Opening the text

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

History

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

Name: Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)
Author: Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

Boston Tea Party, 1773; Tea tax (American colonies)

Gentlemen: I am now ready to deliver the tea consigned to you on board
my ship, and beg to know if you, gentlemen, are ready and willing to
receive it, as I can produce the requisites usual and necessary for
landing or delivering the said teas alongside the ship, either by
yourselves, your agents or assigns; and as my cargo of lumber is ready
for shipping on discharge of the said tea, I demand an immediate and
positive answer to my question.


ANSWER.

Sir: It appearing by the printed accounts of a number of people
assembled, at Boston, on the 29^th and 30^th Nov^r., that they voted the
teas shipped by the East India Company should not be landed, but that
they should be returned to England in the same bottoms in which they
came. And it further appearing that John Rowe, Esq^r., part owner of the
ship of which you are commander, was present at said meeting, and did
promise to use his utmost endeavors that the teas brought in your vessel
should be sent back, and was also chosen one of a com^tee by the said
meeting, and as you now tell us that you have received orders from
certain persons, called a com^tee of safety, not to land any part of
said tea, and that a number of armed men have been and still are kept
aboard or near your vessel. We reply, that for the reasons mentioned, we
think it at present out of our power to receive the teas, but that as
soon as it shall appear practicable, we will give the necessary orders
for doing it.


2^D QUESTION.

As I have no control upon, nor influence with, the people in Boston who
may oppose the landing of the teas, I cannot be chargeable with their
conduct. My business is with you, gentlemen, and it is to you only I can
and do make application for directions how to dispose of the said teas,
and you will oblige me and my owners, and I desire you would let me know
whether you will or will not receive or dispose of the said tea, either
on shore or otherwise?


ANSWER.

As we see nothing in your second question essentially different from
your first, we must refer you to our answer already given.


3^RD QUESTION.

Will you, gentlemen, or either of you, deliver the bills of lading,
which I signed for said tea at London, and pay me the freight for
bringing it to Boston?


ANSWER.

Sir: We will not deliver the bills of lading, nor pay the freight of the
teas, until we can receive them.

  [Copy.]      JAS. BRUCE.
               RICH^D CLARKE & SONS.
               THO^S. & ELISHA HUTCHINSON
      Witness: BENJ^N FANEUIL, Jun^r.

  Signed, JN^O. MUNRO, Not. Pub.

       *       *       *       *       *


PROTEST.

_Cap^t. James Bruce, of the Eleanor, against the Consignees, for
refusing to receive the teas at Boston, in New England, on the 11^th day
of December, 1773, and in the fourteenth year of His Majesty's reign._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)

Boston Tea Party, 1773; Tea tax (American colonies)

Gentlemen: I am now ready to deliver the tea consigned to you on board
my ship, and beg to know if you, gentlemen, are ready and willing to
receive it, as I can produce the requisites usual and necessary for
landing or delivering the said teas alongside the ship, either by
yourselves, your agents or assigns; and as my cargo of lumber is ready
for shipping on discharge of the said tea, I demand an immediate and
positive answer to my question.


ANSWER.

Sir: It appearing by the printed accounts of a number of people
assembled, at Boston, on the 29^th and 30^th Nov^r., that they voted the
teas shipped by the East India Company should not be landed, but that
they should be returned to England in the same bottoms in which they
came. And it further appearing that John Rowe, Esq^r., part owner of the
ship of which you are commander, was present at said meeting, and did
promise to use his utmost endeavors that the teas brought in your vessel
should be sent back, and was also chosen one of a com^tee by the said
meeting, and as you now tell us that you have received orders from
certain persons, called a com^tee of safety, not to land any part of
said tea, and that a number of armed men have been and still are kept
aboard or near your vessel. We reply, that for the reasons mentioned, we
think it at present out of our power to receive the teas, but that as
soon as it shall appear practicable, we will give the necessary orders
for doing it.


2^D QUESTION.

As I have no control upon, nor influence with, the people in Boston who
may oppose the landing of the teas, I cannot be chargeable with their
conduct. My business is with you, gentlemen, and it is to you only I can
and do make application for directions how to dispose of the said teas,
and you will oblige me and my owners, and I desire you would let me know
whether you will or will not receive or dispose of the said tea, either
on shore or otherwise?


ANSWER.

As we see nothing in your second question essentially different from
your first, we must refer you to our answer already given.


3^RD QUESTION.

Will you, gentlemen, or either of you, deliver the bills of lading,
which I signed for said tea at London, and pay me the freight for
bringing it to Boston?


ANSWER.

Sir: We will not deliver the bills of lading, nor pay the freight of the
teas, until we can receive them.

  [Copy.]      JAS. BRUCE.
               RICH^D CLARKE & SONS.
               THO^S. & ELISHA HUTCHINSON
      Witness: BENJ^N FANEUIL, Jun^r.

  Signed, JN^O. MUNRO, Not. Pub.

       *       *       *       *       *


PROTEST.

_Cap^t. James Bruce, of the Eleanor, against the Consignees, for
refusing to receive the teas at Boston, in New England, on the 11^th day
of December, 1773, and in the fourteenth year of His Majesty's reign._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)

No reviews yet