Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

When Captain Cooke returned to England in 1645, the General Court thought ‘meet to desire Mr. Joseph Cooke to take care of the company in the absence of the Captain, and till the Court shall take further order, and that John Stedman be established ensign.’² Nov. 11, 1647. ‘Mr. Joseph Cooke, upon his petition, is freed from exercising the company at Cambridge, and from being compellable by fine to attend upon every training hereafter.’³ About this time Daniel Gookin removed to Cambridge, and probably was the next Captain of the trainband, of which he retained the command about forty years. He was commander-in-chief of the militia in Middlesex County during that terrible contest which is generally denominated ‘Philip's War,’ or the ‘Narragansett War,’ even before he attained the rank of Sergeant-major.⁴ He wrote the instructions to Captain Joseph Sill,⁵ Nov. 2, 1675, to ‘take charge of the soldiers raised from Charlestown, Watertown, and Cambridge, which are about sixty men,’ and to go forth against the enemy, closing thus: ‘so desiring the ever-living Lord God to accompany you and your company with his gracious conduct and presence, and that he will for Christ's sake appear in all the mounts of difficulty, and cover all your heads in the day of battle, and deliver the bloodthirsty and cruel enemy of God and his people into your hands, and make you executioners of his just indignation upon them, and return you victorious unto us, I commit you and your company unto God, and remain your very loving friend, Daniel Gookin, Senr.’⁶ The names of some of the Cambridge soldiers may be gleaned from the few military documents preserved. It appears that in November, 1675, John Adams, Daniel Champney, John Eanes, David Stone, and Samuel Stone, Jr., were impressed as ‘troopers,’ or cavalry. On the 26th day of the same month, Corporal