The Bedford Flag, the flag of the Bedford Minutemen and the standard carried by them, is assumed to be the only standard which the colonial Minuteman used during the Battle of the Old North (Rude) Bridge on 19 April 1775, as they met and repelled British forces at Concord, MA. In 1836 it was made famous in the often-quoted first stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Concord Hymn. It is also thought to be the oldest American flag still in existence.
The exact origin of the Bedford Flag is somewhat clouded, but it is strongly felt from most quarters that it was a product of the seventeenth century because; (a) flag designs prior to 1684 were customarily painted rather than embroidered, (b) a manuscript preserved at a British Museum quoted costs for construction of a flag for New England in the period of 1660-1685 strikingly similar to the Bedford Flag, and (c) designs of several cavalry unit flags of 1653-1660 were closely parallel to that of the Bedford Flag.As to its earlier use, less can be determined. Previous supposition held the flag to be the standard of the Three County Troop, a Massachusetts colonial militia of Essex, Suffolk, and Middlesex Counties active during the Indian wars, but more recent opinion suggests the Bedford Flag to have been the standard of a private cavalry command, or a replacement for the original Three County Troop Flag, which was possibly worn out or lost. Whatever its origins, the flag appeared in Bedford, MA, sometime during or after 1687 and remained for several generations in the possession of the Page family, who, officially and traditionally, passed along the title of Cornet - the fifth ranking commissioned officer of a cavalry troop and carrier of the troop flag. It was this flag which was taken from the Page homestead by one of the Bedford Minutemen, Nathaniel Page 3rd, during the hurried gathering of Bedford men, young and old, on the morning of 19 April 1775.

Our Bedford flag is printed on 100% nylon and finished with a canvas header and brass grommets.