[3] It has been speculated by James Wimer that Sam Hide may be a composite of several early anecdotes and stories.
In the story, Hide was in search of a glass of (hard) cider, so went to the house of a neighbor and offered, for the price of a crown (five shillings), to tell the man where he had shot and killed a deer.
George Lyman Kittredge recounts tales of Hide having faithfully served the English in wars against Indian tribes and earning himself the name of a brave soldier.
In one story, Hide is said to have killed 19, of the enemy, and tried hard to make up the 20th, but was unable: On July 3d, 1676, Major Talcott of Connecticut, who was pursuing King Philip in the Narragansett country, after surprising and defeating the enemy in a swamp, turned towards home, at the request of his Mohegan and Pequot allies.
'And indeed', writes Hubbard, 'of all the enemies that have been subject of the precedent discourse; this villain did most deserve to become an object of justice and severity; for he boldly told them, that he had with his gun dispatched nineteen, and that he had charged it for the twentieth; but not meeting with any of ours, and unwilling to loose a fair shot, he had let fly at a Mohegan, and kill'd him; with which, having made up his number, he told them he was fully satisfied'.