Native writings in Massachusett, Vol. 2 9780871691859

Table of contents :
Frontmatter
Part 1
Abbreviations (page xi)
Preface (page xv)
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION (page 1)
Chapter 2: TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES (page 25)
Part 2
Chapter 3: GRAMMATICAL SKETCH (page 473)

Citation preview

| iwratonil : | Decongalh caaibeediinehdietoieeae ; (arsst Chap. te winncetnonk fefus Chrie WUNAUNCHEMOOKAONK NASHPR

MATTHE VV: | CHAP. f. kah Eleazar wonmaumonieu Matthanoh, kay

eLuke AMAR ery Ppometuongane book Jefus Matthan wunnaumoniey Jakoboh. 3:23. pV fer) Chrift, wunnaumonah Da- | 16 seeag somagec wunnaumonieu Jofephoh, bGen. EA $8 bm vid, wunnaumonuh Abre- _weifukeh Mary noh mo wachegit Jefus utti«

21.3. KS Ym ham. _yeuoh ahennit Chrift.

a Gene SAX Sot SY 2b Abraham wunnaumo- © 17 Nemebkuh wame pometeongath wut

es. 26. Gpdaueer nicu [Gakoh,kali -Lfaak wun-s Abrahamut onk yean Davidut,nabo yauwudt

dGen. naumonienu eqecye eee dja» pometcongath; neit wutch Davidut onk 29. 35. kob wunnaumonicu Judaioh, kah weematoh.y yean ummiilinchkonauh ut Babylon, nabo eGen, 3 Kahe Judas wunnaumonieu Pharefoh yauwudt pometeongath : peit wutch ummif-

38.27. kal Zarahoh wutch 1 amarhut, kah f Phares iinohkonaoh ut Babylon né pajeh uppeyonat fi Chr. wunmaumonicu Ezromub, kah Ezrom wun- Jefus Chrift,nabo yauwudt pometeongath.

2.¢. |4 naumonicu Aramoh, EAminadaboh, | 18 Kah Jefus m wunneetuonk m Luke Ruth Kah Aram wunnaumonieu :mo, Cnrift nagum okafoh Maryhoh kahBia Jofeph ;,27, 4:18. kh Aminadab wunnaumonieu Naaffonoh, -quofhodhettit (afquam naneefinhettekup) kah Naaffon wunnaumonieu Salmonoh, | mifkauau wutchéketeaudnat nafhpe Nathau-

5 Kah Salmon wunnaumonieu Boazoh |! anittooh.

wutch Rachab, kah Boaz wunnaumonieu | 19 Neit weflukeh Jofephuh wunnomwa: Obeduh wutch Ruth; kah Obed wunnau- | énuqvoh, matta mo wuttenantamooun wut- = ¢

monieu e_E wunnaumonieu ; ayimauoh mufliflewautut, unnantam g1Sam. 6 Kahg Jeffe David ke- | nuppogken yeuoh. , kemeu

,

16.1. kah b David ketailoot wannau- | 20 |Webenatwontog kuffch wut- .ut un- , > & 17.taflootoh, monieu Solomonoh wutch ummittamwuiluh angelfumoh Lordyeulhog wunnaéihtunkquoh b2Sam. 7 Kah s Solomon wunnaumonieu Reho- | naumonuh David, shane. wahetl nemunon = 12.24. kahAbia Rehoboam wunnaumoniecu A- ee kummittamwos,newutche uttiyeuwoh ; . #1 Chr. boamoh, biahoh, kah wunnaumonieu A faboh. wachegit, ne nafhpe wunneetupanatamwe

12, Uriab. nukquomuonganit, ncowau, Jofeph ken wun-

3:10. —_ 8 Kah Afa wunnaumonieu eee Nafliauanittoout. ' |

Jofaphac elanragsny i eeaas » kahtiffowen Jo-| 21 Kah woh neechau wufiaumon woh kut- # Luke .. ram wnnnaumonieu Oziafoh. n Jefus, newutche woh wadchanau

9 Kah Ozias wunnaumonieu Jottamoh, wutch ummatcheleonga- 1.31.6 kab Jotham wunnaumonieu Achazoh, kah| ummiflinninnumok | noodut.

_ Athaz wunnaumonieu Ezekiafoh. 22 Wame yeuth n nihyeupafh ne woh n

k2Kin. 10 Kah k Ezekias wunnaumoniew Manaf- | nif toh ancowop Lord nafhpeumanittoowom-

20. 21. fes, kah Mana{les wannaumonieu Ammonoh, | puh noowan. :

13.10. Chro. wunnaumonieu Jofiafoh.| kah 23 oKuflch peenomp pith ty > af uau, Ifaial 11 kah Xah Ammon Jofias wunnaumonieu Jeghoniafoh, pifh neechau wannaumonuh, pith9 7:14. kah wematoh, ut papaume na uttooche mé- | wuttiffowenouh Emanvel,yeu nanwattamun,

finnedhteamuk ut Babylon. God kwwetomukqun.

. 12 Kah mahche miffinneohtedhettit ut | 24 Neit Joferh omohket wutch koué nat, 13-16, xChr. we bekah f pone wunnaumonien Sala-| anukqutfamnicteih wutangelfumoh thieloh, Salathiel wunnaumonieu Zo- wutuflen | Lord, Kahutto neemunau aff.

37. rebabeloh. ‘ 25 Kah mattacowaheuh né pajeh wunnee' 3 Kah Zorobabel wunnaumonien Abi- chanac mohtommeginitcheh ‘ wdoh,kah Abiud wunnaumonieu Eliakimoh, kah wuttifowenuh Jefus. wunnaumonuh,

‘hah Eliakim wunnaumonieu Azoroh. | - CHAP. II. , , 14Sadok Kah Azor wunnaumonieu Sadokoh,: ¢ Neckit ut Bethlem ut Judea uk- 2 2,6, Luke kah wunnanmonieu Achimoh ,.kah* 2| ee kelukkodtumut Herod Sontim , kuffeh

Achi nnanmonievEliudch . waantamwaentiog wamohettit wutthepwoei-

35 We exica wupmaumonien Eleazaroh, | you Jerufalemwaut, j . First page of the Gospel of Matthew from the Eliot Bible. Courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia. . . Nw

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Native Writings in Massachusett Part 1

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Native Writings in Massachusett

Ives Goddard and

Kathleen J. Bragdon

The American Philosophical Society Independence Square ® Philadelphia 1988

MEMOIRS OF THE

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY Held at Philadelphia For Promoting Useful Knowledge

| Volume 185

Copyright © 1988 by The American Philosophical Society These volumes are subsidized in part by the Phillips Fund of the Library of the American Philosophical Society. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 87-72874 International Standard Book Number 0-87169-185-X

US ISSN 0065-9738

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 1

Abbreviations .......... 0.000000. ccc cece eee beeen eee ene xi Editorial Conventions...........0.0.0 0.00000 cece eee eee eee eee ee MG

Preface ....... 0.0... ec eet eee e eee eens ee eeeeeeeee XV

History of the Project ..........00 00.0 e eee XVii

The Edition. ... 0.0.0.0... 00. cc cece eee nee eeeeeeee XXifi Photograph Credits... 0.0.0.0... 000 cece eee cece eee XXIV Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION. .............0.0.00.00000 0.0 c cece 1

The Cultural Context of the Massachusett Documents ................ 2 Missions among the Southeastern New England Indians............... 4 The Government of the Praying Towns ................. 00.0 eee euee 5

Gay Head... .. 0.0... eee 7 , Christiantown (Okokammeh)..................... 9 Nantucket. ......0... 00.000. e eens 9

Natick .... 0.000000... ccc eee eee eee eeeee §=§=10 Mashpee............. 0.0.0. c ec eee eee eee sees = 12

Herring Pond (Plymouth) ........................ 13

Nukkehkummees (Dartmouth) .................... 13 The Content of the Massachusett Documents........................ 13 Literacy in the Massachusett Communities .......................... 18 The Creation of the Massachusett Documents ....................... 20 Conclusions ..........00 0.0.0... cee eee eee eee eee eeeeeeveraceee. 22

Chapter 2: TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES ..................... 25

Introduction ......0... 0.0.0.0 cece cee eee eee eee ee eeee 25

Texts 0... cece c eee ee en eee 25 Translations....0..........00. 0.0. c eee eee eee eee. §=©26

Colophon and Notes ................0 0000 eee eeee 27

Document no. 1......0.0.0 0.000000 eee eee cece eee e seat. 30

Document no. 2.....00.0 000. cc eee e eevee esesrae. 34 Document no. 3...... 0... ee cece eee e eee eee es §=638

: Document no. 4....... 0.0... eee eee eee eee eeeeeeee. 42 , Document no. 5.....0.0.00 0... 0c ee eee eee eee cena eeeee 46

Document no. 6..........00 0.00. cee cece ee ee ee eeereeeees. §650

Document no. 7.0.0.0... 0. eet eee ee eee eeeeeee. 52

Document no. 8........ 0.0.0.0 ee eee eee eee eee ee eee = 656) Documents no. 9, 10,11 ......... 20... ce eee ee eee eeee. 58 Document no. 12.......0.0 0000000 cece ee teen e eee. §=666 Document no. 13........0. 0.00000 eee eee cece e ee eeee. 74 Documents no. 14, 15,16 ........ 0... ee eee eee eee eter. 78

Document no. 17.....0 00.000 0c ee cee eee eee eee eeeeeeee 82 Document no. 18....... 0.0.0... eee cece eee eee e eee ee §686 Documents no. 19, 20, 21 ........00000 0.00. cee eee eect eeee 90

Document no. 22... 0... eect eeeeee G4 Documents no. 23, 24.....0.00 00000. cece eee eee eee eeeeee § §=98

Document no. 25......0. 00.00 cece eee eee eee eevee ee 102

Documents no. 26, 27, 28 ........ 20... cc eee eee eee ene eeeee. 104

Vil

vill TABLE OF CONTENTS

Documents no. 29, 30, 31 .... 2... ee ee eee ee eee eeees 110 Document no. 32..... 0.0.0. cece cece eee ee eeeceees 116 Documents no. 33, 34...... 0.0... 0. eee ee ee eee eee eee eeevaes 120

Document no. 35... 0.0.0.0. eee eee e ee eeeeaees 124

Document no. 36.......0. 000 cece eee cee e eee eee ees 128

Document no. 37.0... cee eee e eee ee eeeeeee 132 Document no. 38.......0 0000 eee eee ee eee tees 136 Documents no. 39, 40, 41, 42 ........00.0.000000.................... 140 Document no. 43.......0 0.0.00. ec ec eee eee eee eee eee ees 144

Document no. 44...... 00.000. cece eee ee eee eee. 146 Document no. 45....... 00.0.0. eee eee eens eeee. 150

Document no. 46.......0 00.000 eee ee eee eee ee eee. 158 Document no. 47... 00.0000. cc eee cece eee eee eeeees. 162

Document no. 48.0.0... 00.00. eee eee eee ee eeees 166

Document no. 49.0.0... cece eee eeeeeeees 170 Document no. 50.... 0... cece ete ee ee eee eeeeees 176

Document no. 51.......0 00... ce cee eee eee e ee eeeaees 182 Document no. 52.... 0... 0... eee cece eee eee eceeeees 186 Document no. 53...... 000. eee eee cece eee ee eeeeees 190 Document no. 54.0... 0... 00. cc eee eee cece eee eee veeees 192 Document no. 55....00. 0.0.00. ee cee cece eee eee e ee eee 196

Document no. 56........ 0.0.0.0. ee cee e ee eee eee es 198

Document no. 57.......0. 00.000 cece ce eee cent eee eeeeee. 200

Document no. 58.......0 00.00. eee eee eee eee eee ees 202

Document no. 59... 0... eee eee e eee eee eeess 206

Document no. 60......... 0.0.0... cee cece eee eee e ee eeaeeees. 210 , Document no. 61....... 0.0.00 ee eee eee eee eeeeeees 214 Document no. 62.....0.0.0. 00.0. eee eee cece eee neeee. 216 Document no. 63.....0.0 0000 cc ce eee eee ee eee eee eee 220

Document no. 64....... 0000 ccc ccc eee e eee eeees 222

Document no. 65.2.0... 0000 eee teen e seen ees. 224 Document no. 66......0. 00.000. eee cece cece teen eee 226

Document no. 67. .......00.00 00 ccc eee eee eee tees 230 Document no. 68.......... 0.0.0.0. eee eee eee eee eee eae eee. 234

Document no. 69.0.0... 000.0 cee ee ee ee eee seen ees 238 Document no. 70.......... 0.0... eee eee e eee e ne eeeeees 242 Document no. 71........ 0.0.0.0... cee eee eee eee eee eee §=246 Document no. 72.......0 000.0 eee cee eee cesses eeeeee. 250 Document no. 73.......... 000... cee cece nese eens sees. 254 Document no. 74.......0. 000.000. eee eee eee ee eee eeee. 256 Documents no. 75, 76, 77 .... 0... ee cee eee eee eee ees. 258

Documents no. 78, 79, 80 ........ 0... cee ee eee ee ee eee ee. 262

Document no. 81........ 0.0.0.0... eee eee e ee ee eee. =266

Document no. 82........ 00.0000. e neces eeeeee. 270 Documents no. 83, 84, 85 ......... 0... ee ee ee ee eee ee eee. 274 Documents no. 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91,92 ........................... 278 Documents no. 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98.0... eee eee eee. §=©284

Documents no. 99, 100, 101 ....... 0... ee ee eee eee ee. 290 , Documents no. 102, 103, 104 ...... 0.0... ee ee eee ees 294

Documents no. 105, 106, 107 ......... 0.0... ee eee ee eee =298 Document no. 108...... 0.0.0.0. eee cece eee eee eee eeeees 302 Documents no. 109, 110, 111, 112 ... 0... eee eee eee ees §=308 Documents no. 113, 114.......0.00 000.00. ee ee eee eee eeeee. 314 Documents no. 115, 116, 117, 118, 119 ............0................. 318

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1X

Documents no. 120, 121, 122 ......... 20.00... ee eee eee §=324

Document no. 123.......0 00.00. eee eee eee eeees 328

Documents no. 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129......................4... 330 Documents no. 130, 131........ 0.0.0... 0. ce eee eee eee eee. 334

Document no. 132..... 0.0.00. ee eee eee eee eeese 336

Document no. 133....02 000. eee eee ee eee. 338

Document no. 134... 0.200.000. eee ee eee eee eee JAZ

Documents no. 135, 136......00 00.00. eee ee eee ee §=346 Document no. 137.....0.0 00.000. cc eee eee eens cesses. 350

Document no. 138 (recto) .......0.0. 0.0.00 cece eee eee eee eee. 352 Documents no. 138 (verso), 139 .... 0.0.0.0... eee eee eee eee eee. 356

Document no. 140....... 0.0.0.0. 2c eee eee eee eee §=358

Document no. 150.......0 0.0... ee eee cece eee ees 362

Document no. 151.......0. 0.0.0... eee eee eee ee eee es. 364 Document no. 152.00... 000... ce eee ee eee eee ee eee 366

Document no. 153...00 0.0000 eee eee eee eee. 368 Document no. 154.0... 0.00000. ce eee eee eee eeees 370

Bible no. 16 .. 0... cee eee eee eee aes O74 Bible no. 18 ........ 00.0. cee eee eevee eeeeeeesee. 410

Bible no. 19 2... eee eee e eee ee eeeeeeve. 412

Bible no. 23 2... cc cence eee n eee eee eeveess 414 Bible no. 25 20... cee eee eee e eens eee e eee ee 415

Bible no. 45 2... eee eee e seen eeeeees 416 Bible no. 46 2.0.0... cee eee eee eee eee 446 Bible no. 47 2.0. cc eect eee eee eee neeeeeeesss 458

Massachusetts Historical Society Massachuset Psalter (MHSP)......... 466

Watkinson Manitowompae Pomantamoonk (MaPo) ................. 470

Part 2 Chapter 3: GRAMMATICAL SKETCH ..............000 020 e eee eee) 473

Chapter 4: WORD INDEX ...........-0 0000s SIS Chapter 5: ENGLISH INDEX .............0 00000 e eee e eee 7583 APPENDIX ........ 0c ccc ccc cent e cence ete e tent ee teen ee eee eeaee 773

BIBLIOGRAPHY ........... ccc ccc eee eee eee eee eee ee 78S

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ABBREVIATIONS (Some grammatical abbreviations are used with or without a period; e.g. "pl" or "pl." for plural.)

first person singular 221(insecond person singular formulas with 0 and V) secondary object

3lpthird person animate singular first person plural exclusive 12 first person plural inclusive 2p second person plural 3p third person animate plural 37 third person obviative 0Opthird thirdperson personinanimate inanimatesingular plural

abs. absolute }

absn. absentative Add. additional leaf (annotated but not part of Bible text) AI animate intransitive AI+0 transitivized animate intransitive (AI plus object)

b. born |

AN anim.animate animate B annotated Bible (docs. no. 216, 218, 219, 223, 225, 245, 246, 247) C Cotton (1829); cited by manuscript page C consonant ca. about cf. compare ch.Chilmark changed Ch. section in Banks (1911, 2)

d. died

conj. conjunct | ch. conj. changed changedsubjunctive conjunct ch. subj.

contemp. transl. contemporary translation

DCHS Dukes County Historical Society, Edgartown DD Dukes County Deeds, Registry of Deeds, Edgartown

DemPr demonstrative pronoun doc. document

docs. documents

DP Dukes County Probate Records, Edgartown

E. Edgartown section in Banks (1911, 2)

ed. editor, edited by e.g.edition, for example

El. John Eliot Eng. English eX. exx. example examples excl. fut. exclusive future

f.s. false start

G. Gosnold section in Banks (1911, 2)

gen. ed. general editor

G.H. Gay Head section in Banks (1911, 2) G+N noun phrase consisting of possessor and possessed noun Gr. Eliot (1666), cited from reprint by page of first edition Hatchets Hatchets to Hew Down the Tree of Sin (Treat 1705)

inan., INAN inanimate ~ a II inanimate intransitive incl. inclusive

ind. indicative IndefPr indefinite pronoun imp. imperative

l. line

XI

X11 ABBREVIATIONS

lit. literally ll. lines(local name) LN place-name loc. locative loc. 2 second locative

M.A. Massachusetts State Archives

MaPo annotated Manitowompae Pomantamoonk (Bayly 1685)

Mass. Massachusett MD Middlesex County Deeds mePs metrical Psalms | MHS Massachusetts Historical Society MCR Middlesex County Court Records

MHSP MHS psalter (annotated copy of Mayhew 1709)

MP Middlesex County Probate Records

mss. Martha’s manuscripts M.V. Vineyard

N nounnoun NA animate

NAd dependent animate noun Nant. Nantucket Nat. Natick ND Nantucket County Deeds, Registry of Deeds, Nantucket. neg. negative NI inanimate noun noun NId dependent inanimate

no. number NP Nantucket County Probate Records, Nantucket.

N=N equational sentence (one noun or nominal equated to another)

0obj.object objective obv. obviative opp. opposite Pp plural (p) particle singular or plural P p. page perf. perfective

O.B. Oak Bluffs section in Banks (1911, 2)

PD Plymouth County Deeds, Registry of Deeds, Plymouth

perh.personal perhaps PerPr pronoun

pl. plural

Plym. Plymouth PN personal name poss. possessed noun (poss. 1 = first-person-possessed noun, etc.)

ppl. participle PreN prenoun pret. preterite Prev preverb prob. probablyphrase PrP prepositional

PP Plymouth County Probate Records, Plymouth

Quant quantifier qeV. see which (refers to Word Index) qq.V. see which ones (refers to Word Index)

recip. redupl. reciprocal reduplicated

ref. reference

S (in documents) seal S (in grammar) subject

ser. series

subd. subordinative subj. subjunctive

S.V. in the entry headed (such-and-such) (in the Word Index) S.VV. in the entries headed (such-and-such) (in the Word Index)

T Trumbull (1903)

ABBREVIATIONS Xill

T. Tisbury sectionanimate in Banks (1911, 2) TA transitive TA+0 double-object transitive animate (TA plus second object) TI transitive inanimate TI-O objectless transitive inanimate (TI minus object)

TI-la transitive inanimate of class la TI-1lbtransitive transitiveinanimate inanimate of of class class lb TI-2 TI-3 transitive inanimate of class 23

t.p. page transl.title translation, translated

t-subd.uncertain t-subordinative unc. ve | see (in the word index in the entry given)

V verb vel sim. or the like viz. namely We with

W.T. West Tisbury section in Banks (1911, 2) X (in texts) signature mark X (in grammatical formulas) indefinite person

ZH. Zachary Hossueit

EDITORIAL CONVENTIONS AND SPECIAL SYMBOLS

" (Cover letter) breve (short mark) in Cotton’s transcriptions; the rare umlaut mark (two dots) is indicated by a raised ".

. (under letter) uncertain reading

_ (under letter) portion changed or added later - (after letter or element) letter or element is word-initial and must be followed by something - (before letter or element) letter or element is suffixed and must be preceded by something - (between English words) the connected words translate a single Massachusett word

-- dash (in document)

-~- (between [ ]) section of uncertain length is or may be missing

[ ]) traces of the number of letters indicated *-. (between form assumed to have existed but unattested

/| line divider end

= editorially supplied word divider |...{ (in Grammar) marks idealized transcription

(2) preceding translation (or transcription of name) uncertain -?-, - ? - section omitted from translation because of damage or (in Bible marginalia) complete unintelligibility

(...) (in translations) encloses words added to fit English style

(...) (in index headings) marks part ignored for alphabetization ("...") (in translations) encloses variant wording or spelling from the contemporary translation

[...] (in texts) encloses damaged portion

[...] (in translations) indicates roughly the extent of damage in the text, or a section omitted in a copy but restored from the contemporary translation {...] (in emendations) indicates the emended portion of the word

[...] (in Grammar) phonetic transcription [[...]] (in texts) encloses portion deleted by writer

{...} (in translations) encloses section repeated by writer or otherwise superfluous; also used the same way in citations, but not in the texts themselves {...} (in index headings) indicates head word of entry is not from the native writings (in emendations) encloses section omitted by writer

(in Grammar) spelling; letters cited as written 8 (in words) transcribes the double-o digraph; pronounced like Eng. oo. \*| (superscript) palatalization or the like (in the consonant transcribed [e°|)

lI (subscript) infection of preceding consonant

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PREFACE

The present work is an edition of all known manuscript writings in the Massachusett language by

native speakers (Table I). Because of the significance of these materials for many fields and areas of interest, basic linguistic, historical, and ethnographic analyses are included. Massachusett is an extinct Eastern Algonquian language spoken aboriginally and in the Colonial period in what is now southeastern Massachusetts. The Indians speaking this language are those referred to as the Massachusetts, the Wampanoags (or Pokanokets), and the Nausets, who inhabited the region encompassing the immediate Boston area and the area east of Narragansett Bay, including Cape Cod, the Elizabeth Islands, Martha’ s Vineyard, and Nantucket. The Massachusett Indians in

the narrow sense were those living in the Boston area, around the estuaries of the Charles and Neponset rivers, but Experience Mayhew attests the extension of the name Massachusett, in both English and Indian use, to refer to the language spoken over the entire area described (Mayhew 1709:title pages). The names and political status and relations of the other groups speaking Massachusett are less certain (Speck 1928; Salwen 1978). Linguistically, however, Massachusett as here defined is shown by the native documents to be a single language, though with a moderate

amount of dialectal diversity. (Contemporary statements, some of which appear to have been influenced by policy considerations, sometimes emphasize the uniformity and sometimes the dialectal differences.) It was in the Massachusett language that John Eliot produced his translation of the complete

Bible. When the finished work appeared in 1663 (Eliot 1663) it was the first Bible in any language to have been printed in the New World. It was reissued in 1685 (Eliot 1685) and a revision was planned, though later halted after only two books had been done (Mayhew 1709). Other

xvi PREFACE TABLE I: LOCATIONS OF THE DOCUMENTS

Number Doc. Type Location 1-6 Original mss. American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. Curwen Papers.

7 Original ms. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 8 Copy; stone Gay Head, Martha’s Vineyard; cited from Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, ser. lL, T:140 (1792).

9-13 Original MSS. Huntington Library, San Marino, California. 14-46 Copies; mss. County of Dukes County, Registry of Deeds, Edgartown, Mass.

47 Original ms. Private collection. 48 Copy; ms. County of Dukes County, Registry of Probate, Edgartown, Mass. 49-50 Original mss. Massachusetts State Archives, Boston, Mass. 51-57, 62-68 Original mss. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Mass.

58-59 Original mss. Private collection.

original mss. papers.

60-61 Photostats of Dukes County Historial Society, Edgartown, Mass. W.F. Gookin

69-81 Copies; mss. Nantucket County Registry of Deeds, Nantucket, Mass. 82-132 Original mss. Office of the Town Clerk, Natick, Mass.

133 Original ms. Pilgrim Society Library, Plymouth, Mass. | 134 Copy; ms. Plymouth County Registry of Deeds, Plymouth, Mass. 135-139 Original mss. Rhode Island Historical Society Library, Providence, R.I.

140 Copy; ms. . Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. J.H. Trumbull papers.

150-151 Original mss. Massachusetts State Archives, Boston, Mass.

152 Original stone Folger Museum, Nantucket, Mass. 153-154 Original mss. Massachusetts State Archives, Boston, Mass. B16 Original annotations Bible, Congregational Society Library, Boston, Mass. B18, B19 Original annotations Bibles, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Conn. B23 Copy of annotations Wilberforce Eames Bible; cited from Pilling (1891:161). B25 Copy of annotations Ellsworth Eliot Bible; cited from Pilling (1891:162). B45 Original annotations Bible, Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Penna. B46 Original annotations Bible, Pilgrim Society, Plymouth, Mass.

B47 Original annotations Bible, private collection. MHSP Original annotations Massachuset Psalter (Mayhew 1709), Massachusetts: Historical Society, Boston, Mass.

Hartford, Conn.

MaPo Original annotations Manitowompae Pomantamoonk (Bayly 1685), Watkinson Library,

PREFACE XVil

devotional literature and some legal publications also appeared in the language. The Indians in southeastern Massachusetts were early converts to Christianity and lived in Indian settlements that were generally self-governing in local affairs, though their relations with the English were overseen by Colonial authorities. In the Indian communities Indians served as magistrates, justices-of-the-peace, constables, preachers, school-teachers, and in other local offices. Many Indians learned to read the Bible, and some, at least, became adept writers of the Massachusett language. In this context many documents in Massachusett were produced in the normal course of conducting the daily affairs of the Indian communities. The writings of this nature that have survived, and that the editors have been able to locate, are presented in this edition. Deeds and other records of land transactions are the type of document best represented, others being records of town meetings and the decisions of special councils, depositions, wills, petitions, letters, notes, arrest warrants, a power-of-attorney, a notice of banns, and a preacher’s marriage record. Also included in the corpus are marginalia and other brief writings in books (principally Bibles) and two gravestones.

HISTORY OF THE PROJECT

The existence of some native Massachusett writings has always been known. Contemporaries ot the Indians attested to Indian literacy (Mayhew 1722; Sewall 1703), and surviving examples have been referred to in local histories of Natick (Biglow 1830:26-27) and Martha”s Vineyard (Banks 1911), in a survey of Massachusetts records (Massachusetts Record Commission 1894), and by the nineteenth-century Algonquianist J. Hammond Trumbull (1903:xxii, 26, 90) and twentieth-century scholars (Gookin 1952; Little 1979, 1980a, 1980b, 1981). Antiquarian interest in these writings began in the late eighteenth century, and curiously the latest of those in the present edition, a gravestone of 1787 (doc. no. 8), was the first to be published, appearing in the first number of

the Massachusetts Historical Society Collections in 1792. In 1802, two Nantucket citizens, Richard Macy and Richard Mitchell, presented a number of manuscripts collected on that island to the Massachusetts Historical Society with the express intention of thereby preserving examples of

the Indian language (docs. no. 54, 56, 57, 68, and apparently others), and the preservation of other documents is obviously due to the foresight of other, anonymous individuals. A large collection of "nearly fifty" Massachusett manuscripts was assembled by the Reverend D.W. Stevens of Vineyard Haven, who obtained them at Gay Head (Pilling 1891:341). Inconveniently, however, the

Bristol Historical Society (of Bristol, Rhode Island), which had received this collection as a bequest, sold it to a Boston book and manuscript dealer in 1910, who dispersed it in the usual manner through unrecorded sales. Although the items gathered by Stevens may be expected to have survived in personal and institutional collections, and indeed some may be included, unidentified, in the present edition, none have yet been located with certainty. In the present century, Warner F. Gookin of Martha’s Vineyard assembled copies of documents from several sources, and his papers in the Dukes County Historical Society in Edgartown include photostats of two otherwise unknown Massachusett documents (docs. no. 60, 61).

In spite of the occasional attention that the Massachusett documents had received, however, knowledge of their existence remained vague and incomplete and was confined to a few specialists

XVill PREFACE

and interested individuals. The information appearing in print was fragmentary, anecdotal, and

inaccurate. In the course of the present research project a number of previously unknown documents were uncovered, and for the first time the complete corpus has been catalogued,

transcribed, and translated. : The systematic location of the writings began in 1978, with the assistance of a Phillips” Fund

grant from the American Philosophical Society. At that time the editors had seen only the documents in the Rhode Island Historical Society (docs. no. 135-139). The writings were most often located within a particular collection by searching the documents catalogued as "Indian" records or under the names of particular Indians. Less frequently, documents were found under the

heading "Indian language" and, occasionally, under "miscellanous" or "unidentified." In the public record offices the writings were often filed under specific native surnames, or under the heading "Indian."

Some of the writings were brought to the editors” attention by other scholars, namely Clarkson A. Collins III, Elizabeth A. Little, William S. Simmons, Richard A. Rhodes, Gale Huntington, and Thomas Norton. Warner Gookin’s papers provided leads to a number of uncatalogued manuscripts at - the Massachusetts Historical Society. Annotations in the Massachusett Bibles were located by contacting every library said to possess such a work in Wilberforce Eames“s listing (Eames 1890; Pilling 1891:132-169), and many others as

well. Also brought to light were an annotated Massachusett Psalter in the Massachusetts Historical Society and an annotated copy of the 1685 edition of Manitowompae Pomantamoonk (Bayly

1685), a translation of Lewis Bayly”s Practice of Piety, in the Watkinson Library.

In addition to the Stevens collection, there are other manuscripts that are known to have existed but are now missing. A letter written by Zachary Hossueit to another native minister, Solomon Briant, is known in the form of a copy made by Trumbull (doc. no. 140), but the original cannot be located in the Trumbull papers at the Watkinson Library. The Tozzer Library of Harvard University contains a manuscript copy of a Massachusett diary or account book with the annotation "Mr. Wharf knows who owns this," but no record of the whereabouts of the original can be found and the copy is too inaccurate to be used (Manasses 1718).

Each of the manuscripts was examined and transcribed by one and usually both of the editors. Although access to the documents was generally easy thanks to the generous cooperation of the

staffs of the many libriaries, archives, and public record offices visited, in one case the editors had to enlist the aid of the Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Records before being able to view a set of town records.

The records are in various stages of preservation. In the best condition are the documents in the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Massachusetts State Archives, which have obviously been little used since being received years ago. Some others show the wear and minor loss of paper at the edges and creases that might be expected; in some cases the autopsy, often aided by

natural backlight, revealed letters not visible in the photographs. For the checking of some

PREFACE xix doubtful places in the Huntington Library manuscripts, the editors are indebted to Herbert Landar. The contemporary copies of deeds and other documents from Martha’s Vineyard that are in the Dukes County land records are in fragile condition and have suffered some rodent damage and edge deterioration; some text has been obscured by the crude conservation measure of overpasting strips

and squares of paper and had to be read by backlighting with a pocket flashlight. The town records of Natick have recently been conserved, but only after suffering years of deterioration; photographs taken in 1904, which preserve portions that had crumbled away by the time the records

were examined in 1982, had to be used as the basis for the present edition. These photographs

already show extensive damage, though a few additional letters can be supplied from the handwritten facsimile prepared by Austin Bacon (1858-1859). Several of the Bibles have undergone modern rebinding that has resulted in the cutting down of the margins and the destruction of parts

of the marginal annotations. The 1787 gravestone is reported to be illegible as a result of having been vandalized by rifle practice, but it appears to be accurately represented by an engraved sketch (Hare 1932:opp. 208) and the early publication, which are used here. [In other cases the damage is what material-culture specialists would call ethnographic. The Psalter in the Massachusetts Historical Society has been heavily used by Indian readers, and the annotations on the back endpapers have suffered badly from the wear and tear. The warrants in the Rhode Island

Historical Society were written on reused pieces of paper, and in the process the earlier documents were largely destroyed (docs. no. 135, 137).

Transcription of the records proceeded through several stages. An initial transcription was made from the original. A photostatic copy was also obtained of each manuscript, to which the original transcriptions were compared. Photographs of the manuscripts were eventually obtained

for each of the writings allowing further refinements in the transcriptions. Finally, each revised transcription was compared again with the original.

Similarly, the translations of the texts were gradually improved over time. The basic sources for the analysis were Eliot’s grammatical sketch (Eliot 1666), Trumbull”s dictionary of the language of Eliot”s Bible translation (Trumbull 1903), Josiah Cotton”s vocabulary and dialogues (Cotton 1829; Nichols 1822), and Roger Williams” 1643 phrasebook of the closely related Narragansett language, A Key into the Language of America (Williams 1936), and some use was made of the glossary in William Wood”s New Englands Prospect (Wood 1634, 1977) and Experience Mayhew’ s

letter (Mayhew 1722). The English translations recorded with thirteen of the documents copied into the Martha”°s Vineyard and Nantucket land records were extremely helpful, especially in the many places where the copies had errors and omissions, but their occasional looseness and minor inaccuracies had to be controlled from the Indian text (docs. no. 17, 18, 22, 35, 45, 46; 69, 70, 74, 78, 79, 80, 81). Contemporary translations were also found for two of the original documents

(no. 47, 49), and one had a parallel English text (doc. no. 123). A simple interlinear was published with the 1787 gravestone (doc. no. 8). Preliminary and necessarily somewhat unsystematic studies of the language of the Bible and of Mayhew’s translation of the Psalms and the Gospel of John (Mayhew 1709) turned up some helpful lexical items and grammatical formations not in the sources mentioned. Where these sources gave out, some success was achieved by internal

analysis using the combinatory method, though the small size of the corpus limited the effectiveness of this approach. In only a very few cases was interpretation based on direct

XX PREFACE comparison with related Algonquian languages; where such comparative evidence was used it is noted

in the word index. Most of the residue of uncertain words is in the copies or relates to types of geographical features that cannot be deduced from context; some names of objects and kinship terms also remain uninterpreted.

In principle correct translation depended on correct transcription, but since attempts at translation sometimes highlighted problems in the texts or suggested insights that led to improvements in the transcription, both processes in fact progressed jointly. Terms or phrases that could not be translated at first often became clear later after their patterns of use were determined. Although some words remain untranslated, the editors have a high degree of confidence

in the translations presented and have tried to be conscientious in indicating doubtful places. In one case a contemporary translation was discovered after the editors had prepared their own and provided confirmation on almost all points.

Early in the project the editors determined that compiling a complete word index was desirable and would be facilitated by computerizing the data. Accordingly, each text was coded and entered into a file on a Honeywell 66/80 mainframe computer. The format used was that of the SELGEM programs developed at the Smithsonian Institution for the purpose of museum collections inventory;

although far from ideal for text indexing, these programs were the only ones available to the editors that could be used for this purpose. The restricted character set available forced the adoption of ad hoc ways of transcribing accents and ad hoc substitutions for editorial conventions such as underlining and dotting. In addition, ad hoc characters were inserted in the text to mark off pronominal prefixes and to indicate where absent word boundaries should be considered to be present and where indicated word boundaries should be ignored. After extensive experimentation, the computer furnished a word-in-context concordance of every occurrence of every word (minus any

prefix), as well as a simple listing of each distinct spelling together with a consolidated list of text references. This simple listing was then transferred to 8" diskettes for use on a Digital Equipment Corporation DECmate I word-processor and served as the skeleton of the word index. Writing the word index involved moving the various inflectional forms and variant spellings of a

stem into single entries, with cross-references left behind, and adding translations, labels of grammatical category, and other comments and notes. Also, a considerable amount of editing of the

forms themselves was required to restore a number of features that had been eliminated in the process of producing a single alphabetized index. These eliminated features were: the pronominal

prefixes, the contrast between upper and lower case, all of the editoral conventions, and the letter 8 (transcribing the special fused double o introduced by Eliot), which had been replaced by

oo in order to have it alphabetized as oo. The editors are aware that the elimination of these features is not the optimal solution to the problem of indexing, but the Museum of Natural History ADP unit is not sufficiently staffed or funded to write or otherwise obtain the special programs that would have been needed to do things another way. After the word index was completed in its

present form, the services of a volunteer were enlisted to write a program that sorted it by grammatical label, producing a categorized listing of examples that served as the framework for the grammatical sketch. The running of this program involved another transfer from the DECmate to

the Honeywell and back, but this time the only casualties were the loss of underlining and the

printing of the accents and subscript dots to the right of the letters they had been over or

PREFACE Xx]

under. The fact that these various features had to be re-entered or adjusted by hand in the word index and the grammatical sketch has no doubt introduced some errors, and where a discrepancy is found the transcription in the Massachusett text should be taken as correct. Other indexes were also compiled. A sort of all grammatical forms in original documents was used in writing some sections of the grammatical sketch, and a reverse sort was prepared but proved to be of little

use. .

The camera-ready copy for this book was prepared on a Digital Equipment Corporation LQP02 printer with a standard Camwil Prestige Elite 12-pitch ASCII 96 M2167 print wheel. The copy was printed on special 10 1/2" x 14" paper and reduced by 81 percent. Major headings were typeset and

inserted by hand, and the captions and photographs were prepared separately. The printer sometimes exhibited imperfect vertical registration after printing an overstruck subscript dot, and had imperfect lateral registration of the underlining in lines justified on the right. To be sure of the correct scope of the partial underlining of words, the text edition, which is not right-justified, should be consulted. Some difficulties encountered were inherent in the texts, which present a number of editorial problems not found in epigraphic texts or manuscripts in well known languages. The writing system

developed by Eliot for Massachusett includes devices for indicating unambiguously all of the phonemically distinct segments of the language, except in a few specific cases in restricted environments. Even Eliot, however, did not use his orthographic devices consistently, and each native writer seems to have made his own selection and developed his own system. In addition, the language itself shows a fair amount of dialectal diversity and was never standardized, although the Bible exerted a certain amount of normative influence on some writers.

The handwriting of the texts varies greatly in legibility and consistency. The letter shapes are basically those of the Italian hand, with an admixture of the older, English letters that gradually diminishes through time. Although Colonial American vernacular hands have not been systematically surveyed, the handwriting of the Massachusett documents is probably generally

typical of the period and region, though with a fair number of idiosyncratic details here and there. The native writers range in competence from the obviously fluent and accurate Zachary Hossueit (docs. no. 7, 12, 49, 65, 140) to the struggling and often incoherent beginners who practiced on the available blank paper in some of the Bibles. These characteristics of the texts sometimes make the determination of correct readings problematical, especially in cases where orthographic consistency is not sufficiently dependable to resolve a graphic ambiguity. For example, it can be completely arbitrary how to transcribe a letter that by its shape could be either an o or an a if it occurs in a word where both letters are orthographically possible, as they often are. It can be similarly impossible to tell in some cases if a writer intends the special fused double o (transcribed 8) or the sequence oo, which for many writers (though not for the Bible standard of Eliot) was freely substitutable for it.

The major distinction to be made in the Massachusett writings that bears upon their general reliability and usefulness is that between original and copy. In this classification any writing done by a native speaker is considered to be an original, even if it is known to have been copied

XX11 PREFACE

from something else. There is clear evidence that the Indians made copies of some documents, particularly deeds, for their own purposes, since in two cases two versions of a single document have survived (docs. no. 30 and 32, 51 and 52). In other cases it may obviously be uncertain whether what survives is an original, operative document or a roughly contemporary copy. All such copies made by Indians are, however, by writers who understood the language of the document and wrote with the same comprehension they would have brought to primary writings of their own. Furthermore, native copies differ in degree of originality only slightly from the common type of

primary document which is the record on paper of the utterances of a speaker or speakers other | | than the writer. These considerations make it both impractical and inadvisable to impose on the native-written documents a strict classification into originals and copies. Entirely distinct in their accuracy and reliability from the Indian-drafted documents are the copies made by English clerks and latter-day scholars, who did not have native comprehension of what they wrote. The editors have accordingly concluded that the basic distinction between original and copy would be

most useful if the label copy were restricted to such non-native versions. The notes to the edition of course include discussions of the particulars of the individual documents.

The documents were assigned catalogue numbers according to their present locations, in

archives, libraries, or whatever. These are arranged alphabetically, and in the listing for each ) the documents are ordered as nearly as possible by date. Four documents were catalogued with those at the Massachusetts Historical Society because the photostats from which they are or were at first known are in the Gookin papers with photostats of documents later located there, and it was assumed that all the photostats came from the same source; two of these four documents were located elsewhere and two have not yet been found, but renumbering would have imposed a pointless

burden on the indexing process. Distinct documents appearing on the same page were assigned separate numbers (e.ge separate entries or copies of separate documents), but endorsements and addresses on the verso were considered part of the main document. The first set of documents to be catalogued was assigned the numbers numbers 1 through 140, and a few that came to light at various times after the indexing was underway were assigned the numbers 150 through 154. Bible annotations were given designations consisting of the letter B followed by the number from the Eames list for the second edition (Eames 1890; Pilling 1891:132-169). The annotated Massachuset Psalter and Manitowompae Pomantamoonk are designated by the letters MHSP and MaPo, respectively. Table I gives a breakdown of the catalogue numbers by location and document type.

Lines have been numbered according to their order in the originals, continuing to the verso or additional page or pages where appropriate. References are given to document number and line number in the form 53:2 (doc. no. 53, line 2); in documents with more than one page the page number is given as well, e.g. 12:2.60 (doc. no. 12, page 2, line 60 of the whole document).

The annotations in the Bibles and the Psalter are referred to by location, but since there are no page numbers the reference is to the chapter in which the annotation appears and the number of the annotation in the chapter. A page containing more than one chapter is designated as being in

the chapter that first begins on that page. Pages on which no Bible text appears (end papers, blank leaves, title pages, tables of contents, and dedication pages), but which have annotations, are numbered Addl, Add2, and so forth. References have the form B45:Dani,2.1 (Bible no. 45,

PREFACE XX1i1

second annotation in Daniel, line 1). The program to produce the word index gave a four-character designation to every book of the Bible and these unambiguous though sometimes unconventional abbreviations have been retained; the references to the annotations are thus readily distinguished from the references to words in the text of the Bible, which have the conventional form, e.g. Dan. 2:1 (Book of Daniel, chapter 2, verse 1).

THE EDITION

This edition of the Massachusett texts includes interpretive aids and commentary of several kinds. Each chapter has an introductory section that discusses its particular features. The introduction presents the historical and ethnographic context of the native writings and summarizes the kind of information that has been obtained from them about the Christian Indian

communities of southeastern Massachusetts. ,

The documents themselves are the central part of this study. These are presented in a narrow edition of the sort traditionally referred to as diplomatic; that is, the printed text reproduces

as nearly as possible what is in the documents and does not incorporate emendations or restorations. To the extent practical photographs are provided for each document; only an illustrative sample of the marginalia are given in photographs. Documents on the same original page, and therefore in the same photograph, are grouped together. The translations have to serve two purposes, not only that of accurately conveying the meaning

of the texts to the majority of interested readers but also that of serving as a close gloss on the texts for use in linguistic analysis. As a consequence, the translations have been made as close to the Massachusett wording and phrasing as is possible without introducing ambiguity into the English. The chief source of problems for a close translation is differences of word order.

For example, in English the subject precedes the verb and the object follows, with great regularity, but in Massachusett subject, verb, and object may occur in any order, the differences

reflecting subtle features of focus and emphasis. As a result, the close English translation contains a lot of choppy phrasing and resumptive pronouns and would obviously bear editing to improve its style in some places. The notes accompanying each document or set of documents include a brief summation of the

content of the document, with appropriate background information, and a description of the peculiarities of the writer”’s handwriting. The textual apparatus treats the physical aspects of the texts, the details regarding damaged areas, possible additional or alternate readings, and the like. The Massachusett word index is the compendium of information on the Massachusett words in the

texts. Given the unique nature of these materials and the relatively small size of the corpus it was thought both desirable and feasible to provide a concordance of every occurrence of every word. The emendations of forms that are assumed are given here. Some information is given on

XXIV PREFACE

personal names and place-names, but this is confined to the indication of synonyms and the citation of variants that might be useful for the interpretation of these lexical items from a linguistic point of view. The grammatical sketch serves as a preliminary analysis of the Massachusett language as reflected in the native documents. Except for a few very common inflections, every occurence of every form has been given. Many forms not attested in the native texts have been supplied from

Eliot or occasionally other sources, but it was obviously neither possible nor desirable to attempt a complete compendium of Massachusett grammar at this point. Such a project would presumably have to begin with a systematic compilation of the forms in Eliot’s Bible.

The English index is essentially an index to the translations; the locations are given by document number only. Where possible, additional biographical and topographical information has been included with each personal name and place name.

The contemporary translations and some other related documents have been included in toto in the Appendix.

PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS

The photographs published here were obtained from the following photographers and institutions: documents no. 1-6: American Antiquarian Society; 7: Clements Library; 8: Victor Krantz (National Museum of Natural History) from the credited publication; 9-13: Huntington Library; 14-24: Mark Lovewell; 25: M.C. Wallo; 26-48: Mark Lovewell; 49-50: Steve Nelson (Fay Foto Service, Boston);

51-57: Massachusetts Historical Society; 58-59: Victor Krantz (National Museum of Natural History); 60-61: Victor Krantz (National Museum of Natural History) from negative photstats in the Dukes County Historical Society; 62-68: Massachusetts Historical Society; 69-81: Terry Pommett (The Camera Shop, Nantucket); 82-129: Victor Krantz (National Museum of Natural History) from positive photostats in the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution (ms. no.

1163); 133-134: Anthony I. Baker; 135-139: Rhode Island Historical Society; 140: Watkinson Library; 150-151: Steve Nelson (Fay Foto Service, Boston); 152: Terry Pommett (The Camera Shop, Nantucket); 153-154, B16: Steve Nelson (Fay Foto Service, Boston); B45: Kathleen J. Bragdon; B46: Anthony I. Baker.

INTRODUCTION

The Massachusett texts are witness to one of the most significant and least understood periods of southern New England native history. These texts, written by native speakers of Massachusett,

an Eastern Algonquian language, were created as part of one of the earliest instances of widespread vernacular literacy in native North America. They reflect aspects of everyday life among the Massachusett speakers from the 1660s to the 1750s, a period when they formed largely self-governing, self-sufficient Christian communities. As such, these records document a phase of Indian history between the period of early contact and that of the Indians” emergence as a modern political entity. The speakers of Massachusett comprised the groups commonly referred to as the Massachusetts, the Pokanokets (or Wampanoags), and the Nausets, and their territories encompassed coastal regions from the Merrimac River south to Narragansett Bay, including Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. They were among the first Native Americans encountered by European

explorers in the Northeast, and their lands were coveted by the earliest English settlers in New

England. Consequently, they are relatively well described in early sources (especially Verrazzano, in Wroth 1970; Wood 1634; Winslow 1624; Gookin 1806). These sources have been analyzed in a number of studies describing the nature of early contact-period Massachusett culture (Marten 1970; Brasser 1971; Salwen 1978) and will be only briefly summarized here. The present

introduction is concerned with describing the later history of the Massachusett, as it is reflected in the Massachusett texts.

1

2 INTRODUCTION THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE MASSACHUSETT DOCUMENTS

The basic native political unit of the early historic period among the Massachusett was the sachemship, which consisted of a sachem (sontim) and his family, the chief men (ahtoskauwaog)-high-ranking individuals who served as a council--the subjects of the sachem referred to as the common men (missinninnuog), and other individuals about whose status less is known. The sachem was usually male, and a member of a privileged lineage. Any member of a sachem lineage might also be referred to as sachem. The English term sachem was borrowed from a word recorded from various southern New England dialects as, for example, sontim, sachim, and saunchen; the counterpart of the sachem in the Algonquian groups of northern New England, particularly as encountered along the coast of Maine, was known by a term borrowed into English as sagamore. The Eastern Algonquian words that were the sources of sachem and sagamore are both reflexes of ProtoAlgonquian *sa’kima’wa “chief” (Goddard 1965:217), the differences being accounted for by regular sound changes. In the languages of southern New England Proto-Algonquian *k was replaced in

certain contexts by a palatalized [t”], which was spelled t (te, ti) or ch (Goddard 1981:76-84), and final syllables of certain shapes were regularly lost. Hence, the terms sachem and sagamore were in origin the same word and referred to the same position, not to superior and inferior chiefs, as some historians of southern New England have assumed (e.g. Hubbard 1815:31).

Early sources stress the heritable nature of native social status and suggest that the social

structure of southern New England native society was unusual in the rigidity of its Stratification. The early descriptions were, of course, colored by the perceptions of observers who saw in the native system elements attributable to their own (Kupperman 1980:50), but most

historical sources agree that the sachemship, at least, was inherited through the male line (Simmons and Aubin 1975:24). The exact direction of succession is not completely clear, however.

In some areas in southern New England, particularly among the Narragansett, the office of sachemship was held by two males related by blood or marriage (Williams 1936:202; Lechford 1642:105). The office of sachem could also be held by a woman (Wood 1634:79). Since the Massachusett evidently reckoned kinship under a classificatory system whose principles were not

understood by the English observers, the historical sources leave in doubt whether the office descended directly from father to biological son, or sometimes to a classificatory son. In addition, some seventeenth-century authors believed that the office passed to the brother of the sachem before descending to the sons of either (Hubbard 1815:18, 84). A man might be granted sachem rights for life, if he married a woman of the sachem’s lineage and was granted those rights by the sachem and his advisors. Some men held such rights as a form of regency as well.

The Massachusett texts lend weight to the argument that the office of the sachem descended directly from father to son, whether biological or classificatory, although not necessarily to the first-born (doc. no. 17, 18). In 1701 for example, the chief men and common men of Takemmy (West Tisbury, Martha”s Vineyard) declared their acknowledgment of the succession to the sachemship of

Zachariah Peeskin, the first-born son of their sachem Josiah (doc. no. 37). An heir might lose

INTRODUCTION 3

his right to succeed to the position by neglecting to carry out the commands or wishes of previous sachems and their advisors, or by failing to protect the sachemship itself (doc. no. 22).

The chief men of each sachemship also inherited a constellation of rights and responsibilities. The Massachvsett word for “chief men”, ahtoskauwaog, was used for “nobles” by Eliot, and they are referred to in English documents as "chief men," "great men," or “principal men" (contemporary translations of docs. no. 17, 18, 22), and Williams (1936:128, 141) called them "rulers" and "lords," showing a perceived similarity to the English House of Lords. The chief men advised the sachem, and early descriptions imply that the sachem’s wishes were not binding without the consent of his advisors (Mayhew 1694:7; Williams 1936:142).

In addition to the sachems, the chief men, and their kinsmen, were the common people. These people, whose membership in the sachemship was also inherited, owed allegience to the sachem and were subject to his control. At the same time, the consent of the common people was required in

matters of import, such as decisions regarding land (docs. no. 17, 18, 22). There were other categories of community members whose rights and responsibilities are less well understood. For example, Edward Winslow (1624:55, 57) described individuals called pnieses whose function was to

collect tribute for the sachem. The origin of the title is unclear, however, and they are not mentioned elsewhere. The military leaders (mugquompaog, mummugquompaog [Trumbull 1903:67]) may

also have had a position in the civil government. Finally, there were those who inherited the status of landlessness, or that of servants or slaves (Mayhew 1694:9; Williams 1936:5).

Many passages in the Massachusett documents describe the nature of the sachemships of the early historic period. It appears that each sachemship, in addition to its obvious association with a particular sachem or sachem’s lineage, had a known constituency. Other evidence indicates that the members of the sachemship inherited that membership along with its concomitant land rights, or were accepted into the ranks of the sachem’s subjects by marriage or by the consent of the sachem and his council. Eligibility for membership in the sachemship was also determined by one’s loyalty to the sachem and to his or her wishes (e.g. doc. no. 22). The sachemship was thus made up of those who defended it (kannootammanshittogik nussontummoonk

"[those] that Defend My Sachemship" [doc. no. 35 and contemporary translation]), whether kin or followers of the sachem. Loyalty was not just to the present sachem, however, but extended beyond to the sachemship as an ongoing, organic social grouping, to which one’s ancestors had belonged and to which one’s own descendants (nuppometuonk “my posterity”) would be loyal. When sachems granted the use of land they often explicitly bound their descendants to the arrangements (e.g. docs. 3:9; 4:14; 9:15-16; 10:7-8; 11:2-3) and sometimes stated that the grant was valid as long as the grantee had descendants (docs. 1:17; 36:13). Other cases may be located by referring to the

word index for the various passages in which forms of (nup)pometuonk “my posterity, my descendants” is found. Sachemships were associated with specific geographic locations, well known to the sachems and their followers. The early contact-period sachemships probably did not have specific boundaries

like those of English townships but were rather centered on various resource-locations and

4 INTRODUCTION

topographic features, and perhaps marked by rivers or brooks (Williams 1936:167). For example, : Mittark of Gay Head described himself as "sachem at Kuhtuhquehchuet [Gay Head] and Nashaquetasset [Nashaquitsa] as far as Wanemessit" (doc. no. 22).

MISSIONS AMONG THE SOUTHEASTERN NEW ENGLAND INDIANS

Following the settlement of southern New England by members of the English Puritan and

Separatist sects, the Massachusett speakers, the Narragansetts, and their neighbors found themselves increasingly circumscribed and ultimately dominated politically and militarily by the English. Their numbers were also reduced by disease and out-migration, and their lands were diminished through sale to and take-over by the English settlers. As early as 1651 in Natick and perhaps earlier on Martha”’s Vineyard, some natives had sought instruction from English missionaries, while others were coerced into hearing the missionaries” message. John Eliot, Cambridge-educated teacher of the Roxbury church, embarked on missionary work in 1642 convinced

that the Indians must be instructed in their own language, that religious texts ought to translated into Massachusett, and that the Indians” conversion and instruction would best be achieved by the foundation of permanent Christian Indian communities. This policy became the rule throughout the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies (Kawashima 1969a, 1969b) and in fact

facilitated English control over the natives (Salisbury 1974; Jennings 1971). It is in the context of the Christian Indian communities of the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries that

the texts analyzed in this edition were created. : The oldest English Protestant missionary organization, the Society for the Propagation of the

Gospel in New England, later known as the New England Company, was founded in 1649 and was devoted

initially to the conversion of the natives of New England (Kellaway 1961). The efforts of the Society were thus inextricably tied to the development of the Christian Indian communities in southern New England known as "plantations" or Praying Towns, and to the growth of vernacular literacy in Massachusett.

Interest in supporting missionary work in New England was aroused after the publication of four influential tracts between 1647 and 1649 concerning the early successes of English settlers in converting the Indians. This interest was encouraged by lobbyists for the colonies, especially Edward Winslow, and Winslow and his patrons were successful in securing the passage of the legislation that established the New England Company. The Society”s goal was the acquisition of funds for the support of missionary work in New England, and soon after the Society”s founding, the first donations were distributed to established missionary efforts such as Eliot”s. The New England Company also provided funding for the education of Indian students and missionaries at Harvard College, as well as for the publication of several more tracts describing the progress of the gospel in New England.

Funds from the Society were administered in New England by the Commissioners of the United Colonies, a body established in 1643 to oversee the common interests of the several New England colonies. The Commissioners were to use the money for the erection of native schools and meeting

INTRODUCTION fe)

houses, to pay ministers and teachers of the Indians, and to purchase food, clothing, seed, and tools for the Indians” use. After 1684, the Society”s funds were distributed by Commissioners

appointed by the Society itself. , THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PRAYING TOWNS

John Eliot, active in missionary work among the Massachusett for almost 50 years, was influential in the direction taken by the Society in encouraging native Christianity. Eliot had reached the conclusion early in his missionary career that the Indians would be best converted in

a settled and isolated environment, protected from the encroachments and influence of the surrounding English settlers. His efforts to found a Christian community at Natick led to the passage of legislation in 1651 allowing for the establishment of Indian "plantations" (Kawashima 1969b:43). In 1658, the legislature enacted specific provisions for the governing of the Indian communities, decreeing that the Indians were to choose their own magistrates and other officials. The native magistrates, who were empowered to rule on minor cases, were advised by agents appointed by the General Court (Kellaway 1961:105-106). In the years before King Philips War, there were fourteen such communities established in Massachusetts Bay, and as many in Plymouth Colony. By 1677, however, the number of praying towns in Massachusetts Bay was reduced to four, and Later to three: Natick, Punkapaug, and Wamesit. Native communities were numerous on Cape Cod

and the islands in the late seventeenth century, although there is less documentation concerning their organization. In 1691, Plymouth Colony was merged with Massachusetts Bay, and further legislation providing that commissioners be appointed to oversee the Indian communities was passed in 1694 (Kawashima 1969a:542). Although there were no native commissioners allowed by law,

several Massachusett texts dating to the early eighteenth century attest that some Indians continued to serve as justices and magistrates (docs. no. 65, 72, 80, 137, 138, 139). In the more isolated communities, native hereditary rulers also remained (e.g. doc. no. 37). Native self-rule became more circumscribed in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, as government-appointed guardians were granted increasing powers over the Indian communities (docs.

no. 49, 65). Massachusetts had designated the surviving natives wards of the state by the end of

the century and by the mid-nineteenth century had classified their communities as Indian districts. While the colonial legislature developed the general guidelives for the organization of the Indian communities, the New England Company provided the funds for the native ministers and teachers, and its commissioners periodically surveyed the communities to report their condition. Records of the Company in the early eighteenth century document payments to native rulers, magistrates, justices, teachers, ministers and other church officials in eight native communities including Natick, Mashpee, and Herring Ponds on the mainland, and Gay Head, Christiantown, Chappaquiddick, Nantucket, and Cuttyhunk on the islands. The Company continued as well to support

missionaries to the Indians and to provide funds for students interested in missionary work. The work of the Company in southern New England continued in a more limited way after the Revolution, and it was not until 1796 that all support was withdrawn (Kellaway 1961:283).

6 INTRODUCTION

The Massachusett documents reflect the transformation of the native government of sachems, and

of the structure and meaning of the sachemship, that took place following intensive English settlement in southern New England and the adoption of Christianity by the natives. Each Indian

group accepted English jurisdictional procedures, but not always on identical patterns. Two warrants issued by Isaac Simon, the Indian ruler of Nukkehkummees (near Dartmouth, Massachusetts),

name four positions of authority: the ruler (neconshaenin), the magistrates (nannauwunnuacheg), the justice-of-the-peace (costes), and the constable (consteppe) (docs. no. 136, 138). The ruler issued legal orders, including warrants that were executed by the constable, and the magistrates and the justice (perhaps two names for the same office) heard evidence and made judgments. The eighteenth-century Natick, Massachusetts, town records list other positions concerned with the administration of justice, including jurymen (jureemen), tithingmen, and judges (wassitukeg) (docs. no. 106, 123, 114, 130, 131).

The political organization of the Indians in the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries no longer resembled the structure described in the earliest period of contact with the English, yet it contained many elements of the earlier system, variously restructured and functioning in > changed ways. As in the church hierarchy, many of the elected secular leaders of the early native Christian communities were members of traditional ruling or noble lineages (McCulloch 1966:67). At the same time, the availability of a number of elected positions of authority allowed ranking

individuals from the various sachemships brought together in the Christian towns to reconcile their claims to leadership. Although some of the earliest converts to Christianity among the Indians were marginal members of the traditional society (e.g. Hiacoomes of Martha”s Vineyard and perhaps Waban of Natick), many of the rulers of the Christian Indian communities were drawn from

prominent native families. Unlike the participants in other contact situations, the agents of change in native society in southeastern Massachusetts frequently emerged from the center of traditional strength. An example of the complex reinterpretation of earlier political institutions among the Indians in the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries was the use during that period of the concept of the sachemship in its more limited sense of control over land and its resources. Documents no. ll and 13 use the word for sachemship in this way. Moreover, the Indians did not abandon their tendency to view their social group as an on-going institution whose members were bound by ties of loyalty as well as kinship to those of the past and the future.

In spite of increasingly limited powers of self-government in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Indians of Natick, Mashpee and the islands continued as they had in the seventeenth century, to make decisions jointly at town meetings, or at periodically held "courts" presided over by magistrates or "principal sachems" elected yearly (Gardner in M. Mayhew 1694:38). Even in Natick, the most Anglicized of the native communities, the town meeting served not only for group decision-making but also as a court and a forum for the hearing of grievances. Many of the Massachusett terms used to designate new positions in the native government also

reflect reinterpretations of an earlier system. The term used to designate the native ruler (neconshaenin), for example, is derived from elements meaning literally “the man who goes in

INTRODUCTION 7

front” or “leader”. Similarly, the term for magistrates (nanauwunnuacheg) is made from a stem meaning “to order, to oversee” that Williams (1936:128) links to Narragansett nanouwétea "An

over-Seer and Orderer of their Worship," an inherited word that shows up in some Central Algonquian languages meaning “camp police” (e.g. Fox ne’nawihto'wa). Other positions in the native Christian community government such as that of the sachem in the more remote villages and perhaps those of the judges (wassitukeg) mentioned in the “atick records, while describing new functions, were derived from terms denoting traditional offices. Although the texts tell us much

about the transformation of the Christian Indian communities in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, knowledge of the specific historical background of each community is helpful

in interpreting the texts as well. The following brief histories of the individual native communities that produced the documents are intended to describe these specific local developments. These communities had in common a surprising resistance to dissolution, despite many outside pressures. Aside from Christianity, which linked them to one another and provided a source of strength and identity, these communities also had in common literacy in their own language, a trait which has brought them to modern attention through the survival of the Massachusett texts.

Gay Head

According to tradition, the island of Martha”s Vineyard was divided into four sachemships,

which, at the time of the earliest English settlement of the island, were, from west to east, Aquiniuh (Gay Head), Takemmy, and Nunpaug on the main island, and Chappaquiddick (Banks 1911, 1:39). An early description, apparently written by Edward Harlow some time around 1614, gives the names of the sachems ruling the two easternmost of the main-island sachemships as Wavenot and

Tadosheme, but does not name the sachem of the western part of the island (Quinn and Quinn 1983:479).

Little is known about the native community at Gay Head in the seventeenth century, except that

the sachem, Mittark, son of the sachem Nohtooksaet ("Nohtouassuet"), became a convert to Christianity in the 1660%s, and continued to rule the Gay Head community as magistrate until his

death in 1683. In 1712, there were 58 houses at Gay Head, some of them framed and some traditional wigwams (Sewall 1973), and in 1747, 112 people were resident there (Anonymous 1815a).

The number of Indians at Gay Head increased to 203 in 1786, and by 1802 they numbered 240 (Anonymous 1815b).

Mittark was succeeded by his son, Joseph or Josiah Mittark, who by one account sold the Gay Head lands in 1687 to Thomas Dongan, the governor of New York (and Earl of Limerick). The Gay

Head community protested this transaction, offering in support of their case an agreement, purportedly written many years earlier and signed by Mittark and his chief men, which prohibited the sale of lands to non-Indians (doc. no. 22). In a subsequent enquiry, Jonah Hosewet, a Gay Head native, testified that the document was a more recent writing, and the sale was declared valid (M.A. 31:18). Dongan leased the Gay Head lands to the natives, with Matthew Mayhew acting as steward, until 1711. At that time, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel purchased the

8 INTRODUCTION

Gay Head peninsula for the benefit of the Indians, although it continued to lease its lands to the natives. In 1714, 600 acres of the eastern part of Gay Head were leased for a period of 10 years to an Englishman, Ebenezer Allen of Chilmark, the proceeds of which were to go to the natives. A number of Indians were displaced as a result of this transaction, causing dissatisfaction in the Indian community. In 1724, the natives protested the extension of Allen”’s lease to 1,000 acres and, in spite of the efforts of the Commissioners in Allen’s favor, were able to confine him to the 600 acres of his original lease (Kellaway 1961:223).

In 1727, when the issue of leasing the land arose again, some of the natives signed an agreement to lease 800 acres for 21 years, while the remaining lands were reserved to the Indians in perpetuity in exchange for an annual quitrent of one ear of corn. A number of other parcels of Gay Head land were leased by the New England Company as well. The Mayhew family occupied land

there by right of an earlier grant from the sachem Tootoohe, and 5,114 acres were leased by several Edgartown and Tisbury residents (Kellaway 1961:225). Most of these properties were leased at only nominal rents. The Gay Head lands remained in the hands of the New England Company for nearly two decades following the Revolution, although the state of Massachusetts assumed de facto

control of the tribe, treating the Indians as wards of the state. After the conversion of Mittark and his followers to Christianity, the Indian community at Gay

Head was encouraged to adopt the political organization of the other Christian Indian towns. Although most official positions were secular, much of the power of native officals derived from

their positions in the Christian church. Church leaders were influential in local affairs as well. Gay Head was not entirely governed by a single denomination, however. By 1702, there was an Anabaptist congregation in Gay Head, whose minister was also supported by the New England Company (Banks 1911, 2:G.H. 26). Since population figures for adults in the community in the

early eighteenth century exceed recorded church membership, it appears that there was a significant number of non-church members or non-practicing Christians among the Gay Headers as well. The Gay Head Indians practiced a mixed farming and fishing economy in the eighteenth century, with an emphasis on sheep-raising. Crops grown by the natives included oats, barley, and wheat,

as well as corn, and pumpkins. The Indians sold fish and feathers as well as grains and other foodstuffs to English merchants, and a number worked as day-laborers, and in the developing whaling industry.

By the late eighteenth century, a large percentage of the native men spent part of each year away from home as whalers and soldiers, and in other maritime trades. Gay Head women occasionally

married Indian men from other areas, and natives of both sexes sometimes took non-Indians as

spouses. Strong efforts to retain the Indian character of the community continued into the nineteenth century through control over inheritance of land and voting rights by the native leaders, and through the conservative role of the native Christian churches. Until at least the 1780°s, native language retention also served to preserve native cultural traditions and imparted an Indian character to the Gay Head community, which was otherwise outwardly similar to the

English communities that surrounded it.

, INTRODUCTION 9 Christiantown (Okokammeh)

As early as 1659, a small group of Indian converts persuaded Josiah, or Keteanummin, the

sachem of Takemmy (now West Tisbury), to grant a tract of land to the praying Indians. Accordingly, Josiah set aside one square mile of land for the use of the converts, which became known as Okokammeh or Christiantown (Banks 1911, 2:W.T. 22, 117). As part of the resolution of a number of disputes over Indian land in Takemmy, Thomas Mayhew and Keteanummin in 1669 reconfirmed

the grant of lands to the Christian Indians (Banks 1911, 2:W.T. 119-120). At that time the town was between the sea and lands of Keteanummin’s uncle Papameck, and bounded by a tract known as Ichpoquassett (Wechpookquahhassuk) and Mattapaquattonooke Pond.

Although the English townspeople of West Tisbury generally abided by the agreement not to

encroach on the lands of the Christian Indians, Josiah himself, never a convert, attempted to renege on his agreement, claiming the grantees, one of whom was Papameck, had not paid him tribute. In 1699, however, Josiah again confirmed his original grant to the Christian Indians, an act repeated by Josiah”s son, the sachem Zachariah Peuskenin, in 1702. At time, the Indians Wekommoonin, Asahhauwannan, Isaac Ompany, Stephen Nashokow, Cottoowannamut, and Wawapekin were

named as trustees, along with their heirs and successors. Christiantown was governed by five Indian trustees under the direction of Governor Thomas Mayhew. Courts were held at Christiantown, and it is likely that a civil government similar to that of other native Christian communities was established. Civil positions included magistrate and justice of the peace. In the early eighteenth century, the Christiantown Indians were under the jurisdiction of the New England Company, who paid the salaries of the English and Indian ministers and teachers. By 1735, town meetings were being held at Christiantown, complete with moderator and clerk.

Regular Sunday meetings were held at the Indian meeting house in Christiantown until the end of the eighteenth century, but the population of the Indian community gradually declined. Land, which had been held communally by the Christiantown Indians throughout the eighteenth century, was divided among individual owners in 1828, with the exception of a 10-acre common. This was divided in 1878, among the scattered members of the community. Several Christiantown families resettled

at Gay Head and elsewhere, and only a few remained in Christiantown in the early 20th century (Mayhew 1959).

Nantucket ,

English settlement on Nantucket began with the purchase of proprietary rights to the island by Thomas Mayhew in 1641. At that time there were two dominant sachems ruling there: Wanachmamak (Wannanchimmamog), and Nickanoose (Negannoowussoo). Nickanoose controlled the central-eastern segment of the island, and Wanachmamak the southeast; both were involved in land sales from the north and west. Two other sachems, Attapehat and Spotso, claimed control over the south-central

portion of the island (Little 1976:15, 1981:4-5). By 1659, English settlers were purchasing land

| 10 INTRODUCTION

town of Sherbourne. :

from these sachems, and also from petty sachems on the western end and at the site of the modern

Although initial land purchases were transacted. without conflict, misunderstandings developed

between the Indians and settlers concerning grazing rights. Scarcity of grazing land, and of the

fresh marsh and salt marsh grass needed to sustain their cattle, sheep, and horses, led the English settlers to assign "common" rights for grazing. As their desire for horses increased, the

Indians began to make use of this system to accomodate their livestock as well, selling and | leasing grazing rights or “commons"™ to one another (docs. no. 54, 57, 67, 81), and sometimes to the English (Little 1976:27; 1986). Thomas Mayhew and his son Thomas Mayhew, Jr., both preached on Nantucket, as did Hiacoomes, an

early native convert on the Vineyard. Later missionary work was undertaken by Peter Folger, John Cotton, and, in 1708, by Grindal Rawson (Gookin 1806:66-67; Kellaway 1961:245). In 1674 there was an Indian church at Oggawame, with a native pastor and teacher. At that time, Thomas Mayhew, Sr., claimed 300 converts there, who met at Oggawame, Wammasquid, and Squatesit (Gookin 1806:67). In

1694 there were five Anglican congregations of Praying Indians, and one native Baptist congregation on Nantucket (ibid.).

The Nantucket Indians continued to be governed by sachems into the eighteenth century. Nickanoose was succeeded by his son Wawinnit (Wawenut), and Wanachmamak by Soosooahquoh (Jephthah). Attapehat®s heir Musaquat (Mussauwohquad) appears infrequently in the records, but Spotso married Nickanoose’s daughter Askamaboo, and their son Daniel Spotso assumed leadership of Nickanoose’s sachemship upon the death of Wawinnit sometime before 1695. Daniel Spotso was succeeded by his son Barney Spotso, who became sachem in 1741 (Little 1976:19). In 1763, an epidemic of what was probably yellow fever swept through the native population of Nantucket,

killing 250 of the 358 living there, and effectively destroying the native communities. In 1/92, only 20 Indians remained (Kellaway 1961:246).

Natick

The native Christian community at Natick was established by the missionary John Eliot on lands formerly occupied by the native John Speen, or Qualalanset, who later became a teacher in the town

(Eliot 1890:5). Previous to the establishment of the community at Natick, Eliot had been preaching to the Indians near Nonantum (Newton), who were led by Waban, a "principal man" of that

place. In 1651, the land at Natick was granted to these natives and praying Indians by the General Court of Massachusetts. From the beginning, Natick was a community made up of converts from several distinct groups, some of whom spoke varieties of Southern New England Algonquian

other than Massachusett. At Natick, Eliot put into practice many of his ideas about the proper methods for converting Indians and sustaining the Christian faith among them. He encouraged them

to form a government based on bibilical descriptions of the organization of the tribes of Israel into groups of 10, 50, and 100, each with its own ruler. Waban became a ruler of 50 at Natick. Other rulers included Piam Boohan and Nattous of the Nipmuck. Teachers in the first generation of converts in Natick were Anthony and John Speen, and Pennahannit acted as marshal general for

INTRODUCTION 11

Natick and the other praying towns (Gookin 1806:43-45). Eliot wrote in 1670 that "Natick is our chief Town, where most and chief of our Rulers, and most of the Church dwells; here most of our chief Courts are kept; and the Sacraments in the Church are for the most part here administred" (Eliot 1890:4-5). Physically Natick was made up of three "streets" of native dwellings, two to the north of the river and one to the south (Gookin 1806:41). The town had a palisaded fort, and an "English-style" house that functioned as a meeting place and school. A church was established at Natick in 1660, with about 50 communicants. Eliot continued to preach at Natick regularly, and began there his work in translating the Bible into Massachusett. Anti-Indian sentiment engendered by King Phillip”’s War in 1676 forced the authorities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to remove the Natick Indians to Deer Island in Boston harbor until Phillip’s defeat, where they suffered great hardship, and where many died. The weakened community

became the center of mainland Christian Indian activity after the war, and Eliot continued to | preach there occasionally until his death in 1690. Eliot”s death severely affected the Christian church there, however, and in 1698, the church membership had dropped to 7 men and 3 women (Rawson

and Danforth 1698:134). Daniel Gookin, who had assisted Eliot in his work with the Praying Indians, and who continued to preach at Natick, retired in 1713. His successors at Natick were two native teachers, Daniel Tackawombait (Takouwompbait) and John Neesnumun, but they had only

brief careers, Tackawombait dying in 1716 and Neesnumun in 1719. In 1721 Oliver Peabody, a Harvard student supported by funds donated by the English philanthropoist and scientist Robert

| Boyle, began his ministry in Natick, which continued until his death in 1753. Peabody was succeeded by Stephen Badger, who remained in Natick until 1799, when there was no longer a significant number of Indians there (Kellaway 1961:235-249).

. : The history of Natick after Eliot”s death was one of a gradual relinquishing of church ties. In 1729, a special committee appointed to assess the state of religion at Natick found that only 16 men and 12 children were baptized, that few attended service or received religious instruction, and that none could read the Indian language (Winthrop et al. 1825:576). Peabody”s ordination that year resulted in the establishment of a new church at Natick, but it had attracted only ten native members by 1740 (Kellaway 1961:238). The growing number of white residents in Natick sought to have the church relocated Mearer the center of non-Indian settlement, in the western part of town (Crawford 1978). Total isolation of the Natick Christian Indians was avoided with the appointment of Stephen Badger as minister to the Indians following Peabody”s death in 1753, but Badger found the native population scattered, and church membership diminished (Badger 18168:32-45). Missionary work there was given up on Badger’s retirement in 1799.

In spite of the change in the religious character of Natick”s Indian community, it remained relatively self-reliant and self-governing until the 1720°s. Farming, supplemented by day labor and the practice of a number of trades, continued to sustain the Indian families there. Land was

, allotted according to membership within the original proprietorship until at least the 1730s, and local matters were decided at town meetings. The Indian language continued in common use until that time as well. By 1749, native land holdings were scattered throughout the southeastern end of Natick, with farmsteads averaging about 50 acres. Population decline, brought about by poor

12 INTRODUCTION , health conditions and epidemics in the 1750°s, as well as continuing pressure from surrounding whites served to diminish the native land holdings in the last half of the eighteenth century.

Mashpee

As early as 1665, the Indians of Mashpee were granted 25 square miles of territory by two local sachems and established a self-governing community there. Schools, town meetings, courts, and church services were conducted in Massachusett by native ministers, and the community also had

Massachusett-speaking teachers and elected officials. The first English missionary to preach in Plymouth Colony was William Leveritch, but his place was soon taken by three men whose families were to dominate the missionary work among the Indians of Cape Cod for the next century: Richard Bourne, Thomas Tupper, and John Cotton.

Bourne began his work in the Sandwich area sometime after 1653 and received a salary from the New England Company beginning in 1657. He continued in the ministry until 1682 (Kellaway 1961:105). In 1674 he reported to Daniel Gookin that there were 95 Indians at Mashpee, Coatuit,

Wakoquet, Satuit, and Pawpoesit, and of that group, 24 could read, 10 could write, and 2 could | read Engish (Gookin 1806:57). Bourne was succeeded by a native minister, Simon Popmonet. Another missionary of long-standing, Thomas Tupper, also took up work in the Sandwich area. In 1694 he claimed to be preaching to over 100 Indian converts (Mayhew 1694:18). His son, Eldad, succeeded him in the ministry, which he maintained until the 1730°s, when he was joined by his son, Elisha, who preached to the Indians of the Sandwich area for at least 50 years.

John Cotton, who settled in Plymouth in 1669, had had previous missionary experience on , Martha”’s Vineyard. Cotton’s ministry among the Indians of the Plymouth area continued until his death in 1699. His son, Josiah, preached to the Indians for forty years thereafter. Josiah’s brother, Roland Cotton, preached to the Mashpee Indians as well. In 1720, he reported that he had succeeded in establishing a church at Mashpee, presided over by a native minister (Kellaway 1961:248).

Joseph Bourne, grandson of Richard Bourne, was called to the ministry of the Mashpee in 1726, and reported some success in attracting church members. He was later convicted of selling liquor to the Indians, however, and retired in 1742. The Mashpee then were guided by Solomon Briant, a native minister, and in 1757 Gideon Hawley, a former schoolmaster at Stockbridge and a missionary

to the Six Nations, joined him as minister. Hawley served alongside Briant, and later alone, preaching in English to the Indians, until his death in 1807 (Kellaway 1961:249). The Mashpee continued to occupy lands which were reserved for them by order of the Colony and practiced small-scale farming there, supplemented by hunting and fishing. They were incorporated

into a District in 1763, but were later placed under the control of five white overseers. Certain of their lands were leased to non-Indians, and the profits were used for the benefit of the tribe. The Indians expressed great dissatisfaction about the leasing of their lands, and about the limititations placed on their fishing rights and freedom to gather and cut wood on the leased

lands and those controlled by the tribe. They also protested the neglect of their needs for

INTRODUCTION 13

schooling and church maintenance. A number of petitions to the colonial government from the Mashpee were written in the eighteenth century concerning these issues, some in English, and at least two in Massachusett (docs. no. 50, 154). In 1842 the communally owned lands of the Mashpee were divided among them by their guardians and gradually passed out of native control.

Herring Pond (Plymouth) |

The Plymouth-area Indians, known as the Patuxet, were almost entirely wiped out by the epidemics of 1617 and 1618. One survivor, Squanto, served as a friend and intepreter to the Pilgrims until his death in 1623. In the years following, Pokanokets from surrounding regions established themselves at Herring Pond, in the eastern portion of Plymouth Colony, where they were visited by missionaries supported by the New England Company, particularly John, Josiah, and Roland Cotton. Others traveled to Sandwich to hear the preaching of Richard Bourne (Gookin

1806:59). In 1674, at least 10 of the Herring Pond Indians were literate in English, but all suffered from lack of books in Massachusett and English. The Herring Pond Indians received a grant of 2,500 acres from the colony, which was not dispersed until 1850. Little evidence for a formal town organization at Herring Pond exists, and they apparently shared ministers and teachers with nearby Mashpee (Conkey, Boissevain, and Goddard 1978:179).

Nukkehkummees (Dartmouth)

The Dartmouth Indians, also members of the Pokanoket “nation,” were established in a praying town in that area in the late seventeenth century. There they elected four rulers yearly, and had besides a magistrate, constables, and other appointed and elected officals. John Cotton reported in 1674 that Indians from the Dartmouth area traveled to Titicut to hear him and were anxious to receive regular instruction (Gookin 1806:60). In 1698, Rawson and Danforth (1698:132) reported

that several Dartmouth Indians were literate, but still suffered from lack of a regular minister and teacher. No lands were officially granted to the Dartmouth Indians, and by 1861 most had acquired regular citizenship as residents of New Bedford (Conkey, Boissevain, and Goddard

1978:180). ,

THE CONTENT OF THE MASSACHUSETT DOCUMENTS

The premise on which John Eliot’s missionary work was founded was that true conversion was not

possible unless the Gospel was accessible to the Indians. He accordingly began, with limited financial support from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the task of translating a large number of religious works, including the entire Bible, into Massachusett. The corpus of his work, later known as the "Indian Library," was supplemented by translations by other missionaries, including Thomas Shepard, Grindal Rawson, Josiah Cotton, and Experience Mayhew. Eliot developed an orthography based on his analysis of the Massachusett sound system, which he taught native students and which became the foundation for all subsequent translations into Massachusett.

14 INTRODUCTION

By 1698, more than fifty communities of Christian Indians had been established in southeastern Massachusetts, and several other ephemeral communities probably existed as well. Each of these communities had a church presided over by a native minister or elder and generally a teacher as

well. These teachers provided both religious and secular instruction to adults and children in reading, writing, and doctrine. A number of native students were prepared for entry into Harvard College, while boarding with tutors in Cambridge and Dedham. Although several students showed promise, and one, Caleb Cheeschamuck of Martha”s Vineyard, graduated from Harvard in 1664, most died while in school, or left before completing their studies.

Although the missionary effort and the progress of native schooling was disrupted by King Philip’s War in 1675, the native communities which survived the uprising continued to provide education to adults and children. Natives were taught to read and write both as children and as adults. Initially, they were instructed by missionaries and English teachers, but soon most of the instruction was carried out by native teachers in each community. Some natives learned to read and write while serving as apprentices in English homes, and a number of natives taught themselves as well. By 1698, a committee appointed by the New England Company found that each native community had a number of literate members, and that many more were being instructed. Information from such reports, as well as from the Massachusett documents themselves, suggests that by the beginning of the eighteenth century almost 30 per cent of the native population could read, although perhaps fewer could write. This figure compares favorably with literacy rates among the English at the same period (Lockridge 1974).

Judging from the surviving documents, literacy served a number of functions in the native communities of the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Most common among the manuscripts that have survived are records of land transactions between Indians and other Indians. That land transactions would make up the bulk of Indian-English interaction is not surprising, but

the frequency of written records of native exchanges is less expected and suggests that traditional verbal agreements were supplemented by written records and later perhaps replaced by them.

Several types of recorded transactions have been identified. One type is a transaction between two individuals involving the exchange of money or goods (for example, a gun, in doc. no.

4) for land. A variation on this type is that in which a sachem, or another individual with grazing rights (called “commons"), leases those rights to another person for varying lengths of time. Such an exchange was recorded in document no. 54.

A second kind of documentary record, which Little has referred to as a “recorded oral land transfer" (1980b:63), is a transcription, including direct quotations, of a verbal transaction. These transactions, which appear to represent an earlier form of land exchange among the Massachusett, were often put in writing several years after the event. The inclusion of direct quotations no doubt insured the legitimacy of the written versions. Such records provide insight into traditional methods of land exchange among the Massachusett and demonstrate the continued validity of verbal agreements after the adoption of literacy.

INTRODUCTION 15

The third type of transaction recorded in the Massachusett texts comprises confirmations of previous sales and verbal exchanges (e.g. docs. no. 30 and 32). These confirmations, evidently serving to protect ownership rights or to confirm ownership in the absence of written evidence,

often include direct quotations of the original participants and of witnesses to the original exchange; they seem most often to have been written down in preparation for the conveying of the

land in question out of the hands of the original purchaser or grantee, and they often provide information about the genealogical relationships of the participants and the original partners in the exchange. Confirmations of this type document the generational nature of land use among the Massachusett and the importance of kin relationships in the distribution of land.

Town records, particularly those concerning land allotments, may have been kept in several native communities, although only a few, and all of these from Natick, survive. The Natick

records (docs. no. 82-132) were kept in part because of the status of that town as a proprietorship. Evidently as a result of John Eliot’s efforts, Natick, like many of the first English communities established in Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies, was originally organized as a proprietorship, with each head of household being allotted shares or parcels of land, generally numbered "strips" that could be plowed in common. The homes of the proprietors were clustered together, surrounded by the arable fields. This so-called two~field system broke down over time in most of the early settlements, as larger parcels were acquired by individual families, and settlement dispersed accordingly. At the time that the surviving Natick town records were kept (1700-1718), however, the proprietorship was still intact, a late survival in the Massachusetts Bay colony. The records are concerned with the allotment of parcels and with

the disposition of the original proprietors” lands at their death. The records suggest that partible inheritance, with an emphasis on the claims of male heirs, was the rule in determining the distribution of lands, but that some of the town lands reverted to common ownership in the event no heir was found. The right to membership in the proprietorship was a function of inheritance as well (doc. no. 110).

Literate native church officials kept records, including registers of births, deaths, and marriages, and were responsible for the publishing of banns. The most extensive of these, the marriage records kept by the Gay Head minister Zachary Hossueit from 1749 to 1771 (doc. no. 12),

were similar in form to records kept in most churches and appear to have served a similar function. They are remarkable in that they provide the best infomation about family history among the Gay Head Indians in the eighteenth century. Like their English neighbors, Massachusett speakers produced legal documents such as wills and

powers of attorney. Some submitted bills. They wrote letters and kept day-books and ledgers. Several Indian communities also corresponded with the colonial government and with the New England

Company through petitions. Four of the surviving petitions are in Massachusett (docs. no. 49, 50, 65, 154).

The distribution, form, and content of the Massachusett texts were dictated in part by the legal requirements for public records which obtained in the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, As of 1640 in Massachusetts Bay

16 INTRODUCTION

Colony, and 1666 in Plymouth, all conveyances of real property were required by law to be acknowledged and endorsed by a magistrate and recorded by the County or Shire clerk. Information necessary for acknowledgement included the names of the grantor and grantee, a description of the estate granted, and the date of the transaction (Whitmore 1889:140-141). Only those deeds signed (or marked) and sealed by all parties in the presence of witnesses were considered legal documents

(Brigham 1836:149). Clerks were paid a fixed fee for copying deeds and other public records “verbatim” (Massachusetts [Colony] 1887:130), and it was the clerk”s copy which became the legal record of the transaction. All conveyances were to be acknowledged and recorded within six months

of the date of the transaction, except where the conveyance took the form of a will (Brigham 1836:149). Disputes over land were adjudicated in local courts, and depositions were also copied

by the county clerks into the public record. | Wills were to be signed and sealed by the testator before witnesses, and upon his or her death were to be exhibited before a magistrate by the administrator of the estate, along with a copy of the inventory of the decedent”s goods, before letters of administration were granted (Plymouth [Colony] 1672:36). Other records, including minutes of town meetings, and birth, death, and marriage records, were to be kept by the town clerk, and exhibited before a county magistrate once a year. The number of witnesses required for the legal conveyance of real property was not specified, although one or two "substantial" witnesses were needed to verify wills and testaments (Plymouth

[Colony] 1672:36). The number of copies generally made of these transactions was likewise unspecified, the minimum being the sealed copy only, which was in the safekeeping of the clerk (Massachusetts [Colony] 1887:130). It appears that such issues were a matter of local custom, both in Indian and non-Indian communities.

Given the latitude allowed by official legislation with regard to the number of witnesses and

the number of copies of deeds produced, the structure and content of native deeds both in Massachusett and in English is suggestive. Many of the native land transactions are witnessed, for example, by up to four people, some by as many as a dozen. Depositions taken at hearings regarding disputes over Indian lands are also witnessed by many individuals. The large numbers of witnesses present at native land transactions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries seems to be a continuation of the earlier native practice of submitting each decision by the sachem to the scrutiny of the community as a whole at formal council meetings. The number of witnesses to the deeds of Christian Indians, particularly on Martha”s Vineyard and Nantucket, demonstrates the continued importance of consensus in local affairs.

Evidence in the surviving Massachusett texts for the existence of multiple copies of deeds

(e.g. docs. no. 30 and 32; 51, 52, and 53) can also be interpreted as part of the effort by Indians to distribute decision-making with regard to land as broadly as possible within the community, with the copies themselves serving as evidence of widespread participation by community members. At the same time, the multiplicity of copies can also be interpreted as evidence of lack of faith on the part of the Indians in the legitimacy of the legally recorded copy, or perhaps, in

its efficacy in the face of white onslaughts on Indian lands. It may also be that the copies

INTRODUCTION 17

served as mnemonic devices for the Indians in carrying on the record of land transactions between generations in the traditional oral manner.

The texts also allow insight into the patterns of early English acquisition of Indian lands. On Martha’s Vineyard, for example, deeds describing transactions between Indians, and written in Massachusett, are with few exceptions associated with the three major areas of early English settlement on the island: the areas surrounding Edgartown Great Pond, Sanchecantacket Neck, and

the eastern portion of Tisbury. This suggests that the survival of the deeds is a function of the need by subsequent non-Indian owners of these lands to document valid transferral from the Indians, and tells us little about the patterns of land-exchange among Indians in areas not

affected by English encroachment. | The majority of the Massachusett texts are concerned with land and hence are informative about

changes in native land use in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Native horticulture at the time of contact was the small-scale form of agriculture known as slash-and-burn, which was generally practiced among southern New England natives. But although agriculture was significant to native diet, it was joined in importance by wild plants, fish and shellfish, and game. Indeed,

little evidence for widespread agriculture in the late pre-contact period has been recovered archaeologically in southern New England, in contrast to the earliest documentary sources, which seem to describe intensive agricultural activity on Cape Cod and the islands. While agriculture undoubtedly was practiced, its extent among Massachusett speakers is problematical. Land-use rights were allotted by the sachem, and could include rights to plant, hunt, gather, and, in the

case of lands bordering large bodies of water, rights to anything washed ashore. The sachem retained rights to a portion of such goods, as well as to game killed in water. By the mid-seventeenth century, and especially after the Massachusett-speaking Indians were resettled into permanent communities, agriculture took on a more significant role in native diet. The surviving descriptions of Christian Indian agriculture note that the Indians adopted a number of non-traditional elements of the English farming complex, especially the keeping of livestock, the raising of single-species crops, and of fruit orchards. The natives, especially those on the mainland, farmed with plows and kept oxen to pull them, while those on the islands concentrated on livestock, particularly sheep. The effects of these changes, which undoubtedly affected the fertility of soils formerly farmed by traditional methods, increased the amount of land necessary to support a family, and altered diet and nutrition among the natives, have not been well-studied.

Their impact on native culture, however, is suggested by the relatively large proportion of English borrowed words in Massachusett relating to land-use, crops, livestock, and fodder. The adoption of new agricultural methods and an added dependence on agricultural products and

livestock placed the Indians in direct competition for land with the English who had introduced the new methods and crops to them. Particularly valuable to both groups were fresh and salt meadows, which provided the most nutritious fodder for livestock. Grazing rights became so precious on Nantucket that they were eventually "“stinted," with each English proprietor receiving so many shares in the common grazing areas (Little 1976:27). In a functionally comparable way, Indian sachems granted grazing rights or "commons" to their subjects, often in return for tribute

18 INTRODUCTION , (docs. no. 54, 57, 67, 81). Access to fodder and grazing lands as well as to wood, became the source of a number of disputes between Indian communities and surrounding white settlements in the

eighteenth century, giving rise to a number of petitions from the Indians (docs. no. 49, 154). Changing land-use practices among the Indians may have contributed to changes in the way in

which land was inherited. Seventeenth-century descriptions of native land-use, although inconsistent, seem to suggest that land was controlled by the sachem, subject to the consent of the sachemship, and was corporately owned by that group. Individuals and families used land as needed, but specific boundaries were not laid out, as the slash-and-burn agriculture practiced required that fields be moved every several years. There is no indication that individuals other

| than the sachems controlled specific plots. In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, natives began to bequeath property, including land, to descendants. This was done informally, or with a written will (docs. no. 1, 7, 48, 62; DD, MD, various). Much corporately held native land remained in common, to be used as needed by community members, but individual families gradually became associated with specific plots. While undoubtedly encouraged by English

officials, the practice of making wills suggests a change in native notions regarding personal property, most significantly with regard to land.

LITERACY IN THE MASSACHUSETT COMMUNITIES

The Massachusett documents provide direct evidence in two significant areas, native-language literacy and language change. Vernacular literacy has been documented among several North American Indian peoples, particularly those whose languages have survived into the twentieth century. Native-language literacy among North American Indians in the Colonial period was more unusual, although several cases are known. The significance of the Massachusett literacy lies not only in its relatively early occurence, but in its extent and longevity as well.

Literate natives functioned as scribes, town clerks, and in other clerical positions. Many influential offices in the civil government were also held by literate Indians, although literacy was probably not required for holding high office. Evidence from the Massachusett documents and

from contemporary reports suggests that most, if not all, of the native church officials were literate, and that literacy constituted an important element of native Christianity. Literacy was encouraged among converts by missionaries, for direct personal access to scripture was deemed necessary for true conversion.

Taking the available Massachusett documents as representative of the level of literacy skills of native speakers of Massaschusett during the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, a number of distinctive elements of that literacy can be identified. Written Massachusett retained elements common to languages with a well developed oral literature. Memorization skills are demonstrated in a number of the more than forty land deeds among the Massachusett documents.

Many, for example, note that the transaction described took place several years before its recording (e.g. docs. no. 17, 18, 30, 78-80). Although several years later in date, most give

direct quotations of the participants. ;

INTRODUCTION 19

Patterns of speech, particularly stylized forms, are reflected in the texts as well. Repetitions of the speaker®’s name and rank, and certain stylized phrasing, appear to derive from

native rhetorical style. Certain rituals described in the texts, such as choosing the sachen, transferring land, or admitting members to the sachemship involve the use of expressions that clearly retain old formalized elements. Document no. 22, for example, describes an agreement , between the sachem Mittark and his council and followers, where all participants in turn use formulaic phrases in swearing not to sell land. Petitions in Massachusett, of which four are known, also seem to reflect formalized patterns of speech as in the often repeated phrase "we are pitiful, we are poor" (docs. no. 49, 50, 65, 154).

Evidence for the influence of published works in Massachusett in the standardization of Massachusett orthography can also be found in the documents. Some documents from the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, generally those of a relatively late date, use the spelling ohke of Eliot’s Bible translation for the word for “land”, apparently replacing the earlier ahkuh, a spelling not found on the mainland. When document no. 30 was copied as no. 32 the distinctive Martha’s Vineyard dialect word ummenaweankanut “in his posterity” was replaced by the evidently synonymous uppummetuwonkka[n]it, reflecting the pometuonk “generation (i.e. offspring)“ of the Bible. The writer of one petition from Mashpee (doc. no. 154) was evidently an island-dialect speaker who tried to adapt at least his writing to the mainland dialect of the community (see the

notes to the document). ,

Whatever the rate or progress of literacy in the native communities, it seems always to have been of the "restricted" type (Goody and Watt 1976). Even among those Indians who were literate, the level of skill was below that of contemporary Englishmen. Experience Mayhew (1727:xxiii) wrote;

The Indians ... must be considered as a People in a great measure destitute of those advantages of Literature which the English and many other nations enjoy. They have at present no scholars among them.... And tho considerable numbers of the Indians have learned to read and write, yet they have mostly done this but after the rate that poor men among the English are wont to do: nor have our Indians the same advantages of Books as our English, few of them being able to read and understand English books in any measure well. Moreover, there be but few Books comparatively in their own language.

Like other newly Literate peoples, the Massachusett speakers retained many of _ the characteristics of oral societies. Although many of the surviving writings in Massachusett by

native speakers served a primary communicative function, the earliest writings are more appropriately viewed as aids to memory, rather than as independent forms of communication. The Natick Town Records, for example, are almost telegraphic in style with much relevant information clearly intended to be understood by the clerk and townspeople and hence not written down. Paul Manasses, an Indian of Mashpee, is said to have kept a diary which had interspersed with short memoranda on accounts, drawings of animals, horses, cows, and deer (Manasses 1718).

20 INTRODUCTION

Few works were translated into Massachusett after 1720, cutting off even literate Massachusett speakers from access to a possible means of language preservation. Surviving copies of religious

and instructional works in Massachusett, such as the Psalter (Mayhew 1709), are well worn, summoning the vision of generations of native readers, persevering in spite of lack of materials. Although Massachusett was still widely spoken in 1750, the language was virtually extinct by the early nineteenth century. Stephen Badger could find only one individual who understood any Massachusett in Natick in 1798, and in 1826 Phineas Fish, missionary to the Mashpee wrote, "Their

language has nearly ceased to be a living one.... A few individuals can speak a little Indian." (Fish 1826).

Like the language itself, literacy in Massachusett seems to have been preserved the longest in a religious context. The latest Massachusett texts were composed by church officials and thus suggest that literacy in Massachusett became an increasingly restricted skill, perhaps confined to religious activities. Moreover, most of the later texts were written by natives of Gay Head and Mashpee, areas where the churches were strongest. From the time of their first introduction in the mid-seventeenth century, however, the functions of reading and writing were modified to fit native needs, and defined according to traditional concepts. The Massachusett texts demonstrate the ways in which, for nearly 150 years after its introduction, literacy existed side by side with native forms of communication.

THE CREATION OF THE MASSACHUSETT DOCUMENTS

The Massachusett documents contain, in addition to direct information on their primary subject matter, indirect information on the ways in which they were formulated, drawn up, and signed. These cultural aspects of the creation of the documents reflect aspects of the society that made and used them.

The documents differ in the number and relationships of the people involved in their creation. A few involve only a single person making a declaration on his own behalf or on his own authority, such as the preacher Zachary Hossueit’s marriage record (doc. no. 12) and the arrest warrants of the Indian ruler Isaac Simon (docs. no. 136, 138). Bills and depositions are similar (e.g. docs. no. 63, 75). The town records of Natick (docs. no. 82-132) are physically entirely the creation of the town clerk Thomas Waban, but they are written on behalf of the town. More typically, a document speaks for more than one person, and usually the writer is not one

of the direct participants in the transaction. The writer sometimes identifies himself (e.g. docs. 1:3-5, 31; 2225-26; 3:34-36; 4:21; 14:9), but often he does not (e.g. docs. no. 7, 9, 10, 11).

There are a number of pieces of evidence that the writer did not simply formulate appropriate statements on his own but used the words of the participants in the transaction being recorded. For example, in the Nantucket sachem woman Askamaboo’s power of attorney (doc. no. 56) one of the

. two witnesses is represented as saying, “I heard Askamaboo truly say those words (shannoh

INTRODUCTION 21

yuongananash)," and the other as saying "I heard Askamaboo truly say these words (yush kutt8wonganash)." This difference suggests that the document records, to some extent verbatim, statements made somewhat formally at the time it was created. Linguistic evidence pointing to the same conclusion is found in documents originated by the Martha’s Vineyard queen sachem Wunnattuhquanummou. In most of these she is represented as using the normal word order for equational sentences (see the Grammatical Sketch, WORD ORDER), in which the given information (here a personal or demonstrative pronoun) precedes the new information: neen wunnatuckquanum yo nunnitcheg “I am Wunnattuhquanummou, this is my hand~ (doc. 33:6). Beside scores of examples of

this word order in the documents there are three examples of the reverse order, and two of these are ascribed to Wunnattuhquanummou: Wunnatuckquanum neen “I am Wunnattuhquanummou~ (doc. 33:1);

ninnitcheck yu “this is my hand” (doc. 27:15). It appears likely that the at least occasional use of this rarer word order was a personal idiosyncrasy of Wunnattuhquanummou, preserved by the writers. Comparison with other Algonquian languages (e.g. Cree, Ojibwa, and Delaware) shows that this rarer Massachusett word order was the older, inherited one, and it would not be surprising to find a high-status person like Wunnattuhquanummou persevering in the use of a conscious archaism.

The indications are, then, that the standard Massachusett signature lines of the type "I am soand-so, this is my hand" record formal oral statements made by the signers on the occasion of the drafting of a document.

It is evident that the direct quotation in a document of words spoken by its originator and witnesses served to validate the document in the same way that the validity of a traditional oral transaction was maintained by the subsequent “direct quotation of statements made on the original occasion. Askamaboo’s power of attorney (doc. no. 56) is thus archaic in being validated only by the quotation of the words of the participants. Some documents are validated in English fashion

; by signatures and marks, but these sometimes also include features of the oral system of validation by quotation. A 1699 conveyance by the sachem Aspohteamuk (doc. no. 2) is mostly in

the third person, but with direct quotation of the key statements, ending with a selfidentification that functions as a virtual signature: kah nen aspateamuk nanamit “And I am Aspohteamuk (son?) of Nanamit.~ (doc. 2:22); the witnesses sign with marks. A conveyance of four

years later (doc. no. 3) is in the first person, framed by statements by the writer, and has a mark serving as a written signature: nashpe nen nutchek | aspatteamuk X yeu noomak “By my hand, Aspohteamuk, (X) this is my mark.~ (doc. 3:30-31; cf. 133:36).

The traditional importance of direct quotation also appears to be reflected by the occasional instances in which the originator of a document took the pen himself and wrote brief significant

sections. In one document Joseph Josnin wrote in lieu of a signature: "I Joseph Josnin am satisfied with the way our late father’s conveyance was done, and this is my hand" (doc. 58:16-17). In a second case he completed the last sentence before signing; the writer wrote, "[they] should agree that no one is to meddle with," and Josnin wrote, "the land or the trees. I am Joseph Josnin." (doc. 59:15-18). Witnesses also sometimes wrote out their signature lines in full, for example: "I am Ropen Wapunnit, this is my hand (X)" (doc. 133:38). In one case the writer began to write the signature line for a witness, but the first letter was rubbed out and the witness wrote the line himself (doc. 10:17). Abiah Togkoosen, in a conveyance by her and her sister, wrote out her signature line, corrected a verb form, and added a brief phrase to the text

22 INTRODUCTION

(doc. 47:23-24, 17, 8-9). The added sections in documents no. 9 and 10, which are on a single page, were written by the writer of document no. 11, which was pasted onto the bottom of the same piece of paper; evidently all three documents were treated as functioning as a unit.

The fact that literate Indians sometimes had others write documents for them (docs. no. 47, 58, 59) shows the difficulty of inferring the extent of literacy from the available documents. And since signers who wrote signature lines or signed their own names sometimes wrote a mark as

well (docs. 47:24; 133:38), the use of a mark as a signature, as in the case of the Indian ruler Isaac Simon (docs. 136:8; 138:14), does not demonstrate the illiteracy of a signer. It would seem, rather, the the mark was sometimes used as a sign of validation independently of what other validating features may have been present.

Petitions have a number of special features. Although issued in the name of a church community, when signers” names are present most of them are written by the minister who served as the writer (docs. no. 49, 50). The men”’s and women’s names are listed separately, reflecting the separate seating of the sexes in the church, which would have served as the meeting house where the petition was drawn up. The signed Gay Head petition has no marks, and only one man, Jeremiah

Allmih, signed his own name (doc. 49:59). On the signed Mashpee petition, two men signed for themselves, Samuel Roben and Joseph Papener (doc. 50:63, 70), and Joseph Papener signed also for his wife (doc. 50:57). Most of the men signed with marks, but some did not and none of the women . did. These features presumably reflect aspects of the way in which the petition was physically created. Two petitions have no names on them (docs. no. 65, 154); this feature may reflect the form of aboriginal oral petitions presented to sachems, which would not have ended with a listing of names. The writer of document no. 154 evidently tried to produce a petition that was more in the English style the following year, writing in English and listing the names of the petitioners (see Appendix).

: The writing and signing of documents by the Massachusett-speaking Indians blended English legal practices and the native formal proceedings conducted by sachems regarding the disposition of land and other important public matters. The ready adoption of English documentary formalisms,

molded into a distinctively Indian shape, reflects the pre-existence of a native society characterized by stratification and formal mechanisms of its own.

CONCLUSIONS

The Massachusett documents allow for ethnohistorical study of a detailed sort, impossible for most groups known only from documents written by non-members of the native cultures. Analysis of

the native writings has revealed many aspects of southeastern New England native life not heretofore understood, including the nature of Massachusett kinship teminology (Bragdon 1981), and

the details of land-use and political organization in the earlier and later periods. The very existence of the texts provides concrete evidence for the adoption and spread of literacy among the Indians. In both form and content, the texts have confirmed and corrected our knowledge of many aspects of native life in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, and they provide access to

INTRODUCTION 23 ! the historical experience of the Christian Indian communities of southern New England in the words of the natives themselves.

BLANK PAGE

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

| , INTRODUCTION The usual format for the presentation of the Massachusett documents is: a photograph on the

left-hand page; facing the photograph, a transcription of the text; overleaf, the colophon identifying the document, a brief description, and textual notes; and finally, the translation. In the case of short documents, the text, translation, and notes may be given on a single page facing the photograph, if there is one. Notes applying to more than one document sometimes are placed before the colophon of the first. Documents that do not fit on one page are continued

overleaf before the notes, and sometimes the notes are continued on the translation page; especially long documents may be continued on additional pages. Documents found on the same page,

and hence in the same photograph, are treated together. The sections of the marginalia (B16 and following) for which there are no photographs are given with the texts on the left-hand page, and the translations and notes together on the right.

Texts

The texts are presented here line for line and letter for letter. Indentations follow the originals as far as practicable. No emendations or restorations have been made; editorial commentary of this kind is reserved for the textual notes and the word index.

The edition attempts to follow the manuscripts in the use of punctuation, including the colon, raised period, and dash. All marks indicating the continuation of words between lines, however, 25

26 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

have been printed as hyphens, regardless of whether they are written as hyphens, equals signs, or colons.

Single square brackets enclose material that is unreadable or not readable with certainty for external physical reasons, typically damage to the manuscript, fading, and blotting. Double square brackets enclose material deleted in the manuscript, typically by scoring or

: smudging, including those cases of apparently accidental blotting that the writer treated as deletions as he wrote.

Underlining marks changes made by the writer in the manuscript. This is sometimes material added, usually above the line or crowded in at the location indicated, and sometimes material that replaces earlier writing by changing letters or overwriting. Changes made by a second writer are discussed in the notes.

Dotted letters (and other characters) not between brackets are readings that are uncertain

because indistinct handwriting or the inability of the editors to identify the distinctive features of certain letters makes the intent of the writer unclear. Dotted underlined letters are uncertain changes. Dotted letters between square brackets are likely readings that are uncertain because of damage or other physical conditions. Dots or sequences of dots by themselves between brackets indicate the number of letters that are illegible, generally when distinct but ambiguous traces are present. When the number of illegible characters is uncertain, as in the case of large holes or torn edges, dashes are used; the distinction between the short dash (--) and the long dash (---) corresponds very roughly to the relative length of the damaged areas. Parentheses and dashes not in brackets replicate marks in the manuscripts. Readings of damaged letters that are certain are not marked. Signature marks are transcribed X, unless they are unambiguous letters, and seals are indicated by S.

Translations

The translations of the Massachusett texts as far as possible follow the originals line for line, and the line numbers correspond. The often radically different word orders of the two languages have had a number of consequences for this format. An attempt has been made to follow the principle of beginning a new line in the translation only after all the words in (or beginning in) the preceding line of the original have been accounted for; as an inevitable consequence, some words are translated on the line preceding that on which they occur in the text. Where following

this principle has resulted in the loss of a line in the translation, the number of the first line after the omitted line is given in the margin of the translation. The desire to minimize the discrepancy between the location of words in the translation and in the original has resulted in awkward English in a number of cases. To obtain a smooth translation these awkward segments should be edited out.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 27

The single and double square brackets are used in the translation where they appear in the

text; where part of a word is bracketed in the text a roughly corresponding part of the translation is bracketed. Braces enclose material that should have been deleted by the writer but was not; this is typically a word or sequence written twice. In the translations of the marginal annotations in Bibles and other books, uninterpretable material not in context is indicated in the translation by "[-?-]."

The translation takes into account restorations and emendations, which are indicated in the word index but not in the texts. Also, the translations add in brackets omitted sections supplied on the basis of contemporary translations, where these exist, using double quotation marks for direct quotations. Underlining in the translations has two functions: underlined Massachusett words are words that could not be translated, while underlined English words correspond to sections, longer than single

words, that appear in English in the originals. Non-integral English sections, such as notarizations, have, however, not been repeated in the translations, and the pages with the Massachusett texts should always be checked for these.

Parenthesized English words are supplied in the translation for conformity to English idiom or style. Parenthesized English words in double quotation marks are alternate wordings, or variants of names, from contemporary translations. Parenthesized English words in single quotation marks are literal glosses of the Massachusett. Parentheses are also used to mark off the expansion of

abbreviations. A parenthesized question mark indicates doubt about a translation; other possibilities or relevant information are sometimes to be found in the Massachusett word index.

In the translations the capitalization of proper names has been standardized, but the spellings correspond in each case to the original; grammatical endings have been dropped and replaced by a hyphen. For guidance on the identification and equation of variant names, the notes and indexes should be consulted.

Colophon and Notes

The colophon identifies each document with three or four pieces of information: the location, including call number or other reference; the community or area from which the document originally came; an indication of whether the document here edited is an original or a copy; and the name of the Indian writer, where known.

The brief description of each document names the individuals and places of central significance in it, using a standardized English spelling. The standardized English spelling used for common

given names and well known historical figures and places is the one usually used in English

writings; for others it is the form that has been used as the heading of the entry in the Massachusett index. The standardized English form of these names is followed in parentheses by

the standard Massachusett form (if it is different) and the variant spellings found in the particular document.

28 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

Notes on the handwriting of all the native writers are given, except for the myriad hands of the Bible annotations.

The textual notes discuss difficult readings, changes made by the writer, damaged sections, and other features of the document not well represented in the transcription or requiring explanation.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 29

(The edition of the Massachusett writings begins overleaf.)

> ~,. Be

30 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

ee sails

| —oo.j|(ko lethemed 5. '‘bL Ph “mete im arhehS van fBe679 00}

‘ ~ re eS of Pie £”akP: t. yPee -'-

;a‘

4 i @¢ 4 : : "MRA - — .—i ADR pene = aw - ~~ "oe 2 oe, ne. ky~we Ake | o2 -F— ith re AAP HE 7}. ds sbhebe 9 > 4 Re, oS ;Co “kiharr: —_ rad‘Nhs. wats, (4 v4 an . Ld e ”.on a auk.

"acalfetPrApaNeLona apres Chlaea | mMogrtanlan gitar . | PA yeu oun pus | late Len mtawe . : URL AR amestel hese 4 tick’ < 2 eee

mii ttrr digi nfh 6a , a. @ agrer f, i ) “03> ae > ¥ 7 a fn a. f . éc a 4 at Ce oS Rtnwdochan ASiyme? 1»: |a< |,eeMumme ; allel . * ’ . f “mas ry 4 é am

: :Aner Bi 5 ome a , « a in 4 ¥ ? ‘p 4 e Si nad anshha austin a ‘ae.}eae ‘ -a 7Neha ra tSa Re, S >dl

} ft =. . —-

pe Yoh S 5 < ; ‘ —s 4 ‘ Pe in . se i is : ra} Ss rte : Pye: vert 4 :

—~~ *P¢ ' ‘F* r.*47,€3 wi? on ras Zb te ast he i ,he "4 Fe + . ‘Cf 4 ee . . ord aa : 3 eeak qmame ' yt sae, Lr oe a(ia eK, ’ +gz a —_ al 24... . :| .. »®,a *) ae aaloe ~S ttwe a Ati *< S, bt)

ae » oo» 0%! ‘ ~ ta oC. PT "fe CR aimed 2 * whch: ie? eS = ae Soe

ihe . 4a aaa.“oe wn etdSy ind r“.bi bs 7 :.,4ame 3hae “48 ”pe ey. 20 “;. rhe J . . a P ue os ie : eee '? Be AL i Kamel gilcP wgiars ’ >: 7 . ’alee ; Py q ee OT Re eee lis ee pew a“ Md ee watt « wz —r a 7 : ee . eae ae 7 4ee . ny. >a6 ee ae is. >.Bd eewfé: Ge tS“ Mop m4 Jets Document no. 1. American Antiquarian Society (Curwen papers, box 1, folder 3).

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 31

l neat ye[---]nishkottumoo) |

2 witche qua[--Jit --- 1679 : katumoo

3 nen wanamuhkuhkowit yeu n8soohhamin

4 wuttanishkattumooonk quateatashshit newitche 5 nuttann[.Jonf{u]kqu[n] wah nittiimminneat

. 6 quateatashshit it minahhanit nashshauwe kakapattanit kah panak7 kossut munnah soowetamin mashshinnah noowawau quateatashit 8 Matta yeu nummakooun qut nuttanishskattumin yeu 9 mashshinneah minneah wame neshnah teank auk neshnah 10 muhtukquash kah neshna[h] maskehtuash kah neshnah teank 1l ne nah watahkemoouk wame nut tanushskattumin it yeowwak 12 nunnechanussak wachekehheakkuk wakoohquaiyeanummait

13 steemin teyeapish nawassapehtau manakkakond yeuk yowak 14 [[mattal ] noowau nuttanushskattumooonk matta makooun yeu 15 minnah mitcheme tasahke ayeahkeyeuuk qut wepee 16 wuttauwohkanoo yeu yowwak nunnechanak kah wame it 17 uppoometuonkanoowaut m[e]chemee mecheme tasahke ayeahatissehittit 18 yeu noonamaonk newch[--] nuttak witche [an]k[a]lwee kah 19 yeu pache onk nuttan[.]s[.]s[{---] nah nuppoonum 20 nunnutchek nashpe wawla--] neshshauwak oowawan 21 panuhtahut asuh wannooh s{.]sussahpun asuh Simon wekit 22 wanamuhkuhkowit asuh william numuk

23 yeu nuttussen [[yeu]] nen quateatashshit yeu katumo it :: 1679 ) 24 nuppais akus : 26 tayis 25 yeu it apaame nanauwunnumooonkanut nittut anishskattum 26 nuppoonum nunnutchek numakkun in wunnutchekanoowait 27. nunnechanak [ [wunnutchekanoowait] ] 28 quateatash[[tash]]shit X wunnutchek nukane satim

29 : wawaenin panuhtahut 30 panuhtahut X nunnutchek

~3231 william numuk X nunnutchek | neat namak akus : 26 : 33 , 1679 katumoo

38 [---] | 34 I Ezra Ferry : sen : of Sand[---]see 35 Queshataset deliuer this[--]

36 and testament onto [---] |

37 [ -h]ildren {---]

32 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

Documents no. 1, 2, and 3 are written by William Numuk. Archaic features in his handwriting include the English p, the long s, the older shape of w (with pointed base at left and rounded

base at right), and the occasional tail on h (clear in minnah, 1:15). The e is usually epsilon| shaped, tending to resemble the normal Italian e when linked or rapidly written. Word-final nd is written as a digraph (e.g. in manakkakond, 1:13). 1. American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts (Curwen Papers: Box l, Folder 3); Plymouth; original (William Numuk). Will of the sachem Quateatashit (Quateatashshit) of Mashnee Island (Mashshinnah, Mashshinneah), Buzzards Bay.

There is damage along the vertical and horizontal fold-lines and at the bottom, affecting the readings in 11. 5, 10, 17-21, 34-38. 1 ye[-]: clearly for ye[u]. The sense and grammar seem to require taking [a]nishkottumoo) as an error for [a]nishkottumoo[onk] (cf. 11. 4, 14) -- or perhaps as an abbreviation indicated obscurely by the apparent parenthesis -- and assuming that a conjunct passive form of a word for “make” or the like has been lost in the hole. 2 qua[--Jit : qua[teatashsh]it (cf. 1. 4) would exactly match the available space.

, 4 wuttanishkattumooonk : the close spacing and smaller size of the first oo in the ooo

suggest that 80 was intended. |

5 nuttann[.Jon[u]kqu[n] : damaged by holes and tears. 6 quateatashshit : tash added above the line, with a caret, and then the added sh crossed

out.

9 teank : though tea[u]k was intended, the expected u is written as a clear n.

10 teank : as in l. 9. 1l watahkemoouk : h changed from k.

12 The apparent dot at the end of the line is not ink.

, 13 steemin : the s(?) has a unique shape. 14 [[matta]] : crossed out. nuttanushskattumooonk : ooo as in 1. 4. 17 uppoometuonkanoowaut : the intention of the oo(?) is not clear; the first o(?) seems to be a correction from e, the second o(?) is solid (perhaps intended as a deletion). tasahke : added

above the line. .

23 [[yeu]] : crossed out. Mark at end -- transcribed ")" -- is perhaps intended to bracket ll. 23 and 24. 26 wunnutchekanoowait : k changed from a.

27 The writer crossed out the word repeated redundantly from 1. 26; the double writing shows that both word orders were idiomatic.

28 quateatash[[tash]]shit : repeated syllable crossed out. wunnutchek : written above the mark.

29-33 At the right. : 34-38 Attestation in English hand: I Ezra Ferry, Sr., of Sand[wich did(?)] see Quateatashit ("Queshataset") deliver this [will] and testament unto [his c]hildren [---]. Reverse endorsed: Indian Sachem/ Pembroke/ mattachers.

\|

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 33

1 The time when thils] will(?) [was made 7] by Qua[teatashsh]it (is) the year 1679. I Wanamuhkuhkowit write this

will of Quateatashshit, because

be) he hired me to make it.

Quateatashshit of the island between Kakapattanit and Panakkossut; the island is called Mashshinnah. Quateatashshit says:

"I do not sell this, but I bequeath this island Mashshinneah, entirely, everything (of) land, all 10 trees, and all grass and everything that is there; I bequeath it all to my four children, whom I begot on (2?) Wakoohquaiyeanumma-:

Steemin, Teyeapish, Nawassapehtau, (and) Manakkakond, these four."

He says, "My bequest is not sold, this

15 island, forever, as long as the earth exists, but only

they use it, the four children of mine, and in all their posterity forever and ever as long as they have descendants. This is my true declaration regarding (?) that land of mine from beyond (?) and

until this. And my wlill ?] [-?-] I set there

20 my hand with three wit[nesses]. He witnessed it, Panuhtahut or Wannooh, S[.]sussahpun or Simon Wekit, (and)

Wanamuhkuhkowit or William Numuk.

I do this, [[this]] I Quateatashshit, in this year 1679, the month of August, the 26th.

25 Here in Plymouth colony I bequeath (it). I set my hand. I convey it to the hands of my children [[“s hands]]."

Quateatashshit the old sachem (X) his hand. Witness Panuhtahut;

30 Panuhtahut (X) my hand. William Numuk (X) my hand.

When it was done (?) (was) August 26th, in the year 1679.

34 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

. mnepgsenigacee~s —-

| yee ankoncttrl pomanaleafa iin ) manrad arevem murano) arecrngstnalle sh kechufh hisquk :

“uh marca Nath fhoraab ma. muk, amotle onk ne anos i am segs farkEeuth ery mur ata saa rcAfsu aiakgue an Our ytse ae orek? auk Lak seo'ce ane haf : 4 tga S20 IF Ze tat @ 4 al . : ar 11h. KL arch Ati AS Fes ¢ “leech ‘arth fk Mme ;

rn" ‘ : 7

? Vad ar ama haa yay s mw 1 ne

2 Ame Fame ukNn Oo we nm ogfhnk TL Cometh: WHAapoe K OOO win «°‘

“fjockgtiakke nd eS peslnaek grakuk tha wumme heko f hal 50es rt ie ks feau oi, a{%9

if eMG % ‘ sa % oer *bs Sines gera -ii. 1? ee ce. ‘Vhs ida be *3P7 , i7: zs me aeen R rPaid"ane has se ‘3* ‘. y , 2 a ; & a a oe ee or f = ae + = Io mr ES ch y oy tbo ahead m4. as llahhy é _ fe! faaPa7d FOG$ Rh ima il ieerry 7ne Ss A 4 Ley ied[ha . ‘ lage? , wh noulbahg erwore .. ,ae 4i Fa - ae has eng5 Ohh Via : ad: ae thay etna : . 2 vari4 ts LP-ne RgE ee, mF af “ee a eat wi ‘ a, 7 -; 4 ‘* E:>baa al ’BO i. ahe by ee * i Z ae . = ow. ¥s ae oc ee ieens ome Te ag‘j‘ s3 «> 3 2 pe z . 5 « ahae hae ha x ns. ‘ 5} se éH3pe an > a eee aed we eon ae£4 ms , 2 = ae edt .. we BP é Pe ~~ @ a a} al” i*§ * cebai eo ae‘ed : ++ *~ : eg tlaeee a ve ah is~# ia. ¢ fre eo Sng? , dant edt 3; Ye

*.

ve? hi # al .

Document no. 3. American Antiquarian Society (Curwen papers, box 2, folder 1).

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 39

1 yeu um[.]okooonk nanauwe matta teaug [[wi]] witchee

2 aspateamuk noowau 3 nen aspateamuk yeu numakun auk nen apee yeu apaame 4 yeu apaamee nanouwunnumooonk yeu it neuingnand 5 nuttunnumauwan pahke namppamut asuh nahtonsahpun 6 wattahket mashnah kah ne wuttahtoun [[kah ne wuttahtouun]} } 7 yeu aukke mecheme kah wame pummetuonk mecheme

8 kah nen aspateamuk matta howan ootammehteoooun 9 kah wame nuppumetuonk mecheme matta ooweahkehteooonau 10 ne makkoo ahke anumauak nahtonsahpun anumouak 1l nen aspateamuk ape [[aspat[ea]muk kah] ] papa(--Jit numak nunnutchek 12 [[{nashpe nunnutchek] | kah nashpe wawachek neit teague 13. ahkee ne ahke yeu touwahkamuk 14 ne auk wutche kittishshin naatomppam akowwe wuttahket 15 nokque sunnattunniyeu waj kehpishshanutcheh : ne wuttahket 16 nechhea ashshanutcheh nokque nanakquttinniyeu 17. yeuh wunnooshwishana[[nah]]h pache mopakkayeasit 18 neit mahche touwahpishshond neit qutchukquishshau 19 nokque sun[[{.]]natunniyeu apehche ahquashshond 20 neit patushshond wunnukkequaonk at choopishshonk 21 nokque an kehpishsha[[nk]] in mashshashimmi[ t] 22 neit wunnooshwisho[ ---]napach mashsh{ a] s[h.m--] 23 neit tauwahpishand [---n]k akquashshau nokque 24 in nopattunniyeu napac[h---]onk a uppatushshon 25 neat kehpishshond pounus neit watoohquashshau

26 yeu wuttahtoun nahtonsahpun matta koochee 27 yeuit unnamee [[yeu] ] pou[ nlusseehtu 28 neshnah teaug muhtuka[ ulash maskehtuash assinnash 29 kah wame ne auk wuttahtoun mecheme mecheme

30 nashpe nen nutchek

31 aspatteamuk X yeu noomak

32 18 aprel --: [[..]] 33 1703 34 yeu wuttimin nashpe

35 wussookhamwenin

36 [[wulla]] william numuk waw[a]enin

37 wawaenin

38 ol X Joel oomak 39 maetou X oowawan

40 kah oomak

40 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

3. American Antiquarian Society (Curwen Papers: Box 2, Folder 1); Plymouth; original (William Numuk).

Deed of gift from the sachem Aspohteamuk (Aspateamuk) to Nahtonsahpun, alias Namppamut, of Mashnee Island (Mashshinnah, Mashnah). See note on handwriting with document no. l.

Holes along old folds affect the reading in ll. 1, 1l, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 36. l witchee : crowded in below end of line.

5 pahke : h changed from k. . 11 [[aspat[ea]muk kah]] : crossed out. papa[--]it : added above the crossed out words. Middle of word damaged and faded; perhaps s, then conceivably p, then a small letter, and then apparently ss or u. 12 [[nashpe nunnutchek]] : crossed out. 15 h crowded in and colon added as divider. 17 First wunnooshwishananah was written, then the -nah crossed out and replaced by h. 19 sun[[.]]natunniyeu : sun- is followed by three small blots and a half space.

21 kehpishsha[[nk]] : last two letters blotted as if deleted, perhaps because -nd (-nt) rather than -nk would be grammatically correct. 22 Left margin has [[mashim.t]] and something indistinct above, all crossed out.

24 a : intention not clear.

30-33 At right. | 27 [[yeu] ] : crossed out.

31 aspatteamuk : written above mark.

32 [[..]] : smudged. 36 [{wulla}] : crossed out.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 41 3

1 This is his conveyance, freely, not for anything. Aspateamuk says:

"I Aspateamuk convey this land where I dwell (in) this Plymouth {this Plymouth} colony here in New England.

5 I give it clearly to Namppamut, or Nahtonsahpun, who lives at Mashnah, and he owns that [[and he owns that]], this land, forever, and all his posterity, forever. And I Aspateamuk (say), no one (shall) trouble it, and all my posterity forever (shall) not meddle with it, 10 the land that I conveyed, that I gave to Nahtonsahpun, that I Aspateamuk gave to him, where I dwell, [[Aspat(ea)muk and]] (at) Papa[---]it(?). My mark (and) my hand [[with my hand]] and with witnesses. Then what land? That land is this wooded area: That land begins beyond Naatomppam’s land,

15 towards the northward; (the other boundary) that runs from the land of Nechhea, that runs towards the southwest, (the boundary) follows along this other one as far as Mopakkayeasit. Then when it has gone into the water, then it turns

| toward the north as far as it goes along the shore;

20 then when it comes to where wunnukkequaonk goes into the water, towards where it run{s] to Mashshashimmit, then it follows along it as far as Mashshas[himmit] ;

then when it goes into the water, [-?-] it goes along the shore towards the southeast, unt[il ag]lain it comes to 25 where the bounds run; then it goes to the beginning. This Nahtonsahpun owns, not more,

here within [[this]] the boundaries, each thing, trees, grass, stones, and he owns all that land, forever and ever.

30 By my hand,

| 1703.

Aspatteamuk, (X) this is my mark." 18 April,

He makes this by

35 the writer

William Numuk, witness. Witness,

Old (X) Joel, his mark. Maetou (X) witnessed it,

40 and his mark.

42 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

3 , Zz ; ;‘. ‘ t{i Fad ,, . Of m Q

fe si wi.. yp, af rwnk | rei ‘cP fie aia? / re

sy a,oe f rrIiLJ«v.ae f/A, \ ‘¢° ilhe / Se } eoj “% wsRot i j \a7 f: ii ;faY pe hi / .+L

Y si iA\ -reer? i» X rZi Anta | okafepd nm lve4 rics; / rikay” //ry)pS , CL'4jie“ arive .¢4pyxrgale ‘>é, .yati) —— fj? ‘.if SL / y 4 . rife OCOEL varite fis LA oe SH WOKASCMUR JUP mrtahe

a;fu\FF; i6772 wate k / . ‘Pit ‘. ,thanes riFr7¢4 faag. y & : :nttheoe ; alKI fe LOU {eC AD -},

i a , . ’ C, f / ”/ J' r. )AK~ / ‘a }Ao a* “ 4. : 4 _ * 5 ee f ~ f . 7 :::4; et ‘ *. b : pn gil > ’ rR . P| ‘ cs af f . . ; ; id x . Kernels ay 2 how a f f vA . fs by ruthinas

a yi (TACK y ei: On ie mittte or

CVYR We 1 fohn fro mi, Eee wid hati yienin avis ‘ oh fe Uips permed Fy tOTEIN eur p pile haba,
[?a

der wachbeyuk kh rermuk nemane care res 7 Karrace name Wwe igehe rt ‘ ; eh argeRy® - dxe'- , as. es - r oe ae 7 hy a - e ah pac) .

“ as - “6 A Wey A je Ket aoe ne bari ¥ys PA4 slit cg eee he'sfayey ahhh ae ;AA —ee lsmache : at PA Mem SideOdie wemnommag ah "doh Mellamaamnummanen Natare's Aa ; °|tawah nay res re : .wage kahhan nen nhranetd ; * Meta ee bhah davis “s“anya uhfilai guwehEr afc “ “ cape” .=

“Ph 5 hha RM ae+, 4mage ‘ 4Kk¥ cong ATEN aCM OYE 3 ae ih wee : Kak:- Kudbamema App < renameale (0 aber I OS IG + re" 4 aarpe wd oy Oe a “an 4 fare « oh ont, Pune ad ; 4g>i erty: | a am, FA Sf step 4 ™~ we eerre fd a TAC? A LETATEMGE :

oe, eet oe ; 7 = “p Ss

— ie 3 . : rag: ths late oy. mn € anneg caMernai ves MEL RINE AAAI RPEIE

ndoe i oh; :tithe LAK 8 sepsst han icphihi eegyen © ay ima1% -~Nt-Kpanvnoway fa PAF a? a€ fafeace Yt‘« guckpecnum wees yetg ” a itever Bien | Ee 4fakgnor -Ni‘earn Fe es ‘ i o bie er F ‘ ys . gue akke th —— AO A TT uk ennor mumrrragelt 7 FM Ke AAs oe wo % be ( eter ae = ! Kya WA te mem ne wn hgiee keshikai MM cupehan~

ne RP a Pc “yk y Teach a¢ alot nage?” Alun — CAfponth. :

weatewum ekeneppom ete”wees ong af low «, ”\ngt afer —— a a oo preeseg amanififeibea ———— ~~ “tn Th, suas fs RT tae acca all *wtin ye ref _— ‘ = non etn verte” Ct. per me. . ‘tnnd, % ; rag a 2? eel fiema (mH Twe4 awarnt/amun as nangrrea: < a were as aa* _d Eporenet , . P “Sob . ,vane? . rsesthth— o; ; B47 Mh AY qarre .. oseee ; yr oye wkORIN vam a”) * / ‘ ; ry mashpe 4 ue haga TOUIIFIL A FE . ‘ ff comme gr ¢ Fes RATS Rannootam “m

‘ t 7 Ltn .

ra * ; s .

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Sara j ae we ere rere eoe! : 7 rae? i o .cienuh a 7 4X-gliancih ie ‘1407 pap Scala A. Febwinm Cruyr7740? yy « ch&oh en ee Cc z pemmmndunnitehiarnvckia suanmakan rah rmainanMaun Lf pn bagyian curae ne 2 = otae~ kith e ' :wnaar agmIce *. .fiue es “y 4 ah MaAshari«: kuch ane ae Sct a aighadletin: rig (line pibhcibuvenjkeikbe nh 7x pogwutch ; - oe ' my lego7a hide :- ~, ) AP : - pa 4 Pa ois Es, : a , ,wane Lid' ”. aC7 P1ahAana’ ; a o™ a,’

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hikes ame va we 4 4 PUIrM Suen Kane ntetrul raj apa jeperivich Fe aengKa re

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+ Gate ae hiked -” wrahaye rrp Papp emweh bere sen VIIA aM lah purntZ7? Chacee 7K kane kerncetammeanrnith faileiwenk yi ahkuh rr wipraku 7t CAMNA same pte 10 -

De mecaimmerwr7k 167 nafdanei: Cre Wt cilia ‘Pe saat, Serr poe - meNn : oy on / ae - ’}ao—_—_———_——— — anise ot szeb — Saphe22.: rc < pete andar)

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‘y J feazoomp rinayven® ye nin ay SS ae Pa

Portes oe, A that Or aan 7a 908: &-- re we Avril in CV t-wrt s wd © Uae, _ . BQ

Fi Reponon torts Ae Ra ote Aart fA mic me 2 * stltes dated EE tn ’

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Documents no. 9, 10, 11. Huntington Library (HM 3993/1)}).

. TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 59 9

1 --waehtoyuk [k...u] wame wosketompaog yo

| 2 -- Ahquompi -- andom -- 1706 Septemb~ -- 22 -- , 3 mequanuttammuk asuh waehtoyuk kah namuk nemache unnag kanau wame : wosketom4 paog younuh w[[o]]ussuhquohonk ehtoyu ahhuttammuk Deduh ne machetomuk yo ahquompi 5 Nenuh thomas dilla {{mu]] nummak ahkuh wana nuttunnunnummauon nathaneill Cuper

6 {[{n]] nepuhwutche nuttahtauwun : yu ahkuh ouwohkon nutteakg asuh nuttunnapushkat nen nthaneill cuper

7 Ehtoyu ahkuh neahtak : [[aha]] ahuttammuk oohqui akkaskuppe [[pot...]] botattunnayu unnaommaye 8 ne wonuppag : ahuttammuk sukkuhkohhunkkanussit asuh tatogquasketh ye [[.]] umnagque achepe anogquttunn-

9 aiyu wequshshik ta matashin : ne thomas narton wuttahk at mattashik ye unnogque annogquttinnaiyu 10 nokehkechakong : wutche noh kehkechakong ye unnogque annogquttinnaiyu nesinnehchag ratuyu 11 wane + yauuh nean8h kishkak [[y]] ta nukkamm8waiyeu wanu [[na]] neunnukque kushkai ut quepechun-

12 maiyu wana ne sateaog wutche nukkamm8wayyu yee quehpechummaiyu wequishin asuh pacheshin

13. chokquogque ahkeit -- nen tomas dila kuh unnai nummakun yu teashshe ahkuh nuttinninnummauon 14 Nathaneil Cuper nashpe wutteagk wunnohteaonkane autouwutch nagum asuh [[ehtoyu]] ehtoponik 15 matta be nuppenoowehtowun asuh nuppometuwonk asuh [[.]] [[nup]]pummetuwonkane kunnootam16 manishshehteayenuog ---

17 nen tho mas tilla

18 yu_: ahkuh mak8 unnaatu -3- pount 19 annu[m]mauag nathaneill cuper 20 nen nathaneill cuper nissin unni nuttin-

21 nanuhummin

22 -3- pount

23. nen thomas dila n8wawaonttamun yu nunnitchik --- X 24 Experience Job wawayenin ninnutchik --- X 25 [{k.d]] quaquaquom wawayenin ninnutchik --- X

[Docs. no. 10 and 11 are four pages below.]

60 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

Documents no. 9, 10, and 11 form a set. Nos. 9 and 10 are on the same original piece of paper and dated September 22, 1706; no. 11, dated November 14, 1706, is on an originally separate piece of paper that has been attached to the base of the first. Nos. 9 and 10 are in the same hand, except that 1. 10:17 was written by the signer (Nathaniel Dohqunoish) and the added lines 9:17-22 and 10:11-16 and the added words on 1. 10:3 are in a different hand, which appears to be that of document no. ll. The hand in documents no. 9 and 10 generally has Italian letter shapes, with the exception of the long s; 8 has been transcribed where oo seems particularly closely spaced or reduced in size. The word-divider is transcribed : whether it has two dots or three. For the hand in the added sections, see the note to document no. ll. 9, Huntington Library, San Marino, California (HM 3993[1]); Martha’s Vineyard; original. Conveyance from Thomas Dila (Dilla, Tilla) to Nathaniel (Nathaneil, Nathaneill) Cuper of a parcel of land at East Chop (Ogkashkuppeh, Akkaskuppe). The top edge is chipped and faded.

1 [k...u] : the second letter is completely rubbed away and there is a hole affecting the third and fourth letters; the traces seem consistent with k[ena]u “you (pl.)~ (cf. the misspelled kanau, 1. 3). An apparent stroke at the end of the Line cannot be interpreted. 3 namuk : n changed from m by blotting the last stroke. wosketom- : k changed from h. 4 w[[o]]ussuhquohonk : 0(?) blotted. 5 [[mu] ] : smudged.

6 [[n]] : faintly inked and ignored when pen was redipped. nen : the apparent macron some distance above the e is assumed not to be significant.

7 [[aha]] : crossed out. akkaskuppe : k added above. [{pot...]] : blotted and then smudged.

8 : ahuttammuk : the word-divider (:) and a are added above. tatogquasketh : t crowded in. [{.]] : beginning of a letter, perhaps n, crossed out. 9 wuttahk : h added above. 10 nokehkechakong : the 0(?) is made uncertain by having been written over the edge of a

smudge, but the character seems too small and round to be the e of this hand, which typically has

a long, flattened loop; the c is written over t. ll wane : : the e and word-divider (:) are crowded in. [{y]] : crossed out. nukkamm8waiyeu 2 i crowded in. {[na]] : blotted and smudged. “ut 2 ou written above crossed out a. 12 wutche : c crowded in.

| 14 wutteagk : ea changed from ae. {[{ehtoyu]] : crossed out. 15 be : marks to the left are unclear; perhaps the b is written over a letter or a dash. {{.]] : a vertical stroke, probably a false start for p. {[nup]] : crossed out. 16 manishshehteayenuog : h crowded in. 17 apparently added separately from 11. 18-22. 19 annu[m]mauag : m(?) damaged by hole.

25 [[k. 4] : crossed out. [The notes to docs. no. 10 and 11 are four pages below.]

, TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 61 9

1 Know ye all men, at this

time, September 22, 1706.

Remember ye or know ye and see ye that which has been done, all you men.

This writing here(?) is what is called a deed, which has been made at this time. 5 "I Thomas Dilla convey land and I let Nathaneill Cuper have it."

“Therefore I own this land; my wampum or my money was used, of me Nthaneill Cuper."

This here(?) is where the land lies: What is called a section of Akkaskuppe, northwestward within the pond called Sukkuhkohhunkkanussit, or the fresh meadow, in yonder(?) direction almost anogquttun-wards,

it hits the end where Thomas Narton’s land hits; in yonder(?) direction annogquttin-wards, 10 that boundary; from that boundary, in yonder(?) direction annogquttin-wards, twenty four rods, the width nukkammoow-wards; and it is that wide up from the water; and that extent from the nukkammoow- direction, yonder(?) up from the water; it ends or comes to

the English land. I (am) Thomas Dilla and it was done. I convey this amount of land, I give

be here (?). | it to

Nathaneil Cuper for his money. Im peace may he own it, he or [[this here (?)]] those who may

15 I shall not alter it, or my posterity, or the posterity’s defenders. | I Thomas Tilla,

this land that I convey cost three pounds, (that) which I let Nathaneill Cuper have.

20 I Nathaneill Cuper say it was done; I bought it for

22 three pounds.

I Thomas Dila witness it; this is my hand (X). Experience Job, witness, my hand (X) . 25 Quaquaquom, witness, my hand (X).

62 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

Documents no. 10, 11. See the photograph of documents no. 9, 10, 11.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 63 10

l Kuh unnai nenuh Nathaneill Cuper yu ahkuh ahtaau wummoo tomas dilla 2 ([lw..]] wunnitcheanehtu nummakun nuttinnunnummauon John talman wutcheyae 3 nukkeshhuwanshik 4 pount ta chaquaquina nen Johntalman {{hu]] kuh unnai yu ahkuh wumm8

nathaneil 4 wunnit[[.]]chekanehtu nuttahtauwun nashpe nikkeshhuwansheshteaonk nepuhwutch 5 yu nuttahtauwun nenuh [[ash]] asuh nuppummetuonk ° nen nathaneill yu [{n]] magk8 ahkuh . 6 anunnummauwog Johtalman pummetuwonkane ahtauwutch nashpee wunnohteaongkane

7 ahtauwehhittich matta ° pe nuppappenuwehtowun nenuh [[ash]] asuh pummetuwonk8 kane kinn8tammannishshittuwonk yu ahkuh nummakun wana wame [[um..t]] um-

9 mechimm8wonk nen nathaniel Cuper ---

10 dadte -- andom --- 1706 --- Sept -- 22

1l nen [[1]] John tormon nuttinan-

12 uhummin -- 4 pount 13 nen nathaneill nissin

16 -4- pound , 14 unni mache nutt 15 innummakin --

17 {{N]] nen nathaniel dohqunoish yu ninutcheg

18 Experience Job wawayenin yu ninnutchek --- X 19 quaquaquomp wawayenin yu ninnutchek --- X

11

1 nen samuell makkinnit kah qunnagk8 n8waminnamminnan ahtauwutch u ohk 2 John tormon wunnachaongkane ta : mamissi uppemmechuonkkanehtu ne puh wutch matta pe 3 mnuppapenuwehto8nan kah nuppummechuongkanun kah kahkunn8tamotokkik sonchum4 mo8onk ahtauwutch u ohk kah mamisse ummechum8onk

5 nen [[k]] sam makinnit numminnehkehtaun nashpe u sel -- S 6 nen qunnok8 numminnehkehtaun nashpe u sel -- S 7 nen wa[[e]]uaenin John whetll u ninchek -- X 8 nen wauaenin upa[[h]]ooh u ninchek -- X 9 nen wauaenin penceaman jop : u : ninchk -- pe --

10 anno 17006 -~ year -11 novemper -- -14- tays

64 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES : ,

10. Huntington Library (HM 3993[1]); Martha”s Vineyard; original. Conveyance from Nathaniel Cuper to John Tallman (Talman, Tormon) of the land described in

document no. 9. .

For the hands, see the note to document no. 9. 2 [[w..]] : smudged. 3 Added words above the line are in the same hand as 11. 11-16; see note to document no. 9. [[hu]] : crossed out. 4 wunnit[[.]]chekanehtu : t obscured by mark crossing out the following vertical stroke,

probably a false start for h.

5 [[ash]] : crossed out. [{n]] : crossed out. 7 matta " pe : word-divider (*) crowded in. [{ash]] : partially blotted out. 8 [[um..t]] : crossed out and smudged. 10 dadte : t crowded in.

11 [[1]] : crossed out. 17 [[N]] : smudged; the rest of the line is below this in a hand different from both the first hand and the hand of the additions, presumably the hand of the signer. 11, Huntington Library (HM 3993[1]); Martha”s Vineyard; original. Confirmation of the sale described in document no. 10 by Samuel Makinnit (Samuell, Sam; Makkinnit) and Qunnagkoo (Qunnokoo).

The hand of document no. 11 (and of the additions to documents no. 9 and 10) generally has Italian letter shapes, except for a two-stroke and sometimes open-topped p and a long s; k

characteristically has a hook at the bottom of the first stroke and a loop at the top; 8 is a small oo, often set off by extra space, or sometimes with the second o smaller than the first. 1 samuell : e crowded in. makkinnit : k changed from undotted i. 5 [[k]] : second stroke written over heavily.

, 7 wa[[e] ]uaenin : e blotted. whetll : end crowded and uncertain. | 8 upa[[h]]ooh : h apparently crossed out. 9 penceaman : c changed from e. jop : added above the word-divider after u, but printed in the intended place. ninchk : k heavily written on left side; perhaps e crowded in.

10 | |

. TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 65 1 And it was done. I am Nathaneill Cuper. This land I own comes from Thomas Dilla’s hands. I convey it, I let John Talman have it, because he pays me 4 pounds in English money (?). I am John Talman, and it was done. This land

comes from Nathaneil’s |

hands; I own it by means of my payment. Therefore,

5 I own this, I or my posterity. I Nathaneill, this land that I convey,

that I let Joh Talman have, may he own it for posterity (?), {with} in peace may they own it. I shall not alter it, I or the posterity’s | defense. This land I convey and all

fruits, I Nathaniel Cuper. 10 its Date AD 1706,I John September 22. Tormon bought it for 4 pounds.

I Nathaneill say it was done. I have

15 sold it for 4 pounds.

I Nathaniel Dohqunoish, this is my hand. Experience Job, witness, this is my hand --- (X). Quaquaquomp, witness, this is my hand --- (X).

ll 1 I Samuell Makkinnit, and Qunnagkoo, we are satisfied with it: may he have this land, John Tormon, peacefully, (and) in all his posterity. Therefore we shall not alter it, and our posterity and those who defend the sachemship. May he have this land and all its fruits.

5 I [{.]] Sam Makinnit confirm it by this seal (S).

I Qunnokoo confirm it by this seal (S). I am a witness, John Whetl1(?), this this my hand --- (X). I am a witness, Upaooh, this is my hand -- (X). I am a witness, Penceaman Jop, this is my hand --- pe--

10| November A 1706, 14.

66 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

“ tie —— >=“mg7 totter EGY Aone dk (esl a-)Po) Chor fab | /sc ATOR a.a es 149 =

* L+ " ZoFa e a: -§bes

haaterary panunry 7Ae 8S peor (799/Se 716

ae.4 4 m~ : f ne . pape 5»os i ~s me eelLalhe, . - - . 7”

De Lusi ® Maclin sper’ t Kare A778 . Shim Tere mag wosoman vi Lon, ah Gory Tessuacl A06L 61 42anbOZ A Ai a Py | ’ cas 9*7 a> f case 4ek %* i-~

mubehprun on ‘Toe :try fe ie(heDek : . i Oethor Abetseee

ie sere ate, t f > me seat Py4»pole m brvi‘oe ‘2 ye

ALK mwILAGuan: ie 1 whe men OOfEt fi

alpsA AA, up “éKay-» :. Ye-pTZocen mr h a= btjganh rs Ns’ ld yes ‘4 ab? y s

me f mothe nulek, witlom | GF WA

7, t Lachory tes DIAS hd aaFash Joel v LEV hfe rokion

rae rah peer te

‘ me ALK nah ny Mok gons Ke Aarne Fseph

¢ Y PaSKenes bra gorevb Lordeh j bominsanty; * ee 4 Beh. MIOTNAZ O79 Ae i. : ; . ELA A. fin — > if . - / =

y=, t ile’ Aenean you ; >. ~ [oF Anosoy cca: | Ny, coe Drone ie te oe eRe ‘EET Net iu yore : : een . A ':be “~\ ) leI$rTA ; a >. i > ANI i a he ¢ ‘. roa pat. Bae alma . re | ees Sere ne Alorupran tay 4 ; PAS 8 . . aes — SR ware ae or {789 he< > : a se ON ~

: Re co’, t. —

7| Pifemen » abd epthed ar } nce a , >| (ail 9 Kebrak ap SP ee ee | . et fe ne Dy Se ae ae a , * “sier a ET % oe ) ‘a

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OS ea ony Apes |

’ Yeoh 6 tava ra, ‘s , ‘ 7 . | Kee Lescol * ie 9 . a s Pay vf ‘

SARE 5 ae : aoe : mn a a : | ay & | Document no. 12, lines 60-122. Huntington Library (HM 3994).

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 71

60 att ° December ° the ° [---] 61 noquah mache nuttohqunnit[..m jone..] 62 paul & ummuttimussussoh Sarah ahanai * ul--] 63 Lordut Zachary hossueit nohtompeantog 64 att December ° the ° 10 ° year ° 1761 nenoquah 65 mache nuttohqunniteham Zachariah 66 hossueit Juner & en ummittumussoh Sarah -67 Tallmon ut Lordut Zachary hossueit pastor 68 att ° March © the ° 2 year ° 1764 ne kasukoh mache 69 nuttohqunnitham James rabill & ummuttum70 mussoh Ezther rabill ut Lord Zachary nohtomp- | eantog 71 att nouember the 8 year ° 1764 nenoquat 72 mache nuttohqunnitteham Silis paul * &

| 73 en ummuttummussoh Martha pomit ut Lordut

74 Zachary hossueit nohtompeon-- ] 75 att march ° the 28 year 1766 ne noquah 76 mache nuttohquenitteham [[Silis]] Isaac Jonson

77. =+& marcy Tallmon ut Lordut _ 78 Zachary hossueit nohtompeantog

79 att June the © 25 year ° 1767 ne noquat | 80 mache nuttohqunnitham Isaac bar81 rapes ({&]] en ummittummussissoh ahunit 82 battey Cheeks Zachary ° hos-- nohtompean 83 att November the ° 13 ° year ° 1767 neno84 quat mache nuttohquennitham banja85 mon ° pito & en ummuttimussoh noh ahunit 86 Sarah gashim Zachary hos-- nohtompean--

87 att March ° th ° 22 year ° 1768 nenoquat 88 mache nuttohquneteham John Simon -89 Juner & Deborah Sauwamog ut Lordut

90 Zachary hossueit nohtompeantog 91 att December the ° 30 year ° 1768 92 mache nuttohqunniham Joseph 93 Tallmon Elis hohpen yeu

94 Lordut Zachary hossueit ) 95 att January the ° 11 year ° 1769 ne-

96 mnoquat mache nuttohquneteham -- | | 97 Joash panue en ummuttumussoh 98 Rode Sauwamog ut Lordut

99 Zachary hossueit nohtompeantog 100 att march the ° 25 year ° 1769 * ne101 noquah mache nuttohquneteham 102 banjamon Essil & hannah accomes

{Continued overleaf. ]

72 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

[Doc. no. 12, second page, continued. ] . 103 [ut L..dJut Zachary hossueit nohto104 [---]e

105 [---mber] ° the ° 22 year ° 1769 ° [nen]oqu[..] | 106 [---] ttohqunnitteh mathew tog8sin _ , , 107 [---t]timmussoh ah[.n.]t mary ako[o--k] 108 [--z.c]hary hossueit nohtompean| t--] , 109 [--] year ° 1769 neohquompai mal .--] 110 [--t]hew togoosi[n] & mary a[--]

111 [--h] ary hossueit n[.--] , 112 [--] 29 year [--] 113 [---]he nuttohqunnetha[m] noh 114 [--Jit abill Setam & en ummittum[--]

115 [--Jary hossueit ut Lordut ° Zachary hossueil.--] 116 att May the “© 8 year ° 1771 mache nuttoh117 qunnitham John Joel & mary Tallm[.--]

118 ut Lordut Zachary hossueit

120 12 bushil corn -- | 119 December 8°" 1780 Jonathan Sole

121 Thomas Smith 3 dollers in 8°" 1780 Dec™

122 December 14°? 1780 Richard hillmon 8 [b.s.]

12. Second page. See the notes to the first page. 63 There is a line of dashes between this line and the next. 70 rabill : i changed from e. f£antog : below the beginning of the line; the transcription assumes that the initial stroke is a gesture at crowding in the otherwise missing e. 71 nouember : e added above.

74 Below right half of 1. 73. , 76 Silis written first, then changed to Isaac by overwriting.

79 the : t changed from h. |

81 & : blotted. 91 Some additional strokes where the word-divider is after year are uninterpretable.

12:60-118 | |

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 73

60 December the [- ? -3; on this] date I have married Jone[s]

Paul and his wife Sarah Ahanai i[n] the Lord. Zachary Hossueit, minister. December the 10, 1760; on this date

65 I have married Zachariah Hossueit, Junior, and his wife Sarah Tallmon in the Lord. Zachary Hossueit, pastor.

March the 2, 1764; today I have married James Rabill and his wife

70 Ezther Rabill in the Lord. Zachary, minister. November the 8, 1764; on this date

| I have married Silis Paul

to his wife Martha Pomit in the Lord. Zachary Hossueit, minister. 75 March the 28, 1766; on this date I have married [[Silis]] Isaac Jonson and Marcy Tallmon in the Lord. Zachary Hossueit, minister.

June the 25, 1767; on this date 80 I have married Isaac Barrapes to his wife called Battey Cheeks. Zachary Hossueit, minister.

November the 13, 1767; on this date | I have married Banjamon

85 Pito to his wife the one called

Sarah Gashim. Zachary Hossueit, minister. March the 22, 1768; on this date I have married John Simon, Junior, and Deborah Sauwamog in the Lord.

90 Zachary Hossueit, minister. December the 30, A.D. 1768;

- I have married Joseph

Tallmon (and) Elis Hohpen this

I have married |

in the Lord. Zachary Hossueit. 95 January the 11, 1769; on this date Joash Panue to his wife

Rode Sauwamog in the Lord.

Zachary Hossueit, minister. 100 March the 25, 1769; on this date I have married

Banjamon Essil and Hannah Accomes

in the L[or]d. Zachary Hossueit, min[iste]r

105 [--]mber the 22, 1769; on this da[tle | {I have] married Mathew Togoosin

[to his wlife call[e]d Mary Akoo[chi]k

[in the Lord.] Z[a]chary Hossueit, ministler]. . [- 2? -], 1769; at this time [I] halve]

[- ? -] the 29, [---] |

110 [married Ma]thew Togoosin and Mary A[koochik]

[in the Lord. Zac]hary Hossueit, m[inister.]

I have married the one

{call]led Abill Setam to his wif[e] |

115 [MJary Hossueit, in the Lord. Zachary Hossuei[t.]

John Joel and Mary Tallm[on] | May the 8, 17/71; I have married

in the Lord. Zachary Hossueit.

;.4-~'

74 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

'-44a.4 ‘es7 ae od . /_ 7. : Ae campy ti pan fda te Vk pp T7186 nid MAES , a

ey. .A “4 .war ; 4 Oo 44. gi% Saniunr recleppg10 0k ‘. . hh A upp rl Ne ‘ od ! 6 edu reper id 4

c nol tim ash Dame Lee 4 Liha v4 as LY ; f' -

gedfiviviny iit uh Qhzae VHA oo nih PUPA PR ~ tH) he nb 4

. dd | a2 nmen K« Ne annced ee a hte ae uty Hea —— '

oMate ry HP lag «a . ff ;‘ :, on ro ‘ 7 f | , Pe - A, .Atk? 4isheheme. aigok6 yh” lee Se “a picks Se aeheei ppp sraneet 9 Wy ei. & me as : ee ' ey r é oy 2 ope FFE é ‘, eS red bé a a ieesa¥--3a ‘-3 -Fr.+ Aa ’Ps«atin

pa i

1S*ke a =fealo- a i ;/ :ei>a4aa& ihPaes ; Y ;RS _, aee

“3 * a .he“?‘ ere 3, mh ut : .} - hed ‘ f bd it, ae

oe Wise > a a; ie’ .a ‘4 ‘al . 4 :: #” yee 2M alge = Ye Gets j ossed a's oo - ‘ .ies aed+Paguess. es Mi ¢ a.

‘e + aa ‘ : ae) r +vai . ont” hh.

a eSi eee ny - ~~ Vie t._ ef

>¢

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ferre’ 4¢ ” aie ki : >, ‘

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“oi gSyee ite ’ " . ws pore

. ng ae

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ky vom ea 1% ons _ pocorn 1A a re is, } 7 om és on dbaaewtn on™ a sts os . sa .te Sd.'

i eat rae a ee ; Suasr

a .re.eSOa . ye Se at 28 fae. 2am

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~ < D , aed ae Fe ' a 3 .~ a =~ POPs. Seth %ea nes, iz Se -ae é ms * ere Pie% ta& ‘ my. on i » ; ee" ps SEE ®~~ a Teg ee eh a F WGighe . ', we> oe “ wey ; oo , j

a re % , ike‘Pe Be,, r%

a bee Ce , \ ae Lom me ae a eee Fit ae PEI be S i“ a am ’ ee - Pe Py es Me * o, -

Documents no. 19, 20, 21. Dukes County Registryry of Deeds (DD 2:336).

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 91 19

l neen david oks kuttunnummouunnun Isaac tukem nukkannahkammuk -2 nepahhokkannut moseahtannut annummiehpah nehtau ahtokuppah tamtipuip 3 wummoo Sachum touwaquatuk ke pannoowahteaekit wuttannushkkattummou4 wannuppah wuttunnah wunnappushkkattooshquah wana wunnappushkatooh -5 wuttannush kattammuannuppah yonukkannahkammuck nissooh pasuk david -6 okssoo wana moseahtannu, wana neen david okes noowammoohhummowan 7 mose wuttishshaan nehta wame nussapahtouun wana Sappi nummakkun 8 e Isaac tukkam yo wame nepooh wutche nukquashyoam wannehtouwah 9 hinnummuk nummahtannum neen david noowannehtowonk

10 neen david oks nunnitchik wawawenin 11 neen Isaak nattattummim yo nukkannahkammuk

12 neen Job makkunnit nitchik X wawwawenin 13. nekannawe nauwah nummahtammattummunnanuppah nahahtouwe --

14 nummakkun yo usseonk

15 Entered July 2274 1707

20

1 neen James nuttunnummou Isaak napannahtashshakinnuoo, tah -- :

5 -nin

2 nashshouwammiyasah ; wana nummache keskhuk wana nummache, poo3 nummouan wunnitchekawuat

4 david oks wawawe 6 X wawawenen nunnitchek nuttissin

7 apellel 18 1678 ,

8 neen Isaak

9 X wawawenin 21

1 neen David oks kuttunnunnummouush akuh keen Isaak wuttuck2 kammen tah nash shaammiyasuk neen nuckkannahkammuk wana --

3 qunnippe, attah appakquenehtau quattook hissak ouwekan --

4 wussoowonnk towaquattuk wahatautauwe wuttouwomah nahahtowe , 5 wunnattoohquanum --

6 nunnutchik wawawenin -- -- -- david okes 7 newitche matta ouate wameektammooh teaqua

8 ussenattah * E nammi:zu yotahakkah {Continued overleaf. ]

92 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

[Doc. no. 21, continued. ]

9 wuttissintah winnahtuk neen david oks

10 august -- 1678 ll Isaak neen wawawenen 12 X Jonas pappahkahhut

14 S[..--] |

13 nunnutch[-.---] neen 15 neen David nummache wamminnouwatoo

16 neen Isaac nattattummonunnum yo akokoh

Documents no. 19, 20, and 21 are copied onto a single page. 19. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:336); Martha”’s Vineyard; copy. Conveyance from David Okes (Oks, Okssoo) to Isaac Takemen (Tukem, Tukkam) of lands at Pohoganot (Pahokanit, Pahhokkannut), west of Edgartown Great Pond. 1 neen : or Neen. 4 wunnappushkkattooshquah : u changed from a. 5 yonukkannahkammuck : k changed from h. 11 nukkannahkammuk : k changed from h. 20. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:336); Martha’s Vineyard; copy.

Deed of sale from James to Isaac Takemen (Isaak; cf. no. 43:1) for lands on a neck (Nashawamoiasit, Nashshouwammiyasah) on Edgartown Great Pond.

6 nuttissin : perhaps nussin changed to nuttissin by overwriting and crowding in tt. 9 For a similar complex mark (here resembling T or J plus og), cf. the mark of Job Makkunnit at 40:4. 21. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:336); Martha’s Vineyard; copy. Conveyance from David Okes (Oks) to Isaac Takemen (Isaak Wuttuckkammen) of lands on a neck (Nashawamoiasit, Nashshaammiyasuk) on Edgartown Great Pond.

Thin paper has been pasted over the damaged lower right corner of the page covering the ends

of ll. 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, and all of 1l. 12, 13, and 14. 1 kuttunnunnummoush : u changed from a.

8 ussenatah : h changed from someting. 9 winnahtuk ta changed from something; h changed from k, which has a trace of c or u before it; t faint and not overwritten; u changed from a. 13-14 Damaged by the hole; in 11. 11-14 the arrangement of the names and marks is uncertain. 13 nunnutch[-.] : the damaged section has space for two letters, the second having above it what could be the top of a k. 15-16 There is a brace or divider at the right of these two lines, cutting through the end of 1, 16.

: TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 93 19

1 I,theDavid Oks, convey to you, Isaac Tukem, the oldfield, | one at Pahhokkannut that Mose Ahtannut conveyed to me, that he then owned equally (2). It came from the sachem Touwaquatuk ke pannoowahteaekit. He bequeathed it to his daughter, Wunnappushkkattooshq-, and Wunnappushkatooh

5 bequeathed this oldfield to two people, one David Okssoo, and Mose Ahtannu. And I, David Okes, bought all of Mose’s share from him. I then owned it all by right, and by right I convey to Isaac Tukkam all of this. Therefore I promise if you are made to lose it, I David have decided (?) that it is my loss.

10 II Isaak David Oks, my hand, witness. receive this oldfield.

I Job Makkunnit, my hand (X), witness. First we bargained, second I gave this deed. 20

put it in his hand. | 5 ness, 1 I, James, give to Isaak five acres at

Nashshouwammiyasah. And he has paid me and I have

David Oks, wit-

(X) witness my hand. I did it.

April 18, 1678.

I Isaak,

(X) witness.

21

1 I, David Oks, convey to you land, you Isaak Wuttuckkammen,

: at Nashshaammiyasuk, my (?) oldfield and

round about attah appakquenehtau quattook hissak ouwekan

wussoowonnk Towaquattuk wahatautauwe his cousin (wuttouwomah), secondly bs) Wunnattoohquanum.

My hand, witness -- David Oks. Therefore, no one shall have the power

to do anything within this land. {1?] did it at Winnahtuk, I David Oks.

10 August, 1678. Isaak. I am a witness, (X) Jonas Pappahkahhut, my han[d -?-]. I S[-?-]. 15 I David have agreed completely (?). I Isaac receive this land.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

— /; Fad Ye ptey>.“4 3 ” Ps . * .. ne“9 &7974A

IA WS Ht cht por Mea fern Tt ne Koad 4 7 P A Pi cat Pia fan co © LA riathae here wit Sé . rh 4a > aYyran ’R - cate POO

> -fre eo 7? fx 5 $i , 7 ba. S ger ,' »o ;9?» ‘oef =inPSe a» * *. he: en sala Konan gemmagcehche Ao Msn fe Mme oe:

“ Se Se Ment a ee , , >. -. ,wn Pam ’ _* : , La éaly é o‘ none a . “ Pn es .1. : ; ; ;zeas ‘ie ’ ct TRA Taw Ee a Aan” 7 upon hang am Eee ET Mase oy es ae fm neh « ote rarveadA Pe a 77 ed iAd Aad 2 ads ee ‘4h 2 Rrevh Me pute Ms t a 1 ss ié ey 422 72 emD Mid07% sree a’ (tanme vogtera mar? Orn i er a

ey (1h fae ee flaA FUN Mamoman Mau © bah Rego re he” oe ASOn fi! bgangance &® ah bn Aerwan 14 me ranttufirn you maakt: iS Le “kh ’ eoc A> jan g uel adh booed +s uf ahRun Averene om

92 a ‘punt poe na a A: a ‘ uf . bai ~*

’ 4 a ve " away A 7 > &e] }?; ‘ (baak a . Rar 74; er. ’ ‘d othr aemgie enae , ‘ P aggre AS Ft OMGa Mh MA mn RAA KP Afve gtaad (a4ote, matey j ties if agn weeAah ad henreep?} fo, Kak are rid 9077 7 uF \. ”, 2044 1m¥™ Ot GettOeeo Mom 4y ‘4mutsaar . nk sesh oe. io* » af orchiam one 7° ae

peereanee” epee: pated rd : : / a pra ¥. aaie vs leon ® et Ammne San j ao Aarnshn ta 71¢4 aname7r P

ba wf hin , onenaé Kuk preathie® ph yo ase rer ZA eee sere AOD * “

tur aa QoS mara ts’ rraffmnoan nak reaae fon. « Atm rmerereen bon 4 iam pres Lom mak Les aarve 4s 71a ranwat Pus mane San fo Raaee Paecacaoe A cn 90 Pte ,

Pe A markt ‘ umrneagtra mph teaek, .nethal be/Afe ons © a Rak miakur pisecPhorvme i” ph vee

pec rrr ant ho (Ra Agoe AS aot ja Mn £cot wienes 9r200G HA MOTEL 17H lan es non

soa? y. Paw te . - . :‘ 7: : pE J. *ye grrr / rd de ; oe 7 iin ° , . 2 4 «haem veaea re . * f é 4 » .? ;seh;arcane? “4 sia. econo’ ; . ay r Feforwe : if4 t bd .

: ig ? “>? ? ? . ’ a ; Nu“ nviach cASy af gon fa ru mwa pre nor. poe waivarnnte mee ran Jame coneo mrrens” praia umn mat saad Kar aon thar ds (Raat rete Poe wi Qua bude cA cAcant a h righ Aurore rch hi} ava rmns manors rion fa fase wa pen seared * inert ovechsAry

- ae a8 ‘o

ra\ f4g 7:a,2/° {Mpalesd - ret poh Fee ov : Document no. 22. Dukes Co Bae : of Deeds (DD 1:349). unty Registry

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 95

1 neen muttaak Sachim ut kuhtuhquehchuet kah nashaquetasset weque --~ 2 wanemessit yeu watook wame auwaog neen muttaak kah nuttahtohkauwom3 mog kah nunnechansog kah nuttauwaog yeush nuttahkeunnonnash michemee 4 nuttahtunnannash kah nuppometuongannunnonnash micheme pish wuttah5 wunnawoash neen muttaak kah nenauwun ahtoskauwaog kah nashpe -6 mnunnechononog kah wame nummussannummunnonnog mahche n8we-

7 chatimmon matta howan ummagcohcho ke nehto howan kumm8che -8 mogkahchau kuttah qunnummunnau kuttahkeyeu “ wuttcheaj mechemee

9 kuttahtoanganoo ke nehta howan matta wuttussin yeu mahtammattuonk 10 pish punishoo matta kooche teaquas aht8o0 yeu ut ahkuh kuttahquihchuut

ll kah nashaogquetsit wame mecheme nen muttaak kah nennauwun -12 ahtoskauwaog kah nuppommetuongannun kah pish unni micheme -13 nen ummuttaak yeu nussinnean kah nuttahtoskauwomog kounuh

14 nunnammonn8g hawan nanawehtok nussonchummowonk pish -- . 15 micheme Sontimmo8 kenehta nunnamonnog matta nanowehtoook 16 nussonchimmowonk kah makuk pish punnishau michemee kah nenow17. -un ahtoskauwaok yeu nussinnean kah nussonchimmomun konnoh -18 nunnaumonnanonog auwate nanawehtunk nuttahtoskauwoankannun pish 19 micheme ahtoskauo8 kenehta nunnaumonnanonog mattahowan nana20 -wehto8k nuttahtoskauonganun kah makuk pish punnushau micheme 21 nen umuttaag sachim yeu nusinen kah nuttohtoskauwommog * n8wa-

22 ongunun nussinnan ut anaquapit manit pish unni micheme nen -23. ummuttaak yeu nunnuchchek : X : ut noquat Septemb~ 11 1681 -24 nennauwun ahtoskauwaok yeu nussinnan * nussanchimmomun yeu 25 n8n8woonkonnun *~ ut anaquapit manit pish unni micheme yeush

26 nunnuchcheganunonash X -- X -- X | 27 nen John keeps wauwaennin kah yeu nunnuchcheg wutche 28 8n8waongann8 ummuttaak kah wuttahtoskauwommoh ut kahtuhqueh-

29 chuut kah nashauogquitsit wame nanesweae; nen puttukquannan -30 wawoennin n8waontam yu 8n8waongann8 ummuttaak kah wuttah- | 31 toskauwommoh ut kuhtuhquihchuit kah nashaogquitsit naneswe matta 32 howan mecheme umagkooun wuttahtunau nen puttakquannan yeu. 33 nunnuchcheg X 34 nen sasauwapinn8 : n8wawainnu n8waontam 8n8waongan8 35 ummuttaak kah wuttahtoskauwomoh ut kuhtuhquihchuut kah nash-

36 auogquitsit wame naneswe nen sasauwapinn8; nunnichcheg | 37 Entred feb: 21°° 1700/1

96 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES : 22. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 1:349); Gay Head; copy.

| Agreement between the sachem Mittark (Muttaak, Ummuttaak, Umuttaag) of Gay Head and his councilors and followers not to sell land to the English. A version of this document was introduced as evidence before an Indian commission in Barnstable, Massachusetts, August 27, 1703, by Gay Head Indians contesting the sale by Mittark”s son Joseph Mittark of Gay Head, to Thomas Dongan, the governor of New York, and of Nashaquitsa, to John Mayhew (M.A. 31:18, sections 7, 8). The Indians” claims were disallowed on the basis of the testimony of Jonah Hossueit ("Hosewet") that "he wrote that writing long since Mataacks death." For the contemporary translation, see Appendix; this translation (M.A. 31:10), which is the one used by the Barnstable commission, was evidently of a version of the document with more notarizations and testimonials of authenticity than those on the version copied into the Martha’s Vineyard records. Thin paper has been pasted over the top edge of the page covering 1. 1 and the end of 1. 2. Linked oo has been transcribed 8. 7 ummagchohcho : u changed from a.

21, 24, 25 The small xs indicate omissions, which can be supplied from parallel phrasing elsewhere: yeu n8- (1. 21), kah (1. 24), nussinnean (1. 25). 30 wuttah[-] : edge torn; the bottom part of a two-stroke hyphen is apparently visible. 36 nunnichcheg : u changed from n.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 97 22

1 I am Muttaak, sachem of Gay Head and Nashaquitsa as far as Wanemessit. Know this all people. I Muttaak and my chief men and my children and my people, these are our lands. Forever we own them, and our posterity forever shall own them. 5 I Muttaak and we the chief men, and with our children and all our (common) people (present), have agreed

that no one (shall) sell land. But if anyone larcenously sells land, you shall take (back) your land, because it is forever your possession. But if anyone does not keep this agreement, 10 he shall fall (and) have nothing more of this land at Gay Head and Nashaquitsa at all forever. I Muttaak and we the chief men, and our posterity, (say): And it shall be so forever.

I Ummuttaak say this, and my chief men: if any of these sons of mine protects my sachemship, he shall 15 forever be a sachem. But if my sons does not protect my sachemship and sells it, he shall fall forever. And we chief men say this, and our sachem: if any of these sons of ours protects our chieftainship, he shall forever be a chief man. But if any of our sons does not protect

20 our chieftainship and sells it, he shall fall forever. I Umuttaag, sachem, say this and my chief men; our agreement. We say it before God. It shall be so forever. I Ummuttaak, this is my hand (X), on the date September 11, 1681. We chief men say this our sachem; this is

25 our agreement. before God. It shall be so forever. These are our hands (X -- X ." wi,P:; Ne Xa ag os < 4eo eee i rar Yo 2eee nro,;rae Perey apapumn ges ai OE Fon brant Rarabapeoh «4 EEtaa\ageied Heeswand Refacing? Vina Ce ieAT ene © ante eeo ,ee

ef |weet , ‘4 ,| :|TRY aa sé |pannmmne diets = -nn“ND hl a: as ae qSoc i Sai 4.or .” wane tekgue eee cSi aM es TDi FORGOT 18 SU gar phi, soa PM aa3ate, ee ‘‘a i, ee ~~oe * om ,TLRS re5oe , ae. ye hee ae ihe ahd ane ae Hi came al nd- ee we Se ‘ ‘a Psy ica” es

..

Documents no. 23, 24. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 1:41

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 99 23

1 [--]nau[---][--mun] nu[..Jan Ussoowessoo et[..]b[..] [..]ttunnanuml .--] 2 nfla--Jouut waque ahtuhkanehteapah yu wai wutchauamiu nasha wl.---] 3 [--]Jue wutt[.]utown Etaabboo : Naatoe nuttunnunnummouaug nummanahhonk anun--] 4 konk[k.Jy[oa]nut nunnamon, wana, Etaabboo nuttan winnissookaauh hanuh manahhonkah 5 wanna Etaabboo wuttahtown wunnuckanakommuck. chippe meeshaoon nennitchek X 6 neen to[..]hkesuck witnnes, wana william vinson witness, wana papummetahquet witness

7 wal-- q]uauequanut witness

24

l Ne[e]n winnau’aketammin nuttan ussooweesoo, etaabboo, wana nuttunnunnummau 2 ahkuh, ta meshawam, Sappaa-atta mek weque anogquuttunniu, anakauwaag nish3 sanuh wuhskesash, wana nishsanuh mussupputtaesash wana tookquakapattakish, & wut4 chepo:i:u wana & wame meshawami:u wuttahtaun Etauwapoo ° nunnichek X 5 neen touwickesuck witness, wana papummetahquet witness, wana quawequanut wetness :

6 Entered : Aprill, 2"? : 1683

100 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

Documents no. 23 and 24 are copied onto the same page. Documents no. 26-31 and 33 are copied in the same hand. 23. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 1:41); Martha”s Vineyard; copy. Conveyance of land from Winnauaketammin ([Win]nau[aketam]mun) to her daughter Etaabboo

(Et[aa]b[oo]) and, apparently, a record of the return by Winnauaketammin to her son, Konkk[.]yoanut (?), and to Etaabboo of payments made by them to her; cf. document no. 24. A paper strip is pasted across the top of the page completely covering 1. 23:1; strips also cover the beginnings and ends of some lines. In the torn edges and holes at the beginnings of 11. 1-2, 6, and 7 and the ends of ll. 1-3 some letters have been lost. 1 The available space and traces of letters in the damaged sections exactly fit the corresponding words in 24:1; the paper is torn away before and after |Jnau[ and at the end of the

line. Jttunnanum[ : the a is perhaps u with the apparent closure at the top a mark on the reverse side. 3 [--]ue : There is room for about three letters at the beginning of the line, but nothing is visible. 4 konk[k.]y[oa]nut : damaged by rubbing.

5 nennitchek : e changed from i, or vice versa. 24. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 1:41); Martha”s Vineyard; copy. Conveyance from Winnauaketammin to Etaabboo of lands at Job’s Neck (Sapaatameh, Sappaa-attamek), west of Edgartown Great Pond; cf. document no. 23.

A paper strip covers the first two or three letters on 1l. 4-6. 1 Ne[e]n : the e(?) is largely rubbed off.

3 & : written as if E:. wut- : perhaps wutt-. |

, TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 101 23

1 [I am Win]nau[aketam]mun, my [daug]hter is named Et[aa]b[oo]. [I] convey to [her] [Land

at (2)]

24 :

Na[-?-Jouut, as far as she formerly made her field, from this in a wutchauam- direction nashaw[-?-]

[-?-] It bello]ngs to Etaabboo. Secondly, I convey to them my payment (?) that was given to

[me by (?)] Konkk[-]yoanut, my son, and Etaabboo, my daughter. winnissookaauh those (?) payments (7). 5 And Etaabboo owns her oldfield, part of Meesha[wam]. My hand (X). I Tol[wi]hkesuck, witness, and William Vinson, witness, and Papummetahquet, witness, a[nd] Quauequanut, witness.

1 I am Winnauaketammin, my daughter is named Etaabboo, and I convey to her land, at Meshawam, at Sappaa-attamek as far as in an anogquuttunn- direction to Anakauwaag,

those wuhskesash and those mussupputteasash and tookquakapattakish and northeastward and all towards Meshawam. Etauwapoo owns it. My hand (X). 5 I Touwickesuck, witness, and Papummetahquet, witness, and Quawequanut, witness.

> — : ‘ x . 7 J % i, , * r a tte m }4° . e** . 2 ., p‘ ,”. >Q.J :Fit ;‘ — oS rs v. 4 " : i iitpaves eo — a _ ? * % of + 7+e i / 7EET 24 a v e3. a a ’ Te : .‘| ti‘ aaAR ae. ote 102 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

ou vaa 4Jattiwoggvakunnoe oaVIM : aewe ¢a ‘2“ns "ae, yMa ’ , ae fen| ?pagent °Roo we a apy met 8 ;92 Phae 7g ?wa pee’ t» res ieerx ,soe “nse oe” Ba“a : ah n.

“, ‘ . ' "

Bd fae ie U/PVe my Pas Till i hey, ” Seat haus wana SOMO ns Thy r F ey hy, MOi, hemcersash wolkn den nxk Me Faber ck aut behe wmihchems arr

‘ "foorsfoo bam mufkirm normks a Bes aa rothoad deh dm yoru hk ahh re wkd wa Cha olin : a ah? Pate ar: a Pr, RVERA mec as ink Pre fh Ms, ‘ CAM mn, mith froun Vs m pce ea QiArony wv 777e0 hu hheokh, vane tornbch G v™ Che we Kinky mak ittelee sy ’ Oe gue pret Ralboock yn “«, ¥e ahh na hands

& / ¥ He O8 Muna ac ws Pa ki ‘ “s P oA pe’R a a chek? MoWsee wana manenna,Unn nO hekechilBenk de > .Preahd WAKE k. ‘ 0 .puch! J‘ opacks aM bh le , yp’ Pierre geeky ibe’ pranguaa ie

prarh a i |Puy EEie ‘* . a ; pryMiartheha PP ais , ’ . ¥ }Ge ai =mecua ve ay , aPure’ ave LAke a Lane cj J .t $0 og LUT) v Qnmee? a pu mt Plone Gotcha cimbest & fA GuiKOO Huhlio =e huthinchaers bre := ; ach ‘ ‘sfC£aAKRomA , fir a nuk uckerig fr. ke ‘21@nachk: a MolrApawanty rtonche’ (i, hy , le. { ‘ ™ eo enka yyLunrrockgrs - el ‘ d: ASA? MOF ‘ fve hand, moh . f‘ 4AA : Oi tse Puy ne / ke bfM6 “aa ou i ' &wedel VG Pngre. PITS 44 kk 9% ;>,A

ere “RK rpe® rt hee ERE Lak KX K PPex/e Reith mathe es, no ibe hues a. 20 waktacento swan Fe) re, wee unnockove PUG 90 mens ante mm fy. watlna wd lets « # 14 o- b-ctw, nokia marmwrachs Shea be he’ L ee < Shue cone t eee ere ge My| iEe 4 Sseee te eea; é ios cma eee er ye Pree ee cme ; en ae POT oe ESSeige a ar oeT's pr, sal We)AeWate ~ s

ReOs eeAg aa,aa |e ws ‘:sNot .Pax Setae SeSee ayNaat eee, Si dh oP oy :2ae Se me, SR. as aes MS irey 4¥ $ + : ;

oun of Deeds :32)

Documents no. 33, 34. Dukes County Registry (DD 1:32).

33 |

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 121

1 Wunnatuckquanum neen 2 Nummakin pasuk ooqui ussoo’wetammin paquaik wehque tahkuppasesuh, ne poo 3 chayak, pahshee, nishwapasquash, nee witche sampe nockque witchepoiyu wehque ne 4 pamapasik totopinnummayak, wane ne witche Sampee nockque Sa’anniyu, ussoowetammin 5 mashpootacheh, ne poochayak nashawe : wana wame pashanne yo oohqui, nummagin in -6 wunnitchekanit Joshua Sassimmin, neen wunnatuckquanum yo nunnitcheg X

7 keeshkhoowaank X 8 | paneston: x 9 witnes: Isaack ompanit: 10 witnes: wunnammasuckeh

ll february 28 : 1686 : 12 Wunnatuckquanum acknowledged the within written to bee her act and deed -13 this 5th of June, 1686. Before mee, Matt: Mayhew Just: of peace :

34

1 Neen penshomp nissun keen neJonnoowussoo kutchuppinnuma-

2 nush -- eahkuh : land : peessupponkannut mamussoskat tayak wama -3 qunnippe ne nayauommaug weque wutchaommiyeu ot kuttakkuhyak

4 ne tichuh nukqutta tashshe un Radtuoo Sampe unnockque [[p]] nopatan5 nipeu nukqutta tahshe Rads ne weque wank Samppe unnogque -6 papaume Soanniyeu nooque machagqut wonnappogquiyeu in Sangus

7 Seen ne tich wank papausie unnogque wutchepoaiyeu ne Seep -- -8 weque neen penshomph nussim yeu eahkuh kuttinnummau-

9 unnun negannoowussoo kuttahtauan yeu nayauwommaag wame : 10 wanah in wame kuppimmettuonkannit woh wutonttasse ahtinnau

ll ne unnai 12 neen abal wauwampguin 13. neen mochikkekit 14 nen wannunnummau noowawainnu : yu : nannichchek X

17 1690 15 Ephraim temas machetau

16 august hath 6 dayes : ott

18 Entred : Sept?™ : 13 : 1692

122 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

Documents no. 33 and 34 are copied onto the same page but in different hands; the copyist for no. 33 was the same as for nos. 23-24 and 26-31. Thin paper strips cover 33:1, the ends of 33:2-4, and 34:1-6, 10. 33. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 1:32); Martha”’s Vineyard; copy. Conveyance from the queen sachem Wunnattuhquanummou (Wunnatuckquanum) to Joshua Sasimmin

(Sassimmin) of land at Paqua (Paquaik), between Oyster and Paqua ponds. 5 oohqui : h added above. 34. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 1:32); Martha’s Vineyard; copy (Ephriam Temas). Conveyance of land from Penshomp (Penshomph) to Nickanoose (Negannoowussoo, NeJonnoowussoo)

of Nantucket. , 4 [[p]] : crossed out.

8 kuttinnummau- : nu changed from m.

16-17 Boxed, at right.

16 ott : apparently overwritten, but the intent is not clear.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 123 33

1 I am Wunnatuckquanum.

I convey one section, it is called Paquaik, as far as Tahkuppasesuh, that corner, part of nishwapasquash, from that straight towards the northeast as far as the crooked path (?) extends (?), and from that straight towards the south, it is named 5 Mashpootacheh, between that corner. And all completely of this section I convey into the hand of Joshua Sassimmin. I am Wunnatuckquanum, this is my hand (X). Keeshkhoowaank (X).

Paneston (X). Witness, Isaack Ompanit. 10 Witness, Wunnammasuckeh. February 28, 1686. 34

. 1 I Penshomp say it. To you Nejonnoowussoo I divide a piece of

land at peessupponk- (“the sweathouse” ?) mamussoskat tayak, all (2)

around, that nayauommaug, as far as in the wutchaom- direction ot kuttakkuhyak the ditch six reds, streight towards the southeast : 5 six rods, as far as that, and further straight towards

about the south, towards the swamp in the direction of the pond, to sangusseen

that ditch, and about towards the northeast as far as that river.

I Penshomph say, this land I convey to you

Negannoowussoo. You own all this nayauwommaag,

10 and to all your posterity. They may own it in succession. This was done.

I Abal Wauwampguin

I Mochikkekit. I Wannunnummau am a witness, this is my hand (X).

15 Ephraim Temas made [it]. |

August hath 6 days of(?) 1690.

124 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

i: 4eee . fe fa aoaal: § aeey eeae iaBees 2 }eee eeites aee| oe ‘ &tiegabe, Coe 5. © core rate a ee oe7S: ;Fa OSws eeae ene Rar’ 7 saoe nae ee ee a oy eae aeee 7 > aae Pao * yet cad is re is 7S ie ae Goa ff are es PG Sh eh an

: : Sag a9 ee? gee Perec lt a ke ae nn +

\ ‘ ; , te‘_" an ee Sig), aaa ¢@ aeeee. einin *Mater, ee ie ae a:f *iz ae ee eae He frat A at | ; . ye * ff ie pe ee oeee~. aS te oe ae 4aS ? 4 eS ae Nien hin. fe ie haeAe oes’ Pa "aR +o* araaos.AP ees -* tegate a ie iBares oeen i. oe ae. 2

ak;Aas alee ses J “he ret.aCole Fy a » Sey eefe CA: ae” on Ser ES See Ws ont

ec aany anes aea ts we ee ae: te honed Fe;

ae SsSr>ei. er ee ot eee abdeee é ag attotes cf iadgs ere4 a. 3 be Ce . . aeee ri ee 2Sa a} Seeand - om

® oon pn ee4 ae 5. . a “oh he yWe fi Yan os

Nooare ie ae Ai Pa ee re 3 ‘ Pa Fe heed

1S ae ay oa i 6 ee oe, He: hi=Legit a aa aoe ve eee bse — *+ . >AOE oe 4 re ans % fea Rhy.td .] Sie: See

ae ,Aa aoe iarnreofa. vt Se, OE. aa ge) Be |iho ee ee re | oa ih =Dae Ee FO)

ee 5

i ee pe i a

2 i wage : rs ae ae oe3gees

Se eee Cy. _— bag,_— ODN! cheee Joa

a eae Sr a ee Aeaa: CMe ae or

; ae ; a2Ppa oe bore - aie aa me far ne en

oS ee es

Z ae A aa es a ae

fo”¥ae"ee |Ps he i : Oo ieee: Se aDte ee =. ee ene ®aePlog os, A) oon ae i ergs 27" are Fie po SR ee ee fg ) Oe Sceg adee |) fae oe ee 2 eae etee SS) Soa .Do ESa),Me oedin "Be oodxath Ce eee aenae Spas Pe ‘2 oe ee ee

ee. ae

Oe eee eee «= rete eas Bae . eee nS ee ca . , iy sepa 4,he ar eS ee ee +o ae aos yran ee ee eee i? oeon a ia ¢ ee reeaat8: T aie” ie eeaeMen 3 *Fea ie aes eet osant ie Par

| Ce, re 2 Ae aS Hie: eters Ads _ oe

; ; € a a Ste >. Me i es 4 OSnee AS Re elcid roe

‘ es

ae ! 7 Bar eh

mite her i

peed. 4 er ce) int ae ae ay ce oo

é ee oe fe

fas ag a ‘ : ets re r. , re! at. *:

eet CON Fees

._ g% : fs * + us . 2

pert’ .

Dan

. Document no. 38. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:340).

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 137

1 May 28 dayes 17004 yeu waehtouhittit wame wosketommoaog 2 neen Sarah penshomp nuttunnummau abell wawompaquen share -3 ut nope ahkuh ahta Mossomuh wutchunmocche oman Sekompaquah 4 kit wonpagq an poochak, wutche kassuwiyeu at omak pashkakahkuh

5 ne an wehquishik chekussuwiyeu, nub nugqut Rattoo en wuttchepoaiyou 6 pummushau, oman wattishau chekussuwiyeu, watche nuppehtu mon7 che, oman nopatniyeu wiyeu, 30 Rattoo, ne wuttut quehpishon oman 8 en chepoaiyeu nogque touohkomukquiyeu nishw suk tahshinnochak -9 rattoo tannuppatshau wequashmoouh nagkosse maquamtinniyeu ne 10 wuttit monchen oman unnogque Sunnatniyeu kehkinneahsin, timmun 11 mnutunk ne mahchagq chepoaiyeu unnahchagquae nena wehque omak

12 wequishik ° wuttamnutunk, abell ne ahtak eyeuyeu ne nepatta mehtuk 13. wechenutunkkannuoo wesatimmeh monche quo pooshau, oman, ma

14 quamtinniyeu nogque wutche ne muhtuk 56 rattoo yaen manoya15 set an wehquishik Sowaniyeu tattak quasheh na wehque won16 paquit neit monche oman nosque Sowaniyeu, wame neahquan17 nak napaiche neat queshpeshot yo Oman nen sarah penshom yeu 18 ahkuh nutohippannumauon abell wauwempahquen wuttche -19 nussonsseqquooounk wuttahtaunnut wame uppometuonkannit mi20 cheme, matta pish ummagkooun au micheme ut wame uppome 21 tuonkannit qut wattahtanunnau yeu ahkuh kah wame moohtuk

22 quash kah assunnash kah maskehtuash matta pish howan wun- , ) 23. nemunnumooun wutche wunnitchek annoowout micheme

24 nen Sareh penshomp nummunnehkehtanun nashpe Seal S | 25 kah nashpe nunnitchek yonoh noomark : X 26 witness Stephen commasnim

27 Benja: Skiffe 28 June the g th 1704 then appeared before me the above named 29 Sarah penshomp and acknowledged the above written instrum

31 Skiffe 32Benja Justic[--] 30 ent to be her act and deed

34 y® 15") zi ,

33 Entered decemb™

138 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

38. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:340); Martha’s Vineyard; copy. Conveyance from Sarah Penshomp (Sareh, Penshom) to Abel Wauwompuhque, Jr. (Abell; Wawompaquen, Wauwempahquen) of lands at Mossomuh, presumably the neck called Mossommoo in Chilmark

(Banks 1911, 2:Ch. 9).

A thin piece of paper is pasted over the lower right corner to repair a damaged area, covering the last three letters of 1. 26 and part of the English notarization. 1 waehtouhittit : e added above. wame : m changed from s. 3 wutchunmocche : u changed from e; c seems to have an extra stroke, as if an na was begun.

J ne:ie changed from something. nub : written above nugqut. 6 pummushau : a changed from u. 19 uppometuonkannit : o changed from n.

_ 23 wunnitchek : n written over t.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 139 38

1 May 28, 1704. Let all men know this.

I Sarah Penshomp convey to Abell Wawompaquen a share

of land on Martha’s Vineyard. It lies at Mossomuh. The line goes from Sekompaquahkit pond in the corner, northwestward where pashkakahkuh extends (2)

5 to where it ends to the northwest, eleven rods to the northeast

it proceeds. The line proceeds from the northwest, from the water the line goes southeast 30 rods. The line goes up from the water there to the northeast towards the direction of the woods, eighty rods tannuppatshau wequashmoouh a little west. The 10 line goes there towards the north boundary stone (?), fence (?), that swamp, northeastward unnahchagquae (“towards the [s]wamp” ?) as far as it extends (7) there

Abell”s fence ends. Where it is there now stands a tree with the fence (?), a red oak. The line goes, quopooshau towards the west from that tree 56 rods as far as Manoyaset, 15 where the end is, to the south, of the fresh meadow at the end of the pond. Then the line goes toward the south all along that shore as far as where this line runs up from the water (?). I Sarah Penshom divide this land for Abell Wauwempahquen from

my sachem right (?), for him to own, to all his posterity forever.

20 They shall not convey it forever, of all his posterity, but they own this land and all trees and rocks and grass. No one shall

take it from their hands forever.

I Sarah Penshomp confirm it by seal (S), 25 and by my hand. This is my mark (X). Witness Stephen Commasnim.

Benja(min) Skiffe.

140 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

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Documents no. 39, 40, 41, 42. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:337). *

39

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 141

1 neen david okes kuttunnummoash keen Isaak tukkemmen ahkuh assoowesoo | 2 oohqui nayapah nukkekappeh ne pochayak weque, wana ne may appouwo- ,

3 moouk annaquapasuk meshawami:u : napache poquen nuppah mattah mattashuk 4 nuppoonummon kunnatchekannut nepooh wutche noonektam onawne ouate -5 kootannummak qunnattoh kunnutchekannut piyaohummoowe yo nuttissin tah

6 wennuhtukquit ee ose ee ee ee

40 . . 7 yoahquapi Jannary nekanne

8 noquat 1

9 neen david oks wawawenen nunnichchek

10 X Isaak wawawenin nunnitchik

1 neen david okes nehtah wittamaak nahhokkattah koowannehtouwanattah 2 yo ahkuh neen noowannehtom chappe netah wuttamukkekoohak

3 nusheatchasoowakkattash muttasak manah ahkook |

45 wawawenin X Jop makkunnit nunnitchek

7 nunnitchik

6 X wunnaannahquen wawaweneen 8 Entered July 23 : 1707

41

1 neen Joseph omppan nummatamatum Isaak takemen 2 wuttatauun ahkoh weque nukkekuppe ne pochaak ne sammunnutonk

3 pamapasuk napache poqunnuppah pe [[.t.h..p.p]] atchoopapasik --

4 tummunnktonk weque march 26 : 1707 _

teohoo wunchek 65 neen neenJoshua wawanin netunnes 7 neen pommasooah yo nunnichchek X 8 Entred July 23% 1707 i [Doc. no. 42 is overleaf.]

142 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 42

1 meen Sareneh nittinninnummau ohkoh Simon netauwauish 2 ta kenoonashshoh yaenpahchonnannishit nossepuss at mattashon

3 nein nooh kishkai Ensompe in nommohquetuyayeu mehcha- , 4 [itt] ohkit nene mayoh neoh Sohtau wittak Simon 5 nen Sareneh penshomp yeu ninnitcheke X 6 n[{--hos.Ja mannahhit wawainnin

7 [+-. ]chik 8 {[---] wawainnin yeu ninnutchek X 9 [---n]pan noowawehtawin 10 [---] June 20 dayes 1694

Documents no. 39, 40, 41, and 42 are copied onto the same page. 39. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:337); Martha’s Vineyard; copy. Conveyance from David Okes (Oks) to Isaac Takemen (Isaak Tukkemmen) of lands near “Poquennuppah," apparently in Edgartown west of Edgartown Great Pond (cf. documents no. 41, 43). 2 pochayak : c crowded in. 4 noonektam : n changed from t. 5 kootannummak : a changed from u. 9 nunnichchek : end of word written below. 40. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:337); Martha’s Vineyard; copy. Guarantee of ownership of land from David Okes to an unknown owner; cf. 19:8-9. 2 chappe : a changed from u.

4 For the complex mark, perhaps a spelling of Job, cf. 20:9. 41. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:337); Martha’s Vineyard; copy. Conveyance from Joseph Omppan to Isaac (Isaak) Takemen of lands near "Poquennuppah" (Poqunuppah); cf. documents no. 39, 43.

3 [[.t.h..p.p]] : accidentally blotted, then crossed out. 5 teohoo : e changed from 0. wunchek : w changed from na. 42. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:337); Martha’s Vineyard; copy. Conveyance from Sarah (Sareneh) Penshomp to Simon Netauwauish of lands at "Kenoonashshoh." 1 netauwauish : a(?) changed from 0(?).

2 kenoonashshoh : there is a short, slightly raised vertical line between the e and n. 8 The mark is below the last word.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 143 39

hits (2). |

1 I David Okes convey land to you Isaak Tukkemmen. It is called a section of nayapah nukkekappeh as far as that corner and that path that appouwomoouk as far as it extends in the direction of Meshawam as far as Poquennuppah to where (27) it I have put it in your hand. Therefore no one shall be able se) to take it from you, from your hand. Freely I do this at Wennuhtukquit.

At this time, January first. The date is the lst.

10 (X). Isaak, witness, my hand. I David Oks, witness, my hand

40

1 I am David Okes. Then wittamaak nahhokkattah that you lose this land, I lose part of it. Then wuttamukkekoohak nusheatchasoowakkattash muttasak manah ahkook. (X) Jop Makkunnit,

5 witness, my hand. (X) Wunnaannahquen, witness, my hand. 41

1 I Joseph Omppan have bargained with Isaak Takemen. He owns the land to the end of Nukkekuppe, at the corner of the fence that extends as far as Poqunnuppah, [whe]re the fence extends into the water,

the end. - March 26, 1707. p) Iat Joshua Teohoo, my hand. I Netunnes, witness.

I Pommasooah, this is my hand (X).

42

1 I Sareneh convey land to Simon Netauwauish. At Kenoonashshoh as far as Pahchonnannishit nossepuss where it hit[s] (2), that is how wide it is; and (?) straight in a nommohquetu- direction to Mehchaitt (7?) land, that mayoh is how long Simon’s land is. be) I Sareneh Penshomp, this is my hand (X). {I1] Hos[e]a Mannahhit, witness,

[this is my h]and. [---], witness, this is my hand (X). {--]npan, I acknowledge it. 10 =[--] June 20, 1694.

144 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

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a4 ipte. ;‘aamarraceits et cz hatad me Oey

kyhaae? of ae ee ;4a 27° sg feeker i % ss inher” hy aI a “ i x

G7 x ue 4

Document no. 43. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:334).

, TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 145 1 neen david oks nummakun in Isaak winnitchekanit ahkah assoowesoo 2 quannuppequassh ne nukkannah kammuck mishsha [[wammick]] wammu 3 a wequeshuk nepochaak unnakqua poqunnuppah a akkampoochaak

4 nohkekechakak ooche quehpapasun Sape nohpache kehkochakah nah

5 appoa wa appasit yo nummakun e wutchaamiiu yo kehkec[.]akah yo 6 pashakaak weque yo akquennaya natchukkummuck aht[a.---.]oosh

7 neh wuttak Mattassunnan unnukkooque kushki tah [.---] ;

8 Enattahtash shun nehchak rods wana pooqua -- [--] 9 rods nummamakkunnappah mache enattahtash[---] 10 kumma nuttunnooh makun wassooquahok. neen [.--] 1l hoseah mamammack nunnutchek X

12 hahasookoaut chachekeooat

13 ninnichcchek X 14 Entered July 22 : 1707 :

43, Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 2:334); Martha”s Vineyard; copy.

43 ) Conveyance from David Okes (Oks) to Isaac Takemen (Isaak; cf. 20:1) of land near

“Poquennuppah" (Poqunnuppah); cf. documents no. 39, 41.

The lower right corner of the page is damaged, affecting the ends of 11. 5-10; thin paper has been pasted over the area, covering the right half of the document. 2 nukkannah : k written over the start of a letter. [[wammick]] : m added above, then the whole crossed out. 4 nohkekechakak : k changed from h. 5 appea : o changed from a.

6 ahtla] : followed by a trace of the top of an h or k, a hole 5 or 6 characters long, and a

trace of perhaps a, before oosh. |

7 tah : followed by a space and the first stroke of a small letter, e.g. u, before the hole. 10 neen : followed by a space and the top of an h, k, or 1, before the hole.

1 I David Oks give into Isaak”s hands land. It is called Quannuppequassh, that old field where Mishshawammu

ends, the corner towards Poqunnuppah on the other side of (?) the corner. That boundary extends up from the water from there, straight as far as the boundary there 5 that runs appolu]wa-. This I convey. And in a wutchaam- direction this boundary, this pashakaak to the end of this akquennaya natchukkummuck ahta[--]oosh neh his Land mattassunnan is so wide at [-?-] seventy rods and a half rod, I have conveyed it, seven

10 [a]le[res]. To such an extent (?) I convey (this) writing, I [-?-]. Hoseah Mamammack, my hand (X).

hahasookoaut chachekeooat My hand (X).

146 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

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a gay a deMT an eg Se «ge, olyPON Seteee ON eee * Pike Pee EA Ph 7fi hor ghWe at2, Jeo oo ay Secs ee Bs” elt yay; ee aiee ' ia; ane af ee oy tagtls :332) Document no. 44. Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 3:332).

| TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 147 1 Waehtoook wame kenau washketompaog ne mache anog yeu ahquom 2 by neen paty Josnin wana Joseph Josnin nenawun nummache mak 3 kumin ahkta ogkashkuppeh unnogque puhtatinniyu unnaomee -4 ne ahtak wuttattokokquske anne doggid neuh ahta neahkk ooqui 5 ussoowatommun oohwetammun oohquaesuh yuuh machenum makin-

6 nun nuttinnummannaonnan John tallman witche wuttinnompskat 7 nepooh wutcheyai nummakinnan yu ahk witcheyaa, nooshinon 8 wuttahtinnah wana asquam ummakooun wana, washa wunna-

9 unnippin nishah kutta wah nennauwinan uttah tauwinninin 10 neuh witcheyai, nummakinnan Nittunnummaonan John talmon 11 witche napana tuhshippoun mony wana winahteaonkkana -12 ahtauwitch nakum wanaenee uppummatuonkkanehtu mecheme 13. ahtauhittich wana wame umechimmowonk yo ahk --

14 neen pet¥ Josnin wana Joseph Josnin yu ahk makooog 15 annumgkut John tallmon ahta asuh wequishshin achepe 16 nepochchiyah netimminnitouk yaen * pooshpaae kuttahhani 17 -yu wana wame en mishshoommiyu misha ompiyu, unog-

18 que en mogquamtinniyu neuh papame unishshin neahk --

19 makooog asuk unoohquashin -- | 20 neen pety Josnin yunumminehketaunnun nespi Sel S 21 nen Joseph Josnin yunuminehketauminmin neshpi Sel S

22 Joseph Norton --

24 Entred Septemb’ 25 : 1718 23 neen ponit

148 TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

44, Dukes County Registry of Deeds (DD 3:332); Martha’s Vineyard; copy. Conveyance from Betty (Paty, Pety) and Joseph Josnin to John Tallman (Tallmon) of lands at

East Chop (Ogkashkuppeh). , 1 Waehtoook : a changed from u.-

3 puhtatinniyu : iy is transcribed for what appears as a dotted y with a horizontal line

through the dot. 7

9 tauwinninin : a(?) changed from u(?); nn corrected in some way, but the intention is

unclear. 7

16 nepochchiyah : y changed from a. 17 The crowded-in comma is probably a divider.

TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES 149 44

1 Know all you men what has been done at this time. I, Paty Josnin, and Joseph Josnin, we have

conveyed land at Ogkashkuppeh, towards the west within

where lies the fresh meadow of Anne Doggid. There lies that land, section, 5 named [or] called (?) Oohquaesuh. This we have conveyed, we let John Tallman have, for his money. Therefore we convey this land, because our late father owned it and never yet sold it, and since (2?) he died (2) nishah then we would own it (2). 10 Because of that we convey it, we let John Talmon have it _ for five pounds of money. And peacefully let him own it, he and to his posterity forever. Let them own it and all the fruits of this land. I, Pety Josnin, and Joseph Josnin, this land that we conveyed, 15 that we let John Tallmon have, lies or extends almost to the corner of that fence as far as Pooshpaae in the direction of the sea, and all towards the mishshoomm- direction {the mishaomp- direction (?2)}

towards the west. About there lies that land :

that we conveyed, or it extends so far (7). 20 I, Pety Josnin, and he confirm this with a seal (S).

I, Joseph Josnin, and she confirm this with a seal (S). . Joseph Norton. I Ponit.

ee

150 TEXTS , TRANSLATIONS, AND NOTES

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