August 8, 1775 — 250 years ago this day — a Gloucester, Massachusetts, militia company scrambled and successfully fought off a shore raid by marines from HMS Falcon, menacing Gloucester Harbor. Dogtown resident and militiaman Peter Lurvey, age 35 — my ancestor — was fatally shot, dying later in the day. He is my only (known) Revolutionary War ancestor killed in action.
My mother’s cousin Janet was in the DAR as a Peter Lurvey descendant. A photocopy of her lineage paper was my first introduction to genealogy — about 40 years ago. The odd twist that we descend from Peter Lurvey *twice* got me even more curious about all this stuff.
Detail of “Gloucester Harbour” from “Map of Gloucester, Cape Ann” from survey by John Mason, printed by Senefelder Lithographic Co., Boston, in 1831, available at the Library of Congress and the Leventhal Map Center at Boston Public Library.
A whole book contextualizing the Battle of Gloucester is Joseph Garland’s The Fish and the Falcon: Gloucester’s Resolute Role in America’s Fight for Freedom (2006). There’s a recent webpage at HistoricIpswich.net (using the same map illustration) here.
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