The British Arrive in Boston

At Aboute 1 O'clock Satterday all the Troops Landed under cover of the Cannon of the ships of War... ~ Deacon John Tudor

settling the new arrivals

It seems that the Liberty riots were the last straw for the English Parliament. The meager troops sent from Canada weren't going to cut the mustard. On 28 Sep 1768, eight British warships sailed into Boston Harbor on a "peacekeeping" mission. By October 1st, our cousin Sheriff Greenleaf (4C7X) and one of his deputies began “pressing carts, &c. for the use of the troops” Deacon John Tudor described the event in his diary:

At aboute 1 O’clock Satterday all the Troops Landed under cover of the Cannon of the Ships of War; The Troops drew up in King Street and marched off in a Short time into the Common with Muskets charged, Bayonets fixed (perhaps Expecting to have met with resestance as the Soldiers afterwards told the inhabitants) their Colours flying, Drums beating & museck playing, In short they made a gallant appearance, makeing with the Train of Artillery aboute 800 Men.

Just where to put the unwelcome visitors was a subject of much debate. The bulk of the troops camped out on Boston Commons while others found lodging in homes. Bostonians finally agreed to let one regiment stay temporarily in their beloved Fanueil Hall, the site of many a Patriot meeting. The Boston Gazette crowed that “[t]hus the humanity of the city magistrates permitted them a temporary shelter, which no menaces could have procured.” Below is a drawing of Fanueil Hall as it looked in 1775.

the manufactory debacle

The Manufactory building

The Manufactory House, a building owned by the Massachusetts government which lay kitty-corner to the Boston Common, seemed a perfect place to house the British troops. It was originally part of a government program to house the poor in exchange for the manufacture of linen. The program turned out to be flop so the goverment began leasing the space out to private tenants.

At the time the ruckus began, in October of 1768, the house was under lease to Elisha Brown, a weaver. He lived there with his family and a few other weavers. He also allowed "certain persons, some of them of bad fame" to shelter there. When the Massachussetts Council gave the go ahead for the soldiers to use the building, a British officer arrived at the Manufactory and informed Brown that he and the other residents had two hours to leave the premises. The bulk of the townspeople in Boston were none too pleased with the influx of British soldiers in their midst, Elisha Brown and his cronies among them. Each and every one of the inhabitants of the house refused to give up their space to the soldiers. According to the Boston Whigs' Journal of Occurrences, "about 19 October: The people dwelling in the Manufactory House, again secured themselves with bolts and bars."

Enter the representatives of the British government. "His Honour, the Lieut. Governor Thomas Hutchinson, condescended to go with the sheriff (Cousin Stephen) and to use many arguments and devices in order to effect their removal..." From Hutchins's own account of the event:

On Wednesday the 19th of October, he (Governor Bernard) desired me to go to the house and acquaint the people with the vote or advice of council, and to warn them of the consequences of their refusal to conform to it; and he said he thought it probable they might be prevailed on to remove, and all further trouble would be prevented. The sheriff was directed to attend me. . .I went and acquainted Mr. Brown with the determination of the governor and council. . .

Since Sheriff Greenleaf did not come equipped with any kind of warrant, he could only read the minutes of the Council meeting to the occupants. Brown and his cronies replied that "it was their opinion and that of others, that they could not be legally turned out of doors" without a vote of the entire General Court. Evidently, this conversation took place with Brown and others leaning out of the building’s windows and calling down to the royal officials. Cousin Stephen, in a last ditch effort, tried knocking on one of the doors to the building, but to no avail. Since nothing more could be done that day, the Lt. Governor and his trusty sheriff left the site.

The next day, the 20th of October, Sheriff Greenleaf, certainly upon the governor's orders, returned. He had been watching the building and noticed one window left open for the inhabitants to go in and out. From J.L. Bell's account of the action:

Sometime after noon, the sheriff made his move. After “one of the workers had just gone out,” Greenleaf hurried over to follow him inside. The young man “turned hastily” and tried to close the window. The sheriff “attempted to get his fingers under the sash.” In the struggle, “a square of glass [was] being bent in.” In a little while Sheriff Greenleaf’s “much superiour strength and formidable appearance,” with “drawn sword, menacing speech and actual violence,” scared the worker away.

Cousin Stephen forced the window up and entered the building, "sword in hand." After a scuffle with Elisha Brown in which "Mr. Brown. . .in attempting to disarm him, received several thrusts in his cloaths," Sheriff Greenleaf called for backup and together they managed to "secure the basement." Sheriff Greenleaf then "gave possession of the cellar to some of the troops."

From a Whig report on the incident:

A large number of soldiers immediately entered the yard, and were placed as centinels and guards at all the doors of the house, and all persons were forbid from going in and out of the same, or even coming into the yard. The plan of operation being as it is said to terrify or starve the occupants out of their dwellings.—

Great numbers of the inhabitants assembled to be eye witnesses of this attack of the sheriff, upon the rights of citizens, but notwithstanding they were so highly irritated at his conduct, there was no outrageous attempts made upon him or his abettor, the people having had it hinted to them, that our enemies in advising to this step, had flattered themselves with the hopes that some tumults and disorder would arise, which might be improved to our further prejudice.

While the soldiers held the cellar and yard, several original occupants were still inside on the upper floors of the building and they were determined to stay. The Bostonians rallied in defense of the occupants. “Great numbers of the inhabitants” flocked to the building, surrounding the soldiers. Sheriff Greenleaf's response was to order "another company (of soldiers), the posting of which gave the compleat idea of a formal blockade."

Poor Cousin Stephen, in doing the job required of him, began to fear for his own life. The Whig report further said that "[t]his night the sheriff procured guards of soldiers to be placed at his house for his protection, a measure that must render him still more ridiculous in the eyes of the people."

the seige

A standoff had been created between Sheriff Greenleaf and the British soldiers against the occupants of the manufactory and the citizens of Boston. Cousin Stephen's orders that no one enter or leave the building created a real problem for John Brown and his fellow occupants. From Dr. Thomas Young's article for the Boston Gazette:

Friday morning bread and butter were denied, and no person allowed to speak to them for several hours. The sick were denied the visits of their physicians, and Dr. [Benjamin] Church’s apprentice in the afternoon had several pushes with a bayonet as he was attempting to convey them medicines.

The children at the windows crying for bread this morning, when the baker was prevented supplying them by the guards, was an affecting sight. Some provision and succours were however afterwards thrown into the Castle with the loss of blood, but no lives.

The Council, which had given the okay for the soldiers to occupy the Manufactory, now felt some backtracking needed to be done. They called another meeting and the majority of the members maintained that their authorization had only been for the Brown family to be evicted by law, through the courts, not by force. That ruling pretty much took the wind out of the Governor and Sheriff Greenleaf's sails.

From the Boston Whigs report of October 23:

This morning we are told that the sheriff, whom to carry on the allusion we will call the General, has raised the siege of the Manufactory, with the trifling loss of all his honour and reputation—the troops were withdrawn under cover of the night, and it is hoped as the season is now advanced, that they will be soon ordered into winter quarters at Castle Island; sufficient supplies have however been sent into the Manufactory to serve in case the attack should be renewed.

Gov. Francis Bernard, none too happy about the turn of events, complained that "[t]hus this building belonging to the Government & assigned by the Governor & Council for his Majesty’s Use, is kept filled with the Outcast of the Workhouse & the Scum of Town to prevent it’s being used for the Accommodation of the Kings Troops."

the lawsuit

On the very day that the soldiers left the Manufactory, John Brown filed a lawsuit against our beleaguered Cousin Stephen. In his complaint, Brown said that he and his family had been “expelled, amoved, and put out” from their home which wasn't exactly the truth.

Governor Barnard came to the defense of his sheriff asking the Council to "indemnify said sheriff as to his conduct at the Manufactory-House, in the action brought against him by Mr. William Brown..." Barnard argued that "he was pleased to tell the C——1, that in this business Mr. Greenleaf pursued their vote and did not act as sheriff but as their bailiff, he having commissioned him so to do."

The Council didn't see it that way. According to an article in the Boston Gazette,

[W]hen seven of the eleven of the Council, (six of whom, by continual application were drawn into the unhappy vote,) which were all whose presence could then be procured, waited upon the G——r and acquainted him that it was their unanimous opinion, that the whole procedure of the sheriff was expressly contrary to their intention in said vote, which was only general for the clearing the Manufactory-House for the reception of the troops after the barracks at the Castle should be full; and that they never had an idea of the sheriff’s making a forceable entry contrary to law; and that notwithstanding this application, the siege of the Manufactory was continued for about twelve days after...

The Council further said that "they desire to be excused from giving any answer (about the sheriff's innocence) till the cause shall be determined in a court of justice." The Governor "was greatly mortified" by the Council's response:

The governor told them that if he was in their place he should be ashamed of looking the sheriff in the face, and that their conduct would make an ill appearance on the other side the water, where they might depend it would be properly represented, and where he apprehended measures might be taken to procure justice to that officer.

We saw the same in the case of our cousin Ebenezer Richardson (4C7X) who shot and killed poor Christopher Seider but was exonerated and set free by Parliament. It appears the British took care of their own.

Still, Cousin Stephen's infamy was spreading throughout the colonies. In December, the Whigs in Boston got a report from New York that effigies of Governor Bernard and Sheriff Greenleeaf had been burned in that fair town as well "amidst the Acclamations of the Populace, who testified ther Approbation by repeated Huzzas,..."

soldiering on

Amidst the hue and cry surrounding him, Cousin Stephen continued doing his job, even on behalf of the Patriots. On October 28, Francis Dana, a Son of Liberty, made a complaint against a British soldier, Captain John Willson.

Note: Richard Henry Dana, author of Two years before the Mast was Francis Dana's grandson.

The complaint against Willson was that he was trying to persuade “some Negro servants to ill-treat and abuse their masters, assuring them that the soldiers were come to procure their freedoms.” A warrant was issued for his arrest. The deputy who was sent out to execute the warrant, however, was opposed to the arrest of British officers. Dana then appealed to "the high sheriff (Stephen Greenleaf) who with divers constables went to apprehend him..." Willson went quietly.

A year later, on 5 Sept 1769, when a brawl in a British Coffee House led to the beating up of Patriot James Otis, Cousin Stephen dutifully found the perpetrator and took him to Faneuil Hall to face the music.

walking the line

It appears that Sheriff Greenleaf walked a fine line when dealing with the Sons of Liberty. This can be proven by a matter he was involved in concerning the non-importation agreements. The Patriots were adamant that all merchants comply with the widespread agreement not to deal in British goods. Bookseller John Mein was one who flouted the agreement. Consequently, in February of 1770, his merchandise was seized and his bookshop closed down.

Sheriff Greenleaf was asked to look into the matter by Mein's partner, John Fleming. Stephen's letter to Fleming explained the situation:

Friday morning 9 March 1770

I yesterday saw Mr. (John) Hancock who consents to have the Goods of Mr. Mein which were attached appraiz'd. I have therefore appointed Mr. Leverett and Mr. Edwards Booksellers to join with any one appointed by Mr. Hancock to execute that business. Mr. Hancock promised to nominate his Man this Morning and then Mr. Cudworth. . .will attend them and give you notice to attend also if you please. The late disorders of the Town have a little delayed this affair which Mr. Mein's friends will excuse. Yours, S Greenleaf

Note: The "late disorders of the Town" refers to the Boston Massacre which happened on March 5, 1770. That event coming up in a future post.

When the matter still hadn't been resolved by April of 1770, a friend of Mein's wrote to Cousin Stephen for an update. Stephen's reply, in part:

Various reasons may be assigned for the delays in the Appraisers. The constant attention which I have been oblig'd for Six Weeks past to pay to the Courts of Justice (dealing with the massacre) may serve as some part of an apology for me if any was necessary but when I assure you that nothing has been left undone by me which could be legally done in order to get Mr. Mein's Shop opened and in a course of business your goodness I am sure will lead you to excuse every thing on my part. . .Whether it won't be still delayed 'till Mr. Hancock can hear from England I know not. His constant business at Cambridge with my unwillingness to be further importunate with a Gentleman of his great superiority has really kept me from applying to him on the Subject and if I know your mind imagine you would not desire me to supplicate the favour.

It appears that Cousin Stephen would attempt to do his duty only if he could avoid stepping on the toes of a "Gentleman of great superiority" like John Hancock.

Stephen Greenleaf would soldier on in his position as high sheriff of Boston until the outbreak of the revolution. Ironically, when Stephen was discharged of his duties, his Patriot brother William Greenleaf (4C7X) would take over the duties of sheriff. More on that in future posts.