1765 Revolution Rising - The Quartering Act

July 27, 2013, 1:00 am

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In March 1765, the British Parliament passed the Quartering Act to address the practical concerns of troop deployment in the British American colonies. Under the terms of this legislation, each colonial assembly was directed to provide for the basic needs of soldiers stationed within its borders. The Quartering Act of 1765 required colonial governments to absorb the costs associated with quartering British troops which included food, shelter, bedding, cooking utensils, firewood, salt, vinegar, beer or cider, and candles. This law was expanded in 1766 and required the assemblies to billet soldiers in taverns and unoccupied houses.

Karl Anton Hickel, William Pitt addressing the House of Commons, 1793

The French & Indian War (the Seven Years War 1754-1763)) was between France and Britain for possession of North America. During this time it is estimated that over 25,000 troops were sent from Britain to America. The British commanders, led by Lieutenant General Thomas Gage, had found it difficult to persuade some colonial assemblies to pay for the quartering and provisioning of troops, as required by law in the 1686 Mutiny Act. The majority of colonies had supplied quartering for British troops during the war, but the issue was disputed in peacetime. The French & Indian War ended in victory for the British in 1763. Lieutenant General Thomas Gage reported the quartering problems he had encountered to the British Parliament. His experiences with uncooperative colonists was one of the issues that led to the Quartering Act of 1765.

British motivations for enforcing the Quartering Act were mixed. Some officials were legitimately concerned about protecting the colonies from attack and viewed this law as a logical means to do so. Also part of the calculation, however, was a desire to cut costs. If the colonies were to be protected, why should they not pay for the soldiers? In particular, the British ministry was faced with the prospect of bringing home the French and Indian War veterans and providing them with pay and pensions. If those soldiers could be kept in service in America, the colonies would pay for them and spare a tax-weary English public from additional burdens.

In April 1763, George Grenville became the British Prime Minister. Grenville needed to reduce the national debt. Before the French & Indian War the British national debt was only 72 million pounds. By the end of the French & Indian War in January 1763, the debt had escalated to almost 130 million pounds. The cost of bringing the British army back to Britain could be avoided if the soldiers remained in the colonies - so the forces stayed in America as a standing army, through the provisions of the Quartering Act.

To pay the war debt the British ended their policy of Salutary Neglect in the colonies. They started to enforce the laws of the Navigation Acts and looked for ways of imposing new taxes in the colonies. If they were to collect the new taxes the British would needed a strong military presence to enforce the new measures - the Quartering Act would help them achieve this.  Peace in the colonies allowed the British to look for ways of gaining revenue from America and protecting British interests of the merchants in Britain.  The British sent an additional 40,000 soldiers to the colonies in 1765 to protect the borders of the colonies and also to help to collect taxes from the colonists - it was a British show of force.  The concerns of the American colonists were growing with each change imposed by the British government in particular the Quartering Act, as they believed that the British army could easily turn on the colonists.

The British victory in the French & Indian Wars, saw the start of differences in the aspirations of those in England and those colonists in America. The 13 colonies were looking to expand their territories to the west. The British did not agree. The Proclamation of 1763 was designed to calm the fears of Native Indians by halting the westward expansion by colonists while expanding the lucrative fur trade. The introduction of the massive boundary, Proclamation Line, required the establishment, and the manning, of posts along the border - which the British administration argued was for the defence of the colonists and could be implemented through the Quartering Act.

The colonies disputed the legality of the Quartering Act of 1765, as it appeared to violate the 1689 English Bill of Rights, which forbade the raising or keeping a standing army without the consent of parliament. No standing army had been kept in the colonies before the French & Indian War, so the colonies questioned why a standing army was needed after the French had been defeated. Colonial debts were high, and the colonists stated that they could not afford to maintain British troops. The colonists resented the presence of the British and feared the use of troops against themselves.

The Quartering Act of 1765

March 24, 1765

AN ACT to amend and render more effectual, in his Majesty's dominions in America, an act passed in this present session of parliament, intituled, An act for punishing mutiny and desertion, and for the better payment of the army and their quarters.

WHEREAS ... [by the Mutiny Act of 1765] ... several regulations are made and enacted for the better government of the army, and their observing strict discipline, and for providing quarters for the army, and carriages on marches and other necessary occasions, and inflicting penalties on offenders against the same act, and for many other good purposes therein mentioned; but the same may not be sufficient for the forces that may be employed in his Majesty's dominions in America: and whereas, during the continuance of the said act, there may be occasion for marching and quartering of regiments and companies of his Majesty's forces in several parts of his Majesty's dominions in America: and whereas the publick houses and barracks, in his Majesty's dominions in America, may not be sufficient to supply quarters for such forces: and whereas it is expedient and necessary that carriages and other conveniences, upon the march of troops in his Majesty's dominions in America, should be supplied for that purpose: be it enacted ...,

That for and during the continuance of this act, and no longer, it shall and may be lawful to and for the constables, tithingmen, magistrates, and other civil officers of villages, towns, townships, cities, districts, and other places, within his Majesty's dominions in America, and in their default or absence, for any one justice of the peace inhabiting in or near any such village, township, city, district or place, and for no others; and such constables ... and other civil officers as aforesaid, are hereby required to billet and quarter the officers and soldiers, in his Majesty's service, in the barracks provided by the colonies; and if there shall not be sufficient room in the said barracks for the officers and soldiers, then and in such case only, to quarter and billet the residue of such officers and soldiers for whom there shall not be room in such barracks, in inns, livery stables, ale houses, victuallinghouses, and the houses of sellers of wine by retail to be drank in their own houses or places thereunto belonging, and all houses of persons selling of rum, brandy, strong water, cyder or metheglin, by retail, to be drank in houses; and in case there shall not be sufficient room for the officers and soldiers in such barracks, inns, victualling and other publick ale houses, that in such and no other case, and upon no other account, it shall and may be lawful for the governor and council of each respective province in his Majesty's dominions in America, to authorize and appoint, and they are hereby directed and impowered to authorize and appoint, such proper person or persons as they shall think fit, to take, hire and make fit, and, in default of the said governor and council appointing and authorizing such person or persons, or in default of such person or persons so appointed neglecting or refusing to do their duty, in that case it shall and may be lawful for any two or more of his Majesty's justices of the peace in or near the said villages, towns, townships, cities, districts, and other places, and they are hereby required to take, hire and make fit for the reception of his Majesty's forces, such and so many uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings, as shall be necessary, to quarter therein the residue of such officers and soldiers for whom there should not be room in such barracks and publick houses as aforesaid....

II
And it is hereby declared and enacted, That there shall be no more billets at any time ordered, than there are effective soldiers present to be quartered therein: and in order that this service may be effectually provided for, the commander in chief in America, or other officer under whose orders any regiment or company shall march, shall, from time to time, give ... as early notice as conveniently may be, in writing, signed by such commander or officer of their march, specifying their numbers and time of marching as near as may be, to the respective governors of each province through which they are to march....

III
[Military officers taking upon themselves to quarter soldiers contrary to this act, or using any menace to a civil officer to deter them from their duty, to be cashiered. Persons aggrieved by being quartered on may complain to the justices, and be relieved.]

V
Provided nevertheless, and it is hereby enacted, That the officers and soldiers so quartered and billeted as aforesaid (except such as shall be quartered in the barracks, and hired uninhabited houses, or other buildings as aforesaid) shall be received and furnished with diet, and small beer, cyder, or rum mixed with water, by the owners of the inns, livery stables, alehouses, victuallinghouses, and other houses in which they are allowed to be quartered and billeted by this act; paying and allowing for the same the several rates herein after mentioned to be payable, out of the subsistence money, for diet and small beer, cyder, or rum mixed with water.

VI
Provided always, That in case any innholder, or other person, on whom any non commission officers or private men shall be quartered by virtue of this act, ... (except on a march, or employed in recruiting, and likewise except the recruits by them raised, for the space of seven days at most, for such non commission officers and soldiers who are recruiting, and recruits by them raised) shall be desirous to furnish such noncommission officers or soldiers with candles, vinegar, and salt, and with small beer or cyder, not exceeding five pints, or half a pint of rum mixed with a quart of water, for each man per diem, gratis, and allow to such noncommission officers or soldiers the use of fire, and the necessary utensils for dressing and eating their meat, and shall give notice of such his desire to the commanding officer, and shall furnish and allow the same accordingly; then ... the non commission officers and soldiers so quartered shall provide their own victuals; and the officer to whom it belongs to receive, or that actually does receive, the pay and subsistence of such non commission officers and soldiers, shall pay the several sums herein after mentioned to be payable, out of the subsistence money, for diet and small beer, to the non commission officers and soldiers aforesaid....

VII
And whereas there are several barracks in several places in his Majesty's said dominions in America, or some of them, provided by the colonies, for the lodging and covering of soldiers in lieu of quarters, for the ease and conveniency as well of the inhabitants of and in such colonies, as of the soldiers; it is hereby further enacted, That all such officers and soldiers, so put and placed in such barracks, or in hired uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings, shall, from time to time, be furnished and supplied there by the persons to be authorized or appointed for that purpose by the governor and council of each respective province, or upon neglect or refusal of such governor and council in any province, then by two or more justices of the peace residing in or near such place, with fire, candles, vinegar, and salt, bedding, utensils for dressing their victuals, and small beer or cyder, not exceeding five pints, or half a pint of rum mixed with a quart of water, to each man, without paying any thing for the same....

XXX
And be it further enacted ... That this act ... shall continue and be in force in all his Majesty's dominions in America from [March 24, 1765] until [March 24, 1767].

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1766 Revolution Rising - The Declaratory Act

July 28, 2013, 1:00 am

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The Declaratory Act of 1766 was a British Law, passed in mid March by the Parliament of Great Britain, that was passed at the same time that the Stamp Act was repealed. The colonists celebrated the repeal of the Stamp Act and their political victory but the the passing of the Declaratory Act was the beginning of more trouble.  The Declaratory Act was passed by the British parliament to affirm its power to legislate for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever”. The declaration stated that Parliament's authority was the same in America as in Britain and asserted Parliament's authority to pass laws that were binding on the American colonies. The colonies did not dispute the notion of Parliamentary supremacy over the law. But the ability to tax without representation was another matter. The Declaratory Act made no such distinction.  The Declaratory Act of 1766 that asserted Parliament's authority to pass binding laws on the colonies contained the phrase “in all cases whatsoever” which could surely be taken to mean the power to tax. The Declaratory Act of 1766 was almost an exact copy of the 1719 Irish Declaratory Act which forced Ireland into total submission under the Crown.

The Declaratory Act 1766

AN ACT for the better securing the dependency of his Majesty's dominions in America upon the crown and parliament of Great Britain.

WHEREAS several of the houses of representatives in his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America, have of late, against law, claimed to themselves, or to the general assemblies of the same, the sole and exclusive right of imposing duties and taxes upon his Majesty's subjects in the said colonies and plantations; and have, in pursuance of such claim, passed certain votes, resolutions, and orders, derogatory to the legislative authority of parliament, and inconsistent with the dependency of the said colonies and plantations upon the crown of Great Britain: ... be it declared ...,

That the said colonies and plantations in America have been, are, and of right ought to be. subordinate unto, and dependent upon the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain; and that the King's majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons of Great Britain, in parliament assembled, had, hash, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever.

II. And be it further declared ..., That all resolutions, votes, orders, and proceedings, in any of the said colonies or plantations, whereby the power and authority of the parliament of Great Britain, to make laws and statutes as aforesaid, is denied, or drawn into question, are, and are hereby declared to be, utterly null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever.

1767 Revolution Rising - The Townshend Acts

July 29, 2013, 1:00 am

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The Townshend Acts of 1767 were a series of laws which set new import taxes on British goods including paint, paper, lead, glass and tea and used revenues to maintain British troops in America and to pay the salaries of some Royal officials who were appointed to work in the American colonies.  The Townshend Acts of 1767 were a series of laws which set new import taxes on British goods including paint, paper, lead, glass & tea using revenues to maintain British troops in America and to pay the salaries of some Royal officials who were appointed to work in the American colonies.  The Townshend Acts of 1767 were: The Revenue Act of 1767;  The Indemnity Act of 1767;  The Commissioners of Customs Act of 1767;  The Vice Admiralty Court Act of 1767; & The New York Restraining Act of 1768.

The Townshend Acts were a series of taxes that continued to divide Great Britain & its colonies in America. Unlike the Stamp Act of 1765, the laws were not a direct tax, but a tax on imports. The Stamp Act had been repealed due to the opposition in the colonies which include the boycott of British goods. The boycott of British goods resulted in British merchants applying pressure on the government to repeal the Stamp Act. The reaction of the merchants together with the violent reaction of the American colonists, which verged on revolution, resulted in the repeal of the hated stamp tax. The colonists were not against the law but they were strongly opposed to taxes imposed by the British parliament, complaining bitterly "No Taxation without representation!" As the colonists celebrated their political victory, the British parliament passed the Declaratory Act, which provided the British with a broad mandate to impose laws, & taxes, on the American colonies.  Within a year of the passing of the Declaratory Act new new taxes, were introduced by the Townshend Acts of 1767.

Karl Anton Hickel, William Pitt addressing the House of Commons, 1793

The first of the Townshend Acts, sometimes simply known as the Townshend Act, was the Revenue Act of 1767, a new approach for generating tax revenue in the American colonies after the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766. The British government had cleverly latched onto the idea, that because the colonists had objected to the Stamp Act on the grounds that it was a direct (or "internal") tax, colonists would therefore accept indirect (or "external") taxes, such as taxes on imports.

Charles Townshend (1725-1767)

The Townshend Acts of 1767 were the idea of Charles Townshend 1725-1767 who was one of the ministers of William Pitt (the Elder), Earl of Chatham 1708-1778.  Townshend, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, had the difficult role in the British government of managing finances, as British land tax income dwindled.  Townshend was careful not to impose direct taxes. He also chose to tax commodities that would not hurt the British trade but still raise enough revenue from the colonies. With this in mind, Townshend devised a plan that placed new duties on paper, paint, glass, and tea that were imported into the colonies. These were items that were not produced in North America, & that the colonists were only allowed to buy from Great Britain.

The British government's belief that the colonists would accept "external" taxes resulted from a convenient misunderstanding or intentionally manipulative interpretation of the colonial objection to the Stamp Act. The colonists' objection to "internal" taxes did not mean that they would accept "external" taxes; the colonial position was that any tax laid by Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue was unconstitutional.

The Revenue Act was passed in conjunction with the Indemnity Act of 1767, which was intended to make the tea of the British East India Company more competitive with smuggled Dutch tea. The Indemnity Act repealed taxes on tea imported to England, allowing it to be re-exported more cheaply to the colonies. This tax cut in England would be partially offset by the new Revenue Act taxes on tea in the colonies. The Revenue Act also reaffirmed the legality of writs of assistance, or general search warrants, which gave customs officials broad powers to search houses and businesses for smuggled goods.

The original stated purpose of the Townshend duties was to raise a revenue to help pay the cost of maintaining an army in North America. Townshend changed the purpose of the tax plan, however, deciding to use the revenue to pay the salaries of some colonial governors & judges. Previously, the colonial assemblies had paid these salaries, but Parliament hoped to take the "power of the purse" away from the colonies.  Townsend followed the initial Revenue Act with others to reorganize the colonial customs service & make it possible to collect the duties (taxes). He even provided that offences against the revenue laws should be tried by judges appointed directly by the king, without being submitted to a jury of any kind.

Some members of Parliament objected because Townshend's plan was expected to generate only ₤40,000 in yearly revenue, but he explained that once the precedent for taxing the colonists had been firmly established, the program could gradually be expanded until the colonies paid for themselves. According to historian Peter Thomas, Townshend's "aims were political rather than financial."

The British American colonists responded by refusing to buy the products.  Most colonists felt the issue regarding the taxation of goods was the same as the previous taxes, leading, once again, to the cry of  "No Taxation without representation!"

Patriots encouraged the consumption of smuggled tea as a political protest of the Townshend taxes.  The colonist disagreed with an Act that removed the authority of the assemblies to pay the salaries of British officials. The “power of the purse” gave the assemblies the ability to effectively check royal power by withholding, or threatening to withhold, payments. 
  
The Indemnity Act removed taxes on tea shipped to the American colonies by the British East India Company in order for British tea could compete with Dutch shipped tea which was smuggled into the colonies. The Indemnity Act also affirmed the use of Writs of Assistance (Search Warrants) without the sanction from a court.  Most patriots refused to buy tea unless it had been smuggled. They believed the use of Search Warrants without the sanction of the court would be abused by British officials
   
The Commissioners of Customs Act  implemented tougher customs enforcement which included assigning new customs officials and tax collectors based in Boston.  Most colonists were outraged because this Act gave tax collectors the unprecedented authority to search merchants’ ships & warehouses without official regulation. Search warrants had been used to search houses, the legality of which had been previously contested by James Otis.
   
The New York Restraining Act ordered the suspension of the New York Assembly, if it did not fully comply with the 1765 Quartering Act.  Most colonists disagreed with the Act, because it threatened the long-standing autonomy of colonial legislatures
   
The Vice Admiralty Court Act created new Admiralty Courts in which colonial smugglers would be prosecuted without a jury. The verdicts of the Admiralty courts were to be decided solely by the judge.  Most colonists believed that all Americans, like the British,  had the right to be tried by a jury.

Reaction assumed revolutionary proportions in Boston, in the summer of 1768, when customs officials impounded a sloop owned by John Hancock, for violations of the trade regulations. Crowds mobbed the customs office, forcing the officials to retire to a British Warship in the Harbor. Troops from England and Nova Scotia marched in to occupy Boston on October 1, 1768. Bostonians offered no resistance. Rather they changed their tactics. They established non-importation agreements that quickly spread throughout the colonies. British trade soon dried up and the powerful merchants of Britain once again interceded on behalf of the colonies.


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1768 Revolution Rising - 1768 & 1774 Non-Importation Agreements

July 30, 2013, 1:00 am

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Colonial resistance to British control took many forms, perhaps the most effective was the general success of the non-importation agreements. Such agreements appeared as early as 1766. They had a chilling effect on the British Merchants who traded with the colonies. The Stamp Act was repealed, eventually, based on appeals from Merchants who lost money shipping goods to a land that would not receive them. Not incidentally, the customs offices in the colonies could not collect taxes on goods, that were either not allowed ashore at all, or were never sold. Non-importation agreements reached ultimate effect in response to the Townshend Revenue Act, when in 1768 Boston passed an act. Every port city and nearly every region would soon adopt acts like this one. Finally, in 1774, the first Continental Congress of the colonies would pass The Association, a colony-wide prohibition against any trade with Great Britain.

When new taxes were levied in the Townshend Revenue Act of 1767, Whig colonists again responded with protests and boycotts. Merchants organized a non-importation agreement, and many colonists pledged to abstain from drinking British tea, with activists in New England promoting alternatives, such as domestic Labrador tea. Smuggling continued apace, especially in New York & Philadelphia, where tea smuggling had always been more extensive than in Boston. Dutied British tea continued to be imported into Boston, however, especially by Richard Clarke and the sons of Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson, until pressure from Massachusetts Whigs compelled them abide by the non-importation agreement.

Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, KG, PC (1732-1792), more often known by his courtesy title, Lord North

Parliament finally responded to the protests by repealing the Townshend taxes in 1770, except for the tea duty, which Prime Minister Lord North kept to assert "the right of taxing the Americans." (Lord North, British Prime Minister 1770-1782 held office during most of the American War of Independence & was the 1st Prime Minister to be forced out of office by a vote of no confidence, following the British defeat at Yorktown.) This partial repeal of the taxes was enough to bring an end to the non-importation movement by October 1770. From 1771 to 1773, British tea was once again imported into the colonies in significant amounts, with merchants paying the Townshend duty of three pence per pound. Boston was the largest colonial importer of legal tea; smugglers still dominated the market in New York and Philadelphia.

 Boston Non-Importation Agreement  August 1, 1768

The merchants and traders in the town of Boston having taken into consideration the deplorable situation of the trade, and the many difficulties it at present labours under on account of the scarcity of money, which is daily increasing for want of the other remittances to discharge our debts in Great Britain, and the large sums collected by the officers of the customs for duties on goods imported; the heavy taxes levied to discharge the debts contracted by the government in the late war; the embarrassments and restrictions laid on trade by several late acts of parliament; together with the bad success of our cod fishery, by which our principal sources of remittance are like to be greatly diminished, and we thereby rendered unable to pay the debts we owe the merchants in Great Britain, and to continue the importation of goods from thence; We, the subscribers, in order to relieve the trade under those discouragements, to promote industry, frugality, and economy, and to discourage luxury, and every kind of extravagance, do promise and engage to and with each other as follows:

First, That we will not send for or import from Great Britain, either upon our own account, or upon commission, this fall, any other goods than what are already ordered for the fall supply.

Secondly, That we will not send for or import any kind of goods or merchandize from Great Britain, either on our own account, or on commissions, or any otherwise, from the 1st of January 1769, to the 1st of January 1770, except salt, coals, fish hooks and lines, hemp, and duck bar lead and shot, woolcards and card wire.

Thirdly, That we will not purchase of any factor, or others, any kind of goods imported from Great Britain, from January 1769, to January 1770.

Fourthly, That we will not import, on our own account, or on commissions or purchase of any who shall import from any other colony in America, from January 1769, to January 17 70, any tea, glass, paper, or other goods commonly imported from Great Britain.

Fifthly, That we will not, from and after the 1st of January 1769, import into this province any tea, paper, glass, or painters colours, until the act imposing duties on those articles shall be repealed.

In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands, this first day of August, 1768.


Delegates from the colonies met in Philadelphia in the fall of 1774 to decide how to resolve their greivances against the British government. This meeting of colonial representatives-- the first Continental Congress-- passed a number of resolutions aimed at satisfying their complaints.

One of the resolutions enacted by the Congress was the declaration of colonial rights. In this document the colonists listed the rights that were being denied them as Englishmen. Major John Sullivan, delegate from New Hampshire, drafted the resolution.

In the Non-Importation Agreement, colonists cite their opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townshend Acts of 1767 and the Coercive Acts of 1774. This declaration was adopted by the Continental Congress On October 14, 1774.

The Non-Importation Agreement - 1774

We, his Majesty's most loyal subjects, the delegates of the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the three lower counties of Newcastle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, deputed to represent them in a Continental Congress, held in the city of Philadelphia, on the fifth day of September, 1774, avowing our allegiance to His Majesty, our affection and regard for our fellow subjects in Great Britain and elsewhere, affected with the deepest anxiety and most alarming apprehensions at those grievances and distresses, with which His Majesty's American subjects are oppressed; and having taken under our most serious deliberation the state of the whole continent, find that the present unhappy situation of our affairs is occasioned by a ruinous system of colony administration, adopted by the British Ministry about the year 1763, evidently calculated for enslaving these colonies and with them, the British empire.

In prosecution of which system, various acts of Parliament have been passed for raising a revenue in America; for depriving the American subjects, in many instances, of the constitutional trial by jury; exposing their lives to danger by directing a new and illegal trial beyond the seas for crimes alleged to have been committed in America. And in prosecution of the same system, several late, cruel and oppressive acts have been passed respecting the town of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay, and also an act for extending the province of Quebec, so as to border on the western frontiers of these colonies, establishing an arbitrary government therein, and discouraging the settlement of British subjects in that wide-extended country; thus, by the influence of civil principles and ancient prejudices to dispose the inhabitants to act with hostility against the free Protestant colonies, whenever a wicked Ministry shall choose to direct them.
 
To obtain redress of these greivances which threaten destruction to the lives, liberty, and property of His Majesty's subjects in North America, we are of a opinion that a nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation agreement, faithfully adhered to, will prove the most speedy, effectual, and peaceable measure. And, therefore, we do, for ourselves and the inhabitants of the several colonies whom we represent, firmly agree and associate, under the sacred ties of virtue, honor, and love of our country, as follows:
 
1. That from and after the first day of December next, we will not import into British America from Great Britain or Ireland any goods, wares or merchandise, as shall have been exported from Great Britain or Ireland. Nor will we, after that day, import any East India tea from any part of the world; nor any molasses, syrups, paneles, coffee, or pimento from the British plantations or from Dominica; nor wines from Madeira or the Western Islands, nor foreign indigo.
 
2. We will neither import nor purchase any slave imported after the first day of December next; after which time, we will wholly discontinue the slave trade and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or manufactures to those who are concerned in it.
 
3. As a nonconsumption agreement, strictly adhered to, will be an effectual security for the observation of the nonimportation, we, as above, solemnly agree and associate that from this day we will not purchase or use any tea imported on account of the East India Company, or any on which a duty has been or shall be paid. And from and after the first day of March next, we will not purchase or use any of those goods, wares, or merchandise we have agreed not to import, which we shall know or have cause to suspect, were imported after the first day of December, except such as come under the rules and directions of the 10th Article hereafter mentioned.
 
4. The earnest desire we have not to injure our fellow subjects in Great Britain, Ireland, or the West Indies induces us to suspend a nonexportation [agreement] until the tenth day of September, 1775; at which time, if the said acts and parts of acts of the British Parliament hereinafter mentioned are not repealed, we will not directly or indirectly export any merchandise or commodity whatsoever to Great Britain, Ireland, or the West Indies, except rice to Europe.
 
5. Such as are merchants and use the British and Irish trade will give orders, as soon as possible, to their factors, agents, and correspondents in Great Britain and Ireland not to ship any goods to them, on any pretense whatsoever, as they cannot be received in America; and if any merchant residing in Great Britain or Ireland shall directly or indirectly ship any goods, wares, or merchandise for America in order to break the said nonimportation agreement or in any manner contravene the same, on such unworthy conduct being well attested, it ought to be made public; and, on the same being so done, we will not, from thenceforth, have any commercial connection with such merchant.
 
6. That such as are owners of vessels will give positive orders to their captains or masters not to receive on board their vessels any goods prohibited by the said nonimportation agreement, on pain of immediate dismission from their service.
 
7. We will use our utmost endeavors to improve the breed of sheep and increase their number to the greatest extent; and to that end, we will kill them as seldom as may be, especially those of the most profitable kind; nor we will export any to the West Indies or elsewhere; and those of us who are or may become overstocked with, or can conveniently spare any, sheep will dispose of them to our neighbors, especially to the poorest sort, on moderate terms.
 
8. We will, in our several stations, encourage frugality, economy, and industry, and promote agriculture, arts, and the manufactures of this country, especially that of wool; and will discountenance and discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation, especially all horse racing, and all kinds of gaming, cockfighting, exhibitions of shows, plays, and other expensive diversions and entertainments. And on the death of any relation or friend, none of us, or any of our families, will go into any further mourning dress than a black crape or ribbon on the arm or hat for gentlemen, and a black ribbon and necklace for ladies, and we will discontinue the giving of gloves and scarves at funerals.
 
9. Such as are vendors of goods or merchandise will not take advantage of the scarcity of goods that may be occasioned by this association, but will sell the same at the rates we have been respectively accustomed to do for twelve months last past. And if any vendor of goods or merchandise shall sell such goods on higher terms, or shall, in any manner or by any device whatsoever, violate or depart from this agreement, no person ought nor will any of us deal with any such person, or his or her factor or agent, at any time thereafter, for any commodity whatever.
 
10. In case any merchant, trader, or other person shall import any goods or merchandise after the first day of December and before the first day of February next, the same ought forthwith, at the election of the owner, to be either reshipped or delivered up to the committee of the country or town wherein they shall be imported, to be stored at the risk of the importer until the nonimportation agreement shall cease or be sold under the direction of the committee aforesaid. And in the last-mentioned case, the owner or owners of such goods shall be reimbursed out of the sales the first cost and charges, the profit, if any, to be applied toward relieving and employing such poor inhabitants of the town of Boston as are immediate sufferers by the Boston port bill; and a particular account of all goods so returned, stored, or sold to be inserted in the public papers. And if any goods or merchandises after the said first day of February, the same ought forthwith to be sent back again, without breaking any of the packages thereof.

11. That a committee be chosen in every county, city, and town by those who are qualified to vote for representatives in the legislature, whose business it shall be attentively to observe the conduct of all persons touching this association. And when it shall be made to appear, to the satisfaction of a majority of any such committee, that any person within the limits of their appointment has violated this association, that such majority do forthwith cause the truth of the case to be published in the gazette; to the end that all such foes to the rights of British America may be publicly known and universally contemned as the enemies of American liberty; and thenceforth we respectively will break off all dealings with him or her.
 
12. That the Committee of Correspondence, in the respective colonies, do frequently inspect the entries of their customhouses, and inform each other, from time to time, of the true state thereof, and of every other material circumstance that may occur relative to this association.
 
13. That all manufactures of this country be sold at reasonable prices, so that no undue advantage be taken of a future scarcity of goods.
 
14. And we do further agree and resolve that we will have no trade, commerce, dealings, or intercourse whatsoever with any colony or province in North American which shall not accede to, or which shall hereafter violate, this association, but will hold them as unworthy of the rights of freemen and as inimical to the liberties of their country.
 
And we do solemnly bind ourselves and our constituents, under the ties aforesaid, to adhere to this association until such parts of the several acts of Parliament passed since the close of the last war, as impose or continue duties on tea, wine, molasses, syrups, paneles, coffee, sugar, pimento, indigo, foreign paper, glass, and painters' colors imported into America, and extend the powers of the Admiralty Courts beyond their ancient limits, deprive the American subject of trial by jury, authorize the judge's certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages, that he might otherwise be liable to from a trial by his peers, require oppressive security from a claimant of ships or goods seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his property, are repealed.
 
And until that part of the act...entitled "An act for the better securing His Majesty's dockyards, magazines, ships, ammunition, and stores," by which any persons charged with committing any of the offenses therein described, in America, may be tried in any shire or county within the Realm, is repealed; and until the four acts, passed the last session of Parliament, viz: that for stopping the port and blocking up the harbor of Boston; that for altering the charter and government of the Massachusetts Bay; that which is entitled "An act for the better administration of justice, etc."; and that "for extending the limits of Quebec, etc.," are repealed. And we recommend it to the provincial conventions, and to the committees in the respective colonies, to establish such further regulations as they may think proper, for carrying into execution this association.
 
The foregoing association being determined upon by the Congress, was ordered to be subscribed by the several members thereof; and thereupon, we have hereunto set our respective names accordingly.
 
In Congress, Philadelphia, Oct. 20, 1774. Signed,

Peyton Randolph 1721-1775 by Charles Willson Peale 1741-1827

PEYTON RANDOLPH, President.

New Hampshire: John Sullivan, Nat. Folsom.

Massachusett's Bay: Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine.
 
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, Sam. Ward.

Connecticut: Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sherman, Silas Deane.

New-York: Isaac Low, John Alsop, John Jay, James Duane, William Floyd, Henry Weisner, S. Boerum.
 
New Jersey: James Kinsey, William Livingston, Stephen Crane, Richard Smith.

Pennsylvania: Joseph Galloway, John Dickinson, Charles Humphreys, Thomas Mifflin, Edward Biddle, John Morton, George Ross.
 
Newcastle, Etc.: Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, George Read.

Maryland: Matthew Tilghman, Tho. Johnson, William Pace, Samuel Chase.

Virginia: Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, P. Henry, jun. Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton.
 
North-Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hawes, R. Caswell.

South-Carolina: Henry Middleton, Tho. Lynch, Christopher Gadsden, John Ruttledge, Edward Rutledge.

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American opposition to the British authorities kept steadily rising as assemblies were dissolved, the houses of citizens searched, and troops distributed in increasing numbers among the centers of discontent. Merchants again agreed not to import British goods, the Sons of Liberty renewed their agitation, and women set about the patronage of home products still more loyally.

Bloody Massacre perpetuated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a Party of the 29th Regt., published less than 3 weeks after the event.


On the night of March 5, 1770, a crowd on the streets of Boston began to jostle and tease some British regulars stationed in the town. Things went from bad to worse until some " boys and young fellows " began to throw snowballs and stones. Then the exasperated soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five- and wounding half a dozen more.

Boston Massacre.

.The day after the " massacre," a mass meeting was held in the town and Samuel Adams was sent to demand the withdrawal of the soldiers. The governor hesitated and tried to compromise. Finding Adams relentless, the governor yielded and ordered the regulars away.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803)  It does not take a majority to prevail...rather an irate, tireless minority keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

1772 Revolution Rising - The Gaspee Affair

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The Gaspee Affair occurred on June 9, 1772. The HMS Gaspee, a British customs ship, ran aground in Rhode Island and a Sons of Liberty group attacked and set fire to the ship. The British Government threatened to send the American perpetrators for trial in England, but no arrests were made. However their threat to send Americans to trial in England sparked alarmed protests in the colonies who were informed of the affair via the Committees of Correspondence. The establishment of the permanent Committees of Correspondence led to the founding of the First Continental Congress and eventually the Declaration of Independence.

On June 9, the Gaspee attempted to stop and search the Hannah, a small trader from Newport bound for Providence. The captain of the Hannah, Benjamin Lindsey, refused to comply even after warning shots were fired from the Gaspee. Lindsey lured Dudingston into an area off Namquid point, an area which Lindsey knew to be very shallow at low tide. By two o'clock, the Gaspee had run aground and the Hannah raced away. Upon arrival in Providence, Lindsey informed John Brown of his experiences. Brown saw this as an opportunity for revenge and called upon his loyal sea captain, Abraham Whipple, to muster a crew. Within a few hours, the 60 men shoved off from Fenner's Warf to make the 6 mile journey to where the Gaspee was stranded.

The dark moonless evening kept the longboats out of sight until they were within 60 to 100 yards of the ship. This was important because each man knew that if they were detected, the eight large guns of the Gaspee would tear them to shreds. By the time the Gaspee's sentinel raised the alarm, the ship was surrounded. John Brown, describing himself as the Sheriff of Kent County, called for the surrender of the Gaspee and Lieutenant Dudingston. In response, Dudingston ordered the crew to fire upon anyone who attempted to board the ship. Shortly thereafter, the Rhode Islanders rushed the decks of the Gaspee and, in the melee, Dudingston was struck by a musket ball in the arm and fell to the deck. The remainder of the crew, most of whom were asleep below deck, were overcome by the raiding party and Dudingston was forced to surrender. The captured crew was bound, placed into the longboats, and placed on shore in the Pawtuxet area. The leaders then removed most of the documents aboard the Gaspee and ordered the ship to be burned. Little did they realize that the flames that reached into the night sky were, in reality, lighting the way to the forthcoming American Revolution.

The following day, the towns of Providence, Bristol, and Newport were abuzz with the events of the previous evening. Many people saw the flames and heard the explosions. Yet, when the investigation of the Gaspee affair was opened on June 10, 1772 until its closure a year later, not one individual claimed to know any detail surrounding those involved or the course of action. It was not until after the Americans had succeeded in obtaining their independence that the stories were told and written.
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1773 Revolution Rising - The Boston Tea Party

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The Boston Tea Party, December 17, 1773

Victory in the French and Indian War was costly for the British. At the war's conclusion in 1763, King George III and his government looked to taxing the American colonies as a way of recouping their war costs. They were also looking for ways to reestablish control over the colonial governments that had become increasingly independent while the Crown was distracted by the war. Royal ineptitude compounded the problem. A series of actions including the Stamp Act (1765), the Townsend Acts (1767) and the Boston Massacre (1770) agitated the colonists, straining relations with the mother country. But it was the Crown's attempt to tax tea that spurred the colonists to action and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution.

 A view of the Town of Boston in New England and British ships of war landing their troops, 1768

On Tuesday last the body of the people of this and all the adjacent towns, and others from the distance of twenty miles, assembled at the old south meeting-house, to inquire the reason of the delay in sending the ship Dartmouth, with the East-India Tea back to London; and having found that the owner had not taken the necessary steps for that purpose, they enjoin'd him at his peril to demand of the collector of the customs a clearance for the ship, and appointed a committee of ten to see it perform'd; after which they adjourn'd to the Thursday following ten o'clock.

Americans throwing the Cargoes of the Tea Ships into the River, at Boston

They then met and being inform'd by Mr. Rotch, that a clearance was refus'd him, they enjoye'd him immediately to enter a protest and apply to the governor for a pass port by the castle, and adjourn'd again till three o'clock for the same day. At which time they again met and after waiting till near sunset Mr. Rotch came in and inform'd them that he had accordingly enter'd his protest and waited on the governor for a pass, but his excellency told him he could not consistent with his duty grant it until his vessel was qualified. The people finding all their efforts to preserve the property of the East India company and return it safely to London, frustrated by the sea consignees, the collector of the customs and the governor of the province, DISSOLVED their meeting.--But, BEHOLD what followed!

A number of brave & resolute men, determined to do all in their power to save their country from the ruin which their enemies had plotted, in less than four hours, emptied every chest of tea on board the three ships commanded by the captains Hall, Bruce, and Coffin, amounting to 342 chests, into the sea!! without the least damage done to the ships or any other property. The matters and owners are well pleas'd that their ships are thus clear'd; and the people are almost universally congratulating each other on this happy event.

Americans throwing the Cargoes of the Tea Ships into the River, at Boston

The Boston Tea Party was an act of direct action protest by the American colonists against the British Government in which they destroyed many crates of tea belonging to the British East India Company and dumped it into the Boston Harbor. The incident, which took place on December 16, 1773, was a major catalyst of the American Revolution and remains an iconic event of American history.
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1774 Revolution Rising - Boston Port Act

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On this day in 1774, British Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston and demanding that the city’s residents pay for the nearly $1 million worth (in today’s money) of tea dumped into Boston Harbor during the “Boston Tea Party” of December 16, 1773.

The Boston Port Act was the first and easiest to enforce of four acts that together were known as the Coercive Acts. The other three were a new Quartering Act, the Administration of Justice Act and the Massachusetts Government Act.

As part of the Crown’s attempt to intimidate Boston’s increasingly unruly residents, King George III appointed General Thomas Gage, who commanded the British army in North America, as the new governor of Massachusetts. Gage became governor in May 1774, before the Massachusetts Government Act revoked the colony’s 1691 charter and curtailed the powers of the traditional town meeting and colonial council. These moves made it clear to Bostonians that the crown intended to impose martial law.

In June, Gage easily sealed the ports of Boston and Charlestown using the formidable British navy, leaving merchants terrified of impending economic disaster. Many merchants wanted to simply pay for the tea and disband the Boston Committee of Correspondence, which had served to organize anti-British protests. The merchants’ attempt at convincing their neighbors to assuage the British failed. A town meeting called to discuss the matter voted them down by a substantial margin.

The Boston Port Act is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 14 Geo. III. c. 19) which became law on March 30, 1774, and is one of the measures (variously called the Intolerable Acts, the Punitive Acts or the Coercive Acts) that were designed to secure Great Britain's jurisdictions over her American dominions.

A response to the Boston Tea Party, it outlawed the use of the Port of Boston (by setting up a barricade/blockade) for "landing and discharging, loading or shipping, of goods, wares, and merchandise" until such time as restitution was made to the King's treasury (for customs duty lost) and to the East India Company for damages suffered. In other words, it closed Boston Port to all ships, no matter what business the ship had. Colonists objected that the Port Act punished all of Boston rather than just the individuals who had destroyed the tea, and that they were being punished without having been given an opportunity to testify in their own defence.

As Boston Port was a major source of supplies for the citizens of Massachusetts, sympathetic colonies as far away as South Carolina sent relief supplies to the settlers of Massachusetts Bay. This was the first step in the unification of the thirteen colonies. The First Continental Congress was convened in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, to coordinate a colonial response to the Port Act and the other Coercive Acts.
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1774 Revolution Rising - Administration of Justice Act

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Worried by the courts that convened in America and in Massachusetts in particular, and their bias toward the colonists over their British governors, on May 20, 1774, the Parliament passed the Administration of Justice Act. It provided that the governor of Massachusetts had the authority to remove any trial proceeding to another colony or to Great Britain; that witnesses could be compelled to travel to the trial; and that in any case, bail was required even in capital cases if the defendant contended that the crime of which they were accused was committed while acting in an official capacity, such as the suppression of riots.

The act purports to induce public servants to perform their duties by removing fear of prosecution, a principle that extends to the United States, where any public servants are immune from prosecution for certain acts; however, the provision that the trial would be removed to Great Britain made it impossible to try persons who deserved to be tried; the compelling of witnesses to travel to Great Britain further made trial impossible (even though the Act did provide for the expenses of the witnesses to be paid). These provisions lead the colonists to rename the act the Murder Act, reflecting their fears that insurrections would be put down with deadly force.

The Administration of Justice Act is one of the Intolerable Acts that lead to dissent in the American colonies and to the creation of the Declaration of Rights and Grievances in 1774. It is also known as the Impartial Administration of Justice Act.

The other Intolerable Acts are the Boston Port Act, the Massachusetts Government Act, the Quartering Act, and the Quebec Act.
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1774 Revolution Rising - Massachusetts Government Act

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When Massachusetts was first chartered, a council of inhabitants was formed, the 28 members of which were to be chosen annually by the people of the colony. This bit of democratic representation was unique among the many colonies, and it was a right the people took seriously and enjoyed, given the level of patronage and corruption evident when such councilors were appointed. However, the level of independence the council eventually felt at liberty to exercise was not to the liking of the colonial power, especially as the people in America began to exert muscle on trade and political issue. The Massachusetts Government Act was passed, on May 20, 1774, to reign in this independence.

The Act abolished the popularly elected council members, and replaced them with a 12 to 36 member council appointed by the King. The Act also forbade any meeting of the people of a town, unless at an annual meeting held in either March or May, unless specifically authorized by the governor.

The Act also required constables in each town to make lists of all persons 21 to 70 years of age for the purpose of making jury lists, and that if the constable needed assistance in making this list, that tax records could be consulted. The lists were then sent to the county sheriff to make a jury pool. Additional lists of those who had served would be made, and no one would be required to serve more than once each three years. The Act further details special juries, when they can be called, and who the cost of the trial would fall upon.

The Massachusetts Government Act is one of the Intolerable Acts that lead to dissent in the American colonies and to the creation of the Declaration of Rights and Grievances in 1774.
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1774 Revolution Rising - Second Quartering Act

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A second Quartering Act (citation 14 Geo. III c. 54) was passed on June 2, 1774, as part of a group of laws that came to be known as the Intolerable Acts. The acts were designed to restore imperial control over the American colonies. While several of the acts dealt specifically with the Province of Massachusetts Bay, the new Quartering Act applied to all of the colonies.

In the previous act, the colonies had been required to provide housing for soldiers, but colonial legislatures had been uncooperative in doing so. The new Quartering Act similarly allowed a governor to house soldiers in other buildings if suitable quarters were not provided, but it did not have the provision in the previous act that soldiers be provided with provisions.

While many sources claim that the Quartering Act of 1774 allowed troops to be billeted in occupied private homes, this is a myth. The act only permitted troops to be quartered in unoccupied buildings. "It did not, as generations of American school children were taught, permit the housing of troops in private homes." The freedom from having soldiers quartered in private homes was a liberty guaranteed since 1628 by the Petition of Right. Although many colonists found the Quartering Act objectionable, it generated the least protest of the Intolerable Acts.

This act expired on March 24, 1776.
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1700s American Mothers & Children

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1753-54 John Wollaston (fl 1736-1767). Mrs Daniel Carroll II (1731-1763) & Daniel Carroll 1752-1790.


1755 Unknown Artist Mother and Child.


1757 John Hesselius Mrs Matthew Tiglman Anna Lloyd & dau Anna Maria (Mrs. Matthew Tiglman.)


1757 John Singleton Copley (1737-1815) Mrs Daniel Rea and Child.


1760 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Mrs Isaac Winslow and Hannah.


1763 William Johnston (1732-1772). Mrs Jacob Hurd & Child.


1770 John Durand (fl 1765-1782). Martha Tucker (Mrs. Thomas Newton II).


1772 Winthrop Chandler (1747-1785). Eunice Huntington Devotion.


1773 Matthew Pratt (1734-1805). Elizabeth Gay (Mrs. Thomas Bolling) with twins Sarah & Ann.


1786 Robert Edge Pine (1720-30-1788) Dorcas Spear (Mrs. William Patterson) and Child.


1791 Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822) Mary Hawkworth Riddell and daughter Agnes.


1795 Joseph Steward (1753-1822) Pamela Sedgwick (1753-1807) of Stockbridge MA.


1798 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Elizabeth Corbin (Mrs. Griffin Gatliff) & Daughter Elizabeth.


1799 Artist Bouche. (in Baltimore in 1795). Ann Ogle (Mrs. John Tayloe III) and daughters Rebecca and Henrietta.


1799 Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822) Eleanor Conway Hite and Son, James Madison Hite.


1799 John Brewster Jr. (1766-1854) Lucy Knapp Mygatt and Her Son George.


1799 Joshua Johnson (1763-1826) Ellen North (Mrs. John Moale) and Ellen.


1800 Richard Brunton (fl 1790-1832) Mrs Reuben Humphreys of East Granby, Connecticut

1700s American Mothers & Children by Ralph Early 1751-1801

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1788 Ralph Earl (1751-1801). Martha Tennent (Mrs David Rogers) and Daughter.


1790 Ralph Earl (1751-1801). Mary Floyd (Mrs. Benjamin Tallmadge) with Son Henry Floyd and Daughter Maria Jones.


1790 Ralph Earl (1751-1801). Abigail Starr (Mrs. William Taylor) and Son Daniel.


1791 Ralph Earl (1751-1801). Mrs. William Moseley and Son Charles.


1793 Ralph Earl (1751-1801). Sarah McCurdy (Mrs. Henry Channing) and Son Henry William


1796 Ralph Earl (1751-1801) Mrs Elijah Boardman and Son

1796 Ralph Earl (1751-1801) Annie McClellan Lovett and Daughter


Before Ralph Earl returned to the United States, he painted this mother and daughter in England.

1783 Ralph Earl (1751-1801) Lady Williams and Child

1700s American Mothers & Children by Charles Willson Peale 1741-1827

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1790 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Sarah Cantwell Jones (Mrs. Robert Milligan) and Child.


Unlike the mothers with children painted by his conemporary artist Ralph Earl in contemporary dress, most of Charles Willson Peale's mothers depicted with their children are in loose, classical, timeless costumes.

Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mrs Thomas McKean (Sarah Armitage) and Her Daughter, Maria Louisa

1772 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Ann Baldwin (Mrs. Samuel Chase) and Her Daughters Anne and Matilda.

1772 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Rachel Weeping - Mrs. Charles Willson Peale.

1773 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mary Norris (Mrs. John Dickinson and daughter Sally.

1777-80 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mrs. Samuel Mifflin & Granddaughter Rebecca Mifflin Francis

1785 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Ann Marsh (Mrs David Forman) and Child

1785 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mrs. James Crawford and Son



1787 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Susan Armitage (Mrs. Thomas McKean) and Daughter Sophia Dorothea

1788 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Peggy Sanderson (Mrs. Christopher Hughes) and Daughter

1789 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mary Carr Grundy

1789 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mary Gibson (Mrs. Richard Tilghman) & sons

1789 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Sarah Buckland (Mrs. Callahan) & Anne

1790 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Hannah Duncan and son John (Mrs. John Nicholson)



1791 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mrs. Rachel Brewer Peale and Eleanor

1794 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mrs. Thomas Leiper and Her Daughter, Helen Hamilton Leiper

1796 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mrs. Robert Gilmore with daughters Jane and Elizabeth

1818 Charles Willson Peale (American artist, 1741-1827) Mother Caressing Her Convalescant Daughter

George Washington's celebrated, enslaved cook, Hercules

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Attributed to Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828) Assumed to be a Portrait of Hercules, George Washington's Cook, 1797

Hercules was an enslaved African held at Mount Vernon, George Washington's Virginia plantation on the Potomac River. He was the head cook at the mansion in the 1780s, cooking for the Washington family and their guests. Hercules was one of two cooks listed in the 1786 Mount Vernon Slave Census. He probably was born around 1755, and was either the child of Washington's slaves or was purchased following Washington's 1759 marriage to the widow Martha Custis.

After he became President of the United States, Washington was dissatisfied with the cook in the presidential residences in New York City, and brought Hercules to Philadelphia in November 1790.In 1790 President Washington brought him to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (then the national capital) to cook in the kitchen of the President's House. Hercules escaped to freedom from Mount Vernon in 1797, and later was legally manumitted under the terms of Washington's Will.

He took Alice, one of Martha Washington's "dower" slaves, as his wife, and they had three children: Richmond (born 1777), Evey (born 1782), and Delia (born 1785). He, his wife, and the three children were listed in the February 1786 Mount Vernon Slave Census, which records him as one of two cooks in the Mansion House. Alice died in 1787.

He was one of nine enslaved Africans brought to Philadelphia in 1790 by Washington to work in the presidential household. The others were his son Richmond (then 13 years old), Oney Judge, Moll, Austin, Christopher Sheels, Giles, Paris, and Joe (Richardson).

In the memoirs of G.W.P. Custis, Martha Washington's grandson, Hercules was recalled as "a celebrated artiste ... as highly accomplished a proficient in the culinary art as could be found in the United States." The cook was given the privilege of selling the extra food from the Philadelphia kitchen, which by Custis's estimate earned him nearly $200 a year, the annual salary of a hired cook. According to Custis, Hercules was a dapper dresser and was given freedom to walk about in the city.

Pennsylvania passed a gradual abolition law in 1780, which prohibited non-residents from holding slaves in the state longer than six months. If held beyond that period, the state's Gradual Abolition Act gave slaves the legal power to free themselves. Members of Congress were specifically exempted from the act. Officers of the executive and judicial branches of the federal government were not mentioned since those branches didn't exist until the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1788.

When the national capital moved Philadelphia in 1790, there was a question about whether the state law would apply to federal officials. Washington argued that he was a citizen of Virginia, that his presence in Pennsylvania was solely a consequence of Philadelphia's being the temporary national capital, and that the state law should not apply to him. Rather than challenging the state law in court, Washington took the advice of his attorney general, Edmund Randolph, and systematically rotated the President's House slaves in and out of the state to prevent their establishing a six-month continuous residency. This rotation was itself a violation of Pennsylvania law, but no one challenged the President's actions. The U.S. Supreme Court later found Pennsylvania's 1788 amendment to the Gradual Abolition Act to be unconstitutional in Prigg v. Pennsylvania.

In reality, Washington left Hercules behind at Mount Vernon, when he returned to Philadelphia after Christmas 1796. The historian Anna Coxe Toogood found that the Mount Vernon farm records listed Hercules and Richmond at the plantation during the winter of 1796-97, where they were assigned as laborers, along with other domestic servants, to pulverize stone, dig brick clay, and grub out honeysuckle.

In November 2009, Mary V. Thompson, research specialist at Mount Vernon, was able to document that Hercules escaped to freedom from Mount Vernon, and that his escape occurred on February 22, 1797 – Washington's 65th birthday – which the president celebrated in Philadelphia. An entry in that week's Mount Vernon farm report noted that Hercules "absconded 4 [days ago]."

Louis-Philippe, the future king of the French, visited Mount Vernon in the spring of 1797. According to his April 5 diary entry: The general's cook ran away, being now in Philadelphia, and left a little daughter of six at Mount Vernon. Beaudoin ventured that the little girl must be deeply upset that she would never see her father again; she answered, "Oh! Sir, I am very glad, because he is free now."

Hercules remained in hiding. In 1798, the former-President's House steward, Frederick Kitt, informed Washington that the fugitive was living in Philadelphia: "Since your departure I have been making distant enquiries about Herculas but did not till about four weeks ago hear anything of him and that was only that [he] was in town neither do I yet know where he is, and that it will be very difficult to find out in the secret manner necessary to be observed on the occasion."

The 1799 Mount Vernon Slave Census listed 124 enslaved Africans owned by Washington and 153 "dower" slaves owned by Martha Washington's family. Washington's 1799 Will instructed that his slaves be freed upon Martha's death. Washington died on December 14, 1799.  At Martha Washington's request, the three executors of Washington's Estate freed her late husband's slaves on January 1, 1801. There is no evidence that Hercules knew he had been manumitted, and legally was no longer a fugitive.  In a December 15, 1801 letter, Martha Washington indicated, that she had learned that Hercules, by then legally free, was living in New York City. Nothing more is known of his whereabouts or life in freedom.

Because Alice had been a "dower" slave – owned by the estate of Martha Washington's first husband, Daniel Parke Custis – the children of Hercules and his wife were legally property of the Custis Estate. The children remained enslaved and were among the "dowers" divided among Martha Washington's four grandchildren following her 1802 death.

George Washington Parke Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of the Life and Character of Washington. Benson J. Lossing, ed. (New York, 1860), 422-24.

"The chief cook would have been termed in modern parlance, a celebrated artiste. He was named Hercules, and familiarly termed Uncle Harkless. Trained in the mysteries of his part from early youth, and in the palmy days of Virginia, when her thousand chimneys smoked to indicate the generous hospitality that reigned throughout the whole length and breadth of her wide domain, Uncle Harkless was, at the period of the first presidency, as highly accomplished a proficient in the culinary arts as could be found in the United States. He was a dark-brown man, little, if any above the usual size, yet possessed of such great muscular power as to entitle him to be compared with his namesake of fabulous history.

"The chief cook gloried in the cleanliness and nicety of his kitchen. Under his iron discipline, wo[e] to his underlings if speck or spot could be discovered on the tables or dressers, or if the utensils did not shine like polished silver. With the luckless wights who had offended in these particulars there was no arrest of punishment, for judgment and execution went hand in hand.The steward, and indeed the whole household, treated the chief cook with such respect, as well for his valuable services as for his general good character and pleasing manners.

"It was while preparing the Thursday or Congress dinner that Uncle Harkless shone in all his splendor. During his labors upon this banquet he required some half dozen aprons, and napkins out of number. It was surprising the order and discipline that was observed in so bustling a scene. His underlings flew in all directions to execute his orders, while he, the great master-spirit, seemed to possess the power of ubiquity, and to be everywhere at the same moment.

"When the steward in snow-white apron, silk shorts and stockings, and hair in full powder, placed the first dish on the table, the clock being on the stroke of four, "the labors of Hercules" ceased.

"While the masters of the republic were engaged in discussing the savory viands of the Congress dinner, the chief cook retired to make his toilet for an evening promenade. His prerequisites from the slops of the kitchen were from one to two hundred dollars a year. Though homely in person, he lavished the most of these large avails upon dress. In making his toilet his linen was of unexceptional whiteness and quality, then black silk shorts, ditto waistcoat, ditto stockings, shoes highly polished, with large buckles covering a considerable part of the foot, blue cloth with velvet collar and bright metal buttons, a long watch-chain dangling from his fob, a cocked-hat and gold-headed cane completed the grand costume of the celebrated dandy (for there were dandies in those days) of the president's kitchen.

Thus arrayed, the chief cook invariably passed out at the front door, the porter making a low bow, which was promptly returned. Joining his brother-loungers of the pave, he proceeded up Market street, attracting considerable attention, that street being, in the old times, the resort where fashionables "did most congregate." Many were not a little surprised to behold so extraordinary a personage, while others who knew him would make a formal and respectful bow, that they might receive in return the salute of one of the most polished gentlemen and the veriest dandy of nearly sixty years ago."

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The diary & sad life of Mary Wright Cooper (1714-1778) of Oyster Bay, NY

September 13, 2013, 1:00 am

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After examining the upbeat, even lyrical, letters & memoranda of South Carolinian Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722-1793), it seems clear that we need to look at another view of American colonial life for 18th century women.

Eliza began her diary in South Carolina, when she was still a teenager. Mary Wright Cooper (1714-1778) began her diary in Oyster Bay on Long Island, New York, when she was 54.

Eliza had the benefit of schooling in Britain, Mary did not.

Eliza married into wealth, when she was 22. Mary married a working farmer, when she was 14.

Eliza oversaw 3 plantations for her family in South Carolina, Mary worked on her family farm in New York.

Eliza saw her children grow to adulthood. Mary outlived all of her children & all of her siblings except for one sister.

On July 13, 1769, Mary Wright Cooper wrote in her diary, "This day is forty years sinc I left my father’s house and come here, and here have I seene littel els but harde labour and sorrow, crosses of every kind. I think in every repect the state of my affairs is more then forty times worse then when I came here first, except that I am nearer the desierered haven."

Mary's family had long been a part of Oyster Bay. Her ancestor Peter Wright was called the Father of Oyster Bay. Originally inhabited by the Matinecock Indians, Oyster Bay was settled and named (primarily due to its abundance of shellfish) by the Dutch in 1615 . In 1653, English colonists Peter Wright, Samuel Mayo and the Rev. William Leverich came from Cape Cod and settled near Oyster Bay Harbor.

Mary's parents, William Wright (1680-1759) & Elizabeth Rhodes (1689-1734), had been born on Long Island. Mary had 7 siblings, 3 of whom died young: John Wright (1707-1750); Ann Wright (1710-died young); Elizabeth Wright (1712-1733); William Wright (1715-died young); Sarah Wright (1719-1780); Elizabeth Wright (1723-1770); and Caleb Wright (1730-1752). (See note)

Mary was married, before her last 2 siblings were born. Although Mary's mother died when she was 20, she remained close to her father and remembered his death years later.

Mary Wright was only 14, when she married Joseph Cooper (b 1705) in 1728, in St. George's Chapel, Hempstead, Long Island, New York.

By the age of 18, she had her first child. Mary Wright & Thomas Cooper had 6 children: Elizabeth Ann Cooper (1734-1755); Martha Cooper (1737-1749); Esther Cooper (1744-1778); Mercy Cooper (1750-died young); Caleb Cooper (1754-died young); and Isaac Cooper (1756-died young). Mary was especially touched by the death of her baby son, Isaac.

Mary began her diary at age 54, continuing from 1768-1773, while tending the family farm & providing meals & rooms for travellers along their busy road, with her husband at Oyster Bay on Long Island, New York.

Her diary entries are often brief & cryptic, but they do give us an insight into the hardships, both emotional and physical, experienced in everyday life working on the land. They also give us a glimpse of the impact of faith on their lives, as many looked to the teachings of English evangelist George Whitefield (1714-1770).

Whitefield briefly served as a parish priest in Savannah, Georgia in 1738; visited the colonies 7 times; & died at Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1770. He was one of the chief movers of the Great Awakening & the Methodist movement. The adoption of his methods at church meetings by the Baptists was responsible for their schism into the New Lights, who followed him, and the Regulars, who adhered to the old way & disparaged revivals. Mary's diary covers the height of his American years.

1768___
October the 3, Tuesday. Dear Lord, bless the day to us and prosper the worke of our hands. A fine warm day. Ms. Weekes com here to make my gown.

[October 5] Wednsday. A very warme rain most of the day. Sent wheate to mill...

[October 11] Tuesday. Like for rain. Wee are much hurried drying appels. Extreeme high wind this night but no rain.

[October 12] [We]dnsday. Fine clear day. Much hurried drying appels...

[November 17] Thirsday. A fine clear and still day...Evening. I am much tired cookeing and washing dishes. Evening Epreham went home with the girls but come bak again.

November the 18, Friday. A fine warm day with a south wind. Ester and Epreham is gon to Huntan Town to carry my coverleds to the weaver...

November the 20, Sabbath. A very grevous storme of rain and snow. It has beene a tiresom day to me. It is now bed time and I have not had won minuts rest today.

[December 23] Friday. Very cold with a north west wind that blows the snow all day. We are cleaning the house. I am tired almost to death.

[December 24] Saterday. Very cold. I am tired almost to death. Rachel (wife of Mary's nephew) is gone to town. We are a lone. I am drying and ironing my cloths til allmost brake of day. This evening is the Newlights’ Covnant meeten. I am thinking of the events of tomorrow with greate delight. O Lord, prepare us to selebrate the day of thy nitevity and o my Savour be neare to them that shall commorate thy dying love the day ensuing.

December the 25, Sabbath. Christmas. A fine clear day. The sun shines warm. Oh, may the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. Peter Underhill gave out the breade and wine this day to some whose hearts the Lord had touched. Though I sat in the meeten with great delight, yet I came home with a heavy hearte. I went to meeten in the slay with Whippo and come home with John Wright and Nicolas and their sister Anne Crooker (children of Mary's brother John)...1769...
[January 7] Saterday. A fine clear and still morning with white frost on the ground but soone clouds over. Some hail but soone turns to a small rain and mist. Sister gone home. Evening. O, I am tired almost to death waiteing on visseters. My feet ach as if the bones was laid bare. Not one day’s rest have I had this weeke. I have no time to take care of my cloths or even to think my thoughts...

[February 12] Sabbath. Something cold still. I hoped for some rest but am forst to get dinner and slave hard all day long Old George Weekes here. Hannah and Edd Weeks here...

Febeaury the 19, Sabbath. Fine warme and still as yesterday and more so. I went to the Newlig[ht] meeten with greate delight and offer my self to be a member with them. seemed to be very glad but I was sudingly seased with a great horror and darkeness. E think darkeness as might be felt. O, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. Thou knowest that in the sinsarity and uprightness of my hearte I have done this, moved as I did belive by Thy spirit. Evening, I came home before the worship began, most distrest.

[February 20] Moonday. Fine warme weather. O, I am in greate darkness still...

Feabery the 26, Sabbath. A storm of rain with a north east wind. The wind and rain cease by the midel of the afternoon. I feel dul and distrest and did not go to meeten...

[M]arch the 12, Sabbath. Much warmer and like to be a fine day. O, I am trying to fit my cloths to go to meeten in as much distres as my heart can hold. Am. L. and Eb Colw. came here. I am forced to get diner and cannot go to meten atall. Alas, how unhappy and meresabel I am. I feele banished from God and all good...

[April 14] Friday. Some clouds and wind, cold. Easter (Mary's daughter who had separated from her husband & returned home to live) gone from home on some buisness. Tabthea come here. Our peopel (slaves) quriel with her and Semon Cooper turned her out of doors and threw her over the fence to my greate grief and sorrow...

April the 16, 1769. Sabbath. Clear but a cold west wind. The sun shine bright to my sorrow, for had it hid his face it might have hid sorrow from my eyes...

[April 19] Wednsday. Like to be a rainey day but clear in the afternoon. I am unwell and up very late.

[April 20] Thirsday. O, I am so very sik so that I cannot set up all day nor all night. Very cold snow some hours in the day.

[April 21] Friday. Clear but cold. I feele much beter all day. Evening, I am sik again.

[April 22] Saterday. Clear but cold. O, I am sik all day long. Up very late but I have got my cloths iorned. Endurstres. (Industrious)...

[May 3] Wednesday. A fine clear morning. The early songsters warbling their notes and all nature seemes to smile, but a darke cloud hangs continuly over my soul and makes the days and nights pass heavily along.

[May 4] Thirsday. A fine clear morning. I went frome hom on some buisness. Come home disopinted.

May the 6, 1769, Saterday. A fine warme day. Cleare and pleasant. I a hurred, dirty and distresed as ever.

[May 7] Sabbath. I am much distrest. No cloths irond, freted and tired almost to death and forst to stay at home.

[May 13] Saterday. Much hard worke, dirty and distrest. This night is our Covnant meeten but I cannot go to my greate surprise. Sister comes here this night much distrest about her sons. We seeme to have little or no sence of any thing but our troubels.

May the 14, Sabbath. Very hot weather. We went to meeten senceles dull and sleepe.

[May 15] Moonday. Very hot. We began to cleane house much hurried.

[May 16] Tuesday. Exceeding hot. Linde here. Evening. Peter here. We are all very dul and lifeless. Oh Lord, direct our ways...

June the 1, 1769, Thirsday. A most vemant cold north east wind. We all went to the Quaker meeten where a multitude were geathered to here a woman preach that lately come from England, and a most amebel woman she is. Tex: “Of the leaven put in three masuess of meal...”

July the 13, 1769, Thirsday. This day is forty years sinc I left my father’s house and come here, and here have I seene littel els but harde labour and sorrow, crosses of every kind. I think in every repect the state of my affairs is more then forty times worse then when I came here first, except that I am nearer the desierered haven. A fine clear cool day. I am un well.

August the 1. New moon this morning. Tuesday. A fine clear cool morning. I feele much distrest, fearing I shall hear from some of my credtors. Afternoon, I have done my worke and feele something more comfortabl. I went to Salle Wheeler’s to meet Ester and Salle but am sent after in greate hurre. Ben Hildrith is come here in a littel boate with two men with him. I am up late and much freted them and their two dogs which they keep att tabel and in the bedroom with them.

[August 2] Wednesday. The first I hearde this morning was Ben’s dogs barking and yeling in the bed room. They did nothing but drink them selves drunk all the day long and sent for more rum.

[August 3] Thirsday. The wind is not fare to go home, so they cary the girls to town in the boate. Ben behaved like a blackgarde soundrel and as if he had been hurried by the devil

[August 4] Friday. They set sail to go home to my great joy, and I desier I may never see them here again. I greately dread the cleaning of house after this detested gang.

[August 5] Saterday. A fin clear cool day. Much hard worke cleaneing the house. An old Indian come here to day that lets fortans and ueses charmes to cure tooth ach and drive away rats. O Lord, thou knowest that my soul abhors these abominations. Lay not this sin to my charge. On Thirsday I had an extreme pain in my back and hip so th I could not go with out cryin out...

August the 20, Sabbath. Like for rain but the shower went by us. I and Ester went to meeten. Some Indans and one Black man com from Montalk. Ben Jethrow and Siah Baman preach all day long and while late in the night. I and Ester come home alone very late in the night. I fell in the Brook. I am tired and very much distrest...

[August 23] Wednsday. A fine clear morning with a cold north wind. My hearte is burnt with anger and discontent, want of every nessesary thing in life and in constant feare of gapeing credtors consums my strength and wasts my days. The horrer of these things with the continued cross of my family, like to so many horse leeches, prays upon my vitals, and if the Lord does not prevent will bring me to the house appointed for all liveing. Salle Burtis here...

August the 27, 1769, Sabbath. Very gretely hurred getting this company a way to the Greate Meten. I went to the Nigh light meeten to here a Black man preach. Felt nothing but distres. Very greately tired and freted, walkin home so fast.

[August 28] Moonday. Clear weather but not a fair wind for New England. Up late this night. I am much distrist and know now what to dow. O Lord, lead my ways and let my life be in this sight. Docter Wright come here this day.

August the 29, Tuesday. We are hurred to set said for New England, very greately against my will. The tumulting waves look frightfull. But thro infinate mercy we came safe to Mr. Hildrith house in two hours wheare we weare recived with many welcoms and used with the utmost kindness by all the famaly. Cloudy and like for rain every day this weeke but none come except some small showers, not more than due. Nothing remarkabel except that we had the heavyest bread I have ever seene. Mr. Dibel come to se us and said that he was going to change places with Epnetus for the nex Sabbath. After he had talked against Mr. Whitefield as much and something more than we could well beare to, he left us and we saw him no more. One day we went into the woods together...

[September 30] Saterday. Very high north east wind. Very cloudy most of the day. Afternoon changes to a south wind. We are very busie cooking for the work men. Evening, they eate ther supper. The more parte went away. Some stay to dance, very greatly aganst my will. Some anger about the danceing. Some time in the night come up a shower of rain and thunder. Easter and Salle was frighted very greatly and come down. Easter like to have fits.

October the 1, 1769, Sabbath. West wind and like for fair weather. Simon Cooper quarel very greately about Ester dancing. He got in a unxpresabel rage and struck her. I am going to meeten but no not how to get over the Broock, the tide is so high. I come to meeten just as they ware coming out of the house. I did not stay to the evening meeten and yet come home sometime in the night...

November the 9. This day is ten years since my father departed this life.

November the 12. Sabbath. Some small rain this morning tho it did not rain hard, yet hendered me from going to meeten. Salle and Lidg here most of the day. Clears at evening with a very harde north west wind. I and Ester went to the night meeten. We had a comfortabel meeten, but coming home the tide was high and the wind extreeme harde but throw mercy we got safe home. I went to bed very cold. We had little or no fier...

November the 19, Sabbath. Very cold, frose hard last night. We are hurreing to meeten. Siah Baman and Melat Peter is com to town. I come to town just as the meeten was out. I went to se Rebeca Weekes. Evening, we went to meeten to Phebe Weekes’ house. Siah Bamon tx: “Except ye eate the flest of the son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” Peter Undrill tx, of Abraham’s sarvant sent to take a wife for his master’s son. A very greate number of peopel was thare. I am Frances come home but the girls staid all night. We had a very happy meeten...

[December 13] Wednsday. Clears with a most frightfull harde west wind. Grows extreeme cold and freses hard all of a suding. This day is thirty seven years since my dear and amible sister Elisabeth departed this life...

1771
[January 24] Thirsday. A fine clear still morning with a white frost. This afternoon is 3 weeks since Easter and those with her took the small pox...

Febeaury the 1, 1771, Friday. Clear but a harde west wind. The Lord has brought my daughter home to me, well of the small pox. What shall I render to the Lord for all his mercys?

[February 2] Saterday. I an unwell and much aflected for fear of the small pox. I had envited some of my friends to come here to se Ester and dade17 would not let me have a turkey to roast for supper and I am so affected and ashamed about it that I feele as I should never get over it. I got to bed feard and distressed at 1 or 2 a’clok in the mornin

Feb. the 3, 1771, Sabbath. I waked up frighted much about the small pox. Fine clear weather, a west wind but not cold. Esther thought the people would a fraid of her, so we did not go to meeten. Nico and Anne went from here this morning but John all day long.

March the 10, Sabbath. This surprising storme continues yet and encreses. The hail cesses this this morning and floods of rain pores down with frightfull gusts of wind which blew away parte of the kitchen. We have hardely a dry place in the house. I suffered much this day with the wet and cold, and am up all night...

May the fifth, 1771, Sabbath. Very cold with a west wind. I went to town and found Ester in the Cove. I took her with me. We went by the New Lite meeten and so along til we come to the Quaker meeten ho[use] where we went in and hear so[me] poor preaching. O Lord, grant some lite to these poore benighted peopel. I spoke with those that I wanted to so we come back and went to the New Lite meeten and then home at night. O, I sik with the cholic. We had some showers of rain as we went...

1772
[June 27] Saterday. A fine clear pleasant day and Ester went to the Quaker meeten. one woman preach, tx: “He come to his own, but they recived him not, but as many as recived him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God.” One man preach, another woman prayd. O Lord, is not this peopel ignorant of the greate and needfull doctrine of the gospil? O thou that has the residue of the spirite, I pray the, enlitein these that set in darkness...

[August 9] Sabbath. A fine pleasant day. We hurred to meeten and a very happy meeten we had. The Christans seemes full of exersise. Five Negor men gave them selves members to the meeten.

October 15, Thirsday. Clear and warme. I went from home to carry a letter and tea cittel to Jet’s boate that is loading above Eel Creeck. I went to March Coons, to Robersons, to Prock Coon’s. I stayed a littel while att each house and then sot of with old Mrs. MCoon and Prock to find the way home. Prock wint with me to Cove Brook. We tramted up high hills, crosst woods and barran fieds, crost a find orchard full of appels, and at last arived at Cove Brook where Prock left me. In my way home I met Cus John Wright who had been in persute of the same boate. When I come home I found Bille Wright and Josh Hammon waiteing for the boate to take them in. They are going to Yorke. Jest after sundown come Jet and Ben Hawx in persute of the boate. They are going to Yorke, two...

[November 24] Tuesday. Very warme still. Dade is gon to carry the hogs to Townsend Parrish. Salle and Bette Burtis went to Docter Potter to day to take the small pox. O Lord, have mercy on them, are they not some of thy redeemed ons? Reveal thy love to them, heal thier souls and bodys and bring them home to thier mouring mother in helth and safty. New moon at 7 a’clok this night, north east wind and some littel snow but very warme. Jerushe and Sarah MCoon here. Abb Colwell here...

Christmas, December the 25 day, Friday. Warme, the sun shines bright and warme. I and Salle hurred away to meeten and staide to the night meeten. A very great white frost and very cold coming home.

[December 26] Saterday. North east wind and rain but not cold. Ruth and some man to be baptised at Samuel Townsend’s. I hurred a way on horse back with out any saddel, but they was gon before I got thare, so I come home in the rain and did not go down to meeten. I hearde they had a very greate meeten and 12 people offered to the church.

[December 27] Sabbath. Cloude and some small rain, very mude. A very greate meeten, some much afected, others crying out aloud. Salle unwell, I carred her to Josh Hammon’s. Ester gon to Whippo’s. His wife is unwell. Some small rain and very darke. I come home alone and had no hurt or fright thro mercy...

1773
[January 13] Wednsday. Fine clear weather, not very cold. I and Salle are going to the night meeten. I went to se Daniel parish. He told me he had a sight of me and tho I had done many things that ware good in theme selves, yet I was not in the spirite of the Gospel. O Lord, known to the is the case of every soul which thou hast made. If I have had no saveing grace all this while, but have been deciveing my self, O Lord, the gift is thine and not in my power. O Lord, now let me share with a number whome thou delitest to bless...

[March 24] Wednsday. A fine clear warme day. I felt heavy harted and so distrest that I colud hardely set up about Uncel and Aunt. After Ester was gon to se Uncel about five a’clok this afternoon the Lord met with my soul in mercy and told me that thier departed souls should mount on the wings of saraphs to the relms of etarnal day, and that thier weathered limbs should have their dusty bed like the bounding robe and made parfet in thier Savour’s righteousness. Immortal youth and beauty mount to meet their redeemer in the clouds of heaven...

May the 8, Saterday. A cold south wind. Ester and Polle come home this morning from meeten. To day is thirteene years since I parted with my son Isaac. O, sorrow and loss unspakabel...

June the 29, Tuesday. South west wind, cloude, some thunder and a fine shower of rain this after noon and a bright rain bow appeared some thing longer then uesal which raised my thoughts to the bright relms of day. I longed to se that head once crowned with thorne, that dean parson treated with scorn and cruelty for sinful me. The dasling luster of his face I faint. I can find no word to express my ideas, my greatest vews seeme to be of my Jesus seated on a throne of glory in the bright relms of etarnel day. The pleaseing luster of his eyes out shine the wonders of the skys. In raptures and sweet delight I fell a sleep. O, that my last moments may be like these...

[September 12] Sabbath. A stormy wind and some rain in the fore noon. I and Ester went to meeten the afternoon but very few peopel at meeten. I feele much distrest to se the dissolute state of the New Lite church which but few weekes past was greate and a florishing peopel. Why is it forsking and dissolate the Lord only knows. I and Ester come home in the rain...

October the 4, Monday. A fine clear warme day. My harte is full of anguish for the deplorabel state of the Newlite church. O Lord how long?...

[October 8] Friday. Warme weather. I and Ester much talk about the New Lite church...
Note: Brother John Wright married Zervia Wright, daughter of Edmond. Brother Caleb Wright married Freelove Coles, daughter of Wright Coles. Sister Sarah Wright married John Townsend, son of John Townsend. Sister Elizabeth Wright did not marry.

NB. About slaves in Oyster Bay. The Oyster Bay Historical Society has a Bill of Sale for a Slave Girl in the town in 1721.
Deed of Sale from Thomas kirby to David Vallantine for a negro Wench.
Know all Men by these Presents That I Thomas Kirby of Oyster-bay in Queens County on Nessau Island within the province of New York Yoeman, for and in considration of the Sum of Fifety-Pounds of good and Lawful Currant Money of New York to me in hand paid by Nathan Coles and David Vallantine both of Oyster bay in ye county, Island &Prov i nce aforesaid, Yoemen, where of I do hereby - acknowledge the Receipt, and am therewith fully Satisfied and contented; have Bargeined Sold Lef t over and Delivered and by these Presents do Bargein Sell and Deliver unto they the Seid Nathan Coles and David Vallantine one Negroe girl aged about two years called by name Peg, and one Bessy. The said Negroes - to have ant to hold to ye proper use and behoove of them the - Said Nathan Coles and David Vallantine theirs Executors - administrators & Assigns forever, and I the Seid Thomas Kirby for mySelf my Heirs Executors Administrators the Said Bargained Negroes unto the Said Nathan Coles and David Val lantine their Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns - ageinst all and all Manner of Persons Shall Warrant and - forever Defend by these Presents In witness whereof with the Delivery of the Said Negroes I have hereunto Sett my hand & seal this tenth Day of January in the Year of our Lord Christ one thousand Sevenhundred & twenty one, two, and in the Eigth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George of great Britain France, & Ireland King & C.
See: National Humanities Center, 2008

Manuscripts of the 1721 Slave Bill of Sale and of the Diary of Mary Wright Cooper, located at the Oyster Bay, New York Historical Society.

The Diary of Mary Cooper: Life on a Long Island Farm, 1768-1773, ed. Field Horne (Oyster Bay, New York, Historical Society, 1981)

A few 1760s-90s London prints of women doing domestic chores

September 14, 2013, 1:00 am

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London printmakers published hundreds of popular & satirical mezzotints between 1760 and 1800, many of which quickly found their way to the British American colonies and later to the new republic.  These prints give a glimpse into the everyday life of women in the larger British world which is seldom found in more formal art.

The Landlord's Daughter. Haines and Son, London. 1798.

Lacemaking. John Fairburn. London. 1795.
 

Lady Working Tambour

 

March (Lady Holding Sewing). R. Dighton. Carrington Bowles. London. 1784.
 

The Fair Seamstress. Heilman pinxt J. Watson fecit. for John Bowles, London. 1760s.

London Prints of women in country dress - 1767 Calendar

September 15, 2013, 1:00 am

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London printmakers published hundreds of popular & satirical mezzotints between 1760 and 1800, many of which quickly found their way to the British American colonies and later to the new republic.

These 1767 calendar prints give a glimpse into the everyday life of gentlewomen in the larger British world which is seldom found in more formal art. They depict clothing changes across the seasons as well as outdoor activities.


January. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

February. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

March. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

April. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

May. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767. 

June. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

July. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

August. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

September. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

October. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

November. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

December. Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 1767.

 

Home-bred fashions or taste A-La-Mode?? A little satire & a few London Fashion Prints

September 16, 2013, 1:00 am

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Just as British American colonials were recognizing that they were developing into a far different society than the hereditary and aristocratic world of the mother country, they were in the midst of a full-blown consumer revolution. It was just that consumer revolution which was giving unaccustomed power and wealth to the merchant class.

Affluent merchant families were building grand houses and filling them with imported goods. Textiles, furniture, and table wares flowed into the ports for merchants to sell, and local artisans began to flourish as well. Colonists, without the traditional genetic credentials, were displaying these new acquisitions to project an appearance of refinement and gentility akin to that of the landed gentry in England. Women became more aware of the latest taste in fashion and enhanced their appearance with wigs, cosmetics, hair ornaments, and hats.

As some in the middle of the 18th century worried about the loss of beauty and the enduring role of women as they grew older, others fretted about the ostentatious displays of fashion and cosmetic beauty. Visible distances between the classes were increasing. Values of economy and extravagance would be at war, until the real Revolutionary war would see American country-made economy would become a virtue, even if it was just a temporary trend.

As usual, 18th century pundits used sarcasm and irony to highlight the problem. One poem appearing in the 1756 March editions of both Boston and New York newspapers spoke to the complicit role of the portrait painter in ostentatious display.

THE PETITION
Artful Painter by this Plan
Draw a Female if you can.
Paint her Features bold and gay,
Casting Modesty away;
Let her Art the Mode express,
And fantastick be her Dress.
Cock her up a little Hat
Of various Colours, this and that;
Make her Cap the Fashion new,
An Inch of Gauze or Lace will do.
Cut her Hair the shortest Dock;
Nicely braid the Forehead Lock;
Put her on a Negligee,
A short Sack, or Shepherdee
Ruffled up to keep her warm,
Eight or Ten upon an Arm.
Let her Hoop extending wide
Show her Garters and her Pride.
Her Stockings must be pure and white
For they are seldom out of Sight.
Let her have a high heel'd Shoe,
And a glittering Buckle too.
Other Trifles that you find,
Make quite Careless as her Mind.
Thus equipped, she's charming Ware
For the Races or the Fair.
London's monthly Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure ridiculed the constant changes in female fashion,

Now dress'd in a cap,
now naked in none;
Now loose in a mob,
now close in a Joan;
Without handkerchief now,
and now buried in ruff;
Now plain as a Quaker,
now all in a puff;
Now a shape in neat stays,
now a slattern in jumps
Now high in French heels,
now low in your pumps;
Now monstrous in hoops,
now trapish, and walking
With your petticoats
clung to your heels like a maulkin;
Like the cock on the tower,
that shows you the weather,
You are hardly the same for two days together.
In 1754, a New York newspaper published the satirical view of the extravagance of women's fashion from a poem published in 1753 in London.

A RECEIPT FOR MODERN DRESS
Hang a small bugle cap on as big as a crown,
Snout it off with a flower, vulgo dict. a pompoon;
Let your powder be grey, and braid up your hair
Like the mane of a colt, to be sold at a fair.
A short pair of jumps half an ell from your chin,
To make you appear like one just lying in;
Before, for your breast, put a stomacher bib on
Ragout it with cutlets of silver and ribbon.
Your neck and your shoulders both naked should be,
Was it not for Vandyke blown with Chevaux de Frize.
Let your gown be a sack, blue, yellow, or green,
And frizzle your elbows with ruffles sixteen;
Furl off your lawn aprons with flounces in rows,
Puff and pucker up knots on your arms and your toes;
Make your petticoats short, that a hoop eight yards wide
May decently show how your garters are tied.
With fringes of knotting, your dicky cabob
On slippers of velvet set gold a-la-daube.
But mount on French heels when you go to a ball,
'Tis the fashion to totter and shew you can fall;
Throw modesty out from your manners and face,
A-la-mode de Frangois you're a bit for his Grace.
In 1756, a New York newspaper offered this satirical fashion advice,

The dress of the year 55 that was worn
Is laid in the grave and new fashions are born:
Then hear what your good correspondents advance,
'Tis the Pink of the Mode and dated from France:
Let your cap be a butterfly slightly hung on
Like the shell of a lapwing just hatch'd on her crown
Behind, with a coach horse short dock, cut your hair
Stick a flower before Screw-whiff 'with an air,
A Vandicke in frize your neck must surround,
Turn your lawns into gauze, let your Brussels be blond;
Let your stomacher reach from shoulder to shoulder,
And your breast will appear much fairer and bolder.
Wear a gown or a sack as fancies prevail,
Hut with flounces and furbelows ruffle your tail.
Let your hoop show your stockings & legs to your knees,
And leave men as little as may be to guess.
For other small ornaments, do as before,
Wear ribbons a hundred and ruffles a score;
Let your tail, like your dress, be fantastic and odd,
And then you'll show a way in taste A-la-mode.
A sarcastic and anonymous "Sally Tippet" wrote a letter to a New York newspaper in 1761.

"Ladies...Nothing however looks more surfeiting to me than your home-bred fashions and complements; there is something so rustic, so Bridget-Norton-like in them, which is visible in most of our city ladies, that I believe the one-half have neither milliners, dolls, dressing-maids, dancing-masters, nor indeed pier-glasses."
In addition to the written satire, London printmakers published hundreds of popular & satirical mezzotints between 1760 and 1800, many of which quickly found their way to the British American colonies and later to the new republic.

Lady in her Nightcap at Breakfast. Carington Bowles, May & Printseller, London 1772.

The Toilet. Robert Sayer, London. 1786.

The Wig. James Gillray (1756-1815).

Wig Caught Fire. Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827).

Tight Lacing. London. Published by William Holland, 1777.

The Inconvenience of Wigs. Carle Vernet (1758-1836).

French Hair Dresser. Published by W. Darling, 1771, London.

A Fashionable Lady in Dress & Undress.

Fashion 1796.

Charles Catton (1728-1798).

Fashion Before Ease.

Powdering the Wig.

Beauty and Fashion. Publish'd 24th Jany 1797, by Laurie & Whittle, 53, Fleet Street, London.

Lady Preparing for Masquerade.

Lady at her Toilet. The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.
1777 Old Free Method of Rouzing a Brother Sportsman. Carrington Bowles, London.
1784 The Stay Maker Taking a Pleasing Circumference. London.

The Last Shift. Carrington Bowles, London.

Manners - 16-year-old George Washington's transcription of Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company & Conversation

September 17, 2013, 1:00 am

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Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation copied from a French book by schoolboy George Washington by the age of 16.

Samuel King (American artist, 1749-1819) George Washington


1st Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present.

2d When in Company, put not your Hands to any Part of the Body, not usualy Discovered.

3d Shew Nothing to your Freind that may affright him.

4th In the Presence of Others Sing not to yourself with a humming Noise, nor Drum with your Fingers or Feet.

5th If You Cough, Sneeze, Sigh, or Yawn, do it not Loud but Privately; and Speak not in your Yawning, but put Your handkercheif or Hand before your face and turn aside.

6th Sleep not when others Speak, Sit not when others stand, Speak not when you Should hold your Peace, walk not on when others Stop.

7th Put not off your Cloths in the presence of Others, nor go out your Chamber half Drest.

8th At Play and at Fire its Good manners to Give Place to the last Commer, and affect not to Speak Louder than Ordinary.

9th Spit not in the Fire, nor Stoop low before it neither Put your Hands into the Flames to warm them, nor Set your Feet upon the Fire especially if there be meat before it.

10th When you Sit down, Keep your Feet firm and Even, without putting one on the other or Crossing them.

11th Shift not yourself in the Sight of others nor Gnaw your nails.

12th Shake not the head, Feet, or Legs rowl not the Eys lift not one eyebrow higher than the other wry not the mouth, and bedew no mans face with your Spittle, by approaching too near him when you Speak.

13th Kill no Vermin as Fleas, lice ticks and in the Sight of Others, if you See any filth or thick Spittle put your foot Dexteriously upon it if it be upon the Cloths of your Companions, Put it off privately, and if it be upon your own Cloths return Thanks to him who puts it off.

14th Turn not your Back to others especially in Speaking, Jog not the Table or Desk on which Another reads or writes, lean not upon any one.

15th Keep your Nails clean and Short, also your Hands and Teeth Clean yet without Shewing any great Concern for them.

16th Do not Puff up the Cheeks, Loll not out the tongue rub the Hands, or beard, thrust out the lips, or bite them or keep the Lips too open or too Close.

17th Be no Flatterer, neither Play with any that delights not to be Play'd Withal.

18th Read no Letters, Books, or Papers in Company but when there is a Necessity for the doing of it you must ask leave: come not near the Books or Writings of Another so as to read them unless desired or give your opinion of them unask'd also look not nigh when another is writing a Letter.

19th let your Countenance be pleasant but in Serious Matters Somewhat grave.

20th The Gestures of the Body must be Suited to the discourse you are upon.

21st: Reproach none for the Infirmaties of Nature, nor Delight to Put them that have in mind thereof.

22d Shew not yourself glad at the Misfortune of another though he were your enemy.

23d When you see a Crime punished, you may be inwardly Pleased; but always shew Pity to the Suffering Offender.

24th Do not laugh too loud or too much at any Publick Spectacle.

25th Superfluous Complements and all Affectation of Ceremonie are to be avoided, yet where due they are not to be Neglected.

26th In Pulling off your Hat to Persons of Distinction, as Noblemen, Justices, Churchmen and make a Reverence, bowing more or less according to the Custom of the Better Bred, and Quality of the Person. Amongst your equals expect not always that they Should begin with you first, but to Pull off the Hat when there is no need is Affectation, in the Manner of Saluting and resaluting in words keep to the most usual Custom.

27th Tis ill manners to bid one more eminent than yourself be covered as well as not to do it to whom it's due Likewise he that makes too much haste to Put on his hat does not well, yet he ought to Put it on at the first, or at most the Second time of being ask'd; now what is herein Spoken, of Qualification in behaviour in Saluting, ought also to be observed in taking of Place, and Sitting down for ceremonies without Bounds is troublesome.

28th If any one come to Speak to you while you are are Sitting Stand up tho he be your Inferiour, and when you Present Seats let it be to every one according to his Degree.

29th When you meet with one of Greater Quality than yourself, Stop, and retire especially if it be at a Door or any Straight place to give way for him to Pass.

30th In walking the highest Place in most Countrys Seems to be on the right hand therefore Place yourself on the left of him whom you desire to Honour: but if three walk together the middest Place is the most Honourable the wall is usually given to the most worthy if two walk together.

31st If any one far Surpassess others, either in age, Estate, or Merit yet would give Place to a meaner than himself in his own lodging or elsewhere the one ought not to except it, So he on the other part should not use much earnestness nor offer it above once or twice.

32d: To one that is your equal, or not much inferior you are to give the cheif Place in your Lodging and he to who 'tis offered ought at the first to refuse it but at the Second to accept though not without acknowledging his own unworthiness.

33d They that are in Dignity or in office have in all places Preceedency but whilst they are Young they ought to respect those that are their equals in Birth or other Qualitys, though they have no Publick charge.

34th It is good Manners to prefer them to whom we Speak before ourselves especially if they be above us with whom in no Sort we ought to begin.

35th Let your Discourse with Men of Business be Short and Comprehensive.

36th Artificers & Persons of low Degree ought not to use many ceremonies to Lords, or Others of high Degree but Respect and highly Honour them, and those of high Degree ought to treat them with affibility & Courtesie, without Arrogancy.

37th In Speaking to men of Quality do not lean nor Look them full in the Face, nor approach too near them at lest Keep a full Pace from them.

38th In visiting the Sick, do not Presently play the Physicion if you be not Knowing therein.

39th In writing or Speaking, give to every Person his due Title According to his Degree and the Custom of the Place.

40th Strive not with your Superiers in argument, but always Submit your Judgment to others with Modesty.

41st Undertake not to Teach your equal in the art himself Professes; it Savours of arrogancy.

42d Let thy ceremonies in Courtesie be proper to the Dignity of his place with whom thou conversest for it is absurd to act the same with a Clown and a Prince.

43d Do not express Joy before one sick or in pain for that contrary Passion will aggravate his Misery.

44th When a man does all he can though it Succeeds not well blame not him that did it.

45th Being to advise or reprehend any one, consider whether it ought to be in publick or in Private; presently, or at Some other time in what terms to do it and in reproving Shew no Sign of Cholar but do it with all Sweetness and Mildness.

46th Take all Admonitions thankfully in what Time or Place Soever given but afterwards not being culpable take a Time and Place convenient to let him him know it that gave them.

47th Mock not nor Jest at any thing of Importance break no Jest that are Sharp Biting and if you Deliver any thing witty and Pleasent abstain from Laughing there at yourself.

48th Wherein wherein you reprove Another be unblameable yourself; for example is more prevalent than Precepts.

49th Use no Reproachfull Language against any one neither Curse nor Revile.

50th Be not hasty to beleive flying Reports to the Disparagement of any.

51st Wear not your Cloths, foul, unript or Dusty but See they be Brush'd once every day at least and take heed that you approach not to any Uncleaness.

52d In your Apparel be Modest and endeavour to accomodate Nature, rather than to procure Admiration keep to the Fashion of your equals Such as are Civil and orderly with respect to Times and Places.

53d Run not in the Streets, neither go too slowly nor with Mouth open go not Shaking yr Arms kick not the earth with yr feet, go not upon the Toes, nor in a Dancing fashion.

54th Play not the Peacock, looking every where about you, to See if you be well Deck't, if your Shoes fit well if your Stokings sit neatly, and Cloths handsomely.

55th Eat not in the Streets, nor in the House, out of Season.

56th Associate yourself with Men of good Quality if you Esteem your own Reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad Company.

57th In walking up and Down in a House, only with One in Company if he be Greater than yourself, at the first give him the Right hand and Stop not till he does and be not the first that turns, and when you do turn let it be with your face towards him, if he be a Man of Great Quality, walk not with him Cheek by Joul but Somewhat behind him; but yet in Such a Manner that he may easily Speak to you.

58th Let your Conversation be without Malice or Envy, for 'tis a Sign of a Tractable and Commendable Nature: And in all Causes of Passion admit Reason to Govern.

59th Never express anything unbecoming, nor Act agst the Rules Moral before your inferiours.

60th Be not immodest in urging your Freinds to Discover a Secret.

61st Utter not base and frivilous things amongst grave and Learn'd Men nor very Difficult Questians or Subjects, among the Ignorant or things hard to be believed, Stuff not your Discourse with Sentences amongst your Betters nor Equals.

62d Speak not of doleful Things in a Time of Mirth or at the Table; Speak not of Melancholy Things as Death and Wounds, and if others Mention them Change if you can the Discourse tell not your Dreams, but to your intimate Friend.

63d A Man ought not to value himself of his Atchievements, or rare Qualities of wit; much less of his riches Virtue or Kindred.

64th Break not a Jest where none take pleasure in mirth Laugh not aloud, nor at all without Occasion, deride no mans Misfortune, tho' there Seem to be Some cause.

65th Speak not injurious Words neither in Jest nor Earnest Scoff at none although they give Occasion.

66th Be not forward but friendly and Courteous; the first to Salute hear and answer and be not Pensive when it's a time to Converse.

67th Detract not from others neither be excessive in Commanding.

68th Go not thither, where you know not, whether you Shall be Welcome or not. Give not Advice without being Ask'd and when desired do it briefly.

69th If two contend together take not the part of either unconstrained; and be not obstinate in your own Opinion, in Things indifferent be of the Major Side.

70th Reprehend not the imperfections of others for that belongs to Parents Masters and Superiours.

71st Gaze not on the marks or blemishes of Others and ask not how they came. What you may Speak in Secret to your Friend deliver not before others.

72d Speak not in an unknown Tongue in Company but in your own Language and that as those of Quality do and not as the Vulgar; Sublime matters treat Seriously.

73d Think before you Speak pronounce not imperfectly nor bring out your Words too hastily but orderly and distinctly.

74th When Another Speaks be attentive your Self and disturb not the Audience if any hesitate in his Words help him not nor Prompt him without desired, Interrupt him not, nor Answer him till his Speech be ended.

75th In the midst of Discourse ask not of what one treateth but if you Perceive any Stop because of your coming you may well intreat him gently to Proceed: If a Person of Quality comes in while your Conversing it's handsome to Repeat what was said before.

76th While you are talking, Point not with your Finger at him of Whom you Discourse nor Approach too near him to whom you talk especially to his face.

77th Treat with men at fit Times about Business and Whisper not in the Company of Others.

78th Make no Comparisons and if any of the Company be Commended for any brave act of Vertue, commend not another for the Same.

79th Be not apt to relate News if you know not the truth thereof. In Discoursing of things you Have heard Name not your Author always A Secret Discover not.

80th Be not Tedious in Discourse or in reading unless you find the Company pleased therewith.

81st Be not Curious to Know the Affairs of Others neither approach those that Speak in Private.

82d undertake not what you cannot perform but be carefull to keep your promise.

83d when you deliver a matter do it without passion and with discretion, however mean the person be you do it too.

84th When your Superiours talk to any Body hearken not neither Speak nor Laugh.

85th In Company of these of Higher Quality than yourself Speak not til you are ask'd a Question then Stand upright put of your Hat & Answer in few words.

86th In Disputes, be not So Desireous to Overcome as not to give Liberty to each one to deliver his Opinion and Submit to the Judgment of the Major Part especially if they are Judges of the Dispute.

87th Let thy carriage be such as becomes a Man Grave Settled and attentive to that which is spoken. Contradict not at every turn what others Say.

88th Be not tedious in Discourse, make not many Digressions, nor repeat often the Same manner of Discourse.

89th Speak not Evil of the absent for it is unjust.

90th Being Set at meat Scratch not neither Spit Cough or blow your Nose except there's a Necessity for it.

91st Make no Shew of taking great Delight in your Victuals, Feed not with Greediness; cut your Bread with a Knife, lean not on the Table neither find fault with what you Eat.

92d Take no Salt or cut Bread with your Knife Greasy.

93d Entertaining any one at table it is decent to present him wt. meat, Undertake not to help others undesired by the Master.

94th If you Soak bread in the Sauce let it be no more than what you put in your Mouth at a time and blow not your broth at Table but Stay till Cools of it Self.

95th Put not your meat to your Mouth with your Knife in your hand neither Spit forth the Stones of any fruit Pye upon a Dish nor Cast anything under the table.

96th It's unbecoming to Stoop much to ones Meat Keep your Fingers clean & when foul wipe them on a Corner of your Table Napkin.

97th Put not another bit into your Mouth til the former be Swallowed let not your Morsels be too big for the Gowls.

98th Drink not nor talk with your mouth full neither Gaze about you while you are a Drinking.

99th Drink not too leisurely nor yet too hastily. Before and after Drinking wipe your Lips breath not then or Ever with too Great a Noise, for its uncivil.

100th Cleanse not your teeth with the Table Cloth Napkin Fork or Knife but if Others do it let it be done wt. a Pick Tooth.

101st Rince not your Mouth in the Presence of Others.

102d It is out of use to call upon the Company often to Eat nor need you Drink to others every Time you Drink.

103d In Company of your Betters be not longer in eating than they are lay not your Arm but only your hand upon the table.

104th It belongs to the Chiefest in Company to unfold his Napkin and fall to Meat first, But he ought then to Begin in time & to Dispatch with Dexterity that the Slowest may have time allowed him.

105th Be not Angry at Table whatever happens and if you have reason to be so, Shew it not but on a Chearfull Countenance especially if there be Strangers for Good Humour makes one Dish of Meat a Feast.

106th Set not yourself at the upper of the Table but if it Be your Due or that the Master of the house will have it So, Contend not, least you Should Trouble the Company.

107th If others talk at Table be attentive but talk not with Meat in your Mouth.

108th When you Speak of God or his Atributes, let it be Seriously & wt. Reverence. Honour and Obey your Natural Parents altho they be Poor.

109th Let your Recreations be Manfull not Sinfull.

110th Labour to keep alive in your Breast that Little Spark of Celestial fire Called Conscience.
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