SAUGUS — At Appleton’s Pulpit, in 1687, Major Samuel Appleton of Ipswich held a speech in which he denounced the rule of then-governor Edmund Andros.
Born in 1625 in Waldingfield, England, not much is known of Appleton’s earliest years.
At 11 years of age, Appleton left Waldingfield alongside his father, to relocate to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to Ipswich.
While not much is known about the formative years of Appleton, he married Hannah Paine in 1651, with whom he had three children, named Hannah, Judith and Samuel.
Several years later, Appleton married again in 1656, his new wife named Mary Oliver, with whom he had an additional four children — John, Isaac, Oliver, and Joanna.
Appleton had an esteemed governmental and military career, which started first when he was chosen as representative of Ipswich in the General Court, having been dubbed “lieutenant” in 1663, of which he became a member in 1695.
Appleton had fought throughout King Philip’s War, most notably in the “Great Swamp Fight” in November of 1675 in present-day Rhode Island, where he led 527 militia members on an attack of the Narragansett tribe.
After the “Great Swamp Fight,” Appleton retired from military service, and began serving as Commissioner of Essex County in 1688.
Having opposed the rule of Governor Edmund Andros since at least the early 1680s, Appleton eventually had a warrant put out for his arrest as a dissenter on September 19, 1687.
Appleton, now a wanted man, went to hide in one of his son’s homes in then-Lynn (now Saugus).
Reemerging from hiding, Appleton took to a nearby rocky area, to make a stand against what he felt was a tyrannical ruler in Andros, who had in March of that same year worked to impose stricter revenue laws, and increasing tariffs related to alcohol.
While the contents of Appleton’s speech is not known, it is said on the original bronze plaque installed in and presented to Saugus by his descendant Thomas Gold Appleton in March of 1882, in the rock at the pulpit, contained many principles which would appear in the Declaration of Independence, almost 89 years after.
After being imprisoned until March 7, 1688, Appleton relocated back to Ipswich where served in various government positions, being briefly involved in witchcraft trials in Salem, until his death on May 15, 1696, at 71 years old.
