“The Body of Michael Johnson then and there being Dead”

Revolutionary Spaces preserves what might be the first piece of legal paperwork arising from the Boston Massacre: the report of an inquest convened the day after the shooting.

This document a printed form filled out with specific details on the deceased and the names and signatures of the coroner and his jury. I’ve transcribed it with the printed words in boldface:

Suffolk, ss.

AN Inquisition Indented, taken at Boston within the said County of Suffolk the Sixth Day of March in the tenth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the third by the Grace of God, of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Before Robert Pierpont Gentm. one of the Coroners of our said Lord the King, within the County of Suffolk aforesaid;

upon the View of the Body of Michael Johnson then and there being Dead, by the Oaths of Benjamin Waldo Foreman Jacob Emmons John McLane William Fleet John Wise John How Nathaniel Hurd William Baker junior William Flagg William Crafts Enoch Rust Robert Duncan William Palfrey & Samuel Danforth good and lawful Men of Boston aforesaid, within the County aforesaid; who being Charged and Sworn to enquire for our said Lord the King, When and by what Means, and how the said Michael Johnson came to his Death: Upon their Oaths do say,

That the said Michael Johnson was wilfully and feloniously murdered at King Street in Boston in the County aforesaid on the Evening of the 5th. instant between the hours of nine & ten by the discharge of a Musket or Muskets loaded with Bullets, two of which were shot thro’ his body, by a party of Soldiers to us unknown, then and there headed and commanded by Captain Thomas Preston of his Majesty’s 29th. Regiment of foot against the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King his Crown and dignity and so by that means he came by his death as appears by evidence.

In Witness whereof, as well I the Coroner aforesaid, as the Jurors aforesaid, to this Inquisition have interchangeably put our Hands and Seals, the Day and Year aforesaid.

This document was made so early that Bostonians hadn’t realized that “Michael Johnson” was really named Crispus Attucks.

Revolutionary Spaces shared an essay about this document’s history as a museum artifact and the work that’s been done to conserve it.

Tonight I’ll speak online to the American Revolution Round Table of New Jersey about how Massachusetts’s legal system responded to the Boston Massacre. Four criminal trials followed that event, though we usually hear about only one or two (so I might end up talking more about the others). 

“Strict adherance to the design of the Townˇ

At 3:00 P.M. on 8 May 1770, after their midday dinners, the white, propertied men of Boston returned to Faneuil Hall to resume their town meeting.

Having elected their representatives to the Massachusetts General Court, they named a committee to write instructions for those gentlemen. Such instructions had become a useful way for the Whigs to make political statements about the big issues of the day.

The first man named to that committee was Richard Dana. Traditionally that made him the committee head and the principal author of its report. Dana was a magistrate respected for his legal knowledge, suggesting that the meeting expected such issues to arise in the upcoming legislature.

The other committee members were attorney Josiah Quincy, Jr.; Dr. Joseph Warren; selectman Joshua Henshaw; and attorney Benjamin Kent. It’s notable that Quincy had just represented Ebenezer Richardson at his murder trial, yet the town still felt he was worthy of the public trust.

Another item on the agenda involved the Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre. The committee who had written that report on the Boston Massacre, including newly returned representative James Bowdoin and Dr. Warren, “presented an Appendix to said Narrative.” That was the collection of depositions the authors had used as evidence, starting here.

The town meeting officially “accepted” that appendix. Which avoided hassle because those depositions had already printed with the report and sent off to sympathetic figures in Britain, and William Molineux had mailed a copy to special prosecutor Robert Treat Paine.

The men then voted “that the Thanks of the Town be and hereby are given to said Committee for their strict adherance to the design of the Town in their appointment; and for their perfecting the Business in so correct and masterly a manner.”

The meeting also discussed two property issues. Several inhabitants had asked “that the Selectmen may be empowered to make sale of several pieces of unimproved Land.” And Jacob Emmons asked “that the Town would make him satisfaction for the damage he has or may sustain by the taking away of his Lands in Paddys Alley for the enlarging of a Street.”

The voters took different approaches to these problems. On the first, they named a committee to handle the matter, as usual. On the second, they decided Emmons hadn’t followed proper procedure and gave him “leave to withdraw his Petition”—meaning a definite no.

TOMORROW: The schoolmasters’ salaries.