On March 22, 1775, The Provincial Congress convened in Concord ordering that “all debates and resolutions of this Congress be kept an entire secret.” The secretary for the Congress was Benjamin Lincoln of Hingham who later became Brigadier General in the Continental Army serving under the overall commander George Washington.

Benjamin Lincoln was the first president of the Society of the Cincinnati, founded by French and American officers who had fought in the Revolutionary War. His tea service is adorned with the Order of the Cincinnati.

Image credit: Concord Museum, Gift of Hilda Smith Hollis, Benjamin Lincoln Smith, Farnham Wheeler Smith, Philip Loring Smith, Elizabeth Farnham Johnson, and Donald McRuer Smith (1952), C788.

This story was submitted by the Concord Museum as part of the program, Revolutionary Stories: The Enduring Legacies of the American Revolution in the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area.