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Thursday, December 14, 1775.
Present in Council: Honourables William Sever, Benjamin Greenleaf, Walter Spooner, Caleb Cushing, John Winthrop, Joseph Gerrish, John Whetcomb, Jedediah Foster, James Prescott, Eldad Taylor, Benjamin Lincoln, Charles Chauncy, Michael Farley, Joseph Palmer, Samuel Holten, Jaber Fisher, Moses Gill, John Taylor, Benjamin White, Esquires.
The Committee appointed by both Houses to prepare and bring in a Bill for raising and regulating a Militia in this Colony, beg leave to suggest the following heads of said Bill, to be considered by the Court:
That there shall be, over the whole Militia of the Colony, three Major-Generals, to be chosen by ballot of both Houses, and to be commissionated by the Council, or the major part of them.
There shall be one Brigadier-General over the Militia of each County, where there are more than one regiment, in which case said regiment is to be annexed to some other regiment, chosen and commissionated as is above provided, for the choosing and commissionating the Major-Generals.
The Militia of each County shall be divided into regiments, and altered, from time to time, as may be necessary, by the Council, or the major part of them.
Two Colonels and two Majors shall be chosen and commissioned over each regiment, in manner as is provided for the General Officers.
The Field-Officers, or the major part of them, shall divide their regiment into companies, to consist, as near as conveniently can be, of sixty-eight privates. No soldier to be carried into the company of another town without his consent. When there shall be an equal division in the votes of the four Field-Officers, the First Colonel shall give the casting vote.
The Militia to be composed of males, from sixteen years old to fifty, with exceptions.
Each company to choose one Captain and two Lieutenants, by ballot, in the presence of one of the Field-Officers, who shall preside as Moderator; and the Councilor the major part of them, to commissionate those so chosen, on said Field-Officers certifying such choice to the Secretary.
The major part of the Field-Officers of each regiment to appoint an Adjutant, who shall be commissioned by the Council, or the major part of them, on his being recommended by the major part of said Field-Officers.
The major part of the Council may stay the commission of any General or Field-Officer, for the space of seven days, until they may lay any objections which may arise in their minds against making out such commission, before both Houses, for their consideration. And where there shall be a petition to the Court, signed by a number of the Militia, against any Captain or Subaltern that may be chosen, the major part of the Council may slay the commissions of such persons, until the said petition is acted upon and determined.
The non-Commissioned Officers to be chosen by their respective companies.
Each officer and private who is able, in the judgment of the Selectmen where they live, shall provide themselves with one good musket, to the satisfaction of the commissioned officers of the company, with a steel ramrod, priming-wire, and brush fitted thereto, a bayonet, cuttings word, tomahawk, or hatchet, a cartouch-box that will contain twenty-three rounds of cartridges, six flints, with powder sufficient for sixty rounds of cartridges, thirty of which to be made up, and sixty balls, and one knapsack and blanket.
The Selectmen of each town shall provide, at their town's expense, one sixteenth part so many narrow axes, one-eighth part so many iron spades or shovels, and one sixteenth part so many pickaxes, as there are rateable polls in their town, and deposite the same with the commanding officers of their respective towns.
The Clerk of each company shall, twice every year, take an exact list thereof, and present the same to his Captain, a copy whereof the Captain shall present to his Colonel, and the Colonel shall deliver a return of the numbers therein contained twice a year to the Brigadier-General, and the Brigadier-General shall return the same once a year to the Major-General, and the Major-General to the Council. Each regiment shall be reviewed twice a year by their Brigadier-General, and each company shall be mustered eight times a year, including regimental musters.
The Militia, when drawn out to encampment or battle, to be under the same laws and regulations as are provided by the Continental Congress for the Army, except in capital cases.
When the Militia of any town, or any part of them, are drawn put to encampment or battle, the Selectmen of their town shall cause carts to follow them with one month's provisions; and if a camp shall be formed and a Commissary appointed, the remainder of said provisions shall be delivered to such Commissary on the account of the Colony.
The Colonel of each regiment shall give his Captains, under his hand, in writing, the limits of their respective companies, the method of mustering, on all occasions, and their alarm posts.
All fines arising by breach of duty, in not providing arms, &c., or disobedience on training days, to be recovered by common law.
All fines, forfeitures, and punishments, for breach of duty in an alarm, to be settled by Court-Martial.
Officers to be obliged to learn the exercise recommended in 'Sixty-four, by the first day of March next, and to instruct their men therein on muster days.
No officer shall treat any of his men on muster-days, nor on the day of choosing officers.
The Selectmen of each town to furnish those persons who are unable to furnish themselves therewith, with such arms and accoutrements as is directed by this act.
In Council: Read, and sent down.
In the House of Representatives: Read, and concurred.
In Council: Ordered, That the Secretary he directed to take copies of all such Papers; as were to be transmitted to Continental Congress.
Sent down for concurrence. Carne up concurred,
Petition of a number of the Inhabitants of the westwardly part of the Town of Newton, setting forth:
"That your petitioners, and many others in said westwardly part, live at a great distance from the Old Meeting-House, (so called,) in said town, who, with their predecessors, had for many years past been put to extraordinary difficulty in attending the publick worship of God in said house, especially in winter season, and they, with their families, often detained therefrom by storms and bad travelling; and in order that they might oftener, and with more convenience, attend publick worship, they built a Meeting-House, at their own cost, more than eleven years ago, and supported preaching there in every winter since, and in private houses many of the winters, for about thirty years before, which has been very burdensome; and what has added to their burden is, their being obliged to pay their proportionable part of the Ministerial taxes, which a number of families at the southerly part of the town have been exempted from more than forty years past, who did not live so remote from said Old Meeting-House as a great number of your petitioners, which is conceived to be a cruel hardship and deprivation of a privilege which they have been compelled to allow to others.
" Your petitioners, desirous that peace and unanimity might continue in the town, have repeatedly applied to the other inhabitants for relief, humbly requesting that they would bear a part of said burden; but the majority of them being so attached to their own interest, and regardless of the interest and welfare of your petitioners, that no help can be obtained, notwithstanding their enjoyment of greater privileges to enable them, and their superior abilities, in general, to bear publick charges.
"As there now remains no other means to obtain justice, but by applying to this honourable Court, your petitioners, therefore, most humbly pray, that your Honours would be pleased to encourage their enjoying that invaluable privilege of having the Gospel dispensed to them at all seasons of the year, for the future, by ordering the said town of Newton to grant a tax, yearly, for defraying the charges of preaching in the Meeting-House built by your petitioners, aforesaid, in the months of December, January, February, and March, annually, or otherwise, as in your wisdom shall be thought most expedient."
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