"A Witness of the First Revolutionary Conflict" - Lexington's Mary Munroe Sanderson

Recently, the Nerds were contacted by Ruth Hodges, one of the founding members of the Ladies Association of Revolutionary America (LARA). LARA is a progressive, researched-based 18th-century living history group that encourages, supports, and promotes increased women’s voices and stories at historical sites and events. We’ll be honest - the Nerds are super fans of the organization and everything they do.

Ruth brought a surviving mid-19th-century photograph of Mary Munroe Sanderson of Lexington to our attention. The picture was taken in 1852 when Mary was 103 years old. As far as the Nerds know, this is the only surviving image of a female participant of the Civilian Evacuation of April 19, 1775, and eyewitness to the day's horrors.

Mary Munroe Sanderson was born to William and Rebecca Munroe in Lexington on October 10, 1748. Genealogical research suggests she was unrelated to the Munroe clan that owned Munroe Tavern. Instead, she belonged to a family far lower on the town’s social ladder. According to Lexington’s 1771 tax valuation, Mary’s family was part of the 7th decline, with the 1st decline being the wealthiest of residents and the 10th being the poorest.

Like most Lexington girls, Mary would have attended a “female” or “dame” school to receive instruction on reading and writing. In 1747, the town voted to allow girls to enroll in its “grammar” school, which focused on Latin, Greek grammar, and other advanced subjects. (Massachusetts grammar schools were created to help boys prepare for possible admission to Harvard or another educational institution.) It is possible Mary also enrolled in the town’s grammar school, but realistically, by age twelve, her primary education was housekeeping skills. Her mother or another female role model would have taught her to utilize raw materials and transform them into the goods the family needed to thrive. They turned their hands to carding and spinning fibers, sewing, mending, and embroidery; cooking and preserving; doing laundry; nursing and producing home medicines; gardening and making candles and soap.

Growing up, she would have engaged in or witnessed youthful and mischievous activities like her Lexington counterparts. At age 9, Mary likely witnessed the older teenage boys and girls who engaged in wild behavior outside the town’s meeting house during Sunday meetings. The conduct was so bad that residents held a special town meeting and resolved that “strict and special care be taken to prevent all disorders among the children and youth in and about the Meeting House, as well as to prevent their doing damage upon the grass and fruits of those who live nigh the Meeting House.”

As a teenage girl and young woman, Mary would have participated in tavern dances or “frolics” and frequented Buckman, Munroe, and other Lexington taverns to consume alcohol and socialize with members of the opposite sex. Of course, the “sinful behavior” of Mary and other teens in the early 1760s caught the attention of both parents and the Reverend Jonas Clarke, who warned the younger members of his congregation to avoid “patterns of youthful behavior: night-walking, frolicking, company-keeping, carousing, merry meeting, dancing, and singing.”

In February 1768, a poor Waltham carpenter named Samuel Sanderson arrived and occupied Lexington. Almost immediately, the town’s selectmen warned Sanderson out. “Warning out” was a practice of notifying non-resident poor that if they could not support themselves, the town would not support them, forcing the poor to return to their town of origin.

By 1771, Sanderson was still among the landless poor. Because he owned no real estate or personal property, such as livestock, or furniture, he did not appear on the town’s 1771 tax valuation.

However, Sanderson’s fortune appears to have changed after he began to court Mary Munroe. On October 22, 1772, the pair married and purchased a simple one-story home located along the Bay Road adjacent to the Munroe Tavern. Sanderson continued his work as a carpenter and was often called upon to make coffins for those Lexington residents. According to both family tradition and historian Michael J. Canavan, “Her husband using the basement for a workshop … Mrs. Sanderson related that many a night she had held the candle while her husband stained the 'narrow house' of some departed neighbor or townsman."

In July 1774, Mary gave birth to the couple's first child, a boy named Amos. Between 1776 and 1782, she had five more children - three girls and two boys.

In late 1774 or early 1775, Samuel was elected a corporal of Captain John Parker’s Lexington Company of Militia. Given his skills as a carpenter, it is possible Sanderson was assisting Jonas Parker (also a carpenter) in cutting down the stocks of fowling pieces so the weapons could accept socket bayonets.

Yet, despite these accomplishments, Mary and Samuel were still economically below the “middling sorts” of Lexington society. A 1774 tax valuation placed the couple firmly in the 7th decile, slightly above the poor of the town.

Samuel Sanderson House, Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, c. 1900

Sometime after 11 PM on April 18, 1775, the Sandersons received word of a British expedition advancing from Boston toward Concord. Realizing that their home was located along the path of the regulars, Mary began to prepare to evacuate her family to safety. According to early to mid-19th-century accounts, as Samuel prepared for war, Mary, her infant child and a pre-teen girl, who likely was a neighbor's daughter who served as a “helper,” gathered family valuables and “by the light of a lantern piloted their way to a refuge, the home of her father in new Scotland.” (New Scotland was a section of Lexington, along the Woburn line and occupied by Scottish immigrants.)

Mary, her son, and the young helper remained at her father’s residence until the afternoon fighting had cleared. Given the proximity of her home to the Munroe Tavern and Percy’s relief force, one would expect that the Sanderson home would have been plundered, torched, or vandalized. However, neither Mary nor Samuel submitted any claims to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress or Legislature seeking compensation for theft or property damage.

However, according to Canavan, Mary’s home was, in fact, damaged by the regulars. “After the British retreated Mary returned home and found a good many things had been stolen. Her cow (which was a good part of her marriage portion) had been killed.” worse, “a wounded British soldier was stowed away in her bed.” Furious, Mary allegedly cried out, “I won’t have him there,” and asked her husband, “Why didn’t you knock him on the head?”

A late 19th-century account by a Lexington resident who  interviewed her before her death asserts Mary stated “'The Satanish critters,' she said, 'stole and destroyed everything in the house, and didn't leave rags enough to dress the wounds of their own man … over one hundred years of age, Mrs. Sanderson described with minuteness many articles of her wardrobe and household goods which were destroyed or missing, rarely failing to mention the cow, and that she was part of her marriage portion.”

Both accounts claim Mary refused to care for the wounded soldier and demanded he be removed from her home. Ultimately, the selectmen ordered Mary to care for the man.

Again, there is no direct evidence of Mary or Samuel caring for a wounded soldier. However, a review of Massachusetts legislative records from 1775 and 1776 revealed wounded British regulars treated by Lexington's residents, including a marine who received extended care before defecting to the American cause.

Mary and her husband remained in town for a few more years before moving to Lancaster, Massachusetts. According to the deed of sale, “In 1783, Samuel Sanderson in the town of Lexington, County of Middlesex, joiner, sold to Samuel Downing, wheelwright, once piece of property with a dwelling house, shop, and barn and one and one half acres.”

Mary and her family remained in Lancaster until Samuel passed in 1803. Afterward, she returned to Lexington. Sadly, it appears she may have outlived most, if not all, of her children. According to historian Heather Wilkinson Rojo, Mary suffered from acute arthritis in her later life. 

On September 23, 1852, the women of Lexington organized a fundraising party and successfully gathered over $300 in funds for her.

That same year, Mary Sanderson sat for the photograph that is the subject of this blog post.

On October 15, 1852, Mary passed at the age of 104 and was buried in the “Old Burying Ground” in Lexington. The engraving on her tombstone aptly describes her contributions to Lexington and the events of April 19, 1775:

Mary Munroe relict of Samuel Sanderson

Born in Lexington Oct 10, 1748

Died in East Lexington Oct 15, 1852

Age 104 years 5 days

A witness of the first revolutionary conflict, she recounted its trying scenes to the last. The vitality of her Christian faith was envinced by cheerfulness under severy bodily infirmity for more than twenty years.