History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 5

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

USA > Maine > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland Co., Maine > Part 5

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Squando .- This chief, whom Mather calls " a strange, enthusiastical sagamore," was a sachem of the Sokokis or Suco tribe. Hubbard says he was " the chief actor, or, rather, the beginner" of the eastern war of 1675, and pro- ceeds to account for the origin of the hostility of' Squando by attributing it to the rude and indiscreet aet of some Eng- lish seamen, who either for mischief overset a eanoe in which was Squando's wife and child, or to see if young Indians could swim naturally like animals of the brute cre- ation, as some had reported .* The child went to the bot- tom, but was saved from drowning by the mother diving down and bringing it up. But " within a while after the said child died. The said Squando, father of the child, hath been so provoked thereat that he hath ever since set

# " They can swim naturally, striking their paws under their throat, like a dog, and not spreading their arms as we do."-Jocelyn's Vay- "rx, 142.

ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

himself to do all the mischief he can to the English." Squando instigated the burning of Saco, Sept. 18, 1675. His fertile and ingenious mind, like that of the great Ottawa chief, Pontiac, devised a fearful engine of de- struction, wherewith they intended to attack and demol- ish the garrison. " A noise of axes and other tools had been heard in the neighborhood of the saw-mill, and it was expected the Indians were preparing some engine with which to accomplish their object, and it proved truc. A cart with four wheels had been constructed, and on one end they had erected a breastwork, while the body of the cart was filled with birch-bark, straw, powder, and such like in- flammable substances, for the ready consummation of their stratagem. The approach of this formidable machine dis- mayed some of the English in the garrison, but they were encouraged by their officers to stand to their posts. As the enemy were forcing their engine towards the garrison one of the wheels stuck in a gutter, which caused them to swing round nearly broadside to the English, who, taking advantage of the situation, poured into their assailants a deadly fire, which soon scattered them, and the garrison was not further molested."

Although Squando had been instrumental in the revolt- ing murder of the Wakely family at Casco, on the 12th of September, 1675, the young girl (eleven years old) who had been taken captive, and had passed through all the tribes from the Sokokis to the Narragansetts, was restored by him to the English at Dover. Hubbard, referring to this act of Squando's, calls him a " strange mixture of mercy and cruelty," and Williamson observes that " his conduct exhibited at different times such traits of cruelty and com- passion as rendered his character difficult to be portrayed." Hubbard, in one place, calls him "an enthusiastical, or, rather, diabolical, misereant." Drake remarks, " His abil- ities in war had gained him this epithet."*

Squidragusset was a sachem over a tribe on the Pre- sumpscot River, and a creek near the mouth of that river still bears his name. IIe and his company, in October, 1631, killed Walter Bagnall, a trader, who was the first to establish himself upon Richmond Island, burnt his house, and plundered his property. lle subsequently conveyed lands on the Presumpscot to the English. He had an associate by the name of Black Will, who was hanged for his part in the murder of Bagnall, by a company which had been fitted out in Massachusetts to intercept a pirate on the coast, near Pemaquid. This was in 1633, on the return of the party to Richmond Island.

Moxus was sometimes called Agamagus. When delegates were sent into the eastern country to make peace with the Indians, in 1699, his name stood first among the signers of the treaty.| He concluded another treaty with Governor Dudley in 1702. The next year, in company with Wanun- gonet, Assacambuit, and a number of French, he invested Capt. March in the fort at Casco. After using every en- deavor to take it by assault, they had recourse to the fol- lowing stratagem : they began at the water's edge to undermine it by digging, but were prevented by the timely

arrival of an armed vessel under Capt. Southack. They had taken a vessel and a great quantity of plunder. About two hundred canoes were destroyed and the vessel retaken. Moxus was at Casco again in 1713, to treat with the Eng- lish, and at Georgetown, upon Arrosie Island, in 1717, where he was attended by seven other chiefs.

Mugg was a chief among the Androscoggins, and one of the most conspicuous actors in the war of 1675-76. An account of his capture of the garrison at Black Point (Scar- borough) will be found in another part of this history. This chief entertained ambitious plans for the conquest of the English. When Francis Card was a prisoner among his people he told him that he " had found out the way to burn Boston," and laughed much about the English, say- ing " he would have all their vessels, fishing-islands, and whole country," and bragged about his great numbers. Drake says he was killed at Black Point, May 16, 1677, and quotes the " History of New England," as follows : " Lieut. Tippin, who commanded the garrison, made a suc- cessful shot upon an Indian that was observed to be very busy and bold in the assault, who at that time was deemed to be Symon, the arch villain and incendiary of all the east- ward Indians, but proved to be one almost as good as him- self, who was called Mogg."

This chief must not be confounded with Mogg,-generally known as Mogg Megone,-who was killed at the time of Râle's death (1724), and who belonged to the Saco Indians.

Simon (or Symon, as the name is sometimes spelled) had his residence upon the Merrimae River, in the vicinity of Newbury, as late as 1677. He was associated with four others, Andrew, Peter, Godfrey, and Joseph, who were called " Christian Indians." Simon and Andrew are called by Hubbard " the two brethren in iniquity." They were probably the worst of a gang whose atrocities blacken the page of the carly Indian wars. They burnt the house of Edward Weymouth, at Sturgeon Creek, in April, 1677 ; they fell upon the house of Thomas Kimball, of Bradford, killed him, and carried off his wife and five children into the wilderness. They were taken and imprisoned, and, according to a writer of that time, " should have been killed," but they made their escape, and Simon, with a band of Indians, came to Falmouth and shed the first blood here of the war, in the orchard of Anthony Brackett, who lived on what is now known as the Deering farm, near Back Cove, in the town of Deering. Brackett was com- pelled to give himself up as a captive or be shot on the spot. Nathaniel Mitton, a brother of Mrs. Brackett, was killed, and Brackett's wife and five children taken captives. The particulars of this attack on the settlement at Falmouth, the engagement, and the escape of the prisoners, are given farther on, in the history of the first Indian war.

Kankamagus and Worumbo were the two chiefs who, with their band of Indians, fell upon Colonel Church on his landing at Casco, in September, 1690. Church had taken Worumbo's fort on the Androscoggin, about twenty-five miles from its mouth, and among the prisoners were Kan- kamagus' wife and sister and four children, and two children of Worumbo. A few days after, Church landed at Casco, and the Indians, who had hastened there and were waiting in ambush, fell upon him by surprise, and were not beaten

* Book of the Indians, iii., p. 104.

t Magnolia, vii. 94.

IIISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

off for some time, and then only by hard fighting. This was on the 21st of September. Church had seven men killed and twenty-four wounded, two of whom died in a day or two after .*

Hopehood was a chief nearly as celebrated and as much detested in his tine as the chiefs of whom we have spoken. Hle was chief of the Androscoggin tribe, often called the Norridgewocks, and was the son of Robinhood. Our first notice of him is in Philip's war, at an attack on a house in Newichewannock, now Berwick. Fifteen persons (all women and children) were in the house, and Hopehood, with only one besides himself (Andrew, of Saco, whom we have be- fore mentioned), thought to surprise them, and would have accomplished their purpose but for a young woman in the house who held the door till all the others had made their escape unobserved. Hle and his companions hewed down the door and knocked the girl on the head, and, supposing her to be dead, left her. They took two children, whom a fenee had prevented from escaping, killed one, and carried off the other alive. The young woman afterwards recov- ered. This chief, and his Indians and French allies, de- stroyed the settlement of Salmon Falls in January, 1690, taking two forts, reducing twenty-seven houses to ashes, taking fifty-four prisoners, and burning two thousand do- mestie animals in the barns which they set on fire.t

Monquine, alias Natahanada, the son of old Natawormett, sagamore of the Kennebec River, sold to William Bradford and others all the land on both sides of the river, " from Cussenocke upwards to Wessernunsicke," Aug. 8, 1648. The signature to the deed is " Monquine, alias Dumhauda." Then follows : " We, Agodoademago, the sonne of Washe- inett and Tassucke, the brother of Natanahada, do couv- ent freely unto the sale to Bradford, Paddy, and others."}

Kenebis was a sachem, from whom it has been supposed the name of the Kennebec River was derived. In 1649 he sold to Christopher Lawson all the lands on the Kennebec, up as high as Taconnet Falls, now Winslow. The latter place was the residence of the great chief Essiminasqua. The residence of Kennebis was upon Swan Island. This island was purchased of Abbigadosset, in 1667, " by llum- phrey Davy, and afterwards claimed by Sir John Davy, a sergeant-at-law."

CHAPTER IV.

CHARTERS AND LAND-GRANTS.

Charter of 1620-Council of Plymouth-Settlement of the Pilgrims- Grant to Sir William Alexander Sir Ferdinando Gorges-Capt. Thomas Mason-Grunts by the Plymouth Council-Surrender of the Charter to the King-Summary of Grants under the Charter- Character of the Early Settlements.

Ix 1620 a new charter was obtained of King James by the Northern Company, bearing date November 3d. It embraced the territory lying between the fortieth and forty- eighth parallels of north latitude, including the country 1

Letter of Col. Church to Governor Hinckley, of Plymouth.

1 Belknap's History of New Hampshire.

* People of Plymouth. William Paddy died in Boston. His grave- plone was dug out of the rubbish under the oft Sinte-House in 1830.

from Philadelphia to the Bay of Chaleur, which empties into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The patentees were the Duke of Lenox, the Marquises of Buckingham and Hamil- ton, the Earls of Arundel and Warwick, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and thirty-four others, who were styled the council, established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New England, in America.

Under this patent were all the grants made which origi- nally divided the country between the Hudson and the Pe- nobscot Rivers; beyond these bounds the patent of 1620 had no practical operation.

While these patentees were procuring a new charter, the more successfully to prosecute their designs of private emolu- ment, another company was arising of an entirely different character, who, without concert with the patentees, or with- out their concurrence, and it may even be said without any design of their own, were to give the strongest impulse to the colonization of New England, and to stamp their peculiar features upon its future destinies. The English residents at Leyden had determined to seek security and freedom of worship in the wilderness of America, and in the summer of this year commenced their voyage for the Hudson River. But, either by design or accident, they fell short of their destination, and arrived at Cape Cod on the 10th of No- vember, 1620. In this neighborhood they resolved to re- main, and having selected the spot which they named Plymouth, they established there the first permanent set- tlement that was made in New England. The French had then a plantation at Port Royal, and the English had set- tlements in Virginia, Bermuda, and Newfoundland. The nearest plantation to them was the one at Port Royal.

On the 10th of September, 1621, the northeastern part of the territory included in the charter to the Council of Plymouth was granted by James I. to Sir William Alex- ander.§ This was done by the consent of the company, as Gorges, in his description of New England, declares. The grant, to which the name of Nova Scotia was given, ex- tended from Cape Sable north to the St. Lawrence ; thence by the shore of that river and round by the sea to the first point ; included Cape Breton and all the islands within six leagues of the western, northern, and eastern parts, and those within forty leagues south of Cape Sable. Sir William was engaged in this adventure by becoming ac- quainted with Capt. Mason, who a short time before had returned from Newfoundland. In 1622, Sir William Alex. ander subdued the French inhabitants within his grant, carried them prisoners to Virginia, and planted a colony there himself.||

New England being now brought into notice by the respectability of the persons who had engaged in its cause, and especially by the profits derived from the fish and fur trade, tho intercourse with it was yearly increasing. In 1621, ten or twelve ships from the west of England pro- cured full cargoes of fish and fur; in 1622, thirty-five ships; in 1623, forty ships; and in 1624, fifty ships were engaged in the same trade. So great seems to have been

¿ 2 Prince, p. 111.º

2 Ilaz , p. 387, quote.l by Willis.

CHIARTERS AND LAND-GRANTS.

the excitement in this new channel of speculation that the Plymouth Company found it necessary to procure a procla- mation from the king, bearing date Nov. 6, 1622, to pre- vent "interloping and disorderly trading" upon the coast .* It is alleged in the proclamation that persons without authority committed intolerable abuses there, not only by destroying timber and throwing their ballast into the harbors of the islands, but by selling warlike implements and ammunition to the natives, and teaching them their usc.

Aug. 10, 1622, the Council of Plymouth granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason, two of their company, " all the lands situated between the rivers Merri- mack and Sagadehock, extending back to the great lakes and the river of Canada."+

In 1623 they sent over David Thompson, Edward and William Hilton, and others, who commenced a plantation upon the west side of the Piscataqua River, which was the first settlement in New Hampshire, and the beginning of the present town of Portsmouth .¿ Gorges and Mason continued their joint interest on the Piscataqua, having procured a new patent in 1631, including all their improve- ments on both sides of the river, until 1634, when they made a division of their property ;§ Mason took the western side of the river, and Gorges the castern, and they each procured distinct patents for their respective portions, which they afterwards separately pursued.

Gorges did not confine his attention exclusively to Pis- cataqua, even while he continued a partner in the Laconia patent ; for in February, 1623, we find that he had already a plantation established upon the island of Monhegan. This was probably for the accommodation of the fishermen ; but it had become of sufficient importance to draw thither the persons settled in Massachusetts Bay for supplies.| This plantation must have been commenced in 1621 or 1622, and was the first which continued for any length of time upon any part of the territory of Maine. Monhe- gan is a solitary island, about twelve miles southeast of Pemaquid Point, which is the nearest main land. From this island the transition to the main was easy ; and from the concourse of vessels to this neighborhood in the fishing season, it might naturally be expected that here settlements would be early formed. Such appears to have been the fact, and we find that in 1625 a settlement was commenced at New Harbor, on Pemaquid, which continued to increase without interruption until the destructive war of 1675.

On the 15th of July, 1625, John Brown, of New Har- bor, purchased of Capt. John Somerset and Unongoit, two Indian sachems, for fifty skins, a tract of land on Pemaquid, extending eight miles by twenty-five, together with Mus- congus Island.T The next year Abraham Shurt was sent over by Alderman Aldsworth and Giles Elbridge, merchants of Bristol, as their agent, and was invested with power to purchase Monhegan for them. This island then belonged

to Abraham Jennings, of Plymouth, of whose agent Shurt purchased it for fifty pounds.

In 1626 the government of Plymouth colony established a trading-house on Bagaduce Point, at the mouth of the Penobscot, and first gave this name to that river. The Indian name was Penobsceag, or Penobscook ; the French called it Pentaqueatte, or Pentegoct .** The Baron de St. Castine afterwards erected his fort upon the site of the old trading-house. and that spot, together with the adjacent territory, still perpetuates the name of one of the most persevering enemies the early colonists had to contend with. In 1632 the French rifled this trading-house of property to the value of about five hundred pounds sterling.

The same government, having obtained a patent ou the Kennebec, erected in 1628 a house for trade up the river, and furnished it with corn and other commodities for sum- mer and winter.tt

In 1628, Thomas Purchase settled upon land now in- cluded within the limits of Brunswick, having obtained a patent from the Plymouth Council. George Way was associated with him in the patent, which included lands lying on both sides of the Pejepscot, on the eastern end of Androscoggin River, on the Kennebee River, and Casco Bay.##

In 1628 the Massachusetts Company procured a charter from the Council of Plymouth, and in June sent over Capt. John Endicott and a few associates to take possession of the grant. They arrived in September at Naumkeag (Salem), and laid the foundation of that respectable town and the colony of Massachusetts.

In 1629, Aldsworth and Elbridge sent over to Shurt a patent from the Council of Plymouth for twelve thousand acres of land on Pemaquid, bounded north by a line drawn from the head of the Damariscotta to the head of the Museongus River, and from thence to the sea, including the islands within three leagues of the shore. Here was commenced the first permanent settlement on the main land within the territory of this State by any European power. Thomas Elbridge, the son of Giles, the patentee, came over a few years afterwards and held a court within this patent, to which many of the inhabitants of Monhegan and Damariscove repaired, and made acknowledgment of submission. This place, from its numerous harbors and islands, possessed many advantages of trade as well as of farming and fishing, and rapidly increased in population and business. An additional grant was made to the same persons in 1632, in which it is recited that the land is " next adjoining to this place, where the people or servants of said Giles and Robert are now settled, or have inhabited for the space of three years last past."§§

On the 12th of February, 1630, the Council of Plymouthi made two grants on the Saco River, cach being four miles upon the sea, and extending eight miles into the country.

# Jeremiah Dummer's Mem., 1, 3d sec., Mass. Ilist. Coft., p. 232. + ] IIntebinson, p. 285. IIub. N. E., p. 614.

# Pr. 133, An. of Portsmno.

¿ 1 Betk., N. II. App.

|| Pr. 127, Morton's Mem., 109.

Report of Mass. Com. on the Pemaq. Title, 1811, 107.

#* Sullivan's Hist. of Maine, 36, 38, and 9 Mass. Ilist. Coll., 209. tt Pr. 62, 2d part.

** History of Brunswiek.

22 In 1675 there were no less than one hundred and fifty- six families east of Sagadaboc, and near one hundred fishing. vessels owned be- tween Sagadahoe and St. George's River .- Sit. Daun' Statement to the Council in 1675.

2.1

IHISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

The grant upon the west side of the river was made to John Oldham and Richard Vines. Oldham had lived in the country six years, partly within the Plymouth and partly within the Massachusetts jurisdiction, and Vines had become acquainted with the country by frequent voyages to it, and spending one winter in the place where his patent was situated. It is mentioned in the deed that the patentees had undertaken to transport fifty persons there within seven years, to plant and inhabit it. The conditions were com- plied with, and Vines, who was the manager of the colony, took possession, June 25, 1630, and entered with zeal and ability into the means of converting it into a source of profit.

The patent upon the east side of the river was given to Thomas Lewis and Richard Bonighton. The patentees un- dertook to transport fifty settlers there in seven years at their own expense. Livery of seizin was given June 28, 1631, and the proprietors, in person, successfully proseented the interest of their patent. Such were the beginnings of the towns of Biddeford and Saco, and the lands continue to be held under those patents to this day.

Oldhaui* never appears to have entered upon his grant. Vines occupied it fifteen years, and sold it in 1645, in which year, or early the next, he went to Barbadoes, where he probably died. Lewis died on his estate previous to 1640, without male issue. Bonighton continued to enjoy his por- tion of the patent to a ripe old age, when he was gathered to his fathers, leaving a large estate to his children.t

In 1630 the colony of Plymouth procured a new charter from the council for a tract of land fifteen miles on each side of the Kennebec River, extending as far up as Cobbise- contee. Under this grant they carried on trade with the Indians upon the river for many years, and in 1660 sold the title for four hundred pounds sterling to Messrs. Tyng, Brattle, Boies, and Winslow.t

March 13, 1630, a grant was made to John Beauchamp, of London, and Thomas Leverett, of Boston, England, of ten leagues square, between Muscougus, Broad Bay, and Penobscot Bay. Large preparations were immediately made for carrying on trade there, and agents were ent- ployed. This was originally called the Lincoln grant, and afterwards the Waldo patent, a large part of it having been held by Brigadier Waldo, to whose heirs it descended. It now forms the county of Waldo.§

In the course of the year 1630 the Council of Plymouth granted to John Dye and others forty miles square, lying be- tween Cape Porpoise and Cape Elizabeth. This was named the Province of Ligonia, though commonly known in early times as the Plough patent, either from the ship called the " Plough," which brought over the first company, or from the circumstance that the adventurers were generally hus- bandmen, while the usual employment of others upon the coast was fishing and commerce. The first company ar- rived at Winter Harbor, in the summer of 1631, in the ship ". Plough," but, not being satisfied with the prospects of the

country, most of them continued on to Boston and Water- town, where they were soon broken up and scattered. In 1643 the grant fell into the hands of Alexander Rigby, under whom a government was established. This subject will be adverted to more particularly hereafter. The claim to soil and sovereignty in that province occupies consider- able space in the history of this portion of Maine, and gave birth to a conflict with Gorges, which was only settled by the submission of all parties to the government of Massachu- setts.

The next grant we meet with was that of Black Point, now part of Scarborough, to Thomas Cammock, dated Nov. 1, 1631. This was made also by the Council of Plymouth, and extended from Black Point River to the Spurwink, and back one mile from the sea. Cammock is supposed to have been a relative of the Earl of Warwick, one of the members of the council. Hle was one of the company sent to Pis- cataqua, and was there as early as 1631. Possession of his grant, which included Stratton's Islands, lying about a mile from the Point, was given to him by Capt. Walter Neale, May 23, 1633.|| The patent was confirmed to him by Gorges in 1640); the same year he gave a deed of it to Henry Jocelyn, to take effect after the death of himself and wife. He died in the West Indies in 1643; Jocelyn immediately entered upon possession, and married Marga- ret, his widow. The tract is now held under this title, by conveyances from Jocelyn to Joshua Scottow, July 6, 1666.

Dec. 1, 1631, the Council of Plymouth granted to Robert Trelawny and Moses Goodyeare, merchants of Plymonth, England, the traet lying between Cammock's patent and " the Bay and River of Casco, extending north- wards into the main land as far as the limits and bounds of the lands granted to the said Capt. Thomas Cammock do and ought to extend."T This ineluded Cape Elizabeth, but Winter, the agent of the proprietors, contended for a larger extent north than seemed to be within a just construction of the grant, which, under the management of Winter's at- torney and executor, Robert Jordan, led to a severe contest of many years' continuance .** The limit claimed included nearly all the ancient town of Falmouth and part of Gor- ham. In 1640 the court decided that Fore River was the true northern boundary of the grant, being the " Caseo River" named in the patent; but a certificate was soon after obtained and sent to England, founded, as was claimed, on the statements of the Indians and ancient set- tlers, that the court had made a mistake, and that the Pre- setupscot was the true Casco River. This again revived the controversy, and kept open a most unhappy quarrel, which lasted during the lives of the first settlers.1+

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 5

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