SPY PRINTER SUMMONED FOR
WRITTEN ASSAULT
MASSACHUSETTS SPY PRINTER SUMMONED FOR
WRITTEN ATTACK ON BRITISH AUTHORITY
BOSTON, November 28, 1771
By October 1771, Isaiah Thomas had moved his press and types from Union Street (near the market) to the South corner of Marshall Lane where it joins Union Street (today, this would be exactly where this panel is). Here he established his own printing business to set up his Massachusetts Spy office.
Funded by John Hancock, Thomas started to shift his newspaper’s editorial political views from “neutral and open to all parties” to supporting only the side of the patriots, thus openly attacking the British authorities. November the 14th, 1771, under the pseudonym of Mucious Scaevola a writer for Thomas, Joseph Greenleaf, wrote a scathing article attacking Governor Hutchinson, the acting Governor of Boston at that time. Here, among many other attacks, he said Hutchinson was not “the legal governor is but a usurper and should be removed from office and punished”. Thomas was then summoned to appear before the Provincial Council, but refused to go due to “pressure of business”.
On November the 28th, 1771, in The Massachusetts Spy, Isaiah Thomas came back with a powerful response to the summons and proceeded to open the doors to the fight for freedom of speech.
Designing the Painting
For this painting I wanted to have a close up portrait if Isaiah Thomas. Having visited the American Antiquarian Society, I was able to see many portraits of him, but none when he was younger. I found a profile of him which matched the angle that I wanted to place him while he was being summoned. The challenge was to imagine his features 30 years younger.
Using the studies and sketches I made to figure out, and plan the floorplan of the room and the layout of the equipment, I was now able to easily conceive of the view.
I imagined the marshal, who delivered the summons to be accompanied by armed guards and would have been standing near the entrance door, angrily pointing at the article. I painted Thomas with a subtly contented expression since he knew that his attack struck a nerve.
Below is an early stage of the painting.
