Miner Descent

The Great Swamp Fight on December 19, 1675 was the most significant battle of King Philip’s War, what has been called the bloodiest (per capita) conflict in the history of America.  It was a critical blow to the Narragansett tribe from which they never fully recovered.  In April 1676, the Narragansett were completely defeated when the Wampanoag sachem Metacom was shot in the heart by John Alderman, a Native American soldier.  The Narragansett tribe was not recognized by the Federal Government until 1983 and today includes 2,400 members.

As I worked out our family genealogy, the Great Swamp Fight kept appearing again and again.  Our family seems to have an especially intimate relationship with this battle, but I’m beginning to think that every family was equally involved.  Nine direct ancestors participated, four were officers and one was killed.  27 close relatives were part of the fight of whom 6 were officers, six were killed or died of their wounds and six were wounded and survived.  Of the three small regiments involved, eleven officers were our ancestors or their children.

Navigate this Report
1. Overview
2. Background
3. The Battle

4. General Staff
5. Massachusetts Regiment
6. Plymouth Regiment
7. Connecticut Regiment

8. Joshua Tefft – the Only American Drawn & Quartered

9. Aftermath

9. Aftermath

The Indians retaliated in a widespread spring offensive beginning in February 1676, in which they destroyed all English settlements on the western side of Narragansett Bay. They burned Providence on March 27, 1676, destroying Roger Williams’ house, among others. Across New England, Indians destroyed many towns, and the attackers raided the suburbs of Boston. In spite of waging a successful campaign against the colonists, by the end of March, disease, starvation, battle loses, and the lack of gunpowder caused the Indian effort to collapse.

Rading parties from Connecticut composed of the colonists and Indian allies, such as the Pequot and Mohegan, swept into Rhode Island and killed substantial numbers of the now-weakened Narragansett. A mixed force of Mohegan and Connecticut militia captured Canonchet, the chief sachem of the Narragansett, a few days after the destruction of Providence, and delivered him to Connecticut authorities. When he was told he was to die, he replied, “I like it well that I should die before my heart has grown soft and I have said anything unworthy of myself.” He asked to be executed by Uncas, chief sachem of the Mohegan. Uncas and two Pequot sachems closest to Canonchet’s rank among his captors executed him in Indian style. The English treated Canonchet as a traitor, and had his body drawn and quartered. A mixed force of Plymouth militia and fellow Wampanoag hunted down Metacomet. He was shot and killed by John Alderman, an Indian soldier who had earlier served with him. The war ended in southern New England, although in Maine it dragged on for another year.

After the war, some surviving Narragansett were sold into slavery and shipped to the Caribbean; others became indentured servants in Rhode Island. The surviving Narragansett merged with local tribes, particularly the Eastern Niantic. During colonial and later times, tribe members intermarried with Europeans, Africans, and African-Americans. Their spouses and children were taken into the tribe, enabling them to keep a tribal and Native American cultural identity.

Maine Townships

In 1727, after many delays and discouragements, the Legislature of Massachusetts performed the tardy act of justice granting to the officers and soldiers, or their legal representatives, who served in the arduous Narragansett expedition during King Philip’s War, a township equal to six miles square in the Province of Maine, to each 120 persons whose claims should be established within four months from the passage of the act. It was found that the whole number amounted to 840. Seven townships were granted, called Narragansett No. 1 (now Buxton, Maine), 2 (now Westminster, Mass), 3 (now Amherst, New Hampshire), 4 (now Goffstown, N. H.; In 1735, however, some grantees “found it so poor and barren as to be altogether incapable of making settlements,” and were instead granted a tract in Greenwich, Massachusetts.), 5 (now Bedford, New Hampshire), 6 (now Templeton, Mass.), 7.,  assigned to the company of Capt. John GORHAM and a few others, which was afterwards incorporated as the town of “Gorham,” by which name it is now known. The Gorham grantees commenced their settlement in the year 1736. They were from the towns of Yarmouth, Barnstable, Eastham, and a few from Sandwich.

John Gorham’s grandson Col. Shubael Gorham

Shubael was a military officer and had sailed with Colonel John March in 1707 and then again as an ensign in Captain Caleb Williamson’s Barnstable Company with Nicholson when the English took Port Royal in 1710.

His greatest service, however, was his successful effort  in obtaining the grants of Nargansett Townships to the heirs of the soldiers who fought in King Philip’s War.  Col. Gorham spent much time and money promoting the settlement of Gorhamtown.  He bought the shares of many who did not desire to emigrate, but his speculations in the wild lands proved unfortunate.  Buying such lands is like lottery tickets, a few get prizes.  Col Gorham was not one of the lucky ones.  He died insolvent in 1746, his own children being his principal creditors.

During the 1745 Siege of Louisbourg, Shubael Gorham of Barnstable was Colonel of the Seventh Massachusetts Regiment. His son, John Gorham, was Lieut. Colonel and became Colonel upon Shubael’s death.

The names of the grantees from Yarmouth were as follows, though what proportion of them settled there we have no means of ascertaining :

From Yarmouth— Samuel Baker, William Chase, John Thacher, John Hallet, John Matthews, Thomas Thornton, Edward Gray, Samuel Hall, Jona. Smith, Sam’l Jones, John Taylor, Thomas Fulton, John Gage, William Fellows, William Gage, Ananias Wing [son of John WING II], John Pugsley, Daniel BAKER, Rd. Taylor, Wm. Gray, Capt. John GORHAM, Thomas Baxter, James Maker, James Claghorn, Joseph Hall, Nath’l Hall, Elemuel Hedge [son of Captain William HEDGE], Joseph Wildens, Sam’l Thomas, John Crowell, John CHASE, Henry Golds, Rd. Lake, Jabez Gorham [Son of Capt. John GORHAM], Henry Gage, Everton Crowell, Jona. White. [In 1741, Wm. Gray is put down for his father’s, Edward Gray’s, heirs ; Sam’l Baker, for his father, Samuel (Francis BAKER‘s son); and Shubael Gorham, for his father, John GORHAM]

Voluntown, Connecticut

Most of the land which makes up the present town of Voluntown was granted in 1700 by the Court to the Volunteers of the Narragansett War in 1700, thus the name “Voluntown.”

Voluntown, New London, Connecticut

In 1705 the town was surveyed and boundaries were established. The plot was drawn up into lots, with each eligible volunteer receiving a lot. The land was rough terrain, although fertile soil, and was in a remote location.

In May 1708 the settlement was called the Plantation of Voluntown. It became the town of Voluntown, Connecticut in 1721. Town vital records begin 1708. Barbour collection records cover 1708-1850.

From History of New London county, Connecticut, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men (1882)

VOLUNTOWN lies in the extreme northeastern part of the county, and is bounded as follows : on the north by Windham County, on the east by the State of Rhode Island, on the south by North Stonington, and on the west by Griswold. The surface of the town is uneven, but the soil is generally fertile.

The Volunteers’ Grant. — The greater part of the tract embraced within the bounds of the present town of Voluntown. was granted in 1700 to the volunteers in the Narragansett war, from which circumstance the town derives its name. From the organization of the colony it had been customary to make grants to officers and soldiers who had distinguished themselves in the service of their country. Major John MASON and, others engaged in the Pequot war were granted lands, which stimulated those who had performed such signal feats in the Narragansett war to ask for a grant of a town in acknowledgment of their services. The petition to the General Court for the grant was presented in 1696 by Lieut. Thomas Leffingwell, of Norwich, and Sergt. John Frink, of Stonington, “that they with the rest of the English volunteers in former wars might have a plantation granted to them.” The petition was formally received, and a tract six miles square was granted, ” to be taken up out of some of the conquered land.”

A committee ” of discovery” was at once sent out in search of suitable land for a plantation, but found their choice very limited, as most of the conquered land had already been appropriated by Major FITCH, the Winthrops, and others. The committee reported that the only available land remaining within the Connecticut limits was lying a short distance east of Norwich, bordering on Rhode Island. A committee consisting of Capt. Samuel Mason [John MASON’s son], Mr. John Gallup, and Lieut. James Avery was appointed to view the said tract and report whether it ” would accommodate a body of people for comfortable subsistence in a plantation way.”

After a deliberation of three years the committee reported favorably, and in October, 1700, Lieut. Leffingwell, Richard Bushnell, Isaac Wheeler, Caleb Fobes, Samuel Bliss, Joseph Morgan, and Manasseh Minor [Thomas MINER’s son] moved that the grant be confirmed. The original bounds of the grant were nearly dentical with those of the present township, except it extended on the east to Pawcatuck River.

Voluntown was a barren tract of but little value, and after the Narragansett war was claimed by the Mohegans. The Quinnebaug sachem Massashowitt also laid claim to it.

The first meeting of the proprietors or grantees was held at Stonington, July 1, 1701, to make arrangements for survey and appropriation. Richard Bushnell was chosen clerk of the company, and S. Leffingwell, James Avery, John Frink, and Richard Smith were appointed a committee ” to pass all those that offer themselves as volunteers.”

A number of years, however, passed before the division was completed, as the territory was still in dispute, and it was not until 1705 that the Mohegans’ claim was adjusted. In that year the town was formally surveyed and the bounds established.

But a narrow strip of land was accorded to the Mohegans under this survey, but during the same summer a considerable portion of the town was taken by Rhode Island. So greatly did it damage the grant ” that they feared their intended purpose of settling a plantation so accommodable for a Christian society as they desired was frustrated.”

At a meeting of the volunteers, held Nov. 14, 1705, it was decided to have the town resurveyed, computed, and laid out in as many lots as there was volunteers, and to number them, etc.

April 17, 1706, a meeting was held, when it was voted ” to go on and draw lots upon that part of the land laid out,” and the grant was made to one hundred and sixty persons who had enrolled their names as desiring to share the benefit of the grant. These were residents of New London, Norwich, Stonington, Windham, Plainfleld, and other neighboring towns. The list embraced officers, soldiers, ministers, chaplains, and others who had served the colony in a civil capacity during the war.

Notwithstanding the survey of the town had been made and the various lots designated, very little progress was made for several years in its settlement. Its soil was poor and its location remote and inconvenient. ” A pair of come four year old steers” was once given in exchange for eighty-six acres.

The first settler of Voluntown was Samuel Fish, soon followed by John Gallup, John and Francis Smith, Robert Parke, Thomas Reynolds, Thomas Coles, John Campbell, John SAFFORD Jr, Obadiah Rhodes and Samuel Whaley.

The loss of so important a portion of the town as that taken by Rhode Island caused the volunteers at once to appeal to the General Assembly for an equivalent and they petitioned that body that the vacant colony land lying on the north might be annexed. After various earnest petitions, four years later, 1719, the prayer of the petitioners was granted, and what is now the present town of Sterling, except a small strip on the north border, was annexed to Voluntown.

The annexed territory was surveyed as rapidly as possible by John Plumb, surveyor for New London County. Thirty lots were laid out and assigned to nineteen persons.

The first Congregational Church of Voluntown was established in 1720 upon the employment of a Reverend Wilson.

1696 – John WILLEY I ( deceased)  granted lands in Voluntown, Conn., in 1696, for their services in the Connecticut volunteers in King Philip’s War [Narragansett Hist. Beg., 1882, p. 146.]

Samuel PERKINS of Ipswich, Mass. was a cordwainer by trade. He served as a soldier in the Narragansett war, for which he received a portion of land at Voluntown, on the eastern border of Connecticut, which land afterward came into possession of his son Ebenezer PERKINS, who settled upon it, and in 1735 sold it to John Wildes of Topsfield, Mass.

Clement MINER was a Lieutenant in the Militia which was a considerable honor in his day. In the records of New London, Clement is mentioned as “Deacon” or “Ensign”, but the record of his appointment as Ensign has not been found. With his father and brothers, he served in King Philip’s War in 1676, and as a volunteer, was granted a lot in Voluntown, Connecticut. Clement’s brothers Ephraim and Joseph also received land in Voluntown.

Ephraim Miner lived at Stonington, CT, was a farmer, freeman, 1669, deputy to the general court, 1676, 1677, 1681, 1690093, 1699, 1701-05, 1713; lieutenant of train band. He served in the King Philip war and for his service received arable land and cedar swamp in Voluntown, CT.

Joseph Miner lived at Stonington and was a farmer and physician. He became a freeman 1669; deputy to the general court, 1696, 1706; selectman, 1694-98, 1704, 1709, 1719. He served in King Philip war and for his services received arable land cedar swamp in Voluntown, Connecticut.

Narragansetts

In the 1740s during the First Great Awakening, colonists founded the Narragansett Indian Church, to try to convert more natives to Christianity. The church and its surrounding 3 acres were the only property never to leave tribal ownership. This continuous ownership was critical evidence of continuity during the tribe’s long documentation and success in gaining federal recognition in 1983.

he Narragansett Indian Church in Charlestown was founded in the 1740s. Constructed in 1994, this building replaced one that burned down.

In the 19th century, the tribe resisted repeated state efforts to declare it no longer valid because of intermarriage with other settlers. Tribal leaders resisted increasing legislative pressure after the Civil War to “take up citizenship” in the United States, which required them to give up their treaty privileges and Indian nation status. In testimony to the legislature, a Narragansett spokesperson explained that they saw injustices under existing US citizenship, and pointed to Jim Crow laws in effect that limited citizenship of blacks despite their rights under the law. They also resisted the idea that black ancestry was more important than all other ancestry in defining tribal identity. As the Narragansett saw it, they had brought people of European and African ancestry into their tribal nation by marriage and they became culturally Narragansett.

“We are not negroes, we are the heirs of Ninagrit, and of the great chiefs and warriors of the Narragansetts. Because, when your ancestors stole the negro from Africa and brought him amongst us and made a slave of him, we extended him the hand of friendship, and permitted his blood to be mingled with ours, are we to be called negroes? And to be told that we may be made negro citizens? We claim that while one drop of Indian blood remains in our veins, we are entitled to the rights and privileges guaranteed by your ancestors to ours by solemn treaty, which without a breach of faith you cannot violate.”]

The state persisted in its efforts at “detribalization” from 1880-1884. While the tribe agreed to negotiations for sale of its land, it quickly regretted its action and set about to try to regain the land. In 1880 the state recognized 324 Narragansett tribal members as claimants to the land during negotiations. Although the state put tribal lands up for public sale in the 19th century, the tribe did not disperse and its members continued to practice its culture.

Bella Machado-Noka, a Narragansett woman dressed for a powwow.

In 1978 the Narragansett Tribe signed a Joint Memorandum of Understanding with the state of Rhode Island, Town of Charlestown, and private property owners in settlement of their land claim. A total of 1,800 acres was transferred to a corporation formed to hold the land in trust for descendants of the 1880 Narragansett Roll, in exchange for agreeing that, except for hunting and fishing, the laws of Rhode Island would be in effect on those lands.

The tribe prepared extensive documentation of its genealogy and proof of continuity with the 324 tribal members of treaty status. In 1979 the tribe applied for federal recognition, which it finally regained in 1983 as the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island.

Narragansett Tribal Seal

The state and tribe have disagreed on certain rights on the reservation. On July 14, 2003, Rhode Island state police raided a tribe-run smoke shop on the Charlestown reservation, the culmination of a dispute over the tribe’s failure to pay state taxes on its sale of cigarettes. In 2005 the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals declared the police action a violation of the tribe’s sovereignty. In 2006, an en banc decision of the First Circuit reversed the prior decision, stating the raid did not violate the tribe’s sovereign immunity because of the 1978 Joint Memorandum of Agreement settling the land issues, in which the tribe agreed that state law would be observed on its land.

After trying to develop 31 acres of land in Charlestown which the Narrangansett purchased in 1991 for elderly housing, in 1998 they requested the Department of Interior (DOI) to take it into trust on their behalf to remove it from state and local control. The state of Rhode Island sued the DOI over its authority to take land into trust on behalf of certain American Indians. While the authority was part of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, the state argued that the process could not hold for tribes that achieved federal recognition after 1934. In Carcieri v. Salazar (2009) the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Rhode Island.

The Narragansett Tribe is negotiating with the Rhode Island General Assembly for approval to build a casino in Rhode Island with their partner, currently Harrah’s Entertainment.

American English has absorbed a number of loan words from Narragansett and other closely related languages, including quahog, moose, papoose, powwow, squash, and succotash.

Sources:

http://bigelowsociety.com/rod/battles.htm – Most contemporary accounts of these events are base on two letters written by Joseph Dudley and one written by Captain James Oliver. Joseph Dudley served as a chaplain for the army and was also on General Winslow’s staff. Captain Oliver was in command of the Third Company if the Massachusetts regiment.

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/newengland/philip/11-20/ch13pt3.html

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=22879

http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/places/towns/KingstonRI.pdf

http://quahog.org/factsfolklore/index.php?id=150 – Joshua Tefft’s Story

http://greensleeves.typepad.com/berkshires/2007/02/dust_on_the_sou.html

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~massasoit/book26.htm

History of New London county, Connecticut, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men (1882) by Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) (Story of founding of Voluntown)

The Great Swamp Fight on December 19, 1675 was the most significant battle of King Philip’s War, what has been called the bloodiest (per capita) conflict in the history of America.  It was a critical blow to the Narragansett tribe from which they never fully recovered.  In April 1676, the Narragansett were completely defeated when the Wampanoag sachem Metacom was shot in the heart by John Alderman, a Native American soldier.  The Narragansett tribe was not recognized by the Federal Government until 1983 and today includes 2,400 members.

As I worked out our family genealogy, the Great Swamp Fight kept appearing again and again.  Our family seems to have an especially intimate relationship with this battle, but I’m beginning to think that every family was equally involved.  Nine direct ancestors participated, four were officers and one was killed.  27 close relatives were part of the fight of whom 6 were officers, six were killed or died of their wounds and six were wounded and survived.  Of the three small regiments involved, eleven officers were our ancestors or their children.

Navigate this Report
1. Overview
2. Background
3. The Battle

4. General Staff
5. Massachusetts Regiment
6. Plymouth Regiment
7. Connecticut Regiment

8. Joshua Tefft – the Only American Drawn & Quartered

9. Aftermath

8. Joshua Tefft – the Only American Drawn & Quartered

In January 1676, Joshua Tefft was hanged, drawn and quartered at  Smith’s Castle in Wickford, Rhode Island  He was an English colonist who had fought on the side of the Narragansett during the Great Swamp Fight.

There is documentary evidence that both Joshua Tefft and his brother Samuel spoke the native Algonquin language.  Accounts after battle say Joshua married an Indian woman, a Wampanoag.   For fourteen years the Tefft family lived peacefully with their Narragansett neighbors, until the outbreak of King Philip’s War in 1675. While the Tefft family sought safety on Aquidneck Island, Joshua remained behind to care for the cattle.

Joshua Tefft’s farm was only two miles from the Narragansett stronghold  in the Great Swamp.  Tefft claimed that he had been taken captive by the Narragansett—his life spared only on the condition that he serve as their slave.  However, an Indian woman taken captive by the English of the United Colonies reported that Joshua was their “encourager and conductor.”

Tefft’s Hill is about 2 miles east of the Indian stronghold marked on this 1906 Map with a red “X”.   Smith’s Castle is about 15 miles northeast in North Kingston/Wickford.

Captain Oliver of Massachusetts reported that Joshua Tefft had “shot 20 times at us in the swamp.  Records indicate that Joshua wounded Captain Nathaniel Seely of Connecticut, who subsequently died.  An Indian spy reported that Joshua, “did them good service & kild & woonded 5 or 6 English in that fight & before they wold trust him hee had kild a miller an English man at Narragansett and brought his scalpe to them.”

Yet, Joshua claimed that “Himselfe had no Arms at all” at his interrogation recorded by Roger Williams in Providence   He was subsequently extradited to Wickford into the custody of General Josiah Winslow, Governor of Plymouth, and Richard Smith on January 16, 1676. Two days later at Smith’s garrison, Joshua was executed for high treason, the only Englishman to suffer such a fate in all New England history. Major William Bradford of Plymouth wrote: “The Englishman that was taken had his doom yesterday, to be hanged and quartered; which was done effectually.”

As set out in the Incorporation of Providence Plantations in 1647, the following provision details the process, presumed to have been used against Joshua Tefft at Smith’s Castle. Frequently, the victim’s body or head was publicly displayed as a warning to others.

For high treason, if a man, he being accused by two lawful witnesses or accusers, shall be drawn upon a hurdell unto the place of execution, and there shall be hanged by the neck, cut down alive, his entrails and privie members cut from him and burned in his view; then shall his head be cut off and his body quartered; his lands and his goods all forfeited.

What happened after Joshua Tefft’s execution seems to suggest that he was not guilty of high treason, but merely of seeking to preserve his own life and property under duress. The Rhode Island government swiftly admonished the soldiers of the United Colonies as unwelcome intruders, but there was little else that they could do.

After the war, the colonial government of Rhode Island took an almost solicitous posture towards the Tefft family. Joshua’s brother, Samuel Tefft, and his brother-in-law, the future Governor Joseph Jenkes, became freemen of the colony in 1677  In 1681, Joshua’s orphan son, Peter Tefft, was appointed three guardians: Jireh Bull, Justice of the Peace of Pettaquamscutt; the prominent John Greene of Warwick, who later became deputy governor of Rhode Island; and Peter’s uncle, Samuel Tefft.  The guardianship order made it clear that Peter, a nine year old boy in 1681, was a landowner apparently having right to all the possessions of his father, even though Joshua was executed as a felon by Puritan authorities, and even though colonial law required a convicted traitor’s lands and goods to be forfeited.

The Tefft Historical Park consists of at least five loci with American Indian artifact deposition, and multiple loci representing historic period occupation between the mid-17th to early 20th century.

The Great Swamp Fight on December 19, 1675 was the most significant battle of King Philip’s War, what has been called the bloodiest (per capita) conflict in the history of America.  It was a critical blow to the Narragansett tribe from which they never fully recovered.  In April 1676, the Narragansett were completely defeated when the Wampanoag sachem Metacom was shot in the heart by John Alderman, a Native American soldier.  The Narragansett tribe was not recognized by the Federal Government until 1983 and today includes 2,400 members.

As I worked out our family genealogy, the Great Swamp Fight kept appearing again and again.  Our family seems to have an especially intimate relationship with this battle, but I’m beginning to think that every family was equally involved.  Nine direct ancestors participated, four were officers and one was killed.  27 close relatives were part of the fight of whom 6 were officers, six were killed or died of their wounds and six were wounded and survived.  Of the three small regiments involved, eleven officers were our ancestors or their children.

Navigate this Report
1. Overview
2. Background
3. The Battle

4. General Staff
5. Massachusetts Regiment
6. Plymouth Regiment
7. Connecticut Regiment

8. Joshua Tefft – the Only American Drawn & Quartered

9. Aftermath

4. Roster of the Officers of the Army of the the United Colonies

As organized for the Naragansett Campaign, and mustered at Pettisquamscot, December 19, 1675.

General Josiah Winslow, Governor of Plymouth Colony, Commander-in-Chief  Severely wounded in the fight.

General Staff

Daniel Weld, of Salem, Chief Surgeon

Joseph Dudley, of Boston, Chaplain

Benjamin Church, of Little Compton, RI., Aid severely wounded in this fight (c. 1639-1718), considered the father of American ranging was the captain of the first Ranger force in America (1676). Church was commissioned by the Governor of the Plymouth Colony Josiah Winslow to form the first ranger company for King Philip’s War. He later employed the company to raid Acadia during King Williams War and Queen Anne’s War.

Church designed his force primarily to emulate Indian patterns of war. Toward this end, he endeavored to learn to fight like Indians from Indians. Americans became rangers exclusively under the tutelage of the Indian allies. (Until the end of the colonial period, rangers depended on Indians as both allies and teachers.)

Church developed a special full-time unit mixing white colonists selected for frontier skills with friendly Indians to carry out offensive strikes against hostile Indians and French in terrain where normal militia units were ineffective. His memoirs “Entertaining Passages relating to Philip’s War” were published in 1716 and are considered the first American military manual

Capt. Benjamin Church

5. Massachusetts Regiment

Samuel Appleton, of Ipswich, Major and Captain of First Company  (b. 1625 in Little Waldingfield, Suffolk, England – d. 15 May 1696 in Ipswich, Essex, Mass.) m1. . 2 Apr 1651 in Boston to Hannah Paine (1627  – 1656)   Hannah’s parents were William Paine and Anna North.  Her grandparents were William PAYNE and Agnes NEVES.

In November 1675, John HARVEY enlisted from Charlestown, Massachusetts as a soldier in Major Samuel Appleton’s Battalion and marched with it from Dedham into the Narragansett country and was “wounded but not disabled,” at the ‘Great Swamp Fight.”

Regimental Staff

Richard Knott, of Marblehead, Surgeon

Samuel Nowell, of Boston, Chaplain

John Morse, of Ipswich, Commissary

On the Narragansett Expedition which was appointed for the next December, the three colonies of Plymouth, Connecticut, and Massachusetts united in furnishing military forces to be under the command of Josias Winslow, of Plymouth, as general.

William WOODCOCK Sr.’s son John Woodcock’s Garrison in North Attleboro, Mass was a place of rendezvous for the Massachusetts portion of the army. Six companies under the command of Captains Mosely, Gardiner, Davenport, Oliver, Johnson, and Major Appleton, who commanded this portion of the force, and who, on the ” 9th Dec. 1676 marched with them from Dedham to Woodcock’s, the well known place of rendezvous, 30 miles from Boston, and there encamped for the night.”

His companies numbered four hundred and sixty-five foot, and one company of horse under command of Captain Prentice, so that the whole number must have been over five hundred. This was a large army for the infant colony of Massachusetts forty-six years only after the settlement at Boston. They marched over the ” Oulde Bay Road.” Here they rested, and then marched on to Seekonk, where they met the army of Plymouth Colony, under General Winslow, and where the two forces were united and moved on their way to the great Narragansett fight. These same forces must have rendezvoused at Woodcock’s on their return.

Officers of the Line

First Company: Samuel Appleton, of Ipswich, Captain of First Company and Major of the Massachusetts Regiment, Jeremiah Swain, Lt. Ezekiel Woodward, Sgt. (Acting Ensign) [son-in-law of William BEAMSLEY]

136 troops, 4 killed, 18 wounded including Lt. Swain

The official account read:

“A List of Major Saml Apleton Souldjers yt slayne & wounded The 19th Decemb ’75 at the Indian fort at Narragansett

Samuell Taylor of Ipswich, Isaac Illery of Glocester, Daniel Rolfe on Newberry, Samuel Taylor of Rowley,- 4 men slayne

Lieft. Jerrimyah Swayne of Redding, Roger Markes of Andiver, Isaac Ilsley of Newberry, Wm Standley of Newberry, Dani. Somersby of Newberry, Jonathan Emery of Newberry, Jn. Dennison of Ipswich, Jn Harvey of Newberry, George Timson of Ipswich, Tho: Dowe of Ipswich, Symon Gowen of Rowley, Benj. Webster of Salem, Ellja Thathan of Oborne, Tho: Abey of Wenham, Benj. Langdon of Boston, Solomon Watts of Roxbury, Jn. Warner of Charlestowne, Samuell Boutericke of Cambridge, eighteen men wounded who are at Road Island except ye Left. & Roger Marks – January 6 ’75”.

One of the four killed, Daniel Rolfe, was the grandson of Humphrey BRADSTREET.

Ezekiel Woodward was the son-in-law of William BEAMSLEY marrying his daughter Ann Jan 1649/50.  After Ann died, he married 20 Dec 1672 at Age: 48 in Wenham, Essex, Mass to Mrs. Elizabeth Soldart and became the step-father of Sarah (Soldart) Good (wiki) was the first person accused of witchcraft in 1692.

29 Feb 1675/76 – A bill presented by Serg’t Ezekiel Woodward of Maj Appleton’s company, in which his pay was for nine weeks as a common soldier £2 14 00 and he petitions for a sergeants pay. This shows the term of service in the Narragansett campaign to begin Saturday, Dec 4th as it closed, on Feb. 5.”

In May, 1676, the Court voted to repay the losses of divers persons who were “damnified” by the burning of Major Appleton’s tent at Narraganset.  Ezekiel was grantee for Narragansett Township No. 1. (now Buxton, Maine)

Thomas Hazen, son of Edward HAZEN Sr.  servied in Major Samuel Appleton’s company in the Narragansett campaign, 1675-76; Great Swamp Fight.  Thomas was an enlisted man at the time of this fight, but he was known as Corporal in 1689, Sargent in 1699, Ensign in 1700 and Lt in 1711.  As a reward for this service he was made one of the grantees of Narraganset Township No. 4 (later Greenwich, Mass.), the grant being confirmed about 1738-40.

Samuel RICHARDSON‘s son Joseph was admitted freeman 15 May 1672.  He was one of Major Samuel Appleton’s soldiers, and was engaged in the fierce assault on the Narraganset fort on 19 Dec 1675. He was a selectman of Woburn, 1693, 1694, and 1702.

Samuel PERKINS of Ipswich was a cordwainer by trade. He served as a soldier in the Narragansett war, for which he received a portion of land at Voluntown, on the eastern border of Connecticut, which land afterward came into possession of his son Ebenezer PERKINS, who settled upon it, and in 1735 sold it to John Wildes of Topsfield, Mass.

Greenwich was established in 1739 as Quabbin, incorporated as Quabbin Parish in 1754 and became the town of Greenwich in 1754. It was located along the East and Middle branches of the Swift River.   It was well known for its lakes and ponds, which were popular vacation spots. It was disincorporated on April 28, 1938 as part of the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir.It is now largely below water, except for the hilltops of Curtis Hill, Mount Liz and Mount Pomeroy, which are now islands.

Credited under Capt. Samuel Appleton
December 10. 1675
Thomas Davis	04	18	06
John Ford	03	10	00
Israel Thorn	03	18	00
Thomas Waite	03	18	00
Francis Young, Corpl	04	11	00
Ezekiel Woodward  son-in-law of William BEAMSLEY	05	17	00
Samuel Rust	04	00	00
Sylvester Hayes	05	03	00
Stephen Gullifer	02	10	06
Thomas Hastings	02	14	00
Roger Vicar	02	10	06
Stephen Butler	03	18	00
Robert Sibly	02	10	06
William Knowlton	04	16	10
Thomas Brown	02	10	06
Thomas Ferman	04	16	10
Isaac Ilsley	02	10	06
Samuel Brabrook	02	10	06
Arthur Neale	02	10	06
John Boynton (Son of John BOYNTON)	04	16	10
Israel Henerick	03	18	00
Robert Simson	03	18	00
Samuel Very	03	18	00
Philip Matoone	02	10	06
Philemon Dean	05	17	00
Gershom Browne	03	18	00
Andrew Heding	02	10	06
Robert Downes	03	18	00
Robert PEASE	03	18	00
Thomas Tenny	03	18	00
Thomas Hazen (Son of Edward HAZEN Sr.)	03	18	00
William Webb	02	10	06
Solomon Watts	02	10	06
Nathaniel Masters	04	16	10
Isaac Ellery	02	10	06
Daniel Ringe, Corpl	04	11	00
John Pengilly, Corpl	02	19	00
Stephen Greenleaf (Son of Edmund GREENLEAF)	08	16	10
Richard Hancock	03	18	00
John Whicher, Sergt	05	17	00
William Williams	03	18	00
Joseph Blancher	02	14	10
George Stedman	02	10	06
Thomas Sparke	03	18	00
John Raymond	03	18	00
Samuel Foster	03	18	00
Henry Cooke	03	18	00
Samuel Hebard	03	18	00
John Davis	03	18	00
Samuel Ierson	03	18	00
Joseph Eaton	02	10	06
James Brearly	04	16	00
Abial Sadler	03	18	00
William Wainwright	03	18	00
Benjamin Webster	04	16	10
John Warner	02	10	06
Ephraim Cutter	03	04	06
Thomas Abbey	03	18	00

Second Company: Samuel Mosely, Captain, Perez Savage, Lt.

Dainell Mathews and James Junson, Serjeants; James Smith, Dennis Siky, Clerke; Edward Wesson, Jno. Fuller, Richard Barnum, Samuell Fosdicke, Corporalls;

92 troops, 6 killed, 9 wounded including Lt. Savage.

Third Company: James Oliver, Capt. [son-in-law of our ancestor Thomas DEXTER Sr.], Ephraim Turner, Lt., Peter Bennett, Sergeant (Acting Ensign)

83 troops, 5 killed, 8 wounded

On Nov 17 1675, James Oliver was appointed to command the Boston company for the Naragansett campaign. He was one of the few officers who made it through the Swamp Fight uninjured.

Fourth Company: Isaac Johnson, Captain, Phineas Upham [grandson of our ancestor Richard UPHAM], Lt, Henry Bowen, Ensign.

75 troops, 4 killed including Capt. Johnson, 8 wounded including Lt Upham

On July 6, 1675, Capt. Johnson was sent with a small escort to conduct 52 friendly Indians to the army at Mount Hope. On July 15, 1675, on news of the attack upon Mendon, he was sent out there to relieve the town and was ordered back on July 26^th. Upon mustering at Dedham Plain for the Naragansett campaign, Capt. Johnson was placed in command of a company made up of men from Roxbury, Dorchester, Milton, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, and Hull, numbering 75 all told. At the battle of the Great Swamp fight Capt. Johnson was killed when leading his men against the barrier at the entrance to the fort. After his death and the mortal wound of Lt. Upham, the command of the company passed to Ensign Henry Bowen, later promoted to lieutenant.

Phineas Upham was grandson of our ancestor Richard UPHAM].,  In September, 1675, Lieut. Upham was a subaltern officer under Capt. John GORHAM, of Barnstable, and out on a scout after Indians in what is now the towns of Grafton, Oxford and Dudley, and the city of Worcester, then an almost unbroken wilderness.

Under date of Mendon, Oct. 1, 1675, Lieut. Upham addressed a letter to the Governor and Council of Massachusetts, in which he said, “Now seeing that in all our marches we find no Indians, we verily think that they are drawn together into great bodies, far remote from these parts,” and thus it in fact proved to be, and that drawing together into a great body was then being done on the island in the swamp, in what is now the town of Kingston, in Washington County, Rhode Island.

Phineas was assigned to Capt. Johnson’s company, and after that gallant officer’s fall, was himself fatally wounded, at the head of the company, inside the fort. He was among the wounded at Rhode Island, January 6, 1675/76. He died at Boston, October, 1676,

Thomas Holbrook, son of Thomas HOLBROOK Sr., Thomas served under Capt. Isaac Johnson in King Philip’s war and presumably was at the Narragansett Fort battle.  For this service his heirs received a share in the land granted to soldiers at Narragannsett No. 5 (Bedford, NH) in 1733.  He lived in Braintree.

Fifth Company: Nathaniel Davenport, Captain, Edward Tyng, Lt., John Drury, Ensign

75 troops, 4 killed including Capt. Davenport, 11 wounded including Lt. Ting.

In December 1675 Nathaniel Davenport was serving on the jury at the Court of Assistants when he was summoned to take command of the 5^th Company in the Massachusetts Regiment for the Naragansett Campaign. This company was made up chiefly of men from Cambridge and Watertown. The company mustered at Dedham Plain and marched to Naragansett with the army. On December 19^th , at the Great Fort fight, Capt. Mosely and Capt. Davenport led the way and were the first officers to enter the fort. The death of Captain Davenport follows:

“Before our men came up to take possession of the fort, the Indians had shot three Bullets through Capt. Davenport, whereupon he bled extreamly, and immediately called for his Lieutenant, Mr. Edward Ting, and committed the charge of the Company to him, and desired him to take care of his Gun, and deliver it according to Order and immediately died in his place….. And it is very probable the Indians might think Capt. Davenport was the General because he had a very good buff Suit on at the Time and therefore might shoot at him.”

Capt. Davenport left no children, and his nephew, Addington Davenport, inherited his Naragansett claim.  Lieutenant Ting (or Tyng) commanded the company during the rest of this campaign, and many credits are given under him as Captain.

Daniel WOODWARD , John BURBEEN and  John POLLEY are included on a list of men impressed in several towns where Capt. Davenport’s company was raised. Daniel is listed under Cambridge which is five miles from Medford where he lived most of his life and John Burbeen and John Polley are listed under Woburn.   Of course, many impressed were either excused for disability or escaped from the service in some other manner. The returns were dated from Nov. 25 t0 Dec. 3, 1675

Sixth Company: Joseph Gardiner, Captain, William Hawthorne, Lt., Benjamin Sweet, Ensign (promoted Lieutenant), Jeremiah Neal, Sergeant (promoted Ensign)

95 troops, 7 killed including Capt. Gardiner at the first charge of the gate, 10 wounded

Joseph Gardiner was the husband of Anne Downing, grand daughter of our ancestor George DOWNING.  Anne’s father Emanuel Downing  gave this house to his daughter Anne and her husband Capt. Joseph Gardiner. After Joseph was killed at the Great Swamp Fight, Anne remarried to the last Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony,  Simon Bradstreet

Emanuel gave this house to his daughter Anne and her husband Capt. Joseph Gardiner. After Joseph was killed at the Great Swamp Fight, Anne remarried to Gov. Simon Bradstreet

Historians in Salem believe the house burnt or was torn down in the the late 1700′s or early 1800′s.  The lot is now the site of the Peabody -Essex Musuem which  may be considered one of the oldest continuously operating museums in the United States.

On May 12, 1675, the militia of Salem was divided into two companies by order of the Court, and by the same order the election of Joseph Gardiner as captain of the First Company in Salem was confirmed. When the expedition against the Naragansetts was organized, Capt. Gardiner was appointed, November 3, 1675, to command a company raised at Salem and the adjoining towns, and mustered his men, ninety-five strong, at Dedham Plain, December 10^th , and marched with his army towrds the rendezvous at Wickford. During the march several skirmishes took place, and Mr. Hubbard relates that some of Stone-wall-John’s crew “met with some of Capt. Gardiner’s men that were stragling about their own business contrary to order, and slew his Sergeant with one or two more.” In “Capt. Oliver’s Narrative” it is related that on this occasion the Indians “killed two Salem men within a mile of our quarters and wounded a third so that he his dead.” The fall of Capt. Gardiner is related in Church’s “Entertaing History”:

“Mr. Church spying Capt. Gardiner of Salem amidst the Wigwams at the east end of the Fort, made towards him; but on a sudden while they were looking each other in the face, capt. Gardiner settled down, Mr. Church stepped to him, seeing the blood run down his cheek lifted his cap and calling him by name, he looked up in his face but spake not a word, being mortally Shot through the head.”

After the death of Capt. Gardiner, the command of his company fell upon his lieutenant, William Hathorn, under whom the men served the remainder of the campaign, until disbanded about February 7^th to 10^th. It is thus that the men were credited sometimes under Gardiner, sometimes under Hathorn, occasionally both; the latter’s name signed to the voucher on “debenter” which each soldier presented to the paymaster, doubtless confused the clerks and caused this appearance of double command.

His widow, then aged about thirty-four, married June 6, 1676, Gov. Simon Bradstreet, whose age was about seventy-three. She died April 19, 1713, aged 79. Leaving no children, Capt Gardiner’s Naragansett claim fell to the oldest male heir of his eldest brother Thomas. This heir was Habkkuk Gardiner, son of the Captain’s nephew Thomas, who in the list of claimants claims in the “right of his uncle, Capt. Joseph Gardiner.”

19 Dec 1675 – Joseph BATCHELLER’s son Mark  Batcheller was a soldier in the company of Capt. Joseph Gardner of Salem,    Mark Bachelder of Wenham along with Joseph Peirce and Sam’l Pikeworth, of Salem, and, were killed outright while endeavoring to force an entrance at the gate of the Indian fort.   Mark’s estate was valued at £131.

Another version of Joseph Gardner’s story from Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II, by Charles Upham

Captain Gardner’s company was raised in this neighborhood. Joseph Peirce and Samuel Pikeworth of Salem, and Mark Bachelder of Wenham, were killed before entering the fort. Abraham Switchell of Marblehead, Joseph Soames of Cape Ann, and Robert Andrews of Topsfield, were killed at the fort. Charles Knight, Thomas Flint, and Joseph Houlton, Jr., of Salem Village; Nicholas Hakins and John Farrington, of Lynn; Robert Cox, of Marblehead; Eben Baker and Joseph Abbot, of Andover; Edward Harding, of Cape Ann; and Christopher Read, of Beverly,–were wounded. An account of the death of Captain Gardner, in detail, has been preserved. The famous warrior, and final conqueror of King Philip, Benjamin Church, was in the fight as a volunteer, rendered efficient service, and was wounded. His “History of King Philip’s War” is reprinted, by John Kimball Wiggin, as one of his series of elegant editions of rare and valuable early colonial publications entitled “Library of New England History.” In the second number, Part I. of Church’s history is edited by Henry Martyn Dexter. Church’s account of what came within his observation in this fight, with the notes of the learned editor, is the most valuable source of information we have in reference to it.

He says, that, in the heat of the battle, he came across Gardner, “amidst the wigwams in the east end of the fort, making towards him; but, on a sudden, while they were looking each other in the face, Captain Gardner settled down.” He instantly went to him. The blood was running over his cheek. Church lifted up his cap, calling him by name. “Gardner looked up in his face, but spoke not a word, being mortally shot through the head.”

The widow of Captain Gardner (Ann, sister of Sir George Downing) became the successor of Ann Dudley, the celebrated poetess of her day, by marrying Governor Bradstreet, in 1680. She died in 1713.

John PERKINS’ grandson Zacheus Perkins must have been the cause of much sorrow.  To his credit he was a soldier under Captain Joseph Gardner of Salem in King Philip’s War and was at the Great Swamp Fight in 1676.   Found guilty of stealing at his trial on May 4, 1680 he was sentenced to be branded on the forehead with the letter “B” and publically whipped which was carried out on May 6 “immediately after lecture.”

Cavalry Company ( “Troop”): Thomas Prentice, Captain, John Wyman, Cornet (promoted Lieutenant)

20 troops, 1 killed, 3 wounded

John Wyman, the son of our ancestor Francis WYMAN Sr.  was wounded in Great Swamp Fight.     He was the second officer in the only cavalry troops the English had at the Narraganset Fort fight.   In this fight his son John was killed, but he escaped with a wound in his cheek from an Indian arrow.

John Sr. had an indentured servant named Simpson working in the Wyman tannery. Simpson was a Scot who had fought against Cromwell and when captured was sent to New England as an indentured servant. Simpson also fought in King Philip’s War.  After his son’s death, John petitioned the General Court to excuse Simpson from further duty;

To the Honorable Govers: ye Council now Sitting in Boston

The Petition of John Wyman.

Humbly Sheweth that yore Petitioner Hath beene often out in the service of ye Country against the Indians: his sone also was out and slaine by the enemy: and his servants hath beene long out in the warrs and now being reduced to greate wants for clotheing: desires liberty to come downe from Hadly where he now remains a garrison souldier: and he is a taner by traid and yore Petitioner bought him on purpose for that management of his tan yard: and himselfe being unexperienced in that calling doth humbly request that favore of your honors to consider the premisses and to grant his said servant Robert Simpson a dismission from this present service that so his lether now in the fatts may not be spoyled but yore Petitioner be ever engaged to pray &c.

Jno. Wyman.

John Baker, son-in-law of George POLLEY was “pressed into service” in December of 1675, when preparations for the Narragansett Expedition were being made.  He was one of 16 men from Woburn, Massachusetts who fought in the December 19, 1675 “Great Swamp Fight” against the Indians. He was wounded by musket fire and was crippled the rest of his life.

Years later, in the pension letters he wrote (to prove his military service) he said: “…..my arm being broke by shott, and ye shott whent thru part of my body below my shoulder. I was sent to Road Island, to ye doctor.  When I was able, my father detached me home, gott so much of a cure as I learned ye trade of a weaver. ”

In 1700, Massachusetts Bay Colony voted to pay £10 and an annual pension of £4 to John Baker of Swansea, Massachusetts. To obtain this pension, John had to write a series of letters describing his military service. There is a lot of information in these letters. For John’s service in King Phillips War and King Williams War, he was given a grant of land in Narragansett Township #4 (now Greenwich, Massachusetts).

Six other Woburn men were wounded in the fight:  Nathaniel Richardson [son of Thomas Richardson and Mary Baldwin and grandson of Thomas RICHARDSON Sr.] was wounded in the “Great Swamp Fight,” Dec. 19, 1675.  Eliah Tottingham, Caleb Simonds, Zachariah Snow,  Francis Wyman, Jr [son of Francis WYMAN], and Peter Bateman

6. Plymouth Regiment

Maj. William Bradford, of Marshfield, Major and Captain of First Company (father-in-law of Rev. James FITCH’s son James and grandson of Alexander CARPENTER) He was pierced with a musket ball that he carried through life and which found a lodgment with his corpse in the grave.  It is also said he was severely wounded in the eye.

Regimental Staff

Mathew Fuller, of Barnstable, Surgeon

Thomas HUCKINS, of Barnstable, Commissary   (1617 – 1679) Thomas was one of the twenty-three original members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, charted in 1638. Thomas bore its standard in 1639.

The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts is the oldest chartered military organization in North Americaand the third oldest chartered military organization in the world.   While it was originally constituted as a citizen militia serving on active duty in defense of the northern British colonies, it has become, over the centuries primarily an honor guard and a social and ceremonial group in Massachusetts. Today the Company serves as Honor Guard to the Governor of Massachusetts who is also its Commander in Chief.

Officers of the Line

First Company: Robert Barker, of Duxbury, Lieutenant

Private Soldiers – The History of Rehoboth by Leonard Bliss, page 117, says, “The names of the Rehoboth soldiers who served in Philip’s war have been preserved, and are as follows:” Those engaged in the Narraganset expedition were, John Fitch, Jonathan WILMARTH , Jasiel Perry [son of Anthony PERRY], Thomas Kendrick [son-in-law of Anthony PERRY], Jonathan Sabin, John Carpenter, John Redeway, John Martin, John Hall, John Miller, Jun., John Ide, Joseph Doggett, Sampson Mason, Jun. “Those who served under Major Bradford were, Preserved Abell [son of Robert ABELL],  Samuel PERRY Stephen Paine, Jun., Samuel Miller, Silas T. Alin, Samuel Palmer, James Redeway, Enoch Hunt, Samuel Walker, Nicholas Ide, Noah Mason, Samuel Sabin, Thomas Read, Israel Read, George Robinson, Nathaniel Wilmarth. [son of Thomas WILMARTH]”’

Jasiel Perry died in Sep 1676 and was a soldier in King Philip’s War.  So far I have not found a specific record of his death. The fighting had ended by then, so maybe Jasiel died of his wounds,

Second Company: John GORHAM, of Barnstable, Captain, Jonathan SPARROW, of Eastham, Lieutenant, William Wetherell, Sgt. Non-commissioned Officers – William Wetherell, William Gray, Nathaniel Hall, Sergeants; John Hallet, Corporal.

The following Yarmouth men under Capt John GORHAM were paid for the hire of horses, the loss of arms, ammunition and money, loss in saddles and bridles in the Second expedition to Narragansett — William CHASE (not sure if the father or son)  £3 16 00, John WINGE II’s son Ananias £2 14 00, Francis BAKER’s son Samuel £4 10 00

Of the sums paid by the Plymouth Colony towns, as their proportion of the general assessment of £1000, voted by the court in 1676, the amount assigned to Yarmouth was £74 15s. 6d. In June, an additional levy of men was made, and £14 was assessed to Yarmouth for this purpose. In July the tax of the colony was £3692 16s 02d ; of this, the proportion of Yarmouth was £ 266 01. Large sums given that the estate of a typical freeman was £100 – £200.

John GORHAM died  5 Feb 1675/76 after being wounded 15 Nov 1675  by having his powder horn shot which split against his side, and he was severely weakened further from exposure. He died of the resulting fever.While John and Jonathan are both related to us, they are five generations removed from each other.

Johns son  Jabez, born Aug. 3, 1656, was wounded in King Philip’s War; his son Capt. John Gorham died of a fever in Swansea (where he was then stationed with his company), Feb. 5, 1676.

As a reward for service in the war with King Phillip, soldiers were given lands in Maine.   The town was named Gorham, Maine in John’s honor.  First called Narragansett Number 7, it was one of seven townships granted by the Massachusetts General Court to soldiers (or their heirs) who had fought in the Narragansett War of 1675.  The population was 14,141 at the 2000 census.

7. Connecticut Regiment

Robert Treat, of Milford, Major

Regimental Staff

Gershom Bulkely, Surgeon

Rev. Nicholas Noyes, Chaplain

Stephen Barrett, Commissary

Officers of the Line

First Company: John Gallop, of Stonington, Captain.  In 1672 a company of forty horsemen was organized; this was the first company of troopers in the county.

10 killed

Joshua Raymond was the cornetist, and is occasionally alluded to on the town records as Cornet Raymond, a title which was quite as familiar as that of captain or lieutenant.  He was later made commissary.  Joshua married Elizabeth Smith 10 Dec 1659 in New London, CT and was the son-in-law of  Rev. Nehemiah SMITH and Sarah Ann BOURNE.  He died 24 Apr 1676  New London, Connecticut as a result of wounds from the Great Swamp Fight.

Thomas MINER was a lieutenant in the Narragansett Campaign of King Phillip’s War in  1675-76 and reportedly took part in the “Great Swamp Fight” near Kingstown, RI even though he would have been 67 years old.  Almost all of the able-bodied men of Stonington were engaged in the Indian wars of their time.  Thomas was appointed Member of a Court Martial to meet in New London, January 2, 1676.

No list or roll of the Stonington men who participated in the early Indian wars has been preserved. The nearest approach to which may be found in “a list of the English volunteers in the late Narragansett war,” as prepared by a committee for that purpose in order to secure a grant of land for their services, as follows: Capt. George Denison, Sergt. John Frink, Capt. John Stanton, Capt. Samuel Mason, Rev. James Noyes, Lieut. Thomas MINER, Samuel Youmans, John Fish, George Denison, Jr., William Denison, Nathaniel Beebe, Henry Stevens, Edmund Fanning, Thomas Fanning, John Bennet, William Bennett, Ezekiel Main, William Wheeler, [son of Walter PALMER] Gershom Palmer, Samuel Stanton, Daniel Stanton, Manasseth Miner,Joseph Stanton, James York, Henry Bennett, Capt. James Pendleton, Robert Holmes,Thomas Bell, Henry Elliott, Isaac Wheeler, John Gallup, Nathaniel Chesebrough, [Thomas’ sons] Ephraim Miner, Joseph Miner, Samuel Miner, John Ashcroft, Edmund Fanning, Jr., John Denison, William Billings, and Samuel Fish.

Second Company: Samuel Marshall, of Windsor, Captain

14 killed

Third Company: Nathaniel Seely, of Stratford, Captain

20 killed  – Capt. Seely was wounded by Joshua Tefft and later died(See 8. Joshua Tefft below)

Fourth Company: Thomas Watts, of Hartford, Captain

17 killed

Fifth Company: John Mason, of Norwich, Captain, To the First and Fifth Connecticut Companies were attached Indian Scouting Companies, numbering seventy-five to each, made up mostly of Indians from the Mohegan and Pequod tribes.

9 killed including Capt. Mason

John Mason was son of our ancestor Maj. John MASON    John died of his wounds 12 Sep 1676.  It is probable that he was brought home from that sanguinary field by his Mohegan warriors on an Indian bier.  His wounds never healed. After lingering several months, he died, as is supposed, in the same house where his father expired, and was doubtless laid by his side in the old obliterated graveyard of the first comers. Though scarcely thirty years of age at the time of his death, he stood high in public esteem, both in a civil and military capacity. He had represented the town at three sessions of the Legislature, and was chosen an assistant the year of his decease. In the probate of his estate before the County Court he is called “the worshipful John Mason.

Second Letter of Joseph Dudley

Mr Smith’s, 21, 10, 1675

May it please your honour

The comming of the Connecticut force to Petaquamscott, and surprisal os six and slaughter of five on Friday night, Saturday we marched towards Petaquamscott, though in snow, and in conjunction about midnight or later, we advanced: Capt. Mosley led the van, after him Massachusetts, and Plimouth and Connecticut in the rear; a tedious march in the snow, without intermission, brought us about two of the clock afternoon, to the entrance of the swamp, by the help of Indian Peter, who dealt faithfully with us; our men, with great courage, entered the swamp about twenty rods; within the cedar swamp we found some hundreds of wigwams, forted in with a breastwork and flankered, and many small blockhouses up and down, round about; they entertained us with a fierce fight, and many thousand shot, for about an hour, when our men valiantly scaled the fort, beat them thence, and from the blockhouses. In which action we lost Capt. Johnson, Capt. Danforth, and Capt. Gardiner, and their lieutenants disabled, Capt. Marshall also slain; Capt Seely, Capt. Mason, disabled, and many other officers, insomuch that, by a fresh assault and recruit powder from their store, the Indians fell on again, recarried and beat us out of, the fort, but by the great resolution and courage of the General and Major, we reinforced, and very hardly entered the fort again, and fired the wigwams, with many living and dead persons in them, great piles of meat and heaps of corn, the ground not permitting burial of their store, were consumed; the number of their dead, we generally suppose the enemy lost at least two hundred men; Capt. Mosely counted in one corner of the fort sixty four men; Capt. Goram reckoned 150 at least; But, O! Sir, mine heart bleeds to give your honor an account of our lost men, but especially our resolute Captains, as by account inclosed, and yet not so many, but we admire there remained any to return, a captive women, well known to Mr. Smith, informing that there were three thousand five hundred men engaging us and about a mile distant a thousand in reserve, to whom if God had so pleased, we had but been a morsel, after so much disablement: she informeth, that one of their sagamores was slain and their powder spent, causing their retreat, and that they are in a distressed condition for food and houses, that one Joshua Tift, an Englishman, is their encourager and conducter. Philip was seen by one, credilbly informing us, under a strong guard.

After our wounds were dressed, we drew up for a march, not able to abide the field in the storm, and weary, about two of the clock, obtained our quarters, with our dead and wounded, only the General, Ministers, and some other persons of the guard, going to head a small swamp, lost our way, and returned again to the evening quarters, a wonder we were not prey to them, and, after at least thirty miles marching up and down, in the morning, recovered our quarters, and had it not been for the arrival of Goodale next morning, the whole camp had perished; The whole army, especially Connecticut, is much disabled and unwilling to march, with tedious storms, and no lodgings, and frozen and swollen limbs, Major Treat importunate to return to at least Stonington; Our dead and wounded are about two hundred, disabled as many; the want of officers, the consideration whereof the Genreal commends to your honer, forbids any action at present, and we fear whether Connecticut will comply, at last, to any action. We are endeavoring, by good keeping and billetting oue men at several quarters, and, if possible removel of our wounded to Rhode Island, to recover the spirit of our soldiers, and shall be diligent to find and understand the removals on other action of the enemy, if God please to give us advantage against them.

As we compleat the account of dead, now in doing, The Council is of the mind, without recruit of men we shall not be able to engage themain body.

I give your honor hearty thanks for your kind lines, of which I am not worthy

I am Sir, your honors humble servant

Joseph Dudley

Since the writing of these lines, the General and Council have jointly concluded to abide on the place, notwithstanding the desire of Connecticut, only entreat that a supply of 200 may be sent us, with supply of commanders; and, whereas we are forced to garrison our quarters with at least one hundred, three hundred men, upon joint account of colonies, will serve, and no less, to effect the design. This is by order of the council.  Blunderbusses, and hand grenadoes, and armour, if it may, and at least two armourers to mend arms.

The Rev. Mr. Bradstreet, of New London, records his death in these terms:

“My hon’d and dear Friend Capt. Juo Mason one of ye magistrates of this Colony, and second son of Major Jno Mason, dyed, Sept. 18, 1676.”