ALLICOCKE (Joseph).
Importer and Dealer in Wines and Spiritous Liquors. No. 35, St Swithings Lane, London.
AN ANTIGUAN ACTIVIST & WINE DEALER
A charming survivor advertising Joseph Allicocke’s business, being an “importer and dealer in wines and spiritous liquors No. 35, St. Swithings Lane, London.”
Born in Antigua, educated in Philadelphia, Allicocke claimed to be Irish but he is believed to have been of mixed descent. He is best known for his activism in New York during the 1760s and 1770s, where he became the leader of the New York Liberty Boys, which opposed colonial rule in America and were involved in the Stamp Acts protests of 1765.
His activism soon led to charges, although he was exonerated on the basis that he “had supplied such Provisions inadvertently, and without any design to injure the Country.” Nonetheless, he fled to Antigua in 1776, returned the next year and while he resumed his commercial career, he reversed his attitudes politically, declaring himself a loyalist. He (wisely) left the United States before she declared victory, and established himself as a wine and spirits dealer - evidently at 35 St. Swithing’s Lane, per this card. We don’t know how long he remained at this address but he was buried in Southhampton in 1815.
