USA > Maine > Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine, Volume III > Part 34
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age amounted to $31,500; for the voyage from San Francisco to Liverpool to $40,000. At New York the ship was sold for $96,000, hav- ing more than paid for herself within a year. As the ship was then nearly loaded, and the owners' captain was not there, Captain Bos- worth sailed her to San Francisco, and re- turned overland to Bath. There he was given command of the new "Continental," built by the Sewalls. When ready for sea, the Kenne- bec was frozen over, and a way to the sea was cut through the ice. After a voyage to New York, the vessel was there sold for $112,500, and Captain Bosworth again returned to Bath and took command of the ship "Harvester."
His experiences in the "Harvester" were of thrilling interest, and a shipwreck came well- nigh being among the incidents. Outbound for Liverpool, she developed cranky traits, being not well ballasted, and with strong side winds took in water over her lee rails. In St. George's Channel, near Liverpool, in a severe gale, the ship, lying well on her side, drifted rapidly inshore. The situation was very dan- gerous. A Liverpool pilot had come aboard shortly before; being asked by Captain Bos- worth if there was any enterable opening un- der his lee, he said there was Beaumaris, a small port, but the channel was so crooked and narrow that he had never entered it ex- cept in a pilot boat, but that the water was deep enough if he could keep the channel. Captain Bosworth said he might as well go ashore trying to get in as to do so by drifting, and the pilot consented to make the attempt. It was in December, but a few hours of day- light remained, and if the attempt was not made the ship would go ashore at any rate. The pilot headed for the channel, and went' in under the full force of the gale, the surf breaking against them and the shoals close abeam. The ship steered badly, but made the passage. It was on a Sunday, and a church on the overrising cliff was emptied of its wor- shipers, and the life-boat crew was mustered, the captain of which afterward said that in such a gale and sea their boat could never have been launched. On arriving in safe water, it was learned that a ship, under similar circumstances, had been wrecked in that very spot, within view of the villagers, and every man on board drowned. The "Harvester" sailed to New Orleans, back to Liverpool, to San Francisco, and again to Liverpool. After other voyages, Captain Bosworth returned in 1880 to Bath. Decided upon giving up sea- faring, he went to Portland, Oregon, where he conducted a ship-brokerage business for a
couple of years. The business gradually fall- ing into the hands of Englishmen, he aban- coned it, and went to San Francisco. There he was placed in command of the "Solitaire," which he sailed to Queenstown, then to Dublin, where he turned her over to the owner, and returned to Portland, Oregon, where he be- came surveyor for the Underwriters, and also for the American Record. He returned to Bath in 1900, with the enviable record of never a wreck or serious accident at sea. Cap- tain Bosworth now resides at Bath.
He married, in 1860, Juliette Marsh, born in Bath, daughter of Charles and Rachel (Sewall) Crooker, of Bath. Among the chil- dren of Charles and Rachel (Sewall) Crooker were Emma D., Juliette M. and Adelaide L. Emma D. married Arthur Sewall, of Bath, ship-builder; Adelaide L., married Captain John P. Delano. Children of Frederic S. and Juliette M. (Crooker) Bosworth: I. Charles Crooker, died in childhood. 2. Edward Percy, born 1863, graduated from Bath high school, went into the banking business and was em- ployed in the Pacific National Bank, of Bos- ton. He later removed to Portland, Oregon, and was teller in the First National Bank of that city until ill health forced him to sever his connection. He died at the age of thirty-five years. 3. Arthur Sewall, see for- ward. 4. Frederic Marsh, died in childhood.
(IV) Arthur Sewall, third son of Captain Frederic S. and Juliette Marsh (Crooker) Bosworth, was born in Antwerp, January 6, 1867. He was taken to Bath by his parents at the age of three years, and was educated in the public schools of that city, graduating from the high school in June, 1885. He be- came a clerk in the office of the vice-president and general manager of the Maine Central railroad, remaining two years, after which he was transferred to the car accountant's office, serving under W. B. Drew up to the spring of 1889. He acted as secretary to the general manager (who personally superintended the building of the road) during the year 1889, while the road was being extended from Fabyan to Scott Junction. In the fall of 1889 he was made general storekeeper, in charge of company's stock of general supplies, later given the title of supply agent, and had charge of purchasing supplies for the Maine Central road, and the title of purchasing agent was conferred upon him, in which capacity he served until his resignation in June, 1898. In October, 1893, Mr. Bosworth and Mr. Samuel Cony Manley founded The Maine Central, the official organ of the Maine Central railroad,
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under the name of Bosworth & Manley, and much of its success was due to the efforts of Mr. Bosworth. December 7, 1892, Mr. Bos- worth was elected treasurer and clerk of the West End Land Company; January 25, 1893, he was elected clerk of the corporation and board of directors of the Knox & Lincoln rail- way; in August, 1897, was elected a director of the Bath National Bank; January 31, 1898, elected treasurer, general manager and direc- tor of Seaboard Coal Handling Company, which conducted business in Portland for ten years and then closed out; November, 1899, elected treasurer and director of the Maine Water Company; under a special charter granted by the Maine legislature of 1891 the Maine Water Company was formed; it was a consolidation of the Gardiner Water Com- pany, constructed in 1885, the Bath Water Supply Company, constructed in 1886, the Waterville Water Company, Calais Water Company, and the St. Croix Electric Light & Water Company, constructed in 1887; the Maine Water Company supplied water to the following cities and towns: Bath, Benton, Brunswick, Calais, Dover, Fairfield, Farming- . dale, Foxcroft, Gardiner, Waterville, Wins- low, Woolwich, in Maine, and St. Stephens and Milltown, New Brunswick, which have a combined population of over seventy thou- sand people ; July, 1900, elected treasurer and director of the Sagadahoc Light & Power Company, a public franchise company doing an electric lighting and power business in the city of Bath; 1902 elected director of the Central Wharf Tow Boat Company, and in the same year an incorporator and director of the United States Trust Company; 1905 elected vice-president of Portland Golf Club ; 1906 elected treasurer Portland Golf Club ; 1907 elected treasurer and member of board of governors Portland Country Club ; elected to Cumberland Club, 1895, and served on executive committee for eight consecutive years ; February, 1908, elected treasurer and director of Brunswick Electric Light & Power Company, a public franchise company doing electrical business in Brunswick, Maine. In addition to the above-named clubs, Mr. Bos- worth is a member of the Portland Athletic Club and the Economic Club. He is a Demo- crat in politics and a Congregationalist in re- ligion.
Mr. Bosworth married, in Portland, 1902, Mary Wood, born in Portland, November 29, 1879, daughter of James C. and Virginia H. (Barker) Jordan (see Jordan VIII). They have one child, Barbara, born in Portland.
The arms of Jordaine or Jor- JORDAN dan, of Dorsetshire, are de- scribed by Burke and others as "Azure semee de crosses crosslet, a lion ram- pant or," which arms are said to have been used as early as Edward I. Hutchins, in his History of Dorset, says: "The Jordans were an ancient family in Dorsetshire, and occur very early in Coker-Frome, at Frome-White- field, where they had some interest, about 1400. Their arms, similar to those here de- scribed, are quartered with Trenchard and Mohun, upon the painted glass windows of the ancient Manor House of Wolverton, long since in ruins, but for the time when it was built one of the grandest in England. These windows are its noblest remaining ornament, and contain almost a complete pedigree of the family. Wolveton or Wolverton Manor lies about eight miles from Weymouth; John Jor- dain, its ancient owner, was escheator of the county, the fifth of Henry IV, and his name oc- curs in a list of gentlemen the twelfth of Henry VI. He bought this place of John Mohun and Alice, his daughter, heir to Henry Trenchard, of Hampshire. John, son of this John of Wolveton, married Christie, one of the heiresses of John Chantruarle, by whom the Manors of East Stoke, Beltwale, and Stoke Hyde, near Blanford, or part of them, accrued to the Jordaines." Among the mem- bers of the Dorset family of Jordans who were locally prominent were: John Jordan, who held land at Weymouth in 1440; John Jurdeyne, a member of parliament, 1553; and Richard Jordain, mayor of Melcomb, 1596. The name Jordan was first adopted as a sur- name probably by some man who had been a crusader or pilgrim to Palestine, and looked upon the historic stream.
(I) Rev. Robert Jordan, a clergyman of the Church of England, was established at Rich- mond's Island, near Portland, Maine, as the successor of Rev. Richard Gibson, as early as the year 1641. The exact time of his arrival here is not known, nor the place of his nativ- ity in England, but it is probable that he came in 1639 from Dorsetshire or Devonshire, the district from which many settlers came to Maine, and where the Jordan name is quite common. In a letter from agent John Winter to Robert Trelaway, one of the proprietors of a grant including Falmouth (Cape Eliza- beth) and Richmond's Island, Winter thus speaks of Mr. Jordan: "Heare is on Mr. Robert Jordan, a mynister, wch hath been wth vs this three months, 2 ch is a very honest re- ligious man by anything as yett I can find in
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him. I have not yett agreed wth him for staying heare but did refer yt tyll I did heare Som word from you; we weare long wthout a mynister & weere but in a bad way & so we shall be still iff we have not the word of God taught vnto us. Sometymes the plantation at pemaquid would willingly have him or the (y) desire he might be their on halfe of the ycare & the other halfe to be heare wth vs. I know not how we shall accord uppon yt as yett he hath been heare in the country this 2 yeares & hath alwaies lived wth Mr. Pur- chase wch is a kinsman unto him."
Rev. Robert Jordan married, at Richmond's Island, Sarah, only child of John Winter ; and on the death of Mr. Winter, in 1646, Jor- dan was made the administrator of the estate. By his marriage with Sarah Winter, Mr. Jor- dan became one of the great land proprietors and wealthy men of the reign; "a source of influence," says a writer, "which he never failed to exert in favor of his church and poli- tics." In 1648 he petitioned the general court to allow him as administrator to sell the property of Trelawney, and settle up the es- tate of a Mr. Winter. His request was granted, and Mr. Jordan afterward removed from the island, and settled on the mainland portion of the estate of Mr. Winter. The plantation there was called Spurwink, a name which has been retained to the present day. It lies in Falmouth, now Cape Elizabeth. Mr. Gibson and Mr. Jordan were the pioneers of episcopacy in Maine. Mr. Gibson left the country about the year 1642, but Mr. Jordan remained at the post of duty, and never re- linquished his stand as a churchman or his professional character. He was the soul of the opposition to Massachusetts, and a chief supporter to the royal commissioners and the anti-Puritan polity. Owing to his religious affinities and associations, Mr. Jordan was an object of suspicion and hostility to the Puri- tan government of Massachusetts, who for- bade him to marry or baptize. He paid no attention to this order, and continuing to dis- charge the duties of his office, the general court of Massachusetts ordered his arrest and imprisonment in Boston jail. He was in- carcerated twice, once in 1654 and once in 1663. His petition for release, written while in jail during the latter year, is still extant. His case was heard by two commissioners, and he was released on the following declara- tion : "I hereby declare that I will be sub- ject to yr authority, so far as I may keep the law, and my conscience inviolate, and promise and bind myselfe to leave peaceably, for the
future : Subscrbed this 4th of 7 br (63) pr. me Robert Jordan, Clerk :"
Mr. Jordan was judge, or one of the judges, for many years. In the second Indian war he was compelled to leave Spurwink, and to flee from the Indians. He left home in haste, and probably left all his papers in his house. Everything was in flames before he was out of sight. This may account for the fact that so few of his papers have ever been found. He went to Great Island, now Newcastle, New Hampshire, which is at the mouth of the Piscataqua river. Many other persons were at the same time driven from Falmouth, who, like Mr. Jordan, did not return. It is stated that "One Mr. Thorpe, a drunken Preacher, was gotten to Preach at Black Point under the appearance and profession of a minister of the gospel," and that having a spite against Goody Bayly, he attempted to make it appear that she was a witch, and had bewitched to death a cow belonging to Mr. Jordan. But when Thorpe had her questioned for a witch, Mr. Jordan interposed in her behalf; and said his cow died of his servant's negligence, and to cover their own fault they were will- ing to have it imputed to witchcraft, and were willing to act with Thorpe in his guilty plan to harm Mrs. Bayly; and so unriddled the knavery and delivered the innocent." "The in- famy was averted by the common sense and courage of Robert Jordan." We must at- tribute it, not to Jordan's education or asso- ciations, but solely to his clear-headed com- mon sense-his native discernment. "For more than thirty years," writes Tristram Frost Jordan, the compiler of the Jordan Memorial, from which this sketch is extracted, "Rev. Robert Jordan occupied a large share in the affairs of the town and the province. He was an active, enterprising man, and well educated. Although, being a presbyter of the Church of England, he came hither as a re- ligious teacher, the affairs of the world in which he lived and the achievement of his ambitious designs appear soon to have ab- sorbed the most of his attention, and to have diverted him from the exercise of his pro- fession-a result originating and hastened, doubtless, by the hostility of the government. His posterity for many years exercised very great influence in the concerns of the town, and long maintained a high standing in the province." A descendant in the ninth genera- tion lived on the old plantation a few years ago. Rev. Robert Jordan, the progenitor of the race of Jordans in America, ended his active and eventful life at Portsmouth, New
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Hampshire, in 1679, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His will, made at Grand Island, in the Piscataqua river, January 28, was proved July, 1679. He lost the use of his hands be- fore death, and was unable to sign his will. He left six sons, all born before 1664, among whom his great landed estate was divided according to the provisions of his will. His wife Sarah survived him, and was living at Newcastle, in Portsmouth Harbor, in 1686. Their children were: John, Robert, Domini- cus, Jedediah, Samuel and Jeremiah.
(II) Dominicus, third son of Rev. Robert and Sarah (Winter) Jordan, was born before 1664, at Spurwink, now Cape Elizabeth, Cum- berland county, Maine. He left Spurwink with his father's family at the beginning of King Philip's war, 1675, when the settlement was attacked and their house was destroyed by the Indians. Six years later he returned with his wife. It appears he had selected a piece of land, and his father consented it should be his at the proper time. In 1678 he administered upon the estate of his father-in- law, Ralph Tristram. July 1, 1678, by the provisions of his father's will, he came into possession of one thousand acres of land at Spurwink. It is conjectured that part of the six years prior to his return to Spurwink was passed at Winter Harbor, only twelve miles distant from Spurwink. Dominicus Jordan was a prominent man in the settlement, and was one of the trustees to whom the township of Falmouth was deeded by President Dan- forth. The second Indian war again brought danger to the settlement, and in 1690, when Falmouth was devastated, Spurwink was again deserted, and remained unoccupied till the peace of 1698. According to tradition, Do- minicus was a man above the common size and of great strength and endurance. The gun he used was over six feet in length. It was in the possession of his descendants (eighteen inches of the barrel having been cut off) until some twenty or thirty years ago it was presented to the Maine Historical Society by Captain Samuel Jordan, of Deer- ing, Maine. It was the custom of Dominicus to keep his gun and ammunition close at hand all the time. He was called the "Indian Killer," and was greatly feared by the savages. In war he was their deadly enemy; in peace, friendly. While at work on his plantation, which bordered the Spurwink river, where he had a blockhouse on a flat piece of land, his gun was strapped on his back, ready for im- mediate use if necessary. In times of peace the Indians were accustomed to call on him,
and were hospitably received, while they ex- changed their furs for such articles as they wanted. On the breaking out of hostilities in 1703, a party of Indians, apparently friendly, called on Dominicus August 10 of that year, to buy some goods. He had no suspicion of their treacherous design, and was waiting on them, when one of them who had watched the opportunity, unnoticed by Dominicus, struck a hatchet into his head. Death soon followed. His wife and family of six children and his younger brother Jeremiah were made pris- oners, and led through the wilderness to Canada. All were finally restored to liberty and native land, but a daughter who remained with her masters in Canada. Dominicus Jor- dan married, in 1681, Hannah, daughter of Ralph Tristram, of Winter Harbor, now Bid- deford, Maine. Ralph Tristram settled at Biddeford several years before 1655, in which year he was made a freeman. He was for years a useful, worthy townsman, and died in 1678. The children of Dominicus and Han- nah were: Dominicus, Samuel, Mary Ann, Elizabeth, Hannah and Nathaniel.
(III) Captain Samuel, second son of Do- minicus and Hannah (Tristram) Jordan, was born in 1684, at Spurwink, and died Decem- ber 20, 1742. At the time of his father's death he, then eighteen years old, with his mother and all her children, was made pris- oner by the Indians and taken to Trois Rivieres, Canada, where he was kept a cap- tive for seven years-six with the Indians and one year with the French. After his return he was asked which he liked better -- Indians or French-and he replied, Indians. With two other white men, prisoners like himself, he escaped by the agency of an Indian woman named Mary, who guided them through the woods to Casco Bay. They subsisted during their journey on roots and berries. When they arrived at the fort at Falmouth, not being known, they were refused admittance. The Indian woman climbed upon a large log, lying upon the ground a short distance from the fort, and called out in loud voice : "I be Molly Mun, you know Molly Mun!" Some of the men in the fort recollected the name, and, after close examination, the wanderers were ad- mitted. This must have been in 1710, or about that time. None of the Jordan family then resided at Spurwink. Samuel, no doubt, went to visit his maternal relatives at Winter Har- bor, where his uncles Samuel, Nathaniel and Benjamin then lived. His name first appears in the records of Winter Harbor in 1717. There he began business as a trader, and for
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many years he had the only store in the place. On account of his knowledge of the Indian language, acquired during his captivity, Sam- uel Jordan was of great service to the govern- ment in the capacity of interpreter. He filled this office August 9-12, 1717, when Governor Shute made a treaty with the Indians. He did similar service at the time of making the treaty with the Chief of the Penobscots, De- cember, 1725, and at the ratification of that treaty by the Sachems of other tribes, August 6, 1726. The name of Samuel Jordan is borne on that treaty. After the treaty of 1717, Mr. Jordan was Indian agent, as well as inter- preter, and supplied the Indians with the goods they wanted, ordering them from the govern- ment at Boston. He was also captain in the militia. At the time of his decease, Samuel and his eldest son were in business together. They were never known to sue or distress a customer. He built a house about 1727 on the north side of the gut or strait leading into the pool, and standing in good condition in 1872, built in the style of one hundred and fifty years ago. In 1739 he sold to Robert Mitchel his share of land from his father's estate at Cape Elizabeth, containing one hundred and forty-three acres. Captain Samuel Jordan was a man of great energy and perseverance, prominent as a business man and in public affairs, and in the Congregational church of which he was a member. He was a farmer and merchant, and resided at Biddeford. He married, in York, Maine, 1718, Olive Plaisted, who was born May I, 1698, and died in 1763, daughter of James and Mary (Rishworth) Plaisted, of Brunswick. She survived him and married (second) January 31, 1744, Rev. James Smith. The children of Samuel and Olive were: Richworth, Alice, Sarah, Han- nah, Samuel, Tristram and Mary.
(IV) Colonel Tristram, youngest son of Captain Samuel and Olive (Plaisted) Jordan, was born at Winter Harbor, May 31, 1731, and died November 1, 1821. He was eleven years old when his father died. His eldest brother, Richworth, administered upon the es- tate of his father and was guardian for Tris- tram. Folsom says: "Among the first mer- chants or traders of whom we have any ac- count, on the east side of Saco River, at the falls, were Tristram Jordan, Andrew Brad- street, Thomas Cutts, Thomas Donald, David King. Colonel Jordan married, 1749, when but eighteen years of age, and took the Pep- perell House. In 1754 he was one of the selectmen of the town, although but twenty- three years of age, and about the same time
received a commission as captain of militia, an office which it was not customary at that period to bestow on young men. He was a thorough business man, industrious and enter- prising, not only in business but in the church. He was elected senator of the county of York to the Massachusetts legislature, 1787, and selectman of the town from 1754 to 1762. Colonel Jordan moved from the falls to his estate at Deep Brook, two miles north on the Buxton road, about the close of the revolution- ary war, where he died in 1821. He was emi- nently the "father of the town." No other individual was so often entrusted with the direction of its affairs, or exercised an equal degree of influence during the early period of its separate incorporation. At a later date Colonel Jordan was best known as a magis- trate, having performed the greater part of the duties of a justice of the peace, for the east side of the river, until quite advanced in age. By the council of Massachusetts, 1776, he was appointed Colonel." He married (first) in Berwick, 1749, Hannah Goodwin, who was born July 24, 1730, and died July IO, 1775, daughter of Captain Ichabod Good- win. He married (second) in Falmouth, De- cember, 1778, Dorcas, who died December 19, 1781, without issue. He married (third) in Berwick, May 21, 1784, Hannah Frost, who died September 26, 1789. The children by the first wife were: Elizabeth, Hannah (died young), Sarah, Hannah, Olive, Tristram, Ichabod, Mary, Mehitable; and by the third wife: Dorcas, Samuel and Richworth.
(V) Captain Ichabod, second son of Colo- nel Tristram and Hannah (Goodwin) Jordan, was born in Saco, September 24, 1770, and died in the same house where he was born, May 20, 1865. In early life he went to sea, and with his active brain and energy he be- came master of a ship about the time he was twenty-one years old. Known to be scrupu- lously honest, being a thorough sailor, and pos- sessing good business talents, his services were in demand. Some of the incidents in the life of Captain Jordan were found in an old memo- randum book in the captain's own handwri- ting. From this it appears that the brig "Fame," Ichabod Jordan, master, sailed from Portland to Tobago for Portland, May 20, following. On the 23rd of the same month she was taken by a British ship called the "Favorite," commanded by Arthur Wood, Esq., who took from the brig her captain and his papers, put a prize-master on board and ordered her to Granada. But a few days later the mate of the "Fame," with his people, dis-
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