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of the Council Samuel Danforth and Joseph Lee), appointed under the provisions of this act, were inhabitants of Cambridge.
Colonel Oliver was a man of wealth and character, but had not previously held public station, except military.1 It was indeed suggested by some, that his name was inserted in the commission by mistake, instead of Peter Oliver, the Chief Justice and a member of the old Council.
Judge Lee had been a Representative, but never before a member of the Council; on the contrary, Judge Danforth was the senior member of that Board, having held office, by thirty-six successive elections, since May, 1739.
The new Council (styled the Mandamus Council because its members were appointed by command of the King) consisted of thirty-six persons, of whom, however, only twenty-four accepted office; and of that number nine soon afterwards resigned.2 Its first meeting was at Salem, on the 8th day of August, 1774.
The Governor had previously (June 17) dissolved the General Court, so that the sole governing power now vested in himself and the newly appointed Council.
The struggle between arbitrary power and the spirit of liberty became more and more intense.
Some of the results, of which Cambridge was the scene of action, and its inhabitants were among the more prominent actors and sufferers, are related at large in the “Boston Gazette” of Monday, Sept. 5, 1774:—
On Wednesday last, the new Divan (consisting of the wretched fugitives with whom the just indignation of their respective townsmen, by a well-deserved expulsion, have filled this capital) usurped the seats round the Council Board in Boston.
Their deliberations have not hitherto transpired.
And with equal secresy, on Thursday morning, half after four, about 260 troops embarked on board 13 boats, at the Long Wharf, and proceeded up Mistic River to Temple's Farm, where they landed and went to the powder-house,3 on quarry-hill in Charlestown bounds, whence they have taken 250 half barrels of powder, the whole store there, and carried it to the castle.
A detachment from this corps went to Cambridge and brought off two field pieces which had lately been sent there for Col. Brattle's Regiment.
The preparation for this scandalous expedition caused
1 Perhaps one exception should be made: “We hear that Thomas Oliver, Esq., of Cambridge, is appointed Judge of the Provincial Courts of Vice-Admiralty for this Province and New Hampshire.” —Boston Gazette, May 3, 1773.
2 See Gen. Register, XXVIII. 61, 62.
3 This powder-house is still standing in Somerville, about half a mile southeasterly from Tufts' College.
Boston. Houghton and Mifflin. 1877.
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