Benjamin Church's Raids

On July 11, 1676, the forewarned attack against Taunton, MA, was repulsed thanks to the intelligence provided by former war captive, Jethro, the enslaved man of Captain Thomas Willet. Also on the 11th, Captain Benjamin Church and his men began the first of what would be a series of raids. Leading an integrated company of surrendered Sakonnet and Englishmen, Church deployed his troops throughout Plymouth Colony, starting in Middleborough, where they took a number of Indigenous captives.

On July 15, Ninigret, sachem of the Niantic, signed a peace treaty with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the treaty, it was agreed that the Niantic were to be rewarded for the capture or death of Metacom.

On July 19, near Westfield, MA, the English discovered and attacked hundreds of starving Indigenous people seeking refuge in New York. During the attack, the English killed several and took captive a number of women, children, the infirm, and elderly.