OHN C HAMBER LAIN J ,

TH E I N% IAN % I GH TER AT PI GWACKET

Pre pared by

E W CHA BE A B . . G R E . M R I N O G L , S ,

M m r f th M in Hist ri a i t e be o e a e o c l So c e y .

E TH E I N% I A % JOHN CHAMB RLAIN, N I GH TE R AT P I GW ACK E T

E VE R AL historical writers in the vicinity of Boston have l 1 895 1 896 given to the pub ic , during the years and , long S discussions relative to the part performed by John Chamber

lain, of Groton , while under the command of Captain John Love P i wacket 1 25 well in the g fight of 7 . It is the purpose of this paper to give a summary of the P i w cke life of this man in general, and of his part at the g a t fight

in particular .

29 1 692 Born in the town of Chelmsford, March , , he was E % the eldest child of Thomas and li abeth ( Hall% Chamberlain, l who lived first in Che msford , but later in Groton . His life had its beginning in the earlier half of the Indian war period of Ne w E ngland ( 1 675 m His grandfather , Thomas Chamberlain of Chel sford, who ’ bo K was th senior and junior, was a soldier in ing Philip s war, being stationed at the frontier garrison in Groton on November

30 1 6 5 . , 7 He was probably the Thomas Chamberlain who served l ’ ’ 1 6 6 S l s . s in y Company and also in Poole s Company in 7 Thoma , o the father, and Thomas , the grandfather, were b th stationed at

- l 1 6 1 691 92 . the garrison in Che msford on March ,

1 69 n In 7 , when Joh Chamberlain had reached the age of five , he first listened to the story of the capture of Hannah Dustin at

- five . Haverhill, less than twenty miles from his home At the fireside he often heard rehearsed her heroic bravery in sc alping her 1 02 captors on the island at Penacook . In 7 , he was thrilled by news a e of the massacre of the Rev . Thom s Weld , the first minist r of old

Dunstable , within ten miles of his own home .

r nt r art rl o f the Maine H isto rical S oc ie t fo r J anuar 1898 %R e p i ed f om the % u e y y y, , i with addit ons% . ’ J ohn Chambe rlain was not the author s ance stor . 1 1 1 1 12 MEMOIR or CHAMBERLAIN

1 04 In 7 , in the same year that the fearful slaughter at Deer field i occurred , the Ind ans carried their guerrilla warfare into

Groton , where they killed one or two men in the southwesterly part 8 1 06 o f . the town On May , 7 , at a town meeting held in Groton, Thay ded by uot %vote% declare they would and doe desire Thomas ’ Chamberill %lain s% mill may bee uphelde by a solgar or solgars for ” the good of the town . Therefore, John Chamberlain was cradled

and reared in the midst of Indian warfare and vigilant defense . Of his education nothing is known except that his signature to a petition to the judge of probate for Middlesex County was

plainly written . It was probably as good as that of the average

man of that time . m Thomas Chamberlain , the father, removed fro Chelmsford

1 0 1 699 . to Groton before March , He was a wheelwright , and on

- the last mentioned date bought of John Cadey, Sr . fifty acres of “ ” “ “ B addacook L oafe land at by Brown B rooke , near Cow ” o f pond Medow in Groton . The inventory his estate was taken 30 1 10 March , 7 . On the preceding day John Heald of Concord i “ was appointed guard an to John , son of Thomas Chamberlain , ” 1 13 of 1 8th e are . late Groton , a minor in ye y of his age In 7 , o n 30 John Chamberlain reached his majority, and June of that

year the estate of his father was settled . Abigail , the widow (who two was the second wife%, received her dower . John received n di thirds of the mill, housi g, stream and lands in Groton , con iona 2 1 s 6 d t l £ . . . upon his paying the other ten children , 7 , % each ” B addacook Here at a place called , a little southeast of the vil 2 1 699 1 9 . lage of old Groton, John Chamberlain lived from to 7

4 1 24 ss On September , 7 , Thomas Blanchard and Nathan Cro ,

both of old Dunstable, were captured within the limits of the city

of Nashua , New Hampshire , by a band of Indians , who carried A l o f s them captives into Canada . smal party Dun table men pur the suing the Indians some distance up Merrimack valley, the % or entire party was killed excepting Josiah Farwell . this reason

John Lovewell , Josiah Farwell and Jonathan Robbins , all of Dun o f stable , petitioned the General Court Massachusetts for leave to 1 12 M EM OIR O% CHAMBERLAIN 1 13

raise a company to keep out in the woods for several months i together in order to k ll and destroy their enemy Indians . Their t 1 1 24 petition was gran ed November 7, 7 , and they were promised

for each male scalp brought in one hundred pounds , which , accord K was - ing to idder, e% uivalent to one hundred and thirty six dollars .

m John Lovewell , a son of John Lovewell (who by so e authorities is said to have been first of Weymouth% a native of m e old Dunstable , was com issioned captain , and conducted thre I n i expeditions northward % u ck succession . John Chamberlain, how

- ever , is not named in the list of the sixty two men of the second ex

e dition was o ne - p , but all agree that he of the forty six men who

started on the third expedition , and that he was one of the thirty three who met and resisted more than twice their number of In ’ dians on the north shore of what is now L ovewell s pond in the 25 w 8 1 . . to n of Fryeburg , Maine , on May , 7 , O S

Four accounts of this fight were published within one and

- r . one half years of its occur ence The first and second , published - 1 25 B oston on the seventeenth and twenty fourth of May, 7 , in the Nems - L etter New E n lan Courant and the g d respectively, make P i wacket no mention of Paugus , the chief of the g tribe , nor of E E any of the surviving nglish except nsign Seth Wyman, who o to k command on the death of Capt . Lovewell, Lieut . Farwell

E . and nsign Robbins , near the beginning of the engagement ’ Wyman had returned to B o ston and been granted a captain s com

- mission by the Lieutenant Governor , William Dummer , before 2 4 2 E a 1 5 . w n n Conrant May , 7 The Ne gl d of that date states t - overnour hat His Honour the Lieut . G has been pleased to grant ’ m% C . a aptain s commission to Lieut Wy an , who distinguished himself with great courage and conduct during the whole engage

ment . The other accounts were written by the Rev . Thomas m e Sy mes of Bradford , Massachusetts , and by Judg Samuel Pen E hallow of Portsmouth , New Hampshire . ach of these accounts P i wacket is invaluable ; both say that Paugus , the chief of the g e tribe, was killed during the action , but neith r state by whom the 1 14 M E M CI R O% CHAMBERLAIN

a If John Ch mberlain killed the old chief, the evidence of such i e i E fact rests entirely upon widely d ss minated trad tions . If nsign Seth Wyman performed the act resulting in the d eath of that

. P e nhallow vile and bloody wretch, as calls the chief, the evi dence for such conclusion is found in an anonymous ballad of un ce rtain age and veracity ; and I am asked to Choose between Scylla and Charybdi

The Chamberlain - Paugus tradition was first published at 1 99 E ah Fryeburg , Maine , in the year 7 , by lij Russell in his e di ’ “ S mmes tion of Rev . Thomas y s Memoirs of the Fight at Pigg a w cket . It runs as follows

u Several of the Indians , particularly Paug s , their chief , were ’ L ovewell s well known to men , and fre% uently conversed with each ,

other during the engagement . In the course of the battle Paugus and John Chamberlain discoursed familiarly with each other their guns had become foul from fre% uent firing they washed their

guns at the pond , and the latter assured Paugus that he should

s fi insin kill him ; Paugus al o menaced him , and bid de ance to his u

a tions . When they had prepared their guns they loaded and dis

e charg d them , and Paugus fell .

This story was printed seventy- four years after the battle o s ccurred , and one year after Noah Johnson , the la t survivor of the battle , had died . Was this story a fabrication invented by E lij ah Russell ? Did it exist before 1 799 in other parts of New E ngland ? Does it contain any of the elements of truth ?

84 1 6 . s Al In , the Rev Stephen Thomp on len delivered an his torical address at the centennial anniversary of the town of Merri mack , New Hampshire . In that address , which has the appear l ance of being truthful and scho arly, he alludes to one of the early man settlers of that town , a whom I have traced in the state and provincial papers of New Hampshire as a provincial repre s entative of Merrimack from 1756 to 1 775 inclusive . That man

. n was Capt Joh Chamberlain , who erected the first mills at 1 4 Souhegan Falls in 73 . He was a large land owner at 1 14 M E M OI R or CHAMBERLAIN 1 1 5

” “ ” “ ’ Natticook Souhegan Falls , , Benton s Farm , and Narra

anset w 5 . g To nship No .

Al In his address Mr . len says

It is by many supposed that this Chamberlai n is the same ’

u L ovewell s . B ut that killed Paug s , the Indian chief in fight such T is . not the fact hey were cousins , and from a descendant of the

t e family I learn hat to distinguish them from each oth r , one was ” c alled Paugus John and the other Souhegan John .

Continuing , Mr . Allen says

Souhegan John Chamberlain married %Hannah% a daughter

L . % L of ieut %Josiah% arwell , who died of wounds received in ove ’ well s fight . Souhegan John Chamberlain lived until the year

1792 .

Mr . Allen learned these facts of a descendant of Souhegan

n fi t - f . Joh , and published them within y two years of his death If they are true they show what ? That Paugus John Chamberlain was so called during his lifetime . Is it reasonable to suppose that “ ” the name Paugus should have been afiixed after the year 1799

- ? to John Chamberlain , who had then been dead forty four years f 1 99 If it was not a fixed ofter 7 , but was an appellation of his in E lifetime , it could not have had its orig in lij ah Russell , but must have originated from some other source .

’ But Souhegan John Chamberlain s wife Hannah was the

n . daughter of Lieut . Josiah and Han ah ( Lovewell% Farwell Her l P i wacket father was kil ed in the g fight , as also was her uncle, ’ her mother s brother, the intrepid Capt . John Lovewell . May we not believe that this woman fre% uently heard the incidents of the

- battle related by those who were eye witnesses , and may we not suppose that she had more than a passing interest in every par ticular , especially as her father and her uncle both fell on the bat tlefield ? May we not also suppose that she knew that Paugus John Chamberlain was so called because he shot Paugus ? 1 15 1 16 MEMOIR O% CHAMBERLAIN

1 890 In , I found a tradition in the Chamberlain family con cerning the origin of that family in America . It was told by

his 1 % one Jacob Chamberlain of Chelsea to wife before 735 . About 1 ds 777 she related it to her gran on , Gen . William Chamberlain V e - e . of Peacham, ermont , once a lieut nant governor of that stat 1820 He wrote it down in . After six years of research on the earlier families of the name , I am prepared to say that that tradi tion contains some of the elements of truth , but is not literally A e true . correspondence and ac% uaintance with s veral genealo n mi gists have brought to my attentio other fa ly traditions , not o true in letter, but resting on the foundati n of more or less truth . From these facts I am led to believe that traditions of long stand ing contain some of the elements of truth . The story of John Chamberlain would seem to have come New to us from other sources . Caleb Butler, a native of Pelham, i of o 1 800 Hampsh re , a graduate Dartmouth C llege in , and a

1 801 1 802 . tutor there in , removed to Groton in After many years of research he published his History of Groton in 1 848 .

Onpage 104 he gives the story of John Chamberlain and Paugus ,

- mentioning in a foot note his authorities . As the story is some ’ ’ % what diff erent from Russell s , I give it in Butler s words

G Some time in the day the gun of John Chamberlain , of roton , fi e becoming foul by continued ring , he und rtook to wash and

. W cleanse it at the pond hile in this act , he espied Paugus , whom

he personally knew , performing the same process upon his gun at a o a small distance . A challenge was immediately given and

c e ted c onfidin x d p , each g in his own de terity , and pre icting the

. u speedy fall of his antagonist Chamberlain , tr sting to the u priming of his g n by a thump on the ground , had time to take

deliberate aim , while Paugus was priming from his horn . Cham ’ ’ berla in s ball reached P a ugus s heart %ust as he was in the act of ’ firing . His ball passed over Chamberlain s head .

Notice how Butler continues

The After this event there was a short respite . Indians 1 16 MEMOIR or CHAMBERLAIN 1 1 7

withdrew. E nsign Wyman and Chamberlain crept unperceived

after them , and found them formed in a circle around one in the

s center , whom there were % ualifying, it was suppo ed , for a chief

instead of the deceased Paugus . Wyman fired and killed this

intended chief . Then both hastened back to their fellows at the

pond .

Compare the above paragraph with one sentence of the Nem E a onrant 24 1 2 n l nd C 5 e . g , of May , 7 , already referr d to It % o ff reads About two hours before night the Indians drew , and ” ’ presently came on again . One cannot help thinking that Butler s

relation contains some truth .

- t As to authorities , his foot note sta es that the general account o f s the fight was taken from printed ources , and some of the inci

dents were from the lips of the wife of Josiah Johnson, one of the w men . In the same connection he writes that this woman as thir was W o teen years old when the battle fought , that she lived in w burn , here Johnson belonged , and afterwards married him . In ” “ the latter part of her life , continues Butler , she lived in my ’ h father s family %at Pel am%, often told the story, and always told di it alike, agreeing with the printed account in general and ad ng ” ’ ob some particulars . From Butler s statement as to how he ’ t aine d L ovewell s the list of men , it is inferred that he never saw ’ ’ “ ” e Russell s edition of Symm s s Memoirs . It seems to me that we are warranted in concluding that this E story was not a fabrication invented by lijah Russell , a news

o . paper editor f uncertain character If we accept Butler, may we not see that the part performed by Seth Wyman and the part

performed by John Chamberlain would , in the absence of positive

statements , end in confusion .

1 824 - - five In , ninety nine years after the battle , and twenty years after the Chamberlain - Pa ugus story had first be en pub ’ lishe d in the Russell edition of S ymmes s Memoirs of the ” r o Fight , Fa mer and Mo re published at Concord , New Hamp ” n shire , i the third volume of their Historical Collections a bal ’ lad entitled The Song of L ove well s Fight . It is here stated 1 17 1 1 8 M E M OI R or CHAMBERLAIN

that Seth Wyman shot the old chief Paugus which did the foe ” o defeat . In their introductory n te the editors affirm that the d author of the balla is unknown , that it is about one hundred

years old, and that is was sung throughout a considerable portion

of New Hampshire and Massachusetts for many years .

r If Wyman shot Paugus, and many th oughout New Hamp s d hire and Massachusetts sang this balla for many years , why did not the old pe ople ascribe to Wyman this fact ? Why did ’ Wyman s neighbors accord that act- not to their own townsman ’ who had received pral ses from the newspapers and a captain s c m — e om ission from the commonwealth but to John Chamb rlain , ? did not S a private Why arah Wyman, the widow of Seth 1 26 Wyman , in her petition to the Great and General Court in 7 , ’ i in giving the particulars of her husband s mil tary record, inci dentally refer to his Paugus combat if the ballad story were true ?

1 865 ;K E As early as , Frederic idder in his xpeditions of ” Capt . John Lovewell , asserted that the ballad is true , and that n o not Joh Chamberlain but an ther slew Paugus . In his sketch t di d of John Chamberlain he gives hese facts . Why he not in his biographical sketch of Seth Wyman accord to him the honor which ? K he denied to Chamberlain Did it seem to Mr . idder that the “ ballad , which he would have his readers believe is the very best ” authority, is strong enough for a destructive argument against the Chamberlain- Paugus story ; but that it was not of sufficient strength for a constructive argument for his Wyman - Paugus theory ? Consistency seems to re% uire that Wyman should have had not only a widely - extended tradition among the common peo

ple of such fact , but that his biography should also have con a e E n an on an t ine d such a statement . The N w gl d C r t of Septem 1 1 1 25 on ber , 7 , gives ten lines the death of Wyman . Why did

it not refer to the killing of Paugus , if by that Wyman did defeat the foe ?

When it is remembered that a great poet , a renowned pro fe ssor ni m in the most learned u versity of A erica , in writing what e l has b come classic, places Priscilla , the wife of John A den, for 1 18 MEMOIR O% CHAMBERLAIN 1 1 9

her wedding tour upon a snow- white bull before any cattle

had been brought to the Plymouth Colony, the immortal Long in h fellow cannot be excepted stating that poetry , owever beau ul tif , is not historic truth .

What value , then , shall we place upon a single statement of an anonymous ballad first published ninety- nine years after the battle it describes occurred ? One statement of the ballad is con trar ll a vi% . y to contemporary accounts , , that by the death of

Paugus the foe was defeated . Since this ballad is untruthful s o in one fact , may we not con ider it untrustw rthy on every fact not corroborated by the narrations of that time ? K But Mr . idder prejudices his own argument by saying that we trust that the story %of Chamberlain and Paugus% will not ” again be republished as historical truth . In the absence of docu mentary evidence reason dictates that circumstantial and traditional e vidence is suggestive and to some extent reliable . John Chamber m s lain has such evidence . Seth Wyman was accorded by Sym e o f i the honor killing the ch ef of the powwow during the respite,

as Butler relates . It is likely that he s hot both Paugus and the

new red chief, and that Symmes should have accorded him the less important service without ascribing to him the more impor tant act in the battle ?

It is not claimed , however , that the other traditions relating

to Chamberlain and the son of Paugus , and growing out of this o one , are true ; but the b ttom fact that John Chamberlain shot the ’ L ovewell s memor old chief Paugus on the shore of Pond , on that 8 1 25 able May , 7 , must , in my opinion , await a more critical

investigation before the honor can be consistently denied him .

P i wacket re After the g fight , John Chamberlain , although m ported by Sym es as wounded during the action , returned to his — ” - — at B addacook farm and corn mill the Chamberlain homestead , 31 1 2 in Groton . On May , 7 7 , the township of Suncook (now

Pembroke, New Hampshire %, on the Merrimack River, was granted by Massachusetts to sixty grantees who served in Lo ve ’ well s expeditions . John Chamberlain was one of the grantees , 1 19 1 20 MEMOIR O% CHAMBERLAIN

12 1 29 he s and on April , 7 , sold all his right and title to said land

to Joseph Gilson , of Groton, for twenty pounds and ten shillings , e% uivalent then to the paltry sum of twenty- seven dollars and

% eighty eight cents . His deed to Gilson recorded at Middlesex 30 106 Registry, Liber , page , mentions that the tract of land “ described was recently granted to the Office rs and Soldiers

lately in the service of the province under the command of Capt .

John Lovewell , deceased , and others , in an expedition to Pig wacket i against the Ind an enemy, and which shall hereafter accrew ”

di . and fall to me as one of the sol ers under said Capt Lovewell . 1 2 9 On the fifth of January of the same year , 7 , he sold the B addacook t homestead to Samuel Woods , Sr . , of Gro on, and o n 1 9 1 30 February , 7 , he bought another farm of James Lakin , “ ” e at a place call d the Four Acres in Groton . Dr . Samuel A . i Green , who is authority on the h story of Groton , is unable to

c . 20 1 41 identify this pla e He lived there until April , 7 , when he “ ” deeded this farm at the Four Acres to Samuel Chamberlain ,

of Chelmsford , a gentleman .

’ o In the meantime his wife s father , Thomas Wo ds , of Groton , di had ed and there was trouble in settling the Woods estate . On 8 1 40 m September , 7 , John Chamberlain and A os Woods, two of

the heirs , petitioned the Judge of Probate for Middlesex , to have m t ad Samuel Chamberlain , of Chel sford , a gentleman, appoin ed A 20 1 41 m . . his w inistrator lawsuit followed On August , 7 , ife

Abigail , sold to this same Samuel Chamberlain of Chelmsford , and ’ S artel Josiah of Groton , her share in her father s estate , situated

o f . on the north side Brown Loaf Hill This Samuel Chamberlain, I u called captain , was , conjecture , an uncle to Paug s John and the u father of Souhegan John , and should be disting ished from

Samuel Chamberlain , of Westford , called Lieutenant , a con

temporary.

However, John Chamberlain probably owned no real estate

1 41 . 1 42 after 7 In June, 7 , his name appears among the inhabitants

and residents of the northerly part of Groton (now Pepperell%,

on a petition to Governor William Shirley . 1 3 1 13 I . Of his family will give but little On October , 7 , the 12 0 MEMOIR O% CHAMBERLAIN 121

m o a year he reached his aj rity, he married Abigail, d ughter of

s . w o Thoma and Abigail Woods , of Groton To them ere b rn at two s VI % Groton four daughters and son ,

“ . E L I % AB E TH . 2 Oct . 1 14 . 23 Mch 1 3 m i , b 7 , 7 ; m , 7 6, Jere iah ,

% . son of achariah and Abigail L awrence He was b . 7

% e c . 1 13 7 , became deacon of % irst Parish in Pepperell ,

. Au . . . e 2 1 5 1 % b. 1 4 w. where he d 9 g , 7 9 She d , 77 , 60

years .

11 . H AN NAH . 18 . 1 1 . , b Jan , 7 6

O N 2 M oh. 1720 . 3 % 1 . H . 4 R 4 ec . . iii J , J b , ; m , 7 6, achel, daug of

% A L . . 2 achariah and bigail awrence She was b in 17 7 , and ’ . ct . 1 5 . . . u . d 6 O , 7 6 He served in Capt J Shatt ck s Co in ’ 1 58 % W a r G G 7 in the rench and Indian , ( reen s roton

% di W . uring In an ars , p Children 6

1 . R a cha el . 1 0 1 4 . 13 Oct . 1 5 . , b July , 7 7 d 7 6 i i “ . 8 . 1 4 . u 2 Ab a l . 1 0 g , b Sept , 7 9 ; m in Pepperell , 7 J ne , 77 ,

E % r. B % dmond, son of en%amin and inah ( Hunt% Shat 44 L . 20 M . 1 r tuck of ittleton , ass He b July , 7 , emoved to

G M . . 1 3 . 1 ch 1 a e . roton , ass , abt 77 , where she d 7 M , 796,

4 . . ( 1. re re 7 y 6 m 9 He was selectman , town clerk , p sent a tive u , postmaster , %ustice and removed to Cockermo th ,

G . . ( I . 181 . ( now roton%, N H where he in 6 “

3 . ohn . J J r . 2 % eb . 1 52 . , , b 7 , 7 4 “ E e . c . 4 . d O t 1 5 . , b 9 , 7 “

i . v SAR AH . 2 A 1 2 . , b 7 pril , 7 7 “

. A I AI L . n. B G a 1 32 . v , b J , 7 “ . T OM AS H . 2 . 3 . a 1 L vi , b Sept , 17 5 ; m 9 M y , 769, ydia

A . T dams , of Groton , Mass Perhaps the homas , a cooper, who purchased 1 60 acres of the Great % arm belonging to ’ 2 . W 28 a n. 1 u Hon Samuel aldo s heirs , J , 76 , sit ated in Pep l ere l x % . p ( Middlese eeds , Liber 60, p

31 1 5 6 . On March , 7 , Jeremiah Lawrence, then of the district - in- of Pepperell , a son law, was appointed administrator of the ” hn - estate of Jo Chamberlain , late of Groton , Husband man . The last resting - place of this man is unknown ; but his service rend ered at P igwacket outlives the skepticism of the ages.

MAL% E N MASS , GE OR GE W. CH AM B E R LAI N.