My Genealogy Home Page:Information about John SHELDON
John SHELDON (b. Dec 8, 1658, d. Jun 7, 1725)
Notes for John SHELDON:
[Easton&Baker.FTW]
John Sheldon is first mentioned in the town records of [p.162] Deerfield in 1686, when he was chosen on a committee "to lay out all the woodlands." By this same meeting the Dorchester schoolmaster, John Williams, was called to be their pastor. The same year Sheldon was chosen on the first board of Selectmen, and re-elected almost every year until 1704. The legislative and executive powers of this board were then very great. In 1697, he, with Jonathan Wells, was appointed to look over old papers and "direct the Town Clerk to record such as should be recorded." To the discretion and labors of this committee, Deerfield owes the preservation of four pages of very valuable matter on its town records. On these records, we find no busier man than John Sheldon, none whose voice was more often sought in the prudential affairs of the town. He was chosen to measure the meadow lands, and to settle the bounds between neighbors. He served as tythingman and school committee, and was very often moderator of the town meetings. In short, John Sheldon was a prominent man in the early history of Deerfield, successfully administering those important town offices, which require the most prudent foresight, and the most candid and impartial judgment.
Lulled by frequent false alarms into a fatal sense of security, John Sheldon and his neighbors slept soundly on the night of the 29th of February, 1704. The bitter cold penetrated even his well-built dwelling, the drifted snow lay piled outside against the palisades, the wind shrieked as it tore the dry branches from the trees and hurled them far over the frozen crust; but no consciousness of unusual danger disturbed their slumbers. Yet with the rushing of each fitful gust, running with it from the north and pausing as it ceased, the cruel foe was creeping stealthily nearer to the little hamlet. The stormy night was well-nigh spent, the guard lay heavy in his first sleep, when "the enemy came in like a flood." Pouring over the palisades, heaving and tossing like the angry billows of a stormy sea, roaring and rushing to and fro within the fortification, the horrid crowd surged about the houses of the defenseless people. Roused by their hideous yells, the sleepers woke bewildered to find themselves surrounded by dusky faces fiendish with fresh war paint. Resistance was vain; some were instantly murdered; others, powerless from fear, were fiercely torn from their warm beds, bound hand and foot, and hurried out half naked into the bitter night. Deafened by the tumult, blinded by[p.167] the glare of torches, driven like sheep to the shambles, they were huddled together in the meeting house, where but yesterday their faithful shepherd had folded his flock in peace. Confusion and terror reigned. The place which they had been taught to regard as the house of God was now defiled and desecrated. There, where so lately their voices had mingled in prayer and praise, could now be heard only the groans of the wounded, the wailing of women, the shrieks of the children and the tremulous voices of the aged calling on God to "remember mercy in the midst of judgment."
Hard by, in the house of Benoni Stebbins, seven heroic men, bravely seconded by their wives, for three hours kept at bay the combined force of French and Indians. With their children clinging to them in fright, unceasingly the women moulded the bullets, resolutely the men stood at their posts. The leaden hail beat steadily down upon the assailants. Fiercer and higher on the keen air, rose the yells of the baffled foe.
Not far away, in his own house, pinioned and helpless, but calm and steadfast, the pastor of the little flock, surrounded by his terrified family, as he "was able committed their state to God, praying that they might have grace to glorify His name, whether in life or death."
For a time, the well built and firmly bolted door of John Sheldon's house proved an effectual barrier against the savages. Sacred historic door! Door of the ark of the covenant wert thou to our fathers in the olden time. Built of no' costly material, thy posts were not inlaid with shell; no gold adorns thy panels. Heart of oak art thou, fit type of the heroes who framed thee; sturdy and strong in their defence as they, in defence of their liberty,—ye yielded never! More to us than Grecian sculptures are thy carvings by Indian tomahawk, and thy wrought spikes, more precious than bosses of silver and gold!
Maddened at last by their baffled efforts, they hacked and hewed at it till the hole was cut, which is still to be seen in it.1 Through this they fired at random, killing Sheldon's wife, who was dressing herself in bed in the room at the right of the door. Finally swarming in at the windows and rudely awaking Mary Sheldon, a maiden of sixteen, from sweet dreams of her lover, they captured her and her young brothers, Ebenezer and Remembrance; and killed their little sister, Mercy, a child of three years. Their eldest brother, John, had married three months before, Hannah Chapin of Springfield. During the preparation of the bridal outfit, her mother, loath to have her encounter the perils of a frontier settlement, yet with that strange inconsistency with which we often make a jest of the saddest things in life, advised her to have a pelisse made of unusual thickness, as she might need it if she were carried off by the Indians. On the first alarm she and her husband, who were occupying the east chamber of his father's house, jumped together from the window. Spraining her ankle, and unable to save herself, she urged her husband to leave her and alarm the nearest village. At her entreaties he stripped up a blanket, and binding it about his bare feet, ran to Hatfield. His heroic bride was captured with the rest.
[Baker, C. Alice. True Stories of New England Captives Carried to Canada during the Old French and Indian Wars. Greenfield, MA: E.A. Hall & Co., 1897.]
More About John SHELDON:
Ancestral File Number: 3DCT-1N.
More About John SHELDON and Hannah STEBBINS:
Marriage: Nov 5, 1679, Northampton, Hampshire, MA.
Children of John SHELDON and Hannah STEBBINS are:
- +Mary SHELDON, b. Jul 24, 1687, Deerfield, Franklin, MA2235, d. 1763, Northampton, Hampshire, MA2235.