USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Harpswell > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 3
USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Brunswick > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 3
USA > Maine > Sagadahoc County > Topsham > History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot > Part 3
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Notwithstanding these decisions, the General Court, on May 7, 1684, granted "to the Honoured Deputy, Governour Thomas Dan- forth, Esq., President of the Province of Maine, and to Sumner Nowell, Esq., for their great Pains and good Service, done by order of this Court, in the expedition in several Journeys to Casco, for which no Recompense hath been made them, an Island called Shebis- codego, in Casco Bay, in the Province of Maine, Provided they take the said Island in full satisfaction for all service done, referring to the Settlement of the Province of Maine to this day." 4
OTHER EARLY SETTLERS.
[1653.] In 1653 the General Court of New Plymouth appointed Thomas Prince a commissioner to institute a civil government in this portion of the Province of Maine. A meeting of the inhabi- tants was notified by Prince, to be held at the house of Thomas Ash-
1 Attested Copy of Court Record in Pejepscot Papers.
2 Ibid.
8 M. Kean, MSS. Lecture.
4 Attested copy of Court Record in Pejeascot Papers.
2
18
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
ley at Merrymeeting Bay, in what is now called Dresden,1 on May 25, 1654.
At this meeting "Thomas Purchase of Pejepscot" was chosen " Assistant to the Government," and John Ashley, constable. Prince, also, at this meeting, administered the oath of allegiance to sixteen men.2 The residence of these men was, for the most part, on the east bank of the Kennebec and on the Sagadahoc. Alexander Thwait, one of the number, was settled, according to McKeen, on the part of Merrymeeting Bay opposite Fulton's Point,3 and if this was the case, he and Richard Collicutt, who lived near him soon after, must have been Mr. Purchase's nearest neighbors. Sewall,4 however, locates Thwait at Winnegance.
[1658.] Thomas Haynes is thought to have settled this year at Maquoit,5 where he retained land as late as 1678. His wife's name was Joyce.6
[1672.] Richard Potts was settled as early as 1672,7 and prob- ably a year or two earlier,8 on what was known as New Damariscove Island. In 1673 he owned and lived upon the point which still bears his name, at the extremity of Harpswell Neck.9
The following individuals are known to have been settled about this time, certainly prior to 1700, within the limits of what was after- wards called the Pejepscot purchase : at Middle Bay, John Cleaves ; on White's Island, Nicholas White ; at Mair Point, James Carter, Thomas Haynes, Andrew and George Phippeny ; at Maquoit Bay, Jolın Swaine, Thomas Kimball, of Charleston, who settled on Hoeg Island in 1658,10 John Sears, Thomas Wharton, Samuel Libby, 11 who subsequently resided in Scarborough, Henry Webb, Edward Creet (or Creek), 12 and Robert Jordan ; on Smoking Fish Point,13 Christopher Lawson, an Antinomian ; at or near New Meadows, in 1675, was Alister Coombs. 14
The island of Sebascodegan was settled as early as 1639 by Francis Small and his wife Elizabeth, whose child was the first born on the island, of English parents. He was from Kittery,15 and was a
1 Mc Keen, MSS. Lecture.
2 Muine Historical Collections, 5, p. 194.
8 McKeen, MSS. Lecture.
4 Ancient Dominions of Maine, p. 131.
5 Willis, History of Portland, p. 98.
6 York County Registry of Deeds, 4, p. 20.
7 Pejepscot Papers.
8 York County Records, 2, p. 366.
10 York County Records, 2, p. 90.
9 York County Records, 10, p. 89.
11 York County Records, various references.
12 York Records, 4. p. 20. Land adjoined Thomas Haines's.
18 What is called Ireland, McKeen. 14 Pejepscot Papers, Statement of Title.
15 Mc Keen, Harpswell Banner, Oct., 1832,
19
PEJEPSCOT PURCHASE, AND PRIOR SETTLEMENTS.
tenant under Colonel Shapleigh. The latter also owned Merriconeag Neck. The neck at this time had a number of settlers upon it who were all driven off by the Indians at the commencement of King Philip's War in 1675.1 In 1683 Shapleigh. finding his property almost worthless on account of the Indian troubles, sold the neck and island to Richard Wharton, of Boston.
After Wharton's purchase of Sebascodegan, the Indians continued possession of the island, for the purpose of catching fish, seal, and porpoise. This prevented any further settlements there for some years.2
[1689.] In the year 1689 that portion of the Pejepscot tract adja- cent to Brunswick, known as the " Gore," which formerly belonged to the town of Yarmouth, but is now a part of Freeport, began to be settled. Eight or ten families who had been driven from Eleutheria, one of the West India Islands, by the Spaniards, and who were dependent on Boston for support, came thither for a home.3 The Gore was a triangular strip of land left between the southwestern boundary of Brunswick and the northeastern line of Yarmouth.
[1702.] In 1702 Benjamin Marston received possession by deed, of Thomas Potts, of Dover, New Hampshire, son of Richard Potts, of the estate at Potts's Point and the island near by, which was previously owned by Potts.4 He is thought to have made a settlement there.
Among the Pejepscot Papers is the following memorandum, which, though in part a repetition of what has already been given, is inserted on account of the more particular information it conveys about certain matters. No date or authorship is given to the paper, but there is no doubt that it was made about the year 1714, by one of the Pejepscot proprietors.
"AN ACC'T OF THE EASTERN PARTS AND OF THE SEVERAL SETTLEMENTS THAT HAVE EVER BEEN MADE ON THE LANDS FORMERLY PURCHASED BY MR. WHARTON AND NOW 5 BOUGHT BY EIGHT OF US.
" The narrow carrying place that parts Casco Bay from Merrymeet- ing Bay, settled by Stevens, who has a son now at New Haven mar- ried to Parkers' daughter.
" Settlements on the Eastern side of Small Point Neck.
" Next to above sd Stevens, at the upper Whigby, or Wiskege, by Lawson owned by Ephraim Savage.
1 Mc Keen, Harpsicell Banner, Oct., 1832.
2 MeKeen, Ibid.
8 McKeen, " Gleanings" in Brunswick Telegraph, 1859.
4 York County Records, 10, p. 88.
6 The Pejepscot Company was formed in 1714.
20
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
" William Rogers about 2 leagues lower.
" Thomas Watkins about a mile lower.
" Mr. Gooch, the minister, about a mile lower down the river.
' John Filman about a mile lower.
" Capt. Reynolds about a mile lower.
" John Layton at the neck just above Winegance.
" Mary Webber about 2 mile lower - her son goes now with Cap- tain Bracket.
" William Baker about a mile lower.
" Sylvanus Davis, now suppose Nelson.
" John Parker.
" Thomas Humphreys.
" Ichabod Wiswall.
" John Verin.
" Samuel Newcomb.
" William Cock and John Cock within half a mile.
" Robert Edmunds, said to be claimed now by St Charles Hobby.
" James Mudge within a quarter of a mile.
" Thomas Atkins, said to have bo't the whole neck down to Small Point of Indians and to have sold their interest to the other inhabi- tants. Some of his heirs supposed to be now living at Roxbury or. Dorchester.
" Ambrose Hunniwell the lowest settlement on that side, about 4 mile short of Small Point. Hunniwell that works for Captain Belcher, one of that family.
" On the western side of that neck only Drake who settled at Small Point harbour - lived there but a little while.
" On Merriconege Neck only 2 settlements.
" Richard Potts who lived at the lower end.
" John Damarell about 3 miles above himn.
" But one settlement at Mair Point by John Phippany.
" But one settlement at Maquoit by Robert 1 Haines.
" Settlements between Pejepscot & Swan Island on the north side of Merrymeeting Bay.
" Samuel York about 4 or 5 mile down from the Falls on the East- ern side. Living now at Squam, Cape Ann, he supposed the likeliest man to inform how far Merriconege Neck or Shapleys Island have been possessed or improved.
"James Thomas } a mile below. He and his heirs supposed to be wholly extinct.
1 Possibly Thomas is meant.
21
PEJEPSCOT PURCHASE, AND PRIOR SETTLEMENTS.
" Williams { a mile farther - only a man & his wife-had no chil- dren - supposed to be extinct.
" James Giles about 4 miles up Muddy River.
" Thomas Giles at Point on south side of Muddy River mouth. Of these families Gyles of Winnissemet Ferry and Giles the Inter- preter now live at Salisbury.
" Thomas Watkins at Shildrake Point, between Muddy River and Cathance.
" Alexander Browne east side of mouth of Cathance River.
" Dependence Collicut at point of Abegedasset River claims that point - no settlement between sª Collicut & Swan Island.
" One settlement at Swan Island by Collicut, Alexander Brown and Humphrey Davis, by turns -"
Samuel White, in 1714, produced the testimony of George Phippen and wife that his grandfather, Nicholas White, was settled at the upper end of Mair Point about forty-four years previously, and that Phippen and his wife were for several years the nearest neighbors. Two other testimonies, of persons living " on Pulpit Island or New Damariscove," were given to the same effect. The names of these two witnesses are not recorded.1
ORIGIN OF THE PEJEPSCOT COMPANY.
[1693.] Richard Wharton, who had become possessed of the greater portion of the lands already mentioned, having died in England, administration de bonis non on his estate was granted Dec. 30, 1693, to Ephraim Savage, of Boston.
[1697.] On Oct. 26, 1697, the Superior Court at Boston author- ized and empowered Savage to sell Wharton's estate in order to liqui- date his debts.2
[1714.] On Nov. 5, 1714, Savage, acting in accordance with the authority above mentioned, sold the whole of the above tract of land to Thomas Hutchinson, Adam Winthrop, John Watts, David Jeffries, Stephen Minot, Oliver Noyes, and John Ruck, of Boston, Massachu- setts, and John Wentworth, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for the sum of £140. to hold in fee as tenants in common. The conveyance was acknowledged the next day and was recorded in the York records on the nineteenth of the following November.3
These " tenants in common " constituted the original company of the Pejepscot proprietors. On Oct. 20, 1714, the General Court of
1 Pejepscot Papers. 2 Pejepscot Records. 8 Pejepscot Papers, Statement of Title.
22
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSIIAM, AND HARPSWELL.
Massachusetts passed a resolution that it was for the public interest that some townships be laid out and settled in the eastern country, and John Wheelwright and others were appointed a committee to receive the claims of all persons claiming lands there.
[1715.] On the 18th of February, 1715, the Pejepscot proprie- tors made certain proposals to the above-mentioned committee : -
1. That the General Court should give confirmation to their pur- chase, in order that they might " be better able to encourage substan- tial farmers to remove with their stock from England."
2. For the encouragement of a fishing town at Small Point.
3. That whenever twelve or more persons offered themselves for any new settlement, they should be " covered"1 with such a force and for such a time as the General Court should deem necessary.
4. That those settling in the limits of the Pejepscot tract should, for the first seven years, have some assistance from the public towards the maintenance of a ministry, and should be exempted from the pay- ment of any Province tax.
The proprietors agreed that, if the General Court would consent to the foregoing proposals, they would, on their part, agree to enter into the following arrangements : -
1. To lay out three or, if the land would admit, four plats or towns, and have them surveyed and platted that same summer, at their own cost.
2. " In seven years, if peace continues with the Indians," they would settle "each of said towns with fifty families or more, in a defensive manner, having already offers of very considerable num- bers, both in this country and from England." And in order thereto they were willing to grant them such house-lots, in fee, and such accommodations in regard to their lands, as might induce them to set- tle there.
3. That they would lay out a convenient portion of land in each town, for "the subsistence of the first minister, the ministry, and a school."
4. "Being desirous that the people might not live like heathen, without the worship of God, as had been too frequent in new settle- ments," they engaged, for the more speedy procuring of a minister, and to make it easier for the inhabitants at their first settling down, that as soon as there should be twenty houseliolders in each of the towns, who would provide a frame for, and raise a meeting-house
1 i. e., protected.
23
PEJEPSCOT PURCIIASE, AND PRIOR SETTLEMENTS.
they would, at their own expense, furnish glass, lead, nails, iron work, and other materials, and finish the meeting-house for them, and pay towards the maintenance of an " orthodox gospel minister " in each town, the sum of £40 per annum, for five years. These pro- posals to the committee received the signature of all the proprietors.1
On the twenty-seventh of the following May, the committee reported favorably on these proposals, and the General Court, on the tenth of June, passed resolutions in accordance therewith. Thus this company became undoubted legal owners of the territory they had purchased.
STATEMENT OF THE TITLE.
The Pejepscot tract, in consequence of the varied mode of its acqui- sition and the uncertainty of its true bounds, became the subject of a lengthy and severe controversy between the proprietors and several other claimants, - more particularly the Kennebec Company, - which lasted until about 1814. In order to understand this controversy, as well as the decision arrived at, it becomes necessary to state the sev- eral questions involved, and to make some explanatory remarks.
It is not, however, necessary to reproduce the exact points urged by the opponents of the Pejepscot Company. The questions to be considered are evidently as follows : -
1. In regard to the validity of the original titles to the land.
2. In regard to the extent of these titles.
3. In regard to the validity of the subsequent sales and convey- ances.
4. In regard to the jurisdiction.
In regard to the first, it is proper to state that the original claims to all lands in this section could only originate in one of three ways : first, by grant from the King of England, direct or indirect ; secondly, by purchase from the Indians ; thirdly, by right of occupa- tion of unclaimed land, in other words, by the right of " squatter sovereignty."
The validity of the claims to land obtained in these three ways may be considered as strong in the order given. The right in virtue of a grant emanating from the government holding possession of the coun- try has ever been considered indubitable, unless conflicting with some prior grant from the same source. The right in virtue of a grant from the Indians is more than doubtful, though it may, we presume, some- times have been deemed valid in those cases where no other grant
1 Pejepscot Records.
24
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
existed,1 and where there had been no prior sale by parties represent- ing the same tribe, and the right either of those selling, or of the tribe they claimed to represent, was not contested. The right by virtue of .. occupation simply, is valid after the lapse of a certain number of years, determined by legal enactments.
In applying these principles to the different grants of the Pejepscot lands, it will be seen at once that the grant by the council of Plymouth to Purchase and Way was perfectly valid, unless it conflicted with a previous grant, by the same council, to the Kennebec Company. The evidence that a grant was issued to Purchase and Way was virtually proved. The deed of land bought by Purchase of the Indians, if any such there was, would only serve to strengthen his other claim.
The title to the lands, purchased of the Indians by Thomas, York, Gyles, and Stevens, should be considered valid, except as to any por- tion which might overlap the territory belonging either to Purchase and Way or to the Kennebec Company. The purchase of lands from the Indians by Nicholas Shapleigh was valid, there being no prior grant. That of Wharton from Worumbo, etc., was equally valid for the same reason, except where it conflicted with the other grants. The ground assumed by the Kennebec Company was that they owned, by virtue of their charter, all the land up and down the Kennebec River for fifteen miles upon each side, and that consequently some of the before-specified titles, being later, were null and void. They also claimed that the Pejepscot Company had not located their lands in accordance with the Worumbo deed.
The question, in regard to the boundaries of the lands granted, is the most important. The descriptions used in the old conveyances were often very indefinite. The bounds, said to have been given in the patent to Purchase and Way, are, however, sufficiently explicit as to one direction, and Purchase's deed to Massachusetts gives the bounds in the other direction. The territory granted in the sale to Nicholas Shapleigh is also clearly defined, being bounded by Pur- chase's possessions and by the sea. The point of the long dispute lay in the description given in the Worumbo deed. This deed in- cluded all the lands before granted. Did it include more? It could not include more on the south and east, but it undoubtedly did on the west and north.
The description reads : -
" All the aforesaid lands from the uppermost part of Androscoggin
1 Maine Historical Collections, 2, p. 273. Kent's Commentaries, 3, p. 385. Wheaton's International Law (Dana), p. 40, note.
25
PEJEPSCOT PURCHASE, AND PRIOR SETTLEMENTS.
falls four miles westward and so down to Maquoit," and on the other side of the river from the same falls to the Kennebec, on a line running southwest and northeast.
The principal question to be decided is as to what falls were meant. Were such terms to be used in a deed at the present day, there would be but little doubt that a point above all the falls in the river was intended. At the time of the deed, however, the river was not so well known as now, and serious doubts might justly be entertained as to whether the falls at Lewiston, Lisbon, or Brunswick were intended. If the Lewiston Falls were meant, the territory would consist of about 500,000 acres,1 whereas if the falls at Brunswick were meant, the extent of territory embraced by the deed would not be one quarter so large. The opponents of the Pejepscot Company claimed that the Brunswick Falls were the ones intended. The proprietors, however, took the ground, doubtless correct, that the river below Brunswick was called the Pejepscot by both Indians and settlers, and that the lower falls were uniformly described, at that date, as the Pejepscot Falls, and consequently, that the falls referred to were those at Lewiston. The proprietors, however, came to a settlement with the Plymouth (or Kennebec) Company, on February 20, 1758, and released to them all the lands to the northward of a line drawn through the mouth of the Cathance River, and running west-northwest to the west-side line of the Plymouth claim.2
This settlement, however, proved unsatisfactory, and, June 17, 1766, the southern line of Bowdoinham and the Kennebec River were fixed upon and agreed to by the contending parties,3 and on the 8th of March, 1787, the legislature of Massachusetts passed a resolution to the effect that the Twenty Mile or Lewiston Falls should be considered the uppermost falls referred to in the Worumbo deed.4
The difficulties do not seem to have terminated even then ; for in the year 1800, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, acting on the report of referees, made substantially the same decision that had been made by the legislature,5 adding, however. certain stipulations in regard to the assignment of lots to settlers. The proprietors for a long time refused to abide by the terms of the decision, and the controversy was not finally settled until 1814.6
The claims of individual settlers under other titles were disposed of by confirmatory grants from the Pejepscot Company, unless their titles
1 Vide Douglass Summary, 1748.
8 Pejepscot Records.
6 Pejepscot Records.
2 Lincoln County Registry of Deeds, 1, p. 21.
4 Pejepscot Papers, Statement of Title.
6 Williamson, History of Maine 2, p. 585.
26
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND IIARPSWELL.
were proved to be illegal and void, or to have lapsed. The territorial limits of the company, at the time of the final decision of the contro versy with the Plymouth Company, embraced the present towns of Danville, Lewiston, Greene, a part of Lisbon, a part of Leeds, a part of Poland and Minot, Durham, Bowdoin, Topsham, Brunswick, and Harpswell. The territory, as previously claimed by the company, would have included Bowdoinham and Richmond in addition.
In regard to the validity of the conveyance by Wharton's adminis- trator to the proprietors, there can, of course, be no doubt. There is also no doubt as to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts after Indepen- dence was declared. As to prior governments, it is only necessary to say, that although the jurisdiction over this part of the present State of Maine was claimed at different periods by different rulers, and went under the several names of the Province of Laconia1 (1622), the Prov- ince of Lygonia (1630), the Province of Maine (Gorges-1639), and the Massachusetts Colony (1651-1677), yet the transfer of jurisdic- tion by Purchase to the latter gave her the strongest claim to the. Pejepscot tract, though the fairness of her title to the Province of Maine is still a mooted question.
At this early date, however, the jurisdiction was merely nominal, there being but little actual enforcement of the laws in this portion of the Province.
1 The grant of the Province of Laconia was rather indefinite, but as it included the lands " betwixt ye lines of West and North West conceived to pass or lead upwards from ye rivers of Sagadehock & Merrimack in ye country of New England afores'd," it must have included all of Maine west of the Kennebec, and consequently included the Pejepscot tract.
27
PEJEPSCOT PROPRIETORS. SETTLEMENTS UNDER THEM.
CHAPTER III.
DOINGS OF THE PEJEPSCOT PROPRIETORS, AND SETTLEMENTS UNDER THEM.
Up to the time of the formation of the Pejepscot Company, in 1714, comparatively few persons had made settlements in this region, and there had been no organized efforts to induce settlers to come hither. From this time new settlers appear oftener than before, though not very rapidly at first.
[1715.] Among other projects of the proprietors to encourage immigration to their lands, they voted, at a meeting held Sept. 14, 1715, " That the present projection for laying out the Town of Bruns- wick in one Line of Houses be accepted and the Town laid out accord- ingly.
" That each Proprietor will take up a Lot and build upon it as soon as may be. That we consent to Mr. Noyes taking his Lot next Maquoit (he promising to build a Defensible House thereon next Spring). That the Meeting House shall be in the midway between the Fort & Maquoit. That the Lots for the Ministry, the First Min- ister & the School be the Centre Lots, and as for the other Lots, Those persons, whether Proprietors or others, that first take up the Lots & build upon them, shall take their choice. And that the Out- bounds & the plan of Topsham be likewise laid out now, three Sides of a Square, the Houses Twenty Rods distant according to the plan offered to the Generall Court." 1
[1716.] The Pejepscot proprietors, some time in 1716, or perhaps 1717, bought a large tract of land extending from Abbacadasset Point up the west side of the Kennebec River, as far as the north end of Swan Island, and thence into the country for four miles. The title came from Kennebis, and Clark and Lake, but mediately through Richard Collicut and Samuel and Hannah Holman, of whom the pro- prietors bought.
1 Pejepscot Records.
28
HISTORY OF BRUNSWICK, TOPSHAM, AND HARPSWELL.
The proprietors at this time had to send everything necessary for the carrying on of their operations from Boston, and we accordingly find that at their first meeting, held Feb. 21, 1716, they voted to have twenty hundred weight of screwed hay, for the use of their cattle there, sent to Brunswick by the first sloop that went; and that the other things that had been requested should be sent to their servant, James Irish.1
At a meeting of the proprietors, held Sept. 5, of this year, it was voted : (Agreeably to their previous vote of the twenty-seventh of April, granting liberty to Adam Winthrop, one of their partners, to make choice of some island, neck, or tract of land within their territory) That Swan Island should be appropriated to Winthrop as his share of their first division, and that it should be reckoned at 1,000 acres, whether it proved to be more or less ; " That Mair-Point be divided into Two Lots, The Lower half part to be Lot No. 2-The upper half to be Lot No. 3"; that the portion of land lying between Cathance River and the eastern part of Abagadasset Point, and a line running north- erly from the latter, should be divided into five lots, equal in front, and that the lot 'nearest Cathance River should be called No. 4, and that they should be numbered from that lot, successively, Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8 ; that each lot should run back from Merrymeeting Bay, until it embraced 1,000 acres ; that if either half part of Mair Point should fall short of 1,000 acres, the deficiency should be made up in some part of the township of Brunswick.
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