Wootonckuaske, 1639-1676 (daughter of Chief Corbitant) married Metacom Pokanoket, 1639-1676 (son of Massosoit and Saunks) in 1660.
Wootonckuaske and Philip are my 11th generation grandparents through my maternal grandmother's line.
At the request of his brother in the Plymouth Courts, Metacom's name was legally changed to Philip. After his brother's death, Philip became the Great
Sachem of the
Wampanoag Indian tribe and was dubbed "King Philip".
The story of King Philip is one written from the perspective of the settlers and not the Indians, but it goes something like this:
Philip was accused of the death of John Sassamon (or Sausaman), a Christian Indian. Philip killed John becasue John alarmed Josiah Winslow, one time governor, with the news Philip was preparing his forces for a large scale attack on Swanse. Sassamon was a well established Indian working both sides between the Indians and the Colonists. He had retired between Pokanoket, Bristol, formerly Mt. Hope, Bristol County, Rhode Island and Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts and spent his time fishing and exchanging intelligence with passersby. He was found lodged beneath the ice with his neck broken after failing to return from his last fishing trip, apparently having gossiped once too often.
Philip was charged with Sassamon's death but released from further action as the trial was recognized by English authorities as a lynching party. Two witnesses had been hanged and a third shot. The authorities were concerned the reaction of the Indians would be disastrous. Even so, the process was infuriating to Philip and, with 40 warriors, when attending an invited meeting with the authorities in Providence to settle wrongs, he let it be known that he would be trouble in the near future ending a speech with "I am determined not to live until I have no country".
King Philip's War began during the Summer of 1675 - the end of a long period of peace formed by his father, Massasoit. Swanse was the first settlement attacked by Philip who had created a formidable force of more than one thousand warriors from six tribes. The town of 40 new homes was burned to the ground. There were murders, rapes, torture and looting. Brookfield, Lancaster, and Worcester in Worcester County; Medfield, in Norfolk County; and Chelmsford and Groton, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts attacks soon followed. Some Colonists were flayed alive, some impaled on sharp stakes, or roasted alive over slow fires. The Indian's atrocities were ferocious as they vent their rage.
King Philip's War was coming to and end by the Summer of 1676. Benjamin Church, an English officer new to the War, soon caught-up with Philp and his sister-in-law Weetamoo. His brother had been killed, his wife and nine year old son captured and sent to the West Indies. Weetamoo drowned during a skirmish. Philip's mood was then such that he killed one of his counselors with his bare hands when the counselor suggested peace. Alderman, brother of the killed counselor, offered to take Church directly to Philip's hideout near Mt. Hope.
Philip was killed near Mt. Hope when guided there by Alderman whose gun misfired when Philip was confronted. He was shot in the heart by an Englishman. Indian tradition called for a man of Philip's stature to be beheaded by an Indian which was done. English tradition called for Philip to be cut into four pieces which was also done. Philip's head and one hand were saved while the four body sections were put in trees for the turkey vultures to feast on because a burial was forbidden to make sure Philip was not venerated.
Alderman was given Philip's hand who, for years, proudly displayed to those willing to pay his price, mostly in drinks. Philip's lower jaw bone was considered a trophy in Boston where it was displayed. His head was mounted on a post and kept in Plymouth for many years.
