Westminster Historical Society

250th Anniversary Commemoration of the Westminster Massacre, March 13-15.

Update, March 20, 2025. Fact8 Community Television has posted three videos of the Westminster Massacre Commemoration:
– Day 1 – (27 minutes).
– Day 2 – (48 minutes).
– Day 3 – (23 minutes).
Update, March 16, 2025. Our unusual, three-day commemoration of the 1775 Westminster Massacre was well attended and appreciated. People were patient as a tiny historical society did their best at what historical societies should do.
Approximate attendance:
65 on Thursday, the anniversary of the woodpile staves and the shooting;
62 on Friday, the peaceful retaking of the Courthouse;
40 on Saturday, the big funeral of William French.
We had a dozen descendants of participants from as far as Pennsylvania.

See the Brattleboro Reformer’s video of our March 13, 2025 commemoration of the Westminster Massacre. About 65 people retraced the 3/4-mile walk to the Westminster Courthouse site as we remembered the fateful events of 250 years ago.

Our Special Spring 2025 “Massacre” edition of the Westminster Historical Society’s Post-boy newsletter has everything you wanted to know about the “Westminster Massacre” and then some!

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The Westminster (VT) Historical Society presented three events to commemorate the 1775 “Westminster Massacre” and the drama of March 13, 14, and 15, now 250 years ago. Each was at the appropriate time of day.

Thursday March 13. Historic ¾-mile walk from Capt. Azariah Wright’s house site to the Courthouse site. Visitors should arrive 3:30-3:45 at the Wright house site, (4585 US Rte 5 by Sand Hill Rd). Convenient parking is limited. You can park in Westminster Village and catch a van ride to the start of the walk. At the Courthouse marker, Jessie Haas, WHS president and award-winning author, will recall that tragic day when 21-year-old William French was needlessly killed.

Friday, March 14. The WHS Museum in the Town Hall, 3651 U.S. Route 5, opens at 3:00. At 4:00, we’ll have the speaking event by the Courthouse marker on Shattuck Road. Laura Trieschmann from the “Vermont 250^th Anniversary Commission” will speak. Ray Boas of the Walpole Historical Society will tell about Col. Bellows and the key role of the Walpole Militia that day when British control was ousted from the region. Afterwards, the WHS Museum is open with refreshments.

Saturday, March 15.  The day of William French’s well-attended burial. The WHS Museum will open at 6:00. The candlelight vigil by his monument in the Cemetery starts at 7:00, dusk (candles provided).

• Introduction by Jessie Haas.
• Letter from U.S. Rep. Becca Balint.
• Westminster Representative Michelle Bos-Lun speaks.
• Description of William French’s burial.
• His epitaph and moment of silence.
• Back to museum for reception. Refreshments available. A good time to learn more.

If you are a descendant of a Massacre participant, please be sure to sign the Descendant Guestbook and list your ancestor.

Documents and images related to the Courthouse and Westminster Massacre

• History of Eastern Vermont by Benjamin H. Hall, 1858, with many details about early Westminster, including the Massacre. This is a cleaned up version the Google Books PDF.
  • The acknowledgements of William C. Bradley and Larkin Mead, Jr. are on page vii of the Preface.
  • The Westminster (Cumberland County) Courthouse image with details of its construction are on page 185;
  • The Westminster Massacre is all of Chapter IX on page 209.
  • Appendix I (letter I) on page 746 lists B. Hall’s sources for the Westminster Massacre.
  • Ira Allen’s quote, “O! Horrid scene!” is on page 750 as part of Miscellaneous Remarks on the Proceedings of New York State against the State of Vermont, &c., 1777
• The Colonial Magazine (Nov. 1895) article, “Lexington and Concord,” with various “firsts” of the American Revolution starting with the Battle of Golden Hill. It’s the lead article of that issue and found on page 123 of the bound volume on Google Books. On page 124, it is noted that the “Westminster Massacre” has also been called “the first blood of the momentous conflict that gave birth to a nation.”
• Original authorization for the construction of the Westminster Courthouse, signed by the three supervisors as described on page 183 of Hall’s History of Eastern Vermont.
• Article about Courthouse marker dedication, Windham County Reformer, Sept.19, 1902, front page, lead article.
• “Historic Westminster” article from the March 14, 1895 Bellows Falls Times. It mentions that the Courthouse chimney foundation was still visible.
• On Historic Ground, 1902 marker dedication souvenir pamphlet with complete program and lengthy speech by Alfred S. Hall. 35 pages. Available on Google Books.

About Westminster:
Westminster is one of Vermont’s oldest and most historic towns, beginning as Township No. 1, or New Taunton, under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735.  There was no permanent settlement until 1751, when a survey placed “No. 1” in the New Hampshire Grants with the name of Westminster.  In 1762, when the King decreed that the Connecticut River would be the border between New Hampshire and New York, Westminster became a part of Cumberland County, New York.

The main street in Westminster Village on Route 5 was laid out during the reign of George the Second, and called the King’s Highway.  Originally, the right-of-way was ten rods wide, having been designed for use as a training ground for the military company. Today, the house fronts along the King’s Highway are still 165 feet apart.

The County Court House was located in Westminster from 1772 to 1778 and was the scene of many historic meetings and conventions. Perhaps the most unusual was in January 1777, when citizens declared Vermont as a free and independent republic, which lasted until it joined the United States in 1791 and the 14th state.

This same courthouse that was the scene of the Westminster Massacre two years previously, an event considered by many as the first bloodshed in the Revolutionary War, one month before the Battle of Lexington.  Tory judges ran the court, but this Loyalist domination proved to be too much for area Colonists, or Patriots.  King George’s courts of justice were almost closed in the colonies except in New York, where they continued to refuse to adopt the resolves of the Continental Congress.  When they still insisted on holding court, people here rebelled.  It was time for a March court session to consider action to collect debts, when a history-making event occurred.

Several men tried, without success, to talk the judge out of opening court.  Realizing that they’d have to be inside the building first to be heard, as they wouldn’t be allowed admittance when officials arrived, a group of about 100 citizens entered the courthouse during the afternoon preceding court day, with a plan to remain until the judge heard their complaints.  They went into the building armed only with clubs from a neighbor’s woodpile, having been assured by the judge that here would be no bloodshed.  While the Patriots were in possession of the building,As a result of this Westminster Massacre, Patriots quickly assembled in Westminster the next day, coming from west of the Green Mountains, the southern part of the county, and from Massachusetts.  About 500 men equipped for war were assembled here.  The judge and other court officials were taken to prison in Northampton, MA, on a decision made by a committee formed by the crowd.  Court was never again held in this county under the rule of Great Britain’s King George.  The old court building stood, unoccupied, from 1788, when Newfane became the county seat, until 1806 when it was sold and torn down.

The Town of Westminster has been first in many events, including:

• First Township granted in Vermont, named Township No.1 in 1736.  In 1752, the Province of New Hampshire incorporated it as Westminster.
• First State Bank established in 1807.
• First Printing Office established in Vermont by Spooner & Green in 1778.
• First newspaper in Vermont, “The Vermont Gazette” or “Green Mt. Postboy” was printed on the old Day Press, the first used in North America north of Mexico.  This press is preserved in the Vermont Historical Museum in Montpelier.