8 TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT: Introduction John Williams was born on December tenth in the year 1664 in Roxbury Suffolk County Massachusetts in United States of America (USA). His father Samuel Williams was a Deacon and his mother was Theoda Park Williams. His grandfather Robert Williams was a well-known admitted freeman of Roxbury in 1638 and made John a cousin of Princess Diana. John Williams was not only learned but a scholar. He attended local school, Roxbury Latin School and later joined Havard College where he graduated with a Bachelor in Administration (B.A) in 1683. His Life History John Williams’s career begun as a school teacher in Dorchester where he taught for two years and during which time he studied divinity. He prophesied at the frontier settlement of Deerfield and selected as a pastor in March 1686. On twenty first July 1687, he married Eunice Mather whose father was Reverend Eleazar Mather of Northampton, and grandfather was Richard Mathar. They then got nine children. He was formally ordained as a pastor at a church gathering in the same place on seventeenth October 1668. During this time, Deerfield was in danger and was threatened by French and Indian attacks. As a Christian, he and his fellow church members believed that wars across the borders were occasional and that they were Gods way of showing that he was dissatisfied with the people of Deerfield who in John’s opinion showed no interest, enthusiasm or concern about the scripture and their spiritual ways left a lot of room for improvement. All the same, John was courageous expressed no fear during the war. He strongly encouraged and urged his people to stand firm onto their ground. Before the Queen Anne’s war began he tried to warn the Governor Dudley to strengthen the Deerfield fortifications in order to protect the residents from the attacks. Unfortunately the warning came in a bit too late. In the King Philips war between 1975 and 1976, Deerfield had previously been attacked by the French and Indians soldiers and burned down in the process. The Queen Anne’s war this time round was not so different. On the morning of February the twenty ninth of the year 1703, just before daybreak, the French and Indians attacked Deerfield, ransacking all homesteads while killing most of the inhabitants including two of John William’s youngest children, his six year old son John Jr and his six month old daughter Jerushah along with his African slave Parthena. The raid was part of the French colonization and was aimed at displacing the English colonial frontier by capturing those they found therefore unfortunately the survivors were not set free. They were taken into captivity and exposed to hardship such as exposure to harsh winter weather conditions, bad landscape, hunger and grief on a 300 mile march to Canada. Johns Wife who had was still trying to recover from her delivery of six months before the attack was way too weak to withstand the hardships brought about by the captiv.

1. 8
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
Introduction
John Williams was born on December tenth in the year
1664 in Roxbury Suffolk County Massachusetts in United States
of America (USA). His father Samuel Williams was a Deacon
and his mother was Theoda Park Williams. His grandfather
Robert Williams was a well-known admitted freeman of
Roxbury in 1638 and made John a cousin of Princess Diana.
John Williams was not only learned but a scholar. He attended
local school, Roxbury Latin School and later joined Havard
College where he graduated with a Bachelor in Administration
(B.A) in 1683.
His Life History
John Williams’s career begun as a school teacher in
Dorchester where he taught for two years and during which time
he studied divinity. He prophesied at the frontier settlement of
Deerfield and selected as a pastor in March 1686. On twenty
first July 1687, he married Eunice Mather whose father was
Reverend Eleazar Mather of Northampton, and grandfather was
Richard Mathar. They then got nine children. He was formally
ordained as a pastor at a church gathering in the same place on
seventeenth October 1668. During this time, Deerfield was in
danger and was threatened by French and Indian attacks. As a
Christian, he and his fellow church members believed that wars
across the borders were occasional and that they were Gods way
of showing that he was dissatisfied with the people of Deerfield
who in John’s opinion showed no interest, enthusiasm or
concern about the scripture and their spiritual ways left a lot of

2. room for improvement. All the same, John was courageous
expressed no fear during the war. He strongly encouraged and
urged his people to stand firm onto their ground.
Before the Queen Anne’s war began he tried to warn the
Governor Dudley to strengthen the Deerfield fortifications in
order to protect the residents from the attacks. Unfortunately
the warning came in a bit too late. In the King Philips war
between 1975 and 1976, Deerfield had previously been attacked
by the French and Indians soldiers and burned down in the
process. The Queen Anne’s war this time round was not so
different. On the morning of February the twenty ninth of the
year 1703, just before daybreak, the French and Indians
attacked Deerfield, ransacking all homesteads while killing
most of the inhabitants including two of John William’s
youngest children, his six year old son John Jr and his six
month old daughter Jerushah along with his African slave
Parthena. The raid was part of the French colonization and was
aimed at displacing the English colonial frontier by capturing
those they found therefore unfortunately the survivors were not
set free. They were taken into captivity and exposed to hardship
such as exposure to harsh winter weather conditions, bad
landscape, hunger and grief on a 300 mile march to Canada.
Johns Wife who had was still trying to recover from her
delivery of six months before the attack was way too weak to
withstand the hardships brought about by the captivity. She
along with an African slave and a man named Frank were
murdered by the primitive and uncivilized captors because they
were unable to cross a creek. Other old people and children also
died along the way. John was strong and encouraged his people
to move on and encouraged them through prayer and scriptures
from the Bible. The rest of the captives were detained in the
Chambly Fort in Quebec where they were coerced to convert to
the catholic faith by the Indians and Jesuit priests. This brought
about a lot of tension amongst the captives as most of them
were trying to stand by their faith and not convert. During this
time, John was kept in isolation and was treated well but he did

3. not take well to the good treatment, he had no appetite and was
grief stricken at the loss of his wife and two children. One of
his other children Eunice who was abducted at the point of the
raid got married to an Indian. When he was reunited with his
people, he effectively countered their conversion to the catholic
faith so he was sent to Chateauviche where he remained captive
for a period of more than two years until his release was
effected on the twenty first of November 1706 by the Deerfield
Governor Dudely With Cotton Mathers assistance, he continued
preaching in Boston and its surrounds during the winter. Cotton
Mathers recorded in his diary that it pleased the Lord to grant a
quick and safe return. On December fifth 1706, John Wiliam
preached on Mathers pulpit ad his sermon was documented for
future readers. They emphasizes especially on the captivity and
redemption. How God had mercy on Williams and delivered him
from the hands of the French and Indians and how he saved him
from death so that he could continue to preach to people and
encourage them to believe in God. Despite the continued
plunders and attacks to Deerfield by the Indians, their lucrative
offers to stay away and the sad memories of the Massacre that
took place the last time he was there, John went back home in
January 1707 where he continued to preach and rebuild their
homesteads.(Williams et al., 1853)
In 1707, John William wrote his first book, “The redeemed
captive Returning to Zion,” which was printed by Bartholemew
Green and was greatly accepted and approved as a
congregational fortitude against the catholic faith and the
continued escapade by the Indians to convert his people. The
book gives his version of captivity and details their captivity for
eight weeks by the Indians and two years by the French. His
narratives bring out the differences between Roman Catholism
and Puritanism. On sixteenth September 1707, he married his
first wife’s cousin Abigail Allen Bissel of Windsor, Conn, sired
five children, one of whom got married to Col. Ebenezer
Hinsdale. This union was against the Judge Samuel Sewalls
interpretation to the Bible against such unions with relatives.

4. Abigail was a descendant of Henry King I of England through
her grandmother Margaret Wyatt. He served as the chaplain in
the 1711 expedition for the return of English prisoners in
Canada and against Port Royal together with John Stoddard who
was the commissioner in Canada then. He also attended annual
clergymen meetings in Boston. Unfortunately he was unable to
redeem his daughter Eunice as she had been married by an
Indian. In 1728 he preached the convention sermon which was
aimed at highlighting the religious differences at the time and
all his sermons urged the listeners to be enthusiastic about their
privilege to be descendants of pristine spiritual and Godly
ancestors. He reminded them to continue to exalt the God of
their ancestors, the God of their fathers and fore fathers.
He was kidnapped in 1714 and ransomed in 1716. His three
children were also ransomed back except one who chose to get
married to an Indian. He died on twelfth June 1729 at Deerfield
Franklin County Massachusetts in USA and was survived by six
children from his first marriage and five from his second wife.
The Book “The Redeemed Captain Returning to Zion”
Today, many people, especially students are not able to relate
with John Williams books because they do not have any clue
about the war that was brought about by the French and the
Indians. They also need to have the knowledge and background
on the differences between the Puritans from the Church of
England and the Roman Catholism. John William was strong in
faith and stood by his ground throughout his captivity in
Quebec where the French Jesuits tried their level best to convert
him to the Roman Catholic faith.
His book about the redeemed captive is used by learning
institutions today to learn about the French and Indian wars as
well as bring out the religious conflicts there were between the
Puritans and the Catholics. In his narratives, he also wrote down
some of his sermons, explained further about his personal life
and his history. This highlighted his personal thoughts,
perspectives and issues he faced as well as how he handled
them. His book also elaborated some myths such as the white-

5. Indian relationship and the Puritan myth of America. It
elaborates how the Indian raids came about and how the white
settlers were brutally massacred and the inhumane hardships,
aggression and hostilities the whites underwent under the
Indians captivity.
His narratives also had a great significance on the art, form and
style of living for those who read it especially Americans. The
context was religious in form, and it began from the early stages
emphasizing on how Puritans suffered and how captivity and all
the suffering that came with it was it. He narrated it as Gods
way of testing their faith as well as punishment for their evil
deeds and that those who came through it were glorified. His
narrations were used for the early Sunday school teachings.
In John Williams dedication to his Excellency Joseph
Dudley, Esq., the audience he targeted in his narratives were the
Pritian people, however his narratives are still used today
because they closed in on other important teachings such as
God’s wrath for people who disobeyed his scriptures and that
God also shows mercy and goodness to those who obeyed his
scriptures. He writes about his many days of fasting and prayer
and devastation and how he did not turn away from God neither
did he get angry with what God was taking him through. He
narrates by doing so God had Mercy on him and he survived as
a living witness of how God delivered him back to safety. He
preaches how Christians should accept to suffer patiently and go
through all public humiliation and calamity without losing faith
in God, and to continue to serve him and pray in order to
survive it all. He described the bad and harmful nature of the
Indians as satanic and that of the Jesuits as diabolical because
of the way they kept trying to convert him and his people to
Catholics and tried to force John to attend the Latin mass, pray
to the Virgin Mary and to kiss the crucifix. His works were
captivity narratives. The Indians were described as satanic as
they burned people’s homesteads to the ground, killed
ruthlessly, they dragged the captives through the harsh weather
conditions and lousy terrain for days on end without caring

6. about their health conditions. The helpless and weak like the
very old people and the young died along the way.
Conclusion
All of John Williams life was spent during the war between the
English colonists and the French colonists for their hometown
Deerfield. He had to witness the evacuation of his people, their
houses being burnt down, the massacre and their turmoil as they
were lead to Canada. He painfully lost two of his last born sons
and his wife to death by the Indians. He also lost one of his
daughters Eunice to the Indians through marriage. He as a
reverend also had the hard task of maintaining his Puritans faith
and not being converted to the Catholic faith. It was even harder
for him to convince for him to maintain the rest of the survivors
not to convert to Catholics especially after being separated from
them for over two years. His book helped a lot because it was
from reading his narratives that they read about his experiences,
related them with their own and accepted his teachings with
open arms (Haefani, 2006). When he returned home, they built
him a place to stay, welcomed him back and continued to attend
this sermons and adhere to his teachings. They agreed with him
about Gods trials on people’s faith and his mercy and
redemption on those who continually prayed and trusted in him
based on the narratives he gave on his captivity, the hardships
he went through and how he continually prayed until he was
released and was able to get back home.

7. References:
Williams, John, and Stephen West Williams. The Redeemed
Captive Returning to Zion: Or, A Faithful History of
Remarkable Occurrences in the Captivity and Deliverance of
Mr. John Williams, Minister of the Gospel in Deerfield, who in
the Desolation which Befel that Plantation by an Incursion of
the French and Indians, was by Them Carried Away, with His
Family and His Neighborhood, Into Canada. Northampton
[Mass.]: Hopkins, Bridgman, 1853.
Haefeli, Evan. Captive Histories: English, French and Native
Narratives of the 1704 Deerfield Raid. Amherst, Mass: Univ. of
Massachusetts Press, 2006. Print.