Signer of the Declaration and Governor John Hancock Disburses the Seized Property of the Loyalist Guide Who Led the King’s Troops to Lexington and Concord the First Day of the Revolution

An uncommon document linking the most famous signer of the Declaration of Independence to one of the American opponents at the first Revolutionary conflict

On the night of April 18, 1775, an English force of 800 men set out from Boston to destroy the colonial arms stored at Concord and Lexington. At Lexington, during a parley between the British Army and the American Militia, someone fired a shot and the shooting began. The Militia suffered 8 dead and 10 wounded, and it then dispersed. The British marched on to Concord and destroyed a few supplies. However, they met greater resistance at Concord Bridge and during their retreat to Boston.

It was General Gage, whose main force was at the front, who had made contingency plans in case the expedition to Concord was in danger or jeopardy of failure. In the event of an emergency, Lieutenant General Hugh Percy and his brigade of four regiments with artillery support were to march to the expedition’s aid. At six o’clock on the morning of April 19, a rider from Lieutenant Colonel Smith arrived in Boston requesting assistance. After some delay, over one thousand soldiers marched out of Boston towards Lexington. Percy’s actions probably saved the British forces from complete disaster that day.

According to “Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution”, Beaman “acted as a guide to the British troops on their march to Lexington and Concord. He fled to Nova Scotia In 1778 he was proscribed and banished.” Seven Loyalists are known to have been present in Percy’s followup relief force, and among them was Thomas Beaman.

During the American Revolution, many states passed laws allowing them to seize the property of known loyalists. So-called “confiscation laws” effectively criminalized dissent against the American Revolution. The seizure and sale of loyalist property also raised revenue for the state by redistributing property from Loyalists to the rest of the community.

Among the more aggressive of those states was Massachusetts. The first confiscation laws had made no definite provision for the procedure to be followed in the settlement of debts owed by and to the absentees. This need was met by the General Court of Massachusetts on March 2, 1781, by the passage of “An Act to provide for the Payment of Debts due from the Conspirators and Absentees, and for the Recovery of Debts due to them”. This act provided that committees he appointed in each county in the state, and directed to sell the real estate, of all conspirators and absentees, confiscated by the acts of 1779. After any such sale, all just debts were to be equitably discharged, and the residue of the sale price paid into the state treasury. If any of the obligations were in the form of mortgages or attachments, these debts were to be paid first.

Printed document signed, by Hancock as Massachusetts Governor, Boston, February 26, 1783, directing the state Treasurer to pay to William Nichols 23 pounds, 14 shillings “in full of his claim to the estate of Thomas Beaman an absentee.” Nichols appears as a soldier of the Revolution.

We do not recall ever seeing such a document having reached the market connecting Hancock the Signer with an opponent at Lexington.