Ebenezer Lock

Ebenezer Locke

Who!!!!!

Fritz Weatherbee was on New Hampshire Chronicles recently and told us a little of Ebenezer Lock who is suppose to be the man who fired the first shot in Lexington Mass. upon the British Troops, April 19, 1775. He was known for 'firing the shot heard around the world.'

Ebenzer was born March 2, 1735 in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Ebenezer Locke, Sr. and Elizabeth Poulter Locke, and the great grandson of William Locke, an orphan who immigrated to Massachusetts in 1635 at the age of fourteen, and later became a successful farmer and extensive landholder in west Woburn. You can still see the original William Locke homestead in Woburn, although much altered over the years, located on the North side of Lexington street, less than 100 yards east of the intersection of Route 3. It is now referred to as the Fox home, for a later resident.

Following the battle, the army took up winter quarters in Morristown, New Jersey, where in April 1777 Ebenezer was discharged and left the army for good. After the war, he sold his property in Woburn and Lexington and sometime in the late 1780's or early 1790's he moved to Deering, NH along with his three sons, who by the way all served at one time or other in the 26th regiment. There he lived with his son Benjamin, surviving to a ripe old age and no doubt spending many a winter's evening sitting around the fire swapping war stores, and telling his grandchildren how he fired the shot at the Regulars on that April morning.

The inscription on the tombstone reads simply "Ebenezer Locke, Died September 12, 1816, Age 82 Years." Pretty simple for someone so famous. Who would have thought little Old Deering had so much history.

Hard to read the tombstone
but double click on the picture and make it larger
and you will be able to see better.