John Malcolm (Loyalist)

Last updated
John Malcolm
Philip Dawe (attributed), The Bostonians Paying the Excise-man, or Tarring and Feathering (1774) - 02.jpg
The Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man, or, Tarring & Feathering, a 1774 British print, attributed to Philip Dawe, [1] combines assault on Malcolm with earlier Boston Tea Party in background.
BornMay 20, 1723 [2]
Boston, Massachusetts Bay, British America
DiedNovember 23, 1788(1788-11-23) (aged 65) [2]
Occupation Sea captain
SpouseSarah Balch (m.1750) [2]
Children5 [2]
Family Daniel Malcolm (brother)

John Malcolm (May 20, 1723 - November 23, 1788), sometimes spelled Malcom or Malcomb, was a British sea captain, army officer, and customs official who was the victim of the most publicized tarring and feathering during the American Revolution.

Contents

Background

John Malcolm was from Boston and a staunch supporter of royal authority. During the War of the Regulation, he traveled to the Province of North Carolina to help put down the uprising. Working for the customs services, he pursued his duties with a zeal that made him very unpopular, as he was a Loyalist during the Tea Act. Malcolm faced numerous moments of abuse and provocation from Boston's Patriots, the critics of British authority. People often "hooted" at him in the streets, but Governor Thomas Hutchinson urged him not to respond. [3]

His unpopularity finally came to a boiling point in November 1773 when sailors in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, tarred and feathered him. However, during the process the sailors either had thoughts of pity or morality as they did not strip his clothes beforehand. [3] Two months later during his second ordeal Malcolm would not be as fortunate.

Incident in Boston

A confrontation with the Patriot shoemaker George Hewes thrust Malcolm into the spotlight. On January 25, 1774, according to the account in the Massachusetts Gazette, Hewes saw Malcolm threatening to strike a boy with his cane. When Hewes intervened to stop Malcolm, both men began arguing, and Malcolm insisted that Hewes should not interfere in the business of a gentleman. When Hewes replied that at least he had never been tarred and feathered himself, Malcolm struck Hewes hard on the forehead with the cane and knocked him unconscious. [4]

That night, a crowd seized Malcolm in his house and dragged him into King Street to punish him for the attack on Hewes and the boy. Some Patriot leaders who believed mob violence hurt their cause tried to dissuade the crowd by arguing that Malcolm should be turned over to the justice system. These pleas fell on deaf ears, however, as the relentless crowd justified the attack by citing Ebenezer Richardson amongst other grievances. Richardson was a customs official who had killed a 12-year-old Bostonian named Christopher Seider, but escaped punishment by receiving a royal pardon. [5]

Malcolm was stripped to the waist and covered with burning hot tar and feathers before he was forced into a waiting cart. The crowd took him to the Liberty Tree and told him to apologize for his behavior, renounce his customs commission, and curse King George III. When Malcolm refused, the crowd put a rope around his neck and threatened to hang him. That did not break him, but when they threatened to cut off his ears, Malcolm relented. The crowd then forced him to consume copious amounts of tea and sarcastically toasted the King and the royal family. [6] By this time Hewes (who had recovered) was so appalled by Malcolm's treatment that he attempted to cover him with his jacket. [7] Malcolm was finally freed and was sent home, but continued to endure physical beatings as he returned. [8]

Later life

On May 2, 1774, Malcolm moved to England where he hoped to secure compensation from the suffering he had endured in Boston. [2] [7] Even though he submitted a petition for King George III, the king was already aware of his "famous case". [2] While awaiting a reply Malcolm unsuccessfully ran for Parliament against John Wilkes, the controversial champion of colonial rights. [9] Having received no reply through a messenger about his petition, on January 12, 1775 Malcolm himself "attended the levee at St. James’s, knelt before the King, and gave his petition into His Majesty's own hands." [2] Despite writing in his petition that he wanted to return to Boston and resume his duties as a customs official, and that being tarred and feathered was now a badge of honor for him, the king was not impressed. [2] [7] Malcolm never returned to Boston for the remainder of his life due to the outbreak of the American Revolution. He was later given a commission as an ensign in 1780, for "an Independent Company of Invalids" at Plymouth, England. Malcolm died on November 23, 1788, leaving his widow in Boston to file a pension 212 years later. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Revolution</span> 1765–1791 period establishing the US

The American Revolution was a rebellion and political movement in the Thirteen Colonies which peaked when colonists initiated an ultimately successful war for independence against the Kingdom of Great Britain. Leaders of the American Revolution were colonial separatist leaders who originally sought more autonomy as British subjects, but later assembled to support the Revolutionary War, which ended British colonial rule over the colonies, establishing their independence as the United States of America in July 1776.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hancock</span> American Founding Father (1737–1793)

John Hancock was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He was the longest-serving president of the Continental Congress, having served as the second president of the Second Continental Congress and the seventh president of the Congress of the Confederation. He was the first and third governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is remembered for his large and stylish signature on the United States Declaration of Independence, so much so that in the United States, John Hancock or Hancock has become a colloquialism for a person's signature. He also signed the Articles of Confederation, and used his influence to ensure that Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution in 1788.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Massacre</span> 1770 shooting by British soldiers

The Boston Massacre was a confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770, in which nine British soldiers shot several of a crowd of three or four hundred who were harassing them verbally and throwing various projectiles. The event was heavily publicized as "a massacre" by leading Patriots such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. British troops had been stationed in the Province of Massachusetts Bay since 1768 in order to support crown-appointed officials and to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Hutchinson (governor)</span> American colonial official (1711–1780)

Thomas Hutchinson was an American merchant, politician, historian, and colonial administrator who repeatedly served as governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the years leading up to the American Revolution. He has been described as "the most important figure on the loyalist side in pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts". Hutchinson was a successful merchant and politician who was active at high levels of the Massachusetts colonial government for many years, serving as lieutenant governor and then governor from 1758 to 1774. He was a politically polarizing figure who came to be identified by John Adams and Samuel Adams as a supporter of unpopular British taxes, despite his initial opposition to Parliamentary tax laws directed at the colonies. Hutchinson was blamed by British Prime Minister Lord North for being a significant contributor to the tensions that led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarring and feathering</span> Form of public torture and humiliation

Tarring and feathering is a form of public torture where a victim is stripped naked, or stripped to the waist, while wood tar is either poured or painted onto the person. The victim then either has feathers thrown on them or is rolled around on a pile of feathers so that they stick to the tar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intolerable Acts</span> Series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774

The Intolerable Acts, sometimes referred to as the Insufferable Acts or Coercive Acts, were a series of five punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest of the Tea Act, a tax measure enacted by Parliament in May 1773. In Great Britain, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts. They were a key development leading to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775.

William Molineux was a hardware merchant in colonial Boston of Irish descent best known for his role in the Boston Tea Party of 1773 and earlier political protests.

A writ of assistance is a written order issued by a court instructing a law enforcement official, such as a sheriff or a tax collector, to perform a certain task. Historically, several types of writs have been called "writs of assistance". Most often, a writ of assistance is "used to enforce an order for the possession of lands". When used to evict someone from real property, such a writ is also called a writ of restitution or a writ of possession. In the area of customs, writs of assistance date from Colonial times. They were issued by the Court of Exchequer to help customs officials search for smuggled goods. These writs were called "writs of assistance" because they called upon sheriffs, other officials, and loyal subjects to "assist" the customs official in carrying out his duties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sons of Liberty</span> Dissident organization during the American Revolution

The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It played a major role in most colonies in battling the Stamp Act in 1765 and throughout the entire period of the American Revolution. Historian David C. Rapoport called the activities of the Sons of Liberty "mob terror."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriot (American Revolution)</span> Colonists who opposed British rule during the American Revolution

Patriots, also known as Revolutionaries, Continentals, Rebels, or Whigs, were colonists in the Thirteen Colonies who opposed the Kingdom of Great Britain's control and governance during the colonial era, and supported and helped launch the American Revolution that ultimately established American independence. Patriot politicians led colonial opposition to British policies regarding the American colonies, eventually building support for the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. After the American Revolutionary War began the year before, in 1775, many patriots assimilated into the Continental Army, which was commanded by George Washington and which secured victory against the British Army, leading the British to acknowledge the sovereign independence of the colonies, reflected in the Treaty of Paris, which led to the establishment of the United States in 1783.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Robert Twelves Hewes</span> American revolutionary (1742-1840)

George Robert Twelves Hewes was a participant in the political protests in Boston at the onset of the American Revolution, and one of the last survivors of the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre. Later he fought in the American Revolutionary War as a militiaman and privateer. Shortly before his death at the age of 98, Hewes was the subject of two biographies and much public commemoration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powder Alarm</span> 1774 event leading up to the Revolutionary War

The MassachusettsPowder Alarm was a major popular reaction to the removal of gunpowder from a magazine near Boston by British soldiers under orders from General Thomas Gage, royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, on September 1, 1774. In response to this action, amid rumors that blood had been shed, alarm spread through the countryside to Connecticut and beyond, and American Patriots sprang into action, fearing that war was at hand. Thousands of militiamen began streaming toward Boston and Cambridge, and mob action forced Loyalists and some government officials to flee to the protection of the British Army. A similar event, also called The Powder Alarm, occurred in Virginia in April, 1775.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty Tree</span> Elm tree in Boston, Massachusetts, US (1646–1775)

The Liberty Tree (1646–1775) was a famous elm tree that stood in Boston, Massachusetts near Boston Common in the years before the American Revolution. In 1765, Patriots in Boston staged the first act of defiance against the British government at the tree. The tree became a rallying point for the growing resistance to the rule of Britain over the American colonies, and the ground surrounding it became known as Liberty Hall. The Liberty Tree was felled in August 1775 by Loyalists led by Nathaniel Coffin Jr. or by Job Williams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Tea Party</span> 1773 American protest against British taxation

The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the East India Company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed the taxes in the Townshend Act as a violation of their rights. In response, the Sons of Liberty, some disguised as Native Americans, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Adams</span> Founding Father of the United States (1722–1803)

Samuel Adams 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, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents, and one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father, President John Adams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philadelphia Tea Party</span>

The Philadelphia Tea Party was an incident in late December 1773, shortly after the more famous Boston Tea Party, in which a British tea ship was intercepted by American colonists and forced to return its cargo to Great Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expulsion of the Loyalists</span>

During the American Revolution, those who continued to support King George III of Great Britain came to be known as Loyalists. Loyalists are to be contrasted with Patriots, who supported the Revolution. Historians have estimated that during the American Revolution, between 15 and 20 percent of the white population of the colonies, or about 500000 people, were Loyalists. As the war concluded with Great Britain defeated by the Americans and the French, the most active Loyalists were no longer welcome in the United States, and sought to move elsewhere in the British Empire. The large majority of the Loyalists remained in the United States, however, and enjoyed full citizenship there.

The Liberty Affair was an incident that culminated to a riot in 1768, leading to the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. It involved the seizure of the Liberty, a sloop owned by local smuggler and merchant John Hancock, by British authorities. This incident, which showed the difficulties in enforcing British revenue laws and growing colonial resentment against British rule, formed part of the series of events that led to the American Revolution.

The Worcester Revolt, or Worcester Revolution of 1774, was a confrontation between American militiamen and the British colonial authorities in Worcester, Massachusetts on September 6, 1774, during the American Revolution.

References

Notes
  1. Fischer, Liberty and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2005), 28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Tar and Feathers: The Adventures of Captain John Malcom". Massachusetts Colonial Society.
  3. 1 2 Young, Shoemaker, 47.
  4. Young, Shoemaker, 48.
  5. Young, Shoemaker, 49.
  6. Letters of a Loyalist Lady : Being the Letters of Ann Hulton, Sister of Henry Hulton, Commissioner of Customs at Boston, 1767-1776. Cambridge, Mass. 1927. p. 71. ISBN   978-0-674-18348-3. OCLC   1165506697.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. 1 2 3 Nathaniel Philbrick (March 31, 2013). "The Worst Parade to Ever Hit the Streets of Boston". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
  8. Hoock, Holger (2017). Scars of independence : America's violent birth (First ed.). New York. pp. 23–26. ISBN   978-0-8041-3728-7. OCLC   953617831.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. Young, Shoemaker, 50
Frequently cited sources

Further reading