History of Danversport, (Essex County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Israel Hutchinson, soldier, was born in Danvers, Mass., in November, 1727; son of Elisha and Ginger (Porter) Hutchinson, and a descendant in the fifth generation from Richard Hutchinson, who came to Salem, Mass., in 1634. His father was one of the first board of the governor's council of Massachusetts Bay. Israel served his country as sergeant in a company of rangers in 1757, in the colonial wars against the allied forces of the French and Indians, and was one of the non-commissioned officers who led the Massachusetts militia to the defence of Ticonderoga and Lake George, in 1758. For his action in these sanguinary engagements, he was promoted to the captaincy of his company, and with it joined the forces of General Wolfe in the assault on the Heights of Abraham at Quebec, Sept. 13, 1759, which saved to England the colonies of America. When the British soldiers fired upon the people of Lexington, April 19, 1775, the news reached Danvers at 9 o'clock in the morning, and by 11 o'clock he had sixty minute men gathered ready to intercept the British troops on their return to Boston. This they did at West Cambridge, where from behind breastworks improvised from bundles of shingles, Captain Hutchinson and his sixty Danvers minutemen were attacked by a flanking party of the main British column, and eight of their number fell, martyrs to the cause of American liberty, and on the morning of April 20, 1775, the bodies of the slain were taken back to Danvers. For his conduct at West Cambridge he was on May 3, 1775, made lieutenant-colonel of the 19th Massachusetts regiment, Col. John Mansfield, and with the regiment joined the American militia, assembled at Cambridge. At sunset, June 16, 1775, Lieutenant-Colonel Hutchinson marched from Cambridge green with 1000 men, under Colonel Prescott, and fought in the battle of Bunker Hill. He engaged in the siege of Boston under Washington, as colonel of the 27th regiment, accompanied the commander-in-chief to Long Island, where his men manned the boats in the retreat across the East river to New York, and the regiment was a part of the retreating army through New Jersey and across the Delaware. He returned to Danvers in 1777, where he was a miller up to the time of his death. He represented his town in the general court of the commonwealth for nineteen years, and was a member of the governor's council two years, besides serving in other public capacities. He was married in 1747, to Anna Cue, by whom he had four children; and in 1759, to Mehitabel Putnam. A granite monument was erected to his memory on the site of his home at Danvers-port, in 1896, and inscribed with a record of his military and civil life. He died at Danversport, Mass., March 16, 1811.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Danversport, (Essex County) Massachusetts

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