USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Early Rehoboth, documented historical studies of families and events in this Plymouth colony township, Volume III > Part 18
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We have Lieutenant Church's account of going to the Mount Hope garrison, while Captain Henchman was away in Rhode Is- land, and borrowing his lieutenant with three files of soldiers and of the lieutenant's refusal to go into the Pocasset Swamp to fight. Captain Henchman's lieutenant told Lieutenant Church "that if he was sure of killing all of the enemy and knew that he must lose the life of one of his men in the action he would not attempt it", and marched his men back to the garrison.
After retreating from the Pocasset Swamp on 19 July, Major Savage ordered four of his companies back to Massachusetts, leaving Captain Henchman and his company to help Captain Cudworth's Plymouth company guard Philip and keep him in the Pocasset Swamp.
In the study of this pursuit of Philip, two things stand out above all else. One is that Captain Henchman seems to have felt no per- sonal responsibility for Philip's escape from Pocasset Swamp, al- though he and his company of some 125 men were left the sole guardians of Philip when Captain Cudworth marched his Plymouth company of 116 men to the relief of Dartmouth. The other is that Captain Henchman appears to have failed to realize that while the
Rev. Edward Everett Hale, minister of the South Congregational Church, writing in 1880, said "Capt. Daniel Henchman was a connection of Judge Sewall and there was in Sewall's house a room called by his name; that everything in Captain Henchman's letters shows that he was a good soldier and a prompt executive man, and he is, perhaps the most prominent representative of Boston as the war goes on. Doubtless he made mistakes like other men. But there is a manliness in his treatment of the Christian Indians which conciliates respect" [Windsor's Memorial of Boston (1880), vol. I, Chap. IX, p. 317].
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Early Rehoboth
military strategy of Massachusetts was to prevent the Nipmuck Indians from joining Philip in Plymouth Colony, Philip was up- setting this strategy by fleeing to the Nipmuck Indians in Massa- chusetts, and that at all costs this union had to be prevented by either capturing Philip or turning him back towards Mount Hope.
On reading the Rehoboth letters sent to Captain Henchman ask- ing for aid in the pursuit of Philip, one seems to read between the lines that there was some question about his answer to this call for help. Otherwise, why was it necessary for Lieut. Peter Hunt, com- mander of the Rehoboth forces, to write Captain Henchman asking him to come to Rehoboth that night by "night Water"; for Minis- ter Newman to write him about the escape, and also at the same time write Lieutenant Thomas telling him that Philip was in "poore strenth of men" so tired out and dispirited that they would soon "knife" Philip if surprised-all on one sheet of paper to be delivered to Captain Henchman by Lieutenant Thomas, who was to ask him personally to join in the pursuit?
It may also be asked why Lieut. Nathaniel Thomas, the ranking Plymouth officer (in the absence of Captain Cudworth, the com- mander-in-chief), who was to deliver these two letters personally, felt that it was in addition necessary to ask Lieut. James Brown, who was also a Plymouth Colony Assistant, to go along and help him present the case. An Indian war was on and with an excellent chance to end it, why was it thought necessary to have three letters, in addition to the personal solicitation of two Plymouth Colony officers, in order to get Captain Henchman to join in the pursuit? Unknown to him, Philip had escaped from the Pocasset Swamp where the job of guarding him had been left to Captain Henchman when Captain Cudworth marched his Plymouth forces to the relief of Dartmouth.
The answer seems to be found in the letter Captain Henchman wrote to Governor Leverett while in transit to Providence on Mr. Almy's boat. In this letter he said: "Lt. Thomas brought me the two first enclosed letters from Rehoboth and Mr. James Brown came with him to press my going thither which with what strength I could was yeelded to* (I have just finished the South East flanker of the fort so farr as to be a good defence for my men) . . . taking six files [68] with me and 17 Indians . .. leaving five files [56] behind to be going on with the work and the Brigidine".
Even after he had started on the pursuit of Philip, Captain Hench- man failed to grasp the significance and far-reaching effect of this escape and to realize that there was no longer any need of a fort to protect his men against the Indians, for all of them had fled.
In spite of the necessity for quick action, Captain Henchman de- layed his departure from Pocasset for eight or nine hours after he re- ceived word of the escape, not starting until daybreak the next morning, 31 July. Traveling 20 miles by water and 10 miles by land, he arrived at Nipsachuck at 10 o'clock 1 August, an hour after the battle was over. It took him 28 hours to cover a distance of some 30 miles.
* The italics are the writer's.
cat Hin
AND
lanky
320
DOUCOLAS
308
Lake
Bel Air
₹50
.Brook
FARNUM
PIKE
Nipsachuck
AHOL ROAD
OL
406
Nipsachuck Swamp
NORTH SMITHFIELD SMITHFIELD
IN
Forge
-500-
=500
LOG
481573070
Hill
Latham
A full-size photographic reproduction of a section of the U. S. Geological Map, Rhode Island (Providence County), Georgiaville Quadrangle Survey, 1943 Edi- tion, showing the Nipsachuck country (Smithfield) in the north end of the town of Providence, Rhode Island, where Rehoboth, Providence, and other men together with the Mohegan Indians, fought and defeated King Philip on 1 Aug. 1675. The fight took place near Nipsachuck Hill. The boundary between Smithfield and Glocester was the "Providence Seven Mile Line".
Scale of map, two inches equals one mile. Contour interval 10 feet. Datum is mean sea level,
107
King Philip's Two Escapes
Philip and his Indians, escaping from the Pocasset Swamp on the night of 29 July, were overtaken by the English at Nipsachuck on the night of 31 July. At daylight on the morning of 1 August the fight took place. The elapsed time between 29 and 31 July was about 48 hours, and the distance traveled some 32 miles .* If the men, women, and children heavily loaded with all their possessions, marched 16 hours out of each 24, the distance covered was at an average rate of about a mile an hour.
It seems that the importance of this escape of Philip did finally dawn on Captain Henchman, for on 3 August he suddenly stopped following Philip's track and attempted to head him off by circling around to the fort in the Nipmuck country. The attempt nearly succeeded, but Captain Henchman had given Philip too much of a start, and he escaped and joined the Nipmucks, accomplishing the very thing that five companies of Massachusetts soldiers and one company of Plymouth soldiers had been trying for nearly a month to prevent.
Capt. Daniel Henchman,t who died at Worcester 15 Oct. 1685, appears in Boston as early as 1666 where he was employed at a salary of £40 per annum "to assist Mr. Woodmancy in the Grammar Schoole and teach the childere to wright". Robert Woodmancy was schoolmaster of the Latin School from 1650 to his death in 1667. In 1669 Captain Henchman was one of a committee with Captains Daniel Gookin, Thomas Prentice, and Richard Beares to lay out, settle, and manage the new plantation at Quansigamond Ponds (now Worcester). He became the principal manager of that settlement and a large landowner.
Daniel Henchman lived in the north end of Boston between Com- mercial Street on the northeast and Charter Street on the southeast, near the ferry to Winnissimmet. He was a schoolmaster from 1666 to 1671, when he became a merchant. In 1671 he was granted leave to wharf before his land in Commercial Street near the ferry; free- man in 1672. In 1674-75 he laid out a cartway ten feet wide, which in 1699 was called Declination Alley, and Henchman Street in 1708 [Thwing's The Crooked and Narrow Streets of Boston (1920), p. 75, map p. 26].
The following list contains every reference to Daniel Henchman
* An inspection of a modern map shows that all of the distances given by the contemporary writers were greatly exaggerated. The distance from Rehoboth northwest to Nipsachuck is about 12 miles and not 20 as stated by Lieutenant Thomas, and the distance from Providence to Nipsachuck is about 10 miles and not 22 as stated by William Hubbard. The distance from Pocasset to Providence is about 20 miles. The distance from the Pocasset Swamp north, then west over the Taunton River, through Swansea, skirting the Seekonk Great Plain to the ford at Pawtucket River, is about 24 miles. From this point it is about 8 miles to Nipsachuck, which is about 32 miles from Pocasset Cedar Swamp. Nipsachuck is about 472 miles south of the Massachusetts line. See map.
t Capt. Daniel Henchman m. (1), probably in England, Sarah, dau. of Hezekiah Woodward, gentleman, of Uxbridge, co. Middlesex, England, who in his will of 22 Feb. 1674, bequeathed "to the five children of my daughter, Sarah Henchman deceased, by Daniel Henchman of Boston in New England, the sum of £20 apiece to be paid at their respective ages of twenty-one years". Then he gave all his lands and tenements in Ireland to the said Daniel Henchman in trust for the said children. Children by first wife: (Richard, Hezekiah, Nathaniel); Susanna, b. 7 June 1667; William, b. 28 July 1669 and d. before 29 Mar. 1673. He m. (2) 26 Apr. 1672, Mary, b. at Taunton, dau. of Wil- liam Poole of Dorchester. Children: William, b. 29 Mar. 1673; Jane, b. 25 May 1674; Daniel, b. 16 June 1677; and Mary, b. 1 June 1682. His widow, Mary, and sons Richard and Hezekiah were administrators of his estate, which on 29 Apr. 1686 inventoried £1381:13:09 [Bodge, pp. 47, 48.]
William Poole, gent., d. 24 Feb. 1674, age 81. He was of Taunton, 1638; removed to Dorchester ; schoolmaster from 1659. Elizabeth Poole, "the chief cause of building at Taunton", was his sister.
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Early Rehoboth
found in the Massachusetts Bay Records from 1661 to 1686. To this list, have been added extracts from papers and letters in the Massa- chusetts Archives, together with material found by Rev. George Madison Bodge in his search of John Hull's Journal and Account Book:
20 May 1669-At a General Court held at Boston a committee previously appointed and impowered to lay out, settle and manage, a plantation at or about "Quansiqamund Pond, twelve miles beyond Marlborough, in the roade way to Springfield & Hadley", made a report. The com- mittee consisted of Captains Daniel Gookin, Thomas Prentice, Daniel Henchman, and Richard Beares [Mass. Bay Records, vol. IV, p. 435].
6 June 1674-In answer to a petition of "Capt. Daniel Gookin, Capt. Thomas Prentice, Lieut. Richard Beeres, and Mr. [Daniel] Henchman, the court as a full issue between the petitioners and Ephrajm Curtis, ordered that he have fifty acres of land that is already laid out to him where he hath built, with all manner of accomodation as other inhabitant have, and liberty to take up two hundred and fifty acres of land without the bounds of the same town [now Worcester]" [Ibid., vol. V, p. 10].
12 May 1675-At General Court of Elections held at Boston "it is ordered that Capt. Thomas Lake be captaine of the new company to be raysed out of Capt. Savage company, Mr. Humphrey Davy to be capt. of the company raysed out of Capt. Olliuers company ... Capt. Thomas Lake & Mr. Humphrey Davy desired the Court's favor to accept their refusals of these offices and the Court granted their motions . . . leav- ing the said Capt. Lake in the station he is now in and appointed Mr. Daniel Henchman capt. of that company, and Left Thomas Clarke capt. instead of Mr. Davy" [Ibid., vol. V, pp. 32, 33].
24 June 1675-At a meeting of the General Court "Capt. Daniel Henchman was chosen and voted to goe forth as Capt of 100 men for the service of this Colony on ye designe to go to Plymouth Coly. Capt Thomas Prentice is appointed to be Capt of the Horse.
"To the Militia of the town of Boston, Cha. Camb. Watertown, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Brantrey, Weymouth, Hingham, Maulden-You are hereby required in his Majesty's name to take notice that the Govr & Council have ordered 100 able souldjers forthwith im- pressed out of severall Towns according to the proportions hereunder written for the aid and assistance of our confederate Plymouth in the designe afoote agst the Indians, and accordingly you are to warne afad proportions to be ready at an hours warning from Capt Daniel Hench- man who is appointed Captain and Commander of the Foote Company that each souldjer shal have his armes compleat and Snapsack ready to march and not faile to be at the randevous.
"To D. H. Capt. with the Consent of the Councill for the Colony of Mass. in New England-Whereas you are apoynted Capt of a foote Company to Serve in this Expedition for the assistance of our neighbors of Plimouth against the insolences and outrages of the natives, these are to wil and require you to take charge of the said Company of foote, mounted as dragoons, & you to command and instruct your inferior officers and souldjers according to military rules for the service and saftey of the Country, and you to attend such orders from tyme to tyme as you shal receyve from your superior Commanders or the Council of this Colony. Signed by ye Govnr; Past 25 June 1675; E. R. Secy" [Mass. Archives, vol. LXVII; Bodge, pp. 46, 47].
- Aug. 1675-"The court reappointed Captain Henchman to serve over 100 men who met at the Roxbury meeting house, but refused to march forth under his command, and demanded Captain Oliver. The Council compromised the matter and sent Captain Lake" [Bodge, pp. 52, 53].
16 Aug. 1675-A part of Captain Henchman's soldiers were still under the
109
King Philip's Two Escapes
command of Captain Mosely, 12 of whom he detailed to the Chelmsford garrison [Ibid., p. 50].
27 Sept. 1675-Captain Henchman was in command of the Chelmsford garrison as seen by his letter to Governor Leverett on this date [Mass. Archives, vol. LXVII, p. 269; Bodge, p. 53].
1 Nov. 1675-Captain Henchman marched out of Boston towards Hassa- nameset (Grafton) with 20 men and arrived at Medfield at 3 P.M. the same day. The next morning he wrote a letter to the Governor in which he said: “ . . , I am hasting to march [to Mendon] this morning but hoped if the men's refreshments had not given check to have been gon by moon rising, I cannot see by acct taken before I draw out that my number will amount to above 75, some sending short of what ordered and 37 discharged by order, I have not any officer but a Sergeant from Rox- bury; some men and the armes of others not fit for service . . . Our greatest danger (as I judged) if the enemy designs upon us this day, will be at a pass six miles from hence; the which I hope we shall look unto the Lord in the use of means to avoid . .. Begging your prayers for us I desire that all our supplications may be accepted for the Country and the interest of our Lord Jesus Christ therein; and rest Hond Sr
Your humble Servant D. Henchman. [P.S.] "When the Lord shall have brought us safe to Mendam I shall attend the Major's orders there and wait for the recruits intended me" [Bodge, p. 54].
3 Nov. 1675-At a General Court held a Boston-the "Court wrote & sent a letter to Capt Hinchman, & is on file". It ordered, that "Capt Scyll, wth his company, take recruit at Marlborow, & forthuith march to Hassanesesit, & . .. joyne wth Capt Hinchman to pursue the ennemy, wch wee heare lirketh thereabouts, & hath lately repelled some of Capt Hinchmans men at Hassanemesit, & slayne his leifteñnt & one English man more; and after Capt Scylls conjunction wth Capt Hinch- man, he & his company shallbe at the comand of Capt Hinchman, as comander in cheife of that party, & that a coppy of this order be im- ediately posted away to Capt Scyll. It is ordered, that the comittee for the warr forthuith send to Capt Hinchman at Mendon a supply of those necessarys for his souldjers that he writes for . ." [Mass. Bay Records, vol. V, p. 69].
9 Nov. 1675-Captain Henchman with his lieutenant and 22 mounted men rode to Hassanameset where he had a fight as reported in his letter of the 10th, in which he said that his Lieut. Philip Curtis and Thomas Andrews (one of the Mendon garrison) were killed. He said that his corporal, Abiell Lamb, outran himself in the attack, and that all his own and his lieutenant's men ran away from him in the fight except one of his "old soldiers (as he thinks) Johathan Dunning " [Bodge, p. 55].
12 Nov. 1675-The Council ordered Major Willard to send 12 troopers to Captain Henchman. Many of the soldiers were withdrawn and placed in garrison and all available were pressed and mustered for the Narra- gansett campaign [Ibid., p. 55].
It was the custom to punish soldiers by fines, and sometimes their pay would be withheld for months until the accusing officer would recommend leniency and sign their "debenture" or bill for service rendered. On one of the few remaining fragments of the minutes of the Council, in the Massachusetts Archives, is a quaint letter from one Jonathan Adderton which declared that Captain Henchman wrongly accused him of "profanation of ye Sabbath", when his only offence was the "cutting up of an old felt hat and putting the pieces in his shoes to relieve his galled foot." etc. [Ibid., p. 56].
- April 1676-Three companies of foot under Captains Sill, Cutler, and Hol- brook, and three troops of horse under Captains Brattle, Prentice, and
110
Early Rehoboth
Henchman, who was commander-in-chief, were sent out towards Has- sanamessit [Lincoln's History of Worcester (1837), p. 23].
5 May 1676-At a General Court of Election held at Boston, "the Council, upon intelligence of the approach of the ennemy with great numbers, ordered fower troops speedly to advance, which having been kept out about a weeke, and the troopers being most of them masters of familjes, and have not yet planted . . . it is ordered that the said troops (having first made vp their complement to Capt Hinchmans & Leiftennt Flood, which was ordered by the council) be licensed to depart to their seuerall habitations, to attend their oune occasions for a weeke, and until they receive further order.
"The Court, being sensible how much it concernes the welfare & safety of this country that order be attended by all officers and souldjers, and there being too much appearance that Capt George Corwin hath given very evill example in his demeanor & carriage to Capt Hinchman, which tended to disturbe & mutinize the souldiers vnder his comand, judge it necessary, that the sajd Capt Coruin be futher quaestioned, & proceeded wth as the case may require, for the prevention of the like disorders, and to stop any clamors against the gouerment of partiall proceedings, that poorer men are punished for lesser offences, when richer men escape wth greater; and therefore doe appoint this case to be heard this afternoone at fower of the clocke, & that the witnesses be sumoned to appeare at the time.
"This Court, having heard & considered the case of Captaine George Corwin, as to his carriage towards Captaine Hinchman, the comander in cheife ouer the forces now out against the ennemy, his orders for the service of the country, doe judge, that the sajd Captaine Coruin hath mannifested great contempt of authority therein, and hath giuen very ill example in these times of danger, tending to dissolue that good dis- cipline that is of necessity to be kept vp; and doe therefore take from him, for his sajd offence, his comand ouer the troope of horse of which he is captaine, and doe also sentence him to pay a fine of one hundred pounds in money to the country " [Mass. Bay Records, vol. V, pp. 84, 90].
Captain Henchman seems to have been somewhat of a martinet with his men on small offences, and it may be that Captain Curwin was comparing these lesser offences with Captain Henchman's more important military failure to capture Philip for which it appears he received not even a reprimand.
5 May 1676-"The court appointed the following committee to attend to the removal of Indian women and children, the men to be improved in the service of the country : Left. Quinsey, Robert Badcock & Corporall Suift for Brush Hill [Ponkapaug Indians]; Capt. Prentice, Ensigne Fuller, Ensigne Bulling, & Deacon Heynes, Natice [remainder of Natick Indians]; Left. [Thomas] Hinchman, Left. Danforth, Ensigne Fletcher, Left. Osgood & Serjant Converse for Patucket [near Weymesit] [ Nasho- bah and a part of Natick Indians]. The council ordered Majr Goodkin and Mr. Elliot to make the seperation, to impress boats for their removal, to take care to arm and dispatch the Indian souldjers, and the commis- sioners are to attend Maj. Goodkin order for arms for their dispatch to Capt. Hinchman.
"That the Indians under the command of Sam Hunting with the English Indians under him, appointed for the above service be discharged from service under Capt. Hinchman, prouded ten Indians doe remain with him until a further supply is furnished him.
"The Court, being informed by Captain Henchman of his desire to be upon sudden motion, doe order that Supplizes of men & provisions, ac- cording to former order, be forthwith raysed and the sajd Capt. Hinch- man ordered to march the sajd forces vnder his comands against the comon ennemy without delay " [Mass. Bay Records, vol. V, pp. 86, 87, 92].
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King Philip's Two Escapes
30 June 1675-Captain Henchman marched down towards Boston from Hadley the last of June. The war was drawing to a close and from his letter of this date to Governor Leverett can be seen how the praying Indians were bringing in the enemy Indians. Bodge printed the letter on page 57.
6 Sept. 1676-" In ans" to the petition of the troopers of Salem & Lynn humbly desireing this courts favour that their late captaine, Capt. George Coruin may be restored to his former comand ouer that troope, the court judeth it meete to grant their request, & he is heereby restored to his former command " [Mass. Bay Records, vol. V, p. 104].
1 June 1677-The court being informed that Capt. Thomas Wheeler's troop is much diminished, partly by his death . . . whereby there numbers doe not much exceed thirty troopers . .. the Court ordered that Left. Thomas Hinchman be Capt of ye troope & Mr. John Flint his leut, and all the troopers in Sudbury, Marlborough & Concord, yt are at present under the Command of Capt. Thomas Prentice are hereby ordered . . . under the command of the sd Capt. Hinchman & his officers as an addition to that troope [Ibid., vol. V, p. 142].
From this point on there are two captains Henchman, one named Daniel and the other Thomas. In some instances these records are hard to separate.
16 May 1683-At a Court of Elections held in Boston, "Major Daniel Goodkin, Esq', Capt. Thomas Prentice, & Capt. Daniel Hinchman, a committee of the Gennerall Courts to order the affaires of a plantation at Quansiggamond to lay out the sajd plantation according to the Generall Courts grant dated 24th of October, 1668, to the contents of eight miles square, having accordingly surveyed the same, and draune this plot for the Courts confirmation, dated the 19th of May 1683". The bounds are described and "the Court approoves of this returne" [Mass. Bay Records, vol. V, p. 413].
15 Oct. 1684-At a General Court held at Boston, "on the motion and desire of Major Genñll Goodkin, Capt Prentice & Capt Dañ Hinchman, the Court grants their request, i.e., that their plantation at Quansigamond be called Worcester & yt Capt Wing be added & appointed one of the comitee there, in ye roome of the deceased, & that their toune brand marke be thus" [a cross crosslet] [Ibid., vol. V, p. 460].
In his search of John Hull's Account Book, Mr. Bodge found the following soldiers credited with military service in Capt. Daniel Henchman's company, and said that this list undoubtedly included the names of all the company that served in the Mount Hope cam- paign :
20 Aug. 1675.
£ s. d.
£ s. d.
Thomas Burges
02 06 02
Nathaniel Osborne
02 07 00
John Hills
00 06 00
Samuel Davis
02 07 00
John Lewis
01 14 03 Henry Kerby
02 07 00
John Angel
01 15 02
Ephraim Hall
01 07 00
Benjamin Negus
01 15 02
Richard Gibson
02 07 00
John Chapman
02 02 00
Thomas Williams
02 07 00
Robert Smith 02 02 00
Joseph Ford 00 06 10
William Manly
02 08 00
Samuel Walles
01 06 06
Thomas Irons
02 07 00 William Bently
02 07 00
Samuel Perkins
02 07 00 Peter Edgerton
01 15 00
Hugh Taylor
02 07 00
John Bull
00 16 02
David Jones
02 07 00 Richard Brooks
02 00 00
James Whippo
02 07 00
John Barrett
01 10 00
Theophilus Thornton
02 07 00
Joseph Fiske
01 10 00
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Early Rehoboth
Joseph Tucker Israel Smith Samuel Ireson
21 August
John Scopelin
00 07 00
James Dichetto
00 15 00
Jacob Gully
01 14 06
Isaac Ratt
02 04 00
Josiah Arnold
01 15
Wm Smallidge
01 19 04
Samuel Daniel
02 07 00
John Bucknam
01 19 04
John Kemble
02 07 00
Enoch Greenleaf, Lieut.
04 10 00
John Russell
02 07 00
Samuel Johnson
03 07 00
Simon Groveling
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