WORCESTER, Mass. - Deep in the City Clerk records, Worcester has one of the earliest pieces of what became the American Revolution - smeared in ink.

“The Worcester Patriots wanted to redact information from the Royal loyalists,” Mary Vigliotti said.

The Tories of Worcester had essentially entered their loyalty to the British Crown into the town’s record in response to the Massachusetts Government Act of 1774 and the local revolutionists decided to force the clerk’s hand.

“They had all those that the 56 signers of the protest come up one by one and, and line out their names like cross out their names," Ray Raphael said. "Clark Chandler, they had him cross out the whole protest, not just the signatures, but the protest. Then that wasn't enough, and they dipped his hand in ink and forced it, like to smudge the whole thing.”

American historian and author Ray Raphael has written extensively about the Constitution and the Revolution. He said this was the beginning for Worcester.

“The Patriots were saying, okay, you know, we've got to do something," Raphael said. "Well, the thing that they had to do was overthrow British rule.”

The next step came in September 1774 when more than 4,000 militiamen from Worcester and the surrounding towns gathered at the courthouse to shut it down and forced two dozen British Court officials to declare their resignation.

“The will of the people is so overwhelming. Remember, half the adult male population of the entire Worcester County is showing up on this one day," Raphael said. "Can you imagine that? And that was the end of British rule in Worcester on September 6. Ever after that, there was nothing, no British rule. The courts were shut. The Patriots had total command of everything.”

Once the Patriots took control, Raphael said Worcester and the Provincial Congress representative, Timothy Bigelow, took an even further step against the crown before anyone else.

“They say, ‘It is now time for us to start a new government; raise a new government as from the ashes of the phoenix of the old, where in all power stems directly from the people’," Raphael said. "In other words, they say it is now time to actually talk about a new and independent government. Note the date; this is October 4, 1774, exactly 21 months before July 4, 1776.”

Raphael also notes the call for a new government came about 6 months before the battle of Lexington and Concord’s famous ‘shot heard ‘round the world’…  and while the author has no local ties to Worcester, he believes the city had a huge impact on the American Revolution which goes untold.

“I'm just telling the story like it is," Raphael said. "And the story led me to all these primary documents that actually revealed that the hub of the revolution in Massachusetts in 1774 was Worcester.”