Ipswich and the American Revolution, Part 2: The Revolutionary War

(Read Part 1: Ipswich and the Breach with Britain)

During the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution, this site is highlighting the timeline of Ipswich in the breach with Britain, and the Revolutionary War. Read Additional history and stories:

Excerpts from Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by Thomas Franklin Waters

Early in the morning of April 19, 1775 the British regulars marched to Lexington and Concord, resulting in the first battle of the Revolutionary War. Late in the day, the news reached Ipswich, and three hundred minutemen marched off with their captains to fight the British, continuing 24 miles to Medford before halting for the night. A company from Hampton arrived in Ipswich the next morning after an all-night march and found the town nearly defenseless and panic-struck. A rumor had spread that two British ships which had anchored in the river were full of British soldiers on their way to burn the town. About two hundred men, many elderly, were mustered to protect the town, and Capt. Burnham stayed as their commander. As the Ipswich residents fled to Newbury, residents there fled north into New Hampshire. By the next day, word came that it was all a mistake, recorded in John Greenleaf Whittier’s “The Great Ipswich Fright.”

A Committee on Minute Men reported a contract to be signed by those who enlisted, and their proposed wages, on Jan. 3, 1775. This report recommended the enlistment of a quarter part of the Training Band or Alarm List, and the payment of a shilling to each enlisted man for each half day he attended muster. Every man was bound to “attend Duty two half days each week.” After the first of April, the pay was advanced to two shillings, to be continued until “taken into Province pay or Dismissed by said Town.”

On January 24, 1775, Ipswich men signed articles of enlistment, and a company of Ipswich and Rowley Minuteman was formed with Captain Nathaniel Wade and Lieutenant Joseph Hodgkins of Ipswich in command. The Ipswich Company had its first opportunity to fight in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. Throughout the war, Joseph Hodgkins maintained an ongoing correspondence by mail with his wife Sarah, who acted as a conduit to the Ipswich community, with him providing news about the war and invaluable first-hand records from the American Revolution.

The patriot army’s siege of Boston dragged on. On September 15, three companies consisting of over a thousand riflemen under the command of Col. Benedict Arnold camped in Ipswich on their way to Quebec, accompanied by wagon trains carrying camp equipment. Arnold’s troops crossed the Saint Lawrence on November 13 and 14 in an attempt to take fortified Quebec City, but suffered defeat. This was the closest Ipswich came to experiencing the war at home, but the threat of naval attack was a constant concern for the coastal towns. Several privateers sailed from the port in Ipswich.

Prosecution of Tories

A price was put on the head of John Calef, and he fled with his family to Castine near the Penobscot Peninsula, where he worked as a surgeon for the British troops. As the War continued, Tory sentiments were met with severe measures. Jonathan Stickney Jr. of Rowley was so unwise that he used very uncomplimentary language regarding the patriot cause and its leaders. He was arrested and sent to the General Court. Its decision was quick and sharp:

“To the Keeper of Ipswich Jail: You are ordered to receive into your custody Jonathan Stickney Jr., who has been apprehended by the Committee of Inspection, Correspondence and Safety of the Town of Rowley and sent to the General Court for having in the most open and daring manner endeavored according to the utmost of his abilities to encourage & introduce Discontent, Sedition, and a Spirit of Disobedience to all lawful authority among the people by frequently clamoring in the most impudent insulting and abusive Language against the American Congress, the General Court of this Colony and others who have been exerting themselves to save the Country from Misery & Ruin all which is made fully to appear.

You are therefore to keep him safely in close confinement (in a Room by himself & that he be not allowed the use of pens, ink nor paper, and not suffer him to converse with any person whatever unless in your hearing) till the further order of the General Court or he be otherwise discharged by due course of Law.”

—-In the Name and by the order of the Council and House of Representatives John Lowell, Dep. Sec. Council Chambers April 18, 1776.”

The Committee of Safety of Rowley petitioned the Court on June 5th, 1776, that, in view of his penitence he be removed from jail to his father’s house, under such restrictions as may be imposed.

Declaration of Independence

The Summer of 1776 was brightened by one luminous event, the Declaration of Independence, on July 4th, the thought of which had been indignantly disclaimed by the votes of Ipswich not many months before, and by Washington himself and all the patriot leaders, but which had been forced upon the Colonies by the trend of events.

On June 10th, 1776, the men of Ipswich, in a town meeting assembled, instructed their Representatives, that if the Continental Congress should for the safety of the said Colonies Declare them Independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain, they would solemnly engage with their lives and Fortunes to support them in the Measure.

Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation served as the first constitution of the united colonies after they declared independence from Great Britain. Virginia ratified on December 16, 1777, and Massachusetts ratified on February 6, 1788. The articles required unanimous approval from the thirteen states, which finally happened with ratification by Maryland on February 2, 1781.

Providing for the War

The Price Act, passed at Ipswich in February 1777

During the Revolution, with no national treasury or power to levy taxes, the Continental Congress and former colonies undertook to bankroll the war by the issuance of paper money, which quickly resulted in marketplace chaos. The newly created “Continental” fell in value, and to keep prices from spiraling out of control, a meeting of delegates from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut was held at Providence in December 1776, and a schedule of prices was created with recommendation for its adoption by the states.

In Ipswich on February 10, 1777, the Selectmen and the Committee of Correspondence and Safety, acting under the authority of the General Court, issued a schedule of prices covering all articles of food, clothing, wages of labor of every kind, entertainment at hotels, shipping rates, etc.

In April, the Committee appointed to draft a vote relative to the Act of General Court to Prevent Monopoly and Oppression reported that “Some persons from an inimical Disposition to the Glorious Cause are doing their best to prevent the regulation of prices from being carried out.”

The citizens of Ipswich at a Town meeting on April 14, 1777, unanimously adopted a resolution that “The Inhabitants of this Town will not only strictly adhere to & observe the aforesaid act but also use our utmost endeavors to detect and bring to punishment those unfriendly selfish persons who at this important crisis shall have the effrontery to counteract the good wholesome laws of this State.”

The Selectmen were instructed not to approbate any innholder or retailer who did not strictly adhere to the regulating Act. A Committee of seven persons was chosen on June 9 to prosecute all persons guilty of any breach of the Act, and the Town’s Representatives were instructed to oppose the repeal of the Act.

In April 1778, several prominent Essex County men reconvened the Ipswich Convention to discuss the drafting of a new Massachusetts constitution, and became the local backbone of the Federalist Party, advocating the financial policies of Alexander Hamilton. Among its members were George Cabot, Timothy Pickering, Nathan Dane, and Theophilus Parsons. President John Adams coined the name “Essex Junto” for this group, and many of its members were his political adversaries.

In August 1779, a Committee was chosen to meet with Committees of other towns to consider proposals for new regulations respecting the high prices of several articles of consumption. In October, John Baker and Stephen Choate were the Ipswich delegates to a convention that met in Concord to regulate prices. A month later, a Town Committee was chosen to regulate the prices of innholders, mechanics’ wages etc. according to the recommendations of the Convention.

1783: The end of the Revolutionary War

Historian Howard H. Peckham counted 25,534 American combatants who lost their lives in the eight-year war from combat injuries, disease, and death in British prison camps.

General George Washington’s order declaring an end to hostilities was read to the Continental Army eight years to the day after the Battle of Lexington and included instructions that “an extra ration of liquor is to be issued to every man tomorrow to drink to Perpetual Peace, Independence, and Happiness to the United States of America,” In April 1783, celebrations were held throughout the new country to mark the end of the war. The celebration in Ipswich was recorded in “The Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL. D“:

“April l, (1783), Tues. News of Peace between America and Great Britain.

“April 29, Tuesday. This day was appointed to celebrate the return of Peace. The whole town being desired to assemble at Mr. Frisbie’s Meeting House in Ipswich, at 10 o’clock, and a committee having waited on the several ministers, desiring their attendance, I set out from here at 8 o’clock, in company with Captain Dodge and thirty or forty of the parish, who waited on me for this purpose.

“At 10 o’clock the people assembled in the Meeting House, which was exceedingly crowded. The Proclamation from Congress being read, Mr. Cleaveland made a short prayer, an anthem was sung, and an elegant oration delivered by Mr. Frisbie, after which an anthem was sung, and the congregation dismissed. Thirteen cannons were fired.

“At 2 o’clock an elegant, plentiful collation of cold hams, bacon, tongues, fowls, veal, etc., was spread on two very long tables on the green, at which all the people partook. This collation was a free donation of the people, which everyone through the town, who pleased, sent ready cooked. There was also given a great plenty of spirits and other liquors. When those who came first to the table had dined, thirteen toasts were given by the High Sheriff, and thirteen cannons were discharged for several of the first, and for the rest a smaller number.

“In the evening very handsome fireworks were played off — a large number of sky-rockets, serpents, crackers, wheel- works, etc. Many gentlemen illuminated their houses, which appeared very beautiful, and the whole exercises of the occasion were performed with the greatest good order and decorum. Every countenance was smiling, and no intemperance was perceived even among the lowest class. And thus this joyful day concluded, without the smallest accident, to universal satisfaction, and much to the honor of the town. There was given, of the article of meat, between twenty-one and twenty-two hundredweight, and one hundred dollars in money. This day was eight years and ten days from the commencement of the war.”

A partial list of Ipswich soldiers in the Revolutionary War

A Committee on Minute Men reported a contract to be signed by those who enlisted, and their proposed wages, on Jan. 3, 1775. This report recommended the enlistment of a quarter part of the Training Band or Alarm List, and the payment of a shilling to each enlisted man for each half day he attended muster. Every man was bound to “attend Duty two half days in each week.” After the first of April, the pay was advanced to two shillings, to be continued until “taken into Province pay or Dismissed by said Town.”

The Troop of Horse in the Third Regiment of Militia in the County of Essex, Being about to choose their Officers, (agreeable to the Advice of the Provincial Congress) came into the following Agreement this fourteenth day of November, Anno Domini 1774, viz… “We the Subscribers the Troopers hereafter, if armed, promise to subject ourselves to the Officers that may be chosen whether it be the Captain or other Officers under him, duly Chosen by a Major part of the Troop, and that we will attend all military Musters, and in case of Delinquency, we Promise to pay a fine as By-Law if that case is made and provided, unless a Reasonable Excuse be given to the Commanding Officer for the time being, in witness whereof, We have hereunto sett our hands the Day & year above written.”

The list of subscribers (rearranged in alphabetical order):

• Allen Baker,
• John Bradstreet
• Samuel Bragg
• Timothy Bragg
• Elisha Brown Jr.
• Paltiah Brown
• Ebenezer Brown
• Francis Brown
• Nehemiah Brown
• Joseph Brown
• Amos Burnam
• Isaac Burnam
• Robert Burnum
• John Chapman
• Nehemiah Choate
• Robert Choate
• Moses Conant
• William Conant Jun.
• John Cross
• Joseph Cummings Junior
• Abner Day Jr.
• George Dodge Jr.
• Thomas Dodge
• John Emerson
• Aaron Eveleth
• Joseph Goodhue
• Seth Goodhue
• John Harris Junior
• Mark Haskell 3
• Aaron Jewett
• Jeremiah Jewett
• John Kinsman
• Michael Kinsman
• Samuel Kinsman
• Joseph Metcalf
• Nehemiah Patch
• John Pearson
• Robert Perkins
• Samuel Potter
• Samuel Quarles
• Joseph Roberts
• Nathaniel Smith
• Thomas Smith
• Zebulon Smith
• John Whipple

---

Capt Wade’s company of minute men signed their contract on January 24, 1775

• Joseph Appleton Junior
• Thomas Appleton Junior
• Benjamin Averel
• Asa Baker
• Thomas Bordman Junior
• Nathaniel Brown
• Samuel Burnham
• William Dennis
• Stephen Dutch
• Jabez Farley
• Michael Farley Junior
• John Fitts Junior
• Jonathan Foster
• John Fowler
• Joseph Fowler 3rd
• Isaac Giddings
• Daniel Goodhue
• Ephraim Goodhue
• William Goodhue Junior
• John Graves Jr.
• John Harris 5
• Benjamin Heard
• Joseph Hodgkins
• Thomas Hodgkins in the Room of Jeremiah Stanford
• Francis Hovey
• Abraham Knowlton Junior
• Nathaniel Jewett
• James Fuller Lakeman
• Ebenezer Lakeman in the Room of John Waitt
• Nathaniel Lakeman in the Room of Philip Lord.
• Charles Lord
• Nathaniel Lord 3rd
• Philip Lord Junior
• Samuel Lord 5
• Francis Merrifield
• Aaron Perkins
• Nathaniel March
• John Peters in the Room of Benjamin Averell
• Benjamin Ross
• Jabez Ross Junior in the room of Jon. Perkins
• Kneeland Ross
• Nathaniel Ross
• Nathanael Rust Junior
• Nath. Souther
• Henry Spiller
• Jeremiah Stanford Junior
• Isaac Stanwood
• John Stanwood in the place of Wm Longfellow
• Edward Stacy
• Daniel Stone
• Jabez Sweet Junior
• Nathanael Treadwell
• Nathaniel Wade
• John Waite

An Account of the Revolutionary War

by Joseph B. Felt, Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton, published 1834

“From the following facts, and not the half has come down to us, it is perceived, that, with no small treasure, suffering, and blood, Ipswich has assisted in the defense of our country’s rights, from its beginning to our own age:”

1774

• Ipswich voted £100 for aid of Boston.
• Nov. 21st. Voted the use of the land, to the eastwardly end of the Town House, for a building by subscribers, where they may meet for military discipline
• Dec. 26th. A committee contracted with minute-men, who may enlist agreeably to proposals of the Provincial Congress.

1775

• May 15th. Voted, that the Town Watch, of four persons on guard, be continued; that the watch on Castle Hill, of two men, give notice if the enemy come by water to seize sheep and cattle. Voted, that a suitable quantity of tar be obtained to be set a-fire on a beacon erected for this purpose, so that the town may be alarmed in the night, and that the flag be hoisted in the daytime to give notice of the enemy.
• June 17th. Jesse Story, of Chebacco, is killed in Bunker Hill fight.
• Sept. 15th. A detachment from Cambridge, on their march to Canada, under Benedict Arnold, pass through Ipswich.

1776

• April 11th. The General Court of our State, ordered that the colors of their vessels of war shall be white with a green pine tree, and an inscription “Appeal to Heaven.”
•  Jan. 4th, Thomas Emmerson Cole; Jan. 11th, Jonathan Cogswell 3d; in the summer, Wm. Jones.
• June 10: Ipswich instructs her Representatives in favor of Independence.
• Aug. 8th, David Goodhue, die in the array. In the fall, Joseph Marshall, Jr. was killed by a cannonball at Lake Champlain, all of Chebacco.
• June 25th. Of 5000 men ordered out, the quota of Ipswich is ten.
• This year Joseph Lufkin, of the Hamlet, in the western army, was killed by a tree, which fell on him and broke his neck, while the troops were cutting wood, preparatory to their encampment for the night.

1777

• Jan. 21st. A committee report the service of soldiers belonging to this town, and money paid, from the battle of Lexington till Nov. 28th, the whole amount, £1737 5s. Namely:
  • 1775, men for six weeks, eight-months’ men at Cambridge, sea-coast men
  • 1776, eight-weeks’ men, men in the Continental army, men four months at Dorchester, sea-coast men, men to Crown Point, men at New York two months.

• January 24th. The town voted £1000 for recruits going to war.
• February 27th. In view of the resolve of the General Court for one seventh part of the males, from 16 to 60, to join the Continental army for three years or during the war, a committee report, that conditional sums be paid yearly, or unconditional sums for three years: first year, £6 besides other pay; second, £8; third, £10. The men who engage here on these terms, if killed or dying with sickness while in service, shall have such money go to their heirs; and £18, absolutely, for three years.
• April 18th. Voted £18, besides Continental and State pay, to every able-bodied man who will enlist three years or during the war.
• May 2d. Voted £16 to each man who will serve till January 10th, and, if enlisting for the same time, 40s. more.
• May. Jeremiah White of Chebacco dies in the army at Albany.
• August: Voted, that the Selectmen buy this town’s proportion of fire-arms, gun-locks, flints, and lead.
• August 18th. Voted, that the committee hire men, who shall be called to serve during the war.
• Sept. 17th. Voted, that the Selectmen supply the families of soldiers, who are in the Continental service. Sept. 19th. Joseph Burnhara of Chebacco dies of a wound in the battle of Stillwater.
• Nov. 24th. Voted £1200 to pay for the past hire of soldiers.
• Jonathan Galloway drowned by the sudden sinking of a privateer.

1778

• Jan. 19th. By report of a committee, men had marched hence for Providence in April, and others to reinforce the army in August.
• March 3d. The Selectmen are to make up this town’s quota for the Continental army.
• April 6th. £200 are voted for families of soldiers.
• April 20th. Of troops ordered out, Ipswich is to find twenty-three.
• May 28th. Voted £600 for families of soldiers. This year James Rust, a prisoner at Halifax, Stephen Kent and Jonathan Andrews, soldiers at Albany, Abraham and Isaac Jones, Israel Andrews, Nathaniel Emerson, and Abijah Story, a black man, of the army, all of Chebacco, died.

1779

• June 28th. Voted £12,000, O. T., to hire recruits now called out.

1780

• May 4th. Ipswich, as its proportion of supplies for the army, is to find one hundred and six shirts, the same number of pairs of shoes and stockings, and thirty-three blankets.
• June 5th, this town is to raise sixty men for six months; 22d, and sixty for three months; 23d, and twelve horses for the public service.
• July 3d. Voted £1200 to hire soldiers for the Continental army.
• Sept. 25th. The proportion of Ipswich’s beef for the army is 31,800 pounds.
• Dec. 19th. The town accept a report to pay their soldiers in hard money, as resolved by the General Court.
• Dec. 25th. Voted £1850 of new emission, or £74,200 of old emission, for army beef.

1781

• March 20th. Voted £500 for soldiers and remainder of beef.
• June 22d. Ipswich is to supply the army with 25,204 pounds of beef, one hundred and six pairs of shoes and stockings, the same number of shirts, and forty-two men.
• August 13th. Voted £400 to pay men hired for three months, and £200 for army clothing.
• August 20th. Voted £220 for soldiers at Rhode Island, who had been there five months.
• This year, Matthew Whipple and John Boardman, prize-masters, of the Hamlet, were killed in the privateer Thorn.

1782

• Jan. 1st. Voted £440 to pay men, lately engaged to serve in the army, and other soldiers.
• March 7th. Ipswich is to raise nineteen men for the Continental army.
• March 14th. Lieutenant Samuel Burnam dies of a consumption, contracted by hardships in the war.

1783

• March 1st. News that Captain Moses Harris and William Rust had died on board the prison-ship in New York.
• This year John Wise died in the army.
• Great rejoicing at Ipswich over the news of peace with England.

1786

• Jan. Twenty-five men, who enlisted for forty days, but were out sixty, march to aid in quelling Shays’s insurrection.

1789

• General George Washington reviews 3d Essex Regiment at Ipswich.

1794

• Sept, 30th. Voted, that the men, detached from the militia, by resolve of Congress, in May last, receive ten dollars a month, and that each of them have four shillings a day for the time they meet, till they go into actual service.

Sources and suggested reading:

Articles on this site about the Revolutionary War

Historical Nerdery

• "No. 16 Tomb of Hancock" – John Hancock's Final Resting Place
• "I Do Not Consider Myself Equal to the Command With Which I Have Been Honored" – Washington Takes Command of the Continental Army
• "The Guns Were Distinctly Heard" – Two More Child Witnesses of the Battle of Bunker Hill
• "A truer heart did not bleed at Thermopylae" – The 250th Anniversary of the Death of Jonas Parker
• "They Would Come Perilously Near to Being Worthless" – The Doolittle Plates of 1775

Journal of the American Revolution

• The Evolution of the American Declaration of Independence
• The Deadliest Seconds of the War
• Entangled Alliances: Racialized Freedom and Atlantic Diplomacy During the American Revolution
• Videau’s Bridge: An American Disaster After Yorktown
• This Week on Dispatches: Geoffrey Hoerauf on American Spies around Fort Detroit