Ou^/Cx 
 
 
E 216 
 .P26 
 Copy 1 
 
 XTbe Capture of dfort Milliam 
 anb (Winv^ 
 
 December 14 ant) 15, 1774 
 
 BY 
 
 Iprof. Cbarles %, ipareons 
 
 Reprinted from Proceedings N. H. Historical Society 
 
/ 
 
 THE CAPTURE OF FORT WILLIAM AND MARY, DECEMBER 
 14 AND 15. \m. 
 
 Few events in the history of New Hampshire have excited 
 more interest or caused more controversy than the successful 
 attack upon Fort William and Mary, in Portsmouth harbor, 
 on December 14, 1774; the removal of the powder contained 
 in its magazine on the same afternoon ; and the second cap- 
 ture of the fort, together with the small arms and other 
 stores, on the night of the following day. Too much has been 
 written that is not history, and many statements concerning 
 these events are generally accepted as facts which have 
 had their rise in the fertile imagination of some writer. Many 
 articles have appeared in the public press, but only a few 
 really scholarly attempts have been made to determine the 
 actual facts.' 
 
 Throughout the 5'ear 1774 the people of Portsmouth and 
 vicinity shared in full measure the unrest that was felt 
 throughout the whole country. Much sympathy was expressed 
 for the people of Boston, and the populace were beginning to 
 show signs of resisting the odious domination of the British 
 ministry. The assembly had shown a disposition to refuse to 
 vote the necessary supplies and men for Fort William and 
 Mary. In May a message was sent from the committee at 
 Portsmouth to the committee at Boston, promising assistance 
 in anything agreed upon by the colonies.'- On June 8th, 
 Governor Wentworth dissolved the assembly which he had 
 from time to time adjourned to prevent action toward the 
 appointment of delegates to a provincial congress.^ On 
 July 4, twenty-seven chests of tea had been quietly brought 
 into Portsmouth. A town-meeting was immediately called, 
 
 ' An especiall)' fortunate tind was niad« in the library of Mr. Lucien Thompson of 
 Durham, N. H., consisting of several early copies of the Ne-cv Hampshire Spyzwdi. 
 the New Hampshire Mercury of the year 17S9, which appear to be the only known 
 ones extant and which contain descriptions of the affair over the signatures of two of 
 the participants. Especial acknowledgment is due for the aid which Mr. Thompson 
 has rendered. 
 
 ' American Archives, by Peter Force, Vol. I, /. 337. 
 
 ' Letter of Governor Wentworth. American Archives, Vol. I./. 393 
 
the consignee was forced to export the tea, and the vessel 
 carrying it was kept under guard, until it finally sailed for 
 Halifax.^ On July 6, Governor Wentworth ordered the sheriff 
 to direct the committee of correspondence, who had met to 
 choose delegates for a general American congress, to disperse 
 and keep the king's peace. This they did, but only to meet pri- 
 vately later in a tavern where they chose delegates to assemble 
 in Exeter."^ On August 29, Governor Wentworth wrote the Earl 
 of Dartmouth that the assembly had met in Exeter, and adds " I 
 think this Province is much more moderate than any other to 
 the southward, although the spirit of enthusiasm is spread and 
 requires the utmost vigilance and prudence to restrain it from 
 violent excess."" Again later. Governor Wentworth reported 
 the arrival of a second consignment of tea with results similar 
 to the first. On November 15 he reported continued discon- 
 tent throughout the province, and fears that disturbances will 
 continue unless quiet is restored in Massachusetts Bay."* On 
 December 2, he wrote that there is a growing unrest and a 
 disposition on the part of the people to follow all the 
 "Resolves of the Congress and to approve them fully." ^ 
 
 Thus it will be seen that when Paul Revere brought his 
 message on December 13, 1774, from the committee in 
 Boston to Mr. Samuel Cutts of the Portsmouth committee, 
 announcing that troops were to be sent to reinforce the fort, 
 and bringing information, also, of the removal of the military 
 stores in Rhode Island, and of the king's order in council 
 prohibiting the exportation of gunpowder and military stores 
 to America, the people were in a state of mind ready for 
 revolt. Mr. Cutts immediately called the committee together, 
 and they proceeded to plan for the capture of the powder 
 upon the following day. Governor Wentworth seems to have 
 had some intimation of what might happen, for he sent word 
 to Captain Cochran, commanding at the fort, to be upon his 
 
 1 Letter of Governor Wentworth to Earl of Dartmouth. American Avcliives, Vol. 
 
 2 American Archives, Vol. 1,//. 516, 536. 
 ■> .■\merican Archives, Vol. I,/. 744. 
 'American Archives, Vol. I./. 982. 
 •'American Archives. \'ol. 1./. 1014. 
 
 P 
 
 A.uthor. 
 
guard. In Wentworth's report on the affair, however, he 
 states that " before any suspicion could be had of their inten- 
 tions, about four hundred men were gathered together." Cer- 
 tain it is that, about twelve o'clock on Wednesday, December 
 14, all secrecy ended ; for members of the committee, accom- 
 panied by drum and fife, paraded the streets of Portsmouth 
 and called the citizens together. By order of Governor Went- 
 worth the chief justice of the province made proclamation 
 that what they proposed was open rebellion against the king, 
 but they did not waiver, and having finally gathered together 
 a company of their townsmen, and such others as could be 
 obtained from the adjoining towns of Newcastle and Rye, in 
 all about four hundred men, they proceeded to Fort William 
 and Mary. There they were warned by Captain Cochran not 
 to enter, and were fired upon both by cannon and small arms. 
 No one appears to have been injured, however, and they 
 immediately stormed the fort, and easily overcame such 
 resistance as the one officer and five effective men could offer. 
 Having captured the fort, they proceeded to haul down the 
 king's colors, and then removed all of the gunpowder in the 
 magazine, with the exception of one barrel. About one hun- 
 dred barrels of powder were so obtained, and these were sent 
 up the Piscataqua to Durham, that same evening, with a letter 
 to General Sullivan, who had not been in Portsmouth that day. 
 
 On the following day, Thursday, December 15, 1774, a party 
 of men came from Durham to Portsmouth, and, that night, 
 together with other citizens, under the leadership of John Sulli- 
 van, they again took the fort and carried off the lighter cannon 
 and all of the small arms. On Friday, a party under command 
 of Captain Nathaniel Folsom of Exeter, came to Portsmouth 
 and remained on guard all day; until in the afternoon, on the 
 rising tide, the arms were sent up the river. They finally 
 reached Durham ; but only after many weary hours of cutting 
 through the ice, which had just formed in the branch of the 
 Piscataqua, which leads up to that town. 
 
 The main details of the proceedings of the three days may 
 easily be gathered from the following official documents and 
 letters of the time which have fortunately been preserved to us. 
 
On Wednesday, December 14, 1774, Governor Wentworth 
 wrote to Governor Gage as follows : ^ 
 
 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
 Dec. 14, 1774. 
 
 Sir. — I have the honor to receive your Excellency's letter of 
 the 19th inst. with the letter from. the Secretary of State, which 
 were both delivered to me on Monday evening last by Mr. 
 Whiting. 
 
 It is with the utmost concern I am called upon by my duty 
 to the King to communicate to your Excellency a most unhappy 
 affair perpetrated here this day. 
 
 Yesterday in the afternoon, Paul Revere arrived in this town, 
 express from the committee in Boston to another committee in 
 this town, and delivered his dispatch to Mr. Samuel Cutts, 
 merchant in this town, who immediately convened the commit- 
 tee of which he was one, and as I learn, laid it before them. 
 This day before any suspicions could be had of their intentions, 
 about four hundred men were collected together, and immedi- 
 ately proceeded to his Majesty's Castle, William and Mary, at 
 the entrance of this harbour, and forcibly took possession 
 thereof; notwithstanding the best defence that could be made 
 by Captain Cochran (whose conduct has been extremely laud- 
 able, as your Excellency will see by the enclosed letter from 
 him), and by violence carried away upwards of one hundred 
 barrels of powder belonging to the King, deposited in the 
 castle. I am informed that expresses have been circulated 
 through the neighboring towns, to collect a number of people 
 to-morrow, or as soon as possible, to carry away all the cannon 
 and arms belonging to the castle which they will undoubtedly 
 effect, unless some assistance should arrive from Boston in 
 time to prevent it. .This event too plainly proves the imbecil- 
 ity of this government to carry into execution his Majesty's 
 order in Council, for seizing and detaining arms and ammuni- 
 tion imported into this Province, without some strong ships of 
 war in this harbor. Neither is the Province or custom house 
 treasury in any degree safe, if it should come into the mind of 
 the popular leaders to seize upon them. 
 
 The principal persons who took the lead in this enormity are 
 well known. Upon the best information I can obtain, this 
 mischief originates from the publishing of the Secretary of 
 State's letter, and the King's order in Council at Rhode Island, 
 prohibiting the exportation of military stores from Great 
 
 • American Archives, Vol. I, /. 1042: Appendix Belknap. Vol. Ill, /. 32S, 1812; 
 N. H. Provincial Papers. Vol. VII, /. 420. 
 
Britain, and the proceedings in that Colony, in consequence of 
 it, which have been published here by the forementioned Mr. 
 Revere ; and the dispatch brought, before which all was per- 
 fectly quiet and peaceable here. I am etc. 
 
 (Signed) J. Wentworth. 
 
 The report of Captain Cochran to Governor Wentworth re- 
 ferred to above, dated the 14th of December, 1774, reads : ' 
 
 May it please your Excellency : 
 
 I received your Excellency's favour of yesterday, and in obe- 
 dience thereto kept a strict watch all night, and added two 
 men to my usual number, being all I could get. Nothing 
 material occurred till this day, one o'clock, when I was in- 
 formed there were a nurriber of people coming to take posses- 
 sion of the Fort, upon which, having only five effective men 
 with me, I prepared to make the best defence I could, and 
 pointed some guns to those places where I expected they would 
 enter. About three o'clock, the Fort was beset on all sides by 
 upwards of four hundred men. I told them on their peril not 
 to enter. They replied they would. I immediately ordered 
 three four pounders to be fired on them, and then the small 
 arms ; and, before we could be ready to fire again, we were 
 stormed on all quarters, and they immediately secured both 
 me and my men, and kept us prisoners about one hour and a 
 half, during which time they broke open the powder-house, and 
 took all the powder away, except one barrel ; and having put 
 it into boats and sent it off, they released me from confinement. 
 To which I can only add, that I did all in my power to defend 
 the fort, but all my efforts could not avail against so great a 
 number. I am your Excellency's, etc., 
 
 (Signed) John Cochrax. 
 
 On Thursday, the 15th of December, Governor Wentworth 
 ordered thirty effective men to be enlisted or impressed for the 
 protection of Fort William and Mary without result, as the fol- 
 lowing will testify : " 
 
 Province of New Hamp". 
 
 2'o Capt. John Den net &= the Commission officer of the First Reg- 
 iment of Militia in the Province of New Hampshire : 
 Gentlemen. — You are without Delay out of your several 
 
 companies to enlist or Impress Thirty effective men to serve 
 
 1 American Archives, Vol. I,/. 1042; Appendix to Belknap, \'ol. III,/. 330: N. H. 
 Provincial Papers, Vol. VII, /. 420. 
 ^ N. H. Provincial Papers, Vol. II, /. 421. 
 
6 
 
 his Majesty as a Guard & Protection to his Fort William and, 
 Mary at New Castle and make return immediately to me of 
 your doings therein with the Names of the Persons so enlisted 
 etc., that Provision may be made for their being regularly 
 placed in the said Garrison, for all which this is your Warrant. 
 I am Gentlemen, your friend etc 
 
 Theodore Atkinson, Maj'' Gen'. 
 
 Dated at Portsm" on the 15th of 
 Decem'' 1774 12 o'clock at noon. 
 
 Indorsed on the back of the foregoing order is the following: 
 
 Pursuant to the within Warrant we have Paraded the streets, 
 caused the Drums to be Beat, & Proclamation to be made at 
 all the Publick corners, & on the Place of Parade. No Person 
 appearing to Enlist, we wait for further orders. 
 
 John Dennet, ) Commanding 
 Portsmouth, 15 December James Stoodley, [ Officers. 
 6 o'clock, p. ]\i. 
 
 On Friday Governor Wentworth wrote to General Gage a 
 further report, dated Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the i6th 
 of December, 1774: ' 
 
 On Wednesday last after 12 o'clock, an insurrection sud- 
 denly took place in town, and immediately proceeded to His 
 Majesty's castle, attacked, overpowered, wounded and confined 
 the Captain, and thence took away all the King's powder. 
 Yesterday, numbers were assembled, and, last night, brought 
 off many cannon, etc. and sixty muskets. This day, the town 
 is full of armed men, who refuse to disperse, but appear de- 
 termined to complete the dismantling of the fortress entirely. 
 Hitherto the people have abstained from private or personal 
 injuries ; how long they will be so prevailed on, it is impossi- 
 ble to say. I most sincerely lament the present distractions, 
 which seem to have burst forth by means of a letter, from 
 William Cooper to Samuel Cutts, delivered here on Tuesday 
 last, P. M., by Paul Revere. 1 have not time to add further 
 on this lamentable subject. 
 
 On December i6th a gentleman in Portsmouth wrote to a 
 gentleman in New York the following letter : " 
 
 1 American Archives, Vol. I, /. 1042; Appendix Belknap, Vol. Ill, /. 331, 1S12; 
 N. H. Provincial Papers, Vol. VII, /. 422. 
 
 2 Mass. Gazette, Post Boy 6= Advertiser, Dec. 19, 1774 ; N. H. Gazette of Dec. 23, 
 1774; American Archives, Vol. \, p. 1042; New Hampshire Provincial Papers, Vol. 
 
 VII, A 423. 
 
Portsmouth, New Hampshirk, Dec' i6th, 1774. 
 We have been in confusion here for two days, on account of 
 an express from Boston, informing that two Regiments were 
 coming to take possession of our Forts. By beat of drum, two 
 hundred men immediately assembled and went to the Castle, 
 in two gondolas, who on their way were joined by one hundred 
 and fifty more, and demanded the surrender of the Fort, which 
 Captain Cochran refused, and fired three Guns, but no lives 
 were lost ; upon which they immediately scaled the walls, dis- 
 armed the Captain and his men, took possession of ninety- 
 seven barrels of Powder, put it on board the Gondolas, brought 
 it up to Town, and went ofl" with it some distance into the 
 country. Yesterday the town was full of men from the coun- 
 try, who marched in in fours, chose a Committee to wait on 
 The Governor, who assured them he knew of no such design 
 as sending Troops, Ships, etc. This morning I hear there are 
 a thousand or fifteen hundred men on their march to town. 
 The Governor and the Council sat yesterday on the affair, and 
 are now meeting again. The men who came down, are those 
 of the best property and vote in the Province. 
 
 Another gentleman in Portsmouth, writing on Saturday, 
 December the 17th, gives also the main facts in the case, but 
 he states that the powder was sent up to Exeter, which may 
 have been reported at the time, but which is shown to be 
 incorrect by the letter of General Sullivan, published in the 
 Nezv Hampshire Mercury of May, 1785. He also magnifies 
 some of the other facts. The letter, however, adds its testi- 
 mony to the main occurrences of the week.^ 
 
 Portsmouth, N. H., December 17, 1774. 
 On Wednesday last a Drum and fife pervaded the streets of 
 Portsmouth, accompanied by several Committee-men, and the 
 Sons of Liberty, publickly avowing their intention of taking 
 possession of Fort William and Mary, which was garrisoned by 
 six invalids. After a great number of people had collected 
 together, they embarked on board scows, boats, etc., entered 
 the Fort, seized the Gunpowder, fired off the Guns, and car- 
 ried the Powder up to Exeter a Town fifteen miles distant. 
 The quantity was about two hundred to two hundred and 
 twenty barrels ; the day after, while the Governor and Council 
 were assembled in the Council Chamber, between two and 
 three hundred persons came from Durham, and the adjoining 
 
 ' American Archives, Vol I,/. rp43 ; N. H. Provincial Papers, Vol. VII, /. 423. 
 
8 
 
 Towns, headed by Major Sullivan, one of the Delegates of the 
 Congress; they drew up before the Council Chamber, and 
 demanded an answer to the following question : Whether there 
 were any ships or troops expected here, or if the Governor had 
 wrote for any? They were answered that his Excellency knew 
 of no forces coming hither, and that none had been sent for ; 
 upon which they retired to the Taverns and about ten or eleven 
 o'clock at night, a large party repaired to the Fort, and it is 
 said they carried away all the small arms. This morning about 
 sixty horsemen accoutred, came into Town by eleven o'clock 
 their intention, it is suspected, is to dismantle the Fort, and 
 throw the Cannon, consisting of a fine train of 42-pounders, 
 into the sea. 
 
 In a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated '^ Portsmouth, 
 20th Dec. 1774," Governor Wentworth gives most complete 
 account, and says : ^ 
 
 On Tuesday, the 13th instant in the afternoon, one Paul 
 Revere arrived express with letters from some of the leaders 
 in Boston to Mr. Samuel Cutts, merchant-of this town. Re- 
 ports were soon circulated that the fort at Rhode Island had 
 been dismantled, and the Gunpowder and other stores removed 
 up to Providence, and an Extract of the circular letter direct- 
 ing the seizure of gunpowder was printed in a Boston news- 
 paper of the 1 2th in consequence, as I have been informed, of 
 the said letters having been communicated to the House of 
 Assembly- at Rhode Island. And it was also falsely given out 
 that troops were embarking at Boston to come and take pos- 
 session of William and Mary Castle in this Harbour. These 
 rumours soon raised an alarm in the town ; and, although I 
 did not expect that the people would be so audacious as to 
 make any attack of the castle, yet I sent orders to the captain 
 at the Fort to be upon his guard. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 14th, about 12 o'clock, news was 
 brought to me that a Drum was beating about the town to 
 collect the Populace together in order to go and take away the 
 Gunpowder and dismantle the Fort. Immediately sent the 
 Chief Justice of the Province to warn them from engaging in 
 such an attempt. He went to them, where they were collected 
 in the centre of the town, near the townhouse, explained to 
 them the nature of the offence they proposed to commit, told 
 them it was not short of Rebellion and intreated them to de- 
 sist from it and disperse. But all to no purpose. They went 
 
 ' New England Historical and Genealogical Reg., 1S69, /. 276. 
 
9 
 
 to the Island ; and being found there by the inhabitants of the 
 towns of Newcastle and Rye, formed in all a body of about 
 four hundred men, and the Castle being in too weak a condi- 
 tion for defence (as I have in former letters explained to your 
 Lordship) they forced their entrance, in spite of Captain Coch- 
 ran; who defended it as long as he could: but having only 
 the assistance of five men, their numbers overpowered them. 
 After they entered the Fort, they seized upon the Captain, tri- 
 umphantly gave three Huzzas, and hauled down the King's 
 colours. They then put the captain and men under confine- 
 ment, broke open the Gunpowder magazine, and carried off 
 about ICO Barrels of Gunpowder, but discharged the captain 
 and men from their confinement before their departure. 
 
 On Thursday, the 15th, in the morning, a party of men 
 came from the country, accompanied by Mr. (Gen. John) Sulli- 
 van, one of the New Hampshire delegates to the congress, to 
 take away the cannon from the fort also. Mr. Sullivan de- 
 clared that he had taken pains to prevail upon them to return 
 home again ; and said as there was no certain intelligence of 
 troops being coming to take possession of the Castle, he would 
 still use his utmost endeavors to disperse them. 
 
 While the town was thus full of men, a committee of them 
 came to me to solicit for pardon or a suspension of prosecu- 
 tion against the persons that took away the Gunpowder. I 
 told them I could not promise them any such thing; but, if 
 they dispersed and restored the Gunpowder, which I earnestly 
 exhorted them to do, I. said I hoped His Majesty may be 
 thereby induced to consider it an alleviation of the offence. 
 They parted from me, in all appearance, perfectly disposed to 
 follow the advice I had given them ; and, having proceeded 
 directly to the rest of their associates, they all publickly voted, 
 about five o'clock in the afternoon, near the Town House, to 
 return home ; which it was thought they would have done, and 
 it also was further expected that the gunpowder would have 
 been restored by the morning. 
 
 But the people instead of dispersing, went to the castle in 
 the night, headed by Mr. Sullivan, and took away sixteen 
 pieces of cannon, about sixty muskets, and other military 
 stores, and brought them to the out Borders of the Town. 
 
 On P'riday morning, the i6th, Mr. Folsom, the other dele- 
 gate, came to town that morning, with a great number of 
 armed men, who remained in Town as a guard till the flow of 
 the tide in the evening when the cannon were sent in Gondolas 
 up the River into the country, and they all dispersed without 
 having done any personal injury to anybody in town. 
 
10 
 
 They threatened to return again in order to dismantle the 
 fort entirely, and to carry off or destroy the remaining heavy 
 cannon (about seventy pieces), and also to seize upon the 
 Province Treasury, all of which there was reasonable ground 
 to fear they would do, after what they had already done ; but 
 on the Gunpowder's being taken away, I wrote to General 
 Gage and Admiral Graves for assistance to restrain the bois- 
 terous temper of the people ; upon which the admiral ordered 
 the armed ships Canceaux and Scarborough here, and they ar- 
 rived (the former the 17th and the latter on the 19th) in time 
 to prevent the further dismantling of the Fort. 
 
 Further on Governor Wentworth says the government has 
 no power to bring the offenders to punishment. 
 
 No jail would hold them long and no jury would find them 
 guilty ; for, by the false alarm that has been raised throughout 
 the country, it is considered by the weak and ignorant, who 
 have the rule in these times, an act of self-preservation. 
 
 Again he says : 
 
 I tried to dissuade them by the civil authority, sheriff, 
 magistrates, etc., and did all 1 could to get the militia raised, 
 but to no purpose. 
 
 Under date of December 20th, 1774, a gentleman in Boston 
 writing to a Mr. Rivington of New York, says : ^ 
 
 On Monday the 12th inst. our worthy citizen, Mr. Paul 
 Revere, was sent express from only two or three of the Com- 
 mittee of Correspondence at Boston, as I am creditably in- 
 formed (of whom no number under seven are empowered to 
 act) to a like committee at Portsmouth, N. H., informing them 
 as 'tis said "That orders had been sent to the Governors of 
 their Provinces to deliver up their several Fortifications or 
 Castles to General Gage, and that a number of Troops had the 
 preceding day embarked on board transports with a design to 
 proceed and take possession of said Castles." That in con- 
 sequence thereof the House of Assembly of Rhode Island had 
 caused the Fort to be dismantled and the Guns, Ammunitions, 
 etc., to be removed to Providence. 
 
 Upon receiving this intelligence the Committee at Ports- 
 mouth was called together to advise what was to be done in 
 so alarming a crisis ; but not having a full meeting, nor able 
 to determine upon any measures proper to be taken, they con- 
 
 1 American Archives, Vol. I,/. 1054. 
 
11 
 
 eluded to defer the matter till the next day, when a fullermeet- 
 ing of said committee was expected, but two or three warm 
 zealous members, having the good of their country at heart 
 more than the others, and thinking any further deliberation on 
 so important an affair unnecessary, gave out their order early 
 the next morning for the drums to be beat to raise Volunteers 
 to go and take the King's Fort. With difficulty a number of 
 men were persuaded to convene, who proceeded to the Fort, 
 which is situated at New Castle, an island about two miles 
 from the Town, and being there joined by a number of the 
 inhabitants of said New Castle, amounted to near four hundred 
 men ; They invested the Fort and being refused admittance by 
 the Commander of it, who had only five men with him, and 
 who discharged several guns at them, scaled the walls and 
 soon overpowered and pinioned the Commander. They then 
 struck the King's colors, with three cheers broke open the 
 Powder House, and carried off one hundred and three barrels 
 of powder, leaving only one behind. 
 
 Previous to this, expresses had been sent out to alarm the 
 country. Accordingly, a large body of men marched the next 
 day from Durham headed by two Generals, Major Sullivan, 
 one of the worthy Delegates, who represented that Province in 
 the Continental Congress, and the Parson of the Parish, who 
 being long accustomed to apply himself more to the care of 
 the bodies than the souls of his parishioners, had forgotten 
 that the weapons of his warfare ought to be spiritual, and not 
 carnal, and therefore marched down to supply himself with the 
 latter, from the King's Fort, and assisted in robbing him of his 
 warlike stores. After being drawn up on parade, they chose a 
 Committee, consisting of those persons who had been most 
 active in the riot of the preceding day, with Major Sullivan and 
 some others, to wait on the Governor, and know of him 
 whether any of the King's Troops or Ships were expected. 
 The Governor after expressing to them his great concern for 
 the consequences of taking the Powder from the Fort, which 
 they pretended to disapprove and be ignorant of, assured them 
 that he knew of neither Troops or Ships coming into the 
 Province, and ordered the Major, as a Magistrate, to go and 
 disperse the people. When the Committee returned to the 
 body, and reported what the Governor had told them, they 
 voted it was satisfactory, and that they would return home. 
 But by the eloquent harangue of their Demosthenes they were 
 first prevailed upon to vote that they took part with and ap- 
 proved of the measures of those who had taken the Powder. 
 Matters appeared then to subside, and it was thought every 
 
12 
 
 man had peaceably returned to his own home. Instead of 
 this, Major Sullivan, with about seventy of his clients, con- 
 cealed themselves till the evening, and then went to the Fort, 
 and brought off in Gondolas all the small arms, with fifteen 
 4-pounders and one 9-pounder, and a quantity of twelve and 
 four and twenty pound shot, which they conveyed to Durham, 
 etc. 
 
 The day following being Friday, another body of men from 
 Exeter headed by Colonel Folsom, the other Delegate to the 
 Continental Congress, marched into Portsmouth, and paraded 
 about the Town, and having passed several votes expressive 
 of their approbation of the measures that had been pursued 
 by the bodies of the two preceding days in robbing the fort of 
 Guns, Powder, etc., retired home in the evening, without 
 further mischief. 
 
 Thus by this false alarm was a great part of that Province, 
 which though staunch in the cause of liberty, before in a state 
 of peace and good order, kept for three days in the greatest 
 confusion, and the good people of it persuaded by' a few 
 flaming demagogues, to commit a most outrageous overt act of 
 treason and rebellion. 
 
 No history, 1 believe, will furnish us with an instance of a 
 King's Fort being taken and his Colors struck by his own sub- 
 jects in time of peace, and without any cause or provocation. 
 
 In the New HampsJiiic Gazette of Friday, December 23, 
 appeared a letter which is somewhat humorous in its nature, 
 directed to Mr. Printer, and signed a " Lover of Order." This 
 is interesting to us chiefly because it shows that the king's order 
 prohibiting the exportation of arms was the cause here as it had 
 been in Rhode Island of the seizure of the powder. This letter 
 says, among other things, " Alarmed with the tendency of the 
 Quebec x\ct, with the accounts that the Canadians and Indians 
 were to be called forth to enforce the Acts of Parliament, so 
 disagreeable to all the Colonies, long inured to defend them- 
 selves in the wide extended frontiers of this Province, by their 
 valour against the restless savages of the Wilderness, without 
 any other aid, and while destitute of arms necessary for such 
 defense, finding that His Majesty, not knowing their peculiar 
 defensless State, had been pleased to prohibit the Exportation 
 of Powder, arms, and other warlike stores to the Colonies with- 
 out special License Some of the good People of 
 
13 
 
 this Province, in the wonted Honesty and Simplicity of their 
 hearts, imagined that no one would have just reason to com- 
 plain of their too great Forwardness if they seasonably re- 
 moved some of the warlike stores from the Fort 
 
 Which they accordingly effected without any great Tumult or 
 Opposition." 
 
 Again in the same paper the following notice appears : 
 " Since our last, arrived here his Majesty's Ships Canceaiix, 
 Capt. Mowatt, and the Scarborough, Capt. Barclay, both from 
 Boston, with 80 or 100 soldiers aboard." 
 
 On the 26th of December Governor Wentworth issued the 
 following proclamation : 
 
 A Proclamation by the Governor.^ 
 
 Whereas, several Bodies of Men did, in the day time of the 
 14th and in the Night of the 15th of this Instant December, in 
 the most daring and rebellious Manner invest, attack and forci- 
 bly enter into his Majesty's Castle William and Mary in this 
 Province, and overpowering and confining the Captain and 
 Garrison, did, besides committing many treasonable Insults 
 and Outrages, break open the Magazine of said Castle and 
 plunder it of above One hundred Barrels of Gunpowder, with 
 upwards of sixty Stand of small Arms, and did also force from 
 the Ramparts of said Castles and carry off sixteen Pieces of 
 Cannon, and other military Stores, in open Hostility and direct 
 Oppugnation of his Majesty's Government and in the most 
 atrocious Contempt of his Crown and Dignity : — 
 
 I Do, by Advice and Consent of his Majesty's Council, issue 
 this Proclamation, ordering and requiring in his Majesty's 
 Name, all Magistrates and other officers whether Civil or Mili- 
 tary, as they regard their Duty to the King and the Tenor of 
 the Oaths they have solemnly taken and subscribed, to exert 
 themselves in detecting and securing in some of his Majesty's 
 Goals in this Province the said Offenders, in Order to their 
 being brought to condign punishment; And from motives of 
 Duty to the King and Regard to the welfare of the good Peo- 
 ple of this Province ; I do in the most earnest and solemn Man- 
 ner, exhort and enjoin you, his Majesty's liege Subjects of this 
 Government, to beware of suffering yourselves to be seduced 
 by the false Art & Menaces of abandoned Men, to abet, 
 
 1 N. H. Provincial Papers, Vol. VII, /. 423. 
 
 ''Copied from printed Proclamation in MS. Corr., Vol. HI,/. 334. 
 
14 
 
 protect or screen from Justice any of the said high handed 
 Offenders, or to withhold or secrete his Majesty's Munition 
 forcibly taken from his Castle ; but that each and every of you 
 will use your utmost endeavor to detect and discover the Perpe- 
 trators of these Crimes to the civil Magistrate, and assist in 
 securing and bringing them to Justice, and in recovering the 
 King's Munition ; This Injunction it is my bounden Duty to 
 lay strictly upon you, and to require your Obedience thereto : 
 as you value individually your Faith and Allegiance to his 
 Majesty, as you wish to preserve that Reputation to the Prov- 
 ince in general ; and as you would avert the most dreadful but 
 most certain Consequences of a contrary conduct to yourselves 
 and Posterity. 
 
 Given at the Council-chamber in Portsmouth, the 26th Day of 
 December, in the 15th year of the Reign of our Sovereign 
 Lord George the Third, by the Grace of God, of great Britain, 
 France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., and in 
 the year of our Lord Christ, 1774. 
 
 J. Wentworth. 
 By his Excellency's Command 
 with advice of Council, 
 
 Theodore Atkinson, Sec'y. 
 
 God Save the King. 
 
 Again Governor Wentworth wrote to Lord Dartmouth, under 
 date 28 December, 1774. He says : ^ 
 
 It is with the greatest concern I perceive the unlimited 
 influence that the popular leaders in Boston obtain in this 
 Province, especially since the outrage of the 14th instant. In- 
 somuch, that I think the people here are disposed to attempt 
 any measure required by those few men ; and in consequence 
 thereof, are arming and exercising men as if for immediate 
 war. 
 
 And further : In a letter to George Erving, Esq., dated 
 Portsmouth, 5 January, 1775, referring to the 14th of Decem- 
 ber, when the castle was seized, he says : 
 
 The powers of magistracy have been faithfully and repeat- 
 edly tried. Governor, Council, Chief Justice, Sheriff, and Jus- 
 tices of the Peace personally appeared ; Proclamation made 
 according to law for all to disperse and desist'; the militia 
 ordered out: drums beat, etc. ; yet all of no avail. Not one man 
 
 ' New England Hist, and Gen. Register, 1S69, /. 277. 
 
15 
 
 appeared to assist in executing the law. And it was impossible 
 for me, with four Councillors, two Justices, one Sheriff, Mr. Mac- 
 donough, and Mr. Benning Wentworth, to subdue such multi- 
 tudes, for not one other man would come forth. Not even the 
 Revenue officers — all chose to shrink in safety from the storm, 
 and suffered me to remain exposed to the folly and madness of 
 an enraged multitude, daily and hourly increasing in numbers 
 and delusion. 
 
 He says, — 
 
 Captain Cochran and his five men defended a ruinous cas- 
 tle, with the walls in many places down, at length knocked 
 down, their arms broken and taken from them by above one 
 hundred to one ; the captain was confined and at last would 
 not nor did not give up the keys notwithstanding every men- 
 ace they could invent ; finally they broke the doors with axes 
 and crowbars. 
 
 Jeremy Belknap, whose History of New Hampshire was writ- 
 ten some 3'ears before its publication, and who was a contem- 
 porary and friend of Sullivan and Langdon, gives us the follow- 
 ing account, which, in spite of criticisms upon it, will bear the 
 closest scrutiny, and is essentially accurate as are most of the 
 accounts of that first historian of New Hampshire. 
 
 Belknap's History of New Hampshire, Vol. H,/. 288 : 
 
 An order having been passed by the King in Council pro- 
 hibiting the exportation of gunpowder and other military stores 
 to America, a copy of it was brought by express to Portsmouth 
 at a time when a ship of war was daily expected from Boston 
 with a party of troops to take possession of Fort William and 
 Mary, at the entrance of the harbor. The committee of the 
 town with all possible secrecy and dispatch collected a company 
 from that and some of the neighboring towns ; and before the 
 Governor had any suspicion of their intentions, they proceeded 
 to Newcastle and assaulted the Fort. The Captain and his 
 five men (which was the whole' garrison) were confined, and 
 one hundred barrels of powder were carried off. The next day 
 another company went and removed fifteen of the lightest can- 
 non, and all the small arms, with some other warlike stores, 
 which they distributed in the several towns under the care of 
 the committees. Major John Sullivan and Captain John Lang- 
 don distinguished themselves as leaders in this affair. It was 
 transacted with great expedition and alacrity, and in the most 
 fortunate point of time, just before the arrival of the Scarboro 
 
16 
 
 frigate and Caiiseau sloop, with several companies of soldiers, 
 who took possession of the Fort and of the heavy cannon which 
 had not been removed. 
 
 The governor put the five men who belonged to the fort on 
 board the ship of war to be reserved as evidences in case of a 
 prosecution of the offenders for high treason ; and having con- 
 sulted council in this and the neighboring Province, thought it 
 his duty; that he might prevent any charge of misprision of 
 treason against himself; to dismiss from public trust, all those 
 persons concerned in the assault of the fort, who had held any 
 office under the government and concerning whose proceedings 
 he had authentic testimony. He also issued a proclamation, com- 
 manding all officers, civil and military, to assist in detecting and 
 securing the offenders ; and exhorting all the people to beware of 
 being seduced by the false arts and menaces of abandoned men. 
 
 This closes the list of documents of the immediate period 
 bearing upon the affair, and they seem to be sufficiently clear 
 and to agree so closely as to leave little room for the contro- 
 versies that have taken place. It is true that they mention 
 but few names and give few details from the patriot's stand- 
 point. Neither do they state anything authentic as to the 
 disposal of the military stores nor of the influence this uprising 
 had upon the future course of the Revolution. 
 
 The main questions in dispute have been (i) the disposal of 
 the powder and military stores ; (2 ) the names of the leaders 
 in the affair and such of their men as could .be determined ; 
 (3) whether the tradition of the use of this powder at Bunker 
 Hill is founded on fact ; and (4) whether or not this was the 
 first real uprising of the Revolution. A study of some of the 
 later documents that bear upon these questions will help our 
 conclusion, and where tradition aids it will be considered as 
 tradition and not as history ; giving weight to traditional state- 
 ments in accordance with the nearness of their origin to the 
 date of the occurrence or to the actor concerned therein. 
 
 I. J'HE DISPOSAL OF THE POWDER. 
 
 Among the more important data to which we can give 
 unquestioned weight is an article heretofore unnoticed in the 
 Neiv Hampshire Mercury of 1785 and in the Nezv Hampshire 
 Spy of 1789. In one of these General Sullivan refers to an 
 
17 
 
 anonymous attack made upon him in the Neiv Hampshire 
 Mercury of April ig, 1785, of which no copy appears to be in 
 existence, although diligent search has been made. It is 
 probable, however, that the article was the same as one 
 appearing in the Neiv Hampshire Gazette of about the same 
 date and signed " Honestus," which contains nothing new 
 except that the author speaks of the powder as having been 
 sent to Exeter, where eventually much of it was undoubtedly 
 stored. General Sullivan also refers to an act of congress 
 of Tuesday, July 31, 1781, when the continental congress 
 ordered^ "That the board of treasury pass to the credit of 
 General Sullivan the following sums in specie, viz. : One hun- 
 dred dollars as a compensation for the expenses incurred by 
 him in securing the military stores and ordinances at Fort 
 William and Mary, New Hampshire, in the year 1775, and 
 distributing them in various parts of the country for the use of 
 the United States ; one thousand dollars for the extraordinary 
 expenses, necessarily incurred by him as the commanding 
 officer in a separate department, for which no provision or 
 compensation has been made; and four hundred dollars as a 
 reimbursement of the expense incurred by him after his resig- 
 nation for the recovery of his health which he had lost in the 
 service and was thereby induced to retire." 
 
 The article of General Sullivan above referred to appeared 
 in the Ahiv Hampshire Mercury of May 3, 1785, and was 
 addressed to "The Impartial Public," and is as follows : 
 
 Although I have no desire to satisfy or even to answer, 
 a malicious, false, and cowardly writer, who under a feigned 
 and very unproper signature, has endeavored to wound my 
 reputation, by a publication in the New-Hampshire Mercury 
 of the 19th ultimo: yet in as much as I am conscious of hav- 
 ing acted with uprightness in every part of my political con- 
 duct, I shall for your satisfaction answer the three charges 
 which his malice has suggested, and which his knowledge of 
 their falsity has prevented being signed by his proper name. 
 
 The first charge is obtaining a considerable sum from Con- 
 gress by false representations, respecting the taking powder 
 from fort William and Mary. 
 
 Secondly, Giving up the fishing-ground. And, 
 
 1 Journal of Congress for the year 1781, Vol. VII, 159. 
 
18 
 
 Thirdly, Receiving a bribe in my office of x\ttorney-General, 
 which prevented my complying with my duty in endeavoring to 
 confiscate a valuable estate ; by which I suppose he means, 
 Col. Boyd's. 
 
 To answer the first it will be necessary to relate the man- 
 ner of taking the stores from the fort. 
 
 When I returned from Congress in 1774 and saw the order 
 of the British King and Council, prohibiting military stores 
 being sent to this country ; I took the alarm, clearly perceived 
 the designs of the British ministry, and wrote several pieces 
 upon the necessity of securing military stores; which pieces 
 were published in several papers. 
 
 On the 1 8th of December [date is evidently given from 
 memory and is wrong] some gentlemen belonging to Ports- 
 mouth, went to the fort and took sundry barrels of powder and 
 sent in a gondola one hundred and ten barrels to my care; 
 which myself and others deposited in places of security. The 
 next day a report was spread that two vessels of war were 
 coming from Boston to take possession of the fort and harbour. 
 
 I went down with a large number of men and in the night 
 following went in person with gondolas, took possession of the 
 fort, brought away the remainder of the powder, the small 
 arms, bayonets, and cartouch-boxes, together with the cannon 
 and ordnance stores; was out all night, and returned to Ports- 
 mouth next day. I might here add that I bore the expense 
 of all the party. The gondolas, with the stores, were brought 
 to Durham, after several days spent in cutting the ice, Durham 
 river being then frozen over; the cannon, etc., was then 
 deposited in places of security. These are facts known to 
 almost every person in the State — and to all them concerned, 
 that almost the whole expense was borne by me; notwith- 
 standing which I never applied for a single farthing to Con- 
 gress, or any other body, for this service ; and when a com- 
 mittee of Congress, who were appointed to report what was 
 due for my allowance in separate departments where I com- 
 manded, reported one hundred dollars for this service, I warm- 
 ly opposed it, and told Congress I never expected, or desired a 
 single farthing for it — for the truth of this I appeal to the Hon, 
 Judge Livermore, who was with me in Congress, at the time, 
 and knows every fact relating to it ; he is now on the circuit 
 through the state, consequently any gentleman may satisfy him- 
 self, by asking him whether these facts are true or false. 
 
 But to prove whether Congress has been generous to me in 
 their grants, I beg leave to mention that by a resolve of Congress 
 of the 15th of June, 1775, general officers in separate depart- 
 
19 
 
 ments, were to be allowed one hundred and fifty dollars per 
 month, over and above their wages : I served thirty months in 
 separate departments, and Congress made me a grant of thir- 
 teen hundred dollars only, in lieu of four thousand eight hundred 
 which was my due : it is true one hundred of it was reported 
 for the above-mentioned service, but upon my objecting to it, 
 was not in reality granted in that light — and further, to prove 
 the generosity of Congress to me, I now say, that for near five 
 years' service, I have never received only the nominal sum in 
 paper money for my services, and am the only officer in America 
 that has received no depreciation or allowance therefor. 
 ******* 
 
 John Sullivan. 
 Durham, April 23, 1785. 
 
 Among the many political feuds early existing among the 
 prominent men of the state of New Hampshire one had broken 
 out between Judge Ebenezer Thompson of Durham and Gen. 
 John Sullivan. This had been fanned into open warfare from 
 the fact that a quarrel had taken place between their sons 
 in which the fathers afterwards took sides. Lawsuits were 
 begun and appeals made to the public through the press. For- 
 tunately for our purpose, one of the points in controversy 
 between them was the respective parts each had taken at the 
 capture of Fort William and Mary. As many of the partici- 
 pants were alive, who knew all the facts, both were naturally care- 
 ful to have their statements accurate. The first number of this 
 series appeared in an article in the Ahw Hampshire Spy of Friday, 
 March 6, 1789, signed "An Enemy to Deceit," in which an un- 
 named gentleman (Judge Ebenezer Thompson) is accused of 
 appearing at Exeter at town-meeting to work against the elec- 
 tion of General Sullivan as president of the state, and of keep- 
 ing back a number of votes in the election of 1786.^ The only 
 statement of interest to us is the following : 
 
 It surely cannot be forgotten that this gentleman, in company 
 with a number of others, went from Durham to Portsmouth in 
 December, 1774, to assist in securing the stores at Fort William 
 and Mary; and when Governor Wentworth suspended him and 
 sundry others on that account he was restored by making oath 
 before George Atkinson, Esq. [then Deputy Secretary], that he 
 was not concerned. 
 
 'Ebenezer Thompson afterwards refuted this charge by affidavits, etc. 
 
20 
 
 In the New Hampshire Spy oi Friday, March 13, 1789, Judge 
 Ebenezer Thompson defends himself from the attack of "An 
 Enemy to Deceit," whom he assumes to be General Sullivan, 
 and among other things says : 
 
 That I ever was concerned, directly or indirectly, in taking 
 the stores from Fort William and Mary, in 1774, is absolutely 
 false. But had it been the case I should not have thought 
 of applying to, or receiving from. Congress a large pecuniary 
 reward by single service. But what a gentleman did who as- 
 sisted in the matter will appear by the following extract from a 
 resolution of Congress printed in the Journal, Vol. VII, /. 159 : 
 
 "Ordered that the Board of Treasury pass to the credit of 
 John Sullivan in Specie one hundred dollars as a compensation 
 for the expense incurred by him in securing the military stores 
 and ordinance in Fort William and Mary, New Hampshire, in 
 the year 1775." 
 
 It is a well-known fact that the Hon. John Langdon, Esq., 
 and a number of other persons took the powder from the afore- 
 said fort and sent it into the country before the gentleman who 
 received the reward knew anything about it. 
 
 (Signed) Ebenezer Thompson. 
 
 Durham, March 11, 1789. 
 
 In the Neiv Hampshire Spy of March 17, 1789, General Sul- 
 livan addresses a reply to " Ebenezer Thompson, Esq." and 
 after refusing to affirm or deny his authorship of the article 
 signed "An Enemy to Deceit," he discusses the Exeter affair 
 and the 1786 election and then the following appears : 
 
 As different ideas may be affixed to the words directly or 
 indirectly, I shall not assert that you were directly or indirectly 
 concerned in taking the stores from Fort William & Mary, in 
 1774; but will relate facts as they are. In the night of the 18th 
 of December, 1774 [again he has the date from memory incor- 
 rect], a messenger came to my house from the Hon. Col. Long, 
 and I think also signed by President Langdon, informing that one 
 hundred barrels of powder were sent to my care ; that they had 
 been to the fort and secured as much of the powder as they could ; 
 and desired me to come down with a party to secure the remain- 
 der, with the cannon and munitions of war, as they were in 
 danger of being seized by the British ships. I mustered 
 hands — took care of the powder, part of which was lodged in 
 your house. The next morning we mustered and you went to 
 
21 
 
 Portsmouth in company with about thirty or forty ; among 
 whom was the Rev. Mr. Adams, Deacon Norton, Lieut. Dur- 
 gin, Capt. Jonathan Woodman, Mr. Aaron Davis, and, I think, 
 Mr. Footman of Dover, and many others, — I think you did not 
 go down to the fort; that was at night when a number of us 
 mustered what gondolas we could — went to the fort and secured 
 as much as our vessels could bring away. When the gondolas 
 arrived in Durham river, it was froze far down, and we were 
 about two days in sawing the ice and getting up the boats, and 
 one day more in storing and distributing the stores; in this you 
 were obliging enough to assist us ; — but whether that was being 
 directly or indirectly concerned, I shall not determine. 
 
 Nothing can be more unjust than your calling up again the 
 matter of Congress voting me a hundred dollars for assisting 
 to take the cannon, etc., from the fort ; when it was so fully 
 discussed in the public prints, about four years since, and the 
 malicious charge refuted. The Hon. Judge Livermore who 
 was in Congress with me, publickly declared and all the then 
 members of Congress will attest, that the vote was passed in 
 my absence, and upon a petition for "my allowance in seperate 
 departments, in which it was incidentally mentioned my being 
 one of the first opposition and amongst those who first dared 
 to attack a King's fort. The committee reported me a hun- 
 dred dollars, and cut me off three quarters of my allowance in 
 seperate departments; the vote passed before I returned into 
 Congress. I was the person who rose and violently opposed 
 the measure — told them I was so far from asking or wishing 
 such a grant, that as it would open a door for similar grants, I 
 could not from principle accept it; but Congress finding, how 
 much I was cut short in my allowance for seperate commands 
 advised me to a compromise, to take the sum voted in full and 
 release my demands in seperate departments. Thus by a com- 
 promise I had a hundred dollars voted, for releasing more than 
 a thousand. Any person who wishes to be satisfied of these 
 facts may apply to the Hon. Judge Livermore, or to any mem- 
 ber then in Congress, or may by having recourse to the state- 
 ment of facts by me, — and the proofs adduced in my answer 
 to letters signed Candidus in the beginning of 1785, be fully 
 convinced of the injustice of the accusation. 
 
 John Sullivan. 
 
 Durham, March 14, 1789. 
 
 The trouble between General Sullivan and Judge Ebenezer 
 Thompson, arising out of this and other disputes, seems to 
 have been settled the following year by a letter from General 
 
22 
 
 Sullivan, the original of which is now in the possession of Mr. 
 Lucien Thompson, of Durham, and of which the following is a 
 facsimile : 
 
 
 
 
 /Ley, e'^Ar^ fom ^,_^ -f^^u.i^ 
 
 ^— '-" -^'j ^--' -- ^.-.^^^ ^^ 
 
 
 J^^''i S^e-^i^jrti^ P^/^/^^^a^ Si 
 
23 
 
 These letters leave absolutely no doubt that, in the first 
 instance, the powder and other military stores were brought 
 to Durham to be from there distributed. Whether or not part 
 of the powder was lodged under the pulpit of the Durham 
 meeting-house must remain, as heretofore, a matter of tradi- 
 tion ; but the fact that the Rev. Mr. Adams'was of the party, 
 and that, with the exception of General Sullivan's own house, 
 it was one of the nearest buildings to the landing where the 
 powder was unloaded, lends probability to the report. We 
 know positively, as the family tradition has always held, that 
 some of the powder was stored in the house of Ebenezer 
 Thompson, which is still standing in Durham, and is still occu- 
 pied by a descendant of the judge in the person of Mr. Lucien 
 Thompson. There is little doubt, too, that, in the subsequent 
 distribution, a considerable portion of the powder was left 
 with Maj. John Demerit of Madbury. Such has been the 
 unvarying tradition in Durham. Powder and balls from Fort 
 William and Mary, which had been kept in the original maga- 
 zine built in the Madbury home, are now in the possession of 
 the New Hampshire Historical Society, donated in 1887 by Mr. 
 John Demerit (now also major) of Madbury, N. H., a direct 
 descendant and namesake of Major Demerit. Miss Mary P. 
 Thompson, writing for Xh^ Independent Statesman of Nov. 17, 
 1887, states that the wife of Major Demerit's grandson, who 
 had had charge of Major Demerit during the last six years of 
 his life, related to her the accounts of the capture of the fort 
 and the preservation of this powder, as she had heard it from 
 Major Demerit. Also, in Brewster's Rambles about Ports- 
 mouth, it is asserted that Daniel P. Drown, calling upon Major 
 Demerit in 1799 or 1800, was given two charges of this powder 
 for his rifle with the statement that it was taken from Fort 
 William and Mary. 
 
 It is certainly true that a large part of the powder was after- 
 wards distributed among the several towns. This is indicated 
 by General Sullivan's letter and by the journal of congress, and 
 has also been well brought out by Hon. John G. Crawford in 
 an article read before the New Hampshire Society Sons of the 
 
24 
 
 American Revolution.^ Several documents quoted in the New 
 Hampshire Provincial Papers, Vol. VII, also show this to have 
 been a fact. The arms brought from Portsmouth were repaired 
 and put in order at Durham, for in the Durham town records^ 
 it is recorded that at March 31, 1783, town-meeting it was 
 " Voted that the selectmen be directed to allow Thomas Wille 
 20/9 in full for repairing the guns brought from Fort Ww and 
 Mary." 
 
 THE PARTICIPANTS. 
 
 It is unfortunate that so little is known about the actual 
 leaders and those who joined with them in the attacks upon 
 the fort. The newspapers of the time were silent upon the 
 question, and even the official reports contain scarcely a refer- 
 ence, simply saying that the leaders were well known. The 
 act was one of open treason to the king, and, as it was the 
 almost unanimous act of the community, but little was written 
 or published that might injure the participants. A few names 
 only are preserved to us. Governor Wentworth says that the 
 first attack was carried out by citizens of Portsmouth, Rye, 
 and Newcastle. No individual is named. General Sullivan 
 says the powder was sent to him by a messenger from Colonel 
 Long, and, if he remembered correctly, signed also by John 
 Langdon. John Sullivan was the unquestioned leader of the 
 second attack. Jeremy Belknap, who wrote during the lives 
 of both Langdon and Sullivan and was a close friend of the 
 latter, credits the leader-ship to these two prominent New 
 Hampshire men. Judge Ebenezer Thompson, in the Ne7t> 
 Ha7npshii'e Spy, says : " Hon. John Langdon and others took 
 the powder." John M.' Whitton ^ is the first to claim Thomas 
 Pickering as a leader. No previous mention of his name in 
 this connection has come to light, and Whitton does not give 
 his authority. The History of Manchester, 1856,* Report of 
 the Adjutant-General for New Hampshire, 1866,® and Brews- 
 ter's Rambles about Portsmouth speak of Thomas Pickering 
 
 I Prpceedings of the N. H. Sons Am. Kev , 1S89-97. 
 
 'Vol. 11,/. 220. 
 
 ^ History of New Hampshire, 1834,/. 122. 
 
 */>. 40S. 'Vol. 11,/. 263. 
 
as being the leader in the first attack. All three take their 
 authority from Daniel P. Drown, a nephew of Pickering, who 
 had received his version of the afifair from his father, Samuel 
 Drown, whom he stated as a participant. Brewster, obtaining 
 his information from the same source, states also that Sullivan, 
 Langdon, George Frost of Durham, and Dr. Bartlett of. Kings- 
 ton, were present. The account by Drown is so inaccurate in 
 many particulars that it is doubtful if his memory of his father's 
 story was correct in regard to the others. Brewster^ also 
 states that Pierse Long assisted in the removal of the powder 
 which General Sullivan's article, before quoted, confirms. 
 From the A'no Hainpshirc Spy we learn that Judge Ebenezer 
 Thompson went with the party as far as Portsmouth, but was 
 not present at the fort, and that the Rev. Mr. Adams, Deacon 
 Norton, Lieutenant Durgin, Capt. Jonathan Woodman, Mr. 
 Aaron Davis, and, probably, Mr. Footman of Dover, were 
 actively engaged in the second attack. 
 
 Mr. Eleazer Bennet of Durham, who was probably the last sur- 
 vivor of those who took part in the affair, gave a full description 
 to the Rev. Mr. Tobey of Durham, who published it in an obit- 
 uary notice of Mr. Bennet, in the Congregational Jounial oi Feb. 
 i8, 1852. It is unfortunate for our purpose that Mr. Bennet was 
 one hundred years old at the time Mr. Tobey took down his 
 statement, for his account i.s very inaccurate, and with the ex- 
 ception of adding several names of those present contains 
 nothing of value. He enumerated John Sullivan, Winborn 
 Adams, Ebenezer Thompson, John Demerit of Madbury, 
 Alpheus Chesley, Jonathan Chesley, Peter French (a law stu- 
 dent in Sullivan's office), John Spencer, Micah Davis, Edward 
 Sullivan, Isaac Small, Benjamin Small, and himself, as members 
 of the party. It is worthy of note that he makes no mention 
 of Alexander Scammell, although in the narrative as quoted in 
 Amory's Life of Sullivan as coming from the same source his 
 name is included. It is probable that Amory copied this account 
 from the highly imaginary article in Harper's Monthly of July, 
 1886, rather than from the original publication. However, in 
 
 'Vol. U,/. 276. 
 
26 
 
 a letter to the senate of New Hampshire of Feb. 14, 1785,^ 
 General Sullivan says that he was assisted by his three clerks in 
 bringing the stores up the river, and this leaves but little doubt 
 that Alexander Scammell, Peter French, and James Under- 
 wood, who were at that time in his ofifice, were with him at the 
 second attack. Another account by a survivor of the Exeter 
 party, and published by Governor Bell in his History of Exeter, 
 also dififers so much from the known facts that little credence 
 can be given to any part of it. It does not seem wise to further 
 quote either of these accounts. 
 
 THE POWDER AT BUNKER HILL. 
 
 It has always been the tradition in southeastern New Hamp- 
 shire, founded upon the statements of persons who claimed to 
 have the facts from the actors themselves, that Major John 
 Demerit took a cart load of the powder, captured at Ports- 
 mouth, from the magazine at his house, to Cambridge, and 
 reached there just in time for its opportune use at Bunker Hill. 
 No inhabitant of Madbury or Durham doubts the story, but it 
 cannot with our present knowledge be proven. On the other 
 hand there is nothing to render it improbable. The official 
 documents of the time are silent upon the. question. 
 
 On the fly leaf of an application dated April 21, 1775, from 
 the Committee of Correspondence in Portsmouth to a like 
 committee in Exeter, a statement, made at the time, is given of 
 the quantity of powder stored in Exeter and vicinity.^ It states 
 that at that time there were twelve barrels at Kingston, eight 
 at Epping^ four at Poplin, eight at Nottingham with Major 
 Cilley, six at Brentwood, one at Londonderry, four at Ports 
 mouth, and twenty-nine at Exeter. It is quite probable that 
 this represents part of the powder from Fort William and Mary, 
 but there is nothing to indicate the fact except, perhaps, that 
 Major Cilley's name appears as a custodian, and he was 
 directed by the Exeter Committee of Safety^ on the 7th of the 
 following August "to apply to the Selectmen of the Several 
 
 ' N. H. state Papers, Vol. XVIII, /. 749. 
 
 2 Bell's History of Exeter,/. 242. 
 
 ^ N. H. Provincial Papers. Vol. VII, /. 573. 
 
Towns in this Colony with whom was lodged the powder taken 
 last winter from Fort Willm & Mary, take an account of what 
 is now in their Custody respectively and request of them forth- 
 with to convey the whole of it to Col. Nicholas Gilman at Exe- 
 ter." This request to Major Cilley was the result of a letter 
 from General Sullivan to the Committee of Safety, under date 
 of August 4th, at Winter Hill, stating that the army was in 
 sore straits for powder, and asking that at least twenty barrels 
 be sent at once.^ There is no doubt that Major Cilley carried 
 out his instructions, and that much of the powder from Fort Will- 
 iam and Mary was carried to Winter Hill, for General Sullivan 
 in a subsequent letter claims to have supplied the troops at 
 Winter Hill, when in sore need, with powder. On June 2d the 
 Committee of Supplies had been ordered to " apply and obtain 
 the Quantity and Quality of the Powder bro't from the Fort 
 Wm and Mary, also take it into their possession and lay the 
 state of it before the Committee of Safety"^ but there is no 
 record of their having carried out their orders. In fact the 
 latter instructions to INIajor Cilley would seem to indicate that 
 this order was not carried into effect. Now, although much of 
 this powder was probably sent to General Sullivan at Winter 
 Hill, there is nothing to indicate that the portion retained in 
 Durham was not previously used at Bunker Hill. There are 
 two facts, apart from tradition, which seem to show the truth 
 of the statement, and that the tradition was not of recent 
 birth. 
 
 C. E. Potter, in his History of Manchester, 1856, /. 410, 
 states in a footnote that Major Demerit took the powder to 
 Bunker Hill, and further says that a "gentleman is now living 
 in Portsmouth to whom he gave some of it for squirrel hunt- 
 ing, after relating the taking of the fort, remarking as he gave 
 it, ' Here, try this powder, this is the kind we killed the red 
 coats with at Bunker Hill.'" Still earlier, on May 21, 1823, 
 at the Portsmouth Bicentennial Anniversary celebration, the 
 following toast was printed on the programme: "Major Sulli- 
 van and Capt Langdon. Our delegates to Congress in '75 who 
 
 ' N. H. Provincial Papers, Vol. VII, /. 572. 
 ^ X. H. Provincial Papers, Vol. VII. /. 497. 
 
28' 
 
 supplied Bunker Hill with Powder from his Majesties fort at 
 Pascataquack.'' ^ 
 
 WAS THE CAPTURE OF FORT WILLIAM AND MARY THE FIRST 
 OVERT ACT OF THE REVOLUTION ? 
 
 There is no question that previous to Dec. 14, 1774, bodies 
 of men had destroyed private property owing to their disap- 
 proval of British methods, and in a few cases had even assaulted 
 the royal power. But the capture of Fort William and Mary 
 was the first organized fight of the Revolutionary War, and on 
 Dec. 14, 1774, the first gun of that war was fired. It is true 
 that on Dec. 5, 1774, the assembly of Rhode Island ordered 
 the powder and shot in Fort George to be removed to a place 
 of safety, and it is further true that it was done with the same 
 intent and purpose, and undoubtedly influenced the subsequent 
 action at Portsmouth. It was accomplished without opposition 
 and was simply the confiscation of stores already in their pos- 
 session. The taking of the schooner Gaspcc, eight guns, com- 
 manded by Lieutenant Duddington, at Gaspee Point, R. I., on 
 June g, 1772,- has been held to be the first assault against the 
 crown, but erroneously, for it in nowise differs in principle from 
 the act of firing upon the schooner St. John in July, 1764; ^ the 
 seizure of \\\^ Maidstone s boat at Newport •* in May, 1765, or the 
 scuttling of the British armed sloop Liberty at Newport, in 
 1769.^ All were directed against the vessels of the British 
 navy carrying the king's colors, but they were directed against 
 the particular vessel that suffered .on account of real injuries to 
 the participants or to the community, and not from' any uprising 
 against the general authority of Great Britain. Arnold states 
 in his account of the destruction of the Gaspee that "Lieut. 
 Duddington, the commander, had practiced every arrogance 
 upon vessels in the bay, detaining them often without a colora- 
 ble pretext, stopping even market boats, and in some cases 
 plundering people on shore." 
 
 The "Battle of Alamance," in North Carolina, on May 16, 
 
 '^Portsmouth Jotirnal oi May, 1S23; also N. II. Historical Society Collections, 
 Vol. II, /. 195. 
 
 2 Arnold's History of Rhode Island, /. 309. 
 3/^«V, /. 252. * Ibid, p. 2yy ^'Ibid, f. 2()-;. 
 
20 
 
 177 I, w^^ entirely of a local nature, and was fought between a 
 band of so-called "regulators" and volunteer militia of their 
 own province. Also, according to Hildreth (Hist, of U. S., Vol. 
 II, /. 570), the regulators themselves became staunch supporters 
 of the royal authority. The three and one half years interven- 
 ing between this affair and that of William and Mary is sufficient 
 in itself to separate it from the Revolutionary period. 
 
 The opinion of Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D.D., in regard to the 
 capture of Fort William and Mary, is often well quoted in the 
 words, " The daring character of this assault .cannot be over- 
 estimated. It was an organized investment of a royal fortress, 
 where the king's flag was flying, and where the king's garrison 
 met them with muskets and artillery. It was four months be- 
 fore Lexington, and Lexington was resistance to attack, while 
 this was a deliberate assault. When the king heard of this cap- 
 ture it so embittered him that all hope of concessions was at an 
 end. It made war inevitable." 
 
 Note.— Besides the references given in the text, articles of more or less value 
 bearing on the capture of Fort William and Mary are quite numerous. They are 
 generally more popular in character tlian historic. Tlie following will serve for refer- 
 ence : 
 
 McClintock's History of New Hampshire, / 29S. 
 
 Barstow's History of New Hampshire,/. 231. 
 
 History of Nottingham, N. H.,/. 120. 
 
 History of Rockingham and Strafford Co., N. H.,/. Sov 
 
 Pickering Genealogy, by Eddy Sup.,/. 4. 
 
 Adams' Annals of Portsmoutli, N. H. 
 
 N. E. Hist, and Gen. Keg., XXHI, /. y^? ; XXIV,/. 224; X.KXII./. 34. 
 
 Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, XIV, /. 150. 
 
 Amory's Life of General Sullivan,/, zu^. 
 
 N. H. Revolutionary Rolls, Vol I,/. 3. 
 
 judge Ebenezer Thompson, by M. P. Thompson,/. 25. 
 
 Magazine of New England History, HI,/. 200. 
 
 American Irish Historical Society, Vol. I,/. 34. 
 
 Several articles in the Portsmouth, N. H., Joiiriia/ and Dover, N. H., Republican, 
 by Miss Mary P. Thompson and Dr. .\lunzo H. Quint from September, 1S86, to 
 February, 1S87. 
 
 New Castle, Historical and Picturesque,/. 22. 
 
 New York American Monthly Magazine, November, iSyi. 
 
 Granite Monthly, article by Dr. A. H. Quint, Vol. I,/. 190. 
 
 Granite Monthly, article by Hon. Geo. \V. Nesmith, Vol. I, /. 325. 
 
 Granite Monthly, article by M. G. Colby, \'ol. \,p. 22. 
 
 Proceedings N. H. Sons American Revolution, 1889-1S97,/. 78. 
 
 E.Keter, N. H., Gazette, Sept. 17, 1886. 
 
 Address Exeter, N. H., Quarter Millennial, 188S, by Hon. Charles H. Bell. 
 
30 
 
 Harper^ s Magazine, July, iSS6. 
 
 Neiv York Times, July, i8S6, by. M. P. Thompson. 
 
 Springfield, Mass., Homestead, August 14, 1886. 
 
 Dover, N. H., Enqtiircr, Sept. 17, 18S6. 
 
 Portsmouth, N. H., Daily Penny Post, Dec. 17, 1S86. 
 
 Concord, N. W.., Independent Statesman, Nov. 17, 18S7. 
 
 Concord, N. H., People and Patriot, Feb. 23, 1S8S. 
 
 Manchester Union, December, 1898. 
 
 DedicJ^tion of Sullivan Monument at Durham, N. H., pub. \%C)(^. pp. 9, i ■;, 17, 18, 
 27, 28, •j'^, 100, and 10;. 
 
 .Spark's Life of Sullivan. 
 
 Botta's History of the United States. 
 
 Bryant's History of the United States. 
 
 Bancroft's History of the United States. 
 
 The First Parish in Dover, N. H., by Rev. A. H. Quint, D. D.,/. 27. 
 
 The looth Anniversary of J^ational Independence, 1876, by Rev. A. H. Ouint, 
 D. D.,/. 35. 
 
 General Sullivan not a Pensioner of Lucerne, 1874,/. 4- 
 
 General Sullivan not a Pensioner of Lucerne, 1875,/. 6. 
 
 Wentworth Genealogy, Vol. I,/. 5^9. 
 
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