USA > Maine > Pioneers on Maine rivers, with lists to 1651 > Part 3
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In fact, five Plymouth and two Dartmouth ships were "ar- rested" after their return to England in 1623, "because they went to fish in New England" within the patent limits of Gorges and Mason. Two of these may have been the Jonathan and Provi- dence, in which the Thompson Colony had been transported to Pascataqua. At any rate, the renewal of opposition to free fishery in New England by Gorges on this occasion resulted in further hostile criticism of his patent rights by Parliament .;
Accordingly, the visit of Robert Gorges to Pascataqua cannot be regarded as purely friendly. While there he arrived at an agreement with Thompson to relinquish that location to his father Sir Ferdinando and his partner Captain Mason, whom he represented in New England in the capacity of attorney.
The subsequent petition of Mason's heirs alleged that from the year 1623 the decedent "did settle a considerable Colony at Pascattaway River." The inference must be that some of Ma- son's men took possession there immediately, and, if so, that some came from Massachusetts where they had settled temporarily.
The first intimation that Thompson intended to remove from Little Harbor is found in a letter, written by Governor Bradford on September 8, 1623, after he had been in conference with Gorges, Thompson and Weston. In that communication it was stated that both Thompson and Weston were anxious to obtain
* Me. Hist. Col., 2-80.
¡ Brit. Proc., 1-57, 58.
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a grant of Cape Ann-a desire which on the part of the former indicated a marked reversal of plans, since he was reported by Winslow, in the preceding July, to be well pleased with his loca- tion at Pascataqua .*
Cape Ann, which had been granted previously to Mason, was regranted January 1, 1624, to Plymouth Colony, which was not oversolicitous for the interests of others.
Thompson "removed down into the Massachusetts Bay within a year after" his advent at Pascataqua, where he took possession "of a fruitful island, and a very desirable neck of land, since con- firmed to him or his heirs by the Court of the Massachusetts, upon the surrender of all of his other interest in New England, to which yet he could pretend no other title, than a promise, or gift to be conferred on him, in a letter by Sir Ferdinando Gorges."+
The Council of New England was soon dissolved. West im- mediately withdrew to Virginia, where he became prominent in political affairs; Gorges abandoned his new establishment at Wessaguscus the following spring ; and Levett, after completing a fortified post in Casco Bay, returned to England the next summer.
Whether Morton deserted his premises at Braintree with Sanders in February, 1623, or with the remaining survivors in March, was not disclosed, but he was in England the next year and had perfected plans to return to the New World.}
Before Levett left the country in the summer of 1624 he had entertained some of the other unfortunate members of the Wey- mouth colony at Casco. They had been unable to secure return passage in the fishing fleet and may have been employed by him through the previous winter. Their vessel, still known as the Swan, was engaged in coastwise trade between Damariscove and Virginian ports.
Thompson had a major interest in the first dwelling built at Winnisimet, which, in 1660, Maverick declared to be the most ancient house then standing in Massachusetts. Obviously, it had been located upon the "very desirable neck of land" to which Hubbard had afterwards alluded. It was constructed in 1624, for only twenty years later, in his historical data of New England,
* Ford's Bradford, 1-358.
Hubbard. 105.
# N. H. State Papers, 17-496.
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the pioneer governor of Massachusetts asserted that the earliest settlement in Boston Harbor was begun by Englishmen seven years before 1631 .*
In 1625, Thompson and Maverick, who had left the planta- tion at Wessaguscus to form the partnership, fortified the post at Winnisimet with four cannon and other means of defense against the natives, with whom they were engaged in trade. Maverick stated that his home was provided "with a Pallizado and fflankers and gunnes both belowe and above in them which awed the Indians who at that time had a mind to Cutt off the English."
In 1627, during that part of March which formerly was assigned to the previous year, Thompson joined the merchants of New Plymouth and purchased the entire stock of merchandise offered for sale at Damariscove and Monhegan islands.
Many years later Bradford referred to Thompson with an inapt description of residence as one "who lived" instead of one "who had lived" at Pascataqua. During the year of his trans- action at Monhegan the pioneer of Pascataqua and Winnisimet erected "the forme," meaning the frame, of a house upon Thomp- son's Island in Boston Harbor, but he died before the structure was completed.
He may have been killed or fatally injured by the Indians in their attack upon his house at Winnisimet, which Maverick claimed was assaulted by them soon after it was fortified. The sequel of that incident, so far as the savages were concerned, was reported in the following excerpt: "They once faced it but receiveing a repulse never attempted it more although (as now they confesse) they repented it when about 2 yeares after they saw so many English come over." The attack must have been made in 1628.1
Amias, Thompson's widow, was still living at Winnisimet in June of that year, when she subscribed to the fund for the de- portation of Morton from Mount Wallaston (Braintree) .}
Maverick did not subscribe at that time for the reason that he was not in sympathy with the movement, as indicated by him in a subsequent extended criticism of the action. He maintained that the Massachusetts colonists were not wholly guileless and
* Mass. Hist. Proc., 21-236; Winthrop, 1-43.
+ Mass. Col. Rec .. 2-206.
# Bradford, 2-161.
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that Morton's description of the people and conditions in New England during the earliest period was true to life.
However, he was but a young man when he arrived in the country, for he was born in 1602 and was but eleven years of age when Amias Cole was married at Plymouth. He had been a member of her family at Winnisimet for several years while Thompson was at its head and subsequently married her. Before his marriage he may not have been rated for himself.
The Maverick family occupied the old house at Winnisimet until 1633, when the grant of Noddle's Island was made. The assertion of Edward Johnson that Maverick was residing upon that island in 1630 may be accounted for as but another instance of mistaken reminiscence .;
June 9, 1628, the English plantations agreed to assume the expense of extraditing Thomas Morton, of Mount Wallaston, Massachusetts, for the offence of selling arms and ammunition to the Indians. In describing the event Bradford employed this language: "Those that joyned in this acction (and after con- tributed to ye charge of sending him for England) were from Pascataway, Namkeake, Winisimett, Weesagascusett, Natasco, and other places wher any English were seated."
The complete list of settlements which participated was re- ported to have comprised the following items only :
Plymouth, £2. 10
Naumkeak (Salem), 1. 10
Pascataquack (Rye), 2. 10
Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Burslem (Wessaguscus), 2. 00 Natascot (Hull), 1. 10
Mrs. Thomson (Winnisimet) , 15
Mr. Blackston (Boston), 12
Edward Hilton (Dover), 1. 00
Evidently there were on that exact date no English planta- tions in Maine, where the results of Morton's activities would have provoked general criticism and his keen competition would have been most disastrous. Casco must have been deserted by Levett's colony that summer, and Richmond Island was not in- habited by Walter Bagnall and his associate until after the de- parture of Morton from Mount Wallaston, for Bradford said : "Some of ye worst of ye company were disperst, and some of ye
¡ Mass. Col. Rec., 1-96 ; Winthrop, 1-39.
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more modest kepte ye house till he should be heard from." Bag- nall was one of the Morton colony of seven .*
The accuracy of an ancient list of servants sent by Mason into New Hampshire has been questioned, but its only apparent defect is incompleteness. It was made from the composite mem- ory of many persons. It contains the names of early settlers who had lived in the country before organized government existed and can only be accounted for because they escaped mention in rec- ords or were located primarily in Massachusetts.
When Roger Clap arrived in Boston Harbor May 30, 1630, the only settlers he found in Massachusetts were living at Charlestown, which included Winnisimet, Salem and Plymouth. After the advent of Winthrop, two weeks later, plantations were begun at Dorchester, Lynn, Medford, Roxbury and Watertown.
At Agawam (Ipswich) a settlement had been undertaken by some of Mason's and Levett's pioneers. It did not have the full sanction of the prevailing government.
September 7, of that year, before Levett had embarked on his homeward voyage in the Gift a secret order was passed in the new council relating to Agawam. It was then decided that a warrant should "presently" be sent "to comand those that are planted there forthwith to come away."¡
Not satisfied with the mere annihilation of the infant colony at Ipswich which was situated within Mason's limits, the same authorities resorted to the persuasive means of criminal prose- cution to induce all competitors in Indian trade to leave their neighborhood. Those who could not be made to depart by the imposition of severe penalties for minor offences were banished or forcibly deported.
During the first year of the Winthrop administration, accord- ing to official records, twelve Massachusetts pioneers were ban- ished summarily by judicial decree. The deputy governor, too, congratulated himself on being rid of many who, because of dis- like for the "government," returned in the vessels in which they had just arrived. And he mentioned others who, "hearing of men of their own disposition, which were planted at Pascataway, went from us to them."}
Some of these who are recognizable as Mason's men were
* Bradford, 2-162.
; Mass. Col. Rec., 1-58.
#: Young's Mass. Chron., 315.
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Ambrose Gibbons, John Peverly, Thomas Moore, Jeremiah and Thomas Walford, the householder found in Charlestown in 1629, and his sons-in-law William Brookin, Alexander Jones and Thomas Peverly .¡
Reverting to the charges made by Mason's heirs in later years, one may be almost convinced of the truth of their allega- tion that Gibbons continued to occupy Agawam, interruptedly perhaps, "untill the year 1630 at which time the Massachusetts Colony violently seized upon that part of the Province stretch- ing their bounds three miles to the Northwards of Merrimack River and turned the servants and tennants of the said John Mason out of their possessions, under pretence of a Charter from his late Majty King Charles in 1628."}
Before the death of Mason an agreement was made, but never consummated, to the effect that the colony should surrender its title to land east of Merrimac River in exchange for that pro- prietor's interest in Cape Ann.§
Friends of the colony, both at home and abroad, character- ized Gorges as an "enemy." Some accused him of secret plans to usurp the local government through the annulment of all patent rights granted by the Council of Plymouth in New England.
The attitude of the grand patentee towards Massachusetts oppression was described by John Humphrey, one of the chief advisors of the colony. In a letter to Winthrop, dated December 9, 1630, he reported that "from verie high matters" Sir Ferdi- nando had "come to this, to desire that his people & planters (by vertue of his sons pattent) may live quietly & uninjured by us." " **
Among early fugitives from Charlestown justice were Sir Christopher Gardiner, Henry Lynn and John Pickering, who went to Pascataqua for refuge and may have been members of the original Gorges immigration. At least they were in sympathy with the interests of that patron.
In spite of the successful denouement of its attempts to be rid of undesirable citizens by rigorous abuse, the leading politi- cal factors in the new government could not be mollified. The
¡ N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., 2-39. ¿ N. H. State Papers, 17-534.
$ Me. Doc. in Eng. Arch., 66.
** 4 Mass. Hist. Col., 6-3.
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dwelling of Morton at Mount Wallaston was burned before his eyes in the winter of 1630, previous to his second extradition to England. A few months later, although Gardiner himself had been decreed to banishment and successfully evaded his inquis- itors, his house was reduced to ashes .*
April 25, 1635, the Council of Plymouth, in which Gorges had been an active agent, surrendered the Grand Patent of New Eng- land to Charles First. The chief reason for the action was the insistence upon observance of new forms of religion and laws prescribed by the Massachusetts regime, which had acquired power enough to enforce any edict by "punishing divers that would not approve therof, some by whipping, others by burning their houses over their heads, & some by banishing & the like." The victims were described as "Servants & certain other Undr- takers & Tenants" of the council .;
In 1676, the heirs of Mason incorporated the same charges in their petition for recovery of the decedent's former territorial rights in New England. Testimony was adduced by the Com- monwealth to disprove the statements by such "old planters" as then could be found in the country, but only Edward Johnson, of York, could testify to occurrences previous to 1630. He was one of Weston's colonists who had withdrawn to Pascataqua in 1623.1
Individual settlers can be determined only from subsequent allusions.
Henry Alt deposed, in 1678, when he was seventy-three years of age, that John Smart had mowed a marsh on Great Bay twelve years before Dover became a township. As that municipality was recognized as a town by Massachusetts Bay Colony as early as 1639, the year of reference must have been that of 1627, or an earlier one, and both must have been residents at the time.§
John Ault was listed as one of Mason's men. Smart may have been a member of the colony of Gorges or Weston, who had gone back to England, but had returned and was living at Hingham in 1635.
John Oldham may have been a transient resident at Pascata- qua. Although Bradford asserted that his family remained in
* N. E. Canaan, 183.
+ Am. Ant. Col., 1867, 125.
¿ N. H. State Papers, 17-521.
§ Essex Inst., 59-282.
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Massachusetts, he had sojourned for a while at New Plymouth and Nantasket, but in 1626 he was in Virginia as passenger on board a vessel from "Canada," which then included Northern Maine. In the deportation of Thomas Morton he was an active agent and took charge of the prisoner, from the time he was trans- ferred from one of the uninhabited Isles of Shoals, near the mouth of Pascataqua River, until he was confined in an English jail.
In 1629, Massachusetts authorities were apprehensive lest Oldham might return and settle within their limits where he could create further dissensions. By that time he had secured an interest in the old patent of Robert Gorges and was engaged in obtaining a grant at Saco with Vines. Furthermore, his name appeared as a witness upon the Wheelwright deed of Pascataqua territory and his trading goods were forwarded to that port the following year in the Warwick.
THE ISLES OF SHOALS.
This group of nine rocky islands, part of which lie within the state of New Hampshire, was first known to mariners as "Smith's Isles." Those in Maine, situated about six miles south of the en- trance to Pascataqua River, are Appledore, Cedar, Duck, Malaga and Smuttynose. In 1614, they were first visited by Captain John Smith, who claimed that they were afterwards designated by his name because they comprised all of the territory that had been assigned to him from the vast domain of New England. He described them as "barren rocks, the most overgrowne with such shrubs and sharpe whins you can hardly passe them; without either grasse or wood but three or foure short shrubby old Cedars."*
Phineas Pratt, one of Weston's unfortunate pioneers, who in 1622 had found no English settler between Monhegan and New Plymouth, said that "ships began to ffish at ye Islands of Sholes" in March, 1623.1
Christopher Levett landed at the islands during the fall of the same year and remarked concerning their character: "Upon these Ilands, I neither could see one good timber tree, nor so much good ground as to make a garden. The place is found to be a good fishing place for 6 Shippes, but more cannot well be there
* Smith's Trav. & Works, 2-947.
+ 4 Mass. Hist. Col., 4-486.
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for want of convenient stage-roome, as this yeare's experience hath proved."#
From Levett's statement it appeared that until the time of his advent none of the Isles of Shoals had been occupied for any pur- pose and all were uncultivated; neither did there appear to be any accommodation for more than half a dozen vessels.
Appledore, the largest island in the group, contains 350 acres and was called "Hog Island" at first, because, like others upon which there were springs of fresh water, it was stocked with pigs. These animals were permitted to run at large over the en- tire premises and subsist upon fish scrap until their removal at the end of each fishing season. In the early days, other islands along the Maine coast were similarly christened, including two in Casco and one in Muscongus Bay. In fact, swine had been trans- ported to Monhegan Island as the first experiment and were maintained there for the express purpose of utilizing the most worthless by-product of the summer fishing industry.
The settlement of David Thompson at the mouth of Pascata- qua River was contemporaneous with the first fishing ventures at the Isles of Shoals and provided a convenient rendezvous for pioneer fishermen in the vicinity. Fishmongers of Barnstable and Plymouth appeared as the earliest adventurers on this part of the coast. Their entire operations, however, were confined to the spring and summer seasons.
Hog Island naturally acquired the distinctive title of "The Isle of Shoals," since it was the first and for many years the only one of the group to be occupied permanently by fishermen. So, at the end of the first half of the Seventeenth Century, at. least, it may be regarded as the only inhabited island in this group and main port of entry for Western Maine.
The early population was very small, but after the plantation had become established and its inhabitants felt their dependency upon their limited resources, a large majority began to insist that swine should be excluded to prevent pollution of the indispensable water supply.
Before settlements were attempted upon the mainland gen- erally the larger islands were resorted to by Europeans because they afforded greater advantages for security from the savages and were more accessible to fishing grounds and coasting vessels.
# Baxter's Levett, 89.
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Later, competition forced new arrivals to occupy the protected headlands along the shore itself, and finally the interior where fortified trading stations, called by the islanders the "houses in the rivers," were located.§
The earlier occupants at Hog Island built dwellings, stages and flakes for the benefit of the summer industry only, but it was not the place for a gentleman, and in 1628, when Thomas Morton was marooned there by Massachusetts authorities until a ship could be secured to deport him for England, he described his own predicament as follows: "They tooke mine Host into their Shal- lop, hoysed Saile, and carried him to the Northern parts; where they left him upon a Island without gunne, powther, or shot or dogge or so much as a knife to get any thinge to feede upon Home hee could not get to Ma-re-Mount."
"Upon this Island he stayed a moneth at least, and was re- leeved by Salvages that tooke notice that mine Host was a Sachem of Passonagessit . . .
"From this place for England sailed mine Host in a Plim- mouth shipp (that came into the Land to fish upon the Coast), that landed him safe in England at Plimmouth." The following spring the exile returned to New Plymouth over the same course. *
Early in June, 1630, English colonists bound for Salem passed within two leagues of the Isles of Shoals, but noted only one ship anchored there and "five or six shallops under sail up and down."+
The shallops seen plying about the islands at that time were boats belonging to the larger vessel which was a belated fishing sloop. Levett found that the fishing season then terminated on the Northern Coast about the last of May or the middle of June. Mariners had already frequented that locality for seven years.
This same year Walter Neal and his associates arrived at Pascataqua, where they found shelter in the house at Little Har- bor, which had been built by Thompson and his Plymouth col- leagues seven years before. In addition to other projects it was the intention of the Laconia Company, as soon as the colony was established in the country, to undertake fishing operations upon a large scale at the Isles of Shoals. Edward Godfrey, selected by
§ Me. Doc. Hist., 3-462.
N. E. Canaan, 151, 144. ¡ Winthrop, 1-24.
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the adventurers to supervise this part of their proposed indus- try, had a small quota of men thus engaged in the spring of 1631.
November 3, of that year, the "Isles of Shoals, and ye ffishings thereabouts" were granted by the Council of Plymouth to La- conia Company as appurtenant to Pascataqua territory.}
March 6, old style, of the following year, Henry Fleet, another factor of the same company, en route from Pascataqua River for Virginia in the Warwick, which had been employed in coastal traffic, docked at the Isle of Shoals for provisions. Stocking the vessel at this point by fishing and trading took five days.
About two months later John Gibbs, master of the Lyon's Whelp of London, arrived on the premises where he proposed to develop the fishing industry for the company. William Seavey, afterwards a resident upon Hog Island, may have been a member of this crew, since he was subsequently identified as one of Ma- son's men and testified that he came thither that summer on a "fishing account."§
Late that season Godfrey was instructed to increase the num- ber of fishermen employed by him on the mainland, but the ex- periment in deep-sea fishing had failed so completely that no more vessels were chartered by the company for that purpose. After the return of Gibbs, complaints of his "ill dealing" through- out the voyage were made to Ambrose Gibbons, of Pascataqua, and though the reason given by the latter for its failure was that "A Londoner is not for fishing," yet the late advent of the ves- sel upon the fishing grounds was held to be mainly accountable, so that the next year operations at the islands were continued for divers English syndicates by John Corbin, John Raymond and George Luxon, from Plymouth, London and Barnstable re- spectively. Raymond had been a factor for some of the Laconia merchants, but June 24, when about to depart from the Isle of Shoals, he dispatched his unsold merchandise to Gibbons at Ne- wichawannock for safe-keeping. Luxon had sold provisions at the latter station during the same month. His home was Bideford.
Discouraged by reverses which had been met in their joint management of Laconia plantations, the members of the company met in London December 6, 1633, dissolved their partnership
# N. H. State Papers, 17-482.
§ N. H. State Papers, 17-522.
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relations and agreed upon a division of all of their properties at Pascataqua except the Isles of Shoals and Newichawannock House. *
The following spring there were seventeen fishing vessels sta- tioned at Richmond Island and the Isles of Shoals. In fact, Winthrop himself recommended the eastern route as the most expeditious for the transmission of English mail to Massachu- setts. The forwarders suggested were Edward Hilton and" Thomas Wiggin who were both resident at Pascataqua.f
A list of ten of the ships referred to comprised a single fleet, "lying in the River of Thames" and awaiting permission to sail for New England. They proceeded in April with the Elizabeth and Francis, of Ipswich. The master of the latter ship was John Cutting afterwards identified with the political affairs at the Isle of Shoals.}
April 22, 1635, the northern half of the island group was assigned by royal conveyance to Gorges and the residue to Mason, who were regarded as the most influential members of the La- conia partnership. Heretofore, these fishing grounds had been a common resort. During that summer George Luxon fished and traded at the "Isle of Shoals, as he had done for many years, and returning to sell his fish at market, was taken in foggy weather, and carried into the bay of Port Royal, and there wrecked upon a small island."§
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