USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Early Rehoboth, documented historical studies of families and events in this Plymouth colony township, Volume III > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
* A General Court held at Boston 11 Oct. 1682,-voted that "whereas it hath binn thought necessary, & a duty incumbent vpon us to take due notice of all occurances & passages of Gods providence towards the people of this jurisdiction since their first arrivall in these parts, which may remajane to posterity, and that the Reverand Mr. Willjam Hubbard hath taken paynes to compile
5
New Source Material for King Philip's War
"The worthy Author [Rev. William Hubbard] of this Narrative (of whose Fidelity we are well Assured) by his great Pains and Industry, in collecting and compiling the several Occurrences of this Indian Warre, from the Relations of such as were present in the particular Actions, hath faithfully and truly performed the same, as far as best Information agreeing could be obtained, which is therefore judged meet for publick View: and we whose names are underwritten, deputed by the Governour and Council of the Massachusetts Colony to peruse and license the same; have and do accordingly order it to be imprinted, as being of publick Benefit, and judge the Author to have de- served due Acknowledgement and Thanks for the same.
"Boston, March 29 1677.
[As printed in Hubbard's Narrative]
"Simon Bradstreet* Daniel Denison* Joseph Dudley "*
From the foregoing brief analysis it is apparent that the salient feature of Mather's and Hubbard's narratives is the fact that they are the only contemporaneous chronological records extant, with- out which, as a day-to-day guide, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to write a complete history of Philip's War. Therefore, the two works must of necessity serve principally as an historical skelton or framework on which to build. Also, it is clear that these two works alone are inadequate for a complete scholarly history and that they must be correlated with the volumi- nous colony and town records and with the numerous extant con- temporaneous private letters in order to put the necessary "meat" on this excellent framework. The information to be found in these important sources adds historical facts heretofore unknown, which in some cases are of such importance as to change materially the histories as written by Mather and Hubbard.
Many of the contemporary writers, particularly the clergy, seem to have been especially partial to Mather's narrative and to have made it a point to go out of their way to criticize Hubbard. An example of this is the letter of Rev. George Shove of Taunton, son- in-law of Rev. Samuel Newman of Rehoboth, in which he com- plained of some slight inaccuracy. However, of the two historians, Hubbard was the only one to receive the acclaim of the military men and of the General Court, which licensed the printing of his history and later made him a grant of £50 for another history.
During the last two and three-quarters centuries there have been only three editions of Mather's narrative, while there have been nine of Hubbard's. The working student of history will find that al- though Mr. Mather's work is necessary and useful, Mr. Hubbard's work is of far more value and importance.
Besides the two early historians, Mather and Hubbard, we have
a history of this nature, woh the Court doeth with thankefullness acknowledge; and, as a manifesta- tion thereof, doe hereby order the Treasurer to pay vnto him the some of fieuty pounds in money, he transcribing it fairely into a booke, that it may be more easily pervsed, in order to the satisfaction of this court" [Mass. Bay Records, vol. V, p. 378].
* These three men were brothers-in-law, Bradstreet and Denison having married sisters of Joseph Dudley, son of Gov. Thomas Dudley. Governor Bradstreet m. Anne Dudley, the author of the first book of original poems written in New England and published in England in 1650; a dau., Dorothy Bradstreet, m. Rev. Seaborn Cotton. Major-General Denison m. Patience Dudley and had a dau. Elizabeth who m. John Rogers, President of Harvard College. Joseph Dudley was later Governor of Massachusetts. He m. Rebecca, dau. of Edward Tyng of Boston. Of his several children, Rebecca m. Samuel Sewall; Ann m. John Winthrop; and Catherine m. William Dummer.
6
Early Rehoboth
another contemporary writer, the unknown Boston merchant who wrote a series of five long letters* to his friend in London, where they were published in pamphlet form as soon as received, one in 1675, three in 1676, and the last in 1677. These letters must not be overlooked for they contain many details not found in the other two works. So instead of two war correspondents we have a third in the person of this Boston merchant whose first report was pub- lished in England a year earlier than Mather's history. In the pref- ace to his history Mather said that he had not the least idea of publishing any of his "observations" until "he read the Narrative of this War said to be written by a merchant in Boston and that the 'abounding mistakes therein' caused him to think it necessary that a true History of this Affair should be published".
Now the mistakes he complained of are not numerous and the tracts on the whole represent a good job of news reporting. A little exaggerated in spots, there are several instances where the Boston merchant's reports show more accuracy and give more de- tail than do those of Mather or Hubbard; for instance, Capt. Thomas Brattle's fight with the Indians at Pawtucket Falls in Rehoboth, on 24 May 1676, where one Englishman was slain and Ensign Jacob Eliott of Roxbury was wounded (post, page 24). Mather said that this fight took place "on the 23rd"; Hubbard said "about the 23rd," but neither mentioned a wounded man. The Boston merchant writing to London said correctly that the fight took place on the 24th and that one man was killed and one wounded and gave additional important details not mentioned by Mather or Hubbard. By our present-day standards, the Boston merchant was the most dramatic reporter of the three.
The town of Rehoboth with its neighboring towns of Swansea on the south, Taunton on the east, and Providence, Rhode Island, on the west, played an important part in King Philip's War throughout its whole fourteen months' duration. No matter how far away the fighting extended, sooner or later large bodies of Indians repeatedly appeared in this territory. This area was the center of the start and finish of the war. This, of course, is not surprising for it was the Indians' home ground. The Rehoboth side of the Seekonk River was the ancient boundary line between Philip's Wampanoag Indians
* These five letters published in London in pamphlet form are titled as follows: (1) The present state of New-England with respect to the Indian War, from the 20th June till the 10th November, 1675. London, 1675. (2) A continuation of the state of New-England, being a further account of the Indian War, from the 10th November, 1675 to the 8th February, 1676. London, 1676. (3) A new and further Narrative of the state of New-England, being a further account of the Bloody Indian War from March till August, 1676. London, 1676. (4) A true account of the most con- siderable occurrences that have happened in the War between the English and Indians from the 5th May, 1676 to the 4th August following. London, 1676. (5) The war in N. England visibly ended. Being a true and perfect account brought in by Caleb More, master of a vessel newly arrived from Rhode Island [possibly written by Richard Hutchinson]. London, 1677 [John Carter Brown Library].
There was a Caleb Moore at Salem in 1668; a John Moore at Aquidneck, R. I., in 1638 who ap- pears to have moved to Warwick, R. I., where he had land in 1655; and a William Moore at Nar- ragansett, R. I., in 1670 at which place a Joseph was admitted freeman in 1673.
These five London pamphlets were carefully transcribed and annotated by Samuel G. Drake and published at Boston in 1836 under the title of Old Indian Chronicle. This is very convenient work and is used in this volume of Early Rehoboth and hereafter cited as Drake's Old Indian Chronicle (1836).
7
New Source Material for King Philip's War
on the Plymouth Colony side and Nanunteno's (Canonchet's) Narra- gansett Indians on the Providence side. With practically all the houses burned in this area, the great bulk of the inhabitants home- less and by necessity fled to Rhode Island, and the few able-bodied Englishmen remaining holed up in the garrison-houses, one (at least) at Providence, five at Rehoboth, including Woodcock's in the north part of Rehoboth, three, or perhaps four, at Swansea, and eight at Taunton, the whole country was practically wide open to the Indians to roam at will.
King Philip's War started in Swansea, just over the Rehoboth line, on 24 June 1675 when the first Englishmen were killed after young John Salisbury had shot the first Indian the day before. Of the English slain on that day, several were Rehoboth men who had moved to Swansea to found that township in 1668. Philip was slain in the swamp at Mount Hope, near the Swansea line, on 12 Aug. 1676. Sixteen days later, 28 August, the war ended so far as the southern part of New England was concerned, when Capt. Ben- jamin Church captured Annawan, one of Philip's chief captains, in the Squannakonk Swamp, Rehoboth, at the rock since known as "Annawan Rock" .*
Throughout many years' study of the original manuscript records of early Rehoboth and the surrounding towns, the writer has ac- cumulated a substantial number of heretofore unknown source records, which together with the early printed narratives, present a very complete documented personalized history of King Philip's Indian War as fought in the southeastern part of New England where the war originated and ended. Some of these source records present new evidence which makes it necessary to re-write some of the history of this war as now written.
The following few examples will perhaps better illustrate what is meant by a personalized history, and in the one small Rehoboth section show how a little additional research will add unknown wealth of the personal detail so important to a comprehensive history of Philip's War.
At Providence, while it is important to know that Andrew Ed- munds was captain of the military company at the time when some 1500 Indians burned the houses in Rehoboth and the next day, 29 Mar. 1676, moved over the Seekonk River and burned those in Providence, it is of far more historical importance to know the per- sonal item that when the torch was put to the house of John Smith, the miller, who was also town clerk, the town record books (kept in the house of the clerk) were thrown from the burning house into the mill pond, fished out again as soon as the Indians had left the town, and speedily sent to Rhode Island (Newport) for safe-keeping; and that when these Providence town records were returned to Provi- dence from Newport on 9 Apr. 1677, one year and eleven days later, Roger Williams commented that they were "saved by God's merciful providence from fire and water". But for the brains and intelli- gence of this one man, presumably Town Clerk John Smith, Provi- * Cf. Early Rehoboth, vol. II, p. 38.
8
Early Rehoboth
dence today would have no early records, whereas it has to-day what is probably the most complete set, with the possible exception of Boston, of any town in New England.
Then there is also the fanciful story of how on the day the Indians burned Providence the venerable Roger Williams "took his staff and walked over towards them hoping to pacify them as he had often done", and of their telling him that "they would not harm a hair of his head ", etc., all told so dramatically in the various histories.
It is always interesting to discover, if possible, the original source of these stories. Staples in his Annals of the Town of Providence (1843) page 166, told of the burning of Providence on 30 Mar. 1676 (the correct date is the 29th) but made no mention of Roger Wil- liams' talk with the Indians. Arnold in his History of Rhode Island (1859), vol. I, pages 408-9, said that "a tradition is preserved that when the Indians approached the town the venerable captain [Roger Williams] went out alone to meet and remonstrate with them. 'Massachusetts', said he, 'can raise thousands of men at this moment, and if you kill them, the King of England will supply their places as fast as they fall' . .. 'but for you brother Williams, you have been kind to us for many years; not a hair of your head shall be touched'".
Arnold gave as authority for this statement Knowles' Memoir of Roger Williams (1834), page 346, and references to his note. Ar- nold's statement was copied from Knowles, who gave as his authori- ties Baylies' Historical Memoir of New Plymouth (1830), vol. II, pt. 3, page 114: Thatcher's Indian Biography, vol. I, page 309; and Backus' History of the Baptists in New England (1777) vol. I, page 424, which is found in the Weston Ed., 1871, at pages 336-7.
Baylies in his Memoir stated as a fact that Roger Williams met the Indians, recited the statements later made by Knowles in 1834 and by Arnold in 1859 and added the "Indians assured Mr. Wil- liams that he should never be injured, 'for he was a good man and had been kind to them formerly'".
Backus, writing in 1777 recorded: "Tradition says that when the Indians appeared on the high lands north of their great cove, Mr. Williams took his staff and walked over towards them, hoping to pacify them as he had often done; but when some of their aged men saw him, they came out and met him, and told him that though those who had long known him would not hurt him, yet their younger men were so enraged that it was not safe for him to venture among them; upon which he returned to the garison".
This story of Roger Williams' meeting and talk with the Indians when they burned Providence on 29 Mar. 1676 is more than a tradi- tion as stated by Backus in 1777, Knowles in 1834, and Arnold in 1859 for there is a printed contemporaneous record of this meeting. On 22 July 1676 the Boston merchant wrote to his friend in London the following account, which was licensed 13 Oct. 1676 and published in London that year:
"But indeed the reason that the Inhabitants of the Town of Seaconicke and Providence generally escaped with their lives, is not to be attributed to any
9
New Source Material for King Philip's War
compassion or good-nature of the Indians (whose very mercies are inhumane cruelties), but (next to God's providence) to their own prudence in avoiding their fury, when they found themselves too weak and unable to resist it by a timely Flight into Rhode-Island, which now became the common Zoar, or place of Refuge for the distressed; yet some remained till their coming to distroy the said Towns; as in particular Mr. Williams at Providence, who knowing several of the chief Indians that came to fire that Town, discoursed with them a considerable time, who pretended their greatest quarrel was against Plimouth; and as for what they attempted against the other Colonies they were constrained to it, by the spoil that was done them at Narraganset; they told him that when Capt. Pierce engaged them near Mr. Blackstone's they were bound for Plimouth; They gloried much in their success, promising themselves the conquest of the whole country, and rooting out of all the Eng- lish: Mr. Williams reproved their confidence, minded them of their cruelties, and told them that the Bay, viz. Boston, could yet spare Ten thousand men : and if they should destroy all them, yet it was not to be doubted, but our King would send as many every year from Old England, rather than they should share the country; they answered proudly, That they should be ready for them, or to that effect, but told Mr. Williams that he was a good man, and had been kinde to them formerly, and therefore they would not hurt him" [New and Further Narrative of the State of New England, etc., by a Merchant of Boston, London, 1676, p. 7].
The Massachusetts merchant in his letter to his friend in London appears to have allowed his imagination rather too high a flight when he put into Roger Williams' mouth all that bombastic bragging about the power of the Massachusetts Bay, etc. Above all else, Roger was at all times a diplomat with the Indians, and to those familar with his voluminous writings the latter part of this reported coversation seems somewhat out of character.
We have pointed out that after Francis Baylies wrote his Memoir of New Plymouth in 1830 from material obtained by original re- search, all further Plymouth Colony research stopped, for succeeding writers, as is illustrated in this case, were content to use "Baylies' as their authority. In the matter of Roger Williams' parley with the Indians at Providence on 29 Mar. 1676, Backus knew of it, in 1777, only as a tradition; Baylies, in 1830, read the original London letter and stated the parley as a fact without quoting his original source; Knowles, in 1834, quoted the incident as a tradition and cited both Baylies and Backus as his authorities; Arnold, in 1859, said that the incident was a tradition and quoted as authorities Knowles, Baylies, and Backus; and not a single author mentioned the contemporaneous original source record which took the meeting from the realm of tradition to the solid grounds of recorded fact.
Fortunately we have another account of this meeting of Roger Williams with the Indians at Providence, R. I., in an heretofore unpublished letter written from Rehoboth on 19 Apr. 1676 by Rev. Noah Newman to his friend Rev. John Cotton at Plymouth (post, page 18), which gives a different synopsis of Williams' conversation with the Indians. Williams and Newman were friends and neigh- bors separated by the narrow width of the Seekonk River. Mr. Williams, and probably Valentine Whitman, had an hour's conversa- tion with three of the Indians while Providence was burning, and, as would be expected, Roger Williams made the most of this oppor- tunity to talk peace treaty, as follows:
10
Early Rehoboth
"When the Indians were at Provid: they Called to speake wth one Valentine Whitman, Mr. Williams hearing of it Called to them & told them if they would parly he would parly wth them, wch they did & he had an hours discourse wth 3 of them, they told him the Great God was againste us & wth them, & that English men were like Women & that there was fifteen hundred of them that had burnt our towne & was burning of theirs, he assured himselfe to be in- strumentall to procure a treaty between them & ye English, they told him they would say more after a months time & another suggested that they in- tended to spend a month upon Plimouth Colony for the burning of that".
From Mr. Newman's letter it is clear that the Indians were not interested in Roger Williams; they wanted to talk with Valentine Whitman, the Indian Interpreter, who to them was the important man, and they asked for him. Mr. Williams hearing of this called to the Indians saying that if they would parley he would, which they did for an hour, as told by Mr. Newman. No history mentions Valentine Whitman in connection with this meeting. Neither Mather nor Hubbard mentioned Roger Williams in their few sen- tences on the burning of Providence. Mather disposed of the whole incident in exactly one and one-half lines-"The next day they burned about thirty houses at the town called Providence".
John Easton, Governor of Rhode Island, wrote a Narrative en- titled "A Relation of the Indyan Warr, by Mr. Easton of Rhoad Island, 1675. A True Relation of what I kno & of Reports & my Understanding concerning the Beginig & Progress of the war now between the English and the Indians" .*
In his narrative Governor Easton gave us the following interesting details of that surprise Indian attack at Swansea on the opening day of Philip's War:
"In this Time [Wednesday 23 June] sum Indians fell a pilfering sum Houses yt the English had left and an old Man and a Lad going to one of these Houses did see three Indians run out thereof. The old Man bid the young Man shoot; so he did, and a Indian fell doune, but got away againe. It is reported yt sum Indians came to the Gareson, asked why they shot the Indian. Thay asked whether he was dead. The Indians said yea. English Lad saied it was no matter. The men indevered to inform them it was but an idell Lads Words but the Indians in haste went away and did not hearken to them. The next day [the fast day, Thursday 24 June] the Lad that shot the Indian, and his father, and fief Englishmen were killed so the war began with Philip".
Roger Williams, writing from Mr. Smith's at "Nahigonsik" on 25 June 1675 to Gov. John Winthrop of Connecticut, said:
"The last night they have (as is this morning said) slain five English of Swansey and brought their heads to Philip, and mortally wounded two more, with the death of one Indian" [Narr. Club Publications, vol. VI, p. 369].
The Boston merchant in his letter to his friend in London, written shortly after the Indian War broke out, added further details:
"By this time the Indians have killed several of our Men, but the first that was killed was June 23, a Man at Swansey, that he and his Family had left his House amongst the rest of the Inhabitants; and adventuring with his Wife and Son (about twenty Years old) to go to his House to fetch them Corn, and
* This Relation was edited by Dr. Franklin B. Hough and printed by J. Munsel, Albany, N. Y., 1858. It is supposed to have been printed from the original MS. (now in the New York State Li- brary at Albany), although the editor did not say so. It is not known to have been printed in pamphlet form although it would appear that it must have been, for it hardly seems probable that Mather would have had the Quaker Governor Easton's original MS. at Boston.
11
New Source Material for King Philip's War
such like things; He having just before sent his Wife and Son away, as he was going out of the House, was set on and shot by Indians; his Wife being not far off, heard the Guns go off, went back: They took her, first defiled her, then skinned her Head, as also the Son, and dismist them both, who immediately died " [The Present State of New England with Respect to the Indians (20 June until 10 Nov. 1675), By a Merchant of Boston to his friend in London, p. 5- John Carter Brown Library].
The Swansea records show that the only father and son slain at Swansea on 24 June 1675 were William Salisbury and his son John. So by simply putting together two source records, which have been readily available for two hundred and seventy-three years, we are able to state here for the first time that King Philip's War was started by John Salisbury, a young man twenty years of age, when on the 23rd of June 1675 his father, old William Salisbury, a third rank inhabitant of Swansea, ordered him to shoot one of three Indians seen running out of his own empty house which he had previously abandoned when he and his family fled to Rhode Island. Young Salisbury appears to have killed the Indian, although all other early historians say that he was simply wounded.
The next day the Indians attacked Swansea, sought out old Salis- bury and his son, killed both, cut off their heads, and terribly muti- lated their bodies, besides killing a number of the other inhabitants, thereby precipitating an Indian war that was to last fourteen months and cost the lives of upwards of 600 Englishmen and the loss of more than 1,000 dwellings, barns, mills, and other buildings. But for the effective marksmanship of young John Salisbury, King Philip's War might have been averted, or at least certainly delayed, for powerful peace negotiations were in progress which held out some hope of being successful.
When we come to the narrative historian's old standby, "tradi- tion", much can be said. The word covers any flight of the his- torian's imagination, and all that is necessary is the preface "tradi- tion says". Some of these traditions have more or less foundation in fact, but most of them are pure unadulterated bunk and have no place in a scholarly history.
For example, there is Bliss' story in his History of Rehoboth about Robert Beers, the Irish brick-maker, who was slain at Rehoboth when the Indians burned the town on 28 Mar. 1676. "He is re- ported to have been a religious but eccentric and superstitious man who on the approach of the Indians refused to go into the garison house but set down in his own house with his bible in his hand be- lieving that while he continued reading it nothing could happen him. The Indians shot through the window, killed him and he fell with the bible in his hand".
From Mr. Newman's letter (post, page 17) and the Rehoboth records, we learn that Robert Beers was killed at a considerable distance from the garrison house early that morning. Only a little research is necessary to prove that this religious fanatic was not the Robert Beers killed at Rehoboth on 28 Mar. 1676, but a man over in Providence named Wright who was killed the next day, 29 Mar. 1676.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.