Josephs, Pearson, Paige & Vail ancestors
caught in conflict with Indians
| Date | Ancestor | Line | Incident |
| 1621 | Cooke, Francis | V | Attacked at work in field along with Myles Standish; ran to safety, lost only their tools |
| 1625 | Douw, Petrus | Pg | Built stockade and house at Wolvenhoek NY to withstand frequent attacks from “River Indians” |
| 1631 | Berry, William | Pr | Served under Capt. John Mason in expedition to the Piscataqua River, between ME & NH |
| 1634-1638 Pequot War |
Feake, Robert (Lt.) | V | Mercenary; fought Indians in MA & CT; went mad after witnessing captain’s murder during Pequot War; abandoned wife and family |
| Mason, John (Capt.) | V | Led massacre at Mystic CT; virtually annihilated Pequot tribe; wrote book on Pequot War | |
| Hallett, William (Capt.) | V | Mercenary; fought Indians in MA, CT, & NY; charged with adultery after not-quite-marrying wife of the incapacitated Lt. Feake | |
| Olmsted, Nicholas | V | Officer at Hartford CT; later a captain in King Philip’s War | |
| Pomeroy, Eltweed | J | Fought in Windsor CT; mare was killed | |
| Steele, James | V | Served as trooper | |
| Thrall, William | Pr | Served under Capt. John Mason at Mystic massacre; granted 50 acres | |
| Underhill, John (Capt.) | V | Mercenary; fought Indians in MA, ME, CT, NH & NY; wrote book on Pequot War | |
| Weld, Joseph (Capt.) | J | Led regiment in Roxbury expedition | |
| 1643 Kieft’s War | Cuvellier, Adrienne & Damen, Jan | Pg | Provoked Gov. Kieft into massacring two Indian settlements; led to two years’ war against New Amsterdam; Cuvellier said to have kicked severed Indian heads like soccer balls through streets of New Amsterdam |
| Van Cortlandt, Olaf S. | Pg | Appointed to protect New Amsterdam from Indian attack; ordered construction of wall (now Wall St.) | |
| Ver Planck, Abraham & Vigne, Maria | Pg | Fled farm in Jersey City for safety of Manhattan fort during Indian wars; never returned | |
| Wood, Margaret C. | V | Slaughtered, along with her son Frederick and 16 others, in a massacre at the home of Anne Hutchinson in Pelham NY | |
| 1649 | Halsey, Elizabeth W. | V | Killed by Pequots; first European woman to die thus on Long Island; Pequot Chief Wyandoch led expedition to hunt down and hang the 4 murderers |
| 1655 | Hallett, William & Ffownes, Elizabeth | V | House at Hellgate NY destroyed in attack; moved to Flushing |
| 1657-58 | Bissell, John | Pr | Enlisted trooper for Windsor CT |
| 1659 | Klock, Abraham | Pg | Burned alive after volunteering in prisoner exchange, Ulster County (speculative) |
| 1663 Esopus War | Blanchan, Madeleine Jorisse | Pg | Captured in Indian attack along with her sister and niece, 2 children, and 33 other villagers; rescued 10 weeks later as her sister and baby were lying on bed of logs about to be burned; sister sang the 137th psalm (“By the rivers of Babylon”) and delayed lighting of fire just in time to be rescued |
| Blanchan, Matthieu | Pg | Esopus Indians burned village and murdered 24 people; wife and 2 children captured; participated in rescue mission to get them back | |
| Douw, Volckert J. | Pg | Sister murdered; 9-year-old nephew captured on way to visit him; held 3 months | |
| Hoffman, Emmerentje De Witt | Pg | Niece taken captive; brother Tjerck De Witt among leaders of rescue mission | |
| 1673-1693 | Backus, William | V | Ensign, Norwich Train Band |
| Miles, John (Capt.) | J | Officer in New Haven CT Train Band; fought French and Indians for 20 years | |
| 1675-1676 King Philip’s War |
Adams, Elinor Newton | Pr | Second husband, John Fussell, burned to death at nearly 100 yrs of age in Medfield MA in raid by King Phillip |
| Baker, Daniel | J | Soldier at Dennis MA | |
| Bloetgoet, Frans Jansz | Pg | Killed at Flushing NY | |
| Bradford, William (Maj.) | V | Commander in chief of Plymouth forces; severely wounded during Great Swamp Fight | |
| Bulkeley, Gershom (Rev.) | J | Surgeon to CT forces; wounded, Wachuset MA | |
| Byxbee, Joseph (Sgt.) | V | Soldier at Boxford MA | |
| Byxbee, Joseph, Jr. | V | Soldier in Narragansett Campaign | |
| Colt, John | J | Repelled Indian attack on Hartford CT home; routed second group preparing to attack settlement | |
| Cooke, John | V | Turned house into garrison for Dartmouth MA; house held through war but was burned later | |
| Cory, Elizabeth Minnetinka Gasesett | V | Orphaned daughter of Narragansett sachem killed in Great Swamp Fight; adopted by unknown Quaker woman; later married son of Capt. William Cory | |
| Cory, William (Capt.) | V | Militia captain, Portsmouth RI | |
| Fitch, James (Maj.) | V | Major general of CT forces | |
| Fitch, James (Rev.) | V | Missionary to the Indians; persuaded Mohicans, Uncas, and Pequots to side with English against King Philip’s tribes | |
| Fuller, Robert | Pg | Lost his wife, two sons, a daughter, and a son-in-law when Indians attacked Rehoboth MA | |
| Gasesett, Chief | V | Narragansett sachem killed in Great Swamp Fight; daughter adopted by Quaker woman | |
| Gould, John (Capt.) | V | Officer in Narragansett Campaign | |
| Hart, Nicholas | V | Soldier at Taunton MA | |
| Holbrook, William (Capt.) | V | Officer at Mendon MA; town destroyed and abandoned | |
| Hurlbutt, Thomas | V | Shot through the thigh with an arrow during Pequot attack at Saybrook; held ground while others fled; commended for bravery and given special grant of 300 acres | |
| Jenckes, Joseph | V | Foundry, forge at Pawtucket RI destroyed | |
| Jenness, Francis | Pr | Soldier in Hampton NH | |
| Kimball, Henry & Mary | Pr | Son Caleb killed at Ipswich MA | |
| Kingsley, Eldad & Mehitable | Pg | Driven, along with rest of town, from Swansea MA to shelter at Newport RI till death of King Philip | |
| Kingsley, John | Pg | Wife & children fled to Newport, nearly starved | |
| Libby, John | Pr | Two sons killed; home at Scarborough ME destroyed | |
| Locke, John | Pr | ||
| Lord, Richard (Capt.) | Pr | Officer at Hartford CT | |
| Niles, Nathaniel (Capt.) | V | Captain of militia at Braintree MA | |
| Palmer, Samuel | Pg | Soldier under Bradford in Great Swamp Fight | |
| Reynolds, James & Deborah | V | Son John killed at Westerly RI first night of war; every house in settlement burned | |
| Richardson, Ezekiel & Susanna | Pg | Son killed in battle at Scarborough ME | |
| Richardson, Samuel | Pg | Soldier; wife and two children slain | |
| Richardson, Hannah | Pg | Killed at home in Woburn MA along with two of her children | |
| Robbins, George | Pg | Part of a lynch mob that shot and killed friendly Indians in Chelmsford MA; arrested for murder, acquitted | |
| Russell, John (Rev.) | V | Town of Hadley MA saved when “Angel of Hadley,” a regicide[1] in hiding with Russell, came out to warn town of attack and fight, then disappeared | |
| Sleeper, Thomas | Pr | Fought off Indians trying to burn his house at Hampton NH | |
| Steele, John | V | Appointed as commissary | |
| Tefft, John | V | Killed at Kingston RI trying to retrieve body of son Joshua, who married a Narragansett and fought on their side; Joshua was captured, hanged, drawn & quartered by the colonials | |
| Thomson, John (Lt.) | V | Garrison commander, Middleboro MA | |
| Tucker, Henry, Martha, & Abraham | V | Fled Dartmouth MA for Newport during war; town destroyed; returned and build stone house to defy “the firebrand of the savages” | |
| Waterman, Thomas | V | Commissary, Norwich CT? | |
| Willey, John | J | Fought in Narragansett Campaign; posthumously granted land in Voluntown CT | |
| Woodward, Peter | J | Soldier at Hadley MA | |
| 9 Feb 1690 Schenectady Massacre |
Glen, Helena | Pg | Watched father negotiate with French & Indian attackers; 3 years later met Jan Baptist van Eps on his escape from captors (in Indian dress and war paint); 6 years later, married him |
| Glen, John Sanders | Pg | Rescued some of 27 captives because French and Indians counted him a friend | |
| Schuyler, David Pietersz | Pg | Died of injuries 2 days after attack | |
| Van Der Linde, Elizabeth | Pg | 2nd husband Jacob Vrooman killed in massacre | |
| Van Der Volgen, Laurens Claes | Pg | Taken prisoner to Canada; escaped nine years later | |
| Van Eps, Jan | Pg | Killed along with two of his children | |
| Van Eps, Jan Baptist | Pg | Taken prisoner to Canada; escaped three years later | |
| Van Eps, Lysbet | Pg | Husband and two children slain; another son taken prisoner for 3 years; two grandchildren killed and another taken prisoner and never returned; house burned | |
| Van Vranken, Ryckert Claes | Pg | Son Klyn Isaac taken captive; escaped from Canada and returned July 1690 | |
| Vrooman, Hendrick B. | Pg | Killed along with one child | |
| 29 Sep 1691 Brackett’s Lane Massacre |
Rand, Francis & Christina | Pr | Killed by Indians in Rye NH |
| 1695 | Sternberg, Tobias | J | Ranger under Capt. John Oldton; patrolled Baltimore County against Indian attack [change date and add Dennis Garrett?] |
| 26 Aug 1696 | Locke, John | Pr | Ambushed and killed at Rye NH, possibly in retribution for earlier savagery during King Philip’s War; is said to have sliced nose off Indian with sickle during his last stand |
| 1754-1763 French & Indian War |
Colt, Peter | J | Officer under Aaron Burr at Quebec; aide to General Wooster; later translator for Gen. Washington during the Revolution, also Deputy Commissary General, Continental Army |
| Hoffman, Martinus (Col.) | Pg | Head of Dutchess County regiment | |
| Pearson, Jonathan (Capt.) | Pr | Officer, military company at Fort Edward | |
| Paige, John | Pg | Soldier; served in two campaigns; wounded at Plains of Abraham, Quebec | |
| Warren, Eliakim | V | Served in CT militia during 1759 campaign | |
| 1774-1779 | Douw, Volckert Petrus | Pg | Indian Commissioner; built good relations and signed peace treaty with Iroquois Nation |
| Douw, Johannes De Peyster | Pg | Joined Clinton-Sullivan Campaign to wipe out Iroquois Nation; destroyed 50 Indian towns in western NY including 1,200 houses and a million bushels of corn | |
| Vail, Gilbert Townsend | V | Killed at Battle of Minisink by the troops of Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant in 1779 |
[1] William Goffe was one of the English judges who sentenced Charles I to death during the English Civil War; he fled to hide in New England when the monarchy was restored in 1660.