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Our Beloved Kin: Remapping A New History of King Philip's War

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This page is referenced by:

Chapter Six
The Roads Leading North
Maps
Native Homelands of the Northeast (Map 1)
Pocasset, Pokanoket, Narragansett
Northern Front Wide View
Northern Front Close View
Numphow's Journey (Map 10)
Kwinitekw Headwaters (Map 11)
Raids on the Northern Front (Native homelands & colonial towns from Cocheco to Caskoak)
Nipmuc and surrounding homelands
Documents
1644 Passaconaway Agreement
Samuel Numphow's Report
William Waldron's Commission
Connections
Wabanaki Northern Front
Samuel Numphow's Journey: A View from Winnepesaukee
Wannalancet and the Kwinitekw Headwaters
Raids on Cascoak, Saco & Newichiwannock, September 1676
Sarah of Wamesit
Capture at Machias: William Waldron's Deceit

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The Place of Peace

The term “Wabanaki” describes the “land of the dawn (first light)” and the original peoples of this easternmost land. Continuing into today, Wabanaki encompasses a vast territory, from the Maritimes through northern New England and southern Quebec, including the homelands of the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Mik’maq, as well as the Abenaki. In many Eastern Algonquian languages, "Wabanaki" also refers generally to the other related "people of the east," including variations such as “Wampanoag” and “Wappinger” in southern New England, and “Wapahnahk,” which was used by Native people to describe Mohican and Lenape delegates to councils in the Ohio Valley. In oral tradition and continuing cultural practice, Wabanaki/Wampanoag people are those who greet the birth of the sun each morning, and the first people born into the dawnland.

This path focuses on the Northern Front of King Philip’s War, highlighting places and people in Wabanaki territory, particularly on the coast, from Molôdemak (Merrimack River) to Machias. This region was also claimed by the colonies of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, with the Bay colony asserting jurisdiction in the region that would become known as Maine. Towards the end of the war, New York asserted jurisdiction down east, at Pemaquid, as well. For an English colonial perspective on the geography of this space, see this Map of New England and New York, from the Maine Historical Society. The French colony of Quebec likewise claimed jurisdiction in parts of these territories, in conflict with English claims. These pages explore the “paths to peace,” or diplomacy, taken by Indigenous leaders and protectors before and during the war, but also the impacts of colonial conflict and captivity, as well as the routes of adaptation, negotiation and resistance.

The “Place of Peace” refers to Caskoak, a meeting place of multiple nations and waterways, a traditional site of Indigenous councils, which became embroiled in violence. It also refers to the larger question, what is the place of peace in the stories of war?
You may consider this question as you explore the paths below.
Introduction

From this page, you can view all the media associated with the Introduction of Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War. Click on the links under "Maps" to get immediate access to the full color maps created for this chapter, which will help you to locate yourself in Native spaces.
Maps
Native Homelands of the Northeast (Map 1)
Pocasset Homeland in Wampanoag Territory (Map 4)

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Capture at Machias: William Waldron’s Deceit
Far up the Wabanaki coast, in Wolastokuk (Passamaquoddy/Maliseet) territory, another incidence of captivity further instigated the northern front of the war. This incident involved the Waldron men of Cocheco (Dover, New Hampshire), who became notorious among Wabanaki people for their deceit in both trade and diplomacy.

In November 1675, William Waldron, the nephew of trader Richard Waldron, received a commission from his uncle “to pursue, kill and destroy and by all ways and means to annoy the said Indian enemy” (scroll down to see the commission). Under this commission, William sailed the ship Endeavor with his crew in November 1675, searching for the “enemy” on the Wabanaki coast, above Piscataqua, the region where his uncle’s trading post was centered. In a letter to the Endeavor’s crew, written while they were docked at Monhegan Island, Kennebec River trader Thomas Gardner warned them “not to take any Indians east side of Kenibek River because we had made peace with them.” Historian Emerson Baker notes that it is not clear if Waldron received Gardner’s warning.[1]

Nevertheless, Waldron continued to sail up the coast and “did carry” at least “9 Indians away from Michias,” a Passamaquoddy village 200 miles northeast of Casco Bay, “and more from Cape Sables,” a remote peninsula across from Machias, in Passamaquoddy territory and Nova Scotia. [2] These locations were far beyond the northern front of the war, and these leaders and their communities were not involved in the conflict. Waldron and his crew then sailed to the Azores (Fayal Islands), an archipelago located west of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean, to sell them into slavery.

The number of captives taken is unclear from the records that remain. A warrant issued by the Massachusetts Court on August 23, 1676, for the “apprehending” and imprisonment of William Waldron, charged him with “Seazing and Carrying away 30 Indians” from “ye Eastward” including “a sagamore” and his wife. [3] The indictment of William Waldron, which came later, stated that he
“did unlawfully surprise & steale away seventeen Indians men weomen & children & in your vessel called the endeavor of Boston Carrjed & sent them to ffyall & there made sale of them.”[4]

Henry Lawton, who chartered the ship, was also charged, but “broke prison” while the ship's master, John Haughton, was “fined.” Waldron, the “merchant,” was eventually “tried and discharged."

The capture of the people at Machias came at a high cost, creating an impetus for further violence on the northern front. Thomas Gardner wrote that this was a chief “Cause of the Indianes Riseing.” Bernard Trott, later commissioned to retrieve the captives, observed that this illegal capture “made the first Indian Warr in those parts” [5]

William Waldron's Commission
William Waldron’s commission is a rare document, available only through the generosity of an individual who holds the letter in a private collection and collaboration between researchers. The transcription of this letter, first contributed by Nina Mauer of the Old Berwick Historical Society, is below.
To Willliam Waldron

            The Insolency of ye Indian enemy being such as that
in ye Eastern parts they have Made sundry Assaults upon
us to ye great prejudice of ye people there both in ye loss
of ye lives and Estates of many of them & as yet no
considerable damage done them by ye soldiers or
Inhabitants[.] that yourself being bound into those
parts these are to Im[power] and commission you with
what company shall [g]o along with you as opportunity
presents to pursue kill & destroy & by all
ways & means to Annoy ye said Indian Enemy[.]
Attending such further order as you shall receive
from myself or other superior authority --
                                                            Richard Waldron

Dated at Dover 19 November 1675

[1] Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 89; Baker, “Trouble to the Eastward,” 194; Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, Volume 1, 711-12. Documentary History of the State of Maine, Baxter Manuscripts 6:118.
[2] Norton, In the Devil’s Snare, 89; Baker, “Trouble,” 194; Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, Volume 1, 711-12. Documentary History of the State of Maine, Baxter Manuscripts 6:118.
[3] Documentary History of the State of Maine, Baxter Manuscripts, Volume 6, 119-20.
[4] Records of the Court of Assistants of the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, 1630-1692, Vol. I, 86.
[5] Documentary History of the State of Maine, Baxter Manuscripts, Volume 6, 118; Volume 23, 2.