The Charitable Irish Society of Boston will mark the 250th Anniversary of the Evacuation of Boston at its 289th annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration with a program that highlights the role of society members in the early stages of the American Revolution. 

The March 17 event will be held at the University of Massachusetts Club in downtown Boston beginning at 6 p.m.

A pivotal figure in driving the British forces from Boston was society member Henry J.  Knox, whose uncle, Andrew Knox, was one of the 26 Ulster Presbyterians who founded the society on March l7, 1737. Henry’s father, William Knox, joined the society in 1756, and he joined at age 22 in 1772.

A book seller by trade who was inspired by John Locke’s liberal political ideas, young Henry joined the Sons of Liberty, who led the Boston protests against what they considered Britain’s tyrannical policies.  His self-taught knowledge of European military tactics and engineering explain his remarkable success in bringing the cannons and ammunition from Fort Ticonderoga in New York to Boston in the early months of l776. Once these cannons were mounted on Dorchester Heights threatening the British fleet, British General William Howe issued the evacuation order that broke the British siege of Boston.  Knox served on Gen. George Washington’s staff for the rest of the revolution and later became the new nation’s first Secretary of War.

Professor Robert J. Allison of Suffolk University and the Chair of Revolution 250 will provide full details of Knox’s remarkable achievement and career in his keynote address at the society’s celebration.

Other society members who supported the patriot cause during the revolutionary era included Benjamin Burdick, who witnessed the Boston Massacre and provided testimony at the trial of Captain Preston and his soldiers.  Robert Gardner chartered the ship that brought the colonists’ account of the Massacre to their political allies in the British Parliament.  Maritime Captains Patrick Tracey and William McKay were active in the patriot cause on the seas.

Among the few members who remained loyal to the Crown was Robert Auchmuty, a colonial judicial official who fled to Halifax and eventually London, where he enjoyed an annual pension of 500 pounds sterling.

In addition to Professor Allison’s presentation, the Here Come Everybody Players will provide a short dramatic perspective on Henry Knox within the framework of William Shakespeare’s “Henry V.”

Tickets for the reception and dinner are $200. Reservations for the event can be secured at the society website, charitableirishsociety.org.

Written by Catherine B. Shannon for the Charitable Irish Society.