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John Deserontyon -An exceptional warrior and accomplished Mohawk chief.
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Sometime during this year, 1740, John Deserontyon was born.
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Deserontyon accompanied Sir William Johnson to Niagara, near youngstown for the first time when he was young. When the British laid siege to that fort in 1759, he was with the forces under Major-General Jeffery Amherst.
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Throughout the conflict, Deserontyon was actively participating in raids into northern New York, near Oswego (N.Y.) or the Richelieu valley, raids were a great source of intelligence for the British throughout the conflict.
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The decision to leave their families at this dangerous time in order to aid Johnson was not easy for the Mohawks but, Deserontyon later wrote, “we thought that it would be very hard if we should lose them for it was only them helped us.” Deseronto went back to the Mohawk valley the following year and met with Sir John Johnson.
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A year before, during the war, Deserontyon carried messages and spied for Sir John Johnson. In May 1776, Sir John, having learned that the British were about to dispatch from Albany to seize him and his property, sent Deserontyon to find the exact date of the troop’s departure. This object the chief accomplished, slipping past the American guards in the darkness and thus helped Johnson make his escape to Montreal.
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Following a council with Major John Butler, in the spring of 1777, Deserontyon went to Quebec, where he met Major-General John Burgoyne, just arrived from England with orders to invade New York. The main part of Burgoyne’s attack was to be the Richelieu valley, but a secondary advance under Barrimore Matthew St Leger was to be made in the Mohawk valley; it was in the second part of the campaign that Deserontyon participated.
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After the American Revolutionary War, Deserontyon was compensated by Britain for losses during the war. He left behind in New York 82 acres of cultivated land, a barn, house and furniture, sleigh, carriage, wagon, farm animals, he received an amount of £836, yearly presents, and an annual pension of £45, together with assurance that his son Peter John would be properly educated at a boarding-school. In recognition of his services to the Indian Department he was also given 3,000 acres of land.
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Deserontyon was active on behalf of the educational and spiritual welfare of his Mohawks. In response to his wishes, a teacher named Vincent, who would also double as a catechist, was appointed to the settlement in 1785. This move and the visits paid by John Stuart, formerly the Anglican missionary at Fort Hunter, were received with great joy by Deserontyon and his fellow Mohawks.
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John Deserontyon died this day. He died in the Mohawk settlement on Bay of Quinte.
