The tale of William Eager, an 8x great-grandfather of mine, is almost too exotic to be true. He was brought to America on the “Unity”— a ship full of Scottish prisoners of war. These men were captured in the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and sent abroad by Oliver Cromwell, sold off as indentured servants. Freed after the typical seven years of unpaid obligated labor in Malden, Massachusetts, Eager married local girl Ruth Hill, a taverner’s daughter, and they moved to Cambridge. Eager fought in the Mount Hope campaign of King Philip’s War in 1675 — a fight between the new White settlers and the Native Americans. A few years later, Ruth died and he married Lydia Cheever (also widowed) and together the produced a family of six children, adding to the eight he already had.
In 1684, the Eagers went west to Marlborough, MA, a frontier town that had been sacked in King Philip’s War. The settlement had held a large native population of “Praying Indians” (those that converted to Christianity) who largely scattered after the war. William Eager was one of a number of colonists who were part of the purchase of Ockoocangansett Plantation that was left behind. Many would say that the purchase was a swindle — an unfair taking of the natives’s land.Where the Eagers lived for generations, still stands a very old house, situated at an odd angle on a cul-de-sac of contemporary houses. There is no marker on the house of its historic significance. The only clue of its legacy is the name of the street: Eager Court.
Visiting the Relatives 