Capt. Samuel Marshall - "King Phillips War"

Smith's Castle Plantation - Mass Grave-site, Rhode Island

Capt. Samuel Marshall was killed at the head of his troops Dec. 19, 1675, at Fort Narragansett, Connecticut, in "King Phillips War". A war between New England colonists and Metacomet or King Phillip, as the English called him. He was a son of Massasoit, who welcomed the Pilgrims to Plymouth. He became chief of the Wampanoag tribe of Indians after the death of his father in 1661, and the death of his older brother, Wamsutta, or Alexander, soon after.

Phillip opposed the giving up of land continuously demanded by the colonists, and in 1675 started a war in alliance with the Nipmuc and Narragansett tribes. The Indians attacked 52 of the 90 towns then settled in New England, destroying 12 of them. They killed some 600 hundred persons, including the members of two ambushed colonial forces.

Early in 1676 the Narragansetts were defeated and slaughtered. In August, Captain Benjamin Church defeated the Wampanoags, and Phillip was tracked down and killed at Mount Hope, near Bristol, RI. He was beheaded and quartered, his head being carried to Plymouth and displayed on a pole, his hands were taken to Boston. His wife and son were captured and sold into slavery.

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Life of Samuel Marshall

• 1630-1675 , ENGLAND TO CONNECTICUT COLONY,NEW ENGLAND

Samuel was brought to New England [in 1634] as a child of four years. He learned the shoemaker trade of his father [Thomas MARSHALL] and probably assisted his father as Ferry Keeper in Boston. He was literate, probably educated at the school to which his father gave money. It has yet to be determined what his relationship with the Allyn family of Windsor was. It appears that he spent his entire adult life in Windsor Connecticut. Shortly after his marriage, records show that he served as an attorney in civil actions brought by English plaintiffs against local defendants. In January 1652 he brought Thomas Marshfield's house on broad street and sold it the next year. He dealt extensively in the purchase and resale of property. Later records show that he was licensed to sell cider as an alcoholic beverage and also planted apple orchards. On a couple occasions he sued and was counter-sued for slander,etc. In addition to following his father's profession as a shoemaker, he was an active citizen. He was active in the local militia but did not seem to be active in church affairs. In 1673 "Quartermaster" Samuel Marshall received a grant of 150 acres. He became a Captain,in the Windsor Horse Troop. Samuel Marshall was one of the "five brave Captains killed at the head of their companies in the attack on the Narragansett Fort, in the Great Swamp Fight" of the King Philip's War on Dec. 19,1675. Before this fight he made his will on Sept. 4,1675. His body was taken along with many others to Smith's Castle in Wickford, Rhode Island and buried in a mass grave. This is now called Smiths Castle Mass Gracesite, Wickford, Washington County, Rhode Island.

Anestry Chain: Thomas MARSHALL Immigrant b.1610, [9th gr. grandfather] Captain Samuel MARSHALL Immigrant b.1630, Deacon Thomas MARSHALL b.1663, Catherine MARSHALL b.1699, Catherine FOWLER b.1723, Lydia NOBLE b.1768, Horace Datus ENSIGN b.1797, Martin Luther ENSIGN b.1831, Harriett Camilla ENSIGN b.1859, George Ensign SMITH b.1898, Camilla SMITH b.1926, Lark, JR.

Smith's Castle: In 1675, King Philip, sachem of the Wampanoags, led a coalition of Native Americans in a bloody conflict with the colonists over control of land. The Narragansetts, whose winter home was in the Great Swamp only 12 miles from Cocumscussoc, had pledged neutrality. Suspecting that the Narragansetts were harboring Wampanoag warriors, 1,000 colonial troops from Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and Plymouth colonies massed at the Castle and attacked the Great Swamp village in December 1675. Both sides suffered great losses. Forty colonial soldiers were interred in a mass grave near the Castle. In retaliation for the attack, the Castle was burned in 1676.