History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

public meeting held in response to a letter from
the town of Boston, the town chose Benjamin
Brown, Samuel Bancroft, Esq., Lieutenant John
"Walton, Captain Thomas Flint, Deacon Amos
Upton, Captain David Green, Mr. John Temple,
Mr. William Sawyer, Mr. Andrew Beard, a com-
mittee to consider and report upon the public griev-
ances recited in the letter. The report instructs
Deacon Daniel Putman, the representative from
Reading, " to exert himself " that the salaries of
the judges be raised " adequate to their station
and service," so as to render them "as independent
on prince and people as possible." Other griev-
ances " publicly known " are referred to, and the
representative is instructed " to use his utmost en-
deavor in every constitutional way to procure a
redress of our grievances, and a restoration of that
happy harmony which lately subsisted between
Great Britain and her colonies." They caution
him against consenting " to measures which may
in the least preclude us or our posterity from as-
serting our just rights as men and British subjects."
In June, 1774', it was voted that we "maintain
our Cliarter Riglits in every constitutional way."
Also, a committee of nine was chosen to inquire
into present exigencies, and report at a future
meeting. The report is signed by Benjamin Brown,
chairman. It refers to the unjust taxation, tiie un-
availing remonstrances, the increasing distresses,
the action previously taken to maintain their rights,
the uncertainty that clouded the future, and to the
fear of taking any action that might counteract
measures that the proposed Congress of Commis-
sioners from all the colonies might fix upon to
relieve the present distress. The closing paragrapli
is worthy of repetition : " We also think it the
duty of every one to refrain from the luxuries and
superfluities of life, and to the utmost of our power
to encourage our own manufactures, humbling our-
selves before Almighty God, and earnestly suppli-
cating him for deliverance; for how much soever
we judge these things tmrighteous, as coming from
the hands of men, we must allow they are just, as
sent from God." John Temple and Benjamhi
Brown were sent as deputies to the Provincial Con-
gress, and an appropriation was made for support
of the commissioners. The town, subsequently to
the action of the congress, voted to adopt tlie senti-
ments of the congress as their own, and strictly to
adhere to them. A committee was chosen to carry
tlieir vote into effect. Early in 1775 it was voted
to pay minute-men for three hours' attendance on
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parade, twice a week, for three months. May 24,
1775, the town met in the West Parish meetinghouse
(now Union Hall School-house), and voted
to choose a committee of correspondence. Cap-
tain John Walton, Lieutenant Benjamin Flint, and
Sergeant Jonas Parker, were chosen. It was
voted in July following to add six more to the
committee, and Benjamin Brown, Thomas Simonds,
James Flint, Abraham Sheldon, Jacob Emer-
son, and John Emerson were chosen.
A company of volunteers was early formed here,
which was drilled by Dr. John Brooks, who be-
came its captain, and was afterwards major, general,
and finally governor of the state. Before the
commencement of hostilities he frequently visited
Boston, and observed the manner in wiiich the British
troops were drilled. He instructed his com-
pany of minute-men here in tlie lessons he thus
learned, till tliey became proficient in military
tactics.'^
On the IStli April, 1775, Captain Brooks was
in Boston, and learned of the probable movements
of the British. He returned to Reading, and while
professedly visiting his patients, during the evening,
in different parts of the town, summoned his men
to be ready to march at once. Tliey gathered in
tlie laHer 2^art of the night at Weston^s Corner,
in Wood End, and under command of Lieutenant
James Bancroft, marched via Bedford to Concord.
Rev. Edmund Foster, then a young man, a private
in the Reading company, in an account of tiiese
events, wrote : " A little before we came to Merriam's
Hill we discovered the enemy's flank guard
of about eighty or one hundred men, who, on the
retreat from Concord, kept the height of land, the
main body being in the road. The British troops
and the Americans at that time were equally dis-
tant from Merriam's Corner. About twenty rods
short of that place the Americans made a halt.
The British marched down the hill with very slow
but steady step, without music, or a word being
spoken that could be heard. Silence reigned on
both sides. As soon as the British had gained the
main road, and passed a small bridge near the
1 This company was drilled iu tie evening in the large kitchen
of the parsonage, now the residence of Mr. George Gronard. It
was said that the marks made by the gnus of the men in the ceil-
ing were visible tiU recently covei-ed by repairs. When General
Lafayette stopped on his way through this town iu 1825, and was
waited upon by some of the citizens and old soldiers. Rev. Mr.
Sanborn, in a brief speech, claimed that the first company ot
minute-men formed in the colonies was this under the command
of Dr. Brooks.