Cape Cod: Articles: Barnstable, History -- post an article

Doubting Barnstable

Barnstable with its fine old houses and stately air has a strangely mixed history. James Otis was born here, the fiery orator who is sometimes called the Patrick Henry of the North. It was here that a small band of men met, six months before the Revolution, to prevent the King’s Court from sitting.

Yet when war broke out, Barnstable was the only Cape town that failed to allow its representative to vote in favor of the Declaration of Independence. War meant destruction to Cape industries, so perhaps it was natural for Barnstable to have more than its share of Loyalists.

It is interesting to note that John Lothrop, Barnstable’s remarkable clergyman founder, willed every child in town a book. His home is now the famous Sturgis Library, the oldest public library building in the United States.

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