The ''Journal of Occurrences'', also known as ''Journal of the Times'' and ''Journal of Transactions in Boston'', was a series of newspaper articles published from 1768 to 1769 in the ''New York Journal and Packet'' and other newspapers, chronicling the occupation of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

. Authorship of the articles was anonymous, but is usually attributed to

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams ( – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, an ...

, then the clerk of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

. William Cooper, Boston's town clerk, has also been named as a possible author. The articles may have been written by a group of people working in collaboration.

History

The occupation of Boston arose from colonial resistance to the Townshend Acts, passed by the British Parliament in 1767. In response to the acts, the Massachusetts House of Representatives issued the Massachusetts Circular Letter in February 1768. Also written primarily by

, the circular letter argued that the Townshend Acts were a violation of the British Constitution because they taxed British subjects without their having a say in the matter.

Lord Hillsborough Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, (30 May 1718 – 7 October 1793), known as The 2nd Viscount Hillsborough from 1742 to 1751 and as The 1st Earl of Hillsborough from 1751 to 1789, was a British politician of the Georgian era. Best known ...

, British Secretary of State for the colonies, ordered the Massachusetts House to revoke the circular letter. But the legislature refused. In addition to this act of colonial defiance, Hillsborough also heard reports from the Board of Customs—who were in charge of enforcing trade regulations—that Boston was in a state of anarchy. The British ministry dispatched four regiments of the British Army to restore order. These troops began arriving on October 1, 1768. The first installment of the ''Journal'', covering the period of September 28 to October 3, 1768, was published on October 13, 1768, and was titled ''Journal of Transactions in Boston''. Subsequent issues appeared once a week, with an average lapse of about twelve days between the reported events and the date of publication. Copy was secretly sent from Boston to New York for publication in the ''New York Journal'' on Thursday, then reprinted on Saturday in the '' Pennsylvania Chronicle''; it was then printed in the '' Boston Evening Transcript'', and copied in many other American newspapers and publications. The title changed several times, with the New York papers most often using ''Journal of Occurrences'' and the Boston papers preferring ''Journal of the Times''. In an innovative approach for an era without professional newspaper reporters, the ''Journal'' presented a narrative of shocking events in Boston to the outside world. The authors claimed that what they wrote was "strictly fact", while British officials in Boston insisted that it was mostly fiction. Drawing upon the traditional Anglo-American distrust of

standing armies A standing army is a permanent, often professional, army. It is composed of full-time soldiers who may be either career soldiers or conscripts. It differs from army reserves, who are enrolled for the long term, but activated only during wars or n ...

garrisoned among civilians, the ''Journal'' presented a Boston besieged by unruly British soldiers, who assaulted men and raped women with regularity and impunity. The customs commissioners were also portrayed negatively. Historian Richard Frothingham, Jr. claimed that William Cooper, the town clerk, did most of the writing; Governor Francis Bernard attributed it to Samuel Adams and his associates. Other possible authors include

Henry Knox Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns. Following th ...

, who was running a bookstore at the time;

Benjamin Edes Benjamin Edes (October 15, 1732 – December 11, 1803) was an early American printer, publisher, newspaper journalist and a revolutionary advocate before and during the American Revolution. He is best known, along with John Gill, as the publishe ...

, co-publisher of the '' Boston Gazette''; William Greenleaf, an employee of Edes; and Isaiah Thomas, who started out as a printer's apprentice and went on to publish the '' Massachusetts Spy''. Historian Oliver M. Dickerson suggests that

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

Josiah Quincy Josiah Quincy may refer to: * Josiah Quincy I (1710–1784), American merchant, planter, soldier, and politician *Josiah Quincy II (1744–1775), American lawyer and patriot *Josiah Quincy III (1772–1864), American educator and political figure, ...

helped with the legal material, such as the discussion of the

writs of assistance In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon ''gewrit'', Latin ''breve'') is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoena ...

in April 1769. Governor Bernard complained in a letter to

that "if the Devil himself was of the party, as he virtually is, there could not have been got together a greater collection of impudent, virulent, and seditious lies, perversions of the truth, and misrepresentations, than are to be found in this publication." Dickerson writes in his introduction to the collected articles that it "doubtless" contains exaggerations, but that most of the allegations are supported by letters and other contemporary documents. In any case, the articles helped build the sentiment that eventually produced the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

References

Citations

General bibliography

* * *

External links

Full text online
{{American Revolution origins, state=expanded 1768 documents 1768 in the Thirteen Colonies 1769 documents 1769 in the Thirteen Colonies History of Boston Massachusetts in the American Revolution American political philosophy literature Samuel Adams Works published anonymously

History

See also

References

Citations

General bibliography

Further reading

External links