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.
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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 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.

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!