Josiah Rising

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: 1715, Oka, Lac des Deux Montagnes, Québec, Canada

Notes:

Josiah Rising was born on February 2, 1694 to John Rising and Sarah Hall. Josiah's mother died when he was 4 years old and he was sent to live with his father's cousin, Mehuman Hinsdell.

Mehuman had been the first child born in Deerfield Massachusetts. His father, his grand-father and two of his Hinsdell uncles were killed in the 1675 Bloody Brook Massacre during King Phillip's War. Mehuman lived just across the way from the Nims family. Josiah would surely have known his future wife, Abigail Nims.

By 1703 were still no English settlements west of Deerfield for fifty miles, until the Hudson River and New York. Nor were there English towns north of Deerfield at all. To the east was forty miles of wilderness. It was a time of great anxiety, similar to the time of King Phillip's War. Queen Anne's War had begun, and the New York Governor Lord Cornbury had sent word in May that the French soldiers and their Native American allies were heading down from Canada towards Deerfield and the Connecticut Valley.

Deerfield strengthened its fortifications, and the Massachusetts General Court sent soldiers from Boston to help protect the town. All was quiet as winter descended, and Josiah's family must have felt some relief, as wars are not usually fought in the cold and snow of a New England winter. However, as a precaution, everyone, including the 20 Massachusetts soldiers, slept in the dozen houses that were inside the palisades of Deerfield, leaving the other thirty or so houses empty. A watchman patrolled the town every night.

Two hours before dawn, on the leap-year morning of February 29, 1704, as Deerfield's residents slept, joint French and Native American forces under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville gathered two miles north of town, just across the Deerfield River. De Rouville's forces consisted of 47 French and French-Canadian soldiers, including regular army men and coureur de bois, and 200 Native Americans, mostly Abenaki, Kanienkehaka and Wyandot, as well as a few Pocumtuck. They had made their way south on snowshoes, walking atop the frozen waterways - up the Sorel River to Lake Champlain, up the Winooski River, and onto the upper Connecticut River. They had left a few of their party, plus the sleds and provisions, some twenty-five miles above Deerfield.

Silently, De Rouville's forces they crossed the river and made their way towards Deerfield. They were able to move quietly in the snow that dampens all sound. Heavy snowdrifts piled against the walls surrounding Deerfield - they were so high that the attackers easily scaled the ten to twelve-foot high walls.


When they were discovered by the watchman, (who has been accused of being unfaithful to his duty that night,) he discharged his musket and cried, "Arm! arm!" This was the signal for the assault. Doors and windows were broken down; men, women, and children dragged from their beds, murdered in cold blood, or bound as captives. De Rouville's forces had the advantage, despite the townspeople's efforts to fight back. The main body of the French stood to their arms, firing upon the houses and killing all who resisted, shooting the cattle and sheep, while detached parties were securing "provisions, drink, and clothing," which were packed up and carried to their rendezvous, others collecting and guarding the prisoners and leading them to the same place.

Just after 8:00 a.m., English reinforcements charged up from Hadley and Hatfield. The French and Natives were driven from the fort. The siege being raised, the brave garrison, with men from Captain Wells, joined their rescuers. There were 57 men in all, and they pursued the retreating enemy across the meadows. De Rouville, noticing their small numbers, halted his front and formed an ambuscade. Into this the English, let on by Sergeant Wait, fell, in spite of a command to retreat by the cautious Captain Wells. Nine men were killed in this trap and the ensuing retreat. De Rouville's forces chased the English back into the stockades, then withdrew to Petty's Plain. Deerfield was destroyed. At the battles end, almost half of the houses were burned down, 22 men, 9 women and 25 children were dead, another 109 had been taken captive, including 11 year old Josiah, and his uncle Mehuman.

The captives were forced on a months-long, 300 mile journey to Quebec. As it was winter, the conditions were harsh and 21 of the captives died or were killed along the way.

Josiah was adopted by the Catholic Iroquois at Sault au Récollet mission, and given the name Shoetakani, which means "his village has been taken from him." Some of the captives, like Josiah, received special attention from the local Sulpician priests, who wanted to convert them to Catholicism. As a result of this, Josiah developed ties to the French community. He was baptized and given the French name Ignace Raizenne, Ignace after his god-father, Ignace Kanatagariasse, and Raizenne was the way that the French pronounced Rising. Eventually, Abbé Maurice Quéré de Treguron, one of the Sulpicians, ransomed Josiah from the Iroquois, and he came to live among the French. In July 1715, Ignace. as he was now called, married a fellow Deerfiled captive, Elisabeth Stebenne (born Abigail Nims.)

In 1719, Ignace's father John Rising died. His will left his "well-be-loved son Josiah, now in Captivity" 5 pounds should he ever return.

Ignace, however, chose to remain in New France. He and Elisabeth settled in the newly formed mission of Oka in 1721, where they received a large grant of land, where they raised 9 children. It is not surprising that Ignace would chose to stay among the French and the Native Americans. There was little for him to go back to, as he had few close relatives left in New England, and he had been taken when he was young enough that he adapted well to his new home. Ignace also had become a devout Catholic. Having been so influenced by the priests and nuns in their formative years, Ignace and Elisabeth's household was ordered in the ways of the religious life. Two of his daughters became nuns, and one of his sons became a priest. The oldest daughter, fluent in Mohawk, joined the Congregation de Notre Dame and spent 54 years as a schoolteacher at Lac des Deux Montagnes. the younger daughter eventually became the Superior of the Congregation de Notre Dame, while the son joined the Sulpicians. In addition, 7 of Ignace and Elisabeth's grand-children devoted their lives to the Catholic Church: 2 grand-daughters joined the Congregation de Notre Dame, 2 grand-daughters joined the Hotel-Dieu, 2 grand-daughters joined the Grey Nuns and 1 grand-son became a priest.

Ignace died December 30, 1771, in Oka. He was buried in the Chapelle des Rois.

Josiah married Abigail Nims on 29 Jul 1713 in Deux-Montagnes, Deux-Montagnes, Québec, Canada. Abigail (daughter of Godfrey Nims and Mehitable Smead) was born on 27 May 1700 in Deerfield, Franklin, Massachusetts, USA; died on 19 Feb 1748 in Oka, Lac des Deux Montagnes, Québec, Canada. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: 1736, , , , Canada

Marie married Louis Seguin Dit Laderoute on 8 Apr 1736 in Oka, Lac des Deux Montagnes, Québec, Canada. Louis was born on 8 Apr 1712 in Boucherville, Montérégie, Québec, Canada; died on 13 Jul 1763 in Oka, Lac des Deux Montagnes, Québec, Canada. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]