Panni: In 1774, the colonies, being part of England, were peopled with British subjects.
Some, of course, had been here since the 1500s and 1600s, and all weren't exactly stiff-upper-lippers, but I think that, for the most part, there was a British lilt to most English that was spoken, except when it was spoken by the French.
"The Madness of King George" ought to be a nice place to start for how the British spoke (or not???) so far as we can surmise.
I don't think the colonists sounded like Henry Fonda in "Drums Along the Mohawk," and I'm danged sure they didn't sound like Al Pacino in "Revolution". And forgive me, but...none of them surely spoke like Fess Parker in "Davy Crockett," mountain man though he may have been.
As someone else suggested, "1776" is as good a place to visit and study as any...especially for the manner of speaking and the syntax. Much of the book was taken from actual letters written by Adams and Jefferson and Franklin, IIRC.
There had to be some "colonial" variation on the King's English. Whether anyone is conversant with it in terms of what it sounded like or not, I have no idea.
Of course, if your story happens to dip into the south, there are other "influences" that come into play....again, study "1776." I remember reading somewhere that Vivien Leigh had little trouble at all picking up the southern accent of Scarlet O'Hara because it was "very close" to being the same English she spoke. It's a matter of the way one treats vowels, isn't it!
