An original 52 page issue of "The Gentleman's Magazine" dated November, 1766. This monthly London magazine was published from 1731 until 1922, a period of almost 200 years - see history below. 

At this time William Pitt the Elder had just become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and King George lll was on the British throne.

This issue of the magazine reports on post-war inflation and the widespread rise in food prices around the country - see scans. Many rioters were charged with hanging but most sentences were commuted to transportation - see below. Other reports provide financial details of the United Kingdom - see scans

From America are reports of the reprieve granted by King George to the farmer William Prendergast and his reluctance to leave jail as well as a letter from James Logan in Philadelphia concerning his Library which he gifted to the City - see scans

Elsewhere the Magazine provides reports and essays primarily from England on a wide variety of subjects and interests including parliamentary debates, wars, disasters, crimes, trials and punishments as well as new books and poetry plus marriages and obituaries of prominent people. 

This issue includes an interesting engraving of a mechanical swan (misplaced by the bookbinder as it was intended for the May 1766 edition!) and an illustrated observation of a spider capable of spinning its web vertically and climbing it without connection ! - see scans

Good condition . After six or twelve months the monthly issues were usually taken by the subscriber to the bookbinder for safe retention. In this case the issue has subsequently been dis-bound. 

Page size 8 x 5 inches. 259 years old and a great and important resource for the historian. 

Note: The international mailing rate assumes the magazine is sent as a "large envelope" without tracking and customs. If tracking is required, the cost would now be $21.00

Crown v. William Prendergast, 1766

Background

The manorial system of land tenure, first introduced to New York by the Dutch, was continued under English rule. Patents to huge tracts of land were granted to a few powerful colonists who in turn granted leases that provided for a perpetual rent to the farmers who worked the land. Failure to pay the rent resulted in ejection from the property. Also, without freehold title, many farmers could not meet the property qualifications to vote in elections and serve on juries. Although Dutchess County was subject to the Philipse patent, the farmers leased their lands from the Wappinger Indians. In 1765, the Philipse family went to court and successfully enforced their claim against the Wappingers. Immediately, their representatives imposed manorial leases on tenant farmers. This was met with strong resistance. The farmers rallied behind Wappinger Sachem Daniel Nimhan, who appealed the case to the Court of Chancery. No attorney could be found to represent the Sachem, and the court was comprised of men who owned large landed estates. When the Court of Chancery rejected the appeal, the Philipse estate brought fifteen actions to eject tenant farmers from their holdings. In November 1765, the local farmers met and agreed to reinstate the dispossessed tenants by force, if necessary. A governmental proclamation issued on April 30, 1766, offered a reward for the seizure of specifically named leaders of the farmers’ movement, including William Prendergast. By the end of June, 1766, the movement involved approximately 1,700 tenant farmers, armed with firearms. They were known as “levelers,” because they believed that their equitable claim to the land should be recognized and their leases converted into fee simple titles. On June 20th, the Governor’s Council sent the Twenty-Eighth Regiment to disperse the crowd and arrest the leaders. William Prendergast was detained on a charge of treason and taken to a New York prison.

The Trial

In July, the Court of Assizes sat in Dutchess County under military guard. The bench was comprised of Chief Judge Daniel Horsmanden, and associate justices Johns Watts, William Walton, Oliver De Lancey, Joseph Reade, William Smith, Whitehead Hicks, and John Morin Scott. All were among the landed gentry of the colony and Justice Robert R. Livingston was present in court, although not sitting. On Wednesday, August 6, 1766, William Prendergast, a “sober, honest, and industrious Farmer much beloved by his neighbors,” was indicted on a charge of high treason. The jury trial lasted twenty-four hours and was widely followed. Prendergast, assisted by his wife, Mehitabel Wing, conducted his own defense. It is reported that “she never failed to make every remark that might tend to extenuate the offence, and put his conduct in the most favorable point of View; not suffering one Circumstance that could be collected from the Evidence, or thought of in his Favour to escape the Notice of the Court and Jury.” The prosecuting attorney sought (but failed) to remove her “lest she might too much influence the Jury” by “her very Looks.” The jury returned a verdict of “guilty” with a recommendation of mercy, but the court sentenced Prendergast to be hung, drawn and quartered.

Aftermath

Mehitabel Wing immediately appealed to Governor Harry Moore who, on September 1, 1766, granted a reprieve until the King’s pleasure might be known. Prendergast later received a royal pardon and was able to return to his farm. Decades later, the anti-rent movement would again become a force in New York politics.

 



1766 food riots

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Viscount Barrington who, as Secretary at War, anticipated the riots and pre-positioned troops to deal with them

The 1766 food riots took place across England in response to rises in the prices of wheatand other cereals following a series of poor harvests. Riots were sparked by the first largescale exports of grain in August and peaked in September–October. Around 131 riots were recorded, though many were relatively non-violent. In many cases traders and farmers were forced by the rioters to sell their wares at lower rates. In some instances, violence occurred with shops and warehouses looted and mills destroyed. There were riots in many towns and villages across the country but particularly in the South West and the Midlands, which included the Nottingham cheese riot.

The Whig government of the Marquess of Rockingham implemented tax cuts on imported grain and prohibited exports in an attempt to lower the price of food. Rockingham's successor William Pitt the Elder went further, prohibiting the use of grains in distilling and suspending more import duties. The public responded to the riots by raising subscriptions to provide charitable relief. These were used mainly to subsidise food for the poor but some subscriptions sought to build public mills and granaries. The Secretary at War, Viscount Barrington, had anticipated trouble and positioned troops at key points across the country. These acted as a deterrent and to support local magistrates, who read the Riot Act seven times in 1766 to attempt to compel rioters to disperse. Eight people were shot dead in the course of quelling the riots.

The riots were largely over by October due to the effects of charitable relief and the use of military force. Hundreds of arrests were made with 59 convicted at special commissions of assize and 68 at the January 1767 court of quarter sessions. Many were sentenced to death at the assizes, but most of these sentences were commuted to penal transportation or the defendant pardoned; only eight men were hanged. Many of the following years also experienced poor harvests and further rioting occurred, though on a much reduced scale.