Wampage I was the Sagamore (or Chieftain) of the Siwanoys.
Following the elimination of the Pequots by the English in 1636/37, the Wappinger (or Mattabesec) Confederation (a group of Delaware-speaking peoples) consisted of six nations: the Hammonassets, Naugatucks, Quinipiacs, Paugusetts, the Uncowas and the Siwanoys. The territory of this confederation ran from well beyond the Connecticut River deep into Dutch territory (New Netherlands), including what today are Bronx and Westchester Counties, New York, where the Siwanoys were installed. Over this Mattabesec Confederation was a paramount chief named Romaneck (sometimes called "Joseph" by the English), a warrior whose authority none dared to challenge. He had an only daughter, Prasque, and she became the bride of the Chief of the Siwanoys, Wampage I (pronounced wahm-PAH-gee).
Wampage I was also sometimes called "Ann Hook" or Anhōōke, because he was lord of the territory by that name (Ann Hook's Neck, now called Rodman's Neck), where in 1643 he and his tribesmen are alleged to have killed Anne Hutchinson and her fellow colonists. It has been written that Wampage himself was the murderer of Hutchinson and that he adopted the name of Anhōōke due to a Mahican custom of taking the name of a notable person personally killed (the Siwanoys were allied with the Mahicans). The only survivor of the massacre was Anne's 9 year old daughter Susanna Hutchinson, who may have been spared because of her red hair. Susanna was taken captive by the Siwanoys, and remained with them for nearly five years, eventually bearing Wampage I a son - Ninham-Wampage, who would become Wampage II. When Susanna was later found by Dutch settlers, she had forgotten her own language and was hesitant to leave the tribe. She later moved to Boston, and married John Cole.
Not long after the 1643 massacre, Wampage I became a close friend of Thomas Pell I (first Lord of Pelham Manor), who was the Indian Commissioner in Fairfield, and Wampage I and Thomas Pell I concluded much business together. Wampage and 3 other sagamores sold 9,160 acres of land to Pell in 1654, including what is now Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, and on March 10, 1658, he and Commissioner Pell negotiated the definitive treaty between the English and the Siwanoys, whereby their respective positions were delineated. (The Siwanoys remained in the area for another hundred years, until they eventually "melted away" by intermarriage with the English settlers. Around 1756, the remaining Wappinger and Mahicans in the area joined the Nanticoke, and with them were finally merged into the Delawares.)
Thomas Pell I died without heirs in 1669, and Pelham Manor passed to his nephew, Sir John Pell (III), who became second Lord of Pelham Manor. In 1676, Sir John negotiated a Treaty of Peace with Wampage, which kept the Mattabasec Confederation out of King Philip's War. Unfortunately, John's contemporaries - including Major Nathan Gold, chief magistrate at Fairfield, Connecticut - were inclined to disregard treaties and engagements made with local tribes. Major Gold believed that the English held all Indian lands by right of conquest and that contracts of sale between indigenous peoples and the English had no validity. To make his position clear, when the elderly Wampage I came to Fairfield, formerly his capital, to collect on a bill of sale of lands to residents of the town, Major Gold had him beaten and thrown into jail. Sir John Pell intervened to have him released on his surety, and it was in subsequent conversations between John and Wampage that the decision was taken to appeal to the Privy Council, the highest legal body in England. This decision was motivated on John's part by the fact that if the Gold doctrine was maintained, his rights in Pelham, which his uncle Thomas bought from Wampage, might fall.
In Spring 1678, Sir John and his wife set out for London to represent Wampage before the Privy Council. The Council ruled in Wampage's favor on March 28, 1679, denouncing Gold's "evill practices" and finding that "not only [Wampage] but all such Indians of New England as are [the British monarch's] Subjects and submit peaceably and quietly to his Government shall likewise participate of his Royall Protection". The order was received at Hartford on May 17, 1680, and Wampage I died soon afterwards, anguished over the continued refusal of the English colonial magistrates to bow to any authority other than their own. (By the time of his death, Wampage I had been baptized, taking the name of John White, and his wife that of Anna White. Privy Council records refer to him as "John Wampus alias White", and to his wife as "Anne the Daughter of Romanock late Sachem of Aspatuck & Sasquanaugh".)
Although the burial site of Wampage I is not definitively known, one source suggested that he was buried underneath a mound on the northern coast of Rodman's Neck. Nonetheless, we do know that he was buried in a traditional way, among his people, in his ancestral homeland.
Wampage I was known to have two children:
- Ninham-Wampage, son of Wampage I by Susanna Hutchinson, inherited his father's name and title and became Wampage II, Sachem of Ann Hook.
- John Wampage White, married Elizabeth French.
Wampage II was the father of Anna, who grew up on Hunter Island where the Siwanoys had a stockaded settlement. Anna later married Thomas Pell II, third Lord of Pelham Manor and son of Sir John Pell, in 1700.
II. TREATY - Between the Siwanoys and Thomas Pell, 1654
An image file is attached of the only known surviving copy, which Thomas Pell had sent to relatives in England. I apologize that the scan isn't better quality.
The Siwanoy sagamores who signed this treaty were Shawanórõckquot (Shanarockwell, a chieftain at the settlement of Poningo in modern-day Rye, NY), Poquõrúm, Anhõõke (Wampage I), Wawhamkus, and Mehúmõw. The "Indyan Wittnesses" who signed the document are Cockho, Kamaque, and Cockinsecawa (Cokenseko, a chieftain in the northern areas of Siwanoy territory, and the namesake of modern-day Kensico, NY).
The following transcript of the treaty is from Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Treaty Oak by Blake A. Bell:
Know all men by this present yt we Shawanarockqúot: poquorum: Anhõõke: Wawhãmkus: Mehumõw: Beinge ye true owners & ye only Lawffull Heyres & proprietors off a piece of land Bounded by ye Sea to ye South wth yt Tract off land Called by ye English Longe Island; to ye west & west & by South wth ye bay & River & River Diawockinge Acqueonunge (Chemaqūanaock to ye East) wth all ye Islands yt are in ye salt water to ye South South East & South West Against yt Tract off Land wch is Beffore expresd; wh all trees medowes & all Land wh in ye tract off Land wch is Beffore Expressed: doo sell & deliver to Thos Pell now inhabitinge in Fayrffield his heyres & assignse to hould injoy improove plant as hee shall see cause to his Best to be improved ffor & to him & his heyres fforever wh out any molestation on our pt And doo herby ingage our Selves to make good our selves against all Claymes intayled either by Dutch or Indyans wt ever & doo deliver it into ye posession off ye sayd Thos Pell & his Assignes: markinge ye bounds to ye mayne Land wch is & shalbe ye present bounds to ye mayne Land: only Liberty is ffreely graunt ffor ffeedinge offe cattle & Cuttinge off timber beyound those Bounds; & wee doo Acknowledge to have Reseved in full for it ye trou valew & just Satisfaction Accordinge to our Estimate to wch we sett our hands beffore these wittnesses off English & Indyans this twenty seaventh off June 1654.
Saggamores (Markes) +Shawanórõckquot +Poquõrúm +Anhõõke +Wawhamkus +Mehúmõw
English Wittnesses Richard Crabb Magistrate Thomas Lawrence John Ffinch
Articles of Agreement
We also as lovinge neighbours & ffriends doo mutually ingage our Selves to send too men off Each yr one Day in ye Springe every yeare to marke ye Bounds of ye Land yt a Right Knowledge may be kept wh out injury to Either side yt Mutuall peace & love may be mayntayned 2nd Wee allso doo promise Each to other if any plotts on either Side yt may be to hurt off Either yt we Seasonably Discover ym as Lovinge Neighbours & friends yt peace & love may be mutually preserved
Indyan Wittnesses Marke + Cockho Mark + Kamaque Marke + Cockinsecawa
This wrightinge was signed & wittnessed Beffore A great multitude off Indyans & many English we who are under written do testify
mark Henry + Accorly William Newman
This is A True Coppy off ye originall written
Thos Pell