USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. I > Part 33
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. I > Part 33
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20. Trial continued.
21. The Indian woman convicted of murder and sentenced to Death.
22. (Sunday).
25. Town Meeting today. John Woodbridge Moderator. Chose jurors for the next Court of Comon Pleas and Quarter Session.
26. Jo. Young bought 4 @ on Ferry Neck of young Henry Simpson.
29. (Sunday).
30. Isaac Stover bought 10 @ of Webber the Carpenter at Cape Neddick.
JULY.
I. Daniel Simpson the County Treasurer says the Province Tax of this town for the present yeare is £8-14-09 beinge Three Pounds less than Kittery. Inferior Court opened today. Not many present.
5. Abraham Tyler of Scarborough was published to Esther Sayward 358
A JOURNAL OF OCCURRENCES
the Deacons daughter but tis said she does not favor him and the marriage is doubted by many.
6. (Sunday).
IO. We heare the Throat Distemper which broke out last May in Kingston N. H. is now very mortal in many townes in that Province.
13. (Sunday).
15. Surveyor Sewall laid out some lande near the Berwick Line for Jo. Thompson.
16. William Beal had a son born today which he named Obadiah for his father.
Elias Perry sold 20 @ on the S.W. Side to young John MacIntire. 17. The Dog Dayes are beginning now.
20. (Sunday).
21. The Generall Court has appointed halfe of the courts to be held at Falmouth hereafter.
24. Patience Boston the Indian woman who was convicted of murder last month was hung today on Stage Neck. She spoke very penitently and stepped off the cart without hesitation. Parson Moody and his son Joseph relate her remarkable conversion before execution. A sad affair.
27. (Sunday).
29. Joseph Moulton sold a Marsh lott to Nathaniel Donnell and 2 @ on Sentry Hill formerly belongeinge to his wifes father. Jasper Pullman also mortgaged his house lott to Donnell.
Joseph Plaisted Esq bought of Thomas Pickering 7 @ on Ferry Neck.
30. Ebenezer Coburn the Shippwright who removed to Durham N. H. sold his interest in his father-in-law Spencers estate to John Cole today.
AUGUST.
I. It is told in last News Letter that a woman sat in the stocks in London for 2 Houres for swearinge upwardes of Two Hundred Oaths.
3. (Sunday).
6. A child was born to Rowland Young (son of Job) last night. Did not heare what it was.
9. Deacon Sayward bought a third of the old Abraham Preble lott in Lower Town.
IO. (Sunday).
II. There has been much rain this month and it is feared will spoil the Hay.
13. Francis Beatell and Mary Banks were married today. She is daughter of Lieut Moses of Little River.
15. One hundred yeares ago was the Great Storm when the Angel Gabriel was wrecked at Pemaquid and many other vessels lost in the same storm. Parson Avery was miraculously saved with his wife on Thatchers Woe. There be much poetry and writinge of songs about it.
17. (Sunday). Very high tide today.
359
HISTORY OF YORK
20. The Throat Distemper is come here from Kittery and is very fatall scarce any surviving who are attacked.
21. Two Children died today of the Distemper.
22. Another Death today.
24. (Sunday).
25. Last week 120 Irish passengers arrived at Portsmouth among whom we heare there are Persons of Substance.
26. Deacon Thomas Bragdon of Scotland had a son born named Daniel.
29. Moon very red tonighte.
31. (Sunday).
SEPTEMBER.
I. The Distemper continues with more Deaths all young children. Those attacked have much fever and Weakness with gray patches in the throat which become putrid with much Mortification and they soon die with much difficulty of breathing.
4. Town Meeting today Samuel Came Esq Moderator. Chose a juror to serve at the Generall Sessions of the Peace to be held at Falmouth the first time there.
5. Quite high tide today.
7. (Sunday) Prayers in Church for the affliction that is uppon us.
9. Elias Perry is very sick and made his will today soe I hear. Dr. Bennett informs he cannot live long.
II. Child born to William Babb I heare a son.
13. Severall more children have died of the disease.
14. (Sunday).
15. Severall more children have died of the Distemper which now goes to the Eastward. We alsoe heare itt has come to Boston.
19. Samuel Webber left a large Estate the Appraisors brought in £1124-3-0I. He came here from Gloucester many years ago with his father and has been a prudent manager of his Mills.
20. Eclipse of moon tonight Began about Half past Seven through at Ten.
2I. (Sunday).
22. The Distemper carried off two children last night.
24. Hoare frost last night.
25. There is much commotion about Counterfeit bills of New Hampshire Money putt forth by one Patten of Wells which he saith was made in Ireland and he accuses two of this town of havinge some of the forged bills from him. William Mortimer who left Town recently and is now in Gaol in Boston is said to be one of his partners. Tis said that a man named McDonald gott the work done in Dublin.
28. (Sunday).
OCTOBER.
I. Daughter born to John Witham named Lydia. Estate of Elias Perry was appraised today by Samuel Sewall and Diamond Sargent. He left £149-05-10 a good amount for a Laborer but he was a Sober prudent man.
360
A JOURNAL OF OCCURRENCES
5. (Sunday). Daughter born to William Milberry which is called Ann.
7. Son born to Samuel Sewall at the Ferry named David. He is the seventh son of his father who was also a 7th son. If he grows up he will have power to cure diseased as tis said. Inferior Court met today.
9. Aleck Junkins had a son born today which he is to call after himselfe.
II. More Deaths from the Distemper the last week.
12. (Sunday). Mr. Moody prayed for those who have been Afflicted and besought God to spare further Punishment for our sins. Few present: all with the sick.
14. Distemper continues here and elsewhere and a Day of Fasting and Prayer is called here and in many Towns as we learne.
18. One Caleb Young gave in to the Town Clerk his intentions to marry Julian Reardon but she forbid the Publishment.
19. (Sunday).
20. Birthday of His Majesty George Second of the name. Went to the Green Dragon in evening where Loyall toasts were drank to his health and to all the Royall Family. Not much spirit owing to the Distemper.
Col Johnson Moulton deeded to his son Joseph the 6 @ Lott in Lower Town left to him by old Jerry Moulton: alsoe all his Plate Jewels Rings &c alsoe his house lott on Meeting House Creek.
23. Town Meeting today. Deacon Sayward Moderator. jurors for a Speciall Court of Assizes.
Chose
24. Son born to Edmund Black named Edmund.
25. Mr Ames in his Almanack saith Venus is now the Morning Star.
26. (Sunday).
27. Deacon Sayward sold the Preble Lott in Lower Towne to John Mitchell of Kittery.
29. Seven yeares ago was the Great Earthquake which shooke all of this Province mightilie. Itt lasted two days in severall quakes.
31. The Special Court of Assizes appointed to try the case of Counter- feits of the Colony of Connecticut Bills is dissolved. Tis tho't the Trial will be held at next Assizes. Two of this town are mentioned in it.
NOVEMBER.
2. (Sunday).
5. Heavy froste last night. Tis thought this will check the Dis- temper. We learn that in the storm of yesterday a schooner of Marblehead was wrecked on the Whaleback and several drowned. The Mastr and some others saved were badly frozen.
9. (Sunday).
II. The Judge allowed Nathaniel Leman will today and approved his Wife as Executrix.
12. Abel Whitney and Mary Cane were married today.
13. Thanksgiving Day. Parson gave us a sermon about our Bless- inges.
361
HISTORY OF YORK
14. The Distemper has got as far as Cape Porpus and carries off a greate many Children. The whole Country is alarmed.
16. (Sunday).
17. Surveyor Sewall laide out the new Ministerial Lott of One Hundred acres in the stated comon in Second Parish Boundes.
19. Caleb Norwood made his will today I heare. He is the Innholder on Alcocks Neck.
23. (Sunday).
25. Mr. Nicholas Sewall was throwne from his Horse today while riding out and was Picked upp Unconscious and never spoke. He died in a few houres. He was 45 yeares of age and left a Wife and Ten Children the youngest only a yeare old.
27. Nathaniel Chapman and Miriam Young were married today.
28. John Cane was married to Mary Favor of Kittery.
30. (Sunday).
DECEMBER.
I. Have been afflicted with Sore Throat for the past few days but through Divine Mercy I am much better today. I had a slow Fever and much Difficultie in swallowing. I heare that itt at- tacks some grown people but not with such Severity. I thinke I took it from a neighbours child who died lately as I was there as watcher at night.
3. A light fall of Snow today.
6. Quite a heavy fall of snowe today and the ground now well Covered.
7. (Sunday) Went to Church today to give Thanks for my Re- coverie.
IO. Very cold today. Heare provissions are scarce in Boston.
14. (Sunday) Parson Moody preached Acceptably today on Punish- ment of the wicked which never endeth. The coals in my foot stove went out before the Long Prayer was finished The bread rattled Sadlie in the Communion Plate.
17. Another fall of Snow with High Winds.
20. The intentions of Benjamin Welch and Martha Connaway of Agamenticus Districte were published today alsoe those of Nathaniel Freeman and Mary Perkins.
2I. (Sunday).
23. John Heard of Kittery and Mariah Bradbury married today.
25. John MacIntire bought 40 @ of John Linscotts house lott at Huckleberry Plain. Mr. Moody drew up the deed and his wife was a witness.
26. A Town Meeting was held today in the New Town House to choose triall jurors for the Inferior Court next month. Alsoe there was a Parish Meeting afterwardes att which Deacon Harmon was Moderator They voted to sell Parson Moodys Negro who hath not been of good Service and to Hire a man in his Place to attende on him.
28. (Sunday).
31. I praise the Lord he has spared me through this Presente year in health.
362
CHAPTER XXXII YORK IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY TIMES
THE POVERTY OF THE TOWN
While wars and rumors of wars occupied the front pages of the newspapers of the Province for threescore years of the eighteenth century, the civil life of the people went on about as usual except during the first few years, despite these military distractions and the necessary requirements of military protection. Naturally this was accomplished under continuous hardships. The Selectmen in 1703 in a petition to Governor Dudley and the Council recited their financial and economic difficulties for the past fourteen years:
"Our Land at p'sent doth come Short of Produceing our bread Corne. Our Mills a wholy useless, wee are taken off from our Im- ployem *: have lost much Corne and Hey in our remote Skirts this Summer, Wee have borne almost an Equall Share with Pressed Soldiers, in Watching and Warding. And Wee have Lost every Way in runing the hazard of Venturing to our ungarison'd houses, our Stocks left, are our Chief Livelyhood, and if you take away them wee shall not be able to subsist."
They requested that their taxes which the Massachusetts officials, safe from such conditions, laid on them as if ordinary peaceful existence obtained in Maine, be reduced to their means to pay. Again the next year they repre- sented that they had been "Restrained following their Labour, for their Support and a Livelyhood, that for the year past they have not been able to Raise a tenth part of the bread-corn necessary for their Subsistence, and are Required notwithstanding not to Quitt, but Maintain their Post. And furthermore are Assessed in the last Year the Sum of Eighty Pounds by this Honourable Court."
In view of this callous attitude towards them the townspeople seriously considered abandonment of their homes as an extreme measure if their representations went unheeded. "Or at least," they asked, "that they may have Permission to remove from their hazardous Post, without forfeiting their Interests. there, and Seek their Safety and Support in such other Parts of this Province as
363
HISTORY OF YORK
they shall be Directed to." This reference to a possible request for permission to vacate the town without loss of their property has been explained in Chapter XXVII, "The Struggle for Existence, 1692-1712," in connection with the Province law which prohibited the settlers of York abandoning their town during the Indian troubles.
In 1705 the Representative from the town to the Gen- eral Court, Lewis Bane, memorialized it for relief of the hard-pressed people, notifying the Massachusetts author- ities that "they will be very shortly constrained to desert the province." He said that there were two years of back taxes which they are not able to pay while they are ordered to live in garrison houses and their own homes and lands are "going to ruine."
RETURN OF TWO OLD FAMILIES
In 1713 a great grandon of Ralph Blaisdell, who had settled here in 1635 and removed to Salisbury in 1640, came to the former home of his ancestor to resume con- nection with the town. This was Ebenezer Blaisdell, born December 29, 1686, son of Ebenezer Blaisdell, Sr. of Ames- bury, a cooper by trade. It is possible that his grand- father Henry Blaisdell (1632-1705), who left here when he was eight years old, had told him of the beauties of their first New England home and he was thus encouraged to take up his residence here. At all events, with Ralph Farnham, he bought land on the west side of Capt. John Pickering, August 27, 1713, extending from the river to the Kittery line. In 1716 they divided their purchase on which Blaisdell had already built his home.
He married about January 1713 Mrs. Abigail (Inger- soll) Lewis-Junkins, widow successively of Morgan Lewis and Joseph Junkins, and daughter of John and Deborah (Gunnison) .Ingersoll of Kittery, by whom he had eight children. The genealogy of this family appears in Vol- ume III.
In 1718 Wymond Bradbury and his sons Wymond, Jr. (born 1695) and John (born 1697), descendants of Thomas Bradbury, one of the earliest settlers of Agamen- ticus, also came to the old town to take up their residence here. Their grandfather had left it eighty years ago to settle in Salisbury, where they were born. The father was a cooper and they became prominent citizens leaving 364
YORK IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY TIMES
descendants who continued the family record with honor. John Bradbury took up his residence on Ferry Neck and carried on farming and carpentry, while Wymond lived in town and carried on the cooperage trade with his father. In 1727 the latter leased from the parish a small plot of land on the Glebe, near Nicholas Sewall's tannery, "where the ministers barn formerly stood," for a term of twenty or thirty years, paying to the minister as a quitrent "One Well Buckett yearly." In 1730 he assigned this lease to his son Jabez Bradbury of Fort Richmond, near Bruns- wick. (Deeds xiii, 205).
VISIT OF THE SUPERIOR COURT JUSTICES
The town had the honor of receiving the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of the Superior Judicial Court of the Province in May, 1719. They arrived here by the way of Spruce Creek, and "got comfortably to Mr. Wood- bridges (tavern) about sun-set." These visitors were the famous diarist of the Colonial period, Samuel Sewall of Boston, Benjamin Lynde of Charlestown, Addington Davenport of Boston, and Edmund Quincy of Boston. They came to hold Court. Chief Justice Sewall was a cousin to Rev. Samuel Moody and lodged at the parson's house where he "had a very good Chamber and bed." He noted in his diary "the wonderful mercy of God in pre- serving this new house from destruction by fire." On his return his other cousin Samuel Sewall took the Judge "over the river in his canoe" (Diary iii, 220).
IRON ORE
About 1720 there appeared in town a Mr. Caleb Spurrier who was a London merchant and called himself in various documents a "Cymester" and a "plummer," which being interpreted freely signifies a chemist or a metallurgist. He was interested in the possibility of developing mines and minerals in this country and came to York with that idea in view. The town at a meeting held on March 13, 1721/2 granted him, for a period of twenty-one years
Leave and Liberty to digg, Raise or open any Places of Mines or Minerall in any Place or Places in York Commans; not damnifing the highways: for ten shiling p. tun, he first entering into bonds with two such men as the town shall appoint on their part for the payment of said money : and five shillins p. tun for Iron Oare. (T.R. i, 423.)
365
HISTORY OF YORK
Capt. Peter Nowell and Mr. Richard Milberry were chosen to take this bond to secure the payment "for val- luable oare before he Carry it from said Commans, and on March 23, 1721/2 Spurrier executed this instrument and probably began to "digg, Raise and Carry of any Mines, minerals or oare" in accordance with his contract (Deeds x, 270). It is not improbable that there might have been bog iron in the swamps in the northwest part of the town and it is known that limonite (Yellow ochre), exists on the shore of Tonnemy Pond, but where he dug his "mines" is not known, nor the success he had in his enterprise. It is not probable that either "Cymester" Spurrier or the town profited much by his scheme. He is later found in 1725 living in Portsmouth and in 1727 in Boston. York seems to have escaped being the scene of a Comstock lode.
DIFFERENCES AMONG CANINES IN CHURCH
It may be expecting too much from a people leading a pioneering life on the frontier to look for any well-devel- oped sense of humor in the management of their business affairs. The attendance of dogs at church worship fur- nishes an excellent example of the solemnly ponderous way our ancestors took to deal with those unruly members of dogdom, who so far forgot themselves and the sanctity of the place as to indulge in unseemly scraps, during the long and soul-harrowing sermons of Parson Moody. In- stead of ordering the Sexton to kick them out of the build- ing they went to the extremity, in 1734, of producing "An Act for Preventing Dogs coming into the Places of Public Worship in this Town in Time of Divine service." This fulmination against them reads as follows:
Whereas, It is an Indesent thing the Dogs should be Suffered to come into the Place of Publick Worship in Time of Divine Service, & is often the occasion of great disorder & disturbance by their Quaraling & fiting &c. Therefore - Voted & enacted that if any Person, after the first day of April next, shall Suffer his or her Dog to come into either of the Places of Publick Worship, in this Town, in time of Divine Service, the Person so offending shall Forfeit and pay to the Use of the Poor of the sd Town, the Sum of Five shillings be Recovered by the Overseers of the Poor, before any of his Majes- ties Justices of the Pea: in this County." (T. R. ii, 10)
Any dog who failed to obey this injunction could be classed as a cur, but it is certain that the boys were de-
366
YORK IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY TIMES
prived of a strong incentive to go to meeting and enjoy the dog fights. It is safe to say that they understood these shows better than the theological disquisitions of the pulpit.
WILD HORSES
It appears that in 1735 the number of horses in the town had increased to such an extent that many of them were allowed to run wild in the unsettled back country. They were described as "not serviceable & fit for any good use or good for a Markit, which eat much of the Fead that might nourish a Better Bread of horses." These wild horses were of under size and evidently of poor stock, and the town authorities wished to secure a type "more Serv- iceable & profitable to the owners & consequently for the Publick." Accordingly the town passed a law penalizing the owners of stallions who allow them to run at large after the age of one year unless "Fourteen Hands High." It cost delinquent owners twenty shillings for violating this order and the poor of the town were to profit by the fines. (T. R. ii, 68.)
THE THROAT DISTEMPER 1735-6-7
The historic epidemic of diphtheria had its start in New Hampshire in 1735 and spread rapidly in all directions covering the entire New England states within two years. It reached York in the fall of that year and spread from town to town like a prairie fire. A day of fasting and prayer was held in this parish in October as it had spread as far as Cape Porpoise by that time. It was generally called the canker sore throat on account of the ulcers which accompanied its more malignant forms. Adults were not entirely free from it. Parson Smith of Falmouth fell a prey to an attack of this disease but survived and in his journal wrote: "Not one has lived that has had it of late." In the issue of February 5-12, 1736, the News Letter said: "The Distemper rages afresh again at York, and visits the same Houses where it had already been." For three years this pandemic pall hung over York and the Province after its first deadly assaults, and broke out with renewed severity in 1737. The same writer enters in his journal that year: "It proves mortal at York and Wells." There must have been a hundred deaths in this town from this disease.
367
HISTORY OF YORK
WOLVES
It may be a reminder to the present generation to recall the danger our ancestors underwent and the losses they suffered from the attacks of these vicious canines, which made traveling by day a problem and the nights hideous by their howlings around their dwellings. In 174I the town offered a bounty of one pound for the head of a wolf trapped or killed in the town limits, a sum equivalent to nearly fifty dollars in our present money, and is an evidence of the price they were willing to pay for relief from their depredations. When a head was brought in the tongue was cut out, to prevent duplication of claims, and then exhibited hung up on the meetinghouse as an encouragement to others to help rid the town of their presence. This bounty was continued yearly as late as 1800, almost within the knowledge of the fathers of the present old people.
STRAY FOOT WARMERS
As a means of keeping themselves comfortable in the refrigerating atmosphere of the unheated meetinghouse, during the winter Sabbaths, portable foot stoves were invented in this period. They were constructed of sheet iron fashioned in the form of a cube, about a foot in all its dimensions, supported by a frame work of wood, and supplied with a metal handle for convenience of trans- portation. The sides of iron were perforated with small holes, usually in some formal design, to allow the radiation of heat from the inside, furnished by smouldering char- coals.
It seems like losing a bass drum to speak of these affairs being left in the meetinghouse by their owners, but such had been the neglect to remove them after the conclusion of the day's services, that for fear of the danger of fire the Selectmen, in 1748, were instructed to promulgate a town ordnance fining the delinquent owners and forfeiting the stoves to the use of the poor of the town.
THE ELEVEN LOST DAYS IN SEPTEMBER 1752
During the month of September 1752 the almanacs used by the people here underwent an epochal change, as also throughout the British Empire. As it affected York
368
YORK IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY TIMES
in the same degree it is proper to describe it. As explained in another chapter the calendar used by England was dif- ferent from that in use on the continent of Europe and had been for a century and a half, to the great confusion of everybody. Finally England surrendered to the inevitable, and pursuant to the Statute of 24 George II (1751), Cap. 23, Parliament decreed that January 1, 1752 should be the first day of that year and so thereafter. But still another alteration was to be made. Astronomers and mathematicians of Europe had been making calculations on the passage of time in the centuries past, and arrived at the conclusion that there had been an error of a certain number of days which should be taken into account in the new calendar. Among these savants were many scientific men belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, or its religious orders. The decision was to cut eleven days from this year, and September was chosen for the surgical operation. The day following Wednesday, September 2, was called Thursday, September 14, an excision that was little understood by the mass of people, and many be- lieved that in some way the Pope had stolen those eleven days from them for some ulterior purpose. This was a popular cry in Europe and England, but whether York indulged in this form of superstition is not known. As a consequence nothing happened or is of record here Septem- ber 3 to 13, inclusive, as they never existed.
HURRICANE IN 1752
The Boston News Letter of July 23, 1752, contains an account of a severe hurricane which visited York the pre- vious week, and from the description it is clear that the center of the storm passed directly over the southwest side of the town. The report of it states that:
The Wind then blew with great Violence N.E. and shifting to S.E. laid the Corn &c level with the Ground in many Places, but soon re- turned with the utmost Fury from the N.W. so that within the Compass of about a Mile and an half on a Neck between Broad-boat Harbour and the River, there are two or three Barns torn all to pieces and laid in Ruins; part of the Roofs of several Dwelling Houses rip'd off and carried 10, 15, and 20 Feet distance and dash'd to pieces; one Barn of 40 by 30 was mov'd whole and doubtless would have been carried much further but was stop'd by a large Rock: This violent Hurricane was attended with severe Thunder and Lightning, and great Rain; The Extremity lasted about 10 or 15 Minutes.
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