Samuel Leonard (abt. 1683 - 1718)

Born about 1683 in Bridgewater, Plymouth Colony [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Lydia (Cook) Williams — married about 1707 (to 1718) in Preston, New London, Connecticut Colony [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 11 May 1718 at about age 35 in Preston, New London, Connecticut Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Mayflower Project WikiTree [send private message] and Roger Travis [send private message]

Samuel Leonard was related to a passenger on the Mayflower. Join: Mayflower Project Discuss: mayflower

Biography

Samuel Leonard was born about 1683, probably in Bridgewater, Plymouth Colony. His parents were Samuel and Abigail (Wood) Leonard. Primary records are lacking for his birth date and location. The birth information is from the "Solomon Leonard" book cited herein.^[1] Samuel's grandfather Solomon Leonard married the widow Sarah (Chilton) Chandler, so Samuel is a fifth generation Mayflower descendant. His birth year and location and parents are commonly stated as in this profile in Mayflower Descendant Society applications.^[2]

Samuel Sr's brother Jacob had moved to Worcester, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony by about 1685. Samuel's parents moved to Worcester by 1690. Samuel Jr. at age of about 12 was captured by Indians in the fall of 1695, and remained with them for two winters.^[1] He returned to white settlement in the Spring of 1697. Two women, Hannah Dunston and Mary Neff, were among captives taken by Indians during an attack on Haverhill on March 15, 1697, during which 27 whites were killed. About one week later the two women were separated from the other hostages and joined a small band of Indians (two men, three women, and seven children), with whom was Samuel, then age 14. On March 30 the three whites killed and scalped ten of their captors, who did not suspect that two women and a "naturalized" boy were a danger to them. They made it to safety in Haverhill, and were feted and given "bravery" money in Boston a few months later. More details are below, taken from the Solomon Leonard book, which dramatizes the events.

Samuel's family had moved to Preston, New London, Connecticut Colony while he was in captivity, and he joined them there, after spending a short time with relatives in the Bridgewater area. His mother had died while he was in captivity.

Samuel married Lydia Cook in Preston about 1707, based on the birth of their first child in 1708. Their children, all born in Preston, under the surname Leonardson:^[1]

1. Lydia (1708) ^[3], married Matthew Huntington
2. Ebenezer (1710) ^[3], married Esther Amos
3. Samuel (1712) ^[3], married Lydia Stanton
4. Jane (1714), married Daniel Williams
5. Nathan (1717) ^[3], married Abigail Herrick

Samuel died on 11 May 1718, in Preston. His surname is "Leonardson" on the record.^[4]

Excerpts from the "Solomon Leonard" book:

"While his father's family was living in Worcester, sometime in the autumn of 1695. He was kidnapped by hostile Indians, and for a year and a half his anxious and distressed friends could learn nothing of his fate. No detailed account of the circumstances attending his capture, or of his sufferings from hunger, cold, and exposure during the two entire winters he was in the hands of his savage captors has come down to us, but history has faithfully described the wonderful heroism exhibited by this youth—then but fourteen years of age—and by his associates in captivity, Mrs. Hannah Duston and Mrs. Mary Neff of Haverhill, in slaughtering their merciless captors and their almost miraculous restoration to intensely anxious relatives and friends. In this connection the name of this modest youth, written Samuel Leonardson in the annals, has become immortalized, while his personal identity has been in obscurity for nearly two centuries. March 15, 1697, the Indians attacked the town of Haverhill. Mass., and after murdering twenty-seven of the inhabitants and burning nine dwellings, carried away thirteen captives. Among the latter were the two women before named, Hannah Duston and Mary Neff.

A history of this foray by the Indians, with the experience of these two captives, the daring and intrepid manner of their escape, etc., was published soon after it occurred by Cotton Mather in his Magnalia, printed in London, and has been repeated in other publications many times since.

Epitomized, it is as follows: Mrs. Duston was in bed, having been confined only a week before, with the eleventh child. The inhuman savages compelled her to rise instantly and dress herself, which was done so hurriedly that she had on but one shoe when driven from the house which they set on fire. The infant in the arms of Mary Neff was seized and killed. The Indians, with all their captives, started in great haste for the wilderness at the north, traveling twelve miles that day. The weather was exceedingly cold, the snow not all disappeared, the mud deep, but they pushed on day after day until they reached the vicinity of the Contoocook river where it enters the Merrimac in New Hampshire. Here the captives were separated, Mrs. Duston and Mrs. Neff were taken by the Indian who claimed them as his property to his home on the island long known as Contoocook, but now Duston’s Island. Here they found the boy Samuel, who had been taken captive as before stated. Of the Indians there were two men, three women and seven children.

The sufferings of the captive women may be imagined but not described. After a time they were informed that they would soon be taken to an Indian settlement in, or towards Canada, and on their entrance to the village would be required to "run the gauntlet." They immediately decided that they would rather suffer death than such indignity and at once devised a plan of escape from their savage conquerors.

The first step in their programme was the bold and desperate one of killing the whole family of Indians, and it was decided to attempt it on the night of March 30, 1697. It has been stated that the plan originated with Mrs. Duston and that "she persuaded the nurse and boy to join her." However that may have been, it is very plain that it required the combined valor and courage of the three, and young Samuel seems to have had quite as much to do in the accomplishment of the brave and daring act as either. He had been so long with the Indians that they considered him as one of their children, had no fear of his attempting to escape, and could not believe these frail women would think of such an undertaking when success at best appeared so desperate. It was needful that they should learn how to wield successfully the weapons of the savages to which they must resort and at a convenient opportunity Samuel inquired of one of them how they struck their victims when they would dispatch them suddenly, and how they took off a scalp.

When the night fixed upon had arrived, they waited patiently until they had evidence that all the savages were in deep sleep: then, carefully possessing themselves of the tomahawks, with marvelous skill and dexterity they despatched ten of them. A favorite boy, whom they purposed to take with them, was spared, but he awakened and ran into the woods followed by a squaw upon wom they had inficted seven fearful wounds, and whom they supposed had been killed. Mrs. Duston killed her master, and Samuel the Indian who had told him how to strike a fatal blow and how to take off a scalp. They collected the few provisions there were in the wigwam, took one gun, a tomahawk, and the scalps of the ten slain—as trophies of their bloody carnage—scuttled all the canoes but one, and in that embarked on a perilous voyage down the Merrimac, for Haverhill.

They were in constant fear of being pursued by those to whom the squaw would report their escape, or by strolling Indians for whom they kept a constant watch, well knowing the fearful fate awaiting them if recaptured. They each alternately rowed and steered their little bark, one watching at night while the other two slept. A kind Providence protected them, and after a wearisome journey they arrived at Haverhill and astonished their mourning friends who believed them to have been murdered by the savages. After resting a little, accompanied by Mr. Thomas Duston—the husband of Hannah —they started for Boston where they arrived on the twenty-first of April. A report of their achievement preceded them, and they found themselves famous and received many attentions." ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Memorial: Genealogical, Historical, and Biographical, of Solomon Leonard, 1637, Duxbury and Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and some of His Descendants. By Manning Leonard, Southbridge, Mass. Press of Knapp, Peck & Thomson, Auburn N.Y. 1896; page 36;
2. ↑ General Society of Mayflower Descendants Membership Applications, 1620-1920. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2020). https://www.americanancestors.org/DB2731/i/59157/829-co3/74137708
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Preston, CT: First Congregational Church Records, 1698-1898. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.) Originally published as: First Congregational Church of Preston, Connecticut, 1698-1898 : together with statistics of the church taken from church records. Preston, Conn.: The Society, 1900. page 12; page 13; page 14; page 16;
4. ↑ "Connecticut, Vital Records, Prior to 1850," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPSC-NF12 : 15 April 2022), Samuell Leonardson, ; citing Death, Preston, New London, Connecticut, United States, Compiled by Lucius A. and Lucius B. Barbour, housed at State Library, Hartford, Connecticut; FHL microfilm 007833262.

• WikiTree profile Leonard-703 created through the import of Travis Family Tree.ged on Jun 22, 2011 by Roger Travis. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Roger and others.