Robert Chapman and Ann Bliss: Married Inside the Fort Walls

Robert Chapman crossed the Atlantic on a twenty-five ton Norwegian bark too small for the open sea and landed on a wilderness shore where he helped build the fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River. Through the winter of 1636 the Pequot besieged that fort, and Robert stood sentinel through six months of hunger, raids, and a marsh ambush that killed four of the twelve men sent out with him. Years later, on one of his river patrols up to Hartford, he met the weaver's daughter Ann Bliss, and the romance that grew between them carried him out of the garrison and into a long life of land, children, and service to the colony.Robert's own words, read in this episode, are drawn from his Legacie to his Children, written September 6, 1687.This episode is from the fourth chapter of the Chapman volume of By Hope We Came, a sixteen-book history of the first pioneers who sailed for the New World. These are the men and women who crossed the Atlantic to settle in New France and colonial New England. Robert Chapman and Ann Bliss were the eighth great-grandparents of Arlene Chapman.Written and read by Myles Bristowe. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit byhopewecame.substack.com