History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 7

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

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" The following extract, from Sir F. Gorges' narrative, will show the manner in which he regulated the admin- istration of the province :

"" First, I divided the whole into eight bailiwicks or counties, and those again into sixteen several hundreds, consequently into parishes and tythings as people did increase and the provinces were inhabited. The form of government : Ist. In my absence Fassigned one for my lieutenant or deputy, to whom I adjoined a chancellor for the deter- mination of all differences arising between party and party, for menm and tuum, only next to him. I ordained a treasurer for receipt of the publie revenue : to them I added a marshal for the managing the militia, who huth for his lieutenant a judge-marshal and other officers

· Haz., i. 412.

+ Ibid., 19,

to the marshal court, where is to be determined all criminal and cap- ital matters, with other misdemeanors or contentions for matters of honor and the like. To these Fappointed an admiral with his lieuten- ant or judge for the ordering and determining of maritime causes. Next, I ordered a master of the ordinance, whose office is to take charge of all the publie stores belonging to the militia, both for sea and Iand : to this I join a secretary for the public service of myself and council. These are the standing councillors, to whom is added eight deputies, to be elected by the freeholders of the several counties, as councillors for the state of the country, who are authorized by virtue of their places to sit in any of the aforesaid courts, and to be assistants to the president thereof.' #

" This magnificent outline was never filled up; the mate- rials were lamentably deficient. Gorges proceeded on the 2d September, 1639, to appoint his officers, and granted a commission at that time to Sir Thomas Joeclyn, Richard Vines, Esq., his steward-general, Francis Champernoon,§ Esq., his nephew, Henry Jocelyn and Richard Bonighton, Esquires, William Hooke, | and Edward Godfrey, Gent., as counselors, for the due execution of justice in his province, and established in the same commission certain ordinances for their regulation. T Another commission was issued by him on the 10th of March following, in which the name of Thomas Gorges, whom he styles his cousin, is substituted for Sir T. Jocelyn, but similar in other respects to the former. He gives as a reason for the new commission the uncertainty whether the other arrived, and his desire that justice might be duly executed in the province. The first commission did arrive, and a general court was held under it, at Saco, June 25, 1640, ** before Thomas Gorges reached the country. This was the first general court that ever as- sembled in Maine, and consisted of ' Richard Vines, Rich- ard Bonighton, and Henry Jocelyn, Esquires, and Edward Godfrey, Gent., counselors unto Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Kt., proprietor of this province for the due execution of justice here.' It does not appear that any deputies were present. The following officers were sworn at this court, viz., Vines, Bonighton, Jocelyn, and Godfrey, as counsel- ors, Roger Garde, register, Robert Sanky, provost-marshal, Thomas Elkins, under-marshal, Nicholas Frost, constable of Piscataqua, Mr. Michael Mitton, constable of Caseo, and John Wilkinson, constable of Black Point. This court bad jurisdiction over all matters of a civil or criminal nature arising within the province. At the first session there were eighteen entries of civil actions and nine complaints.

" Thomas Gorges arrived in the course of the summer ; Winthroptt says of him that ' he was a young gentleman of the Inns of court, a kinsman of Sir F. Gorges, and sent by him with a commission for the government of his prov-

# Narrative, p. 46. This narrative was written in 1610, and pub- lished by bis grandson in 1638; he also says in it (p. 50) : " I have not sped so ill, I thank my God for it, but I have a house and home there, and some necessary means of profit by my saw-mills and corn- mills, besides some annual receipts, sufficient to lay the foundation of greater matters now the government is established." The unfortunate knight did not anticipate so soon being deprived of his possessions, and stripped of all his gollen prospects.

¿ Champernoon lived in Kittery.

il William Hooke lived in Agamentiens or Kittery. Sir Thomas. Jocelyn, I think, never came to this country. I find no subsequent mention of him.

. Sull., Appen.

4% Y. Rec.

1+ 2 Winth., 9.

ESTABLISHMENT OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

ince of Somersetshire. IIe was sober and well disposed, and was very careful to take advice of our magistrates how to manage his affairs.' He held his first court at Saco, Sept. 8, 1640, assisted by the counselors before mentioned .* At this session there were pending twenty-eight civil actions, of which nine were jury trials ; and thirteen indictments, which were tried by the court without the intervention of a jury ; four of them were against George Burdett, minister of Agamenticus, for adultery, breach of the peace, and in- continency, and what appears singular, Burdett recovered judgment in two actions for slander against persons for re- porting the very facts for which he was at the same court found guilty and punished. The court passed an order that the General Court should be held at Saco every year, on the 25th of June; they also divided the province into two parts, one extending from the Piscataqua to Kenne- bunk ; the other from Kennebunk to Sagadahoc; and in each division established an inferior court, to be held three times a year, which had cognizance of all cases except ' pleas of land, felonies of death, and treason.' An order also was passed that all the inhabitants 'who have any children unbaptized should have them baptized as soon as any minister is settled in any of their plantations.'

"The government seemed now to have been placed on a respectable footing, and to have afforded hope of perma- nency; but in 1642 the civil war broke out in England, the influence of which extended to the colonies, and de- stroyed all that Gorges had so long labored to establish. Ile was a firm Episcopalian and royalist, and joined the king's party with the same zeal which had governed all his former life; although he was more than seventy years old, he did not hesitate to buckle on his armor and trust him- self once more to the chance of war in defense of his prin- ciples and the person of the king. But interested individ- uals were not idle to take advantage of this state of things to aggrandize themselves, and to gratify feelings of jealousy and hatred against those who were unfriendly to them or stood in their way. Among such, circumstantial evidence would seem to place George Cleaves. Early in 1643 we find him in England, and the 7th of April of that year,t Col. Alexander Rigby, an ardent republican, and a member of parliament, purchased of the surviving proprietors of the province of Ligonia, or a part of them, a conveyance of their charter. It is inferred that he was stimulated to this undertaking by Cleaves. Cleaves probably took advantage of political prejudices in England, to gain power in the province for himself; he had not been noticed by Gorges among the officers of his government ; and with Trelawny and his agent he had openly quarrelled. Ile therefore addressed himself to Rigby, who had warmly espoused the republican side, and no doubt persuaded him to engage in the speculation of purchasing Ligonia, which was a dor- mant-title, and under existing circumstances, but a nominal interest, in the hope that by the aid of political machinery it might be elevated to a real and valuable estate. We are inclined to the opinion that Cleaves was active in this meas- ure, because he was appointed by Rigby his first deputy for the government of the province, and because he suc-

1 Sul., 312.

ceeded in obtaining a confirmation from him of the valuable grant in Falmouth, originally made to him by Gorges in 1637. Another circumstance which throws suspicion upon Cleaves, is an attempt upon the character of Richard Vines, the leading supporter of Gorges. On the 28th of April, 1643, he procured a commission from the parliament, directed to Governor Winthrop, Arthur Macworth, Henry Bode,¿ and others, to examine into certain articles ex- hibited by him to parliament against Vines. It appeared at the court held at Saco in October, 1645, that Cleaves had himself affixed the names of the principal planters, viz., Macworth, Watts, Alger, Hamans, West, Wadleigh, Wear, Robinson, etc., to the petition to parliament without any authority from them, and which they severally, under oath in court, disclaimed ; declaring ' that they neither saw nor knew of said articles until the said George Cleaves did come last out of England,' and that they 'could not testify any such things as are exhibited in the said petition.' It does not appear that Governor Winthrop accepted the commission, and Maeworth and Bode both refused to act. Cleaves arrived at Boston, in 1643, with his commission from Rigby, to act as his deputy in the government of Ligonia.§ Knowing that he should have to contend against an authority already established, he petitioned the General Court of Massachu- setts to afford him their protection. This they declined doing, but were willing that the Governor should write an unofficial letter in his favor. They wished probably to render what assistance they could te a representative of the popular party in England, without involving themselves in the result of its ill suecess. The letter of the Governor did not have the desired effect of procuring the submission of Gorges' friends to the authority of Cleaves; for when Cleaves proclaimed his commission at Casco, and called a court there, Vines, the deputy of Gorges, opposed his pro- ceeding, and called a court at Saco. The inhabitants, of course, divided, those of Casco principally joined Cleaves, although some dissented, as appears by an order of the court, held at Saco, October, 1645, assuring them of protec- tion.| Vines was resolutely supported by Macworth, in Casco, and, it may be supposed, by the principal inhabi- tants of Saco and Black Point, and he was elected deputy Governor for the following year. In this juncture, Cleaves wrote to Vines that he would submit the decision of the question, as to jurisdiction, to the government of Massachusetts, until a final determination could be had from England ; but Vines not only declined the arbitration, but imprisoned Richard Tucker, who was the bearer of the communication, and required a bond for his appearance at court and his good behavior, before he released him. Upon this violence, Cleaves and his party, about thirty in number, wrote to the Governor of Massachusetts for assistance, and offered themselves as parties to the confederacy of the united colonies. The Governor returned an answer un-

Į Bode lived in Wells.

₹ 2 Winth., 154: Hub., 2GS.

| " Ordered by joint consent that we will aid and protect the in- habitan's of Casco Bay as namely, Mr. Arthur Macworth and all others in confederney with us there, and their esta'es from all oppo- sition. wrong. and injury, that may be offered them by Mr. George Cleaves or any un ler bim." Y. Rec.

# Y. Rec.

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

favorable to their claim for admission to the confederacy, objecting that 'they had an order not to receive any but such as were in a church way.'* Afterward, in April, 1644, Vines went to Boston with a letter from the com- missioners of Sir F. Gorges, and between twenty and thirty other inhabitants of the province; but without effect ; they would render aid to neither party : and although their pre- dilections were undoubtedly on the side of Rigby, with their usnal cautious policy they withheld themselves from any interference in the disputes here, recommending both parties to live in peace, until the controversy should be definitively settled by the authorities in England. Cleaves continued to maintain a feeble sway, and must eventually have submitted to the authority of Gorges, had not the party of Rigby been triumphant in England; the distress to which he was reduced will appear from his letter to the government of Massachusetts of July 3, 1645 :

" " To the honored governonr and deputy governour, and court of assistants of the Massachusetts colony, these. Honoured sirs, may it please you, I have lately received from Mr. Rigby, letters of instinc- tion and advice to proceed in the government of Ligonia, and because we are opposed by Mr. Vines and others, his confederates, that we could not proceed according to our instructions, and being daily threatened, and are still in danger of our lives, and also to have our- selves scized on by them for not submitting to a pretended authority to them given by Sir F. Gorges, without any lawful commission, and thereupon we are in danger of being ruined and undone, unless the Lord do move your hearts to protect us with your assistance. 1 do not hereby presume to direct you, but humbly erave leave to show mine opinion, which is that if you will be pleased to write but your general letter to our opponents to deter them from their illegal pro- ceedings, and a letter to our people of Ligonia, to advise and encour- age them, that notwithstanding Mr. Vines and the rest do oppose, that they may and ought to adhere to Mr. Rigby's lawful authority. I hope you may not need to put yourselves to any further trouble to finish the work, but in so doing you will much ublige Mr. Rigby unto you all, who :loubtless would have sent over other order at this time if he had known the injuries offered him and us. These let'ers now come are in answer of my letters sent to him on my first arrival and not of my last nor of the . . . of the commissioners, as you may see by the date of them. I herein shall send you Mr. Rigby's letter of request to you and also a letter of his to me, whereby you may see how the parliament approves of his proceeding, and that we may expect for- ther orders forthwith, and in the interim we do most hambly beseech you to afford us such speedy assistance as the necessity of our present condition requires, and we shall forever petition the throne of grace for you all, and rest your humble servants. George C'leaves, for and ia behalf of the people of Ligonia. t

" This letter produced no alteration in the policy of Mas- sachusetts, and in October following, Vines held his court as usual, assisted by Richard Bonighton, Henry Jocelyn, Francis Robinson, Arthur Macworth, Edward Small, and Abraham Preble.# It being represented at this court, ' that not having heard from Sir Ferdinando Gorges of late for establishment of government.' they proceeded to elect Richard Vines, Esq., deputy Governor for the year, and 'if he should depart, Henry Jocelyn to be deputy in his place.' They also laid a tax for the charges of the Gen- eral Court, in which Casco is assessed ten shillings, Saco eleven shillings, Gorgianas one pound. Piscataqna, which

included Kittery and Berwick, two pounds ten shillings. The certificates before referred to, respecting the articles exhibited against Vines by Cleaves, were offered, and his practices censured ; but some allowance is undoubtedly to be made by us for the unfavorable light in which Cleaves appears in this transaction, since we receive the representa- tion of it from bitter and prejudiced opponents, who acted under the highest degree of excitement, and having no op- portunity to hear the exculpation of the accused party.

" Vines sold his patent to Dr. Child in October, 1645, and soon after left the province.|| Henry Jocelyn suc- ceeded to the office of deputy Governor. The contest had increased to such a height, that in the beginning of 1616 Cleaves was threatened with personal violence ; he therefore once more appealed to Massachusetts to aid him in this emergency. The other party also making their representa- tions to the same power, that government addressed a letter to each of them, persuading them to suspend their hostili- ties, and live in peace until the arrival of the next ships, by which it was expected that an order would come from the commissioners of the colonies to adjust the controversy. On receiving these letters, both parties eame to the determina- tion of referring the subjects of contention between them to the arbitration of the court of assistants of Massachusetts, to be held at Boston, June 3, 1646. At the time appointed, Cleaves and Tucker appeared in support of Rigby's title, and Henry Jocelyn and Mr. Roberts for Gorges. T

" The result of this arbitration was inconclusive and un- satisfactory. Winthrop ** says,-

"' Upon a full hearing, both parties failed in their proof. The plaintiff (Cleaves) could not prove the place in question to be within his patent, nor could derive a good title ef the patent itself to Mr. Rigby, there being six or eight patentees, and the assignment from only two of them. Also the defendant had no patent of the province, but only a copy thereof attested by witnesses which was not pleadablo in Inw. Which so perplexed the jury that they could find for neither, But gave in a non liquet. And because both parties would have it tried by a jary, tbe magistrates forebore to deal any further in it."

" The government of Massachusetts were undoubtedly quite willing that the cause should take this direction, they preferred to keep neutral and not identify themselves with either party until they could safely do it under the decision of the commissioners for the plantations in England. This decision arrived soon after, and declared Rigby to be the ' rightful owner and proprietor of the province of Ligonia, by virtue of conveyances, whereby the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing the said province is settled.' The

2 Winth., 155.

+ From files in Secretary's office, Moss.

# Robinson lived in Eneo, Macworth in fasco, Preble in Agamenti- ens. These persons may be supposed to be the leaders in their re- spective plantations of the party of Gorges.

¿ Agamenticus, now York, was incorporated as a city by Gorges in

1611, by the name of Agamentieus ; the next year a new charter was granted, giving it the name of Gorgiana; Thomas Gorges was ap- pointed the first mayor by the charter. This tax exhibits the relative value of the settlements in Maine at that time, if Casco were folly taxed, of which, from its having a separate government, there may be somo doubt.

If Vines mast have had one daughter at least. I find a petition to Andros on Massachusetts files from Vines Ellacott for Cousins' Island in Casco Bay, in which he styles himself a grandson of Cant. Richard V'ines.

" I think there must be some mistake in this name ; I find no such person in the province at that time; a Giles Roberts subsequently lived at Black Point. I have thought it probable that Francis Rob- inson was intended ; he was a respectable magistrute of Gorges' Court at this period, and lived at Saeo. ## 2 Winth., 256.

ESTABLISHMENT OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

commissioners further ordered that all the inhabitants of said province should yield obedience to Rigby ; and the government of Massachusetts was required, in case of resist- ance, to render support to his authority .*

" Winthropt says that the decision of the commissioners brought the bounds of the patent to the sea-side, when by the language of it, it fell twenty miles short : this explains what he before said in speaking of the evidence adduced by Cleaves in support of Rigby's title, that the grant did not cover the disputed territory.

" This decree was the result of political events in Eng- land ; the republican party was now triumphant, and Gor- ges, who had been taken prisoner at the siege of Bristol in 1645, and imprisoned, was probably now dead :} although, why the title to the province of Ligonia was not good, as to the soil at least, may be difficult to comprehend. The patent bears date previous to the title of Gorges, setting aside the grant of 1622, which appears never to have been executed ; the proprietors came over and took possession, and no evidence remains that the patent was ever relin- quished, or the title revoked. But the sovereignty or the right of government is placed on a different ground, and not having been transferred to the proprietors that we have any evidence of, must have reverted to the king, with the surrender of the grand patent by the Council of Plymouth. The question then arises, whether the charter of the king to Gorges, conveyed the right of government to him within the province of Ligonia, which was then held under another and distinet title. But this question we shall not stop to discuss.

" Cleaves, now triumphant over his adversaries, assumed undisputed sway in the whole province of Ligonia, extend- ing from Cape Porpoise to Cape Elizabeth, including both. Under this government were the settlements at Cape Por- poise, Winter Harbor and Saco, Black and Blue Points, now Scarborough, Spurwink, Richmond's Island, and Casco. Saco was the largest, and the next, those of Spurwink and Richmond's Island. He immediately commenced making grants in his newly acquired territory : as early as May, 1647, he granted to Richard Moore four hundred aeres in Cape Porpoise, and in September of the same year he cor .- veyed to John Bush a tract ' in the village of Cape Por- pus;' he also made grants in Scarborough and Falmouth, all of them as the agent of Col. Alexander Rigby, presi- deut and proprietor of the province of Ligonia.§

" Records of only three courts held by Cleaves are now to be found, and these are very imperfect ; one relates to a court held at Black Point, by George Cleaves, Henry Joce- lyn, and Robert Jordan, in which merely the appointment of an administrator is noticed; and the others held at Casco, in September and December of the same year, ex- hibit the proceedings which took place on the petition of Robert Jordan, the executor of John Winter, for the allowance of his claim against Trelawny. The style of

the court, as we learn from Jordan's petition, was the ' General Assembly of the Province of Ligonia.' We owe the preservation of this record to the vigilance of private interest, and not to the care of public offiecrs. The re- peated changes in government, the confusion of the times, but most of all, the desolation spread over the whole eastern country by Indian hostilities, have been fatal to the pres- ervation of any perfect records either of the courts or towns.

" INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT.

" After the decision which separated Ligonia from the province of Maine, and the death of Gorges, the people in the western part of the State, in 1649, formed a combina- tion for their own government, and elected Edward God- frey their Governor ; || the first General Court under this combination was held at Gorgiana (York ), in July of that year. In consequence of the state of affairs in England, which deprived them of the aid of their chief proprietor, they petitioned parliament in 1651, to take them under their protection and confirm their independent govern- ment ; T but parliament not regarding their petition, they were obliged in 1652 to submit to the jurisdiction of Mas- sachusetts. Ilutchinson, speaking of this period and this province, says, ' the people were in confusion and the au- thority of government at an end.' **

" We have no means of determining with precision how the government in Ligonia was constituted. We find a general assembly in existence, and suppose it was formed upon the plan of that in Massachusetts, or of that proposed by Gorges : that is, by assistants or counselors appointed by the president or his deputy, and deputies chosen by the people. In fact Edward Rigby, son of Alexander, in a letter written in 1652 to the province, speaks of the six assistants and the judges. The proceedings of the assembly in September, 1648, are subscribed by George Cleaves, deputy president, Wm. Royall, Henry Watts, John Cossons, Peter Ilill, and Robert Booth.1; We meet with nothing in the records which indicate that the affairs of the province were not correctly administered, and conducted without confusion or interruption, until the death of Rigby, the chief proprietor, which took place in August, 1650.## After the news of this event, the old opposition to Rigby's govern- ment was revived, and we may conjecture from Edward Rigby's letter, before referred to, that the object of the opposition was to formu a combination and establish an independent government ; he writes, that if they do ' not desist from their private and secret combinations and prac- tices and join with him, his deputy and other officers for the peace of the province, he will take such course as shall not only force a submission, but also a reparation for all their misdeeds.' This letter was dated London, July 19, 1652, and addressed to ' Mr. Henry Joceling, Mr. Robert Jordan, Mr. Arthur Maeworth, Mr. Thomas Williams, as also to Robert Booth, Morgan Howell, John Wadleigh,

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History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 7

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