History of Amesbury - Merrill.org

HISTORY OF AMESBURY. 27
William Morrill, John Sargent,
Currier Barnard, Moses Buswell,
Levi Flanders, Richard Kelley,
Jacob Lanckester, Jesse Carr,
Ephraim Currier, Barnard Worthen."
It required constant effort to fill the calls so rapidly made at
this critical period, and the only wonder is that it was possible
to find men and money enough to comply with them. There
appears to have been but one mind in town, and that was
patriotic in the extreme :
loyalty
to the cause of freedom. Not
a line appears on the mass of records, which have been labori-
ously searched, which could possibly be construed into anything
like "Toryism."
On the 26th of August a town meeting was held to take
measures to raise seven men just called for, and Capt. Pilsbury
and Lieut. John Barnard were chosen to hire the men on the
most reasonable terms "they can." Lieut. Barnard proceeded
to the eastward and was successful in obtaining six men, to
whom bounty was paid, as follows :
Abner Coffin Lunt and Isaac Smith ^33 each ; Nathaniel
Young, Mark Merrill and William Stevens j£a2> each J Nathaniel
Coffin Lunt ^40, and Abraham Young ^43.
Nov. 6th. The town voted to raise ^2000 to defray the
charges of the town the present year, and, also, to make up
the wages of the soldiers, now to be raised to six pounds per
month.
It was, also, "Voted to give Mrs. Goodridge widow of Capt.
Ezekiel Goodridge," who was killed at the taking of Burgoyne,
"twelve pounds as a bounty for last year's service."
Capt. Goodridge was originally from Haverhill, but moved to
Amesbury, and his stone in the East parish burying ground
gives the date, etc., of his death.
The gloomiest and most trying period of the war ended with
this year. At its close, prospects were brightening. Burgoyne
had been captured with his whole army, and the American
army had gained many advantages. Great numbers of soldiers
had been added to the various commands, and even the British
generals were seriously thinking of giving up all as lost.
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