An Empire on the Edge

by Nick Bunker

  9. Number of banks: F. G. Hilton Price, Handbook of London Bankers (London, 1876), pp. 160–65; and T. S. Ashton, An Economic History of England: The 18th Century (London, 1955), pp. 179–84.

  10. For “every member of the cabinet,” see Sir George Colebrooke, Retrospection; or, Reminiscences Addressed to My Son, Henry Thomas Colebrooke, Esq. (London, 1898–99), pt. 1, p. 53. Alexander Fordyce: Sources cited in note 2 above, but also Public Advertiser, Aug. 7 and Dec. 10, 1772, and Jan. 8, 1773; Glasgow Journal, June 18–25, 1772; M. G. Buist, At Spes Non Fracta: Hope & Co., 1770–1815 (The Hague, 1974), pp. 20–22; and East India Company Stock Ledger, 1769–74, L/AG/14/5/18, IOR.

  11. Rents and the price of land in England: M. E. Turner, J. V. Beckett, and E. Afton, Agricultural Rent in England, 1690–1914 (Cambridge, U.K., 1997), chap. 11.

  12. The Adam brothers: Charles Saumarez Smith, Eighteenth-Century Decoration: Design and the Domestic Interior in England (London, 1993), pp. 215–21; and Arthur T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1758–1794 (London, 1922), vol. 1, p. 72, and vol. 2, “Appendix: Index of Clients.”

  13. For “The English are now,” see John Gwynn, London and Westminster Improved (London, 1766), p. xv. Gwynn’s significance: Sir John Summerson, Georgian London (London, 1988), chap. 9. The Adelphi: Bolton, Architecture of Robert and James Adam, vol. 2, pp. 18–47; and Alastair J. Rowan, “After the Adelphi: Forgotten Years in the Adam Brothers’ Practice,” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 122 (Sept. 1974), pp. 661–67. Garrick at the Adelphi: Entry for May 3, 1772, in travel journal of Henry Marchant (1770–72), microfilm copy, F82 M37, RIHS.

  14. Scottish banks: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (London, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 406–12.

  15. Role of the Bank of England: Public Advertiser, April 10, 1772; Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), July 2, 1772, reprinting a London newspaper report dated April 14; and Sir John Clapham, The Bank of England: A History (Cambridge, U.K., 1944), vol. 1, pp. 244–46.

  16. Douglas, Heron: The principal secondary sources are A. W. Kerr, History of Banking in Scotland (London, 1926), pp. 83–94; and Henry Hamilton, “The Failure of the Ayr Bank, 1772,” Economic History Review, n.s., 8, no. 3 (1956), pp. 405–17. But the best material can be found in the report of the Ayr Bank committee of inquiry, The Precipitation and Fall of Messrs. Douglas, Heron and Company (Edinburgh, 1778) (ESTC T107205), which refers to “abuse and irregularity” on p. 28. List of the partners and other revealing documents relating to the Ayr Bank can be found in GD 224/178/1–2, Buccleuch Papers, NAS. For “a black swarm of projects,” see Richard Glover, The Substance of the Evidence Delivered to … the House of Commons (London, 1774), p. 9.

  17. Events of June 22: General Evening Post, June 27–30, 1772; Middlesex Journal, June 27–30; and Richard Glover to Earl Temple, July 12, 1772, in The Grenville Papers, ed. W. J. Smith (London, 1853), vol. 4, pp. 539–43. The precise course of events can be reconstructed from the Bank of England’s archives, at G4/21, minute book of the Court of Directors, 1769–74, and ADM9/55, banking department general ledger for 1772, pp. 146–71. On the recession, see Ashton, Economic Fluctuations in England, pp. 156–58.

  18. For “Were I to recount,” see note 2. Marchant’s visit to Britain: His journal at RIHS (note 13 above).

  19. For “the Luxury and Folly,” see Marchant’s journal, entry for June 22; for “a mad and foolish act,” see John N. Cole, “Henry Marchant’s Journal, 1771–1772,” Rhode Island History 57, no. 1 (May 1999), p. 47.

  Chapter Four: THE UNHAPPINESS OF LORD NORTH

  1. Lord North to his father, Lord Guilford, May 6, 1772, after delivering his budget speech, MSS North adds.c.4, fol. 158, Bodleian Library.

  2. Norths at Bushy Park: North to Guilford, Aug. 18, 1772, MSS North adds.c.4, fols. 161–62, Bodleian Library. The North Papers at the Bodleian contain not only a wealth of material about the North family, but also some important working papers from the treasury of a kind that rarely survive. The finest published sketch of his personality is John Brooke’s biographical essay in The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1754–1790, ed. Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke (London, 1964). The best political biography is P. D. G. Thomas, Lord North (London, 1976). For anecdotes about the North family by his son-in-law, see the many references in Francis Bickley, ed., The Diaries of Sylvester Douglas (London, 1928), vol. 1.

  3. Frederick the Great to the Prussian ambassador in London, May 18, 1772, in Politische Korrespondenz des Friedrichs des Grossen, ed. J. G. Droysen (Berlin, 1908), vol. 33, p. 205.

  4. Gibbon on North: J. E. Norton, ed., Letters of Edward Gibbon (London, 1956), vol. 2, p. 66. North’s kindness: Entries for Oct. 4, 1768, and Aug. 13, 1769, in the diary of Thomas Beedall, file T/PH/WSN 2, Somerset Heritage Centre, Taunton.

  5. North’s blustering elocution and the ugliness of the Norths: Colebrooke, Retrospection, part 2, pp. 275–76; and C. W. Everett, ed., The Letters of Junius (London, 1927), pp. 162–63.

  6. The quotations in this paragraph come from the letter cited in note 1.

  7. For “No rain,” see entry for July 17, 1772, in The Letters and Journals of Lady Mary Coke, ed. James A. Hume (Edinburgh, 1896), vol. 4, p. 99. For weather conditions in England during the 1770s, the best sources are John Kington, ed., The Weather Journals of a Rutland Squire: Thomas Barker of Lyndon Hall (Oakham, U.K., 1988), pp. 78–81, covering the years 1771 to 1775; and John Kington, Climate and Weather (London, 2010), pp. 161–63, 308–10. For detailed daily observations of the drought of 1772, see Francesca Greenoak, ed., The Journals of Gilbert White (London, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 412–14.

  8. Newspaper reports: Berrow’s Worcester Journal, April 30 and May 28, 1772. Food prices: D. G. Barnes, The History of the English Corn Laws from 1600 to 1846 (London, 1930), pp. 38–45.

  9. Riots in East Anglia: R. A. Roberts, ed., Calendar of Home Office Papers, 1770–1772 (London, 1881), pp. 486–88. Disturbances in Somerset: James Street, The Mynster of the Ile (Taunton, U.K., 1904), pp. 259–60. The Ilminster workhouse: Ilminster vestry minutes, Aug. 6, 1771, D/P/ilm/9/1/1, Somerset Heritage Centre.

  10. Hearts of Steel: James R. Donnelly Jr., “Hearts of Oak, Hearts of Steel,” Studia Hibernica, no. 21 (1981), pp. 62–66.

  11. Smuggling in 1772: Minute book of the Treasury Board, T29/42, with accompanying papers in T1/489, Jan. 8, April 5, April 9, and Aug. 18, 1772, NAK. Dunkirk: Letter dated March 31, 1772, from the papers of John Robinson, Treasury Board secretary, in Historical Manuscripts Commission, 10th report, app. 6, The Manuscripts of the Marquess of Abergavenny (London, 1887), p. 5.

  12. News from America: T29/42, July 28, NAK. Montagu’s letter: CO5 761, fol. 110, NAK.

  13. For the figure of £200,000, and for an analysis of British public finance and the need for American revenues, see Thomas Whately, Considerations on the Trade and Finances of the Kingdom (London, 1766), esp. pp. 69–74. A close friend of Grenville’s, Whately served as a junior minister in Lord North’s government, and his views can be taken to represent official attitudes. Whately quotes figures of £100,000 for the revenue originally expected from the Stamp Act and another £60,000 for the anticipated yield from other duties introduced by Grenville, principally on sugar and molasses. To this we need to add some £40,000 for the estimated product of the Townshend duties, which came into force in 1767.

  14. On Lord Hillsborough, see James Kelly, “Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire and 2nd Viscount Hillsborough,” in Dictionary of Irish Biography, ed. James McGuire and James Quinn (Cambridge, U.K., 2009).

  15. For “unlucky business,” see North to Lord Gower, June 30, 1772, Gower Papers, PRO 30/29/1/14, fols. 635–38, NAK.

  16. Cabinet paper by Lord Rochford, Nov. 12, 1772, D(W) 1778/II, 460, Dartmouth Papers. On Rochford and British foreign policy, see ODNB; Michael Roberts, “Great Britain and the Swedish Revolution, 1772–73,” Historical Journal 7, no. 1 (1964), pp. 17–18; and H. M. Scott, British Foreign Policy in the Age of the American Revolution (
Oxford, 1990), chap. 7.

  17. North and Sandwich: Exchange of letters in Sept. 1772, in The Private Papers of John, Earl of Sandwich (London, 1932), vol. 1, pp. 19–26. On Sandwich: N. A. M. Rodger, The Insatiable Earl: A Life of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (London, 1993).

  18. Suffolk’s verses: Suffolk to Rochford, April 6, 1775, file PRO 30/29/1/15, fols. 701–3, NAK. Suffolk in office: Roberts, “Great Britain and the Swedish Revolution,” pp. 10–11; and ODNB. Lord Suffolk was also close to Thomas Whately, who served under him at the Northern Department: On Whately, see note 13 above.

  19. Repeal of the Stamp Act: For the views of Sandwich and Suffolk, see the report of the debate on March 11, 1766, in PDNA, vol. 2, pp. 338–42.

  20. On the Grand Ohio Company, see Jack M. Sosin, Whitehall and the Wilderness (Lincoln, Neb., 1961), pp. 186–206.

  21. The shareholders: Clarence E. Alvord, The Mississippi Valley in British Politics (Cleveland, 1917), vol. 2, pp. 98–103. Besides Wharton, Benjamin Franklin, and the English banker Thomas Walpole, the principal investors included Robert Trevor, whose daughter was married to Lord Suffolk from 1764 until her death in 1767.

  22. Hillsborough’s memorandum: April 29, 1772, from the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, in DAR, vol. 5, pp. 79–89.

  23. On Dartmouth’s appointment: North to Lord Dartmouth, Aug. 3, 1772, D(W) 1778/ II, 373, SCRO; for “good nature and love of indecision,” see George III to Lord Suffolk, July 22, 1772, in CG3, vol. 2, pp. 369–70, 376.

  Chapter Five: IGNORANCE AND BAD POLICY

  1. Hutchinson to Samuel Hood, Sept. 2, 1772, letterbook copy, Thomas Hutchinson Letter Books (transcripts), microfilm edition, reel 3, MHS.

  2. Staff in the Colonial Office: List of salaries and allowances, 1772, D(W) 1778/II, 1080, Dartmouth Papers. For “I consider my race,” see Pownall to Dartmouth, Aug. 8, 1772, D(W) 1778/II, 377, SCRO. John Pownall: Franklin B. Wickwire, “John Pownall and British Colonial Policy,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 20, no. 4 (Oct. 1963), pp. 543–54.

  3. For “Such savage degeneracy,” see John Pownall to Dartmouth, Sept. 19, 1772, D(W) 1778/II, 420, SCRO.

  4. South Carolina: Jack P. Greene, “Bridge to Revolution: The Wilkes Fund Controversy in South Carolina, 1769–1775,” Journal of Southern History 29, no. 1 (Feb. 1963), pp. 53–70.

  5. William Knox: Patrick Geoghegan’s essay in McGuire and Quinn, Dictionary of Irish Biography. Knox and the conversion of slaves in Georgia: William Piercy to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, Jan. 6, 1775, file A4/2 (no. 12), Cheshunt College Papers, Westminster College, Cambridge. For “It was with no small degree,” see William Knox, Extra Official State Papers Addressed to the Lord Rawdon (London, 1789), vol. 2, p. 11; for “neglect, Ignorance,” see Jack P. Greene, “William Knox’s Explanation for the American Revolution,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 30, no. 2 (April 1973), pp. 305–6.

  6. Greene, “William Knox’s Explanation for the American Revolution,” p. 295.

  7. Brownlow North’s marriage to Henrietta Bannister: Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua (London, 1894), pp. 31–33. West Indies in 1772: Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean (Philadelphia, 2000), chap. 4.

  8. “You can never”: Frederick Montagu to Dartmouth, Aug. 10, 1772, D(W) 1778/II, 378, SCRO.

  9. “In the progress”: Lord Dunmore to Lord Hillsborough, March 1772, in DAR, vol. 5, p. 53.

  10. Dartmouth sent the questionnaires to America in the first week of July 1773. Uncommunicative as ever, Connecticut did not reply until late in 1774, and its response did not reach London until February 1775. This is a good example of the difficulties the British faced in obtaining information from the colonies: See Governor Trumbull of Connecticut to Lord Dartmouth, Nov. 23, 1774, CO5/1285, fols. 116–36, NAK.

  11. Lord Rochford to Lord Gower, Aug. 15, 1772, file PRO 30/29/1/14. Five times worse than the Stamp Act: John Pownall to Dartmouth, Aug. 29, 1772, in Historical Manuscripts Commission, 14th report, The Manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth, Vol. 2, American Papers (London, 1895), pp. 91–92.

  12. Jurisdiction of King’s Bench: Lord Mansfield’s judgment in the case of Rex v. Cowle (1759), in Sir James Burrow, Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of King’s Bench, 1756–1772 (London, 1790), vol. 2, pp. 856–57. Important for understanding British lawyers’ attitudes to America, Cowle’s case involved issues similar to those raised by the Gaspée incident: Mansfield was giving reasons for his decision to move the venue of a criminal trial in order to ensure an impartial jury. American implications of the Gaspée raid: William R. Leslie, “The Gaspée Affair: A Study of Its Constitutional Significance,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 39, no. 2 (1952).

  13. Dartmouth to Wanton, Sept. 4, 1772, in DAR, vol. 5, p. 187.

  14. For “a truly good man,” see Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, July 14, 1773, in BFP, vol. 20, p. 308. There is only one full-length study of Lord Dartmouth: B. D. Bargar, Lord Dartmouth and the American Revolution (Columbia, S.C., 1965).

  15. For “the melancholy loss,” see Dartmouth to his son Lord Lewisham, Aug. 14, 1775, from the bundle of more than thirty letters between them dated between 1772 and 1796, D(W) 1778/V, 853, SCRO.

  16. Dartmouth’s letters: See note 15. The passages come from letters dated Sept. 13, 1774, and May 12, 1775.

  17. For “universally acknowledged,” see Public Advertiser, Aug. 24, 1772.

  18. For “ill-delivered and formal,” see debate on Jan. 14, 1766, in PDNA, vol. 2, p. 72.

  19. The Legges and the Norths: See ODNB, for Francis North, first Baron Guilford (1637–85), and George Legge, first Baron Dartmouth (ca. 1647–91). Financial affairs of Lord and Lady Dartmouth: Bargar, Lord Dartmouth and the American Revolution, pp. 5–8; and their marriage settlement and valuation of their estates in 1756, D1501/A/1/1-6 and D564/13/2/2, SCRO. The tortuous finances of Lord North and his family can be unraveled from the North Papers at the Bodleian Library. The principal sources are the account book of Lord Guilford (1756–75), MSS North.b.15, and the assortment of papers in MSS North.b.29, esp. fols. 152–55. Lord North’s financial embarrassment arose from the terms of his marriage settlement with Anne Speke, dated May 20, 1756. Her principal asset was the Ilminster estate, made up of more than three thousand acres centered on Dillington Park, though much of it consisted of woods, orchards, and pasture rather than prime arable land. Including a house in Piccadilly, her fortune had a capital value of at least £80,000 (based on the rent roll of about £3,000 a year). However, because North’s father, Lord Guilford, was struggling with his own inherited obligations, North agreed to pay him a sum of £15,400 in seven annual installments. It was assumed that this could be financed from the Ilminster property, but the burden proved too onerous, partly because some of the land at Ilminster was mortgaged, and partly because an annuity had to be paid to Anne Speke’s unmarried half sister. At the end of the 1760s, North began a program of improvements to the estate, but even so and despite the benefit of his official salary he ran chronically into debt until eventually, in 1777, George III agreed to pay off North’s borrowings from the king’s own pocket. On the Norths and the Spekes in Somerset, and the marriage settlement, see the Dillington estate papers, files DD/CA 2 (the 1756 deed of settlement), DD/CA/164, DD/CA/165, and T/AH/sro/89 (maps and surveys, 1768–69), Somerset Heritage Centre.

  20. The Brudenell connection: North Papers at the Bodleian, many references, and Joan Wake, The Brudenells of Deene (London, 1953), pp. 287–95.

  21. Dartmouth’s Christianity: Edwin Sidney, The Life of Richard Hill (London, 1839), pp. 80–95; and D. Bruce Hindmarsh, John Newton, and the English Evangelical Tradition (Oxford, 1996), pp. 106–111. His conversion and relationship with Whitefield: Luke Tyerman, The Life of the Reverend George Whitefield (London, 1877), vol. 2, pp. 399–401, 414–16; and G. C. B. Davies, The Early Cornish Evangelicals, 1735–1760 (London, 1951), pp. 117–19. On the evangelical movem
ent, see D. W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain (London, 1989), esp. pp. 5–17; and the entries in the ODNB for Martin Madan, William Romaine, and Henry Venn.

  22. For “Beware of the general corruption,” see Charles de Coetlogon’s eulogy for Baron Smythe, The Death of the Righteous: A Public Loss (London, 1778), p. 29. Lord Dartmouth secured de Coetlogon’s appointment as an assistant chaplain at the Lock Hospital. His Calvinist sermon The Divine Message (London, 1773) conveys a clear idea of Dartmouth’s own beliefs. It was intended, said the author, “as an antidote to the dangerous and spreading evils of infidelity, Arianism and immorality.”

  23. Baron Smythe: Entry in the ODNB and de Coetlogon’s eulogy, pp. 24–25.

  PART TWO: THE SENDING OF THE TEA

  Chapter Six: THE EAST INDIA CRISIS

  1. Public Advertiser, Oct. 13, 1772.

  2. Lord North in September and October 1772: MSS North d.24, fols. 170–78, Bodleian Library.

  3. For “Things both at home and abroad,” see Burke to William Dowdeswell, Oct. 27, 1772, in The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, vol. 2, July 1768–June 1774, ed. Lucy S. Sutherland (Cambridge, U.K., 1960), p. 349.

  4. For “this immense, unruly town,” see Lord Hardwicke to Sir Stanier Porten (Lord Rochford’s deputy), Jan. 28, 1773, in Calendar of Home Office Papers of the Reign of George III, 1773–1775, ed. Richard Arthur Roberts (London, 1899), p. 9.