Soldiers in King Philip's war. Containing lists of the soldiers of ...

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about fifty,—ten men and forty others. The third company, with
Waban, lived near the Falls of the Charles River, near the house
of Joseph Miller, and not far from the home of Capt. Prentice,—their
number about sixty, of whom twelve were men. The fourth company
dwelt at Nonantum-hill, near Lieut. Trowbridge and John
Coones. A portion of this company were living at Muddy River,
near John White's ; and separate families near the houses of Mr,
Thomas Oliver, Mr. Sparhawk, and Daniel Champney, and were
employed by these gentlemen to cut wood and build stone walls,
while the women were taught and then employed as spinners. This
fourth company numbered about fifteen men and sixty women and
children, in all seventy-five.
The Naticks, numbering thus some two hundred and ten, included
the most of those who had not been scattered by flight to the hostile
Indians, by being sold into service to individual families of the
English, or by death,—who had formerly belonged in the villages of
Hassanamesit, Magunkog, Marlborough, and Wamesit. At the
time the report was made, nearly all the able-bodied men of the
Naticks were with Capt. Hunting at the Eastward.
The Nashobah or Concord Indians lived at Concord, and were
under the direction of the military officers and Selectmen of the
town ; their number was about fifty. The Pennacooks, and those who
adhered to Wannalancet, lived at Dunstable, under the direction of
Mr. Jonathan Tyng, and in his absence the care devolved upon
Robert Parris. The number of these last was about sixty. A small
company dwelt at Ipswich, under the town authorities,—their number
was about twenty-five. Besides these there were separate families
living with the English as servants. Mention is made of a Mr.
Gates of Watertown ; Justinian Holden, Corporal Humand (Ham-
, and Wilson at Shawshin ; and these numbered about forty
mond ?)
souls.
Major Gookin estimated the whole number of Christian Indians
at this time to be five hundred and ninety-seven, of whom one
hundred and seventeen were men.
In conclusion, it may be said that the foregoing chapters are
meant to give a brief account of the relations of these Christian Indians
to the Colony, and especially during the stirring events of the
Indian war. Subsequently the scattered and ever dwindling companies
were gathered at Natick, where an Indian church had been
established, and an Indian town was regularly incorporated. The
town was first laid out in 1651, and was governed by Indian officers
under a committee chosen by the General Court. The descendants
of Waban, the principal ruler at Natick at the first establishment,
continued to be the chief officers of the town for two generations.
The town remained nominally an Indian town until 1762, when it
passed into the government of the English. The last of the Natick
Indians died before the close of 1826.