What hat(s) might Hezekiah Wyman have worn back in the day?

[Publican]

For my next telling of his tale, I think it might be cool to add a visual aid or 2 just to help folks put themselves back into the time period. Do we have any experts on the clothing here?

I think I saw somewhere 2 different hats that may have been worn. I would like to be historically accurate. Figured I would ask here before searching the web.

Thanks in advance.

[CiviSoldier]

I'm not an expert, but I have friends that are into that time period.  From what I remember of our discussions, the tricorn hat is one of the two that come to mind.  I believe the other was a full brim.

HTH!

[Chainsaw]

I've read an account that he wore a broad-brimmed floppy hat.  Don't ask me where, but since it sounded unusual it stuck with me.

[Mark Davis]

I have a book titled "Uniforms Of The American Revolution" arthors John Mollo & Malcolm McGregor. p 1975
The color plates show uniforms from diffrent regiments in worn by men of various ranks from the european armies.
When it comes to the militia, they just wore what they had.
Most the illistrations show tricorn hats, but a seaman in the continential navy was illistrated wearing wide brim floppy hat.
It looked like a felt hat cowboy hat that had lost all is shape. In the case of this seaman just a guess would point the finger to many drenchings in sea water.
Hezakiah's hat may also have lost all it's shape due to many cold drenchings of new england rain.

[Kaylee]

A "broad brimmed floppy hat" is exactly what I'd expect on an 18th century civilian farmer rousted out of bed by The Call. I wouldn't be *surprised* by a tricorn, but it's my understanding that's a little more formal (ultimately, it's essentially the same hat, just with the brim turned up and finely trimmed - but a farmer out in the sun would likely want to keep that brim down to save his neck)

I don't know this merchant, but the prices look good on any of the "High Quality Hat Blanks" -
http://www.pumpkintownprimitives.com/dg1_029.htm

[Publican]

  Thank you all so much for the replies/advice/links. I will go w/ the farmers style/floppy hat because he was not officially a man in uniform at the time he acted.

[Charles McKinley]

Here are some hat links

http://jas-townsend.com/index.php?cPath=6&osCsid=de5f0d27de46da02a7cad554a450ead5
Jason Townsend

http://www.smilingfoxforgellc.com/hats.asp
Smiling Fox Forge

Both sites have a buchs of period stuff.

I look forward to seeing your stories they have high praises from sgtrock!

[Publican]

Thanks for the links Stand. Naw....I just found sgt's 1 weak spot and exploited it

Just don't tell him I said that.

[Publican]

Stand, I finally came up w/ the next idea. This one will be for telling the DOM/Mother Batherick story!

Now to thrash it out in my mind and on paper 'till it is juuust right

Was hoping to have it ready for my Nov Shoot but I highly doubt it.

[sgtrock]

I would love to be there to hear it Cork,,, You my friend have a great talent for presentation of our history,,,

[Publican]

Rock:

Thanks for the kind words -  I am learning from those who have come before me.

If you can keep a secret I will tell you this much; I think that this second tale will be told by one of the Grenadiers who was captured by Mother Batherick...

[Kaylee]

Cool!

Publican, I live in Arlington (then Menotomy) Mass, just a couple miles from the wagon raid/Mother Batherick site. Let me know if there's anything I can get for you for your story.

There's a rough tour here -

http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=30886.0

Since then, I've been digging through old 19th century town oral histories and scouring the local history room in the town library to get better information.

The horses that were killed in the ambush were buried right near Spring Valley and Lakeview Street in Arlington Mass - I've found a reference to one of the townsmen in the 1800's remembering throwing some of the bleached bones into Spy Pond as a boy. Ephraim Frost's home - where Mother Batherick took the captured British - was as near as I can guess on the far southern edge of Spy Pond, near where Pleasant Street (then Watertown Road) and the modern day Concord Turnpike cross.

I've not yet found any reference to the location of Mother Batherick's home - but she was always struggling with poverty it appears:
http://boston1775.blogspot.com/search/label/Ruth%20Batherick

[Publican]

Kaylee - Thanks.

Read what you wrote earlier tonight. I already copied it to my working pages for my tale It was wonderfully documented and written!!!

My Hezekiah Wyman is told from his perspective - seems only right to try the other DOM from a British perspective.

Now, a quick question: I thought I heard or read somewhere that  David Lamson, described as a "mulatto" was said to be disabled or had a disease or some weird description of his dual heritage. Do you or anyone know how they described him (the negative term used)?

Thanks

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Edit:
Now that I think about it I bet it was Chainsaw who said it in his story. Was it called a "deformity" maybe?

[Kaylee]

I think "deformity" relates only to the social penalties a mulatto faced in the 18th c. I've not seen anything *yet* regarding an actual physical deformity. Some references say he was part black, others say part Indian - possibly both are true - I've not researched it yet enough to have a definitive answer. There is also disagreement in the early sources as to who actually led the ambush - some point to David Lamson, others to... a pastor I think from Lynn I think - I'll see if I can find his name. Reading between the lines, I think both were present, both were forceful, and "who was in charge" was something little thought of at the time, and was remembered differently based on who each participant knew.

I also know Ammi Cutter (the man who warned Jason Russell) was also there, and that they met and planned the ambush in Cooper's Tavern.
More later...

(edited for clarification)

[Publican]

EXACTLY on the social stigma of mixed race. I thought I had heard his mixed race compared to a deformity.

[Kaylee]

Ah - found a little more. On the trail of David Lamson -

The first account I've found so far was the oral history related in an 1864 address during the Civil War to the Ladies' Soldier's Aid Society -West Cambridge on the Nineteenth of April, 1775 by Samuel Abbot Smith. Smith had been talking with the locals for years gathering family stories, and the story of the DOM and the wagon capture begins on p. 28 -

"Several of our men met at once in Cooper's Tavern, which stood on the present site of Whittemore's hotel, to form some plan for capturing them. They were of the exempts, or alarm list as it was called, all old men, for every young man was that day nearer the post of danger. There were Jason Belknap and Joe Belknap, James Budge, Israel Mead and Ammi Cutter, David Lamson, and others, in all about twelve. Some of them had been soldiers in the French war, and age had not impaired  their courage. <b>They chose for their leader David Lamson, who had served in the war, a man of undoubted bravery and determination.</b> They took their position (just here to the right) behind a bank wall of earth and stones, between the present dwellings of Col. Thomas Russell and George C. Russell. The convoy soon made its appearance. As it came between them and the meeting-house of the First Parish, Lamson ordered his men to rise and aim directly at the horses, and called out to them to surrender. No reply was made, but the drivers whipped up their teams. Lamson's men then fired, killing several of the horses, and, according to some accounts, killing two of the men and wounding others. One of the bullets passed through the front door of the church. The frightened drivers leaped from their places, and, with the guards, ran directly to the shore of Spy Pond, into which they threw their guns. One of the, however, it is said, bent his up over a stone wall, as they had been ordered, at all events, not to allow their arms to be serviceable to the "rebels." They then followed the westerly shore of the pond, till, near Spring Valley, they met an old woman, named mother Batherick, digging dandelions, to whom they surrendered themselves, asking her protection. She led them to the house of Captain Ephraim Frost, where there was a party of our men, saying to her prisoners, as she gave them up, "If you ever live to get back, you tell King George that an old woman took six of his grenadiers prisoners." They were kindly treated til exchanged.

Smith's address is available on Google Books, or you can still order a hardcopy from the Arlington Historical Society.


This account is reported more or less blow by blow in "The Battle of April 19, 1775" by Frank Warren Coburn  p. 119  -120 (also available on Google Books)
(there is a little more however about how the baggage train is separated, their running into Doctor Warren on the trip out, and more)


Probably the best Arlington/Menotomy history I've found yet is Cutter's "History of the Town of Arlington, Massachusetts" - again, available on Google Books. His account begins on page 62. He pulls from Smith's address, as well as other 19th century addresses and 18th century news articles. This reference from the Salem Gazette handbill  is interesting -

"At Menotomy, a few of the men [the Gazette says, 'belonging to the detachment from Lynn End] attacked a party of twelve of the enemy, carrying stores and provisions to the troops, killed two of them, wounded several, took six prisoners, shot five horses, and took possession of all their arms, stores, provisions, &c,. without any loss on our side; among those who were killed was a lieutenant, who went with the provisions for his recreation, and to view the country; the officer of their guard, who generally attends on such occasions, being only a sergeant."

Charles Symmes Parker wrote "Town of Arlington, Past and Present" in the early 20th c. He mostly repeats the Smith account around p. 183, but adds -

"There is a conflict in the record as to which of these commanded the party. One record says Lamson was the leader, another accords the honor to Philp Payson of Chelsea. It is more than likely that in a little company like this, called suddenly into service, there was concert of action without need of special leadership. They simply hurried to their point of vantage opposite the First Parish Church where a bank wall of earth and stone made a sufficient breastwork, there to await the arrival of the supply train and its convoy..."

So - it looks like the Menotomy source is naming Lamson as the leader, and the Salem source name Payson. (Lynn is very near Salem, and on the way towards Concord. Chelsea is farther on yet, towards Charlestown - all three are coastal communities ) It's my guess then that some men of Lynn and/or Chelsea got word of Revere's alarm, joined up with the Menotomy alarm list on the way to Lexington and the Concord Road, and the Salem Gazette named the leader of their detachment as the leader, while Menotomy sources remembered the local.

Regarding Lamson himself, Cutter in his footnotes on p. 63 says "Lamson is named as an Indian, first from Medford, 1767, &c."  referencing Wyman's "Charlestown Genealogies and Estates," p. 539
On a footnote on p. 83, he is listed with other townsfolk on a muster of militia marching to aid Washington at Dorchester Heights. He is listed on a 1781 tax record reproduced on p. 96 - he holds no taxable real or personal property (uncommon on this roll, but not unique). He is a voting citizen of the town by the looks of it though, paying is 17 shilling poll tax along with the other men of the town.

And I've just found a copy of Wyman's Charlestown Geneologies, v1. on archive.org (1878).
There is a section for "Indians" on p. 539 - "The aborigines are mentioned in the pages of Mr. Frothingham's History of the town." There is a record for a David Lamson under this heading - I believe this is the reference Cutter mentions. David Lamson is the last of 11 natives mentioned, with the most complete record. I'm afraid this is all there is -

"From Medford, came to live at house of P. Tufts Jr., 1767; notified 1768; from Reading 1769, young man in the census of 1789 as from Cambr., 1787. Estate - Taxed 1770."

The "Mr. Frothingham's History" refers to the Richard Frothingham Charleston Papers 1634-1890- a collection of documents and two written volumes held by the Massachusetts Historical Society. They do not appear to be online at present. Also, while Charlestown is right next door to Menotomy, I've not seen definitive proof that the David Lamson mentioned in Wyman is the same David Lamson of Menotomy. It's assumed to be true by Cutter who I would think had better information that me - but I haven't "seen his work" on that score, so I can't be certain.

Certainly the reference to Lamson as a "young man" in 1789 suggests they may be different people, especially since Smith names him as a veteran of the French and Indian war which had ended twenty six years before the 1789 census listing the Cambridge Lamson as a "young man."  There is another section of estate transfers listed by name, and there is no David among the Lamsons listed there.

Regardless, the stories handed down in Menotomy by Smith were from sources who would have known him - he was chosen as a leader, after all, so he'd not have been a stranger. And they (although in the throes of the civil war remember) refer to him as mulatto. 

So my GUESS is whole bodied, and a mix of possibly native, probably african, probably anglo. Not rich or well propertied, but certainly respected by his neighbors.

[asminuteman]

Bezon camp,

I'm with Kaylee on both Hezekiah Wyman, and David Lamson.

Just look at my "chapo"....its a high top or town tricorn, its "fancy", a go to meeting type of "dress wear",very  formal, could be considered "upper class", you need to get into feathers and cockades to know who's who.
it is unlikely to have seen our gents on battle road with this hat. a flat brimmed "turned up"(to make fancy)possibe,
however more then likely a more unitarian flat brimmed (it keeps the sun out of your eyes, unlike a tricorn)

this is another look at the "flat brimmed"
http://www.clearwaterhats.com/Fur%20Trade/furtradepageone.htm
(although "longhunter" is a misnomer - this is period correct in every respect)


ps
Kaylee, "item" ...very well received at MANY history presentation groups.
I am in your debt and service *tip of thee hat my Lady*
YMHOS
-k

[Publican]

Great stuff folks! Definitely doing the flat/floppy hat for my Hezekiah portrayal.

Rethinking doing the Lambson/DOM - Mother Batherick story from at least 2 points of view now

[asminuteman]

A tid bit to add to Kayless wonderful references.

She has spoken about "Amie Cutter" (Benjamin)
This is a person you should know of...why you ask?
Amie Cutter is David Lamson's friend, and (Amie) is documented writting about David. (Kaylee's reference)
Great, but thats not the best connection!
Amie is also Hezekiah Wyman's brother in-law!
no small wonder He (David) is mentioned in the Wyman journals! (Kaylee's reference)

We use this "connection" to segway the DOM stories.

And for the Hezekiah story did you know that "Nathanial Wyman" , who was shot and killed at Lexington common is also Family to Hezekiah, yep it's his 1st cousin, someone he grew up with! Kinda makes his rampage on battle road personal.