USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bremen > A history of the towns of Bristol and Bremen in the state of Maine : including the Pemaquid Settlement > Part 9
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > A history of the towns of Bristol and Bremen in the state of Maine : including the Pemaquid Settlement > Part 9
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Before me RICHARD MARTYN, Comist."
A fellow passenger with Mather on the Angel Gabriel, was Bailey, who came over to this country with the view of settling here, but left his wife in the old country, until he could first make himself a little acquainted with the new country, and provide a suitable place for his family. Though he escaped from the wreck unhurt, his mind was deeply effected by his narrow escape, and he wrote to his wife such a doleful account of the storm and shipwreck, that she never could be persuaded to undertake
1 Hist. Gen. Reg., XXIII, p. 153. For account of the storm, Chronicles, of Mass., p. 478 ; and 2 Mass. Hist. Coll., V, p. 199 ; Winthrop, 1, p. 197; Thornton, Maine Hist. Coll., v, p. 217.
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the voyage, even to join her husband. And as he was too timid to risk himself again on the stormy Atlantic, they remained separate the rest of their lives.1
It is interesting to remark here that Thacher's island, at Cape Ann, received its name from a circumstance that occurred there in this storm. A small vessel with 23 persons, men, women and children on board sailed from Ipswich for Marblehead, and being overtaken by the storm, was dashed to pieces on the island ; and all on board were lost except a man named Anthony Thacher and wife. These latter had with them their four children, all of whom perished. They afterwards had three other children, from whom, and a nephew of Anthony, who came over with him, have descended probably all of the name in New England.2
Two circumstances occurred this year (1635) which produced some uneasiness in all the New England colonies : the surrender of the charter of the Plymouth Council in England (ante p. 69), and the continued encroachments of the French at the eastward. The latter especially concerned the Pemaquid settlement, as being in their immediate neighborhood.
On the division (on paper) of the territory by the council of Plymouth before giving up their charter, the Pemaquid river was made the boundary between two different proprietors ; but as those proprietors never took actual possession, or exercised any other act of ownership, it is not necessary to pursue the subject further.
The encroachment of the French at the east especially con- cerned the Pemaquid settlement, but all the English colonies on the coast, even as far west as Connecticut, were not unin- terested spectators. Immediately after the ratification of the treaty of St. Germain, the French agents proceeded to suppress the trading house at Machias, belonging to the Plymouth colony : and a few days before the great storin, a French ship with a commission (as was pretended) from the king of France, seized the other Plymouth trading house at Bignyduce, at the mouth of the Penobscott, sending the men away, but appropri- ating the goods to themselves, only giving bills for them. They bade the men to till the plantations, that they would come
1 Coffin, Hist. of Newbury.
" Chronicles of Mass., p. 485.
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within a year with eight ships and displace them all, as far south as forty degrees of N. latitude. Subsequently, the French Captain (D'Anlney de Charnisse) in a letter to the governor of Plymouth, stated that his commission was from Gen. Razilly1 commander of the fort at La Heve," and that his orders were to displace the English, only as far west as Pemaquid.3
But Plymouth was not disposed to submit to a decision so summary, in regard to her rights in the east, and made applica- tion to Massachusetts for aid against the French. They sent an armed ship to settle the matter at the Penobscot, but the French having had time to fortify their position, nothing was accomplished. Further negotiation with Massachusetts was had, and men and ammunition were to be supplied by Massachu- setts, but the crops having been so much injured by the great storm, it was found that sufficient provision for such an expedi- tion could not well be spared. The whole thing therefore failed ; and it is added " nor did they (the Plymouth colonists) find any means afterwards to recover their interest there any more."
In this affair the Pemaquid settlers found themselves between two fires, for while the French on one hand, were threatening to displace them as intruders, on the other hand, Gov. Brad- ford of Plymouth complained that they " filled ye Indians with gunes and munishtion to the great danger of ye English," and kept both the French and Indians informed of what was pass- ing among the colonists. Their position was exceedingly criti- cal, but their affairs seem to have been managed with great skill and moderation; so that if they did not altogether please the three parties, viz., the English colonies west of them, the French at the east, or the native Indians, in their midst, they at least gave mortal offense to none. As a natural result they for many years enjoyed a good degree of prosperity, and the population of the place rapidly increased. Gov. Winthrop,‘ in
1 This name is variously spelled by different writers, as Roselly (Wint.), Ros- sillon (Hub.), and Razilla (Williamson), Charlevoix writes it as in the text.
This place is in the present Dublin County, Nova Scotia.
3 Hub., 2 Mass. Hlist. Coll., vol. v, p. 161 ; Wint., I, p. 198 ; Brad., p. 336.
* Hist. N. E., I, p. 400. Is it a misprint that Mr. Savage, in his note on page 101, is made to call the 6th day of the week Saturday ? Mr. Thornton ( Me. ITist. Coll., v. p. 225), copies the mistake. What authority has either Mr. Savage or Mr. Thornton for saying that Gov. Winthrop made the entry in his journal on Sun- day. Rather small criticism.
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a very incidental manner, affords us some evidence of the pros- perity of the place, in the month of May - 1640. "Joseph Grafton set sail from Salem, the 2d day in the morning, in a ketch of about forty tons, (three men and a boy in her) and ar- rived at Pemaquid (the wind easterly) upon the third (Tuesday) in the morning, and then took in some twenty cows, oxen, &c., with hay and oats for them, and came to an anchor in the bay the 6th day about three afternoon."
This was making good despatch, but the voyage could very easily be accomplished in the time mentioned, if the vessel was only a moderately good sailor, and the wind was favorable both going and returning.
The first cows were brought to Plymouth in 1623, but after this they were brought over in considerable numbers ; but as the natural increase would at first be small, prices were high. In 1636, cows sold in Massachusetts as high as 25 and even 30 pounds a head, and oxen at 40 pounds per pair ; but after this the price was lower. In 1640, cows were worth in Massachusetts only 20 pounds ; - and the next year, 1641, the same cows could be purchased for 4 or 5 pounds.1
This great fall in prices was occasioned by the great diminu- tion in the number of emigrants arriving, from the mother country. Not only was there as Hubbard expresses it, " a total cessation of any passengers coming over," but there was a return tide, many persons returning home ou account of the changes taking place there or in prospect. For twenty years begin- ning with the year 1641 the New England colonies lost as many returning home as they received of new immigrants. 2.
This is not at all strange. A great change had taken place in the affairs of the mother country, by the concessions which the king, Charles I, had been compelled to make to his peo- ple. After a long recess, during which the king had undertaken to rule the country without the aid of parliament, this body was again called together. The mass of the people of England, who had been driven almost to despair by the tyranical rule of the king, began to take hope. As a natural consequence, very many who were preparing to escape from the evils they com- plained of, by emigrating to America, now resolved to change their course and remain at home, some who had become resident
1 Wint., II, p. 37; Hub., 2 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. v, p. 238.
2 Neal's . N. E., I, p. 218 ; Williamson's Maine, I, p. 287 ; Holmes's Annals, 1640.
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and in the colonies, in the change of circumstances at home, re- turned again to join their friends and relatives under the old flag.
The settlements at Pemaquid and vicinity were probably less affected by their cause than the more decided puritan colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. There were now many scores of English settlers at Damariscotta, Sheepscott, Arowsic Island, in other places on the Kennebec, and also at the St. George and the Penobscot rivers. Further east were several small but vigorous French establishments. At Pemaquid, and probably at the other settlements, some attention began to be given to agriculture, but the catching and curing of fish was the chief business. Every spring many fishing vessels arrived from Europe, to spend the summer on the coast; and though they brought most of their supplies with them, a ready mar- ket was made for any surplus produce the colonists might have.
The natives of the country, though not numerous, mingled freely with the colonists ; no serious difficulty, so far as we know, having ever occurred between them. Furs abounded in the vicinity, and the trade in these, with the natives, added some- thing to the general business.
The winter of 1641-2 was very severe, and navigation on the coast was especially dangerous ; but in the month of January a shallop with eight men started from Piscataqua for Pemaquid. Being overtaken on the voyage by a furious N. W. gale, they were unable to hold the shore and were driven out to sea. After fourteen days of great suffering, they at length arrived at Monhegan, from which four of them, who alone survived, were rescued by some fishermen. 1
It is implied in this statement that there were at this time no residents on the island; and this harmonizes with the re- mark of Richard Mather, in his journal of his voyage to this country, in 1635, that " the island called Menhiggin" was then without inhabitants.2 We have before seen (p. 70) that the proprietors of the island, Messrs. Aldsworth and Elbridge, of Bristol, England some twelve years before this, had procured . their patent of Pemaquid, and taken possession under it ; and it is probable that they very soon directed their agent, Abraham Shurte, to transfer the seat of his operations from the island to the main land, at Pemaquid.
: Wint., Ir, p. 72; IIub., p. 421.
2 Chron. Mass., p. 470.
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The real condition of affairs here at this period, in some re- spects, cannot be fully understood without a knowledge of some of the transactions taking place east of them, in the French settlement. New France was the name applied by the French to the territory beginning at the gulf of St. Lawrence, and ex- tending indefinitely westward, but certainly including a part of what is now the state of Maine. The right of France to the territory had been disputed by the English, and in 1621, James I made a grant of all this territory, cast of the St. Croix river, to Sir Wm. Alexander, under the name of Nova Scotia. This grant was confirmed three years afterwards by Charles I, who had succeeded to the throne of England. . Sir William, then, with the approbation of the government, and aided by Sir David Kirk a French protestant, and refugee from his native country, projected a plan for the entire expulsion of the French from New France; and so energetically did the two enter upon the undertaking that they well nigh succeeded the very first cam- paign. This was in 1627.
It was natural that transactions like these should arouse the French to renewed activity to preserve their ascendancy in New France ; and, for this purpose an association was formed, called the Company of New France, to whom the whole territory was ceded, upon condition that the colonies should immediately be strengthened by new emigrants from France. Many other conditions were also stipulated, but they do not concern our immediate purpose. Great preparations were made by the company tofulfill their contract, and an armament under Razilly was about to sail for Nova Scotia, when, by the treaty of St. Germain, in 1632, the whole territory was given up by Charles I, to the king of France.
Razilly was also appointed commander in chief of Acadia by the French government, and in addition received a grant of the river and bay of St. Croix. Leaving behind the forces he had col- lected, as not being needed under the new circumstances, he set sail for Nova Scotia with high hopes.
Next east of the St. Croix a large tract was granted to Charles Etienne La Tour, and still farther east, and extending to the St. Lawrence, a grant was made to M. Denys.
Besides his grant on the St. Croix River, La Tour had claims to other large tracts, some of which he inherited from his father, who long resided in this region -- indeed he had pur-
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chased of Sir Wm. Alexander in 1630 all his right in Nova Scotia except Port Royal. 1 It is hardly necessary to say that he was a man of fortune and influence; a protestant in reli- gion professedly, but utterly destitute of Christian principle, or any noble traits of character whatever.
Razilly had the chief command; and it is understood that he was instructed by the French government to maintain posses- sion of the country as far west as the Kennebec if possible. One of his first acts was to send his lieutenant, M. D'Aulney 2 de Charnisse, to the Penobscot 3 to seize the trading house established there, as we have just seen .. When D'Aulney and his men arrived there the head man of the establishment, as it happened, was absent, but the Frenchman, pretending to have ,put in there in distress, and earnestly requesting permission to repair damages, succeeded in deceiving those in charge, and so gained easy possession. This was in 1635.
So also the suppression of Mr. Allerton's trading house at Machias, the year before (in 1635) was by La Tour, acting under the authority of Razilly, who claimed all the country east of Pemaquid, and threatened to seize any traders who might be found there without being properly authorized.
Gen. Razilly died soon after the suppression of the Plymouth trading house at Penobseot, and his lieutenant D'Aulney suc- ceeded him in office. Razilly had his residence at La Heve, but his successor removed to the Penobscot, at the place afterwards made famous as the residence of the Baron de Castine, and now known by his name. From some cause, having no other foun- dation apparently than personal rivalry, a misunderstanding oc- curred between D'Aulney and La Tour which speedily ripened into a disastrous quarrel, and seemed likely at one time to in- volve not only the small English settlements at the east, but even the Massachusetts colony itself.
D'Aulney was a Catholic, and naturally felt that he could con- fide in the French government for aid against his Huguenot rival, but La Tour, at the same time, hoped for sympathy and assistance, if needed, from Massachusetts and the other Protest-
1 Holmes's Annals, I, p. 253.
" This name D'Aunai, D'Aunay, D'Aulnay, and D'Aulney, and sometimes by English writers, Doney. This latter indicates the true pronunciation. Halibur- ton in his History of Nova Scotia writes the name Daubre.
3 Haliburton (vol. I, p. 53), errs in speaking of this trading port as being at Pema- quid.
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ant settlements on the coast. Accounts of their dissensions ' reached France, and the two rivals were enjoined by the king, Louis XIV, to confine their operations each within his own territory. This advice was good but ineffectual in stopping the dissensions ; and mutual complaints and criminations were per- formed before the king, until at length he found it necessary to take some more decisive steps. He therefore caused an order to be issued to D'Aulney, authorizing him to arrest La Tour, and send him a prisoner to France. This was in February, 1641.
The result was to intensify the strife. The contest between the parties was at once commenced with vigor, each bringing into action all the force he could command whether of men or ammunitions of war. The French government was too much engaged in its own affairs at home to interfere with forces, and they were left to prosecute the war upon each other like two independent chieftains.
In Nov. 1641, La Tour made application to Massachusetts for aid against his rival ; but nothing was done, though the peo- ple of Massachusetts sympathized with him. The agent of La Tour brought with him a letter of introduction from Mr. Shurte of Pemaquid.
Another, and more forward and urgent request for aid, the next autumn, was attended with no better result, except that a system of perfect free trade was agreed upon between Massa- chusetts and the adherents of La Tour. Some of the mer- chants of Boston, availing themselves of this agreement, at once sent a small trading schooner to the eastward, which was re- ceived very cordially by the people on the St. Johns, and La Tour their chief. On their return home they called at Pema- quid, and were surprised to find there D'Aulney himself, who very consequentially showed them the authority he had received from the French Government for the arrest of La Tour, and threatened to sieze any Massachusetts vessels that might presume to visit the St. Johns river for purposes of trade.1
In the spring of the next year D'Aulney was able to raise sufficient force to blockade completely the river St. Johns ; and in the meantime a ship arrived from Rochelle with 140 emi- grants for La Tour's colony, but being unable to enter the river she set sail for Boston, with La Tour and his wife, who were
1. Wint., II, p. 109 ; Hub., p. 479 ; Charlevoix, II, 156.
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able to get on board by passing the blockade in the night. This ship, it would seem, had been sent out by friends of La Tour in France, and brought several documents from the Vice Admiral of France and others, to La Tour, styling him His Majesty's Lieut. General of Acadia. This seemed to place La Tour at least on an equality with his great rival, as it regards the favor of France.1
Many influential citizens of Massachusetts were now much dis- posed to favor La Tour, but the governor and others in authority hesitated; and the subject was discussed pro and con, some- times angrily, through all the English settlements on the coast, from Boston to Pemaquid. Most persons had full confidence in the Protestantism of La Tour, which they would gladly favor, but they did not desire a quarrel with D'Aulney. It was at length, after due consideration, decided that though government, as such, could not extend any aid to him, yet he was at liberty to employ ships, and enlist men into his service, as he pleased.
By mortgaging his possessions at St. Johns, he succeeded in . procuring four ships and 142 men as sailors and soldiers, with which he set sail for the Penobscot about midsummer. The attack upon D'Aulney was made with great vigor, and he was obliged to run some of his vessels ashore, but he then made a stand with such determination, and such means of defense, that the commander of the Massachusetts forces declined to prose- cute the enterprise further. The Boston ships returned in due time without loss.
Massachusetts, not wishing to provoke the angerof D'Aulney felt it necessary to send him an official note, informing him of what they had done in reference to his rival La Tour, but the messenger did not find him in a very pleasant mood ; still he was not in a condition, as was more than suspected in Massa- chusetts, to manifest openly his displeasure. But he resolved no less vigorously to prosecute his measures for the subjugation of his rival ; and therefore made another application for aid to the French government. To ensure the success of his applica- tion he shortly set sail for the French capital.
1 Writers on this, without exception, concede the genuineness of these docu- ments and those of D'Aulney to arrest La Tour, purporting to have been issued by authority ; but there is not sufficient reason to question them. Neither D'Aul- ney por La Tour was too honest to forge such documents, if there was a prospect that they could be used advantageously.
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By this time the trade of Massachusetts with the French at the east was now nearly destroyed; and persons having debts due them in the French settlements thought it necessary to take measures for their collection. La Tour, at the time, stood as debtor on the books of several wealthy men of Boston, and D'Aulney himself held the same relation, at least to Mr. Shurte of Pemaquid. So about midsummer, 1644, Mr. Vines of Saco, Mr. Wannerton of Piscataqua, and Mr. Shurte started with a suitable boat's crew, on a collecting tour to the east. They called first at Penobscot where D'Aulney detained them, as semi-prisoners, several days; and it was only in consequence of the great personal influence of his creditor, Mr. Shurte, that they were at length released. They then proceeded to St. John's, not without some decided feeling of resentment because of this inexcusable treatment.
Thomas Wannerton had been a man of considerable in- fluence in the colony at Piscataqua, and his name appears with those of Gorges, Mason, and others, as one of the commis- sioners in the Laconia patent. But he was a man of low and grovelling feelingsand base passions, and, at least, in the latter part of his life, a miserable drunkard. John Jocelyn1 says of him : " Sep. 24, 1639, several of my friends came to bid me farewell, among the rest Capt. Thomas Wannerton, who drank to me a pint of Kill-devil, alias rhum." At a period still ear- lier, in 1635, he had a quarrel with several others, for which he was put under bonds for his good behavior. Hubbard says that he had been a soldier many years, and that by the irregularities of his conduct, he at one time occasioned much trouble in Masou's colony at Piscataqua.
Arriving at St. John's, Wannerton was easily pursuaded by La Tour to join with him in an expedition against D'Aul- ney, especially as it was supposed that the forces of the latter at that time, were not very considerable, and that he was short of supplies. The number of men in the expedition was about twenty ; and when they arrived at Penobscot, instead of making an attack upon the fort, they went to a farm house six miles distant, where Wannerton, in attempting to enter the house, was shot dead, and one other of his men wounded. There were only three men in the house, one of whom was killed, and the otl.ers taken prisoners. They then burned the house and killed
1 Voyage, p. 26; Wint., I, p. 217 ; Hubbard's N. E., p. 484.
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all the cattle they could find, and retired. Leaving the Penob- scot they set sail, not for St. John's, but for Boston, where La Tour had now gone, and where his wife soon after arrived from London, though not until a few days after her husband had left for his home.1
D'Aulney now greatly incensed by this ill-judged affair, threatened vengeance against the English colonists at the west, and acutually issued commissions for the capture of all vessels of theirs found east of the Penobscot; but Massachusetts now manifesting a little firmness, and intimating a disposition to call him to account for such acts of aggression he apologized for his haste, and said that he had received commands from his sovereign to hold friendly intercourse with all the English.
But the end of this strife was not yet. Later in the autumn of this year, an agent of D'Aulney came to Massachusetts for the double purpose to make known the plenary authority he had received from the French government, for the arrest and confinement of La Tour, and to form such a treaty with the government of Massachusetts as he might be able. Though Massachusetts would by no means allow all the claims and pre- tensions made in behalf of D'Aulney, only four days elapsed before terms were agreed upon by the parties, and a settlement of their difficulties effected, which caused great rejoicing among the scattered settlements on the eastern coast of New England.
Thus affairs remained during the winter of 1644-5; but in the spring D'Aulney, learning that La Tour was absent from his garrison, he prepared an attack upon it, expecting to make an easy conquest. On his way he met with a New Eng- land vessel, somewhere on the coast, and in utter disregard of his treaty with Massachusetts, on which the ink was but just dry, made a prize of her, turning the crew ashore on a distant island, without food or comfortable clothing. Arriving at St. John's, he moored his ship before the fort and began a bombard- ment, but Madam La Tour, who had command in her husband's absence, made such spirited resistance that he was obliged to retire, his ship being badly damaged, and twenty of his men killed and thirteen wounded. On his return, a wiser if not a better man, he took aboard the men he had put ashore on the island, who had remained there ten days in great suffering
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