USA > Massachusetts > History of the Military company of the Massachusetts, now called the Ancient and honorable artillery company of Massachusetts. 1637-1888, Vol. II > Part 21
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HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND
[1767
Oct. 15, 1673, the Artillery Company received by re-confirmation of the General Court the grant of land made by the colony when the charter of the Company was granted in 1638. The tract became known as the Artillery Farm, at Dunstable, N. H. In 1715-6, the farm was leased for eleven years to a housewright, in Dunstable, who was to do, as rent, certain things, and "pay one barrel of cyder annually to the Company in the month of October." Soon after the expiration of this lease, Sept. 20, 1727, a committee of the Artillery Company visited the property, and recommended that it be again leased. Failing to succeed in this, the Company preferred a petition to the Gen- eral Court for permission to sell the Artillery Farm at Dunstable. June 16, 1731, the General Court granted said permission, empowering the Artillery Company to make and execute a good deed or deeds of the above-mentioned tract of land. The following spring, advertisements of " Land of the Artillery Company for Sale" were inserted in the newspapers, and the farm was finally sold to Col. Joseph Blanchard (1737), of Dunstable, about 1737. Col. Blanchard (1737) paid some cash, and gave the Company a mortgage and bond for the balance. For fifty years the matter remained unsettled. Several com- mittees of the Company visited the property, urged upon the heirs the necessity of a settlement, and received small sums of money, but hardly enough to pay the interest, until at last the law was resorted to. In 1756 the Company determined "to take the advice of some able lawyer about Col. Blanchard's (1737) bond, and get the same com- puted by Mr. Samuel Winthrop, clerk of the Superior Court." From 1756 to 1769 inclu- sive the Artillery Company annually passed urgent votes in regard to the matter, but decisive action was not taken.
The original computation of Mr. Winthrop is in the archives of the Artillery Com- pany. From that it appears that the amount due on the bond, that is, the "principal sum," March 17, 1743-4, was £1,250. The interest for the following seven years was £450, but the total credits on the note were but $212, leaving a balance due, in 1750, when reduced to its coin value, of £308.12.10. Mr. Winthrop computes the amount due each year, and the last, April 4, 1769, it was £276.14.4. Later additions by other accountants give the amounts due May 18, 1773, £272.4.10 ; March 19, 1787, £490.3.1, and May 18, 1794, 6615.4.10, the latter being probably the amount for which suit was entered.
Col Blanchard (1737) died in 1758, and then the responsibility fell upon his widow, Mrs. Rebecca Blanchard, the administratrix. The Company showed her great consider- ation, as the following quotations from original letters prove : -
" April, 1789. . . . The Company does not wish to distress Mrs. B. " JNO. WINSLOW." . " May 6, 1790. . . . The ancient and honorable Company of Artillery have appointed me their attorney. ... I should be happy, madam, to have the matter accommodated agreeably to your wishes and without giving you any unnecessary trouble.
" WILLIAM HULL."
"June 5, 1765. . . . My Mother thanks the Company for their Merciful Treatment. " JON'A BLANCHARD."
"May 20, 1767, . .. My Mother desires to Remember with Gratitude the Kind Treatment she has not only received from the Company but from you in particular as their Treasurer [Col. Jackson (1738) ]. JONA' BLANCHARD."
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HONORABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY.
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" April 25, 1768. . . . I Rejoyce that I have fallen Into so Good hands & Esteem myself very much Obliged. . . . I beg that you would inform the Company of my situa- tion & that I drive every Nail in my power. REBECCA BLANCHARD."
June 6, 1763, William Brattle (1729) and Joseph Jackson (1738) were appointed a committee to settle with the heirs of Col. Blanchard (1737), and they obtained from Mrs. Blanchard the sum of eighty dollars. Dec. 3, 1790, Gen. Benjamin Lincoln (1786), Gen. John Brooks (1786), Col. John Winslow (1786), and John Johnston (1786), were authorized to constitute and appoint William Hull (1788), of Newton, to be the attorney of the Artillery Company, and commence a suit for the recovery of the amount due said Company from the heirs of Col. Blanchard (1737). In August, 1790, Mr. Hull (1788) visited Mrs. Blanchard, at Dunstable, at an expense of six pounds. He went to Amherst, N. H., and attended two hearings before the judge of probate, at an expense of nine pounds. In 1791, the case came up in the Superior Court at Exeter, N. H., and Mr. Samuel Dana appeared as attorney for the Company.
June 4, 1792, another committee, consisting of Col. Waters (1769), Col. Winslow (1786), Capt. Robert Jenkins (1756), Major Andrew Cunningham (1786), and Mr. Thomas Clark (1786) was appointed to carry the matter to a conclusion. They re- appointed or continued William Hull (1788) as attorney. He charged in his bill : -
" 1792, May, To attending and arguing the cause at the Supreme Court at Exeter £9.
" 1792, October, To instituting a suit at the Federal Court at Exeter and attending said Court £10.10.
" And in May, 1773, To attending the Court at Portsmouth £6."
His total bill in the case was forty-seven pounds, twelve shillings.
Mr. Dana charged, " May 1792, To my attendance at Supreme Court and preparing the cause in conjunction with Judge Lincoln and Gen Hull [1788], £1.16.0."
His total bill in the case was nine pounds.
The final paper in the archives of the Artillery Company, referring to this matter, reads as follows : -
" Boston, February 23, 1795. Received of Robert Fletcher Fourteen hundred & one dollars & thirty five cents & Robert Fletcher's note of hand of this date with Mrs Gordons obligation for seven hundred & twenty five dollars & sixty-five cents payable in one year, which when paid will be in full of an execution recovered at a late Curt. Court in ye State of New Hampshire in favor of ye Artillery Company, so called, against Mrs Rebecca Blanchard, Administratrix of Joseph Blanchard, deceased, provided the above sums should exceed or fall short of the execution they are to be rectified, -
" 2068.65 Judgment 58.35 damage
2127.00 1401.35 p'd 725.65 note Fletcher."
Treasurer.
The record of the Artillery Company for 1767 is as follows : -
" April 6th. 1767. The Company being under Arms, it was then Voted, The Rev. Mr. Daniel Shute of Hingham be desired to preach on the next anniversary Artillery
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HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND
[1768
Election of Officers in June next, and that the present Commission Officers, with the Treasurer, be a Committee to wait on him and desire the same.
" Attest : ROBERT JENKINS, Tert's, Clerk.
" May 4th. 1767. The Company being under Arms, The Committee waited on the Rev. Mr. Daniel Shute of Hingham to desire him to preach the next Artillery Election Sermon, reported that he had accepted the same. Voted, That the Treasurer pay thirty pounds to the Commission Officers towards defraying the charges of the next Election Dinner and the Company to dine with them.
"Attest ROBERT JENKINS, Tert's, Clerk.
" June Ist. 1767. The Company being under Arms, it was then Voted, That the present Commission Officers, with the Treasurer, be a Committee to wait on the Rev. Mr. Daniel Shute of Hingham & return him the thanks of this Company for his sermon preached this day.1
Attest ROBERT JENKINS, Tert's, Clerk.
"September 7th. 1767. The Company being under Arms, it was then Voted, That Mr. Thomas Snow [1741 ] be erased out of the books. Voted, That a Committee of eleven be chose to consult what measures will be most beneficial for the increase of the Company, and the following persons were chosen, viz : Mr. Samuel Torrey, Jr. [1752], Col. Thomas Marshall [1761], Capt. Thomas Dawes [1754], Mr. John Deming [1756], Capt. William Homes [1747], Mr. John Skinner [1759], Capt. Richard Boynton [1759], Mr. Jonas Clark [1756], Mr. Benjamin Edes [1760], Capt. Josiah Waters [1747], Mr. Edward Carnes [1755]. Attest : ROBERT JENKINS, Tert's, Clerk."
Rev. Daniel Shute, of Hingham, son of John and Mary (Wayte) Shute, who delivered the Artillery election sermon of 1767, was born in Malden, July 19, 1722, and graduated at Harvard College in 1743. He commenced his professional career as a candidate in April, 1746, at Malden. He was ordained over the Third Church, Hingham, Dec. 10, 1746. In consequence of the failure of his eyesight, Rev. Mr. Whitney was ordained as his colleague, Jan. 1, 1800. He is said to have been serene and patient under the infirmities of age, and died, Aug. 30, 1802, aged eighty years.
He was a member of the convention, in 1780, which framed the State Constitution, and in 1788, of the Convention of Massachusetts which ratified the Constitution of the United States. He delivered, beside the Artillery election sermon in 1767, the election sermon in 1768. He was extensively known and respected as a minister of great strength of mind and of high attainments.
1768. The officers of the Artillery Company elected in 1768 were : James Cunningham (1761), captain ; William Heath (1765), lieutenant ; and David Spear (1758), ensign. Hopestill Capen (1763) was first sergeant ; Benjamin Eustis (1763), second sergeant; Nathaniel Heath (1765), third sergeant ; Charles Williams (1768), fourth sergeant, and Elias Dupee (1763), clerk.
1 " Buston, Monday June 8, 1767. Monday last [June I], being the Anniversary of the Election of officers for the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, the following gentlemen were chosen for the ensuing year, viz : Thomas Marshall Esq [1761] Captain. Richard Boynton, Esq [1759] Lieutenant Mr. William Bell [1756], Ensign. Previous to the choice the Company waited on his Excellency the Governor, the Honorable, his Majesty's Council, &c.
to the Old Brick Meeting House where a sermon suitable to the occasion was preached by the Rev. Mr. Shute of Hingham, from those words in Eccl 1X, 18, ' Wisdom is better than weapons of war.' After which they proceeded to Faneuil Hall, where an elegant dinner was provided by the Company; and in the evening the new elected officers made a generous entertainment, when many loyal healths were drank." - Boston Newspaper.
James Cunningham.
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HONORABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY.
1768]
March 18, 1768, the repeal of the Stamp Act was celebrated " by a large company at the British Coffee-house, and Col. Ingersoll's in King Street." Rejoicings were heard on every hand, and though a projected bonfire was not lighted, yet the next morning two effigies were found hanging on Liberty Tree.
The King's birthday was observed, June 4, the governor's troop, the town regiment under command of Col. Jackson (1738), and the train of artillery, commanded by Capt. Paddock (1762), being mustered in King Street, when the "new pieces," afterward called " Hancock" and " Adams," were used for the first time.
Events calculated to produce trouble between America and the Mother Country followed one another swiftly. Seamen were impressed in the streets of Boston ; John Hancock's sloop, " The Liberty," was seized and anchored under the guns of the frigate " Romney," and the people manifested their disapproval by the destruction of property, and the making a bonfire on the Common of Collector Hallowell's pleasure-boat. The populace was upon the eve of revolution in defence of their liberties. The royal officers sought safety within the Castle. Liberty Hall1 was filled with " Sons of Liberty." The General Court was prorogued July 1, amid much confusion, and the governor waited the arrival of force. The British ministry ordered two Irish regiments from Ireland to Boston, also soldiers from Halifax. The former, the 14th and 29th regiments, of five hundred men each, arrived in Boston harbor in six ships of war, having " cannons loaded and tompkins out," Sept. 30, 1768. The next day the soldiers were landed on Long Wharf, and soon after came the 59th regiment and a train of artillery from Halifax. Boston became a garrison. Faneuil Hall was filled with armed mercenaries. The storm was gathering. The clouds thicken, darken - thunders roll, lightnings illume sky and earth, and a deluge drenches the Atlantic coast. The storm expends itself, the clouds flee, and the sun of victory and independence illumines wood and vale, and brings to the victorious yeomanry the blessings of peace, freedom, and progress.
" In the brigantine ' Abigail,' Capt. Stevens, from London, came, in the month of February, 1768, two beautiful field-pieces, three-pounders, with the Province arms thereon, for the use of the train of artillery of the regiment of this town. They were cast from two old pieces which were purchased some time since by the General Court of this Province." 2
A gun-house stood at the corner of West Street at the beginning of the Revolution, separated by a yard from the school-house. In this gun-house were kept two brass three-pounders (mentioned above) belonging to Capt. Adino Paddock's (1762) train. These pieces had been recast from two old guns sent by the town to London for that purpose, and had the arms of the province engraved upon them. They arrived in Boston in 1768, and were first used at the celebration of the King's birthday, June 4, when a salute was fired in King Street. Both school and gun-house are connected with a cele- brated event.
Major Paddock (1762) had expressed an intention of surrendering these guns to Gov. Gage. The mechanics, who composed this company, resolved that it should not be so. The British general had begun to seize the military stores of the province and disarm the inhabitants. Accordingly, the persons engaged in the plot met in the school- room, and when the attention of the sentinel, stationed at the door of the gun-house, was taken off, by roll-call, they crossed the yard, entered the building, and, removing the
" The ground under and around Liberty Tree was called " Liberty Hall."
" Boston Gazette, Feb. 15, 1768.
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HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND
[1768
guns from their carriages, carried them to the school-room, where they were concealed in a box in which fuel was kept.
The loss of the guns was soon discovered, and search made, in which the school- house did not escape. The master placed his lame foot upon the box, and it was not disturbed. Several of the boys were privy to the affair, but made no sign. Besides the school-master, Abraham Holbrook, Nathaniel Balch, father of Jonathan (1786), Samuel Gore (1786), William Dawes, Jr. (1768), Moses Grant, Jeremiah Gridley, - Whiston, and some others, executed this coup de main. The guns remained in the school-room about a fortnight. They were then, in the night-time, taken in a wheelbarrow, and carried to Whiston's blacksmith-shop, at the South End, and deposited under the coal. From here they were taken to the American lines in a boat. The guns were in actual service during the whole war. After the peace, the State of Massachusetts applied to Congress for their restoration, which was granted by a resolve passed May 19, 1788, in which Gen. Knox, secretary of war, was directed to place a suitable inscription upon them. The two guns were called the " Hancock " and " Adams," and the inscription was as follows (the name only being different) : -
" The Hancock | Sacred to Liberty. | This is one of four cannon | which constituted the whole train | of Field Artillery | possessed by the British Colonies of | North America | at the commencement of the war | on the 19 of April 1775. | This cannon and its fellow | belonging to a number of citizens of | Boston | were used in many Engagements | during the War. | The other two, the property of the | Government of Massachusetts | were taken by the enemy. | By order of the United States | in Congress assembled | May 19, 1788. | "
The guns were in the possession of the State until 1817, when, in answer to a peti- tion from the Artillery Company that the State would furnish them cannon, the Executive Council voted " That His Excellency be advised to direct the Quarter Master General to loan to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company a pair of brass six pound Cannon completely equipped for field service, and to supply said Company for the use of said cannon, the usual quantity of ammunition as is directed by law for other Con- panies of Artillery within the Commonwealth." This report was accepted and approved by the governor, July 5, 1817, and a general order, carrying the vote into effect, was issued by him, July 12, 1817. The guns remained in the possession of the Artillery Company, and were used on anniversary and field days until 1821. The following paper is in the archives of the Company : -
" COUNCIL CHAMBER February ,2ª 1821.
" The committee to whom was committed a communication from the Quarter Master General of the 16th ult, relative to the bursting of a piece of cannon while employed in experimental gunnery in the service of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and a letter from the Commander of said Company stating the circumstances unto [under] which the accident happened - beg leave respectfully to represent that the said cannon was one of the two pieces which were designated by the names of Hancock & Adams and which have engraven thereon the following inscription ' Sacred to Liberty.'" (Then follows the inscription as heretofore given.) The committee continues : -
" It is desirable to perpetuate two pieces of ordnance to which a memorial so interesting to the people of this Commonwealth is attached, they therefore recommend that his Excellency be advised to instruct the Quarter Master General to cause the Adams gun to be recast and the inscription to be restored thereon and that it be made to con- form in all respects to the other piece.
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HONORABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY.
1768]
" And it appears by the representation of the Quarter Master General that from the defective state of said gun when loaned to said Company, no blame is imputable to them for the injury it has sustained. The Committee therefore further recommend that the Quarter Master General be directed to re-deliver the cannon when completed to said Company on loan for field service and experimental gunnery, until the further order of thee Executive. SILAS HOLMAN per Order.
" In Council Feb'y 2, 1821.
" This report is accepted and by the Governor approved.
" A. BRADFORD, " Sec'y of Commonwealth."
The " Adams" gun was not recast, but soon after, with the " Hancock," was pre- sented by the Commonwealth to the Bunker Hill Monument Association. The guns are now to be seen in the chamber at the top of the monument.
There is a tradition that the two guns, referred to as captured by the enemy, were concealed in a stable belonging to a house on the south side of Court Street, near the Court House. They were taken out over the Neck in a cart loaded with manure, driven by a negro servant of George Minot, a Dorchester farmer. Thus the four guns belonging to the province escaped the clutches of Gage. The two last referred to were sometime in possession of the Dorchester Artillery.
At a town meeting, held March 29, 1776, it was voted that Thomas Crafts, Esq. (1765), Col. Thomas Marshall (1761), and Major Paul Revere " be a committee to wait on Gen. Washington, and to acquaint him that it is the desire of the town that the four pieces of cannon which are in the Continental Train of Artillery, and belonging to the town of Boston, may not be carried out of this colony, if his Excellency should appre- hend the general interest of the colony will permit their remaining here." The guns were a necessity in the Continental service, and were in use throughout the Revolution.
The members of the Artillery Company recruited in 1768 were : Seth Adams, Samuel Condon, William Dawes, Jr., Elisha Eaton, John Fullerton, John Greenleaf, John Haskins, Michael Homer, William Hoogs, Israel Loring, John Newell, John Skillin, Jr., Nath- aniel Waterman, Charles Williams, Jacob Williams.
Seth Adams (1768), printer, of Boston. Seth Adams (1768) served his appren- ticeship with Samuel Kneeland. He began printing in Queen Street with John Kneeland. They afterward occupied a printing-house in Milk Street, at the corner of Board Alley, now Hawley Street. They were in business together for three or four years, and printed chiefly for the booksellers. Subsequently he kept a shop at No. 57 Cornhill.
Mr. Adams's (1768) father-in-law was the first post-rider between Boston and Hart- ford. When he died, Seth Adams (1768) gave up the printing business, and continued in the occupation of his father-in-law. He united with the Old South Church, April 7, 1765. He lived, in 1796, at No. 15 Franklin Place.
Samuel Condon (1768), probably son of Edmund and Jane Condon, who came to Boston about 1740. He is not mentioned in the Records of the Town of Boston. He was second sergeant of the Artillery Company in 1771, and its clerk from 1771 to 1774 inclusive. He died March 12, 1775, aged twenty-eight years.
Seth Adams (1768). AUTHORITY : Thomas's Hist, of Printing, Vol. I., p. 366.
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HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND
[1768
William Dawes, Jr. (1768), tanner, of Boston, son of William (1760) and Lydia (Boone) Dawes, and great-grandson of Ambrose Dawes (1674), was born in Boston April 6, 1745, and died Feb. 25, 1799. He married, May 3, 1768, Mehitable, daughter of Samuel and Catherine (Mears) May. She died Oct. 28, 1793, aged forty-two years, two months, and twenty-two days. William (1768) married, (2) Nov. 18, 1795, Lydia Gendall, who survived her husband nearly ten years, dying Aug. 11, 1809. By his first wife he had seven children, and by the second, one child, of whom the eldest, Hannah, married Benjamin Goldthwait (1793), son of Benjamin (1740) and Sarah (Dawes) Goldthwait.1
The principal facts in the life of William Dawes, Jr. (1768), and others relating to the Dawes family, are taken, by permission, from an essay by Henry W. Holland, Esq., entitled " William Dawes and his Ride with Paul Revere." Without enlarging upon the disputed points therein discussed, the simple story of William Dawes, Jr. (1768), is as follows : -
He passed his early years in his father's home on Ann Street, a home religiously strict, after the manner of that time. Little is known of his youth, except that he learned the trade of a tanner, which he followed for some years, having his tanyard on what is now the corner of Sudbury and Friend streets. Feb. 5, 1769, he and his wife, Mehitable, united with the Old South Church.2 For six or eight years they lived at No. 64 Ann, now North, Street, nearly opposite to his father, in a house previously owned by Josiah Waters (1747). April 8, 1768, Major William Dawes, Jr. (1768), joined the Artillery Company, and was its second sergeant in 1770. In 1786, at the revival of the Artillery Company, Mr. Dawes held the position of clerk. He was an ardent supporter of the colonial cause, was annoyed by the presence of the British soldiers in Boston, with whom, on sundry occasions, he had collisions. He scoured the country, organizing and aiding the birth of the Revolution. His granddaughter wrote : " During these rides, he sometimes borrowed a friendly miller's hat and clothes and sometimes he borrowed a dress of a farmer, and had a bag of meal behind his back on the horse. At one such time a British soldier tried to take away his meal, but grandfather presented arms and rushed on. The meal was for his family. But in trying to stir up recruits, he was often in great danger." In 1775, he was in correspondence with the Salem Committee of Safety, to obtain powder for the Boston patriots.
The two leading spirits in the purloining the guns from the gun-house were William Dawes, Jr. (1768), and Samuel Gore (1786). They planned and executed the daring deed. These men forced their way into the gun-house while the guard was at roll-call, the guns were taken off their carriages, carried into the school-house, and placed in a large box under the master's desk, in which wood was kept. When the carriages were found without the guns, by a lieutenant and sergeant, who came to look at them previous to removing them, the sergeant exclaimed, in the presence of Samuel Gore (1786), then captain of the governor's troop of horse, "They are gone. These fellows
William Dawes, Jr. (1768). AUTHORITIES : Holland's " William Dawes, and his ride with Paul Revere"; Drake's Old Landmarks of Boston; Lor- ing's One Hundred Boston Orators; Boston Re- cords; Hill's Hist. of Old South Church.
1 Henry Ware Holland, author of " William Dawes [1768] and his Ride with Paul Revere," is a grandson of Benjamin (1793) and Hannah (Dawes) Goldthwait.
2 His ancestor, William Dawes, was one of the founders of the Old South Church in 1669; his great-grandfather, Ambrose [1674], became a member in 1670, his grandfather, Thomas, in 1705, and his father, William [1760], in 1735. Major Thomas Dawes [1754], who was chosen deacon in 1786, was his second cousin.
See POP. 100-101-
X
X
149
1768j
HONORABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY.
will steal the teeth out of your head while you are keeping guard." The yard, gun- house, and school-house were examined over and over again, except the box. The guns remained under the master's feet for a fortnight. During the removal into the school-house, William Dawes (1768) injured his wrist, making the surgical aid of Dr. Joseph Warren necessary. From the school-house, the guns were carried to Whiston's blacksmith shop, and hidden under the coal. The Committee of Safety, Jan. 5, 1775, voted " that Mr. William Dawes [1768] be directed to deliver to said Cheever [Deacon Cheever ] one pair of brass cannon and that the said Cheever procure carriages for said cannon or any other cannon that require them; that the battering cannon carriages be carried to the cannon at Waltham and that the cannon and carriages remain there until further orders." Under this order the guns were sent by boat to Waltham, and were in active service during the war.
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