American Revolutionary War

Type	War
Date	April 19, 1775 to September 3, 1783

Billerica had about 1,500 inhabitants when the war began, and it gave the cause a large share of its men and money for eight years. Henry Hazen, working from the Massachusetts Archives and the town records, listed 317 Billerica names in the service and thought the lost rolls would add fifty or perhaps a hundred more. The town's resistance began well before the shooting: it answered the Boston resolutions in 1773, chose a Committee of Correspondence in June 1774 after the Boston Port Bill, sent William Stickney and Ebenezer Bridge to the Provincial Congress, and in March 1775 raised a company of minute-men. The tarring and feathering of Thomas Ditson Jr. in Boston that March, and the town's part in the alarm and the Concord fight of April 19, 1775, are told in Ditson Affair and the Alarm of 1775. Three Billerica companies marched that day, under Captain Jonathan Stickney, Captain Edward Farmer and Lieutenant Oliver Crosby; Nathaniel Wyman, counted as a Billerica man, was killed, and John Nickles and Timothy Blanchard were wounded.

The army that gathered around Boston drew on the town at once. On May 15, 1775 the town chose Samuel Kidder and Isaac Foster "to provide Blanketts for those persons in this town that have Inlisted into the provincial service," named a committee "to provide straw for the army at Cambridge," and ordered the cadet company, probably of boys too young to serve, to make returns like the other militia companies. On June 26 it voted to buy sixty hogsheads of salt and ten of molasses "for a town Stock," which were bought at Beverly. The town charges for the year include shoes, an old coat, stockings and a jacket for the soldier William Britton and three cords of wood for his wife Mary, along with payments for fixing bayonets and making cartridge boxes for the minute-men.

At Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 the Billerica company served in the redoubt under Prescott. Its former captain, Ebenezer Bridge, now commanded the regiment, and Lieutenant Jonathan Stickney led the company. Asa Pollard, whose home was near the fordway over the Concord River, had enlisted in Stickney's company of Bridge's regiment on May 8; he was the first soldier killed in the battle and was buried on the field. Lieutenant Samuel Hill, 25, was also killed, and his gravestone in Billerica records that he was "Killed at Bunker Hill." Benjamin Easte was probably killed, since he was reported dead soon after, and Timothy Toothaker died a few days later of his wounds. Eleazer Stickney and William Stickney were among the others in Bridge's regiment that day. Bridge himself was cut on the head and neck by a sword and was one of the last to leave the redoubt, but some of his officers charged him with sheltering too cautiously behind its walls. A court of inquiry ordered by Washington on August 20, 1775 sent the charge to a general court-martial, which acquitted him on the ground of illness. Benjamin Wilson, a son of Seth Wilson, died a captive at Halifax on June 10, 1776; Hazen's list notes a Benjamin Winslow of the same service as "a prisoner after Bunker Hill," probably the same man. Seventy-five Billerica men served the eight months of 1775 around Boston and claimed the coat promised for that service, and Ebenezer Lewis died in the army hospital at Cambridge on January 10, 1776.

The siege brought refugees as well as soldiers. In March 1776 the town appointed a committee "to take care of and provide for the Donation persons that came from the towns of Boston and Charlestown," and it rebuilt its Committee of Correspondence, with William Stickney taking the place of Colonel Bridge, who was with the army. The new board, Joshua Abbot, Colonel William Tompson, Captain Daniel Stickney, Captain Josiah Bowers, Dr. Timothy Danforth, Deacon Joshua Davis, Lieutenant John Parker, Henry Jefts, Isaac Foster and Benjamin Lewis, was to serve as "a Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety," passing on news to the committees of other towns and to the General Court, and inspecting "whether there [are] any Inhabitants of or Residents in their Respective towns who violate the association of the Continental Congress." On May 23, 1776 the town voted unanimously that if Congress should declare the colonies independent, "they the said Inhabitants will engage with their lives & fortunes to Support them." That October it opened the town's salt store, selling at five shillings a bushel, no more than a bushel and a half to a family, and no credit given. Hazen names no Billerica Loyalist, and no case of the committee proceeding against one has been found in the town's histories.

The campaigns of 1776 took Billerica men far from home, and several did not return. Abel Danforth died "at Crown Point in ye Army" on July 14, 1776; Christopher Whiting died at Ticonderoga on November 10, "In the Service of his Country"; and Solomon Kidder, an officer of the town's men, died at White Plains, New York, on November 20, 1776. Jacob Crosby and Benjamin Easte Jr. are also marked on Hazen's list as having died in 1776, and Joseph Davis, son of Deacon Joshua Davis, died in January 1777, aged 25, four days before his father.

As the calls for men were repeated they became harder to fill. On March 10, 1777 the town chose Captain Solomon Pollard, Captain Edward Farmer, Captain Jonathan Stickney, Lieutenant Jacob Richardson and Oliver Crosby "to Indent with persons to Inlist into the Continental service," and on March 24, adding Lieutenant Elijah Danforth, it voted an extra bounty of £24 to men who would enlist in the Continental Army. Probably about forty men answered, enlisting "for three years or the war." To share the cost fairly the town credited each man for his earlier service: £3 for eight months at Cambridge in 1775, £18 for service in the Continental Army in 1776 without hire, £12 for going to Ticonderoga, £6 or £12 for two or three months at New York, and so on, with credit to those who had paid money to hire soldiers. It voted to raise £900 by "a tax to be levied on Interest," then reconsidered and laid it "on polls and estate in the usual way," and argued for months over whether apprentices and sons under age should have the credit for their own service or their masters and fathers should. In the summer of 1777 thirty-two men under Captain Edward Farmer marched "to reinforce the Northern Army" against Burgoyne at Bennington and Saratoga, and Farmer was present at Burgoyne's surrender; Colonel Bridge marched with another detachment on the Bennington alarm, went ninety miles, and was dismissed by General Lincoln.

The town also looked after the families the soldiers left behind. In 1777 it gave aid to the wives of Abijah and Josiah Beard, William Britton, William Currier, Jesse Danforth, John Edes and Roger Toothaker; Mrs. Currier received seventy-three quarts of milk at ninepence a quart, five months' rent, a cord of wood and a bushel and a half of Indian meal. In 1778 the selectmen were told "to take care & provide for the families of the soldiers that are out in the Continental army," and the treasurer was to borrow money "to pay for the Cloathing, provided by the Selectmen for our Soldiers." That year the town offered £30 to men who would join Washington's army for nine months and £60 to militia going to the North River for eight months, each later raised by £10. In January 1779 it settled what it owed for the back services: two months and then six months in Rhode Island in 1777, three and a half months to Bennington, forty-one days to Saratoga, three-month tours at Boston and Cambridge in 1778, six months "to the Hill," and six weeks in Rhode Island in August 1778. In May 1779 a committee of nine was chosen "to provide for the families of those persons that are Gone out of this town into the Continental Army." John Wilson died "in the war at the Jersys" in 1778 and his kinsman Solomon Wilson "in the Jersys in the war" on March 23, 1779, and Ebenezer French, about 18, died at Halifax in September 1778.

The war's greatest strain on the town was money. As the Continental currency fell, those on fixed incomes suffered most; on December 1, 1777 the selectmen were told to give the schoolmaster, Jonathan Kidder, "an addiquate reward for his services in some measure, as things have risen." The minister's salary of £80 became £380 for the year to July 1779, £830 for the next half-year and £9,000 for 1781. In July 1779 the town levied "thirteen thousand dollars" to pay its soldiers, the first use of the word dollar in its records; it adopted the resolves of a state convention "for the Retreiving the Credit of our Currency" and of a county convention at Concord on August 5 to regulate prices, and set a committee of fifteen to see them obeyed, with orders that there be "no bartering in Gold and Silver, to the Ingury of our paper Currency." The regulations could not be enforced. On July 6, 1780 the town granted £34,710 to hire nineteen militia for three months and four men for six months in the Continental Army, and in January 1781 it laid a tax of £27,000 "to procure our Quota of Beef for Supplies for the army." By July 1781 it gave up the paper money and raised £180 "in Specie" for beef and £250 in specie "to pay the hire of the men now called for," allowing Lieutenant Isaac Barron "equal hire with a Private"; the town's quota under the General Court's call of June 30, 1781 was thirteen men. In 1782 the taxes were raised in specie and the minister's salary was again £80.

Billerica men served in every year of the war. Hazen's list records detachments to Rhode Island and Bunker Hill in 1778, a detachment "to join the Continental army and march to Claverick" in 1779, sixteen men who "marched 220 miles and served four, five, and six months" in 1780, men still in service "for 3 years or the war" in 1781, and seven men on the privateer Essex in 1780. Lieutenant Samuel Rogers died "in Defence of his Country at Virginia" on October 18, 1781, the eve of the surrender at Yorktown, the last Billerica death in the service that the records show. In all the records name at least fifteen Billerica men who were killed or died in the service, besides others marked on Hazen's list without a date.

The town also debated the shape of the new government. On October 14, 1776 it voted that, since "the Tyranny of Greate Brittaine" had broken up the province's constitution, the legislature should draw up a plan of government but make it public before ratifying it so the people could propose changes. In January 1778 it agreed to the Articles of Confederation, "although they apprehend some things therein Contained are no so agreeable." It rejected the constitution the legislature submitted in 1778, and in May 1779 voted down calling for a new one "by forty Votes", but it sent its minister, Henry Cumings, to the convention that framed the constitution of 1780 and accepted the result, wishing only for the alteration of one clause. Cumings preached the anniversary sermon at Lexington on April 19, 1781, and Edward Farmer served on the Committee of Safety in 1779 and 1780 and was the town's first representative under the new constitution.

Some of the town's officers never came home to it. Bridge did not return to Billerica after the war, while Jonathan Stickney became a major of the Billerica artillery and Farmer represented the town in the General Court in every year but one until 1795. Four Billerica men were still drawing pensions for Revolutionary or military service in 1840: James Bennett, 82, Joseph Dows, 81, Bill Russell, 77, and Samuel Whiting, 81. The town named its new graded school of 1892 the Pollard School for Asa Pollard, and in 1935 named its Pinehurst school the Ditson School for Thomas Ditson; a stone on Pollard Street marks the site of Asa Pollard's birthplace, and a Revolutionary soldier's marker stands at the Old Corner Burying Ground. For the bicentennial in 1974 and 1975 the town's Bicentennial Commission issued a medallion showing Ditson, Pollard, the Wyman House and the Washington Oak, and staged a re-creation of the tarring and feathering of Thomas Ditson.

People

Asa Pollard: Private in Capt. Jonathan Stickney's company, Col. Bridge's regiment, enlisted May 8, 1775; the first soldier killed at Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.
Samuel Hill: Lieutenant, killed at Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, aged 25.
Timothy Toothaker: Wounded at Bunker Hill and died a few days after the battle.
Solomon Kidder: Officer of Billerica men in 1776 and 1777 service lists; died at White Plains, New York, November 20, 1776.
Jonathan Stickney: Commanded the Billerica company in the redoubt at Bunker Hill; on the 1777 committee to enlist men for the Continental service.
Edward Farmer: Led thirty-two Billerica men to reinforce the Northern Army in 1777 and was at Burgoyne's surrender; on the 1777 enlistment committee and the Committee of Safety, 1779-1780.
William Tompson: Colonel and representative; member of the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety in 1776 and of the committee on a form of government.
Henry Cumings: Minister of Billerica; delegate to the convention that framed the constitution of 1780; preached the Lexington anniversary sermon of 1781; his salary shows the depreciation.
William Stickney: Deacon and town clerk; delegate to the Provincial Congress and member of the 1776 Committee of Correspondence in place of Col. Bridge.
Capt. Daniel Stickney: Captain; member of the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety, 1775-1776.
Joshua Abbot: Town clerk through the war; member of the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety, 1776.
Josiah Bowers: Captain; member of the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety, 1776.
Timothy Danforth: Physician; member of the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety, 1776.
Joshua Davis: Deacon; member of the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety, 1776; his son Joseph, a soldier, died four days before him in January 1777.
Samuel Kidder: Chosen May 15, 1775 with Isaac Foster to provide blankets for Billerica men in the provincial service.
Solomon Pollard: Captain; on the 1777 committee to enlist men for the Continental service; certified as Asa Pollard's heir.
Oliver Crosby: Lieutenant in the 1775 and Bunker Hill service; on the 1777 committee to enlist men for the Continental service.
Jacob Richardson: Lieutenant; on the 1777 committee to enlist men for the Continental service.
Elijah Danforth: Lieutenant added to the enlistment committee on March 24, 1777; listed by Hazen as Capt. Elijah Danforth.
Isaac Barron: Lieutenant in the 1781 service, allowed "equal hire with a Private" in July 1781.
Jonathan Kidder: Schoolmaster whom the town voted in 1777 an adequate reward "as things have risen" with the depreciation.
Eleazer Stickney: Served in Col. Bridge's regiment at Bunker Hill.
William Stickney: Son of Deacon William Stickney; at Bunker Hill and in the Rhode Island service.
Thomas Ditson Jr.: Tarred and feathered in Boston in March 1775; later served in 1777 and 1779.
Ebenezer Bridge: Colonel of the regiment in which the Billerica company fought at Bunker Hill; wounded, tried and acquitted; led a detachment on the Bennington alarm in 1777.

American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

People

References