USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay Harbor > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 7
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Southport > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 7
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 7
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At about this date (1630) it has been stated there were eighty-four families, besides fishermen, about Merrymeeting Bay, Sheepscot, Pemaquid and St. Georges. Damariscove and Monhegan were probably included in Pemaquid, and Cape Newagen in the Sheepscot settlement.1 Williamson presents a table of the total population in 1633 as viz. : 2
Piscataqua Settlement,
200
Agamenticus,
150
Saco and Black Point,
175
Casco, or Lygonia Patent, and Pejepscot,
75
Kennebec Patent,
100
Sagadahoc, Sheepscot, Pemaquid, St. Georges and the Islands,
500
Isle of Shoals and other places,
200
1,400
1. Gov. Sullivan's Hist. of Me., pp. 167 and 191. His information was from the Council files.
2. Will. Hist. Me. I, 267.
70
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
At this point in our narrative it may be well to draw attention to the grant made Endicott and his associates, which culminated in March, 1629, in the grant of a royal charter, creating a corporation destined to be the most far-reaching and powerful yet formed in the New World, aud known as the "Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New Eng- land." Their territorial limits were from three miles north of the Merrimac to three miles south of the Charles River, and westerly to the Pacific Ocean. It may be well to note that but a few years had passed since a northwest passage to Asia had been sought by navigators of all nations crossing the Atlantic, and even now, in these grants on the Atlantic seaboard of New England, which took their width westward to the Pacific, that coast was not thought to be much west from Hudson's River. The affairs of this corporation were to be managed by a gov- ernor, deputy governor, and a council of eighteen assistants, to be elected annually by the company. Very full powers of government were obtained from the crown, the most important of all being that the government need not reside in England. Very soon after this grant was completed six ships fitted out for Massachusetts Bay with 300 men, 80 women and 26 chil- dren, bringing also 140 head of cattle, 40 goats, with arms, ammunition and tools.
To return to the treaty of St. Germain: by the artful drafting of the third article, there was indefiniteness enough in the western limits of the territory ceded to France to produce on our eastern frontier a continual menace. M. de Razilla was sent by France to take command of the country, which he did. The following year a French vessel, early in June, put into Penobscot River, claiming to be in distress. They arrived at the Penobscot trading-house, which the New Plymouth Colony had established there. In an unguarded moment they fell upon the guard, rifled the place of all its valuables, amounting to about £500, and made their escape. In 1634 the Massachu- setts Bay colonists established a trading-house at Machias. Almost immediately it was attacked by La Tour and two of the defendants killed and the others made prisoners, the stock of furs made prize of, and a return made to Port Royal. Mr. Allerton, of New Plymouth, was sent in a vessel to claim and
71
GROWTH AND GOVERNMENT.
bring home the prisoners. Upon his arrival at Port Royal he asked La Tour if he had any authority for his course, when that party promptly replied :
" I have taken them as lawful prize ; - my authority is from the King of France, who claims the coast from Cape Sable to Cape Cod; I wish the English to understand, if they trade to the eastward of Pemaquid, I shall seize them ; my sword is all the commission I shall show ; when I want help I will produce my authority. Take your men and begone."
The first fort at Pemaquid was built in 1630 or 1631, more as a protection against renegades and pirates, then infosting the coast, than against the Indians, who at that time seemed well disposed toward the settlers. In 1634 this fort, which was simply a stockade and located about where the others have been, was captured by the pirate, Dixy Bull, who carried on for a time a reign of terror along the New England coast, particu- larly in the vicinity about Pemaquid. Governor Winthrop sent four vessels into Pemaquid waters to try and capture Bull, but he eluded them. He operated some on the Kennebec River, but was later captured, taken to England, and said to have been executed.1
At about that date all the bread eaten by the settlers along the Maine shores was brought from England as meal, or from Virginia as grain. If as grain, it was sent to Boston for grinding, as a windmill, which had been first erected at New- town, Mass., was removed to Copp's Hill, Boston, in August, 1632. No water mill was erected in Massachusetts until 1633, then it was at Roxbury.2 It is thought that very soon after this a mill was built at Pemaquid, for many years ago two small millstones were found at the head of New Harbor, made of granite, and could only be accounted for in this way.3
The great storm of 1635 was, probably, the most severe ever experienced on our coast. It occurred on August 15th and was attended with peculiar circumstances. It was a north- easter and blew with unabated fury for some six hours. The tide rose to about twenty feet and high water was at the proper time; it then partially ebbed, when it was succeeded by a
1. Winthrop I. 115.
2. Belknap's Hist. N. H. I, 25; Drake's Hist. Boston, 141-44. Holmes Annals.
3. Johnson's Pemaquid, p. 67.
72
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
tidal wave higher than before, doing great injury everywhere. Crops and the forests suffered severely from the gale. At this time took place the first wreck of consequence in New England history. The Angel Gabriel, 240 tons and carrying sixteen guns, and the James, 220 tons, sailed from Milford Haven for New England. The Mather family, so prominent in our early history, was on the James. They parted company on the voyage, and at the date of this storm the James was at Isle of Shoals, while the Gabriel was at Pemaquid. A part of the crew and passengers of the Gabriel were lost, while the live stock and cargo were a total loss. The James lost all her anchors and put to sea again, but the next day, in a battered condition, reached Boston Harbor.
That year (1635) the Plymouth Council's charter was revoked. Clamor on the part of the public had been from the first against it, because it was suspicioned that it carried with it a monopoly of trade. This would have been true, perhaps, had the outlay in settling been less, and had the settlement been made up of a more stable class of people ; but, as it was, many of the settlers were unstable and indolent, shifting from place to place, and hardly able to sustain themselves, say noth- ing of being able to be fed upon. In fact, many were hired to come and assisted to stay in the new country. But facts were of no avail. The annulment of the charter was called for to appease public clamor and petty jealonsies. The Council decided as a preliminary step to divide the whole patent into twelve grand divisions, and, in the presence of His Majesty, draw lots for them, trusting that these individual grants might be confirmed after the charter was annulled. The drawing occurred February 3d, and on April 1st they informed the King that they were ready for action. Their last meeting was the twenty-fifth of that month. The King then appointed Gorges Governor General over New England.
During the summer of 1635 Razilla sent D'Anlney to Biguyduce (Castine) to rifle the trading-house and take pos- session of the country as far south as the fortieth degree of latitude. The New Plymouth Colony sent Captain Girling with a large vessel to retake their Penobscot property, but though he expended his ammunition he was unable to accom-
1 Store-Allen Lewis
Fish House-Allen Lewis
3 Allen Lewis
4 Fish House-J. C. Auld
5 Joseph C. Auld
6 Schoolhouse
7 Rufus Campbell
8 James Campbell
9 Sail Loft-Arber Marson
10 Widow Linekin
11 John Auld
12 Charles Sargent 13 Blacksmith Shop
14 Jasou Fuller
15 Daniel W. Sawyer
16 William Harris
17 Harris Store
18 Paul Harris
19 Sewall S. Wylie
20 Samuel Wylie
21 John Andrews
22 John Adams
23 Cemetery
24 Isaac C. Shermau
25 Elbridge G. Love
26 Gun House ou Old Muster Field
27 William Moutgomery
28 Store-W. Montgomery
29 Willard Holton
30 Widow Greenwood
31 Mrs. Sarah A. Emerson
32 Benjamin Blair 33 Post Office
34 2d Cong. Church 35 Dr. Alden Blossom
36 Dr. Jacksou
37 Jacob Orne
38 Coug. Parsonage
39 Nathaniel Greenleaf
40 Marshal Smith
41 Leonard McCobb
42 Schoolhouse
43 Lydia P. Beath
44 Stephen Sargent
45 Hodgkin's Blacksmith Shop 46 Brick House
47 Store-Leonard McCobb 4× Weymouth House
49 David Newbegin
28.
31
30
32 33
94
25
37
24
33
Co
36
38
.
39
42
40
4.3
14
21
50
-20
49
19
18
17
16
57
15k
59
60
618
= 6
BOOTHBAY HARBOR IN 1856.
50 George Newbegin
51 Parker Wilson
52 Store P. Wilson
53 Samuel Alley
54 Store-W. H. & C. E. Fisher 60 Andrew McFarland
55 Shoe Shop-P. Wilson
56 Isaac W. Reed
57 Custom House
58 Boothbay House
59 Store-D. Newbegin
61 Nathaniel C. McFarland
53
73
GROWTH AND GOVERNMENT.
plish his object, and he returned home. D'Aulney and La Tour both informed the Massachusetts authorities that, without further orders, they would in the future claim no lands west of Pemaquid. Governor Gorges on March 28, 1636, opened court at Saco. Civil and criminal cases were tried, and certain orders, of the nature of a legislative statute, passed. The jurisdiction extended from the Piscataqua to the Sagadahoc. This is the first instance of organized government in the Prov- ince of Maine, though three years earlier Thomas Elbridge, son of the proprietor, tried some cases at the Pemaquid fort.
On April 3, 1639, Sir Ferdinando Gorges obtained from King Charles a provincial charter, the limits of which in ter- ritory were from the mouth of the Piscataqua River, up that river and Salmon Falls River northwestward 120 miles; from Piscataqua Harbor northeastward along the seacoast to Saga- dahoc, thence through that river and the Kennebec northwest- ward 120 miles, and thence overland to the northerly end of the first-mentioned line. This was to be called the Province or County of Maine. It possessed large powers and privileges and provided carefully in matters of government. It seems to have been the custom at that time, when a scheme of govern- ment had become evolved in the mind of some one with suffi- cient influence, to make a new grant regardless of previous ones. At this time patents and grants were everywhere conflicting with others. This one just recited as made to Gorges included the whole of the Lygonia Patent of a few years earlier. The grant to Massachusetts Bay overlapped that of Mason, while the last one to Sir William Alexander included the whole of that of Muscongus. Thus one might pursue this matter at length. Historians have been confused and contradicted each other in the matter of the Laconia Grant, and some have claimed, extensive as it was, that it could not be determined upon by the grantees or their agents, who vainly searched for it three years, and returned the report : "Non est inventa Provincia." 1
About 1641 there seems to have been a strong return tide to England among the colonists. It is said that beginning with that date, for the ensuing twenty years, there were as
1. Chamberlain's, "Maine: her Place in History," p. 44.
6
74
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
many lost to the colonies by return as there were gained by recruits.1 The cause for this was largely due to the threatened civil war in England, which broke out in 1642, culminating in the execution of King Charles I, in 1649. This affected prices of all commodities. Cows that sold in 1640 for £20 could be bought for one-fourth that amount in the next two years, and many other things in like proportion.
A peculiar situation seems to have been almost continuous in our immediate locality. None of Gorges patents or grants had extended east of the Kennebec River. The Kennebec grant itself had taken fifteen miles each side of that river, but this hardly reached the Damariscotta, while the Pemaquid grant came only to that river as a western bound. Even though the Kennebec grant in range might include the territory on the Sheepscot, and between the Sheepscot and the Damaris- cotta, this particular territory always seemed to be an appendage to Pemaquid - adopted on account of its waif-like condition. Pemaquid had become the hub of the region about it, and while there seems to have been as many as formerly at Cape New- agen and Damariscove, and not far from this time a settlement had been commenced at Corbin's Sound (Ocean Point) and Hippocras (Fisherman's Island), still Monhegan, in 1635, was depopulated. The Pemaquid proprietors had their agent, Abraham Shurte, remove the inhabitants to the mainland.
Capt. Sylvanus Davis, covering the period about 1640, in a statement made in 1701, said there were at "Hippocras Island, two families ; Damariscove, fifteen families ; Cape Newagen, many families and ten boats; between Sheepscot and Damariscotta Rivers, ten families." 2
For the first half century after settlement Pemaquid and the neighboring territory were without civil government. Abraham Shurte, who for many years acted as proprietors' agent, performed some magisterial duties, and, to a less extent, Thomas Elbridge did the same. The fort served as court- house for these slight attempts at administering justice. Full governmental powers were not contained in their charter and patent as had been delegated to Massachusetts Bay, to Mason in New Hampshire or to Gorges in the Province of Maine.
1. Neal's New England I, 218; Holmes Annals, 1610.
2. Council Files, State House, Boston.
.
75
GROWTH AND GOVERNMENT.
By general acceptance some powers, however, were thought to belong to and devolve upon the proprietors as owners.1 These conditions greatly retarded the growth of these parts. Under the conditions Pemaquid was the frontier of New England. The French claimed to that place and occupied the country to the Penobscot. By the artful wording of the third article of the treaty of St. Germain, the cession of Acadia, always of indefinite limits, had been inserted, instead of Nova Scotia, which was well defined. Therefore the particular region in which we now reside was continually menaced by the French, and later was to feel the earliest and severest effect from the aroused natives, urged on and assisted by the French.
A tendency to consolidate the English Colonies for offen- sive, defensive and prudential reasons commenced in 1643. The menace of the French at the north and east, that of the Dutch to the south and west, and that of the Indians all about, made this necessary. The first to act were the Colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven, on May 19th. The Province of Maine could not be admitted to this confederacy for ecclesiastical reasons. Its rulers were of Episcopal tenets, and its territory had afforded an asylum to excommunicants from the other Colonies.
Serious difficulties broke out in Gorges' Province at about this time, and the two parties at issue called in commissioners from Massachusetts to arbitrate. At about the same time of this internal trouble in his Province, Gorges was thrown into prison in England by the Parliamentary forces, after the cap- ture of Bristol, at the end of a long siege. He had always been a staunch adherent of the King. At length, in his sev- enty-fourth year, when his perplexities seemed thick on every hand, his master's cause upon the wane, his interests abroad in a state of trouble and turmoil, his estates at home plundered and confiscated by the Parliamentary army, death came as a sweet relief to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. He was a man of great energy and tenacity of purpose, but all have united in ascribing to him an intensely selfish character. He probably brought more censure upon himself by assailing the Massachu- setts charter, which stood in the way of his favorite scheme,
1. Johnson's Pemaquid, p. 95.
76
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
to divide New England into twelve provinces of a royal char- acter, with himself the Governor General, than in any other act of his life. But, regardless of this, his memory is entitled to much reverence from the population of Maine, where he bent his principal energies, spent his money, and devoted the best years of his life.
In 1651 Massachusetts Bay laid claim to the Province of Maine and New Hampshire, grounding its claim on this item in its charter, which embraced all lands "within the space of three English miles to the northward of the river Merrimac, and to the northward of any and every part thereof." This claim was both new and ingenious. Under it, however, a sur- vey was made with the result that a line from three miles north of the head of Merrimac River, in latitude 43º 43' 12", touched the coast at "Clapboard Island, about three miles eastward of the Casco Peninsula."1 Jurisdiction over New Hampshire, and so much of Maine as above mentioned, on the grounds of their colonial charter, was now proclaimed, and court was convened at Kittery, November 15, 1652, and five days later forty-one citizens of Kittery signed submission to this concession, fol- lowed almost immediately by Agamenticus. Kittery, which had been incorporated in 1647, was recognized as a town by the new government, and Agamenticus was constituted one at once, under the name of York. The County of Yorkshire was organized and a county court established.
In 1652 the English captured Acadia and took possession of that entire country and so westward to the Penobscot, but this held only until 1668, when, by the treaty of Breda, it was receded to France. During these years it became a common matter to purchase by deed of the Indians at all points on these grants, particularly on the Kennebec Patent. Several deeds are recorded in this locality at about that time, but none within the limits of what became Boothbay. The Massachusetts colonists had long had trading-houses along the Kennebec, extending as far up as Teconnet (Winslow). They were not in a flourishing condition. Like the region east of the Kennebec they were without government. They, like us, had been the frontier barrier against many troubles and obstacles, which had beset
1. Will. Hist. Me. I, 342.
77
GROWTH AND GOVERNMENT.
them and prevented growth, while the Massachusetts Colony was prospering and increasing in population. England, the parent country, was too far away to enforce rule, and the local attempts at it were but little more than a farce.
The Duke of York, in 1663, made a purchase of the Earl of Stirling of his American possessions, and the following year Charles II, then on the English throne, and brother to the Duke, gave him a royal charter of all the territory westward from Nova Scotia to the Kennebec, including Pemaquid and the islands. This charter extended northward to the St. Lawrence.1
In due time, to confirm the treaty of Breda, he easily let go that part of his grant east of the Penobscot. He then sent a commission of four to America to inquire into the state of his dukedom, with almost absolute powers to adjust disputes and settle civil and criminal matters by holding court. The commissioners first come to Boston, then proceeded east to York, where they held court June 23, 1665. They issued a proclamation annulling the authority of both the Gorges Government and that of its successor, Massachusetts Bay. They journeyed eastward, annulling, as they termed it, the municipal government of each settlement they came to. They reached Sheepscot September 5th, and "opened court" at the house of John Mason, calling upon the inhabitants of this region to come forward and swear allegiance to their royal master, the King of England.
Twenty-nine persons took the oath, but one, however, that of George Buckland, who lived at Corbin's Sound, which I recognize from our vicinity. Damariscove and Cape Newagen, as also Monhegan, were unrepresented. Their action was to erect the Sagadahoc territory into a county called Cornwall. They changed the name of Sheepscot to New Dartmouth. Walter Phillips, of Damariscotta, was appointed clerk and recorder, Nicholas Raynall, of Sagadahoc, Thomas Gardiner, of Pemaquid, and William Dyer, of Dartmouth, justices of the peace, and Richard Lemons (no residence given), constable. These scions of royalty did their work, then went home to England and reported. They were well received and kindly
1. Pemaquid Papers on file at Albany, N. Y.
78
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
treated, and made more welcome in our "eastern parts" than any other place they visited, which was probably due to the fact that this locality had no government and gladly welcomed some form of law. It is evident that there were about three hundred families in this territory when they visited it, but they reported :
"The places beyond Sagadahoc were given to His Royal Highness by His Matie, yet as Col. Nichalls desired, who could not attend to go himself, we have appointed some to govern them for the present, as there was great need. Upon 3 rivers east of the Kennebec, the Shipscot, Damariscotta and Pema- quid, there are three plantations; the greater hath not more than 20 houses, and they are inhabited by the worst of men. They have had hitherto noe government, and are made up of such as to avoid paying their debts and being punished have fled hither ; for the most part they are fishermen, and share in their wives as they do in their boats." 1
By 1668 all they established had died out. The commission was made up of impractical men, knowing nothing of the wants of the colonists, in either these parts or elsewhere. There is little doubt but that the general condition of this first settle- ment was, at the date of these transactions, wretched in the extreme. Without school or church privileges, no govern- ment, no market, no improvement, fifty years of this kind of life had told upon these people, who were simply the worn-out result of vanished schemes. Still they knew there was a hope for something better in government. They, in accordance with this impulse, made the following humble request :
"To the Honoured Governour, Deputy Governour, Magis- trates & Deputies Assembled in the General Court now sitting in Boston this 18th day of May, 1672.
"The petition of * several of the inhabitants of the Eastern parts of New England viz t Kennebec, Cape Bona- wagon, Damares Cove, Shipscoate, Pemaquid & Monhegan. -
" Humbly sheweth that whereas the Providence of God hath stated our habitations into those parts wherein sometimes past we have had some kind of Government Settled amonst us ; but for these Several years have not had any at all which is greatly to our Prejudice & damage having no way to Right ourselves upon any account whatsoever & have little hopes of obtaining any to be help full to us for the good of our Soles unless
1. Doc. Cal. Hist. N. Y. III, 101.
79
GROWTH AND GOVERNMENT.
we have Government settled amonst us ; The Humble Request therefore of your Petitioners is that you will please so farr to favor us as to take us under your Government and protection that we may all have the benefit of all those Laws settled among yourselves granted unto us which if this Honourable Court shall accept of & granted to us we have desired our loving friend Mr. Richard Callacott to advise with this honoured Court or committee wh they shall appoint for that purpose, & so to act in our behalf what shall be judged meet or convenient for us whereby your Petitioners shall be ever engaged to pray &c."
This petition had the signatures of twenty-five residents of "Kennebeck," sixteen of "Cape Bonawagen," eleven each of " Shipscoate " and "Pemaquid," fifteen of "Damaris Cove," and eighteen of " Monhegan." Those falling within the Boothbay limits follow :
CAPE BONAWAGON.
DAMARIS COVE.
Robert Gamon,
Richard Honywell,
John Pride,
Jonª Allen,
Edwd Barton,
Roger Seaward,
Henry Walderne,
Jnº Wrieford,
Steph. Woolfe,
Elias Trick,
Mathew Dyer,
Jnº Bedwell,
Richd Seeth,
Robt Parker,
Nicholas Bond,
Emanuel Whitehouce,
Benja Barton,
Leonard Alber,
Jnº Anthers,
William Lee,
Aron Beard,
Sym™ Lewsombe,
Thos Salton,
Nichº Oyand,
Wm Dane,
Richd Friend,
Thos Haalf,
Ths Alger,
Gabl Skiner,
Edmd Robins.
Robt Baker.
The petition was passed upon favorably by the deputies, four days after its date, but not consented to by the magistrates, consisting of the Governor and Assistants ;1 but was taken up by the General Court again in October, 1673, resulting favor- ably the following May. Massachusetts certainly, by the light of these records, worked no usurpation in extending her gov- ernment over the Sagadahoc territory, even though she be open to the charge of making a very ingenious interpretation of her Merrimac bounds, to get possession of Western Maine. Here
1. Me. Hist. Coll. V, 240.
80
HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
she came only upon appeal. Four commissioners were appointed to repair to the places of the petitioners, or some one of them to the eastward, and there keep a court, in the form of a county court, to give power to constables, perform marriages, punish criminal offenses, organize the militia and have civil jurisdiction.1 The board of commissioners consisted of Major Thomas Clark, Mr. Humphrey Davy, Mr. Richard Collicutt, Lieut. Thomas Gardiner.
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