Andrew Hamilton and the He-Monster

Abstract

I N I726 a twenty-one-page satire appeared in London under the title, The Life and Character of a Strange He-Monster, Lately Arriv'd in London from an English Colony in America. And is often to be seen upon the Royal Exchange, Gratis. To be effective, a satire must identify its victim. This was accomplished in the present instance by naming him in a companion piece that made its appearance at approximately the same time, in the form of a suit in the High Court of Chancery. The charges made in the suit were repeated in the pamphlet in such a way as to make clear that the two documents were parts of a common design and must have been masterminded by the same individual. Read together, they leave no doubt that the He-Monster was Andrew Hamilton (i676-I74i), the Philadelphia lawyer who later defended John Peter Zenger in the Freedom of the Press case in New York in I735. The author remained anonymous, but by a curious quirk of fate Benjamin Franklin's autobiography furnishes a solid clue as to his identity. It seems reasonably clear that he was Sir William Keith (i68o-I749), then governor of Pennsylvania.