On this day 250 years ago the Worcester, Massachusetts, Town Meeting voted for these instructions to Timothy Bigelow, its representative to the upcoming Massachusetts Provincial Congress:

If all infractions of our rights, by acts of the British Parliament, be not redressed, and we restored to the full enjoyment of all our privileges, . . . you are to consider the people of this province . . . to all intents and purposes reduced to a state of nature; and you are to exert yourself in devising ways and means to raise from the dissolution of the old constitution, as from the ashes of the Phenix, a new form, wherein all officers shall be dependent on the suffrages of the people

In effect, almost two years before the Declaration of Independence, the Town of Worcester was demanding that Massachusetts be independent of British rule, and that its new government be elected by the people.

The man that the people of Worcester elected to represent them in the Provincial Congress was not a wealthy lawyer, doctor, merchant or landowner but instead a blacksmith. Timothy Bigelow would go on to heroic service at the siege of Boston, Quebec (where he was captured), Saratoga, Valley Forge, Monmouth, and Yorktown rising to the rank of Colonel, and yet die in the debtor’s prison in his hometown of Worcester after the War. Thankfully the people of Worcester recognize and honor his heroic service today even though he did not receive the honor he deserved in his lifetime.

Sources: https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/02/americas-first-declaration-of-independence/; https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-timothy-bigelow; http://www.bigelowsociety.com/Col_Timothy_Bigelows_Histo.html; https://kinsmenandkinswomen.com/2016/07/23/reminiscences-of-the-military-life-and-sufferings-of-col-timothy-bigelow/; https://www.facebook.com/col.timothybigelowdar/