USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Bristol > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 20
USA > Maine > York County > York > History of York, Maine, successively known as Bristol (1632), Agamenticus (1641), Gorgeana (1642), and York (1652) Vol. II > Part 20
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
219
HISTORY OF YORK
trouble ensued about rank and priority which could not be settled by the local officers, and those who thought themselves slighted carried their grievances to the General Court in the following statement:
To the Hon'ble the Council and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened humbly shew
The Subscribers, Militia Officers in three of the Companies in the Town of York in the Regiment of Foote whereof Ebenezer Sayer is Colonel: -
That the Field Officers for said Regiment in pursuance of the Militia Law divided the Town of York into Six Companies which till lately consisted of but four - that in this division, part of what was formerly the first company and part of Second Company, were joined together and made one new Company, which Company so joined were by the Field Officers ranked and stiled the first Company, and what remained of the first Company and Second Company were still left in two sepa- rate Companies and are now stiled the third and sixth Companies in the Regiment: Whereas according to all Military rule and order your Petitioners apprehend their respective Companies ought to have been ranked the first and third in the Regiment, and that Company afore- said made up from the first and second as it was younger in its forma- tion ought to have been stiled and ranked in the Regiment below all Companies that were prior to it in formation in the Regiment :--- That this arbitrary determination of the Field Officers, as your Peti- tioners conceive is to be has likewise justled another of the Companies in said Town out of their proper place and rank; whereby the men in three of the Companies in said Town are so uneasy respecting the matter that the Regiment is not in that state your Memorialists could wish for the Public Peace and Safety: that your Petitioners being the Officers duly elected by the three Companies aggrieved have remonstrated to the Field Officers and prayed their interposition that these matters might be speedily Redressed, but they have not as yet tho't fit to rectify the ranks aforesaid : ----
Therefore your Petitioners pray that your Honours would grant us such relief in the premises as to you shall seem most expedient: and your Petitioners in duty bound shall ever pray.
Abel Moulton Jun. Samuel Young John Bennet
Moses Sewall Henry Talpey Ebenezer Grant
Joseph Bragdon Jr. Charles Trafton
David Sewall of this town with Joseph Simpson and Caleb Cushing of the House were appointed a committee to see what was necessary to be done with this complaint (2 Maine Hist. Soc. xv, 88).
At this time Edward Grow was Colonel of the militia until his death in 1785, and he was succeeded by Josiah Chase, his son-in-law, in the same position. In October 1790 Judge Sayward notes that a "Company of the
220
TOWN MILITIA AND GARRISON HOUSES
Melitia met in this town and passed in review before the General & officers of the Courts of York" (Diary).
THE GARRISON HOUSES
In addition to providing a mobile defensive force, the colonists of York were obliged to establish retreats for the women and children during attacks by the Indians when continuous guerilla warfare developed into a per- manent policy of their enemies. These retreats came to be known as garrison houses and in the popular conception they are believed to be of American architectural design suited to defensive purposes against the peculiar strategy of the redskins. The overhanging second story has been endowed with qualifications for meeting attacks with scalding water or molten lead through openings which could also permit firing down perpendicularly on the attackers when they reached the building. It would puzzle one using a flintlock musket to keep his powder in the pan when trying such an experiment. The overhanging second story is an old English and French form of archi- tecture brought over here by the first settlers and has no original pedigree in New England.1 The scheme of drop- ping down missiles and lead from these projecting upper stories is as old as European warfare can be traced.
The garrison houses, or block houses, as they were sometimes called, were the larger and more substantially built private residences of the settlers, chosen for this pur- pose of common safety. They came into use in York as the result of the experiences of King Philip's War, the first time the residents really had need to consider methods of pro- tection. These houses were selected for their convenience as a rallying point for groups of settlers in different local- ities and came to be specially prepared for the purpose. Small openings or portholes were cut in the walls on all sides to permit the use of firearms under protection. The water supply was protected as much as possible as a prime necessity. As the hostilities became more intense some of them were palisaded and flankers added, as at the par-
1 The Emerson-Howard house in Ipswich, built in 1648 (circa), now standing, and the "Scotch"-Boardman house, built in 1651 to shelter the Scotch prisoners, taken at the Battle of Dunbar, both have the overhanging second story. They were built a quarter of a century before there were any troubles with the Indians, and neither town had any reason to anticipate attacks by them. These houses simply followed the pre- vailing customs of English architecture known to the settlers.
221
HISTORY OF YORK
sonage, but these more elaborate garrisons were of much later times. The first Indian outbreaks caught the settlers unprepared for defences of this sort and the larger family residences were first adapted for their needs.
The Second Indian War in 1689 is probably responsible for the garrison houses of York, as at the time of the Massacre there were at least four known to be used for that purpose: Alcock's in the Lower Town at Harmon Park; Preble's, near the present First Church; Harmon's on the Lindsay Road at Meeting House Creek; and Stover's at Cape Neddick. It is quite probable there were others but if so there remains no record of them before the beginning of the next century. The two examples of the local wooden fortresses surviving within the memory of the present generation are the so-called Junkins and McIntire garrison houses. When they were built is not only uncertain but there is no contemporary mention of them until 1708 and under other names. Of these two only one is still standing and in good condition after extensive restoration in recent years. This one, known locally and generally as the McIntire garrison, is located close to the residence of its owner and inheritor, Mr. John McIntire.
Alcock's Garrison. This is the first known house in York used for this military purpose as early as 1690 (Deeds v, pt. ii, fol. 6). It was the residence of Capt. Job Alcock and doubtless was converted by him to this use in emer- gencies. It became a refuge for the people in that locality in 1692 at the time of the Massacre.
Preble's Garrison. It is quite probable that this was used as early as the Alcock house but is not mentioned until 1691 (Ibid. v, pt. i, fol. 83). It was the home of Lieut. Abraham Preble and served the region known then as Scituate Row near where the Town Hall stands. It was a storehouse for military supplies for the town as well as a garrison house.
Harmon Garrison. This was in existence in 1692 ac- cording to the statement of Judge David Sewall in his centenary account of the Massacre. Doubtless it became a garrison because its owner, Johnson Harmon, or his father was a Lieutenant in the town militia. It is not mentioned, however, by any of the contemporary re- porters who visited the town immediately after the event.
222
TOWN MILITIA AND GARRISON HOUSES
Norton's Garrison. This house is only known through the above-named reminiscences of Judge Sewall, and it is not doubted that he had reasons for calling it a garrison house. It was the residence of George Norton, situated on the homestead lot of his father Henry Norton to the Southeast of the Town House. The testimony of Abraham Batten in 1749 confirms the use of his house for this pur- pose.
Junkins Garrison. This was one of the old type of over-hang houses which survived until recent years, until it was abandoned as a residence and fell prey to the elements, the relic hunters and the more practical purpose of converting its timber to present needs. The origin of
THE JUNKINS GARRISON
its reputation as a garrison house is in doubt. If it was used as a garrison at any time it must have been later than generally supposed, as it is not listed in 17II as one of the defensive refuges of the town when the authorities of the Province were preparing an account of them.
McIntire Garrison. As the last existing representative of these picturesque buildings it is necessary to place its origin, likewise, on the land of another settler, prior to the time it came into the possession of the McIntire family. There is a reference to it in 1692 but no record of it prior to 1707-8, when it was described as "the garrison Caled
223
HISTORY OF YORK
Maxwells garrison during the present warr" (Town Rec- ords i, 231). Alexander Maxwell, whose name it bore, was the earliest Scotch prisoner who came to York, and died between the date of his will in May 1707 and October of that year when it was probated (Maine Wills 150). Apparently during his last sickness he sold a part of his homestead on June 27 of that year to John McIntire, being certain land adjoining McIntire's home lot, bounded by "the orchard or garden of sd Maxwell where the Gari-
THE MAXWELL-MCINTIRE GARRISON (Before being extended and repaired)
son now stands" (Deeds vii, 87). This was known four years later as the Scotland Garrison, and bore that name considerably later, and as the homesteads of Maxwell and McIntire adjoined, this is documentary evidence show- ing the origin of the present "McIntire" garrison house. It is not probable that there would be three such refuges in the close proximity as would be the case if the houses of Maxwell, Junkins and McIntire were converted to that purpose. That there was only one in that locality in 1692 is evident from the letter of Capt. John Floyd who visited the town directly after the Massacre. In it he wrote: "I have caused all the Inhabitants to be in three garisons 2 at Yorke & the other at Scotland," plainly showing but one in that settlement. Rev. John Pike of Dover recorded
224
TOWN MILITIA AND GARRISON HOUSES
an Indian attack here in 1703 upon Arthur Bragdon's house "hard by the Garrison," in Scotland (Journal in N. H. Gen. Record iii, 100), and in 1709 the road leading from "Scotland Garrison" is mentioned (Deeds vii, 184). These furnish corroborative evidence that there was but one garrison house there, the Maxwell or McIntire.1
By order of his Excellency Governor Joseph Dudley, a committee was directed to make a survey of all the frontier garrison houses in Maine in 17II, and they re- ported the following in operation in York, with the assign- ments of persons to repair to each in time of danger or alarm:
YORKE.
No.
Garrison.
Fami- lies.
Men Inhab.
Soul- diers.
Souls.
I Cape Neddick
8
8
4
45
2 Mr. Daniels
6
9
2
26
3 Mr. Moltens
3
3
2
24
4 Capt. Preble
2
4
I
I3
5 Mr. Blake
3
6
I
20
6 Mr. Moody
3
2
2
15
7 Capt. Harmans
5
5
2
30
8 Abm Preble Esq'
8
IO
4
64
9 Tho. Adams
6
8
I
42
Io Andw Browns
4
4
I
22
II Mr. Plaisted
2
2
I
16
12 Edw Beale
3
5
O
20
13 Mr. Pentons
5
5
2
20
14 Scotland
7
7
I
35
15 Capt. Pickerings
5
6
I
34
16 Jos. Moltons
3
4
I
24
17 Samuel Cam
2
4
O
16
18 Ensign Bragdon
7
IO
2
40
19 Mr. Raines
I
I
0
12
20 Jos. Maine
2
2
2
IO
21 Mr. Allin
4
4
O _
20
89
109
30
548
Peter Newell has Lib- erty to erect a New One
Guards the Harbour.
The Store House.
A new one to be Erected between Cape Neddick and the Town being much for the Security of the Town.
Richard Milbury has Liberty to Garison Mr. Dummer house.
(Mass. Arch. lxxi, 871-6)
Of these twenty-one houses, Numbers 1, 12, 19, 20 and 21 were located at Cape Neddick or the west side of the river and will be described in their appropriate places. The other sixteen were located on the east side and their situations and other particulars of identity are here noted.
1 In the Boston News-Letter of April 9, 1711 is given additional evidence of the existence of but one garrison in that region. It recites the death of two men killed by Indians "about the Scotland Garrison."
225
HISTORY OF YORK
No. 2. This is Samuel Donnell who lived at the end of the Country Road as it turned towards Stage Neck.
No. 3. The house of Jeremiah Moulton on the water front at the foot of Varrell Lane.
No. 4. Captain Abraham Preble's residence north of The Emerson on the main street.1
No. 5. "Mr. Blake" is probably Samuel Black, who lived on the east side of Meeting House Creek.
No. 6. "Mr. Moody" is the parsonage occupied by Rev. Samuel Moody.
No. 7. This is Capt. Johnson Harmon who lived on the Lindsay Road at the head of Meeting House Creek.
No. 8. The house of Judge Preble of the Court of Common Pleas, and the original homestead of the family in Scituate Row, nearly opposite the cemetery.
No. 9. This is the residence of Thomas Adams situ- ated on the west side of Meeting House Creek and north of the Lindsay Road.
No. 10. Andrew Brown lived on Cooper's Lane on the west side of the road leading to the Mills.
No. 11. Mr. Plaisted is James who lived on Cider Hill.
No. 13. "Pentons" is probably a clerical error or a mistake of the committee and should be Painton (Payne- ton), the settlement north of Scotland. The house of Joseph Shaw is said to have been used as a garrison here. There was no one of the name of Penton who lived in York at that time.
No. 14. The garrison house was the Maxwell-McIntire building which is the only one now standing, as far as known, unless some one of them has been remodeled and rebuilt.
No. 15. Capt. Pickering was the owner of the mills on New Mill Creek and his house is intended.
I It has been suggested that this garrison, kept by Capt. Abraham3 (Nathaniel,2 Abraham1) Preble, may have stood in the "Great Stone Field," so called, on the Long Sands Road, a short distance westerly of the former location of the steam railroad. The family of Mr. George F. Preble of York has a tradition of a Preble garrison in that locality. The same tradition undoubtedly furnished the name of the "Garrison House," a hotel which formerly stood near the great boulder which gives the field its name. When the survey of the garrisons was made, in 1711, the land at the Long Sands had been owned by the Prebles for many years. Capt. Abraham Preble did not purchase the land northwesterly of "The Emerson" until 1710, and the deeds which passed to him make no mention of buildings (Deeds vii, 149-50, and viii, 1). But if we assume that the enumerator put down the names of the garrisons in the order of their location, then the location given by Colonel Banks must be correct, and Captain Preble must either (1) have taken over a house not mentioned in the deeds, or (2) have built a new house in 1710 -- II. L. M. B.
226
TOWN MILITIA AND GARRISON HOUSES
No. 16. Joseph Moulton lived at Cider Hill. His garrison was on New Mill Creek.
No. 17. Samuel Came lived on the main road near Bass Cove Creek.
No. 18. Ensign Arthur Bragdon lived in Scotland, where his direct descendant of the same name now resides.
It is probable that these garrison houses served their purposes during continuance of the Indian troubles and that no more were added to their number, as, in the thirty years following, the danger from Indian raids gradually diminished to the vanishing point.
227
CHAPTER XIV COURT HOUSE, GAOL, AND PUNISHMENTS
THE SHIRE TOWN
With the judicial system of the Province this history has no concern, except as it relates to the seat of govern- ment and sittings of the Courts. Almost from the first this town held that relation to the Province. It was more frequently used as the place where Provincial and County Courts were held than any other. In 1640 it was ordered that three sessions of the Quarterly Courts should sit at Agamenticus and one at Saco. After Massachusetts took over the government the sessions were held alternately at Kittery and York, but the presence of the County records, then kept by Rishworth, who resided here, automatically made York the shire town in practice. In 1668 the famous "military" court assembled here when Massachusetts used armed force to reassert her authority, and in 1670 John Josselyn, the traveller, called York "the Metro- politan of the Province," meaning its seat of government. The extent of the Province, however, with settlements miles apart, made it necessary to hold court sessions else- where, occasionally, to accommodate inhabitants living between Kittery and the Sagadahoc. In 1680 when the Charter government was organized it met in this town, and the courts also were held here for the following five years. The Andros regime caused a general dislocation of all gov- ernmental customs, but after his overthrow the courts re- sumed sittings at York. When the charter of William and Mary, dated October 7, 1691, came into operation all the former methods had to be revised to meet its provisions. Under the rearrangement of officials and offices, it was provided that the four sessions of the courts should be held in York and Wells alternately. The Indian wars, which followed almost immediately, with the destruction of York and Wells, turned York into a garrison outpost and interfered with orderly government for a decade. With the beginning of the resettlement of abandoned towns in Maine the old arrangement was resumed, but with the gradual growth of places further east there came
228
COURT HOUSE, GAOL, AND PUNISHMENTS
agitations for court sessions in that section, with the possibility of changing the location of the shire town. To forestall this the residents of York and Wells, through Lewis Bane and William Sawyer, in June 1717, petitioned "that the Town of York be now restored to their Right and Priviledge as the Shire Town of that County." (Journal, H. R. i, 217.) In November Abraham Preble, Richard Milberry and Samuel Came petitioned the Gen- eral Court that the Registry of Deeds may not be kept at Kittery, as it now is, but be removed and kept at York the Shire Town (Ibid. 237). The Town voted on February II, 1717-18 that Abraham Preble be chosen "to assist in the Towns behalfe to Git the Generall Corts Confirmation that this Town of York is the Sheir Town of this County of York, that so the Ridgistry of Deeds &c may be kept according to Law." In June 1718 the General Court acted on this matter favorably, and ordered "that the Registry of Deeds be kept and the Superior Court of Judicaturs &c be held henceforth in the said Town of York." (House Journal ii, II.) Thus York was confirmed in her ancient rights as the "Metropolitan of the Province." This situ- ation continued until 1735 when the growth of the Eastern towns made it necessary to recognize their convenience, and in that year Falmouth (now Portland) was authorized to share this honor. At the division of the county, in 1760, when Cumberland and Lincoln counties were set off from York County, which had hitherto embraced the whole Province, this town remained the shire town of the old county of York. In 1802 the town of Alfred was chosen to share the privilege with York as Falmouth had done previously. The courts were retained here until 1832 when, on account of the requirements of centraliza- tion from a geographical standpoint, Alfred was finally adopted as the shire town. The office of County Treas- urer had been removed there in 1813, the Registry of Deeds in 1816 and the Probate Office in 1820, together with the office of the Clerk of Courts.
COURT HOUSE
That Sir Ferdinando Gorges planned to build a Court House is certain from his letter of "Instructions" (the second set), dated March 10, 1639, in which he directed "that there may be a place appointed for the hearing &
229
-
HISTORY OF YORK
determining of causes, I have thought to assigne the same to be as nere as may be in the midst of that parte of the Province which is most inhabited, and that there be a house builte for that purpose at my one chardge if it can- not otherwise be setled." (Court Records i, 38.) As this town was in the centre of the "most inhabited" part of the Province, at that time, such a building may have been erected, but there is no record of it here or elsewhere.
It has already been explained that the ancient courts were held in the meetinghouses and as population in- creased the use of these edifices not built for the purpose became unsatisfactory and public opinion demanded that a suitable building be provided for this civil function. At a town meeting held December 5, 1733 the sum of £1oo was voted towards building a courthouse and on the 20th of the same month it was
" Voted that Decon Abiel Goodwin, Capt. Peter Nowell and Mr. Joseph Holt be a Committee to Joyn with the Courts Committee in carrying on this Towns Part in building a Court House in this Town."
The joint committee were authorized "to appoint a Place to set sd House upon." On January 28, 1733-34, the town took additional action as expressed in the following vote:
"That this Town will Joyn with the County in building of a Court House in this Town which House shall be for the use of sd County to hold Courts in & for a Town House for the use of this Town to meet in on all Publick Times if they see cause: The Dementions of sd House to be as followeth viz: Thirty Five Foot Long & Twenty Eight Foot Wide: Twenty Foot Stud: the lower Story Eight Feet & a Half high: the upper Eleven Feet and a Half, and the Beames of the Upper Story to be Crowning Eighteen Inches & to have a Pitched Roofe: both Rooms to be Plaistered & whitewashed and well Glaized with Sash Glass, and to be Finished with Joynery Work according to the direc- tions of the Committee that are & shall be appointed by the County & Town, and that the One Half of the Charges arrising in building & Finishing sd House shall be bourne by this Town."
Samuel Came and Jeremiah Moulton were appointed a committee to act on behalf of the town and their work was completed before December 26, 1735, as a parish meet- ing was held in the Town House on that date. This com- bined use continued until the beginning of the next century when dilapidations from age rendered it unsuitable for holding courts and the lack of accommodations for the bench and bar resulted in a transfer in 1800 and 1801 of
230
COURT HOUSE, GAOL, AND PUNISHMENTS
the sessions of the Supreme Court to Kennebunk. This gave that town an opportunity to start a movement to make the change permanent. This attack on the old shire town was resented by Kittery and Berwick as well as our own people and by the financial aid of county and town appropriations, supplemented by individual contributions from residents of this town, Kittery and Berwick, the pres- ent Town House was built for the same joint purpose as before, and removal was thus forestalled for a while.
THE COURTS
As the Shire town of the Province, York was the scene of one of the persistent relics of authority which the pioneers could indulge while they were hewing out the forests to make their habitations and extend their planting fields. The courts were contemporary with their coming and developed in externals and importance as the popula- tion grew. The sessions of the courts were held, of neces- sity, in such places as the town could afford, usually in the private house of the local Magistrate or in the Meeting House as soon as one was available. The law knew only this necessity which converted a temple of divine worship into a secular hall where men would wrangle on week days after they had bowed in prayer on Sundays. The several Meeting Houses in turn furnished this accommodation until the first Town House was prepared for the purpose.
In accordance with the traditional attitude of the Englishman, the Judges of his courts were generally objects of reverence for their office and respect for their persons. The Usurpation, which brought in Judges from Massa- chusetts, was a signal for a decline in this attitude owing to the intense political objections to their presence and the controversies which it excited. After the purchase of the Gorges' Patent this feeling of hostility gradually wore off and the coming of the Justices to hold courts of Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas was always the occasion of as much pomp and ceremony as the primitive conditions of life at that period permitted. The members of the Pro- vincial Court traveled from Boston and the local towns in Maine by horseback through woodland trails, fording rivers or crossing them by ferry when bridges did not serve.
The Shire Reeve or Sheriff was an important partner of the Justices in the administration of the law. His
231
HISTORY OF YORK
truncheon symbolized power and he was looked upon with almost as much awe as his superiors on the Bench, par- ticularly by those in the clutches of the law. In the pas- sage of time, when the changes in living conditions per- mitted development of more of the formalities of official life, the Sheriff was a picturesque figure in the business of the Court. In wig and cocked hat and surtout sparkling with brass buttons, knee breeches and buckled shoes he escorted the Honorable Justices from their lodgings at the Tavern to the Court House, and in impressive tones at the opening of the Court summoned the people to come and be heard. With a changed formula he announced the adjournments of the Court, as lunch or dinner closed this quarterly show for the townspeople. On special occasions the Sheriff would lead an escort of the Militia to meet the Justices at the Town line and convoy them to the Meeting House. The local occupants of this office were: Henry Norton (1653), Abraham Preble, Jr. (1713); fol- lowed by what might be called the Moulton dynasty, Jeremiah (1724), Jeremiah, Jr. (1752), Jotham (1771) and Johnson (1784-93). Nathaniel G. Marshall held the office from 1854 to 1857, but the glories of the office, in its spec- tacular phase, went out with wigs and buckled shoes, except that the silk hat, with its cockade, and the sword continued to be worn by the Sheriff on formal occasions until about 1860. The Sheriff of the County of Middlesex still opens Commencement exercises at Harvard College wearing this regalia.
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.