Boston [James Bowdoin, Joseph Warren, Samuel Pemberton]

A Short Narrative of The horrid Massacre in Boston, Perpetrated In the Evening of the Fifth Day of March 1770, by Soldiers of the XXIXth Regiment ... London: Printed by Order of the Town of Boston, re-printed for E. and C. Dilly, and J. Almon, 1770



8vo (8 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.; 210 x 120 mm). Etched frontispiece; light offset from frontispiece on title, fore-edge of frontispiece shaved touching the caption only. Modern maroon half-morocco gilt, gilt-stamped title on spine.



With:
Additional Observations to a Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston, perpetrated In the Evening of the 5th of March 1770. Printed by order of the Town of Boston 1770 [London: 1770]



8vo (8 1/8 x 4 3/4 in.; 216 x 120 mm). Section title with borders above and below of printer's ornaments. Modern red half-morocco, gilt-stamped title on spine.

Copley bookplates

I: Howes B632; Sabin 80672; II: Sabin 6741; Evans 11583, see M. Jensen, ed., Tracts of the American Revolution (2003), pp. 207 ff.

The day after the Boston Massacre, the town meeting pressured Governor Hutchinson to remove British troops to an island in Boston Harbor. The meeting ordered the preparation of an account of the Massacre and began taking depositions, appointing a committee of Bowdoin, Warren, and Pemberton to investigate the event. That committee offered the present Short Narrative on 19 March. The meeting approved the account and ordered it printed, with copies to be delivered to England. Distribution of the Boston edition was at first suppressed, so as not to prejudice the trial of the soldiers, but it was announced in the Boston Evening Post of 16 July that a pamphlet was to be printed "from the London edition." By the next week it was widely available.

The Additional Observations was probably intended as an appendix to a London edition. It includes a reply to any aspersions cast upon Boston residents by the Customs Commissioners in their reports to the Ministry, and a heart-felt appeal to Parliament for fair treatment of her colonies.