Theophilus Whaley AND Other Whaley Info

History of Hadley, Massachusetts, pub 1905

 AN ATTACK UPON HADLEY REPELLED BY THE AID OF GEN. GOFFE.

 The interesting events that took place in Hadley, on Wednesday, the first of September, 1675, have been but imperfectly disclosed. It was necessary at the time, and long after, to throw a veil over the transactions of that day, which has been, and can be, only partially removed. In the house of the Rev. John Russell had long been concealed two men, who were worthy of respect and honor, viz., Generals Edward Whalley and William Goffe. They had been conspicuous in the revolutions of England, and had been instrumental in bringing a guilty king, Charles I, to the block. They were of course odious to all who believed in (*)The eight men slain at Northfield, Sept. 2d, were:--Serg. Samuel Wright, Ebenezer Janes, Jonathan Janes, Ebenezer Parsons, Nathaniel Curtis, Benjamin Dunwich, Thomas Scott, John Peck. The first five were from Northampton, and all but Sergt. Wright were young men. the divine right of kings, and after the restoration of Charles II, were pursued and hunted by the minions of royalty. Mr. Russell, who feared not to do what he thought to be right, received them into his house in 1664, where they remained hidden from the world, and even from the people of Hadley. A few persons were in the secret in that town and elsewhere. Had their place of residence been discovered by their enemies, they and Mr. Russell and others would have been exposed to destruction. Whalley was superannuated in 1675, but Goffe was still capable of service.

 The fight at Hadley, is thus concisely noticed by Mather.^(*) On the first of September, "one of the churches in Boston was seeking the face of God by fasting and prayer before him. Also that very day, the church in Hadley was before the Lord in the same way, but were driven from the holy service they were attending, by a most sudden and violent alarm, which routed them the whole day after." This was all that Mather dared to publish in 1676; and Hubbard does not even allude to the fight.⁽⁺⁾ Nothing more appeared in print until Governor Hutchinson published his History of Massachusetts in 1760, in which the following notice of Goffe's heroic act appeared in a note.

 "The town of Hadley was alarmed by the Indians in 1675, in the time of public worship, and the people were in the utmost confusion.^?? Suddenly a grave, elderly person appeared in the midst of them. In his mien and dress he differed from the rest of the people. He not only encouraged them to defend themselves, but put himself at their head, rallied, instructed and led them on to encounter the enemy, who by this means were repulsed. As suddenly the deliverer of Hadley disappeared. The people were left in consternation, utterly unable to account for this strange phenomenon. It is not probable that they were ever able to explain it. If Goffe had been then discovered, it must have come to the knowledge of those persons, who declare by their letters that they never knew what became of him.^&"

 This attack was on the first of September, according to Hutchinson. He says this anecdote of Goffe was handed down through Governor Leverett's family. Gov. L. was at Hadley while the judges were there.

 (*)He probably knew all the particulars. Mr. Stoddard may have communicated them to him.

 (+)Hoyt, in his Antiquarian Researches, expresses an opinion that September first is an erroneous date, because Hubbard did not mention any attack upon Hadley, at that time. Hubbard had good reasons for his silence. Hoyt had not seen Mather's History.

 ??Captains Lothrop and Beers were then in Hampshire county, but may have been on the west side of the river.

 (&) Traditions are to be very cautiously received, but this seems to be entitled to credit. Gov. Hutchinson's father was born before Philip's war, and must have been well acquainted with the Leverett family. The widow of Gov. Leverett died in 1704, only seven years before Gov. H. was born.

 President Stiles, in his History of three of the Judges of Charles I, published in 1794, thus relates the story of the angel that appeared at Hadley.

 "Though told with some variation in different parts of New England, the true story of the angel is this. That pious congregation were observing a fast at Hadley, on occasion of the war; and being at public worship in the meeting-house there, on a fast day, September 1, 1675, were suddenly surrounded and surprised by a body of Indians. It was the usage in the frontier towns, and even at New Haven, in those Indian wars, for a select number of the congregation to go armed to public worship. It was so at Hadley at this time. The people immediately took to their arms, but were thrown into great consternation and confusion. Had Hadley been taken, the discovery of the Judges had been inevitable. Suddenly, and in the midst of the people there appeared a man of very venerable aspect, and different from the inhabitants in his apparel, who took the command, arranged, and ordered them in the best military manner, and under his direction they repelled and routed the Indians, and the town was saved. He immediately vanished, and the inhabitants could not account for the phenomenon, but by considering that person as an Angel sent of God upon that special occasion for their deliverance; and for some time after said and believed that they had been delivered and saved by an Angel. Nor did they know or conceive otherwise till fifteen or twenty years after, when it at length became known at Hadley that the two Judges had been secreted there; which probably they did not know till after Mr. Russell's death, in 1692. This story, however, of the Angel at Hadley, was before this universally diffused thro New-England by means of the memorable Indian war of 1675. The mystery was unriddled after the revolution, [in England in 1688,] when it became not so very dangerous to have it known that the Judges had received an asylum here, and that Goffe was actually in Hadley at that time. The Angel was certainly General Goffe, for Whalley was superannuated in 1675.(*)"

 Capt. Samuel Mosely came to Hadley with a company of about sixty Bay soldiers, on the 14th of September, and soon after went up to Deerfield. On the 15th or 16th, Major Treat arrived at Northampton with more Connecticut troops. Capt. John Mason, of Norwich, was ordered to lead a company of Mohegans and Pequots up to Norwottuck and other plantations. Capt. Lothrop's head-quarters were at Hadley.