Belding, Samuel
Samuel BELDING (1632 - 1713) and Mary (? - 1677) my 9g-grandparents
Samuel BELDING was born about 1632-3 in Staffordshire, England, the son of Richard BELDING. He died on 03 Jan 1713 in Wethersfield, Hartford, CT. He came to America, along with his father and older brother, and perhaps other family members. They first appeared in Wethersfield in 1640.
The name BELDING was often spelled BELDEN in Wethersfield records, and in England it was BAILDON, and sometimes BAYLDON.
Samuel married 4 times, having 7 children by his first wife. He married Mary about 1654, and they had their first 3 or 4 children in Wethersfield. Samuel and Mary removed to Hatfield, Hampshire, MA in 1661, where their younger children were born. Mary was killed in an Indian attack on 19 Sep 1677.
On 25 Jun 1678 Samuel, about 45, married his second wife, also named Mary BEARDSLEY, the widow of Thomas WELLS, and daughter of William BEARDSLEY. Mary died on 29 Sep 1691. [AC, Vol. IV, p. 2248]
Samuel married his 3rd wife, Mary MEEKER, who was the daughter of Thomas MEEKER, and widow of John ALLIS. The exact dates are not known, but the marriage and Mary's death must have taken place between 29 Sep 1691 and 10 Apr 1705.
Samuel's 4th wife was Sarah (not Mary!), the widow of John WELLS. Samuel and Sarah were married on 10 Apr 1705, when Samuel was about 73.
1 Samuel BELDING b: 1632 in Staffordshire, England, d: 03 Jan 1713 in Hatfield, age 81
+ Mary m: 1654, d: 19 Sep 1677 in Hatfield; killed by Indians
......2 Mary BELDING b: 10 Jul 1655 in Wethersfield,
......2 Samuel BELDING b: 06 Apr 1657 in Wethersfield, d: 1737, age 80
...... + Sarah FELLOWES
...... + Mary BURT
......2 Stephen BELDING b: 28 Dec 1658 in Wethersfield, d: 06 Oct 1720
...... + Mary WELLS b: 08 Sep 1664, m: 16 Aug 1682 in Hatfield, d: 15 Mar 1751
......2 Sarah BELDING b: 30 Sep 1661
......2 Ann BELDING b: 27 Jan 1665 in Hatfield
......2 Ebenezer BELDING b: 16 Nov 1667 in Hatfield
...... + Martha
......2 John BELDING b: 13 Nov 1669, d: 18 Oct 1725 in Hatfield, age 56; killed at a barn-raising
...... + Sarah WAIT
+ Mary BEARDSLEY b: 1631, m: 25 Jun 1678, d: 29 Sep 1691, age 60
+ Mary MEEKER d: Bef. 10 Apr 1705
+ Sarah
The Indian Massacre of 1677 at Hatfield, MA
The settlement at Hatfield was suddenly attacked by a party of Indians, at about 11 o’clock in the morning, on the 19th of September, 1677, at a time when the inhabitants were wholly unconscious of danger, and most of the men at work raising a frame outside of the fortification. Three of their number were shot down before reaching the town, and the savages, breaking through the feeble defences of the village, killed eleven and took seventeen prisoners. Several buildings were burned, and the marauders departed, leaving six or seven of the settlers wounded.1
At about sunset the same day, they came upon Deerfield, whose inhabitants were also unprepared for resistance, and engaged in raising a house, One of four men who fled to a swamp was pursued and killed, and three other men were taken prisoners. The name of the former was John Root; the latter were, Sergeant John Plympton, Quintin Stockwell, and Benoni Stebbins.1 After gathering such plunder as might be conveniently brought away, the savages withdrew, and took up their slow and painful march for the French settlements in Canada.
1The names of the killed were: Sergeant Isaac Graves, John Atchinson, John Cooper, the wife and child of Philip Russell, the wife and child of John Coleman, the wife of Samuel Kellogg, the wife and child of Samuel Belding, and a child of John Wells. Those taken captive were: two children of John Coleman, the wife and three children of Benjamin Waite, Mrs. Foote and two children, the wife and two children of Stephen Jennings, Obadiah Dickinson and one child, a child of Samuel Kellogg, a child of William Bartholomew, and a child of John Allis.—Holland’s Western Massachusetts, i, 134.
On the same day a party of Indians appeared upon the Merrimack, and persuaded or compelled Wonalancet of Waamkeke, a sachem of influence, and then supposed to be on friendly terms with the English, to leave with them for the north, from whence he never returned. The party that surprised Hatfield and Deerfield numbered about fifty Indians, under the command of Ashpelon, a chief whose name appears in history only in connection with this event. From the testimony of the prisoners, he appears to have been more humane than many whom he commanded, and that through his influence several of their number were saved from torture. It was at first supposed that the assailants were Mohawks, as a party of those Indians had passed through the place the day previous, with a number of friendly Indians as prisoners, and a scalp; but it was soon ascertained that the enemy were from Canada, and probably some of those who had formerly lived in the Connecticut valley.
The news of this incursion spread rapidly through the colony, and the remaining members of the broken families lost no time in endeavoring to ascertain the destination of the prisoners. Benjamin Waite, whose wife and children were among the captives, hastened to Albany, thinking that the assailants were Mohawks, but finding that they were not, he returned home. The report brought back by Stebbins, gave the first positive indication of the number and destination of the party, which was no sooner learned than a plan was arranged for visiting Canada, to recover their families and friends by ransom. In answer to a petition from Hatfield for aid in this enterprise, the general court, on the 22d of October, issued the following order for this purpose, and resolved that the expenses attending it should be defrayed by the colony. [BFH, pp. 20-1]
The mortality rate was high, and widows and widowers usually remarried out of necessity. Life was hard enough for two parents raising a large family. Samuel BELDING and Mary MEEKER were each married 4 times.
William ALLIS and Samuel BELDING, who are both g-grandfathers of my 6g-grandmother, Mary SCOTT. Both William and Samuel had first wives named Mary, last names unknown. Both died in 1677. Sources [WW, p. 374], [CCW, p. 6], [BFH, p. 20], and [CMB, p. 14] all say that Mary, the wife of Samuel BELDING, was killed in the Indian attack on Hatfield, on 19 Seep 1677. However, [HDA, p. 5] claims it was Mary, wife of William ALLIS, who was killed in the attack on 19 Sep 1677. I think the latter must be an error, because [WW, p. 369], [CHP, p. 16] and [JMS, p. 250] all agree that Mary, wife of William ALLIS died on 10 Aug 1677, and they don't say she was killed by Indians. So it looks like the two Marys died 40 days apart.
Mary BEARDSLEY married (1) Thomas WELLS, and one of their their daughters was Mary WELLS.
Thomas WELLS died in 1676, and his widow Mary (BEARDSLEY) WELLS married Samuel BELDING in 1678.
Stephen BELDING, son of Samuel BELDING, married Mary WELLS in 1682, daughter of Thomas WELLS and Mary BEARDSLEY.
So Mary BEARDSLEY married the father of her son-in-law, and Stephen BELDING married the daughter of his step-mother.
Sources
[HMC] MAGIC Historical Map Collection - New England United States
[JMS] History of the town of Sunderland, Massachusetts by John Montague Smith (1899)
[SBH] Simeon Belden House, Wethersfield, Hartford County, CT
[WW] A history of Hatfield, Massachusetts, in three parts (1910) Wells and Wells
Updated 19 Aug 2020 by William Haloupek. Contact haloupek at gmail dot com.