John Williams arrived in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1686, to become the town's first minister. When Deerfield was raided in 1704 by French soldiers from Canada with their Indigenous allies, Williams, his wife Eunice, five of their children, and enslaved man, Frank, were among the more than 100 people taken captive and marched to Canada. Two of his children and Frank's wife Parthena were killed during the raid, and Frank and Eunice were slain during the trek north. Williams remained with his captors for two years before he was redeemed.
In 1706, he wrote of his experience and that of his fellow townspeople in a book titled, The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion. On page 12 he wrote of Parthena's death: "some were so cruel and barbarous as to take and carry to the door two of my children and murder them, as also a negro woman". Fran's death happened during the first night: "Some of the enemy who brought drink with them from the town fell to drinking, and in their drunken fit they killed my negro man". (p. 14)
Williams returned to Deerfield, remarried, and continued as the town's minister until his death in 1729.
In addition to Frank and Parthena, Reverend Williams also enslaved Robert Tigo- the first known enslaved person in Deerfield, Mesheck, and Kedar.
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