USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. I > Part 5
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. I > Part 5
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
It can thus be confidently stated that this date may truly be called the birth year of York. Its first house was built that year. This first building has been called a "frame house, " (Williamson, History of Maine, i, 677), but it was undoubtedly a rough log cabin, which cannot be glorified into an elaborately finished structure, with glazed windows, brick chimney and plastered walls and ceilings. It can be pictured according to our knowledge of the facilities at hand for such an undertaking. The date was prior to the settlement of Boston by Winthrop's party, while the Province of Maine existed only in the terms of an unsealed parchment charter. The nearest human habi- tations were on the Piscataqua River, and saw mills were not in operation or erected anywhere at that time. The axe and adze hewed down and faced the felled timber for the walls, and the roof was probably thatched over a framework of saplings or small hand-sawn logs. Carpenters from the settlement at Piscataqua must have done the actual work of construction, for Godfrey himself was not an artisan. His previous occupation as a merchant scarcely fitted him for the part of a traditional pioneer. Clay dug from the banks nearby, or from the tidal flats, was daubed into the chinks between the logs to keep out the wind and rain, while oiled paper served as the translucent film in substitution for glass in the rough window frames. For a chimney and fireplace we cannot conceive anything more elaborate than one built of flat field stones held together, perhaps, by cement, or more likely by smoked-baked clay. Imagination does not give us much encouragement in try- ing to depict the interior furnishings. It is not correct to
42
EDWARD GODFREY
say that the first planters had none of the ordinary neces- sities of domestic requirements. Ships in greater numbers than we have record of were, from the first, bringing over the simple utensils found in every English cottage, and furniture for the chambers was of first concern in the trans- portation plans of the emigrants. We must not suppose that the courage which brought over the first families lacked foresight to provide, at the least, the minimum of home comforts for the conveniences of housekeeping.
The location of this first house built in York is even more interesting, and the site can be fixed with almost absolute certainty from the corroborative evidence of many documents, collateral circumstances and tradition. It has always been supposed that Godfrey's house was situated at what has long been called Godfrey's Cove. It is true that he lived there after his second marriage with the Widow Ann Messant, about 1640, but that property was hers, obtained by mortgage from the original grantee George Burdett, and Godfrey acquired only titular interest in it by the law of couverture. It is not certain that he actually resided there, as this land was known as "Mr. Godfrey's farm," while he never alienated his original house lot of 1630 on which he had built this first house.
An examination of the sketch map shown here will ex- plain the locality much clearer than descriptive text and it can be seen that the founder of York built his house on the tongue of land, as it then was, bounded by the river and Meeting House Creek, south of Lindsey Road. The precise spot cannot be fixed, after three centuries of occu- pation by man with the consequent alterations of contour by later building operations, but it is probable that God- frey selected a place near a spring, which formerly existed there, as one of the first considerations in the pioneer's view was the convenience of access to potable drinking water in sufficient quantities, and this spot answered that prime requisite.
It is to be understood that Godfrey had obtained only a squatter's right to this land by first occupation, for this territory had not yet been allocated to patentees by the Lord Proprietor. It is a safe assumption to say that God- frey had verbal permission to take up land anywhere in the Province, pending the establishment of definite patents by metes and bounds in the process of opening up this
43
Edward Johnson 1632
POINT
BOLLEYNE
EDWARD GODFREY 1630
Spring
Walter Norton 1631
Present line of High Water
1630
----
L-
Original bed of the Creek
Present line of High Water
LOCATION OF GODFREY'S FIRST HOUSE, 1630 Showing situation of his earliest neighbors.
44
EDWARD GODFREY
region to emigrants. At least that is exactly what followed. His priority of habitation was tacitly recognized when the first patent was issued a year later to the grantees of the Agamenticus charter, although he was not named as one of them. He became an associate some time later, and in the division of the land in severalty one of his shares cov- ered the land where he had originally built his home.
How long Godfrey remained the solitary occupant of this house, or shared the solitude of the soil of uninhabited Agamenticus it is not now possible to state with any assurance. Col. Walter Norton must have come here after the arrival of the Puritans in Boston, and his experiences with their treatment of his neighbors in 1631, for the atmos- phere created by those theological fanatics was impos- sible for one who had fought for years for his king and was loyal to the church established by law. Nor is it known who then constituted his "family," if any of them had accompanied him hither to his new home, for he was then married and had children. There is no hint that they came over at this time, and we may fairly con- clude that this house was a pioneer's home erected for a trading post as well as a domicile for himself, with tem- porary accommodations for such early prospectors as we know were visiting the newly organized province. It is certain that at some unknown date, but prior to 1636, Leonard Hunter, John Barrett, Richard Ormesby, George Newman and Rice Howell had lots near Godfrey and that Edward Johnson, who had been in the country for seven years, was settled across the Lindsey Road, a refugee from the invasion of Puritan Massachusetts, like Norton. That these men, Hunter, Barrett, and Newman, had houses on their lots need not be argued, for it is of record that they had sold them and gone elsewhere before 1636, and that their places were occupied by later settlers. One lot was given as a dowry to a bride in this period, and that trivial fact alone confirms the postulate that closely following Godfrey's selection of Point Bolleyne in 1630 as his perma- nent home a well organized community was established on the river of Agamenticus. The steps taken in the organ- ization of this company of pioneers and squatters into a body of recognized occupants of the soil, living under Eng- lish laws and customs, with the approval of their king, will be told in another chapter.
45
HISTORY OF YORK
In a deposition before the Admiralty he states that in 1616 he was a merchant's factor in Sicily and had held like positions in Egypt and Venice.1 In 1621 he was again in London acting as executor of his mother's will and at this date became an adventurer financially interested in the colony founded by the Pilgrims at Plymouth. In November 1622, as "of London Merchant," he was plaintiff in a chancery suit relative to the family properties in Kent (P. R. O. Chan. Proc. C2, James I, Series i. G.I/4).
Cocheche
the fall
Weghechewanck River
the Bay
comenticus
Hilton
afcataque Ruer
Strawberry Banke
he boreshead
J Lands of Shoulds
qualunque IR
Merimock River
SECTION OF WOOD'S MAP OF NEW ENGLAND, 1633 Showing Agamenticus and vicinity
About this time (1622-23) he married. The date and place are unknown, but it was probably at Seale, Kent, ten miles from Wilmington, as the bride was Elizabeth, daughter of William Oliver, a well-to-do resident of that parish, the owner of property there, as well as in the adjoining parish of Sevenoaks. The loss of the register of Seale deprives us of any knowledge of her age or family. She was living at the date of her father's will, 1634, and he bequeathed personal property to her and "her children
1 He was called as an expert witness in this particular suit to testify relative to the mercantile customs in foreign ports with reference to vessels carrying gunpowder, ordnance stores, etc., and the berthing of ships arriving after nightfall.
46
EDWARD GODFREY
except money in her husbands hands," without naming him (P. C. C. 59 Sadler). The issue of this marriage, be- sides two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, was an only son Oliver, born 1624, of whom more will be heard later, as he came to York when about eighteen years old.
SIGNATURE 1626 ADMIRALTY RECORDS
In March 1624 he was assessor for Wilmington in the subsidy for that year. (Exchequer K. R. "".) In Novem- ber 1626 he was called "of London Mercator," and his fine signature to a document (H. C. A. Dep. Bk. No. 45), the earliest yet found, is here given to be noted in comparison to the last one written thirty-seven years later. In 1627 he was again assessor for Wilmington in the subsidy for that year (Exchequer K. R. ") and on October 8, 1628 he deposed as a "merchant" residing in the parish of St. Andrew Hubbard, Billingsgate Ward, London (H. C. A. Exam. Bk. No. 47). This same year he was assessed .also in London, same parish, on " "goods" of the taxable value of three pounds, probably personal property. This closes all that is known of his life in Eng- land as disclosed after years of searching through all avail- able existing public archives of London and Kent. It carries the story through 1628 and, as 1630 is the year he gives as the date of his first coming to York and building a home here, it is evident that he must have already decided to leave the Old England and try his fortunes in the New England between those two dates. Living as he did near London Bridge, below which ships were fre- quently cleared at the Custom House for these trans- atlantic settlements, the finishing touches were, doubtless, there and then given to his zeal for personally joining these pioneers and planters.
Doubtless the record of "A Voyage made into New England begun in 1623 and ended in 1624," published by Capt. Christopher Levett in London, 1628, came under
47
HISTORY OF YORK
the notice of Godfrey at this time. It is known from sub- sequent documents that Godfrey was an omniverous col- lector of books and maps of the New World, and it is not too much of an assumption that Godfrey then read in this volume Levett's opinion of the "great river called Agua- menticus" where he thought "a good plantation may be settled for there is a good harbour for ships, good ground and much already cleared fit for planting of corne and other fruits." There it lay ready for the taking and, as it happened, this was where Edward Godfrey staked his claim. In London he came in contact with Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason and learned of their enter- prises in the recently chartered provinces of Maine and New Hampshire. We can only surmise the train of events which led to his emigration, whether undertaken as a per- sonal venture or under the patronage of the two Lords Proprietors of these provinces. Godfrey was then about forty-five years old, rather beyond the age for enduring the physical hardships of hewing forests for the habitation of man. It is a task for the twenties rather than the forties, but we shall see that he overcame this natural handicap, soon grew into local leadership, and in twenty years had risen to the highest political gift at the hands of his pro- vincial associates. It is presumed that Godfrey sailed for his destination in 1629 or early in 1630. It is not improb- able that he may have gone as a fellow passenger with Col. Walter Norton who was later to become a townsman of Godfrey, but who chose at first to settle in the Massa- chusetts Bay. In this voyage to the New World he took with him, as far as known, only a nephew, John, son of his brother William, a youth of but eleven years who was ere long to meet a tragic death.
Whatever the actual facts of the purpose and details of his migration may be it is nearer the probabilities to say that he made his choice of a temporary abode at Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth), where the Laconia Com- pany had its headquarters. This company was under the management of Capt. Walter Neale, another Londoner, doubtless known to Godfrey, and from this convenient point he could investigate the possibilities and advantages of settlement, and select a favorable location for starting a new and untried career. His decision became an epochal choice for him and an historic one for this town.
48
EDWARD GODFREY
Having established the facts of the connection of Edward Godfrey as the first settler of the town, the natural sequence of the story suggests the inquiry as to his person- ality and origin. Already some material for illustrating this phase of the story exists in print, principally relating to his career in Maine, published many years ago,1 but subsequent researches by the author have added largely to our knowledge of his ancestry, his mercantile career in various parts of the then known world, his London life and the record of his death. It is not the purpose of this rela- tion to magnify his connection with the founding of this town and his later official activities culminating in the governorship of the province into an epic of heroic pro- portions, nor to stress the pathos of the last years of his life in an unsuccessful struggle with powerful political wreckers of his government, but to present in the course of this history the facts which sufficiently furnish a justi- fication of his extraordinary record.
His ancestors for at least four generations were resi- dents of London, of excellent standing, citizens and free- men of the various guilds of that city. The earliest one known is alleged to have descended from Godfrey le Fauconer of Hurst, co. Kent in the reign of Henry the Second (1154-1189). He left two sons, of whom the younger, Oliver, born about 1480, was a graduate of Ox- ford 1505; Master of Arts 1507; Bachelor of Divinity 1519; and became Vicar of Penshurst, co. Kent. His will of May 17, 1550 provided for his burial in St. Paul's Cathe- dral "yf I dye wthin the Citie of London," but it appears that he was buried in the church of St. Mary Alderman- bury, September 3, 1550, the parish where his nephew Thomas Godfrey lived.
Thomas Godfrey, the eldest brother of Rev. Dr. Oliver Godfrey, was born about 1470, became a citizen and gold- smith of London and resided in the parish of St. Michael le Querne. His will dated July 18, 1527 names his wife Anne and son Thomas who was the grandfather of our first settler. This Thomas lived in the parish of St. Mary Aldermanbury, and had been a court letter-writer and became a crown officer by patent in 1542, serving five
1 "Edward Godfrey, his Life, Letters and Public Services 1584-1664," by Charles Edward Banks. Privately printed (50 copies) 1887. See also New England's Vindi- cation by Henry Gardiner 1660, Gorges Society 1884, edited by the same author.
49
HISTORY OF YORK
sovereigns - Henry VIII, Jane Grey, Mary, Philip and Mary, and Elizabeth - as Kings Remembrancer of the First Fruits. By wife Joan he had seven children 1540- 1553, and was buried February 27, 1579 in his parish church of St. Mary. Of these seven children the fourth, named Oliver, baptized March 10, 1546-7, by his mar- riage about 1566 with Elizabeth Toye became the father of twelve children, 1567-1596, of whom the ninth child and fourth son was named Edward, born 1584, the founder of York. Elizabeth Toye, his mother, came of an equally well-situated family, long residents of the parish of St. Faith, under St. Paul's Cathedral.1 She was the daughter of Humphrey Toye, called a merchant in the Heralds Visitation of the family (Harleian Mss. 1548, folio 99), but it is believed that he was a stationer by occupation, which at that time meant a printer and publisher of books. The Toye family of St. Faith's were members of the Sta- tioners Company long before and long after this date, but owing to the destruction of the registers of that parish in the great fire of London in 1666, it is not possible to give further details of the maternal ancestry of York's first citizen.
Oliver Godfrey, his father, evidently had inherited sufficient wealth to be independent of trade in London and he is therefore always called a "gentleman" in the records. In 1569 he acquired by purchase leases of two properties consisting of glebe lands in the parishes of Wilmington and Sutton-at-Hone, Kent, for a term of sixty years and, as the last baptism of his children at St. Mary's is in 1582, he probably then removed to Wilmington where he after- wards resided until his death. He had bought the estate known as "Barnend" in that parish and there, in 1584, was born his fourth son Edward, the subject of this ·memoir. Oliver Godfrey died intestate and was buried in the chancel May 3, 1610, and Edward was granted admin- istration of his estate the nineteenth of May following. His mother, surviving, continued to reside on the Barnend estate for the ensuing eleven years and died January 21, 1621, and an incised brass floor tablet with figures having labels with inscriptions and a coat of arms formerly ex-
1 This designation is due to the fact that it occupies the crypt of the Cathedral and was a regular parish in all respects except having a separate church building. It was commonly known as "Faith under Paul's."
50
EDWARD GODFREY
isted to mark their last resting place. This is ample evi- dence of the social standing of the Godfrey family that they were accorded sepulture in the chancel - an honor only granted to the nobility and gentry. Of their four sons, brothers of Governor Godfrey, Vincent, the eldest, died in Brabant (Belgium), probably during the wars in the Low Countries; Thomas, second son, died young; William, third son, became a resident of London, marrying Cicely, daughter of Thomas Hopkins, citizen and salter; and John, the youngest son, was a master mariner living in St. Dunstan's, Stepney. He married in 1619 Agnes, daughter of Capt. Robert Stevens. Of all the family but one son of Edward survived to perpetuate the name, as will be explained later, and this narrative will now revert to the main thread of the story of the founder of York before his emigration to New England.
ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH,
WILMINGTON CO OF KENT, ENGLAND. MERE . GOVERNOR. EDWARD. GODFREY WORSHIPPED SAND HIS PARENTS VE BURIED WITHIN
Edward Godfrey was born and grew to manhood in the latter half of the reign of England's greatest queen. These years had been made famous by the marvellous extension of her empire through the brilliant exploits of Drake, Raleigh and Gilbert. Doubtless he had seen if not known one or more of them and, in common with all of
51
HISTORY OF YORK
the visionaries of that age, he had heard the stories of these famous navigators urging their picturesque ships through unknown waters unto the strange harbors of mysterious countries to set the English flag as token of possession.
When he had reached his majority King James had come to the throne and in a few years Virginia was begin- ning to be colonized. He could get first-hand information about this new country beyond seas for in the parish of Sutton-at-Home, where his landed inheritance lay, there lived Sir Thomas Smith, the Treasurer of the Virginia Company. We need not go far to seek the inspiration that led this youth to drink deeply of the wine of adventure which finally led him to cast his fortune in this same New World. The printed and verbal tales of the voyages of Gosnold, Pring, Weymouth and Popham added their fuel to feed the venturesome spirit which animated every young Englishman of that age. In 1605 he had reached his majority and it is probable that he went to London to seek a vocation that should meet his desires and ambi- tions and this developed into a mercantile career. In 1613 the City Chamberlain of London, by one of his preroga- tives, annually utilized, nominated him for the freedom of the Guild of Mercers (one of the twelve great companies) by service as late apprentice to William Mallory, and thus he became a freeman and a citizen of the metropolis. He was then thirty years old. From this point it is necessary to construct his developing career by fragmentary bits of evidence collected from various sources. Evidently he soon entered into the business of a merchant adventurer, prob- ably influenced by Sir Thomas Smith who was connected with the overseas trade, Governor of the East India Com- pany and prominent official in the Muscovia, French and Somer's Islands Companies, and it is known that he became engaged in trading in the Mediterranean ports and the Far East, probably a resident factor.
52
CHAPTER V SIR FERDINANDO GORGES, PATRON OF YORK
Fire: Gorges
It is not possible in this chapter to add any- thing new concerning the public-spiritedknight who regarded this town as his adopted American home and the future metropolis of his province.1 Nevertheless, it seems ungrateful to allow a history of the town which he was instrumental in developing, and to which he gave his name, to lack a special chapter recapitulating some of the interesting events of his civil and military career. Indeed this will be his only local memorial, beyond the half-filled cellar hole which marks the site of his ancient manor house, until such time as the town takes the matter in hand and erects some suitable monument to its knightly sponsor.
Ferdinando Gorges, founder of Maine and the patron of York, was the younger son of Edward Gorges, of Wraxall, Somersetshire, representative of an ancient and knightly family first ennobled in 1309 in the reign of Edward II. This early barony by writ fell into abeyance in 1344, and a second barony, conferred by James I in 1620, became extinct in 1712. Ferdinando's father died in 1568 when the elder son, afterwards Sir Edward Gorges, was four years old, and the date of the younger son's birth is tentatively placed as in 1565, the exact date and place not having yet been discovered. The great Queen Eliza- beth had occupied the throne for nearly a decade and already was forming vast imperial designs to extend British dominion overseas, designs in the development of which Sir Ferdinando was destined to take a part. Where he was educated is not known. He received the degree of Master of Arts from Oxford, probably nobilitatis causa. He seems to have embraced a military career early and
1 An exhaustive biography of him was published by the Prince Society entitled "Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine" by James Phinney Baxter, A.M., 3 vols. 1890.
53
HISTORY OF YORK
found opportunity to engage in the frequent wars on the continent. In 1588 he was taken prisoner, and three years later he was in France in the service of Henry of Navarre, being present at the attack on Noyon. On October 8, 1591 he was knighted on the field of battle before Rouen by Robert, Earl of Essex, and five years later he accompanied Essex on the Cadiz Expedition with the rank of colonel. Vines, his trusted steward, tells us that "the King of France fetched him from a breach, being wounded," as related by Gorges himself. "I have often heard him dis- course of those warlike actions," wrote Vines in a letter to Winthrop. Upon his return in 1595 he was ordered to take charge of the new fortifications designed for the defense of Plymouth, and in March 1596 he was gazetted as "Cap- tain and Commander of the new fortress" (an important military unit in the defences of the Channel), through the influence of Essex.
This appointment undoubtedly furnished him with the first suggestion of the possibilities of English dominion beyond the seas, for Plymouth was one of the great sea- ports of the West Country associated with the early ex- ploration of the almost unknown North Atlantic coast. Its borough records, even before the date of his birth, con- tain references to ships sailing to and arriving from those shores. As early as 1549 there is a reference to "newland ffyshe" brought from the American fishing grounds. From the masters of vessels obliged to report to him on their arrival from the New-found-land Sir Ferdinando learned of the wonderful country with its untapped resources on land and sea. Indeed we need not look further for the source and inspiration of his subsequent interest in this business which became his chief concern from that time to the day of his death, a half century later.
Unfortunately, the amazing personal politics, with all the extraordinary intrigues for power, which marked the end of the reign of the mighty Elizabeth as the sands of her life were running low, caught Gorges in the network of designing cliques, and the aged queen had him arrested and imprisoned in 1601, on the charge of being involved in the rebellion of the Earl of Essex, resulting in the behead- ing of her former favorite. Out of the charges and counter- charges, recriminations and defences, it is not easy to extract the unvarnished truth. At all events, in that
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.