Editing Gaspee affair (section)

==Background==

The [[HM Customs|British Customs service]] had a history of facing strong resistance in the [[Thirteen Colonies]] in the 18th century. Britain was at war during much of this period and was not in a strategic position to risk antagonizing its overseas colonies.  Several successive ministries implemented new policies following Britain's victory in the [[French and Indian War]] (the component of the [[Seven Years' War]] in North America) in an attempt to increase control within the colonies and to recoup the expensive cost of the war. The [[British Parliament]] argued that revenue was necessary to bolster military and naval defensive positions along the borders of their distant colonies and also to pay the debt which Britain had incurred in pursuing the war against France.

One policy included deputizing the Royal Navy's officers to enforce customs laws in American ports.<ref>See Barrow, Thomas C. ''Trade and Empire: The British Customs Service in Colonial America, 1660–1775'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967) especially page 177.  See also Gipson, Lawrence Henry, ''The British Empire Before the American Revolution'', Vol. XII ''The Triumphant Empire: Britain Sails into the Storm, 1770–1776''. (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1965) especially page 26 footnote 79.</ref> The Admiralty purchased six Marblehead sloops and schooners and gave them Anglicized French names based on their recent acquisitions in Canada, removing the French accents from ''St John'', ''St Lawrence'', ''Chaleur'', ''Hope'', ''Magdalen,'' and ''Gaspee''.<ref name="Bartlett1861">{{cite book|last=Bartlett|first=John Russell|title=A History of the Destruction of His Britannic Majesty's Schooner Gaspee, in Narragansett Bay, on the 10th June, 1772: Accompanied by the Correspondence Connected Therewith; the Action of the General Assembly of Rhode Island Thereon, and the Official Journal of the Proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry, on the Same|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofdestruc00bart|access-date=7 June 2018|year=1861|publisher=A. C. Greene, printer to the state}}</ref>

The enforcements became increasingly intrusive and aggressive in [[Narragansett Bay]]. Rhode Islanders finally responded by attacking {{HMS|St John|1764|6}} in 1764, and they burned the ship {{HMS|Liberty|1768|6}} in 1768 on [[Goat Island (Rhode Island)|Goat Island]] in Newport harbor.<ref>''Warships of the world to 1900, Volume 799, Ships of the World Series:Warships of the World to 1900,'' Lincoln P. Paine (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000) p. 95 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Xh7CSxFeK-IC]</ref>

===Duddingston and HMS ''Gaspee''===

In early 1772, Lieutenant [[William Duddingston]] sailed HMS ''Gaspee'' into [[Narragansett Bay]] in [[Rhode Island]] to enforce customs collection and mandatory inspection of cargo.  He arrived in Rhode Island in February and met with Governor [[Joseph Wanton]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Rhode Island Politics and the American Revolution, 1760–1776|last=Lovejoy|first=David S.|publisher=Brown University Press|year=1958|location=Providence|pages=157. Wanton and Lieutenant Duddingston discussed the 1769 burning of the ''Liberty'' in their first meeting. In the burning, Rhode Islanders destroyed and set fire to the vessel in Newport, allowing the ships that had been detained by ''Liberty'' to escape. Wanton implied that Duddingston might find the same troubles years later, which prompted Duddingston to send the ''Fortune'' to Boston}}</ref> Soon after he began patrolling Narragansett Bay, ''Gaspee'' stopped and inspected the sloop ''Fortune'' on February 17 and seized 12 [[hogshead]]s of undeclared rum.<ref>Staples (1845), p. 7.</ref> Duddingston sent ''Fortune'' and the seized rum to Boston, believing that any seized items left in a Rhode Island port would be reclaimed by the colonists.<ref>Staples (1845), p. 6.</ref>

This overbold move of sending ''Fortune'' to Boston brought outrage within the Rhode Island colony, because Duddingston had taken upon himself the authority to determine where the trial should take place concerning this seizure, completely superseding the authority of Governor Wanton by doing so. Furthermore, it was a direct violation of the [[Rhode Island Royal Charter]] of 1663 to hold a trial outside of Rhode Island on an arrest that took place within the colony.<ref>Samuel Greene Arnold, ''History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations'', Vol. 2, New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1859.</ref>

After this, Duddingston and his crew became increasingly aggressive in their searches, boardings, and seizures, even going so far as to stop merchants who were on shore and force searches of their wares. Public resentment and outrage continued to escalate against ''Gaspee'' in particular and against the British in general. A local sheriff threatened Duddingston with arrest, and Admiral [[John Montagu (Royal Navy officer)|John Montagu]] responded with a letter threatening to hang as pirates anyone who made effort to rescue ships taken by Duddingston during his operations.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Middlekauff|first=Robert|title=The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789|title-link=The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789|year=2007|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-531588-2|pages=219–211|author-link=Robert Middlekauff}}</ref>

On March 21, Rhode Island Deputy Governor [[Darius Sessions]] wrote to Governor Wanton regarding Duddingston, and he requested that the basis of Duddingston's authority be examined. In the letter, Sessions includes the opinion of Chief Justice [[Stephen Hopkins (politician)|Stephen Hopkins]], who argues that "no commander of any vessel has any right to use any authority in the Body of the Colony without previously applying to the Governor and showing his warrant for so doing."<ref name="StaplesP3"/> Wanton wrote to Duddingston the next day, demanding that he "produce me your commission and instructions, if any you have, which was your duty to have done when you first came within the jurisdiction of this Colony."<ref>Staples (1845), p. 4.</ref> Duddingston returned a rude reply to the Governor, refusing to leave his ship or to acknowledge Wanton's elected authority within Rhode Island.