USA > Maine > The beginnings of colonial Maine, 1602-1658 > Part 23
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The precise location selected by Purchase for his settlement can only be conjectured. Among the Pejepscot papers in the posses- sion of the Maine Historical Society are many depositions in which there are references to Purchase's residence at Pejepscot ; but these depositions were made by persons who reported from memory what they had heard in their earlier years from aged resi- dents at Pejepscot. Some of these old people testified in these depositions that according to common report, as received by them, Thomas Purchase lived at the Ten Mile Falls (Lisbon Falls), and some said they had seen a cellar and an old chimney that were pointed out to them as the ruins of Purchase's house. Others testified they had heard from their parents and other old people that Purchase lived at the head of New Meadows river, at a place since known as "Stevens' carrying place". Still others main- tained that from information they had received, Purchase resided at Pejepscot Falls, now Brunswick. It is possible that he changed his residence several times and hence these differing statements. Indeed such seems to have been the fact. Good authorities, however, are of the opinion that Purchase made his earliest resi-
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dence near the Pejepscot Falls. In favor of this view it is said that early after coming to Pejepscot-the territory in which he made his settlement-Purchase was engaged in the salmon fishery, which of course was carried on at the falls, and the inference fairly follows that his residence was not far away. The opinion is still further strengthened by the fact that the location was carefully selected by Purchase. In establishing himself at the falls he secured the Indian trade of the Androscoggin in the same way as the Pilgrims of Plymouth, in erecting their trading house at Cushenoc, now Augusta, secured the Indian trade of the Ken- nebec.
Having made this careful selection of a location for his settle- ment, Purchase seems to have allowed some time to pass before entering upon negotiations for the purpose of obtaining legal pos- session of the territory. The records of the council for New Eng- land for June 16, 1632, make mention of a grant by the council to George Way and Thomas Purchase of "certain lands in New England called the river Bishopscotte [Pejepscot] and all that bounds and limits the main land adjoining the river to the extent of two miles, from the said river northward four miles, and from the house there to the ocean".1
There is no evidence that George Way, who lived in Dorchester, England, when the patent was issued, settled at any time on the territory thus secured. His widow and sons are known to have resided at a later period at Hartford, Connecticut.2 In all proba- bility the grant was obtained by George Way at the request of Thomas Purchase, and his half interest in it was doubtless secured because of his services. The original patent was never in Pur- chase's possession, so far as is now known. It is said to have
1 Sainsbury's Calendar of State Papers, I, 152. Mention of the grant is found in Edward Godfrey's "Cattalogue", a list of twenty patents for plan- tations in New England, the manuscript of which is preserved in the Public Records Office in London. Calendar of State Papers, I, 35. Frequent ref- erences to it are also found in the Pejepscot papers, and in conveyances recorded at York in the colonial period.
2 Wheeler, History of Brunswick, etc., 812.
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been entrusted to Francis Ashley,1 and no later reference to its location has come down to us. Purchase had a copy of the patent, but that is said to have been destroyed in the burning of the first house he erected. He then built, it is supposed, "a small cottage for a present shelter", which at length was replaced by a "fair stone house", in which Purchase had his home during his subsequent residence at Pejepscot.2
As has been already suggested, Purchase had excellent oppor- tunities for traffic with the Indians. Their furs and peltry were exchanged for trinkets of various kinds and such articles and implements of English manufacture as were coveted by the natives. But Purchase's business relations were increased by his fishing interests, which included the taking of salmon and sturgeon, and the preparation of the same for exportation to London. These various enterprises required the services of helpers; and in this and other ways Purchase soon gathered around him quite a num- ber of settlers, who had landed upon the coast of Maine with other emigrants now making their way hither in increasing numbers. In a short time, therefore, through his business relations and otherwise, Purchase became well known in the province and was recognized as one of its prominent men.3
July 3, 1637, not long after Cleeve and Tucker received their grant of land at Machegonne, Sir Ferdinando Gorges granted to Sir Richard Edgecomb,4 his friend and neighbor at Mount Edge-
1 Maine Hist. Society's Coll., Series I, 3, 330.
2 Wheeler, History of Brunswick, etc., 793.
3 Williamson (History of Maine, I, 690) says Purchase "was one of those flexible patriots who could accommodate his politics to the changes of the times". Wheeler (History of Brunswick, 796) calls this "rather a harsh judgment", and adds that while it is not to be denied that Purchase held office "under different and opposing governments", yet it is to be remem- bered that this is true of Robert Jordan, Henry Josselyn and Edward Rish- worth, against whom no such reflection is brought.
4 Sir Richard Edgecomb, like Gorges, was one of the charter members of the council for New England. Mount Edgecomb, overlooking the entrance to the harbor of Plymouth, England, is the most attractive place in the neighborhood of Plymouth to-day.
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comb, Plymouth, eight thousand acres of land lying between the river Sagadahoc and Casco bay. Sullivan1 makes mention of the grant, but it is not included in the Farnham Papers, no copy probably having been found. That such a grant was made, how- ever, cannot now be doubted. Sir Richard Edgecomb died March 28, 1638, and so was unable to carry out any plans he may have formed with reference to this grant. But in 1718, John Edge- comb,2 who is described by Sullivan as living in the District of Maine, and "one of the family of Mount Edgecomb in Great Britain", entered in the book of claims in the Province of Massa- chusetts Bay a claim for the grant in behalf of the heirs of Sir Richard Edgecomb. The matter received no further attention until 1756, when Lord Edgecomb, of Mount Edgecomb, author- ized Sir William Pepperrell to take charge of the matter for him. On account of Sir William's death, which occurred not long after, little if anything was done by him ; but in 1768, Lord Edge- comb secured the services of Nathaniel Sparhawk, Pepperrell's
1 History of the District of Maine, 125.
2 Baxter (Trelawny Papers, 328) calls John Edgecomb "the supposed grandson of Nicholas Edgecomb", who was in Trelawny's employ at Rich- mond's island. Concerning the relation of John Edgecomb and other heirs of Nicholas Edgecomb to the Edgecombs of Mount Edgecomb, Sullivan makes the statement that "it is said that they were a branch of Sir Richard's family" (126). On the next page, however, he adds, "The Edgcombs who have been mentioned were no doubt of the younger branches of Sir Richard's family, and were sent over to possess the territory, which was then in the possession of Dr. Smith and others, under a grant from the council of Plymouth" (127). Mr. Baxter, while doubtful of the success of the effort to connect Nicholas Edgecomb with the Edgecombs of Mount Edgecomb, says, "though he had not the rank he was a man for a' that". Nicholas Edgcomb married Wilmot Randall, who was in the service of Mrs. Winter at Richmond's island. In an account rendered by John Winter to Robert Tre- lawny, in 1641, occurs the entry, "Received from Nicholas Edgecomb for yielding up of the maid Wilmot's time, which he married before her time was out, 5{". After his marriage Nicholas Edgecomb leased a farm of Cap- tain Bonython at Blue Point. In 1660, he removed with his wife and six children to Saco. The posterity of the Edgecombs "is there now", wrote Sullivan, when he published his History of the District of Maine. See Mr. Baxter's note on Nicholas Edgecomb, Trelawny Papers, 327, 328.
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son-in-law, who, in reviving the claim of the Edgecomb heirs, was directed to claim eight thousand acres of land on the Kennebec river. The original grant seems to have been in Sparhawk's hands. An additional description of the grant in the book of claims was more specific than that in the original grant, as the eight thousand acres were there recorded as "near the lake of New Somerset, fifteen miles from Casco bay"; but Lord Edge- comb's counsel "endeavored to fix it on a grant fifteen miles from the sea on the west side of the river Kennebec, and adjoining to Merrymeeting bay, calling that the lake of New Somerset".1 As this claim conflicted with that of other claimants to land on the Kennebec, litigation followed in which Lord Edgecomb lost his case.
The Indian trade of the Plymouth colonists on the Kennebec had been so profitable that at the close of 1633, Bradford recorded with gratitude the fact that the sale of beaver sent to England by the Pilgrims during the year- "thirty-three hundred and sixty- six pounds weight and much of it coat beaver, which yielded twenty shillings per pound, and some of it above"-had enabled them to pay all their debts in England, and so to relieve them- selves of a burden that had long weighed heavily upon them.
But early in the next year, in returning to his record of affairs connected with the Pilgrim trading house on the Kennebec, Brad- ford mentioned 2 "one of the saddest things" that had befallen the Pilgrims since the commencement of their enterprise on that river. One John Hocking, who lived at Piscataqua, agent for Lords Say and Brooke and other Englishmen interested in the settlement
1 Sullivan, History of the District of Maine, 126. In a note (127) Sullivan adds : "There is no doubt but that Gorges and Edgecomb intended the lands contained in the grant to be on the west side of Saco river, which was then called Sagadahock". The Sagadahoc was the eastern boundary of the Province of Maine, or New Somersetshire, and so well known to Gorges, that to think of him as confounding two such important rivers within the limits of his territory as the Sagadahoc and the Saco is impossible.
2 Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation, Mass. Hist. Soc., Ed. 1912, II, 174-189.
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there, made his way to the Kennebec, purposing to proceed in his vessel up the river beyond the Pilgrims' house at Cushenoc, and so to secure trade with the Indians that otherwise would fall into the hands of the Plymouth men. John Howland, who was in com- mand of the trading house, protested against this effort on the part of Hocking, insisting that it was an infringement of rights secured to the Pilgrims by their patent from the council for New England. The appeal was to that clause in the grant which authorized Bradford and his associates "to take, apprehend, seize and make prize of all such persons, their ships and goods, as shall attempt to inhabit or trade with the savage people of that country within the several precincts and limits of his and their several plantations".1 But Hocking refused to heed the protest made by Howland. As Bradford records his language, he said he "would go up and trade there in despite of them", and he would stay there "as long as he pleased". In the effort to make good his
words, Hocking sailed past the Pilgrim post and anchored. Howland then again went to Hocking, and having called his attention to this violation of the Pilgrim rights as received in their patent, he urged him to take his vessel down the river ; but Hock- ing still refused. Howland "could get nothing of him but ill words". Accordingly he proceeded to action. Instructing his men not to fire their guns upon any provocation, he sent two of them to cut the cable of Hocking's vessel. This they succeeded in doing, and as the vessel started down the river, Hocking seized a musket and killed one of the Plymouth men, Moses Tal- bot. His companion, in the canoe, who loved him well Brad- ford says, could not restrain himself; and levelling his musket at Hocking he shot him in retaliation. The vessel continued on its course down the river, and Hocking's men, on their return to the Piscataqua, carried the tidings of the affair thither.
The report in due time reached Lords Say and Brooke in Eng- land. In it the fact was withheld that Hocking had killed one of the Plymouth men; and the same version of the affair, either
1 Farnham Papers, I, 115.
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from the Piscataqua or from England, was carried to the colonists of Massachusetts bay. When, not long after, the Plymouth col- onists sent their vessel to Boston, the authorities there arrested John Alden, who, though not a participant in the affair, was at the Kennebec trading house when Hocking was killed. The Pilgrims regarded Alden's arrest as an unfriendly proceeding on the part of the Massachusetts officials, and sent Captain Miles Standish to Boston with letters from Bradford and others to secure Alden's release. This was effected, but at the same time Captain Standish was put under bonds to appear at the next court, June 3, 1634, with a certified copy of the patent, showing the rights of the Plymouth colonists on the Kennebec. At this meeting of the court, the Massachusetts bay authorities made it evident that they did not wish to give offence to their Plymouth neighbors, while equally they made it evident that they desired to disavow How- land's action, "which", as Winthrop recorded, "was feared would give occasion to the king to send a general governor over".1 In a private letter, Governor Dudley counselled patience on the part of the Plymouth authorities. After awhile Mr. Winthrop sug- gested a conference in which the Plymouth colonists, the colonists at the Piscataqua, and those of Massachusetts bay should be requested "to consult and determine in this matter, so as the par- ties meeting might have full power to order and bind, etc., and that nothing should be done to the infringing or prejudice of the liberties of any place".2 Such a conference was held in Boston, but only the Plymouth and Massachusetts bay colonists were rep- resented. The matter, however, was fully discussed with the result that while "they all wished these things had never been, yet they could not but lay the blame and guilt on Hocking's own head". At the same time "grave and godly exhortations" were made to the Plymouth men, which they "embraced with love and thank- fulness, promising to endeavor to follow the same"; 3 and with
1 Winthrop, Journal, I, 124.
2 Bradford, Mass. Hist. Soc., Ed. 1912, II, 187.
8 Ib. II, 188.
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this, further agitation of the matter ceased. Mr. Winslow was sent to England not long after in order to see that no harm should come to the colony in consequence of the affair; but he found that agitation had ceased there also.
Of settlers on the lower Kennebec at this time there is little information ; but Sullivan is doubtless quite right in saying that from the year 1626 to the year 1660, there were inhabitants, traders and settlers on the river.1 But the number was not large. As late as 1670, according to Sullivan,2 there were only twenty families on the west side and thirty on the east 'side. Few favor- able locations were reached in the lower parts of the river, and on other accounts settlers were not generally inclined to make their homes far away from the seacoast.
The broad opening of the Sheepscot, however, proved more inviting to settlers than the comparatively narrow entrance to the Kennebec; and as the arrivals on the coast increased in number in the third decade of the century, those seeking an attractive location for settlement could not fail to make their way up the Sheepscot into Wiscasset bay and farther on to what has come to be known as the Sheepscot Farms. Here was the site of a pros- perous community in that early period of our colonial history. Strangely, however, no record has preserved to us even the names of those who first made their homes on these fertile lands. The only record that reminds us of their dwelling here is found in the remains of a large number of well-defined cellars, still plainly visible to those who seek for them. Two fortifications, also, known as Fort Anne and Garrison Hill-the former believed to be the fort of the first occupancy of the Farms, the latter with stock- ade lines of great extent-provided for the protection of the set- tlers; and though time has obliterated timberwork, and in a measure earthworks, yet enough is left to mark the places to
1 History of the District of Maine, 170.
2 The statement is based on a report of the English settlements on the coast east of Kennebec, along the seacoast to Matinicus, "some 70 and some 40 years ago", made by Captain Sylvanus Davis in 1701. Sullivan, 170, 391.
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which the settlers could repair in time of need for common defence.1
Proceeding now still farther eastward we have equal difficulty in attempting to ascertain the number of settlers along the coast, and in the country back from the coast. The report made by Captain Sylvanus Davis in 1701, and on which Sullivan relied in his estimate of the population, includes the settlements on the eastern side of the Kennebec and eastward as far as the St. George's river ; but from it no information is received that enables us to ascertain the number of settlers found in these places in 1630, and the number found in 1660. The report, therefore, is not a satisfactory one, as there is no means of obtaining from it the number of settlers east of the Kennebec on either of these dates. The whole number of families recorded for this large ter- ritory is one hundred and fifty-five. Reckoning each family as having five members, we obtain a population of seven hundred and seventy-five. The estimate is probably somewhat large, but it cannot be far out of the way.2
Very little, however, is learned from such figures. How came these settlers hither, and in what way did they spend their changed lives after they had reached their new surroundings ?
Happily, with reference to their ocean experiences, the daily record of one voyager to the American coast in that early period has come down to us in the diary of Rev. Richard Mather,3 who,
1 For an exceedingly interesting account of the approaches to the Sheep- scot Farms, and a description of the cellar remains still discoverable there, see a paper entitled "The Sheepscot Farms", read March 14, 1878, before the Maine Historical Society, by Alexander Johnston, and printed in the Society's Collections, Series I, 9, 129-155.
2 For the report made by Captain Sylvanus Davis see Sullivan, History of the District of Maine, 390, 391.
8 Richard Mather was born in 1596 in the south of Winwick, County of Lancaster, England. While at Brasenose College, Oxford, he received from the people in Toxteth, whose children had been taught by him, an invitation to come and teach them "in the things of God". Having been ordained and having spent fifteen years in the ministry, complaints were made against him for nonconformity. He was suspended from his office, but soon after was
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in 1635, with his family, sailed for Boston from Bristol, England, on the James, a vessel of 220 tons. On the day of their embarka- tion, May 23, two "searchers" came on board the ship and "viewed a list of all our names, ministered the oath of allegiance to all of full age, viewed our certificates from the ministers in the parishes from which we came, approved well thereof, and gave us tickets, that is licenses under their hands and seals, to pass the seas, and cleared the ship, and so departed."1 Here, too, we have the glimpse of the effect of a recent proclamation of the king, commanding all seaport officers to forbid "the embarkation of passengers for New England without a license from the com- missioners of plantations, and a certificate of having taken the oaths of supremacy and allegiances, also a certificate from the parish minister."
Several days were now passed in waiting for a favorable wind. At anchor near the James was another vessel, the Angel Gabriel of 240 tons, "a strong ship, and well-furnished with fourteen or sixteen pieces of ordnance", bound for Pemaquid. One day, during this delay, Mr. Mather, with the captain of the James and a few other passengers, went on board of the Angel Gabriel. In his account of this visit, Mr. Mather wrote: "Soon after we were come aboard there, there came three or four more boats with more passengers, and one wherein came Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who came to see the ship and the people. When he was come he inquired whether there were any people there that went to Massa- chusetts bay, whereupon Mr. Maud and Barnabas Fower were sent for to come before him ; who being come he asked Mr. Maud
restored. Being silenced a second time, he decided to remove to New Eng- land. After his arrival at Boston, his services were desired at Plymouth, Dorchester and Roxbury. In 1636, he was settled over the newly organized church in Dorchester. As the minister of this church he spent the remainder of his long and useful life, dying April 22, 1669, in the seventy-third year of his age. He was the father of Increase Mather, president of Harvard College, and father of the no less celebrated Cotton Mather.
1 Journal of Richard Mather, Dorchester Genealogical and Historical Soci- ety, 1850, 6.
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of his country, occupation or calling of life, &c., and professed his goodwill to the people there in the bay, and promised that if he ever came there, he would be a true friend unto them."1 Only a few days before this visit the council for New England had sur- rendered its charter to the king; and, in connection with the sur- render, Gorges was expecting an appointment as governor of New England. Hence the significance of Gorges' promise, as recorded by Mather, Sir Ferdinando evidently intending that those who were on the ship and purposed to make their way to the Bay col- ony should repeat his promise on their arrival.
Mather and his companions spent five Sundays on the James before the vessel, and also the Angel Gabriel, put to sea. More- ever, the passage was long and wearisome, but in it there was much of interest. For a part of the way the two vessels were in company, and one day in mid-ocean, the sea permitting, the Angel Gabriel sent a boat to the James "to see how we did"; and when the boat returned, Mather accompanied the captain of the James to the Angel Gabriel, returning after "loving and courteous entertainment".
At length the wearisome voyage was over. Saturday morn- ing, August 8, after the seamen had taken "abundance of macker- ell", all had "a clear and comfortable sight of America". The land was "an island called Menhiggin", and Mather adds the noteworthy statement that Monhegan at that time was "without inhabitants", the Aldworth and Elbridge interests having been transferred, probably several years before, to the mainland at Pem- aquid. The coast line was now in view. "A little from the islands we saw more northward divers other islands and the main land of New England, all along northward and eastward as we sailed." On the high deck of the vessel the passengers gathered ; and in the bright sunlight of that fair August day, they had before them, as they looked landward, the same delightful scenes that possess such fascinating interest at present to many a sum- mer visitor, sailing up or down the coast of Maine.
1 Journal of Richard Mather, 7, 8.
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A westerly wind detaining them, so that they "were forced to tack too and again southward and northward, gaining little", the James came to anchor Monday morning, August 10, at Rich- mond's island. "When we came within sight of the island", wrote Mather, "the planters there, being but two families and about forty persons, were sore afraid of us, doubting least we had been French come to pillage the island, as Penobscot1 had been served by them about ten days before. When we were come to anchor, and their fear was past, they came some of them aboard to us in their shallops, and we went some of us ashore into the island, to look for fresh water and grass for our cattle; and the planters bade us welcome, and gave some of us courteous enter- tainment in their houses."
The James remained at anchor at Richmond's island August 10-12. At this time, as already stated, John Winter was on his way to England, and therefore could not have been one of those who gave generous welcome to the weary voyagers, as Mather records. However, he had left Trelawny's affairs in the hands of Narias Hawkins, a near neighbor, who seems to have had fishing interests of his own, and who with Winter's wife and daughter well represented Trelawny's absent agent. It is possible, also, that Edward Trelawny, a brother of Robert Trelawny, Winter's employer, was at Richmond's island at this time; and as his reli- gious sympathies were with the Puritans,2 he would, if present,
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