Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
I recd. your favr.1 by Mr. Adam yesterday & shall engage the butter for you of my brother. The congress are secret in all their doings Except the choice of members for the continental congress. I congratulate you upon your being rechosen. The Scarboro’ ariv’d here last night, the reports are various:2 some say three frigates ships of the line are ordered here with marines, & that matters are to be pushed, other reports are that they are bound to Jamaica which place tis expected will soon be attacked by the Spaniards. Gage had a conference last night with his new fangled 18council but nothing has transpired.3 I suppose tomorrow’s papers will give us more particular intelligence.
I am glad you have a prospect of escaping a feavor, but think you had better not resque venture so far from home as Cambridge. A relapse might be fatal. I am Sr. yr. huml. Servt.,
Not located.
The Scarborough was a British troop transport. About this time the troop build-up in Boston was enormous. On Oct. 23, four transports arrived from New York with troops from the Royal Artillery, the Royal Regiment of Ireland (the 18th), and the 47th Regiment. Within the week several other transports arrived from Quebec with troops from the 10th and 52nd regiments (“Diary of Thomas Newell,”
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society
, 1st ser., 4[1858–1860]:223).
Parliament enacted the Massachusetts Government Act in May 1774, although it was not officially received in Boston and enforced until early August. This act brought about four major changes in governmental structure. First, it abrogated the provision in the 1691 charter for election of the council by the House of Representatives and provided that after Aug. 1, 1774, the king in council would appoint the colony’s council. Second, it altered the charter to allow the governor to remove all judges, justices of the peace, the attorney general, and like officers. Third, it disallowed provincial legislation that permitted town meetings to be called for any purpose and restricted them to the election of town officers, representatives to the general court, or other purposes specifically allowed by the governor. Finally, it changed the procedure for selection of grand and petit juries. Governor Gage quickly convened the new council (the “Mandamus Council”), administering the oath to Lt. Gov. Andrew Oliver and 10 councilors on Aug. 8 and to another 14 on Aug. 16. Eleven additional members were appointed but never sworn, largely due to the unpopularity of this action (L. Kinvin Wroth, “Province in Rebellion: An Interpretive Essay,” in Province in Rebellion: A Documentary History of the Founding of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ed. L. Kinvin Wroth et al. [Cambridge, Mass., 1975], 39–40, 47).