In this early September episode of a series on the 350th Anniversary of the conflict, Historian Stan Svec examines one of the more famous stories of the War, The Angel of Hadley. William Goffe, military hero, near Puritan Saint and Regicide who had been in hiding for years from the vengeance of King Charles II, made a miraculous appearance to save the Connecticut River town of Hadley Massachusetts from destruction at the hands of Metacom. Click here for an 8-minute video posted on September 14, 2025 by Fishing Historic Places.

September 1st, 1675, the people of Hadley, Massachusetts were terrified. Just a few weeks before, the community of Brookfield, not too many miles to the east, had felt the wrath of the Nipmuck rising with Muttawmp leading the combined tribes of the Nipmuc Confederation down on that unsuspecting community after Wheeler’s Surprise.

As depicted in a painting by Frederick A. Chapman sometime around the year 1850, they had gathered in the center of the common by the meeting house, unable to determine what to do when suddenly from the minister’s house appeared a gentleman who looked the part of an Old Testament prophet. William Goffe, the famous general in command of Puritan forces during the English Civil War and a man who had sat in judgment of King Charles I of England and condemned him to death by beheading, appeared to take command of the startled citizens of Hadley. 

Goffe had come there because he was on the run from the vengeance of King Charles II, Charles’ the first son. The surviving members of the more than 30 men who had condemned Charles to death fled in all directions, pursued by bounty hunters with William Goff and Edward Walley coming to the North American colonies. We know Goff was in the area. No attack is recorded, so we can say the best of all possible results can be attached to his presence: he prevented war.