Adams Papers Digital Edition

Papers of John Adams, volume 2

To William Tudor

From Samuel Cooper
From Richard Cranch, 15 October 1774 Cranch, Richard JA From Richard Cranch, 15 October 1774 Cranch, Richard Adams, John
From Richard Cranch
Boston, Oct. 15, 1774

I hear that a letter from one P——s, a clergyman in Connecticut,1 has been intercepted, and that an attested copy of it is now before our congress. The contents of it are very extraordinary—he informs the person to whom it is addressed, that he has received advice that several regiments more from England, and a number of men of war, are expected, and that when they arrive, hanging work will begin,—and that those only will be safe whose lintels and door posts shall be sprinkled. Our ministers in this province put up their ardent petitions in public for the direction and blessing of heaven on your congress.

MS not found. Reprinted from extract in (Niles, Principles and Acts ), p. 323.

1.

Rev. Samuel Peters (1735–1826), ordained Anglican minister serving his birthplace, Hebron, and the surrounding area until 1774, when his loyalist views so aroused local patriots that he was forced to flee to Boston. The letters mentioned by Cranch were written from Boston to relatives and friends. Intercepted, they were submitted to a committee of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress on 17 Oct. Cranch paraphrases one of the letters written by Peters to his mother on 28 Sept. ( DAB ; Mass. Provincial Congress, Jours. , p. 21–22, note 1).