Once again, I owe the following information to Ms Jennifer Ehle, direct descendant and genealogist for William Eager. Eager came to Marlborough with a large family. His children with Ruth (Hill) Eager included William, born at Malden in 1662, Zacchariah, born at Malden in 1667, Abraham, born at either Malden or Cambridge about 1670, Zerubabbel, […]
When the ship Unity arrived in Boston in December of 1650, the fate of each of the 150 prisoners was uncertain. Most were slated to work at the Saugus iron works, since two of the principal investors of the operation, known as the Company of Undertakers, had arranged for their transatlantic voyage. The Scottish Prisoners […]
The recent discovery of certain facts by Jennifer Ehle concerning her ancestor, William Eager, have led me to consider his most unusual story, one far different than most of the early settlers of Marlborough. At the town’s inception in 1660, almost all had come from neighboring Sudbury and most can be traced to their roots […]
In May of 1681, Sarah Onamog, widow of Chief Onamog of the Praying Indian town of Okammakemesit, was given permission by the General Court to sell her husband’s land of about 60 acres of woodland and meadow. Because there were few land transactions of this type, it was thought that this permission was associated with […]
The sales of the Indian Plantation land of Okammakemesit (located within colonial Marlborough) were of two types – direct sales to individuals and the larger sale of the remaining land to all proprietors of Marlborough. The sale to individuals involved particular plots of developed land sold under hardship by individual natives. After King Philip’s War, […]
The Sudbury Fight Part Four Marlborough’s Mount Ward conservation land, near the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant in Marlborough, is named after Eleazar Ward, youngest son of William Ward. In Charles Martyn’s short biography of William Ward he wrote, “Eleazer … was shot down as he rode over a hill between Marlborough and Sudbury.” This is […]
Part Three of Series In the previous installments of this series, we saw that the marauding enemy Indians had won a great victory at Sudbury, approaching to within twenty miles of Boston, burning numerous homes as close as present day Weston, confronting numerous army units and town militia, killing over sixty Englishmen, and nearly annihilating […]
Part Two of Series About mid-morning, the Marlborough soldier garrison troops under Captains Wadsworth and Brocklebank headed to Sudbury with between sixty and eighty men. It appears that they reached the present day Sudbury line when they heard some gunfire behind them. Captain Cowell had arrived in Marlborough with a ‘troop of horse’ of about […]
First of a Four Part Series In the annals of American history there are a few battles that are considered to be central to a war itself, battles which may have turned the tide of the war or, perhaps, ensured its victory. Just such a battle was the Sudbury Fight during King Philip’s War. That […]
On January 14, 1676, the War Council in Boston, feeling that enemy Indians were in winter encampment and on the defensive, withdrew all the soldier garrisons on the frontier. This resulted in attacks on the family of Thomas Eames in present day Framingham, the attack on Lancaster, and the plans for attacks on the other […]