One of the garrison houses which was judged to be most fit by our captain, who your honors did appoint to order according to his discretion for a stated garrison, is now burnt, by reason of the inhabitants not attending thereunto, every one being careful to secure his private interest; here is only remaining, these two houses where the magazene lyes, that are in a capacity to assist each other, the other two lying att a greater distance, with other inconveniencies; may it please your honors further to consider of the state of our company, being generally such as live upon husbandry, and seed time being now far spent, which may be prejudicial to ourselves and oth ers, if the season be slipt ; but I shall leave that to your honors consideration, only begging pardon for my bouldness, I rest your servant to my utmost ability.

"RICHARD JACOBS.

"Postscript. Some of the principal Townsmen in the behalf of the rest yt are yet remaining, which are but few, would desire your honors to consider their present condition being alltogether uncapable for removing without assistance both with carts and guard, they are destitute of carts, theirs being at Sudbury and not dareing to remain. About twenty carts they think will be necessary for the removing of their goods, if your honors see meet to grant it, or otherwise willing to refer their case to your Honors' further consideration."

The aforenamed Captain Brocklebank was at the time of his death forty-six years of age; left a widow and six children, viz. Samuel, Hannah, Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Joseph. His descendants are still living in Rowley, and other towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. The present Deacon Samuel Brock

lebank, of Georgetown, (late a part of Rowley,) and Nathan Brocklebank, of Rowley, are direct descendants in the sixth generation. The first from the eldest son Samuel, and the other, from the younger son Joseph. This was a distressing time in New England. The people all over the country had been in a constant state of alarm and terror, for two months or more next preceding the unhappy event of Sudbury. The enemy had been making dreadful havoc, in different and distant places.

On the 10th of February, several hundreds of them fell upon Lancaster, plundered and burned a great part of the town, and killed or captured about forty persons. Mrs. Rowlandson, the minister's wife, was among the captives.

Feb. 21. Nearly half the town of Medfield was burnt. Feb. 25. Seven or eight buildings were burnt at Weymouth.

March 13. Groton was wholly destroyed, except four garrisoned houses.

March 17. Every house, except one, was burnt in Warwick.

March 26. Marlborough was nearly all destroyed, except the garrisoned houses.

The same day Captain Pierce, of Scituate, with fifty English, and twenty friendly Indians, was cut off, near Providence.

March 28. Forty houses and thirty barns were burnt at Rehoboth.

March 29. About thirty houses were burnt at Providence.

Thus town after town was destroyed by the Indians. All was fear and consternation. Few there were, who

were not in mourning for some near kindred, and nothing but horror stared them in the face. But the affairs of

Philip are soon to decline. Drake.

The blood of the innocent will cry to heaven for vengeance.

After the important defeat of the English troops at Sudbury, where the spirits of the hostile Indians became remarkably elevated by their success, it was observed, that they became dispirited, and lost ground in all their following attempts, till the death of Philip, August 12, 1676. He was shot in a swamp near Mount Hope, by a friendly Indian. After Philip was shot, Captain Church despatched him with a sword; that sword is now in the historical rooms in Boston, the blade of which is little more than two feet in length.

Philip's death gave a finishing stroke to the war.

History informs us, that the Rev. John Eliot, (the Indian apostle,) had in vain labored for the conversion of Philip and his tribe, (the Wampanoags.) He declared to the missionary, when endeavouring to persuade him to embrace Christianity, that "he cared no more for the gospel than for the button of his coat.

The Rev. John Eliot, who was the second ordained minister of Roxbury, after having learned the Indian language, commenced preaching the gospel to them, about the year 1646, at a place called Nonantum, now Newton. His success among them had a happy tendency to prolong the peace and quiet of the country, in its early settlement. His labors were widely extended among the various Indian tribes, and abundantly blessed. The attachment of the praying Indians to the English was strong. From the danger to which the Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies were exposed by the war of

Philip, there is reason to believe, (says a former writer,) that, had all the Indians, within their boundaries, remained uncivilized and unchristianized, and united against the English with the spirit which animated Philip and the warriors of his period and party, they would probably have compelled our fathers utterly to have relinquished the country.

The Rev. Perez Fobes, LL. D., in his description of Raynham, written in 1793, informs us, that a family of Leonards settled in that town in 1652. Philip and these Leonards long lived in good neighbourhood, and such was Philip's friendship, that, as soon as the war broke out, he gave strict orders to all his Indians never to hurt the Leonards. During the war, two houses near Leonard's Forge, were constantly garrisoned. The houses were standing in 1793. One of them was built by James Leonard long before Philip's war, and was still remaining, in its original gothic form, and inhabited by Leonards of the sixth generation.

In the cellar under this house was deposited, for a considerable time, the head of King Philip. It seems, that even Philip himself shared the fate of kings. He was beheaded, and his head carried about and shown as a curiosity, by Alderman, the Indian who shot him.

From the close of Philip's war, in 1676, it does not appear, by the records of the town, that any of its inhabitants were again called to engage in Indian warfare till about the year 1690.

In 1688, an Indian war broke out in New England. The first blood was shed at North Yarmouth in September. Soon after its commencement, Rowley was called upon to furnish men for a guard at Haverhill.

In the spring of 1689, the Penecook Indians joined

those of Saco, and made great slaughter among the English, in the frontier settlements in the counties of York, Cumberland, and Lincoln, in Maine. This year Rowley furnished a number of men for the defence of Cocheco, (Dover.) (Their names cannot be ascertained.)

July 22. Captain Moses Bradstreet, and Lieutenant John Trumble, petitioned the Governor and Council for leave to withdraw some of the Rowley men from the guard at Haverhill, one in a week, or two in a fortnight, supplying their places with other men. This they ask for on account of the busy season of the year.

They also petitioned to have the Rowley men, who went out with Major Appleton (of Ipswich), and who are now stationed in the several garrisons at Cocheco, (Dover,) and other places in that vicinity, sent home. They represent Rowley as being more hardly dealt with than Newbury or Ipswich, as their men have all been permitted to return home before haying.

August 16. The Court order six hundred men to be impressed for the war; the two regiments in Essex County were to furnish two hundred and two men.

Captain Thomas Noyes, of Newbury, commanded the company to which the Rowley men belonged. The number of Rowley men impressed is not known; but it is supposed their proportion would be from ten to twelve.

In August the Indians took the fort at Pemaquid, (in Lincoln County, Maine.) So great was the public alarm, that the people around retired to Falmouth for greater safety. This summer, Major Church, with a party of English and friendly Indians from Plymouth Colony, marched to the eastward. Some of these