Observations on the Real Rights of Women and Other Writings

Introduction

Introduction On August 14, 1765, the office of Andrew Oliver, stamp master for Massachusetts, was destroyed and his home ransacked by the Loyalist Nine, later known as the Sons of Liberty; an effigy of Oliver was later found hanging in a tree. The Nine also surrounded the home of Thomas Hutchinson, lieutenant governor and chief justice of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, but they moved on when persuaded by a speaker who rose to Hutchinson’s defense. On the night of August 26 a mob paid a visit to the homes of Charles Paxton and William Story. Paxton’s was spared by the offer of free drink, but Story’s was completely destroyed. A second mob trashed Capt. Benjamin Hallowell’s home before the two parts joined to reach their third target that evening. The lieutenant governor was not so lucky this time. Enthusiasm was running high to seize the man suspected of supporting the Stamp Act and known to support the writs of assistance that gave the British government the right to conduct a search without needing to provide a reason to do so.1 Finding no one at home, the crowd burst into the house and began smashing furniture and hauling out stacks of manuscripts and books that Hutchinson had amassed over many years for his projected history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In “Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston” his niece, Hannah Mather Crocker, notes that the manuscripts, some of which belonged to her father, Samuel Mather, were dumped in North Square.2 The mob, however, did not consider its work finished until it had also gutted the interior walls of the stately home, cut off the xiii introduction cupola, and removed most of the slate roof. Dismantling the roof took several hours.3 On hearing that Hutchinson had fled to the home of his brother-in-law, Samuel Mather, some of the men rushed over there. Mather, however, refused to let them in and soon determined that it was unsafe for Hutchinson to remain with them a moment longer. According to Crocker, she “was sent to shew and escort him the pass, a back way through an alley to the house of Mr. Thomas Edes, father of the late Edward Edes, baker and grandfather of the present Senior Minister in Providence. Mr. Hutchinson continued there till 6 o’clock the next morn. The present writer,” notes Crocker, “continued his companion through the night without sleep, then escorted him in safety to his sister’s house the same way he retreated. He was calm through the whole scene and partook of Breakfast with the family. After breakfast he went to court in his common dress as his bagwig and robes were destroyed.”4 The sister’s house was none other than the home of Hannah Crocker’s parents, Hannah Hutchinson and Samuel Mather, from which the girl had escorted Thomas Hutchinson the previous evening. The incident, which occurred when Crocker was thirteen, appears in her miscellany, “Reminiscences of Boston,” in which she recalls the details about her modest role in a major incident leading up to the Revolutionary War. Crocker’s part in the episode encapsulates several themes in her writing: the conviction that women have a part to play in public affairs, the devotion to things antiquarian, and the determination to reconcile opposing viewpoints in an effort to achieve harmonious relations. The daughter of Samuel and Hannah Hutchinson Mather, Hannah Crocker was born in Boston on June 27, 1752, and xiv introduction died in nearby Roxbury on July 11, 1829, at the age of seventyseven . She is buried in the Mather tomb at Copp’s Hill in Boston. A direct descendant from what she called “the fourfold line of Mathers,” ministers all, Crocker was the greatgreat -granddaughter of Richard Mather, who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635; the great-granddaughter of Increase Mather, president of Harvard University (then Harvard College) from 1685 to 1692; the granddaughter of Cotton Mather, the most prolific writer in the colonies; and the daughter of Samuel, Cotton Mather’s sole surviving son. On her mother’s side she was the descendant of Anne Hutchinson, banished from Boston in 1638.5 In 1779Hannah married Joseph Crocker, the son of Josiah Crocker, a minister of Taunton, Massachusetts. A graduate of Harvard, Joseph Crocker served as a captain in the revolutionary army. The Crockers had ten children, but Hannah waited until...