Boston 1775

I had a fine time speaking to the Essex Historical Society and guests in Connecticut last Sunday, and that Sestercentennial series of prog...

The Sestercentennial commemorations of Col. Henry Knox ’s mission to bring more heavy artillery to the siege lines around Boston will mov...

Three months and a day after he first reported a convict escaped from Connecticut ’s New-Gate Prison , keeper John Viets wrote out a second...

At the end of February 1774, Connecticut ’s New-Gate Prison was once again ready to house convicted criminals . The first prisoner sent t...

Exactly one month after a New Haven court sentenced John Ensign to ten years inside Connecticut ’s new prison at Simsbury, as reported yes...

On 26 Nov 1773, the Connecticut Gazette of New London reported this legal news: NEW HAVEN, Nov. 19 A few days since, a young fellow, who...

Last month I broke off a series of postings about three men Gen. George Washington sent to Simsbury, Connecticut , to be locked up in the ...

In 1775 the British artist John Hamilton Mortimer issued a series of prints titled Twelve Characters from Shakespeare . One of those port...

Shepherd is a website founded by Ben Fox to provide a forum for book recommendations, like “little notes from the [indie bookstore] staff a...

Earlier this month, Prof. Noah Shusterman, author of Armed Citizens: From Ancient Rome to the Second Amendment , shared an essay through ...

“A New-York Freeholder” didn’t continue his newspaper debate with Israel Putnam , quoted over the last two days . Hugh Gaine had publis...

As a prominent gentleman in Connecticut , Israel Putnam couldn’t ignore what “A New-York Freeholder” wrote about him in the New-York Gaze...

One of the key nodes in the spread of the “Powder Alarm” was Israel Putnam . On 3 Sept 1774 he summoned the militia in eastern Connecticut...

I’ll start off the Sestercentennial year with a talk in the America 250 Winter Lecture Series of the historical society in Essex, Connecti...