The Ransacking of the Foster-Hutchinson Boston Home August 26, 1765

On August 30, 1765, then Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson wrote to correspondent Richard Jackson in Great Britain explaining the events of August 26 when his house had been attacked by an angry crowd of colonists. In the letter he explained that over £3000 of damage had been brought down upon his house by the angry mob who felt that Hutchinson may have had some authorship in the Stamp Acts that the colonists so resented. Hutchison, in his letter explained that he was forced to hide with his family in the house of his niece, sister, and her husband (the Mather family) but that the mob had heard of his departure and came looking for him so was forced to hide elsewhere. The next morning Hutchinson arrived at the Town House (the seat of colonial government for the colony of Massachussetts) wearing nothing more than a tattered night shirt and breeches saying, "Some apology is needed for my dress. Indeed, I had no other." And indeed he did not, for all his clothing and his children's clothing had been carried away or torn apart by the mob, his furniture torn to kindling, his paintings and family portraits ripped from their frames, the wine drunk from his cellar, the cupola of his roof torn off, his books torn apart and strewn about, the beds ripped open, and the very partitions of his house beaten in so that by morning nothing was left of his mansion but a desolate husk. Hutchinson, as a historian, had also been in the midst of writing a volume on the history of the Massachusetts Bay colony which was torn apart and thrown about. Hutchinson would spend the next few days trying to pick up each page of his work from the mud as well as many official documents that had been under his care without any certainty that all could be recovered.

The morning after his house was torn apart, on August 27, Hutchinson not only arrived in the Town House wearing nothing more but a tattered night shirt and breeches, but he also delivered an impassioned speech to the House of Representatives (some members of which had been responsible for the crowds and their ransacking of his house) explaining that he had had no authorship nor offered any support in the Stamp Act.

Later that same day Hutchinson tried to remove his family to his country home in Milton for safety, but along the road they were met by two or three parties of the same ruffians who had torn apart their house and his daughters felt so threatened that they thought they would never be safe again. Instead of continuing on to Milton, Hutchinson decided to hide his daughters in the Castle on what today is called "Castle Island" (At the time the Castle was known as William and Mary but today it is called Fort Independence), where the Royal Governor, Francis Bernard, and his family were also staying in order to remain safe.

In his letter Hutchinson expressed a hope that the people would see the dangers result from such actions when they are let loose in a government where there is no constant authority at hand. He also wrote that the British Ministry must be embarrassed and that they cannot conceive the state that Boston is in. The resentment of the Stamp Duty from the people required the courts could not be depended on to enforce it and it would cause all trade to cease, all courts to fall, and all authority to end. Yet on the other hand, if Parliament gave in to the colonists' demands they would lose all authority, and if external force was used then they would risk alienating any lasting affection the colonists might still have with their mother country. Were these words not prophetic?

Pictures below are some objects that used to be owned by Governor Hutchinson:

Pictures 1-3: Governor Hutchinson's desk from his house in Boston. It was removed to his country home in Milton a few days before his house in Boston was ransacked and therefore was saved from the fury of the people. It is now residing at the Milton Public Library in Milton, MA

Picture 4: An elaborate mirror from Governor Hutchinson's Milton country house, courtesy of the Milton Public Library. Before Governor Hutchinson's house in Boston was ransacked it was said that he owned the biggest and most beautiful looking glass in all New England. When Governor Hutchinson's house in Boston was ransacked the mirror was smashed to pieces by the angry colonists.

Picture 5: Surviving tiles from the Foster- Hutchinson house after it was ransacked and a plate with the Hutchinson Family Crest. At the bottom of the crest is the family motto in Latin "Proceed and you shall succeed." These items can be found on display at the Old State House, Boston. 

Picture 6: Thomas Hutchinson's bedroom and study door from the Foster-Hutchinson house in Boston. This was an "escape door" so that Hutchinson could escape into his study and room without even his family noticing. The door now resides at the Forbes House Museum which sits on the same property that used to be part of Thomas Hutchinson's Milton Country Estate.

 Picture 7: Unquety/Unquity house. The country home of Thomas Hutchinson where Thomas Hutchinson and his family repaired for a time after their house was ransacked in Boston. Picture courtesy of the Milton Public Library, Milton, MA