TO


THE    RIGHT   HONOURABLE


THE   LORD   LYNDHURST,


LORD  HIGH  CHANCELLOR  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN.
MY  LORD,

In  soliciting  the  distinguished  introduc-
tion to  the  public,  which  I  am  allowed  to
prefix  to  this  work,  I  presumed  on  your  Lord-
ship's family  connexion  with  its  author,  and
with  other  leading  individuals,  who,  during  a
long  period  of  revolutionary  excesses  in  the
Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  maintained,
at  the  frequent  risk  of  their  lives,  and  with  the
final  loss  of  their  estates,  an  unshrinking  alle-
giance to  the  Crown  of  which  they  were  the
delegated  servants.  To  you,  my  Lord,  thus
interested  in  the  leading  narrative  of  these
pages,  I  considered,  that,  as  the  work  of  a  writer,


DEDICATION.
equally  qualified  by  his  profound  knowledge  of
the  history  of  the  Colonies,  and  by  his  high  and
responsible  station,  to  trace  with  accuracy  and
minuteness  the  origin  and  early  progress  of
the  American  Revolution,  they  might,  with  the
fittest  appropriation,  be  submitted  and  dedi-
cated. The  permission  of  placing  your  Lord-
ship's name  in  the  front  of  the  volume,  is,
therefore,  accepted  with  more  than  ordinary
acknowledgment,  by.
My  Lord,

Your  Lordship's  very  obliged.
And  very  obedient  Servant,

John  Hutcwnson.
Blur  ton  Parsonage,
March  29th,  1828.
(  1  )


CHAP.  I.
State  of  the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  at
the  close  of  the  War  with  France,  with  its
History  from  that  Period,  to  the  end  of
Governor  PownalVs  Administration,  in  the
Year  1760.
