History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

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geiicy may know who to send lo and that said
Committee upon any emergency may send to other
Town's Committees." Accordingly, at a meeting
on the 3d of October the town elected Mr. Jacob
Bigelow delegate to tiie congress, and Captain Wil-
liam Coolidge, Deacon Elijah Livermore, Captain
Abijah Brown, Lieutenant Abijah Child, and Ensign
Abraham Peirce a committee of safety. (In tiie list
of delegates on file at the State Woixse — eide Mis-
cellaneous (l-l;3S) — Watertown has three dele-
gates, Newton three, Sudbury two, Weston three,
Lincoln two, Waltham two. Waltham's two are
Mr. Jacob Bigelow and Captain Eleazer Brooks.)
On tiie Hth of December a town-meeting was held,
" To take into serious Consideration the Associa-
tion of the grand American Continental C^ongress,
and according to their Eesolves to choose a Com-
mittee to attentively observe that said Association
be punctually and strictly carried into Execution."
Jonas Dix, Esq., Cornet Nathaniel Bridge, and
Deacon Elijah Lawrence were chosen a committee
for that purpose. In Novembcf, 17 74, the town
voted to take down the old school-house, and build
one at the northwest part of the town.
Agreeably to a recommendation of the Provin-
cial Congress, the voters of the town convened on
the 9th of January, 1775, to determine what
should be done in regard to enlisting minute-men,
and it was voted to be the mind of tiie town that
" they will all be prepared and stand ready equipt
as minute-men." At the same meeting Jonas Dix,
Esq., was elected delegate to the Provincial Con-
gress to be holden at Cambridge in February. In
March the town voted to pay the money collected
for taxes to Henry Gardner, Esq., treasurer of the
provincial government. The selectmen, in the
same month, appointed a committee to take an
exact state of tiie town's ammunition, and report in
writing. Notliiiig appears in the town records to
HmWRY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
indicate tlie struggles at Lexington and Concord,
and it is difficult to determine how many of Waltham's
sons took jiart in those conllicts, but some
were there. David Smitii,an apprentice (o Phineas
Stearns, was wounded by tiic bursting of liis gun
at Lexington, and Abram Ciiild, a native of Wal-
tliam, took part in the pursuit (jf the rdrcaliiig
English soldiery. V)\\ the day fallowing Ih.s,.
skirmishes tlie Central Coininillrr of ( oircspiiiid-
ence issued a stirring apjicid to the siil)-(oiiiiiiilt(cs
of the colony, wliich conchuh'ii in thi>c wcjnls:
"We beg k entreat that as you will aiisu,r ti,
your Country to your Conscieiicc^ and iih(jvr all
as you will answer to God himself, that you will
hasten and encourage by all possible Means the
Enlistment of Men to form the Army." At a meet-
ing of the selectmen, May \-i, they delivered to each
of the following men a good blanket, in accordance
with the " Eecommendation of the Provincial Con-
gress, they being inlisted into the Service of the
Massachusetts, for the Defence of the Liberties of
America " : Elipiialet Hastings, Jonas Lawrence,
Elijah Cutting, Elisha Cox, William Lock, Samuel
Roberts, John Glynn, Josiaii Convers, Cutting
Clark, Abraham Parkhurst, Matthew Peirce, Josiah
Beinis, Jr., Daniel AA\arren, Elijah Mead, Samuel
Mulliken, Amos Eiske, Zechariah AVeston, Job
Priest, David Smith, Benjamin Gallop, Amos Har-
rington, George Wellington, Micah Buinpo (negro),
Jonas Smitii, Jr., Jolm Viles, Josiah Lovett, Eli-
sha Harrington, Habakkuk Stearns, Jesse Goodell,
Nathan Wright, Asa Gould, Bczaleel AVright,
Abijah Fisk, Rufus Stacey, Isaac Bemis, Elisha
Stearns, Reuben Bcinis, Timothy Flagg, Eliphalet
Warren, Moses Warren, William Sprague, Tliaddeus
Child, Andrew Benjamin, John Symms, and
Edmund Lock. In May Jacob Bigelow was chosen
to the Provincial Congress, and in July and Au-
gust Jonas Dix filled the same position. A pro-
test against Dix being allowed his seat in the Con-
gress, signed by twenty-six citizens, appears in the
state records, the complainants alleging that his
election was illegally procured, inasmuch as he
used his influence to prohibit the votes of such of
the men serving in the army as were known to
be opposed to him. In the troublous times of the
early breaking out of the Revolution neighbor
seemed to eye neighbor somewhat askant, and.
every suspicion was iiitensitied by the fever of the
times. Of the nuniber of the suspected was one
John Milliquet, a tavern-keeper, whose wife, having
a chikl in Boston, passed through the lines, and ob-
tainid it, and returned, and was thought to havefur-
nislicd iiildiiiuition to the enemy. The selectmen,
however, in (heir reply to the Central Committee of
Correspondence, cleared the family of the charge;
in fact, Milliquet was licensed as an innholder the
following year as a person friendly to his cimutry.
Another suspected one — suspected by his dwii
nriglihors — was, singularly enough, Licntcuaiil-
(oliiiicl Abijah Brown. The selectmen, iu a letter
t(i the i'rcniurial Congress in May, accuse Brown
(if sl.iniliriiig the Congress, threatening that the
army wiiuld rebel against its authority, etc. The
(oniiuiltcc ajipointed by Congress to examine into