Rowlandson, Mary

Rowlandson, Mary

 orig. Mary White

(born c. 1637, England—died Jan. 5, 1710/11, Wethersfield, Conn.) British-American colonial author. She was the daughter of the original proprietor of Lancaster, Mass., where she lived with her minister husband and their four children. When Indians razed the settlement in 1676, she was captured and held hostage for 11 weeks. Ransomed, she moved to Connecticut with her husband and two surviving children. Her narrative of captivity, titled The Soveraignty & Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed; Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and published in 1682, became popular in the colonies and in London.

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Rowlandson, Mary (b. White) (c. 1635–post-1678) frontier captive; born in England. Her family emigrated to Massachusetts in 1653 and she married Joseph Rowlandson in 1656. She had four children. In 1675, during King Philip's War, Indians attacked Lancaster, Mass., and carried off Mary and three of her children. She survived three months in captivity and met King Philip, the Indian leader. She and two surviving children were ransomed (1676) and the Rowlandson family moved to Connecticut. Her account of her captivity, The Soveraignty & Goodness of God… (1682), went through 30 editions and remains a classic of the colonial-frontier literary genre of "captivity" accounts.