Martin Herrick – Revolution and Family Tree

His Story

In April 1775, as British troops advanced toward Lexington and Concord, warnings spread through the Massachusetts countryside. Among the men later remembered as carrying that alarm was Martin Herrick, a physician whose life would become closely connected to the American Revolution.

Herrick’s wartime career was unusual. Rather than serving exclusively as an infantryman, he applied his medical knowledge to the Continental Army and later to Massachusetts naval service. His surviving pension declaration describes service as a surgeon’s mate, work aboard an American armed vessel, capture by British forces, and imprisonment at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

His story connects several different experiences of the Revolutionary generation: the local alarm network that mobilized Massachusetts in 1775, the medical needs of Washington’s army, and the dangers faced by Americans serving at sea.

Decades after the fighting ended, Herrick sought financial assistance from the government he had served. Following his death, his widow Sarah continued the family’s involvement with the federal pension system. Together, their declarations preserve important evidence of a physician’s service and a family’s struggle for recognition.

Early Life & Education

Martin Herrick was reportedly born in Massachusetts in 1747. A Genealogical History of the Felton Family identifies his parents as Benjamin Herrick and Sarah Potter. According to that genealogy, his paternal ancestry included an earlier Martin Herrick and Ruth Endicott, connecting him to families established in Essex County.

Published historical accounts describe Herrick as a graduate of Harvard in 1772. He subsequently practiced medicine in the communities north of Boston, including Reading and Lynnfield.

Medical education in eighteenth-century America differed considerably from modern professional training. Physicians learned through a combination of formal study, apprenticeship, reading, and practical experience. They often traveled between households and treated patients with limited medicines, instruments, and scientific knowledge.

Herrick’s medical career became particularly important when the American colonies entered a prolonged war. The growing Continental Army needed men capable of treating wounds, managing disease, and caring for soldiers under difficult conditions.

A Midnight Alarm in Massachusetts

On the night of April 18–19, 1775, British regulars marched from Boston toward Lexington and Concord. Their movement triggered a network of warnings that spread through the surrounding countryside, an event remembered as the Lexington Alarm.

Paul Revere became the most famous of the riders associated with that night, but the warning depended upon many individuals carrying news between communities. Some traveled on horseback, while others spread the alarm locally. Militia companies began assembling as the news reached their towns.

Martin Herrick was remembered as one of these messengers.

In an October 2023 interview published by The Reading Post, local historian Alan Foulds discussed a memorial inscription in Lynnfield’s old burial ground stating that Herrick met Paul Revere and carried the alarm in another direction.

The tradition connects Herrick with the communities of Medford, Stoneham, Reading, and the area later known as Lynnfield. These places formed part of the network through which warnings could move outward from Boston.

At the time of the alarm, the area now called Lynnfield remained part of Lynn, Massachusetts. Lynnfield became a separate district in 1782.

Herrick’s reported involvement is particularly interesting because he was a physician. The alarm network included individuals from several professions, and physicians played important roles in both the mobilization of local communities and the medical support that followed.

Nevertheless, the surviving pension records do not independently establish the precise circumstances of Herrick’s reported meeting with Revere. The memorial inscription was erected generations after the event and should be understood as evidence of local historical memory rather than a contemporary eyewitness account.

Whether or not every detail of the encounter can be verified, the tradition reflects a broader historical truth: the events of April 19, 1775, depended upon a network of lesser-known messengers whose contributions were often overshadowed by the fame of Paul Revere.

A Physician in Lynnfield

Historical accounts describe Herrick as a physician who practiced in the Lynnfield area for many years. Local historian Alan Foulds has discussed his medical career, while a published history of Lynnfield also associates him with schoolteaching.

Physicians in eighteenth-century Massachusetts commonly served communities spread across considerable distances. They were called upon to treat illnesses, injuries, childbirth-related emergencies, and other conditions without the benefit of modern diagnostic equipment or effective treatments for many diseases.

Herrick’s reputation as a physician appears in later historical literature. Joseph M. Toner’s nineteenth-century study of Revolutionary War medical personnel identifies Martin Herrick as a medical officer and associates him with a distinguished surgical career.

Because Toner’s account was written long after the Revolution and contains biographical details that conflict with other records, it is most useful when read alongside Herrick’s own pension declaration and military records.

His professional experience nevertheless helps explain his military assignments. As the colonies organized an army, men with medical knowledge were urgently needed to care for the sick and wounded.

From Physician to Army Surgeon

Martin Herrick’s contribution to the American Revolution was shaped by his medical profession. Although remembered locally as a participant in the alarm of April 19, 1775, his subsequent service placed him among the physicians and surgeons who supported the American war effort.

In his pension declaration of March 30, 1818, Herrick described entering Continental Army service in March 1776 as a surgeon’s mate in Colonel Daniel Hitchcock’s regiment, attached to General Nathanael Greene’s brigade. He reported remaining in that position until January 1777.

The distinction between a surgeon and a surgeon’s mate is important. A surgeon’s mate assisted with medical treatment, while a regimental surgeon held greater responsibility for the care of soldiers. Both positions were essential in an army where wounds, infectious diseases, shortages of medicines, and poor sanitation created persistent challenges.

Herrick’s service under Hitchcock is supported by the pension material. The file also contains later testimony and administrative records concerning his military career.

Additional historical literature broadens the picture. Joseph M. Toner’s The Medical Men of the Revolution (1876) associates Herrick with the Battle of Bunker Hill and identifies medical service connected with Colonel Hitchcock and Colonel Frye.

These references are valuable research leads, but the exact dates and capacities in which Herrick served require verification against contemporary military records. In particular, a report that he was present at Bunker Hill should not automatically be interpreted as proof that he held a medical appointment during that battle.

The historical medical literature also identifies Herrick as a surgeon, supporting the broader understanding of his wartime professional role. His own pension account remains the principal source for the specific Continental Army assignment described here.

His service illustrates the importance of Revolutionary War medical personnel. The Continental Army needed not only men capable of fighting but also individuals who could care for soldiers, prevent the spread of disease, and help preserve the army’s fighting strength.

A Surgeon at Sea

Herrick’s military experience eventually extended beyond the Continental Army. His pension account describes subsequent service in Massachusetts naval operations, and historical accounts identify him as a surgeon aboard the armed vessel Tyrannicide.

The Tyrannicide belonged to the maritime struggle against British power. Armed American vessels operated in dangerous waters where capture, injury, disease, and shortages of supplies were constant concerns.

Life aboard an eighteenth-century warship presented medical challenges different from those encountered on land. Surgeons could be required to treat battle wounds, accidents, fevers, infections, and other illnesses in cramped quarters, sometimes with very limited supplies.

Herrick’s pension declaration describes his capture by British forces and his imprisonment at Halifax, Nova Scotia. His account reports approximately three months in captivity before an exchange allowed him to return.

Halifax was an important British naval and military center during the Revolution. American prisoners taken at sea could be transported there and held while authorities arranged exchanges or determined their status.

For Herrick, captivity was a personal consequence of the war. The physician responsible for caring for others became a prisoner himself, dependent upon the decisions of the opposing military authorities.

Some later local histories suggest that Herrick experienced more than one capture during the war. Those accounts should be distinguished from the particular imprisonment described in his pension declaration until additional documentation can be identified.

His naval service demonstrates that Revolutionary War medicine extended beyond military camps and battlefields. Physicians and surgeons serving aboard armed vessels faced the same dangers of capture and imprisonment as other members of their crews.