Bristol County, Massachusetts - Chapter 35, 1883

Chapter 35

" July 25, 1774. Voted by a great majority, that the sum of £5 3s. 8<Z. be drawn out of the town treasury for the use of the committee of this province, that are to meet in the General Congress; it being Rehoboth's proportionable part of the money to be ordered out of the treasury by the selectmen."

" Voted not to purchase any goods imported from Great Britain after the 31st day of August next, until the act for blocking up the harbour of Boston be repealed, and the government be restored to its former privileges." " Likewise voted that the town clerk transmit a copy of the transactions of this meeting to the clerk of the Corresponding Committee in Boston."

"September 19, 1774. The town chose Maj. Timothy Walker and Capt. John Wheeler delegates to attend the proposed Provincial Congress on the second Tuesday of October next, at Concord, or any other time or place that the major part of the delegates of said province may agree upon."

"October 3, 1774. The town chose Capt. Thomas Carpenter a delegate for the Provincial Congress in the room of Capt. John Wheeler that is dismissed."

" November 21, 1774. Voted to accept of, and abide by, the results of the Provincial Congress." " Voted that every constable, collector, or person who have in their hands, or that may hereafter have any of the province's monies that they pay the same to Henry Gardner, Esq., of Stow, instead of the Hon. Harrison Gray, Esq., and that they produce his receipt which shall be a full and effectual discharge for the same agreeable to a resolve of the Provincial Congress, October 28th, 1774: to the whole of which resolve we promise and engage faithfully to adhere in all its parts."

"January 2, 1775. The town chose Maj. Timothy Walker and Capt. Thomas Carpenter delegates to attend the Provincial Congress to be holden at Cambridge on the first day of February next."

The Rev. Ephraim Hyde's parish (then the first Congregational society in Rehoboth, now the first in Seekonk) contributed £6 "for the relief and support of the poor of Boston, sufferers by means of the Boston Port Bill."

The receipt of £10 is acknowledged by Henry Gardner, Esq., treasurer of the Provincial Congress, as a " part of the province's tax set on the town of Rehoboth by the General Court."

Rehoboth

" May 26, 1775. Voted to raise two companies in tliis town to be ready on any special alarm: one company to-be raised in the Westerly part and the other in the easterly part of said town. Likewise voted that every soldier enlisting to be minute-man, on alarm shall have three shillings a day, he finding himself, if called into service, until they come to draw provisions out of the provision stores; and then to have two shillings a day for each day until they return home again except they shall be paid by the province." ''Also voted that the selectmen divide the town stock of ammunition, the one-half for the west part of the town, the other half for the east part.*'

" June 12, 1775. Voted that the selectmen provide for the poor of the town of Boston, that are or shall be sent to this town, upon the town's credit.'" "Also voted that there be fifty men in each special alarm company, exclusive of officers; and that the captains of each company provide a man with a horse-cart and two horses in order to carry the baggage of the companies in case of alarm."

November 6, 1775. The town " voted to borrow four pieces of cannon of Capt. John Lyon and Mr. Nathan Daggett;" and voted "the sum of £60 to defray the charges of mounting said cannon and providing ammunition and other utensils that shall be needful for the same." Also chose "a committee to wait on a committee of the town of Providence to consult on fortifying Hog-pen Point."

" November 13, 1775. Voted it expedient to fortify Hog-pen Point, and chose a committee to oversee the business." This point is in Seekonk, and traces of the fortification are still to be seen.

" February 12, 1776. Voted to encourage the manufacturing of saltpetre in private families, by affording them the materials they can get without doing damage."

Considerable quantities of saltpetre, it is said, were manufactured in the town during the period of the Revolution, and a manufactory was set up near the Cove Factory, in Seekonk, for the purpose of making it.

"April 14, 1774. Voted to raise a bounty of £20 to every soldier that shall enlist into the continental army for three years or during the war, provided they enlist into the said army within ten days." This bounty, by vote of the town May 19, 1777, was extended to every soldier that had enlisted for the same term, since the former vote, or who should enlist withiu twenty days of the last date. And by another vote, passed June 30th, the same bounty was further extended to all who should enlist into the continental army within two months from that date.

" September 7, 1778. Voted to grant the sum of £463 4s. for clothing, purchased by the selectmen, agreeable to an order of Court, for the continental soldiers that enlisted into the service."

"May 5, 1779. Voted that the sum of £1200 be raised by a tax this spring and paid into the town treasury, to be ordered out of said treasury by the selectmen to the committee that take care of the soldiers' families, if needed."

"October 23, 1780. Voted to raise the sum of £26,400 for the purpose of raising the town's quota of beef." This quota was 42,106 pounds. These immense sums were required to be raised, in consequence of the great depreciation of the value of the paper currency issued by the Continental Congress. The whole amount of money raised by the town this year for its necessary charges was the sum of £50,527 4s.

From the " Journals and Resolves of Massachusetts" we glean the few following additional particulars respecting the number of men, etc., to be furnished by Rehoboth at several of the different times when drafts of men were called for: For the reinforcement voted to be raised in Massachusetts and "sent to the camp at Cambridge or Roxbury, as his Excellency General Washington shall direct," the proportion of Rehoboth was seventy-four men; the proportion of Rehoboth of the men raised by Massachusetts " for filling and completing the fifteen battalions of Continental troops" was twenty-four; Rehoboth's proportion of the men to be raised "for reinforcing the Continental army," according to a resolve passed June 8, 1779, was twenty-two. In 1781, Massachusetts was ordered to raise 4,626,178 pounds of beef, of which the proportion of Rehoboth was 42,106 pounds. Of the 4726 men voted to be raised by Massachusetts, June, 1780, for three months, for reinforcing the Continental army, the proportion of Rehoboth was 60.

The following is a list of the officers in Col. Timothy Walker's regiment, enlisted for eight months from April and May of 1775. Col. Walker belonged to Rehoboth, and also a part of his officers:

" This roll," says a note appended to it, " was made up to the 1st of August, 1775, and paid by the State, and afterwards was paid by the United States for the other five months."

" A muster roll of the company under command of Capt. John Perry, in Col. Timothy Walker's regiment [torn off], to the 1st of August, 1775, enlisted for eight months :

In September, 1776, a regiment was raised in this town and some of the adjoining towns, and marched, under the command of Col. Thomas Carpenter, of Rehoboth, to join the army of Washington at White Plains.

Previous to the battle of White Plains a trifling skirmish occurred between a small detachment of the British and Col. Carpenter's regiment, a few particulars of which I had from the surgeon's mate,1 who was present and witnessed it. Col. Carpenter's regiment was stationed on a gently elevated hill to watch the movements of a detachment of the British army.

Col. Carpenter's regiment were out on service at this time only three months. One of the companies in this regiment was raised partly in Attleborough and partly in Norton, and was under the command of Capt. Elisha May, of the former town.

From the time that the British first took possession of Rhode Island, in December, 1776, till they finally evacuated it, a period of more than two years, the militia of this town and vicinity were subject to frequent drafts of men, and were frequently called out on alarms. Drafts were made in January, February, March, May, June, July, and August of the year

1 These facts I had from my grandfather, the late Dr. James Bliss, of Rehoboth, who performed the duty of surgeon's mate in this regiment (Bliss).

1777. .The men were stationed principally at Howland's Ferry (Tiverton) and at Warwick. One company, if not more, marched from this town to Rhode Island in October, 1777, and served one month in Spencer's "secret expedition."

1778, Col. Carpenter, with a large detachment of his regiment, marched to join Sullivan's army on the island, and distinguished themselves for their bravery.

Several of the soldiers of Col. Carpenter's regiment belonging to Rehoboth were killed during this expedition. The names of three of them were Medbury, Peck, and John Dryer. These three fell on one spot. Benjamin Smith, of Swansea, wras wounded by the bursting of a bomb-shell.

From the "list of the six months' men raised to reinforce the Continental army in the year 1780," we have the following list of names from Rehoboth ; they marched to West Point, and served under Continental officers :

2 Samuel Bliss, who afterwards bore the title of captain, was Gen. Washington's steward at Morri6town in the winter of 1777. (Bliss' History, i

"January 22,1787. Voted that the selectmen be instructed to remove the powder and other town stock, that is now at Col. Thomas Carpenter's, as soon as conveniently may be." Col. Carpenter was a stanch friend of the government.

"The names of the following persons are registered in the town records as having taken the oath of allegiance to the commonwealth, and delivered up their arms during March of 1787. These men belonged to the party of Shays, and had probably taken arms against the government :

November' 26, 1787. The town chose Capt. Phauuel Bishop, Maj. Frederick Drown, and William Windsor, Esq., delegates to the State Convention, to meet at Boston the second Wednesday of January, 1788, "to consult on the Federal Constitution recommended by the late Federal Convention, which set at Philadelphia the summer past."

April 2, 1792. The town raised for the support of schools, " including the Latin school," £150. Also " voted that the selectmen be empowered to procure such grammar schools as shall answer the law, in the different parts of the town, for learning the Latin and Greek languages."

" October 6, 1794. Voted that the treasurer of this town be directed to pay to each non-commissioned officer and soldier raised for this town's quota of eighty thousand men, ordered by Congress to be raised, forty shillings each, when they are ordered to march out of this town on a campaign, and forty shillings each to every man aforesaid for every month they shall continue in the camp after one month from the time they shall march, the money to be paid in one month after their return from service."

" February 24, 1794. Voted to remonstrate with the Legislature of Rhode Island against a bridge being built over Kelloy's Ferry, near Warren."

May 6, 1795. A motion for petitioning the General Court to incorporate the west precinct of Rehoboth into a separate town was carried by a vote in the negative. Voted to raise £175 for the support of schools, of which £25 was to be appropriated to a grammar school.