Mary Rowlandson (c. 1637–1711) was the author of A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, an account of her eleven-and-a-half-week captivity in the hands of Native Americans. Rowlandson was born in Somerset, England, and she and her family came to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639. They moved to the frontier community of Lancaster in 1653, and in 1656 Mary married a minister in the community, Reverend Joseph Rowlandson (c. 1631–1678). In the late winter of 1675–76, Native Americans who were allied with the Wampanoag leader Metacom (also known as King Philip; 1638–1676) raided Lancaster. One estimate suggests that fourteen Lancaster residents were killed in the raid, while twenty-three others—including Rowlandson and three of her children—were taken prisoner.