In the beginning of February, 1775, the English Parliament was feeling snarky.

On the first day of the month, they rejected William Pitt’s proposed plan for recognizing the authority of the Continental Congress and allowing the American colonists some measure of self rule – a plan known as the Provisional Act – by a whopping vote of 77 to 18.

Eight days later, they provided a report to King George III that said, among other things, “…we find that a part of your majesty’s subjects in the province of Massachusetts Bay have proceeded so far to resist the authority of the supreme legislature, that a rebellion at this time actually exists within the said province, and we see, with the utmost concern, that they have been countenanced and encouraged by unlawful combinations and engagements, entered into by your majesty’s other subjects in several of the other colonies, to the injury and oppression of many of their fellow subjects… we humbly beseech your majesty that you will take the most effectual measures to enforce due obedience to the laws and authority of the supreme legislature; and we assure your majesty that it is our fixed resolution, at the hazard of our lives and properties, to stand by your majesty against all rebellious attempts…”

And four days after that, they petitioned the King to “direct the governor of Massachusetts Bay to take the most effectual methods for procuring the fullest information that can be obtained touching all treasons or misprision of treason committed within this government since the 30th day of December last… together with the names of the persons who were most active in the commission of such offences…”

In short, Parliament has formally declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion. By extension, the British military is now legally empowered to arrest the rebellion’s ringleaders, confiscate their material, and shoot any suspected rebels on sight.

It will take about six weeks for a ship to carry the declaration across the Atlantic. Which means that the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, will receive these orders in Boston sometime in the first half of April…