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An Appeal to Heaven Flag (also called the Pine Tree Flag) was flown during the American Revolution. Multiple versions of this flag exist. The pine tree is a traditional symbol of New England.
Mortimer Blake's famous History of the Town of Franklin (1878) provides a comprehensive list of the men of Wrentham-Franklin as of the start of the Revolution, in 1775, who either mustered on April 19 or served subsequently around Boston, on Dorchester Heights or elsewhere during the length of the conflict. His words are reproduced below:
* * * *
When it became
evident that a collision with the mother country was imminent,
Wrentham, like other towns , diligently drilled its militia and
organized its two corps of minute-men , who were to hold themselves
in readiness to march at a moment's warning wherever called. The
movement of the British troops to seize some military stores of the
Province at Concord , in April , 1775 , gave the first opportunity to
try the alacrity of these minute-men .
In the archives of
the State are preserved the rolls of the men who responded to this
first alarm of April 19 , as well as those who enlisted afterwards in
the Colonial service during the War of the Revolution. I am indebted
to Mr. A. D. Sargent of the Centennial Committee for copies of these
rolls , as also of the volunteers in the late rebellion . The earlier
ones contain simply the names and rank of the members. But the
intelligent reader will be able to distinguish the Franklin men upon
the lists . They are , therefore, inserted without comment :
A true return of the
travel and return and time of service of the Minute company under the
command of Capt. John Boyd of Wrentham, in Con'l Gaston's regt .
assembled and marched the Nineteenth of April last in the alarm :
CAPT. JOHN BOYD'S
COMPANY.
John Boyd,Captain
Ebenezer Dean, Left.
John Gould, Ens.
Jonathan Holbrook,
Sargt.
John Ellis,Sargt.
Reuben
Partridge,Sargt.
Eli Richardson
,Sargt.
John Pond, Corp.'l
Samuel Jones,Corp.'l
Phineas Ware,Corp.'l
Ralph Man ,Corp.'l
Eli Pond, Drum
John Plimpton, Fiff
Timothy Adams,
Private
Nathaniel Adams ,
Private
Joel Adams, Private
William Adams,
Privte
Moses Adams, Private
William Boyd,
Private
Francis Clark,
Private
Elijah Clark,
Private
Jeremiah Daniels,
Private
Comfort Dickerman,
Private
Obed Fisher, Private
Joel Fairbanks,
Private
Peter Frost, Private
Thomas Gay, Private
Jonathan Graves,
Private
James Hills, Private
Ziba Hills, Private
Moses Hawes, Private
Abijah Hawes,
Private
Ebenezer Hartshorn,
Private
John Hill, Private
Stephen Harding,
Private
Joel Hawes, Private
Paul Holbrook,
Private
Asa Hawes, Private
Stephen Kingsbury,
Private
Timothy Lane,
Private
Joseph Metcalf,
Private
Titus Metcalf,
Private
Haman Metcalf,
Private
Samuel Metcalf,
Private
Samuel Mars, Private
Theodore Man,
Private
Luther Metcalf,
Private
Samuel Partridge,
Private
Daniel Pond, Private
Benjamin Pond,
Private
Olivier Richardson,
Private
Moses Rockwood,
Private
Amos Rockwood,
Private
Nathan Thayer,
Private
Beth'l Foster,
Private
£37
15 s 6d.
JOHN BOYD, Capt.
ADDENDA.
MIDDLESEX Ss . ,
Decem'r 22 , 1775.
The above named John
Boyd made solemn oath that the above roll by him
subscribed is just and true in all respects . Before Moses Gill,
Jus. Peace for the province .
Examined and
compared with the original.
by SAMUEL MOODY,
EDWARD RAWSON, MICHAEL FARLEY, Committee.
In Council Feb'y 9 ,
1776 Read & allowed & ordered that a warrant be drawn on the
Treas'r for £37 15s. 6d . in full of the within roll.
PEREZ MORTON, Dep.
Treas .
A Muster Roll of the
First Military Company of the Town of Wrentham who marchd the
thirtieth day of April, 1775 upon an Alarm, under the command of
Thomas Bacon Capt. , and left the Place of Rendezvous the first day
of May following:
CAPT. THOMAS BACON'S
COMPANY.
Thomas Bacon,
Captain
Seth Bacon, Lieut.
Asa Pond, Sergiant.
Solomon Blake,
Corpl.
Benjamin Clark,
Private
Benjamin Rockwood,
Private
Joseph Ellis,
Private
Eleazer Fisher,
Private
Nathan Daniels, Jr.
, Private
Robert Blake,
Private.
Zephaniah Lame,
Private
Daniel Thurston,
Private
Elisha Rockwood,
Private
Benjn. Rockwood ,
Private
Elisha Richardson,
Private
Billa Metcalf,
Private
Seth Wright, Private
SUFFOLK, SS . ,
Decr. 18 , 1775.
Then the above named
Thomas Bacon personally appeared and made oath to the truth of the
above roll. £7 98. 8d.
THOMAS BACON
before me , STEPHN
METCALF
Justice Peace .
Decr. ye 15 : 1775 .
It is evident by the
names that the above was the contribution of the west precinct to the
battle of Bunker Hill and the investment of Boston. Wrentham
contained at that date two military companies , rolls of which are
preserved . We have copied here only the north company, although some
living in this precinct may have been included in the south company
under the command of Capt. Samuel Cowell
.
As the collision
with the mother country developed its alarming proportions and the
Provincial Congress called upon the people for troops to defend their
liberties, Wrentham promptly responded with its quota for
the coming war. Many of the men, whose names have been already given
, enlisted in the Colonial service .
We can select the
residents of this part of the town only by similarity of name . We
have the muster rolls of five companies " who marched from
Wrentham on the nineteenth Day of April in the Colony Service,"
1775. They were respectively under the command of Capts. Asa
Fairbanks, Benjamin Hawes , Samuel Kollock , Elijah Pond, and Oliver
Pond . They were of the militia who constituted General Washington's
first command in the siege of Boston , and out of them were mainly
recruited our quota of the Continentals who followed him in his
campaigns. Captains Fairbanks' and E. Pond's companies are mostly of
Franklin names. as follows :
CAPT. ASA FAIRBANKS'
COMPANY.
Asa Fairbanks,
Captain
Joseph Woodward,
Lieut.
Joseph Haws, Lieut,
James Gillmore,
Sergt.
Joseph Hills, Sergt.
David Wood, Corp.
Peter Adams, Private
John Clark,Private
Jesse Ware, Private
Peltiah Fisher,
Private
Isaac Heaton
,Private
Peter Fisher,Private
Elisha
Harding,Private
Levi Chaffee,Private
William
Sayles,Private
James Smith,Private
Joseph
Harding,Private
William
Gilmore,Private
Ichabod Dean,Private
Asa Metcalf, Private
Matthias
Haws,Private
John Fairbank,
Private
Joseph Streeter,
Private
John Adams, Private
Nathan Wight,
Private.
Philemon Metcalf,
Private
Asa Whiting, Private
Abijah Allen,
Private
Jonathan
Hawes,Private
John Pearce,Private
Mill Man,Private
Ebenezer
Dean,Private
Matthew
Smith.Private
Asahel Perry,Private
John Clark, Jr. ,
Private
Joseph Hills,
Private
Aaron Fisher,Private
Joseph Guild,Private
CAPT. ELIJAH POND'S
COMPANY.
Elijah Pond , Capt
Asa Pond , Lt.
Jona. Bowditch, 2d
Lt.
Robert Blake, Serg.
Timo. Pond,Serg.
Duke Williams, Corp.
Sam Pond, Corp.
Amos Bacon, Drum
Nathan Daniels,Clerk
Elisha Rockwood ,
Private
Abijah Thurston,
Private
Robert Pond, Private
Zepha. Lane, Private
Eleaz. Partridge,
Private
ADDENDA
Joseph Ellis,
Private
Elisha Partridge,
Private.
Benj. Pond, Private
Simeon Daniels,
Private
Timo. Rockwood,
Private
John Allen, Private
Elias Ware, Private
Jas. Fisher,
Private
Elisha Bullard,
Private
John Metcalf,
Private
Daniel Thurston,
Private
Elisha Pond ,
Private
Nathan. Thayer,
Private
John Richardson,
Private
Peter Darling
Private
Simeon Fisher,
Private
Elisha Richardson,
Private
In a pay-roll of
Capt. Samuel Cowell's Company of Col. Benjamin Hawes' Regiment in the
secret expedition Sept. 25 , 1777, to October 30, we identify the
names of Michael Metcalf, Timothy Metcalf and Benjamin
Rockwood.
In a return of Capt
. Asa Fairbank's Company, enlisted for the Continental army , and
dated 16th February, 1778 , as Wrentham's quota at the time of the
division of the town, there are only five
persons from
Wrentham, and none of them Franklin names. The rest belonged
elsewhere . Another company, Capt. S. Fisher's , contains none from
Franklin, unless it be John Kingsbury. These two muster-rolls
count forty-seven privates .
In a " Return
of all the men in the first Military foot Company in Wrentham, called
the North Company in the West precinct in the town that have enlisted
into the Continental army , or that have been Hired by said Company,"
under Capt . John Metcalf, of the nineteen men are eleven from
Wrentham , viz.: Samuel Metcalf, John Metcalf, William Lane , Asa
Hawes, William Greene , Thomas Moloy, Jonathan Norris, Isaac Silver,
Hugh Denniston , John Barnes, William Pedley. This is dated Feb. 16 ,
1778. Only three Franklin names
.
The town has not
preserved , to our knowledge , any of these muster-rolls or any other
data to make up a list of its soldiers in the Revolutionary War. In
the changes of town clerks, no care seems to have been taken to
transfer the documents of town affairs . It is a sample of the
general negligence of the present to regard the inquiries of coming
generations . We have devoted much research , and in all available
directions , to trace Franklin's share in the Revolution , and we are
satisfied that the rolls given do not include all
who should be on them. Elihu Pond was imprisoned and nearly starved
by the British in the old sugar-house at New York , and from which he
escaped by night, as we have heard him tell his story, but he is not
on any roll. Philip Blake was blacksmith and commissary to a portion
of the American army on Dorchester Heights, and was afterwards in
Sullivan's retreat on Rhode Island, but he is not on any roll. Penuel
Pond is among the minute-men , but there is no record of his
afterenlistment , or that he, as his grave-stone in the City Mills
cemetery says , " died 16 Dec. 17- in York harbor on board a
guardship , supposed to be poisoned by ye British doctors ."
There were at least seventeen Ponds from Franklin in the American
army, and how many of other names cannot now probably be determined .
