John Pynchon

Probably the only son of William Pynchon, John "came to this country with his father when but 5 years old," married Amy, the daughter of Gov. George Wyllys of Hartford, in 1645, and stayed at Springfield when his father went home to England in 1652. Dwight: "He was a man of very superior talents, character and social position. He represented the town of Springfield in the General Court in 1659, '62 and '63, and was for 21 years (1665-86) an 'Assistant' in it. He was spoken of and addressed by the title of 'The Worshipful.'" From 1652 to 1660 he was one of the three commissioners who governed Springfield (with Deacon Samuel Chapin and Elizur Holyoke). "He was a large farmer and landholder, and owned several saw-mills and grist-mills," and his brick house, built in 1660, would serve the town as a fort (source).

He carried his father's settlements up the river, "founding Northampton, Westfield, Hadley, and other towns" (source), and in 1669 he deeded land in Springfield to Japhet Chapin, the son of his fellow magistrate (source). His children were Joseph (1646-1682), a Harvard-trained physician who died unmarried; Col. John (1647-1721); Mary (b. 1650), probably the Mary who married Joseph Whiting; William (1653-1674); and Mehitable (1661-1663).

King Philip's War. When the war came to the Connecticut valley in the summer of 1675 he was major of the Hampshire regiment and captain of the Hampshire troop (Soldiers in King Philip's War, p. 475), and the Massachusetts Council sent its men "unto the order of Maior John Pincheon Commander in Cheefe in the County of Hampshire" (order of 24 Sept 1675, Mass. Archives 67:265, printed in Bodge p. 143). On 26 September Indians burned his farm-house and barns on the west side of the river, and on the 30th he wrote to the Council, "We have no Indian friends here to help us" (Bodge p. 144). He had already begged to be relieved of the chief command, and the Council's answer of 4 October gave it to Capt. Samuel Appleton, sympathizing "in yr present dispensation of Divine Providence towards your family in your absence" (Mass. Archives 67:280, Bodge pp. 144-147).

That same day, under the commissioners' strict orders, he took Springfield's soldiers up to Hadley. Warned that night that the town was to be attacked, he went back the next day "with Capt Apleton and Capt Sill, with a company of 190 Soulders" (Capt. Samuel Mosely, Hatfield, 5 Oct 1675, Bodge p. 68) and found it burning. During the alarm Rev. Pelatiah Glover had carried his library "to Mr. Pynchon's house for safety," and Lt. Thomas Cooper's horse, its rider shot, galloped back and "stopped in front of Major Pynchon's house" (Burt 1:129-130); the brick house stood as the town's fort (source). He wrote to Rev. John Russell of Hadley that day: "we came to a Lamentable & woefull sight. The Towne in flames ... my grist Mill, & corne Mill, Burnt downe ... So yt I believe 40 familys are utterly destitute of subsistence." To Gov. Leverett, on 8 October: "about 30 dwelling houses burnt down and 24 or 25 barns, my corn mill, saw mill and other buildings ... To speak my thoughts—all these towns ought to be garrisoned" (The First Century of the History of Springfield, 1:131-134). Appleton took up the command on 12 October.

He was chosen moderator of Springfield's town meetings for the war year on 1 Feb 1675/6, and again on 5 Feb 1677/8, when the town fortified its new meeting-house and he promised "5 rod of Stuff to place" (Burt 2:126, 135-136). On 9 April 1677 Connecticut's council resolved to treat with the Mohawks at Fort Albany, with Gov. Andros's help: "The persons appoynted to goe to Albany were Major John Pynchon and Mr. James Richards" (Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 2:492-493). Massachusetts allowed his charges of £128 and £30 for himself (Records of Massachusetts Bay 5:139), and in the autumn of 1677 he wrote to Albany about the "twenty persons taken from Hattfeild & Deerefeild" (5:167-168). His wife's brother Samuel Wyllys sat on Connecticut's Council of War through the war (PRCC 2:385).

He had been the Hampshire regiment's sergeant-major, its only regimental officer, since May 1671. About 1687 Gov. Andros made him its colonel; when Andros fell he went back to his old rank, and in the early 1690s he still wrote to the governor and Council as Major Pynchon, but he died a colonel (Judd, History of Hadley, pp. 220, 251, 264). From 1692 to 1702 he was Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Hampshire County (source). "The Honorable Colonel John Pynchon, Esq. was sick and died January 17, 1702-3, in the 77th year of his age," the Springfield record has it (Judd, p. 264), four years after Amy.

Research: Patricia Hatten's Browne–Chapin side: the pedigree, notable ancestors and famous kin; the war: King Philip's War: the Connecticut valley, the Colony of Connecticut, Long Island and New Paltz.

Open questions

• What "dispensation of Divine Providence towards your family" the Council meant on 4 Oct 1675: his letters in The Pynchon Papers (ed. Bridenbaugh, vol. 1).