Comments on: Tory Retaliation for Nathaniel Freeman’s March on Barnstable Courthouse?

By: Tsufit

Tsufit — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:55:02 +0000

Todd,
What a wonderful blog! It would have been so incredible for the creators of these newspapers to know that their creations would live on and available to anyone around the world with a few clicks. Love the name, Rag Linen.
Tsufit

By: raglinen

raglinen — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:43:25 +0000

Great context! Thanks for doing some digging and sharing it with the Rag Linen readers. If I recall correctly from my research, Freeman is somehow related to the Otis family.

By: J. L. Bell

J. L. Bell — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:39:49 +0000

Okay, I found a bit more in Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, though it might add mystery rather than clear it up. There are reports about this dispute in the 3 Nov 1774 Massachusetts Spy and 7 Nov 1774 Boston Evening-Post.

Bourne and some other men had called on Freeman “to answer for some supposed misdemeanours committed against Doctor Bourne.” Bourne’s brother Shearjashub was a justice of the peace, so he might have disliked the closing of the courts, but this seems like a dispute between the two doctors. Bourne’s men beat up Freeman and broke his sword—which might have been a symbolic attack on his status as gentleman. Or maybe a sword is just a sword.

Then townspeople came to help Freeman. Justice James Otis (father of the famous Boston lawyer, who by this time was debilitated by mental illness) put Bourne and another man under bond. However, with the courts closed, that meant there was no legal way to solve the dispute. So there was this confrontation in Sandwich.

A crowd made Bourne and his comrades stand with their hats off on a platform under the town’s Liberty Pole and admit to an attack “as would disgrace the character of a ruffian or a Hottentot.” Bourne also had to promise to stop selling tea.

Bourne never left town to join the British, however, and had a long career in Sandwich.

By: J. L. Bell

J. L. Bell — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:26:46 +0000

All pre-Revolutionary Harvard graduates have biographies in a book series called Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, so the entry on Benjamin Bourn(e) might have more to say about this conflict.

Both Bourn(e) and Freeman remained in town after the war, so they probably had to learn to live with each other. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same Samuel Dillingham as well, though Samuel was such a common name that I wouldn’t dare say it was.

By: raglinen

raglinen — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:53:29 +0000

Hmm, good point. And that wasn't the only source I found calling it the "first open overt act". Thanks for contributing to the conversation and adding value to this post, J.L. Much appreciated. As for "Dr. H___r," I am only able to find a Dr. Thomas Holker from Barnstable. I didn't realize "Benjamin Bourn" was also a doctor. Assuming the Bourn mentioned in the above report is the same "Benjamin Bourne" mentioned in this source, he was born in 1744, graduated from Harvard in 1764 and was one of the early practitioners in Sandwich. That would make this doctor vs. doctor. Also, my research turned up a Samuel Dillingham from Sandwich that enlisted in Col. Freeman's regiment on September 11, 1779, and was then discharged three days later. Coincidence?

By: J. L. Bell

J. L. Bell — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:02:34 +0000

In August 1774, crowds in western Massachusetts counties started closing their courts, just as Freeman did later at the end of September. On 2 Sept 1774, an estimated 4,000 militiamen demanded the resignation of royal officials in Cambridge and chased one Customs Commissioner to the gates of Boston.

Men did those things in daylight without disguises, so I’m not sure why the article in Niles’ Weekly Register presents the Barnstable action as the first of its kind. Except that that article appeared first in the Old Colony Memorial, and the “Old Colony” of Plymouth included Barnstable County.

It would be nice to know what the young ladies meant by “Dr. H——r’s RAG BABY.”