Samuel Hinsdale (1708-1786) was born into a prominent Deerfield family. His parents, Mehuman and Mary (Rider) Hinsdale, had already experienced tragedy when they were captured and their two-year-old son Samuel was killed in a raid on the town by the French and their Native allies in 1704. Mehuman and Mary named Samuel after his deceased sibling. Samuel was a year old when his father was captured for a second time by a Native American raiding party and was held captive for three years. In 1733, the Deerfield Church received 25-year-old Samuel from the church in neighboring Sunderland, suggesting that he had been living there. He married Rebecca Leonard of Northampton the following year and the couple settled in the northern section of Deerfield that would be incorporated as the town of Greenfield in 1754. Seven of their children lived to adulthood. After Rebecca died Samuel married Eunice McDowell and had two more children, one of whom probably died as a child. Samuel lost this wife too, and married one last time.
Samual Hinsdale enslaved at least one, possibly two people. Account book entries between 1748 and 1751 reference "yr Servt negros", "yr Negro", and a man called Ishmael. On at least one occasion Samuel benefitted from work done by Prince, who was enslaved by Joseph Barnard of Deerfield.
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