"A High Son of Liberty": the Site of Dr. Samuel Prescott's home, Concord

As noted in an earlier post, the one midnight rider who actually made it to Concord to warn of the British excursion on April 19, 1775, was Dr Samuel Prescott. Prescott was the 24 year old son of Dr. Abel Prescott, who was leaving Lexington at an early hour of the morning after courting Lydia Mulliken, who lived near the Munroe Tavern.

In those days, there was no medical school to learn to become a doctor. In the case of young Samuel Prescott, he apprenticed with his father, Dr. Abel Prescott, Sr. Samuel lived in his father's home along with his older brother, Abel, Jr., and a sister, Lucy.

The phrase "high son of liberty" comes from a 1798 letter from Paul Revere to Dr. Jeremy Belknap. The letter described his view of the events of April 18-19. Revere wrote:

After I had been there [at the Hancock-Clarke house] about a half an hour, Mr. Daws (sic) came; we refreshed ourselves ourselves, and set off for Concord. We were overtaken by a young Dr. Prescott, whom we found to be a high Son of Liberty... I likewise mentioned that we has better alarm all the inhabitants till we got to Concord. The young doctor much approved of it and said he would stop with either of us, for the people between that and Concord knew him and would give more credit to what we said.

Shortly thereafter, the three riders were surrounded. Revere was captured but both Dawes and Prescott bolted. Dawes made it to the home of Captain Charles Smith of Lincoln and hid there. Prescott, however, rode into the night, warning the leaders of Concord and then Acton. Along the way, he stopped at is home and enlisted his brother, Abel, to carry the word further. Abel thundered off to Sudbury and Framingham.

While their heroics considerably aided the stand at the North Bridge in Concord, - it was the men of Acton who stood at the front at the Bridge - the day went hard for the Prescott brothers. After Samuel Prescott notified the leaders in Acton, he rode toward Lexington where he sought out Lydia and tended to the wounded. Later in the day, the British soldiers burned the Mulliken home as they departed the community. Prescott spent days in the Lexington area, treating wounded militia.

Dr. Samuel Prescott then went off to war, leaving his Lydia behind. His efforts, first begun early on the morning on April 19, 1775. In the next two years, he was attached to a unit in Fort Ticonderoga and then signed for service as a privateer. His ship was captured by the British in the North Atlantic. For years, no one had any word of what happened to the brave Dr. Prescott. Then a returning veteran came forward with the story of how Dr. Prescott died in a Nova Scotia prison and that he had been a cellmate.

Lydia Mulliken waited for eight years for her love and then gave up hope. She married and moved to Haverhill; she did not live a long life.

As for the other Prescott rider, after traveling to Framingham, Abel returned to Concord, just in time for the beginning of the long battle from Meriam's Corner back to Boston. A musket ball found its mark and he fell wounded. The wound never healed. Abel Prescott died in August 1775.

The Prescotts had paid a high cost for their courage and commitment to liberty. There is a Prescott Road in Concord that is presumably named for the patriots; there is also a Samuel Prescott road in Stow, Massachusetts, that will take a traveler to Acton's Liberty Tree Farm - where Samuel Prescott ended his night of warning his countrymen. Prescott's ride in Acton is re-enacted every year.

The plaque is located here on Lexington Road in Concord. Parking is available at the Old Orchard House parking lot and the site is a short distance from there. According to Ruth Wheeler's Concord, Climate for Freedom, some of Dr. Prescott's father's home has been incorporated into the existing structure standing behind this wall.

The Bullet Hole House: Elisha Jones House, Concord, MA

This is one of those "Plymouth Rock" stories. If you don't know, there is a much honored boulder on the shore line in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that is supposed to be the site of where the pilgrims first landed in Plymouth. Only there is no contemporaneous account to support that story. As the Boston Globe pointed out in an article on the Pilgrim landing:

The Pilgrims left no written account of stepping onto a rock. A history of Plymouth written in 1835 attributes the notion to a town elder who, in 1741, went to the harbor shoreline, pointed out a place, and picked out the boulder upon which his father had told him the Pilgrims first trod.

So it is a nice story. After all, the Pilgrims had to land somewhere and the rock is as good a marker as any - absent any proof.

With the events of the nineteenth of April of 1775, there are a number of stories that aren't... proven. This is one of those stories.

As one leaves Concord center and heads out toward the North Bridge, there is a house with an odd diamond cut in the siding. It is the "Elisha Jones house", commonly known as "the bullet hole" house.

The property is one of the earliest settled in Concord. Situated close to the river with relatively flat slopes away from the river, it clearly would be very useful for farming. John Smedley, who came from Derbyshire, England, obtained this property in 1663. But by 1724, the Jones family had come into possession of the land. And in 1775, the house and land were owned by Elisha Jones.

On the morning of April 19, 1775, Elisha Jones was still at his home. Although he was a member in good standing in the Concord militia, the story says that he stayed to protect provisions that had been entrusted in his care. However, these provisions were meat and fish - not armaments. And it should be pointed out the Colonel James Barrett, who bore much of the risk of any discovery of the cannon, powder and other supplies at his farm, stood with his men in town and at the bridge.

In any event, at some point, after the exchange of fire at the bridge, Jones reportedly popped out to view or participate in the events. A British regular fired at Jones, striking the shed where he had emerged. Thus the "bullet-hole" was created.

This story emerged from the fog of battle some fifty years after the events and was told by the daughter of Jones. It gained wide currency when Judge John Keyes, an eminent local figure and jurist, authored a text on the Jones house, "The Story of an Old House" - which at that time was his home. (Keyes is also an interesting figure; among other things, he was at Gettysburg for Lincoln's address.)

Is it a bullet hole from a British musket? Probably not. There is an excellent analysis of the issue in the National Park Service's report on the house. But it cannot be proven either way. Like Plymouth Rock, it's a good story.

The house can be found here. It is currently being used by the National Park Service and is part of the Minuteman National Park. Parking is available at the North Bridge/Minuteman Park parking lot and the home is a short walk down Monument Street.

"The dolefulest day": Mary Rowlandson's kidnapping, Lancaster

If Hollywood ever was looking for a quaint New England town, they would look no further than Lancaster, Massachusetts. One of the prettiest towns in the Commonwealth, it is also the oldest community in Worcester County.

As one of the older communities in the region, Lancaster was the site of a large native American raid in February 1675, - one of the many attacks that constituted the King Phillip's War. (UPDATE: The difference of the date on the monument is the 1752 change in calendar. Mary Rowlandson says "1675" in her book, so I'm sticking with "1675". Nobody from that time is around to complain so I think it will work.) During the attack, the Lancaster settlement was destroyed and Mary Rowlandson - the daughter of one of the founders of the community and wife of the Harvard-educated minister, John Rowlandson, was taken hostage. Later, she authored a history of her captivity and release, now commonly titled as A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.

Her text is fascinating reading. During the attack, she describes settlers as being "knocked on the head" by the attackers. It is likely that they were "knocked" by the butt of a musket or an Indian war club - a large stick holding a sharpened stone or blade. The result of a "knock" was likely to be a cracked skull and a mortal wound.

Rowlandson describes the life of her captors with the eye of an early Margaret Mead and the memory of John Dean. She discusses the life in the villages (she is moved - or "removed" - several times around present day Massachusetts and New Hampshire) and the food that the Indians prepared. The "ground-nuts" which was a staple of her diet may still be grown by home gardeners. During the captivity, she met Metacom - King Phillip - the Indian leader who led the uprising against the English settlers.

She also discusses watching one of her children die in her care in captivity. Even with the very formal writing of her time, her pain still come through.

Mary Rowlandson was eventually rescued by John Hoar of Concord, who was held in high esteem by the area Indians and was allowed to negotiate a ransom for Rowlandson. She was freed at Redemption Rock in Princeton, Massachusetts, and reunited with her husband and surviving children.

Throughout her ordeal, Mary Rowlandson also kept her faith and found greater wisdom through her suffering. As she closed her text, she wrote:

Yet I see, when God calls a person to anything, and through never so many difficulties, yet He is fully able to carry them through and make them see, and say they have been gainers thereby. And I hope I can say in some measure, as David did, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." The Lord hath showed me the vanity of these outward things. That they are the vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit, that they are but a shadow, a blast, a bubble, and things of no continuance. That we must rely on God Himself, and our whole dependance must be upon Him. If trouble from smaller matters begin to arise in me, I have something at hand to check myself with, and say, why am I troubled? It was but the other day that if I had had the world, I would have given it for my freedom, or to have been a servant to a Christian. I have learned to look beyond present and smaller troubles, and to be quieted under them. As Moses said, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord" (Exodus 14.13).

Mary Rowlandson's book was a best seller in that time - and one of the first women authors of the New World. It is still available for purchase but may also be found on Google books and elsewhere.

The site of Reverend John Rowlandson's home isn't terribly well marked (I did not find any signs directing me to the area) but is easily found. Following Main Street, past the school, the town hall and across a small bridge, the site is on the right. There isn't any parking available here but - according to a Lancaster police officer - one can pull off the road right next to the marker.

The local elementary school is now named after Mary Rowlandson.

A "thank you" to the librarian at the Lancaster public library for helping me find this site. And a second "thank you" to the Lancaster police officer for not citing me for blocking the road while taking these pictures and directing me to a more appropriate stopping place.

Captain Charles Miles home, Concord

One of my ongoing issues with the re-telling of the events of April 18-19, 1775, is the difference between the depiction of the people at the two principal sites: the Lexington Green and the North Bridge in Concord. A longer post on all of this is forthcoming but, suffice to say, the stories of the people at the North Bridge ring true to me. Real people. Real courage. Real fear.

Concord Captain Charles Miles is part of that story at the Bridge on April 19, 1775.

When the minutemen and militia leaders were asked to march across the Concord bridge on that morning, Acton's minuteman captain, Isaac Davis, replied "I haven't a man who's afraid to fight". With that, Davis led the roughly 400 assembled minutemen and militia from Acton, Concord, Lincoln, Westford and elsewhere towards the Bridge - and the wary British regulars who were securing the strategic site.

Even with an ackowledgement that pride was not in short supply among many of the colonial era individuals - no matter what their station in life happened to be, the Davis statement sounds a little boastful. Perhaps even reckless. Yet various accounts of Davis tend to show a serious, prudent, thoughtful man - just the sort one would want as a leader. So why would he make this statement?

While the minutemen and militia were assembled on the hillside, smoke - described in one account as "huge volumes of smoke" - was seen arising from Concord Center. The fear was that the British regulars were now beginning to torch the town. Major John Buttrick, on orders from Colonel James Barrett, turned to Concord Captain Charles Miles to lead the foray into the center. It was, after all, his community to defend; the honor should be his.

Except that he declined.

Why would he decline? Probably common sense and a sense of self-preservation. Even though the British regulars were outnumbered by about a 4 to 1 margin, the front line of any attack is going to be where casualties occur. And New Englanders were reticent about marching into the muzzles of guns. When discussing the military effectiveness of the local militia, American General Nathanael Greene wrote:

"Place them behind a parapet, a breast-work, stone wall, or anything that will afford them shelter... they will give good account of their enemy; but I am well convinced, as I had seen it, that they will not march boldly up to a work nor stand exposed in a plain."

Miles's day did not end at the North Bridge and he fought elsewhere on that day. He was wounded but was erroneously listed as "killed" on the famous broadside detailing the British atrocities of that day:


A very good account of Miles' life by the esteemed local historian, Dr. Michael Ryan, can be found here.

The home is located at 462 Williams Road in Concord. It is a very nicely maintained private residence and is not open to the public. There is no parking nearby and the vehicles travel quickly on these narrow roads so only a quick peek is possible.

A street nearby is named Captain Miles Lane for the man who stood looking down at the British guns.

Sad News: Scurrilous Vandals

From New England Cable News (NECN) via AP:

Plaque Stolen From Revolutionary War Site

LEXINGTON, Mass. (AP) - Police say a century-old plaque that commemorated the belfry that sounded the alarm to summon the militia before the Battle of Lexington has been stolen.

The 20-by-20 inch bronze plaque honoring the Old Belfry on Lexington's Battle Green was pried from the rock to which it had been attached sometime last week.

Susan Bennett, executive director of the Lexington Historical Society, says the bell tolled to summon the militia to the green as British soldiers advanced toward town on April 19, 1775 at the start of the American Revolution.

The plaque was installed by the Lexington chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1910.

Bennett says she's dismayed the site has been "desecrated."

Police say they have notified scrap yards to be on the lookout.

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The replica of the belfry stands on Belfry Hill overlooking the Lexington Green. This is the view of the edifice from the Lexington "Minuteman" statue.

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UPDATE: Various Lexington businesses have generously collaborated on a reward for the return of the plaque (with no questions asked).

And The British Redcoat has a nice posting on this crime with before and after photos.

FURTHER UPDATE: On January 26, 2010, the plaque was found by a passer-by on Waltham Street in Lexington. It was in good shape and will be returned to its spot on the Lexington Green.

Governor Thomas Hutchinson's home, Boston, MA

Governor Thomas Hutchinson was the last civilian governor of the royal government of Massachusetts. A descendant of Anne Hutchinson, the brilliant preacher and inadvertant proponent of religious freedom, Hutchinson was graduated from Harvard at 16, and served in all branches (executive, legislative and judicial) of the colonial government. He was undoubtedly a brilliant, but conservative, public figure with strong Loyalist sentiments.

Hutchinson had one of the finest homes in Boston in the 1760s when he served as the lieutenant Governor. In August 1765, a mob, incensed by the Stamp Act, turned their fury toward Hutchinson - who thought the Stamp Act was unwise and privately opposed the tax. Forewarned that the mob was headed to his home, Hutchinson sent his family away and stood to confront the mob alone. However, his eldest daughter refused to leave him and he quit the home to ensure her safety.

Hutchinson made the following report of the event:

And, in the evening of the 26th of August, such a mob was collected in King street, drawn there by a bonfire, and well supplied with strong drink. After some annoyance to the house of the registrar of the admiralty, and somewhat greater to that of the comptroller of the customs, whose cellars they plundered of the wine and spirits in them, they came, with intoxicated rage, upon the house of the lieutenant-governor. The doors were immediately split to pieces with broad axes, and a way made there, and at the windows, for the entry of the mob; which poured in, and filled, in an instant, every room in the house.

The lieutenant-governor had very short notice of the approach of the mob. He directed his children, and the rest of his family, to leave the house immediately, determining to keep possession himself. His eldest daughter, after going a little way from the house, returned, and refused to quit it, unless her father would do the like.

This caused him to depart from his resolutions, a few minutes before the mob entered. They continued their possession until day-light; destroyed, carried away, or cast into the street, every thing that was in the house; demolished every part of it, except the walls, as far as lay in their power; and had begun to break away the brickwork.

The damage was estimated at about twenty-five hundred pounds sterling, without any regard to a great collection of publick as well as private papers, in the possession and custody of the lieutenant-governor.

Hutchinson fled Boston in 1775. Although he often thought of returning to his native community, he died in London in 1780. He was able to publish a seminal study, a three volume History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay; the first two volumes were published in his lifetime.

I have found two dates for the house's construction; one states 1692 and another says 1711. The home was built by John and Abigail Foster - and eventually was inherited by a nephew, Thomas Hutchinson, the father of the governor. As Thomas Hutchinson the younger was born at the house in 1711, I think the 1692 date sounds more accurate. Having fallen into disrepair after the mob attack in 1765, the home was torn down in 1833.

The plaque is located on Garden Court Street. It is not on Boston's Freedom Trail, although various walking tours do point out the site.

Just across the street is another monument pointing out that the address for the home of legendary Boston Mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, the first Irish Catholic mayor of Boston and the father of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Neither site is particularly well kept and both of these monuments could use a serious cleaning and/or upgrade.

It's Boston; parking is available at exorbitant prices.

The Midnight Riders, Lincoln, MA

When I was a child, many years before the establishment of the Minuteman National Park, my parents would sometimes take me to Buttrick's ice cream stand in Lincoln, Massachusetts. I don't recall that their ice cream were as good as Brigham's but the stand was a short drive from home. And at the end of the parking lot, this was this large stone that you could climb on.

It was this stone, marking the place where the three "midnight riders", Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, were stopped by a British patrol early on the morning of April 19th, 1775. Revere was captured but Dawes and Prescott rode on to complete the warnings - and into history.

On the evening of April 18, 1775, William Dawes had been sent out by Dr. Joseph Warren to warn the people of Concord about the impending excursion to seize the munitions stored in that community. Leaders such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams were also out in the Lexington/Concord are; they needed to be warned as well as orders had recently come from London to capture the leaders of the unrest.

Dawes took the "land" route - which was longer. In order to make sure someone provided notice, Warren sent out a second rider: Paul Revere. He took the "sea" route, across the river and under the guns of British warships.

Revere arrived first in Lexington and warned Hancock and Adams as they rested in the home of Rev. Jonas Clarke. Dawes showed up shortly thereafter. Around 1 AM, Revere and Dawes headed towards Concord.

Shortly before that, a young Concord doctor, Dr. Samuel Prescott, left the home of his Lexington fiancé, Lydia Mulliken. Just after the green, Prescott encountered the two riders and was recognized by Revere as "a high son of liberty". They rode together for a short while and then were surprised by a heavily armed British patrol. While Revere was captured, Dawes and Prescott made daring escapes. Dawes went on to notify Captain William Smith of Lincoln. Unfamiliar with the area, Dawes stayed in Lincoln. Prescott went on to warn the leaders in Concord, awaken his brother, Abel, to carry further warnings and then finished his night waking the Acton minutemen. Abel Prescott rode to Sudbury and Framingham.

Pictured to the left is another rock monument: it is the memorial to the 20th Massachusetts regiment know as the "Harvard Brigade" at Gettysburg. When I first visited the battlefield and passed by the unique monument, I thought it was strikingly ugly.

And then I learned the story: many of the members of the regiment had come from Roxbury, Massachusetts. When it came time to commemorate their fallen comrades, they returned to their childhood. They took a stone from a Roxbury playground, a site where they laughed, played and first bonded as friends.

Among the men from the 20th Massachusetts who fell at Gettysburg: Colonel Paul Joseph Revere, a grandson of the patriot Revere. He was not the only grandson of a midnight rider on those fields of Pennsylvania: across the way on the battlefield was Lt. Colonel Rufus Dawes of Wisconsin, who played a critical role on the first day of the three day battle.

Rufus Dawes went on to serve a term as a Congressman from Ohio. A son, Charles Dawes, went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize and serve as vice president in the Coolidge administration.

While Revere and Dawes lived to see the birth of the nation, Samuel Prescott's destiny ws largely determined by this happenstance of a late night encounter. I will write about that in another post, but his courage and patriotism did not end with this period.

The Revere capture site is now part of the Minuteman National Park; parking is available nearby.