33 



2. When their great struggle with the mother country came 

 on, their leading men were neither rich nor corrupt. 



3. Their clergy, a well educated class, largely graduates of 

 Harvard and Yale, were, with few exceptions, patriotic. " But 

 for the clergy," said in my hearing some years ago, an old gen- 

 tleman of wide observation and reflection, " but for the clergy, 

 we could not have successfully fought through the Revolution."" 



Tradition says that intelligence of the Battle of Lexington 

 reached Pennycook in the evening and caused great excitement. 

 Early the next morning, a neighbor of the first minister looked 

 across the intervening fields and observing a light in his study, 

 went at once to discuss with him the tidings of the night before. 

 As he passed to the door, he saw, through the curtainless win- 

 dows of his study, the good man alone, striding back and forth 

 evidently in painful thought. 



He entered without knocking. The pastor recognized him 

 instantly, and as instantly remarked, " We must fight, John, we 

 must fight. There is no longer any alternative. Yes, John, we 

 must fight." He had been in England three times since 1753,. 

 and knew well the disposition of the king and of his advisors. 

 His was also the spontaneous opinion of all patriotic Ameri- 

 cans. 



A very few days afterwards one of the First minister's sons-in- 

 law raised a company of thirty-six men and led them to Cam- 

 bridge, where he was soon transferred as adjutant to staff of 

 Col. John Stark. 1 A little later a second one entered the army 

 as second lieutenant of another company. Both fought under 

 Stark at the rail fence in the Battle of Bunker Hill. The first 

 died in the service at Crown Point in 1776. The second fought 

 persistently through the entire period of the Revolution and was 

 honorably discharged at its close with the rank of major. 2 To 

 the good man's great sorrow his remaining son-in-law, then Ben- 

 jamin Thompson, now known as Count Rumford, joined the 

 ranks of the Tories and retired within the British lines about 

 Boston, in October, 1775. 



1 Capt. Abiel Chandler. 

 Major Daniel Livermore, for many years a respected citizen of Concord who 

 died in 1798 at the age of 49 years. 



