USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Scituate > The early planters of Scituate; a history of the town of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its establishment to the end of the revolutionary war > Part 14
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 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
¡ Adams' Three Episodes Vol. II Page 828.
Plymouth Colony Records Vol. II Page 91.
168
THE EARLY PLANTERS OF SCITUATE
this tribute when received, was paid to the colony of New Plymouth as its share. One hundred fathoms were given to Uncas out of consideration of the great damage that he sustained, and four hundred to Connecticut and New Haven because "they have been out of purse a good value a consid- erable tyme before the other Colonies were at any charges about the same." Whatever the colony may have received by way of reimbursement, the immediate outlay for the war was sixty-six pounds, three shillings and three pence. Of the tax levy which followed Scituate paid the largest pro- portion-twelve pounds, seventeen shillings and six pence, with Plymouth, much larger in population, five shillings and three pence behind. Although deficient in numbers of its fighting men, Scituate made up in material wealth what it otherwise lacked.
The treaty of peace then made was an effectual agent to the end sought, for thirty years. During this time Rev. John Elliot, the Indian Apostle, was preaching to the natives and organizing his bands of praying Indians, segre- gating them into communities to live after the manner of the white men. There were seven hundred of these Christ- ianized sons of the forest living in the Plymouth Colony at the time of the outbreak of the sanguinary conflict with King Phillip.
This struggle brought the horrors of war to the very hearthstones of the Stockbridges, the Turners, the Vinals, the Tildens, Merritts, and other Scituate families. It saw these devoted husbands and fathers not only defending their own homes, but going forth under General Cudworth, Cap- tain Michael Peirce and Lieutenant Buck into the enemy's country. The cause of the war dates back to a few years after the death of Massasoit in 1660. The treaty which this chieftan made with the English was faithfully kept so long as he lived. Upon his death "the Court att the earnest request of Wamsitta, desiring that in regard his father is lately deceased, and he being desirous, according to the custome of the natives, to change his name, and that the
169
THE INDIANS
Court would confer an English name upon him, which accordingly they did, and therefore ordered, that for the future he shalbe called by the name of Allexander Pokan- okett; and desireing the same in the behalfe of his brother, they have named him Phillip." + He also desired to be allowed to purchase a quantity of powder for himself and his brother. This request was denied but as a token of appreciation of this act of comity on his part "a smale gra- tuitee" of half a dozen pounds was bestowed upon him. Wamsutta's chieftancy of the Wampanoags was short. He died in 1662 and was succeeded by his brother Metacom or Phillip.
Some historians, as well as the early Indian chroniclers have claimed that his death followed his return from Ply- mouth, where he was summoned by the Governor and Assistants, placed upon the mat and accused of conspiring against the English. If he was so summoned there is no record of it. The only trouble at that meeting which appears, concerned the sale of some land at Rehoboth which he said belonged to him and was claimed by other Indians who sought to have it occupied by certain of the Narra- gansetts distasteful to both Alexander and Phillip. The Court diplomatically "engaged to doe what they could in convenient time for their reliefe in the premises." Before that "convenient time" arrived Wamsutta had died. The committee of the Court consisting of Governor Prence, John Alden and Josias Winslow, proceeded to arbitrate the differences and having given a lengthy hearing to the parties, finally dismissed them with this advice: "that all unkindness may be buried between them, and that the re- membrance of this difference, ariseing from such small beginnings, may for future make them wise to live in peace and love." #
It is apparent that Governor Prence and his associates
¿ Plymouth Colony Records Vol. III Page 192.
# Plymouth Colony Records Vol. IV Page 24.
170
THE EARLY PLANTERS OF SCITUATE
on this committee in agreeing upon the decree which ac- companied this good advice, not perhaps improperly, favored Phillip. He seems at the time to have been regarded as a mischief maker but rather to be placated than treated harsh- ly. Nevertheless the English did not propose that he should think them afraid of him, and at the same court (October eighth 1662) when the committee announced its decree con- cerning the land controversy, Phillip himself was summoned to appear before the Magistrates "to make answar unto such interrogatories as should be proposed unto him x x
x x and to deliberate and congratulate with him about such matters as might tend to a further settlement of peace, and renewall of former covenants, as he seemed to desire, plighted between our predecessors and his ancestors."
When he appeared in answer to this order the magistrates plainly told him that rumors of his plotting against their government were rife; that they had some suspicion these stories were true; that they believed he was conspiring to "cut us off" and wanted to know what he had to say. After courtesy expressed upon both sides, and a larger and delib- erate debate of particulars "hee absolutely deneyed that hee had any hand in any plott or conspiracy against the Eng- lish." As a result of the conference and after a further interchange of gracious remarks and assurances of friend- ships, a continuance of the ancient covenant of peace was agreed upon and signed. In it Phillip agreed for himself and his successors, that he and they were lawful subjects of the King of England; he would neither provoke nor raise war with the other natives, nor sell his land without the consent of the English; and would in all respects carry himself peaceably and inoffensively toward them. This pact he subscribed with his uncle Uncompowett and four of the Sagamores of his tribe. He seems to have kept it for five years.
In 1667 he was again accused, this time of conspiracy with the French and Dutch; again he explained, offered up his arms to the custody of the English as an evidence of
171
THE INDIANS
good faith, and naively pleaded "how erationall a thing it was that hee should desert his long experienced friends, the English, and comply with the French or Dutch, whoe had the last yeare kiled and carryed eighteen persons, both men and women of his, from Martin's Viniyard."
The wars with the Pequots and Narragansetts had taught the colonists a lesson. They saw by this time that the Indians were beginning to appreciate the effect of the con- tinued colonization of their territory; that it meant extinc- tion. The natives, docile in 1620 by reason of decimated ranks from the plague of four years previous, were now em- boldened by the force of their increasing numbers, and Prence, Cudworth, Alden and the rest did not give Phillip's words and promises full faith and credit. As they them- selves put it "though there was great probabilitie that his tongue had been running out, yett not having due proofe as was meet, judged it better to keep a watchful eye over him, and still continew tearmes of love and amitie with him, un- less something further did manifestly appear." They were right in thus suspecting Phillip. In the light of subsequent happenings it is clear that the son of Massasoit was waiting for the appropriate time to strike the blow which he confi- dently believed would mean the extinction of the white man from the territory of his tribe.
For the next seven years frequent reports came to the Plymouth magistrates that Phillip was negotiating with the Narragansetts for their cooperation and an offensive alliance. On one occasion he acknowledged it and volun- tarily surrendered his arms as security for his future good behavior. He posed to the officials of the Bay Colony as one being persecuted and seems to have won his way into their good graces so far that Major General Leverett, Captain William Davis and Thomas Danforth, Esq., came with Governor Winthrop of Connecticut to Plymouth to intercede and mediate for him. Phillip came too, but the case presented against him was so strong that the Massachu- setts men were won over and his own weapon turned against
172
THE EARLY PLANTERS OF SCITUATE
him. As a result of this meeting a third peace agreement was signed in which he promised very much as before. It lasted for three years,-no longer. In 1674 John Sassa- mon, Indian, a loyal friend to the English, who had studied at Harvard, had acted as interpreter and in many friendly. ways for them, while on a journey from Phillip's country to Plymouth, was murdered at Assawompsett Pond in Middleborough and his body concealed through a hole cut in the ice. There was no doubt but that this was done at the instigation of Phillip. He hated Sassamon, both because of this attachment to the English and of his belief that at the time the journey was taken, the latter was about to become the bearer to Plymouth of news of the former's active offensive operations. This murder was so flagrant and hostile an act that immediate action was necessary. Three Indians were arrested, a jury, to which were added six "of the most indifferentest, gravest and sage Indians X X to healp to consult and advice with," was empan- eled and the men tried. Here is the verdict :--
"We of the jury, one and all, both English and In- dians, doe joyntly and with one consent agree upon a verdict; that Tobias, and his son Wampapaquan, and Mattashimnamo, the Indians, whoe are the prisoners, are guilty of the blood of John Sassamon, and were the murderers of him according to the bill of inditemente."
Having hanged two of the murderers and shot the third, the colonists proceeded in October 1675 to gather together the various town councils of war which had organized about the time of the Pequot War, and to address the Commis- sioners of the United Colonies in support of offensive hostilities. Cornet Robert Stetson and Isaac Chittendon were the local members of the war board. Its first act was to unanimously choose James Cudworth, then seventy years of age, as a "generall or commander in cheiffe, to take charge off our forces that are or may be sent forth in the behalfe of the colonie against the enimie."
The Commissioners of the United Colonies authorized the
173
THE INDIANS
enlistment of a thousand men. The quota of Plymouth Colony was one hundred and fifty-eight and to this was added a force of twenty-five to garrison a fort at Mount Hope. Scituate furnished twenty-seven of this number, more than any other town in the colony. They rendez- voused at Rehoboth, Providence and Taunton. With Cud- worth were his neighbors, Sergeant Theophilus Witherell, Joseph Turner, William Perry, John Wright, Job Randall and John Vinall. There is no complete list of those who went out with him or of the fatalities among them. They spent the summer with Henchman, Page and Mosely of the Massachusetts Bay contingent in endeavoring to engage and capture the wary Phillip in Rhode Island and the lower Plymouth Colony towns; and in supressing the uprising of the Indians at Brookfield. The Plymouth men were at Pocasset holding the fort which had just been built when the Commissioners of the United Colonies alarmed at the wide area covered by the Indian depredations, ordered a thousand fighting men to be gathered f under Governor Josiah Winslow as commander-in-chief. This force, aug- mented by General Cudworth's command and some "Vol- untiers of Indian Friends" repaired to the country about Warwick, Rhode Island.
It was December. The highways between the Indian villages and English settlements were little more than bridle paths. Most of the white troops were on foot and carry- ing their own rations. Their sufferings were great, yet they plodded ahead. On the day set apart for the outward observance of the worship of God, Sunday, December nineteenth 1675, they came upon the crude fortress into which Canonchet had crowded and herded his sagamores and their squaws and children, to the number in all, of several thousand. It was built upon rising ground, of about six acres in area, surrounded by the thick tangled timber and roots of a virgin swamp. Armed with powder and bullets,
+ Massachusetts Bay furnished 527: Plymouth Colony, from which a large number were already under arms and at the front, 158 and Connecticut 325.
174
THE EARLY PLANTERS OF SCITUATE
in the use of which the Indians were now as proficient as their adversaries, the former had a distinct advantage. They no longer feared the English. They had forgotten the slaughter of the Pequots forty years before, and were prepared to face death with the stolidity capable only by the fatalists that they were. The fight commenced in the afternoon, but was over ere the sun of the short winter day had gone down. With it went the sachem of the Nar- agansetts and his two thousand men. Were it not that Hubbard and Church and all the rest of the chroniclers of the Indian troubles agree upon the length of time of the engagement and the extent of the human havoc wrought, it would seem next to impossible that a thousand white men poorly sustained, fatigued and worn by an exhausting journey of many miles, could in two short hours meet, fight and vanquish more than twice their number, well, if rudely intrenched and battling on their own ground. The Con- necticut men lost most heavily.
Cudworth with his little army, came limping back into Plymouth. There was need for his immediate return home. Phillip with his allies the Nipmucks was raiding all about Scituate; at Weymouth, Middleborough and Bridgewater. Watch and ward was being kept by youths and old men accoutred with "fixed armes and suitable ammunition." The council of war ordered a garrison to be kept at the house of Joseph Barstow at Hanover Four Corners "both in respect to the towne of Scituate and the country" and a guard of ten or twelve men was furnished. The principal garrison was near the present Little's bridge on the North River and the third was at the home of John Williams, the present Barker farm, at the harbor. It also ordered Cap- tain Michael Peirce of Scituate in command of a small company of whites and thirty friendly Indians to proceed against the enemy in Rhode Island. f
+ Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts (London Ed. 1768) Vol I Page 304.
175
THE INDIANS
In March 1676 Captain Peirce marched to Patuxet where, he was given to understand, the Indians were gathered in a large force. Hubbard t says of him :- "he being a Man of Resolute Courage, was willing to engage them, though upon never so great Disadvantage." It was this very resolute, not to say reckless, courage which was his undoing. Being apprehensive of the danger he confronted he dis- patched a messenger to Providence to Capt. Edmunds for reinforcements. Aid from this quarter was not forthcom- ing however # and with his own meagre command he found the enemy and gave them battel. No sooner was the en- gagement commenced than he discovered that they largely out-numbered his own force. The Indians dissembled by crossing the river and Peirce followed in hot pursuit. This was as the enemy had planned; they led him into ambush. Once on the opposite bank, he was assailed from all around and all were slain.
Captain John Williams with thirty others was doing good service at Plymouth and Middleborough. With this com- mand were Lieut. Israel Buck, Zachariah Damon, John Damon, Richard Prouty, Cornet John Buck, Jonathan Jackson, Thomas Clarke, William Hatch, Walter Briggs, Joseph Gannett, Richard Dwelley, Benjamin Woodworth, Benjamin Chittenden, John Lothrop, Joseph Wade, Jere- miah Barstow, Joseph Cowan, John Ensign, Joseph Perry, John Perry and John Rose, all Scituate men.
This was the situation when, on the twenty-first day of April an attack was made upon the town. It was repulsed by the townsmen led by Isaac Chittenden and Cornet Robert Stetson, an Indian fighter of no mean abilities and then sixty-four years old. It is evident that few males save youths under sixteen and old men over sixty who were do-
Hubbard's Indian Wars (Drake's Ed. 1865) Vol I Page 173.
1 Hubbard says :- "he sent a Messenger, timely enough to Prov- idence for Relief : but (as Solomon saith, 'a faithful Messenger is as Snow in Harvests: another is as Smoak to the Eyes and Vinegar to the Teeth') whether through Sloth or Cowardice, is not much material, this Message was not delivered to themto whom it was immediately sent." Hubbard's Indian War. Drake's Edition 1865 Vol I Page 175.
176
THE EARLY PLANTERS OF SCITUATE
ing watch and ward, and those in the three garrisons were at this time in the town. A new requisition for troops had just been promulgated, and Scituate was called upon to fur- nish fifty, as against thirty for Plymouth, a like number from Taunton, Barnstable and Rehoboth, twenty-six from Marshfield and sixteen from Duxbury. There were not fifty able bodied men left in the whole town. The bodies of Samuel Russell, Gershom Dodson, Samuel Pratt, Thomas Savery, William Wilcomb and ten others, were then lying where they had fallen with Peirce on the bank of the Paw- tuxet River. Captain John Williams was along the frontier and those of the valiant twenty-seven who went forth with Cudworth, engaged Canonchet in the "swamp fight," and who had returned, were crippled and worn. This fact is attested by the proportion (£12) given to Scituate out of the generous contribution which came from Ireland a year later, for distribution "for the relieffe of such as are impoverish- ed, detressed and in neccesities by the late Indian warr." When the council of war met at Plymouth on the eleventh day of April 1675, this town's quota of fifty men was not full. Both Governor Winslow and the Council criticised the town for its failure to make good the number of men required of it. They were unjust and the citicism was apparently made in ignorance of the real facts. The fol- lowing letter to Governor Winslow from Col. Nathaniel Thomas of Marshfield throws light upon the former's error.
Swanzey, June 25, 1675.
Right Honored Sir :
A particular account of our arrival here, and the said providence that, yesterday, fell out at Mattapoiset, of the loss of six men, without doubt you have from our General (Cudworth) which may, I desire, be an inducement to you to strengthen our towns that are weakened by our depar- ture, since the Indians do their exploits on outhouses and straggled persons. It is reported credibly, that Uncas sent Phillip twenty men last Saturday. Sennight and Nameo sent him word that if he sent him six English head, then all
177
THE INDIANS
the Indians in the country were engaged against the Eng- lish. Sir, our men are well and cheerful, through God's mercy. Send not your southward men to us, but secure yourselves with them. Send us help from the Massachu- setts, which is our General's and Consul's advice. The forces here are dispersed to several places of the town and some to Rehobeth, which this day we intend to draw into a narrower compass; in which when we have done, we in- tend to lay ambushment in the Indian's walks to cut off their men as they do cut off our men; for their present motion is to send forth scouts to lie in our walks, to make discovery and cut off our men. I pray, sir, remember me to my wife, and bid her be of good cheer; the Lord is our keeper. Our soldiers here desire to be remembered to their wives and friends. Will Ford is well of his ague. Thus desiring your honor's and all God's peoples prayers for us, I remain,
Your honor's servant Nathaniel Thomas"
The Indians themselves knew better than Governor Winslow the lack of capable defenders within the town limits. Hence they selected it for attack. Coming by the old Boston turnpike from Hingham where they had burned five dwellings, on the twentieth day of May, they appeared at what is now Hanover Four Corners, burned the house of Joseph Sylvester and the "Cornets Mill" on the Third Herring Brook. They avoided the Garrison at Barstow's and came burning, pillaging and murdering, attacking, but not carrying the blockhouse near Union Bridge, to the fort by Stockbridge's Mill at Greenbush. The stockade faced the highway and was protected from attack on the rear by what is now known as Old Oaken Bucket pond. Here they fought all day. The Englishmen, against a largely superior force, encouraged by the venerable Stetson and Isaac Chittenden who was later killed in the fight, held the red terrors at a distance while the latter burned their dwellings, destroyed their cattle and newly planted fields,
178
THE EARLY PLANTERS OF SCITUATE
and then returned to the fight. It was onslaught and re- buff; assault with burning brands, to fire the garrison and a return of well directed lead. All the afternoon it contin- ued, until the twilight of the May day saw the besiegers, lessened in numbers and satiated with arson, repulsed and beaten. Coming out of their stockade in the morning the freemen found ashes and devastation where but a few hours before had been the homes and hearthstones erected through their labors and the fastness of their purposes. Their courage is manifest in the way they fought and foiled the red devils who attacked them. It is better seen in the resolution and patience with which they set about to restore that which had been destroyed.
Another call for troops came close on the heels of this calamity. This time it was for twenty-five men from Scituate, and as usual this town like Abou Ben Adhem "led all the rest." They were to be "sent forth towards the frontiere partes of this collonie, to be upon motion to scout to and frow for the safety of the Colonie." The quota must have been furnished; but where it came from, is not at this day readily apparent. There were less than fifty freemen in the whole town and this meant that the total population was perhaps not more than three hundred. Of the men who had been with General Cudworth in the Warwick expedi- tion, Sergeant Witherell, Jonathan Jackson, John Barker and William Perry and been wounded or disabled in the fight at Greenbush in May. Jeremiah Barstow was in cap- tivity. Timothy White had "received damages in his head by a shott" and Joseph Thorne, "shot through the arme" was "lame for a time." General Cudworth himself again took the field. He was with Captain Benjamin Church in the "frontiere partes" chasing Phillip who was now scut- tling away from the English. They followed the son of Massasoit who had called himself King, to his old home at Mount Hope, and there on the twelfth day of August 1676 in a daybreak attack upon his camp, he met his death,-it is said, shot in the back by one of his own tribesmen. The
179
THE INDIANS
death of Phillip ended the war. It had been costly to Scit- uate in many ways. Some of her most promising and valued men had been killed, twenty-three buildings had been levelled by the redskin torch; mothers had been widowed and to crown it all the town itself was struggling under a debt of nearly eight hundred pounds. Truly the second generation suffered equally with the forefathers, in their determination to preserve and maintain what the latter had founded.
CHAPTER XI
CUSTOMS PREVIOUS TO REVOLUTION
"Was that country rightly dependent and inferior where law and custom were most in accord with the philosopher's ideal so- ciety? In that transvaluation of old values effected by the intel- lectual revolution of the century, it was the fortune of America to emerge as a mind of concrete example of the imagined State of Nature. In contrast with Europe, so 'artificial,' so oppressed with defenseless tyrannies and useless inequalities, so encumbered with decayed superstitions, and the debris of worn-out institutions, how superior was this new land of promise where the citizen was a free man, where the necessities of life were the sure re- ward of industry, where manners were simple, where vice was less prevalent than virtue and native incapacity the only effective barrier to ambition! In those years when British statesmen were endeavoring to reduce the 'plantations' to a stricter obedience, some quickening influence from this ideal of Old World philoso- phers came to reinforce the determination of Americans to be masters of their own destiny."
"The Beginnings of the American People."-Becker.
IN the first century which elapsed after the establishment of the town Scituate prospered. The evolution from the pioneer to the comfortable householder was gradual and at the same time healthy and strong. The character of the citizenship of Scituate, and indeed, of the whole colony of Plymouth in the years from 1725 to the Revolution, indi- cates that the progenitors who came in the Mayflower, the Ann and the Fortune, were men and women of a supe- rior type, capable of governing and controlling not only themselves, but of successfully and happily assimilating the less determined and weaker, not to say grosser, members of the pilgrim communities, who sought homes among them.
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.