There is in existence a document manumitting
his slave, which, I am happy to say, is the only existing
evidence that any ancestor of mine ever owned one.
My father's grandfather, on the mother's side, was Colonel
Abijah Peirce, of Lincoln. He was prominent in Middlesex
County from a time preceding the Revolutionary War down to
his death. He was one of the Committee of the Town who had
charge of corresponding with other towns and with the Committee
of Safety in Boston. The day before the battle at Concord
Bridge, he had been chosen Colonel of a regiment of Minute
Men. But he had not got his commission, taken the oath, or
got his equipments. So he went into the battle as a private
in the company in which his son-in-law was lieutenant, armed
with nothing but a cane. After the first volley was exchanged
he crossed the bridge and took the cartridge-box and musket
of one of the two British soldiers who were killed, which
he used during the day. The gun was preserved for a long
time in his family, and came to my grandfather, after his
death. It was the first trophy of the Revolutionary War taken
in battle.
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