Norridgewock

Norridgewock was an Abenaki village on the Kennebec River, at a broad bend opposite the mouth of the Sandy River. A 1716 account describes a palisaded village with twenty-six cabins and a cross in its central square. Nearby fields yielded maize, beans and squash, while journeys to the coast supplied fish and shellfish. The French Jesuit Sébastien Rale established a mission here in 1694.

English expansion along the Kennebec brought mounting conflict with the Abenaki. In 1722 a colonial force entered Norridgewock seeking Rale and seized his papers; fighting followed, and Massachusetts declared war that summer. Two years later another force attacked the village, killing Rale and several Abenaki leaders, including Bomazeen. Survivors left the devastated settlement, and some found refuge farther north.