USA > Maine > York County > Kittery > Old Kittery and her families > Part 6
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OLD KITTERY
in this vicinity. Shepherd's house stood down in the field, per- haps a quarter of a mile west of the graveyard.
At the head of the Western Creek Nathaniel Keen bought one hundred acres of John Shapleigh in 1691. This farm is now owned by Rufus Harrison Remick, and his house stands on the site of the old Keen residence.
In 1725 John Shepherd mortgaged a piece of land bounded on the northern side "by the Western Branch of Spruce Creek and the Land Caled Kerremuck." It seems to have been a local desig- nation of a small lot of land. The following deposition1 explains the name and furnishes other information.
"The deposition of Robert Eliot, Esq., of full age Testifieth and Saith that some time in the in the year 1689 he made an agreement with John Shepard. Senr., of Spruce Creek, about the ten acres of land which Corromack Ogada bought of Ephraim Crocket of sd Spruce Creek Deceased, which agreement was this. That sd Deponent was either to goe up myself or Send to run ye line between sd Shepard and sd Corromacks land afore Specified, which when done was to be a final end of all difference between sd Shepard and sd Corromack for sd ten acres of land. Accord- ingly I ye Deponent sent my Son Nathaniel Eliot up with Nicholas Heskins. Enoch Hutchins and Mr. William Godsoe, run ye line and laid out sd land of sd Corromacks as doth more fully appear by the draught of sd land given under sd Godsoes hand as Surveyr. And this was to be a finall end relating to sd land for ever and further ye sd Shepard did engage to stand to ve abovesd agreement, his heirs and asssigns.
Sworn to by Robert Eliot at Portsmouth
14 March 1705-6 before
Samuel Penhallow."
This land was granted to Ephraim Crocket in 1672, sold by him to Charles Ogrado, yeoman, of Portsmouth, by him to Robert Eliot in 1680. and by him to Nathaniel Keen. 3 July 1687, or two years before Ogrado signed the transfer to Eliot. Why Charles Ogrado is called Corromack in the deposition does not apear. It may have been a nickname, and the land was called "Kerremuck" for a long time.
In company with Moses A. Safford, Esq .. 1 had a delightful stroll over the whole region west of Spruce Creek from Eagle Point to Ram Island, anciently called Grantum Island. We were
'Kittery Town Records, Vol. I. p. 108. Cf. York Deeds. V. 106 and VIL. 44
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AND HER FAMILIES
able to locate eighteen of the old residents by the distinct traces of their cellars. The first dweller south of William Godsoe was John Waters, a fisherman. The deed was given by Thomas Withers, 13 May 1674, but it declares that the land was sold "to John Waters before his decease, in the yeare fiuety one." The lot contained eight acres, "sixteen rods in breadth by the water side," and so running back into the woods eighty rods on a west south- west line, and bounded "on the North side with a little Cove &
SHEPHERD'S HILL, LOOKING SOUTH-EAST.
Spring : on the south side, next a:lioyneing to Alexander Joanes his land." Mary, daughter of John Waters, married Henry Ben- son, sometimes written "Bencent." and they sold these eight acres to Thomas Jenkins, blacksmith, 12 July 1672.1 It is quite impossi- ble to mistake the location of the house near the water side. It was a beautiful and convenient location for a fisherman. Benson bought thirty acres of Dodavah Curtis in 1702, and so lived in the eastern part of the town.
Alexander Jones, who lived next south of Benson, died before
'York Deeds III. 102. IX. 73. XI. 35.
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OLD KITTERY
1722. The place passed to his son Daniel and from him to Daniel's son, Alexander. Old residents still remember the place as the "Jones field." A house, the last on this side of the Creek, was moved from this place within the memory of some now liv- ing. Alexander Jones was living here as early as 1674. He was probably son of the Alexander Jones who came over with Capt. John Mason's Company, and doubtless received this land as a grant from the town.
The selectmen, with consent of Thomas Withers, granted, 2 June 1669. to John Ameredeth and John ffenix twenty-four acres near Eagle Point, thirty-five rods by the water side, adjoining Robert Cutt's headline, "along ye sd headline to ye water side upon a northwest and southeast line." In 1706 John Phoenix and William Sentle request that this piece of land be divided. "at a place called Broad Cove near Eagle Point." Sentle had married a daughter of John Alcock. Phoenix sold his share to his son-in- law. Hezekiah Elwell. in 1710. It was "at the head of Broad Cove." bounded "on the west by the road that goes to York and on ye southern side by land of Walter Denniford & on ye north- ern side by land of Mr. Godsoe. Sentle sold his share to Denni- ford in 1709. Denniford bought eight acres adjoining on the south. of Nicholas Shapleigh and others, heirs of Thomas Withers, 11 June 1731. This last lot was seventeen and a half poles in breadth on Broad Cove and stretched one hundred and eight poles to the highway that goes to York, where the lot was only eight poles in breadth. It was bounded on the south by land of William Fernald and of Thomas Cutt.
We come now to the original estate of Robert Cutt. that stretched from Crooked Lane to Broad Cove. His son, Richard Cutt, gave to his brother-in-law. Richard Bryer. 16 Dec. 1693. "all that creek of water lyeing betweene the land of him the said Richard Bryar and John Muggridge generally known by the name of long Creeke goeing in at the mouth of broad Cove."- "as all priviledges runs of water small Creekes or riuelets or any waters that pass therein out of any brooke or swampe into the aforesaid Creeke as also liberty to Dam over the said Creek in any part thereof for the erecting of a Corne mill or sawmill or fuling- mill."' The remains of the dam here built are very noticeable.
'York Deeds V. 100.
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AND HER FAMILIES
It was made of large stones, blasted and transported hither with much labor and expense. The dam was wide enough for a car- riage road upon it. About the middle of it was the site of the mill. The millstone of red granite, still, seen, was probably brought from across the Atlantic. There is no stone like it in Kittery. On both sides of Long Creek cellars indicate that large houses onee stood, and on the hill to the west probably Richard Bryer lived. A road ran from the mill westward to the York road. Another road ran southward toward Whipple Cove.
A beautiful meadow stretches southwest from Long Creek and the mill dam. and beyond the meadow rises a rocky hill, which commands a view of all Spruce Creek and adjacent lands. On the southern slope of this hill there are traces of half a dozen or more cellars, a brickyard and a blacksmith's shop. The hill slopes roughly to the west in a point projecting into Spruce Creek, called anciently Long Point, when William Seely's land was described as beginning "at Kirkes [ Carle's] his land & so up by the water side of Spruse Creek, to ye Middle of a poynt of Land Called long poynt to a high pine tree on yt poynt." The point was afterwards known as Morgrage's Point. The cellar of John Morgrage is distinctly traceable. Once there was a Jawn thirty or forty feet broad south of it, but the waters of the Creek have washed the land away clear up into the cellar, and so there has been erosion all around the little curving bay southward to what was once "Carle's Point." On this bay was once a shipyard, and half buried spars could be seen here within the memory of some. Here must have been, nearly two hundred years ago, quite a vil- lage of artisans. Nobody remains to tell the tale. The land on this bay was granted. 10 May 1667, to William Seely, first husband to Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh Gunnison. It was bounded "by ye creek on ye east side and on ye southwest end with a cove comonly called Karles cove and on ye south East with Karles land." and on the other side "by Mr. Robert Cutts fence." The grant contained twenty-five acres. Seely's widow married Thomas Cowell. and she sold this grant. 4 Jan 1678. to Abel Porter. He sold it. 22 March 1670-80. to Michael Endle, and it was then called "Engle's Point." Endle deeded it. 15 Dec. 1691. to John Morgrage for maintenance during life, and it remained for many years in the Morgrage family.1 Seven acres of the southwest part of it were
'York Deeds III. 39. 78. 103.
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sold to William Bryar, 18 Nov. 1710, and he sold the same to Dia- mond Sargent, 15 Jan. 1717-18. Morgrage bought of Richard Cutt, 28 June 1695, "a tract of land whereon the sd Morgridg doth now dwell," bounded with Spruce Creek, Broad Cove and the Mill Creek. This looks as though Morgrage then lived just east of the mill dam, where a cellar may be seen. Cutt calls Mor- grage "my well beloved friend."1
South of the little bay above mentioned is now a rocky little island, called Negro Island from the fact that a negro servant of Mr. Cutts lost his life there. Its connection with the mainland has been, evidently, washed away, so that at high tide a reedy marsh appears. This was first owned by Richard Carle and was called Carle's Point. The cove south of it and west of Ram Island was Carle's Cove. The point was sold by Carle to John Shepherd in 1666, by him to William Seely the following year, and by Elizabeth Seely to Rev. William Scriven, 15 Nov. 1673. Traces of Carle's house may yet be seen, I am told by the present owner of this land. Carle had wife, Amy, and a daughter Amy, who married Samuel Knight. Carle had a grant of fifteen acres on Spinney's Cove, and he and Knight lived there.
After Rev. William Scriven went to South Carolina his son sold this land and twenty acres more on the west of it to Robert Cutt.
We have now arrived at "Gunnison's Neck, south of Carle's Cove," and passing Grantum or Ram Island we sail out of Spruce Creek into the Pascataqua River at the entrance of Crooked Lane. This introduces us to a new chapter in the history of the old set- tlements.
'York Deeds IV. 112.
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V.
ALONG CROOKED LANE.
The neck of land lying between Spruce Creek and Crooked Lane was called Gunnison's Neck. It was originally owned by Robert Mendum, and here he and John White did plant. Men- dum sold it to Hugh Gunnison, 15 July 1654. Gunnison leased this to his two sons-in-law, William Seely and William Rogers, 15 March 1658-9. It was described as a "Certain Necke of Land liing & being on the north west side of Spruce Crecke at the enter- ing of the mouth of Crooked Layne, as alsoe a little island situate and being in Spruce Cricke Commonly Called Grantums Yland." The lease was for twenty-one years, but after the death of Hugh Gunnison his widow, in 1660, gave a deed of the place to Seely and Rogers. In the conveyance an exception was made of two acres granted to Francis Trickey. After the death of Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Seely, it seems to have come into the possession of their brother, Elihu Gunnison. Indeed William Rogers deeded his half to Elihu Gunnison 6 May 1675. The whole neck was con- firmed unto Gunnison at a legal meeting of the inhabitants of the town, 10 May 1703. In a deed he says that the land had been possessed and improved by his father, Hugh Gunnison. The neck contained about sixty acres. Elihu Gunnison, Jr., received it from his father and lived near to the ferry landing, perhaps twenty rods below the present bridge.
Elihu Gunnison was appointed to keep a ferry over Spruce Creek in 1699, the earliest ferry I have found any record of at this point. A deed dated 3 Ang. 1699, also mentions "the present high way or road that goes to ye point or to ye sd Elihu Gunni- sons house or ferry."
The point of land jutting in a southerly direction, at the mouth of Spruce Creek and of Crooked Lane, was sold. 29 May 1700. by Elihn Gunnison, Jr .. to his brother-in-law, Josiah Skillin. It included an acre and a half and was bounded on the northwest by land of Samuel Pray. "on the north by a country road,"- -
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- "and on all other parts with ye river Vulgarly Called Crooked lane, running out with a long point into ye sd river." Skillin sold it. 4 June 1710, to Jonathan Dam with "Saw pitt & Sellers, with ve ground ways for Shipbuilding." Here, then, was another ship-yard. The point is now occupied by summer cottages, the most prominent of which, in the picture, is known as the Brad- bury cottage.
Next to Jonathan Dam lived Samuel Pray, who bought, 23 Aug. 1699, an acre and a half, twelve rods in breadth by Crooked
GUNNISON'S NECK, 1902.
Lane, and northwest of him were the "lands of Mr. Hubert," probably William Hubbard, who lived here but a short time. Joseph Gunnison purchased a small house-lot west of Pray in 1721, and John Follet, who had married Sarah Gunnison, was then living west of Gunnison and probably had been living there since his marriage in Boston. in 1700. \ deed says that Follet was a butcher.
We must now have arrived near the two acres mentioned above as belonging to Francis Trickey, fisherman. He was, probably, a brother of Thomas Trickey of Dover, and was himself a tax- payer in Dover in 1639 and a resident of Portsmouth in 1652.
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AND HER FAMILIES
He died about 1682, and his son John in 1686. Sarah Trickey, widow of Francis, was living here in 1691. It was their daughter, Martha, who married Elihn Gunnison. Another daughter, Sarah, married Samuel Winkley, and he was living here in 1705. Three generations of Winkleys here worked at their trade of boat-build- ing. A grant of twenty acres, made to Francis Trickey in 1656 and reaching from Crooked Lane to Spruce Creek, was laid out to Samuel Winkley in 1702.
Next to Francis Trickey there was a tract of twenty acres, twenty rods on the water side by one hundred and sixty rods into the woods, granted to John White, 19 June 1654. White sold this to George Lydden, seaman, 9 May 1670. It lay "between the land of John Merridah ( Ameredeth ) and Francis Trickey." Lydden sold the easterly half of his land to Edward Clarke in 1672. Clarke died between 1672 and 1677, and the land was soon in the possession of Edward Lydden, probably son of George. The westerly half of the original grant was sold by the heirs of George Lydden, 20 July 1698, to Roger Kelly, who was still the owner in 1710. Kelly had been a fisherman at the Isles of Shoals. Edward Lydden's part was sold to Samuel Skillin in 1705, and he sold it in 1710 to his brother. Josiah Skillin, who had taken for his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Lydden.
The next lot of twenty acres on the west was granted. 19 June 1654. to Thomas Duston: It was 28 by 120 rods and reached from Crooked Lane to Spruce Creek. In a deposition, made 28 April 1661. Thomas Duston gave his age as about 55 years. He signed the Dover Combination in 1640 and was before Court in New Hampshire for debt. 5 May 1643. He is mentioned in Kit- tery in 1650 and was constable there in 1652. He had rented his place on Crooked Lane to Richard Downe in 1659-60 and wasthen living in Portsmouth. Elizabeth Duston, his widow, gave a deed of the place to John Cutt. 19 March 1662. There seems to have been some litigation about it years later, and the heirs of Duston recov- ered the place. In 1678 Lucy Wills, aged about 46, and Sarah Lidden, aged about 38. testified that Thomas Duston's house was formerly burned and he had to mortgage his land to John Cutt. They say, too, that after Duston's death, his widow married a Mr. Button.1 She married Matthias Button of Haverhill. 9 June
'Court Records of New Hampshire.
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OLD KITTERY
1663. She was his third wife. She died in Haverhill, Mass., 16 July 1690.
June 8 1703, administration was granted to Thomas Duston of Haverhill on the estate of his father. Thomas Durston of Kittery.1 This fixes the parentage of the famous Thomas Duston or Dustin of Haverhill, who married, 3 Dec. 1677, Hannah, daughter of Michael and Hannah ( Webster) Emerson. They had eight
7
1
CROOKED LANE, FROM THE ROOF OF THE LIBRARY.
children, seven of whom were rescued by him when the Indians burned his house 15 March 1697. The babe was dashed against a tree. Hannah with her nurse and a youth were carried away. In the night the three captives arose and killed their twelve Indian captors and returned home with twelve scalps besides their own.2
The Kittery records say that. 14 Dec. 1733, there were laid out to Timothy Duston, John Watts and others, heirs of Thomas Duston, twenty acres granted to Thomas Duston, 19 June 1654.3 Meanwhile the land had been occupied by others. John Cutt transferred it to John AAmeredeth. It was described as lying
Probate Records at Alfred. Me. Chase's History of Haverhill, pp. 185-195. Vol. I. p. 106.
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AND HER FAMILIES
between the "lands of Robert Cutt and George Lydine." John Ameredeth died 26 Jan. 1600, leaving widow, Joan, and daughter, Joanna, who had married John Alcock. After the death of Alcock William Sentle lived at this place.
West of Ameredeth was a broad tract of land, containing about three hundred acres, lying between Crooked Lane and Spruce Creek, granted by the town, 16 Sept. 1651, to Richard and George
4
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OLDEST GARRISON HOUSE. Occupied by Robert Cutt and later by William Whipple.
Leader and John and Richard Cutt. William James was then living near the northwest limit of the lot, on Crooked Lane. The whole lot soon passed into the possession of Robert Cutt. On a point of land, southeast of a little cove, he built his house, a por- tion of which is still standing. It became famous as a garrison house and later the residence of William Whipple. It is now the residence of Mr. Harrison J. Philbrick, who is justly proud of its old traditions and the abundance of antique furniture and orna- ments that adorn its interior. The picture here presented shows
6
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OLD KITTERY
the rear of the house, the foliage preventing the obtaining of a front view.
At this point Cutt carried on his business of ship building. The estate of Robert Cutt fell to his son, Richard, and he, 28 June 1694, sold the easterly half of it to his brother Robert, "excepting William Scrivens Land on Barnes Point given him by me before this." In the same deed the land of William Scriven and of Mary Churchwood are mentioned on the northern bound- ary. These lands had been deeded by Richard Cutt to William Scriven and to Mary Cutt in 1686, twenty acres to each. bordering on Broad Cove in Spruce Creek. It appears as though Mary Cutt had married Humphrey Churchwood before marrying Richard Bryar. William Scriven had married Bridget. sister to Richard Cutt, the grantee. There is no evidence that he lived on this northern lot, but it is known that he lived on the point of land just west of the old Cutt man- sion. In the year 1700 Cutt sold eighty-five acres to Tobias Fer- nald, which soon passed into the possession of William Fernald. The tract began "at ve Middle of ve Cove at Low water mark agaainst Mr. William Scrivens Warf and Land" and the boundary on the west was "ye Middle of ye Cove at low water Mark by the land that was Mr. William Deaments Deceased." The tract had a dwelling-house and barn thereon. The house and land of William Scriven at "Barnes Point" were sold, 29 Oct. 1704, to Nicholas Frost of Portsmouth. It was "adjacent to Mr. Robert Cutts' dwelling-house," about half an acre, "now in ye occupation of the Reverend Mr. John Newmarch Minister of sd town." This Nicholas Frost was a mariner, son of Nicholas Frost the "beaver trader." and had married Dorothy Mendum. He was not at all connected with the family of Nicholas, the father of Major Charles Frost. It is doubtful whether this Nicholas Frost ever lived in the house he bought of Scriven, for he sold it. IO March 1707-8. to Diamond Sargent. Diamond Sargent, tailor. of York, sold it, 19 Aug. 1717, to "James Webber, cord- wainer, once of Yarmouth." This house long ago disappeared, though the doorstep, over which the Rev. William Scriven walked. may still be seen. It was voted that school be kept at the house of James Webber in 1734. Webber sold to William Whip- ple, 13 March 1739.
1York Deeds IV. 132.
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AND HER FAMILIES
Next west of the Cutt estate was a tract of land purchased by John Diamond, ropemaker, of William James, 15 June 1651, lying between Cutt and Thomas Withers. In the deed William James says that he bought the land of Alexander James.1 John Diamond signed the submission to Massachusetts in 1652, was constable in 1659 and Clerk of the Writs in 1662. He was a shipbuilder, as a deed shows. John Spencer of Saco says that one of his shallops was "built for mee at Pischataqua by John Dyamond." He died before 1667. His sons, John, Andrew and William, received por- tions of his estate. William had ten acres next to Robert Cutt.
TRIPE'S POINT.
It was twenty rods wide on the water side. William Diamond died about 1678, and his widow married Edward Carter and after- ward James Blagdon. In 1691 Joan Carter sold to her son. John Diamond, twenty-eight acres on Crooked Land, ten of which she had bought of Dennis Downing, it having been granted to him by the town. Probably John Diamond soon died. for the land was again in the possession of his mother in 1702. She was then Joan Blagdon, and she and her son-in-law. Richard Tucker. and wife, Grace, soll the aforesaid ten acres to Sylvanus Tripe, who had married her daughter, Margaret. llere, then, on Tripe's or Traip's Point, William Diamond was the first settler. The land
1Perhaps Jones.
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OLD KITTERY
long remained in the possession of the Traip family, and John Pettegrew, son of Elizabeth ( Traip) Pettegrew, lives there now. The railway to the Navy Yard has taken away a portion of this old estate. The house, now in ruins, was perhaps built by William Diamond and was certainly occupied by the first Sylvanus Tripe.
We come now to the present village of Kittery Foreside. All the land here was originally owned by Alexander James ( Jones ?) and then by John Diamond, the shipbuilder. For ten years or more Thomas Wills lived as the next neighbor to William Dia- mond on the northwest, or right in the heart of the present vil- lage. Thomas Wills, Jr .. married Sarah, daughter of Walter Abbot of Portsmouth, and it was Abbot's intention to give this place to his son-in-law, who was a mariner. But he failed to execute the deed of gift. and so after his death his sons, Peter, Thomas and John Abbot, deeded this lot to Thomas and Sarah (Abbot ) Wills, 30 Jan. 1688. They had a daughter, Sarah Wills, who married John Gear ( spelled also Gere, Geare and Geere. ) He was a juryman in 1694 and died before 1712. Sylvanus Tripe, in his will dated 29 Dec. 1714, says, "It is my will that there be a convenient Space of Land allowed at the point before the house for a common Landing place for them [his children and heirs] & from the said landing place or water Side a Convenient quantity of Land next to the widow Gear her Land for a highway for them to the Country road."
Feb. 4, 1728-9. Sarah Gere of Portsmouth deeded to her son Samuel Gere of Kittery and son-in-law John Abbot of Ports- mouth a dwelling house and thirteen acres, granted to Richard Abbot 13 June 1659, by him sold to Walter Abbot, and from him descended to his daughter. Sarah Wills, and "from her descended to me."1 John and Sarah ( Abbot ) Gear had son Samuel, the same undoubtedly who married, 7 Jan. 1724-5, Abigail Hodsdon, and daughter, Joanna, who was baptized with Samuel 17 April 1715 and evidently married John Abbot. Another daughter may have been AAbigail, who married John Thomas 24 Dec. 1733.
Thomas Wills senior had for a second wife the widow Lucia ( Treworgy ) Chadbourne in 1669. After his death,
'York Deeds XII. 368.
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AND HER FAMILIES
about 1688, she married Hon. Elias Stileman of Portsmouthi. Some have confused this Thomas Wills, who is sometimes written Wells, with the Rev. Thomas Wells of Wells, Me.
The town records have the following under date of 2 May 1674. "Measured and layd out unto John Deament | Diamond ] his house lot with an addition of sixty rods in length at ye head of it, the whole containing forty acres three quarters and thirty rods on ye south east side of Mr. Thomas Withers land, 182 rods in length from ye river into ye woods and on ye south east side 160 rods long and ye breadth by ye river 51 rods and at ve head in the woods 71 rods."
RTON
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KITTERY FORESIDE.
Since the days of John Diamond there has been more or less of ship-building at this place. The village, however, had little growth till the Navy Yard was established on the island near by. It is now a thriving village and a close contrast with Tripe's Point, which remains about as it was two centuries ago. The village has quite outgrown its rival at Kittery Point. It can not yet be told what the new development of the Navy Yard, the Electric Road, and the Water Works may do for this ancient place. now almost entirely modernized. No old landmark remains, so far as 1 have been able to learn.
It may have been John Diamond, 2d, who was put to death with torture by Indians in Wells in 1692. John Woodman was
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OLD KITTERY
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