Colonial Indentures: (1) Binding a Native American (1714), and (2) Binding John Dix (1714)., 1714

Middletown or Hartford, Connecticut: 1714. Single folio leaf of laid paper, 7.5" x 12". Old folds, tiny hole. An indenture binding a Native American "lad," Robon (or Robin) and his wife Hanah (or Hannah) to pick corn for Joseph Bigelow in exchange for a shirt, a new coat and two and a half shillings. Signed by Bigelow and John Williams (Bigelow's son and son-in-law) and by Robon with his mark (a sort of reverse half moon) and by Hanah with her mark (similar to a figure "8"). In part: "Know all men...that I Robon Injen have do with this contract by my mark bind myself to Joseph Bigelow untill don pickon corn for a shirt and a new cot and two a& hlf shillings of mony..." Below this is a note in a later hand (late 18th or early 19th c.?): "Danl Bigelow writing Indian's Indentures. Below this is written another brief indenture dated 1714 for a John Dix, race not specified. Docketed on the verso "Stephen Celock jr. of Westfield, 1730." Daniel Bigelow (1692-1733) was the son of the prominent Puritan Joseph Bigelow of Hartford. John Williams married Joseph Bigelow's daughter Mary in 1699. The identity of Robon and Hanah is slightly more problematic, made more so by the questionable spelling. It seems likely that they were Wanunk or Mettabesset Indians (a branch of the Algonquins) who settled around Middletown, Connecticut. Contemporary records of the area record a tribesman named Robin, a sachem and son of Sowheage, who was also known as Dr. Robin because of his success curing scrofula among the English, and also mention among his relatives someone named Hannah, but does not specify her relationship to him.