American Historical Ephemera and Photography

Manuscript document signed in which the "Selectmen of Boston" affirm the accounting of unpaid medical expenses submitted by Dr. Samuel Danforth, Jr. [Boston], 26 January 1774. "Docr Saml Danforths / Acct - £190:18:2 - / Rd. Feby 3d - 1774." 1p, approx. 7 1/4 x 12 1/4 in.

Top portion of document lists eight individuals alongside corresponding charges, followed by past due fines, which together are summed to £190:18:2. Signed by Dr. Samuel Danforth, Jr. ("Samuel Danforth Jun."). Bottom portion of document appears to be in a different hand - possibly that of selectman John Scollay - and to have been added after expenses were submitted for review. It states: "We the Subscribers have examined the foregoing account of Dr. Samuel Danforth's, and find the some [sum] right cast, and that the Persons therein named are Strangers and not Inhabitants of any Town in this Province neither had they wherewithall to defrey the escpence occasioned by their sickness & amounting in the whole to One hundred ninety pounds 18/2d." Six "Selectmen of Boston" then signed below the statement, including John Scollay (ca 1711-1790), Timothy Newell (ca 1718-1799), Thomas Marshall (1718-1800), Samuel Austin (ca 1721-1792), Oliver Wendell (1733-1818), and John Pitts (1737-1815), with Scollay and Newell's signatures appearing to be in their hands, and Marshall, Austin, Wendell, and Pitts's signatures possibly being in the same hand.

Though the content of the document offered here is not necessarily significant, the date and the signatures on the document lend it substantively more importance. Signed just over one year before shots fired out in Lexington and Concord, the men whose signatures appear here were already immersed in the complexities of the oncoming American Revolution. Dr. Samuel Danforth was a graduate of Harvard College, an original member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and a well-respected physician in Boston. He remained a Loyalist during the war, yet was called to Paul Revere's deathbed in 1818. John Scollay served as Chairman of the Selectmen of Boston from 1774-1790, was a member of the Sons of Liberty, and a friend of Samuel Adams. Timothy Newell was a deacon of Brattle Street Church and a witness to the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Intolerable Acts. Thomas Marshall was a tailor, a captain of the Boston Militia, a witness to the Boston Massacre, and would later serve as a colonel in the 10th Massachusetts regiment with service at Saratoga and Valley Forge. Samuel Austin was a merchant and active Whig, playing a prominent role in the march on Gov. Thomas Hutchinson's home prior to the war. In 1773 Austin was elected one of Boston's selectmen, a position he held until the end of the siege. Oliver Wendell was a prominent candle manufacturer and was elected a selectmen and member of the Boston Committee of Correspondence in 1772. John Pitts began serving as a selectmen in 1773, and represented Boston during the second and third provincial congresses and the General Court.

A document bearing the signatures of six well-known Boston patriots on the eve of the American Revolution.