USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Billerica > History of Billerica, Massachusetts, with a Genealogical register > Part 15
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The welcome peace was little more than an armistice, and, in 1703, another ten years' war broke out, known as "Queen Anne's War." A practical sign of its coming took the form of an order from Major Tyng to Capt. John Lane, 1702, April 22, requiring him " forthwith to take effectual care that there be strict execution of the act for regulating of ye Malitia," and especially to inspect the force and see that it was duly provided with arms and ammunition. This order was not neglected. In the Diary of Judge Sewall, we have a glimpse of the fruit which it bore,16 and also of Billerica's aged pastor. Monday, 1702, October 26. he writes : "Waited on Gour to Wooburn ; dined there. From thence to Billericay. Visited languishing Mr. Sam1 Whiting. I gave him 2 Balls of Chockalett and a pound of Figgs, which very kindly accepted. Saw the Company in Arms, led by Capt. Tomson. Went to Chelmsford."
At this point, the Lane Papers contribute a useful letter from Gov. Joseph Dudley to Major Lane.
"CAMBRIDGE, 5 Nov., 1702.
"SIR: I desire you with two of your troops to repayr to the towns of Marlboro'. Lancaster, Groten, Chelmsford, and Dunstable, and there deliver severally the letters given you. and encourage the officers in their duty, agreeable to the several Directions. You are also to labor, by all means, to speak with Wotanummon and the Penacooke men, and to assure them of friendship with the Gouernor and all the English ; but that we are fearful the french Indians will be amongst them soon and do mischief to the English, and that therefore we must have our scouts out, and if they will come and reside in any propper place near the English. they shall be welcome; if their hunting will not allow that, they must keep a good Distance from the English towns, and send one man only to Colonel Tyng, when they would speak with me, and they shall be welcome at all times, and I will never depart from my friendship to them if they will continue friends. Let the officers in the several towns use all prudence not to make the first breach, and let me hear from them on every ocation."
16 Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections. Fifth Series. Vol. VI, p. 67.
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INDIAN AND MILITARY HISTORY.
Of training and guard duty, we may be sure that the Billerica farmers had enough ; and the kind of service often called for is suggested by another order from Colonel Tyng to Captain Lane, 1703, September 3:17 "These are to order you forthwith to give out your warrant to your soldiers in Chelmsford, to watch, Two in a night and the day following, at the wading place at Wamesit ; and to continue in that service till they have gone Round. The soldiers are to keep at the said wading place till they are relieved, as the custom hath been, by Capt. Bowers' men." In 1704, more serious work awaited these soldiers. Early in that year, or in February, 1703-4, a party assailed, Northampton, surprised the guard, and made captives of Rev. John Williams, the pastor, his wife, and many others. Mrs. Williams, with two of her children and more than twenty other captives, were put to death. Mr. Williams was afterwards redeemed, and published The Redeemed Captive.
In July following, a force of seven hundred French and Indians again invaded Massachusetts, and finding Northampton well guarded. turned eastward and fell upon Lancaster, July 31. The Boston News-Letter tells the story briefly : "On Monday morning past, the enemy, French and Indians, fell upon Lancaster, about four hundred of them, assaulted six garrisons at once, where the people defended themselves very well until assistance came in from all parts by the governor's order, so that in the evening there were three hundred men in the town. And the enemy was beaten off with loss, but are yet hovering on the head of those towns, to make some farther impression if not prevented." The meeting-house was burned, with several dwellings and barns, and Lieutenant Wilder was killed and three soldiers ; but the rally was so prompt and the defence so vigorous, that the loss of life was smaller than in the previous assault. Among others, twelve Billerica soldiers went to the rescue, and fortunately Captain Lane has preserved their names for us. They were "Samull Hill, Corporal, John Needham, Clark. Raph Hill, Centinell, John Farmer, Samull Hunt, Andrue Richardson, Thomas Ross, Nathanell Bacon, Samull Hill, Junr., William Grimbs, John Hunt, Steven Richardson," with four men from Chelmsford and three from Groton. "These nineteen were sent out * August ye forth, 1704, with ten days' provisions, and marched to Lancaster to inforce Major Taylor ; and they never as yet received anything for their
17 Lane Papers.
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provision ; therefore they pray that they may be considered." It is to be hoped that so reasonable a request was properly answered.
In November, Colonel Tyng received from the General Court £24 for building four blockhouses, one in Dunstable, two in Chelmsford, and one in Billerica. A blockhouse is referred to in the Records, 18 " nere Andouer line," and may be the same.
It was probably in the same year, 1704, that Robert Parris was murdered, with his wife and daughter, at Dunstable; and Joseph Hassell, Samuel Butterfield, and Samuel Whiting, Jr., taken captive. Thus a second time did the bitterness of these trying times enter the home of the aged pastor of Billerica. This son afterwards returned, but the injuries and sufferings borne probably shortened his life.
To this period belongs an incident reported by tradition. It is good enough to be true, and comes with sufficient directness to strengthen its probability. We have it from Mr. Leander Hosmer, who is a grandson of the heroine, Mary Lane, daughter of Colonel John Lane. During a period of alarm, the family was left with only one man on guard. A certain stump excited the suspicion of Mary, as she looked out of the window, and she called upon the man to shoot it. He declined, and laughed at her apprehensions. At last she told him that if he would not shoot, she would take the gun and do it herself. This she did, and the stump rolled over, a dead Indian.
The year 1705 passed without special incident, but, in 1706, a second attack at Dunstable alarmed Billerica and called out her militia in defence. A scouting party under command of Captain Pearson, of Rowley, was surprised at Weld's garrison, the Indians being equally surprised, and a bloody encounter followed in which a number were slain. Another party fell upon Blanchard's garrison, and killed Mr. Blanchard, his wife, a daughter, and Mrs. Hannah Blanchard. Seven days later, July 10, there was another encounter between the troopers and Indians, in which Joseph Kidder and Jeremiah Nelson, of Rowley, were killed, and John Pickard, of Rowley, was mortally wounded, dying in Billerica, August 5th. Billerica was prompt in sending relief, and the Pupers of Captain Lane give us : -
"A List of the Names of the Troopers which served under my com- mand to the reliefe of Dunstable. JJuly the fourth, seventeen hundred and six, being twenty-nine men, two days, with the sustenance.
18 Vol. II, 246.
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"Thomas Ross.
Nath1 Page. Nathll Bacon.
Henry Jeffs.
Benjamin Bacon. Sam1 Sadey (?).
John Hill.
Edward Spaldin.
Daniel Hill.
Benoni Periham.
Ralph Hill.
John Colborn. James Dutton.
Sam11 Fitch.
Quart. Joseph Foster.
Mathew Whipple.
Josiah Bacon.
Corp Sam1 Hill. Josiah Fasset."
Another list follows : -
"Those which served under me in my march to Groton and Dunstable and Dracut, from the 11th August to the 13th, by Command from his Exel- ency, are as followeth ; and served 3 days and found their own sustenance.
" Henry Jefts.
Corp1. Thomas Tarbell.
Isaac Stearns. Nath" Hill.
Thomas Richardson.
Edward Spaldin.
Thomas Pollard. Jonath. Richardson. Jonath. Hill. Josiah Fasset.
Benoni Periham.
Sam11 Sadey (?).
Samll Barron.
Henery Spaldin.
Simon Crosbe. Oliver Farmer.
Samll Chamberlin."
Of the names on this roll, Edward Spalding and those which follow probably belonged to Chelmsford, and Tarbell was of Groton.
Two other rolls are found which must be of a date near this time, but the nature of the service is not mentioned, except that one roll is headed : "The Names of the men that went the rouns with Mager Lane." Most of the above names reappear, and these in addition :
Jonathan Bacon. Joseph Bacon. Nathaniel Bacon. Hugh Ditson. Thomas Farmer. William Grimbs. John Hunt. Samuel Hunt. John Kittrege, jr.
Jobe Lane. John Lane. John Needham, Clerk. Kendall Patten. Steven Richardson. Isaac Stearns. John Stearns. Benjamin Walker. Jacob Walker.
Thomas Richardson. Andrew Richardson. Jonathan Richardson. John Farmer. Oliver Farmer. Thomas Pollard. Sam" Hill.
Sam" Chamberlin.
John Stearns.
Josiah Bacon, Trumpeter. Benjamin Bacon. Danniel Hill.
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HISTORY OF BILLERICA.
These names of men who were ready to meet the hardships and dangers of this Indian warfare. in defence of their imperilled homes, are as worthy of honored remembrance from a grateful posterity as those which we carefully record and tenderly cherish, in the later wars of the Revolution and the Rebellion.
In the unsuccessful expedition of 1707 against Port Royal and that which had a better issue, in 1710, we may assume that some of the sons of Billerica had a part. as well as in the disastrous invasion of Canada by way of the St. Lawrence, in 1712. But the only record found of this period is another roll among the Lane Papers, giving the names of twenty-six men all found above. The service is thus explained : -
"BILIRACY, September 18. 1708.
"Reseved of Capt. John Lane the sum of eight pounds. three shillings and sixpence; i say. reseved by me for the solgers that bilary [sent?] unto Chelmsford and Groton.
"JAMES DUTTON."
Another ten years' peace came, in 1713, with the treaty of Utrecht, and was most welcome to the weary colonists. But the time had not arrived when they could safely remit their vigilance. In 1723 came another outbreak. It was more brief than the earlier wars, ending in two years; but it is stamped more deeply in the memory and imagination of later times, by the heroism and tragic incidents of the Lovewell expedition.
This was preceded, in 1724, by an attack at Dunstable, which Penhallow, in his Indian Wars, 19 describes : -
.. September 4th, they fell on Dunstable, and took two in the evening; next morning. Lieut. French with fourteen men went in quest of them; but being way-laid, both he and one half of his company were destroyed. After that. as many more of a fresh company engaged them, but the enemy being much superior in number overpowered them, with the loss of one man and four wounded."
A muster-roll is preserved,20 dated 1722, July to November, which gives these Billerica names, under command of Sergeant Jonathan Butterfield, of Dunstable : John Farmer, William French, Ebenezer Frost, John Patten, Joseph and Thomas Pollard, William Stickney, and John Whiting. They were probably employed in
19 Collections of The New Hampshire Historical Society. Vol. I, p. 109.
20 Massachusetts Archives. Vol. XC, 30.
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scouting and guard duty. When the outbreak came, one soldier from Billerica, and no doubt others with him, were employed in more distant service. Thomas Westbrook writes from York, 1724, April 21, that "Lt. John Lane has been so imprudent as to suffer his men to kill sundry Creatures belonging to the people of the County of York." On summons, "he did not deny the fact, and made satisfaction to the people."
A few months later, the government offered a bounty for the scalps of Indians, as a measure of defence. Capt. John Lovewell, of Dunstable, at once raised a company of thirty men and set out on an expedition into the wilderness ; struck the Indian trail about forty-four miles above Winnipesaukee, and soon returned with one scalp and a captive boy, for which they received, January 7, £200.
Again he set out, January 30, with a larger company of eighty- eight men, came up with the Indians by the pond which has since borne Lovewell's name, in Wakefield, New Hampshire, killed the whole party of ten, and returned to receive a bounty of £1,000.
The third and more memorable expedition set out with forty- seven men, 1725, April 15. Its story has been often told and can not be repeated here. The swift march into the wilderness, the discovery of the Indians by Lovewell's Pond, the fierce encounter, in which the leader, with Chaplain Frye and nearly a third of his company, lost their lives, at a cost to the savages of their chief, Paugus, and so many of his men, that the tribe never rallied from the blow : sermons and songs, chapters and volumes, have been devoted to the recital.
Beyond the general interest of the Colony in this brave and in fact successful, though costly and sad, enterprise, Billerica had special connections with it. Jonathan Kittridge, who fell with Lovewell, was from this town, as was Solomon Keyes, one of the survivors. Chaplain Jonathan Frye, of Andover, who died of his wounds, and is commemorated in the name of the town of Fryeburg, Maine, was a teacher in Billerica, in. 1724. And Lieutenant Seth Wyman, who succeeded to the command when Lovewell was killed, and with as much skill as courage continued the contest and brought off the survivors, had a Billerica wife, Sarah Ross, and was of that Wyman family which lived just east of the Woburn line and was often intimately connected with Billerica history.
This vigorous and telling encounter gave the fathers a peace of twenty years. Then the mazes of European politics involved them
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HISTORY OF BILLERICA.
again, and a declaration of war between England and France, in 1744, stirred New England with the summons to arms. During the peace, the French had fortified and garrisoned Louisburg. It was a very strong fort, and in hostile hands was a constant and serious menace to the English colonies. Governor Shirley at once instituted a correspondence with the Government and the other colonies, which resulted in an expedition under Sir William Pepperell, who sailed from Boston, 1745, March 24. His entire force consisted of four thousand troops from the various colonies ; and he was aided by four war vessels, mounting one hundred and eighty guns. The siege was prosecuted with singular courage and skill, and resulted in the surrender of the stronghold on the sixteenth of June. The whole enterprise was well conceived and bravely executed, and reflected the greatest credit upon the New England yeomanry, whose character it illustrated. "The plan for the reduction of a regularly constructed fortress," it has been well said, "was drawn by a lawyer, to be executed by a merchant, at the head of a body of husbandmen and mechanics."
Billerica was well represented in this expedition. Only scattered and imperfect rolls of this heroic service are preserved ;21 but glean- ing from these and ignoring, as we are entitled to do, the lines then recently drawn of Tewksbury and Bedford, we may record these names, most of which certainly and all probably belong to the old town : Captains Josiah Crosby, Peter Hunt, and John Stearns, Lieutenant John Lane, Ensign Samuel Hunt, Corporal Solomon Crosby, and Privates Nathaniel Cumings, Samuel Farmer, Samuel Galusha, John Hill, Francis Kidder, Thomas Richardson, Jr., and David Tarbell ; and perhaps William Thompson, as the difference in spelling does not weigh against the identity of this soldier with our William Tompson, so prominent a citizen during the Revolution. Doubtless other names should be added to this roll of honor.
Emboldened by this splendid achievement, Governor Shirley pushed forward plans for an invasion the next year of Canada. France, on the other hand, alarmed by the fall of Louisburg for the safety of her American possessions, sent a powerful fleet under the command of Duke D'Anville. The design was supposed to be the recovery of Louisburg, the desolation of the New England towns, and perhaps the conquest of the Colonies. The alarm was great
21 See articles by Charles Hudson, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 1870, October, and 1871, July.
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INDIAN AND MILITARY HISTORY.
and not unreasonable, and the troops found service nearer home than Canada, repairing forts and awaiting the dreaded attack. Prayers went up from the churches for the discomfiture of the enemy. And when the glad news came that storms and dissensions had utterly disabled the mighty armament of France, the relief was widely recognized as the interposition of God in answer to prayer, and joyful thanksgivings were offered to him.
In the defensive military operations on the Connecticut River of this period, soldiers from Billerica had a share, and in one disaster were the principal sufferers. Fort Dummer, in Brattleborough, was the earliest post established above Northfield, in 1724, and twenty years later a fort was built at "No. 4," which was the origin of Charlestown. Around these posts very vigilant and useful scouting and some brave fighting were done, under the command of Capt. Josiah Willard and Capt. Phineas Stevens. In the muster-roll of a company which served under Captain Willard from February 10 to October 6, 1748, at Ashuelot, now Hinsdale, New Hampshire, the following Billerica names are found : Josiah Crosby, Jonathan French, John Frost, Samuel Hill, Benjamin Osgood, and Joseph Richardson, and probably Daniel Farmer. Whether William Hill and Reuben Walker were unrecorded sons of the town is not certain.
On June 16, a squad of fourteen men set out from Ashuelot for Fort Dummer by way of Colonel Hinsdale's fort.22 The party was waylaid opposite the mouth of Broad Brook by a large company of Indians. The surprise was complete and disastrous. Three men were killed and scalped, and, by a singular fatality, they were all from Billerica, -Jonathan French, John Frost, and Joseph Richard- son. Seven were taken prisoners, of whom one was killed at the first encampment, William Bickford, and his body buried a month later. Four escaped across the river, one of whom, Daniel Farmer, was severely wounded. In response to the great gun from Fort Dummer, a relief party went up the next day from Northfield. They found and buried our Billerica dead, scoured the country and found "great signs of the enemy," showing that a large Indian force had been in ambush around the forts for several days.
Of the captives, Benjamin Osgood, of Billerica, and William Blanchard, of Dunstable, reached home Oct. 15; Henry Stevens,
22 See History of Northfield, by Rev. J. H. Temple, p. 262.
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HISTORY OF BILLERICA.
of Chelmsford, November 12, and Joel Johnson, of Woburn, early in October. They all suffered great hardships, were imprisoned till August 29, and Osgood with most of the others had to run the gauntlet. All were feeble and emaciated on their return, and Osgood died soon after from the effect of his sufferings.
Josiah Crosby was one of the four who escaped; and of his experience we have an interesting account in a letter from John Farmer to Hon. Nathan Crosby.23 It differs somewhat from Mr. Temple's narrative outlined above, and on these points is less likely to be accurate.
"In 1748, he was a soldier on . Connecticut river. He, with fifteen more, commanded by a lieutenant, was ordered from Fort Dummer to Fort Hinsdale, about four miles, and when they were within one mile of Fort Hinsdale they fell into an ambush of one hundred and twenty Indians and French, who rose and fired. The commanding officer ordered each man to take care of himself. Two men escaped by secreting themselves ; one reached Fort Hinsdale. Crosby ran up the river towards Fort Dummer followed by an Indian, who, coming up within a few rods of him, discharged his piece at him. The ball passed near his right ear; he then turned and fired at the Indian, who fell, and he saw no more of him. He pursued his way up the river until he came opposite Fort Dummer, where he attempted to swim the river, but before he could reach the opposite shore his strength failed him, and he sank to the bottom and was taken out by men from the fort." So narrowly escaped the only one of the five sons of Billerica known to have been in that fatal encounter. Few days have brought as deep and sudden sorrow to so many families in our old town; none, perhaps, except those of the Indian massacres in 1692 and 1695.
All these tedious conflicts and trials of the colonists were incidents of the contest between England and France for supremacy in America. The prize was a brilliant one, and for more than fifty years it had been carried on steadily on the fields alternately of diplomacy and war. It reached at last a decision through a contest more general and severe than any which had been before undertaken, extending over seven years, from 1754 to 1761, and involving large armies, extensive expeditions, and incidents discreditable, disheart- ening, and glorious. The history of this final French and Indian
23 A Crosby Family, p. 11.
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INDIAN AND MILITARY HISTORY.
War has never been adequately told. and justice has not been done to many of its actors and incidents. The later war of the Revolution has thrown this in a measure into the background, and Americans today scarcely realize its proportions or significance. Certainly, if France had retained power in the North and West, there would have been no room for the later developments of the Anglo-Saxon in America, and the Revolution with all its fruits would have been precluded. And the cost to the colonists is clearly and impressively brought to view in the list of Billerica's soldiers engaged in it.
The overture of this contest in 1754 finds Washington marching to a disaster in the west. and proposals for a union of the Colonies. which, if not at once successful, were prophetic. In 1755 Brad- dock appears on the scene. dying bravely but not nobly, while the young Virginia surveyor wins distinction from disaster. To the eastward an expedition of six thousand men takes the forts of Acadia, a success which led to the removal of the French neutral inhabitants, who refused to take the oath of allegiance, from their homes, and their dispersion among the colonists. This war measure, certainly harsh, perhaps necessary, has supplied our great American poet with the material for an epic, by which the memory of it will be perpetuated wherever the language is spoken. In the north the issue of the campaign was less decisive. An army of six thousand troops marched from Albany for Crown Point. Fort Edward was built, and a detachment under Colonel Williams was defeated, with the death of its leader, whose name is perpetuated in the college. the foundation of which he wisely laid. This disaster was compensated by the repulse soon after of a large French army and the death of its commander, the brave Dieskau. Still the enemy held and fortified Ticonderoga ; and an expedition from Oswego against Niagara was belated and abandoned.
In 1756 Montcalm led the French against Oswego and held Ticonderoga and Crown Point successfully, the wishes and plans of the Colonies for their capture being frustrated by the incapacity and irresolution of the English leaders. Still darker seemed the English cause in 1757, when the army for the second reduction of Louisburg returned unsuccessful from Halifax, and Fort William Henry was sacrificed by a cowardly surrender to Montcalm. This surrender produced great excitement and alarm in New England, as it opened the way for an invasion. Companies were immediately organized and marched to the rescue, thirty men enlisting from
-
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HISTORY OF BILLERICA.
Billerica. But it soon became clear that Montcalm did not intend to push southward, and after a march of forty or fifty miles the troops generally returned to their homes.
A change came in 1758, when the hand of the great Earl of Chatham was laid upon the helm in England. Louisburg capitu- lated to General Amherst, with an army of fourteen thousand, and Forts Frontenac and Du Quesne were taken. Abercrombie, with an army of sixteen thousand, was repulsed in his expedition to Crown Point, and the death of the accomplished General Howe added to the disaster. Still the result of the campaign inspired new hope and prepared the way for the final and decisive struggle of 1759. To this end the war was carried into Africa, i. e. Canada. One column was to descend the St. Lawrence, another under Amherst was to go down the Champlain, while General Wolfe ascended the great river, the fortress of Quebec being the central point. The campaign proceeded with energy and decisive success. Prideaux assailed Fort Niagara, and although he fell, Colonel Johnson, his successor, soon received its capitulation and held control of the upper St. Lawrence. General Amherst led a force of eleven thou- sand men towards Lake Champlain, and the French abandoned Ticonderoga and Crown Point without a contest. But he failed to advance with energy and lost the opportunity to share and aid the attack on Quebec. To this, Wolfe came direct from England, with an army of eight thousand men and nearly fifty vessels. Hle arrived June 26, and pushed the siege with skill and courage until September 13, when he succeeded in gaining the Heights of Abraham, above the city, and compelled the bewildered Montcalm to give battle. He fell victorious, his, brave antagonist being also mortally wounded, and the sceptre of France passed away. Amherst receiving the capitulation of Montreal soon after. America was to be English and not French, and the issue of that day was decisive.
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