Thanks for the reminder, I had forgotten that Fort William and Mary is in New Hampshire.
Going back to the Boston Massacre in 1770 there were many incidents which soured relations between Great Britain and her American colonies.
1774 saw two, we could say, "dry runs" for the battles of Lexington & Concord -- the September Powder Alarm at Somerville Massachusetts and the December seizure of powder & shot at Fort William & Mary, near Portsmouth NH.
Both incidents involved the storage & removal of American arms & ammunition, and neither included battles between British regulars and American militia.
In the case of Fort William & Mary, much of the material stored there, along with the provincial troops (not British regulars) guarding it, was authorized & paid for by the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly (House of Representatives) from taxes collected on New Hampshirites.
And the Portsmouth mob assembled to attack the fort and seize its weapons was just that, a mob, though their actions did eventually help force withdrawal of the British governor from Portsmouth.
Your own link says this:
- "More than 100 barrels of gunpowder were also stored in the fort, primarily paid for with money raised by fees imposed by the Provincial Assembly on “foreign” shipping.
The empire as a whole provided many of the other items, including the fort’s cannon."
- "The supplies captured by Patriots in December 1774 were later used by New Hampshire's forces against the British military, including in the Siege of Boston.
Conversely, supplies (including numerous cannon) left in the fort by Patriots following the raids were subsequently put to use by the British forces."