6. The White Pine Act

0:00Volume 3, Chapter 6, The White Pine Act Although the Führer over writs of assistance had temporarily died down by 1763, the comprehensive Grenville program for enforcing and strengthening the mercantilist restrictions was soon put into effect. One important step was the sudden enforcement of the White Pine Act. The Restrictive White Pine Act had scarcely been enforced by Benning Wentworth, surveyor of the King's Woods and governor of New Hampshire, for over 20 years. Suddenly, in 1763, Wentworth seized over 2,000 white pine logs in western Massachusetts and charged in admiralty court that the trees were legally reserved to the Crown. The nearly impossible task of the owners was to prove that the logs had come from trees growing within township boundaries in New Hampshire, for all other logs were legally reserved for royal use. Hundreds of white pine logs were also seized in Connecticut. Ironically, very few of the pine logs thus confiscated were suitable for use by the Royal Navy, and the great majority soon would have

1:20Wentworth's zeal was spurred by the new General Enforcement Program, and also by a desire to cripple the timber operations of Wentworth's new Connecticut rival in the trade, Jared Ingersoll. Enforcement of the White Pine Act quickly reactivated the ardent hostility of New England colonists to crown policies. Wentworth's deputies were threatened with beatings and assassination by the people of Massachusetts, and the local justices of the peace refuse to aid or protect the deputies in enforcing the law, despite the orders of their governor.