Editing Lakeville, Massachusetts (section)

=== King Philip's War ===
In 1675, the body of [[John Sassamon]], advisor to Governor [[Josiah Winslow]], was discovered beneath the ice of [[Assawompset Pond]]. He was believed to have been murdered, and three Native Americans were arrested. On the testimony of only one witness (contrary to English law, which required the testimony of at least two witnesses in a murder trial), the three were sentenced to death by [[hanging]]. When the sentence was carried out, Tobias, senior counselor to the [[Pokanoket]] sachem [[Metacomet|King Philip]], and a second supposed accomplice died. When the attempt was made to carry out the sentence on the third "accomplice"—Tobias's son—the rope broke and he was imprisoned, having first confessed to the killings. His confession is widely believed to have been coerced.

The death of John Sassamon and the subsequent trial and execution of the Wampanoag men convicted of his murder is broadly acknowledged as the trigger for [[King Philip's War]], though tensions between English colonists and indigenous groups had been building for decades. During part of the war, Metacomet and his forces sheltered in Lakeville at Assawompset Pond, prior to Metacomet's capture in [[Bristol, Rhode Island]].

The Wampanoag settlement at Assawompset Pond persisted until at least the early 1800s, as attested by burials in the [[Wampanoag Royal Cemetery]], and the biography of Benjamin Simonds.