John Chamberlain Was Cradled

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 .

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