TANGLED LINES

This is a screenshot from RootsMagic of the pedigree chart of my 4x great grandfather Moses Houghton. I had been struck by how entangled the Houghton and Sawyer families were in his ancestry so I marked all the descendants of Thomas and Mary Prescott (my 8x grandparents) in red 

Then I used the Relationship Calculator to see to what degree Moses' parents Elisha Houghton and Meriah Peirce were related.

Instances like this were quite common in colonial America. Outside of the cities, people lived in small villages and towns established by a few families. Then these early settlers were bonded together when they were forced to share the close quarters of garrison homes during Indian attacks which was the case for the Houghtons and Sawyers. Those ties sometimes continued when family members left for other parts of the country,

I have other lines in my Dad's family like this to a lesser extent.but this is the most tangled.

CYPRIAN STEVENS' LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL REVISITED

((UPDATE: It's been ten years since I posted this and since then I've discovered that
I have Moore, Whitcomb, Wilder, and Fairbanks ancestors. So only three names listed below  
are not those of a direct ancestor or a cousin. First posted in  February 2009))


I found a few more things during my research on Simon Willard that
touched on some of my ancestors. One of them is this transcription at
Genealogy.com by Janice Farnsworth of "Lancaster in Philip's War:
The Early Records of Lancaster, Massachusetts 1643 - 1725 Edited by
Henry S. Nourse, A.M. Lancaster, 1884 (page 107)




"Lancaster March 11, 1675/6 - Letter to the Governor and Counsell -"A
humble Petition of the poor distressed people of Lancaster (excerpt)
"...many of us heare in this prison, have not bread to last us one month &
our other provisions spent & gon, for the genrallyty, our Town is drawn
into two garisons - sixteen soulders....we areseartaynly a bayt (bait) for
the enemy. We are sorrowful to leave the place but hoplesse to keep it
unlesse mayntayed by the Cuntrey....our women cris dus daily...which dus
not only fill our ears but our hearts full of Greefe and makes us humbly
Request yo'r Hon'rs to send a Gard of men & that if you please so comand
we may have Carts about fourteen will re-move the whool eight of which has
presed long at Sudbury but never came for want of a small gard of men, the
whooll that is, all that are in the Garison, Kept in Major Willards house
which is all from y're Hon'rs most humble servants & suplyants -
Lancast'r March 11, 1675/6 Jacob FFarrar
John Houghton Sen'r
John Moore
John Whittcomb
Job Whittcomb
Jonathan Whittcomb
John Houghton Jun'r
Cyprian Steevens


The other garrison are in like distresse & soe humbly desire yo'r like
pitty & ffatherly care, having widows & many fatherless children - the
number of carts to Carey away this garison is twenty carts. Yo'r Hon'rs
Humble pettisioners
John Prescott Sen'r
Tho. Sawyer Sen'r
Tho. Sawyer Jun'r
Jonathan Prescott
Tho Willder
John willder
Sarah Wheeler, Wid.
Widow Ffarbanks
John Rigby
Nathaniell Wilder
John Rooper
Widow Rooper

The whole is in the handwriting of Cyprian Steevens.
[Massachusetts Archives, LXVII, 156.] "

Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth

What struck me reading this was the names of those in the garrison. They include my
direct ancestors John Prescott, Thomas Sawyer, Senior and Thomas Sawyer, Junior
in the second garrison two of my Houghton relatives in the first. It reminded me again
of how many of my ancestors were so close to a violent death during the Indian wars
of New England. Some, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, did not escape it. One of
those things that historians sometimes ponder is "What If?" If more of my colonist
ancestors had died, I and many more of their descendants wouldn't be around to
trace our ancestry.


Thank you to Janice Farnsworth for granting me permission to use her transcription!

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2019 WEEK 29: THOMAS SAWYER JR. OF LANCASTER, MA.

My 7x great grandfather Thomas Sawyer Jr. lived in "interesting times" when life in Lancaster Massachusetts resembled that in the American West of a few centuries later. The town, like others west of Boston, was the site of Indian attacks and Thomas was himself held captive for a time in Canada by the French and their native allies. Ellery Bicknell Crane tells the story in this bigographical sketch of my ancestor.

(II) Thomas Sawyer, son of Thomas Sawyer (1), was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, July 2, 1649, the first white child born there. His capture by the Indians forms one of the most familiar stories of the colonial period in Massachusetts. He was, a man of fifty-five when the event took place, and was living in the garrison as described above. Queen Anne's war was making the lives of the colonists unsafe especially on the frontier. Indians made frequent attacks and massacred men, women and children. On October 16, 1705, Thomas Sawyer, Jr., his son Elias. and John Bigelow, of Marlboro, were at work in his saw mill when they were surprises and captured by Indians. The Indians took their captives back to Canada, and turned Bigelow and young Sawyer over to the French to ransom. The Indians kept the other Thomas Sawyer to put to death by torture. Sawyer proposed to the French governor that he should build a saw mill on the Chamblay river in consideration of saving his life from the Indians and giving the three captives their freedom. The French needed the mill and were glad of the opportunity. But the Indians had to be reckoned with. They insisted on burning Thomas Sawyer at the stake. They knew him and knew he was a brave man, not afraid of torture and death. The crafty French'governor defeated their purpose by a resort to the church. When Sawyer was tied to the stake a French friar appeared with a key in his hand, and so terrible did he paint the tortures of purgatory, the key of which he told them he had in his hand ready to unlock, that they gave up their victim. Indians fear the unseen more than real dangers, and doubtless the friar took care not to specify just what he would do in case the auto-de-fe was carried on. Sawyer built the mill successfully, the first in Canada, it is said. He and Bigelow came home after seven or eight months of captivity. Elias Sawyer was kept a year longer to run the mill and teach others to run it. The captives were well treated after the French found them useful to them.

Thomas Sawyer married three times: First, Sarah , 1670; second, Hannah , 1672; and third, Mary White, 1718. He died at Lancaster, and his grave there is marked by a stone. He died September 5, 1736, in the eighty-ninth year of his age (so said), but was probably eighty-seven, if the records are correct. His will mentions four sons and two daughter. He bequeathed twelve pounds to purchase a communion vessel for the Lancaster church. Children of Thomas Sawyer were: 1. William. 2. Joseph 3. Bazalies. 4. Elias. 5. Mary, married Joshua Rice, of Marlboro. 6. Hannah, married Jonathan Moore, of Bolton. 7. (perhaps) Sarah, married Rev. Nathaniel Whitman, of Dcerfield. Massachusetts.
-p265

I'm descended from two of Thomas' children, Joseph and Hannah. I believe their mother was Hannah Lewis, Thomas' second wife..

Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity, Volume 1 
Lewis Publishing Company,  N.Y., N.Y. 1907

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2019 WEEK 28 THOMAS SAWYER SR. OF LANCASTER, MA.

My 8x great grandfather Thomas Sawyer, Sr. is another of my immigrant ancestors and one of the original settlers of Lancaster, Ma. Some of his fellow settlers are also my ancestors. Ezra Stearns wrote this description of Thomas for a book on New Hampshire genealogy:

(I) Thomas Sawyer, the American ancestor, son of John Sawyer, of Lincolnshire, England, was born about 1626, in Lincolnshire, and came to Massachusetts in 1636, with two elder brothers, and they settled in Rowley in 1639. As early as 1647, when he was twenty-four years of age, he became one of the first six settlers of Lancaster, along with the Prescotts, Wilders, Houghtons and two other families. In May 1653. the general court, in answer to a petition of the inhabitants of Lancaster, appointed Edward Breck, Nathaniel Haddock, William Kerley, Thomas Sawyer, John Prescott and Ralph Houghton, "prudential managers," "both to see all alotments to be laid out for the planters in due proportion to their estates, and also to order their prudential affairs." During this same year these managers allotted a part of the lands of the town. All divisions of land subsequent to the first, whether upland, intervale, meadow or swamp, were to be "accorded to men's estates," on the valuation of the taxable property which they brought into the settlement. Thomas Sawyer's property was valued at ino, which was about one forty-second part of the property held by the thirty adult male inhabitants of the town. Thomas Sawyer was made a freeman in 1654. He settled near the south branch of the Nashua river, and not far from the junction of that stream with the North branch. Here he built a house which was a garrison, and the scene of the most conspicuous events in the town's history. In 1704 this garrison with nine men was commanded by Thomas (2) Sawyer, and was the place of defense of the families in the vicinity, in case of an attack by Indians. Thomas Sawyer and his family passed through some of the most horrible experiences of Indian warfare in this home of theirs. King Philip's war, which began in 1675, raised a storm which broke in great fury on Lancaster, August 22, 1675 (o. s.), and eight persons were killed in the town that day. February 9, 1676, King Philip, with fifteen hundred warriors attacked Lancaster, and fifty persons, one-sixth of the inhabitants of the town, were captured or killed. Among the latter was Ephraim, the son of Thomas Sawyer, who was killed at Prescott's Garrison, in what is now the town of Clinton. The town included fifty families, and they made a heroic resistance, but overpowered by numbers they could not prevent the enemy from destroying a large number of their cattle and all but two of the houses in the settlement. After having been abandoned four years, the resettlement of the town was undertaken by the survivors of the massacre, one of whom was Thomas Sawyer. He was a blacksmith, and after participating in the struggles and trials of fifty-three years he died in Lancaster, at the age of eighty years. He was buried in the old burying ground on the bank of the Nashua river, and his headstone still stands inscribed: "Thomas Sawyer, Dec'd, September 12, 1706." Thomas Sawyer married, in 1647, Mary, daughter of John and Mary (Plaits) Prescott. John Prescott, blacksmith, was a native of Lancaster, England, and the first permanent inhabitant of Lancaster. He was the progenitor of Colonel William Prescott, of Bunker Hill fame, and William H. Prescott, the historian. The children of Thomas and Mary Sawyer were: Thomas, Ephraim, Mary, Elizabeth, Joshua, James, Caleb, John and Nathaniel.-pp103-4

 Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 1  Lewis Publishing Company, 1908

THE FLIGHT OF JOSIAH SAWYER

((Another post from 2009. I've since determined that Josiah is
my 7x great granduncle))


Before continuing on with some of the more serious stories concerning my
Willard family relations and the Indian wars in New England, there's one
story about how a Sawyer cousin escaped death.

Deacon Josiah Sawyer was the son of William Sawyer and Hannah Houghton
(also related to me from my Houghton line) and grandson of Thomas Sawyer.
He was born in Lancaster, Ma. in 1714 but at the time of this story in 1735
he was living in Bolton, Ma. with his father. He would later go on to be a
Deacon of the church in Berlin, Ma.

I'll let author William Richard Cutter describe the incident:

"While returning home one evening afoot, as was his custom, an Indian
waylaid him, just as he was descending the hill north of the Quaker
meeting-house. Sawyer dodged the upraised tomahawk and took to his
heels. Fortunately for him, he was a good runner, for he was unarmed.
The savage soon saw that he was outclassed, and gave up the pursuit.
By measurement the next day it was found that one of the leaps, as the
footprints showed, was sixteen feet. That leap is famous in Berlin history."

(William Richard Cutter, Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and
Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts
N.Y., N.Y., Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1908 p 1379)



Now two things about this tale makes me smile. One is the wording of the first
sentence. On a first casual reading, it might make you think it was poor Josiah's
habit to be waylaid by Indians while walking home.

The second is the image of the leap measuring. It must have occurred while a
party of Josiah's neighbors were looking for the Indian and following the
tracks of the chase. I wonder how they decided the length; did they actually
measure it or was it a rough estimate? And was it actually 16 feet, or did it grow in the retelling?

That Indian might have had a good time telling his friends about how far Josiah jumped.

Finally, did his escape from his Indian pursuer and his miraculous leap perhaps
inspire Josiah Sawyer's calling to the clergy?

For if it did, then I suppose we could call it a leap of faith!

THE DISAPPEARING STONE OF READING, MASSACHUSETTS

((Before I start a series of posts about my Sawyer direct ancestors, I thought I'd first repost a pair of stories involving some Sawyer cousins. This one was first posted in 2009.))



Back earlier this year when I was researching accounts of my ancestors' experiences
in the New England Indian wars I came across an interesting story about some of
my Sawyer relatives. It concerned, of all things, a legend about a disappearing
stone! I bookmarked it to come back to later, or so I thought, because when I
was ready to post about it here I found I'd not saved the site location.

I began googling for the story once more but had no luck. Periodically
I'd renew the search but failed and I'd finally almost come to believe that the
story about a disappearing stone had disappeared itself! But tonight I finally
got lucky!

So here's a story of brothers John and Benjamin Sawyer, my fellow descendants
from Thomas Sawyer and Mary(Marie) Prescott:


"John was a builder, and when he was putting up a house for Charles Buck asked
Benjamin to help him find a big flat stone for the hearth, probably. They found a
stone which by splitting would serve, but left it for another that served without
splitting. Soon afterward, when another such stone was needed for another new
house. John searched for the stone and to his surprise it had disappeared.
Benjamin was sure he could find it, but he also failed in his search. Soon the
stone reappeared, however, in the very spot where it had been first discovered.
The superstitious explained the mystery of the stone that came and went, and the
public came to believe that the stone marked hidden treasure. It was supposed
that the ghostly guards who had to watch over the treasure got tired of their job
occasionally and hid away the stone. At any rate, enough credence was given to
the story of enchantment to cause many parties to dig for the fabled treasure,
and the stories of their experiences add an interesting chapter to the town history."

- Cutter, William Richard, ed. Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical
and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County,
Massachusetts, Vol3 (New York, New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Co.
1908) p.1377

Benjamin Sawyer lived from 1762 to 1843 and this is the only mention I've
found anywhere of hidden treasure and a magical disappearing stone in Reading.
Middlesex, Ma. It is strongly reminiscent of the folktales of England, I think.

If you're up around Reading some day, look for a stone suddenly appearing in
a field and you might find some buried treasure!

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2016 WEEK 46: JOSIAH WHITE OF LANCASTER MA.

My 8x great grandfather Josiah White is one of my ancestors who is overshadowed by his relatives.
His father John White was one of the founders of Lancaster, Ma. and is desribed as the richest man
in town. And his son, another John White, was renowned in his day as an "Indian fighter."  What I
do know is the following:

Josiah White was born in 1643 in Wenham, Ma.  and was a carpenter by trade. His first wife was
Mary Lewis who died in 1678. Not long after that same year Josiah married Mary Rice, whose parents were Thomas and Mary (King) Rice of Sudbury, Ma.  (Thomas' brother Henry is my 9x great
grandfather through another family line.) Josiah held several positions in Lancaster town government over his lifetime. During the Queen Anne's War he was a sergeant in the town militia and at one point was put in command of one of the town garrisons. 

I've found birth records for seven children of Josiah and Mary over on the Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850 website:

Sarah 21 Oct 1680
Joseph, 15 Sep 1682
Josiah 16 Sep 1682
John 20 Sep 1684
Thankful 27Mar 1689
Jonathan 1692

It looks like Joseph and Josiah were twins born around midnight, or perhaps those dates are a typo.

Josiah died intestate on 11Nov 1714 and I've found a copy of his probate file at AmericanAncestors.org. His widow Mary remarried a few years later. Interestingly, her new husband was my 7x great granduncle Thomas Sawyer Jr, whose experiences as an Indian captive I've previously blogged about. Mary died in 1733.

CYPRIAN STEVENS' LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL REVISITED

((UPDATE: It's been seven years since I posted this and since then I've discovered that
I have Moore, Whitcomb, Wilder, and Fairbanks ancestors. So only three names listed below  
are not those of a direct ancestor or a cousin. First posted in  February 2009))


I found a few more things during my research on Simon Willard that
touched on some of my ancestors. One of them is this transcription at
Genealogy.com by Janice Farnsworth of "Lancaster in Philip's War:
The Early Records of Lancaster, Massachusetts 1643 - 1725 Edited by
Henry S. Nourse, A.M. Lancaster, 1884 (page 107)





"Lancaster March 11, 1675/6 - Letter to the Governor and Counsell -"A
humble Petition of the poor distressed people of Lancaster (excerpt)
"...many of us heare in this prison, have not bread to last us one month &
our other provisions spent & gon, for the genrallyty, our Town is drawn
into two garisons - sixteen soulders....we areseartaynly a bayt (bait) for
the enemy. We are sorrowful to leave the place but hoplesse to keep it
unlesse mayntayed by the Cuntrey....our women cris dus daily...which dus
not only fill our ears but our hearts full of Greefe and makes us humbly
Request yo'r Hon'rs to send a Gard of men & that if you please so comand
we may have Carts about fourteen will re-move the whool eight of which has
presed long at Sudbury but never came for want of a small gard of men, the
whooll that is, all that are in the Garison, Kept in Major Willards house
which is all from y're Hon'rs most humble servants & suplyants -
Lancast'r March 11, 1675/6 Jacob FFarrar
John Houghton Sen'r
John Moore
John Whittcomb
Job Whittcomb
Jonathan Whittcomb
John Houghton Jun'r
Cyprian Steevens


The other garrison are in like distresse & soe humbly desire yo'r like
pitty & ffatherly care, having widows & many fatherless children - the
number of carts to Carey away this garison is twenty carts. Yo'r Hon'rs
Humble pettisioners
John Prescott Sen'r
Tho. Sawyer Sen'r
Tho. Sawyer Jun'r
Jonathan Prescott
Tho Willder
John willder
Sarah Wheeler, Wid.
Widow Ffarbanks
John Rigby
Nathaniell Wilder
John Rooper
Widow Rooper

The whole is in the handwriting of Cyprian Steevens.
[Massachusetts Archives, LXVII, 156.] "

Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth

What struck me reading this was the names of those in the garrison. They include my
direct ancestors John Prescott, Thomas Sawyer, Senior and Thomas Sawyer, Junior
in the second garrison two of my Houghton relatives in the first. It reminded me again
of how many of my ancestors were so close to a violent death during the Indian wars
of New England. Some, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, did not escape it. One of
those things that historians sometimes ponder is "What If?" If more of my colonist
ancestors had died, I and many more of their descendants wouldn't be around to
trace our ancestry.

As it was, Thomas Sawyer Junior was to have another encounter with Indians
some years later, and I'll be telling that story soon.

Thank you to Janice Farnsworth for granting me permission to use her transcription!

THE DISAPPEARING STONE OF READING, MASSACHUSETTS

((In the spirit of Halloween, I'll be reposting some stories of the strange
and unusual from New England folklore. This post originally appeared
here in 2009.))  



Back earlier this year when I was researching accounts of my ancestors' experiences
in the New England Indian wars I came across an interesting story about some of
my Sawyer relatives. It concerned, of all things, a legend about a disappearing
stone! I bookmarked it to come back to later, or so I thought, because when I
was ready to post about it here I found I'd not saved the site location.

I began googling for the story once more but had no luck. Periodically
I'd renew the search but failed and I'd finally almost come to believe that the
story about a disappearing stone had disappeared itself! But tonight I finally
got lucky!

So here's a story of brothers John and Benjamin Sawyer, my fellow descendants
from Thomas Sawyer and Mary(Marie) Prescott:


"John was a builder, and when he was putting up a house for Charles Buck asked
Benjamin to help him find a big flat stone for the hearth, probably. They found a
stone which by splitting would serve, but left it for another that served without
splitting. Soon afterward, when another such stone was needed for another new
house. John searched for the stone and to his surprise it had disappeared.
Benjamin was sure he could find it, but he also failed in his search. Soon the
stone reappeared, however, in the very spot where it had been first discovered.
The superstitious explained the mystery of the stone that came and went, and the
public came to believe that the stone marked hidden treasure. It was supposed
that the ghostly guards who had to watch over the treasure got tired of their job
occasionally and hid away the stone. At any rate, enough credence was given to
the story of enchantment to cause many parties to dig for the fabled treasure,
and the stories of their experiences add an interesting chapter to the town history."

- Cutter, William Richard, ed. Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical
and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County,
Massachusetts, Vol3 (New York, New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Co.
1908) p.1377

Benjamin Sawyer lived from 1762 to 1843 and this is the only mention I've
found anywhere of hidden treasure and a magical disappearing stone in Reading.
Middlesex, Ma. It is strongly reminiscent of the folktales of England, I think.

If you're up around Reading some day, look for a stone suddenly appearing in
a field and you might find some buried treasure!

THE FLIGHT OF JOSIAH SAWYER

((Another post from 2009. I've since determined that Josiah is
my 7x great granduncle))


Before continuing on with some of the more serious stories concerning my
Willard family relations and the Indian wars in New England, there's one
story about how a Sawyer cousin escaped death.

Deacon Josiah Sawyer was the son of William Sawyer and Hannah Houghton
(also related to me from my Houghton line) and grandson of Thomas Sawyer.
He was born in Lancaster, Ma. in 1714 but at the time of this story in 1735
he was living in Bolton, Ma. with his father. He would later go on to be a
Deacon of the church in Berlin, Ma.

I'll let author William Richard Cutter describe the incident:

"While returning home one evening afoot, as was his custom, an Indian
waylaid him, just as he was descending the hill north of the Quaker
meeting-house. Sawyer dodged the upraised tomahawk and took to his
heels. Fortunately for him, he was a good runner, for he was unarmed.
The savage soon saw that he was outclassed, and gave up the pursuit.
By measurement the next day it was found that one of the leaps, as the
footprints showed, was sixteen feet. That leap is famous in Berlin history."

(William Richard Cutter, Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and
Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts
N.Y., N.Y., Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1908 p 1379)



Now two things about this tale makes me smile. One is the wording of the first
sentence. On a first casual reading, it might make you think it was poor Josiah's
habit to be waylaid by Indians while walking home.

The second is the image of the leap measuring. It must have occurred while a
party of Josiah's neighbors were looking for the Indian and following the
tracks of the chase. I wonder how they measured the jump, did they actually
measure it? And was it actually 16 feet, or did it grow in the retelling?

Finally, did his escape from his Indian pursuer and his miraculous leap perhaps
inspire Josiah Sawyer's calling to the clergy?

For if it did, then I suppose we could call it a leap of faith!

THE DISAPPEARING STONE OF READING, MASSACHUSETTS

Back earlier this year when I was researching accounts of my ancestors' experiences
in the New England Indian wars I came across an interesting story about some of
my Sawyer relatives. It concerned, of all things, a legend about a disappearing
stone! I bookmarked it to come back to later, or so I thought, because when I
was ready to post about it here I found I'd not saved the site location.

I began googling for the story once more but had no luck. Periodically
I'd renew the search but failed and I'd finally almost come to believe that the
story about a disappearing stone had disappeared itself! But tonight I finally
got lucky!

So here's a story of brothers John and Benjamin Sawyer, my fellow descendants
from Thomas Sawyer and Mary(Marie) Prescott:


"John was a builder, and when he was putting up a house for Charles Buck asked
Benjamin to help him find a big flat stone for the hearth, probably. They found a
stone which by splitting would serve, but left it for another that served without
splitting. Soon afterward, when another such stone was needed for another new
house. John searched for the stone and to his surprise it had disappeared.
Benjamin was sure he could find it, but he also failed in his search. Soon the
stone reappeared, however, in the very spot where it had been first discovered.
The superstitious explained the mystery of the stone that came and went, and the
public came to believe that the stone marked hidden treasure. It was supposed
that the ghostly guards who had to watch over the treasure got tired of their job
occasionally and hid away the stone. At any rate, enough credence was given to
the story of enchantment to cause many parties to dig for the fabled treasure,
and the stories of their experiences add an interesting chapter to the town history."

- Cutter, William Richard, ed. Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical
and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County,
Massachusetts, Vol3 (New York, New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Co.
1908) p.1377

Benjamin Sawyer lived from 1762 to 1843 and this is the only mention I've
found anywhere of hidden treasure and a magical disappearing stone in Reading.
Middlesex, Ma. It is strongly reminiscent of the folktales of England, I think.

If you're up around Reading some day, look for a stone suddenly appearing in
a field and you might find some buried treasure!

THE FLIGHT OF JOSIAH SAWYER

Before continuing on with some of the more serious stories concerning my
Willard family relations and the Indian wars in New England, there's one
story about how a Sawyer cousin escaped death.

Deacon Josiah Sawyer was the son of William Sawyer and Hannah Houghton
(also related to me from my Houghton line) and grandson of Thomas Sawyer.
He was born in Lancaster, Ma. in 1714 but at the time of this story in 1735
he was living in Bolton, Ma. with his father. He would later go on to be a
Deacon of the church in Berlin, Ma.

I'll let author William Richard Cutter describe the incident:

"While returning home one evening afoot, as was his custom, an Indian
waylaid him, just as he was descending the hill north of the Quaker
meeting-house. Sawyer dodged the upraised tomahawk and took to his
heels. Fortunately for him, he was a good runner, for he was unarmed.
The savage soon saw that he was outclassed, and gave up the pursuit.
By measurement the next day it was found that one of the leaps, as the
footprints showed, was sixteen feet. That leap is famous in Berlin history."

(William Richard Cutter, Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and
Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts
N.Y., N.Y., Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1908 p 1379)

Now two things about this tale makes me smile. One is the wording of the first
sentence. On a first casual reading, it might make you think it was poor Josiah's
habit to be waylaid by Indians while walking home.

The second is the image of the leap measuring. It must have occurred while a
party of Josiah's neighbors were looking for the Indian and following the
tracks of the chase. I wonder how they measured the jump, did they actually
measure it? And was it actually 16 feet, or did it grow in the retelling?

Finally, did his escape from his Indian pursuer and his miraculous leap perhaps
inspire Josiah Sawyer's calling to the clergy?

For if it did, then I suppose we could call it a leap of faith!

THOMAS SAWYER JUNIOR AND THE INDIANS

King Phillip's War was but the first of a series of conflicts between the
New England colonists and the Indians but those that followed were often
extensions of the wars between England and France. The first of these
was part of the Nine Year's War in Europe and was known in the colonies
as King William's War, because it began when William of Orange drove
the last Stuart king from the throne of England in 1689. William joined with
other European rulers in a "Grand Alliance" against France, war ensued,
and eventually the hostilities spread to the American colonies.

Both the English and French made use of Indian allies and the fighting
stretched from Canada to New England and New York. By this time
many of the families who'd evacuated their homes during King Philip's
War had returned to their towns to rebuild, including my Houghton, Willard,
Prescott, and Sawyer ancestors, and once more their lives were touched
by warfare.

One of the more interesting stories of my ancestors in this period
is that of Thomas Sawyer, Jr. He was born on 2 Jul 1649, the son of Thomas
Sawyer, Sr. and Marie Prescott, and was the first white child born in Lancaster,
the town his grandfather John Prescott had founded. As noted in Cyprian Steven's
letter to the Governor in 1676, he was one of those who'd taken shelter in the
Lancaster garrison houses during the Nipmuc Indian attack of March. By that time
he was married to Hannah Lewis (21 Sep 1672). After the war he and his family
returned to the town where Thomas had a sawmill where the Sawyer family had
another close encounter with Indians. The story is told in William Richard
Cutter's Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs
Relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts (Lewis historical
publishing company, 1908) and you can view it on Googlebooks here:

"On October 16, 1695, Thomas Sawyer Jr., his son Elias, and John Bigelow of
Marlborough, were at work in his saw mill when they were surprised and captured
by the Indians. The Indians took their captives to Canada, and turned Bigelow
and young Sawyer over to the French to ransom. The Indians kept the other Thomas
Sawyer to put to death by torture. Sawyer proposed to the French governor that he
should build a saw mill on the Chamblay river, in consideration of saving his life
from the Indians, and giving the three captives their freedom. The French needed
the mill and were glad of the opportunity. But the Indians had to be reckoned with.
They insisted on burning Thomas Sawyer at the stake. They knew him and knew
he was a brave man, not afraid of torture and death. The crafty French governor
defeated their purpose by a resort to the church. When Sawyer was tied to the stake,
a Fench friar appeared with a key in his hand, and so terrible did he paint the tortures
of purgatory, the key of which he told them he had in his hand ready to unlock, that
they gave up their victim. Indians fear the unseen more than the real dangers, and
doubtless the friar took care not to specify what he would do in case the auto-de-fe
was carried on. Sawyer built the mill successfully, the first in Canada, it is said.
He and Bigelow came home after seven or eight months of captivity. Elias Sawyer
was kept a year longer to run the mill and teach others to run it. The captives were
well treated after the French found them useful to them."

It's certainly an interesting story. My only question about it is the part about Elias
Sawyer being left behind to run the mill, since he was born in 1689 and would only
have been 6 or at most 7 years old at the time. But there were three older Sawyer
sons andperhaps it was one of them instead of Elias taken in the raid. At any rate,
it was a better outcome than might have been expected in such a situation.

Other relatives of Thomas Sawyer Jr. would not be as fortunate.

CYPRIAN STEVEN'S LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL

I found a few more things during my research on Simon Willard that
touched on some of my ancestors. One of them is this transcription at
Genealogy.com by Janice Farnsworth of "Lancaster in Philip's War:
The Early Records of Lancaster, Massachusetts 1643 - 1725 Edited by
Henry S. Nourse, A.M. Lancaster, 1884 (page 107)





"Lancaster March 11, 1675/6 - Letter to the Governor and Counsell -"A
humble Petition of the poor distressed people of Lancaster (excerpt)
"...many of us heare in this prison, have not bread to last us one month &
our other provisions spent & gon, for the genrallyty, our Town is drawn
into two garisons - sixteen soulders....we areseartaynly a bayt (bait) for
the enemy. We are sorrowful to leave the place but hoplesse to keep it
unlesse mayntayed by the Cuntrey....our women cris dus daily...which dus
not only fill our ears but our hearts full of Greefe and makes us humbly
Request yo'r Hon'rs to send a Gard of men & that if you please so comand
we may have Carts about fourteen will re-move the whool eight of which has
presed long at Sudbury but never came for want of a small gard of men, the
whooll that is, all that are in the Garison, Kept in Major Willards house
which is all from y're Hon'rs most humble servants & suplyants -
Lancast'r March 11, 1675/6 Jacob FFarrar
John Houghton Sen'r
John Moore
John Whittcomb
Job Whittcomb
Jonathan Whittcomb
John Houghton Jun'r
Cyprian Steevens


The other garrison are in like distresse & soe humbly desire yo'r like
pitty & ffatherly care, having widows & many fatherless children - the
number of carts to Carey away this garison is twenty carts. Yo'r Hon'rs
Humble pettisioners
John Prescott Sen'r
Tho. Sawyer Sen'r
Tho. Sawyer Jun'r
Jonathan Prescott
Tho Willder
John willder
Sarah Wheeler, Wid.
Widow Ffarbanks
John Rigby
Nathaniell Wilder
John Rooper
Widow Rooper

The whole is in the handwriting of Cyprian Steevens.
[Massachusetts Archives, LXVII, 156.] "

Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth

What struck me reading this was the names of those in the garrison. They include my
direct ancestors John Prescott, Thomas Sawyer, Senior and Thomas Sawyer, Junior
in the second garrison two of my Houghton relatives in the first. It reminded me again
of how many of my ancestors were so close to a violent death during the Indian wars
of New England. Some, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, did not escape it. One of
those things that historians sometimes ponder is "What If?" If more of my colonist
ancestors had died, I and many more of their descendants wouldn't be around to
trace our ancestry.

As it was, Thomas Sawyer Junior was to have another encounter with Indians
some years later, and I'll be telling that story soon.

Thank you to Janice Farnsworth for granting me permission to use her transcription!