A Schoolboy Mob, a Villain, and the First Martyr of the Revolution

In ‘This Week in History,’ a gunshot fired blindly into a mob of Bostonians, kills a young boy, leading to a memorable and controversial trial.

“The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5, 1770,” a copper engraving by Paul Revere modeled on a drawing by Henry Pelham, 1770. Public Domain

Outside of Boston merchant Theophilus Lillie’s shop was a sign that read, “Don’t Buy From the Traitor.” The sign was hardly a glowing recommendation for the business, and it certainly wasn’t placed there by Lillie himself. But its placement was in keeping with a promise.

The Sons of Liberty had warned that “one of these Advertisements will be posted up at the Door or Dwelling-House of the Offender.” Lillie was an offender. He was, as Thomas Hutchinson, governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, suggested, “a very inoffensive man, except in the offense of importation.”