• Samuel Backus, the first son of William III, did not move on, being born and spending his entire life in Windham. He apparently was not devoted to the church, and must have had difficulty under the stern restraints of colonial society. Sometime in the 1720s, Samuel Backus was arraigned for speaking “vile, ungodly, and profane language,” and later, “windham did not escape occasional outbreaks of rowdyism. Samuel Backus though punished by imprisonment and hard labor... had the temerity, in 1730, to join with two other lads... steal the keys of the gaol and let out certain prisoners, who effected their escape from justice.”2169