USA > Maine > Supplements to history of the State of Maine > Part 3
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Robert Jordan, a young episcopal clergyman, emigrated from the west of England, in 1640, and settled at Spurwink. He was, without doubt, a man of talents and considerable learning. In a short time, he married at that place, Sarah, the only daughter of John Winter; in the settlement of whose estate, about the years, 1647 and 8, he became the proprietor of a large landed estate. Both his religious and political sentiments, made him a great friend to the interests of Gorges; and of course, as great a foe to Massachusetts. But he manifested no great opposition to
* Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, had three sons, Thomas, Elisha and William Sandford, who were graduated at Harvard College, 1758, 1762, and 1770-See Farmer's Genealogies.
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the claim of Col. Rigby; and therefore, after it was decided, in March, 1647, that the Plough Patent in Lygonia belonged to him, and an administration of government was about to be formed by Mr. Cleaves, Jordan was appointed one of his Assist- ants, or a member of his Council; and continued to hold the place, till the termination of Rigby's jurisdictional claim. Yet even at that time, especially in 1653-4, when Massachusetts asserted her right by Charter to embrace Lygonia, within her jurisdiction; his resistance of her claim was so violent, as to render him obnoxious to prosecution; and several presentments were threatened against him. Unrestrained and unawed, how- ever, by these measures, he was finally arrested in 1657, and carried to Boston for trial; where he barely escaped penance, by a wise and timely submission. Though he afterwards, in 1659, and two following years, was elected to the office of an Associate, in the County-court; his obstinacy was by no means subdued; for in 1664-5, he accepted commissions of the peace, both from John Archdale and the king's commissioners, and exerted himself to maintain the new-established authorities against Massachusetts. To such a height was his oppostion carried, when she resumed the jurisdiction of Maine, in 1668, that the Grand-jury of Yorkshire Court, in that year, returned several indictments against him for breaches of his allegiance and contempts of her authority. Beside these difficulties, he hardly escaped, in 1675, the savage tommahawk; his dwelling- house being laid in ashes, by the Indians, soon after he left it. He first removed to Great Island, now Newcastle, at the mouth of the Piscataqua, and thence to Portsmouth, where he died, in 1678, aged 68 years. Though he retained his mental faculties to the last, he lost so entirely the use of his hands in the latter part of his life, that he became wholly unable to write. He sustained a fair moral character; was strongly attached to the Episcopal liturgy; and for thirty years, he occasionally delivered religious discourses, and administered the christian ordinances, according to the rites of his sacerdotal order. Still he was evi- dently much better fitted and qualified for secular business than for the ministry-a man rather austere than courtly-rather re- spected than beloved. To his wife and six surviving sons, he left a large real estate, which was situated in Spurwink, Purpoodic and Scarborough. His son, Dominicus, who married Ralph Tristram's daughter, of Saco, lived in a garrison-house, on the old estate at Spurwink. At a time in the 2d Indian war, when it was furiously besieged, a savage bawled out, you no 'scape,
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Dominicus, here be ten hundred Indian :- I don't care, said he, if there be ten thousand. Afterwards, when danger was little apprehended, a large party entered his house, and as one began to talk, another buried his hatchet in Jordan's head, and ex- claimed, there, Dominicus, now kill 'em ten thousand Indian. He being thus dispatched, his family were carried captives to Canada. A young daughter, Mary Ann, whom her master re- named Arabella, married a Frenchman at Trois Revieres, and never returned. Her brother Dominicus, when 13 years of age, escaped from captivity, and lived till 1749. Rishworth and Samuel Jordan, were from the same stock.
Henry Joscelyn came over about the year 1634, in the inter- est of Capt. John Mason, with an intent to settle at Piscataqua. But being thwarted in his expectations, by that gentleman's death, he proceeded next year to Scarboro', and took up his abode at Black-point. At the same time, he was appointed by William Gorges, one of his Assistants; and in 1639-40, he was honored by Sir Ferdinando, with a seat at the board of his Charter-council. So good was his standing, that on the de- parture of Mr. Vines, in 1645, he was Deputy-governor the remainder of the year. He was an opponent of Col. Rigby; yet when he found Lygonia was assigned to him and himself within its limits, he accepted the office of Assistant under Mr. Cleaves; and in another change, when Scarboro' submitted to Massa- chusetts in 1658, he was chosen an Associate, and in 1660, was returned by that town and Falmouth, a Deputy to the Gen. Court at Boston. Still, as often as occasion occurred, he es- poused the provincial rights of Gorges; and therefore, at the time the king's Commissioners undertook to establish a form of government for Maine and Sagadahock, in 1665, he accepted the office of Senior Justice, for both provinces. But so great after this was his variance with Massachusetts, that on her resuming the government of Maine, in 1668, he retired in dis- gust to Pemaquid. Here he resided till the first Indian war, in 1675, when he removed to Plymouth, where he passed the last days of his life. He left one son, of the same christian name, who was afterwards the father of 13 children. Mr. Joscelyn, whose wife was the relict of Capt. Cammock, removed to Prout's Neck in Scarboro', after the marriage, and resided there 25 years before his removal to Pemaquid. Sometime prior to his leaving Prout's Neck, he being embarrassed, assigned his estate to Joshua Scottow of Boston, in discharge of his debts.
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Mr. Joscelyn manifestly lived in troublous times,-a man en- titled to far more respect than his adversaries were willing to allow him. His brother, John Joscelyn, resided with him at Prout's Neck, the greater part of a year; and during that time, he collected many valuable facts, which appear in the narrative of his "Voyages," afterwards published.
Christopher Lawson, born 1616, was one among others, who considered himself persecuted by the government of Massa- chusetts. Therefore he left Exeter, N. H. with Rev. John Wheel- wright, in 1643, and after a short stay at Wells, proceeded to Sagadahock. Pleased with the situation of the lands northward of Woolwich, he purchased of the Indians, 1649, a large tract in that vicinity, a part of which he assigned in 1653, to Thomas Clark and Biby Lake. Major Clark was a man of great enter- prize and of so much note as to be appointed one of the com- missioners to establish Devonshire, in 1674. Capt. Thomas Lake was killed at Arrowsick by the Indians, in August, 1676. In respect to Lawson, his hostility to Massachusetts, and her pretended eastern claims, rather increased than abated; and he hesitated not to pronounce her a persecutor and usurper. Hence, he was arrested and tried, in 1669, on a charge of contempt for her courts and authority, and sentenced to set an hour in the stocks.
Richard Leader, a resident freeholder at Newichawannock, in possession of Capt. John Mason's lands, was so highly esteemed by the people as to receive six elections into the board of Assistants under Gov. Godfrey's administration, anterior to its termination in 1652; yet no mention of him is made afterwards. Probably his opposition to Massachusetts at that time, might have cost him the loss of her favor and his own popularity.
Thomas Lewis, co-proprietor with Richard Bonighton, of the ancient patent on the eastern side of the river Saco, came into the country before 1630 and settled at Winter-harbor. He died in 1638; and Francis Robinson was the executor of his will. He was one of William Gorges' Council and much esteemed for his virtues. His daughter married James Gibbins, who removed from Saco to Kittery in 1642, where he died in 1683.
Michael Mitten [Mitton] came over probably with Mr. Cleaves, when he returned from England, in 1637; and settled on Casco-neck. His wife was Cleaves' only child, and his chil- dren were daughters, the wives of Anthony and Thomas Brack- et, Thaddeus Clark and James Andrews. His character for
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honor and chastity bears indelible stains; for he seduced, in his own house, Richard Martin's daughter, who was entrusted to his protection; and who after retiring to Boston, endeavored to secrete her shame by taking her infant's life,-a crime for which she, in 1647, died on the scaffold.
Arthur Macworth settled in 1632, on the eastern side of Pre- sumpscot-river, and southerly of the Clapboard Islands, at a place since called, "Mackey's point." His wife was the relict of Samuel Andrews, whose daughter married Francis Neal of Falmouth. He was an Assistant, or Magistrate, in, 1645, under the administration of Governor Vines ;- having ten years previ- ously, received from him a deed of his lands, and been himself, to some extent, an agent of Sir Ferdinando. He was opposed to Col. Rigby; and consequently Cleaves would not admit him into his council. He died in 1657.
Nicholas Manning probably resided at Damariscotta. In 1688, when Sir Edmund Andros, assumed the exercise of gov- ernment, over the duke's province of Sagadahock, he appointed Manning presiding sole magistrate or senior justice within the ducal jurisdiction, provided Henry Joscelyn was not present. Mr. Manning was moreover directed to lay out or survey a road from Pemaquid, through New-Dartmouth to Kennebec. But a second Indian war soon terminated all his official services, and occasioned his withdrawal to a place of more safety.
Rev. Samuel Moody was born at Newbury, January 4, 1676, graduated at Harvard in 1697, and settled in the ministry at York in December, 1700 .- His grandfather, William, emigrated from Wales to Newbury as early as 1634, and had three sons, Joshua, Samuel, and Caleb. Joshua, born in England, was the first minister of Portsmouth; and Caleb's son, Samuel, first above mentioned, was the second ordained minister of York. Rev. Joseph Moody, his son, settled in 1732, over the 2d Church in York, was the father of the celebrated master Samuel Moody, who was 30 years preceptor of Dummer Academy. The pious minister of York died in 1747-the epitaph on whose grave-stone is in these words ;- "Here lies the body of the Rev. Samuel Moody, A. M. "the zealous, faithful and successful pastor of the first Church of "Christ in York."-[See, in Doct. Allen's Biog. Dict. well written notices of Rev. Messrs. Joshua and Samuel Moody.]
George Mountjoy, ("or Munjoy,") born in 1626, was the son of John Mountjoy, an emigrant from Abbotsham, in Devon-
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shire, England. George removed from Boston to Falmouth, in 1659, and located his dwellinghouse on the north-easterly part of Casco-neck, below the burying-place; though he owned the high-grounds above it, called "Mountjoy's Hill." He is reputed to have been a man of critical observation and correct habits, of undisputed enterprize, considerable education and some wealth. He was one of the most celebrated surveyors of lands and draftsmen in his time. In 1664, he was a County-associate under Massachusetts; and yet he was appointed, the next year, by the king's Commissioners, one of their Justices for Maine. At his death, in 1680, he left several children, and a wife, who was the daughter of John Phillips, Boston.
Walter and Francis Neale, [or Neal] came early into this country, from England; and though they are of the same sur- name, they are not known to be kindred. Walter arrived at Piscataqua, in the spring of 1630, the commissioned agent of both Gorges and Mason, in all their plantation affairs; and the next year, we find, he "was styled the Governor of Piscataqua." He made territorial grants in Kittery as well as in Portsmouth, and put Mr. Bradshaw in possession of a large tract at Spur- wink, granted by the Plymouth Council,-afterwards purchased by Richard Tucker, the first settler. He left for England, in August, 1633 .- Francis Neale, resided on the easterly side of the Presumpscot, in Falmouth, as early as 1658. He was town- commissioner several years; one of John Archdale's Justices in 1664; an associate under Massachusetts, in 1668, and the two following years; and in 1670, deputy of his town to the General Court at Boston.
John Oldham arrived at Plymouth, in July, 1623, with a fam- ily of ten persons and resided successively at that place, at Hull and at Cape Anne, and finally settled at Watertown. Revisiting England, he was induced to unite with Richard Vines, in 1630, and take a joint patent of lands on the western side of the Saco. For reasons unexplained, he never resided upon it, but resigned it entirely to his co-proprietor. In his trade with the Indians, which was extensive, he in some way so affronted them that the Pequods, in 1636 killed him, at Block Island, southerly of New- port-a murder, which with other wrongs of theirs, occasioned a war, and the overthrow of the tribe.
John Parker, was the earliest permanent settler on the Island Erascohegan, since called by his name, lying in the mouth of the
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river Sagadahock. He dwelt upon it, during the winter 1629-30, and purchased it of a Sagamore, in 1643. When a government was instituted at Kennebec, in 1654, by Thomas Prince, under authority from Plymouth-colony; Mr. Parker, desirous of estab- lished order and protection, took the oath of allegiance, though doubting, if her jurisdiction extended so far as to embrace his Island. He died before the first Indian war; and his descendants have held the lands under the ancestral purchase of the Natives.
Bryan Pendleton, born 1599, came over to New-England early, and settled in Watertown, prior to 1634; which he repre- sented in the General Court, six years before 1648. In the mean-time, he was a member of the ancient Artillery company in Boston, and captain of the Militia. He removed to Ports- mouth about the year 1650-1; and in 1652, he was one of the Massachusetts commissioners appointed to take the submission of Maine. While residing at Portsmouth, he was engaged in commerce and acquired a considerable estate; and also repre- sented that town in the General Court at Boston, 5 years. In 1658, he purchased 200 acres of land at the Neck, near Winter Harbor in Saco, and settled upon it, in 1665. His political and military knowledge with good natural abilities, immediately gave him great weight of character among his new acquaint- ances; and therefore, in 1667, "under the "government of the king's commissioners, he was elected a burgess, "to attend the General Court of the Province." The same year, under the new governmental order of affairs, he and two others were chosen by the town, "the judges of small causes under ten pounds." Nevertheless being always well affected towards Massachusetts, especially when her commissioners resumed the government of Maine, he was appointed by them one of the associates and Sergeant-major of the military, that is, Major-commandant of the Yorkshire Militia. He was also one of the county-associates for several years. However, for the sake of more safety, he lived in Portsmouth, during the first Indian war; and after- wards, on his return to Saco, he appears to have been one of the most distinguished men in the Province. For under the administration of President Danforth, he was appointed, in 1680, senior member of his Council and Deputy-president,- offices holden by him at the time of his death, which occurred the following year. He left two children, James, who removed from Portsmouth to Stonington, Connecticut, about the time of his father's death, and was the father of four sons and one daughter. She married, in 1665, Rev. Seth Fletcher, then the
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minister of Wells, who was in six or seven years afterwards, reinstalled at Saco. Their only child was Pendleton Fletcher, whom his grandfather adopted, about 1670, when 13 or 14 years old; giving him a large estate, of which he took possession on coming of lawful age. What rendered him distinguished was his misfortunes; for he was taken captive four times by the Indians; when he died in 1747, he left six sons, whose descend- ants are spread over the country.
William Pepperell, a native of Cornwall, England, emigrated to the Isles of Shoals, in 1676, where he lived upwards of 20 years, and carried on a large fishery. Next he removed to Kit- tery-point, where he became a worthy merchant and a distin- guished magistrate, and where he died in 1734 .- He left one son, born in 1696, afterwards SIR WILLIAM PEPPERELL,-the most famous man Maine ever produced. He was a member of the Province-council 32 years, a Lieutenant-general, and in re- ward for his brilliant services, merits and successes in the cap- ture of Louisburg, in 1745, the king ennobled him with the title and dignity of BARONET of Great Britain,-an honor never before nor since conferred on a native of New-England. He died at his seat in Kittery, July 6, 1759, aged 63 years .- [See biographical sketches of him in the Biog. Dic. of Doct. Allen and Doct. Elliot.] He had two children, namely, a son, An- drew, who graduated at Harvard College 1743, and died March 1, 1751, aged 26 years; and Elizabeth, his only daugh- ter, born 1723, who married Col. Nathaniel Sparhawk, of Kittery* and who survived her father. To their second son, William Pepperell Sparhawk, Sir William devised his great estate and 'titled dignity' upon condition-he renounced and dropped his surname, on or before arriving at lawful age. Such a compliance probably cost him no great effort; and accordingly we find at the head of the Harvard Catalogue of graduates, in 1766, "William Pepperell, Mr. "Baronettus". He settled in Boston; was a man of eminence, one of the Mandamus Council, and consequently a noted loyalist in the Revolution .- He aban- doned his spacious mansion house there when the enemy left
* Col. Sparhawk, whose ancestors lived in Cambridge, is of the 4th generation; his father, John Sparhawk, minister of Bristol, graduated at Harvard College, 1689, left two sons, John, minister of Salem, and the Col. who was a Councillor and Judge of the Common Pleas in York County. He had three sons graduated at Harvard College, viz. Nathaniel, in 1765, (Sir) William, 1766, and Samuel, 1771.
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the town; which was occupied for a period by Major General Heath, and afterwards in 1778, confiscated. He died in Lon- don, Dec. 17, 1816, when the title probably became extinct.
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William Phillips, a distinguished man in Maine, removed from Boston to Saco, in 1660. His wife was the relict of John Sandford, Secretary of Rhode-Island, whose son, Peleg, was the Governor of that Colony, and whose elder daughter married Elisha Hutchinson of Boston. The children of Mr. Phillips, after marriage with Mrs. Sandford, were three sons and five daughters. He soon became, it seems, a great landholder in the county of York; for it is found that all the unsold 'patented' lands of Richard Vines, situate on the southern side of the Saco, were conveyed by him in 1645, to Robert Childs; by him in 1647, to John Beex and Company, in London, great traders to New-England; and by them in 1656 and 9, for £90, to Mr. Phillips; and the General Court, in 1660, quieted all the settlers under Vines, upon the 'patent' territory. Phillips purchased like- wise of Sagamore Fluellen, in 1661, the territory between Mousum and Little Ossipee rivers, embracing most of the pres- ent Sandford, Alfred and Waterborough; and in 1664, he pro- cured from Sagamore Mogg Hegone a quit-claim of all the lands between the Saco and the Kennebunk rivers, extending from the seacoast to a line parallel therewith, which was to run from Salmon Falls in the Saco to the Kennebunk. This included the above 'patented' purchase. He also made in the same year, two other purchases, one of Hobinowell and the other of Cap- tain Sundy, embracing the upper part of the present Hollis and the most of Limington. Still it was his good sense and his merits, more than his wealth, that gave him rank and influence. Amidst all the political changes of his time, he was highly es- teemed by all parties, and much in office. Within two years after he settled in the Province, he was elected one of the county- associates; and was likewise "legally chosen by the major part of the "freemen and fidelity-men of this county, to exercise the place of "Sergeant-major, [or commandant of the Yorkshire Regiment] "for the year ensuing, and his oath was given him at this Court, "holden at Wells, September 29, 1663." Though he was then under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts; he, through an honest conviction of Gorges' rights, espoused his cause with spirit and perseverance, whenever the justice of counter claims was under discussion; and therefore at the time the king's com- missioners undertook to new-model the government, in 1665,
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he accepted from them the office of magistrate and was reap- pointed commander of the regiment. But this course of conduct, while it deducted largely from his great popularity, gave so much umbrage to Massachusetts, that when she resumed the government, in 1668, she treated him with entire neglect; ap- pointing in his stead, Bryan Pendleton, to the command of the Yorkshire regiment. Inclined at length to dispose of his real estate, he sold, before the year 1670, to Richard Hutchinson 1,000 acres; to Edward Tyng, 1,500; to Richard Russel, 2,000 acres; and three square miles, to Lieutenant-Governor Leverett. In October, 1675, his dwellinghouse was laid in ashes by the savages; after which event, he removed to Boston. The next year, he made partition of his eastern estate, among his own children, and those of his wife by a former husband, Elisha Hutchinson's wife having one share, as previously mentioned. He died in 1683, having devised the residue of his valuable property to his wife and three sons, Nathaniel, Samuel, and William. Nor ought the fact to be passed unnoticed, that when Gorges assigned Maine to Massachusetts, May 6, 1677, he made a special reservation of all the grants made by William* Phillips.
Walter Phillips was an early settler on the south-westerly side of the Damariscotta, in New-Dartmouth, [Newcastle,] a little southerly of the Lower Falls; where, in 1661 and 2, and in 1674, he purchased large tracts of the Sagamores. He appears to have been a sensible man, worthy of public confidence, and acquainted with penmanship; for when the king's commission- ers, in 1665, held a session at the home of John Mason, on Great Neck, easterly of the Sheepscot, for the purpose of estab- lishing a government within the Duke's province of Sagadahock, they appointed Phillips, clerk, and county-recorder. He was faithful to his trust, and registered many deeds and other valu- able papers; so that the "SHEEPSCOTT RECORDS," kept by him, were, till burnt with the Boston Courthouse, in 1748, often both examined and mentioned, as documentary evidence of land-titles and facts. He retired from the Province, when the second Indian war commenced, about 1688, and afterwards re- sided in Salem, some 15 or 16 years. In 1702, he conveyed his eastern estate to Christopher Tappan of Newbury, and hence the "Tappan Right," subsequently the occasion of so much altercation and controversy.
* Called in the assignment, "Nathaniel," by a mistake of the name.
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Roger Plaisted, early settled at Berwick, the north precinct of Kittery; being one of the most excellent public-spirited men in his time. In 1663, and three other years, he represented Kittery in the General Court, at Boston, and two years he was an Asso- ciate. But his life was not a long one; for as early in the first Indian war, as October, 1675, he being only 48 years of age, and also two of his sons, all men of Spartan valor, were slain in a battle with the savage enemy; he being at the time com- mander of the military company and of the garrison, in that place.
Abraham Preble removed from Scituate to Agamenticus in 1642, and the same year purchased of Edward Godfrey, a tract of land upon which he settled. He was one of the Council or Magistracy, under Sir Ferdinando's Charter, from 1645, to the time when the province was adopted, or subjugated by Massa- chusetts, in 1652. Immediately, and for several years, he was one of the Associates, and in 1660, he was appointed County- treasurer. He died in 1663, in the height of public esteem. His son, Abraham, who died in 1723, in his 50th year, was a dis- tinguished man :- has grandson was the famous Brigadier Preble of Falmouth; and his great-grandson was Commodore Edward Preble.
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