Historian J.L. Bell will tell the thrilling story of Leslie's Retreat, the first armed resistance to the British crown, and its connections to Marblehead. On Sunday, February 26, 1775, about 250 British soldiers marched through Marblehead, sent by the royal governor to search for weapons. When that column of redcoats stalled at a drawbridge in […]
Six years ago, vessel biographer Randy Biddle decided to investigate the origin story and likely appearance of a small, schooner named Hannah, owned in Marblehead by John Glover. On October 10, 1775. she became famous for her harrowing engagement with, and narrow escape from the much larger British naval vessel, Nautilus, near the entrance to […]
Marblehead 250 offers a special way to celebrate our Nation’s history in Marblehead! September 21 and 22, 2025 The Hannah, the first ship in Washington’s fleet, was launched in September 1775. To commemorate that important part of Marblehead’s history, the Fame - very similar in size and appearance to the Hannah - will be docked […]
Marblehead 250 offers a special way to celebrate our Nation’s history in Marblehead! September 21 and 22, 2025 The Hannah, the first ship in Washington’s fleet, was launched in September 1775. To commemorate that important part of Marblehead’s history, the Fame - very similar in size and appearance to the Hannah - will be docked […]
In this first of eleven free illustrated talks offered by the Marblehead 250 Committee and Marblehead’s Abbot Public Library in 2026, the United States’ 250th year, see and hear the fascinating story of how the first shots of the American Revolution were almost fired in Marblehead or Salem on a cold Sunday in February 1775, […]
Early revolutionary resistance! Hear the dramatic tale of Michael Corbett and his Marblehead shipmates who resisted British tyranny at sea on King Hooper's merchant ship, the Pitt Packet - named after a British prime minister who was sympathetic to Americans' grievances - a full year before the 1770 Boston "Massacre" and six years before the […]
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 […]
Illustrated Talk. Hear how, on his 27th birthday in May 1776, Captain James Mugford of Marblehead became an early Revolutionary War hero and martyr, killed in combat by the British in retaliation for audaciously -- and fortuitously for Commander-in-Chief Washington and his army -- capturing a 300-ton British supply ship a day or two before. […]
Illustrated Talk. Hear how, on his 27th birthday in May 1776, Captain James Mugford of Marblehead became an early Revolutionary War hero and martyr, killed in combat by the British in retaliation for audaciously -- and fortuitously for Commander-in-Chief Washington and his army -- capturing a 300-ton British supply ship a day or two before. […]
