USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bremen > A history of the towns of Bristol and Bremen in the state of Maine : including the Pemaquid Settlement > Part 12
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > A history of the towns of Bristol and Bremen in the state of Maine : including the Pemaquid Settlement > Part 12
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" Thomas Gardiner, Edmund Patteshall, of Kennebec, John Palmer, Sen, of Monhegan, and Robert Gammon, are appointed county commissioners for holding commissioner's court during the year, and " to have magistratical power in marrying such as are daly and legally published according to law, as also to punish criminall offences according to the particular order of the General Court, Dated 27th May, 1674, in Boston.".
"The following were appointed clarks of the writts in the several places.
"Sagadahock and Kennebec, Thos. Humphreys.
" Monhegan, Richard Oliver.
" Damariscove, William Walters.
"Capenawagen, Robert Gammon.
" Thos. Humphreys, marshall for the county.
" Those persons following are appointed and have liberty to keep houses of publieke entertaynment, and are to be provided with necessarys for lodging, &c., accordingly, and to retayle beare, wine, and liequors in the several places for the. ensuing year, according to law.
" For Monhegan, John Dolling, for Sagadahoek and Kennebeck, Willyam Cook.
15
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"For Damarills Cove, John Wriford.
"For Capenawaggen, Edw. Barton.
"For Pomaquid, Jno. Cole.
" Also Left Gardiner to his fisherman, and John Earthy, for Corbyn Sound, George Bucknill.
"To pay the expenses of the court, to procure books and stationary etc. county tax of £20 was assessed, proportions, as follows: viz.
" Sagadahock and Kennebec, £4. ; Monhegan, £5,10s ; Cape- nawagen, £3,10s .; Damariscove and Hippocras,1 £5. ; Pema- quid, £2."
The apportionment to individuals was to be made by the grandjurymen and constable in each place, and the tax collected by the constables and paid over to the treasurer of the county. · The amounts assessed respectively on the settlements pro- bably represent the relative valuation of the property in the several places, as estimated by the court. Monhegan, it seems, had nearly three times the wealth of Pemaquid, and the small islands Damariscove and Hippocras together more than twice as much. Two reasons may be given for this; the chief business here at the time was fishing, and for this the islands were more favorably situated than the main land, and property on them was considered more safe from Indian depredations than on the main.
No mention is made of Sheepscott for the reason that it was not considered as coming within the jurisdiction of Massa- chusetts.
Administration on the estate of John Waller, fisherman, "sometimes resident at Monhegan and sometimes at Damarills Cove, who died fower years since" was granted to George Burdet of Monhegan, who gave bonds as required by law, Richard Oliver being his surety.
Though the court for the county of Devonshire was by law to be held annually, it was early foreseen that there would be great difficulty in finding magistrates properly qualified to go , there and hold them ; therefore in October of this year (1674), by an act of the general court, the local commissioners were
1 This was one of the small islands lying southwest of Pemaquid point, perhaps the one called Hypocrites on the map of lincoln county. All of these islands were in that day considered more valuable than they are at present. This was the case even down to the time of the Revolutionary war.
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authorized "to hear and determine all civil actions arising within the county to the value of ten pounds, any law, usage, or enstom to the contrary notwithstanding."1 The following May " Mr. Humphrey, Davy, Capt. Thos. Luke, Mr. Richard Collecot, Capt. Thomas Gardiner, and Mr. George Munjoy, were appointed commissioners ' for the ensuing year,' any three of whom 'whereof Mr. Dary or Capt. Lake to be one,' with such as shall be appointed associates for that county for this year, as Capt. Thos. Gardiner, Capt. Robert Patteshall, John Palmer, Sen. of Monhegan, Robert Gammon, and Richard Oliver, who are hereby appointed and approved for this year ensuing as associ- ates in Devonshire and to keepe courts for tenn pounds value, and either of them to take acknowledgment of deeds, marry such as are legally published, punish offenders, the penalty of which offences exceed not tenn shillings, or by whipping, not exceeding tenn stripes, and in other cases to bind them over to the associates and county courts."
This action of the general court was taken two months before the time for holding the court at Pemaquid, but there is no evi- dence that the session was held this year (1675).
The next year (May, 1676), Lake, Davy and Collecot, " or any two of them," were appointed commissioners to "joyne wth the associates of Devonshire, to keepe the county court there the third second day [third Monday] of July next,"2 but no re- cord of such session is now to be found. The war with king Phillip began in the early summer of 1675, and may have pre- vented the sitting of the court that year; and this year (1676), as we shall soon see, only a few weeks after the time for holding the court, the settlement at Pemaquid as well as the other set- tlements in the vicinity were broken up by the Indians.
When information of the Indian depredations was received in Boston, on petition of Ichabod Wisewall, James Giles,3 and Richard Collecot, the general court (Sept. 6), took action in re- ference to "the distressed inhabitants of Devonshire," and ordered that a garrison should be established at some convenient
' Rec. Maxs. v., 23.
2 Rec. Muss. v, 87.
& James Gyles, or Giles, when the Indian wars began, was living at Merry- meeting bay, but . subsequently removed to Long Island and then to New Jersey, where his posterity still reside. (Giles Memorial by Rev. John A. Vinton), Ichabod Wisewall resided on the Kennebec ; he took the oath of fidelity to Massachusetts
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place in the country, sufficient to " keepe possession and main- tayne our interest there, and also to issue forth to the dainnifying of the enemy, and that the men imployed in their service be those persons who have lately deserted their habitations there, so many of them at least as are fitt for such imploy." But the season was now late, and considerable time was required to make the necessary preparation ; and though some forces were sent to defend the settlements in the western part of the state, nothing it is believed was done for the settlers in this region ; and the place, for a time, passed under the government of the Duke of York; a topic to which we shall by and by return.
The fierce Indian war, which burst with such fury upon Pemaquid and the neighboring settlements in 1676, was only a part of the same great struggle which, the year before raged in Massachusetts, and is known in history as king Phillip's war. A full half-century had now elapsed since the settlement at Pema- quid was begun, and no serious difficulty with the Indians had occurred, but here, as in the other neighboring settlements, indications were not wanting that mutual jealousies and fears were forming in the breasts of the two parties, that strongly sug- gested danger in the near future. .
And this evidently was the general feeling in all the eastern settlements, and is to be attributed to the same general causes.
Information of the outbreak under Phillip was received by the settlers on the Kennebec, in a very little time, and after serious consultation, it was deemed necessary to disarm the neighboring Indians, some of whom were compelled for a time to submit to the measures, though it deprived them of the chief means of obtaining their daily food. But many serious col- lisions occurred, and the ill feelings and jealousies of the Indians were greatly increased ; this in turn reacted upon the minds of the settlers, producing feelings of exasperation and hatred quite beyond the control of right reason. Indeed the position of both parties in all the eastern settlements of the English, was at this time truly deplorable. The settlers were comparatively few in number, but were moderately well supplied with arms and am-
at Pemaquid two years before. Richard Collecott lived in Boston but was well acquainted with the eastern settlements, having served as one of the commission- ers of Massachusetts in 1674. Win. Collicot who lived at Sheepscott, and was among those who in 1672 signed the petition to be taken under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, may have been a brother of his.
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munition, while the savages, now becoming much exasperated, were entirely dependeut for these things upon the trading ves- sels on the coast; and for the settlers to undertake to deprive the hostile Indians of the means of destroying them was only an instinct of self-preservation. On the other hand, the Indians had become so accustomed to the use of the musket, as to be - largely dependent upon it for the means of obtaining their daily food; to say nothing of its necessity to them, as well as to the opposite party, to protect themselves in turn from their ene- mies, whether of other Indian tribes, or of the white race.
Under the existing circumstances "it was futile to imagine that the Indians would respect their engagements, the recollec- tions of former kindness, or the dictates of humanity and justice ; and consequently open hostilities became the signal for exter- mination. They first began by gratifying their revenge, but ended by an indiscriminate slaughter" of friends as well as foes.1
Looking back now, from our secure position, upon these scenes of strife and blood, it is easy to hurl our denunciations against one party or the other for acts of injustice, cruelty, and treachery; but, while obliged to lament most sincerely such exhibitions of the perversity of human nature, let us also ever keep in mind the almost unparalleled difficulties of the times to either party.
Some have doubted whether the outbreak with the eastern Indians had any connection with Phillips' war but the connection of the two is too plain to need argument. In the course of the war, several Narragansett Indians were actually captured in arms with their brethren at the east.
The Indian depredations in Maine begun Sept. 20, 1675, by an attack upon the house of Thomas Purchase, who had lived many years at Pegypscott (Brunswick), and carried on an exten- sive trade with the Indians of the Kennebec river. Only the female members of the family were at home at the time; and the savages contented themselves with seizing some property, and killing some cattle; but it was the beginning of a contest which was to end only with the destruction of all the English settlements in the present state of Maine.
Only a few days after this event, a number of the settlers went with a sloop and two boats, from Falmouth to some place at the northern part of Casco bay, to gather some corn that was planted 1 Hist. of Portland, p. 195, 2d ed.
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there, and accidentally met with three Indians whom they under- took to arrest; but in the affray one was killed and another wounded, the third only escaping unhurt. The escaped Indian soon rallied to his aid a company of friends who were near, and the Englishmen, some of them wounded, were glad to escape with the loss of their two boats laden with corn.
This most unjustifiable act on the part of the settlers, cannot be too severely condemned; and miserably did they suffer, as a consequence of their rashness. Only another week passed, and the Indian war in these parts began in earnest by an attack. upon Falmouth, the savages killing or carrying into captivity no less than thirty-four persons, and destroying most of the houses and other property in the place. But while venturing to cen- sure the course of the settlers, in thus provoking their treacher- ous neighbors to further acts of hostility, it is not certain that they could have escaped the conflict by an opposite policy, or by any mode of conciliation whatever.
Other attacks on the different settlements, in the western part of the territory of Maine, now followed in rapid succession, but they cannot be here described. At the beginning of winter, which this year (1675) set in earlier than usual, some fifty or eighty of the settlers between the Pemaquid and the Kennebec rivers had been slain, and probably twice as many Indians.
The people of Pemaquid and vicinity must have sympathized deeply with their friends west of them in their sufferings, but, as yet, with much effort, their savage neighbors had been held back from committing any acts of violence.
In fact we must allow that all appearances indicate a sincere desire on the part of the natives of this vicinity to live in peace with the settlers, but the increasing strength of the settlement probably had began to excite their fears and, more than this, they were frequently goaded to madness by unpardonable out- rages committed on them by men claiming to be civilized. Many long years had passed since the seizure of native Indians by Weymouth, Hunt, and others, but the outrages were not for- gotten ; and now there were indications of a disposition on the part of some to make the seizing of natives on the coast to be sold as slaves in Europe, a regular business.1
1 Very probably many native Indians were kidnapped and sold into slavery of whom history makes no mention. This same year (1675) Indians probably from
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HISTORY OF BRISTOL AND BREMEN.
To increase the difficulty, the people of Monhegan, very secure themselves by their island retreat, so distant from the shore as to be scarcely accessible by the canoes of the Indians, publicly offered a bounty " of £5, for every Indian that should be brought in." 1
Two of the citizens, John Earthy of Pemaquid, and Richard Oliver of Monhegan, deserve commendation for their efforts to pacify the Indians, and avoid the threatened danger ; and very probably they would have succeeded but for the intemperate language and conduct of many, who, yielding everything to their timidity, were burning with rage, and a desire for revenge upon their supposed enemies, though as yet they had not suf- fered any wrong.
John Earthy was licensed to keep a house of "publicke en- tertaynemente " at Pemaquid by the Commissioners' court at its session in 1674 ; 2 and besides this we know but little more of him than what appears in connection with his wise and ener- getic movements to prevent the catastrophe so soon to burst upon the place. By great exertion the Indians were persuaded to assemble at Pemaquid for the purpose of establishing a per- manent peace. The Indians complained chicfly of injuries done them on the Kennebec, but upon receiving assurances that all their wrongs should be redressed, and that they should be pro- tected in their rights, they engaged to live in peace and friend- ship with the English, and to use their influence with Anasagunti- cooks, (Androscoggin Indians) to prevent them from committing any further depredations.
the coast of Maine, were landed as slaves at Fayal, one of the Azores. Drake's note in Hub. Ind. Wars, II, 94.
1 Hub. Ind. Wurs, Drake's ed., 11, 149. Williamson's Hist. of Maine, 1, 526 in- terprets this as meaning that this sum was offered for every Indian's head that should be brought to them ; implying of course that the reward would be paid whether the Indian was dead or alive. But this evidently was not the design, and the language of Hubbard, the only original authority, was not intended to be so understood. The reward offered was for captives to be sold into slavery. The miserable expedient of paying bounties for scalps had not yet been adopted. See Article by the Author in Hist. Gen. Reg., vol. xxv, (April, 1871.)
2 Rec. Muss., v, 19, 20.
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CHAPTER XIV.
Efforts of the Pemaquid people through their agent, John Earthy to preserve peace with the Indians-A slaver on the coast --- Indian conferences --- Indian hostilities begun at Casco, and continued on the Kennebec-The people of Sheepscott, and Pemaquid, hearing of the hostilies at the settlements west of them make their escape to the islands -- All the settlements destroyed -- Indian Treaty negotiated at Boston -- The Penobscot sachem, Mugg - Fight with the Indians at Pemaquid.
The Indian conference being over, Mr. Earthy, though it was now winter, made a journey to Bostou, where he was aston- ished to find that complaint had been made against him, for selling ammunition to the Indians, contrary to law. This was a difficulty of no small magnitude, the wise and prudent had to contend with, at the time; the minds of very many good people were too much excited to tolerate moderate counsels, or allow them to look without suspicion upon any, who proposed to treat the Indians with ordinary justice. "These false opin- ions being blown away," as Hubbard expressed it, Earthy re- turned to Pemaquid, before the close of winter, and found his services needed immediately to protect the natives from the evil designs of wicked men. A vessel was at or near Pemaquid, which had been lurking about there in a strange manner, and was strongly suspected to be watching for an opportunity of seiz- ing upon the natives for slaves. He hastened to wait upon the captain, and remonstrated with him against doing such injustice to a people with whom they were at peace, and whose friendship the settlements greatly desired to maintain. He also cautioned the Indians to be on their guard, informing them of their dan- ger. The result was that the slaver failed of his object here, but was more successful farther to the eastward.
A few months before this, a vessel commanded by one Laughton,' was on the coast for the same purpose, and actually seized several natives at Capo Sable, and sold them into slavery. The business was managed as follows : the Massachu- setts authorities having authorized Major Waldron? at Cocheco
1 Williamson writes the name Loughlin.
2 Waldron. Walderne, Waldern, Waldren.
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(Dover, N. H.), to seize, and send as prisoners to Boston, all Indians known to have been engaged in any of the recent out- rages committed against the English, he took it upon himself to issue general warrants for this purpose, and often committed them to hands that were entirely irresponsible. In several in- stances, masters of vessels obtained these warrants, and used them for the unjustifiable purpose alluded to.
In the Spring (of 1676), another conference was held with the Indians, somewhere to the eastward, at which Mr. Earthy, Mr. Oliver of Monhegan, and others attended. The Indians com- plained bitterly of the seizure of their friends by the slavers, but, were pacified partially, by the promise, that means should be adopted to return them again. They complained also-and with deep feeling - that arms and ammunition were denied them, in consequence of which they had suffered for food the past winter, many having actually perished from starvation. The previous autumn, they had been frightened by the English from their fields of corn on the Kennebec, which were thus lost to them, and if the English were their friends, as they pre- tended, they would not thus leave them to die.
The fright alluded to occurred in this way ; when news of the beginning of the war in Massachusetts was received at the Kennebec, it was thought indispensable, for the safety of the English settlements, to disarm the neighboring Indians, and refuse them any further supplies of ammunition. For this purpose messengers were sent to Teconnet1 (Winslow) where many of them were known to have collected. These messen- gers, after informing the Indians of the demand made upon them to deliver up all their arms and ammunition, proceeded to add, that if the demand was not complied with, the English would come and destroy them. Greatly alarmed, they at once fled castward to the Penobscott, and St. Johns, leaving their seanty crops unharvested, and thus they had been obliged to pass the winter in want. To be without the means of taking their game, and, at the same time, destitute of other food, was deplora- ble indeed; and it is plain from the account, that the civilized representatives of Pemaquid, were not insensible to the difficult positions occupied by the parties.
: Teconnet, Taconnet, Totonnock, Ticonic, Taconet.
16
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The preceding winter had been very severe, and the Indians west of the Kennebec, greatly exhausted by the recent contests, suffered exceedingly ; many, therefore, made their way to Major Waldron's garrison at Cocheco, and sued for peace. At length, terms of peace were agreed upon between the authorities and the Casco and Piscatagna Indians; but the " Amonoscoggan men"1 were not present at the formation of the treaty, nor was the tribe represented at the present conference. The two repre- sentatives of the settlers, therefore, proposed that another effort should be made to bring them into the agreement, and thus unite, in a general treaty, all the Indian tribes east of the Pis- cataqua. The castern tribes, sincerely desirous to remain at peace, "joyfully" assented to the plan; but the conference appears to have closed without any good result.
In a very little time, a messenger arrived from Teconnet, de- siring Mr. Earthy, at once, to repair to that place where he would meet the Amonoscoggans, and sachems of other tribes, and where they might hope to agree upon terms for a general peace. Without delaying an hour, Mr. Earthy prepared to accompany the messenger on his return, and proceeded with him as far as Capt. Lake's residence on Arrowsie island, where he stopped to consult with the resident authorities. Here it was deemed advisable to send Capt. Silvanus Davis with Mr. E. ; and the two together started on their journey up the Kenne- bec. The few Englishmen they met were very jealous of the sincerity of the Indians in their recent movements ; and they fancied also, that the Indians were more shy and incommuni- cative than usual. Arriving at the Indian village, at Teconnet, they were received with demonstration of respect, and intro- duced to the chiefs assembled there, among whom were Assim- inasqua, chief of the Penobscots, and Madockawando, his adopted son, Tarumkin, a chief of the Androscoggins, Ilopegood and Mugg, and many others. Mugg belonged to the Penobscot tribe, but Hopegood was a Kennebec Indian.
First, Assimiuasqua, in the name of the others, assured them " it was not their custom, when messengers come to treat with them, to seize upon their persons, as sometimes the Mohawks did, with such as had been sent to them, and as the English once did with some of their men, seizing fourteen of them and
1 Called also Anassagunticook, or Androscorgan Indians, and considered the most hostile to the English of all the tribes. Ilub. Ind. Wars., Drake's ed., II, 153.
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putting them under guard, after taking their guns from them. And not only so, but a second time, you required our guns, and demanded us to come down to you, or else you would kill us, which was the cause of our leaving both our fort and our corn to our great loss." 1
This speech caused much embarrassment to the Pemaquid representatives, as they knew the complaints to be literally true ; but they put the best construction they could " on such irregular actions, which could not well be justified," and "told them the persons who had so done were not within the limits of their government, and therefore though they could not call them to account for so acting, yet they did utterly disallow thereof."
This closed the morning session, the Indians intimating that they would have more to say in the afternoon ; but when they came together again, the two Pemaquid representatives, assuming to be satisfied with what had been said, as if the questions between them and the eastern Indians had thus been settled, addressed themselves to the Androscoggins, with whom they wished more particularly to treat. Tarumkin, their chief, after a little pause, proceeded to say, that he had recently been to the westward, where he found most of the Indians unwilling to make peace, and only three sachems, who were in favor of it, but, as for him- self, he greatly desired it. Then turning round he gave his hand to the white men " with protestations of his continuing in friend- ship," as did seven or eight more of his men, among whom were Mugg, and a son of Robinhood.
The point seemed now almost gained, and at least a tempo- rary peace secured; but Madockawando, appreciating more clearly than the others their miserable condition, here interposed, and asked " what they should do for powder and shot, when they had eaten up their corn ? What they should do for the win- ter, for their hunting journeys ? Would they have them all die, or leave their country, and go over to the French ?"
These were questions of the deepest import to both parties. What could be done? The white representatives, thus pressed to the wall, said they would do what they could, to pursuade the governor to allow them enough powder and shot for their ne- cessities; bat they had just admitted, that many of the western Indians would not make peace, and if the English should sell their powder, much of it would soon find its way to these hos- 1 Hub. Ind. Wurs, Drake's ed., 11, 153.
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