USA > Maine > York County > York > New England miniature; a history of York, Maine > Part 8
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He lived in the house, still standing, across Scituate Men's Row from the old Gaol and east of the town hall. Here he and his wife, the former Mary Swett, a granddaughter of Mary (Rish- worth) Plaisted, endeared themselves to all who came to know them, especially to the family of William Pepperrell. The doctor's practice took him often from Kittery as far as Biddeford where he previously had been well known. Over the years he invested in several tracts of land, principally in York and Sanford. When in February 1745 the call was sounded for volunteers for the Louis- burg Expedition, Dr. Bulman apparently wanted to go but felt obliged to remain at home where he was much needed by his wife and by his patients. To General Pepperrell he recommended in his stead his brother-in-law and pupil, John Swett, as a surgeon's mate.
Generall Pepperrell finally prevailed on Dr. Bulman to go to Louisburg, where officially he was physician to the General and his regiment, but was actually at the call of the whole army to the limit of his endurance. Probably the General gave his be- loved doctor assurance that he would provide for his family in his absence, and that he would find a place for the doctor's son
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in the Pepperrell enterprises in Kittery, where the boy would be trained for a merchant's career.
In a letter dated June 5, 1745, just twelve days before the French surrendered the fortress, Mary Bulman gave her husband a picture of life in York. She wrote, in part:
My Dear Husband. Last Sabath Day, just as I was Steping out of my Door to go up to the house of God for the after noon Service your letter Came to hand, which gives the pleasing account of your health and preservation in the midst of sickness and danger & that our friends & neighbors hitherto are preserved, save 2-thanks be to God for a re- newed occasion to tread his Courts with joy and praise -. . . . I was in hopes Ear this time the important affair was over- but I find you are yet without the City walls .-
but it is enough that the Governor of the Universe knows best when to lead you into the Strong Holds of your Enemyes, blessed be his name for hopes of victory & success -oh, may it be in such a way & manner as that God may have all the Glory.
the time of your absence Semes very Long & tedious to me and I often hope and wish for your return, but I sub- mit that with all my concerns of life in to the Government of a Holy & wise God, who knows best how to dispose of me and mine. . .
in the Evening I saw Letters of a later Date than yours, one of which was Jonathan Saywards which gave an account of a french fleet's coming in upon you when you were already engaged in attacks on the City and had just made entrance, but were obliged to turn about and face the Enemy from another quarter-what means this-but let us stand still and perhaps we may see the Glory of God as our fathers have on ancient Date. ... O may the Captain of the Lords hosts still go before the General & Direct him in all Enterprises, and at Length Give him a Compleat victory & return you all in safety with joy and praise. all did I say, alas! I do not Expect to see all the faces of my friends again. I hear some are allready Gone to Eternity & others sick, one of which is my Dear Brother. ... my Dear Mother is greatly concerned about him, sends her Love. - this Evening your letter of May th 21 came to hand. you tell me you have re- ceived all of my letters. there is one more I sent with Col Donnel which went in the same vessel. . . . our people begin to be much afraid of the Indins whether there is any reason for it I cannot say. But to be sure we are in a Defenceless posture. Give my proper regards to your Good General & our Revd and Dear Pasture & Love and service to all friends and neighbors. I have not had oppertunity to Do any of your
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messages to the General's Lady for I have never seen her since the fleet left from boston. Your son gives his Duty But says he cannot write.
I am my Dear with much Love your faithful Spous till Death
Mary Bulman
I am much concerned for the poor women & children in the City. the Lord pitey them in their Distress. O that the calam- itous time was over-pray give me a perticuler account as possible in your next. Your son has altered his mind and is now writing.
Mary Bulman did not see her husband alive again. An epidemic of "distemper" which broke out in the army during the summer and lasted till January affected severely eleven hundred men, of whom over five hundred died (including Ensign James Donnell, innkeeper at Cape Neddick and brother of Colonel Nathaniel). Late in August Dr. Bulman was ordered to return to York in charge of some two hundred invalid York County men and to continue to attend them, but early in September, before they were prepared to leave, Dr. Bulman himself was stricken and died in Louisburg.
Jeremiah Moulton was colonel of the Third Massachusetts Regiment, with Nathaniel Donnell, Jr., as his lieutenant colonel, and there were ten companies under their command. Colonel Donnell had grown up in York with Colonel Moulton, who was one year his senior. His knowledge of the geography of Nova Scotia and of the traits and language of the Acadians there, gained through more than ten years of trading in that region, was a valuable asset to his superior officers. Besides being in charge of the regiment as a whole, each of these colonels was captain of a company of his own. John Card of York commanded another company, and had as ensign James Donnell of Cape Neddick. Another York man, John Harmon, was captain of the Sixth Company. Undoubtedly there were York men under Commodore Peter Warren's command aboard the warships, as marines, or on the transports or cargo vessels, but only Captain Jonathan Say- ward of the Sea Flower is definitely known as a man of York. It is said that Jonathan Sayward stated that there were one hundred and eighteen York men in the expedition, but less than half that number of familiar names can be found in the scanty lists of Pepperrell's men, and no list of Warren's men has been found.
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After the surrender of Louisburg, the troops rapidly lost their enthusiasm and were impatient to return to their homes. The inspiration was gone, the prospect of guard duty and repairing the ruins was one of drudgery with small pay. Colonel Jere- miah Moulton was appointed Judge of Probate Court and en- tered into his new duties before the year was out. Father Moody came home to his parsonage and lived the last two years of his life behind its fortifications while supervising the building of the new church. Jonathan Sayward, now a merchant, employed some of his fellow captains and their ships as his business expanded. Captain John Card stayed on at Louisburg and led a working crew, perhaps including some of his former soldiers, repairing the havoc and destruction done to the fort.
In York, as in all New England, the tension of impending invasion still continued, even though the threat from Louisburg had been dispelled. By a peace treaty signed at Aix la Chapelle in 1748, Louisburg was ceded back to the French, much to the dismay of the colonists; yet there was always danger of a renewal of war so long as there was no real desire for peace in the courts of the nations in Europe. So long as the French were strong in America and could stir up hatred of the English in the minds of the Indians, the existence of peace in the colonies depended on the outcome of diplomacy in Europe.
While English and French commissioners on both sides of the Atlantic wrangled over the boundaries of Nova Scotia as stated in the Treaty of Utrecht, drawn up and signed in 1713, both sides built new forts just inside their borders. Indians in the Penobscot region, who traded in both the English and French forts, showed the usual signs of hostility towards the English. The colonists noted with alarm that the French were planting new settlements in territory under dispute and that they "inso- lently Exclude the English from Trading upon it, within the Un- doubted Limits of his Majesties Territories". Reports came of French and Indian attacks on forts on the western borders of all the colonies from New York to South Carolina. The threat was understood by the English to be that French land forces would attack from the west while the French fleet would attempt to capture the settlements along the coast, and thus bring about the downfall of all the English in America.
For the New England colonies the danger appeared to lie in French possession of Nova Scotia, called by them Acadia. It was the same threat which had existed in 1745 when Louisburg
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was captured, only this time it was but a part of a much larger plot; not just Louisburg but all of Nova Scotia was involved. Several ports could become bases for the French fleet, and French troops could be landed in towns where they could find quarters and supplies. The time for the English to strike was in the spring of 1755, before the fortress of Louisburg could be restored, before the French could lay in supplies for their fleet and the expected enlargement of their army. Furthermore, it was believed that the allegiance of the Indians would be won by the side which attacked first.
In that same spring, Indians were murdering men and women and burning homes in settlements near the forts along the Kennebec; the master of St. Georges reported "Our woods round our garrisons are crawling with lurking Enemies Watching our motion[s]". Information acquired showed that the Indians had been incited into hostilities and were being supplied by Acadians in the Minas Basin region, which included the town of Annapolis Royal. By the Treaty of Utrecht the French had ceded Acadia to the English. According to the terms, the French inhabitants could remove themselves or could stay and be tenants of the Kingdom of Great Britain so long as they did nothing to hinder or molest any of its English or Indian subjects.
When called in June to confirm or deny the reports, "the Inhabitants in general behaved with greater Submission and Obedience to the Orders of the Government than usual" but played for time in preparing a memorial to declare in writing their promise of continued allegiance. But when a deputy presented the document to the commanding officers "they treated him with great Indecency and Insolence", which aroused in him the sus- picion that a French fleet was soon expected to arrive in the Bay of Fundy. The English demanded that all the Acadians take the full oath of allegiance, which included the promise to bear arms against any enemy of Great Britain. After delaying their reply as long as permitted, they stated that they would abandon all their property and move out of the country rather than take such an oath, and asked for an indefinite period of time in which to leave. The English authorities replied that in view of the impending danger, the Acadians must either take the full oath or be removed from the country at such times and sent to such places as the English would decide.
"After mature Consideration", it was stated in the report of proceedings of the meeting in Halifax, July 28, 1755, "it was
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unanimously agreed That, to prevent as much as possible their Attempting to return and molest the Setlers that may be set down on their Lands, it would be most proper to send them to be distributed amongst the several Colonies on the Continent, and that a sufficient number of Vessels should be hired with all possible Expedition for that purpose".
At least one of the hired vessels (the Prosperous), owned in York and under the command of Captain Daniel Bragdon, is reported to have delivered between three and four hundred Acad- ians to Boston. It is more likely, though not proven, that he dis- tributed various numbers of them at different ports along the coast, and reported the total number to authorities in Boston. So far as is definitely known only one family was allotted to York: Francis Deuset, wife and nine children. It is significant that this family arrived intact and not separated as were so many. Perhaps Colonel Nathaniel Donnell should be given credit for this kind- ness, for he was the agent for the Province who looked after them.
Since there is no further record of the Deuset family after 1769, it is possible that Colonel Donnell gave them transportation on one of his vessels back to the region of Annapolis Royal to settle on his land grants. Somehow, word of Colonel Donnell's sympa- thetic treatment of the exiles in his care must have spread, for there is on record a successful appeal to the General Court by an unhappy family as far away as Point Shirley in Massachusetts, asking to be transferred to York.
The removal of the Acadians from their homes, and their dispersal in groups of various sizes-often with families broken up in the process-among widely separated towns from Maine to Louisiana, was harsh treatment. Writers have termed it the black- est deed in the history of the American colonies. Whether the Acadians deserved such a fate is debatable, but that the colonists were forced to carry it out is plainly to be seen. The English had a choice between three possible courses of action: They could let the Acadians abandon Nova Scotia and go to Canada where they would increase the size of the French army; they could order them to return to France which would either result in allowing free access of a French fleet into American ports or in furnishing Eng- lish ships (which they did not have) to carry them to France, or they could distribute the Acadians throughout the colonies so widely and in such small numbers that they could not assemble into a formidable army. The fate of all the colonies depended
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upon the decision, and in view of the expected arrival of French warships, there was need for prompt action.
The plight of most of the Acadians was deplorable. Unable to understand or be understood by the English people whose customs and form of religion were alien to them, they were un- able to find work and were obliged to rely on charity. The General Court of Massachusetts provided housing, food, and clothing, but in towns where Acadians were landed, the residents were for the most part indifferent and in some instances unfriendly. How fortunate was the Deuset family who came into the care of Colonel Donnell, who possibly might have known them in Acadia and at least knew their language and their customs!
In 1756 the Seven Years' War broke out in Europe, with England and her ally, Prussia, opposed to France, Russia, and Spain. In the first years the tide of battle on American soil favored the French; the English were defeated at Oswego in 1756, at Fort William Henry and at Ticonderoga in 1758. But in 1759, when by order of England's minister of war, William Pitt, colonial officers were given equal rank with the king's officers, the Ameri- cans began to show enthusiasm and to take hope for victory. Louisburg was recaptured; Niagara, Ticonderoga, Crown Point fell; George Washington captured Fort Duquesne; Wolf defeated Montcalm on the Heights of Abraham on September 12, 1759. When Major General Amherst captured Montreal in 1760 the submission of Canada was complete. The struggle to make America into a French empire was ended. The English were supreme.
"The Seven Years' War" wrote the English historian, John Richard Green, "determined for ages to come the destinies of man- kind. ... With the triumph of Wolfe on the heights of Abraham began the history of the United States". The treaty of peace was concluded February 10, 1763, at Paris.
New Englanders could live in their homes again, and till their fields and clear their forests without posting sentries or even without carrying weapons. Soldiers-there were men of York in each of the battles fought in New England, in New York, in Canada-could turn their efforts to their personal fortunes.
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Thus after eighty-five years of intermittent warfare and of constant threat of attack, the American colonists had no enemies
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to fear. For the next twelve years they were to enjoy a period where there was to be a growing demand for all their products and for laborers both skilled and unskilled. This was the goal the people of York had been working towards when they had built mills on every stream, and wharves and warehouses along the banks of York River, and had laid out new roads over a period of sixty years to serve them. York was ready.
Even before the Seven Years' War was ended certain mer- chants were already established. Colonel Nathaniel Donnell, Jr., and Jonathan Sayward had built up a prosperous trade in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and carried credit balances with estab- lishments in Boston. Captains Daniel Bragdon and John Stone each owned half of what is known as "John Hancock's Wharf", while on the south side of the river Captains Samuel Sewall and Joseph Holt each had a wharf and a warehouse. In the Village Edward Emerson had bought of his cousin Samuel Moody, later the "praeceptor" of the new Dummer Academy in Massachusetts, the property now known as Wilcox House, and since 1756, having started as a tailor, also kept the first general store in York. Success- ful from the beginning, he soon bought shares in ships and cargoes, and then progressed to the ownership and operation of a growing fleet. These were the more prominent businessmen in the center of York.
In Cape Neddick the third Samuel Webber and his brother Nathaniel owned sawmills on the river, as their father and their uncles had before them. But more prominent were the Clarks, Daniel and his aging father Samuel, who having bought the mill and shipyard started by Samuel Banks were now owners of more than three hundred acres, Clark's Tavern, a sawmill and a grist- mill, a shipyard and ships, a store and a warehouse.
At Bell Marsh in Brixham several sons of Peter Nowell each ran his own sawmill, while on Birch Hill Road and at Bass Cove Creek, Joseph Came owned sawmills built by his father Samuel.
After 1768, when Colonel Josiah Chase came from Kittery and bought the Bragdon milling interests at Cape Neddick Pond and built the Chase cloth mills, there was employment in industry for women.
After the capture of Louisburg, Colonel Jeremiah Moulton was the most respected man in town, up to the time of his death in 1765. His sons, Jeremiah and Daniel, having taken over their father's duties while he held several town offices, succeeded him;
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Jeremiah as sheriff and later judge, Daniel as town clerk for forty years and a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Captain Thomas Bragdon of Cider Hill was Colonel Jeremiah's successor as the town's military hero, having figured prominently in the second siege of Louisburg and in the conquest of Quebec. As a mark of respect, the citizens usually chose these men to serve, in their time, as moderators of town meetings. Honorable John Bradbury and Mr. Daniel Bragdon, brother of Captain Thomas and distant cousin of Captain Daniel, were also among the leaders in town affairs. Young David Sewall began to command attention when he was appointed Register of Probate in 1766 at the age of thirty-one, and rose steadily in court offices of the Province of Maine and of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
There were matters besides business and commerce to draw men to town. Enlargement of trade required an increase in legal transactions. York, as the shire town, was the place where courts were held and records were kept. Many citizens from other towns converged on the courthouse in York Village as principals, witnesses, and spectators at lawsuits. When magistrates from Boston came to preside over the higher courts there must have been many colorful scenes. The judges wore robes of scarlet, with large cambric bands and immense wigs, while the barristers had gowns, and also bands and tie wigs. John Adams, the second President of the United States, a Harvard classmate of David Sewall, occasionally appeared before the courts in the years be- tween 1770 and 1774. In a letter to his wife, he described a colorful ceremony, the escorting of the judges of the Supreme Court all the way from the banks of the Piscataqua to York:
When I got to the tavern on the eastern side of Pis- cataqua river, I found the Sheriff of York and six of his deputies, all with gold laced hats, ruffles, swords, and very gay clothes, all likely young men, who had come to that place ten miles, to escort the Court into town. This unusual parade excited my curiosity and I soon suspected that it was to show respect and be a guard of honor to the Chief Justice, if he had been coming to Court.
The various taverns must have presented interesting scenes for the patrons who would linger over a drink or two in the eve- nings, gathering the news. During the period between about 1760 and 1774, the brick tavern which stood on the site of the present Coventry Hall, then under the management of Esaias Preble as tenant of Sir William Pepperrell, and later of his widow, was the
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house of entertainment favored by the judges. Across the street in what is now the Emerson Homestead, Paul Dudley Wood- bridge, or his brother-in-law Captain Matthew Ritchie, was a lesser rival, offering "Entertainment for the Sons of Liberty". John Adams told in his diary of four occasions when he rested at this tavern, during the years from 1770 to 1774, while on his way to attend courts in Falmouth and Pownalborough (now Dresden). On Scituate Men's Row in the former Preble garrison, Caleb Preble's widow Jemima, and her second husband, Andrew Gilman, carried on the Green Dragon Inn. Another tavern was the house built by John Banks near the sea on a lane off Long Sands Road, conducted by Robert Rose, who on occasion was favored with the patronage of the selectmen.
The "Way to the River" (now Lindsay Road), laid out in 1745, and Sewall's Bridge, opened for traffic in 1761, had become a part of the King's Highway for travelers on their journeys between Boston and Falmouth through York, and later, after the Revolution, of the Post Road for the postriders from Boston east- ward who once a week brought in mail from Portsmouth and, returning, from Falmouth.
In spite of these signs of growing prosperity, many York soldiers whose marchings had taken them to other settlements, large and small, became discontented with the prospect of return- ing to life in York, and took up homesteads down east offered to them as rewards for military services. Sometimes they went in a body with families of relatives and neighbors and founded new towns. There had been a large-scale exodus from York around 1760. Stovers and Bankses moved to Penobscot and other towns in that region; Donnells and Sewalls went to Bath; Prebles, Simp- sons, Moultons, and McIntires to Boothbay, Chesterville, or Sulli- van. In many a down-east cemetery, the names on the gravestones would lead one to think that he was walking through the cemeter- ies of York.
Those who returned to, or had never left, their remote farms, especially the town grants on the Outer Commons "up on the Mountain", soon lost touch with the changing world. At in- frequent times, whenever they acquired surplus products over and above the goods needed weekly for barter, they might come in contact with the local merchants. They might then find that the merchants themselves were actually their competitors, for men like Jonathan Sayward, Edward Emerson, and Captain Daniel Bragdon owned farms and mills of their own.
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Yet all the while and at first unrealized in York, trouble was brewing, for in Massachusetts men were forming a party to foment resentment against new taxation imposed on the colonies by the King of England. The first official notice was taken in York after mob violence had broken out in Boston in 1765, when the Stamp Act was put into effect and the property of customs and revenue officials in Boston was looted and burned. In 1766 these officials appealed for reimbursement of their losses and the General Court referred the matter to each town for consideration. In a town meeting called for July 26, 1766, the citizens of York put into the record their opinion that while the losses should be "made whole", there should be an investigation to determine ex- actly who should receive damages and how much, and whether the payment should be made by certain towns or by all of them, etc., etc., and wound up by leaving the decision to Jonathan Say- ward, the representative for York in the General Court.
The next official step was taken when, by an act of Parlia- ment passed in 1767, duties were imposed on tea, glass, paint, and other imported articles. The General Court resolved to form a confederation of the thirteen colonies which should send a letter of protest against special taxation. Parliament condemned this resolution and commanded the General Court to rescind it, but by a vote of 92 to 17, the Court refused. Among the seventeen in favor, thereafter known as the "Rescinders", was Jonathan Say- ward. The town, in official meeting on September 13, 1768, did not support his stand, but voted that "this Town highly approve of the Proceedings of those of the late Honble House of Representa- tives who were not for rescinding". Jonathan Sayward was not re-elected. Thenceforth the town was divided in opinion; the magistrates and other officers of the king were not inclined to- wards severing ties with the mother country, not just because "they were afraid of their commissions", as John Adams charged, but partly because they feared the power of England, and partly because they considered it not good sense to bring the good times to an abrupt end. The majority of the citizens were "Patriots", later, as a party, called "Whigs".
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