arms. Martin then damned your petitioner for a false-faced villain, and declared he would believe Dealey sooner than me; at the same time ordered said Dealey to drag your petitioner out of the house and pull him to pieces, at the same time standing with a drawn cutteau in his hand, swearing if he did not, that he (Martin) would have blood himself. Dealey then dragged your petitioner into a shop in front of the house, holding him by the throat, until released by the aforesaid Reed. But, upon being released, said Martin came up with his cutteau drawn, threatening to put your petitioner to immediate death, when your petitioner, falling upon his knees, begged his life; your petitioners’ wife and children begging at the same time to spare the life of their father and husband. Your petitioner then arose and went into the next room, but was still followed by Martin, who vowed to God if your petitioner did not beg pardon of Dealey, he would that instant cut off his head. Upon which your petitioner, to save his life, did ask his (Dealey’s) pardon.

Martin then declared he was a Roman Catholick, and vowed to God to cut off the head of any person who said he should not carry arms. After which said Martin called for some drink, and drank of it with Dealey and Reed; and one of his toasts was, “Damnation to the Committee and their proceedings.”

Your petitioner has prosecuted them as the law directs; but as the times appear to be very troublesome, and numbers of enemies both to the Protestant interest and the present cause are lurking amongst us, your petitioner hopes that you will inquire into such parts of the transaction as concerns the publick; and your petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.

MICHAEL HUBART.

Secret—tar and feather him.

Passed the Secret Committee and ordered to be put in execution.

On the back of the petition is written, in the real handwriting of William Henry Drayton, the Chairman of the Secret Committee, the following, viz: Locklin Martin.* James Dealey.†§

EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO A GENTLEMAN IN NEW-YORK,
DATED NORTH-CAROLINA, JUNE 7, 1775.

We are much alarmed here with the intentions of Administration; and unless affairs take a turn in our favour very shortly, we shall expect the worst effort of its villany, that of spiriting up an enemy among ourselves, from whose barbarity, if roused, the most dreadful consequences will follow. Our Governour has sent his family to New-York, and being greatly disgusted with the people of Newbern, has taken up his residence in Fort Johnston, at the mouth of Cape Fear River, which he has chosen as a place of retreat from popular complaints. Our brethren in the Colonies may be assured that we never shall be bribed, by the benefit of an exclusive trade, to desert the common cause.

WORCESTER COUNTY (MARYLAND) COMMITTEE.

At a meeting of a great majority of the Committee of Worcester County, at the Court-House, at Snow Hill Town, on Wednesday, the 7th June, 1775:

BENTON HARRIS, Esquire, in the Chair.

1st. Resolved unanimously, That we owe and acknowledge most faithful and perfect duty and allegiance to His Majesty King George the Third, rightful King of Great Britain, &c.; that we are actuated by the most loyal and sincere attachment to his person, the most fervent zeal for the support of his Crown and dignity; and that, when constitutionally required, we are ready to expend our lives and fortunes in his service.

2d. Resolved unanimously, That we feel ourselves bound by the strongest ties of love and affection to our fellow-subjects in the Mother Country, and that we most ardently wish for a speedy, cordial, and permanent reconciliation and union with them; but we do further resolve, that we will, to the utmost of our power, oppose the detested ministerial plan for enslaving us—a plan calculated to divest us of every privilege which can render life valuable or desirable; that we are incontestably entitled to all the rights and liberties of Englishmen; that, as we received them from our glorious ancestors without spot or blemish, we are determined to transmit them pure and unsullied to our posterity.

3d. Resolved unanimously, That we will, from time to time, as often as shall be found necessary, contribute cheerfully for the support and relief of our distressed brethren in the Province of Massachusetts-Bay, now actually experiencing the fullest extent of ministerial vengeance and tyranny, and groaning under the horrours of war, in defence of their and our common rights and liberties.

The following Letter from Mr. Dixon Quinton, an inhabitant of this County, relative to a quantity of Salt imported contrary to the Resolves of the Continental Congress, was produced and read, to wit:

“June 1st, 1775.

“SIR: I have bought forty bushels of Liverpool Salt, at two shillings per bushel; and if you have occasion for any, you may have it as I bought. Please to write me a line whether you will take any or no, that I may dispose of it to other people. From your humble servant,

“ DIXON QUINTON”

“To Mr. James Houston, this.”

Likewise Mr. Thomas Lambden, an inhabitant of this County, and crier of said County Court, being called before the Committee, and full proof being made that he had declared “all those who took up arms, or exercised agreeable to the Resolves of the Provincial Convention at Annapolis, to be rebels,” and that, in conversation relative to a quantity of Salt being thrown into the water by the Baltimore Committee, the said Thomas Lambden had declared, “that the Committee were a parcel damn’d rascals, and would not be easy until some of them were hanged up;” and further, that in conversation relative to a report that the Ships and Troops were about to be recalled from Boston, the said Thomas Lambden had declared, “that he should be very sorry they should be withdrawn, until the Bostonians were fully humbled;”

* To land and be discharged, upon his expressing his contrition in the most publick manner.

†Send away.

§ During the events which took place about this time, and of which mention has been made, it is of some consequence to observe, that in the course of June of this year, Laughlin Martin and James Dealey, having behaved in a very improper manner respecting the General Committee and their proceedings, as well as respecting the Association; and having threatened Michael Hubart with death, unless he begged their pardon for having justified the conduct of the Committee, he sent a petition, respecting the affair, to the Committee of Correspondence of Charlestown. This Committee immediately transferred it to the Secret Committee of five, who having considered the same, ordered both Martin and Dealey to be tarred and feathered. The order was promptly put in execution by suitable agents, and they were both stripped of their clothes, tarred, feathered, and carted through the streets of Charlestown, affording the first instance of such a spectacle in this Colony. This being done, the Secret Committee sent them on board a ship ready to said for England; Laughlin Martin was, however, permitted to land again and was discharged, on expressing his contrition in a publick manner, but James Dealey, for an example, was sent away. These summary measures have been supposed by writers to have proceeded from the intemperate zeal of the populace, and there can be no doubt but many of them took their rise from that source; but there can be as little doubt this first commencement of so ludicrous and disgraceful a punishment owed its origin in South-Carolina to this very case. And that it was sanctioned and directed by the Secret Committee is equally clear, as the case is specially noted in the manuscript of William Henry Drayton, who was Chairman of that Committee, as having been done by the sanction of the same, and the original petition of Hubart, with the orders of the Secret Committee thereon, one of them in the known, hand-writing of the Chairman, Mr. Drayton, is now in the possession of the writer of these Memoirs. We need go no farther for authority to show what vast power and confidence were lodged in this Secret Committee of five and particularly in the abilities, prudence, and enterprise of leading members, William Henry Drayton, Arthur Middleton, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. And had the revolution not taken place, but colonial affairs had settled down in a rebellion, there can be no doubt but these distinguished patriots would have been marked out as early victims to private persecution and British vengeance. For the councils of this Committee were not paralyzed by timid opposition, as often happened in the Provincial Congress, Council of Safety, and General Committee. It was only necessary that the emergency should arise, calling on the Committee to act, for them to direct the blow, and it often fell before the cause of it could have been surmised. Hence the lead and tone which this Secret Committee gave to publick opinion and to publick operations, was great and decisive, and they much tended to concentrate the publick energies into a firm and manly opposition.—Drayton.

The British Forty-Seventh Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Nesbit commenced this singular punishment on one of the inhabitants of the Town of Billerica, in the State of Massachusetts, on the eighth of March, 1775.See the London Remembrancer for 1775, page 62.