06/03/2026
Ashburnham's Declaration of War Records Found! Part 1
By Gail Andrews, Metadata Archivist & Editor, National Archives
Our records show that a number of towns in 1776 confused their town's "declaration" of war they sent to the MA commonwealth with the Declaration of Independence they later received from Congress. After all, it never had happened before nor since.
It is most imperative for our 250th celebration of our country to get this right because we now can, that we use the best records obtainable in 2026. A far cry from antiquated and brief information on the American Revolution we had prior to 2000. Before the computer age and again after 2010 when significant changes were updated as our National Archives became available online with hundreds of thousands of documents never seen before. Our heroes and those who gave us freedom deserve the best we can do and certainly not generated by AI bots.
Contrary to various information previously, the 13 colonies never held individual, formal “votes to go to war” as it was our second continental congress that declared war. The History of Ashburnham, By Ezra Stearns had only vague, local information or newspapers to go by at his time in 1887 as he was also a newspaper reporter. While he did not attend college, he had several interests. 1887 when he published to after 1776 of over 100 years and even further in time until modern technology. Therefore, I've picked up where he couldn't have known, checked with congressional records, the DAR (daughters of the American revolution), as well as Ashburnham's town records to verify what they individually recorded in 1776 and they all agree!
War began before any colony level vote, when British troops and Massachusetts militia clashed at Lexington and Concord on April 19,1775 and over 60 other small battles throughout the other 12 colonies. Congress decided to declare war. However, some towns did record their consensus it just wasn't a vote count sent to congress by all and below you'll see the records did not note how many for, against or if unanimous. Nonetheless important to know how residents of Ashburnham drew the line in the sand risking everything.
As always, the source for proof matters especially by more than one vetted source to obtain as correct data as possible. With what I've pieced together from Mr. Stearns without proof that was said to be there (the page it should be on does not include it, perhaps he meant to) and he didn't mention it was voted on June 24th at a town meeting. Instead he noted when it was recorded later on June 28th as the voted-on date as he likely didn't attend the meeting living out of town.
Ashburnham town notes on these matters state that a meeting was to be held on June 14th, 1776 at the meetinghouse to have their voices be heard and a moderator was to be chosen first. The 2nd entry/photo below warning to free holders and inhabitants to show up. (free holder means a land owner).
These are 250 year old records, recorded in posterity for all future generations in Ashburnham I thought you should have access to.
Part 1 of 4, click each photo to read in its entirety.
To be continued...
