An estimated 300 houses survive in Marblehead, MA from before the time of the American Revolution (even if modified by later generations) out of perhaps 525 or so that existed as the war began, when Marblehead was still the sixth most populous metropolis in British North America. And because it is estimated that more than 1,400 men and boys from the densely populated town of about 950 families — (all living in those 525 houses !) — served in the Revolutionary War from the beginning through its end, nearly every house in Marblehead that predates 1775 was therefore the home of a Revolutionary serviceman. In June 1775, nearly 600 men and teenage boys joined the Continental Army’s new “Marblehead Regiment” as unemployment at sea swelled the ranks of the town’s already overwhelmingly rebel militia. And starting in Autumn 1775, hundreds of them would sail out as captains and crews of privateer vessels, continuing throughout the war’s seven long years, continuing into 1783. Many would lose their lives that way. Out of those 950 families, only about a dozen heads of households can be identified as Tories, or Loyalists. And nearly every house was filled with women and many children who suffered greatly. The town did not fully recover until the 1830s, several generations later — which is why so many pre-Revolutionary homes survive.
