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Hezekiah Willett, the tenth child of Thomas Willett, was a public favorite. His murder by the Indians aroused the wrath of the whole colony. He had married in January, 1676, and in July of that year, which was the year of King Philip’s War, he had walked but a short distance from his own door in Swansea when some prowling Indians killed him with three bullets and carried away his head. This act exasperated the colony, the more especially from the uniform kindness of the Willett family to the Indians. In all offers of pardon and amnesty these assassins were excepted, and when Crossman, their leader, was taken, he was hanged. Even the hostile Wampanoags lamented young Willett’s death, and when the head was found it was noticed that they had tenderly combed the hair and decorated it with beads.
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