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The First Military Company Chartered in
the Western Hemisphere
As the settlements, which followed the landing at Plymouth
increased and spread, there was no organized military force
for protection against the Indians. So-called "Train
Bands" were formed in different settlements but these
were only local volunteer companies and there was no joint
action or centralized authority. Thus the subject of adequate
military protection soon became a matter of serious consideration.
Many of the settlers had been members in England, of the
Honourable Artillery Company at London (organized and
chartered in 1527) and it was natural that the military training
they had received in that Company should lead them fo form
a similar organization in the new country. In 1637 a Company
was formed for instruction in discipline and tactics, and
that year Governor Winthrop was petitioned for a Charter.
He refused the request because he feared the establishment
of a military force, which might overthrow the civil power.
However, the Governor finally granted a Charter in March,
1638, and on the first Monday in June following, an election
of Officers was held on Boston Common. The Common then being
an open field leading down to the Charles River. The most
convenient place to cast the ballots was on the head of the
drum, which was placed in front of the Company. Since that
time, the Company has maintained the tradition of holding
their annual elections on the Boston Common on the first Monday
in June by casting the votes on the Drum Head.
The first Captain commanding the Company was
Robert Keayne, whose home was on the comer of State and
Washington Street. Keayne had been a member of the Honourable
Artillery Company of London. Upon his death he left, in his
will to the Town of Boston, the land at the head of State
Street for a Town House; together with money to build it,
providing however, that "the
Military Company of Massachusetts" should
have a room in the Town House for an Armory. This is the land
on which the old State House now stands, the gift of which
was accepted by the Town of Boston. Since 1746, the Company
Armory has been the upper floor of Faneuil Hall - an historic
citadel known to all Americans.
In its Armory, the Company maintains a Military Museum and
Library, which is without equal in the United States. There
are relics of every war in which this Country has engaged
in, since its settlement. Many of these are Museum pieces
and have been on display at various time in the Boston Museum
of Fine Arts. On the risers of the thirteen steps which lead
up to the Headquarters room of the Company, commemorated in
bronze plates, are the names of the thirteen States in the
order in which they accepted the Constitution and their respective
state flag is placed on the respective step
(Stairway of the Constitution). Around the walls of the
Armory are the portraits of most of the Captains who have
commanded the Company since 1638 to the present day. The Armory
is open to the public daily, and many thousands of visitors
from every part of the country and many from abroad, are registered
every year in the Guest Book.
The position of the members of the Company in the social,
civil and military life of the Colony indicates the respect
which people entertained for the Company as well as the ability
and prominence of its members. They were first in organizing
churches and supporting them, they were prominent in framing
and also in administering the laws of the Colony; they were
foremost in the introduction of manufacturing and the extension
of trade in Boston. They were the chief military minds of
the Colony and among the first in its defense. Many of them
were public benefactors contributing somewhat of their wealth
to education, religion and charity. The members of the Company
trod the fields of every battlefield of New England; they
fought for freedom on foreign soil; they judged the courts;
they pleaded at the bar; they instituted town government and
levelled forests; they were active in settling the towns of
the frontier.
Ninetenths of the Company were loyal to the Colonies in the
Revolution, and by their experience in the Ancient and Honourable
Artillery Company they served on every battlefield where the
banner of Massachusetts waved, from Bunker Hill and Bennington,
through Valley Forge to Yorktown.This is the Company that
Washington knew, that Franklin saw march through the streets
of Boston, that John Adams and John Quincy Adams visited;
that has had eight members who received our nation's highest
military decoration - the Medal
of Honor - and has had four of its members serve in the
world's most important office, President
of the United States, President James Monroe, Chester
Alan Arthur, Calvin Coolidge and John F. Kennedy; the same
Company which has always stood for, and always will stand
for, the best in citizenship.
More historical information is available on the following
pages:
Timeline | Charter
| Presidential Members
| Medal of Honor Recipients
| Living Past Commanders
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