Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. QUEEN ANNE'S War, as it is commonly called in America, broke out in the year 1702, when England declared war against France and Spain; and the American colonies were drawn into the contest. The Indians in New England were in sympathy with the French; and they kept the frontier settlements continually on the alert. Strict vigilance, on the part of the colonists, was the price of their safety. Military companies were still held under discipline and drill, and from time to time were reviewed by the proper officers. In the year 1702, Chief Justice Samuel Sewall accompanied Governor Joseph Dudley through Middlesex County on a tour of inspection; and in his 'Diary, under date of October 28, he writes: — Went to Groton, saw Capt. Prescot and his company in Arms. (Gov' had sent to them from Dunstable that would visit them). Lancaster is about 12 Miles Southward from Groton. Concord is 16 Miles J and Ten-Rod from Groton. [Massachusetts Historical Collections, VI. fifth series, 67.] The captain of this company was Jonas Prescott, an active man in the affairs of the town. He was a blacksmithby trade, and the ancestor of a long line of distinguished families. He was the grandfather of Colonel William Pres- cott, the commander of the American forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill; who was himself the father of William Pres- cott, the lawyer and jurist, and the grandfather of William Hickling Prescott, the historian. After these alarms there was a short respite, which continued till 1704; when the frontier towns were again exposed to savage warfare, and this town suffered with the others. Samuel Penhallow, in "The History of the Wars of New- England" (Boston, 1726), thus refers to the attack on this place in August, 1704 : The Indians — af...