January 16, 1776

On Jan. 16, 1776, President of Congress John Hancock wrote to General Washington about the ministers of King George III, "For my part, I shall not be surprised to hear, that in their phrenzy of rage, and to effect their dark purposes, they have proceeded to murder, under forms of law, those prisoners whom the tools of their vengeance have chanced to take, and whom, with officious zeal, they have sent to England."

British Brigadier General Richard Prescott captured American Ethan Allen in Canada in Sept. 1775. Prescott ordered Allen shipped to England in chains to "grace a halter at Tyburn, God damn you." Prescott hoped England would executed Allen at the infamous London area execution site of Tyburn. Edwin G. Burrows, Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War (New York: Basic Books, 2008), 38.