USA > Maine > York County > Kittery > Old Kittery and her families > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
Or. Elizabeth Allen and Ephraim Allen, Or. Ezekiel .Allen, Capt. John Bartlett and son. Capt. Moffat's estate, Widow Shuah Bartlett. Widow Sarah Bartlett, Joseph Johnson for part of Widow Sarah Bartlett's estate. John Bartlett, Jera. Bartlett. Jacob Brewer. Henry Black. Widow Anna Beal, Dr. Edmund Coffin, Lieut. Nathaniel Coffin, Nathan Coffin, Richard Chick, John Chick. Thomas Chick. Amos Chick. Lieut. Nathaniel Clark, Nathaniel Clark. Jr .. John Cator. Cotton Cator. John Davis, Or. Bryant Davis. Elder Daniel Emery and his son Daniel. Noah Emery. Widow Anna Emery. Lieut. Japhet Emery. Mr. Caleb Emery, Mr. Caleb Emery for B. Chadbourn, Esq's estate. Zachr.
157
AND HER FAMILIES
Emery, Samuel Emery, Samuel Emery, Jr., James Emery, James Emery, Jr., Widow Patience Ferguson and son, Reuben Fergu- son, Daniel Ferguson, Dennis Ferguson, Stephen Ferguson, Tim- othy Ferguson, William Ferguson, Qr. William Fry and son, Ebenezer Fry, Qr. Widow Sarah Fry, Qr. Rowland Fry, Qr. Silas Fy, Qr. Joseph Fry, Qr. William Fry, Jr., Daniel Ferbish, Joseph Ferbish. Joseph Ferbish, Jr., David Ferbish, John Ferbish, Capt. Charles Frost, Charles Frost, Jr., Nathaniel Frost, Widow Sarah Frost, Simon Frost, Widow Mary Frost, John Frost, Esq., Sam- uel Fernald and two sons, Samuel and Noah, Widow Eliza Fer- guson, William Ferguson, Jr., John Foster, Alexander Goold, Benjamin Goold, Benjamin Goold, Jr., Daniel Goold, James Gowen, Esq., John Gowen, Lemuel Gowen, Capt. Ichabod Good- win, Joseph Goodwin, William Goodwin, Joseph Goold, Jr., John Goold, Qr. Isaac Hill, Benjamin Hill and son Andrew, John Hill, Ebenezer Heard, Jonathan Hamilton, William Hight, Samuel Hodge, Benjamin Hodsdon, Stephen Hodsdon, Thomas Hods- clon, Joshua Hubbard, Capt. Philip Hubbard of Berwick, Qr. Rey- nold Jenkins, Dennis Johnson, Daniel Johnson, James Johnson, Capt. John McIntire of York, Hugh Keniston, Widow Mary Ken- iston, John Kingsbury of York, Joseph Kingsbury, Paul Lord of Berwick, Mark Lord of Berwick, Simon Lord, Simon Lord, Jr., Daniel Lord, Capt. Nathan Lord, Capt. Samuel Leighton, Tobias Leighton, Or. John Morrell, Robert Morrell, Joel Morrell, John Moffatt, Esq., Nicholas Morrell, Andrew Mace, Azariah Nason, John Nason, Nathaniel Nason, Or. Widow Patience Neal, Qr. John Neal, Qr. James Neal, Daniel Odion, Paul Patch, John Patch, Robert Patch, John Pilsberry, Capt. Alexander Raitt, John Raitt, William Raitt, Samuel Roberts of Somersworth. Mr. Nathaniel Rogers, Nathaniel Sparhawk, Esq., Jacob Shorey, Joseph Shorey of Berwick, James Smith, Widow Mary Stacey, John Stacey, William Stacey, Capt. Elisha Shapleigh, Ebenezer and Joshua Simpson of York, Widow Jane Tucker, Joseph Thompson of York, Robert Tidey, William Tetherly, 3d. Qr. Moses Wittum, Qr. Gatensby Wittum, Pelatiah Wittum, Gatensby Wittum for part of Capt. Moffatt's estate.
The number of Quaker polls was eighteen. Then follows a summary of four tax lists for 1776.
158
OLD KITTERY
114 Upper List.
£4,885
174
2dl. 4,295
115 3d, 4,843
184
4th. 5,430
587
£19,453
The upper parish of Kittery was incorporated as the town of Eliot I March 1810. The leader in securing its incorporation and the chosen agent of the parish for this purpose was Andrew P. Fernald. This movement had been talked about from time to time for more than a century, and a petition and a counter peti- tion had been drawn up in 1796. The reasons for desiring a sep- arate township were the distance of many from the place of hold- ing the town meetings, in the church at the head of Spruce Creek, the political combinations that had imposed upon the people of the upper parish undesired officers, the opposing interests of the seafaring people of lower Kittery and the farmers of the upper parish, the debt of the town with no adequate provision for liquidating it, and the dissensions arising from lack of unanimity in the choice of a pastor in the upper parish. The last was an affair of long continuance. Some seem to have determinedly dis- liked Parson Chandler for the sole reason that they could not have another person as pastor. It was hard for the minority to cheerfully acquiesce in the decision of the majority. Many were opposed to the incorporation of the town, but the greater part of the wealth of the new town was arrayed on the side of incorporation. All the petitions and incorporation papers have been published in the tenth number of the first volume of "Old Eliot." where also may be found lists of the tax-payers at that time.
The name of Eliot is said to have been suggested by Rev. John Eliot of Boston. an intimate friend of Gen. Andrew P. Fernald. He promised the town a meeting-house bell, which was never furnished, since there was no belfry. Some have sup- posed the name of the town to have been derived from Hon. Robert Eliot of Newcastle, one of the leading men in the early history of Scarborough, Kittery and Portsmouth. It is ques- tioned whether any family relationship can be traced from him to the Rev. John Eliot above mentioned.
159
AND HER FAMILIES
X.
CONFLICTS WITH THE INDIANS.
For nearly half a century the first settlers of Kittery lived in peace and friendship with the Indians. South Berwick was a trading post, where the Indians often came in great numbers, yet there is no record of depredations or murders committed by them before the time of King Philip's War. Their chiefs, Runacwitts and Rowles, sold land to some of the settlers, and Rowles continued to live in the midst of the white men. It is to be feared that the settlers were not always just in business transactions and that fire-water was sometimes a poor compensa- tion for valuable lands and furs. We read in Court records of trials for selling rum to the Indians.
The tradition has been published that the wife and daughter of Nicholas Frost were killed by Indians near the mouth of Stur- geon Creek. One account says this was in 1648; another says it was 4 July 1650. It is a noticeable coincidence that Major Charles Frost was killed by Indians 4 July many years later. There was no Indian War in 1648 nor in 1650. There is no hint in any public record that any of the inhabitants of Kittery were disturbed by Indians at that time. It is hardly credible, then, that a party of Indians entered Frost's house on Leighton's Point while Nicholas and his son Charles were away, captured wife and daughter, were pursued toward night, that a fight occurred in which Charles Frost, a youth of seventeen years, killed a chief and a brave, and that the next morning the mangled remains of the two women were found. So the story runs. It contradicts all we learn elsewhere about the peaceful habits of the Indians at this time. There are other evidences that some mythology has grown up about the early history of the Frost family.
King Philip's War broke out in June, 1675. It began in Plymouth Colony but soon was raging all along the frontier in New England. An attack was made upon the house of Richard Tozier, who lived above Salmon Falls. He was absent in the
160
OLD KITTERY
command of Capt. John Wincoll. Fifteen persons were in the house. A girl of eighteen held the door while the rest were escaping by the rear to the garrison. The savages cut down the door with their tomahawks, rushed in and struck down the heroic girl, leaving her for dead. She recovered and lived many years. One child of three years was killed by the Indians, and one was carried into captivity and held six months. The next day the house and barns of Capt. John Wincoll were burned.
.A man and two boys were shot at Berwick 7 Oct. 1675. On the sixteenth of the same month the house of Richard Tozier was again assailed by a band of one hundred Indians and was burned to the ground. Tozier was killed and his son Thomas was either killed or carried off captive. Lieut. Roger Plaisted, who was in command of the small force at the garrison house, sent nine men to reconnoitre. They walked into an ambuscade, and three were shot. The next day a cart drawn by oxen was sent out to bring in the dead bodies, escorted by twenty men. No precautions seem to have been taken against the wiles of a foe known to be crafty. While the first body was being placed in the cart the Indians fired upon Plaisted and his men from behind a stone wall, logs and bushes. A few of the men escaped. Plaisted disdained to fly and threw away his life in a vain effort to fight almost alone against a hundred or more. He was cut down by a tomahawk. A son, Roger, was slain at the same time, and another son, whose name is unknown, is said to have been mortally wounded. Just before the encounter Plaisted and John Broughton had sent a dispatch for aid as follows :
"These are to inform you that the Indians are just now engaging us with at least a hundred men, and have slain four of our men already. Sirs, if ever you have any love for us and the country, now show yourselves with men to help us, or else we are all in great danger to be slain, unless our God wonderfully appears for our deliverance."
The hill that slopes down to the river just north of the rail- road bridge at Salmon Falls is on the old Plaisted estate. A few paces east of the road that runs over that hill, and near the hill- top, is a marble slab that commemorates Plaisted and his sons. The peaceful surroundings are in beautiful contrast with the terror and excitement of that day in which men were falling,
161
AND HER FAMILIES
houses and mills were burning, and women and children were being led into captivity.
The Indians went south at least as far as Sturgeon Creek. Tradition says that at this time Richard Nason, Jr., was slain in his own door and his son Richard was taken to Canada never to return. Two men unknown were shot at Sturgeon Creek.
FROST'S HILL.
Capt. Charles Frost was caught some distance from his house and ten bullets were fired at him. He hastened to his house, where there were three boys. He shouted out to them as though the house were well garrisoned, and the Indians were alarmed and did not venture within gunshot.
It was about three years later that two hundred Indians were treacherously captured at Cochecho and sent to Boston, where some of them were executed for murders committed and the most were sold into slavery. This act of perfidy, in which it is said that Major Richard Waldron of Dover and Capt. Charles Frost joined reluctantly and under protest, was never forgotten nor forgiven by the Indians. Both Waldron and Frost paid the
11
162
OLD KITTERY
price of their bad faith with their lives some years later. The Indians had been invited to a friendly conference with an express pledge of safety, and were then entrapped by a sham fight.
After a peace of ten years King William's War began and raged for ten years more, during which time the whole frontier of Kittery was in constant alarm. The attack upon Salmon Falls and Quamphegan was in the spring of 1690 and has been best portrayed in the following letters :
Portsm, March 18, 1689/90, 10 o'clock.
Much Honed
Wee are just now informed that ye Indian Enemy this morn- ing Attacqed Salmon falls & have surprized all the families above the fort wch are about 10 or 12, & have also taken possession of the fort & of Loves house where severall families lived.
Wm Plaisted who gives this information made his Escape from Capt Wincols house wch was twice assaulted by ye Enemy but they were beaten of by six or seaven Englishmen whome he left in possession of sd house when he came away from thence to give this advice & pray for reliefe he saw not above twenty Indians ; we have already sent away from the banke between 20 & 30 men, & have sent to our other Towns for further releif ; we now here see the smoaks rise so yt they are burning all before them :
Wee humbly pray a thorough and serious Consideration of the condition of this part of ye Country, & yt such measures may be forthwth taken as in yor Honrs Wisdome shall be thought most Conducive to the preservation thereof ; this is the whole of wt information we can at present give, as soon as we have A further accot you may Expect to hear
further from
Much Honed yor Humble servts
Wm Vaughan Richd Martyn/
Portsmo 18th March 1689/80 Much Honed
Yesterday we gave accot of ye dreadful destruction of Salmon ffalls the perticulers whereof please take as followeth ;
The enemy made their onset between break of the day & sun- rise-when most were a bed & no watch kept neither in fort nor
163
AND HER FAMILIES
house they presently took possession of ye fort to prevent any of ours doing it & so carried all before them by a surprize, none of our men being able to get together into a body to oppose them, so that in the place were kild & taken between fourscore & 100 persons, of wch between twenty & Thirty able men, the fort & upards of twenty houses burnt, most of the Cattle burnt in the houses or otherwise kil'd which were very considerable from thence the Enemy proceeded to Quamphegon where lived onely Thomas Homes who upon the Alarm retired from his house to a small Garrison built near his saw mill wheither also some of Salmon falls yt made their Escape fled, about 30 of the Enemies surrounded Homes house, but met with noe opposition there till fourteen men of ours came up from ye lower parts of ye Town, & undeserved by ye Enemy, made a shot upon ye party of Indians at Holmes houe, Sundry of ym standing before the door, at wch shot they say three of the Enemy fell, ye rest run into the house & broke through ve backside thereof, & being more numerous than ours forced our men to retire, nine of them got safe home & five Escaped to Holmes Garrison, only one of ours wounded in the Encounter, then the Enemy burnt Holmes house & pro- ceeded about a mile lower down & burnt the ministrs house wth two more & Assaulted Spencers Garrison but were repel'd and so retir'd. James Plaisted who was taken at Salmon falls was sent by Hope Hood ( Commandr in chief of the Indians) wth a flag of Truce to Tho. Holmes for ye surrendr of his Garrison- promising liberty to depart upon his soe doing, but Plaisted1 returned not nor was ye Garrison surrendered.
The sd Plaisted who was in ye Enemies hands many houres Informed yt he saw of ye Enemy one hundred & fifty men well accoutred & Guesses them to be about one half ffrench ; upon their taking possession he saith that ten of them french & Indians made A dance wch Hope hood told him were all officers, he also told him that his Brother Gooden who liv'd in Loves house was going to be try'd for his life by A Councill of Warr : for yt in their takeing Loves house the said Gooden had kil'd one ffrench man & mortally wounded another & further that there was Eight french ships design'd for Pascataque River to destroy ve same.
The Alarm being given to all adjacent Towns in ordr to their releife we sent about thirty men from this Town, as many went
164
OLD KITTERY
from Dover, & a party from Yorke together wth wt could be got from their own town, but before they could unite their force it was neare night & then they marcht wth about 100 men under Comand of Capt Jo. Hamond Comandr of ye uper part of Kit- tery, the scouts yt went before just as they came within sight of Salmon falls discovered one of ye Enemy who was binding up his pack & staying behinde his Company fell into our hands wch proved to be a frenchman whose examination in short we here- wth send to you & to morrow morning intend to send the persons towards you by land, none by Water being just ready to goe ; our fforces proceeded in pursuit of ye Enemy & about 2 mile above ye ffort of Salmon falls at the farther house up in the woods there discovered them about ye setting of ye sunn, our men presently fell upon them & they as resolutely oppos'd them, in short the fight lasted as long as they could see friends from Enemies, in wch we lost two men, one of York another of Cochecho kil'd upon ye place & 6 or 7 wounded some is feared mortally ; wt damage we did the Enemy we can't at present say. This is all ye accot we can at present Give ; to morrow intend you shall hear againe from us ; we Intrem Subscribe ourselves1
Honed Srs yor humble servts ;
Wm Vaughan Richd Martyn/
Very little can be added to the narrative given in these letters. Drake in his Book of the Indians says that about thirty men were killed and sixty-four were carried into captivity. Williamson says thirty-four were killed and fifty-four were captured. About twenty-seven houses were burned, and two hundred cattle were killed. No list has been preserved of the killed and captured. From records in Canada it is learned that among the captives were John Key and his sister Abigail, whose brother James had been slain. Abigail was still a captive 5 March 1710-11. John returned to Berwick about 1695, married and reared a family there. Another captive was Martha Grant, and her husband, Christopher Grant, was, doubtless, slain at this time. She was daughter of Thomas Wills" of Exeter, Eng., and was born at Bristol, Eng., 18 Jan. 1653. Her mother was Mary Wadel.
Coll. of Me. Hist. Society. Vol. V. pp. 51-59. -Was this the one who lived on Crooked Lane? See p. 84.
165
AND HER FAMILIES
Her first husband was James Smith of Berwick, and a son. John Smith, was captured with her. They were both baptized, 3 May 1693, in Montreal. Both were redeemed and returned to Ber- wick. Williamson says that Mary Ferguson, a girl of fifteen years, was slain. Sarah and Abigail Ferguson, sisters, were ran- somed from Quebec by Matthew Cary, October, 1695.
Other captives were Thomas Goodwin and his wife, who was Mehitable, daughter of Lieut. Roger Plaisted. The husband and wife were assigned to different bands of Indians and so remained apart. After his escape he is said to have returned to Canada for the ransom of his wife. An account of her sufferings was written by Rev. Cotton Mather in his Magnalia, and has been often republished. Her son, about five months old, was barbar- ously murdered before her eyes and hanged by the neck in a forked bough of a tree. After terrible sufferings from grief, cold and hunger. she arrived at Montreal. The record of her baptism, written in French, has been kindly furnished me by Miss C. Alice Baker, who has published much about the captives taken in the French and Indian Wars. The translation is as follows :
"Monday. 1I May, 1693, there was solemnly baptized an English woman called in her own country Mehetabel, and by the French who captured her in war, 18 March 1690, Esther, who was born at Barvic, in New England, 30 April (old style, or 19 May new style) 1670, of the marriage of Roger Pleisted, Protestant. and Olive Colman of the same religion, and was mar- ried to Thomas Gouden [Goodwin] also Protestant. She has lived for about three years in the service of Mademoiselle de Nauguiere | written also de la Naudiere]. She was named Marie Esther. Her godfather was Messire Hector de Catlieres. Chev- alier, Governor for the King in the Isle of Montreal and its vicin- ity. Her godmother was Damoiselle Marguerite Renee Denis, widow of Monsieur Naugiere de la Perade, during his life Cap- tain of the Guard of Monsieur le Conte de Frontenac, Governor of New France. The baptism was performed by M. Francois Dolie de Casson. Grand Vicar of the most Illustrious and most Reverend Monseigneur Bishop of Quebec."
( Signed )
Chevalier de Catlieres, Marguerite renee denis, Fran. Doelier. E. Guyoth, Cure.
I66
OLD KITTERY
I have heard the tradition from one of her descendants that Mehitabel Goodwin was married in Canada to a man named Rand (some say Pain) and that descendants are living in Ports- mouth. This is highly improbable. She was baptized in May, 1693, and could not have been married before, and she was ran- somed in October. 1695. The Rands of Portsmouth are all, doubtless, descended from the Francis Rand who came over in the company of Capt. John Mason.
A list of Garrisons in Kittery in 1690 has been preserved.1 There were in the lower part of Kittery ten garrisons, John Mor- rell's, John Shapleigh's, Joseph Hammond's, John Alcock's, Joseph Curtis's. Joseph Wilson's, William Pepperrell's, and Widow Champernowne's. Not one soldier was in any one of these garrisons, but they were kept and defended by their inhab- itants. In upper Kittery or Berwick there were eight garrisons, Major Charles Frost's, Benoni Hodsdon's, Jonathan Nason's, Daniel Stone's, Ensign Thomas Abbot's, Richard Nason's, William Spencer's, and Thomas Holmes', in all which garrisons there were but six soldiers. Major Frost had about fifty pounds of powder and one hundred pounds of shot. Such were the means of defense when the war began. It is evident that every house and inhabitant above Thomas Holmes at Quamphegan Falls had been swept away by the Indian massacre of the spring of 1690.
The inhabitants of Berwick were not left long undisturbed. William Vaughan in a letter dated 28 May 1690, says, "The Indians left Nechowanneck after having Dangerously Wounded one man, burn'd sundry houses, &c." The journal of Rev. John Pike of Dover, N. H., affords us some glimpses of the constant dangers to which all houses and inhabitants were exposed. He says under date of 28 Sept. 1691, "David Hamilton, Henry Childe &c were slain by Indians at Newichawannick." David Hamilton was son of a David Hamilton who died a few years earlier. Henry Child had married Sarah, daughter of Richard Nason. and left children.
In 1604 the Indians again raided Kittery from Berwick to Spruce Creek. Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Nason, was cap- tured and held in captivity till 1699, when she was ransomed by Thomas Hutchins. The intentions of marriage of Thomas
Coll. of Me. Hist. Society, Vol. V. pp. 91-2.
167
AND HER FAMILIES
Hutchins and Sarah Nason were recorded 26 July 1718. We would wish, for the sake of romance, that these were the same per- sons, but there is some evidence that another Sarah Nason mar- ried Thomas Hutchins.
Pike says that, 20 Aug. 1694, the Indians killed Henry Barnes, Edmund Hammons and his wife, as they were at work in a field at Spruce Creek. Four days later he records that, "Eight persons were killed and captivated at Long Reach, 5 at Downing's and 3 at Tobey's." About a year later, 6 July 1695, Capt. Joseph Ham- mond was captured while he was searching for a strayed cow in the woods. He was bound and left all night on Raitt's Hill, taken to Canada and ransomed after about five months. During his absence in Canada his garrison was attacked as the following letter from Charles Frost to Lieutent-Governor Stoughton, shows.
ffrom Kittery Sept. 7th, 1695.
May it please yo'r Hounor :
On Lords day last the enemie alarmed Wels by shotting of many guns in the woods nere the garisons ; on Monday A party of Souldiers from Berwick & York went out, noe signe of them, only severall Cowes wanting that were wont to Com home. On Wensday morning last the Indianes beset Capt. Hammonds gari- son at Kittery, a bout thirty of them as they Judge. wonded one man in the garison throu both thies. they being Close under the garrison, put his gun throu a Little Craves of the palosadoes, there being but fower menn in the garison at that time : they beete them of Soe they went a waie into the woods, Carrying a waie three of thire wounded men. Left behind them a french pistol, hatchet, a small bag in which was his beads, Cruisefix, Almanick, & som other trumperey ; leaving much blood behind them about the gari- son. the same day they were on the upper end of York, and a bout the Same number ; our mien have bin rangin the woods: Can- ttot meete with them : som seoulking indian have bin sen since in our towne : guns heard go of in the woods : this I thought it my Duty to Informe yo'r Hounor : who ani
Yo'r Hounor's most Humble Serv't
Charles ffrost.
It was during this year that Joseph Frye. doubtless son of Adrian Frye, aged fifteen years, was captured. He never returned,
168
OLD KITTERY
but married in Canada and descendants have been traced back to him. He was baptized in Canada under the name of Andre Frey.1
A letter from Ichabod Plaisted to Capt. John Hill of Saco, dated 9 June, 1693, says, "Last night we had four persons carried away from the garrison by the Indians, and one wounded. The place was at Sturgeon Creek. And those carried away were Nicholas Frost's wife and two children and the Widow Smith." This was the wife of Nicholas Frost, the "beaver trader." Nicholas Frost himself must have been captured about this time and was reported as in captivity at Norridgewock in 1695 and as drowned in 1698.2 Mrs. Frost and her children returned to Kittery. They must have lived on the farm long occupied by the Clark family of Eliot.
Major Charles Frost had long been hated by the Indians. They found their opportunity for revenge 4 July 1697. As he was returning from church at Great Works, about a mile north of his garrison house he fell into an ambush. Dennis Downing was shot with him and also Phebe, wife of John Heard. This has been taken to be Dennis Downing the blacksmith, but some think it was his son of the same name." The night after Frost's burial the Indians opened his grave. took out the body, carried it to the top of Frost's hill and suspended it upon a stake. His resting place was marked some years later with a flat stone, on which is a rudely chiseled inscription. "Here Iveth intrrd ye body of Mj. Charles Frost ager 65 years Decd July ye 4th 1697." The spot where he was slain is near a large boulder, on which is a suitable inscription. It is known as Ambush Rock.
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.