James was a Civil War veteran, Calvary Scout, stage driver, Peace Officer and showman. In 1876 he organized an expedition to the Black Hills of South Dakota in search of gold.
James Butler Hickock was alternately labeled courageous, affable, and self-confident, cowardly, cold-blooded and drunken, a fine specimen of physical manhood, an over dressed dandy with perfumed hair, an unequaled marksman, a poor shot.
Born in Illinois in 1837, he was shot dead in Deadwood only 39 years later. By then famous and infamous, he was widely known as "Wild Bill."
Excavating the reality behind the myth, Joseph Rosa in his book, "Wild Bill Hickock", delves into the exploits and ego that defined Hickock and shows how the man was overtaken by his own legend. Rosa exposes a controversial and charismatic man, Army and Indian Scout, wagon master, courier, frontiersman, gunfighter, lawman, prospector, addicted gambler, and short-time actor, who was elevated from regional fame to national notoriety in advertently being in the right place at the right time.
"Wild Bill" married Agnes Mersman who was the owner of a circus left to her by her first husband, William Lake, whom she married in 1842. "Wild Bill" went to Deadwood two weeks after their marriage and that is where he was killed over a card game.
There were no children born from this marriage.
Following the death of her first husband, Samuel, Hannah married Deacon John Blanchard of Chelmsford. Hannah was killed in an Indian raid on Dunstable, NH on 7/3/1706. Also killed were her second child, Elizabeth Kingsley Cummings and her step-son Nathaniel Blanchard along with his wife and child.
Among the people who came to Plymouth in 1630 were two brothers, John and Stephen Kingsley, who came from Hampshire, England. In 1635, John Kingsley left Plymouth and moved north to Dorchester in the developing Boston area with a friend of Cotton Mather. He was followed by Stephen who by 1640 was the owner of a valuable property in the Braintree area. There he became a Court Deputy in Braintree and Milton from 1650 to 1666 and was also trustee of estates until his death in 1673. His family was to go on to found several towns in the Connecticut area.
John, along with seven others was a pillar of a new church founded on August 23, 1636 and was among the last survivors.
John Kingsley acquired the first grant of land in Taunton, MA area in 1645 and relocated there. The next year he became a shareholder in Great Lots (?). Three years later he moved to Rehoboth in Bristol County, MA.
The area around Rehoboth would eventually witness "King Philip's War".
The first generation of settlers who had worked out an uneasy alliance with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag Indians, were now replaced by people who wanted to expand their opportunities for development. The culture of the Indians differed greatly to that of the settlers in regards to the use of the land. A continuing problem was the trampling of Native cornfields by the colonists' livestock. While the colonists were legally responsible for the damage, such laws were difficult to enforce in remote areas such as Rehoboth and Taunton. Increased competition for these resources of land for planting, hunting and fishing caused much friction between the two groups.
In 1662, in an arrogant attempt to exert control, the Plymouth Court summoned Wampanoag leader, Wamsutta, son of Massasoit, to Plymouth. Major Josiah Winslow, with a small force of men, took Wamsutta at gunpoint. Soon after questioning, Wamsutta became ill and died. His death greatly angered the Wampanoag.
Wamsutta's brother, Metacom (also called Philip) succeeded him. Plymouth's continued unyielding policy toward Native leaders, as well as the events surrounding the murder of Sassamon, a liaison
between the two groups, caused the breakdown in relations that led to war.
In 1675, hostilities broke out in the town of Swansea, and the wasr spread as far north as New Hampshire, and as far southwest as Connecticut. Not all the native peoples, however, sided with Philip. Most natives who had converted to Christianity fought with the English or remained neutral. The English, however, did not always trust these converts and interned many of them in camps or outlying islands.
Native soldiers fighting on the side of the colonists helped turn the tide of the war, which ended in 1676 when Philip was killed by a Wampanoag fighting with Captain Benjamin Church in the Great Swamp of southern Rhode Island.
The strain connected with the difficult relationships with the Indians over almost a thirty year period ending with the death of Philip caused John's health to suffer and he asked for relief in that year. He moved to Bristol, Rhode Island and died in 1678.
This link will take you to Ancestry.com