11To Benjamin Franklin from the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 6 November 1770 (Franklin Papers)
DS : Massachusetts Historical Society These instructions introduced Franklin to the boiling cauldron of resentment in Massachusetts. Anger was directed at more than the troops in Boston—at what the colonists took to be the helplessness of the civil authority before the military, the secret and false reports sent home, the subordination of the legislature to an executive controlled by...
12Committee Report on the State of the Province, 16 November 1770 (Adams Papers)
16 November 1770. MS not found. Printed: Mass., House Jour. Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts [1715–], Boston, reprinted by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1919–. (For the years for which reprints are not yet available, the original printings are cited, by year and session.) , 1770–1771, p. 164. Prepared by a committee appointed 16 October composed of Thomas...
13An Act for the Limitation of Personal Actions, 20 November 1770 (Adams Papers)
20 November 1770. MS , engrossed copy, signed by Hutchinson ( M-Ar ). Printed: Mass., Province Laws The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay , Boston, 1869–1922; 21 vols. , 5:109–111. Prepared by a committee appointed 16 October composed of JA , John Worthington, and Joseph Hawley ( Mass., House Jour. Journals of the House of Representatives of...
14Message to Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson on the Command of Castle William, 20 November 1770 (Adams Papers)
MS not found. Printed: Mass., House Jour. Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts [1715–], Boston, reprinted by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1919–. (For the years for which reprints are not yet available, the original printings are cited, by year and session.) , 1770–1771, p. 171–172. Prepared by the committee on the state of the province, appointed 16 October (see...
15Committee of Correspondence to Benjamin Franklin, 17 December 1770 (Adams Papers)
Boston, 17 December 1770. RC ( MeHi ). Printed: Franklin, Papers The Papers of Benjamin Franklin , ed. Leonard W. Labaree, William B. Willcox (from vol. 15), and others, New Haven, 1959– . , 17:301–304. Prepared by a “Committee of Correspondence” appointed 7 November composed of Thomas Cushing, John Hancock, Stephen Hall, Samuel Adams, and JA . Although “Boston” was used in the date line, the...
16Committee Report on the Petition of Gyles Merrill, 10 April 1771 (Adams Papers)
10 April 1771. MS not found. Prepared by a committee appointed and reporting the same day, composed of JA , Samuel Batcheller, and John Noyes. Gyles Merrill, pastor of the First Church of Plaistow, N.H. (formerly the Second Church of Haverhill, Mass.), sought the legislature’s consent to an offer from the Haverhill parish to grant him his parsonage in fee simple. The committee’s report,...
10 April 1771. MS ( P.R.O. : Colonial Office, 5:760). Prepared by a committee appointed and reporting the same day, composed of John Hancock, JA , and John Gallison. The committee listed above was to prepare a bill for a grant of £506 to Hutchinson for his services as lieutenant governor. A second committee, of which JA was not a member, was appointed to draft a bill for Hutchinson’s support...
18To Benjamin Franklin from the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 25 June 1771 (Franklin Papers)
LS : University of Virginia Library and Harvard University Library At the present Session of the General Court, Application has been made to the Court by some of the Grantees of Townships to the eastward of Penobscot River, praying that further Time may be allowed them to procure the King’s Approbation of the Grants that have been made to them. The General Court have divers Times already...
19To Benjamin Franklin from the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 29 June 1771 (Franklin Papers)
LS : University of Virginia Library Your Letter of the 5th. of Febry last has been laid before the House, the Contents are important, and claim our fixed Attention. We cannot think the Doctrine of the Right of Parliament to tax us is given up while an Act remains in Force for that Purpose, and is daily put in Execution, and the longer it remains the more Danger there is of the People’s...
20To Benjamin Franklin from a Committee of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 13 July 1771 (Franklin Papers)
LS : University of Virginia Library For many years the Massachusetts General Court had passed annual legislation that taxed the income of all royal officials residing in and paid by the province. In 1768 the customs commissioners, created by one of the Townshend Acts, were also assessed as resident officials. Although they argued that their salaries were exempt as coming from the crown, not...