Joseph Warren

Welcome to Did You Know a video series about Massachusetts where we take a look at interesting tidbits of state history. Each video will cover a different part of Massachusetts history and culture. Today, our topic is patriot and physician Dr. Joseph Warren. Did you know that Warren's death during the battle of Bunker Hill helped galvanize Patriot troops during the Revolutionary War?

Let's find out more. Joseph Warren was a prominent member of the revolutionary cause, whose life and death helped inspire the movement against the British colonial government. Although he died young, he became a martyr for the American Revolution. But his contributions are often overlooked. Joseph Warren was born on June 11, 1741, in Roxbury, Massachusetts, to a family of respected farmers.

He worked on his father's farm growing up and was educated with strong Puritan morals, such as the value of hard work. Warren attended Roxbury Latin School in preparation for taking the Harvard exams, and he was admitted to the college in July of 1755 during a two week school break. Warren returned home and on October 25th, his father died from falling off a ladder in the orchard.

The costs of his funeral and the expense of his tuition put the family under financial strain. But his mother insisted he continue his education. Warren graduated Harvard in 1759 and took a position teaching at Roxbury Latin School. He became interested in the Freemasons and joined the Lodge of St Andrew in Boston in 1761. While attending, he met Paul Revere, who became a close friend of his.

Warren continued to serve as a Freemason and became the Grand Master of Masons for Boston in 1769, eventually becoming the Grand Master of the Masonic lodges of all the North American colonies in 1772. Warren also met John Hancock through their membership at the Congregational Church in Boston and later through Warren's medical practice. Around 1761, Warren became interested in becoming a doctor apprenticing under the well-known physician, James Lloyd.

He completed his apprenticeship in 1763 and opened up his own practice in which several future revolutionary leaders were patients of. They included John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, James Otis Jr and Paul Revere. In 1764, he married Elizabeth Hooten and they had four children. Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary and Richard. His wife died young in 1763, and he became engaged to Mercy Scull a few years later, who was a well-educated ad lady and a fierce patriot herself.

Sadly, Warren did not live to marry here while he was practicing medicine in Boston. Warren became increasingly involved in colonial political movements. Those increasing influence as a respected doctor gave him a reputation as a gentleman who could navigate multiple social circles. As tensions grew with Britain following King George, the Third's ascension to the throne in 1761, increasingly a voice to political discontent.

In 1764, he spoke out against the Sugar Act, the first of a series of new British taxes. In 1765, Warren published an article in the Boston Gazette against the new Stamp Act. He passionately argued it would strip liberty and financial freedom from Bostonians and called for protests against it. After the towns annex passed in 1767, Warren became increasingly involved in protesting British taxes.

Warren joined the Sons of Liberty, which argued for greater representation of the colonists and an end to what they saw as unfair taxation. Warren became convinced that independence from Britain was the only way the colonies could protect their rights. In 1768, Warren helped organize local boycotts against British goods and the backlash against collection of taxes in the colonies led Parliament to deploy British troops to Boston on February 22nd, 1770.

Warren conducted an autopsy on Christopher Sider, a ten year old boy who was killed during a protest against the loyalist owned store. Siders death fueled public outrage in Boston against the British soldiers occupying the city, especially when royal judges delayed the process and eventually acquitted his killer. 11 days later, tensions peaked with the Boston massacre, in which five colonists protesting at the Customs house were shot and killed when soldiers fired into the crowd.

Warren was part of the committee that wrote a report on the massacre. This report became the most influential description of the event. The committee also successfully convinced Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson to move the British troops to Boston Harbor to avoid further violence. By the fall of 1770. The Townsend acts had been repealed except for the duty on tea and the Patriot Cause diminished as most of their demands had been met.

In March of 1772, Worn made his first public speech on the anniversary of the massacre, urging Bostonians to continue to fight for their rights as English citizens. That same year, Warren joined the Boston Committee of Correspondents, an organization that operated to coordinate patriot resistance in Massachusetts to the royal government while spreading information about the movement to other colonies.

Warren was also a member of the Committee of Safety that observed British military movements. Organized colonial militias acted as a local government and managed local militias, arms and supplies. Although it's unclear if Warren participated in the Boston Tea Party, you likely had a hand in organizing it as a committee member. Parliament quickly acted to punish the Boston by passing the coercive acts in the spring of 1774 that closed the Port of Boston and restricted local government in Massachusetts.

In response, Warren called for a boycott of all British imported goods and required merchants to swear a public oath of non importation. He also was appointed to the committee of donations that helped coordinate relief supplies arriving from other colonies to support Bostonians affected by the port's closure. On September four, 1774, British General Thomas Gage sent troops to seize gunpowder stored in Cambridge, prompting a massive turnout of armed patriots to stop them finding the soldiers gone.

Local militias clustered around the homes of loyalists threatening them with violence. Warren rushed to Cambridge with members of the Committee of Correspondence and persuaded the crowd to disperse by convincing the loyalists, including Lieutenant Governor Thomas Oliver, to give up their council seats. A few days later, on September six, Warren met with other local leaders of the Suffolk County Convention to coordinate Patriot resistance to the coercive acts.

Days later, Warren drafted the Suffolk Resolves, which renounced the newly passed Massachusetts Government Act, a law which increased the powers of the royal governor. The resolves also called for the formation of militias to defend the colony in a future war with Britain. Once the results were approved by the Suffolk County Convention, Paul Revere brought them to the first Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia.

One week later, the results were read on the floor of the Continental Congress and unanimously approved by delegates from all 13 colonies, expanding their principles and the British boycott to all of colonial North America. Shortly afterwards, Warren was appointed as a representative of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and he soon became involved in numerous other patriot organizations. By late 1774, Warren was also the effective spymaster of Boston, collecting and distributing intelligence on British troops through a coordinated network.

Meanwhile, British troops placed cannons and guards by Boston Neck, the only land route out of the city at the time and prepared for a siege. On April seven, 1775, Warren sent Revere to war in the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in Concord that the recent movement of British troops suggested they might raid a cache of gunpowder and arms in the town.

This prompted local officials to transport the supplies out of Concord the following week, Royal Governor Thomas Gage received orders to march on concrete and capture rebel supplies and rebel leaders, including Samuel Adams and John Hancock. On April 18, 17, 75 British troops mobilized for the raid, which the Patriot leaders had long known about. And Warren said William Dawes and Paul Revere to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were staying in Lexington, that British troops were headed their way.

On the morning of April 19th, Warren traveled secretly to Concord, where he helped fight in the attack on British troops during their retreat back to Boston. After the battle, colonial militias occupied the towns around Boston to prevent British troops from leaving. Starting the siege of Boston that would continue for nearly a year. On May 2nd, 1775, Warren was elected president of the second provincial Congress.

The highest post in the revolutionary government. Between April and June 1775, revolutionaries and British troops clashed in the series of skirmishes. As General Gage tried to procure supplies for his troops. With Warren participating in many of these engagements, Warren continued his work in the provincial Congress, which commissioned him as a major general on June 14, 1775. On June 16, 1775, General Gage moved his troops to Charlestown in Dorchester Heights in an effort to break the siege.

These plans were quickly divined by the militias, and local commanders gave orders to build earthen fortifications on Bunker Hill in Charlestown to cut off the British advance. However, the militia decided to fortify nearby Breed's Hill as it was closer to the British position across the harbor. On the morning of June 17th. British troops discovered these fortifications and fired their cannons at them.

They then shipped troops across the harbor to attack the Patriot forces. When Warren, who was staying in Cambridge, heard of the attack, he raced to Charlestown Heights to join the battle against the advice of his colleagues. Upon arriving at the Army camp at Bunker Hill, Warren asked General Israel Putnam where the heaviest fighting would be. When Putnam told him it would be on nearby Breed's Hill.

Warren insisted on fighting there as a private, even though he was offered to command one of the regiments. Colonel William Prescott, stationed on Breed's Hill, also offered in command. But Warren refused. This again, warns a rival in the middle of battle inspired the Patriots fighting behind the fortifications. And with his help, they repelled the British Army twice, so their ammunition ran out.

Warren was the last man to retreat from the fortifications during the British troops third assault on the Hill and was shot in the head and killed. His body was torn apart by bayonets and thrown in a ditch as Warren was a despised figure of the rebellion amongst British troops. Nine months later, after British troops left Boston on March 17, 1776, Warren's body was exhumed and his friend Paul Revere and his brothers identified him by an artificial tooth he had put in Warren's chop.

Joseph Warren was originally buried in the granary, burying ground, but today is interred at Forest Hill Cemetery. He is honored with three statues in Boston, and John Trumbull painted several versions of a painting of Warren's death in the early 1800s, one of which is owned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In addition, the town of Warren in Massachusetts and for war and on Georges Island in Boston Harbor, named after him.

Warren's bravery and self-sacrifice continue to be honored today as a symbol of American rebellion against oppression. Thanks for joining me and learning about Joseph Warren. If you'd like to learn more, check out these resources. Thank you for watching and.