John Wompas

John Wompas, a Harvard dropout, was both controversial and unusual. The controversy stemmed from his ability to get himself imprisoned””very soon after his arrival in England on debt charges and several times on his return home to New England. He was unusual, though, for his direct appeal to the Crown, avoiding the mediating roles of Governors and legal sponsors. Ironically, he did so at a point when Charles II had significantly reduced access to his person, making sponsorship of some sort essential; Pulsipher insists he would, like many New Englanders seeking assistance, have headed for the Royal Exchange. Wompas’s appeal in the mid-1670s stemmed from his having been hired by the Natick tribe in 1670 to secure their lands from Massachusetts interference, placing him at the centre of land struggles in Nipmuc country (where, in reality, he was something of a speculator, being accused of local chiefs of selling land that wasn’t his to sell). His trip to England, however, was not on the Naticks’ behalf, but to preserve his own land interests. Although his claims appear to be dubious, his petition from gaol was apparently well received, and the King instructed Governor John Leverett to allow him to sell his lands to clear his debt. However, the King did not help him directly and his letter appears to have been left waiting for him in Whitehall. His friend Anthony Mudd paid his debts for him after a year in prison, for repayment of which John deeded him 1000 acres in Massachussetts (his to sell?). Although there are several prisons he could have been placed in, Pulsipher suggests it’s likely he spent his year’s incarceration in Newgate, so we’ve placed his flag at the Criminal Court which stands adjacent to the site of Newgate Prison (demolished 1904).

Jenny Hale Pulsipher, Swindler Sachem: The American Indian who sold his Birthright, Dropped out of Harvard, and Conned the King of England