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Marianne it. Richmond. March 10, 1128. From Carl.
Kittery Opens Celebration Of Tercentenary
KITTERY, July 25-Ideal sum- mer weather favored the opening of the four-day observance by Kit- tery of the 300th anniversary of the incorporation of' Maine's first town.
Yesterday was designated as 'Open House Day" and no less than eight of Kittery's places of interest were opened to the public.
Among the places' opened were the Bray house, built" in 1662, be- lieved to be the oldest house in Maine; the Lady Pepperrell man- sion; Sparhawk mansion, built in 1742 by Sir William Pepperrell, hero of the Battle' of Louisburg, as a present for his daughter, Eliza- beth on the occasion of her mar- riage to Nathaniel Sparhawk, son of a Rhode Island clergyman; the Dennett Garrison house, the First Congregational church, built in 1730, the old parsonage; the John P. Benson studio and the William Dean Howells library.
The Lady Pepperrell house is now owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England An- tiquities and has been extensively renovated since the disastrous fire of December 1945. "Because of ill- ness the Sir William Pepperrell house was not open to the public.
Today is "Governor's Day" and as a special feature, the Ports- mouth Naval Base "will be opened to the pubilc. There will be an opportunity to go aboard the USS Johnston, a destroyer, and the USS Odax, a submarine, which was built here.
Friday afternoon át Traip acad- emy field there will be a speaking program with Gov. Horace Hil- dreth of Maine and Gov. Robert F. Bradford of Massachusetts as the
Kittery Town team, and a handi- cap mile run. In the late afternon after the speaking program the two governors and other officials 4
will visit the Naval base where a 19-gun salute will be fired in honor of the two chief executives. The party will be met by Rear Admiral John H. Brown, Jr., USN, com- mander.
After the customary honors they will be escorted on a tour of the 151 base and ship by Admiral Brown and the commanding officers of the Naval shipyard. Naval Hospital, Disciplinary Barracks and the Ma- rine Barracks.
OLD KITTERY
AND
HER FAMILIES
BY EVERETT S. STACKPOLE
AUTHOR OF HISTORY OF DURHAM, MAINE, HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF THE STACKPOLE FAMILY, Etc.
1
LEWISTON, MAINE PRESS OF LEWISTON JOURNAL COMPANY 1903
Colonial Sunday Is Observed By Kittery Church
14 9
KITTERY, Me., Aug. 17 - The rich historical heritage of the First Congregational church in Kittery Point was vivdly por- trayed at Sunday's annual obser- vance of Colonial Sunday.
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Captain Whipple donated the first piece of communion silver, a cup, to the church in 1728.
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Mr. and Mrs. Graham C. Alvord, : in colonial costume, and their in- ' fant son, Christopher Drake Al- .vord, represented the Whipple fa- mily.
The first two scenes depicted the presentation of the communion cup to the church and the christ- Iening of General Whipple.
t Deacons Henry Barter and John Fernald were portrayed by Select- men Joseph W. Cutts and Reginald 1|F. Berry, both ' present-day dea- cons.
The final scene was the reading of the Declaration of Independence by the Rev. Benjamin Stevens, D. D., second pastor of the church, who was portrayed by Mr. Mac- donald. The historic document had been ordered read in each pulpit throughout the colonies.
---
Dudley Herbert, instructor of English at Traip academy, was
More than 50 members of the congregation were in colonial cos- tume.
Others participating in the ser- vice were Mrs. Macdonlad as Ma- dame Newmarch; Dorothy Woods, Joanna Newmarch; Mrs. Cutts, Mistress Barter; Mrs. Berry, Mis- tressFernald; Mr. and Mrs. Paul J. Wenners, Sir William and Lady Pepperell; Joanne Goss, Elizabeth Peperell; Harry Whenal, Charles Chauncey, and Mrs. Whenal, Ma-' dame Chauncey; Oscar T. Clark, sexton.
Hymn singing was in colonial style with the tune'"lined out" by the percentor, Carroll H. Evans, oragnist and choir director. No in- strumental music was used.
After the service a pilgrimage to the church burying ground across the street was led by the costumed choir. Mr. Macdonald conducted a memorial service at General Whipple's grave. The Whipple grave and that of Dr. Stevens wer decorated by Dorothy and Hazel Jean Woods, children of Mr. and Mrs. Eldredge Woods.
Communion silver on display in front of the church pulpit, includ- ' ed the cup given by Captain . Whip- ple, and other pieces presented to the church by Lady Pepperell af- ter the death of her husband Sir William. Also exhibited was a por- trait of General Whipple loaned by the school board of Portsmouth.
Kittery, Me., the historic town at the mouth of the Piscataqua river, by the sea, has in hand the preparation of an elaborate program which will. be presented at its Old Home week celebration, August 16 to 22. Sun- day will be a day of religious wor- ship; Monday, a day of greeting and assignment of -guests; Tuesday will be Veterans' and Military day, and a clambake, with Gov. John G. Winant as guest of honor; Wednesday, sports of all kinds; Thursday, annual meet- ding and field day of "Piscataqua, Pioneers," a historical pageant, both- afternoon and evening; Friday, no special program; Saturday after- noon, clambake at Fort McClary park .- Open house, reunions, and 7
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The two-century-old church was nearly filled tocapacity as the ser- vice in memory of Capt. William Whipple and his son, Gen. William Whipple, who was born in the Whipple Garrison huse in Kittery in June 1730, and later one of the signers of the Declaration of In- dependence.
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General Whipple was christened in front of the church pulpit Feb. 14, 1731, by the Rev. John New- march, whose role was reenacted Sunday by the Rev. Roderick A. Macdonald, pastor.'
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
PAGE
I. Laying the Foundations. II
II. Earliest Settlers
III. Kittery Point.
37
IV. A Trip up Spruce Creek.
61
V. Along Crooked Lane.
77
VI. Up the Pascataqua. 88
VII. Along the Newichawannock. III
VIII. The Parish of Unity
123
IX. Municipal History. I38
X. Conflicts with the Indians 159
XI. Ecclesiastical History. .. 183
XII. Character of the Early Inhabitants
210
XIII. The Navy Yard. 218
XIV. Historical Miscellany 225
XV. Biographical Sketches 244
XVI. Genealogical Notes 269 Additions and Corrections 809
Index of Names 813
Index of Places.
821
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Cow Cove and the Old Warren Farm. 22
Pipe Stave Landing 25
The Thaxter Cottage, on Site of Champernowne's House. 38
Kittery Harbor, from Site of Champernowne's "Lower House. 39 The Grave of Francis Champernowne 40
Map of Kittery Point, 1650-1700 44
The Bray House.
45
Fort McClary
Phyllis' Notch.
Warehouse Point.
The Gerrish House
Sparhawk Mansion.
The Champernowne 58
Map of Kittery Point, 1775.
59
Joan (Bray) Deering's House, 1700
60
Goose Cove, 1696. .
62
Map of Lower Kittery, 1635-1700.
65
North-East of Spruce Creek, 1762.
67
Head of Spruce Creek, 1739.
70
"The Maples," Residence of Rufus Harrison Remick.
71
Shepherd's Hill
73
Gunnison's Neck. 1902.
78 80
Oldest Garrison House
81
Tripe's Point.
83
Kittery Foreside.
85
Mendum's Cove.
88
East Side of Great Cove, 1697
91
Monument of Christian Remick.
93
Long Reach 95
Franks Fort. 99
A Portion of the Bay Land. 100
Nutter's Cove. I02
Map of Middle Parish (Eliot) 106
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46 48 55 56 57
Crooked Lane, from the Roof of the Library
PAGE
View from Sunset Hill IIO
Mill at Sturgeon Creek. I18
Birch Point, from Eliot Bridge. 124 The Nason-Hamilton Estate. 127 Little John's Falls I30
Quamphegan Falls. I3I
Map of Berwick, 1631-1700. I33
Stackpole's . Landing
136
The Submission of 1652, front 143
The Submission of 1652, back. 144
House of Capt. Benjamin Remick 148
Frost's Hill 161
Ambush Rock 169
Frost Garrison House. 177
Church at Kittery Point 185
Parsonage. at . Kittery Point. 190
M. E. Church, Kittery Point 194
Church at Leighton's Point. 1717-1837. 200 Congregational Church. Eliot .. 203
Site of Friends' Meeting-House, Eliot 206
First Christian Church, Kittery
208
Free Baptist Church, Kittery
209
Dartmouth and Kingsweare, England.
212
Navy Yard Bridge. 219
Kittery Navy Yard, 1902.
220
Kittery Foreside from Navy Yard.
221
Excavation for Dry Dock 223
The Old Country Road. 227 Elm Avenue. Eliot. 228
Oldest House in Eliot, Built in 1727 229
The Shapleigh. House 230 Rice Tavern 231
Residence of Dr. J. L. M. Willis 233
Old School-House, District No. 2, Eliot 237
Green Acre 239
Rice Free Public Library 242
Col. William Pepperrell 245
The Pepperrell Tomb. 246
Margery ( Bray) Pepperrell 247
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PAGE
The Pepperrell Mansion. 248 Sir William Pepperrell. 249
Lady Mary (Hirst) Pepperrell 251
Lady Pepperrell's House. 252
Hall of Lady Pepperrell's House. 252
Parlor of Lady Pepperrell's House
General William Whipple
256
George Melville Frost, M.D.
258
Jolm Samuel Hill Fogg, M.D.
260
Governor John Fremont Hill.
263
Moses A. Safford, Esq 265
Hon. Horace Mitchell. 267
Sylvester Bartlett 290
Thomas Haven Dearing, M.D. 345
John Wentworth Deering 346
Charles Sumner Dearing
347
House of Noah Emery 368
The Fogg Burial Ground. 403
Samuel Hill 522 William Hill. 524
Birthplace of Gov. John Fremont Hill
525
Leighton House, 1690
576
Andrew P. Leighton
580
John Mendum 608
Lieut. Oliver P. Remick 696
Waldron Spinney 746
James Shapleigh Tobey. 774
Martin Parry Tobey. 778
The Old Tripe House and Crooked Lane 781
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253
EARLY MAINE
A Collection of Scholarly Sketches by Mr. Moulton
MAINE HISTORICAL SKETCHES, by Augusta F. Moulton; Lewiston Journal Print Shop; 293 pp.
Recent happenings have made Mr. Moulton more generally known as the donor of a beautiful union to Bowdoin, from which he graduated in 1873, than as the state historian of Maine. In the latter role, however, he has been busy quietly with a work for which stu- dents of Maine history will ever hold him in gratitude. To numerous books of local history he adds this collection of 16 sketches, dealing with widely dif- fering phases of Maine's early history, and all bearing evidences of scholarly thoroughness supplemented by the use of the literary graces.
Some of them are addresses that Mr. Moulton has delivered upon public oc- casions in recent years-as at the dedi- cation of the tablet marking the place where the famous Ranger of John Paul
Jones fame was built in 1778; at the dedication of the Maine memorial at Valley Forge, where there were more than 1000 Maine men among the troops credited to Massachusetts, and at the centennial celebration of Bangor Theo- logical Seminary.
Other articles deal with the first naval battle of the revolution, fought off the shore of Machias, June 11, 1775, and resulting in the capture of the British armed schooner, Margaretta; with the ancestry of Maine's first Gov- ernor, William King, whose father moved from Watertown to Scarboro in 1744; with the early settlements on the coast of Lincoln county, where there were colonies of French and English long before the Mayflower anchored in Ply- mouth harbor; with Maine as a royalist province in the century before the union with Massachusetts, and with the status of women in the early settle- ments.
Some of the other articles are less local in their significance-in fact not of any special Maine significance. For example, those dealing with the relation of the English Whigs to the American revolution and with Webster's famous 7th of March speech, of which the centenary is at hand. Also that study- ing the career and character of Anne Hutchinson, Boston's outstanding fem- inist of the 17th century, who is likened to Savonarola by Mr. Moulton. The volume has a foreword by Maine's most eminent contemporary newspaperman, Arthur G. Staples, and a prefatory poem, "Makers of Maine," by Frances Wright Turner, of Ellsworth.
PREFACE.
Nearly ten years ago a history of old Kittery was begun by Dr. William B. Lapham, encouraged by John F. Hill, now Governor of Maine. Dr. Lapham collected much useful material and outlined some chapters of the proposed work. All his material has been utilized, but no line of this book was written by him. His arrangement and style of expression could not be made to harmonize with the author's plan and language, yet due credit is cheerfully accorded to the memory of Maine's leading local historian, whose town histories and historical essays are well known.
The death of Dr. Lapham caused his material to be laid aside a few years. About three years ago, by the encouragement of Governor Hill, the author was induced to begin anew the history of old Kittery and her families. The sources of information are sufficiently pointed out in foot- notes and the preface to the genealogical notes. The many helpers have been indicated in like manner.
This work was begun with no subscription list. and its financial success rests upon its own merits. The aim has been to write such a book as the many descendants of old Kittery families would like to read and own. Hence special attention has been given to genealogy. The location of the first settlers is also a specialty. The maps and illustrations have been pre- pared at great expense of labor and money, and their excellence is largely due to the Suffolk Engraving Company. With camera in hand the author rode throughout Kittery and Eliot and sailed up and down Spruce Creek and the Pascataqua. No pains have been spared to obtain historical and descriptive detail.
It is easy to be wise beyond what has been written. Old residents will note the omission of many items that they would have put in print. and doubtless some corrections and additions to the genealogical notes will sug- gest themselves to many readers. The author would be glad to hear from such. He has tried to avoid repetitions, to leave something to works already published, and not to weary the reader with unimportant details. Some things, that would be very interesting to the present inhabitants of Kittery. Eliot and the Berwicks, would be tiresome to the distant reader.
It is hoped that this book will be received as a welcome contribution to the history of the colonization of Maine and that somebody may be stim- ulated to do a better work for old York and other coast towns.
BRADFORD. Mass., February. 1903.
E. S. S.
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I. LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS.
It is not thought best to begin this history by recounting the discovery of America by the Norsemen and the early exploration of the coast of Maine. Those stories have been often told and the facts are well known. To copy or to repeat in other words what has been well written already is a disagreeable and useless task. The historian either should bring to light something pre- viously hidden from public view, or should show the significance of events already chronicled. Much that properly belongs to the history of Old Kittery will be touched only lightly in this book for the sole reason that it has been published repeatedly. I prefer not to exhaust the subject rather than to exhaust the patience and waste the time of the reader. Yet to collect and arrange the scattered materials of history so as to indicate some logical connection may bring to the reader some pleasure and profit.
In 1620 James I. granted to forty noblemen, knights and gen- tlemen, styled the Council of Plymouth, a charter embracing the territory from near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River to the vicinity of Philadelphia, and through the continent from ocean to ocean. The Council granted, 10 August, 1622, to Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges and Captain John Mason, all the lands between the Merrimac and Kennebec Rivers, reaching sixty miles inland, with all the islands within five leagues of the shore. This tract was called the Province of Maine. In 1629 Gorges and Mason divided their grant, and on the seventh of November of that year the Council of Plymouth granted to Mason the land lying between the Merrimac and the Pascataqua, to be called New Hampshire. Capt. Walter Neal was authorized to give Mason possession.
Gorges retained the tract between the Pascataqua and the Kennebec. Minor grants were made from time to time, some- times overlying lands previously granted. This caused uncer-
I2
OLD KITTERY
tainty as to the rightful ownership. To more firmly secure possession where improvements had been made and where more were planned. a grant was made by the Council of Plymouth, 3 Nov. 1631. The grantees were Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Capt. John Mason, John Cotton, Henry Gardner, George Griffith, Edwin Guy, Thomas Wannerton, Thomas Ever and Eleazer Ever. The grant was situated on both sides the harbor and river of Pascataqua, five miles in breadth on the southwest side of the river from the sea to Edward Hilton's Plantation, and a breadth of three miles on the northeast side of the river and stretching thirty miles into the country. Only one deed from this Company is on record in Maine. It was from the Company's agent, Walter Neal, to Thomas Cammock, and the land deeded was what was afterward known as the Shapleigh farm in Eliot. Williamson says that "Neal sold all the land in Kittery between A. D. 1632-4."1 and bases his statement on the authority of Sul- livan, who says, "All the lands in Kittery were granted in the year 1632 and from that time to 1635 by Walter Neal, who was an agent both to Gorges and Mason."2 I can find no authority for these statements, while subsequent deeds given by Gorges contradict them. Those historians may have had in mind the division of property in 1633, mentioned below, but Capt. John Mason was the only one wise enough to take a deed from Gorges, to whom all this land had been originally granted. If William- son and Sullivan simply mean that all the lands in Kittery that were sold between the years 1632 and 1635 were deeded by the agent, Walter Neal, they are probably correct, except as to the last date, for Neal returned to England in 1633: but Cammock was the only grantee whose deed is recorded. It is probable that Thomas Wannerton and Henry Jocelyn also had deeds from Neal of land adjacent to Cammock's, but there is no record in the Registrar's office.
The company of which Walter Neal was the agent and that owned land on both sides of the Pascataqua has been incorrectly called the Laconia Company in the index to the first volume of York Deeds. Laconia was the name applied to a tract on the western shore of Lake Champlain, secured to Gorges and Mason
'History of Maine. Vol. I., p. 244. Note.
" Sullivan's Maine, p. 242.
I3
AND HER FAMILIES
by a charter in 1629.1 The company on the l'ascataqua did not remain long in existence, and in the division of its property, 6 Dec. 1633, Newichawannock fell to Mason, to whom Gorges gave a deed. 17 Sept. 1735, "of all that part or portion of land beginning at the Entrance of Newichawannock river and soe upwards alongst the Said river and to the ffurthest head thereof and to containe in breadth through all the length aforesaid Three miles within the land from every part of the said River." This embraced all the improvements on the Newichawannock River. The deed covered a strip of land three miles broad and fifteen miles long. It reached from one quarter of a mile below Great Works River into the present town of Lebanon. The other members of the company, besides Gorges, received divisions each about three miles in breadth, along the Pascataqua, but their rights were never respected, though they sent an agent over to represent them in 1688.2
Capt. John Mason died in December. 1635, and the settlers in Newichawannock seem not to have regarded the just claims of his heirs. The town of Kittery subsequently confirmed the claims of those who had long possessed and cultivated lands. Humphrey Chadbourne and Thomas Spencer took deeds from the Sagamore Rowles, in 1643. The heirs of Mason tried to recover their property but in vain. In 1690 they sold their claim to Samuel Allen, Esq., merchant, of London, who made a test case in an action of trespass and ejectment brought against Humphrey Spencer of Newichawannock, grandson of Thomas Spencer, in a court holden at Wells, in 1704. The suit was decided in favor of Spencer under a law of Massachusetts Bay for limitation of actions and quieting of possession. On appeal to the Court of Judicature at Boston the decision of the lower court was confirmed. Thus the heirs of Mason never realized anything from all the money and pains he expended in the settle- ment of what is now South Berwick.
A Short View of Mrs. Ann Mason's Case, touching her lands in New England, was presented to the General Court of Massa- chusetts in 1652 by her agent. Joseph Mason. Therein it is said "that the Inhabitants of Ketteric and Agamenticus taking advan- tage of the Death of Capt. Mason & Sr. fferdinando Gorges,
1.Abbott's Hist. of Maine. p. 90. Note by Editor.
^Maine Hist. Coll. Vol. IV .. p. 320.
14
OLD KITTERY
&c., and the absence of their heires have Devided great Quan- tities of the said Lands at Pascataway that lay in Comon to all the said Associates amongst 30 families of themselves many of them being the servants & children of the servants of the said Capt. Mason." It may be said in justification that after the death of Mason there was no one to pay these servants wages nor to transport them back to England. There is evidence that they were left destitute of means of support.1 They did the only thing possible to them. They seized the lands and property of Mason at Newichawannock, and thus each became lord of his own manor. The legal claim of a distant heir, after the lapse of a score of years, had little force when opposed to the actual possession of many settlers. Mason's loss was their gain. The case was not much different after the death of Gorges. The grants he and his agents made were respected. The rest of his lands were granted by the inhabitants of Kittery to themselves.
In 1635 the Council of Plymouth surrendered its charter, and the King appointed eleven of his privy councillors as "Lords Commissioners of All His American Plantations." Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges was made Governor of New England, and the division belonging to him, between the Pascataqua and the Ken- nebec, was now called New Somersetshire. He sent his nephew, William Gorges, as governor of this province, who opened the first Court at Saco. 28 March 1636.
Charles I. gave a new charter to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 3 April 1639. His former grant was enlarged so as to extend inland one hundred and twenty miles, and the old name, the Province of Maine, was restored. It comprised about one-sixth of the present area of the State. Thomas Gorges, cousin of Sir Ferdinando, was made Deputy Governor. He came over in 1640 and remained about three years. By him a number of land grants were made within the limits of old Kittery, but the majority of the earliest settlers all along the river seem to have been squatters, whose right to land was confirmed by the town some years later. They came over in the employ of John Winter at Richmond's Island, of Capt. Mason at Newichawannock, of Neal and others at Strawberry Bank, and of Shapleigh at Kittery Point.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges never visited his Province, on which he spent thirty years of care and twenty thousand pounds of his
1Dean's Capt. John Mason, p. 344. Note.
15
AND HER FAMILIES
estate. On his death in 1647 his affairs in America were neg- lected. The new town of Kittery assumed that all the land within her borders belonged to her and could be given away to whomsoever she chose. The most wealthy and influential natur- ally got the largest grants. They have never been disturbed in their ownership, and the reason may be briefly stated.
The northern boundary of the Massachusetts Bay Company was three miles north of the Merrimac River. Here arose ques- tions of interpretation. What was meant by the Merrimac River? its mouth? or its source? or the most northerly point of its course? The authorities of Massachusetts sent surveyors into the woods of New Hampshire, who fixed the northern boundary so as to include about all the settled portions of New Hampshire and of Maine, thus robbing the heirs of Mason and of Gorges of all their lands. Agents of Massachusetts per- suaded the citizens of Kittery to accept her government in 1652 and the submission of other towns in Maine followed within a few years. But many were dissatisfied, and commissioners were sent from England to investigate rival claims. In 1677 the High Court of Chancery decided that the northern boundary of Massa- chusetts was three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimac. The Province of New Hampshire was given to the heirs of Capt. John Mason. and that of Maine to the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. At once the Massachusetts government purchased Maine of Ferdinando Gorges, grandson of the original grantee, for twelve hundred and fifty pounds. Thus Maine with enlarged limits remained under the government of Massachusetts till she became a separate State in 1820. The town grants of Kittery were never questioned. Indeed the Commissioners in 1652 agreed to leave them undisturbed. The titles to most of the lands held in Kittery, Eliot and the Berwicks are based upon grants from the town. The few heads of families at the time of its incorporation called themselves the original proprietors, though how they got any just title to the lands of Gorges does not appear. The lands held in common were divided among their descendants about a century later.
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