USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Milton > History of Milton > Part 17
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the entire company of about fifty managed to escape. Except for Capt. Wads- worth, I do not believe any Milton men were involved, although Lieut. John Sharpe of Roxbury had married a Milton girl, sister of Corp. Thomas Swift. Capt. Wadsworth's son Benjamin, who many years later became president of Harvard, in about 1730 erected a monument over the grave of Wadsworth and his men.
Thomas Swift lived either on Adams Street, near Dudley Lane, or on the latter road, and was a prominent citizen of the Town, having been chosen Selectinan each year since 1668. He acted as guardian of the Neponset Indi- ans at Ponkapoag, and in 1675 petitioned the General Court for some re- ward for his services, stating that he did much of the Indians' business, "they being restrained from commerse with the Inglish, and our English be- inge so redy, many of them, to tacke any advantage against them . . . "
In May of 1676 he was made quartermaster of a troop of horse, but I can find no record of his name in the rosters of the various troops. He was much employed on Colony service, and may have been given this office for the purpose of rank and pay only. In April of this same year, as Corporal Swift, he had been sent to carry a letter from the Massachusetts Council to the Governor of Plymouth, informing him of the disaster at Sudbury and out- lining plans for the further use of friendly Indians. The letter also stated that Swift could give further details, and would in turn learn the views of Plymouth. It is evident that our Selectman was well thought of by the Coun- cil, and was used as a specialist in Indian affairs.
As far as service of other Milton men in the war is concerned, there is a record that four served in Capt. Isaac Johnson's company along with the soldiers from Roxbury, Dorchester, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, and Hull.2 Benjamin Crane, then a boy of eighteen, who lived on Adams Street at what is now the Quincy edge of East Milton, was wounded in the Great Swamp Fight, near Kingston, Rhode Island. Capt. Nathaniel Davenport of Boston, but brother-in-law of our Rev. Peter Thacher, was killed in this fight while leading his company in the first assault on a gap in the defenses at one
2. It is interesting to note from the Colony tax assessed in October 1675, that except for Hull, Milton was the poorest, and presumably the smallest of all these towns at this time.
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corner of the fort, closed only by a long log, but amply covered by musket fire. Thomas Holman, Selectman and former Town Clerk, served in the Suf- folk County troop of horse, while Samuel Gulliver, for some strange reason, was in the Middlesex troop. Altogether there appears to have been a total of eighteen of our townspeople on active duty at one time or another.
Once or twice during the war Milton became practically a frontier town, as parties of savages raided points as near as Quincy (then Braintree) and Weymouth. The loyal Punkapoag Indians in the fall of 1675 built a fort on their reservation, somewhere in the Stoughton-Canton area, which was garri- soned by members of the tribe and by some score of soldiers drawn from the Milton, Dorchester, and Braintree members of the Suffolk Regiment. A list survives of the fifty or sixty soldiers who served at the fort at various times during the spring and summer of 1676. Ponkapoag became a base from which scouting parties ranged the woods from Natick to Weymouth, screen- ing this portion of the frontier against surprise. The exact location of this fort is not known.
There is a most interesting order of the General Court in early 1676 which directed that all able-bodied inhabitants of Milton, who were not already off on military service, must work on the fortifications in the town. If anyone left Milton without specific permission from the Court, he was to be treated as a deserter from the military service. No other record or tradition con- cerning this has survived, and one would very much like to know what sort of defences were built and where they were. It is apparent that the modern concept of total war and the drafting of both soldiers and civilians alike ex- isted here almost three hundred years ago.
Our Neponset tribe had a hard row to hoe during King Philip's War, as did all the other Christian Indians. In the initial stages of the war a compa- ny of fifty-two, drawn from the various villages of the Christian Indians, was formed, but it was soon disbanded and all the Indians confined to their res- ervations. This was a grave mistake, for many of the blunders of the Colo- nists could have been averted by the use of friendly Indian scouts. As one can well understand there was much hysterical outcry against all Indians, and it was hard to differentiate between the "praying" Indians (called by
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some "preying") and the hostile ones. There was great popular clamor which resulted in the Natick and Punkapoag tribes being taken to Deer Is- land in Boston Harbor for their own protection, but they were largely forced to shift for themselves and spent a miserable winter existing mostly on fish and clams. There were two hundred Natick and three hundred Punkapoag Indians in all confined on the island. In the spring of 1676 the Bay Colony again used some of them as troops and scouts. Capt. Samuel Hunting raised a company of forty which arrived at the Sudbury fight just in time to rescue the survivors, and during the remainder of the War Indian troops were em- ployed to a considerable extent. In May of 1676 the Punkapoags, under the guardianship of Quartermaster Swift, were moved from Deer Island to Brush Hill. They at that time numbered thirty-five men and one hundred forty women and children. Many of the men, of course, were now serving with the Colonial troops. All of the original Christian Indians in the older Indian towns such as Natick and Ponkapoag appear to have remained loyal to a man, but a few of the most recent converts whose towns were farther afield became backsliders and joined Philip.
The captives taken by the Colonists in the closing days of the war fur- nished a supply of slaves, many of whom were cruelly sold to the West In- dies. Our Rev. Peter Thacher secured a housemaid, Peg, from among them. She served him for some forty years.
In 1689 the first of the several French wars broke out, and from then until 1760 there was little quiet on the frontiers of Massachusetts. Even when peace was supposed to exist between England and France, savages from the north, egged on by the French, were apt to descend upon the scattered fron- tier settlements at almost any time. Milton, of course, was far distant from those frontiers, which in 1689 were at least as far away as Worcester, Grot- on, and Dunstable, and so had nothing to fear. King Philip's War had been a struggle for bare survival; the later wars were for the defense of distant frontier towns, and eventually agressive action against Canada herself. They concerned Milton only indirectly, and while various Milton men went off to these French wars, just as did men from all the other older Bay towns, they were merely Provincial soldiers who happened to live in Milton. There are a
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few lists available of officers and men who served on various of the expedi- tions throughout the next seventy years, but they do not seem to belong to a history of this sort. At best the records are scanty. Thomas Swift, now a lieutenant, was called out again in 1690 to raise a company of sixty Indians for the expedition against Quebec in that year. There is no record as to whether he went with the company, but his son William was lost during this disastrous campaign. There is reason to believe that Capt. Thomas Vose al- so went; he certainly was commissioned for the purpose. A group of sixteen Milton men went in Capt. John Withington's Dorchester Company, and many of them never returned from that ill-fated expedition.
We may be sure that some of Milton's youth, only too eager for adventure and a chance to leave the drudgery of the plow and the hoe, answered the various calls during the next half century for volunteers to march against raiding Indians or farther afield against Canada. I am sure that some Milton boys went on the great expedition that took Louisburg from the French in 1745, but we do not know who they were. Capt. Thomas Vose, father of Capt. Daniel of the Revolution, and grandson of the Capt. Thomas who had been a lieutenant under Samuel Wadsworth in King Philip's War, led a troop of horse to the relief of Fort William Henry in 1757, but again we do not know who else went with him. There are one or two bits of information, such as the fact that Judge Bent of Milton had commanded a company at Al- bany in 1755 and had died there, and that there were a number of Milton men in Capt. Nathaniel Blake's company which was raised for the expedi- tion against Crown Point. We may sum the matter up by saying that while few details have come down to us, we may be sure that Milton did its share throughout the period of the French and Indian Wars.
When the news of the Boston Tea Party reached England there was great indignation among the followers of George III and Lord North, and three re- taliatory measures, the Boston Port Bill, the "Act for better regulating the Government of Massachusetts Bay", and that which authorized the trial in England of King's officers accused of murder or capital crime, were enacted by Parliament. The Quebec Act, while not directly concerning New Eng- land, was an added irritant. The first of these to be passed was the Port Bill,
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and news of this reached Boston in May of 1774, causing great excitement.
Milton held a Town Meeting on the 27th of June, and chose Capt. David Rawson, Ralph Houghton, Amariah Blake, Oliver Vose, and Deacon Jo- seph Clapp, as well as Samuel Henshaw, Jr., and Dr. Gardner, as a commit- tee "to consider & determine upon some measures for this Town to come into respecting the scituation of publick affairs, ... ". The meeting was ad- journed to the 25th of July when the committee reported back with a resolu- tion which was accepted by the Town, and furthermore it was voted that this resolve should be sent to the Boston Committee of Correspondence. The resolve is lengthy and verbose, but the gist of it is as follows : "We ac- knowledge George III to be our rightful King, we love our Mother Country, and detest the thought of separation from her. We are willing upon all prop- er occasions to defend His Majesty, and we are equally ready to defend our liberties to the utmost. We shall oppose any measures which would destroy our liberties. In defiance of the laws of God and Man the British Parliament has attempted to destroy our constitutional rights. We believe that we should oppose such action and we will join in all proper measures against the late cruel and oppressive acts of Parliament. We believe that a non-importation agreement is our best weapon, but we shall adopt such measures as the dele- gates about to meet in the Continental Congress shall advise." This was a surprisingly outspoken declaration, and the suggestion of possible separa- tion from Great Britain is most unexpected at this time. The idea was cer- tainly being considered by some, but it was still repugnant to most and sel- dom mentioned in public.
A special Town Meeting held on the second of September voted that the Milton Committee of Correspondence, Capt. David Rawson, Col. William Taylor, Dr. Samuel Gardner, Amariah Blake, and Ralph Houghton should be delegates to the Suffolk County Convention which was to be held four days later. The meeting also took the unusual action of authorizing the Con- stables and other Town officials to disobey the recent Acts of Parliament. There certainly was no hesitancy in Milton's reply to the "Intolerable Acts". Perhaps as an attempt to avoid the provisions of the act which forbade regular town meetings, the meeting of the 27th of June, which probably first assembled
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before the formal announcement of this law reached Boston, was continued by several successive adjournments until finally dissolved on 13 March 1775.
Suffolk County in those days included Boston and all the towns to the south as far as Hingham and Walpole, southwest to the Rhode Island line, and west as far as Medway, and accordingly it was by far the most important single county in all New England. Its thoughts and reactions were a clear indication of those of all this part of North America. The convention of del- egates from the various towns of the county met first in mid-August in Stoughton at Doty's tavern, on Canton Avenue just over the Milton line south of Blue Hill, and then adjourned to meet a few days later at the house of Richard Woodward in Dedham. They assembled in Milton on the ninth of September, 1774, for the final session at the house of Daniel Vose, which stood at the corner of Adams Street and Wharf Lane in the Village, where the Associates Building is today. Vose's house still exists in restored form on Canton Avenue just south of Atherton Street.3
The Resolves are believed to have been written by Joseph Warren. Like most documents of the period they were very lengthy and full of noble- sounding but confusing phrases, so much so that a modern reader usually despairs of reading them, and thus misses the fact that the instrument was most outspoken and carried a real bite. In order to make them into a form which I believe to be more useful for the purposes of this history, they are presented here in abbreviated and paraphrased form.
The Suffolk Resolves (condensed and paraphrased)
1 We acknowledge George III to be our rightful sovereign.
2 It is our duty to preserve for posterity those rights and liberties for which our fathers fought and died.
3. The house, then in very dilapidated condition, was saved from destruction by Dr. and Mrs. James B. Ayer in 1950, and moved to Canton Avenue, where it has been very carefully restored and furnished. The building consists of two separate frames joined together, and it is probable that only one half, the northern, constituted Vose's dwelling in 1774. In 1924 grave doubts were cast on the authenticity of this house, but a most careful study has convinced me and many oth- ers of the validity of the house's claim. This study is deposited with the Massachusetts Histori- cal Society, where it may be consulted.
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THE SUFFOLK RESOLVES HOUSE As it formerly stood in the Village.
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3 The recent Acts of Parliament which closed the port of Boston and altered our form of government are gross infractions of our rights.
4 No obedience is due from this Province to any of these acts.
5 As long as our judges are appointed in violation of Province law no regard should be paid to them.
6 Sheriffs and constables should refuse to execute the orders of such illegally appointed judges. We recommend that all grievances should be settled outside of court. Those refusing to arbitrate their case will be considered as cooperating with the enemy.
7 Tax collectors should retain all public monies until a new civil gov- ernment is formed.
8 The members of the Governor's Council appointed under the new laws must publicly resign at once, or be considered enemies of this country.
*
11 Take away the commissions from all militia officers who are not friends of Liberty, and replace them with those that can be trusted. All men that are able should drill at least once a week.
12 We shall act on the defensive for as long as possible, but no longer.
13 If any patriots are arrested, seize officers and officials of the King as hostages.
14 We shall not trade with Great Britain or her Colonies until our rights are restored.
15 We shall encourage domestic arts and manufactures.
16 All towns should select delegates to the Provincial Congress to be held at Concord next month. [An illegal assembly ]
17 We shall obey the orders of the Continental Congress.
18 Avoid riots or disturbances of any sort.
19 If the enemy starts any hostilities, notify all the surrounding towns at once in order that assistance may be sent.
The importance of the Suffolk Resolves has perhaps not been sufficiently appreciated, particularly here in Milton, nor has their impact upon the thinking of the Continental Congress been fully realized until recent times. Paul Revere was entrusted with the task of carrying the Resolves to the Con-
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gress in Philadelphia, where they were read and formally approved over the protests of two of the more conservative members. One of these, Joseph Gal- loway, a wealthy Pennsylvanian, who was forced by events, probably much against his wishes, to take the Tory side, stated that the Resolves were tan- tamount to a declaration of war. They were hardly that, but they certainly were an invitation to revolution.
Milton's own local reaction was sharp and very much to the point. After instructing Capt. Rawson, the delegate to the next General Court, to keep his chin up and trust in the Lord, the Town voted on the third of October to buy bayonets for the two local companies. The 19th of April was still months away, but there cannot be the slightest doubt as to the feelings of the Town. On the 23rd of January in 1775, Town Meeting voted "that every man in this town between the age of 16 & 60 years shall be equipped with arms .. . and shall do military duty in one of the several companies now raised or that may be raised in this Town". At the March meeting it was voted that all men attending the weekly half day of drill from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. should be paid one shilling, and that the Selectmen should sort the Town's bullets and put them in separate bags according to size.
The records are not clear as to how many companies Milton had on the 19th of April, but there were probably only two. Capt. Ebenezer Tucker's company turned out and marched eight miles toward Concord, and then re- turned, while Capt. Lemuel Robinson's company was led by Lieut. Daniel Vose as far as the Charles River, where, finding the planks removed from the bridge, they turned around and came home. It was a very inglorious day as far as Milton was concerned.
In May of that year there were three companies in the town, and Ebenezer and Jeremiah Tucker, John Bradley, and Daniel Vose were all listed as cap- tains. Capt. Bradley and Capt. Oliver Vose commanded companies that served for some two weeks in the siege of Boston immediately after the Con- cord fight, and Capt. Daniel Vose led a company of the ""train", as the artil- lery was then called, part of which served for three months at the siege. As the new Continental Army was formed, these militia companies were re- lieved from duty and reverted to their normal home guard status, while the
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burden of the war was taken over by the newly raised troops. As long as the British remained in Boston there were various alarms and excursions in which our local companies took part, but they amounted to very little. Dr. Teele wrote, and I have no reason to doubt him, that the fascines for the for- tifications on Dorchester Heights were made here on Brush Hill near the head of Robbins Street, and that James Boies, who operated the paper mills at Mattapan, was in charge of the teamns that carried them in from Milton. In connection with fortifying the Heights, militia was called out to assist the Continentals, and Capt. John Bradley's Milton company was one. This, I think, was the last military service in this war of any Milton organization. The war now moved away from Massachusetts, and Milton became simply a home front, concerned with some recruiting and with furnishing assistance to those whose men were away on active service.
There was a most interesting and rather unexpected vote of the Town, passed on the 28th of May, 1776, when Town Meeting resolved to support a declaration of Independence by Congress. Certainly the formal action fi- nally taken in July was no surprise to our citizens.
At irregular periods during the war years the Town was assessed a quota of a certain number of soldiers to serve for a specific period. Volunteers ap- parently did not spring to arms, as tradition tells us they always did, but were quite reluctant and had to be prodded and encouraged in one way or another. This almost always took the form of a bounty, a sum of money paid by the Town to each man who signed up to serve. Committees were usually appointed and delegated the task of filling the quota. The bounties were apt to be paid on a partly deferred basis to make certain that the soldier served out his full time. On rare occasions an actual draft would be resorted to, but a comparatively small sum (£10 in April 1778) purchased exemption, or one could hire a substitute.4 The funds necessary to furnish the bounties
4. "Milton March ye 16 1778
Recd of Cornelius Gulliver the sumn of nine pounds Lm which is in full for his being draufted for an expedition for one month if needed for consideration of which I do promise to answer in his room and stead & fulfill his duty in every shape & manner & I do promise to return him his gun & other accuterments at the end of the expedition & if hurt to make them good.
Drury Fairbank"
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were assessed on the inhabitants like any other tax. In 1780 the Town paid a bounty of £1200 apiece for three-month volunteers, but inflation was then so great that this only represented f 16 hard money, a fairly material sum in those days, nevertheless. This bounty money was in addition to any State or Continental pay received by the soldier.
In 1777 Milton reckoned up the total cost of the war to the Town up to that date, and voted to assess it, f922. 18s. 8d., against the estates of Tories and all others who had left their estates and were living out of town. This fortunately gives us a list of those officially designated as Tories, and thir- teen were named.
Included in the list were Mrs. Belcher, widow of the former Governor, Mrs. Pratt, presumably the widow of Benjamin, who had died in New York as its Chief Justice, Mrs. Foye of Adams Street, ex-Governor Thomas Hutch- inson, and Mrs. Dorothy Forbes, who then was living on Brush Hill.5 In 1778 the State published a list of Tories who were forever forbidden to re- turn. Governor Thomas Hutchinson headed the long list, but there were no other Milton names included. Apparently what few Tories we had were considered relatively innocuous.
Thomas Hutchinson was unfortunate in the place that has been given him in our history. The propaganda put out by the Boston radicals was so effective that his reputation has ever since suffered great damage, and was distorted into that of a wicked Tory who plotted against his country for his own selfish ends. He was basically a conservative New Englander who dearly loved his country and did what he thought was best for it, but was caught in a chain of circumstances which eventually forced him to take the King's side and to flee to England. He built a country house on Adams Street at the top of Milton Hill in 1743, and had become greatly attached to the town. When his Boston house was sacked and gutted by the mob one night in the sum- mer of 1765, he moved out to Milton, and continued to live here most of the time for as long as he remained in this country. There has long been a tradi-
5. The tax as actually levied most surprisingly included John Adams, John Hancock, and Dr. Glover, who was serving as a surgeon in the Continental Army. The first two of course were non- residents, while the last had most certainly left his estate.
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tion of a tunnel from the cellar of his house under Adams Street and down to the river. This was supposedly built so that he could escape either from the Indians or from his enemies. The first had not been seen in town for many a long year, and of the others he had none in Milton. It seems most ridiculous to think that he would have ever built such a tunnel, and various changes and excavations over recent years have produced no evidence of any such sort of structure, but the tradition still persists. Hutchinson lived on the best of friendly terms with his Milton neighbors, and is said, upon his final departure for England in June of 1774, to have walked down Milton Hill and across the bridge into Dorchester, shaking hands and saying his farewells to all the local residents before he got into his coach6 for the last time. The Town Records in their turn bear witness that Milton thought well of Hutchinson, for in May of 1776, when the Revolution was well under way and feelings were tense, Town Meeting voted to repay to the Governor, through any agent that he might care to designate, the purchase price of his pew in the Meeting House, as well as the cost of its construction. This was certainly an unexpectedly generous action, when one considers the temper of the times. The house on Milton Hill had already been looted of much of its contents, but what remained was auctioned off by the Town, and the house and grounds leased in this same month of May 1776.
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