Our town was awake at the first signs of the approaching struggle. Cut off from other settlements, as were our people on "Cape Ann Island," they stood shoulder to shoulder with all Massachusetts whenever there arose a question of liberty.
October 7, 1765, they crowded into a town-meeting and, as one man, protested against the Stamp Act, which was about to be thrust upon the Colonies. "The Stamp Act is disagreeable," they declared, and ordered the Gloucester representatives in the Great and General Court to enter into no measures "whereby our liberties which we have as Englishmen by the Magna Charta, or which we, the inhabitants of this Province, have by our particular charter, may . . . be given up or lessened."
Having held a town-meeting on Christmas Day, 1772, in the First-Parish Meeting-house, to hear the warning messages which Boston was sending out to all the Province, our fathers adjourned to the 28th of December, when they adopted resolutions, stating the rights and liberties of the people of the American Colonies. They added a message of gratitude to the town of Boston, and announced that the people of Gloucester were ready to join with that town, and with all others, in every legal way, to oppose tyranny in all its forms, and to remain steadfast in the defence of their rights and liberties, dearer to them than their lives. The doings of the meet-ing were sent to the Boston Committee of Correspondence, of which Samuel Adams was head. Seven of our townsmen were chosen as the Gloucester Committee of Correspondence.
Again, when the cargoes of unwanted tea were waiting for the people of Boston to pay duty upon them, our townspeople met on December 15, 1773, and unanimously voted,
"This town think it an indispensable duty we owe to ourselves, to our countrymen, and to posterity, to declare, and we do declare,
"That we will use our most strenuous exertions, not only that there shall be no teas landed in this town, subject to a duty payable in America; but that we will have no commerce with any per-son or persons that have, or shall have, any concern in buying or selling that detestable herb.
"That, if we are compelled to make the last appeal to Heaven, we will defend our resolutions and our liberties at the expense of all that is dear to us."
Next day came the Boston Tea Party. No wonder, if all the other towns supported Boston as firmly as did Gloucester!
Newburyport merchants agreed not to trade with Great Britain or with the West Indies; Gloucester followed their example. It meant making at home what had formerly been bought from abroad. Housewives were soon busy finding substitutes for the foods they would no longer buy.
Parliament had punished patriotic Boston for the tea party. The port had been shut up, and the loss of trade and lack of work caused much suffering. Help was asked from other towns. Gloucester sent 120 sheep; later, over 117 pounds in money was forwarded as a contribution.
Five Gloucester men were sent as delegates to the Essex County Convention, called at Ipswich in September, 1774, to talk over the "late acts of Parliament." Peter Coffin was our representative at the General Court, which met at Salem that year. It was a stirring gathering, "filled with the spirit of liberty." And it was the last Provincial General Court of Massachusetts; for, the Governor ordered the House dissolved, and sent his secretary to the Court for that purpose. No one would let the secretary in, however, so, the Governor's proclamation had to be read on the stairs. The Essex County Convention had advised the representatives what to do. Acting upon this advice, they met in October and formed a Provincial Congress. Our Peter Coffin was there, instructed by the town for that very end. We soon had a second delegate, Daniel Witham, who had served our town already for fifty years in various offices.
A large committee was chosen at town-meeting in November, to take care that the " 'Association' proposed by Continental Congress should be complied with." Our people were quite willing to "comply," that is, to keep on doing without tea and British goods. A week later the town voted that, if the constables would pay the Province tax into the town treasury, instead of to the British Government officers, Gloucester would protect the constables from punishment. Upon this assurance, the constables acted as suggested. Then the tax was paid by the town treasurer to the receiver appointed by the new Provincial Congress. Now, surely, there was trouble ahead!
A break with England meant great hardships for all the Colonies. But it spelled almost sure ruin to a town like Gloucester, where the people depended upon fishing and foreign trade for their living! Yet our sturdy forefathers did not flinch. They thought of us. And, for the sake of giving liberty to future generations, they faced the coming storm.
Six companies of Gloucester men and one company from Manchester were in the Sixth Essex Regiment of Massachusetts Militia. Field officers were chosen in January, many of whom later received commissions in the Continental Army. In March, the trained bands and alarm-lists were inspected, the number of selectmen increased, and all supposed Tories, as those who sided with England were called, were ordered to prove their loyalty to America. In April, war preparations began in earnest. A company of minute-men was organized under Nathaniel Warner's command, and the town busied itself with running musket-balls, making cartridges and buying small-arms.
Great was the excitement over the news of the battle of Lexington. With a large British naval force in Boston Harbor, who could say that Gloucester would not be attacked next and punished for the many times that she had defied Great Britain?
MARY BROOKS.