History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 15

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780

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"On the day after the battle of Lexington, the Provin- cial Congress having resolved that an army of thirteen thou- sand six hundred men should be raised in the province, transmitted to every town a circular letter, conjuring the inhabitants by all the considerations which have weight among men, to give every aid in forming the army. Que regiment was raised in this county and placed under the command of Col. Phinney. A convention of the county assembled on the 29th of May and petitioned Congress that the regiment might be stationed at Falmouth for the de- fense of the town and county ; but it being considered that there was more urgent need of the troops in the neighbor- hood of Boston, four hundred of the men were ordered there, and the remainder employed for the defense of the seaboard, under command of Col. Freeman, of Fahnouth.

"On the 7th of June, the ' Senegal,' a ship of sixteen guns, with two tenders, arrived in the harbor, and on the 12th, the old disturber, Colson, appeared again in his new ship to take in his eargo of masts which he had procured some time before. His arrival was the signal of new dis- turbances ; the people began to get his masts and timber afloat, and to move them up the river beyond his reach, as advised by the Committee of Safety. Sheriff Tyng, who had left town soon after the battle of Lexington to put him- self under the protection of his friends in Boston, was with Colson, and at their request their wives were permitted to visit them ;§ but the committee wrote to them and the cap- tain of the ' Senegal,' that as Colson was a declared enemy of the country, and had put the town to great charge and

# The chairman of the Committee of Safety, in a letter describing the confused state of things May 11, exclaims, " Good God ! give us a regular government or we are nndone, " and again May 13, " God grant that order may come out of confusion, and that Congress would give such directions in all parts of the province, that no such tumultuous assemblies may be seen, heard, or felt again .- Freeman's Extracts, 2d part, p. 11.

@ Mr. Tyng had received from Gov. Gage, in 1771, a colonel's rom mission.

# Mr. Wiswall declared his abhorrence of the doctrine of passive obedience, and that Great Britain had no right to lay internal taxes ; he declined giving any opinion relative to the late acts of Parliament.

t The property taken from Colson's was valued at one hondred and forty-one pounds, one shilling, one pence, and from Tyng's at fifty pounds. Res. of Prov. Cong. The articles were carried to Gor- ham by Phinney's men and secured. Mr. Tyng's plate was delivered to Mrs. Ross, the mother of Mrs. Tyng. by order of Congre-s. 8

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

trouble, they would not consent that he should take in his cargo. On the 220 of June, one of Colson's boats which was sent up the Presumpsent in search of masts and spars, as was supposed, was seized by the people, with five men and three guns, The men were released in two or three days, but the property was kept. In the same month there was a general muster of the soldiers, including Col. Phin- ney's regiment on the Neck, which made a fine display, and inspired the people with confidence in their strength ; com- missions had been granted to Phinney's regiment by the Provincial Congress in April, and on the first of July they were confirmed by the Continental Congress, Two com- panies, commanded by Capts. Bradish and Brackett of Fal- mouth, belonged to this regiment. Capt. Brackett marched his company for Cambridge on the 3d of July; Capt. Bradish followed in a few days; a lecture was preached to Capt. Bradish's company, who all belonged to this town, by Dr. Deane, on the 6th of July previous to their departure .* " So many of the inhabitants having been withdrawn to supply the army, attention was bestowed to place the remain- der in an attitude of defense; the selectmen were ordered to deliver a quarter of a pound of powder to each person who was destitute, but who had a gun and was willing to defend his country ; and a committee was appointed to mount as many of the cannon belonging to the town as they thought proper. A few men were also raised and sta- tioned under the direction of a committee in the most suit- able places. These measures of preparation were of so ab- sorbing interest that but little attention was paid to civil affairs; the Court of Common Pleas met on the 25th of July, and adjourned the same day ; the sheriff and crier were absent, and no jurors had been returned. They did not meet again until October, 1776.+

" The remainder of the summer passed away without any trouble from abroad, and the interval was employed to see if all was sound within .¿ The towns were generally mak- ing investigation into the firmness of the principles of the people, and whenever any act was done by which suspicion was aroused, the screw of public opinion was immediately applied.

" Little of interest further occurred in this section of the country till the 16th of October, when Capt. Mowatt again arrived at the mouth of the harbor with the ' Canceau,' another ship called the ' Cat,' two schooners, and a bomb- sloop.

" When the people perecived that it was Mowatt they felt but little apprehension for themselves, supposing his object to be to get cattle and provisions ; they therefore sent the

* lte was commissioned major in Col. Timothy Biglow's regiment, Jan. 1, 1777. He died in 1818.

+ Wm. Tyng was sheriff and Joshua Freeman crier; the judges were Jeremiah Powell, Enoch Freeman, Moses Pearson, and Jonas Mason. Oct. 11, 1775, the Provincial Congress issued a commission in the name of the " Government and people of Massachusetts Bay," appointing Powell, Freeman, Mason and Solomon Lombard, justices of this court ; next day John Waite was appointed sheriff.

# In May, 1775, the selectmen employed Jabez Matthews and David Dinsmore, of New Gloucester, to go to Quebec, and ascertain if there were any hostile movements there against the back settlements of the province: their route was by the Kennebec River. Matthews returned in June, and reported that there was no such design, und was sent to make report to the Provincial Congress .- Frem. 2, 29, 16.

greater part of the two companies here, to guard the islands where were large stocks of cattle and quantities of hay, and near which Mowatt had anchored. The next day the wind being unfavorable, the vessels were warped up the harbor, and formed in a line fronting the principal settlement on the Neck. The first intimation the people had of the object of his cruel visit was by a letter he sent on shore on the after- noon of the 17th, in which he informed them that he had been sent to 'execute a just punishment on the town of Falmouth,' and allowed them but two hours to remove them- selves and families from the scene of danger.

" The vessels came directly from Boston, and no doubt can be entertained that the order for the destruction of the town proceeded from Admiral Greaves, who then com- manded on this station, whose mind had probably been in- flamed by the representations of Mowatt, Colson, and others. On the receipt of Mowatt's letter the people on the Neck immediately assembled and appointed Gen. Preble, Dr. Cof- fin, and Robert Pagan to wait upon him to ascertain the cause of the threatened calamity, and see if it could not by any means be averted. The mission was fruitless ; Capt. Mowatt informed them that his orders were peremptory, that they did not even authorize him to give the inhabitants any warning, and in so doing he had risked the loss of his commission. At the carnest entreaty of the committee he consented to postpone the execution of his severe orders until cight o'clock the next morning, on condition that the inhabitants would deliver to him eight small-arms, and agreed to suspend further proceedings until he could receive an answer to an express which he would dispatch to the admiral, provided the people would before eight o'clock the next morning surrender four pieces of cannon which were then in town and all their small-arms and ammunition. The committee frankly told him that they thought the inhabi- tants would not submit to this proposition, but promised to lay it before them and return him an answer.

" On reaching the shore they found the anxious multi- tude assembled at the town-house, to whom they reported the result of their conference. The town without hesita- tion disapproved of the terms, but in order to gain time for the removal of the women and children and the sick, with as much property as possible, they sent off in the evening the eight small-arms, and informed the captain that the town would have a meeting early in the morning and give a definite reply to his proposal by eight o'clock. The meet- ing was held, and the inhabitants with a firmness and cour- age worthy all praise and a better fate, while the loaded can- non were pointed toward them, resolutely rejected a propo- sition which carried with it the abject terms of surrendering their arms to save their property. The same committee was appointed to convey their determination, and were in- structed to occupy as much time as possible on board. But so impatient was Mowatt to begin the work of destruction, that the committee at half-past eight o'clock were requested to go on shore and only half an hour allowed them to escape from the coming storm.

" At nine o'clock the firing commenced from all the ves- sels in the harbor, which kept up a discharge of balls from three to nine pounds weight, bombs, canisters, shells, grape- shot, and musket-balls with little cessation until six o'clock

WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

in the evening. In the mean time parties landed from the vessels aud set fire to various buildings. The inhabitants were so much occupied in removing their families and prop- erty to places of safety, that but little resistance was made to the parties which landed. No plan of defense had been concerted ; the soldiers were scattered, part of them having that morning returned from the islands, where they had been on duty, were employed in saving their families and goods, and the remainder were without any efficient leader ; all, both soldiers and others, were in too great consternation to make any effectual resistance. There was also a defi- cieney of powder, there not being an hour's supply in town. Had there been one company here well organized and of sufficient coolness, much of the evil occasioned by strag- gling marines might have been prevented. Several of the British were killed and wounded ; none, fortunately, were killed on the side of the inhabitants, and only one wounded .*

" The town soon presented a broad sheet of flame, which, as the buildings were of wood, spread with great rapidity, and involved all the thickest part of the settlement in one common ruiu. All the houses were destroyed on Fore Street, from Jordan's Point to Exchange Street but one ; all on both sides of Middle Street as far west as School Street, except Sheriff Tyng's, on the corner of the street that goes into Clay Cove, Theophilus Bradbury's, on the corner of Willow Street, and Thomas Smith's store, on the corner of Essex Street ; every house in King Street and Turkey Lane, and scattered houses in Fiddle Lane and Back Streets, amounting to one hundred and thirty-six dwelling-houses, besides a handsome new court-house, the Episcopalian church, the town-house, the custom-house, a fire-engine nearly new, together with barns, and almost every store and warehouse in town, all the wharves but one or two short ones, and all the vessels in the harbor except two, which the enemy took away with them, were burnt .; The meeting-house of the first parish, which was then unprotected by other buildings, was perforated by several balls and grape- shot, some of which were found in the ceiling and other parts when it was taken down, in 1826.1 A cannon-ball passed through the house of Deacon Codman. The house, having a commanding view of the harbor, was exposed to the fire of the enemy and considerably shattered ; the front fenee stand- ing on Middle Street was often set on fire, and extinguished by the people ; many others were injured in a similar manner. A great quantity of personal property was unavoidably de- stroyed, from the scarcity of teams, and the confusion and alarm of the occasion. Many articles were thrown into the street aud there left to perish.§ An immense quantity of fur-

* This was Reuben Clough, who lived on the corner of Plumb and Fore Streets.

+ The number of buildings, exclusive of dwelling houses, de- stroyed, was two hundred and seventy eight ( Exper fizette, October 26th), which, with one hundred and thirty-six houses, makes the total number of buildings burnt four hundred and fourteen.

# Three persons after dark attemptel to set fire to the meeting- house, but were interrupted and compelled to retrent. The chande- lier in the new house is suspended from a cannon-ball which made a deep wound in the venerable structure.

¿ Not more than half the tuovables were saved out of the buildings which were burnt. - Report of Select Freem., i. 2.2. About one hundred and sixty families were turned out of doors. Dright's Travels, ii. 172.

niture and other property was piled up indiscriminately, as it was plucked out of the fire, in the field opposite the head of High Street, where much of it was destroyed by the rain of the next day, and much stolen or irreeoverably scattered.|

" All the compact part of the town was destroyed, con- taining a large proportion of the most valuable buildings. One hundred dwelling-houses only were left standing, many of which were damaged by balls and the bursting of bombs. The last house that was burnt was the Rev. Mr. Smith's, which stood directly fronting King Street; it eaught from Capt. Sandford's, which stood on the northwest corner of King Street, just before dark, and was the only house burnt on that side of Congress Street.

" The situation of the inhabitants after the fire was one of great suffering and distress; many families who before that event were in comfortable circumstances, had lost alt their property and were turned houseless, at the commence- ment of winter, upon the hand of charity; while on every quarter poverty and desolation met the unhappy sufferers. On the 26th of October the town held a meeting and raised a committee to procure subscriptions for the relief of the distressed poor of the town. On the 10th of November the Provincial Congress, on the petition of Samuel Freeman, then a member from Falmouth. granted two hundred and fifty pounds to the sufferers, and ordered fifteen bushels of corn to be distributed to each family whose loss deprived them of the means of purchasing any. In 1776 one-half of the taxes on the town for 1775 were abated, and in 1779, on the petition of Enoch Freeman and others, a grant was made of two thousand pounds to purchase bread and other necessaries of life for the poor of the town, to be distributed under the direction of the selectmen."

Some time in the year 1776, a picaroon, commanded by one Hammon, visited an island in Harpswell, which was in- habited by a single family, and, with a crew of seven men, rifled them of their effects in the night, intending to rest there until day. Receiving information of this dastardly attack, Capt. Nehemiah Curtis rallied a party, and before morning captured the boat and crew, and carrying the latter to Falmouth, lodged them in the county jail. Hammon managed, through falsehood, to get at liberty, and immedi- ately went to the same island with a larger vessel and crew. Ilere Curtis and his volunteers again met him, and in the skirmish that followed one of the miscreants was wounded, and the rest hurriedly withdrew."

" The government, in 1775, voted that four hundred men should be raised for the defense of Maine, to be stationed at Falmouth, and that the militia should be mustered in ease of invasion. The troops arrived the latter part of November; Gen. Joseph Frye, to whom the command of the station was assigned, came here November 25th. Many persons who had been driven from town returned under protection of the troops, and the few houses which were standing were over-crowded, and could illy accommodate the additional number of persons whom the state of things brought upon the Neck. Mr. Smith, who had retired to Windham, came to town to preach November 25th, but was

The day the town was destroyed was elcar and pleasant ; the next morning it began to ram, and continued raining for three days. · Williamson, p. 429.

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

obliged to return, not having been able to get lodgings. In the latter part of 1775 the distressed situation of the people, particularly in Maine, was laid before the Provincial Con- gress, and twelve hundred pounds were. granted from the treasury for their relief.

" Notwithstanding the narrow circumstances in which the inhabitants of the Neck were now placed,-deprived of their commerce, cut short of the ordinary supplies,-they abated nothing of the spirit with which they engaged in the great cause of freedom. In December, a committee was chosen to join other towns in convention, to consider measures for the general safety of the county of Cumberland and this town in particular. In February, the town voted to recommend to the Committee of Safety to encourage the manufacture of saltpetre ; in the same month thirty of our people enlisted in the Continental army. May 21st a committee was chosen to repair the forts on the Neck, and on the same day the following vote was passed, which shows that the people here had made up their minds in advance on the great question which was agitating the continent :

... Voted, unanimously, as the determination of this town, that if the honorable American Congress should, for the safety of the united colonies, declare them independent of the kingdom of Great Britain, the inhabitants of this town, in meeting now assembled, will solemnly engage with their lives and fortunes to support the Congress in the measure.' "

In April, 1777, a company of eighty men was stationed at Falmouth, under the command of Abner Lowell, and another of forty men at Cape Elizabeth. In Jannary a requisition was made on Massachusetts for five thousand blankets; the proportion of this county was one hundred and twenty-threc.

" In June the General Court made provision for stationing a company of' fifty soldiers here, for which they sent ten cannon. The company was enlisted in this neighborhood to serve until December, and the command given to Capt. John Preble .* Capt. Joseph Noyes was appointed to mus- ter the company ; Wmn. Frost was commissary of the forecs stationed in and near Falmouth this year, for the defense of the sea-coast. In November another company of fifty men was stationed at Cape Elizabeth for the defense of the har- bor, and with the one stationed on the Neck was continued in service until March ; at the same time all the other sol- diers here were ordered to be dismissed.+ This year the militia of the county was reorganized, and in December the teneral Court appointed the following officers to the 1st Regiment in Cumberland, viz. : Peter Noyes, colonel; Na- thaniel Jordan, lieutenant-colonel; James Merrill, Ist major; and James Johnson, 2d major. These persons all lived in Falmouth. In the same month every fourth man of the militia was ordered to be drafted to supply the army.

" A return was made, by order of the General Court, in January, 1777, of the males of sixteen years and upwards in each town in the county, as follows : Falmouth, 786, including 64 Quakers, 12 negroes, and 1 mulatto; Bruns-

wick, 198, including 4 belonging to Falmouth ; Scarbor- ough, 471, including 6 from Falmouth ; North Yarmouth, 404, including 2 from Falmouth ; Harpswell, 189, in- cluding 1 from Falmouth ; Cape Elizabeth, 350."

In 1777 twenty-two men went from Brunswick to Boston for service in the Continental army. The town of Bruns- wiek this year voted to make provision for the families of those who were in the Continental service. In April, 1778, John Dunning, Ephraim Graffam, Michael Growse, William Spear, Jr., and William Skolfield, of Brunswick, went into the service in the Continental army, and were sent to Peekskill. Harpswell also furnished five men at the same time.

The war had thus far been carried on at great sacrifice and suffering. Many people who were needed to cultivate the soil had been drawn off to supply the waste of war, while the consumption of provisions had visibly increased. In addition to these unfavorable circumstances the season of 1778 had been peculiarly unfortunate, one-half of the crops having been cut off by the drought. In the early part of this year provisions were extremely high. Mr. Smith, in his journal, says, " It is wonderful how the people here on the Neck live for want of bread." Again, in April, he says, " a grievous ery for bread." The prices in Falmouth, in 1779, were as follows : January, wood, $20 a cord ; April, Indian meal, $30 a bushel ; May, corn, $35 a bushel ; coffee, $3 a pound ; June, molasses, $16 a gallon ; coffee, $4 a pound ; sugar, 83. June 10th, Mr. Smith says, " A man asked 874 for a bushel of wheat-meal." By the scale in June, one hundred silver dollars were worth $1342 in paper, so that the molasses was about $1.20 a gallon in silver, coffee about 30 cents, and sugar about 23 cents, and the flour about $5.75 a bushel. In November, 1788, Mr. Smith says, " Common laborers have $4 a day, while ministers have but a dollar, and washer-women as much. It is a melancholy time on many accounts. Lawful money is worth no more than old tenor; creditors don't receive an eighth part of their oll debts, nor ministers of their salary."

Fortunately, the season of 1779 was wonderfully forward and productive, and saved the country from the horrors of a famine. The government, the previous years, had done all they could to relieve the scarcity; they had voted £200,000 and appointed a committee to procure four and grain from the South. In 1780, by a resolve of Congress, a large amount of depreciated paper was taken out of circu- lation, and a new emission of bills was made by the State, of far less amount, and to be considered equal to specie. This passed for a short time at par, but soon followed the fate of its predecessors, a natural consequence of the heavy debt and a want of confidence in the ability of government.

In the resolve for raising two thousand men, in April, 1778, the government mentioned the conduct of Falmouth " as highly commendable, manly, and patriotic in their glorious exertions to raise volunteers to reinforce the Con- tinental army." In April the town raised a company of fifty volunteers for Gen. Washington's army, to each soldier of which they paid a bounty of sixty pounds, provided he furnished himself with equipments and served in the army till the last of November. In December the town gener-

Capt. Preble was son of Gen. Preble. He had served at Penobrent, and was an Indian interpreter.

f In July, 17"6, the Generat Court ordered a levy of every twenty - fifth minn to fill up the army. Falmouth was exempted from this draft ; thirty nine were levied in the county.

WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

ously voted to indemnify those persons who had or would supply the families of those soldiers who were engaged in the army; many came forward and furnished the supplies.

In the midst of the summer of 1779, the arrival of an English fleet in Penobscot Bay, and the capture of Baga- duce Point, upon which Castine is situated, in June, pro- duced a strong sensation throughout the States. The united feeling of government and people was to drive the enemy from the soil and preserve the integrity of the territory. The government immediately organized a force, to consist of fifteen hundred men, wholly from Massachusetts, and a fleet consisting of nineteen armed vessels and twenty-four transports was put in requisition for the occasion. The fleet was commanded by Com. Saltonstall, and the land forecs by Gen. Solomon Lovell, Gen. Peleg Wadsworth, at that time adjutant-general of the militia of Massachusetts, being the second in command. One regiment, under the command of Col. Mitchell, of North Yarmouth, was raised in this neigh- borhood, to which Falmouth and Cape Elizabeth contrib- uted two companies. Capt. Joseph Mc Lellan, of Falmouth, was commissary of supplies. The expedition was popular, and the people engaged with alaerity and zeal in it. The company which was formed on the Neck consisted of vol- unteers from the families of the most respectable inhabitants. Peter Warren was captain; Daniel Mussey, lieutenant ; John Dole, first sergeant ; Richard Codman, Daniel Cobb, Wm. Moody, Stephen Tukey, Hugh Mclellan, Micah Sampson, and Zachariah Baker were privates.

Brig. Thompson, of Brunswick, also had orders to raise a regiment out of his brigade, of which Capt. Larrabee was appointed second major. Besides Larrabee's company, Capt. Actor Patten's company, from Topsham, and Capt. Nehemiah Curtis' company, from Brunswick and Harps- well, joined the expedition. They went to Falmouth, and were placed under command of Col. Mitchell. Capt Hinckley also had a company in the expedition ; he was killed while standing upon a large rock cheering on his men, and the command devolved upon James Potter (2d) .*

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History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 15

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 780

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780