Person Page - 4

       Mary/2s Brooks, 1st so-named, was born 21 Dec 1659 at Springfield, MA, and died by 1677.^2,1

       Patience/2s Brooks was born 5 Jun 1661 at Springfield, MA.^2,1 She is presumed to have married, after 8 Aug 1680 at Deerfield, Thomas/2 Taylor of Springfield, son of Jonathan/1? Taylor and Mary/2 Wright.^3,4 She died by 1687, when he remarried.^5,6
     8 Aug 1680, "…William Brooke of Springfield was bound by [magistrate John] Pynchon in the sum of twenty pounds that his daughter Patience, being with child out of wedlock, appear at the September 1680 County Court and answer 'to her Crime and guilt of that vile sin of fornication.' The court, being 'desirous to shew their detestation of such forbidden and dangerous carnal Lusts and if possible to prevent such like God provoking wayes,' adjudged the offender to be whipped with fifteen lashes or else to pay a fine of four pounds to the county treasurer. Thomas Taylor, with two sureties, also gave bond to Pynchon in the sum of twenty pounds to appear at the same court and answer what Patience Brooke had to lay to his charge, as well as for his good behavior in the meantime."⁷
     Patience's child was stillborn on the 8th of August.⁸

       Ebenezer/2s Brooks was born 21 Dec 1662 at Springfield, MA.^2,1 With the deaths of his two elder brothers at the hands of Indians in 1675, he became the eldest surviving son, an important distinction in a household which counted 16 births in his father's lifetime.^3,4 He and his father were each granted 50 acres "beyond, or at ye upper end of Hight streete," Suffield, CT, 1680.⁵ Home lots were granted at Wapping, in Deerfield, MA, between 1685 and 1690, to Ebenezer and Nathaniel Brooks, on condition of being built upon within a year and maintaining all abutting meadow fence.⁶ Ebenezer and Nathaniel also inherited from their father, who d. 1688, lots 3 and 4 on the west end of Main Street, Deerfield, which passed to Benjamin Munn, who in 1741 conveyed them to his son, Samuel. Samuel Munn conveyed an acre of this land to the Town for a burial ground.⁷
     Ebenezer married, 8 Oct 1693, at Deerfield (Torrey), where they lived, Elizabeth/4 Belden of Deerfield, daughter of Daniel/3 Belden and Elizabeth Foote.^8,9 Purchased a lot at Deerfield, Feb 1702/3, formerly (1672) of John Allen.¹⁰ His house was burned in the attack on Deerfield, 29 Feb 1703/4, but he and all his family escaped. John Winthrop recorded the value of his loss as £70.^11,12 Living, 1720.¹² He was "often in town office."¹² Ebenezer's death is not recorded at Deerfield. It is probable that they removed to Ridgefield, CT to live with their son Ebenezer. His wife Elizabeth's death was recorded at Ridgefield in 1745.¹³

       Elizabeth/4 Belden (Belding), of Deerfield, MA, there married, 8 Oct 1693 (Torrey), Ebenezer/2s Brooks of Deerfield, son of William/1s Brooks and Mary/2 Burt, with whom she had 7 children.^2,3 They later removed to Ridgefield, CT, probably to live with their son Ebenezer.⁴ She died at Ridgefield 17 Nov 1745.⁵

       Nathaniel/2s Brooks was born 9 May 1664 at Springfield, MA.¹ Home lots were granted at Wapping, in Deerfield, MA, between 1685 and 1690, to Ebenezer and Nathaniel Brooks, on condition of being built upon within a year and maintaining all abutting meadow fence.² The first recorded grant at Green River (then Deerfield, now Greenfield), of 20 acres, was to Nathaniel Brooks, 1686. "He was probably the first settler [at Greenfield]. Tradition fixes his dwelling on the west side of the road to Cheapside, north of Turn Hall. The well now existing there is supposed to be the first one dug in this town."³ Nathaniel and his brother Ebenezer inherited from their father, who died 1688, lots 3 and 4 on the west end of Main Street, Deerfield, which passed to Benjamin Munn, who in 1741 conveyed them to his son, Samuel. Samuel Munn in turn conveyed an acre to the Town for a burial ground.⁴
     Nathaniel Brooks married (1), circa 1695, Mary/2 Williams, daughter of Zebediah Williams and Mary Miller, with whom he had a son William and daughter Mary.^5,6 He had lot 14 at Deerfield, 1700, which had been John Pynchon's in 1671.⁷ Nathaniel, his wife and their 2 children were taken captive by French and Indians in the attack on Deerfield, 29 Feb 1703/4, in which his house was also burned. His wife was slain by the Indians on the retreat to Canada.^8,9,6,10 Nathaniel and other captives were ransomed and brought back from Canada by Ens. John Sheldon on his second expedition in 1707, but the children were never recovered.^11,9,6 He married (2), 3 Feb 1709/10 at Deerfield, Mary/3 Allis of Hatfield, daughter of Samuel/2 Allis and Alice (–?–), and herself a redeemed Deerfield captive. Her brother Samuel was also killed by Indians in the 1704 attack, as would be her cousin Joseph Allis in 1724.^12,13
     Nathaniel's son Nathaniel, b. 1710, was also captured by Indians, 1756, and taken to Canada, from whence he never returned.¹⁴

       Mary/2 Williams was born 24 Dec 1673.² She married, as his 1st wife, circa 1695, Nathaniel/2s Brooks of Deerfield, MA, son of William/1s Brooks and Mary/2 Burt.^3,2 Her father had been killed in Sep 1675 at "Bloody Brook," when a force of 80 soldiers and 18 teamsters under Capt. Thomas Lathrop, sent to harvest the cornfields at Hadley, was ambushed by a much larger force of Pocumtuck Indians.⁴ Taken captive with her husband and two young children in the French and Indian raid on Deerfield, 29 Feb 1703/4, Mary was killed by the Indians on the 7th of March a few miles south of the present location of White River Jct., VT.^5,6
     "Deaths continued to mount as the party made its way the next sixty miles north, up the Connecticut River. In fact, by the time the journey to Canada ended, 21 of the 109 prisoners had been killed. The killings were not random or wanton. Rather, they fell upon people who could not keep up with the party as it moved, especially older women and young children. For example, on the eighth day out the Indians slew Mary Brooks on the day after she suffered a miscarriage brought about by a fall upon the ice." One day later the party was at the junction of the White and Connecticut Rivers (present-day White River Junction, VT).
     Rev. John Williams, Deerfield's minister and a fellow captive, relates in his account, The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion:
     "The next day (Tuesday, March 7), in the morning, before we travelled, one Mary Brooks, a pious young woman, came to the wigwam where I was, and told me she desired to bless God, who had inclined the heart of her master to let her come and take her farewell of me. Said she, 'By my falls on the ice yesterday, I injured myself, causing a miscarriage this night, so that I am not able to travel far; I know they will kill me to-day; but,' says she, 'God has (praised be his name!) by his spirit, with his word, strengthened me to my last encounter with death'; and so mentioned to me some places of Scripture seasonably sent in for her support. 'And,' says she, 'I am not afraid of death; I can, through the grace of God, cheerfully submit to his will. Pray for me,' said she at parting, 'that God would take me to himself.' Accordingly, she was killed that day. I mention it, to the end I may stir up all, in their young days, to improve the death of Christ by faith, to a giving them an holy boldness in the day of death."^5,7,8
     Mary's children were reported to have reached Canada, after which they vanished. Her husband Nathaniel was ransomed two years later, returned to Deerfield, and remarried in 1709.

       Mary/3 Allis was born 6 Jul 1682 at Hatfield, MA.¹ She married, as his 2d wife, 3 Feb 1709/10 at Deerfield, MA, Nathaniel/2s Brooks of Deerfield, son of William/1s Brooks and Mary/2 Burt.^2,1 Nathaniel's 1st wife and Mary's brother Samuel had been killed by Indians in the 1704 sack of Deerfield, as would be Mary's 1st cousin Joseph/3 Allis in 1724.³

       Abigail/2s Brooks was born 25 Jan 1665/66 at Springfield, MA.¹ She married, as his 2d wife, 10 Dec 1685, Samuel/3 Stebbins of Longmeadow, son of Lt. Thomas/2 Stebbins and Hannah/2 Wright.^2,3,4 He died 13 Jul 1708.⁵ A widow, 1720, when Eno, following Sheldon, says she died.^6,7 "Longmeadow Families" and Warner-Harrington report her death 13 Mar 1754.^8,9

       Samuel/3 Stebbins was born 19 Sep 1646 at Springfield, MA.^3,1 Of Longmeadow, he married (1), in a double wedding with his bride's sister Sarah, 22 Jul 1679 at Springfield, Joanna/3 Lamb of Springfield, daughter of John/2 Lamb and Joanna (–?–), with whom he had 3 children.^4,5,6 She died at Longmeadow 8 Aug 1683 at age 25.⁷ He married (2), 10 Dec 1685, Abigail/2s Brooks of Springfield, daughter of William/1s Brooks and Mary/2 Burt.^8,9,10 He died at Longmeadow 13 Jul 1708 at age 61.¹¹

       Joseph/2s Brooks was born 17 Oct 1667 at Springfield, MA.^2,1 Of Deerfield, 1692.^3,4 At a Deerfield town meeting 11 Dec 1696, it was voted Thatt upon consideration y^t Joseph Brooks, his cattle were killed by y^e enemie he shall have his cattle y^t he has since bought, y^t is to say, 3 cattle one horse Rate free for y^e year.^5,6 He married, 29 Dec 1698 at Deerfield, Lydia/3 Warner, daughter of Isaac/2 Warner, with whom he had 10 children.^7,8 Took part in the Meadow Fight, 29 Feb 1703/4, during the French and Indian raid on Deerfield.^9,10 Fitz John Winthrop estimated Joseph's property loss in the attack at £10, but he and his family emerged otherwise unscathed.⁶ Also a soldier in Father Rale's War, between 1724 and 1726.¹⁰ A resident of Northfield, 1737, where he died in 1743.^11,9