| Notes |
- This name is also spelled James Tuffts.
Lived in Deerfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts Bay Colony (Deerfield is now in Franklin County). Among the teamsters killed at Bloody Brook. The teamsters were hauling grain to storage, under the protection of Captain Thomas Lothrop and his soldiers.
James Tufts held property early as the village of Deerfield was planned and settled. "TUFFTS, James, s. of Peter and Mary of Charlestown; he was a settler of 1673 and killed with Lothrop; he prob. settled on No. 37, which was sold by Peter Tuffts to Simon Beaman in 1687."
-Sheldon
According to the "Beefe" account, James Tufts was "of Deerfield."
-NEHGR
Like many others killed in the battle, James Tufts was young and unmarried. He did have a son, however: his namesake James Tufts. The child's mother was Elizabeth Wells, later Bathrick. Although the Tufts family initially denied that James had impregnated Elizabeth, the child was completely accepted into the Tufts family. Peter Tufts, grandfather of the child, raised him and named him in his will. Elizabeth Wells Bathrick died in 1674, a year before the battle at Bloody Brook. The child James Tufts was thus orphaned as an infant.
Memorial to his child, James Tufts
Memorial to Elizabeth Wells Bathrick
Sources:
New England Historic Genealogical Register (NEHGR), v 38, pp 335-336, list of dead and footnote: "The following men are set down as of Deerfield, and credited by Hull in the 'Beefe' account. Richard Weller, William Pixly, Daniel Weld, James Tufts…"
NEHGR v 51, pp 299, 301 records James as son of Peter Tufts and Mary Pierce; as father of James Tufts; and as soldier of Deerfield ambuscaded at Bloody Brook.
History of Deerfield, Sheldon, 1895, v II, p 348
See cemetery notes for further details and bibliographic sources.
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1650 - 1675 (25 years)
