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 3
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 3
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There were two other grants by the Council in this vicinity, one of which conveyed to Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyear of Plymouth, Eng. merchants, a tract of land extending from the mouth of a small stream call- ed Spurwink river, on the line between the towns of Scar- borough and Cape Elizabeth, fifteen miles into the inter- ior, thence crossing eastwardly to Presumpscot river and so down to the sea .* Portland and several other towns are situated within the limits of this patent.
The other was small, consisting of only 1500 acres, situated between the Spurwink and Black Point rivers, in the eastern part of Scarborough, including Black Point, of which Capt. Thomas Cammock, a nephew of the Earl of Warwick, was sole patentee. Stratton's isl- ands, one of which is now called Bluff island, were in- cluded in this grant. These patents were both made in the year 1631.f
The colony of New Plymouth obtained a grant of eastern lands at this period, situated on the Kennebec and Cobbisseecontee rivers, to enable them to trade in that quarter. This patent was originally procured in 1628, but was enlarged and confirmed Jan. 13, 1629-30.}
· Farther east was the Pemaquid grant of 12000 acres, to Robert Aldworth and Giles Elbridge, of Bristol, Eng. made in the year 1631.||
- Finally, there was the Muscongus, or, as it has been since called, the Waldo patent, between the Penobscot and the Muscongus, extending ten leagues into the in- terior, granted March 13, 1629-30, to John Beauchamp of London, and Thomas Leveret of Boston, Eng.§
No other grants were made by the Council in this part of N. England. Some of these were the subjects of long and angry contentions, owing in part to the indefi-
"The Spurwink is laid down on a map of N. England, published with C. Mather's Hist. N. E. 1702. as larger than the Saco !
tCourt Records. Sullivan, p 125, says 5000 acres, but we follow the records. The errors of Sullivan respecting Trelawney's grant are too numerous to be pointed out here The principal one is in making Rigby the grantor. p. 115, et passim.
#Prince. N. E. Chron. 172. 106. | Hazard Coll. I. 315. § Ibid. I. 204.
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HISTORY OF SACO
nite terms used in describing their limits, and to the ne- glect of the early proprietors to enter upon and mark out the bounds of their lands. This is particularly true of the Cobbisseecontee and Muscongus patents, so long the fruitful sources of controversy.
CHAPTER III.
On the twenty fifth day of June, 1630, Richard Vines - took legal possession of the land granted him in conjunc- tion with John Oldham on the south west side of Saco river. This ceremony was performed in the presence of Mr. Isaac Allerton, Capt. Thomas Wiggen, Mr. Thomas Purchase, Capt. Nathaniel Waters, Capt. John Wright, and Mr. Stephen Reekes, mariner. The three last named were without doubt attached to the vessels in which Mr. Vines and a number of colonists with their families, had recently arrived. The others are well known in the early history of New England. Mr. Allerton was a gentleman of some note in the colony of New Plymouth, of which he was an original member. We learn from several sources, that having been sent to England on public busi- ness, he returned in the spring of 1630. The ship in which Mr. Allerton took passage, the Lyon, Capt. Wil- liam Pierce, master, sailed from Bristol, Eng. for Penob- scot with the agent of the Muscongus patentees, accom- panied by four or five men, who were about to establish a tradinghouse at the mouth of the former river .* When Gov. Winthrop and the other principal Massachusetts colonists arrived at Salem, June 12, the same summer, the Lyon was at anchor in the harbor of that place : "about an hour after," says Winthrop, "Mr. Allerton came aboard us in a shallop as he was sailing to Pemaquid." In the course of this trip to the eastward, he was enabled to be present at the delivery of possession to Mr. Vines. Mr.
*Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 70.72. Prince. 203. note.
-
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AND BIDDEFORD. -
Allerton was again at Saco the following year, arriving in the ship White Angel on his return from another voyage to England * He appears to have been concerned in the tradinghouse at Penobscot, and in another at Machias, which was destroyed 1633.+ The last notice we find of him in this quarter, is in a note from Thomas Mayhew to Mr. Vines, dated Medford, 20 May, 1636, in which the writer says he has engaged a quantity of stores "to go by Mr. Allerton."} Mr. Allerton afterwards remov- ed from New Plymouth, probably to New Haven, Conn. where he seems to have been living in 1653.5
Capt. Thomas Wiggen, another of the persons who witnessed the possessory act of our patentee, was an a- gent of the upper plantation on the Pascataqua. He probably came to N. England this year, when the settle- ments on that river received great accessions. Capt. Wiggen resided at Dover for many years, and during the union of New Hampshire with Massachusetts, he became one of the Assistants of the Colony. He held this of- fice from 1650 to 1664,|| by virtue of which we find him presiding at a term of the court at York 1659.
Mr. Thomas Purchase was settled at a very early pe- riod at Pegypscott, now Brunswick. Some account of him will be given in another place. . +
The attorneys of the. Council for the delivery of pos- session, were the Rev. William Blackstone, of Shaw- mut, afterwards Boston ; William Jefferies, an old planter of uncertain abode, T and Edward Hilton of Pascataqua. It does not appear which of these gentlemen executed the trust assigned to them.
The patentees on the eastern side of the river arrived the following year. On the 28th of June, 1631, Mr.
*Winthrop. 1. 57. +N. E. Memorial. 393. #Court riccords. Thos. Mayhew is stated to have lived at Watertown, as a merchant. In 1641, he was appointed Governor of Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and the adjacent islands, when he removed to Martha's Vineyard, and became a distinguished benefactor to the Indians. Gookin. 1 Mass. Hist. Coll i. 202.
§ Winthrop. I. 25. note. |N. H. Hist. Coll. ii. 207.
-- The Editor of Winthrop says he was a person of some distinc- tion, settled probably at Weymouth, Mass. before 1628. I. 138. note.
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HISTORY OF SACO
Lewis entered upon this grant in the presence of Mr. Wiggen, James Parker, Henry Watts, and George Vau- ghan of Pascataqua. Edward Hilton acted as the at- torney of the Council.
Thus commenced the first permanent settlements on this river. What number of colonists accompanied the patentees, we are not informed ; no record of their names occurs until 1636. It appears from the tenor of the pat- ents, that they had stipulated to transport fifty persons to their respective grants 'to plant and inhabit there,' within seven years. This condition was probably fulfilled, at deast by Mr. Vines, on whose patent the inhabitants have ever been more numerous until within a few years. His associate, Mr. John Oldham, appears to have taken no interest in the patent. We find no trace of his having been at any time within its limits. The name of SACO was used at that period to include the settlements on both sides of the river, and continued to be so employed for nearly a century. An agreement relative to "the setting forward the enterprise of clapboard making," between "Peyton Cooke of Saco, Gent. and Mr. Richard Wil- liams likewise of Saco," bears date Jan. 27, 1635.
That part of Vines's patent situated below the mouth of the river, had previously received the name of Winter Harbor, as we have reason to suppose, which it has borne to this day, and the whole settlement was often so termed. In a list of the inhabitants dated 1653, we find them dis- tinguished as living in East and West Saco .*
The following document furnishes the names of the principal colonists and their relative standing, a few years only after the settlement began. "1636, 7 ber (Septem- ber) 7: The booke of rates for the minister, to be paide quarterly, the first.payment to begin.at Michaelmas.next. (Sept. 29.)
Capt. Richard Bonython £3
Richard Vines 3
Thomas Lewis 3
Henry Boade 2
Mass. State Records.
33
AND BIDDEFORD."
John Wadlow
£2
Thomas Williams
2
Robert Sankey
1
10
Theophilus Davis
1 10
George Frost 1 10
Clement Greenway 1
John Parker
1
John Smith 1
Samuel Andrews
1
William Scadlock
1
1
Robert Morgan
15
Henry Warwick
1
Richard Hitchcock
10
Thomas Page
1
Ambrose Berry 1 -
Henry Watts 1 10
Richard Foxwell 1 10."
To these naines we add the following, derived from other sources : Francis Robinson, Arthur Mackworth, Peyton Cooke, Richard Williams, John West, Thomas Wise, Stephen Batson, John Baylie, Thomas Cole, John Wotten, James Cole, John Bonython, Morgan Howell, Arthur Browne, George Jewell, and Peter Hogg, servant of Mr. Greenway. Several of these persons removed to Casco before 1636. There were probably others here at the same date, whose names occur a few years later.
The colonists chiefly settled near the sea along the northern margin of the Pool, where Mr. Vines passed the winter of 1616-7. Andrews and Scadlock were on the west near Little River, and T. Williams and West on the other side of the principal settlement, the latter above the mouth of Saco river. The traces of ancient habita- tions may be still seen in all these places. One spot near the head of the Pool, deserves to be more particularly noticed. A point of land makes out here, long known as Leighton's point, on which, it is said, a court-house stood in the infancy of the settlements in Maine. What- ever degree of credit we attach to this tradition, it is plain enough that a considerable number of the first inhabitants dwelt near this spot. Several cellars, now filled up and
4
34
HISTORY OF SACO
overgrown with antiquated shrubbery, are yet discerni- ble ; the mouths of two or three wells may also be seen. Apple-trees rotten with age, and the English cherry, grow here in the midst of oaks and sumachs. Tradition marks out this deserted spot as the seat of the earliest set- tlement. It is now buried in the most perfect solitude. Here we may safely suppose Richard Vines passed that memorable winter when there was scarcely a civilized be- ing in any other part of New England, and afterwards resided in the midst of his little colony.
A small number only of the planters settled on the eastern side of the river, now so much more populous than the other. Beside the patentees with their families, Foxwell, Watts, Warwick, perhaps Greenway, are all of those named in the book of rates, who appear to have pitched on this side. The two former were located at Blue-point, near the eastern limit of the patent, and when the line was accurately run, they were found to be without this limit. The right of Foxwell to his extensive farm at that place, is recited in an action brought by him against Capt. Cammock 1640; he declares, "that he hath for these four years or thereabouts lived at Black-point in the right of Capt. R. Bonython, his father in law, who set- tled him there and gave him as much freedom and privi- lege as by virtue of his patent he could, either for planting, fishing, fowling, or the like, which was the main cause of his settling there." - Blue-point is near the mouth of Scarboro' river, on the south-western side, opposite Black- point or Prout's Neck. The plantations on both sides of the stream were embraced under the name of Black-point.
The house of Capt. Bonython stood on the left bank of the Saco, a short distance below the falls. The remains of the cellar may be still seen, in the field owned by James Gray, Esq. a few rods east of the meetinghouse of the Second Parish. In ploughing this piece of ground about seventy years ago, several articles of domestic use, such ,as spoons, candlesticks, &c. of an antique fashion, were urned up, supposed to have been buried in the ruins of the house, which was burned by the Indians 1675.
The early decease of Mr. Lewis, renders it difficult to ascertain with precision where he fixed his abode ; vari-
١٠٠٠
1
35
1570251
AND BIDDEFORD.
ous circumstances, however, lead us to suppose he lived in the lower part of the patent, not far from the river. His son in law, James Gibbins, who appears to have set- tled on Vine's patent 1642, where he purchased land 'late the property of Henry Boade,' after his marriage removed to the patent of Mr. Lewis, and probably occu- pied the house, as he inherited the estate of his father in Jaw. Gibbins is known to have dwelt a short distance a- bove the lower ferry.
The employments of the colonists were chiefly agricul- ture, fishing, and trade with the natives. Most of them combined these pursuits, and were styled husbandmen or planters .* There were several mechanics among them. John Smith was a carpenter. R. Williams, the 'clapboard-cleaver,' was engaged in extensive business. At his death 1635, he had on hand clapboards of the value of £164 8 4, a large amount in those days. By the agreement before referred to, Mr. Cooke having ad- vanced £30 10 6, sterling money of England, towards the undertaking, was to have "two full men's shares of all such clapboards as shall be made, or begun to be made upon Mr. Vines his patent in Saco by the latter end of June next ensuing, according to the number of persons, always respecting their quality and labor, who shall labor therein, he the said Peyton being at the charges only of two laborers for wages and dyett as shall be esteemed reasonable; the said charges to be deducted out of the profetts arrising out of said clapboards, beginning said charges 23 Oct. last, (1634,) and continuing during said laborers finishing the same. Likewise said sum £30 10 6 to be repaid to said Peyton on finishing said clapboards within the time above specified &c."
The husbandmen took up tracts of 100 acres, of which they received leases on nominal or small rents, from Mr. Vines. Some of these are now on record. An estate that had been in the possession of Thomas Cole, includ- ing 'a mansion or dwellinghouse,' was leased by Mr. Vines
*"Some are planters and fishers both, others mere fishers." Joce- lyn's Voyages. 20%.
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HISTORY OF SACO
to John West for the term of 1000 years, for the annual rent of two shillings and one capon, a previous considera- tion having been paid by West. The lease, which is partly in the latin language, was executed 1638 .* Another deed from Vines requires the lessee to yield and pay an acknowledgement and rent-charge of 5s., two days' work, and one fat goose yearly. In this manner were all the planters rendered tenants to the proprietor, none of them holding their estates in fee simple, as the term is now un- derstood. The stock of these early farmers, being at first for the most part imported from England, was pro- bably not very extensive. The ship White Angel, already noticed as arriving here 1631, brought a cargo of "cows, goats, and hogs," but they were chiefly intended for the colonies of New Plymouth and Massachusetts. Mr. John Jocelyn, who was in this part of the country in 1638, and again in 1663, says the farms were well stocked with cattle, but he probably refers to the period of his second visit.
Fishing was the most common occupation, as it was both easy and profitable to barter the products of this business for corn from Virginia, and other stores from Eng- land. The trade with the planters of Massachusetts soon became considerable. In 1636, Mr. Vines had a con- signment of bread and beef from that quarter. Jocelyn remarks that 'Winter Harbor is a noted place for fishers ; here they have many stages.' He describes the mode of pursuing this business in the following manner : "The fishermen take yearly on the coast many hundred quintals of cod, hake, haddock, pollock, &c. and dry them at their stages, making three voyages in a year. They make merchantable and refuse fish, which they sell to Massachu- setts merchants ; the first for 32 ryals ($4) per quintal ; the refuse for 9 and 10 shillings ($2, and 2,25.) The merchant sends the first to Lisbon, Bilboa, Marseilles, Bor- deaux, Toulon, and other cities of France ; to Canaries pipestaves and clanboards ; the refuse fish to the W. In- dies for the negroes. To every shallop belong four fish-
*See a copy of it, Appendix C.
B
37
AND BIDDEFORD. .
ermen, a master or steersinan, a midshipman, and a shore man who washes it out of the salt, and dries it upon hur- dles pitched upon stakes breast high, and tends their cook- ery. They often get in one voyage 8 or 9 barrels a share per man. The merchant buys of the planters beef, pork, peas, wheat, indian corn, and sells it to the fishermen."
The expense of each planter to provision himself was quite small, if we may judge from an estimate furnished by Mr. Jocelyn for the information of proposed emigrants. A similar estimate had been previously made by Capt. Smith with reference to Virginia .* "Victuals to last one man a year ; 8 bushels of meal, £2 : two bushels of peas, 6 shillings : two bushels of oatmeal, 9 shillings : one gal- lon of aqua vitae, (brandy,) 2s. 6d. : one gallon of oil, 3s. 6d. : two gallons of vinegar, 2s." Total £3 38, equivalent to $14.
A considerable traffic was carried on with the natives by many of the planters, some of them visiting remote parts of the coast, or travelling into the interior for this purpose. English and French goods were bartered for valuable furs, particularly beaver. A man named Jen- kins, is said by Winthrop to have gone,in 1632, from Cape Porpoise, in company with an Indian, up into the country with goods to truck, or trade, where he was killed, and his goods stolen, while he was sleeping in a wigwam. The goods were recovered by the chief, and sent back.t The furs obtained in the trade with the natives, were disposed of to the European vessels that frequented the coast, or at some of the few tradinghouses established in this quar- ter by the western colonies, and English merchants. The greatest resort in our vicinity for these objects, at the pe- riod referred to, was Richmond's island, now a part of the town of Cape Elizabeth. A man named Walter Bag- nall traded there with one other person, in 1631, but hav- ing incurred the resentment of the Indians by unjust deal- ings with them, a party of the latter fell upon him and his companion, who was probably a native, murdered them, plundered the goods and set fire to the buildings.
*Travels. ii. 96. tJournal i. 89.
4*
3S
HISTORY OF SACO
Winthrop rates the value of the goods at £400. This took place in the fall of 1631 : Bagnall had lived on the island alone (as to whitemen) three years .* This dar- ing outrage was revenged in a summary manner more than a year afterwards, by a party from the westward, that had been to Pemaquid in pursuit of pirates ; on their return, landing on Richmond's island, they found there Black William, a chief of the Saugus or Lynn In- dians, who was suspected of being concerned in the Bag- nall affair, and hanged him on the spot.f
The Casco patent of Trelawney and Goodyear, de- scribed above, included this island. Those gentlemen did not come over, but sent as their agent and associate, Mr. John Winter, to whom Mr. Vines, the attorney of the Council, delivered possession of the premises July 21, 1632. Mr. Winter established himself on Richmond's island, and made that spot the scene of extensive com- mercial operations for nearly fifteen years. The island is accurately described by Jocelyn, as distant four miles from Black-point, one mile from Spurwink, three miles in circumference, and having a passable and gravelly ford on the north side between the main and the sea.] Mr. Jocelyn at the period of his first voyage, passed a year with his brother, Henry Jocelyn, Esq. at Black-point. He had thus the means of becoming well acquainted with the principal inhabitants in this quarter. Mr. Winter, he says, is a grave, discreet man, and employs sixty men upon the design of fishing. Jocelyn notices a bark of 300 tons burthen that was spoken by the ship in which he came to New England, "loaded with island wine, bound for Richmond's island, fitted out by Mr. Trelawney of Plymouth." This was in 1638. From another source · we learn that the bark Richmond sailed from that island -in 1639, doubtless the same vessel. Three other ships belonging to Mr. Trelawney, were employed in voyages
"Journal I. 62, 63. tIbid. I 99. Lewis, Hist. of Lynn. 43. The beautiful frontispiece of this work. represents Black William selling Nahant to a planter for a suit of clothes.
1 #The name of John Richmond occurs in the court records 1636-7. His servant is spoken of. He had perhaps lived on the island and oc- easioned its name.
39
AND BIDDEFORD.
to Richmond's island at that period, viz. the Hercules, the Margery, and the Agnes. The former sailed thence 1641, the Margery the year following, the Hercules a- gain 1643. We learn from a statement drawn up 1648, that by the terms of agreement between Trelawney and Winter, "the full government of the plantation was whol- ly committed" to the latter, and that he received for his services one tenth part of the patent, the same propor- tion of all things in the plantation and profits that should arise, and £40 per annum in money.
Jocelyn speaks of the enormous profits made by the Massachusetts merchants, in this part of the country, who kept "here and there fair magazines stored with English goods." "If they do not gain," he says, "cent. per cent. they cry out they are losers." Similar complaints were brought against Mr. Winter by our planters. At the court of 1640, he was presented by the grand jury for extor- tion. "Imprimis," say they, "we do present Mr. John Winter of Richmond's island, for that Thomas Wise of Casco hath declared upon his oath that he paid unto Mr. John Winter a noble (6s. 8d.) for a gallon of aqua vitae about two months since, and further he declareth that the said Mr. Winter bought of Mr. George Luxton, when he was last in Casco bay, a hogshed of aqua vitae for £7 sterling, about nine months since."*
The article had thus afforded the merchant a profit of 200 per cent., reckoning sixty three gallons to the hogs- head. This might be justly considered extortionate. "Mr. John West being one of the grand inquest, declared that he bought by William Cutts of Mr. John Winter a potle of aqua vitae at 2s. per quart, and one paire of greigh stockins at 2s. and shot at 4d. the pound, for which he paid by the said William Cutts in beaver at 63. the pound, being good skinn beaver which he himself took at 83. the pound. Richard Tucker being one of the greate
*Mr. Jocelyn returned to England 1639, with Capt. Luxton in the Fellowship, 170 tons, of Biddeford, in Devonshire. "Several of my friends (he writes) came to bid me farewell, among others Captain Thomas Warnerton (of Pascataqua,) who drank to me a pint of kill- deril, alias Rhum, at a draught." p. 26.
40
HISTORY OF SACO
inquest declareth, that Thomas Wise of Casco coming from Richmond's island, and having bought of Mr. John Winter a flaggott of liquor, aqua vitae, for which he paid him as he said a noble, asking myself and petitioner if we would be pleased to accept of a cupp of noble liquor," &c.
After the death of Mr. Winter, which took place about 1648,* the establishment on the island was broken up. On the opposite shore, near the mouth of the small river Spurwink, a few individuals were settled before Winter's arrival. The famous George Cleaves was one of them, who contested the title of Trelawney and Goodyear to that part of their patent, in an action of trespass on the case, brought at the June term of the court of 1640 a- gainst their agent. "An action of interruption" was en- tered at the same time. "Mr. Abraham Short (of Pem- aquid) and Mr. Thomas Williams became special bail to the plaintiff in £1000, that the defendant shall appear to both these actions at a court to be holden here (at Saco) 8 Sept. next. The plaintiff here declares in both ac- tions, and the defendant is ordered by the court to bring in his answers unto Richard Vines, Esq. at or before Aug. 25, and the defendant is ordered likewise to put in his re- plies at or before Sept. 1 next." From the declaration of Cleaves in one of these cases, we learn that Capt. . Walter Neal, an agent of Mason and Gorges on the Pas- cataqua, had put Richard Bradshaw in possession of a considerable tract at Spurwink, who soon after sold to Richard Tucker. Capt. Neal first came to New Eng- land 1630,f and Cleaves the same year took up a lot of land containing 2000 acres at Spurwink, by virtue of a promise made to him in England, as he declared, by Sir F. Gorges, who encouraged his coming over. Finding Tucker settled there, Cleaves entered into partnership with him ; they joined their titles and agreed to build and plant together. This connexion had existed about two years, when Winter appeared with the patent of Trelaw- ney and Goodyear, and succeeded in obtaining possession.
*Mr. Trelawney died three years before. Records. tWinthrop. 1. 38. Hubbard. N. E. 216.
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