we regard the deliberate denial of it by Gen. Gage, in his letter to Gov. Trumbull, as infinitely worse. It is a most outrageous violation of a truth, to which thousands of us have been eye witnesses. The horrid scene has been viewed over and over again by multitudes. This induces us to believe that our enemies mean to preserve neither faith nor humanity towards us. We have endeavored however to set them an example in the tenderest treatment of our prisoners.'

Referring next to the "thousand obstacles" thrown in the way of those wishing to seek safety outside Boston, the writer concludes sadly, "These violences and impositions sink deep in the minds of the people. Such conduct will soon eradicate those principles of love and respect which they have been

1 Memorial History of Boston, III, 77.

July 5-7.

taught to feel for Englishmen, and make that name odious which was honorable."

Chief Justice Peter Oliver, writing to Mrs. Elisha Hutchinson at her father's house in Plymouth, says:1

My Dear Polly,

BOSTON, May 26,

The only satisfaction that absent friends can receive from each other is by intercourse in an epistolary way: this intercourse hath been interrupted by the Sons of Anarchy, and is like to be a short time to come, but I have great reason to think, not much longer, for yesterday arrived [by the Cerberus, Capt. Chad, April 18th, from Spithead] three approved Generals-Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, who are to be followed (and who are to be expected in a few days) by 5 or 6000 troops from Ireland, with a Regiment of Horse; so that we shall have here 13 or 14000 well-disciplined troops, when the campaign will be opened by 5 as fine General officers as perhaps are in the King's service. . . . What miseries must attend a conquest or no conquest! . . . A person who hath been active for years past in the defection, sent to me to-day to intercede for him, and is almost distracted: another of the like stamp sent to me to get his house excepted from the ravages of the troops when they go out, but he is fled himself out of the Province.

...

I feel the miseries which impend over my country. . . The God of Order may punish a community for a time with their own disorders; but it is incompatible with the rectitude of the Divine Nature, to suffer anarchy to prevail. Observe, my dear, the course of Providence: the first, and grand incendiary, [Otis] is now marked out as a mad man: Molineaux is supposed to have died an unnatural death: Mr Bowdoin is not far from dying: Pitts is not likely to continue long: Denny, it is said, is ill with a mortification in his leg: Hancock is tho't to be ruined in his large fortune: Lee, of Marblehead, is dead; and after the Battle, was frightened, and continued so 'till he died: . . . All this is striking..

1 Diary, I, 457. Hutchinson.

General Thomas, of Kingston, wrote to a gentleman in town, that your father voluntarily offered and advanced money to support their cause. I am sorry for it. . . .

The letter that follows is from Dr. Peter Oliver, son of the Chief Justice, to his brother-in-law, Elisha Hutchinson.

BOSTON, June 1st, 1775.

By the time this reaches you havock will begin, and whether we shall ever see one another in this world, I am not clear in, but hope we shall meet in another quite different from this, free from storms, from Battles, from fire and famine, from Rebellion, the worst of crimes, where all serenity, peace, and concord prevails, where parents and children will be of one mind and one heart....

7th instant. Yesterday Major Dunbar, who has been prisoner at Cambridge, and other officers, with 6 Marines, who all were prisoners, were exchanged at Charlestown. Major Dunbar was Town Major at Quebeck, and was sent by Governor Carlton express to Gen. Gage soon after the Battle; not knowing of any difficulty happening, was by land seiz'd by the common people back of Cambridge and remained with them ever since.

The Chief Justice writes to Elisha, himself, on the 10th, and makes this reference to the exchange of prisoners: "Mr Hamilton, of the 64th Regiment, was taken prisoner 6 or 7 weeks ago, going to the Castle, and was liberated this week; as was also Major Dunbar, who came on a visit from Quebec, and has been a prisoner 4 or 5 weeks. . . . May the God of Armies send us better times!"

Major Dunbar 2 was taken prisoner April 29th at Cambridge, as we learn elsewhere, and kept on parole at Woburn and Newbury. Some of his letters are said to have been preserved among the family papers of Mr. Samuel Osgood, aide-de-camp to General Ward.

1 Diary, I, 458, 469. Hutchinson.

2 History of Andover, 305-6. Bailey.

CHAPTER VII

THE COUNTRYSIDE RISES. BOSTON BESIEGED

ANY scattered stories of the Nineteenth linger on in

MAN

town and county histories and in family tradition, which, slight in themselves, serve to round out the day where the details are familiar.

We learn a little more of the confusion reigning in Jamaica Plain from a petition of Benjamin Pemberton,1 bearing date June, 1779, preserved in the State Archives; wherein he states that early on Wednesday morning "when the men on the Plain were in great hurry" to be gone to the battle, he met a young man of Roxbury who had no gun and asked the loan of his flintlock. He was not known to Pemberton even by sight, but well known to his negro servant who was with him, and he let the gun go, and that was the last he ever saw of it. By the current valuation it was worth £16.

The next morning the Petitioner left his house to two of his servants, and retired to Dedham; the Troops immediately took possession and all the malt and meal on the premises was speedily consumed. . . . "The Petitioner had (as he was wont to do) pickt out of Twenty Cords or more, about six cords of the best large round Walnut wood, sawed and piled up, in order to Splitting, for the Spring, Sumer and fall Season, all of which the Soldiers burn't, before they were supplied other ways." This wood he values at £18 a cord, or £108, that "being no more than I gave last week for very ordinary comon wood, not half as valuable." It concludes: "Necessity obliges your Petitioner, at this time, humbly to address this honourable Court, on this matter, from the difficulty of his raising wherewith to pay said Taxes, occasioned by his several Debtors, almost all of them having 1 Mass. State Archives, Vol. 185, p. 195.