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Revolutionary War documents simply listing minutemen are scarce and desirable; this document is an extremely rare relic actually signed by the soldiers.
This spectacular 1775 petition for pay was signed by 25 members of Captain Luke Drury’s Company. At least 14 were Grafton, Massachusetts-area minutemen who had responded to the Lexington-Concord Alarm on April 19-21, 1775.
The terms minuteman and militiaman are now often used interchangeably, but there was a distinction. Militia were men in arms formed to protect their towns from foreign invasion. They could designate up to one quarter of their force as minutemen, a specially trained unit required to be highly mobile and able to assemble instantly to a call to arms. It is very difficult to categorize specific men into either of the two groups based on the surviving historical record. We apply the term here to all of those militia who responded April 19-21, 1775, to the Lexington-Concord Alarm. Importantly though, the extant Drury April 19, 1775 muster roll, mentioned in footnote #2, seems to list “Minute Men” first, with the remaining men listed in a separate section. Remarkably, 9 of those original “Minute Men” were still with Drury in 1776 and signed this document [along with 2 of Aaron Kimball's Minute Men].
[REVOLUTIONARY WAR].
Manuscript Document Signed by 25 soldiers of Capt. Luke Drury’s Company, December 30, 1775, Dorchester, Massachusetts [Siege of Boston]. Body of document in the hand of Nathan Morse. 1 p., 8 x 13 in.
Inventory #20781.01
Price: $7,000
Transcript
“We the subscribers Non Commissioned officers & Soldiers in Capt Luke Drurys [sic] Company in Colo Wards Regt. in the service of the United Colonies do hereby Desire Colo Jonathon Ward to pay to Capt. Drury all the money Due to us in the three months of October, November & December 1775. As witness our hands. Dorchester December 30th 1775”
Names as they appear on the document are shown in italic font:
[Sgt.] Nathan Morse 4
[Sgt.] Shelomith Stow 2
[Sgt.] Ebenezer Phillips 2
[Sgt.] Jonah Goulding 2
[Drummer] Elijah Rice 2
[Cpl.] William Walker 2
[Cpl.] Joseph Leland 2
Nathan Wheeler [of Mendon] [1]
Solomon Stow [1]
Zebulon Daniels [1]
John Banks [of Alstead] [1]
George Smith 3
Thaddeus Kemp [mark] [of Billerica; enlisted April 29, 1775] 1
Edmund Dolbear [of Boston] 1
Moses Rawson [1]
Eliphelet Smith [Eliphalet Smith; born in Suffield, CT; of Sandisfield] 3
Isaac Brigham 2
Thomas Pratt 2
Nathan Wheeler (perhaps a duplicate signature of Nathan Wheeler, above) [1]
Joseph Plumbly [Joseph Plumley; also of Alstead, NH] [1]
[Fifer] Samuel Adams [also of Walpole; enlisted May 2, 1775] [1]
William Evans 3
[Fifer] Zadock Putnam 2
Simeon Dexter [of Cumberland] [1]
Micajah Fay 4
[1] Not found listed on a surviving Lexington Alarm muster roll. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors. 11 of the 25 signers, counted by us as militiamen rather than minutemen.
2 Captain Luke Drury’s Grafton Company, marched 36 miles in response to the Lexington Alarm, April 19, 1775. Ibid., probably citing original muster roll later sold at Sotheby’s Guthman Sale, December 1, 2005, lot 51. Also reprinted in History of Grafton. 9 of the 25 signers.
Note that Asaph Sherman’s April 19th service is not shown there, but is mentioned in KS# 20993.09. In addition, KS# 20993.04 shows that he was an officer in Drury’s Militia Company, May 31, 1773. Thus the total force of Drury’s company that day seems to have been 47, not 46.
3 Marched 36 miles on April 21, 1775, to join Capt. Aaron Kimball’s April 19th Grafton Company. Ibid. Also in History of Grafton. 3 of the 25 signers.
4Captain Aaron Kimball’s Grafton Company, marched 36 miles in response to the Lexington Alarm, April 19, 1775. Ibid. Also in History of Grafton. 2 of the 25 signers.
Historical Background
In addition to the April 19, 1775, muster roll, mentioned in footnote #2, only two other rolls from that day have appeared at auction: Sotheby’s Guthman Sale, December 1, 2005, lot 26 – Capt. Leonard Butterfield’s Dunstable Co.; and Christie’s Snider Sale, June 21, 2005, lot 61 – Sgt. David Hartwell’s Concord Co. Captain Luke Drury of Grafton had commanded a company of Minutemen since 1773. When word of the Lexington Alarm arrived, Drury and his men began the 36-mile march to Cambridge. They arrived on the morning of April 20th to join a massive army of volunteers from across Massachusetts. Drury’s company was soon incorporated into a Continental Army regiment under Col. Jonathan Ward and stationed on the lines at Dorchester. On June 17, 1775, they fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill), with at least one man, Samuel Heard, being killed. Also serving under Drury that day was Aaron Heath, who later recalled: “I fired thirty-two rounds at the red-coats.” Many of Drury’s men reenlisted when their term of service expired on January 1, 1776. Less than a month after thisdocument was signed, on March 4, 1776, most likely some of these men also took part in the overnight seizure of Dorchester Heights – the celebrated action that forced the British to evacuate Boston.
Sources: Frederick Clifton Pierce, History of Grafton, Worcester County, Massachusetts… 1879.
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution. Vols. I-XVII. Boston, 1896.
Condition: Light folds, slightly irregular margins, else very fine condition.
