A walking tour of downtown Marblehead focusing on the mid-1700s, on the eve of independence, when the gritty but thriving and prosperous international Atlantic seaport was the sixth or tenth most populous metropolis in British N. America. The town’s zealous and nearly fully rebel (Patriot) service, both on land and at sea, through the American Revolution’s 8 long years of war brought an economic crash that preserved much of the 18thc townscape that remains today, including about 300 houses from before 1775 and a 1727-29 wooden town house.