Mrs. David Wright's Guard | |
---|---|
Active | April 1775 |
Country | United States |
Allegiance | Patriots |
Type | All-woman militia |
Role | Guarded the Nashua River crossings |
Size | 30-40 women |
Garrison/HQ | Pepperell, Massachusetts |
Patron | Prudence Cummings Wright |
Engagements | American Revolutionary War |
Commanders | |
Current commander | Prudence Cummings Wright |
Mrs. David Wright's Guard was an all-woman militia raised by the Patriots in Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War. The Guard were an armed force of 30 to 40 women who guarded the Nashua River crossings to prevent the movement of Loyalist couriers.
The Guard was raised in Pepperell, Massachusetts shortly after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775 and was composed entirely of women, the men having been called away to fight at the Battle of Concord. [1] It was named after Prudence Cummings Wright, who formed the unit on her own initiative and was elected its first captain and commander. [1] [2] Wright was a 35-year-old mother of six whose husband David was a private in the Massachusetts militia. She was born in nearby Hollis, New Hampshire and was very familiar with the town; her father had been town clerk for 22 years and she visited regularly. [1] She was visiting her mother in Hollis when she overheard her two brothers talking to Loyalist Leonard Whiting, and she discovered that he was planning to meet with British spies near Groton, Massachusetts; they were travelling from Canada and Whiting was to guide them to Boston. [3]
Wright returned to Pepperell and hastily formed a militia from her female friends. [3] She chose Sarah Shattuck from Groton to be her lieutenant, [2] and the guard numbered between 30 and 40 women from the local area. [2]
One night, the Guard were dressed in men's clothing and armed with guns and pitchforks, stationed at Jewett's Bridge over the Nashua River between Pepperell and Groton. [1] [2] [3] They were hidden by a curve in the road and were able to surprise a horseman attempting to cross the river [3] who proved to be Leonard Whiting. [2] [3] They captured him and found incriminating papers, and they detained him overnight in Solomon Rodgers' tavern in Pepperell. [4] [1] [2] Whiting was delivered to the Groton Committee of Safety the next day. [1] [2] The papers were sent to the Committee of Safety in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [3]
The militia was not paid by the state, as its members were all women. However a Pepperell town committee granted funds to the members of the Guard in 1777 in compensation for their service. [5]
Dunstable is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,358 at the 2020 census.
East Pepperell is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Pepperell in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 2,120 at the 2020 census.
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Hollis is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 8,342 at the 2020 census, growing 9% from the 2010 population of 7,684. The town center village is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Hollis Village Historic District.
William Prescott was an American colonel in the Revolutionary War who commanded the patriot forces in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Prescott is known for his order to his soldiers, "Do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes", such that the rebel troops may shoot at the enemy at shorter ranges, and therefore more accurately and lethally, and so conserve their limited stocks of ammunition. It is debated whether Prescott or someone earlier coined this memorable saying.
Groton is a town in northwestern Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, within the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The population was 11,315 at the 2020 census. It is home to two prep schools: Lawrence Academy at Groton, founded in 1792 and the third-oldest private school in Massachusetts; and Groton School, founded in 1884.
The Nashua River, 37.5 miles (60.4 km) long, is a tributary of the Merrimack River in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the United States. It is formed in eastern Worcester County, Massachusetts, at the confluence of the North Nashua River and South Nashua River, and flows generally north-northeast past Groton to join the Merrimack at Nashua, New Hampshire. The Nashua River watershed occupies a major portion of north-central Massachusetts and a much smaller portion of southern New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Route 111 is a 50.027-mile-long (80.511 km) east–west highway in Hillsborough and Rockingham counties in southeastern New Hampshire. The road runs from the Massachusetts border at Hollis to North Hampton on the Atlantic shore.
The Nashua River Rail Trail is a 12.5-mile (20.1 km) paved mixed-use rail trail in northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire under control of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). It roughly follows the course of the Nashua River, passing through the towns of Ayer, Groton, Pepperell, and Dunstable, Massachusetts and ends about a mile across the New Hampshire state border in Nashua, New Hampshire. The trail is used by walkers, cyclists, inline skaters, equestrians, and cross-country skiers.
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Job Shattuck was a British colonial soldier during the Seven Years' War and a member of the Massachusetts state militia during the American Revolutionary War. He first served with the British in the 1755 Battle of Fort Beauséjour. He was later active at the Siege of Boston in 1776 and then in preparing defenses at Mt. Independence and Ft. Ticonderoga later that year.
Pepperell is a census-designated place (CDP) comprising the main village in the town of Pepperell in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 2,390 at the 2020 census, out of 11,604 in the entire town of Pepperell.
Pepperell is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,604 at the 2020 census. It includes the village of East Pepperell. Pepperell is home to the Pepperell Center Historic District, a covered bridge, and the 1901 Lawrence Library. The library has a collection of Sidney M. Shattuck's (1876–1917) stuffed birds.
Sheila Curran Harrington is an American politician and attorney. She represented the 1st Middlesex district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 2011 until February 2022, when she resigned to take up the position of Clerk Magistrate of the Gardner District Court. She is a member of the Republican party.
Prudence "Pru" Cummings Wright was a militia commander during the American Revolutionary War.
This is a timeline of women in warfare in the United States before 1900.This list includes women who served in the United States Armed Forces in various roles. It also includes women who have been Warriors and fighters in other types of conflicts that have taken place in the United States. This list should also encompass women who served in support roles during military and other conflicts in the United States before the twentieth century.
Deane Winthrop was the sixth son of the English Puritan colonist John Winthrop, a founder and the 2nd, 6th, 9th and 12th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His mother was Margaret Tyndal. He was named after his mother's half-brother, Sir John Deane. He outlived all of his full and half-siblings. There is no known portrait of him.
Anna Maria Lane was the first documented female soldier from Virginia to fight with the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. She dressed as a man and accompanied her husband on the battlefield, and was later awarded a pension for her courage in the Battle of Germantown.
Harriette R. Shattuck was an American author, parliamentarian, teacher of parliamentary law, and pioneer suffragist. Shattuck served as assistant clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1872, being the first woman to hold such a position. She wrote several books, including The Story of Dante's Divine Comedy (1887), Our Mutual Friend: A Comedy in Four Acts, Dramatized from Charles Dickens (1880), The "national" Method (1880), Marriage, Its Dangers and Duties (1882), Little Folks East and West (1891), Woman's Manual of Parliamentary Law (1891), The Woman's Manuel of Parliamentary Law (1895), Shattuck's Advanced Rules for Large Assemblies (1898), Our Mutual Friend: A Comedy, in Four Acts (1909), and Shattuck's Parliamentary Answers, Alphabetically Arranged (1915).