Note 52 — LICENCE TO EXPORT TEA.

Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson, sons of Governor Hutchinson, were merchants and partners in business, and consignees of one-third of the tea shipped to Boston. I have seen no evidence of a pecuniary interest in this shipment on the part of the Governor, as is asserted by the historian Bancroft. Their names were given to the East India Company by a London correspondent, who solicits the consignment for them, without mentioning their connection with the Governor. Thomas, jr., born in Boston, in 1740, was a mandamus Councillor and Judge of Probate, and was proscribed and banished. When the condition of the country became unpleasantly hostile, he left the mansion house at Milton, and took shelter in Boston, but left all the furniture, silver plate, &c., expecting to be able to pass and repass at pleasure. When Boston was evacuated, he and his family, and Peter Oliver and family, embarked for London, in the "Lord Hyde" packet. He settled at Heavitree, near Exeter, in Devonshire, and died there in 1811. His wife was Sarah Oliver.

Elisha, his brother, born in 1745, graduated at Harvard University, in 1762; was proscribed and banished, and died at Blurton Parsonage, Trentham, Staffordshire, England, in November, 1824. His wife, Mary, daughter of Col. George Watson, of Plymouth, Mass., died at Birmingham, England, in 1803. "Neither of my sons," wrote the Governor, in March, 1774, "have dared to appear in Boston since the latter part of November, to the total neglect and ruin of their business."