_____________
In this section of
Gaspee History
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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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Copyrighted.
© 2005
to
09/27/2010
Leonard H. Bucklin.
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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.
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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.
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For Biography on Ephraim Bowen, see our full page
about him. |