Most people have heard the phrase, “The shot heard ‘round the world.” But who came up with that phrase? Who fired the shot, and when, and at whom? And perhaps most importantly – why?

The first answer is easy – a poem entitled “Concord Hymn” was written in 1837 by Ralph Waldo Emerson (b. May 25, 1803 in Boston, d. April 27, 1882 in Concord, MA) in response to the Battle Monument Committee of Concord, MA who commissioned him to write such as poem that would commemorate the April 19, 1775 battles in Lexington and Concord at the start of the Revolutionary War. The poem was to be read during a celebration held on July 4, 1837, when the Battle Monument in Concord would be dedicated. The actual phrase is at the end of the poem’s first of four stanzas, which reads:  

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here, once the embattled farmers stood

And fired the shot heard round the world.

But this raises another question – who were the “embattled farmers?” In the 1700’s, 100 years before the Industrial Revolution, practically everyone was a farmer. And by 1775, colonial farmers had had enough of the British pushing them around and exacting taxes “without representation.” A kettle-full of animosity between Colonists and British soldiers was about to boil over.

This leads to the next question, “Who fired the shot?” The “shot”, allegedly, was fired by one Ebenezer Locke. But 251 years later, some people still want to debate the issue. Here is the story.

Ebenezer Lock was born on March 2, 1735, in Woburn, MA. The son of Ebenezer Locke, Sr., and Elizabeth Poulter Locke, and the great-grandson of William Locke, an orphan who immigrated to Massachusetts in 1635 at the age of fourteen, and later became a successful farmer and extensive landholder in West Woburn. His home is still standing today, but a look at it on Google Street View indicates it is in poor repair and may be slated for demolition. 

When Ebenezer Sr. died, Ebenezer Jr. inherited the family homestead near the Lexington border. There, Ebenezer farmed his lands and raised three sons with his wife, Lucy Wood, who unfortunately died an early death at 26. This left Ebenezer to care for three young children alone. Unable to work his farm, he was left in a tight financial situation.  

Because his farm was closer to Lexington than Woburn, it is assumed that most of his business was conducted in Lexington and ties were in Lexington. He and his wife attended church services there. Many family members were there. Despite that geographic proximity, Ebenezer became part of the Woburn Training Band, serving as a private in Capt. Joshua Walker’s Company of Colonel David Greene’s 2d Middlesex Regiment of Foot. So, when the alarm bell rang out in the early hours of April 19th, 1775, it was natural for Ebenezer to arm himself and hurry to Lexington Common with his cousin, Amos Locke, ready for a fight!

(Author’s Note: Also of note, the night of April 19, 1775, was the night of the famed “midnight ride of Paul Revere”… along with William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, to warn townspeople of the approaching British troops.)

Amos Locke was one of the individuals who, in 1825, gave depositions concerning their activities on April 19th. According to Amos, upon hearing the alarm, he and Ebenezer hurried to the Lexington Green, where they found the militia rallying. There, they stood around for some time until someone came up the road to report that there weren’t any regulars (British soldiers) anywhere between Boston and Lexington. With this, Amos and Ebenezer decided to return home. But they had not gone far when they “heard a firing.” 

“We immediately returned,” Amos recalled, “coming up towards the easterly side of the common, where, under the cover of a wall about twenty rods (about 330 feet) distant from the common, where the British then were, we found Asahel Porter of Woburn shot through the body; upon which Ebenezer Lock took aim, and discharged his gun at the Britons who were then about twenty rods (330 feet) from us.” THIS WAS THE SHOT… heard ‘round the world.

Amos and Ebenezer were then forced to retreat from the protection of the wall, probably because the Regulars (British soldiers) were, by then, rampaging through the center of town. 

Ebenezer is one of about eight individuals who have been identified as having returned fire at the Regulars at Lexington, but he could not have known that the shot he fired would be remembered for generations and be the subject of conversation and controversy.

Immediately after the engagement on Lexington Common, both sides attempted to blame the other for starting the conflict by firing first. The American version would have the militia appear as inoffensive citizens simply asserting their right to stand on the Common, who were then fired upon without provocation. The British claimed they were fired upon first by craven “rebels” shooting from behind a stone wall or from within, or near, the Buckman Tavern building. Which side or what individual fired the first shot has never been satisfactorily answered, and probably never will be.

Following the engagement on Lexington Common, it was thought that Ebenezer probably rejoined his own Woburn Company, as he is listed among the men of Captain Walker’s company who responded to the alarm of the 19th of April. He is also thought to have taken part in ambushing British regulars at the battle of “Bloody Curve” and other battles around the Boston area. Over the course of the next few years, Ebenezer’s sons also joined the Continental Army and fought the British.

Sometime between 1784 and 1794, Ebenezer Locke sold his property in Massachusetts, and he and his three sons moved to Deering, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, where, for many years, in fact well into the 20th-Century, Ebenezer was a revered figure. On certain holidays, the citizens of the town paraded to Ebenezer’s gravesite to honor their local hero. The medal struck in 1974 for Deering’s bicentennial celebration asserts the claim for Ebenezer’s having fired that first shot in Lexington, precipitating the American Revolutionary War.

On a narrow, secluded dirt road in the town of East Deering, New Hampshire, there is a small graveyard, enclosed by a stone wall, called Goodale Cemetery, but known popularly as the Old Revolutionary War Cemetery because of the number of veterans of that war buried there. One of the graves therein is that of Ebenezer Locke. The inscription on the tombstone reads simply “Ebenezer Locke, Died September 12, 1816, Age 82 Years.” There is also a long-standing tradition in Deering, as recorded in the history of the town, published in 1885, that Ebenezer Locke “discharged the first gun at Lexington, Mass., upon the British troops, April 19, 1775.” And he is credited further with “firing the shot heard round the world.” To honor his action, beginning back in the Nineteenth Century and carrying on well into the Twentieth Century, on each Fourth of July, the residents of Deering would march in procession to the Old Revolutionary War graveyard to decorate Ebenezer’s grave. Even though many Revolutionary veterans were buried there, Ebenezer’s gravesite was the only one so honored. Thus, it is assumed that the gravesite in the accompanying photo is that of Ebenezer Lock.

Sources:

• Ebenezer Lock Story by Bill Poole (online)
•  Freedom’s Way National Heritage / freedomsway.org (online)
  

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US Service Personnel Profiles
 By Gary Ledoux April 25, 2026