Sarah Bradley Fulton

Ancestor Number

A042592 »

Date of Birth

December 24, 1740

Place of Birth

Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Date of Death

November 9, 1835

Place of Death

Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Spouse(s)

John Fulton

Children

Sarah Lloyd Fulton Wait, Frances Burns Fulton, Samuel Bradlee Fulton, John Andrews Fulton, Ann Weir Fulton, Mary Fulton, Lydia Fulton Bannister, Frances Burns Fulton Tilden, John Fulton, Mary Fulton II, Lucretia Butler Fulton, Elisabeth Scott Fulton

American Revolution Service

Field nurse

State of Service

Massachusetts

Donor

Donated by the Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution. Margaret O’Connor won the naming contest and chose Sarah Bradlee Fulton because of her multiple contributions to the American Revolution, that are not listed in the GRS. She is only listed as a nurse at the Battle of Bunker Hill. She did much more than that!

Sarah and her sister-in-law disguised the men for the Boston Tea Party, and later provided all that was needed to transform them back into respectable Bostonians.

The British peered in the kitchen window but all they saw were these two women moving about so quietly and naturally that they passed on. A year and a half later, Sarah heard the alarm of Paul Revere and her home became the headquarters of General Stark’s New Hampshire regiment. Then came the battle of Bunker Hill. At sunset, the wounded were brought into town. Surgeons were few, but the women did their best as nurses. Sarah was among them. One patriot had a bullet in his cheek, and she removed it; she had forgotten the incident until, years after, when he came to thank her for her service.

Punch Bowl, courtesy of Mount Vernon.

Sarah Bradley Fulton tombstone.

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One day during the siege of Boston, a load of wood was expected to come through town.

Sarah hoped that private property would be respected, and she sent her husband to bring it home. On the way home, he met soldiers who seized the wood. When Sarah heard the story, she took the oxen by the horns and turned them round. The men threatened to shoot her, but she shouted defiantly, “Shoot away!”

Soon after Major John Brooks was given dispatches by General Washington, which needed to be delivered inside the enemy’s lines. Sarah volunteered. She walked to Charlestown, found a boat and rowed across the river. She delivered her dispatches and returned home by dawn the next morning.

General Washington visited her. The first glass from Sarah’s new punchbowl was sipped by his Excellency. Years later, General Lafayette was her guest and was seated in General Washington’s chair, served with punch from that same punchbowl, and entertained with the story of that memorable visit.

One night in November 1835, a month before her 95th birthday, Sarah lay down to sleep, and in the morning her daughters found her lying dead with a peaceful smile on her face. They laid her in the old Salem Street burying ground among her old friends and neighbors.