The Fair Captive

After a recent question was asked in my blog concerning Caleb Howe, my 5th great-grandfather, I decided to review what I had about him, his siblings, and his parents, Caleb Howe and Jemima Sawtelle. The good part about doing this kind of review is that I was able to finally add an older brother, William, into the tree as a child of Caleb and Jemima. However, it also started me down an interesting rabbit hole of research concerning the story of Jemima.

My encounter with Jemima's story was years ago when I came across the genealogy of the Howe family posted under the Phipps Family Pages. There I learned about the "Fair Captive" and the story of her capture during the French and Indian War. The write up on that web page mentioned that "Jemima's story became part of the "American Preceptor"..." Courtesy of the Internet Archive I was able find and download various editions of the "The American Preceptor; being a new Selection of Lessons for Reading and Speaking. Designed for the Use of Schools" by Caleb Bingham, initially the 1837 edition but recently I was able to find the 1801 edition on the Internet Archive. For general reading I prefer the 1837 edition since the earlier editions make use of the "long s" or "ſ" so that a word like "disposed" looks like "diſpoſed" as you can see below.

Caleb Bingham. American Preceptor; Being a New Selection of Lessons for Reading and Speaking. Designed for the Use of Schools (Boston, Massachusetts: Manning and Loring, 1801), p 183; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/americanprecept09binggoog/page/n1/mode/2up : accessed 20 May 2020).

Until you get used to reading text like that it can get confusing at times. By the way, you will have an opportunity to practice reading words with the "long s" by the end of this post.

But where did this "Fair Captive" designation come from? Please bear with me as the journey is a bit of a long one since it is all about following clues and, in one case, a bit of luck and cobbled with experience.

I started with a simple Google search with the keywords of "Jemima Sawtelle" and one of the first results was from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography for SAWTELLE, JEMIMA (Phipps; Howe; Tute). The good thing about this dictionary is that they include a list of sources used. In that list was mentioned the book New England captives carried to Canada between 1677 and 1760 during the French and Indian wars by Emma Lewis Coleman published in 1925. On pages 314-321 Jemima's story is recounted and even a few sources are stated in the footnotes. I like when I come across sources mentioned in foot or end notes!

pp.316-317:

Colonel Schuyler was again her friend, interesting himself in her ransom as is shown by the following letter from Dr. Benjamin Stakes, Surgeon of New Jersey troops, who frequently acted for him. Written in New Haven in December, 1757, it was addressed to Ebenezer Hinsdale, who enclosed it to Gov. Benning Wentworth.³¹

³¹N. H. Hist. Soc. Coll., V, 256

p.319:

Schuyler's official list³⁴ gives "Miss How, and boys William, Josia and Peter."
³⁴ N. Y. Docs., X, 882

Fortunately Ms. Coleman includes in her appendix of the book the abbreviations that she used. One of them, "N. Y. Docs." was defined as "Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York". However, "N. H. Hist. Soc. Coll." wasn't defined but from other definitions it seemed reasonable that it was "New Hampshire Historical Society Collections".

After a bit of searching through various catalogues such as Google Books, HathiTrust, and the Internet Archive it turns out that those aren't exactly the titles of the works that Ms. Coleman was referencing.

Starting with that possible "N.H. Hist. Soc. Coll., V, 256" it took a little bit of searching but I finally turned up "Collections of the New-Hampshire Historical Society, Volume V" on the Internet Archive and on pages 256 to 258 I came across transcriptions of the letters mentioned.

[John Farmer, Nathaniel Bouton, Isaac Hill]. Collections of the New-Hampshire Historical Society, Vol. V (Concord, New Hampshire: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1837), pp.254-256, Letter of Col. Ebenezer Hindsdale to Gov. Benning Wentwork-1755; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/collectionsnewh06socigoog/page/n7/mode/2up : accessed 18 May 2020).

For "N. Y. Docs." the title turned out to be "Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York; procured in Holland, England and France, Volume X". What was interesting to me was that the "Miss How, and the boys William Josia and Peter" was not written that way, at least in the 1858 edition:

E. B. O'Callaghan, editor, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York; procured in Holland, England and France, Vol. X, (Albany, New York: Weed, Parsons and Company, 1858), pp.882; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/documentsrelativ10newyuoft/page/n4/mode/2up : accessed 18 May 2020); List of English prisoners delivered to Colonel Schuyler, &c.

E. B. O'Callaghan, editor, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York; procured in Holland, England and France, Vol. X, (Albany, New York: Weed, Parsons and Company, 1858), pp.883; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/documentsrelativ10newyuoft/page/n4/mode/2up : accessed 18 May 2020); List of English prisoners delivered to Colonel Schuyler, &c.

These are transcriptions from documents in the Archives of the "Ministère de la Marine et des Colonies;" of the "Ministère de la Guerre," and in the "Bibliothèque de Roi," at Paris. Of course, going to France at this time is not in the cards. However, on a whim as I was writing this, I did a search for the archives in question and one web site mentioned that:

Les originaux sont conservés aux Archives nationales de France. Les Archives nationales du Canada possèdent des copies des documents de la série B et d'autres séries.

That got me thinking, what about searching the Library and Archives Canada site. Even if it is just a microfilm number, once the pandemic subsides and buildings open up to the public, I can look up the microfilm. My initial search of the archives collections using the keywords "Ministère de la Marine et des Colonies" returned more than 2000 matches. That's a lot to review but not unrealistic. But what about "Schuyler"? Were there less matches and could I find one that might apply?

I couldn't believe it when the third item in the list of 789 results was "["Rôle des prisonniers anglais remis au colonel Schuyler". Certificat signé ...]. 1758, novembre, 01". That is exactly the document I was looking for. Even more amazing was that they have been digitized and put online:

"Rôle des prisonniers anglais remis au colonel Schuyler." Série C11A. Correspondance générale; Canada [document textuel (surtout des microformes)] (R11577-4-2-F). Library and Archives Canada microfilm F-103, p.289 and 291[stamped]. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa; digital images, Library and Archives Canada (http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=3073215 : accessed 20 May 2020). 

As you can see, unlike what Ms. Coleman recorded, Miss How and her sons are not listed together but on separate pages in different categories.

Looking back at the various sources cited in the entry for Jemima Sawtelle in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography also mentioned in The history of New-Hampshire by Jeremy Belknap. Again, this book is available on the Internet Archive in various editions. I always prefer the edition closest to the time of the events.

Jeremy Belknap, A.M., The History of New-Hampshire, Vol. III, (Boston, Massachusetts: Belknap and Young, 1792), pp.370-388, A particular Account of the Captivity of Mrs Jemima Howe, by the Rev. Bunker Gay, of Hinsdale, in a Letter to the Author; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/historyofnewham03belk/page/n10/mode/2up : accessed 18 May 2020).

In the stories that were published they reference Maj. Israel Putnam and in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography one of the sources is "An essay on the life of the Honorable Major-General Israel Putnam..." by David Humphreys. That wasn't too hard to chase down although there are multiple digitized copies available. The oldest edition I could find was "An Essay of the Life of the Honorable Major-General Israel Putnam: Addressed to the State Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut" published in 1788.

At the houſe of Colonel Schuyler, Major Putnam became acquainted with Mrs. Howe, a fair captive, whoſe hiſtory would not be read without emotion if it could be written in the ſame affecting manner, in which I have often heard it told. She was ſtill young and handſome herſelf, though ſhe had two daughters of marriagable age. Diſtreſs, which had taken ſomewhat from the original redundancy of her bloom and added a ſoftening paleneſs to her cheeks, rendered her appearance the more engaging. Her face, that ſeemed to have been formed for the aſſemblage of dimples and ſmiles, was clouded, with care. The nature ſweetness was not, however, ſoured by deſpondency and petulance; but chaſtened by humility and reſignation. This mild daughter of ſorrow looked as if ſhe had known the day of proſperity, when ſerenity and gladneſs of ſoul were the inmates of her boſom. That day was paſt, and the once lively features now aſſumed a tender melancholy, which witneſſed her irreparable loſs.

David Humphreys, An Essay of the Life of the Honorable Major-General Israel Putnam: Addressed to the State Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut,  (Hartford, Connecticut: Hudson and Goodwin, 1788), pp.74-81; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/essayonlifeofhon1788hump/page/n3/mode/2up : accessed 18 May 2020).

Although the story as recorded by Mr. Humphreys in the telling of Israel Putnam's life is romanticized it does add some dimension to the story of Jemima How. The description of her definitely describes a "fair captive."

Jemima's story has been told in numerous publications in addition to the ones mentioned above. Some appear to be derived from the account recorded by Rev. Bunker Gay.

• Indian Captivities or Life in the Wigwam pp.156-165
• Harper's new monthly magazine, volume 12, "Israel Putnam," p.588
• Marguerite Allis, Not without peril, a novel by Marguerite Allis, founded on the life and adventures of Jemima Sartwell, one of the first settlers in Vermont.
• Angela Marco, Fair captive, a colonial story
  

Her monumental inscription tells the tale of her life.

Mrs. Jemima Tute Succeſsively Relict of Meſsrs. William Phips, Caleb Howe & Amos Tute The firſt two were killed by Indians Phips July 5th AD 1743 Howe June 27th 1755 When Howe was killed She & her Children Then ſeven in number Were carried into Captivity. The oldest a Daughter went to France And was married to a French Gentleman The youngeſt was torn from her breaſt And periſhed with Hunger By the aid of ſome benevolent Gent'n And her own perſonal Heroiſm She recovered the Reſt She had two by her laſt Huſband She outlived him & them And died March 7th 1805 aged 82 Having pasted thro more viciſsitudes And endured more hardſhips Than any of her Cotemporaries No more can Savage Foes annoy Nor aught her wideſread Fame Deſtroy

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 May 2020), memorial page for Jemima Sawtelle(Phipps/Howe) Tute (7 Mar 1723–7 Mar 1805), Find a Grave Memorial no. 17509287, citing North Vernon Cemetery, North Vernon, Windham County, Vermont, USA; Maintained by John Clay Harris (contributor 47322896).

So follow those citations in the books you come across that mention your ancestors. You never know what documents that you will come across will lead you.