January, attends preliminary hearing on petition to remove Hutchinson and Oliver. News of Boston Tea Party reaches London January 20. Accused of stealing the Hutchinson letters, is excoriated and denounced as thief by Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn before Privy Council during hearing on petition from Massachusetts House; refuses to respond to Wedderburn's accusations. Dismissed as deputy postmaster general for North America January 31. Unsuccessfully petitions House of Commons against Boston Port Bill; March 31 it becomes law, closing port. Attends opening of Theophilus Lindsey's Essex House Chapel, April 17, first enduring Unitarian congregation in England, contributing five guineas for its construction. Effigies of Wedderburn and Hutchinson carted through Philadelphia May 3, hanged, and burned by electricity. First Continental Congress opens in Philadelphia and adopts Continental Association September 5; petitions King through Franklin and other agents. Franklin becomes involved in two series of negotiations to restore calm between Britain and America: one, evidently authorized by Dartmouth, with merchant David Barclay and physician John Fothergill; the other with Lord Howe, secretly meeting at Howe's sister's, under pretense of playing chess. Drafts "Hints for a Durable Union Between England and America" at request of Barclay and Fothergill; forwarded to Dartmouth's office, it is considered and rejected. December 25, asked by Lord Howe to prepare another set of terms for conciliation; these too are not accepted. Deborah Franklin, who had not seen her husband in ten years, suffers a stroke on December 14. and dies in Philadelphia December 19, aged sixty-six; buried at Christ Church.