The Carlisle Resolves in Colonial America

In 1751, as part of William Penn's colony, Lt. Gov. James Hamilton selected the site of Carlisle to serve as the county seat for the newly created Cumberland County. The settlement was named after Carlisle, England. John Armstrong, a surveyor for the Penn family, laid out the town’s plan, which included a park-like central square bounded by North, South, East and West Streets. Surrounding the square were the modest courthouse, a few taverns, trading posts, distilleries, merchants, and a rural farmhouse.

In 1757, construction began on a massive Presbyterian meetinghouse at the town square. Built of local limestone, the church was completed between 1769 and 1772. Lacking heat, it featured pews equipped with foot warmers. Today, it stands as the oldest surviving structure in both Carlisle and Cumberland County.  

In early July 1774, “a respectable gathering of the freeholders and freemen from several townships of Cumberland County in the province of Pennsylvania” convened in this meetinghouse to adopt a series of resolutions in support of the people of Boston and in opposition to the British Crown's Boston Port Act and other so-called Intolerable Acts. Among the signers was James Wilson, a prominent Carlisle attorney who would later sign both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Another was William Hays, a barber who enlisted in the Continental Army as an artilleryman. His wife, Mary Ludwig Hays, followed him to camp and, according to legend, took his place on the battlefield at Monmouth Courthouse—becoming one of the women later celebrated as “Molly Pitcher.”  

James Wilson, a Carlisle attorney and Founding Father Public Domain

Mary Ludwig Hays, who carried water to soldiers at the Battle of Monmouth and famously took over her husband's cannon after he was incapacitied Public Domain

This historic gathering at the Presbyterian meetinghouse was an expression of solidarity with the citizens of Boston, whose liberties had been trampled by the British Parliament. The personal courage of these Cumberland County men—who risked their lives and reputations—was evident in their decision to draft and adopt the Carlisle Resolutions. These declarations signaled the depth and breadth of colonial resistance and came a full two years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Resolved: “To these grievous acts and measures, Americans cannot submit, but in hopes their fellow subjects in Great Britain will, on a revision of them, restore us to that state, in which both countries found happiness and prosperity, we have for the present, only resolved to pursue the following peaceable measures … to prepare an address to the people of Great-Britain, a memorial to the inhabitants … to prepare a loyal address to his majesty… that the principle upon which the act is founded is not more subversive of the rights and liberties of that colony than it is of all other British colonies in North America; and, therefore, the inhabitants of Boston are suffering in the common cause of all these colonies. … That a congress of deputies from all the colonies will be one proper method for obtaining these purposes."

Painting of colonial Carlisle

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