Wampage

Wampage I (/ˈwɒmpɒɡiː/)[3], also called Anhõõke[1][4]:18 and later John White[1][5][4]:8, was a Sagamore[lower-alpha 1] (or chieftain) of the Siwanoy Native Americans, who resided in the area now known as the Bronx and Westchester County, New York. He is most notable for his involvement in the murder of Anne Hutchinson and her fellow colonists in 1643.

Wampage I
Anhõõke
Siwanoy leader
Succeeded byWampage II
Personal details
DiedAbt. 1680[1]
Spouse(s)Prasque (Anne), daughter of Romaneck
Children
  • Wampage II (Ninham-Wampage)
  • John Wampage White
Known forMassacre of Anne Hutchinson
Mother tongueMunsee[2]

Some time after 1636, he married Prasque, daughter of Romaneck, the paramount chief over the Wappinger "confederacy".[1] The Siwanoys, being one of the western bands of the Wappingers, were involved in Kieft's War and numerous disputes with the colony of New Netherland during Wampage’s chieftancy.[7] He was later involved in a legal dispute with Connecticut Colony, which ultimately required Privy Council intervention.[5] His name was variously spelled as Wamponneage, Wampage, Wampus and Wampers. [1][4]:8

Role in Hutchinson massacre

The Siwanoys, under the leadership of Wampage I, massacred the family of Anne Hutchinson in August 1643. It has been written that Wampage himself was the murderer of Hutchinson and that he adopted the name of Anhõõke due to a Mahican custom of taking the name of a notable person personally killed.[8][1][4]:18 The name "Anne's Hoeck" (or Ann's Neck) came to refer to the land where the massacre was believed to have occurred - now called Rodman's Neck. Numerous sources also indicate that the lone survivor of the attack, Anne's daughter Susanna Hutchinson, bore a son to Wampage while in Siwanoy captivity [9][10][1] - Ninham-Wampage,[11][12][13] who would become Wampage II on his father's death. [1][14]

Treaty with Thomas Pell

Not long after the massacre, Wampage befriended Thomas Pell, then the Indian Commissioner at Fairfield, Connecticut.[1] On June 27, 1654, 50,000 acres (200 km²) of land were sold by the Siwanoys to Pell, including portions of the Bronx and lands east of the Hutchinson River northward to Mamaroneck.[4]:1 Wampage and other Siwanoys signed a treaty under the Treaty Oak near Bartow Pell Mansion in Pelham. Wampage (as Anhõõke), along with Shawanórõckquot, Poquõrúm, Wawhamkus, and Mehúmõw, signed as "Saggamores". Cockho, Kamaque, and Cockinsecawa also signed as "Indyan Witnesses" to the "Articles of Agreement" section of the Treaty.[4]:18–20, 59–60 The treaty also required that the Siwanoys and English peacefully attempt to resolve boundary disputes over the land in the future.[4]:20

On March 10, 1658, Wampage I and Pell negotiated the definitive treaty between the English and the Siwanoys, establishing their territorial claims, which would later keep Wampage and the Siwanoys out of King Philip's War.[1]

Later life
Privy Council ruling on Wampage I (John Wampus alias White)[5]

Around 1677, the elderly Wampage went to Fairfield to collect on a bill of sale of lands to residents of the town, which lands he had inherited from his father in law, the late Romaneck.[5] Nathan Gold, then Fairfield's chief magistrate, had Wampage beaten and thrown into jail. Gold argued that the English held all lands by right of conquest and that contracts between the English and Indians had no validity. Sir John Pell, the second Lord of Pelham Manor, intervened on Wampage's behalf, and represented him before the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. The Council ruled in Wampage's favor on March 28, 1679, denouncing Gold's "evill practices" and finding that "not only [Wampage] but all such Indians of New England as are [the British monarch's] Subjects and submit peaceably and quietly to his Government shall likewise participate of his Royall Protection".[1][5]

By the time of the ruling, Wampage and Prasque had been baptized, taking the names of John and Anne White, respectively.[1] The Privy Council's ruling referred to him as "John Wampus alias White" and to his wife as "Anne the Daughter of Romanock late Sachem of Aspatuck & Sasquanaugh". Wampage died shortly thereafter, prior to July 1681.[1] While his place of burial is not definitively known, one source claimed that a mound on the northern coast of Rodman's Neck was Wampage's final resting place.[15]:36–37

Descendants

Wampage I was known to have fathered two children:[1]

  • Ninham-Wampage[13][12][11], by tradition said to be his son by Susanna Hutchinson[10][9] (not to be confused with Daniel Nimham). On the death of Wampage I, Ninham-Wampage inherited his father's title and became Wampage II,[14] Sachem of Ann Hook.[1]
  • John Wampage White, his son by Prasque (Anne), daughter of Romaneck; John married Elizabeth French, and their children were Elizabeth, Mary and Nathaniel White.[1]

Ninham-Wampage (Wampage II) appears to have also used a variation of Anhõõke as an alias;[13][12] he used the name "Wampage, alias Ann-hook" when he and another Sachem, Maminepoe, deeded additional lands to the trustees of Westchester in 1692.[15]:291–292 Sources indicate that Ninham-Wampage's daughter, [10][11][14][1] Anna (or Ann), married Thomas Pell II, who was the third Lord of Pelham Manor.[10][16][3][13][1][12] Anna grew up on Hunter Island.[14][1]

See also

Footnotes
  1. Although many historical sources refer to Wampage I as a "Sachem", the only title he was actually known to have used is "Saggamore" (sic), as this is the capacity in which he executed the 1654 treaty with Thomas Pell.[4]:18–20, 59–60 This is consistent with the traditional use of the title by Algonquian tribes.[6]

References
  1. Pell, Robert T. (1965), "Thomas Pell II (1675/76-1739): Third Lord of the Manor of Pelham", Pelliana: Pell of Pelham, New Series, vol. I (no. 3): 25–48
  2. Goddard, Ives (1978). "Delaware". In Bruce G., Trigger (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians. 15: Northeast. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 213–214. ISBN 978-0160045752.
  3. Bradhurst, A. Maunsell (1910). My Forefathers: Their History from Records & Traditions. London: De La More Press. p. 16.
  4. Bell, Blake A. (2004). Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak. New York: iUniverse.
  5. "Foreign correspondence, 1st series, 1661-1748". Connecticut State Archives. vol. I. p. 14a.
  6. "sagamore". Merriam-Webster. 2020.
  7. Hodge, Frederick Webb (1912). Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. 4. ISBN 9781582187518. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
  8. Mays, Victor (1962). Pathway to a Village: A History of Bronxville. Nebko Press. p. 14.
  9. Ultan, Lloyd, and Barbara Unger (2000). Bronx Accent: A Literary and Pictorial History of the Borough. Rutgers University Press. p. 5.
  10. Barr, Lockwood. Ancient Town of Pelham, Westchester County, New York. Richmond, Va.: Dietz Press. pp. 13, 34–35, plate XVI.
    • Mackenzie, George Norbury, ed. (1966). Colonial Families of the United States of America. I. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 410. Thomas Pell, third Lord of the Manor, [...] [married] Anna, dau. of Ninham or Wampage, an Indian Sachem.
  12. Schureman Judd, Frances Ida (1938). "American Ancestry of Samuel Tompkins and Martha Alphena (Todd) Schureman and their Descendants". Detroit Society for Genealogical Research Magazine. University of Michigan. p. 213. Retrieved 8 June 2020. Thomas Pell, born ca. 1675, inherited from his father the Manor of Pelham, thus becoming the Third Lord of Pelham. He married Anna [...] daughter of Ninham or Wampage, also known as 'Ann Hoock', chief of the Westchester Indians.
  13. Pell, Howland (1917). The Pell Manor: Address Prepared for the New York Branch of the Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America. Baltimore. p. 16. [Thomas Pell II] married Anna, by tradition said to be the daughter of the reigning Indian Sachem Ninham-Wampage or Annahock.
  14. Saunders, James B. (1991). The Pelham Manor Story, 1891-1991. pp. 28–29. Sir John's eldest son, Thomas II, married Anna, the daughter of Wampage II, who had grown up on Hunter's Island next to the manor house.
  15. Bolton, Robert (1881). History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester. New York: Chas. F. Roper. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  16. Williams, Cornelia Bartow (1915). The Ancestry of Lawrence Williams. Privately published. pp. 244–246. [Thomas Pell] married Ann, the daughter of the reigning Indian Chief of Westchester.
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