USA > Maine > York County > History of York County, Maine, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 11
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+ Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 332.
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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, MAINE.
surviving inhabitants hastily fled to a garrison on Munjoy Hill, but feeling that they were not safe there, seized the opportunity, while the Indians were hurrying away their captives, to retreat in boats to Bangs' Island, where they protected themselves. The peninsula of Falmouth Neck (now Portland) was, during a subsequent period, wholly deserted, thirty-four persons being killed in this surprise, or carried into captivity, and nearly all the property of the place destroyed. The inhabitants did not return generally till the peace of 1678. In one month fifteen leagues of coast eastward of Falmouth were laid waste. The inhab- itants were either massaered, carried into captivity, or driven to the islands or remote places, and the settlements abandoned or in ruins.
The inhabitants had endured with fortitude a series of hardships for many years, and those of the peninsula in particular could not entertain the thought of abandoning their homes and their all to the savage destroyer. Upon Munjoy's Island, two leagues from the shore, was an old stone house, which was easily made a shelter for a few of them ; and upon Jewell's Island others fortified themselves. The Indians, flushed with success, resolved to overleap even these water-barriers, and attack the English in their island retreats. In September, while the men were engaged in fishing and the women washing hy the water-side, the In- dians, who had secretly landed in their canoes, made a rush upon them. At first a brave lad fired from the house and killed two of the enemy. Mrs. Potts and several of her children were quickly seized. On the arrival of some of the men, who by this time had heard the alarm, the Indians, to protect themselves from the shots, seized the children and held them between their own breasts and the guns, so that the parents dare not fire. The most of them, however, rushed with great intrepidity into the midst of the Indians, and, with the loss of a few killed and made captives, suc- ceeded in driving them to their canoes. The assailants pro- ceeded to Spurwink, where they killed two and wounded others.
Massachusetts, amidst these alarming depredations, raised a military force of one hundred and thirty English and forty Natic Indians, who arrived at Dover September 6th, where they formed a junction with the soldiers under Majs. Waldron and Frost. At this time four hundred Indians of different tribes assembled at Dover, many of them known to be malignant fugitives from the westward, others, treach- erous violators of the treaty, and all acting in concert that boded ill to the whites. Waldron, by means of his noted " sham-fight," which he proposed that the Indians should engage in on one side and the English on the other, suc- ceed in " bagging" the whole four hundred in the most unsuspected way. The amusement was continued a short time, when Waldron induced them to fire a grand round, and the moment their guns were discharged, his troops sur- rounded the unwary Indians, seized and disarmed them, without the loss of a man on either side. Wonnolancet and his tribe, all adherents to the English and neutrals in the war, were discharged. The "strange Indians" from the westward, and every one who had been guilty of bloodshed or violence since the treaty (about two hundred in number ) were confined and sent to Boston. They were tried by the
Supreme Court, and seven or eight executed; the others, receiving the sentence of banishment, were transported to foreign parts. This conduct on the part of Major Waldron was the subject of much criticism and considerable division of sentiment among the people, but it was approved by the government. The Indians, however, considered it a base Yankee trick, and they never forgot nor forgave it.
On the 3d of September, the troops, under the senior command of Capt. Hawthorne, proceeded to Falmouth, where they arrived on the 20th, having visited by the way Wells, Winter Harbor, Black Point, and Spurwink. On their arrival at Falmouth Neck, Fort Loyal was erected ; the troops remained upon the Neck about three weeks, during which time a company of residents going to Peak's Island to kill and dress some sheep was surprised by the Indians, and all killed except one. They were all heads of families and prominent men, and their deaths, especially that of George Felt, were deeply lamented. This event occurred on tbe 23d of September. The next day a large lurking party at Wells shot James Gooch from his horse as he was returning from worship, on Sunday ; his wife being on the same horse, was cut to pieces by their hatchets. At Cape Neddick they brained a nursing mother, pinned her infant to her bosom, in which condition it was found alive with one of the breasts in its mouth. Again they entered Wells, and killed George Farrow.
The troops left Falmouth on the 12th of October, and spent the remainder of the month in South Berwick. The Indians watched them till they had passed Black Point, and on the second day after, one hundred and twenty of them made a furious assault upon the garrison there, under the arch-leader, Mugg. Henry Jocelyn, who was in com- mand of the garrison, was induced to come out and hold a parley with the Indians, under the pretense from Mugg that if he would surrender he and all the inmates should be al- lowed to depart with their effects unmolested. While Jo- celyn was holding his parley, the inmates, all except his household servants, had taken to their boats and departed, and he, being left alone, was obliged to surrender. Blue Point had been sacked the year before, and this success of the Indians completed the ruin of Scarborough. Mugg took great pride in his achievement.
But the most daring exploit of the savages during this autumn was the seizure of a vessel and crew at Rich- mond's Island. This vessel was under the command of Capt. Fryer, of Portsmouth, and had gone to Richmond's Island, at the solicitation of Walter Gendall, to remove the remaining stores there for fear the Indians would de- stroy them. While they were loading, the savages came upon them; the sailors on shore were seized, those ou board driven below deck ; by leaping into canoes, the bolder savages cut the cables ; the wind blowing strongly from the southeast, drove the vessel ashore. " Surrender," cried the Indians, " or flames will soon make you prisoners of death !"
In this wretched predicament, as Capt. Fryer lay wounded and bleeding, the men had no choice but to surrender them- selves to the tender mercies of infuriated savages. Eleven of them were made prisoners. In the cartel, it was specified that they were to ransom themselves by delivering a quantity
45
GOVERNMENT UNDER DANFORTH.
of goods in a certain limited time ; to procure which two were released, who, departing, returned with the goods before the time expired. But as the exactors were absent on some new expedition, their fellows took the ransom, killed one of the bearers, and retained the rest of the crew in custody.
On their way to Piscataqua, on the 18th of October, Mugg landed with a force at Wells, and sent his prisoner, Walter Gendall, to demand a surrender of the garrison. "Never," said the commander, " never shall the gates be opened till every one within is dead." Repelled by this reply, yet bent on mischief, Mugg and his men killed two persous, wounded a third, cut the throats of thirteen cattle, from which they took only their tongues, and disappeared.
Soon Mugg arrived at Piscataqua, bringing in Fryer dying of his wounds, and declared upon his faith, which he said was still good, that the prisoners taken at Rich- monds' Island would shortly be restored without ransom. He proposed in behalf of Madoekawando and others to negotiate a peace. Unreasonable as this may seem, the treaty proposed was actually made in Boston between Mugg and the Governor and Council on the 6th of No- vember, 1676. Gendall and a few other prisoners were surrendered. The treaty was ratified by the sagamore of Penobscot.
Little faith was put in the sincerity of this treaty, and in the winter of 1677 apprehensions were generally enter- tained of a renewal of hostilities the following spring. The General Court ordered a winter expedition eastward, which was sent, February 7th, under Majs. Waldron and Frost, and landed at Mare Point in Maquoit Bay on the 18th. The force consisted of one hundred and fifty men and sixty Natic Indians. On landing at Mare Point they were hailed by a large party of Indians, among whom ap- peared Squando and "Simon, the Yankee-killer." The Indians said they desired peace and had authorized Mugg to make the treaty. Upon being asked why they did not release the prisoners, Squando replied, " I will bring them in the afternoon." Nothing more was seen of the Indians till noon the next day, when a flotilla of fourteen canoes was seen pulling up the bay and nearing the shore. Presently a house was seen in flames. The Indians, how- ever, were severely punished by the soldiers, several of them being killed and wounded.
Waldron arrived with his force at Pemaquid on the 26th of February. Here a treaty was proposed in which it was agreed that arms should be laid aside on both sides during the conference. In the afternoon Waldron discovered the point of a lance under a board, and in searching further found other weapons concealed. Taking one, he brandished it towards the council, exclaiming, " Perfidious wretches! you intended to get our goods, and then kill us, did you ? They were thunderstruck; yet one more daring than the rest seized the weapon and strove to wrest it from Waldron's hand. A tumult ensued in which bis life was much endan- gered. Maj. Frost, laying bold of Megannaway, one of the barbarous murderers of Thomas Brackett and his neighbors, hurried him to the bold of his vessel. Meanwhile an ath- letie squaw caught up a bundle of guns and ran for the woods. At that instant a reinforcement arrived from the
vessels, when the Indians fled in all directions, pursued by the soldiers. In their haste to get away one canoe was cap- sized, from which five Indians were drowned ; an old saga- more and five Indians were killed and four others were taken prisoners. The expedition, after leaving a garrison of forty men at Arrowsie, under Capt. Silvanus Davis, returned to Boston on the 11th of March without the loss of a man.
But the town which the savages seem to have marked out this year for utter destruction was Wells. From their first entering it, April 6th, when they killed three, to the end of the month, they made attacks upon the people and their garrison several times. On the 13th, John Weld and Ben- jamin Storer were killed. The fort was commanded by Lieut. Swett, a brave and vigilant officer. Seeing a stroll- ing Indian, who was in fact a decoy, Swett sent eleven of his men towards the place to reconnoitre. By venturing too far they fell into an ambush, when two were shot dead and one mortally wounded.
The garrison having been re-established at Black Point under Lieut. Tappen, a man of great courage, the Indians attacked it, May 16th, with uncommon boldness and perti- nacity. The siege was continued three days in succession, -the assailants determining to force a surrender or perish in the attempt. Of three Englishmen taken and slain, one was barbarously tortured to death. One of the enemy brought to the ground by a particular aim was then sup- posed to be old Simon, but was afterwards found to be the celebrated Mugg. The loss of their leader so dampened the courage of his companions that they, in despair of victory, departed.
CHAPTER XI.
GOVERNMENT UNDER DANFORTH.
Purchase of Maine by Massachusetts-County Court-Trial of James Adams-Form of Government adopted for Maine-Thomas Dan- forth appointed Deputy President-Civil Officers-Confirmation of Land-Titles-Vacation of the Charter of Massachusetts.
IN 1676 the lords chief justices of the King's Bench and Common Pleas, and the lords of trade and plantations, decided adversely to Massachusetts' claim of jurisdiction over Maine. To avoid further controversy and trouble, Massachusetts now decided to purchase of Gorges all his right and interest in the province, and to this end instructed Mr. John Usher, of Boston, then in England, to negotiate the purchase, which he did, closing the contract for twelve hundred and fifty pounds sterling, on the 6th of May, 1677.
This transaction, while it settled a troublesome contro- versy, also originated a very important question, viz. : How should Maine be governed ? The question, however, was not immediately made prominent, but for two or three years the General Court pursued its usual policy of administra- tion.
In the spring of 1678 three assistants were admitted for Yorkshire, and Thomas Danforth was designated to preside in the County Court. The persons clothed with judicial authority for the year 1679 were Joseph Dudley and Rich- ard Waldron, Commissioners, and Edward Rishworth,
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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, MAINE.
John Wincoln, Joshua Scottow, and Samuel Wheelwright, Associates.
The last session of these judges in the County Court under the colony administration, held at York in July, was made memorable by the trial of James Adams, of York, for one of the most singular and inhuman crimes of which criminal courts furnish any record. Adams had become affronted with Henry Simpson, one of his neighbors, and determined to avenge himself upon two of Simpson's unof- fending sons, whose ages were respectively six and nine years. His contrivance and crime were the more satanical as they were deliberate. In a solitary place, four or five miles from any of the dwellings of the inhabitants, he built of logs, beside a ledge of perpendicular rocks, a pen, or pound, several feet in height, inclined inward from the bot- tom to the top. After this he decoyed the boys into the woods under a pretense of looking for birds'-nests, and had the art to draw them within the pound,* where he left them to perish with famine and suffering. The children were soon missed, and the alarmed inhabitants searched the woods for them thoroughly more than forty-eight hours without success. The boys, presently aware of their wretched situation, made various trials to get out, and at length, by digging away with their hands the surface of the earth underneath one of the bottom logs, effected their escape. They wandered in the woods three days, being at last attracted to the sea-shore by the noise of the surf, where they were found.
The depraved criminal was soon arrested, and after con- viction received this sentence :
" The Court, having considered your inhuman and barbarous offense against the life of the children, and the great disturbance to the country, do sentence you to have thirty stripes, well laid on ; to pay the father of the children £5 money, the treasury of the county £10, out of which the expenses of postage and searching the town are to be discharged ; also to pay the charges and fees of the prison, and remain a close prisoner during the Court's pleasure, till further order."
The same month sureties entered in recognizance of one hundred pounds before two of the associates, " conditioned to send him, within twenty-one days, out of the jurisdic- tion."+
At the October session of the General Court, the affairs of Maine were made the special subject of legislative dis- cussion. In February, 1680, it was determined to assume the royal charter granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and, in conformity with its provisions, to frame a civil administra- tion for the government of the province. This duty was assigned by legislative enactment to the Governor and Board of Colony Assistants, who decided that Maine should have a Provincial President, chosen by the Governor and said Board of Assistants from year to year ; and a Legisla- ture of two branches or houses,-the upper one to consist of a Standing Council of eight members, and the other a popular body, consisting of Deputies chosen by the towns, as in Massachusetts.
The Council was made appointive by the Board of As- sistants and to continue in office at their pleasure; they
" The place was afterwards called " the Devil's Invention."
+ Hon. David Sewall, 1794; 3 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., p. 9: 1 Coll. Maine Hist. Soc., p. 285.
were also to be the judges of a Supreme Court and magis- trates through the province. The legislative body was to meet once at least in each year.
The Board of Assistants then proceeded to elect a presi- dent, and the choice fell upon Thomas Danforth, at that time deputy Governor of Massachusetts. He was a gen- tleman of fine talents and good education, and possessed at this period great weight of character. He was born in England in 1622, came over early in life, and before being first deputy Governor, in 1679, had been an assistant for twenty years, president of the Board of Commissioners for the United Colonies, and had sometimes presided in the County Court of Yorkshire. His wisdom, firmness, and prudence qualified him to conduct difficult public affairs with success, and his high-minded republican principles rendered him pre-eminent in popular estimation.
To assist Presideut Danforth in organizing and arranging the civil affairs of the province, and holding a term of the judicial courts the present season, the Board of Assistants, after the general election in May, appointed Samuel Nowell a special commissioner. He was an assistant this year (1680) and the next, and was appointed against his will to the office of joint agent with Mr. Stoughton to England. He had been a minister of the gospel, and was a man of reflection and good sense, and, moreover, in politics strongly attached to the high republican party of his time.
The freeholders of the province, being summoned, met at York, March 17, 1680, and a commission, under the seal of the Governor and Council of Massachusetts, was exhibited and read, declaring themselves " the lawful assigns of Sir Fer- dinando Gorges," and giving notice that they had " erected and constituted a Court and Council, and deputed Thomas Danforth, Esq., for the first president, to the end that the above-named province might be protected in the enjoyment of her rights and privileges, according to the rules of his majesty's royal charter granted nnto the above-named Sir F. Gorges, Kt." Warrants for the choice of deputies to the General Assembly, to be holden at York in the follow- ing spring, were issued. Maj. Bryan Pendleton was ap- pointed deputy president, and authorized, with the assist- ance of other members of the Council, or magistrates, to hold intermediate terms of the court.
Mr. Pendleton was among the earliest colonists of Massa- chusetts, and settled in Watertown, which he represented six years in the General Court, and in 1646 he commanded the military corps since denominated the " Ancient and Hon- orable Artillery Company" in Boston. Hle resided in Ports- mouth several years, from which he removed to Saco in 1665. He signed a petition to the king, in 1680, praying for aid in " rebuilding the towns wasted and desolate by reason of the late Indian war." He died soon afterwards, and was succeeded in the office of deputy president by John Davis, of York.
Deputies were chosen by towns, and annual sessions of the General Assembly were held at York for five or six years.
The first General Assembly under the new form of gov- ernment convened at York, in June, 1681. Bryan Pendle- ton, of Saco, as before stated, was deputy president. The Council, in addition to him, consisted of Charles Frost,
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GOVERNMENT UNDER DANFORTH.
Francis Hooke, John Davis, Joshua Scottow, Samuel Wheelwright, and John Wincoln. Edward Rishworth was secretary or recorder of the province. Messrs. Frost and Ilooke were both of Kittery; the former had represented his town several years in the General Court, and was now appointed commandant of the regiment; the latter, sup- posed to have been the son of William Hooke, one of Gorges' first council, was provincial treasurer. Mr. Davis lived at York, had been commanding officer of the militia company, and in the late war had distinguished himself as a brave and discreet officer. Mr. Scottow, originally from Boston, had come to Scarborough with the troops from that city at the beginning of the war, and became a prominent and wealthy citizen. His name is identified with the au- thorship of " The Old Man's Tears."* Mr. Wincoln lived in Newichawanbock, then a part of Kittery, where he was captain of the town military company; he was a brave officer, and had been several years a representative to the General Court. Mr. Wheelwright was the son of the reverend founder of Wells, and afterwards a councilor in the General Court of Massachusetts. These councilors or magistrates were also called justices, as they held the ju- dicial courts of the province.
The number and names of those in the lower house this year are not given, but four years afterwards the number of deputies was twelve.
By a writ of quo warranto sued out of the Chancery Court at Whitehall, July 20, 1683, the charter of Massa- chusetts was declared vacated on the 18th of June, follow- ing. The king appointed Col. Kirke Governor of Massa- chusetts, Plymouth, New Hampshire, and Maine,-an appointment universally displeasing to the colonists, but one which, fortunately or providentially, was never actually inflicted upon them ; for the king dying Feb. 16, 1685, his brother and successor, James II., formerly Duke of York and Albany, did not incline to confirm or renew the appoint- ment.
At the meeting of the Provincial General Assembly at York, in April, the new monarch was publicly proclaimed.
The administration of President Danforth continued popular and effective; the legislative body met annually, and the general government, as well as justice, was satis- factorily administered for six years. One of his measures of public policy, in view of the danger apprehended by the Indians, was to maintain a garrison at Fort Loyal, in Fal- month, which appears to have been an object also of gen- eral concern. For this purpose a tax was laid upon all the saw-mills of the province, which amounted to the sum of ninety-three pounds yearly. Most of the mills were at that time within the territory now embraced in York County. At a session of the General Assembly at York, May 24, 1682, Anthony Brackett was employed for one year to take command and charge of the garrison, to furnish provisions, ammunition, and every necessary article, and to man it with six men in summer and four in winter, for one hundred and sixty pounds. Edward Tyng, a worthy and active citizen, who had been an assistant in the General Court of Massachusetts, was commander of the fort the year pre-
ceding. He was afterwards one of the councilors under Danforth.
The deputies or representatives in the General Assembly in 1682 were Nicholas Shapleigh, of Kittery, Abraham Preble and John Puddington, of York, John Harmon and Benjamin Blackman, of Saco, and Anthony Brackett, of Falmouth. In 1685, George Turfrey was representative from Saco, and George Ingersoll from Falmouth.
At the August session in 1682, William Screvens, a zealous and devoted Baptist minister, was fined ten pounds, and commanded " never more to have any public religious exercises whatever, at his own house or elsewhere, especi- ally on the Sabbath." His refusal to submit to the injune- tion was deemed a contempt of his Majesty's authority ; hence the court awarded,-
" That he in future forbear from his turbulent and contentious prac- tices, give bonds for his good behaviour, and stand committed till the judgment of the Court be complied with.
" EDWARD RISHWORTH, Recorder. " August 17, 1682."
This is said to have been the only case of religious per- secution that ever occurred in the province,-i.e., by the provincial authorities. Sarah Mills, in Scarborough, had previously received twenty stripes " for Quakerism," by the authority of Massachusetts.f In the case of Mr. Screvens, it was the first appearance of a Baptist in Maine. He lived in Kittery, where several persons had embraced the tenets of this faith and been baptized by immersion. He was born in England in 1629, and came to Kittery early in life. Having great zeal and devotional gifts, he was commended to the fellowship of his Baptist brethren in Boston as " one whom God had qualified and furnished with the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit to open and apply the good word, which, through the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ, might be by him made effectual and useful." A small church was constituted Sept. 25, 1682; but the next year they removed with Mr. Screvens to Cooper River, in South Carolina.}
Another important work of the government was that of confirming the land-titles, for which purpose President Danforth, in 1684, conveyed to several boards of trust the townships of Scarborough, Falmouth, and North Yarmouth, reserving to the chief proprietors a small quit-rent. The trustees then proceeded to make surveys and assignments to settlers and proprietors, according to their just claims and rights, whereby settlements were encouraged and advanced.
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