The family found themselves caught in the middle of Kieft's War between the local Siwanoy Indians and the colony of New Netherland, and they were all massacred in August 1643, except for Susanna.

They lived in Boston for a few years, but moved by 1663 to the Narragansett country of Rhode Island (later North Kingstown) to look after the lands of her oldest brother Edward Hutchinson.

[2] The family settled in Boston and lived across the street from magistrate John Winthrop, who was a judge during the civil trial in 1637 that led to her mother's banishment from the Massachusetts colony.

Her mother's religious views were at odds with the orthodoxy of the Puritan ministers; she helped to create a major division in the Boston church and an untenable situation for the colony's leaders.

[6] Susanna's widowed mother was frightened at the prospect of Massachusetts gaining influence or control over Rhode Island.

Consequently, she moved to the part of New Netherland that later became The Bronx in New York City, along with her six youngest children, an older son, a son-in-law, and some servants.

According to one story, Susanna's red hair spared her from the slaughter,[8] while another account claimed that the girl was out picking blueberries some distance from the house and hid in the crevice of Split Rock.

[10][17] Susanna and John Cole began raising a family in Boston, but they went to look after her brother's land in the Narragansett country by 1663, which was then in disputed territory but later became North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

[19] In April 1667, John Cole deeded their house in Boston to Susanna's brother Edward and uncle Samuel, signifying that they intended to remain in Narragansett.

[16] Susanna died by 14 December 1713, and her son William "took receipts from heirs for their full proportion of estate of deceased father and mother.

[22] A bronze statue in front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston displays an assumed likeness of Cole as a youngster and her mother Anne Hutchinson; it was dedicated in 1922.