The Danvers Historical Society invites you to follow along with us as we explore the people and events leading up to the War of Independence. Where possible, these stories will relate specifically to Danvers and the surrounding area of Essex County. Follow along and Discover Danvers!
17 August | Town petition to Provincial Congress regarding defense of Salem
20 August | From Fort Sewall Timeline 1644-1922 & 2022 by Frederic C. Detwiller: J.-B. [probably Jean-Baptist] Dubuq, a French engineer who worked with Gen. Charles Lee of the Continental Army on fortifications at Prospect Hill and Winter Hill in what was then Cambridge, was apparently in Marblehead working with the expansion of the fort, probably on behalf of the Continental Army’s Chief Engineer Richard Gridley. In August, Dubuq wrote: “I went to Danvers to wait for an occasion of going by sloop to Marblehead where I heard the man of war had sailed. The sailors of that little town were too much kept by their arming a dozen of privateers. They employed to that work all last Sunday. I have yet heard a noise that they would have the same week six hundred men to mount them. I embarked then at Marblehead Tuesday in the afternoon.” Dubuq had been living in Salem between the beginning of May and June 4th when he was summoned by Gen. Israel Putnam to assist American engineers in Cambridge. Dubuq might also have been working on other local forts also –– which might be why Putnam had heard of him and requested his assistance. (See Gen. Gage Correspondence, Clinton Papers, W.L. Clements Library)
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Dubuq’s initial destination was Beverly, where his contact was Josiah Batchelder (1736–1809), a ship captain in the West Indies trade before the Revolution. Batchelder was also elected to the provincial congress in 1775 until 1779. He was on the committee of correspondence and safety in Beverly from 1773 until the end of the Revolution. Journal of the American Revolution
21 August | Benedict Arnold begins inquiries about obtaining bateaux and supplies for the Quebec expedition Road to Revolution
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23 August | The King refuses the Olive Branch Petition and instead issues a proclamation that Americans were engaged in an “open and avowed rebellion”. The American Revolution, National Park Service, p. 39
To see the complete timeline, go to danvershistory.org
