Major-General Humphrey Atherton (c. 1607 – September 16, 1661), an early settler of Dorchester, Massachusetts, held the highest military rank in colonial New England.Adams, William Frederick, William Richard Cutter. Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume 4. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. 1910. pp. 2646–2647Pope, Charles Henry. The History of the Dorchester Pope Family, 1634–1888. Published by the author, 1888. p. 322 He first appeared in the records of Dorchester on March 18, 1637 and made freeman May 2, 1638. He became a representative in the General Court in 1638 and 1639–41. In 1653, he was Speaker of the House, representing Springfield, Massachusetts. He was chosen assistant governor, a member of the lower house of the General Court who also served as magistrate in the judiciary of colonial government,Drake, Samuel Adams. The History of Middlesex County Massachusetts. Estes and Lauriat. 1880. p. 555 in 1654, and remained as such until his death."Hall, Charles Samuel. Hall Ancestry. G.P. Putnam and Sons. 1896. p. 74 He was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts and held the ranks of lieutenant and captain for several years before rising to the rank of major-general. He also organized the first militia in Massachusetts.
It is unclear where and when Atherton was born. It is presumed he came from Lancashire, England.Woodward, Harlow Elliot. Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester. Boston Highlands. 1869. p .6 He was active in the governance of the colony, taking part in the acquisition of Native American lands, the persecution of Quakers,Hazard, Caroline. The Narragansett Friends' meeting in the XVIII century: with a chapter on Quaker beginnings in Rhode Island.Houghton, Mifflin. 1899. Pg. 51 and the apprehension and convictions of heretics.Martin, George Castor. Founder of the Atherton Family of New England. National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Volume 1, Issue 4. January, 1913 His accidental death was seen by the Quakers as a punishment from God for his persecution of them,Bishop, George. New-England judged, by the spirit of the Lord. T. Sowle. 1703 pp. 306 an idea repeated in a play by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He was one of the most successful land speculators in the New England colonies.Martin, John Frederick. Profits in the Wilderness: entrepreneurship and the founding of New England towns in the seventeenth century. UNC Press Books. 1991 p. 306 He and his wife, Mary, had a number of children and several New England families have traced their ancestry to them. He is interred at Dorchester North Burying Ground, one of the oldest cemeteries in New England.Walker, G.H. Guide to metropolitan Boston. 1899. p. 66
Origin and emigration
Humphrey Atherton's date and place of birth are uncertain. It has been presumed by some that he was born in Lancashire, England, because the name Atherton is prominent there. However, genealogist Robert Charles Anderson, in The Great Migration, states that this "does not come close to constituting proof of origin." The date of 1608 is sometimes given as his date of birth because Edmund Atherton of Wigan Lancashire, England died in 1612 leaving, as his heir, a four-year-old son named Humphrey. However, Duane Hamilton Hurd, in History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts stated that Atherton was 36 years old when he died in 1661.Hurd, Duane Hamilton. History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts J.W. Lewis and Company. 1884. p. 416 On the other hand, Charles Samuel Hall in Hall Ancestry, pointed out that when Atherton was made freeman and was granted property in 1638, "he must at that time reached his majority."
Charles H. Atherton said that Humphrey Atherton, his wife and three young children arrived at the colony in the ship James, August 7, 1635,Clapp, Ebenezer. The History of the Town of Dorchester. Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society. 1859. p. 102 but there is no record of this. He further said that Atherton and his wife were each about 15 years old when they were married.
There is a record of Nathaniel Wales having voyaged on the James. Wales referred to Humphrey Atherton as his "brother-in-law" in his will, so it has been assumed that Atherton's wife, Mary, was Wales' sister. However, the term may have been used because Atherton's daughter, Isabel, was married to Nathaniel Wales, Jr.Putnam, Eban. Putnam's Historical Magazine, Volume 7. pp. 98–104 The identity of his wife is disputed. Some sources say Mary Kennion.
Political and military life Atherton had a very active public life having power and taking part in the law making, enforcing and interpreting affairs of the colony. Subsequent to his acceptance as a freeman, in 1638, he was frequently selectman or treasurer, and for several years a member of the Court of Assistants which gave him a say in the appointment of governors as well as judicial power in criminal and civil matters. In 1638 and 1639–41 he was a governor's assistant in the General Court, and in 1653, he succeeded Daniel Denison as Speaker of the House, leader of the Court of Deputies, which was the lower house of the General Court, representing Springfield, Massachusetts. He was also "long a justice of the peace, and solemnized many marriages". One of the marriages over which he officiated was that of Myles Standish, Jr. and Sarah Winslow.A Report of the Record Commissioners Containing Boston Births Baptims Marriages and Deaths 1630-1699, p. 76
Atherton was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company and he organized the first trained band (militia) in Dorchester. As Major-General in the Suffolk County Militia, he was the senior military officer in New England. which included the responsibilities of subduing and controlling Native Americans and apprehending criminals, such as those accused of heresy.
In 1644 he [Atherton] was sent, with Captains Johnson and Cook, to Narragansett to arrest and try Samuel Gorton for heresy. It is hoped that Gorton's complaint of his treatment was exaggerated, for he said, in passing through Dorchester. 'A large concourse of persons assembled with several ministers to witness the passage of the troops, and the prisoners were stationed apart and volleys of musketry fired over their heads in token of victory.'
Other persecutions
Harlow Elliot Woodword, in Epitaphs from the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester, said that Atherton had believed in witches and "felt it to be a duty which he owed to God and to his Country to mete out to the poor creatures, against whom accusations were brought, the punishment, which, in his opinion, they so richly merited." Woodward said that, in his capacity as assistant, Atherton had been instrumental in bringing about the execution of Mrs. Ann Hibbins, a wealthy widow, who was executed for witchcraft on June 19, 1656.Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 1987. p. 186 Hibbins was later fictionalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. In that book she was depicted as the sister of Governor Bellingham.Schwab, Gabriele. The mirror and the killer-queen: otherness in literary language. Indiana University Press. 1996. Pg. 120.Hunter, Dianne, Seduction and theory: readings of gender, representation, and rhetoric. University of Illinois Press. 1989. Pgs. 186-187
Atherton was involved in the persecution of Quakers and there are two incidents in particular that the Quakers wrote about in relationship to Atherton. First, the case of Mary Dyer, a Quaker who was executed in 1660 after returning to Boston despite banishment. Atherton was assistant governor at the time, and at her hanging he was said to have remarked, "She hangs there like a flag."Baltzell, Edward Digby.Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia. Transaction Publishers. 1996. p. 142 The Quakers understood this comment to be an insulting boast.Bishop, p. 306
There was the case of Wenlock Christison, a Quaker who had repeatedly returned to Massachusetts despite banishment, whose trial in May, 1661 put an end to the execution of Quakers. He was sentenced to death, but the law was changed soon after, and he was not executed. He was the last Quaker to be sentenced to death in Massachusetts. The Quakers believed that during an altercation between the accused and Atherton at the trial, Christison prophesied the outcome of his trial as well as the circumstances of Atherton's untimely death. Quaker writer George Bishop wrote, "Yea, Wenlock Christison, though they did not put him to death, yet they sentenced him to die, so that their cruel purposes were nevertheless. I cannot forbear to mention what he spoke, being so prophetical, not only as to the judgment of God coming on Major-general Adderton, but as to their putting any more Quakers to death after they had passed sentence on him." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recreated the Christison trial in his play John Endicott which included the damnation of Atherton by the accused.Longfellow, Henry W. Poetical Works. G. Routledge and Sons. 1891. p. 498 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recreated the Christison trial in his play John Endicott which included the damnation of Atherton by the accused.
Relationship with Native Americans
Ebenezer Clapp, in The History of Dorchester said of Atherton, "He had great experience and skill in the treatment of the Indians, with whom his public duties brought him in frequent contact. He manifested much humanity and sympathy for their ignorant and degraded condition, but exercised great energy and decision of character when necessary." In 1637 the colonists had sided with the Mohegans in the Pequot War, which wiped out most of the Pequot people. By the early 1640s tensions were building between the Mohegans and the Narragansetts.
Ebenezer Clapp, in The History of Dorchester also said "In 1645, the New England Colonies met by representatives to consult upon the Indian problem, and appointed a Council of War; Capt. Miles Standish, of Plymouth, was chairman. John Mason of Connecticut, John Leverett and Atherton of Massachusetts, were the other councilors".
The New England colonies, with the exception of Rhode Island, formed a confederation called "The Four United Colonies of New England". Rhode Island, according to The Proceedings of the Rhode Island Historical Society, 1881–1882, was excluded, not for reasons of religious differences, but because its founder, Roger Williams, had been banished from Massachusetts "for denying the right of the magistrates to take the lands of the Indians with out compensating the owners".Proceedings of the Rhode Island Historical Society1882. Pgs. 11–32 The United Colonies obtained Narragansett lands within the boundaries of Rhode Island by putting in motion a series of events that began with their promise of aid to the Mohegan Sachem, Uncas, whom they had supported during the Pequot War, if he declared war against the Narragansett Sachem, Miantinomo. During the ensuing war, Miantinomo was captured and brought to the commissioners of the Four United Colonies at Hartford. "After obtaining him as a captive, they could find no excuse for putting him to death; and, to avoid the responsibility, they referred his case for decision to a convention of ministers in Boston; [sic] Winthrop states, 'Miantinomo was killed near Hartford by a blow on the back of his head with a hatchet.' "
The Connecticut settlers demanded land from Uncas in return for their assistance to him. "Trumbull states, 'Mr. Leffingwell obtained nearly the whole township of Norwich for his services.'" Miantinomo's successor, Pessicus, declared war against Uncas and the colonies fined him 2000 fathoms of wampum for causing the hostilities, which he was unable to pay."