Printed and Manuscript Americana

Rare Massachusetts Provincial Council Document Funding a Secret Committee to Thwart Loyalists During the American Revolution

State of Massachusetts-Bay, February 7, 1777. Single sheet, 8 1/8 x 6 5/8 in. (206 x 168 mm). Partially-printed document, being an order by the Massachusetts Council to fund James Warren and his secret committee for the purposes of thwarting Loyalists during the American Revolution; issued to treasurer Henry Gardner, and signed by John Avery as secretary, and 14 members of the legislature, including James Bowdoin, Artemas Ward, Caleb Cushing, James Winthrop, Moses Gill, and Samuel Holten, et al. Docketed on verso, manuscript to same, same additionally signed by Aaron Wood and Oliver Prescott. Inlaid; creasing from old folds, small separations and repairs along same; scattered moderate dampstaining.

By early 1777, one of the main threats perceived by the Revolutionary cause was an uptick in Tory sentiment. Massachusetts was the first state to adopt a policy of the confiscation of the property of Loyalists, which afterward became universal among the states. In 1777 and 1778, the Provincial Congress passed five acts against Loyalists. The first prescribed an oath of fidelity and allegiance, with those who refused it to be imprisoned and deported at their own expense. A second act authorized county judges to appoint agents for absentee Loyalists, who were to report an inventory of their property to the court. At first, the apprehension of suspected persons was to be made by the sheriff, but later the Provincial Congress authorized the selectmen to submit a list of "disaffected persons" to the town meeting, with those convicted to be deported. In September 1778, the Provincial Congress passed an act of banishment that forbade the return to Massachusetts of 308 persons, including all the prominent representatives of the British government from Governor Thomas Hutchinson down, and a variety of others, including 65 Harvard graduates.

On February 7, 1777, the Massachusetts House and Provincial Congress appointed a secret committee to investigate and thwart the disloyal element with this legislation: "Whereas this court is informed that divers persons inimical to the rights, liberties, and happiness of the United States, have concerted and are endeavoring to carry into execution plans highly injurious and detrimental; a sum of money must be lodged in the hands of a committee, to be applied in the most secret manner, according to their discretion, for the discovery thereof: therefore, resolved, that the sum of £200 be granted and paid out of the public treasury to James Warren, Aaron Wood and Samuel Freem Esqs. who are appointed to committee for the above purpose, and who are authorized to dispose of the same accordingly, and hereafter account with this court for the expenditure thereof." (from Freeman's History of Cape Cod: The Annals of Barnstable County, page I:503)

While the actions of the committee are unknown, the reverse of the above document indicates that part of the money was spent. Later, on April 17, 1777, Samuel Adams wrote approvingly from Philadelphia to James Warren on the committee's success, "I am pleased with the Measures you are taking with the Tories. Don't let the Execution of the good Law be abated an Iota in a single Instance. If they take the Oath you must nevertheless keep a watchful Eye over them. They are a cursed Generation. We are plagued with them here beyond bearing."