Thomas Pownall - Colonial Supporter

Colonial Supporter

Pownall continued to communicate with political allies in Massachusetts, and was on several occasions called to appear before Parliamentary committees to comment on colonial affairs. He considered returning to Massachusetts if a post could be found, and began investing in property in Nova Scotia, extending his colonial property interests beyond those he had been granted in present-day Maine during his governorship. In 1765 he married Harriet Fawkener, widow of Everard Fawkener and daughter to Lieutenant General Charles Churchill, giving him a connection to the aristocratic Dukes of Marlborough. Pownall raised her four children as his own. A gracious and intelligent woman, she became a partner in advancing his political career, hosting social events and encouraging his intellectual pursuits. She may have encouraged him to stand for Parliament in 1767, when he won a seat representing Tregony.

He renewed correspondence with officials in Massachusetts in the hopes of winning appointment as an agent representing the province's interests, but was unsuccessful. He regularly received visitors from the colonies, and Benjamin Franklin, his old friend from Pennsylvania, was a frequent guest. He observed with alarm the rise in tension in the colonies and the missteps of Parliamentary leadership and colonial administration that exacerbated rather than reduced them. He used his position in Parliament to highlight the colonial objections to the Quartering Act of 1765 and other unpopular legislation. When troops were sent to Boston in 1768 after protests against the Townshend Acts turned violent, he took to the floor of Parliament, warning that the connections between Britain and the colonies were unraveling, and that the end result could be a permanent breach.

Pownall was opposed to Prime Minister North's partial repeal in 1770 of the hated Townshend Acts, which maintained the tax on tea as a symbol of Parliamentary power. In debate on the act, Pownall pointed out that retention of the tax would be a "millstone" around English necks rather than a yoke on American ones, and that it would lead to civil war. His speech was delivered March 5, 1770, the day of the Boston Massacre. Dispirited by his view that Parliament failed to understand the American colonial issues, he urged his colonial correspondents to continue to press constitutional issues and avoid violence.

Colonial American issues then briefly subsided from the stage. In 1772 Pownall introduced legislation reforming food production and distribution in Great Britain. It passed the House of Commons, but was amended by the Lords, leading the Commons to reject the amended bill as a violation of its prerogatives. The bill passed the next year, and was called "Governor Pownall's Bill". It received much praise, including from influential figures such as Adam Smith. Pownall was also honoured with membership in the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society.