THE SEIZURE OF HIS MAJESTY'S FORT WILLIAM AND MARY AT NEW CASTLE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, DECEMBER 14 - 15, 1774

By Thomas F. Kehr

(Revised ed. © Oct. 2007, Thomas F. Kehr; Photographs © 2000, Thomas F. Kehr; All rights reserved to the author. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the author. This article updates, revises and supersedes the original and revised versions © Thomas F. Kehr, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005)

On December 14 and 15, 1774, four months before the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, patriots in New Hampshire faced gunfire to storm and seize the only active British provincial fort in the colony. This little-known and often misconstrued assault on a military installation marks the opening of one small colony’s armed rebellion and warrants a place of honor in our collective memory of the Revolution.

I. Before the Raids; Paul Revere’s Ride to New Hampshire

New Hampshire’s rebel/patriot movement was sparked in part by patriot activity in nearby Boston, where in 1770 the slaughter of Americans at the hands of the local British army garrison came to be widely publicized as the Boston Massacre. Unrest in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, including the 1773 Boston Tea Party, ultimately resulted in the passage of the Boston Port Act, which closed commerce in Boston Harbor, wreaking havoc on the city's economy. From Boston spread a rising level of organized revolutionary sentiment, carried northward to New Hampshire by groups such as the Sons of Liberty. In 1770, New Hampshire's young and popular Royal Governor, John Wentworth, prophetically opined that "[o]ur province is quiet yet, and the only one, but will, I fear, soon enter. If they do, they'll exceed all the rest in zeal."[1].

In May of 1774, the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly considered the matter of funding for the garrison stationed at the province’s only permanently manned military installation, Fort William and Mary. The fort, located in the Town of New Castle, guarded the entry to Portsmouth, New Hampshire's primary seaport and provincial capital. Fort William and Mary was a low-walled structure known generously as the “Castle,” holding over one hundred barrels of gunpowder, many stands of muskets and numerous cannon poised to defend New Hampshire's link to the Atlantic.

After some wrangling, the increasingly rebellious Assembly allowed provincial funding for only three soldiers and one officer [2]. Governor Wentworth protested that the allotment was "inadequate" and that it was "unsafe to entrust so important a fortress" to defense by so few. In response, the Assembly grudgingly authorized a garrison consisting of five enlisted men and one officer. [3] At almost the same time that it approved this tiny military force, the Assembly formed a committee to correspond with other colonies concerning the growing discontent spreading across America. Governor Wentworth adjourned the Assembly several times during the spring of 1774 before simply dissolving it. By July of 1774, the Governor had, without appreciable effect, ordered a committee organized to elect delegates to an American Congress to disband. New Hampshire citizens organized a Provincial Congress of their own on July 21 and that body swiftly instructed the towns of the Province to consider contributing to the relief of the beleaguered City of Boston. By October, inhabitants of Portsmouth had formed a "Committee on Ways and Means" with the power to address any matter that appeared detrimental to the interests of the community. [4] The Committee was in close contact with liberty-minded groups in Boston and worked alongside the Portsmouth Committee of Correspondence and other local patriot organizations. As the winter approached, Governor Wentworth expressed fear that discontent in Massachusetts would soon provoke disturbances within the borders of New Hampshire. His fears were justified.

On the evening of December 12 or early on December 13, 1774, Paul Revere was dispatched from Boston with a letter from William Cooper of that city to Samuel Cutts of the Portsmouth Committee of Correspondence. Revere carried word that a royal order had been issued prohibiting the export of gunpowder to the colonies; that military provisions in Rhode Island had been moved inland by colonists for safekeeping and that the British government intended to secure the powder at Fort William and Mary and reinforce its tiny garrison with soldiers of the regular army. Upon his arrival in Portsmouth at about 4 PM on Tuesday December 13, 1774, Revere saw the familiar face of the aptly named William Torrey, whom he had known in Boston. He inquired of him where Mr. Cutts could be located. Torrey informed Revere that Cutts could be found at Stoodley’s Tavern and then waited for Cutts and Revere to finish their meeting. Thereafter, Torrey asked Revere what word he carried from Boston and learned the contents of Revere's communiqué. [5]

The Portsmouth Committee immediately put into action a plan to seize the gunpowder stored at Fort William and Mary. Meanwhile, it is likely that Torrey, a business partner of the Province's former Stamp Act agent (and later a prominent Loyalist), conveyed news of Revere's message to Governor Wentworth. [6] The Governor sent word to the garrison at the fort to be on its guard, to "examine every Person that came into the Fort, and to be vigilant against all Force and Stratagem." [7]. The commander of Fort William and Mary, Captain John Cochran, a native of Londonderry, NH and a former sea captain, kept a close watch throughout the night of December 13 and may have added two men, the most he could recruit, to his regular contingent. [8] Given that the powder supply was located in the most heavily fortified position in the entire province, and in light of the rumor that regulars were on their way, patriot leaders could hardly have failed to realize that any direct assault on Fort William and Mary ran the substantial risk of igniting a conflagration.

II. John Langdon Rallies Portsmouth; Attempts to Infiltrate Fail

At noon on December 14, 1774, members of the Portsmouth Committee marched through the streets, led by fifes and drums, loudly proclaiming their plan to attack Fort William and Mary. [9] It was open treason and Governor Wentworth's private secretary, Thomas McDonogh, and the Chief Justice and Secretary of the Province, Theodore Atkinson, Sr., were dispatched to confront the crowd. Atkinson demanded to know the purpose of the gathering. When no one would respond, he announced that he believed that they planned to attack the King’s fort and warned that "they were going about an Unlawfull Act to take away the Powder out of his Majestys Fort, and that it was the highest Act of Treason and Rebellion They could possibly commit, And that they would be answerable for such an Offence for twenty years to come - Nay, as long as they lived . . ." [10] Atkinson's speech did not have the desired effect. In fact, merchant John Langdon – who would later become a governor of New Hampshire, a signer of the United States Constitution and the first President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate - publicly ridiculed the old Chief Justice before leading the crowd off to Great (New Castle) Island, two miles distant. [11] Within 24 hours of Paul Revere's message, the Portsmouth Committee had openly, unlawfully and with utter disregard for British authority, gathered several hundred citizens of Portsmouth, New Castle, Rye, and Kittery, Maine to join in an armed attack on a British provincial garrison. [11A]

As the rebels prepared for their march, Governor Wentworth ordered John Parker, the Rockingham County Sheriff, to "send an Express for Intelligence of the Proceeding at the Castle." [12] Sheriff Parker could not find anyone willing to undertake the task. After ordering Parker and two magistrates, John Fenton and Samuel Penhallow, to attempt to "Suppress the Riot" - which they could not do - the Governor made plans, against the advice of his Council, to personally go to the fort in an effort to quell the mounting uprising. He called for his barge, but neither his own bargemen nor temporary workers could be convinced to take on the task of transporting him. [13] Wentworth had no better luck in attempting to call out the militia. In fact, many members of the local militia regiment were then among the throng converging on the fort.

Two New Castle men, Stephen Batson and Henry Langmead, ostensibly concerned with a small matter of business, visited Captain Cochran at his post as the Portsmouth men were nearing Fort William and Mary. "It being very cold and not suspecting them of evil Designs," Captain Cochran "suffered them to sit by the fire." [14] Within half an hour, they were joined by New Castle resident Samuel Clark, who claimed to be looking for Batson and Langmead. "[I]nstantly," three more men, sea captains John Simpson, Robert White and Matthew Bell, also paid a visit. Since all of the men were neighbors, Cochran "had no suspicions of any Plot or Intentions against himself or the Fort or any thing therein." [15] Within a few minutes, one of the soldiers on duty reported that 4 or 5 men were approaching from various sides. By now it was clear that something was amiss and Captain Cochran "first began to suspect there was some unlawful Scheme contriving." He also belatedly remembered the Governor's order to examine every person who came into the fort. [15A]

Cochran asked his visitors, as a group, what brought them there and was told by Bell that they simply had some leisure time and decided to pay a social visit. As Cochran wondered aloud why, in his almost 4 years at his post, the men had never before paid him a social call, his wife Sarah, who resided at the fort with the captain and their children, came into the room, whispered to her husband to be on his guard and handed him his loaded pistols. Cochran decided to question the visitors separately.

He first interviewed Simpson, who told him, on his word of honor, that he had no idea why the other men had come. As for himself, Simpson said he simply wished to pay a visit, adding, perhaps tongue in cheek, that he had heard the captain “was soon to leave the Fort.” Cochran replied that he “knew no such Thing as yet” and that he was certain that Simpson was lying. [15B] The Captain then had Simpson escorted out and began questioning Robert White. Even as he did so, Nathaniel Batson, Thomas Trunday and two other New Castle men entered the fort’s gate. The visitors now outnumbered the contingent of soldiers on duty.

Turning his attention to White, Captain Cochran claimed that he already knew from Simpson that the visitors planned to take the fort “by Stratagem.” White responded by confessing that the group was in fact there to seize Cochran, but assured the captain that he himself “abhorred such cowardly ways.” Cochran wasted no time in ordering White and the rest of the visitors out of the installation, proclaiming that he had no intention of being taken prisoner. As the visitors scurried out, Cochran "instantly pointed three Cannon toward the Gate and other Places where I thought they would be most serviceable to prevent Persons from Coming in as I then began to be apprehensive a sudden Attack was intended to be made upon the Fort."[16]

Within a few minutes, a local man, Meshech Bell III, arrived to offer his assistance in defending the installation from what he understood was an imminent attack. Cannon and muskets were swiftly loaded, bayonets were fixed to small arms and other battle preparations were hastily made. Activity was interrupted by the coincidental appearance of yet another visitor, Elijah Locke, who was purportedly on legitimate business. Like Bell, he was immediately pressed into service. [17]

By this time, the mob from Portsmouth was almost at the gates. Cochran posted his small contingent "in the most advantageous Station I could judge of, and ordered them not to flinch on pain of Death but to defend the Fort to the last Extremity, telling them that the Instant I saw any sign of Cowardice in either of them I would drive a Brace of Balls through his Body."[18] No sooner had Captain Cochran spoken these words than the area outside the fort was teaming with people. At about 3 PM, a group of 10 or 12 men organized in regular ranks, apparently under the command of Captain William Wolcott, approached the sentry. Cochran asked their business and Wolcott announced at they only wished to come in. Cochran declined to admit such a large number at once, but stated that if Wolcott had anything to say to him, he was ready to answer. Hope for a quiet seizure of the fort’s supplies was quickly fading and, for a short time, the men outside discussed their options.

III. The Attack of December 14, 1774

In a final attempt to avoid a bloody confrontation, John Langdon offered to enter the fort with one other man, to tell Cochran their business and to immediately exit if the Captain then desired. The gates were opened to Langdon and Captain Robert White as the crowd outside loudly and repeatedly demanded surrender and threatened to put the soldiers of the garrison to death. [19] John Simpson, Benjamin MacKay, Pierce Long, George Turner, Robert Parker, Nathaniel Folsom (of Portsmouth) and Robert Champney stayed close at hand, immediately outside the gate.

Once inside, Langdon and White bluntly informed Cochran that they were going to carry off all of the gunpowder in the fort's magazine. Cochran responded that if they were going to take the powder, he would need to see an official order to that effect from the Royal Governor. Langdon replied - probably with a smile - that he "forgot to bring his Orders, but the Powder they were determined to have at all Events." [20] No doubt aware of the potential for bloodshed and the initiation of wider American hostilities, Cochran replied that if this was the case, the waiting mob would have to take the powder by force and ordered Langdon and White out of the installation. As the two were departing, Cochran added that "if they attempted to come into the Fort their Blood be upon their own hands for I will fire on you." [21] Almost before Cochran had time to catch his breath, a signal was given to storm the fort. Cochran then fired what were arguably among the first shots of the Revolutionary War. Musket fire and three cannon hurling four-pound shot were directed at the patriot rebel ranks. The attackers, however, rushed toward the walls just as the Provincial soldiers were lighting the matches of their cannon, thereby slipping under the guns. As the soldiers sought to reload, the attackers pressed forward. "Before we could be ready to fire again," Cochran reported, " we were stormed on all quarters . . ." [22].

Surprisingly, unless wounded men simply declined to publicize injuries sustained in an overt act of treason, none of the rebels are known to have been hit by the fort's hasty volley. [23] Risking injury, death and the initiation of immediate war with one of the world's great powers, hundreds of Americans stormed over the parapets of Fort William and Mary, destroyed some of the walls, and broke down the gates with axes and crowbars.

The Provincial soldiers did not easily capitulate. In spite of at least 25 to one odds against them, the defenders of the fort resorted to hand-to-hand fighting. Captain Cochran placed himself against the wall and "was pressed upon, but kept them off a considerable Time with my firelock and Bayonet." [24] He continued fighting with his bayonet after his musket was broken to pieces, wounding one unidentified patriot with a jab through the arm. [25] Ultimately, Thomas Pickering, a Portsmouth mariner, jumped from a wall onto Cochran's shoulders and grabbed the Captain by the throat, telling him that he was now a prisoner. Cochran knocked Pickering over but fell with him, seriously injuring his own wrist. A throng of men, one of whom demanded the keys to the powderhouse, immediately seized him. Cochran bellowed that his attackers might as well ask him for his life as for the keys, because he would just as soon part with that. [25A]

Seeing her husband being taken into confinement, Sarah Cochran courageously "snatch'd a bayonet and so spiritedly joined her husband, as to enable him to disengage, but they were both instantly overpower'd & disarm'd . . ." [26] Cochran was quickly confined in the fort's guardhouse, watched by John Langdon, George Turner, Pierce Long, Benjamin Mackay, Robert Parker, Daniel Jackson, Richard Champney, John Dennet and others. Men including Stephen Batson forced open the locked door of the powderhouse with crowbars.

Meanwhile, the soldiers of the fort were engaged in struggles of their own. Soldier Isaac Seveay was knocked from his position on a wall and disarmed. Seveay was located near the King's colors and Captain Thomas Palmer "snapped a Pistol" at the unarmed soldier. The weapon was apparently either uncharged or misfired and Seveay was ordered to fall to his knees and beg pardon for resisting the attack. Seveay answered that he would kneel "when his Legs were cut off below his knees . . . but he would not before." [27] He was immediately knocked to the ground by other attackers and Meshech Bell, Jr. pummeled him in the head with his fists. In another area of the fort, Soldier Samuel Rowell observed - likely with great surprise - that one of the rebels was "One Rowell, a soldier." [28] Soldier Ephraim Hall was disarmed both by men he knew and by strangers. New Castle resident Abendigo Bell threatened that if he had a club, Hall would be unable to hold him back "for he would knock his Brains out." [29] At least some of the defenders' muskets were smashed to pieces in the struggle.

As the soldiers of the fort were being disarmed, subdued, and imprisoned, the New Hampshiremen made it clear that their attack was not simply another in a series of colonial “powder raids,” but an act of greater political significance. With the fort in the hands of colonial rebels, the men "triumphantly gave three Huzzas" and hauled down the huge British flag that had, for more than a century, declared British possession of Portsmouth Harbor. [29A] Eyewitness reports credit this symbolic act, undoubtedly the first striking of the King's colors at a British military garrison captured by victorious American forces under arms, to John Palmer of Portsmouth, the son of the man whose pistol misfired in the face of Private Seveay [30]. From the powderhouse, the triumphant Americans seized at least five kegs of bullets, several thousand gunflints and all but one barrel of gunpowder [31]. It was swiftly loaded into tidewater riverboats known as "gundalows" and hidden in various inland communities. Captain Cochran and his men were released after about one and a half hours of confinement, returning to bitterly cold barracks, the attackers having seen fit to extinguish all of the fort’s fires as they liberated the gunpowder. Unfortunate Captain Cochran probably faced even further embarrassment when his aged father, a tough old Indian-fighter, arrived at the ransacked fort for a visit on the very evening of the day that Cochran was released from rebel captivity.

IV. Inland Towns Rally as the Royal Governor Intervenes

After returning from the raid, rebel leaders called upon neighboring towns to assist in what had by then become open and widespread rebellion against British authority in New Hampshire. Another attempt to sack the fort was planned and Provincial Militia Major John Sullivan, an attorney and delegate to the American Congress in Philadelphia who would later become a major general in the Continental Army, was contacted for assistance. A solid supporter of the American cause, Sullivan could be counted on for support. Late on December 14 or early on December 15, he discovered men at his dock in Durham with a gundalow filled with captured gunpowder. [31A] A call for assistance also went out to New Hampshire’s other delegate to the First Continental Congress, Exeter’s Nathaniel Folsom of Exeter, a veteran of the French and Indian War.

Meanwhile, Governor Wentworth, a royal official generally sensitive to the views of the Province he administered, was anxiously awaiting assistance from Boston. After the attack of the 14^th, Wentworth immediately sent word to General Thomas Gage, the military governor whose forces were then occupying the Massachusetts capital. Wentworth wrote that about 400 New Hampshiremen had "by violence carried away upwards of one hundred barrels of powder belonging to the King . . . I am informed that expresses have been circulated through the neighboring towns, to collect a number of people to-morrow, or as soon as possible, to carry away all the cannon and arms belonging to the castle which they undoubtedly will effect, unless some assistance should arrive from Boston in time to prevent it. This event too plainly proves the imbecility of this government to carry into execution his Majesty's order in Council, for seizing and detaining arms and ammunition imported into this Province, without some strong ships of war in this harbor . . .” [32]

Although always sympathetic to the plight of New Hampshiremen, Wentworth was also not one to shirk his duty as protector of the King's law or to condone disloyalty. At noon on December 15, he issued an order to enlist or impress into service, without delay, "Thirty effective men to serve his Majesty as a Guard & Protection to his Fort William and Mary at New Castle . . ."[33] By that time, Portsmouth was crowded with men from nearby towns gathering into military ranks and hundreds of men effectively under the command of John Sullivan were openly preparing for a second march on Fort William and Mary. Sheriff Parker was ordered by the Governor to tell officers of the Provincial Militia to call out their men, "which they pretended to attempt, but got nobody," [34] and Captain John Dennet of the First New Hampshire Regiment of the Provincial Militia took to the streets of Portsmouth, beating drums and making “Proclamation . . . at all Publick corners & on the Place of Parade."[35]

With events going from bad to worse, Governor Wentworth called for Sullivan and asked him to explain what was afoot. Sullivan replied that he had learned that two regiments of British regulars were being dispatched to Fort William and Mary, raising the specter that the troops might ultimately turn the fort's cannon and arms on American colonists. Lowly Major Sullivan boldly informed his military commander, the Royal Governor, that he and his men intended to seize the weapons at the fort before they could be put to use by the British Army. [35A]

Likely taken aback by the Major's startling candor, the Governor, in spite of his plea to General Gage for assistance, assured Sullivan that he knew of no plans to bring regulars bent on reprisal to New Hampshire, labeling rumors to the contrary a "wicked falsehood" and a "vile report calculated to alarm and lead the people into the most dangerous and destructive madness" and asking Sullivan to prevail upon his men to disperse. [36] Sullivan agreed to ask his men to go back to their homes but told the Governor he doubted that this was going to happen. Upwards of 1,000 New Hampshiremen, described by one writer of the time as men "of the best property and vote in the Province,"[37] had gathered in the provincial capital. The number is startling, considering that the usual population of Portsmouth was then only about 4,500.

An hour after meeting with the Governor, Sullivan returned and reported that he and a local justice had conveyed the Governor's message to his men. The throng seemed calmer, but was still determined to march. Sullivan suggested that if the Governor would pardon the men who had attacked the fort on the 14^th, or at least issue an assurance that the perpetrators of the raid would not be prosecuted, his men might disperse and consider returning the confiscated gunpowder [38]. Wentworth told Sullivan that "I could not promise them any such thing; but if they dispersed and restored the Gunpowder, which I earnestly exhorted them to do, I said I hoped His Majesty may be thereby induced to consider it an alleviation of the offence."[39]

Sullivan conveyed this message to his troops, but returned within a half hour, this time in the company of John Langdon and three other men. They repeated that they believed that a second seizure of the fort would simply be an act of self-preservation, and again suggested that their men may disperse if the Governor agreed to pardon or forego prosecution of those involved in the raid of the 14^th. Wentworth not only made it clear that he would not make any such agreement but also announced that:

. . . it was the height of absurdity to Suppose this little Colony cou'd oppose the vengeance of Great Britain, or escape its just resentment for an insult upon its Honor and Government, which all the States of Europe wou'd not offer with impunity. I urg'd their impending destruction by every argument in my power, and concluded that I wou'd not hear or Speak any further. They departed & told the People assembled in the State House my Answer.[40]

After this speech, the Governor was hopeful that the situation would come to an end without further violence and that the gunpowder would shortly be returned. [41] For a time, this seemed likely. The growing crowd gradually wafted into local taverns, drink apparently quelling their ardor for a second march. Indeed, after imbibing in a mug of flip, the generally aggressive Major Sullivan appears to have made a speech urging the crowd to go home. Captain Andrew McClary of Epsom, however, spoke in favor of immediately reseizing Fort William and Mary. [41A]

When the crowd gave three cheers and appeared to be dispersing, local patriots intent upon further action sent expresses to Exeter, Kingston, Nottingham and other towns seeking additional men to lend a hand in a second attack, " . . . [a]rtfully detaining the people & inflaming them with Liquor, until a Man arriv'd about 7 o'Clock informing that more than one thousand Men were on their march into Town, also six hundred from Berwick and Kittery in the Massa[chusetts] bay. Upon this Major Sullivan proceeded to embark His parties in gondulas . . ." [42] By the evening of December 15, 1774, New Hampshire's largest and most cosmopolitan town had been transformed into a jittery and heavily armed rebel camp. Attempts to rally the loyal subjects of New Hampshire were a complete failure. Just about an hour before Sullivan shoved off for New Castle, Captain Dennet and James Stoodley of the Provincial Militia reported that not a single person had responded to his their pleas for recruits and that he awaited further orders. [42A] In fact, many of the members of the militia were at that moment armed in active support of the insurrection.

V. John Sullivan’s Raid of December 15, 1774

As the Governor waited in vain for his loyal militia to act, Sullivan and his troops, now linked with the huge mass of men that had converged on Portsmouth from nearby towns neared New Castle. While en route, Sullivan's band, which included the local parson [43], received a message from Captain Cochran warning that Cochran would again fire on the rebels if they attempted to retake the fort. Hundreds of men - perhaps closer to 1,000 - descended on Fort William and Mary at about 10 PM on December 15, 1774.

Once at the fort, Sullivan approached the gate where soldier Ephraim Hall was standing sentry and asked to speak with Cochran. The Captain appeared and allowed Sullivan, whom he knew socially, into the installation. [43A] At a meeting in Cochran’s quarters, Sullivan explained that his men - all men of property, he pointed out - would be seizing "all the Province stores" at the fort. [44] Much "warm Discource" ensued, with Cochran and Sullivan's raised voices being audible to the soldiers on duty [45].

Having been overrun by rebel forces only the day before, with his fighting force probably reduced even further than it had been on December 14, and facing an even greater multitude of rebels than he had previously encountered, the injured Captain attempted to negotiate his way out of a second assault [46]. Cochran drew a distinction between Royal and Provincial property, and " . . . consented to see a Committee of three of their People and to shew them what Stores might Possibly be put there by the Province . . . which consisted only of forty or fifty old useless Musquets and some inconsiderable small stores of no value, hoping by giving up these to save all the rest, having no power to defend them." [47]

The offer was conveyed to Sullivan’s men and a committee consisting of Andrew McClary, Jeremiah Bryant and Thomas Stevenson was dispatched to meet with Cochran. At first, McClary attempted to speak for the committee but apparently stammered so much that Cochran could not understand him.[47A] Bryant ultimately explained that they were a committee chosen by the Province to demand all Provincial stores from the fort. Stevenson apparently took issue with Bryant's statement even before Cochran could respond, arguing that they were not in fact a committee from the Province but were instead of the people – specifically a body of about 1,000 men then stationed nearby. Regardless of whom they technically represented, Cochran showed the three what he believed to be Provincial property, identified items which were personal property and " . . . told them All the rest belonged to the King and warned them on their peril not to touch them" [48]. Bryant doubted that Cochran had shown him all Provincial stores, but the Captain explained that he was certain that he had done so because each item sent to the fort by the King - including the cannon - bore the King's mark. Bryant and Stevenson reported on their meeting to the men outside, leaving McClary – a large, powerful man – in the fort with the captain.

In about half an hour, approximately 10 men led by Major Thomas Tash advanced to the gate and demanded the Province's arms and stores. Cochran replied that he had already shown those items to the first committee and consented to let the 10 men - but not the entire rebel mob - enter the fort to take away those goods. This concession virtually assured that the fort would be captured a second time. Tash’s company was allowed to enter, with Sullivan assuring Cochran that those allowed in would keep good order. Cochran repeatedly warned that they "must not at their Peril Meddle with or take away anything belonging to the King . . ." [49] The men "generally answered [that] they knew that very well . . ."[50].

Cochran's faith in American respect for the King's property was misplaced. In what appears to have been an orderly but triumphant second invasion, all of the companies outside simply followed Tash’s group of 10 through the open gate and overran the installation. They seized all of the small arms, bayonets, cartridge boxes, assorted cannon shot, and other ordinance stores on which they could lay their hands. Despite Cochran's persistent, if unsupportable, warnings, they also seized 16 of the King's duly marked cannon (15 four-pounders and a nine pounder), 10 carriages, the useless muskets that Cochran had pointed out, and 42 serviceable muskets with shot [51]. The comparative orderliness of the second raid was broken by Captain Cochran's visiting father, James Cochran. According to Governor Wentworth:

. . . when Major Sullivan was triumphing in the number, riches and prowess of his Party . . . The honest, brave old Man stop'd him short, call'd him and his numerous party perjur'd Traitors & Cowards, That his Son the Capt. Shou'd fight them two at a time thro their whole multitude, or that He would with his own hands put him to death in their presence, Which the Son readily assented to, but none among them wou'd take up the challenge. [52]

With regulars from Boston expected at any moment, the raiders were working against the clock. Foregoing any attempt to permanently occupy the garrison or remove numerous heavy cannon, they worked throughout the cold night of December 15/16, tramping through frigid tidewater to load what plunder they could onto gundalows. The night's work was not completed until 8 or 9 o'clock on the morning of December 16, 1774, by which time Colonel Nathaniel Folsom of Exeter had arrived in Portsmouth with a large contingent of heavily armed infantry and cavalry. Folsom stationed his troops as a guard, waiting for the tide to change. At the turn of the tide, the captured cannon and other stores were, with difficulty, shuttled up the ice-choked Piscataqua River for safekeeping in other towns.

For the second time in less than 48 hours, a British Provincial military installation in America had been captured and sacked by rebel forces [53].

VI. Arrival of the Royal Navy and the Issuance of the Governor’s Proclamation

Before leaving New Castle, the tired patriots vowed to once again return to Fort William and Mary in order to dismantle it and capture or destroy the remaining cannon. They also stated that they intended to seize the royal treasury. Governor Wentworth believed that there was "reasonable ground to fear they would do [so], after what they had already done" [54] and pleaded to General Gage for immediate military assistance. Wentworth described Portsmouth as being "full of armed men, who refuse to disperse, but appear determined to complete the dismantling of the fortress entirely. Hitherto the people have abstained from private or personal injuries; how long they will be so prevailed on, it is impossible to say. . . " [55] At least some New Hampshiremen no doubt believed that the long-anticipated American showdown with Britain had begun in earnest. [56]

Almost as the Governor was writing his message to General Gage, a company of 80 men under arms were parading threateningly past his Council Chamber, in close order, to the sound of beating drums [57]. Wentworth ordered Sheriff Parker and some of the Provincial justices to "make proclamation upon the Riot Act" and to order the men to disperse. In response to the Sheriff's command, someone yelled back that they were "Subjects of King George & not King James." [57A] The Governor quickly retreated to his home, only to discover that the company of rebels was threatening to "load with Ball & kill all the Torys, meaning the Governor and Council" [58].

Fortunately for Governor Wentworth, his pleas for assistance from Boston bore fruit just in time to avoid a personal disaster and save Fort William and Mary from an otherwise inevitable third attack. On the 17^th of December, the armed ship Canceaux arrived in Portsmouth Harbor, followed by the frigate Scarborough on December 19. [59] Fifty to 100 British Royal Marines were on board of the ships, prepared to attempt to subdue Portsmouth. Faced with warships carrying men of the regular British forces, the armed units in the New Hampshire seacoast gradually began to disperse. Five defenders of the fort were placed on one of the warships, to be protected as witnesses in case the action at Fort William and Mary led to what would have been - had it ever occurred - a highly publicized trial of prominent American patriots for high treason.[60] Governor Wentworth turned his thoughts to the restoration of order, noting: "I perceive the unlimited influence that the popular leaders in Boston obtain in this Province, especially since the outrage of the 14th instant. Insomuch, that I think the people here are disposed to attempt any measure required by those few men; and in consequence thereof, are arming and exercising men as if for an immediate war."[61]

On December 26, 1774, Wentworth, backed by the British warships, issued a proclamation deploring the "treasonable Insults and Outrages" committed by the men who led the raid. All magistrates and officers of the crown were commanded to "exert themselves in detecting and securing in his Majesty's Goals in this province the said Offenders, in order to their being brought to condign punishment; And from Motives of Duty to the King and Regard to the Welfare of the Good People of this Province: I do in the most earnest and solemn Manner, exhort and injoin you, his Majesty's liege Subjects of the Government, to beware of suffering yourselves to be seduced by the false Arts or Menaces of abandoned men, to abet, protect, or screen from Justice any of the said high handed Offenders, or to withhold or secrete his Majesty's Munition forcibly taken from his Castle . . ."[62] The Governor also canceled John Sullivan's provincial military commission and the civil or military commissions of others suspected of involvement in the uprising. Sullivan and others purportedly burned their uniforms and commissions in a bonfire on the town common in Durham.[63]

Even before the issuance of his proclamation of December 26, Wentworth was realistic about the odds of actually apprehending those responsible. On December 20, 1774, the Governor wrote that no jail in the province could hold the offenders and " . . . no jury would find them guilty; for, by the false alarm that has been raised throughout the country, it is considered by the weak and ignorant, who have the rule in these times, an act of self-preservation."[64] It was an article of faith that New Hampshiremen would, to the degree possible, attempt to shield the participants from punishment. [65]

VII. Aftermath

As the new and fateful year of 1775 dawned in New Hampshire, Governor Wentworth watched with apprehension as the spirit of independence, nurtured by the guns of Fort William and Mary, continued to grow. Soon, even his royal revenue officers chose to "shrink in safety from the storm, and suffered me to remain exposed to the folly and madness of an outraged multitude, daily and hourly increasing in numbers and delusion."[66] That "madness" reached a frenzy four months after the storming of the fort, when New Hampshire newspapers heralded word of the bloody melees at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts and the men of New Hampshire again took to arms.

It is an unshakable, but probably mistaken, Granite State tradition that the powder taken from Fort William and Mary in December of 1774 was transported in bulk by Major John Demeritt to the New Hampshire militia in Massachusetts in time for use against the King’s troops at Bunker Hill. Although this tradition does not appear in any official record, it has been retold in New Hampshire since before 1823. Regardless of its questionable accuracy, New Hampshiremen certainly used the powder and arms captured at Fort William and Mary against the forces of the Crown, even if not at that particular battle [67]. By the same token, a number of cannon at the fort were secured by the Royal Navy for use by the British armed forces and may ultimately have been employed against Americans [67A].

After the storming of the fort, Governor Wentworth found himself utterly unable to garner support in the reconstituted New Hampshire Provincial Assembly. For all practical purposes, royal authority in New Hampshire was dead as of December 14, 1774, regardless of what might happen in other colonies. In June 1775, less than two months after the fighting at Lexington and Concord, just before the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Governor was visited at his home by John Fenton, a loyal and exceedingly unpopular Assemblyman who had attempted to speak in the Governor’s defense. [67B] An irate mob formed outside the Governor's residence, demanding to speak to the visitor. When Wentworth refused, the crowd smashed in the doors of the house and thrust a cannon (possibly seized in the raid on the fort) toward the entranceway, vowing to fire inside. Fenton surrendered himself, but the mob made it known that they intended to take the Governor, his wife, Frances, and their five month old son, Charles Mary, prisoner if they did not immediately leave Portsmouth. This, according to Mrs. Wentworth, "we did with great haste."[68]

The Wentworths fled to the nearest royal military installation: tiny Fort William and Mary, now protected by the guns of British warships. There, the Governor and his family resided in a "small incommodious House without any prospect of safety . . . This fort although containing upward of sixty pieces of Cannon is without men or ammunition." [69] Wentworth conducted a few makeshift repairs to the fort and the sloop of war Falcon soon arrived to "dismantle this ungarrisoned Castle of all the ordinance, stores, &c," leaving Wentworth protected only by the stalwart Captain Cochran and a few guards. The Governor hired the guards with money from his own pocket, it being necessary to pay them the princely sum of 12 dollars a month plus rum and other benefits. For a lower cost, said Wentworth, ". . . no trusty men can possibly be had for so unpopular a service in this time of general opposition to Government." [70]

After ineffectually attempting to regain control of the Province by way of proclamations issued from within the walls of Fort William and Mary, Wentworth was ultimately forced to relinquish any pretense of authority. He boarded the Scarborough for Boston before the end of summer, 1775, thus forever closing the book on Britain's governmental presence in New Hampshire. [70A] Shortly after the Governor's departure, a band of colonists returned to Fort William and Mary, endeavoring to complete the work previously left unfinished. They partially destroyed the structure and wrecked one of its buildings. [71] Wentworth ultimately sailed for loyalist Nova Scotia, where he was later appointed Royal Governor. Captain John Cochran and his family were purportedly apprehended by John Sullivan on the day after the slaughter at Lexington but, if so, were soon released. The Captain fled to the safety of Boston and remained with the British Army throughout the war, finally relocating with his family to New Brunswick, Canada. [72]

Governor Wentworth's departure from New Hampshire approximately nine months after the raid on Fort William and Mary left the Province without any official government whatsoever. Necessity required the formation of a new governmental system and New Hampshire took the unprecedented step of seeking guidance from the Continental Congress on the creation of an independent State government. In spite of its efforts to come to terms with Britain in the early stages of the Revolution, Congress approved this radical move. On January 5, 1776, six months before the issuance of the Declaration of American Independence, New Hampshire adopted a Constitution of its own. [73] Twelve years later, on June 21, 1788, the State was to have the distinction of becoming the 9^th and deciding vote cast for the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

VIII. Conclusion

The attacks on Fort William and Mary have been all but forgotten outside of the Granite State. While understandably overshadowed by the initiation of wider hostilities following the death of American citizens at Lexington and Concord only four months after the raids, the action at Fort William and Mary deserves its place in our memory for what it was: a daring, organized and successful military assault by loosely organized American militia on a royal fortress flying the King's colors, where the attackers were met with cannon and musket fire, inflicted and received casualties, took prisoners, captured military supplies and triumphantly hauled down the British flag. The raids were more than simply a seizure of colonial gunpowder. They were direct, unmistakable armed assaults on the power of the established governmental order in the American colonies. When the action at New Castle became known in England, it has been suggested that it contributed to the fateful adoption of a firmer royal stance on the suppression of rebel sentiment in the colonies [74]. Undoubtedly, the cannon and musket fire that echoed on the shores of Portsmouth Harbor on that cold December day in 1774 warrant recognition as what New Hampshire has long known them to be: some of the opening salvos of the American Revolution.

List of Participants in the raid on Fort William and Mary

(includes specific reference to particular individuals’ roles, with sources of information)

NOTES

This article is an expanded and revised version of the author’s article first appearing on the NHSSAR web page in 2000. A reduced, unannotated, version of that article appeared in the SAR Magazine, Vol. XCVI, No. 2 (Fall 2001), pp. 16- 21. This web article is updated periodically as additional information is discovered. Those having additional information, comments or questions relative to the attacks on Fort William and Mary are welcome to contact the author.

In regard to source materials utilized in preparing this article, see generally versions of the attacks published in Otis Hammond, ed., Proceedings of the New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1889 - 1897, published by the Society, Concord, NH (1898), Address by John Crawford to NHSSAR (April 11, 1894), pp. 78 – 88 and Charles L. Parsons, The Capture of Fort William and Mary, December 14 and 15, 1774, a reprint of a paper delivered at the 77th Annual Meeting of the New Hampshire Historical Society, printed by the William and Mary Committee of the New Hampshire American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, March 1974. Both of these items gather, in full form, official, letter and newspaper reports from the sources referred to herein. Even more importantly, readers are directed to Paul Wilderson, The Raids on Fort William and Mary: Some New Evidence, Historical New Hampshire magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 3 (Fall, 1975), pp. 178 – 202. This valuable source sets forth "depositions" (actually affidavits) of the loyalist participants in the events. The original depositions are held by the British National Archives, Public Records Office, as Colonial Office document CO5, 939. An additional important source is the transcription of Governor Wentworth’s account of the raids found in Paul Wilderson’s John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, Historical New Hampshire, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 (Winter 1977), pp. 228 - 236.

One of the few readily accessible sources of general, accurate information on the attacks on Fort William and Mary is Wilderson’s Governor John Wentworth and the American Revolution; The English Connection, University Press of New England, Hanover, NH (1994), pp. 245 - 250. Virtually all other secondary sources mentioning the attacks misinterpret or misconstrue the incidents at Fort William and Mary – sometimes severely. For a general assessment of the events as seen from a number of perspectives, see also Historical New Hampshire, Vol. XXIX, No. 4 (Winter, 1974) (issue devoted to various essays on the raids of December, 1774). It should be noted, however, that this issue, as well as Parsons’ The Capture of Fort William and Mary and Crawford’s “Address,” were all produced before the publication of the depositions transcribed in Historical New Hampshire, Vol. XXX, No. 3 (Fall, 1975). They therefore lack the benefit of more recently discovered information.

[1] Letter of John Wentworth to Paul Wentworth, February 27, 1770, quoted in Lawrence Shaw Mayo's John Langdon of New Hampshire, Rumford Press, Concord, NH (1937) at 68.

[2] New Hampshire Provincial Papers, compiled by Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., Orren C. Moore, State Printer, Nashua, NH (1873), Vol. VII at 366 (Journal of the House, May 27, 1774). See Address by John Crawford, Proceedings of the New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1889 - 1897, Otis Hammond, ed., published by the Society, Concord (1898) at 78.

[3] New Hampshire Provincial Papers, compiled by Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., Orren C. Moore, State Printer, Nashua, NH (1873), Vol. VII at 366 – 367 (Message of the Governor, May 27, 1774 and House vote); See Address by John Crawford, Proceedings of the New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1889 - 1897, Otis Hammond, ed., published by the Society, Concord (1898) at 78; Darryl Cathers, Powder to the People: The Revolutionary Structure Behind the Attacks on Fort William and Mary, 1774, Historical New Hampshire (the journal of the New Hampshire Historical Society, hereinafter "HNH") Vol. XXIX, No. 4 (Winter, 1974) at 268. The men stationed at the fort were local citizens, not residents of Europe serving in the regular British standing army. Like other members of the provincial militia they served the British governmental structure in the Province of New Hampshire under the authority of the colony’s commander in chief, the Royal Governor. Unlike other elements of the provincial military, however, the men at the fort were paid, full-time, uniformed soldiers. Since both the defenders of the fort and some of those attacking it in 1774, such as John Sullivan, were members of New Hampshire’s British provincial military establishment, it is difficult to find a term that fully and accurately fits the soldiers at the fort and simultaneously distinguishes them from their attackers on December 14 and 15. As a form of shorthand (or due to persistent misconceptions), they have at times been referred to as “British” soldiers. While this is technically true, they should not be confused with soldiers of the regular British Army. A better description of the men at the fort would be “Provincial,” “Loyalist,” or “Governor’s” soldiers.

[4] Cathers, supra, HNH, Vol. XXIX, No. 4 at 270; See Theodore Chase, The Attack on Fort William and Mary, HNH Vol. XVIII, No. 1 (April, 1963) at 21 – 22. Local incidents adding to tension in New Hampshire prior to the raid on Fort William and Mary, such as various actions by the Assembly and the Governor's surreptitious recruitment of New Hampshiremen to build barracks for British soldiers in Boston, are discussed in Douglas Sweet's New Hampshire on the Road to Revolution: Fort William and Mary, A Decisive Step, HNH, Vol. XXIX, No. 4 (Winter, 1974) at 229; Paul Wilderson’s Governor John Wentworth and the American Revolution; The English Connection, University Press of New England, Hanover, NH (1994); Richard Upton’s Revolutionary New Hampshire, Octagon Books, New York, NY (1971) (reprint of 1936 Dartmouth edition, with new introduction) and Jere Daniell’s Experiment in Republicanism, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (1970).

[5] Deposition (affidavit) of William Torrey, found in Paul Wilderson's article, The Raids on Fort William and Mary: Some New Evidence, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3 (Fall, 1975) at 186; Elizabeth Rhoades Akroyd, Notes on the Raid on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 3 (Fall, 1977) at 146. According to Torrey, the full content of Revere’s message was “that Another Man of War had arived at Boston with a Number of Marines on Board, And that all the Governors upon the Continent had Accounts sent to them that Gunpowder and other warlike store were prohibited from being exported from Great Britain, And that the Governor of Rhode Island had received such advice And in consequence of it had dismantled the Fort at Newport and had carried all the Powder and Cannon up to Providence, that the Sunday before he came Away from Boston there was a Number of troops imbarked on Board some ships then in the Harbour in the most secret Manner Possible, and that it was conjectured by the Inhabitants that they were bound for Piscataqua and One or two Men of War along with them in order to take Care of the Powder and Fort.” Deposition of William Torrey, supra, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3 (Fall, 1975) at 186. In spite of much folklore to the contrary, there is no support for the assertion by 19^th century historians that Revere rode to the home of John Sullivan. See Wilderson, The Raids on Fort William and Mary: Some New Evidence, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3 (Fall, 1975) at 183. Durham, where Sullivan lived, would have been off of Revere’s route to Portsmouth, see David Hackett Fisher, Paul Revere’s Ride, Oxford University Press, New York (1994), p. 55, and, indeed, Sullivan himself states that he was alerted not by Revere, but by men sent to him by Pierce Long and John Langdon after the raid of December 14. See Sullivan’s letter to the New Hampshire Spy, March 17, 1789, reprinted in Charles L. Parsons’ The Capture of Fort William and Mary, December 14 and 15, 1774, a reprint of a paper delivered at the 77th Annual Meeting of the New Hampshire Historical Society, printed by the William and Mary Committee of the New Hampshire American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, March 1974, p. 21. In 1996, Swann Galleries auctioneers of New York City sold Revere’s bill for his ride to Portsmouth at auction. It referred to a horse leased for 6 pence in Boston. The bill itself sold for $29,900.

[6] Elizabeth Rhoades Akroyd, Notes on the Raid on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 3 (Fall, 1977) at 146.

[7] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3 at 189.

[8] Cochran was commissioned as a provincial military captain in February of 1771. See Provincial Treasury Records, Box 9, New Hampshire State Archives (“Nh-ar”), Concord, NH, file for 1772 (Invoice of Theodore Atkinson for Commission issued February 7, 1771). It is not absolutely clear how many individuals were active defenders of Fort William and Mary in December of 1774. The contingent allotted by the Provincial Assembly was a captain and 5 enlisted men and this is the number of soldiers who swore oath to being present on December 14, 1774. However, Cochran implied to the Governor (perhaps duplicitously) that he had added 2 men to his usual number some time on the 13^th. See Report of John Cochran to John Wentworth, December 14, 1774, New Hampshire Provincial Papers, compiled by Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., Orren C. Moore, State Printer, Nashua, NH (1873), Vol. VII at 420-421. Cochran's deposition regarding the affair states that 2 men were "pressed into service" at the last moment on the 14^th. Further, although Cochran's communiqué to the Governor states that he had "only five effective men" with him on the day of the attack, his deposition refers to six men "in all" (emphasis added). Perhaps Cochran included himself in the latter count. Depositions of the 5 soldiers of the fort (Isaac Seveay, Ephraim Hall, Benjamin Rowell, Samuel Rowell and John Griffiths) each refer to being “on duty” on the 14^th. One deposition (that of Ephraim Hall) refers to “the Soldiers and two Men we had to assist us, being in all but five besides the Deponent.” This seems to imply that there were 6 men, including the impressed men and possibly exclusive of the captain. Of the 5 soldiers who swore depositions, only 3 specifically state that they were on duty at the fort prior to December of 1774, raising the question of whether 2 (John Griffiths and Samuel Rowell) may have been recent recruits. It seems reasonable to conclude that the captain, 5 soldiers (2 of whom may have been recent additions to the garrison) and 2 impressed men were present at the fort on the 14^th of December, but perhaps one or two of the men were either unable or unwilling to actually serve as combatants. As discussed below at note 17, there is a possibility that the impressed men, Elijah Locke and Meshech Bell, were actually agents of the opposition forces. Moreover, although not included in the foregoing count, Captain Cochran's wife, Sarah, should legitimately be included as a loyalist combatant.

[9] See New Hampshire Provincial Papers, compiled by Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., Orren C. Moore, State Printer, Nashua, NH (1873), Vol. VII at 423 (extracts of letters to gentlemen in New York, Dec. 16 and 17, 1774); Crawford, Proceedings of the New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1889 - 1897 at 82.

[10] Deposition of William Torrey, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3 at 187; Deposition of Rockingham County Sheriff John Parker, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3 at 187.

[11] December, 1774 Letter of John Wentworth, Paul Wilderson, John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 (Winter, 1977) at 230.

[11A] On December 14, 1774, Captain Cochran estimated that about 400 men attacked his installation. See New Hampshire Provincial Papers, compiled by Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., Orren C. Moore, State Printer, Nashua, NH (1873), Vol. VII at 420-421, Report of Captain Cochran to Governor Wentworth dated December 14, 1774. In Cochran’s deposition dated December 29, 1774 (sworn under oath on January 15, 1775), however, he estimates that “upwards of 200 men” attacked the fort on December 14. See Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 191.

[12] Deposition of Rockingham County Sheriff John Parker, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3 at 187.

[13] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 230; Deposition of Rockingham County Sheriff John Parker, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3 at 188. Parker’s January 1775 deposition appears to suggest that the Governor’s request for his barge may have come on the 15^th, but the Governor’s account, suggests that he first made this request on the 14^th and was still seeking a boat the following day.

[14] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 188 - 189.

[15] Id.

[15A] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 189. A review of the depositions of the soldiers of the fort suggests that the man who advised Cochran of the approach of the 4 or 5 men was Soldier Ephraim Hall.

[15B] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 189.

[16] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 190. It has been claimed (without attribution) that the countersign used by patriots when preparing for the attack was “We are going to take a glass of wine; With Captain Cockerine, Cockerine.” See John Albee, New Castle – Historic and Picturesque, compiled by Chester B. Curtis and published by Peter E. Randall, Portsmouth NH (1974), p. 23. It is unclear how or when a “countersign” would have been used.

[17] The man identified by Captain Cochran as volunteering to defend the fort from attack was "Mesech Bell the third of Newcastle aforesaid, Cooper." Id. The "aforesaid" refers to the Town of New Castle, rather than to some prior reference to this Bell in Captain Cochran's deposition. It is conceivable that the attack on the fort divided the Bell family. A "Mesech Bell" and/or a "Mesech Bell, Jr." are noted among the attackers of Fort William and Mary. It is perhaps more likely, however, that the “Mesech” who volunteered to "defend" the fort was actually sent by the rebels to infiltrate the garrison and that he may have turned on its defenders “from the inside” when an assault was under way. A "Mesech Bell, Jr." pummeled Soldier Isaac Seveay during the fighting on the fourteenth. The Bells involved in the raids were related to the recently deceased Thomas Bell, the commander of the fort immediately before Cochran. Interestingly, at the end of the Revolution, a "Lieutenant Mesech Bell" became the fort's captain. See Harriet Lacy, Fort William and Mary Becomes Fort Constitution, HNH, Vol. XXIX, No. 4 (Winter, 1974) at 283. The second man pressed into service, identified in transcripts of Cochran’s deposition as “Eliza Locke of Rye,” might also have been in sympathy with, or sent by, the attackers. Donald Hayes, longtime secretary of the Locke Family Association and a president of the NH Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, has noted that the Locke impressed into service appears to be either Elijah Locke or Elijah Locke, Jr. of Rye. Both Lockes signed the Rye Association Test in 1776 and the younger Locke is known to have served in the Continental Army. See D. Hayes, “Pressed into Service at Fort William and Mary: Was Eliza Locke of Rye a Patriot, a Tory or Hapless Bystander?” The New Hampshire Minuteman (newsletter of the N. H. Society of the Sons of the American Revolution), Vol. 15, No.2 (May 2003), p. 1.

[18] Id.; Deposition of Soldier Ephraim Hall, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 199 - 200.

[19] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 231; Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 190 - 191. White and the other New Castle men who entered the fort in the failed attempt to seize Cochran were undoubtedly able to tell the attackers about what they could expect to encounter by way of defense.

[20] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3, at 190 - 191.

[21] Id. at 191.

[22] Report of John Cochran to John Wentworth, December 14, 1774, New Hampshire Provincial Papers, compiled by Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., Orren C. Moore, State Printer, Nashua, NH (1873), Vol. VII at 420-421; Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3, at 191.

[23] According to Cochran, this was due to the swiftness of the poorly aimed volley his men were required to discharge. That volley probably consisted of about 5 smoothbore musket shots and 3 cannonballs (evidently not grapeshot, the standard anti-personnel load). According to Governor Wentworth, the cannonballs ". . . whistling thro the party cover'd some with the Earth where they struck." One ball "went thro a warehouse, another pass'd thro a Sloop, the third lodg'd in an House in Kittery, all well-aim'd but the assailants falling under the walls as they saw the Match applied, escaped with life." John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 231. No first-hand loyalist report of the incident describes the colonists as returning fire. The vast throng of rebels appears instead to have relied upon their numbers, threats of gunfire, muscle and fists. They were met with stiff and courageous resistance by the defenders. There appears to be no credible evidence to support the highly suspect but oft-repeated contention (first posited in a 1774 letter of an unidentified gentleman of probable loyalist leanings, see New Hampshire Provincial Papers, compiled by Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., Orren C. Moore, State Printer, Nashua, NH (1873), Vol. VII at 423) that the full-time provincial soldiers defending the fort on December 14, 1774 were “invalids.” Likewise, it certainly does not appear from the first-hand accounts, as is sometimes claimed, that Captain Cochran (who, with his wife, engaged in hand-to-hand fighting when his post was stormed and who remained a staunch loyalist throughout the Revolutionary period) intentionally aimed over the heads of the attackers, putting up only a token display of resistance so that he could claim to have defended the installation. The first-hand accounts suggest a serious defense. If a pro forma show of opposition had been Cochran’s way, he presumably would have done the same thing at the time of Sullivan’s raid of the 15^th. At that time, however, seeing that the situation was completely hopeless, Cochran did not engage in any charade. The hopeless situation that Cochran faced during Sullivan’s raid of December 15^th was no doubt exacerbated by the fact that on the 15^th he and his men were at least somewhat “invalid”: they had been injured in the raid of the 14^th .

[24] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 191.

[25] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 231.

[25A] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 191.

[26] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 231.

[27] Deposition of Soldier Isaac Seveay, HNH, Vol.XXX, No. 3 at 195. Had Captain Palmer's pistol not misfired and had a vanquished soldier defending a British fort instead been slain, it is likely that the date of December 14, 1774 and the name of Fort William and Mary would be well known to students of American history. It is also possible, of course, that, rather than misfiring, Palmer’s action was designed to show that the gun was not in fact loaded.

[28] Deposition of Soldier Samuel Rowell, HNH, Vol.XXX, No.3 at 199.

[29] Deposition of Soldier Ephraim Hall, HNH, Vol.XXX, No.3 at 200.

[29A] See Letter of John Wentworth to the Earl of Dartmouth, December 20, 1774, New England Historical & Genealogical Register ("NEH&GR"), Vol. 23 (July, 1869) at 276. Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 191. The flag at the fort was no doubt a well-known local symbol of British authority. Flags flying over seacoast forts were remarkably large. The “Star Spangled Banner” that flew over Fort McHenry in the War of 1812 was, for example, 30 feet by 42 feet in size. Records of the Provincial Treasurer still in existence in the New Hampshire State Archives indicate that the British flag that flew over Fort William and Mary was an impressive 18 feet in width by 27 feet in length. See Provincial Treasury Records, Box 9, New Hampshire State Archives (“Nh-ar”), Concord, NH, files for 1773 and 1774 (invoices of Thomas Martin and Samuel Tripe).

[30] Deposition of Soldier Ephraim Hall, HNH, Vol.XXX, No.3 at 200; John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 231.

[31] New Hampshire Provincial Papers, compiled by Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., Orren C. Moore, State Printer, Nashua, NH (1873), Vol. VII at 420-421, Report of Captain Cochran to Governor Wentworth dated December 14, 1774; Forrest F. Lange, "The Seizure of Fort William and Mary in 1774," Essays on New Hampshire's Part in the Struggle for American Independence, collected and edited by the Bicentennial Committee of the New Hampshire Society, Sons of the American Revolution (1979) at 28. The attackers of the fort purportedly left one barrel of powder because the King's importation order evidenced such a strong desire for it.

[31A] Otis Hammond, ed, Letters and Papers of Major General John Sullivan, (Collections of the NH Historical Society, Vol. 15), published by the N. H. Historical Society, Concord, NH (1939), vol. 3, p. 420. See also note 5, supra.

[32] Letter of John Wentworth to Thomas Gage, December 14, 1774, New Hampshire Provincial Papers, Vol. VII at 420.

[33] Order of Theodore Atkinson to Captain Dennet of the First New Hampshire Militia,.

[34] Deposition of Rockingham County Sheriff John Parker, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3 at 188.

[35] Return of Captain Dennet to Theodore Atkinson, December 15, 1774, New Hampshire Provincial Papers, Vol VII at 421

[35A] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 232.

[36] Id.

[37] Letter of an unidentified gentleman in Portsmouth, NH to an unidentified gentleman in New York, New Hampshire Provincial Papers, supra, Vol. VII, supra at 423.

[38] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 232.

[39] Letter of John Wentworth to the Earl of Dartmouth, December 20, 1774, NEH&GR, Vol 23, at 276.

[40] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 233.

[41] Letter of John Wentworth to the Earl of Dartmouth, December 20, 1774, NEH&GR, Vol 23 at 276.

[41A] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 233.

[42] Id. Men from Exeter under the command of Nathaniel Folsom, Nicholas Gilman, Dr. John Giddinge and James Hackett were in Portsmouth to assist in Sullivan’s endeavor as needed. The need for the maintenance of a substantial armed reserve is evident when it is recalled that British regulars were expected on the scene momentarily. As Sullivan handled affairs in, and on the way to and from, New Castle, John Langdon reported to Portsmouth’s armed men on Sullivan’s progess. See Charles H. Bell, History of the Town of Exeter, Exeter, NH (1888), pp. 240 – 244 (account of Gideon Lamson).

[42A] Return of Captain Dennet to Theodore Atkinson, December 15, 1774, New Hampshire Provincial Papers, Vol VII at 421. Interestingly, a "John Dennet" of Portsmouth is listed by Captain Cochran and soldier Isaac Seveay as among the men who attacked Fort William and Mary on December 14, 1774. There were two John Dennets in Portsmouth at this time, however. Both later signed the Association Test in support of the American cause. James Stoodley’s tavern was a well-known patriot meeting place. In fact, it was where Revere met Cutts. The provincial government may have called on the wrong men if they hoped to raise volunteers to defend the fort.

[43] See Letter of an unidentified gentleman in Boston to Mr. Rivington of New York, quoted in Crawford, Proceedings of the New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1889 - 1897, supra at 85; Parsons, The Capture of Fort William and Mary, December 14 and 15, 1774, supra at 11. The loyalist writer to Rivington opined that the parson “being long accustomed to apply himself more to the care of the bodies than the souls of his parishioners, had forgotten that the weapons of his warfare ought to be spiritual, and not carnal . . ." The reference is probably to Rev. John Adams of Durham, who Sullivan reports as being on the December 15th raid. It is not likely a reference to the Reverend Stephen Chase, the New Castle town minister, although a Stephen Chase was present for both raids. In spite of claims that the Chase involved in the raids was the Reverend Chase, see e. g. Elizabeth Rhoades Akroyd, Notes on the Raid on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 3 (Fall, 1977), p. 145, the minister’s politics appear to have been decidedly loyalist. See John Albee, New Castle, Historic and Picturesque, reprint of 1884 volume by Peter E. Randall, Hampton, NH (1974) at 197. The Stephen Chase involved in the raids was more likely the son of the town minister, also named Stephen.

[43A] Sullivan and Cochran were both members of Portsmouth’s Masters’ Lodge of Free and Accepted Order of Masons.

[44] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 192.

[45] Id. at 193; Deposition of Soldier Isaac Seveay, HNH, Vol. XXX, No.3 at 196.

[46] It is likely that the men who were pressed into service on December 14th were no longer on duty after the initial attack. Additionally, one of the regular soldiers present on the 14th (Samuel Rowell) does not swear in his deposition to being present during the action of the 15th and another soldier (John Griffiths), while stating that he was "in the said Fort" on the15th, does not claim to have been "on duty" that day. Accordingly, on December 15, 1774 the garrison which faced approximately 1,000 attackers likely consisted of Captain Cochran, his wife and children, his aged father and perhaps three fit soldiers.

[47] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 193.

[47A] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 193. As observed by Elizabeth Covart, an intern at the Bunker Hill Historical Site in Charlestown, Massachusetts, Captain McClary was the same Major Andrew McClary of Epsom, NH, who was the ranking New Hampshire officer killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill, approximately six months later.

[48] Deposition of Captain John Cochran, HNH, Vol XXX, No. 3 at 193.

[49] Id. at 194.

[50] Id.

[51] Id.; Letter of John Wentworth to the Earl of Dartmouth, December 20, 1774, NEH&GR, Vol. 23 at 276.

[52] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 236. The name of Cochran's father is found at Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, Little Brown & Co., Boston (1864), Vol. 1 at 320.

 [53] Tradition holds that John Sullivan's clerk Alexander Scammel(l), hauled down the British flag during the second raid. Chase, The Attack on Fort William and Mary, HNH Vol. XVIII, No. 1, supra at 31. Scammel served as Continental Adjutant General during the Revolution and died of battle wounds in British captivity.

[54] Letter of John Wentworth to the Earl of Dartmouth, December 20, 1774, NEH&GR, Vol. 23 at 277.

[55] New Hampshire Provincial Papers, compiled by Nathaniel Bouton, D.D., Orren C. Moore, State Printer, Nashua, NH (1873), Vol. VII at 422 (Letter of John Wentworth to Thomas Gage, December 16, 1774).

[56] Two days after the second attack, inhabitants of the Town of Greenland, NH erected a liberty pole and passed votes in support of the cause of liberty, vowing to defend American privileges with their lives and fortunes. See Douglas Sweet, New Hampshire on the Road to Revolution: Fort William and Mary, A Decisive Step HNH, Vol. XXIX, No. 4 (Winter, 1974) at 250.

[57] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 234.

[57A] Id. King James II was known, in part, for his disregard of the rights and privileges of his subjects. He had caused political dismay in New England by unilaterally and unapologetically attempting to dismantle existing provincial governments and replace them with a single ill-conceived institution, the Dominion of New England. James ultimately lost his throne in England’s “Glorious Revolution” of 1688. The sovereigns who replaced him were William and Mary, for whom the fort was named.

[58] John Wentworth's Narrative of the Raids on Fort William and Mary, HNH, Vol. XXXII, No. 4 at 234.

[59] See William B. Clark, ed. Naval Documents of the American Revolution, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, Vol. I, p. 37 (Letter of Wentworth to Adm. Graves); Id. at 34 (“Remarks on Board Ye Scarborough,” 12/19/1774); Andrew Wahll, ed. The Voyage of the Canceaux, 1764 - 1776 (abridged logs), Heritage Books, Bowie, MD (2003) at 250. The Scarborough, commanded by Lt. Andrew Barkley (Barclay), carried 20 six-pound cannon. The Canceaux, commanded by Lt. Henry Mowat(t), carried 8 nine-pound cannon. The Scarborough, at times supported by the Canceaux and other vessels, remained on duty in Portsmouth Harbor for about 8 months, departing in late August 1775. In that time, it would be involved in a number of small-scale confrontations with Seacoast residents. See generally Lawrence Shaw Mayo, John Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (1921), pp. 143 – 161. Mowat and the Canceaux went on to infamy when, in October of 1775, they burned Falmouth (Portland) Maine to the ground.

[60] See Rev. Jeremy Belknap, The History of New Hampshire, 1970 reprint, Johnson Reprint Corporation, Vol. I, at 353 (volume I of the 1831 Dover, NH edition of Belknap's History).

[61] Letter of John Wentworth to the Earl of Dartmouth, December 28, 1774, NEH&GR, Vol. 23, at 277.

[62] Proclamation of Governor Wentworth, December 26, 1774, New Hampshire Provincial Papers, Vol VII, supra at 423-424.

[63] Lange, “The Seizure of Fort William and Mary," Essays on New Hampshire's Part in the Struggle for American Independence, supra at 30.

[64] Letter of John Wentworth to the Earl of Dartmouth, December 20, 1774, NEH&GR, Vol. 23 at 277.

[65] Governor Wentworth ordered that depositions be taken of Captain Cochran, his five soldiers, William Torrey and the County Sheriff, apparently asking them to name all of the raiders they recognized. These depositions, found in Paul Wilderson, The Raids on Fort William and Mary: Some New Evidence, HNH, Vol. XXX, No. 3 (Fall, 1975), pp. 178 – 202, were not generally known to exist until 1975, a full two hundred years after the incidents. The depositions found in HNH do not include the statements of the two men "impressed into service" at the garrison, perhaps lending credence to the notion that they were in fact “planted” – or at least in sympathy with - the rebels.

[66] Letter of John Wentworth to George Irving, Esq., January 5, 1775, NEH&GR, Vol. 23 at 277.

[67] Parsons, The Capture of Fort William and Mary, December 14 and 15, 1774, supra at 27, states that a written program of the Portsmouth Bicentennial Anniversary celebration on May 21, 1823, a time when many Revolutionary War veterans were still living, contains a toast to "Major Sullivan and Capt. Langdon, Our delegates to Congress in '75 who supplied Bunker Hill with Powder from his Majesties fort at Piscataquack." In 1890, the NHSSAR's Committee on New Hampshire at Bunker Hill noted in a report to the Society, without citation, that John Stark distributed ammunition to his men which "Sullivan and Langdon had taken at Fort William and Mary, and which Deacon Demeritt had brought to Cambridge on a cart after the battle of Lexington." Proceedings of the New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1889 - 1897, supra at 27. At least one person living during the 1850's claimed to have heard of the raid on the fort directly from Major Demeritt, who provided him with some powder, insinuating that it was from the military stores taken at William and Mary and used at Bunker Hill. See C.E. Potter, History of Manchester, formerly Derryfield, New Hampshire, C.E. Potter, pub., Manchester, NH (1856), footnote at 410 - 411. But see Proceedings of the New Hampshire Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1889 - 1897, supra, at 86, disputing the contention that powder obtained from the attack on Fort William and Mary could have been used at Bunker Hill. In 1964, former New Hampshire Bar Association President Elwin L. Page more or less demolished the tradition that Demeritt could have taken the powder from Fort William and Mary to Bunker Hill in any quantity. See Elwin Page, What Happened to the King’s Powder? HNH, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer 1964), pp. 28 –33.

[67A] See William Bell Clark, ed., Naval Documents of the American Revolution, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (1964), Vol. I, p. 767 (Inventory of Ordnance and Stores Brought from Fort William and Mary, June 28, 1775).

[67B] Fenton, a former captain in the regular British Army and, ironically, an owner of property at Bunker Hill, was a provincial militia colonel and one of the magistrates who attempted to call for order when Portsmouth men marched on Fort William and Mary on December 14, 1774. He was also one of the two magistrates who took the depositions (affidavits) of witnesses relative to the raids on the fort. Fenton took the depositions of Captain Cochran and Soldiers Isaac Seveay, Benjamin Rowell, Samuel Rowell and Ephraim Hall. Samuel Penhallow took the depositions of William Torrey, Sheriff John Parker and Soldier John Griffiths. Fenton, who had been elected to the Assembly from the Town of Plymouth over the strong objections of other Assemblymen, was so unpopular that he was forced to reside aboard the warship Scarborough in Portsmouth Harbor.

[68] Letter of Lady Frances Wentworth, quoted in New Hampshire; Crosscurrents in Its Development, Nancy Heffernan and Ann Stecker, Tompson & Rutter, Inc, pub., Grantham, NH (1986) at 55.

[69] Letter of John Wentworth to Thomas Gage, June 15, 1775, NEH&GR, Vol. 23, p. 278; See also Karen Andresen, A Return to Legitimacy: New Hampshire's Constitution of 1776, HNH, Vol. XXXI, No. 4 (Winter, 1976) at 158 - 159.