By D. Michael Ryan, historian with the Concord and Lincoln Minute Men, an 18th Century volunteer history interpreter with the National Park Service and associate dean of students at Boston College
Over recent years, we have observed our English "cousins" come to the support of America in a crisis. This bond between peoples has historic precedent found at our own doorstep relative to the aftermath of the Concord Fight on 19 April 1775.
Following the "Lexington Alarum", eyewitness depositions and a narrative graphically depicting the attack and atrocities by British soldiers against local citizens were quickly gathered by the Provincial Congress. With propaganda and the winning of English hearts and minds as a goal, these documents, sped to London well in advance of official reports from Gen. Gage, had their intended impact.
Numerous opposition groups -- contrary to royal policies, military power, denied personal rights and limited self-governance -- existed in London and throughout Great Britain. They sensed a kinship with their American "relations" and their causes. One "Patriotic Society" wrote Mr. John Adams (whom they elected a member in 1773) expressing a desire to defend rights on either side of the ocean. This organization supported candidates for office who would "try to restore America's right of taxation by representation of her own choice" (Aug. 1774).
Another "radical" establishment -- The Constitutional Society (later splintering to the Society for Constitutional Information) -- consisted of dissidents among Bill of Right Supporters. Their disputes impacted the 1773 Parliamentary elections causing more disenchanted groups to form. Such organizations allied themselves with the principles of their American "brothers" as did the people of the Essex-Suffolk border and East Anglia with such town names as Dedham, Newton, Sudbury, Haverhill and Lincoln who heard of militia "cousins" in far-off villages of the same names rising, fighting and encircling British soldiers in and near Boston.
Arrival of the Lexington/Concord accounts in England brought such responses as "the sword of Civil War is... most universally believed to have first been drawn by General Gages (sic) troops... ". Publishing of these first reports, considered anti-government, in London led to an extensive legal prosecution of printers. Yet former minister and pamphleteer John Horne (later Horne-Tooke) and others of the Constitutional Society on 5 June 1775 signed a newspaper advertisement insert calling for subscriptions (money donations) to aid the colonists. Publishers were fined 100 Pounds and Horne was eventually tried in Court, imprisoned for a year and fined 200 Pounds (Nov. 1777). Still the opposition wrote to King George "a civil war commenced in America by your Majesty's Commander-in-Chief... nothing to expect from America but gazettes of blood, mutual lists of their slaughtered fellow subjects."
It should be noted that Horne's appeal was for "the relief of the widows, orphans, and aged parents of our beloved American fellow-subjects, who faithful to their character of Englishmen, preferred death to slavery, were, for that reason only inhumanly murdered by the King's Troops at or near Lexington and Concord". The Society had already elected to advance 100 Pounds sterling to the cause, paying same to the firm of Browne and Collinson on the account of Benjamin Franklin, Esq.. The Massachusetts Council on 25 October 1775 formed a committee to receive the monies through Franklin from "charitable persons in England for the relief of wounded, widows/children of the slain".
Support for Massachusetts continued throughout the summer of 1775 as the pro-American London Association, considered subversive, called upon "true friends of liberty and country to rally before the colonies were alienated or lost" (Declaration of Grievances, Sept. 1775). As the spirit of opposition rose, the livery of the London proposed giving 2,000 Pounds of town revenue to the New England rebels. The Middlesex electors at their annual "Festivity to Liberty" in July 1775 toasted "all those American heroes who like men nobly prefer death to slavery and chains"; Mssrs. Hancock and Adams "and all worthy fellow subjects in America who are nobly contending for our rights with their own"; and Gen. Putnam who "risques his life in the support of a good government". Thomas Joel, Secretary, London Associates, wrote a funeral oration for the American victims of Lexington and Concord.
The English loyalists and opposition would contend with each other throughout the war both in England and America. The former would raise money to "suppress rebellion and sedition" (in the words of the King) and to aid soldiers plus the "widows of brave men fallen to defend Constitutional Government of this country"; while the latter opposed army enlistment or serving in America and collected funds to support the colonials' fight and aid rebels incarcerated in English prisons (like Ethan Allen). "By denying to the King and Lord North's administration the national unanimity that they sought in the face of colonial rebellion, the pro-Americans (of London) justified their own assertion that the American War for Independence was in fact a Civil War." (John Sainsbury)
Thus, over two centuries removed from the 19 April "attacks" on Lexington and Concord, it is not surprising to once again find our English "cousins" rising in support of our cause following the 11 September "assaults" on other twin representatives of our freedoms, liberties and way of life. Over the years, the peoples of "old" England and New England have remained "one" England in kinship, spirit and history.
Sources: "The Cousins' War", Kevin Phillips 1999; "Publications of the Colonial Society of Mass." Vol. 1, 1894; "Disaffected Patriots: London Supporters of Revolutionary America 1769-1782" John Sainsbury 1987; "British Opinion and the American Revolution" Dora M. Clark 1930.
Artwork: Backgrounds from Word of Mouth Web Design. Illustrations from Art Today.
