USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > Portland by the sea; an historical treatise > Part 2
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The first attempted settlement within the limits of Old Falmouth of which record exists was that of Christopher Levett. In 1623 he is men- tioned as "Captain of one of His Majesty's ships" and having purpose of planting a colony on New England soil. He obtained from the Council for New England, the Plymouth Company, May 5, 1623, an unlocated grant of six thousand acres. As soon as possible he set out with a ship load of proposed colonists and stores and made investi- gation of the coast from the Isles of Shoals north- ward. In the early fall, having decided that the now Portland harbor was the most desirable of the places he had seen, he cast anchor off House Island and there made his landing. The island
INTO DIAMOND ISLAND, 1623 CAPT. CHRISTOPHER LEVETT STEERING HIS SHALLOP
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seems to be identified both by tradition and by his own description. There he erected a sort of stockade house from which pretty certainly the island derived its name, and called the territory York, also giving to Fore River the name Levett's River. Already there was a ship master at hand who disputed his title. Other captains, however, were present who welcomed him to the place and he proceeded to construct a house which he fortified "in reasonable good fashion." There he passed the winter, and in the following summer left ten men in charge and returned to England to enlist others of his countrymen in his venture. Unfortunately for his undertaking, war with Spain had begun and he was ordered to the command of a ship in the King's service. This disrupted his plans and in 1630 he died. In his absence his proposed colonists deserted the place and the settlement was heard of no more.
The next occupation by a European within these boundaries was that of Walter Bagnall, called Great Walt, upon Richmond Island in 1628. This was about two years before the settlement of Boston. Bagnall, it is said, "first set down on the island without a title," and probably had fishing vessels. He was a trader with the Indians, who were then numerous at Spurwink and Casco in summer. He carried on a thriving business with the natives, mostly in beaver and other furs which he bought generally by weight, his hand, according to traditional report, being the measure of a pound and his foot two pounds, and paying for them with trinkets, goods and fire water.
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In three years' time he was estimated to have accumulated some four hundred pounds, a large sum in those days. He had acquired also the deadly hatred of the Indians who in 1631 squared accounts by killing him. His death was avenged by a party from Massachusetts, who found upon the island an Indian called Black Will enjoying there a clam bake with his companions, and sum- marily hanged him. It does not appear that Black Will had any part in the murder of Bagnall, but it was not especially resented, as it was the native custom to offset the killing of a member of one tribe with the execution of any one of the assassin's people that might be met.
A considerable number of irregular folk were then coming here upon their own initiative and helping themselves to whatever they might find. The Plymouth Pilgrims did considerable of busi- ness in Maine. Eastward, at Pemaquid, there was an establishment. There was a station at Old Orchard Bay, and Monhegan in 1626 was a flourishing center of trade. In 1625 it was esti- mated that there were nine hundred local dwellers in New Hampshire and Maine.
Among these independent immigrants we find the genesis of Portland. George Cleeve, a native of Plymouth, England, the residence of Gorges, came in 1630, to Spurwink, a place within the limits of Old Falmouth. He had no express title other than, as he afterwards declared, the verbal suggestion of Sir Ferdinando and reliance upon the King's proclamation. There he made a clear- ing, built a house and established a prosperous
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business, farming and trading. He had a partner, Richard Tucker, who did not figure prominently and later removed to Portsmouth. That Cleeve intended to remain permanently is shown by the fact that he brought with him his wife, Joan, and his only child, Elizabeth. His location was prob- ably upon the beautiful and sightly spot upon the shore now known as the Ram Island farm of P. W. Sprague.
Cleeve had been established in this place of residence about two years. Great Walt upon Richmond Island had gone to his final account, leaving the field clear of business competition. His clearing was well developed and his prospects apparently were more than good. Then his well- laid plans were overturned in a way he did not expect. About April 17, 1632 a ship arrived at the little port, as it seems unexpectedly, bringing a man who introduced himself as John Winter, agent of Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyear, merchants of Plymouth, England, who, he stated, had received of date December 1, 1631 from the Council of Plymouth under authority of King Charles, conveyance of all the lands between the Cammock, Black Point, patent eastwardly to the river and bay of Casco, and covering all of present Cape Elizabeth and South Portland. He had with him the formal documents to show his authority and he ordered Cleeve forthwith to quit the premises. He, however, offered to allow the intruder to remain if he would become a tenant, paying proper rental. Cleeve, who was not noted for meekness, protested stoutly, declaring
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that "he would be tenant to never a man in New England." Finding that he could not resist the stronger forces of Winter he was obliged to leave.
In the two years he had learned somewhat the geography of the locality. Accordingly, he transferred his personal belongings to a boat and leaving behind his house and all his improvements and taking his wife and daughter, his servant Oliver Weeks and his partner Richard Tucker, sailed around the cape and up the channel into Casco Bay and made his landing on the neck of land called by the Indians Machegonne and after- wards receiving successively the names Casco Neck, Falmouth Neck and Portland. He put up a house at the northerly corner of present Hancock and Fore Streets, near the Grand Trunk depot, be- side a fine "runnet" of pure water and thus became the first white settler of Portland. His monument now stands upon the Eastern Promenade.
The name Machegonne is spelled in different ways in the various deeds. It was of course never reduced to writing by the natives and is given as the sound caught the ear. The meaning is un- certain. Good authority, and that which seems most probably correct, asserts that in the Algon- quin language the term Mach is translated great and Chegun knee or elbow, and that it was probably therefore called "the great elbow," as was signified by the general conformation of the peninsula.
Casco, the name applied to the bay and the region generally, is supposed to be an abbreviation of the Indian word or combination of words
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GEORGE CLEEVE MONUMENT, EASTERN PROMENADE
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Aucocisco, indicating the place of the herons or cranes, which still find there an attractive resort. Captain John Smith in his narration of 1614 refers to this place as "The country of Aucocisco in the bottom of a large, deep bay full of many great Iles." The lengthy Indian names are com- monly aggregations of words making what are really whole sentences.
To one of modern ideas it seems altogether unexplainable that Richmond Island · and the Spurwink location should, even at first examina- tion, have been considered preferable to Casco. But its situation had for those times manifest advantages. It was upon the open sea and had a direct outlook over the broad ocean and could be readily observed and visited by the ships that sailed along the coast. The little harbor was ordinarily ample for the water craft which was then in use. It had easy communication with the back country by means of the rivers that con- verge as they flow seaward and form the broad estuary then called the Owascoag and now the Scarborough River. The marshes with their ample growth of hay were close at hand. The clams, oysters and lobsters furnished abundance of food. The migratory fish in their season crowded the tidewater creeks. Wild fowl and game swarmed unaffrighted about the place. Moreover, Captain Cammock, co-religionist and brother aristocrat, on his domain at Black Point desired to have his old friend, Trelawney, for a near neighbor. Yet those leaders of adventure were generally men of ability, and acquaintance with Casco Bay soon
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gave them a vision of future possibilities. It did not take long to discover that the transient supe- riority of Richmond Island and Spurwink was slight compared with the opportunity for devel- opment at the place to which Cleeve had been banished, and Trelawney's agent and later fellow proprietor, Winter, thereafterward spared no effort to supplant the rival who had, fortunately for himself though much against his will, been forced to locate upon a position endowed so amply by nature with gifts that could not be gainsaid.
We should not forget that those who first came here knew scarcely anything of the country except the immediate coast. The advantages, which to the early settlers seemed to be of greatest im- portance, became of lesser account as acquaintance was made with the interior. By the original settlers England was regarded as the real home land and for a long time only English laws were in effect.
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IV
THE TURMOIL OF TITLES.
N O complete understanding of the beginnings of Portland can be had without considering the status of the settlers in regard to the personal ownership of land. Today the holding of real estate by an individual in fee is universal and a matter of course. We have forgotten that this was a new world idea and contrary to ancient precedent. Nothing of the kind had ever been considered in Europe. There everybody occupied his holding directly or indirectly by permission of his feudal demesne lord and sovereign master, the King. That the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and that the proprietorship of lands is vested in Kings as God's divinely ap- pointed representatives, was regarded as a prop- osition so axiomatic as not to be open to question. This was stated by Coke and Blackstone as the common and fundamental law. The source of controversy between King and Parliament in England was found in the assertion of the com- moners that King John in his formal treaty with the barons had in Magna Charta, the great charter, conceded to his subjects, the English people, some right to participate in the government and some interest in the sovereign control over landed properties and personal liberty.
The early charters issued to the North and South Virginia companies were royal grants made
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to certain loyal subjects of the King, in corporate fashion, to hold and manage as his representatives this new and unsurveyed portion of his majesty's domain. This was done for the purpose of pro- moting orderly settlement of the same. In none of those charters was a division of land among individuals with personal ownership mentioned or even suggested. But with settlers in a new coun- try thrown upon their own resources, that prop- osition soon became a thing of absorbing interest. They well knew that a direct request to the Sovereign for such concession would be con- sidered an affront and that it must be brought about by indirect means, if at all.
The charter given to the Massachusetts Bay Colony was intended to give it power to operate merely as a business corporation. Its managers consisted of a Governor, a Lieutenant-Governor and a board of so-called Assistants or Directors, eighteen in number. But it contained a clause, in rather common form, allowing the board to increase its membership by adding thereto from time to time so many as they might see fit. Under this unobserved but elastic provision they pro- ceeded to extend their organization in almost wholesale fashion by taking in and qualifying as "freemen" a large part of the population, thus creating them members of the commonwealth. These were made voters and authorized to send representatives to the General Court.
This was not overlooked in England. Barely six years elapsed before proceedings were set on foot to revoke the charter and put a stop to such
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THE TURMOIL OF TITLES
disregard of the kingly prerogative. It would have been promptly done had it not been for foreign wars and domestic complications which demanded all of the attention of the government at home. In Massachusetts the land proposition was systematized from the outset. The enlarged General Court, as immigrants came fast, some twenty-six thousand according to the account given by John Fiske, in the first ten years made allotments of tracts of land as townships or towns to sundry persons by name. These grantees were held to be trustees for the benefit of incoming settlers as well as for themselves. Then the towns were authorized to choose certain officers and to exercise definite municipal powers and to allot and dispose of the common land to individuals. Organ- ized meetings of the inhabitants therefore, became necessary.
In these meetings the official freemen only were included as voters, but presently, in dem- ocratic fashion, the people all came together in "Generall Meetings." The corporate growth of the towns went on tentatively and almost furtively. There was no room for aristocracy or landlords. They knew that this was little short of treason to the monarchical instincts of the mother land. The colony statutes were carefully preserved, but for a long time were not compiled in printed form. It required something of rescarch to learn what they were. Definite parcels of land were con- veyed or assigned in severalty, and in 1652 the public registration of all individual deeds of real estate was established. In this way the new
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settlers came to feel that they were equal citizens of the community with independent holdings of their own. Thus, gradually and experimentally, grew up the New England idea of distinct personal rights and government by the people, though at first with pretty strict limitations.
This kind of development did not pertain to Maine. Here it was intended to have a baronial form of possession with church and state com- bined, with an aristocracy responsive to the King as its supreme head, and with a tenantry of the lower classes obedient to their overlords in accord- ance with the ancient old world custom. The common residents occupied their holdings only as rent paying tenants of the general proprietor who- ever he might be, as is now the case in Old England.
This, however, was reckoned as an income- producing and desirable place for exploitation and profit and there were many who desired to obtain it or portions of it. While Massachusetts in its early days was a religious community Maine was looked upon largely as a business proposition. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the father of American colonization, was the most active member of the Plymouth Company, but while he desired the province for himself he was anxious to have it established as an appendage of his Church and his King, to both of which he was a devoted adherent.
An element which largely affected the situation, and which cannot be ignored, was the religious intolerance of the times. In the beginnings of Massachusetts, and in Canada all the time, no
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one was allowed to remain unless he was an acceptable member of the churches established there. In almost all parts of the world it was held to be the sacred duty of truth to extirpate heresy, and toleration was regarded as a sin. Central Europe was being devastated by a war, barbarously carried on to annihilate those who dissented from each other's construction of estab- lished creeds. Trelawney, who held the Cape Elizabeth territory, was a Church of England adherent and an ardent Royalist. As such he was arrested and imprisoned in England when the parliament obtained control. He early sent Rev. Richard Gibson and after him Rev. Robert Jordan as ministers. Cleeve, the first settler upon Casco Neck, had strong Puritan tendencies as appears by his reference to Jordan as "a minister of Antichrist," and he was democratic in his sym- pathies. Thus, denominational as well as political prejudice had no inconsiderable part in the zeal for acquiring a foothold here.
A review in consecutive order of the English land grants in this vicinity explains to some extent the confusion of titles which for a long time prevailed. After the separate delegation of au- thority to the New England and the Virginia companies in 1620 the New England council, two years later, voted to grant New Hampshire and Maine, up to the Sagadahoc or Kennebec River, as a concession to Capt. John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges. This was a mere vote and was not consummated by any regular conveyance, but by virtue of it Mason and Gorges made an
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agreement for division, assigning the Maine por- tion to Sir Ferdinando. The Plymouth Company then, June 20, 1630, issued a patent to John Dy and others of a tract forty miles square extending from Cape Porpoise to the Sagadahoc River. This was named Lygonia in honor of Cicely Lygon, the mother of Sir Ferdinando. This tract later, in 1643, passed into the hands of Alexander Rigby and Lygonia, thereby acquired notable importance in Portland history as will appear later. Ignoring the Lygonia patent, the same Council made, December 1, 1631, to Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyear conveyance of the tract between Spur- wink River and the River and Bay of Casco. It was by virtue of this grant that George Cleeve was ejected from his Spurwink house and clearing.
Then, in 1635, King Charles, asserting his divine right to recall his promises at will, and overruling all former bestowals, gave to Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges the entire province of Maine, then extending to the Kennebec River. This assign- ment by the King to Gorges was of the soil only without specifying governmental powers. Sir Fer- dinando almost immediately ratified to Cleeve his occupation upon Casco Neck and gave him con- siderably more additional. This was not conveyed by deed in fee but in old English form by a lease for two thousand years. The Gorges concession was followed in 1639, in defiance of parliamentary objection, by the celebrated palatinate charter of the Province of Maine by that name, with feudal and almost unlimited powers of government over Maine and all New England as well. The next
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year, 1640, came the meeting of the Long Parlia- ment, followed by the English Revolution with absolute parliamentary control and the Protecto- rate of Oliver Cromwell. Winter for his principal, Trelawney, had set up a claim to Machegonne Neck and April 7, 1643 Col. Alexander Rigby, who was in the parliamentary army, purchased the aforesaid Lygonia patent which had prior date. He regranted to George Cleeve his Casco Neck lands and made him governor of the province with title of Deputy President. The war was on in England and John Winter, the Trelawney factor, and after him Rev. Robert Jordan who acquired the Spur- wink title, were supporters of the King and persisted in the assertion that their bounds right- fully included all of Machegonne or Cleeve's Neck, and intruded upon it. March 7, 1647, after lit- igation in England, it was decided by the highest Court of the Rcahn that the said Lygonia grant, being earliest in date, was valid notwithstanding the King's charter, and confirmed Cleeve's owner- ship and official rank.
The royalist partisans here would not admit the parliamentary authority. Party feeling was intense and the English civil war might have caused open hostilities had there been more inhab- itants or anything of popular cohesion. In 1649 King Charles was executed and the Common- wealth with Cromwell as Lord Protector became supreme. The Commonwealth recognized the Lygonia, Cleove government, but the royalist objectors here gave it only unwilling and qualified obedience. In the midst of all, the Massachusetts
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Bay Colony made assertion that this locality was plainly within the bounds set out in its charter and asserted its ownership.
At the time of the restoration of Charles II in England in 1660 the ownership and control of Casco or Falmouth Neck was mooted among: first, the Cleeve, Lygonia occupation ; second, the bound- ary claim of Trelawney's Cape Elizabeth represent- atives, Winter and Jordan; third, the Massachu- setts enforced and unwillingly accepted authority ; fourth, the litigation of the Gorges heir for reversal of the parliamentary court decree, and fifth, the general assertion of Charles II, who had come with mind filled with the corrupt and haughty culture of France, that all other rights should be ignored and the region declared to be the King's own crown land. Also it should be noted that the French assertion of ownership had never been relinquished.
During the years when colonization elsewhere was at its flood tide our Portland was in the storm center of warfare among selfish promoters and contentious claimants. One can appreciate the statement of Willis, the historian of Portland, that "No one here in those times could be sure of reaping the rewards of his labors and industry." A review of these complications makes apparent some of the conditions which obstructed and delayed settlement here.
MACHEGONNE AT COMING OF GEORGE CLEEVE
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THE CONTEST FOR CASCO NECK.
HE bitter strife between the early claimants, John Winter and George Cleeve, over the possession of Machegonnne or Casco Neck was of itself an element that so largely affected the beginnings of Portland as to call for statement in detail.
Following the establishment of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth after it had become per- manent, others gradually occupied places along the coast from Cape Cod to the Bay of Fundy. Yet, except the Puritan colony which had its beginning around Boston about 1630, these occu- pations were of a temporary character and were made for trading and business purposes. John Joselyn, brother of Henry at Cammock's Neck, and who wrote an Account of His Voyage and told of what he had observed, spoke of the country along which he sailed as being a mere wilderness, having here and there by the seaside a few scat- tered plantations with as few houses. George Cleeve, on the other hand, when he made his landing at Casco Neck evidently did so with the purpose of making that his home and setting up there a permanent place of abode. He invited others, whose names do not appear and who had only permissive rights, to come and join him. He was an energetic man and a born leader, but
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does not appear to have had much in the way of financial possessions or influence, and had at no time landed rights of his own except that under his two thousand years lease. The Neck was then covered with tall trees and he made his clearing, built his house, and so far as he could, set on foot a business in the general commodities of fish and furs.
John Winter, who held at Cape Elizabeth only as agent of Trelawney, the general proprietor, likewise had no title in fee. He opened up at Richmond Island and Spurwink what was for the times a large and profitable industry. Robert Trelawney himself lived in Plymouth, England, and was a wealthy and successful merchant, having many ships and extensive trade abroad. His connections were aristocratic. He was a rigid Episcopalian and Royalist and was three times made mayor of Plymouth, his native city. Winter, the factor or agent, was an arbitrary and aggressive man and desired to make apparent the importance of the position which he held as the representative of a rich and prominent employer. So long as he lived he exerted himself to bring into action all the resources of the grant. Spurwink was rapidly developed. In 1634, Winthrop says seventeen ships were at one time at Richmond Island. He had sixty men in the fishing business and had otherwise a large number in his employment. The trade with the natives was extensive and profitable. That there was variety in the goods handled is shown by the fact that Winter was com- plained of, not for the sale of his strong liquors, i. e.,
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not for the selling but for charging extortionate prices for his rum or aqua vitae, stated to be one of the necessaries of life and which probably came in payment for shipments to the West Indies.
For about five years it quite certainly did not occur to any one that the rather insignificant settlement of George Clecve was within the Tre- lawney, Cape Elizabeth boundaries. As business then increased the limitations of his place became manifest, and the zealous agent looked about for additional facilities. He first asserted that the winding Spurwink River was not the correct boundary on the southwest but that a straight line extending due north from the river mouth, which would include valuable grass lands upon the Cammock side, was intended and proceeded to take possession there. Cammock protested and, upon application made in England, the Spurwink bound was declared to be correct; but Gorges gave a conciliatory additional grant which plainly stated the northerly, Trelawney, limit to be the present Fore River as the River of Casco. The contracted anchorage at Spurwink had become insufficient and the natural advantages of the Portland harbor had grown to be more and more conspicuous. He then set up the claim that the present Presumpscot River, being the larger stream, was intended to be the true river of Casco named in the patent as its northeasterly bound, and that Machegonne or Casco Neck was there- fore within his jurisdiction. His method was abrupt. He aggressively attempted to take pos- session and ordered Cleeve to leave his new home.
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