Alexander Quapish

A Wampanoag Veteran of the Revolutionary War Laid to Rest in Natick

Alexander Quapish was born in Wampanoag territory in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, in 1741. After moving to Dedham, he married an Indigenous woman named Sarah David in 1767. Sarah died of unknown causes in 1774 and was buried in Dedham near Wigwam Pond. Sarah was said to have been the last person buried at this site, which has since been developed into commercial spaces and athletic fields.

In the Spring of 1775, Alexander enlisted as a private to fight in the American Revolutionary War. He served in the 13th Massachusetts Regiment under Captain Daniel Whiting and Colonel Jonathan Brewer’s command. The Massachusetts 13th fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775. Alexander fell ill in November of that year and was taken to Needham (now Natick) to live in the home of Michael Bacon. Michael was about 14 years old and also served in the Massachusetts 13th. Alexander convalesced at the Bacon home for several months and died on March 23, 1776. Research conducted at the Natick Historical Society suggests that he was likely buried in what is now known as the Pond Street Burial Ground. On May 10, 1776, Michael Bacon Sr. was granted 6 pounds 8 shillings by the Massachusetts General Court in response to his petition to reimburse costs associated with Alexander’s care and burial.

The Pond Street burial ground was one of two burial grounds used to inter-Indigenous people in Natick during the 18th century. The second burial ground was on the present site of the Bacon Free Library and the Natick History Museum in South Natick. After a series of unidentified epidemics devastated Natick’s Indigenous community between 1745 and 1746, however, the South Natick Burial Ground was closed. At the time of Alexander Quapish’s death the only Indigenous burial ground in use was located along what is now Pond Street. Today, the Pond Street Burial Ground features a memorial to 12 Indigenous veterans of the American Revolution (including Alexander Quapish), all of whom were from the Natick area.

In 1856, Dr. Henry Jacob Bigelow of the Warren Anatomical Museum (at the Harvard School of Medicine) documented the museum’s receipt of Mr. Quapish’s remains. While it is unclear who was responsible for the disinterment of Alexander’s remains, it is known that his remains were accessioned into the museum’s collections. The remains stayed in the collections at the Warren Anatomical Museum until NAGPRA was passed in 1990, and they were turned over to the federal government. NAGPRA researchers have noted that Alexander Quapish’s case was the only one of over 1,000 cases in which they were able to match a name and story to repatriated human remains.

In December 2020, Alexander was reburied in the Pond Street Burial Ground in a ceremony overseen by Mashpee Wampanoag and Nipmuc Nation citizens.

By: Rachel Speyer Besancon

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Note: Natick, Dedham, and Needham all have records of Alexander Quapish because of several land exchanges among these towns during the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the site where Alexander has been laid to rest permanently is in Natick.

Selected Sources and Additional Reading:

Crowder, Jack, African Americans and American Indians in the Revolutionary War, (2018).

Quintal, George, Jr., Patriots of Color at Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston 17 June 1775, (2001, 2021).

Mann, Herman, Historical Annals of Dedham from its Settlement in 1635 to the Present, (1847).

Dedham Historical Society, “Dedham’s Indigenous Histories”.

Natick Vital Records to 1850.

Archives of the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Vol. 1 (1896).

Clarke, George Kuhn, History of Needham, Massachusetts: 1711-1911, (1912).

Bigelow, Melville Madison, et al., The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, (1869)