Hope Atherton

He was one of the youngest of the large family whose patriarch, Humphrey Atherton, held prominent public, judicial, and military positions.

His father and members of the congregation had established first elementary school supported by public money in the New World in 1639.

At the age of 22 he was recorded as the only teacher in his native town of Dorchester, at The Mather School, until he was replaced by John Foster.

Atherton departed the environs of Boston and ventured westward into the Connecticut Valley, and began serving as a minister in Hatfield during the fall of 1668.

Voted in the Affermative.The Town of Hatfield, originally an outlying section of Hadley on the western bank of the Connecticut River, was incorporated on May 31, 1670.

Three months later, on November 25, the people of Hatfield voted to build a suitable house for their new minister and to maintain his salary at £60 per year, "two thirds to be paid in good merchantable wheat, and one third in pork," with the condition that "if our crops fall so short that we cannot pay in kind, then we are to pay in the next best we have.

[13] Atherton, was allegedly the chosen chaplain of Captain Lathrop's company,[14] a militia who escorted colonists traveling in loaded wagons, transporting the harvest from Deerfield to Hadley.

By early May, between seventy and eighty cattle were stolen from the new settlers, from fields north of Hatfield by a group of Native Americans who then encamped to celebrate and feast at Peskeompskut, later called Turners Falls, Massachusetts.

After an all-night march, the English militia and volunteer settlers achieved their goal of surprise and at daybreak of the 19th attacked and massacred scores of Native Americans; some warriors but mostly women and children.

However the sound of the falls masked the arrival of a much larger group of warriors and a counter attack commenced, with the militia losing 42 men, including Capt.

[22] However many of the settlers were highly skeptical of the exceptional experiences he recalled, especially in regard to the Native Americans fleeing upon his attempted surrender [23] and the mystery of how he crossed the Connecticut River to eventually stumble into Hadley.

[24] Compelled to respond to those who doubted his story of wandering in the wilderness, near starvation and trying to evade capture, Atherton shared his experiences in a sermon,[25] which he delivered in the Hatfield church on May 28, 1676: Hope Atherton desires this Congregation and all people that shall hear of the Lord's dealings with him, to praise and give thanks to God for a series of remarkable deliverances wrought for him.

On the morning (May 19, 1676) that followed the night in which I went out against the enemy with others, I was in eminent danger through an instrument of death; a gun was discharged against me at a small distance; the Lord diverted the bullet so that no harm was done me.

Understanding that this seems strange and incredible to some, I have considered whether I was not deceived; and after consideration of all things, I cannot find sufficient grounds to alter my thoughts.

I was carried beside the path I intended to walk in & brought to the sides of the great river, which was a good guide unto me.

I think not too much to say that should you & I be silent & not set forth the praises of God through Jesus Christ that the stones and beams of our houses would sing hallelujah.

However it fare amongst men, yet if it find acceptance with God, thro' Christ Jesus I shall have cause to be abundantly satisfied.

The poverty brought by the King Philips War meant that a settlement of £40 for his widow Sarah was not released until 1679; three years after his death.

Sarah became the mother of 7 more children; Timothy, John, Edward, Grace, Prudence, Deliverance; and of the much celebrated Captain Thomas Baker, who married Christine Otis,[4] who had been captured by Native Americans as a child.

[31] Captain Baker's war record mentions the release of English civilians including the Otis family.

Some sixty years after the Battle of Turner’s Falls, a grant was made by the General Court of a township of land, in e vicinity of where the event had taken place.

The list of the survivors and the descendants who were then entitled to receive apportionment of a total of 6 mi2 included his only son to reach adulthood, Joseph Atherton.