Letter from John Leveret to Sir Joseph Williamson

Right Honorable,

.

His Majesty’s command under Your Honor’s hand of the 14^th August 1675 from Hampton Court, referring to Mr. Harris1 of Pawtuxet, I received in October following, which shall be attended as soon as the Providence of God shall give opportunity by restoring to us peace, for such is the present state of His Majesty’s plantations in New England by reason of the Indian Natives' rising up in hostility, that Mr. Harris saith he must wait a more calm season for his business, the which trouble they have given without cause given them by the English against the many obligations that passed their fathers before them and themselves succeeding, unto the English. We must and do acknowledge the Lord is righteous in this scourge, he hath been pleased to bestow us 2, because our unthankfulness for and unfruitfulness under the long-continued peace and gospel of peace, he hath been pleased to bestow upon us and do desire that we may be humbled under his mighty hand and reformed thereby, then we shall not in vain wait for his working deliverance for and giving salvation to us.  Our taking to arms is not the matter of our choice, but being necessitated thereto for the defence of His Majesty’s rights and upholding the authority in the government here settled by his royal charters and for the securing and defending the right of his good subjects in their enjoyments God and the King hath betrusted them with against the barbarous rage and inhumanity of the pagans, that have not assigned any cause of their acting, nor at any time will be able to justify their proceedings before God or men by the laws of God, nations, or reason.  By the enclosed, Your Honor may please to see what the gradual proceedings of authority here hath been, and how we are necessitated from the rate of self-preservation to seek to secure ourselves from those whom we would (if possible) have held friendship with, would they have performed in any degree their obligations, but instead thereof they have, under pretence of holding friendship,3 been our most dangerous enemies, viz., the Narragansetts, by supplying Philip with men and entertaining his men, women, and children, and although they have promised to deliver them up by a prefixed time, have not performed it.  What their losses of men have been we can not give account.  The loss of the English in all parts have been about three hundred men, two hundred of them in battle under extreme disadvantages by numbers and the places they have engaged our men in, the rest have been by their sculking upon travelers or laboring men.

Their ranging hath been as in a crescent, from Mount Hope where they first rose, westward and northward to Connecticut River, northward and eastward to the River of Kennebec, through the country about three hundred miles.  The County of York, which was called the Province of Maine, much wasted, although we have sent supplies of men to them in the whole seven villages have been wasted, of them, many of the people and goods saved but houses, corn, and cattle most destroyed.  Several other plantations have suffered by fire and gun, that many families have been distressed.4

Josiah Winslow,  Esq., Governor of Plymouth, is advanced from Boston, with nigh six hundred men to the rendezvous in the Narragansetts’ Country, where he will have to make up complete one thousand under his command, for whose good success we earnestly pray and expect daily to hear of by the good hand of the Lord with him and his forces.5

I received in November His Majesty’s commands of the last of August, referring to Mr. Bellingham’s6 business, which was under consideration before and had been heard but deferred until May court by reason of the present troubles.  Whilst I am writing, there came to my hand Your Honor’s of the 13th September, with the Articles of Peace concluded at London, December 1674, betwixt His Majesty and the States General of Holland,7 for which I humbly thank Your Honor, and shall regulate my motion therein to His Majesty’s service.  This trouble I make bold to give Your Honor, that by your hand His Majesty may have an account of the state of these plantations, whose welfare His Majesty hath been pleased at several times graciously to express his desire of.   Thus praying to the God of heaven for the continuance of His Majesty’s long, happy, and prosperous reign, I take leave to subscribe myself,

His Majesty’s loyal subject and Your Honor’s humble servant,

John Leverett

December 18, 1675

[Boston in New England]

• 1. William Harris
• 2. Variant copy inserts by them
• 3. The Narragansetts had signed a treaty with Connecticut on July 15 and with the Massachusetts Bay on September 18.  Timeline, 1675-King Philip's War, The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1675.htm.
• 4. By late summer of 1675, news of the war in the southern part of the colony heightened anxieties in the more northern region, disrupting colonial relations with Native communities in Maine. Apprised of the strike at Swansea, the men of York, Maine went to the Androscoggin settlement at the Sheepscot River to demand the surrender of their arms. By the end of the summer, Indians in Maine began attacking the English at various places.For more information, see "Raids on Cascoak, Saco, & Newichiwannock, Fall 1675," Lisa Brooks, Our Beloved Kin: Remapping a New History of King Philip's War, https://ourbelovedkin.com/awikhigan/1676-raid.
• 5. On November 2, 1675, Josiah Winslow led a combined English and allied Indian force south to attack the Narragansett community that was living in a fort hidden within the Great Swamp in present-day South Kingston, Rhode Island.  The massacre occurred on December 19, 1665.
• 6. Samuel Bellingham, the son and heir of Richard Bellingham, colonial magistrate, lawyer, and politician, who died in 1672.  Massachusetts authorities had written for a re-hearing of a case concerning his late father's will.  State Papers, CO 324/2, p. 77.
• 7. Treaty between Great Britain and the United Provinces, to be observed by Land and by Sea, throughout all Countries and Parts of the World; concluded at London, December the 1st, 1674. A Collection of treaties of Peace, Commerce, and Alliance (London: J. Almon and J. Debrett, 1781)50-57.