Stricker Family Tree - Lieutenant John Sharp and Martha Vose Sharp

Lieutenant John Sharp and Martha Vose Sharp

Family Connection - 8th great-great grandparents of Roy Ellsworth Stricker

John Sharp was born in 1648 in Muddy River (now known as Brookline), Massachusetts Colony.

Martha Vose was the daughter of Robert Vose and Jane Moss, the subjects of the Nov. 19th blog post. She was born in 1647 in Lancashire, England, and immigrated with her family sometime before 1654. 

John and Martha were married sometime around 1664 and had five children, all born in Muddy River.
            Robert            b. 1665       d. 1690

            Martha           b. 1667        d. 1716

            John               b. 1669        d. 1712

            Elizabeth        b. 1671        d. 1743

            William          b. 1674        d. 1751

Not much is known about their lives, but John Sharp was a militiaman, a Lieutenant under the command of Captain Samuel Wadsworth when King Phillip's war broke out. 

(Side note - I'd never heard of King Phillip's war until we moved to Acton. It is not part of the French and Indian Wars we learned a little about in school. I will devote a whole blog post to it, soon. Meanwhile...)

During King Phillip's war, the Indigenous tribes of the Northern Woodlands began attacking settlements in Massachusetts Colony and elsewhere. 

In April of 1676, colonial authorities became aware of a large group of natives were gathering at Mount Wachusett in the east central part of the Massachusetts colony. In response, Captain Wordsworth marched about seventy colonial militiamen (including John Sharp) to the garrison in Marlboro. While they were gathering in Marlboro, about five hundred of the native forces, including the leader known as King Philip, were moving toward Sudbury. On April 21, 1676, they began their attack on Sudbury. 

Map of the Sudbury Fight 

Captain Wadsworth heard of the attack on Sudbury, and mustered his men, tired from the march to Marlboro. He also included the troops under Samuel Brocklebank. John Sharp was Wadsworth's Lieutenant. At Sudbury they spotted some native combatants, and charged them, only to find out that the natives were bait in a trap, and the militia was surrounded by as many as five hundred native forces. 

Wadsworth and his men fought their way to a hilltop called Green Hill, but the natives set the dry hill grass on fire, forcing Wadsworth and his men to retreat. Most of the militiamen were killed during the retreat, including Captain Wordsworth, Captain Brocklebank who joined the troops in Marlboro, and Lieutenant John Sharp. 

Twenty-nine militiamen were buried in a mass grave on the battlefield, and the spot marked with a large heap of stones. 

I haven't found any records indicating what Martha Vose Sharp did once her husband died, but she most likely moved in with Vose family members, since she still has small children to care for. There are no records of s second marriage for her. She died in 1683 in Milton. 

In 1852, the remains of the men killed in what was called The Sudbury Fight were excavated and moved to the Wadsworth Cemetery. An obelisk now marks their grave. 

Dave and I visited the site of the Sudbury fight and the cemetery and took these pictures. In the center of Sudbury, the state of Massachusetts erected a historical marker.

I must give credit to the book King Philip's War  by Eric B. Schultz and Michael J. Tougas for their clear explanation of what happed at the Sudbury Fight and for the drawing at the top of the post. 

John Sharpe and Martha Vose > Martha Sharp > Joanna Buckminster > William Ames Jr. > Joanna Ames > John Henry Warner > Mariah Warner > Eugene Aaron Grover > Lillian May Grover > Gertrude Myra Newland > Roy Ellsworth Stricker

John Sharp and Martha Vose are in the yellow section, second ring from the outside, next to the orange section of the top chart. John Henry Warner, the center person of the top chart, is in the second ring from the outside of the orange section of the second chart, near the center of the orange section.