Ebenezer Wells (1691-1758) was born in Hatfield, Massachusetts, the first of several children born to Ebenezer Wells, Sr. and his first wife, Mary (Waite) Wells. Ebenezer, Jr. was among their children who moved to nearby Deerfield where Ebenezer Sr. owned property. Ebenezer became a prosperous farmer, raising oxen for the thriving fattened cattle trade. Ebenezer married Abigail Barnard in 1720 when they were both 29 years old. The couple had no children. In 1744, during King George's War (1744-1748) Ebenezer was among the men charged with building a "Mount", one of four fortified and palisaded sentry towers on the village street. He served as an ensign in the town's militia company. Ebenezer Barnard died in 1758, leaving the bulk of this substantal property to his wife Abigail and his brother Thomas's son, Ebenezer Wells (1730-1783.) He divided the remainder of the estate among his other nieces and nephews. He also left "a good silver Tankard" to the Deerfield church to be paid for out of any remaining funds. A silver tankard made by Samuel Edwards for the First Church of Deerfield, now in the collections of Historic Deerfield is engraved, "The Gift of Mr. Ebenezer Wells to the Church of Deerfield/ Ano: 1758."
Ebenezer and Abigail enslaved two people: Caesar and Lucy Terry (c. 1728-1821) (later Lucy Terry Prince.) Both Caesar and Lucy may have come into the Wells household in about 1735, the same year they both were baptized by Deerfield's minister, the Reverend Jonathan Ashley on June 15, 1735. Caesar became a full member of the Deerfield Church in February, 1736. (Records of the First Church of Deerfield, Massachusetts.) His name appeared in various accounts until 1748. Lucy Terry (c1723-1821) is among the best-known of Deerfield's early residents. While still enslaved, she commemorated a raid by an Abenaki raiding party on a family group gathering hay by composing "The Bars Fight," the first known poem by an African American in North America. Known for her religiosity, she joined the Deerfield Church in 1744. (Records of the First Church of Deerfield.) In 1756, she married Abijah Prince (c1706-1794), two years before Ebenezer Wells died. Although no manumission records exist, their first child, Caesar, was born free in 1757, suggesting that Lucy was free at or shortly after her marriage as any child born to an enslaved mother inherited her unfree status. To find out more about Lucy and Abijah's long and eventful lives, see their biographies in the section of the database, African Americans.
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