THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 285 



Lincoln was appointed by us at a meeting in the church 

 on our Common, October 7, 1774, to represent us in that 

 provincial congress to be held at Concord.* 



At this same meeting it was voted " to have a Closet 

 built in sum proper place in the Meeting-house for to 

 deposite the District stock of Ammunition in, and the 

 Selectmen be a Committee to se it done." 



This hiding place of the munitions of war reminds us 

 of the Concord people, whose hidden stores brought 

 British soldiers to that town only a few months later to 

 shed the first blood of the war. 



The day following Christmas another town (or district) 

 meeting was held and a Committee of Inspection was 

 chosen to be on the watch for the town's defense. They 

 were : — 



Jesse Stephenson. Thomas Lothrop. 



Daniel Nichols. James Hall. 



Samuel Bates. ■ Thomas Bourne. 



Joshua Bates. Jerome Stephenson. 



Deacon Isaac Lincoln. Abel Kent. 

 Urian Oakes. 



In order that any citizens opposed f to the patriots' 

 cause might be detected and disposed of, a subscription 

 paper was drafted to be signed by all freeholders that 

 approved of the Continental Association, then forming 

 throughout the colonies for their common protection 

 against the invading army of the king. 



Thus from that moment our governmental allegiance 

 was transferred away from the appointees of the king of 

 England to an independent congress of our own choosing. 

 The taxes of that year were ordered by a vote of the town, 



* He was allowed 2 shillings per day for 32!/^ days and 12 shillings for his horse. 



fThe doctor of the town was a Tory, Dr. Lazarus Beal, living on North Main 

 Street near what is now the King Street station at the Spaulding Farm. The 

 patriots had some trouble with him and went so far, says tradition, as to confiscate 

 his property. His oldest daughter many years afterwards married Dr. Lyman 

 Beecher as the stepmother of the famous Henry Ward Beecher. 



