We would like to thank Nicholas Hollis for all his help on The Jennings. Be sure to check this link 'Cornerstone for Courage' for the Great Rescue Mission.
Stephen Jennings
: The Brookfield Years(1693- 1710)
Stephen Jennings' frontier fame, originating from the Great Rescue Mission
(1677-78) probably led to his decision in the early 1690's to relocate
his family from Hatfield Massachusetts to Brookfield, a distance of some
twenty miles east toward the geographic center of the Bay Colony. Jennings
may have been enticed with a land grant provided by citizens determined
to resettle the area following the complete destruction of Brookfield
in August 1675 during a three day siege by Indians. Resettlement efforts
had begun in 1686, although only one of the original families moved back.
In 1688, there had been a new Indian scare and Jennings may have been
sought as a confidence builder, as well as for his negotiating prowess
and backwoods fighting skills.
Town records reveal Stephen Jennings purchased a frame house in Brookfield
in 1693 from Hezekiah Dickinson with fifty-five acres for the sum of £27.5.
0, which apparently augmented his holdings to a total of 104 acres. Dickinson
may have been a relative of Jennings' wife, Hannah (Dickinson) Jennings.
1/ In 1695/96, Stephen built a house of birch logs on Foster's Hill near
the site of the original fortified tavern, which had served as the safe
haven during the earlier siege, despite being partially burned during
the attack.
Jennings likely held a "strategic eye" for defensive positions
and petitioned the Colony's General Court in Cambridge for resources to
reinforce the structure and provide wages for the "Jennings Garrison."
This petition has presented in December 1704, supported by Jennings and
two adult sons, Benjamin and Joseph. The petition was approved for the
sum of £56.0.5 payable to Lt. Col. Patridge, head of the local militia
2/. In the aftermath of the devastating Indian raids on Deerfield and
other towns to the west earlier that year, the Court approved numerous
funding requests for strengthened fortifications.
As early as 1705 "Jennings Garrison" was probably in existence
near the old Ayres Tavern stand as a fortified house with the family living
right in the garrison that could serve as a redoubt for neighbors in time
of danger. It may also have been a separate building. Unfortunately, the
entire structure burned down in 1931.
On May 25, 1707 Stephen sold his land to his sons Stephen V. and Joseph
and lived near Woolcott's where he had his original grant of fifty acres.
Woolcott's place was on the Old County road leading from the present Brookfield
village. This would suggest that this property of Stephen Jennings later
became the Jennings family farm which then stayed in the family for generations
down to William Nevinson Jennings in the late nineteenth century. At around
the same time Stephen sold his other property on Foster's Hill to a relative
of Benjamin Waite, his old hero and companion, whose courage had galvanized
the Great Rescue Mission years earlier. Stephen must have been disconsolate
when news reached him of Waite's chilling end at the hands of Indians
during the Deerfield Massacre of February 29, 1704. Waite had joined a
party from Hatfield and rushed to aid Deerfield where he was killed and
skinned--the only one treated so. (See article entitled Cornerstone for
Courage).
In 1710 Jennings and his son, Benjamin had been granted permission to
build a mill (along with others in Brookfield), but their dreams were
not to be. On July 20, 1710, while they were raking hay in a nearby meadow,
Stephen Jennings, his son Benjamin, and four other men were killed during
a surprise attack by Indians. It is not known if the haymakers even had
time to reach their weapons. A monument honoring these early farmer- pioneers
and their sacrifice stands in the south corner of the Old Indian Cemetery
on Cottage Street near the center of modern West Brookfield.
By Nicholas E. Hollis Jennings Heritage Project
1/ History of Brookfield.
(1887) p 146
2/ Ibid. p. 167
(Permission grant for publication must be requested of the author in writing)
Nicholas E. Hollis is president of The Agribusiness Council, a nonprofit/tax-exempt
organization established in 1967. He is a direct descendant of Stephen
Jennings and a native of New England. Much of the Waite-Jennings narrative
was provided during interviews in 1979 with his great aunt, Ruth Hastings
Jennings Anderson (1893-1987), and is also documented in The Young and
Old Puritans of Hatfield by Mary P. Wells Smith, Boston (1900).
Jennings Heritage Project1312 Eighteenth Street NW, Suite 300 Washington,
DC 20036Telephone: 202-887-0238 Fax: 202-887-9178Email:
agenergy@aol.com