As you may recall, we noted that Massachusetts colonial laws required men between the ages of sixteen and sixty to serve in their local militia company. Every town maintained at least one militia company, and the units were organized into county-level regiments based on location within the geographic jurisdiction.
Within this militia system were the alarm lists. Alarm lists were essentially the "home guard" or the last line of defense for a community. Generally speaking, most alarm list members were over sixty. However, we have seen hints that some Middlesex and Essex County communities transferred men as young as fifty-five into the alarm list.
In addition to “older” males, alarm lists often included male residents between the ages of sixteen and sixty who did not serve in the town’s militia system. Most likely, these would have included males who were temporarily infirm or disabled or men ordered by the selectmen to serve in the alarm lists.
As we previously mentioned, by 1776, Massachusetts had revised its militia laws. It reduced the age of those men eligible to serve within the alarm list from sixty to fifty and capped service at sixty-five. Those over sixty-five were excused from any form of service.
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| Photo Credit: Tommy Tringale |
However, this wasn’t the first time the age of alarm list men was reduced. In conjunction with Minute Man National Park, the Nerds have been researching the role of alarm lists during the Battles of Lexington and Concord. We recently came across evidence of several towns in 1775 reducing the requisite age for a militiaman to be transferred to an alarm list. From the documentation we’ve reviewed, the typical age was decreased to at least fifty-five, although we have seen a reduction as low as fifty.
For example, at a town meeting in March 1775, Billerica approved a resolution to form a committee to “perfect the alarm List; the Rule to go by is, all above the age of fifty-five." Newton reorganized its alarm list in April 1775. Several thirty-seven men in the reserve unit were between fifty-five and fifty-nine. Five were between the ages of fifty and fifty-four. Chelsea, Methuen, and Medfield reduced their alarm list ages to fifty in 1775.
This brings us to Lexington’s Alarm List. Based on surviving records, there is some evidence that its alarm list age had also been reduced to at least fifty-five. Minute Man National Park and the Nerds have examined the role of alarm lists and artillery. There is evidence that in 1775, several communities, including Westborough and Concord, were turning recently acquired iron guns over to alarm lists to be used by them in the event hostilities broke out with England. In short, the alarm lists were being converted into artillery units, at least on paper.
Lexington was no exception. When it acquired a pair of iron cannons in 1774, it formed a committee charged with repairing the gun and mounting it onto a carriage. The entire committee comprised men between fifty-five and seventy, implying that Lexington’s alarm list would serve as an artillery unit if an armed conflict began.
Of course, Lexington’s cannons never saw action on April 19, 1775. This is likely due to the guns not being fully repaired or lacking ammunition. Instead, elements of the alarm list joined Parker’s Company on the town common immediately before the Battle of Lexington.
So, what do we know about Lexington’s alarm list? According to the Reverend William Gordon, the alarm list mustered in full force with Parker’s Company shortly after midnight.
According to the minister, “Before Major Pitcairn arrived at Lexington signal guns had been fired, and the bells had been rung to give the alarm: Lexington being alarmed, the train band or militia, and the alarm men (consisting of the aged and others exempted from turning out, excepting upon an alarm) repaired in general to the common, close in with the Meeting house, the usual place of parade; and these were present when the roll was called over, about one hundred and thirty of both, as I was told by Mr. Daniel Harrington, Clerk to the company, who further said, that the night being chilly, so as to make it uncomfortable being upon the parade, they having received no certain intelligence of the regulars being upon the march, and being waiting for the same, the men were dismissed to appear again at the beat of drum. Some who lived near went home, others to the public house at the corner of the common.”
The Nerds suspect that upon Parker dismissing his men, many of the alarm list men rushed home to assist their families in evacuating from the British line of march. While there may have been an intention to return, some may have elected to watch over their families, while others were incapable of returning due to familial commitments.
For example, at a town meeting in March 1775, Billerica approved a resolution to form a committee to “perfect the alarm List; the Rule to go by is, all above the age of fifty-five." Newton reorganized its alarm list in April 1775. Several thirty-seven men in the reserve unit were between fifty-five and fifty-nine. Five were between the ages of fifty and fifty-four. Chelsea, Methuen, and Medfield reduced their alarm list ages to fifty in 1775.
This brings us to Lexington’s Alarm List. Based on surviving records, there is some evidence that its alarm list age had also been reduced to at least fifty-five. Minute Man National Park and the Nerds have examined the role of alarm lists and artillery. There is evidence that in 1775, several communities, including Westborough and Concord, were turning recently acquired iron guns over to alarm lists to be used by them in the event hostilities broke out with England. In short, the alarm lists were being converted into artillery units, at least on paper.
Lexington was no exception. When it acquired a pair of iron cannons in 1774, it formed a committee charged with repairing the gun and mounting it onto a carriage. The entire committee comprised men between fifty-five and seventy, implying that Lexington’s alarm list would serve as an artillery unit if an armed conflict began.
Of course, Lexington’s cannons never saw action on April 19, 1775. This is likely due to the guns not being fully repaired or lacking ammunition. Instead, elements of the alarm list joined Parker’s Company on the town common immediately before the Battle of Lexington.
So, what do we know about Lexington’s alarm list? According to the Reverend William Gordon, the alarm list mustered in full force with Parker’s Company shortly after midnight.
According to the minister, “Before Major Pitcairn arrived at Lexington signal guns had been fired, and the bells had been rung to give the alarm: Lexington being alarmed, the train band or militia, and the alarm men (consisting of the aged and others exempted from turning out, excepting upon an alarm) repaired in general to the common, close in with the Meeting house, the usual place of parade; and these were present when the roll was called over, about one hundred and thirty of both, as I was told by Mr. Daniel Harrington, Clerk to the company, who further said, that the night being chilly, so as to make it uncomfortable being upon the parade, they having received no certain intelligence of the regulars being upon the march, and being waiting for the same, the men were dismissed to appear again at the beat of drum. Some who lived near went home, others to the public house at the corner of the common.”
The Nerds suspect that upon Parker dismissing his men, many of the alarm list men rushed home to assist their families in evacuating from the British line of march. While there may have been an intention to return, some may have elected to watch over their families, while others were incapable of returning due to familial commitments.
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| List of some of the alarm list me from Newton, Massachusetts c. 1775 |
According to statistical research by historian David Hackett Fischer, when Parker mustered his men for a second time shortly before the Battle of Lexington, almost a dozen of the seventy-seven men were from the alarm list. Ensign Robert Munroe, who was sixty-three years old, was the senior-most alarm list officer present. He was also one of three alarm list men who were killed that day, the other two being Jonas Parker, who was shot and bayonetted on the green, and Jedediah Munroe, who was wounded at the morning engagement and killed at Parker’s Revenge that afternoon.
Parker regrouped his battered company and the alarm list in the aftermath of the Battle of Lexington and successfully motivated them to re-enter the fight with over one hundred men. It is likely that a significant portion of the alarm list joined the fight at “Parker’s Revenge” and continued to pursue the British regulars as they retreated toward Boston.
The Nerds are still compiling a running list of men who qualified for Lexington’s alarm list. We will keep you posted with what we find!
Parker regrouped his battered company and the alarm list in the aftermath of the Battle of Lexington and successfully motivated them to re-enter the fight with over one hundred men. It is likely that a significant portion of the alarm list joined the fight at “Parker’s Revenge” and continued to pursue the British regulars as they retreated toward Boston.
The Nerds are still compiling a running list of men who qualified for Lexington’s alarm list. We will keep you posted with what we find!
Great account, thank you Alex!
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