John Underhill

John Underhill (ca 1608/1609 – 21 July 1672) was an early English settler and soldier in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Province of New Hampshire, where he also served as governor; the New Haven Colony, New Netherland, and later the Province of New York, settling on Long Island. Hired to train militia in New England, he is most noted for leading colonial militia in the Pequot War (1636–1637) and Kieft's War which the colonists mounted against two different groups of Native Americans. He also published an account of the Pequot War. Biography Early life, military and marriage John Underhill was one of three children of John Underhill (1574–1608) and Leonora Honor Pawley. His great-grandfather Sir Hugh Underhill was Keeper of the Wardrobe for Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich, and his grandfather Thomas Underhill held the same position at Kenilworth Castle for Elizabeth's favorite, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. John Underhill was born in ca 1608/09 in the Netherlands. His family had escaped to the Netherlands after a failed plot by the Earl of Essex to overthrow the Queen. There they stayed in Bergen op Zoom, a heavily fortified city. John Edward Underhill was sergeant in the company of Captain Roger Orme. He died there in October 1608 and is buried in the Church of St. Gertrude.