Liberty -- tree, tree of, & sons of

[Joel S. Berson]

With the aid of ECCO and British Periodicals, I find uses of the
following three phrases, obviously in a general, metaphoric sense and
not referring to the 1765 Boston "Great Tree" or rebel associations,
as early as:

"tree of liberty" -- 1736, The Daily Gazetteer [London], and then 1748.

"liberty tree" -- not found until 1768 in those two sources.

"son[s] of liberty" -- 1706, twice (and many times thereafter up to
1765), in the phrases:
      "Sons of Liberty and Fame", by Defoe.
      "Sons of Liberty and Property", in a collection of tracts (I
didn't try to identify the writer).

Joel

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