Lexington and Concord News

Arthur Lee, a radical Virginian politician in London, received news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord from a member of the Sons of Liberty on May 28, 1775. He rushed to publish the American perspective of the military encounter as soon as possible, copying the documents and leaving the originals with his friend, John Wilkes, the lord mayor of London. By the time British general Thomas Gage’s account of the battle appeared in the London Gazette on May 30, Lee was able to counter it with his own sources, as seen in this notice in London’s Chester Chronicle of June 5, 1775.