Samuel Prescott
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Dr. Samuel Prescott (1751 - 1777) was a Massachusetts Patriot during the American Revolutionary War. He was on the road at 1 A.M. on April 19, 1775 after an evening with his fiancée, Miss Lydia Mulliken, when he met Paul Revere and William Dawes on their ride from Lexington to Concord and joined them to warn of British attempts to seize arms.
Although he joined the ride late, he was the only one of the three men to reach Concord and warn the town. He then proceeded further west to warn Acton while his brother Abel Prescott rode south to warn Sudbury and Framingham. The rapid warning of Revere, Dawes, and Prescott alerted the Minutemen of this region in time for them to engage the British Army at the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
Samuel Prescott later became a surgeon in the Continental Army and joined the crew of a New England privateer. He was captured by the Royal Navy and died in 1777 while a prisoner in Halifax.
Sources
- Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer ISBN 0195088476
- American History, "Midnight Riders," Charles J. Caes, December 2004.