Grey Lock's War

Conflicts

Massachusetts Governor Samuel Shute declared war on the Abenaki people on July 25, 1722. Shute, caught up in political fights with the colony's assembly, left for England on January 1, 1723, leaving Lieutenant Governor William Dummer to handle the war. Grey Lock made his first move on August 13, 1723, raiding Northfield, Massachusetts, where four of his warriors killed two settlers. The next day, they struck Joseph Stevens and his four sons in Rutland.

Stevens got away, but two of his boys were killed and the other two captured. On October 9, 1723, Grey Lock hit two small forts near Northfield, causing casualties and taking one prisoner. Dummer responded by ordering Fort Dummer built where Brattleboro, Vermont now stands. This fort became a base for scouts and raids into Abenaki territory and was Vermont's first permanent European settlement, led by Lieutenant Timothy Dwight.

On June 18, 1724, Grey Lock attacked men working in a meadow near Hatfield, Massachusetts. He then pulled back and killed more men at Deerfield and Northfield that summer. Dummer sent extra soldiers to Northfield, Brookfield, Deerfield, and Sunderland.

Grey Lock's home village of Woronoke was never attacked, with no written record of raids there. On October 11, 1724, seventy Abenakis attacked Fort Dummer, killing three or four soldiers. In September 1725, a six-man scouting party left Fort Dummer. Grey Lock and fourteen others ambushed them west of the Connecticut River, killing two, wounding and capturing three, while one escaped and two Indians died.

This conflict was separate from the French and English wars, fought by Native Americans for their own reasons. Grey Lock, known as Wawanolet, meaning "he who fools the others," later allied with the French, converted to Catholicism, and was baptized Pierre-Jean. His wife was Helene, and they had a son, Jean-Baptiste, and a daughter, Marie-Charlotte. His descendants carry the surname Wawanolet.