Bickford Garrison Survives Attack Through Trickery: 52 Ancestors 2025 Prompt “Earliest Ancestor”

 

Thomas Bickford Convinces Attackers that Multiple Men Inhabited His Garrison

Temperence Hull: 1625-1697 (Maternal 7^th Great-Grandaunt)
Thomas Bickford: 1660-1706 (Maternal First Cousin 8x Removed)
 

Some of my earliest ancestors to arrive in colonial America were the Hull family, including my 7^th Great-Grandaunt, Temperence Hull. She married John Bickford, and they settled in the Oyster River area of what became New Hampshire, and had several children. One of those children, Thomas Bickford, has a claim to fame as a survivor of a 1694 attack on the colonial settlement of Oyster River by members of the Abenaki tribe. The incident came to be known as the Oyster River Massacre. I have already written one post about other ancestors whose home was attacked during the raid.

Thomas Bickford was the oldest son of John and Temperence Bickford, and had taken over the family home on Durham Point in Oyster River. The building had been fortified to serve as a garrison house to protect settlers from attack. Thomas married a woman named Brigit (or Bridget) Furber in 1677. They had several children, four of whom were named in his 1705 will. Three of those children would have already been born by the time of the 1694 attack.

1600s map of Oyster River area. The Bickford Garrison was on a bluff overlooking the rivermouth.

All that is known about Thomas’ actions on July 17, 1694 come from an account written by Cotton Mather in his journal. He provided few details of the massacre other than the story about Thomas’ clever ruse that led to the survival of his house and property. Mather wrote in his Magnalia Christi Americana:

“Several persons remarkably escaped this bloody deluge, but none with more bravery than one Thomas Bickford, who had an house, a little pallisadoed, by the river side, but no man in it besides himself. He dexterously put his wife and mother and children aboard a canoe, and , seinding them down the river, he alone betook himself to the defence of his house, against Indians that made an assault upon him. They first would hav persuaded him with manyfiar pomises, and then terrified hm with as many fierce threatenings, to yield himself; but he flouted and fired at them, daring ‘em to come if they durst. His main stratagem was to change his livery as frequently as he could; appearing sometimes in one coat, sometimes in another, sometimes in an hat and sometimes in a cap; which caused his besiegers to mistake this one for many defendants. In fine, the pitiful wretches, despairing to beat him out of his house, e’en left him in int.; whereas many that opened unto them upon their solemn engagements of giving them life and good quarter, wee barbarously butchered by them.”

It is hard to believe that the attackers were taken in by Thomas’ desperate ruse. He must have been quite convincing and quite speedy. His wife, his elderly mother, and his children all successfully escaped by boat, and the Bickford garrison house survived when many of the surrounding homes were burned.

Archeology dig diagram of likely footprint of the Bickford garrison house.

Thomas only lived another decade after the Oyster River attack. He died in 1706, leaving his property to four children and his wife. His son John took over the garrison house after his father’s death. The garrison was eventually torn down, but archeological digs in 2008-2010 uncovered the building’s foundation and unearthed various artifacts including pottery and glassware fragments.

Photo of the garrison house foundation stones uncovered by the archeological dig in 2008.

A descendant of the Bickford family had also erected a historical marker along Durham Point Road at Langley Road in Durham, New Hampshire. The marker was still standing in 2016 when this photo was taken, but it is unclear if it remains.

Bickford Garrison Historic Marker on Durham Road at Langley Rd.

Cotton Mather’s record of Thomas Bickford’s actions that saved his garrison house is probably the earliest story about any of my ancestors. While Thomas was a very, very distant ancestor, I loved learning about him and his garrison house. It helps me understand the difficulties my ancestors faced in colonial America.

Sources:

New Hampshire, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1643-1982. Vol. 31, paged 297-298. Will of John Bickford with complaint by son-in-law against Thomas Bickford. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8996/records/1020001?tid=46986934&pid=322185144223&hid=1039063673246&_phsrc=Acy28097&_phstart=default&usePUBJs=true

“The Oyster River Massacre” The History of the Town of Durham. pg_89-103.

Magnalia Christi Americana. Cotton Mather. Pg 6-7.

“’The Great Massacre of 1694’: Understanding the Destruction of Oyster River Plantation”. Brown, Craig J. Historical New Hampshire. Vol. 53, n. 3-4, pgs. 69-89. Bickford item on pgs. 83-84.

Hard By The Water's Edge: A Preliminary Report of the Darby Field - Bickford Garrison (27-ST-71) Excavations. Brown, Craig J., Greenly, Mark; Sablock, Peter. https://www.academia.edu/28173770/Hard_By_The_Waters_Edge_A_Preliminary_Report_of_the_Darby_Field_Bickford_Garrison_27_ST_71_Excavations

“Summer archaeological dig a 'huge success'”. Jason Howe. Foster’s Daily Democrat. July 21, 2008.