~ Submitted by Sharon McDonald, Town Historian
Have you ever gone to the Bedford Free Public Library to look at the Bedford Flag? Over the years, when I have shown the Bedford Flag to visitors, I have introduced her by announcing, “This is the Bedford Flag — the oldest flag in North America!”
Well, it seems the Bedford Flag has a sister flag – a slightly older sister? Alethea Yates and I have returned from East Greenwich, Rhode Island, where we viewed the newly-discovered Byfield Flag in the Varnum Armory Museum.
The case is this:
The flagstaff is engraved “Nathaniel Byfield, 1687.” Nathaniel Byfield, a founder of Bristol, Rhode Island, was made Captain of the Bristol County Militia in 1687. The staff is also engraved “The Gift of Col. Nathaniel Byfield to the First Company of Militia.” He became Colonel about 1698, and colonels customarily gave a flag to their company. A third engraving reads “Bristol for the time being 1724.” Byfield left Bristol to live in Boston in 1724.
It seems most of the case depends on the carving on the flagpole. Both Alethea and I would be better persuaded if we knew the first two engravings were done back in the late 1600s, and not added later. And was the flagpole originally attached to this silk flag? Furthermore, we would appreciate a primary source saying that Byfield gave the flag to the Bristol Militia about 1698. Perhaps one could be found in seventeenth-century Bristol town records.
How do we know how old the Bedford Flag is? We have no documents pinpointing when she was made. But an analysis of her paint reveals that a pigment called Prussian Blue was used in the shadow cast by the arm. Prussian Blue was invented in 1704, and it was likely a decade or more before it was used by a heraldry artist in England.
Who is the elder? It might well be the Byfield Flag, but the question is still open.
But “oldest” isn’t everything. A good friend of mine often reminds me, “You don’t have anything if you don’t have the stories.”
Oral history tells that the Bedford Flag was flown on April 19, 1775, at the Concord Bridge and on through the colonial rout of the British Regulars that day. She has become the Town’s emblem, beloved since the Page family presented her to the Town in 1885. She has been carried to the tops of mountains, tucked into the knapsacks of soldiers, and encountered in odd places like the Cathedral of the Pines and Disneyworld. Even if you have moved away from this town, you may have one framed in your living room or flying from your front porch. For so many Bedfordians, she is a vital part of Bedford’s story. “The Bedford Flag forever!” So say we all.
Click to read The Oldest Flag ~ Part I
A Stitch in Time on Rhode Island PBS
There is an upcoming PBS Special on the Byfield Flag, “A Stitch in Time.” It will air at 7:30 pm on Memorial Day, May 30, on Rhode Island PBS.
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