Event
The Ghost of Major John Pitcairn - Talk with Old North Church
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After Major John Pitcairn was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill, he was remembered in Britain as “a Gentleman of universal good character.” In Massachusetts, however, people still accused Pitcairn of having ordered redcoats to fire at the Lexington militia two months earlier. The major’s body was laid in the crypt of the Old North Church, but his memory haunted American history through stories, rumors, and artifacts linked to his name.
In this talk, J. L. Bell, proprietor of the history blog Boston 1775, sifts through the evidence behind those legends before digging into how a church warden with a shaky reputation sent Maj. Pitcairn’s body back to Britain—or did he?
J. L. Bell is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He is the proprietor of the popular blog Boston 1775 and the author of The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults, including “Peter Salem? Salem Poor? Who Killed Major John Pitcairn?” in the Journal of the American Revolution.
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