CHAPTER III

IN THE REVOLUTION

Patriots and Tories. The Battle of Fall River. Resolutions on Boston Tea Party andDeclaration of Independence . Schools and Churches

The town of Freetown, of which Fal lRiver was then a part, had an excellent re

c-ord in the Revolution. Though at first unde rTory influence, the patriots here rallie dpromptly and by word and deed took thei rstand in favor of liberty and independence .The southern and eastern sections werestrongly patriotic, but in conservative Asso -net there were many Tories . ,The latter ap-pear to have been successful at a townmeeting in January, 1744, at which the de-struction of tea in Boston harbor was con-demned in strong resolutions .

The tea had been thrown overboard onDecember 16, and on January 8, pursuant t oa request of a number of inhabitants for ameeting to consider the affair, such a meet-ing was called to be held at the middleschool house January 17 . Captain GeorgeChase was moderator, and "after sum De -bates and Duely Considering ye bad Conse-quences which probably may arise from y eproceeding," it was decided that the townshould act on the matter, and a committeewas appointed to prepare resolutions, whichwere adopted on January 26 . These criti-cised the town of Boston for allowing th eincident, declared that Freetown abhorred ,detested and forever bore testimony agains tsuch acts, and instructed the representativ ein the General Court to use his utmost en-deavor to prevent in the future all such"Riotous and Mobish proceedings ." Fearwas expressed that the affair "will brin gupon us the Vengeance of an Affronted Ma-jesty, and also plunge us in Debt and Miser ywhen ye Injured owners of sd Tea shal lmake there Demand for ye Vallue of yeSame," and it was ordered that the vote be"farely Recorded in ye Town Book" and acopy sent to the press "that ye World ma yknow our minds Respecting our libertys an dGood Government, and ye Resolutions we

have to obey ye good Laws of our land ,which under God for so long this Provinc ehave been happy in ye Injoyment of ." Thecommittee which drew up these resolution sconsisted of Thomas Gilbert, Abiel Terry ,James Winslow, Jail Hathaway, and Jess eBullock .

The sentiment changed quickly, however ,for at a town meeting on September 19 o fthe same year, agreeable to the request o fthe Taunton committee to choose represen-tatives to confer with those of other town sin the county as to "measures proper to u sin our deplorable circumstances," Thoma sDurfee, Captain Ambrose Barnaby, Dr . JohnTurner, Nathaniel Morton and Joshua Hatha-way were selected "to consult the neigh-boring committees in said county and else -where as they shall think most for the goo dof the county respecting the dispensation o fgovernment at this critical day . "

The committee, with others, met at th eCourt House at Taunton September 28, 1774 ,with Zephaniel Leonard, Esq ., chairman .Patriotic speeches were made and resolu-tions unanimously adopted that they were"determined at the risk of their fortunes andtheir lives to defend their natural an dcompacted rights" and "oppose to their ut-most all illegal and unconstitutional meas-ures which have been or hereafter may b eadopted by the British Parliament or theBritish Ministry . "

Thirty-one men under Captain Levi Roun-seville responded to the first call, April 19 ,1775, usually known as the Lexington alarm .They were Lieutenants Samuel Taber an dNatt Morton, Sergeants John White, an dConsider Crapo, Corporals Joshua Lawrenc eand Seth Hillman and Privates Phili pTaber, Uriel Pierce Benj . Lawrence ,Abiel Cole, Consider White, Jesse Keen ,Jacob Benson, John Clark, John Braley, Per-

16

HISTORY OF FALL RIVER

cival Ashley, Ichabod Johnson, Michael Ash -ley, Seth Morton, Jeff Sachems, Israel Has-kell, Louis DeMoranville, Abram Ashley ,Charles DeMoranville, Aaron Seekel, AbnerHaskins, Benjamin Runnells, ThomasRounsvill, Peter Crapo and Joseph Hacket .

The town also furnished a number for ser -vice in the field, especially against the Brit-ish on Rhode Island. At a town meetin gMay 10, 1775, it was voted to care for th efamilies of poor soldiers, and at a meetin gthe following March a committee of corre-spondence, inspection and safety was se-lected and boats ordered built for the town' suse "to cross the river in if our enemiesshould attack our friends on the oppositeshore." The articles of confederation wer eapproved February 10, 1777 .

At a town meeting July 15, 1776, wit hStephen Borden moderator, resolution sdrawn up by Major Joshua Hathaway, Col .James Winslow and John Hathaway as acommittee, declaring strongly in favor of th erecently signed Declaration of Independence ,were adopted. These were as follows :

"Whereas, George, the Third, King ofGreate Britain, in Violation of ye Principlesof British Constitution and of the Laws o fJustice and Humanity, Hath, by an accumu-lation of oppressions unpariled in history ,excluded ye Inhabitants of this as well a sye other neighboring Collones from his Pro-tection ; and whereas, he hath paid no re -garde to any of our Remonstrances andDutiefull petitions for redress of our Com-plicated Grevinces, but hath purchased for-eign Troops to assist in Enslaving us andEnciteed ye Savages of this Countery to Carr yon a war aaginst us, as also ye Negroes, t oimbru their hands in ye Blood of their mas-ters in a manner unpractised by Civilise dNations, and moreover hath Lately insultedour Calematyes by Declaring that he wil lhave no mercy on us till he hath Subdue dus; and, whereas, the obligations of alegencebeing reciprocal between ye King and hi ssubjects, are now dissolved on ye side o fye Collonies by ye Dispotism and Declara-

tion of ye King, insomuch that Loyalty tohim is Treason against the good people o fthis Countery ; and, whereas, not only yeparliment, but there is Great reason to be-leave Too many of ye people of Great Brit-ain have concured in ye aforesd arbitrar yand unjust proceedings Against us ; and ,

whereas, the Publiick Virtue of this Collony,

so essential to its Liberty and happines smust be indangered by a futer politica lunion with, or Dependence on, a Croun an dnation so lost to patriotism and magnanim-ty ; We, the Inhabitants of Freetown, in pub-lick Town meeting assemble, for giving in-structions to our representetive by Directio nfrom ye general Court, Do in publick Tow nmeeting Vote and declare, and Direct ou r

representetive to Declare in ye general Cour tthat we are ready with our Lives and for -tunes To Support the General Congress inDeclaring the united American Colonies fre eand independent of Greate Britain, and alsoDirect our said representetive to move i nthe General Court for ye Delegates for thi sColony to be Directed to move for, and giv evotes for, said Independence, provided, tha tthe internal police of this Government Beallwaise left to the people of the said Col-ony, and we declare to all ye world that w edo not make this Declaration out of pride o rEnvy, but By the Dictates of the Laws o f

Nature, and appeal to ye Supreme Governorof the world for our Sincerity in the Dec-laration . "

The graves of a number of Revolutionar ysoldiers buried here have been marked b ythe Sons of the American Revolution an dare as follows : In the North Steep Broo kburying ground, Captain James Simmond sand Benjamin Weaver ; in the North bury-ing ground, Colonel Joseph Durfee, Thoma sDurfee and Robert Irving ; in the Oak GroveCemetery, Ephraim Boomer, Elisha Caswel land Benjamin Peck ,

One of these, Colonel Joseph Durfee, too kan active part in the war and was prom-inent in the fight with the British here, May25, 1778, of which he has left a graphic ac -count. The British were then holding thesouthern end of the island of Rhode Islandand with the aid of their fleet continuall yharassed the towns on the bay, includin gFreetown. In the fall of 1777, on his returnfrom service in the field, Colonel Durfee sa wthe need of a guard for the protection of th ecitizens, and secured the consent of theauthorities to form one . What followed i sbest told in his own words :

"I soon raised a guard, procured the storenow standing at the end of the Iron Work sCompany's wharf, in this place for a guard -house, where we met every day, called th eroll, and stationed sentinels for the nightto watch the movements of the enemy andgive the alarm when approached. The or-

HISTORY OF FALL RIVER

1 7

ders of the sentinel were peremptory—tha tif a boat was seen approaching in the nigh tto hail them three times, and if no answe rwas received to fire upon them . It was notlong before one of the guard, Samuel Reed ,discovered boats silently and cautiously ap-proaching the shore from the bay . The chal-lenge was given but no answer received . Hefired upon the boats . This created an alarm ,and the whole neighborhood was soon i narms. I stationed the guard behind a stonewall, and kept up a constant fire upon theenemy until they brought their canno n tobear upon us, and commenced firing grapeshot amongst us—when, as we were unabl eto return the compliment, it was deemed ad-visable to retreat . Two of the guard weresent to remove all the planks which laidover the stream for foot people to cros supon, and to cut off, as far as possible, ever yfacility for crossing the stream, except th eupper bridge. We then retreated slowlyuntil we reached the main road, near wherethe bridge now crosses the stream. I thengave orders to form and give them battle .This was done, and never were soldiersmore brave . So roughly were the enem yhandled by our little band of Spartans tha tthey soon beat a retreat, leaving behindthem one dead and another bleeding t odeath, besides the wounded whom they car-ried away.

The wounded soldier left by the enemy ,before he expired, informed me that th enumber of the enemy who attacked us wa sabout 150, commanded by Major Ayres .When the enemy landed they set fire to thehouse of Thomas Borden, then nearly new .They next set fire to a grist mill and a sa wmill belonging to Mr . Borden, standing a tthe mouth of Fall River . These buildings Isaw when set on fire . When the Britis htroops retreated, as they were compelled todo, from the shots of our little band of vol-unteers, they set fire to the house and othe rbuildings of Richard Borden, then an age dman, and took him prisoner . We pursuedthem so closely in their retreat that we wer eenabled to save the building which they ha dlast fired. The British were frequently fire dupon and not a little annoyed by the mus-ketry of our soldiers, as they passed dow nthe bay in their boats on their retreat . Mr.Richard Borden, whom they took prisoner,was in one of their boats . Finding them -selves closely pursued by a fe w Americansoldiers, who from the shore poured in their

shot and balls upon them as fast as theycould load and fire, and finding themselve sin danger from the musketry of these fewbrave Whigs, who pursued them, they or-dered Mr. Borden, their prisoner, to stan dup in the boat, hoping that his comrade son the shore would recognize him an

d desist from firing upon them. But this herefused to do ; and threw himself flat intothe bottom of the boat . While laying there,a shot from the Americans on shore kille done of the British soldiers standing by hi sside in the boat . Mr. Borden was obstinatel ysilent to all the questions which were aske dhim ; so that not being able to make anyprofitable use of him, they dismissed him i na few days on parole . The engagement too kplace on a Sabbath morning on the 25th o fMay, 1778. The two British soldiers killedin this engagement were buried at twelveo'clock on the same day of the battle, nea rwhere the south end of the Massasoit factorynow stands."

The site of this battle was marked by abronze tablet erected by the Quequecha nChapter, D . A . R., May 25, 1899, on the south -west corner of the City Hall .

The Tories here were chiefly of the older ,more wealthy and conservative inhabitants ,who had become so accustomed to the estab-lished order that they hesitated to risk se-curity under the new and who found th eshifting of allegiance from King to colon ytoo difficult . Some who in earlier years ha dbeen Tories, like Captain Ambrose Barnaby ,and Captain Levi Rounseville, were late rbrought to the patriot cause and were activ ein its support . Captain Rounseville, indeed ,was in command of the Minute Men who re-sponded to the Lexington alarm, and Captai n

Barnaby also did much in the cause of lib-erty .

The most prominent of all the loyalist swas Colonel Thomas Gilbert, of Assonet , aveteran of the French and Indian war, andthe head of the second regiment of militia ,to which the Freetown companies belonged .He was the town's representative in theGeneral Court and chairman of the commit -tee which drew up the resolutions express-ing abhorrence at the Boston tea party .Early in 1775, by direction of General Gage ,at Boston, he stored considerable quanti-ties of war material and organized 300 me nof this county for quelling any uprisin g inthis section . Two thousand Whigs fro mother towns marched on the force, but Col-

18

HISTORY OF FALL RIVER

oriel Gilbert, learning of their approach, too kwhat he could of the munitions and, withsome of his followers fled to an English wa rvessel at Newport . The arms an

d ammuni-tion left behind were seized and 29 men ,who had enlisted under Gilbert, were cap-tured, but released on promises of better be-havior . This was on April 9, ten days beforethe battle of Lexington . Colonel Gilbert' sproperty was confiscated .

Another active Tory was Samuel Valen-tine, though not the only one, as appear sfrom a list of 26 men, voted for trial May 31 ,1777 .

But very little knowledge o f the schoolsof the Colonial period has come down to us .The children wore not without instructionin the elementary subjects of reading, writ-ing and arithmetic, however, for it wa sfirmly fixed in the minds of the fathers thatthe educating of their offspring was a sol-emn religious duty. This was emphasize dby the early enactment of a law compellin gevery town of fifty families to maintain apublic school and every town of 100 familie sone to fit pupils for Harvard College. Inthis community, too, the teaching of th eFriends' Discipline that members of th emeeting should give special care to th

e in-struction of the young was of great weight ,for a large number of the settlers belonge dto that faith and early established their ow nschool system, by which the Quaker chil-dren were taught, usually by women, a thomes of members of the societ y.

The first mention of schools in the tow nrecords appears in 1702, when Robert Dur -fee was chosen agent to secure a man todispense the gospel and teach the childrenreading and writing. This double service a sminister and pedagogue was common in th ecolonies and continued to be so for many

years . William Way was the first school -master, elected in 1704, it appears, and re-mained till three years later, when he wa sdismissed !by vote of the town .

The next date on which the matter ofschools appears is May 5 . 1718 . when Jaco b

Hathaway was chosen "to seek for a school -master ." In October of that year Thoma sRoberts was hired to teach for .£36 a year ,the first third of the period at the north en dof the town, the next third at the meetinghouse and the last third at or near Joh nHowland's, which was within the limits o fthe present city . Roberts probably did no tstay more than three years, for in 1721 it

was voted to seek a new man, and in thefollowing year William Caswell was vote d£ 30, to teach for a year, with the under -standing tnat he was to be at all cost forboarding himself. William Gaige was an-other early teacher. There were years, how -ever, when public educational facilities wer efew, for the town was repeatedly indicte dfor not having a schoolmaster as the la w

directed.

The first record of schoolhouses appears i n1722 in a vote to erect two buildings "at th emiddle of each half of the town from themeeting-house or centre," and in 1727 it wasordered that a school to be erected shoul dbe 18 by 14 feet . Seventy pounds were ap-propriated for meeting the expense of th ethree structures . The dimensions and cos tgiven show that the buildings of this tim ewere far different from the modern struc-tures . and even as late as 1791, when thetown was divided into seven school district sand a vote passed for the erection of newhouses, they had not greatly increased . The

largest of these, for district No. 3, betweenSteep Brook and Assonet, where there wer e58 families, was but 25½ by 20 feet . Theschool in district No . 1, near the centre o fFall River, was 24x20, and was to accommo-date the pupils from 47 families . Distric t

No . 2, to the north of this, had a building ofthe same dimensions and 52 families .

These schoolhouses were, of course, bu tone story high, and were built with an ey esingle to utility . The walls were covere dwith pine boards and plastered and a smal lentry partitioned off at the front. Oppositethe teacher's desk was a large fireplace i nwhich four-foot wood was burned, and run-ning around the side of the room in severa lrows were rough benches for the pupil swith desks for the older scholars of two-foo tplanks. There were no receptacles fo rbooks and slates, unless here and there a nindividual drawer . The teacher's desk wasequally plain—a frame of planed pine board sstanding four and a half feet high . The win-dows were small and without shades, and

there were no maps or pictures .Reading, writing and arithmetic were th e

principal studies . For the first the Biblewas a favorite, and later the New England

Primer . For penmanship, in which the pu-pils took much pride if they did well, fo rgraceful chirography was considered

a no-table accomplishment, there were copies se tby the teacher, whose duty it also was to

HISTORY OF FALL RIVER

1 9

mend the goose-quills used for pens. Thearithmetic was mostly done by rules, easilylearned and applied, and while the examplesset often involved laborious calculations ,they did not tax the mental powers or de-velop the reasoning abilities as do the prob -lems given to the school children of to-day .Spelling was also taught, but history, geog-raphy, nature study and other subjectsbrought into the schools of this century re-ceived but scant notice .

The early town records are still preserve din the old town of Freetown, and copies o fthem are kept in the City Clerk's office here .The records are not in chronological orde rat the first, and the minutes appear to havebeen written wherever a convenient placeoffered . The first entry is the birth of Abi-gail Makepeace, and is followed by the rec-ord of the election and swearing in of vari-ous officers, including Thomas Freelove a s

taning man. There are also numerous rec-ords of the ear-marks of domestic animal s

belonging to citizens of the town, of whic h"Joseph Dunham his earmark on his crea-tures is a fork on the left ear and a half-penny on each side of the same" is a typica lexample . Regulations for horses, swin eand sheep that were allowed to go at large ,fines for non-attendance at town meeting,provisions for scout duty and the licensingof Indians who came here to hunt, and theappropriation of 15 shillings to build a tow nstocks, after the town had been indicted fornot having one, throw considerable light o nthe life of the period.

A frequent subject for consideration attown meetings was the matter of a tow nminister, in accordance with the law of thecolony . The local residents appear to hav ehad little sympathy for this, and were re-peatedly indicted for failure to provide suc han officer . The early schoolmasters weresometimes also expected to act as minis-ters, but objections were raised that theywere not duly approved by the ministers o fthe neighboring towns, as the law required .

In 1707 the town voted to appeal to th eBishop of London to supply a clergyman ,

possibly hoping thereby to escape the ex-pense of the minister's salary, as well as an-noy the Puritan State Magistrates, and thi svote was frequently cited as an objectionwhen attempts were later made to elect aCongregational clergyman. Joseph Avery ,Jonathan Dodson, Thomas Craighead, Jame s

McSparron and Silas Brett were among th eofficial ministers of the town at this period .

A meeting-house 26x36 feet and 18 feet be-tween joints was completed in 1714, on lan dgiven for the purpose by Samuel Lynde . I t

stood on the main road, near the presen tline between Freetown and Fall River .Twenty pounds toward the cost were give n

by the General Court.The Friends were long the largest an d

most powerful denomination in the town .

Their meeting-house was erected not fa r

from the present Crystal Spring Bleachery ,

about 1725 .