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69-684: Natick was founded by John Eliot (1604 – 1690), an English-born Puritan missionary active in Massachusetts . He learned the Massachusett language , preached to regional tribes in this lingua franca, and translated the Bible into that language. The community was in southern Middlesex County, Massachusetts , part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony at the time. Its name is typically translated to "A Place of Hills." Eliot and

138-543: A Christian church, but the services were conducted in Massachusett with Indian preachers and the parishioners were called by Native drumming. The Praying Indians maintained many aspects of their culture, such as foraging and hunting and food preferences but melded them with the Puritan culture and religion they were forced to adopt. The truce between the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth and local Native peoples

207-628: A North American governmental unit. Written in the late 1640s, and published in England in 1659, it proposed a new model of civil government based on the system Eliot instituted among the converted Indians, which was based in turn on the government Moses instituted among the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 18). Eliot asserted that "Christ is the only right Heir of the Crown of England," and called for an elected theocracy in England and throughout

276-752: A United States attorney for the District of Connecticut. He is related to the Bacon family. Eliot died in 1690, aged 85, his last words being "welcome joy!" His descendants became one branch of a Boston Brahmin family. The historic cemetery in Roxbury, Massachusetts, was named Eliot Burying Ground . Natick remembers him with a monument on the grounds of the Bacon Free Library. The John Eliot Elementary School in Needham, Massachusetts , founded in 1956,

345-636: A boy. He attended Jesus College, Cambridge . After college, he became assistant to Thomas Hooker at a private school in Little Baddow , Essex. After Hooker was forced to flee to the Netherlands, Eliot emigrated to Boston , Massachusetts, arranging passage as chaplain on the ship Lyon and arriving on 3 November 1631. Eliot became minister and "teaching elder" at the First Church in Roxbury . From 1637 to 1638 Eliot participated in both

414-524: A failure. Natick absorbed many of the surrounding tribes. Okommakamesit was sold by the colonial authorities in 1685, as the colonial judiciary upheld forged deeds of questionable and sales, forcing most of the Nipmuc and Pawtucket of the community to settle in Natick. Wonalancet (c.1619—1697), a Pennacook sachem or leader, joined his nephew in Natick. Disease, outmigration, and loss of land shrunk many of

483-456: A portion of Hopkinton that is now in the Town of Ashland (Makunkokoag), Canton (Punkapoag), and Mendon-Uxbridge (Wacentug). The " Praying Towns " were recorded by seventeenth-century settlers including Daniel Gookin . In 1662, Eliot witnessed the signing of the deed for Mendon with Nipmuck Indians for "Squinshepauk Plantation". Eliot's better intentions can be seen in his involvement in

552-544: A small area of land was not sold until 1840 but the Natick Indians had already been evicted and prohibited from its use. In both cases the land was sold for medical costs for the very elderly and ill. The end of tribal land did not remove the restrictions of the guardians even if it was the original purpose to have stewards of the land on the Native peoples' "behalf." As wards of the colonial and later state government,

621-492: Is killed shortly after the birth of their first child by French soldiers invading the Thirteen Colonies . A group of time travelers bring a book about the world they come from that allows Eliot to read about how much of his works were undone by his fellow colonists, he then sets out to alter his missionary efforts in a manner that will prevent Native American converts from being vulnerable to the treachery they faced in

690-697: Is named after him. Puritan "remembrancer" Cotton Mather called his missionary career the epitome of the ideals of New England Puritanism. William Carey considered Eliot alongside the Apostle Paul and David Brainerd (1718–1747) as "canonized heroes" and "enkindlers" in his groundbreaking An Enquiry Into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen (1792). In 1689, he donated 75 acres (30 ha) of land to support

759-724: Is the site of Eliot’s first sermons to the Natives, which took place in Waban’s wigwam among what would be later called the Nonantum Indian community starting on October 28, 1646. A nineteenth-century monument commemorates the event on Eliot Memorial Road, Newton. The town of Eliot, Maine which was in Massachusetts during its incorporation was named after John Eliot. Eliot appears in the alternate history 1632 Series anthology collection 1637: The Coast of Chaos. His wife

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828-657: The Bay Psalm Book , the first book published in the British North American colonies (1640). From 1649 to 1674, Samuel Danforth assisted Eliot in his Roxbury ministry. There are many connections between the towns of Roxbury and Dorchester and John Eliot. After working for a short time as pastor in Boston as the temporary replacement for John Wilson at Boston's first church society, John Eliot settled in Roxbury with other Puritans from Essex, England. He

897-661: The French and Indian War (1754–1760). Many fought with distinction as guides, interpreters and scouts in units such as Gorham's Rangers , such as Abraham Speen, John Babysuck and Jonathan Womsquam, all of whom had ties to Natick's old families. Many Native Americans also died in service of the American Revolutionary War . (1775–1783). Native American veterans of the Revolution include Joseph Paugenitt, Jonas Obscow, Alexander Quapish of Natick. A memorial to

966-773: The Massachusetts General Court for return of his "just title" to the lands of his brother, Wonohaquaham. His petition was denied and his lawsuits over land claims were unsuccessful as well. He joined Metacomet in King Philip's War . He was the only member of his family to fight with the Native Americans, as his relatives were known to have sided with the English. He was taken prisoner in 1676 and sold into slavery in Barbados . In 1684, due to

1035-525: The New Testament into the Massachusett language, which was published in 1661. Then the entire Bible was published in that language in 1685. Puritan colonists established Praying Towns in New England from 1646 to 1675. These served as refuges to Christian Native Americans, whose communities had been ravaged by infectious disease, warfare, and encroachment by white settlers. The establishment of

1104-403: The 1750s, Natick had ceased to be an Indian town, as it was more a messy patchwork of Indian common lands and white-owned property in between, and the town's governance and church had switched to English and was dominated by white colonists, although a few Indians continued to serve the church. Instead of being absorbed into the general affairs of a town which was now dominated by white colonists,

1173-402: The 19th century as Indian men were lost to war and remote economic activities, such as whaling. With Native women far outnumbering Native men, many Native women married Black men, since Black people in colonial New England suffered an inverse gender imbalance as few Black women were present. The children were born free, since while slavery was not abolished in Massachusetts until 1787, with laws at

1242-475: The Algonquian Indians in planned towns, thereby encouraging them to recreate a Christian society. At one point, there were 14 towns of so-called " Praying Indians ", the best documented being at Natick, Massachusetts . Other praying Indian towns included: Littleton (Nashoba), Lowell (Wamesit, initially incorporated as part of Chelmsford ), Grafton (Hassanamessit), Marlborough (Okommakamesit),

1311-622: The Chaubunagungamaug who would have a reservation until 1887. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ordered reports on the condition of the Indians, mainly for the purposes of keeping track of the expenses and check up on the guardians, who more or less operated autonomously with little oversight from the General Court. The first was Denny Report of 1848, which was a very preliminary look. The report only made no effort to determine

1380-612: The Dorchester church, he was given land by Dorchester for use in his missionary efforts. And in 1649 he gave half of a donation he received from a man in London to the schoolmaster of Dorchester. The chief barrier to preaching to the American Indians was language. Gestures and pidgin English were used for trade but could not be used to convey a sermon. John Eliot began to study the Massachusett or Wampanoag language , which

1449-706: The Eliot School in what was then Roxbury's Jamaica Plain district and now is a historic Boston neighborhood. Two other Puritans had donated land on which to build the school in 1676, but boarding students especially required support. Eliot's donation required the school (renamed in his honor) to accept both Black and Native American students without prejudice, which was very unusual at the time. The school continues near its original location today, with continued admissions of all ethnicities, but now includes lifelong learning. The city seal of Newton, MA depicts Eliot preaching to an indigenous audience. Present-day Newton

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1518-787: The English words in the opposite column. The 1709 Massachusett Bible text book is also referred to as the Massachusett Psalter . This 1709 edition is based on the Geneva Bible, like the Eliot Indian Bible . John Eliot married Hanna Mumford in September 1632, the first entry in the "Marages of the Inhabitants of Roxbury" record. They had six children, five sons and one daughter. Their daughter Hannah Eliot married Habbakuk Glover . Their son, John Eliot, Jr.,

1587-534: The Indians an understanding of Christianity but also an understanding of written language. They did not have an equivalent written "alphabet" of their own and relied mainly on spoken language and pictorial language. An important part of Eliot's ministry focused on the conversion of Massachusett and other Algonquian Indians. Accordingly, Eliot translated the Bible into the Massachusett language and published it in 1663 as Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God . It

1656-528: The Indians from the non-Indians especially as rates of intermarriage had increased. The end of the Praying towns did not end Indian presence in these regions, although the records of the Native peoples in New England become scant as the guardians focused their attentions on the few Indians under their supervision. Although a few Natick remained in the community as private landholders, many of the Natick moved westward seeking spouses and possible chance of land with

1725-402: The Indians were restricted from voting in local elections or seeking redress through the courts on their own. Some of the Indians were supported by annuities established from the funds generated by land sales or initiated by the guardians for their support. The guardians, however, no longer had to maintain the rigorous lists of people associated with the land, which long had been used to segregate

1794-475: The Massachusett Indian language. The first time Eliot attempted to preach to Indians (led by Cutshamekin ) in 1646 at Dorchester Mills , he failed and said that they, "gave no heed unto it, but were weary and despised what I said." The second time he preached to the Indians was at the wigwam of Waban near Watertown Mill which was later called Nonantum, now Newton, MA. John Eliot was not

1863-621: The Natick Indians veterans of the American Revolutionary War was erected in the South Natick. Smithsonian historians write, "The Natick Indians, once the successful experiment in attempted acculturation, were 'practically extinct' by the time of the 1848 senate report," made to the Massachusetts state senate. The Colony of Massachusetts' transition into the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which officially joined

1932-640: The Natick Tribe, but the claim appears to have no foundation other than that one of their ancestors formerly resided in Natick, but it is believed that he never was supposed to belong to the tribe." Several organizations, who are not recognized as Native American tribes by the US federal or Massachusetts state governments claim descent from the Praying Indians of Natick. John Eliot (missionary) John Eliot ( c.  1604 – 21 May 1690)

2001-500: The Praying Indians first settled this planned community in 1651. In the era following King Philip's War (1675–1678), Native American communities were often names by the locations in which they lived. While this community primarily included Massachusett people, it also members of neighboring Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands , who collectively were called Natick Indians. John Eliot translated first

2070-660: The Praying towns accomplished several goals. It helped facilitate the goals of Christianization and acculturation as it allowed for easier distribution of the Massachusett-language translations of Eliot's Bible and other works. The inhabitants were forced to observe the eight tenements of the "Leaf of Rules" distributed in the Bibles which forbid Indian cultural norms such as consenting pre-marital sex, cracking lice between teeth, avoidance of agriculture by men, and reinforced adoption of European clothing and hairstyles. For

2139-438: The Praying towns established safe zones away from constant settler encroachment, requests for sales of land and harassment. The Massachusett also were able to revive their prestige, which they had long held prior to colonial settlement. Many of the Praying towns were established by Native missionaries drawn from Natick's old powerful families, affording them much respect in their adopted communities. The Massachusett began to replace

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2208-626: The Praying towns, curfews, increased colonial supervision, and surrendered their weapons. King Philip's War disrupted Indian life in New England. The Praying Indian survivors of internment, any Indians lucky enough to have been pardoned and any survivors regrouped at Natick, where they divided up among their pre-existing tribal groupings and pressed for a return to their lands. By 1681, the Indians were allowed to return to their respective homes but continued to face harassment, retaliatory attacks, local killings, and abuse to their lands and property by neighboring colonists. The Indian missions were considered

2277-691: The States, the Natick Tribe is nearest extinct. ... [O]nly two families remain, and one of these is descended equally from the Naticks and the Hassanamiscoes . Their whole number is twelve. ..." He continues, "This tribe has no common lands," and recommends their remain funds be divided equally among the two surviving families. Earle observes that a few Natick descendants merged into the Nipmuc people and also writes, "There are some others, who claim to be of

2346-615: The civil and church trials of Anne Hutchinson during the Antinomian Controversy . Eliot disapproved of Hutchinson's views and actions, and was one of the two ministers representing Roxbury in the proceedings which led to her excommunication and exile. In 1645, Eliot founded the Roxbury Latin School . He and fellow ministers Thomas Weld (also of Roxbury), Thomas Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard , and Richard Mather of Dorchester , are credited with editing

2415-579: The colonial authorities and thus often chosen to spread official messages, restoring the old power dynamic vis-à-vis other tribes. Life in the Praying towns was a mixture of European and Indian customs. Indians living there were forced to adopt Puritan dress, hairstyles and habits of modesty along with other cultural norms. They were encouraged to learn European methods of woodworking, carpentry, animal husbandry, and agriculture and Eliot arranged for many Indians to apprentice under several colonists to learn these skills. Natick had an independent congregation with

2484-445: The colonial government appointed a commissioner to oversee the Natick in 1743. Originally, the commissioner was charged to manage the timber resources, as most of the forests of New England had been felled to make way for farm and pasture, making the timber on Indian lands a valuable commodity. Very quickly, the guardian of Natick came to control the exchange of land, and any funds set up by the sale of Indian products, but mainly land. As

2553-591: The colonial government, it brought the Indians fully under the control of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with the Praying towns occupying a status similar to autonomous English colonial settlements. The aboriginal power structures remained somewhat intact, as Native peoples recognized both the traditional power systems, but the chiefs and the tribal élite maintained it by adopting the roles of administrators, clerks, translators, teachers, constables, jurors and tax collectors. The confinement benefitted both

2622-604: The courts for lands lost in the turbulence of the 1633 epidemic that took both of his brothers to no avail, with most cases simply dismissed. The Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a series of harsh measures that earned the ire of the Native peoples. All Indians, Christian and traditional religionists, were forced to observe the Christian Sabbath and were restricted from a wide range of activities, such as hunting, fishing and farming or entering any colonial settlements, and heavy fines were imposed on those caught practicing

2691-742: The desires of Eliot and the colony, and Eliot was often accompanied by Daniel Gookin , the Superintendent to the Indians appointed to ensure cordial relations with the Indians and their adherence to the colonial laws, during his tours of the Praying towns. Similar settlements were established in the Plymouth Colony, such as the Massachusett Praying towns of Titicut and Mattakeeset. The Massachusett benefitted from clear titles of common land where they could plant, hunt and forage, and this likely attracted even more converts since

2760-484: The epidemic, Wenepoykin was disfigured from smallpox, which resulted in the nickname George No Nose. Following his mother's death, he became sachem of all of the area in Massachusetts north and east of the Charles River . On April 1, 1652, he sold Nahant to Nicholas Davison of Charlestown for "twenty pounds sterling dew many yeer". Wenepoykin's relationship with the English was turbulent. In 1651, he petitioned

2829-456: The first Praying towns created by Eliot and the General Court, were able to hold onto their communal lands until the early 19th century. The last of the common lands of Natick were sold sometime after the death of Hannah Dexter in 1821, but most of the common lands had already been sold off by 1750. The last dozen acres owned in common by the Ponkapoag was sold by the guardians in 1828, although

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2898-413: The first Puritan missionary to try to convert the Indians to Christianity but he was the first to produce printed publications for the Algonquian Indians in their own language. This was important because the settlements of " praying Indians " could be provided with other preachers and teachers to continue the work John Eliot started. By translating sermons to the Massachusett language, John Eliot brought

2967-419: The former Indian communities below carrying capacity, and most young people often left for Natick to seek land, spouses, and employment. Most of the young Nipmuc had left Nashoba for Natick for these reasons. The autonomy of the Indians was eroded by the dismantling of their lands. Natick was able to retain its local leadership, with the Natick elite serving the administrative roles of the community and holding

3036-518: The guardians assumed more power and were rarely supervised, many instances of questionable land sales by the guardians and embezzlement of funds have been recorded. The appointment of the guardians reduced the Indians to colonial wards, as they were no longer able to directly address the courts, vote in town elections, and removed the power of the Indian chiefs. Land was the Indians' only commodity, which their guardians often sold to pay for treatments for

3105-469: The house of James Rumley Marsh ," and "he left all this land belonging to him unto his kinsman James Rumley Marsh." Wenepoykin married Ahawayet, the daughter of Ponquanum, a sub-sachem who lived on Nahant. They had one son (Poquanum) and three daughters (Pentagunsk or Cicely, Wattaquattinusk or Sarah, and Pentagoonaquah or Susanna). His family lived in the Lynn area until the time of King Philip's War, when

3174-511: The intercession of John Eliot , Wenepoykin was reunited with family in Natick, Massachusetts . He died in September 1684. After King Philip's War Natick pastor Daniel Takawombait invoked "George's homecoming in the course of remembering Native lineages around Naumkeag (Salem), in order to attest to postwar Native landholdings," and in his deposition Tookumwombait stated that "Sagamore George when he came from Barbados he lived Sometime and dyed at

3243-482: The language of the Nipmuc and greatly leveled dialectal differences across the Massachusett-speaking area, due to the spread of Indian missionaries, but also because Massachusett became the language of literacy, prayer, and administration, likely facilitated by its historic use as a regional second language and backed by its use in the translation of the Bible. The Massachusett leaders were also closer to

3312-594: The legal case, The Town of Dedham v. The Indians of Natick, which concerned a boundary dispute. Besides answering Dedham's complaint point by point, Eliot stated that the colony's purpose was to benefit the Algonquian people. Praying Indian towns were also established by other missionaries, including the Presbyterian Samson Occom , himself of Mohegan descent. All praying Indian towns suffered disruption during King Philip's War (1675), and for

3381-414: The most part lost their special status as Indian self-governing communities in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, in some cases being paid to move to Wisconsin and other areas further West. Eliot also wrote The Christian Commonwealth: or, The Civil Policy Of The Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ , considered the first book on politics written by an American, as well as the first book to be banned by

3450-473: The new republic of the United States of America, did not improve the lot of the Indians in the new state. With the exception of the regime change, most of the policies and laws concerning the Indians of the colonial period were adopted unaltered. The Indians became wards of the Commonwealth, as the guardian system remained intact. Intermarriage, which occurred some in the mid-18th century, accelerated in

3519-518: The number of Natick. A year later, a more detailed report was released, which came to be known as the Briggs Report of 1849, which again does not list any Natick. The most detailed, and last, of the reports conducted by John Milton Earle was started in 1859 and published in 1861, includes even more information, such as surnames, location, and profession. Earle writes, "Of all the tribes which held reservations, and were placed under guardianship by

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3588-634: The old timeline. Eliot Tracts Wenepoykin Wenepoykin (1616–1684) also known as Winnepurkett , Sagamore George , George No Nose , and George Rumney Marsh was a Native American leader who was the Sachem of the Naumkeag people when English began to settle in the area. Wenepoykin was born in 1616. He was the youngest son of Nanepashemet and the Squaw Sachem of Mistick . He

3657-407: The positions of the Indian church with daily affairs conducted in the Massachusett language. This continued until 1721, when record-keeping switched to English, and Oliver Peabody, a monolingual English-speaker, became the minister of the Indian church. Peabody used his position to encourage the Indians to sell land, in part so as to increase the amount of white settlers living in the Indian enclave. By

3726-577: The shamanic rights or consulting traditional spiritual leaders or healers. Alcohol, firearms and many luxury goods were banned. By this time, the Indians had already integrated into the economic system of the settlers, but were dealt a heavy blow as laws were passed restricting trade to appointed colonial agents, which gave the colonial government a monopoly on trade with the Indians and made Indian farmers less competitive as they were not allowed direct access to colonial markets. New laws allowed open settlement to any 'unimproved' lands, essentially anything that

3795-661: The sick, care of orphans, and debts incurred by Indians, but Indians were also the victims of unfair credit schemes that often forced the land out of their hands. The French in Canada and their Abenaki allies raided settlements of the Massachusetts Colony. The English colonists enlisted the help of the men of the Indian communities to fight in engagements such as King William's War (1689–1699), Queen Anne's War (1704–1713), Dummer's War (1722–1724), King George's War (1744–1748), Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755) and

3864-461: The time passing the status of slave through the mother. In addition, the children were readily accepted into the Indian community due to the local matrilineal and matrilocal cultures. Intermarriage with White men also occurred despite colonial anti-miscegenation laws, especially those of lesser means or banished from their communities. Although most Indian men returned to the Indian communities to settle and marry, long times at sea or between work in

3933-626: The time, however, the Indians failed, as some of the Indian interpreters and chiefs ceded lands to curry favor from the colonists to maintain special privileges, such as the Nipmuc John Wampas, who betrayed the Nipmuc and Massachusett people by selling land to the settlers to which he had no claim, but these sales were upheld in later court challenges. The Pawtucket sachem Wenepoykin , son of Nanepashemet and Squaw Sachem of Mistick , through kinship and family ties laid claim to much of Massachusett territory, and tried several times to petition

4002-428: The war but suffered heavy casualties. The Praying Indians were attacked in their fields and harassed by neighboring colonists who had become overwhelmed with panic, hysteria, and anti-Indian sentiment. The Praying towns were also targets of Metacomet's forces, raided for supplies and persuading or using force, bringing some of the Praying Indians to join. To appease the colonists, the Praying Indians accepted confinement to

4071-501: The whaling port cities, many Indian men also increasingly married and settled with women of other tribes or brought home Black spouses as they were segregated in "colored" sections of communities. Most of the remaining lands set aside "in perpetuity" for the Native peoples had been sold to non-Natives, leaving a messy patchwork of a few remaining common lands, individual allotments, leased lands, and numerous white proprietors situated in between Indian households. The Natick, whose lands were

4140-544: The world. The accession to the throne of Charles II of England made the book an embarrassment to the Massachusetts colony. In 1661 the General Court forced Eliot to issue a public retraction and apology, banned the book and ordered all copies destroyed. In 1709 a special edition of the Massachusett Bible was co-authored by Experience Mayhew and Thomas Prince with the Indian words in one column and

4209-582: Was 13 years old when the English began settling in the area. By that time he was sachem of Naumkeag (although he may have received assistance from an older family member until he came of age). His brothers, Montowampate and Wonohaquaham , died during the 1633 smallpox epidemic, and he became Sachem of Lynn, Massachusetts and Chelsea, Massachusetts (which also included the present-day towns of Reading , North Reading , Lynnfield , Saugus , Swampscott , Nahant , Wakefield , Marblehead , Revere , and Winthrop , as well as Deer Island ). Although he survived

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4278-751: Was a Puritan missionary to the American Indians who some called "the apostle to the Indians" and the founder of Roxbury Latin School in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1645. In 1660 he completed the enormous task of translating the Eliot Indian Bible into the Massachusett Indian language , producing more than two thousand completed copies. Eliot was born in Widford, Hertfordshire , England, and lived at Nazeing as

4347-415: Was able to translate the Ten Commandments , the Lord's Prayer and other scriptures and prayers. In 1660 Eliot had also translated the Bible from English to the Massachusett Indian language, and had it printed by Marmaduke Johnson and Samuel Green on the press in Cambridge, Massachusetts . By 1663, Marmaduke and Green had printed 1,180 volumes of the Old and New Testaments translated from English to

4416-450: Was frequently tested. The submission of the local chiefs to the respective colonial governments and adoption of Christianity allowed the Indians to seek redress in the colonial judiciary and removed one of the prejudices against them. The Praying Indians of Natick were brought to court several times by groups of colonists from Dedham, Massachusetts that claimed some of the land, but with Eliot's assistance, most of these attempts failed. Most of

4485-464: Was not fenced in or with crops grown on it, threatening the wooded areas and meadows cleared by fire that were used for hunting and cultivation areas that were allowed to fallow. The outbreak of King Philip's War from 1675 until 1676 was disastrous for both the Indians and the English colonists, with enormous bloodshed and destruction on both sides. The Massachusett, all of whom had become Praying Indians confined to Praying towns, remained neutral during

4554-433: Was the first complete Bible printed in the Western hemisphere; Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson printed 1,000 copies on the first printing press in British American colonies. Indigenous people including the Nipmuc James Printer (Wowaus) engaged in the creation of this Bible. In 1666, Eliot published "The Indian Grammar Begun", again concerning the Massachusetts language. As a missionary, Eliot strove to consolidate

4623-408: Was the first pastor of the First Church of Christ in Newton , Another son, Joseph Eliot, became a pastor in Guilford, Connecticut , and later fathered Jared Eliot , a noted agricultural writer and pastor. John Eliot's sister, Mary Eliot, married Edward Payson, founder of the Payson family in America, and great-great-grandfather of the Rev. Edward Payson . He was also an ancestor of Lewis E. Stanton

4692-437: Was the language of the local Indians. To help him with this task, Eliot relied on a young Indian named " Cockenoe ". Cockenoe had been captured in the Pequot War of 1637 and became a servant of an Englishman named Richard Collicott . John Eliot said, "he was the first that I made use of to teach me words, and to be my interpreter." Cockenoe could not write but he could speak Massachusett and English. With his help, Eliot

4761-404: Was the teacher at The First Church in Roxbury for sixty years and was their sole pastor for forty years. For the first forty years in Roxbury, Eliot preached in the 20-foot by 30-foot meetinghouse with thatched roof and plastered walls that stood on Meetinghouse Hill. Eliot founded the Roxbury Grammar School and he worked hard to keep it prosperous and relevant. Eliot also preached at times in

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