Individual Details

Probate

Case number 25334
Simon did not leave a will. The total value of the estate, including 3 1/2 acres of land owned in Lexington, was $247.11 which was not enough to cover the debts. The widow Joanna was allowed to keep her personal possessions. Everything else was sold at auction.

Military

Simon Winship served in the Revolutionary War with the rank of Sergeant. He was detached to the alarm company of Capt. Edmund Monro with service of five days.1 Winship was at the Battles of Lexington and Concord and provided a deposition on 25 April 1775 related to his experiences there. He described how about four o’clock in the morning of 19 April, he was walking on the public road, unarmed and peaceably about two and one-half miles from the meeting house and he was “met by a body of the King’s regular troops” who ordered him to dismount. He was asked if he had been out warning the Minute Men, and he replied “no.” The troops walked him until about a half and a quarter of a mile from the meeting house and the officer ordered the troops to halt. The troops were then within a few rods of Capt. Parker’s company, and the officer gave the order to fire immediately followed by a discharge of arms.2

1 Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume 17, p 627
2 National Archives, Deposition #3 of Simon Winship Regarding the Events of April 18 and 19 at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts Bay Colony; https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6883151