USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bremen > A history of the towns of Bristol and Bremen in the state of Maine : including the Pemaquid Settlement > Part 19
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > A history of the towns of Bristol and Bremen in the state of Maine : including the Pemaquid Settlement > Part 19
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When the fort of Clark and Lake on Arrowsic island was captured by the Indians in August, 1676, he was one of the in- mates, but escaped unhurt (ante, p. 125), to Damariscove island. Here he remained about a week, and with others, made some attempts to recover any of their property that remained among the ruins of the former settlement, but found their enemies, the Indians, were too watchful for them. Nothing is said of his family during this time, but probably they were with him.
In the autumn of the same year he with his family removed to Southold, Long Island, very probably at the same time with his brother Thomas, as before related. Governor Andros, having learned something of his history, took some notice of him while here, and even undertook to provide a place for him on Staten
' It is printed in full in Giles Memorial, p. 113.
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HISTORY OF BRISTOL AND BREMEN.
Island; but being suddenly called away from his government, the thing was not accomplished, and Mr. Giles and family finally settled upon a farm at Round Brook, upon Raritan river, in New Jersey. The time of his death is not known. His family of four daughters subsequently married in New Jersey ; and among their descendants were the late General Worth, of the United States army, and Charles S. Olden, recently governor of the state.
John Giles also a brother of Thomas, of Pemaquid, was born in 1653, and came to Pemaquid vory probably soon after the set- tlement here of the duke's government. It is believed that he was here at the time of Gov. Andros's visit, late in the year 1688, but probably left the place before the attack by the Indians, August 2d, the next year, for the reason that his name is not · mentioned in connection with the tragic events of the time. He was a man of good education, and after his removal from the place was employed in teaching in Salem, and perhaps also in Boston, where he died Aug. 29, 1730, aged 77.
Several years ago there was found in Bristol a curious old document, of which the following is a copy.
To his Excellancy Sr. Edmond Andross Knt and Governor in Chiefe in, and over his Majties Territories and Dominions of New England, &c. May it Please yor Excellancy.
That your Humble Petition' Desires a Certaine Tract of Upland lying upon ye westwarde side of Pemaquid River betweene ye Lotts of Henry Hedger and Denise Higaman, with Meadow to it Suffitient the nighest that can be found not already taken up.
Yor Excellancyes Humble Petition hath by order from Capt". Nichol- son Ever Since June last Read Prayers at the Garrison on Wednesdayes and ffridayes and hath not received any thing for itt. Yor Excellancyes Humble Petition" Desires only one Man's Provision from said Garrison, and is willing to officiate still, if it so Please yor Excellancy. And yor Ex- cellancyes IIumble Petitionr shall Ever Pray &c.
JOHN GYLES.
There was really no date to the document, but a more recent hand had written at the bottom, 1688, and Mr. Vinton, in Gyles Memorial, p. 119 has suggested November as the probable month, thus supplying for it the date, November, 1688. Theidea, of course is, that Mr. Gyles had the petition in readiness to pre-
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sent to the governor when he visited Pemaquid, about this time, or, probably, a little later. Whether or not it ever reached the hands of Andros we have no means of knowing but very probably it did not, as the fact that it was found in these parts would seem to indicate. 1
The complete destruction of the fort and settlement at Pema- quid was considered a great achievement by the Indians; and they assured M. Thury, on their return, that, with two hundred Frenchmen, a little acquainted with the country, and ready to follow their lead, they would not hesitate to march upon Boston. 2 The same feeling was shown by the Freuch in Nova Scotia and Canada ; and from this time hopes began to be entertained by them that they might be able utterly to exclude the English from the continent, at least as far south as New York and New Jersey. Indeed, even before the capture of Pemaquid, the Cana- dian authorities had, under consideration, a project for seizing upon the whole province of New York ; and M. De Callieres, a French officer in Canada, who seems to have first suggested the enterprise, was sent home to France to press the matter upon the attention of the government. " It would" said he " furnish his Majesty with a beautiful harbor, that of Manhat, (New York), which is accessible at all seasons of the year in less than a month's voyage."3
Such being the circumstances of the time, nothing was to be looked for in all the English settlements of the region but war and carnage; and these, all that now remained being west of the Kennebec river, became the special object of savage venge- ance. At the close of the next year (1690), only four English settlements remained on the territory of the present state of Maine, viz., Wells, York, Kittery and Appledore, the latter being situated on one or more of the Isles of Shoals. 4 And all of these, except, perhaps, the latter, had suffered greatly by re- peated attacks of the Indians, and frequent indiscriminate mur- ders of the inhabitants whenever found unprotected.
1 A part of the document is omitted in the copy as printed in the Gyles Memorial. 2 Charlevoix's Hist. N. F., p. 418.
3 Doc. Col. Ilist. V. Y., Ix, 370, 412, et seq. A fleet was actually sent to Nova Scotia, from France, which was designed to attack New York from the sea, while a land force was to invade the country by way of Lake Champlain. The further prosecution of the enterprise, was prevented by the destruction of Montreal by the Indians, a few days before the capture of Pemaquid. Me Mullen, Hist. Canada, p. 66; Williamson, Hist. Maine, I, p. 616.
4 Hist. Maine, 1, 627.
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Nor did the Indians, or their allies, the French, escape with- out severe punishment ; very many Indians were slain in their constantly recurring fights with the English ; and in the spring of 1690, a small force under the command of Sir. Win. Phips, proceeding southward in eight vessels, destroyed the French settlement at Port Royal [Annapolis, N. S.]. A much more formidable expedition fitted out from Boston, later in the season, under the same commander, made an attack upon Quebec, but without success. The fleet of thirty-two vessels, on their return, was scattered by a storm, and several of them lost. Those that were so fortunate as to reach their homes in safety, found on their arrival, that no provision had been made to pay their demands : and the government was obliged to resort to the expe- dient of issuing bills of credit in order to quiet the great discon- tent that prevailed.1
The next month after the destruction of Pemaquid, Major Benjamin Church, who had greatly distinguished himself in the previous Indian wars, especially in that called King Philip's war, was commissioned with extraordinary powers, and placed at the head of a considerable force, to carry on the war against the eastern Indians. Church continued his operations against the savages several years, but met with no marked success, and added nothing to his laurels previously won !
1 Hutch. Hist. Mass., 1, 353. This was the first issue of paper to circulate as money in any of the colonies; but other issues, of comparatively large amounts, were subsequently made by several of the colonies, producing deplorable confu sion in all the fiscal affairs of the country. Gold and silver disappeared from the country ; and for more than fifty years no other currency was known than this de- preciated paper.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
Rebuilding of the fort at Pemaquid by Gov. Phips, who names it Fort William Henry - Unsatisfactory description of the new fort by Mather - House of Re- presentatives dissatisfied with such an appropriation from the public treasury, A French naval force designed to destroy the fort appears in the offing, but re- turns without making an attack - Treaty of peace signed at Pemaquid - The Indians, under the influence of French priests, begin hostilities in violation of the treaty - Bomazeen and other Indians who under a flag of trace are received into the fort, are immediately made prisoner - Pasco Chubb, appointed captain of the fort, makes an unjustifiable attack upon some Indians at or near Fort William Henry - Sharp reply of an Indian to a letter of Governor Stoughton.
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The next important event at Pemaquid was the building of the first stone fort there by Gov. Phips in 1692. Ever since the old charter of the Massachusetts Bay was annulled, by a writ of quo warranto, (1684), the province had been governed directly by the crown ; but after the accession of William and Mary to the English throne, by great effort on the part of Massachusetts, a new charter was obtained, and Sir. Wm. Phips, being then in England, was appointed governor. He arrived in Boston with the new charter, May 14th, 1692, and the same season, in obe- dience to the royal commands, proceeded to erect a strong fort at Pemaquid, such as had never before been seen in all the re- gion ! Though ordered by the home government, the expense was to be borne by the colony ; and the people generally looked upon the project with coldness. Writs were issued for the elec - tion of a legislative assembly, which met June Sth ; but it does not appear that the project for erecting the fort was definitely brought before that body. A bill was passed authorizing a tax to raise £30,000 for general purposes; and from this the gov- ernor felt himself authorized to draw, in order to execute the royal command as to the fort.
But if the assembly were not definitely asked for an appro- priation to build the fort, they must have known of the pre- paration which the governor was making for the purpose ; yet no official remonstrance was made. Having engaged some four hundred and fifty men, and procured such tools and implements as were needed, he set sail from Boston early in August, taking
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...
with him Col. Benj. Church, commander of the province forces. On their way they stopped at Falmouth, and took on board the large guns which had lain there ever since the de- struction of Fort Loyal, more than two years previously, and decently interred the bones of the slain, which still lay bleach- ing upon the surface.
Having anchored safely in the harbor of Pemaquid, by the aid of Major Church, a site for the new fort was selected, very nearly the same as that occupied by the old stockade, but ex- tending a little further west, so as to include within the walls the large rock of which the Indians had taken advantage in the disastrous fight three years before. Only two companies were retained to work upon the fort, the rest being sent, under Major Church, on an expedition farther east, to look after the public enemies.
Mather gives us the following description of the fort which they erected.1
" Captain Wing, assisted by Captain Bancroft, went through the former part of the work ; and the latter part of it was finished by Captain March. His Excellency, attended in this matter, with these worthy Captains, did in a few months, despatch a service for the king, with a prudence, and in- dustry, and thriftiness, greater than any reward they ever had for it. The fort, called William Henry, was built of stone, in a quadrangular figure, being about seven hundred and thirty-seven foot in compass, without the outer walls, and one hundred and eight foot square, within the inner ones ; twenty-eight ports it had, and fourteen (if not eighteen) guns mounted, whereof six were eighteen pounders. The wall on the south line, fronting to the sea, was twenty-two foot high, and more than six foot thick at the ports, which were eight foot from the ground. The greater flanker or round tower at the western end of this line, was twenty-nine foot high. The wall on the east line was twelve foot high, on the north it was ten, on the west it was eighteen. It was computed that in the whole there were
1 Magnolia, II., 536. Mather seems to be the only original authority on this subject, and later writers have implicitly followed him, yet his description of the fort is very obscure and unsatisfactory. His language seems to imply that the walls were double ; but probably it was not intended to be so understood. If the fort was only 108 feet square inside the walls, supposing this to be the mean- ing, how could it be 737 feet in compass ? The greater flanker, or round tower, of the next and last fort built there, the foundations of which still re- main, was 130 feet in compass, but, including this we cannot make the distance around the walls as great as Mather gives. Perhaps a large bastion or lesser Hanker at the opposite angle from the round tower, may have increased the dis- tance around so as to make it as stated. See Popham Memorial Volume, p. 256, note.
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laid above two thousand cart loads of stone. It stood a score of rods from high water mark ; and it had generally at least sixty men posted in it for its defence, which if they were men, might easily have maintained it against more than twice six hundred assailants."
As this fort was destroyed four years afterward, and subse- quently another erected upon its ruins, we have no means now to judge of the accuracy of this description; but most persons will probably hesitate to receive all the measurements with full confidence.
The stone used in its construction was evidently collected from the shores in the immediate vicinity, where an abundance could easily be found without the trouble of blasting. The stone, consisting of small fragments ouly, was well laid in lime mortar; but of course walls so constructed would have little strength, as compared with the walls of modern structures of the kind. We are not informed where the lime was obtained, but probably it was brought from Boston. There is no lime- stone in the region nearer than Rockland; and at this early period probably the existence of this was quite unknown.
The cost of erecting the fort is said to have been nearly £20,000, and was a heavy tax upon the impoverished people of the province ; and to support a garrison there required a large annual expenditure. At length, the popular feeling in regard to these large expenditures, found vent in the following reso- lution of the lower house of the legislature :
" Resolve of the House of Representatives, in Boston, Xber [Decem- ber] 6, 1693 ;- That the imployment of any money out of the publick treasury for the building and maintaining of the fort at Pemaquid was beside the intention of the act for Raising the thirty thousand pounds the Gent Assembly not being there about advised and consulted nor any direc- tion or provision made for the same in the sd act ; and that their Majestyes bee humbly addressed to take the charge of the fort and Port Royal 1 more immediately upon themselves. NATHANIEL BYFIELD, Speaker."?
This was a direct censure of the governor; but, at the pre- sent day, we should consider it wonderfully mild language to be used in regard to such an assumption of power by the executive.
1 Port Royal [Annapolis] N. S., which, as we have seen, had been seized by Phips two years before.
2 Mass. Arch., 70: 217.
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To hold this place was a matter of great importance to the English interests, in order to prevent the French from taking possession ; and to this the people of Massachusetts were not insensible ; but the burdensome taxation rendered necessary by the Indian wars, so long continued, admonished them of the necessity of economizing their resources.
It is remarkable that no official returns of the building of the fort are now to be found. Governor Phips appears to have taken the thing wholly into his own hands. He alone, except so far as he was pleased to ask advice, appears to have planned the work, then superintended its construction, and last of all, drawn the money from the treasury to pay the expenses ! It was such experiences as this that trained the people of Massa- chusetts for their work the succeeding century.
The fort was finished late in the autumn (1692), and supplied with a permanent garrison of sixty men, under the command of Capt. March; and, so far as we are informed, for the first time furnished with a regular chaplain, Rev. John Pike. He was a son of Hon. Robert Pike, for many years a distinguished leader in public affairs in Massachusetts. The son graduated at Harvard College in 1675, and was first settled in the ministry, in 1681, at Dover, N. H., but removed to Portsmouth imme- diately after the destruction of that place by the Indians in 1689. From this place he was appointed to the chaplaincy of Pemnaquid fort, Oct., 1692, where he remained until July, 1695. Ife died at Dover in 1710. He was an excellent man of more than ordinary ability. 1
The erection of this strong fortress at Pemaquid was a mat- ter of disgust both to the Indians and the French ; and the new structure was scarcely finished before plans were devised in Ca- nada for its destruction. The plan adopted for the purpose was proposed by Chevelier Villebon, a French officer in Canada. It was to dispatch two ships of war to attack the fort from the sea, whilst he, with a land force of Indians should do the same from the land. Two ships, L'Envieux, and LePoli (the latter of which had been recently taken from the Date !! ), were fitted up for the purpose, and put under the command of D'Iberville ; but it was late in the season before they were in readiness to leave the Penobscot; and though they actually made their ap-
1 N. H., Hist., Coll., III, 40; Magn., II, 512.
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pearance in the offing at Pemaquid, they did not communicate with the fort, made no special demonstrations, and returned east, much to the disgust of the Indians, who, in large numbers, and with still larger expectations, had collected in the vicinity.
As an excuse for their retreat without a single effort at any- thing, the officers claimed that, at the time of their arrival, the weather was particularly unfavorable, and they were without a good pilot on board, or any who was acquainted with the shores and islands of the region ; and, moreover, an English ship, lying at anchor under the guns of the fort, indicated that the authorities at Boston had probably learned of the proposed attack upon the place, and sent them reinforcements.
John Nelson, a distinguished citizen of Boston, who had been taken prisoner and was now at Quebec, by some means learned of the preparations in progress for an attack upon Pemaquid, and hired two French soldiers to desert and carry information of the fact to Boston. Their departure became known to the Quebec authorities in a little time, and a party of armed men was sent to overtake and arrest them if possible, but without avail. French writers of the time, affirm that, in consequence of information thus received, supplies and reinforcements had been sent to the fort before the arrival of the French ships ; but Hutchinson pronounces it a mistake. The two deserters were afterwards taken by the French and shot; and Nelson, for his offence, was sent to prison in Paris, where he suffered an imprisonment of five years. 1
The utter failure of the expedition against Pemaquid greatly dispirited the Indians, and they began to lose their confidence in the promises of the French, which the latter did not fail to see. Increased effort on the part of the French officials in the
1 Charlevoix, Hist. N. F., II, 177-179 ; Hutch., Ilist. Mass., IL., 68; Doc. Col. Hist. N. Y., Ix, 544, 555; Will. Ilist. Maine, t, 637. Nelson was a relative of Sir Thos. Temple, a distinguished English gentleman of that day. He was one of the most active in effecting the arrest and imprisonment of Andros, in Boston, April 18, 1689, and in 1691, was taken prisoner by the French on his way to Port Royal, N. S: Two years of his imprisonment in France he passed in a small hole in the prison. and he saw only the servant who daily passed his food to him through the grate. At length, finding means to communicate with his relative, Sir Pur- beck Temple, in England, a demand was made for his release or exchange, which had the effect to canse his removal to the more aristocratic prison, the celebrated Bastile, and finally to his-release on parole to visit England, about the time of the peace of Ryswick. Doc. Col. Hist. N. Y., IV, 211.
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country was therefore essential in order to retain their hold upon the fickle natives. For a time the Indians were held in check by their fears, and a degree of quiet prevailed; but there was no assurance of continued peace, and the next spring (1693), Major Converse, as commander-in-chief of the Massachusetts forces, was prepared again to take the field. With several hun- dred men he visited Pemaquid, Sheepscot and other places ; and at Saco erected a strong fort. The Indians were in great dis- tress and despair, and began seriously to consider the necessity of making peace with the English on such terms as they could obtain. This feeling among the Indians the French mission- ries did not fail to see and deplore; as a peace being once established and trade renewed with the English a transfer of their allegiance, in the same direction, might be expected very soon to follow. The missionaries, therefore, strenuously opposed all counsels of peace ; and we shall see, further on, how they used their influence after a treaty of peace was formed.
The negotiations began on the part of the Indians with great caution, and a disposition to conceal from the French as much as possible everything connected with it. First a kind of in- formal conference between the parties was held at Pemaquid, July 21st, and a total cessation of hostilities by either party against the other for twenty days agreed upon. It was also agreed that twenty days from that time, or August 11th (1693), another conference should be held at Pemaquid, with a view to form a new treaty of perpetual peace and friendship.
This conference was held at the time appointed, all the In- dian tribes being represented, from the Saco river quite down to the Passamaquoddy. The commissioners on the part of Massa- chusetts were John Wing, Nicholas Manning and Benjamin Jackson.
The following are the words of the treaty as given by Ma- ther. 1
" Whereas a bloody war has for some years now past been made and carried on by the Indians within the eastern parts of the said province [ Massachusetts ] against their Majesties' subjects the English, through the instigations and influences of the French ; and being sensible of the mise- ries which we and our people are reduced unto, by adhering to their ill
1 Magna., 11, 542.
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councils : We whose names are hereunto subscribed, being Sagamores and Chief Captains of all the Indians belonging to the several rivers of Penobscot and Kennebeck, Amarascogin and Suco, parts of the said pro- vince of Massachusetts Bay within their said Majesties' soveraiguty, hav- ing made application unto his Excellency Sir William Phips, Captain General and Governour in Chief in and over the said province, that the war may be put to an end, do lay down our arms, and cast ourselves upon their said Majesties' grace and favour. And each of us respectively for our selves, and in the name and with the free consent of all the Indians belonging unto the several rivers aforesaid, and of all other Indians within the said province, of and from Merrimack river, unto the most easterly bounds of the said province: hereby acknowledging our hearty subjection and obedience unto the crown of England; and do solemnly covenant, promise and agree, to and with the said Sir William Phips, and his successors in the place of Captain General and Governour in Chief of the aforesaid province or territory, on their said Majesties' behalf in man- ner following, viz :
" That at all times and for ever, from and after the date of these presents, we will cease and forbear all acts of hostility towards the sub- jects of the crown of England, and not offer the least hurt or violence to them, or any of them, in their persons or estate : But will henceforward hold and maintain a firm and constant amity and friendship with all the English.
" Item .- We abandon and forsake the French interest, and will not in any wise adhere to, join with, aid or assist them in their wars or designs against the English, nor countenance, succor or conceal any of the enemy Indians of Canada, or other places, that shall happen to come to any of our plantations within the English territory, but secure them, if in our power, and deliver them up unto the English.
" That all English captives in the hands or power of any of the Indians, within the limits aforesaid, shall with all possible speed be set at liberty, and returned home without any ransom or payment to be made or given for them, or any of them.
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