{{Short description|Naumkeag sachem}} '''Quonopohit''' (c. 1636{{mdash}}1712), also known as '''James Quannapowit''', '''James Quanophkownatt,''' '''James Quannapohutt''', and '''James Rumney Marsh''',<ref>{{Cite book|last=Douglas-Lithgow|first=R. A.|title=Dictionary of American Indian Place and Proper Names in New England|year=1909|location=Salem, Massachusetts|pages=343}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians - Wikisource, the free online library |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Doings_and_Sufferings_of_the_Christian_Indians |access-date=2025-01-19 |website=en.wikisource.org |language=en}}</ref> was the successor to whom Wenepoykin, sachem of the Naumkeag people, willed his territories in modern day northeastern Massachusetts at the time of his death in 1684.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Perley|first=Sidney|url=http://archive.org/details/indianlandtitles00perl|title=The Indian land titles of Essex County, Massachusetts|date=1912|publisher=Salem, Mass. : Essex Book and Print Club|others=The Library of Congress}}</ref> He is known for deeding these lands to a number of Massachusetts towns in the 1680s, including Marblehead (1684), Lynn, Saugus, Swampscott, Lynnfield, Wakefield, North Reading, and Reading (1686), and Salem (1687).<ref name=":0" /> He is the namesake of Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, Massachusetts.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Simcox, Heath|first=Alison, Douglas|title=Lake Quannapowitt|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|year=2011|isbn=9780738573892|location=Massachusetts}}</ref>
== Biography == James Quonopohit was likely born near Winnisimet and was known to English colonists by the moniker "Rumney Marsh" for the English name given to the tidal estuary in present day Saugus and Revere, Massachusetts.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Brooks |first=Lisa |title=Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2018 |pages=147–168}}</ref> He was kin to the Squaw Sachem of Mystic, but may have been orphaned at a young age and raised in an English family along with his brother Thomas.<ref name=":2" /> James Quonopohit lived in the Praying Town of Natick prior to King Philip's War, and participated in defense of the praying towns of Natick and Nashaway against Mohawk raiding parties.<ref name=":2" />
At the outset of King Philip's War in 1675, he and his brother Thomas served as guides for troops from the Massachusetts Bay Colony,<ref name=":1" /> among the first native people to serve in such a role in King Phillip's War.<ref name=":1" /> At or near Hassanamesit, James Quonopohit was involved in an action that recovered an English colonist who had been captured.<ref name=":1" /> He aided English colonists in recruiting Praying Indians interned on Deer Island to spy upon the Narragansett and Wampanoag, and embedded himself as a spy for the colonies, later returning intelligence to the English colonists of Massachusetts Bay regarding a planned attack on Lancaster, Massachusetts.<ref name=":1" /> In 1676, he joined several other praying indians in petitioning the Massachusetts General Court for mercy for recaptured natives.<ref name=":1" />
After King Philip's War, James Quonopohit returned to Natick, where he received Naumkeag Sagamore George (alias Wenepoykin) upon his return from slavery in Barbados as punishment for participation in King Philip's War.<ref name=":0" /> After Sagamore George's death, several members of the Natick community later testified that he entrusted the care of Naumkeag lands to James Quonopohit.<ref name=":0" />
In 1686, James II nullified prior colonial English charters and declared the Dominion of New England. This precipitated a rush by New England towns to formally codify their claims to land through quitclaim deeds from indigenous groups. James Quonopohit took advantage of this moment to obtain payment from English colonists who were already occupying land previously inhabited by the Naumkeag people including Lynn, Saugus, Swampscott, Lynnfield, Wakefield, North Reading, and Reading in 1686, and Salem in 1687.<ref name=":0" />
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quonopohit}} Category:1630s births Category:1712 deaths Category:People from colonial Massachusetts Category:17th-century Native American leaders Category:18th-century Native American people Category:Native American history of Massachusetts Category:Native American people from Massachusetts Category:People of King Philip's War