Who had orders to take away the weapons of the massachusetts militia

Thomas Gage had orders to take away the weapons of the Massachusetts militia.

Explanation:

Thomas Gage was a British military man, who reached the rank of general.

He is especially known for being the commander in chief of British Army troops stationed in the current United States between 1763 and 1775, that is, during the first years of the United States War of Independence.

He was also governor of Massachusetts for a brief period, coinciding with the suppression of the civil government of the American colonies by order of the British Crown.

On the morning of April 19, 1775, he ordered the British Regulars to move from Boston to Concord to collect the stash of weapons that awaited him at James Barrett's farm, but, to his surprise, not even the owner of the farm James Barrett, not even the weapons, were there. This event caused the Battles of Concord and Lexington, which were the first battles of the American War of Independence.