The Engagement at the North Bridge in Concord.The Engagement at the North Bridge in Concord.1 The Detachment of the Regulars who fired first on the Provincials at the Bridge.2 The Provincials headed by Colonel Robinson & Major Buttrick3 The Bridge
THE TRUE STORY CONCERNING THE KILLING OF THE TWO SOLDIERS AT CONCORD BRIDGE, APRIL 19TH, 1775. THE FIRST BRITISH SOLDIER KILLED IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
See page 53.
After the skirmish at Lexington, the king's troops marched into Concord in two columns, the infantry coming over the hill from which the Americans had retreated, and the grenadiers and marines followed the high road. On reaching the Court house Colonel Smith ordered six companies (about two hundred men) under Captain Parsons, to hold the bridge and destroy certain stores on the other side. With the balance of his command he remained in the center of the town destroying such warlike stores as could be found, this being the object of the expedition.
Captain Parsons in the meantime, posted three companies under Captain Laurie at the bridge, while he proceeded to Colonel Barrett's home in search of stores. The Americans had gathered on the high ground, west of the bridge, and now numbered about four hundred and fifty men, representing many of the neighboring towns. The Acton company in front, led by Capt. Isaac Davis, marched in double file and with trailed arms for the bridge. The British guard, numbering about one hundred men, drew up in line of battle on the opposite side of the bridge, and opened fire upon them. Capt. Davis, and Abner Hosmer, of the same company, both fell dead. Seeing this, Major Buttrick shouted "Fire, fellow soldiers! for God's sake fire!" The order was instantly obeyed. One of the British was killed, and several wounded, one severely, who was left on the ground, when the British retreated to the center of the village. The Americans turned aside to occupy favorable positions on the adjacent hills.[274]A young man named Ammi White was chopping wood for Rev. William Emerson at the "Old Manse" at the east end of the bridge, while the firing was going on he hid under cover of the wood-pile, when it was over he went to the bridge, saw one British soldier dead, another badly wounded,grasping his axe he struck the wounded soldier on the head crushing in his skull, then taking the soldier's gun, he went off home. The gun is now in the rooms of the Antiquarian Society of Concord. In the meantime, the detachment under Capt. Parsons returned from the Barrett house, crossed the bridge, passed the dead bodies of the soldiers and joined the main body unmolested. They reported when they arrived at Boston, that the wounded soldier at the bridge had been scalped and his ears cut off.
Very little was said during the past hundred years concerning the inhuman act of Ammi White, in fact this is the first time the name of the perpetrator of the outrage has been published. It was not a popular subject to be discussed in the Council of the "Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution" when assembled to recount the "brave deeds of their patriotic forefathers." Hawthorne mentions it in the "Old Manse" pp. 12, 13.
The writer's attention was first drawn to it by an article in the Boston papers concerning the observances of "Patriots Day," April 19th, 1903. It was as follows:
"A story of the Concord fight not told by guides who take tourists to the graves of the soldiers by the Concord bridge was told by the Rev. Franklin Hamilton, preaching on "Patriots' Day and Its Lessons" last evening at the First Methodist Episcopal Church."It shows," said he, "that the British soldiers were men like you and me. It shows that the story of that fateful battle hour found many weeping hearts across the sea. Your histories tell you how two British soldiers, a sergeant and a private, were killed, and are buried under the pines by the wall. One was killed and the other wounded. As the wounded soldier was crawling away he was met by a boy who had been chopping wood, and who, inflamed with the spirit of the hour, struck him dead with his axe. Mr. Bartlett of Concord tells me that not so long ago a young woman came to Concord and asked to be shown where the British soldiers lay. She came from Nottinghamshire, and was a relative of one of them. She went to the graves and placed upon them a wreath, singing as she did so 'God Save the King.'"
"A story of the Concord fight not told by guides who take tourists to the graves of the soldiers by the Concord bridge was told by the Rev. Franklin Hamilton, preaching on "Patriots' Day and Its Lessons" last evening at the First Methodist Episcopal Church.
"It shows," said he, "that the British soldiers were men like you and me. It shows that the story of that fateful battle hour found many weeping hearts across the sea. Your histories tell you how two British soldiers, a sergeant and a private, were killed, and are buried under the pines by the wall. One was killed and the other wounded. As the wounded soldier was crawling away he was met by a boy who had been chopping wood, and who, inflamed with the spirit of the hour, struck him dead with his axe. Mr. Bartlett of Concord tells me that not so long ago a young woman came to Concord and asked to be shown where the British soldiers lay. She came from Nottinghamshire, and was a relative of one of them. She went to the graves and placed upon them a wreath, singing as she did so 'God Save the King.'"
This led me to examine into the case. I found that there was considerable rivalry of feeling between the towns of Concord and Acton as to the part each took in the fight. There was a saying that "Acton furnished the men, and Concord the ground." And that there was not a Concord man killed, wounded or missing in the "Concord Fight." In the Centennial observances at Acton in 1835, the Address was delivered by Josiah Adams. He said:
"That two were killed at the bridge is certainly true, and it is true too that historians have published to the world that they were killed in the engagement.It is true also, that a monument is about to be placed over them on the spot to perpetuate American valor. The manner in which one of them met his death as disclosed in the depositions of Mr. Thorp, Mr. Smith and Mr. Handley, namely by a hatchet after he was wounded and left behind, was well known at the time. It was the action of an excited and thoughtless youth who was afterwards sufficiently penitent and miserable and whose name therefore will not be given. But the attempt to conceal the act from the world which was made at the time, and has since continued, cannot be approved. It would surely have been better to have given it to the world accompanied by the detestation and horror which it merited and received. Thorp in his deposition said: 'Two of the enemy were killed—one with a hatchet after bring wounded and helpless. This act was a matter of horror to all of us. I saw him sitting up and wounded as we passed the bridge.'"
"That two were killed at the bridge is certainly true, and it is true too that historians have published to the world that they were killed in the engagement.
It is true also, that a monument is about to be placed over them on the spot to perpetuate American valor. The manner in which one of them met his death as disclosed in the depositions of Mr. Thorp, Mr. Smith and Mr. Handley, namely by a hatchet after he was wounded and left behind, was well known at the time. It was the action of an excited and thoughtless youth who was afterwards sufficiently penitent and miserable and whose name therefore will not be given. But the attempt to conceal the act from the world which was made at the time, and has since continued, cannot be approved. It would surely have been better to have given it to the world accompanied by the detestation and horror which it merited and received. Thorp in his deposition said: 'Two of the enemy were killed—one with a hatchet after bring wounded and helpless. This act was a matter of horror to all of us. I saw him sitting up and wounded as we passed the bridge.'"
Smith said: "One of them was left on the ground wounded and in that situation was killed by an American with a hatchet." Handley said: "The young man who killed him told me in 1807 that it worried him very much."This inhuman act was of course reported by the British and a Boston paper represented that one killed at the bridge at Concord was scalped and the ears cut off from his head. This led to a deposition from Brown and Davis that the truth may be known. They testified that they buried the bodies at the bridge, that neither of those persons were scalped, nor their ears cut off.If there be any one left to advocate such a proceeding, he will say that the deposition was true to the letter. But alas! it was in the letter only. It had the most essential characteristic of falsehood—the intention to make a false impression in regard to what was known to be the subject of inquiry to have it believed that both men were killed in the engagement.""If a monument is to be erected by the authority of a town, one of the most respectable in the County of Middlesex, let it be seen that its inscription contains the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, relative to the subject matters thereof."[275]
Smith said: "One of them was left on the ground wounded and in that situation was killed by an American with a hatchet." Handley said: "The young man who killed him told me in 1807 that it worried him very much."
This inhuman act was of course reported by the British and a Boston paper represented that one killed at the bridge at Concord was scalped and the ears cut off from his head. This led to a deposition from Brown and Davis that the truth may be known. They testified that they buried the bodies at the bridge, that neither of those persons were scalped, nor their ears cut off.
If there be any one left to advocate such a proceeding, he will say that the deposition was true to the letter. But alas! it was in the letter only. It had the most essential characteristic of falsehood—the intention to make a false impression in regard to what was known to be the subject of inquiry to have it believed that both men were killed in the engagement."
"If a monument is to be erected by the authority of a town, one of the most respectable in the County of Middlesex, let it be seen that its inscription contains the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, relative to the subject matters thereof."[275]
My attention was next attracted to the soldiers' graves at Concord Bridge by the following letters that appeared in the Boston Transcript:
BRITISH GRAVES AT CONCORD.To the Editor of the Transcript:I want to say in your columns something which has been on my mind frequently since I went to Concord Bridge on my recent visit to America. It has mingled some sadness with an otherwise most delightful visit.By the side of the road there are the graves of the British soldiers who fell there, unnamed and unhonored by us, yet they died doing what they conceived to be their duty just as your men did. The loneliness and unrecognized character of these graves struck me sadly, and I have often since wished that they, too, might have some tribute to their stanch, if misplaced bravery. Now in looking (as I constantly do) through the writings of my most dear friend and counsellor, James Russell Lowell, I find he has exactly struck the note I want in his poem, "Lines suggested by the graves of the two English soldiers on Concord Battleground." The third verse would make a fitting tribute to the character of these men. It runs as follows:"These men were brave enough and trueTo the hired soldiers' bull-dog creed;What brought them here they never knew,They fought as suits the English breed;They came three thousand miles and diedTo keep the past upon its throne—Unheard, beyond the ocean tide,Their English mother made her moan."Do you think there might be found, among the splendidly patriotic Daughters of the Revolution, some sufficiently generous-minded to put this American poet's recognition of the worth of these poor fellows on a small tablet near the graves? I would at least ask whether the last two lines of this verse do not move the heart of any woman.I do not know how public sentiment toward the sacred ground of Concord battlefield might regard such an intrusion, and if the words were those of any but such a man as Lowell, so associated with the locality and imbued with all that that fight meant to your nation, I would not be so bold as to suggest it. I know that this is really a national, not an individual, matter and that a strangerought not to intermeddle with it. I am only making my little moan in sympathy with the English mother whose heart Lowell so beautifully understands.ALBERT WEBB.Elderslie, London Road, Worcester, Eng., March 31, 1909.
BRITISH GRAVES AT CONCORD.
To the Editor of the Transcript:
I want to say in your columns something which has been on my mind frequently since I went to Concord Bridge on my recent visit to America. It has mingled some sadness with an otherwise most delightful visit.
By the side of the road there are the graves of the British soldiers who fell there, unnamed and unhonored by us, yet they died doing what they conceived to be their duty just as your men did. The loneliness and unrecognized character of these graves struck me sadly, and I have often since wished that they, too, might have some tribute to their stanch, if misplaced bravery. Now in looking (as I constantly do) through the writings of my most dear friend and counsellor, James Russell Lowell, I find he has exactly struck the note I want in his poem, "Lines suggested by the graves of the two English soldiers on Concord Battleground." The third verse would make a fitting tribute to the character of these men. It runs as follows:
"These men were brave enough and trueTo the hired soldiers' bull-dog creed;What brought them here they never knew,They fought as suits the English breed;They came three thousand miles and diedTo keep the past upon its throne—Unheard, beyond the ocean tide,Their English mother made her moan."
Do you think there might be found, among the splendidly patriotic Daughters of the Revolution, some sufficiently generous-minded to put this American poet's recognition of the worth of these poor fellows on a small tablet near the graves? I would at least ask whether the last two lines of this verse do not move the heart of any woman.
I do not know how public sentiment toward the sacred ground of Concord battlefield might regard such an intrusion, and if the words were those of any but such a man as Lowell, so associated with the locality and imbued with all that that fight meant to your nation, I would not be so bold as to suggest it. I know that this is really a national, not an individual, matter and that a strangerought not to intermeddle with it. I am only making my little moan in sympathy with the English mother whose heart Lowell so beautifully understands.
ALBERT WEBB.
Elderslie, London Road, Worcester, Eng., March 31, 1909.
The editor's comments on the letters was in part as follows:
"The letter in another column pleading for a memorial tablet, bearing suggested and suggestive lines from Lowell, at the grave of the two British soldiers slain at the North Bridge, Concord, should challenge attention and it is difficult to see why it should challenge antagonism. The grave is now marked by two stones half sunken in the mold with which kindly nature everywhere seeks to efface the evidences of human strife. It is protected by chains which were provided some thirty years ago by a British resident of Boston. On a stone of the wall sheltering the grave is an inscription setting forth who sleep below. Neither the inscription nor the defence was strictly necessary, for all Concord knows where the grave is, and tradition has preserved the names of the two men who buried the slain, giving them hasty but not irreverent interment. Nor has there ever been danger of vandalism. The old New England reverence for the last resting place of the dead protected the sleepers for one hundred years, and the chain fence is more the tribute of a countryman to these friendless and nameless victims of George III.'s policy than a precaution. The same spirit which protected those two soldiers' resting place would doubtless not see anything objectionable in a bronze tablet carrying Lowell's lines. Certainly the people of Concord, the descendants of the Minutemen, would be the last to feel incensed at this tribute, if tribute it be, or this reminder of permanent material, of the historic dust that must in these one hundred and thirty-four years have turned into earth."These two soldiers are none the less historical characters because their identity is unknown. What their names or grades neither history nor research tells. They were just common men in the ranks, in the era when the private soldier was simply so much food for powder."But apart from the influence of local sentiment, there is a broad public opinion that guards a soldier's sepulchre, even if he was an enemy in life. This opinion is expressed in the general custom in this country to allow both sides memorials on the great battlefields of our Civil War."If the suggested tablet should be erected at Concord, if 'patriotism' should at first think too much honor were done these 'hireling soldiers,' would not reflection remind that when the 'embattled farmers'—who, by the way, were led by a veteran and accomplished officer—and the regulars faced one another across the narrow stream both were proud of the name of Englishmen? Concord was then a microcosm of English America, which up to the very verge of hostilities had drunk the King's health and had clung desperately to the foolish fond belief that he was a good sovereign misled by designing ministers."
"The letter in another column pleading for a memorial tablet, bearing suggested and suggestive lines from Lowell, at the grave of the two British soldiers slain at the North Bridge, Concord, should challenge attention and it is difficult to see why it should challenge antagonism. The grave is now marked by two stones half sunken in the mold with which kindly nature everywhere seeks to efface the evidences of human strife. It is protected by chains which were provided some thirty years ago by a British resident of Boston. On a stone of the wall sheltering the grave is an inscription setting forth who sleep below. Neither the inscription nor the defence was strictly necessary, for all Concord knows where the grave is, and tradition has preserved the names of the two men who buried the slain, giving them hasty but not irreverent interment. Nor has there ever been danger of vandalism. The old New England reverence for the last resting place of the dead protected the sleepers for one hundred years, and the chain fence is more the tribute of a countryman to these friendless and nameless victims of George III.'s policy than a precaution. The same spirit which protected those two soldiers' resting place would doubtless not see anything objectionable in a bronze tablet carrying Lowell's lines. Certainly the people of Concord, the descendants of the Minutemen, would be the last to feel incensed at this tribute, if tribute it be, or this reminder of permanent material, of the historic dust that must in these one hundred and thirty-four years have turned into earth.
"These two soldiers are none the less historical characters because their identity is unknown. What their names or grades neither history nor research tells. They were just common men in the ranks, in the era when the private soldier was simply so much food for powder.
"But apart from the influence of local sentiment, there is a broad public opinion that guards a soldier's sepulchre, even if he was an enemy in life. This opinion is expressed in the general custom in this country to allow both sides memorials on the great battlefields of our Civil War.
"If the suggested tablet should be erected at Concord, if 'patriotism' should at first think too much honor were done these 'hireling soldiers,' would not reflection remind that when the 'embattled farmers'—who, by the way, were led by a veteran and accomplished officer—and the regulars faced one another across the narrow stream both were proud of the name of Englishmen? Concord was then a microcosm of English America, which up to the very verge of hostilities had drunk the King's health and had clung desperately to the foolish fond belief that he was a good sovereign misled by designing ministers."
This led me to further investigate this matter, for I had been informed that the graves had been desecrated some years ago under authority of the town officials. I therefore caused to be published in the Boston Transcript under the heading of "Notes and Queries" the following query:
(7891.) 1. Can anyone give the names of the two British soldiers killed at Concord Bridge, or inform me if there were any papers taken from their bodies that would identity them? I have been informed that there were.2. One of the soldiers was left wounded on the bridge; what was the name of the "young American that killed him with a hatchet"?3. When did the selectmen of Concord give Professor Fowler permission to dig up the two bodies of the British soldiers and remove the skulls to be used for exhibition purposes?J. H. S.April 6, 1906.
(7891.) 1. Can anyone give the names of the two British soldiers killed at Concord Bridge, or inform me if there were any papers taken from their bodies that would identity them? I have been informed that there were.
2. One of the soldiers was left wounded on the bridge; what was the name of the "young American that killed him with a hatchet"?
3. When did the selectmen of Concord give Professor Fowler permission to dig up the two bodies of the British soldiers and remove the skulls to be used for exhibition purposes?
J. H. S.
April 6, 1906.
MONUMENT TO COMMEMORATE THE SKIRMISH AT CONCORD BRIDGEMONUMENT TO COMMEMORATE THE SKIRMISH AT CONCORD BRIDGE. The letter A on the left of the engraving, marks the site of the graves of the two British Soldiers. The first killed in the Revolution.
The only answer received was the following:
"7891. 3. The indirect intimations of J. H. S. are shrewd, but before the alleged action of the selectmen excites the Concord people, they should insist upon his producing adequate evidence.ROCKINGHAM."
"7891. 3. The indirect intimations of J. H. S. are shrewd, but before the alleged action of the selectmen excites the Concord people, they should insist upon his producing adequate evidence.
ROCKINGHAM."
The adequate evidence was produced and is as follows:
"The Worcester Society of Antiquity,Worcester, Massachusetts, April 12, 1909.Mr. James H. Stark,Dear Sir:Mr. Barton has handed your letter to me and I write to say that the skulls of those two British Soldiers killed at the bridge in Concord were once the property of this Society, we having purchased them of the Widow of Prof. Fowler, the phrenologist, who some years ago went about the country giving lectures and illustrating his subjects. Prof. Fowler got permission to dig up those skulls from the Selectmen of Concord, and he carried them about with him and used them in his lecturing. After his death one of the members learned of them and we purchased the skulls and they were in our museum some time. The late Senator Hoar learning that we had them, came to know if we would be willing to return them to Concord that they might be put back in the ground from whence they were taken. As he seemed quite anxious about it, consent was given, and they were sent to Concord to be placed in their original resting place. Presume they are there at the present time.Yours,ELLERY B. CRANE.Librarian."
"The Worcester Society of Antiquity,Worcester, Massachusetts, April 12, 1909.
Mr. James H. Stark,
Dear Sir:
Mr. Barton has handed your letter to me and I write to say that the skulls of those two British Soldiers killed at the bridge in Concord were once the property of this Society, we having purchased them of the Widow of Prof. Fowler, the phrenologist, who some years ago went about the country giving lectures and illustrating his subjects. Prof. Fowler got permission to dig up those skulls from the Selectmen of Concord, and he carried them about with him and used them in his lecturing. After his death one of the members learned of them and we purchased the skulls and they were in our museum some time. The late Senator Hoar learning that we had them, came to know if we would be willing to return them to Concord that they might be put back in the ground from whence they were taken. As he seemed quite anxious about it, consent was given, and they were sent to Concord to be placed in their original resting place. Presume they are there at the present time.
Yours,
ELLERY B. CRANE.Librarian."
The only excuse offered for the inhuman act of Ammi White was found over one hundred years after the crime was committed. It is now said that he was only a boy, and that the wounded soldier cried out for water, and that while giving it to him he tried to kill him with his bayonet. This is all false, there is no evidence whatever to prove it, in fact Thorp, one of the deponents said "he was killed with a hatchet after being wounded and helpless, and the act was a matter of horror to all of us." Handley said "The young man who killed him told me in 1807 that it worried him very much." Here is not the slightest evidence that White killed him in self defence, neither was he the boy as represented, for I find that he enlisted five days after killing the soldier, in Capt. Abishai Brown's Co. Col. John Nixon's (5) Regiment. He enlisted April 24, 1775, June 10, 1775 signed advance pay order at Cambridge, Aug. 1, 1775, Private on muster roll at that date. Service 3 months 15 days. Company return dated Sept. 30, 1775.[276]
I am pleased to state that a few weeks after the aforesaid letters appeared in the Transcript, that the town authorities at Concord gave permission to the "British Army and Navy Veterans" of Boston, to march on Memorial Day, May 30, 1909, to the graves of the two soldiers and to decorate same, which was accordingly done. The graves of the soldiers are referred to in the Transcript article as being "protected by chains, which were provided some thirty years ago by a British resident of Boston." The party referred to was Mr. Herbert Radcliffe, a member of the British Charitable Society. Thefacts which I have stated here, concerning what occurred, "Where once the embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world" is not done with a view of reviving old grievances, or re-opening old sores, but that the historic truth may be known concerning "the shot heard round the world," for history should know no concealment, and as Josiah Adams truly said, "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, should be told relative to this matter."
If it be said that these are old stories of the past, we reply that these misrepresentations are being quoted as having actually occurred and are made living issues for to-day by numerous societies formed for that; and kindred purposes. Even those societies designed to keep in remembrance their honored ancestors' part in the Revolution, make it a point to perpetuate their historic fables and falsehoods in the belief that anything is good enough to be said of their historic opponent.
THE ENGAGEMENT AT THE NORTH BRIDGE IN CONCORD, WHERE THE TWO SOLDIERS WERE KILLED.
In the American army which was formed at Cambridge immediately after the affair at Lexington and Concord, there were two young artists from Connecticut, Amos Doolittle, afterwards a well known engraver, and a portrait painter by the name of Earl, both members of the New Haven company. During their stay at Cambridge, these young men improved the opportunity by visiting Lexington and Concord, for the purpose of studying the battle field and making drawings of the several localities, the buildings, and the forces in action. The drawings were mostly made by Earl, and afterwards engraved by Doolittle, on his return to New Haven the same year. The four plates were each twelve by eighteen inches in size, and have been claimed to be the first series of historical prints ever published in this country. "Plate III., the battle of the North Bridge in Concord" shown here in reduced size from the reproduction of the original in "Stark's Antique Views of Boston." In this engraving, one soldier is seen falling, near the spot where the two soldiers are buried.
THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
Boss or ring rule is not a modern invention, for at the time of the Revolution, Sam Adams was the political boss of Boston, Gordon in his "History of the American Revolution" under date of 1775, traces this practice to a much earlier date. "More than 50 years ago Mr. Samuel Adams' father and 20 others, one or two, from the north end of the town, where all the ship business is carried on used to meet, make a caucus, and lay their plans for introducing certain persons into places of trust and power. By acting in concert, together with a careful and extensive distribution of ballots, they generally carried the elections to their own mind." In this manner Sam Adams first became a representative for Boston, and then its Boss. At this period ship building was one of the leading industries of Boston. Originally the "Caucus Club" was a mechanics club called from the leading trade in it the "Calkers' Club,"which name, with a variation it still retained after it had passed in the hands of politicians.
It is impossible to exaggerate the influence such secret societies as the Caucuses, and Sons of Liberty, had upon the events which helped to bring on the conflict with the mother country. The "Sons of Liberty" met in a distillery, and also the Green Dragon Tavern, and arose out of the excitement attending the passage of the Stamp Act. John Adams in his diary gives some interesting glimpses of their clubs, where the Revolution was born, he says "Feb. 1, 1763. This day learned that the Caucus Club meets at certain times in the garret of Tom Dawes, the adjutant of the Boston regiment. He has a large house, and he has a movable partition in his garret, which he takes down and the whole club meets in one room. There they smoke tobacco till you cannot see from one end of the garret to the other. Then they drink flip I suppose, and there they choose a moderator, who puts questions to the vote regularly, and selectmen, assessors, collectors, wardens, and representatives, are regularly chosen before they are chosen in the town. Fairfield, Story, Ruddock, Adams, Cooper, and a rudis indigestaque moles of others are members."
"January 15, 1766. Spent the evening with the Sons of Liberty at their own apartments in Hanover Square near the Tree of Liberty. It is a counting-room in Chase & Speakman's distillery; a very small room it is. There were present John Avery, a distiller of liberal education; John Smith, the brazier; Thomas Chase, distiller; Joseph Fields, master of a vessel; Henry Bass, George Trott, jeweler; and Henry Wells. I was very cordially and respectfully treated by all present. We had punch, wine, pipes and tobacco, biscuit and cheese, etc."
Chas. J. Gettemy in commenting on same, says:[277]
"From which it appears that politicians are much the same in all times. Public officials were chosen by a ring in Boston in the year of our Lord 1763 before they were "chosen by the town"and the Revolution was hatched in a rum-shop, while those upon whom history has placed the seal of greatness and statesmanship filled themselves with "flip" in an atmosphere dense with tobacco smoke as they plotted and planned the momentous events of the time!"
PAUL REVERE THE SCOUT.
Paul Revere was born in Boston, Dec. 21, 1734, his father was a Huguenot named Rivoire, which in time became Revere. When Revere left school he went into his father's shop to learn the art of gold and silver smith.
His first military experience was when he was twenty-one years old, in the expedition against Crown Point, in which he held the king's commission from Gov. Wm. Shirley as second lieutenant of artillery. The service proved uneventful, it continued for six months and then the enterprise was abandoned.
On his return he took an increasing and prominent part in the politicallife of the time, and on one occasion his pugnacious disposition got him into the police court, in 1761, where he had to pay a fine and be bound over to keep the peace.
Revere became quite skilled in drawing and engraving on copper, and the exciting political events of the time readily lent themselves to pictorial treatment. Probably the best known of Revere's copper-plate engraving, was that of the so-called "State Street Massacre." It has since, however, been discovered that in this instance he appropriated the work of Henry Pelham, the half brother of Copley the artist[278]as the following letter will show:
Boston, March 29th, 1770.Sir:When I heard that you was cutting a plate of the late Murder, I thought it impossible as I knew you was not capable of doing it unless you copied it from mine and as I thought I had intrusted it in the hands of a person who had more regard to the dictates of Honor and Justice than to take the undue advantage you have done of the confidence and trust I reposed in you. But I find that I was mistaken and after being at great Trouble and Expense of making a design, paying for paper, printing, etc., find myself in the most ungenerous Manner deprived not only of any proposed Advantage, but even of the expense I have been at as truly as if you had plundered me on the highway. If you are insensible of the Dishonour you have brought on yourself by this Act, the World will not be so. However, I leave you to reflect and consider of one of the most dishonorable Actions you could well be guilty of.H. PELHAM.
Boston, March 29th, 1770.
Sir:
When I heard that you was cutting a plate of the late Murder, I thought it impossible as I knew you was not capable of doing it unless you copied it from mine and as I thought I had intrusted it in the hands of a person who had more regard to the dictates of Honor and Justice than to take the undue advantage you have done of the confidence and trust I reposed in you. But I find that I was mistaken and after being at great Trouble and Expense of making a design, paying for paper, printing, etc., find myself in the most ungenerous Manner deprived not only of any proposed Advantage, but even of the expense I have been at as truly as if you had plundered me on the highway. If you are insensible of the Dishonour you have brought on yourself by this Act, the World will not be so. However, I leave you to reflect and consider of one of the most dishonorable Actions you could well be guilty of.
H. PELHAM.
This is a serious charge against Revere's honor and integrity, for it seems that Pelham loaned Revere a drawing of the "Massacre" from which Revere made an engraving and sold copies without giving the real artist credit for his sketch, since the Revere plate bears the inscription Engraved, Printed and Sold by Paul Revere.
Revere was one of the chief actors in the tea mobs that destroyed the tea which precipitated the Revolution. The North End Caucus had, on Oct. 23, 1773, declared that its members would "oppose at peril of life and fortune the vending of any tea that might be imported by the East Indian Company." A song was composed which became very popular. One of them commenced with
"Our Warren's there and bold RevereWith hands to do and words to cheer."
PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF PAUL REVEREPURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF PAUL REVERE.He and another scout, named Dawes, was captured on the road to Lexington, April 19, 1775.
Revere took a prominent part in this tumultuous affair, and the next day he was selected as the man to take the news to New York and Philadelphia. From this time on he was the chief scout of the Boston Revolutionists. He was one of a band of thirty formed to watch the movements of the British that had been sent to Boston after the destruction of the tea. Finally the vigilance of these scouts was rewarded. It became apparent that something unusual was occurring in the British camp on the evening of April 18th, 1775, for Revere says "On Tuesday evening, the 18th, it was observed that a numberof soldiers were marching towards the bottom of the Common," which meant that they were going in boats across the river to Charlestown or Cambridge, instead of making a long march around by land. About ten o'clock Dr. Warren sent in great haste for me and begged that I would immediately set off for Lexington. I found he had sent an express by land, a Mr. William Dawes." I then went home, took my boots and surtout, went to the north part of the town, where I kept a boat; two friends rowed me across Charles River. When I got into town, I met Colonel Conant and several others. They said they had seen our signals. I told them what was acting, and went to get a horse." Mounted on Deacon Larkin's horse, he said "I alarmed nearly every home till I got to Lexington. After I had been there about half an Hour, Mr. Dawes arrived, who came from Boston over the Neck. We set off for Concord." They had gone but a short distance when they were taken prisoners. Revere said "I saw four of them, who rode up to me with their pistols in their hands, said G—d d—n you, stop, if you go an inch further you are a dead Man." The result was that neither Revere nor Dawes reached Concord.
On the day following these events Revere was permanently engaged by Dr. Warren, as a scout to do outside business for the Committee of Safety. This patriotic service had a commercial value, and the Committee in auditing the bill thought he was disposed to value his labors too highly, for they reduced his charges from five shillings to four shillings a day.[279]In his financial dealings with the government he hardly ever failed to send in bills for work done which the authorities deemed extravagant charges and pruned down accordingly.
Most men like Revere, somewhat above the masses, but not possessing the elements of enduring fame, are remembered by a circle of admiring and respecting friends until they pass away, and are ultimately forgotten, finding no place upon the pages of written history. Paul Revere was rescued from this fate by an accident, a poet's imagination of things that never occurred. His famous ride remained unsung, if not unhonored for eighty-eight years, or until Longfellow, in 1863 made it the text for his Landlord's Tale in the Wayside Inn. It is to the "poetic license" of Longfellow, that most persons owe their knowledge of the fact that such a person as Revere ever existed. The poet did not mention the name of Dawes, yet he was entitled to as much credit, for what he did on the eve of the historic skirmish at Lexington, as Revere.
Poetry and history sometimes become sadly mixed, the poet and romancist, in so far as they deal with matters of verifiable records should keep closer to the truth, and make use of poetic license as little as possible. To be sure the poet's statement concerning the lantern, and that Revere reached Concord was long ago shown to have been incorrect, but its persistent virility only goes to prove that truth is not the only thing which crushed to earth, will rise again. Very little is said by historians, concerning the Penobscot Expedition despatched in the summer of 1779 by the Massachusetts Council against the British on the coast of Maine. It was an episode of the Revolution thatresulted in disaster so complete, so utterly without excuse, and so thoroughly discreditable to American arms as to make its contemplation without feelings of shame and humiliation impossible. An overwhelming force of Colonial troops, through the clear cowardice of an admiral bearing the proud name of Saltonstall, allowed itself to be frightened into an ignominious and panic-stricken desertion of its post of duty by a ridiculously ill equipped enemy. The ensuing scandal besmirched reputations hitherto untarnished, and the State of Massachusetts was plunged, on account of the expedition, into a debt of eight million dollars sterling. "To attempt to give a description of this terrible Day," wrote General Lovell, "is out of my Power. It would be a fit subject for some masterly hand to describe it in its true colors, to see four ships pursuing seventeen Sail of Armed Vessels, nine of which were stout Ships, Transports on fire. Men of War blowing up every kind of Stores on Shore, throwing about, and as much confusion as can possibly be conceived."[280]
Thus did this little Garrison with three Sloops of War, by the unwearied exertions of soldiers and seamen, writes John Calef in his Journal under date of August 14, 1779, whose bravery cannot be too much extolled, succeed in an enterprise of great importance, against difficulties apparently unsurmountable, and in a manner strongly expressive of their faithful and spirited attachment to the interests of their King and Country. Calef gives the total number of American ships of war, brigs and transports as 37, of which 26 were burnt and 11 captured.[281]"The soldiers and crew took to the woods, and singly or in squads, made their way to the Kennebec, where most of them arrived after a week's suffering from hunger and exposure."[282]
Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Revere was in command of the artillery train, and this episode was a serious event in his life, and came near stripping him of the laurels he had won by his earlier exploits, he was arrested on charges of cowardice, censured after an investigation, court martialled, and was grudgingly acquitted, after three years persistent effort.
Paul Revere's Masonic Record also has its blemishes. He received his degrees in St. Andrews Lodge in 1760-1. He afterwards became Grand Master. There being too many Loyalists or "Gentry" in St. Andrews Lodge to suit the taste of Revere, the leader of the mechanics, he and his friends therefore withdrew from same, and started "Rising States Lodge," but it did not succeed. The members soon fell to quarrelling among themselves. Some twenty members came together and voted the lodge out of existence, and divided the funds of the lodge, amounting to $1,577.50 among twenty-five members of the lodge, among whom was Paul Revere and his son. This was contrary to all Masonic precedents. The funds and paraphernalia of the Lodge should have been returned to the Grand Lodge. A committee was appointed to investigate the matter. They made a very scathing report in which it said "To divide it among members of a Lodge whenever they think proper to dissolve this union, is making the funds an object of speculation, it is treatingthe noble example of departed donors with contempt and devoting their sacred deposit to individual emoluments, it is taking bread from the hungry, It is multiplying the tears of the widow and fatherless."
The Grand Lodge ordered that the funds of the lodge should be devoted to charity and a report of same printed and sent to each member of Rising States Lodge.[283]
WILLIAM FRANKLIN, SON OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
William Franklin, Last Royal Governor of New Jersey, was a natural son of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. He was born about 1731. His father said of him: "He imagined his father had got enough for him; but I have assured him that I intend to spend what little I have myself, if it pleases God that I live long enough; and, as he by no means wants acuteness, he can see by my going on that I mean to be as good as my word." He served as Postmaster of Philadelphia, and as clerk of the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania. In the French war he was a captain and gained praise for his conduct at Ticonderoga. Before the peace, he went to England with his father. While there, Mr. Strahan wrote Mrs. Franklin, "Your son I really think one of the prettiest young gentlemen I ever knew from America. He seems to me to have a solidity of judgment, not very often to be met with in one of his years." While abroad young Franklin visited Scotland and became acquainted with the celebrated Earl of Bute, who recommended him to Lord Fairfax, who secured for him, as is said, the appointment of Governor of New Jersey, in 1763, without the solicitation of himself or his father. All intercourse between him and his father was suspended for more than a year before the actual commencement of hostilities. He was involved in a helpless quarrel with the delegates, and the people of New Jersey. In May, 1775, in a message he sent to the Assembly he said, "No office of honor in the power of the Crown to bestow would ever influence him to forget or neglect the duty he owed his country, nor the most furious rage of the most intemperate zealots induce him to swerve from the duty he owed his Majesty." On the 20th of May, the day this message was transmitted, the Assembly was prorogued, and Governor Franklin never communicated with that body again. Three days after the first Provincial Congress commenced their session at Trenton, and the Royal Government ceased, and William Livingston became Franklin's successor.
Congress ordered the arrest of Governor Franklin as an enemy to his country. He was accordingly placed in the custody of a guard commanded by a captain who had orders to deliver him to Governor Trumball in Connecticut. He was conveyed to East Windsor, and quartered in the house of Captain Ebenezer Grant. In 1777 he requested liberty to visit his wife who was a few miles distant, and sick. This Washington refused, saying, "It is by no means in my power to supersede a positive Resolution of Congress under which your present confinement took place." His wife was born in the West Indies and it is said that she was much affected by the severity of Doctor Franklin to her husband while he was a prisoner. She died in 1778 in her49th year, and is buried in St. Paul's Church, New York. It is inscribed upon the monumental tablet erected to her memory that "Compelled to part from the husband she loved, and at length despairing of the soothing hope of his speedy return, she sunk under accumulated distresses, etc."
In 1778, after the arrival in America of Sir Henry Clinton, an exchange was effected and Governor Franklin was released, and went to England. In West's picture of the Reception of the American Loyalists, by Great Britain in 1783, Governor Franklin and Sir William Pepperell are the prominent personages represented. (See page 214.)
In 1784, the father and son, after an estrangement of ten years, became reconciled to one another, for Doctor Franklin writes, "It will be very agreeable to me, indeed nothing has ever hurt me so much, and affected me with such keen sensation, as to find myself deserted in my old age by my only son, and not only deserted, but to find him taking up arms against me in a cause wherein my good fame, fortune and life were all at stake. You conceived, you say, that your duty to your king and regard for your country required this. I ought not to blame you for differing in sentiment with me in public affairs. We are all men, subject to errors, etc." In his will, dated June 23, 1789, a few months before his decease, he showed his shrewdness and craftiness for which he was always noted, in leaving his Nova Scotia lands to his son, the title to which was doubtful on account of the part he took in the Revolution. He says "I give and devise all the lands I hold or have a right to in the Province of Nova Scotia, to hold to him, his heirs and assigns forever. I also give to him all my books and papers which he has in his possession, and all debts standing against him on my account-books, willing that no payment for, nor restitution of the same be required of him by my executors. The part he acted against me in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account for my leaving him no more of an estate he endeavored to deprive me of."
Governor Franklin continued in England during the remainder of his life. He received a pension from the British Government of £800 per annum. His personal estate valued at £1800, which was confiscated, the government allowed him full compensation for. He had several shares in back lands and grants and real estate in New York and New Jersey, all of which he conveyed to his father, as he was indebted to him. He died in Nov., 1813. His son, William Temple Franklin, was Secretary to Dr. Franklin, and edited his works. He died at Paris in May, 1823.
ROYAL COAT OF ARMS.
The Royal Coat of Arms embossed on the outside cover of this work is an exact reproduction of the Coat of Arms that was formerly above the Governor's seat in the Council Chamber in the Old State House in Boston. It was made from a photograph taken from the original in Trinity Church, St. John, N. B., for a fuller description of same, see p. 436. The seal embossed on the outside back cover, is a reproduction of the seal of "The Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in New England" from which the present seal of the State of Massachusetts is derived. It was the seal that was used on all official documents down to the time of the Revolution.
PELHAM'S MAP OF BOSTON.
This plan was made by Henry Pelham, the half brother of Copley the painter. It was made under permission of J. Urquhart, Town Major, August 28, 1775. It shows the lines about the Town and the Harbor, and is the most important of the early maps of Boston and the one upon which all subsequent revolutionary maps are based. It was printed in two sheets published in London, June 2, 1777, done in aquatinta by Francis Jukes. This copy is reproduced from the original in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Library and is drawn on a photographic print from which this engraving is made.
JUDGE CHAMBERLAIN'S OPINION OF COL. THOS. GOLDTHWAITE.
Col. Goldthwaite was a man of ability, unbounded enterprise, and considerable influence. Chamberlain in his History of Chelsea says of him: "Some very unfavorable accounts of Col. Goldthwaite have been published, which I do not feel at liberty to withhold, but in referring to them suggest, first, that they were mainly written after he had become obnoxious as a loyalist; secondly: that his position on the Penobscot was one in which it would have been impossible to protect the just rights of the Indians against turbulent frontiersmen outside any efficient government without incurring their hostility, since their only sense of justice was their desire for exclusive possessions of lands which rightfully belonged to the original occupants."
GOV. JOHN WINTHROP—See Page 426.
John Winthrop, born Jan. 12, 1587, died at Boston March 26, 1649, by his first wife Mary Forth, had
John, born Sept. 12, 1606Forth, born Dec. 30, 1609Henry, born Jan. 19, 1608Mary, born probably 1612Ann, baptised Aug. 8, 1614 and died soon afterAnn (again) baptised June 26, 1615
By his second wife, Thomasine Clopton, had a child who died at the same time as its mother.
By his third wife, Margaret Tyndal, he had
Stephen, Mar. 31, 1619Nathaniel, Feb. 20, 1625, died youngAdam, April 7, 1620Samuel, August 26, 1627Deane, March 23, 1623Ann, April 29, 1630, who died on the voyage overWilliam, Aug. 14, 1632, probably died earlySarah, baptized Jan. 29, 1634, probably died early
By his fourth wife, Martha, a widow of Thomas Coytmore, sister of Increase Nowell of Charlestown, he had Joshua, baptised December 17, 1648
His eldest son, John Winthrop, born Sept. 12, 1606, at Groton, who afterwards became Governor of Connecticut, died and was buried in Boston; it is his line of descendants that is given on page 426; the other branches of the family became extinct in the male line.