Minuteman reenactor’s forebear may have started the battle

Boston.com ^ | April 19, 2010 | David Filipov

[Pharmboy]

LEXINGTON — Like the other Minutemen in his company, Bill Poole will grab his musket, sling his cartridge box over his shoulder, and stride onto Lexington Green this morning to fight, and lose, the famed first skirmish between Patriot and Redcoat.

But unlike his comrades in the annual reenactment, Poole will carry with him a piece of a 235-year-old mystery that still surrounds that momentous clash: the question of who fired the shot that sparked the opening volley of the Revolutionary War.

Poole, 76, is the direct descendant of Ebenezer Locke, a man who, according to one account, fired the musket that set the course of the nation’s history. Whether or not that account is true is probably impossible to prove. But even if it’s not true, Locke is certainly one of only a handful of Minutemen identified by name as someone who shot at the British on Lexington Green.

That makes Poole a rather special player in the annual Lexington drama.

“To be part of the reenactment and find out that my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was there and played a role was certainly exhilarating,’’ Poole said last week, counting with the fingers of his right hand as he ticked off the greats. “It was a tremendous surprise.’’

[ASA Vet]

I had five before the chain saw incident.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I'm not an ancestor of Ebenezer Locke,

Given that he was born in 1734, I would tend to take your word for that.

[ASA Vet]

Darn it, I did it again. I meant, of course, that he was not my ancestor. I did that same stupid mistake a few years ago and got caught by an observant Freeper.

[Pharmboy]

Thank you for your ancestor’s service to this great country. My relatives have served (and died) in WWI and WWII, but I cannot count them at the Founding. We only arrived about 120 years ago.

[SunkenCiv]

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