The Tefft Papers

Behold, a mystery! Join me as I delve into one of New England's most complex and intriguing historical records. 

On January 18, 1676, Joshua Tefft was hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason during King Philip's War by the United Colonies' troops stationed at Smith's Castle in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, under the direction of Captain Richard Smith and General Josiah Winslow, Governor of Plymouth Colony. This was the only execution of its kind of an Englishman in New England history. Joshua left behind an orphan son named Peter...

The Celebrated Joshua Tefft

"The Father to the bough, the Son to the plow."

Our first knowledge of Joshua Tefft's existence comes from various accounts regarding his part in King Philip's War of 1675/76. Much myth surrounds many of these reports and perhaps we will never know the exact truth. Even his birth date remains a mystery. We do know that Joshua was born in the 1640's, in either Rhode Island or Massachusetts, to parents John and Mary Tefft. Joshua Tefft was a first generation American.

Little is known of Joshua's early life. There are records for his uncle William in Boston dating to 1638, while records for his father John do not appear until 1643 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. From the documentary record it is possible to conclude that Joshua's brother Samuel was born circa 1644-46. While there are no such records for Joshua, circumstantial evidence seems to indicate that he was the older of the two.

The first extant record for Joshua is the birth of his son, Peter, in 1672. Joshua's wife Sarah died just two days later, perhaps due to childbed fever:

"Peeter Tifft Sonn of Josua Tiff by Sarah his
wife, was born ye 14th of march ye yeer
1672 in Warwicke"

Joshua and his brother Samuel are recorded in a 1674 census for Connecticut's disputed Plantation of Wickford in the present town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Joshua is also mentioned in his father's 1674 will. These three documents are all we know of Joshua Tefft prior to King Philip's War. Certainly there is nothing in these records to suggest the tragic fate that befell him at the height of the war.

In December 1675, over 1,000 troops of the United Colonies – that is Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut – converged in southern Rhode Island intending to take the territory by 'right of conquest'. They attacked the Narragansett Nation's stronghold on an island in the Great Swamp, less than two miles from Joshua Tefft's farm. Tefft claimed that he had been taken captive by the Narragansett Indians – his life spared only on the condition that he serve as their slave. However, an Indian woman taken captive by the English of the United Colonies reported that Joshua was their 'encourager and conductor'. 

After the Great Swamp Massacre of December 19, 1675, Captain Oliver of Massachusetts reported that Joshua Tefft had "shot 20 times at us in the swamp." Records indicate that Tefft wounded Captain Nathaniel Seely of Connecticut, who subsequently died. An Indian spy reported that Tefft, "did them good service & kild & woonded 5 or 6 English in that fight & before they wold trust him hee had kild a miller, an English man at Narragansett, and brought his scalpe to them." 

Joshua Tefft claimed, "Himselfe had no Arms at all" during his interrogation recorded by Roger Williams in Providence. He was subsequently extradited to the Plantation of Wickford on January 16, 1676, into the custody of General Josiah Winslow, Governor of New Plymouth, and Connecticut's ambassador Richard Smith. Two days later, Joshua was executed for high treason. Major William Bradford of Plymouth wrote: "The Englishman that was taken had his doom yesterday, to be hanged and quartered; which was done effectually." 

A sorrowful record, indeed.

Yet, what happened after Joshua Tefft's execution seems to suggest that he was not guilty of high treason. He may have been merely of seeking to preserve his own life and property under duress, at the least, or what is considered to be petite (petty) treason, at the most. The Rhode Island government swiftly admonished the soldiers of the United Colonies as unwelcome intruders, but there was little else that they could do. Roger Williams was adamant that the affairs of the New England colonies not beleaguer the king and the issue was never legally resolved. 

After the war, the colonial government of Rhode Island took an almost solicitous posture towards the Tefft family. Joshua's brother, Samuel Tefft, with his brother-in-law, the future Governor Joseph Jenkes, became freemen of the colony in 1677. In 1681, Joshua's orphan son, Peter Tefft, was appointed three guardians including Jireh Bull, Justice of the Peace of Pettaquamscutt; the prominent John Greene of Warwick, who later became deputy governor of Rhode Island; and Peter's uncle, Samuel Tefft of Providence. The guardianship order makes it clear that Peter, a nine year old boy in 1681, was a landowner with right to all land and possessions of his father even though Joshua was executed as a felon by Puritan authorities that required the forfeiture of estate.

The colony of Connecticut relinquished its claim to southern Rhode Island in 1703. The Tefft family petitioned the Rhode Island General Assembly regarding their interest in the vacant Indian lands. Without a doubt, it must have been a most compelling argument. In 1709, three members of the Tefft family –  Samuel Tefft, his oldest son John and Joshua's orphan son, Peter –  were among twenty-six individuals granted the exclusive right to take part in the Shannock Purchase, which includes much of the present town of Richmond, Rhode Island. 

Peter first settled in Shannock where he and his first wife, Sarah (WITTER), had two children. Peter and his second wife, Mary (later NEWTON), had six children. Peter Tefft died in Stonington, Connecticut, in 1718, while involved in a very complex land transaction. It was in the present town of North Stonington, Connecticut, that one of the most litigated land transactions in early colonial history occured, which untimately would define the present border between the colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut. And that border has remained to the present day.

"For high treason, if a man, he being accussed by two lawfull witnesses or accusers, shall be drawn upon a hurdell unto the place of execution, and there shall be hanged by the neck, cut down alive, his entrails and privie members cut from him and burned in his view; then shall his head be cut off and his body quartered; his lands and his goods all forfeited."