EVENTS
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA
Music: it’s a sin!
ONLINE, THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2026, 6-7:30pm ET
NATALIE KERSHAW
It’s the mid-1640s and England is rift by civil war. How do you and your family carry on? With music, says British musician and historian Natalie Kershaw. Her presentation helps us see life through the eyes of the musician at a time of maximum strife and change, when tunes such as Cuckolds All in a Row and Aim not too high were circulating in towns and villages, through playbooks, travelling musicians, and chapbooks. We’ll hear the tunes and learn about the dances, songs, and instruments of two decades of war, Interregnum and Restoration.
hugh peter and the orphans
ONLINE, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2026, 7-8:30pm ET
SAMUEL FULLERTON
Was it fake news? Royalists saw only the devil whispering “You are mine” in former Salem minister Hugh Peter’s ear, a sign of his malevolent intent in sending homeless London orphans to New England in the civil war years. Join historian Samuel Fullerton in exploring this 17th century conspiracy theory as Royalists marshalled the power of print media to tar Peter’s arguably benevolent project with accusations of subjecting young people to the evils of Puritanism.
“You knocked it out of the park with this lecture. Have signed up for them all.”
—attendee, Enslavement & Resistance series