Incorporation of Boston as a city is explored.

Committee of 31 members, including those representing both the Dudley and Cooke factions, subsequently recommends establishing Boston as a “municipal borough” with a mayor and aldermen for “the better government of the town.” The proposal is defeated in town meeting, however, because it is seen by Loyalists as a threat to English rule and by others as concentrating too much power in the hands of too few individuals. The town votes against applying for a charter as a city a year later. Similar proposals are defeated in 1762, 1784, 1791, 1804, and 1815.*