On this day 250 years ago in Andover, Massachusetts, Col. Samuel Johnson of the 4th Regiment of Essex County Militia mustered the militia of the North and South Parishes of the Town of Andover. Johnson enlisted 50 men in the North Parish Company and 45 men in the South Parish Company. The North Parish Company elected Thomas Poor, Jr. for their captain, Benjamin Farnum as first lieutenant, and Samuel Johnson Jr. as second lieutenant. The South Parish Company elected Capt. Benjamin Ames, First Lieutenant David Chandler and Second Lieutenant Isaac Abbot as officers. The next issue of the Essex Gazette reported that the militia companies

then subscribed a covenant obliging them to conform to the Resolves of the former or any future Congress or General Assembly of the Province that hath or may have Relation to their Duty, and by said Covenant subjected themselves to martial discipline for the term of one year from the time of their enlisting. . . . All being performed with great unanimity, seriousness and decorum, and the soldiers seeming rather to be animated than disheartened by the late disagreeable news contained in the king’s speech.

The Essex County Militia would soon join the Patriot army fighting the British on their retreat from Concord, at Bunker Hill and in the Siege of Boston, and later in the Saratoga campaign.

Source: “Said Companies Into Battalions, To Consist of Nine Companies Each” – A Snapshot of the Minute and Militia Regiments on the Eve of Lexington and Concord (Aug. 25, 2024) at https://historicalnerdery01.blogspot.com/