USA > Maine > Pioneers on Maine rivers, with lists to 1651 > Part 25
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$ 4 Mass. Hist. Col., 4-477.
§ Purchase, 19-311.
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Other vessels on the coast of Maine during that spring were the Bona Nova, Discovery and Marmaduke, in command of John Huddleston, Thomas Jones and John Gibbs, respectively. The Charles, George, Gift of God, James and Warwick, names recur- rent in New England annals, were also engaged in transatlantic service for the Virginia Company that year .*
Nearly all of the other ships dispatched to Virginia with colo- nists relied upon the northern fishing industry for return car- goes and insisted upon a natural right to operate at Monhegan in spite of emphatic protests by Gorges and his colleagues, who claimed a monopoly of the island as their "usuall fishing place."
Damariscove was made a settlement by Gorges in 1622. Proof may be found in an undated letter written by John Pory at Damerill's Cove to the governor of Virginia late in that year. The document, which contains a dozen internal clues to the loca- tion of the writer, represents the third example of extant corre- spondence composed by Englishmen on the Maine Coast. Only the letters of George Popham at Sagadahoc and John Huddleston at Monhegan are known to have antedated it.
At Damerill's Cove the writer encountered John Gibbs, who had completed at least one other voyage that season from the Eastward to New Plymouth. He produced as an authority on fishing conditions the same "John Gibbs (who this summer hath passed 5 or 6 times betweene this place" (Damariscove) "and New Plymmouth." He quoted the report of the mate of the Sparrow, to the effect that "a man cannot cast out a hooke at anie ledge at sea in that distance, but he shall draw up goodlie fish at pleasure." The fishing had been proven to be just as good to the "East and North" of the island, but to the south of New Plymouth, where the Virginia Company was anxious to obtain information, some uncertainty prevailed.
While William Vengham, an English mariner of experience in Southern Waters, was skeptical that there was good fishing in that quarter, a Flemish pilot, who had been engaged by Sir Sam- uel Argal to navigate a pinnace into Hudson River, was con- vinced that codfish were plentiful for at least twenty-five leagues beyond Martha's Vineyard.
Upon the authority of Gibbs, Pory asserted that "divers meane to fish the next yeare more toward the south-west," a de-
* Purchase, 19-143.
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cision that led to the first experiments at the Isles of Shoals in 1623.
However, the most important part of the ancient text is the following excerpt :
"Besides the plantation of New-Plymmouth in 41 degrees and 1%, and that other in Massachusett in 42 or thereabouts, there is a third in Canada at Damrells Cove in 43 and 45 minutes at the Cost of Sir Ferd: Gorge, consisting of some 13 persons who are to provide fish all the yeare with a Couple of Shallops for the most timelie loading of a ship.
"And to keepe that Iland to be fearmed out in Sir Ferdi- nandos name to such as shall there fish, and least the French or the Salvages should roote them out in winter, they have forti- fied themselves with a strong pallisado of spruce trees some 10 foote high, haveing besides their small shott, one peece of ordi- nance and some 10 good dogs. Howsoever they speed, they un- dertake an hazardous attempt, considering the salvages have beene this yeare (as those to the north use. to be by the French) furnished in exchange of skinnes by some unworthie people of our nation with peeces, shott, powder, swords, blades, and most deadlie arrow heads, and with shallops from the French, which they can manage as well as anie Christian, as also their peeces, it being an ordinarie thing with them to hitt a bird flying. And how litle they are to be trusted here as well as in Virginia, may appeare by the killing latelie of the maister of a ship of Plim- mouth with 18 of his companie among the Ilands toward the north-east, which was the cause that the same ship lost her fish- ing voyage & went emptie home."¡
Pory was an intimate friend of Hakluyt and may have given him valuable information relating to New England. Late in the summer he sailed "from the northern coast of Virginia," where he "had been upon some discovery," for the Southern Colony. He was a passenger on board the Discovery of which Thomas Jones was master. This vessel, by virtue of a commission from the Virginia Company, had proceeded to Jamestown that spring and thence to Damariscove, where some of its unsold commodi- ties had been bought by fishermen. Pory may have accompanied the expedition from Jamestown.
On its southern course the Discovery touched at Wessaguscus
¡ Pory's Letter, 29.
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and New Plymouth. At the latter place the governor, to whom Pory dispatched a parting letter, dated August 28, 1622, ex- plained that Captain Jones had been "set out by some marchants to discovere all ye harbors" from Cape Cod to Virginia.}
According to the report of Leonard Peddock, rival agent for the Council of Plymouth, the Discovery met severe reverses on the Massachusetts coast. His story, recounted in England about three months after the event, disclosed that Jones, "who was imployed by ye company of Virginia to fish upon ye Coasts of New England, hath this last yeare robbed the Natives of their ffurres, and offered to carry some of them away prisoners, but being grounded upon ye Sands, neere Capecodd, ye Savages es- caped and made great exclamacon against the present planters of New England." It is evident that Jones did deport at least one native for after his return the Council of Plymouth ordered that Unipa Whinett, an Indian boy taken at Wessaguscus, should be restored to his home by a returning ship. Gorges was directed to enter a complaint with the Virginia Company.§
The council at once began to make plans to increase the Damariscove Colony by transporting more permanent settlers thither. For this purpose publicity was given to the under- taking and a few volunteers were secured. Two of these men mentioned under the date of November 30 were William Pom- frett, a distiller, and George Dugdeale, a tailor, who offered them- selves "to goe for New England" with the next shipping. Pom- frett was probably the same person who subsequently lived in Dover, on the Pascataqua River.
A report of the council rendered to the king late in the year was in the nature of an answer to the recent complaint of Par- liament that no progress had been made in New England colo- nization. It announced: "Wee have setled at this present severall Plantations along the Coast, and have granted Patents to many more that are in preparation to bee gone with all conveniencie."
The only plantations then established in New England were located at New Plymouth, Wessaguscus and Damariscove. The grant of Patuxet to John Pierce had been made upon June 1, of the previous year, and all others that year. They may be sum- marized in the following list :
Į Bradford, 2-90.
$ Am. Ant. Col., 1867-74, 78.
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March 9, Agawam and Plum Island to Captain John Mason. April 20, undefined territory to John Pierce, which was sur- rendered.
July 24, Cape Elizabeth and Richmond Island to the Duke of Richmond ; Casco and Seguin to Sir George Calvert; Pem- aquid and Monhegan to the Earl of Arundel.
August 10, territory between Merrimack and Sagadahoc rivers to Gorges and Mason.
October 16, Pascataqua and Great Island to David Thompson. December 30, Eastern Massachusetts to Robert, son of Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
After the return of the fishing fleet in 1622 the council had become convinced of the necessity of appointing a naval officer to enforce its edicts and collect license fees from the masters of fishing vessels. Accordingly, Captain Francis West was chosen temporary admiral to regulate New England commerce and Jan- uary 28, 1622-3, was provided with a commission to seize Mon- hegan. Gorges, whose plantation was located at Damariscove, was then president of the council and approved the order which authorized forcible occupation of the "usuall place of fishing." The action is proof that the island, formerly in possession of the grand patentees, had been monopolized by fishermen.
In the last days of February, 1623, when John Sanders, suc- cessor of the deceased Richard Green as overseer at Wessaguscus, required supplies for his colony, he sought "Munhiggen, where was a plantation of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, to buy bread from the ships that came thither a fishing."
This quotation from Edward Winslow was published in Lon- don within a year of the incident and it is plain that the writer referred to the region about Monhegan, which included the plantation of Gorges at Damariscove. The use of the past tense is proof that, at the times of their visits to Damariscove and Monhegan the summer before, colonists of New Plymouth and Wessaguscus had seen the settlement sponsored by the president of the council.
In March, when the establishment at Wessaguscus had proven a failure and been abandoned entirely, the surviving planters embarked in the Swan for the Eastward with the expectation of meeting Weston himself and obtaining supplies, or of earning passage for England at Monhegan or Damariscove, where they
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anticipated the arrival of early fishing ships. They did not expect to find any surplus of provisions at the latter island.
By this time, however, Weston, disguised as a blacksmith, had reached the eastern fishing grounds with the first fleet. A little later, after some inquiry among southern traders and many mis- haps, he succeeded in intercepting the remnant of his colony at Pascataqua and secured possession of his bark. After recovering the Swan, he obtained funds at New Plymouth and proceeded to raid Indian villages for corn, and especially Dorchester and Agawam which had been instigators of the attempt to destroy his former settlement at Wessaguscus.
In May, Admiral West arrived on the Maine Coast in the Plantation, accompanied by Thomas Squibbs as captain, and Joseph Stratton as master, of the Katherine which belonged to Lord Edward Gorges. Squibbs had been instructed by the Council to assist West in restoring order among the refractory fishermen, but his principal object was the "discovery" of Mount Desert Island and renaming it Mount Mansell in honor of his patron.
As soon as the admiral became convinced that his purposes could not be accomplished at Monhegan, where the masters were both stubborn and abusive, he released Squibbs who proceeded eastward upon his special quest. With the Plantation he sailed directly to Virginia and remained two months.
At the beginning of September West returned to Maine with his ship which he discharged with its crew at Damariscove, where there was less antagonism among the doughty exponents of free fishing than at Monhegan. In the exercise of his official func- tions it did not appear that West undertook to deal with Weston, whose fishing vessels had been libeled by the Council for non- payment of license fees. He embarked for England in the Katherine soon after his advent at the Eastward, but his former crew visited New Plymouth in the Plantation .*
However, Weston's good fortune was not destined to last, for in the fall succeeding West's departure, he encountered at New Plymouth Captain Robert Gorges, who had then taken possession of the buildings at Wessaguscus. After some controversy Gorges, under a special order from the Council, impressed his vessel and entire crew and employed them in a voyage to Eastern
* Young's Plymouth Chron., 328, 330, 341, 342, 278.
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Maine, where they were detained until spring, when the Swan was restored by agreement of the parties concerned.
Christopher Levett, who remained at the Eastward as late as the summer of 1624, did not allude to Damariscove that year, although he referred to Weston as an "evill member," who had threatened Gorges in his house at Casco with a dangerous weapon, and mentioned "Pemoquid and Capmanwagan, and Monhiggon" as districts which had been assigned previously to other adventurers. Four deserters from Weston's colony were entertained by him at Casco, but according to Winslow who was familiar with the sequel of that adventurer's affairs, "most of them returned" to England.
June 25, 1624, Humphrey Rastell, a merchant of London, and Captain John Wallaston, who was related by marriage to Captain John Mason, arrived on the coast with colonists en route for Massachusetts and Virginia. At Cape Ann they found new plantations of the Dorchester Merchants and Plymouth Colony, but were unable to obtain fish for food without going ashore for it. Smith reported that both plantations were just begun. As their vessel needed some repairs, Wallaston decided to transship the southern passengers and return to England from that point.
While large ships like the Charity and South Phenix were engaged in fishing at Cape Ann when the Unity arrived, the lit- tle bark of Weston's was selected by Rastell to carry out the terms of his original charterparty. One of his passengers was Martin Slatier, aged twenty years, who was living at Martin's Hundred February 4, 1624-5.1
Recently published minutes of Virginia Council indicate that Damariscove, like Monhegan, had become a summer trading center for eastern shipping in 1625. June 14, the Swan, which had spent the winter in the south, sailed for Damerill's Cove with tobacco. A large part of the cargo belonged to Virginia planters and was to be sold or exchanged upon a commission basis.
Some of the seamen employed in this voyage, who may have been members of its original crew because they were not men- tioned in the census of Virginia, were Edmund Barker, William Foster, John Giles, Nicholas Hodges, Christopher Knolling and Edward Nevell, who had charge of the bark.
7 Hotten, 239.
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The Swan was moored to "A stage hed" while at Damaris- cove and sprung a leak which caused injury to some of its cargo. Suits were instituted against Weston in the Virginian court by southern planters. Judgments were obtained by Thomas Crispe for loss of tobacco and sea biscuit; and by Robert Thresher for failure to procure servants for him in Canada, according to a previous agreement.
Weston and Rastell were in communication at this time and it is reasonable to assume that some of the unfortunate colonists at Mount Wallaston could be induced to enter servitude tempo- rarily in order to escape from the country. Their condition was explained by Bradford in his description of the dissolution of the plantation at Mount Wallaston under the direction of Rastell.}
An English sailor named Jeffrey Cornish visited the Swan at Damerill's Cove and made inquiries of its crew and other Virginian planters at the island for information about his brother, Richard Cornish, alias Williams, who, while serving as captain of the Ambrose, had been executed by the magistrates in Virginia upon slight evidence. Ten years later this same sailor was put ashore from the ship James at Milford Haven on account of intoxication.§
John Witheridge was located at Pemaquid throughout the summer of 1625 and his name was suggested as surety for some of the ambitious but impecunious factors at Damariscove. He sailed for Barnstable, England, before the departure of the Swan which arrived at its southern port October 8 .*
In the spring of 1627, there were fishermen at Damerill's Cove who helped to salvage some of the cargo of a French ship cast away at Sagadahoc. As these commodities were sold to Massachusetts traders who were in competition with them at the Eastward, it may be inferred that the owners did not propose to remain on the coast during the ensuing winter and that no nearer factors could use them to better advantage. Furthermore, simul- taneous sale of similar merchandise at the neighboring island of Monhegan, because that plantation was to be discontinued, fur- nished additional proof of the same intention at Damariscove.
Massachusetts patent, dated March 19, 1627-8, gave its con- ferees the right to fish and trade wherever its predecessors had
¿ Bradford, 2-158.
Young's Mass. Chron., 457.
Min. of Va. Council, 75, 76.
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exercised those privileges, and some of the former colonists had previously invaded the Sagadahoc region.
In 1630, the Swift was captured at Damariscove by Thomas Witherly, master of the Warwick. It was taken as a prize for improper registration of a British vessel as a French merchant- man.
A trader who frequented Damariscove after that year was Henry Way, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, whose vessel was foundered at the Eastward in the fall of 1631. Subsequent in- vestigation disclosed that its crew of five had been murdered by eastern Indians. A second shallop, sent to recover the first, was wrecked at Agamenticus and two more men were drowned .;
Evidently, Way was not discouraged, for October 3, 1632, Massachusetts magistrates imposed the following sentence: "It is ordered, that Nicholas Frost for thefte comitted att Damerills Cove upon the Indeans, for drunkenes and fornicacon, of all wch hee is convicted, shalbe fined VI. to the Court, & XII. to Henry Way & John Holman, shalbe severely whipt, & branded in the hand with a hott iron, & after banished out of this pattent."#
The penalty for returning to the patent was to be death, and two years later, when Frost brought his family from England, he settled at Kittery.
Damariscove was only a summer fishing place for those who chose to occupy it. At times, like Monhegan Island, it was de- serted.
John Parker, described as "the first of the English Nation" to undertake the fishing industry in that vicinity, spent the sum- mer of 1645 on the island. He was associated with a company of fishmongers, but his venture of that season proved unprofit- able on account of the excessive consumption of intoxicants which had been provided by Robert Nash, of Boston, master of his vessel.
Two years later, Francis Knight, who was then acting as agent for the trading house at Pemaquid, mentioned store ac- counts with tenants at Monhegan, but none for Damariscove.
Abraham Shurt, who preceded Knight as factor at Pemaquid, stated that in 1649, when Thomas Elbridge took possession of the premises as sole heir, he cited the inhabitants of Damariscove and Monhegan to appear at court and attorn to the new landlord.
* Winthrop, 1-79.
Į Mass. Col. Rec., 1-94.
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By special arrangement at that time all tenants "continued" at the islands by "paying a Certain acknowledgement." The only person known to have been a resident at Damariscove was Thomas Phillips.§
May 18, 1672, Robert Parker owned a dwelling and "Stage Room" on the island .*
Other residents on the same date were Thomas Alger, John and Leonard Allen, John Bodwell, Richard Friend, Richard Hun- newell, William Lee, Simon Newcomb, Nicholas Osborne, Ed- mund Robbins, Roger Sayward, Elias Trick, John Wriford and Emanuel Whitehouse .;
As this list was compiled during the fishing season it is probable that some of the persons named were transients.
Gradually, during the subsequent years, the place lost its resi- dential character. An early inhabitant of the locality, who "went a fishing from sd Island" of Damariscove, deposed that in 1675 there were "Seven fishing Boats that Continually used sd Place." He testified also that there were then four persons who "had been Old Settlers there," but that he never had heard "that any of the aforesd Persons ever pretended any right thereto but only Used it as a Fishing Place which they Esteemed free for any Person." The individuals mentioned by him had been former pioneers of Massachusetts.}
In 1700, Romer reported that "Before the War there was a palisado'd Fort on Damarascove Island for defence of the Fisher- men & a little higher there was another place cald Cape Newagin where the people cur'd their Fish, and two harbours where they secured their Vessels from Storms. And tho those harbours lye open to the Sea yet in case of necessity they serve turn, when the Fishermen cannot get into Kennebeck River."§§
The original fort at Damariscove, built in 1622, was a pal- isaded structure and may have been kept in repair for many years.
In 1686, the Colony of New York sold the island to Richard Pattistall, of Boston .**
Many years later Patrick Rogers, who in his prime had been a commanding officer at Pemaquid Fort, asserted that he had
§ York Deeds, 24-256.
Me. Hist. Gen. Rec., 7-21.
+ Suffolk Court Files, 12-1117.
# Me. Hist. Col., 5-237.
§§ Me. Doc. Hist., 10-49.
York Deeds, 9-230.
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lived at Georgetown in 1721, "at which time the Deponent saith there was not one house that he knew off, between Georgetown and Annapolis Royal, except one in Damaris Cove, an island to make fish on, until the time St. Georges Fort was built."+
PIONEERS
ARROWSMITH, EDMUND, planter at Winnegance as early as 1639; sub- mitted to Massachusetts, 1665; left land at Pemaquid near New Harbor. PHILLIPS, WALTER, born 1619; planter near Winnegance, 1647; removed to Damariscotta Falls, 1665; wife Margaret; Lynn, 1678; Salem, 1702; died 1704; children James, Jane, John, Margaret, Sarah and Walter. SHUTE, ROBERT, brother of Richard, living at Winnegance May 31, 1641; estate administered in Suffolk County, 1652.
SHUTE, RICHARD, Indian trader near Pemaquid, January 9, 1641-2, when he witnessed Richard Pearce's deed at Broad Bay; son Richard, born 1647, at Winnegance (East Boothbay).
TAYLOR, JOHN, born 1619; sailed from Gravesend, England. June 20. 1635. in the "Philip"; planter at Damariscotta ("Damariscove") River. 1651; Newcastle, 1665; widow Elizabeth daughter of Humphrey Davie, of Boston; children Isaac, Mary and Sarah (Gent).
¿ Commissioners' Report, 1811-60.
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THE WHITE ANGEL OF BRISTOL'
Night by night the stars trailed west Where the dark horizon lay ; Eastward on its homing quest Drove the vessel, day by day, With full sail and straining spar Toward the Milford lights afar.
All the summer months her crew Drifting with the flashing seine, Had pursued the shadows through Reaches of the Gulf of Maine, Luring treasures with their wiles From the far, mysterious isles. Happy fishermen were these, Idlers, as a last resort, Weaving port yarns on the seas, Spinning sea yarns when in port, Boasting of their feats galore As they neared their native shore. And while some still dreamed of home Or on watch at midnight posts Longed to glimpse the flying foam That enwreaths the Cornish coasts, With no warning hint nor hail Three strange ships bore down full sail. These were pirates of Dunkirk, Watching on the Northern Main For some Englishman or Turk, Or the treasure ships of Spain- Sea hawks lurking in the way For rich merchantmen as prey. When the gray of morning spread Over trackless wastes of sea And the dawn, a golden thread, Ran from starboard to the lee, Solid shot across the bow Brought a challenge from the foe. * Bradford, 2-179.
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Bristol fishermen could fight And, if need be, they could die, But they would not think of flight Nor submit to slavery, When the loss of freedom meant Slave marts of the Orient.
So their captain held his course, Cleared the decks and primed his guns, Mustering his lesser force To dispel far greater ones ; With the hope that sunrise might Overtax the foemen's sight.
Storms of shot shrieked up aloft; Mizzen sails went by the board ; Deck planks ripped abaft, but oft Answering guns of Bristol scored, While the ensign masthead high, Ever flew defiantly.
Then the foremost privateer, Hit below the water line, Sank before her boats could clear- Ere the nearest brigantine, Shortening her sails, could take The survivors in her wake.
Yet the last great ship-of-war, Sweeping on at fearful speed, Confident of conquest or Quick surrender, took the lead, Holding both her broadsides back For the fateful, last attack.
So the Bristol gunner fell, Overcome by smoke and heat, In that fiery, choking hell Where the havoc was complete ; Every gun was burst save one And the crew dead or undone.
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There his mate, a Cornish lad, Punctured through the shoulder blades, Fired the only charge he had At the murderous renegades, Leaning on the rack beneath With a slow match in his teeth.
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