<P> The newly created American Customs Board was seated in Boston, and so it was there that the Board concentrated on strictly enforcing the Townshend Acts . The acts were so unpopular in Boston that the Customs Board requested naval and military assistance . Commodore Samuel Hood complied by sending the fifty - gun warship HMS Romney, which arrived in Boston Harbor in May 1768 . </P> <P> On June 10, 1768, customs officials seized the Liberty, a sloop owned by leading Boston merchant John Hancock, on allegations that the ship had been involved in smuggling . Bostonians, already angry because the captain of the Romney had been impressing local sailors, began to riot . Customs officials fled to Castle William for protection . With John Adams serving as his lawyer, Hancock was prosecuted in a highly publicized trial by a vice-admiralty court, but the charges were eventually dropped . </P> <P> Given the unstable state of affairs in Massachusetts, Hillsborough instructed Governor Bernard to try to find evidence of treason in Boston . Parliament had determined that the Treason Act 1543 was still in force, which would allow Bostonians to be transported to England to stand trial for treason . Bernard could find no one who was willing to provide reliable evidence, however, and so there were no treason trials . The possibility that American colonists might be arrested and sent to England for trial produced alarm and outrage in the colonies . </P> <P> Even before the Liberty riot, Hillsborough had decided to send troops to Boston . On 8 June 1768, he instructed General Thomas Gage, Commander - in - Chief, North America, to send "such Force as You shall think necessary to Boston", although he conceded that this might lead to "consequences not easily foreseen". Hillsborough suggested that Gage might send one regiment to Boston, but the Liberty incident convinced officials that more than one regiment would be needed . </P>

The declaratory act imposed a boycott on all manufactured goods produced in the colonies