Jonathan Plimpton

     Jonathan was born on Friday, 23 November 1657 in Medfield Township, Norfolk County, Massachusetts.¹ Jonathan b. Nov. 23, 1657, d. Sept. 18, 1675; killed at Bloody Brook. Captain Lathrop with sixty-six men was sent up from Hadley to Deerfield to convey the teams that were to bring off the grain. Eighteen wagons were loaded with grain, and some furniture belonging to Deerfield people placed upon top; and on the morning of the 18th September the whole party now numbering eighty-four men, including teamsters, proceeded on their way. "A few miles of their purposed march was made in safety, and about seven o'clock in the morning they reached a little stream within the township of Deerfield, since called Bloody Brook, in memory of that disastrous day. The stream was bordered by thick woods. As the wagons slowly forded it, tradition relates that the men imprudently put their arms in them, and scattered to gather the wild grapes which hung ripe upon the vines. A sudden volley from hundreds of muskets on the right side of the path startled them from their fancied security. Several were killed. A crowd of savages sprang from an ambush, and fell upon the rest, before they had time to form, and regain their weapons. Lathrop was "a Godly and courageous commander," but valor so beset was unavailing. The assailants were believed to be not fewer than seven hundred. Lathrop was shot dead early in the action. Seven or eight Englishmen at the utmost escaped. One of these had been stripped, and left for dead, after being wounded, first by a musket ball and then by a tomahawk. Another forced his way through with his musket, with which he laid about him with one arm, after the other was broken. The dead were all buried in one grave, now distinguished by a memorial stone which arrests the traveler's attention on the side of the highway in South Deerfield. Among the names of the slain, on the stone, may be found that of Jonathan Plympton. He was a little less than eighteen years old, and was driving his father's team."² Jonathan departed this life on Saturday, 23 November 1675 in South Deerfield at age 18 years. He was buried there at the Bloody Brook mass Grave site.³