USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay Harbor > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 10
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Southport > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 10
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 10
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These instances are confirmative of the fact that no real form of name existed, in many instances, but simply a sound, which each person spelled as he understood or heard it, or judged might be correct. This same Gosle, Gosil or Gossery is likely to have been the chief who lived in that vicinity and deeded, joined by his wife and son, a tract to Walter Phillips over the signature "Josle." If so, four forms of the same name occur. Something over twenty forms of spelling Pema- quid has been referred to by one author, and it is likely that either Cape Newagen or Damariscove appears in as many ways. The names of the five Indians captured by Weymouth vary so much in form, as presented by different old writers on the subject, as to make them hardly distinguishable.
The reign in England of William and Mary, which com- menced in 1689, just as the Sagadahoc Colony were fleeing westward for their lives, lasted until 1702; Anne, the second daughter of James II, succeeding them and reigning until 1714. The Stuart dynasty ended with Anne and, in 1714, was followed by George I, of the House of Hanover or Brunswick, who reigned until 1727, when George II, his son, came to the English throne. It was from the government of George II that Col. David Dunbar received his American commission, and his reign continned until 1760, only four years before the settlement founded by Dunbar became the incorporated town of Boothbay.
1 /3
15
16
117
12
= 18
2
19
$ 10
20
16
21
POND
125
128
SALT
126
127
29
40
1
34
38 32
31
735
38
136
HODGDON'S MILLS IN 1856.
1 Methodist Church
2 William Seavey
3 David Lang
4 Red Store
20 Store-A. Goudy
36 William Murray
5 Store ..
Andrew Adams
8 John Gould
9 Charles MeDougall
10 Bradford Y. Baker
11 Miles Hagan
12 Frederick Montgomery
13 Robert Montgomery
14 Leonard Montgomery
15 Harvey Oliver
16 Abigail Sawyer
Hodgdon Shops
93 Store-Benjamin Reed
James McDougall
25 B. Fowles
20 Schoolhouse
William Seavey
28 Temperance Hall
20 Capt. James L. Race
30 Peter McGunigle
31 Reuben Jones
32 James Seavey
33 Jeremiah P. Baker
34 William Adams
35 Isaac Murray
21 Hodgdon Shipyard
37 James Murray
38 Rufus Murray
39 Samuel Murray
40 G. W. Whitehouse
41 Capt. Andrew Montgomery
42 Ralph Whitehouse
43 Lumber Yard
44 Michael Knight
45 Caleb Hodgdon's Saw and Grist Mill
46 Store and Poat Office
47 Shoe Shop
1
:
1
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17 Woodbury M. Davis
18 Caleb Hodgdon
1: Lincoln House-A. Goudy
23
44
105
THE INTERIM.
The vicissitudes of the Province of Maine were many in both general conditions and forms of government, but not greater than those of the Sagadahoc territory, with which these chapters are more directly concerned. It was first embraced by the New England patent of 1620, and so continued until after the treaty of St. Germain, in 1632, when the French claimed it as a part of Nova Scotia. In 1654, under Crom- well's government, it again came into the possession of the English by the efforts of Major Sedgwick, and the government was given to Colonel Temple. Under the treaty of Breda, concluded in 1667, it was again claimed by France, as a part of Nova Scotia. By petition in 1672 to the Massachusetts Government the county of Devonshire was erected and a local government formed in 1674. The Indian War soon broke up the Colony, and the territorial government of New York was extended over it, and in 1688 was fully taken possession of by the English Crown. The charter of William and Mary, in 1691, included it, and again, in 1697, by the treaty of Ryswick, the French made claim. Possession of Nova Scotia by the English forces under Nicholson, in 1710, was gained, and the charter of William and Mary ever after held the St. Croix River as the New England boundary.
The fort at Pemaquid, built by Governor Phipps in 1692, was of stone, built in a quadrangular figure, and was about 737 feet in compass about the outer walls and 108 feet square within the inner ones. It had twenty-eight ports and, at least, fourteen guns mounted. Six of the guns were eighteen- pounders. The wall fronting the sea was twenty-two feet high and exceeded six feet in thickness at the ports. The great flanker or round tower at the western end of this line was twenty-nine feet high. The eastern wall was twelve feet high, the north ten, and the west eighteen. It took about 2,000 cart loads of stones in its construction. Sixty men were con- sidered a suitable garrison, and Mather, in his "Magnalia," quaintly says : "Which, if they were men, might easily have maintained it against twice six hundred assailants."
8
106
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
Captain March held command of the fort until 1695, when he was succeeded by Pascho Chubb, a man without a single qualification for his position. Several altercations occurred at intervals between the building of the fort and its capture under Chubb, in which there was some loss of life on the side of each, the English garrison and the Indians. Castine, with a land force of French and Indians, numbering about 200, reached Pemaquid on August 13, 1696 ; D'Iberville came with the French fleet about twenty-four hours later, standing off a league from the fort. At five o'clock on the afternoon of the 14th a summons was sent to the fort to surrender ; but Captain Chubb, with a great amount of bravado, sent back the answer that he would not "even if the sea were covered with French vessels and the land with Indians."
The French commenced the attack with some fieldpieces, and the fort replied. Nothing was accomplished in the pre- liminary action, but during the night some heavy mortars were landed and the next day bombs were thrown into the fort. Castine, at this time, sent in a letter that if surrender was immediately made no massacre would follow, but if, after much resistance, the fort was captured he could not restrain the Indians. The attack had proceeded far enough at this point to produce a change of opinion on the part of Chubb and he capitulated at once, with the terms that the English be transported safely, but as prisoners, to Boston, and there exchanged for a like number of French and Indian prisoners in English custody. Chubb was thrown into prison by the Boston authorities for his cowardice and disgraceful surrender, where he lay for some months, but was finally released and allowed to join his family in Andover. There on February 22, 1698, the Indians, about thirty in number, sought him out and killed both him and his wife. On the part of the Indians it was wholly a matter of revenge for the treacherous treatment they had received at his hands when he was commandant of the fort at Pemaquid.
With the destruction of Fort William Henry all English influence was at an end east of the Kennebec River. Every
107
THE INTERIM.
English settlement was for a second time broken up and aban- doned. Patrick Rogers, a well-known pioneer, testified in 1773 that he lived in Georgetown in 1720-21, and at that date there was not a house, with the single exception of a fish house on Damariscove, between Georgetown and Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia.
In 1713 the General Court, recognizing the desire of many to return and settle in the abandoned country, took action by selecting a committee of nine to receive applications, investi- gate and sanction titles where they appeared sound, for many of the titles and other records had been burned when the inhabitants were driven out. In considering the best methods of settlement, it was deemed advisable to locate in groups of twenty or thirty families by the seaside, with lots of three or four acres each, and outlying lands according to individual needs and desires. After due investigation the Court ordered the settlement of five towns, as follows : Saco, Scarborough, Falmouth, North Yarmouth and Arrowsic. Without license people were not allowed to settle elsewhere than these five towns and the places which had survived the war.
By 1717 Saco, now changed to Biddeford, had a settled minister ; Scarborough had thirty families in 1719; in 1715- 16 there had twenty families settled at Falmouth; in North Yarmouth a delay of about six years occurred ; while on June 13, 1716, twenty-six men having settled on Parker's and Arrowsic Islands, the territory now included in Arrowsic, Georgetown, Woolwich, Bath and Phippsburg was incorpor- ated as the town of Georgetown. A sergeant's guard of twenty soldiers was sent by the Court as a guard to the inhabitants for the first six months. This town was now the frontier of New England. Another order of the Court was that the county of Yorkshire should extend over the Sagadahoc country and to the eastern bound at the St. Croix, and that York should be the shire town for holding court and keeping the registry of deeds.
108
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
The Lords of Trade, in response to an order from the King, made a report upon the forts and defenses of His Majesty's Plantations on January 10, 1700, from which the following extract is quoted :
"Towards the mouth of the Kennebec River (seven leagues from Pemaquid) are many little Islands. On that of Damaras Cove there was before the war a Pallisadoed Fort for the defense of ye fishermen, and another on Cape Newagen where they used to cure their fish. But to Guard the Entrance of the River a Redoubt ought to be raised on the Island Sagada- hoc, and a little Fort at New Town in Rowsck Island two leagues up the River where there was formerly a small square one Pallisadoed."
(See Mass. Archives, Vol. LXX, pp. 486-493: Doc. Coll. Hist. N. Y., IV, 831.)
CHAPTER VIII. THE DUNBAR SETTLEMENT.
C OLONEL DAVID DUNBAR1 arrived in America sometime during the year 1729, and probably went to Pemaquid that year. His commission was that of Governor of the Sagadahoc territory, with authority to rebuild Fort William Henry. In addition to this he had another com- mission as Surveyor General of the King's woods. The last- mentioned one, however, was the first one he obtained. He was of Irish birth and had been a colonel in the English army, but for cause had been reduced in rank. Some surprise, in contemplation of this fact, has been manifested that he should have received so much authority and so important a position. But he was proud and ambitious, though poor. He was highly endowed in that which goes to make up the successful intriguer in politics,-a good presence, broad ideas and ready promises. In England he had an inflential friend in a certain Colonel Bladen. Through Bladen's influence with the association known as the Lords of Trade, of which he was a member, Dunbar received recommendations for this appointment, and the Crown conferred it upon him, removing one Bridger to make room for him. His commissions made his sway well-nigh absolute, about the only reservation imposed upon him being that 300,000 acres, within his territory, must be kept intact for use in the King's navy.
Nearly ever since its destruction, in 1696, there had been a controversy going on between Massachusetts and the English Government as to which should bear the expense of rebuilding the Pemaquid fort. The Puritanism of Massachusetts would not yield, so England, at this date, decided to stand the bur- den. There existed in England at this time an element that wanted to detach Sagadahoc from Massachusetts and append it to Nova Scotia. Their arguments were based on the ground that when the French reduced Pemaquid, in 1696, it amounted
1. Will. Hist. Me., II, 165.
110
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
to a conquest of the Province of which that place was the capital ; that again, in 1710, when the English recovered that Province and Nova Scotia from France it was also a matter of conquest, and, therefore, the ownership vested in the Crown. Then, by the treaty of Utrecht, this claim was confirmed by the formal retrocession by France to Great Britain of both Provinces. Colonel Dunbar was simply an adventurer, and a fit instrument to lend his influences to the politicians who favored this scheme. His prominence in history is far beyond his just due ; but it happened in his case, as it sometimes has in others, that he was attached to a movement that ultimately became successful, and that by becoming a matter of frequent historical reference, he, as a matter of course, has always been coupled with it. He was the instrument, at the opportune time, by which a colonization of these parts was effected that succeeded and, in the end, became permanent; but the colo- nists who came under him came on account of the misrepre- sentation and deceit which he practiced upon them, and they endured privation and suffering, while establishing a home here, that their descendants can hardly imagine.
At that date, 1729, it has been estimated that there were along the coast, from the mouth of the Kennebec to the Mus- congus, 150 families ; most of these, however, were living near the Kennebec, at Georgetown. A large part of this pop- ulation was composed of a strictly new element on the coast. But comparatively few of those who had been driven out of the country from 1676 to 1696 were alive, or situated, if alive, to go back on the old territory, and but few of their descend- ants went back. The new element was the Scotch-Irish Pres- byterians, of whom it was estimated that they constituted from one-fourth to one-third of the total population of the united Colonies at the time of the Revolutionary War. They were a people of pure Scotch blood, bred on Irish soil. There had never been anything in common, after their advent in Ireland, between them and the native population. They were oppo- nents in religion, which at that time was the strongest senti- ment swaying the minds of the inhabitants of Western Europe.
During the Irish rebellions in the reign of Elizabeth, the northern counties of Ireland, constituting the Province of
111
THE DUNBAR SETTLEMENT.
Ulster, were nearly depopulated. James I made it a special object to induce Scotch Presbyterians to emigrate there and fill the vacant counties. The highlands of Scotland were less pro- ductive than formerly and were over-populated. James viewed the matter in the light that the Scotch, in both religion and industry, would be a desirable element. Largely by his efforts the counties of Antrim, Londonderry, Tyrone and Down, in Ireland, were settled by this new element, and they at once became a thrifty and prosperous population. It was but twenty miles across the channel from the Scottish coast to the Antrim shores, and at Ballycally, in that county, the first Presbyterian church was established in Ireland, in 1613. A great exodus from Scotland to Ireland followed, so that, in 1684, on account of over-crowded territory, the first small colony of these people embarked for America, settling in New Jersey; and by 1690 other colonies, all small, had gone across to Maryland, Penn- sylvania and the Carolinas. The summer of 1718 saw the first concerted movement on the part of this people going to Amer- ica. On August 4th five vessels, with 120 families, arrived in Boston and scattered to different places, principally in Massa- chusetts and New Hampshire, a few crossing into Maine.1 Thereafter the immigration was continuous, influenced not only by the promise held out by the Colonies, but more largely by persecution and famine at home.
The first work Dunbar did on reaching Pemaquid was to rebuild the fort with all possible speed. It is said that the walls were found in excellent condition. Early in the spring of 1730 the Governor of Nova Scotia sent a military guard to garrison the fort, and on April 27th he took formal possession of the Sagadahoc territory. This was simply a formal move, on the part of the Crown, to absolve whatever relations might be thought to exist between Massachusetts and the Province ; and the militia company was to be a support to Dunbar in case of a possible encroachment from the westward. A surveyor by name of Mitchell came from Annapolis to assist in laying out the projected towns. Meanwhile Dunbar issued a procla- mation, sending it broadcast over the settlements to the west- ward, inductive to settlement under his commission. Before
1. Me. Hist. Coll., VI. 12.
112
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
leaving England he had stated that the dissatisfaction of the Scotch-Irish and their tendency to emigration was one of his chief sources of dependence in peopling the new territory.
To these people, knowing their thrift and fortitude, was his proclamation principally aimed. It is not probable that, as some have thought, he came across the water with his colony ready for settlement upon reaching here. It is very evident he did nothing of the kind. He may have induced some to come here directly from Ireland after he established himself, but his first work was as has been above stated, with the further effort of obtaining the good will of Colonel Phillips, Governor of Nova Scotia. Most of Dunbar's settlers who came to Townsend were in this country, and had been for varying short periods of time, when he came ; and the induce- ment to settlement which he offered was what brought them from other places to that over which he was in control.
The fort's name was changed to Fort Frederick, in honor of the Prince of Wales. His plan included the laying out of four towns, two on each side the Damariscotta. The tract situated between the Damariscotta and Muscongus Rivers he divided into Harrington and Walpole; the former included the southern and greater part of the present town of Bristol, and in it at Pemaquid Point was projected a city, which during his administration was known as Fort Frederick ; while Wal- pole comprised the northern part of Bristol, all of Damariscotta and the western and southern parts of Nobleboro. Between the Sheepscot and Damariscotta Rivers, in a territory similar in extent, both in width between the rivers and in depth back from the sea, two other towns were projected, Townsend 1 and Newcastle.2 These four towns cornered at a certain conspicu-
1. Lord Townshend's name always appears in English history spelled in the way here given. After the name was applied to our locality the "h " was dropped, and even in public documents it has seldom appeared.
2. It may appear like presumption to state that Dunbar laid out four towns instead of three, for all the histories I have consulted only mention three, with the exception of Johnson's Pemaquid, in which, by a note, he mentions Newcastle. I am satisfied from several sources of information that Newcastle was laid out by Dunbar as much as Walpole or the others, but it was farther removed from his seat of author- ity than either of the other towns, and therefore less convenient to attend to its interests. Besides the Newcastle settlers were more independent of Dunbar than the other places, and refused to submit to his dictation. The deposition of William Moore, a Townsend settler under Dunbar, now on file at both the Lincoln County registry and the State House at Boston, should satisfy any one upon this point. It appears in full elsewhere in this volume.
113
THE DUNBAR SETTLEMENT.
ous and well-known ledge in the Damariscotta. A city was laid out at Townsend on the same general plan as that at Fort Frederick in Harrington. These places were named by Dunbar for Sir Robert Walpole, who at that date was England's Prime Minister ; Lord Charles Townshend, who had been England's Secretary of State, and was father of Lord Charles, who, in 1767, championed the taxation of imports into the Colonies, doing more than any other one person to precipitate the Amer- ican Revolution ; the Duke of Newcastle, who at that date was England's Secretary of State; and, probably, James Harring- ton, an English author and politician of prominence in the preceding century.
The idea of Dunbar was similar to that pervading the Gen- eral Court in 1713, when it took action in settling five towns along the Maine coast. He favored the grouping of settlers, with small lots apportioned to each, so that they need not be widely scattered in case of troubles with the natives, and the greater part of the lands apportioned to each lying back from the settlements. At Townsend he laid out lots twelve rods wide with sufficient depth to make two acres. These were laid out about the Harbor and were intended for the settlement,- the projected city. The settlers cast lots for choice, and they were guaranteed a title if a house eighteen feet long was built and the two acres cleared within three years, and at that time a further tract, of forty acres in one lot and one hundred in another, as nearly situated to the first two acres as possible, should be given them in fee simple forever. Additional to this, any number of acres less than 1,000, according to the request of the party, was to be given in some part further back in the country. Besides these land inducements, he promised to support the settlers and their families for a time.1 These were, indeed, magnificent proposals to make to a people who had been tenants on small tracts, in most instances, and had never held the fee in land. Williamson states that "the assurances of title he gave the settlers were leasehold inden- tures, with the antiquated reservation of a 'pepper corn' rent
1. Johnson is indefinite in his statement as to the length of time this support was to last, while Cushman states it was one year. His proclamation has never been fonnd, and the substance of it depends on statements of the settlers. There were then bnt two newspapers in New England, and they were published in a locality that was hostile to Dunbar.
-
114
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
if demanded." The same author further states that on account of differences between the settlers and Dunbar, on the lands north of Townsend and between the rivers Sheepscot and Dam- ariscotta, he threatened to expel them from their possessions. This means no other than the Newcastle settlement, which at that time reached to Townsend, Edgecomb not existing. Immediately about Fort Frederick the plan was the same as about Townsend, but the river lots in Harrington and Walpole were of twelve acres each, but back of these they were 100-acre lots. The lots not immediately taken were granted to Mont- gomery and Campbell, two speculators, but with that action the record ends. It seems that Montgomery died and Camp- bell disposed of his interests to William Vaughn, who built a house, two double sawmills and a gristmill, about 1740, at Damariscotta Mills, also clearing a farm there. None of the deeds or leases given by Dunbar have survived to afford a copy to the present generation. It was supposed they were in the custody of William Vaughn, and as his house was con- sumed by fire, shortly after building, it is likely these docu- ments were then all destroyed together.1
A grant was made of Townsend to Samuel McCobb and Patrick Rogers, and through their efforts the place was settled by about forty persons during the fall of 1730. Rogers is the same person, formerly referred to, who was living in George- town in 1722. He was, in 1730, living at Fort Frederick, and there is nothing to indicate that he ever came to this place to live. There is no existing record to show who constituted the total number that settled under Dunbar. Depositions show us there were about sixty persons here in 1731, and the record of Dunbar soon after would indicate that, from lack of title, the hardships endured by the inhabitants and the general perplexi- ties of their situation, but few were added to this latter number by new families moving into town, and that whatever increase of numbers appears can be largely accounted for by the natural increase in the families then here. Corroborative of this is the fact that added to this population, which is believed to have been, without exception, of Scotch-Irish descent, were several families of English descent coming from New Hampshire, in the
1. Johnson's Pemaquid, p. 271.
115
THE DUNBAR SETTLEMENT.
neighborhood of Dover, and others from about York and Kit- tery, in Maine, soon after the close of the French and Indian War, in 1759. Even with this addition and the natural increase of the first population, there were, in 1764, but about seventy- five polls in town, and of these several were young men, unmarried, who had just attained majority and were living in their fathers' families. Statements have also been left by some of the Dunbar settlers to the effect that to them and their chil- dren but few were added in their neighborhood until after 1759.
The names of the heads of the families settling in 1730 or soon thereafter are believed to be as follows : Samuel McCobb, James McCobb, - McKechnie, William McCulloch, Thomas Tully, Edmund Brown, David Bryant, Walter Beath, John Beath, William Fullerton, William Fullerton, Jr., William Moore, John McFarland, James McFarland, Daniel MeCurda, Patrick McGuire, Abner Ford and, perhaps, Robert Mont- gomery. Here we have seventeen men, possibly eighteen, nearly all, perhaps all, married. So far as I have been able to gain accurate information, by records, the number of children at the date of coming to Boothbay was very few ; and but few need be added to make the total number settled here in 1731 reach about sixty, which will accord with John Beath's deposi- tion. There is a reasonable likelihood that some names have never come to light and are omitted, for our records were not commenced until we had assumed town organization in 1765. While doubtless this little colony was added to, in a small way, from time to time, by a new family coming among them, there are but three instances, prior to the close of the French and Indian War, where families are thought to have settled here that have been influential or numerous. These three are the families of Alley, Reed and Wylie, all of whom probably set- tled in Townsend between 1740 and 1750.
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