that distinguished his brothers, unlike them chose the arts of peace
rather than those of war. He was born at Lancaster on January 12,
1731-2, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1752, ranking third in
the class. His wife was Elizabeth Rogers, daughter of the loyalist
minister of Littleton. His name was affixed to the address to Governor
Gage, June 21, 1774, and he was forced to sign, with the other justices,
a recantation of the aspersions cast upon the people in that address. He
has the distinction of being recorded by the leading statesman of the
Revolution--John Adams--as his personal friend. So popular was Abel
Willard and so well known his character as a peacemaker and well-wisher
to his country, that he might have remained unmolested and respected
among his neighbors in spite of his royalist opinions; but, whether led
by family ties or natural timidity, he sought refuge in Boston, and
quick-coming events made it impossible for him to return. At the
departure of the British forces for Halifax, he accompanied them. A
letter from Edmund Quincy to his daughter Mrs. Hancock, dated Lancaster,
March 26, 1776, contains a reference to him: ... "Im sorry for poor Mrs
Abel Willard your Sisters near neighbour & Friend. Shes gone we hear
with her husband and Bro and sons to Nova Scotia P'haps in such a
situation and under such circumstances of Offense respecting their
Wors'r Neighbours as never to be in a political capacity of returning to
their Houses unless w'th power & inimical views w'ch God forbid should
ever be ye Case."
In 1778, the act of proscription and banishment included Abel Willard's
name. His health gave way under accumulated trouble, and he died in
England in 1781.
The estates of Abijah and Abel Willard were confiscated. In the
Massachusetts Archives (cliv, 10) is preserved the anxious inquiry of
the town authorities respecting the proper disposal of the wealth they
abandoned.
_To the Honourable Provincial Congress now holden at Watertown in
the Proviance of the Massachusetts Bay._
We the subscribers do request and desire that you would be pleased
to direct or Inform this proviance in General or the town of
Lancaster in Partickeler what is best to be done with the Estates
of those men which are Gone from their Estates to General Gage and
to whose use they shall Improve them whether for the proviance or
the town where s'd Estate is.
EBENEZER ALLEN,
CYRUS FAIRBANK,
SAMLL THURSTON,
The Selectmen of Lancaster.
Lancaster June 7 day 1775.
The Provincial Congress placed the property in question in the hands of
the selectmen and Committee of Safety to improve, and instructed them to
report to future legislatures. Finally, Cyrus Fairbank is found acting
as the local agent for confiscated estates of royalists in Lancaster,
and his annual statements are among the archives of the State. His
accounts embrace the estates of "Abijah Willard, Esq., Abel Willard,
Esq., Solomon Houghton, Yeoman, and Joseph Moore Gent." The final
settlement of Abel Willard's estate, October 26, 1785, netted his
creditors but ten shillings, eleven pence to the pound. The claimants
and improvers probably swallowed even the larger estate of Abijah
Willard, leaving nothing to the Commonwealth.
Katherine, the wife of Levi Willard, was the sister, and Dorothy, wife
of Captain Samuel Ward, the daughter, of Judge John Chandler, "the
honest Refugee." These estimable and accomplished ladies lived but a
stone's throw apart, and after the death of Levi Willard there came to
reside with them an elder brother of Mrs. Ward, one of the most notable
personages in Lancaster during the Revolution. Clark Chandler was a
dapper little bachelor about thirty-two years of age, eccentric in
person, habits, and dress. Among other oddities of apparel, he was
partial to bright red small-clothes. His tory principles and
singularities called down upon him the jibes of the patriots among whom
his lot was temporarily cast, but his ready tongue and caustic wit were
sufficient weapons of defence. In 1774, as town clerk of Worcester, he
recorded a protest of forty-three royalist citizens against the
resolutions of the patriotic majority. This record he was compelled in
open town meeting to deface, and when he failed to render it
sufficiently illegible with the pen, his tormentors dipped his fingers
into the ink and used them to perfect the obliteration. He fled to
Halifax, but after a few months returned, and was thrown into Worcester
jail. The reply to his petition for release is in Massachusetts Archives
(clxiv, 205).
Colony of the Massachusetts Bay. By the Major part of the Council
of said Colony. Whereas Clark Chandler of Worcester has been
Confined in the Common Prison at Worcester for holding
Correspondence with the enemies of this Country and the said Clark
having humbly petitioned for an enlargement and it having been made
to appear that his health is greatly impaired & that the Publick
will not be endangered by his having some enlargement, and Samuel
Ward, John Sprague, & Ezekiel Hull having Given Bond to the Colony
Treasurer in the penal sum of one thousand Pounds, for the said
Clarks faithful performance of the order of Council for his said
enlargement, the said Clark is hereby permitted to go to Lancaster
when his health will permit, and there to continue and not go out
of the Limits of that Town, he in all Respects Conforming himself
to the Condition in said Bond contained, and the Sheriff of said
County of Worcester and all others are hereby Directed to permit
the said Clark to pass unmolested so long as he shall conform
himself to the obligations aforementioned. Given under our Hands at
ye Council Chambers in Watertown the 15 Day of Dec. Anno Domini
1775.
By their Honors Command,
James Prescott W'm Severs
Cha Channey B. Greenleaf
M. Farley W. Spooner
Moses Gill Caleb Cushing
J. Palmer J. Winthrop
Eldad Taylor John Whitcomb
B. White Jed'n Foster
B. Lincoln
Perez Morton
Dp't Sec'ry.
The air of Lancaster, which proved so salubrious to the pensioners of
the British government before named, grew oppressive to this tory
bachelor, as we find by a lengthy petition in Massachusetts Archives
(clxxiii, 546), wherein he begs for a wider range, and especially for
leave to go to the sea-shore. A medical certificate accompanies it.
LANCASTER, OCT. 25. 1777
This is to inform whom it may Concern that Mr. Clark Chandler now
residing in this Town is in such a Peculiar Bodily Indisposition as
in my opinion renders it necessary for him to take a short Trip to
the Salt Water in order to assist in recovering his Health.
JOSIAH WILDER Phn.
He was allowed to visit Boston, and to wander at will within the bounds
of Worcester County. He returned to Worcester, and there died in 1804.
Joseph Wilder, Jr., colonel, and judge of the court of common pleas of
Worcester County,--as his father had been before him,--was prominent
among the signers of the address to General Gage. He apologized for this
indiscretion, and seems to have received no further attention from the
Committee of Safety. In the extent of his possessions he rivaled Abijah
Willard, having increased a generous inheritance by the profits of very
extensive manufacture and export of pearlash and potash: an industry
which he and his brother Caleb were the first to introduce into America.
He was now nearly seventy years of age, and died in the second year of
the war.
Joseph House, at the evacuation of Boston, went with the army to
Halifax. He was a householder, but possessed no considerable estate in
Lancaster. In 1778, his name appears among the proscribed and banished.
The Lancaster committee of correspondence, July 17, 1775, published
Nahum Houghton as "an unwearied pedlar of that baneful herb tea," and
warned all patriots "to entirely shun his company and have no manner of
dealings or connections with him except acts of common humanity." A
special town meeting was called on June 30, 1777, chiefly "to act on a
Resolve of the General Assembly Respecting and Securing this and the
other United States against the Danger to which thay are Exposed by the
Internal Enemies Thereof, and to Elect some proper person to Collect
such evidence against such Persons as shall be demed by athority as
Dangerous persons to this and the other United States of America." At
this meeting Colonel Asa Whitcomb was chosen to collect evidence against
suspected loyalists, and Moses Gerrish, Daniel Allen, Ezra Houghton,
Joseph Moor, and Solomon Houghton, were voted "as Dangerous Persons and
Internal Enemies to this State." On September 12 of the same year,
apparently upon a report from Colonel Asa Whitcomb, it was voted that
Thomas Grant, James Carter, and the Reverend Timothy Harrington, "Stand
on the Black List." It was also ordered that the selectmen "Return a
List of these Dangerous Persons to the Clerk, and he to the Justice of
the Quorum as soon as may be." This action of the extremists seems to
have aroused the more conservative citizens, and another meeting was
called, on September 23, for the purpose of reconsidering this
ill-advised and arbitrary proscription, at which meeting the clerk was
instructed not to return the names of James Carter and the Reverend
Timothy Harrington before the regular town meeting in November.
Thomas Grant was an old soldier, having served in the French and Indian
War, and, if a loyalist, probably condoned the offence by enlisting in
the patriot army; his name is on the muster-roll of the Rhode Island
expedition in 1777, and in 1781 he was mustered into the service for
three years. He was about fifty years of age, and a poor man, for the
town paid bills presented "for providing for Tom Grant's Family."
Moses Gerrish was graduated at Harvard College in 1762, and reputed a
man of considerable ability. Enoch Gerrish, perhaps a brother of Moses,
was a farmer in Lancaster who left his home, was arrested and imprisoned
in York County, and thence removed for trial to Worcester by order of
the council, May 29, 1778. The following letter uncomplimentary to these
two loyalists is found in Massachusetts Archives (cxcix, 278).
Sir. The two Gerrishes Moses & Enoch, that ware sometime since
apprehended by warrant from the Council are now set at Libberty by
reason of that Laws Expiring on which they were taken up. I would
move to your Hon'rs a new warrant might Isue, Directed to Doc'r.
Silas Hoges to apprehend & confine them as I look upon them to be
Dangerous persons to go at large. I am with respect your Hon'rs.
most obedient Hum. Ser't.
JAMES PRESCOTT.
Groton 12 of July 1778.
To the Hon'e Jereh. Powel Esq.
An order for their rearrest was voted by the council. Moses Gerrish
finally received some position in the commissary department of the
British army, and, when peace was declared, obtained a grant of free
tenancy of the island of Grand Menan for seven years. At the expiration
of that time, if a settlement of forty families with schoolmaster and
minister should be established, the whole island was to become the
freehold of the colonists. Associated with Gerrish in this project was
Thomas Ross, of Lancaster. They failed in obtaining the requisite number
of settlers, but continued to reside upon the island, and there Moses
Gerrish died at an advanced age.
Solomon Houghton, a Lancaster farmer in comfortable circumstances,
fearing the inquisition of the patriot committee, fled from his home. In
1779, the judge of probate for Worcester County appointed commissioners
to care for his confiscated estate.
Ezra Houghton, a prosperous farmer, and recently appointed justice of
the peace, affixed his name to the address to General Gage in 1775, and
to the recantation. In May, 1777, he was imprisoned, under charge of
counterfeiting the bills of public credit and aiding the enemy. In
November following he petitioned to be admitted to bail (see
Massachusetts Archives, ccxvi, 129) and his request was favorably
received, his bail bond being set at two thousand pounds.
Joseph Moore was one of the six slave-owners of Lancaster in 1771,
possessed a farm and a mill, and was ranked a "gentleman." On September
20, 1777, being confined in Worcester jail, he petitioned for
enlargement, claiming his innocence of the charges for which his name
had been put upon Lancaster's black list. His petition met no favor, and
his estate was duly confiscated. (See Massachusetts Archives, clxxxiii,
160.)
At the town meeting on the first Monday in November, 1777, the names of
James Carter and Daniel Allen were stricken from the black list,
apparently without opposition. That the Reverend Timothy Harrington,
Lancaster's prudent and much-beloved minister, should be denounced as an
enemy of his country, and his name even placed temporarily among those
of "dangerous persons," exhibits the bitterness of partisanship at that
date. This town-meeting prosecution was ostensibly based upon certain
incautious expressions of opinion, but appears really to have been
inspired by the spite of the Whitcombs and others, whose enmity had been
aroused by his conservative action several years before in the church
troubles, known as "the Goss and Walley war," in the neighboring town of
Bolton. The Reverend Thomas Goss, of Bolton, Ebenezer Morse, of
Boylston, and Andrew Whitney, of Petersham, were classmates of Mr.
Harrington in the Harvard class of 1737, and all of them were opposed to
the revolution of the colonies. The disaffection, which, ignoring the
action of an ecclesiastical council, pushed Mr. Goss from his pulpit,
arose more from the political ferment of the day than from any advanced
views of his opponents respecting the abuse of alcoholic stimulants. For
nearly forty years Mr. Harrington had perhaps never omitted from his
fervent prayers in public assemblies the form of supplication for
divine blessing upon the sovereign ruler of Great Britain. It is not
strange, although he had yielded reluctant submission to the new order
of things, and was anxiously striving to perform his clerical duties
without offense to any of his flock, that his lips should sometimes
lapse into the wonted formula, "bless our good King George." It is
related that on occasions of such inadvertence, he, without embarrassing
pause, added: "Thou knowest, O Lord! we mean George Washington." In the
records of the town clerk, nothing is told of the nature of the charges
against Mr. Harrington, or of the manner of his defence. Two deacons
were sent as messengers "to inform the Rev'd Timo'o Harrington that he
has something in agitation Now to be Heard in this Meeting at which he
has Liberty to attend." Joseph Willard, Esq., in 1826, recording
probably the reminiscence of some one present at the dramatic scene,
says that when the venerable clergyman confronted his accusers, baring
his breast, he exclaimed with the language and feeling of outraged
virtue: "Strike, strike here with your daggers! I am a true friend to my
country!"
Among the manuscripts left by Mr. Harrington there is one prepared for,
if not read at, this town meeting, containing the charges in detail, and
his reply to each. It is headed: "Harrington's answers to ye Charges
&c." It is a shrewd and eloquent defence, bearing evidence, so far as
rhetoric can, that its author was in advance of his people and his times
in respect of Christian charity, if not of political foresight. The
charges were four in number: the first being that of the Bolton
Walleyites alleging that his refusal to receive them as church members
in regular standing brought him "under ye censure of shutting up ye
Kingdom of Heaven against men." To this, calm answer is given by a
review of the whole controversy in the Bolton Church, closing thus: "Mr.
Moderator, as I esteemed the Proceedings of these Brethren at Bolton
Disorderly and Schismatical, and as the Apostle hath given Direction to
mark those who cause Divisions and Offences and avoid them, I thought it
my Duty to bear Testimony against ye Conduct of both ye People at
Bolton, and those who were active in settling a Pastor over them in the
Manner Specified, and I still retain ye sentiment, and this not to shut
the Kingdom of Heaven against them, but to recover them from their
wanderings to the Order of the Gospel and to the direct way to the
Kingdom of Heaven. And I still approve and think them just."
The second charge, in full, was as follows:--
"It appears to us that his conduct hath ye greatest Tendency to subvert
our religious Constitution and ye Faith of these churches.--In his
saying that the Quebeck Bill was just--and that he would have done the
same had he been one of ye Parliament--and also saying that he was in
charity with a professed Roman Catholick, whose Principles are so
contrary to the Faith of these churches,--That for a man to be in
charity with them we conceive that it is impossible that he should be in
Charity with professed New England Churches. It therefore appears to us
that it would be no better than mockery for him to pretend to stand as
Pastor to one of these churches." To this Mr. Harrington first replies
by the pointed question: "Is not Liberty of Conscience and ye right of
judging for themselves in the matters of Religion, one grand professed
Principle in ye New England Churches; and one Corner Stone in their
Foundation?" He then explicitly states his abhorrence of "the
anti-Christian tenets of Popery," adding: "However on the other hand
they receive all the articles of the Athanasian Creed--and of
consequence in their present Constitution they have some Gold, Silver,
and precious stones as well as much wood, hay, and stubble." He
characterizes the accusation in this pithy paragraph: "Too much Charity
is the Charge here brought against me,--would to God I had still more of
it in ye most important sense. Instead of a Disqualification, it would
be a most enviable accomplishment in ye Pastor of a Protestant New
England Church." A sharp _argumentum ad hominem_, for the benefit of the
ultra-radical accuser closes this division of his defence. "But, Mr.
Moderator, if my charity toward some Roman Catholicks disqualified me
for a Protestant Minister, what, what must we think of ye honorable
Congress attending Mass in a Body in ye Roman Catholic Chappel at
Philadelphia? Must it not be equal mockery in them to pretend to
represent and act for the United Protestant States?" ...
The third charge was that he had declared himself and one of the
brethren to "be a major part of the Church." This, like the first
charge, was a revival of an old personal grievance within the church,
rehabilitated to give cumulative force to the political complaints. The
accusation is summarily disposed of; the accused condemning the
sentiment "as grossly Tyrannical, inconsistent with common sense and
repugnant to good order"; and denying that he ever uttered it.
Lastly came the political charge pure and simple.
"His despising contemning and setting at naught and speaking Evil of all
our Civil Rulers, Congress, Continental and Provincial, of all our
Courts, Legislative and Executive, are not only subversive of good
Order: But we apprehend come under Predicament of those spoken of in 2
Pet. II. 10, who despise government, presumptuous, selfwilled, they are
not afraid to speak evil of Dignities &c."
Mr. Harrington acknowledges that he once uttered to a Mr. North this
imprudent speech. "I disapprove abhor and detest the Results of Congress
whether Continental or Provincial," but adds that he "took the first
opportunity to inform Mr. North that I had respect only to two articles
in said Results." He apologizes for the speech, but at the same time
defends his criticism of the two articles as arbitrary measures. He also
confesses saying that "General Court had no Business to direct
Committees to seize on Estates before they had been Confiscated in a
course of Law," and "that their Constituents never elected or sent them
for that Purpose," but this sentiment he claimed that he had
subsequently retracted as rash and improper to be spoken. These
objectionable expressions of opinion, he asserts, were made "before ye
19th of April 1775."
It is needless to say that the Reverend Timothy Harrington's name was
speedily erased from the black list, and, to the credit of his people be
it said, he was treated with increased consideration and honor during
the following eighteen years that he lived to serve them. In the
deliberations of the Lancaster town meeting, as in those of the
Continental Congress, broad views of National Independence based upon
civil and religions liberty, finally prevailed over sectional prejudice
and intolerance. The loyalist pastor was a far better republican than
his radical inquisitors.
* * * * *
[Since the paper upon Lancaster and the Acadiens was published in The
Bay State Monthly for April, I have been favored with the perusal of
Captain Abijah Willard's "Orderly Book," through the courtesy of its
possessor, Robert Willard, M.D., of Boston, who found it among the
historical collections of his father, Joseph Willard, Esq. The volume
contains, besides other interesting matter, a concise diary of
experiences during the military expedition of 1755 in Nova Scotia; from
which it appears that the Lancaster company was prominently engaged in
the capture of Forts Lawrence and Beau Séjour. Captain Willard, though
not at Grand Pré, was placed in command of a detachment which carried
desolation through the villages to the westward of the Bay of Minas; and
the diary affords evidence that this warfare against the defenceless
peasantry was revolting to that gallant officer; and that, while
obedient to his positive orders, he tempered the cruelty of military
necessity with his own humanity.
The full names of his subalterns, not given in the list from General
Winslow's Journal, are found to be
"Joshua Willard, _Lieutenant_,
Moses Haskell, "
Caleb Willard, _Ensign_."
Of the Lancaster men, Sergeant James Houghton died, and William Hudson
was killed, in Nova Scotia.
The diary is well worthy of being printed complete.
H.S.M.]
* * * * *
LOUIS ANSART.
BY CLARA CLAYTON.
One of the notable citizens of Revolutionary times was Colonel Louis
Ansart. He was a native of France, and came to America in 1776, while
our country was engaged in war with England. He brought with him
credentials from high officials in his native country, and was
immediately appointed colonel of artillery and inspector-general of the
foundries, and engaged in casting cannon in Massachusetts. Colonel
Ansart understood the art to great perfection; and it is said that some
of his cannon and mortars are still serviceable and valuable. Foundries
were then in operation in Bridgewater and Titicut, of which he had
charge until the close of the Revolutionary War.
Colonel Ansart was an educated man--a graduate of a college in
France--and of a good family. It is said that he conversed well in seven
different languages.
His father purchased him a commission of lieutenant at the age of
fourteen years; and he was employed in military service by his native
country and the United States, and held a commission until the close of
the Revolutionary War, when he purchased a farm in Dracut and resided
there until his death. He returned to France three times after he first
came to this country, and was there at the time Louis XVI was arrested,
in 1789.
Colonel Ansart married Catherine Wimble, an American lady, of Boston,
and reared a large family in Dracut--in that portion of the town which
was annexed to Lowell in 1874. Atis Ansart, who still resides there, in
the eighty-seventh year of his age, is a son of Colonel Ansart; also
Felix Ansart, late of New London, Connecticut, and for twenty-four years
an officer of the regular army, at one time stationed at Fort Moultrie,
South Carolina, and afterwards at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he
remained eight years, and died in January, 1874.
There were five boys and seven girls. The boys were those above named,
and Robert, Abel, and Louis. The girls were Julia Ann, who married
Bradley Varnum; Fanny, who died in childhood; Betsey, who married
Jonathan Hildreth, moved to Ohio, and died in Dayton, in that State;
Sophia, who married Peter Hazelton, who died some twenty years ago,
after which she married a Mr. Spaulding; Harriet, who married Samuel N.
Wood, late of Lowell; Catherine, who married Mr. Layton; and Aline, who
died at the age of eighteen years.
Colonel Ansart was trained in that profession and in those times which
had a tendency to develop the sterner qualities, and was what would be
termed in these times a man of stern, rigid, and imperious nature. It is
said he never retired at night without first loading his pistols and
swinging them over the headboard of his bed.
After settling in Dracut,--and in his best days he lived in excellent
style for the times, kept a span of fine horses, rode in a sulky, and
"lived like a nabob,"--he always received a pension from the government;
but his habits were such that he never acquired a fortune, but spent his
money freely and enjoyed it as he went along.