Massecump

Massecump, or Paupauquivwit, was a son of the Narragansett sachem Miantonomo and a brother of Canochet.  Love speculates that his mother could have been Wawarme, daughter of the Wangunk leader Sowheage. In 1675, he was suspected of setting fire to Major John Richards’ warehouse and barn at Hartford.  In a sign of loyalty to the English during King Philip’s War, he was pledged as a hostage and imprisoned from 1677 to 1679.  Massecump’s name appears on a 1673 confirmatory deed to Middletown Connecticut as an heir and successor to Sowheage, and one of the proprietors of the Wangunk land in Chatham, Connecticut. He and his son disposed of land in Farmington, Connecticut in 1681. In 1712 he and Peter Sachem were accused of stealing cloth from Captain Edward Bulkeley. William DeLoss Love, The Colonial History of Hartford (Norwood, MA: Plympton Press, 1914), 96, 97.  Henry Reed Stiles, Families of Ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut, vol. 2 (Glastonbury: Heritage Books, 1904), 153.