Seth Lesser of the King Philip’s War

Seth Lesser (12 October 1643 – 15 December 1675) was a New Englander who is best remembered for his contributions to King Philip’s War, an armed uprising of the Native American inhabitants of New England and neighboring colonies against the British colonists from 1675 to 1676.

Born in Hampshire, England, Lesser was the son of Johann Lesser, a smith, and local beauty Margaret Lesser. Until 1666, the Seth Lesser family lived in a little farming community in Hampshire. They moved to the British colonies in 1667 and settled in the southern part of New England, in present-day Northampton, Massachusetts.

By the time the Lesser family arrived in America, tension between the British colonists and native Americans had already escalated and blood had started to spill. The colonists had also begun expanding their settlements to areas near the Connecticut River, driving American Indians further away from their traditional territories. In the summer of 1675, the war between the colonists and the Native American Indians led by Metacomet (also known as Metacom and Pometacom) or “King Philip” broke out and in September of that year, Seth Lesser was drafted into the colonial militia in time with the declaration of war by the New England Confederation.

Seth Lesser defended the settlements in Plymouth Colony in November under Josiah Winslow and fought against the Narragansett tribe. The following month, he was sent to Tower Hill in Rhode Island to secure the Jireh Bull Blockhouse. He was among the 15 militia soldiers who were massacred by the natives that day.