Angel of Hadley

An interesting thing was uncovered while I was doing other research. As yuo may know, I use "Leverett" in searches regularly and in this case I was in Newspapers 1890-1899.

The Angel of Hadley story was originally attributed by Hutchinson, a Puritan historian, to the Leverett family.

The story is of an isolated village in western Massachusetts which was unprepared for an attack by tribes in King Philip's War. In the early parts of the war, the tribes had the advantage because they knew a lot about the villges, how to get in, when to attack, etc., and they would attack by surprise.

In the village of Hadley an older, white-bearded man appeared and took charge. In a military way he commanded the men and led them to victory. His appearance was considered remarkable and he was considered to have saved the village.

But the story got wilder, as he was claimed later to be one of the regicides (people involved in the killing of the English King) who had been hiding in the colonies for over ten years. In other words he had been in hiding, in Hadley, when it happened, but he had military skills from previous experiences in England.

This story was disputed strongly by someone, whose name I've now lost but will recover, who appears to have had the last word on it. This guy said, 1) it's not even clear there was a battle of Hadley, 2) if there was, there was no way this guy could have been there, etc. etc.

Well yes it was a legend. It grew over the generations and may have embellished some facts, and the connection between the guy and the regicide might be a little iffy. Who am I to know the truth? In any case, if it was told around the Leverett dinner table, that makes it something to track down just on prinicple. So I lay this out as a goal. Hutchinson, when was the last time you came over for dinner?