Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 54, No. 1 ...

BULLETIN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, VOLUME 54(1), 1993 7
Lakeville (Mayhew 1727, p. 161). Thomas
replaced the noted John Sassamon as preacher
at Nemasket after the King Phillip War. Sassamon,
of course, had been murdered at Assawompsett
Pond in 1675 (Peirce 1878, p. 60).
Thomas Sestom preached there until his death
in 1694. There were Setoms at Gay Head
(Howwaswee 1792) and Mashpee until 1861,
according to the State Indian Census (Earle
1861).
Following a romantic courtship (Norton
1947, p. 50), Ahoma or Alice, Thomas Sestom's
daughter, became the wife of Joseph
Daggett, Oak Bluff's first white settler, in
1667, founding the colorfully named: "Bow
and Arrow Daggetts," as they were known to
their contemporaries. Dr. Charles E. Banks, in
his 1911 History ofMartha's Vineyard, calls
Alice Sestom, "the Pocahontas of our Island;"
obviously this union appealed to his romantic
imagination (Banks 1911, vol. 2, p. 94).
Ahoma Spring, which bore her name, was
destroyed when Hart Haven was built at Oak
Bluffs. The union may not have been sanctified
by clergy, as she retained the name Sestom
thereafter. They had three children, the first
and second at Sanchakantackett, and the third,
Alice or Ellis, in 1675 after their removal to
Takemmy, now West Tisbury, in 1673 (Banks
1911, vol. 2, p. 141.). Here Joseph became
interpreter for the Christiantown Indians, helping
in English and Indian disputes.
INDIAN SAMUEL LOOK, AND HIS DE­
SCENDANTS
Here also, we return to Indian Samuel
Look. As previously stated, at age twenty-one
he received his mother, Ellis Daggett's bequest.
This was in 1724, when he left Martha's Vineyard
never to return, but wearing about his
neck a thong from which, suspended on his
breast, was the pendant representing his native
Indian heritage (Nellie Peck 1966, personal
communication), and what a heritage it was!
Fine old sachems and preachers, a dying language
and culture, this was Indian Samuel's
world and he wore his pendant proudly to a
different world.
Arriving on the mainland at Old Rochester,
that portion now Marion, he soon met
and married Ruth, the daughter of Anthony
Savery, and by September 26, 1725, the first of
eight children was born (Banks 1911, vol. 2, p.
141). We next hear of him when he offers four
gallons of rum for the raising of the minister
Mr. Hovey's house, in the second precinct
(Ryder 1975, p. 195). His home lot of one
acre and a dwelling house was not confirmed to
him until September 30, 1778 by Anthony
Savery, "for love and affection to Samuel
Look," a gift not a sale (plymouth County
Deeds, Bk. 59, p. 173). This was located "on
the westerly side of the road from James Stewart's
dwelling house, leading to Charles Neck."
Today, this is Dexter Lane, Parlowtown Road,
then across Route 6, to Converse Road. Indian
Samuel Look's place was then down a side lane
to Benjamin Hiller's Mill, but now Route 6,
still named Mill Street, to the Mattapoisett line.
In the above deed he is called "husbandman."
On January 9, 1782, the year of his death,
Indian Samuel deeded the above real and personal
property in equal shares to his remaining
unmarried daughters, Ruth and Alice Look
(plymouth County Deeds, Bk. 61, p. 170).
Proof of his pride in his native Indian heritage
and immediate forebears is borne out by the
naming of his youngest daughter, Alice, for her
half-blood Indian grandmother and full-blood
Indian great-grandmother, Alice or Ahoma
Sestom. Indian Samuel's mainland homesite
was reminiscent of those with which he was
familiar at Christiantown on the Vineyard and
doubtless was a reason for its choice. By 1852