Massacre at Hurtleberry Hill (1676)

On August 7th, 1676, four English colonists murdered six Christian Indigenous women and children at Hurtleberry Hill. While there were many cases of colonists committing similar acts against indigenous people with minimal or no legal repercussions, the four men were tried and found guilty. Although two of the men were pardoned by the court, one of the men, Daniel Goble, was hung in a public square in Boston. This case represents a rare example of Indigenous victory in the English courts, as many similar cases were dismissed or ruled in favor of the Englishmen regardless of their guilt.

With the impending end to Metacom’s War, Puritan views towards Christian Indians began to sour. Originally, a large group of soldiers ran into an armed Indigenous guide, John Stoolemester, who was watching over a group of Indigenous people, three children and three women, who were picking berries atop Hurtleberry Hill. Choosing to accept that explanation, the soldiers continued on their way. However, four soldiers who all had negative views or previous interactions with Indigenous people decided to return to Hurtleberry Hill to execute the Indigenous people they had previously run into. When Stoolemester returned to Hurtleberry Hill, the group of women and children were nowhere to be found. Stoolemester returned back to his camp to share the news, and two days of searching later, they found the six missing people had been brutally killed. Andrew Pittimee and Thomas Speen, two of the women’s husbands, quickly pressed charges against the Englishmen they believed to have committed the crime.

The men who were accused of the killings were Nathaniel Wilder from Lancaster, and Concord residents Daniel Hoar, Daniel Goble, and Stephen Goble. All four men had assumed that they would not stand trial or that the public and courts would support their version of events; they were found guilty and sentenced to be hung for their crimes. The four argued that the general courts had provided support for their actions, as they had previously passed a law permitting the legal killing of any Indigenous person found one mile outside of the center of their villages, as well as anyone who was exiled during Metacom’s War. The Englishmen also relied on witnesses lying about the six deceased Indigenous people having received permission to be at Hurtleberry Hill at the time of the killings. Despite the claims of innocence, “These arguments did not persuade the judge or jury; all four men were sentenced to death and returned to the prison” (Pulsipher, 1996, p.464). This ruling shocked many of the Englishmen in the town, who believed the soldiers had done nothing wrong. However, the court upheld the Christian Indian’s rights to equal protection under Puritan laws that had largely been ignored in the years prior to the incident at Hurtleberry Hill.

Although all four men were sentenced to death for their involvement in the massacre at Hurtleberry Hill, only Stephen and Daniel Goble were hung. On September 21st, 1676, just a month removed from the killings, Daniel Goble was brought to the gallows in a public Boston square. Goble was hung alongside two indigenous men who were guilty of crimes against the English. Having an Englishman hung alongside Indigenous people was a rare occurrence, and even today historians find the event significant. “Across three hundred years we wonder if this joint execution was a demonstration of equal justice or simple expediency” (Pulsipher, 1996, p.483). While protestors of the hangings had threatened to stop Gobles from dying, they either were jailed beforehand or gave up their plans on the day of the execution. Nathaniel Wilder and Daniel Hoar petitioned the courts in the following weeks, pleading that they were simply witnesses to the crime, and were forced to stay silent by the Gobles. Both men were pardoned, on the condition that they paid a fine of ten pounds. Many people believe that the Gobles faced death because of the timing of the crime being around the end of Metacom’s War. If the incident had happened earlier, all four men would have likely been pardoned for their crimes. However, the conclusion of Metacom’s War. along with the death of the man it was named after mere days after the Concord murders, helped the colonists see the actions of the Gobles as being heinous enough to warrant death. “The brutal murder of defenseless Christian women and children may have finally stung the conscience of a people no longer in danger” (Pulsipher, 1996, p.484). With the changing views towards Christian Indians after the war, Indigenous Christians were finally able to use their equal rights to court proceedings to gain much-needed redemption for those who were massacred at Hurtleberry Hill, even if it was a temporary victory.

Pulsipher, Jenny Hale. “Massacre at Hurtleberry Hill: Christian Indians and English Authority in Metacom’s War.” The William and Mary Quarterly 53, no. 3 (1996): 459–86. https://doi.org/10.2307/2947201.

Quadraticman. Massacre at Hurtleberry Hill. Accessed November 28, 2023. https://quadraticman.blogspot.com/2015/03/massacre-at-hurtleberry-hill.html

“King Philip’s War - Indian Wars.” Access Genealogy: King Philip’s War – Indian Wars, December 14, 2013. https://accessgenealogy.com/connecticut/king-philips-war-indian-wars.htm.