USA > Maine > Ancient dominions of Maine : embracing the earliest facts, the recent discoveries, of the remains of aboriginal towns, the voyages, settlements, battle scenes, and incidents of Indian warfare, and other incidents of history, together with the religious developments of society within the ancient Sagadahoc, Sheepscot, and Pemaquid precincts and dependencies > Part 10
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ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
thoroughfare from the East. At this point there exist the remains of a very ancient and considerable settlement ; for on the margins of " Spring Cove," within forty years have been traced very considerable ruins and pavements of brick work.
ORIGINAL DEED OF THE PURCHASE OF BATH.
" Robert Gutch's Deed from severall Sagamoors for Land in Kennebeck River - May 29th 1660.
" THIS INDENTURE made this twenty ninth of May 1660 Between Robin Hoode alias Rawmeagon Terrumquin Wesomonascoa Scawque Abumheanencon ye : one party & Robert Gutch on ye other party witness- eth y' we ye above sd Robin Hoode alias Rawmeagon Wesomonascoe & Terumquin Sagamores and we ye Rest above mentioned for divers consid- erations to theirunto moveing have given granted & delivered over & by these presents Do give grant & deliver over & forever alinese quit Claime from unto ye sª Robert Gutch his heirs Exec : administrators & assignes to our selves - our heirs Exec" administrators & assignes all yª tract of Land lying and being in Kenebecke River and Right over against tuessicke ye Beginning of ye Lower part of ye Bounds Thereof. Being a Cove Run- ning by ye upper Side of a point having Som Rocks lying a little from yº sª point into ye sd River & from ye sª Cove to run upwards by ye waters Side - towards James Smiths unto a point and Being Right over against winslows Rock Commonly known and Called by y' name together with all y® woods underwood & all other previledges their unto beloning as also ye one half of all ye meadow yt Either is or may be made and lyeth within ye Land from ye waters Side part behind ye abovesd tract of Land. & a part Behind a tract of Land granted unto Alexander Thwait & lyeth near a Little pond & further ye abovesª Sagamores and we ye rest abovenamed have also Given granted & delivered over half ye meadow yt is and may be made by ye Rivers Sides commonly known and called by ye name of Wen- nigansege all weh abovesd tract of Land to Run into ye Land Three Miles To have & To hold to him ye sª Robert Gutch bis heirs Exeer & adminis- trators & assignes ye abovesd tract of Land with ye privileges abovesd as al- so all hawking hunting fishing &c. forever without any mollestations or futer demand whatsoever and hereby do bind ourselves our heirs Exec" Ad- ministrators & assignes forever any more from this day forward to make any more Claime Challinge or pretence, of tittle unto ye aboves Tract of Land and to maintain this against all other Claimes Tittles Challinges
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SETTLEMENT.
GUTCH'S HAMLET ON LONG REACH.
Rev. Robert Gutch, a dweller on Sagadahock west bank, an emigrant from Salem, purchased of several 1661. Sagamores, among whom was Mow-ho-ti-wormet, the present site of the city of Bath, which he occupied as a plantation. "Long Reach " was the primitive name of the city. Some twenty families resided on the west shore of the Sagadahock at this date. Robert Gutch, " a man of God " to the pioneer inhabitants and fishermen of Sagadahock, was drowned, probably while prosecuting his labors on some missionary tour, it may be at remote stations from his home, over the water, leaving four daughters. His plantation must have been a central and probably a populous point, at the Reach, when Walter Philips, of Damaris- Feb. 15. cotta, acquired from the savages " Gosle" and Erle
Dugles a guarantee of peaceable possession and enjoyment of a body of land " beginning at the lower end of the salt pond at Damariscotty, called Ped-coke-gowake- meaning the place of thunder, so tending right over to Cavesisix river,
and Intrests whatsoever. In witness whereof we ye abovesª parties. Saga- mores and we ye rest of ye abovesª Indians have hereunto set our hands & Seals ye day and year above written.
" Sealed Signed & Delivered in ye " The Marke M Robin Hoode " The Marke Terrumquin
presence of us Alexander Thwat M Mary Webber M John Verine M Alexander Tressell.
" The Marke M Weasomanascoe
" The Marke A Scawque
" The Marke ₭ Abunhamen
" Robin Hoode and Terrumquin acknowledged this to be their Act and Deed, before me Nicholas Renallds Jus. Peace
" A true Coppy of this deede above written transcribed out of ye origi- nal and theirwith compared this 27 October 67 P Edw : Richworth Re- corder.
" Vera Copia as of Record Exm : Jos. Hamond Reg."
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ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
due west north west,"1- undoubtedly an aboriginal name of some branch of the Sheepscot.
DEATH OF ROBERT GUTCH.
The Rev. Robert Gutch,? the original proprietor and one of the first settlers of the city of Bath, resided on the prem- ises near the present abode of Levi Houghton, in that city, for seventeen years. That he was a " preacher to the fishermen," and had "been drowned at an carly date," (1679), is the only record of his life, labors, and end, history has left us ; and for this we are indebted to tradition.
At the date of his death, at Whisgig-or " Whisgeag"- lived Edward Cammel ; and near the same time at Winne- gance dwelt Alexander Thwoit. It is probable that this hamlet escaped the general conflagration and massacre of the savages, who sacked the Arrowsic towns in King Philip's war. It is possible, as he was no " truck-master," no mili- tary chieftain, no man conspicuous in the community, except as a " servant of the most high God," and in no way obnox- ious to savage resentment, that he may have lived there unmolested. His life and character may have been a pro- tection to himself and hamlet, because they brought him within the circle of well-known superstitious fears and vene- ration of savage men. At any rate, there is no record of any slaughter and burning, assaults and barbarities, at or near the abode of this " holy man of old," and which, fol- lowing the usual laws of aggregation, must have made the nucleus of a village, as a center of missionary labor.
Richard Paddishall, (Pates-hall, who afterwards was shot at the Barbican near Pemaquid ?), a coaster by occupation, planted an island (opposite Butler's cove) in the Kennebec, on which he lived for many years. It was an ancestral pos-
1 Commiss. Reports, p. 13.
2 Sewall's History of Bath.
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SETTLEMENT.
session, his father having lived there before him, and was called "Paddishall's island." This island, mentioned as the place of rendezvous of the several tribes at a conference in George- town, must have been on the lower waters of the Sagadahoc, and nearly opposite the Watts settlement at Butler's cove, on the lower end of Arrowsic. Paddishall subsquently re- moved his family to Pemaquid, 1 where he was slain.
On Damariscove, Trick, Hunnewell, Soward, and Richard Reading were old inhabitants, where seven boats fished 1 at this date.
Walter Philips must have been an original settler at Damariscotta, on the Newcastle side of the village, and the earliest of whom we have any record. When he went in and planted at " Ped-coke-go-wake," the natives only were his neighbors. Philips first settled at a point on the river below, called " Winnagane :"-meaning the portage,- prob- ably at Hodgdon's Mills, the portage from Pemaquid to the harbor, from whence he removed to Ped-coke-go-wake above, occupied the hill and point below the falls, and cleared and planted an orchard, making great improvements.
The possessions of Philips at " Ped-coke-go-wake " em- braced the carrying place, which the natives used in passing over to a branch of the Sheepscot ; and he opened a cart-path, (the route of the present highway) along the trail of this car- rying place, between the proximate tide-waters of the Dama- riscotta and Sheepscot, whose branch was called " Cavesisix river."
After Philips had been driven off from his plantation by savage violence, " escaping," we are told, " only with his life, and with the loss of all his goods," the remains of his dwell- ing, chimney still standing -the orchard in bearing - soli- tary monuments of former thrift and opulence - eloquent
1 John Cook's testimony, Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 105.
-
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ruins of pioneer life -were seen for many years. During the desolation of the next generation, consequent on the ravages of savage barbarities, apples were gathered from the orchards of Philips here by the dwellers at Pemaquid below. The ruins and chimney remaining, marked the site of the pio- neer home of Philips, long after his departure and decease. He appears to have been an intelligent and thrifty and pub- lic spirited planter, - an agriculturist and not a trader, - who enjoyed the fruits of his labor, in the products of the soil newly cleared and virgin, many years, on the west bank of the Damariscotta-the site of the village of Newcastle then being the improved portion of his estate. Above his place, resided another early planter - John Taylor ; and near by, Robert Scott ; 1 and these three families were the earliest and original occupants of the soil and residents there, in the midst of a howling wilderness and savage liomes.
DUKEDOM ESTABLISHED.
The section of country watered by the Sheep- 1664. scot and Damariscotta to the Pemaquid had now Mar. 12. become the western limits ( whatever claims may have been set up for territory from the west) of a royal grant to the Duke of York and the property of this Prince. For the next quarter of a century the Duke fos- tered his claim to the " territory of Sagadahoc ;" and until it passed into his possession no local government existed.
Commissioners to represent the government in a local organization of civil power were appointed, viz : Col. Rich- ard Nichols, Carr, Cartwright, and Maverick.
1665. The Commissioners assembled on the eastern Apr. 15. banks of the Sheepscot, on the "Great Neck," " half a league westerly from Damariscotta lower Sept. 5. falls," at the dwelling house of John Mason.
1 Sce Depositions, Commiss. Reports.
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SETTLEMENT.
NEWCASTLE A SHIRE-TOWN.
Nichols, the acting governor of New York, was not pres- ent, the newly acquired province of Sagadahoc being an appendage to the colonial government established on the Hudson. " Walter Philips," a land-holder and resident on the west bank of the Damariscotta, at the lower falls, was appointed the clerk. Thus organized, the commission " erected" the territory under the Duke's jurisdiction into a county, and called it " Cornwall ; " and the Sheepscot settlement, where the session was holden, was constituted a shire-town, and called "New Dartmouth." 1 Thus the ancient dominions of Maine became a Dukedom.
CONVENTION OF THE RESIDENTS OF THE DUCAL TERRITORY.
The residents at various points within the Duke's territory were summoned to appear and submit to the newly inaugu- rated government. Sagadahoc sent in William Frieswell, and Richard Hammond-undoubtedly the trader near Hocko- mock at Stinson's Point, on the margin of the Cross river to Bath-a resident ; John Miller, Robert Morgan, Thomas Parker, Marcus Parsons, Thomas Watkins, John White, - all probably neighbors of Hammond and residents at the mouth of Sheepscot River.
Sheepscot sent in William Dale, William Dyer, Christo- pher Dyer, Nathaniel Draper, Thomas Gent, William James, William Marks, John Mason, Thomas Mercer, Walter Philips, Moses Pike, Robert Scott, A. Stolger, John Taylor, John White. There appeared from Pemaquid Thomas Elbridge, Edmund Arrowsmith, George Buckland, Henry Champness, Thomas Gardiner,-and Nicholas Raynal from Arrowsic.
These are the only names of the early planters who came forward to give in their allegiance to Royal authority-
1 Me. H. Col., vol. iv, p. 221.
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ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
early indicative of the existence of the republican spirit, subsequently developed in the tory and whig parties. Raynal of Sagadahoc, Gardiner of Pemaquid, and Dyer of Sheepscot were commissioned as magistrates ; while Richard Simons was authorized as constable.
DISSENTERS TO DUCAL AUTHORITY.
It is a singular circumstance, that no one from the settle- ment at Wiseasset Point was there ; and yet it is certain George Davie had planted a hamlet on his hill near the gaol, where he resided and owned land: Four years preceding he purchased of the natives a body of land a " mile and more in width," fronting on the Wiscasset Bay, and covering the site of the shire town of Lincoln county, the present village of Wiscasset. He also acquired a title to a considerable section of land on the eastern and opposite shore of the bay -Edgecomb side-a portion of which is still occupied by the same name and probably remote descendents. 1 Dama- rin, the Sheepscot sagamore, conveyed to one John 1666. Davis a plantation on the north-west side of " Wistas- sek bay, north into the woods half way to Kennebec."
A Mordaci Crafford ( Clifford ? ) sold a neck of land on Sheepscot river, and probably was a resident there and on the east shore near this date. On the north-east side of Sheepscot river, at a place called " Wichcassick," in New Dartmouth, Richard Pattishall claimed a four-hundred acre lot.
John Tucker 2 of Sheepscot river, a fisherman at Cape Newagen, owned " all the land on the north side of Mons- eag river, up along the main river as far as Cowsegan - being as far as Thomas Cleaves's lease runs down to the
1 Alias Mohotiwormet.
2 1662. Purchased by Checkley and Prout of Boston. Me. H. Coll. vol. ii. p. 235-6.
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SETTLEMENT.
river, and so to run four miles due north from the main river of Cowsegan." Thomas Cleaves, fisherman of Cape Newagen, " bought of Robinhood proprietor and sagamore of said river," a tract of land on Sheepscot river, containing four miles more or less, bounded on the river southeasterly, extending in breadth from the lowermost to the uppermost narrows, and thence four miles into the country back.
Nathaniel Draper 1 owned a parcel of land bought of a Sheepscot sagamore, Jack Pudding, lying between the " Bute Falls," the great bay over against the parting guts which lie between Nathaniel Draper, Thomas Mercer, and the house to the river.
Jacob Clark, 1 as grandson by marriage of Alice, the grand-daughter of John Davis, also had a claim to land in Wiscasset. These acquisitions of title were chiefly derived from Damarin, about this period. Davie and Davis owned the site of the village of Wiscasset, if not also the land opposite in Edgecomb. "Crafford" or Clifford settled and occupied probably the neck, embracing what is now called the " Eddy," on the Edgecomb side of Sheepscot. Patti- shall owned and occupied above the Davis tract, also on the Edgecomb side opposite Wiscasset. Thomas Cleaves owned and occupied the land south of the village of Wiscasset, to the narrows, entering Monseag bay. John Tucker owned between Cleaves's house and lease to Monseag river. Nathaniel Draper and Thomas Mercer probably resided and owned to the north of the Davis tract and the village of Wiscasset above the bay, beginning at the narrows-known now as Woodbridge's narrows ; and may have lived on the headland overlooking the bay below.
Thomas Gent built a house at Damariscotta on land given him by his father-in-law Taylor, who owned and occupied a tract of land beginning at the three coves and running
1 Me. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. ii.
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ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
on a straight line into the fresh meadows to a point of land lying on the north side of " Walter Philips' cart path " on the west side of Damariscotta river. Taylor's possess- ions embraced the oyster-shell banks above the bridge. Walter Philips was the neighbor of Taylor and Gent, on the west side margin of the Damariscotta, at the falls. John Brown, the son of John Brown of New Harbor, owned a house on the opposite bank, the eastern shore of Damaris- cotta, at the falls,- owning and occupying a large tract of land there. Robert Scott lived a neighbor to Brown, and northwesterly from Brown's dwelling-house, opposite the oyster-shell banks. We have thus located the homes of the principal persons present at the Commissioners' court held at the house of "John Mason," a resident of Sheepscot and a land owner in Edgecomb and Newcastle on the 5th of September, 1665. It will be seen that no settlers at and about Wiscasset Point were there ; and for the reason prob- ably that the sympathies of the residents at Wiscasset Point were with Massachusetts rather than with the royal author- ity of the Duke of York. It is well known that the author- ity of the Duke's commissioners often came into collision with that of the Massachusetts government which had now undertaken to extend its jurisdiction into Maine. Pema- quid, Sheepscot, and Sagadahoc had remained in a state of natural freedom ; and by the Commissioners' court above described, the territory was erected into the "County of Cornwall."
PURCHASE OF BOOTHBAY HARBOR.
At the harbor of ' Boothbay, Henry Curtiss was 1666. probably an original and considerable planter ; and from his position, his influence with the aged
NOTE .- A widow Willcot claimed land on the west side of Sheepscot river below the falls, which was owned by Thomas Mercer, and improved by him for years. See Me. H. Col. vol. iv. p. 233.
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SETTLEMENT.
" Mana-wor-met " (father of Robinhood ?) was sufficient to secure the conveyance of the land, embracing the harbor, by an instrument giving Curtiss a home there-" a parcel of land lying on the northwest side of the northwest passage, and the Pond joining into the head of the northwest passage unto the Gut of the Back River, with all the islands and inlets and marshes, containing unto the same, -granting unto the said Henry Curtiss, his heirs and assigns, full power and possession to set down there."
The instrument was witnessed before Henry Joslin by Daniel Benether and William Cliffe, who, it may fairly be presumed, were neighbors to Curtiss, and may be enumer- ated among the earliest settlers of this ancient place, more than half a century after its discovery by Weymouth. The consideration is a damnatory clause, " in the forfeiture of twenty good beaver skins," by which Sylvanus Davis, the year before, had been quieted in possession of the other moiety of tlie Boothbay territory, lying on the Damariscotta near its mouth, probably from the savages Gosle and Witta- nois, and John Cotta, the first of whom had conveyed to Walter Philips his homestead at the head waters of the same river. 1
CLAIMS OF MASSACHUSETTS ASSERTED.
Massachusetts had indeed begun a series of movements to establish her sovereignty here. An organization erecting the " County of Devonshire," was attempted at Pemaquid, as the capital. Eighty-four inhabitants there congregated. Richard Oliver of Monhegan was made clerk, and Thomas Gardiner Treasurer of the county. Thomas Humphrey of Sagadahoc was created marshal, who, with Robert Gam- mon of Cape Newagen were constables. Pattishall, Gardiner, Gammon, and John Palmer were authorized commissioners
1 Commiss. Reports, original deeds.
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" to legalize marriages, acknowledge deeds, and hold a commissioners' court." A panel of jurors was made, viz : Robert Emmons and Ambrose Hanwell of Sagadahoe ; John Wifford, Elias Trick, and John Prior of Damariscove ; George Bickford and Reynald Kelly of Monhegan ; John Call of Pemaquid. Damariscove at this period must have been a place of some population and importance. A mili- tary organization was also perfected. Companies were enrolled at Sagadaloc, Damariscove, Pemaquid, and Cape Newagen. Pattishall ( Paddishall ?) of Sagadahoc, and Gardiner of Pemaquid were appointed commanders-in-chief. Houses of public entertainment were authorized to be open- ed at Sheepscot, Pemaquid, Damariscove, and Sagadahoc .- Cotemporary 1 history assures us, that now, in the " Ancient Dominions,"- the English in great numbers had settled - having a large country cleared and under improvement : -" stored with cattle and corn fields : "-Pemaquid, Mon- hegan, Cape Newagen -" where Capt. Smith fished for whales "- all filled with dwelling houses and stages for fish- ermen." 2
Immediately on the erection of our territory into a Ducal State, it became an appendage to New York: and the an- cient hamlet of the " Sheepscot Farms," became the shire town of the new county of Cornwall, by name of New Dart- mouth ; and the Governor of New York, Dongan, to fill up his master's newly acquired Province, introduced many Dutch families and thrifty farmers, to the banks of the Sheep- scot waters, who secured the agricultural sites on the head waters, and along the river margins, where the vestiges of this influx of population are still traceable in broken pipes, pottery, and domestic utensils, ancient cellars, and remains of former homes.
Pemaquid continued still to be the great radiating center,
1 Deny's and Jocelyn's act.
2 Williamson, vol. i, p. 446.
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SETTLEMENT.
in the diffusion of population throughout the Dukedom, which continued to flow up our water-courses, planting it- self in forest clearings and hamlets, on the banks and mar- gins, at every desirable point. Nequaseag and Phips' point, in the aboriginal " clear-water and island-waterplaces," to- gether with the site of Hammond's village, a trading station on the Cross-river, or gut passage to Bath, were now all occupied.
It will have been seen that a considerable population not represented before the Duke's convention for the organiza- tion of his newly acquired province, were inhabitants of the ancient dominions of Maine two centuries ago. The Davises, the Tuckers, the Cleaves of Wiscasset Point-the Craffords, ( Cliffords ? ) and Pattishalls of Edgecomb ; Brown of Damariscotta, and many more from Pemaquid, Sagadahoc, and about Boothbay, or Cape Newagen, were not there.
Thirty-four years prior to the events which at John Mason's house converted this community into a body politic, the locality was known as the " Sheepscot Farms," with a population of fifty families, making some two hundred and. fifty souls.
EXTENT OF NEW DARTMOUTH.
This fact is a proof of the early appreciation of the fertile meadows and bottom lands of the ancient "Che-va-ve- covett." A considerable village had now grown up. The point at or below Sheepscot Bridge was the site of this village, now invested with the dignities and importance of a metropolitan center of the new-created Dukedom. The length of the peninsular site was more than a " mile ; " its width, from a " third to one half ; " and it lies between two branching prongs of the waters of the Sheepscot, which strike off, the one above, the other below ; the one running easterly and northerly, and forming the mouth of Dyer's
10
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ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
river ; the other bending casterly and southerly into the salt marshes below, towards the Damariscotta, and into the " heart " of the town of Newcastle. A strect called the " king's highway," still the great thoroughfare of travel, divided the peninsula longitudinally cast and west. This street, on " both sides," 1 was lined with dwelling and other houses, proven by the " numerous cellars" found there, on a re-settlement after the Indian troubles had ended, and peace and safety were promised to the returning heirs of the slaughtered inhabitants. Nearly opposite the "falls." some " ninety rods" in the line of the street southward, the peninsula rises by gradual ascent into a hill, whose summit commands the whole locality; and which was crowned with a fortified work of timber. The place of the dead there, now occupies three sides of this fortified work, for the rea- son probably that the land was public property ; and in those perilous times the ancient people ventured not far from the garrison to bury their dead, there being no surety of life but under the protection of its guns, or within its stockade.
The iron hail which was showered from this fortified hill top on a savage and ruthless foe is still turned out by the furrow of the plowman in the shape of cannon balls " of moderate size," 2 in the neighboring fields.
VESTIGES OF ANCIENT OCCUPANCY.
To the north of the fort, some forty rods, on the cast side of the street, " a pavement of flat stones-a floor some twenty feet square "-compactly laid with joint nicely fitted to joint, was discovered only a few inches under the ground. " Some forty rods further south, on the opposite side of the street," says the Rev. Mr. Cushman, whose cloquent and graphic description I beg leave to borrow,-" stood that
1 Cushman, Me. H. Coll., p. 211.
2 Rev. Mr. Cushman, M. H. Coll., vol. iv. p. 213.
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SETTLEMENT.
important appendage of every settlement . . . the black smith's shop." With a select party an exploration was made by excavating the spot. On digging through the debris and new-made soil some " eight inches," " we came," he adds, " to a hard pan," the floor of the shop. " Here was the Birmingham of the whole country ; and here too the honest yeomanry met, on a stormy day to talk, discuss, and project enterprises. On this floor we found the cinders and slag which fell from the furnace-bits of iron-the bolt of a lock, and a piece of work partially finished, in the shape and of the size of a large latch. It might have been the last work" of the smith, which in attempting to finish, he let fall, " as the Indian war-whoop was heard from the distant hills, and the unprotected inhabitants were compelled to flee for their lives."
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