An early best seller -- by a woman -- in the New World

Before we start on this week's promised tale of how John Hoar rescued a woman from captivity, I want to briefly revisit the freeman's oath.

I had mentioned that taking the oath was required for the males in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and for membership in the General Court, which functioned much like a legislature. My wife asked me if that was the only benefit. 

The oath also allowed the freeman to vote and hold other public offices in the county. I provided a quote that said a date could not be found for John Hoar's oath. This quoted followed a sentence detailing some of Hoar's activities in the colony as a lawyer, which suggests to me that his practicing law may have been contingent on his having taken the oath, but I have no other evidence that this would be true.

I discovered a book published in the 1800s that contained a list of the freeman in the colony with the date each took the oath. Two men with the name Hoar are listed, Leonard, John's brother and the third president of Harvard, and William. I have no idea who William is. He doesn't appear in the genealogies I have access to as a sibling to John and Leonard, nor does he seem to be a nephew. I should point out that several other members of the family settled in the colony and none of their names appear on the list either.

Now back to John and his claim to fame. You may remember that the Massachusetts colony had friendly relations with the indigenous inhabitants the original colonists met on their arrival in the New World. Two names you may recognize from your history books are the chiefs Squanto and Massasoit, who were instrumental in creating those relations. 

One of Massasoit's sons became leader of the Wampanoag tribe after Massasoit and his eldest son died. This son became known as King Phillip. By this point in the colonist's history, relations had frayed. As is so common in the Native American/Colonist saga, the settlers began violating treaty provisions. This lead to retaliation by the Native Americans, followed by reprisals from the colonists. Before long, all out war broke out. 

A missionary, John Eliot, was given permission to preach the gospel to Native Americans during the time of peace and had some success. Villages of converts were established, and these converts became known as "Praying Indians." 

John provided a location on his property for one such village, but as relations began to deteriorate his neighbors became resentful of the Native American presence and demanded something be done about it. A militia unit was dispatched. They rounded up the 58 members of the native village, took away their goods and hustled them off to Boston. From there, they were relocated to Deer Island, where other Native Americans were sent. Conditions were horrible and most of the captives perished. 

The Wampanoags raided the settlement at Lancaster, MA, killing many of the inhabitants, particularly the men, and taking captive some 24 people. Among them was Mary Rowlandson, whose husband, a minister, was elsewhere in the colony at the time. 

During the raid Rowlandson was shot while holding her six-year-old daughter, who was also wounded. She and her children were taken captive, but though she was allowed to keep her wounded daughter with her, she was separated from her other offspring. 

Initially she was ill treated, receiving little in sustenance and no help at all for her wound and that of her child. Not long after capture, her child died in her arms. Another captive from a previous raid heard of her plight and asked permission of his captors to visit her. He told her of a natural remedy he had discovered using oak leaves, which she applied to her wound, reporting that she healed quickly after beginning the treatment.

She had occasional contact with her other children whenever the groups holding them came close to her captors as they moved around the countryside, encamping when it was safe or fleeing militia units hunting for them. At one point she was taken to be presented to King Phillip. For reasons known only to him, I suppose, he asked her to make a shirt for one of his sons and paid her for her labor. 

Other tribe members she encountered began asking her to make them bits of clothing, and she was most often paid in food. She records 20 relocations, or removes as she called them, including her rescue. The ordeal lasted about three months.

Her husband had returned to Lancaster to find his family gone. He knew of John Hoar and his affinity with the Native Americans and decided Hoar would be the best individual to retrieve the captives. Hoar recruited two Native American helpers, and they set out to find Mary. They took goods to trade, much of which was stolen along the way by tribe members they encountered.

Upon finding the group holding Rowlandson, Hoar began negotiations for her release. Most accounts say she was ransomed for 20 pounds. One account I found indicates that Hoar had brought along alcohol and offered it to the tribe member who was considered Rowlandson's "owner." The drink made him more amenable to Hoar's offers. He other children were rescued later by others, and the family was reunited.

Lancaster was in ashes so after her release and reunion with her family. she ended up in Boston, where Boston's South Church had rented accommodations. They stayed there several months. 

She wrote a book about her experiences, Captivity and Restoration, one of the earliest accounts of to be published, and one of the earliest, possibly the first, book by a woman published in the New World.

You can find the book on Google Books, if you so desire. It's not very long and a pretty good read.