Watchmen, Redcoats, and a Fire in the Old Boston Jail (episode 267)

Transcript

Music

Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to hub history, where we go far beyond the freedom trail, to share our favorite stories from the history of boston, the hub of the universe.
This is episode 267 watchmen, redcoats, and a fire in the old boston jail.
Hi, I’m jake! This week, I’m gonna talk about a fire that broke out in Boston 254 years ago this week. In the 1760s, the town jail where prisoners were held awaiting trial, was a cold, dark and truly terrifying edifice on Queens Street, just up the hill from the old State House When a fire was discovered in the jailhouse just after 10 p.m.
January 30, 1769, it briefly became the focal point of the long simmering tensions between the town and the occupying British soldiers that would eventually culminate in the Boston massacre,
who deliberately set the fire in the jail and why were some of the prisoners grievously injured before they could be rescued,
who held responsibility for policing the streets of a city under military occupation.
What was the legal role of those occupiers during a fire emergency?
And how did the fire at the old boston jail become a surprising story of cooperation between the rival factions in boston.
Stay tuned for all those answers and more. But before we talk about the 1769 fire in the old Boston jail, I just want to pause and thank everyone who makes hub history possible.

[1:32] Despite the show’s tagline that says that we go far beyond the freedom trail.
I’ve been spending a lot of time in the 18th century lately, from the thanksgiving riot that we talked about back in november to the christmas eve execution to the first concert in boston, to the first street lamps in boston to today.

[1:51] I appreciate our financial supporters for allowing me to go off on tangents like this, digging deep into 18th century primary sources and trying to tell slightly different stories about the same history that we all learned growing up.
Well, I’m off poring over digital archives, I know that the costs of publishing the show are taken care of costs like podcast, media hosting, online, audio processing tools, transcription and web hosting and security.
That stability is provided by supporters like noah, see our latest Patreon sponsor and Greg d the latest to support the show with a one time gift on Paypal to Greg. Noah and all our sponsors. Thank you.
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And thanks again to all our new eh.

[2:59] Late at night. On january 30th 17 69 Bostonians who lived in the vicinity of today’s government center were awakened by the chilling cry of fire fire.

[3:11] Any fire had the potential to be devastating if it spread.
And boston had lived through five great fires by the time the Bonner map was created in 17 22.
Another fire bad enough to completely gut the old state house, what was called the town house when it burned in 17 47 and when Bonner’s map was updated for 17 69 it included more great fire since 17 59 and 17 60.
If a bad enough fire was discovered in the night, church bells would ring to signal residents to come running with their fire buckets to help put out the blaze.
According to the Accountant. Caleb Hopkins Snows 1828. A history of Boston, the metropolis of Massachusetts from its origin to the present period.
With some account of the environs, this fire wasn’t bad enough for a general alarm at least not at first.
On Monday 30 January 1769, at about half after 10 o’clock at night, the people adjoining to the jail were alarmed by the prisoners crying,
fire, on which the keeper and a number of persons ran there and found part of the inside in a blaze.
It was some time before the prisoners could be got out. The inner keys being lost in the confusion and the wooden work being so strongly bound with iron that it was difficult to cut through the doors and partitions.

[4:31] One quick note about pronunciation. If you look in the show notes this week, you’ll see a word spelled G a O L, which looks like it should be pronounced gao.
In fact, in an old episode, that’s exactly how I pronounced it before. I figured out that that’s just the old spelling of our word jail.

[4:51] The jail that caught fire on january 30th 17 69 is located at what’s now the Old City Hall annex at 26 Court Street.
It’s on your left as you walk up the hill from the old State House toward the government center. T station.
This block bounded by school Washington and Tremont streets was the home of the first and for almost two decades, only prison in the massachusetts Bay Colony.
When the first jail was built on this site in 1635, the street was known as prison lane though, it was later renamed to Queen Street, and then Court Street.
After independence of this original jail, the first volume of the annals of King’s Chapel states its outer walls.

[5:40] By the time of the 1769 fire. That original building had been replaced, but different iterations of the jail over the years would host everyone from alleged pirate William Kidd to accused witch and glover,
and the court house that was built later on the same spot held prisoners accused under the fugitive slave law.

[6:00] In a 2020 post on her architectural history blog Boston by Foot Dawson.
Helene Kaplan wrote A new building replaced the first one in 1704 and that structure was damaged by Boston’s fire of 1711, which also destroyed the original town house in the first church.
A brick present, presumably fireproof, went up in 1750 for Gov.
Sir Francis. Bernard replaced this prison with a stone building in 1767, at which time a new brick courthouse was ordered inside the imposing stone walls.
The boston jail was no more hospitable for the prisoners who were locked up there.
Daniel Fowle, who was briefly incarcerated in boston for publishing a pamphlet criticizing the massachusetts legislature, described his first night in the boston jail,
After 11 at night, when people were generally gone to rest, I was by the prison keeper and several others conducted through several apartments, each of which was secured with locks and bolts,
On each door, about 70 spikes, the heads of which about 2″ in diameter.
I walked very slow that I might observe as I went along and could not help thinking of those words, which appeared very striking to me of walking through the dark valley of the shadow of death.

[7:23] Having got to my apartment without any broken bones, it being an ugly stumbling way to the place, an extraordinary composure of mind ensued.
I wished for something to keep out the in clemency of the weather, for it was a dark and stormy night and rained prodigious hard all the next day I had no bed to lodge on but a pillow and one blanket.
I walked about, and when tired, sat down and heard the clock strike every time from 12 to 8.
There is but one window and that without anything to keep off the weather, as there is only several iron bars and no window shut, which may be a reference to shutters, or another window closure.
I’m not quite familiar with the place stunk prodigiously, which obliged me to tie my handkerchief over my mouth and nose, for fear being suffocated worse than the smell of brimstone.

[8:25] Of rats, which seemed to be of a prodigious size and have reason to think that if I had been favored with a club, I might have been the death of some of them.

[8:35] The jailer at the time of our 1769 fire was a Mr, young but I’m not sure if he was the same jailer who escorted Daniel Foul to his cold, wet and filthy cell from the conditions.
Fowler describes, you can see why somebody would want to break out of the boston jail, though it’s a bit confusing to understand why setting the jail on fire with yourself inside was the best approach.
Several accounts of the fire say that prisoners were attempting to burn through the walls of their jail cells to escape,
but if the 1767 jail was anything like that original 1635 jail, with its three ft thick stone walls, that would have been a fool’s errand.
Instead, I think it’s more likely that the prisoners set the fire in order to force the jail keeper to unlock their cell, to put the fire out, giving them a chance to escape and the resulting confusion,
or they may have simply tried to burn through the door to their cell, allowing them to try to escape through the outer doors of the jail.
By some other means, surprisingly, the diary of merchant john Rowe, who lived near the jail suggests that a similar escape attempt succeeded almost exactly two years earlier.

[9:49] January 29, 1767 was alarmed early this morning by the cry of fire.

[10:06] Were aware of the earlier escape when they set their cell on fire, but they couldn’t have counted on the fact that Mr Young would allegedly misplaced his keys and delay the response to their diversionary fire long enough for it to turn into a deadly blaze.

[10:23] The job of looking out for fires in the night fell to the Town Watch, a sort of all purpose public safety patrol who walked the streets at night in the years before boston had a professional police department.

[10:36] In a 2022 paper titled witnessed a Crisis and Revolution.
The reports of boston’s Town Watch 17 63 to 17 75.
Dr Nicole Breault paints a vivid picture of the town watch on their rounds.

[10:50] Boston’s town watch began at nine p.m. in the winter and 10 p.m. in the summer and continued until daylight.
The town watch did not wear any type of uniform clothing to conduct their nightly rounds.
In the absence of uniforms, a staff carried by night constables and watchman signaled the office they held.
The typical watchman staff, also referred to as a pole or a hook, was made up of a curved metal blade attached to a strong wooden pole.
The men carried an hourglass to determine the time, making themselves known by announcing the hour and weather as they traveled.
Constables and watchman carry lanterns, torches and lit candles to identify perpetrators and passersby lighting, promoted safe walking, and was essential for the proper execution of the watches work,
of course for more about boston search for public lighting to promote nighttime safety go back and listen to our last episode number 2 66 about the first street lamps in boston,
which arrived on the fourth T ship and barely survived a shipwreck and the boston tea party.
A watchman would have cut a distinctive figure with his bill hook and lantern, striding the streets at night in a long cloak.
But what did the job actually entail?

[12:08] A 2014 Post on JL Bell’s Boston 1775 Blog includes the November 1769 rules for the town watch as recorded by Town Clerk, William Cooper.
The first section lays out the hours of the watch as dr bro, noted, starting at nine p.m. september through March and 10 p.m. March through september quote.
And each of you to continue upon duty until sunrise.

[12:37] The second section mandates the documentation that dr burrows research is based on requiring that you keep a fair journal of your doings every night.
How you find the state of the town, and who of the watchmen are on duty and report to the Selectmen every Wednesday.
Then come five sections that detail what the duties of the watch would be, and how a watchman should comport himself while on duty, requiring,
that at least two of your division, taking their staves with them, walked the rounds within your ward twice, at least every night, or often, or if necessary,
setting out from the watch house at such times in the night as you shall judge best and varying the time according to your discretion.
So with two watchmen each going on to patrols in a roughly eight or nine hour shift, Somebody would make the rounds at least every couple of hours in going the rounds.
Care must be taken that the watchmen are not noisy, but behave themselves with strict decorum,
that they frequently give the time of the night, and what the weather is with a distinct but moderate voice, accepting at times when it’s necessary to pass in silence in order to detect and secure persons that are out on unlawful actions.
That all makes sense if you’re trying to sleep, but still want the reassurance of hearing the watchman pass by.

[13:58] You, and your division must endeavor to suppress all routes, meaning fights riots, and other disorders that may be committed in the night and secure such persons as may be guilty.
The proper steps may be taken the next morning for prosecution, as the law directs.
We absolutely forbid you’re taking private satisfaction, or any bribe that may be offered you to let such go, or to conceal their offense from the Selectmen.

[14:25] Private satisfaction could mean anything from a fight to a duel to a murder.
So the watch was prohibited from taking the law into their own hands, but also from accepting any payoffs.
To look. The other way, you have to take up all negroes, indians, and mulatto slaves that may be absent from their master’s house after nine o’clock at night and passing the streets,
unless they’re carrying lanterns with light candles and can give a good and satisfactory account of their business,
that such offenders may be proceeded with, according to the law.

[14:59] As real historians have pointed out, it’s impossible to know whether someone’s enslaved just by seeing their face.
So this measure required the watch to treat any black or indigenous person who was in the streets after dark as a criminal, by default.

[15:16] And expect that you execute your office with resolution and firmness,
not using any a fronting language, but behaving with discretion and calmness that it may appear you do not abuse,
even offenders and they recommend to you and your division that you behave with sobriety, temperance, vigilance, and fidelity, and agreeable to the laws.
Your office requires a conduct. The security of the town demands it, and you may be assured that your continuance in the place to which you’re appointed altogether depends upon it.

[15:49] Honestly, it seems like there are a lot of modern professional police who could stand to be held to this 18th century standard that requires de escalation of conflict and prohibits abusive language and physical assaults on their prisoners.

[16:03] In a different essay, written for Old North’s blog in March of 2018, dr bro describes how the town watches on the lookout for fires, thefts, breaking and entering trespassing and of course assaults on people, writing,
in terms of the latter, they intervened in fights and attempted sexual assaults and they provided support to those without lodging and for individuals suffering from abuse or alcohol.
In february 17 68 Watchman Townsend took several seamen who lacked lodgings to the watch house for the night, citing his reason as to prevent what might happen to them being very dark and difficult,
cases of drunkenness fell into this category as well.
On one occasion in september 17 65 Townsend Road of three women very much in drink, one of whom was carried to the watch in a wheelbarrow and put in the cold house until daylight,
Again in January 1769, Thompson reported having taken into our care several seaman who we found in our rounds were in danger of perishing.
They being in liquor and destitute of lodgings.

[17:17] The actions of the watch demonstrated the level of commitment to social support, working not just to combat drunken disturbances, but to assist and protect those incapacitated by alcohol.
While on the one hand, this action prevented the intoxicated from wreaking havoc in the street.
The examples reflect the watches general practice to benign disorderly behavior.
Jailing was unnecessary and shelter rather than punishment would safeguard order.

[17:47] I like her emphasis on the role of the watch as safeguarding order rather than punishing transgressors.
Whether that meant detaining somebody who got in a street fight or protecting someone who was too drunk to take care of themselves.
However, in January 1769, there was a new threat to the good order of Boston.
About four months before the fire in the jail, thousands of British troops landed at Long Warf on October 1, 1768.
Sent to maintain order in the town after violent protests against the townshend acts,
such as the Liberty riot that summer, that we covered in episode 2 20 for their presence only escalated street violence over the next two years, culminating in the bloody massacre in King Street that we talked about in episode 1 74,
immediately following their october landing.
The troops tried to evict the penniless residents of the town’s manufactory house to use it as a barracks, leading to a tense standoff that lasted almost a month.
Almost as soon as that standoff was over, private Richard Eames was executed on Boston Common as a deserter, which we discussed recently as part of episode 2 63.

[19:01] Boston jail caught fire just four months after the first troops landed in boston, but that brief time had seen tensions between the town and soldiers quickly escalate and policing boston streets at night was one of the main areas of conflict,
in that 2022 paper dr Nicole bro notes,
In November of 1768, 2 police forces won a municipal entity representing local political order and the other, a military force representing imperial governance, confronted one another in the streets of Boston,
occupation, raised jurisdictional challenges and unsettled the regular system of order enforced by justices, constables and watchmen.
Regular tasks such as calling the weather and asking after travelers became political and highly contested actions,
tension and uncertainty led british officers, soldiers in boston’s watchmen to engage in a variety of confrontations ranging from verbal insults to physical violence.

[20:05] The Journal of The Times made no secret of its wig ish politics and overt opposition to the occupation of boston.
The series of updates was published in papers up and down the east coast and carried locally mostly by the boston evening transcript, always keeping the colonists up to date on the latest outrage committed by the troops. In boston.
The addition for October 29, 1768, describes the challenges Boston faced in adapting to a new nighttime patrol by soldiers who prioritized dominating every encounter with the locals rather than the watchman.
They were used to who practiced de escalation and the name of maintaining order.

[20:48] The inhabitants of this town have been of late, greatly insulted and abused by some of the officers and soldiers.
Several have been assaulted on frivolous pretenses and put under guard without any lawful warrant for doing so.
A physician of the town walking the streets. The other evening was jostled by an officer when a scuffle ensued.
He was afterwards met by the same officer and company with another, both as yet unknown, who repeated his blows and as is supposed, gave him a stroke with a pistol which so wounded him as to endanger his life.
A tradesman of this town, on going under the rails of the common on his way home, had a thrust in the breast with a bayonet from a soldier.
Another person passing the street was struck with a musket, and the last evening a merchant of this town was struck down by an officer who went into the coffee house.
Several gentlemen following him in and expose relating with the officers were treated in the most un genteel manner.

[21:50] By the time the military had been in boston for two months there was already an ongoing problem of jurisdiction.
The journal of the times, for November 25 explains that British officers simply refused to recognize the authority of a town watchman when he challenged them on his rounds and their responses were becoming increasingly violent.

[22:12] The Town watch has been lately greatly abused and interrupted in their duty by some officers.
Two of them came to the town house watch with swords under their arms, calling them damn scoundrels!
Forbidding them to challenge officers as they passed or to give the time of night in their rounds, as also from keeping in the watch house,
threatening that in such case they would have them in irons and bring four regiments to blow them all to hell, also telling the.

[22:50] Upon another night. Other officers came to the dock, Watch, one of them with a drawn hanger or bayonet,
striking it against the door, and asking whether they thought the times were now as they had been, that they could stand for regiments also damning them, and threatening to burn all of us to ashes and send us all to hell in one month’s time.
On the other hand, a letter signed by a Freeman and published in the Boston Gazette and Country Journal on February 6, 1779, makes it clear that what was good for the goose was also good for the Gander,
as the town watch, and an increasing number of citizens refused to acknowledge that the military officers had any right to challenge them in the streets.
This letter runs a bit long, but I’m going to read the whole thing, so you get a sense of the boston wig mindset.
A question was made yesterday whether the sentinels have a right to challenge the inhabitants.
The Attorney General observed that as the Guards had orders from their officers to challenge, they did no more than their duty in demanding who goes there.

[23:58] This question is puzzled a multitude of people, but it’s very easily resolved.
The perplexity arises wholly from the use of words without any precise and determinant meaning.
Let us then consider what is meant by challenging it means demanding of a town inhabitant walking along the street, who goes there and for my own part. I make no scruple of allowing that the guards have such a right.
My reason is this, I consider the guards in point of right and law upon a footing with all the rest of the king’s subjects,
and I hold it to be the right of any subject whenever he pleases by night or by day to pronounce in the public street, which is the King’s Highway.
These words, who goes there and this either in a low or high, a flat or shrill, a treble tenor or bass voice as he pleases.
Nay, I think at the right of the subject to do this. Whoever may be passing the street at that time, whether the governor or a private person, there is no breach of the peace or transgression of any law of this province that I’ve been able to find.
Nay, there is not yet even an act of Parliament giving the Court of Admiralty power to punish any such offense and subjecting the person who speaks these words to the forfeiture of three times as much as 13 of them are worth for speaking them.

[25:23] From all of which I conclude that all men, governor, and people, officers and soldiers, men, women and Children, black, white and gray,
have a clear, indisputable right in law to utter these three monosyllables in the street whenever they please.
Having shown thus, incontestably the right of the Guards to challenge by the rules of law, I have no need to inquire whether they have the same right by the rules of decency, politeness and good manners.
Laws and manners are very different things.
I would not maintain that by the laws of decency and politeness, every common man has a right to ball out to a justice of the peace, a member of council or the governor, or any inhabitant at noonday or at midnight who goes there?
No. By no means.
However, having settled the right of the challenger by law, I would now inquire what is the right of the challenged upon these occasions.
I think that as the guards have.

[26:48] Obligation upon the citizen to answer. There is no law written or unwritten to oblige him to answer.
There is no fine, imprisonment, penalty or punishment, whatever annex by law to his silence upon such occasions.
Nay, there is no rule of politeness or good manners that obliges them to answer. It is rudeness in the guards to ask the question at least when they know the person to be a citizen.
And politeness will treat that rudeness with contempt. But by no means dictates to the citizen to answer.
On the one hand, the guards have a legal right to ask the question.
Therefore they’re asking the question will give me no right to assault, beat or imprison them.
On the other hand, I have as clear a right to make no answer.
Therefore my making none will give them no right to assault, beat or imprison me.

[27:46] If you were to only read that letter and accounts in The Journal of The Times, you’d think that boston was cowed by the violence of soldiers who are abroad at night. However.

[28:05] There are numerous instances of Bostonians giving as good as they got, particularly when one examines the reports of street brawls between regulars and laborers fighting over scarce jobs.
These escalating rounds of violence presaged the boston massacre of March 5th 17 70.
As only a week before, some of the regulars who opened fire had been involved in a fight at grace rope walk with a mob of boston workers, several of whom ended up as victims of the massacre.
What started out as a fairly minor fire, there wasn’t that much different from other small fires set by prisoners in attempts to escape became a much bigger problem when the jailer Mr Young apparently couldn’t find his keys,
as the fire intensified, with the prisoner still locked inside.
A more general response was soon called for In his 1889 history of the Boston Fire Department.
Arthur Wellington Braley wrote the Jailhouse Fire 5, was as a matter of course, being next door, the first to get water on the building.

[29:13] You might be surprised to hear about an engine company responding to a fire and a time that you’re more likely to associate with bucket brigades.
However, while the citizens who brought their own buckets to a fire were an important aspect of firefighting in colonial Boston.
By 1769, the town had long had a professional fire department After a series of destructive fires.
In the 17th century Boston ordered its first fire engine sometime before January 1678 when the town committee named the firefighter who would store and maintain the import of engine,
in case of fire in the town when there is occasion to make use of the engine lately.
Come from England thomas Atkins. Carpenter is desired and got engaged to take care of managing the set engine and the work intended,
and secure it the best he can from damage and Hath made choice of the several persons following to be his assistance which are approved of and are promised to be paid for their pains about the work.
An article from the Mass Humanity’s Mass Moment series describes this first fire engine and how it worked in an era before fire hydrants and public water mains.

[30:30] The device was a simple wooden box with handles that could be carried to fires.
There it was filled with water by a bucket brigade, and when pumped it shot a stream of water out of a flexible hose To operate the hand tub.
Fire engine Boston named 12 men who’d be paid for responding to fires and using the new machine.
With this resolution passed January 27, 1678, Boston became the first town in the nation to have paid firefighters As the town, added more machines and more engineers to operate them.
It decided that these firefighters should be trained under the same discipline as soldiers and by 1720, Boston had the beginnings of a modern fire department with 10 fire awards, six machines and 20 paid firefighters.
Despite employing the first professional firefighters putting out fires in boston remained a communal effort for a very long time.
The new fire engines couldn’t function without a bucket brigade to fill them with water and vital equipment, like buckets for filling fire engines, swabs for extinguishing burning roofs and axes for breaking into locked houses or downing.
Burning building materials were maintained by private citizens for public use, as noted in Bailey’s 1889 history of the fire department.

[31:56] In every quarter of the town, there are 20 buckets provided at the town charge.
Also 20 swabs, two scoops and six axes.
Every family shall be ordered by the Selectmen to have a proportion of buckets, swabs and scoops according to their estates and that each master of the family provide the same within three months after publication.

[32:20] By the time of the 1769 jail fire Boston had employed professional firefighters for over 90 years.
A few different generations of fire engines have been used in those 91 years and the most recent model have been designed and built right here in Boston,
as described in old landmarks and historic personages of Boston by Samuel Adams Drake.

[32:45] The first fire engine made in boston was built by David wheeler, a blacksmith in Newbury, now Washington street.
It was tried in the fire August 21, 1765 and found to perform extremely well.

[33:02] Boston’s fire wardens for 1769, had been selected just a few days before the fire at the jail.
As noted in the Boston Town Records, at a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of boston,
legally qualified and warned in public town meeting assembled at Faneuil Hall on friday the 27th day of january 17 69.
The town brought in their votes for 16 fire awards and upon sorting them, it appeared that and then 15 men’s names are listed, were chose fire awards for the year ensuing.
Among the wardens were john scali jonrowe john hancock and Samuel Adams.
Those fire wardens would be tested just two nights later, as reported in the Boston Gazette and Country Journal on February six,
Last Monday night, about 10:00, the large new country jail in this town was discovered on fire.
The first attention was to preserve the prisoners from perishing, but by the hurry and consternation of the people, the keys of the several doors were misplaced, whereby they were obliged to have recourse to access etcetera, to break through.

[34:19] Caleb Snow’s 1828 history of Boston describes the violence of the fire as it began to burn out of control.

[34:28] It was expected. The fire would be kept under meaning under control, but the great quantity of inside timber work occasioned it to rage with great violence,
and the flames burst through the windows and reached the roof, which, after burning some hours fell in.
The woodwork burned all night, and in the morning nothing remained but the bare stone walls.
Engine Company # five responded immediately, followed quickly by the residents of the surrounding streets and alleys with their buckets.
However, as the boston gazette and Country Journal reported, there was little they could do to contain the blaze until they could either unlock the jailhouse doors or hack their way through them.

[35:12] The fire began in an apartment on the middle story at the northwest corner of the building, and proceeded with great violence from one apartment to another till the whole of the inside of the house was in flames.
The thickness of the partitions and doors made the heat very intense, and the walls and iron bars prevented the water from the engines, doing much towards extinguishing the flames.
When the fire broke from its confinement through the roof, great danger was apprehended from the flakes, but there, being little wind by a good providence, it was prevented from spread.

[35:59] Heard, That’s what happens when you’re trapped inside a prison cell with a fire that’s so intense that it bursts through the windows and roof.
While nobody can get in to save you or even get water to reach the flames.
Samuel Gardner drake gives us a sense of how they are eventually rescued.
On Monday night, about 10 o’clock on 30 January, the new jail in Queen Street was discovered to be on fire, and when observed that it made such progress that great exertions were necessary to save the lives of the prisoners.
But the hurry and consternation caused the keys to be misplaced and resort was had to access to break through the doors, which, owing to their thickness and the iron about them, was affected with much difficulty.
Hence, in some cases, the prisoners were dragged through such small apertures that their flesh was torn in a frightful manner.

[36:56] The Journal of The Times was happy to lay blame for these injuries.
At the foot of the jailer, Mr Young, reporting the distress of the poor prisoners was great,
the keeper of the jail, having in his fright mislaid his keys, diverse of them were in imminent danger of perishing before they could be relieved, and some of them finally escaped very much burnt.
However, the february 6th edition of the boston gazette and Country Journal made the blame seem less clear cut, reporting that Young did everything in his power to reach the prisoners who were trapped within the cells where the fire started,
notwithstanding, the account above mentioned that the keys were misplaced.
The jailer declares that he opened every door with his own hands, accepting the two inner doors of the rooms, and the entry where the fire first began,
which he could not do by reason of their being in flames, but delivered them to an unknown person, who said he would attempt to open them at the risk of his own life, which, however he could not accomplish.
Then they proceeded to have recourse to access etcetera. As the account relates.

[38:08] As we noted earlier in the episode, the cells within the jail were closed with heavy wooden doors wrapped with iron straps and closely dotted with iron spikes two inches in diameter, the whole point of which was to.

[38:30] Caleb snow’s account, which of course was written about 60 years after the fire singles out a british officer for credit and breaking the remaining prisoners out of the stone cells where they were trapped along with the inferno that they started,
saying Captain Wilson of the 59th Regiment was particularly active in extricating them,
Wilson and the civilian rescuers finally managed to hack a small opening into the heavy jail cell doors.
With the boston gazette and Country Journal reporting, the prisoners were pulled through a very small passage, their flesh being considerable. Tour by the iron spikes in the doors.
However, they were all taken out alive, one or two scorched by the fire.
One elderly man who was in the room when the fire first began was much burnt.
Most articles about the fire say that two of the prisoners later died though I couldn’t establish an identity for either of them.
The next morning the remaining prisoners were removed into the bridwell and the investigation began almost as soon as the sun rose,
the jail that had burned the night before held prisoners who were awaiting trial While the neighboring bridwell was meant for convicted criminals, though fines, whippings and execution were more common than long incarcerations in colonial boston.

[39:51] Two of the prisoners remained at large as the boston gazette and Country Journal reported about a week later, as part of a story on the investigation into the fire,
two of the prisoners escaped in the night, the others were secured in bridwell and in the jailers dwelling house until morning, About 10 o’clock examination was made before several Magistrates,
It appeared that Mr Young the keeper had been to the jail, as was his practice to see all safe about nine in the evening and saw no appearance of fire.
Upon examining the prisoners who were in the room where the fire was first discovered, it was evident that they were determined to get out by burning the door of their apartment.
Accordingly, in the evening they put some chips under the door and set fire to them, they put the shutters to their windows to prevent the light being discovered.
The door kept burning two or three hours, till at length the smoke and heat increased so much that they were obliged to repair to the window at the windward for air when they gave the alarm,
these matters appearing full against two of them, when a soldier, the other, a young lad who are confined for stealing, they were both handcuffed and by habeas corpus committed to the jail in Charlestown.

[41:10] Merchant John Rose Diary entry for February 1, 1769, puts names to three prisoners who were questioned about the fire.
These are the only three prisoners who I could find names for, including the two anonymous men who were killed and the two who escaped,
february 1st Yesterday three of the prisoners were examined before the bench of justices for the sessions for setting fire to the jail.
Their names able badger of.

[41:51] Two of those three were found responsible for setting the fire. The soldier Donnelly and either able badger or Michael, though it’s not clear to me which one is the young lad reference in the boston gazette story.

[42:06] When it came time to put out the jailhouse fire and rescue the prisoners who were trapped inside.
Help came from an unexpected quarter.
As we heard earlier, Captain Wilson of the British 59th regiment was particularly helpful in hacking through the cell doors.
But it turns out that he was not the only redcoat to respond given the increasingly violent clashes between the town watch and the occupying british officers.
The first reaction by military authorities was perhaps not surprising,
On February six, the Boston Gazette and Country Journal reported at the late cry of fire, a military gentleman was heard to give orders to a soldier or servant,
go directly to the general and inform him that it is no riot, but only a fire.

[42:57] So in the eyes of this wig ish paper that was not predisposed to look kindly at the military occupiers,
the soldiers started to react to the commotion of people assembling in Queen Street to fight the fire, but then realized that it was only a deadly fire and not a protest.
So they took a little break while waiting for orders.
Then, instead of springing into action to help fight the fire, they seem to have armed themselves and confronted the residents who are trying to put out the fire.
Certainly that was the charge that was laid at their feet in a letter by urban illness, which was one of patriot firebrand Samuel Adams, many pen names published in the same edition of the boston gazette.

[43:40] It is the opinion of many persons who attended the fire last monday evening that its progress may have been sooner stopped.
If the picket guards had not been ordered out with their fire locks and bayonets,
the minds of the people seem to be disturbed and their attention to business taken off by such an unusual and needless military appearance at a juncture of time when a vigorous effort might have had a good effect.
The gentleman of the army would do well to consider that this town is to be governed upon these and all other occasions by its own regulations according to the laws of the province.
It is said that the general was fully informed of those regulations by the fire ward sometime ago and that the turning out of the guards was not agreeable to their just expectations.
It is, however, to be observed that the officer marched them off as soon as he was properly spoke to by the town officers, and that afterwards by the joint endeavors and activity of the inhabitants and the soldiers unarmed.
The fire was happily extinguished, signed her bananas.

[44:47] In the next edition of the Gazette, on February 13, a letter from an anonymous ally of Sam Adams takes that argument one step further.
He or she essentially complains that the soldiers treat every group of Bostonians as a potential mob or riot.
So their only response is to fix bayonets form into ranks and confront even a bucket brigade as though it was a riot about to break out.
What’s even worse, the letter writer argues, is that the military had no legal jurisdiction to intervene even in an actual riot, unless the civilian government of the town or province asked them to.

[45:23] But if it had been a riot, what business would armed soldiers have there until commanded by the civil power?
It seems to be a prevailing opinion with some folks that there cannot be a collection of persons in this town even upon the most necessary occasions, but there must needs be a danger of a mob,
and then forsooth the military must make their appearance of their own mere motion ready cocked in primed to prevent it.
I expect, if this opinion should further prevail very soon to see the picket guards drawn up before our church doors in time of divine service, to keep the people from mobbing when the assemblies are dismissed.
If his excellency should ever think himself at liberty to call another general court and suffer them to meet in this metropolis, and the members of either house should happen to be disposed to faction, as has been said of them in times past.
It is lucky enough that the main guard being already fixed near the courthouse the soldiers may afford is ready assistance with their arms and bayonets to all the assembly, as the picket guard did at the late fire.

[46:35] Taking that argument one step further, our letter writer made the case that the soldiers could play no role at a fire scene, like the one at the jail.

[46:45] It is a regulation of the town by long and approved custom for the friends, of persons in danger formed into separate,
fire societies to take care of their movable estate, so that we are happily free from any necessity of an armed force for that purpose,
and the exact ist of military discipline can be of no service in supplying or working a fire engine.

[47:09] Despite some Bostonians simmering resentment of the armed soldiers who responded to the fire.
Even the radical Samuel Adams had to admit that as soon as they returned to the fire unarmed, the soldiers were helpful and happily extinguishing the fire.
The wig ish journal of the Times reinforces this point though. Perhaps a bit reluctantly.

[47:32] The picket guards were ordered out to this fire with their muskets and bayonets, and drew up in Queen Street opposite the jail.
But the officer of the guard, being told by the fire awards a set of town officers, who by law the province, have the sole conduct on these occasions,
that they could be of no assistance in that manner, but were rather an obstruction that such an appearance was discussed fel to the inhabitants, and that he must either draws men off again, or they must assist in such a way as the fire wards should direct.
They retired to the main guardhouse, after which the gentleman of the army attended and offered the assistance of the soldiers unarmed,
as did the navy officers, that of the seamen, whose laudable activity and perseverance, together with that of the inhabitants, prevented the spreading of the fire, which through the whole night threatened great desolation in the very center of the town.
Notice that the Journal’s high praise of the soldiers and sailors who ran to help put out the fire is tempered slightly by the pointed note that they did so unarmed, and at the direction of the civilian fire wardens who held legal jurisdiction over the scene.
Even the boston gazette and Country Journal, the favorite mouthpiece for patriots like john and Samuel Adams,
joseph warren and James Otis praised the officers who helped extinguish the blaze alongside boston’s professional firefighters and amateur bucket brigade.

[48:59] The night was very cold. The fire wards exerted themselves the whole time.
Also, the engine man and the other inhabitants of the town were very vigilant.
The officers of the army and navy now here attended with a number of sailors and soldiers who are very serviceable in assisting and relieving the inhabitants.

[49:20] Though john Rowe had a reputation as a wig sympathizer through his resistance to the stamp act.
His diary entry for january 31st 17 69 doesn’t equivocate when describing the role of the red coats and fighting the fire the night before.

[49:41] And the neighborhood very much in danger. The officers and army behaved extremely clever on this occasion and ought to have the public thanks of this town.
I can truly say that they were the means of saving it.
I waited on Brigadier pomeroy and Colonel Care and thank them for their behavior.

[50:02] Although the presence of armed soldiers at the fire was deeply resented at the time and the years to come. The fire at the old boston jail would be recalled with a tinge of nostalgia as the last time that the town and soldiery worked together in harmony.
The strain between Bostonians and their occupiers only grew as the watchman and officers continued to challenge each other’s authority to patrol the streets at night.
As rank and file soldiers competed with working Bostonians for jobs, housing and even romance, conflicts in the streets became ever more violent, leading to huge brawls between soldiers and laborers like rope makers.
And finally, 13 months in a bit after red coated officers worked side by side with civilian fire wards,
kept the hand pump engines topped off with buckets of water and even risked their own lives to save the engine prisoners who had started the fire in the first place,
a detached from the soldiers from the 29th regiment opened fire on a boston crowd that had been tormenting them.
An event that went down in history as the boston massacre.
That’s why Caleb snows, 1828 history of Boston Wistfully recalls in the jailhouse fire that this is the only good deed we have found attributed to the regular soldiers.

[51:21] Similarly Isaac Smith Homans, 1856 history of Boston notes that at this fire, the city and soldiers were seen acting in harmony for the last time.

[51:34] To learn more about the terrible fire where red coats and Bostonians work together in harmony for the last time.
Check out this week’s show notes at hub history dot com slash 267.
I’ll have links to the additions of the boston gazette and country journal I quoted from as well as a collected volume of The Journal of the Times.
I’ll also link to an online copy of john Rose diary and a page from the town records that shows Rose name among the list of fire wardens for 17 69 as well as daniel fouls, total eclipse of liberty.
Where he describes his first night in the boston jail.
I’ll include a geo reference copy of the 1722 Bonnar map that shows exactly where the jail stood as well as an updated 1769 edition of that same map that includes an expanded list of great fires in Boston.
A link to histories of boston by Samuel Gardner drake Samuel Adams, drake and Caleb snow that discussed the fire as well as Arthur Wellington Braley, 18 89 History. The boston fire department.

[52:41] I’ll link to a couple of articles that you can find online by dr Nicole bro who we owe big time for her work on the boston town watch, Her paper witnessed the Crisis and Revolution.
The reports of boston’s Town Watch 17 63 to 17 75 which collects and analyzes the reports of the Town Watch isn’t widely available,
but she presented it at the Conference of the Mass Historical Society last year and thus helped inspire this episode,
and helped inspire this episode.
If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hub history dot com.

[53:29] At hub history at better dot boston or to keep things simple, you can just go to hub history dot com and click on the Contact us link while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode.
If you subscribe on apple podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do drop me a line and I’ll send you a hub history sticker as a token of appreciation.

Music

Jake:
[53:56] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there listeners.