| Citation |
BEP(F.766.009
10 Mar 1766:31 (1591)
Nothing as yet having been inserted in any of the papers,
relative to the opposition that Newbury-Port has made
against the late detestable S---p A-t, who having
distinguished themselves as much (if not more) than any town
in the province, according to their number, your inserting
the following will oblige some of your constant customers.
On February the 26th 1766, the Sons of Liberty got
intelligence of a stamp paper, they immediately went in
pursuit after it, and found in the hands of Mr. John
B-rdm-n a stamp clearance from Halifax to the West-Indies,
for the schooner Defiance, with 70,000 boards, 50,000
shingles, and 10 horses in said clearance, which they
demanded of the said John; and after some debate with great
reluctance he delivered the said clearance, saying, D--n it,
there is L.40 gone; they then carried the said John before a
justice, where he was sworn before some hundreds, that he
had no other stamp papers, nor knew of any other in town,
nor would make use of any again until allow'd by the
province; they then dismist him with three cheers. The next
day his effigie was hung on Liberty-Tree near the lower Long
Wharf, the detestable clearance was fix'd on a pole with a
chain, carried thro' the town with drums beating, and flag
flying, and other music; at 4 o'clock the effigies was let
down, and that, with the clearance was burnt under the Tree
of Liberty, in the midst of the acclamations of a vast
number of spectators, who then gave three cheers, and with
the roaring of the drums dispers'd; the whole was conducted
with the utmost decency and order.
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