Stonington, CT, April 1676: Canonchet executed

"I like it well. I shall die before my heart is soft, or I have said anything unworthy of myself." --Chief Canonchet

Narragansett, RI: This statue represents Chief Canonchet, a key leader in King Philip's War (1675-76), also known as the "First Indian War" or "Metacom's Rebellion.")

"CHIEF CANONCHET" (Photographs by Lisa Saunders.

The Canonchet plaque reads: :

CANONCHET WAS THE SON OF MIANTONOMI AND THE GREAT NEWPHEW OF CANONICUS, THE CO-SACHEMS WHO WELCOMED ROGER WILLIAMS IN 1636.

CANONCHET WAS THE WAR LEADER OF THE NARRAGANSETTS WHEN THE UNITED COLONIES (PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS BAY, AND CONNECTICUT) ATTACKED THE NARRAGANSETT'S WINTER FORT IN THE GREAT SWAMP BATTLE OF DECEMBER 19, 1675.

HE LED THE GREAT SPRING OFFENSIVE OF 1676, BUT WAS CAPTURED NEAR PAWTUCKET [R.I.] IN APRIL. HE WAS EXECUTED SHORTLY AFTER, BUT WHEN SENTENCED TO DEATH, CANONCHET DECLARED: "I LIKE IT WELL. I SHALL DIE BEFORE MY HEART IS SOFT OR I HAVE SAID ANYTHING UNWORTHY OF MYSELF." 

"CANONCHET, FRIEND, BENEFACTOR, WARRIOR, HERO, MARTYR."

--THOMAS  BICKNELL, 1920.

MARKER DONATED BY: RICHARD VANGERMEERSCH

The 6,000 pound statue of Canonchet can be found on the Green at Exchange Place, Narragansett Pier. (Sculpted by Robert K. Carsten, 1977. Photographs by Lisa Saunders, 2016).

Canonchet Background

In October 1675, Canonchet signed a peace treaty with the English to remain neutral in King Philip's War. However, after a Narragansett village was attacked and burned because of fears they were aiding the enemy at the Great Swamp Fight (South Kingston, R.I.) in December 1675, Canonchet joined forces with Metacom. 

Captain Benjamin Church was seriously injured in the Great Swamp Fight. On February 29, 1676, at a council of war meeting, Benjamin Church refused a command of 60-70 men to defend outlying towns from Indian attacks. Church felt it was pointless to assume a position of defense with such a small group when he believed the enemy were gathering in great numbers. If he took command, he wanted no less than 300 soldiers, with 100 of them "friend-Indians." He wanted to "lie in the woods as the enemy did...make a business of war, as the enemy did..." (Church, 1975,, p. 126). Captain Michael Pierce of Scituate accepted the command that Church declined.  

At the time, Church was worrying about the safety of this pregnant wife Alice and little son, Tom. They were residing in Duxbury (their home was located near present-day Church Street). Saying goodbye to Alice's parents, the Southworths was not easy. (The Southworth home in Duxbury, MA, still stands at 1347 Tremont Street). The Southworths thought Church should take their daughter and grandson to Clark's garrison in Plymouth on the Eel River, however, Church thought they would be safer on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island. (Church was right-- a few days later on March 12,1676, the Indians attacked and burned Clark's garrison, killing 11--most of them children.)

On March 9, 1676, according to Nathaniel Philbrick in his book, "Mayflower," the Church family "set out for Taunton, from which they would proceed by boat down the Taunton River to Mount Hope Bay and Aquidneck Island." In Taunton, the Churches ran into Captain Michael Pierce and his command of 60 English and 20 friendly Cape Cod Indians. Pierce offered help in escorting Church's family to the home of Captain John Almy in Portsmouth (on Aquidneck Island, R.I.), but "Mr. Church thanked him for his respectful offer, but for some good reasons refused to accept it" (Church, 1975, p. 107). That was the last time Church saw Pierce alive. 

The morning of March 26, 1676, after having spent the night at Rehoboth, Pierce sent a message to Providence asking for reinforcements as he ran into enemy Indians along the Blackstone River the previous day. The messenger reached the Providence residents while they were worshiping at the town's meeting house but he didn't want to interrupt the service. By the end of the service, it was too late. When Pierce’s troops marched along Blackstone River in the Central Falls, Rhode Island, area, they ran into Chief Canonchet and his 500 Narragansett warriors. All of Pierce's men, with the exception of a few who managed to escape, were killed in the ambush (including Lt. Samuel Fuller, my friend Connie Howard's ancestor) or tortured to death later. Pierce's friendly Indians fought bravely and loyaly until the end, proving to the Plymouth Colony government that Benjamin Church had been right--Native Americans were valuable comrades in arms.  Nine  of the 10 men taken prisoners at the ambush were tortured and dismembered in what is known as "Nine Men's Misery" in Cumberland, R.I. (To find the grave site, click on Historical Marker Database's "Nine Men's Misery.")

A few days later on March 29, Canonchet led 1,500 Indians on an attack at Rehoboth, burning 40 houses, plus barns and mills. One man remained in his home, believing the Indians couldn't kill him if he was reading his Bible. He was shot and left with his Bible in his hands.  The day after, Canonchet burned Providence. Chief Canonchet's days were numbered.  In the end, "a Pequot Indian named Monopoide caught up to the sachem [Canonchet], who surrendered without a fight," according Philbrick.

According to Richard Anson Wheeler in the History of the Town of Stongington, Canonchet "was attacked by the English, under Capt. George Denison, accompanied by some of the friendly Pequot and Mohegan Indians, when most of the Narragansett and Wampanaog Indians fled, leaving Canonchet almost entirely alone. As soon as he realized his situation, he too sought safety in flight. The Indian allies of the English and a few of the fleetest whites pursued him, and as he saw his pursuers were gaining on him he threw off his blanket, then his silver-laced coat and belt of peage, and ran with all possible speed, to escape from his enemies, and as he crossed the rivers ford he fell and wet his gun, which so embarrassed him in his flight that he was soon overtaken and surrendered to Robert Stanton, son of the Interpreter General Thomas Stanton, then not 22 years old. Being questioned by the young man, whom he personally knew, about treaty of peace, between the English and Indians, and not wishing to recognize the authority of his youthful inquisitor, he looked upon him with lofty and defiant contempt, and said you are child, you cannot understand matters of war; let your brother, Capt. John Stanton, or your chief, Capt. George Denison, come, then will answer. But when the officers whom he had requested to see came up, he refused to enter into any negotiations with them, so he was brought prisoner to Stonington, where council of war was held, which he declined to recognize, and after his absolute refusal to enter into and abide by a treaty of peace with the English, who, after considering their defenseless conditions and his ferocious temper, he was condemned and ordered to be shot, and when told of his fate he said that "he liked it well, and should die before his heart had grown soft or he had said anything unworthy of himself," and so he was shot near Anguilla in Stonington..." (Wheeler, R.A., History of the Town of Stongington, 1900, p.592). 

"He was executed after the Indian mode, being shot by Oneko and two Pequot sachems, the nearest to his own rank among his conquerors. This was done by his captors without consulting, or advice from any one superior to them in authority"  (Wheeler, R.A., History of the Town of Stonington, 1900, p.22). 

Grace Denison Wheeler wrote in "Homes of Our Ancestors" that "[Canonchet] was shot under the eye of Denison. and the friendly Indians were his executioners, and the following are a part of some lines written by Richard S. S. Andios. 

On his conquerors he gazed 

With a proud and haughty air, 

And his eye with a flame of hatred blazed, 

Which shook the boldest there : 

And a bitter smile of scorn 

Around his dark lip played, 

While his brow like a cloud by thunder torn, 

Wore a deep and fearful shade. 

" Go bid your chief attend !

 I have no words to spare, 

No breath in idle talk to spend 

With children, as ye are, 

Though captive and in chains. 

Though fettered every limb, 

While a drop of royal blood remains, 

I speak with none save him. 

Ye say my doom is death! 

Strike, not a moment spare, 

I ask ye not for another breath! 

1 have no need of prayer!

Death ! Death ! I like it well! 

Ere my heart be soft and tame 

Ere my breast with a thought or feeling swell, 

Unworthy of my name." (Wheeler, 1903, p. 267, 268)

"The Pequots shot him; the Mohegans cut off his head and quartered his body, and the Niantics built a fire, burned his quarters sent his head to the Council at Hartford as a token of love and fidelity ..." (George Ellis and John Morris, King Philip's War,1906).

APPROXIMATE SITE OF CANONCHET'S EXECUTION IN STONINGTON, CT

According to Town of Stonington Historian Frederick Burdick, Canonchet  "was executed by Anguilla Brook along side of Pequot Trail." He added that it was somewhere behind Bill's Tractor shop. "The exact spot I’m not aware of." 

In the article, "Execution site is part of town’s hidden history" by Steven Slosberg (September 29, 2016), David J. Naumec, senior historian and archaeologist at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, stated: "it was near the present-day Pequot Trail, which was a major road even then. Connecticut forces and Native allies were raiding Narragansett Country at this time. They would usually depart from the Denison House in Stonington or from Norwich and would often return on present-day Route 1 or Pequot Trail." Slosberg concludes his article, "It may well be only conjecture, or lost to the expansion of I-95 years ago, but somewhere out there is the site of Canonchet’s historic, honorable and grisly demise."

Pictured above is the approximate area of Canonchet's execution. Seen is the Anguilla Brook located on private property at the end of the town's South Anguilla Road,north of Pequot Trail.

To find the approximate location of Canonchet's execution, find Bill's Tractor Service, Inc. (1 Anguilla Brook Rd, Pawcatuck, CT 06379), located near the intersection of Pequot Trail and South Anguilla Road.

Drive past Bill's Tractor Service on your left heading north  on South Anguilla Road. At the end of the Town road, you will come to the Anguilla Brook, which is on private property.

LEARN ABOUT CAPTAIN DENISON AT THE DENISON HOMESTEAD

Denison Homestead. Located beside the home is the field where Captain George Denison trained 200 men for service in King Philip’s War in 1676. An archaeological dig unearthed musket balls. 

THE FOLLOWING TAKEN FROM: http://denisonhomestead.org/denison-homestead/about/

"{Captain Denison ]  built his first house, a rough log house, on a rocky knoll overlooking the meadows. Forever cognizant of the possibility of Indian attacks, he surrounded this rude home with a stout stockade, enclosing a spring and a couple of acres of land, surrounded by ravines. ..Reportedly over 300 men,including English and Indians, gathered at the stockade several times during King  Phillip’s War. "

ABOUT CAPTAIN GEORGE DENISON OF STONINGTON, CT, AND HIS BAND OF ENGLISH AND FRIENDLY INDIANS WHO CAPTURED CANONCHET:

According to Wheeler's "History of the Town of Stongington" (1900), Page 22: "Almost all of the able-bodied men of Stonington were engaged in the Indian wars of their time. Capt. George Denison raised and mustered into service from the colony large force of English and Indians. He was provost-marshal for New London County and Rhode Island. He had stockade fort just west of his dwelling-house in Stonington, where his soldiers encamped previous to their forays into the Indian territory. During the year 1676, Capt. Denison organized three expeditions, which pursued with unrelenting vengeance the shattered remnants of King Philip's forces. It was during the third of these expeditions, which began March 28, 1676, and ended April 10, 1676, that the brave Narragansett chieftain, Canonchet, was taken prisoner. He was brought to Stonington, where council of war was held at Anguilla, near the present residence of Gideon P. Chesebrough [a photo of house can be seen in “Old Homes in Stonington" by Grace Denison Wheeler 1903, page 197-198, or her 1930 book on page 145]. He refused to negotiate for peace, or for the cessation of hostilities on any terms, so the council decided that he must die, and when told of his fate, replied "That he liked it well, and should die before his heart had grown soft, or he had said anything unworthy of himself." He was executed after the Indian mode, being shot by Oneko and two Pequot sachems, the nearest to his own rank among his conquerors. This was done by his captors without consulting, or advice from any one superior to them in authority..." 

According to Wheeler's "History of the Town of Stongington" (1900), Page 338: "NOTE.— Capt. George Denison (No. 14) was captain of New London County forces in King Philip's war, with Capt. John Mason, Jr., under Maj. Robert Treat, in the great swamp fight Dec. 19, 1675. Also served the next year in command of the forces raised by him as Provo-Marshal, who pursued the remnant of the Narragansett and Wampanaug Indians, and succeeded in defeating them and capturing the Indian Chief Canonchet, who was brought to Stonington, and on his refusal to make peace with the English, was shot. He assisted as magistrate to enable the Pequot chiefs designated by the English to control the remnants of the Pequots. He was assistant and deputy from Stonington to the General Court for fifteen sessions..."

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