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The fourth Provincial Congress met at Exeter, May 17, 1775. One hundred and thirty-four delegates were present, of whom thirty-one had military titles and eight were ministers
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of the gospel. Many towns that had heretofore had no repre- sentative in the Assembly sent delegates, even those towns on the Connecticut river, that later voted to form a part of the State of Vermont. Matthew Thornton was chosen president and Ebenezer Thompson secretary. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Josiah Stearns of Epping. It was a remarkably able and determined body of men, wise, patriotic and as firm as the granite hills of their province. They were scarcely out- matched by the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. Let us look at some of them more particularly.
Dr. Matthew Thornton, the president, was a native of Ireland, probably of Scotch descent, born in 1714, son of James Thornton, who married Elizabeth Jenkins. They came first to Wiscasset, Maine, and thence removed to Worcester, Massa- chusetts, and thence to Londonderry, New Hampshire, in 1740, where Matthew Thornton resided and practiced medicine till 1779, when he removed to Exeter for a year. In 1780 he settled in Merrimack, at the place now called Thornton's Ferry, where he resided till his death, June 24, 1803. He served a long time as colonel of a regiment of militia. As a member of the Con- tinental Congress he signed the Declaration of Independence. As a member of the Committee of Safety for New Hampshire he rendered great service. He had been surgeon in the expe- dition to Louisburg in 1745 and had served as the representa- tive of Londonderry in the Provincial Assemblies from 1758 to 1762. On the division of the province into counties in 1771 he was made chief justice of the court of common pleas in Hillsborough county and afterwards was justice of the superior court. The town of Thornton was named for him, having been granted to him in 1763. He was chairman of the committee to draw up a plan of government for New Hampshire and was made one of the State Councilors in 1776. After the war he represented his town in the state legislature. Probably no man had a more powerful influence in helping on the Revolution in New Hampshire and shaping the government and early legis- lation of that State than he, unless it was Mechech Weare.1
Judge Ebenezer Thompson, secretary of the Congress, was
1 See Biog. Sketch by Charles H. Woodbury in Proceedings of the N. H. Hist. Society, III. 76-108.
MATTHEW THORNTON
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born in Durham, March 3, 1737. He studied medicine but soon abandoned its practice for public duties. For ten years from 1766 he represented his town in the Provincial Assemblies. He was one of those who captured the powder at fort William and Mary and for this was deprived of his commission as justice of the peace. He was secretary of all the Provincial Congresses that met at Exeter and a member of the State Committee of Safety all through the Revolution, as well as a member of the Durham Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety. He was one of the committee to draw up a plan of govern- ment for New Hampshire and to frame a constitution, and he held the office of councilor five years. As a commissioner he met delegates from other states at New Haven in 1778. Twice he was chosen to represent New Hampshire in the Continental Congress, but feeble health led him to decline these honors. After the Revolution he was State senator, justice of the In- ferior Court of Common Pleas, and justice of the Superior Court of Judicature. In 1796 he accepted the office of judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Strafford county and held it till his death in 1802. He was one of the presidential electors at the choice of Washington and also of Adams. As a public official he was as useful to the town as to the State, holding for many years its varied offices and often consulted on legal mat- ters. His record is that of an able, honest and eminently useful man.2
Wyseman Clagett, whose father bore the same name, was born in Bristol, England, in August, 1721. He adopted the profession of his father after a liberal education and practiced law ten years in Antigua. Thence he came to Portsmouth and practiced there till 1772, when he removed to a farm in Litch- field, where he died December 4, 1784. He was a member of the last House of Representatives under the provincial govern- ment and of the early provincial congresses. Under the Con- stitution adopted in 1776 he was a councilor, attorney-general, and member of the committee of safety. Afterward he was justice of the peace and solicitor-general for the State. He was famous as a prosecutor and a terror to evil-doers, yet withal social, hospitable, kind-hearted, liberal and witty.
2 See Memoir by Miss Mary P. Thompson.
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Pierce Long was born in Portsmouth in 1739 and became a partner with his father in the shipping business. He served in the Revolutionary army as colonel of the first New Hamp- shire regiment and distinguished himself at Ticonderoga. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1784, 1785, and a part of 1786. He was a member of the Executive Council 1786-1789 and a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1788. In 1789 he was appointed by President Washington collector of customs at Portsmouth, where he died April 3, 1799.
Hon. George Frost was the other representative from Dur- ham, born at New Castle, July 26, 1720, son of Hon. John and Mary (Pepperrell) Frost. For many years he held the office of justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Strafford county. He was delegate to the Continental Congresses of 1777, 1778 and 1779. He was also one of the State Councilors for four years and a member of his town's Committee of Correspond- ence, Inspection and Safety. His home was in the old Smith garrison house at Lubberland, in Durham.
General William Whipple was fifth in descent from Matthew Whipple, one of the first settlers in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and was born in Kittery, Maine, June 14, 1730, in the old Cutt- Whipple garrison house, that is still tenanted. At the age of twenty-one he had command of a ship and is said to have brought negro slaves to America. One of them he gave his liberty for service in the Revolution. Gen. Whipple settled in Portsmouth at the age of twenty-nine as a merchant, and there married his cousin, Catherine Moffat. He was elected repre- sentative to the Continental Congress in 1776 and served three years, signing the Declaration of Independence. He was ap- pointed brigadier general of New Hampshire troops in 1777 and took part in the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga. In 1782 he was made judge of the Superior Court, which office he held till his death, November 28, 1787.3
Dr. Josiah Bartlett represented Kingston. He was son of Stephen and Mary (Webster) Bartlett of Amesbury, Massa- chusetts, and was born there November 21, 1729. He settled in the practice of medicine at Kingston in 1750 and represented
3 For full sketch of his life see article by Moses A. Safford in Pro- ceedings of the Maine Hist. Society, VI. 337-357.
GEN. WILLIAM WHIPPLE
JOSIAH BARTLETT
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that town in the Provincial Assemblies from 1765 to the Rev- olution. Governor John Wentworth appointed him colonel in the militia and justice of the peace, but took away both com- missions in 1775. He was a member of the State Committee of Safety. In 1775 and 1776 and again in 1778 he was a member of the Continental Congress and as such signed the Declaration of Independence, his name appearing next after that of John Han- cock. In 1779 he was made chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and was a member of the convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States. From 1790 to 1793 he was president of New Hampshire and in 1794 he was chosen first governor under the newly adopted constitution. He had been chief justice also of the Superior Court. He died in Kingston May 19, 1795, one of the most respected and capable men of the State. His bronze statue stands in the public square at Amesbury, Massachusetts.
Among the patriots of revolutionary times nobody was more relied upon for wise counsels and unshaken devotion than Meshech Weare of Hampton Falls. He was born in what is now Seabrook, June 16, 1713, and graduated at Harvard Col- lege in 1735, devoting some time to the study of theology and law. He was chosen speaker of the house of representatives in 1752 and ever thereafter was prominent in political affairs. During the entire period of the Revolution he was at the same time chief justice and president of the council, corresponding to the present office of governor, and he was a member of the committee of safety. These offices kept him in constant cor- respondence with the leaders of the Revolution. For some years he had been colonel in the militia, but resigned that office because of age and that he might give himself wholly to constructive statesmanship. In 1784 he was the first presi- dent under the.constitution adopted the previous year. Wash- ington valued him highly as an adviser. In 1782 he was elected a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences. He died January 25, 1786, at Hampton Falls, where a monument has been erected in his honor. Belknap says of him, "He was not a person of an original inventive genius, but had a clear discernment, extensive knowledge, accurate judgment, calm temper, a modest deportment, an upright and benevolent heart,
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and a habit of prudence and diligence in discharging the various duties of public and private life. He did not enrich himself by his public employment, but was one of those good men, 'who dare to love their country and be poor.' "4
General Enoch Poor was born at Andover, Massachusetts, June 21, 1736. At the age of nineteen he was a private in the French and Indian war, serving in Nova Scotia. Beginning life as a cabinet-maker he grew to be a ship-builder at Exeter. He must have gathered wealth, for at the outbreak of the Revolution he was made colonel of the second regiment, never having had a military office before. His regiment guarded the coast till after the battle of Bunker Hill, when it was ordered to Cambridge. He took part in the expedition against Canada. In 1777 he was made brigadier general, which led to Stark's resignation of his command, thinking rightly that he had been unjustly overlooked. Gen. Poor fought in the campaign in New Jersey and also against the army of Gen. Burgoyne at Stillwater and Saratoga. He wintered at Valley Forge, fought at Monmouth and aided Gen. Sullivan in his campaign against the Indians of the Susquehanna Valley. It is said that a brilliant military career was ended by a duel, September 8, 1780, when Poor was mortally wounded by another officer. ยท Effort was made to conceal the fact and it was reported that he died of a putrid fever. Dueling then was a part of the code of honor, so called. He was buried at Hackensack, New Jersey. Washington said of him, "He was an officer of distinguished merit, one who as a citizen and a soldier had every claim to the esteem and regard of his country."5
General Nathaniel Folsom of Exeter, born in 1729, was captain in the Crown Point expedition, at the age of twenty- nine. He was appointed colonel by Governor Wentworth. Four times he was a member of the Continental Congress and throughout the Revolution he was major-general of all the forces of New Hampshire, being also a member of the Com- mittee of Safety. He subsequently served as Councilor, Judge of the Inferior Court and president of the convention for fram-
4 Farmer's Note to Belknap's Hist. of N. H., p. 375.
5 See article in Proceedings of the N. H. Hist. Society, by Samuel C. Beane, D.D., Vol. III., pp. 435-471. A monument to the memory of Gen. Poor has been erected in New Jersey, the Hon. Henry N. Baker delivering the dedicatory address.
UD JEMney 1573 after Kosciusko
GEN. ENOCH POOR
GEN. JOSEPH CILLEY
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ing a constitution, in 1783. He died May 26, 1790, one of the most esteemed and useful citizens of the State.
The Rev. Abiel Foster was born in Andover, Massachu- setts, August 24, 1735, and graduated at Harvard College in 1756. He served as minister of the church at Canterbury from 1760 to 1779. Eight times he served as member of Congress. He was also four years judge of the Court of Common Pleas and was president of the State Senate in 1793. His reputation was that of one of the best educated and most influential men of the State.6
Gen. Joseph Cilley of Nottingham was one of those who marched to Lexington after the alarm. He was major in Col. Poor's regiment, colonel of the first New Hampshire regiment of three years' men, taking the place of Colonel Stark resigned. He fought at Bemis Heights, the Surrender of Burgoyne, and at Monmouth. The New Hampshire Assembly pre- sented him with a pair of pistols as a token of esteem for a brave officer. After the war he was appointed major-general of militia, and repeatedly served as representative, senator and councilor.7
Samuel Hobart of Hollis was born in Groton, Massachusetts, August, II, 1734. He had served as major in the French and Indian war and as representative in Provincial Assemblies, 1768-74. In 1771 he was appointed register of deeds, county treasurer and one of the justices of Hillsborough county. He was colonel of the second New Hampshire regiment of minute men. In 1777 he contracted to manufacture powder and for this purpose removed to Exeter, where he was representative in 1777-8 and a member of the Committee of Safety. He died in Kingston June 4, 1798. His brother, Colonel David Hobart, had command of a regiment under Stark at Bennington and distinguished himself for gallantry and efficiency.
So one might go on to mention other distinguished mem- bers of this convention, such as Lieut .- Col. John McDuffee of Rochester, who was with Stark's Rangers and with General Wolfe at Quebec, served under Col. Poor in the Revolution and represented his town in the counsels of state; Colonel Paul
6 Hist. of Canterbury, by James Otis Lyford, Vol. I., pp. 97-99.
7 Hist. of Nottingham, pp. 180-3.
.
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Dudley Sargent of Amherst, who raised a small Massachusetts regiment containing many New Hampshire men and after the war removed to Sullivan, Maine, where he was Judge of Probate; the Rev. Paine Wingate of Hampton Falls, afterward mem- ber of United States Congress; Colonel Samuel Ashley of Winchester and Colonel Oliver Ashley of Claremont; Col. Israel Morey of Orford; Major Clement Weeks of Greenland; Timo- thy Walker of Concord; Ichabod Rawlins of Somersworth; John Wheelock of Hanover, President of Dartmouth College; Col. John Hale of Hollis; and many others. All were men of prominence in military or civil offices, or both. The towns sent their most learned and efficient men, for then there were no political parties, and the endeavor was to pick the men who could and would best represent them and plan most wisely for the good of the entire country. Ordinary men become heroes and giants when great responsibilities are put upon them, great dangers are confronted and great service is demanded.
The fourth Provincial Congress voted to establish post offices at Portsmouth and Exeter, and from the latter place a post rider rode to Haverhill, Mass., connecting thus with Boston. Colonel John Hale of Hollis was delegated to go to Albany, New York, to purchase powder, pledging the credit of the convention, because ready money was so scarce. It was re- solved to raise two thousand men, to serve till the following December, counting those already enlisted. Colonel Stark wrote to the convention that he already had five hundred and eighty-four men in his regiment at Medford and implored arms for them. Every member of the convention pledged his honor and estate, in the name of his constituents, to pay the officers and soldiers while in service. Thanks were voted to those who had taken the powder from fort William and Mary. The Committee of Safety chosen consisted of Colonel Matthew Thornton, Colonel Josiah Bartlett, Captain William Whipple, Hon. Ebenezer Thompson, Colonel Nathaniel Folsom, Israel Morey, Samuel Ashley and the Rev. Samuel Webster. Colonel Folsom was appointed to take the general command of the troops raised, which were divided into three regiments, com- manded by Colonels John Stark, Enoch Poor and James Reed. Moses Emerson of Durham was chosen commissary for the
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army. About that time the delegates to the Continental Con- gress represented New Hampshire's militia as organized into sixteen regiments of foot and two of horse, amounting to up- wards of sixteen thousand men, tolerably well provided with arms and ammunition. In June and July, 1775, three companies of rangers were raised for the defense of the frontiers on Connecticut river, commanded by Colonel Timothy Bedel. These were discharged the following September. A company of artillery was raised for the defense of Portsmouth, and cannon were planted on the Parade under direction of a skilled engineer, Captain Ezekiel Worthen of Kensington. Batteries were erected to guard the main channel of the Pascataqua. That on the south end of Pierce's island was called Fort Washington, and the one on the opposite shore of Seavey's island near Henderson's Point, was called Fort Sullivan. A boom, made of discarded masts, was stretched across the main channel, but the force of the current carried it away. Then an old vessel was sunk to obstruct the passage of British men-of- war. The inhabitants of the Isles of Shoals were ordered to flee to the mainland. No powder could be obtained at Albany, and it was recommended to send for some at Philadelphia, where it was manufactured at the rate of two hundred pounds in a day. A bounty of fifty pounds was offered to the one who would manufacture the largest quantity of saltpetre, not less than one hundred pounds, within a year, and six pence per pound for any quantity above ten pounds.
The Provincial Congress issued a proclamation to the people of New Hampshire, signed by Matthew Thornton. "Duty to God, to ourselves, to posterity, enforced by the cries of slaughtered Innocents, have urged us to take up arms in our defense. Such a day as this was never before known, either to us or to our fathers." The people were urged to united action, under the guidance of committees chosen and to heed the counsels of the Provincial and the Continental Congress. Manufactures, especially of linen and woolen, were encouraged, and the farmers were asked to raise flax and increase their flocks of sheep. All were exhorted to temperance, sobriety and righteousness, and to the practice of "undefiled religion which embalmed the memory of our pious ancestors, as that
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alone, upon which we can build a solid hope and confidence in the Divine protection and favor, without whose blessing all the measures of safety we have, or can propose, will end in our shame and disappointment."8
Major Sullivan wrote that the letters of Governor Went- worth to Lord Dartmouth revealed the fact that the governor was no friend to the patriots. This may have induced the convention to send the following letter to the governor, dated Exeter, June 8, 1775 :
May it Please your Excellency-
Governor Gage, in a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated 27th Janu- ary, 1775, informed the British Ministry that your Excellency had applied to him for two Regiments of the British Troops, to be stationed at Portsmouth ; and as it evidently appears, at this alarming period, that the British Troops are ministerial tools, sent to America to endeavor to enforce unconstitu- tional and tyrannical Acts of the British Parliament, by fire, sword, and famine, and as we humbly conceive it is your Excellency's duty, in your official capacity, to guard and defend the lives, liberty, and properties of the inhabitants of this Province, your Excellency sending for Troops to de- stroy the lives, liberties and properties you have solemnly engaged to defend and protect, conveys to our minds such shocking ideas, that we shall rejoice to find what is represented to be fact in said letter, to be farce. But as we have such information, duty to ourselves and our constituents obliges us humbly to desire your Excellency to give us such evidence as will enable us to know and inform our constituents what to expect.9
We now have to turn aside from the doings of the Con- gress at Exeter to note the movements of New Hampshire's militiamen. The regiment commanded by Colonel Enoch Poor was guarding the coast from Portsmouth to the Merrimack river and building fire-rafts for possible use against British ships entering the Pascataqua. The regiments under Colonel John Stark and Colonel James Reed were encamped at Med- ford, in the army that was besieging Boston. Information hav- " ing been received that it was the design of General Gage to seize Charlestown and its heights, it was hastily determined to forestall the British, notwithstanding lack of powder and other munitions of war. The description of the battle of Bunker Hill belongs to American history and has been told too many times to need repetition here. The part taken in that battle
8 N. H. Prov. Papers, VII., 497-8.
9 N. H. Prov. Papers, VII., 509-10.
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by the troops of New Hampshire may need some emphasis, since it has been the aim of some writers to minimize it. One writer gives the main share of glory to General Israel Putnam, while another cites many witnesses to prove that Putnam was not in the fight at all, but was intrenching on Bunker Hill, while the battle was being waged on Breed's Hill.10 The Massa- chusetts writers claim that Colonel William Prescott and Gen- eral Joseph Warren were the leading spirits, and that Stark and Reed played an inferior part. After sifting evidences the bare facts seem to be as follows.
It was the plan of General Gage and his officers to seize the heights of Charlestown on the eighteenth of June. Some- how the Americans got knowledge of it, and on the night of the sixteenth Colonel William Prescott of Pepperell, command- ing about one thousand men, two hundred of whom were from Connecticut, led by Captain Thomas Knowlton, assembled on Cambridge common, where prayer was offered by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Langdon, President of Harvard College, who for many years had been minister of a church at Portsmouth. Thence they marched under cover of darkness across the neck of land that separates the Mystic river from the Charles and passing by Bunker Hill intrenched themselves on Breed's Hill, a low eminence, only seventy-five feet above the water and half a mile nearer to Boston. A redoubt, eight rods square, was cast up before morning, under the direction of Richard Gridley, an engineer. Then General Putnam arrived and drew off about two hundred men with intrenching tools to fortify Bunker Hill, a work that was not completed and for which there proved to be no use. The Connecticut men under Knowlton took position at a rail fence two hundred yards in the rear of the redoubt and stretching toward Mystic river. Underneath the fence were some loose stone and thereon and interwoven with the fence and in front of it was placed new mown hay from the farm of John Fenton, the tory, named in the preceding chapter. Word was sent to General Ward for reinforcements, but he was loth to send any, fearing that the movement of the enemy was only a feint and that Cambridge would be attacked. After the
10 Sketch of Bunker Hill Battle, by Samuel Swett; and reply to the same, with Inquiry into the Conduct of General Putnam, anonimous, Boston, 1819.
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British had landed at the point nearest Boston the regiments of Stark and Reed arrived, marching coolly across the neck under fire of cannon from several ships. Someone suggested to Stark to quicken the step, but he replied, "One fresh man in action is worth ten fatigued ones," and strode along. At a glance he saw the opening between the Connecticut troops and the Mystic and without waiting for orders drew up his men behind the rail fence and fortified with grass, as Knowlton was doing. At the end of the fence and close to the river loose stones were thrown up for a breastwork, using such intrenching tools as nature gave to all. The breastwork was probably a mixture of stones, dirt, wooden rails and new mown grass, made thick enough to stop bullets and as protective as cotton bales were at New Orleans some years later. Meanwhile the men in the redoubt and behind the fence were under fire of guns on British ships and from a battery erected on Copp's Hill in Boston. Joseph Warren had arrived as a volunteer, refusing command and only desirous to share the danger and honor and to learn the art of war.
A tablet on Bunker Hill monument says that fifteen hun- dred American troops took part in this battle, opposed to two thousand British. Both estimates are probably too low. The tablet goes on to say, that "The American troops were mainly from Massachusetts, bravely assisted by two regiments from New Hampshire and a small force from Connecticut. Prescott and Putnam shared the honors of the day." Let us examine this a little. Colonel Prescott was from Pepperell, living a little south of the town line of Hollis. This fact may have induced many from Hollis to join his regiment. Captain Reuben Dow commanded a company of fifty-nine Hollis men and these helped to build the redoubt on the night of the sixteenth and fought therein. Of this number six were killed in the battle. Four other men from Hollis were in the company of Joseph Mann of Groton and were numbered as Massachusetts men. The muster rolls of Colonel Prescotts' regiment show the names of men from Londonderry, Chester, Amherst, Merrimack, Brook- line, Dunstable and other New Hampshire towns. The regi- ments of Stark and Reed contained nine companies each, con- sisting of at least nine hundred men, and some authorities say
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