Durham

By order of Governor Wentworth, the Chief Justice of the Province made proclamation that what they proposed was open rebellion against the King, but they did not waver.

and having finally gathered together a company of their townsmen and such others as could be obtained from the adjoining towns of newcastle and rye in all about four hundred men they proceeded to fort william and mary there they were warned by captain cochrane not to enter and were fired upon both by cannon and small arms no one appears to have been injured however and they immediately stormed the fort and easily overcame such resistance as the one officer and five effective men could offer having captured the fort they proceeded to haul down the king's colors and then removed all of the gunpowder in the magazine with the exception of one barrel about one hundred barrels of powder were so obtained and these were sent up the pascadoa to durham that same evening with a letter to general sullivan who had not been in portsmouth that day on the following day thursday december fifteenth seventeen seventy four a party of men came from durham to portsmouth and that night together with other citizens under the leadership of john sullivan they again took the fort and carried off the lighter cannon and all of the small arms on friday a party under command of captain nathaniel folsom of exeter came to fort smith and remained on guard all day until in the afternoon on the rising tide the arms were sent up the river They finally reached Durham, but only after many weary hours of cutting through the ice which had just formed in the branch of the Piscatoa which leads up to that town.

The main details of the proceedings of the three days may easily be gathered from the following official documents and letters of the time which have fortunately been preserved to us.

On Wednesday, December 14, 1774, Governor Wentworth wrote to Governor Gage as follows.

After being drawn up on parade, they chose a committee consisting of those persons who had been most active in the riot of the preceding day with Major Sullivan and some others to wait on the governor and know of him whether any of the king's troops or ships were expected.

the governor after expressing to them his great concern for the consequences of taking the powder from the fort which they pretended to disapprove and be ignorant of assured them that he knew of neither troops or ships coming into the province and ordered the major as a magistrate to go and disperse the people when the committee returned to the body and reported what the governor had told them they voted it was satisfactory and that they would return home but by the eloquent harangue of their demosthenes they were first prevailed upon to vote that they took part with and approved of the measures of those who had taken the powder Matters appeared then to subside, and it was thought every man had peaceably returned to his own home.

Instead of this, Major Sullivan, with about seventy of his clients, concealed themselves till the evening, and then went to the fort and brought off in gondolas all the small arms, with fifteen four-pounders and one nine-pounder, and a quantity of twelve and four-and-twenty pounds shot, which they conveyed to Durham, etc., The day following being Friday, another body of men from Exeter, headed by Colonel Folsom, the other delegate to the Continental Congress, marched into Portsmouth and paraded about the town, and having passed several votes expressive of their approbation of the measures that had been pursued by the bodies of the two preceding days in robbing the fort of guns, powder, etc., retired home in the evening without further mischief.

thus by this false alarm was a great part of that province which though staunch in the cause of liberty before in a state of peace and good order kept for three days in the greatest confusion and the good people that persuaded by a few flaming demagogues to commit a most outrageous overt act of treason and rebellion no history i believe will furnish us with an instance of a king's fort being taken and his colors struck by his own subjects in time of peace and without any cause or provocation in the new hampshire gazette of friday december twenty third appeared a letter which is somewhat humorous in its nature directed to mr printer and signed a lover of order this is interesting to us chiefly because it shows that the king's order prohibiting the exportation of arms was the cause here as it had been in rhode island of the seizure of the powder this letter says among other things alarmed with the tendency of the quebec act with the accounts that the canadians and indians were to be called forth to enforce the acts of parliament so disagreeable to all the colonies long inured to defend themselves in the wide-extended frontiers of this province by their valor against the restless savages of the wilderness without any other aid and while destitute of arms necessary for such defense finding that his majesty not knowing their peculiar defenseless state had been pleased to prohibit the exportation of powder arms and other warlike stores to the colonies without special license some of the good people of this province in the wonted honesty and simplicity of their hearts imagined that no one would have just reason to complain of their too great forwardness if they seasonably removed some of the warlike stores from the fort which they then accordingly effected without any great tumult or opposition again in the same paper the following notice appears since our last arrived here his majesty's ships cancaus captain mowat and the scarborough captain barclay both from boston with eighty or a hundred soldiers aboard on the twenty sixth of december governor wentworth issued the following proclamation a proclamation by the governor whereas several bodies of men did in the daytime of the fourteenth and in the night of the fifteenth of this instant december in the most daring and rebellious manner invest attack and forcibly enter into his majesty's castle william and mary in this province and overpowering and confining the captain and garrison did besides committing many treasonable insults and outrages break open the magazine of said castle and plunder it of above one hundred barrels of gunpowder with upwards of sixty stand of small arms and did also force from the ramparts of said castles and carry off sixteen pieces of cannon and other military stores in open hostility and direct opulation of his majesty's government and in the most atrocious contempt of his crown and dignity i do by advice and consent of his majesty's council issue this proclamation ordering and requiring in his majesty's name all magistrates and other officers whether civil or military as they regard their duty to the king and the tenor of the oaths they have solemnly taken and subscribed to exert themselves in detecting and securing in some of his majesty's gaols in this province the said offenders in order to their being brought to condign punishment and from motives of duty to the king and regard to the welfare of the good people of this province i do in the most earnest and solemn manner exhort and enjoin you his majesty's liege subjects of this government to beware of suffering yourselves to be seduced by the false art and menaces of abandoned men to abet protect or screen from justice any of the said high hundred offenders or to withhold or secrete his majesty's munition forcibly taken from the castle but that each and every of you will use your utmost endeavor to detect and discover the perpetrators of these crimes to the civil magistrate and assist in securing and bringing them to justice and in recovering the king's munition this injunction it is my bounden duty to lay strictly upon you and to require your obedience thereto as you value individually your faith and allegiance to his majesty as you wish to preserve that reputation to the province in general and as you would avert the most dreadful but most certain consequences of a contrary conduct to yourselves and posterity given at the council chamber in portsmouth the twenty sixth day of december in the fifteenth year of the reign of our sovereign lord george the third by the grace of god of great britain france and ireland king defender of the faith etc and in the year of our lord christ seventeen seventy four j wentworth by his excellency's command with advice of counsel theodore atkinson secretary god save the king again governor wentworth wrote to lord dartmouth under date twenty eighth december seventeen seventy four he says It is with the greatest concern I perceive the unlimited influence that the popular leaders in Boston obtain in this province, especially since the outrage of the fourteenth instant, insomuch that I think the people here are disposed to attempt any measure required by those few men, and in consequence thereof are arming and exercising men as if for immediate war.

And I'm going to talk about something that I did that's really interesting in a little bit.

For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And here with me in Durham, New Hampshire, is a voice that might be recognizable to those of you that have been listening for about a year or more.

Skylar Hamilton, my daughter, joining me here for a fun experiment that we're going to do.

I'm playing producer today.

Now, we've spent a good deal of time right down where the saltwater crashes against the rocks, breathing in that heavy, salt-encrusted air.

But if you follow the tide inland, just a short drive up the Piscatawa and along the winding brackish waters of the Oyster River, you'll find yourself in the historic town of Durham.

Up here, the ocean feels a little further away, replaced by towering old pines, ancient stone walls, and a deep, quiet sense of history that goes back almost four hundred years.

Tucked away in this sleepy landscape sits a massive, beautiful old structure known as the Three Chimneys Inn.

She's just part of the family, a permanent guest who's been grandfathered into the lease, if you will.

They treat her with respect, and in return, her pranks remain harmless and playful.

So if you find yourself traveling through Durham, and you decide to pull into the gravel driveway of the Three Chimneys Inn, take a breath as you step through the heavy wooden front doors.

And if you smell a sudden sweet wave of lavender, don't worry.

We'll talk more about those in a little bit.

For now, back here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And still

here in South Dakota, I'm Adam Christensen.

We'll talk more about those in a little bit.

For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And I'm Shannon Jean out here in Northern California.

Yeah, man.

Sorry, not county.

And Durham is UNH.

If it's going to be.

the upset? If it's going to be, this is a couple of points either way, what towns are you going to be looking at? Let me broaden out, what towns are you going to be looking at on election night to say, if Pappas does this, then it's the 25-point win.

And then there was Carly Berriant, instructor at the Kennedy School of Government down at Harvard, union organizer, running a grassroots campaign and, you know, raise some money, but not enough.

Certainly nowhere close to what Sullivan and Shaheen were raising.

But A few weeks ago, my wife and I took a trip out to Dover, New Hampshire, which is out on the seacoast, right? A little north of where I am here in Durham.

And along the way, not in people's yards, we were driving the major roadways, but along those roadways, a lot of Berion signs.

Now, we've spent a good deal of time right down where the saltwater crashes against the rocks, breathing in that heavy, salt-encrusted air.

But if you follow the tide inland, just a short drive up the Piscatawa and along the winding brackish waters of the Oyster River, you'll find yourself in the historic town of Durham.

Up here, the ocean feels a little further away, replaced by towering old pines, ancient stone walls, and a deep, quiet sense of history that goes back almost four hundred years.

Tucked away in this sleepy landscape sits a massive, beautiful old structure known as the Three Chimneys Inn.

She's just part of the family, a permanent guest who's been grandfathered into the lease, if you will.

They treat her with respect, and in return, her pranks remain harmless and playful.

So, if you find yourself traveling through Durham, and you decide to pull into the gravel driveway of the Three Chimneys Inn, take a breath as you step through the heavy wooden front doors.

And if you smell a sudden, sweet wave of lavender, don't worry.

Were there any problems or protests or flare up or demonstrations at these campuses that would explain some of this?

About two years ago, there was a protest at University of New Hampshire, the central campus out in Durham.

And they tried to build a tent city things, you know, following the imagery from Pennsylvania and I believe Columbia.

And the police went in.