Wympy, Elijah Jr.

last name (variants): Wympe
Birth: 1765 in Farmington, Connecticut
Death: 1812 in Brothertown
Faith

Christian

Nationality

Farmington (Tunxis) Indian

Occupation

schoolmaster

Residence(s)
  • Farmington, Connecticut (from 1765 to 1775)
  • Brothertown (from 1775 to 1812)
Marital status

Wympy Jr. married Elizabeth Peters with whom he a son, Elijah, in 1794 and a daughter, Clarinda, in 1791.

Biography

Elijah Wympy Jr. was a Farmington-Tunxis Indian involved in the Brothertown movement. He was born in 1765 in Farmington, Connecticut to Elijah and Eunice Wympy. Wympy Sr. was a key figure in the establishment of Brothertown, and Wympy Jr. supported his father. Like the Mohegans, Pequots, Narragansetts, Niantics and Montauketts, the Tunxis Indians shared a history of encroachment by Europeans and increasing governmental authority that produced the shared identity fueling the creation of Brothertown. Occom notes Wympy Jr.'s presence in Brothertown several times in his journals for 1786-87. Wympy Sr. was a controversial figure who initially supported leasing lands to white settlers in Brothertown, but when he changed his position on this policy, he and his son signed a petition identifying white settlers as trespassers. Wympy Jr. married the widowed Elizabeth Peters, who had a daughter from her first marriage. Together, he and Elizabeth had a son and a daughter. In 1796, Wympy Jr. served as the schoolmaster for the school in Brothertown, but he was discharged after three months and replaced by Hannah Fowler, David Fowler's daughter. Wympy Jr. died in Brothertown in 1812.

Sources

Jarvis, Brad. The Brothertown Nation of Indians: Land Ownership and Nationalism in Early America, 1740-1840. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010; Love, W. DeLoss. Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England. Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1899. Web.