Person Page - 113

       Samuel/3s Carter Jr. was born 1 Nov 1692 at Deerfield, MA.¹ He was taken with his siblings by the French and Indians in their attack on Deerfield, 29 Feb 1703/4, and carried in captivity into Canada.² Drowned in Lac-St. Louis, attempting to cross the St. Lawrence River, ca 1714.³ Buried at Kahnawake [Caughnawaga], Quebec.³

       Mercy/3s Carter was born 17 Dec 1693 at Deerfield, MA.¹ She was taken with her siblings in the French and Indian attack on Deerfield, MA, 29 Feb 1703/4, and carried into captivity in Canada.^2,3,4 Attempts to ransom her failed, and she assimilated, marrying a Mohawk in the Indian town of Kahnawake (Caughnawaga), on the south bank of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal, where she remained for life.^3,4
     When her father died in 1728, he left her a £500 estate, if—and only if—she would return to New England, with her Indian family, for a period of at least 10 years.⁴

       John/3s Carter was born 22 Sep 1695 at Deerfield, MA.¹ Taken in the French and Indian attack on Deerfield, 29 Feb 1703/4, he was carried into captivity in Canada, where, unlike other captives who were ransomed, he assimilated as Jean Chartier.^2,3 He married, 29 Oct 1718 at Riviere des Prairies, Quebec, Marie Courtemanche dit Jolicouer, daughter of Antoine Courtemanche Jolicoeur and Marie Marguerite Vaudry Beaudry.^4,5 There he was baptised a Catholic 31 Jan 1724.⁶
     When his father died in 1728, John/Jean was left a £500 estate, if—and only if—he would come to live permanently in New England.³
     A few years later, writes Demos, in a "climate of growing Anglo-Indian contact and heightened Franco-Indian tension, English captives felt increasingly inclined to visit their original homes. The 'path' was, in several senses, wide 'open,' the 'difficulty' much less than before. Perhaps, too, the inducements—curiosity, adventure, property, and money— seemed particularly strong. And so they went, as individuals and in family groups. Their footprints (figuratively speaking) remain to this day scattered throughout the diaries, and other contemporaneous writings, of various New Englanders. In October 1736, for example, Stephen Williams met with John Carter, 'who is lately come from Canada after a captivity of above 32 years.' The story of this man and his family, which must have been well known to Stephen (among others), is one of the most gripping in the entire Deerfield saga…
     "Carter had belonged to the original captive cohort, along with his stepmother and five siblings…When John/Jean appeared in Longmeadow (in 1736), he was en route to visit his one surviving brother in Norwalk, Connecticut. He had a guide, provided by two merchants in Albany ('for [the] Reason we was afraid…[he] should Lost himself…for he knew not the road.') Stephen Williams received him eagerly…."³
     Jean Chartier was buried 4 Aug 1772 at St. Antoine sur Richelieu, Quebec.⁶ See Demos, The Unredeemed Captive.³

Exhibits.
     Marriage record of Jean Baptiste Chartier and Marie Courtemanche [dit] Jolicouer, p. 1.
          (Courtesy Michelle Bray Wilson).
     Marriage record of Jean Baptiste Chartier and Marie Courtemanche [dit] Jolicouer, p. 2.
          (Courtesy Michelle Bray Wilson).