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In this section of
Gaspee HistoryPage Up


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Go to
Gaspee Raiders
for biographical information on the Americans in the boats attacking the Royal Navy ship Gaspee.

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Books: American Colonial and Revolutionary War history or the people involved. We have suggestions for you.

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This is a history education and research web site of the
Joseph Bucklin Society.

References in brackets [  ] or in curly brackets {  } on any page in this website are to books, or other materials, listed in the Joseph Bucklin Society Gaspee Bibliography, or to materials held by the Joseph Bucklin Society.

 

 


EPHRAIM BOWEN

The most comprehensive written eye-witness account, from the Americans, of the Gaspee Affair was the formal statement given by Ephraim Bowen at the request of persons wanting to preserve the events. His full statement and some notes on it are on a separate page at this site.   He names as his "youthful companions" on the evening: Joseph Bucklin, John Mawney, Benjamin Page, and Turpin Smith.

Before reading the biography on Bowen, you might want to see what he said about Joseph Bucklin. The parts of Bowen's formal statement regarding Joseph Bucklin are abstracted below (* * * * indicates portions taken out of the statement for this abstract).

 * * * * In about a minute Dudingston mounted the starboard gunwale in his shirt and hailed, "Who comes there?"  No answer. He hailed again, when Capt. Whipple answered as follows: "I  am the sheriff of the county of Kent, G... d ..n you. I have got a warrant to apprehend you, G.. d..n you; so surrender, G.. d..n you."

I took my seat on the main thwart, near the larboard row-lock, with my gun by my right side, facing forwards. As soon as Dudingston began to hail, Joseph Bucklin, who was standing on the main thwart by my right side, said to me, "Ephe, reach me your gun and I can kill that fellow."

I reached it to him accordingly, when, during Capt. Whipple’s replying, Bucklin fired and Dudingston fell, and Bucklin exclaimed, "I have killed the rascal.". * * * *

The names of the most conspicuous actors are as follows, viz: Mr. John Brown, Captains Abraham Whipple, John B. Hopkins, Benjamin Dunn, and five others, whose names I have forgotten, and John Mawney, Benjamin Page, Joseph Bucklin, and Turpin Smith, my youthful companions, all of whom are dead, I believe, every man of the party, excepting myself, and my age is eighty-six years this 29th day of August, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine.

[signed] EPHRAIM BOWEN.

For Biography on Ephraim Bowen, see our full page about him.