Dunstable Learns about the Battle of Lexington and Concord

Dunstable Learns about the Battle of Lexington and Concord

While reading through three volumes of antique ledgers for a business called the Mill Company located in Boston, a friend came across this reference to Dunstable which you may find of interest.

“Boston April 13th, 1775

Be it remembered that on this Very 13 of April the Clerk William Hunt was under a Necessity of Going into the Country to hire Sum Place, to Retreat with his Family, from the Troubles which the Town of Boston were therein with & On ye 19 being at Dunstable, by Nine in ye morning News was Rec’d. of a Party of the King’s Troops made An Attack on Concord & Lexington – Much Blood Spilt.”

If Mr. Hunt heard the news of the battle while in Dunstable at 9:00 am on April 19th it was either in response to a dispatch rider who left the scene of the Lexington battle (it was fought at 4:30 am) to spread the news of the fight or the rider was one of the many who left Boston to spread the alarm on April 18th that the British regulars were marching to Lexington and Concord to seize any arms and supplies they could find.  The battle at Concord was fought at 9:00 on the morning of the 19th of April. The speed of the communications network bringing news even to this tiny farm town is testimony to the degree of organization shown by the revolutionary movement.

The Mill Company was chartered in the 17th century and ran gristmills at the mouth of what they refer to in the ledgers as Mill Creek, later Mill Pond and was powered by the rising and falling of the tide as it came in through the mouth of the Charles River.  Mr. Hunt was one of the partners in the company along with a Wentworth, a Boylston and a Hutchinson.

If the Mill Company was to fall under the control of the British in Boston, Mr. Hunt may just have wanted to document the fact that he wasn’t in Boston, Lexington or Concord.  He was in Dunstable looking for a safe place to live with his family until things quieted down.