Bond’s Watertown759 provides the following details on the life of Richard Beers: “Capt. RICHARD BEERS, an original proprietor, adm. freeman Mar. 16, 1636-7; selectman most of the time from 1644 to 1675; Representative 13 yrs., 1663-75; a captain in King Philip’s War, and slain in battle by the Indians at Northfield, Sept. 4, 1675. Wife ELIZABETH. He made a nuncupatory will, Aug. 6, proved Oct. 5, 1675 -- whole estate to go to his wife; but if she marry, 1/2 to go to dr. Sternes and other children. Wid. and son Eleazer admin. Inventory, £242. In the Probate Office of Middlesex, is an agreement, dated June, 1711, among the children and heirs of Capt. R. Beers, viz., Elnathan, Jabez, Richard, Sarah Wheeler; heirs of Mary Rice, d. viz. Joseph and Mary Rice; Judith Allen, Elizabeth and Samuel Ward, and David Stone. Oct. 1654, he was recommended to the Court by Hugh Mason, Thomas Hastings, Charles Chadwick, Henry Bright, and John Sherman, ‘to keep an ordinary.’ His license was renewed, and probably continued until his decease. It is the first notice of a public house in the town.” Bond later760 corrects this last observation: “CAPTAIN BEERS was not the first one authorized ‘to keep an ordinary.’ See G. Munnings and T. Wincoll, in Part II.”

Schultz and Tougias’ excellent volume King Philip’s War761 gives a detailed account of the battle, known as Beers’ Ambush, in which Richard Beers was killed. This battle took place 4 September 1675 on the east side of the Connecticut River south of Squakeag (now Northfield). Beers and his company were marching north from Hadley to the aid of Squakeag, which had come under attack two days before. As they descended into a ravine to cross a brook, they were attacked and many of Beers’s men were killed. Beers himself and some of the survivors retreated into another ravine about three-quarters of a mile to the south, but they were attacked again and Beers was killed. With respect to Beers’ gravesite Schultz and Tougias write:762 “A marker on the east side of Route 63 near the Community Bible Church designates the general area of Beers’ last stand. The site of Beers’ grave can be found at the base of the main building of the Linden Hill School near the intersection of South Mountain Road and Lyman Hill Road. A modern stone marker indicated the burial spot. Temple and Sheldon, writing in 1875, provide a glimpse as to how the site was altered before the present stone marker was set.

“‘The tradition which marks this as the spot where Capt. Beers was killed and buried, is of undoubted authenticity. The old men in each generation have told the same story, and identified the place. And the [p. 167] existence here from time immemorial of two stones -- like head and foot stones -- set at the proper distance apart, certainly marks the place of a grave; and the care to erect stones indicates the grave of more than a common soldier. The new house of Capt. Samuel Merriman, built about 50 years ago, was set directly across the ravine, which was made to answer for a cellar by filling in the space front and rear. Capt. Ira Coy informs the writer that, before anything was disturbed, he and Capt. M. dug into the grave. They found the well defined sides and bottom, where the spade had left the clay solid; and at the depth of about twenty inches (the shallowness indicating haste) was a layer of dark colored mold, some of it in small lumps, like decayed bones. The grave was then filled up, a large flat stone laid over it, and the hollow graded up.’763”

Richard Beers’ ancestry is traced at: http://info.lu.farmingdale.edu/~betzja/gene/d0000/g0000048.html#I2076 (details to be entered).