Raid on Dover

The Raid on Dover (also known as the Cochecho Massacre) took place in Dover, New Hampshire, on June 27–28, 1689. Led by Chief Kancamagus of the Pennacook, it was part of King William's War, the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), fought between England and France and their respective Native allies.

Background and Underlying Tension

At the end of King Philip's War (1675–1678), a number of Indians allied with King Philip attempted to flee the Massachusetts Bay Colony and took refuge with the Abenaki tribe living in Dover. They appeared unaware that New Hampshire had been governed by Massachusetts since 1641 and thus they remained in the colony. In response, the Massachusetts Bay General Court sent two companies of militia to the Dover area who then ordered Major Richard Waldron to attack all the natives and demand the Abenaki turn over any refugee combatants.

Major Waldron believed he could capture the fleeing natives without a pitched battle involving the local allied Abenaki, and so on September 7, 1676, deceptively invited the natives—about 400 in total, half local and half refugees, to participate in a mock battle against the militia near Cochecho Falls. After the natives discharged their guns, Waldron and Major Charles Frost took them prisoner. He sent both refugee combatants and those locals who violently objected to Boston, where seven or eight were convicted of insurrection and executed. The rest were sold into slavery, most in Barbados.

Local Indians were released, but never forgave Waldron for the deception, which violated both sides' rules of honor and hospitality.