Crime and Punishment in Boston - January 1776

Crime was always prevalent in Boston under British occupation but in the first half of January 1776 it became a crime wave. The shortage of provisions provoked large scale plundering. Howe determined that 'Robberies and housebreaking have got to such a height ... that some examples must be made.' Such examples began with the conviction for stealing of a marine from the First Battalion, who was given 500 lashes. Another court-martial sentenced two men to death, a decision which probably appalled David Collins, who, later, as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land was frequently lachrymose at convict hangings. A private and his wife who had enterprisingly gone into the business of receiving stolen goods were court-martialed.  (The  woman as the spouse of a serving soldier and official camp-follower was deemed to come under military, not civil justice.) The husband received 1,000 lashes and the woman was tied to a cart's tail, dragged through the Boston streets and given '100 lashes on the bare back ... in the most conspicuous part of the Town', after which the pair were imprisoned for three months. Two other soldiers were sentenced to 800 lashes for housebreaking and stealing. Two more got 800 lashes each for stealing 'a piece of limen.' Another got 500 lashes for shoplifting. Francis Grose had seen floggings before at Bunker Hill, but nothing like this fortnight's orgy of punishment. Probably at this time he developed that aversion to flogging that later would gain him a reputation for mercy among the convicts of New South Wales when he trimmed back the cat-o'-nine-tails to lessen its severity.¹

1Howe cited in Michael Pearson, These Damned Rebels. The American Revolution as seen through British Eyes, New York, 1972, pp. 142-143; Howe, General Sir William Howe's Orderly Book ... pp. 187-188; Currey, David Collins, p. 239; Carr, After the Siege, p. 31; Alan Atkinson, The Europeans in Australia. Volume One. The Beginning, Oxford, 1998, p. 259.