This is the final posting on the life and times of Benjamin Whipple, a native of Ipswich, Mass. who grew up in Westborough and began his married life in Hardwick, both in Worcester Co. Mass., and was among the first settlers of Bennington and Rutland Co., Vermont.  It includes details of his extensive service in the Revolutionary War and his five terms in the Vermont legislature when it functioned as an independent nation before being admitted to the Union as its 14th state in March 1791.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR SERVICE

Ben had extensive Revolutionary War service and is found on various payrolls for seven Alarms and twice as Muster Master between 1777 and 1782.  His sons Nehemiah and David served with him in four of those Alarms and son Jonathan in one.  His first period of service was in Capt. John Warner’s company in Lieut. Col. Herrick’s reg’t of Rangers.  There were 40 men in the company and Ben served 108 days entering August 18 and discharged December 3, 1777.  He was paid £3 12 shillings.  He was in Capt. Simeon Wright’s company in Col. Gideon Warren’s reg’t of militia November 7-13 1778. (more…)

Benjamin Whipple moved his family to Rutland county either shortly before or after Vermont became an independent state in 1777.  Hepzibah died May 10, 1779 making Ben a widower for his last 27 years.   He purchased 100 acres from James Mead, Rutland’s first settler, in 1778 in an area which became known as Whipple Hollow.  Located in the Otter Creek Valley near the loftiest peaks of the Green Mountains, it was a favorite route for Indian travel and was rich beaver country.  Its Charter was issued by New Hampshire Governor Wentworth September 7, 1761, three years before the end of the French and Indian War.

The first Proprietor’s meeting for which records exist was the second Tuesday in October 1773.  Little public business of importance was conducted between 1775-80.   It had 134 freeholders in 1780 including Benjamin and sons Nehemiah and David.  Ben was listed fourth in the freeholder list.  He was elected Selectman in 1782, and 1783 and occasionally served as Pro-Tem Clerk.

The county was incorporated February 22, 1781 and included practically all of the western half of the state north of Bennington county.  Ben was among the first county officers serving as Assistant (side) Judge at the first Session of the County Court.  He served in this position from 1781-86.  Side Judges assisted the Chief Judge of the Superior Court.  In addition to the Chief Judge, any three of the Side Judges could hold Court.

Most of the early judges were not educated in law but possessed influence in their own neighborhoods because of their talent in transacting ordinary business.  John A. Graham, the first Acting Attorney in Vermont, was admitted to the Bar in 1785, the year he moved to Rutland.  He was 21. (more…)

Benjamin Whipple, my great (4) grandfather, was born 23 April 1727 in Ipswich, Mass. died 30 April 1806 in Whipple Hollow, Rutland Co., Vermont.  He married Hepzibah Crosby 7 August 1749 at Westborough, Mass. He served in the French & Indian War from Hardwick, Mass., was an early settler in Bennington, Vermont where he became an Esquire and an early settler in Rutland, Vermont.  A farmer, he served as selectman, town moderator, constable, county judge and five terms in the Vermont legislature.  He helped draft Bennington’s Declaration of Freedom and served in the Revolutionary War.

He was seven when the family moved to Westborough, Mass. where he spent the next 15 years of his life working on his father’s farm, his grandfather’s farm and corn mill, and assisting their neighbors Rev. Ebenezer Parkman with a variety of chores on his farm. (more…)

In May 1774, parliament voted to close the port of Boston and named General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief of British armed forces in North America and governor. Then parliament passed two additional Acts that insured there would be a rebellion.

The first provided that no officer of the Crown would have to stand trial in Massachusetts for murders committed in the line of duty. If soldiers fired into crowds of rioters, as they did in the Boston Massacre in March 1770, they would not be subject to local juries. American Whigs called it “The Murder Act,” since it appeared to sanction the killing of civilians. (more…)

The year 1774 saw major changes in Massachusetts provincial government; changes that led to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War two years later. In that year, Whipples families lived in the Worcester County towns of Westborough, Grafton, New Braintree, Sutton, and Hardwick and their county was a leader in replacing British rule in the colony.

Massachusetts was agrarian, except for seaport towns. Westborough, for example, was a community of small property owners. Farms were 50 to 100 acres and the average family possessed a riding horse, a pair of oxen, two or three milk cows, a few steers, heifers, sheep, and poultry. Though living in the countryside, they belonged to the town where they worshiped, discussed politics, drilled with the militia, and bought goods or services. They came together every March in the Meeting House to elect officers for the year – selectmen, a treasurer, clerk, constable, tighingman, road surveyor, fence viewer, hog reeve, deer reeve, hay warden, etc. — and to conduct community business. Additional meetings could be called by the selectmen or by a petition from 10 citizens. Adult males came to town for Militia days. (more…)

Capt. Thomas Whipple was born in the Hamlet, Essex Co., Mass. 21 October 1731 and died 30 January 1811 in New Braintree, Worcester Co., Mass., at 79 years of age. He married Martha Higgins in Westborough, Worcester Co., Mass., 17 June 1755. She died 9 February 1811 in New Braintree, Both are buried in Evergreen Cemetery. His stone remains, most of hers is missing.
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The second son of Francis and Abigail, he was about three when the family moved to Westborough. He was about 27 when he moved his family to New Braintree where their third child, Abigail, was born August 9, 1758. (more…)

SHAY’ REBELLION

The last major event of Francis and Abigail’s long life was Shays’ Rebellion, an armed outbreak by debtor farmers in western Massachusetts. The rebellion occurred in Francis’ final year of life and Abigail lived for 12 more years. Most of the activity took place in Worcester County and was directed against the Courts for seizing debtor farmers’ property and sending them to prison for debt. Many were “honored veterans” of the Revolution whose Army experiences for many was a famous school of democratic ideas. The uprising followed years of fruitless appeals for relief from the heavy taxes imposed by an unsympathetic state government to retire state debt. No helping hand was extended to keep the ruined head of a household from the Tax Collector or creditor’s clutches. The law was merciless in collecting taxes.

Following a riot at the Court of Common Pleas and Court of General Sessions at Northampton in Hampshire County, the insurgents pledged a repeat performance September 5, 1786 at the Worcester Court House. Governor James Bowdoin ordered Major-General Jonathan Warner of Hardwick to be ready to quell the riot and assist High Sheriff Greenleaf by furnishing any militia he might request. Warner had to tell the Governor that the militia was reluctant to support the government. He said many members flatly refused to serve and others evaded or delayed. “This statement of the affairs at Worcester, however painful and disagreeable to relate,” he wrote, “is the plain truth.” He asked for other instructions on how to proceed at “this unhappy crisis.” (more…)

Francis’ Post Legislative Activity

In 1772 a rumor was circulating throughout the Province that Great Britain had decided to pay the salaries of Colonial Judges of the Superior Court of Judicature. The Whigs believed the purpose of the new policy was to appoint corrupt officials who would “. . . enslave & oppress our honest people.” On October 14, 1772, Boston Whigs circulated a petition calling for a Town Meeting so the people could speak their minds on judges’ stipends. Their petition said no “free people” could tolerate such a “judiciary constitution;” that it would complete the “Ruin of our Liberties.”

At the Town Meeting October 30, Samuel Adams’ motion was passed unanimously:

That a Committee of Correspondence be appointed to consist of twenty-one persons — to state the rights of the colonists, and of this Province in particular, as Men, as Christians, and as Subjects; to communicate and publish the same to the several Towns in this Province and to the world as the sense of this town, with the Infringements and Violations thereof that have been, or from time to time may be made –
Also requesting of each Town a free communication of their Sentiments on this Subject. (more…)

Phips’ first Address to the House was November 23, 1749. He reported that a successful treaty had been negotiated with the eastern Indians at Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) on September 27 and suggested the House encourage “industrious and well disposed Protestant foreigners” to settle in the Province. The House responded on January 15, 1750 by voting to send a ship to the north part of Ireland and bring back not less than 300 nor more than 550 “foreign Protestants of which number there shall be at least thirty families.” Two days later it authorized a Committee to lay out 53 house-lots of 10 to 12 acres each in the westernmost townships for the new settlers. Fifty settlers were to be admitted with the remaining lots for the Minister, the Meeting House and the School House “as near the center of the township as may be with convenience.”

Inhabitants living at West-Wing, Braintree-Farms and Hardwick petitioned to be made a distinct and separate district or township on June 14, 1749. They were instructed to print their petition in the Boston Gazette for three weeks successively and return the second Wednesday of the next sitting of the Court to see if the petition would be granted. The petition was read in the House on August 9 and considered on March 28, 1750 when a Committee was authorized to review the petition and report to the House in May.

On June 17 Francis was voted an appropriation of £15 to be used on behalf of Sarah Furbush, widow of Phineas Furbush, late of Westborough. Sarah petitioned the Court for assistance based on her husband being taken captive by the French and Indians at Fort Massachusetts and died in Canada. Col. John Chandler of Worcester County and Col. Joseph Heath were elected Commissioners to “redeem our captives in the hands of the French and Indians” in Canada on August 16 (more…)

Francis Whipple, son of Jonathan, great grandson of Matthew, Jr., and my great (5) grandfather, was baptized November 4,1705 in Ipswich, Mass. and died July 2, 1787 in New Braintree, Worcester Co. He married Abigail Lamson at Ipswich May 11, 1726. She was the grand daughter of Abigail (Dane) Faulkner who was convicted of being a witch during the Salem wITCH Trials of 1692.
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They moved their family to Westborough by January 6, 1734 the day they joined the Evangelical Congregational Church by letter. Massachusetts was then divided into five regions. Worcester County, the near frontier, was the least populated, the least important, and probably the poorest. Virtually inaccessible, it imported little and exported less. By the outbreak of the Revolution, it was tenth in population among Worcester County towns with roads laid out to the Whipple corn mill and to the saw mill. During its first 100 years the town was not on any stage line. A turnpike, built in 1810, finally gave it a direct line of travel.

Francis was 29 and Abigail 26 when they left the Hamlet at Ipswich. The family consisted of sons Benjamin, 7 and Thomas, 3 and daughter Lucy, 4. A fourth child born in Ipswich had died before the move. Seven children were born in Westborough. They lived to see the birth of 41 grandchildren, seven of whom preceded them in death. (more…)