Fowler, Esther (née Poquiantup)

last name (variants): Fowler
Birth: 1746 in Mohegan, CT
Death: 1782 in Brothertown, NY
Nationality

Mushantuxet Pequot

Residence(s)
  • Hanover, NH (from 1774 to 1776)
  • Brothertown, NY (from 1784)
Marital status

Married to Jacob Fowler; they had one recorded child who died at Mushantuxet.

Biography

Esther Poquiantup was a Mushantuxet Pequot, the daughter of Samson Poquiantup (Pequot, 1725-1787) and Esther (Mohegan, 1725-1822) and sister of Prude Poquiantup Harry (1752-1828). The Poquiantups (also spelled Pouquenup, Pauhqunnup, Uppuiquiyantup) were a prominent family of Christian Indians with one branch living in Groton and the other at Niantic, CT. In 1766, Samson and Esther were living at Groton. Samson was a church deacon who occasionally hosted Occom's religious meetings. We don't know when Esther married Jacob Fowler, a Montaukett Indian, younger brother of David, and Samson Occom's brother-in-law, but we do know that by 1774, Esther and Jacob were living in Hanover, NH, in a Dartmouth College building down the hall from Elizabeth Walcutt and her daughter Lucy. Jacob, who attended Wheelock's School, had become a preceptor there. Esther and Jacob were part of the first group to emigrate from New England to Brothertown in Oneida country. By 1787, Occom refers to Esther as a widow, and lodges frequently at her house.

Sources

Brooks, Joanna, ed. The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006; Love, W. DeLoss, Jr. Samson Occom and the Christiann Indians of New England. 1899. Rpt. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003. Silverman, David. Red Brethren: The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians and the Problem of Race in Early America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010.