The Loyalists of Massachusetts Part 37

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO SYLVESTER GARDINER IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To William Coleman, Benjamin Coleman, Dec 12. 1782. Lib. 136, fol.

146; Land and buildings in Boston, Marlborough St. W.; John Sprague and Samuel Partridge S.; alley between said land and land of John Erving E.; Samuel Partridge N.

To Joseph Gardner, Nov. 21. 1783; Lib. 140, fol. 113; Land in Boston, Marlborough St. E.; alley S. and E., Samuel Dashwood S. and E., Martin Gay E.; Winter St. S.; heirs of William Fisher W.; S.; W. and S.; heirs of Henderson Inches S.; John Williams and land of the State W.; Jonathan Cole N.; John Lucas E. and N.

To John Boles, March 2, 1784; Lib. 141, fol. 195. Land in Boston.

Winter St. N.; John R. Sigourney W.; Dr. John Sprague S. and E.

To Joseph Henderson. Aug. 7, 1784. Lib. 144 fol. 111; Land and buildings in Boston, Long Lane E.; Dr. John Sprague S. and E.; Andrew Johonnot S., Charles Paxton and Dr. Sprague W.; said Sprague N.

RICHARD KING.

Of Scarborough, he was a prosperous merchant, "with a leaning towards the Government." Many persons had become indebted to him beyond their ability to pay. In consequence, apparently of this circ.u.mstance, his troubles soon began, after the attack and destruction of Mr.

Hutchinson's residence, of which the following outrage appears to have been an imitation, and the story has been handed down by no less a person than John Adams: "Taking advantage of the disorders occasioned by the pa.s.sage of the Stamp Act, a party disguised as Indians, on the night of the 16th of March, 1760, broke into his store, and his dwelling-home also, and destroyed his books and papers, containing evidences of debts.

Not content with this, they laid waste his property and threatened his life if he should venture to seek legal mode of redress."

John Adams was counsel for King, and he, who had no pity for Hutchinson, but rather rejoiced in the impunity of his a.s.sailants, writes, "The terror and distress, the distraction and horror of his family cannot be described by words or painted on canvas. It is enough to move a statue, to melt a heart of stone to read the story."[211]

[211] John Adams' Letters to His Wife. Note to No. 9.

The popular bitterness then engendered did not, however, subside, and in 1774, a slight incident occurred which soon caused it once more to break out. A vessel of Mr. King's was found to have delivered a load of lumber in Boston, by special license, after the port had been closed, and the material had been purchased for the use of the troops. On this occasion forty men from the neighboring town of Gorham came over and compelled Mr. King, in fear of his life, to make a disavowal of his opinion. These repeated shocks seem to have been too much for Mr. King's const.i.tution.

He became insane and died in the following March.

Such were the means adopted by the Sons of Despotism, to make patriots, to convert their fellow countrymen to their ways of thinking.

Intimidation and oppression are the accompaniments of all successful revolutions. The same holds true of the methods adopted at the present time by the leaders of a strike. The leaders, like the revolutionary leaders, are unwilling to acknowledge that they are disturbers of the peace, or that acting under them their followers are brutally a.s.sailing those who seek employment under other than union conditions.

CHARLES PAXTON.

COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS.

The subject of this sketch was born at Boston, February 28, 1707.

Wentworth Paxton and Faith, his wife, were his parents. Charles Paxton was a Commissioner of Customs and as such early incurred the ill will of the so-called patriotic party. In 1769 he and his a.s.sociates were posted in the "Boston Gazette," by James Otis. It was this card of Otis which brought on the altercation with Robinson, another commissioner, in the coffee-house in State street, and which resulted in injuries to the head of the first champion of the revolution, from which he never recovered.

Otis subsequently became insane and while confined in an asylum met his death, being struck by a bolt of lightning.

Charles Paxton was a warden of King's Chapel in 1762, and was remarkable for finished politeness and courtesy of manners. His office was unpopular and odious and the wags of the day made merry with qualities, which at any other time would have commanded respect. On Pope-day, as the gun-powder plot anniversary, or the 5th of November was called, there was usually a grand pageant of various figures on a stage mounted on wheels and drawn through the streets with horses. The Pretender suspended on a gibbet between the Devil and the Pope, with appropriate implements and dress, were among the objects devised to make up the show. Sometimes political characters, who in popular estimation should keep company with personages represented, were added; and of these, Commissioner Paxton was one. On one occasion he was exhibited between the figures of the Devil and the Pope in proper figure. As the disputes which preceded the war increased, the visits of Paxton to London became more frequent. He went there as the authorized agent to the crown officers, to complain of the merchants for resisting the Acts of Parliament, and for the interest of the supporters of the Crown. After he entered upon his duties he was efficient and active beyond his a.s.sociates. John Adams says of him that he appeared at one time to have been Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary and Chief Justice.

Paxton and his fellow-commissioners seized one of Hanc.o.c.k's vessels for smuggling wine which caused a fearful mob and the flight of the officers of the revenue to Castle William. Then came the hanging of Paxton in effigy on the "Liberty Tree," then at the instance of the Commissioner the first troops came to Boston; then the card of Otis, denouncing the commissioners by name, the a.s.sault upon him in answer to it, and later came the destruction of three cargoes of tea; then the shutting of the port of Boston; then the first continental congress; then war,--a war which cost England $500,000,000 and the Anglo-Saxon race 100,000 lives in battle, storm and in prison.

In 1776, with his family of five persons, Mr. Paxton embarked at Boston with the British Army for Halifax, and in July of that year sailed for England in the ship Aston Hall. He came under the Confiscation Act and was proscribed and banished. In 1780 he was a pallbearer at the funeral of Governor Hutchinson. In 1781 he was seen walking with Harrison Gray, the last Colonial treasurer of Ma.s.sachusetts, near Brompton. This able and determined supporter of the crown died in 1788 at the age of eighty-four at the seat of William Burch (one of his fellow commissioners) at Norfolk, England.

JOSEPH HARRISON.

COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS.

As previously stated, after the close of the last war with France which ended in the conquest of Canada, the Government decided on enforcing the revenue laws.[212] The frigate Romney of fifty guns had arrived from Halifax and at the same time the sloop "Liberty," owned by John Hanc.o.c.k, arrived loaded with wine from Madeira; there was a duty of 7 per tun on such wines; several cargoes had been smuggled in without payment of the duty, and it seemed probable that there would either be a connivance by the custom house officer in this case, as in others, or there would be a great disturbance by the mob. Harrison determined that there should be no connivance by the officers and that the laws against smuggling should be enforced, even if the vessel did belong to one of the princ.i.p.al merchants and a representative of Boston and an officer of the corps of cadets. Before the vessel arrived it had been frequently mentioned that the duties would not be paid, and it was expected that an open refusal would be made. When the vessel arrived and was lying at Hanc.o.c.k's wharf on the tenth of June, 1768, the custom house officer, Thomas Kirk, went on board, and was followed by Captain John Marshall,--who commanded Mr.

Hanc.o.c.k's ship, the London Packet,--with five or six others. These persons confined Kirk below and kept him some three hours, and in the meantime the wine was taken out and no entry made of it at the Custom House or Naval Office. The cargo was landed in the night and carted through the streets of Boston under a guard of thirty or forty stout fellows armed with bludgeons, and though it was notorious to the greatest part of the town, no officer of the customs thought fit to attempt a seizure, nor is it probable that he could have succeeded if he had attempted it. On the liberation of the custom house officer, an entry was made the next morning by the master, Mr. Nathaniel Barnard, who entered four or five pipes of wine, and made oath that that was all he brought into port. This was as much a submission to the authority of the act as if the whole cargo had been seized.

[212] Ibid. 33-4, Hutchinson, Vol. III, p. 189.

It was determined to seize the sloop upon a charge of false entry.

Accordingly Mr. Joseph Harrison, the collector and Benjamin Hallowell, the comptroller, repaired to Hanc.o.c.k's wharf and made the seizure, and fearing an attempt to rescue the vessel, made a signal to the Romney, which lay at a small distance from the sh.o.r.e, and a boat with armed men came to their aid. To prevent a rescue the vessel was taken from the wharf into the harbor. This removal brought on a riot, a mob was soon gathered together and the officer, insulted and beaten, several of whom barely escaped with their lives. Among the numerous missiles thrown at Mr. Harrison was a brick or stone which struck him on the breast, from the effects of which he was confined to his bed. His son, Mr. Richard Acklom Harrison, was thrown down, dragged by the hair of his head and otherwise barbarously treated. Mr. Hallowell and Mr. Erving, inspectors, did not fare much better. The former was confined to his home from the wounds and bruises he received and the latter besides having his sword broken was beaten with clubs and sticks, and considerably wounded. The mob next proceeded to the home of Mr. John Williams, the Inspector-General, broke his windows and also those of the Comptroller, Mr. Hallowell. They then took Mr. Harrison's boat and dragged it to the Common and there burned every fragment of it. Captain Marshall, the captain of the "London Packet," died the same night as the riot, at Hanc.o.c.k wharf, and it is said his death was caused by the over-exertion which he made in removing the wine from the sloop Liberty. The most conspicuous man on the part of the mob was Captain Daniel Malcolm, a trader in Fleet street, who, it is said, was deeply interested in the wines attempted to be smuggled. The revenue officer knew him well and owed him no good will, for the reason that some time before they undertook to search his premises for contraband goods, but were obliged to retreat before deadly weapons, without effecting their object. On the occasion of the seizure of the Liberty he headed a party of men who exerted themselves to prevent her removal to the Romney, they said the sloop should not be taken into custody, and declared they would go on board and throw the people belonging to the Romney overboard.[213] When the ministry became advised concerning the riots which followed the seizure of the sloop Liberty, they gave orders for two regiments to sail for Boston from Ireland.[214] They arrived September 30. The 29th regiment camped on the Common and the 14th was quartered in Faneuil Hall. The revenue officers retired after the a.s.saults upon them to the Castle until the arrival of the troops. Joseph Harrison and his wife and family went to England. He was succeeded in the collectorship by Edward Winslow, who held the office till the evacuation of Boston.

[213] Drake's History of Boston, pp. 735-6-7.

[214] See chapter on Boston Mobs, p. 40.

CAPTAIN MARTIN GAY.

John Gay emigrated to America about 1630. He settled first at Watertown and was a grantee in the great Dividends and in Beaver Brook plowlands, owning forty acres. He was Freeman May 6, 1635 and a Selectman in 1654.

He died March 4, 1688, and his wife Joanna died August 14, 1691. He had eleven children.

Nathaniel, third child of John Gay was born January 11, 1643. Was Freeman May 23, 1677, and Selectman in 1704 and other years. He married Lydia Lusher. He died Feb. 20, 1712. His wife died August 6th, 1774, aged ninety-two. He had ten children.

Rev. Ebenezer Gay, D. D., Minister of Hingham was born in 1696 graduated at Harvard University in 1714, and was ordained in 1718. He was a devoted loyalist, and died 1787, at the age of ninety, and in the sixty-ninth year of his ministry. Rev. Doctor Chauncy "p.r.o.nounces him to have been one of the greatest and most valuable men in the country." His son, MARTIN GAY, was Captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. He was born at Hingham on the 29 December, 1726. He married first, 13 December, 1750, Mary Pinckney, by whom he had seven children.

After her death he married Ruth Atkins, by her he had two children. He carried on the business of a bra.s.s founder, and copper smith, on Union Street, Boston. He was also deacon in the West Church in Lynde Street.

On the thirtieth of April, 1775, shortly after the battle of Lexington, Deacon Gay, with Deacon Jones was requested to "take care of the plate, etc., belonging to this church, and Congregation." The church and congregation were at this time dispersed and the meeting house occupied as a barrack by the troops, and the pastor had gone to Nova Scotia. Mr.

Gay was true to his trust, at the evacuation he took "the plate and linnen" to Nova Scotia and afterwards returned it, for long years after in 1793 the church voted him their thanks for "having taken care of the plate belonging to the church, while the town was in the hands of the British troops, and when it was evacuated." When the new church was built in 1805 he subscribed three hundred dollars towards it. From 1758 to 1774, he was yearly chosen one of the two a.s.say Masters, and for many years he was chosen one of the sixteen Firewards of the Town, in which office he had as a.s.sociates John Hanc.o.c.k, Samuel Adams, and Adino Paddock, he was chosen one of the twelve Wardens of the Town in 1771, and occupied many other offices of importance, which shows the esteem in which he was held by his fellow townsmen. In June, 1774, he signed the Address to Governor Hutchinson, and from that time, he was not elected to any town office, owing to his public avowal of Loyalist sentiments.

Mr. W. Allan Gay of West Hingham, a grandson of Martin Gay, has three letters written by the Captain, they have been published in the Collection of the Colonial Society of Ma.s.s., Vol. 3. They are interesting as they bring us almost into personal contact with people who were living in Boston more than a hundred years ago, and one of whom saw the Battle of Bunker Hill. The first was written by Captain Martin Gay to his brother Jotham, seven years his elder. He had been an officer in the French war of 1755 and had taken part in the expedition against Nova Scotia under Gen. John Winslow. He afterwards settled in the province he had helped to conquer from the French and at the date of the letter had been for more than ten years a resident of c.u.mberland, Nova Scotia. Within but three weeks after the battle, it gives one of the first authentic accounts published. The writer's loyalty to his "King and Country" is very apparent, as well as his detestation of all Rebels, and especially the "famous Doctor Warren." The letter in part is as follows: "The victory obtained by about two thousand regular troops commanded by General Howe, over a large body of the County Rebels, ('tis said about six thousand,) on the heights of Charlestown, on the 17ult, was a remarkable Action. It proves that nothing the enemies to Great Britain can do, will daunt the courage of British troops. The Rebels had entrenched themselves on the top of a high hill, with two cannon mounted in the Redoubt, besides several field pieces, on the hill, which is about a quarter of a mile from Charles River in approaching which, the troops had to break through stone walls, and other difficulties, which gave the enemy every advantage they could wish for. However, after a most violent hot fire, the brave soldiers forced the entrenchments to the joy of all the spectators, (myself being one) and others on this side of the river, who are friends to King and Country. Immediately on the King's troops appearing on the top of the Redoubt, the Rebels ran off in great confusion leaving their cannon, entrenching tools and a large number of their dead and wounded. The loss was great on both sides, the action lasted about an hour and a quarter. We have reason to lament the loss of so many valuable brave officers and men, of the King's Army who were killed on the field of battle, and since dead of the wounds they received. I have not seen any account of the transaction of that day made public by authority, therefore will not pretend to say which suffered most in the loss of men. Will mention one on the Rebel side, the famous Doctor Warren, who has for some years been a stirrer up of Rebellion, was killed in the action. Had some others of his disposition which I could name been there, and meet the same fate with him, it would have made the victory of that day the more glorious, though the Rebels meet with a shameful defeat, they still continue in their opposition, in fortifying hills and others places near this town.

I am not apprehensive of their ever being able to take or destroy this town, but 'tis a melancholy consideration to be in this situation, which must in time prove fatal to this town and province, if not soon prevented by that almighty being, whose providence preserves and governs the world in all things."

On the evacuation of Boston in March, 1776, by the British troops, he accompanied them to Halifax. There went with him his son Martin, and his daughter Mary, who afterwards married Rev. William Black of Halifax, and also "his man London." He remained in Nova Scotia during the whole period of the war. Mrs. Ruth Gay, second wife of Martin Gay, whose maiden name as already stated was Atkins, remained in Boston during the war, probably with her father's family. Her father, Thomas Atkins, was a bricklayer by trade, and a well-to-do citizen, his real estate having been appraised at his death in 1785 at 1,696. He, with his eldest son, joined the revolutionists, but his second son, Gibbs Atkins, was a loyalist. So were families divided in those days.

The second letter was from his wife in Boston and was sent to him at Halifax. It is interesting as showing some of the devices reported to by the loyalists, their families and friends to save at least a portion of their estates for the original owners. The letter is as follows:

Boston, 24 June, 1786.

My Dear Mr. Gay:

My last of the 8th instant containing the melancholy account of the death of my father, I make no doubt you have received. In that I also informed you that the house was to be sold the 15 of this month which was done accordingly. Mr. Whalley chose to bid it of and Brother Timothy bought it at 380. He paid 129 Dollars Earnest money, the rest is to be paid in 6 weeks. I wish you could settle your affairs so as to come home before the time is up. Mr. Whalley has sent you the account of the sale properly authentic, and has directed them to be left at Mr. Pike's at Halifax. Do come home as soon as you can. Our friends unite with me in love to you and children. Father Gay has got quite well. f.a.n.n.y is with me and desires her duty to you. Love to her Brothers and Sisters. Believe me to be your tender, affectionate Wife,