USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay Harbor > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 9
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Southport > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 9
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Boothbay > History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. 1623-1905. With family genealogies > Part 9
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The fort was completed early in the season and the com- mand intrusted to Capt. Anthony Brockhals and Ensign Cæsar Knapton, being christened Fort Charles in honor of the King, and the locality named Jamestown, in honor of the Duke. A most stringent set of rules and regulations were now pro- claimed. Pemaquid alone must be the trading place of the entire region ; Indians were not allowed to go to the islands ; neither should the natives be trusted ; questions of disagree- ment between inhabitants and fishermen should be settled in New York ; no fisherman should keep more than one dog ; no rum should be drank on the side the fort stood ; no " straggling farmes to be erected, nor no houses built anywhere under the number of twenty"; all vessels from any other Government coming there to fish must first enter at Pemaquid, and, except in stress of weather, should go into no other harbor.
It was with the building of Fort Charles, and this second attempt at government on the part of the Duke of York, that business of all kinds in the Sagadahoc territory centered at Pemaquid. The reason was that it was forced there by the controlling powers. The cause is here found why no other section, save Pemaquid proper, filled up after the dispersal by the Indians in 1676. The entire Government was abhorrent to the fishermen living under it. In every sense it aimed at monopoly in trade. Massachusetts Bay, which had established
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THE INDIAN WARS.
a brief rule just preceding the Indian outbreak, could not now follow it up without coming into conflict with the brother of the King, and it was then clear that both the King and Duke looked jealously upon Massachusetts.
Col. Thomas Dongan was appointed Governor of New York and Sagadahoc in 1682, and arrived in this country in August, 1683, as successor to Andros. He found the people every- where dissatisfied with their Government. A few reforms were instituted by him, among which was an election by the freeholders. Writs for election reached the county of Corn- wall, and Gyles Goddard, Esquire, of Sheepscot, was unani- mously elected to the New York Assembly to represent the county. Petitions to Governor Dongan, at this time, bore a set of signatures almost entirely different from those which had a few years before appeared, petitioning Massachusetts to spread a protecting arm over Devonshire. This showed the population after the war to be composed of a new element.
The King, Charles II, and his advisers, having all along been jealous of Massachusetts, vacated its charter June 18, 1684, and thereupon the liberties that colony had enjoyed were seized by the Crown. Colonel Kirke, one of the blackest names in English history, was appointed Governor over Massa- chusetts, Plymouth, New Hampshire and Maine ; but before he embarked for America to take his office, on February 16, 1685, Charles II died, thus saving the Colonies that humiliation. James, who had been Duke of York, now became King James II of England. Sir Edmund Andros, who had been the Duke's Governor of New York and Sagadahoc from 1674 to 1682, now became Governor of New England. He reached Boston December 20, 1685.
The next year Governor Dongan sent Palmer and West as commissioners into Cornwall County to survey and convey to settlers tracts of land, understood to be one hundred acres, but in many cases they only conveyed three or four acres. Excessive fees were charged in all instances, and then the set- tler only received a leasehold, the fee remaining in the propri- etor. They placed and displaced at pleasure, preying upon the poor, ignorant and war-worn population, as many a political parasite has done before and since. After Andros'
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appointment there appeared for a time some confliction in authority between himself and Dongan, when Andros' commis- sion was enlarged in March, 1688, making him Captain Gen- eral and Vice Admiral over New England, New York and the Jerseys. Almost immediately he sailed with an expedition to Penobscot, where he attacked Biguyduce, pillaged Castine's headquarters and came back to Pemaquid. Castine resented this outrage, and, as he was supreme among the Indians, uneasiness and acts of hostility at once commenced. Every English fortress from Penobscot to Piscataqua was at once repaired. Soldiers were enlisted and detached for an eastern expedition. Andros returned to Boston and, evidently fearing a war he had himself aggravated, tried pacific policies. He issued proclamations to the Indians, and broadly advertised that Indian prisoners would be freed, commanding, at the same time, that the savages should release their English prisoners. The Indians gave no heed to him or his efforts, and released no prisoners in their custody, but in some cases put them to death by torture. Andros, meantime, had let the Indians go which he had been holding.
The war broke out in earnest August 13th, by an attack on North Yarmouth, followed soon after by a descent on Jewell's Island and Saco. At Merrymeeting Bay, after capturing the inhabitants, they fell into a drunken carousal and killed their victims. This marauding party next appeared at Sheepscot, where they made prisoners of two families. The remainder of the settlers defended themselves in the garrison. One of the party went out with a truce to try and treat with the assailants. They captured him and after terrible tortures dispatched him. Every building in the place was burned. Seeing war was now inevitable, Andros called out an army of from 800 to 1,000 men, and late in November led them on an eastern expedition, broadly making threats of his purposes. Soldiers suffered severely from lack of food and exposure to the inclement weather. Many died from these causes and he returned with- out killing or capturing a single Indian. With no wisdom in any of his actions, he made as great a display of his power as possible.
The greatest catastrophe of the year was the capture of
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THE INDIAN WARS.
Dover, New Hampshire. One evening two squaws came along and begged the privilege of shelter for the night, which was granted them. In the night they opened the fortress gate, letting in a large party who were on the war path. A bloody hand-to-hand encounter followed, but with defeat to the English and capture of the garrison by sheer force of numbers. Major Waldron, whom we followed in the previous war, was there that night, an old man of eighty. Twelve years before he had deceived them on the soil of that very town by a shanı fight, and later, at Pemaquid, punished them severely, executing Megunnaway after the battle. Waldron was stripped and seated on a table, when each savage, passing him in procession, slashed his breast with a knife, saying at each stroke : "Thus I cross out my account." At last they cut off his nose and ears, and as he was pitching from the table from loss of blood one Indian placed the Major's sword so that it ran him through as he fell. So dicd one of the greatest Indian fighters the Colonies ever knew.
At Pemaquid a special effort was made to capture the new Fort Charles, recently built by Andros. A large body of Indi- ans appeared from the direction of Round Pond on August 2, 1689. Dividing into two parties, one part went to the Falls, where Judge Gyles and fourteen men were at work on the farm, obtaining a secreted position between the men and the garrison. The other part ranged themselves between the fort and the houses before their presence was known. The attack began by the party attacking the fort, and as soon as the report of the firearms was heard the party above made an attack on the workmen. Several, including Judge Gyles, were there killed and the rest made prisoners. Lieutenant Weems at the fort, seeing that he could not possibly hold out, thought that if ternis could be made an early surrender might obtain safety for the garrison. A promise was made that they might go aboard schooners for Boston if they would make no resistance. This was done, but no sooner were the doors opened than faith was broken and a slaughter ensued. All were either killed or made prisoners. Two captains of vessels in the harbor, Skin- ner and Farnham, were shot, and Captain Pateshall, who lived so many years at Damariscove, being there with his vessel,
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
was captured and killed. At this point of time every English inhabitant eastward of Falmouth withdrew to that place.
At the end of 1690 only four Maine settlements remained, Wells, York, Kittery and Isle of Shoals, and of these York was destroyed in 1692. While the worst was over, the Indians still continued in a belligerent condition until the treaty at Mere Point, Brunswick, January 7, 1699. The date, however, of August 2, 1689, may be set as that of the vacatiou of the county of Cornwall. The fort at Pemaquid was again rebuilt in 1692, of stone, by Governor Phipps, and named Fort William Henry ; but the territory lying between the Sheepscot and Damariscotta Rivers, with the islands about, was abso- lutely without other than the native population until 1729.
From near 1620 until its destruction a second time, in 1689, there had been some English population, and they met with no serious disturbance until 1676. After that war a few came back, but the names were largely new ones, and these, under the restricted conditions imposed by Andros, mostly settled at Pemaquid proper. But with the second war these old names disappear forever. When settled forty years later by Colonel Dunbar it was by not only people of other families, but those of another race.
The tyranny of Governor Andros overreached itself, and on April 18, 1689, he and thirty of his most thoroughly hated followers were thrown into prison by an enraged Boston popu- lace. Palmer and West, who had plundered the people of the country we now live in, were among the number. No bail that could be offered was accepted and for some weeks they were confined. This has come down to us as the first Ameri- can revolution. In England James II had abdicated his throne on December 12th, previous, and taken up his abode in France. His son-in-law, William, Prince of Orange, and Mary, wife of William and daughter of James II, were proclaimed on Feb- ruary 16th King and Queen of England.
During these months the Jesuit priests and Castine had thoroughly inflamed the Indian mind. France, the asylum of James II, sympathizing with him on account of his religion, espoused his cause, and on May 1st war was declared by England against France. It was another war of Popery
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EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
against Protestantism, and in New England the first onslaught was upon the weakest places, the frontiers of Maine and New Hampshire. Early in 1690 Sir William Phipps, a native of Woolwich in the Sagadahoc territory, was sent with 700 men to make a conquest of Canada. Port Royal fell before his fleet, but being late in the year and receiving no aid from England he was unsuccessful before Quebec. This second Indian war has been sometimes called King William's War.
While the Boothbay territory lay uninhabited two other Indian wars took place. The first of these is known as Queen Anne's War, which lasted from August, 1703, to the treaty at Portsmouth, July 11, 1713 ; and the second, called Lovewell's War, from June 13, 1722, to Dummer's celebrated treaty, made December 15, 1725. The interim which occurred by absence of population from our locality must, of necessity, be reflected in these pages. Space forbids me in carrying along even the most important general matters, when we had no people to be affected by them. To this point the brief, cur- sory treatment given to general affairs has been necessary on account of such matters, as have been selected for presentation, having an intimate relation with what was transpiring here. Our next chapter, while not strictly in sequence, will be inserted for the reason that some matters appearing in it will be thereafter a matter of common reference. Following it the Dunbar immigration and settlement will be taken up, after which point of time our story is continuous to the present.
CHAPTER VII. THE INTERIM : 1689-1729.
N THIS chapter the reader will be given various matters, presented in monographic form, with the hope that that which is of most interest, and most necessary for refer- ence, will have been presented before commencing the story of the Dunbar immigration.
There is no record that Squirrel Island was ever among the number composing the Damariscove group. Neither was it inhabited until after the Dunbar settlement. At what time the present name was applied, or for what reason, is uncertain. It was a lone island, uninhabited, and an appendage to Corn- wall County in 1687; then known by its present name, as evinced by the appended record. William Sturt about 1684 was town clerk of Pemaquid, as shown by various documents. The date of this petition is July 28, 1687, and he states that he is building a house on Hippocras " in order to a settlement." It has already been noticed that a rule existed in the Pemaquid Government, then recently promulgated, that outside of Pem- aquid single houses should not be built, and the building, away from that neighborhood, of houses to a number less than twenty was forbidden. From William Sturt's position he must have been a leading citizen of Pemaquid, and a colony, to the number of twenty houses, may have been intended on Hippocras at this time. If such was the case, a considerable colony must have existed there at the date of abandonment in 1689.
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THE INTERIM.
To his Excellency Sr Edmond Andros Knt Capt Generall & Governor in Chiefe of his Maties Territory & Dominion in New England in America
The humble Petticon of William Sturt humbly Sheweth.
Whereas yor Petticon' being Possest of a Small Island Commonly caled hypocrist where yor Petticonr is building an house, in order to a Settlement But the sd Island being voyd of Wood Either for ffire or other vse : And there being A small Rocky Island wth Woods Cloase by Caled Squirrill Island which is Noe wayes Comodious for the fishery, & Never have been taken vp, or Disposed of to Any as Yett the Which Yor Petticon' humbly Prays yor Exeelleney to Confirme to him And Grant that he may have A Pattent for the Said Island & he As in Duty bound Shall Ever Pray for Yor Excells Pros- perity &c.
(Me. Hist. Coll. Doc. Series, VI, 361.)
Somewhere in the present town of Boothbay or Boothbay Harbor lived, as early as 1666, up to the outbreak of the first Indian War in the east, in 1675, a settler by the name of Henry Curtis (or Curtice).
He had a son, Henry, Jr., old enough to be signing peti- tions about 1674. It is likely that they lived on the west side, on Sheepseot waters. The conveyance to Curtis by the well- known chief, Robin Hood, is one of the earliest in the entire region. From this deed came much trouble to the inhabitants in later times, claimants under it commencing to annoy the settlers, in their holdings, as early as 1737 and continuing until the adjustment in 1811.
"A deed of Henry Curtice, senior, recorded the 16th. of June, in the year of our Sovereign Lord King Charles the Second Anno Domine 1666, Jan'y 20th. day 1666.
"Know all men by these presents, that I Robin Hood, sagamore, doth sell unto Henry Curtice, his heirs and assigns forever, 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 Gutt of the Back river, with all the islands and inlets and marches containing unto the same. And likewise I the said Robin Hood doth prhibit and doth disown that any of my heirs and assigns shall lay any clam or privlidges unto the abovementioned land, and have given unto
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
the abovementioned Henry Curtice, his heirs and assigns, full power and possession to sett down there without any let or molestation. Whereunto I have set my hand and seal, the day and date above mentioned. the
Robin L Hood mark
Witness, Daniel Benether William Cliffe
Rascoba his office Examined S
" This deed was acknowledged by Robin Hood, Sagamore, this 29th. May, 1666, before me
Henry Joslin, Justice in coram. "In the year '66, Walter Phillips, Recorder, Essex, ss. Aug. 23, 1785."
John Palmer, who was associated with West in confirming lands in Cornwall County to settlers, confirmed to Elihu Gun- nison, then living in Cornwall, on September 17, 1686, that part of Linekin Neck southerly from where it is partially divided by the indentation of Little River. When driven out, in 1689, by the Indians, Gunnison took refuge at Kittery and there followed his trade of shipwright. On November 1, 1693, he sold this tract of land to William Pepperell, of Kittery, who was a native of Cornwall, England, and the father of Sir William Pepperell, one of Maine's most famous productions. Pepperell evidently bought it as a speculation, for he con- tinued to reside at Kittery. The description follows :
"That Tract or parcell of Land within the bounds of James- town in the aforesd County (Cornwall) containing five hun- dred Acres Lying and being at ye place or neck of Land called Bucklands Neck, beginning at a certain place known by ye name of Corbitts Sound to ye Southwest of ye sd Neck, from thence along ye upland by the River called by the name of Damaris Cotty river, Soe North : north east of ye Narrows of sd Neck known by ye name of Winagance or carrying place, from thence East south east over the said Winnegans to ye cove in ye back River, from thence along ye upland by the sd River South : south west to yee sd Corbitts Sound to ye place where begun."
( York Deeds, Book VI, Fol. 58.)
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THE INTERIM.
By the following abstract it may be seen that practically all of what now constitutes the town of Boothbay Harbor, together with that part of Boothbay where East Boothbay Vil- lage now stands, and Linekin Neck, with the islands southerly of the entire tract, were sold by John Bland, of Georgetown, on March 15, 1717, to William Robinson, of Arrowsic Island, then a part of Georgetown ; and mortgaged by Robinson on April 11, 1717, to John Cookson, of Boston, a gunsmith, a one-fourth interest.
"I ye gd Wm Robinson have and hereby do give grant bar- gaine Sell Convey And Confirm unto ye sd John Cookson One quarter part of a Certain Tract of Land lying between Shep- scoat Bay & Damaris Scotty river Called by ye Indians the Winneganse which is a Carrying place between ye sd bay and ye sd river bounded as follows. Two miles up ye river aforesd & two Miles up Shepscoat Bay Side both upon one and ye Same point of ye Compass with ye others & So a Straight line to be rnn there from ye river to ye sd Bay with ye point of Land from ye Winneganse or Carrying place down Toward ye Sea & ye Island Called Agguahega or Damaris Scotty Island with a Quarter part of all ye Islands with all ye Island Adjoyn- ing & Lying Southerly from ye sd Neck of Land with all Such rights Libertys Profits priviledges Comodityes & Appurte- nances as belong thereunto which sd granted premises I bought of John Bland of Georgetown afores Yeoman as by his deed dated ye fifteenth day of March last will Appear."
( York Deeds, Book VIII, Fol. 229.)
William Robinson, above-named mortgager, died before satisfying this mortgage, and his widow, Sarah, while still administratrix of his estate, married Major Samuel Denny, of Georgetown, for many years the leading citizen there, and who, in 1764, was empowered by the General Court to issue his warrant for the call of the meeting of organization in Boothbay. On September 4, 1722, Major Denny purchased, for £120, Cookson's claim and took a confirmation of the title himself. Later, Gen. Samuel McCobb, of Georgetown, son of James McCobb, one of the original settlers of Townsend, married Rachel, daughter of Major Denny. The intimate rela- tions back and forth between Georgetown and Townsend in the early days are matter of frequent record in many ways.
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
An abstract of a deed given by Agomogus (also known as Moxes) and Egeremett, August 3, 1685, to Richard Pateshall is as follows :
"A Certaine Traet or parcell of land Commonly Called by ye Name of Damerel Cove lying & being an Island in ye Sea Bounded with Seguin on ye West Wood Island & Pumkin Island to ye East Cape bonawagon & Epituse on ye North the Sea on ye South with all and Every ye privilege Libertye & Immunitys thereunto belonging as hunting hawking ffowling ffishing or in any wise Appurtaining."
John Manning, of Boston, on August 24, 1725, deeded to Job Lewis, also of Boston, for £120, fifteen hundred acres of land, in several tracts, situated within the present limits of the southern towns of Lincoln County. An abstract follows :
" Part of several certain Tracts or Parcells of Land situate lying and being within the County of Cornwall within his Majesty's Dominions at the Eastward Parts of New England butted & bounded as followeth viz Two Islands lying Eastward of the Bay of the River & running up to New Dartmouth in Sheeps Coat River from Cape Newagon Westerly with the sd River ; Easterly with the Back River on Albonegon ; Southerly with three small Islands that are in the Passage to two bacon gut, Northerly with the Branch of the sd Main River, which runneth into the Back River at the Southerly End of the great Narrows Also two Necks or Tracts of Land beginning at Sheepcot Falls running right over a Cove to a Parcell of Pine Trees from thence right over one of the sd Necks to the Head of another Cove on the Easterly Side of the sd Neck ; And a Parcell of Marsh Ground lying on the Side of the River South- erly wch Bounds are from the burnt Islands which is the North- ern End of it, from thence to a freshett called by the English the Ovens Mouth, & all the sd Marsh is on the South Side of the River with the Upland joining to it as will more at large appear by the Records of the Indian Titles within the sd County Reference thereto being had, Which were lately lodged in the Hands of Samuel Phiphs of Charlestown Esqr late Clerk to the Proprietors of the Eastward Lands (since deceased) wch sd two Islands were granted & confirmed unto the sd Nicholas Manning by Patent from John Palmer Esqr."
The two islands deeded by Manning were probably Barter's and Sawyer's, but may have been others. Westport had been
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THE INTERIM.
deeded in 1666, as Jeremisquam ; and the bound at the north, evidently being Cross River, would indicate Barter's Island. The three small islands at the south were probably Indiantown, Isle of Springs and Boston Island. The names Back River, Oven's Mouth and Sheepscot were then applied to the same localities as at present; and Albonegon was doubtless the Indian name for the mainland of Boothbay, and thus referred to in the clause "easterly with the Back River on Albonegon."
Almost every old deed following 1686, recorded from the Sagadahoc territory, makes reference to a confirmation of title by John Palmer, Esquire, the Duke's commissioner under Governor Dongan. The method of obtaining a confirmation of title was to present a humble petition, setting forth that the petitioner was an inhabitant, and then describing in a rather loose, indefinite way the tract desired, using such terms as "ranging easterly," or " southerly," as the case might be, to a hill, or a cove, or a "parcell of trees." This being presented was indorsed on the back by Palmer, "Granted." Then a sur- veyor followed, and his survey was but a little more definite than the limits mentioned in the petition. On the back of the survey would appear the word "ffact," meaning performed. Then came Palmer's deed to the petitioner, whose tract was governed by the amount of cash he could raise. Petition, sur- vey and deed must all be paid for, and in the end all that the ignorant settler obtained was a leasehold, which in after years was brushed aside as worthless whenever contested by a claim with any foundation. The fees paid Palmer and West simply amounted to a tax, nothing more or less ; and the whole affair serves as an object lesson of the point of ingenuity reached at that period in the science of what is modernly termed "graft."
The irregularity of spelling proper names in the early days must be obvious from what has already been presented in these chapters. As a matter of fact, the person who could read and write, and having proficiency enough to perform clerical or magisterial duties, did not always, even in the same document,
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HISTORY OF BOOTHBAY.
spell his own or another's name in the same manner twice. This may be noted, not only of those first peopling our coast, but of many later inhabitants down to a period somewhat later than the American Revolution. A case in point : On February 8, 1665, an Indian deed was made to Sylvanus Davis, of a tract of land adjoining the Damariscotta River, by one Gosle, saga- more. Throughout the body of the deed the name is spelled "Gosle." The signature, which is by mark, appears "Gosil"; while the acknowledgment, before George Munjoy, is written " Gossery."
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