Crisis in Boston - the Boston Massacre
Joseph Harrison was stuck in Boston, advised by Rockingham that it would be inconvenient for him to come home. He wrote again on 3 November with a description of the worsening situation in the city. He enclosed two newspapers to show the "designs and principles" of the Sons of Liberty, who now controlled the local press. Two regiments of Foot from Nova Scotia had arrived in the harbour, and this had caused all resistance to shrink to nothing. The Town Meeting had refused to house the troops in the town, and eventually General Gage had hired some warehouses so that they could move out of their camp.
"The Commissioners of the Customs are yet at the Castle, and the resentment and [illegible word] of the people still continues as violent against them as ever, or, if possible, increases; and as they cannot execute their mischievous purposes, by mobs and riots, they talk now of assassinations."
He describes being caught between "the ill temper of the people" and the "unkind behaviour of the Commissioners". "I am like to have a most miserable life the ensuing Winter", he complained. Governor Wentworth (the British colonial Governor of New Hampshire) had been to see him to cheer him up. It is Wentworth's brother-in-law, Mr Fisher, says Harrison, who is the bearer of the letter. Fisher was the Collector of Customs for Salem and had been suspended from office. Harrison does not know what he is accused of, but can testify to his honesty and hard work. Fisher's situation has increased Joseph's sense of insecurity. He has had hints that if Rockingham and Savile are in opposition in the next Parliament he will certainly be turned out of office. He tells Rockingham that he knows his criticisms of the Commissioners will go no further, because if it became known he "should feel the weight of their Resentment".
"I still continue in a poor state of health, and yet feel the effects of the hurt I received in the mob and riot of the 10th June; and as the winter is now setting in I have little expectation of getting better till the return of the spring."
While Joseph had to sit it out in Boston, Eleanor, Richard and Elizabeth returned to England. A letter from Barlow Trecothick to Rockingham on 4 November 1768 has the postscript, "Mr Harrison's wife and children are come here [London] in their ship."
Sir John Wentworth also wrote to Rockingham, in a letter dated 13 November from New Hampshire. He put the blame for the troubles on the "servants of government". The troops had been well received, but he could not understand why they were thought necessary, and they were not helping the situation. He was very concerned about Joseph:
"Mr Harrison at Boston seems much distressed, his income diminished near half, harrassed and exposed to death by extra official duty and employments. Whenever any indiscreet measures are to be remedied, any service of difficulty and that is the knot of popular clamor to be done, poor Mr Harrison has constantly been ordered to it, however without the duty of his office or seen repugnant to it. He seems pointed out to be the forlorn hope of their scheme, and would inevitably have suffered, but his amiable life renders him so beloved in Boston that he could do what no other man might safely attempt."
Wentworth believed that Harrison had been set up by the government:
".. as a shield to catch all the darts of resentment pointed against their management, also by procuring the madness of tumult to wound so worthy an Officer, to render the intemperance of the country utterly inexcusable."
It had no effect on the British government. Joseph had to stay at his post, and was there in the spring when, on 5 March 1769, the "Boston Massacre" was sparked off outside his Custom House. The story has been told in many, varying accounts from the British and from the colonials' point of view.
 | The sentry on duty found himself trying to fend off a mob which had gathered to accuse, falsely, a British officer of not paying his bills. The sentry, Private White, struck one of the crowd, and this attracted an even bigger mob. White retreated to the Custom House stairs, where he was joined by troops. Firing broke out, almost by accident, and five people were killed. To keep the peace, the next day Royal authorities agreed to remove all troops from the centre of town to a fort on Castle Island in Boston harbour. |
Perhaps Joseph had given up writing to Rockingham. On 14 April he wrote to his son in England (he was staying at the Acklom estate at Wiseton), and as soon as he received it on 1 June Richard passed on an extract to Rockingham, "according to your Lordship's wishes".
"The vessel sails in the morning and I have been so often interrupted since I sat down to write that I shall have little more time than just to let you know that my health is much better than when I wrote last, and as the weather is now so that I can ride out and use exercise, I find I mend daily, and the Commissioners have of their own accord given me a general permission to go abroad and come home just as I like, and to stay away as long as I please without any application for leave of absence, so I am quite at liberty without any constraint or control, which makes me quite easy and indeed all the commissioners except Mr Temple are very civil and obliging. I received by Captain Lyde a few lines from Mr Hallowell dated February the 4th: also a warrant from the Treasury for leave of absence without limitation. But as I am so much better in my health, I shall not imbark [sic] for England till the latter part of the Summer, being determined not to leave my station till affairs are somehow adjusted by Parliament, which I fancy will be most agreeable to My Lord Rockingham and Sir George, to whom I have wrote lately on the subject. I set out next week for New London to see Doctor Moffat and Mr Stuart."
Richard told Rockingham that he had also heard from Benjamin Hallowell, who had been told by the Duke of Grafton that the Duke had written to Joseph assuring him that there was "no impediment or hindrance" to his coming home straight away.
Joseph's letter to Richard crossed with one which Rockingham wrote to Joseph on 19 May 1768. The tone of the letter is somewhat distant. He is sending it via Mr Fisher, who is returning to America and will be able to bring Joseph up to date with the latest thinking. He then discourses at some length on the subject of taxation in America before telling Joseph:
"I hope the affairs at Boston will soon enable you to come home; I supposed you have leave to come when you choose it, and I am sure the stay you have made ought to [illegible] and I believe has secured you from any imputation of having quitted your post precipitately on the appearances of danger."
He reminds Joseph to bring "accurate accounts of the state of duties, trade etc. in the Port of Boston" and ends by telling him, "Your son has been gone into the country about three weeks, he was getting better when I saw him."
