History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 122

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 122

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Among the " Nams of thos Remaining Still in hands of the french at Canada," found in a document dated October, 1695, are those of "Lidey Langly gerl" and "Jnº Shiply boy." In this list the resi- dences of both these children are incorrectly written, Lydia's being given as Dover, New Hampshire, and

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John's as Oyster River. They both belonged in this town, and were taken at the assault of July 27, 1694. The name of Thomas Drew appears in the same list as of Groton, which is a mistake, as he was of Oyster River. (Archives, XXXVIII. A 2.)

This expedition against Groton was planned in part by the Indians at a fort called Amsaquonte above Norridgewock, in Maine. It was arranged also in the plan of operations that Oyster River-now Durham, New Hampshire-should be attacked on the way ; and the assault on that town was made July 18th nine days before the one on Groton. At Oyster River more than ninety persons were either killed or captured; the prisoners from the two towns appear to have been taken to Maine, where they were brought frequently together during their captivity. On January 21, 1695, Lieutenant-Governor William Stoughton issued a proclamation, in which he refers to the " tragical out- rages and barberous murders" at Oyster River and Groton. He says that several of the prisoners taken at these places "are now detained by the said Indians at Amarascoggin and other adjoining places." .

Hezekiah Miles, alias Hector, a friendly Indian, at one time a captive in the enemy's hands, made a deposition before the Lieutenant-Governor and Coun- cil, at Boston, May 31, 1695, which gives some details of the preparation for the attack ; and Ann Jenkins, in a deposition on June 11, 1695, adds other particu- lars. These papers may be found among the Massa- chusetts Archives (VIII. 39, 40).

The story of William and Deliverance Longley's family is a sad one to relate. They were living, with their eight children, on a small farm, perhaps a mile and a quarter from the village, on the east side of the Hollis road. Their house was built of hewn logs, and was standing at the beginning of the present century. The old cellar, with its well-laid walls, was distinctly visible forty years ago, and traces of it could be seen even to very modern times. The site of this house has recently been marked by a monument bearing the following inscription :-

HERE DWELT WILLIAM AND DELIVERANCE LONGLEY WITH THEIR EIGHT CHILDREN. ON THE 27TH OF JULY 1694 THE INDIANS KILLED THE FATHER AND MOTHER AND FIVE OF THE CHILDREN AND CARRIED INTO CAPTIVITY THE OTHER THREE.

The monument was erected in the autumn of 1879, at the expense of the town, on land generously given for the purpose by Mr. Zechariah Fitch, the present owner of the farm ; and it was dedicated with appro- priate exercises on February 20, 1880.

On the fatal morning of July 27, 1694, the massa- cre of this family took placc. The savages appeared suddenly, coming from the other side of the Merri- mack River, and began the attack at Lieutenant

William Lakin's house, where they were repulsed with the loss of one of their number. They followed it up by assaulting other houses in the same neigh- borhood. They made quick work of it, and left the town as speedily as they came. With the exception of Jolin Shepley's house, it is not known that they destroyed any of the buildings; but they pillagcd them before they departed. They carried off thirteen prisoners, mostly children,-and perhaps all,-who must have retarded their march. There is a tradition that, early in the morning of the attack, the Indians turned Longley's cattle out of the barnyard into the cornfield and then lay in ambush. The stratagem had the desired effect. Longley rushed out of the house unarmed, in order to drive the cattle back, when he was murdered and all his family either killed or captured. The bodies of the slain were buried in one grave, a few rods northwest of the house. A small apple-tree growing over the spot and a stone lying even with the ground, for many years furnished the only clue to the final resting-place of this unfor- tunate family, but these have now disappeared.

William Longley was town clerk in the year 1687, and also from 1692 till his death, in 1694; and only one week before he was killed he had made entries in the town records. His father, William Longley, Sr., also had been town clerk during the years 1666 and 1667, and died November 29, 1680. The father was one of the earliest settlers of the town, as well as the owner of a thirty-acre right in the original Groton plantation. Lydia, John and Betty were the names of the three children carried off by the savages, and taken to Canada. Lydia was sold to the French and placed in the Congregation of Notre Dame, a con vent in Montreal, where she embraced the Roman Catho- lic faith, and died July 20, 1758, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. Betty perished soon after her capture from hunger and exposure; and John, the third child, remained with the savages for more than four years, when he was ransomed and brought away much against his own will. At one time during his captivity he was on the verge of starving, when an Indian kindly gave him a dog's foot to gnaw, which for the time appeased his hunger. He was known among his captors as Jolin Augary. After he came home his sister Lydia wrote from Canada urging him to abjure the Protestant religion ; but he remained true to the faith of his early instruction.

Their grandmother, the widow of Benjamin Crispe, made her will April 13, 1698, which was admitted to probate in Middlesex County on the 28th of the fol- lowing December; and in it she remembered these absent children as follows:

"I give and bequeath Vnto my three Grand-Children yt are in Cap- tivity if they returne Vizdt these books one of ym a bible another a Ser- mon booke treating of faith and the other a psalme book."

The old lady herself, doubtless, had read the "Ser- mon booke treating of faith ;" and it must have strengthened her belief in Divine wisdom, and been a

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great consolation iu her trials. She did not know at this time that her granddaughter was already a con- vert to the Roman Catholic religion. The knowledge of this fact would have beeu to her an affliction scarcely less than the massacre of her daughter's family.

John Longley returned about the time when the grandmother died ; and subsequently he filled many important offices both in the church and the town. Like his father and grandfather, he was the town clerk during several years. Among the papers (Knox Manuscripts, Waldo Papers, L. 13) in the possession of the New England Historic Genealogical Society is a deposition made by Longley, giving a short account of his captivity among the Indians.

In the month of July, 1877, I was in Montreal, where I procured, through the kindness of the Mother Superior at the Congregation of Notre Dame, a copy of the French record of Lydia's baptism, of which the following is a translation :

"On Tuesday, April 24, 1696, the ceremony of baptism was performed on an English girl, named Lydia Longley, who was born April 14, 1674, at Groton, a few miles from Boston in New England. She was the daughter of William Longley and Deliverance Crisp, both Protestants. She was captured in the month of July, 1694, by the Abenaqui Indians, and has lived for the past month in the house of the Sisters of tlie Con. gregation of Notre Dame. The godfather was M. Jacques Leber, mer- chant ; the godmother was Madame Marie Madeleine Dupont, wife of M. de Mariconrt, Ecuyer. Captain of a company of Marines: she named this English girl Lydia Madeleine.

Signed "LYDIA MADELEINE LONGLEY,

" MADELEINE DUPONT,

" LEBER,

"MI. CAILLE, acting curate."

After this attack of July 27th the town was left in straitened circumstances, and the inhabitants found it difficult to meet the demands made on them. In this emergency they petitioned the General Court for reiief, which was duly granted.

Cotton Mather says that one man was killed at Gro- ton in the year 1697, and another, with two children, carried into captivity. (Magnalia, Book VII. page 91.) He does not give the date clearly, but inferen- tially it is June. The prisoner was Stephen Holden, who was captured, with his two oldest sons, John and Stephen, Jr. John was released in January, 1699, at which time the father and the other boy were yet remaining in the hands of the savages. It was not long, however, before they too were freed ; for, in the following Jnne, the House of Representatives voted three pounds and twelve shillings for the expenses that had been incurred in bringing them back.

QUEEN ANNE'S WAR, as it is commonly called in America, broke out in the year 1702, when England declared war against France and Spain; and the American Colonies were drawn into the contest. The Indians in New England were in sympatby with the French ; and they kept the frontier settlements con- tinually on the alert. Strict vigilance, on the part of the colonists was the price of their safety. Military companies were still held under discipline and drill, 33-ii

ard from time to time were reviewed by the proper officers. In the year 1702, Chief Justice Samuel Sewall accompanied Governor Joseph Dudley through Mid- dlesex County on a tour of inspection; and in his Diary, under date of October 28th, he writes:

" Went to Groton, saw Captain Prescot and his company in Arms. (Gov had sent to them from Dunstable that would visit them). Lancaster is about 12 Miles Southward from Groton. Coucord is 16 Miles 34 aud Ten-Rod from Groton."

(Massachusetts Historical Collections, VI. fifth series, 67.)

After these alarms there was a short respite, which continued till 1704, when the frontier towns were again exposed to savage warfare, and this town suf- fered with the others.

Samuel Penhallow, in "The History of the Wars of New England " (Boston, 1726), thus refers to the attack on this place in August, 1704: The Indians-

"afterwards fell on Lancaster, and Groaton, where they did some Spoil, but not what they expected, for that these Towns were seasonably strengthened. . . .

" And yet a little while after they fell ou Groalon, and Nashaway [Lan- caster], where they kill'd Lieut. Wyler [ Wilder], and several more. (Pages 24, 25.)

In the library of the Massachusetts Historical So- ciety is a manuscript diary of John Marshall, of Braintree, which has the following entry :

The begining of this month of august [1704] the indians did mischief at Lancaster Killed 3 or 4 persons burnt their meeting house : and did some harm allso at Groton. the same week. Killed one or more : about 200 men went out after them who weer gone 20 days under major Taylor, but Returned Without doing auy spoill on them."

The attack on Lancaster was on July 31st, and that on Groton probably within a day or two of the same time.

It was during this assault that Matthias Farns- worth, Jr., was captured and taken to Canada, where he remained permanently. He was afterward mar- ried to a French wife, and his numerous posterity are still living in Canada. The name is found written now Farnet, Farnef and Phaneuf.

A party of Indians, numbering about thirty, made their appearance in town, and killed a man on the night of October 25, 1704. Pursuit was at once made for them, but it was unsuccessful. The Boston News- Letter, October 30, 1704, gives the following account of the affair ;

" On Wednesday night [October 25] an English man was kill'd in the woods at Groton by the Indians which were afterwards descryed in the night by the Light of their Fires, by a Person Travailing from Groton to Lancaster, and judged they might be about Thirty in number ; pur- suit was made after thein, but none could be found."

From "Marshall's Diary" we learn the name of the man who was slain. It is there recorded :

"on the 25 day [October, 1704], mr Breck was ordained at marlbor- rough. the next day a man was killed and scalped by the indians he belonged to the town of Groton his name was davis : a very useful man and much Lamented."

It has been a tradition that John Davis was killed by the Indians, but the date of his death was un- known; this entry, however, seems to fix it. It is said to have happened in the early part of the even-

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ing, while he was taking in some clothes which had been washed and hung out to dry. He lived near the Groton School, where W. Dickson resided when the map in Mr. Butler's History was made ; and Davis's Fordway, in the river near by, named after him, is still remembered by the older people of that neigh- borhood.

It is not surprising that the inhabitants, upon the renewal of hostilities, were obliged to ask for help from the General Court. They had already suffered much in life and property, and were little able to bear new burdens. They represented to the Gover- nor that they had been greatly impoverished by their loss of horses and cattle, of corn and hay, and that they were scarcely able to hold out much longer ; but the crowning calamity of all was the illness of the minister, Mr. Hobart, which prevented him from preaching. Their means were so limited that they could not support him and supply his place besides. They were obliged to earn their living at the peril of their lives; and some were thinking to leave the town. They spent so much time in watching and guarding that they seemed to be soldiers rather than farmers. Under these discouraging circumstances they asked for help from the Province, and were al- lowed out of the public treasury twenty pounds to assist them in procuring another minister, besides ten pounds to be divided among those who had been the greatest sufferers in the late attack upon them.

Two years later another assault was made on the town, though with little damage. I again quote from Penhallow's History of the Wars of New England :

"[July 21, 1706]. Several Strokes were afterwards made on Chelms- ford, Sudbury and Groton, where three Soldiers as they were going to publick Worship, were way-laid by a small Party, who kill'd two, and made the other a Prisoner." (Page 36.)

A few additional particulars of these "Strokes" are found in the Rev. John Pike's Journal, printed in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for September, 1875 :

"July 21, 1706. Sab : 2 souldiers slain & one carried away by the enemy at Groton. They were all new-Cambridge [Newton] men & were returned to their Post from one Bloods house, who had invited ym to Dinner." (XIV. 143.)

Marshall, in his Diary, briefly alludes to this affair, thus :

" on the 21 [July] they Killed 2 and took one captive at groton.

The Rev. Jonathan Homer, in his History of Newton, as published in the Massachusetts Histori- cal Collections, V. 273, gives the names of these men as Johu Myrick, Nathaniel Healy and Ebenezer Se- ger, and says they were all three killed by the Indians. This statement, however, is inaccurate, as John My- rick was not one of the three soldiers, and, further- more, was alive after this date. It is sufficiently clear from contemporaneous petitions among the Massachusetts Archives (LXXI. 345,419), that two of these men were brothers, by the name of Seger, and the third one was Nathaniel Healey. It was

Ebenezer Seger who was killed, and, probably, Henry, Jr., who was taken prisoner.

At various times in its early history, the town was threatened by bands of roving Indians, who did what- ever damage lay in their power to do. Such incur- sions kept the inhabitants on the alert, and from time to time companies were organized for the purpose of scouring the neighborhood.

On March 12, 1694-95, an Act was passed by the General Court, which prohibited the desertion of fron- tier towns by the inhabitants unless permission was first granted by the Governor and Council. There were eleven such towns, and Groton was one of them. The law required the inhabitants of these out-towns, who owned land or houses, to take out a special license, on pain of forfeiting their property, before they could quit their homes and live elsewhere. It was thought that the interest of the Crown would be prejudiced, and encouragement given to the enemy, if any of these posts were deserted, or exposed by lessening their strength. Many towns were threatened by the Indians about this time, and a few were attacked. It is recorded that some of the settlers here left the town, and there was probably a movement among the inhabitants in other places to do the same. This fact undoubtedly occasioned the enactment, which was to remain in force "unto the end of the session of the general assembly to convene in May, one thousand six hundred ninety-six (if the present war so long last), and no longer, nor afterwards."

A similar Act was again passed on March 22, 1699- 1700, which embraced fourteen frontier towns, of which Groton was one, and seven other towns that "lye more open than many others to an attack of an enemy." This enactment had a limitation in point of time similar to the preceding one. Subsequently this Act was revived on June 8, 1702, with the limitation, though no towns are specified by name; again on June 28, 1706, it was re-enacted, to remain in force until June 29, 1707 ; and still later, but not for the last time, it was passed on June 10, 1707. This con- tinuous legislation to prevent the desertion of the frontiers shows clearly the unsettled condition of the outlying towns during Queen Anne's War, and Groton was no exception. The inhabitants were now living in constant dread of the savages. Sometimes an ex- posed farm-house was attacked and burned, some of the inmates killed and others carried away in captiv- ity ; sometimes the farmer was shot down while at work in the field, or while going or coming. This was the fate of John Shattuck, and his eldest son John, a young man nineteen years of age, who were killed on May 8, 1709.

They were returning from the west side of the Na- shua River, where Mr. Shattuck owned land, and were attacked just as they were crossing the Stony Fordway, near the present site of Hollingworth's pa- per-mills, where they were killed. At the time of his death Mr. Shattuck was one of the selectmen of the

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town. During the autumn of 1882 Messrs. Tileston and Hollingworth, of Boston, at that time the owners of the mill, caused a suitable stone to be placed by the wayside, bearing the following inscription :

NEAR THIS SPOT JOHN SHATTUCK, A SELECTMAN OF GROTON, AND HIS SON JOHN WERE KILLED BY THE INDIANS, MAY S, 1709, WHILE CROSSING STONY FORDWAY, JUST BELOW THE PRESENT DAM. 1882.

A remarkable fatality seems to have followed Mrs. Shattuck's kindred. Her husband and eldest son were killed by the Indians, as has just been mentioned. Her father, James Blood, was likewise killed, Sep- tember 13, 1692. So also were her uncle, William Longley, his wife and five children, July 27, 1694; and three others of their children were carried away into captivity at the same time. A relative, James Parker, Jr., and his wife were killed in this assault, and their children taken prisoners. Her step-father, Enoch Lawrence, received a wound in an engagement with the Indians, probably in the same attack of July 27, 1694, which almost wholly prevented him from earning a livelihood for himself and family. The three Tarbell children, who were carried off to Canada by the Indians, June 20, 1707, were cousins of Mrs. Shattuck. John Ames, who was shot by the savages at the gate of his own garrison, July 9, 1724, was the father of Jacob, who married her niece, Ruth Shat- tuck. And lastly, her son-in-law, Isaac Lakin, the husband of her daughter Elizabeth, was wounded in Lovewell's Fight at Pequawket, May 8, 1725. These calamities covered a period of only one generation, extending from the year 1692 to 1725.

In a list of prisoners held by the French and In- dians in Canada, March 5, 1710-11, are the names of " Zech: Tarbal, John Tarbal, Sarah Tarbal, Matt. Farnsworth [and] Lydia.Longley" (Archives, LXXI. 765), all of Groton, though no date of capture is given. Lydia Longley was taken by the Indians on July 27, 1694, and the particulars of her case have already been told ; Matthias Farnsworth was captured in the summer of 1704; and the Tarbell children were carried off on June 20, 1707. Sarah, John and Zech- ariah were children of Thomas and Elizabeth (Wood) Tarbell, who with a large family, lived on Farmers' Row, near where James Lawrence's house now stands. Sarah was a girl nearly fourteen years of age, John a lad of twelve years and Zechariah only seven, at the time when they were taken. They were near kindred of the Longley family, who had been massacred thirteen years before. The father was unquestionably the Corporal Tarbell who commanded, in the autumn of 1711, one of the eighteen garrisons in the town.

The story of their capture and captivity is a singu- lar one, and sounds like a romance. They were picking cherries early one evening,-so tradition re- lates,-and were taken before they had time to get down from the tree. It should be borne in mind that the date of capture, according to the new style of reckoning, was July 1st, when cherries would be ripe enough to tempt the appetite of climbing youngsters. These children were carried to Canada, where, it would seem, they were treated kindly, as no induce- ment afterward was strong enough to make them re- turn permanently to their old home. The girl, Sarah, was sold to the French, and placed in a convent at Lachine, near Montreal; but what became of her subsequently I am unable to say.

Thomas Tarbell, the father of these children, made his will September 26, 1715, which was admitted to probate six weeks later, and is now on file at the Middlesex Probate Office in East Cambridge. After making certain bequests to different members of his family, he says :

"all the rest aud residue of my Reall Estate I give to be Equally di- vided between my three children, John, Zachary, & Sarah Tarbell, upon their return from Captivity, or In Proportion unto any of them that sball return, & the rest, or the parts belonging to them that do not re- turn, shall be Equally divided among the rest of my children."

During my visit at Montreal in the summer of 1877, I saw the Congregation of Notre Dame, the French record, of which the following is a trans- lation :

" On Monday, July 23, 1708, the ceremony of baptism was performed on Sarab Tarbell, wbo was born at Groton in New England, October 9, 1693. Her parents were Thomas Tarbell and Elizabeth Wood, both Protestants, and she was baptized by the minister shortly after her birth. Having been taken by the savages on Mouday, June 20, 1707, sbe was brought to Canada ; she has since been sold, and has lived with the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, established at Lachine, wbere sbe abjured ber religion ou May 1. Her godfather was M. Jacques Urbain Robert de Lamorandière, Secretary of M. l' Intendant ; and her godmother was Madame Marguerite Bouat, wife of M. Etienne Pascaud, the deputy treasurer of the King in this country.

Her name Sarah has been changed to Marguerite.

" Signed,

" MGte BOUAT, " PASCAUD, " LAMORANDIERE, " MÉRIEL, PRETRE."

The boys remained for many years with their cap- tors at Caughnawaga, an Indian village on the right bank of the St. Lawrence River, directly opposite to Lachine.

It is supposed that they left this placc about the year 1760, when they moved up the river, in order to establish another settlement.

In the year 1713 John Stoddard and John Wil- liams were appointed by Governor Joseph Dudley to go to Quebec and treat with the Governor-General of Canada for the release of the New England pris- oners. They were accompanied by Thomas Tarbell, -probably the elder brother of the boys,-and we find his petition presented to the House of Repre- sentatives June 1, 1715, "praying consideration and allowance for his Time and Expences in going to

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Canada, with Major Stoddard & Mr. Williams, Anno 1713, to recover the Captives."

The petition was referred, and, on the next day,-

"Capt. Noyes, from the Committee for Petitions, made Report on the Petition of Thomas Tarboll, viz. That they are of Opinion that nothing is due from the Province to the said Turboll, since he proceeded as a Volunteer in that Service to Canada, & not imployed by the Govern- ment, but recommended him to the favour of the House."

The report was accepted, aud, in consideration of Tarbell's services, he was allowed ten pounds out of the publie treasury. Captain Stoddard's Journal, giving an account of the negotiations, is printed in "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register " (v. 26), for January, 1851, and Tarbell's name is mentioned in it.

We find no further trace of these boys, now grown up to manhood, during the twenty-five years follow- ing this attempt to release the New England pris- oners. In the winter of 1739 John and Zechariah Tarbell came back to Groton in order to visit their kinsfolk and see their native town. They were so young when carried away that their recollections of the place were of course very indistinct. It is not known now under what circumstances or influences they returned. An itemized bill of the expense in- eurred in bringing them back from Canada was made out against their brothers, Thomas and Samuel, and perhaps paid by them. Shortly afterward Thomas Tarbell petitioned the General Court for means to enable him to meet the necessary charges of the journey, besides the expenses of an interpreter ; and a conditional loan was granted. The record does not say whether it was ever paid back by him. The pa- pers relating to the subject are among the Massachu- setts Archives (XV. A, 15-19).

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History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 122

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1226

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1226