| Notes |
- Samuel, son of Deacon Samuel & his wife Margaret Unknown, born about 1629; was one of the petitioners to the General Court for the First Settlement of Northfield, then known as Squakheag, 5/31/1671. He was a resident of Northampton, Mass., at this time. The first petition was refused & another one was sent the next spring signed by 23 men including Samuel Wright Senior. This petition was granted & he was one of the sixteen heads of families who took house-lots & settled there. His lot was on the west side of the street "which they or their heirs had in the second settlement".
The Indians continued friendly until spring of 1675. Brookfield was destroyed in August of that Year. (King Philip's War). A squad of twenty soldiers was sent by Major Pynchon to garrison Northfield who were put under command of Sergeant Samuel Wright. A battle between Hatfield Indians & Captains _____ & Beers was fought in town of Whately August 25. Sept 1st the Indians fell upon Deerfield & Thursday, Sept 2d, on Northfield. It was the season of drying flax; & ignorant of what had happened the day before to their neighbors at Deerfield, the people of Northfield went about their work as usual on that morning. The soldiers & settlers appeared to have been scattered in the meadow & house-lots when the assault was made. According to Rev. Mr. Hubbard "some were killed in their homes, others as they were coming out of the meadows, the rest: men, women, & children fled to their fort, unable to rally out & repel the enemy. The savages kept around them, killed many of their cattle, destroyed their grain (wheat which was harvested & in the stook) burnt the houses that were outside the stockade & laid all waste. The number of whites officially reported as killed was eight & one was Sgt. Samuel Wright.
After another attack by the Indians on 9/4 the Squakheag families having thus been driven from their new homes returned to their old homes in Hadley & Northampton.
In the second settlement of Squakheag or Northfield in 1685 to 90, Samuel Wright's heirs were assigned 60 acres. The homestead of this Samuel Wright who went to Northampton with his father had continued in his line from 1657 until the compilation of the New England Historical & Genealogical Register in 1886.
He married, 11/24/1653, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Burt who was a companion of Deacon Samuel Wright in the settlement of Springfield. She survived him & married 2d, 9/26/1684, Nathaniel Dickinson of Hatfield.
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Samuel Wright Jr. had an illegitimate child with Elizabeth Burt's sister, Mary Burt [(Source?) This was probably his brother Judah].
They were among the first to move to Northampton, in 1655 or 1656. After moving to Northampton, he settled on Bridge Street where the house of John L. Draper stood. In addition to the 3 acres for a homelot, he was granted 34 acres of meadow land. After living on this homestead about 17 years, and serving the town as one of its selectmen and in other offices, he went with his family, in company with 15 other families, as pioneer settlers, to a place about 35 miles up the Connecticut River, called by the Indians from whom it was purchased, Squakeag. This place was named by the English "Northfield" because it was the northernmost settlement on the river, became the future home of Samuel Wright Jr. and many of his descendants. Samuel Wright Jr must have lived within the meadow fence & not on the plains. Here they built small huts near each other, and ran a stockade around a number of them for a fort into which they might flee, if attacked.
All went peacefully for 2 years until the King Philip war broke out in 1675. In the latter part of August, the safety of Northfield was threatened, and so 20 men were sent up and placed under command of Lt. Samuel Wright. On Thursday 2 September 1675, as Lt. Wright and the men under him were in the field gathering flax, they were attacked by King Philip's men. Lt. Wright was killed, aged ca 45 yrs; also 2 sons of Elder William Janes, their preacher and 5 others, and wounded Samuel Wright III. The rest, men women, and children, fled inside the small stockade, and were shut in there 5 days. What days and nights of terror those must have been to the widow and fatherless children with the savages burning and destroying outside, and liable to break in at any time and put them all to death. The day after the attack, Capt. Beers, not knowing what had happened set out from Hadley, with 36 mounted men, to bring away the soldiers and inhabitants, but on reaching the outskirts of the town, fell into an ambush, and he and the larger part of his men were killed, but 13 escaped and fled back to Hadley. Immediately Major Treat with more than 100 men prepared to go up for the relief of Northfield, where he arrived Monday afternoon on 6 September. One account is that immediately set about burying those killed on 2 September. The first found was the body of Lt. Wright, which was taken up the bank and buried in the first grave opened in present Northfield Cemetery. His burial was hardly finished when Maj. Treat was struck with a spent ball from the thicket. Upon consulting with his officers, it was decided to take the 100 or more people that had been shut inside the stockade and start back to Hadley that night. In their journey down through the wilderness what fears they must have had; fears of falling into an ambush and meeting the same fate as came to Capt. Beers and Co., on this same route 3 days before, and the fate that came to the 80 young soldiers at Bloody Brook, a few days later.
His inventory was taken March 30, 1676, and amounted to 326£ 14S. House & home lot 60£ had wheel right tools 61/ 3 horses & heofer 15.5, Land in meadow & pasture 163£ sae, grindstone & loom 61/ sheep & swine 10£10s, yoke of oxen & steers 15£, 4 cattle 4 mares & [c]olt 14£, arms & ammunition 65/, bedding & clothing 14£5s. Widow Elizabeth & son Sam'l admin. Widow & heirs made an agreement (for her & those of age) March 30, 1680, She was to have use of 1/2 house 1/2 barn 1/2 homelot which was next to the meadow including all the orchard half the pasture lying next the house containing 13 acres. 1/8 other land & movables. Samuel to have double share. Court to appoint men to divide the estate Men were appointed but not ?. Explanation "half the homelot" may mean that next to Hawley Sheet lot on the side south the land. (Or it may mean lower side of lot below swamp.) [1]
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Old Dead Relatives
1632 - 1675 (42 years)
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set
