Mary (Catlin) French (abt. 1666 - 1704)

Ancestors

Wife of Thomas French — married 18 Oct 1683 in Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 9 Mar 1704 at about age 38 in Vermont [uncertain]

Biography

Mary Catlin was born about 1666, the daughter of John Catlin and Mary Baldwin. She was not born July 10, 1666, which was the birth of Mary Catlin d/o John of Hartford. Her parents left Wethersfield shortly after 1663, so Mary may have been born in Branford, or Newark, New Jersey.

She married Thomas French at Northampton, Massachusetts, on October 18 1683. (It was unusual for a girl as young as 17 to be married at that time. Most women were around 20 or 21 when they were married.) Mary and Thomas had six children together. The last, John, was born on February 1, 1704.

On February 29, 1704, the town of Deerfield was attacked by a party of Indians and French soldiers from Canada. Like most of the other infants and very young children, John was killed immediately; Mary, Thomas, and their other five children were taken captive, along with most of the remaining residents of Deerfield. The group was forcibly taken through the wilderness, mostly up frozen rivers and streams, 300+ miles north to Canada. While most of the men and older children survived the trek, younger children, women weakened by recent pregnancy and childbirth, and others who slowed the progress of the group were executed by their captors during the first few days.

Almost certainly in a weakened state after having given birth only 4 weeks before, then seeing her newborn son murdered during the raid, Mary was one of those who could not keep up with the group; she was killed on March 9, 1703/04, along the White River, in eastern Vermont.

Thomas and their other children survived. Thomas eventually returned to New England, as did the two oldest children, Thomas, Jr., and Mary. Their middle children, Freedom and Martha, were naturalized and chose to remain in New France. Their youngest surviving child, Abigail, only 6 years old at the time of the raid, chose to remain in the Indian village of Kahnawake.

Note

Some online genealogies show that Mary is "Marguerite" Catlin. The Catlins did not have a daughter named Marguerite, nor does it appear that Mary was ever called Marguerite. Although some Deerfield captives changed their names in New France (Quebec), Mary was killed just a few days into the forced march, before the group reached New France. The confusion may have come because Mary's daughter Martha, who stayed in New France, changed her name to Marthe-Marguerite.

Note on her age at wedding: It was actually not unusual for women to marry at that age in this era.

Sources

• http://www.FindAGrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=216139156 updated 27 August 2021

• Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield. Evan Haefeli, Kevin Sweeney. University of Massachusetts Press, 2005.

• http://minerdescent.com/2012/05/04/raid-on-deerfield-1704/

• "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F7WR-YB2 : 7 January 2020), Mary Catling, 1666.

• "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29L-L5W2 : 7 May 2022), Thomas French and Mary Catlin, 18 Oct 1683; citing Marriage, Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 004329300.

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/216139156/mary-french