Moses, Mercy, 1738 -

Mercy Moses was born in May of 1738, the daughter of Jude and Mary Moses.  She married Thomas McGregor, of Manchester, England circa 1782 in Mashpee.  According to Hawley, McGregor and Mercy maintained a wigwam in the Great Neck region of Mashpee, with Thomas serving as the schoolmaster during the winter.  She and her husband were enumerated in Mashpee censuses of 1793, 1800 and 1808.  She was a signatory on a December 1807 petition requesting an alteration in the form of government at Mashpee.   More than two decades later, Mercy, along with about one hundred others, signed a May 21, 1833 petition complaining of outside interference in governmental and religious affairs at Mashpee. The following year, she was enumerated in an 1834 Mashpee census, at age 96.  She was a signatory on the January 1834 Mashpee petition written by William Apes.  Her name was added to that of 288 other Mashpee residents and community members complaining of a number of longstanding grievances against the overseers and the Congregational missionary to the tribe.  Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Vol. 1; 1793 Mashpee, Autograph File, Houghton Library, Harvard University; 1800 Mashpee Census, Ms. 48: SPG, Account of Indians, Box 2, Folder 16, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA; Misc. Bound Docs. 1808, MHS, Boston, MA; Petition of Moses Pocknet and Other Mashpee and Herring Pond Indians to the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1807.12.00.00; 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