Ammi was born 27 Oct 1733, in Charlestown, Massachusetts and died 19 Apr 1795. Ammi Cutter was son of Deacon John Cutter and Lydia Harrington. Rev. War Soldier per plaque. He was one of the Men of Monotomy. Inscription on a plaque with a marble base: At this spot on April 19, 1775 the Old Men of Menotomy captured a convoy of eighteen British soldiers with supplies on its way to join the British Forces at Lexington. In his early forties (and with an infant at home), the older Ammi Cutter was reportedly exempted, along with other older men, from marching off to confront the redcoats. Instead, he and a bunch of "exempts," some of them war veterans, stayed in Menotomy and ambushed a British supply convoy.

How did that story come down to us? The first hint comes in "The White Horseman," which credits "Ammi Cutter" with masterminding the attack. That 1835 story says, "Ammi had planted about fifty old rusty muskets under a stone wall, with their muzzles directed toward the road."

A more detailed story appears in the Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith's history of west Cambridge on 19 Apr 1775, published in 1864. Based on interviews with local residents about what they'd heard growing up, Smith said that the "old men…in all about twelve" chose David Lamson to lead that attack, but he credited Cutter with being part of it. For different parts of that story Smith cited Dr. Benjamin Cutter (1803-1864), Ammi's great-grandson; Mrs. Lydia Peirce, actually alive in 1775; a Miss Bradshaw, granddaughter of the parish minister in 1775; and Col. Thomas Russell, grandson of Jason Russell. Smith told two other stories involving Ammi Cutter, citing Dr. Cutter. The same stories appear in two books the doctor drafted and his son William R. Cutter finished: A History of the Cutter Family in New England (1871) and History of the Town of Arlington (1880).

Ammi was a miller and farmer. His first wife was Esther Pierce, daughter of James Pierce 1690–1823 and Hannah Cornet 1689–1752 of Cambridge. His third wife was the former Hannah Holden was the daughter of Simon Holden of Charlestown. The Cutters got married in Samuel Perley's church in Seabrook, New Hampshire.

Children with Esther Pierce (1734-1772) Married 1751
Esther (1751-1751) John (1753-1811) Lydia (1757-1831) James (1759-1823) Benjamin (1761-1824) Jonas (1763-1844) Esther Ruhamah (1765-1841) Ephraim (1767-1841) Frances (1769-1849)

Children with Abigail Holden, no Issue

Children with Hannah Holden married 1774
Joshua (1775-1777) Thomas (1776-1795) Joshua (1779-1819) Abigail (1781-1855) Hannah (1783-1786) Rebecca (1786-1850) Simon (1788-1842) Hannah (1790-1842) Artemas (1792-1864) Abiel (1794-)


Thanks to Pamela Hughes Herndon for sponsoring Ammi Cutter's Memorial.