Amos, William, 1786 - 1846

Born in Barnstable around 1786, Massachusetts, William Amos was a member of the Mashpee Indian community.  His wife was Naomi Pocknet.  From 1823-1824, Amos served as a crew member on Captain Martin Bowen's ship, the Ann Alexander.  The following year, Amos had signed with Joseph Spooner to sail on the Midas, but was too sick to join the crew.  He did so, however, the following year for a voyage to the Brazil Banks.  Mariners records indicate he was 5'9". 

During the controversy about Phineas Fish's tenure at Mashpee, Amos and a number of his family sided with the minister.  When he and Nathan Pocknet agreed to testify at a hearing in favor of the Mashpee guardians, William Apes called them "decoy pigeons" being manipulated by Fish.  In early January 1846, a newspaper article indicated that Amos went to the house of Charles J. Peterson, a white inhabitant of Mashpee, to borrow money or ask for liquor.  After an argument, Amos struck Peterson on the face, and Peterson struck Amos on the side of the head with a large pine stake, killing him fairly instantly.

Whalemen database, courtesy of Nancy Shoemaker.  29. Samuel Mongeau, The Ordeal of the Meetinghouse: The Mashpee Wampanoag of Cape Cod and the Removal of Reverend Phineas Fish, 1811-1840, Masters' thesis, McGill University, 2017. New Haven Daily Herald, January 10, 1846, p. 2.