History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

360 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
passed over tlie bridge to the west side of tiie river
.... made a thorougli discovery .... saw so
many English lie dead .... some they knew,
namely Capt. Brocklebank of Eowley and Capt.
Wadsworth of Milton, who w^ith about thirty-two
private soldiers were slain the day before."
2. Judge Sewall's Diary. " Nota bene. Fri-
day about .3 in the afternoon, April 21, 1676, Capt.
Wadsworth and Capt. Brocklebank fall, almost one
hundred, since I hear about fifty men slain -3 miles
off Sudbury, the said Town burned, garrison house
except." [The place of the fight on Green Hill
is about three miles from the middle of the town
of Wayland, then Sudbury.]
•3. Military papers in the state archives. In
Vol. LXVIII., page 220, in the council's letter to
Governor Winslow is this statement: "This day
we have intelligence in the general that Sudbury
was this morning assaulted, and many houses burnt
down; particulars of the sorrowful certainty of
things is not yet come to hand. E. R. Sec^.
"April 21, 1670."
In tlie same volume, page 220, is the following
"Letter to Left. Jacob": "The Council having
lately received information of God's further power
upon us in depriving the country both of your
Captain and Capt. Wadswortli with several others
by permitting the enemy to destroy them yesterday
.... we do order you to take the cliarge of tiie
said Company. Edw. Rawson Seci.
" Boston 22 April 1G7G."
4. Tiie Roxbury Town Records.
" Tiiomas Baker jr. ~]
Joiin Roberts
Nathaniel Leason
Tliomas Romley sen.
W"" Cleaves
Joseph Pepper
Tliomas Hopkins
Sam' Gardner Lieut,
were all slain at Sudbury
by the Indians under
command of Capt. Sam'
Wadsworth upon
21. April 1G7G."
5. The Middlesex County Probate Records.
Here are preserved the following papers: "The
humble petition of Esther Curry of Concord, show-
eth tiiat her late husband David was slain by the
Indians at Sudbury and left me a poor widow witli
six small children " ; and in connection " the In-
ventory of the estate of David Curry of Concord,
wlio deceased the one-and-twentieth day of April
1676."
"An Inv,Mi(()i-y of tiie estate of Jaiiirs liosiner
of Concord, deceased, being slain in tlic iiii,'age-
^
ment with tlie Indians at Sudbury on the 21 of tiie
second month 1676."
Papers of precisely the same import, relating to
the estates of Josiah Wheeler of Concord, and
William Heywood of Sudbury, are on file. And
it should be stated in tliis connection, that a paper
ill the state archives [Vol. LXVIIL, page 224],
signed by two of Captain Mason's men, gives these
particulars " : On the next day in the morning, we
went to look for Concord men who were slain in the
river meadow, where we found five, and brought in
canoes to the Bridge foot, and buried tliem there."
The Indians of Sudbury were not a distinct tribe,
nor did they belong to any of the neighboring
tribes, but were a mixture very likely from fami-
lies wlio came here for some special purpose, and
finding such fine hunting and fishing, took posses-
sion of the locality. Tliey were not very numerous.
From time to time they greatly annoyed tiie Eng-
lish, and the records sliow tliat our fathers feared,
every now and then, an Indian war, so tiiat they
were obliged, on all occasions, to be well armed,
while it was contrary to law for any of them to
change their place of residence witiiout permission.
The English evidently treated the Indians they
found here in a friendly and Christian way ; and
with some success — small indeed — endeavored
to bless them with Christian civilization.
In connection with the battles on the east side
of the river the 20tli, and on Green Hill the 21st
of April, 1676, much property was destroyed and
many houses burnt.
Tiie Indians, after the battle witii Wadswortli,
invested the Haynes garrison-house, near the river,
on the west side, in tlie northern part of the town,
and used various expedients to destroy it. " At
first they attempted to set it on fire with pitch-
pine arrows lighted at the ends, but as they were
obliged to approach quite near, they were reached
by the arms of the besieged, and so were unsuccessful.
They then loaded a cart with unbroken
flax, set fire to it, and trundled it towards the
garrison, but the cart was upset and consumed
witiiout doing any damage to the besieged.
" Twelve men coming from Concord for the relief
of the garrison might have reached it, but for a
number of squaws who decoyed them into the
meadow, where all but one fell into the hands of
the enemy."
It is not probable that any Sudbury men were
' Tlie tlicoiy Hint Sudbury wns attnckcd on the 20lh, is not
suniiiirtuJ bv the authorities i-itcj iu the text. — Ed.