William French The Martyr, First blood of the Revolution edit
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Very little is known about William French The Martyr (1753-1775) brother of Nathaniel French, JR (1747-1811) son of Nathaniel French, SR (1720-1801) son of William French (1687-1745) son of John French (1635-1712) son of William French of Billerica, MA
What IS known is that Nathaniel French, JR, prior to 1768, was granted property near the West River in what is now Dummerston, VT and Nathaniel French, SR was deeded, in 1770, property on the Connecticut River in what is now Brattleboro, VT. In 1775, the governor of New York was attempting to steal their land.
Tensions were rising, as noted below, and young William, age twenty-two, and his family, were preparing for a fight.
NEW WORLD ENCYCLOPEDIA
The grants sparked a dispute with the New York governor, who began granting charters of his own for New Yorker settlement in Vermont. In 1770, Ethan Allen—along with his brothers Ira and Levi, as well as Seth Warner—recruited an informal militia, the Green Mountain Boys, to protect the interests of the original New Hampshire settlers against the new migrants from New York. When a New York judge arrived in Westminster with New York settlers in March 1775, violence broke out as angry citizens took over the courthouse and called a sheriff's posse. This resulted in the deaths of Daniel Houghton and William French in the "Westminster Massacre."
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Vermont#Colonial
OUR COUNTRY by Benson J. Lossing 1877
The precedence as to the time and place where blood was first shed in the Revolution is claimed for Westminster, Vermont, where, more than a month before the affair at Lexington, officers of the crown in endeavoring to subdue a mob, caused the death of one of the rioters. The event is recorded in an epitaph inscribed upon a slab of slate in the old burial-ground at Westminster, in the following words:
"In Memory of WILLIAM FRENCH, son to Mr. Nathaniel French, who was Shot at Westminister, March ye 13th, 1775, by the hands of Cruel Ministerial tools of George ye 3d, in the Court-house at a 11 O'clock at Night, in the 22nd year of his Age.Here William French his Body lies, For Murder his Blood for Vengeance Cries. King George the third his Tory crew tha with a bawl his head Shot threw. For Liberty and his Country's Good he Lost his Life, his Dearest Blood."
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Our_Country_vol_2/williamf_fh.html
OLD BENNINGTON, VERMONT
The Westminster Massacre polarized Vermonters and helped to fill the ranks of the Green Mountain Boys for the defense of Vermont. Two months after the massacre, they would agree that the British posed a bigger threat and marched to Fort Ticonderoga for the defense of Boston.
http://www.revolutionaryday.com/usroute7/bennington/default.htm
THE MASSACRE AT WESTMINSTER, VERMONT
On the northerly end of the lower street, on the brow of the terrace overlooking the upper street, occurred the first organized resistance to the oppression of King George's tyrannical courts, and here was shed the first blood of the Revolution, March 13, 1775. The story has often been told, how a few determined men met there and took possession of the courthouse to prevent the session of next day's court, and the officers of the court attacked them, and that one man was killed and another fatally injured. The attempt of the sturdy citizens was successful, for the session of court was not held, nor was it ever held again in this county under the rule of the king.
http://www.vermontgenealogy.com/history/massacre_at_westminster_vermont.htm
THE WESTMINSTER MASSACRE
The Westminster Massacre of March 13, 1775 is viewed by some as the first battle of the American Revolution.
http://www.vermonthistory.org/freedom_and_unity/new_frontier/massacre.html
WINDHAM COUNTY 1884, HAMILTON CHILD
Here the old church still stands, built in 1770, which in its early days housed a generation of worshipers who bore a prominent part in the struggle of the State and Nation for independent. Near the northern end of the street lies the old burying-ground which entombs the bones of the fathers, and among them those of the young and ardent patriot, William French, to whom history accords a place as the first martyr of the Revolution. A few rods distant from the cemetery, almost at the brow of a gentle hill, is the site of the old court-house (see page 33) where French was shot, in 1775..
http://www.westminsterhistory.net/?p=101
OTHER REFERENCES edit
http://small-stuff.com/FRENCH/DNA/tree6.htm
http://www.ibrattleboro.com/braintrust/index.php?title=William_French
Westminster. by Rev. F. J. Fairbanks
The New England Historical and Genealogical Register
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_(VT)