William Jackson was born in Boston in 1731 and was a long-time Boston merchant. He consistently defied patriot attempts to embargo British goods during the years before the Revolution, earning him the ire of the Sons of Liberty who urged Bostonians to boycot his shop. He left Boston with the British in March 1776, but his ship was captured, and he was returned to Boston and jailed.   In this letter to the Continental Congress on 6 July 1776, Loyalist William Jackson complains of his imprisonment in the Boston jail and requests that his confiscated property be recovered. Jackson also describes the evacuation of Boston on 17 March 1776.  Jackson went into exile in England and was formerly banished by the Revolutionary government of Massachusetts in 1778