of settlers, but continued to reside upon the island, and there Moses
Gerrish died at an advanced age.

Solomon Houghton, a Lancaster farmer in comfortable circumstances,
fearing the inquisition of the patriot committee, fled from his home. In
1779, the judge of probate for Worcester County appointed commissioners
to care for his confiscated estate.

Ezra Houghton, a prosperous farmer, and recently appointed justice of
the peace, affixed his name to the address to General Gage in 1775, and
to the recantation. In May, 1777, he was imprisoned, under charge of
counterfeiting the bills of public credit and aiding the enemy. In
November following he petitioned to be admitted to bail (see
Massachusetts Archives, ccxvi, 129) and his request was favorably
received, his bail bond being set at two thousand pounds.

Joseph Moore was one of the six slave-owners of Lancaster in 1771,
possessed a farm and a mill, and was ranked a "gentleman." On September
20, 1777, being confined in Worcester jail, he petitioned for
enlargement, claiming his innocence of the charges for which his name
had been put upon Lancaster's black list. His petition met no favor, and
his estate was duly confiscated. (See Massachusetts Archives, clxxxiii,
160.)

At the town meeting on the first Monday in November, 1777, the names of
James Carter and Daniel Allen were stricken from the black list,
apparently without opposition. That the Reverend Timothy Harrington,
Lancaster's prudent and much-beloved minister, should be denounced as an
enemy of his country, and his name even placed temporarily among those
of "dangerous persons," exhibits the bitterness of partisanship at that