USA > Maine > Pioneers on Maine rivers, with lists to 1651 > Part 14
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Furthermore, Richard Vines, who was also a servant of Gorges, must have been one of the men left by Rocraft at Saco in 1618. He was a physician of integrity, versed in botanical science, who was dispatched in Gorges' ship during the most critical stage of the plague, which included the three years from 1617 to 1619, and was also hired "to stay there the winter quarter." In 1617, this vessel, instead of going to New England, sailed late in the season to Newfoundland and, in 1619, when Dermer did reach Monhegan Island in search of Rocraft, he did not leave any of his men there for the winter because he had too few to defend it.
On the other hand, he had encountered the "mutineers" upon arrival in the country. According to the report of the council, "They remayned not long" (at Saco) "but got from thence to Menehighon, an Iland, lying some three leagues in the Sea, and fifteene leagues from that place, where they remayned all that Winter, with bad lodging, and worse fare, yet came all safe home save one sickely man, which dyed there, the rest returned with the
* Purchase, 19-275.
+ Me. Hist. Col., 2-29.
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SACO RIVER
Shippe wee sent for Rocrafts supply and provision, to make a Fishing Voyage."}
Smith, in recounting the other misfortunes of Rocraft and Dermer, with whom he had endured captivity in the hands of the French corsairs in 1615, alluded to the general effect of the plague
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DUTCH MAP, 1631
upon the abandoned remnant of Rocraft's party and to the same fatality referred to by the council. His statement was: "Where I have seene one hundred or two hundred Salvages, there is scarce ten to be found, and yet not any of them," (Rocraft's survivors at
# Purchase, 19-276.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
Monhegan Island), "touched with any sicknesse but one poore French man that died."§
The fact that Vines and his companions were compelled to lie "in the cabins" (wigwams) "with those people that died," who were Indians, reflected the unusual emergency in which they found themselves at the approach of winter in the fall of 1618. And yet Gorges related of his servants that "not one of them ever felt their heads to ache while they stayed there. And this course I held some years together."*
In the last sentence Gorges must have referred to the employ- ment of Rocraft, Dermer and Vines in 1618, 1619 and 1620 at Monhegan, and of others in 1622 at Damariscove.
Rocraft was killed in Virginia in the spring of 1619 and the sojourn of Vines and the other "mutineers" at Saco gave rise to the later name of Winter Harbor, for it is evident that there could have been no occasion for leaving anyone there for "discovery" at that time if it had been inhabited previously. An ancient map of Maine, engraved in 1631 or 1632, has perpetuated the name of "Winter Harbor," as the English equivalent for Sawaguatock.t
On his way south in 1619, Dermer left Tisquantum, whom he had brought from Newfoundland during the previous year and proposed to employ as an interpreter in New England, with some friendly Indians who had survived the plague at Saco, and sailed for Virginia where he arrived in November. During the transit he had noted the ravages of disease in the extinct native villages along the coast.
In 1624, Christopher Levett discovered two rivers at Saco which he believed had never been seen by any Englishman.
THE SECOND OCCUPATION.
Two years after the visit of Levett Winter Harbor must have been occupied, temporarily at least. The evidence is meager but convincing. It is derived from widely divergent sources and largely from the testimonies of persons who had been sum- moned to testify in litigation between George Cleave and Robert Trelawney over the title to the site of the City of Portland. In that controversy the identity of the "River of Casco" as the east-
§ Smith's Trav. & Works., 2-747.
* Me. Hist. Col., 2-24.
¡ N. Y. Doc. Hist., Frontispiece.
169
SACO RIVER
ern boundary of the Trelawney grant became the paramount issue.
Winter, as agent for the defendant, described his affidavits, which were the only ones preserved in the case, as "the evidences heare of such as did most frequent that place" (Casco) "since the first discovery thereof."
Cleave won the first decision, but Trelawney appealed from the verdict as contrary to evidence. Thomas Gorges, Henry Jocelyn and Richard Vines were then the justices of the court of last resort. In their final determination in 1642, the opinion of the inferior tribunal was reversed and the rescript declared that Pre- sumpscot River was the only one in Casco Bay of sufficient impor- tance "Ever to have been Called Casco river" by the "relation of ye Antient Inhabitants & Natives."§
The first witness in point of antiquity was William Gibbons, of Saco; he had known Presumpscot River to be styled the "River of Casco" since 1623. Obviously, this planter was the agent of Levett, who was reported by his principal to have been resident in New England in 1627. He also appears to have been the brother of Edward Gibbons, of Boston, whose administrators subsequently disposed of the Saco estate.
Three other witnesses, classed by the court as "Antient Inhab- itants" at the Eastward, were John Cousins, of Casco, Peter Garland, of Dover, and John Mills, of Scarborough. Each depo- nent had known and frequented "the river which runs by Mr. Arthur Mackworthes house." It had been recognized by them and their associates as "Casco River" for fourteen years before 1640 .*
In a later deposition, relating to Pejepscot, Cousins was much more specific. His statement, made in 1683, contained the fol- lowing pertinent information :
"Testimony of John Cousins, aged about Eighty Seven years, being summoned maketh oath, having lived in ye Province about Fifty-five or 6 yrs, about two years at Sauco & the rest of my time at Casco bay, & I well remember yt Mr. Thomas Purchase went from Sauco to Pejepscot which lies in Casco Bay near ye Falls of Dammas Coggan river & settled himself, & there built an house, planted & possessed a considerable tract of land wch extended as far as Maquoit to ye Westward & bounded by the river & Nacussett
Me. Doc. Hist., 3-233.
York Deeds, 8-244.
Me. Doc. Hist., 3-231, 239.
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170
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
on the East, of wch Lands the said Mr Purchase took his first pos- session in the year One thousand Six hundred & twenty-eight."+
The two depositions of Cousins, taken 43 years apart but plainly corroborative, prove that a settlement was begun at Saco in 1626, from which Purchase and the affiant removed to Casco within two years. Other members of the temporary settlement at Saco, who were indicated by collateral references, were Richard Bradshaw, Peter Garland, John Mills, John Oldham and Richard Vines.
A main reason for the allotment of 1500 acres of land "above the hedd of Pashippscot" to Captain Bradshaw was specified as "the charge he had been at in his liveing there some yeares be- fore" 1631. His concession adjoined that of Purchase .¿
Mills was a witness to the illicit trade between Thomas Wright's agent and the Indians before 1630.
In 1626, Oldham sailed from Saco ("Canada") to Virginia as merchant of a trading vessel. There was little cargo, as the freight had been sacrificed in transit near the Shoals of Cape Cod. Brad- ford mentioned the vicissitudes of the voyage which occurred the year after Oldham had been ejected from New Plymouth. At that time this eastern trader was a most aggressive competitor of that colony in Indian trade. His ship arrived at Hampton Roads Oc- tober 2, where it was unladen at the mouth of the James River, because it had just weathered a severe storm and was reported to be "very lekie." The name of the bark was the "Happy Entrance."§
The first plantation at Saco was one of those referred to by the historian of New Plymouth in 1628, when he described the set- tlers as "the planters of Pascataway & other places to ye east- ward of them."*
Saco appears to have been abandoned in 1628, when all of the original pioneers except Cousins and Garland are known to have returned to England. In June, Oldham with Morton as his pris- oner sailed from the Isles of Shoals, and soon after Vines was paid to use his influence in England in obtaining a patent of Cushnoc for New Plymouth. Bradshaw sued for a grant at Pejepscot and Mackworth for a tract on Presumpscot River, where he had had possession many years before 1635. Mills returned with Winter to Richmond Island after a sojourn in the Old Country.
* Pejepscot Papers. 491a.
¿ Am. Ant. Col .. 1867-98.
$ Bradford, 2-130 ; Min. of Va. Council, 1-121.
* Bradford, 2-149.
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SACO RIVER
February 12, 1629-30, the Council of Plymouth granted the locality about Winter Harbor to Oldham and Vines and described the tract as four miles in width along the seashore and eight miles in length toward the interior. Upon the same day another conces- sion of the same dimensions, situated upon the easterly side of Saco River and styled East Saco, was granted to Thomas Lewis and Richard Bonython.
Oldham had resided in the country about six years before the date of his grant and there was no mention of previous services performed for the council by either grantee. The subsequent home of Oldham was at Watertown.
The close association of Isaac Allerton and Sir Ferdinando Gorges in the first attempts to colonize Maine was accountable for the statement attributed to James Sherley, but dictated by Aller- ton himself, just one week after the Saco grants, to the effect that the latter had the "cheefe" of the council for a friend.
Early in 1630 Allerton and Vines had made arrangements with Thomas Wright, a wealthy merchant adventurer of Bristol, Eng- land, who owned the Swift of Bristol, to transport passengers and provisions to Saco and Casco, where they were to begin plantations for Vines and Wright respectively. Stephen Reekes, of Poole, mas- ter of this vessel, was instructed by the owner to discharge his passengers and relade upon the Maine coast with "fishe and trayne oyl" for Saint Michael's, one of the Azores or Western Islands. To avoid capture by enemy privateers to the southward, Reekes was advised to take advantage of his slight knowledge of the French language and assume French names for himself and his ship.
The Swift reached the coast in midsummer. The approximate time of arrival was indicated by the certificate of seizin, dated June 25, 1630, when Richard Vines took possession of the prem- ises at Saco in the presence of Thomas Wiggin, Thomas Purchase, Isaac Allerton, Stephen Reekes, Nathaniel Waters and John Wright, a kinsman of Thomas Wright, of Bristol.
William Blackstone, William Jeffrey and Edward Hilton had been designated to give possession for the council, but the first two, who were remote residents of Massachusetts, and the last, who then lived in New Hampshire, were absent.f
Nathaniel Waters, master of the Return, of Millbrook, Eng- land, had fished and traded on the coast in 1627. Subsequently,
; York Deeds, 1-2, 7.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
fishermen from Millbrook were employed at Richmond Island by John Winter. A master of the same name was trading at Pema- quid in 1647.
Captain John Wright was on his way eastward as factor for his brother Thomas, of Bristol, who proposed to establish a trad- ing post in the house at Casco which had been acquired from Levett. He had also been employed by Allerton to convey supplies in his shallop to Edward Ashley at Penobscot and to assist in securing a cargo of fish and train oil for the Swift, in the vicinity of Pemaquid.
Purchase was interested subsequently in the settlement of the plantation at Pejepscot on Casco Bay.
Allerton who was a witness at Saco had come from England that spring with William Peirce in the Lyon. Peirce had landed Ashley at Penobscot and proceeded westward to Salem, where Allerton had transshipped in a shallop for Pemaquid, June 12, expecting to encounter the Swift at the Eastward.
In 1628, Vines had accepted a retainer from Allerton to assist him in obtaining from the Council of Plymouth a patented right at Cushnoc for Plymouth Colony, and he was still agent for Gorges and "interested in the discovery and seizure" of the eastern coun- try. The grant of Cushnoc had been issued just a month before, and that at Penobscot, in which Allerton had an interest, was granted a month after, that to Oldham and Vines at Saco.
There is no doubt that possession was taken at Cushnoc and Penobscot during the same month, but the written evidence is not available.
The transportation of Oldham's goods to Pascataqua in the Warwick earlier in the year may have reflected a disagreement between the patentees on the west side of Saco River. At any rate Oldham's interest in the eastern plantation was acquired sub- sequently by Vines.
After his passengers had been landed at "Sacho and Cuscoe" Reekes followed the instructions of his employers and changed his name to Peter Alley and that of his ship to the Saint Peter. How far he was successful in securing a cargo of fish and oil among the English fishermen at the Eastward has not been disclosed. How- ever, England was then at war with France, and while he lay at Damariscove Captain Thomas Witherly arrived from Pascataqua
173
SACO RIVER
in command of the Warwick and in possession of British letters of marque and made a prize of the Saint Peter.
After their return to London Reekes confessed his deception in Witherly's presence at the house of Captain John Mason in Fenchurch Street.#
The settlers who came to Saco with Vines in 1630 appear to have been Ambrose Berry, Henry Boade, George Cleave, John Cousins, Theophilus Davis, George Frost, Thomas Purchase, John Parker, William Scadlock and John Wadley. Some of these were assigned lots of one hundred acres each on the western bank of the river above Biddeford Pool and others settled subsequently in Casco Bay. Two removed, seven years later, to Cape Porpoise.
The consideration for the grant to Bonython and Lewis on the east side of the river recited previous expenditures of personal funds "to take a vew of New England in America," and a decision made by the latter and "his Assotiates to plant there." Their first colony came from Bristol in the White Angel in 1631. This vessel had been purchased that spring from Robert Aldworth, a Bristol proprietor of Pemaquid, for the London partners of Plymouth Colony. Like the Swift, which had failed in a similar project the year before, this ship was intended to convey passengers and sup- plies to New England and to relade there with fish and train oil for Spain, where the vessel and cargo were to be disposed of outright.§
Allerton was in charge, and his bill of lading contained cattle and goods, consigned chiefly to settlers in Massachusetts by Rich- ard and Thomas Southcoat and William Vassal. Some of the freight was taken on the credit of John White, a clergyman of high standing in Dorchester, England, who had been one of the founders of Salem Colony.
The White Angel had been provided by Allerton and Richard Andrews, John Beauchamp, Timothy Hatherly and James Sher- ley, the London partners of Plymouth Colony, to convey supplies to Edward Ashley at Penobscot. Aside from this special service for the most easterly English settlement, this ship brought colo- nists and provisions for Saco. Shipments of more than twenty- four tons of corn and oats were made by George Way, of Dorches- ter, to Thomas Purchase and Boston consignees. This grain was freighted from Padstow, in Cornwall, to Bristol, to be ground into meal, and thence to Barnstable, to be shipped on the Friendship;
# N. Y. Gen. & Biog. Rec., 47-253. § Bradford, 2-179.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
when that ship failed of passage, its cargo was transported back to Bristol and reshipped on the White Angel .*
June 28, 1631, Edward Hilton, of Dover Point, delivered pos- session of the premises on the eastern side of Saco River to Thomas Lewis, in presence of James Parker, George Vaughan, Henry Watts and Thomas Wiggin .;
Other settlers who disembarked at Saco appear to have been John Bonython, Francis Robinson, Thomas Southcoat, Richard Tucker and Henry Warwick.
There is proof that these settlements of Vines and Lewis were the first permanent ones on the Saco River. In a letter to Win- throp, dated August 4, 1645, Richard Vines stated that the right of Alexander Rigby to the Province of Maine was based upon the "Plough Patent, which was desarted 13 years past," and declared that "If there come order, either from King or Parliment, for the establishing of Mr. Rigby in that patent, we will submit to it, soe far forth as they doe not intrench upon the liberties of Saco, (for our Patents wear granted and possest a yeare before that, and you knowe that all grants run, except before excepted)."}
The Plough Patent was granted June 26, 1630, and its first colonists, on account of the barren aspect of the premises at Saga- dahoc River, proceeded forthwith to Massachusetts where they appeared July 6, 1631, in search of a better location.§
In fact, during the same week that possession was taken by Lewis at East Saco, the Plough Company, as the Sagadahoc colo- nists were styled collectively, "desarted" the Plough Patent, "never settling on that land.">
The sentiment for exclusive proprietorship prevailed for many years upon the banks of the Saco River, although the influential Sir Alexander Rigby, assignee of the rights of two members of the Plough Company, undertook with varying degrees of success to superimpose his unpopular patent upon the older franchises of the original proprietors, both at Saco and Cape Porpoise.fi
At the time of his discharge as manager for Plymouth Colony in 1631, Allerton had "expended, and given to Mr. Vines and others, aboute 543 li. ode money," to obtain inside influence with the Council of Plymouth in securing Cushnoc patent. In the quaint
* Bradford, 2-189; Mass. Arch., 100-8, 9.
+ York Deeds, 2-110.
4 Mass. Hist. Col., 7-354.
$ Winthrop, 1-58.
** Mass. Hist. Proc., 21-232.
tt Mass. Hist. Prc., 22-157.
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phraseology of Sherley that concession required the outlay of "no small sume of money *
for * many locks must be opened with ye silver, ney, ye golden key."
Upon discovery that Barnstable merchants had consigned trading goods to Saco planters during that year, he too became interested in the eastern trade. The next spring, owing to former business relations with Vines, he became associated with him as a "consort" in commercial ventures along the Maine Coast, where he supplied him with merchandise. The New Plymouth historian alluded to Vines, or Dixie Bull, or both, in his complaint that Allerton had instructed his partners "to rune into every hole, & into ye river of Kenebeck, to gleane away ye trade from ye house ther, aboute ye patente & privilege wherof he had dasht away so much money" for that colony.}
July 23, 1632, when Vines landed at Cape Elizabeth to deliver seizin of the Trelawney grant to Winter, Allerton was present as an attesting witness. Both were returning homeward from an eastern coasting trip on that occasion, and Thomas Cammock, who conversed with them at some length, reported that the best Indian trade was to be found near the "Scotts' Plantation" (Annapolis Royal) .
The next year Vines erected a wigwam at Machias and left a few employes there to trade with the natives, but within a week two of his men were killed by the French, who took the others eastward with all of their merchandise and dispatched them from Port Latour to France. Nearly all of the trading goods captured belonged to Allerton and, as his financial condition had already become critical otherwise, he disposed of the White Angel, which he had employed for three years in fishing and trading along the coast, together with the season's cargo of fish and beaver, in Spain.§
In 1634, an English trader from Saco was killed by Indians in the interior. At that date the trade along the coast had been much reduced. In the spring of that year John Winter wrote to Tre- lawney from Richmond Island that no native had visited his vicin- ity for a long time for, said he, "no Indian lives nearer unto us then 40 or 50 myles, except a few about the River of Salko, for the planters here abouts, yf they will have any bever, must go 50 or 60 miles Into the Country with their packes on their backes * I sent a man this yeare 2 voyages into the Country to put away
¿ Bradford, 2-166, 184, 188.
§ Bradford, 2-190.
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176
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
som goods with the Indians and I was faine to give an Indian to go his pilot In the Country more than I got."*
The trade on the coast had been intercepted by the houses which had been established in the interior upon the rivers.
During this year Gorges began his principal settlement at Agamenticus with the assurance that the proximity of Saco, where his "servant" Vines had been settled for some years, would mean a material advantage. September 10, he gave him a commission to dispose of lands within his province. Several tracts of land were thus conveyed by Vines to various private owners.
Agriculture was the principal occupation at Saco, but clap- boards had already been provided for shipment August 6, 1634, when the Pide Cow sailed thither from Pascataqua to secure a return cargo. The industry had been fostered by Vines on the western bank of the river. Edward Trelawney, whose headquar- ters were at Richmond Island, reported that there was a ready market for the product at Malaga, Spain.
April 25, 1635, the Council of Plymouth apportioned all of the territory situated between Pascataqua and Sagadahoc rivers to Gorges and November 26, following, renewed the patent at Winter Harbor to Vines, in severalty. The action indicated that Oldham had consented to relinquish his proprietary interest in favor of his more active partner. After his title had been perfected, Vines encouraged the production of lumber in his settlement. With that object in view he approved the formation of a partnership be- tween Peyton Cook, of Saco, and Richard Williams, of Boston, to operate at Winter Harbor.
The company was formed in October, 1635, with the under- standing that all business should be conducted upon a share basis. Edward Trelawney, of Richmond Island, was interested in the venture and arranged with Matthew Cradock, of London, to take the entire output.
Williams came from Boston to Saco about New Year's Day and secured the services of Thomas Williams and John Smith, then employes of Vines. The proprietor was entitled to one-half of the profits to reimburse him for the timber required. About a dozen men were employed in the undertaking and the food problem be- came serious. Then Williams died and his estate was not fully administered by Yorkshire Court for many years.
* Me. Doc. Hist., 3-461.
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SACO RIVER
The first session of the proprietary court was held at the house of Richard Bonython at Saco, March 25, 1636, which was about one month after the death of Richard Williams. The commission- ers presided in the following order: Richard Bonython, William Gorges, Thomas Cammock, Henry Jocelyn, Thomas Purchase, Edward Godfrey and Thomas Lewis. The communities repre- sented were Kittery, York, Saco and Brunswick.
The creditors of Williams were found to be James Cole, Peyton Cook, John Love, Thomas Lewis, Thomas Mayhew as agent for Cradock, Hugh Mosier, John Parker and Henry Warwick. The estate was declared to be insolvent, but Mayhew, who lived at Med- ford upon the Cradock plantation, undertook to continue the busi- ness in the interest of his patron who was the largest creditor. Accordingly, provisions were dispatched to Saco from Medford.
Vines, too, was a large creditor and insisted upon reimburse- ment of part of his claim. Under the date of May 20, 1636, he received the following letter from Mayhew :
"Sir : Wn. yr shipp comes to take Clapboards, if you want you may take soe much of mine, but by all meanes lett him take after hee hath those yt belongeth unto you as well those of the shorter sort as others, else I shall bee left unsorted : as for pvisions I will send wt. I can pr the first yt comes. I have taken course for the 200 lbs. of bread and a baill of beife to goe by Mr. Allerton if hee can take it in, if not I shall come with ye other goods & what else I have yt. hee shall desire."¡
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