Created: July 2012
Below is the full transcription of what Joseph Hawley wrote as published in the Boston Evening Post in March, 1766. It is transcribed as written. I should note the spelling errors are not mine. I have transcribed this as written.
To the publishers of the Boston Evening Post, Please to insert the following in your next, and you will oblige your humble Servant,
Joseph Hawley
If the author of several tracts sometime since published in the Boston Evening Post, subscribed PHILANTHROP, is possessed of that genuine and universal love to mankind which the name he has thought proper to assume denotes, it will not be disagreeable to him that the public should have given them a true, perfect, impartial and faithful account of any matter he has possessed impartially and faithfully to relate to them, but has failed in the attempt, and instead thereof has given but an imperfect and maimed account of the same; because in that case the only reason of his having to done must have been from mistake and want of good information. But if he is not indeed the person he has so often subscribed himself, but only a pretender to such a character, and has knowingly endevoured in any instance to impose on the public an unfaithful and partial account of any affair for a faithful and impartial one, it is proper at least (when such misrepresented affair is of any moment) theat the public should have the matter truly represented to them; and is could not be disagreeable to any true lover of mankind to have it clearly discovered whether such representation was made with design or involuntarily, whether it would be agreeable to Philanthrop or not. But as he has thought proper to conceal from the public both his christian and surname, I shall not attempt the latter but shall truly and faithfully endeavour the former.-And as Philanthrop has set at the head of one of his essays which he has communicated to the public a part of the sacred writings, I conclude he is willing to be thought a person revering their authority - if he is indeed such an one he will have some trouble rising in his breast, if upon reflection he should find (whatever the temptation was) that any of his conduct falls under the reproof of any part of those holy writings and that he may be furnished with an occasion for self examination I shall take the liberty just to mention one of Solomon's proverbs, which I take to be received as canonical, and is in the following words or words of the like import, He that speaketh the truth sheweth forth righteousness, but a false witness deceit. Having said thus much I shall not trouble Philanthrop nor the public with any further introduction, but proceed to take notice of some parts of the tract subscribed Philanthrop published in the Boston Evening Post for the fifth of January last. In the first place I most freely confess that there is great truth in the first part of what Philanthrop in that paper calls a digression from the many things
Here I am willing to be quite explicit and plainly to declare that I mean the narration which I lately made in the house of representatives of what has been since generally called the Berkshire affair; a faithful account whereof I shall now attempt to give the public for two reasons especially, one is, that they may judge whether the account given by Philanthrep is either what be promised viz an "impartial" account or what he pronounced it to be, "a faithful" one; and I shall also give the same under my hand: that so there may be a fair opportunity and occasion for any one to expose me of I shall in any material circumstance misrepresent facts to the disadvantage of any person, or be unjust in the remarks I may make thereon And to wave all circumstances not absolutely necessary to a right understanding of the affair above mentioned, it was as follows -At a court of general sessions of the peace holden at Great Barrington, within and for the County of Berkshire, on the last Tuesday of April 1766, Seth Warren of Lanesborough in the said county of Berkshire, with nine other persons, all of the said Lanesborough, was presented to the said court of sessions by the standing grand jury for that county, in the words following, viz.
Berkshire, At a Court of General Sessions of the Peace holden at Great Barrington, within and for the said County of Berkshire, on the last Tuesday of April, in the sixth year of the Reign of our Sovereighn Lord George the third, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, King Anno Domini, 1766.
The grand jurors of the said lord the king for the body of the said county of Berkshire, on their oaths present, that Noah Kent, yeoman, Gideon Kent, yeoman, Abel Kent, yeoman James Loomis, jun'r yeoman, Seth Warren yeoman, Ichabod Hickok yeoman, Peter Curtis, gentleman, Samuel Dorwin Jun'r, yeoman, David Wheeler, yeoman and John Franklin, yeoman, all of Lanesborough, in the said county of Berkshire, on the twenty fifth day of November, in the fifth year of our reign 1765, at Lanesborough aforesaid with force and arms, viz. With clubs and staves did riotously and unlawfully meet and assemble themselves together to disturb the peace of our lord the now king, to prevent the due execution of his majesty's good and wholesome laws, and to the terror and dismay of the people, and being assembled and met together did then and there makee an assault upon one Thomas Williams of Stockbridge in the county of Berkshire, the being in the peace of God and our sovereign lord the king, and then and there beat, wounded and evilly treated the said Thomas; and also that the said Noah, Gideon, Abel, James, Seth, Icabod, Peter, Samuel, David and John, being met and assembled as aforesaid, did then and there with force and arms rescue the said John Franklin from and cut of the custody of one John Morse then and ever since a deputy sheriff of the said county of Berkshire, under Elijah Williams Esq; sheriff. - The body of which same John Franklin then and there was arrested and taken by said John Morse, and in his custody, being by virtue of a write of execution out of the office of the clerk of his Majesty's inferior court of common pleas for the aforesaid county of Berkshire, upon a judgement of the same court before that time recovered by one Truman Hinman of Woodbury, in the county of Litchfield, trader, against the said John Franklin, the same judgement then being in full force, not satisfied nor reversed, which same writ of exuction by virtue whereof the said John Franklin was arrested then and there was in full force, and returnable into the same court of common please aforesaid, to be holden at Pittsfield in said county, on the first Tuesday of December then next, and the said John Franklin then and there under the arrest of the said John Morse as aforesaid, by virtue of the said execution as aforesaid, they the said Noah, Gideon, Abel, James, Seth, Ichabod, Peter, Samuel, David and John Franklin did then and there with force and arms as aforesaid rescue, cause to escape and go at large out of the custody and from under the arrest of the said John Morse without paying, or satisfying the same execution or any part thereof, and many other injuries, and outrages the said Noah, Gideon, Abel, James, Seth, Ichabod, Peter, Samuel, David and John Franklin then and there did and committed in contempt of his Majesty's leige subjects; the preventing of justice; in pernicious and evil example to others his Majesty's liege, quiet, and peaceable subjects, contrary to the laws in such cases made and provided against the peace of our lord the king his crown and dignity.
EZRA FELLOWS, Foreman
Witnesses, John Morse Ezekiel Root
Thomas Williams Samuel Warner Jun
Joseph Keeler Miles Powell
Elitha Jones Abraham Bristoll
A true copy of the Presentment.
Attest. ELIJAH DWIGHT, Clerk
A true copy of the Presentment
Attest. NATH. HATCH, Clerk
To the said presentment the said Warren plead not guilty, and was tried thereof by a jury of good and lawful men of the said county of Berkshire, who upon their oaths returned he was guilty, and thereupon he was sentenced to pay a fine of three pounds six shillings and eight pence cests. From that sentence the said Warren appealed to the superior court, his counsel advising him thereto from an apprehension, first, that as the writ of execution on which thee officer pretended to act in arresting Franklin was not stamped, he had no authority (if the stamp act ever had any force) by virtue of the said writ to arrest any person. Secondly that ns(?) the company was assembled with a lawful intention and on innocent occasion what was done by the said Warren and others would not amount to a riot but only a trespass or sudden assay, as it was not then observed by the council for the king, or by the court, or any body else, that their forcibly opposing the execution of the said writ was in consequence or pursuance of any previous confederacy or combination. Thirdly from an apprehension, that as the affair happened in a time of great confusion and dirress, when many in the country, who as well as the Lanesborough people had always before by their honest and peaceable behavior towards all men, proved themselves good and liege subjects of our sovereign lord the king, under a sense of great wrong and injustice were driven to a degree of madness and did not perhaps in all things act with prudence and temper, the attorney general on a due consideration of the matter, time and circumstances thereof, would enter a nolle prosequi, or that the justices of the superior court, in case Mr. Attorney should not judge proper so to do, would discover so much wisdom, prudence, temper, found judgement, and proper sense of the extraordinary grievance the land was then under, as in case of conviction on trial, to defer sentence and despite the matter until his excellency's pleasure might be known thereon; and also because by the issue of such an appeal the other persons who stood presented and had not been brought to trial at the sessions, might the better determine what course it would be most expediante for them to take. The foregoing things I say, being suggested to the said Warren by his counsel (although the three selft particulars perhaps were total mistakes) induced him to appeal to the superior court; which appeal at the superior court held at Springfield in September last, present the Chief Justice, Judge Cutlring(?) and Judge Oliver, he prosecuted, and upon the trial the following facts appeared in evidence, viz. That on or about the fifth day of November 1765, one John Morse a deputy sheriff for the county of Berkshire, took one Peter Curtis of the said Lanesborough on a justice's writ of execution, dated before the first of November aforeland, with an intent to commit him to the goal of the said county, that the said Peter resisted him, but being overpowered by Morse was conveyed by him to the tavern in Lanesborough aforesaid, where the said Warren and some other inhabitants of the said Lanesborough prevented the said Morse from taking the said Curtis to goal, and obliged Morse to give Curtis his liberty, and permit him to return home; the said Warren and others declaring to the said Morse that it would be in vain for him to attempt to take any person from Lanesborough to prison for debt, so long as prisoners when committed could not allowed to have the liberty of the prison yard upon any terms, but must be kept in as close custody as felons, and until the court should be open and people should be admitted by some court or process of law to recover their dues as formerly. And to be explicit, it appeared in evidence, that the plain sense of whit those persons should be admitted by some course or process of law to recover their dues as formerly. And to be explicit, it appeared in evidence, that the plain sense of whit those persons at that time declared to Morse, was that they desired he would not attempt any more to take any person from Lanesborough to goal on writs purchased or sued out before the first of November for debt, so long as they could not have their lawful right, viz. the benefit and privileges of the king's writs for the recovery of their just dues of those who were indebited to them; and of he should attempt it and should actually take and arrest any person in Lanesbsorough for that purpose, he might depend on it that they would be rescued - A noble resolution, worthy of every Englishman and all who have the principals of a free government interwoven in the constitution of their minds.- Upon this Morse went off for that time as he came, without taking off Curtis. - This resolution of the said Warren and others then together, was soon after the said sixth of November communicated to several others of the inhabitants of Lanesborough, who on consideration of the state of the province & country judged the resolution reasonable & proper, joined therein and agreed to abide by it. The whole number that acceded to the aforesaid proposal and actually joined therein, within four or five days from the fifth of November, was ten, if I don't misremember the evidence; and as those who were of that opinion thought it best for all the inhabitants of the town to join in the same resolution and confederacy, on the twentyfifth of the same November, at a raising in the said Lanesborough, when the greatest part of the men of that town was assembled, it was proposed to a considerable number of them, that all the inhabitants should join together and stand by each other in preventing the officers from arresting and imprisoning any one of the town for debt, so long as the then present state of things as to proceedings in law should continue---several of the company to whom the proposal was then made expressed their approbation thereof none of them objected to it. - In the evening the company went to the tavern, and the above mentioned Morse with five others, viz one Capt. Lord, Mess. Eliith Jones, Samuel Warner, Thomas Williams and Eli Root, whom he had procured to go with him to Pittsfield to assist him in the service of the aforesaid writ of execution against the said Curtis, and some other writ or writs whereof he was possessed sued out before the said first of November, came to the said tavern and having gained intelligence abroad before they came into the house, that there was a large company in the house, and that the said Curtis and Franklin were among the company in the house, they entered the same, and the said Jones upon fight of Curtis went to him and arrested him in the following manner, viz. he siezed him by one arm with one hand and by the hair of his head with the other hand and accosted him with the following words, or words very like them, Now Fatler Peter you old devil I have got you and you shall go to goal: Morse went on, and upon discovering Franklin arrested him on a proper and regular manner, and commanded some of the Lanesborough people to take custody of him, but perceiving some outcry and disorder in that part of the house where Curtis was, made to him; Seth Warren at the time of Morse's arrival being at the house of one Noah Kent, about 20 rods from the tavern, and being informed by one Joseph Loomis (who ran from the tavern) that Morse was come, ran hastily with the said Kent to the tavern, where the said Noah Kent found that Elisha Jones had got Abel Kent, brother to the said Noah, down on the floor and lay upon him, which happened in consequence of an attack which Jones made on the said Abel, upon the said Abel's attempt to rescue Curtis from the hold which Jones had of him in the manner abovementioned, whereof the said Curtis complained as very harsh and severe--- Upon Noah Kent's seeing his brother Abel down, and restrained by Jones in manner aforesaid, he rescued Abel and encountered Jones, Threw him on the floor, fell on him, held him down for a minute or two, then suffered him to get up--Very soon the attack became more general, very angry, imprudent and profane language was uttered by both parties and they came to blows, but the blows were given first by Morse's party, Morse himself was once thrown down on the floor. Morse and all his party except Lord, were engaged in the scuffle. After some time the tumult abated a little, and some of the Lanesborough men who were cool and had not been engaged in the scuffle, desired Morse to sit down and confer upon the affair of imprisoning men for debt in the present state of affairs in the province, and suggested to him that perhaps he might satisfy them of there reasonableness thereof, or they might convince him that it was unreasonable. Morse declined entering into any discourse on the subject, and insisted on it that he would execute his writ. Whereupon a considerable number of Lanesborough men let him know that he should not then take any man to goal, and that they would resist him; by this time a number of boys had kindled a fire of thaw and other light matter abroad, and were burning several perions(?) in effigy, when the men in the house attacked several of Morse's party and forced them out of the house and drew one or two of them towards the said fire threatening to throw them in. Williams was drawn so near the fire that as he deposed (If I do not misremember) some of his clothes were singed. After they had cleared the house of Morse and his party, the Lanesborough men got staves and drove them away thirty or forty rods from the house, and some of them sent stones at them but did not hit them. The Lanesborough men told Morse that if he should come any more to take any person to goal for debt before the times were altered, they would treat him again in the like manner; whereupon Morse and his party judged it prudent to return to Pittsfield. It appeared in evidence that Seth Warren was active in turning Morse and his party out of the house and in driving them away; it was particularly deposed by some of the king's witnesses that he said to Morse it was very lucky he came at a time when Lanesborough men were generally together or words of the same import.
[The Remainder in our next]
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