The British Coffee House

The British Coffee House was a tavern on the north side of King Street, now State Street, on the site of today's 60 State Street, and a favourite of British officers and Crown officials. It was there, at about seven in the evening of 5 September 1769, that James Otis Jr., the lawyer whose speeches against the writs of assistance had made him the leading voice of Boston's opposition, was beaten by John Robinson, a commissioner of customs. The day before, Otis had published a notice in the Boston Gazette attacking the commissioners. He went to the coffee house alone and by appointment, and was set upon by Robinson and others; a young man who tried to help him was thrown out, and Robinson escaped by the back passage into Corn Court. Otis was left with a deep cut to the head. Within months John Adams found him rambling in his diary's words like a ship without a helm, and by December 1771 the selectmen had certified him a distracted person. Whether the blow caused his decline or only worsened it is not known. Otis sued for £3,000, and in July 1771 a jury awarded him £2,000 sterling; in 1772 he accepted Robinson's apology in open court instead, taking only his costs and expenses. He was killed by lightning at Andover in May 1783. After the British left, the tavern became the American Coffee House, and in 1792 the Massachusetts Bank bought the lot. The Bunch of Grapes tavern stood across King Street at the corner of Kilby Street.