Joseph Dwight collection, 1734-1762 (majority within 1746-1748)

Summary

Creator:

Dwight, Joseph, 1702-1765

Abstract:

The Joseph Dwight collection is comprised of letters and documents written by or related to Joseph Dwight, a Massachusetts lawyer who was a brigadier general during King George's War.

Extent:

127 items (0.75 linear feet)

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Patrick Galligan, April 2012

Background

Scope and Content:

The Joseph Dwight collection (1735-1762; bulk 1746-1748) contains 127 letters and documents written by or related to Joseph Dwight, covering much of Dwight's military involvement in King George's War, as well as his legal duties as a judge in Massachusetts. Despite extensive accounts of other theaters of the war, the collection contains no items sent during the Siege of Louisbourg, although one undated letter draft from Dwight, intended for William Pepperrell, mentions a meeting between Dwight and Pepperrell at a camp outside of Louisbourg.

The majority of the collection pertains to King George's War, and the wartime experience of Dwight's commanding officers and their troops. In a letter dated March 8, 1746, Aaron Cleveland wrote, "While Capt Brintnall was last at Boston our Company was Still and quiet, Expecting the Capt Every day with their money, but not Receiving to their Satisfaction upon his Return, they are all indeed, up in arms." This letter illustrates the pervasive themes of unease and unhappiness about provisions and pay for soldiers, who repeatedly complained about not receiving their money in a timely fashion, and about the lack of food, ammunition, blankets, and clothing. Another letter to Joseph Dwight, written by Ephraim Williams while he was at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, elucidates the current mental and physical state of the soldiers: "Our Soldiers patience is almost spent for want of their Blankets" (November 24, 1746). He claimed that his men "almost suffer beyond what can be reasonably desired in performing their duty." One letter from the Massachusetts Bay Sheriff's office describes the mutiny of soldiers under William Williams' command; Isaac Goodall, Thomas Goodall, Joshua How, and John Shields refused to obey Williams' commands to march, at which point Williams had them arrested and sent to jail (May 9, 1747).

Native American involvement in King George's War is documented in several letters. On November 24, 1746, Ephraim Williams wrote to Joseph Dwight, recounting a story about a group of "Mohawks" returning from Canada with eight French captives and four scalps. In another letter written to Dwight, William Williams mentioned that Lieutenant Richard John is "going a scalping" and that "6. 10th of the Cannada men of your Honored Regiment had rather go a scalping than perform any of the duty assigned them by any order now extant." Samuel Pettebone (August 12, 1747) referred to the ambush of one of his sergeants by Native Americans at a place three quarters of a mile outside of the fort at Number 4 Township. Pettebone provided an action-filled account of his man fighting off and wounding numerous hostile Indians, while making his way back to the safety of the fort. Furthermore, in a copy of a letter to Colonel John Stoddard written on June 17, 1747, John Lydius recalled an encounter between a group of British-sympathizing Native American scouts and enemy troops numbering so many that their canoes "appeared as an Island in the Lake." After seeing the enemy, the scouts returned to the British and apprised them of the situation.

A humorous letter from Nathaniel Kellogg includes a description of soldiers at Fort Massachusetts finding a lost dog. After sending out scouts in an attempt to find whence the dog came, the soldiers decided that it had belonged to two Native American scouts working with the advancing French Army. They fed the dog, attached a collar around its neck, and fastened a note addressed to the "General of the supposed advancing French Army" to the collar, before sending it back into the wilderness. However, more serious issues pervaded this humorous note; Kellogg wrote in the postscript that most of the men who came to Fort Massachusetts with Lieutenant King were resolved "to leave this fort the next Ensuing week and run the risk of being deemed deserters unless they shall be relieved" (August 14, 1747). In later letters, Dwight's officers expressed concern about their ability to feed and clothe their men adequately. According to a letter from Hezekiah Ward on August 17, 1747, three men traveled to see Dwight about overdue back pay. Ward wrote, "Their is a general uneasiness among the men, since the news of their having no province pay…and now after all to have no more than those that have kept at home seems very much to Damp their Spirits."

Also of note are Joseph Dwight's journal entries dating from June 21 to July 8, 1747 (2 pages). Many of these entries are short and succinct summaries of his military actions during these days, but they provide a picture of the daily decisions he had to make while out on patrol. The collection contains five oversize items, including separate payrolls for Dwight's company and Captain Thomas Cheney's company, as well as accounts of enlisted men in Dwight's regiment.

Ephraim Williams, the captain in charge of Fort Massachusetts, was a particularly forthright correspondent, and an important figure in New England history. Before his death in 1755, Williams left strict instructions for the founding of a school on his estate upon the event of his death; this school would later become Williams College. Another contributor of note is William Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts Bay, and a participant in the Siege of Louisbourg.

Biographical / Historical:

Joseph Dwight was born in 1702, in Hatfield, Massachusetts, the son of Henry Dwight and Lydia Hawley. He graduated from Harvard in 1722 and worked as a merchant until 1731, at which point he began pursuing a career in law. After his admission to the Massachusetts Bar Association in 1733, he moved to Brookfield, Massachusetts. The Worcester County Common Court of Pleas appointed him a judge in 1739, and he went on to become an eleven-times member of the Massachusetts Colonial Council from 1731-1751. Upon the outbreak of King George's War (1744-1748), Dwight, then a colonel, took command of a group of local Massachusetts militiamen. He rose to the rank of brigadier general (1745) commanding the Massachusetts Artillery, making him second in general command of all forces on a proposed Canadian Expedition.

He led his troops to the western frontier in preparation for a British push into Canada that was supposed to end French incursions on British territory. Dwight was present at the Siege of Louisbourg, arguably the largest military engagement and Britain's greatest victory during King George's War. General William Pepperrell applauded him for his bravery and comportment during the taking of the French fort. The 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle officially ended the war in North America. After the conclusion of the war, Dwight served as speaker for the Massachusetts Colonial Council (1748-1749). During the French and Indian War, he commanded a brigade of militia at Lake Champlain in 1756, and served as chief judge of Berkshire County upon its formation in 1761. He died at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on June 9, 1765.

In 1726, Dwight married Mary Pynchon, with whom he had nine children: Mary (1727-1734), Dorathy (b. 1729), Lydia (b. 1732), Henry (1733-1756), Mary (b. 1736), Bathsheba (1738-1761), Elijah (b. 1740), Moses (1742-1764), and Joseph (b. 1745). After Mary’s death in 1751, he married Abigail Sergeant, daughter of Colonel Ephraim Williams, in 1752. Dwight and Abigail had two children: Pamelia (b. 1753) and Henry (b. 1757).

Acquisition Information:

1951 and 2011. M-872 and M-4898 .

Processing information:

Cataloging funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the "We the People" project.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged chronologically.

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Bibliography

"Dwight, Joseph." Dictionary of American Biography. Print. 1974.

Goodwin, Nathaniel. Genealogical Notes, or Contributions to the Family History of some of the First Settlers of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Hartford, CT: F. A. Brown, 1856. Print.

"King George’s War." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/318439/King-Georges-War.

"Massachusetts, Births and Christenings, 1639-1915: Joseph Dwight." FamilySearch. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Web. 13 April 2012. https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FH1V-KB3

"War of Jenkins' Ear and King George's War." In Encyclopedia of American History, Updated and Revised. Print. 1965.

Comprehensive Place List:

• Albany (N.Y.)
• Boston (Mass.)
• Brookfield (Mass. : Town)
• Cambridge (Mass.)
• Deerfield (Mass.)
• Enfield (Conn.)
• Fort Anson, Massachusetts.
• Fort Dummer (Vt.)
• Fort Massachusetts (Mass.)
• Fort at Number 4 Township, Massachusetts.
• Great Barrington (Mass.)
• Hadley (Mass.)
• Halifax (Mass. : Town)
• Hatfield (Mass.)
• Highlands (N.Y.)
• Leicester (Mass.)
• Longmeadow (Mass.)
• Louisbourg (N.S.)
• Marlborough (Mass.)
• Middletown (Conn.)
• New Salem (Mass. : Town)
• Northampton (Mass.)
• Northfield (Mass.)
• Peekskill (N.Y.)
• Philadelphia (Pa.)
• Rutland (Vt.?)
• Southborough (Mass.)
• Springfield (Mass.)
• Stockbridge (Mass.)
• Sudbury (Mass.)
• Westfield (Mass.)
• Worcester (Mass.)

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Indians of North America--Warfare.
Law--United States--History.
Mohawk Indians.
Scalping.

Formats:

Accounts.
Legal Orders.
Letters (correspondence)
Muster Rolls.
Payrolls.
Receipts

Names:

Great Britain. Army--Colonial forces.
Alexander, Ebenezer.
Alexander, Elias.
Blackman, Ephraim.
Bradstreet, Dudley.
Brintnall, William.
Chandler, John.
Cheney, Thomas.
Cleveland, Aaron.
Cobbet Jr., John.
Doolittle, Benjamin, 1695-1749.
Doolittle, Lydia.
Dwight, Edmund.
Dwight, Jonathan.
Dwight, Joseph, 1702-1765.
Dwight, Josiah.
Gilbert, Thomas.
Goodnow, Peter.
Graham, John.
Harman, Thomas.
Hayward, Ephraim.
Hunt, John Thomas.
Hunt, Samuel.
Hurlbutt, John.
Kellogg, Nathaniel.
Kendall, Samuel.
Kent, Samuel.
King, David.
Lawton, Christopher Jacob.
Leffingwell, John.
Little, J.
Lothrop, Nathaniel.
Love, John.
Lydius, John.
Manning, Edward.
Melvin, Eleazer.
Minot, James.
Pettebone, Samuel.
Pomroy, Seth.
Porter, Eleazar.
Pynchon, William.
Quincy, Edmund.
Rice, Nathan.
Richardson, Joseph.
Scutt, James.
Sergeant, John.
Shirley, William, 1694-1771.
Stevens, Joseph.
Stevens, Phineas, d. 1756.
Stoddard, John.
Vanderspiegel, William.
Ward, Hezekiah.
Warner, Oliver.
Wheelwright, John.
Willard, Josiah.
Williams, Elijah.
Williams, Ephraim, 1715-1755.
Williams, Israel.
Williams, Stephen.
Williams, William.
Winslow, Edward.

Places:

Boston (Mass.)--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.
Great Britain--Colonies--America.
Massachusetts--Militia.
United States--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.
United States--History--King George's War, 1744-1748.
United States--History, Military.