Major General William Heath

The Heath Monument is a huge granite slab that commemorates the Revolutionary War heo, Major General William Heath (1737-1814.)

Heath was a farmer, soldier, and political leader from Roxbury, Massachusetts who served as a major-general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Heath made his home for his entire life at his family’s farm in Roxbury and was born on a farm that had been settled in 1636 by his ancestors. He became active in the militia and was a captain in the Suffolk County militia in 1760. In December 1774 the revolutionary government in Massachusetts named him a brigadier general. He commanded Massachusetts forces during the last stage of the Battle of Lexington and Concord in April of 1775. As the siege of Boston began, Heath devoted himself to training the militia involved in the siege. In June of that year, Massachusetts named him a major general in the state troops, and the Continental Congress made him a brigadier general in the new national army, the Continental Army.

After the war, Heath served as a member of the Massachusetts Convention that ratified the United States Constitution in 1788. He served in the Massachusetts Senate 1791–1792, and as a probate court judge. The town of Heath, Massachusetts is named in his honor.

The Heath Monument dominates a curve of Nesutan Avenue.