Samuel Leonard, Jr.

Family

Husband: Samuel LEONARD
Birth: 1683, Bridgewater, MA or perhaps Worcester, MA
Death: 11 May 1718, Preston, New London Co., CT
Father: Samuel LEONARD
Mother: Abigail ATWOOD

Marriage: 1706, Probably Stonington, Connecticut

Wife: Lydia COOK / COOKE
Birth: 18 May 1685, of Preston, New London Co., CT
Death: 7 Jul 1738, Kingston, Plymouth Co., MA
Father: Richard COOKE
Mother: Grace

Children — born in Preston, New London Co., CT:

• 1. Ebenezer LEONARD, b. 17 Mar 1708/9; married Esther Amos
• 2. Lydia LEONARD, b. 22 Sep 1707; married Matthew Huntington
• 3. Samuel LEONARD, b. 18 May 1712; d. 24 Apr 1760; married Lydia Stanton
• 4. Jane LEONARD, b. 5 Nov 1714; married Daniel Williams
• 5. Nathan LEONARD, b. 22 Aug 1717; married Abigail Herrick

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Biography

From Memorial, genealogical, historical, and biographical, of Solomon Leonard, 1637 : of Duxbury and Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and some of his descendants, by Leonard, Manning, 1814-1885 (Publication date 1896). Page 51-52. < GoogleBooks >

11. SAMUEL LEONARD, only son of Samuel (2) eldest son of Solomon (1); was born in Bridgewater about 1683, died in Preston, Conn., May 11, 1718.

While his father's family were living in Worcester, sometime in the autumn of 1695, he was kidnapped by hostile Indians, and for a year and a half his anxious and distressed friends could learn nothing of his fate. No detailed account of the circumstances attending his capture, or of his sufferings from hunger, cold, and exposure during the two entire winters he was in the hands of his savage captors has come down to us, but history has faithfully described the wonderful heroism exhibited by this youth-then but fourteen years of age-and by his associates in captivity. Mrs. Hannah Duston and Mrs. Mary Neff of Haverhill, in slaughtering their merciless captors and their almost miraculous restoration to intensely anxious relatives and friends. In this connection the name of this modest youth, written Sammel Leonardson in the annals, has become immortalized, while his personal identity has been in obscurity for nearly two centuries. …

Notes

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Duston

Hannah and Mary were assigned to a family group of 12 people (probably Pennacooks) and taken north, "unto a rendezvous...somewhere beyond Penacook; and they still told these poor women that when they came to this town, they must be stript, and scourg'd, and run the gauntlet through the whole army of Indians."[18] The group included Samuel Lennardson (1683–1718, also spelled Leonardson, Lenorson or Lennarson), a 14-year-old boy captured in Worcester, Massachusetts, in late 1695.[19][15][20]

From https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/9895777?cid=mem_copy

Samuel Leonard--Indian Slave

Samuel Leonard Jr. was born in Bridgewater about 1683, when his father was forty. His mother Abigail was about thirty-eight. He was the last child and only son. The family had been living in Worcester for five years, and Samuel Jr. was twelve when in the autumn of 1695, Indians attacked, burned the town and captured the boy. (He is called Leonardson in the archives). His family and friends were terribly distressed at his disappearance, especially his mother, who was said to have died of grief. There are accounts of the sufferings from rough treatment, hunger, and cold of other Indian captives, so we have some idea of the child’s hardships.

He learned to speak the Indian language, and had been more or less adopted by the tribe, as the Indians were likely to take in bright, brave, and adaptable youngsters to replace the ones they lost through warfare or other causes. He was about fourteen years of age when another Indian raid captured some women from Haverhill, a Hannah Duston, who had recently delivered her eight child, and her nurse, Mrs. Mary Neff. Since the child cried a good deal, the Indians bashed out its brains against a tree.

The prisoners were forced to march to a place near the Contoocook River where it enters the Merrimac in New Hampshire. Then the Indian: who claimed them as his property took them to the Island then known as Contoocook, but now Duston’s Island. It is in the Merrimac river near Concord. Here the women met the boy Samuel Leonard (son).

Mrs. Duston, after seeing her infant killed and surviving the long trek afoot scantily dressed and with only one shoe, was not about to become a slave of the Indians. She planned to escape and had Samuel ask the Indian who owned him which part of the body the Indians struck when they wished to kill suddenly, and how to take a scalp. He was told to strike the temple to kill, and instructed on how to take the scalp. He then relayed the instructions to Mrs. Duston.

“That night while the Indians were asleep, Mrs. Duston killed her master, and Samuel dispatched the very Indian who told him where to strike, and how to take off a scalp! Ten of the Indians were killed ( the squaws and children were left unharmed). The deed was accomplished before the day began to break.” …

Much has been made of the Escape. It is clear that all three were surely involved, and that Samuel killed the other Indian male, leaving only the sleeping women and children to be dispatched.

When Hannah Duston, her nurse Mary Neff, and the boy Samuel Leonard (son) had rested from their journey, they went to Boston with Mr. Duston, taking with them the gun, tomahawk, and the ten scalps. Mr. Duston petitioned the Assembly for recompense for his losses. His petition was read in the House of Representatives on June 8th, and the assembly “voted that the above named Thomas Duston in behalf of his wife shall be allowed and paid out of the publick Treasury Twenty five pounds: & Mary Neff the sum of Twenty pounds Ten Shillings, and the young man (named Samuel Lenerson/ Leonardson/Leonard) concerned in the same action the like sum of Twelve pounds Ten Shillings.”

Samuel Leonard Indian Slave 3

It is recorded that Samuel the young Samuel Leonard probably spent some time after his return to Massachusetts visiting with his uncles--Major William Bradford of Plymouth and John, Jacob and Isaac Leonard at Bridgewater.

Major Bradford was the son of Governor Bradford and Deputy Governor for several years before Plymouth Colony joined the Massachusetts Colony in 1692. He was present at the session which voted money to the three escapees, as he was a member of the Council from 1692-1697. Bradford was married (his third wife) to Mary Wood/Atwood, the sister of Samuel’s dead mother Abigail.

The Governor of Maryland, sent Mrs. Duston and Mary Neff, a silver tankard when he heard the news. It is not recorded if Samuel received any gifts, but he was a celebrity. He was felt to be in such danger from reprisal from the Indians that the secret was well kept by the family. He soon joined his father and sisters near Norwich, Ct. It is believed that this secretiveness led his father to make their home in the north part of Preston, in what is now the town of Griswold, CT.

In the years after his return from the Indian captors, the boy Samuel had been forced to return to the strictures of the pioneering English life, which were in their way, as difficult as the Indian lifestyle. Some Indian captives were unwilling to make the changes, and stayed with the Indians by choice.

Family tradition alone tells us that in the early days the Leonards became aware of an Indian lurking about their home. At last, after days of watching, a member of the family shot the Indian dead, seemingly with no more compunction that he would have shown toward a dangerous beast. But such incidents were exceptional.

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Hannah Dustin memorial (vandalized)

Source: Abenaki leaders, on future of Hannah Duston monument: ‘Time can move forward. We don’t live there anymore’ (Thursday, August 12, 2021) < link >

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References

1. Samll Leonardson in the Connecticut, U.S., Town Death Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) < AncestrySharing > Samll Leonardson [Samuell Leonardson] Death Date 11 May 1718 Death Place Preston
2. Please see Leonard Genealogy: https://archive.org/details/memorialgenealog00leon/page/50/mode/2up.... (Steven Ferry, February 26, 2021.) < GoogleBooks >
3. http://dgmweb.net/FGS/L/LeonardSamuel-LydiaCooke.html (shows wrong parents for Lydia Cooke)
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Duston [19][15][20]
   1. 19. Ellery B. Crane, "The Kidnapping of Samuel Leonard," in Proceedings of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, Volume 25, Worcester Historical Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1912; pp. 291-302. < Archive.Org >
   2. 20. Emma Lewis Coleman, New England Captives Carried to Canada Between 1677 and 1760 During the French and Indian Wars, Volume 1, 1926. Reprinted by Heritage Books, 2008. Page 337. < GoogleBooks > 1696/7 (and with them Samuel Lennerson of Quinsigamond)
5. “Scalp Condition: Hannah Duston Statues.” < link >
6. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LC86-ZJB cites
   1. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations. Descendants of the Pilgrims Who Landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in December 1620. Volume Fifteen. Family of James Chilton. Originally Compiled by Robert Moody Sherman, CG, FASG snd Verle Delano Vincent. Revised by Robert S. Wakefield, FASG. Reprinted by General Society of Mayflower Descendant 2013. p.53
7. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/101328981/samuel-leonard: accessed April 11, 2024), memorial page for Samuel Leonard (1683–11 May 1718), Find a Grave Memorial ID 101328981; Burial Details Unknown; Maintained by Theresa (contributor 47443215).
8. WikiTree contributors, "Samuel Leonard (abt.1683-1718)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Leonard-703 : accessed 12 April 2024). Cites
   1. Memorial: Genealogical, Historical, and Biographical, of Solomon Leonard, 1637, Duxbury and Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and some of His Descendants. By Manning Leonard, Southbridge, Mass. Press of Knapp, Peck & Thomson, Auburn N.Y. 1896; page 36;
   2. General Society of Mayflower Descendants Membership Applications, 1620-1920. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2020). https://www.americanancestors.org/DB2731/i/59157/829-co3/74137708
   3. Preston, CT: First Congregational Church Records, 1698-1898. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.) Originally published as: First Congregational Church of Preston, Connecticut, 1698-1898 : together with statistics of the church taken from church records. Preston, Conn.: The Society, 1900. page 12; page 13; page 14; page 16;
   4. "Connecticut, Vital Records, Prior to 1850," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPSC-NF12 : 15 April 2022), Samuell Leonardson, ; citing Death, Preston, New London, Connecticut, United States, Compiled by Lucius A. and Lucius B. Barbour, housed at State Library, Hartford, Connecticut; FHL microfilm 007833262.
9. Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants, 1700-1880. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2017). From Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass., December 1620. Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1975-2015. Volume Name Chilton, James and More, Richard (Vol. 15) Page 54 < AmericanAncestors >; (document attached) Name Lydia COOKE Baptism 4/27/1679 Location Stonington, New London, Connecticut, United States Original Text Father Richard Cooke Mother _____ Cooke. Married 1706 to Gen. 5: #53 SAMUEL LEONARD5 (Samuel Leonard4, Sarah Chandler3, Isabella Chilton2, James Chilton1)