JOSEPH WARREN

Roxbury, Massachusetts
June 11, 1741–June 17, 1775
An Incendiary Man

Dr. Joseph Warren, a close associate of prominent Massachusetts radicals such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams, is not as well known as them because he died so early in the Revolutionary War. Warren, who came from a family of patriots, is best known for two exploits: inspiring Paul Revere’s ride, and dying in the line of duty at Bunker Hill. Neither one receives a great deal of publicity.

A Radical Doctor

Warren was a serious student in his younger days. He studied at the elite Roxbury Latin School and Harvard, from which he graduated in 1759. Following graduation, he taught at Roxbury Latin for a year, then studied medicine. Politics and independence were always on his mind, however.

Warren drew British authorities’ attention to himself as early as 1768, when they threatened to try his publishers, Edes and Gill, for printing a hostile newspaper essay he had written under his pseudonym, “A True Patriot.” But no local jury would indict. Later, in February 1770, a loyalist customs service agent named Ebenezer Richardson, who was being harassed by a group of young boys, fired shots into the crowd, killing the young Christopher Seider. That incident led to the Boston Massacre eleven days later, after which there was no turning back for the patriots.

Like so many of his fellow radicals, Warren was particularly incensed at the Intolerable Acts. In fairness, the British did not make the acts effective immediately. They gave the colonists an opportunity to accept them. Instead, the colonists grew more defiant. That defiance eventually cost Warren his life.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“SHOULD EUROPE EMPTY ALL HER FORCE WE’LL MEET HER IN ARRAY.”

—JOSEPH WARREN, 1774, AFTER HEARING ABOUT THE INTOLERABLE ACTS

FEDERAL FACTS

The Boston Committee of Correspondence resulted from a motion made by Samuel Adams at a town meeting on November 2, 1772. It comprised twenty-two men chaired by James Otis Jr. The committee’s goal was to shape public opinion and disseminate to local and neighboring citizens the community’s views about colonists’ rights and real or perceived abuses by British officials. Eighty other Massachusetts communities formed similar committees within a few months.

Politics over Practice

As the conflict between the British government and the patriots widened, Warren became more active in politics. His fellow agitators appointed him to the Boston Committee of Correspondence in 1773. He took his duties seriously. Twice in the 1773–75 timeframe he delivered speeches to commemorate the Boston Massacre. On the second occasion, in March 1775, he did so while Boston was teeming with British troops.

In addition to his duties on the Committee of Correspondence, Warren found time to draft the Suffolk Resolves, a prelude to the Declaration of Independence, which the Continental Congress ultimately endorsed.

Warren also served as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, which the patriots formed to bypass the British government’s laws intended to strip them of self-rule. Ironically, the Congress ruled every community in Massachusetts except Boston, where most of the radicals lived. The British had too large a presence there.

REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS

Warren’s brother James also served a term as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, as did Samuel Adams. That was the highest position in the state’s government at the time.

A Good Doctor Falls

Like so many of his compatriots, Warren put his life on the line as a politician and patriot. He took it one step farther than many of the other patriots. Warren also served in the military as a major general in the Massachusetts militia. Thus, when events spiraled out of control in April 1775, he was ready to sacrifice his life for the patriots’ cause—which he did.

Warren was one of the last patriot leaders left in Boston in mid-1775. Many of them were en route to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia or hiding from the British in other towns. The British were determined to find them.

When the British sent a patrol to find and arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were “vacationing” in nearby Concord, Warren dispatched Paul Revere and William Dawes to alert the two men—an act that became legendary and was immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.”

On April 19, 1775, British and American troops clashed at Lexington and Concord in the first battles of the Revolutionary War. Warren volunteered to fight at the Battle of Bunker Hill as a private—even though he outranked Colonel William Prescott, who was in actual command.

Joseph Warren died at Bunker Hill as he had lived: heroically. The British did not accord him any respect after his death, though. After the battle, British soldiers stripped Warren’s body of his clothing and bayoneted him until he was unrecognizable. Then they shoved his remains into a shallow ditch. His brothers and Paul Revere exhumed his body ten months later.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“THE FAMOUS DOCTOR WARREN, THE GREATEST INCENDIARY IN ALL AMERICA, WAS KILLED ON THE SPOT.”

—BRITISH OFFICER LIEUTENANT LORD FRANCIS RAWDON

Abigail Adams lamented Warren’s death. She wrote to John Adams on July 5, 1775, “We want him in the Senate; we want him in his profession; we want him in the field. We mourn for the citizen, the senator, the physician, and the warrior. May we have others raised up in his room.”