USA > Maine > Maine place names and the peopling of its towns > Part 6
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Kittery, 1647
One act of the court of elections held on October 20, 1647, was memorable: the erection of the Piscataqua Plantations into a town, the first in our present State of Maine, by the name of Kittery, which embraced the present town of that name, the Berwicks and Eliot.
The town of Kittery, Maine, takes its name from the manor of Kittery Court located on Kittery Point in Kingsweare, Devon, Eng- land, across the river Dart from the city of Dartmouth. The old manor house is standing. From Kingsweare the Shapleigh family, first settlers and proprietors of Kittery Point, Maine, came to New England. Colonel Charles Banks, to whom the discovery of the origin of the name is due, also mentions the word Godmorrock, an early name of the castle of Kingsweare, the home of the Shapleighs, which was given to land in Kittery, but remained for only a brief time.
Nicholas Shapleigh, the builder of the first house at Kittery Point, Maine, and the only emigrant to come in his own vessel, was a man of substance and influence. During the troublesome times of the changing governments in the seventeenth century in the Province of Maine, he was either elected or appointed to most of the offices in the hands of the government or the people. A loyal follower of Gorges and his King, as Provincial Councillor, he was, however, among the first to take the oath of allegiance to Massachusetts in 1652, where, by his weight of character and popularity, he became special commissioner for holding courts, county treasurer and sergeant-major of the York- shire militia.
Many of the first settlers at Kittery who were there as early as 1623 were fishermen, hunters, and trappers and workers in timber, which was easily shipped to England or the West Indies.
Captain Francis Champernowne was another Kittery pioneer. His birthplace was at Champernowne manor, Dartington Hall, ten miles above the home of the Shapleighs in England. The southern part of Kittery, Maine, was first called Champernowne's.
Three brothers from Wales, John, Robert and Richard Cutts,
*C. M. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History (New Haven: 1934), p. 428.
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were also early comers. Mr. Edward Godfrey had charge of a trading post in Kittery in 1632.
Among the other early settlers were John Andrews, Philip Babb, Mary Baylie, John Bursley, Humphrey Chadbourne, William Chad- bourne, Nicholas Frost, Charles Frost, William Everett, Thomas With- ers, Edwin Small, John Heard, John Edgecomb, John Fernald and Peter Wyer.
The first selectmen of Kittery, after its incorporation in 1647, were Nicholas Shapleigh, John Heard and Nicholas Frost; the town clerk was Humphrey Chadbourne, who held office for twenty years.
John Josselyn, writing in 1663, said: "Towns there are not many in this province. Kittery situated not far from Passacataway is the most populous." In 1652, when the people of Kittery submitted to Massachusetts, it was recognized as a municipal township and along with York received a guaranty of equal privileges with other towns of Massachusetts.
York, 1652
York, the second oldest town in Maine, was incorporated in 1652. It was in this locality that the dreams of Sir Ferdinando Gorges were centered. Here was the location of the capital of his province, or as Josselyn wrote: "a Majoraltie and the Matopalitan of the province." Here Gorges incorporated a borough or town of Agamenticus whose inhabitants or burgesses were given power to elect a mayor and eight aldermen annually. Being anxious to promote the best interests of the inhabitants, he executed another and more perfect charter in order to change the borough into a city. This was accomplished on March 1, 1642, when Gorgeana, the first city in America, came into being.
For more than ten years, the city acted in a co-operate capacity, managing affairs in a manner most beneficial to the people. Here was the manor house where Thomas Gorges, cousin of Sir Ferdinando, ruled with the commission of Deputy Governor from 1640 to 1643, a man of pure principles and fine ability, a lawyer by profession.
The first settlements of York were probably made about 1623. The small group of people living on the Agamenticus River, a salt creek characterized by wide marshes, were farmers, and the place was popularly known as Bristol, after the English city of that name. The Indian name of the river, Agamenticus, may be translated as "the little river, which hides behind an island in its mouth."
A copy of the original city charter, Gorgeana, is dated March 1, 1641. The first election of mayor and aldermen was March 25, 1642, and gives us the names of some early inhabitants: Thomas Gorges was mayor, Edward Godfrey, Roger Garde, George Puddington, Bartholo-
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mew Barnett, Edward Johnson, Arthur Bragdon, Henry Simpson and John Rogers, aldermen.
In 1652, when Massachusetts began to extend her jurisdiction over the province under a new interpretation of the terms of her charter, the name of the city and its status were changed to the town of York, to avoid the city charter and Gorges' right. The name York was borrowed from that of York in England, a city which was sur- rendered by the royalists to the parliamentary forces in 1644, after one of the most bloody battles in the Civil War.
Godfrey was mayor at this time, but he yielded gracefully and signed the articles of submission. The names of the associate judges appointed at this time, all inhabitants of York, were Edward Godfrey, Abraham Preble, Edward Johnson and Edward Rishworth. Henry Norton was sheriff, John Davis of York was deputy president in 1682.
But the ownership of the Province of Maine was still in doubt. In 1664 Charles II sent his commissioners who took Yorkshire from the control of Massachusetts and under the care of the King; but in 1668, by the desire of the majority of its inhabitants, it was returned to Massachusetts. In 1674 the King ordered that it should be given back to the Gorges' heirs who sold it to Massachusetts in 1677. In 1716 York was made the shire town of Yorkshire, which at that time was extended to the St. Croix River.
Wells, 1653
"Further to the Eastward lies the town of Wells" incorporated in 1653, as the third town to be established in Maine. Bourne in his History of Wells and Kennebunk says: "it was doubtless so called from an English city of that name in Somersetshire already mentioned as the shire or county in which Gorges lived." He also states that it is quite likely that Gorges himself named it, since Wells, England, was an important city, not far from Gorges' residence in Somersetshire, England. The Maine town was settled in 1642 or 1643 by the Reverend John Wheelwright, who was banished by the authorities of Massachu- setts in 1636, for his unorthodox religious sentiments. He purchased from Deputy Governor Thomas Gorges a tract of land which had been conveyed to him by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and on which he set- tled and preached acceptably to the people. Upon the penning of a very humble, sensible letter to the authorities of Massachusetts he gained the annulment of his sentence of banishment. During his brief stay of not more than three or four years in our present Wells he had served with Henry Boade and Edward Rishworth as one of Gorges' agents to lay out and assign lots to settlers, had built himself a small house not far from Cape Porpoise or Mousam River and a saw mill on the brook near his home. He also established the first church.
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The following appear to have been inhabitants of the planta- tion before its incorporation in 1653: Samuel Austin, John Barrett, Jr., Stephen Batson, Henry Boade, Robert Boothe, Joseph Bowles, John Bush, Nicholas Cole, Wm. Cole, Joseph Emerson, John Gooch, Wm. Hammond, Ezekiel Knight, Edmund, John and Thomas Little- field, Thomas Miles, Anthony, Francis and Francis, Jr., Littlefield, Philemon Pormotte, Edward Rishworth, John Saunders, Jonathan Thinge, John Wakefield, Wm. Wardell, Reverend John and Thomas Wheelwright, Wm. Wentworth, John Wadleigh and John White. These men may be called the founders of Wells.
Boothe acted as clerk of the plantation until his removal to Saco; he with others were followers of Wheelwright whom they highly esteemed and loved.
The first homes were near the site of New Island Ledge House, on or about Drake's Island and on the land between that and Little River.
At the southwesterly end of the plantation Edmund Littlefield had built a saw mill and a grist mill.
When the town was incorporated and had submitted to Massa- chusetts, Henry Boade, Thomas Wheelwright and Ezekiel Knight were appointed town commissioners, and these, with John Wardly and John Gooch, were designated selectmen; Joseph Bowles was clerk of the writs and Johnathan Thinge was constable. The Indian name of our present town of Wells had been Webhannet. When the town was incorporated in 1653, it included the present town of Kennebunk.
Scarborough, 1658
The sixth town to be established in what is now the State of Maine received its English name, Scarborough, in 1658. It was origin- ally settled at Stratton Island, Black Point and Blue Point about 1630. John Stratton, from whom Stratton Island takes its name, evidently located here and was engaged in fishing and trade with the Indians prior to the grant made to Cammock in 1631. That he had given his name to the islands before that time is evident, because the name was known in England and the islands are styled Stratton's Islands in the grant. The earliest legal proprietor was Thomas Cammock, the nephew of the Earl of Warwick, who was also his patron. With him as his associate was Henry Jocelyn, son of Sir Thomas Josselyn, and his brother John, who, while not a permanent settler, remained here for some time while writing of his voyages to New England.
When Massachusetts claimed jurisdiction over the Province of Maine, one of the articles of submission read: "That those places which were formerly called Black Point, Blue Point and Stratton's Island thereunto adjacent shall henceforth be called by the name of
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Scarborough." The name given was in remembrance of Old Scar- borough, England, situated on the North Sea in Yorkshire, England.
Henry Jocelyn was a royalist and a devoted Episcopalian; and when the first government was established in Maine in 1635, he was appointed one of the assistants. In 1639-40 he was honored by Sir Fer- dinando with a seat on the Board at his Charter council. When Rich- ard Vines, Deputy Governor, departed in 1645, Jocelyn served in that capacity. Through all the changes of government he proved himself valuable and reliable.
He was an eminent man and as often as occasion occurred, he espoused the provincial rights of Gorges. He was one of Maine's early gentlemen, at heart a loyalist, although when Maine came under the rule of Massachusetts he served as an associate.
John Josselyn, in describing these plantations along the coast in 1663, wrote: "Six miles to the Eastward of Saco and forty miles from Gorgina is seated the town of Black Point consisting of about fifty dwelling houses and a magazine or Doganne, scatteringly built, they have store of neat cattle and horses, of sheep, near upon Seven or Eight hundred, much arable and marsh, salt and fresh and a corn mill ... on the point are stages for fishermen."
Among the planters who settled near Cammock were Stephen and Ambrose Boaden, in 1640. Both built their houses near the Spur- wink. Ambrose Boaden had been captain and owner of the vessel in which Cammock came to America and received his land near Spur- wink in part payment for the passage. Boaden was for many years the Spurwink ferryman, having been appointed by the Court which fixed his charges "at two pence a person, reddy pay, but three pence if he were obliged to charge the same in a book."
The next principal settlement in our present Scarborough was at Blue Point in 1636. This was begun by Richard Foxwell and Henry Watts. Both took an active part in civic affairs, both were members of the General Assembly of Lygonia in 1648, both were commissioners of the town; Foxwell in 1664 and 1668, and Watts in 1661, 1662 and 1664. The former was clerk of the Writs of the town in 1658 and 1665, while the latter was its constable in 1660. Watts also built the first mill on Foxwell's Brook on the western side of the Point. Other early settlers at Blue Point were George Dearing and Nicholas Edge- comb, the latter of the noble family of Mount Edgecomb in England.
The third principal settlement within the town was made at Dunston about 1651, by the brothers Andrew and Arthur Alger (some- times erroneously spelled Augur) who resided at Stratton's Island in 1645. They had come from Dunster in southwestern England, for which they named their new settlement. They made large improve- ments on their farms.
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The story of Old Scarborough during the first three Indian Wars is one of destruction, desolation and attempted resettlements.
In 1681 the General Court empowered the President of Maine to confirm the titles of the inhabitants to their lands in the province. Accordingly the President conveyed to Captain Scottow, Walter Glen- dell, Richard Hunnewell, Wm. Burridge, Andrew Browne, Ambrose Boaden and John Tenney, Trustees, the township of Scarborough.
In 1719 the town records, which had been carried to Boston thirty-one years before, were brought back and the town government reorganized.
Falmouth, 1658
Old Falmouth, the seventh Maine town to be incorporated, was honored with an old English name and in its early days numbered among its inhabitants many loyal Englishmen. The name Falmouth was probably taken by Gorges from the town of that name located in the southwestern part of England near the mouth of the river Fal, hence its name, Falmouth. The river, after passing through a part of Cornwall, discharges into the British Channel, forming at its mouth a spacious harbor.
Williamson, in speaking of the work of the Court of Commis- sioners in 1658, states it was ordained that: "also Spurwink and Casco Bay from the harbor side of Spurwink River to Clapboard Islands in that bay extending back from the river eight miles be formed into a town by the name of Falmouth." Falmouth, at that time, included the present towns of Falmouth, Cape Elizabeth, Westbrook, Deering and Portland.
The first settlement within its present corporate limits was as early as 1632, at Falmouth Foreside, by Arthur Mackworth, who soon after obtained a grant of land from Sir Ferdinando Gorges. He was one of the most respected of the early settlers, serving as a magistrate for many years. The island opposite his residence has continued to bear his name, although corrupted into Mackay. In the deed which Richard Vines gave him in 1635, he is described as having been there many years. He is characterized as Gent and the land is described as being in Casco Bay on the northeast side of the river Presumscot where his house stood on a point of land commonly called Menickoe and now to be known by the name of Newton. He is believed to have arrived at Saco with Vines in 1630.
Among the earliest settlers of our present Portland was George Cleeve, who, with Richard Tucker, settled upon Casco Neck in 1633. In 1637 he obtained from the Lord Proprietor, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a leasehold of all the lands he desired or claimed to hold on the pen- insula between Fore River and the Presumpscot. He was also given
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power to lease or grant land "between Cape Elizabeth and the en- trance of Sagadahoc River and thence up into the land, 60 miles."
In 1657 John Phillips was granted by Cleeve fifty acres of land on the southwest side of the Presumpscot River. Later Cleeve con- veyed additional land to Phillips, characterizing him as a "millwright," and in 1662 he confirmed to Phillips his former conveyances, designat- ing them as containing two hundred and fifty acres of land with "mill privileges." Phillips was a Welshman and had previously lived on Broad Bay in North Yarmouth on a place which he sold before 1643 to George Felt. It is presumed that he purchased this mill privilege for the purpose of pursuing his occupation and established here the first mills ever erected on any part of the Presumpscot River. They continued to be the only ones for many years afterward, until mills were in operation at Capisic and at Barbary Creek in Cape Elizabeth. The first notice of mills in this town, now available, is in a deed of 1646 where John Smith and Joane his wife "now living at Casko Mill" dispose of their house in Agamenticus. Mr. Willis thinks that the mill so designated was situated at the lower falls of the Presumpscot.
In 1658, at the time of submission to Massachusetts, Willis gives as settlers on the east side of Presumpscot River: James Andrews, Jane MacWorth (widow of Arthur), Francis Neale and Nathaniel Wharff; on the west side: Robert Corbin, John Phillips and Richard Martin, the settler at Martin's Point.
Up until the time of its erection as a town, Falmouth went by the name of Casco, the general name applied to the settlements along the bay. It was reduced to its present dimensions by the separation of Cape Elizabeth in 1765, Portland (the Neck) in 1786 and Westbrook (including Deering) in 1814.
A committee was appointed by the General Court to "lay out the town platt in a regular defensible manner," and after a delay of two years the boundaries of the town were redefined. On July 16, 1718, the town was officially incorporated as Falmouth.
A town meeting was held the following March. Joshua Moody was elected town clerk; Dominicus Jordan, John Pritchard, William Scales and Benjamin Skillings were chosen selectmen; Thomas Thomes was constable; Jacob Collings and Samuel Proctor were fence sur- veyors.
North Yarmouth, 1680
The eighth town in the Province of Maine was incorporated in 1680, the last to be thus established in the seventeenth century. In this year, the freeholders in the province met at York, on March 17, and a government was set up whereby they declared themselves the lawful assigns of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. They gave notice that they had con-
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stituted a Court and a Council and deputed Thomas Danforth, Esq., for the first year President: "To the end that the above-named Prov- ince might be protected in the enjoyment of their just rights and privi- leges according to the rules of his Majesty's royal charter, granted un- der the above named Sir F. Gorges, Kt."
To the President and Commissioners was presented the subject of a new town and the following order was passed:
At Fort Loyal in Falmouth 22d Sept. 1680: it is or- dered for the further enlargement and encouragement of the settlement on Westecustego river - that the waste lands lying between the said grant and Falmouth shall be added to the township and also an island lying between the sea and said township called New Damariscove. It is also ordered and de- clared that the name of the said plantation shall be North Yarmouth.
Pr. Thomas Danforth, President
The name of the new town was transferred from Yarmouth in England with the prefix "North" to distinguish it from the older town, Yarmouth, in Massachusetts proper.
Within the boundaries of this territory a number of settlers had established themselves from thirty to forty years before King Philip's War. Wm. Royall, an emigrant to Salem as early as 1629, became subsequently an original settler, probably the first, of North Yarmouth, near the mouth of Westgustego River which took its new name from him, soon becoming the Royall River. On its easterly side, he pur- chased of Thomas Gorges a tract of land on which he ultimately estab- lished his residence. He was an assistant in 1636 under Wm. Gorges' short administration of New Somersetshire, and again in 1648 under that of Mr. Cleeves in Lygonia.
Another early comer whose name is still retained in a river and island in Yarmouth was John Cousins, a man of prominence and de- pendability. He was one of Mr. Cleave's assistants in his government of Lygonia. His first home was on a high ridge of land which separates the two branches of the river which today bears his name. In 1645 he bought of Richard Vines, the agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a beau- tiful island, afterward called Cousin's Island. Having lived here for about thirty years, he was compelled to leave in 1675 at the beginning of the first Indian War, removing to York where he died at an ad- vanced age. Many of the early historians regarded George Felt as the first settler, since he purchased of John Phillips in 1640 three hundred acres of land here and later added a much larger tract. His name is also retained in a brook near his original purchase.
Among the other early settlers were Richard Bray and John Mains on Mains' Point, James Lane, whose name may still be found
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in Lane's Island which was included in his holdings, and John Hol- man who settled near John Mains at Prince's Point.
Of the pioneers already mentioned Wm. Royall was probably at Wescustogo as early as 1639. His name together with those of Bray, Lane, Cussons, Mains and Holman appear on the petition of 1673 asking for the protection of Massachusetts. Additional names were Webb, Burrell and Stevens.
The first mill was built by Henry Sayward and Bartholomew Gedney of Salem, about 1674. The former had already begun a dam and the frame of a mill, both saw and grist, previous to this time.
The saw mill was completed when the first Indian War began. The settlement was broken up and the settlers forced to flee from their homes. The mill was burned and probably most of their homes. The place was deserted until after 1678 when a few of the old settlers began to return, and measures were taken for the reorganization of the town. New grantees came in 1680.
In 1680 Bartholomew Gedney, Joshua Scottow, Silvanus Davis and Walter Gendell were a committee appointed by the General Court and empowered to regulate a settlement. They were interesting men: Gedney, a land speculator from Salem, a physician and judge of court in witchcraft trials, Captain Joshua Scottow, a prominent man in Scar- borough, Captain Silvanus Davis, an enterprising citizen of Falmouth, and Captain Walter Gendell, then a resident of this town. He was the first representative to the General Assembly held at York in 1683.
Yarmouth, 1849
The present town of Yarmouth, Maine, constituted the south- ern section of Ancient North Yarmouth until 1849, when it was set off and incorporated as an independent town. Though losing the ancient name, Yarmouth comprises the localities of the earliest settlement and history, which has already been recounted under the story of North Yarmouth, until the time of its incorporation in 1681. Four towns have been taken from North Yarmouth since that date: Freeport in 1789, Pownal in 1808, Cumberland in 1821 and Yarmouth in 1849.
In 1849, when the first regular election for the present town of Yarmouth was held, Reverend Daniel Shepley opened the meeting with prayer, Dr. E. Burbank was chosen moderator; Dr. Samuel Blanchard, town clerk; Edward H. Smith, town treasurer; Jeremiah Baker, J. G. Loring, David Seabury, selectmen and assessors.
Berwick, 1713
Eighteenth century towns in Maine, like those of the seven- teenth, were given names transferred from English towns. In 1713, when Maine and Massachusetts were under the royal governorship of
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Joseph Dudley, the inhabitants of the northern settlements of Kittery denominated "the parish of Unity" and "the precinct of Berwick," having been successfully defended through Queen Anne's War, re- newed their application for incorporation.
Disposed to gratify their wishes, the General Court caused a survey to be made of its northern limits, and on the ninth of June, 1713, by a second order, erected all above Thompson's brook into a town by the name of Berwick, in honor of an old English town in Dor- setshire, bordering on the English Channel.
Settlements in Berwick appear to have been made as early as 1624. The titles were derived from Sir Ferdinando Gorges and from the Indian sagamores. Among the early settlers were Chadbournes, Frosts, Spencers, Shapleighs and Wincolns.
Humphrey Chadbourne settled at Great Works or Chadbourne's river, now in South Berwick, about 1638 or '39, having come to Ports- mouth, New Hampshire, about 1630. He secured a quit-claim deed from Sagamore Rowles of a large tract of land at the mouth of the river and up its banks, about 1643, and erected extensive saw mills. He was a man of mind and influence and none went before him in enterprise and activity. Nicholas Frost was one of the early settlers of Sturgeon Creek and a constable under Gorges' Charter government. Charles, his son, was one of the most eminent and public-spirited men of that age within the Province, holding important offices during the period of President Danforth's administration. Richard Leader was so highly esteemed by the people as to receive six elections into the Board of Assistants before the termination of Governor Godfrey's term of office in 1652. He erected a mill which contained eighteen separate saws on Little Newichawannock River at Assabumbadock Falls. This gave the name of Great Works to the place, which afterward became the name of the river.
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