John Oldham

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For the poet, see John Oldham (poet). For the baseball player see John Oldham (baseball)

John Oldham (1592–1636) was an early Puritan settler in Massachusetts. He was a captain, merchant, and Indian trader. His death at the hands of the Indians was one of the causes of the Pequot War of 1637.

Oldham was born in Derbyshire, England in 1592, and was baptized at the Church of All Saints in Derby on July 14, 1592. A follower of the Puritans from an early age, he emigrated to Plymouth Colony with his wife, children, and sister in July 1623 aboard the Anne. Captain John Oldham was the brother of Lucretia Oldham Brewster, who married Jonathon Brewster, son of William Brewster, a signer of the Mayflower Compact. Oldham grew rich in coastal trade and trading with the Indians. After being exiled for plotting against the government at Plymouth, Oldham became a representative to the General Court of Massachusetts from 1632 to 1634. He was the overseer of shot and powder for Massachusetts Bay Colony. Oldham's company granted ten acres in assignment of lands in 1623 presumably for each person in Oldham's family and for the following: Conant, Roger, Penn, and Christian. ^[1]

As a trader, Captain Oldham sailed to Virginia and England, but by 1630 he was back in the Massachusetts Bay.

He took up residence on an island in the Charles River and was a member of the church at Watertown. Oldham represented Watertown in the colony's first General Court or assembly in 1634. He continued in the Indian trade, sailing the coast from Maine to New Amsterdam.

In 1633 or 1634, Oldham led a group of ten men (which included Captain Robert Seeley), along the Old Connecticut Path to establish Wethersfield, Connecticut, the first English settlement on the Connecticut River.

In July 1636 he was on a voyage to trade with Indians on Block Island. On July 20 he was boarded by hostile Indians, presumed to be Pequots. He and five of his crew were killed, and two young boys with him were captured. The ship's cargo was looted. A fishing vessel rescued the boys and tried to tow his sloop to port. When adverse winds affected them, they scuttled the ship but brought the two boys home.

The Bay Colony was outraged at this latest incident, and sent John Endicott with a force to retaliate.

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