Boston 1775

As April started, I planned to spend just a few days on the capture of the Elizabeth , one of the Loyalist evacuation fleet . I expected ...

Here are more upcoming talks that look ahead to the Sestercentennial of the Battle of Bunker Hill . Tuesday, 10 June, 6:00 P.M. Courage ...

On the evening of Tuesday, 4 June, I’ll speak to the Stoneham Historical Society. The society is headlining my talk “The Most Hated Man in ...

Yesterday I quoted Maj. Loammi Baldwin ’s diary noting the death of Woburn militiaman Daniel Thompson on 19 Apr 1775. The published Wo...

For Loammi Baldwin of Woburn , 18 Apr 1775 was not a good day. As he wrote in his diary, “My Brother Ruel departed this life after a shor...

Here’s my favorite Revolutionary document of the month , from the William Bond Papers at the University of California at San Diego library....

About a century ago, Frank Warren Coburn of Lexington set out to document the names of the militiamen who fought in the Battle of Lexingto...

For this posting I’m indebted to a tip from Chris Hurley, whom one can see at colonial reenactments demonstrating cider-making, among other ...

In late 1801, as I’ve been relating , Woburn native Benjamin Thompson , now a knight of the British Empire and Count Rumford of the Holy Ro...

On a very bad day in May 1794, Marie Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier lost both her husband and her father to the guillotine. Within a cou...

On 19 Apr 1775, William Tay, Jr. , of Woburn helped to storm a house along the Battle Road, kill two redcoats , and capture the third. He c...

Yesterday we heard William Tay, Jr. , of Woburn describe the opening of the Revolutionary War and finally get to the point of why he was p...

Here’s a first-person account of the opening day of the Revolutionary War from William Tay, Jr., of Woburn . There was a long sequence of ...

When Dr. Nathaniel Martyn “absconded” in 1770, leaving his wife and two children with her family, he left behind another child as well. ...

A very long month ago, on the day we reenacted the Boston Massacre for its Sestercentennial , I stopped by the Edes and Gill print shop ...

Yesterday I quoted the recollections of Dorothy Quincy about her experiences at the Lexington parsonage on 19 Apr 1775, where she was s...

Ebenezer Lock (1732-1816) was at Lexington on the morning of 19 Apr 1775. He’s often listed among the militiamen on the town common tha...

Yesterday we left James Reed of the “Woburn Precinct” ( Burlington ) hosting about a dozen British soldiers in his house on the afternoon...

In 1825 James Reed of Burlington testified about his experiences on 19 Apr 1775. At that time, Burlington was still part of Woburn , and ...