About Deacon Josiah Haynes

Deacon Josiah Haynes, for whom the Sudbury School Committee named this school, was born June 4, 1696, a descendant of Walter Haynes, one of the original settlers of Sudbury. He was a farmer, a deacon of the church and an ardent patriot.

On that fateful morning of April 19, 1775, Deacon Haynes, although approaching his eightieth year, hearing the alarm, dressed quickly, bade his family a hasty good-bye and marched to Concord with Captain Aaron Haynes and his company of Militia. Upon approaching the South Bridge, where a British guard was known to be, the Deacon urged an attack upon the enemy to drive them from the area. However, the Company was under orders not to commence an attack and proceeded around the village to the North Bridge where the first shots of the Battle of Concord had just been fired.

In spite of his nearly four scores, Deacon Haynes still retained so much energy and patriotism that he joined the pursuit of the retreating enemy until he was killed by a British musket ball when nearing Lexington. His gravestone in the Old Cemetery in Sudbury Center bears this epitaph:

In memory of Deacon Josiah Haynes who died in Freedom's cause ye 19th day of April 1775; in the 79th year of his Age.