James Reed (1724-1807)
Born in Massachusetts; died at Fitchburg, MA.
Portrait by Anna DeWitt Reed, after Trumbull.
Presented to the State by a descendant, 1883.

James Reed and Benjamin Bigelow led settlers from Lunenburg, MA to Monadnock Number Four in the early 1760s. Reed was "the only one of the original proprietors that actually resided in the township" of Fitzwilliam according to the town history of Fitzwilliam [Rev. J. F. Norton, The History of Fitzwilliam...from 1752 to 1887 (New York, 1888)]. A deed executed March 14, 1765 refers to him as "James Reed of Lunenburg".

James Reed got his military experience during the French and Indian War. In 1755 he commanded a company of provincial troops under Colonel Brown, and in 1758 he and his company were at Ticonderoga under General Abercrombie. A year later he was still there, under the command of General Amherst.

During the 1760s Reed became one of the proprietors of Monadnock No. 4, which became Fitzwilliam; he was said to have built the first framed house there, and he served as moderator of the proprietors' meetings from November 14, 1769 until the American Revolution. His home served as an inn, and as the meeting place for the proprietors.

When news of Lexington reached Fitzwilliam, in April 1775, Reed raised a company of volunteers and marched with them to Medford, Massachusetts. He soon had four companies of volunteers (approximately 200 men), and he was appointed Colonel of the Third New Hampshire Regiment by the New Hampshire General Assembly, June 1, 1775. Reed and Colonel John Stark (First New Hampshire Regiment) were stationed equidistant from what became the Bunker Hill battleground, Reed at Charlestown Neck, and Stark at Medford. ["New Hampshire Soldiers at the Battle of Bunker Hill; read by Saml. T. Worcester at the Annual Meeting of the New Hampshire Historical Society, June 14, 1882"; in NHHS Proceedings, volume 1.]

Reed and Stark and their troops fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill; their combined regiments produced approximately 950 soldiers actually in the conflict, with an estimated additional 200 or so missing the battle on account of sickness or absence in mid-June, 1775.

A siege of Boston ensued, and the British evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776. Reed's regiment accompanied Washington's army to New York. On April 24, 1776 Reed's regiment joined the Third Brigade led by New Hampshire's General Sullivan, and they were ordered up the Hudson River to relieve General Benedict Arnold's Northern Army command. Reed was said to have carried a $300,000 "paper money" payroll with him, so that General Schuyler's troops at Albany, New York might be paid.

General Sullivan's army passed over land familiar to Reed from the French and Indian War. They met Arnold's army retreating from the French, and Sullivan took command and pushed northward. They reached Ticonderoga July 1, 1776. Reed was stationed with his troops at Crown Point, where he and his men suffered through smallpox, dysentery and malignant fever. Through what is thought to have been incompetent medical care, Reed lost all or almost all his vision and had to retire from active military service at half pay. At the end of the American Revolution Reed was living in Keene, New Hampshire for medical treatment. After a few years he returned to Fitzwilliam as a blind man; later still he moved to Fitchburg, MA, where he died. He was buried with military honors. [For further information see Johnson and Malone, eds. Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 13 (New York, 1935).]

Location: First Floor Visitor Center Wall (Rooms 118,119)