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RJO’s Ancestors in American Colonial Wars, 1637–1763

On the obscure strife where men died by tens or by scores hung questions of as deep import for posterity as on those mighty contests of national adolescence where carnage is reckoned by thousands.

—Francis Parkman

This is one of a series of genealogical pages on my ancestors who served in early American wars, including the Pequot War (1637–1638), King Philip’s War (1675–1676), King William’s War (1689–1698), Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713), Dummer’s War (1723–1726) and King George’s War (1744–1745), the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the American Revolution (1775–1781), and Shays’ Rebellion (1786–1787). Ancestors who belonged to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts (1637– ) are also noted, and an additonal page presents a special essay on Lexington and Concord and the Nineteenth of April.

Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713)

[Queen Anne portrait]Queen Anne’s War was the American phase of the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714), in which Catholic France and Spain allied to appoint Philip of Anjou as the successor to Charles II of Spain, who had no heir. England, Holland, Prussia, and Austria formed a Protestant alliance against them in an attempt to place Archduke Charles of Austria on the Spanish throne. In North America, the English attacked Spanish settlements in Florida, and the French and their Indian allies raided English settlements in New York and New England, destroying Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1704. (See John Demos’ narrative The Unredeemed Captive for a modern account of the Deerfield raid.) English forces in turn attacked French settlements in Nova Scotia. The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and the Peace of Rastatt (1714) brought the war to a conclusion. Under the terms of these treaties, England received Gibraltar, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the Hudson’s Bay territories [Peckham 57–76].

References

Cummings
Mooar, George. 1903. The Cummings Memorial, A Genealogical History of the Descendants of Isaac Cummings, and Early Settler of Topsfield, Massachusetts. New York: B.F. Cummings.
Demos
Demos, John. 1994. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. New York: Knopf.
Green
Green, Samuel Abbott. 1883. Groton During the Indian Wars. Groton, Massachusetts: Published by the author.
Nason
Nason, Elias. 1877. A History of the Town of Dunstable, Massachusetts. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son.
Peckham
Peckham, Howard H. 1964. The Colonial Wars: 1689–1762. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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