Footnotes/Further Reading
Footnote # 1
See DeForest 1852:69-86
Footnote # 2
For an account of the split between the Mohegan and Pequot, see Salisbury 1982 and Fawcett 1995.
Footnote # 3
Winthrop Volume I:225, cited in Salisbury 1982:208.
Footnote # 4
Bradford, [1634] 1981:289.
Footnote # 5
William Bradford relates this epidemic as follows:
I am now to relate some strange and remarkable passages. There was a company of people lived in the country up above in the River of Connecticut a great way from the trading house there, and were enemies to those Indians Pequot which lived about them, and of whom they stood in some fear, being a stout people. About a thousand of them had enclosed themselves in a fort which they had strongly palisadoed about. Three or four Dutchmen went up in the beginning of winter to live with them, to get their trade and prevent them for bringing it to the English or to fall into amity with them; but at spring to bring all down to their place. But their enterprise failed. For it pleased God to visit these Indians with a great sickness and such a mortality that of a thousand, above nine and a half hundred of them died...This spring also, those Indians that lived about their trading house there Windsor, fell sick of the small pox and died most miserably (Bradford, [1634] 1981:301-2).
Footnote # 6
See Agawam deed, Wright 1905:11-14.
Footnote # 7
Joseph Parsons, one of Pynchon's most successful sub-traders, was also highly successful as a land speculator. In 1647, he secured 42 1/2 acres of land in Longmeadow, which he sold to John Stebbins, and he was also one of the first owners of land in Northampton, a plot that extended from Market Street to the Bridge Street Cemetery (see Burt 1898:43). His home is still on its original houselot, on Bridge Street, on the grounds of Historic Northampton.
Footnote # 8
For examples of incidents in which Native people were involved in court disputes, see Smith, The Pynchon Court Record, 1961. The restrictions against further planting read in part as follows:
April 16, 1640 It is ordered yt Henry Smith & Th: Mirack shall have power to restrayne ye Indians from breaking up any new grounde or from planting any yt was broken up ye last yeare, alsoe for ye Swampe yt is in ye neck they are to pitch up stakes yt sol ye Indians may be limited & restrayned from enlarging ym selves in yt swampe... (Burt 1898:166)
Footnote # 9
Regarding the trade of Dutch guns and ammunition with Connecticut River valley Indians, and the annual tribute paid to the Mohawk, see correspondence in LaFantasie, 1988:251, 253, 452, 454.
Footnote # 10
I grant they are all wthin ye line of yr pattent, but you cannot say that therefore they are yr subjects nor yet within yr jurisdiction untill they have fully subjected themselves to yr government (wch I know they have not) & untill you have bought their land: untill this be done they must be esteemed as an Independant free people, & so they of Naunotak do all account themselves, & doubtless wch ever goes with strength of men to disturb their peace at Naunotuk they will take it for no other than a hostile action. . . it may be of ill Consequence to ye English that intermedle in their matters . . . in that respect they threaten to be avenged on such as lay any hand upon them: & our place [Springfield] is more obnoxtious to their malice then the Bay by farr, especially the Naunotuk Indians are desperate Spirites, for they have their dependence on the Mowhoaks or maquas who are the Terror of all Indians".
William Pynchon to Governor John Winthrop, May 5, 1648, in Temple 1887:37 38
Footnote # 11
Pynchon shall plow up or cause to be plowed up for the Indians sixteene acres of land on ye east side of Quinnoticott River which is to be done sometyme next Summer 1654 & in the meane tyme vizt the next Spring 1654 the Indians have liberty to plant their present corn fields...
Wright 1905:27
Footnote # 12
For an account of the events leading up to the attack on the Pequot fort at Mystic, see Salisbury 1982:203-225. The Mohegan and Narragansett were shocked at the slaughter, and took in many of the surviving Pequot people. Colonial authorities waxed poetic about the victory over the Pequot, in horrifying language such as the following, from William Bradford:
It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire and the streams of blood...but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the praise thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy.
Bradford [1637] 1981:331
Footnote # 13
See Roger Williams letter to the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, October 5, 1654, and letter to John Winthrop, October 9, 1654, in LaFantasie 1988:408-425.
Footnote # 14
See Hatfield deed, Wright 1905:31.
Footnote # 15
The deed for Hadley and part of Amherst, Belchertown, Pelham and Shutesbury reads, in part:
Bee it known to all men by these Presents yt Chickwallopp Alias Wawhillowa Umpanchela alias Womscom & Quonquont alias Wompshaw ye Sachems off Nolwotogg & ye sole & proper owners of all ye land on ye East side of Quonicticot River fro ye Hills called Petowamacha & from ye mouth of ye Brooke or River called Towunucksett [Fort River] & soe all along by ye greate River upward or Northward to ye Brook called Nepassooenegg [Mohawk Brook] & from ye hither part or South end of ye greate Hills called Kunckquachu [Mount Toby] (Being guessed at neere about nine miles in length) By ye River Quenicticott. . . Doe for and in Consideration of two Hundred fatham of Wampam & twenty fatham, and one large Coate at Eight fatham wch Chickwallop set of. . . Doe sell, give, grant And have given granted Bargained and sold to John Pynchon of Springfield & to his Assignes & successors. . .
. . . only the Indians aforenamed & in Particular Quonquont Doth reserve & keep one corne field about twelve, sixteene or twenty acres of Ground a litle above Mattabaget by ye Brook called Wunnaqueckset lyeing on ye south side of ye sd Brook & Compassed in by a swamp from that Brook to ye greate River, And alsoe they reserve libertie to Hunt Deare, fowle &c And to take fish, Beaver or Otter &c But otherwise all ye aforesd Premises ye sd John Pynchon his Assignes & Successors & their heires shall forever injoy Absalutelie & clearelie free from all Incumbrances of any Indians or their Corne ffields forever...
Wright 1905:33-36
Footnote # 16
For a full discusson of Pynchon's trade with Connecticut River valley Indians, including volumes of furs and goods, see Peter Thomas, In the Maelstrom of Change, 1979.
Footnote # 17
One of the earliest records of trading for Native clothing comes from the records of Plymouth Colony, where Native women were recorded as selling their old, worn, clothing and bedding to the English. Worn beaver was easier to process into felt, since the long guard hairs had already broken off, leaving the downy underfur. Fresh beaver had to be broken, or shorn, to remove the guard hairs.
Here are just a few examples of clothing transactions from William Pynchon's Account Book: In 1647, a Sokoki man named Asquamme brought in two large beavers to purchase 2 blue wool coats – when the trade fell a bit short, Ahimichqua paid the difference. On January 19, 1648, Momonhewi of Nonotuck paid three fathoms (6 feet) and two hands (about 6 inches) of wampum for a blue coat. On September 25, 1649, a Woronoco named Miattomp was trusted for a large purchase of 46 yards of red cotton for his kinsman Cowquatt, 27 yards for another relative, 10 yards of blue cloth for another, a red coat, stockings, and miscellaneous sundries, all to be paid for with the following season's furs.
William Pynchon Account Book, p. i –ii.
Footnote # 18
See Bridenbaugh and Tomlinson 1985:283-286.
Footnote # 19
See Bridenbaugh and Tomlinson 1985:286.
Footnote # 20
Roger Williams, writing to the General Court of Massachusetts Bay on May 12, 1656, complained that the "hazardous frontier situation" was due to:
...these Barbarians, who from their abundant supply of armes from the Dutch (and perfidious English all the land over) are full of our artillerie, which hath rendered them exceedingly insolent and threatening, especially the inlanders [Pocumtuck, Nonotuck and Sokoki] which have their supply from the fort of Aurania [Albany, NY].
Williams May 12, 1656, in LaFantasie 1988:450-454.
Footnote # 21
See Bridenbaugh and Tomlinson 1985:288.
Footnote # 22
See deed for Hatfield and Williamsburg, Wright 1905: 37-39.
Footnote # 23
Pynchon's rules for Native conduct at the Nonotuck fort included the following:
1. first they shall not break the Saboath by workeing or gameing or caring burdens or ye like.
2. They shall not pawway on that place or any wher els amogst us.
3. They shall not gett liquoer or Sider and drinke themselues drunk and soe kill one an other as they haue done.
4. They shall not take in other Indians of other places to seat amogst them, wee alow only Nowutague Indians yt were the Inhabytants of the place.
Trumbull 1898, p. 177-78.
Footnote # 24
On September 28, 1666, General de Tracy & Governor Courcelle sent 600 soldiers from Carignan-Salieres regiment, along with 100 Algonkian and Huron allies, out of Fort St. Anne. They spent two weeks traveling to the Mohawk River valley, where they laid waste to numerous Mohawk villages, burning homes, and corn stores.
O'Callaghan 1850, Volume1: 68-71, 77-78.
Footnote # 25
See Burt 1898, Volume II:189, also Spady 1995:194-195.