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Two hundred fifty years ago, on December 15, 1775, a payroll for Capt. Jabez Puffer was signed. Shown here is a trimmed image of that payroll from the volume labeled “Sudbury Miscellaneous Records, 17th–19th Century,” preserved in the vault of the Town Clerk.
It reads: “The Colony of the Massachusetts Bay to Capt. Jabez Puffer for guarding the Colony Stores at Concord by order of Col. James Barrett.”
Col. Barrett was the ranking officer at the Battle of Concord, and Capt. Puffer had led the Alarm Company—men older than sixty—to that battle. It follows that those who were too old, or for some other reason unable to enlist, were still called upon to serve. Just above the date, the document notes, “may be paid to Ezekiel How.”
A similar payroll for guarding the stores at Cambridge in 1778 was well researched before being sold.
At the same time, from April 19, 1775, until March 16, 1776, Sudbury’s enlisted soldiers were engaged in the Siege of Boston. More on that in January.
You can see the full payroll here: