Weston, Massachusetts, was the last stopping point on the road to Cambridge and Charlestown for some of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's British and German troops. The Convention Army arrived there after three weeks on the march, following their surrender at Saratoga on October 17, 1777.
Weston (not to be confused with what was the town of "Western" in 1777, and is Warren, Massachusetts, today) was ten miles from the barracks assigned to the troops of the Convention Army on Prospect Hill and Winter Hill in Charlestown. Weston was a part of Watertown until it was separately incorporated in 1713. The town's first European settlers arrived in 1642. In 1765 the town's population was 768 residents. A decade earlier there were nineteen enslaved persons. [1] In 1777 it was home to several taverns, including the one pictured below run by Josiah Smith, which is home to the town's Historical Commission and Historical Society, and another run by the innkeeper Isaac Jones, which is open to the public as the Golden Ball Tavern Museum; and at least one leaky stable.
Burgoyne's British soldiers reached Weston on November 5, 1777. Some passed through and stopped in Waltham and Watertown, to the east. Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett noted in his diary that after leaving Sudbury:
“[Nov.] 5 Wedny. Marched to Watertown, 5 miles from Cambridge.” [2] Fellow guard Private David How likely trailed him, as on the same day he recorded
“[Nov.] 5 This Day we march’d [from Sudbury] Through Westton. at Night we Staid at Walth Ham.” [3]
Several British officers appear to have stayed in Weston on November 5th, including British Ensign Thomas Anburey who wrote of the Jones tavern: "The last town we left, before our arrival in this place, was Westown [sic], where we found the most convenient inn of any on the road, it is equal to most in England, the rooms commodious, provisions good, and servants attentive...", and another from the 47th Regiment of Foot who noted that after a twenty mile march on November 5th, they stopped in Weston. [4]
Burgoyne's German troops arrived the following day. It would be their last night on the road, following an unpleasant day's march, one noting: "Nov. 6 It rained very hard the whole day long. We marched through Sudbury... We went all the way to Weston, had marched 13 Engl. miles and got quarters." [5] The fatigue of their journey may have impacted what had been the practice of recording extensive observations of each day's march, as a narrative letter sent to Germany simply noted: "We had our cantonment in West-town, thirteen miles." [6] While some British and German officers may have enjoyed the town's inns, Brunswicker Grenadier Johan Bense also noted that it rained all day, and into the evening, but that he slept that night in "a leaking old stable". [7]
Several organizations, notably the Weston Historical Commission, Weston Historical Society and Golden Ball Tavern Museum, do an outstanding job of preserving and sharing the town's history. Their work makes Weston a wonderful town to explore from historical perspective, both in person and virtually.
A factsheet available online entitled "
Farmers Burial Ground", which appears to be a joint effort by the Historical Society and Historical Commission, notes that cemetery, pictured here on the south side of what was the Post Road in 1777, is the oldest cemetery in town, dating from 1703.
Another, entitled
"The Burgoyne Elm Do We Still Care" tells the story of an elm tree dating back to about 1740, which stood along the Post Road until it died and had to be taken down in 1967. In addition to sharing what became of the tree when it was cut down, it briefly describes the 1777 march of the Convention Army and the impact of their passing on towns and villages along the way, and speculates some of the captured troops may have spent their night in Weston under the tree. Both the Burgoyne Elm factsheet, and a history of the town's role in the Revolutionary War published in 1976 note the passage of the Convention Army, but incorrectly indicate that they all arrived in Weston on November 6th. [8]
While some of Burgoyne's soldiers stayed in Weston, Burgoyne only stopped for dinner. Brigadier-General William Whipple, who along with Brigadier-General John Glover escorted Burgoyne from Albany to Cambridge traveling separately from the captured troops, noted in his journal: "overtook the Company at Westtown ate dinner after dinner set out for Watertown where arrived before night" [9]
A town history dating from 1913 claims that after the surrender at Saratoga "... General Brickett escorted one wing of the British prisoners over the Framingham turnpike, or our south road, through Newton to Winter Hill...", and "General Glover escorted the other wing of prisoners over our Main Street to the same destination. General Glover's troops passed a night on our Main Street." [10] While Lamson cites no source to support these claims, and was mistaken as to who went where, his reference to some of the prisoners passing through the south part of town may tie into a puzzling entry in the journal of the 47th Regiment of Foot.
[2] Bartlett, "Journal", 402.
[3] How, Diary of David How, 50.
[4] Anburey, Travels Through the Interior Parts of America, 2:57. 47th Regiment Journal, p. 157.
[5] Specht Journal, 109.
[6] Letters From America, 129.
[7] Bense, 80.
[8] Brenton H. Dickerson and Homer C. Lucas,
One Town in the American Revolution (Weston, MA: Weston Historical Society, 1976), 127. The authors appear to have relied on German accounts to date the passage of the Convention Army through Weston. It should be noted their research and writing was done before the advent of the internet, and the ability to access rare books and multiple sources from libraries around the world. They also accuse Burgoyne of simply enjoying himself in Albany, a claim I've questioned in an article published by the Journal of the American Revolution entitled "
General John Burgoyne's Stay in Albany".
[9]
Whipple, "Whipple Journal", Annotated Transcription, 9. Note that Whipple's reference to "the company" is to Burgoyne, his generals, and his American escorts, not the troops.
[10] Colonel Daniel S. Lamson, History of the Town of Weston, Massachusetts (Boston, MA: Press of Geo. H. Ellis Co., 1913), 91.
For more on the Convention Army's 1777 march from Saratoga to Boston, see:
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