Joseph Bucklin Society

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Site Summary. A national history center both for the Gaspee Affair of 1772 and also for Bucklin History 1600-1899. We emphasize the pre-Revolutionary history of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and the events and people involved in the Americans' 1772 attack on the Royal Navy ship Gaspee. We maintain a 4,000 person biography and genealogy database and history for the Bucklin family.

This is Gaspee History Edition: 2010 - J

Law as Weapon of the Americans in their Revolution: enforcement of English law in Rhode Island.

Americans controlled the courts in Rhode Island and used English law to frustrate the English navy's attempt to enforce customs tax laws. The plan to attack the Gaspee may have been an attempt to serve a warrant of arrest on the English ship captain.

Our research to date indicates that the attack on the Gaspee was really an attempt to serve an arrest warrant on Dudingston and get him into a Rhode Island court for judgment of the legality of his actions. There is an extensive article on this subject on our specialized Gaspee history site. Go there to read legal points that lawyers appreciate, and historians have generally overlooked. Gaspee attack as an attempt to arrest the English ship captain

Legal tools made it impossible to effectively enforce English customs and tax law, but left the English with no effective way to counter the active American resistance. Read at our specialized Gaspee site about Rhode Island's pre-Revolution use of law as a weapon.