Prudence (Cummings) Wright (1740-1824) Submitted By: Joanna Baxter Curtis jbcurtiss@juno.com by: Lemmel Shattuck, Boston 1855, pp 130-131
A few days after the 19th of April, 1775, it was expected that Leonard Whiting
of Hollis, NH, a noted Tory, would pass through Pepperell to Groton; and a
number of nobel women, partly clothed in their absent husbands' apparel, and
armed with muskets, pitchforks, and such other weapons as they could find,
collected at the bridge over the Nashua River between these two towns, now
known as Jewett's Bridge.
They elected Mrs Wright as their commander; and resolved that no foe to
freedom should pass that bridge. Soon Whiting appeared, and he was
immediately arrested and searched; and dispatches from Canada to the British
in Boston were found in his boots. He was taken to the house of Solomon
Rogers in the neighborhood, and there detained, securely guarded by the
women overnight. He was afterwards conducted to Groton, and the treasonable
correspondence was forwarded to the Committee of Safety. Mrs Wright had
named her son, born in 1774, Liberty. It had just then died; but to
perpetuate the nobel sentiments she entertained, she gave the same name to
another son born three years later.
These women were known as Mrs David Wright's Guard. One of them was Sarah
(Hartwell) Shattuck, wife of Capt Job Shattuck who fought at Concord,
Lexington and Bunker Hill. Their son Samuel married in 1791, Caroline
Matilda Wright, daughter of David and Prudence (Commings) Wright.
If anyone has knowledge of, or a record of, the women involved in "Mrs David Wrights Guard", we would appreciate the record so we can add their names here also.  Please place in the Subject Line: WEBPAGE-HISTORY 
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