A Scalping in the Family

Nathaniel Singletary was born in 1644, and evidently had a foot or leg ailment. His brothers were enlisted to fight in King Phillip’s War (King Phillip was an understandably rebellious Native American), but Nathaniel was “dismissed from training for Lameness in 1662”. He married Sarah Belknap, who had been born in the heavily wooded market town North Weald, Essex back in England.  They were farmers in Haverhill, Massachusetts Colony and had nine children.

The Indian massacre of colonists at Swansee, Phymouth Colony started King Philip's war.
Source:  http://muskegonpundit.blogspot.com

This is how Chase’s History of Haverhill describes Nathaniel’s demise: “On the 13^th of August [1689] a small party of Indians made their appearance in the northerly part of the town and killed Daniel Bradford. Then they went to the field of Nathaniel Singletary, near by, where he and his oldest son were at work. They approached in their slow and serpent-like manner until they came within a few rods, when they shot Singletary, who fell and died on the spot. His son attempted to escape, but was soon overtaken and made prisoner. The Indians then scalped Singletary and commenced a hasty retreat. The prisoner soon eluded their vigilance and returned home on the same day to make glad the hearts of his afflicted relatives.”

The widowed Sarah gave birth to her last child a few days later. In 1707 Nathaniel and Sarah’s son Richard also died at the hands of Native Americans.

The 14-year-old escapee was our ancestor John Singletary. He married Mary Greele (1678), whose family had originated in England and Wales, but settled in Massachusetts by 1660. Mary’s maiden name reminded me of a similar, more famous last name, so I investigated it further. Indeed Mary’s birth family was to eventually produce that famous politician and newspaperman Horace Greeley, who advised his countrymen to “go west”.

John and Mary were hard-working “planters” (a glorified term for farmers) who couldn’t afford to send their children off to school. But they educated their offspring at home in a manner befitting descendants of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall. One of their sons was a justice of the peace, served in a colonial general court, and was elected to sit in several legislatures. He had absolutely no Loyalist sympathies but spoke against the new United States constitution’s ratification; he simply feared the document might undermine true republican principles. A contemporary praised him as an “Earnest Christian”.