FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, LANCASTER, MA
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Wunnuhhew, also known by her English name Sarah Doublet, was a Native American woman of royal lineage. She came of age in the mid-17th century as Puritan missionary John Eliot was working to establish a network of “Praying Towns” throughout the region.
Born around 1645 in Wamesit, located at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord rivers, Wunnuhhew was the daughter of Sagamore John, an influential leader in the local community.
Not much is known of Wunnuhhew’s early life in Wamesit (present day Lowell), which became the fifth Praying Town in 1653. To strengthen ties between villages, she married John Tahattawan, son of Sagamore Tahattawan of Musketaquid (present day Concord). Sagamore Tahattawan was an early convert to Christianity and was chosen by Eliot to lead the nearby Praying Indian Village of Nashobah Plantation upon its incorporation in 1654. Nashobah, or Nashope, meaning “between the waters,” refers to the area tucked between Nagog Pond, Long Pond, and Fort Pond in present day Littleton.
The couple settled at Nashobah where John Tahattawan succeeded his father as chief and Wunnuhhew gave birth to their only son in 1663.
Tahattawan died at an early age, so Wunnuhhew took their son and moved south to the Praying Indian Village of Okkanamesit (present day Marlborough). There she married the local chief Oonamog and gave birth to a daughter named Kehonosquaw (also known as Sarah). Oonamog died in 1674 and Wunnuhhew retained much of his power as chief in the absence of another recognized leader.
Late the following summer at the onset of King Philip’s War, Okkanamesit was dismantled by an order of the Massachusetts Council which confined “Indians Faithful to the English” to one of five Praying Towns. Wunnuhhew, now twice a widow with two children, once again needed a new place to live. While many of those living at Okkanamesit went east to the Praying Indian Village of Natick where they had relatives, Wunnuhhew returned north to her childhood home at Wamesit.
Tensions were rising in the region and within months of the move, Wunnuhhew was faced with yet another tragedy. On November 15, 1675, the barn of Lieutenant Richardson of Chelmsford was burned. Seeking retaliation, a group of townspeople assuming the crime was committed by the inhabitants of Wamesit approached the encampment and opened fire. They wounded five women, including Wunnuhhew, two children, and killed one—her twelve-year-old son.
This violence led those who had stayed in Wamesit to head further north in search of their leader Wonalancet and safety from the hostilities of war. During this time, the Praying Indians of Nashobah were forced from their ancestral lands and relocated to the home of John Hoar in Musketaquid who had offered to employ and care for them, while keeping them “secured” from the townspeople. Due to the rising discontentment of Hoar’s neighbors, within weeks the Nashobah were rounded up and taken to Deer Island in Boston Harbor where they were interned along with the Praying Indians of Natick and Ponkapoag.
The winter of 1675-76 was harsh. Extreme hunger drove some of the Wamesits who had ventured north, including Wunnuhhew, to return home in search of food. The round-up and internment of Praying Indians throughout the region, including those in Wamesit, continued. While it may be presumed that those present were sent to Deer Island, there is no official record confirming whether Wunnuhhew was with them. Conditions on the island were poor, and starvation, disease, and exposure were common. Over half of the prisoners died that winter, while others were trafficked into slavery in the West Indies.
It is unclear where, however Wunnuhhew managed to survive the bitter winter, as did her future husband, Nepanet, a Nashobah man also known by the English name Thomas “Tom” Doublet. Nepanet was interned at Deer Island but, being a well-respected interpreter for the English, was called off to broker ransom negotiations for Mary Rowlandson of Lancaster at what is now referred to as Redemption Rock in present day Princeton early that Spring.
By May 1676, the Massachusetts General Court ordered the Praying Indians interned on Deer Island to be released. Many of those who survived the winter, including Nashobah, returned to what remained of the Praying Indian Village of Natick. Today their descendants are active stewards of their vibrant cultural heritage in the region.
Wunnuhhew and Nepanet were some of the few who eventually returned to Nashobah. Existing research on the ensuing decades of Wunnuhew’s life is scant, however it is known that she outlived Nepanet and was mentioned in the act of incorporation for the Town of Nashoba (now Littleton) in 1714. It states:
“And that Five hundred Acres of Land be reserved and laid out for the Benefit of any of the Descendants of the Indian Proprietors of the Said Plantation, that may be surviving; A Proportion thereof to be for Sarah Doublet alias Sarah Indian.”
According to Shattuck’s History of Concord, twenty years later Wunnuhhew was believed to be the sole heir to these five hundred acres, “and being then old and blind and committed to the care of Samuel Jones of Concord she petitioned for liberty to sell it to pay her maintenance.” Her petition was granted and the land sold. When she died the following year in 1736 at the approximate age of 91, Wunnuhhew was deemed “the last Praying Indian” of Nashobah.
Years later, a segment of the former Praying Indian Village of Nashobah Plantation was purchased by Edith Jenkins and Fanny Knapp, two retired nurses turned farmers. Recognizing the historical, cultural, and ecological significance of the undeveloped land, Jenkins and Knapp willed the 98 acres to the Littleton Conservation Trust in stages beginning in 1975—three hundred years after the Nashobah were taken from their home. The property was deemed Sarah Doublet Forest in memory of Wunnuhhew and her longstanding connection to the land she and her people called home.
Sources:
Boudillion, Daniel V. Field Journal.
Brooks, Lisa. Our Beloved Kin: Remapping A New History of King Philip’s War.
Cowley, Charles. Memories of the Indians and Pioneers of the Region of Lowell. 1862.
Curran, Victor. The People of Musketaquid: Concord’s First Residents. 2020.
Harwood, Herbert Joseph. A Historical Sketch of the Town of Littleton. 1890.
Littleton Historical Society. Proceedings of the Littleton Historical Society No. 1 1894-1895. 1896.