Lesson 7 - Readings for the Sheldon Family

Mary Sheldon

From New England Captives Carried to Canada, Vol. I, Emma L. Coleman, 1925, pgs. 117 & 118

"Mary. On his second journey- in 1706- he brought back his daughter Mary. Life had grown easier in Deerfield. John, Jr., sends his 'love to sister Mary and all the rest of the captives' and prays his father to buy ' a paire of curtings [curtains] and a feather bead [bed], and a greaine [green] coverlid [bedspread] and a necklace of amber'.

Mary married 1 [1st husband] , Samuel Clapp of Northampton in 1708; and 2 [2nd husband], Jonathan Strong. Her squaw-mother often visited her in Northampton; wishing always to sleep in the open she went every night to Fort Hill...

In answer to his [brother Ebenezer's] petition 'for himself and Samuel and Mary Clap' (his sister and her husband) the General Court, in 1736, gave them three hundred acres 'because in their long Captivity in Canada they had contracted an Acquaintance [had a friendship] with the Cagnawaga [Kahnawake/Mohawk] Indians, who now put them to an Extraordinary Charge to entertain them when they come to Deerfield.'

What that means:

Mary and her brother, Ebenezer, were given 300 acres of land because it cost them so much to take care of their Indian friends [probably their adopted Indian parents], who often came to visit them.

From The History of Deerfield, Vol. I, George Sheldon, 1895, pg. 356

"Mary Sheldon, seventeen years old when taken, was adopted by a squaw."

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