Great [Liberty] Trees and elms, etc.

[Joel S. Berson]

Victor Steinbok wrote:
>This is great coverage. However, sometimes one needs to cast the net
>a bit wider, especially when dealing with only a partial historical record.

His wider net (not included below due to limits on ADS-L message
lengths) seems to be mostly history, not American dialect.  However --

The Liberty Tree was located  in Deacon Jacob Elliott's "grove of old
elm trees."  Fischer, Liberty and Freedom, p. 19.  His footnote 1
cites "The Writings of Samuel Adams", ed. Harry A. Cushing.

Somewhere (perhaps in Fischer) I've read that one of these elms was
planted in the 1640s.  Somewhere else (probably in an 18th century
newspaper) I've read that one "liberty tree" elm was 100 feet
tall.  ""Herbie' in Yarmouth, Maine, stood by present-day East Main
Street (Route 88) from 1793-2010.[31] At 110 feet in height, it was
believed to be, between 1997 and the date of its felling,[32] the
oldest[33] and tallest of its kind in New England.[34]."  (Wikipedia,
"Elm".)  Elms were prominent.

Victor noted a "Mr. /John Eliot/ Stationer [perhaps a relative of the
Deacon; don't worry about the different spelling], living near the
great Trees."  In the days before street numbers, advertisements
(especially) gave locations with reference to known and notable
landmarks -- the Town-House, a tavern or coffee-house, etc.  Likely
by the 1760s the elms' location had become so well-known that it was
given the honor of the capital G -- particularly if the
increasingly-resistant Bostonians had already become accustomed to
gathering for seditious conversation in the shade of Deacon Elliott's grove.

The advertisement from "John Haskins, Farmer" is certainly
satirical.  Although I don't know what underlies the reference to
Essex County, I'm sure "farmer" has the doubled meaning of "tax
collector, " especially one who receives a cut from the proceeds --
as the colonial Stamp Masters did.

"Caricatura" in 1765 had not seemed remarkable to me.  It appears to
be sense 2.b, for which see "caricature", 2. "A portrait or other
artistic representation, in which the characteristic features of the
original are exaggerated with ludicrous effect.' and [2]b. "transf.
of literary or ideal representation."  For this sense of the form
"caricatura," the OED already has 3 citations between 1732 and 1783.

This well-known image originated in Britain, not America, as an
engraving published in London in March, 1765 -- shortly after the
passage of the Stamp Act, but before the Liberty Tree.  Its
description at the following link corresponds with the Boston
newspaper article cited by Victor.  http://tinyurl.com/yfswf44   John
Singleton Copley based his 1765 etching, published (as the newspaper
says) on Nov. 1, on this.  See "Made in America: Printmaking,
1760-1860," by Stefanie A. Munsing, pp.3-4, at http://tinyurl.com/ya64plw

On March 6 (Saturday) I had reported many of the instances of "Sons
Of Liberty" that Victor later sent us again (see below).  For some
unknown reason I had not seen the 1764 instance until yesterday, and
had not reported it here yet.

Joel

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