History of the town of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1717 to 1829, with other matter relating thereto not before published, including an extensive family register, Part 5

Author: Ward, Andrew Henshaw, 1784-1864. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1847
Publisher: Boston, S. G. Drake
Number of Pages: 534

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Shrewsbury > History of the town of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1717 to 1829, with other matter relating thereto not before published, including an extensive family register > Part 5

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

" Brothers ! I would not have you think by this, that we are falling back from our engagements. We are ready to do any thing for your relief, and shall be guided by your counsel."

" Brothers ! one thing I ask of you, if you send for me to fight, that you will let me fight in my own Indian way. I am not used to fight English fashion. Therefore you must not expect I can train like your men. Only point out to me where your en- emies keep, and that is all I shall want to know."

When the troops assembled at Cambridge, their number far ex- ceeded the means of arming and equipping them.

Many of them were volunteers in various dresses, without arms, ammunition, clothing or provisions. The Selectmen of the sev- eral towns were exhorted to purchase, and all, who had them to sell, such arms, &c., as could be spared. The number of arms

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

apportioned to the County of Worcester to be thus furnished, was 514. Of which Shrewsbury, by its Selectmen, was required to furnish 22. Persons were specially appointed to receive them of the Selectmen of the towns; and wagons and teams em- ployed to convey them, with powder and other warlike imple- ments, drawn from the several towns' stock of military stores, to the camp at Cambridge, with the utmost despatch. Every thing that would pass for a gun, was put in requisition. Many of them of course, were without bayonets. So speedy was the formation of the army, so various the materiel of which it was composed, that, in a military view, their discipline and dress were on a par with each other. Not even the General officers had so much as a badge to distinguish them from the privates in the ranks.

Hence, they were often stopped by the Sentinels, when going the rounds to make discoveries, and see whether those on duty were vigilant and at their posts.

This led to an order from the commanding General, that for the prevention of the like in future, officers of the highest grade, should wear a red ribbon over the right shoulder and under the left arm. The next in rank, a red ribbon over the left shoulder and under the right arm. The next a blue ribbon over the right shoulder and under the left arm. And so on in this manner, the different grades of officers were distinguished and known by the color of their ribbon and the manner of wearing it.

Behold, several thousand men, with their officers, all thus ac- coutred and dressed in garments of every cut, and of as many colors as were contained in Joseph's coat, drawn up for review ! I speak not this by way of ridicule. Far from it. But rather to shew the necessities of the times, and the disadvantages in which, on their part, our fathers began the contest.

These were temporary privations ; they possessed what more than counterbalanced them. Resolute hearts and unyielding pa- triotism. One spirit animated the whole army, and by degrees improvements followed, that rendered their appearance more in unison with their valor.

Many of the field officers, though serving, were not commis- sioned at the time of the battle on Bunker Hill. Gen. Ward

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

received his cominission in less than one month previous to that event. The detachment, sent, the evening before that battle, to fortify Bunker Hill, mistook their orders, or, from some other cause, were induced to proceed to Breed's Hill, another eminence, nearer the eneny's works and heavy shipping.

Thus, while more in danger of an immediate attempt by the British to dislodge them, they were more remote from head quarters ; and, what of itself alone was of no small consequence, they were at an increased distance from Charlestown neck, over which they must return in their retreat, if repulsed, exposed to the near and raking fire of the British shipping on either side, and which would naturally take their position there for that pur- pose, as speedily as possible, to cut them off, as well as to pre- vent reinforcements coming to their aid.

Nevertheless their ardor and resolution impelled them onward ; they sought to beard the British lion in his den, and they did it, leaving chances to what might follow.

They took possession of Breed's Hill, and in the course of the night threw up a fortification. The morning light disclosed to the British this near and bold approach, so suddenly and unexpectedly made within the reach not only of their shipping in the back bay, adjoining Charlestown, but of their batteries erected on Copps' Hill, Boston, all of which soon opened their fire upon them, and in the mean time a portion of the troops in Boston were put under marching orders to the water side, to be passed in boats to Charlestown, to drive them from the hill.

In a few hours after succeeded that eventful battle, the partic- ulars of which have so often been written in late years, as to make it unnecessary to give the details here.

Yet I may say, had it been done at an earlier period, much interesting, and, in a historical point of view, important informa- tion, now lost, might have been preserved, and not a little of that ink-shed and controversy, whether Col. Putnam was or was not in that battle, have been prevented, and justice done to all in their life time.

If there had been any, at an earlier period, disposed to ques- tion facts, or cast imputations upon those concerned there at that

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

time, the living would have defended themselves, and the means to do it would have been at hand. Insinuations and partial statements reflecting upon the honorable dead, which no man lisped in their life time, can proceed only from such as seek to obtain notoriety for the discovery of what nobody ever knew be- fore ; and it is worse than ingratitude in those, who, in subsequent times and while enjoying the fruits for which they never toiled, to detract from the merits and well earned fame of their bene- factor after the earth has closed over him.

Although the battle was fought on Breed's Hill, it ever has been and no doubt always will be called Bunker Hill battle. This may have happened from the fact that the detachment was ordered to proceed to Bunker Hill and fortify it.

Some things connected with that event I well remember to have heard my grandfather, General Ward, then commanding at Cambridge, relate, in conversation with his neighbors and others, in the latter part of his life. On such occasions, revolutionary events were often brought up to view and talked over with an absorbing interest ; and many interesting details related, then seemingly well understood. Of one particular, I feel it no less an act of justice than of duty to give some account, inasmuch as at this day some appear to be at a loss to account for the reason, that General Ward did not, when repeatedly pressed for that purpose, and while the battle was raging, send reinforcements from Cambridge to their relief, and which they think, or seem to think, had he promptly done, might have, and for ought we know, would have enabled the Provincials to retain possession of the field. Had he done so, what might have been the consequence can never be told. But one thing is certain, could they have done it, no permanent advantage would have resulted from it. At the conversations alluded to, there was no occasion for ex- planations. The recitals were not to satisfy doubts, but merely historical of the circumstances connected with what took place on that day, and the precautions that were adopted to guard against being circumvented by the enemy.

He said, " the detachment ordered to Bunker Hill had impru- dently (I do not recollect, that in disobedience of orders) exposed

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

themselves in proceeding so far." As some of the Committee of Safety accompanied the detachment, they might have ordered it to Breed's Hill, before or after arriving at Bunker's, for reasons good and sufficient in their opinion. The commanding General and all military movements were, by the Provincial Congress, made subject to the orders of that Committee. "That when he learnt they were attacked by a detachment of British troops, who had passed over in boats from Boston, he considered it a feint on the part of the British to draw the main army from head quarters at Cambridge to the battle ground, and then, the larger portion of their troops being still in Boston, to push them across the river, land them at Leechmere's Point, and proceed directly to Cam- bridge, destroy the magazines there and close the avenue at Charlestown Neck, whereby the Provincials would be inclosed within the Peninsula of Charlestown, where, by reason of small supplies of amunition and subsistence, they could not long hold out ; that by proceeding to Breed's Hill, the attack upon them was sooner than he expected, and before they could be provided for as was intended ; that a vigilant look out was kept up towards Boston and opposite Leechmere's Point, from an expectation that a sudden embarkation would take place there for head quarters at Cambridge, and the main battle be fought there ; that he always considered the attack on the hill intended as a feint, and the principal reason, why an embarkation for Cambridge did not take place, arose from the repeated repulses of the first body of troops sent over to Charlestown, and which being seen from Boston, occa- sioned so large a reinforcement to be sent to their relief, that the main object was thereby defeated."

Those brave men fighting on the hill stood in need of succor, and no doubt would have received it could it have been given without risking too much.

The first shock had come ; caution was as necessary as valor ; stratagem is the well known concomitant of war. Had the greater portion of the army been drawn within the Peninsula of Charlestown, there is reason to think the second detachment of the British troops, instead of going to the relief of the first, would have been sent in another direction, and have accomplished their object before the Provincials, by that time at the Eastern ex-

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

tremity of Charlestown, could have returned to prevent it ; their attempt to do so would have been checked by pursuers, and, in all probability, before they could have recrossed the neck, they would have met the other detachment flushed with success ; thus hemmed in, their situation would have been deplorable, but what was of greater consequence, with the overthrow of the army, and that too in the outset and first encounter, hope itself would have fled, the country would have been paralyzed, the great struggle for freedom would have ended, when it began, while the gibbet for some, and slavery for the rest, would have closed the scene.

When it was ascertained that a reinforcement of British troops had been sent over to Charlestown, and their disposable force in Boston thereby so reduced as to make an attack upon head quarters improbable, reinforcements were ordered from Cam- bridge. Col. Jonathan Ward, then stationed at No. 4, was di- rected, as appears by the General's Orderly Book, to march his regiment with the utmost despatch, by the way of Leechmere's Point* to Charlestown, keeping a strict look out towards Boston, while on his march. It is known that this regiment did not reach its place of destination.

Col. Ward, with his regiment, having nearly reached Charles- town Neck, there met a gentleman (said to have been Dr. Ben- jamin Church, one of the Committee of Safety, and who after- wards proved himself a traitor) coming from Charlestown on horseback, who inquired of Col. Ward to what point he was marching his regiment. To the hill, was the answer. " Have you not had counter orders ?" " I have not." "You will have

soon. Halt here." The regiment advanced no further. Some few found means to leave it and cross the neck, but soon met the Provincials retreating. Capt. Aaron Smith, of this town, who was in that battle, and died at the age of 89, in 1825, related the foregoing to me, about a year before his death, and which he said was told him by one who said he was an eye and ear witness to what passed and took place between Col. Ward and the person on horseback. Smith was in the service most of the revolutionary

* It was here the detachment of British troops, sent to destroy the Provincial military stores at Concord, landed in the night time from the Boston sidc.

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

war, and had been a soldier in the French war. Those times furnished themes on which it was his delight to dwell. Being intelligent, and a close observer of men and things, his relation of the battles in which he had been engaged, where and under what circumstances fought, and the exciting scenes through which he passed while in the service, never failed to interest the listening ear. On one occasion, when relating the manner in which he passed the sentry on Charlestown Neck, and reached the en- campment early in the morning ; how he fought at the rail fence behind a breast work of fresh mown grass, and of a man at his side, a negro, so crippled by a shot in the leg that he could not rise up to discharge his gun, but could load and re-load, which he continued to do, both Smith's and his own, and then hand them to Smith to fire, until their ammunition was expended, when he undertook to carry the negro off the field on his back, but was obliged to leave him to his fate, and in the retreat had his gun- stock, while in his hands shattered by a ball. Having relatcd this much and more, I inquired of him, with a view to ascertain his understanding of the matter, why reinforcements were not sent from Cambridge? He replied, " It was expected the enemy would come over from Boston, and landing at the point, make an attack upon head quarters."

That was the first and among the most sanguinary battles fought during the Revolution. Every thing relating to it, however trifling, is matter of interest.

All entrusted with public duties relating to the field were held responsible for the fulfilment of their duty, and though great al- lowances were probably made on account of existing circum- stances, yet officers of high rank were cashiered for misconduct on that day. What public policy seemed to require, public opinion was sure to enforce, and such as failed in their duty were called to an account regardless of rank, favor or affection.

The Continental Congress, having been applied to by the Provincial Congress for advice on account of the embarrassments attending the want of an established government in this province, recommended to the Provincial Congress to request the several towns to choose Representatives to a General Court, and the representatives, when assembled to choose counsellors as under

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

the charter - the Assembly and Counsellors to exercise the powers of Government. This was immediately complied with, and representatives from the several towns assembled at Water- town, on the 19th day of July, 1775, and organized a Govern- ment, as recommended, by choosing Counsellors, who exercised the Executive power - they made appointments, civil and mili- tary, and issued commissions, signed by a majority of their Board - the Provincial Congress was dissolved on the same day.

A House of Representatives was thereafter chosen annually, and annually chose a Council, until the year 1779, when a Con- vention, chosen for that purpose, framed the present Constitution of this State.

Those who care to know something of the debt of gratitude they owe to a superintending Providence, and to the memory of the Patriots of the Revolution, for the privileges they now enjoy, should think on these things.

DELEGATES.

To the first Provincial Congress, 1774,

Hon. Artemas Ward,

Phineas Hayward.

To the second 66 1775, Hon. Artemas Ward.

To the third 1775, Daniel Hemenway.

To Convention to frame Constitution of

Daniel Hemenway. S Massachusetts, 1779,

To Convention 1789, at adoption of Con- > Capt. Isaac Harring- stitution of United States, S ton.

To do. 1824, to revise do. of Mass., Nathan Pratt.

A direct tax of two millions of dollars was laid by an act of Congress, in 1798, and apportioned as follows, viz : Dolls. Cts. M. Dolls. Cts. M. New Hampshire, 77,705 36 2 Delaware, 30,430 79 2 Massachusetts, 260,435 31 2 Maryland, 152,599 95 4

Rhode Island, 37,502 08 0

Kentucky, 37,643 99 7 Vermont, 46,861 18 7 North Carolina, 193,697 96 5 New York, 181,650 70 7 Tennesee, 18,806 33 3 New Jersey, 98,387 25 3

Pennsylvania, 237,177 72 7 8

Virginia, 315,488 66 5 Connecticutt, 129,767 00 2

South Carolina, 112,997 73 9 Georgia, 38,814 87 5

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

For the valuation, assessment and collection of her part of the tax, Massachusetts was by that Act allotted into nine divisions, of which the County of Worcester comprised the seventh.

A Commissioner for each division was appointed by the Presi- dent -the nine Commissioners constituted a Board for the transaction of business, and were empowered to divide the State into a suitable and convenient number of assessment Districts, and within each District to appoint one Principal Assessor and such number of Assistant Assessors as in their opinion necessary.

Of the number of assessment Districts in the seventh Division, the towns of Shrewsbury, Northboro' and Boylston, constituted the seventeenth assessment District, of which Thomas W. Ward was appointed Principal Assessor; Jonah Howe, Antipass Brigham, of Northboro', and Aaron Sawyer, of Boylston, Assistant Asses- sors.

The act required them to value and enumerate the dwelling. houses, lands, Szc., in their respective Districts ; authorized them. to require lists of the same, to be furnished to them by the per- sons owning or possessing them, and the names of such persons, [the lists to specify, in respect to dwelling houses, their situation, their dimensions or area, their number of stories, the number and dimensions of their windows, the materials of which they were built, &c.,] and on failure of the owners and occupants to furnish such lists, the Assessors themselves were to make them out, or in other words to doom the delinquents - all to be taken as on the first day of October, 1798. So much as is included in brackets was repealed soon after the passage of the act.

They were then to assess the same, and transmit their proceed- ings to the Commissioners - property exempted by the law of the State from taxation, not to be assessed, nor dwelling houses, the valuation of which did not exceed one hundred dollars. Clergymen and their property being exempted from taxation by the laws of Massachusetts, were not assessed for their dwelling houses or lands - nevertheless, their houses and lands were enu- merated and valued as those of others.

From the Assessors' return to the Commissioners of their pro- ceedings under the authority and by virtue of the above mentioned

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

act, I extract the following, which relates to this town, and, as showing the number of houses and the names of the owners and occupants at that time, will be interesting to many, and affords matter for reflection to all.

NAMES OF OCCUPANTS OF HOUSES & NAMES OF REPUTED OWNERS OF

IN SHREWSBURY, Oct. 1, 1798.

HOUSES, Oct. 1, 1798.

Jonathan Adams,

Silas Allen,

Elnathan Allen,

John Bragg,

Jolın Bragg,

Reuben Baker,

John Baker,

David Brigham,

Samuel Brigham,

George Brown,

John Bellows,

Humphrey Bigelow,

1 Humphrey Bigelow,

Phillip Crosby,

Beriah Brastor,

Col. Job Cushing,

Jonathan Cutler,

Daniel Cook,

Jonathan Dean,

Caleb Drury and Joel Drury, 1

Caleb Drury and Joel Drury,

Abijah Drury,

Benjamin Eddy,

Lewis Eager,

Edward Flint,

Charles Fay,

Benjamin Goddard,

Daniel Goddard and Luther Goddard, 1

Daniel Goddard and Luther Goddard,

Uriah Hunt,

Luther Goddard,

Abel Goulding,

John Green, 1

John Green,

Nathaniel Green,

Joshua Henshaw, Esq.,

1 Joshua Henshaw, Esq.,

Martin Smith,

1 Joshua Henshaw, Esq.,

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

Amasa Holden,

Amasa Holden, 1

Daniel Holden,

1 Daniel Holden,

Timothy Howard,

Nathan Howe,

Gideon Howe,

Jonah Howe,

Joab Hapgood,

Silas Hemenway,

Jonas Hemenway,

Thomas Harrington and Daniel Harrington, 1

Thomas Harrington and Daniel Harrington,

Isaac Harrington,

Elijah Harrington,

Joseph Hastings,

Jonas Hastings, 1

Jonas Hastings,

Nathaniel Heywood, 1

Nathaniel Heywood,

Thomas Harlow,

Sarah Henshaw, 1

Sarah Henshaw,

Dennis Howe,

Daniel Johnson,

Stephen Johnson,

Phillip Johnson and David John- son, 1

Phillip Johnson and David John- son,

Joseph B. Jennison and Samuel Jennison, 1

Joseph B. Jennison and Samuel Jennison,

Joseph Knowlton,

Paul Knowlton, J

Paul Knowlton,

Abraham Knowlton,

Thomas Knowlton,

William Knowlton,

Ebenezer Kingsbury,

Ebenezer Kingsbury, 1

Isaac Drury,

Elisha Keyes,

Thomas Miles,

1 Thomas Miles,

Nathaniel Munroe,

Aaron Munroe,

1 Aaron Munroe,

Asa Mixer,

1 Asa Mixer,

Daniel Maynard,

1 Daniel Maynard,

Seth Maynard,

1 Seth Maynard,

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

Benjamin Maynard, Simon Maynard,

1 Benjamin Maynard,

1 Simon Maynard,

John Mason,

1 John Mason,

Abraham Munroe,

1 Abraham Munroe,

Daniel Noyes,

Samuel Noyes,

1 Samuel Noyes,

David Nelson,

1 David Nelson,

Maj. Calvin Newton,

Joseph Nurse,

Solomon Newton,

1 Solomon Newton,

Asa Newton,

Seth Pratt,

Elnathan Pratt,

John Peirks,

1 John Peirks,

John Peirks, Jr.,

John Peirks, Jr., 1

Hollis Parker,

Ithamar Parker,

Jonathan Plympton,

1 Jonathan Plympton,

Elzaphan Plympton,

1 Elzaphan Plympton,

Levi Pease,

Jonathan Bruce,

Seth Pratt,

John Rice,

John Rice, Jr.,

John Rice,

Col. Asa Rice,

Elisha Keyes

Elijah Rice,

Solomon Rand and Jasper Rand,

Gideon Rider,

Aaron Smith and Ashbel Smith,

Samuel Smith,

1 Samuel Smith,

Lewis Smith,

1 Lewis Smith,

Dea. Jonas Stone,

Jonathan Stone and Jonas Stone, Jr.,

Stone, Jr.,

Daniel Stone,

1 Daniel Stone,

Josiah Stone,

1 Josiah Stone,

Joseph Stone,

1 Joseph Stone,

Daniel Smith,

Jonathan Stone and Jonas

1 Daniel Smith,

HISTORY OF SIIREWSBURY.

Daniel Smith, Jr.,

1 Daniel Smith, Jr.,

Jasper Stone,

3 Jasper Stone,

George Slocomb,

Rev. Joseph Sumner,

1 Rev. Joseph Sumner,

William Jennison, 1 Samuel Sumner,

Harvey Maynard,

1 Joseph Stone

Jedediah Tucker,

1 Jedediah Tucker,

Joseplı S. Temple,

1 Joseph S. Temple,

James Alexander,

1 William Thompson, Boston,

Timothy Underwood,

1 Timothy Underwood,

Hon. Artemas Ward and Thomas W. Ward,

1 Hon. Artemas Ward,

George Parker,

Hon. Artemas Ward,

Gershom Wheelock,

1 Gershom Wheelock,

Timothy Wheelock,

1 Timothy Wheelock,

Thomas Whitney,

Thomas Whitney, 1

Jason Ware,

Artemas Wheeler,

Aaron Wheeler,

1 Aaron Wheeler,

Ross Wyman,

1 Ross Wyman,

Seth Wyman,

Ross Wyman.

120

NAMES OF REPUTED OWNERS OF HOUSES OF VALUE LESS THAN ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS, OCT. 1, 1798.

Daniel Baker,

$60 } Ephraim Lyon, $40

Benjamin Bush,

Ebenezer Mann, 40

Joseph Davis,

Daniel Mixer, 70

Ebenezer Garfield,

Jonathan Newton, 60

Shephard Pratt, 70

Mary Garfield,

Silas Wheelock, 60

Jonathan Harrington,

Ezra Wheelock, 20

Arunah Harlow,

40 Joshua Wheelock, 20

Martin Newton,

77 Ross Wyman, 40

All slaves were assessed 50 cents each, who were above 12, and under 50 years of age, except such, as from fixed infirmity or bodily disability, were incapable of labor.

The effect of this upon the slave-holding States was greatly to enhance the amount of their proportion of the two million tax.

HISTORY OF SHREWSBURY.

The following Table shows who have been chosen Moderators, Town Clerks, Selectmen, Assessors, and Town Treasurers at the Annual March Meetings, and Representatives to the General Court, from the time of the incorporation of Shrewsbury, in 1727, to and including 1829. The town was incorporated on the 15th of December, 1727, with authority "for the choosing of Town Officers to stand until the next Annual Election, according to Law ; " by virtue whereof the first Town Meeting was held, and Town Officers chosen, on the 27th of December, to stand until the Annual Election in March following.

MODERATORS.

TOWN CLERKS.

SELECTMEN.

ASSESSORS,

TREASURERS.

REPRESENTATIVES.

Dec. 29, 1727.

John Keyes, Sen.

Lt. Nahum Ward.

Lt. Nahum Ward, Capt. John Keyes, Jolın Keyes, Sen. Dea. Sam'l Wheelock, Isaac Stone.

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History of the town of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1717 to 1829, with other matter relating thereto not before published, including an extensive family register, Part 5

Author: Ward, Andrew Henshaw, 1784-1864. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1847 Publisher: Boston, S. G. Drake Number of Pages: 534

Author: Ward, Andrew Henshaw, 1784-1864. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1847
Publisher: Boston, S. G. Drake
Number of Pages: 534