Attleboro’s Solemn League and Covenant

Date:  July 13, 1774 signatures on document printed early in June 1774

“WE the Subscribers, inhabitants of the town of Attlebrough having taken into our serious consideration the precarious state of the liberties on North-America, and more especially the present distressed condition of this insulted province, embarrassed as it is by several acts of the British parliament, tending to the entire subversion of our natural and charter rights; among which is the act for blocking up the harbour of Boston: and being fully sensible of our indispensable duty to lay hold on every means in our power to preserve and recover the much injured constitution of our country; and conscious at the same time of no alternative between the horrors of slavery; or the carnage and desolation of a civil war, but a suspension of all commercial intercourse with the island of Great Britain: Do, in the presence of God, solemnly and in good faith, covenant and engage with each other, 1st, That from henceforth we will suspend all commercial intercourse with the said island of Great Britain, until the said act for blocking up the said harbour be repealed, and a full restoration of our charter rights be obtained. And,

2dly, That there may be the less temptation to others to continue in the said, now dangerous commerce, we do in like manner solemnly covenant that we will not buy, purchase or consume, or suffer any person, by, for or under us to purchase or consume, in any manner whatever, any goods, wares or merchandize which shall arrive in America from Great Britain aforesaid, from and after the last day of August next ensuing. And in order as much as in us lies to prevent our being interrupted and defeated in this only peaceable measure, entered into for the recovery and preservation of our rights, we agree to break off all trade, commerce and dealings whatever with all persons, who perfering their own private interest to the salvation of their now perishing country, shall still continue to import goods from Great Britain, or shall purchase of those who do import.

3dly, That such persons may not have it in their power to impose upon us by any pretence whatever, we further agree to purchase no article of merchandize from them, or any of them, who shall not have signed this, or a similar covenant, or will not produce an oath, certified by a magistrate to be by them taken to the following purpose: viz. I ___________ of __________ in the county of _____________ do solemnly swear that the goods I have now on hand, and propose for sale, have not, to the best of my knowledge, been imported from Great Britain, into any port of America since the last day of August, one thousand seven hundred and seventy four, and that I will not, contrary to the spirit of an agreement entering into through this province import or purchase of any person so importing any goods as aforesaid, until the port or harbour of Boston, shall be opened, and we are fully restored to the free use of our constitutional and charter rights. And,

Lastly, we agree, that after this, or a similar covenant has been offered to any person and they refuse sign it, or produce the oath, abovesaid, we will consider them as contumacious importers, and withdraw all commercial connexions with them, so far as not to purchase of them, any article whatever, and publish their names to the world.

Witness our hands, Junely, 14th 1774” [66 full or partially legible signatures of Attleboro, Massachusetts townsmen follow. Allowing for missing portions, the document had about 75 signatories]

 

Source:  Author’s private collection.  All signed surviving copies of the Solemn League and Covenant are in institutional hands except for this one.  Close examination of published and unpublished town histories and other sources reveals that this document has never been displayed, never had an organizational custodian, or has ever been described or cited by historians or antiquarians.

Description:  Printed area 6 by 10 inches (15.25 cm by 25.4 cm). Paper 7 7/8 by 25 ¼ inches (20.0 cm by 64.1 cm).  Missing portions with repairs in period paper.  Probably printed by Edes and Gill in Boston in early June 1774. Fleur-de-lis water mark.  Judging by other extant examples, the original document was twice as wide, allowing space for additional signatures.  A black left hand portion, likely left unused for lack of signatories in a smaller country town, probably became separated along a vertical fold from the printed and signed portion and discarded.  Examples in institutional collections are noted here.  Authenticity was verified by the author using side by side comparison with two copies of the document in the collection of the American Antiquarian Association in Worcester, MA.

Commentary:  The Town of Attleboro’s Solemn League and Covenant document is published here in transcription for the first time along with its 66 signatories.

The context of this aggressive boycott pledge was the turbulent summer of 1774 when much of the Massachusetts countryside rose up in indignation about the Intolerable Acts. The fervor of Attleboro patriots can be inferred by the way in which signatories adopted the covenant in solemn oath before God. They made no changes other than the date to the pre-printed document supplied to them by the Boston Committee of Correspondence.

Many of the names and surnames are recognizable from a 19^th century town history [Daggett, J. and A.D. Sheffield. A Sketch of the History of Attleborough: From Its Settlement to the Division: Press of S. Usher, 1894.], where subsequent military service of many is listed in early Revolutionary War muster roles (appendix i-ii).

The observation that clusters of names are in a single handwriting, suggests that the oath was administered by the town’s clergy and individuals’ names noted by a person recording the oaths. For example, the third column of names is headed by John Daggett (born September 2, 1724), who was a colonel in the Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts provincial militia in 1775. The town history claims that on April 9, 1775 “Colonel Daggett had undertaken the expedition to Assonet for the purpose of breaking up a Royalist combination which had stored ammunition in that place. He and his comrades thus had the honor of being the first actors in the first scene of the great Revolutionary drama.”

The Solemn League and Covenant was the first concerted response to the Boston Port Act.  Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren are believed to be the architects and authors of this document, issued by the Boston Committee of Correspondence, and distributed to towns throughout Massachusetts.  It is a more forceful non-consumption and non-importation agreement than any preceding it.

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