Henry Barnes was thoroughly loyal, and for that reason he was probably the best hated man in Marlborough. A late town history says Marlborough was cursed by a Loyalist named Henry Barnes.
Towards the close of February, 1775, General Gage ordered Captain Brown and Ensign D'Bernicre to go through the Counties of Suffolk and Worcester, and to sketch the roads as they went, for his information, as he expected to march troops through that country the ensuing spring. Their adventures after their departure for Marlborough, are related by one of them as follows:
"At two o'clock it ceased snowing a little, and we resolved to set off for Marlborough, which was about sixteen miles off. We found the roads very bad, every step up to our ancles; we passed through Sudbury, a large village near a mile long; the causeway lies over a great swamp, or overflowing of Sudbury river, and is commanded by a high ground on the opposite side. Nobody took the least notice of us, till we arrived within three miles of Marlborough, (it was snowing very hard all the while,) when a horseman overtook us, and asked us from whence we came—we said from Weston; he asked us if we lived there—we said no; he then asked where we resided, and, as we found there was no evading his questions, we told him we lived in Boston. He then asked us where we were going: we told him to Marlborough, to see a friend; (as we intended to go to Mr. Barnes's, a gentleman to whom we were recommended, and a friend to the Government;) he then asked us, if we were of the army; we said no, but were a good deal alarmed at his asking us that question; he asked several rather impertinent questions, and then rode on for Marlborough, as we suppose, to give them intelligence of our coming—for on our arrival the people came out of their houses (though it snowed and blew very hard) to look at us; in particular, a baker asked Capt. Brown, 'Where are you going, Master?' He answered, 'To see Mr. Barnes.'[237]
"We proceeded to Barnes's, and on our beginning to make an apology for taking the liberty to make use of his house, and discovering to him that we were officers in disguise, he told us that we need not be at the pains of telling him, that he knew our situation, that we were very well known, he was afraid, by the town's people. We begged he would recommend some tavern where we should be safe; he told us we would be safe no where but in his house; that the town was very violent, and that we had been expected at Col. Williams's tavern, the night before, where there had gone a party of liberty people to meet us. While we were talking, the people were gathering in little groups in every part of the town (village).
"Mr. Barnes asked us who had spoken to us on our coming into town; we told him a baker; he seemed a little startled at that, told us that he was a very mischievous fellow, and that there was a deserter at his house. Capt. Brown asked the man's name; he said it was Sawin, and that he had been a drummer. Brown knew him too well, as he was a man of his own Company, and had not been gone above a month; so we found we were discovered. We asked Mr. Barnes, if they did get us into their hands what they would do with us; he did not seem to like to answer; we asked him again; he then said, he knew the people very well, that we might expect the worst treatment from them.
"Immediately after this, Mr. Barnes was called out; he returned a little after, and told us the Doctor of the town had come to tell him, he was come to sup with him, (now this fellow had not been within Mr. Barnes's doors for two years before, and came now for no other business than to see and betray us). Barnes told him he had company, and could not have the pleasure of attending him that night; at this the fellow staid about the house, and asked one of Mr. Barnes's children, who her father had got with him; the child innocently answered, that she had asked her papa, but he told her it was not her business; he then went, I suppose, to tell the rest of his crew.
"When we found we were in that situation, we resolved to lie down for two or three hours, and set off at twelve o'clock at night; so we got some supper on the table, and were just beginning to eat, when Mr. Barnes, who had been making inquiries of his servant, found the people intended to attack us; he then told us plainly, that he was very uneasy for us, that we could be no longer in safety in the town; upon which we resolved to set off immediately, and asked Mr. Barnes if there was no road round the town, so that we might not be seen. He took us out of his house by the stable, and directed us by a by-road which was to lead us a quarter of a mile from the town; it snowed and blew as much as I ever saw in my life. However, we walked pretty fast, fearing we should be pursued; at first we felt much fatigued, having not been more than twenty minutes at Barnes's to refresh ourselves, and the roads were worse, if possible, than when we came; but in a little time it wore off, and we got on without being pursued, as far as the hills which command the causeway at Sudbury, and went into a little wood, where we eat a bit of bread that we took from Barnes's, and eat a little snow to wash it down.
"A few days after our return, Mr. Barnes came to town from Marlborough, and told us that immediately after our quitting town, the Committee of Correspondence came to his house, and demanded us; he told them we were gone; they then searched his house from top to bottom, looking under the beds and in the cellar, and when they found we were gone, they told him, if they had caught us in his house, they would have pulled it down about his ears. They sent horsemen after us on every road, but we had the start of them, and the weather being so very bad, they did not overtake us, or missed us. Barnes told them we were not officers, but relatives of his wife's from Penobscot, and were going to Lancaster; that perhaps deceived them."
In the House of Representatives, November, 1775, the "Petition of Henry Knox[238] humbly showeth. That your petitioner having been obliged to leave all his goods and home furniture in Boston, which he has no prospect of ever getting possession of again, nor any equivalent for the same, therefore begs the Honorable Court, if in their wisdom see fit, to permit him to exchange house furniture, with Henry Barnes, late of Marlborough, which he now has in his power to do." The prayer was refused, but he was allowed to use the Loyalist's goods, on giving receipt to account for them to the proper authorities.
In December, 1775, Catherine Goldthwaite prayed the interposition of the General Court, stating in a petition that she was the niece and adopted heir of Barnes; that she had resided with him about seventeen years, that at his departure from town, she was left with a part of his family in possession, and that the committee of Marlborough had entered upon his estate, sold a part, and proposed to dispossess her entirely. No redress could be obtained.