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Subject: [GENMASSACHUSETTS] Lancaster,Massachusetts in the Revolutionary War. Part 1.
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:42:29 EST

Subject: The Committee of Correspondence in Lancaster, Mass.
Source: The History of Lancaster, Mass. by Rev. Abijah P. Marvin - Published
by the town
of Lancaster, Mass., 1879.
Part 1.
The Suffering Poor of Boston.
p.287
A meeting was called on the 5th of September, 1774, to consider various
matters pertain-
ing to the general welfare. One article respected the granting relief to the
"suffering
poor of the town of Boston, occasioned by the late act of Parliament,
blocking up the
port of Boston.

The town chose the following committee of correspondence, with the singular
provision

that "any number even less than a majority - shall be sufficient to
represent the town."
The times required haste, and it would not do to delay, in some exigencies,
long enough
to collect the Committee from remote parts of the town.

Dr. William Dunsmoor, Deacon David Wilder, Aaron Sawyer, Captain Asa
Whitcomb, Capt.
Hezekiah Gates, John Prescott, Ephraim Sawyer - and subsquently Deacon
Thomas Fairbank,
Deacon Josiah Wilder and Jonathan Wilder were added.

p.288
At a meeting, September 28, Dr. Dunsmoor was chosen delegate to a "proposed
Provincial
Convention" "to be held at Concord. The committee were empowered to "buy two
2 Pounders"
instead of one field piece. The meeting was adjourned to December 12th, when
Dr. Dunsmoor
and Captains Gates and Whitcomb were appointed a committee to draw up an
"Association,
League and Covenant for non-consumption of goods, etc.; for the inhabitants
to sign."

At another meeting a committee of three was chosen to see what money was in
the hands of
the constables, and to "direct them not to pay any public money out of their
hands with-
out the town's order." This action was intended to prevent any taxes going
to the loyal
treasurer of the province. The committee were: Dr. Josiah Wilder, Aaron
Sawyer, Ephraim
Sawyer. Instead of 2 pounders, the committee reported that they had bought
"four

Pounders."

On October 31, the Town made arrangements that their money should not be
paid to the
provincial or county treasurer, but to Henry Gardner, Esquire, of Stow,
Mass., who had
been designated by the patriots as Receiver General.

p.289
An adjourned meeting held January 2, 1775, chose a "committee to receive
subscriptions
and donations for the suffering poor of Boston - as follows:

Doctor Dunsmoor
Deacon David Wilder
Ephraim Carter
Deacon Asa Whitcomb
Capt. Daniel Robins
Ephraim Sawyer.

The Continental Congress which met not long before, formed an Association to
unite the
whole people in resisting aggression, and promoting the general welfare. The
town voted
to "abide by the spirit and sense" of the Association; and chose a large
committee "to
see that the said Association be kept and observed by the inhabitants" of
the town. The
Committee were:

John Prescott, Captain
Captain Gates
David Wilder
Ephraim Carter
Dr. Wilder
Dr. Dunsmoor
Samuel Thurston
Ebenezer Allen
Ephraim Sawyer
Capt. Whitcomb
Capt. Robbins
Josiah Kendall, Jr.
Jonathan Fairbanks
David Osgood
Jonathan Wilder.

Captain Whitcomb and Dr. Dunsmoor were chosen delegates to the "Provincial
Congress"
which met at Concord, in the following month.
Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth



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