CAPTIVES, 1677:THE STORY OF BENJAMIN AND MARTHA WAITE

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That event provided much of the. Wells Smith's Boy Captive novels, written during the s and '30s, as well as for several Indian captivity histories written by Alice Baker around the turn of the century. At night the Hatfield prisoners were staked down by the use of cords, and during the day were closely guarded. Eventually the captives' treatment improved and restraints were eliminated, but only after the band had traveled far enough to be secure from pursuit.

For a time, however, as the captives later reported, the Indians' rough handling and threats caused them to fear for their lives. At Hatfield, meanwhile, all was bedlam. Though Benjamin Waite urged immediate pursuit, so stunned were the men by the suddenness of the blow - and. Instead, messengers were sent to surrounding towns with a request for assistance.

When a party of would-be rescuers finally set out in pursuit several days later, some of them marching all the way from Hartford, the Indians had vanished. It was only after days of futile search by the soldiers and settlers that Benjamin Waite acted on his own to do what he could to bring the captives back to Hatfield. The events following the return of the foiled soldiers to Hatfield constitutes one of the great odysseys of frontier life: Moreover the longest and hardest part of their journey to find and rescue the captives was made during the winter. He and Jennings would take a canoe up the length of Lake George, portage to Lake Champlain, then fight fierce winter weather for several more weeks before finally arriving in Canada.

There they would find the surviving captives - three had died along the way and one, Benoni Stebbins, had escaped - and bring them all, as well as two newborns, back to Hatfield. But in Hatfield, with the soldiers recently returned from their disappointing mission of tracking down the Indians, that was all in the future.

In fact, no one seemed to know where to look. So surprised had the settlers been by the attack that at first the authorities thought the raid had been staged by normally friendly Mohawks from New York. Waite, guessing differently, rode alone to Albany to make sure the Mohawks were not the guilty ones, then returned to Springfield on Oct. Then, stopping only long enough to get from his townsmen a petition of authority and aid for an expedition, he pushed on the same day to Boston to seek a pledge of funds for the captives' ransom.

In Boston, Waite met with several delays of officialdom, but eventually received the colony's financial backing for the ransom he was sure he'd have to pay after he tracked down the raiding party; for by now, with information provided by Stebbins' escape from the Indians, he knew a small band of warriors had come down from Canada for the attack.

Their motive, aside from revenge for their losses in King Phillip's War, was loot and ransom money. Able to recruit for his journey only a single man, Stephen Jennings, Waite set out almost immediately for Canada by way of New York. Arriving at Albany on the 30th the two men received a cool reception by the town's commander, Capt. Sylvester Salisbury; after making Waite and Jennings cool their heels in an anteroom for several hours, Salisbury suggested they return the next day when he might have time to talk to them.

Having already been delayed too much, however, and wishing to start north before winter set in, they hurried off to Schenectady to secure a guide. Salisbury, instead of simply allowing the anxious men to disappear into the wilderness, had them arrested for acting without his authorization. Salisbury's ruffled dignity cost Waite and Jennings dearly, for they were put under guard and shipped down the Hudson to New York City. There, after getting a chance to tell their story, they eventually received the support of the colony's governor. Salisbury - they were back at Albany, but now winter was at hand and the perils of their journey had increased.

Undaunted, Waite and Jennings found a Mohawk guide, who led them over Indian trails as far as the southern shore of Lake George. The guide left them there after fitting out a canoe and drawing a crude map of the regions to the north on a piece of birch bark. The Lake George passage went well, with the men paddling to the lake's northern end in three days. From there, Waite and Jennings forced their way through the wilderness, carrying their canoe and provisions across three miles of rugged terrain, to reach the shores of Lake Champlain on Dec.

Then, for six days, fierce winds and high waves delayed them at a place that later became the site of Fort Ticonderoga. By now, ice on the lake had also become a hazard, especially since it was just thick enough to damage their frail canoe, but not so solid that they could walk on it. Living in shelters they fashioned themselves and with provisions shrinking, the men ate whatever they could find, including some raccoons killed in a hollow tree.

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Later they found some hard biscuits and brandy left by a hunter in a deserted wigwam. When they did get onto the lake, more often than not they found themselves paddling against bitterly cold headwinds. Curiously, during much of Waite's and Jennings' odyssey, the captives had been traveling to Canada by another, almost parallel route miles to the east. Shortly after the raid on Hatfield, the Indians had moved into southern Vermont in the hills above Northfield.

There they built a long wigwam and remained until Oct. It was during this time that Benoni Stebbins escaped with the news that the captives were still alive. On the 22nd, however, the Indians abandoned their camp and again moved north, traveling miles up the Connecticut valley, then crossing the Green Mountains through deep snow. Of this difficult winter passage, one of the captives taken at Deerfield, Quintin Stockwell, later wrote: All the Indians went a hunting but could get nothing; diverse days they powwow'd but got nothing; then they would have us pray to see what the Englishman's god could do.

I prayed, so did Sergeant Plympton in another the next day they got bears. Whether they simply perished or were killed on the way because they couldn't keep up, none of the other captives ever learned. As Stockwell reports, his last sight of young Russell was after the boy fell into an icy stream. When he complained of faintness, the Indians treated him gently, sitting him down on the bank and "drying his stockings.

Plympton's fate was more dramatic; he was burned at the stake on the band's arrival in Canada - apparently because he was a soldier and thus hated by the Indians. His friend, Obediah Dickinson, was compelled to join him to the stake, but Dickinson was spared. Quintin Stockwell nearly died on the journey and all the captives suffered greatly.

Describing the passage along the shore of a frozen lake, probably the northern end of Lake Champlain, Stockwell wrote of the exhaustion that caused him to slip repeatedly on the ice: I counted no other but I must die there; whilest I was thinking of Death, an Indian I told him he must then so do; he saw how I had wallowed in that Snow, but could not rise; then he took his Coat, and wrapt me -in it, and went back and sent two Indians with a sled.

Several of the prisoners, in fact, survived only because of the acts of generosity they received from their captors. The Indians and their captives arrived in the vicinity of the tiny French settlement of Chambly around the first of January, just a week before Benjamin Waite and Stephen Jennings reached the same village by their more westerly route.

CAPTIVES, 1677:THE STORY OF BENJAMIN AND MARTHA WAITE

It was -there on Jan. Galvanized by the information that most of the captives were still alive, the two weary men pressed on to the nearby village of Sorel, where they found Jennings' wife and several others they also learned that many of the captives were among the French now, having been pawned off to the trappers for liquor.

A few were still with the Indians, but not far away. After resting a few days and receiving assurance of the captives' safety from the French, Waite and Jennings set out for Quebec to seek the assistance of Gov. Frontenac in arranging the ransom of their friends and kinsmen. With the governor's aid and guarantee, the Indians agreed to accept Waite's promise of a pound payment and released their prisoners into his care.

The money was paid, but only after some grumbling by Boston officials. It was during those negotiations among Waite, the French authorities and the Indians that Martha Waite gave birth to Canada, and two months 1ater Captivity Jennings was born Finally, after many delays and a long wait for the Canadian winter to end, the party of Waite, Jennings and the surviving captives set out for Albany on May 2. Accompanied by an escort of soldiers, they arrived there on the 22nd of May. By now, however, Waite and Jennings running out of resources.

With no money in hand, little food, and with the French soldiers returning to Quebec, Waite appealed to his Hatfield neighbors. In a letter whose text is today emblazoned on a 6 foot-high bronze the Hatfield Public Library, Waite asked for help.

Sharon, I would love to talk to you about the book you have. You are probably a distant cousin of my husband who is also related to both the Dickinson and Smith families Joseph Smith and Canada Waite. I have had this book for the last ten years.

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Of course, no one knows or will every know every exact detail, but we know that the abduction of these people was a very real part of Hatfield history. Your husband is probably a distant cousin. There are many of us out here. It was written in You may be able to order it from your local library or, I purchased a reprint from Higginson Book Company in Salem, Ma. Higginson has many books of local history. You can probably get a copy of what they offer by asking. I enjoy finding my connections to early american history.

I have Beldon,grout and sanders lines to name a few. I have written more, and there is a volume from the research I have done, which has not been written. It seems I go off on tangents, from pillar to post, as it is so enthralling. And the discovery that Martha had contact with the jurist, Samuel Sewall, now that is another historical yarn worth serious postulation. Black knows full well, the longest journey begins with but a single step.

Please begin writing today. Great that you do this, wish we had a group here in the midwest! My email is jmoranrealestate hotmail. Let me know of any future reunions. Thank you for your welcome reply. How proud you must be to be a descendant of Canada. If she was like her mother, Martha, she had to have been a very special brave woman in her time. I will keep your email address and send an email to you soon.

Hi Victoria, Thank you for writing in your family line.

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Please share with your cousins all that you have learned about Sarah. My email is wmewait aol. Wait Hi Ralmon-thank you for seeking us out today…we had a wonderful reunion on the phone. Please continue to keep in touch. We promise to do the same. We enjoyed all the history about Sophia Smith, Oliver Waite,and your family tree of 17, I have wanted to write this story for years, now I see it has been done, but perhaps I can improve upon it? Feel free to add to, suggest changes to, or write your own version of this story.

The more the merrier! Thanks for your comment. Hi Laura, Do not think the story has been written, but it should be. What I posted is no more than a thumbnail sketch of the life of Martha and Ben. I have searched everywhere imaginable, reading the letters written back and forth, looking for implications that could become between-the-lines postulations.

Black, and the later is my great-grandfather. This line has remained in Hatfield where I dwell, but that parts of Hatfield were set off to Whately and Williamsburg. Please feel free to contact me directly so we can explore what you have and what I might contribute to you from my files on Leonards, Wait e s, Hatfield, life in those times, the Hatfield Raid and the perilous journey to Sorell, New France. I am proud of my ancestors, I am a descendant of Hannah Waite who married Peter Buffington, from there they had Sarah Buffingotn who married isaac hart, through the Hart family came President Jimmy Carter, as his 5th grt grandfather Wiley Carter two daughters married two of my hart cousins so many times removed.

One more comment, Martha Leonard was not Benjamins first choice of whom he wanted to marry. Benjamin was engaged, and his intended did not want to marry him, but her father wanted the match. She was asked to go to a neighboring town and be with her sister when she had her baby.

While his intended was visiting, she met a young man. She married the young man. Benjamin was fined in the neighboring town, he got inebriated and play his instrument, and then with the help of the young girls father tried to have the marriage annulled, however the dead was done.

So after he met Martha and they got married. I proudly descend from Benjamin and Martha through their son, John , first born after her return from captivity in Canada. Their dau Mary Smith married Joseph Field. Wow,…this is so awesome. I would love more information on where you got this info!!! Welcome to another cousin, I too am a ggrandaughter of Canada. You need the newest edition which is 2 volumes in one.

It does give you an interesting look at the subject but it is not historically accurate. The author is Stuart Vaughan. Canada was an amazing person! I am not only a descendant of her with husband Smith, but I am a descendant of his through another connection. Even I get confused, but in one case she is my x great aunt and also my 10thgreat grandmother…crazy genes, but fabulous family history!

Welcome to a great club of great grands of Canada! I am so sorry to hear that our cousin Ralmon Black has passed away. I tried to get there and meet him, but I have failed.

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Thank you Ralmon, for this wonderful connection with new-to-us relatives and friends. We will keep the other descendants of this couple aligned forever. Did you know we have evidence that the Barbara Leonard bloodline goes through the English Fiennes families through several Plantagenets of England, then back through the Norman French to southern France of the s..

I emailed back and forth many times with him. So sad to lose someone with such great knowledge of our family and so willing to share! I started trying to document.

I traveled up to Massachusetts a few years back, found many of the family gravestones and records in Conway, Whately and Hadley. I hope we keep this blog going and stay in touch! Hi Laurie, I am with you.

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I hope this blog will keep going. There are thousands of descendants, cousins, etc. I guess we could reach out to the Williamsburgh Hist Society to see what someone there knows…. Hmmm food for thought! For the record, the late Ralmon Black did not run this blog, although he contributed mightily to the Williamsburg and Waite family material. It is a project of the Pioneer Valley History Network which will continue to operate it. We are SO glad you have sponsored this. Thank you again for your service to us descendants of so many families!!!! John Waite is my 8th great grandfather who married my 8th great grandmother Mary Belden.

Thank you for the beautiful story and hello to my many, many cousins! You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email.

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