USA > Maine > Pioneers on Maine rivers, with lists to 1651 > Part 22
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Massakiga,
Androscoggin,
Amereangan,
Sasuoa and
Scawas,
90
260
Namercante,
Octoworokin,
40
120
Buccawganecants, Baccatusshe,
60
400
Aponeg (Sheepscot),
Nebamocago,
Mentaurmet,
160
300
Asshawe,
Hamerhaw,
80
70
Neredoshan,
Sabenaw,
120
100
Apponick (Damariscotta),
Appisham,
Abochigishic,
70
80
Matammiscowte,
Narracommique, 80
90
Apanawapeske (Muscongus), Meecombe,
Aramasoga,
50
80
Chebegnadose,
Skanke,
30
90
Panobscot,
Sibatahood,
50
80
Pemaquid ("Penobscot"),
Upsegon,
Bashabes,
60
250
Caiocame,
Maiesquis,
Shasheekeing,
Bowant,
Asticon and
Abermot,
50
150
Totals,
1238
2930
-
8
40
Mesaqueegamic,
Amniquin,
Apanmensek (Pemaquid),
Ramassoc (Saint George),
Quibiquesson (Union),
Precante,
259
SAGADAHOC RIVER
An examination of the list of names for the rivers will dis- close the fact that the early colonists regarded the Penobscot as the River of Pemaquid.
Claim has been made by historical writers of note that this account of the empire of Moashan is purely mythical. While it may seem fantastic, it was derived from real and reliable sources and has value. Its descriptions of the nine rivers are unmistak- able. Their widths, depths and comparative lengths will always remain unchanged. The distances between carrying places rep- resented the leisurely stages and circuitous routes followed by Indian hunters and are merely relative. The inclusion of the larger lakes and islands makes the identities of these rivers ab- solutely certain.
The actuality of persons and their locations, in some cases, has been substantiated by extrinsic evidence. Illustrative of this assertion, such chieftains as Sasuoa, Mentaurmet (father of Rob- nhood), Sabenaw, Amniquin, Bashabes and Asticon were men- ;ioned by Champlain and contemporary colonists at Sagadahoc.
On the other hand, Shawakotoc, Sagadahoc, Kenebeke, Nara- gooc, Pemaquid and Panobscot are easily recognizable as the modern names for Maine places.
That the territory of Moashan terminated at Saco River at the westward and did not include Saint Croix River at the east- ward, is apparent from the clear identity of the former and from the fact that the inhabitants on the banks of the latter belonged to a different tribe and gave it their name. By the first French settlers the Saint Croix was called "The River of the Etechemins."
There is no doubt that the census was compiled by Hakluyt or some of his correspondents from undisclosed sources.
THE FIRST COLONY.
The voyages of Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602 and of Martin Pring in 1603 were directed by the patrons of American coloniza- ion, Henry, Earl of Southampton, Thomas, Earl of Arundel, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and their associates, with the settlement of Maine as the sole object.
No English mariner visited the coast in 1604, but in 1605 George Waymouth, under instructions from the same promoters who had sent Gosnold and Pring, surveyed Saint George's River
.Men. 240 100 330 150 40 260 120 400 300 100 80
823 18818887
80 90 80 25 -
150 - 2930
luyt, holo- outh Es in
nner Ider- rown er to laine
was e vi- e fa-
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260
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
and seized five Indians, named Tahanedo, Amoret, Skidwaros Mannedo and Assacomoit, whom he conveyed to England.
The interest created by examinations of these savages, some of whom were secured and interviewed by Gorges, induced the members of the council to dispatch two vessels the following year Funds for the enterprise were advanced by private subscription However, only the expedition sponsored by Chief Justice Johr Popham reached its destination.
Gorges claimed subsequently that the results attained by Pring in that voyage were the most satisfactory he had ever known.
Encouraged by favorable reports of the explorers and by the extravagant accounts of the Indians, the Council of Virginia under the supervision of Popham and Gorges, dispatched th Gift of God and the Mary and John with about 120 settlers fron London and Western England. These ships sailed May 31, 1607 and arrived in safety.
The names of some of the colonists were:
George Popham, president ; Raleigh Gilbert, admiral; Edwar Harlow, master of ordnance; Robert Davis, sergeant-major Ellis Best, marshal; James Davis, captain of Fort Saint George Gome Carew, chief searcher ; Richard Seymour, clergyman ; John Davis, Robert Eliot, John Goyett, Thomas Hanham, Henry Har low, John Hunt and Edward Popham.
There is ample proof that in their efforts to select a favorable location for settlement these colonists first retraced the coasta trails of George Waymouth. In fact, both vessels, after wid divergence in storms at sea, met at Saint George's Island, which they identified by the cross which had been erected by the Bristo navigator two years earlier. Every subsequent movement of bot] divisions indicated full knowledge of the previous excursions o the explorer. Twice by boat they visited Pemaquid where Way mouth had captured his Indians: once by way of New Harbo Creek and later by sailing around Pemaquid Point itself.
They detected the mouth of Sagadahoc River by the presenc of Sutquin or Seguin, an island of forty acres, lying before it t seaward. They rowed up Pejepscot and Kennebec rivers an traversed Casco Bay to the westward as far as Richmond Islan and Cape Elizabeth, which they reported to be a headland suit able for natural fortification.
261
SAGADAHOC RIVER
August 19, Sagadahoc Colony was founded auspiciously within the present town of Phippsburg. Settlement was begun in the midst of the great wilderness of Moashan, in the Province of Sabenaw, then one of the lords under Bashaba. The spot chosen was a peninsula situated on the west bank of Sagadahoc River near its mouth. It was described plainly by two writers who appear to have obtained their information from the same quarter.
In his description of Moashan Purchase mentioned the great island of Sagadahoc, now Georgetown, in connection with the river of that name. Concurrently, he noted the incommodious situation of Sabenaw, or Hunnewell's Neck, which was repre- sented as a "small Iland" lying "in the verie entrance of this river," and added "from the West of which Iland to the Maine, there is a Sand that maketh as it were a bar, so that that way is not passable for shipping: but to the Eastward there is two fathoms water."
From the usage of similar terms and, in some cases, from literal adoption of words in his text, it is probable that Purchase may have had personal interviews with the anonymous writer of our only extant "Relation" of the founding of Sagadahoc Colony. In fact, an annotated copy of the historical treatises of the former ascribes the unknown authorship to Captain James Davis, the colonist.
At any rate, the "Relation" alluded to the Fort of Saint George as "our plantation whch ys at the very mouth or entry of the Ryver of Sagadehocke on the West Syd of the Ryver beinge almoste an Illand."
In this wild, unexplored and desolate region the founders of the first northern plantation attempted to establish themselves in a fortress, impregnable so far as the aborigines were con- cerned. It was named Fort Saint George in honor of the Patron Saint of England.
Its strategic position for control of the whole river was crit- icised subsequently by the French, upon the assumption that the river delta rendered it ineffectual for defence against the out- side world. Its natural surroundings, form, material of con- struction, and the arrangement of buildings within it, disclosed a special effort to guard against the uncertain dangers of the in- terior. Its strongest ramparts faced the unexplored continent. The only avenue of escape led across an uncharted sea.
suit-
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vard jor; rge; John Har-
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6. the Munition It house > the vice Admiral howto 8 the Dultery general .
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Occidental.
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The Scale of jest & Pers
The Garden place
0000
Pass Septentrional
X
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
262
263
SAGADAHOC RIVER
A plan of Fort Saint George was protracted by John Hunt at Sagadahoc October 8, 1607. Presumably the fortification was not then completed, but the sketch was taken to England by the engineer .*
William Strachey, who wrote an account of the trials of the colony, claimed that fifty houses were completed within the forti- fied enclosure. Some writers have disclaimed his statement, but an examination of the structures outlined in the plan discloses a series of tenements in each barrack.
Some fishing, lumbering and exploration was done during the first autumn, and the keel of the bark Virginia was laid by Eng- lish mechanics in the first shipyard on the American continent.
On the shore overlooking Atkins Bay was written by Presi- dent Popham the first Latin correspondence composed in New England. It remains a distinct tribute to the high social standing of the colonists and to the classical trend of English institutions of learning. It was prepared December 13 and dispatched two days later with a returning vessel to the king of England.
Only forty-five adventurous spirits were left in the country at that time. The ensuing winter was unusually severe, yet only the aged president succumbed to its rigors. His successor was Raleigh Gilbert. The storehouse with all its provisions was burned.
With the advent of spring, Robert Davis returned with one vessel and supplies, but he brought, also, the depressing news that Chief Justice Popham and Sir John, brother of Raleigh Gil- bert, had died in England during the winter.
During the summer of 1608, some planting was undertaken and the fishing continued, but under dangerous circumstances.
Pierre Biard, a French priest, who visited the abandoned Fort Saint George three years later, asserted that its occupants had not remained upon friendly terms with the natives during Gil- bert's administration ; that the Indians had become insolent and massacred three boatloads, consisting of eleven men, while they were on the fishing grounds during the last year of their sojourn .;
Biard's account was more than a mere tradition. His version of 1611 corresponded with the story of the same event as re- counted by the Indians in the vicinity more than a century later.
Discouraged by many reverses, the Sagadahoc pioneers at
* Brown's Genesis U. S., 1-190.
¡ Jesuit Rel., 2-45.
264
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
last bade farewell to Sabenaw in November, 1608. When the returned to England they took the pinnace Virginia with them as the only valuable product of their industry in the New World
It may be true that Chief Justice Popham, President Pophan and Sir John Gilbert might not have perpetuated this colony i: they had lived, but without their abiding support it was doomed Cold, fever, war, conflagration and starvation could penetrate th strongest barriers.
After unpleasant experiences with a northern climate som of the Sagadahoc planters sought the southern colony the nex year.
May 20, 1609, James and Robert Davis sailed from Plymout] in the pinnace Virginia, which was then the property of Si George Somers. The pinnace reached its destination, but Somer was wrecked in another vessel in the Summer Islands. He sub sequently became a prominent member of Virginia Colony.
The claim has been made that the settlement at Sagadaho River was never deserted. It has been cited as proof that, i 1614, Captain John Smith found a ship, belonging to Sir Franci Popham, stationed in the mainland opposite Monhegan, "that had there such acquaintance, having many yeares used onely tha porte, that the most parte there, was had by him."
The business of Sir Francis Popham was described by tw contemporary writers.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, in commenting upon this subsequen action of his colleague, said "The President was to return to set tle the state his brother had left him; upon which all resolved t quit the place, and with one consent to away, by which means al our former hopes were frozen to death; though Sir Francis Pop ham could not so give it over, but continued to send thither sev eral years after in hope of better fortunes, but found it fruitless and was necessitated at last to sit down with the loss he had al ready undergone."#
Smith, discussing the same subject, said: "Yet Sir Franci Popham sent divers times one Captaine Williams to Monahigal onely to trade and make core fish, but for any Plantations there' were "no more speeches."
The depressing effect of abandonment of the first colonization project was described as follows: "The arrivall of these peopl
# 3 Mass. Hist. Col., 6-56.
265
SAGADAHOC RIVER
here in England, was a wonderfull discouragement to all the first undertakers, in so much as there was no more speech of setling any other Plantation in those parts for a long time after : only Sir Francis Popham having the ships and provision, which re- mayned of the Company, and supplying what was necessary for his purpose, sent divers times to the Coasts for Trade and fish- ing ; of whose losse or gaines himselfe is best able to give account
Our people abandoning the Plantation in this sort as you have heard; the Frenchmen immediately tooke the opportunitie to settle themselves within our limits."§
If this last statement of the Council of Plymouth were not sufficient proof of the termination of the Sagadahoc enterprise, such preliminary abstracts from reliable sources prepare the mind for the conviction that the real sequel of the whole matter was that briefly stated by an anonymous contemporary writer. At any rate, it was given full credence by Purchase, the historian, during the decade immediately following the abandonment of the project and he, if not the author himself, incorporated an almost literal copy of it into his own story of the rise and fall of the first Maine settlement.
The original account of the denouement, after reciting the outlook, concluded with these words: "Wherefore, they all em- barked in this new arrived ship, and in the new pinnace, the Virginia, and set sail for England. And this was the end of that northern colony upon the River Sachadehoc."*
It only remained for Samuel Maverick, who visited the spot in 1624, to give the situation a delicate touch of pathos: "Three leagues distant from Damerells Cove is Sagadahocke at the mouth of Kenebeth river, on which place the Lord Pohams people setled about fiftie yeares since, but soon after deserted it, and returned for England; I found Rootes and Garden hearbs and some old walles there, when I went first over, which shewed it to be the place where they had been."+
The first northern colony had failed.}
The immediate encroachment of the French upon territory claimed by the English nation was the occupation of Mount Desert Island, which was terminated by Sir Samuel Argal from Virginia in 1613.
§ Purchase, 19-271.
* Mass. Hist. Proc., 18-110.
+ Mass. Hist. Proc., 21-232.
# Thayer's Sagadahoc Colony, 87.
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ation eople
266
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
While there were no more English plantations undertaken in Maine for many years, there were many fishing ships which visited the coast annually after the return of the Popham Colony and it is more than probable that during the summer months some of the seaworn crews were quartered comfortably upor Monhegan, to cure fish and trade with the natives, or each other when conditions would permit.
SAGADAHOC, LYGONIA, OR PLOUGH PATENT.
From the time of organization the Council of Plymouth had favored some plan to found a public colony on the Sagadahoc Although one attempt to gain a foothold had been futile, the opinions of mariners and some of the survivors of the old colony were favorable to that design. Besides, some of the larger cities of England were overcrowded with worthy citizens who were un- able to procure a satisfactory livelihood. While they were un- accustomed to agriculture, they were anxious to improve their conditions under any plan that appeared to be operative.
June 26, 1630, the council granted a large tract of land in the Maine wilderness to a company composed of prospective English husbandmen. The names of the patentees, all of whom lived ir London, were: John Crispe, John Dye, Thomas Juppe, John Robinson, Nathaniel Whetham, Henry Fowkes, Brian Kipling John Roach, Grace Hardwin, Daniel and Roger Binckes.
The patent was lost, but an abstract shows that it embraced an area forty miles square, lying on the south side of Sagadaho River, within territory granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason in 1622, but unoccupied at that date. Ever the grantors were not positive as to the premises conveyed. The description was so indefinite that it could never be explained, but was thought to include two large islands which lay sixty miles inland in the Kennebec River.
Thomas Jenner, in discussing the subject with Winthrop few years later, remarked : "Now Sacadehock River is a certain & sure place for one terme of its bounds, but the Ilands are doubt full, which they are, or wher they are: & more over ther posses sion was first taken Sacadehock river reacheth but to Merry Meeting, & then its branched into Begipscot, & Chenebeck & is no further cald by the name of Sacadehock."§
§ 4 Mass. Hist. Col., 7-360.
267
SAGADAHOC RIVER
Some of the patentees admitted to their associates, "Wee can not posible relat unto you the labur and truble that wee have had to establishe 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 mills in lenkth and 20 millse in bredth, and sayeth that his one hand is not to your patten if it have anne more."
Although the need of so large an area was explained to be that "the grettest part of it was not habetable, beinge rocke, wer no man could life," Gorges debated that it would have included other plantations already granted, if it had comprised more than twenty miles in width on the coast.
Another disturbing element was the grant to Richard Brad- shaw which the Plough Company, as the Sagadahoc patentees were styled collectively, believed to be contained within its bound- aries, although Gorges and Bradshaw himself thought otherwise.
Pemaquid was also presumed to be involved on the easterly border, concerning which the company decided March 8, 1631-2, that "This conterfers" (controversy) "must be ended between your sellfes and such guferners of them of Pimequed as they have apointed."
Captain Walter Neal was designated by Gorges to decide the true location of the Sagadahoc Patent and that of Bradshaw. As he later defined the limitations of Pemaquid between the Dama- riscotta and Muscongus rivers, it may be assumed that the east- erly boundary of Sagadahoc was fixed at the Damariscotta mar- gin by a previous decision .*
The first colonists sent over by the Sagadahoc patentees re- fused to settle at Sagadahoc, where they appear to have had some controversy with the occupants of Pemaquid.
Under the date of July 6, 1631, the following account of their arrival in Massachusetts was noted : "A small ship of sixty tons arrived at Natascott, Mr. Graves master. She brought ten pas- sengers from London. They came with a patent to Sagadahock, but, not liking the place, they came hither. Their ship drew ten feet, and went up to Watertown, but she ran on ground twice by the way. These were the company called the Husbandmen, and their ship called the Plough. Most of them proved familists and vanished away."¡
* 4 Mass. Hist. Col., 7-93.
¡ Winthrop, 1-58.
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268
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
The names of the planters who remained in Massachusetts were John Crispe, John Smith, John Dye and John Kirman. Bryan Binckes and Peter Johnson removed to Virginia. The affairs of the company were adjusted by bankruptcy proceedings.1
The writer of the anonymous relation dismissed the subject in 1635 with the significant remark, "Sagadehock was never planted." Maverick, writing many years later, was even more emphatic, when he asserted that the members of the Plough Company abandoned their patent, "never settling on that land."§
July 7, 1643, two surviving members of the company solo their interests in Lygonia to Alexander Rigby, an influential Eng- lish nobleman, who claimed that all of the country occupied by planters as far west as Cape Porpoise was within his jurisdiction .*
However, the new proprietor recognized the superior rights of Purchase at Pejepscot and by excluding that area extended his own tract farther west. Nevertheless, Purchase was not satis- fied with his allotment and, in 1654, secured additional territory from the natives. The deed is lost, but the tract comprised all of the land situated between Sagadahoc River and Maquoit and as far inland as Merry Meeting Bay and Brunswick Falls .;
Before 1650 native conveyances in Maine had been infrequent but thereafter the same premises at Sagadahoc were sold and re- sold with utter disregard for prior rights.1
THE PARKER FAMILY.
A grandson of John Parker stated that the immigrant was a native of Bideford, England, but the date of his birth is un- known. In 1765, a grandnephew John Phillips testified, "That Sagadahock had the name of Parkers Island given it for one Thomas Parker, who, as the deponent was informed, was the mate of the first ship that came from England with the Plymouth People and father to Thomas Parker who lived or Parkers Island : That John Parker, brother of the last Thomas Parker, lived opposite to Arrowsic Island, on the Western Side, which side was called Kennebec Side." The witness was mistaken with regard to the name of the immigrant who was John and no Thomas Parker.
Mass. Col. Rec., 1-89.
§ N. H. State Papers, 17-491; Mass. Hist. Proc., 21-232.
Winthrop, 2-256.
; York Deeds, 4-14.
** Appendix G.
269
SAGADAHOC RIVER
June 14, 1659, John Parker, the son of the immigrant, ac- quired from Robinhood a tract of land six miles in length sit- uated on the western bank of Sagadahoc River, between Parker's Head and Winnegance Creek. The grantee was represented in this deed as "the first of the English Nation that began to sub- due the sayd tract of Lands, & undertake In the fishing trade." This was another case of mistaken identity, for the father was engaged in fishing at Damariscove Island when the son was but eleven years of age. The son deposed in 1684 that he was "aged about fivety yeares."§
These statements afford some ground for uncertainty, for both Sagadahoc and New Plymouth colonists sailed from Plymouth.
If the elder Parker were a seaman on the Gift of God or Mary and John in 1607, it may have been more than a mere coincidence that this mate afterwards purchased the site of Fort Saint George from the natives. When he bought the fort he also ob- tained title to Stage Island, which contained about eight acres covered with fishing stages.
However, it is plain that in his allusion to "the Plymouth People" Phillips meant those who had sailed from Plymouth in the Mayflower September 8, 1620, and sighted their first land at Cape Cod, where Christopher Jones, the master, "and his mate, and others experienced in fishing," took note of the whales and species of fish near the coast. While in the country Jones sent out several expeditions "to see where fish could be got" for his cargo .*
There is a tradition that Parker was the fisherman who spent a winter on the southern end of Parker's Island at Georgetown in 1629 and combined with the colony of Vines at Saco the next spring.
The birthplace of the younger John Parker must have been at Biddeford, in 1634, and his sister Mary was born there three years later. These children, with their mother Mary and her eldest son Thomas, composed the entire family of the immigrant, whose home was located on Parker's Neck at Biddeford Pool, then called Winter Harbor-on the outer point described in the Province Map before 1653 as a "Neck of Land." Here the immi- grant maintained a dwelling and a fishing stage for some years.
In 1636, he was interested in the clapboard industry and be- York Deeds, 4-16, 17; 2-13. Mourt's Rel., 2, 26.
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