Details
[DEERFIELD MASSACRE]. PARTRIDGE, Samuel, Military commander, Connecticut Valley. Autograph letter signed ("Sam Partridge") to John Winthrop (1638-1707), Governor of Connecticut, Hartford, 10 August 1703. Endorsed on verso: "Co. Partridge his Acct. of a Party of French & Indians expected to fall upon Deerefield..." tiny burn hole to one letter of text, otherwise fine. Discreet embossed ex-libris of "J. Wingate Thornton."
"BEING...IN DAYLY & HOURLY FEAR OF THE ENEMYS APPROACH ESPECIALLY AT DEERFIELD" "
A letter vividly testifying to the vulnerability of the outlying English settlements in the Connecticut Valley to raids and kidnappings by French and native American raiding parties dispatched from Canada. Although the Deerfield massacre, in which about 50 settlers were killed and some 137 kidnapped, took place in February 1704, depredations along the northern frontier and reports of large war parties being organized began to circulate in the English colonies months before. Partridge, commanding the Connecticut Valley militia, passes on these ominous reports: "I have lately Recd instructions from...Joseph Dudley [Gov. of Massachusetts]...of a Company of Indians & Frentch that are come Out of Quebeque & divide themselves to come On Coniticot Miximick Rivere & the Eastern pts this Night also by an Indian Post...three Mohawks came from Canada...who say that 300 of Indians with some Frentch are come Out from Quebeque in order to come upon New England, the Indian that Brought the Letter says he spake with sd [said] Mohawks...Being in dayly & hourly fear of the Enemys approach Especially at Deerfd it being also the likelyest Season in all the year for such an Enemy to Molest us." Requesting for the support of more men, Partridge continues: "Although we have not yet seen ye Enemy in our Border yet there being Usually Little or no tyme betwixt the discovery of the Enemy & their stricking their blow." He concludes: "...please to send up Imediately upon ye Recite of these 50 or 60 men well fixed whome when here such directions & instructions as god shall guide them & us to we hope may of his Blessing be beneficiall for our Reliefe & disappointment of Something of the Mischevious intents of our bloody Enemys."
Six months later, Partridge would be the first in authority to arrive on the morning of 29 February at the devasted settlement of Deerfield in the aftermath of the French-Indian assualt. His invaluable report on the massacre, "Account of ye Destruction at Deerfd, Febr. 29 1703-4," now in the Massachusetts Historical Society, constitutes "the only such artifact of the massacre to have come straight down from that day to this" (John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive, p.23).
"BEING...IN DAYLY & HOURLY FEAR OF THE ENEMYS APPROACH ESPECIALLY AT DEERFIELD" "
A letter vividly testifying to the vulnerability of the outlying English settlements in the Connecticut Valley to raids and kidnappings by French and native American raiding parties dispatched from Canada. Although the Deerfield massacre, in which about 50 settlers were killed and some 137 kidnapped, took place in February 1704, depredations along the northern frontier and reports of large war parties being organized began to circulate in the English colonies months before. Partridge, commanding the Connecticut Valley militia, passes on these ominous reports: "I have lately Recd instructions from...Joseph Dudley [Gov. of Massachusetts]...of a Company of Indians & Frentch that are come Out of Quebeque & divide themselves to come On Coniticot Miximick Rivere & the Eastern pts this Night also by an Indian Post...three Mohawks came from Canada...who say that 300 of Indians with some Frentch are come Out from Quebeque in order to come upon New England, the Indian that Brought the Letter says he spake with sd [said] Mohawks...Being in dayly & hourly fear of the Enemys approach Especially at Deerfd it being also the likelyest Season in all the year for such an Enemy to Molest us." Requesting for the support of more men, Partridge continues: "Although we have not yet seen ye Enemy in our Border yet there being Usually Little or no tyme betwixt the discovery of the Enemy & their stricking their blow." He concludes: "...please to send up Imediately upon ye Recite of these 50 or 60 men well fixed whome when here such directions & instructions as god shall guide them & us to we hope may of his Blessing be beneficiall for our Reliefe & disappointment of Something of the Mischevious intents of our bloody Enemys."
Six months later, Partridge would be the first in authority to arrive on the morning of 29 February at the devasted settlement of Deerfield in the aftermath of the French-Indian assualt. His invaluable report on the massacre, "Account of ye Destruction at Deerfd, Febr. 29 1703-4," now in the Massachusetts Historical Society, constitutes "the only such artifact of the massacre to have come straight down from that day to this" (John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive, p.23).