Early in the morning a great number of persons rode out several miles, hearing that the eastern delegates were approaching, when about 11 o'clock the cavalcade appeared, (I being near the upper end of Fore street;) first two or three hundred gentlemen on horseback, preceded, however, by the newly chosen city military officers, two and two, with drawn swords, followed by John Hancock and Samuel Adams in a phaeton and pair, the former looking as if his journey and high living, or solicitude to support the dignity of the first man in Massachusetts, had impaired his health. Next came John Adams and Thomas Cushing in a single horse chaise; behind followed Robert Treat Paine, and after him the New York delegation, and some from the province of Connecticut, etc., etc. The rear was brought up by a hundred carriages, the streets crowded with people of all ages, sexes and ranks. The procession marched with a slow, solemn pace; on its entrance into the city all the bells were set to ringing and chiming, and every mark of respect that could be, was expressed:—not much I presume to the secret liking of their fellow delegates from the other colonies, who doubtless had to digest the distinction as easily as they could.
SOURCE: George Atkinson Ward, Journal and Letters of the Late Samuel Curwen, Judge of Admiralty, etc., An American Refugee in England from 1775 to 1784, p. 28
