Lancaster was first settled as "Nashaway" in 1643. It was officially incorporated as "Lancaster on the Nashua" in 1653. It originally included many current towns in central Massachusetts. It was the home of Mary Rowlandson. During King Philip's War the town suffered several massacres. It was abandoned in 1680 and resettled several years later.
She married Henry Kibbe (Kibbee, Kibbie, Kibby). Their daughter was Lydia Kibby Bennett Hewes (1637, married George Bennett.
In New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Clarence Torrey says Henry Kibby married Rachael "Lindon" "daughter of Richard."
Henry Kibby was a proprietor of Dorchester in 1639 and became a freeman in 1642.
Rachel Kibby died on July 16, 1657. Henry died on July 10, 1661.
Lydia and George Bennett were gifted most of Richard Linton's estate in 1665.
George was killed in 1675 during King Philip's War in an attack of Lancaster.
Mary White Rowlandson,Talcot
was captured by Native Americans
during King Philip's War
(1675-1676).
Old Style Calendar
Before 1752 the year began on Lady Day, March 25th,. Dates between January 1st and March 24th were at the end of the year. Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) are used to indicate whether the year has been adjusted. Often both dates are used.
King Philip’s War was a bloody and costly series of raids and skirmishes in 1675 and 1676 between the Native American people and the colonials. King Philip was the Native American leader Metacom.
European and indiginous American fought fierce battles as the Europeans expanded their territory.
from History of the Town of Lancaster, Massachusetts by Abijah Perkins Marvin
. . .What occurred in Lancaster comes properly into the history of the town. Being on the frontier, with no settlement on the west this side of the Connecticut valley, it was much exposed to the attack of an enemy who lurked in the woods, and only emerged to strike a deadly blow, and then hide again in its secret retreats.
The war broke out in June, 1675, by an attack on Swansey, near Mount Hope, the home of Philip. Not far from this date an English spy among the Indians learned from Monaco, a one-eyed Indian, that in about twenty days the natives were
to fall upon Lancaster, (Groton, Marlborough, Sudbury, and Medfield, and that the first they would do, would be to cut down Lancaster bridge, so as to hinder the flight of the inhabitants, and prevent assistance from coming to them.
The storm of war actually burst upon this town on the twenty-second day of August, old style, 1675. On that day eight persons were killed in different parts of the town. . . .[including] George Bennet, grandson [in-law] of Mr. Linton. . .There is some reason for supposing that Bennet's home was near the North Village bridge. . .
Early European settlers in the American colonies were mostly farmers and craftsmen. They had to work hard to provide daily neccesities for themselves.
from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 56
George Bennett, of Lancaster, first appears in 1658, when the General Court granted a license for his marriage, because he lived in a district which had no magistrate. The record reads:
Itt is ordered, that Mr. John Tincker shall and is heereby impowred to marry George Bennett & Lydia Kibby & .... , who are published according to lawe.
The marriage took place June 13, 1658. Lydia Kibby was the granddaughter of Richard Linton, of Concord and Lancaster, and was remembered in his will. On Sunday, Aug. 22, 1675, George Bennett was killed in an Indian massacre. In 1679, his widow married George Hewes, in Concord.
from Historic Homes and Institutions by Ellery Bicknell Crane
George Bennett, the immigrant ancestor of the Bennett family of Lancaster . . . may have been connected with some of the other immigrants of this surname, but the relationship is not proved. Little is known of George Bennett.
He was in Lancaster before his marriage, June 13, 1658, to Lydia Kibby, of Lancaster, and he lived there until his tragic death, August 22, 1675. He was a victim of the Indian massacre. His widow seems to have moved to Concord, all of the inhabitants of Lancaster leaving at this time to escape the Indians. At Concord Lydia Bennett married, July 3, 1679, George Hues (Hughes or Hewes).
