History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

Historical Address 85
measures agreeable to the times. " This was why later, they
chose a Committee of Inspection to execute the wishes of the
Continental Congress.
Thus by their votes in town meeting, New England everywhere
bade defiance to Great Britain. In this town twelve of
these meetings were held in one year.
Committees of Inspection, Correspondence and Safety
were appointed by all the towns, composed of their leading
men. Through them the authorities reached the people at
large, and secured the execution of their plans.
The events of the fateful morning of April 19, 1775, are
known to all. The six companies of Rehoboth are all on
record as responding to the Lexington alarm. It is not likely
that the three Swansea companies, which with those of
Rehoboth constituted the first Bristol regiment, failed to respond
to the call, though no record of such response has come
to my knowledge. The town, two days later, ordered the
Selectmen to provide 40 "gons" 250 lbs. of powder, 700 lbs. of
lead and 600 flints, and directed "that fifty men be enHsted to
be ready at a minute's warning. " May 22nd a Committee of
Inspection was appointed, and it was voted "that the town
will secure and defend said committee and empower them to
follow and observe such directions as they shall receive from
time to time from the Provincial Congress or Committee of
Safety. " At this time five shillings penalty was imposed for
wasting a charge of powder, and the offender's stock of
ammunition was forfeited.
In order to ascertain Swansea's response to the call for
troops the muster rolls of the Revolution have been examined
and a book has been placed in the Hbrary into which such parts
of them as relate to Swansea have been transcribed. An
indexed alphabetical fist has been prepared which shows that
not less than four hundred and sixteen Swansea men bore arms
in the War for Independence, many of them however, only for
brief periods along our own shores. On this list the surnames
which occur oftenest are Peck, Martin, Anthony and Bowers,
which each have seven representatives, Kingsley nine, Wood
and Pierce each eleven. Cole and Barney each twelve, Mason
eighteen, Chase nineteen, while Luther leads all the rest with
a record of twenty-seven.
From such rolls as are extant the following facts are gathered:
Seven Swansea men served at least five months of 1775
in CoL David Brewer's regiment near Boston, as did a few in
other regiments doing duty there. Probably many more did
actually serve that year. The alarms of war were brought
close home to this section. From the time when the British