| Notes |
- Ann described her captivity in detail:
"Ann Jenkins, of full age, Testifieth and saith, that at Oyster River, on the eighteenth of July last past, in the morning about the dawning of the day, my husband being up, went out of the door and presently returning cried to me and our children to run for our lives, for the Indians had beset the town: whereupon my husband and myself fled with our children into our cornfield, and at our entrance into the field,
Bomazeen, whom I have seen since I came out of captivity in the prison, came towards us and about ten Indians more; and the said Bomazeen then shot at my husband and shot him down, ran to him and struck him three blows on the head with a hatchet, scalped him and run him three times with a bayonet.
I also saw the said Bomazeen knock one of my children on the head, and took off her scalp, and then put the child into her father's arms, and then stabbed the breast.
And Bomazeen also then killed my husband's grandmother, and scalped her, and then led me up to a house, and plundered it, and then set it on fire, and carried me and my three children into captivity, together with the rest of our neighbors, whose lives were spared, being at first forty-nine: but in one mile's going, or thereabouts, they killed three children, so there remained forty-six captives.
And that night the company parted, I, this deponent, numbered one hundred and forty of Indians, and fourteen Frenchmen, and then when I took the account, there were more firing at Woodman's garrison, and at Burnham's garrison: but the number unknown to me.
Myself with nine captives more, were carried up to Penecook and were left with three Indians. And that party went to Greaten Bomazeen, being their Commander. In nine days they returned, and brought twelve captives: and from thence with their canoes, sometimes afloat, and sometimes carried, until that we came to Norridgewock, which took us fifteen days, and stayed about two months there, then dispersed into the woods, two or three families in a place, until they brought us down to Pemaquid, and delivered us to Capt March.
Bomazeen was my Master: his wife my Mistress, until Bomazeen was taken at Pemaquid; after that I belonged to his wife, until about two months before I was brought down to Pemaquid: for then the Indian Minister, called Prince Waxaway, bought me, when I was brought to great weakness and extremity by their bad usage, and showed me great kindness; by whose means, under God, my life was preserved.
My mistress was very cruel to me, and I was cruelly whipped seven times, and they intended to so proceed, once a week, until they had killed me: but that Indian Minister had compassion on me, and rescued me. That Indian Minister also bought three captives more, and freed them from their hard usage. Their names are Nicholas Frost, Sarah Bragginton, and Thomas Drue. The mark of Ann Jenkins."
More info:
Bomazeen the Indian Chief controlled the Indian raids at Oyster River and surrounding area. He was a fearless warrior who killed many of the early settlers in 1694. He was captured and sent to Boston where he was put on trial. Several witnesses of the massacre spoke against him. Bomazeen escaped with his life at the trial, but was later slain in an attack on the Norridgewock's village in 1724. Bomazeen died that August day in 1724 as he rushed to warn the Norridgewock mission that the English troops, led by Captain Jeremiah Moulton, Captain Johnson Harmon, Captain John Brown, and Captain Joseph Bean were on their way to destroy them. Captain Moulton had tried before, but today he would not fail. Chief Bomazeen perished in a hail of gunfire as he attempted to cross the Kennebec River. This beautiful spot in the river is known today as Bomazeen Rips.
We also know that Chief Bomazeen was at the brutal massacre of York, Maine. And in the oddest twist of fate, this is the very place where a five-year-old Jeremiah Moulton was taken hostage by the Indians and marched along with 100 other pilgrims up the Kennebec River to Norridgewock. Little Jeremiah was later released in an instance of gratitude to the English for releasing some Indian hostages. Who would have guessed that years later Jeremiah Moulton, now Captain Moulton, would return to Norridgewock to exact his revenge.
Chief Bomazeen was taken hostage in an act of treachery by the English in 1696 and held in a brutal Boston prison on Deer Island. It was here, while starved, beaten, and emaciated that he is said to have told his English captors (according to clergyman Cotton Mather) that his French teachers (the Jesuit Father Sebastian Rale) had instructed the Indians that 'Jesus Christ was of the French Nation and that his mother, the Virgin Mary, was a French woman: that the English had been his murderers: that he rose and went to heaven, and that all who would gain his favor must revenge his quarrel upon the English as much as possible.'
Many argue that Chief Bomazeen never spoke these words, but nonetheless, the English belief that the French friars were active in inciting the Indians to commit depredations upon the English settlers led the General Court of Massachusetts to pass an act to eject them entirely from the colony.
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1664 - 1736 (72 years)
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