(No. 106.)
THOMAS BUCKLEY, lieutenant, and Thomas
Steele, ensign,
both in his Majesty's 29th regiment of foot, being duly sworn,
depose, that they the deponents were in the officers barrack, called
Smith's, behind which is barracks
where two companies of the
29th regiment were quartered; that about 9 o'clock at night, they
were alarmed by a noise in the street; that by the time they got down
stairs, they saw a soldier very much wounded, having a severe wound
in his head, and one of his fingers almost cut off, who said the
towns-people were murdering some soldiers in the
street. As soon as
the deponents understood what was going on, they made the
soldiers return to their barracks, some of whom were much
wounded. That the inhabitants followed the soldiers, threat-
ening and insulting them in the grossest manner, even to the steps
of
the barracks, where the officers were keeping the soldiers in, they
brandishing their weapons over the officers heads, and making of
many threats. That the deponents made use of many arguments to
make the mob disperse, telling them,
"that no soldiers should stir out
of the barrack;" all of which was ineffectual, till there was heard
the
noise of another mob. On which they went off, flourishing their
weapons, and swearing they would kill us all. They farther depose,
that from their seeing numbers of the inhabitants armed before this
affair happened, and their immediately ringing a number of bells to
alarm the town, they had reason to believe they had formed a design
to attack the soldiery. The deponents further say, that since they
have been in
Boston they have been frequently insulted, and of late
they have gone so far as to render it unsafe for officer or soldier to
walk the streets after dark.
THOMAS BUCKLEY. THOMAS STEELE.
Suffolk, ss.
Boston, March 13th, 1770.
Sworn before me, JAMES MURRAY, J.P.
(No. 107.)
I Paul Minchin, lieutenant in his Majesty's 29th regiment
of foot,
do swear, that on Monday the 5th of March 1770, being in my
quarters, about 9 o'clock at night, I got up and went to the street
door, and there saw some towns-people and
soldiers fighting in the
narrow lane opposite the street door, and in a moment after, I heard
some of the towns-people call out
"Liberty, liberty, fire, fire;" and
then the streets filled with inhabitants. Lieutenant Dixon,
and myself,
in a little time after got the soldiers, who were engaged with a number
of the inhabitants, into their barracks, upon which several of the
towns-
people seemed very outrageous, and abused the officers and soldiers
in the most insulting manner, damning and calling them
"bloody-
back scoundrels," making use of a good deal of such abusive
lan-
guage; several of them threatened us, and flourishing their weapons