Fort Shirley was one of a line of forts that were constructed
during the French and Indian War to protect the Massachusetts
frontier and its principal town, Deerfield, against enemy
attacks.
Built in 1744, Fort Shirley consisted of a 60-by 60-foot
"blockhouse" with walls of horizontal hewn timbers.
The number of soldiers in Fort Shirley varied from 47, when it
was the headquarters, to only one man and his family in the days of
its decline. The fort was ordered abandoned in 1754.
Just northeast of Fort Shirley is the gravesite of Anna Norton, who
died here on August 26, 1747. She was the seven-year-old daughter
of the Rev. John Norton. Norton had been captured in August 1746 by
the French and Indians following the siege of Fort Massachusetts
(located in what is now North Adams), and taken to Montreal and
Quebec. Returning by exchange to Fort Shirley the next year, he
found that Anna had already died and had been buried by the fort's
soldiers.