The Loyalists of Massachusetts Part 50

About the year 1700 the Postmaster of Boston was one John Campbell, a Scotchman, and son of Duncan Campbell, the organizer of the postal system of America. He was also a bookseller. In those early days the dissemination of news was in the hands of the postmasters of each town, and John Campbell on Monday, April 24, 1704, improved the present system by _printing the news_. He issued the first number of the Boston "News Letter," the first newspaper issued in America. The first sheet of the first number was taken damp from the press by Chief Justice Sewell, to show to President Willard, of Harvard College, as a wonderful curiosity.

Bartholomew Green, eldest son of Thomas Green, printer to Cambridge University, was the printer. He obtained possession of the newspaper in 1721, shortly after Campbell was removed from the post-office in Boston.

On his death in 1733, it pa.s.sed into the hands of his son-in-law, John Draper, son of Richard Draper, who continued to publish it until his death in 1762, when he was succeeded by his son Richard Draper, who changed the t.i.tle to the "Ma.s.sachusetts Gazette and Boston News Letter."

He was brought up a printer by his father, and continued with him after he became of age, and was for some years before his father's death a silent partner with him. He was early appointed printer to the Council and Government, which he retained during life. Under his successful editors.h.i.+p, the paper was devoted to the Government, and in the controversy with Great Britain, he strongly supported the Loyalists cause, and ill.u.s.trated the head of his paper with the King's Arms. Many able advocates of the Government filled the columns of the "News-Letter"

but the opposition papers were supported by writers at least equally powerful and numerous.

The Drapers were considered the most eminent and successful printers in America. A list of works containing their imprints would fill pages.

Richard Draper was a man of feeble health, and was remarkable for the delicacy of his mind and gentleness of his manner. No stain rests on his character. He was attentive to his affairs, and was esteemed as the best compiler of news of his day. Having been successful in his business and acquired a competency, he erected a handsome brick home on a convenient spot in front of the old printing home in Newbury, now Was.h.i.+ngton street, where he resided, and which was afterwards confiscated. He died June 6th, 1774, aged 47, without children, and was succeeded by his widow, Margaret, who was a granddaughter of Bartholomew Green.

A month before his death, he had taken John Boyle into partners.h.i.+p, but at the outbreak of hostilities, his sympathies being strong for the Revolutionary cause, he was not agreeable to Widow Margaret, and was succeeded in the partners.h.i.+p by John Howe, who was a devoted loyalist, and continued with her until the final suspension of the paper, which occurred on the evacuation of Boston, by the British troops, when Margaret departed with the soldiers, going first to Halifax and thence to England, where she enjoyed a pension from the British Government for the remainder of her life, in return for her loyalty and devotion to the Government.

Margaret Draper's paper was the only one published in Boston during the siege. It had been published without intermission for 72 years. She died in London in 1807, and was included in the confiscation and banishment Act.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO MARGARET DRAPER IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Richard Devens, Feb. 7, 1783; Lib. 137, fol. 48; Land and buildings in Boston, Newbury St. W.; heirs of Benjamin Church S.

and E., Josiah Waters, Jr. N.

RICHARD CLARKE.

Richard Clarke was the son of Francis Clarke, merchant, a descendant of an old Boston family. Richard graduated at Harvard College in 1729. He and his sons were the consignees of a part of the tea destroyed in Boston by the celebrated "Tea Party" December 1773. In a letter from Messrs. Clarke & Sons to Mr. Abram Dupuis they say: "On the morning of the 2nd inst. about one o'clock, we were roused out of our sleep by a violent knocking at the door of our house, and on looking out of the window we saw (for the moon shone very bright) two men in the courtyard.

One of them said he brought us a letter from the country. A servant took the letter from him at the door, the contents of which was as follows:

Boston, 1st Nov., 1773.

Richard Clarke & Son:

The Freemen of this Province understand from good authority, that there is a quant.i.ty of tea consigned to your house by the East India Company, which is destructive to the happiness of every well wisher to the country. It is therefore expected that you personally appear at Liberty Tree, on Wednesday next, at twelve o'clock at noon day, to make a public resignation of your commission, agreeable to a notification of this day for that purpose.

Fail not upon your peril.

O. C.

"In this you may observe a design to create a public belief that the factors had consented to resign their trust on Wednesday, the 3d inst., on which day we were summoned by the above-mentioned letter, to appear at Liberty Tree at 12 o'clock noon. All the bells of the meeting houses for public wors.h.i.+p were set a-ringing at 11 o'clock, and continued ringing till twelve; the town cryer went thro' the town summoning the people to a.s.semble at 'Liberty Tree.' By these methods, and some more secret ones, made use of by the authors of this design, a number of people supposed by some to be about 500, and by others more, were collected by the time and place mentioned in the printed notification.

"They consisted mostly of people of the lowest rank, very few reputable tradesmen, as we are informed, appeared amongst them. The gentlemen who are supposed the designed factors for the East India Company, viz: Mr.

Thos. Hutchinson, Mr. Faneuil, Mr. Winslow and Messrs. Clarke, met in the forenoon of the 3rd inst., at the latter's warehouse, the lower end of King street. You may well judge that none of us entertained the least thought of obeying the summons sent us to attend at Liberty Tree. After a consultation amongst ourselves and friends, we judged it best to continue together, and to endeavour, with the a.s.sistance of a few friends, to oppose the designs of the mob, if they should come to offer us any insult or injury. And on this occasion we were so happy as to be supported by a number of gentlemen of the first rank. About one o'clock, a large body of people appeared at the head of King Street, and came down to the end, and halted opposite to our warehouse. Nine persons came from them up into our counting room, viz., Mr. Molineux, Mr. Wm. Dennie, Doctor Warren, Dr. Church, Major Barber, Mr. Henderson, Mr. Gabriel Johonnot, Mr. Proctor and Mr. Ezekiel Cheever. Mr. Molineux as speaker of the above Committee, addressed himself to us, and the other gentlemen present, and told us that we had committed an high insult on the people, in refusing to give them that most reasonable satisfaction which had been demanded in the summons which had been sent us, then read a paper proposed by him, to be subscribed by the factors importing, that they solemnly promise that they would not land or pay duty on any tea that should be sent by the East India Company, but they would send back the tea to England in the same bottom, which extravagent demand being firmly refused, and treated with proper contempt by all of us. Mr. Molineux then said that since we had refused their most reasonable demands, we must expect to feel, on our first appearance, the utmost weight of the people's resentment, upon which he and the rest of the committee left our counting room and warehouse, and went to, and mixed, with the mult.i.tude that continued before our warehouse. Soon after this the mob having made one or two reverse motions to some distance, we perceived them hastening their pace towards the store, on which we ordered our servant to shut the outward door; but this he could not effect, although a.s.sisted by some other persons amongst whom were Nathaniel Hatch, Esq., one of the Justices of the inferior Court for this country, and a Justice of the Peace for the county. This gentleman made all possible exertions to stem the current of the mob, not only by declaring repeatedly, and with a loud voice, that he was a magistrate, and commanded the people, by virtue of his office, and in his Majesty's name, to desist from all riotous proceedings, and to disperse, but also by a.s.sisting in person; but the people not only made him a return, of insulting and reproachful words, but prevented his endeavors by force and blows, to get our doors shut, upon which Mr. Hatch, with some other of our friends, retreated to our counting room. Soon after this, the outward doors of the store were taken off their hinges by the mob, and carried to some distance; immediately a number of the mob rushed into the warehouse, and endeavoured to force into the counting room, but as this was in another story, and the staircase leading to it narrow, we, with our friends,--about twenty in number--by some vigorous efforts, prevented their accomplis.h.i.+ng their design. The mob appeared in a short time to be dispersed, and after a few more faint attacks, they contented themselves with blocking us up in the store for the s.p.a.ce of about an hour and a half, at which time, perceiving that much the greatest part of them were drawn off, and those that remained not formidable, we, with our friends, left the warehouse, walked up the length of King Street together, and then went to our respective homes without any molestation, saving some insulting behavior from a few dispicable persons.

"The night following, a menacing letter was thrust under Mr. Faneuil's door, to be communicated to the other consignees, with a design to intimidate them from executing their trust, and other methods have since been made use of in the public papers and otherwise, for the same purpose."[240]

[240] "Tea Leaves," pp. 282, 3, 4, 5, 6.

On the morning of November 17, 1773, a little party of family friends had a.s.sembled at the home of Richard Clarke, Esq., near the King's Chapel on School Street, to welcome young Jonathan Clarke, who had just arrived from London. All at once the inmates of the dwelling were startled by a violent beating at the door, accompanied with shouts and the blowing of horns, creating considerable alarm. The ladies were hastily bestowed in places of safety, while the gentlemen secured the avenues of the lower story, as well as they were able. The yard and vicinity were soon filled with people. One of the inmates warned them from an upper window, to disperse, but getting no other reply, than a shower of stones, he discharged a pistol. Then came a shower of misseles, which broke in the lower windows and damaged some of the furniture. Some influential Revolutionists had by this time arrived, and put a stop to the proceedings of the mob, which then dispersed. The consignees then called upon the governor and council for protection.

The eventful Thursday, December 16, 1773, a day ever memorable in the annals of Boston, witnessed the largest mob yet a.s.sembled in Boston.

Nearly seven thousand persons collected at the Old South Meeting House.

The tea s.h.i.+ps had not taken out clearance papers, the twenty days allowed by law terminated that night. Then the revenue officers could take possession, and under cover of the naval force, land the tea, and opposition to this would have caused b.l.o.o.d.y work. The Revolutionists desired to avoid this issue, so it was decided to destroy the tea.

Rotch, the owner of the "Dartmouth," applied to Governor Hutchinson, at his residence in Milton, for a pa.s.s to proceed with his vessel to London, for the governor had ordered Colonel Leslie, commander of the castle, and Admiral Montagu, to guard the pa.s.sages to the sea, and permit no unauthorized vessels to pa.s.s. The governor offered Rotch a letter to Admiral Montagu, commending s.h.i.+p and goods to his protection, if Rotch would agree to have his s.h.i.+p haul out into the stream, but he replied that none were willing to a.s.sist him in doing this, and the attempt would subject him to the ill will of the people. The governor then sternly refused a pa.s.s, as it would have been "a direct countenancing and encouraging the violation of the acts of trade."

Between six and seven o'clock in the evening three different mobs disguised as Indians proceeded from different parts of the town, arrived with axes and hatchets, and hurried to Griffin's (now Liverpool wharf), boarded the three tea s.h.i.+ps, and, warning their crews and the custom house officers, to keep out of the way, in less than three hours time had broken and emptied into the dock three hundred and forty-two chests of tea, valued at 18,000. A Loyalist writer of the time says: "Now this crime of the Bostonians, was a compound of the grossest injury and insult. It was an act of the highest insolence towards government, such a mildness itself cannot overlook or forgive. The injustice of the deed was also most atrocious, as it was the destruction of property to a vast amount, when it was known that the nation was obliged in honor to protect it." This memorable occurrence was undoubtedly in the immediate sequence of the events which it produced, the proximate cause of the American Revolution.[241]

[241] See Page 48 for further particulars concerning the Tea Party Mob.

Richard Clarke was treated with much severity by the Revolutionists. His name is found with the Addressers of General Gage. He arrived in London December 24, 1775, after a pa.s.sage of "only" twenty-one days from Boston. He was one of the original members of the Loyalist Club, for a weekly dinner, and discourses. He lived with his son-in-law, Copley the painter, Leicester Square. Lord Lyndhurst was his grandson. He died in England in 1795.

JONATHAN CLARKE, son of Richard Clarke, accompanied his father to England. He was his father's partner in business. He was a member in 1776 of the Loyalists Club, in London, and had lodgings in Brompton Row the next year. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished. After the Revolution he went to Canada.

ISAAC WINSLOW CLARKE, son of Richard Clarke, was born in Boston, 27 October, 1746. He was sent by his father to Plymouth to collect debts, but in the night was a.s.saulted by a mob and obliged to flee from the town, to escape from personal injuries. He became Commissary-General of Lower Canada, and died in that Colony in 1822, after he had embarked for England. His daughter Susan married Charles Richard Ogden, Esq., Solicitor-General of Lower Canada, in 1829.

PETER JOHONNOT.

The Johonnots in America are of French Huguenot origin. Daniel Johonnot, who was born in France about 1668, was one of the first parties of thirty families that arrived in Boston in 1686. He was in company with his uncle Andrae Sigournie, Distiller, from Roch.e.l.le, and went with him to Oxford in New England, remaining there until the settlement was broken up by the incursion of Indians August 25, 1696. Jean Jeanson (John Johnson) and his three children were killed during the ma.s.sacre.

Mrs. Johnson was Andrew Sigourney's daughter, and tradition in the Johonnot family relates that she was rescued at that time from the Indians by her cousin, Daniel Johonnot, to whom she was subsequently married.[242]

[242] New England Hist. and Genealogical Register. Vol. 6. P. 357.

The first record we have of Daniel Johonnot in Boston was at the time of his marriage "on the 18th of April, by the Rev. Samuel Willard of the Old South Church, to Susan Johnson." This was in the year 1700. In 1714 it appears by the Suffolk Records he purchased for 300 "current money,"

of John Borland and Sarah his wife, an estate near the Mill Creek and bounded by Mill Pond, and the street leading to said pond (Union Street) etc. His last purchase of real estate was near the Old South Church and this land was afterwards occupied by one of the descendants of his daughter Mary, Mary Anne (Boyer), number 156 Was.h.i.+ngton street, opposite the Province House. At the time of Daniel Johonnot's death it was occupied by his grandson, and must have been Mr. Johonnot's last residence, as in an inventory it is described as being in the possession of Mr. Daniel Boyer. In Mr. Johonnot's French Bible, Amsterdam Edition of 1700, are recorded the births of his six children in French, all children of Daniel and Serzane Johonnot. This Bible later came into the possession of one of his descendants. Daniel Johonnot died in Boston in June, 1748 at the age of eighty years. His wife died some time after 1731, and before the death of her husband. He was remembered as being a friend to the poor, always industrious and frugal.

Zacherie (Zachariah) Johonnot, the eldest son of the preceding was born in Boston January 20, 1700-1. His first wife was Elizabeth Quincy, who died during the revolution, and he married again, April 24, 1777, Margaret Le Mercier, daughter of Andrew Le Mercier, Minister of the French Protestant church in Boston.

Like his father he was a Distiller and engaged in mercantile pursuits.

His dwelling house and store was on Orange street at the South part of the town, and his distillery was on Harvard street directly opposite his dwelling. At the end of the same street was his wharf, and wooden distil-house, storehouses, etc. His house and store were burnt at the time of the great fire, April 20, 1787. The s.p.a.cious gardens filled with rare fruit trees, beautiful flowers and shrubs from his father's land were mostly destroyed.

Mr. Johonnot died in Boston in 1784 at the age of eighty-three. To his son Peter (then in England) he bequeathed "his mansion house, store adjoining, yard and garden, as the same is now fenced in, etc." He had ten children, all by his first wife.

PETER JOHONNOT, the fourth child of the preceding, was born in Boston September 23, 1729. He was married January 10, 1750 to Katherine Dudley by the Rev. Mather Byles. She was the daughter of the Honorable William Dudley (son of Governor Joseph Dudley). Peter Johonnot was a Distiller, and lived in Boston. In 1775 he was an Addresser of Gage. The next year he was one of the committee with Thomas and Jonathan Amory, chosen by the citizens of Boston March 8, 1776, to communicate with General Howe and take measures to avert the impending destruction, threatened by him, in case his army should be molested while evacuating the town.

In 1776 Peter Johonnot went to Halifax and thence to England. In 1778 he was proscribed and banished, and in 1779 he was a loyal Addresser to the King. Mrs. Johonnot's death occurred in Boston in 1769. Mr. Johonnot died in London August 8, 1809, at the age of eighty, and left no issue.[243] The following occurs in the Diary of Dr. P. Oliver:--"1809, Aug.--Peter Johonnot died this month in London, aged 79."

[243] New England Hist. and Gen. Reg. Vol. 7. P. 142.

FRANCIS JOHONNOT, son of Daniel, was born November 30, 1709. He married Mary Johnson of Boston, widow, 1752. He was a distiller and engaged in mercantile pursuits. His distillery was near Ess.e.x street on the margin of the South Cove. His "Mansion house" was on Newbury, now Was.h.i.+ngton street, the same was owned and occupied for many years by his son-in-law Eben Oliver, Esq. He was a loyalist, and at the beginning of the revolution went to England. He died March 8, 1775. Mary, his widow, who died in Boston March 17, 1797, in her seventy-third year, administered upon his estate in Ma.s.sachusetts. They had seven children.

MARY JOHONNOT, daughter of Andrew Johonnot, and cousin to Peter the Loyalist, was born in 1730. She married Thomas Edwards of Boston, June 13, 1758, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Henry Caner of King's Chapel. Mr. Edwards for a while was engaged in mercantile business in Middletown, Connecticut, but later returned to Boston, and was employed by the government. He was a loyalist and went to Halifax in 1776 and thence to England. He died in London at an advanced age. Mary Johonnot, his wife, died in Boston, February 14, 1792. They had five children.

LIST OF CONFISCATED ESTATES BELONGING TO PETER JOHONNOT IN SUFFOLK COUNTY AND TO WHOM SOLD.

To Ebenezer Seaver, Sept. 4, 1782; Lib. 135, fol. 190; Land and buildings in Boston, Orange St. E.; Samuel Pope and Hopestill Foster S.; Joseph Lovell and heirs of William Ettridge W.; Zachariah Johonnot N.