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Our Captive Ancestors from the 1704 Deerfield Raid

Imagine walking over 300 miles from a small town in Massachusetts all the way to Fort Chambly, Québec in the dead of winter, across uneven snow, half-frozen rivers and rapids, and encountering all sorts of wilderness along the way. Now imagine it’s 1704 and you’re very poorly equipped for the journey by today’s standards. And finally, imagine you’re just a child, kidnapped by French and Native warriors, and your new indigenous “master” is the one taking you on this journey back to his home.

 That’s exactly what happened to my 7th great-grandparents, Abigail Nims and Josiah Rising and my 8th great-grandmother Sarah Allen.

Abigail, the daughter of Godfrey Nims and Mehitable Smead, was born in the year 1700 in Deerfield, Massachusetts, then part of the New England Colonies. Josiah, son of John Rising and Sarah Hale, was born in nearby Suffield in 1694, but was living with his uncle in Deerfield in 1704. Sarah, daughter of Edward Allen and Mercy Painter, was born in 1692 in Deerfield. At this time, Deerfield’s population was less than 300 inhabitants, consisting mostly of young, subsistence-farming families who were devoted puritans. Deerfield's location, however, didn’t provide them with the tranquil life they sought. It was isolated, on the very edge of the English settlement. It became a target of conflict between the French and the English, each supported by their indigenous allies.

In the decades prior to the Deerfield raid of 1704, there were numerous attacks on English colonists, as well as “Indian” villages, as part of King Philip’s War, then King William’s War and finally Queen Anne’s War. Villagers in Deerfield lived in constant fear of retaliatory attacks. To prepare for such a possibility, the town’s palisades (a wall made of wooden stakes) were fortified and expanded in 1703. In October of that year, two Deerfield villagers were captured in an ambush and taken to Canada. Soldiers were stationed around the village in response, but as the remainder of the year passed without further incident, they were withdrawn. In early 1704, Joseph Dudley, the governor of Massachusetts, was notified by the Iroquois of a possible French and native attack, but wasn't given any details on when or where it would take place. In February, a group of 20 militiamen was sent to guard Deerfield. They were supported by about 70 townsmen under the command of Captain Jonathan Wells.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the border at Fort Chambly, a force of about 250 men was being assembled, led by Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville. It was comprised of about 50 French and Canadian soldiers and officers from the Compagnies Franches de la Marine, with the remainder being indigenous warriors including the Wôbanaki (Abenaki, Pennacook, Sokoki, Pocumtuck and others), the Wendat (Huron Iroquois), and the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk Iroquois) nations. As they made their way south toward the New England colonies, they were joined by some 30 to 40 Pennacook men from Cowass (present-day Newbury, Vermont). Deerfield wasn’t a particularly important target—it was simply chosen because of its location, being the closest New England settlement to the French base at Chambly.  

The raid on Deerfield took place on February 29th, 1703/1704 (according to the Julian calendar) or on March 11th, 1704 (according to the Gregorian calendar still in use today). The French and indigenous group left most of their equipment and supplies about 3 kilometres outside of town and watched the villagers as they settled in for the night. Some reports suggest that only one man was posted to guard the town. As they approached the village, the attackers noticed that snow drifts had practically reached the top of the palisade, allowing a few of them to easily climb over, and unlock the gate to let the rest in.

“The savage foe came noiselessly over the palisades at the northwest corner, where the winter winds had lifted the highest drifts, and distributed themselves among the peaceful homes. Then came the dreadful warwhoop, the blows of axes on resisting doors, the leaping of flames and the report of muskets.”[i]

With painted faces and screeching war-cries, the Natives launched their attack. The raiders went from one house to another, bayonets or tomahawks in hand, either killing the residents inside or taking them prisoner. Any valuable goods were stolen and some houses were set on fire. Only a few homes in the southern part of Deerfield were defended successfully.

“At the end of the fight the only two houses within the palisades that were not smoking ruins were the one so bravely defended and the garrison house. The latter had been pillaged, and when the enemy began their retreat they set it on fire, but it was saved by the efforts of the few English who had escaped death and capture and were still in the village. This building, as time went on and the events of this past February night receded into the past, came to be known as “The Old Indian House.” […] The old door, filled with nails and gashed by Indian tomahawks, has luckily been preserved”.[ii]

By early morning, militiamen from the nearby villages of Hadley, Hatfield and Northampton arrived, causing the attackers to flee. The militiamen gave chase, along with garrison soldiers and residents, but deadly skirmishes in the North Meadows eventually forced them to retreat. Two residents, two soldiers and five militiamen died in what is now called the “Meadows Fight”.  On the raiders’ side, 22 Frenchmen were wounded (including de Rouville) and two killed. Seven Natives were killed and many others were injured.

The attack devastated the village of Deerfield: 17 out of 41 homes were destroyed, 38 villagers and three soldiers were killed, and 109 residents were taken captive, as well as three Frenchmen who were living among them. 40% of Deerfield’s population had effectively been kidnapped, the majority of them women and children. It was the intention of the Indigenous attackers to adopt the younger captives into their communities, or to sell them. Among the captives was the town’s reverend, John Williams, as well as my three ancestors, Abigail, Josiah and Sarah. In 1707, Williams wrote an account of his experience entitled The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion.

A Long Journey North

And thus began my ancestors' 300-mile (480 kilometres) trek to Canada in the middle of winter. Of the 112 captives that started the journey, only a handful were able escape. The captors told Reverend Williams to relay a message to the group: that any escapees who were captured would be tortured. No one else attempted to flee from that point on. Furthermore, Williams and the other men were tied up every night.

Reverent Williams described how the villagers felt as they left Deerfield: “Who can tell what sounds pierced our souls, when we saw ourselves carried away from God’s sanctuary, to go into a strange land, exposed to so many toils; the journey being at least 300 miles we were to travel; the snow up to our knees, and we never inured to such hardships and fatigues; the place where we were to be carried a Popish country.”[iii]

Once the group had crossed the river north of town and reached the foot of a mountain, the captives were told to remove their shoes and put on moccasins (traditional footwear made of deerskin or other leather) so they could walk through the snow at a faster pace.

Of the 112 people who started the trek north, it is believed that 89 survived and made it to Québec. Though it was in the Natives’ interest to keep their captives alive, anyone that wasn’t able to keep up or became sick or wounded was killed and left behind. Sadly, this included mostly young children, infants, and pregnant women. Reverend Williams’ own wife Eunice, having given birth only 6 weeks prior, was one of the first to be killed. Abigail’s mother was also killed.

Describing the second day of their long march, the Reverend wrote: “I was made to wade over a small river, and so were all the English, the water above knee-deep, the stream very swift; and after that, to travel up a small mountain; my strength was almost spent… I asked each of the prisoners (as they passed me) after her [his wife Eunice], and heard that in passing through the above said river, she fell down, and was plunged over head and ears in the water; after which she travelled not far,” and unable to keep up was killed.[iv]

When they reached the Connecticut River, the Natives used sleighs to transport their injured warriors as well as the youngest children. Other children were carried. Williams wrote: “my youngest daughter, aged seven years, was carried all the journey, and looked after with a great deal of tenderness. My youngest son, aged 4 years, was wonderfully preserved from death; for though they that carried him, or drew him on sleighs, were tired with their journeys, yet their savage, cruel tempers were so over-ruled by God, that they did not kill him […]”. For the adults, the march was much more difficult. As Williams recalled on day 19, “My march on the French (Winooski) river was very sore; for fearing a thaw, we travelled a very great pace; my feet were so bruised, and my joints so distorted by my travelling in show shoes, that I thought it impossible to hold out.”[v]

According to Williams’ account, the group marched north along the frozen Connecticut River, then up the Wells River, and down the Winooski River before finally reaching Lake Champlain, which straddles the border, sleeping in rudimentary shelters and wigwams of brush and cut spruce at night.

From Lake Champlain, the group made their way to Chambly and dispersed, each Native captor taking his captive(s) to their own village. There, they were either adopted into the community as family members, servants or slaves, kept for ransom purposes, or sold for money.  

Fates Negotiated

Governor Dudley soon organized retaliatory raids on several Acadian villages: Pentagouet, Passamaquoddy Bay, Grand Pré, Pisiquid and Beaubassin. His men were instructed to capture villagers that could be used in a prisoner exchange with those taken at Deerfield. At the same time, Deerfield residents collected ransom money in the hopes of buying the captives' freedom.

By 1705, most of the Deerfield captives had been sold or traded to the French by their indigenous captors, although some of the youngest prisoners remained in Native hands. Both of these groups attempted to assimilate the captives into their cultures. The main priority for the French was conversion to Roman Catholicism. The natives converted their captives to their way of life. One of these captives was Reverend Williams’ own 8-year old daughter Eunice, who was adopted into a Mohawk tribe. Fully assimilated, she married a Mohawk man when she was 16 years old and didn’t see her English family until much later in life. Other captives, although they eventually had the choice to return to New England, chose to stay in their new French or Native homes.       

By the end of 1706, most of the Deerfield prisoners who wanted to return home did so, as a result of ransom payments and/or prisoner exchanges coordinated by the governor. Of the 89 captives who made it to Québec, 36 of them remained there permanently, including my 7th great-grandmother Abigail Nims, my 7th great-grandfather Josiah Rising and my 8th great-grandmother Sarah Allen. Most historians believe that those who stayed did so because they had formed community, family and religious bonds with those around them, and had become completely assimilated in their new surroundings.

Of the captives taken by the Abenaki and Pennacooks, all except three were sold to the French. The Huron did not keep any of their captives. The Mohawks at Kahnawake were more successful at assimilating their six young prisoners into their community, including Eunice Williams. As for the Iroquois, only 8-year old Hannah Hurst became an "Iroquois of the Mountain". The others were sold or traded, and two of the captives later married and lived out their lives in Oka, their ties to their indigenous village dissipating over time. These two captives were Abigail Nims and Josiah Rising.  

Growing up among the Iroquois

Abigail Nims was initially sent to the Mission of the Mountain in Sault-au-Récollet, on the Rivière-des-prairies. Some believe that Abigail’s captor was Haronhiateka, Chief of the Bear Clan of Sault-au-Récollet. She was adopted by a woman called Ganastarsie, likely the wife of her captor, and went to live in her longhouse. Abigail was likely tasked with household chores, such as collecting water, cleaning and taking care of the smaller children. Josiah was taken to Fort-Lorette, and not much is known about this childhood there. Both children learned French and Iroquois and became fully integrated into their new communities. Sarah was taken to Kahnawake (south of present-day Montreal) and stayed there for some time, before being sold to Montreal merchant Jean Quenet.  

A late-19th century book recounting the children’s adoption into the Iroquois communities is clearly tainted with prejudice:

“There they lived in true Indian fashion, rolling in the dirt with the pappooses and puppies with which the village was swarming, and quickly catching the Iroquois language.[…] Picture the life of these children at the Indian fort. The dark, cold, smoky wigwam; the scanty clothing in which they had been snatched from home all rags and dirt, replaced at last by a blanket which was their dress by day, their bed at night; coarse and unpalatable food; corn pounded, soaked and boiled in unsavory pottage; roasted pumpkin a rare luxury”.[vi]

Josiah Rising was given the native name of ShoentakȢanni (roughly translated as “his village has been taken from him”) and Abigail was called TȢatogȢach (translated as “she who gets the water”).

[A note on The Use of the Character Ȣ in Indigenous Names: Many indigenous languages in Canada had no written form hundreds of years ago. Communications were primarily oral. Researchers often run into genealogical records with a character that looks like the number 8 in them. The 8 symbol is actually the ligature Ȣ, representing the sound [u] as the vowel u stacked on top of the vowel o. When Jesuit priests "translated" Indigenous languages into written form, some sounds had no French equivalent. The symbol Ȣ was sometimes used for both the sound [u], when occurring before a consonant, and the glide [w], when occurring before a vowel. We often see Ȣ used in the translation of words from the Iroquois language family, such as Huron-Wendat.] 

For the French-Canadian clergy however, their primary objective was the education of the English children and a quick conversion to the Roman Catholic faith.  Abigail was educated by nuns at the Mission School for girls, headed by Soeur Marie des Anges, herself a New England captive from an earlier raid (when she was called Marie Geneviève Saward). The children learned to sing, read, write and speak French. Catechism was also taught. Girls learned how to do domestic chores like sew, knit and spin. The boys were taught carpentry, shoemaking, masonry and other trades.

On June 15th 1704, Abigail was baptized at Notre-Dame in Montréal, where she was called by her new French name, Marie Elizabeth.

Her baptism record reads :

On the same day, the 15th of June 1704, baptism ceremonies were performed by myself, the undersigned priest, for a little English girl called Abigail in her country, and now Marie Elizabeth, born in Dearfield in New England on June 12th 1700 of the marriage of the deceased Geoffroi Nimbs shoemaker and of Meetabel Smeed also deceased. The child taken from the said place on March 11th last and living in the hut of a squaw of the mountain named Ganastarsi. The godmother was the young lady Marie Elizabeth Le moyne daughter of Messer Charles Le moine esquire, baron of Longueil, knight of the order of St-Louis and captain of a company with Francois Brunet, who declared not knowing how to sign.[vii]   

For her part, Sarah Allen was sent to live at one of Quenet’s homes in Baie d’Urfé, where she worked as a domestic. She was given the French name “Marie Magdeleine Siré Hélène” and baptized at Ste-Anne-du-bout-de-l’île (present-day Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue) on May 31th, 1705. The Siré name, however, never reappeared in records.

The following year, Josiah was also baptized under his new French name, Ignace. His baptism took place at the Sault-au-Recollet Mission on December 23rd 1706 at the age of about 12.[viii] 

At this early stage in their captivity, several New England visitors came and went from the Mission, attempting to secure the release of the English children. Abigail is said to have been kept hidden at the convent during these negotiations. In 1705, five captives were released and four escaped back to Deerfield. Additional captives were released the following year. For reasons unknown, Abigail, Josiah and Sarah were not returned to New England. As some English prisoners left the mission, more prisoners were being captured and brought in.

“Grim and direful scenes our two captives saw, when the war parties returned with scalps and prisoners. The two long rows of savages armed with clubs and hatchets, were formed at the gate of the fort. Between these the weary and footsore captives ran for nearly three-quarters of a mile, the savages mocking and striking at them as they ran. Then came the dreadful pow-wow, when the poor sufferers were made to sing and dance round a great fire, while their tormenters yelled and shrieked. The children saw many of their Deerfield neighbors brought into the fort this way.”[ix]  

From 1707 to 1711, there were no prisoner exchanges. In 1712, the Canadian governor proposed an exchange of English captives in Canada for the French prisoners at Deerfield. Nine Deerfield captives returned to New England in September of that year, but Abigail and Josiah were not among them. Abigail’s brother John had been part of the group sent to recover the captives in Canada. Various accounts state that Abigail told her brother that she did not want to leave. Josiah also refused a relative’s offer to take him back home. Once the Treaty of Utrecht was passed, another attempt was made to release the final Deerfield captives in 1714, since slavery was no longer legal.   

After her baptism in 1705, Sarah drops from the public record until 1710. On April 27th of that year, she marries Guillaume Lalonde dit L’Espérance at Ste-Anne-du-bout-de-l’île. He was 25 years old, an habitant, and she was 17. While her new husband was not able to sign the marriage record, she could, writing simply “M M Helene”.

Five years later, it was Abigail and Josiah’s turn to be married. On July 29th, 1715, 15-year old Abigail (now called Elizabeth) married 21-year old Josiah (now called Ignace). The following is a translation of the marriage record:

“This 29th July 1715, I have married Ignace ShoentakȢanni and Elizabeth TȢatogȢach, both English, who wish to remain with the Christian Indians, not only renouncing their nation but even wishing to live en sauvages [as Indians]. Ignace aged about 23 or 24 years, and Elisabeth about 15. Both were taken at Dierfile [Deerfield] about 13 years ago.”[x]

Josiah’s father, John Rising, died in 1719. In his will, he bequeaths to Josiah five pounds, provided he return to New England. He never did.

In 1721, the Mission of the Mountain was relocated from Sault-au-Récollet to the Lac des Deux Montagnes (Lake of the Two Mountains), present-day Oka. The Sulpician priests granted Abigail and Josiah a fairly large lot of land. They became “cultivateurs” (farmers) and tended to their land, calling it “Risingland”.  

Abigail and Josiah had at least 8 children[xi]:

• Marie Madeleine (1716-1796) was a nun, called Sister Saint-Herman.

• Amable Simon (1719-1788) was a priest.

• Marie Anne (Abt. 1721-1787) married Louis Séguin dit Ladéroute

• Marie Catherine (Abt. 1723- ? ) married Jean Baptiste Séguin dit Ladéroute

• Marie Anastasie (Abt. 1725-1798) married Jean Baptiste Sabourin, then Pierre Castonguay

• Suzanne (Abt. 1727- ?) married Joseph Gentien dit Chénier

• Marie (1735-1811) was a nun, called Sister Saint-Ignace, who attained the title of 13th Mother Superior of her local congregation.

• Jean Baptiste Jérôme (1740-1795) married Marie Charlotte Sabourin, settled on his father’s estate and had 10 children. He had wanted to become a priest but was unable to. Instead, he treated his home like a religious community, accepting the poor, orphaned and destitute.
  
  

Sarah and Guillaume had at least 12 children[xii]:

• Edouard (1712-1778) married Suzanne Sédilot dite Montreuil

• Marie Louise (1713-1714)

• Louis (1715-1777) married Marie Louise Picard

• André (1717-1800) married Marie Josèphe Diel

• Albert (1719-1807) married Marie Angélique Montpetit dite Potvin

• Marie François (1721-1806) married Marie Elisabeth Isabelle Réaume

• Marie Josèphe (1724-1781) married Thomas Watier dite Lanoix

• Joseph Marie (1725-1817) married Marguerite Sarrazin dite Depelteau

• Marie Geneviève (1727-1792) married Charles Lecompte dit Lafleur

• Guillaume (1730-1792) married Marie Charlotte Charles Brais

• Marie Anne (1732-1819) married François Beriau

• Jean Baptiste (1734-1805)

Abigail Nims died at the age of 46 on January 3rd, 1747 in Oka.[xiii] During the final days of a fatal illness, she reportedly refused to remove her hair shirt, which she always wore as penance. 

Sarah Allen died at the age of 72 on Christmas Day 1764 in Les Cèdres, where she was buried the next day.[xiv] 

 Josiah Rising died at the age of 77 around December 30th, 1771 in Oka.[xv]

The name Rising became "Raizenne" in French. The Raizenne home, constructed in 1721, is the oldest house in Oka. It was passed down from generation to generation, in Raizenne hands for 231 years. Now owned by the Beaupré family, it was even used in a scene for the filming of X-Men, Apocalypse (standing in for a house in Poland). Read the L’Éveil article here.  

Several of the Raizenne children had large families of their own. As a result, thousands of French Canadians can find Abigail Nims and Josiah Rising in their family trees.

Click here to view a list of all Deerfield captives along with their fate. 

Click here to view photos of present-day historic Deerfield, Massachusetts.

Click here see short biographies on all of those involved in the 1704 Deerfield raid, by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA) / Memorial Hall Museum.

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Sources and additional reading:

• Baker, C. Alice, True Stories of New England Captives Carried to Canada during the Old French and Indian Wars, Greenfield, Mass.: Press of E. A. Hall & Co., 1897, 407 pages. Digitized by Google Books (https://play.google.com/books/).

• Fournier, Marcel, De la Nouvelle-Angleterre à la Nouvelle-France : "L’histoire des captifs anglo-américains au Canada entre 1675 et 1760", Montréal, Québec : Société généalogique canadienne-française, 1992, 280 pages.   

• Haefeli, Evan and Kevin Sweeney, Captive Histories: English, French, and Native Narratives of the 1704 Deerfield Raid, Amherst and Boston, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006, 298 pages.

• Historic Deerfield, Inc., The French and Indian Raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, February 29, 1704, Deerfield, Mass.: Historic Deerfield Publications, 2008, 62 pages.

• Johnson, Clifton, An Unredeemed Captive: Being the Story of Eunice Williams, Holyoke, Mass.: Griffith, Axtell & Cady Company, 1897, 54 pages. Digitized by Google Books (https://play.google.com/books/).

• Ontario Métis Family Records Center, “The Raizenne Legacy” (https://www.omfrc.org/2016/09/the-raizenne-legacy/ : accessed 17 Oct 2019), published Sep 2016.

• Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association (PVMA) / Memorial Hall Museum, “Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704” (http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/home.do#).

• Williams, John, The Redeemed Captive: A Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings, and Return of the Rev. John Williams, Minister of Deerfield, Massachusetts, who was Taken Prisoner by the Indians on the Destruction of the Town, A.D. 1704. New York, NY: S.W. Benedict & Company, 1833, 116 pages. Digitized by Google Books (https://play.google.com/books/).

Citations:

[i] Johnson, Clifton, An Unredeemed Captive: Being the Story of Eunice Williams, Holyoke, Mass.: Griffith, Axtell & Cady Company, 1897, 28. Digitized by Google Books (https://play.google.com/books/).

[ii] Ibid, 30-31.

[iii] Williams, John, The Redeemed Captive: A Narrative of the Captivity, Sufferings, and Return of the Rev. John Williams, Minister of Deerfield, Massachusetts, who was Taken Prisoner by the Indians on the Destruction of the Town, A.D. 1704. New York, NY: S.W. Benedict & Company, 1833, 9. Digitized by Google Books (https://play.google.com/books/).

[iv] Historic Deerfield, Inc., The French and Indian Raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, February 29, 1704, Deerfield, Massachusetts: Historic Deerfield Publications, 2008, 12.

[v] Historic Deerfield, Inc., The French and Indian Raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, February 29, 1704, Deerfield, Massachusetts: Historic Deerfield Publications, 2008, 16-17.

[vi] Baker, C. Alice, True Stories of New England Captives Carried to Canada during the Old French and Indian Wars, Greenfield, Mass.: Press of E. A. Hall & Co., 1897, 237-8. Digitized by Google Books (https://play.google.com/books/).

[vii] “Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968”, digital image (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 17 Oct 2019), baptism record for Marie Elizabeth Nimbs, 15 Jun 1700, Notre-Dame de Montréal, citing original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.

[viii] Baker, C. Alice, True Stories of New England Captives Carried to Canada during the Old French and Indian Wars, Greenfield, Mass.: Press of E. A. Hall & Co., 1897, 238. Digitized by Google Books (https://play.google.com/books/).

[ix] Ibid, 241.

[x] Ibid, 247.

[xi] Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), Université de Montréal (https://www.prdh-igd.com : accessed 17 Oct 2019), dictionary entry for IGNACE RAIZENNE SHOENTAKOUANI and MARIE ELISABETH NIMBS TOUATOGOUACH (union # 11967).

[xii] Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), Université de Montréal (https://www.prdh-igd.com : accessed 17 Oct 2019), dictionary entry for GUILLAUME LALONDE and MARIE MADELEINE HELENE ALLEN (union # 10633).

[xiii] Baker, C. Alice, True Stories of New England Captives Carried to Canada during the Old French and Indian Wars, Greenfield, Mass.: Press of E. A. Hall & Co., 1897, 248. Digitized by Google Books (https://play.google.com/books/).

[xiv] “Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, digital image (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 17 Oct 2019), burial record for Madeleine Helene, 26 Dec 1764, Les Cèdres, citing original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.

[xv] Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), Université de Montréal (https://www.prdh-igd.com : accessed 17 Oct 2019), online dictionary entry for IGNACE RAIZENNE SHOENTAKOUANI (person # 67609).