| Citation |
MS-B.770.001
17 Jul 1770:21 (1)
Extract of a letter from a gentleman in the county of Wilts.
Thursday the last day of sessions, part of the 5th and 38th,
the 50th and 56th regiments of foot did, in a most daring
and insulting manner, contrary to custom at the time of
sessions, keep patroling the streets, with drums beating and
fifes playing. At the time the court was sitting they
continued beating their drums, &c. all along the front of
the town-hall, or court-house, &c. After the business of
the court had been impeded for some time, Sir E. Bayntun,
and the rest of the justices, ordered the constables to
desire all the soldiers to desist from beating their drums
and playing their fifes before the Court, but the insolence
of the soldiers was such, that instead of paying due respect
to the order of the Court, they made no apology, but kept on
beating their drums and playing their fifes; and, in my
humble opinion, if the court had offered to punish them for
disobeying the order of all the magistrates, we might have
had another Boston affair in the town of the Devizes.
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