Raid on Haverhill ( 1708 ) The Raid on Haverhill was a military engagement that took place on August 29 , 1708 during Queen Anne ' s War . French , Algonquin , and Abenaki warriors under the command of Jean - Baptiste Hertel de Rouville descended on Haverhill , then a small frontier community in the Province of Massachusetts Bay . In the surprise attack , 16 people were killed and another 14 to 24 were taken captive . A rapid militia muster gave chase , and in a skirmish later in the day , nine of the French and Indian party were killed and some of their prisoners escaped . Haverhill was not the original target of the raiders . Expecting a larger Indian contingent , French authorities planned to engage in a series of raids on the communities of the Piscataqua River . However , the unwillingness of some Indian tribes to participate in the expedition forced the French to reduce the scope of the operation and choose an easier target . The raid was more costly to the French than previous frontier raids like that in 1704 on Deerfield , Massachusetts because the province had been warned of the raiders ' advance . Background . When Queen Anne ' s War ( as the War of the Spanish Succession was called in the colonies of British America ) broke out in 1702 , it sparked war on the already tense frontier between the English colonies of New England and the colonies of New France , including Acadia and Canada . French military officers from the troupes de la marine , the defense force of New France , often led parties of Indians from their settlements along the Saint Lawrence River south to the northern frontiers of New England , which then included small communities in what is now northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire and Maine . The largest and most successful raid of the war occurred in February 1704 , when Jean - Baptiste Hertel de Rouville led about 250 men , principally Indians on a raid against the frontier town of Deerfield in the Province of Massachusetts Bay . Hertel de Rouville ' s band killed or took prisoner many of the townsfolk , returning to Canada on a difficult trek in which a number of the prisoners died ; many of the surviving captives were adopted into Indian communities afterward . Massachusetts fortified its frontier with militia in response to this raid , and launched a raid against Acadia in retaliation . The Massachusetts village of Haverhill was also subjected to smaller - scale raids in 1704 , but it was not originally the target of the ambitious expedition planned by New France ' s Governor - General Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil in 1708 . In the aftermath of the failed English siege of Port Royal , Acadia in 1707 , Vaudreuil was criticized by French Marine Minister the Comte de Pontchartrain for failing to apply sufficient pressure on the New England colonies . Vaudreuil was also concerned over the increasing tendency of Indians that were under French influence to engage in illicit trade with the Province of New York , cutting into New France ' s economic activity . Vaudreuil decided to address these issues by organizing a major raid into New England that was intended to be even larger in scope than the Deerfield raid . Vaudreuil ' s plan was to amass a force of as many as 400 men for attacks on the towns of New Hampshire on the Piscataqua River . In order to maintain some secrecy over the size and target of the expedition , forces from several points along the Saint Lawrence River would descend to Lake Winnipesaukee , where they would rendezvous with Abenaki and Pennacook tribal parties . The main French party departed from Trois - Rivières , and consisted of about 100 men , drawn from Canadian militia and the troupes de la marine , under the command of Hertel de Rouville . This party included a number of veterans from the Deerfield raid , and they were accompanied by bands of Abenaki and Nipissing . A band of 220 Iroquois from the Kanehsatake and Kahnawake tribes was to depart Montreal under the command of René Boucher de La Perrière , and additional Huron and Abenaki s were to come from near Quebec . Reports that a major expedition was being planned made their way via Indian traders to Albany , New York , and from there to Boston . Because the expedition ' s targets were not known , little could be done to prepare specific defenses . A party of about 40 provincial militia were sent to Haverhill in response to these reports . Expedition difficulties . Elements of the expedition departed in mid - July from the Saint Lawrence River . As the Quebec party ascended the Saint - François River , a Huron died in an accident . This was viewed as a bad portent by many of the Indians , and the Hurons turned back . Among the Iroquois from Montreal , who traveled via Lake Champlain , some men fell sick and the rest refused to continue , in what some contemporaries thought was a ruse by the Iroquois to avoid conflict . Vaudreuil believed this was the case , and reports reached the English at Albany that the Iroquois had deliberately chosen to abandon the expedition " not to join war against New England . " Despite these setbacks , Vaudreuil ordered Hertel de Rouville to press on , even if he received no further reinforcements . When his company reached Lake Winnipesaukee , he found that no eastern Indians willing to participate in the expedition had been found . Hertel de Rouville was consequently left with a band of about 160 men , which limited his options for raiding targets to places that were less fortified . Haverhill was chosen as the target for several reasons . The village layout was already well - known from the 1704 raids and from an earlier raid in the Nine Years ' War . It was not particularly large ( 25 to 30 houses ) , its location lent itself poorly to defense , and only some of the houses were fortified . A fast - moving raiding party could be in and out of the village before the alarm could be raised . The party arrived outside Haverhill and prepared to begin the raid on Sunday , August 29 . It was joined at some point on its travels by the exiled Abenaki war chief Escumbuit , who lived not far from Haverhill , and had received word of the expedition ' s advance . At the time , responsibility for Haverhill ' s defense was divided . The local militia was under the command of Simon Wainwright , whose house had a view of the entire village . The town ' s defenses had been supplemented by three small ( three to four man ) garrisons of colonial troops under the overall command of Major Turner . Raid . The raiders successfully sneaked past the outer garrisons of provincial militia , and were first spotted in the pre - dawn light by a villager . Firing his gun to raise the alarm , he ran for the village , with the French and Indians in noisy pursuit . The action quickly became general as the raiders descended on the houses in the village . One of the colonial garrisons was stationed in the home of the minister , Benjamin Rolfe , who had barred the door in an attempt to keep the raiders out . Raiders fired through the door , wounding Rolfe , and then broke the door down . They then slaughtered Rolfe , his wife , infant child , and the colonial militiamen , who , " paralyzed by fear " , were begging for mercy . In another house , one baby was thrown through an open window by a raider but suffered no injury . A number of villagers escaped by hiding in cellars whose trapdoors were not discovered by the raiders . Captain Wainwright was preparing to organize a defense when gunfire from the raiders passed through the door to his house , killing him instantly . The raiding and pillaging continued until the sounds of approaching militia companies reached the raiders , who quickly lit the town meetinghouse on fire and left with their accumulated prisoners and loot . The reinforcements came from neighboring communities ( some from as far away as Salem ) and mustered under Major Turner ' s command when they arrived . One party of Haverhill militiamen discovered the raiders ' baggage camp several miles from the village , and took their packs . Captain Samuel Ayer ' s company , numbering about 20 , pursued the retreating raiders . Eventually strengthened by further militia , he engaged the encumbered raiders . In a furious rear - guard action the raiders fought off the militia ( killing Ayer in the action ) , but lost nine killed , including Hertel de Rouville ' s brother , and 18 wounded . Because of the skirmish , the raiders abandoned some of their loot , and some of their prisoners got away . The village recorded that 30 to 40 people were killed or captured , which included those who escaped in the later skirmish . Aftermath . The raiders ' return to Canada was difficult . Joseph Bartlett , one of their captives , described the privations suffered due the loss of the force ' s baggage . One day they caught a hawk , which was divided among 15 men ; his share , the head , was " the largest meal I had these four days . " Bartlett remained in captivity with the Indians for four years . Some of the Frenchmen , rather than attempt the journey without their supplies , surrendered themselves to Massachusetts authorities . French accounts of the raid greatly exaggerated the numbers involved , claiming that several hundred had been killed , and that the post - raid skirmish had involved as many as 200 English colonists . The raid was more costly to the French that previous raids had been : because of better preparedness on the part of the Massachusetts militia , the French suffered a higher proportion of casualties than they had in the Deerfield raid . The raid was the last large - scale attack the French launched against Massachusetts in the war . Minor attacks occurred along its frontier , and Wells , then part of Massachusetts but now in Maine , was attacked by a substantial force in 1712 . Port Royal fell in 1710 to an expedition that included British marines , and the British abandoned a 1711 naval expedition against Quebec after some of its troop transports ran aground at the mouth of the St . Lawrence with significant loss of life .