Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/416

 332 THE HISTORY OF BAERINGTON. matter of great regret that the rolls of the rank and file of " The Army of Observation " and the regiment that fol- lowed it to Boston and afterwards to New York have not been preserved. Hence we cannot tell how many Barrington men responded to the call. From various sources we are certain that Captain Matthew Allin, Viall Allen, William Andrews, Thomas Bean, Consider Tripp, Nathaniel Humphrey, Samuel Bosworth, Samuel Martin and James Bushee were in the ranks. Peleg Heath was an Ensign in the second Com- pany, and was probably at the front of the Rhode Island Camp in Roxbury and at Prospect Hill in Cambridge. Captain Matthew Allin's letters written to his wife and brother Thomas Allin breathe the spirit of a brave man and a true patriot. Under date of June 13th, he writes from Gov- ernor Barnard's Seat, Roxbury, "We expect a battle very soon, and I long for the time to come." The "longed-for" event came on the 17th of June, four days later, at Bunker Hill, The Barrington boys saw heavy skirmishing, but were not in the thickest of the fight in Charlestown, being ordered to Roxbury and Dorchester to hold the enemy in check in that direction. At Barrington, two days after the battle of Bunker Hill, Henry Bowen, tavern-keeper near the Congre- gational Church, makes the following entry in his account book : The Town of Barrington, Dr. To 2 bowls toddy, made in large Defiance bowl, caldfor bj Colonel Nathaniel Martin in behalf of the town as was voted at2s. 3d. per bowl, _• ■ ^s. 6d. Evidently a reasonable junket after so memorable an event in which no Barrington boys lost their lives. To keep their spirits up it was the fashion to pour the spirits down in an orthodox way. Captain Allin writes June 20th, "we have got a fort built at Roxbury and we are building several breast-works in order to stop them from coming into the country. We must put our trust in God ; it may be that He is ordering it for the best, for He is a wise being. It may profit our souls if