Thomas HARRIS [Parents] [scrapbook] ¹ was born ² on 19 Aug 1665 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He died ³ on 1 Nov 1741 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Thomas married Mary RHODES about 1696.

Thomas's will was probated ⁴ on 18 Jan 1742 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Other marriages:

BROWN, Phebe

Mary RHODES. Mary married Thomas HARRIS about 1696.

Nicholas HARRIS [Parents] ¹ was born ² on 15 Apr 1671 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He died ³ on 27 Mar 1746 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Nicholas married ⁴ Ann about 1695 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Nicholas's will was probated ⁵ on 7 Apr 1746 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Ann. Ann married ¹ Nicholas HARRIS about 1695 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

William HARRIS [Parents] ^{1, 2} was born ³ on 11 May 1673 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He died ⁴ on 14 Jan 1726 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. William married ⁵ Abigail in BY 1700 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Buried in the NORTH BURIAL GROUND, PROVIDENCE, NORTH MAIN ST ->20 ft. W of tele. pole # 140

Abigail was born in 1679 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Abigail married ¹ William HARRIS in BY 1700 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Henry HARRIS [Parents] ¹ was born ² on 10 Nov 1675 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He died ³ on 29 Mar 1727 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Henry married Lydia OLNEY about 1710 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Henry's will was probated ⁴ on 13 Apr 1727 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Lydia OLNEY was born ¹ on 20 Jan 1688/1689 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. She died in 1728. Lydia married Henry HARRIS about 1710 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Joseph MORSE. Joseph married ¹ Amity HARRIS about 1704 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Amity HARRIS [Parents] ¹ was born ² on 10 Dec 1677 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. She died on 7 Jul 1732 in Canton, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States. Amity married ³ Joseph MORSE about 1704 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Nathaniel BROWN. Nathaniel married Elnathan HARRIS about 1714 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Other marriages:

HARRIS, Mary

Elnathan HARRIS [Parents] ^{1, 2} was born on 24 Sep 1680 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. She died ³ in 1749. Elnathan married Nathaniel BROWN about 1714 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Records of Leander S. Harris

William HARRIS [Parents] was born about 1609 in England, United Kingdom. He died on 20 Feb 1681/1682 in London, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom. William married ¹ Susanna in BY 1634 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

122       New England Historical and Genealogical Register        [APRIL

There are other instances in the colony records where the same relationships are stated. In June and August 1662 Philip appeared before the Plymouth Colony Court, first seeking redress to his claim that the Narragansetts had illegally taken his property, and second, defending himself against allegations that he was plotting against the English. In the former instance Philip argued that his father conveyed the land to him; both the Narragansetts and the court concurred. In the latter instance Philip denied plotting against the English and said he wished to continue the friendship “that hath formerly bine between this govment and his deceased father and brother.”[17]

As if the evidence so far were not sufficient, four principal figures in the
1675-76 conflict left testimony that supports these familial relationships:
Benjamin Church, who personally knew King Philip and whose troops killed the warrior sachem; William Harris, one of Rhode Island's original settlers who personally knew King Philip and Massasoit; John Easton, a Quaker and former governor of Rhode Island, and Metacom/King Philip himself In his Entertaining History, sometimes called Entertaining Passages, Thomas Church related that just after his father Benjamin, then a captain, had killed King Philip, he tried to convince his men to capture King Philip's chief aide, the elderly but fearsome warrior Axrnawon. His men were reluctant, fearful of being captured or killed. Church wrote that “they [his men] knew this Captain Annawon was a great soldier; that he had been a valiant captain under Asuhmequin, Philip's father.” In a footnote, Drake explains that Asuhmequin was Woosamequin which “was the last name by which the 'good old Massassoit' was known.”11t~ The point is that Church, who knew the major Indian figures involved in the conflict -many of whom were related to Metacom clearly identifies Massasoit as Philip's father, not his grandfather.
William Harris, in a 1676 letter to a benefactor in England, Sir Joseph Williamson, mentions the father-son relationship. In the lengthy letter, which serves as apologia for the English role in the conflict and an indictment of the Native Americans as traitors and instigators of the war, Harris wrote that:

I have told phillip (after he plotted against ye English) that he abouve all other
Indeans should louve ye English & be true to them, for, had it not bin for ye plimoth

17 Shurtleff and Pulsifer, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth [note 16], 4:24-25; Bangs, Indian Deeds: Land in Plymouth Colony [note 4], 95.
18 Thomas Church, Esq., The History of Philips War, Commonly Called The Great Indian War, of 1675 and 1676     ed. Samuel G. Drake (Exeter, N.H.: J. & B. Williams, 1829), 133. Drake edited two editions of Church's “diary.” The second edition of 1827 was reissued from stereotype plates in 1829 and some 19 more times through 1889. The reference to “Philip's father” appears in all the texts including the original edition published in 1716 and the second edition of 1772. See note 1.

2003]     King Philip: Massasoit 's Son or Grandson?          123

old planters (now dead) ye narragansets had then cutt of his fathers head (then called
Mas-sa-soyt, since was called Osa-mea-quen, whom I knew forty years since. [19]

John Easton wrote an account of his meeting with King Philip a week before the first bloodshed. Philip had spoken of how his father had shown the English how to plant and given them land, of how his brother [Alexander] “came miserably to die by being forced to court, as they judge poisoned,” and of other grievances.[20]
As for King Philip's own words, there are at least two instances. In 1649 MassasoitlWoosamequen sold the land called Seekonk to a group of prominent Plymouth Colony freemen who then renamed the tract Rehoboth. After the deaths of Massasoit and Wamsutta, the English, including Josiah Winslow, future governor of Plymouth, asked King Philip to reaffirm the original purchase by signing a quitclaim deed. King Philip, for a sum of eight pounds and ten shillings, did so on 30 March 1668. The deed reads in part:

whereas Osamequin, Sachem, deceased, did for good and valuable Considerations [in 1640] ... Convey.. . a tract of land eight mile square... I Philip Sachem, son, heir and successor to the said Osamequin Sachem, do hereby for my selfe . . . quit all manner of Right... to the said Tract of lands of eight mile square[21]

And four years earlier, on 23 March 1663[/4], “Philip Sachem” had confirmed a deed that “Osamequen my father” had given to the inhabitants of Taunton in
1638. [22]

Normally, it would be imprudent to ignore the fact that, given the severe inadequacy of colonial ''histories'' and records pertaining to Native Americans, there may be lurking in some repository undiscovered information that might alter these familial relationships. However, the evidence in this case is so over­whelming that we can safely say that King Philip/Metacom was indeed the son of Massasoit.

Dennis P. Walsh is Professor Emeritus of English and Journalism, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He may be contacted at dennispwalsh@hotmail.com.

19 William Harris, “Letter to Sir Joseph Williamson, Aug. 12, 1676,” Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society 10 (1902): 164-65. Harris is best known to history for his widely published accounts of the 1675-76 conflict entitled A Rhode Islander Reports on King Phillip's War, the second William Harris letter of August, 1676, ed. and transcribed by Douglas Edward Leach (Providence, RI.: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1963).
20 Schultz and Tougias, King Philips War [note 4], 29.
21 Bangs, Indian Deeds: Land in Plymouth Colony [note 4], 387; Hosea Starr Ballou, “Dr. Thomas Starr, Surgeon in the Pequot War, and His Family Connections,” Register 94 (1940):347. Also see volume 3 of Richard LeBaron Bowen, Early Rehoboth: Documented Historical Studies of Families and Events in this Plymouth Colony Township, 4 vols. (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press, 1945-50), for numerous deeds involving Massasoit, Wamsutta, and King Philip.
22 Bangs, Indian Deeds: Land in Plymouth Colony [note 4], 326.

Susanna died after 1682 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Susanna married ¹ William HARRIS in BY 1634 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Thomas FIELD died ¹ on 10 Aug 1717. Thomas married ² Martha HARRIS in BY 1670 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Martha HARRIS [Parents] was born about 1643 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. She died ¹ in 1717 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Martha married ² Thomas FIELD in BY 1670 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Gabriel BERNON. Gabriel married Mary HARRIS in 1712 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Mary HARRIS [Parents] ^{1, 2} was born in 1682 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. She died in 1737. Mary married Gabriel BERNON in 1712 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Other marriages:

BROWN, Nathaniel

Records of Leander S. Harris

Nathaniel BROWN. Nathaniel married Mary HARRIS on 23 Dec 1737 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Other marriages:

HARRIS, Elnathan

Mary HARRIS [Parents] ^{1, 2} was born in 1682 in Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. She died in 1737. Mary married Nathaniel BROWN on 23 Dec 1737 in of Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Other marriages:

BERNON, Gabriel

Records of Leander S. Harris