USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. I > Part 6
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. I > Part 6
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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
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ASHTON COURT NEAR BRISTOL, ENGLAND, WHERE SIR FERDINANDO GORGES SPENT HIS LAST DAYS
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SIR FERDINANDO GORGES
ruthless age, when heads fell from the block on the flimsiest accusation, nothing more than imprisonment was suffered by Gorges. How long it lasted is not certain.1 The queen's successor, James I, restored him on September 15, 1603 to his former post at Plymouth. His return to Plymouth was coincident with some of the epochal voyages of the deep- sea sailors of the West Country, and his adventurous spirit was filled with new visions of conquest. His active per- sonal connection with American colonization dates from 1605, when George Weymouth returned from his voyage to the coast of Maine where he had planted the cross of St. George near the present town of Thomaston. He brought with him five of the natives whom he had kid- napped. As our coast had been frequented yearly by fishermen from the western ports of England for an un- known period, the Indians had acquired a working knowl- edge of the English tongue from their contact with these sailors. The historical evidence of this is recorded by Bradford in his "History of Plymouth Plantation" in which he relates the visit of Samoset to the Pilgrims shortly after arrival at Plymouth. Samoset was an Abenaki living near Monhegan. It is therefore easy to understand that these Indian captives were able to converse in an intelligent way about the nature of their country, its climate, inhabitants and natural resources. Of the five captured Abenakis three were taken in charge by Gorges and the others by Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England. The three who were under the protection of Gorges bore the names of Manida, Sketwarroes and Tisquantum, and their agency in the great events which followed deserves mention in the history of American colonization. "This was," wrote Gorges, "an accident which must be acknowl- edged the means under God of putting on foot and giving life to all our plantations." It can well be understood that the sight of these natives brought across the Atlantic had a great effect in attracting the attention of the English public, and inspired men of influence to prosecute further
1 As an aftermath of this famous trial, it can be stated that a family feud was created between Gorges and the Earl of Warwick, the grandson of Essex. Both became members of the Council for New England, the former representing the Royalists, and the latter becoming a Puritan. As such Warwick balked every move of Gorges, culminating in the sale of Warwick's (now lost) patent to the Massachusetts Bay Company, which covered a prior patent to Robert Gorges, son of Sir Ferdinando, which had been issued five years previously, and precipitated the antagonism between them, as will be detailed in a later chapter.
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HISTORY OF YORK
designs to extend English enterprise on the Western hemisphere.
On April 10, 1606 King James granted two charters to two separate colonizing companies to operate in Northern and Southern Virginia, as then called, whose territory was specified to be within certain limits of latitude. Gorges was one of the charter members of the Northern Company,
IRAQ
MARPARRANO.
SKETCH OF INTERIOR OF THE GREAT HALL Residence of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Bristol, England
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SIR FERDINANDO GORGES
also known as the Plymouth Company, because its head- quarters were established at Plymouth where many of his assistants lived. Little time was lost by these men, now eager to take advantage of the royal grant, and four months later Sir John Popham and Gorges dispatched a ship with a crew of thirty-one men under the command of Capt. Henry Challons, which carried as passengers two of the Indian captives for use as guides after arrival on the Maine coast. Cape Breton was the first objective of this expedition, but for some reason never satisfactorily ex- plained Challons took a southerly course and had the mis- fortune to run into a Spanish fleet, which captured and took him and his vessel to Spain.
In the wake of this fruitless attempt Popham under- took a similar project with two ships and one hundred colonists with all the necessary supplies, utensils and ordnance required for establishing a plantation. These two ships, Gift of God and the Mary and John, sailed from Plymouth in the spring of 1607, and this expedition became known in history as the Popham Colony which settled at the mouth of the Kennebec. The fortunes and fate of this attempt at colonization need not be rehearsed, but it lasted only a year when it was abandoned. This new dis- couragement, caused largely by circumstances not con- nected with its purposes (the deaths of two of the principal promoters and the leader of the colony), served only to stimulate the eager Gorges to further efforts. Of this he wrote "all our former hopes were frozen to death " yet he could philosophize with White:
Experience hath taught us that, as in building houses, the first stones of the foundation are buried under ground and are not seen, so in planting colonies, the first stocks employed that way are con- sumed although they serve for a foundation to the work. (Planter's Plea, c. I.)
The financial losses attending these unsatisfactory voyages were great but this was not his only concern. These could be restored by later successful ventures, but he was deeply impressed with the imperial value to Eng- land of this work of colonization, and during the next seven years he used every opportunity, without being impor- tunate, of urging upon Cecil the national advantage of this work. The famous voyage of the equally famous Capt. John Smith to the New England coast in 1614
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HISTORY OF YORK
revived the dreams of Gorges. The principal ill report of America as a land where Englishmen could not live com- fortably was due to the stories of severe climatic conditions, and to counteract this he sent his faithful steward, Richard Vines, to our coast directing him to remain during the winter in order to prove that the land was habitable as well as fruitful. Vines demonstrated this in his camp at the mouth of the Saco in the winter of 1616-1617, and brought back reports which left no further doubt of its desirability as a home for English colonists. Gorges made the most of these favorable accounts. Thence forward events moved rapidly and without further hindrances. Fishing fleets financed by him and Sir Francis Popham, son of the late Chief Justice, came annually to our coast with great profit. Fishing and trading posts were established on the Maine coast by them, and on November 3, 1620, in answer to petitions of Gorges and his associates, an enlarged charter, with more ample powers, was granted to the Plymouth Company. Gorges became the most active member of the newly chartered organization, as he had been of the original one. About this time he became associated with Capt. John Mason, lately returned home from Newfound- land, of which he had been governor. Mason became a member of the Council and its secretary, and from that time the two men were closely associated in joint enter- prises which resulted in the first organized settlement of Maine and New Hampshire. Their first partnership was in a patent dated August 10, 1622 of all the country be- tween the Merrimac and Sagadahoc Rivers, extending from the Atlantic into the river of Canada (St. Lawrence) and including "the savage nations towards the Great Lakes." This territory was called the Province of Laconia. Picturesque contemporary maps indicated this territory as abounding in all the valuable fauna and flora, known and unknown, and its waters as teeming with shoals of curious fish. Merchants from London, Bristol, Exeter, Shrewsbury and Dorchester joined with these two pioneers in colonization to develop the trade in furs and fisheries as well as to stimulate further discovery and settlement. Damariscove Island became the port of entry and, pro- tected by a strong fortified palisado, it became a busy center of barter and trade with the natives. In 1629 Gorges and Mason agreed to make the Piscataqua River
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SIR FERDINANDO GORGES
the divisional line between their interests, each one having previously concentrated his activities on either side of the river, and thus came into being the two provinces of Maine and New Hampshire, which in turn gave their names to two New England states.
On Gorges side of the Piscataqua numerous patents followed in rapid succession, not necessary to describe here, and it only remains to state that his further connec- tion with these movements culminated in the final reward for all his costly and continuous work in developing his province as a home for English emigrants. On April 3, 1639 he obtained from King Charles a provincial charter incorporating uncommon powers and privileges. Terri- torially it extended from the mouth of the Piscataqua along the seashore to the Sagadahoc and Kennebec Rivers, and one hundred twenty miles inland, including the north half of the Isles of Shoals and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The northern limits extended to the mouth of the Dead River, and northwestward to Umbagog Lake, equal to about one-sixth part in area to the present State of Maine. This was a princely realm. Sir Ferdinando, his heirs and assigns, were made absolute Lords Proprietors, with the usual reservation of crown rights. Its ecclesiastical government was to be according to the usages of the Church of England, and the executive powers of the Lord Proprietor, or his Deputy Governors, were plenary. This memorable charter was more compre- hensive and extensive than had ever before been granted by the Crown to an individual. By its terms Gorges be- came an uncrowned monarch in a little kingdom of his own.
This is the story of the life of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, covering the period within which York had its birth, and the last years of his association with this town will be related in their proper sequence.
The domestic life of Sir Ferdinando included four mar- riages: (1) Anne, daughter of Edward Bell of Writtle, Essex, whom he married February 24, 1590 at St. Mar- garet's, Westminster. By this marriage he became a kins- man of Thomas Bradbury, one of the early settlers in this town. After thirty years of married life she died in 1620 and was buried at St. Sepulchre's, London. By her he had two sons, John, born 1593, and Robert, born 1595. The latter came to New England in 1623 to take up the govern-
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HISTORY OF YORK
ment of a patent in Massachusetts Bay within the terri- tory of the later patent granted to the Massachusetts Bay Company. He seems to have died without issue.
John Gorges married (1) the Lady Frances Fynes, daughter of the Earl of Lincoln; and (2) Mary, daughter of Sir John Meade, of Wendon Loftus, Essex. By his second wife he had a son named Ferdinando (1622-1718), the last of this distinguished family to have any official connection with the Province of Maine. It was his lot, after years of struggle with the usurping government of Massachusetts, to dispose of his patrimony for a paltry sum. His mural monument recites that "he was some- time Governor of the Province of Maine in New England."
Sir Ferdinando Gorges married (2) Mrs. Mary (Ful- ford) Achym, widow of Thomas, and daughter of Sir Thomas Fulford, Knight. She died shortly afterwards and he took for a third wife his cousin Elizabeth Gorges, daughter of Tristram Gorges of St. Budeaux, Devon, and widow of (1) Edward Courtenay and (2) William Bligh. She died within a year of her marriage and he married (4) another cousin, Mrs. Elizabeth (Gorges) Smyth, Septem- ber 28, 1629, daughter of Sir Thomas Gorges of Langford Castle, Wiltshire, by his wife Helena, Marchioness of Northampton. Elizabeth was the widow of Sir Hugh Smyth of Ashton Court, Somerset. By this marriage he acquired the beautiful estate of Long Ashton as well as the magnificent city residence of her deceased husband, called the "Great House," later converted into a school by Thomas Colston. There he had the honor to entertain his sovereigns, Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, in 1645, on their visit to Bristol.
The declining years of Sir Ferdinando were spent at Lower Court, or Ashton Phillips, which was probably the dower house of Lady Smyth. There he died in May 1647, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. This is an out- line of the story of the career of the life of the patron of York, covering the period within which the town had its birth. The last years of his association with it will be related in their proper sequence. He has been aptly called "The Father of American Colonization," and his name and fame will grow with the passing years among historians capable of discarding religious and political prejudices and recognizing the vision of a pioneer who struggled against the passions of his time.
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CHURCH AT LONG ASHTON NEAR BRISTOL, IN WHICH SIR FERDINANDO GORGES WAS BURIED
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CHAPTER VI THE MANOR OF POINT CHRISTIAN
With all the elaborate paraphernalia prepared by Gorges for the management of his affairs here, in both provincial and local interests, it will be seen that he did not omit the one characteristic feature of English life in his programme - the Manor. It was the foundation of the land-holding system of the nobility and gentry of Eng- land, from time im memorial, and the bulwark of the social distinctions of English life. He transplanted this custom and inaugurated it in York.
When Capt. John Underhill was gathering material about 1636-7 relating to New England, which he published under the title "Newes from America" (1638), he made the following observation about the Bristol Plantation: "Aug- umenticus is a place of good accomodation, it lyes five miles from Puscataway river, where Sir Ferdinando Gorge hath a house": (p. 26). From this contemporary evidence we may be certain that Gorges' own statement "I have a house and home there," (Briefe Narration 50) relates to the manor house which was built as early as the first- named year and probably was originally constructed about 1634 when Thomas Bradbury came here as his representa- tive and steward of his Manor of Point Christian, now called Gorges Point. Its original name, adopted by Gorges, might well be revived. That such a manor ex- isted, the only one known in Maine, is amply established on the authority of Gorges himself. In a deed to Francis Williams (1642) the conditions of tenure were thus speci- fied: "To be holden of the said S' Ferdinando Gorges as of his Honour, Mannour, Lordshipp, or house within the said Province of Maine commonly knowne by the name of Poynt Christian" (Deeds i, pt. 3, p. 5). We are fur- nished by him with further interesting references to this Manor House. In a letter to Francis Windebanck, Secre- tary of the Privy Council, dated Ashton January 28, 1639-40 he shows that this house had been completed prior to that date, and speaks thus of it:
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HISTORY OF YORK
Having receaved (let)tres out of New England I perceave had I not obteyned the graunte I lately gott from His Majesty (3 Apr. 1639) I should not have beene Mr of more then I ocupied with my servants, and those entrusted by me in that parte my house stands in, (the rest beinge challenged som by one right som by another) and som of those flyinge to the Governors of the Bay for authority to order theire affayers (as if they alone were the supreame lords of that part of the worlde) and therefore howe I shall speed in my Resolu- tion to make good His Majesty's Royall graunte, God that only Governs all actions knowes. (Col. State Papers, x, 55.)
The exact location of this Manor House on the point of land bordered on the southeast by New Mill Creek is
SITE OF THE MANOR HOUSE OF POINT CHRISTIAN Remains of Cellar shown by cross.
established by tradition and the depression yet remaining where the cellar existed. It is on a slight elevation and an estimated cavity about fifteen feet square identifies the cellar. This does not indicate the size of the Manor House, as cellars at that period were never excavated the full dimensions of the building. They were used only for storage of vegetables and were entered from the outside and were usually under one room only. It may be sup- posed that the house may have measured twenty by thirty feet and possibly slightly larger. It was occupied at first by Thomas Bradbury and his family from 1634 to 1636 when he removed to Salisbury. Its subsequent tenants for the next four years, until the arrival of Thomas Gorges, are not known, and indeed it would seem that it may have been unoccupied, unless it was used by William Gorges, Deputy Governor (1636). It is traditional and doubtless
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THE MANOR OF POINT CHRISTIAN
the story is well founded that Gorges, when he reached here in the summer of 1640 to take possession, found it "in a state of great dilapidation and its furnishings missing; - nothing of his housedhold stuff remaining but an old pot, pair of tongs and a couple of cob-irons"(Wil- liamson i, 283). A modern writer has published the fol- lowing statement (1906): "Not long ago while tearing down a chimney in one of the old houses of York, and embedded in the back curve of one of the flues, the work- men found an old pewter teapot. The bottom of this old utensil showed signs of having been recoppered, and it bore the marks of considerable use, the lid having been frequently mended. On the inner side of the lid were the figures '1644' and also the letters 'Fer Gor,' and from these it was easy to conjecture its former ownership. To my mind there is no doubt that this is the identical teapot which Thomas Gorges found here when he came to assume the administration of affairs" (Sylvester, "Romance of Old York," 94-95). The site of the cellar has been many times dug over for relics.
Such was the forbidding aspect of the Manor House which he had expected to become the official residence of the Deputy Governor of Maine and the prospective Mayor of Agamenticus. We are accustomed to imagine a Manor House as a picturesque building with elaborate interior decorations and furnishings appropriate to its character. However close this one approached that conception in style and furnishings originally, we can assume that the young Deputy Governor, astonished at its neglected con- dition, promptly restored it to a habitable state as it was his home for the following three years. When he in turn left it in the summer of 1643 its subsequent occupancy is not known from any existing record.
The business interests of the Lord Proprietor were left by Thomas Gorges in the hands of Roger Garde, as his agent, "to lett & sett his Whoole estate . . . till such tyme as hee came himselfe againe" (Deeds i, pt. 2, f. 14). The death of Garde in less than two years removed that guardi- anship, and the successor, if any, is unknown. Thus by unforeseen circumstances the Manor House was left to the tender care of the elements, unless, perchance, one of the servants brought over by Gorges, Christopher Rogers or William Davis who remained behind, assumed custodian
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HISTORY OF YORK
duties. However, they soon left Gorgeana. Its subsequent history partakes of the general story of the collapse of the Gorges interests in Maine during the Civil War and fol- lowing his death. Robert Nanney, brother-in-law of Edward Rishworth, in 1647 entered suit against Gorges for a debt and was awarded the verdict. The record of this proceeding under date of March 26, 1647 is as follows: It is ordered (by) this Court that the Province Marshall shall deliver Robert Nanney posetion of the howse and ground of Sir Ferdinando Gorges for his securitie for a debt of eleven pounds untill the Generall Court: and Robert Nanney to have the use of the ground and what he doeth make of it to give an account to Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges or his Dep:
On October 18, 1647 the Court ordered that Nanney should have "an extent upon the house and land of Sir Ferdinando Gorges as two indifferent men shall judge it untill his debt of eleaven pounds starling be payd." By this date the old knight had been in his tomb at Ashton Phillips five months and beyond the realm of worldly debts. This property was placed in the care of Edward Rishworth by Nanney as his agent. Nanney died in 1663 and Rishworth remained in technical control of the house and land, which he presumably managed for the benefit of the widow. In 1678 Massachusetts acquired by purchase the legal title to the Province of Maine in fee simple, and thus became heir to the Gorges property in York and a party to this unsettled claim, now thirty years old. The land belonging to the Manor House was entirely sur- rounded by the holdings of Jeremiah Moulton by this time, with no legal access to it, except from the creek or river. Undoubtedly Moulton refused a right of way through his property, and desired to force sale of it to himself, but the Nanney title was not perfect. Hence it is presumed Moulton began encroachments or trespass. Rishworth appealed to the Provincial Court and on May 30, 1682 got confirmation of his possessory rights, and fol- lowed this up with the following "Caution":
Mis Katherine Nanny haveing a good & Legall Interest of a Cer- ten Poynt of Necke of land, lijng at Yorke in the Province of Mayne, comanly Called by the name of Mis Gorges Poynt, Containing about 12 : or 20 Acres of Land bee it more or less, as executrix to her first husband Mr Robt Nanny deceased, till a debt of Eleaven pounds Sterlg was fully satisfid, as appeareth by a Judgt granted for the same at a provinciall Court houlden at Pischataq(ua) poynt for sd Province
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THE MANOR OF POINT CHRISTIAN
October 18th 1647 : which by sd Rishworth was possessed & Inproved severall years from the right of the sd Robert Nanny/
Edw : Rishworth in behalfe of the sd Katherine Nanny alias Nailer, Enters Cawtion to secure the Interest of the sd Land according to the aforesd Judgment & against the acknowledgement or Entering the Record of any Deeds for any Persons whatsoever relateing there- unto, untill the eleven pound Sterling as above sayd bee duely satisfied & payd/
Entered this 29th Janu : 1683 : (Deeds, iii, 139.)
The Province having been reorganized by Massachusetts as "Lord Proprietor," Deputy Governor Thomas Dan- forth cut the technicalities which tied up this remnant of the Gorges estate and on December 27, 1684 sold it to Jeremiah Moulton, describing it as "Land on Gorges Poynt, which Land formerly belonged to Sir Ferdinando Gorges as Proprietor" (Ibid. vi, 27). As no mention was made of the house, it may be assumed that it had fallen in ruins, as it was then half a century old, and probably uncared for during many years past. Thus passed out of sight, and almost out of memory, the Manor House of Point Christian. But not so Rishworth. He has left on record his final caution against the disposal of the prop- erty, dated July 25, 1685, as follows:
Edw:Rishworth in behalfe of Mrs Katherine Nanney alias Nayler, executrix to the Estate of her former husband, Mr. Robert Nanny, Deceased :
Entereth Caution to save harmless the Interest of a poynt or Parcell of Land commonly called by the name Mr. Gorges Poynt, lijng in Yorke, Province of Maine, which Land was granted according to a Judgment of Court Beareing date October 18th, 1647: by extent to the sd Nanny for a debt due him from the Lord Proprietor of Eleaven pounds Sterling: & delivered into the possession of Edw: Rishworth in sd Nanny's behalfe, which sd Rishworth Injoyed some years: Namely the sd land taken from him & Detained by Jere; Moulton, the right whereof was afterwards restored to him by the Court of pleas May 30: 1682: & upon an appeale, at the next Court of appeals following, Thomas Danforth Esqr, then President of that Court on that tryall Cast the sd Rishworth & tooke away that land from him, & sould it to sd Moulton for Twenty pounds in silver, the half of wch money hee promised then to sd Rishworth, to Issue that difference, but now refuseth to do it, either to let the sd Katterine Nanny have the Land or satisfaction for it/ (Ibid. iv, 43).
Whether Danforth had any legal right to transfer this land, or whether any of that "silver money" ever reached the hands of Rishworth are questions left to some future historian of York to solve. It remained Moulton prop-
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HISTORY OF YORK
erty ever after. A singular circumstance in connection with the Gorges Manor is that it was never mentioned as a bound for any other property.1
Undoubtedly, the full extent of the Manor lands of Point Christian embraced everything between New Mill Creek and Bass Creek, thence extending northeast to the limit of the Grand Patent. When Massachusetts usurped the government and hence claimed ownership of the soil in York, in November 1652, these officials doubtless told the local selectmen to go ahead and divide the personal holdings of Gorges in this particular division. The ink was scarcely dry on the signatures to the Submission before they began carving this property into house lots. On December 8, 1652, John Davis, the smith, and William Garnesey were given ten acres each bordering on the New Mill Creek. On July 2, 1653 they granted John Pearse ten acres on the south side of Bass Cove. On July 4, 1654 John Smith was granted an additional ten acres. On November 22, 1658 Edward Rishworth was granted twenty acres, and three years later seventy-four additional acres belonging to Gorges, thus making him an interested partisan and profiteer against the Gorges interests. July 4, 1659 Thomas Moulton was granted twenty acres and thus all that was left was a small remainder of about fifteen acres on which the Manor House itself stood. This was promptly seized on execution for an alleged debt (as has been explained) and Rishworth occupied it to his own profit.
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