do so. Boston seamen were particularly insistent on this point, for a number of reasons. Many of them had taken part in the Siege of Louisbourg, and in return for their service had been promised by Commodore Peter Warren of the Royal Navy that they would not be impressed. Furthermore, because Boston depended on its seamen to transport food and fuel to the city, Governor Shirley made a point when issuing impressment warrants of limiting them to non-residents of Massachusetts on inbound vessels. Outbound vessels, fishing vessels, and coasters were strictly off limits. In November 1745, a press-gang killed two sailors—both veterans of Louisbourg—during a struggle in a Boston boardinghouse. Two of the killers were caught and sentenced to death by hanging, but the verdict was found to be invalid by the Crown and overturned. The incident destroyed whatever goodwill the navy may have had in Boston, and set the stage for a violent uprising. As historian John Noble put it, "the temper of the town was quite ready for such an outbreak." During the 1740s, Admiral Charles Knowles provoked some of the largest impressment riots in the history of Britain's American and Caribbean colonies. Knowles had a habit of disregarding local laws and customs when pressing men into service on his warships. In 1743, for example, he provoked a violent conflict in Antigua when he captured crewmen from a privateer ship, a drastic measure normally reserved for national emergencies. In the fall of 1747, a squadron under Knowles's command was anchored at Nantasket in Boston Harbor, being repaired and restocked in preparation for a trip to the West Indies. Desperately in need of personnel, Knowles flouted tradition when he sent press-gangs to round up sailors in the harbor and along the waterfront without first obtaining a warrant from Governor Shirley. Knowles had been repeatedly warned by Commodore Warren to "shew what Lenity you can...to the people of those Colonys" and "to give them no room for complaints." Nevertheless, on the evening of 16 November 1747, and into the next morning, Knowles's press-gangs captured some 46 men, treating them roughly and ignoring their protests that they were Massachusetts residents. Not all were on inbound ships, and some were not even seamen, but carpenters and laborers on their way to work. One outbound ship, the Mercury, was left almost completely unattended when 16 of its 19 crewmen were taken, and sustained