Old Hill Burying Ground
Before his multiple tours of service as a Patriot of the Revolution, Colonel Robert Brown was a carpenter living in Framingham, Massachusetts. On April 19, 1775, when the alarm warning of advancing British regulars arrived, Brown marched with a company of Framingham minute men under the command of Captain Micajah Gleason.
Brown must have moved to Concord shortly thereafter, since he is listed in volume 2 of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War as serving a Concord unit commanded by Lieutenant Joseph Hosmer the very next year, and then yet another Concord unit led by Captain Thomas Hubbard in 1777.
His plaque, which can be found at Concord’s Old Hill Burying Ground, briefly mentions his Revolutionary War record, as well as his later accomplishments. These include his service after the war as a colonel and his civic duty as a selectman from 1796 to the turn of the century. In full, it reads:
1749 – ROGER BROWN – 1840
MINUTEMAN — APRIL 19TH, 1775
CORP’L., CAPT. MICAJAH GLEASON’S CO.,
FRAMINGHAM MM.
CAPT., CONCORD LIGHT INFANTRY CO. TO 1786
COLONEL, MASS. MILITIA — 1790
SELECTMAN, CONCORD 1796–1800
---
MARY HARTWELL, HIS WIFE, 1749–1813