On the 22nd of February 1763 a town meeting resolved to encourage colonial manufactures and to refrain from importing from England hats, clothing, leather, gold and silver lace, buttons, cheese, liquors, &c. Two years later Jared Ingersoll (1722-1781), who had been sent to England to protest against the Stamp Act, but had accepted'the office of Stamp Distributor on the advice of Benjamin Franklin, was forced to resign his office.