2006-02
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/31/2006
CHURCH, Benjamin (1639-1718) New England military leader, Architect of Colonist’s victory in King Philip’s War, 1675-76. The most renowned Indian fighter of 17th century New England, Church was able to turn the tide of battle in KING PHILIP’S WAR (1675-76) against the red man and in favor of the gravely threatened Colonists through a combination of his own intimate knowledge of the Indians and a ruthlessness in the prosecution of war unmatched by other Colonial officers. Schooled by his father in the art of carpentry, Plymouth, Ma., Church settled near the present site of Little Compton, RI, in 1674, where he built a homestead on what was then still frontier. He came to win the esteem of local tribesmen, whom he dissuaded from joining the Indians under King Philip (Metacomet) when the chief launched an all-out war upon the Colonists in 1675. As a captain of Plymouth militia, Church was twice wounded in one battle but recovered to lead his troops in the destruction of Indian corn supplies and the capture of many of the enemy, who he offered a choice between enslavement and fighting against their own people. Many braves chose the latter alternative; with their aid Church pressed hostilities until the Indians were defeated and Philip himself was hunted down and killed by one of Church’s braves. Going on to a fight in KING WILLIAM’S WAR and QUEEN ANNE’S WAR, Church retired from military service in 1704. He died 14 years later from injuries suffered in a fall from a horse. Autograph Endorsement Signed, “Benjn. Church” as Justice of Peace, with five lines in his hand, on verso of a 1715 Massachusetts court document.
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