William Cahoon (Colquhoun) (1633-1675), and Deliverance Peck

Contributed By

Fred Graham3

By Frederick W. Graham

William Cahoon (or Colquhoun), my ninth great-grandfather, was a Scot who was sent to New England as an indentured servant in 1651. William was born about 1635, possibly in Luss, a small village on the western shore of Loch Lomond, located on lands in the western highlands of Scotland that belonged to Clan Colquhoun.

William Colquhoun’s Scottish surname in English colonial records and later historical memorials is spelled in a number of ways, including Cohoun, Cohoon, Cohoone, and Cahoone. As direct descendants of the immigrant William Colquhoun, my own ancestors have spelled the name as Cahoon at least since the early nineteenth century (thus my spelling of his name in the title and much of the text of this brief history).

In 1642, the English civil wars began between the royalist supporters of the Catholic Stuart monarchy and the parliamentarians who followed Oliver Cromwell. By 1650 the Scots had joined the Stuart royalists in rebellion against the English Commonwealth. The Colquhouns, including eighteen-year-old William Colquhoun, joined with thousands of other highlanders to fight Cromwell’s invading forces.

On September 3, 1650, at the town of Dunbar, on southeastern coast of Scotland, the Scots were defeated. Cromwell estimated that three thousand Scots died in battle and ten thousand were taken prisoner; among the prisoners was young William Colquhoun. Thousands of wounded were left behind; the remainder (about 5100) were marched to Durham. On September 11, the approximately three thousand prisoners who survived the march arrived at Durham Cathedral, where they were held in terrible conditions. By the end of October about 1600 of the prisoners had died.

In early November of 1650, the first shipments of surviving prisoners were sent as indentured servants to Maine and Massachusetts. William was shipped out in 1651, indentured to the London merchants Bex & Co. to work in the bog iron works in Massachusetts. William worked in the Winthrop iron works at Braintree (now known as Quincy), Massachusetts. He later worked in the Leonard iron works near Taunton.

The site of the Winthrop iron works in Quincy, just outside of Boston, is uncovered and open for viewing. Some walls are standing and pieces of slag can still be found. The site is located on Crescent Street in West Quincy, next to St. Mary’s Church and Hall Cemetery. A plaque at the site states:

“John Winthrop, Jr., Blast Furnace has been designated an historical landmark by American Society for Metals. In 1644, John Winthrop, Jr., built the first commercial blast furnace in America at Quincy, Mass., where it produced iron from bog ore dug from the bottoms of brooks and swamps.”

The site of the Leonard iron works, located on Route 104, is located in Raynham, a mile from the Taunton border. Nothing is left of the old iron works, and the setting of the site is now park-like. A plaque set in a boulder reads:

“Site of the first successful iron works in the Old Colony, 1656-1876 – built by James Leonard. Originally owned by twenty-three of Taunton’s first settlers. Operated 1777 to 1876 by Hon. Josiah Dean and his descendants.”

In 1661, William Cahoon, while still an indentured servant, was one of the original settlers on Block Island. As stated in "Notes on Block Islanders of Seventeenth Century," in "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1951, p. 169-171:

"At the time of the settlement and until it was given to Rhode Island in the charter of 1663, the Island was regarded as part of Massachusetts....After the purchase of the Island in the winter of 1660/1, a shallop was built on the Braintree shore (now Quincy, Mass.) to carry the settlers to the Island, and in the early spring of 1661 it was sent around the Cape and up to Taunton, the settlers going overland from Braintree to Taunton, where they went on board and embarked on a new adventure.

"The names of the first comers, as given in the early town records, are as follows: Thomas Terry, Samuel Dearing, Duncan McWilliams or McWilliamson, John Rathbone, Simon Ray, William Tosh, Tormut Rose, William Baker, David Kimball, William Cahoone, Edward Vose, Nicolas White, William Billings, Tristram Dodge, and Jon Acres.

"Duncan McWilliams, William Tosh (McIntosh), Tormut Rose (Duncan Rose or Ross), and William Cahoone (Colquhoun) belonged to a group of Scottish prisoners, who were at the Braintree Iron Works. After the battles of Dunbar and Worcester, many of the Scottish horse, who were taken prisoners by the Army of the Parliament, were sold as indentured servants for a period of years to a company of London merchants known as Bex & Co., who were interested in working the deposits of bog iron at Saugus and Braintree, and the Scots were shipped to New England to work the iron deposits in those places. There is a list of those prisoners who were taken at Dunbar and shipped in the 'Sara and John' to Boston...

"William Cahoone (Colquhoun) was another of the Scottish prisoners. He appears to have been at the Taunton Iron Works worked by James Leonard. As Leonard was first at the Saugus (Lynn) Iron Works, it is probable that Cahoone was first at Saugus. After residing at the Island for some years he removed to Swansea, where he left descendants."

After fulfilling the term of his indenture, William purchased land on Block Island. William is listed as a resident who was admitted as a freeman of the Rhode Island Colony in May of 1664 by the Rhode Island General Assembly. He served on a Newport, Rhode Island, grand jury in 1665. William’s name appears on a bronze plaque at Settler’s Rock on Block Island that lists the names of the first settlers. On the plaque, placed in 1911, William’s name is spelled as William Cohoone.

William married Deliverance Peck either on Block Island or in Newport, Rhode Island. There is uncertainty about the list of their children and their birth years. A number of differing lists have been suggested. The couple’s first three or four children were born either on Block Island or in Newport. Their last three of their children were born in Swansea and are listed in the vital records of the town. Here is an approximate list of their children:

Samuel, born ca. 1663 (or ca. 1665); Mary, born 1664 (or ca. 1667); Joseph, born ca. 1665 (or ca. 1669); William, born ca. 1667 (or ca. 1669); James, born in Swansea on February 15, 1671; John, born in Swansea on March 9, 1673; and Nathaniel, born in Swansea on February 2, 1675. (See Burt Derick, "Cahoon Genealogical Notes," pp. 1-8.)

Sometime between December 1669 and February 1670, the family moved to Swansea, a town in southwestern Massachusetts, near the present border with Rhode Island. William's and Deliverance’s last three children were born in Swansea. On February 9, 1670, William, along with other residents of Swansea, was allotted land within the town. The record and list of residents who were allotted land shows William’s name spelled as William Cahoone (record and list published in "Magazine of New England History," October 1892, pp. 237-239).

At a meeting of the Swansea townsmen on December 24, 1673, William was designated the town brick maker. William’s brick works was located on the banks of the Palmer River. The contract, which seems to include three different spellings of his name, reads:

“At a town meeting of the townsmen, December 24, 1673, it was agreed upon by and between the townsmen in behalf of the town and William Cohoune brickmaker that for and in consideration of a lot and other accommodations or grantes and given him from the town unto him the said William Cohoun. It was therefore agreed and concluded upon by the parties above as that the said William Cohoon shall supply all the inhabitants of the town with bricks at a price not exceeding twenty shillings a thousand in current pay putting between man and man.”

Relations between the native inhabitants and English settlers in the colonies had been deteriorating for some years before war broke out in 1675. While Chief Massasoit had tried to maintain friendly relations with the first colonists, the English pushed ever farther onto Indian lands. After Massasoit’s death in 1661, his sons Wamsutta and Metacom (also known as Philip, or King Philip) determined to stop the advance of the colonists onto the Indian land. Philip organized a confederation among the Wampanoags and most other tribes in New England.

In June of 1675, three Wampanoags were executed by the English, which enraged the tribe. In retaliation, Indians attacked settlers in Swansea, one of the first incidents in what would come to be known as King Philip’s War.

As Swansea historian John Raymond Hall describes the circumstances of the attack, Plymouth governor John Winslow "ordered a Colony-wide day of worship or atonement for the 24th. In effect, this required the Swansea settlers to leave their safe havens and venture forth to the meeting house at One Hundred Acre cove. By this time Indian war parties were ranging through the town." (Hall, p. 117.)

On June 24, 1675, the residents of Swansea were gathered for the religious services. As they returned home they were attacked by Indians. Several of the colonists were killed and others seriously wounded. The survivors, including William and Deliverance and their children, found refuge in the home of Reverend John Myles, a Baptist minister. The wounded badly needed medical help. William and another man volunteered to ride to the neighboring town of Rehoboth and return with a doctor. The two men left that evening under the cover of darkness. Their mutilated bodies were found the next day. William Cahoon died at age forty-two, leaving Deliverance with their children to care for.

A few years after the death of William Cahoon, Deliverance married Caleb Lumbert of Barnstable, a town located on Cape Cod. Deliverance’s remarriage and her family's relocation to Cape Cod established my family’s Cahoon ancestors’ presence on the Cape through many succeeding generations, particularly in the Harwich area.

The Myles house became known as the Myles Garrison House after it was used by colonial troops at the beginning of the war. The house eventually was torn down. In 1912 a monument was placed near the site of the house, at the west end of Myles Bridge in Swansea, just south of the Swansea/Rehoboth line, at the intersection of Barneyville and Old Providence Roads. The bridge crosses the Palmer River. The site is just north of where William’s residence and brick works would have been located. The plaque displayed on the monument reads:

“Myles Garrison House Site. Near this spot stood the John Myles Garrison House the Place of Meeting of the Troops of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colonies commanded by Major Thomas Savage and James Cudworth who marched to the relief of Swansea at the opening of King Philip’s War A.D. 1675.

“These fell at Swansea, slain by the Indians Nehemiah Allen, William Cahoone, Gershom Cobb, John Druce, John Fall, William Hamons, John Jones, Robert Jones, Robert Lewis, John Salisbury, William Salisbury.

“To mark this historic site this monument was erected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts A.D. 1912.”

On June 24 and 25, 2000, a group of about 60 descendants of William Cahoon, including my brother and me, gathered in the Swansea area to hold a commemoration and celebration of William’s life, called the "William Cahoone Commemorative Gathering 2000." The event was organized and led by Deborah Cahoon Didick. On Saturday, June 24, we did a motor tour of the William Cahoon sites, including stops at the Winthrop and Leonard iron works sites; the site of the Myles Garrison House in Swansea; and the Luther Museum in Swansea, which has in its collection an original brick from William’s brick works, and the original town ledger that includes the 1673 contract entry establishing William Cahoon as the town brick maker. In the evening a meeting was held in the Carpenter Museum in Rehoboth in which a new plaque honoring the life of William Cahoon was presented. On Sunday, June 25, a memorial service was conducted in the Lake Street Historic Cemetery in Rehoboth, near the presumed site of William’s death. The descendants arranged for a new monument to be located at the Myles Garrison House site on which the new plaque would be displayed. The plaque reads:

“Near this spot stood The Cahoone Brickworks from 1673-1675 founded and operated by William Cahoone (Colquhoun) of Luss, Scotland, and Swansea, Massachusetts.

Taken prisoner during Cromwellian Wars (1650)

Indentured servant at Quincy, Massachusetts (1651)

Freeman at Block Island (1664)

One of founders of Swansea, Massachusetts (1669)

Killed by Indians eve of King Philip’s War while attempting to secure doctor for wounded of Swansea (June 24, 1675)

Presented by his Descendants, June 24, 2000”

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Sources:

Stephen Lance Calhoun, From Soldier to Brickmaker: The Life of William Cahoone c1633 to 22 June 1675, published in Orval O. Calhoun, 800 Years of Colquhoun, Colhoun and Cahoon Family History in Ireland, Scotland, England, United States of America, Australia and Canada (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1976-1991), vol. 3, p. 22-66.

Dennis Bell, "Battle of Dunbar, 1650," https://www.krystalrose.com/kim/BEALL/dunbar.html

"Notes on Block Islanders of Seventeenth Century," in "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1951, p. 169-171.

John Raymond Hall, "In a Place Called Swansea" (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1987). See "The War Against King Philip," pp. 113-119.

Lila Cahoon, The Cahoons of America and Where to Find Them (Cardston, Alberta: Lila Cahoon, 1991), p. 385-387.

Deborah A. Cahoon Didick, Famous and Infamous Cahoons (s.l.: Hazelnut Press, 1999), chapter 1, "William Cahoone (Colquhoun), c1633-1675."

Burt Derick, "Cahoon Genealogical Notes and Reference List."

Wikipedia, "King Philip's War." (accessed May 2020)

Wikipedia, "John Winthrop Jr. Iron Furnace Site." (accessed May 2020)

Wikipedia, "Taunton Iron Works." (accessed May 2020)

Thomas W. Bicknell, “Religious Tolerance in Massachusetts,” Journal of New England History, vol. 2, no. 4, October 1892, pp. 237-239.

George Black, The Surnames of Scotland, Their Origin, Meaning, and History (The New York Public Library & Readex Books, 1946), p. 163-164.