Note Of worthy Captain Lovewell — Chapter VIII

Page 106. Of worthy Captain Lovewell. Not much is known of Lovewell. He was a son of Zaccheus Lovewell, an ensign in the army of Oliver Cromwell, who had come to America and settled at Dunstable, where he died at the great age of one hundred and twenty years,—"the oldest white man who ever died in New Hampshire." He left three sons, the youngest of whom was John, the hero of Pigwacket. At the time of the fight, he was about thirty-three years of age, and had a wife and two or three children. After the Indian attack on Dunstable in 1624, he and some others petitioned the House of Representatives at Boston to make some provision for a force to be sent against the savages. The Representatives voted that all such volunteers should be paid two shillings and sixpence a day, and promised large rewards for the scalps of male Indians old enough to fight. A company of thirty was raised, with Lovewell as captain, and captured one prisoner and took one scalp. A second expedition brought back ten scalps and some other booty, and the third expedition culminated in the battle at Pigwacket.