In less than two years, the United States will be celebrating its 250th anniversary. As we await voters going to the polls to select our next president, it is a good time to reflect on the ideals put forward in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and to look at the steps the colonists took, as well as the progress made to achieve them.
Rochester like most colonial New England towns was split between those who felt royalty to both the King and England and those who wanted the autonomy to govern themselves. In town there was both a “Tory” tavern and a tavern for those wanting independence. The two were in close proximity to each other.
However, unlike many towns in Plymouth County, those seeking a split with England seemed to have been in the majority, and Rochester was more responsive to the letters of correspondence that came from the Boston Committee regarding resolutions protesting taxes among other actions of the British government. Town meeting in 1774 voted, “to sign a covenant to break off trade with Great Britain until the Boston Port Bill is repealed”. It was also decided to purchase additional firearms and to increase the supply of flints, lead and gun powder. Another vote was taken to pick officers to command military companies and for a company of at least a hundred minutemen (so called) to, “attend Three Half Days in each week” to train.
Two hundred and fifty years ago on September 26, 1774, a group of young men from Rochester gathered and marched toward Barnstable County. Along the way, they were joined by a large group from Wareham. From the other direction a similar group from Plymouth and Sandwich marched, and the two groups merged at the County Court in Barnstable on September 27. Their goal was to prevent the Inferior Court of Common Pleas from meeting. It must have been quite the sight to see the two groups of marching men coming together, surrounding the courthouse and preventing the Court Justices from entering.
Their announced reason for this protest was that “the method of drawing jurors by the sheriff instead of out of a box at town meeting put in jeopardy the rights of the people”. Their real mission was to break up the County Court in order to “destroy” a way through which business would be able to pass to the higher courts which were under the control of the King.
After preventing the Court session and forcing the judges to, “sign certain pledges”, they then held a “political meeting” where it was resolved “to boycott certain goods and to suppress peddlers who sold Bohea tea”. The men then dispersed and returned home.
So, on September 26, take a moment to think about this 250 year old event and how peaceful protest pushed forward the cause of independence.
By Connie Eshbach