The Raid on York took place on 24 January 1692 during King William's War, when Chief Madockawando and Father Louis-Pierre Thury led 200-300 natives into the town of York, killing about 100 of the English settlers and burning down buildings, taking another estimated 80 villagers hostage. The villagers were forced to walk to Canada, New France, where they were ransomed by Capt. John Alden Jr. of Boston. One of those taken captive was a young Jeremiah Moulton, who would later gain notoriety during the Father Rale's War.
Memorial plaque in York, ME
King William's War was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg. It was the first of six colonial wars fought between New France and New England along with their respective Native allies before France ceded its remaining mainland territories in North America east of the Mississippi River in 1763.
Count Frontenac, governor of New France, refused English demands to surrender prior to the Battle of Quebec.
At the end of the 17th century, English settlers outnumbered the French, although the English were divided into multiple colonies along the Atlantic.
Major Richard Waldron shortly before his death during the Abenaki raid on Dover
William Phips, the Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, led an assault on Port Royal.
