Service: Bull Reenlists

John Partridge Bull reenlisted again in April 1756. This time, however, he stayed in Deerfield, Massachusetts to perform his military service as an armorer. Bull signed to serve until October 18, 1756 and was appointed armorer for the forts in the region by Colonel Israel Williams, another member of the regionally powerful Williams family.

We know of Bull's activities in his new capacity through an account book authored by yet another member of the Williams family, the Deerfield storekeeper and military commissary Elijah Williams. In a list in the back of the account book, Williams included the names of 40 men, including 13 from Deerfield, and listed issued supplies including 1 lb. powder (gunpowder), 1 lb. lead (for bullets), and 3 flints (used in the firing of guns and cannons).

Another entry from Williams' account book, dated June 7, 1756, states, "John Partridge Bull began to bord." Within three weeks, a debit entry is found, listing a purchase of nails to "Bull's shop." Apparently, Bull's work was being carried out on a shop situated on Elijah Williams' land just west of and facing the town common.

-- military service referenced in Robert E. McKay, ed. Massachusetts Soldiers in the French and Indian Wars, 1744 - 1755. New England Genealogical Society, 1978. p. 64.

-- account book of Elijah Williams, collections of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association.

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