On this day 250 years ago, the HMS Canceaux and three smaller ships commanded by Lieutenant Henry Mowat sailed north from Boston Harbor. Mowat had orders from Admiral Samuel Graves to “chastise” ten named towns north of Boston, starting with nearby Marblehead and ending with Machias, close to the Canadian border. Mowat was ordered

to lay waste, burn and destroy such seaport towns as are accessible to his Majesty’s ships. . . . go to all or to as many of the … named Places as you can, and make the most vigorous Efforts to burn the Towns, and destroy the Shipping in the Harbours.

Sources: Gratwick, Harry, The Maritime Marauder of Revolutionary Maine, Charleston, South Carolina: History Press, 2015 at p. 77; https://allthingsliberty.com/2015/09/a-tale-of-two-cities-the-destruction-of-falmouth-and-the-defense-of-hampton/

Although, there were no reported deaths from the bombardment of Bristol, Rhode Island, the day before, on this day 250 years ago in Newport, Rhode Island, Rev. Ezra Stiles recorded in his diary one death he attributed to the attack:

This Morning we heard that Captain Wallace with his Fleet fired on the Town of Bristol last Night. An inhuman Wretch! This Evening hear that the Reverend Mr. [John] Burt of Bristol was this forenoon found dead in a Cornfield about 25 Rods from his House. After sending away his Wife & family he was escaping himself, & it is supposed he was seized by a fit & expired instantly. He had been sick of the Dysentery & was still confined with it. The Surprize & hasty flight from the savage Canonade of Wallace undoubtedly occasion his Death

Source: https://archive.org/details/diaryezrastiles01stiluoft/page/n633/mode/2up