USA > Maine > Pioneers on Maine rivers, with lists to 1651 > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
Accordingly, November 3, 1631, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Cap- tain John Mason and their associates John Cotton, Henry Gar- diner, George Griffith, Edwin Guy, Thomas Wannerton, Thomas and Eleazar Eyre, who then constituted the Laconia Company, obtained a grant of Pascataqua from the Council of Plymouth. Many of these grantees were gentlemen of wealth and influence. Thomas Eyre, secretary of that company, had been clerk of the Canada Company and was custodian of the original of the Grand Patent of New England.#
The grant recited that the patentees had already expended more than £3000 and "much tyme in the discovering of the Coun- trie," alluding, probably, to their recent contributions to the "vew" taken by Oldham, Wheelwright, and their associates two years before.
¡ N. E. Prospect, 68.
* Appendix B.
62
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
The other considerations expressed were "the advancement of the sd plantacon" by the manufacture of clapboards and pipe staves, making salt pans and salt, transporting vines to promote the wine industry and prospecting for iron ore.
The territory ceded was situated on both sides of the mouth of Pascataqua River. The New Hampshire tract extended west- ward along the coast for five miles and inland as far as Bloody Point, where it overlapped the Squamscott section of the Hilton patent. The Maine tract was only three miles wide on the sea- shore, but extended up the river bank for thirty miles, including the present areas of Kittery, Eliot, South Berwick, Berwick and Lebanon, which was called Towwoh by the Indians.
The patent also ceded "All that house and cheife habitacon situate and being at Pascataway al's Pascataquack al's Pasca- quacke in New England * * * wherein Capt. Walt : Neale and ye Colony wth him now doth or lately did reside togeather wth the Gardens and Cornegrounds occupied and planted by the sd Col- onie, and the Salt workes allready begun for ye use of the Adventurers to Liconia (being in the latitude of 43 degrs or thereabouts."§
In the meantime the Warwick had arrived at Virginia. An- other quotation from Fleet read as follows: "I was engaged to pay a quantity of Indian corn in New England, the neglect whereof might be prejudicial both to them that should have it, and to me that promised payment."
After stating that the bark had been laden with its cargo, consisting principally of southern corn bought from the natives, Fleet continued : "We set sail from Point Comfort and arrived at Pascattoway, in New England, on Tuesday the 7th of February, where we delivered our corn, the quantity being 700 bushels."
"On Tuesday, the 6th of March, we weighed anchor and sailed to the Isle of Shoals, where we furnished ourselves with provi- sions of victual. Sunday the 11th of March, we sailed for the Massachusetts Bay, and arrived there on the 19th day. I wanted commodities to trade with the Indians, and here I endeavored to fit myself if I Could. I did obtain some, but it proved of little value."
By reference to Lechford and Winthrop the log of this vessel may be reconstructed.
§ N. H. State Papers, 29-41.
63
PISCATAQUA RIVER
At the Isles of Shoals the crew was engaged in fishing and curing fish and trading with other ships for supplies. At Salem, corn for summer delivery was sold to Roger Conant. At Natas- cot, where it arrived March 14, the vessel was nearly wrecked, but reached Winnisimet, then known as Massachusetts, five days later. There the bark lay at anchor for some time, in view of Maverick's dwelling, which the owner claimed to have been the "Ancientiest house" in the Bay, and near the farms of Cradock and Winthrop on Mystic River. March 23, Fleet was at Water- town, where he sold southern corn to Robert Feake, to be de- livered the last day of July. April 8, accompanied by Maverick's pinnace, the Warwick sailed again for Virginia.
Fleet arrived at his destination in May and his narrative con- cluded with these words, "There I gave the pinnace her lading of Indian corn, and sent her away the 1st of June, with letters from our company to their friends in London, and elsewhere in Eng- land, which were safely conveyed from New England."*
There is no indication that the Warwick ever returned to Pas- cataqua. Subsequently, suit for recovery of their property was brought in the Admiralty Court of England by Henry Gardiner and George Griffith, lessees of the vessel and members of the Laconia Company. Their plea alleged undue retention of their bark by John Harvey, while he was governor of Virginia. At any rate the corn engaged that spring by Conant and Feake was never delivered. In 1636, the hull of this early factor in trans- atlantic and coastwise commerce was dismantled in a Dorchester inlet, afterwards known by the name of "Barque Warwick."
Early in June, 1632, Thomas Willett and Abraham Shurt with others were wrecked at Pascataqua in the shallop of Captain John Wright. Their vessel was laden with goods which had been discharged at Penobscot in transit for Massachusetts consignees. The account of the casualty stated that "One Abraham Shurd of Pemaquid, and one Capt. Wright, and others, coming to Pascata- quack, being bound for this bay in a shallop with £200 worth of commodities, one of the seamen, going to light a pipe of tobacco, set fire on a barrel of powder, which tare the boat in pieces. That man was never seen; the rest were all saved, but the goods lost."i
* Scharf's Hist. of Maryland, 1-14.
+ Winthrop, 1-79.
64
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
During their absence on this occasion Willett and Wright, who were in charge at Castine, were informed of the intrusion of the French upon their trading post and the seizure of Dixie Bull's shallop and goods at the Eastward. Another historical item disclosed that "The mr. of ye house, and parte of ye com- pany with him, were come with their vessell to ye westward to fecth a supply of goods which was brought over for them."}
As already related the murderers of Bagnall and of the em- ployes of Henry Way had escaped punishment since the previous fall. A new offence against the public peace could not be tol- erated, and to discourage further overt acts of lawlessness Neal organized all of his available forces and accompanied Shurt's party homeward, where he proposed to administer strict punitive justice.
July 23, according to a letter written by Thomas Cammock, who was then inspecting his prospective grant at Black Point, Neal was still detained beyond Richmond Island, while Vines who had been "coasting" was returning to Saco. Cammock used the expression "urgent occasions" to describe the importance of Neal's mission. §
Either because he had an insufficient force to accomplish his object or because of doubt as to his legal authority to inflict capital punishment upon the criminals, the captain signally failed in his eastern expedition.
Massachusetts magistrates, however, still manifested a sense of moral responsibility for their part in the tragedy. Four years before they had insisted upon the forcible ejection of Bagnall from the colony and he had sought a refuge among the savages in the Maine wilderness. There had been some early criticism of their summary proceedings in his case.
Accordingly, August 7 and more than ten months after the massacre occurred, partly to allay public criticism the court passed an order in these words: "A boate shall be sent forth, sufficiently manned, with comission to deale with the plantacon to the eastward" (Pascataqua River) "& joyne with such of them as shalbe willing thereto, for examinacon of the murder of the said Walter Bagnall, & for apphending of such as shalbe found guilty thereof, & to bring the prisonrs into the Bay."*
Bradford, 2-189.
Me. Doc. Hist., 3-18.
Mass. Col. Rec., 1-92.
65
PISCATAQUA RIVER
William Wood, who returned to England the next year in the same vessel with Neal and must have obtained his information first hand, described the fates of the murderers in the words "as many as were caught, were hanged.";
October 18, 1632, Thomas Cammock and Edward Godfrey, a merchant, brought sixteen hogsheads of Indian corn from Pas- cataqua to the mill at Watertown to be ground.}
Some of this grain was raised in Eliot, where it had been planted that spring by William Hilton. Twenty-one years later Hilton recovered damages for the trespass committed in this case, which was tried in the first session of a Maine court under Massachusetts jurisdiction. The decision indicated that Cam- mock had deprived the plaintiff of his house and crops in Eliot. Such a verdict was inevitable against a tenant of Gorges and Mason.
Hilton was also engaged in raising swine, but he yarded them across the Pascataqua River at Bloody Point, where they could not raid his cornfields. Wood's Map assigned a large point of land in Eliot to Hilton, which may be inferred to imply extensive ownership. It may be assumed that, when Hilton's Point in New Hampshire was sold to the Bristol Merchants in 1631, William Hilton removed to the location across the river, where he was mentioned in Maine records the next year.§
After delivering their cargo of grain from Captain Neal's pinnace to the Watertown mill, Cammock, and probably Godfrey, continued the voyage to Rhode Island upon an exploratory ex- pedition. The purpose of this visit was explained previously when Cammock had written to Trelawney from Richmond Island, under the date of July 23, as follows :
"I doe purpose before winter to goe and see the Narragan- cett, which is to the Southward of Cape Codd, if our shallop comes from the Eastward time enough; and if I see any good to be done ther, to drive a trade, and you please to Joine in the pro- ceedinge of itt, which shall be very probable or els I will nott stirr in itt, lett me alone for the procuringe off a patent, for itt is my lorde of Warwickes owne devision, and he was willinge I should gon upon itt. But itt is very populus of the Indians, and itt will requier a plantation of good force and strength, which so soone
+ N. E. Prospect, 68.
# Winthrop, 1-90.
York Deeds, 1-60.
cocheore
the fall
Lamper de (R)
O+Bristow
Heghechewanck River
the falls
3
the Bay
Hutton
quam scooke
Acomenticus
Strabery Banke
Pafcataque Rouco
permacooke
the bares head
Sagamore Mattacomen
"(Ana Shi A"A
penticket
qualunque R
43
Igowan
Mermack River
5
PART OF WOOD'S MAP, 1635
66
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
Pufsaconowa Sagamore
9 Lends of 8hours
67
PISCATAQUA RIVER
as I have bin ther, I will acquaint you of the state of the cuntrye."*
Cammock was a nephew of the Earl of Warwick and their kinship accounted for the liberties which the former proposed to take in the premises at Narragansett, if the conditions found there proved to be satisfactory to him. The title of Warwick was based upon the old division made in the presence of King James June 29, 1623, when the coast of New England was apportioned by lot to the members of the Council of Plymouth. Their investi- gation of the country beyond Cape Cod could not have appealed to the Laconia pioneers, since neither subsequently acquired any interest there.
While Cammock and Godfrey were in Massachusetts the mag- istrates there were informed of a piracy committed at Pemaquid by Dixie Bull and fifteen others. Neal had already gone eastward with two shallops, two pinnaces and forty men-all that could be mustered at Pascataqua plantations. After they had been wind- bound in Pemaquid Harbor for three weeks the fleet returned to Richmond Island, then deserted by everyone but Andrew and Thomas Alger and John Baddiver, Trelawney's servants. There they found and executed Black Will for complicity in the murder of Bagnall. Wood claimed that the criminals were betrayed by other Indians, but this was the only reported instance in which the death penalty was exacted.
The operations of the Laconia Company at Pascataqua had proved disappointing and expensive to all concerned. In the spring of 1633 Neal again visited the Eastern Country where he gave possession of lands at Scarborough to Cammock in the presence of Abraham Shurt, Richard Smith and John Winter. Four days later he delivered seizin to Abraham Shurt at Pema- quid in the presence of Cammock, William Hook, Robert Knight, George Newman and Christopher Burkett, master of the White Angel. This was the last time Neal ever saw the coast of Maine, for he was recalled by the Laconia proprietors in a letter that was then awaiting him at Pascataqua .;
In its instructions to Gibbons the company directed that all the employes be dismissed from its service except those who could support themselves upon the premises. At the same time Neal was authorized to grant land to the agents of the company.
* Me. Doc. Hist., 3-20.
¡ N. H. State Papers, 1-68.
68
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
June 2, he had returned from the Eastern Country to Little Harbor, where he conveyed to Cammock the premises in Eliot, on which William Hilton had planted corn the year before. This occupation by Cammock's predecessor was mentioned in 1641, in the premise to Wannerton's deed of adjoining land, and the tract was bestowed upon the grantee as a reward for "desertful endeavour," in which the principal inducement may have been recognition of the forcible eviction of Hilton himself.}
During that month Neal bought the first cattle acquired by the plantation. This live stock was brought from the West Indies by Captain John Stone and sold along the coast from Boston to York. The inventory at Pascataqua July 2, 1633, listed ten cows, one bull and two calves.§
Just a week after the inventory was completed Neal deeded the first lot below that of Cammock to Thomas Wannerton and the second to Henry Jocelyn in consideration of company serv- ices. At about the same time Sanders' Point, then unoccupied, was assigned to Gibbons .*
July 15, Neal left Pascataqua for Boston, whence he sailed for England August 15, with eight associates, who appear to have been Thomas Cammock, Henry Jocelyn, Henry Langstaff, Shad- rach Miller, Thomas Spencer, Adrian Tucker, George Vaughan and Francis Williams.i
Employes left by Neal at Newichawannock House were Gib- bons and his wife and child, Thomas Blake, Thomas Crockett, Stephen Kidder and Charles Neal, who had resided there for nearly two years. At Little Harbor Thomas Wannerton remained in charge with William Cooper, William Dermit, Thomas Furrall, Roger Knight and his wife, Ralph Gee and a boy.##
Some of these men were still engaged in their original em- ployments after the departure of Neal. Cooper, Furrall and the boy assisted Gee in caring for the live stock. Others devoted their whole energies to cleaving clapboards. The earliest allusion to a saw pit was at Kittery Point about 1637.§§
The tragic deaths of some of these early colonists have been described. Cooper and the boy went "to an island, upon the Lord's day, to fetch some sack to be drank at the great house,"
# York Deeds, 1-3, 1.
Winthrop, 1-104; N. Y. Hist. Col .. 2-3, 43; N. H. State Papers, 1-80.
* N. H. Prov. Deeds, 4-185.
+ Winthrop, 1-106.
## N. H. State Papers. 1-81.
§ § Mass. Arch., B38-37; N. H. State Papers, 2-530.
69
PISCATAQUA RIVER
but "coming back in a canoe (being both drunk) were driven to sea and never heard of after."
Another casualty occurred to a woodsman "At the same plantation" when "a company having made a fire at a tree, one of them said, 'Here this tree will fall, and here will I lie'; and accordingly it fell upon him and killed him." At that time trees were burned rather than cut down and the process sometimes required several days .*
April 22, 1635, Gorges was invested with a royal title to the Province of Maine and September 17, following, in considera- tion of the grantee's release of all other territory between Pas- cataqua and Sagadahoc rivers, confirmed Newichawannock to Mason. The premises described were identical with those allotted by agreement two years earlier .;
The other Pascataqua patentees were ignored; Gorges did not favor full recognition of their claims; consequently, he did not confirm their divisions during his lifetime and, in 1650, they engaged Captain John Littlebury, of Hatfield, England, to prose- cute their demands. In Boston this agent, who was operating at his own expense on a commission basis, allied himself with Cap- tain Thomas Lake, in order to secure influence with the stubborn eastern planters. Champernoone and Shapleigh, who were in pos- session of the coast between Kittery Point and Brave Boat Har- bor, were the chief objectors in Maine, refusing to recognize any other title to their lands than that of Gorges, their predecessor.}
During his first attempt to recover lands at Pascataqua, Lit- tlebury entered and "layed clame unto the Ile of Shoales" and, in his own words, "tooke Quiet posession of the house & Lands in littell harbor where Capt Neale lived with servants we sent him out of old England for the use of the patentees."§
However, nothing of importance was accomplished at that time, and, in 1659, the surviving proprietors of Pascataqua joined with Godfrey, Rigby, and the heirs of Gorges and Mason, in a petition to the British Parliament, asking for restoration of ancient rights by Massachusetts .**
July 4, 1664, Littlebury was again called into action and promised a quarter of all the land he could recover in New Eng-
* Winthrop, 1-120.
+ 2 Me. Hist. Col., 8-179.
¿ Aspinwall. 299.
§ Me. Doc. Hist .. 4-318.
** New Eng. Vind., 41.
70
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
land for the surviving patentees. The claimants then living were Eleazar Eyre, Henry Gardiner and George Griffith.
Three years later the agent disposed of his interest in all La- conia lands to Thomas Lake, John Feake and Nathaniel Fryer. So far as known he had never recovered anything of value to reimburse his clients for their expenditures at Pascataqua. He had become discouraged at the outlook, although he reported that he had taken "posession of house and Land in great harbor with mr ffryers Consent." At that time the only building owned by Fryer at Great Harbor had been derived through mesne con- veyances from Champernoone and was called "Champernoone's Lower House." It is a reasonable inference that the building had been occupied originally, before 1633, by Cammock and Godfrey as agents for the Laconia Company .;
The house at Little Harbor had been in possession of Joseph Mason during the sojourn of Littlebury in England. The former had been engaged in litigation to recover for Ann, widow of Cap- tain Mason, lapsed interests in personal and real estate. The re- sults had proved discouraging and Mason decided to abandon the service and return to England with Littlebury. Accordingly, he leased the Great House at Little Harbor to Abraham Corbet and Nicholas Shapleigh upon May 13, 1667, and it was not mentioned subsequently in any official record.}
The building at Sanders' Point, formerly known as Straw- berry Bank House, was assigned by Gibbons to his son-in-law Henry Sherbourn, who in turn conveyed the premises to his son in 1678.
The tract of land called Sanders' Point then contained "about three acres." The Sherbourn homestead, in which it was in- cluded, was described as situated "near Little Harbor by the Pis- cataqua River, bounded east by the said Little Harbor, north with land of Tobias Lear, south with the creek commonly called Sherburne's Creek, and so up the creek till it comes to the place commonly called the old house."§
Apparently, Strawberry Bank House-the second oldest building of English construction in New Hampshire-stood upon the northerly side of the creek and but a short distance from the river.
+ York Deeds. 1-77.
į Suffolk Deeds. 5-202.
§ Granite Monthly, 46-218.
71
PISCATAQUA RIVER
GREAT ISLAND.
The earliest history of this island is obscure. It is situated in the mouth of Pascataqua River and forms Little Harbor to the south where the first plantation was made by Thompson on the New Hampshire shore; to the north it surrounds two sides of Great Harbor, through which the main channel leads upriver.
It was first recognized as a place of defence against the French, Dutch or Indians, and was partially fortified by Walter Neal before 1633. Tradition says that he found two fishing huts there.
Neal lived at Little Harbor in the service of Gorges and Mason but three years in all. One of his workmen, Henry Lang- staff, testified later that he had lived with him for two years and that "Capt. Neal did build a fort on Great Island whiles agent for sd Mason."*
The extent of fortification was described by Vines and Jocelyn in a statement, dated August 20, 1633, and regarded by some as spurious. The substance of this document may be relied upon, because all of the collateral facts could have been refuted by settlers who were fully conversant with them at the time they were offered in evidence.
The statement asserted that "There was ffoure Grete Gunes brought to piscatequa Which ware given by a Marcht of London for the Defence of the River" and that Neal and Thomas Wiggin, as governors at Pascataqua, were instructed to choose "the most Convenient place in the Said River to make a ffortefecatyon for the Defence therof, and to Mount those ffoure Gunes given to. the place."
The plan of this fort, sent to the proprietors at the time, was alleged to have contained "all the Necks of Land in the North Este Side of the Grete Island that makes the Grete Harbor" and the founders "gave it the Name of ffort Poynt and alloted it so far bake in to the Iland about a bow shoat to a grete high Rocke Where on was Intended in time to Sett the Principall fforte."+
The fact that Neal did construct a fortification on Great Island is confirmed by collateral evidence. Before he left the country an inventory of all personal property belonging to the Laconia Company was completed. The list at Pascataqua, dated
* N. H. State Papers, 2-530.
¡ N. H. State Papers, 29-54.
72
PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
July 1, 1633, contained two distinct sets of small ordnance, widely separated by unrelated items, some of which were found at Portsmouth. It was necessary to pass the island to reach the latter point.
In the rear of Fort Point was a tract, called Mosquito Hall, which comprised the northwestern corner of the island. October 1, 1637, this land with the buildings was sold to Francis Mathews, in escrow for John Hurd of Sturgeon Creek, by Jocelyn, Vines and Wannerton, who were acting respectively for Mason, Gorges and the Laconia Company. The premises were acquired by John Walton in 1646 and passed through the ownership of Richard Tucker to George Walton, when they were described as a "neck of land upon Great Island, in Pascataqua River, lying toward the west" and known as Mosquito Hall, "or nigh adjoining to it."}
Two cannon were removed from Pascataqua to Hartford in 1642 by order of Sir Richard Saltonstall. These appear to have been the guns taken from Fort Point by the Waldrons who were associated with the Shrewsbury Merchants. Saltonstall had been a large patentee in Dover in 1633 and a dealer in heavy ordnance. It is likely that he was the unnamed London donor of the cannon at Pascataqua and had authority to transfer them later to the new southern colony where he had an interest.§
Fort Point was mentioned as a shipping rendezvous in 1650. Unlike Little Harbor, it lay near the middle channel of the river. The name also occurs in Portsmouth records in 1657, and in 1661 when Bryan Pendleton obtained permission from the town to erect a windmill on the point near the beach .*
In 1666, Massachusetts had authorized the establishment of a fortification at Portsmouth. May 19, 1669, the new fort may not have been completed but the Commonwealth decided that "the neck of land upon the east end of the great island at Portsmouth shall be sequestered for the use of the fort there planted, taking in ye great Rock, & from thence all the easterly pte of the said island."
The next year Walton, who still possessed Mosquito Hall, complained "of wrong donne by the County Court at Portsmouth for taking away of his land at Fort Poynt, upon the great island in Portsmouth." The tribunal decided that there was "no ground
N. H. Hist. Col., 8-120. Conn. Pub. Rec., 1-70. York Ct. Rec., 1-134.
73
PISCATAQUA RIVER
of complainte," because the petitioner had no "legall or true title to ye land in question."¡
As late as 1685 Walton deposed that he "remembered ye ffort built by Capt Mason upon the Great Island in the Same place where the ffort now Stands & that it was * furnished with Great Guns of which Some were Brass & were Afterwards taken away by Major Waldron and his Brother William."}
In 1651, Captain John Littlebury took possession of the house at Little Harbor and put Joseph Mason in charge of the premises at that time. The latter lived in the Great House for several years as representative of Ann, widow of Captain Mason. That tenant asserted that the first battery on Great Island had consisted of ten cannon, but when he arrived everything had been "caried away (except one peece of Ordnance)." He also stated that all of the military equipment at the fort as well as several houses on Great Island had been provided at the expense of Gorges, Ma- son and their associates, alluding to the Laconia Company. Mos- quito Hall was one of the buildings. §
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.