Addressers of Gage

 

The importance of the following addressers is out of all proportion to their apparent significance. They are an indispensable genesis to the history of the Loyalists. For the next seven years the Addressers were held up to their countrymen as traitors and enemies to their country. In the arraignments, which soon began, the Loyalists were convicted not out of their mouths, but out of their addresses. The ink was hardly dry upon the parchment before the persecution begain against all those who would not recant, and throughout the long year of the war, the crime of an addresser grew in its enormity, and they were exposed to the perils of tarring and feathering, the horrors of Simbury mines, a gaol or a gallows. — James H. Stark, Boston, 1910.

 

Address Presented to His Excellency Governor Gage,
June 11th, 1774, on his Arrival at Salem

 

To his Excellency Thomas Gage, Esq., Captain-General, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England, and Lieutenant-General of his Majesty's Forces.

May it please your Excellency:

We, merchants and others, inhabitants of the ancient town of Salem, beg leave to approach your Excellency with our most respectful congratulations on your arrival in this place.

We are deeply sensible of his Majesty's paternal care and affection to this province, in the appointment of a person of your Excellency's experience, wisdom and moderation, in these troublesome and difficult times.

We rejoice that this town is graciously distinguished for that spirit, loyalty, and reverence for the laws, which is equally our glory and happiness.

From that public spirit and warm zeal to promote the general happiness of men, which mark the great and good, we are led to hope under your Excellency's administration for everything that may promote the peace, prosperity, and real welfare of this province.

We beg leave to commend to your Excellency's patronage the trade and commerce of this place, which, from a full protection of the liberties, persons and properties of individuals, cannot but flourish.

And we assure your Excellency we will make it our constant endeavors by peace, good order, and a regard for the laws, as far as in us lies, to render your station and residence easy and happy.

[Signers' names sorted alphabetically, original spelling preserved.]

Jacob Ashton

Joseph Blaney

Jos. Bowditch

David Britton

William Browne

Francis Cabot

William Cabot

S. Curwen

Andrew Dalglish

Nathaniel Daubney

George Deblois

Jos. Dowse

John Fisher

Samuel Flagg

P. Frye

Henry Gardner

Weld Gardner

Cabot Gerrish

William Gerrish

Nathan Goodale

Jonathan Goodhue

James Grant

Henry Higginson

Stephen Higginson

E. A. Holyoke

P. G. Kast

William Lilly

Benjamin Lynde

John Mascarene

Richard Nicholls

John Nutting

Timothy Orne

Benjamin Pickman

C. Gayton Pickman

William Pickman

Samuel Porter

Thomas Poynton

John Prince

Archelaus Putnam

Ebenezer Putnam

William Pynchon

Richard Routh

John Sargent

Rowland Savage

Nathaniel Sparhawk

John Turner

William Vans

William Wetmore

 

_________________________

 

The "Loyal Address from the Gentlemen and Principal Inhabitants of Boston to Governor Gage on his Departure for England, October 6, 1775," was signed as follows:

 

Thomas Amory

James Anderson

John Atkinson

Henry Barnes

David Barton

Wm. Bowes

Archibald Bowman

William Brattle

Ebenezer Brigham

George Brindley

Nathaniel Brinley

Thomas Brinley

Alexander Bymer

Nathaniel Cary

Andrew Cazneau

William Cazneau

Richard Clarke

William Codner

Nathaniel Coffin

William Coffin, jr.

Thomas Courtney

Archibald Cunningham

Benjamin Davis

Gilbert Deblois

Lewis Deblois

William Dickerson

Phillip Dumaresque

John Erving

Benjamin Fanieul, jr.

Samuel Fitch

Silvester Gardiner

Martin Gay

M. B. Goldthwait

John Gore

Lewis Gray

John Greecart

Francis Green

Richard Green

Stephen Greenleaf

Benjamin Gridley

Robert Hallowell

Benjamin M. Holmes

Daniel Hubbard

Samuel Hughes

John Hunt, 3d

William Hunter

Edward Hutchinson

Thomas Hutchinson, jr.

John Inman

Ralph Inman

William Jackson

Robert Jarvis

John Jeffries, jr.

Peter Johonnot

John Joy

Henry Lawton

George Leonard

Theophilus Lillie

Henry Lindall

Henry Lloyd

James Lloyd

Joshua Loring, jr.

John Love

Byfield Lyde

William McAlpine

Daniel McMasters

Archibald McNeal

James Murray

Adino Paddock

James Perkins

Nathaniel Perkins

William Lee Perkins

Wm. Perry

David Phips

John Powell

John Sampson

Joseph Scott

James Selkrig

John Semple

Robert Semple

Jonathan Simpson

Jonathan Snelling

Samuel Hirst Sparhawk

Hugh Tarbett

John Tayler

Nathaniel Tayler

William Tayler

John Timmins

Gregory Townsend

John Troutbeck

Joseph Turill

William Walter

Miles Whitworth

Edward Winslow

Isaac Winslow

Isaac Winslow, jr.

John Winslow, jr.

 

_________________________

 

The Loyal Address to Governor Gage on his Departure, October 14, 1775, of those Gentlemen who were driven from their Habitations in the Country to the Town of Boston, was signed by the following persons:

 

John Chandler

Nathaniel Chandler

William Chandler

Ward Chipman

Charles Curtis

Thomas Foster

Daniel Oliver

Peter Oliver, jr.

Peter Oliver, sen.

David Phips

Samuel Pine

James Putnam

James Putnam, jr.

Richard Saltonstall

Jonathan Stearns

Seth Williams, jr.

Edward Winslow, jr.

Pelham Winslow