Killed by 'Ye Enemy'

The gravestone inscription in Pentucket Cemetery, Haverhill, MA, reads:

Lieut
John John
son died August
ye 29, 1708 & in
ye 76 year of
his age.
Catarine
wife of Lieut.
John Johnson
died August ye
29, 1708 & in
ye 70 year of her age.

His estate was probated on 21 March 1709 at Haverhill, Massachusetts.

He was a farmer and blacksmith. In the autumn of 1658, he moved to Haverhill, MA. He was an officer during King Philip’s War, hence the title of Lieutenant. In 1691, he served as a representative from Haverhill to the Massachusetts General Court. His will was dated 11 June 1696 at Haverhill.

“John was born in England probably about 1631, was brought to New England in 1634, and lived in Charlestown, where he received a grant of land, until 1658. In this latter year he removed to Haverhill, Mass. where he founded the first permanent smithy in the town. He became a prominent and influential man in Haverhill where he was a tithingman and deacon in the church, a proprietor, selectman, juror, and moderator of the town meetings, and in 1691 a representative to the Great and General Court of the Colony. He was also a lieutenant in the militia.

“John Johnson married three times: first on Oct. 15, 1656 to Elizabeth Maverick, who was born in Charlestown Feb. 4, 1639, the daughter of Elias and Ann Maverick, and died March 22, 1674. He married second March 3, 1675 Mrs. Sarah (Kezar) Gillo of Lynn, who died in childbed July 24, 1676. His third wife was Catharine (Skipper) Maverick, the widow of John Maverick of Boston, whom he married Sept. 8, 1680. He was killed in his own house by Indians in an attack on Haverhill August 29, 1708. His wife, granddaughter-in-law and others in the house were killed in the same attack; but his great-grandchild, Lydia Johnson, who was in his wife’s arms, somehow survived. His property was divided by will.”8