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DID YOU KNOW: Yankee Doodle Annual Homecoming Parade
This month, Billerica celebrated its 33rd annual Yankee Doodle Homecoming Parade, themed as Billerica the Beautiful. Families lined the streets, cheered on the parade of community organizations, shopped at dozens of vendor booths, and watched history come alive with a reenactment of Thomas Ditson’s tarring and feathering, portrayed by Thomas Ditson’s own 6th-great-grandnephew, Matthew Ahern.
Thomas Ditson’s story is familiar to most residents in Town: his attempt to buy a firearm, his tarring and feathering, the British parading him around while singing and mocking:
Yankee Doodle came to town,
For to buy a firelock,
We will tar & feather him,
And so, we will John Hancock.
As for that last line of Ditson’s verse, "and so we will John Hancock", it is understandable that the British celebration of capturing Ditson is overshadowed by their desire to capture John Hancock. He was accused of smuggling early on and as he amassed political power in the colonies, his threat to the British grew. British forces headed to Lexington and Concord to seize military supplies, and they carried orders to arrest John Hancock as well as Samuel Adams. Word traveled quickly and Hancock and Adams fled north, stopping in assorted homesteads until finally finding refuge at the homestead of Amos Wyman in Billerica at about 2:30am. Meanwhile, 113 or more Billerica Minutemen – including Thomas Ditson - mustered together and marched south to engage the British at Meriam’s Corner. This battle is also known as “Ditson’s Revenge”. As legend has it, this is where the colonial militia sang Yankee Doodle back at the British to mock them in their defeat, and where it was adopted as a source of colonist’s pride, rather than insult.
The Billerica Historical Society honors the 113 known militia who fought at Meriam’s Corner on April 19, 1775 with their commemorative t-shirts, available for purchase. Funds raised from their sales and donations support the Historical Society’s events, including the April 19, 2025 reenactment of the 8.5mile march and their new time capsule, which will be sealed October 27, 2025 at their annual meeting. Please visit their website to shop, donate, and get involved with the Historical Society.
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