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Illustrated Episode · Volume III, chapter 39 · 9 April 1768

No search below deck

On a lantern-lit ship's deck at night, a tall man in a dark blue coat and wig stands with one hand extended toward the planks while two sailors lift a plain-coated man up out of a hatch, among a ring of watching men.
Boston, April 1768. Customs tidesman Owen Richards has gone below deck on John Hancock's brigantine Lydia to watch her cargo come out. Hancock arrives with a knot of unarmed followers, and his crew lay hands on Richards and bring him up on deck. Rothbard calls it the first skirmish between the new customs board and Boston's richest merchant. Chapter 39 of Conceived in Liberty.

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Adapted from Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Mises Institute, 2011), CC BY 3.0.

What happened

On the evening of Saturday, 9 April 1768, two customs tidesmen, Owen Richards and Robert Jackson, stood guard as John Hancock's brigantine Lydia unloaded. Richards went below into the steerage, and the master told him to leave or he would lose his bread. Word reached Hancock, who had said in the Assembly that no customs man would search his ships, and he came aboard with eight or ten unarmed men. Attorney General Jonathan Sewall later wrote that the officers said they had no wish to search, only to stay with the cargo. Hancock told them they must remain on deck, and his crew laid hands on them and forced them up. Richards and Jackson swore depositions on 11 April. The commissioners wanted to try Hancock without a jury, but Sewall ruled that no offense had been committed and the Treasury upheld him. Rothbard calls it the first skirmish between the commissioners and Hancock (CiL, p. 938). Two months later the board seized his sloop Liberty, and Boston rioted.

Sources

  1. Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Mises Institute, 2011 single-volume ed.), vol. III, ch. 39, 'Conflict in Boston', pp. 936-940. CC BY 3.0. Rothbard
  2. HUB History podcast, episode 224, 'The Liberty Riot' (read 2026-09-30 as a summary): the Lydia incident as told in Lt. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson's letter (Hancock came 'with a number of attendants', found the officers 'in the steerage', 'ordered the ship's crew to force them up') and in Attorney General Jonathan Sewall's letter of 17 June 1768 (Richards went below 'Saturday evening'; the master told him to leave 'or he should lose his bread'; Hancock came 'with eight or 10 people all unarmed'). The letters themselves were not read. Secondary source
  3. Editorial note, Adams Papers Digital Edition (Massachusetts Historical Society), Legal Papers of John Adams vol. 3, p. 176 (the Liberty trial): Richards, one of two tidesmen 'sent to supervise the discharge of his brigantine Lydia', found 'in the hold'; Hancock 'ordered Richards forcibly brought topside'; depositions of Richards and Jackson, 11 April 1768 (Treasury 1/465, fols. 351-353); Sewall refused to put the matter in suit. Secondary source
  4. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, John Singleton Copley, Portrait of John Hancock, 1765 (dark blue frock coat with gold braid, bob wig), read 2026-09-30 through a search summary of the MFA record; see also registry/figures/john-hancock. Secondary source
  5. Era registry entry urban-colonial-1760-1775 (data/cil/registry/eras/), dress and material culture for Boston; its own sources are listed in its notes. Secondary source