Col. Richard Gridley

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gridley

Richard Gridley (3 January 1710 – 21 June 1796) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a soldier and engineer who served for the British Army during the French and Indian Wars and for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

He married Hannah Deming 25 February 1730. They had nine children.

Gridley was a military engineer during the French and Indian Wars from the reduction of Fortress Louisbourg in 1745 to the fall of Quebec. For his services he was awarded a commission in the British Army, a grant of the Magdalen Islands, 3,000 acres (12 km²) of land in New Hampshire, and a life annuity.

He sided with the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolutionary War and was made Chief Engineer in the New England Provincial Army. He laid out the defenses on Breed's Hill and was wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

When the Continental Congress first created a Continental Army under command of George Washington in 1775 he was named to Chief Engineer (artillery). He directed the construction of the fortifications on Dorchester Heights which forced the British to evacuate Boston in March 1776. When Washington moved his army south, Gridley remained as Chief Engineer of the Eastern Department.

He retired in 1781 at age 70. He died from blood poisoning induced by cutting dogwood bushes, in Stoughton, Massachusetts, and is buried in Canton, Massachusetts, at the Canton Corner Cemetery. He was buried within a small enclosure near his house in what is now Canton, off Washington Street. In this spot his body rested until 28 October 1876, when a committee disinterred his remains and removed them to his final resting place in the Canton Corner Cemetery. A small queue (braided hair) was removed and pocketed during the exhumation and today is on display at the Canton Historical Society.

The monument to Gridley at Canton Corner is of Quincy Granite and the dado of Randolph Granite are faced with polished tablets bearing several inscriptions including "I shall fight for justice and my country", "I love my God, my country, and my neighbor as myself.", and a quote by General Washington: "I know of no man better fitted to be Chief Engineer than General Gridley." The whole monument is surmounted by a cannon in the imitation of "Hancock" or "Adams," - one of the guns Gridley served with his own hands at Bunker Hill.

Gridley is widely to be understood as one of the most distinguished military characters of New England, renowned for personal bravery, skilled artillerist, a scientific engineer, and a contemporary of Prescott and Putnam and Knox, of Warren and Washington.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers considers Gridley 'America's First Chief Engineer.'

Richard Gridley was born in Boston on January 3, 1710, to Richard and Rebecca Gridley; he was the youngest of twelve children. As a young man, he was apprenticed to a Boston merchant; later, he became a surveyor and civil engineer, as well as the chief architect of Boston's Long Wharf.

In 1745 and 1746, he commanded the artillery of His Majesty's army at the siege of Louisburg; a year later, he was listed as holding the Master Mason Degree. He supervised the 1752 erection of Fort Halifax on the Kennebec River; three years later, he served as colonel of the regiment at Crown Point during the French and Indian War, commander-in-chief of the Provincial Artillery, and colonel of the infantry at Fort William Henry. The fortifications around Lake George were constructed under his supervision. He was the 1756 Right Worshipful Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge, and served as Paul Revere's commander at Crown Point that year. During the second siege of Louisburg, Gridley so distinguished himself that, according to Daniel TV Huntoon, "on the evacuation of the city by the French, Lord Amherst offered him the valuable furniture of the French Governor's residence, which offer [Gridley], with chivalrous delicacy, declined, ever unwilling to appropriate to his private use spoils taken from an enemy." In 1759, he is mentioned as having stood with Wolfe at the Fall of Quebec. In 1760, he received a gift of Canada's Magdalen Islands, which were home to an extensive seal and cod fishery, and half-pay as a British officer, in recognition of his work.

In 1770, Gridley purchased half interest in Massapoag Lake from Edmund Quincy; here he either purchased or erected a furnace for smelting iron ore. In 1772, he bought Leonard's Forge; that same year, he began "The New Forge" in the Hardware section of Canton, though it was not until the following year that he began to live in Canton. In 1773, he received a land-grant of 3000 acres in Jackson, New Hampshire, in recognition for his Canada service.

At the Provincial Congress in Concord on April 23, 1775, it was resolved that Gridley be appointed chief engineer of the army needed for the country's defense. His regiment included Ezra and Stephen Badlam, as well as Gridley's brother Samuel, all of whom were from Canton. He planned the fortifications at Cape Ann, Boston Harbor, and Bunker Hill, at which he was wounded. He was then succeeded by Henry Knox in command of the Artillery. He cast the country's first cannon and mortars at Massapoag Pond, some of which were placed at Dorchester Heights. In 1776, he was entrusted with the duty of demolishing the British entrenchments on the Boston Neck. Later that year, Gridley served as a pallbearer for the April 8, 1776 funeral of his friend Dr. Joseph Warren, who had fallen at Bunker Hill. The following year, 40 of Gridley's eight-inch howitzers were contracted for Fort Ticonderoga by Robert Treat Paine. In 1778, Gridley was listed as a partial or full owner of a tan-yard. In 1781, he served as a colonel in the Canton Militia. In 1783, he was excluded from inviting guests to a peace celebration at the First Parish Meetinghouse because as a Unitarian, he was not considered a Christian. That same year, he was granted an annual pension of £121.13.4 by Congress. In 1795, he assisted in laying the corner-stone for the State House; that same year, he signed a petition for the incorporation of Canton. Major General Richard Gridley was an impressive man in American history. In fact, Gridley is credited as the founder of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Born in Boston in 1711 to a well-established family, he would become a giant in the American Revolution. Space does not allow a full explanation of his accomplishments, but suffice it to say that Gridley was a patriot in the truest sense of the word. At age 61, Gridley had business interests in Canton and was involved in a venture that purchased Massapoag Pond to mine it for iron ore that would be used to cast cannons for the American Revolution. In the spring of 1772, Gridley purchased a house in Canton from the Leonard family. Gridley named his home “Stoughton Villa.” The house is now gone, but it is rumored that the peonies on the property still bloom from the stock planted by Gridley. Along with the house came the small burying ground.

Alongside the graves of the smallpox victims, the Gridley family is buried. General Gridley’s son, Scarborough, was laid to rest in 1787, and Gridley’s wife, Hannah (Demming), was buried in 1790. There were two daughters, Becky and Polly, who are perhaps buried here as well. It was the general, however, who was buried here to which the name of this place is attached.

In a declining age, Gridley was in financial distress. His business partnership had soured and had caused considerable financial drain. Among Gridley’s creditors was listed John Hancock, Edmund Quincy’s brother-in-law. Gridley’s last public appearance was at the laying of the cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House in 1795. That same year he signed the petition for the Act of Incorporation of the Town of Canton. In late life, at an advanced age, Gridley took great pleasure in tending to his gardens. Cutting dogwood bushes in the summer of 1796, Gridley contracted blood poisoning and died at age 85. On June 23, the old revered general was laid to rest in the quiet spot of this family graveyard.