8. Thomas Duston claimed the bounty for the scalps, along with young Leonardson
The historical record is vague regarding the whereabouts of Thomas Duston at the time the Indian raiding party attacked his farm and made off with his wife. However his activities following her return to the settlements are well documented. Duston petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature, then sitting in Boston, for payment, informing that body that during her captivity “among the Barbarous Indians” she had done an “extraordinary action, in the just slaughter of so many of the Barbarians”, and was thus entitled to “considerable recompense”. Duston humbly admitted that there was then no legal obligation for the colony to pay the bounty, such payment having been suspended by the legislature. Still, he argued that the “merits of the action still remain the same”.
The legislature evidently agreed, though not to the extent which Duston and his wife expected. The Colony awarded the sum of 50 pounds for the scalps, 25 to be paid to Hannah, or more correctly to Hannah’s husband as recompense for Hannah’s actions, and the other 25 divided equally between Mary Neff and Samuel Leonardson, who thought only 14 had more claim to legal standing than either Hannah or Mary. The payment was described by the legislature as being for “service in slaying their captors”. Mary Neff died in Haverhill in 1722, little is known about the rest of her life. Samuel Leonardson died in 1718, after moving to the Colony of Connecticut where he raised five children near the town of Preston. Hannah Duston remained in Haverhill, where she was shortly transformed into a legendary figure.