Joseph Bucklin Society

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Site Summary. A national history center both for the Gaspee Affair of 1772  and also for Bucklin History 1600-1899. We emphasize the pre-Revolutionary history of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and the events and people involved in the Americans' 1772 attack on the Royal Navy ship Gaspee. We maintain a 4,000 person biography and genealogy database and history for the Bucklin family.

This is Gaspee History Edition: 2010 - J

The formal statements by participants in the Gaspee Affair. 

There were only three  American participants in the attack who gave public  statements of what they observed in the Gaspee attack.  Aaron Briggs, a black slave, gave a confession to the British almost immediately after the attack.  But his knowledge was limited by the circumstances of his being taken aboard Capt. Potter's boat to row.

Until after the 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War,  nothing was publically stated or written by other American participants of their knowledge of the  the planning or execution of the raid on the Gaspee.  Such evidence could have gotten them hanged if their identity was discovered by the English!) The two persons who after the war gave statements were:

    Ephrim Bowen

    John Mawney

When the war ended, 10 years after the Gaspee attack, there was no great rush to publish written accounts of the attack.  For those who survived the Revolutionary War, the Gaspee event was a minor matter to those who had participated in great battles or had endured the hardships of the War. 

The English participants, of course, were the Gaspee officers and crew.  The known officers and members of the Gaspee crew were as follows.

Dudingston, William,  Lt., the captain of the ship. Lt. Dudingston gave several statements of what happened.  The first statement was before he would have had time to fully develop this thoughts on what would be of most advantage for him to say.  On the other hand, this man was an intelligent and experienced English navy officer, and he obviously needed to say the things which would help him in the court martial which always occurred in the English Navy of the time when a ship captain lost his ship.

In the formal court martial of Lt. Dudingston, in England, he and the following members of his crew testified, and their testimony was recorded.

• Dickinson, William, Midshipman.
• Earl, Patrick, Boatswain's Mate, and sentry on duty at the time of the raid.
• Caple, William J., crew member
• Johnson, John, crew member
• May, Peter,
• Cheever, Bartholomew,
• Parr, Thomas,
• Pullibeck, Edward
• Bowman, Joseph,
• Whaler, Patrick
• Reyumonlds, Patrick.

The contents of the statements of the American and English witnesses, and analysis of those statements, can be found in our separate website devoted solely to information about the history of the Gaspee attack - www.Gaspee.info