USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The burning of Falmouth (now Portland, Maine), by Capt. Mowatt in 1775 > Part 1
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Gc 974.102 P837ga 1771798
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
Ga
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01091 8487
m
THE
BURNING OF FALMOUTH
(Now Portland, Maine),
BY CAPT. MOWATT, IN 1775.
BY
WILLIAM GOOLD OF WINDHAM, MAINE.
THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY CHICAGO
Prepared at the request of the MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, and read before it Feb. 19, 1873. Reprinted from the NEW-ENGLAND HIST. AND GEN. REGISTER for July.
BOSTON: FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. 1873.
80X212X
1771798
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F 84175 .299
Goold, William, 1809-1890.
The burning of Falmouth (now Portland, V. . . ). by ( .p. Mowatt. in 1775. By William Good ... Prop. .. latter quest of the Maine historical society, and read Motore it Nih. 19. 1573 ... Boston, Por private distribution. i ..... 16 p. 233m.
"Reprinted from the New England hist, and gen. ro ider for Ie .. , 1873." Edition of 200 copies.
ENELF CARD
1. Portland, Me .- Burning of, by the British, 1775 I. Mal. 1. 4- torical society.
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Library of Congress
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DAVID CLAPP & SON, PRINTERS.
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BURNING OF FALMOUTH IN 1775.
WirHIN a few months an article has appeared in the Amesbury (Mass.) Journal ou the Sparhawk family of Kittery, by Mr. John G. Whittier. I have not seeu the article itself, but the following which purports to be an extraet, has been copied into several papers :
" In 1775 Capt. Mowatt, of the British war ship Cancean, with three other armed vessels, auchored off Portsmouth, under orders to bombard and destroy the town. Ile privately went on shore and entered the spacions Sparhawk mansion, at Kittery Poiut. He became so fascinated with Mary Sparhawk that she persuaded him to save the town and sail to Portland, theu Falmouth, which he laid in ashes."
I have no knowledge of the authority for this statement.1 It probably rests upon tradition, but I think it is an error. That there was a Miss Mary Hirst Sparhawk, of the age of about twenty years, then living at her father the Hon. Nathaniel Sparhawk's splendid mansion at Kittery Point, there is no doubt. That she was fascinating, is equally certain ; for history ry says she fascinated Dr. Charles Jarvis, of Boston, and married him. On ) the death of her husband she returned, about the year 1788, to the home of ₹ her childhood, aud died there iu 1815. One of her brothers, Win. Pepper- rell Sparhawk, in compliance with the will of his grandfather, Sir William Pepperrell, had succeeded to his house, title, and the most of his large estate. By an act of the general court, he dropped the name of Sparhawk, and became William (afterward Sir William) Pepperrell. He with all the family adhered to the mother-country at the breaking out of the revolution.
1.2111 1 We learn that Mr. Whittier gave this tradition upon the authority of Brewster's Rambles About Portsmonth, 2d ser., p. 187.
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The confiscation act of 1778 swept away all his property except the plate, which was very valuable, and which was by that act allowed to be removed. Two or three pieces were given to individuals and are still preserved, but what remained was considered of such value that Col. Moulton, of York, with six solliers, was ordered to guard its conveyance to Boston for ship- ment to its owner in London, whither he had gone in 1775. He died there in 1816, aged 70.1
It is well known that, during the colonial troubles, the Sparhawk house was the rendezvous and hiding-place of most of the chief loyalists of the vicinity. Both of my great-grandfathers were Kittery men : one of them sent his oldest son to Bunker Hill, and both took the opposite side to the Sparhawks. The fame of the tory gatherings at that house has been handed down as a family tradition. The fires of hospitality still burn in the broad fireplaces of this now restored home of colonial aristocracy. Your society and their invited guests will recollect their polite reception at this house, on their tour to York and Kittery, in the autumn of 1871. Capt. Mowatt, in the British sloop-of-war Canceau, had been on the New-England station a year or more, and no doubt had, while patrolling the eastern coast, often visited the fine harbor at the month of the Piscataqua; and as the Sparhawk house and its occupants were prominent among the celebrities of that aristocratie neighborhood, he had probably often been their welcome guest. We can readily imagine him landing from his boat at the stairs at the foot of the lawn, where a few years before the elder Sir Wm. Pepper- rell had kept his barge, and negro crew in uniform, and entering that long avenue of elins whose stumps we saw, now sad monuments of vandalism. The house has been restored in the original style, but the elms cannot be in one generation as they were when the British captain, in knee-breeches and buckles, laced coat with ruffles at his hands, cocked hat with gold loop and button, hurried over that ornamental pavement (yet perfect, although 130 years old), to spend an hour with the courtly Miss Mary, while waiting for the ebb-tide to take his ship to sea. This was not only a splendid man- sion, but, like an eagle perched on a erag watching its prey, from its elevated situation he could watch the colonists in their little vessels far at sea. No one would better appreciate this scene and its surroundings than Mr. Whit- tier, nor is there one who could deseribe it in more befitting verse. We know that young ladies, of Miss Sparhawk's age and station, often have great influence with men in power. Sacred history tells us of one who, on Herod's birth day, danced before him and pleased him so much that at her request he gave her the head of the moral censor who had displeased him ;
1 See an article on the Pepperrell Genealogy by the late Usher Parsons, M.D., in the NEW-ENGLAND HIST. AND GEN. REGISTER, VOL. XX. pp. 1-6.
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but I think there was no hint that Miss Sparhawk practised any blan- dislunents before the naval commander, only that he became so fascinated that at her request he spared the neighboring town, and poured out his wrath on poor devoted Falmouth.
After this long preface, we will examine the authentic history of the transactions at Falmouth, during the colonial difficulties, and before the burning, which will show that Mowatt had a grudge against the town, and that Admiral Graves, who commanded the British fleet then blockading Boston, had said that if certain things were done, " he would send an armed force and beat the town down about their cars." These things were done, and no doubt Mowatt was too glad to execute the orders he had solicited from the admiral.
My authorities for this narration of facts, are principally the journals of of the two ministers of the town, began long before and kept through the revolution. That of the Rev. Thomas Smith was compiled by Samuel Freeman, Esq., in 1821. Mr. Freeman was a native of old Falmouth, and witnessed the commotions until a short time before the bombardment. Hle was elected sole delegate from Fahnouth to the provincial congress, and was in attendance at its session in Watertown. He held that office, by reelection, three years, during two of which he was secretary of that body. Ilis public services well qualified him to compile the journal, and to supply those copious notes and explanations which his edition contained. Copies of his edition are now very rare. I know of only one perfect copy. It is to be regretted that Mr. Willis felt compelled to omit, in his edition, the most of the appendix to Mr. Freeman's, which contains his notes and explanations. I have a distinct recollection of Mr. Freeman fifty years ago, whose venerable figure, in the costume of colonial times, occupied the dea- con's seat beneath the high pulpit, and facing the congregation, in the old wooden church of the first parish in Portland. He died in 1831, aged 87 years.
Having given my authorities, I will proceed with my sketch, which I think will explain why the town was burned.
The people of the county 'of Cumberland, and especially those of Falmonth, began early to express indignation at the acts of Parliament bearing on the colonies. Soon after the passage of the odions stamp act of 1765, a vessel arrived at Fahmonth from Halifax with the hated stamps, and they were deposited in the custom-house. The people immediately assem- bled and marched to the enstom-house, demanded and received the stamps. then fixed them to the top of a pole, carried them in procession through the streets, to a fire prepared for the purpose, and burned them.
In 1771 in a town meeting the citizens " resolved that we will not buy
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nor sell any India tea whatever, after this third day of Feb. until the act that lays a duty on it is repealed." There were then 2500 lbs. of tea in the hands of the dealers in town. Another resolve, passed at this meeting, acknowledges their obligation to " the people of Boston, for their carly notice of approaching danger," and for "their intrepid behavior on the late tea-ships' arrival, and trust they will still be our watch-tower, and they may depend on our utmost endeavors to support them at all times, in defence of their rights and liberties." Also, "we rejoice that though surrounded by fleets and armies, you yet remain firm and resolute." At. the close of the proceedings the town " voted that a committee be chosen to meet committees of other towus to consult on the alarming state of public affairs."
On the day of the closing of the port of Boston, June 11, 177 1, the bell of the meeting-house in Falmouth was muffled and tolled from sunrise until nine o'clock in the evening. The result of the vote of the town in February, inviting other towns to choose delegates to meet their's, was that a county convention was held at Mrs. Greche's little one-story tavern, in Falmouth, on the 21st day of September, 177 1.
This was the first political county convention held in Cumberland, of which the record has been preserved. It was composed of thirty-three delegates from the nine old towns of the county. Although a hundred years save one, have intervened since it was held, there has been no im- provement on the course then adopted to secure a true expression of the popular will. The people of the country towns chose their delegates who attended, and then they went themselves, to see that their delegates obeyed their instructions, as the record shows. After organizing by the choice of the Hon. Enoch Freeman for chairman, and his son Sammel Freeman, our historian, for clerk, the record says : " A committee from the body of the people who were assembled at the entrance to the town, waited on this con- vention to see if they would choose a committee of one ont of cach town, to wait on Mr. Sheriff Tyng, to see whether he would act in his office under the late acts of Parliament for regulating the goverment." By these acts the appointment of all civil officers was taken from the people and vested in the crown,
Sheriff Tyng was summoned before the convention and attended. and subscribed to a written declaration "that he would not as sheriff of the county, or otherwise, act in conformity to, or by virtue of, said acts, nuless by the general consent of said county." This declaration was voted to be satisfactory to the convention.
While these proceedings were going on in the convention, the people from the country had marched to the town house. The record continues: " The
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convention then formed themselves into a committee to accompany Mr. Sheriff Tyng to the body of the people, to present the declaration." The people " voted it satisfactory, and after refreshing themselves, returned peaceably to their own homes."
The convention met again in the afternoon, and a committee, of whom Samuel Freeman was chairman, reported a long and spirited preamble and resolutions, which were adopted. The second resolution would, if carried out now, be a public benefit. It was as follows: " That every one would do his utmost to discourage lawsuits, and likewise compromise disputes as much as possible." " Each member was interrogated separately, and pledged himself not to accept any commission under the late acts of parliament."
Mr. Freeman says his notes, after he left Fahuouth, were transcribed from the letters of a gentleman in Falmouth to his friend in Watertown. The friend in Watertown was no doubt himself, as he was then in attendance at the Provincial Congress, and the only delegate from Falmouth. From some circumstances and expressions I am led to believe that the writer of the letters was Gen. Jedediah Preble, a leading merchant of the town, and a member of the committee of inspection.
Capt. Samuel Coulson had been for several years engaged in the mast business between Falmouth and Bristol, England, from whence he came, and had married a daughter of the elder Dr. Coffin, of Falmouth, and resided in the doctor's house on King street. He had built a very large ship for those days at the foot of his street. She was of 1000 tons. To ship masts required large vessels.
Capt. Coulson was violently opposed to the popular sentiment of the colonies, and made himself very obnoxious to the people. On the second of May, 1775, a vessel of Coulsou's arrived from Bristol, with rigging, sails, and stores, for the new ship. There was a committee of inspection, com- posed of leading men of the town, one of whom was Samuel Freeman. This committee was called together at the library chamber the same day of the arrival of Coulson's vessel.
There was a compact between the colonies called the " American Association," the provisions of which may be understood from what took place in the committee meetings. Coulson was by vote desired to attend on the committee. In answer to questions he stated that the vessel was from Bristol, with stores and materials for his new ship. A sub-committee was chosen to go on board and see if there were any other goods there.
At an adjourned meeting of the committee the next day, it was voted that to allow Capt. Coulson to land his goods, and appropriate them to fit ont his new ship, would be a violation of the " American Association," and directed that they be sent back to England without breaking the packages.
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This was communicated to Capt. Coulson by a sub-committee. Coukson immediately attended, and said the vessel must be repaired before she coukl go to sea, and in order to do that the freight must be landed ; but the vote was adhered to, and the proceedings of the meeting were by vote, posted up in a public place in the town. Instead of obeying the order to return the goods to England, Coulson left for Boston, under the pretence of asking leave of the provincial congress to rig his ship, and procured the assist- ance of Capt. Mowatt in the sloop-of-war Canceau, to aid and protect him in rigging and loading his ship, aud proceeded to land his materials.
During the excitement caused by Coulson's bringing the vessel to assist him in violating the provisions of the Association, on the 21st of April news arrived of the battle of Lexington. On the 23d a town-meeting was held, and spirited proceedings were adopted, notwithstanding the Cancean was lying in the harbor, whose commander, Coulson, and others were constantly urging to make some demonstration. The news of the battle of Lexington set the whole country in a blaze of excitement. At Falmouth a company of 60 soldiers was raised and hurried off to Cambridge.
Next came, what Mr. Freeman calls, " Thompson's war." On Tuesday, the 9th of May, Col. Samuel Thompson, of Brunswick, with about fifty soldiers, came in boats and landed secretly on the north side of the neck, and encamped in a grove of pines. Each man had a small sprig of spruce in his hat ; and a small spruce tree with the lower branches ent off' was their standard. They seized and detained several persons who happened to pass that way, in order to conceal their camp from the towns-people. About one o'clock, P. M., Capt. Mowatt, his surgeon, and the Rev. Mr. Wiswall, of St. Paul's Church, were walking for pleasure in the vicinity, when they were seized and made prisoners. As soon as Lieut. Hogg, then in command of the Caneeau, heard of the capture of Capt. Mowatt, he sent a threaten- ing letter on shore. Gen. Preble, in a letter to the provincial congress dated on the 14th, says " he clapped springs to his cables and swore if the gentle- men were not released before six o'clock, he would fire on the town. He fired two cannon, and although there were no shot in them, it frightened the women and children to. such a degree that some crawled under the wharves, some down cellar, and some out of town."
Some of the prominent men of the town visited Thompson's camp to urge the release of the prisoners. Thompson and his men were inflexible, . but night coming on, they conchided to march the prisoners to Marston's tavern for a more sheltered consultation. The soldiers, including a Fal- mouth company which had assisted in the escort, were paraded in front of the house. Thompson argued that open hostilities between the colonies and the mother-country existed; that Providence had thrown the prisoners
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in his way, and that they were rightly held. He finally found that the whole town was against him, and at about nine o'clock he concluded to release them, by their giving their parole to come on shore the next morn- ing; Gen. Preble and Col. Freeman pledging themselves for them. The principal reason given by the Falmouth men for urging their release, was that several vessels were daily expected with corn and flour, of which the town stood very much in need.
Parson Smith, in his journal, under date of the 20th of June, says : - "People are apprehensive of a famine, there being a searcity of corn and flour." A few days after, he mentions the arrival of three vessels, "with corn and flour." "So we are plentifulty relieved from all fears of famine. Blessed be God."
At the appointed hour of nine, on Wednesday morning, Thompson began to look for his prisoners, but none came ; whereupon his men became furi- ous, and seized their sureties, Preble and Freeman, and kept them all day without dinner. In the afternoon they sent to Mowatt to know why he did not keep his parole. His reply was, that one of his men whom he had sent on shore to his washerwoman, had overheard several threats from sol- diers to shoot him as soon as he made his appearance, and he declined coming. During the afternoon a large force of militia from the country, numbering five or six hundred, arrived, and being greatly enraged on learn- ing of Mowatt's release, threatened violence to Gen. Preble and Col. Freeman, the sureties.
All the officers of the militia, including those of Falmouth, next resolved themselves into a board of war, for the examination of tories, and sum- moned several persons before them. Some came. The Rev. Mr. Wiswall had not gone on board the ship, and attended at the appointed time. In answer to questions, he declared his abhorrence of the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, and was released. Several others were examined, but none were punished. To keep peace and secure his release with Col. Freeman, Gen. Preble was obliged to furnish the troops with " several barrels of bread, a quantity of cheese, and two barrels of rinn for each company.
The soldiers entered Capt. Coulson's house and took what they wanted, and used the house for a barrack. Some of them became exhilarated by the liquor found in Coulson's cellar, and one, named Calvin Lombard, went down to the shore and fired two balls from a musket, deep into the side of the Canceau. The fire was returned from a " fusee." but no damage was done.
Thursday, the 11th, was a general fast, which Gen. Preble and Col. Freeman were not prepared for, as the soldiers had obliged them to fast the day before.
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THE NEWBERRY
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The soldiers seized one of Coulson's boats and dragged it through the streets, to a place of safety, and the next day they seized one of Mowatt's, and hauled it to the same place. Mowatt threatened to fire on the town if they were not returned, but Mr. Freeman's friend writes to him at Watertown that "he has not fired yet, and here I sit writing at my desk in the old place, being fully convinced that Mowatt never will fire on the town in any case whatever." He also writes : " the soldiers have to-day carried off Mr. Tyng's Bishop, a piece of plate worth 500 pounds, old tenor, and his laced hat." These were afterwards returned to Mrs. Ross, the mother of Mrs. Tyng, by a resolve of the provincial congress. The property destroyed in Coulson's house, and valued at 140 pounds lawful money, was paid for by authority of the same resolve.
On Friday afternoon, the last of the soldiers left town, much to the relief of the people. On Saturday, Mowatt made another demand for the boats, but Thompson's men had taken them away when they left. On Monday, Mowatt and Coulson sailed with their ships for Portsmouth and Boston.
On the 8th of June, the Senegal of 16 guns, Capt Dudington, arrived from Boston, and anchored near the islands, and on the 12th Coulson arrived again in his new ship, and anchored near the Senegal. Sheriff Tyng, who had taken refuge with his friends in Boston, was with Coulson. In reply to a letter, Capt. Dudington of the Senegal wrote the committee that "his orders were to protect the persons and property of his majesty's faithful subjects and not to distress them."
The wives of Sheriff Tyng and Capt. Coulson were permitted to go on board the ships ; but the committee would not consent that Coulson should have his masts with which he had intended to load the ship, as he was a declared enemy of the town. On his arrival, the people had floated them up the harbor out of his reach, the provincial congress having passed a resolve to prevent tories taking their property out of the country.
Coulson next sent an armed boat to the mouth of Presumpscot river, ostensibly for water, but in reality to look out masts and timber for a cargo for his ship. The people seized his boat, guns and men, but finally released his men. . Coulson finding he could not get his masts and was losing his boat, sailed without them. These masts were seenred in a cove at Cape Elizabeth, near Vaughan's bridge, where they remained over 60 years. All left of them in 1835 were built into Sawyer's wharf, at the foot of High street ; and they are now covered by Commercial street.
After Capt. Coulson had left Boston for Falmouth to take in his masts, Capt. Crandall, of Harpswell, was taken by one of Admiral Graves's fleet and carried into Boston, and on his release he reported his interview with
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the admiral. After the burning of the town, to prove that it was done by order of the admiral, Capt. Crandall's sworn statement was procured. I here copy a part of his affidavit from Freeman's notes :
" That sometime in the month of June last, I sailed from Harpswell for Salem, and on my passage there I was forcibly taken by an armed vessel and carried into Boston. And being in the presence of Admiral Graves, he asked me if such a man-of-war (he named her, but I have forgotten her name) had arrived at Falmonth. I answered that I heard she had. He then asked me if I thought she would be opposed by the people. I answer- ed I could not tell. He then asked me if Capt. Coulson was loading at Falmouth. I replied that I had heard he met with such opposition from the people as to prevent it. Upon which the admiral said : 'You may tell them that if they will not let him load, I will send a ship, or ships, and beat the town down about their ears.'
(Signed) PHILIP CRANDALL.
Sworn to on the 1 of Jan. 1776, before Wm. Sylvester,
of Harpswell, Justice of the Peace."
Dr. Deane says (page 341 of his diary) : "Capt. II. Mowatt, of Scot- land, obtained, by his most urgent solicitation, an order from Graves, &c." Mr. Willis, in his History of Portland, page 518, says : "The vessels came here direct from Boston, and no doubt can be entertained but that the order proceeded from Admiral Graves, who then commanded on this station, whose mind had been influenced by the representations of Mowatt, Coulson, and others." In a letter from Gov. Bowdoin to Gov. Pownall in London, dated in Boston in 1783, he says " The town was wantonly burnt, by order of Admiral Graves."
From the authorities quoted I think all will be convinced that the bombardment was by Admiral Graves's orders, in consequence of repre- sentations from Mowatt and Coulson.
I will now give a condensed sketch of the burning. The facts are prin- cipally taken from the letters of the Hon. Enoch Freeman, chairman of the committee of safety, to his son Samuel in Watertown, with the statements of other eye-witnesses.
On the 16th of October, 1775, the people of Falmouth were surprised by the arrival below of a squadron of four armed vessels and a store-vessel. The wind being fresh from the northwest the vessels anchored near the islands. When the people learned that Capt. Mowatt was in command, they supposed he had come for sheep and cattle, for the British forces in Boston. As there were large stocks of cattle on the islands, the enlisted
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