The sixth and final volume of the Bernard Papers presents the official and private correspondence of Massachusetts royal governor Sir Francis Bernard upon his return to England in 1769 until his death in 1779, documenting his attempts to influence British colonial policy. Bernard’s letters on colonial opposition and resistance from 1765 on constituted a major source of detailed evidence for the British government in persuading Parliament to adopt the punitive Coercive Acts that would trigger rebellion in Massachusetts in the late summer and early autumn of 1774.

Distributed for the Colonial Society of Massachusetts