Statue of King George III

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Joseph Wilton

Commissioner

New York General Assembly

Description

Material: Gilded lead

The large gilded statue of King George III crowned with a laurel wreath was commissioned to commemorate the repeal of the Stamp Act.

Installed, Aug 21, 1770

The Statue was installed on the birthday of Prince Frederick, George III's son. The celebration included members of the Colonial and city governments, the Corporations of the Chambers of Commerce, and the Marine Society as well as the officers of the Royal Army & Navy waiting with the Lieutenant Governor at the fort nearby, where toasts were drunk to the accompaniment of military music and artillery.

With the rapid deterioration of relations with Britain after 1770, the statue became a magnet for the Bowling Green protests. In 1773, the city passed an anti-graffiti and anti-desecration law to counter vandalism against the monument, and a protective cast-iron fence was built along the perimeter of the park which cost nearly as much as the sculpture; the fence is still extant, making it the city's oldest fence.

Destroyed, July 9, 1776

After the reading of the Declaration of Independence, the soldiers joined by members of the Sons of Liberty marched down Broadway and turned their attention to the gilded equestrian statue of King George in the Center of Bowling Green. Armed with axes, they made quick work of the 2 ton sculpture. Lead which was in short supply in the colonies was much needed for ammunition. Most of it was loaded into oxcarts and was brought to Litchfield, Connecticut where General Oliver Wolcott's foundry melted it down into 42,088 bullets. That actually used only one ton of lead. Consequently, a lot of the pieces went missing. King George's head was put on a spike and was placed outside of a tavern near Fort Washington. British Captain John Montresor rescued it and had it sent back to England where it ended up in the estate of Charles Townshend. The tail ended up at the New York Historical Society. It is currently on loan to the Museum of the American Revolution. Some of it was buried in loyalist estates in Connecticut. Every so often a piece is discovered and auctioned off.

In retaliation for the destruction of King George III's statue the statue of William Pitt was destroyed by the British.

Cast into musket balls, July 10, 1776

Head taken to London, Oct 10, 1776

Base Removed, 1818

Factoids

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This was the first equestrian statue in America.

Oliver Wolcott turned the lead from a toppled King George III statue into over 42,000 musket balls in his Litchfield, CT orchard for the Revolutionary cause; With his family members and neighbors, he erected a makeshift foundry to melt down the lead and cast it into bullets.

1774 -he admired the “beautiful ellipsis of land nailed in with solid iron, in the center of which is a statue of his majesty on horseback, very large, of solid lead gilded with gold, standing on a pedestal of marble, very high.”

Events

Gallery Tour: Lost New York

Related People & Organizations

George Washington,Washington ordered the reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Commons, after which patriots tore down a 15-foot, gilded lead equestrian statue of King George III at Bowling Green on July 9, 1776.

King George III,Muse

John Montresor,Before it could be melted down for musket balls, the statue's head was cut off, its nose was hacked away, and the laurels were removed. Patriots intended to mount it on a spike at the Blue Bell Tavern in upper Manhattan. British Captain John Montresor learned of the plan. He sent an American spy, an innkeeper named Corbie, to steal the head and bury it near Cox's Tavern by Fort Washington.

Related Sites

7 total, Show more

First Reading of the Declaration of Independence-After the reading of the Declaration of Independence in NY, the Patriots marched down Broadway to Bowling Green and destroyed the Equestrian Statue of George III.

Cornelius Van Vorst House-New-York Historical Society boasts a tombstone originally used as the pedestal for George III’s likeness. The marble slab popped up in 1783 as British soldier Major John Smith’s grave marker. After Smith’s resting place was leveled in 1804, a man named Cornelius Van Vorst, Sr., purchased the stone and used it as a kitchen step in his Jersey City home.

Davis Swamp lawsuit-In 1972, antiques dealer Louis Miller illegally trespassed onto private land in Wilton, Connecticut, where he discovered a 20-pound fragment of the toppled statue of George III that had once stood at Bowling Green in New York City. After selling the Revolutionary War artifact to the Museum of the City of New York for $5,500, the property's owners sued him.In the landmark 1978 case Favorite v. Miller, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that trespassers cannot claim ownership of artifacts found on private property. Miller was required to surrender the proceeds of the sale, establishing an important legal precedent that rejected the "finders keepers" rule for objects discovered through trespass.

Related Playlist

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Timeline

1770

1776

Images

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Images

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Pulling down the Statue of King George

Fragment of the tail next to the painting of the toppling

Statue of King George

Charles MacKubin Lefferts, New York Historical

cultureNOW

1776 - Destroyed

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1776 - Destroyed - Drawings and documents

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Pulling down the statue of George III by the "Sons of Freedom," at the Bowling Green

Library of Congress

Rendering of a float of the Destruction of the Statue of George III, 1909

Museum of the City of New York

The remains of the George III Statute Pedestal inside Bowling Green during the revolution

New York Public Library

1770 - Installed

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1770 - Installed - Drawings and documents

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1770 Statue of King George III erected

New York Historical

IN THIS PHOTO

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Mary Ann Wolcott Goodrich

Pictured: null

Isaac Sears

Sons of Liberty

Pictured: null

Oliver Brown

Pictured: null

Oliver Wolcott

Second Continental Congress

Pictured: null

Thomas Hutchinson

Pictured: null

John Montresor

Pictured: null

Charles Townshend

Pictured: null

Joseph Wilton

Pictured: null

William Pitt

Pictured: null

King George III

Pictured: null

Statue of King George III

Pictured: null

First Reading of the Declaration of Independence

Pictured: null

William Pitt Statue

Pictured: null

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