The New International Encyclopædia/Rowlandson, Mary

ROWLANDSON, rō'land-son, Mary. An English colonist of the seventeenth century, famous for one book. Her husband was Joseph Rowlandson, the first minister of Lancaster, Mass. On February 10, 1675, Lancaster was destroyed by the Indians, who carried off Mrs. Rowlandson and her children. After her release three months later appeared her book, called A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Rowlandson, a Minister's Wife in New England, Whereunto is Annexed a Sermon by Joseph Rowlandson, her Husband. She tells of her sufferings by cold and hunger, of her child's death by cold, and of her sale by her Narraganset captor to an Indian chief. She was at last ransomed for about $80, a sum raised by several women of Boston. Her book went through various editions.