Happy Independence Day!

Today, we celebrate our country, its legacy, and foundations. Dwelling on this important day, I looked back on my ancestor who fought for it to be celebrated. Here is his story.

249 years ago, America declared itself separate from Great Britain and announced to the world that a republic had formed - power now rested with the people, not kings.

After years of misguided leadership, overbearing control, and an Empire refusing to hear out its subjects, America’s greatest lawyers posted the country’s official break-up announcement with Great Britain, directing their angst to the Crown’s royalty: King George III.

Jefferson, Washington, Adams, and Franklin could no longer sit and watch their fellow Americans endure the travesties of policies placed on them by the British Empire, which grew ever more alien and out of touch with the general public as years went by.

The years leading up to the declaration are filled with the British parliament and their various appointed colonial governors purposely, and sometimes accidentally, taking away rights and enforcing economic and social standards on our ancestors, whom they disliked and constantly reminded in various duties how low they viewed their intelligence. A few notable examples of Britain’s failures, possibly crossing the founders’ minds as they penned the Declaration, are listed in my article here.

It was no mere coincidence or light decision for Americans to not only agree with the declaration - but to defend its propositions. The pen was quickly responded with the sword, resulting in a brutal expedition of magnificent passion and force that the world had never seen, now found in the fields of farmers throughout the American Revolutionary War.

Lawyers, sailors, merchants, and farmers came together to fight, and it is stories such as the one I will share here, that ultimately kept the British at bay and defended the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that we cherish each day - basking forever in such victories as I will retell.

The story is very personal to me as my ancestors helped complete it. Specifically, in my 8th-great-grandfather on my mother’s side, their contributions to the glorious cause of our Republic come to light. Through years of research, the fight for liberty among the Kimballs became so clear through the diary accounts of one, whose actions were verified by multiple historians and locals of the day.

He was known as Captain Peter Kimball, and his profile in history comes up during the French & Indian War, where he originally declared an oath to British King George II, promising to “be true” and “obey his good officers” in the Massachusetts' Spring of 1760.

Peter served the crown diligently as a carpenter, guard, and soldier in the provincial service - offered to Colonial Americans hoping for an adventure and a peaceful frontier in North America. Unfortunately for Peter, he was caught in an aggressive war raging between the French, British, and Native American tribes scattered across America. Before fighting for his independence, he had to simply survive the wilderness. While serving at Fort Crown Point - the first line of defense against French incursions in the north - I believe we begin to see what led him to join the rebellion thirteen years later.

Peter repeatedly witnessed British officers whip British regulars, with some counts being over a hundred whips! The number goes up as time goes on in his diary accounts. And as I have previously shown in detail, it was most likely these public whippings, along with the recklessness of Robert Roger and his Rangers’ skirmishes with Native Americans and food scarcity among the fort, that would have made him reconsider his recent allegiance to the British Crown, as others were doing.

13 years after he served the British Crown in the north, Peter left evidence of his new allegiance in Boscawen, New Hampshire’s “The Declaration of the People,” signing his name on a declaration in support of Boston, which Britain was blockading with a new bill. Openly declaring along with fellow neighbors that they “will suspend all Commercial Intercourse with the said Island of Great Britain until the Parliament shall cease to enact Laws, imposing Taxes upon the Colonies, without their consent, or until the pretended Right of Taxing is dropped." And with more clarity than his whole diary, he had read and agreed that they each suffer from America’s “calamities,” which they described as a “Torrent” that is “rushing upon it with increasing violence.” Peter, along with various signers, started meeting in a group that they called the Committee of Safety, which tasked him personally with investigating a local preacher and beginning an “enquiry into the character” of him, as they questioned who could be trusted with the subject of their meetings. I take that from these accounts, Peter not only held their cause high, but also quickly began making sure their progress towards liberty would be without betrayal.

Peter did not just sign the declaration and support the committee on investigations - he actively met with other towns and spearheaded early conversations on the formation of the new Republic. According to Constable Withdrop Carter’s account of the year 1773, Peter was assigned to head a separate “committee on the Country’s affairs.” Historian Charles Coffin described the work as being with “other towns in convention, to take into consideration the formation of a new county."

Three years later, and three months before the founders signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Peter and the other members of the New Hampshire Committee of Safety signed another declaration of their stance on Great Britain, in a paper called the “Articles of Association.” In this document, written before the Continental Congress publicly announced the famous Declaration of Independence, Peter and his fellow New Hampshire farmers declared themselves rebels:

“We the subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage, and promise that we will, to the utmost of our Power, at the [Risk] of our Lives and Fortunes, with Arms, oppose the Hostile Proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the United Colonies.”

Not surprisingly, four years later, Peter’s service in crafting the new republic turned into defending its inhabitants, as news quickly spread that the British General John Burgoyne was raging across New England, orchestrating a massive plan to cut off the Northern colonies from the Middle & Southern ones. Soldiers marched across fields, and battles ensued, leaving Peter and his fellow New Hampshire farmers to leave behind their families in order to preserve their state’s borders, as well as the principles of the now widely known Declaration of Independence.

In 1777, during Burgoyn’s campaign, Peter’s story picks up again in his diary. His daily activities began resembling the entries back in the French & Indian War: Marching, camping, and maneuvering around British Soldiers. But unlike his provincial service, he was carrying guns instead of tools. He was no longer protecting and working alongside British soldiers in various duties, but rather was now against them for the defense of the state of New Hampshire, acting as a Captain under the command of New Hampshire general John Stark.

Near the end of the summer of 1777, Peter records fighting in the Battle of Bennington, which took place on a farm in Walloomsac, New York. The battle would be a Colonial victory, with General Stark rallying Peter and other New Hampshire farmers to successfully crush the British Hessian forces and take a chunk of Burgoyne’s army captive. Burgoyne himself would surrender only a few months later.

During the battle, Peter records that he received a “slight wound,” leaving the readers to wonder what exactly that was. Whatever it may be, it did not stop him from continuing his service for the country after the war. In 1794, Peter joined a new committee in Boscawen, New Hampshire, now tasked with separating the town into districts and gathering the necessary funding for the building of local schools.

34 years after constructing walls, floors, and various furniture for British Officers and their forts, Peter was building a new government and schools across his town. Throughout his life’s work: whether in the fort, the farm, the battle, or the meeting, Peter would not only reveal himself to history, but also declare his oath of allegiance to the United States and its Declaration of Independence we celebrate today.

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Sources

Coffin, Charles C. “The History of Boscawen and Webster (N.H.) from 1733 to 1878.” University of New Hampshire. Accessed through Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/historyofboscawe00coff/page/150/mode/2up

Kimball, Peter. “Peter Kimball Journal, 1760-1767.” New Hampshire Historical Society. https://www.nhhistory.org/object/259848/peter-kimball-journal-1760-1767