250 and Counting

Category: Lord Dartmouth

  • The British Have War Plans (October 9, 1775)

    Cover art for October 9, 1775: portrait of George Germain by George Romney, 1766.

    By now the British appear to accepted the fact that the war was going to go on for much longer than they thought. They thought that fighting the colonies would be a cake walk.

    They discovered that it was quickly becoming a quagmire.

    Fortunately they recognized it and began to make plans. Lord Dartmouth and General Howe started drawing something up that involved isolating Washington’s army from the rest of the Colonies, but George Germain, who was about to replace Lord Dartmouth, thought more aggressively. He didn’t want to defeat the Colonies; he wanted to punish them, besides.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • August 25, 1775: Eyewitness To The News

    Cover art for August 25, 1775: Detail of the second page of the letter that William Prescott wrote to John Adams.

    Today we take a look at two letters composed today:

    The first was an account of the activities around the Battle of Bunker Hill, from the time they were assigned to protect the hill, to the time they were finally defeated by the British—because they were out of ammunition.

    In the other letter, Thomas Jefferson composes a letter to a fellow Virginia politician in which he writes very specific prose, knowing that sooner or later it will fall into British hands. The intent was that the letter go public and let people who weren’t politicians that their leaders might not be telling the whole truth.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • 250 and Counting: January 27, 1775

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

    Cover Art for January 27, 1775: A portrait of General Gage

    William Legge was the second Lord Dartmouth and the Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1772 to the end of 1775. He was also step-brother to Lord North, who gets a mention in this episode.

    While he was a supporter of the constitutional supremacy that Parliament maintained they held over the Colonies, Lord Dartmouth was also the Colonists’ best hope for some form of reconciliation.

    Dartmouth’s resolve to achieve this reconciliation was damaged by the Boston Tea Party, so by this time he ordered Gage to put some extra pressure on the Colonists. Unfortunately this backfired badly and led to the battles at Lexington and Concord, which we’ll talk about in a future episode. Even after that, however, Legge couldn’t fully support armed coercion against the Americans, and he resigned his post in November, which basically ended his political career.

    Legge was considered by many to be very pious and gentle, to the point where some people called him “the Psalm Singer.” He died in 1801, nearly forgotten. Even his final resting place no longer exists, as it was destroyed by the Nazis during World War II.

  • 250 and Counting: January 14, 1775

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

    Cover art for January 14, 1775: portratt of Lord Dartmouth

    William Legge was the Second Earl of Dartmouth and, just before the hostilities between the Colonists and the British started in earnest, was also the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the First Lord of Trade.

    Lord Dartmouth noticed that people throughout the Colonies appeared to be preparing for all-out war, so he sent a letter to the colonial governors, essentially ordering them to embargo imports of weapons or ammunition. In doing this, he was basically fulfilling his duty to the Crown.

    Simultaneously, however, he was trying to employ backdoor diplomacy tactics to negotiate a peace. Benjamin Franklin was among the people with whom he communicated. But it’s tough to argue for peace when your troops are occupying Boston, and his actions ultimately led to the Gunpowder Plot, and the war heating up for good at Lexington and Concord just a few months later.