Home page of Bucklin society Pages on the history of the Gaspee Affair. Pages on American colonial history Pages on Bucklin family history and genealogical data. History & other books, plus T-shirts, mugs, and other logo gift items
A national history center for the 1772 Gaspee Affair, and for Bucklin Family History 1600 - 1899


Consider a $6, $12, or $18 donation to keep this site available to you.

You can use the "Contact Us" button to send us a message, but in many weeks no volunteer will be available to respond.




All persons interested in history are invited. You do not have to be a Bucklin.



 

Gaspee Affair - Revolutionary War - American History - Bucklin Family
 
Researching and Preserving History for Future Generations.

Site Summary. A national history center both for the Gaspee Affair of 1772  and also for Bucklin History 1600-1899. The site focuses on the pre-Revolutionary history of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the events and people involved in the Americans' 1772 attack on the Royal Navy ship Gaspee, and facts regarding the Bucklin family, including an over  4,000 person genealogical database.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Copyrights,
Leonard Bucklin,
2000 through 2011.
See Copyright Information.  Warnings.  Disclaimers.

This is JBS Site  Ed. 2011 - K

 

Attack of the Gaspee as the start of the American Revolution


Burning the Gaspee! American History. Bucklin's shot starts
the American Revolution.

The Joseph Bucklin Society conducts research and education on the American Revolution in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  Broadly, we have available legal, political, social, and economic history of the period of 1600 to 1799 in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. We specialize in the events and persons involved in the Gaspee Affair. This website is one of the two most complete of the available sources of in-depth information about the Gaspee affair.

Notice of Site and Activities Closure.

Since the Recession began in 2008, there has been a decline in our paid memberships and contributions. Volunteers who previously volunteered time now must use their daily time to replace family income. Therefore, with regret, we inform you:

Most activities of the Joseph Bucklin Society are now closed or suspended indefinitely.

From this point forward, the entire amount of any future contributions or membership fees or volunteered time will be devoted, in the following order of precedence, to:

  1. Maintaining the present files. Presently, there are more than 2,500 files of information, including electronically stored information presently on computer disks and internet servers, the electronic files for our internet websites, and folders of information still existing in physical or paper form. Maintenance will include preservation of registered internet domain names, copyrights, trademarks, intellectual property, and web hosting server services. Maintenance will include redundant electronically stored backups, in multiple locations in the United States, of the information that has been assembled.
  2. Integrating the existing information (in whatever format or place it may be in our archives) into formats and placements where it may be more readily accessed by researchers. In many instances, this will mean that new articles or databases will need to be written to bring together the relevant existing various data and media. In many instances, this will mean that there will need to be re-coding of electronic storage or websites (originally coded in the last century) because some of the coding is being deprecated in present software systems and internet browsers.
  3. Securing accession of our various collections by museums that have sufficient assets to be considered reliable depositories of the information for many future years. Accessioning is the formal, legal process of accepting an object into a museum collection. Because accessioning carries an obligation to care for that object, it is a serious decision. While in the past many museums accepted objects with little deliberation or legal constraints, today most museums have accessioning procedures and practices which take considerable time and effort on the part of both donor and donee.

Completing the above three tasks will cost at least $3,600 a year in income for each of the immediate next three years, an amount which is not expected to be fully achieved. If we receive donations that enable us to do more, we will.

This closes a half-century of research, preservation, and presentation of information. We take pride in having produced results that have been, and will continue to be, significant contributions to: the American public, family history and social historians, and to American History historians.

Thank you.

The 1772 American attack on the English Navy ship Gaspee was significant in Revolutionary War history.  According to the English Attorney General, Joseph Bucklin's shot in the Gaspee Attack was the first Act of War!  and it is celebrated as  the first shot of the Revolution.

American History - plus Bucklin History & Genealogy.

Our emphasis is on American History of New England from 1600 to 1799.  But --

We go beyond research regarding the immediate family of the Joseph Bucklin who fired the shot in the Gaspee attack. This website has many pages of information, with particular reference to identifying and preserving the biographical information of the Bucklins of 1600 to 1899. We maintain a 4000 person database of information on Bucklins. (If you are a Bucklin, then you are almost certainly a descendent of William Bucklin, who arrived in America in 1634!  His family was one of earliest, and one of the most important landowners, of early Rhode Island.) It's more than Bucklin family genealogy; it's part of American history.

About the Joseph Bucklin Society Organization.

Click here to learn about the Society's logoThe Joseph Bucklin Society is dedicated to historical research and the dissemination of educational material. The Society is not connected with any denomination or political group. We are here to preserve find and preserve important American, Gaspee, and Bucklin history from loss. Join the Society and get the benefit of the coordinated research efforts of Society members in research and preservation of history.  (If you join, you may opt to receive (for an additional small amount) a distinguished and personalized three color certificate suitable for framing, a quiet mark either of your interest in history or of your American family roots back to the 1600's.


As of 1 September 2012, this website was extensive. That's why we divided it into several separate divisions. As of that date, we had over 2,500 files of information, internally linked by about 6,000 links connecting the documents, data, and pictures.  We had more than 250 links to sources of information outside our website. As of that date, more than 60 other organizations had websites that linked into our information pages.

Division 1 of this web site is the history of the Gaspee Affair of 1772, including events a few years before and after it. It gives you an overview of the burning of the Gaspee. This division is the smallest in this site -- because this division directly links you to Gaspee.Info --- our separate site of much detailed information about the American's attack on the English ship Gaspee.

Division 2 of this web site is American colonial history, with special emphasis on colonial Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and their part in the American Revolution.

Division 3 of this web site is "English Roots."  We shortly discuss a background of English history that impacted the Rhode Island and Massachusetts settlers before the American Revolution.  Here also, in this division, is materials about the English Roots of  the Bucklin family.

Division 4 of this web site is the place you can find the Internet's most comprehensive site for Bucklin family history. from 1600 to 1899. Our central database for every Bucklin is for any Bucklin of which there is any historical information.  (There now are over 4000 names in the data base.) This database also includes historical data on members of the 1772 Gaspee raiding party.

Divisions 5 and 6 provide you with the information every Bucklin should know, about his/'her roots, and the reasons to be proud of the Bucklins that played significant roles in Colonial and pre-Revolutionary America. Specifically, a Bucklin should know about William Bucklin, born in 1606, and his family; and about Joseph Bucklin 4th, born in 1719, and his family.

Divisions 7 and 8 provide you with information on some of the about places and persons named Bucklin

Division 9 of this website has our administrative pages to help members, or to organize and run the Society, or to inform you about the Joseph Bucklin Society. Division 9 also includes our book store and our on-line store where you can purchase Joseph Bucklin and Gaspee  logo caps, aprons, T-shirts, note cards and other gift items.  In our book store we suggest gift books and books for you.  Although our emphasis is on history, any book available in print can be purchased on-line, through our bookstore, quickly and easily.  It costs the same to buy here as elsewhere, but if you buy through our bookstore, Amazon gives us about 3% of your purchase price to keep this website available to you.


We are an American history organization, and this site is basically an history website, devoted especially to Colonial history and Revolutionary War era history.  This society was named in honor of Joseph Bucklin. His family line started in New England in 1630 and were a notable part of early American history. The Bucklins of New England are good examples of the English people who came to New England, and of what, why, and how they lived and worked creating what became the United States. That's one of the reasons we have detailed Bucklin family information on this website.

In short, these web pages are where you find history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Colony, in the period 1600--- 1799, with particular reference to the New England Bucklin families and settlements and their movements across the country.

Home page of Bucklin society Pages on the history of the Gaspee Affair. Pages on American colonial history Pages on Bucklin family history and genealogical data. History & other books, plus T-shirts, mugs, and other logo gift items