Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 12

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Portland, Me., The author
Number of Pages: 1424

USA > Maine > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 12
USA > New Hampshire > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 12

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).

Let us look backward two hundred and fifty years, and from that early period of the Saco valley history take a mental survey of the settlement, the domestic conditions of those who composed the primitive community, and note the march of improvement that followed the deprivations, hardships. and toil of the pioneers.

Clustered about the rim of the little harbor were a few rude, low-walled. clay-plastered, dingy log huts, inhabited by families whose speech smacked of Cornwall and Devonshire in the mother country. The names of some of these have been found and will appear with all we know about them in their appro-

WINTER HARBOR SETTLEMENT.

priate place. The men were busily employed clearing the land for husbandry or engaged in fishing upon the adjacent sea. Along the shore were boats and fish-flakes. Upon the sea-wall the forms of stately pines and venerable oaks were reflected upon the green-glazed surface of the incoming tide, and the constant roar of surging ocean filled the cars of women busy at the wheel and loom.

The early morning found thin wreaths of smoke rising through the over- hanging trees from a dozen wooden-muzzled chimneys indicating the existence of human habitations. Under the wide-spreading hemlock close at hand the red man's wigwam stood neighbor to the white man's cabin. Here he curried his tanned moose-skin with tool of stone, while his beauty-admiring squaw, with stained quills of the bristling porcupine, ornamented her buff moccasins with many a strange device.

At the settler's fireside Squando smoked his pipe of stone or hailed the white fishermen from his swift-gliding canoe upon the river, while his ashen paddle kept time with the stroke of the boatman's rattling oar. Mugg Heagon was no stranger in the settlement and learned his broken English at the hearth-stone of the hardy pale face. Squaws planted corn on the sandy uplands with their clam-shell hoes, within hail of the white man's door, unmo- lested and unmolesting.

At Goosefair, Thomas Rogers cultivated his mellow garden, where grew the apple and the grape. Waddock and his successors, Haley and Patterson, conveyed travelers across the Saco at the lower ferry, and the latter kept an ordinary for entertaining strangers. Magnus Redland, who had spent his early years upon the turbulent waters of the wild North sea, was now shaving shingles and clapboards upon the river bank near his stockaded dwelling at Rendezvous Point, while his capable sons were wielding the mallet and axe in the ship-yard near at hand.

l'aths wound along the riverside and through the woodlands from house to hamlet. A stranger approaching on horseback from the westward would be surrounded by a group of curious spectators when he drew rein at some cabin door. When a strange vessel was espied in the harbor all ages and sexes hastened down to the place of landing to learn from whence the voyagers came and the character of their mission. Communication was kept up between the settlement and the towns westward, and in passing from place to place nearly all went over the more safe "sea-road." With the arrival of vessels came intelligence from friends and kindred at Marblehead and Ipswich, from Ports- mouth and Kittery, from Agamenticus and Arundel; sometimes from loved ones across the wide Atlantic. What joyous excitement prevailed when a ship came to anchor in the harbor having on board emigrants who had come from Old England to establish homes alongside of those who were already domi- ciled at Saco!

WINTER HARBOR SETTLEMENT.

The furnishing of the early settlers' homes was meagre and practical. . 1 heavy plank settle at the fireside, heavy oaken chests brought across the sea, a deal table on the puncheoned floor, some pewter plates and earthen bowls in a rack at the wall-side, fishing lines and nets hanging about the chimney, a pair of heavy oars overhead, this was about all that the visitor would have seen there.

Until the white man's fire-water had been used as a medium for defraud- ing the red hunter of the spoils of the chase, and imprudent seamen had angered Squando by the unwarranted overturn of a canoe containing his wife and child, all went well in the settlement on the Saco; but once the hatchet had been raised, all the horrors and sufferings incident to savage warfare were experienced.

The stranger passing over the well-graded. farm-bordered Ferry road today views historic ground at every turn. The stately mansions, fronted by broad, green yards and shaded by the graceful foliage of enormous elms, indi- cate a period of agricultural prosperity, and these records of the past are true to fact; but the gaze of him whose mind has become excited by perusing the historic page touches an era more remote, and his conjuring imagination broods over the early settlement with all the lights and shadows of its startling life, its dangers and heart aches. He sees the unmerciful savages approaching the humble home of Humphrey Seamman ; sees them driving the mother and son before them, and compelling the father to join them in captivity ; thinks of the weary, famished, and footsore prisoners making their way through tangled swamps, along the water-courses and over flinty pathways toward Canada, and imagines the forebodings that possessed them as they contemplated the slavery that awaited them among the French. With mental vision the considerate traveler beholds the boy fleeing for his life on horseback, guiding the running beast by reins extemporized from his garters, and the commotion of the occu- pants of the fort as he makes known the startling intelligence that the Indians were in the neighborhood.

If it be night one may be transported to the time when the lurid dames from the settlers' burning dwellings drove back the darkness and threw a weird light over the adjacent field and forest, while the blood-curdling yells of the demoniac heathen rend the air.

If familiar with the annals of the settlement, he beholds the disheartened planters and fishermen packing up their most valuable household belongings. and hurrying away from the only homes they had known in New England, to become exiles among strangers, or to seek shelter in the dwellings of their kindred farther westward along the coast.

The ominous clouds of war are dispelled for a season, and the venture- some settler emerges from his place of retirement and wanders back to the scattered hamlet on the Saco to find his fields overgrown with weeds and

WINTER HARBOR SETTLEMENT.

bushes and the grass flourishing between the openings in his cabin floor. No voice of husbandman is heard; no hail of fisherman from the lonesome sea. . He goes from house to house, peers in for a moment at the open door, then proceeds on his melancholy errand of inspection. Here and there he pauses to view the half-burned timbers of a settler's dwelling that had been marked for destruction before the evacuation of the place, and at Goosefair picks an apple from the forsaken orchard that became historic.

Passing downward in his survey, the pensive reader of history finds a community fast increasing in numbers and in a flourishing condition ; a com- munity composed of men and women representing various nationalities where the Englishman's half-spelled words are exchanged for the broad speech of the man from Caledonia, and the Irishman's rich brogue mingles with the Aca- dian's plaintive accent. Mills have been rebuilt and busy workmen are load- ing vessels at the river-mouth with the newly sawed lumber. The keels have been laid in the ship-yard and the ringing voice of mallet and hammer may be heard at the river-side.

Plantation and Township Settlements.

WICKADOCK .- The Plymouth Council granted, Feb. 12, 1629. a tract of land on the east side of Swackadock river, which extended four miles on the sea-shore and eight miles back into the country, the patentees being Thomas Lewis and Richard Bonython, who took formal possession of this territory, in the presence of five witnesses. June 28. 1631, but for unexplained causes no entry of the grant was made on the province records until April 5, 1731, a hundred years after taking seizin of the patent.' Saco was organized by Massachusetts commissioners about the time of submission to the jurisdiction of that province, in 1653, and the boundaries remained as designated in the original patent until commissioners appointed by the General Court reported, Oct. 18, 1659. "that the dividing line between C'ape Porpoise and Saco shall be that stream called Little river. next unto William Scadlock's new dwelling-house unto the first fall of said river; thence upon a northwest line into the country until eight miles be expired. The dividing line between Saco and Scarborough shall be that river commonly called Little river next unto Scarborough, and from the mouth of said river shall run upon a due northwest line into the country unto the extent of eight miles."

These boundaries have not been legally changed, but in consequence of variations in the course of Little river near its mouth by lapse of time, it is now uncertain where the original line touched the sea. Unfortunately the commissioners who were authorized to establish the boundary of the town did not follow the patent line on that side, and, consequently. more than three thousand acres that were included within the original grant are now in Scarborough, and many estates that had been bounded by the patent line, as designated by the Plymouth grant, have been cut in two, resulting in much inconvenience to the owners.

From the time Richard Vines and his companions passed the winter of 1616-17 at the mouth of the river the settlement on both sides of the Saco was known as Winter Harbor. In 1653 this plantation was organized as Saco; in the year 1718 incorporated as Biddeford, and so remained until 1762. when the territory and population on the east side of the river were incor- porated as Pepperillborough, for Sir William Pepperill, who was an owner of extensive lands and other property there. This unwieldy name was exchanged for that of Saco, Feb. 23. 1805.

PLANTATION AND TOWNSHIP SETTLEMENTS.

We shall never know the names of all the early settlers on the Lewis and Bonython patent; some of them, however, appear on the ministerial rate-book for 1636, as follows: Thomas Lewis, Capt. Richard Bonython, Henry War- wick, Clement Greenway, Henry Watts, and Richard Foxwell. The two latter were left on the Scarborough side when the town line was established; but Foxwell, who was son-in-law of one of the patentees, stated before the General Court in 1640 that he had for four years or thereabouts lived in the right of Capt. Richard Bonython, who settled him there and gave him as "much free- dome and privilege as by virtue of his Patent he could, either for plant_ ing, fishing, fowling, or the like, which was the main cause of his settling there."

As a condition of the patent to Lewis and Bonython required them to settle fifty persons in the plantation within seven years, it is probable that in 1636, when the six names of inhabitants above mentioned were recorded, there were many others domiciled there whose names we do not find. We know that the number of settlers was augmented from time to time by descendants of English families down to about 1718, when a number of Scotch-Irish came and contributed much strength to the colony.

BIDDEFORD.

The name was derived from a market town and seaport in Devonshire, England, from whence some of the early settlers are said to have emigrated. Old Biddeford (by the ford) is situated on both sides of the Torridge, and united by a stone bridge of twenty-four arches, 677 feet long. Principal industries, manufacture of ropes, sails, leather, and earthenware.

The territory from which Biddeford was formed was granted by the Coun- cil of Plymouth to Richard Vines and John Oldham, Feb. 1, 1630. It was of the same area as that on the easterly side of Saco river, namely, beginning at the mouth of said river it extended on the sea-coast westerly four miles, and eight miles back into the wilderness. Formal possession was taken by Vines, before nine witnesses, June 23, 1630.

We have no means of ascertaining how many inhabitants were present when Mr. Vines took seizin of his land. He had made several voyages from Old England to Winter Harbor since he spent the winter there in 1616-17, and as he had obligated himself to transport fifty persons into the colony within seven years "to plant and inhabit there," we may believe that he had a considerable number of settlers with him when his patent was granted. The following names of inhabitants on the ministerial rate-book represent a few of the early settlers, but some of these lived on the east side of the river : Richard Vines, Henry Board, Thomas Williams, Samuel Andrews, William Scadlock, John Wadlaw, Robert Sankey, Theophilus Davis, George Frost,

PLINTITION AND TOWNSHIP SETTLEMENTS

John Parker, John Smith, Robert Morgan, Richard Hitchcock, Thomas Page, and Ambrose Berry.

The colonists took up 100 acres each on which Vines gave them leases, copies of which may be found in full on the records of York county. Vines gave a lease to John West, in 1638, of an estate that had been improved and on which there was a dwelling-house, for the long term of one thousand years ; the annual rent to be two shillings and one capon. Rent payment on another lease was to be "five shillings, two days' work, and one fat goose " annually.

The patent was transferred by Mr. Vines in 1645, as the following certifi- cate of the sale will show :

"J Richard Vines of Saco, Gentleman, have bargained and sold the patent unto Robert Childs, Esq .. Dr. of Phisick, and given him livery and seizin upon the 20th day of October, 1645. in presence of Mr. Adam Winthrop and Mr. Benjamin Gillman."

Childs was an Englishman, returned to the old country and evidently sold in turn to John Beex & Co .. London merchants, who were interested in saw- milling on the coast and owned considerable timber here. From these gentle- men William Phillips of Boston, purchased the patent in 1658-59 for ninety pounds, and took formal possession in 1659. in presence of two witnesses. Immediately after this, to obviate any question that might arise respecting titles and claims, the inhabitants made an agreement with Phillips by which those who had received leases of land from Vines should " freely, forever here- after enjoy the same, with all the privileges contained in such their leases and possessions, both they and their heirs and assigns forever, for and in consideration of paying one day's work for each lease, if it be demanded within the year, and yearly." Phillips bound himself in the sum of six pounds sterling to each man in case his title to the patent should prove invalid.

A controversy arose between the town and Mr. Phillips, which being car- ried to the General Court that body authorized a committee composed of three gentlemen to settle the same. After due consideration of issues involved the committee made the following award: "That the town of Saco shall have belonging to it all the land lying within the bounds hereafter mentioned, viz .. from Winter Harbor to Saco river mouth, and from thence up along the river toward the falls as far as the house of Ambrose Berry, and from thence a line to run on a square toward Cape Porpoise so far as the bounds of said Saco go that way, and so unto the sea, and so along the sea unto Winter Harbor. receiving out of this tract the sea-wall, beginning at a pond half a mile south- ward from the mill, commonly called Duck pond, and running from the said pond to the mill, and from thence to the rock of land on which Roger Spencer liveth, with the marshes adjoining the sea-wall, not exceeding forty rods broad from said wall: and also a neck of land commonly called Parker's Neck; also sixty acres of woodland adjoining to an allotment late in possession of Wood-

PLANTATION AND TOWNSHIP SETTLEMENTS.

man Leighton, now in possession of Lieut. Phillips; also sixty acres of land lying between Mr. Hitchcock's house and Saco river mouth, where Licut. Phillips shall make choice of it in any land not in lease, which aforesaid tract of land so bounded shall be disposed of by the townsmen of Saco, either for commons or otherwise, as they shall see cause, unto which disposal of the aforesaid tract Lieut. Phillips doth consent. And all contracts made by any other possessor of any land within the limits of the patent of Saco, which did belong unto Mr. Richard Vines, with Lieut. Phillips are to stand good. And such possessors of land within the said limits as have not yet contracted for their land that they do possess are to pay the like proportion of rent which those do who have already contracted. And all other lands laid out within the limits of the patent of Mr. Vines, excepting that neck of land where R. Spencer dwelleth, which said neck is bounded by the sea-wall next it adjoin- ing, to belong unto Mr. Phillips."

To make his title more secure Lieut. Phillips purchased an extensive area of land of the Indian, Mugg Heagon, deeded in 1664; and the original set- tlers received confirmation of their titles from the patentee and the town supervisors.

We have devoted considerable space to this subject to show with what difficulties the pioneers secured any permanent title to their lands and how they were menaced by the conflicting claims of rival owners. In all their embarrassments, however, they had one source of refuge by appeal to the Generał Court, and here they could look for justice.

FOUNDERS OF SACO AND BIDDEFORD.

" Massachusetts, the mother of Maine," is a phrase that might long ago have been relegated to the repository of unfounded error, but for the inexcus- able ignorance or wilful disregard of truth exhibited by modern writers of our colonial history (?) who seem to find infinite pleasure in misleading the average reader by the use of this and kindred forms of expression. Indeed, the impression extensively prevails that the founders of our plantations on the coast of Maine were families of Massachusetts birth who had, perforce, like bees, swarmed from an over-crowded hive to find a "pitching place " to the eastward. Admitting this to be a "half-truth " it must be characterized as worse than absolute falsehood.

Confining ourselves to the settlements on the Saco river we shall find an example that will abundantly sustain our position. Of John Oldham, one of the original patentees, it was said : " He hath, at his own charges, transported thither and planted there divers persons and had, for the effecting of so good a work, undergone great danger and labor." In addition to this settlement of "divers persons " in the plantation previous to 1630, Oldham and Vines

PLANTATION AND TOWNSHIP SETTLEMENTS.

had undertaken to transport at their own cost fifty additional persons within seven years "to plant and inhabit there." We naturally inquire where in Massachusetts such a company could be found. A mental census of the colony at Plymouth, then only ten years inhabitants of the country, will show that they had none to spare. The fact is that Vines owned a vessel and made voyages to England, where he induced many of his own countrymen to come to New England to settle on his patent. To Massachusetts we are under no obligations for the ancestry of our early Saco valley families. In writing the biography of the first settlers, which will follow, we shall introduce them as Englishmen unless otherwise designated. Many whose names will presently appear are not known to have any descendants here, while the blood of others has been fused with that of nearly all of our old families. For the genealogy of some of these the reader is referred to more extended articles that will appear in the department of family history.

Thomas Lewis, one of the original patentees of the present town of Saco, was probably descended from an ancient family in Wales. His house was a short distance above the lower ferry on Saco river. He was evidently a man of superior ability and of high standing in the colony. He was attor- ney for the Plymouth Council in giving possession of the Piscataqua patent in 1631. His death occurred between 1637 and 1640. His daughter Judith, who was the wife of James Gibbins, has had her name perpetuated among her descendants in various old families who have inhabited the valley of the Saco, and has been found by the author in households transplanted early to the Ohio prairies. Another daughter, who was the wife of Robert Haywood, lived in Barbadoes.

Capt. Richard Bonython, the other proprietor of the Saco patent, probably settled on his land as early as Mr. Lewis, although his name appears on the records first in 1636. He must have been a man of great enterprise and liberal education. He was a councilor in 1640, and present at the last court held under the authority of Georges, in 1646. His house was noted as the place where the first court in Maine was held, March 25. 1636. He was a faithful and impartial official, who spared not his own son. but entered complaint against him for using insulting language against Mr. Richard Vines. Captain Bonython was held in high respect by the community and his asso- ciates in the council. His name does not appear in the list of inhabitants in 1653. and he had probably died before that year. His descendants are now numerous and respectable. Children : John, Thomas, Gabriel, Thomas, Win- nefred, and Eleanor.

John Bonython, son of the preceding, was a somewhat eccentric and conspicuous character in the settlement at Winter Harbor; a man of violent temper, inclined to insubordination. Being defiant of law, and heedless of the consequences of its violation, he was twice outlawed and at one time a

PLANTATION AND TOWNSHIP SETTLEMENTS.

price was set on his head. He was fined £4 for refusing to serve as constable in 1665. We believe, if the truth concerning this man was known today, we might justify what, as matter of principle, historians have condemned in his conduct. He was evidently a warm friend to Ferdinando Georges, and in resisting the administration of Massachusetts may have acted conscientiously. He certainly held the confidence of some of his contemporaries or he would not have been selected to fill important positions of trust. His grant of land to the town for the minister, in 1683, shows him to be capable of generosity. At the division of the patent he was invested with a large estate. The fol- lowing, tradition says, was inscribed upon his tombstone :

"Here lies Bonython, Sagamoro of Saco;

He lived a rogue and died a knave and went to Hobomoko."

James Gibbins was a man of wealth and much influence among the Saco pioneers. His name is of frequent occurrence on the records until 1683, in which year he gave the town sixteen acres of land for the minister. He mar- ried Judith, daughter of Thomas Lewis, purchased the shares of his brother- in-law in the patent and, jointly with his wife, became possessed of extensive lands. He removed to Kittery latterly, but is heard from in 1690, when he conveyed to his daughter one hundred acres of land in that town. Children as follows :

I. JAMES, b. May 19, 1648; m. Dorcas Gilley, December, 1668.

2. ELIZABETH, b. April 23, 1652 ; m. John Sharp, 1667.

3. THOMAS, b. Nov. 23, 1654.

4. CHARITY, b. Jan. 5, 1656.

5. REBECCA, b. Jan. 30, 1658; d. Jan. 3, 1659.

6. RACHEL, b. Oct. 23, 1660; m. Robert Edgecomb.

7. HESTER, b. Aug. 16, 1664.

8. ANTHONY, b. Oct. 14, 1666.

Richard Foxwell married Winnefred, a daughter of Captain Bonython. He says (1640) that his father-in-law settled him on a part of his estate and gave him as much freedom "for planting, fishing, fowling, and the like" as by virtue of his patent he could. But he was left on the Scarborough side of the town line. He was only once known to have been disturbed about his lands. John Bonython, his brother-in-law, pretended to have a claim on the estate and pulled down one of Foxwell's buildings. The latter appealed to the court, and the judges sustained his title and threw costs upon the aggressor. Mr. Foxwell was an enthusiastic and successful farmer, who had one of the most valuable plantations in the colony. Though not aspiring to worldly honors he served as a member of the "General Assembly of Lygonia" in 1648; also as a commissioner and "clerk of the writs." He visited England before 1633, but came back that year. He died in 1676, aged 76. Children named as followeth :

PLANTATION AND TOWNSHIP SETTLEMENTS.

1. Joux, m. Elizabeth Cummings and had issue.

2. RICHARD, d. in 1664.

3. Pintar, selectman in Scarborough, 1681; d. in Kittery in 1690.

4. ESTHER, wife of Thomas Rogers, m. 1657.

5. LUCRETIA, m. James Robinson: settled in Newcastle, N. Il., about 1676.

6. SUSANNA, m. John Ashton of Marblehead.

7. SARAH, m. Joseph Curtis, Esq., of Kittery.

8. MARY, m. George Norton of York.

Thomas Rogers was an inhabitant as early as 1638. He married Esther Foxwell in 1657. His house and plantation were at Goosefair, near the sea and the middle line of the patent. The early explorers of the coast mention his cultivated land as the " Rogers Garden." He planted fruit trees and grape vines and was probably "a gardener bred." From the remains of his orchard the new town and famous watering place derived its name. Some of the trees were standing in 1770. The Indians made an attack on his house and after a severe struggle, in which some of them were slain, they withdrew. Mr. Rogers immediately moved to Kittery with his family, and having left some goods in his house at Goosefair his son and others went to remove them, when they were all killed by Indians, who then proceeded to burn the dwelling. The bodies of the slain were found upon the seashore and buried near the house lot. Thomas Rogers did not return to his plantation, but died in Kit- tery, leaving two sons. The inventory of his estate as found in York county records, taken by Richard Foxwell and John West, follows:

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Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 12

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Portland, Me., The author Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Portland, Me., The author
Number of Pages: 1424