Humphrey Atherton, 1608-1661
Humphrey Atherton held the highest military rank in the colony. He was a persecutor of Quakers, and to many Quakers, the news of his death in a fall from his horse was seen as an proper retribution.
no. 23771
Here lies our Captain & Major of Suffolk was withall;
A godly magistrate was he, and Major General;
Two troop horse with him here comes, such worth his love did crave
Two companies of foot also mourning march to his grave,
Let all that read be sure to keep the faith as he has done
With Christ he lives now crowned, his name was Humphrey Atherton.
He Died ye 16th of Sepr. 1661.”
The following is from Wikipedia:
“He early showed a decided taste for military affairs, and soon became a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, was its captain from 1650 to 1658, and commenced the first train band formed in Dorchester in 1644. He commanded the Suffolk Regiment, with the title of Major General, and was the chief military officer in New England. He served many years as Selectman and town Treasurer, and was Deputy to the General Court in 1638 and ’41. In 1659 he was chosen Speaker while he represented the town of Springfield (inhabitancy not then being requisite for a deputy). He was afterwards an Assistant.”
“He was much respected for his religious character and public spirit, and often employed by the colonial government in civil and military affairs. He had great experience and skill in the treatment of the Indians, with whom his public duties brought him in frequent contact.”[1]
The comments of the descendants of Puritan immigrants stated above are in contrast with other reports of his actions.
“Atherton “played a key role in fighting and removing Indians from land he later owned.” In 1659, he and some friends, including Connecticut Governor, John Winthrop, Jr., made some illegal purchases of land from Native Americans in Rhode Island. The group, referred to as the Atherton Company, circumvented the law by making the purchases appear to be gifts.
“Harlow Elliot Woodword, in Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester, said that Atherton had believed in witches and “felt it to be a duty which he owed to God and to his Country to mete out to the poor creatures, against whom accusations were brought, the punishment, which, in his opinion, they so richly merited.] Woodward said that, in his capacity as assistant, Atherton had been instrumental in bringing about the execution of Mrs. Ann Hibbins,a wealthy widow, who was executed for witchcraft on June 19, 1651
“Atherton was involved in the persecution of Quakers and there are two incidents in particular that the Quakers wrote about in relationship to Atherton. First, the case of Mary Dyer, a Quaker who was executed in 1660 after returning to Boston despite banishment; Atherton was assistant governor at the time, and at her hanging he was said to have remarked, “She hangs there like a flag. The Quakers understood this comment to be an insulting boast.
“Secondly, there was the case of Wenlock Christison, a Quaker who had repeatedly returned to Massachusetts despite banishment, whose trial in May, 1661 put an end to the execution of Quakers. He was sentenced to death, but the law was changed soon after, and he was not executed. He was the last Quaker to be sentenced to death in Massachusetts. The Quakers believed that during an altercation between the accused and Atherton at the trial, Christison prophesied the outcome of his trial as well as the circumstances of Atherton’s untimely death.
“Humphrey Atherton died, September 16, 1661, from head injuries sustained in a fall from his horse. He was traveling through Boston Common, on his way home after drilling his troops when his mount collided with a cow.
“Woodward, aforementioned author of Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester, said that because of Atherton’s persecution of the Quakers, “they believed his horrible death to be God’s visitation of wrath.” Woodword credits Joseph Besse, a Quaker author, with the following [gruesome] account of Atherton’s death:
“‘Humfray Adderton, who at the trial of Wenlock Christison, did, as it were, bid defiance to Heaven, by saying to Wenlock, ‘You pronounce Woes and Judgements, and those that are gone before you pronounced Woes and Judgements; but the Judgements of the Lord God are not upon us yet,’ was suddenly surprised: having been, on a certain day, exercising his men with much pomp and ostentation, he was returning home in the evening, near the place where they usually loosed the Quakers from the cart, after they had whipped them, his horse, suddenly affrighted, threw him with such violence, that he instantly died; his eyes being dashed out of his head, and his brains coming out of his nose, his tongue hanging out at his mouth, and the blood running out at his ears.suddenly surprised: having been, on a certain day, exercising his men with much pomp and ostentation, he was returning home in the evening, near the place where they usually loosed the Quakers from the cart, after they had whipped them, his horse, suddenly affrighted, threw him with such violence, that he instantly died; his eyes being dashed out of his head, and his brains coming out of his nose, his tongue hanging out at his mouth, and the blood running out at his ears.”
Source: wikipedia
From History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts. By a Committee of the Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society. (Boston, 1859).
- 102-103
Humphrey Atherton. The first occurrence of his name on the church Records is in 1636. Farmer says he came from Lancashire, but gives no authority for it. One of his descendants, Charles H. Atherton, says he arrived in Boston in the ship James, Capt. Taylor, August 7, 1635, and states he was married when between fourteen and fifteen years of age, his wife then being between thirteen and fourteen, and that they brought children with them, but does not give any authority for the statement. No record by which his age could be ascertained has ever been found; but as he was admitted freeman, and was a grantee of the Neck lands, in 1637, he must have arrived at his majority at that time.
He early showed a decided taste for military affairs, and soon became a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, was its captain from 1650 to 1658, and commenced the first train band formed in Dorchester in 1644. He commanded the Suffolk Regiment, with the title of Major General, and was the chief military officer in New England. He served many years as Selectman and town Treasurer, and was Deputy to the General Court in 1638 and ’41. In 1659 he was chosen Speaker while he represented the town of Springfield (inhabitancy not then being requisite for a deputy). He was afterwards an Assistant.
He was much respected for his religious character and public spirit, and often employed by the colonial government in civil and military affairs. He had great experience and skill in the treatment of the Indians, with whom his public duties brought him in frequent contact. He manifested much humanity and sympathy for their ignorant and degraded condition, but exercised great energy and decision of character when necessary. His efforts to instruct them were referred to in the New England Confederation, and Eliot applied to him in behalf of the Neponset tribe. He assisted Lieut. Clap in laying out for them a tract of land at Punkapog, not exceeding six thousand acres. In 1644 he was sent, with Captains Johnson and Cooke, to Narraganset, to arrest and try Samuel Gorton for heresy. It is hoped that Gorton’s complaint of his treatment on his way to Boston is exaggerated; for he says, in passing through Dorchester, a large concourse of persons assembled, with several ministers, to witness the passage of the troops, and that the prisoners were stationed apart, and volleys of musketry fired over their heads as a token of victory.
He was employed in several expeditions against the Narraganset Indians; and when they became tributary to Massachusetts, he was several times sent to collect the tribute of wampum. He and Edward Tomlins were sent to treat with Miantinomo, a sachem of the Narragansets, and questioned him on the Ten Commandments.
In 1645 the commissioners of the United Colonies appointed a council of war, and placed Capt. Standish at its head. Mason of Connecticut, Leverett and Atherton, of Massachusetts, were his colleagues.
Captain Johnson, author of the Wonder-working Providence, speaks of Atherton as a lively, courageous man, and says, “Altho he be slow of speech, yet is he down right for the business, one of cheerful spirit, and intire for the country.”
His death occurred Sept. 16, 1661 …
[described by Orcutt below]
He lived on the south side of the way to the Calf Pasture, now Pond street, near where that street intersects with the Turnpike. [now intersection of Pond and Dorchester Avenue]. His children were—Jonathan; Rest, born 1639, married Obadiah Swift, 15 (1) 1660-1, Increase, baptized 2 (11) 1641, died at sea; Thankful, born 1644, married Thos. Bird of Dorchester, 2 (2) 1665); Hope, born 1646, was minister of Hadley; Consider, married Ann Anibal, 19 (10) 1671; Watching, born 1651, married Elizabeth Rigbee, Jan. 23, 1678; Patience, born 1654,; Mary, married Joseph Weeks, 9 (7) 1667. Charles H. ways there was a Katherine, and that were twelve children in all. Administration was granted to his oldest son Jonathan, and Timothy Mather, James Throwbridge and Obadiah Swift, three of his sons-in-law. His inventory was 900 pounds.
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From: Good Old Dorchester by William Dana Orcutt. (Cambridge, 1893).
- 69-70
The death of Major-General Humphrey Atherton, by accident, in 1661, deprived the Colony of one of its principal men. Energetic and firm in character, he proved very useful to his fellow-colonists. An incident illustrating his great courage and presence of mind is that which occurred when he was sent to Pessacus, an Indian sachem, with twenty men, for the purpose of demanding three hundred fathom of wampum, arrears due to the Colony. For some time Pessacus refused to allow him to come into his presence, putting him off with evasive answers. Finally, however, Atherton led his men to the door of the wigwam, and leaving them outside, entered, pistol in hand. He then seized Pessacus by the hair, and dragged him out from among a large number of his attendants, threatening to kill the first one who attempted to interfere.