tar and feathers

[Joel S. Berson]

Several quotations (and a couple of places to look further) for
"tar/tarring and feather[s]/feathering", in chronological order.  The
last two are antedatings.


A.  1670-1680?

R. S. Longley, "Mob Activities in Revolutionary Massachusetts", New
England Quarterly,Vol. 6 (1933), page 115 note 54, writes "Mr.
Leonard London informs me that there was a tarring and feathering in
Essex County [Mass.] between 1670 and 1680."  Cited in Alfred F.
Young, Liberty Tree: Ordinary People and the American Revolution (New
York: New York University Press, 2006), page 155 note 47.

Might this be in "Records and files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex
County, Massachusetts"?  But I do not know whether "tar and feather"
will appear.


B.   1762?

"Steven Stewart informs me of a case [of tarring and feathering] in
New York in 1762, preserved in the John Tabor Kemp Papers, New-York
Historical Society."  Alfred F. Young, Liberty Tree: Ordinary People
and the American Revolution (New York: New York University Press,
2006), page 155.

Again, I do not know whether "tar and feather" will appear.


C.  tar (n1) sense 4.c "tar and feathers"; 1766 Apr. 3

William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 21, No.
3 (Jan., 1913).  "Letters of Governor Francis Fauguier,"  letter,
Capt. William Smith to J. Morgan (enclosed with letter of Lieut. Gov.
Farquier to the Board of Trade, 7 April 1766), page 167.

"Then they hurried me to the County Wharf and bedawbed my body and
face all over with tar and afterwards threw feathers upon
me."  [description continues]

Not literally "tar and feathers", but perhaps an antecedent to OED3's
1775 June 8.  According to Alfred Young, this is the earliest known
incident in pre-Revolutionary times.

There are additional examples like this in Early American
Newspapers.  The earliest appears to be the Essex Gazette, 1768 Sept. 13, 3/3:

SALEM, September 13. ... He was taken from one of the Wharves, and
conducted to the Common, where his Head, Body and Limbs were covered
with warm Tar, and then a large Quantity of Feathers were applied to
all Parts, which, by closely adhering to the Tar, exhibited an odd
Figure, the Drollery of which can easily be imagined.  [article continues]

A similar example is 1769 Oct. 28, in Letters and Diary of John Rowe
Boston Merchant, 1759-1762 [and] 1764-1779, ed. Anne Rowe  Cunningham
(W. B. Clarke Company, 1904; edition used:  Reprint:  The New York
Times & Arno Press), page 194:

In the evening a large Mob Assembled & got hold of one George Greyer
an informer who they stript naked & painted him all over with Tar &
then covered him with Feathers & put him in a Cart & carried him
thro' all the main Streets of the Town huzzaring &c and at nine dismissed him.


D.  tar (n1) sense 4.c "tar and feathers"; 1770 May 18

Letters and Diary of John Rowe Boston Merchant, 1759-1762 [and]
1764-1779, ed. Anne Rowe  Cunningham (W. B. Clarke Company, 1904;
edition used:  Reprint:  The New York Times & Arno Press), page 202.

Just as I was going to bed there was a very great Hallooing in the
street & a mob of upwards a thousand people---it seems they had got
an informer & put him in a Cart, covered with Tar & Feathers & so
exhibited him thro' the Streets.

antedates OED3 1775-


E.   tarring (vbl. n.); 1774 June 2

The Massachusetts Gazette: and the Boston Weekly News-Letter

The Act for Tarring and Feathering being repealed, the old Act for
nocturnal Painting seems to be revived.

3/3
antedates OED2 "tarring and feathering" 1774 July 1

There is also 1775 Mar. 9, in Letters and Diary of John Rowe Boston
Merchant, 1759-1762 [and] 1764-1779, ed. Anne Rowe  Cunningham (W. B.
Clarke Company, 1904; edition used:  Reprint:  The New York Times &
Arno Press), page 290:

This morning a Country Fellow who had Bought a Gun from one of the
Soldiers was punished by them in the Modern Taste of Tarring &
Feathering & carried in a Cart through the main Streets of the Town.

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