HMS Romney & The Boston Tea Party -- An Irony Too Delicious to Ignore

I just stumbled upon an incredible fact I had long since forgotten. When the British East India Company -- one of the largest companies of its day that was a dominant force in global commerce -- had a little problem collecting the taxes of the Colonists in the new world it called upon the government for help. The government of the day was King George. King George answered the call and sent the HMS Romney. Yes, that's not a mistake...the HMS Romney.

Launched in 1762, Romney spent most of her early career in North American waters, serving on the Newfoundland station, often as the flagship of the commander-in-chief. The ship was involved in the tensions leading up to the American Revolution when she was sent to support the Boston commissioners enforcing the Townshend Acts in 1768. Her actions involved impressing local sailors, confiscating a vessel belonging to John Hancock and providing a refuge for the unpopular commissioners when rioting broke out.

en.wikipedia.org...

Strange, but true. Romney was sent at the urging of a giant monopolist corporation to force the American colonists to pay the new higher taxes imposed on them by the Townsend Acts. The East India Company shares were owned by the ultra wealthy merchants and the landed class (aristocracy). The Townsend Acts were actually a series of cumulative laws that imposed much higher taxes on many items than British citizens back on the UK mainland had to pay. Meanwhile, the burgeoning Americans were not fairly compensated for the raw materials they exported back to England, which then came back to them as highly tariffed finished goods.

The "Boston Tea Party" was not about tea per sae, but about all the Townsend Act taxes. Tea just turned into an opportune symbolic vehicle for the protest. So when the colonists decided they'd had enough they raided Boston Harbor dressed as American Indians to toss the tea overboard, Romney was sent by the elite to put down the rebellion of the regular folks.

I mean seriously, how wonderfully ironic is this bit of American history? In summary, Romney was a tool of the elite and giant corporations way back in 1768.

Very interesting. I did not know that.
History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes.

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen


Some things you just can't make up. It would be interesting to trace the naming of the vessel to see if ancestral connections exist.

reply to post by pajoly


Here is another HMS Romney:-

www.naval-history.net...


Here is the Romney Family:-

en.wikipedia.org...

This was labeled "True" on Snopes;

I was on facebook today and I saw a message directed at Teabaggers which stated:

Hey Teabaggers

Guess what?

In 1768, the British dispatched a 50-gun warship to New England to enforce the crown's right of taxation over the rebellious colonist.

The name of that ship?

HMS Romney

Origins: The Royal Navy has included, at various times, five different ships called HMS Romney, generally thought to have been named after the town of New Romney in Kent (or possibly in honor of Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney). The third of those ships was a 50-gun fourth rate launched in 1762 which served the Royal Navy for over forty years — through the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars — until she was finally wrecked after running aground off the Netherlands in 1804.

In 1768, the HMS Romney was dispatched to Boston Harbor at the request of commissioners tasked with enforcing the Townshend Acts, which imposed duties on colonial imports such as paper, glass, lead and tea exported from Britain in order to raise revenue for the administration of the North American colonies.

Last updated: 6 August 2012

At least that possibly answers where the name for the HMS Romney came from - the town of New Romney in Kent of for the Earl of Romney. The entomology of the family name may be here; Romney Family Crest and Name History

The irony is rather funny, perhaps it's an omen.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


When I encounter coincidences like this, I understand why people play the lottery.