After Pequot War massacres, one sachem’s desperate deal with English colonists

Shaumpishuh’s Desperate Land Sale After Pequot War Devastation

In 1639, Shaumpishuh faced a grim choice. The female sachem of the Menunkatuck band had seen English troops kill Pequot leaders on her own land just two years before. Disease had wiped out most of her people.

Her brother had signed away rights to nearby New Haven.

With few options left, she drew a map with her uncle and sold their tribal lands to Reverend Henry Whitfield for tools, clothes, and trinkets.

She kept hunting rights, but soon her own people were hauling stones to build Whitfield’s massive house with two-foot-thick walls.

The Henry Whitfield House still stands today as Connecticut’s oldest stone dwelling, where this painful story of survival comes to life.

English Soldiers Killed Pequot Leaders on Menunkatuck Land

The Pequot War of 1636-1637 brought fear to Connecticut’s Native peoples.

English soldiers caught and killed three Pequot leaders on Shaumpishuh’s land, calling the spot “Sachem’s Head.”

Shaumpishuh, the female leader of the Menunkatuck band, watched as English forces burned a Pequot village at Mystic Fort, killing hundreds.

Fearing the same fate, she moved her people away from their homeland to camp near English settlements until the war ended.

Disease Had Already Killed Most Native People

Before the war, European diseases swept through Native communities.

Up to 90% of Native people died from smallpox, measles, and other sicknesses they couldn’t fight off. The Menunkatuck band shrank to fewer than three dozen members.

Their social structures fell apart as too many died too quickly. Tribal alliances broke down, leaving survivors like Shaumpishuh in weak positions.

Her brother Momaugin, leader of the Quinnipiac, signed the First Treaty with English settlers at New Haven in 1638.

Reverend Whitfield Brought Forty Families Looking for Religious Freedom

In June 1639, Reverend Henry Whitfield brought 24 families from England to Connecticut. About 40 men plus their wives and children made the trip seeking a place to practice their Puritan faith freely.

Before landing, they signed the Plantation Covenant on their ship on June 1, 1639. They promised to support each other and never leave their community.

Whitfield talked with leaders at Saybrook and New Haven, who helped him pick a spot 13 miles from New Haven.

The Leader Drew a Map to Show What Land She Would Sell

On August 23, 1639, Shaumpishuh and her uncle Quassaquanch created a detailed map showing the edges of their territory.

The map marked lands from “Tuckshis to oiockocommock River” and showed Shaumpishuh’s ownership rights. Quassaquanch likely served as both advisor and mapmaker during this process.

Their deep knowledge of every hill, stream, and forest let them clearly define what they would sell. This map became the basis for the deed that would transfer their coastal homeland.

Trading Twelve Coats and Knives for an Entire Town

William Leete wrote the formal deed based on Shaumpishuh’s map on September 29, 1639.

The price seems tiny today: 12 coats, 12 fathoms of wampum, 12 glasses, 12 pairs of shoes, 12 hatchets, 12 knives, 12 bowls, and 2 pairs of silk stockings. Shaumpishuh kept hunting rights on the sold lands.

The deal covered what became present-day Guilford but left out the North Guilford area. Both sides signed the agreement with very different ideas of what “ownership” meant.

Cold Weather Stopped Building After Just One Room

The English settlers started building Whitfield’s stone house right after buying the land in September 1639. Winter weather forced them to stop with only half the great hall and north fireplace finished.

Stone buildings were rare for New England homes but needed for defense in this frontier setting. The community planned four stone houses as forts, with Whitfield’s as the main stronghold.

The settlers spent their first Connecticut winter in simple shelters, waiting for spring.

Native Workers Carried Heavy Stones Through Swampland

Local Menunkatuck people hauled cut stone from Griswold’s Rocks quarry to build Whitfield’s house. They used hand carriers to move heavy loads along an old path that cut through a swamp.

The path stretched nearly a quarter-mile from quarry to building site.

The massive walls reached two feet thick, held together with yellow clay and crushed oyster shell mortar. The construction mixed English building plans with Native labor and local materials.

The House Became a Church, Home, and Fortress

Construction started again in spring 1640. Workers finished the great hall, second floor, and attic by summer.

Henry Whitfield moved in with his wife Dorothy and several of their nine children. The house served many purposes: family home, church, meeting hall, and community fortress.

The three-foot-thick granite walls kept them safe from possible attacks. The great hall hosted church services and town meetings.

The building stood as the center of the new Guilford community.

Whitfield’s Stone House Stood Over Former Native Lands

The finished house used Native labor and materials. Reverend Whitfield led both church services and community meetings inside its walls.

The remaining Menunkatuck people lived nearby, watching their homeland change around them. English farms replaced hunting grounds.

Stone houses replaced wigwams. The landscape itself changed as forests fell to create fields and pastures.

All this happened very quickly, within a single year of the land purchase.

The Minister Broke His Promise and Sailed Back to England

Despite signing the Plantation Covenant promising never to desert each other, Reverend Whitfield left Guilford on August 26, 1650.

Political changes in England after King Charles I’s death made returning attractive for Puritans. Whitfield took his son John but left his wife Dorothy and most of their children behind to keep the property.

By this time, seven founding Guilford members had died. His leaving shocked the settlement he had started just eleven years earlier.

America’s Oldest Stone House Still Stands in Connecticut

The Whitfield House became Connecticut’s first state museum in 1900. Tourists now visit what’s considered the oldest stone house in New England.

Shaumpishuh lived until 1686, witnessing the complete transformation of her homeland during her lifetime. The house represents the impossible choices Indigenous peoples faced between violence and displacement.

While the building endures as a historical landmark, the Menunkatuck band gradually disappeared from written history.

Their contribution to building the very structure that symbolized their displacement remains largely untold in standard tours of the site.

Visiting Henry Whitfield House

The Henry Whitfield House at 248 Old Whitfield Street in Guilford shows the complex history of the 1639 land purchase between English Puritans and Menunkatuck Sachem Shaumpishuh.

You can tour three floors including the great hall with its massive 10-foot fireplace where Puritan meetings happened. Admission costs $6 for adults, $5 for seniors, free for kids 12 and under.

It’s open Wednesday through Sunday 10am-4pm from May-October, weekdays by appointment November-April.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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