http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=raviac&id=I8307
Thanks to Wendy Travis!
| Notice: This Benjamin Church (the Indian fighter) died at age 78, January 17, 1717/18 which would mean his birth date would be around 1640. Another Benjamin Church (son of Samuel Church) was born 1680) so he is ruled out as the Indian fighter. |
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(1704) . . . Open anger and retaliation were also among Boston's responses. On March 18 Dudley (Governor) put Benjamin Church, an aging but experienced and tough Indian fighter, in charge of an expedition aimed "against the French and Indian Enemy" in Maine, "to the Eastward of Casco-Bay." (footnote 69) Church's purpose was clear. He set out, he wrote, " because of many cruelties. . .particularly the horrid action at Deerfield, this last winter, in killing . . . and scalping, without giving any notice at all, or opportunity to ask quarter . . . and carrying the remainder into captivity in the height of winter of which the journey killed many . . . and exposed the rest to the hardships of cold and famine worse than death itself." (footnote 70) Excerpt from "New England Outpost War and Society in Colonial Deerfield" by Richard I. Melvoin with his footnote 69, citing Mass. A&R (The Acts & Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and footnote 70 , The Adventures of Baptiste, Part II in PVMA proc. The passages are from Chapter 8. The Wheel Turns Again: Deerfield & Queen Anne's War. |
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Other events of 1696 reflect the depth of
Deerfield's plight. . . . . . for Hadley resident Richard Church had been killed -- by gunshot in the head, arrow in the body, and scalping -- by a small band of supposedly friendly Indians from the Albany area. Although four Indians were arrested and tried, and two executed, the region hardly needed this kind of difficulty. . .(footnote 58) Excerpt from "New England Outpost War and Society in Colonial Deerfield" by Richard I. Melvoin with his footnote 58, citing Mass. A&R (The Acts & Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The below passage from Chapter 7, Living with Death: Deerfield, the New England Frontier, and War, 1680 - 1703 |
| I am not sure which Richard Church this is. Richard
Church (the original immigrant), if alive at this time, would be about 96,
so I rule him out as the scalped individual above. Samuel Church had a son Richard Church
born in 1669 (if this is the Richard mentioned above, then he would be the
grandson of Richard ( the immigrant). I also
believe that Richard Church (the immigrant) had a son Richard Church, no
proof yet!. Above Settlement of Benjamin Church's Estate states, and I will post other documentation, that a Richard Church married an Elizabeth Warren, daughter of Richard Warren of the Mayflower. |
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Research continues. . . |