Dr. Patrick Browne, local historian and Executive Director of the Plymouth Antiquarian Society. Photo: Jim MacKay/WBZ NewsRadio
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A South Shore historian is looking back on the key role Marshfield played in the Revolutionary War, which started 250 years ago this April.
Local historian and Executive Director of the Plymouth Antiquarian Society Dr. Patrick Browne explained how British loyalists, stationed in Marshfield, called in extra Redcoats as a line of defense against the American Patriots building resistance to the Crown.
“Marshfield was really the only other place in Massachusetts outside of Boston where Redcoats were stationed,” Browne said.
Read More: Early Months Of Year Are Perfect Time For Tree Pruning In Back Bay Fens
A.I. Rendering of British Troops in Plymouth County, late 1775.Photo: Courtesy of Plymouth Antiquarian Society
In a digital blog post on the subject, Browne wrote that the strong presence of Redcoats in Marshfield could be traced back to Nathaniel Ray Thomas, a man who “was the embodiment of Loyalist aristocracy in Marshfield.”
Browne added that “Thomas wielded both economic and political power and played a leading role in shaping Marshfield into a Tory stronghold.”
While the Revolutionary War would start a few months later in April 1775, the hostilities between the British Redcoats and the American Patriots were escalating, and almost resulted in the Battle of Marshfield, which never came to fruition.
“That very nearly could have been the site of the second battle of the American Revolution after Concord and Lexington,” Browne added.
Browne also explained that these tensions in Marshfield had been brewing between both sides for some time, with Marshfield holding its own tea party in an act of resistance towards King George III’s government two years earlier in January 1774, one month after the infamous Boston Tea Party.
“We have these stories in Marshfield, Duxbury, [and] Plymouth about the tensions between Patriots and these Redcoats,” Browne said.
WBZ NewsRadio’s Jim MacKay (@JimMacKayOnAir) reports.