On this day 250 years ago, hundreds of Patriots marched from Sandwich, Massachusetts to the Barnstable Court House where they met other Patriots from Barnstable County. A total of 1500 people, one tenth of the total population (men, women and children) of the county, there confronted James Otis, Chief Judge of Barnstable County’s Court of Common Pleas, and other county officials appointed by the British government, to demand closure of the court.

In response to the assertion by Dr. Nathaniel Freeman, the elected leader of the assembled people, that they were there “to prevent the court from being opened or doing any business,” Otis initially protested that “This is a legal and constitutional court. As is my duty, I now, in his majesty’s name, order you immediately to disperse.” Freeman in turn replied “We thank your honor for having done your duty; we shall continue to perform ours.” 

The people assembled then prepared a written proclamation that

A great number of the inhabitants of the County of Barnstable, being now convened…do hereby request your Honors to desist from all business in said courts…until the mind of the continental, or of a provincial, congress shall be obtained. And that your Honors will not in any manner ever assist in carrying said unconstitutional acts into execution.

as well as declaration for the judges to sign stating that they would decline any commission to enforce the Massachusetts Government Act and the other Intolerable Acts, and to refuse to take any actions contrary to the 1691 charter. After more back and forth with the Patriots, Chief Judge Otis and the other judges and court officials present all signed the declarations. The Patriots then spent the remainder of the day and the following days tracking down the other royal officials in Barnstable County to demand their signatures on the declaration.

Today you can still visit the scene of the remarkable confrontation between the judges and the people of Barnstable County at the Olde Colonial Courthouse and Crocker Tavern in Barnstable.

But the back and forth between Otis and the crowd may have been more of a show than a real confrontation. Chief Judge Otis was a popular judge who had been up to that point sympathetic to the Patriot cause. He had previously been elected to the Massachusetts Assembly and had been initially appointed as a judge by the Assembly, even though he had been reappointed by the Royal Governor under the Massachusetts Government Act. And he would continue to serve as Chief Judge of the Barnstable Court in the next session under appointment from the Revolutionary Government of Massachusetts. Moreover, his children were all prominent Patriots. His oldest son James Otis Jr. was the leading Pariot thinker and pamphleter of colonial Massachusetts before the Revolution. On that day, son Joseph Otis apparently joined the crowd of Barnstable citizens demanding his father sign the declaration or resign, and would later serve as a general in the Massachusetts Militia. Son Samuel Allyne Otis would serve as quartermaster of the Continental Army, speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, member of Congress under the Articles of Confederation, and the first Secretary of the United States Senate. And daughter Mercy Otis Warren was a leading Patriot poet, pamphleter, and historian who carried on a remarkable correspondence with John and Abigail Adams and many other Patriot leaders including her husband James Warren who served as Paymaster-General of the Continental Army and in multiple elected offices during the Revolution.

Whether through an orchestrated show, or actual intimidation, by the end of the week the people of Barnstable County had eliminated all Royal authority within their county and were effectively Independent of Great Britain.

Sources: https://talesofcapecod.org/revolution-of-1774; https://boston1775.blogspot.com/; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=191121