(Minutemen. Dunstable, Massachusetts)

A group of 2 documents relative to the organization of Minutemen in the town of Dunstable, Massachusetts, 1775 and Leonard Butterfield's original commission in the British Massachusetts Militia, ca. 1760, comprising:



Manuscript document, one page (13 3/8 x 8 1/4 in.; 342 x 210 mm), in the hand of Leonard Butterfield, [Dunstable, Massachusetts], 1 March 1775, being a Minuteman oath forming the company to serve for a span of six months, signed by Leonard Butterfield and 26 others; document split in several places along fold creases. — Manuscript document, one sheet (13 x 16 1/4 in.; 330 x 413 mm), Dunstable, Massachusetts, 19 April 1775, being the muster roll of the Minuteman of that town under the command of Captain Leonard Butterfield, signed by Butterfield and 37 others; a few fold separations.  — Manuscript document, one partial sheet (13 x 16 1/4 in.; 330 x 413 mm), [Boston], n.d. [ca. March, 1760], being a military commission appointing Leonard Butterfield and Ensign in the Regiment of Colonel Joseph Ingersoll; lower right quadrant with signature of Gov. Francis Bernard lacking, some offsetting and fading, several crease fold separations.

The terms militia and minutemen are sometimes used interchangeably today,  but in the eighteenth century there was distinction between the two. Militia were men in arms formed to protect their towns from foreign invasion. Minutemen were a small hand-picked elite force which were required to be highly mobile and able to assemble in a moment's notice. They were selected from militia muster rolls by their commanding officers. Usually about one quarter or one third of the militia served as Minutemen, and were the first armed militia to arrive or await a battle. Although the term was used as early as 1756, the name formally appeared in Massachusetts a year before the American Revolution started.  Typically 25 years of age or younger, they were chosen for their reliability, and physical strength. 

In February of 1775 Concord was one of the first towns to comply with the order to create Minutemen companies out of the militia. Of approximately 400 militia from Concord's muster rolls, one hundred would also serve as Minutemen.  

The Dunstable, Massachusetts, oath was drawn up on 1 March 1775, and signed by 27 men from the village. Some, such as the Butterfields, Frenches, and Kendalls, descended from the settlers who founded the town in the mid-sixteenth century. At the head of the signatories is Leonard Butterworth whose ca. 1760 military commission in the British Army is present in the lot. Butterworth became Captain of the Dunstable minutemen, no doubt owing to his experience in the British military.

The Dunstable minutemen muster roll contains the names of 38 men, of which 22 are from the original oath.  The column "Date of Entrance into Service" is dated 19 April 1775.  When a battle took place minutemen companies from several towns combined their units. No doubt the men of Dunstable joined in the conflict that fateful day at Concord and Lexington, some 15 miles away.

Many of the Dunstable minutemen saw battle soon after at Bunker Hill in June, 1775. Ebenezer and Eleazar French participated in the conflict. Eleazar had an arm shot off, which he retrieved and carried off the bloody field as a trophy of his courage. Eighteen-year-old Jonas French and his brother William, while dodging gunfire from the man-of-war  Glasgow, rescued Captain Henry Farwell of the neighboring town of Groton and carried the badly wounded officer to safety. Both brothers served throughout the war and lived to a venerable, advanced age. Others on the muster—Jesse, Leonard, and Philip Butterfield; Zebedee Kendall; John Marsh; John Perham; Lemuel Scott; and Jonathan Woodward—are recorded as serving in the Continental army through 1778 (A History of The Town of Dunstable, Massachusetts, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Year of Our Lord 1873, p. 114–125 passim).

Documents regarding the Lexington and Concord alarms are scarce. One two others, one dated 19 April by Colonel Isaac Merrill and another muster roll by Sergeant David Hartwell, have surfaced at auction in 1990 and 2005.