Author: David Judson Bahn
Many of our Patriot ancestors marched and fought in the battles and skirmishes of the Revolution. Peter Bent was too old to fight with musket and bayonet during the Revolution. He fought with pen and voice in the years before the Revolution and articulated the rationale for the Revolution.

Peter Bent (1707-1798) was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts and lived there his entire life.

He was the second Peter Bent to be born in the colonies, and the third to live here. His great-grandfather emigrated from England in 1638 and his family was composed of early settlers in Sudbury and then in Marlborough. At the time of the Revolution, his family had been in America for some 140 years. He was a landowner and farmer as had been his forebears.
Much of his life was devoted to public service. During the French and Indian War he was in Captain Abraham William’s Company of Militia. An active participant in the democracy of a New England town, from 1754 -1771 he held multiple positions in the town government of Marlborough, including Assessor and Selectman. He was a Representative to the General Court from 1771-1775 and a member of the three Provincial Congresses in 1774 and 1775; at the latter two, he was the sole Representative from the town of Marlborough. He was appointed to several Committees of those Provincial Congresses. In these roles, Peter Bent helped the town of Marlborough define her position in support before the contest commenced.

Peter Bent is an example of those Patriots who did not fight with musket in the Revolution but whose activities in the Colonial Governments empowered the Revolution and the Patriots who did fight with muskets.

His tombstone read, in part “… he was a man justly esteemed for his integrity and usefulness both in public and private life.”

How many of today’s citizens can claim the qualities of “integrity” and “usefulness.”