The Indian Wars and Their Impact on the Families of Some of Our Ancestors
25 Sep 1675. Major Waldron wrote of events in King Philips War that “Indians had killed an old man and woman and burnt their house, and at Foxwell’s (Richard Foxwell was the husband of Susannah Bonython, Daughter of Richard., two young men were killed.” The old man and woman killed were the Nichols, the parents of Robert Nichols, Jr., who was the husband of Susanna Bonython Foxwell's sister, Winifred.
1676. Thomas and Esther Foxwell Rogers lived at Goose Faire Brook in Saco,planting the fruit orchards for which Old Orchard Beach was named. The homestead was attacked, whereupon they removed to Kittery..
1676. James and Lucretia Foxwell Robinson (daughter of Richard and Susanna Bonython Foxwell) removed from Blue Point (Saco), Maine to New Castle, New Hampshire.
1676. John and Susannah Foxwell Ashton removed from Scarborough, Maine to Marblehead. John married his third wife, Mary Edgecomb Page, also a York County refugee.
1676. Richard Knott served as a surgeon in Prince Philip's War.
1676. The Scituate home of Henry and Sarah Ewell, parents-in-law of John Northey, Jr. was attacked. Sarah fled the house but returned in time to retrieve her unscathed infant grandson, John Northey, Just before the Indians returned and burned the house down.
26 Oct 1676. Capt. John Scottow reported in a manuscript journal regarding events at Black Point during King Philip’s War that on that day and the following there was “no disturbance. I went and viewed the fortifications at several garrisons, and discharged Mr. Foxwell from his charge at Bluepoint, being a quarreling, discontented person.”
King Philip's War was said by some to end the Indian/settler battles in 1676, yet the following skirmishes occurred after that date.
1680. Sarah Chuchwell, great granddaughter of Richard Bonython, with 50 other women and children, retreated to Major William Phillip's garrison house. The next day, the family home was burned down along with several others, and the garrison itself was attacked. Sarah fled with her parents, Arthur and Eleanor Bonython Churvwell and her grandfather, John Bonython, to Marblehead, where he would later die of the wounds recived during the attack of the garrison.
20 May 1690. John Parker III was slain with son James by Indians (backed by the French) at Fort Loyall, Falmouth, Maine.
10 Aug 1703. John, Jr., the grandson of Richard Bonython, his wife and four of his children were carried off by Indians and apparently never seen again, The surviving members of the family moved to Essex County in Massachussetts
6 Oct 1703. Nathaniel Foxwell, son of John and Deborah Johnson Foxwell and grandson of Richard and Susannah Bonython Foxwell, was killed.
1677 - 1713. David Oliver, Sr. came to Georgetown from Boston to fish at Pemaquid. Around 1670 he married Grace Parker, granddaughter of John Parker the First. When David and Grace were living at Stage Island during the Indian raids between 1677 and 1679, Indians destroyed their home and about 60 others. They fled from the island and petitioned Sir Edmund Andros for land in the southern part of Arrowsic. David and the other settlers were granted land in Newtowne where they lived for 10 years or less. During this time the Indians had burned Newtowne. By 1680 King William's War was well under way and in 1703 it became Queen Anne's War, lasting through 1713. By this time the island was deserted as settlers fled from the area. David and Grace Oliver took refuge in Marblehead, Massachusetts. In May, David is listed as Capt. Rowden's Company of the Massachusetts Militia for service in the Indian Wars.
John and Susannah Foxwell Ashton's daughter, Mary, married Daniel Libby, the son of a York County, Maine family who fled to Marblehead. Two of their granddaughters, Mary and Elizabeth Merritt married sons of the Pierce family as did Hannah Bassett, the daughter of John Basset.
