For the Lesson “Deerfield Families”
This page contains information on the following:
- Sheldon Family
- John Sheldon (1658 – 1733)
- Mary Sheldon (1687 – 1738)
- Ebenezer Sheldon (1691 – 1774)
- Remembrance Sheldon (1693 – 1758)
The Sheldon Family
From The History of Deerfield, Vol. II, George Sheldon, 1895, pgs. 293-295
John, s.[son] of Isaac, b.[born] 1658…came to Dfd.[Deerfield] at the permanent sett.[settlement] and at once took a leading part in the affairs of the plantation; was on the board of selectmen; ensign in first military company; capt.[captain] 1707; dea.[deacon] in the chh.[church]; he was the builder of the historic ‘Old Indian House’…This house he was occupying [living in] at the desolation [destruction] of the town, Feb. 29, 1704…he died abt.[about] 1733…John Sheldon m.[married] Nov. 5, 1679, Hannah, dau.[daughter] [of] John Stebbins of Nhn.[Northampton] then 15 yrs.[years] and 4 mos.[months] old; she was k.[killed] by a shot through the ‘Old Door’, Feb. 29, 1704
Ch: John, [born] Sept. 19, 1681
Hannah, [born] Oct. 9, 1683; m.[married] June 26, 1701, Joseph Catlin, who was one of the brave nine who fell in the Meadow fight, 1704; she m. (2) [married her 2nd husband] Oct. 26, 1705, Nath’l[Nathaniel] Clark of Nhn.[Northampton]
Mary, [born] July 24, 1687; cap.[captured] 1704; m.[married] Mar. 19, 1708, Sam’l[Samuel] Clapp of Nhn.[Northampton]; (2) [2nd husband] in 1762, Jonathan Strong of Nhn.[Northampton]- her lover bef.[before] her captivity.
Abigail, [born] Nov. 21, 1689; d.[died] June 10, 1690.
Ebenezer, [born] Nov. 15, 1691
Remembrance, [born] Feb. 21, 1693
Mercy, [born] Aug. 25, 1701; k.[killed] Feb. 29,1704
Abigail, [born] Sept. 8, 1710
John, [born] Mar. 8, 1718
From New England Captives Carried to Canada, Vol. I, Emma L. Coleman, 1925, pg. 116
The Family of John Sheldon
Mary, 16; Ebenezer, 12; Remembrance, 11; and Hannah (Chapin), his daughter-in-law, 23.
Ensign- and deacon [church assistant]- John Sheldon was living in the house afterwards called the ‘Old Indian House’ where the attack was fiercest. Hacking and hewing the strong oaken door of his house, now treasured in Memorial Hall, the Indians made a hole through which they fired a shot that killed his wife, Hannah (Stebbins). Swarming into the house they killed Mercy, aged three, and captured Mary and the two boys. John, eldest of the family, had recently married Hannah Chapin. On the first alarm they jumped from their bedroom window. She sprained her ankle, but urged him to leave her to bring help, and binding his bare feet with strips of blanket he hurried down to Hatfield as did others….John Sheldon’s [Jr.] young wife was carried away…
James Adams, a Wells captive, wrote to Mr. Sheldon from Montreal: ‘I doe[do] in these few lins[lines] showe youe that god has shone yo [you] grat [great] kindness and marcy [mercy], In carrying youre Daighter [daughter] Hanna, and Mary in pertickeler [particular], through so grat [great] a iorney [journey], noing [knowing] how Lame she war [was]: the Rest of your children are with the Ind [Indians], Remembrance liues [lives] near cabect [Quebec], Hannah also Liues [lives] with the frenc [French], Jn [John] in the same house I doe [do].’ In April Mr. Sheldon wrote to Deerfield from Quebec that he had seen none of his children but had heard that ‘they are gone a honten [hunting].’ Of the four, he brought back only his son’s wife, who was left at her father’s home in Springfield, whence [where] she wrote to her husband on June 16 that ‘she should be very glad to see him.’
From Family and Landscape, Amelia Miller & Susan McGowan, 1996, pgs. 26, 27, 43
“On January 26, 1699 Sheldon purchased one and one-quarter acres from John and Benoni Stebbins…The house Sheldon built in 1699 stood within the stockade at the north end of the Common. It was one of only a few survivors within the stockade in the French and Indian attack of February 29, 1704. The Sheldon house, in addition to the Meeting House, was used to house prisoners after the attack.
It was reported that Ensign [a military rank] John Sheldon’s wife, Hannah Stebbins Sheldon, and one child were killed in 1704, and that three of his children were taken captive. Of his family, only he remained alive and at home. His newly-married son, John Sheldon, Jr., who also occupied his father’s house in 1704, ran south to Hatfield, about fourteen miles away, to give the alarm. His bride, Hannah Chapin Sheldon, was captured and carried to Canada.
In 1705, Ensign John Sheldon was sent by Governor Joseph Dudley of Massachusetts Bay on a mission to Canada, and returned in the spring with five of the Deerfield captives, one of whom was Hannah, his son’s wife. The next winter, he was again sent to redeem [rescue] English captives in Canada, and was so successful that in May 1706, he sailed from Quebec with forty-four captives, leaving another fifty-seven waiting for transportation home. The Reverend John Williams of Deerfield came with the fifty-seven. In 1707 Sheldon was sent a third time and returned with 113 captives, seven from Deerfield and 106 from other parts of New England. Ensign John Sheldon moved to Hartford soon after 1707, where he eventually married.”
John Sheldon
From The History of Deerfield, Vol. II, George Sheldon, 1895, pgs. 294 & 295
John, s.[son] of John, b.[born] 1681; when the attack was made upon the old Indian House in 1704, the enemy was so intent upon cutting through the front door, that John and his young wife jumped from the east chamber [bedroom] window unobserved; she was disabled by a sprained ankle; neither could have known the real condition of affairs, but Hannah urged her husband to fly to Hatfield and give the alarm; he was barefooted but he protected his feet as he ran over the snow by tearing up a blanket and tying the strips around them. [Family tradition] Hannah was taken, and ‘Mr. Adams,’ a captive then in Can.,[Canada], writes that he was greatly surprised that she escaped death on the march, ‘knowing how lame she was;’ she was redeemed [rescued] by Ensign [a military rank] John, her father-in-law, in 1705; John d.[died] June 26, 1713;…He m.[married] Dec. 3, 1703, Hannah, the plucky dau.[daughter] of Japhet Chapin; she m. (2) [married 2nd husband] Nov. 26, 1719, Lieut.[lieutenant] Timothy Childs; she d.[died] Sept. 30, 1765m a,[age] 85.
Ch.: John, [born] Apr. 12, 1706, in Spfd. [Springfield]: d. [died] June 28, 1706
Hannah, [born] Oct. 1, 1707; m. [married] Nov. 4, 1729, Rev. [reverend/ minister] Sam’l [Samuel] Allis of Somers, Ct
John, [born] Aug. 9, 1710
Charles, [born] May 5, 1713
Mary Sheldon
From New England Captives Carried to Canada, Vol. I, Emma L. Coleman, 1925, pgs. 117 & 118
“Mary. On his second journey- in 1706- he brought back his daughter Mary. Life had grown easier in Deerfield. John, Jr., sends his ‘love to sister Mary and all the rest of the captives’ and prays his father to buy ‘ a paire of curtings [curtains] and a feather bead [bed], and a greaine [green] coverlid [bedspread] and a necklace of amber’.
Mary married 1 [1st husband] , Samuel Clapp of Northampton in 1708; and 2 [2nd husband], Jonathan Strong. Her squaw-mother often visited her in Northampton; wishing always to sleep in the open she went every night to Fort Hill…
In answer to his [brother Ebenezer’s] petition ‘for himself and Samuel and Mary Clap’ (his sister and her husband) the General Court, in 1736, gave them three hundred acres ‘because in their long Captivity in Canada they had contracted an Acquaintance [had a friendship] with the Cagnawaga [Kahnawake/Mohawk] Indians, who now put them to an Extraordinary Charge to entertain them when they come to Deerfield.’
What that means:
Mary and her brother, Ebenezer, were given 300 acres of land because it cost them so much to take care of their Indian friends [probably their adopted Indian parents], who often came to visit them.
From The History of Deerfield, Vol. I, George Sheldon, 1895, pg. 356
“Mary Sheldon, seventeen years old when taken, was adopted by a squaw.”
Ebenezer Sheldon
From The History of Deerfield, Vol. II, George Sheldon, 1895, pg. 295
Ebenezer, s.[son] of John, b.[born] 1691; cap.[captured] 1704 but came back; lived in the old Indian House and kept tavern; in 1735 the Gen.[general] Court granted to him and to his sister Mary, 300 acres of land in consideration of the cost of entertaining Caughnawaga [Kahnawake/Mohawk] Indians, with whom they became acquainted during their captivity, on their frequent [many] visits after the peace; in 1744 Capt.[captain] Sheldon sold the old Indian House to Jonathan Hoyt…he d.[died] Apr. 12, 1774. He m.[married] Dec. 3, 1714, Thankful, dau.[daughter] Joseph Barnard; she d.[died] 1746.
Ch.: Ebenezer, [born] Oct. 13, 1715
Remembrance, [born] Oct. 16, 1717
Thankful, [born] Nov. 5, 1719; m.[married] Sept. 25, 1740, her cousin, Joseph Barnard
Abner, [born] Nov. 22, 1721
Mercy, [born] July 26, 1724; m.[married] 1743, David Hoyt
Amasa, [born] Aug. 27, 1726
Eliakim, [born] July 15, 1728; shot by Indians while mowing at Ber.[Bernardston] July 15, 1747
Hannah, [born] Aug. 21, 1730; m.[married] May 20, 1751, Col. Sam’l[Samuel] Wells…of Bratt.[Brattleboro]
Elijah, [born] Nov. 1, 1733
Elisha, bap.[baptized] Nov. 10, 1736; cap.[captain] at Fort William Henry Aug. 9, 1757; carried to France
From New England Captives Carried to Canada, Vol. I, Emma L. Coleman, 1925, pg. 118
“Ebenezer came back and was tavern-keeper in the Old Indian House. He married Thankful Barnard. Later he lived in Bernardston and was known as the ‘Old Indian fighter’.
Remembrance Sheldon
From The History of Deerfield, Vol. II, George Sheldon, 1895, pg. 295
Remembrance, s.[son] of John, b.[born] 1693; cap.[captured] 1704; came home with his father in 1706 and went with him to Hart.[Hartford]. He m.[married] Feb. 19, 1719, Hannah Drake of Wind.[Windsor].
Ch.: Elisha, [born] 1720
Jerusha, [born] 1722; m.[married] Nath’l[Nathaniel] Bissell;(2) [2nd husband] Lieut.[lieutenant] Sam’l[Samuel] Filer
Epaphras, [born] 1726;…m.[married] Eunice Allyn
Remembrance, [born] 1728(?); m.[married] Sarah Egleston