Palmer, Joseph

Autograph note signed ("J.Palmer"), on a slip of paper (5 1/4 x 6 1/2 in.; 134 x 165 mm), Watertown, Massachusetts, Wednesday morning at 8 o'clock, [19 April 1775], addressed "To all whom it may concern" [i.e., the citizens of Watertown], reporting that the British regulars killed six men near the Lexington meeting house; browned, edges unevenly torn. Grey cloth chemise, grey cloth folding case, taupe morocco spine, taupe and tan lettering pieces; top lettering piece spotted.

Early news of the battle of Lexington. "To all whom it may concern, be it known, that the Regular Troops have this morning kill'd six men near Lexington Meeting House; this news is bro^t to Watertown by Mr Sanger, who told me that he saw the men lie dead." An important member of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, General Joseph Palmer, had been waiting at Watertown, some eight miles south of Lexington, for news of the British regulars at Watertown.  He had been warned about the impending march by one of the scores of alarm riders who had seen Revere's signal and had left his horse saddled in the barn and gone to bed. The first news of the Lexington battle was brought to him around 8 A.M. by a drum-beating messenger early in the morning, and he rushed out to spread the alarm. The confrontation at Lexington had begun shortly before dawn. All told, eight colonists were killed that fateful morning: John Brown, Samuel Hadley, Caleb Harrington, Jonathan Harrington, Robert Munroe, Isaac Muzzey, Asahel Porter, and Jonas Parker. Jonathan Harrington, fatally wounded by a British musket ball, managed to crawl back to his home, and died on his own doorstep.