Private Hosea Rogers and George Washington's Cane

I have become a contributor to the website "What Would the Founders Think" and today it published my first article. It recounts my research into the Revolutionary War record of a private in the 3rd Virginia Regiment of Foot and how he came to be in possession of one of George Washington's canes. Check it out, I think you might enjoy it.


http://www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com/private-hosea-rogers


I had planned to publish my third installment on John Fleeming today but while reviewing some old notes I got an idea as to where some information on him might be located. It will involve looking through a collection at the Library of Congress that is not indexed on line so I will have to do a search in person. I will try to do that next week after my trip.

In the meantime, I'm off to the races.

This is a photo of a reenactor from the 2nd Virginia Regt. It probably more accurately portrays what Pvt Rogers might have worn than the photos of the 3rd VA currently online since they appear to be of uniforms worn later on in the war rather than in its early stages.

John Fleeming - Part Two

 While John Mein was still living aboard a ship in Boston Harbor after his and John Fleeming's encounter with the Boston mob on Saturday October 28th, 1769, Fleeming went about getting the next edition of the Boston Chronicle to press. Page one of the November 6-9 edition of the Chronicle had a description of the Pope's Day Parade in which Mein was publicly ridiculed and also a reprint of a satiric letter signed "A Tory" which had first appeared in in the November 6th edition of the Boston Evening Post. Dated November 4th, it read:

Mr. John Mein, our intrepid asserter of truth and falsehood, has kept himself out of the way (for reasons best known to himself) since Saturday last.--
...................................................................................................................................................
If his offenses (if I can with propriety call them so) are not unpardonable, I would earnestly entreat the "Well Disposed"* inhabitants of the town of Boston to commiserate his case, and conspicuously display their humanity by publickly indemnifying Mr. Mein, that so he may, with safety, once more appear in his usual splendor and magnificence.

 * A word frequently made use of by my distressed brother.

  One can only speculate as to the reason Fleeming reprinted this letter.

HMS Rose
John Mein stayed in the Captain's quarters of this British Navy sixth rate while hiding in Boston harbor. This photo is of a modern day replica of the Rose, built and owned by Americans. HMS Rose was used to combat smuggling on the North American station and her Captain, James Wallace, was very good at it. During the war, Captain Wallace was knighted for his actions in helping to drive George Washington and the Continental Army from New York City. The Rose shelled fortifications in the city and made daring raids up the Hudson. She met her end in Savannah, Georgia in 1779 when she was scuttled to prevent the French fleet from moving up the Savannah, serving as an aquatic roadblock. She was destroyed after the war to clear the channel. This modern replica was built in Nova Scotia in 1970, from the original blueprints, in honor of the then forthcoming bi-centennial.

   A one column advertisement on page four of the November 16-20 edition of the Chronicle  announced the publication "this day", at a cost of three shillings, of a pamphlet which contained the complete importations story as reported in editions of the Chronicle. In this ad, obviously prepared by Mein before his encounter with the mob, Mein again stated that the original reason for his publication of the manifests was the merchants' action in publicly denouncing him as an importer. This was done with "paritality and malice...some of their Importations being FIFTY times the value of mine..." The merchants had also taken the" greatest pains" to damage his entire business as bookseller, stationer, bookbinder, and printer by "sending to the Select-Men of every Town in the Province...not to deal with me..." The ad also repeated Mein's continued claim that "I have not considered the affair of non-importation in a political light..."
   Fleeming then announced in a page one notice in the December 4-7 edition of the Chronicle that he had decided to resume publication of the manifests proving non-compliance with the non-importation agreement "at the desire of of a number of our Subscribers" and would pick up in mid-August where the previous list had ended. But this series did not take up much space in the paper. Two columns on page 4 listed a manifest in each issue from December 11 to March 1, 1770, with two exceptions.

   But Fleeming's decision to continue with the criticism of the non-importation agreement soon brought the mob out after him again. In a second hand story published in New York and dated Newport, January 8, the following appeared :

on the Evening of the 29th Ultimate Mr------Fleeming, Printer of the Boston Chronicle, was attacked in one of the Streets of that Town, by a Number of Ruffians, who abused him very much; and, 'tis thought, he would have died of his wounds on the Spot, had not a humane Negro, who knew him, taken him up and helped him to his home.

   There was no mention of this assault in the Chronicle just as there had been no mention of the October assault. I have found no further information about this assault.

   With Mein absent, the Chronicle continued to publish the weekly manifests but they were not accompanied by any further commentary or any of Mein's scurrilous and fiery rhetoric. They were just published. But items of anti-Whig propaganda could still be found in the form of letters to the newspaper. The most prolific letter writer was  "A Bostonian" (identity unknown) who, in four weeks provided six letters, most of them hitting again on the theme that the "Well Disposed" merchants were mouthing non-importation while lining their pockets.

   An exception to the "Bostonian's" usual subject was in a letter that appeared in the 15-19 February edition of the Chronicle. "A Bostonian" bitterly assailed the town while referring to Mein and Fleeming as "strangers" who made the mistake of declaring themselves "to be of no party" when, if they had known Boston better, "not only self-interest, but self-preservation, would have left them to court the patronage and protection of the RULING POWER." Instead, thinking that this was a land full as much liberty as the country from whence they came, they ventured to "publish and propagate with the greatest industry, whatever might promote the GENERAL GOOD," without any regard to the separate interests of the "Well Disposed." He concluded with savage sarcasm:

"Strangers are often at a loss to distinguish those in power among us, as we have substituted the Bludgeon and the Cudgel, and occasionally, the SHOVEL, as badges of authority, instead of the mace, wand, &. used in other countries."

   There is a lot to be said for "A Bostonian's" viewpoint.

   And so the struggle went on. Ironically, throughout this intense political warfare, the Chronicle was advertising Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack (see previous posts), illustrated with a half length figure of James Otis Jr., supported on one side by Minerva the goddess of Wisdom, holding the Cap of Liberty over his head; and on the other side, by Hercules the god of Strength in his proper dress, treading on a Serpent, the emblem of envy.

  But the whole dynamic of the political struggle was to irrevocably change a little less than a month after this letter was printed. We shall take up John Fleeming's story on March 5th, 1770, the night of the" Boston Massacre."

John Fleeming - Part One

   Let's turn our attention now to John Fleeming*, Dr Church's brother-in-law and the man to whom Church addressed the intercepted ciphered letter.

Boston 1768

   John Fleeming arrived in Boston on August 20th, 1764 aboard the sloop "Ann" from Glasgow. Nothing is known of his life before that and we do not know just how old he was when he arrived in Boston. ( John Mein, his future partner, arrived in Boston  in October, 1764, also from Glasgow.) Almost immediately upon his arrival, Fleeming became partners with a fellow Scot, William McAlpine, who had a small printing shop and bookstall in Marlborough Street. McAlpine's and Fleeming's names appear jointly on the title pages of a number of books printed in 1765 and 1766. They also printed books for John Mein. It is not known why Fleeming's partnership with McAlpine ended or why Fleeming, rather than McAlpine, became partners with Mein. What is known is that Fleeming returned to Scotland, purchased printing materials, hired "three or four journeymen" and returned to Boston on October 31, 1766. It appears from reviewing the court records of Longman's suit against Mein (see the Mein posts) that Fleeming had a half interest in these printing materials. It must be noted that Mein's book selling and lending business was entirely owned by him and Fleeming had no partnership in this. Easy credit was available in the mid eighteenth century since the principal would often be carried as long as the interest was paid and mein and Fleeming appear to have taken advantage of it.
   The Mein and Fleeming partnership was first established in a house in Wing's Lane, before a subsequent move to Newbury Street, "almost opposite the White Horse Tavern." The print shop was on the ground floor and Mein and Fleeming, both bachelors, and some of their employees lived on the second floor.

Newbury Street -

  Although we do not know the exact terms of the partnership and the precise relationship between the partners, the Mein and Fleeming partnership flourished. Mein  proved to be an excellent entrepreneur and, unlike other Boston publishers, advertised extensively and with a flourish. His frequent full page display in all the newspapers testified to his belief in the power of advertising. At the peak of their success, Mein and Fleeming had employed seventeen people in all of their enterprises. Even when the business was in decline in 1770, an inventory of the printing office revealed it was a two press shop and possessed no fewer than sixty five cases of type. Mein would later testify in England that he made between L40 and L60 per week from the bookstore and his stock was worth between L6000 and L7000 Sterling.
   Mein's acquisition of a printer partner profited him in another way. In his book selling business, he faced the Bostonians' belief that imported books were better than locally printed ones. The partners solved the problem practically, but hardly ethically. They falsely printed books with a London imprint that were actually printed in their printing shop. Modern researchers have established that the Scottish type that Fleeming brought back from his trip to Scotland is so distinctive and unlike anything that London publishers used "as to make its presence valid evidence of Mein and Fleeming printing even when their imprint does not appear..." It also speaks to the technical skill of John Fleeming and the quality of his presses and type.

   In 1767 Mein and Fleeming were in their ascendancy; the next logical step for them was to publish a newspaper. They published a prospectus in October of that year in which they proposed printing what became the Boston Chronicle because  they were being "repeatedly urged by a number of GENTLEMEN OF TASTE  to start a newspaper." The superior quality as well as success of the Boston Chronicle has been discussed in earlier posts. It appears that its content was almost exclusively the responsibility of Mein and that Fleeming was responsible for the printing and technical matters involved in publishing the newspaper. Mein has been characterized as an editor and publisher, not a printer. Some historians believe that the Chronicle was started as a government propaganda tool, but I don't believe that that was the case. It became a thorn in the side of the Whigs due, I believe, to Mein's personality and personal beliefs.
   The strongest evidence of an early link between Mein and Fleeming and the British authorities was the firm's appointment as stationer to the Board of Customs Commissioners on April 5, 1768. This sudden change, vociferously but vainly, protested by the previous stationers, Green and Russell (publishers of The Boston Weekly Advertiser) is taken by some as an official subsidy. The records of the Customs Board over the next seven years show that they paid Mein and Fleeming L819 for "Incidental Expenses" for stationary and "Salary as Stationer." Whether this was a subsidy or simply good business since one would assume that Fleeming's technical expertise would probably have produced a superior product for the Board is a matter of opinion. And, the Board continued to buy from Fleeming long after Mein was forced to flee Boston and the Boston Chronicle ceased publication.
   The success of the Chronicle as evidenced by its frequent sellouts and the decision to publish it more frequently as well as John Mein's "wars" with the Boston merchants and Whigs have been "chronicled' in the Mein posts. That Fleeming stood by his partner throughout his struggles is fairly well established. Whether or not he fired his pistol in the infamous incident that forced Mein to flee Boston had become moot for Fleeming since, after his partner's escape from the mob, he was not further bothered or molested by the mob or the Boston Whigs.  

                      
   We should report what happened on October 28th, 1769 just after Mein and Fleeming escaped from the mob. Since the mob was thwarted in its attempt to exact revenge from Mein, they turned their attention to another victim. They seized one George Galer, suspected of informing on smugglers to the Customs Board. As later reported in the Chronicle, Galer "was stripped naked, put in a Cart, where he was first tarred, then feathered, and in this condition, carried through the principal streets of the town, followed by a great concourse of people." The way to the Liberty Tree, the spot to which victims of the mob's summary justice were usually taken, led along Newbury Street past the Chronicle office. There the mob amused itself by throwing rocks at the office building and breaking windows. An apprentice pressman, perhaps in panic and fear, fired a gun from the second floor. No one was hit; perhaps it was a blank charge. Nevertheless, the mob did not take too kindly to being fired at and stormed the printing office. Strangely, little damage was done. Some books were thrown about and two guns were taken, but the presses and the type fonts were, oddly enough, left undisturbed. The mob did not find anyone in the building; for the young man, fortunately for his own sake, and anyone else who might have been in the building made their escapes.

   No mention is made of Fleeming later that day. He probably also took refuge in the guardhouse with Mein and quietly returned home when the mob had dispersed. He made no mention of the altercation he and Mein had with the mob in any subsequent issue of the Chronicle, but  he did mention the Galer incident.
  Part Two of Fleeming's story will resume his story in Boston after the departure of his partner, John Mein.

* Some historians have insisted on spelling this as "Fleming." Fleeming, a literate printer, always spelled his name "Fleeming." Fleeming is an old Scottish name and I see no reason to spell it like Fleming, another old Scottish name.