arms, and saying, damn them where are they, and crying fire ; the
bells then rung as for fire ; I was then called in again for half
a minute, and returning again to the door, the inhabitants
began to collect. -- Soon after a party of soldiers came down
the south side of
King street and cross'd over to the
custom-house
centinel, and form'd in
a rank by him, nor did I see any manner
of abuse offered the centinel, and in three minutes
at the farthest they
began to fire on the inhabitants, by which several persons were
killed, and several others were wounded. Some time after
this, the party march'd off very leisurely, and
without molesta-
tion, and presently after the main guard was drawn out in ranks
between the guard-house and town-house, and was joined by
the piquet in the same manner, with fixed bayonets and muskets
shouldered, except the front rank, who stood with charged
bayonets, until the Lieutenant-Governor
came up. -- And I do
further declare, as near as I can judge, there was not more
than 100 persons in the street, at the time the guns were discharged.
THO. MARSHALL.
Suffolk, ss. Boston,
March 20. 1770. Thomas Marshall,
Esq;
above named, after due examination, made oath to
the truth of the afore-written affidavit, taken to per-
petuate the remembrance of the thing.
Before RI. DANA, Just. of Peace
and of the Quorum.
SAM. PEMBERTON, Just. Peace.
(No. 42)
I John Leach jun'r of lawful age do testify and say that
on
Monday night between the hours of nine and ten in the
evening of the 5th instant, three youths & myself were passing
thro' the alley leading from Justice
Quincey's to Murray's
barracks (so called) when we had got about half way thro' the
alley a soldier of the 29th regiment with a dirty looking man
overtook us, the soldier being armed with a cutlass or sword,
and the man with a short thick club, and rushing thro' us,
one of the youths asked what the matter was -- by that the man
that had the club struck one of the youths on the shoulder, another
of the youths asked him what he meant, by that the soldier
came up and struck the youth with his sword or cutlass on his arm
which did him considerable damage, then we all ran up the
alley and asked for assistance, when soon came up some more
soldiers out of their barracks thro' the alley
armed with cutlas
-ses, swords, shovels and tongs,cutting and slashing that we were
obliged to run up the alley and stand at the head of the alley