On September 16, 1661, one of my maternal 10th great grandfathers, Major General Humphrey Atherton, died in Dorcester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He is remembered as both a revered statesman and a ruthless bully. He was born in Lancaster, England in about 1609. In about 1628 he married Mary Wales and together they had at least seven children, five before coming to America in 1635. Once here, he immediately resumed his rise to prominence. His military career began in 1638 as a member of an artillery company. In 1644 he was appointed a warden (for life) of Americas first public school: they were to see that both the master and the scholar performed their duty, and to judge of, and end, any difference that might arise, between master and scholar, or their Parents, according to sundry rules and directions there set down. In 1645 he served alongside Miles Standish and was promoted to Lieutenant. During this time, this was recorded about him: He is said to have been a man of courage and presence of mind, for when he was sent with 20 men to Pessacus, an Indian sachem [chief] to demand the arrears to the colony of 300 fathom of wampum, Pessacus put him off for some time with dilatory answers, not suffering him even to come into his presence. Atherton finally led his men to the door of the wigwam, entered himself with pistol in hand, leaving his men without, and, seizing Pessacus by the hair of his head, drew him forth from the midst of a great number of his attendants, threatening, if any of them interfered, that he would despatch them. Pessacus paid what was demanded, and the English returned in safety. He also served as Selectman, Town Treasurer, deputy to General Courts and Speaker of the House. He was known for his persecution of Quakers (he was a Puritan), and as an Assistant Governor played a major role in the execution of his predecessors widow for being a witch. Her story was fictionalized as a character in Nathaniel Hawthornes Scarlet Letter (I am going to have to reread that book now!). The Quakers werent sad to hear of his passing and felt it was Gods judgement: Humfray Adderton, who at the trial of Wenlock Christison, did, as it were, bid defiance to Heaven, by saying to Wenlock, You pronounce Woes and Judgements, and those that are gone before you pronounced Woes and Judgements; but the Judgements of the Lord God are not upon us yet, was suddenly surprised: having been, on a certain day, exercising his men with much pomp and ostentation, he was returning home in the evening, near the place where they usually loosed the Quakers from the cart, after they had whipped them, his horse, suddenly affrighted, threw him with such violence, that he instantly died; his eyes being dashed out of his head, and his brains coming out of his nose, his tongue hanging out at his mouth, and the blood running out at his ears: Being taken up and brought into the Courthouse, the place where he had been active in sentencing the innocent to death, his blood ran through the floor, exhibiting to the spectators a shocking instance of the Divine vengeance against a daring and hardened persecutor; that made a fearful example of that divine judgment, which, when forewarned of, he had openly despised, and treated with disdain. His epitaph reads: HERE LYES OUR CAPTAIN AND MAJOR OF SUFFOLK WAS WITHALL A GODLEY MAGISTRATE WAS HE AND MAJOR GENERALL TWO TROUPS OF HORS WITH HIM HERE CAME SUCH WORTH HIS LOVE DID CRAVE TEN COMPANYES OF FOOT ALSO MOURNING MARCHT TO HIS GRAVE LET ALL THAT READ BE SURE TO KEEP THE FAITH AS HE HATH DON WITH CHRiST HE LIVS NOW CROWND HIS NAME WAS HUMPRY ATHERTON en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Hibbins en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Atherton
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 10:35:04 +0000