Revolutionary War Muster Roll, Dorchester Heights,1780

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1780, Revolutionary War Muster Roll, Dorchester Heights- VERY RARE Capt. Lemuel Clapp, Major Heath's Company of Guard This item is a wonderful,original document dated 1780, being a muster roll for Capt. Lemuel Clapp's Company detached to Major Nathaniel Heaths guard (which patrolled South Boston and Dorchester Heights). A fine muster showing names of soldiers, time of enlistment and pay owed. Captain Clapp's retained copy, ironic in that the paper used has a huge watermark of King George III......Some great names from the Seige of Boston, the Wiswells, Withingtons, Clapps and Birds just to name a few. Document is 12x 18, larger than my scanner, photo shows the entire document which I scanned in two sections for better reading. I'll be listing some scarce Revolutionary War documents this week; one per night, so please check back daily The Lemuel Clapp house still exists today, housing the Dorchester Historical Society... The gambrel-roofed house was built about 1710 by descendants of Roger Clapp, one of Dorchester 's original settlers. The Clapp family settled on the rich farm lands of Dorchester Neck, a district soon noted for its fine orchards. In 1767, the simple two-room homestead was purchased by a cousin, Lemuel Clapp. Lemuel, who later served in the Revolution, remodeled the house as a country mansion. In 1957, the house was moved 200 yards from its location on nearby Willow Court to its present site and restored to its conjectured original appearance by the Dorchester Historical Society. Lemuel Clapp, a Dorchester Patriot who invited George Washington's troops to encamp on his estate during the Siege of Boston, was, like the site's first English owner, Roger Clap, a man of pronounced Puritan tenets. One of those tenets was self-sufficiency, and from the time that Roger Clap erected his house, in winter of 1633, to the enlargements to the Clapp in 1767 and 1768 by Lemuel Clapp, the family ran a working farm. Captain Clapp was a commander in the war of the Revolution. Some of the officers and soldiers were quartered at his house." Showing little respect for their barracks, the soldiers "attempted, it is said, to tear off the paper from the walls to adorn their hats." Ziphion Thayer's imported London wallpaper proved stronger even than the troops' blades, which tore at the "choice paper...but without success, it [the paper] being so adhesive." Historian Trask notes: "The bayonet marks made by the soldiers are, or were, to be seen in the ceiling of the chamber above." The Siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 - March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen--and then the Continental Army--surrounded the city of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within. As a siege it was only partially successful, but it played an important role in the creation of the Continental Army and promoting the unity of the Thirteen Colonies. It also served to shape the attitudes and character of participants on both sides. The most important single event of the siege was the Battle of Bunker Hill. In the winter of 1775-76, Henry Knox and his engineers used sledges to retrieve 60 tons of heavy artillery that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga . Bringing them across the frozen Connecticut River, they arrived back at Cambridge on January 24, 1776. Weeks later, in an amazing feat of deception and mobility, Washington moved artillery and several thousand men overnight to occupy Dorchester Heights , overlooking Boston . Since it was the middle of winter and the continental army was unable to dig into the frozen ground on Dorchester Heights , rather than entrenching themselves, Washington 's men used logs, branches and anything else available to fortify the position overnight. General Gage observed that it would have taken his army weeks to build Washington 's earth fort. The British fleet ceased to be an asset, because it was anchored in a shallow harbor with limited m... read more

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