portance to the general cause, and finally led to the appointment of Deputies to meet in a General Congress.

After the passage of the Act of Parliament for shutting up the Port of Boston, the Committee appointed by the town "to take into consideration the present state of our distracted circumstances of a public nature, &c.," report as follows:

"We are of the opinion, that as the Delegates from the several Colonies are soon to meet in Congress in order to point out and advise what is best to be done at this alarming crisis, it will be most proper in us to wait until we are informed what measures they recom mend before we come to any particular Resolutions concerning the matter, except as follows:

"1st. That we will to the utmost of our abilities strictly and steadfastly pursue such methods as shall be recommended by the said Congress as the most likely to recover our just rights and privileges.

"2d. That we will heartily endeavor as much as in us lays, to awaken and stir up every person to a thorough sense of the real certainty there now is of America being reduced to the most abject slavery and poverty; and the danger there also is of the loss of our religious as

well as our civil rights and privileges, unless we unitedly endeavor, by a steady and manly opposition to prevent it.

"3d. We earnestly recommend it to the consideration of this town, whether it is not their indispensable duty to afford some relief to the industrious poor of the town of Boston who are really exposed to the most severe hardships by means of the late cruel Acts of Parliament.

"4th. We recommend Peace, firmness, and a manly fortitude, in asserting and maintaining, to the utmost of our abilities, all our just, law ful, and Constitutional rights and privileges."

After all other means to preserve the rights of freemen had been resorted to in vain, and it was found necessary to take up arms in defence of those rights, the inhabitants of this town were by no means backward in the cause.

The following officers, non-commissioned officers and privates marched immediately from

their respective homes for Lexington on the alarm of the 19th of April, 1775:

A Company was immediately enlisted into the Continental service for eight months in the twenty-third Regiment, under the command of Col. Asa Whitcomb, stationed on Prospect Hill, in Cambridge. So large a proportion of the Company belonged to this town, it may not be improper to present the names of all. Those in italics belonged to Ashburnham, Jonathan W. Smith to Westminster, and all the others to this town. Some of them continued in the army, by other enlistments, during the war. William Warner received a Captain's commission, and under the law of 1818, obtained a pension by which the last years of his life were rendered more comfortable than they otherwise would have been.

CONTINENTAL 23d REGIMENT OF FOOT, COMMANDED BY
COLONEL ASA WHITCOMB.

Nathaniel Chapman,
David Clark,
Elisha Carter,
Josiah Colburn,
David Clark, Jr.
Daniel Edson,
David Fleeman,
John Farmer,
Reuben Gates,
Jonathan Gates, Jr.,
Joshua Hemenway,
Henry Hall,
Benjamin Hale,
John Hale,
Joshua Holt,
David Hale,
Luke Johnson,
Jonathan Kendall,
Jacob Kibberiger,
Asa Kendall,

Amos Kendall,

Philip Lock,

John Lock,

Ebenezer Osgood,
Joshua Prowty,
Asa Priest,

David Robinson,
Joseph Smith,
Benjamin Stearns,
Zebedee Simonds,
John Stone,

Samuel Salter,

Aaron Sampson,
Othniel Taylor,
Joshua White,
Henry Winchester,
Samuel Willard,
John Whitney,
Isaac Whitmore,
Josiah White,
Ebenezer Wood,
James Wood,
Philip Winter,
Luke Wilson,

Jacob Winter,

Joseph Smith, Jr.

All except eight enlisted April 19, 1775

PATRIOTISM.

During the whole of that Revolutionary struggle the inhabitants of this town complied with all the various and burdensome requisitions which from time to time were made upon them by the State authority. They were frequently called on to furnish men on short enlistments. And in 1777, in order to stop the

progress of Gen. Burgoyne in his march from Canada, in addition to numerous volunteers, a whole Company went under the command of Capt. John Joslin, and were engaged in the Bennington battle; and at the first fire received from the enemy, Thomas Joslin, the youngest brother of the Captain, was shot through the heart, and as he fell, had time only to say "I am a dead man. The Lord have mercy on my soul." A large proportion of those who volunteered, arrived on the ground only in season to see the British army which had been conquered by Gen. Gates, march out and lay down their arms as prisoners of war. And, of course, they speedily returned with the joyful news to their families. On the 15th of July, 1776, the town voted Independency of Great Britain, and a copy of the Declaration by Congress is entered in the Town Records.

Nov. 29th, of the same year, the town voted to raise £1200 to pay for soldiers' services. March 20, 1776, the population had increased to one hundred and fifty-three families, and nine hundred and ninety souls, including ten negroes, averaging almost six and one half to a family, three fifths of whom were those who settled in town during the first ten or fifteen years, and their descendants.