Marblehead’s own were nearly caught by British troops 250 years ago Saturday mere hours before the Revolutionary War’s commencement, which is marked by the battle at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, and what’s well-known as the “shot heard ‘round the world.”
Jeremiah Lee, Elbridge Gerry and Azor Orne — Marbleheaders and members of the Province Committee of Safety and Supplies — met with John Hancock and Samuel Adams at Wetherby’s Black Horse Tavern in what is now Arlington the night of April 18, 1775. Hancock and Adams continued on to Lexington to stay the night there, but Lee, Gerry and Orne stayed at the tavern that evening.
According to a condensed historical recording of the evening by the Marblehead Museum, “Without the slightest thought of personal danger to themselves, Gerry and his associates retired to rest, and remained quietly in their beds until the British advance (was) within view of the house… and marched toward it. It was not until this moment that the gentlemen of the committee entertained any apprehension of danger.”
“Supposedly, how the story goes, there’s a contingent of (British) troops that break off from the main column, and they go toward this tavern,” said Lauren McCormack, Marblehead Museum executive director. “There’s little details that differ, but the main gist is that these gentlemen are either awoken or they awake themselves, realize that the soldiers are coming to them because they’ve, of course, been committing treason this whole time, so they get out the back, and they’re in their night clothes.
“It’s supposedly a cool, damp night, and they’re stuck out hiding, basically waiting for the British troops or the regulars to march by. There’s various stories. One story is that Elbridge Gerry falls down and hurts his ankle and can’t go any farther, and that’s why they’re stuck in the field. It’s unclear if, in reality, that’s actually what happened because that’s according to Gerry. (For) whatever reason, they’re stuck there for a while.”
McCormack emphasized that this meeting’s importance is twofold. The first is that being out in the field, likely a cornfield, in just undergarments and sleep attire likely led to Lee’s death, as he died from a fever on May 10, 1775.
The second is that the events on the evening of April 18, 1775, and likely into the early morning of April 19, 1775, link Marblehead to the Revolutionary War.
“The war starts that day, right? It’s not meant to have, but it does, and that’s Marblehead’s connection to the war, to the beginning, to the start, to the first day of the war,” she said.
“Some towns in New England sent their minutemen, their militia, toward Concord when they found out. There’s not a lot of evidence that Marblehead did, and part of that could have been because there was a British ship in the harbor, and that maybe would have been a silly thing to do: to send your militia out while they’re watching you do that.
“But for Marblehead, the connection to that sort of opening salvo of the revolution is Lee and Gerry and Azor Orne being there.”
