Individual Details

Sarah Price was about 53 years of age when captured. Only a short distance from Deerfield she was killed. What circ umstances resulted in her death can only be speculation. I t is generally believed from the records that have survive d and by the stories of those captives who returned that a woman of her age would serve no useful purpose and perh aps would be unlikely to endure the forced march to Canad a of some three hundred miles in winter through an uncharte red and uncolonized wilderness. There were two other wome n over the age of forty five who were captured and they wer e also killed a short distance from Deerfield. Their bodie s were found by the men who went in pursuit of the war part y of French and Indians. Others were to be killed along the march, including the wife of Rev. John Williams, who was weakened from recent childbirth. Other captive woman wh o could not endure the march were slain at intervals alon g the route. The route was north up the Connecticut River V alley to the White River in Vermont and then the Winooski R iver to the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. They travele d on the eastern side of Lake Champlain and up the Richelie u River to the St. Lawrence River and then to Montreal arri ving on April 25, nearly two months after the fateful morning at Deerfield. A monument in the old burying ground at De erfield reads "The Graves of 48 men, women, and children, v ictims of the French and Indian raid on Deerfield Februar y 29, 1704. Nine of these 48 were men involved in the meado w fight outside of Deerfield when the French and Indians we re fleeing Deerfield with their captives and seven of the n ine were in the rescue party from towns below Deerfield. In the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library are pla ques on the second floor dedicated to those families who su ffered in the Deerfield massacre. Those relating to the Pri ce and Field families are here listed. Sarah, 50, wife of R obert Price, Samuel, 18, their son, was captured and return ed. Andrew Stevens, an Indian, his wife, 20, daughter of Ro bert Price, captured. In 1706, she married in Canada, Jea n Fourneau. Sarah Field, 2, Mary, her mother, 28, wife of J ohn, with children, Mary, 6, and John, 3, were captured. Ma ry adopted by an Indian, was named Walahowey. She marrie d a savage, and became one. Elizabeth Smead, about 64, "smo thered in a cellar," with Mary (Price), 23, Sarah, 4, Willi am, 2, mother, wife and children of Samuel Smead. Zecharia h Field, 1645-1674 a settler at Pocumtuck before Philip's W ar. His remains lie in an unknown grave in the old burying Ground. Many of his descendants have attained internation al fame. In his honor this tablet is placed in 1901 by Mars hall Field of Chicago. The majority of the 112 captives wer e children. Twenty of the 112 died along the march and te n of these were adult woman, some affected by pregnancy or recent births. Those unable to keep up or in weakened con ditions were killed. Many of the captives were ransomed aft er a year and some several years later, returning to New En gland. Thirty or more captives never returned to New Englan d, but became citizens of New France (Canada) or as young c hildren were raised by Indians and continued the Indian mod e of life. Adoption and ransom was faced my most of the Ind ian captives. The policy of the French government was to ke ep as many of the captives as possible, to make good Cathol ics of them, and to wed them either to the church or state. Of those captives who were not ransomed to the French in the beginning, many of them lived at the Indian mission of Kahnawake, near Montreal. The Kahnawake Indians were of m ixed tribal background, but of predominantly Mohawk migrant s from New York state who had converted to the Catholic fai th. The Jesuit priests in Montreal and at Kahnawake endeavo red to recruit the captives into the Catholic faith from wh at they saw as the heretic reformed religion of Protestanti sm in New England. Many captives were adopted into Indian h ouseholds, the idea of replacing the dead deeply embedded in Iroquoin tradition. Elizabeth Price Stevens and little Ma ry Field were among those who remained in Canada, Elizabet h in a nunnery before her marriage and Mary Field at Kahnaw ake. Of little Mary Field, it is related every effort was m ade to secure her release, but her Indian captors would no t relinquish her. Of the several captive Deerfield childre n who arrived at Kahnawake as captives, many would marry and bear children and become fully integrated into Indian cul ture. Some stayed for varying durations. Mary Field remaine d at Kahnawake for life as did Mary Carter (age 10 when tak en), Abigail French (6), Mary Harris (9), Joanna Kellogg (1 1), Eunice Williams (7), and perhaps others. Baptismal and burial files of the Kahnawake mission are missing in the early years, but in later years the lives of some of thes e children as adults can be found in the records. Most of t hese woman visited their relatives in Massachusetts and Con necticut later in life on several occasions with their Indi an husbands and children. Most were requested and enticed to remain in New England, but always returned to Kahnawake, their adopted home.

Birth	Abt 1646	Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, United States
Marriage	16 Feb 1677	Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States - Robert Price
Death	29 Feb 1704	Deerfield, Franklin, Massachusetts, United States

Spouse	Robert Price (1644 - )
Child	Sarah Price (1678 - )
Child	Mary Price (1681 - 1704)
Child	Elizabeth Price (1683 - )
Child	Samuel Price (1685 - 1768)
Child	John Price (1689 - )

Father	John Webb (1615 - 1670)
Mother	Ann Bassett (1619 - 1667)
Sibling	John Webb (1642 - 1665)

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