Colonel Samuel Willard

From The Military Annals Of Lancaster, Massachusetts by
Henry Stedman Nourse, pub 1889

The cutoff paragraph continues "...the Court of Common Pleas for nearly ten years. Three of his sons following in paternal footsteps early showed marked taste for military life, and each attained the rank of colonel."

Speaking of the colonel's sons, here's a piece about Abijah. Excerpt from History of the Town of Lancaster, Massachusetts by the Rev. A.P. Marvin, published 1879:

On the morning of the 19th of April 1775, Abijah Willard of Lancaster, the largest town in Worcester County, Massachusetts placed seeds in his saddle-bags, mounted his horse and headed for his farm in Beverly, to spend a few days, supervising the planting and sowing of the crops on the farm that he had recently purchased for £2,756.

Before reaching Concord, it is supposed, he learned that the British troops were drawing near.

His heart was divided between his sovereign and his country. A decision had to be made. He chose the Loyalist side, and in so doing gave up his home in Lancaster, which he never saw again.

Col. Abijah Willard was a man of character and influence and was greatly respected by his fellow citizens. He was considered to be the wealthiest citizen of Lancaster, Massachusetts. He kept six horses in his stables and dispensed liberal hospitality in the mansion inherited from his father, Colonel Samuel Willard.

For his first wife, he married Elizabeth, sister of Colonel William Prescott; for his second wife, Mrs. Anna Prentice and a third partner was Mrs. Mary McKown of Boston.

He was no stranger to war as he commanded a company under his father in 1745 at the capture of Louisburg and led a company under Col. Monckton in 1755, at the reduction of the French forts in Nova Scotia. The Archives & Research Library of the New Brunswick Museum has a copy of "The Journal of Abijah Willard" edited by Dr. J. C. Webster.

An officer of so well-known skill and experience as Abijah Willard was deemed a valuable
acquisition and he was offered a colonel's commission in the British Army but refused to
serve against his countrymen. At the evacuation of Boston, he went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, having been joined by his own and his brother's family.

At the close of the war in 1783, he petitioned for and received a grant of land at Spruce Lake. He named the parish 'Lancaster' in remembrance of his beloved birthplace and here he died in May of 1789, having been an influential member of the New Brunswick provincial council.

His family returned to Lancaster, Massachusetts, recovered the old homestead and, aided by a small pension from the British government, lived in comparative prosperity. His son, Samuel Willard died on January 1, 1856 aged ninety-six years and four months. His widowed sister, Mrs. Anna Goodhue, died on August 2, 1858 at the age of ninety-five.