Ahaton

Ahaton was a leading 17^th century Punkapoag leader and sachem of Musketaquid and a relative of Pawtucket sachem Wenepokin (George-No-Nose). He had several children:  sons Peter (Natooqus), Benjamin, and William, and daughters Tahkeesuisk and Jammewwosh (Hanna), all living in 1680.  In 1635, the Massachusetts Court fined Ahaton two beaver skins for setting traps that injured Rev. William Blackstone’s swine.  He appeared as a witness on a deed to Braintree in 1655, and the following year, sold Nantasket to a group of colonists from Hull, Massachusetts.  His name can be found on the Indian deed of Quincy in 1665 as one of the councilors of Josiah Wapatuck and on a deed to Boston and Medfield in 1685.  During King Philip’s War, Ahaton was interned on Deer Island and petitioned for the right of the Indians there to get fish and clams from other islands.  In 1686, Ahaton testified on behalf of the rights of the heirs of Wenepokin to sell land at Salem.  Samuel Foster Haven, An Historical Address Delivered before the Cizens of the Town of Dedham (Dedham, MA: Herman Mann, 1837), 62-63.  Alonzo Lewis, The History of Lynn: Including Nahant, 2nd ed.  (Boston: Samuel N. Dickinson, 1844), 52-53.  John T. Hassam, Suffolk Deeds, Liber XII (Boston: Rockwell and Churchill: 1902), lvii.  Sidney Perley, The Indian Land Titles of Essex County, Massachusetts (Salem, MA: Essex Book and Print Club, 1912), 51.  Edward Rowe Snow, The Islands of Boston Harbor (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1971), 470.