Browse Biographies

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Niles, Horace

In the year 1845, Horace Niles boarded Philena, an Eastern Pequot woman, for which he was reimbursed in the summer of 1848 by Elias Hewitt, the tribe's overseer.  He did a similar service in 1847.
 
Not much is known about Niles, however.  He may have been one of the African American Niles family living around Stonington and North Stonington in the early 19th Century, or more likely, a member of Jabez Niles-Lydia Williams' multi-racial family, who were part of the Eastern Pequot Community.
 

Unknown, [Mother of Great David]

This unnamed woman was a member of a prominent Quabaug family, most likely she or her husband were leaders of their community.  She had at least two children, a daughter who married John Humphrey (Umphrey) and Great David,
 
Towards the end of 1675, during King Philip's War, she was an elderly widow.  After her son was convicted and sent away to international slavery, she chose to remain enslaved within the Bay Colony. 
 

[Sister of Great David]

This unknown woman came from a leading Quabaug family.  Her brother, known as Great David, was the community's leader during King Philip's War.  At that time, she was married to John Humphrey (Umphrey), a Native man from the Pennacook.  

After her husband was imprisoned during King Philip's War, she chose to go with him into overseas slavery.  At that time, she and Humphrey had at least one small child.

Humphrey, John

Umphry has been identified as an Eastern Indian, possibly Pennacook or Eastern Abenaki; however, his marriage to Great David's sister might have given him some rights as a Nipmuc or Quaboag.  At a later date, he identified as a Schaghticoke from Albany, but that claim was disputed by a Hatfield Indian.   
 

Sara

Sarah, whose family origins are unknown, was the wife of the Quabaug sachem, Great David,  They had at least one very young child at the time of King Philip's War, when her husband was convicted by Massachusetts authorities to be sent into overseas slavery.  When offered to go with her husband or remain in the Bay Colony, she indicated that she would go with David if he were sent to England.  The record is silent on where the couple ended up.
 

Lawrence, Amasa, 1811 - 1879

Amasa Lawrence was born in Thompson, Connecticut, circa 1811.   While little is known of his childhood or parentage, as a young man he took to the sea, a crew member aboard the ship Manchester Packet, which departed from the New London, CT on June 30, 1832 bound for the South Atlantic.   By December of 1833 Amasa had returned home and was enumerated in a private census of tribal members living on the reservation in what was then Groton, Connecticut.

Brushell, Lucinda, 1790 - 1830

Lucinda Brushell was a member of the Eastern Pequot community at Lantern Hill in Stonington, Connecticut.  Not much is know about her until the last year of her life. She received clothing supplies, pork, corn, rice, butter, meal, and molasses from the tribe's overseer in 1828.  In November of that year, money was also spent for iron and chains, presumably to restrain her during a fit of insanity.