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CHAPTER VIII

SHIRLEY CONTINUED. – JOHN HOLDEN THE BOY FIFER. – OLIVER HOLDEN THE COMPOSER OF "CORONATION." – THE MEETING-HOUSE A MAGAZINE. – GIFT OF MADAM LYDIA HANCOCK. - BOUNTY COAT

      AMONG the sixteen children of Amos Holden was John, born on May 2I, 1765. His name stands as the sixth in the register of the family Bible. Although but a babe in swaddling clothes when the Stamp Act aroused the Colonists to a realizing sense of the cloud of war gathering about them, the boy John Holden was fully aware of the duty of a patriot when the Lexington alarm summoned the men of Shirley to arms. Like David of old, the boy John Holden had been trained to tend sheep on his father's farm, and while in that quiet and retired service there had developed within him a talent for music. The fife was the popular musical instrument in this boy John's day, as was the harp in the days of David, the son of Jesse. When John Holden learned to play the fife no one knew, in fact he could scarcely tell himself, unless it was on training-days, when he followed the militia company about the town as they kept step to

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the music of the fife and drum in the hands of his well-known neighbors.
      Amos Holden found it difficult, with his large family, "to make the ends meet;" but the longing for a fife which had grown to be little less than a passion in the boy John must be gratified, and the indulgent father procured one, and brought it home for a birthday present to the lad. The boy could hardly believe his own eyes, but lost no time in perfecting himself in its use. It was at the time when the whole country was in a state of ferment and dread. War seemed inevitable, and the oppressive rule of the English was the theme of conversation everywhere.
      Young John heard much of it, and longed to be a man that he might join the Shirley company of minute-men now holding semiweekly drills. One day he received a compliment which gave rise to aspirations not dreamed of by his parents.
      A Boston gentleman paid a visit to the Holdens at the old farmhouse, when the chief topic of conversation was the prospect of war with the mother country. While the guest was present, Amos Holden asked his son to play a tune on his fife. The boy struck up with a stirring march, which elicited the exclamation of surprise, "The boy has the soul of music in him; he will be ready to meet King George's army."
      John sat still for a while in a meditative manner; but before retiring for the night went shyly

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up to his father, and said, "If the British do come, shall I go to the war with my fife?" – Why, yes," replied the father laughingly; "they could not get along without you."
      These words, spoken by the father without a second thought, as are too many from parental lips, sank deep into the heart of the boy John. He revolved them over and over in his mind, as he applied himself to the use of his fife. When he was far away in the fields tending his father's flocks and herds, the stirring notes of the fife could be heard by the neighboring farmers, who predicted that the time was not far away when John Holden would be the fifer of the Shirley company.
      At length, on a delightful April morning of 1775, an alarm was sounded over the hills of Shirley, "The Regulars are coming." It was not long before the men were on the march towards Concord. Amos Holden was among them. The boy John, with fife in hand, begged to go too, but was dissuaded from what he had believed to be his father's promise with the excuse, "You are too young; wait a while, and if they don't get enough of it to-day, when we meet them, you may have a chance later." The time soon came when youth was no barrier, if the requisite stature had been attained; and three of the sons of Amos Holden entered the army. John was one of them. Instead of a musket, this boy soldier carried his fife, and

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did a patriot's duty on the march, in the camp, and on the field. At times, when everything seemed dark and doubtful about the company, the notes of John Holden's fife could be heard above the din of battle, and many a weary and homesick soldier took on new courage, and went forth to victory. For twenty long months the boy fifer was away in the service; at first with Colonel Prescott, and later with Washington at New York, under the immediate command of General Knox. This lad, with a beardless face, dressed in a soldier's suit gay with brass buttons, was a favorite with the regiment. Said one of the officers, "This boy is a captain-general of us all. I have never known him to whimper or say ‘I can't,' although he is the youngest of us."
      At the conclusion of his service in the war, John Holden returned to Shirley, and in 1791 married Sally Sanderson of Lunenburg, and removed to Franklin, Vermont, where he was living in 1833, when he received a pension from the United States Government, which was continued to him until his death in 1847. He was classed as a private and musician, in the pension department. In the archives of the State of Massachusetts, he is recorded as fifer.

OLIVER HOLDEN AND "CORONATION."

      Another of the Holden family of Shirley, born four months after John, was Oliver, son of Nehe-

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miah. He was cousin to John the fifer, and like him endowed with rare musical talent. These boys were happy in each other's society in their humble homes, romping over the hills of Shirley, and trudging off to the little schoolhouse under the hill. But soon after the Revolution, Nehemiah Holden and his family removed to Charlestown, where there was a demand for mechanics in the work of rebuilding the town destroyed by the minions of George III. Oliver labored as a housewright with his father for a while, and then, following his natural inclination, gave his attention to mercantile life. This afforded him a better opportunity for indulging his musical talent. While conducting trade, he composed tunes, taught singing-school, and published several volumes of choice hymns and tunes. Among his occasional odes was one for the reception tendered General George Washington when upon his third and last visit to Boston, in October, 1789. Oliver Holden trained a choir of young men for the occasion; and when Washington passed under the triumphal arch at the Old State House, the choir sang to this ode the words, "George Washington, the hero, is come."
      But that which has immortalized this son and patriot of Shirley is the tune "Coronation." This was composed in 1793, soon became a favorite in the churches, and now, after more than a century, retains a prominent place in church psalm-

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ody. During the Civil War it became a battle hymn, and many a weary soldier on the march has quickened his pace by the inspiration of grand old "Coronation."
      The words have been traced to Rev. Edward Perronet, son of Vincent Perronet, vicar of Shoreham, England. They were first sung to the tune of "Miles Lane;" but the production of Oliver Holden was better adapted to them, as millions cheerfully testify to-day.
      On Old Burial Hill, Charlestown, where are yet to be seen scars made[1] by the bullets of Gage's army, is the burial-place of this noted man. On a


[1] From a table monument near the John Harvard obelisk: –-

HERE LIES INTERRED THE BODY OF
RICHARD RUSSELL, ESQ.,
WHO SERVED HIS COUNTRY AS TREASURER
MORE THAN A TREBLE PRENTISHIP &
AS A MAGISTRATE SIXTEEN YEARS,
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
THE I4TH OF MAY 1676.
BEING THE SIXTY-FIFTH YEAR OF HIS AGE.

A Saint, a Husband, a faithful Brother A friend far excelled by any other A saint that walked high in either way Of Godliness and Honesty all say. A husband rare to both his darling wives A father politic, faithful and kind.

      "N. B. The ravages of time, and an accident during the siege of Boston in 1775, having destroyed the monument erected at the decease of Mr. Russell, this being a true copy of the original was replaced by his Relatives, A.D. 1787, in testimony of their regard to his memory."

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bronze tablet placed in the brick wall of the family tomb may be read: –-

HERE SLEEPS THE SWEET SINGER
OLIVER HOLDEN,
COMPOSER OF THE TVNE "CORONATION."
BORN IN SHIRLEY, SEPT. 18, 1765,
DIED IN CHARLESTOWN, SEPT. 4, 1844.

To his dear memory, this tablet is placed by his Granddaughter.[1]

All hail the power of Jesus' name, Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown him Lord of all.

      It was when the storm-clouds of the Revolution were gathering that the people of Shirley went to work to build a meeting-house in place of the rude structure that had served them for a score of years as the only place for public convocation, religious, municipal, and military. On Thanksgiving Day of 1773 the voice of prayer was first heard in that house. It was the only occasion of the kind when "God save the King" from the pastor's lips met with an "Amen" from the people. Before the next autumnal festival the port of Boston had been blockaded, and Shirley farmers had shared their crops with their distressed brethren in Boston. It was a custom of these towns to use the upper gallery of the meeting-house as a magazine for military stores. The building usually stood on or near the training field, was away


[1] Mrs. Fanny A. Tyler.

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[Photo- "Shirley Relics of the Revolution" and "Longley Ball, Picked Up at Bunker Hill"]

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from other houses, and was entirely free from any means of heating, consequently was regarded as the safest place for powder. A portion of the upper gallery in the Shirley meeting-house was early set apart for this purpose. While the minister was urging resistance to British oppression, there was in the loft above the high pulpit the material to give emphasis to his instruction. In the hasty distribution of the cartridges to the minutemen, some dropped and rolled out of sight, and after a full century were found, and brought forth to the light, and are now treasured by my guide as reminders of those days of peculiar trial.
      The patriotic people of Shirley have for generations derived a peculiar satisfaction from the gift of the pulpit Bible by Madam Lydia Hancock of Boston. This benevolent woman was the widow of the merchant, Thomas Hancock, and with his nephew John was enjoying the luxuries of the famous Hancock estate in Boston at the time of this gift. The occasion was the opening of the new meeting-house; and Madam Lydia testified by this gift to the town her regard for her niece and namesake, Lydia Bowes of Bedford, who had but recently become the wife of the minister of Shirley, Rev. Pheneas Whitney. It will occur to the reader that a sister of Mrs. Whitney, Lucy Bowes, was the wife of Rev. Jonas Clark of Lexington, and that they were daughters of Rev. Nicholas Bowes of Bedford, and Lucy, daughter

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of Rev. John Hancock of Lexington. Hence they were cousins of John Hancock, the famous patriot. This family connection must have stimulated the patriotism in the town of Shirley.

THE BOUNTY COAT.

      During the summer of 1775, when the Provincial troops were in an unsettled condition, and the siege was progressing, the Provincial Congress made a demand for thirteen thousand coats for the use of the patriot army, to be ready before the cold weather. There were no shrewd millers to take the contract, and turn the public emergency to their personal advantage; but at each hearthstone there were set up a mill and a tailor's shop.
      The committee of supplies was directed to apportion the coats on the towns by a schedule, made in accordance with the last Provincial tax. This burden largely fell to the women, and following what they had sacrificed, was trying indeed; but with their characteristic zeal, they went to work to get the coats ready before the first day of October. The selectmen of each town were required to cause a certificate to be sewed to the inside of each coat, telling from what town it came, by whom the coat was made, and, if the cloth was manufactured in this country, by whom it was manufactured. Here was an opportunity for proving personal ability, and the spirit of competition was rife throughout the Province.

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      Rolls of wool laid aside for family use were brought out, carded, spun, and woven under the same roof; and while the great wheel was humming in one room, there was the continual preparation of food for the absent soldier boys. The coats were to be of "good, plain cloth, preference to be given to that of home manufacture." Having signed the protest against the use of foreign manufactures, there was the greater struggle with each town to meet its demands from its own looms. The coats were to be "made in the common plain way, without lapels, short, and with small folds, and faced with the same kind of cloth of which they were made." They were to be "buttoned with pewter buttons, those of each regiment respectively to have buttons with the

[Photo- "Longley Well"]

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same number stamped upon the face of them." This course was to put into use a uniform, in place of the variety of garments in which the hastily improvised army were clothed. The committee of supplies in each town let out the contract to the different families, and in many a town's record book may be read the account of paying the different parties interested. The fact that these supplies were possibly for some of their own people may have urged the manufacturers to greater faithfulness, but we have no reason to think that any one would have slighted any part of this duty. The different towns reported what might be expected of them, and some of their reports may he seen to-day. Among them is that of the town of Shirley, which reads: –-

To the Gentmen, Committee of suplies appoynted by Congress, &c. To see to the Providing Clothing for the army.

      Gentmen, –- These are to Inform you that the Dist of Shirley have agreed to provide the Parte of Coats, Shirts, Stockins, and Britches to them Assigned, and thirty Pare of Shoes for the Benefitt of the Continentle army, &c.
By order of the Selectmen.
      OBADIAH SAWTELL. Dist. Clerk.       SHIRLEY, August ye 10th, A.D. 1775.

      Each man volunteering to serve for a term of eight months was promised a coat, and it was regarded as quite a possession; so much so that representatives of those who were killed at Bunker Hill, or who died before receiving the coat,

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were granted a certain sum of money in lieu of the coat, etc.
      The names of those enlisted for eight months, with the promise of the coat, are found on what is known as the "Coat Roll;" while those who turned out on April 19 are recorded on what is known as "The Lexington Alarm List."

[Photo of W. Shirley with signature]

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