Individual Details

The first member of the Price family of this text found in New England was Robert Price. Of his early life nothing to date has been found. He first appears in Northampton, Massachusetts in a list of soldiers under command of Captain William Turner, 7 Apr 1676. A Hugh Price also appears on the same list and is most likely related to Robert Price. On 7 Dec 1688 in Middleboro, Massachusetts a son John was born to Hugh Price. Robert Price of Northampton appears again on a list of soldiers in the Falls fight under Captain William Turner, 19 May 1676. Robert married 16 Feb 1677 at Northampton, Sarah Webb Field, widow of Zachariah Field and daughter of John Webb and Ann Bassett. She was the mother of three sons by her first marriage, one of whom died young, the other two being raised in the Price household. Robert Price was taxed at Northampton from 1677 to 1680. He took the oath of allegiance in the town of Northampton, 8 Feb 1678. As previously mentioned, settlement at Deerfield began again in 1683 and Robert and Sarah removed some sixteen miles from Northampton to Deerfield. Robert Price was among those who owned land in the Common Field at Deerfield, 5 Feb 1686/7 (Springfield, Massachusetts Registry of Deeds, Book G p. 130). In 1686 he was residing on lot 17 in Deerfield, which was sold in 1693 to John Baker. This site today is occupied by a house built in 1802 and the John Wilson printing shop. On 20 Apr 1688, Robert Price received a woodlot in Deerfield. The Price family continued to reside in the growing village of Deerfield through the 1690's and into the early years of the 1700's. In the deep snow of winter, before dawn on 29 Feb 1704, a war party of some three hundred French and Indians attacked the fortified Deerfield. There were homes inside and outside the fortified town. of the town's 291 inhabitants, 48 were killed and 112 were taken captive. Seventeen homes were burned in the attack, both inside and outside the fort. Nine houses remained within the fort and several outside the fort. The survivors of Deerfield and the rescue band from towns below Deerfield who saw the sky ablaze from the burning homes found an appalling carnage. The rescue band made a heroic attempt in a nearby meadow to attack the attackers fleeing from Deerfield and were quite successful in inflicting casualties, but the battle turned and they retreated to Deerfield. Of the Price family, Sarah and son, Samuel were captured as was also Robert and Sarah's married daughter, Elizabeth Stevens. Elizabeth had married Andrew Stevens, an Indian, and he was killed in the fighting. Robert and Sarah's other married daughter, Mary Smead, suffocated with her two children and her husband's mother in the cellar of their burning home. Several families had sought refuge and hiding in the cellars of their homes, but these turned into deadly traps when the attackers set the homes ablaze. Robert Price and Samuel Smead survived the attack and may have been among a group of men who tried to affect a defense at the beginning of the attack, which became separated from many of the woman and children, and left their families in jeopardy. Sarah's son, John Field, by her first marriage, and his family were also residing in Deerfield. John's wife, Mary (age 28) and their children, Mary (age 7) and John (age 4) were captured and ten month old Sarah killed. The majority of children who were captured under the age of two were killed in Deerfield, too young to make a march to Canada and the Indians unwilling to carry them. Indians were in charge of the Deerfield captives and the French took no part in holding captives. One Colonel Partridge gathered information a few days after the attack and among his report was a Table of Losses. He gave a list of every household and listed each person as captive, slain, alive, and the amount of the estate lo st. In the return list of losses, Robert Price had one chil d taken captive, one wife slain, left alive himself, and a n estate of 40 pounds lost. Of Andrew Stevens household, there was one captive, his wife and one person slain, himsel f and an estate of 20 pounds lost. Of Samuel Smead's househ old, four were killed, a wife, two children and his mother, left alive himself, and an estate of 50 pounds lost, including the burning of his home in which his family suffocated in the cellar. Robert Price remained in Deerfield. What news reached him from Canada of his two captive children and other family members we are uninformed. Did he even know if his children were alive? At some point with the various negotiations that transpired, he must have received some word of them. How involved he was in negotiating the release of his two children we do not know. His only known family in Deerfield was one of his two stepsons, John Field who he had raised in his household from childhood and his widowed son in law, Samuel Smead. John Field is related to have been active in negotiating the release of his captive wife and children and probably also his half sister Elizabeth and half brother Samuel. Robert Price was among three persons who the town of Deerfield voted to repair his commonfence upon the town charge, 25 Apr 1708. He was thus living a tthat date, but seemingly in limited circumstances. He had suffered heavy financial and family losses in the attack on Deerfield four years earlier. Robert sold to Henry Dwight of Hatfield, a houselot in Deerfield containing five acres at a place called Wappin, 15 Feb 1715/16. He was of Deerfield at that date, but no further record of him is known. He was deceased before 15 July 1735 when his son, Samuel Price "only son and heir of Robert Price, formerly of Deerfield, deceased, which Robert was one of the soldiers in the Falls fight." The History of Deerfield relates that Robert Price is buried in Old Burying Ground among "at least nine soldiers who followed Turner through the turmoil and din of the battle which cost him (Turner) his life..."

Birth	1644	Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut,
Marriage	16 Feb 1677	Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States - Sarah Webb

Spouse	Sarah Webb (1646 - 1704)
Child	Sarah Price (1678 - )
Child	Mary Price (1681 - 1704)
Child	Elizabeth Price (1683 - )
Child	Samuel Price (1685 - 1768)
Child	John Price (1689 - )