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Mr. Samuel Winship declared, That, on Sunday before said battle, said Royal went in his coach to Boston, and took with him a pair of pistols and a carabine, but for what end he did not know, nor never heard; that, at the same time, he left in his house two firearms, which Mr. Poor, some days after, carried to Watertown.
Captain Isaac Hall declared, That, the winter before said battle, he went to settle accounts with said Royal, at his house; and that said Royal showed him his arms and accoutrements (which were in very good order), and told him that he determined to stand for his country, &c.
Mr. Billings said, That he heard Captain Jenks say, that, a day or two before said battle, Colonel Royal sent for him, and desired him to go to Salem, and procure him a passage to Antigua in a vessel bound there; and that he (said Jenks) would have gone, but the battle prevented him.
To this testimony may be added that of
Colonel Royal himself.
In a letter to
Dr. Tufts, dated “
Kensington, April 12, 1779,” he says:--
I doubt not you, and Mr. Hall, and the rest of my friends, will do all in your power to procure me liberty from the General Court to return home as soon as my health will admit of.
He vindicated his character against the charge of treachery to his country; and, in another letter, dated August 22, 1779, says:--
When I was in the General Court, I made the public good my aim in every thing that I endeavored to do, which I think every man ought to.
Mere fright should not be considered as constituting Toryism.
A true Tory must have had a force of reason and sense of right wholly inconsistent with cowardice.
Colonel Royal's force of mind was not sufficient to make him a strong enemy of any thing.
He is mentioned in
Curwen's letters; and there
Mr. George A. Ward speaks of him thus:--
Hon. Isaac Royal, of Medford, was remarked by every one for his timidity; he halted between two opinions, respecting the Revolution, until the cannonading at Lexington drove him to Newburyport, and then to Halifax; and, after living some time in retirement, he embarked for Europe.
He was a proscribed refugee; and his estate, since that of Jacob Tidd, Esq., was confiscated.
He died of small-pox, in England, October, 1781.
His bounty laid the first
