August 25, 1726
Grand Jury Verdict “The Jurors for our Soverign Lord the King on their Oath do present that George Seneka an Indian Man of Bertie precinct not having the fear of God before his eyes but movd by ye instigation of the Devil & his own Cruel Peirce & Savage nature Vizi in Bertie precinct aforesayd on or about ye twenty fifth day of July one thousand seven hundred & twenty six by force & Arms an Assault did make upon Catherine Groom the Wife of Thomas Groom of Bertie & on two Infant Children Daughters of the sayd Thomas & Catherine Groom & with an Axe of the value of two shillings which in his hand he then he the sayd George feloniously Voluntarily and of malice forethought in Bertie precinct aforesaid Struck & barbarously wounded the sayd Catherine on the head & also the sayd two Infants with the sd Instrument then & there in like manner did wound so that of the sayd Cruel wounds the sayd Catherine & the sd two infants did then & there instantly dye & so the Jurors aforesayd on their sayd Oath do way that the sayd George … of malice forethought feloniously & voluntarily did kill & murder…” North Carolina Colonial Records (Saunders) II: 665.
August 26, 1726
Council Hearing on Meherrin Murder Trial
“The Honoble the Governor Informing this Board that the Maherron Indians had delivered up an Indian man belonging to them for killing an English Woman and two children whom he Committed… call a Special Court o f Oyer and Terminer for the Tryall of the sd Indian The Maherrin Indians having had notice to attend… A Bill of Indictment was found by the Grand Jury against George Senecca an Indian Man of Bertie Precinct for having feloniously Murthered Catherine Groom Wife of Thomas Groom of Bertie precinct aforesd planter and Two Infants Children Daughter of the said Thomas and Catherine who upon his Arraignment Pleaded Guilty and he was thereupon sentence to be hanged…
[in footnote:] The fact appeared to have been very barbarous, and I see no cause to recommend him to mercy. CGCJ.” North Carolina Colonial Records (Saunders) II: 640.
The Meherrin’s alliance with the Seneca may help explain the name of the “Meherrin” man named George Seneca.
His name suggests he was a Seneca who married into the tribe, or perhaps a son of a Seneca mother or father, or was a Seneca adopted in by the Meherrin.
No motive or explanation is given in the records of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, so we do not know if this was an act of “revenge,” in the tradition of Meherrin warfare, or simply an individual act of violence (the murders were committed with an axe).