History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 18

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co.
Number of Pages: 1100

USA > Maine > Penobscot County > History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 18

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HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

war. A small cargo of flour and other necessaries was presently allowed to La Tour, as his good-will and the influence of the Catholic missionaries might yet be ser- viceable to New England. The end came, however, the next year, in the reduction of Nova Scotia, including the capture of Penobscot, by Cromwell's ships, as previously narrated. The following year, 1655, the whole Acadian Province, with the County of Canada within it, was con- firmed in English occupancy and sovereignty. La Tour, who, shortly before, had apostalized from Protestantism and become a Catholic, in consideration of the confirm- ation of the province to him by the French Crown-a man, says Williamson, "of equivocal character, either Catholic or Protestant, as was most concomitant with in- terest"-died soon after the capture of his domain, leav- ing one son and an immense territorial estate, which was made by Stephen D' La Tour, his son, the basis of claims upon the English Government that were recogni- zed by Cromwell in the grant to him, jointly with Sir Thomas Temple and William Crown, Englishmen, of "L'Accadia" and the country from Merliquash, or Lun- enburg, to the Muscongus.

THE TERRITORY OF SAGADAHOCK.

During the thirteen years' occupancy of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, by the English, between the conquest' under Cromwell and the recession to the French by the treaty of Breda, the province was mostly under the gov- ernorship of Sir Thomas Temple, as has been related in our closing paragraphs concerning Nova Scotia. In 1664, soon after the Restoration, Charles, having revived the project of an American empire, with twelve royal principalities or provinces, and the county of Canada being now extinct, made an extensive grant to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, from whose title New York and its capital derive their names. The patent conveyed all the Dutch territories upon the Hudson, with Long Island, and likewise "all that part of the mainland in New England, next adjoining to New Eng- land ; thence extending along the seacoast to a place called Pemaquid, and up the river thereof to its farthest head, as it tendeth northward ; thence at the nearest to the river Kennebeck ; and so upwards, by the shortest course to the river Canada, northward." This tract not only cut a great tract out of the domain of Sir Thomas Temple, but also encroached upon the Plymouth terri- tories about the headwaters of the Sheepscot and the Damariscotta, and included the whole of the Muscongus (later Waldo) patent, before mentioned, with a large part of the Pemaquid patent and the Brown and Tappan right, which had been granted from time to time by the Plymouth Council, and the islands along the seaboard above Pemaquid, of which some were now inhabited. Nevertheless, the sweeping grant seems to have been maintained in its integrity for about a quarter of a cen- tury, or until the duke ascended the throne as James II., when it reverted to the crown. That part of it in the Northeast was designated by different names. It was popularly known as the Duke of York's Property or Province, but by his agents was called New Castle, a name also given to the southwestern part of the duke's

patent on the Delaware, where it is still preserved. They further termed it the County of Cornwall. But the fittest name for it is that by which it is best known in history - the Territory of the Sagadahock. Long afterwards, un- der William and Mary's charter of October 7, 1691 - the famous "Provincial Charter "- the Province of Sag- adahock was constituted between the river of that name and the St. Croix, as will be more fully related hereafter.

The Duke of York became viceroy of the king over his American possessions. Under him Colonel Richard Nichols, after the subjugation by him of the Dutch at Manhattan, became Deputy Governor of the Province, including the Territory of Sagadahock. A royal com- mission was appointed April 15, 1664, consisting of Nichols, Sir Robert Carr, who was also a commander in the expedition against the Dutch, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, "to settle the peace and security of the country "- which meant mainly the recognition of the Duke's authority and that of the Commission in Massachusetts and Maine. After a rather troublous time with the General Court at Boston and the exercise of much despotic authority in the towns and plantations between that place and Eastern Maine, they crossed into the Territory of the Sagadahock and opened a court September 5, 1865, at the dwelling of John Mason, on the east bank of the Sheepscott. Here they summoned the inhabitants of the several settlements to present them- selves and formally submit themselves to His Majesty's Government, within the duke's patent. Only twenty- nine persons, whose names are given by Sullivan and Wil- liamson, appeared in response to this summons. They comprised, the latter thinks, but a minor part of the whole number of settlers between the Sagadahock and the Pen- obscot, and, we may add, none north or east of the latter river. A chief constable for the county was appointed, also three magistrates or justices of the peace, and a re- corder. No regular government was instituted, howerer, - no legislation, trial by jury, or other element of an en- lightened and thorough-going administraiion. Assur- ances were given the people that their possessions and rights should not be disturbed, although no sufficient means were provided for the redress of wrongs, and the policy was revived in all conveyances, whether by the duke's agents or the planters, of incumbering them with quit-rents. A treaty was negotiated with the Indians, which contained judicious provisions for the settlement of difficulties and the prevention of hostilities between them and the whites. In early October the commis- sioners went back to York, where their high-handed measures, which we need not recapitulate, soon awakened the most vivid and widespread indignation. The colon- ists in the Northeast were not rid of them altogether until the next year, when a new war between France and England broke out. At the close of this, by the treaty of Breda, Nova Scotia, including the Penobscot country, was restored to the French, and passed under the gov- ernment of De Bourg, who claimed jurisdiction over the whole of the duke's Eastern patent, even as far as the Kennebec river. This claim was not admitted by Massa- chusetts, however, and a new survey of the north line of

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

the Plymouth patent, made in 1672, carried it three miles northward of the previous location, and brought it to White Head island, in Penobscot Bay. The next year the Dutch recaptured New York, and the Duke of York was thus left with a very small jurisdiction within his former vast patent. A new county, between the Sagada- hock and St. George's rivers, the new north line, and the seacoast, was erected by the General Court of Massa- chusetts, and called Devonshire, with a full equipment of officers. But the succeeding year, 1674, by another turn of fortune's wheel, the province of New York was restored to the English, and a new patent issued to the duke, embracing all the territories described in the pat- ent of ten years before. Sir Edmund Andros was ap- pointed Governor of New York and Sagadahock. No disturbance was made, however, by either the duke's officers or the French, of the new County of Devonshire, in which the authority of the General Court remained paramount, and the administration of justice went on regularly and tranquilly. A project was started at one time to alienate to the crown the whole territory between the Merrimac and the Penobscot, in order to create of it a royal province for the Duke of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II. The duke himself was fully bent upon this scheme, from which he expected to derive an annual income of £5,000, but it was never consummated.

In August, 1663, Colonel Thomas Dungan succeeded Andros, by appointment of the duke, as Governor of New York and Sagadahock. He appointed two com- missioners, John Palmer and John West, to manage the affairs of the county of Cornwall, who behaved very badly, and attempted to exercise jurisdiction as far as to the St. Croix. They seized a cargo of wines landed at the French port at Penobscot, because duties had not been paid at the Pemaquid custom-house, and were guilty of many other high-handed acts. Their authority and that of Dungan in the Sagadahock country, was suspend- ed or nullified by the appointment of Andros in 1789, as Governor of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hamp- shire, Maine, Plymouth, Pemaquid, and Narragansett (or Rhode Island).

February 16, 1685, the viceroyalty of the Duke of York in America was ended by his ascent of the throne as James II., upon the death of his brother. We hear little more of his Territory of Sagadahock. The French had generally undisputed possession east of the Penob- scot, and established one of their forts upon the bay. De Bourg was acting Governor; Jesuit missionaries, traders, and settlers were at and about Penobscot in considerable number, and a profitable trade with the natives was carried on, while " the whole coast between Penobscot and St. Croix remained untouched by the arts of culture and improvement, and almost without inhabitants."

THE COUNTY OF CORNWALL.

The facts relating to the erection of this county are these: Upon the organization of the General Assembly of the Province of New York in 1683, and the subdivis- ion of the Province into counties, "Pemy Quid and all Territories in those Parts, with the Islands adjoining,"

were ordered to constitute the county of Cornwall, which should be entitled to send one member to the Assembly. Under this provision Gyles Goddard, of New Dartmouth, represented the county for a time. He was also a jus- tice of the county and lieutenant of "a foot company" in the militia-also afterwards surveyor. It is said that there was a re-enactment of the ordinance by the New York Assembly October 1, 1691,* although the fort and country about Pemaquid were surrendered to Massachu- setts by the royal order September 19, 1686.

THE DUTCH AT PENOBSCOT.

In 1674 the Dutch, having concluded a treaty with England, but being still at war with France and anxious, as they had been for a long time, to share the fishing and other advantages of the North American coasts with the English and French, sent a vessel to sieze the fort at Penobscot. It was captured without much loss, but was soon voluntarily relinquished. Again, however, in the spring of 1676, a Dutch man-of war appeared be- fore the fort and compelled its surrender. It was the in- tention now to maintain firm possession of the Penob- scot .country; but, as the fort was held to be within the Duke of York's patent, and so in New England, a small fleet was dispatched from Boston, which soon forced the intruders to abandon the position. The singular part of the transaction is that the English themselves did not re- main as masters of the situation, but at once after the reduction of the place abandoned it. As a consequence of these events, however, it is said that Andros was in- duced the next year to build a fort a Pemaquid and take formal possession of the whole Eastern domain granted to his superior, the Duke of York. It is one of the in- teresting facts of Penobscot history that the country was for a period, though a very short one, virtually under the government of the Netherlands.

THE PROVINCE OF SAGADAHOCK.

William and Mary succeeded to the English throne February 16, 1689, upon the abdication of James II. The next year Nova Scotia was recaptured for England by an expedition under Sir William Phips, a native of the Province of Maine, born at Woolwich, upon the Sheeps- cot. Out of the southwestern part of it was carved, Oc -. tober 7, 1691, by the Provincial Charter of William and Mary, a tract described by no specific name, but which came to be known, probably from the Duke of York's Eastern grant, as the Province of Sagadahock. It was defined as "between the river Sagadahock [or Kenne- beck] and Nova Scotia," extending "northward to the river of Canada," and included the second of the Royal Provinces of 1635, that between the Sagadahoc and Pe- maquid, and the first, or county of Canada, stretching thence to the St. Croix. The new province with Massa- chusetts, Plymouth, and the Province of Maine unitedly form the Royal Province of Massachusetts Bay. Acadia, or Nova Scotia, was included in the charter, but exclu-

* Mr. Williamson (History of Maine, I., 421) avers that the King's commissioners for settling (rather unsettling) the affairs of New Eng- land, "erected the whole territory into a county, by the name of Corn- wall," upon their coming hither in 1665. We have taken the more cir- cumstantial statement from a later and perhaps better authority.

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

sive jurisdiction over it was eventually conceded by Mas- sachusetts to the crown. "All islands and inlets lying within ten leagues directly opposite the mainland with- in the said bounds," were embraced in the charter, but all English subjects were to have a common right of fishery upon the coast or "in any arms of the sea or still- water rivers." Sir William Phips was commissioned the first Royal Governor. The events in the Penobscot country during the terrible Indian war have been related in our chapter upon the Indians. In 1693, as prepara- tions for another war were beginning, the fort at Penob- scot was temporarily in the posession of the French, with the Sieur de Villieu resident commander. It was at this place, October 14, 1697, that the commissioners from Massachusetts met the Indians and arranged prelimina- ries of peace.

In 1697, both France and Massachusetts-the former by the Treaty of Ryswick, as included in "Acadia," and the latter by its charter-claimed the Sagadahock Prov- ince. The next summer the English fishing-vessels were warned off the coast and out of the Gulf of Maine. No bloodshed resulted, however, until Queen Anne's war with France, declared May 4, 1702. In the Treaty of Utrecht, March 30, 1713, the dispute was quieted by the concession to the English of "all Nova Scotia, or Acadia, with its ancient boundaries." From this time the fee to the ungranted lands in the Province remained in the Crown, while the civil jurisdiction was vested in Massachusetts. In 1729, one Colonel David Dunbar succeeded in getting the entire Province into his hands, by royal proclamation, with instructions to settle, super- intend, and govern it, and with scarcely any other condi- tion than that he should preserve within it 300,000 acres of the best pine and oak-timbered land, for the use of the Crown. He made some considerable improvements between the Sheepscot and Muscongus rivers, but his ar- bitrary conduct soon caused discontent, which resulted ' in his downfall in 1732. He retained his office, how- ever, of Lieutenant Governor of New Hampshire, until his return to England in 1737.

In 1737, the white population of Sagadahock, embrac- ing Georgetown, Sheepscot, Damariscotta, Townshend, Harrington, Walpole, Broad Bay, and St. George's River, was estimated at 1500. There were then within the present limits of Maine about 7,000 people of civilized stock. It will be observed that none of the localities named was within the Penobscot valley; and the subse- quent history of the Sagadahock Province has little con- cern with the purpose of this History. It endured for a number of years longer, and then was absorbed into other geographical subdivisions.

"NEW IRELAND."

We anticipate the course of history, chronologically re- garded, a little in the mention of this, in order to close this chapter properly with an account of the erection of the Province, and then of the State, of Maine. In 1780, a proposition was set on foot for the erection of a British Province covering the territory between the Pe- nobscot and the St. Croix, to be called "New Ireland," and to have Bagaduce, now Castine, for its capital. It

was expected that the loyalists or Tories from the Ameri- can colonies, who had already settled along the coast in considerable number, would colonize the province. Thomas Oliver, a graduate of Harvard College and for- merly Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, was to be its Governor, and the principal officers of the new state were nominated. The British Ministry and the King gave their approval to the scheme, and an attempt would doubtless have been made to carry it into effect, had not the Attorney-General delivered the opinion that the char- tered rights of Massachusetts Bay did not end at the Pe- nobscot, as held by the ministry, but extended to the St. Croix, and would be infringed by the establishment of "New Ireland." With this decision the project re- ceived its quietus.

MAINE.

The charter granted by Charles the First to Sir Fer- inando Gorges, dated April 3, 1639, erected the province or county of Mayne. Some of the writers affirm that it took its name from the province of Meyne, in France, said to have been owned by the queen, Henrietta Maria; but it has been demonstrably shown that this was no part of her estate, and it is equally well settled that the an- cient name for the mainland, as distinguished from the islands off the shore, was taken for the new province. It did not comprehend the whole of the present State of Maine, nor any part of the Penobscot country. Its boundaries, beginning at the mouth of the Piscataqua, ran up that river and through Newichawannock and Fall River northeastwardly one hundred and twenty miles; from Piscataqua harbor along the coast to the Sagadahoc; up that river and the Kennebec one hund- red and twenty miles; and thence overland to the north end of the line first defined. The charter included also the islands and inlets within five leagues of the shore between the Piscataqua and the Sagadahoc, the north half of the Isles of Shoals, and the islands Capawock and Nantican (supposed to be Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket) near Cape Cod. Gorges, with his heirs and assignees, were created absolute Lords Proprietors of the province, reserving only to the crown supreme do- minion, faith, and allegiance, and the right to exact a yearly tribute of a quarter of wheat and one-fifth of the avails of pearl fisheries and from gold or silver mines -the revenue from which sources at that time must have been small indeed. Thomas Gorges was appointed deputy-governor; and Messrs. Richard Vines and Rich- ard Bonythan, of Saco; Henry Joscelyn, of Black Point; Francis Chamfernon and Edward Godfrey, of Piscataqua, afterwards Kitlery; and William Hook, of Agamenticus, were made councillors of the province.

It is not at all the purpose of this History to follow the existence of the Province of Maine through its troubled years. So much of its beginning has been in- troduced here, in order to preface appropriately the story of that great subdivision of New England, bearing the same name in part, which came finally to include the Penobscot region.

The Province of Maine (formally purchased by Mas- sachusetts from Sir Ferdinando Gorges in 1677, for

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

£1,250,) with its ancient boundaries, but separated into the three counties of York, Cumberland and Lincoln, endured until about half the period of the Revolution war was spent, when the "District of Maine" was erected by act of Congress. The immediate occasion for the change resided in the appellate jurisdiction over all mari- time causes, which the State of Massachusetts had con- ceded to Congress, or the tribunals that might be created by it, and had authorized an appeal from the State courts in any case where the subject of a foreign power at peace with the United States claimed a captured or lib- elled vessel or cargo. The right of appeal could be waived, however, and final trial had in the Superior Court of Massachusetts. Congress accordingly, in 1778, divided the State, for judicial purposes, into three dis- tricts-the southern, middle and northern, whereof the last constituted the District of Maine. Timothy Lang- don, Esq., of Wiscasset, named by Mr. Williamson as "a lawyer of considerable eminence," was appointed judge of the district; and Mr. Nathaniel Thwing, of Wool- wich, clerk.

Twelve years afterwards, when the census of 1790 ex- hibited a population in Maine of 96,530, Maine was "for many purposes," to quote Williamson's phrase, "re- cognized by Federal authority as a district, and as if it were a separate State." It was, says the historian, "more expressly formed into a district, and jurisdiction assumed over all its affairs belonging to the National Government. Such, among many, were light-houses-the single one in Maine, at Portland Head, and the appurtenant lands, be- ing ceded to the United States. All the coasts and ports in Maine were classed into nine commercial districts, in each of which there were appointed a collector and other custom-house officers."

The collector appointed for the Penobscot district was John Lee; for Frenchman's Bay, Melatiah Jordan. A new District Court was created, with David Sewall judge; William Lithgow, jr., of Hallowell, United States attor- ney; Henry Dearborn, of Pittston, marshal; and Henry Sewall, clerk.

Full jurisdiction over uhe District of Maine, except in the matters delegated to the General Government, was maintained by the commonwealth of Massachusetts, until the State of Maine was formed, the latest-born. of all States of the Union upon the Atlantic seaboard, save Florida. Agitation for the separation of Maine from Massachusetts began almost at once upon the close of the Revolutionary war. Mr. Williamson says:

The want of a distinct government had been often felt during the late war, and was still recollected. As the State debt was large, there must be heavy taxes through a series of years, which most men would . like to avoid. An excessive thirst for superfluities was draining the country of money, while thousands were poor and perplexed with debts. These, and such as had everything to gain and nothing to lose, were inclined to try an experiment. There were, however, advocates of the measure among all classes-men of probity, wealth, and intelli- gence, who believed a separate administration would be of essential benefit to every portion and interest of the community. Some of the greatest opponents were men in office, and all of them could present plausible and correct pleas that the generous favors and provident care which the people of Maine had at all times received from the State Gov- ernment ought to silence complaint, and that by a separation at the present juncture, the vigor and force indispensable to the protection

and security of the district would be essentially weakened, if not alto- gether paralyzed.

It is an incident of special interest that the first news- paper published in the State-the Falmouth Gazette, started January 1, 1785-was established to concentrate and promote the expression of public opinion in behalf of separation. A preliminary convention was- held at Falmouth, October 5th, of the same year, at which an address to the people of the district was voted, and a call issued for a delegate convention, to meet January 4, 1786, to consider further the question of separation.

We need not follow the agitation and discussion through the next third of a century. The fullness of time for the rising Commonwealth of the Northeast ar- rived in 1819. The Democratic newspapers and poli- ticians now generally advocated separation ; the Federalists as generally opposed it. Nevertheless towns in the dis- trict petitioned the General Court, in May, for separation. A law was approved June 19th, submitting to the voters of Maine the question: "Is it expedient that the Dis- trict shall become a separate and independent State upon the terms and conditions provided in 'an Act relating to the separation of the District of Maine from Massachus- etts proper, and forming the same into a separate and independent State'?" On the fourth Monday of July the people responded "yes" by a vote of 17,091 to 7,132. October IIth, a convention assembled in Port- land, and proceeded with the preparation of a constitution for the new State. It was approved by popular vote in town meetings on the first Monday in December, and application was promptly made to Congress for admission into the Federal Union. Many weeks of delay were caused by the agitation in that body concerning the ex- tension of slavery, arising from the contemporaneous appeal of Missouri for admission, which resulted in the famous Missouri compromise. All obstacles were cleared by the 3d of March, 1820, when the act for the admis- sion of Maine was passed, and on the 15th of that month and year she became a sovereign State.

The intelligence was received in Bangor with great satisfaction and general gratulation. On the day when separation became finally an accomplished fact, a salute of three guns was fired at daylight, another of thirteen at sunrise, and eleven more at noon.

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 18

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co. Number of Pages: 1100

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co.
Number of Pages: 1100