“The Cryer proclaiming at every Corner”

Yesterday I quoted John Rowe’s brief and disapproving description of a political parade in Boston on 24 July 1770.

A more detailed and positive account appeared in the 13 Aug 1770 New-York Gazette, an extract of a letter from Boston dated 26 July:

The Sons got a Union [flag], on which they inscribed, Immediate Exportation without Exception, on Royal Paper [19" x 24"]: This was preceeded by the Cryer [probably Thomas Webber], and a French-Horn, and immediately followed by two Drums; the most reputable North-End Sons being principal Tradesmen, &c.

To these succeeded two Pair of Colours, and two more drums, and thus proceeded the whole Length of the Town, the Cryer proclaiming at every Corner, The Voice of the Trade and the People will be attended to this Afternoon at 3’Clock.——Now is the Crisis---Will you be enslaved by a Handful of Importers. Yea, or Nay? The Answer, NO! with the loudest Acclamations.—

The Meeting was very full, and a unanimous Vote passed, That whereas the Committee of Merchants had received a Letter from four Gentlemen in New-York, taking upon them the Stile of the Committee of Merchants of New-York, and that there was not sufficient Reason to believe, that the Contents of the said Letter (which was read in my Absence) were the Sentiments of the Committee of Merchants in New-York, the said Letter be torn to Pieces in the most indignant Manner, and committed to the Winds; and a Standing Committee was directed to write a respectful Letter to the remaining Seventeen Members, acquainting them with the above Vote, and a subsequent one, which obtained unanimously for supporting the [non-importation] Agreement.

A Committee was then appointed to wait upon all the Importers in the late Vessels, and take their Orders to the Truckmen, to take the Goods on board, and the Meeting was adjourned to Wednesday. Yesterday the Committee reported they had made great Progress in the Business, and did not doubt it would be happily effected in a short Time. Thus stands mercantile Matters here.

This correspondent urged colleagues in New York to go back to the boycott, insisting that they were hurting their trade relations with Connecticut and New Jersey, and that doing so would produce major results in Britain. “On Boston, my Friend, you can depend,” the letter promised.

To be sure, the same letter also reported this news from the shipmaster who had carried Boston’s Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre and other documents to London:

Capt. [Andrew] Gardner says, there were not less than a Thousand Scotchmen in London, who had come there with Design to embark for America, to take Possession of the forfeited Estates. What fine pickings this would be; but how sad the Disappointment! No wonder these honest Fellows hate us for behaving in such a Manner as to defeat such glorious Prospects!

Rumors of outsiders coming to take your property were a powerful political weapon, then and since.

The same day this merchant sent his letter to New York, the Whigs announced in the Boston News-Letter that all the importers who had stored their goods had indeed agreed to “Immediate Exportation.” I’m dubious—the letter said the committee had only “made great Progress.” But the Whigs had to maintain a public show of unanimity.

TOMORROW: Defections north and south?

Glimpses of Boston’s Town Criers

There are only sparse records about Boston’s town criers, even though they were licensed by the selectmen, as I described yesterday. I think that’s because they were essentially private businessmen, making announcements for whoever would pay them, rather than public officials.

John Tucker was Boston’s crier from before 1688 to his death in 1695. Historian Annie Haven Thwing reported that he applied for the job with two qualifications:

• “having been educated unto letters,” so he could keep records as the law demanded. (Though Charles Prosser, the New York crier in 1766, was unable to sign his name.)
• “being weake in Body,” so he needed a job with no heavy lifting, or else he might become a charity case for the town.

I suspect that being a town crier was usually a way to supplement income from another job, such as keeping an inn with one’s family.

On 13 Nov 1753, the Boston selectmen made the following appointment:

Voted, that Mr. John Jenkins be and here by is appointed public Cryer within the Town of all money Goods & Things lost, & he is ordered to keep an exact account of all such Money Goods & Things he shall Cry the time when and the person that shall employ him to cry the same and return such account to the Town Clerk once in three months.

Alas, there were at least two men named John Jenkins active in Boston at this time. One was baptized at Christ Church on 11 June 1727, the son of Robert and Elizabeth Jenkins, which would make him twenty-six when the selectmen made their appointment.

On 25 July 1748, one John Jenkins married a widow named Prudence (Marion) Taylor at Christ Church. They had a growing family: Elizabeth (1750), John (1753), Jeremiah (1755), Lewis (1757), and Prudence (1759).

Another John Jenkins and his wife Sarah had children Benjemin (1759) and Mary (1762) baptized at Christ Church. And there were also couples named John and Mary Jenkins in Boston slightly before and after this period, attending other churches.

In addition, in 1746 the selectmen refused John Jenkins of Paddy’s Alley from having a license to sell liquor. In May 1763 a John Jenkins was one of the “Town House Watch.” And in 1765 and 1766 a John Jenkins was elected one of Boston’s official “Cullers of Staves.”

So I’m not sure which John Jenkins was the town crier. But he filled the job for over a decade, until 7 May 1767. Then, as the Boston Gazette reported:

Thursday Morning Mr. Jenkins the Town-Cryer fell down just as he was going out to cry Fish, and died instantly.

The young printer John Boyle recorded that Jenkins was still “in his yard” at the time.

The selectmen had already appointed another crier, back on 20 Feb 1765:

Thomas Webber apply’d to the Selectmen for their approbation of him as a public Cryer in this Town, and he was accordingly approbated.

The next town crier appointment that Thwing noted came in 1782, so Webber may thus have held the job through the turbulent Revolutionary years. However, I haven’t found his name in connection with the many political events of the period. As a “common cryer,” he may well have acted as a “common carrier” today, staying neutral about the content of his announcements.

(The photo above shows Bill Turberfield, town crier of Ledbury in England, and was taken this past April by Pigsaw.)