Boston 1775

Yesterday I showed a list of the men appointed as coroners in Suffolk County from 1747 to 1774. And that list made me nervous. For nearly...

Early this month I started to discuss the office of coroner in pre-Revolutionary Boston. Then came Pope Night , followed by postings about ...

Slavery North has issued a call for proposals for a scholarly conference to be held at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst , on 8-12 ...

As recounted earlier , Gen. George Washington had Mary Wenwood brought his headquarters to answer questions about a ciphered letter she ha...

In his biography of George Washington , published in the late 1850s, Washington Irving included a vivid description of how Mary (Butler) Wen...

Several of the questions after my talk in Watertown about Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr. , involved his lover Mary (Butler) Wenwood . Unfortun...

Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr. , used a variety of ways to send messages into Boston after the start of the war, including: crossing the siege lin...

The Massachusetts Whigs were flabbergasted by the evidence that Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr. , was corresponding with someone behind enemy lines...

As described yesterday , on 17 Oct 1775 the Massachusetts General Court decided to summon Dr. Benjamin Church to Watertown to explain why...

As recounted yesterday , on 4 Oct 1775 Gen. George Washington and his fellow generals realized that the Continental Congress ’s articles o...

As previously announced , on Sunday, 9 November, the Historical Society of Watertown and Watertown Free Public Library will host me speaking...

Back in July , I discussed how Simeon Potter of Rhode Island had commanded a privateer in 1744 and attacked “Fort d’Oyapoc,” a small Fren...

The Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony established coroners as an elected office in 1636. By the end of the century, however, that colony had b...

Last month I faced a Boston 1775 emergency. Which was, of course, not really an emergency. No one was in the least danger. I just felt an...