Visiting Our Ancestors in Lexington, Massachusetts

 

This summer we took our granddaughter to see Lexington, Massachusetts.  She had been reading a book called Sam, the Minuteman, by Nathaniel Benchly.  This is an "I can Read" level 3 book about a fictional young man that witnessed the Battle of Lexington. One day while she and I took turns reading this book I mentioned that her ancestors were at this battle, and that the houses of some family members still stand in Lexington.  A few months later we took a short day trip to see these sights! 

The first place we visited was the Munroe Tavern.  It was owned by members of the Munroe family.  Seven members of the family were mustered on Lexington Common on 19 April 1775.  Our ancestor, Andrew Munroe, was only eleven years old on that day.  This was about the age of Sam, the Minuteman in the book.  We don't know if Andrew witnessed the battle, but chances are that he was nearby.  His two uncles, Robert Munroe and Jonas Parker (husband to his Aunt Lucy Munroe), were the first two men killed on Lexington Green. His cousin William Munroe (1742-1827) owned the Munroe Tavern.

On 19 April 1775 William Munroe had to leave his family and join the minutemen on Lexington Green.  He left his wife and children, and a handyman named John Raymond.  The British Regulars marched right down the road in front of the house towards the town common.  The women and children fled to the woods, and John Raymond stayed to protect the house.  The British killed Raymond, and commandeered the tavern as a field hospital.  On the retreat, after the battles of Lexington and Concord, the house was used to treat the British wounded, and then it was set on fire when they left. Fortunately the house survived. 

In 1789 President Washington toured the new United States and stopped in Lexington, Massachusetts to have a meal with the Munroe family at their tavern.  The table, chair, and even the dishes Washington used were carefully preserved by the Munroe family. These items are still on display at the Munroe Tavern, on the second floor. I've also blogged about this event, and you can read about it HERE. 

In the tavern room, on the first floor, the British Regulars shot a bullet into the ceiling.  The Munroe family preserved this evidence of the event and it is still visible today.  

The downstairs part of the Munroe Tavern is a museum dedicated to telling the story of the Battle of Lexington from a British viewpoint. This was a controversial move by the Lexington Historical Society several years ago.  The upstairs rooms tell the story of the Munroe family and their view of that day nearly 250 years ago. In the bedroom are many family artifacts. I blogged about the rebranding of the Munroe Tavern HERE. 

A colonial costume!  It was fun trying on different outfits at the Munroe Tavern.

Nana dressed as a "Redcoat"!

It was fun to bring my granddaughter to see these sights and to learn about her ancestors.  However, discussing war and death with an eight year old was interesting, too.  She had lots of questions. "Why did they fight?" and "Why did the Red Coats kill  John Raymond?" and "Why did the Red Coats fight the minutemen?" and the inevitable "Why do we have wars?".   If you bring young children to see battlefields and cemeteries, and if they see or read stories about war and oppression you must be prepared to answer these questions. And be prepared to answer the more philosphical questions about war with "Everyone has questions about that" or "I wish I knew that, too".  We weren't surprised at the questions, but tried to answer as truthfully as possible.  Not all history is easy. 

We placed pennies at the monument on Lexington Green where the slain minutemen are buried.

"This Monument is erected

By the inhabitants of Lexington,

Under the patronage & at the expense of

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

To the memory of their Fellow Citizens,

Ensign Robert Munroe, Messrs. Jonas Parker,

Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, Junr.

Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington, and John Brown

of Lexington & Asahel Porter of Woburn,

Who fell on this field the first Victims to the 

Sword of British Tyranny & Oppression,

On the morning of the ever memorable

Nineteenth of April, An. Dom, 1775.

The Die was cast!!!"

On our way back walking from the Lexington Green we saw this house facing the battlefield.  We wondered if this was another member of our Munroe clan.  When I was home I looked up the names Marret and Nathan Munroe.  They were father and son.  Marrett Munroe (1713 - 1798) was married to Deliverance Parker, the sister to Captain  John Parker of the Lexington Minutemen, and cousin to Jonas Parker mentioned above.  Marret's son Nathan Munroe (1747 - 1829) served under Captain Parker's command on the day of the battle across the street from his house, with six other Munroe men. 

For the truly curious:

The Munroe Tavern at the Lexington Historical Society website:   https://www.lexingtonhistory.org/munroe-tavern   

The Munroe Tavern at Wikipedia:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munroe_Tavern_(Lexington,_Massachusetts)  

and several blog posts:

"Rebranding History" 26 September 2011  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/09/rebranding-history.html  

"Surname Saturday - Munroe of Lexington, Massachusetts" 30 June 2012   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/06/surname-saturday-munroe-of-lexington.html  

"Cousins at the Battle of Lexington" 15 April 2010    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/04/cousins-at-battle-of-lexington.html  

"Read how a family history fib spread in 1889, and is still spreading today!" 29 January 2015 (about Washington's visit to the Munroe Tavern in 1789)   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/01/read-how-family-history-fib-spread-in.html    

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Visiting Our Ancestors in Lexington, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 12, 2023, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2023/09/visiting-our-ancestors-in-lexington.html: accessed [access date]).