The Dr. Joseph Warren Foundation strives to educate the public about his life & contributions to the American Revolution. We are rebuilding & celebrating his life & legacy along with others who contributed to early American History. Dr. Warren was a Boston physician, patriot & politician whose courage & passion helped shape our country. At age 34, he sacrificed his life for liberty, with his fellow patriots, at the Battle of Bunker Hill. We remember.

We celebrate the British surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781 after Lord Charles Cornwallis' army endured a month long Franco/American siege under the Comte de Rochambeau and George Washington! We also honor the brave patriots who gave their lives at the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill) six years before and who would never know that they did not die in vain for their country and liberty. The Revolutionary War would continue for two more years, especially in the South, but Yorktown was the beginning of the end.

The Dr. Joseph Warren Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the life and legacy of Dr. Joseph Warren. We're making a documentary about him titled "Founding Martyr" based on the book by Christian Di Spigna. Our first shoot in Boston by Lionheart Filmworks and Devin Olson Media is next week. Some of our board members, Christian Di Spigna, J Hart, Reese Holmes and Julie Hall will be with them. We're shooting every place that is somehow connected to Dr. Warren and the American Revolution. Places we are filming . . . *Massachusetts Historical Society *Roxbury Latin School (where Joseph Warren attended school and taught for a year after graduating from Harvard) *Forest Hills Cemetery (where Dr. Warren is buried) *Old North Church *Old South Meeting House *Suffolk Resolves House (in Milton) *Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum *Bunker Hill Monument *Paul Revere House *Granary Burying Ground *Copp’s Hill Cemetery In between shoots we will capture footage at Harvard and the Boston Massacre Site. So much work has gone in to making this happen, the logistics, and the communication to make it all happen. We will be using some of the footage we capture to update the trailer that we have now, hopefully by the end of the year. So stay tuned for photos and updates. Huzzah!

Paul Revere was Joseph Warren’s fellow brother Mason. In 1760, when Revere was 25, he entered St. Andrew’s Lodge, a newer lodge whose members were mostly craftsmen. St. Andrew’s Lodge was chartered in 1756 by the Grand Lodge of Scotland, during a period in which a rift in England had divided Masons between “Ancient” and “Modern” groups. St. Andrew’s Lodge represented Ancient Masonry. In 1761, St. Andrew’s Lodge met twenty-six times. Paul missed only one meeting. In one of the other twenty-five meetings he met Joseph Warren, who had been initiated in September of that year. To their dismay, the Ancient Freemasons of St. Andrew’s Lodge were rejected by Boston’s Modern brethren, who considered these “Scotts Masons” to be “irregular.” As a result, a committee including Revere and Joseph Warren and two British traveling lodges petitioned the Scottish Grand Lodge to charter a Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons in Boston, which would have the authority to charter additional lodges. The petition was granted. On December 27, 1769 the Massachusetts Grand Lodge came into existence. Dr. Joseph Warren served as the first Grand Master and Revere held numerous offices in the Grand Lodge over the years. Like Warren, Revere’s membership in the Masons connected him to the men who would lead the resistance to overreaches of the British Crown and Parliament. Men like Samuel Adams, James Otis, and John Hancock. The death of Grand Master Joseph Warren, killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, was a personal loss for Revere, who held his friend in such high esteem that he named a son after him in 1777. It also created a crisis for Ancient Masons, who thought that Warren’s commission as Grand Master had died with him, leaving the Lodge “without a Head, & without a Single Grand Officer.” As a means of self-preservation, the Massachusetts Grand Lodge elected their own Grand Master in 1777, independent of Scotland. A report issued by Revere and three others in 1782 justified this election, without which Lodges “must Cease to Assemble, the Brethren be dispersed, the Pennyless go unassisted, the Craft Languish & Ancient masonry be extinct in this Part [of the] World.”

In April 1775, Benedict Arnold approached the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and its President Dr. Joseph Warren and asked that they back his purposed expedition to take Fort Ticonderoga in New York. At the time, the Provincial Congress was preparing for possible war with the British and they needed the cannon from the fort. It was voted to give an order upon the treasurer for the immediate payment of one hundred pounds in cash. It also contained an order for 200 pounds of gunpowder, 200 pounds of lead balls, 1000 flints, and ten horses—all to be delivered to Captain Benedict Arnold. He would be accountable to Massachusetts for the service approved by the war council. Arnold was promoted to colonel for the expedition. Ironically, Dr. Benjamin Church, who was spying for General Thomas Gage signed Arnold's commission. In the spring of 1778, Arnold learned that the children of Dr. Joseph Warren, who had been killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, “…had been entirely neglected by the state.” He donated five hundred silver dollars through Mercy Scollay, who had cared for Warren's children, toward the children’s welfare, stating that he wished her to take particular care of the education of Betsey, and have Richard sent to the best school in Boston.

General Joseph Warren's brothers, John and Eben, found his remains on Breed's Hill on April 5, 1776. A sexton had seen where Joseph fell when he was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. After some digging they found his horribly decomposed body identified by an artificial tooth fastened in with gold wire that Paul Revere had fashioned for him. What most people don't know is that Joseph's remains laid in state at the statehouse in Boston for three days until his funeral on April 8, 1776. So next time you visit the Old State House, stop for a minute and pay respects to Joseph Warren.

“Gen'l Warren taking leave of his wife and child on the eve of the battle of Bunker Hill.” This sentimental portrait first appeared in the “Columbian Magazine” (no date given). It is housed in the American Antiquarian Society. The engraver is Thomas Kelley (1795-1841) who worked as an engraver in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City from 1823 through 1835. Joseph Warren married Elizabeth Hooton in September 1764. Together they had four children. Elizabeth died in April 1773. So clearly, the name of the engraving is a misnomer since his wife had been dead for two years before the Battle of Bunker Hill. This image is one of the many examples of how Joseph Warren's celebrated life and heroic death were used to unite and inspire the young nation. The image is very romantic, with the stalwart Warren holding his rifle while the woman pleads for him to stay, pointing to the adorable child peeking over the edge of the crib. This image illustrates the honorable Doctor Warren's choice of duty to his country and the ideal of freedom over his own personal happiness.

By [1764] Joseph Warren’s medical practice had grown to encompass all levels of Boston society. His patients included the Tory upper crust, like the Hutchinsons, the Hallowells, and the Olivers; the lowest classes including prisoners and slaves; and the middling sort, artisans and mechanics such as William Dawes, Benjamin Burt, and Paul Revere. Finally, Warren’s clients also included the core members of the radical movement—Samuel and John Adams, James Otis, Jr., John Hancock and the Whig printers Benjamin Edes and John Gill. The breadth of his professional connections allowed him to move comfortably not only at Harvard but in Masonic lodges, tavern, and almshouses. ~~Excerpt from the book “Founding Martyr” by Christian Di Spigna

Happy Sunday!

“In this hall [Faneuil Hall] was first heard the eloquence of a Hancock, the two Adamses, a Bowdoin, a Molineux, and a Warren. In this hall was first kindled that divine spark of liberty, which, like an unconquerable flame, had pervaded the continent,—a flame, which, while it proved a cloud of darkness to the enemies of America, has appeared like a pillar of fire to the votaries of freedom, and happily lighted them to empire and independence.” ~~Massachusetts Magazine, March 1789

John Hancock died on October 8, 1793 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts in January 1736. He was Joseph Warren’s friend, fellow Mason, patient, and fellow Son of Liberty. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for many years and was often elected the moderator at town meetings which were important to how government was run. He was in tune with Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren whose Radical faction vehemently opposed the policies of Parliament and the Massachusetts royal government. But politically John tended to be somewhat more moderate. Unlike Adams and Warren, he wandered off the rebel course for a short time, but returned to the fold. John was one of the richest men in Massachusetts. When his Uncle Thomas Hancock died in 1764, John inherited the House of Hancock, a dynasty his uncle had built which included supplying the army during the French and Indian War, merchant ships, agents in London, warehouses, etc. that employed hundreds of people. His uncle’s wife, Lydia, signed over the mansion on Beacon Hill and all its contents to John on the condition that she could continue to live there. John loved his aunt very much. She was his guiding light and matchmaker and staged huge parties for him and his guests. John was extremely generous to the town of Boston. He paid to have a church completely remodeled, bought a fire engine, and often held parties on his lawn that were open to the public with fireworks and Madeira for all. In 1774, he was elected president of the first Massachusetts Provincial Congress and then in 1775 the Second Continental Congress. While he was hiding in Lexington with Samuel Adams in April 1775, his Aunt Lydia was with him as well as his fiancé Dorothy Quincy. He married Dorothy in August 1775. They had two children, both of whom died in childhood. John suffered from gout and tended to be a hypochondriac. Joseph Warren did his best to treat John’s symptoms and care for his friend with the limited medical knowledge of the time. John died at age 56. He is buried in Granary Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts.

On October 7, 1765, Dr. Joseph Warren published his first political piece in the "Boston Gazette" under the pseudonym B.W attacking the Stamp Act. It was one of his first public steps toward evolving into the fiery patriot and politician he would become. "To the Inhabitants of the Province of the Massachusetts-Bay. My dear Countrymen, Had not His Excellency the Governor seen fit to adjourn the House of Representatives would doubtless in a few Days, have desired a recess, in order to consult with and take Directions of the Constituents, respecting the Necessity of a Compliance with the grievous and unconstitutional Tax laid upon the Colonies by the Stamp-Act… The Provincial Debt, incurred by the late War, and which is daily increasing by the Interest which grows due thereon, is also very great.—Add to this, that will drain the Province of the little Cash left among us, which at present barely serves for a Medium of Trade... Awake! –Awake my Countrymen and by a regular and legal opposition defeat the Designs of those who enslave us and our Posterity. Nothing is wanting but your own Resolution—for great is the Authority, exalted the Dignity and powerful the Majesty of the People… Happy thrice happy should I be to have it in my Power to congratulate my Countrymen, on so memorable a Deliverance; whilst I left the Enemies of Truth and Liberty to humble themselves in Sackcloth and Ashes."

The grave of Robert Newman in Copp’s Hill Burying Ground in Boston. He was a sexton at the Old North Church. On the evening of 18 April 1775, he and John Pulling hung the signal lanterns in the church’s bell tower. They briefly hung two lanterns near the windows and made their escape. This signal, from the tallest structure in the town of Boston, served as an early warning that a detachment of the British Army was crossing the Charles River and heading west towards the towns of Lexington and Concord.

"View of Boston, Roxbury," Thomas Cole, ca 1838, Boston Beheld: Antique Town and Country Views, D. Brenton Simons, 2008. Dr. Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1741. Although this print is dated nearly 100 years after he was born, one can imagine that he may have seen a similar view of Boston from Roxbury during his lifetime.

Original painting of Dr. Joseph Warren circa 1765 by John Singleton Copley displayed in the Copley Gallery in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Gift of Buckminster Brown, M.D., through Carolyn M. Matthews M.D., Trustee, 1895. Photo taken October 2017.

Happy Friday! Spotted at Peacefield the home of John and Abigail Adams in Quincy, Massachusetts.

01 October 1768. Boston, Massachusetts. Royal Governor Francis Bernard spent months trying to quell tumults and protests after the passage of the Townshend Acts which included royal appointed customs commissioners. No matter what laws existed he could not restore the activity of civil power. He complained incessantly to Lord Hillsborough in London. He began correspondence with General Thomas Gage in New York. Bernard did not want to directly ask for troops and Gage did not want to directly issue orders to their commander to deploy. Neither man knew that orders were on their way from London issued by the Lord Hillsborough to General Gage to send the regiments in Halifax to Boston. Nevertheless, on September 28, 1768, eight British warships sailed into Boston Harbor joining six that were already there. The fleet maneuvered closer to the town and pointed cannon at it. The following evening, the ships launched skyrockets, illuminating the fleet as crew members sang “Yankee Doodle” intended as a taunt to Bostonians. Around noon on the first day of October, longboats transported the British soldiers to Long Wharf. The 14th regiment marched up King Street to the Town House where they halted until the 29th regiment and two companies of the 59th Grenadiers with a company of artillery came up. They marched toward Boston Common with muskets charged and bayonets fixed and flags flying. The 29th regiment’s West Indian drummers were dressed in yellow coats with red lapels. Two more regiments were expected. The 64th and 65th were ordered from Ireland to reinforce the troops in Boston. The Sons of Liberty and the provincial government, the House of Representatives would not make quartering those soldiers easy for Governor Bernard or their commander Colonel William Dalrymple. Paul Revere set about engraving the landing of the troops so that others could see the evil happening to Boston. He was doing what he did best to spread propaganda and support the patriot faction.

A beautiful rendering of Boston Common by James Kidder, 1829 - Boston Public Library, Digital Commonwealth.

Create an image of what the world would look like, based on my tweets ...lives in 1775 Massachusetts: Dr. Joseph Warren as physician, Son of Liberty, and martyr; Lexington and Concord’s Battle Road; Bunker Hill; Paul Revere; Samuel Adams; colonial taverns; Harvard pranks; smallpox wards; and the long fight for liberty. Here’s that world as one scene.

Munroe Tavern in Lexington, Massachusetts. This is where Colonel Francis Smith's battered British regiment rested for thirty minutes on the afternoon of April 19, 1775 after they were shot at by militiamen during their retreat from Concord toward Boston. General Thomas Gage sent Lord Hugh Percy and 1,500 reinforcements to rescue Smith’s regiment. Percy found them there. His men shared provisions and medical treatment with their fellow soldiers before continuing their desperate retreat. But the British were about to face the worst fighting of the day on the road ahead to Menotomy. Joseph Warren and Colonel William Heath joined the rebels firing at the British along what is now called "Battle Road." They stayed close and fired from behind stone walls and trees. Warren often stopped to tend the nearby wounded and then return to Heath's side. They kept with the militia that followed the British as they moved through a section of Menotomy known as Foot of the Rocks. From the protection of a stone wall, Warren kept firing as fast as he could load his musket. British musket balls flew around him like hornets. One came so close to him that it took off a lock of his hair that curled above his ear close to his head.