USA > Maine > York County > York > New England miniature; a history of York, Maine > Part 2
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As both arrived at Strawberry Bank on the same vessel, the Pied Cow, there has always been a friendly rivalry between the
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A History of York, Maine
two towns as to which mill was first in operation. To this day the small tidal stream in York where the first mill was operated is known as Old Mill Creek. Agamenticus, now York, River is a tidal stream, deriving more power from the changing tides to turn mill wheels by pressure against the bottom, in contrast to more common mill streams which, powered by watershed from upstream, turn wheels by the flow of water over the top. Tidal mills thus driven are called "undershot", and as York River was the first tidal stream so used, this was the first undershot mill in America.
In the Province Records for 1636 there is indication that a tax was levied on Agamenticus settlers for funds with which to build a church. This must be the "Chapell or Oratory" to which Sir Ferdinando Gorges referred in his charter of 1641; the first known public building in Agamenticus. It stood in the neighbor- hood of the present Emerson Hotel in York Harbor.
With a new industry established, the little settlement of Agamenticus, now able to care for new citizens, assumed a stand- ing of equality in the combination of plantations along the Maine coast. From the Piscataqua River to Monhegan Island there were nine widely scattered settlements, each one operated by a different business organization but all having a tie in common in that they were tenants of Gorges and governed by his code of laws. Dr. Richard Vines, the patentee at Saco, presided as steward-general over a common council composed of the other "governors" and special representatives. The record of the first superior court of York County, held in Saco in 1636, is still in existence.
"The Combination", as it came to be called, had more than internal problems to be concerned about. Captain Francis West, the "admiral" appointed by Gorges and given special control over the fishing rights in New England waters, was making enemies for the government of Maine by his methods of collecting license fees and driving off unorganized trespassers. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, ever eager to exploit Maine, protested to the crown, but was itself being watched for exceeding the rights given in its charter, and both sides were called to answer charges. When Godfrey in 1637 was directed by Gorges to come to England and answer the complaints that the fishing rights constituted a mo- nopoly, he upheld, as the foremost authority on New England affairs, the Massachusetts cause as well as that of Gorges. In the course of the proceedings, some doubt was expressed about the legality of the Agamenticus charter of 1631, on the grounds
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that definite bounds were not established and provisions for gov- erning the colony were not made. George Cleeve, a man who had claimed under an abandoned charter to rule the Lygonia Patent, which was supposed to control forty miles square north of Kenne- bunk River, had been driven from his home in Scarboro. Having taken up land around the present city of Portland, he was in revenge doing everything in his power to overthrow the Gorges claim, not only by pressing his cause before the courts in England but by urging Massachusetts to step in and establish proper gov- ernment over the "lawless" region of Maine.
To clear up any possible doubt, Gorges petitioned for new patents until he was satisfied with the charter of March 23, 1637/8, by which Agamenticus "was then called Bristoll and according to the Patent the Government was conformible to that of the Corporation of Bristoll".
While Godfrey was in England from 1637 to some time in 1639, William Hooke, son of Humphrey Hooke, the mayor of Bristol, England, and the principal patentee of the Agamenticus charter, was "governor" of Agamenticus. William Hooke had been in New England, looking after the business interests of his father, since 1636, and had married the widow of Colonel Walter Norton. But in 1640 he took up residence in Salisbury, Massa- chusetts, much to the displeasure of his father, without first resigning his office. The reason he gave for his defection, to quote from one of his letters was: "I have feade myself a long time with vain hopes; there is no possibility here with us for the geathering of a church except God, in his mercy open there eyes, and let them see there supersticious ways which they desire to go".
Agamenticus did have a church and a minister at the time, but he was George Burdett who was playing fast and loose in the plantation and by his conduct was lowering moral standards. Evidently Hooke had not the stamina to cope with the lawless element among the transient fishermen and petty traders, and even less with a bold deceiver in the rank and garb of a clergyman.
In England in 1638, probably unacquainted with the state of affairs in Agamenticus, Godfrey, in Hooke's behalf, succeeded in acquiring from Gorges a thousand-year lease of fifteen hundred acres on the north side of Cape Neddick River for a width of two miles along the shore and back inland along the river, follow- ing that same width, until the acres were completed. This lease was granted to Godfrey, his son Oliver, and Richard Rowe, a London merchant, to each an undivided third; but Godfrey
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A History of York, Maine
promptly turned over his third to William Hooke while he was still in England.
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Such was the state of the government in Agamenticus when Edward Godfrey returned. However, matters were not as bad as Hooke had described them. Godfrey found that several newcomers had taken up residence in town and were proving themselves to be men worthy of leadership. From England had come Roger Garde, apparently encouraged by Samuel Maverick, one of the patentees, perhaps to look after Maverick's local in- terests. In the few years he was here he served as recorder or secretary of the Province of Maine, and later rose to higher office. Other men, too, came here directly from England and founded families which continued the original names in town for three hundred years. Arthur Bragdon, a planter at Bass Cove, presum- ably furnished food to the fishing fleet. Henry Donnell, an inde- pendent fisherman, had his own vessels and his own fishing stages, in some years at Jewell's Island in Casco Bay, in others at Stage Island in Agamenticus River. Rowland Young first fished at Isles of Shoals before he acquired land on the Creek. Ralph Blaisdell was in the employ of governor Hooke; his son Henry, father of Ebenezer who founded the York branch of Blaisdells, tended as a boy Hooke's herd of goats pastured on Cape Neck. Henry Simpson acted as agent for William Hooke after he moved to Salisbury.
During the third decade of the seventeenth century, the first of the settlement, the people were building their houses, breaking their land to the plow, and groping for means of subsis- tence. They fished, trapped furs, raised corn, peas, and grain, and brought their surplus to the river's edge to trade with the merchant vessels which accumulated cargoes as they called at the many ports.
These vessels were of various grades. Some served directly the Bristol merchants who depended upon resident agents to accumulate trade goods, and might return directly to England after touching at the Maine plantations only. Other merchants might have hired vessels "on their perticuler" and called as "tramps", without having made arrangements. They took their chances from port to port until a cargo was loaded. Lowest in the scale were the traders residing somewhere along the coast
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NEW ENGLAND MINIATURE
who bartered thread and needles, cloth, and metalware, or what- ever was available, to planters who had no other way to supply domestic needs. These "traveling stores" probably took their gath- erings to Salem or Boston, where they could barter for fresh stocks from vessels from foreign ports. Such a trader had been Dixie Bull, the patentee of Agamenticus who turned pirate when his vessel and cargo were stolen. Hard money was always scarce; earnings were in the form of negotiable paper which showed a trade balance or credit with firms in good standing. In this decade no sizable vessels were owned by local men; their trading was done mostly at home, and probably no planter or fisherman carried his goods as far as Boston.
Beginning with the house of Edward Godfrey, "the first ever bylt there" (1630), which stood close to shore at high tide on the south side of Meeting House Creek, the earliest houses were built around the shore of the Creek: Colonel Walter Nor- ton's, alongside of Godfrey's, occupied till 1640 by governor Hooke; Edward Johnson's to the west of Godfrey's; Rowland Young's, Henry Simpson's and Ralph Blaisdell's, farther down near the Market Place; Henry Donnell's near Stage Island; Ar- thur Bragdon's on the river bank near Bass Cove, Sir Ferdinando Gorges's manor (1634), where Thomas Bradbury lived, near the mouth of Gorges, or New Mill, Creek.
After the Gorges mill was erected at Old Mill Creek in 1634, a cluster of houses was built for the accommodation of the workmen-possibly among them were Bartholomew Barnard, John Barrett, Leonard Hunter, Richard Ormsby-and the de- pressions which marked the cellars of these houses may still be seen.
In 1639 Gorges obtained a charter from the king by which he was made Lord Palatine of the territory between Piscataqua River and the Sagadahoc and Kennebec, and westward one hundred and twenty miles into the wilderness. For the first time in any writing since 1622, the newly defined country was desig- nated the Province of Maine, and this time the name was accepted. As Lord Palatine, Gorges was the king's direct repre- sentative, authorized to appoint officers for Maine, hold courts, make and publish ordinances, control churches, raise armies, and equip fleets. In 1640, the king warded off encroachments from outsiders by issuing an order "that the Government now estab- lished in Agamenticus shall so remain".
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A History of York, Maine
Although he was in his seventies when he became the ruler of the Province, Gorges devoted all his energies to his new duties, and dreamed of still greater eminence for his favorite New England settlement. He made plans to come to Gorgeana and govern the Province of Maine in person. It is said that he had a noble ship built for this special occasion. The launching was a gala event, with the king and all his court among the guests. But when the ship slid down the ways and struck the water it broke apart. Such an evil omen was more than Gorges could ignore, and he never again attempted to see the New Eng- land in the development of which he had spent so many years of planning and so much of his personal fortune.
Perhaps Edward Godfrey brought the 1639 charter with him on his return to Agamenticus. Though there is no evidence that he was given any official title other than that of a member of the Province Council, it is clear that he was personal agent for Sir Ferdinando Gorges to carry out in America the provisions of the charter. Richard Vines was still steward-general for the whole Province, and William Hooke was nominally the governor of Agamenticus, both of them subject to orders from Gorges; but Godfrey, fresh from personal conferences with the proprietor, knew best what Gorges had in mind to advance the purposes of the charter, and knew how to report conditions and progress and to suggest improvements. In this capacity, with or without a title, he was actually the most influential man in the Province of Maine.
By circumstantial evidence it may be surmised that the Old Mill had not been in good operation, perhaps from the be- ginning in 1634. A reference in a deed shows that Joseph Jenks owned a lot of land that had been in Godfrey's control. Jenks, though called a blacksmith, was also a maker of swords, scythes, and other sharp tools, and an engineer with experience in design- ing mills. In later years he rose to be the most respected consultant in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with the honor of being Ameri- ca's first inventor. John Hull, the mint master, commissioned him to design the coin which became known as the Pine Tree Shilling. The inference is that such a skilled man must have come to Agamenticus to engage in his calling, and the obvious need for his services would be to try to improve the efficiency of the undershot mill. Apparently even he was not wholly success- ful, for in a deed drawn in 1677 there is described land at Old Mill Creek "where formerly ye ould mill stood" (York Deeds:
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NEW ENGLAND MINIATURE
Book I, Part II, Folio 7). Probably Joseph Jenks received from Godfrey as payment for all or part of his services the lot near that on which the First Parish Church now stands.
Certainly there were problems enough to engage Edward Godfrey's full attention and talents, but the gravity of one of them may not have impressed him at the time. Possibly he was unaware that on August 26, 1637, Sir Ferdinando Gorges had written to the Massachusetts Bay government and asked the General Court to establish a new government in his Province of Maine and to include in it his trusted servant, Mr. Richard Vines, his nephew, Captain Francis Champernourne, and such others as it should think fit. But in 1638, though it was addressed neither to the "trusted servant" Steward-General Richard Vines nor to himself, he must have heard of the letter ordered by the General Court to be written by the governor to "Mr. Burdet, Mr. Wiggin and others of the plantation of Pascataquack" to this effect, "That whereas there had been good correspondency between us formerly, we could not but be sensible of their entertaining, countenancing, etc, some that we had cast out, etc, and that our purpose was to survey our utmost limits and make use of them".
In September 1638, the General Court ordered surveyors to "lay out the line 3 miles Northward of the most Northmost part" of the Merrimack River. The progenitor of one of York's old families, Peter Weare, then about twenty years old, was a member of this party, probably as a guide, and for the rest of his life he worked to the advantage of the Massachusetts Colony. But in 1638 the possibility of the usurpation of Maine by Massa- chusetts seemed remote.
Whether he was influenced by adverse reports from Ed- ward Godfrey about the wickedness of Reverend George Burdett, the lawlessness of the inhabitants, or the incompetence of gover- nor William Hooke, or whether he was already dreaming of ruling all America from his capitol at Agamenticus, Sir Ferdinando Gorges in 1640 sent over his cousin Thomas Gorges to be deputy governor of the Province of Maine and also governor of Agamenti- cus. Though he was only twenty-five years of age and just recently graduated from college as a lawyer, young Thomas Gorges made a remarkably good record during the next four years. No doubt he received excellent advice from such members of the Province Council as Edward Godfrey of Agamenticus, Richard Vines of Saco, and Henry Jocelyn of Scarboro.
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A History of York, Maine
His first notable official act was to assemble at Saco a superior court at which much of the chaos-chiefly due to the Burdett scandals-was removed.
In 1641, Sir Ferdinando Gorges drew up a charter by which little Agamenticus became a town or borough with the name of Gorgeana in honor of himself. In 1642 he rewrote the charter and set up little Gorgeana as a city. Gorges, ever the dreamer, sought to capitalize on a peculiar situation in England. Harried by debt and by the opposition of his subjects, King Charles I could give scant attention to conditions in America, where an- other form of disregard for English laws was spreading.
Apparently Gorges, confident that the king would eventu- ally conquer his foes in England and then proceed to regulate the government of the American colonies to conform with that of the mother country, foresaw the coming of a day when some settlement would be chosen to be the capital of all the English possessions in America. With this in mind he planned to create the framework of a city so that it would be in existence and in operation whenever the king was ready, while other settlements would not be prepared. Sir Ferdinando would then be ruler over a country larger than England. On the strength of his appoint- ment of 1639, he even dared to date his more humble charter of 1641 not only from "the Tenth day of Aprill in the seaven- teenth yeare of the Raigne of ouer Soverign Lord Charles" but he added "and in the second yeare of my Principallity in Newe England"; and in the 1642 charter he declared that his king had given him "absolute power over all the . . . people that from time to time shall be resident" there. He provided therein for the election of a mayor and a board of aldermen, four "Sergeants of the white rod" to serve court papers, and other officials to a total number of forty.
In order to launch his ship of state in 1641, Gorges ap- pointed officials to serve for the first year, after which the citizens were to elect their own officers. He appointed Thomas Gorges to be the first mayor of Gorgeana as well as the deputy governor of the Province of Maine, and for the first eight aldermen he named "Edward Godfrey, gentleman, Roger Garde, George Puddington, Bartholomew Barnett, Edward Johnson, Arthur Bragington (Brag- don), Henry Simpson, and John Rogers." In 1642, at their first election, the citizens of Gorgeana chose Edward Godfrey for their mayor.
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NEW ENGLAND MINIATURE
For ten years the little plantation, with a population of about three hundred, functioned smoothly as a city, and the mayor and the eight aldermen solemnly carried out the duties given them in the charter. In Massachusetts, where Boston was still a town, the name "Gorgeana" was carefully ignored; when Roger Garde was mayor in 1644, Governor Winthrop entered in his journal "they had lately made Accomenticus (a poor village) a corporation and had made a taylor their mayor". No doubt the mayor and aldermen understood that Gorges meant to outline a dream of a city which was to materialize only when the King of England was to re-establish his authority. No list of forty officials serving in any one year is known to have existed, nor is there any evidence that there ever were any "sergeants of the white rod". Gorgeana was made ready to function for a king who never re- gained his royal power.
With its government by the city charter of 1642 set up and the method for providing for the succession of officials estab- lished, the citizens of the Province of Maine were then left on their own, for the civil war in England was at its full height and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, for all his seventy years, took a conspicu- ous part on the king's side. He entered the city of Bristol in 1643 with Prince Ruppert and his conquering army, but in 1645 he was taken prisoner there when the city was recaptured. When he died in 1647, leaving a minor as his sole heir, the executors of his estate took no active interest in New England affairs and did not reply to requests for instructions from Maine officials. Thomas Gorges had returned to England in 1643; Richard Vines had sold his interests and departed to a new career in Barbados in 1645. In 1642, when news of active warfare in England reached Maine, George Cleeve had sailed to England, and won favor with Colonel Alexander Rigby who took up Cleeve's long struggle to revive the Lygonia Patent and carried it through successfully, so that in 1646 Cleeve, as deputy president for Rigby, had been put in control of a forty-mile square area, from Kennebunk River to Sagadahoc, to be known as Lygonia. Thus half of the Province of Maine was lost. All that remained of the Province was the Piscataqua settlements (incorporated into the town of Kittery in 1647), the city of Gorgeana, and part of the plantation of Wells. For the next two years the functions of government were carried on in uncertainty as to whether its actions would be supported by the courts.
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A History of York, Maine
3
In July 1649, the voters of Kittery, Gorgeana, and Wells by unanimous consent formed a new Province of Maine, and elected a new set of officials, of whom all but one were citizens of Gorgeana, which continued to be the metropolitan or county seat, and elected Mr. Edward Godfrey governor. At the first court held in October 1649, a most significant order was pro- claimed :
It is ordered this Court and power thereof: That all gode people within the Jurisdiction of this province who are out of a Church way and be orthodox in Judgment and not scan- dalous in life, shall have full liberty to gather themselves in to a Church estate, provided they doe it in a Christian way: with the due observation of the rules of Christ revealed in his worde.
And every Church have Free liberty of Election and ordina- tion of all her officers from tyme to tyme provided they shall be able, pious and orthodox.
- Maine Court Records 1, 136
Thus it came about that the little Province of Maine, "law- less", according to George Cleeve, and "godless", as William Hooke lamented, held out a welcome to all decent people to come and worship God in any dignified Christian way they might choose. Thirty years had elapsed since the Puritans first dreamed of migrating to a new land in search of religious freedom, but ever since they had reached their Eden they had banished and hounded anyone who "ran a different course" from their narrow code. When Maine's gracious offer became known the General Court took it as an affront and considered its makers their enemies.
Actually, the General Court welcomed the opportunity to feel insulted, for Massachusetts was in favor with the victorious, people's, side of the English Civil War. The time was ripe for the Bay Colony to carry out its long-range plan to annex Maine and its wealth of natural resources. Incidents must be created before war is declared, and here was a suitable one ready made. When Godfrey and two other councillors were ordered, in a Province Court session in 1651, to ask Parliament to confirm this new government of Maine, this action presented to the General Court what it considered the necessary excuse to act.
But meanwhile what of the daily life in Gorgeana? From ports along the coast a growing number of new merchants sought
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NEW ENGLAND MINIATURE
trade, particularly in the Piscataqua River area, thereby creating wider demand for fishermen's catches and planters' produce. Trade balances, the equivalent of paper money, were built up with more widely known business houses in larger ports. Gaining confidence and experience, the fishermen increased their opera- tions, and the planters brought more acres under cultivation. Sir Ferdinando Gorges had decreed in his charter that a public market should be established at which there should be two fairs held each year on specified Saints' Days; and in accordance with his orders, The Market Place was set apart, down by the river where trading vessels customarily anchored. As this was the first occasion in New England when the holding of fairs was provided for in a charter, it may be concluded that the state and county fairs of the present day had their origin in the fairs at the Market Place of Gorgeana. For the next hundred years the citizens of York elected annually a "Clerk of the Market".
No notable shipbuilding was commenced yet, and most of the trading was still carried on at the wharves, but some products were carried at least as far as the Piscataqua River and possibly even farther. Henry Donnell, Gorgeana's leading fisherman, also kept an inn near the Stage Island ferry. By 1644 he had developed a stage for the curing of fish at Jewell's Island in Casco Bay. George Puddington conducted an inn at the Market Place near the mouth of Meeting House Creek.
Around 1640 several new settlers came, among them John Alcock in the neighborhood of Roaring Rock, who bought that promontory between Long Sands and the Harbor Short Sands which came to be known as Alcock's Neck; and Captain Francis Raynes, attorney for Thomas Gorges in 1643, who settled at Brave Boat Harbor in 1646.
In 1642, four men from Scituate, Massachusetts, came to Gorgeana with their families and asked for grants of land, which were given to them on the condition that they were to maintain a road across the four lots (the first to be recorded in York) to be known as the Scituate Men's Row, but sometimes described as including all the road through York Harbor as far as the road to Stage Neck. These men and their descendants served the town creditably for many generations.
All of them, Abraham Preble (1604-1663), Richard Banks (-1692), Thomas Curtis (1619-1692), and John Twis- den (-1660), educated men with means, ability, and high pur- pose, were within a few years entrusted with important official
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A History of York, Maine
positions. They had come to Scituate, from Kent, England, in 1639 under the leadership of Thomas Chambers, who had married Mrs. Richardene Curtis, mother of Thomas Curtis and of Eliza- beth, the first wife of Richard Banks. In 1642 Chambers acquired land in Gorgeana and in the same year induced "the Scituate Men" to take up grants near his property. Abraham Preble was a province magistrate in 1645, an associate or member of the province coun- cil in 1646, a major in the militia, the last mayor of Gorgeana, and under Massachusetts rule continued to hold high office as long as he lived. Among his descendants are several whose names are prominent in the annals of New England and the United States for their distinguished service: Jedidiah Preble, famed in the French and Indian Wars and appointed major general and commander in chief of the Massachusetts forces during the Revo- lution; William Pitt Preble, U.S. ambassador to Holland; Com- modore Edward Preble, who conquered the Algerian pirates at Tripoli; Rear Admiral George Henry Preble and his cousin Lieu- tenant Edward Preble, famous heroes of the Navy during the Civil War. Richard Banks, often a selectman of York under Massa- chusetts, carried much of the responsibility during the desperate days of the early Indian wars until he was killed in the Massacre of 1692. In the next three generations several of his descendants were noted soldiers in Indian wars and in the Revolution, chiefly, Lieutenant Joseph as an Indian fighter; Moses, as an interpreter; Moses Jr., engineer in the Revolution.
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