| Pine Tree Riot | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the American Revolution | |||
| Date | April 14, 1772 | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by | Authoritarianism | ||
| Methods | Rioting | ||
| Parties | |||
The Pine Tree Riot was an act of resistance to British royal authority undertaken by American colonists in Weare, New Hampshire, on April 14, 1772, [1] placing it among the disputes between Crown and colonists that culminated in the American Revolution. [2]
By the late 17th century, the construction and maintenance of the huge number of ships required to build and defend the British Empire left few trees in Britain suitable for use as large spars. Eastern white pines from colonial New England were superior timber for the single-stick masts and booms of the day. To maintain Britain's naval and trading advantage, laws were passed in North America to protect selected white pines for British shipbuilding. [2] British success in the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739–1748) and the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) were due in large part to the control of the seas by the Royal Navy.
In order to preserve suitable timber for the Royal Navy, the New Hampshire General Court passed an act on May 10, 1708, to preserve all trees in the Province of New Hampshire suitable for masts for use by the Royal Navy. The act replicated a 1691 law in England and declared all pines with diameter greater than 24 inches (61 cm) to be property of the Crown. Violators faced a fine of 50 British pounds for each illegally harvested tree. [3] In 1722, a new law reduced the diameter to 12 inches (30 cm). [4] "Surveyors of the King's Woods" were assigned by the Crown to identify all suitable "mast pines" with the broad arrow wherever they were found.
The laws contributed to growing discontent with colonial rule, reflected in a series of demonstrations and riots through the 1700s. One such example, the Mast Tree Riot, occurred 1734 in what is now Fremont, New Hampshire, when a surveyor-general visited the town to inspect felled lumber and was forced to leave by local citizens who disguised themselves as native Americans. [5]
The 1722 law was not strictly enforced until John Wentworth was appointed governor of the New Hampshire colony in 1766. [3] Although often sympathetic to the colonists, he held firm on this issue. [2] [6]
John Sherman, Deputy Surveyor of New Hampshire, ordered a search of sawmills in 1771–1772 for white pine marked for the Crown. His men found that six mills in Goffstown and Weare possessed large white pines and marked them with the broad arrow to indicate that they were Crown property. The owners of the mills were named as offenders in the February 7, 1772, edition of The New Hampshire Gazette . The mill owners hired lawyer Samuel Blodgett to represent them, who met with Governor Wentworth. When the governor offered Blodgett the job of Surveyor of the King's Woods, he accepted, and, rather than getting the charges dropped, he instructed his clients to pay a settlement. The mill owners from Goffstown paid their fines at once and had their logs returned to them. Those from Weare refused to pay. [2]
On April 13, 1772, Benjamin Whiting, Sheriff of Hillsborough County, and his Deputy John Quigley were sent to South Weare with a warrant to arrest the leader of the Weare mill owners, Ebenezer Mudgett. Mudgett was subsequently released with the understanding that he would provide bail in the morning. The sheriff and deputy spent the night at Aaron Quimby's inn, the Pine Tree Tavern. That night, many of the townsmen gathered at Mudgett's house. A few offered to help pay his bail, but the majority wanted to run the sheriff and deputy out of town. They decided to physically assault Whiting in his sleep and abuse Whiting's horses by maiming their faces. [2] [6] [7]
At dawn the next day Mudgett led between 20 [2] [8] and 30-40 men [7] to the tavern. Whiting was still in bed, and Mudgett burst in on him. With their faces blackened with soot for disguise, more than 20 townsmen rushed into Whiting's room. They began to beat him with tree branch switches, giving one lash for every tree being contested. The sheriff tried to grab his pistols, but he was thoroughly outnumbered. Rioters grabbed him by his arms and legs, hoisted him up, face to the floor, while others continued to mercilessly assault him with tree switches. Whiting later reported that he thought the men would surely kill him. Quigley was also pulled from his room and received the same treatment from another group of townsmen. The sheriff and deputy's horses were brought around to the inn door. The rioters then cut off the ears and shaved the manes and tails of the horses, after which Whiting and Quigley were forced to ride out of town through a gauntlet of jeering townspeople, shouted at and slapped down the road towards Goffstown. [2] [6] [7] [9]
Whiting engaged Colonel Moore of Bedford and Edward Goldstone Lutwyche of Merrimack, who assembled a posse of soldiers to arrest the perpetrators. The rioters ran and hid in the woods before the posse arrived. One of the men suspected of assaulting Whiting in his sleep was located, arrested, and revealed the names of the others involved. Eight men were ordered to post bail and appear in court to answer charges of rioting, disturbing the peace, and "making an assault upon the body of Benjamin Whiting." None of the men were charged with animal cruelty. Four judges, Theodore Atkinson, Meshech Weare, Leverett Hubbard, and William Parker, heard the case in the Superior Court in Amherst in September 1772. The rioters pleaded guilty, and the judges fined them 20 shillings each and ordered them to pay the cost of the court hearing. [2] [7]
The Pine Tree Riot was a test of the British royal authority which is partially evident by the light fines exacted against the rioters. [10] By demonstrating that British rule was defiable it is believed the riot helped to inspire the Boston Tea Party. [2] [10]
The first Pine Tree Flag flown by colonists against the British during the riot was red with a pine tree within a white square in the upper left corner. [9]
Of the men charged, Timothy Worthley, Jonathan Worthley and William Dustin fought against the British in the Revolutionary War, as did even Samuel Blodgett. Benjamin Whiting fought for the British and had his land confiscated as a Tory sympathizer. Meshech Weare, one of the judges, assisted in framing the New Hampshire constitution adopted in 1776, [2] establishing its own government, and becoming the first colony to declare its independence; Weare became the first President of New Hampshire. [11]
Samuel Blodgett went on to construct the first canal around the Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack River in Derryfield, completed shortly before his death in 1807. In 1810, the town of Derryfield changed its name to Manchester in honor of Blodgett's vision that the Amoskeag Falls would someday power a manufacturing center to rival Manchester, England.[ citation needed ] Blodget Street in Manchester is named in his honor. [12]
In 2015, the book An Appeal to Heaven by Dutch Sheets was published. As Sheets records, the Pine Tree Flag used during the riots has increased in popularity recently, making "...its way into countless homes, prayer rooms, and even government buildings." [13]
Since 2019, a Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) sanctioned disc golf tournament named "The Pine Tree Riot" has been held at Salmon Falls disc golf course in Rochester, New Hampshire.[ citation needed ]
On April 9, 2022, the Weare Historical Society hosted the Pine Tree Riot 250th Anniversary Commemoration and Celebration. [14] [15]
Hillsborough County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 census, the population was 422,937, almost one-third the population of the entire state. Its county seats are Manchester and Nashua, the state's two biggest cities. Hillsborough is northern New England's most populous county as well as its most densely populated.
Goffstown is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 18,577 at the 2020 census. The compact center of town, where 3,366 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as the Goffstown census-designated place and is located at the junctions of New Hampshire routes 114 and 13. Goffstown also includes the villages of Grasmere and Pinardville. The town is home to Saint Anselm College, the Goffstown Giant Pumpkin Regatta, and was the location of the New Hampshire State Prison for Women, prior to the prison's relocation to Concord in 2018.
Fremont is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,739 at the 2020 census, up from 4,283 at the 2010 census. Fremont is crossed by the Rockingham Recreation Trail and NH Route 107.
Hampton Falls is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,403 at the 2020 census.
Raymond is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 10,684 at the 2020 census. Part of Pawtuckaway State Park is in the north.
Pinus strobus, commonly called the eastern white pine, northern white pine, white pine, Weymouth pine (British), and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America. It occurs from Newfoundland, Canada, west through the Great Lakes region to southeastern Manitoba and Minnesota, United States, and south along the Appalachian Mountains and upper Piedmont to northernmost Georgia and perhaps very rarely in some of the higher elevations in northeastern Alabama. It is considered rare in Indiana.
Meshech Weare was an American farmer, lawyer, and revolutionary statesman from Seabrook and Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He served as the first president of New Hampshire. Before 1784 the position of governor was referred to as “president of New Hampshire.” He is also called “The father of New Hampshire.” The first president of the earlier Province of New Hampshire was John Cutt.
A broad arrow, of which a pheon is a variant, is a stylised representation of a metal arrowhead, comprising a tang and two barbs meeting at a point. It is a symbol used traditionally in heraldry, most notably in England, and later by the British government to mark government property. It became particularly associated with the Board of Ordnance, and later the War Department and the Ministry of Defence. It was exported to other parts of the British Empire, where it was used in similar official contexts.
New Hampshire Route 114 is a 60.433-mile-long (97.257 km) secondary north–south highway in central New Hampshire. The highway runs between Bedford in Hillsborough County and Grantham in Sullivan County.
Abraham Drake was an officer in the New Hampshire militia that served with the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
The Tree Flag was one of the flags used during the American Revolution. The flag, which featured a pine tree with the motto "An Appeal to Heaven," or less frequently "An Appeal to God", was originally used by a squadron of six frigates that were commissioned under George Washington's authority as Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in October 1775.
Major Richard Waldron was an English-born merchant, soldier, and government official who rose to prominence in early colonial Dover, New Hampshire. His presence spread to greater New Hampshire and neighboring Massachusetts. He was the second president of the colonial New Hampshire Royal Council after it was first separated from Massachusetts.
David Dunbar was a British military officer, a surveyor of the King's woods in North America, and lieutenant governor of the Province of New Hampshire. Of Scotch-Irish origin, Dunbar married into a wealthy and politically influential family, and received his first North American appointment, that of Surveyor of the King's Woods, in 1728, through the influence of his family connections and that of Martin Bladen, a member of the Board of Trade. In this position he made numerous local enemies in his enforcement of regulations governing the cutting of trees that could be used as ship masts. He was the leader of an attempt to establish a colony named "Georgia" in what is now the central coast of Maine, and was in 1730 commissioned as lieutenant governor of the Province of New Hampshire in an attempt to strengthen his authority. He engaged in frequent disputes with New Hampshire's Governor Jonathan Belcher. He established Fort Frederick in Maine. In 1734, in an attempt to enforce the Broad Arrow policy of the Massachusetts Charter governing the protection of white pine trees of diameter greater than 24 inches for use in the making of ship masts, Dunbar and a group of his enforcers were run out of Exeter, New Hampshire. Dunbar had been interrogating townspeople about a large supply of white pine logs floating in a mill pond and about the ownership of the nearest timber mill.
Carla Gericke is an author, activist, and attorney. Born in South Africa, she immigrated to the United States in the 1990s after winning a green card in the Diversity Visa Lottery. She became a U.S. citizen in 2000. Gericke practiced law in South Africa, and California, working at Apple Computer, Borland, Logitech, and Scient Corporation. Gericke is President Emeritus of the Free State Project. In 2014, she won a landmark First Circuit Court of Appeals case that affirmed the First Amendment right to film police officers. That same year, she was named one of New Hampshire Magazine's "2014 Remarkable Women" In 2016, Gericke ran as a Republican for New Hampshire State Senate in District 20 against Democrat Lou D'Allesandro, garnering 40% of the vote in the general election. In 2018, after a successful recount on a write-in campaign on the Libertarian Party's ballot, she ran as a fusion Republican/Libertarian candidate and received 42% of the vote, up two percentage points in a year when District 20 swung 12–15% left due to the "Blue Wave." In 2020, Gericke ran again against D'Allesandro in District 20 and again lost, this time by a vote tally of 13,548 to 10,479, or approximately 56–44%.
Samuel Blodgett was an early American lawyer, industrialist, and financier who founded the city of Manchester, New Hampshire.
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