Boston 1775

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...

The Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, working with History Cambridge, the Cambridge Historical Commission, ...

Our favorite Revolutionary sites in the North End are concatenating again with two musical events coming up early this month. Wednesday, ...

On 20–21 November the Springfield Armory will co-host the 2025 Fall Conference of the Firearms Research Center , on the topic of “Sparking t...