Captain Seth Wyman

     Captain Seth Wyman was born on 13 September 1686 in Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Seth Wyman and Hester Johnson.¹ He married Sarah Ross, daughter of Thomas Ross and Sarah (—?—), on 26 January 1714/15.¹ He died in the service of dysentary on 5 September 1725 at age 38.¹
     
     Captain Seth Wyman enlisted from Woburn as ensign in Captain John Lovewell's company, third expedition, in 1725, during the 1721-1725 conflict known as Dummer's War.^2,3 At Lovewell's Fight on 8 May 1725 near Pequawket Town, now Fryeburg, Maine, he assumed command of the company after his superior officers were killed. He was commended for his coolness and bravery in the engagement, and a few days after he returned home he was commissioned a captain.²

     Unlike earlier colonial wars, the French were not directly involved in Dummer's War. Also called Father Rasle's War and Lovewell's War, it was a conflict between the English colonists and the Wabanaki Indians in New England that culminated in a battle immortalized in song and in the writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne as "Lovewell's Fight."

     Inhabitants of the remote towns along the Merrimac in Old Dunstable, in particular, were under constant threat of an Indian attack such as happened at Thorntons Ferry in 1724. Indeed, the raids were so frequent that multiple families were forced for their own safety to live together in garrison houses. It was general knowledge that many of these raids on English settlements were planned and carried forth from Pequawket Town, home of a Wabanaki tribe called Pigwackets by the English. This territory now forms the towns of Freyburg, Maine, and Conway, New Hampshire.

     Apparently unhappy with the way the war was going, and inspired by the Thorntons Ferry incident, a company was organized at Dunstable in the fall of 1724, with plans to go on the offensive against the Pigwackets. John Lovewell was Captain, Josiah Farwell, Lovewell's brother-in-law, was Lieutenant, and Jonathan Robbins, Ensign. These officers offered a petition to the Legislature in which they say —"That if said Company may be allowed five shillings per day in case they kill any enemy Indians and possess there Scalp they will imploy in Indian Hunting one whole year and if they do not within that time kill any, they are content to be allowed nothing for their wages, time and trouble." The petition was granted, but the terms were changed by the Legislature to a bounty of £100 for every scalp taken during one year.

     Captain Lovewell immediately took his company to the field. In all, he led three expeditions. The first two were hailed as successes and celebrated by the populace. On the first, they killed one Indian and took a boy captive; on the second, ten Indians were killed and plunder taken included skins, blankets, mocassins, snowshoes and rifles. The company, with Lovewell wearing a wig made of Indian scalps, paraded through the streets of Boston showing off the scalps taken on the second expedition.

     Pumped by fame and success, Lovewell organized a third expedition with plans to make a direct attack on Pequawket Town. Except for Lovewell, Farwell and Robbins, all members of the third expedition were new recruits. Among the forty-seven members of the company were Josiah's cousins, Thomas and Timothy Richardson and Captain Seth Wyman. Joseph and Jacob Farrar, who were first cousins, were also members of the third expedition. As far as has been determined, they were not related to the other four mentioned, though Joseph's son Joseph married a Richardson. On 7 May 1725, the company, thirty-four in number, some having been sent back or left at a fort for various reasons, reached the shores of Saco Pond, now Lovewell's Pond, about a mile from Pequawket Town. Early the next morning, the men left their packs so as to travel lightly and with less noise, and proceeded around the pond to where they had spotted a lone Indian. They succeeded in killing the Indian, but while they were gone, two returning war parties found the packs and waited in ambush. When the men returned, they were attacked from the front and rear by between forty and eighty braves. Lovewell and eight of his men were killed instantly; others were injured and one man deserted. The English fought back under the command of Seth Wyman and succeeded in gaining some cover. However, with their backs to the pond and Indians surrounding them elsewhere, there was no escape. The battle lasted ten hours with many casualties on both sides. Significant among the Pigwackets who were killed was the Indian leader Saugus. Of the English who engaged in the conflict, twelve were killed and buried on the field of battle; three were mortally wounded and died near the scene; nine were more or less seriously wounded; nine escaped injury. Of those who are of interest to this project, Josiah Farwell and Jacob Farrar were killed; Timothy Richardson was wounded and throughout the rest of his life partially incapacitated; Thomas Richardson, Seth Wyman and Joseph Farrar were among the fortunate who received no wounds.

     Though the war did not officially end for seven more months with the signing of Dummer's Treaty in December 1725, the significance of "Lovewell's Fight" is that it effectively ended hostilities between the English and the Wabanakis in Maine and New Hampshire.