![WILLIAMS, John (1664-1729), Minister at Deerfield. Autograph letter signed ("J. Williams") to his son, Reverend Stephen Williams "Pastor of a Church of Christ at L[ong] Meadow nr Springfield"; Deerf[ield]., Mass., 30 August 1721. 4o (190 x 148 mm.), address panel on verso. Provenance: Frank T. Siebert (his sale Sotheby's New York, 21 May 1999, lot 136).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01614_0033_000(102403).jpg?w=1)
Details
WILLIAMS, John (1664-1729), Minister at Deerfield. Autograph letter signed ("J. Williams") to his son, Reverend Stephen Williams "Pastor of a Church of Christ at L[ong] Meadow nr Springfield"; Deerf[ield]., Mass., 30 August 1721. 4o (190 x 148 mm.), address panel on verso . Provenance: Frank T. Siebert (his sale Sotheby's New York, 21 May 1999, lot 136).
REVEREND WILLIAMS REPORTS ON AN INDIAN AMBUSH AT DEERFIELD. A fine letter by the long-time minister at Deerfield. "Last Wednesday after Lecture, Deacon Field, Serg[eant] Childs, Serg[eant] Burrow & 3 others went over the river with...creatures [probably cattle]. The Indians who had killed a mare & colt of Serg. Childs at Allerton's...hearing our men ambushed them by the path but the creatures running out of the path Serg. Ch[ilds] & Burrow rose out of the path after them into the bushes, got before the company & came so into the ambush as to disorder them [the Indians]. Serg. Ch. saw 2 or 3 within five rod of him & the bushes moving alarmed the company. John Wales shot at the enemy they ran down the hill to the north tho more of them & those 3 or 4 of them made a stop for John Wales to charge [re-load] again & then the enemy fired down the Hill upon them and sorely wounded Deacon field on the side of his body & his hand. We were almost ready to concluded his wound mortal [but]...the feaver is abated & great hopes he may be spared. Yesterday very early morning we heard guns at green river we suppose were at our cattle in the afternoon we were alarmed with the news of a body of the enemy upon the frontiers. We are in the hands of God who is above all our enemies...."
Reverend Williams was the most eminent resident of Deerfield in February 1703, when a war party of French soldiers and Indian braves attacked the frontier village of Deerfield. Two of Williams' young children were killed, and he, along with some 100 men, women and children were taken hostage and marched overland through the dead of winter to Montreal. On this harrowing journey, Williams' wife was murdered. Many captives, including Williams and his son Stephen (to whom he writes here) were eventually ransomed and returned to Boston, but one daughter converted to Catholicism, married an Iroquois and remained in Canada. Williams' account of the "massacre" and captivity, The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion (Boston, 1707) is a classic narrative; the events have been analyzed thoughtfully in John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story of Early America. Williams' letters are very rare on the market; we can trace only two other examples at auction since 1975. See lot 51 for Stephen Williams's copy of Doolittle's A Short Narrative of Mischief done by the French and Indian Enemy (1750).
REVEREND WILLIAMS REPORTS ON AN INDIAN AMBUSH AT DEERFIELD. A fine letter by the long-time minister at Deerfield. "Last Wednesday after Lecture, Deacon Field, Serg[eant] Childs, Serg[eant] Burrow & 3 others went over the river with...creatures [probably cattle]. The Indians who had killed a mare & colt of Serg. Childs at Allerton's...hearing our men ambushed them by the path but the creatures running out of the path Serg. Ch[ilds] & Burrow rose out of the path after them into the bushes, got before the company & came so into the ambush as to disorder them [the Indians]. Serg. Ch. saw 2 or 3 within five rod of him & the bushes moving alarmed the company. John Wales shot at the enemy they ran down the hill to the north tho more of them & those 3 or 4 of them made a stop for John Wales to charge [re-load] again & then the enemy fired down the Hill upon them and sorely wounded Deacon field on the side of his body & his hand. We were almost ready to concluded his wound mortal [but]...the feaver is abated & great hopes he may be spared. Yesterday very early morning we heard guns at green river we suppose were at our cattle in the afternoon we were alarmed with the news of a body of the enemy upon the frontiers. We are in the hands of God who is above all our enemies...."
Reverend Williams was the most eminent resident of Deerfield in February 1703, when a war party of French soldiers and Indian braves attacked the frontier village of Deerfield. Two of Williams' young children were killed, and he, along with some 100 men, women and children were taken hostage and marched overland through the dead of winter to Montreal. On this harrowing journey, Williams' wife was murdered. Many captives, including Williams and his son Stephen (to whom he writes here) were eventually ransomed and returned to Boston, but one daughter converted to Catholicism, married an Iroquois and remained in Canada. Williams' account of the "massacre" and captivity, The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion (Boston, 1707) is a classic narrative; the events have been analyzed thoughtfully in John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story of Early America. Williams' letters are very rare on the market; we can trace only two other examples at auction since 1975. See lot 51 for Stephen Williams's copy of Doolittle's A Short Narrative of Mischief done by the French and Indian Enemy (1750).