Saturday, July 22, 2006

Who the Hell is Tispaquin?

Tispaquin, from what we know today, was a big guy for the 1600s, like in tall and muscular. Sort of a native American Nikolai Volkov or a Ken Norton or Shaquille O'Neill. Actually Robert Parrish. Yeah. Robert Parrish. The Chief. Sorta like that. Point is that nobody messed with him. He was born around Nemasket, now called Middleborough, Massachusetts in the mid 1600s. A native of the area, Tispaquin would today be called a Nemasket Indian, or a member of the Nemasket group of the Wampanoag or Pokonoket. The Wampanoag, led by Massasoit, were HQ'd at Montaup, alongside the mouth of the Taunton River in what is now Bristol, Rhode Island. Tispaquin was a contemporary of Massasoit's two sons, Wamsutta (Alexander to the pilgrims) and Pometacom (Phillip to the pilgrims). Massasoit was the dude who fed the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth in 1620. Tispaquin and Pometacom were simpatico and apparently became friends and confidants. As Tispaquin entered adulthood he became the Sachem, or chief, of Nemasket, the headwaters of the Taunton (Titicut) River in southeastern Mass. He then became known as the Black Sachem of Middleborough. The name apparently came from his skin coloration, which was darker than most of the area Indians. Also, he apparently was a big mofo. When Massasoit died, Wamsutta his oldest son was next in line to be Sachem of the Wampanoags. Wamsutta was then arrested by the Pilgrims, dragged to Plymouth and died in "police custody" under murky circumstances. Put bluntly, Wamsutta entered the Plymouth "Gaol" alive and a few days later left it dead. His younger brother, Pometacom, was not too pleased by these developments even though it meant he was now Sachem. Dead brother and all. As Pometacom took the helm of the Wampanoag nation, he enlisted Tispaquin as an operational confidant, or as a "lieutenant" in the words of English writers were alive and around then. By this time, the early 1670s, the Wampanoag were getting squeezed pretty hard by the increasing numbers of English arriving on the shores of Massachusetts. The squeeze was a predictable combination of all the crap that happens when two immensely disparate cultures are forced by increasing numbers and non-increasing acreage to live nearby each other. Each group most likely felt superior in some ways and inwardly inferior in others. The whole mess devolved into a very bloody war in 1676, now called King Phillip's War. The war, which might have been inevitable anyways, was instigated in great part when Tispaquin was arrested, hauled to Plymouth and executed (drawn and quartered, no less) on the charge that he murdered an Indian named John Sassamon on the ice of Assawompsett Pond. Sassamon was an informer for the English on Pometacom's and the Wampanoag's doings. There was no actual trial. The Plymouthites summarily found Tispaquin culpable for the murder of John Sassamon and sentenced him to a gruesome execution. This pissed off Pometacom a lot and convinced him the English settlers ultimately wished that he and his people would either die and disappear or become completely assimilated into "English" society. This of course would also require Pometacom and his people to be forced to voluntarily give up all rights to their homeland, become tenants of the English, and adopt all matters of English custom, culture and religion and ... essentially disappear off the face of the planet. So Pometacom was pissed. Tispaquin could not be as pissed or as eloquent in his pissed-off-ness because his head had been chopped off in Plymouth. So that's the nutshell.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You believe this is the only information and definition of who Tispaquin is? I mean, I spent many summers on the shores of Tispaquin Pond, and no where did it say who he was. Good Job.

hobomock said...

tispaquin the sachem of the assawomsetts in nemasket was a great powow it was said no bullet could kill him . he was married to amie, daughter of massasoit, hence metacom's brother in-law. in july of 1676 while off raiding english horse and cattle. capt. benjamin church took his people captive, including his wife and children near the sippican river in bourne.
church garrunteed his life if he and his men would surrender in plymouth. when he came in church was away to boston and the pilgram fathers promptly had tispaqiun drawn and quartered his head was mounted on a pike along with annawon and their king, metacom to be displayed for many years. three other pokanokets were actually acussed of sassamons murder,tobias , patuck and tobias' fther who's name escapes me

Dale said...

look up Tispaquin by searching "Tuspaquin."

Anonymous said...

This is great; i have not seen a better (& humorous) blog describing the history of the Sachem!

Unknown said...

Suck to be humorous about history of a Sachem that people still take pride in.

Anonymous said...

I believe you have a few facts incorrect. As noted in one of the other comments, Tispaquin was Philip’s (Metacomet’s) brother-in-law. John Sassimon (Suasiman) was married to Tispaquin’s daughter. This fact made John’s wife an heir to Philip. So, when John Sassimon (Harvard educated, an advisor to Philip) wrote an English will for Philip, he designated the inheritance of some land to his wife, and so to himself. Now, Philip could not read English, and the fact of this planned inheritance was not shared by John when he had finished preparing the document...one that was revealed somehow to Philip afterwards, and which became one of the points made by the lone witness, Patuckson, at the murder trial of the three that killed John and threw his body under the January ice at Assawompset Pond. Those three were Tobias, Wampapaquan (Tobias’s son), and Mattashunnamo. All three were executed in Plymouth. Wampapaquan, being the youngest, was the last man hanged...but then his rope broke, which the superstitious interpreted to a sign of innocence, and he popped up confessing he didn’t do the murder, but the other two had done the act entirely on their own. How convenient. No matter. Justice would not be stopped. Wampapaquan was summarily executed a week later—taking no more chances with the rope; he was shot. All this took place in June 1675, just days before the first shots were fired in “King Philip’s War.”

Also, Wamsutta did not die in jail (gaol). He went to Plymouth (under arrest) actually to discuss the English request that the natives give up all their guns, (yes, the settlers wanted to enforce gun control). On his departure, we wasn’t feeling well, so he stopped in to see Governor Winslow in Marshfield for some medical attention. Apparently whatever he was given did not help. Before Wamsutta got more than “halfway home” he fell over and died. Philip suspected his brother was poisoned. Some modern historians believe Wamsutta died of appendicitis.

In any case, Tispaquin continued to be an actor in the war, as late as the summer of 1676, more than a year after John Sassamon’s murder trial and the executions.

Pete Longley

Anonymous said...

Hmm. Black sachem of buzzard's bay. Tuspaquin

remember deer island said...

I studied this story of Watuspaquin. It's very confusing, because the family was somewhat Christianized. Benjamin Tispaquin was written in the "history books" as son of Watuspaquin, and who actually fought for the English during the war. If this was true, then that meant father and son were fighting against each other. Watuspaquin bailed out one of the defendants for 100{L?} in land.

Pam said...

Here is what, ostensibly happened to Tispaquin's wife, granddaughter of Massasoit, and daughter of Metacom (King Philip): she married John Starkweather and avoided the fate of her mother and brother who were sent to the Bahamas? Caribbean? I am her descendant. Her Christian name was Ann Philip, and sometimes Ann Philip Woodbury. My 8th ggrandmother.