On this day 250 years ago in Machias, Maine (then part of Massachusetts), Loyalist Ichabod Jones, Midshipman James Moore, commander of the HMS Margaretta, and some of his officers are attending services when the Sons of Liberty of Machias approached the church with plans to arrest them. Jones and Moore escaped from the church but Jones is soon apprehended. Moore and his men are able to return safely to their ships — the armed schooner HMS Margaretta and the transport sloops HMS Polly and HMS Unity — and threatened to bombard the town unless Jones was released. A group of 40 Sons of Liberty and militia led by Jeremiah O’Brien and Benjamin Foster captured the Unity and Polly and at dusk attacked the Margaretta and

demanded her to surrender to America, received for answer, “fire and be damn’d”; they immediately fired in upon her, which she returned, and a smart engagement ensued

that would continue all night and into the next day.

https://revolutionarywarjournal.com/battle-of-machias-first-naval-battle-of-the-american-revolution/ (quoting Report of Rev. James Lyons dated June 14, 1775); https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/1775-skirmish/

On June 12, and on June 20 & 21, 2025, the people of Machias, Maine will commemorate and reenact the Battle of the Margaretta.

https://www.machiashistoricalsociety.com/margaretta-days

On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Thomas Jefferson left the Virginia House of Burgesses to go to Philadelphia and join the Continental Congress.

Sources: https://www.sparknotes.com/biography/jefferson/timeline/; Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0106.