Peggy Stewart
Encyclopedia
The Peggy Stewart was a Maryland cargo vessel burned on October 19, 1774, in Annapolis
as a punishment for contravening the boycott
on tea
imports which had been imposed in retaliation for the British treatment of the people of Boston following the Boston Tea Party
. This event became known as the "Annapolis Tea Party".
Good Intent arrived at Annapolis
from London
, bringing goods ordered by local merchants at various times during 1769. Some of the orders had been placed before the local resolutions in June-July 1769, to boycott goods subject to British tax under the "Townshend Acts
" of 1767. The Customs collector at Annapolis would not allow any goods to be landed, even those not subject to tax, until the tax had been paid. The local committee supervising the boycott would not allow tax to be paid on any goods. The various merchants importing the goods, led by James Dick and his son-in-law Anthony Stewart, finally gave up, and sent the Good Intent back to London, still fully loaded. Ironically, while Good Intent was in mid-Atlantic, the British government gave in to the boycott and removed taxes on all goods- except tea. The Tea Act
of 1773 allowed one company, the British East India Company
, to sell tea in America without paying tax- but such a one-sided deal seemed as unjust to Americans as the original taxes, eventually leading to the famous Boston Tea Party
and, following the British over-reaction, to a widespread re-introduction of tea boycotts.
He loaded 2,320 pounds (about one ton) of tea, in 17 packages, aboard the brig Peggy Stewart, principally owned by Dick and Stewart (business rivals to the Williams firm), which was about to make the Atlantic crossing. The worried captain, Richard Jackson, was told that the packages contained linen
, but to avoid the possibility of being prosecuted for smuggling
, Williams correctly identified the consignment as tea on his Customs declaration. Hence, when he was clearing Customs at the mouth of the River Thames
(some distance from London) Jackson learned that he had been right to suspect the packages and that part of his cargo was going to cause major trouble in America. However, once declared to Customs officials in Britain, the tea had to be taken to its appointed destination — preferably before the autumn gales began, for Peggy Stewart needed an overhaul and leaked quite badly. That made the voyage most unpleasant for the main cargo: 53 indentured servant
s.
and formulated an agreement that they would burn the tea and publish an apology in the Maryland Gazette
. On the other hand, one committee member, Mathias Hammond
, published a handbill on 15 October, denouncing Stewart (and omitting to mention that the Williams brothers themselves had been the ones who notified him of the tea importation), and stirred up a great deal of popular fervor. Thus the second committee meeting was thronged with people, many of whom had come specifically to make an example of the wicked Mr Stewart and his cronies.
A letter to the Baltimore Patriot newspaper immediately after the death of successful physician and businessman Dr Charles Alexander Warfield, in 1813 expands greatly on that short account. Warfield, recently appointed a Major in the new Anne Arundel County militia, had not only argued with moderate patriots like Charles Carroll and Samuel Chase
; he had allegedly had a gallows erected outside Stewart's house. Some details of the account seem false, but other sources agree that he led the calls for harsh penalties, whipping up mob hysteria. The Gazette did publish a letter from the Williams brothers in which, among other things, they complained that their complete willingness to co-operate with the committee was "kept entirely secret" from the angry throng, and instead "a most ungenerous piece was drawn up by Mathias Hammond." An anonymous letter to another newspaper (quite probably written by Thomas Williams) claimed that "the minds of the people were so inflamed, that they threatened death to Mr. Stewart, and desolation to his store and dwelling-house."
. The writer was convinced that the plot would have failed if Stewart had followed Joseph and James's lead- but then, the writer knew nothing about the 53 indentured servants, and claimed instead that Stewart, as an owner of the vessel, was "anxious for dispatch, in order that she might proceed to another port."
living in New York, where he served on the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists
; then in 1783 he attempted, with one Samuel Gouldsbury, to found a community called New Edinburgh
, in Nova Scotia
. Legal obstacles prevented the plan from being fully realised, but the community still exists today. Despite the significant financial loss he sustained in the "Tea Party", Stewart remained wealthy, although the 1200 acres (4.9 km²) of land he owned in Maryland would be forfeited at the end of the War in 1783. Ironically, he died on a business visit to Annapolis, in 1791.
by Charles Yardley Turner
(1850-1919), painted on the west wall of the Criminal Court Lobby in the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr.
Courthouse
. On October 19, 1974, the Bicentennial Council of the 13 Original States created a silver
ingot
honoring the two-hundredth anniversary of the burning. Very logically, the incident is also honored by "Peggy Stewart Tea", a blend sold by Eastern Shore Tea Co. The burning is honored each year by a ceremony in Annapolis. The story was recounted in a children's book Ahoy, Peggy Stewart by Maud Esther Dilliard, published by Dutton, 1956.
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
as a punishment for contravening the boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
on tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
imports which had been imposed in retaliation for the British treatment of the people of Boston following the Boston Tea Party
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies...
. This event became known as the "Annapolis Tea Party".
Background
In February 1770, the brigBrig
A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
Good Intent arrived at Annapolis
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, bringing goods ordered by local merchants at various times during 1769. Some of the orders had been placed before the local resolutions in June-July 1769, to boycott goods subject to British tax under the "Townshend Acts
Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed beginning in 1767 by the Parliament of Great Britain relating to the British colonies in North America. The acts are named after Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who proposed the program...
" of 1767. The Customs collector at Annapolis would not allow any goods to be landed, even those not subject to tax, until the tax had been paid. The local committee supervising the boycott would not allow tax to be paid on any goods. The various merchants importing the goods, led by James Dick and his son-in-law Anthony Stewart, finally gave up, and sent the Good Intent back to London, still fully loaded. Ironically, while Good Intent was in mid-Atlantic, the British government gave in to the boycott and removed taxes on all goods- except tea. The Tea Act
Tea Act
The Tea Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. Its principal overt objective was to reduce the massive surplus of tea held by the financially troubled British East India Company in its London warehouses. A related objective was to undercut the price of tea smuggled into Britain's...
of 1773 allowed one company, the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, to sell tea in America without paying tax- but such a one-sided deal seemed as unjust to Americans as the original taxes, eventually leading to the famous Boston Tea Party
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies...
and, following the British over-reaction, to a widespread re-introduction of tea boycotts.
The ship and the cargo
Most ships' captains refused to carry tea, but in the summer of 1774, one merchant, Thomas Charles Williams, the London representative of an Annapolis family firm, thought he had found a cunning way around that problem.He loaded 2,320 pounds (about one ton) of tea, in 17 packages, aboard the brig Peggy Stewart, principally owned by Dick and Stewart (business rivals to the Williams firm), which was about to make the Atlantic crossing. The worried captain, Richard Jackson, was told that the packages contained linen
Linen
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
, but to avoid the possibility of being prosecuted for smuggling
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
, Williams correctly identified the consignment as tea on his Customs declaration. Hence, when he was clearing Customs at the mouth of the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
(some distance from London) Jackson learned that he had been right to suspect the packages and that part of his cargo was going to cause major trouble in America. However, once declared to Customs officials in Britain, the tea had to be taken to its appointed destination — preferably before the autumn gales began, for Peggy Stewart needed an overhaul and leaked quite badly. That made the voyage most unpleasant for the main cargo: 53 indentured servant
Indentured servant
Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...
s.
Arrival in Annapolis
They arrived at Annapolis on the morning of 14 October 1774, and Anthony Stewart was notified of the tax payable on one small part of the cargo. He went immediately to Joseph and James Williams, Thomas's brothers and business partners, and informed them of the situation. Whatever Thomas had intended, his brothers had no interest in his mad scheme, so they refused to pay the tax, and arranged a meeting with the committee which supervised the tea boycott, to discuss the problem. Anthony Stewart feared a rerun of the Good Intent case, for none of the cargo could come ashore until the tax had been paid on that tea tucked away in a corner of the hold- not even the indentured servants. Stewart knew that on this occasion, there was no question of sending the whole cargo back to London when it included so many live human beings who might easily end up as dead human beings in the autumn storms. He therefore guaranteed payment of the tax on the tea himself, and got the 53 servants ashore as soon as possible, but left the rest of the cargo aboard to await the committee's decision.Negotiations
Only four of the committee were available for a meeting that afternoon, so they invited the public to contribute to the discussion, and it was decided that all the cargo except the tea could be unloaded, 12 supervisors being appointed by the meeting to ensure that this stipulation was adhered to. A full committee meeting was then arranged for the morning of the following Wednesday, 19 October, and over five days, a great deal of politics occurred. On the one hand, Stewart and the two Williams brothers met with committee chairman Charles CarrollCharles Carroll (barrister)
Charles Carroll was an American lawyer and statesman from Annapolis, Maryland. He was the builder of the Baltimore Colonial home Mount Clare , and a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776 and 1777....
and formulated an agreement that they would burn the tea and publish an apology in the Maryland Gazette
The Capital
The Capital is a daily newspaper published in Annapolis, Maryland. It serves the city as well as all of Anne Arundel County and neighboring Kent Island in Queen Anne's County. It is an evening newspaper during the week and offers morning delivery on the weekend. Philip Merrill was the publisher...
. On the other hand, one committee member, Mathias Hammond
Hammond-Harwood House
The Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, Maryland, United States, is one of the premier colonial houses remaining in America from the British colonial period . It is the only existing work of colonial academic architecture that was principally designed from a plate in Andrea Palladio’s I Quattro...
, published a handbill on 15 October, denouncing Stewart (and omitting to mention that the Williams brothers themselves had been the ones who notified him of the tea importation), and stirred up a great deal of popular fervor. Thus the second committee meeting was thronged with people, many of whom had come specifically to make an example of the wicked Mr Stewart and his cronies.
The second committee meeting, 19 October
The reporting of this affair in the Maryland Gazette was, by modern standards, less than conscientious. No mention was made of the indentured servants, no attempt was made to remind readers of the Good Intent case, and the report of the fateful second meeting was oddly abbreviated:- "The committee were of opinion, if the tea was destroyed by the voluntary act of the owners and proper concessions made, that nothing further ought to be required. This their opinion being reported to the assembly, was not satisfactory to all present. Mr Stewart then voluntarily offered to burn the vessel and the tea in her"...
A letter to the Baltimore Patriot newspaper immediately after the death of successful physician and businessman Dr Charles Alexander Warfield, in 1813 expands greatly on that short account. Warfield, recently appointed a Major in the new Anne Arundel County militia, had not only argued with moderate patriots like Charles Carroll and Samuel Chase
Samuel Chase
Samuel Chase was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and earlier was a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland. Early in life, Chase was a "firebrand" states-righter and revolutionary...
; he had allegedly had a gallows erected outside Stewart's house. Some details of the account seem false, but other sources agree that he led the calls for harsh penalties, whipping up mob hysteria. The Gazette did publish a letter from the Williams brothers in which, among other things, they complained that their complete willingness to co-operate with the committee was "kept entirely secret" from the angry throng, and instead "a most ungenerous piece was drawn up by Mathias Hammond." An anonymous letter to another newspaper (quite probably written by Thomas Williams) claimed that "the minds of the people were so inflamed, that they threatened death to Mr. Stewart, and desolation to his store and dwelling-house."
Burning of the ship
The offer to burn the Peggy Stewart was enough to satisfy the mob, so the brig was moved to a convenient spot "with her sails and colours flying", and, after reading out a statement apologising for their conduct (which was subsequently published in the Gazette), Anthony Stewart, Joseph Williams and James Williams jointly set the vessel and the tea alight. Within a few hours, "in the presence of a great number of spectators" Peggy Stewart had burned down to the waterline. The event has since become known as the "Annapolis Tea Party".The plot claim
Thomas Charles Williams, the real cause of the problem, later published an apology for his own actions- but if the anonymous letter really was his work (it was published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger on 4 January 1775, just two days after Thomas signed his apology, also in Philadelphia) he blamed everybody except himself. The letter outlined an alleged plot involving another rival firm, Wallace, Davidson and Johnson- Davidson being Deputy Comptroller of Customs in addition to his business interests. Stewart was the principal victim, partly because he had voted against a proposal (nominally in retaliation against the British government's punishment of the people of Boston) for American lawyers to refuse to handle actions for debts due to persons in Great Britain, partly because Peggy Stewart had taken trade the Wallace firm had lost when a vessel of theirs ran aground in the English ChannelEnglish Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
. The writer was convinced that the plot would have failed if Stewart had followed Joseph and James's lead- but then, the writer knew nothing about the 53 indentured servants, and claimed instead that Stewart, as an owner of the vessel, was "anxious for dispatch, in order that she might proceed to another port."
Anthony Stewart's later life
Anthony Stewart and his family spent most of the years of the American Revolutionary WarAmerican Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
living in New York, where he served on the Board of Directors of the Associated Loyalists
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
; then in 1783 he attempted, with one Samuel Gouldsbury, to found a community called New Edinburgh
New Edinburgh, Nova Scotia
New Edinburgh is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the District of Clare in Digby County. The community was founded by British Loyalists Samuel Gouldsbury and Anthony Stewart in 1783 following the American Revolutionary War....
, in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. Legal obstacles prevented the plan from being fully realised, but the community still exists today. Despite the significant financial loss he sustained in the "Tea Party", Stewart remained wealthy, although the 1200 acres (4.9 km²) of land he owned in Maryland would be forfeited at the end of the War in 1783. Ironically, he died on a business visit to Annapolis, in 1791.
Legacy of the burning
After the American Revolutionary War, citizens of Maryland came to view the burning of the Peggy Stewart as an act of heroism, considering the angry crowd who demanded the burning to be devoted patriots for their resistance of the British Tea Act. On October 19, 1904, the city of Baltimore commemorated the event with The Burning of the Peggy Stewart, a muralMural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
by Charles Yardley Turner
Charles Yardley Turner
Charles Yardley Turner was an American artist and muralist.Born in Baltimore, Turner studied art in Europe under French masters Jean-Paul Laurens, Mihály Munkácsy and Léon Bonnat...
(1850-1919), painted on the west wall of the Criminal Court Lobby in the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr.
Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr.
Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. was a civil rights activist and was the chief lobbyist for the NAACP for nearly 30 years. He also served as a regional director for the organization. Mitchell, nicknamed "the 101st U.S...
Courthouse
Courthouse
A courthouse is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply...
. On October 19, 1974, the Bicentennial Council of the 13 Original States created a silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
ingot
Ingot
An ingot is a material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. Non-metallic and semiconductor materials prepared in bulk form may also be referred to as ingots, particularly when cast by mold based methods.-Uses:...
honoring the two-hundredth anniversary of the burning. Very logically, the incident is also honored by "Peggy Stewart Tea", a blend sold by Eastern Shore Tea Co. The burning is honored each year by a ceremony in Annapolis. The story was recounted in a children's book Ahoy, Peggy Stewart by Maud Esther Dilliard, published by Dutton, 1956.
Further information
- The "patriotic" version of the story (one of many examples), accessed Nov 11 2007
- An essay by a local maritime enthusiast from www.seakayak.ws, accessed Nov 10 2007
- The New York Times looks back at the affair, 19 November 1892, accessed Nov 11 2007
- Fisher, Richard D. (ed.). "The burning of the Peggy Stewart". Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. 5 (1910), pages 235-45.
- Baltimore Court House mural by Charles Yardley Turner, unveiled 1904, accessed Nov 10 2007