Program

Learn about the Indian attack on Hadley on September 1, 1675, when a mysterious stranger suddenly appeared to save the day, then just as suddenly vanished, causing the settlers to believe that he was an emissary sent by God. In reality he was the regicide William Goffe, one of the judges who, in 1649, condemned King Charles I to death. A hero of the English Civil Wars, Goffe was one of the most powerful men in Britain, until 1660, when Charles II sought vengeance upon those responsible for his father's death, and Goffe and his fellow regicides became the objects of one of the greatest manhunts in all of history.

            Edward Lodi describes Goffe's adventures in Boston and New Haven, where, aided by fellow Puritans, and hiding in cellars and caves, he and his father-in-law Edward Whalley, with many narrow escapes, eluded capture from agents actively seeking them. In 1664 they fled to the small frontier settlement of Hadley, where they remained hidden in the minister's cramped cellar for eleven years, their presence known to only a few.

            He rounds out his talk with some of the many stories and legends that arose around Goffe and Whalley and theories on their ultimate fate, as well as an account of a third regicide, John Dixwell, who hid in Hadley briefly before living openly in New Haven under an assumed name.