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| Colonel William Munroe |
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Here’s another cousin with a delightful story. Colonel William Munroe (1742-1827, great-grandson of William the Immigrant and our half second cousin, seven generations removed), lies behind this, the door to Tomb No. 2, now located within the Proprietors’ Cemetery, although the inscription says he (Colonel William) erected it in 1811, and he died before 1835, when that Cemetery was opened.
William Munroe was orderly sergeant in Captain Parker’s company in 1775; it was under his direction that a guard was posted at Mr. Clarke’s house, on the evening of the 18th of April, 1775; and he paraded the men on the common the next morning, in the very face of the British troops. The services that he performed at the opening of the Revolution were followed up by services during the progress of the war and afterward. He was a lieutenant in the northern army at the capture of Burgoyne, in 1777. He was a prominent citizen, and filled important town offices. For nine years he was a selectman, and represented the town two years. He marched towards Springfield during Shay’s Rebellion and was a Colonel in the militia. He kept the public house, still known as the Munroe Tavern. Here the British regaled themselves, and committed many outrages on the 19th of April; here they shot down John Raymond who was leaving the house. In 1789, George Washington dined in the Munroe Tavern, on his visit to Lexington’s battle field of the Revolution. It is said that no guest of the Tavern ever left without learning from the old Colonel’s lips that it was he who shushed Paul Revere… |
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