USA > Maine > Pioneers on Maine rivers, with lists to 1651 > Part 20
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In the spring of 1674 Robinhood and his colleagues in the vicinity conveyed to Thomas Stevens a large section of the virgin forest, two miles wide and extending from the first fall at Pum- gustuck to the head of Royal River. The district was said to have contained 100,000 acres. That same year Stevens transferred the entire plot to Bartholomew Gedney and Henry Sayward, who erected mills at Pumgustuck, now Yarmouth village, and cleared stumpage areas for cultivation and pasturage on both sides of the stream above their buildings.#
About two miles inland from its junction with the Westcustego the Chusquisack branches and forms a "neck" of marsh and up- land upon which was located the early home of John Cousins as its first English settler. He had lived at Winter Harbor in 1627, but after two years had withdrawn to Casco Bay, where for many years he was engaged in stock raising and trading with the Indians. In 1637, he was ordered by Saco Court to make restitu- tion to an eastern sagamore whom he had circumvented in trade. His actual location in Casco Bay was not definitely indicated. At that time Arthur Brown and Arthur Mackworth, who resided at the mouth of Presumpscot River, were instructed to enforce the decree. The monitors, who had been operating as a partnership for three years, may have been responsible for the acts of Cousins as an employe and benefited by his extortion.
The trader was living at Chusquisack in his own right as early as 1639. In 1645, he and Thomas Smith were interviewed there by George Cleave, who as a magistrate of Rigby was anxious to secure incriminating evidence against Robert Nash, the Boston merchant. The gist of the offence was that that coaster had dis- pensed an unusual allowance of intoxicants at Richmond Island and elsewhere at the Eastward and, in consequence, had been hon- ored by the fishermen at his departure with an ovation becoming an emperor. It appeared later, however, that in firing the salutes whole hogsheads of his own gunpowder had been consumed.
# York Deeds, 2-190.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
An early tenant of Cousins was Richard Bray, who February 21, 1650-1, acquired a half interest in part of "Cousins Place" and Cousins Island. Both settlers maintained stock ranches on the island and rafted their winter provender from marshes upriver.
At the beginning of the First Indian War the Cousins mansion was attacked by the natives and partially destroyed. The owner was seriously wounded in one of his hands and forced to seek refuge in the western country. Hannah Hazelton, who had known the pioneer as a neighbor and the landlord of her father, Richard Bray, deposed long after the decease of elder generations that Cousins had been entertained in the Sayward home at York, where he recovered from his injuries. In 1679, at the close of the war, he conveyed all of his eastern real estate to Mary Sayward.§
In his deed of the premises at Chusquisack, made just before his death, the pioneer described his homestead as a tract of 300 acres, situated on the west bank of "Susgussugg" River and known as "Cousins Place." The location was near that of Royal, and his buildings consisted of a "mansion" and stock barn.
The nearest neighbor of Cousins on the south was Thomas Redding who had sold his land at Winter Harbor in 1657 and removed to the eastern bank of Royal River, where he acquired 200 acres and remained until his decease.
Between the last settlement and the sea was the original Casco residence of William Royal, occupied in 1640, and confirmed by Thomas Gorges three years later. Before his door was an island of about twenty acres, which he sold in 1658 with his dwelling and the adjoining curtilage to James Lane, of Malden, and retired to Brown's Point, where he built another habitation just below Pumgustuck Falls.
Lane's Island still perpetuates the fact of ownership by that ancient family. The ancestor was killed by Indians at Casco before 1681, when his widow had married Henry Kenny. His children were Ann (Bray), Elizabeth, Henry, Job, John, born in 1652 and died at Gloucester January 24, 1737-8, and Samuel. Some of the descend- ants remained at Casco during the later period of Indian warfare. Subsequently, they removed to Cambridge and their interests in eastern real estate were mentioned in Middlesex registry.
Adjoining Royal's eastern boundary was another tract of 200 acres which had been conveyed to Arnold Allen, of London, by
§ York Deeds, 12-273 ; 8-233.
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ROYAL RIVER
Thomas Gorges in 1643. The grantee was a brother-in-law of Richard Tucker .*
In 1646, Allen's only child had been apprenticed to Thomas Dexter, a wealthy farmer of Lynn. The arrangement was made by Cleave and Tucker against the wishes of Mary, wife of Arnold and mother of the minor, who was reported to have been kept in a destitute condition of servitude. Cleave became abusive and with a natural inclination to dictate and the added advantage of his superior position as a magistrate attempted to intimidate the parents with the unfounded accusation that the mother had per- formed criminal abortion at Casco. The testimony adduced not only injured the reputation of the magistrate but lessened the prestige of the Rigby administration .¡
There is more than a suspicion that Hope Allen, afterwards a currier of Boston, was the son of Arnold. Before the latter's plantation at Casco were two islands, both of which he owned at an early date. One of these contained ten acres and was known as "Arnold"; the other, comprising fifty acres, was called "Hope Island"; both were conveyed to John Mosier in 1673 and are now designated Great and Little Mosier. In later years, perhaps as a consequence of previous relations, Cleave and Tucker granted to Hope Allen a large allotment of real estate at Machegonne.}
After the consummation of his purchases from Allen, Mosier enlarged his holdings at the Eastward, for when he disposed of his entire estate to Joseph Nash in 1683 it comprised three hun- dred acres and abutted upon the western bank of Harrisicket River. The later chain of this title passed through Gilbert and Nathaniel Winslow, Job Otis and William Thomas to Offen Board- man, to whom, in 1734, Arnold's original rights was assigned by the proprietors of North Yarmouth. §
There were no English settlers upon the eastern bank of Har- risicket, or nearer it than James Smith at Maquoit, until after the submission of Casco to Massachusetts in 1658.
COUSINS ISLAND.
This island, very irregular in form, is situated about a mile southerly from Royal River and contains 1,346 acres. It was pur-
* York Deeds, 1-2, 3.
¡ 4 Mass. Hist. Col., 7-362 ; Aspinwall, 246.
į York Deeds, 16-104 ; 1-120.
§ York Deeds, 13-279.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
chased from Vines by John Cousins April 8, 1645, and confirmed by Cleave, as agent for Rigby, June 22, 1647 .*
One-half of the premises were sold by Cousins to Richard Bray three years later, but, in 1688, the island was confirmed to Vines Ellacott, grandson of Richard Vines. At the latter date it was called "Hog Island," which was the name by which it was first known to English fishermen. The logical conclusion is that the place was an early resort for dressing and curing fish and that the waste was fed to pigs and poultry which in turn were consumed in the country or carried away at the end of the season.t
PIONEERS
ALLEN, ARNOLD, planter on the east side of Royal River, 1637-1647; wife Mary, daughter of Nicholas Reynolds and sister of Margaret, wife of Richard Tucker, was living in London, 1637; child may have been Hope, who served apprenticeship with Thomas Dexter, of Lynn.
BRAY, RICHARD, tailor, bought half of Cousins Island, 1651; Boston, 1678; wife Rebecca; children John, Mary, Nathaniel and Samuel, both killed at Casco by Indians, 1678, and Hannah (Freathy, Hazelton), born 1660.
FELT, GEORGE, born 1601, planter at Charlestown, 1633-9; Casco, 1640; Mystic, 1643; Casco, 1667; died at Malden, 1693; widow Elizabeth, daughter of Prudence Wilkinson; children Aaron, Elizabeth (Larrabee), born 1640, George, born 1651, Mary (Nichols), twin of Elizabeth, and Moses.
MAINE, JOHN, born 1614; planter on west bank of Royal River, 1648; married in 1649 Elizabeth, born 1623; died in Boston March 27, 1699; children Hannah (Felt), Priscilla (Carroll), Rachel (Carlisle), Sarah (Atwell, Batten) and Thomas.
MORTON, THOMAS, gentleman, with Weston's colony at Mount Wallaston, 1622; trader on Kennebec River, 1626-7; deported to England, 1628 and 1630; will made in England described estate opposite Clapboard islands, 1643; died at York, 1646; widow Grace Miller.
PHILLIPS, JOHN, born 1607; Welsh millwright at Casco, 1642; bought land on the Presumpscot River from Cleave, 1650; removed to Kittery, 1675; died there before 1701, when his estate was administered by Rowland Williams, a nephew, who was the only relative in New England.
ROYAL, WILLIAM, carpenter, sent to Charlestown, by the London Com- pany, 1629; Casco, 1635; married Phebe Green, of Boston; Westcustego, 1643; died at Dorchester June 15, 1676; widow died July 16, 1678; chil- dren Isaac, John, Joseph, Mary, Mehitable, Samuel and William, born 1640.
SEARS, JOHN, born 1613; Charlestown, with wife Susanna, 1639; Woburn, 1641; scalemaker at Long Island, Casco Bay, 1646; wife died at Wo- burn August 29, and he married November 20, 1677, Hester Mason; she died August 14, and he married November 2, 1680, Ann Farrar; died at Woburn October 5, 1697.
* York Deeds, 3-52.
+ Me. Doc. Hist., 6-408.
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BUNGANUCK RIVER
BUNGANUCK RIVER
With the interchangeable consonant of the Indian language the name of this stream was first known as Pugamuganunug River, which meant "The Brook with High Banks." It flows into the western side of Maquoit Bay about eight miles east of Royal River.
On the westerly bank the land was occupied by James Smith from Salem as early as 1639. Above this tract was a lot adjoining the river which was occupied two years later by Alexander Thwayts. Smith, however, like Thwayts, removed to Woolwich after a few years, and his premises at Maquoit, acquired by Richard Potts, were conveyed to Thomas Haynes April 20, 1675, when the eastern boundary was defined as Smith's Brook .*
The territory between Bunganuck and Sagadahoc rivers was included in the patent from the Council of Plymouth to Thomas. Purchase and George Way, of Dorchester, England, June 16, 1632. In 1683, John Cousins testified that the former patentee took pos- session at Pejepscot, "which lies in Casco Bay near ye falls of Dammas Coggin," in 1628. Fifty years later a fortification located upon the same premises and situated at the point at Brunswick Falls was known as Pejepscot Fort. Mare, now Mere, Point was fenced at the isthmus by Purchase and furnished pasturage for colts which he undertook to breed for commercial purposes.
In 1639, the home of Purchase was visited, during his absence, by Robert Sankey, sheriff for the Eastern District, who distrained. some of his property, and, again during his absence in the same year, by James Smith, of Maquoit, Arthur Brown and Robert Shute, of Winnegance, and Robert Norman, of Pemaquid, who took from the premises forty-four moose skins, which were the property of Abbagadusset, sagamore of Kennebec River. A com- plaint, filed against the trespassers in Massachusetts two years later, contained the information that the safety of the property and family of the Pejepscot merchant had been jeopardized by the lawless act of the pilferers, for the sagamore held Purchase accountable. In 1643, although he had made full reparation for the loss, the house and patent of Purchase were destroyed by fire.
* York Deeds, 4-19; 10-89.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
Thomas Redding, who had lived previously at Cape Porpoise and Saco, where he had disposed of his lot in 1657, occupied Mare Point Neck "for many years ' by sufferance of Mr. Purchas."+ In 1661, Nicholas White, who had just disposed of his interest in House Island in Casco Bay, removed to Mare, then known as Sandy, Point and built a dwelling on the outer extremity.
On the shore of the bay, between Bunganuck River and Maquoit Creek and about four miles from Brunswick Falls, a tract had been acquired from the patentee at an early date by his relative, Robert Jordan. When the latter retired to Richmond Island to manage his wife's patrimony, he left Thomas Haynes in charge of the farm in the interest of his minor son of the same name; the change of residence took place in 1641.
PIONEERS
JORDAN, ROBERT, son of Edward, of Worcester, born 1613; clergyman living with his relative Thomas Purchase, 1639-1640; married Sarah, daughter of John Winter and removed to Richmond Island, 1641; died at Newcastle, 1679; children Dominicus, Jedediah, Jeremiah, John, Rob- ert and Samuel.
LEWIS, GEORGE, planter at New Plymouth, 1637; employe of Purchase at Pejepscot, 1646; wife Ann; died at Casco, 1682; children George, Han- nah (Darling), John, Mary (Wilkins, Lewis), born at Back Bay, 1653, Philip, eldest son, born 1646, and Susanna (Cloyce).
SMITH, JAMES, planter, Salem, 1636; Maquoit, 1639; bought Tuessic of Robinhood May 8, 1648; died 1660; widow Elizabeth married Richard Hammond, who was killed by Indians August 13, 1676; children Eliza- beth, Herediah, of Beverly, James, Mary and Samuel, who was killed with his stepfather.
THWAYTS, ALEXANDER, planter; arrived from London April 6, 1636; Boston, 1640; Maquoit, 1641; Winneganset Creek, 1649; Swan Island, 1665; widow Ann; children Alexander, Ann (Hodsdon), Elizabeth, John, Jonathan, Lydia, Margaret, Mary and Rebecca.
៛ Me. Hist. Col., 3-329.
į York Deeds, 10-211.
241
NEW MEADOWS AND PEJEPSCOT RIVERS
NEW MEADOWS AND PEJEPSCOT RIVERS
Early references to the locality indicated that Pejepscot was the Indian name for the district about New Meadows River. On the oldest provincial map of Maine now extant it was inscribed as "Purcheses River" and marked the natural waterway leading inland to his pioneer domicile near its head.
The first allusion to Pejepscot may be found in the account of settlement of Sagadahoc Colony August 22, 1607, only a few days after its selection of a site for Fort Saint George. On that day Captain Popham set sail in a shallop for the "ryver of Paship- skoke." His interest in the district indicated that he had had access to information secured by some previous explorer.
At Pejepscot the colonists had interviews with Skidwaros and Nahanada whom they had left a few weeks before at Pema- quid, where the English claimed "They do make thear abbod." Apparently, both sachems possessed unusual warlike proclivities. These Indians advised Popham that they had just been engaged in native warfare with Sasanoa and had killed his son in a re- cent conflict. The English exploring party arrived home the day after its departure. It could not have gone farther than Merry Meeting Bay.
September 5, following, Dehanada and Skidwaros, with about forty men, women and children in nine canoes, rowed into the mouth of Sagadahoc River to visit Fort Saint George while on their way home from the westward. It was customary for the natives to transport an entire village by boat whenever the fish- ing, planting or hunting seasons required.
The first territory allotted by the Council of Plymouth at Pejepscot was conferred upon the Earl of Arundel July 22, 1622. Its marine boundary was defined as extending "from ye Souther- most poynt of Peshippscott East 12 miles in a straight Lyne as the Coast lyeth on ye Sea shoare." The tract extended for thirty miles "upp into the Mayne Land due North," and included Mon- hegan, as well as all other islands and havens directly seaward.
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Pejepscot Point was identical with Small Point and most of the tract must have been situated on the easterly side of Sagada- hoc River .*
February 18, 1622-3, Richard Bashrode, or Bradshaw, a mer- chant of Dorchester, England, petitioned the Council of Ply- mouth, by his attorney William Derby, that "either himselfe or some one of his Associates might bee admitted a patentee." Since it was their purpose "to Settle a plantacon in New Eng- land," they also "prayed to have Lycence granted unto them to send forth a Shippe for Discovery and other Imployments in New England for this yeare, which the Councell ordered accordingly."
The large group of associates which Derby represented was known subsequently as the "Dorchester Merchants" and included in its membership Thomas Purchase and George Way, both mer- chants of Dorchester. John White, a distinguished clergyman and neighbor of Way, was one of the most enthusiastic adven- turers in the enterprise, who furnished funds and pledged his credit to finance the early colonization of Massachusetts.
These merchants immediately undertook to establish a colony which, according to Captain Smith, had been begun, before the spring of 1624, beside that of New Plymouth at Cape Ann. The whole project was discontinued four years later, when the new London Company purchased all former rights in the old com- bination and March 19, 1627-8, procured from the Council of Plymouth the patent which furnished a foundation for Massachu- setts Bay Colony.
Some of the adventurers in the old organization became mem- bers of the new one. Among these was George Way. Purchase, however, did not affiliate, but before 1628, when the Dorchester Company of which he was a member dissolved, he had directed his attention to the region lying eastward of Cape Ann.
It is not known when he first came to New England, but he had been a servant of Charles First soon after the accession of that monarch to the English throne in 1625 and, according to John White, clerk of the Dorchester Merchants, was supposed to be residing at Dorchester, England, in 1627 .;
The year when Pejepscot was first occupied by Purchase has been derived from the recital in a subsequent deed of the premises
* Am. Ant. Col., 1867-64.
+ Me. Hist. Col., 3-331; N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., 61-278.
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NEW MEADOWS AND PEJEPSCOT RIVERS
from his heirs. In that document the event is represented to have occurred in the third year of Charles First. The date in the deed was based upon the deposition of John Cousins who had testified long afterward that "Mr Purchase took his first possession in the year One thousand Six hundred & twenty-eight, & hath made im- provement of sm ever since, untill he as well as many others were forced out of their Interests by the late Indian Wars, till which time the said Mr Thos. Purchase hath ever peacebly enjoyed the premises without molestation. And ye Depont. did always under- stand & it was generally so taken by us the Inhabitants of Casco Bay that Mr. Purchase had a Patent right for his Interest by him so long & peaceably possessed, & further saith not."}
The earliest reference to Purchase in any New England rec- ord was under the date of June 25, 1630, when in company with Captain Stephen Reekes he had subscribed his name as a witness to the certificate of seizin of the Saco patent. Apparently, he had arrived on the coast that spring as a passenger in the Swift from Bristol.
The day after possession was taken at Saco, a grant of the Sagadahoc region, called Lygonia, was issued by the Council of Plymouth in England. That concession has been styled "The Plough Patent," from the name of the vessel in which its first colonists were transported, and extended for forty miles west- ward along the shore from Sagadahoc River to Cape Porpoise and for twenty miles inland. The tract included part of that which had been assigned to Sir George Calvert by the Council of Plymouth in 1622 and lay within the civil jurisdiction of that section of Maine which had been conferred upon Gorges and Mason later in the same year. The island of Seguin, also known as Sutquin to the English and Schillpad, from its resemblance to a frog, to the Dutch, had been given to Calvert in addition to the mainland.
When Purchase took possession, all previous rights in Pejep- scot territory appear to have lapsed for unoccupancy. He still had business relations with New Plymouth and was found in company with Isaac Allerton, in the summer of 1630, at Saco. In August, of that year, he contracted with Allerton for a shipment of provisions from England.
November 18, following, the latter was in Bristol and William
# York Deeds, 4-16.
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Peirce reported that he had freighted "a ship to depart from Barnstable very shortly." This was the Friendship which had been hired to transport merchandise and undertake fishing in New England for Plymouth Colony.§
The provisions billed to Purchase consisted of oatmeal and wheat. Some of this grain was conveyed in George Way's bark from Padstow, in Cornwall, to Bristol, to be milled ; thence it was transferred to Barnstable for shipment in the Friendship, but was taken back to the White Angel at Bristol when the former vessel failed to make its first passage.
Although the White Angel had been procured by Allerton to transport supplies to Edward Ashley at Penobscot, it was laden with live stock for Massachusetts and mixed freight for several parties in New England. A large part of the cargo was shipped upon the credit of John White, the clergyman of Dorchester, Eng- land, who had been clerk of the Dorchester Merchants and was then a prominent member of the London Company as its succes- sor. In December, 1630, a payment was made by White on ac- count of his general bill of lading and May 20, 1631, a bill of ex- change was issued by George Way for the proportionate expense of his shipment which had been forwarded to Saco for the use of Purchase .*
Since Allerton's ship contained some freight consigned to the eastern settlements at Saco, Pemaquid and Penobscot, it was delayed at the Eastward until June 28, 1631, and did not arrive at Boston Harbor with the cattle until July 22 .;
Thomas Wiggin claimed that, early in the fall of the same year, Purchase went from the eastern part of New England where he then lived to Massachusetts and there married Mary Grove-a youthful member of the family of Sir Christopher Gard- iner. At any rate, that knight, who had arrived in the country early in the previous year, and possibly in the same ship with Purchase, accompanied the bridal pair to the Maine wilderness.
During his sojourn in the family of Purchase, either at Saco or Pejepscot, Gardiner was alleged to have borrowed a warming pan and bought a gun on credit from Richard Tucker of Spur- wink. Consequently, Yorkshire Court, many years after the de- parture of the knight from the country, held his host accountable
§ 5 Mass. Hist. Col .. 1-196.
* Mass. Arch., 100-9.
+ Winthrop, 1-59.
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for the full value of both items. The instance illustrates the necessity for the modern statutes against frauds.
Late in the fall of 1631 a shallop belonging to Henry Way, of Dorchester, failed to return from a voyage to the Eastward. Investigation disclosed that the Indians had killed the son and three employes of the owner of the vessel.#
A second shallop, sent to recover the first, was wrecked at Agamenticus and two of its crew were drowned.
Henry Way had a son who bore the same name as that of the partner of Purchase at Pejepscot; both Ways had been residents of Dorchester, England, and acquired real estate in Dorchester, Massachusetts ; they appear to have been brothers and this voy- age to the Eastward may have had some direct relation to their mutual affairs.
November 1, 1631, the Council of Plymouth granted to Rich- ard Bradshaw a tract of land lying "above the hedd of Pashipp- scot, on ye north side thereof (not formerly granted to any other)." The consideration for the issuance of this concession was stated to have been "the charge he had been at in his liveing there some yeares before, & for yt he purposed to settle himselfe there with other his friends & servants."§
A letter from the Plough Company in England to its asso- ciates in Massachusetts, dated March 8, 1631-2, referred to its relations with Bradshaw and Sir Ferdinando Gorges in the fol- lowing paragraph :
"Wee have had much ado abought our patten, and that there was one Bradshaw that had proquired letters patten for a part as wee soposed of our fformer grant, and so wee think stell, but he and Sir Fferdinando think it is not in our bouns. He was ffrustrat of his ffurst purpose of cuming over, but is now joyned with 2 vere able captens and marchants" (John Winter and Thomas Pomeroy, captains, and Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyear, merchants) "which will set him over, and wee sopowse will be ther as soun as this shipe, if not befor. Weè can not posi- ble relat unto you the labur and truble that wee have had to estab- lishe our former grant; mane rufe words wee have had from Sir Fferdineando at the ffurst, and to this houer he douth afferm that he never gave consent, that you should have aboufe forte
Į N. E. Prospect. 68.
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