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��CAPT. THOMAS BAKER AND MADAME CHRISTINE, HIS WIFE.
��Soc. I., SO]. This must have been early in, May, 1712. The writer in Farmer and Moore, above quoted, says that Walter- nummus. the chief, and Capt. Baker lev- elled and discharged their pieces at each other at the same instant; that the ball from the Indian's gun grazed Capt. Ba- ker's left eyebrow, doing no injury, while Baker shot the sachem through the breast, who leaped high in the air and fell instantly dead. They found a wig- wam filled with beaver, of which they took as much as they could carry, and burned the rest. According to Penhal- low, there were in Capt. Baker's compa- ny fifty men, instead of thirty-four. If so, the success of the exploit was not sur- prising.
At that time Capt. Baker lived in his native town of Northampton. In 1715, he married Madame Le Beau, and was still residing there. But in 1719 he rep- resented Brookfield in the Massachusetts Legislature ; and about 172.1 he removed to Dover, which continued to be his home thenceforth until his death, probably in 1753. What the records of that town would disclose concerning his subse- quent career, the writer would be glad to know. Of his history little enough is on record. Tradition has accorded him the character of a brave and successful scout. It is probable that this was not his first expedition, as an inexperienced man would not be likely to command such an one, and equally probable it was not his last.
His sword, with the initials, "T. B.," inlaid in the blade with gold, with the device of an eagle in a circle, and giving evidence of having seen hard service, is in the museum of the New Hampshire Antiquarian Society. We come now to the history of Madame Christine, Captain Baker's
WltE.
On the night of the 27th of June, 1689, the Indians fell on Dover, and wiped out their long-cherished sense of injury with a bloody hand. Belknap says there were five garrisoned houses in Dover at that time. One of these belonged to Capt. Richard Otis. He was an Englishman by birth, and was made an inhabitant of
��Boston, May 2S, 1655, but was taxed at Dover the next year. For thirty-three years he had been one of the leading men of the town. He had been thrice mar- ried. His first wife was Rose, daughter of Antony Stoughton ; his second, Shua, daughter of James Hurd; his third, prob- ably a young woman, was Grizell, daugh- ter of James and Margaret Warren. She had at the time of the attack a daughter, born in March previous, who had been named Margaret. Richard Otis was slain, his house rifled and burned, and his wife and child carried captives to Canada.
There Mrs. Otis embraced the Roman Catholic religion, being baptized May 9, 1693, by the name of Mary Madeline Warren, and was married on the 15th of October following to Philip Robitail,* a Frenchman, by whom she had several children, and died at a great age. The infant Margaret was taken in charge by the French, baptized by the name of Christine, educated in a Roman Catholic nunnery, but declined to take the veil. At the age of sixteen she was married to one Le Beau, a Frenchman, by whom she had certainly two, and possibly three, children.
She entertained a strong desire to visit her native laud and be among her own people. How long she lived with Le Beau is not known. But in 1714 she was a widow, and, taking advantage of an exchange of prisoners, she returned to Dover. The Romanists would not al- low her to take her children, the eldest of which could not have been more than eight years old, and a considerable estate which she possessed she had to abandon.
How much her remembrance of Capt. Thomas Baker had to do with her desire to return to New England we shall never know. When he was carried to Canada,
��* This name is given as Nobitail, in Coll. N. H. Hist. Soc, VIII., 407, but is incorrect. I learn from Hon. John Wentworth that the name Robitaile is not infrequent in Canada; that the Hon. Mr. Robitaile was, not long since, a member of the Canadian Parliament, and that a Dr. Robitaile recently graduated from the medical department of Harvard Uni- versity.
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