Jamaica Plain resists a lawless government in the 1770s
Dear Editor,
As the federal government sends ICE agents to harass communities and undermine our freedoms, it’s worth recounting some events that took place around what is now JP’s Monument Square in the 1770s that might resonate today.
Then as now, a distant imperial government was pushing policies that threatened liberty and prosperity. Then, as now, Jamaica Plain was full of activists resisting government aggression. In 1774 a mob hounded the Tory landowner Joshua Loring from his home (now the Loring-Greenough House). A year later, eleven JP militiamen fought at Lexington and Concord. So it is not surprising that when British forces sealed off Boston in the aftermath of those battles, there was panic in JP center as local families, fearing government reprisals, prepared to flee to the relative safety of Dedham and beyond (See the extraordinary primary source letter by Sarah Deming on the JP Historical Society’s website.) Meanwhile, dozens of local residents—including minutemen who had fought at Lexington—spent the night of April 20 in both the church and the Eliot School, to help defend themselves and their community from attack.
Organizing the local evacuations while also preparing his escape, was Reverend William Gordon, one of several Patriot ministers in the Boston area. Rev. Gordon’s church, known then as the Third Parish of Roxbury, stood on the site of the present First Church in Monument Square. Gordon had good reason to flee with other JP residents, because his recent, pro-Patriot sermon made him a marked man.
On the morning of December 15, 1774, Gordon had launched a long critique of government oppression while praising Boston’s resistance:
“[Boston] has distinguished herself by her animated opposition to arbitrary and unconstitutional proceedings; and therefore has been marked out, by ministerial vengeance, to be made an example of, whereby to terrify other American cities into a tame submission.”
In the long political sermon that followed, Gordon criticized Parliament’s disregard for those ancient English laws and documents, including the the bill of rights and Magna Carta, that had for centuries offered protection from government tyranny. The sermon ended on a dark note, anticipating violence but hoping for a better future beyond the conflict.
“But should the country be wasted for a few years, and a number of its inhabitants be destroyed, ere the wished for salvation is granted, how soon, after having secured its liberties, will it regain its former prosperity; yea, become far more glorious, wealthy and populous than ever, through the thousands and ten thousands that will flock to it, with riches arts and sciences acquired by them in foreign countries. And, how will the surviving inhabitants and their posterity, together with refugees, who have fled from oppression and hardships, whether civil, or sacred, to our American sanctuary, daily give thanks to the Sovereign of the universe, that this general asylum was not consumed!”
“American Sanctuary”; “Refugees”; “Asylum”; “Opposition to unconstitutional proceedings”. As a JP resident, I am proud that such words rang out here in Monument Square so long ago, as our predecessors resisted the aggressions of a lawless government. May the past give us confidence to resist and to hope for a better future!
Owen Shows