On this day 250 years ago in what is now Westminster, Vermont, a group of about 100 unarmed Patriots are attacked by a Loyalist posse as they occupy the Westminster Courthouse. Ten men are shot when the posse fires into the crowd and two of them — 21-year old William French of Brattleboro and Daniel Houghton of Dummerston — would die of their wounds. The Westminster Standing Committee of Correspondence had organized farmers from the county to occupy the courthouse to block the court from hearing cases to evict farmers with disputed titles and to collect debts, emulating the counties in adjacent Massachusetts who had similarly blocked courts from sitting during the previous year.

Local historians in Vermont claim the “Westminster Massacre” as the first bloodshed in the American Revolution and French and Houghton as the first martyrs of the Revolution, and that they are neglected in history in favor of the well-known Battles of Lexington and Concord. In fact, there was a long line of violent incidents in the Revolution prior to Lexington and Concord, including the “Battle of Golden Hill” in New York and the Boston Massacre in 1770, the capture and burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island in 1772, the capture of Fort William and Mary in New Hampshire in 1774, and Leslie’s raid on Salem in February 1775.

Notwithstanding their casualties on this day 250 years ago, the Westminster Massacre was not a defeat for the Patriot cause. The next day 400 armed militia from other Vermont towns as well as nearby Walpole, New Hampshire and Northampton, Massachusetts pored into Westminster. They arrested the Loyalist County Sheriff and the members of his posse who had remained in town as well as the judges of the court. All of the prisoners were released a few days later, but the Royal court of Westminster County would never hear another case and would be replaced by a court organized by an independent Vermont during the Revolution.

Sources: https://vtdigger.org/2022/04/03/then-again-confrontation-in-westminster-was-a-prelude-to-the-revolution/

https://www.eagletimes.com/news/westminster-massacre-of-1775-remembered/article_7e99dc92-32de-11e8-a227-bbc5bbd8b4df.html

https://www.reformer.com/history/a-hail-of-gunfire-at-westminster-courthouse/article_78dfbe08-bdec-593e-8cfc-dfc567296d32.html

A spark that ignited a revolution