Dorcas Esop Honorable (1855) was - controversially - said to be

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

Island's last Nantucket

Wampanoag The Wampanoag, also rendered Wôpanâak, are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Northeastern Woodlands currently based in southeastern Massachusetts and forme ...

inhabitant. She was of

origin, and was raised speaking the

Massachusett language The Massachusett language is an Algonquian languages, Algonquian language of the Algic languages, Algic language family that was formerly spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and southeastern Massachusetts. In its revived form, it is s ...

(which is currently the subject of a language

revival movement Christian revival is defined as "a period of unusual blessing and activity in the life of the Christian Church". Proponents view revivals as the restoration of the Church to a vital and fervent relationship with God after a period of moral decl ...

History

Born circa 1770, Dorcas Esop was the daughter of Sarah Tashama Esop, daughter of Benjamin Tashama. Dorcas's grandfather Benjamin was a

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Alg ...

, teacher, and preacher who opened a school for Wampanoag children. Dorcas was born during the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, just ten years after an illness brought by

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common ancestry, language, faith, historical continuity, etc. There are ...

killed 222 of 358 Wampanoags on Nantucket. Unlike her acquaintance Abram Quary, who was generally recognized as the second-to-last Wampanoag on Nantucket and the last male native to the island, Dorcas Honorable was known to have remained out of public knowledge during her lifetime, particularly after the death of her mother. Dorcas worked as a domestic and worshipped as a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. Esop was married several times. In 1792, she was married to Isaac Freeman, but by 1800, she had likely gone back to live with her mother Sarah, because a census from 1800 shows that Sarah ran a household of two people. Dorcas would remarry in 1801 to Bill Williams, in 1808 to Henry Mooers, in 1817 to John Sip, and in 1820 to Thomas Honorable. It remains obscure whether her husbands were Indigenous or non-Indigenous. It is also unclear why she was married so many times in a period of thirty years. Some historical records indicate that Dorcas's fourth husband, John Sip, was the victim of a violent assault in Nantucket's New Guinea community, but his marriage to Dorcas is the last record of him in Nantucket's recorded history. Dorcas had her only known child with Thomas Honorable. Their child was a daughter named Emmeline. By 1830, it would appear that Dorcas and Thomas Honorable were living in New Guinea, but they returned to Nantucket in 1850, around the time that Dorcas was widowed. Dorcas lived the rest of her life in the household of Thaddeus Coffin on Nantucket. After Abram Quary's death in the late months of 1854, it was generally believed that the Native American race on Nantucket had gone extinct within 100 years of European arrival. But Dorcas died in the early months of 1855, and it was then that Europeans acknowledged her as the last Indigenous Nantucketer. A Baptist congregational ceremony was held for Dorcas's death at her church.

References

* * 1855 deaths Last known speakers of a Native American language Year of birth uncertain Baptists from Massachusetts Wampanoag people Native American people from Massachusetts 1770s births 18th-century Native American women 18th-century American women 18th-century Native American people 19th-century Native American women 19th-century Native American people {{NorthAm-native-bio-stub