| Citation |
PJ.770.045
26 Jul 1770:12 (1442)
London . . . Extract of a letter from a gentleman in the
county of Wilts. Thursday the last day of the 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 patrolling the
streets, with drums beating and fifes playing. At the time
of 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 court had been impeded for some
time, Sir E. Bayntun, and the rest of the justices, ordered
their 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 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 Dervizes."
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