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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Stephen Williams was ten years old when he was captured along with several family members and over one hundred fellow residents of Deerfield, Massachusetts, in the Deerfield Raid of 1704. He survived an 18 month captivity and returned to New England. Like his father, the Reverend John Williams (1664-1729) before him, Stephen attended Harvard College and became a minister. This portrait conveys Stephen Williams' social and intellectual authority. His clerical dress identified him as one of the most educated and important men in Puritan society. His wig and the fact that he had his portrait painted at a time when very few people could afford to do so also marked Williams as a person of importance. Williams is one of a relatively few individuals from this period to leave behind any record of what they looked like.

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