USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Framingham > Framingham in the Revolution, an address read before the Middlesex South Agricultural Society March 14, 1853 > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01785 7878
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GENEALOGY 974.402 F843SAB
FRAMINGHAM
in the REVOLUTION
FRAMINGHAM IN THE
REVOLUTION
By LORENZO SABINE, A. M.
AN ADDRESS READ BEFORE THE MIDDLESEX SOUTH AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY MARCH 14, 1853, AND PUBLISHED IN 1933 BY THE FRAMINGHAM HISTORICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY
ALSO AN ACCOUNT OF A MEETING OF THIS SOCIETY IN HIS MEMORY DECEMBER 28, 1932
FRAMINGHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY P.O. BOX 2032 FRAMINGHAM CENTRE, MA 01701
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 45901-2270
LORENZO SABINE, A. M. Born 1803-Died 1877 Member of Congress 1852-3
Mien County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
Framingham in the Revolution
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE HON. LORENZO SABINE, MARCH 14TH, 1853
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Association:
Occupied, as my head and hands have been, since my return, I am hardly in a condition to address you at the present time. Still, as one of your members, it is my duty to perform my share of labor in whatever department you please to appoint, and I could not refuse your request.
I shall speak to you of the past-of your fathers.
The very day I came among you,-scarce four years ago,-I procured the excellent history of your town, in order to acquaint myself at once with the principal events which had occurred among you, and the generations that preceded you; and soon made myself somewhat familiar with your entire annals. I wondered, I confess, to find the record of what your fathers did in the war of the Revolu- tion embraced in less than six of your historian's pages. That there were materials for a more ample account seemed probable; and I commenced enquiries and researches to verify or disprove the conjecture.
To the results, hastily digested, you are now invited to listen. "The inhabitants of this town," says Mr. Barry, "early espoused and vigorously maintained the common cause of the country in the trying events which preceded and accompanied the war of the Revolution." Facts fully sustain him. The Instructions to the Repre- sentative to the General Court, in 1765, to join in measures to obtain the repeal of the Stamp Act and to refuse assent to any law which should sanction taxation by Parliament; the choice of a Delegate to meet the Whigs of Boston in Faneuil Hall, three years later; the appointment of a Committee to consider the measures recommended by the leading patriots of Massachusetts, in 1773; the Resolve, the year following, against the purchase of tea, and dealing with those who sold it; the choice of a Committee of Correspondence; and of Delegates to Congress; the votes, to order the purchase of firearms,
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HISTORY OF FRAMINGHAM
and the organization of militia companies; to make contribution to the distressed people of Boston; to raise a Province-tax and to pay the same to the Receiver-General appointed by the Whigs; the grants of bounty-money to recruits for the Army; to hire money for the public service, and to provide clothing for those who enlisted in the Continental line; all show the spirit and unfaltering devotion of the Whigs of Framingham.
Immediately after the dissolution of the Royal Government, the Whigs of Massachusetts organized a Government of their own. To a Committee of Safety, and to a body of Delegates in Congress assembled, they entrusted the direction of their public affairs.
The first Congress convened in October, 1774, the second in February, and the third in May, 1775. To the Congress of 1774, Framingham returned three Delegates, namely, Josiah Stone, William Brown, and Joseph Haven. In the second, Mr. Stone was associated with Mr. Brown, and in the third with Mr. Haven.
The Journals bear ample evidence that Mr. Stone was efficient and zealous; and some notice of the proceedings with which he was connected, will claim our first attention. He was forty-eight years of age, and thus in the prime of life; he had been a captain in the French war, and thus possessed a share of military experience.
Instructed by the town "to adhere firmly to the charter of the Province, and not to consent to any act that could be possibly con- strued in an acknowledgment of the validity" of the measures of the British ministry, he seems to have complied with the wishes of his constituents in entire good faith.
Legislative bodies are usually composed of three classes, namely, those who, denying themselves recreation, patiently investigate the facts set forth in petitions and remonstrances, and remain unknown and unrewarded; those who win the people's favor by speeches founded upon the information thus elicited; and those who pocket the people's money for dozing over newspapers, and lazily answering ay, or no, at the call of the Clerk. I suppose that Mr. Stone be- longed to the first class. Certain it is, that he was a member of many Committees. Thus, he was placed upon the Committee to take into consideration the particular state of the town of Boston; upon that, to take dispositions, in perpetuam, relative to the transactions of the British troops on their route to and from Lexington and Concord; upon that, to draft a letter to the Agent of Massachusetts in England. Again, he was a member of the Committees, to consider upon the
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IN THE REVOLUTION
means for supplying the Treasury; to consider a letter on the sub- ject of the taxes paid by Great Britain and America; to take into view the matter of advance pay to soldiers; to examine the returns of the different towns' stocks of powder; to bring in a Resolve to appoint officers to pass muster on the soldiers coming to camp; to transcribe the narrative of the proceedings of the King's troops on the memorable 19th of April, together with the dispositions accom- panying what measures were necessary relative to County records; to take into consideration the expediency of raising two companies of Indians; to print and distribute to the different towns the narra- tive of the excursion of the Royal forces to Concord; to attend to the business of stamping notes, or paper money for the soldiers; to enquire of the Committees of Supplies whether they had sent to New York for powder; to ascertain the number of artifices necessary for the Army; to act upon the suggestion to employ a number of armed vessels; to purchase arms; to consider a request that a minute company should be stationed at Naushon island; to repair to Con- cord, and search the person and baggage of Ensign Campbell, a prisoner there, suspected of having and concealing letters of public concernment.
So too, Mr. Stone served on the Committees to bring in a Resolve providing for the poor of Charlestown; respecting the donations made for the poor in Boston; to procure axes with helves for the Army and forward them to Washington; to answer a letter from the Con- gress of New Hampshire; to agree with persons to strike off an emission of paper money; to frame a Resolve explanatory of a Resolve relating to the "Tories" or refugees; to consider the petition of a company claiming pay for service under Benedict Arnold; to examine fifteen prisoners taken at Long Island, and sent to Congress by the Committee of Safety; to consider what should be done with certain soldiers who had enlisted twice. Such do I find in official records were the services of the Delegates of Framingham to the first, second and third Congress of Massachusetts. He and his asso- ciates were engaged in levying war-in deeds of treason; and who can fail to imagine that visions of scaffolds and halters sometimes disturbed their deliberations?
Minute details of the course of individual members of the revolu- tionary assemblies are seldom found in general history; not so much because they fall below the dignity of the historian's pen, as that they do not come within his plan, and his limits. But yet, they are
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HISTORY OF FRAMINGHAM
precisely what we need, to give us a just idea of the spirit of the times, and of what our fathers did when they resolved to redress their wrongs, and to live and die Freemen.
The next public duty of Mr. Stone-of moment-was probably in 1779, when he was appointed a Delegate to the Convention to frame a Constitution for the State. The labors of the Convention were acceptable to the people; and, after the organization of a Government under it, he held several important offices; and, among them, were those of Senator and Councillor. But he did not live to see a Union of Thirteen States. His death was caused by an accident in 1785, at the age of 60 years. Honored by the town, at a period of the greatest peril; honored by the State-the uniform testimony is that he deserved the confidence reposed in him.
Deacon William Brown was a Delegate to the first, and to the third Congress. Previous to 1774 he had taken a prominent part in the revolutionary controversy; and was connected with the most important measures of the town, subsequently.
Of his course, while in Congress, there is no particular record. More fortunate than either of his associates, he lived to see the Independence of his country acknowledged, and the Union of the States, under the present Government. He died at the close of the year 1793, aged 70.
Joseph Haven, as has been remarked, was a member of the first, and of the third Congress. He was an aged man, and less active than his colleague, Mr. Stone. Mr. Haven represented the town in the General Court as early as 1754. In 1774 he was a member of the Committee of Correspondence, and the same year, of the Convention of Whigs of Middlesex County, at Concord to consider the state of public affairs.
In Congress he was excused by his advanced years from the deliberations of the Committee room. The only notice of him that I find in the Journal is of the date of June 15, 1775, when the Com- mittee appointed to report upon the claims of several gentlemen who applied for Commissions of Colonels in the Army, having presented to Congress their favorable opinion of Glover, David and Jonathan Brewer, Woodbridge and Little. Commissions were ordered to be delivered to them, and Mr. Haven was directed to administer to them the prescribed oath. He died early in the year 1776, at the age of 78.
In February, 1775, Governor Gage directed two officers (see Note 1) of the British Army to take a sketch of roads, passes and
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IN THE REVOLUTION
heights between Boston and Worcester. They executed the order, and gave a written account of their proceedings, which, with the Governor's instructions, are preserved in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. (See Note 2.) They crossed over to Charlestown, and thence passed through Cambridge, Watertown and the intermediate towns to Framingham and to Worcester. They were in the disguise of Countrymen (see Note 3), were accompanied by a servant, and stopped at the houses of both Whigs and Tories.
On the second day, which was rainy, "with a kind of frost," they arrived here, having sketched a pass that lay on their road. Wet and soiled by the mud, they entered the public house, then kept by Thomas Buckminster (see Note 4) near the store of Warren and Company, which became the property of Capt. Eliphalet Wheeler, and was burned in 1849.
They state that they were not pleased with the appearance of things about the house; that they asked for dinner, and were pro- vided with sausages; and that they praised everything very much, which gratified "the old woman" (see Note 5) who kept the house. They ate a hearty supper, were allowed a room by themselves, and stayed all night. In the morning they proceeded to examine the roads leading to Worcester.
On their return to Boston they set out for Framingham at day- break, first refreshing themselves with roast beef and brandy. On their journey they were overtaken by a horseman, who eyed them keenly, and took the road to Marlborough, riding rapidly. Their instructions contemplated a military expedition into the country; and they kept the Framingham road for the purpose, as they relate, "to be more perfect in it" as they "thought it would be the one made use of" by the Royal troops.
On arriving at Buckminster's at about six o'clock in the evening, they found the company of militia or "minute-men" were exercising near the house; and they state that an hour afterward the company performed their feats before the windows of the room which they occupied. So close proximity to the "rebels" of Framingham gave them sensible uneasiness, as they themselves confess; but, as they were unknown, they were not molested.
They gave an amusing account of the occurrences until bed time; and I will quote their own words. "Before the minute-men were dismissed," say they, "one of their commanders spoke a very eloquent speech, recommending patience, coolness and bravery
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HISTORY OF FRAMINGHAM
(which indeed they much wanted) and particularly told them they would always conquer if they did not break; and recommended them to charge us coolly and wait our fire and everything would succeed with them." "And," continue these veracious chroniclers, "this com- mander quoted Caesar and Pompey, brigadiers Putnam and Ward, and all such great men, and put them in mind of Cape Breton, and all the battles they had gained for His Majesty in the last war; and observed that the regulars must have been ruined but for them. After so learned and spirited an haranguerie, he dismissed the parade, and the whole company came into Buckminster's and drank until nine o'clock, and then returned to their respective homes, full of "pot-valour."
As Capt. Simon Edgell had command of the "minute-men" at that time he was probably the officer who addressed them on this occasion. His critics may be dismissed with a smile. Within two months of the parade and speech at Buckminster's the enterprise into the country projected by Governor Gage was undertaken by a different route, and the Captain and his "pot-valiant" men met the King's troops at Lexington.
The day following the affair at Lexington, the Committee of Safety addressed the following Circular Letter to the several towns in Massachusetts.
"Gentlemen,
The barbarous murders committed upon our innocent brethren on Wednesday the 19th inst, have made it absolutely necessary that we immediately raise an army to defend our wives and children from the butchering hands of an inhuman soldiery, who incensed at the obstacles they meet with in their bloody progress, and enraged at being repulsed from the field of slaughter, will, without the least doubt, take the first opportunity in their power to ravage this devoted country with fire and sword.
We conjure you, therefore, by all that is sacred, that you give assistance in forming an army. Our all is at stake. Death and dev- astation are the certain consequences of delay. Every moment is infinitely precious. An hour lost may deluge our country in blood and entail perpetual slavery upon the few of our posterity who may survive the carnage. We beg and entreat, as you will answer to your country, to your own consciences, and, above all, as you will answer to God himself, that you will hasten and encourage by all possible
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IN THE REVOLUTION
means the enlistment of men to form the army and send them for- ward to headquarters at Cambridge with that expedition, which the vast importance and instant urgency of the affair demands."
Seldom has there been a more earnest, a more eloquent appeal. That your fathers responded to it, and hastened to camp, it is now my purpose to show. The occasion does not admit of minute details, and it must suffice to say that Framingham furnished in the course of the war for the Continental Line and the militia, one general, four colonels, one major, nine captains, fifteen lieutenants and ensigns, one chaplain, and one hundred and twenty-five non-commissioned officers and privates. The number of males in town, upwards of sixteen years of age, was less than four hundred. Of these, it is probable that nearly one hundred were unfit for military service, by reason of advanced years or physical disability. It appears then that quite one half of the entire male population of the town bore arms to aid in achieving the Independence of their Country. Several were distinguished.
To consider the military men of Framingham according to their rank, General John Nixon claims our first notice. He was born here in 1725, and was a soldier under Sir William Pepperell in the expedi- tion against Louisbourg when only twenty years of age. After serv- ing in the Army and Navy seven years he returned to Framingham. Again entering the service he received a commission as Captain. He fought in the attack on Ticonderoga when Abercrombie was defeated, and in the battle of Lake George and subsequently in the same war with the French, he fell into an ambuscade, but cut his way through the enemy and escaped, though with the loss of nearly all his party.
When the Whigs of the Revolution began to organize a force to resist the oppressions of England, he was placed in command of a company of "minute-men" and was present in the battle of Lexing- ton. Resolving to raise a regiment, and among the gentlemen of Massachusetts, whose military experience gave a little to command, he was eminently successful in enlisting men to serve under him, and on the 2d of June, 1775, an order was passed by the Committee of Safety, recommending to Congress that a commission as Colonel should be granted to him. The action of Congress was prompt, and their Journals show that he was appointed on the next day; and that on the 5th commissions were delivered to his officers, "agreeably to the list by him exhibited."
Colonel Nixon was thus in service with a corps-officers and
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HISTORY OF FRAMINGHAM
men-of his own selection. In the Battle of Bunker's Hill his regiment was stationed on the Mystic side, and was distinguished for its good conduct. He received a severe wound from which he never entirely recovered. By a return of the Army, Nov. 4, 1775, it appears that he was in camp at Cambridge in command of the Fourth Regiment, and that his brother Thomas was Lieutenant Colonel.
Early in August, 1776, Washington addressed a letter to Con- gress on the subject of the appointment of general officers, and en- closed a list of all the Colonels then in service from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania. Colonel Nixon's military talents and his bravery on the memorable 17th of June gave him strong claims to promo- tion; and he was accordingly selected as one of the six Brigadier Generals who were commissioned agreeably to the views of the Com- mander in Chief at that time. Washington entrusted him with the command of Governor's Island, near New York. In December, 1776, he was posted with his brigade on the Delaware. On the first of July of the following year, Washington in a letter to General Put- nam said that it appeared almost certain to him that Generals Howe and Burgoyne designed if possible to unite their attacks and form a junction of their two armies; "and," continued he, "I approve much of your conduct in ordering Nixon's brigade to be in readiness; and I desire it may be embarked immediately with their baggage to go to Albany as soon as General Varnum's and General Parsons' brigades are so near Peekskill, that they can arrive to supply their place." We next hear of General Nixon as sharing in the honors of the surrender of Burgoyne. In the battle of Stillwater, a cannon-ball passed so near his head as to impair the sight of one eye, and his hearing in one ear. In a return of the army of General Gates, October 16, 1777, the whole number of men reported as fit for duty was 13,216, consisting of the brigades of Generals Nixon, Poor, Learned, Glover, Patterson, Warner, Stark, Baily, Whipple, Bricket, Fellowes, Wolcott and Ten. Brock.
In June, 1779, Washington transferred his headquarters from Smith's Clove to New Windsor, where he could better attend person- ally to the different parts of the Army on both sides of Hudson's river. The main body was left at Smith's Clove under the command of General Putnam. The object of the Commander in Chief was to guard against an attack upon West Point. General McDougall was transferred to that post. Three brigades were stationed on the east
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IN THE REVOLUTION
side of the river; Nixon's at Constitution Island; Parson's opposite to West Point, and Huntingdon's in the principal road leading to Fishkill. These three brigades were placed under the orders of General Heath, who had been in charge of the troops surrendered by Burgoyne. This is the last account of General Nixon that I have been able to find during the Revolution. He resigned in 1780. Removing from Massachusetts to Vermont in the year 1803, he died there in 1815, at the age of 90.
His relative, Warren Nixon, Esq., has kindly placed in my hands several documents of interest and value, which relate to the military operations of his brigade, and of the events in camp of the Army, generally.
These original papers show conclusively that the state of morals was deplorable to a degree almost incredible. I find that officers were tried for the crimes of falsehood, disrespect to superiors, promoting mutiny among the soldiers, plundering and embezzlement of public property, and that privates were tried for desertion to the Royal Army, for ravishing women, for robbery, attempting to kill, drunkenness, selling clothing from their persons, selling their guns and accoutrements, stealing, and for enlisting twice and thrice, re- ceiving bounties each time as new recruits. I find that from June, 1777, to October, 1778, a period of only sixteen months, there were trial by court martial of forty-five officers, of whom fifteen were dis- missed from the service; and of one hundred and nineteen common soldiers, of whom eleven were condemned to death; and that another time, in four months and twenty-one days, thirteen officers were tried, of whom five were chastised; and that thirty-five privates were also arraigned for various offenses. In a word, and as the result of my examinations for a term of thirty-five months, I will state that sixty-nine officers were tried, of whom twenty were dismissed; and that two hundred and fifty-two non-commissioned officers and privates were tried, of whom 21 were sentenced to die.
We are apt to look to the days of our fathers as to a golden era; to revere the name of "Whig" and to detest the name of "Tory." But we mistake. The writings of the best men of the Revolution are filled with lamentations relative to the general prev- alence of crime and corruption, and may be cited to prove beyond all controversy that-as I have said elsewhere --- (see Note 6) the prominent men of the Revolutionary era were great and good, little and bad, mingled, just as ever in the annals of our race. The Whigs
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HISTORY OF FRAMINGHAM
of lofty virtue, like William the Third of England, were compelled by the necessities of their condition to employ as instruments per- sons whom they knew, or believed to be, were mercenaries, who would fall off and join the Royal side the moment that interest or a case for individual safety should appear to require; and, like William, they seemed oblivious of this fact simply because under the circumstances it was sound policy to be blind, forgetful and ignorant.
Colonel Thomas Nixon was a brother of General John, and served with reputation during the whole war. He was an ensign in the French war of 1756, and was in command of a company of "minute-men" early in the revolutionary struggle. In the Battle of Bunker's Hill he was Lieutenant Colonel of his brother's regiment, which, as has been said, was stationed near the Mystic river. He acquitted himself with much honor. A return of the Army, Nov. 4, 1775, shows that he was then at Cambridge. I have found no men- tion of him in the correspondence of Washington. Colonel Nixon's black servant, Peter Salem, who died here in 1816, probably killed Major Pitcairn of the British marines in the action of the 17th of June. That he was shot by a negro is authenticated, and circum- stances in the judgment of well-informed persons fix the deed upon Peter. Major Pitcairn fell as he was mounting the redoubt, and was received in the arms of his son. As you doubtless remember, he was the second in command at Lexington and led the vanguard. It was he, as you will also recollect, who cried out to the militia men assem- bled there, "Disperse, rebels, lay down your arms, and disperse." They refused to obey, when he discharged his pistols, brandished his sword, and ordered his men to fire. In thus commencing hostilities, it is supposed that he disobeyed the orders of General Gage. How- ever this may be, Colonel Smith, who was in command of the enter- prise, was greatly displeased with the conduct of Pitcairn. But Major Pitcairn was a worthy man, and we of this generation may avow it. "During the siege of Boston he was ever disposed to listen to the complaints of the inhabitants, and as far as lay in his power, to mitigate their sufferings." His remains were removed from Bunker's Hill to Boston, arrayed in his regimentals, and deposited in the vault of Christ Church, Salem Street. In 1809 they were removed, as was supposed, to England. A quarter of a century had elapsed, but the body was in a state of preservation, and his features, as was said, were recognized. These two particulars are derived from the Gentleman's Magazine. But it has been affirmed in later years that
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