“Then the serious jackbooted crackdown, followed by who knows what. “
Let me help you out here. Then the 1776 solution. Coming sooner than you think. :-)
Actually the 1775 solution. April 19th to be exact.
My ancestor then Sergeant Samuel Hill, of Harvard MA, took part in those festivities. He is listd as responding to the Lextington alarm. Paul Revere and all that. Earlier he had been a member of Harvard's Committee of Correspondence, sort of like the FR of those pre-internet days. His future son in law, Ephraim Chaffin, also my ancestor later joined by then Captain Hill at the 1st battle of Saratoga.