USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Milton > The history of Milton, Mass., 1640 to 1877 > Part 41
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The chief event of this war in America was the capture of Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island, a fine fort and a strong for- tress, -the chief centre of French power. The expedition, consisting of four thousand troops, three thousand from Massa- chusetts and one thousand from the other colonies, sailed from Boston March 24, 1745. They were met at Canso, by Commo- dore Warren, with an English fleet of seven or eight men-of- war. With the combined forces they laid siege to the fortress, which, on the 24th day of June, surrendered. This victory caused great rejoicing throughout the colonies. The land force was commanded by William Pepperell, Esq., who was created, by the king, Baronet of Great Britain, as a reward for his service.
Most of the Massachusetts troops in this expedition were from this vicinity. Dorchester and Milton furnished their full share.
In " Blake's Annals " I find the following reference to these soldiers : ---
Most that went from hereabouts that I knew, either died there, or in their passage home, or soon after they came home; 'tis said, there died of our New England forces about 1,500 men.
France, exasperated at the loss of this stronghold, which had cost her five and a half millions of dollars, and had been twenty-
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KING GEORGE'S WAR.
five years in building, sent, the next summer, a powerful fleet, with not less than eight thousand disciplined troops and the necessary armament, to recover the fort and ravage the coast of New England.
The fleet sailed the 11th of June, and reached Nova Scotia about the middle of September. Consternation spread over the colonies. According to Blake, -
About one-half of the militia of the country was called to Boston and the lower towns. Numerous works of defence were commenced about Boston, and prosecuted even on the Sabbath days.
But a fatal malady broke out among the French troops, greatly reducing their numbers; seven of their ships were wrecked, and others were damaged by a terrific storm, which so disheartened the leaders that "they returned to France with- out striking a blow."
In 1748 a treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle terminated this conflict, known as King George's War.
The peace that followed was only for a few years, when the colonies were thrown into anxiety and distress by the intelli- gence of another war with France. This war, known as the
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR,
began in 1755, and continued till 1763. Great preparations were made on both sides for attack and defence.
In the spring of 1755 four expeditions were planned by the colonies, -one, under Gen. Braddock, against the French on the Ohio, which ended disastrously ; a second, under command of Governor Shirley, to reduce Fort Niagara; the third, against Crown Point, a fortress on the west side of Lake Champlain ; and the fourth, against the French in Acadia, since called Nova Scotia.
In these various expeditions heavy drafts were made on the colonies for men and money. Milton men were enrolled in three of them.
ACADIA.
The expedition against Acadia, or Nova Scotia, consisted of three thousand men, chiefly from Massachusetts, under command of Lieut .- Col. Monckton, of the British army, with Gen. Winslow in charge of the first division, and Gen. Scott, of the second. They sailed from Boston on the 1st of June, 1755, reaching the Bay of Fundy early in that month. The French forts were speedily reduced, and Nova Scotia fell under British control.
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HISTORY OF MILTON.
It was determined to break up the settlement, which was thought to be a hot-bed of French intrigue and conspiracy, and to disperse the inhabitants among the English colonies. This difficult and extremely painful duty was assigned to Gen. Winslow.
FRENCH NEUTRALS IN MILTON.
One thousand of these proscribed Acadians were transported to Massachusetts. Three families were billeted on the town of Milton from Dec. 20, 1755, to Sept. 26, 1760. These are often referred to by name in our records. Houses were rented for them, and their wants were supplied by the town, the expense being in part reimbursed from the State. The following details relating to these banished Acadians, which have been found in the Massa- chusetts Archives, cannot fail to interest the reader : -
The first of the families in Milton is, - Seabrew, 34 years old ; his wife, 32 years ; his first son, 10 years ; second son, 8 years ; third son, 6 years ; fourth son, 4 years ; his first daughter, 2 years ; second daughter, 2 months.
Second family. - Battis, 33 years old; his wife, 28 years ; first son, 9 years ; second son, 3 years ; his daughter, 7 years.
Third family. - Loring, 29 years old; his wife, 24 years old; eldest son, 5 years ; second son, 3 years ; third son, 9 months.
The said Battis is in feeble health, and has been since he came to Milton ; the woman weakly ; the boy nine years old weakly. It is found that they have cost the town seventy-six pounds, five shillings, and five pence, for the year.
Petition of Milton regarding French Neutrals.
Province of Massachusetts, Bay S. S. To his Excellency, Thomas Pow- nal, Esq., Captain General and Governor in Chief of the Honorable, His Majesty's Council and House of Representatives in the General Court, assembled this 23 of November, Anno Domini, 1757.
We the subscribers Selectmen of Milton in behalf of said town humbly shew -
That the town of Milton have for some time past had sixteen of the Neutral French quartered on them, which number has since increased to eighteen, that there are but three men in the number, one of whom is in a weak and delicate state, which number your petitioners humbly apprehend, according to the number quartered on other towns, greatly exceeds their proportion. The town is but a small town, and though they would cheer- fully in this time of distress bear their proportion to their utmost ability, but more than that is greivous. We would therefore humbly move your Excellencies and Honors to interfere in behalf of Milton, so far as to give them such relief in the premises as according to your known wisdom and accustomed justice you shall see meet, and your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray.
BENJAMIN FENNO, BENJAMIN WADSWORTH, WILLIAM TUCKER, DAVID RAWSON, JEREMIAH TUCKER, Select Men.
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FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS.
With the exception of the success at Nova Scotia the measures planned for 1755 resulted in failure.
The season of 1756, by dilatory management, passed without any successful movements against Crown Point or Niagara.
In 1757 Fort William Henry was lost to the English, and nothing was achieved.
About this time William Pitt was again appointed Secretary of State, and by his wise administration the British councils were infused with new life.
SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS.
The various campaigns of 1758 were favorable. Louisburg, which had been restored to France by the treaty of Aix-la- Chapelle, was a second time reduced. In the siege of this stronghold Col. Golding, grandfather of William Wood, of Milton, bore a conspicuous part. He provided his command with long iron hooks, which they fastened on the walls at the storming of the fort, and thus drew themselves up hand over hand to the parapet and entered the fort; for which act Col. Golding was knighted by the government of England. Fort Frontenac was also captured. In the closing months of the year the English flag was flying over Fort Duquesne.
The general invasion of Canada was planned as the campaign of 1759. Gen. Amherst led one army against Crown Point and Ticonderoga. These strongholds were abandoned in July, and were occupied by the colonial troops.
Gen. Prideaux led a second army against Niagara, which sur- rendered after a short siege.
Gen. Wolfe, with eight thousand troops and a powerful fleet, was delegated to the reduction of Quebec. The troops were landed in June. A startling plan of operation was formed by the commanding general, attended with the greatest hazard, but conducted with consummate energy and sagacity, by which he succeeded in bringing the enemy to battle on the Plains of Abraham, Sept. 13. Before noon of that day the victory of the English arms decided the fate of France in America. But in the very moment of victory Gen. Wolfe was borne from the field pierced by two bullets, and died, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. In this battle was James Boies, of Milton, who after- wards bore a conspicuous part in the Revolutionary war.
A definite treaty was signed at Paris in 1763, bringing to an end the American intercolonial wars.
In these protracted wars Massachusetts furnished between two and three times as many troops as were raised in all the other
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HISTORY OF MILTON.
colonies. While the other colonies doubled their population by natural increase in twenty-five years, Massachusetts had not twice as many inhabitants in 1713 as she numbered fifty years before. Hutchinson, in recording these facts, remarks : -
It is probable that there would have been two hundred thousand souls more at this time if the French had been driven from Canada a hundred years ago.
To meet this large draft upon the State, every town had its quota to furnish.
MILTON SOLDIERS.
In the muster-rolls of the various companies raised in Boston and vicinity I find the names of many of our early citizens, which will here be given without attempting a connected narra- tive.
In the company of Capt. Nathaniel Blake, of Milton, of the regiment under command of Col. Jonathan Bagley, raised for the intended expedition against Crown Point, are the following Milton men :
Edward Glover, Ensign
Nathaniel Badcock
Lemuel Voss, Sargeant Joseph Payne
Abiel Blake, Sentinel Benoni Spear
David Horton, Sentinel Seth Smith
Israel Percy, Sentinel
Seth Vose.
Edward Glover died at Albany before April 20, 1757, and was buried there at the expense of the government.
Albany Dec 7 1755 Judge Bent of Milton Captain of a company in the expedition died here today of dropsy.
A list of those, the party of min that went on shore at Port Le Tore belonging to Captain Sturtevants Company April 25, 1756 Lieut Lemuel Bent- Corp. Jacob French - David Horton-Levi Horton -James Mingo.
The above were all Milton men.
Capt. Thomas Vose, of Milton, who had charge of a troop of horse in 1757, led his troopers to the relief of Fort William Henry, at the foot of Lake George, when that fort was threat- ened by Montcalm.
Seth Sumner, of Brush Hill, was also engaged as " trooper " in this war.
Lemuel Bent of Milton is authorized to beat his drums for enlistment of Volunteers for his Majestys Service in a regiment of foot for a general invasion of Canada - April 20 1758
Signed T. POWNAL Govenor
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WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
The same Lemuel Bent, Milton tavern-keeper, was stationed, Nov. 23, 1761, as captain of his company (gathered in and near Milton), at Halifax.
In 1759 Stephen Vose, of Milton, was with the provincial forces at St. John, N. B., under Col. Arbuthnot ; he was wounded in an engagement with the Indians, and his leg was amputated above the knee. A pension was granted him, which was re- newed in 1775.
Benjamin Horton, of Milton, petitions Governor Hutchinson, June 6, 1760, in behalf of his son, Nathaniel Horton, a minor, who enlisted in the company of which Capt. Lemuel Bent had command, in Col. Abijah Willard's regiment, in the forces raised for the reduction of Canada, and was there taken sick, and needed aid. An allowance was granted him.
It is not designed, nor is it possible, to name here all the Milton men who were actors in these numerous wars, that spread over almost the whole of the first century of the town's existence, much less to mention in detail the struggles and privations of the wonderful men and women then living.
The colonies were sparsely peopled except on the sea-coast. They were hemmed in on every side. A hostile and insidious foe hung on the outskirts. A cordon of sixty French fortifica- tions, stretching from Montreal to New Orleans, encircled them on the west, threatening invasion and conquest. The Atlantic shut down upon them on the east, across which the mother- country sent her emissaries, forcing submission to unreasonable demands, or exacting tribute from a stricken and famished people ; they must tamely submit, or stubbornly resist. This discipline to these resolute and indomitable spirits was indeed bitter, but it developed a power of character and a reservation of force needful in events about to transpire. In the varied experiences of these trying times is clearly seen the process which formed the principles and men of 1775.
WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
After the peace of 1763 the British Parliament, to meet the ex- penses of the late wars, passed an act for laying a duty on paper, vellum, or parchment used in America, and declaring all writ- ings on unstamped material null and void. This act, called the Stamp Act, received the royal assent March 22, 1765. Soon after a bill was passed quartering British troops on the colonies.
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HISTORY OF MILTON.
These acts met with universal opposition. The whole country was wrought up into a state of intense excitement.
On the 1st day of November, when the Stamp Act was to have taken effect, neither stamps nor officers were to be found in the colonies, and in less than a year from its passage the act was repealed.
In 1767 duties were imposed on various articles of importa- tion needful in the colonies, and the collection was enforced by English troops quartered in Boston, which was followed by a combination of the merchants and people against the importation and consumption of the articles specified, and soon after by a repeal of the duties, except on tea.
The people accordingly united in renouncing the use of tea ; and, on the persistent shipment of the offensive article, two ves- sels bearing it, as they were anchored in Boston harbor, were boarded, Dec. 16, 1773, by sixty or seventy young men, dis- guised as Indians, when three hundred and forty-two chests of tea were thrown overboard. Among their number was John Crane, born in Milton; Dec. 7, 1744; also, Samuel Gore, grand- father of Theodore Russell Glover, now resident on Milton Hill, and Henry Purkett, from whom our honored citizen, the late Henry Purkett Kidder, received his name.
This daring act on the part of the colonists was followed by the "Boston Port Bill," "March 31, 1774, forbidding all com- mercial intercourse with Boston, and soon after by a second bill, vesting in the king or his governor the appointment of all officers, executive, military, and judicial; thus virtually abrogating the government of Massachusetts.
These oppressive measures, though mainly aimed at Massa- chusetts and Boston, awoke the resentment of all the colonies, and served to unite them in the most determined opposition, and, on the failure of all efforts at reconciliation, forced them to the dread arbitrament of war.
MILTON'S POSITION.
The town of Milton occupied an extraordinary position in the opening of these disturbances. Thomas Hutchinson, the royal governor, and the chief actor for the crown, owned a mansion on Milton Hill. After the sacking of his house in Bos- ton this was his constant place of residence. In his private character, as a friend and citizen, Governor Hutchinson was universally beloved and greatly respected, and by his high quali- ties of mind and heart he had drawn around him the affections of the people. At the opening of the Revolution his fame was at its zenith. John Adams says : -
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WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
He had been admired, revered, rewarded, and almost adored; and the idea was common that he was the greatest and best man in America.
In 1761 he was Lieutenant-Governor, and thus Commander of the Castle and member of the Council, besides holding at the same time the important positions of Judge of Probate and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
He was a graceful speaker, a vigorous writer, and a highly respectable scholar. Few who sat upon the bench in the last century were more deserving commendation than Governor Hutchinson.
It is a traditional anecdote that after listening to the charges given by his associates, juries were in the habit of remarking when Hutchinson rose to address them that " now we shall have something which we can under- stand."
For a time there may have been in Milton a conflict between loyalty to a noble and faithful friend and loyalty to the princi- ples of justice and freedom. The period of suspense was brief. Milton was among the first to resent the aggressive acts of the mother-country, and her men were foremost in the ranks of our armies. Spread over many pages of the records of the town appear the principles that governed our fathers, and the senti- ments that actuated them in endeavoring to redress the griev- ances and throw off the burdens they were subjected to. These stirring words awaken inspiration even in our day.
A month after Governor Hutchinson's Boston mansion was destroyed, and just before the Stamp Act was to take effect the town assembled in mass meeting on the green about the church. The record of that meeting is as follows : -
Oct. 24. 1765. The question was put, whether the town would instruct their present representative respecting the Stamp Act, and passed in the affirmative. Voted to choose a Committee to draw up instructions. Ac- cordingly Dr. Samuel Gardner, Deacon Benjamin Wadsworth and Lieuten- ant Jazaniah Tucker were chose, who withdrew and after a short time returned with the following instructions, which the town unanimously accepted, and voted that they be recorded in the town books, and that an attested copy thereof be by the Town Clerk delivered to Stephen Miller Esq. our present Representative.
Instructions by the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of Milton to Stephen Miller Esq, their present Representative.
Being sensibly affected by the calamitous circumstances to which this Country must be soon reduced by the execution of the Stamp Act, unless by some means relieved, we think proper in the present distressed conjunc- tion of affairs to give you the following instructions.
1st. That you promote and readily join in representing our grievances to the King and Parliament in a suitable manner, and if redress may easily be obtained it will be most acceptable to us - yet as the distress threatened
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HISTORY OF MILTON.
must [if not prevented] bring Slavery and Ruin, we expect you to promote and join in measures which may relieve us, be the expense and conse- quences what they will : - for if we had no dispute as to the justice of a tax where we are not represented, the sum that even the Distributors of the Stamps would have for their trouble, according to best calculation that has been made, would be insupportable for us to pay in addition to our annual expenses, and the great debts that we have contracted in the last war. Now if we had been represented in Parliament or could have been heard by our agents, we cant suppose that such an immoderate tax would have been laid upon us, if it had been just to lay any.
But if British subjects in America are liable to be taxed otherwise than by their own Representatives and may not be allowed trial by their own peers, which by this Act we understand is the case, they are as distant from the liberty of Englishmen as are the Slaves of Turkey.
2. That you discountenance as far as lies in your power the late horri- ble outrages that have been committed in the town of Boston, and that you use your utmost endeavors that the offenders may be found out and be brought to justice, and that restitution may be made by the means of their accomplices, if they have estates sufficient, to the persons who have suffered by them. And we could wish that persons who desire to conceal such offenders were obliged to make satisfaction in their stead. And if there are not laws already, sufficient for restraining such disorderly per- sons, we desire that you use your endeavors that laws be made sufficient for that purpose, so that all his Majesty's Subjects in this province may have their lives and property secured, if they are thought worth securing after the Stamp Act takes place.
3d. We expect that you enquire by what authority or whose advice it was, that the public money was appropriated for raising soldiers without the consent and in the absence of the General Court.
Recorded by ELIJAH WADSWORTH Town Clerk.
During this exciting period town meetings were held every month, and sometimes much oftener; in one year of the war, 1778, nineteen meetings were held by the town. At these meetings matters of vital interest were considered, and great principles were discussed by men deeply in earnest. We might here, with profit, present in a somewhat liberal manner the doings of these meetings, showing the masterly way in which great subjects were treated by common minds, - minds pro- foundly moved by the threatening perils; but the records of one meeting more must suffice :-
Jan. 8. 1773. The Committee chosen by the Town of Milton to draw up instructions to their Representative report as follows : -
To MR. JOSIAH HOW Representative for the Town of Milton
SIR. - We have heard read the letter of Correspondence from the Town of Boston with their proceedings, and find many grievances there justly complained of, too many to be enumerated here, but recommend that pamphlet to your perusal. Whoever seriously considers the conduct of Administration both at home and here can hardly entertain a doubt that a plan is formed to subvert the Constitution.
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WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
First-The British Parliament making an act to raise a revenue without the consent of the people themselves or their Representatives is a grievance of the first magnitude.
Again. - The Crowns making the Governor independent of the people has a tendency to destroy that harmony which should always subsist be- tween the three branches of Legislature in a free State.
Again. - The general difference made between the trial of subjects here and at home, in the Act for searching his Majestys Dock Yards and other naval stores, is a great grievance.
Again. - The making the Judges of the Supreme Court dependent on the Crown and independent of the people whose lives and fortunes are so much in their power, is a great grievance naturally tending to subvert Justice between the King and Subject.
We recommend and enjoin you to use your interest and influence in the House of Representatives as far as is consistent with the rights of the peo- ple to Petition his Majesty, and to remove the grievance we labor under. And in the meantime we depend upon your steadiness prudence and firm- ness, and that you give not up one jot or tittle of our rights, but dispute every inch of ground with the enemies of our Liberties and Freedom.
By the Committee -John Adams, Col. Wm. Taylor, Dr. Samuel Gard- ner, Capt. David Rawson and Daniel Vose. -
The question was put whether the Town would accept this report as in- structions to their Representative and it passed in the affirmative.
AMARIAH BLAKE, Recorder.
GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON'S DEPARTURE.
In the progress of events Governor Hutchinson deemed it expedient to relinquish his trust, and to remove to England, from considerations of safety and needful repose. A few citizens of Milton, to relieve, in a measure, the adverse circumstances of his departure, conceived the idea of tendering the governor a friendly parting address, influenced, no doubt, by similar action on the part of many leading members of the bar of Massachusetts, who had forwarded to the governor a complimentary address, but afterwards publicly retracted their expressions of approbation.
This document, which is not a matter of record, and has never been printed, and has also failed to meet the searching eye of the antiquarian, has come down to us in its original manuscript, yellow with age. It is interesting and instructive, as showing the decided opinions prevailing on both sides, and the definite party lines that divided the people.
Of the men whose names were affixed to this paper, James Murray soon after left Milton, and in 1776 went to England. Stephen Miller removed to Nova Scotia; his estate in Scott's Woods was confiscated.
To THOMAS HUTCHINSON Esquire Late Gov. &c.
SIR, - We the Select Men, the Magistrates and other principal Inhabi- tants of the Town of Milton, hearing of your speedy Embarkation for Eng-
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HISTORY OF MILTON.
land, cannot let you leave this Town which you have so long honored by your Residence without some publick Expression of our sincere wishes for your health and happiness.
We have been Eye Witnesses, Sir, of your amiable private and useful publick Life ; We have with concern beheld you, in the faithful and prudent Discharge of your Duty exposed to Calumnies, Trials and Sufferings, as unjust as severe ; and seen you bearing them all with becoming Meekness and Fortitude.
As to ourselves and Neighbours in particular ; altho many of us, in future Perplexities will often feel the Want of your skillful gratuitous advice, always ready for those who asked it, we cannot but rejoice for your Sake Sir, at your being so seasonably relieved by an honourable and worthy Suc- cessor, in this critical and distressful period from the growing Difficulty of the Government of your beloved native Province. And we see your De- parture with the less Regret, being convinced that the Change at present will contribute to your and your Family's Tranquility : possessed as you are of the applause of good men, of the favour of our Sovereign, and the Appro- bation of a good Conscience to prepare the Way to Rewards infinitely ample froni the King of Kings ; to whose Almighty protection, We, with greatful hearts commend you and your family.
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