Henry Pelham, 21-Year Old Artist, Drew the Boston Massacre Illustration of the 1770 Incident, Not Paul Revere

 

The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, or the Bloody Massacre by Henry Pelham

Courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society

On March 28, 1770, following the now famous Boston Massacre that occurred on March 5, local engraver Paul Revere released a depiction of the event that was quickly printed and distributed widely in the colonies, helping to fan the flames of rebellion. 

Revere, famous for the midnight ride to Lexington and Concord in 1775, was a gifted engraver, but he didn’t do the actual drawing.  Instead, it was created by 21 year old Henry Pelham, a talented artist who was also the half-brother of colonial painter John Singleton Copley.

Pelham was furious when he learned that his friend Revere had used his illustration without Pelham's permission.  He wrote Revere a letter on March 29, 1770:

 

"When I heard that you was cutting a plate of the late Murder, I thought it was impossible, as I knew you was not capable of doing it unless you copied it from mine and as I thought I had entrusted it in the hands of a person who had more regard to the dictates of Honour and Justice than to take the undue advantage you have done of the confidence and Trust I reposed in you. But I find I was mistaken. . . . If you are insensible of the Dishonour you have brought on yourself by this Act, the World will not be so. However, I leave you to reflect upon and consider of one of the most dishonorable Actions you could well be guilty of."

Henry's parents were Peter Pelham, considered the Father of Fine Arts in Massachusetts and Mary Singleton, the mother of John Singleton Copley.  Mary Singleton Copley had emigrated to Boston from County Clare in Ireland in 1736, and married Peter when her husband Richard Copley, died in the West Indies.  It was Peter who taught both John and Henry how to draw and nurtured their talents throughout their youth.  

In fact, one of Copley's first paintings depicted his half-brother Henry in the portrait entitled Boy with a Squirrel, painted in 1765 and showing Henry when he was about 16 years old.

John Singleton Copley, American, 1738-1815

A Boy with a Flying Squirrel(Henry Pelham), 1765 on canvas

77.15 x 63.82 cm (30 3/8 x 25 1/8 in.)  Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Both Copley and Pelham were sympathetic to the British Crown when the American Revolution broke out, and they each paid the price of exile.

After the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, which he apparently witnessed, Pelham was commissioned by General Gage to draw a map he titled "A Plan of Boston in New England and Its Environs," which put him squarely on the British side of the war. 

A Plan of Boston in New England and Its Environs, Courtesy of Library of Congress

Like many loyalist Bostonians who felt “a duty to his most gracious Sovereign and Veneration for the British Government,” Pelham was in a bind once the British left Boston in 1776. He fled to Halifax and  never returned. “All his books, furniture, and personal property was left behind in Boston,” according to historian Alfred Jones. His beloved mother, Mary Copley, refused to leave during the exodus and remained in Boston until her death in 1789. 

Henry Pelham eventually moved to Ireland, settling in County Clare, where his mother had been born. He married Catherine Butler and worked as a surveyor, completing an intricate map of County Clare for the British Government in 1787. He worked for a time as a land agent for the Marquis of Lansdowne, who owned considerable property in County Kerry. In 1806 Pelham accidentally drowned in the Kenmare River when his boat overturned.

Learn more about Boston Irish history by visiting IrishHeritageTrail.com. 

Excerpts of this story are taken from Irish Boston :A Lively Look at Boston's Colorful Past. 

Text + Research, Michael Quinlin