Timeline: In Search of Benjamin Church: His God, Indians and Rum

CHAPTER ONE

Author Lisa Saunders pictured in 2013 with the Mayflower II in Plymouth

The story of Ranger Benjamin Church versus King Philip (Metacomet) in 1675-76 really begins with Church's grandfather, Richard Warren of the Mayflower, and King Philip's father, Massasoit, leader of the Wampanoag Indians.

Timeline:

1595: Richard Warren, Benjamin Church's grandfather, is born in Hertford, England.

1620: Richard Warren, age 35, was among the 102 passengers on the Mayflower, the ship that brought the Pilgrims from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts. Warren, a merchant, had left his wife and five daughters in England. 

Wednesday, December 6, 1620: Inadequately dressed for the freezing weather, Richard Warren and others, including Governor Carver, Bradford, Standish, Winslow , John and Edward Tilley, John Howland, Stephen Hopkins and his servant, Edward Doty, paddled in the Mayflower's shallop to explore the area. This exploration resulted in the "first encounter" with Indians whose rapid-fire arrows were more effective than the slow-firing muskets of the English. 

Legend has it that when they landed in Plymouth, they stepped on "Plymouth Rock" (seen in photo with the year 1620 etched on it). 

They disembarked too late in the year to build suitable homes and gather food. Richard Warren was one of the only eight married men out of 24 who managed to survive that first winter of 1620-1621. Half of the 102 passengers died.

According to Richard Warren descendant, Dr. Lee McDowell, scurvy is what led to the majority of deaths among the Mayflower passengers that first winter. As the scurvy progressed, the settlers became too weak to walk. Lee McDowell said, “Scurvy is a hideous disease that involves body tissue breakdown. Clinical signs and symptoms include bloody patches under the skin, extreme weakness, loosening of the teeth, rotting gums and a breath that is an intolerable stench of putrefaction. Old healed wounds and scars can suddenly break open, and fresh wounds and sores show no tendency to heal.”

Some of the Mayflower deaths were a direct result of scurvy, “while other deaths may have resulted from an indirect effect of scurvy, with the lack of vitamin C resulting in a lower resistance and greater susceptibility to disease organisms (e.g. pneumonia).”  McDowell said scurvy can develop in as little as six weeks, “though generally it takes 10-12 weeks for scurvy to develop.” 

March 1621 - Massasoit (statue above taken October 2017 by Lisa Saunders), king of the Wampanoag Indians (father of King Philip) travels to Plymouth with colleague Samoset, who has been friendly to the newcomers. Massasoit believes there is value in having a thriving trade between the two peoples and wants the English as allies against the nearby Narragansetts. The English colonists and Wampanoags enjoy peaceful relations for 50 years. 

Fall 1621: The Thanksgiving Feast--Richard Warren and the other Mayflower passengers feasted with the Wampanoag Indians to celebrate the colony's first successful harvest. The English leader Edward Winslow wrote home to a friend: “Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others.” The governor, William Bradford, said, “And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.” 

1623: Richard Warren''s wife and five daughters (I come from their daughter Elizabeth)  joined him in Plymouth on the ship Anne.  Richard and wife Elizabeth had two more children, sons Nathaniel and Joseph.

1628: Richard Warren passed away from unknown causes.

This English sword handle is believed to be Richard Warren’s. It was discovered at the Edward Winslow house in Plymouth (now the Mayflower Society House) during excavation for a basement in 1898. Anthony Darling, author of “A Rare Sword from Plymouth Colony” believes it could be Richard Warrens because the Warrens lived on this property in 1678 (Warren died in 1628) and because there are several references to swords in the Warren family inventories.

[Year?] Richard Warren's daughter, Elizabeth Warren, married Richard Church (in the second edition of Church's memoir, his father's name is given as Joseph Church).

May 26, 1637:  Under Captain John Mason, the English and Narragansett and Mohegan allies attacked and set fire to a fortified Pequot village near the Mystic River in Mystic, Connecticut.  The battle is known as the Mystic Massacre. Listed among the History Channel's “10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America,” the Mystic Massacre had a major impact on early American history. The Pequot War involved disputes over control of the fur trade. It’s a very complicated series of retaliations over murders and kidnappings, which reportedly began when the Pequot Indian tribe killed another Indian tribe traveling through their territory on their way to a Dutch trading post. The English, under Captain John Mason, along with the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes, joined forces against the Pequots at their stockade-walled village once located down the street from my home. The English burned the village to the ground, killing at least 400 Pequot Indians. Several inhabitants managed to escape over the wall, but others who tried were captured and sold into slavery. The majority of the remaining Pequot Indians were hunted down and killed or enslaved by other native American tribes and European slave traders. The Treaty of Hartford officially ended the Pequot War in 1638 and the English began to settle in the Mystic area 16 years later. (Learn more about the Mystic Massacre at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, which includes a recreated 16th-century Pequot village.)

[Although the Native Americans who enslaved the Pequot survivors forbade them to speak their native language or even the name of their tribe, the Pequot name is everywhere—from trails to a health center. Foxwoods, the largest resort casino in the Northeast, is owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation (descendants of Pequots and Mohegans).] 

1638 (circa) - Metacomet (later known as King Philip), son of Massasoit of the Wampanoag Indians, is born in Massachusetts. 

1639 - Benjamin Church, grandson of Richard Warren, is born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to parents Elizabeth (Warren) and Richard (or Joseph) Church (MF 18:1:26)

1661 - Massasoit, king of the Wampanoag Indians (father of King Philip) dies near Bristol, RI. His son Wamsutta, who asked for an English name (Alexander) for himself and his brother (Philip) of the Pokanoket Tribe, becomes the leader of Wampanoag nation.

1662 - Wamsutta (or King Alexander), who is suspected of conspiring with the Narragansetts against the English, dies.  King Philip, approximately 24 years old,  succeeds his older brother and later claims the English poisoned his brother. 

26 Dec 1667 - Benjamin Church (age 28) marries Alice Southworth (b. 1646), Perhaps in Duxbury, MA. (MF 18:1:26)

1673 - Alice and Benjamin Church, living in Duxbury, MA, have their first child, son Thomas, who goes onto publish his father's memoirs--Entertaining Passages Relating to Philip's War. 

Timeline for King Philip's War 

To understand the causes and players in the war, I recommend you click into this article: https://www.britannica.com/event/King-Philips-War

Dec 1674 - John Sassamon, a "praying Indian" (converted to Christianity) who was educated at Harvard and served as King Philip's translator and advisor, tells Plymouth colony officials that King Philip is planning to gather other Indian tribes to attack colonial settlements. King Philip hears of this betrayal. 

Jan 29, 1675:  John Sassamon was killed and his body dumped in Assawompsett Pond,  a few miles south of Middleborough, Mass, where it was pushed under the ice. 

Sassamon's body is discovered under the ice and there is an Indian witness to the murder. 

June 1, 1675 – Three Indians are tried for the murder of  John Sassamon: Tobias, Wampapaquan, and Mattashunnamo. The men are sentenced to hang on June 8.

June 8, 1675 – The men continue to claim their innocence up until the hanging. Tobias and Mattashunnamo died in the usual way of a hanging, but Wampapaquan’s rope broke. When he fell to the ground, he started confessing, but said it was the other two that killed John Sassamon and that all he did was help with the body. He is hanged again, and this time, he died.  Philip and the other Wampanoags are furious the English handled what should have been a Wampanoag matter.

At the time, Benjamin Church was building a "plantation" on his newly acquired property in Indian territory called Sagkonate. The English called the area Little Compton (now in Rhode Island). His wife and son remained in Duxbury, Mass.

June 14, 1675 –  Benjamin Church attends a dance near his Little Compton property at the Indian village of Awashonks. In attendance were some of Philip’s warriors in war paint.

Church's memoir takes off from there, which I will quote where appropriate.

For a general timelines and  understanding, click here: https://worldhistoryproject.org/topics/king-philips-war-metacoms-rebellion

For a good map of the attacks you are about to read about, with an explanation of unfolding events, click here: http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/bloodbath-in-new-england/

Continue to follow a more complete time line, with more information under each date, with this link:    http://historum.com/blogs/baltis/1141-chronology-king-philips-war-part-one.html 

MORE RELEVANT DATES TO FOLLOW AS I HAVE TIME.

17th Century Encampment at Pequot Museum farmstead

Lisa Saunders, descendant of Col. Benjamin Church, with Dr. Steven Eames portraying Benjamin Church's Co. (1675-1707) at the 17th Century Encampment held at the Pequot Museum farmstead on June 23 & 24, 2017.

Dr. Kevin McBride, Director of Research, gave a guided tour of a King Philip’s War era Pequot fort .  The Monhantic Fort site was discovered in 1992 by Dr. McBride and is the most pristine remains of a Native fort from the period. 

Learn more about King Philip's War (1675-1677) at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center! For more information: http://www.pequotmuseum.org

 Reenactors from Benjamin Church's Co. More information: Reenactors/Historians: Benjamin Church's Co.

Pequot Indian reenactor with Lisa Saunders

More about:

Dr. Kevin McBride: 

• http://anthropology.uconn.edu/core-faculty/kevin-mcbride/
• http://www.pequotmuseum.org/Tours.aspx

• Battlefields of King Philip’s War c/o Dr. Kevin McBride

Dr. Steven Eames: 

• http://www.mountida.edu/contacts/steven-eames/
• Reenactors/Historians: Benjamin Church's Co.
• Book: Rustic Warriors

Here is how Lisa Saunders descends from Benjamin Church plus her request for more information: http://rangerbenjaminchurch.blogspot.com/2016/08/descendant-of-benjamin-church-seeks.html

In Search of Col. Benjamin Church, Indian Fighter

In Search of Benjamin Church, Father of American Rangers

Indians, God and Rum

by Lisa Saunders (seen above at burial site of Col. Benjamin Church)

Introduction

Moving to the maritime village of Mystic, Connecticut, from New York in 2010, I now lived closer to my Mayflower roots and my ancestor's encounters with Native Americans—good and bad. Having failed in my first attempt at an epic sailing voyage when I abandoned ship on my new Mystic friends, I have hung my head in Mystic ever since. My daring ancestors must be so ashamed! 

Even my mother was ashamed and scolded, "bad girl!" when I called her from the train ride back to Mystic to tell her. I had imagined my perseverance against all odds including being the last to succumb to scurvy should we become as cast adrift at sea. After all, I descend from surviving Mayflower passenger Richard Warren--one of the eight married men out of 24 to survive that first winter (most died from the effects of scurvy). Richard Warren endured the dismal—and sometimes terrifying—66-day voyage across the Atlantic to New England without abandoning ship. When he passed away in 1628, it was said of him that he “was a useful instrument; and during his life bore a deep share in the difficulties and troubles of the first settlement of the plantation of New Plymouth” (Nathaniel Morton, William Bradford, Thomas Prince, Edward Winslow, 1669, p. 88).

How embarrassing if my headstone states: “She Abandoned Ship,” instead of: “She Was a Useful Instrument.” 

 A freelance writer, I guess I'm more suited to reading and writing about long ago adventures rather than having my own (my sailing disaster is told in my travel memoir, Mystic Seafarer's Trail: Secrets behind the 7 Wonders, Titanic's Shoes, Captain Sisson's Gold, and Amelia Earhart's Wedding).  I love researching dead people--the kind who quietly decompose in marked graves while inspiring me to solve their mysteries. I consider my time with them as a form of time travel. 

Despite my reputation as a coward but knowing of my love of dead people, I was assigned to write Mystic area ghost legends by the editor of a local magazine. I interviewed residents to research all that’s weird and dug out my old $26 electromagnetic frequency (EMF) detector. I had purchased it to measure my TV and microwave oven output, but paranormal investigators use them to look for unusual energy.
The locals suggested I see if Mystic's longest standing property, the Denison Homestead, had any ghosts. Apparently, ghost investigators had recorded some unexplained noises and heard the word “fire.” Although some think that could be referring to the fire on that property, I think it could have been for something else. 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. Was the word "fire" a shout from past echoing into the future? Was it Captain Dension yelling "fire!" during training exercises? 

Knowing nothing about King Philip’s War (also called the First Indian War), I learned there was a lot about it in a book I already owned but hadn't finished--Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick. Picking it  back up,  I couldn’t believe it—I actually had a major connection to that war. I am a descendant of Colonel Benjamin Church (grandson of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren), who was commissioned by the Plymouth Colony governor to form the first ranger force to fight against King Phillip (his Native American name was Metacomet). Benjamin Church, now referred to as the father of American Rangers, raised a band of frontiersmen and allied Indians and trained them in fighting tactics learned from Indians. His memoirs are considered the first American military manual. I promptly ordered his book with the unusual title, Entertaining Passages Relating to Philip's War, and couldn’t wait to find out how war could be entertaining. Perhaps the answer was in Philbrick’s comment that my ancestor portrayed himself as a “swashbuckling knight.” 

Although Church is probably too ashamed to admit to his dead friends that I, an "abandon shipper" descend from him, learning what a controversial figure he is, I may be reluctant to admit to my l living friends he is my ancestor!

But investigating his life is showing me how brave he and his opponents were--what blood curdling tales I'm reliving. Scalping, heads in spikes, and getting drawn and quartered make my sailing adventure seem as scary as taking a bath.  

I have to be honest--when I walked into a Rhode Island swamp searching for the location of the Great Swamp Fight, I heard angry animal calls and grew afraid. Given that native Americans used animal calls to communicate with each other prior to attack, I imagined my arrival had re-awakened the ghosts of the slain Indian warriors along with their women and children who died in the grisly fire afterwards.

Did they know I descended from Benjamin Church? Would they exact their revenge on me? Church had been seriously wounded at the Great Swam Fight but recovered to fight on until he tracked King Philip to his death and had his head mounted on stake. 

I know people who won't admit they descend from Captain John Mason, the leader in what is now called the Mystic Massacre (more on that to follow). But perhaps this is my time to be brave and admit who I descend from--no matter what my research may find...

The entry to the Great Swamp Fight area in South Kingston, Rhode Island

Hearing angry animal calls and fearing ticks, I didn't enter the Great Swamp the day this photograph was taken in 2016.

As I learn more about Benjamin Church and unravel a timeline of events pertaining to him, I will post his whereabouts with his quotes from him memoir plus relevant images if possible. I don't want to retell a complex Indian war--I just want my research adventure to be quest really-- "In Search of Benjamin Church."