USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Walpole > The story of Walpole, 1724-1924; a narrative history prepared under authority of the town and direction of the Historical Committee of Bi-Centennial > Part 8
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Meanwhile, September 5, a long-planned Con- tinental Congress had met at Philadelphia- aided and abetted by Walpole money. For back in June the town had appropriated one . pound four shillings "to be Paid to Mr. Thomas Cushen Esqr in order to Enable a Committee of
1 Broadside, Boston Public Library Collection.
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Congress (Chosen by the General assembly of this Province) to meet with the Committees of the other Provinces and Collonies in North America." 1
So also did Walpole throw its influence toward the establishment of a Massachusetts Provincial Congress. On September 23, it was voted to have the Walpole representative (Enoch Ellis, who had succeeded Joshua Clap in 1773) 2 "Joyn in and with a Provincial Congress to be held where the Provincial Congress shall ap- point." Nathaniel Guild was appointed to represent the town if Ellis could not get there.3
The Walpole people had no illusions as to what the setting up of a Provincial Assembly, independent of the Crown, would lead to. And so on this same day they appointed Capt. Ebenezer Clap and Ensign Theodore Man to "Purchas Two field Peices." 4
On September 28, General Gage, who was also Royal Governor, issued a proclamation saying that he would not meet the General Court due to meet October 5 at Salem, and discharging all elected representatives from attendance. 5 Two days later, in special meeting, Walpole ordered its Representative, Enoch Ellis to "join with the members who may be Sent from this and other Towns in this sd Province: an to
1 Town Rec., 267. 2 Ibid., 257, 266. 3 Ibid., 268.
' Ibid., 268. 5 Provincial Congress Journal, 1774-5, 3, 4.
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meet with them at a time to be a Greed on in a Generall Provincial Congress to act upon Such matters as may Come Before You in such a manner as may appear to you most Conducive to the true Intent of Interest of this Town and Province: and most Likely to Preserve the Liberties of all North America in General. . . . " 1
The town on this occasion named its first Committee of Correspondence-Nathaniel Guild, Capt. Seth Kingsbury, Ensign Man, Capt. Ebenezer Clap and Joseph Day-and gave in- structions that it was "to Join with the Com- mittees of other towns in this Province."
In spite of Gage's prohibition, 90 Representa- tives, Ellis among them, met at Salem, resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress and ad- journed to meet later in the month at Concord. At subsequent meetings steps were taken to organize and equip the Minute Men.
On December 5, 1774, the Provincial Con- gress called upon the towns to carry into exe- cution the plans of the Continental Congress to prevent consumption of goods imported from England, and suggested that Committees of Inspection be appointed to see that all mer- chants and traders cooperated in the movement.2 Walpole at once assented; and on December 19 appointed Dr. Samuel Cheney, Enoch Ellis, Nicholas Harris, John Boyden, Phillip Robbins,
1 Town Rec., 269. 2 Provincial Congress Journal, 57, 58.
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Ensign Theodore Man and Nathaniel Guild to be a Committee of Inspection. To these were afterwards added Capt. Seth Bullard, Aquilla Robins, George Payson, Capt. Joseph Harts- horn, Joseph Day, Joshua Clap, Jr., Capt. Jeremiah Smith, Aaron Blake and John Lewis.1
The Congress, having requested the towns to withhold payment of tax money to Hon. Har- rison Gray, the Provincial Treasurer under the Crown,2 now proceeded to appoint Henry Gard- ner of Stow to be its Receiver-General 3 and urged the towns to make payments to him in order that provision might be made against the "imminent dangers" that confronted the people.4 Once again did Walpole speedily lend its support to the patriot cause. Its people pledged them- selves to indemnify the Selectmen and Assessors for any damage arising from their refusal to make payments to Gray, and likewise to stand back of the Constables, Abner Turner and Samuel Guild, for paying the money to Henry Gardner.5
The immediate necessity for funds was, of course, to provide arms and ammunition for the Provincial Militiamen, who were being organized by direction of the Provincial Congress. These were to include the now famous Minute Men, comprising one-quarter of each regular militia
1 Town Rec., 270. ? Prov. Congress Journal, 19.
3 Ibid., 38, 39, 45. 4 Ibid., 66.
' Town Rec., 270, 278.
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company, who were to "equip and hold them- selves in readiness, on the shortest notice from the said Committee of Safety, to march to the place of rendezvous. . 1 יי
Walpole's Minute Men were established Janu- ary 9, 1775, when the town voted that "one Quarter Part of the Training Band Soldiars Should be Inlisted in the Province Service to be Ready at a miniutes warning" and that these "minit men" should be paid two shillings a day for each day that they should be called together "and Shall be Exercised in the Military art or Disipline." William Fisher, Esq. Clap and Capt. Seth Kingsbury were named to make arrange- ments for drill, and to make sure that the men chosen for this important service "Be able Boided Effective men." 2 Twenty pounds was appropriated for pay for the Minute Men while in training.
Meanwhile the Committee of Inspection was having some trouble in functioning, due perhaps to its membership including many of the mili- tary officers of the town, who had other matters to keep them occupied. A new committee was appointed, but two of those named refused to serve. Finally, on April 17-two days before the outbreak of war-the personnel was satis- factorily arranged, the membership including James Plimpton, Jonathan Kimball, Henry 1 Prov. Congress Journal, 33. ' Town Rec., 271.
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Smith, Jonathan Carrel, Stephen Felch, Nathan Pond and Thomas Pettee.1
Walpole, together with nearly every other town in the Province, now was prepared for whatever emergency might arise.
1 Town Rec., 279, 280.
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B Y a vote of the town on December 30, 1774, the matter of providing wood for the "Suffering Industrous Poor in the Town of Boston" was turned over to the Committee of Inspection,1 and members of that important body doubtless were quick to go to the relief of their fellow patriots who had been deprived of a livelihood by the closing of the Port of Boston under the Port Bill, and the consequent stagnation of all trade.
It was presumably such a mission that sent Philip Robbins to Boston a few days before the Battle of Lexington. He dropped into one of the taverns for a glass of punch, and there over- heard the conversation of British officers who stood nearby. One of them suggested that it would be an easy matter for Gen. Gage's army to march from Boston through the country to New York.
"Friends," said Robbins, breaking in on the conversation, "you are much mistaken. You have as good officers and men as there are in 1 Town Rec., I, 270.
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the world; but Americans will fight better without officers than your men with officers. If you go out into the country in a riotous way they will take your men two to one and cut them all off for breakfast."
The officers denounced Robbins as a traitor, ordered him placed under arrest, and held him prisoner several hours. 1
Very early in the morning of April 19 Rob- bins, together with Capt. Jeremiah Smith and probably Lieut. John Boyden, started off for Boston with another consignment of wood. They arrived in Roxbury to learn that a British column had gone out into the country towards Lexington, that there had been fight- ing and that the Minute Companies were called out.2
Now it happened that Robbins, Smith and Boyden were all officers (Robbins being 1st Lieutenant and Boyden 2d Lieutenant) in one of the Walpole militia companies, of which Smith was Captain.3 And on learning that the Minute Men had been summoned to Lexington, each man took a horse from the traces and rode for home, leaving the wagons and other horses to be driven back by friends.
News of the fighting at Lexington reached
1 Statements of Jessa and Jacob Robbins in Sibley's Hist. of Union, Me., 331.
: Ibid. ' Rev. Rolls, XIII. Doc., 93.
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Walpole about noon,1 in advance of the arrival of Robbins, Smith and Boyden. When these men got back they must have found the Minute Men under arms. They hurriedly assembled their own men (there being 64 in the company, officers and men), and started away.2 About the same time another Walpole company, under Capt. Seth Bullard, with Eliphalet Ellis as Lieutenant and Enoch Ellis as Ensign, and a total of 67 officers and men, also marched.3 Twenty-nine Walpole men appear on the rolls of Capt. Sabin Man's Medfield and Walpole company which also answered the alarm that great day.4 In all, at least 160 Walpole men out of a popu- lation of less than 800 5 marched in answer to the alarm.
They probably took no active part in the engagement, Smith's men getting to Cambridge only after the day's fighting was done, and there refreshing themselves with provisions taken from the retreating British.6 The other com- panies presumably got no nearer the enemy.
It is interesting to note that three sons of Rev. Mr. Payson were under arms that day. Two of them, George and Seth, were privates in Bullard's company of Minute Men.7 The third, Rev. Phillips Payson, Jr., minister of the
1 Revolutionary Adventures, 23, 24, 25. 2 Sibley, 331.
' Rev. Rolls, XI, Doc. 205.
4 Rev. Rolls, XIII, Doc. 5.
· Lewis, 120. ' Sibley, 331. ' Rev. Rolls, XI, 205.
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church in Chelsea, was conspicuous among the men of that town who fell upon and captured Lord Percy's wagon-train and its convoy in what is now Arlington. 1
When the British were back within their lines at Boston, the militiamen, who had hung upon their heels and flanks during the retreat, gathered around the city to guard every egress by land. And as the alarm spread, and the Minute Men from more distant places arrived upon the scene, the ranks of the patriot army swelled until, by April 21, there were about 20,000 Americans before Boston.2
Many of these men had come through Walpole. "We marched to headens [tavern] at Walpole and their got a little refreshment," wrote Sam- uel Haws of Wrentham in his diary, "and from their we marched to Doctor cheneys [Walpole] and their we got some victuals and Drink and from thence we marched to Landlord clises at Dedham. . . . "3
Haws records an unfortunate incident of the early days of the war, with which Walpole is concerned. "This day," he writes on April 28, "our regement paraded and went through the manuel exesise then we grounded our firelocks and every man set down by their arms and one abial Petty axedentely discharged his peace and
1 Chamberlain, II, 425-426. ? Frothingham, 91, note. ' Military Journals, 51, 52.
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shot two balls through the Body of one asa cheany through his Left side and rite rist he Lived about 24 hours and then expired he be- longed to Walpole and he was caried their and Buried on the 30 day of April on Sunday. ... "
After a few days on the lines, when the ex- citement died down and the problem of food supplies and equipment became acute (for no preparations for the maintenance of such a large force had been made), many of the militiamen started for their homes, some to stay, others to put their affairs into such shape as would allow them to return to the war.1
The Walpole companies were among those that assembled before Boston on the evening of April 19, and also among those which were disintegrated by departures for home. The muster rolls show that some of the Walpole men who took up arms on the 19th quit their soldiering after four days; and the longest term of service shown is about 11 days.2 But many of these men promptly returned to the ranks in response to a call of the Massachusetts Provin- cial Congress, which on April 23 voted to raise a force of 30,000 men for defence of the pro- vince.3 And so we find listed among the com- panies of Col. Joseph Read's Regiment in "Camp at Roxbury, May 18th, 1775" one com-
1 Frothingham, 92, 93. 2 Rev. Rolls, XI, 205; XIII, 93. ¿ Frothingham, 98.
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manded by the gallant Seth Bullard, muster- ing 60 men. This is not his old Walpole militia company, but evidently a unit of the new es- tablishment, regularly enlisted, and is made up mainly of Walpole and Medfield men. Bul- lard's lieutenant is Thomas Pettee, who was a sergeant in his April 19 company, and his ensign is Ezekeil Plimpton of Medfield.1 A muster roll of August 1 shows that of 64 officers and men, 41 are from Walpole 2 and indicates the organization of the company early in May. Bullard's men are still on duty in late Septem- ber.3 Enlistment in the Province service was for a period ending in December.
Still more interesting is the intelligence de- rived from the muster rolls 4 that Ebenezer Clap is Lieut .- Colonel of Read's regiment. Clap had been an officer of the old provincial es- tablishment under the Crown, appearing as an Ensign in Seth Kingsbury's Walpole company back in 1766.5 The Town took notice of the absence of these men on patriotic service by electing Deacon Benjamin Kingsbury as a selectman in place of Bullard, "Now in the army at Roxbury," and Capt. Joseph Harts- horn to the Committee of Correspondence in place of Clap "now in the army." 6
1 Mass. Arch., CXLVI, Docs. 71 and 74.
? Rev. Rolls, XIV, Doc. 33. 3 Rev. Rolls, LVI, Doc. 121.
4 Mass. Arch., CXLVI, Docs. 71 and 74.
" Mass. Arch., XCIX, Docs. 83 and 384. 6 Town Rec., I, 282.
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Clap, who seems to have attained the highest rank in active field service of any Walpole man in the war, went with the Continental Army to New York, where he appears, still a Lieuten- ant-Colonel, in Col. Loammi Baldwin's regi- ment in June, 1776.1 Bullard, appears as a Major in 1776 2 and served variously thereafter, being made Muster Master for Suffolk County in 1780,3 and ranked as a Colonel. 4
The gathering of the American forces for the siege of Boston brought to Walpole the greatest bustle and excitement it had ever experienced, for not only was there the activity attendant upon its own men getting down to join the army, but the Rhode Island and Connecticut troops were constantly passing through the town. Thus we find Nathaniel Ames, at Dedham, noting on May 25 that the "Providence Artillery pass'd" and again, the following day, that "Large Cannon from Providence" had been roll- ing over the roads to Boston. And in August he records the passage of riflemen from the southward-"300 pass. 3 Comp. Connecticut Men," is one entry.5 And there is a map of the period that shows the troops and wagon trains marching along the road from Wrentham through Walpole towards Boston. 6
1 Rev. Rolls, LVIII, file 22, Doc. 83.
? Mass. Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolution, XI, 788. 3 Ibid.
4 Minute Men, 14. 5 Ded. Hist. Register, III, 130.
· Map: The Seat of War in New England.
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Jabez Fitch, jr. of Norwich, Conn. wrote in his journal for Aug. 8, 1775: "In the morning we ate breakfast at Man's [Wrentham], after which we marched forward to Head's [Headon's] in Walpole, where we drank some punch and marched forward to cheney's in Walpole, where our men are now cooking dinner. . . . " "'1
The Battle of Bunker Hill doubtless caused another flurry in the town, and perhaps some of the Minute Men marched towards Boston, as did the company of Capt. Aaron Guild of South Dedham, which included a number of Walpole residents. An old muster roll tells that the company marched "Upon the Larm of Bunker Hill," and shows two days' service on that occasion. 2
Then followed a summer and winter of com- parative inactivity, during which the British were kept closely cooped up in Boston. The story of Walpole's participation in the army life of this period is not easily written, though more extensive research than time now allows may disclose ample materials.
There was a constant passing and repassing of troops. The month of September brought to Walpole a then obscure captain in the Connecti- cut service, whose name was destined to go down in the rolls of the immortals-Nathan Hale. He was marching up with his company
1 Beneath Old Roof Trees, 76. 2 Collection of G. A. Plimpton.
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from New London to join the forces in front of Boston. The record of his visit is thus written by his own hand in a diary:
"25th. March'd soon after sunrise [from Attleboro]-and came very fast to Dupree's in Wrentham, 9 m. to Breakfast. Arv'd 9 O'Cl. 11 set off, and 1} P. M. arv'd [at] Hidden's, Walpole, and there din'd and tarried till 4} O'Cl., and then march'd to Dedham, 7 M., and put up." 1
Late in November, 1775, many of the Con- necticut troops, who demanded a bounty and were refused, threatened to leave the lines and return home when their time was out, December 10. It was only with the greatest difficulty that most of them were persuaded by Washing- ton to remain even to that date. The Com- mander-in-Chief appealed to the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Minute Men to come to camp to fill the place of the Connecticut men.2 To this appeal they freely responded. On December 4 Capt. Jeremiah Smith's company of 64 officers and men marched from Walpole to Boston 3; and about the same date other Walpole men in the company of Capt. Ephraim Cheney of Medfield, with John Boyden of Walpole as Ist Lieutenant, went in answer to . the same call.4 Another of the same name
1 Stuart's Hale, 207. 2 Frothingham, 273. : Lewis, 121 4 Rev. Rolls, XXVI, Doc. 306.
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appears in the roll of Smith's company as given by Lewis. From this time on we find many Walpole men in the camps at Roxbury and at Prospect Hill, then in Charlestown, now a part of Somerville.1 Twenty-five Walpole residents appear on the rolls of a company of Massachu- setts militiamen under Capt. Aaron Guild, with the ubiquitous John Boyden as its first Lieutenant, in the camp at Roxbury, March 27, 1776.2 These men, who enlisted January 27, are said to have helped throw up the works on Dorchester Heights which forced Gen. Howe to evacuate Boston on March 17.3
Guild's company was on duty in Boston as late as the following June, when various entries in the Captain's diary (the same volume he had kept in the French and Indian War) tell of ex- penditures for supplies, chiefly rum, sugar and "cyder." { In the summer and fall this com- pany was stationed at Hull. 5
The departure of the British released the Continental Army for service in the south. "Soldiers return home And Continental Troops march every Day to the Southward," Ames wrote on April 1, 1776. And on the 5th he set down: "Genl Washington lodg'd in town." 6
1 Rev. Rolls, XXXVIII, Doc. 118; LVI, Doc. 253; XXXVIII Doc. 90.
2 Rev. Rolls, XIX, Doc. 154}.
3 Lewis, 121, 122. 4 Diary in possession of Mr. Geo. A. Plimpton.
$ Mass. Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolution, VI, 936.
" Ded. Hist. Register, III, 131.
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Ames meant that the general had lodged there in the night of April 4. The following day, passing on to the southward, Washington prob- ably passed through Walpole, acclaimed by the admiring townspeople.
Major Farrington, now more than 100 years old, recalls that he was told when a boy by Zilpha Smith, then an aged woman, that Gen. Washington passed through present Lincoln Road, formerly Back Street, and stopped at the Smith house, which is still standing. Zilpha Smith gave the General a drink of water from a gourd which was used at the well for many years after.
Thereafter there was little occasion, for some months, for warlike parade, and the town's military activities related chiefly to having "The Powder replaced that was taken out of the Town stock for the Use of the Army last Sum- mer," 1 raising its proportion of men for opera- tions against Canada,? and appointing men "to Examine what every one had done in Town in the War." 3 As will be seen later, this com- mittee was not designed to single out the heroes, but to decide upon compensation for services rendered.
But Walpole in this period did a far more significant thing than any of these. On May 10 its people assembled in the meeting house 1 Town Rec., II, 1. ' Ibid., 4. . ' Ibid., 5, 7.
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and voted unanimously "that, if the Honble Continental Congress should declare these Colo- nies Independant of ye Kingdom of Great Britain, that they would support them [Con- gress] in the Measure with their Lives and Fortunes." This resolution was sent to the Provincial authorities, over the bold signature of Benjamin Kingsbury, Jr., town clerk, and is . preserved to this day in the musty files.1 The ink is not even faded.
In December, 1776, came an alarm from Rhode Island. A British fleet had come into Narra- gansett Bay and anchored in Newport Harbor. On the 8th Gov. Nicholas Cooke of Rhode Island sent a despatch to General Washington, saying that the British had landed that morning and that the Island of Rhode Island was in full possession of the enemy. "I have sent repeated expresses to the Massachusetts Bay and Con- necticut. The forces of the former are upon the march. . . . " ?
Two companies of Walpole Minute Men took up their muskets and started-one "upon an a. Larm," the other "upon alarum," as the muster- rolls tell us-to answer Gov. Cooke's appeal. The company of Joshua Clap, with Andrew Willett as Lieutenant, mustered 34 officers and men,3 and that of Capt. Oliver Clap, with
2 Mass. Arch., CLVI, 99, Doc. 2. * Field, 127, 129.
' Rev. Rolls, XVIII, 93.
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Eben Fales as Lieutenant, 30 officers and men.1
These forces stayed in Rhode Island about three weeks. When the companies started home, five men of each company were drafted to remain an additional three weeks to rein- force the State troops.2 The British threw up extensive fortifications and held on until 1780, a constant threat not only to Rhode Island, but to Massachusetts and Connecticut as well. Not only was it necessary to keep a large force opposed to the invaders, but, at every threatened offensive, the Minute Men were called upon to march. In both cases Walpole made her con- tributions. Thus, in December, 1778, we find the Selectmen taking oath that the town had raised "Seven able Bodied men to serve at Rhoad Island for the term of six months" and had paid each £14 as a bounty.3
Meanwhile, the two Walpole militia com- panies that had marched on the first alarm had been merged (September 23, 1777). Oliver Clap was chosen captain of the combined units, Timothy Mann as Ist Lieutenant and Andrew Willett as second,4 and the company had become a part of Col. Benjamin Hawes' 4th Suffolk regiment,5 of which Seth Bullard was Major.6
1 Rev. Rolls, I, 118. 2 Ibid. 3 Rev. Rolls, XL, 183.
' Town Rec., II, 15. 5 Rev. Rolls, XL, 142.
Mass. Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolution, II, 788.
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In June, 1779, after active service, Capt. Clap resigned.1 He evidently was succeeded by his senior lieutenant, for it is as Capt. Timothy Mann's company, of 44 officers and men, that it marched to Rhode Island in July, 1780, on one of the constantly recurring alarms .? It was probably for services on this occasion that Asa Page was later paid £180 "for Carrying the Baggage to Tivertown." 3
Strenuous efforts had been made by the town to see that its representation of 9-months and three-year men was recruited for Washington's army, operating to the southward. Early in February, 1777, it was voted that "The Men that served the Continent & State at Roxbury & the Places adjacent should be allowed 13 shillings & 4 Pence per Month," those that served at New York and Ticonderoga £3 per month, and those "that went to Warwick" the same as those at Roxbury. The matter of compensating those who had "Inlisted into the Train" was put off.4 These last, six men, had gone into the 10th company of Col. Thomas Crafts' Massachusetts Train of Artillery. 5
After thus showing their readiness to recog- nize in a very substantial manner those who had performed service, the town appointed a com-
1 Mass. Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolution, III, 491.
' Rev. Rolls, III, 16. 3 Town Rec., II, 73. 4 Ibid., 7, 8. ' Rev. Rolls, XXXVIII, 74-76.
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mittee (Feb. 6, 1777) to see if any men "were disposed to Inlist."1 They found that few were so disposed; and a week later it was deemed advisable to vote £14, in addition to State and Continental bounties, to all who enlisted before March 1. A committee was appointed to col- lect funds with which to pay this bounty. But raising money was found to be as hard a task as raising men, and it was necessary to borrow, at interest, on the town's account.2
In March, 1777, the town voted a bounty of £13.6.8 per year to such as would enlist in the Continental service for three years. This offer was to stand for a month, but evidently did not bring the hoped-for results and was continued into May.3 And the increasing unwillingness of men to serve with Washington and a general decline in the purchasing power of currency, contributed to bring about a situation whereby it was necessary to offer £130 for a 9-months enlistmen in May, 1778,4 and £1000, plus a half-bushel of corn per day and for each 20 miles traveled, and freedom from poll tax, for 6-months service in 1780.5 By January, 1781, the bounty for a three-year man had advanced to "Eighty hard Dollars" a year.6
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