USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Early Rehoboth, documented historical studies of families and events in this Plymouth colony township, Volume III > Part 17
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our Indians told us they Judged they were all gone to Squabauge to another Indian fort & Plantation of them where is grat swamps & Places of security for them; unto wch place the aforesaid Indian Prisoner told us that the sachems of Neepmuge23 had sent men to Philip to Conduct him up to Squabauge & they would Protect him & that thither he was going; but I should haue told that in our march after Capt Hinshman we toock notis that an Indian track newly made whelled about from west to south toward Narrowgansett wher- upon next day being the 4th Instant we sent out Indian scouts to discover the tracks who brought word that the enemys track was deuided one part going on to Squabauge & the other turned toward Narraganset next moring after we came to the said 2d fort being the 4th Instant Left Browne with his 4 men went to Nowige being as the Indians said abat 20 miles from us wt the Intent to bringe with all speed more suplies of men & prouisions to march wt us to Squabauge being as the Indians said about 20 mils from us to the northward of the west; to the intent to treat those Indians that if Phillip Came thither they would deliuer him up or else to loock on them as enemies we taried there from tousday night vntell Saturday morning being the 7th Instant & Left brown came not nor sent not to us: but I should haue tod before that the monehegins being ouer loaded with Phillips plunder went away hom toward Norwich with mr browne;
prouisions being now spent and noe news of Left browne one the 7th Instant we sent the 12 prouiden[ce] men to norwich to signify to him or them that
That Eleazer Whipple was wounded in the pursuit of Philip and not in some other engagement seems to be proved by the fact that his name is not in the 14 Aug. 1676 Providence Town Meeting list of the "27 names of such as stajd & went not away". His father, John, 58 years of age, re- mained in Providence throughout the war, but son Eleazer, 29 years old, with a wife and two small children, the younger less than two years old, did not.
At a Quarter Court held at Providence 27 Jan. 1660, it was ordered that John1 Whipple, Sr. (father of Eleazer2) "have his Lands Recorded in the towne Book laid out to him for his towne Right, it lyeing at Loquassqussuck" [Early Providence Town Records, vol. II, p. 145].
"To ye Towne Mett, July ye: 27: 1680-I desire ye Towne to take some Care speedily that I may haue ye mony that I stand obliged to pay for my Diett when I lay under Cure, being wounded by ye Indians in ye Troublesome warr my nessesti Calleth for it, being often Called upon for ye same, Saing they have great need of ye same Yor friend Eliazur Whipple" [Early Providence Town Records, vol. XV, p. 214.]
On 22 Jan. 1733, Alice (Angell) Whipple, widow of Eleazer, "being very ancient (now living in Smithfield)" and not willing further to administer on her husband's estate, administration was given to John Rhodes of Warwick who had married the widow of her son James3 Whipple [Austin's Gen. Dict. of R. I., p. 222 which cf. for further genealogy].
According to Field, Nipsachick or Nipsachuck lies in the boundary line between North Smithfield and Smithfield to the north of Nipsachuck Swamp in the Louisquisset country, and that "to-day (1902) from the door step of Eleazer Whipple's house you can look right off upon the spot" [Field's History of State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (1902), vol. I, pp. 402-3].
Smithfield was set off from Providence on 20 Feb. 1730/1. The town was divided 8 Mar. 1871, a portion annexed to Woonsocket and the remainder divided into two towns, Lincoln and Slater, which latter name was changed to North Smithfield 24 Mar. 1871.
22 Mathew Fuller,-see ante, page 58.
23 Ousamequin (Massasoit) Sachem of the Plymouth Colony Wampanogs held some degree of
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Capt hichman returned to Mendum24 whether we returned wt him & in our march about 12 mils from the said 2d fort we met wt Capt [Samuel] Mosley wt 60 draguns march from Prouidence up after us who gaue us the following relation that on the 6th instant at night he met wt an old Indian going back toward Pocaset took him & examined him who told them that at our fight one the first Instan[t] we kild 2325 of Philips men 4 wherof were Captains26 & that Philip was gone to Squabauge & wittamaw to Narowganset he said he was a pocaset Indian & one of Philips vnkls & that Phillips men had dis- couered some of us as we marched toward the fort & that we had out gone them after ther track was left & that he fering we should haue chored Philip on his front fled back to go to Pocaset
it vexeth me to write the remaider: wch is that on the first instant when we had given the enimy such a blow & the fighting men just fled Capt Hinch- man Came to us toock the Comand of the monehegins & of the Persute before he came we all agred togethr as one & when he Came we all agred that he should Comand all expecting his uigorus Persute of the enemy who as the said old man told Capt Mosley was all that day in a swamp wch is not 3 quar- ters of a mile from the Place where we fought them & expecting euery minit when they should be surprised they being redy to deliver themselues up:
had not Capt Hinchman Come in we had undoubtedly taken them [Philip] before nowe & when he Came we doubted not of his persute, but instead therof as sone as we that were nesesiated to cary of our wonded men were gone the Persute seased & the monhegins & Mattachuset Indians went to Pundering of wch ther was store for as sone as the allarm was giuen the enimy fled in such hast as they left their keetles Coats meat dresed & vndresed some amuninion as lead & slugs & other goods so that as was Judged by some Eng- lish then Present the Plunder ther taken was worth near on 100 pond*27 & the Indians being then suffered so to doe their days work was done: but what shall I say, how euer was the neglect of man the lord is to be loocked at in the mater
but to return to our retreat Capt Hinchman & Mosleys Lefenant both returned to mendum Leaueing the army in woods at sun set about 12 miles aboue mendum wt order the next day to Come to medum I & those with me went in the night wt them to mendum next morning being the 8th Instant Capt Hinchman & Left Kent wento boston & I to Rehoboth at mendum we heard the vnwellcom newes of Capt Huchison28 & Capt Wheler
N: T:
Acct of ye Fight with ye Indians Augt 1+ 1675 by Nath1 Thomas dated 10 Augt 1675 [Original Letter, Massachusetts Historical Society, Davis Papers, MSS. 161, G. 28.]
Sachemship over the Nipmuck Indians. See ante, page 95.
24 Mendon, Mass., incorporated in 1667, originally partly bounded the northern line of the Rehoboth North Purchase, the particular section of which is now the city of Woonsocket, R. I. The southern part of Mendon was set off as Blackstone in 1845, from which Millville was set off in 1916. See Map in Early Rehoboth, vol. I, opp. p. 22. In the early days there was considerable intercourse between Rehoboth and Mendon; the Rehoboth Town Records mention laying out a road between the two towns.
25 Hubbard said that the number of Indians killed was about thirty. .
26 Lieutenant Thomas gave the name of only one of the four captains killed, Nimrod, and men- tioned the presence of the Black Sachem and Tockamona (brother of Awasunks, Squaw Sachem of Seaconnet). For Black Sachem, see ante, page 86.
On 4 July 1673 the Plymouth Colony Court granted liberty to Benjamin Church and John Tompson "to purchase land of Tuspaquine the black sachem and William his son" for the in- habitants and proprietors of the town of Middleberry [Plymouth Colony Records, vol. V, p. 126].
27 Drake, in a foot-note to John Davis' copy of this Thomas letter printed in the appendix to Mather's Brief History (Drake Ed., 1862), said "Besides many guns taken from the slain". The original letter shows that this is not Drake's note but is Lieutenant Thomas' comment written on the margin of his letter.
28 Capt. Edward Hutchinson was shot by the Indians at Quabaog (Brookfield) 2 August and died 19 Aug. 1675. See ante, p. 72.
* beside many guns taken from the slain
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philip alias mota come his Pmarke The Clash Daniel Devison mag Gan forum Zamars Josiah Simslen Ofenchman Thomas S away Lo Como in chiefo: Jo En SimtEsp James : (wowouff John Richards : 1
John Hulk.
Janwl Molly manage Prather Daniel Goakin If Mam Hubbard Enoch Greenleaf Jo und0-fill Hart Hintsok S: Bradstreet John Eliot Thomas Danforth Ame Bradstrus Cotton Mather:
Deferi Hunst James Brown
Photostatic reproductions of seventeenth-century autographs of twenty-six indi- viduals, most of whom had principal parts in King Philip's War. These are: the mark of King Philip, Gen. Daniel Denison, Gov. Josiah Winslow, Maj. Thomas Savage, Gov. John Winthrop, Capt. John Richards, Capt. Samuel Mosley, Capt. Daniel Gookin, Lieut. Enoch Greenleafe, Maj. Wait Winthrop, Rev. John Eliot, Poetess Anne Bradstreet, Lieut. Peter Hunt, Capt. John Hull, Capt. Thomas Clark, Gov. John Leverett, Capt. Daniel Henchman, Maj. James Cudworth, Gov. Joseph Dudley, Rev. Increase Mather, Rev. William Hubbard, Capt. John Under- hill, Gov. Simon Bradstreet, Lieut. Gov. Thomas Danforth, Rev. Cotton Mather, and Lieut. James Brown.
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King Philip's Two Escapes
The following letter written by Richard Smith from Wickford, Rhode Island, to Gov. John Winthrop, on 5 Aug. 1675, adds some heretofore unknown details to the history of Philip's flight from the Pocasset Swamp and subsequent pursuit and fight at Nipsachuck:
Much Hounoured
This post just nowe Coming: haue nott time because nott willing to deteyne him: to inform you att Large: butt briufly; Philip is fled and his women and Children Came along A boue prouidenc The prouidenc men and secunk men: with the Mohigan Injni kiled 14th of them, they fled and are goone as its suposed up to quopage, the naragansets hath bin outt 300 of them : brought me in seuen heds of the Eniane, also is nowe com home and with them att Lest 100 men-woman and Children of wettamors the-Pa:cusett Sachim squo and her with them She is kind to Sucquauch: & he deseyers all fauor for her thatt Can be; no Einglish ha[th] it intilligenc of it, butt my selufe two ouers sinc, she & her men hath bin in aicion Agaynst the Einglish, I shall giue notis of it as sone as Can to boston Gouno: also:, only ame willing to: here first from you, many straigling Indyans are abrode: for mischif, sume nip nap Indyans joyne with Philip, sume Indyans in Plymouth Patan are Come in to the Einglish aboutt 120 in all as I here, myne with my wiufs humbe bell seruis to you and all your: presented with all the hounored gentellmen with yow in greatt hast subscrib my selufe your most obleged & humbell seruent
Richd Smith
Wickford 5th Agost 1675
These for the Hounabl John Winthrop Esqu' Gour of Coneticott.
[Indorsed] Mr Richard Smith: rec: Aug : 8:
[Original letter, Massachusetts Historical Society, Winthrop Papers, vol. XVIII, p. 110.]
The following records add further confirmation to some of the statements made in the foregoing letters. In a letter written from Springfield on 7 Aug. 1675 to Gov. John Winthrop of Connecticut, Maj. John Pynchon * said:
an Indian from Wabaquattick brings Intelligence that Philip with 40 of his men is now at a Place called Ashquoack a little on this side of Qua- baug ... and he resolves to settle If he be not disturbed: because it is a Place of food: ye English of Quabaug their Corne being hard by ... he came 2 days agoe to this Place and these Pitches . .. They say ye tyme that Philip left his swamp was 7 days agoe and that being pursued he had 10 of his men killed . . . and that these 40 men who are fled with Philip have but 30 guns and the other 10 Bows and Arrows and are now weake and weary and may be easily delt with, whereas if we let alone (say ye Indians) they will burn our houses and kill us all by stealth . [Original letter as printed in the Appendix of Mather's Brief History (Drake Ed., 1862), pp. 235-9].
George Memicho, the Indian captive taken at Brookfield, related that Philip brought about 40 men with him and many women and children. Philip told the Indians at Quabaug "that had Captain Henchman persued him closely he must have been taken with his whole company" [Bodge, p. 112].
The foregoing letters, covering the five days from 29 July to 2 Aug. 1675, present a comprehensive record of Philip's pursuit, the progress of which is briefly summarized to 9 August as follows:
29 July-Capt. James Cudworth with 116 men left Pocasset and marched to the relief of Dartmouth, leaving Lieut. Nathaniel Thomas and 20 men at Mount Hope garrison. With the withdrawal of the Plymouth forces, the sole responsibility for keeping Philip and the squaw sachem,
* Maj. John Pynchon of Springfield married Margaret, daughter of William Hubbard.
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Weetamoe, from escaping out of the Pocasset Swamp rested with Capt. Daniel Henchman and his company of 125 soldiers and 17 friendly Natick Indians. That night the Indians escaped out of the swamp and the next day were in the town of Providence some 28 miles away, all unknown to Captain Henchman until notified on 30 July by Mr. Newman of Rehoboth.
30 July-Lieutenant Thomas rode to Rehoboth, where he learned of the escape of Philip. Carrying letters from Lieut. Peter Hunt and Mr. Newman, he rode back to Mount Hope, where he stopped on his way to Pocasset to ask Capt. Daniel Henchman to come to Rehoboth to help in the pursuit of Philip. Lieut. James Brown, a Plymouth Colony Assistant, went with him to help present the case to Captain Henchman. They reached Pocasset after 9:00 P. M. (two hours after sunset).
Captain Henchman was told that the Indians were travel weary and discouraged and that Philip had few warriors and that they were out of powder. Lieut. Peter Hunt asked Captain Henchman to come to Rehoboth that night by "night Water", so as to join in the pursuit the next day. Captain Henchman agreed to go to Rehoboth. Lieuten- ants Thomas and Brown sent word to Captain Cudworth and to War- wick to the "Narraganset Indians to head Philip".
31 July -- Captain Henchman, although asked shortly after 9 o'clock the night of the 30th to come by "night Water" delayed his departure for eight or nine hours "until break of day", when with six files of sol- diers (68) and 17 Indians he embarked on Mr. Almy's sloop for Provi- dence, first landing two miles below Seekonk, but on receipt of a letter from Lieutenant Thomas, he re-embarked and landed at Providence. Here each man was given three biscuits, a fish, some raisins, and ammu- nition enough for two or three days. Guided by Providence men they marched for Nipsachuck.
Early in the morning Lieutenant Thomas with 12 men marched from Mount Hope for Rehoboth accompanied by Lieutenant Brown and 12 men from Swansea. With 40 Rehoboth men, probably under Lieut. Peter Hunt, they marched in pursuit of Philip. Preceding them were 30 Providence men under Capt. Andrew Edmunds, 30 Stonington men under Quartermaster Swift, and 50 of Uncas' Mohegan Indians. At sunset the two contingents met at Nipsachuck.
1 August-At dawn the English attacked the Indians, killing some 23 includ- ing 4 of Philip's chief captains. At 9 o'clock the skirmish ended, Philip's men fleeing into a swamp. Near the end of the fight Lieutenant Brown, Mr. Newman, and others, arrived with provisions. The Eng- lish forces at this point numbered about 130, together with some 50 Mohegan Indians. At 10 o'clock Captain Henchman arrived with his company of 68 men and 17 Indians, making a combined force of about 198 English and 67 Indians, a total of 265 fighting men. Captain Henchman took over the command. He showed the Mohegan Indians Captain Gookin's letter stating that he was to take the care and com- mand of them.
The Providence men returned to carry their wounded man, and Lieu- tenant Thomas and his 10 men returned with them, carrying their 2 wounded. They arrived at Providence at 12 or 1 o'clock that night. There apparently remained at Nipsachuck some 87 English and 67 Indians, a total fighting force of some 154 men under the command of Captain Henchman.
With Philip and some 40 warriors without ammunition, just defeated an hour before and fled into a swamp less than three-quarters of a mile distant, Captain Henchman, with a force outnumbering that of Philip's three or four to one, rested all that day and night instead of immediately following up his advantage and going into the swamp where the Indians waited all day ready to give themselves up on the first approach of the English.
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2 August-In the morning Captain Henchman started on his pursuit of Philip, but he had allowed him such a head start that he never did catch up with him, and Philip easily escaped to the Nipmucks at Quabaug and Weetamoe, to the Narragansetts. Later that morning Lieutenant Thomas with 5 of his men and 12 from Providence returned to Nipsa- chuck with ammunition and provisions and followed Captain Hench- man. Lieutenant Thomas and his men marched all day, and that night lay in the woods.
3 August-Early in the morning Lieutenant Thomas resumed his march, later meeting Ensign Henry Smith and Lieut. James Brown returning home, they having left Captain Henchman, "whom Rehoboth men blamed for not immediately pursuing Philip the day of the fight instead of delaying a whole day". Lieut. James Brown and 4 Swansea men who were going home with the Rehoboth men changed their minds and returned with Lieutenant Thomas. After marching 15 miles from where the Indians were fought at Nipsachuck, Lieutenant Thomas found that Captain Henchman and his company had left the track of Philip on the right hand and gone the west way to the Nipmuck country. That night Lieutenant Thomas overtook Captain Henchman at the second fort in the Nipmuck country, called by the Indians Wapososhe- quash. The Nipmuck Sachems had sent men to conduct Philip to Quabaug.
4 August-Lieutenant Brown and his 4 men went to Norwich, about 20 miles to the northward of the west (as the Indians said) to bring, with all speed, supplies and provisions and more men to march to Quabaug, the intent being to treat with the Nipmuck Indians and have them either deliver up Philip if he came to them or be considered enemies. The Mohegan Indians, heavily overloaded with about £100 worth of Philip's plunder, went away home toward Norwich with Lieutenant Brown. Lieutenant Thomas remained at this second Nipmuck fort from Tuesday night 3 August to Saturday morning 7 August awaiting Lieu- tenant Brown's return.
6 August-Capt. Samuel Mosely with a company of 60 troopers, following Captain Henchman from Providence, picked up at night and examined an old Indian who said he was one of Philip's uncles and was on his way to Pocasset; that in the fight of 1 August the English killed 23 of Philip's men, 4 of whom were captains; that Philip had gone to Quabaug and Weetamoe, to Narragansett; that Philip had discovered some of the English as they marched towards the fort; that the English had out- marched the Indians after their track was left, and fearing that Philip was headed off on his front, he (the uncle) fled back to Pocasset. He said that after the fight all that day the Indians remained in the swamp not three- quarters of a mile from the place where they were fought "expecting every minute when they should be surprised they being ready to deliver themselves up".
7 August-Lieutenant Brown not having returned nor any word received from him, and provisions having been spent, the 12 Providence men were sent to Norwich to notify him that Captain Henchman was returned to Mendon. Lieutenant Thomas accompanied him. About 12 miles from the second fort they met Captain Mosely with a company of 60 troopers who had followed from Providence. Captain Henchman and Captain Mosely's lieutenant returned to Mendon, leaving the army in the woods at sunset about 12 miles from Mendon with orders to come in the next day. Lieutenant Thomas and his men went to them at Mendon.
8 August-In the morning Captain Henchman accompanied by Lieutenant Kent * (probably Mosely's Lieutenant) went to Boston for further or- ders. Lieutenant Thomas returned to Rehoboth. Most of Captain Henchman's men were left at Mendon under the command of Captain
* No Lieutenant Kent was found by Bodge.
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Mosely, who was soon ordered to march to Quabaug (Brookfield). In a note indorsing a bill of William Locke, Chirurgeon of the Massachu- setts Forces in the Mount Hope campaign, Mosely said that after Captain Henchman went to Boston "he took said Locke in his company and from Mendon marched to Malbury and thence to Quabaug". [Bodge, p. 66.]
9 August 1675-At Boston Captain Henchman received his instructions in a letter from Gen. Daniel Denison, commander-in-chief of the Massa- chusetts Forces, ordering him to return to Pocasset and bring back his men, provisions, and supplies from Fort Leverett. He was ordered to advise the Plymouth commander of this design and if said commander wished him to remain there, to await further orders from the Council; otherwise to turn over the fort to the care of the Plymouth forces and march his company back to Boston and there disband it until further called out by the Council. Plymouth preferred to take charge of the fort, so Captain Henchman brought his soldiers home to Boston and disbanded them as ordered [Bodge, p. 50].
According to Samuel G. Drake, Captain Henchman on his return to Boston resigned his commission, but the General Court refused to accept it. There seems to have been bitter feeling in Boston at that time as to how the Indian captives should be treated. One faction, led by Rev. John Eliot and Major Gookin,* Captain Henchman's associate in the new plantation (afterwards named Worcester), advised moderate measures, while another and larger faction clamored for a general extermination of the Indians.
Mr. Bodge in his History, pages 52 and 53, said that "Capt. Henchman seems to have been of the moderate party, and was therefore somewhat unpopular with most of the soldiers, and doubt- less his apparent lack of success in the pursuit of Philip at Rehoboth added to this feeling with the people. But the court sustained and trusted him, and immediately reappointed him to service over one hundred men who met at Roxbury meeting-house, but refused to march forth under his command, and demanded Capt. Oliver. The council compromised the matter and sent them Capt. Lake . . . Capt. Henchman seems to have been employed in August and Sep- tember in regulating affairs in some of the outlying towns".
Further research would undoubtedly uncover other documents adding more to our knowledge of the unsuccessful pursuit and the escape of Philip. The foregoing records and letters, however, seem to be ample to prove that on the shoulders of Capt. Daniel Hench- man alone rested the responsibility for not capturing or killing King Philip at Nipsachuck Swamp in Providence and ending the war then and there five weeks after its start. Instead, his procrastina- tion permitted Philip with a few travel-weary, battle-tired warriors, part of whom were armed with guns without powder and the rest with bows and arrows, to slip through his fingers.
Nothing found in the records proves Capt. Daniel Henchman to have been the outstandingt soldier claimed by later writers. In all
* The first company of Massachusetts Indians that went out in King Philip's War was recruited by Major Gookin from the various friendly tribes of praying Indians around Boston. See ante, page 68. t In 1862 James Savage said that in King Philip's War, 1675-1676, Daniel Henchman "was a captain of distinction" [Gen. Dict., vol. II, p. 402].
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fairness, however, it must be stated that in forming their opinions none of these writers had the advantage of the evidence assembled in this chapter.
So far as the records show, Daniel Henchman was without mili- tary experience when he was appointed captain by the Massachusetts General Court on 12 May 1675. That he was made a captain at this time was an accident, for he was chosen in the place of Mr. Hum- phrey Davy, who after receiving the appointment, refused to serve. Twelve days later Captain Henchman was appointed to the com- mand of 100 men for special service in the Massachusetts Expedi- tionary Campaign in Plymouth Colony.
His service in Plymouth Colony was not conspicuous. On 3 July he and Captain Prentice were sent out to search the swamps between Swansea and Rehoboth for Indians. Hubbard said that "about 10 o'clock the next morning, 4 July, Capt. Henchman after a long and tedious March, came to Head-Quarters and informed that he came upon a Place where the Enemy had newly been that Night, but they were escaped out of his Reach".
From 5 July to the 15th he was with Major Savage in Rhode Island making a treaty with the Narragansett Indians. He was a witness to this treaty. The troops, under command of Major Sav- age, returned to Rehoboth on 15 July and marched towards Pocasset where the Indians were fought at Pocasset Swamp on 19 July. Captain Henchman was probably in this fight.
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