History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. I, Part 24

Author: Banks, Charles Edward, 1854-1931
Publication date: 1931
Publisher: Boston, Mass. [Calkins Press]
Number of Pages: 556


USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. I > Part 24
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. I > Part 24


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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The genealogy of this family appears in Volume III of this history.


ISAAC NASH


This settler first appears in Dover, N. H., 1650, and removed to this town about 1660 and died here two years later, as on July 5, 1662 his widow, Phoebe, was granted administration of his estate. She afterwards married John Pearce. No descendants remain in the town.


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BONAVENTURE BARNES


An individual bearing the formidable name of Bona- venture Barnes was living here in 1666 when he was pre- sented for not attending public worship. Two years later he was presented for living several years in this country apart from his wife in England, and he gave bond to go to his wife within a year. He probably complied as nothing further was heard of him.


John Car) JOHN CARD


John Card first appeared in Kit- tery 1664 and two years later settled in York, presumably son of the John Card who was ordered home to his wife 1653 (N. H. Records). He was at that time probably unmarried and a cooper by trade. It is a Devon name and he possibly came from Combe-in-Teignhead in that county, although in Honiton a John, son of John, was baptized there January I, 1642-3. Our John was born in 1643 (Sup. Jud. Ct. Mss. 746). His homestead was on the east side at Bass Cove. He, or the first John, was Constable in 1674 (N. H. Deeds v, 4). He signed the 1680 petition to the king. He was married thrice: (1) Mary, who signed in 1669 (Deeds ii, 64); (2) Martha, widow of Robert Winchester, January 16, 1683 (Ibid. iii, 138); and (3) Elizabeth who was called "now wife" in his will. He was killed in the massacre of Candlemas Day (1692), leaving a will dated the previous year of which the following is an abstract:


Item I bequeath to my Eldest sone William Carde the tract of Land being bounded from the lower end of the Cove nigh to Edmond Cook's lott soe running uppon the Northeast line Joyning to my owne lott and so Joining in Breadth upon the line of Edmond Coks Lotte so running backwards so farr as my Lott doth/


Item I doe bequeath Annas Carde my Daughter twelfe pence in silver to be paid by my Executor after my buriall/


Item I bequeath to Mary Carde my Daughter twelff pence in silver to be payed by my Executor after my buriall/


Item I doe bequeath unto my now wife Elesabth Card I do bequeath the one half of my Goods and Chattells of what kind or nature soever and also the one halfe of my home lott and half of all my marsh hom and a brood during her life not given nor bequeathed before my funerall Expences and Debts discharged/


Item I doe bequeath to my Grandson John Card twenty shillings to be paid by my Executor after my buriall/


Item I do bequeath to my Grand Daughter Mary Card twenty shillings by my Executor after my buriall/


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Item I doe bequeath to my younger sone Thomas Card, whom I make my sole Executor, all the goods and chattels & land of what kind or nature soever the one half not given nor bequeathed before my funerall expences & Debts and demands discharged only after the desase of my now wife Elsabeth the land & Marsh of what kind or Nature soever not now bequeathed to my younger sone Thomas my soll Exequetor/


Inventory of his estate was taken October 28, 1692 and was returned as amounting to £172-19-00 (Deeds v, 82). The genealogy of this family appears in Volume III of this history.


CHARLES MARTIN


This settler born in 1631 (Deeds iii, 125; Sup. Jud. Ct. Mss. 2057), is first of record in the town in 1667 when he received a grant of land of fifteen acres on the upper part of the New Mill Creek, adjoining Dodivah Hull. He was called a mariner and "Captain." He took the oath of allegiance 1681, and was living May 30, 1683, but was called "lately deceased " September 24, 1684. Inventory of his estate was taken on the last named date and it amounted to £14-09-00, but there is nothing in it to give us any clue to his associations or business, and no real estate is listed. He was sued by Arthur Beale in 1678 for seven weeks' services of Hannah Wakely and mulcted in thirty-five shillings (Court Records iii, 364).


BENJAMIN WHITNEY


This settler, a Lonzamen Whitney tailor by occupation, was son of John and Elinor Whitney of Watertown, born June 6, 1643, and had settled in Dover where he was taxed in 1667 and the next year removed to York. His father was desirous of having him return and live with him, promising his house and land to him if he would accept (Bond, Watertown, 645). This he confirmed by a deed in 1670 (Middlesex Deeds iii, 451-2), but he did not accept, and disposed of the homestead to his brother Joshua with his father's consent the next year. He had received town grants here of twenty acres adjoining Henry Sayward on the Mill Road, which he sold in 1685 to Jona- than Sayward (Deeds iv, 32). At this time he was married to Jane -, perhaps of a York family. He soon removed


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to Sherborne, Mass., where he died November 14, 1690 (Barry, Framingham, 437) leaving a widow and children, viz .: Jane born September 27, 1669; Benjamin, Nathaniel born 1680; John born 1682; Joshua born 1687. His sons, Nathaniel and John, remained in York and their descend- ants will be found in Volume III of this history.


DODIVAH HULL


He was one of the youngest sons of the early minister of Gorgeana, Rev. Joseph Hull, born about 1645, and appears here in 1667, when he was a town grantee of a lot of fifteen acres on the upper part of New Mill Creek. It is not probable that he occupied this land as he is next heard of in Portsmouth, where he died about 1682, leaving a widow Mary and a daughter of the same name, who married Nicholas Follett.


LEWIS BANE


Jung Lane


This ancestor of the Bean family of York (modern spell- ing of the name) first ap- pears of record in the town early in 1669 as a grantee of fifteen acres adjoining to Isaac Everett "upon the path which goeth to Henry Sayward's mill" (T. R. i, 37, 56). The first and last references to him in the town records give him the prefix of "Mr."- a distinction rarely appearing in the local records. This is mentioned in refutation of the claim made by some of his descendants that he was a Scotch prisoner. The social status of these prisoners, servants and bonds- men never would have justified such a title of respect, and none of them ever had it in York until the next generation had acquired some personal distinction. Lewis Bane did not live in "Scotland," the section allotted to these prisoners, and as far as known had no association with them. He held no public office, as far as known. With six others he was killed on April 7, 1677, during an Indian attack on York, and on June 26 following, an inventory of his estate was taken, amounting to £62-06-00, two-thirds of which was in land and cattle. "A gould ring" valued at eight shillings was an item in the list (Deeds v, pt. i, 21).


He married Mary Mills about 1668, by whom he had 264


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five children. She may have been a daughter of Robert Mills of Kittery. After the death of her husband she married Charles Brissom (T. R. i, 86). She was appointed administratrix of his estate September II, 1677. On February 25, 1691-2 Capt. Francis Hooke and Samuel Wheelwright were named to divide the property amongst the children. Lewis Bane was made administrator May 8, 1695. The genealogy of this family appears in Volume III of this history.


JOHN PENWELL


John Senwill


He came from Plym- outh, England, to the Isles of Shoals about 1665 as a mariner in George and Samuel of his wife and son with


command of the ketch Piscataqua. He brought him and died "some years" before 1675 aged about fifty-five years (N. H. Deeds ii, 112b; iii, 113b), leaving a widow and a son, John. This son, born about 1647, removed to York about 1670 where he resided until his death. He was an appraiser 1671, had a land grant in 1674 near the Wells boundary at the waterside (T. R. i, 48); grand juror 1673; witness 1691; and was dead before February 1695-6 (Deeds iv, 114). He was called a mariner and an attorney in the court records and lived on a small plot of land on the "County Road" on the George Puddington home lot. He married Sarah, daughter of George and Mary (Pooke) Pud- dington, before 1673, and by her had a daughter Alice who married Nathaniel Freeman (q.v.). He was thus a step- son of Major John Davis. His estate was not settled until 1704, when his mother-in-law, Mrs. Mary Puddington Davis, was granted letters of administration, as his widow Sarah was non compos mentis.


ARTHUR CAME


Under the spelling of Arthur Cham this emigrant was granted land at Exeter, N. H. in 1664, and in 1669 he had built a house on a ten-acre lot at Cedar Hill in York. It is believed he came to New England with John Frost (q.v.), but diligent search has failed to locate him in Devon. It is a surname in that county as well as in Somersetshire and Gloucestershire. An Arthur Came of Plymstock,


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Devon, married Marian King, November 30, 1633, and was taxed there until 1636. An Arthur Came of same parish, sailor, died in 1636 and administration was granted to his widow, Mary. It is possible that they were the parents of Arthur Came of York, as Plymstock was the home of Gorges at one time and next parish to Plymouth. He settled in York where he received his grant January 14, 1669-70, on Cider Hill, and an additional one June 17, 1685 (T. R. i, 42, 83). He was grand juror 1690, 1693, 1696, 1697; appraiser 1678, 1690, 1691. In 1710, being "aged, Decrepid & allmost quite past my Labor," he and his wife Violet deeded their property to their son Samuel in consideration of support during their lives (Deeds vii, 154). She was living in 1720 (T. R. i, 349). They had six children, all of whom lived to adult age and married. The genealogy of this family appears in Volume III of this history.


THOMAS CANNEY


He was called "of the County & Towne of Yorke" in 1670 (Deeds ii, IIO), but he was only a transient resident. He was of Piscataqua 1640 and later of Dover (see Mat- thew Austin).


JASPER AND JOHN PULLMAN


The bishop's transcripts frapper pusman of the parish register of Stoke-in-Teignhead, Devon, show the baptism of a Jas- per, son of John Pulman, November 18, 1633, and John, the father, was the son of Robert Pulman of the same place. This was our settler, a fisherman by occupation, who was here as early as 1674, when he acquired the house and lot of the late Philip Hatch in Lower Town (Deeds ii, 152). He also acquired from Sampson Angier the island near the mouth of the river (T. R. i, 58). He signed the petition against the sale of Maine and the peti- tion of 1680 to the king; appraiser the same year; grand juror 1690; and was living May 12, 1691 (Maine Wills, 94). He and his wife were probably killed in the Candle- mas Day Massacre, 1692. Their daughter Mary married Joseph Moulton. In 1689 John Brawne of York, hus-


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bandman, "in consideration of the love I bare unto Mary Pullman ... the daughter of Jasper Pulman and more especially for & in Consideration of the love that my mother bare unto John Pulman uncle to the sd Mary Pulman," deeds certain lands to her (Deeds iii, 172).


John Pullman, brother of Jasper, came to New Eng- land as early as 1669, as he is found in the New Hampshire records that year aged thirty years. It is probable that the brothers Jasper and John came first to the Isles of Shoals and removed to York together about 1674. In 1678 John Pullman bought ten acres on the south side of the river (Ibid. iii, 35), and it is of record that he bought it for his niece, Mary Pullman, and that the "warehouse he built by the water side" was for her (Ibid. v, 4). He died shortly after, as his estate was administered Septem- ber 29, 1680 by his brother Jasper. Inventory scheduled a house valued at fifteen pounds, boat at thirty pounds, clothing, bedding, etc., at twelve pounds.


PHILIP COOPER


Called "The Walloon," whose right name was prob- ably Philippe Coupard, he appeared in York about 1673 when he is first of record as grantee of ten acres bordering on Cooper's Lane (so called to this day). Here he lived with his wife, who was Anne Ingalls, son Philip and daughter Mary until the massacre of Candlemas Day, when he and his wife perished and the daughter Mary was carried to Quebec. The son Philip, who was a seaman, was absent probably and escaped the attack. The daugh- ter Mary, born 1687, was baptized by a priest of Quebec as Marie Francoise Coupard March 25, 1693, and was redeemed in 1695 by Matthew Carey. What became of her after redemption is not known, but Philip was living in 1699 in Boston when he sold his York inheritance by attorney (Deeds vi, 109). The estate of his father was appraised October 31, 1692 at £38-02-00 (Ibid. v, 79).


JOHN BRACEY


This is the Saga of a "black sheep" of an aristocratic family and York furnished the stage and scenery for its portrayal. He was descended from landed and armigerous gentlemen living in Cheshire when the Domesday Book


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was compiled. From the first follower of the Conqueror in his line came the de Bresci and Bressey families down to the Braceys of Maulden, Bedfordshire. Edmond Bressey, or Bracey, of that parish had two younger sons: Thomas, baptized November 8, 1601; and John. Thomas became a linen-draper in London, while John took holy orders, and both emigrated to New England. Thomas had married as a second wife, at St. Lawrence Jewry, London, on August 4, 1631, Phebe, daughter of William Bisby, citizen and salter of London. Thomas settled in Ipswich in 1635 and removing about 1638, either to Rhode Island or New Haven, he died in the latter named place, possibly before 1646, leaving a widow and six young children. Among them was John Bracey, later of York.


John Bracey was born about 1639 and baptized in New Haven, September 5, 1647. He was apprenticed to one Wheeler, a tailor, who died before 1657, when the New Haven court inquired of Widow Wheeler "how she hath disposed of John Bracy who was prentice to her husband to learn his trade: she said he was yet with her, but she was free to dispose of him wher he might learne his trade, and sent to his brother who is a taylor to take him, but he refused." Some months later when "Good- wife Wheeler was asked how she doth dispose of her apprentize, John Bracie, she said she could not dispose of him" and the Court appointed Thomas Kimberley, Francis Browne and James Russell "who are taylours and can best give light on such matters, to consider of it ... and declare to ye Court what they thinke in the case." "They concluded that Jnº Bracie staye here and be at the Courts dispose and that M' Stanborough alow 40$ towards the buying him cloathes." (New Haven Historical Society; Ancient Record Series, Vol. i, 312, 325.)


After obtaining his freedom young Bracey went to sea, and in 1664, at Wethersfield, his mother's home, giving his age as "twenty-foure yeares or thereabouts" he makes a deposition describing a voyage which he made in the ketch Hope early in 1663, from the Piscataqua River bound for Milford, Connecticut. The Hope ran into a violent storm, sprang aleak and finally, when water and food were nearly exhausted, made port in the island of Nevis, West Indies. During the height of the storm Bracey was "fasned Downe in the Cook roome" by the


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captain's order and remained there three days. (Supreme Judicial Court Mss., No. 746.)


In 1661 John Bracey had sold his interest in the Wethersfield homestead to his mother and stepfather, and for forty-five years from the date of his Hope deposition his name disappears from the Connecticut records. There cannot be the slightest doubt but that he is the John Bracey, tailor, who lived during this period at York, Maine, a few miles to the east of the Piscataqua River, where his unfortunate voyage began. His name first appears on the York records in 1673, when the town made him a grant of land, and the ten preceding years, which are unrecorded, may have been spent at sea. He married Mary Pierce, a daughter of John Pierce, a York fisherman, at about the time of his town grant.


Bracey's career at York was turbulent and far from creditable, characteristic of the ne'er-do-well and the irresponsible. In 1673 Bracey was accused by John Morrall of stealing nails, but was acquitted through lack of evidence. In 1677 he was sued by Thomas Bragdon for shooting a hog and was assessed damages and costs, but upon his petition ten shillings of the costs were remitted by the court. In 1678 he was presented for stealing a pair of shoes, and, ignoring the summons, was admonished and sentenced to sit in the stocks for one hour, which penalty he finally escaped by paying the officers' fees. For "cast- ing severall reflecting speeches upon the Rev. Mr. Dummer" in 1686 Bracey and Sarah Anger were each sentenced to make public acknowledgment of their offense or to receive ten lashes at the whipping-post. He was accused of being a common liar in 1691 by John Penwill, and in 1698, being presented for cursing, he was ordered to be "set in ye Stocks at York" for three hours. The authorities recognized his "quality," as far as possible, and usually gave him the minimum penalty or a remission.


Mary (Pierce) Bracey was living in 1683, when she witnessed a deed from Thomas Withers of Kittery to Joseph Berry of Piscataqua. She probably died before 1696, when "John Bracey of York, Taylor," gave a blanket deed of all his land, housing and personal effects to Mr. Jeremiah Moulton. In spite of his offenses he had received from the town several additional grants of land in 1674 and 1685, one being situated "by John Pearce's


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home lot." It is a logical conclusion that the deed to Jeremiah Moulton was made to protect the interests of Bracey's son William, although the deed does not specifi- cally create a trust (Deeds vi, 88). Moulton later disposed of all the land, but how he applied the proceeds is, of course, not indicated. In 1697 Bracey and Malcolm Mac- Intire made an agreement to divide the real estate of their father-in-law, John Pierce (York Probate i, 39).


John Bracey was being "kept" as a town charge by Thomas Trafton in 1697 and 1698, for which he received a grant of land (T. R. i, 101). After this Bracey seems to have taken to the road and we find him in Salem, 1703 (Deeds x, 69), and later in Boston, where he was a town "guest" in 1707, and called "John Bracee, a poor dis- tressed aged man from the Eastward being found in this town liable to perish." Boston entertained him for fifty- five weeks ending June 20, 1707 (Mass. Arch. cclxiv, 39). Finally he made his way, or was furnished transportation, to his old home in Wethersfield, Connecticut, where on January 19, 1708-9 we may read the record of the death of "Mr. John Bracey, aged abt 70 as thought."


Thus at last this man who failed to live up to the tradition of his ancestors came into his own and was buried as a "gentleman." His only son, William, born about 1675, restored the family credit and became a respectable and self-respecting citizen. That the family recognized its honorable descent is evidenced by the fact that in four different lines of descent through female branches the name of Bracey was carried as a Christian name for several generations. The family genealogy appears in Volume III of this work.


JOHN WENTWORTH


This new arrival, late "of Cutchechah," where he was taxed in 1668, was son of Elder William Wentworth of Exeter, Wells and Dover and, coming here in 1675, bought the house and lot of Isaac Everett on the north- east side of the County Road (Deeds iii, 15). He lived here for ten years with his wife Martha and their children and had a land grant in 1686 (T. R. i, 87), and soon after removed to Falmouth. He was driven from there at the destruction of Fort Loyall in 1691, settling at Newbury.


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Later he removed to Canton, Mass. in 1704 and was dead before January 1710.


His wife Martha survived with children John, born 1676, Charles, born 1684, Edward, born 1693, Shubael, Elizabeth and Abigail. John Wentworth, his oldest son, was living in 1730 in Stoughton, Mass. (Deeds xvi, 52.)


JOHN PARSONS


The origin of this settler is unknown. On March 12, 1677-8 he was granted a lot of twelve acres provided he buy "the shoemakers house" and follow the "Trade of a Shoemaker" (T. R. i, 54). On it was a house built by John Knowlton between Henry Simpson and John Preble on the northeast side of the County Road (Deeds iii, 57; vii, 210). He followed the trade of shoemaker until his death which occurred in the Candlemas Day Massacre 1692, and an inventory of his estate showed property to the value of £62-17-00. His widow Elizabeth was granted administration of the estate November 1, 1692, with Wil- liam Hilton and Thomas Trafton as sureties (Ibid. v, 81; pt. 2, fol. 15). A genealogy of this family is given in Vol- ume III of this history.


THOMAS PAYNE


A number of persons of this name were living in New England at this period, one of whom might have been the settler of York, but he has not been identified. He first appears in 1679 as grantee of an unidentified tract next to William Freethy, and in 1683 of a tract "next behind Henry Donnell" (T. R. i, 60, 75). There he lived until the Candlemas Day Massacre 1692, when he and his wife were killed and his two children, Bethia born about 1680, and Samuel born about 1682, made captive and carried to Canada. She was redeemed in 1698, and in 171 I sold the family homestead (Deeds vii, 217). Nothing further is known of her or Samuel. As far as known Thomas Payne held no public office. He married a daughter of Henry Milberry.


DANIEL LIVINGSTONE


This settler appears here first as a witness to the sale of property in Scotland in 1666 (Deeds iv, 159), and as he bears a Scottish name it is assumed that he was one of the


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Scotch prisoners. He was again a witness in 1682 and in 1684 (Ibid. iv, 31, 48). Where he was in the intervening years is unknown, but by 1679 he had married Mrs. Joanna (Downham) Pray, widow of John of Braintree. In that year he and his wife made depositions about "Old Quinton Prays" occupation of a house in Braintree, Mass. (Baker Library, Ironworks Mss., fol. 449). It is probable that he went there to work where some of his fellow pris- oners were employed. He returned to York by 1682 and certainly before 1685, as on July 9 of that year he and his wife made a nuptial agreement about bringing "her too sonns & daughter with her to Yorke, whereby the said Daniel Livingstone & Johanna his wife & her three young- est children do unanimously Joyne togeather to build, plant fence & Improve that fourty acres of Land given him by the Town of Yorke" (Ibid. iv, 45). He lived in Scotland on this grant adjoining Robert Junkins on the northeast side of the County Road, which was given with a provision that he would "come to inhabit" (T. R. i, 235). He was killed by the Indians, with a boy, August 20, 1694, in an attack on York near the Maxwell garrison. As far as known he left no descendants, but his wife's children went to Kittery and settled there.


HENRY LAMPREY


This settler, whose name was also written Lamprill, is first noted as residing in Boston 1652 with a wife Julian. It is possible that he was from Cannington or Chilton Canteloe, Somerset, and had married a daughter of John Stone (P. C. C. 12, Soame). He removed to Hampton about 1660 where he and his descendants lived for two centuries. Either he or his son Henry (born 1641), prob- ably the latter, bought land in the Scotland district in 1684, but it is not believed that he remained here very long as the name is not found later in the records.


RICHARD BRAY


He was a son of Richard Bray of North Yarmouth, who was driven from that settlement in 1676 during the Indian War and came here with his family. Hannah Bray married John Freethy, William became keeper of the gaol, and Richard married, in 1691, Mrs. Mary (Sayward)


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Young, widow of Robert. He lived on the land of his predecessor, near the New Mill River, and was chosen in 1708 a sealer of leather, the only known office he held. No further record of him is available and he either removed or died early. He is probably the father of Samuel who had a land grant in 1712 and removed to Georgetown, Maine. A genealogy of the family appears in Volume III of this history.


WILLIAM BRAY


This settler was son of Richard of North Yarmouth and a brother of Richard Bray of York. He may be the William Bray who was a witness in Ipswich in 1662 to a sale of land in Wells (Deeds viii, 226). He is first of record here in 1681 as witness to a deed of William Freethy (Ibid. iii, 105), and in 1686 he was granted thirty acres "where he can find it" but no record of a layout (T. R. i, 87). He was appointed in 1683 gaoler and discharged in 1685. In 1690 he was again appointed "Keeper of the Goale at Yorke and is to be paide foure pounds p Annem as money" (Deeds v, pt. ii, 6). No further record of him exists and he may have perished in the Candlemas Day Massacre.




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