Date: September 26, 1774.
“At a Meeting of the Freeholders of this town, on Wednesday, the 21st instant, at Faneuil Hall, the following gentlemen were chosen to represent them in the General Assembly, to be held on the 5th of next month, viz: the Honourable Thomas Cushing, Esquire, Mr. Samuel Adams, the Honourable John Hancock, Esquire, and William Phillips, Esquire; and on Friday, the town made choice of Dr. Joseph Warren, Dr. Benjamin Church, and Mr. Nathaniel Appleton, to serve as Delegates in the Provincial Congress, to be held at Concord, on the second Tuesday in October next, in addition to the four Representatives of this town; and the following Instructions for our Representatives were voted, viz:
GENTLEMEN: As we have chosen you to represent us in the Great and General Court, to be holden at Salem, on Wednesday, the 5th of October next ensuing, we do hereby instruct you, that in all your doings, as members of the House of Representatives, you adhere firmly to the Charter of this Province, granted by their Majesties King William and Queen Mary, and that you do no act which can possibly be construed into an acknowledgment of the validity of the Act of the British Parliament for altering the Government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay; more especially that you acknowledge the Honourable Board of Counsellors elected by the General Court, at their session in last May, as the only rightful and constitutional Council of this Province. And we have reason to believe, that a conscientious discharge of your duty will produce your dissolution as an House of Representatives; we do hereby empower and instruct you to join with the members, who may be sent from this and the other towns in the Province, and to meet with them at a time to be agreed on in a General Provincial Congress, to act upon such matters as may come before you, in such a manner as shall appear to you most conducive to the true interest of this town and Province, and most likely to preserve the liberties of all America.”
Source: Records Pertaining to the Early History of Boston, Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, 1887, Vol. 18, p. 197
Commentary: Joseph Warren, just weeks following his first elected office as a Boston representative to the one-time Suffolk Convention, was elected along with Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr. and Nathaniel Appleton, to represent Boston at the First Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Even in advance of the convening of the Congress on October 5th, Warren was asserting creative and tireless leadership among Massachusetts Patriots, who were increasingly operating a shadow independent government with nominal allegiance to King George but defying Governor General Thomas Gage at every turn
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