British soldiers boarded ships in Halifax, Nova Scotia bound for Boston. Lord Hillsborough, the colonial secretary, also ordered that two regiments be brought across the Atlantic from Ireland.
"To have a standing army! Good God! What can be worse to a people who have tasted the sweets of liberty!"
- ANDREW ELIOT, MINISTER OF THE NEW NORTH CHURCH, SEPTEMBER 27, 1768
” No Vacancy
In a town as small as colonial Boston, quartering troops was a major problem. The Quartering Act required the town to "billet and quarter the officers and soldiers ... in the barracks provided by the colonies." If barracks were inadequate the soldiers should be housed in inns and taverns or, if necessary, barns and deserted houses. Quartering became an immediate controversy. Some troops took temporary shelter at Faneuil Hall and the Town House. Others camped on Boston Common.
Reenactment of the arrival of Brittish Troops, 2018.
- Photo By Gerri Palladino, Courtesy of North End Waterfront.com
Some soldiers occupied the Town House (the Old State House) for a time and positioned twin cannons aimed at the front dooor.
- Photo By Gerri Palladino, Courtesy of North End Waterfront.com
Famous last words . . .
"I mentioned the measure of sending Troops to America which my Lord said were about this time arrived . .. I expressed my fear that some arbitrary transaction of the military might be a means of inflaming the people, his lordship assured me they had strict orders to preserve the Peace." Denys DeBert to the Massachusetts House, on his conversations in London.
- Massachusetts ARCHIVES
The Siege of the Manufactory House
Located on today's Tremont Street, the Manufactory House was formerly used in the production of textiles. By 1768 it became a shelter for poor and homeless Bostonians. When ordered to vacate the building to allow the quartering of British troops, the residents resisted with broomsticks and tools that had been left behind. Over a two week siege townspeople threw bread and other provisions to second story windows. Armed redcoats were forced to retreat. Some were housed in converted warehouses and commercial buildings.
The Manufactory House was located on today's Tremont Street. It once provided work for the poor in weaving textiles.
- A Brief History of the United States by Joel Dorman Steele and Esther Baker Steele, 1885