PREPARATION FOR REVOLUTION: MANUSCRIPT TOWN COUNCIL MEETING NOTES, 1774.


Autograph Manuscript in an unknown hand, minutes of town meetings from June to October, 1774, 4 pp, folio (conjoining leaves, each 300 x 180 mm), Watertown, CT, June 18 to October 17, 1774, leaves creased and mildly toned.The minutes from the first three "meeting of Freeholders and other Inhabitants of Watertown" recorded here are fairly innocuous, but by October of that year, the discussion turns to the town's defense. From October 5: "it is the mind of the Town that the militia officers of the Company in the town Exercise the Company & others that are willing to attend two hours in Each week during the fall months—also that view the arms ammunition of all the Inhabitants & Report to the town at the admournment. Voted [that] every person be provided by the first monday in Octor next with arms &c as the law directs." On October 17, the councels decides "to mount two pieces of Cannon now Lodged in this town at the Charge of the town."