Raid on Groton
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The Raid on Groton happened during
King William's War King William's War (also known as the Second Indian War, Father Baudoin's War, Castin's War, or the First Intercolonial War in French) was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand All ...
, on July 27, 1694, at Groton, Massachusetts. This was one of numerous attacks against the settlement in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The village had been raided during
King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...
and temporarily abandoned by numerous families. It was also raided in June 1707 during Queen Anne's War. During this extended period of repeated conflicts, both the French and English, and their respective First Nations allies, did a brisk trade in captives. They sometimes conducted high-level prisoner exchanges. Some captives were ransomed by families or communities; others were adopted by Mohawk families in the mission village of Kahnawake, or, similarly, by Huron (
Wyandot Wyandot may refer to: Native American ethnography * Wyandot people, also known as the Huron * Wyandot language * Wyandot religion Places * Wyandot, Ohio, an unincorporated community * Wyandot County, Ohio * Camp Wyandot, a Camp Fire Boys and ...
) or
Abenaki The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...
in other villages.


Historical context

In 1693 the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
at
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
had entered into peace and trade negotiations with the
Abenaki The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...
tribes in eastern
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...
. The French at
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
under Governor Frontenac wished to disrupt the negotiations and sent
Claude-Sébastien de Villieu Claude-Sébastien de Villieu ( fl. 1674–1705) was a French military officer best known for his service in New France. In addition to service during King William's War, he served for a time as military governor of Acadia. According to his own s ...
in the fall of 1693 into present-day
Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
, with orders to "place himself at the head of the Acadian Indians and lead them against the English." In this period, England and France were at war in
King William's War King William's War (also known as the Second Indian War, Father Baudoin's War, Castin's War, or the First Intercolonial War in French) was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand All ...
in Europe. Villieu spent the winter at
Fort Nashwaak Fort Nashwaak (also known as Fort Naxoat, Fort St. Joseph) was the capital of Acadia and is now a National Historic Sites of Canada, National Historic Site of Canada in present-day Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. It was located strategically ...
. The Indian bands of the region were in general disagreement as to whether to attack the English or not. After discussions by Villieu and the support of Father
Louis-Pierre Thury Louis-Pierre Thury (c. 1644, Notre Dame de Le Breuil-en-Auge, Breuil en Auge (Department of Calvados), France-June 3, 1699, City of Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia) was a French missionary (secular priest) who was sent to North America during the tim ...
and Father
Vincent Bigot Vincent Bigot (15 May 1649, in Bourges – 7 September 1720, in Paris) was a French Jesuit priest and a missionary in Canada. Life history Vincent Bigot, like his brother Jacques, was sent to the Algonkin mission at Sillery upon his arrival in C ...
(at Pentagouet), they went on the offensive.


Raid

Villieu attacked the English settlement of Oyster River (now Durham, New Hampshire) with about 250
Abenaki The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...
Indians, composed of two main groups of warriors from the
Penobscot The Penobscot (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewi'') are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic pr ...
and
Norridgewock Norridgewock was the name of both an Indigenous village and a band of the Abenaki ("People of the Dawn") Native Americans/First Nations, an Eastern Algonquian tribe of the United States and Canada. The French of New France called the village Ke ...
, under command of their sagamore Bomazeen (or Bomoseen). A number of
Maliseet The Wəlastəkwewiyik, or Maliseet (, also spelled Malecite), are an Algonquian-speaking First Nation of the Wabanaki Confederacy. They are the indigenous people of the Wolastoq ( Saint John River) valley and its tributaries. Their territory ...
from Medoctec, led by Assacumbuit, also took part in the attack. Fr. Simon-Gérard had dissuaded most of his followers from participating. Following the raid on Oyster River, "the savages of Pentagoet under Taxous and Madockawando, piqued at the little booty, and the few captives taken," continued to other settlements. Some 40 warriors traveled to Groton, Massachusetts, which they raided on the morning of July 27, 1694. They killed some 20 people (seven in the Longley family) and took captive some 13 others, including three Longley children.Chamberlain, ''Groton During the Indian Wars'' Betty Longley died while being taken overland to Montreal, and John Longley was held by the Abenaki. The oldest, 21-year-old Lydia Longley, was eventually taken to Montreal by the
Pennacook The Pennacook, also known by the names Penacook and Pennacock, were an Algonquian-speaking Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine. They were not a united tribe but a netwo ...
, to whom she had been traded not long after the raid. In that city she was ransomed by a wealthy Frenchman who assisted captives, tutored and converted to Catholicism, and baptized as Lydia-Madeleine in 1696. That year she entered the non-cloistered Congregation of Notre Dame. Sister Lydia-Madeleine had most of her career in Montreal but later served as the superior at a mission at Sainte-Famille, Île d’Orléans, near the city of Quebec. In the mid-20th century, she became known as the ''First American Nun'', after a popular children's book of that title published in 1958.


Consequences

After the successful raid on Oyster River and Groton,
Claude-Sébastien de Villieu Claude-Sébastien de Villieu ( fl. 1674–1705) was a French military officer best known for his service in New France. In addition to service during King William's War, he served for a time as military governor of Acadia. According to his own s ...
joined Acadian Governor de Villebon as the commander of
Fort Nashwaak Fort Nashwaak (also known as Fort Naxoat, Fort St. Joseph) was the capital of Acadia and is now a National Historic Sites of Canada, National Historic Site of Canada in present-day Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. It was located strategically ...
, capital of
Acadia Acadia (french: link=no, Acadie) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. During much of the 17th and early ...
.


See also

*
Military history of the Maliseet people The Maliseet militia were made up of warriors from the Maliseet people of northeastern North America. Along with the Wabanaki Confederacy (particularly the Mi'kmaq militia), the French and Acadian militia, the Maliseet fought the British through ...


References

Endnotes Sources: * The address of C. Alice Baker – ''History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association,'' Volume 4, p. 401 * Jeremy Belknap, ''The History of New Hampshire'', ed. John Farmer (Dover, N.H.: S.C. Stevens and Ela & Wadleigh, 1831) * Samuel Adams Drake, ''The Border Wars of New England Commonly called King William's and Queen Anne's Wars'' (Williamstown, Mass: Corner House, 1973), 96.
Montague Chamberlain, "A French Account of the Raid upon the New England Frontier in 1694"
''Acadiensis: A Journal of the Maritime Provinces'', 1901, pp. 249–266 * Jan K. Herman, "Massacre at Oyster River," ''New Hampshire Profiles'', October 1976, 50. * Jan K. Herman, ''Massacre on the Northern New England Frontier, 1689–1694'' (master's thesis, University of New Hampshire, 1966), 43. * Thomas Hutchinson, ''The History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay'' (originally published 1764–1828; reprint, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936), 2:55. * Cotton Mather, ''Decennium Luctuosum'' (Boston, 1699); reprinted in ''Magnalia Christi Americana'' (London, 1702), 86. * Kenneth M. Morrison, ''The Embattled Northeast'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 128. * Francis Parkman, ''Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV'', vol. 2 of ''France and England in North America'' (1877; reprint, New York: The Library of America, 1983) * Rev. John Pike, ''Journal of the Rev. John Pike, of Dover, N.H.'', ed. Rev. A.H. Quint (Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1876) * Everett S. Stackpole, ''History of New Hampshire'' (New York: The American Historical Society, 1926), 1:182.
John Clarence Webster, ''Acadia at the End of the 17th Century: Letters, Journals and Memoirs of Joseph Robineau de Villebon, Commandant in Acadia, 1690–1700, and Other Contemporary Documents''
Saint John, N.B.: New Brunswick Museum, 1934–1979, p. 56, at ''Our Roots/Nos Racines'', Canada's Local Histories Online
William L. Wolkovich – Valkavicius, “The Groton Indian Raid of 1694 and Lydia Longley”
''Historical Journal of Massachusetts'', Volume 30, No. 2 (Summer 2002).


External links


Samuel Abbott Green, M.D., ''Groton during the Indian Wars''
1883, full text online about period of King Philip's War, at US GenWebArchives {{DEFAULTSORT:Groton, Raid on Military history of Acadia Military history of Nova Scotia Military history of New England Military history of Canada King William's War Battles in Massachusetts Battles involving England Battles involving France Conflicts in 1694 17th century in Canada New France Military raids 1694 in North America Colonial Massachusetts