USA > Maine > York County > York > New England miniature; a history of York, Maine > Part 9
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
Though Jonathan Sayward lost favor in York, he still was reappointed a justice of the peace by Governor Francis Bernard, and in 1772 a justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Judge of Probate. In conversation and in speeches before town meetings, the judge freely expressed his opposition to any movement for revolution.
76
NEW ENGLAND MINIATURE
Steadily the controversy grew. Boston had its Tea Party in December 1773. York voted in favor of every act of the Sons of Liberty and of the Continental Congress. In a town meeting held in York after the Boston Tea Party there was spirited debate over the language which should be used in resolutions approving the disposal of the tea. Judge Sayward, almost alone in opposing the resolutions, succeeded only in getting the resolves moderated in tone to a mere vote of thanks. For this questionable victory he came into special prominence as the spokesman for the York Tories. In June 1774, while at dinner with the Court, in friendly conversation he cautioned John Adams, who had recently been appointed a member of the Continental Congress, "to be very careful that they do not do they know not what". On the street the deacon Judge was equally the adviser of caution. "I am told", John Adams wrote to his wife, "the Deacon insinuates sentiments and principles into the people here in a very subtle manner; a manner so plausible that they scarcely know how they come by them".
Then in 1774 came the so-called York Tea Party, the story of which has several times been told in print but in such a manner as to give the impression that it exactly duplicated the famous Boston Party. The Judge's version, as he entered it into his diary, is more likely to be correct. Under date of September 28, 1774, he wrote:
The last week was a week of Confusion in town. Capt. James Donnell from Newfoundland brought in a small quantity of tea at which a number were uneasy and chose a committee who took it out of the Vessel of Donnell and and Lock'd it in a store of Capt. Grow's the same night after it was all took out by nobody could tell who and Donnel resolving to get satisfaction would not seek after it. two days after the tea was replaced I know not by whome.
Captain James Donnell often was in the employ of his uncle the Judge, though he also owned shares in the vessels he commanded, and sometimes went on voyages under separate charters; Captain Grow's store stood by the river near the foot of Clark Lane, not more than a block from Sayward's house. Jona- than Sayward was therefore in a position to know the facts. At any rate the townspeople held him responsible for the presence of the tea, and for most of the war years kept him under surveillance.
77
A History of York, Maine
On January 5, 1775, they gave him a rough time as he presided over a court:
Our January Court was held with great Difficulty and some danger to the Justices; the Jurors were sworn after a great Dispute and the judges threatened to be puld from their Seats while John Sullivan Esq. who was one of the Continental Congress kept heightening the people by Har- anguing them on the loss of their Privileges and said our not Impaneling the Jurors was acquiescing in the acts of parlia- ment and giving up our Charter. I suppose said Sullivan was in danger from what he offered or acted in that Congress and if he could inflame the people to a Civil War he possibly might escape in the Crowd. Capt. Daniel Bragdon also who had met with one Provincial Congress (though not the choice of the People) harangued them out of doors and collected a great Crowd round him influenced them in a most mad manner put the Court in danger. Yet after the jurors were impanned I declared I would not sit in any case so as to give Judgement and Cause was committed to Juror and Court. Broke up peaceably. . .. James Sullivan Esq. acted a noble and resolute part notwithstanding it operated against his brother John and the lawyers acted in kind and Loyal part in demurring a cause to ease the Judges
James Sullivan Esquire later was governor of Massachu- setts; his brother John was a general in the Revolution. York shared with many other towns throughout the colonies such scenes of division of opinion between brothers and between partners.
Three months later, the Battle of Lexington was fought, and before a month had passed, the Judge was called before the people in town meeting to declare his position. As spread upon the town records :
The Town having been somewhat uneasy and dis- affected with conduct of Jonathan Sayward Esq., supposing him to be not hearty & free for the Support & Defence of our Rights, Liberties & Privileges in this Dark & Difficult Day, but rather the contrary:
He came into the Meeting & made a Speach: where- upon the Town Voted it was Satisfactory . . . .
To Jonathan Sayward 1775 was a year of woe. In his diary, as the final entry for that year, he gives this review:
I am now arrived to the close of the year through the forbearance of God it hath been a year of Extraordinary trials: beside the Death of my wife (the greatest of all) .. .
78
NEW ENGLAND MINIATURE
on the 12th Sept I have lost a new Sloop . .. and ... one or more cargoes in the West indias. ... but this is but small Compared with the Hazzards I have and am still in on account of my political sentiments and Conduct. I have been Confined upon honor not to absent my Self from the town and a Bonds man Jotham Moulton Esq for my comp- tence, often threatened, afraid to go abroad, have not been out of town these nine months through fear though my busi- ness Greatly Required it. The Loss of trade, the Scorn of the abject, Slight of friends, Continually on my Guard, all my offices as Judge of Probate, Judge of Court of Common Pleas, Justice of Quorum, Justice of Peace taken from me. Constant Danger of being Driven from my Habbitation so much that I have constantly kept £ 200 Lawfull in Gold and paper curency in my Pocket for fear of Sudainly being Removed from my Abode. I have been examined before Committees and obliged to lay open my Letters from Gov- ernor Hutchinson, to swear to my private Conversation.
When war broke out in the Battle of Lexington and Con- cord on April 19, 1775, the men of York were of a mind to act. A day passed after the battle before the news reached York, but on the following morning sixty volunteers were formed into a company of Minute Men under Captain Johnson Moulton, armed and ready to march to the aid of Boston. Their names are on record in the Massachusetts Archives, Volume XIII, 10, and a tablet of stone stands in their memory on the lawn in front of the First Parish Church where they assembled on April 21, 1775.
The American Revolution was fought and concluded far from York, and the records show no decisive achievements brought about by the leadership of any of its citizens. Men of York did their duty well and were faithfully supported by those who stayed at home. There were soldiers of this town in nearly every action- the Siege of Boston, the campaign on Long Island, Valley Forge, West Point, Ticonderoga, the Penobscot Expedition, Trenton- doing creditably whatever was expected of them.
Brigadier-General Jotham Moulton, son of Judge Jeremiah and grandson of Colonel Jeremiah, the Indian fighter, appears to have been the town's highest officer, but his career was short. While at home in York on furlough in 1777 he became ill with a fever, and died at the early age of thirty-four. Colonel Johnson Moulton, a distant cousin of General Jotham, after leading the Minute Men towards Boston, served at Cambridge as lieutenant- colonel of the First Maine Regiment. As an officer in other regi- ments he served through the Siege of Boston, then through the
79
A History of York, Maine
Long Island campaign. Captain James Donnell, whose house still stands in York Harbor opposite the present Emerson House, saw more action than any other soldier from York. As second lieutenant of the Minute Men, first lieutenant under Captain Samuel Derby in the York Regiment, captain of his own company in another regiment in 1776, and captain in the 12th Massachusetts Regi- ment in 1777, he served on nearly every front. Lieutenant Moses Banks (1732-1823), surveyor and engineer, son of Moses and Ruth (Weare) Banks and grandson of John Banks who built the Banks Homestead near Little River, according to the records kept by his descendants, "served on the staff of Gen George Washington with whom he was on terms of intimate friendship". Major Samuel Derby of York was mentioned in a letter from George Washington to General Heath requesting that an opinion on the use of flat-bottomed boats be asked of Major Derby "under whose care the boats were at Passaic".
On the sea as on the land, men from York fought for inde- pendence. In 1775 England blockaded the Atlantic Coast and for a year all ships venturing out were captured and confiscated. Seafaring men, even fishermen, were put out of work; vessels remaining in port deteriorated.
Dwellers on the Isles of Shoals were ordered by the General Court to destroy their houses or remove them, either for fear of invasion by a British fleet or lest spies might use a home as a base for operations. Most of the houses were taken down in sections and made into rafts, upon which families climbed aboard with their possessions and cast off. Some, allowed to drift wherever the tides and the winds carried them, in due course were scattered along the coast from Rye to York. The beaching of these craft sometimes caused panic where they landed, for the sight of them bobbing towards shore gave rise to rumors of British invasion. Twenty-two families who had come ashore in or near York Harbor were supported by the Massachusetts government for the rest of their lives. The names of the male heads of families are given in Constable Ritchie's tax list, dated August 24, 1778.
A bill presented to the Commonwealth for the support of the eleven shoalers-five men and wives of three, and three widows-in York in 1818, shows the cost for care and mainten- ance of those who were still living after forty years. For boarding a man $1.10 per week was paid, for a woman 90 cents. There were charges for necessary items of clothing, for medical care by Drs. Josiah Gilman and William Lyman, for weekly pay of nurses for
80
NEW ENGLAND MINIATURE
three patients, and for the funeral expenses of one man. The total for thirty-four weeks between June 1817 and January 1818 was $593.00.
When in 1776 John Adams proposed to the Continental Congress that all captains and owners should be encouraged to oppose the enemy at sea by all means in their power, privateering was at once enthusiastically begun. The Navy was formed and York men were among the first to join. Richard Trevett, George Rendall, John Harmon, and William Emerson were captains of York privateers. Men of this town serving on ships from other ports were captured and imprisoned in Dartmoor in England. Among the York men who served under Commander John Paul Jones on the Bon Homme Richard were Esaias Preble and William Stacey, later the tavernkeeper on Lindsay Road; Obediah Donnell among others from York was on the Ranger; on the America, under Captain William Coffin, were at least a dozen men from York.
At home the selectmen conducted town business as usual, and aided by a Committee of Correspondence, complied with the requests of the Provincial Congress at Cambridge. A volunteer company of seacoast defense troops was recruited, commanded by Captain Edward Grow.
After there were sufficient ships fitted out as privateers to afford some degree of safety to American vessels, merchants again sent their captains to coastal ports and in convoys to the West Indies. By 1780 a few York privateersmen-Captains Richard Trevett, George Rendall, Joseph Tucker, Samuel Black, Grow, and others-profited for a short period from the prize money from the sale of the captured ships and cargoes they brought into York Harbor.
The extent to which the Revolution was waged around York is recorded only in Jonathan Sayward's diary, and his own words furnish a graphic account without further comment.
1776
Sept. 3 Mr. Emerson's schooner saild last Sab- bath for West Indies was taken same day.
1777
Feb 20 I suppose that the spirit of resentment and dis affection to old England is higher now than ever I saw it.
1778
Aug 14 Capt. Jacobs arrived in a prize Brig Rich
1779
June 2 William Emerson returned of a suc- cessful cruise having taken nine sail.
81
A History of York, Maine
1780 July 25 A ten gun Privateer schooner from halifax take fifteen men off of Ball Head.
July 31 Sundry of the English Privateers on the Coast this week past and take a number of our vessels
Aug 4 Capt. Grow in a Privateer Returned from a Cruise and brought in to York a ten gun Privateer and a schooner loaded for the W. Indies
1780
Aug 11 Capt. Wm Seward got home in a prize.
Aug 16 three of our fishing Boats taken & Stripd and the men let go on signing their Parole and boats given them
Aug 25 this day a privateer schooner chased our fishermen in from fishing.
Aug 26 3 cartel vessels in Boston and one into York from different ports of the King
June 11 1781
Capt obrian in a Privateer saild from our port with 16 of our men were raised in about six hours of all Princi- ples & Possession some from necessity some from Novelty few if any from Principle.
June 28 six of our Privateers carried in to N York.
July 4 a number of Kings vessels of war and Privateers in our Bay taking great many coasters & prisoners
July 27 a prize Snow of Capt obrian arrived Joseph Simpson Prize master
July 28 A Privateer took several of our coasters and fishermen in sight [of land] among which I saw Jonathan Perkins was
July 31 Our fishery is greatly distrest and like to be Broke up by the Kings vessels and Privateers.
Aug
Aug 20
October 26
7 Olliver Keating got home from Cadiz after a profitable voyage for himself Raynes in his schooner fitted as a Pri- vateer returned this day with a Prize ship of 200 tons burden Cargo 2000 bushels salt 37 hogs-heads suggar etc Capt Rendal in his privateer Returned from his successful Cruise and Brought in a Schooner with 700 Barrels of beef butter Pork &c a shallop loaded with Coal same day a small sloop
82
NEW ENGLAND MINIATURE
loaded with turpentine came into York prize to Capt obrian
1781 Oct 27
this day hath been spent in Publick Rejoicing because Lord Cornwallis [has been] taken by Washington 300 Discharges of Cannon in this town
Nov 12 a Cartel bound to Baggaduce hath been here & wind Bound 12 days with 43 Prisoners on Board
December
3 Capt. Edwards in his Privateer came to my wharfe.
1782 March 13
hear 5 sail of our vessels taken by a Brig Privateer from Baggaduce.
November 5 a 74 gun ship launched at Portsmouth & given the french King
November 21 this day at 11 in the forenoon Capt Trivet in a ship of four hundred ton from Nance in france was cast away on Swets Point and almost by miracle most of the men were saved. She mounted 20 guns her cargo was worth 25000£ sterling and but very little of her cargo will be saved.
1783 April 29 a day of Publick Rejoicing on hearing of peace. . . . Carried to excess in breaking the wheels and gun carriages all to pieces. suppose we should never want them any more. The Newspaper of the 10th of April gives the consti- tution of the American States.
The Revolution caused severe hardship and reverses for the citizens of York, just as it did for people in all the colonies. When all the vessels that went out on voyages in 1775 were captured in the English blockade, prices for necessities brought in from other ports soared. Crops were poor during the war, chiefly because so many able-bodied young men were taken from the farms into service. Corn, salt, and flour were sold at fantastic prices. When the General Court offered bonuses to encourage the making of salt, a salt works was started at Phillips Cove. Hard money, always scarce, practically disappeared.
The disastrous rout of the American forces in the Penobscot Expedition in 1779, in which a dozen or more York men are known to have participated, intensified the financial straits of the Province. In addition to the regular war taxes in food, cloth- ing, and money levied by Massachusetts for the overall conduct of the war, Maine was called upon to organize at its own cost an
83
A History of York, Maine
eastern military department to prevent further invasion in Maine. With public credit depressed, a new issue of paper money was put out at a value of forty old dollars to one new. The cost to the Town of York was enormous. The constables' records for the early 1780's show that all sorts of claims were paid: bounties to recruit soldiers for eight months' service, clothing, equipment, and transportation, maintenance of families at home, payments for service while prisoners in enemy hands, care of deserters kept in York, for buying beef for the army, raising continental beef pastured by Captain John Stone (on what is now Country Club property) and in the "Continental Pasture" on land owned by Plaisteds on Cider Hill, and payments for collectors from the farms.
The "Eastern Army" under General Peleg Wadsworth, to keep the English troops in Castine from further encroachments, was stationed at Falmouth, Camden, and Machias. Some forty York soldiers in Captain Thomas Bragdon's company saw no action while on guard duty, but their bills paid by the town were staggering. In 1781 there were not sufficient funds in the treasury to pay bounties to fill the entire June quota of three months' men. The condition of York during the Revolution is well summed up in a protest by the selectmen written on January 24, 1783, when the General Court, after war was over, undertook to levy fines on towns which had not filled prescribed quotas.
Humbly Shew The Subscribers. ... That agreable to the Resolve of June 30, 1781 great Pains was taken by the Town to comply therewith But the failure of the Paper Cur- rency, and the great exertions of the Town made to procure their Quota of the Continental Army for three years renders them unable to Comply with the Requisition-The Me- morialists would observe that they have procured and now have in the Army their quota that has been assigned, that they have done from Time to Time every thing for the sup- port of the Warr they could in procuring Clothing, Beef, &c.
That by the loss of all their Vessells by the Enemy at an early period of the War-they are much reduced in their circumstances. That the soil they Inhabit is poor and Bar- ren-and they really apprehend such a time of Scarcity before the Month of April next as they never Saw before, probably one half the Inhabitants without Bread . .. all the money in the Town will not be adequate to discharge one Quarter part of the Continental Taxes already ordered for 1782.
Men from farther "down east", in protest against the bur- densome taxation, circulated in 1782 the first of several petitions
84
NEW ENGLAND MINIATURE
to allow the separation of Maine from Massachusetts and to form an independent state.
After the war came to a close in 1783, England forbade the United States to trade directly with the British West Indies, but allowed a limited trade for American goods carried, for a price, on English vessels. American foodstuffs, tobacco, livestock, and timber were traded for West Indian rum, molasses, and other products of the tropics; trade with European ports and with French West Indies, though forbidden, was possible, sub- ject to the risk of capture. Some York merchants-particularly Jonathan Sayward and Edward Emerson-took their chances, and though the hazards were great, made large profits when their captains completed voyages in spite of hurricanes and hostile men-of-war. Two men of York, however, well aware of the danger that the new nation might collapse before it could achieve a solid foundation, expressed pessimism. Jonathan Sayward entered into his diary a foreword for the year 1785: "Some begin to doubt whether independence will be so great a blessing as it was at first thought it would be". And John Bradbury wrote in his diary on April 8, 1785: "The judgments of Heaven very heavy upon us, Vice and Wickedness reigning in triumph, Poverty and want Flourishing, Taxes and the poor increasing, old age and Death hastening, Trouble increasing upon us and god departing from us". The American colonies had won independence from the rule of England, but several years passed before they reached agreement on how they were willing to be governed as a federation of states. These were times of doubt and misgivings. During these years there were not only the uncertainties about foreign commerce in accordance with the laws imposed-and often changed-by other nations; but also there was growing mistrust in dealings between the states, conducting affairs, as they were, without a code of laws common to all.
At a convention held in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787, with eleven of the thirteen states represented, a constitution was drafted, which, according to the terms on which it had been drawn, required the approval of at least nine of the states before it could be put in operation. Massachusetts voted approval in convention on February 6, 1788, by a small majority, after pro- vision was made to include certain amendments. By midsummer all but two states had ratified, and in November George Wash- ington was elected President and John Adams Vice-President. In
85
A History of York, Maine
New York, as temporary capital, the government was begun on March 4, 1789.
Conditions improved rapidly: new ships were built and cargoes collected. Captains adjusted their actions to the current foreign restrictions. On November 27, 1788, Jonathan Sayward noted that there were thirteen sail anchored that day in York River; he had never before seen so many there at any one time. Captains like Thomas Harmon having received their training and experience under such merchants as Sayward and the Emersons, had their own ships built, and became independent traders; Edward Emerson Jr. steadily acquired a fleet; Jonathan Say- ward Barrell and Bulkeley Emerson gained experience as mer- chants.
Then the war which broke out in 1793 between England and France brought new and quickly changing hazards to Ameri- can shipping. England first encouraged privateering on ships of all nations, then within a year concentrated on French vessels while regarding the United States to be neutral. When France retaliated, the two nations changed embargo laws so frequently that an American captain might, within a week of leaving port, discover that he was acting contrary to some foreign ruling that had not been in effect when he had set sail.
During this war, relations between France and the United States became strained to the point of an "undeclared war" which existed until 1803. The French asked the United States to join them in their war on England in return for the assistance which they had given to the colonials during the Revolution, but the administration, under George Washington, voted to remain neu- tral. Tension mounted during the following years as Americans received unfriendly treatment from French seamen in West Indian ports and waters, and by 1798 the effects were being felt in York. In that year, two vessels owned by Edward Emerson Jr .- the Clarissa and the Sebatus Neptune-were captured, taken to a port on the Island of Guadaloupe, and dismantled and condemned. In the same way, Edward Emerson, Jr., lost two more vessels and their cargoes, the Friendship in 1800, and the Caroline in 1802- in all a loss of more than fifty thousand dollars. In 1803 a peace treaty with France was concluded, whereby the United States Government was reimbursed for losses sustained. Individual owners then sought to recover from the Government out of the payments received from France, but eighty years passed before
86
NEW ENGLAND MINIATURE
Congress allowed heirs of the original losers to submit claims, and no payments were made to the Emersons until 1902, when Edward Octavius Emerson received $6,114 for distribution among fifteen heirs, and again in 1905, when he received $4,093.61. No record has been found of spoliation payments to heirs of any other York shipowner.
In 1794 Algerian pirates became a source of trouble in the neighborhood of the Mediterranean Sea, until in 1804 they were conquered at Tripoli by an American squadron commanded by Commodore Edward Preble, a descendant of Abraham Preble of York.
But in spite of the risks to shipping in foreign seas, between 1798 and 1801 there was an unprecedented increase in American shipping and shipbuilding, which to a small extent was reflected in York. The warring nations were too busy fighting to transport their own goods or to raise food for their navies, and they needed cotton, wool, and leather for clothing and equipment. It was an artificial prosperity, sustained only so long as warfare continued on the American side of the Atlantic for possession of the West Indian Islands. Sooner or later the United States was bound to become involved, as happened when England undertook to search American vessels for deserters from English vessels, and in the process, impressed Americans. In 1807 President Madison, hoping to avoid conflict by keeping American vessels away from the scene of the war zone, imposed an embargo which served only to bring American shipping nearly to an end. The War of 1812, which paralyzed trade throughout the nation, brought ruin to the small seacoast towns in Maine.
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.