The Pequot War

The early 1600s were a complex period in New England with the many dynamics of the time leading to what became known as the Pequot war (1636-1638) (*1). There were several factors leading up to this, including the following:

·       In 1609, Henry Hudson, looking for a Northwest Passage to Asia, sailed up the Hudson River (later named for him). This laid the foundation for the Dutch settlement of that area beginning in 1621. The Dutch claimed an area extending eastward all the way to southwestern Cape Cod (*2).

·       Meanwhile, the English began settlements, beginning in 1620 with the landing of the Pilgrims in Plymouth, then the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628 (*3). They quickly began expanding to other parts of southern New England along the Connecticut River including Windsor (1632), Wethersfield (1633), Hartford (1635), and Springfield (1636).

·       A series of epidemics among the native American tribes in the area had severely reduced their population, creating a power vacuum in the area. The Pequots had begun moving into this vacuum and were contending with several other tribes for dominance.

·       A major hurricane in 1635 had reduced harvests, leading to increasing competition for food supplies during the following years, making for even greater tensions between the Pequots and the colonists.

Both the Dutch and the English were trying to establish fur trading colonies. The Pequots had aligned themselves with the Dutch and some of the other tribes had aligned themselves with the English. In 1634, John Stone and about seven of his crew were murdered by the Niantic tribe, clients of the Pequots. Then in July 1636, a trader named John Oldham and several of his crew were killed by Narragansett-allied Indians trying to discourage settlers from trading with their Pequot rivals. The murderers were given sanctuary with the Pequots.

In August, the English sent a party from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to exact revenge on the murderers. The English at Saybrook got involved, as did those from the Connecticut river towns. Skirmishes lasted about two years, not ending until September of 1638. There were fewer than 200 English involved in the various attacks, and perhaps 4 to 5 times that number of Pequots. But the English had the advantage of better weapons, so while not many of the colonists were killed, the Pequot casualties numbered about 700 or taken captive with others escaping to the west, or joining with other tribes and being granted asylum by the English. In addition humdreds were sold into slavery to the West Indies.

I’ve tried to find the names of the men who participated in the Pequot war and through the combination of two sources (*4 and *5), have identified 155 individuals. Of these 13 are my direct ancestors, one is a cousin, two are ancestors of my father’s step-father, and four more are ancestors of some of my cousins.

Direct Ancestors:

·       Thomas Barnes, great*9 grandfather

·       John Bronson, great*8 grandfather

·       Lt Thomas Bull, great*10 grandfather

·       Thomas Bunce, great*9 grandfather

·       Edward Culver, great*10 grandfather

·       Nicholas Denslow, great*11 grandfather

·       John Hall, great*9 grandfather

·       Nathaniel Merriman, great*8 grandfather

·       Sgt Thomas Munson, great*9 grandfather

·       Sgt Nicholas Palmer, great*10 grandfather

·       William Parker, great*9 grandfather

·       Lt Robert Seeley, great*10 grandfather

·       Samuel Smith, great*10 grandfather

Others:

·       Zachariah Field, great*4 grandfather of fourth cousin six times removed

·       William Hedges, great*2 grandfather of second cousin seven times removed

·       Thomas Hurlbut, great*3 grandfather of fourth cousin six times removed

·       Thomas Root, second cousin, nine times removed

·       James Rogers, step-great*6 grandfather of my father

·       Thomas Spencer, great*2 grandfather of sixth cousin five times removed

·       Thomas Stanton, step-great*6 grandfather of my father

Notes:

*1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pequot_War

*2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Netherland

*3 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Colony

*4 - https://pequotwar.org/about/whos-who/?fbclid=IwAR1Y4C5bCRZSP9_OYoW8t9X6fTgTMCpBRCH40QqM0GuR-yWkaCfvmKAv0UI

*5 – Connecticut Soldiers in the Pequot War of 1637, James Shepard, 1913