Stonewall John

Stonewall John (also known as Nawham or Nawwhun and John Wall-Maker and Stonelayer John)[1] (died July 2, 1676) was a seventeenth century Narragansett leader in Rhode Island who was a skilled stone mason and blacksmith often credited with building stone wall fortifications at Queen's Fort in Exeter[2] and Stony Fort,[3] and blockhouses at the Great Swamp Fort.[4][5]

Remains of stonewalls constructed by Stonewall John at Queen's Fort in Exeter

Early career as a mason and blacksmith

Early in his life Stonewall John purportedly worked for Richard Smith who had a trading post in what is now Wickford, Rhode Island.[1] Stonewall John was possibly in a relationship with or served as a close advisor to Queen Quaiapen, and he was thought to have built the stonewall fortifications connecting large glacial boulders at Queen's Fort at the start of King Philip's War in the 1670s.[6] Stonewall John is also credited with stonework completed at nearby Stony Fort.[3] Some sources incorrectly claimed that Stonewall John may have been English due to his technological sophistication, but most sources disagree.[7][8] Stone masonry was actually common among the Narragansetts who were described by one source as "an active, laborious and ingenious people, which is demonstrated in their labors they do for the English; of whom more are employed, especially in making stone fences and many other hard labors, than of ay other Indian people or neighbors."[9] In addition to being a mason, Stonewall John was a "skilled... blacksmith who had built a forge inside the Narragansetts' Great Swamp village."[10]

King Philip's War
Swamp near the location Quaiapen's death in the Second Battle of Nipsachuck in what is now North Smithfield

On December 15, 1675, prior to the Great Swamp Fight, Stonewall John attempted to negotiate a peace with the militia forces, but the militia leaders suspected he was actually spying on their forces or distracting them, so they requested to speak to the higher sachems instead.[11][12] Within minutes of his departure the Indians began attacking the militia troops from behind a stone wall and four days later, the Great Swamp Fight occurred nearby.[11] Stonewall John "escaped from the [Great Swamp] fort after its devastation in December 1675, but his forge was destroyed."[10] He participated in the March 1676 attacks on Rehoboth and Providence.[13]

While evacuating from Providence, Roger Williams encountered a group of Narragansett warriors about to raid the settlement, including Stonewall John.[14] On April 1, 1676 a letter often attributed to Williams described the encounter:

"Then Came one Nawham Mr R. Smiths John Wall Maker an Ingenious Fellow and peaseable...Nawwhun Said that we broke Articles and not they (as I alleadged). He said they Heartilie Endeavoured the Surrendr of the Prisoners. They were abroad in Hunting, at Home. They were Divided and could not Effect it. He said You have driven us out of our own Countrie and then pursued us to Great Miserie, and Your own, and we are Forced to live upon you."[15]

A history of the War published in 1676 stated that the Stonewall John was "an arch Villain....that had been with them at the sacking of Providence, famously known by the name of Stone-wall, or Stone-Layer John, for that being an active and ingenious Fellow, he had learnt the Mason's Trade and was of great use to the Indians in building their Forts, &c."[16] On July 2, 1676, Indian soldiers in the Connecticut militia led by John Talcott killed Stonewall John,[17] along with Queen Quaiapen and many others,[18] at the Second Battle of Nipsachuck Battlefield in a swamp in what is now North Smithfield, Rhode Island.[19]

References
  1. Roger Williams to [Robert Williams?], April 1, 1676, LaFantasie, Glenn W., ed. The Correspondence of Roger Williams, University Press of New England, 1988, Vol. 2, p.723, 727.
  2. Donita Naylor (December 7, 2014). ""A view from Exeter: A sacred place, possibly from the time of glaciers,"". Providence Journal.
  3. G. Timothy Cranston (July 30, 2015). ""The View From Swamptown: Our town's 'Champions of the Centuries' – Class of 2015"". Independentri.com.
  4. Scott Weidensaul (2012), The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery and Endurance in Early America, p. 163 footnote
  5. Robert A. Geake, The Narragansett at Cocumscussoc. https://rifootprints.com/2014/08/09/the-narragansett-at-cocumscussoc/
  6. Stuart D. Goulding (March 1969). ""Deep in the Rhode Island Forest,"" (PDF). Yankee (33 ed.): 44.
  7. "Six Mysterious Stone Structures of New England". Newenglandhistoricalsociety.com. April 15, 2017.
  8. Malone, Patrick M. (March 1973). "Changing Military Technology Among the Indians of Southern New England, 1600-1677". American Quarterly. 25 (1): 48–63. doi:10.2307/2711556. JSTOR 2711556.
  9. Potter, Elisha R. The Early History of Narragansett; With an Appendix of Original Documents, many of which are now for the First Time Published. Providence: Marshall, Brown and Company, 1835, p. 8
  10. LaFantasie at 727.
  11. ""Letter From James Oliver". Colonialsociety.org. 14 January 1676.
  12. George Ellis; John Morris (1906). "King Philip's War". New York: Grafton Press.
  13. LaFantasie at 727 citing Lincoln, ed., Narratives of the Indian Wars 59, 96
  14. Robert A. Geake. ""Keepers of the Bay: The Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island Part I". Rifootprints.com.
  15. LaFantasie, Glenn W., ed. The Correspondence of Roger Williams, University Press of New England, 1988, Vol. 2, p.723, 727. The surviving document in the RIHS collections is a period copy of Williams' letter discovered and purchased in the 1960s and attributed to Williams despite some inconsistencies according to LaFantasie. It was part of a collection of documents passed down in the Huntington family of Connecticut.
  16. Samuel G. Drake, The Old Indian Chronicle (1836) p. 98 (republished account from "A new and father Narrative of the state of New-England, being a further account of the BLOODY INDIAN WAR from March till August, 1676" (London, 1676)) (written by N.S., possibly Nathaniel Saltonsall, or a Quaker in Rhode Island according to Mather's history)
  17. Samuel G. Drake, The Old Indian Chronicle (1836) p. 98 (republished account from "A new and father Narrative of the state of New-England, being a further account of the BLOODY INDIAN WAR from March till August, 1676" (London, 1676)) (written by "N.S.", possibly Nathaniel Saltonsall, or a Quaker in Rhode Island according to Mather)
  18. "Letter from Major Talcott: July 4, 1676, at Mr. Stanton's Farm house at Monacontauge," The public records of the colony of Connecticut from 1636-1776, Volume II (1850), pg. 459 accessible at https://archive.org/details/publicrecords02conn/page/458/mode/2up
  19. "Queen's Fort—Stone Refuge for Quaiapen, 1675-1676 - Online Review of Rhode Island History". Archived from the original on 2021-05-26. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
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