No taxation without representation the House of Commons must include colonial representatives when it voted on colonial matters, or operate by using the consent of the colonial Assemblies. The Americans rejected the Stamp Act of 1765 brought in by British Prime Minister George Grenville, and violently rejected the remaining tax on tea imports, under the Tea Act passed in May 1773, at the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. The Parliament considered this an illegal act because they believed it undermined the authority of the Crown-in-Parliament. When the British then used the military to enforce laws that the colonists believed Parliament had passed
George Phillips (Watertown) mentioned in a 1948 marker at the edge of the Charles River which honors him and Saltonstall at what is called Sir Richard's Landing. The text on the monument is as follows: "Here Reverend George Phillips protest in 1632 against taxation without representation struck the first note of civil liberty heard in this wilderness." Phillips also appears prominently on the Watertown Founders Monument. A Phillips Street in Watertown is likely named after him. The Phillips name appears prominently in academia with Phillips Andover and Phillips Exeter prepatoratory schools, as well as the Phillips Brooks House Association at Harvard. George Phillips