Knowledge of an ancestor’s participation in historical events can be fascinating. It is not a good thing when participation in those historical events is forgotten, lost or obscured. Stories like the sacrifices that the Seeley’s made to meet the challenges that they encountered in the early settlement of America are in jeopardy of being lost and forgotten.
Robert Seeley was born in England on 4 July 1602. He emigrated from London England with his family at age 28 in 1630 on the ship Arabella, part of the Winthrop fleet. He was a founder of Watertown MA in 1630 and was one of the Adventurers that founded Wethersfield CT, his next residence.[1] [2]
Indians of the Pequot tribe attacked Wethersfield CT April 23 1637 killing nine settlers and kidnapping two women, including those in the family of my ancestor William Swayne who had one daughter killed and two kidnapped.[3] The colonists declared war on the Pequots May 1st 1637 and Robert Seeley was placed second in command of the small army sent against them.[4]
On May 26th 1637 the colonists attacked a major fort and settlement of the Pequots and reduced it to hot ash along with most of its population. Robert Seeley was wounded in the forehead by an arrow in that battle but he survived to fight on many more times over his lifetime. The Pequot War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Hartford on 21 September 1638.[5] [6]
New England enjoyed a rare period of relative peace after the Pequot War ended. An exception was the murder of John Whitmore at Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut in 1648 (a 9th and 10th great-grandfather of mine ) during a short lived Indian uprising.[7] Those hostilities were quickly quelled but peace was shattered again in 1675 when Swansea MA was harassed then attacked.
It is said John Salisbury fired the first shot to stop the pillaging of his house at the urging of William Salisbury his father (and my 9th great-grandfather). Others say that possibly the shot was fired by John Jones, another Swansea MA youth. Whichever young man fired the shot in response to Indian provocation it resulted in their deaths and provided the Indians a sought after first-blood impetus for war. King Philip’s War was ignited by that shot. It was a horrific struggle between the nascent New England colonies and Indian tribes led by Metacom the Chief of the Pokanoket tribe. .[8] [9]
Robert Seeley’s son and only child Nathaniel Seeley was a leader in an early battle of that war. Nathaniel Seeley was baptized at St. Stephen’s Parish on 16 Dec 1627, London, England and accompanied his father Robert Seeley and his mother Mary to New England.[10] Nathaniel was 10 years old when his father Robert Seeley fought against the Pequot tribe. At age 48 Nathaniel Seeley, was a Captain and was second in command of Connecticut’s Fairfield County Dragoons in King Philip’s War. [11]
Nathaniel Seeley was mortally wounded and died on 19 Dec 1675 in the Great Swamp Battle at Narragansett Bay, RI, one of at least 600 colonists who died in King Philip’s War.[12] After the Great Swamp Battle the victorious colonists pulled back to a fortified trading post called Richard Smith’s Castle. The trading post was destroyed in the war but was rebuilt by Richard Smith’s son and exists today as a historical building open to tours, (Smiths Castle History, https://www.smithscastle.org/our-history).
Nathaniel is likely among the 40 colonial soldiers that are buried in the mass grave at on the grounds of Richard Smith’s castle.[13] Nathaniel left nine children, ranging in age from 5 to 25 years old. His son John, my 9th great-grandfather, was 14 years old when his father was killed.
After discovering descent from Robert and Nathaniel Seeley I was flummoxed that the story had not been passed down and I did not want that knowledge to be lost again. However, genealogy can be tricky. To increase chances of getting it right, it can be helpful to validate belief of ancestral descent in conjunction with a review by a lineage society’s trained genealogists.
Lineage societies review applications for membership in their societies for accuracy of claim of descent. The Society of Colonial Wars is a lineage society of men descending from ancestors that fought in the early colonial wars that predate the American Revolution. That Society partners with the New England Historic and Genealogical Society in validating applications for membership. My membership in the Society of Colonial Wars was approved by the genealogists of both organizations based on NEHGS’s rigorous scholarly standards.[14]
The Society of Colonial Wars has a stated goal of perpetuating the memory of Colonial History and the early founders of the American nation. The Seeleys fought and died to defend and establish the nascent American Colonies, and they are remembered in this article by their descendant for that same purpose.
Copyright Bruce Wright, Esq. 2024 ©
[1] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, p. 1647, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, 1995. https://www.americanancestors.org/DB393/rd/0/1647/0
[2] Madeline M. Mills Katherine M. Olsen compilers, Descendants of Robert Seeley and Obidiah Seeley, p. 1-2, Seeley Genealogical Society, Salt Lake City, UT., 1997. https://archive.org/details/DescendantsOfRobertSeeley16021667AndObadiahSeeley16141657GenerationsOneThroughFive/mode/1up?view=theater
[3] Henry R. Stiles A.M., M.D., The History of Ancient Wethersfield Connecticut, v.1, p. 62-66, Grafton Press, New York, 1904. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924096458587&seq=88
[4] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, v. R-S, p. 1648. NEHGS Boston, 2009. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2496/images/42521_b158320-00336?
[5] National Park Service, Battlefields of the Pequot War – The History of the Pequot War. http://pequotwar.org/about/
[6] Treaty of Hartford, https://findit.library.yale.edu/catalog/digcoll:2389
[7] James C. Wetmore, The Wetmore Family of America, p. 532-534, Munsell & Rowland, Albany, 1861. https://archive.org/details/wetmorefamilyofa00wetm/page/531
[8] Don Stone, Keeping up With the Jonses, Vita Brevis blog, NEHGS American Ancestors Magazine, October, 2018. https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2018/10/keeping-up-with-the-joneses#_ftn1
[9] Richard LeBaron Bowen, Early Rehoboth, v. 3, p. 10-11, Rehoboth, MA., 1948. https://archive.org/details/earlyrehobothdoc03bowe/page/10/mode/1up?view=theater
[10] Madeline M. Mills Katherine M. Olsen compilers, Descendants of Robert Seeley, Seeley Genealogical Society. 1997. p. 1-2, 4.
[11] Madeline M. Mills Katherine M. Olsen compilers, Descendants of Robert Seeley, p. 6, Seeley Genealogical Society. 1997. https://archive.org/details/DescendantsOfRobertSeeley16021667AndObadiahSeeley16141657GenerationsOneThroughFive/page/n13/mode/1up?view=theater
[12] Edward Randolph, The Causes and Results of King Philip’s War, 1675, in American History Told by Contemporaries, Albert B. Hart, ed., V. 1, p. 458-60, New York, 1897. https://archive.org/details/americanhistoryt01hartuoft/page/458/mode/1up?view=theat
[13] Bruce Wright, Esq., Discover Your Roots! Rediscovering the Heroes of the Indian Wars of New England and New Netherlands 1636-1698, p. 49-52, 2020, available on Amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732441146
[14] NEHGS American Ancestors, Your Guide to Lineage Societies, p. 25, summer 2018. https://www.americanancestors.org/sites/default/files/2023-03/american-ancestors-magazine-summer-2018-lineage-societies.pdf
The Boating Genealogists 