Tombstone Tuesday - Deerfield MA Grave Marker

Monument marking the mass grave of the 56 settlers killed on 29 February 1704 by the French and Indian soldiers during Queen Anne's War.

One hundred twelve of the Deerfield villagers were taken captive and forced on an unforgiving, 300-mile winter-march to Canada during which 21 of the captives died. One of the children taken was our ancestor, Martha Marguerite French, who remained in Canada and married Jacques Roy.

The 1704 Deerfield Massacre

The raid on Deerfield occurred during Queen Ann's War on February 29, 1704, when joint French and Native American forces attacked the English settlement at Deerfield, Massachusetts, just before dawn, razing the town and killing fifty-six colonists. Of the colonists killed, twenty-two were men, nine were women, and twenty-five were children. A total of 109 residents, including the women and children who had survived the attack, were taken captive and forced on a months-long, 300-mile trek to Quebec in harsh winter conditions; twenty-one of them died along the way. More than sixty of those who reached Quebec were eventually ransomed or otherwise managed to make their way back to New England, but a number of others chose to remain in the French Canadian and/or Native American communities for the rest of their lives.

Our Ancestor -
Mary Baldwin Catlin
Born: Abt 1638
Father: Joseph Baldwin b: 1610 in Cholesbury, Buckinghamshire, England

Mother: Hannah Whitlocke b: 1613 or 1617

Marriage: John Catlin ( b: 1643) on 23 SEP 1662 in Wethersfield, Hartford, CT

Event: 29 FEB 1704 Deerfield, Massachusetts
Tradition states: The captives were taken to a house...and a Frenchman was brought in [wounded] and laid on the floor; He was in great distress and called for water; Mrs. Catlin fed him with water. Some one said to her, "How can you do that for your enemy?" she replied, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him water to drink." The Frenchman was taken and carried away, and the captives marched off. Some thought the kindness shown to the Frenchman was the reason of Mrs. Catlin's being left...

From New England Captives' Stories:"...With the tender sympathy of a Christian woman, she had held the cup of cold water to the parched lips of the wounded French lieutenant, craving it with piteous appeal. In the hurry of departure, either by design or by accident, none had claimed her as his captive....

Death: 04 APR 1704 in , Deerfield, Franklin, MA
"...mourning for her children, and would not be comforted, she lingered a few weeks, and died from the shock of that day's horror...."

Monument Monday - John Catlin

John Catlin was born 1643 in Connecticut, son of John Catlin and Isabelle Ward. He married Mary Baldwin in Sept. 1662, and they had several children including our ancestor, Mary Catlin. John died in the Deerfield Massachusetts Massacre on 24 Feb 1704.


This monument, erected in his honor in 1911, is located on the corner of Broad and Commerce Streets in Newark, NJ., and reads:

On this Site
John Catlin
Newark's first schoolmaster
opened his School in 1676, holding
it in his home as was the custom
in those days. By vote of the
town's men he was engaged to
"Do his faithful honest and true endeavour
to teach the children or servants of those
as have subscribed...English and also
arethmetick...as much as they are capable
to learn and he capable to teach them."

He was a man of mark in the
community, serving as town's attorney
and later as town's man.
In 1683 he became one of the early
permanent settlers of Deerfield, Mass.
where his services gained for him
the honorable title of "Mr."
He was killed Feb. 29, 1704, in the
defence of his home against an
attack of French and Indians.

He was a guide of youth
and a leader of men

Erected by the Newark Schoolmen's Club
Newark Day, Nov. 6, 1911