[Privy Council Hearing — Benjamin Franklin] | A rare Boston printing of the proceedings of the Privy Council Hearings

[Privy Council Hearing — Benjamin Franklin]

[Prefatory note addressed to Lord Dartmouth] Proceedings of His Majesty’s Privy-Council on the Address of the Assembly of Massachusetts-Bay, to Remove His Governor and Lieutenant-Governor; with the Substance of Mr. Wedderburn's Speech relative to said Address. [Boston:] Sold at the Printing-Office in School-street [1774]

Folio (397 x 255 mm). Bifolium, comprising 4 pages of letterpress, the text in three columns; light toning, a few minor stains, splits and small losses along the folds, affecting a few words in the text, closed with Japanese tissue, the document flattened, an early ink annotation in the margin of the final page. Housed in a custom cloth portfolio.

A rare Boston printing of the proceedings of the Privy Council Hearing following the Hutchinson Letters Affair, one of the most controversial and significant events of Benjamin Franklin's political career.

The document begins with Franklin's letter to Lord Dartmouth, in which he urged restraint and approval from the British in response to the Massachusetts Assembly's demand that Governor Hutchinson be removed from his post. Franklin writes that "Their resentment against Britain is thence much abated. This good disposition of their's (will your lordship permit me to say), may be cultivated by a favorable answer to this address."

The letter is followed by a series of texts from the Privy Council Hearing of 28 January 1773, where Franklin acted as the colonial agent for the Massachusetts House of Representatives, but was treated as though he himself was on trial. This includes Franklin's cross examination, ending with his demand for council, and Wedderburn's long and pointed address against Franklin. During the lawyer's speech Franklin was publicly humiliated, personally attacked, and repeated labelled a thief. This is referenced by the inscription written on the final page—a Latin insult that originated with the Roman playwright Plautus and was applied to Franklin by Wedderburn: "Homo trium litterarum … or fur" [that is, a man of three letters, fur being the Latin word for thief].

The document concludes with the full text of the Massachusetts Assembly's letter petitioning the British to remove Governor Hutchinson, and the British Crown's outright refusal of their demands. The Privy Council Hearing ordeal is often seen as a major factor in Franklin's abandoning his hopes of an easy reconciliation with the English, leading to his decision to wholeheartedly support American independence.

We locate two books printed in Boston in 1773 that contain Hutchinson's letters and much of the material found printed here, as well as editions printed in London and Dublin in 1774.

This edition, however, is in an unusual format and is exceedingly rare: no copies can be traced in Rare Book Hub, and the only institutional example is held at the Massachusetts Historical Society per ESTC. As such, this is likely the only copy in private hands.

REFERENCES

ESTC W6527; Bristol B3758; Ford, Massachusetts 1727; Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003) pp. 271–280