USA > Maine > Pioneers on Maine rivers, with lists to 1651 > Part 16
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189
SACO RIVER
PURCHASE, THOMAS, born 1577; planter at Saco from Dorchester, Eng- land, 1631-2; Brunswick, 1633; wife Mary Grove died in Charlestown, 1654; died at Salem, May 28, 1678, aged 101; widow Elizabeth; children Elizabeth (Blaney), Jane (Elkins) and Thomas.
RICHMOND, JOHN, merchant, 1637, from Bandon Bridge, Ireland; Rich- mond Island, 1638; wrecked in the new ship of Barnstable, built at Saco, 1638; on the Maine Coast, 1639.
ROBINSON, EDWARD, planter, 1640, seems to have been father of Francis. ROBINSON, FRANCIS, born 1618; employe of Thomas Lewis at Saco, 1631; merchant at Barbadoes, 1650; Saco, 1667.
ROGERS, THOMAS, planter at Saco, 1638; Old Orchard, 1662; killed by Indians at Biddeford October 13, 1675, and his house at Saco burned the next day; children John, Richard and Thomas, born January 12, 1658-9.
SANKEY, ROBERT, born 1605; sailed from London June 20, 1635, in the "Increase"; fisherman and constable at Saco, 1636; died 1640-2.
SCADLOCK, WILLIAM, planter at Biddeford, 1636; removed to Cape Por- poise section later; died 1662; widow Eleanor married Stephen Kent, of Newbury, May 9, 1662; children John, Rebecca, Samuel, born 1643, Sarah (Gannett), Susanna and William.
SMITH, JOHN, born 1591; carpenter and member of the Company of Ly- gonia; arrived at Boston July 7, 1631; Saco, 1636; wife Ann in England; living 1687.
SMITH, THOMAS, son of Simon and Martha, of Stephney and London, England; Saco, 1640; Cousins Island with John Cousins, 1645; died 1652-8; daughter Judith married Richard Tozer of Berwick.
SMITH, WILLIAM, born 1588, brother of Richard, of Westchester, Eng- land; Saco, 1636; York, 1640; died at Scarborough, without issue, March 6, 1675-6.
TRISTRAM, RALPH, planter at Winter Harbor, 1644-1654; deceased 1679; children, born at Biddeford, Samuel, February 2, 1644-5, Benjamin and Nathaniel, July 10, 1650, Rachel, August 23, 1653, Ruhama, December 16, 1655, Freegrace, October 7, 1661, and Ruth, August 10, 1664.
VINES, RICHARD, physician and patentee of Saco, arrived from England in June, 1630, in the "Swift"; sometime a servant of Gorges; Barba- does, 1646; died at Saint Michael's, 1651; widow Joan; children Belinda (Parasite), Elizabeth, Joan (Ducy), Margaret (Ellacott) and Richard, born at Clerkenwell, 1626.
WADLEY, JOHN, planter, 1635; Wells, 1639; died, at Biddeford, February 15, 1674; widow Margaret; children Mary (Mills) and Robert.
WALTON, JOHN, carpenter, arrived 1635; Saco, 1636; Portsmouth, 1644; wife Mary; died at Portsmouth, 1657; widow Ebel, of Plymouth, Eng- land; child John, born 1635.
WARNER, THOMAS, Boston, 1639; fishing partner of William Batten; Saco, 1647; Cape Porpoise, 1653; died 1658; widow Catherine, married John Searl November 26, 1661; child Thomas, born in Boston, 1658.
WARWICK, HENRY, planter on the east side of Saco River, 1636; died 1679; widow Jane; children Joanna (Helson, Tenny) and John.
WATTS, HENRY, born 1604; fishmonger from England; arrived at Saco in the "White Angel" in June, 1631; fowler at Scarborough, 1639; married the widow of George Barlow, before 1670; living in 1687.
WAY, GEORGE, fisherman at Winter Harbor, 1650; came to New Plymouth with Richard Carle and Thomas Wallen, in a boat belonging to the former's father; sent home.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
WEST, JOHN, born 1588; planter at Salem, 1636; Saco, 1637; Wells, 1659; died 1663; widow Edith; children Ann and Mary (Haley).
WILLIAMS, RICHARD, contractor at Boston, 1635; died in March of the next year while manufacturing clapboards at Saco, in partnership with Peyton Cook.
WILLIAMS, THOMAS, Boston 1631-4; Saco, 1636; indebted to Cradock at Saco, 1636; may have married Ann, widow of Thomas Wannerton, of Pascataqua, as his second wife; children Jerusha (Hull) and Lucretia (Hitchcock).
WISE, THOMAS, planter, 1636-9; in partnership with Hugh Mosier at Casco, 1640; Casco, 1668.
191
SCARBOROUGH RIVER
SCARBOROUGH RIVER
This stream, called Oriscoage by the Indians and Blue Point River by the English settlers, enters the sea at its confluence with the Nonesuch-about six miles northeasterly from the mouth of Saco River.
The first European resident on the western bank was Henry Watts, a fishmonger, who removed from Saco to Pine Point in 1633. Three years later Richard Foxwell secured five hundred acres above that point, then styled Blue Point, from his father-in-law Richard Bonython, whose patent for Saco included the district.
The homesteads of Foxwell and Watts were contiguous. That of the latter contained only an hundred acres and, in 1639, other tracts of the same dimensions had been selected, in the order named, along the shore to the westward by Nicholas Edgecomb, Hilkiah Bailey and George Dearing. Subsequently, the widow of Dearing married Jonas Bailey, and the last two lots were combined in one farm.
William Smith, of Casco, testified in later years that, when he first visited Blue Point in 1640, the only plantations then estab- lished on that side of the river were those of Dearing, Edgecomb, Foxwell and Watts. Wilmot, wife of Nicholas Edgecomb, came to Richmond Island as a "covenant-servant" and, according to her own statement, removed to Scarborough at the time of her mar- riage in 1641. George Barlow and Edward Shaw settled on the eastern bank of Scarborough River, but much later.
Submission to Massachusetts was effected by this and the Casco plantations July 13, 1658 .*
STRATTON'S ISLANDS.
These two diminutive islets, lying before Old Orchard Beach- about two miles south of Scarborough and three miles west of Rich- mond Island-took their name from John Stratton, either because he was wrecked there in 1632, or lived there until the next year. Stratton could not have made a reasonable claim to the premises
* Mass. Col. Rec., 4-296.
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192
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
because they were not included in his patent of Cape Porpois They contain about twelve acres.
In 1637, the islands were only inhabited by fishermen, who ha left the service of Winter at Richmond Island. Seven boats wer employed there constantly under the supervision of Andrew Alge a former servant of Winter. His associates were John Billing Oliver Clark, Alexander and William Freathy, William Han Narias Hawkins, John Lander and John Symonds.
Alger and his men were still living on the larger island i 1645, after it had been conveyed to Cammock by Gorges. Some his earlier partners soon departed westward or returned to the English homes, but he removed to Saco and thence to Dunsta on the mainland.
193
NONESUCH RIVER
NONESUCH RIVER
The original English name for the stream that unites with the Oriscoage from the northward and enters the sea at Pine Point was Black Point River. "Strattons Yslands" were described as "lying neare" and "abutting upon Bla : Poynt" to the south.
The pioneer on the west bank of Nonesuch River was John Mills, who had been an employe of John Winter at Richmond Island. He was located at Whinnock's Neck in 1638, when attor- neys of Trelawney and Goodyear required him to attorn as tenant of the proprietors.
In 1651, the territory situated between Scarborough and None- such rivers-although previously comprised in the second grant to Trelawney and Goodyear and seized by their agents July 12, 1638-was purchased from the Indians by Andrew Alger and his brother Arthur, then of Saco. The tract acquired by them was afterwards called Dunstan in honor of the English town of their nativity. The dwelling of Andrew was situated in the interior on the western bank of Nonesuch River, adjoining that of Arthur Alger. Later, lots below these were occupied by Andrew, Eliza- beth, John and Matthew, children of the former. The daughter married John Palmer, born in 1640 .*
October 12, 1675, the Alger settlement at Dunstan was attacked by the Indians and among the fatalities Andrew Alger was killed during the conflict and Arthur died two days later at Marblehead, whither he had been transported on shipboard with other refugees from the Eastward. No person by the name of Alger was stationed at Scarborough a year later .;
Between Nonesuch and Spurwink rivers was a tract, contain- ing 1500 acres, which was granted by the Council of Plymouth to Thomas Cammock November 1, 1631, in consideration of the facts that he had lived "for this two yeares last past" in New England and had there "Inhabited planted & built In the Countrey of New England aforesayd some convenient houseing, & for that hee hath ventered him selfe, hazarded his life, & expended severall somes
* York Deeds, 2-113; 13-102.
+ Me. Hist. Col., 3-110.
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194
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
of Money in the more ample discovery of the Coast & Harbours of those parts, & is for the aeffecting of soe good a worke minded to undergoe the further Charge of settleing him selfe, his family & freinds in those Parts."
The two years' residence of Cammock in New England, alluded to in the patent, was the period of his service for the Laconia Company, in association with Jocelyn and Neal at Pascataqua, where he was rewarded later for his "Charge and Desertful endeavour" with a conveyance of the land at Eliot which he had recovered from William Hilton.§
After a stormy passage Cammock arrived from England April 22, 1632, and landed, apparently, at Jewell's Island, where he was injured by a fall from the fishing stage of George Jewell, master of an English vessel. Three months later the invalid was visiting Richmond Island, where he reported that, owing to his disability, he had been unable to complete a house.
Under the date of October 18, 1632, Cammock arrived in Massachusetts Bay from Pascataqua, in company with Edward Godfrey. They brought sixteen hogsheads of Indian corn, in Captain Neal's pinnace, to be ground at the windmill in Watertown.
When the order for dismissal of the employes of the Laconia Company was issued in England December 5, of that year, Neal was instructed to allot land to the principal employes in consid- eration of their services for the proprietors at Pascataqua. Cammock was instated by Neal in the Hilton tract at Eliot.
The Pascataqua pioneer took possession of his concession at Black Point May 23, 1633. Delivery was made by Neal in the presence of Abraham Shurt, Richard Smith and John Winter, and described a tract "bounded to the Southward with the Bay of Sacoe, on the Westward with bla : Poynt River, To the Eastward with the small brooke Called Spurwinke." A confirmation by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, dated March 15, 1640-1, specified that Strat- ton's Islands were to be part of the premises .*
When Cammock built the first house at Black Point is not definitely known, but it was standing on the easterly side of None- such River opposite Blue Point in 1638.
In the summer of that year John Jocelyn, a versatile writer for the times, with his father Sir Thomas, of Kent, Cammock and
York Deeds, 2-84, 87.
§ York Deeds, 1-3, 1.
* York Deeds, 2-84.
195
NONESUCH RIVER
other passengers shipped for New England on the Nicholas of London. During the voyage the narrator mentioned Martin Ivy and Thomas Jones, two of the boys who had been engaged by Cammock to work on his plantation at Scarborough. Their vessel first sighted Newfoundland.
Four days down the coast Cammock left the ship and "went aboard of a Barke of 300 Tuns, laden with Island Wine, and but 7 men in her, and never a Gun, bound for Richmonds Island, set out by Mr. Trelaney of Plimouth." Later in the season Winter alluded to this vessel as the "Samuel of Aveiro."
The Nicholas continued its course to Boston. July 12 Jocelyn sailed with his father for Black Point-a distance estimated at 150 miles-and two days later arrived at his destination, accom- panied by his brother Henry from Pascataqua.
Their advent was announced by Winter in these words: "Mr. Joslins father is now Com over, & another of his sonnes with him, & doth purpose to live their with him: the live all yett with Cap- taine Cammocke before he have fitted him selfe with a house." From this observation it appears that Jocelyn, who had just removed thither from Newichawannock, had not resided upon his grant long enough to have completed a habitation of any kind .;
Excerpts from Jocelyn's narrative of his first voyage to New England are roughly descriptive of frontier conditions at that time at the Eastward.#
On one occasion, in August, he "hapned to walk into the Woods, not far from the Sea-side" where, "near half a mile from the house," he encountered "a piece of ground over-grown with bushes, called there black Currence * they being ripe and hanging in lovely bunches." These were known to later settlers as whortleberries. While he was satisfying his appetite he "heard a hollow thumping noise upon the Rocks approaching" and "pres- ently *
* a great and grim over-grown she-Wolf" appeared.
In the language of the narrator, "I began presently to sus- pect that she had fallen foul upon our Goats, which were then valued (our she Goats) at Five pound a Goat; Therefore to make further discovery, I descended (it being low water) upon the Sea sands, with an intent to walk round about a neck of land where the Goats usually kept. I had not gone far before I found
+ Me. Doc. Hist., 3-140.
Mass. Hist. Col., 3-3, 226.
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196
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
the footing of two Wolves, and one Goat betwixt them, whom they had driven into a hollow, betwixt two Rocks, hither I fol- lowed their footing, and perceiving by the Crowes, that there was the place of slaughter, I hung my piece upon my back, and upon all four clambered up to the top of the Rock, where I made ready my piece and shot at the dog Wolf, who was feeding upon the remainder of the Goat."
In the month of May "within a stones throw" of the house, the writer killed "above four score Snakes." Some of these were, in his own words, "as big as the small of my leg, black of colour, and three yards long, with a sharp horn on the tip of their tail two inches in length."
"About 4 of the clock in the afternoon" of September 24, after his arrival in the country, "a fearful storm of wind began to rage, called a Hurricane." Jocelyn said, that the "impetuous wind that goes commonly about the Compass" in such cases, "be- gan from the W. N. W. and continued till next morning, the great- est mischief it did us was the wracking of our Shallop, and the blowing down of many tall Trees, in some places a mile together." While the language is archaic, the accounts are interesting.
John Jocelyn left Black Point for England by way of Boston in the Fellowship, George Luxon master, September 23, 1639; he did not return until after twenty years had elapsed.
Sir Thomas Jocelyn, who had been chosen a local commis- sioner by Gorges in 1639, left the country with his son before he had received notification of his appointment.
Henry Jocelyn remained at Scarborough, where a grant of 1000 acres, situated upon the inland margin of the Cammock tract, had been conferred upon him. Vines claimed that such a concession had been made to him before any of the patents were executed by the Council of Plymouth in that vicinity. The grantee occupied a part of his territory and leased and conveyed lots from it to his brother Abraham Jocelyn, Andrew Heifer, Philip Hingston, John Libby and Anthony Row. The district bordered upon Libby's River.
When Cammock died in the West Indies in 1643, he had al- ready devised his holdings in Maine to his widow Margaret and his former business associate Jocelyn in equal shares. Subse- quently, the joint legatees were married and continued to reside upon the estate at Black Point. A part of their farm is now
197
NONESUCH RIVER
known as Prout's Neck. July 16, 1666, Jocelyn sold the premises, with 750 acres of his own which had never been alienated, to Joshua Scottow, a Boston merchant, and removed to Pemaquid.§
In December, 1676, a ship was sent from Massachusetts to the Eastward to remove the surviving Englishmen. The Indians had depopulated the "whole country, driving away all Christians from the ffishing Islands as well as Continent as farre as Black point, which they tooke, and burnt and destroyed all houses Eastward."*
PIONEERS
ALGER, ARTHUR, born 1625, brother of Andrew; Scarborough, 1651; wounded by Indians at Dunstan, October 12, 1675; died two days later at Marblehead; widow Ann married Samuel Walker of Woburn.
BAILEY, HILKIAH, employe or tenant of Richard Foxwell at Blue Point, 1640; last mentioned, 1645.
BARLOW, GEORGE, clergyman at Exeter, June 5, 1639; Saco, 1649; owned land at Dunstan; widow Sarah married Henry Watts, 1670; children may have included George, who died at Plymouth, 1684.
BOUDEN, AMBROSE, mariner, had a dwelling on the west side of Spur- wink River, opposite Robert Jordan's house, thirty years before 1676; died 1679; children Ambrose and John.
BOUDEN, JOHN, son of Ambrose; fowler at Black Point, 1640; Saco, 1671; married Grace, widow of Nicholas Bully; children, born at Scarborough, Hannah, July 9, 1653, Lucy, June 25, 1660, John, July 15, 1671, and Nicholas, January 19, 1673-4.
BURRAGE, BENJAMIN, farmer at Spurwink House, 1639-1640.
BURRAGE, JOHN, of Thorne Combe, Devonshire, England; farmer at Spurwink House, 1639-1640; removed to Blue Point; died 1663; widow Avis married Thomas Hammett; son William, born at Scarborough, 1648.
HICKFORD, JOHN, butcher from Cheapside, England, 1637; Saco, 1640; returned to England.
JOCELYN, JOHN, brother of Henry, arrived at Black Point from England by way of Boston, July 14, 1638; returned to England. 1639; came back, 1660; no issue; wrote an account of his two visits to Maine.
JOCELYN, THOMAS, born 1650, father of Henry and John, came with the latter to Black Point, 1638; described as an "auncient knight"; returned to England, 1639; children, by Elizabeth Tirrell, Ann (Mildmay), Ben- jamin, Dorothy (Brewster), Edward, Elizabeth (Neile), Frances (Vin- cent) and Thomas; by wife Theodora, Henry. Theodora and Thomazine. SHAW, EDWARD, planter at New Plymouth, 1632; Blue Point. 1640; Saco, 1645; Scarborough. 1658; wife Jane; deceased 1662; child Richard.
TUCKER, RICHARD, born at Stogumber, England. 1594; planter at Spur- wink, 1631; wife Margaret. daughter of Nicholas Reynolds and sister of Mary, wife of Arnold Allen: Casco. 1633; merchant at Great Island. 1653; drowned 1679; daughter Mary (Hoskins).
WEEKS. OLIVER. employe of George Cleave at Spurwink, 1633; employe of Winter at Richmond Island, 1634-1643; Saco, 1650.
York Deeds. ?- 6
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198
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
SPURWINK RIVER
This stream is situated about three miles east of Scarborough River and was styled a brook by early mariners. Prout's Neck and Scarborough Beach intervene between the two rivers. The Spurwink was made prominent in local history by George Cleave and Richard Tucker, who built a small house near its mouth on the eastern bank in 1630.
The first habitation became the subject of much subsequent litigation and was finally acquired by the owners of Richmond Island. Although they obtained possession by virtue of their grant from the Council of Plymouth in 1631 and took control two years later through the agency of John Winter, the real ownership was in dispute for more than thirty years.
The history of Spurwink River during the colonization pe- riod is identified with that of its island port near the mainland, with which it is connected by a bar at low water.
RICHMOND ISLAND.
This oblong islet, which lies near the point of Cape Elizabeth, is only three miles in perimeter and contains about 200 acres of land.
It was known to early Dutch navigators as "Wingardes Eylant" and to the Italians as "Winter or Wingert" Island. The name was derived from the German word "Weingut," meaning vineyard. The place was so named on account of the profusion of wild grapes found there by the discoverer.
In 1607, Richmond Island was the unnamed seagirt refuge visited by Sagadahoc colonists when they "overshot" the mouth of the Sagadahoc River in their western course from Saint George.
May 29, 1623, the island with the mainland opposite was drawn by the Duke of Richmond, in the great lottery of New England territory. It afterwards assumed his name.
Late in that same year Christopher Levett found it to be un- inhabited by Europeans, but he described the locality as an ideal
199
SPURWINK RIVER
resort for fishermen. His statement was that "There hath been more fish taken within two leagues of this place this year than in any other in the land."*
April 11, 1627, John Burgess, master of a fishing vessel, which was called the "Annes" and hailed from Westleigh, England, made his will while lying sick "in Richman's Island" in New England. The will was probated in a British registry May 24, 1628, and disposed of marine equipment .;
By some the name of "Richman's Island" has been presumed to have been derived from its connection with John Billington, or Woodman, as he was styled by the author of the New English Canaan. Woodman was an early discoverer of valuable slate deposits, as he supposed, on the northerly end of the island, but his dream of monopoly and wealth induced him to commit murder for which he was executed in Massachusetts in 1630.
The first occupant of the island was Walter Bagnall. His death occurred there October 3, 1631, after a New England resi- dence of seven years. He had lived at Mount Wallaston in 1624, but sought this lone island in 1628. As a member of Thomas Morton's household at the time of the latter's arrest he was ban- ished from Massachusetts and later referred to in the following statement : "Some of ye worst of ye company were disperst."}
Bagnall was the individual to whom Morton alluded when he remarked, "A servant of mine in 5. yeares was thought to have a 1000.p. in ready gold gotten by beaver, when hee dyed."§
The death of Bagnall was described as a murder committed by an "Indian Sagamore, called Squidrayset, and his company, upon one Walter Bagnall, called Great Watt, and one John P-, who kept with him. They, having killed them, burnt the house over them, and carried away their guns and what else they liked." To this report was added, by way of description, "This Bagnall was sometimes servant to one in the bay, and these three years had dwelt alone in the said isle, and had gotten about £400 most in goods. He was a wicked fellow, and had much wronged the Indians." **
Squidrayset, according to Levett, was living at the first fall in Presumpscot River in 1624 .. Obviously, the companion of
* Me. Hist. Col., 2-83.
¡ Waters' Gen. Glean .. 1-2.
į Bradford, 2-162.
$ N. E. Canaan, 78.
** Winthrop, 1-62.
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200
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
Bagnall was John Peverly, whose name was preserved in a list of servants sent to New England by Captain John Mason be- tween 1622 and 1635; the first of these colonists settled in Massachusetts.
William Wood asserted that Bagnall's family, perhaps allud- ing to Peverly only, was killed at the time of the early evening massacre, and there has always been some conjecture as to what became of the gold. It was asserted that the savages took what else they wanted, but the redistribution of the money by them was never detected by the English traders. Morton assumed that it was confiscated by the Massachusetts authorities, but dis- posed of the mystery with the expression, "whatsoever became of it." In 1855, however, an earthen jar, containing coins and a seal ring with the initials "G. V.," was uncovered by the plough- share on a northerly slope of the island .¡
December 2, 1631, which was about two months after the de- cease of Bagnall, the Council of Plymouth issued a grant of Richmond Island, together with 1500 acres on the mainland op- posite, in his name, but there is no record of any assertion of title by his heirs in after years.
CAPE ELIZABETH.
George Cleave claimed to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, as chief proprietor, that he was the original settler at Spurwink River, where he had been "lawfully seized" of a certain tract of land for seven years before 1640. The claimant had held his premises "by virtue of a promise made unto him" by Gorges himself. He supplemented his plea with the reminder that the "promise was made unto me for my encouragement before my coming into this Country, in any place unposessed, as is to you well knowne."}
This statement disclosed the fact that Cleave had been one of the original pioneers of Gorges, who had come to Saco in the Swift in 1630 and chosen the site for his home at the mouth of the Spurwink River, where he had built a habitation that year. Richard Tucker formed a partnership with him the following year and they occupied the premises jointly. It was during the first year of their association that Sir Christopher Gardiner visited their establishment and by way of trade secured a warm-
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