Michael Pierce, Soldier in King Philip’s War, 1676
This attack during King Philip's War was on the Sergeant Ayre's Inn in North Brookfield, Massachusetts.
Michael Pierce, Bissell 3G generation 9th Great-grandfather, was born about 1615 in England, and emigrated to America in about 1645. He was said to be the brother of Captain William Pierce of London, a famous sea captain noted further below. (Note that while there is some question about whether Michael was in fact William's brother, it has also not been established that they were not brothers. If they were brothers, then Michael was also the brother of John Pierce who was one of the original grantees of the Massachusetts colony.)
Even without a connection to the famous sea captain, Michael Pierce had a very interesting life and was an important leader in early Massachusetts. He settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1646, and moved to Scituate, Mass. the following year. His first wife was Persis (Bissell 9th Great-grandmother), the daughter of Anthony Eames of Hingham. She died in 1662 and Michael married Anna James, who is named in his will. He was commissioned a Captain by the Colony Court in 1669. He was killed during King Phillip's War, a bloody conflict between the English colonists and the Narragansett Indians which began in 1675. Details of Captain Pierce’s death in battle on the Blackstone River follow below.
Regarding his brother Capt. William (the following from B. L. Colby, Thirty-one generations, a thousand years of Percy and Pierce), William Pierce was born in England about 1595. He was Captain of the Mayflower on its second voyage to New England but he had more than his share of "firsts."
William Pierce brought the first cattle to New England from England (ship Charity, 1624). He brought from the West Indies to New England the first cotton (1633) and the first sweet potatoes (ship Desire in 1636). He published the first bound book in English to be printed in North America - Pierce's (Peirse's) Almanac of 1639 calculated for New England and printed by Stephen Day, "an exceedingly illiterate printer," on a press brought to Boston in 1638 by the Rev. Mr. Glover, English clergyman.
Although the first Thanksgiving Day is commonly considered to have been the celebration following the first Pilgrim harvest in 1621 (SEE The First Comers and Francis Sprague), it has been suggested that Captain William Pierce was instrumental in bringing about the first real Thanksgiving observance ten years later! The winter of 1630-31 in the Massachusetts Colony was severe, game was scarce, the corn supply was nearly gone, even acorns and ground nuts were concealed by heavy snows. Women of the Colony were set to digging clams; a ration of five kernels of corn a day for each person was ordered. The Colonists were on the verge of starvation and had designated Feb. 22, 1631, as a fast day of prayer.
Governor Winthrop, anticipating a hard winter, had sent Captain Pierce to England for provisions in the ship Lyon the previous fall. Pierce was delayed when he came upon the ship Ambrose, dismasted, and towed her home to Bristol. The Colonists had about given up hope of his return when the Lyon was spied, in the words of Cotton Mather, "just as Winthrop was distributing the last handful of meal in the barrel.”
The Lyon was loaded with beef and pork, wheat, peas, oatmeal, cheese, butter, suet and lemon juice. The scheduled fast day was joyfully turned into a Thanksgiving day. Mary Lowe in Thanksgiving, edited by Robert H. Schauffer, calls this "the first Thanksgiving day of which any written record remains in the Colonial records of Massachusetts" and adds, "We may justly claim this as the origin of Thanksgiving day." Lincoln writes: "This appears to have been the origin of Thanksgiving day." W. deLoss Love, Jr., in Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England, calls the 1621 celebration "a harvest festival....not a Thanksgiving at all....not a day set aside for religious worship, but a whole week of festivity."
Mary Lowe agrees, stating many deny the 1621 celebration was the first Thanksgiving day and noting the lack of a religious service during this week of feasting. Described as the most celebrated master of ships to come into the water of New England during the Colonists' early history, Captain William was an intimate and confidant of both Gov. William Bradford and Edward Winslow.
Back to Michael Pierce! “Pierce’s Fight,” at Central Falls, Rhode Island, is one of the notable battles of King Philip's War, an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–1676. The war is named after the main leader of the Native American side, Metacomet, known to the English as "King Philip.” It continued in northern New England (primarily on the Maine frontier) after King Philip was killed, until a treaty was signed at Casco Bay in April 1678.
According to a combined estimate of loss of life in Schultz and Tougias' King Philip's War, The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict, 800 out of 52,000 English colonists (1.5%) and 3,000 out of 20,000 Native Americans (15%) lost their lives due to the war. Proportionately, it was one of the bloodiest and costliest wars in the history of North America. More than half of New England's ninety towns (including Groton, Massachusetts) were assaulted by Native American warriors. King Philip's War was the beginning of the development of a greater American identity, for the trials and tribulations suffered by the colonists gave them a national and group identity separate and distinct from subjects of the English Crown.
Michael Pierce resided on a beautiful plain near the north river in Scituate and not far from Herring Brook, where he assisted in erecting the first saw-mill in the colony. It is believed that Samuel Woodworth (1784-1842) wrote the classic American folk tune, "The Old Oaken Bucket," concerning this river and mill in Scituate. Samuel Woodworth's grandfather, Benjamine Woodworth, witnessed the signing of Captain Michael Pierce's will, on January 1675.
Pierce had been with the Plymouth forces in the bloody Narragansett fight in South Kingstown in December 1675. Earlier in that year he made his will which is on record in the Plymouth Colony records, the preamble of which is, “I, Michael Pierce of Scituate, in the government of New Plymouth in America, being now by the appointment of God, going out to war against the Indians doe make this my last will and testament.”
Acting under orders from the Plymouth Colony, Pierce and his men left Plymouth in pursuit of the marauding Narragansetts. They got to Rehoboth settlement on the western boundary of the Plymouth Colony. From there, on Sunday morning March 26, 1676, after receiving word that a party of the enemy lay near Blackstone's house at Study Hill in Cumberland, Capt. Michael Pierce marched from Rehoboth, leading a company of 63 English and 20 friendly Wampanoag Indians.
Upon reaching a ravine near Attleborough Gore, a point on the Blackstone River above Pawtucket Falls, he and his company were ambushed by about 500 to 700 Narragansett Indians led by chief sachem Canonchet. Pierce and his men retreated across the river to set up a defense on the west bank (now part of the City of Central Falls), but were attacked by a blocking force of about 300 Indians.
Pierce formed his men into a circle and they continued to fight in ever decreasing numbers for about two hours. The Indians were as thick as they could stand, thirty deep. Pierce was killed early in the battle. About 15 men from Scituate were killed, including several Bissell ancestors (a Cowen, Great-Uncle Eleazar Clapp, others). A few of the Wampanoags managed to escape by disguising themselves as attackers. Nine colonists were captured and taken to a spot in Cumberland, RI, now called Nine Men's Misery, and tortured to death. (Monument on grounds of Edward J. Hayden Library, Diamond Rd.) Arriving too late, a relief force found and buried the bodies of the nine. A few days later, Canonchet was captured and executed.
“No banners waved, no martial music stimulated their ardor, no sounds except the reverberations of musketry and the terrifying yells of the infuriated warriors who encompassed them about. The colonials were indeed better supplied with firearms than the enemy, but they were of the ancient, slow firing sort, while the arrows of the foe were directed against them from behind trees and rocks with unerring aim, and tomahawks hurled through the air by the powerful savage were felling them to the ground. Resolved to sell their lives at as dear a rate as possible, the colonials stood their ground with ever thinning ranks, for about two hours, keeping themselves in order and the enemy at a little distance…”
Edwin Pierce, memorial address 1907
Central Falls, Rhode Island
Indian attack at Brookfield during King Philip's War.
References for this information on Michael Pierce included Notes on Captain Michael Pierce from http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/p/i/e/Robin-D-Pierce/GENE12-0001.html and address by Edwin C. Pierce, September 1907, marking the battle site at Central Falls, R.I.; and Notes on William Pierce from http://pierces.org/Gen/gen3/5207.htm. Captain William was master of the Mayflower on nine different voyages. He certainly was captain was these ships: Paragon, 1622, (owned by brother John); Anne, 1623, third ship to arrive from England; Charity, 1624, carrying Winslow and the first cattle from England; Jacob, 1625; Mayflower, 1629: Lyon, 1630, with Roger Williams and wife; Lyon, 1631, with John Elliot and Governor Winthrop's wife; Lyon, 1632, with Winthrop; Rebecca, 1634; Narragansett, 1634.