The Massachusetts spy (Boston [Mass.]), 1770-11-29 00:00:00

The Massachusetts Spy.
VOL. I.] From MONDAY, November 26, to THURSDAY, November 29, 1770. [N o . 47.
EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.
CANTERBURY, September 8.
WE learn from Deal, that the Duke of Newcastle, Tomlinson, from Pitcatuqua, with masts for Portsmouth, is lost off Scilly, and all the crew drowned.
PARIS, September 3. The Parliament has issued an arrêt, by which all persons who trade in corn, are to enter their name and place of abode, with an officer appointed for that purpose, together with the place where they have their magazines, and an account of the corn which they buy and sell. The same arrêt obliges all persons, who trade in corn, to bring a sufficient quantity to stock the market, and, in case of necessity, proper officers are authorised to oblige them so to do; all persons are strictly prohibited to monopolize corn, and to enhance the price of it; and the farmers, husbandmen, &c. are forbidden, under very severe penalties, to sell any corn standing, or before they get it into their grenaries; all bargains of this kind being declared null and void.
LONDON, September 20. The amiable consort of a Great Personage is so great an admirer of Milton's Paradise Lost, that, we are told, she has it all by heart.
There lives at this time at Kingswood, near Hanham, in Gloucestershire, a woman that had four daughters at two births, one of which was delivered of eight children at four births, another of six children at two births, and the last being twins, had each two children at one birth.
Shocked at the wanton, inhuman massacre made by the military in St. George's Fields, and more shocked, if possible, at the deaf ear, that has been turned upon Mr. Allen's parental, unregarded petition to the King, a certain patriotic member of the Lower House has determined to move next session of Parliament for a clause to be inserted in the mutiny bill, making it death for any soldier to fire upon his Majesty's subjects, under any pretence whatever, unless it be in times of open rebellion, or actual invasion.
The following story has been circulated as the subject of a late conversation: Some days ago a letter appeared in a morning paper (and was afterwards copied into other prints) giving a ludicrous character of one of the heads of the house of Bourbon, upon which not only the Spanish ambassador, but all the ambassadors belonging to that family, joined in a memorial, which was delivered to Lord Weymouth, insisting upon condign punishment being inflicted upon the printer; and even threatening us as a nation, if such satisfaction was refused. To this the Secretary of state answered, that he was surprized the ambassadors could be so ignorant of the constitution of this country as not to know, that it was out of the power of government to punish a printer in the way their
Excellencies desired; that he was sorry for the affront offered their Sovereign, but that the English news papers took liberties with their own King, and a foreign prince had no right to be angry if he was now and then treated with the same freedom, since the laws of the land were equally the shelter of the offenders in both cases. As to the threats, he smiled at them; but added, that if what the printers had done could be construed a libel, the Attorney-General should be spoken to, a prosecution commenced, and such damages adjudged, as a jury of Englishmen thought equitable.
It is notorious to the whole world, that the French and Spaniards have, for many months, been fitting out ships of war in all their ports, as well upon the Atlantic as the Mediterranean seas. Our Ministry pretend (indeed it is the only excuse they can make for their unpardonable blunders; and yet, unhappy obstinacy! they are to be supported in their offices in spite of the detestation of their country) to be ignorant of these alarming, obvious, and well-known transactions. If you ask one of them,
Whether the French intend to impede the progress of the Russians in the Mediterranean," their ready made answer is, "The French have no fleet fit to put to sea." If you should demand, "Whether the Spaniards have sent a number of ships to seize Falkland's island, to drive our people away, and to keep possession of it?" they have an answer ready for that question also---"It is a very immaterial matter---not worth disputing about---if the King of Spain will have it, why let him have it!" and so on to every other question you can possibly ask, the answers are all prepared. It being the resolution of the Scots to have no war, the Ministers are willing to submit to any insults, or to make any sacrifices, in order to preserve Lord Bute's peace. In short, they are neither more nor less, than the obsequious instruments of a few despicable Scots, who are the creatures of Lord Bute, and the secret heads of the infamous Carlton house junto.
Sunday morning the following mistake was made by a Clergyman, in a church not far from Temple-Bar, in the taking his text, viz. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, it is easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle, than for a camel to enter into the kingdom of heaven."
A patent hath passed the seal appointing Thomas Hutchinson, Esq; Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts-Bay, to be Governor of that province.
Bishop Lloyd, many years since, foretold from the Revelations the destruction of the Turkish empire: Whistton, who was laughed at by the wits for it, actually fixed the final ruin of the Ottoman to the present period, or very near it.

The Situation of ENGLAND with the POWERS of the WORLD.
FRANCE and SPAIN, arming against Great-Britain.---PORTUGAL, soliciting the assistance of Spain and treating England with contempt.---PRUSSIA and GERMANY, bound by affection for each other: the former watching an opportunity to retaliate and pay himself what we owe him.---DENMARK, married our King's sister, but F---e is the pedagogue of the pupil Prince.---HUNGARY, has consolidated its interest by the marriage of the Dauphin.---SWEDEN, supplies ammunition to our enemy.---TURKY is leagued in with the interests of France.---The STATES of ITALY, are cemented by religion to the interests of France and Spain.---CORSICA, in the possession of France.---PIRATES and ALGERINES, in awe of France.---ORIENTAL INDIA, rebelling against England.---HOLLAND, assisting all states but ours.---RUSSIA, making her own conquests, with the assistance of our seamen.---IRELAND, in mutiny.---AMERICA, in open rebellion.---SCOTLAND, advising measures to prove herself the first great friend to the Stuart Line, and this swarm of enemies.--- Alas! poor England.
AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE.
CHARLESTOWN, [ South-Carolina ] October 11.
LAST Saturday arrived here the sloop Freelove , Captain Simmons, of and from Swansey, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, laden with apples, potatoes, beets, cheese and rum; but being cleared at Newport, Rhode-Island, some difficulties arose, whether her cargo might be purchased here, until after there had been three meetings of the general committee, when it clearly appearing, that vessels from Swansey, though in the Massachusetts government, could not obtain clearances but from Newport, and that all her cargo was bought at Swansey except nine hogheads of Rum, it was agreed, that the Swansey goods might be disposed of here, but the Rum, being distilled in Rhode-Island, is to be carried back in the vessel. But no such cargoes will in future be purchased here, unless the masters or supercargoes, bring with them certificates from the Boston Committee, that no part thereof is the produce of, or owned in the colonies of Rhode-Island or New-York.
Extract of a letter from Bermuda.
"After my remaining so long on these islands, I presume you will expect some account of what I have seen. but I have neither time nor capacity for such a labour. The variety of fish found here is amazing; no body here can give the vulgar names of even one half, and to collect specimens would employ a virtuoso for years. The Bermuda islands seem to me to have been thrown up from the bottom of the ocean perhaps by an earthquake, and appear to have been originally, or rather on their first appearance, nothing more than a mixture of sand and shells, with here and there a vast shoal, very apparently different in qualities from the other.---These in the great confusion seem to have been jumbled together in a most romantic manner, leaving frequent and
very large grotesque caverns; the other interstices filled with sand and shells; through these the rain-water is filtered, and, with the admixture of salts, form in the caves the most beautiful stalactical pillars: Besides, this serves to cement the sand into a soft spongy stone, such as you have seen, and binds the whole together. I am of opinion there are sundry subterraneous passages through all these islands, which I am led to, from observing the waters in the bottom of the caverns regularly ebbing and flowing, it being salt, and containing a great number of fish, the most beautiful imaginable. The islands are on the west, east, and north, fortified by nature with rocks, shelved, and, for the most part, sunken, the finest fishing ground imaginable, and that for the distance of three and four leagues, altogether inaccessible for vessels even of small burthen, except at three channels, and there so serpentine, narrow, and intricate, that it is absolutely impossible for a stranger to get into harbour. The climate is temperate, being in 32 deg. 18 min. north latitude, and 63 deg. 40 min. longitude west from London; but from the vast body of surrounding waters the air seems to be always damp. Here people are subject to colds and consumptions, but this ought not to be attributed to the air in general, but to the materials of which their houses are built, being the soft stone of the island, and with which they are also covered; this absorbs rains and dews, which keep the houses continually moist. There are no rivers or springs of fresh water, the inhabitants are supplied with rain-water from cisterns. The uneven face of the ground is favourable in this respect; the cisterns are built of the stone before-mentioned, and coated over with lime inside and out; above the cistern is a slope, of perhaps a quarter of an acre, paved and coated in like manner, for the purpose of receiving the rain-water, and conducting it to the cistern; from this you will readily perceive the water must, in a great degree, partake of the lime. I have seen Stitiæ, as one may say, of Stalactitæ, six and eight inches long, depending from the eves of the houses.
"The soil of these islands seems capable of producing almost any thing; it is of a deep red colour, much resembling and perhaps partakes of the quality of red bole; it cannot be separated from the tongue without difficulty upon a meer touch, and if kept upon it but for a half a minute will bring the skin along with it. There is not a great variety of plants, shrubs, or flowers here. The native wood is a fine kind of cedar fit for household furniture, they also build ships of it. Perhaps the orange, lemon and lime trees are natives here; they grow in great perfection, the fruit the largest I ever saw. There are also guavas, bananas, plantanes, papas, citron, &c. Marine plants and corals are in great abundance, and in the creeks plenty of mangroves, and shrubs of a very uncommon appearance.
"The whole length of these islands is twenty-one miles, and the greatest breadth two miles and an half, they contain in all twelve thousand acres, the number of white inhabitants four thousand five hundred, and the same number of blacks. Although the soil and climate

is equal, perhaps to any in the world, the indolence, or bad policy of the inhabitants will not suffer them to take advantage of it, not a fourth part is cultivated, and the produce of that is too often pilfered as soon as fit for use. They have their laws to prevent those practices, but, like their neighbours, do not put them in execution. Their chief dependence is on their ship-building and on their navigation. A cedar tree after it is planted, requires from sixteen to twenty years growing before it is of use, and of course so many years interest is lost; whereas, that land might be employed in raising a variety of such produce as would yield a large profit annually, and at the end of that term, be of much greater value than at present, though well stocked with timber."
NEWPORT, November 19. A few days past a barn filled with hay, &c. belonging to Mrs. Case at Tower-Hill, was intirely consumed by fire; which accident is supposed to have been occasioned by some boys playing with fire near the barn.
Extract of a letter from Charlestown, South-Carolina, dated October 22.
"There has been a great noise among the Sons of Liberty respecting the trade with Rhode-Island.---The Committee met together and ordered Capt. Hull to deliver the corpse of Mr. Smith, of this town, who lately died at Newport, and then to depart the port in twenty-four hours; which order raised a party amongst the people at Liberty-tree, when the matter was debated, and finally the question was put, when the people determined, a free trade as usual ninety-six to eighty-one, so that Captain Hull, to the joy of the people in trade, is admitted."
THURSDAY, November 29. B O S T O N.
Last Tuesday the Trial of the Soldiers for the Massacre on the fifth of March last, came on before the Superior Court of Judicature, &c. and is not yet finished.
Sunday last sailed for Bermuda Capt. George Wells, with whom went passenger Mrs. Randall, the Lady of ---- Randall, Esq; Collector of his Majesty's Customs in that Place. She arrived here some Time ago, with Capt. Cooper, in a Sloop from Bermuda bound for London, who meet with such bad Weather as not to be able to proceed on his voyage.
They write from Liverpool, that the demand for check linen from New-York, &c. was so great there, that the merchants have been obliged to buy single pieces in little retail shops.
On Tuesday the 20th instant, his Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, was pleased to prorogue the Great and General Court or Assembly, to Wednesday the 2d Day of January next, then to meet at Harvard College in Cambridge, having signed his Consent to the following engrossed Bills, viz.
An Act to exempt the People called Quakers and Antipedobaptists from paying Taxes for the Support of Ministers settled by the Laws of this Province, and for the Building and Repairing Meeting-Houses or Places of Public Worship where such Ministers officiate.
An Act to enable the Assessors of the District of Hubbardston to collect the Taxes granted on the Lands in said Hubbardston.
An Act for setting off Nathaniel Littlefield and Amariah Harris of the South-Precinct in Stoughton with their Lands from said South-Precinct in Stoughton, and annexing the same to the North-Precinct in Bridgewater.
An Act for repealing the several Laws now in force, which relate to the Limitation of Personal Actions, and for the Limitation of Personal Actions for the future, and for avoiding Suits at Law.
An Act to enable the Proprietors of the Town of Westminster to collect certain Taxes.
An Act for impowering the Commissioners and Assignees of the Estates of concealed and absconding Debtors and all others concerned to compleat the Business assigned them by an Act made and passed in the thirty-first Year of the Reign of his late Majesty King George the Second, intitled, "An Act providing Remedy for Bankrupts and their Creditors."
An Act for supplying the Treasury with the Sum of Seventy-six thousand Pounds, to be thence issued for discharging the Public Debts, and drawing the same into the Treasury again.
An Act for superceding and repealing the two last Paragraphs in an Act made and passed by the Great and General Court or Assembly of this Province at their Sessions begun and held at Boston on the last Wednesday in May, in the Ninth Year of his Majesty's Reign, intitled, "An Act for supplying the Treasury with the Sum of Eighty-eight thousand one hundred and fifty-eight Pounds to be thence issued for discharging the Public Debts, and drawing the same into the Treasury again;" and for apportioning and assessing a Tax of Twenty-five Thousand Pounds; and also for apportioning and assessing a Tax of two Thousand five hundred and fifty-nine Pounds seventeen shillings, paid the Representatives for their Travel, Service and Attendance in the Great and General Court in the Year 1769, &c.
Two Acts for reviving and continuing sundry Laws that are expired and near expiring.
An Act for granting unto his Majesty several Rates and Duties of Impost and Tunnage of Shipping.
An Act to prevent the obstructing and destroying of the Fish called Alewives in their Passage up and down Maddepayset River within the Town of Rochester.
An Act for regulating the Alewife Fishery in the Town of Bridgewater.
An Act to enable the Inhabitants of the Town of Sherborne in the County of Nantucket to choose a Collector to collect the several Rates or Taxes not collected in a List of Province Taxes set on said Town committed to Thomas Anker a delinquent Collector for the Year One thousand seven hundred and sixty-five, and One thousand seven hundred and sixty-six.
An Act for incorporating the South Part of the Town of Westfield in the County of Hampshire into a District by the Name of Southwick.
An Act for reviving and continuing An Act intitled, "An Act for establishing and regulating the Fees of the

several Officers within this province hereafter mentioned,”
An Act for reviving and continuing An Act, intitled, “An Act for allowing necessary Supplies to the Eastern Indians, and for regulating Trade with them, and preventing Abuses therein.”
An Act for annexing to and incorporating with the District of Lenox in the County of Berkshire, a number of the Inhabitants living on Grants of Land adjoined to the said District, and their Lands.
An Act for enabling the Proprietors of a Tract of Land called the Lisburn Propriety, to raise Money for making Recompence to sundry Proprietors who had their supposed Rights cut off in part by the late running of the Lines of the Towns of New-Salem and Shutesbury, and for paying other Proprietary Debts and Charges, and for enabling them to levy and collect the same.
MARRIED ] Isaac Winflow, Esq; of Roxbury, to Miss Jemima Debuke, of this Town.---At Salem, Mr. Isaac Winflow, jun. of Boston, Merchant, to Miss Peggy Sparhawk, Daughter of the Rev. Mr. Sparhawk late of Salem, deceased.
DIED ] At Kingston, Jamaica, George-Anthony Tonyn, Esq; Commander of his Majesty's Ship Phoenix.
C O U N T R Y N E W S.
Chelmsford, November 21. Last Sunday night, a fire broke out, which consumed the dwelling house of Capt. Oliver Barron of this town, as also almost all his household furniture, and almost all the apparel of the family, with a considerable quantity of brandy, rum, and other spirituous liquors, he being an innholder, and a great quantity of butter, cheese, cyder, &c.
There was no lives lost, although the lives of the whole family where in great danger, particularly the mother of Capt. Barron, the relict of the late Oliver Wilder, Esq; of Lancaster, and his little son, in bed in a chamber were almost scorched and suffocated by the flames and smoke, and were with great difficulty preserved. Mrs. Wilder's life seemed to be despaired of for several hours after she was rescued from the flames, but it is now hoped she will recover---It was a large building--the fire was very rapid in its progress, extreme fierce while it lasted; so that the meeting house, the minister's house, and divers other dwelling-houses, and other buildings were in great danger, but it was a calm season, and through the divine Goodness no other buildings were burnt. The loss which Capt. Barron and his mother have sustained, is, by a moderate computation more than 300l. sterling.---The occasion of the fire, it is thought, was a defect in the chimney.
AMES's ALMANACKS for 1771, to be sold at the New Printing-Office, in Union-street, near the Market.
WHEREAS the Co-partnership of JOSEPH and DANIEL WALDO, is mutually dissolved. This is to give notice to all persons who have any demands on said company, to apply to DANIEL WALDO for payment: And those who are indebted to said company, are hereby directed to pay their several balances to said DANIEL WALDO, as soon as possible.
JOSEPH WALDO, DANIEL WALDO.
N. B. The said DANIEL WALDO continues the Business as usual. The customers of the late company, and all others, who may favour him with their custom, may depend on being used in the best manner.
Boston, November 11, 1770.
NEW RAISINS, New Philadelphia FLOUR; West-India and New-England RUM by the hoghead or barrel; SUGARS of various qualities, by the hoghead, barrel or single hundred; very best French INDIGO, by large or small quantities, Coffee, Kippen's Snuff; and many other Articles; are sold very cheap by SAMUEL ELIOT, jun. opposite the east end of Faneuil-Hall Market.
CREAM COLOURED WARE. A LARGE and neat Assortment of cream and other coloured WARE, of the newest fashion, just opened, and now ready for sale, by wholesale or retail, Cheap for Cash, by FRANCIS SHAW, jun. at the store lately improved by Mr. Robert Gould, opposite the sign of the Crown and Sceptre in Back-street. Where may be had the best warranted POT-ASH for making Soap for the use of families, at 3s. 6d. old tenor the pound, and cheaper by the quantity. Likewise, PEARL-ASH by wholesale or retail.
ALEXANDER STEELE, Bookbinder, in Marlborough-Street, between Bromfield's-Lane and the sign of the Golden Cock, hereby informs the Public, that he binds Books of all sorts, gilt or plain, in the neatest manner. He likewise cleans and letters Libraries, and makes and sells pocket-books of all kinds. All executed on the most reasonable terms.
HAT LININGS, made and sold at 30s. old tenor the dozen, or 3s. single, by JOHN BROWNE, at the Manufactory-house, near the Common, Boston.
BOSTON: Printed by ISAIAH THOMAS, at the New Printing-Office in Union-Street, (near the Market) where this Paper will be regularly published every MONDAY and THURSDAY; and where Subscriptions, Articles of Intelligence, and Advertisements, &c. for this Paper, are taken in; and PRINTING, in general, done in a neat Manner, on very reasonable Terms.