Attaquin, Ezra, 1786 - 1876
Ezra Attaquin was born circa 1786, the son of Solomon Attaquin and Desire Mingo Attaquin. It is more than likely that he was one of the three children enumerated in the Mashpee census of 1800 in the household of the widow Desire Attaquin. Ezra married Sarah Jones and by 1810 their son, Solomon, was born. Over the next two decades, Ezra and Sarah Jones Attaquin would have at least another nine children: Ebenezer, Benjamin J., Peries, Lewis, Betsy J., Ezra, Jr., Martha Ann, Sally, and Rhoda.
Ezra was involved in the political affairs of the community for many decades. As a young man he was a signatory on a 1811 petition for the removal of overseers and for new regulations regarding the governance of the plantation. years later, he, along with about one hundred others, signed a May 21, 1833 petition complaining of outside interference in governmental and religious affairs at Mashpee. The next year, Ezra was enumerated with his family in a Mashpee census and was a signatory on the January 1834 Mashpee petition written by William Apes. Ezra Attaquin signed along with 288 other Mashpee residents and community members outlining a number of longstanding grievances against the overseers and the Congregational missionary to the tribe.
He is listed among 40 other voters at Mashpee in a December 1835 report of Daniel B. Amos in continued opposition to the Congregational minister, Phineas Fish. His role in community politics continued, serving for a time as one of the Selectmen for Mashpee and signing off on a Commissioners’ Report in December of 1836. A petition requesting a resolution to the ongoing dispute regarding the meeting house and missionary efforts, signed in March of 1839, bears the signature of Ezra Attaquin, as does the February 1844 remonstrance against the petition of Oliver Foller and his assertion of land rights.
In his last will and testament, dated April 18, 1876, Ezra Attaquin, bequeathed 6 acres of land to his granddaughter Euphrasia Ockney, at the west end of his homelot, near "penny pond", and the remainder of his estate to his son Ezra, Jr., with the stipulation that he pay a sum of $200 to Rhoda Conet, the elder Ezra's daughter and sister to Ezra Jr., and that he care for Ezra, Senior's wife, Sarah, as long as she is a widow. He left nothing to his other six surviving children.
Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Vol. 1. [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011; 1800 Mashpee Census, Ms. 48:SPG, Account of Indians, Box 2, Folder 16, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA; Petition of Moses Pocknet and Other Mashpee Indians to the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1811.01.28.00; ; Petition of the Mashpee Tribe, House Doc. Senate #14, January 1834 / Petition of the Mashpee Indians to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1834.01.29.00/ Harvard University. Corporation. Papers relating to the Marshpee Indians, 1811-1841: Harvard University Archives; Unpassed House Legislation, Number 178, December 31, 1836, Massachusetts Archives; Petition of Ebenezer Attaquin and Other Mashpee Indians to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1839.03.01.00; Petition of Solomon Attaquin and Other Proprietors of the Mashpee Tribe to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1844.02.00.00; / Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991, Notes : Executor, Trustee, and Admin Records; Wills; Real Estate Records, Vol 111-114, 1853-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.