p84  Chapter VI

One Waban,​1 a Christian Natick, and several Christian Indians had early reported that the Nipmucks were disaffected. In fact all the Indian tribes seemed to have reached a state of excitement and concealed hostility which only needed such a spark as was furnished by Philip's example to break into flame, and there is considerable evidence that these tribes, formerly closely connected with the Wampanoags, had been visited by emissaries of Philip in the spring.

In accordance with their usual custom the Governor and Council of Massachusetts, though with no full realization of the great danger, sent Ephraim Curtis​2 of Worcester to the Nipmuck country on the 13th of July, in the dual capacity of negotiator and spy. Journeying through the country, particularly that part lying toward Brookfield, he visited many of the Nipmuck villages and  p85 received promises of good behavior. Hardly had he reached Boston when the Council, now seriously alarmed by the conditions at Swansea, bade him return to the Nipmucks. On reaching Brookfield,​3 Curtis was informed that Matoonas,​4 with Sagamore John and certain others, leaders of the party among the Nipmucks friendly to Philip, had robbed his house at Worcester and was given to understand by some Indians with whom he had traded for many years, that it would be dangerous for him to continue his journey. Securing two men and horses from Marlboro, however, with a friendly Indian for a guide, he set out for the Indian encampment at Quabaug, one of the Indian villages of which there were several near by.

On approaching the site of the village neither Indians nor wigwams were to be seen. He determined, however, to follow on toward one of the upper villages. A few miles to the west, coming upon an Indian path newly made he followed it for a considerable distance until they came by the abandoned lead mines on the old road to Springfield. A short distance farther on they came upon two Indians, one of whom they managed to overtake. He informed them that the others were encamped a short distance away, which led Curtis to send a Middleboro Indian to announce that he came as a messenger from the Governor of Massachusetts with peaceable word and no intention to hurt or fight them.

 p86  The guide soon returned with the information that they would not believe the message sent them. Undeterred by their hostile attitude, which to an old trader acquainted with them conveyed its own warning, he went on towards their encampment and found the main body on an island of a few acres surrounded by a swamp and the river.​5 A party of warriors whom they found on the road cocked their guns at him. None who knew him would speak or return his salutation. Disturbed by these evidences of hostility his companions urged that it was too perilous to continue, but silencing them with the argument that their only safety lay in going boldly among them, he pushed on. On reaching the river bank he called out that he came peaceably to remind them of their engagements, at which a great uproar arose. Guns were aimed at him and many of the young men would have killed him had not the older men withheld them. Ordering the sachems to come over the river, they refused,  p87 and bade him come over to them. As he forded the river the Indians continued to threaten him and he requested them to lay down their arms. They demand that he lay down his arms and his companions come off their horses, a command with which he was compelled to comply. Many said they would not believe him or his masters unless two or three bushels of powder were sent them.​6 Among the chiefs were Muttaump,​7 chief of the Quabaugs, and Sagamore Sam​8 of the Nashaway Indians.

The feeling against him finally quieted down and they bade him stay with them over night saying that their hostile attitude had been due to the report that the English had killed a man of theirs on the Merrimac River a few days before and had an intention to destroy them all. Assuring them of the friendship of the authorities he left them apparently appeased. During his return to Boston news reached him that war had broken out along the Plymouth frontier.

The attack on Mendon again aroused the authorities to the threatening danger from the Nipmuck tribes, and, combined with the news which had reached them of the attitude of the eastern Indians, led them to consider the necessity of keeping the Nipmucks under control. In consequence Curtis was again dispatched from Boston to make a perfect discovery of the motions of the Nipmucks,  p88 and with a declaration under the public seal that the English had no intention to disturb them or any other Indians who remained peaceable.

After delivering a message to the constable at Marlboro to forward to Major Pynchon at Springfield, he followed his old trail and came upon the Indians at the place where he had found them encamped before. As he waved his hand to them across the stream they gave a great shout. Muttaump was away, but several minor chiefs spoke to him. The warriors seemed calmer and less sullen than before and listened to the Governor's letter quietly.

He told them if Muttaump and others would come to Boston they would be well treated, their bellies filled and their questions answered, and received their promise to send one or more of their chiefs to Boston within five days. Asked why they had been so abusive during his former visit they replied that Black James,​9 one of the leaders of the Quabaug Indians, had told them that the English would kill them all because they were not praying Indians.​10 They also informed him that one of Philip's men had been among them with plunder from Swansea at the time of his first visit.

The Council waited in vain for the embassy. None came, and, thoroughly alarmed, they determined to force matters to an issue. Captains Hutchinson and Wheeler,11  p89 with twenty troopers, were accordingly sent from Boston, July 28th, to demand the reasons why the promised embassy had not been sent, and to warn them that unless they delivered up Matoonas, his accomplices and all hostile Indians who came among them, the Council would hold them as aids and abettors.

Marching leisurely by way of Cambridge and Sudbury the English came upon several Indian villages, but all were silent and deserted. Hearing on their arrival at Brookfield, August 1st, that the Indians were •ten miles to the northwest, they sent Curtis with some other young men to inform them that they had not come to do them injury but to deliver a message. Curtis reported on his return that the chief sachems had promised to meet them at a place •three miles from Brookfield on the morrow at eight o'clock, but that the younger warriors seemed surly and hostile.

On the next day they set out for the rendezvous, but no Indians came to meet them. Encouraged, however, by several Brookfield settlers who had accompanied them, and who relied upon the influence of one David,​12 a sagamore  p90 of the Quabaugs, who had long been a friend of the English and to whose tribe a majority of the Indians belonged, they determined to proceed despite the warning of their Indian guides. Riding in single file along the trail they entered a narrow path where a wooded hill rose abruptly from the edge of a swamp covered with thick brush and tall grass.​13 Here, when they had well entered, from all sides a murderous volley was poured in upon them and several fell. Unable to retreat by the way they had come or to enter the swamp, a few of the party, dismounting, held the savages from rushing and over­powering them, in a hand-to‑hand conflict, until the rest had had time to rally. Wheeler's horse was shot and he himself wounded, but his son coming to the rescue placed him on his own horse and, though himself wounded in the abdomen, was able to catch a riderless horse and join the rest of the force.

Skillfully directed, by their three Indian guides, the survivors fought their way step by step up the steep side of the hill and finally broke through, leaving eight of their number, including all the Brookfield men, dead on the field. The survivors, five of them badly wounded, Captain Hutchinson mortally, taking a circuitous route, reached Brookfield in safety. It is a sad commentary to add that the Indian guides, to whose skill and loyalty the survivors owed their lives, were soon afterwards driven by harsh treatment to join the hostiles. One Sampson is  p91 known to have been killed soon after while fighting against the English, and his brother Joseph taken prisoner and sold into slavery in Jamaica was to be released afterwards through the efforts of Eliot. From the other, Memecho, a Christian Natick, we obtain information of Philip's meetings with the Quabaugs.

The return of the defeated troopers made clear the deadly peril which now hovered over the little settlement of Brookfield. Abandoning their homes the people flocked to the house of Sergeant John Ayres,​14 the largest and strongest in the settlement, with such provisions and household goods as they were able to take with them.

Hardly had the necessary preparations been completed when the victorious Quabaugs poured into the village, plundering and burning the deserted houses and encompassing the garrison on all sides.

Curtis, and Henry Young of Concord, attempting to leave for the purpose of procuring aid from the other towns, after reaching the further end of the street were driven back, and the attack upon the garrison began in earnest. That evening Young, looking out of a loophole in the garret window, was shot and mortally wounded. A son of Sergeant Pritchard,​15 venturing out of the garrison  p92 to his father's house near by, in order to bring in some valuables forgotten in the confusion of flight, was shot, his head cut off and set upon a pole. Fagots and hay were piled up at the corner of the house and fired, but the fire was put out and the garrison, standing to their posts, drove off the Indians with some loss. Curtis was again sent out but could not pass, but, going forth the third time, August 3rd, crept on his hands and knees though the lines of the besiegers and got safely away to Marlboro.

Through the third and fourth of August the siege continued. Blazing arrows were shot upon the roof of the house, but holes were cut through and water poured from buckets quenched the flames. Finally a wheeled contrivance loaded with hay and fagots was set on fire and pushed against the door while the warriors, sheltering themselves behind the trees and outhouses, fired at settlers whenever they exposed themselves, but a downpour of rain quenched the fire and gave the defenders renewed hope. Thomas Wilson,​16 going out to fetch water, was shot through the jaw, and a woman killed by a bullet that entered through a loophole. But though the bullets occasionally pierced the walls they inflicted few casualties among the fifty women and children and thirty-two men within.17

 p93  In the meanwhile, Judah Trumble​18 of Springfield, who had set out for Brookfield, saw the flames and, cautioned by the sound of guns and the shouts of the besiegers, crept up within forty rods of the burning houses. Immediately recognizing the desperate state of affairs he rode home in haste.

Preparations for the relief of the beleaguered town were at once made, couriers dispatched to Hartford and Boston asking for assistance, while warnings of the danger to which they were exposed were spread through the valley towns, and a force from Springfield under the command of Lieutenant Cooper,​19 reinforced by a company of troopers and Mohegans from Connecticut, Captain Thomas Watts​20 in command, was immediately senate forward. Major Simon Willard,​21 however, who had been dispatched  p94 against some Indians near Groton, had fortunately been informed of the plight of the garrison by the Marlboro authorities as he was leaving Lancaster and immediately turned aside and marched toward Brookfield.

Soon after nightfall of the third, his company of forty-six men passed through the town and reached the garrison, now well-nigh worn out by loss of sleep and lack of provisions. His approach was known to the Indians, an outlying party of whom had allowed him to pass in the belief that the besiegers would ambuscade his force, but a large body of deserted cattle following his men misled the Indians as to the strength of the relieving force and caused them to draw off after setting fire to the remaining buildings. The anxious occupants of the Ayres house, hearing the confusion in the darkness, suspected it was another force of the enemy until English voices calling out in the night brought the welcome assurance that succor had come.​22 With the usual exaggeration the Indian losses were estimated at over eighty, a not unfamiliar measure of consolation.

Reinforcements were now pouring into Brookfield. Beers and Lathrop marched in from the east; on the same day, from Springfield and Hartford, came Cooper and  p95 Watts with mounted men, and Mohegans under Uncas' son Joshua, and the arrival of Captain Moseley with his own and most of Henchman's company from Mendon, on the 9th, brought the strength of the force under Major Willard to about 350 men exclusive of Mohegans. Willard proceeded to patrol the country but with little success. Cooper then returned to Springfield but Moseley, Lathrop, Watts and Beers marched to the deserted village at Menameset and, having burnt its fifty wigwams, separated, Watts marching to Springfield by way of Hadley, Beers and Lathrop securing the country along the Bay Path, while Moseley reconnoitered the country to the north.​23 All alike failed to get in touch with the Indians and none could tell where or when the next blow might fall. The widely separated settlements throughout the Connecticut Valley, it was evident, were in great danger, and an immediate concentration in some strategic position in the valley was necessary.

Hadley, halfway upon the valley, whose position in a bend of the river afforded easy access to both banks, was decided upon. There a stockade, having the river at each end, was built, supplies were gathered and the forces concentrated. Brookfield was soon abandoned by all. Some months afterwards we hear that the abandoned cattle had returned to their old home and were grazing among the ruined houses. The other settlements up the river had, meanwhile, placed themselves in a state of defense; stockades were built, the best situated and strongest houses were fortified, and small garrisons were left to assist the settlers in case of attack.

 p96  All knowledge of the Indians was lost, yet they were within easy striking distance. Their success at Wenimisset had drawn the waverers to arms and kindled the warlike temper of the tribes. Philip, too, was among them. He had met the Quabaugs retiring from the siege of Brookfield in a nearby swamp, on the 5th of August, and, giving them wampum as a pledge, praised their success. He told their chiefs how narrow had been his escape from capture or death in the fight at Nipsachick. Two hundred and fifty men had been with him including Weetamoo's force, besides women and children, but they had left him; some were killed and he was reduced to forty warriors and some women and children.​24 After this, save for vague rumors we hear little of Philip for some months. Tradition has named after him caves where he lived and mountains from which he watched the burning of the hamlets in the valley below, but his hand is hard to trace in the warfare of the valley.

Major Pynchon wrote to the Council of Connecticut, August 12th, that he was alone and wanted advice. Major Talcott was immediately sent to him with a recommendation to dispatch an agent to Albany to secure aid from the Mohawks.

The policy of the Iroquois did not favor the active alliance, however. The English were valuable allies against the French but the Iroquois were valuable to the English for much the same reasons. They had their own wars to wage without losing men for the English in a quarrel that did not concern them. It was no advantage to  p97 them to help the English become too strong, and they disliked the English ally, Uncas, even more than the hostiles. They would be neutral, they informed Governor Andros of New York, and Pynchon in sending the news to Governor Leverett besought him to authorize the use of friendly Naticks as scouts.

On the 22d Pynchon wrote to John Allyn​25 of Hartford, saying that the greater part of the forces had returned to Brookfield, Captain Watts was at Hadley, and a weak garrison had been established at Northfield. He was troubled at the thought of Watts being recalled and he suspected the Mohegan auxiliaries "to be fearful or false, or both."

While Captains Lathrop, Beers, and Watts were marching up the valley, and leaving men and supplies in the valley towns from Westfield to Northfield, Moseley, who had been sent to reconnoiter the country towards Lancaster, had been doing his best to turn the friendly Indians in that vicinity into enemies. News having reached him soon after his arrival at Chelmsford that seven people had been killed by Indians at Lancaster on the 22d of August, he immediately marched to that place. On his arrival some of the townspeople actuated, as Gookin declares, by a desire for the land of the Christian Indians at Marlboro,  p98 told him the attack had been made by them, a statement seemingly confirmed by an Indian named David, about to be executed. Moseley immediately raided this village of the Christian Indians, who had already been disarmed by Captain John Ruddock,​26 and, seizing eleven of their number tied them together by their necks and sent them to Boston for trial.​27 Continuing his march into the Pennacook country he burned the village and supplies of sachem Wannalancet,​28 near Concord, a friendly Indian who, fearing the same treatment that had been meted out to the Marlboro Indians, deserted his village at the approach of Moseley and withdrew into the woods.29  p99 Moseley was censured for these acts but his course was approved by public opinion.

He then set out on his return to the valley. The prisoners sent down to Boston were acquitted with the exception of one, who was sold to appease public clamor, but was afterwards released, and the Governor and Council immediately sent Henchman to Wannalancet to make explanations.

During the summer the Nonatuck village on the bluff along the river above Northampton had become the rendezvous of a large number of Indians, and though they had committed as yet no overt act, and indeed had offered their services to the English, their temper was distrusted as it was reported they had celebrated the success of the Quabaugs at Wenimisett,​30 and the Mohegans' scouts declared they warned the hostiles to look out for themselves by shouts. It seemed probable that they were only awaiting a favorable opportunity to strike at one of the nearby settlements. Their arms had once been taken from them but afterwards returned, and a second demand put them on their guard. They had protested and the Council of Connecticut was even then drawing up a letter to Major Pynchon that the disarming of the Indians should be forborne at the present.​31 Whether the Nonatucks were forced into hostilities at this time by fear is uncertain, but the advice in view of later events was bad, and, at any rate, in this case came too late.

At a council of war held at Hatfield on the 24th of August, it was determined to surprise and disarm them  p100 immediately, and a force of one hundred men, commanded by Captains Lathrop​32 and Beers who had come in from Brookfield two days before, was consequently dispatched late at night with instructions to co-operate with a force from Northampton going up on the other side of the river.

The dawn was upon the troops as they reached the Indian encampment. It was silent and deserted, but the fires were still smoldering and amid the embers lay the body of an old sachem, probably one of those appointed by the English, who was believed to have spoken too energetically for submission. A part of the force was sent back to protect the towns but the pursuit was vigorously taken up by the remainder, and the fugitives, encumbered with their women and children, were overtaken a mile south of the present village of South Deerfield and under the shadow of Mount Wequomps.​33 Finding flight no longer possible, the warriors, concealing themselves in what is now known as Hopewell Swamp, turned at bay and poured a volley into the pursuing English.​34 The  p101 troops kept their presence of mind, and rushing into the swamp sought cover behind the trees, and after three hours' fighting and the loss of nine of their number killed or fatally wounded, drove the Indians into flight. It was stated by an Indian squaw that the Nonotucks had lost twenty-six warriors, but all such tales of Indian losses are of little or no value, being generally invented to put the English in good humor and win their favor. The Indian losses in all cases where the English were matched were probably very much less than those they inflicted. It must be remembered that they not only enjoyed the advantage of surprise, but were sheltered and hidden.

Somewhat over halfway between Northampton and the frontier town of Northfield stands Deerfield, then a settlement of some one hundred and twenty-five souls, whose situation at the foot of Pocumtuck Mountain made it easily accessible to sudden attacks. Three of the houses had been fortified with palisades,​35 and ten men of Captain Watts' company were in garrison.

As after the siege at Brookfield, a strange calm seemed to have fallen upon the valley in the week following the fight at Wequomps, but it was a calm fraught with fear and anxiety and occupied with fruitless marches after a vanished foe; yet contempt of the Indians and careless confidence in their own power over those so long subservient and submissive, were in the ascendant; but what could be done against those who, like will-o'‑the‑wisps, could seldom be found or forced to stand, but struck at the settlers in the field, descended by night on the lonely hamlets and fought only at an advantage. It  p102 was upon Deerfield that the next blow fell. For many years the Pocumtucks had found in the protection of the colonists, peace and safety from the old foes, the Mohawks, whose vengeance they had brought down upon themselves by the murder of Mohawk ambassadors some years previously; but here as elsewhere safety had been purchased at the loss of their independence. Drink had taken hold of them, and they saw themselves sinking in degradation and subservience before the rising power of their white neighbors, who with little sympathy and less suavity gave them the law. Wounded pride had rankled into hatred and the news of Indian successes enkindled in them the old passion for war, plunder and vengeance.

In August they had left and were watching for a favorable opportunity. On the first day of September a Connecticut trooper​36 of the garrison, while looking for his horse which had strayed away, came by accident upon a body of some sixty warriors and paid for the discovery with his life.

The alarm, however, had been given and the people fled to the shelter of the garrisons. After a sharp fusilade the Pocumtucks drew off and turned their attention to the buildings and barns outside the range of the settlers' rifles, who, not daring to venture out, saw the labor of long years go up in smoke, and their cattle driven away.

---

The Author's Notes:

1 Wauban, commonly written Waban, was supposed to be from Concord, and was an old man when Philip's war broke out. He was one of Eliot's converts; resided at Noantum (Newton), and later at Natick where he was "a ruler over fifty," and a justice of the peace. He was among those sent to Deer Island, October 30, 1675, and among the sick that returned in May, 1676, and it is particularly mentioned that he was one that recovered. The time of his death is unknown. — Drake's Book of the Indians, Vol. II, page 115.

2 Ephraim Curtis was the son of Henry of Sudbury, and was 33 years of age at the breaking out of Philip's war. He was a notable scout and hunter, well versed in Indian ways and intimately acquainted with many of the tribes. He was also a trader and had a house at Quamsigamug (Worcester).

3 The location of old Brookfield was upon Foster Hill at a point about halfway between the present villages of Brookfield and West Brookfield. At present there are but few houses in this locality.

4 Matoonas was a Nipmuck chief whom Hubbard calls "An old, malicious villain." His son had been executed for having murdered a young Englishman in Dedham.

5 This was Menameset where the old turnpike road from Furnace village through Oakham crosses the Wenimisset Brook in New Braintree. The topography of the country has greatly changed and drainage and tillage has removed practically all the traces of the swamp except immediately along the borders of the brook. The site of the encampment was about twenty rods from Ware River and may be reached by a walk of perhaps a third of a mile from the New Braintree station of the Massachusetts Central Division of the Boston and Maine R. R. This village was the most southerly of three, all known by the name of Menameset, and was perhaps a mere temporary lodging place. The other villages were located farther up the Ware River, the first about a mile from the former and the last two miles beyond the middle village. The two last were permanent abiding places, so far as any Indian dwelling could have that term applied, and evidence of this is still to be seen. The middle village has the distinction of having been the one to which Mrs. Rowlandson was brought after her capture at Lancaster.

6 Massachusetts Archives, Vol. LXVII, page 215. — Curtis' Return and Relation.

7 Muttaump or Mattawamppe, was the sachem of the Quabaugs. He was interested in the sale of Brookfield lands to the settlers.

8 Sagamore Sam of the Nashaway tribe was one of the party which sacked Lancaster February 10, 1676. He was also known by the name of Uskatuhgun. — Drake's Book of the Indians.

9 Black James was a Quabaug, a dweller at Chabanakongkomun, near what is now Webster, Mass. He was constituted a constable of all the praying towns. "He is a person that hath approved himself dilligent and courageous, faithful and zealous to suppress sin." — Gookin.

10 Massachusetts Archives, Vol. LXVII, page 223.

11 Captain Thomas Wheeler was of Concord where he was admitted freeman May 18, 1642. He was early engaged in military affairs and upon the organization of a troop of horse in Concord, became its captain. He was in this command when the company was called to active service in Philip's war, July, 1675. He died December 16, 1686.

12 David was ruler of the Quabaug village in the southeasterly part of Brookfield, and was a trusted friend of the first Brookfield settlers. During the war he was charged with being privy to a murder committed at Lancaster and an attempt was made to wring confession from him through torture. In this situation, in order to avert immediate death, as well as to be avenged for the death of a brother captured by friendly Indians and by them delivered over to the English and shot, he accused eleven Indians of the act, which accusation he subsequently acknowledged to have been false, and in punishment for this treachery, as well as for shooting at a boy in Marlboro, he was condemned to slavery, and accordingly sold. — Book of the Indians, page 265.

13 The place of ambush in the Wenimisset fight was in the valley of that brook about a mile south of the lower Menameset village. The swamplike character of the ground has been reclaimed by drainage, but the steep and rocky hillside still remains. The old Indian path is supplanted by a traveled highway.

14 John Ayres was of Haverhill in 1645, Ipswich, 1648, a petitioner for Quabaug in 1660, whither he removed with the first settlers and was a leading man in the new plantation. He was killed at Wenimisset August 2, 1675, and his sons received a grant of land on account of their father's services. — Temple's History of North Brookfield, page 65.

15 Sergeant William Pritchard was of Lynn, 1645, and of Ipswich, 1648. He removed to Quabaug in 1667 where he was "clerk of the writs," and second sergeant in the Brookfield company. He was killed at Wenimisset fight August 2, 1675. His home lot in Brookfield was the one first east of Sergeant Ayres' tavern, and it was there that his son Samuel was killed during the siege. — History of North Brookfield.

16 Thomas Wilson was among the earlier settlers of Brookfield. In the division of lands he received lot No. 7, but a short distance west of the meeting-house lot, which was No. 10, that of Sergeant John Ayres upon which stood the tavern, being next east of the meeting-house.

17 The best contemporary account of the ambuscade and the defense of Brookfield, is given in Captain Wheeler's "True Narrative of the Lord's Providences."

18 Judah Trumble removed from Rowley to Suffield, now in Connecticut but then within the jurisdiction of Springfield, in 1676. At Suffield he was constable and held other town offices. He died April 1, 1692.

19 Lieutenant Thomas Cooper came from England to Boston in 1635 when he was eighteen years of age. He settled in Windsor, Conn., in 1641, and two years later removed to Springfield. He was a man of varied accomplishments; practical carpenter and farmer, practicing attorney before the county court, bonesetter and surveyor. He built the first meetinghouse in Springfield in 1645, and was chosen on the first board of selectmen and served seventeen years, and was for one year deputy to the General Court. See First Century of Springfield, by H. M. Burt, Vol. II, page 553.

20 Thomas Watts, son of Richard, was born about 1626. He lived in Hartford and was called sergeant in the list of freemen in 1669. He served as ensign, lieutenant, and captain of the Hartford trainband, and led his company in the desperate fight at Narragansett December 19, 1675. He also commanded the forces that went up the Connecticut River in 1676. He died in 1683. — Savage. Memorial History of Hartford County, Vol. I, page 266.

21 Major Simon Willard was born in Hosmonden, Kent, England. He arrived in Boston in May, 1634, and soon settled in Cambridge. He became one of the first settlers of Concord in 1637; entered into military affairs and in 1655 reached the rank of major, the highest at that time. He served as representative to the General Court for many sessions until 1654, and from 1657 until his death was an assistant of the colony. About 1659 he removed to Lancaster and to Groton in 1671. At the opening of King Philip's war he was the chief military officer of Middlesex County, and was then seventy years of age, and his services until the time of his death were full and efficient. He died at Charlestown, April 24, 1676. — Bodge, page 119. — Savage.

22 Two pairs of twins were born in the Ayres tavern during the siege. — Old Indian Chronicle, page 145.

23 Moseley to Governor Leverett, August 16th. — Massachusetts Archives, Vol. LXVII, page 239.

24 Testimony of George Memicho, a Christian Natick and one of Hutchinson's guides. — Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, Vol. I, pages 293, 294.

25 John Allyn, son of Matthew, was born in England and married, November 19, 1651, Ann, daughter of Henry Smith of Springfield and granddaughter of William Pynchon. He resided in Hartford, was townsman 1655, town clerk 1659‑96, deputy, many years magistrate, secretary of the colony 1663‑65, again elected 1667, and held this office until 1693. He was of the committee of three chosen in 1662 to take the charter into their custody and safe keeping. In the military service he rose from cornet to rank of lieutenant-colonel. He died November 11, 1696. — Savage. Memorial History of Hartford County, Vol. I, page 228.

26 Captain John Ruddock became freeman of the colony in 1640. He was actively engaged in forming the plantation of Marlboro. He built one of the first frame houses in town, and was one of its first selectmen, first town clerk and deacon of the church. His second wife was the sister of Rev. William Brinsmead, the minister of Marlboro. — Hudson's History of Sudbury, page 40; also Hudson's History of Marlboro.

27 Among these prisoners was old Jethro, who, confined at Deer Island, escaped, and, angered by his treatment, joined the hostiles.

28 Wannalancet, in obedience to the advice of his father, always kept peace with the English. He resided at the ancient seat of the sagamores upon the Merrimac, called at that time Naamkeke, and his house stood near the Pawtucket Falls, but at the time of the war with Philip he took up his quarters among the Pennacooks, who were also his people. Wannalancet and his company were among those who came to Cochecho at the invitation of Major Walderne, September 6, 1676, were tricked, captured, some executed and others sold into slavery by the Massachusetts authorities. He was, however, among those that were set at liberty and returned to his home at Naamkeke to find his lands seized by the whites and he himself looked upon as an intruder, and, after an uncomfortable year among them, he accepted the invitation of a party of Indians from Canada who visited him, to accompany them home, and with all his people, reduced to less than fifty in number, went to that region and is not heard of after. — Book of the Indians, Vol. III, page 95.

29 Gookin. Christian Indians. American Antiquarian Society Collections, Vol. II, page 463.

30 Letter of Rev. Solomon Stoddard to Increase Mather. — Mather's Brief History.

31 Connecticut Records, Vol. II, page 356.

32 Captain Thomas Lathrop was made freeman at Salem, May 14, 1634. He became captain of the Artillery Company in 1645 and served in the expedition against Acadia. He represented Salem and Beverly in the General Court for a number of sessions, and after that part of Salem in which he lived became Beverly he was a prominent actor in all its affairs. In August, 1675, he was given command of a company raised principally in Essex County. Bodge, page 133. — Savage.

33 Wequomps was the Indian name of the sightly elevation near the banks of the Connecticut in South Deerfield, now known as Sugar Loaf Mountain. It rises abruptly from the plain to a height of about seven hundred feet. It looks down upon the Hopewell Swamp which lies to the southward, its northern boundary being perhaps •a quarter of a mile distant from the mountain.

34 A letter of Rev. Solomon Stoddard to Increase Mather gives what is probably the most reliable account. — Mather's Brief History.

35 Sheldon's History of Deerfield, Vol. I, page 92.

36 James Eggleston of Windsor, according to Savage and Sheldon, but this is denied by Miss Mary K. Talcott of Hartford. See Stiles' History of Ancient Windsor, Vol. II, page 199.

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