USA > Maine > York County > Saco > History of Saco and Biddeford, with notices of other early settlements, and of proprietary governments, in Maine, including the provinces of New Somersetshire and Lygonia > Part 18
USA > Maine > York County > Biddeford > History of Saco and Biddeford, with notices of other early settlements, and of proprietary governments, in Maine, including the provinces of New Somersetshire and Lygonia > Part 18
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In 1722 it was voted to raise £22 to defray the charges of the town ; and not to send a representative "by rea- son of not being of ability to defray the expense." Five years after, the government issued £60,000 in bills of credit, which was distributed among the towns, to be loaned to individuals, and repaid at stated times with inter-
.est .* Sept. 22, 1728, there was a townmeeting "for the choice of three persons as trustees of the £60,000 loan ;" Fletcher, Hill, and H. Scamman were chosen. The ¿ trustees were directed by the town "to let out the money in sums not exceeding £10, with sufficient security."
A further allotment of town lands was made 1728, . each lot consisting of 30 acres, on condition that the , grantees paid to the treasurer 4l. and dwelt in the town five years. The following persons received grants at this time : Joshua Hooper, Allen Gordon, Henry Pendexter, Charles Monk, Edward Rumery, John Smith, John Bry- ant, Jacob Davis, Samuel Cole, Joseph Gordon, Pendle-
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*Hutch. Hist. Mass. ii. 297.
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ton Fletcher jr., Ebenezer Hill jr., John Stackpole jr., John Treworgy, Thomas Edgecomb, Robert Brooks, John Brown, William Dyer jr. Capt. Samuel Jordan.
The Phillips heirs appeared on the re-settlement of the town, and caused a division of their lands to be made. The principal tract was four miles square, embracing the upper half of the original patent, which had been devised by Maj. Phillips to his lady and two sons, Samuel and William, with the exception of one fourth part previously sold to Abraham Harmon of Fayal. , Samuel, a few years after the death of his father, as we have stated, sold his undivided part, being one fourth of the whole, to Capt. Geo. Turfrey. One half of the tract only, therefore, was claimed by the Phillips family, at the time of the division, which took place in September, 1718. Those who ap- peared, were William Phillips, Deborah, the wife of Wil- liam Skinner, Sarah and Anne Phillips, singlewomen, and Bridget, the wife of John Merryfield, all of Boston, grand- children of Maj. Phillips. On the part of the other pro- prietors, John Briggs of Boston alone appeared, whose wife Katherine was a daughter of Capt. Turfrey. The division was made by Messrs. Joseph Hill of Wells, and Lewis Bean of York, commissioners, and Abraham Pre- ble of York, surveyor. They began "at a small brook below the Falls, known by the name of Davis's brook, and thence ran four miles up the river, and thence back- wards into the country four miles ;" including Bonython , and Cow islands, and the sawmill built by Capt. Turfrey. Six acres about the mill were assigned to the proprietors in common for a landing, still known 'as the mill brow.' The commissioners then proceeded as follows : 1. They laid out to Briggs, beginning at Davis's brook, an extent of eighty rods on the river, running back south west four miles to the bounds of the patent. 2. To the Phillips heirs 160 rods next above on the river, and four miles back. 3. To the heirs or assigns of Harmon eighty rods. 4. To the Phillips heirs one mile and a half. 5. To Briggs three fourths of a mile. 6. To Harmon three fourths of a mile. Two years after, the Phillips heirs sold out in part to Edward Bromfield jr., Thomas Sal- ter, Samuel Adams, (father of Gov. S. Adams,) and
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Henry Hill, all of Boston. Briggs also sold in part to Tristram Little of Newbury, a few years later. The supposed heir of Harmon, George Buck of Biddeford, England, did not appear until a much later date. In 1758 he sold Harmon's first lot, eighty rods wide, to Benj. Nason ; and nine years after the second lot, 3-4 of a mile in breadth, to John Mc Intire of York. Correspon- ding shares in the mill, long known as 'the lower mill,' were conveyed with the land. This mill, originally built by Capt. George Turfrey probably soon after his pur- chase (1691,) continued to be renewed until 1814, when it was carried away by 'the great freshet'. The Eddy mill was afterwards built nearly on the same privilege. At the time of this division, Samuel Cole was living near the. mill brow ; and the following year he purchased twelve acres lying above the Turfrey mill, including the steep fall privilege, on which he soon after built the Cole mill, where it now stands. Twenty years later (1740) Cole sold, as a part of his 12 acres, one half of the Gooch mill privilege to Thomas Wheelwright of Wells ; and the latter directly after sold 1-4 to Benj. Gooch of Wells. Cole, in his conveyance to Wheelwright, speaks of his old mill ; referring to the Cole mill, which was built about 1720. In the spring of 1741, the three pro- prietors built the Gooch mill on the island now called Gooch island, separated from the main by a channel formerly known as Jordan's creek. The right of Cole to convey any part of the island, (containing three or four acres,) has long been a vexed question, from which inumerable lawsuits have sprung.
Nathaniel, a son of Major Phillips, left no lineal heirs. His nephew William took out administration on his estate 1719, and brought in a tract of land 12 miles in breadth on the river, and extending four miles to the southwest. Adams, Salter, and Bromfield, afterwards joined by Pep- perell, purchased out the collateral heirs, and divided the tract among themselves. Parker's neck, on which Fort Dary was built, formed a part of this property, and was sold by the heirs to Capt. Samuel Jordan 1727. Capt. Jordan erected a dwellinghouse there not long before, which is now standing, occupied by Deacon Waldo Hill.
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His conveyance runs-"All the land between the lower end of the pines on Parker's neck, commonly called Wind mill hill, to the cove before said Jordan's dwelling- house." The division was made 1730, and included a somewhat greater extent than the land of Nathl. Phillips. The proprietors first divided a tract bounded on the south- erly line of Phillips's patent, (terminating at the river with the house of Ambrose Berry, probably near Clarke's brook,) and running up the river 242 rods; Secondly, a tract adjoining this, extending 224 rods above, to the land of Mr. Gordon, formerly Pendleton's ; the first about three, the second four, miles in length, southwesterly from the river.
: The 600 acres devised by Maj. Pendleton to his son James, were conveyed by the latter to Nicholas Morey of Taunton, Mass. in 1700. James describes himself "of Westerly alias Haversham, in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."* Mr. Morey took possession of the Pendleton tract, the same year in presence of Joseph and John Hill. John Gordon, of Newbury, afterwards purchased a part of this land on which his sons Allen and Joseph were settled 1728. It is still occupied by descendants of Joseph Gordon.
The 500 acres conveyed by Maj. Phillips to Zachary Gillam and Ephraim Turner, his sons in law, lay next a- bove Pendleton's, having West's brook on the south east. The lot was about 70 rods wide. Next came the land of William Hutchinson, "formerly called Liscomb's lot," containing the same number of acres. In 1742, Abigail Gillam, widow Abigail Taylor, and Brattle Oliver, of Bos- ton, sold both lots to Capt. Samuel Jordan, Rishworth Jordan, (his son,) and Joseph Poak of Scarboro'; the latter taking one half, as his part of the purchase, on which he afterwards lived, since called Pouk's right.
The strip of land in breadth from Nason's hill to Davis's brook, (which crosses the street near the store of Daniel
*The town of Westerly, R. I was formerly a part of Stonington, Conn., from which it is separated by the river Pawcatock. At a court holden in Rhode Island by Jos Dudley, President of New Eng- land, and three of the Council, 1656, Mr. Pendleton was present as an associate justice. 1 Mass. Hist. Coll. ix. 82. v. 247.
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Deshon, Esq.) was claimed, 1718, by John Hobbs of Bos- ton, grandson of Christopher Hobbs, who bought of Maj. Phillips 1673. It was for many years the property of Col. John Tyng, of Tyngsboro, Mass., who died 1797.
Such is as minute a description of the principal divis- ions and conveyances of land within the patent on the western side of the river, as it is consistent with our limits to admit. In relation to the commons, or town lands, it may be remarked that their extent on the river appears to have been to Clarke's brook, near the mouth of which is a place called Berry's back, which probably indicates the situation of "the house of Ambrose Berry," mentioned in the report of the Mass. Commissioners 1659. Some dispute or doubt seems to have existed in regard to the town's right, in 1738, when the deposition of Joseph Hill Esq. of Wells was taken, who stated, that having been born in Saco, as his parents informed him, sixty seven years past, and lived there a considerable time, he always understood that the land which lay next the sea below Ambrose Berry, was consented to by Maj. Phillips to be at the town's disposal ; and that all the inhabitants in the patent above Berry, derived their title from Phillips, of whom there were then (1738) upwards of twenty families.
The improvements of Blackman and his associates on the eastern side of the river were probably abandoned during the Indian troubles. A few families may have lingered about the Falls, but there is no reason to sup- pose that the operations of the proprietors were continu- ed. They laid the foundation on which an enterprising company now began to build. In October, 1716, Samuel Walker of New Jersey, sold his two thirds of the Black- man purchase to William Pepperell, junior, afterwards Sir William, who was then only twenty years of age, but was engaged in extensive business with his father, Col. Pepperell, at Kittery-point. The following year young Pepperell purchased the remaining third part of the tract from Thomas Goodwill of Boston, who seems to have derived the title from his wife Rebecca, probably a daugh- ter of Mr. Blackman. The bounds of the right are de- scribed in these as in the former deeds, including a pri- vilege for timber on 4500 acres northwest of the pur-
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chase. Directly after these transactions, Pepperell sold out two fourths of the whole tract to Nathaniel Weare of Hampton, millwright, and Humphry Scamman, junior, of this town, mariner, who together, in part payment, erected a double sawmill on the site of the old Black- man mill, and a dwellinghouse for the accommodation of the millinen, one half of which was to be the property of Pepperell. A division of the mill and of a lot of land adjoining, half a mile square, with a small reservation to be used in common, was made by the partners 16 De- cember, 1717. Pepperell took a breadth of 80 rods, comprehending the part of the present village east of Main street, to the lower fence of the burying ground ; Scamman 40 rods next below, and Weare 40 rods, to the brook near Pipe Stave, now Gray's, point. The whole tract, extending from Nichols's brook to the upper bounds of Gibbins's third division, a distance of 4} miles, and in breadth not less than two miles, was divided 20 October, 1718, in the following manner : First, Pep- perell began at Nichols's brook, ran 44 rods ; next Scam- man 22 rods, and Weare 22 rods; which brought them to Gray's point, the lower side of the lot divided the year before. They now extended the north east bounds of that lot to the middle line of the patent ; then beginning at its upper side, (on Main street,) they set off, following the river, to Weare 40 rods, Scamman 40, Pepperell 80; (extending back two miles ;) again, Pepperell 120, Scam- man 60, Weare 60 : Pepperell 120, Scamman 60, Weare 60; Pepperell 120, Scamman 60, Weare 60; Pepper- ell 127, Scamman 673, Weare 672, which completed the tract. A large rock in the river, above Little falls, marks the extent of the division, as now understood.
Several ways or roads were laid out at the same time ; one "to run from the mill northeast two miles to the mid- dle line of the patent, four rods wide," which is at pre- sent Main street and the post road as far as the house of John Foss. Another was "to run southeast and north- west about half a mile from the river, four rods wide, through the whole division" ; now to a certain extent the Buxton and Ferry roads. "Likewise a way by the river through all the aforesaid land as near as may be to the
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river, with convenience for men and oxen to pass and re- pass ; as likewise we reserve liberty to bring timber any ways upon all the aforesaid land to the said mill or the river, without it be through a mowing field, or cornfield, or orchard." Landing places were also reserved for com- mon use : one opposite Jordan's, now Spring's, island, sub- sequently called Dennett's landing ; another near Tucker's wharf, which was long known as 'Pepperell's landing'; and on Pipe Stave point.
The privilege of cutting timber on the land northwest of the purchase, being J. Bonython's Second division, was also divided by the proprietors. Pepperell took the upper half of the tract, Weare the next quarter, and Scamman the lower quarter. Landings were established on the river side of this privilege, from which roads led into the woods. The valuable island opposite to the mill, since well known as Cutts's or Factory island, was claimed by the proprietors under the name of Indian island, which, however, seems to have been attached to the Phillips estate, with the name of 'Bonython's island."* The di- vision of the mill was as follows : "Pepperell takes the saw and frame next to the land, and the piling place next to the land ; and the saw and frame next to the river, said Weare and said Scamman are to have, and the piling place on the rock next to the river; each owner of said saw is to maintain and keep in order his running gear and saw and all that belongs to each frame. As to the house, said Pepperell has the eastern half, and said Weare and Scamman are to have the western half." The house built for the proprietors has long since disappeared. A- nother erected about 1720 by Capt. Scamman, one story high, with a gable roof, was sold by his son to Mr. Ro- bert Gray 1744, who added another story soon after, in which state it is still occupied by his grandson, James Gray, Esq. This venerable mansion, the oldest now stan-
*The sale of } of this island to Bonython by Phillips 1667, for a quantity of logs, has been already mentioned. p. 162. The island was divided between them the same year, when "the half next the Ma- jor's house" was assigned to him, and the remainder to Bonython. The island is not mentioned in the deeds to or from Blackman.
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ding in Saco, with its high steep roof, is the most conspi- cuous object in ascending the river, above the Narrows, being placed on an eminence from which a wide view is commanded. It was for a considerable period protected from the ravages of the Indians by a strong garrison wall with flankers. Capt. Scamman was the only one of the proprietors resident in town, and continued to carry on the mill until his death, which took place in 1734, at the age of fifty eight years. His father, as already stated, died a few years before. The children of the former, born 1715-29, were Mary, Sarah, who married Joseph Hanson of Dover 1737, Humphry, removed to Kittery 1744, and lived to an advanced age, Dominicus, James, Nathaniel, Benjamin, both of whom died at Cape Breton, 1745, and Jeremiah, died in infancy. The estate of Capt. Scamman, soon- after his decease, was divided a- mong his children.
A division of the Foxwell estate among the heirs and their assigns took place 1732. The lower checker set off to Foxwell and Harmon in the division of the Patent, was divided into two equal parts by a northwest line, run- ning from the sea to the head of the checker, a distance of two miles and fifty rods : of which the part on the south west being left to the heirs of Harmon, the remain- ing half, one mile in breadth, was allotted to the Foxwell heirs. A narrow strip only of the latter now lies in Saco, including a lot 70 rods wide, assigned to Pepperell as the representative of Mrs. Corbain, heiress of Nathaniel Foxwell, and another of 35 rods, Mrs. Norton's portion ; so much have the bounds of Scarboro' advanced into the original Saco township. The lots were laid out in length from the marsh (which was separately divided) to the head of the checker, 518 rods. The eastern moiety of the upper Foxwell and Harmon checker, was distributed in- to lots running from the patent line to the middle of the checker ; the lowest lot, 123 rods wide, was assigned to Pepperell ; the next, 912, to the heirs of Lucretia Rob- inson ; the next, 913, to the heirs of Mary Norton : the next, 912, to the heirs of Sarah Curtis; the next, 912, to the heirs of Esther Rogers ; the next, 91}, to Susan- nah Austin. The Pepperell lot, being the inheritance of
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Nathaniel Foxwell, was a double portion. The dividing line between Saco and Scarboro', as it now runs, leaves about two thirds of the division in the latter town.
The division of the Gibbins estate 1730, has been noticed in a preceding chapter. Beside lands lying near the mouth of the river, the two checkers on the eastern side of the Patent, being Gibbins's Second and Fourth divisions, were then assigned to the heirs. The former checker was divided into four lots, each measur- ing 147 rods on the patent line ; of which the lowest was assigned to Rebecca Wakefield and Patience Anna- ble ; the next to Hannah Mace ; the next to Rachel Edgecomb ; the next, being the head of the checker, to Elizabeth Sharpe. "Moreover," say the Commissioners, "we do agree that the stream [Foxwell's brook] and the falls which are known by the name of Foxwell's falls, which belong to the heirs of Hannah Mace, Rebecca Wakefield, and Patience Annable, equally in quantity and quality, to be divided when they shall see cause to set up a mill or mills." The upper checker, now called the Mc Kinney district, was left in common to the heirs at that time.
In 1732, administration was granted on the estate of John Bonython, nearly fifty years after his decease, and a division was made to the heirs of his five children. The administrators brought in 5000 acres of land, valued at 18s. per acre, comprising nearly the two checkers set off to him in the division of the Patent. The heirs, one of whom was Patience Collins, wife of John Collins, and on- ly surviving child of John Bonython jr., sold out to James Skinner, James Morgan, and Humphry Scamman, im- mediately after the division. The premises were again divided, 1735, by Skinner, Morgan, and the heirs of Scam- man. The third part of the upper checker adjoining the head line of the Patent, was assigned to Skinner ; the next to the heirs of Scamman ; the last to Morgan. The lower checker, excepting the part lying above Nich- ols's brook, was divided in a similar manner.
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CHAPTER II.
No other single cause so much retarded the growth, and checked the general prosperity of the town, as its ex- posure to the barbarous inroads of the Indians. It was still a frontier settlement, and hardly were the inhabitants quietly seated again on their lands, (with a considerable accession of numbers, however, from various quarters,) before the country was involved in another contest with the savage enemy, as destructive as any former one. The French government being rendered uneasy by the extension of the English settlements in the eastern coun- try, after the peace of 1713, secretly promised to sup- ply the Indians with arms and ammunition if they would renew hostilities. Their principal agent in this business was the celebrated Ralle, a French Jesuit, who had liv- ed nearly forty years among the Indians at Norridgewock. The governor of Canada kept up a correspondence with this priest, who informed him of the movements of the Indians. The English inhabitants were alarmed by the attempts made to excite the Indians to war, and the threats thrown out by them from time to time, till at length, in- duced by their representations, Gov. Shute, in the year 1717, summoned a conference at Arrowsick, a well known island in the Kennebec. By dint of promises and conciliatory speeches, the storm was averted for the pre- sent. But three years after, some depredations being committed on the eastern settlements, fresh alarm spread through the province. Col. Walton of Somersworth, N. H. was sent down with a small body of men. The gar- ¿isons were also reinforced. No further mischief was done, however, that season. The next summer (1721) a conference of the French and Indians was held on Arrowsick, attended by Father Ralle, young Castine of Penobscot, son of the late Baron, and Croisil, an agent from Canada. Great numbers of Indians were present. Capt. Penhallow, commander of the English fort on the island, likewise attended ; to whom a letter was deliver- ed, addressed to Gov. Shute, in the name of the several tribes, in which they threatened to kill the English and
vinh
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burn their houses, unless they removed within three weeks from the settlements, on the eastern side of the Kennebec. No other notice was taken of this menace, than to send re-inforcements, and invite another conference. But the following winter a party, commanded by Col. Thomas Westbrook, was despatched to Norridgewock to seize the Jesuit ; they succeeded only in capturing a box of papers, Ralle escaping into the woods. The contents of the box afforded abundant proofs of his exertions to in- flame the minds of the Indians against the English inhabi- tants, in favor of the French. The ensuing summer, 1722, - hostilities commenced with the capture of nine families near Merrymeeting bay on the Kennebec by a party which was composed of sixty men in twenty canoes ;* no blood was shed. A few weeks after, a furious attack was made on Brunswick, where the houses were chiefly burned. On receiving this news, the Governor and Council issued a formal declaration of war, proclaiming "the Eastern In- dians, with their confederates, robbers, traitors, and ene- mies to King George." Forces were immediately order- ed to be sent into the County of York, to be stationed in garrisons ; the number of men assigned to Biddeford was twenty.
Early the next year, 1723, the Indians commenced a series of cruel depredations in this part of the county, and on the frontier towns of New Hampshire. They made a sudden attack on Scarboro' in April, and killed several of the inhabitants; among them was Sergeant Chubb, whom the Indians mistook for Capt. Harmon of York, a distinguished warrior. Chubb fell pierced by no less than eleven bullets out of fifteen aimed at him. In June they attacked the garrison of Roger Deering, Esq. in the same town, killed his wife, and took three of his children, who were picking berries ; two soldiers of the garrison were killed at the same time.
During this summer Mary, a daughter of Capt. Hum-
"The canne of an Eastern Indian is usually of sufficient dimen- sions to contain a family of six or eight persons. The warriors were generally accompanied by their women and children in their hostile expeditions. There is a singular error on this subject in the late ex- cellent edition of Winthrop. i. 50.
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phry Scamman, was taken by the Indians while visiting a family connection in Scarborough. John Hunnuel and Rob. Jordan were made prisoners the same day .* Mary, who was but eight or nine years of age at that time, was carried to Canada, where, it is said, being a bright girl, she attracted the attention of Vaudreil, the governor, who received her into his family. Here she remained sever- al years, and was carefully educated in the Roman Catho- lic faith, while her father was profoundly ignorant of her situation. She was at length married to Mons. Dunin- cour, a gentleman of Quebec ; after which event infor- mation of the lost child reached the family. Soon after the intelligence was received, Humphry Scamman, a brother of Mary, performed a journey to Quebec, through the wilderness, for the purpose of inducing her to re- turo. He met with a kind reception from his sister, and her husband, who was a man of handsome estate and liv- ed in splendour, as Humphry afterwards reported. He remonstrated with her on the subject of her religion, but all to no purpose; nor was she at all disposed to return with him to the place of her nativity, from which so long a residence among the French had completely wean- ed her affections. Several years later, 1778, Mr. Ebene- zer Ayer, a connection of the family, was at Quebec, and made enquiries for Mary, but she was no longer living. Her portion of the estate of Capt. Scamman, which had
*The following circumstances relating to a person of the former name (Hunnewell) are told by Rev. Mr. Tilton, in a MS. account of Scarboro'. "While mowing on the marsh he discovered the move- ments of some Indians on Blue-point. Separated from them by the river and a considerable body of marsh, he concluded he could not be in danger. He ha'l placed his gun by a staddle [stack of hay,] and mowing at a distance from it, an Indian unperceived by him, had crossed the river, and under its bank crept up through the thatch and secured his gun. Mr. Hunnewell, at length seeing his desperate situa- tion, continued his mowing as if he had not discovered the Indian, till he had advanced within a few yards of him, when he suddenly sprung forward with his scythe, and so roared out at the Indian that he had no command of his gun, and retreating backwards as Mr. Hunnewell advanced, stepped into a hole and fell. Mr. H. cut him off with his scythe, and holding up and brandishing it in view of the Indians, who had already begun their shouts on the other side, challenged them to come over, and he would serve them in the same manner."
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