Benjamin Locke, 1738-1791, served as Menotomy’s Minute Men Captain during the Lexington Alarm. After both Paul Revere and William Dawes rode past his house at the Foot of the Rocks, on present day Appleton Street in Arlington, MA., Captain Locke and his lieutenant Solomon Bowman mustered their troops in the early morning of April 19 and left for Lexington. Later it is probable they fought at the Jason Russell House skirmish in Menotomy, the bloodiest fighting of that day.
In June 1775, Captain Locke also fought at Bunker Hill in Colonel Thomas Gardner’s regiment, where his musket became so hot from repeated firing that he had to wrap his handkerchief around it…and he kept on firing. This regiment was later stationed at Somerville’s Prospect Hill, a part of the Continental Army’s ring surrounding the British in Boston, 1775-6.
Benjamin Locke was a leader in the local Baptist congregation as well, serving in 1780 as chairman of the committee that drew up a compact of six articles, which guided the new religious group. He later sold the Baptists his house to serve as their first Meeting House.
Locke survived the war and served as Cambridge Selectman in 1777 and 1778 and as assessor 1778, 1788, and 1789.
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