Talking about Stolen Cannon in Falmouth, 25 Apr.

On Tuesday, 25 April, I’ll speak to the Falmouth Historical Society about The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War.

My book explores how Massachusetts Patriots were furiously collecting cannon months before the war broke out in April of 1775, but of course keeping that effort as quiet as possible.

Today I’ll share a glimpse of one such cannon from the diary of Israel Litchfield, a sergeant in Scituate’s minute company. The town militiamen were drilling on 19 April when they heard a rumor of fighting between locals and redcoats in Concord. “Some Discredited it and Some Believed it,” Litchfield wrote, but gradually the new situation became clear.

The next day, the Scituate militia companies mustered. They took a few local Loyalists prisoner. But they didn’t march toward Boston because, as I discussed last year, there was a contingent of British soldiers a lot closer, in the neighboring town of Marshfield. Furthermore, seaside communities worried about the Royal Navy—shouldn’t the militia companies stay close to home to guard against a possible attack from the sea?

On 21 April, Litchfield and his company were ordered to bring in the big guns—well, one big gun—evidently to push the redcoats out of Marshfield. The sergeant wrote:

Colonel [John] Bailey I Say ordered our Companey the Rangers and Capt. Galen Clapps Company to march up to [Atherton] Wales’s [tavern in Hanover] to gaurd a Cannon down to marshfield. We were very Loath to go because there was Several tenders playing off and on upon our Coasts. However we were obliged to go

So we marched up to upriver meeting house and Joind Capt. Galen Claps Company. We marched up to wales’s and took the Cannon under our protection. We march’d from Wales’s to Dr. [Jeremiah] Halls in pembroke. There we heard a rumur that there was 500 Regulars Landing in Scituate.

We Sent posts to the Col. for Leave to march Back to Scituate, which after we had marcd. aboute a mile beyond Dr. Halls the major Came to us and ordered us to march back to Scituate. The Sun was aboute an hour high.

We marchd down to upriver meeting house where we heard that there was nothing in the rumur of mens Landing in Scituate but that the Regulars were embarkd on board a tender and gone off.

So everything ended almost peacefully in that part of the province. Sgt. Litchfield didn’t record what happened to the cannon his company had left behind on the road. Was it taken up to the siege lines around Boston or kept nearby to guard a local harbor?

I’ll have more answers about other cannon at Falmouth on Tuesday. My talk will begin at 7:00 P.M. at the historical society’s Cultural Center, 55 Palmer Avenue. I believe the admission cost is $5 for members and $8 for others. I’ll stay after the talk to answer questions, sign books, and chat about the Revolution.

[The photograph above shows Atherton Wales’s tavern in Hanover as the building appeared in the 1900s.]

Israel Litchfield and “the Space for the Singers”

At Walking the Berkshires, Tim Abbott just posted several excerpts from the diary of Israel Litchfield, a young sergeant from Scituate during the busy winter of 1774-75. The diary shows the process of organizing militia companies, including learning new drills, electing officers, and gathering and making equipment.

So what was on Sgt. Litchfield’s mind on 10 Apr 1775? The important issue of who sat where in the town’s new meetinghouse. The previous 4 December, Litchfield had written, “the Carpenters have got all the pews Sat up and Some of the Seats the Space for the Singers was erected Last week.” But who sat where was an issue of great importance in colonial New England; assigned pews were valuable real estate.

in the Evening I went to Mr. Willm. Haydens In order to meet the Rest of the propretors to Settle Some affairs Relative to faceing & Seeting our Selves

they got the Vote for the Singers to face the minister when they Sang and We Chose out of the Body a Committee Consisting of the following Gentlemen to wit Capt. Insign Otis Messrs: Wm. Hayden Lawrence Litchfield Nemiah Merritt Joshua Otis & Benja. Bailey

they made their Report to the body wich was accepted (mind by the way that before this Comittee went out we had agreed that five of the Bass & five of the tennor Do Set in a Seet) the Report of the Comittee is as follows towards the weomen Viz at the right hand Was Seated mr. Wm: Haydon Next to him Viz at his Left hand Mr. James Turner Junr. Next mr. Joshua otis Junr.

at the right Hand of the Bafs mr. Hayward pierce next Capt. Infign Otis next Daniel Litchfd., Next my Self next Elisha Lappum these are to fill the fore Seet

after the meeting broke up I went home with Abednego Wade

So Litchfield, still in his early twenties and unmarried, at least knew where he would sit.

Israel Litchfield’s diary was published in a family history in 1906 and in the New England Historic and Genealogical Register in 1975. If I remember, I’ll post extracts about how he viewed the start of the war in the spring.

[The thumbnail above shows Scituate’s First Parish today. The meetinghouse that Israel Litchfield knew was destroyed in a fire in 1879, but a pulpit and communion table survived.]