I’ve posted in the past about the 1704 French and Indian raid on Deerfield, Mass., which was then a tiny Puritan settlement on the English frontier, even though it sat a mere 80 miles west of Boston. But it wasn’t until a few days ago that I came across this photograph, which offers a telling reminder of that attack.
The marker in the photo sits atop the mass grave, in Deerfield, of 48 men, women and children who were killed during that raid more than 300 years ago. Many others were kidnapped and forcibly marched to New France (Canada). Some died en route. Others survived the journey and settled in New France or, in some cases, eventually returned home.
One of the people buried in that mass grave is my 10th-generation uncle, Benoni Stebbins of Deerfield. His niece, Thankful Stebbins, who was then a child, survived the horrors of that day. She was hauled off to New France, where she changed her name to Louise Thérèse. She became a French citizen in 1710, converted to Catholicism and married a Frenchman, eventually giving birth to 11 children. Louise Thérèse Legrain did Lavallée is my grandmother, on my mother’s side of the family, going back nine generations.
All of which is dramatic enough, in and of itself. But here's the kicker. The leader of that raid? He was the Canadian-born Jean Baptiste Hertel de Rouville, a lieutenant in his 30s in the French troupes de la marine. Hertel is my first cousin on my father’s side the family, nine generations back in time. So the assailant, too, is a relative, together with some of his victims. It would be hard to find two more tangled but separate branches in one family tree.
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