USA > Maine > The beginnings of colonial Maine, 1602-1658 > Part 31
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In this stress of affairs at the eastward, Cleeve, as well as Vines,
1 Baxter, George Cleeve, Collateral Documents, 241.
2 S. R. Gardiner, The Puritan Revolution, 145.
8 Baxter, George Cleeve, Collateral Documents, 240-242.
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appealed to Winthrop, referring to Rev. Robert Jordan as a "min- ister of antichrist", accusing him of slandering "the Parliament of England with vile reproachful terms" and belching out "his blasphemies against the churches of Christ in this land, charging them with schism and faction for fasting and praying for the affliction of their brethren in England".1 While these words and others equally hostile to the "prelatical" party in the province were plainly designed to enlarge the sympathies of the Puritan governor in his thoughts of Cleeve and his associates in the Prov- ince of Lygonia, Winthrop was not moved to deviate from the non-partisan course he had adopted with reference to the settle- ments upon the coast outside of the limits of the Bay colony.
But there was need that something should be done; and a few days later Cleeve reverted to the action of the House of Commons in answer to the petition he presented with reference to the "great oppression, utter impoverishment and the hindrance of the plantation in these parts" by reason of the exercise of "unlaw- ful and arbitrary power" as exhibited in certain "articles" there- with presented ; and he addressed a letter to Governor Winthrop and his "loving friend" Captain Edward Gibbons of Boston, ask- ing them to proceed against the parties mentioned in the action of the House, appointing a commission of prominent men in New England to examine and act upon the charges preferred in the articles presented. It was suggested that the most suitable time for such a hearing, "in regard of men's occasion of planting", would be about the middle of May; and a request was made for the appearance at that time of John Baker of Piscataqua, Francis Robinson of Saco, Andrew Alger of Stratton's island, John Bony- thon, William Royall, Michael Mitton and Richard Tucker, "to prove the articles".2
In all probability, however, there was still hesitancy on the part of Winthrop and his associates with reference to the duty laid upon them by the House of Commons, and matters were
1 Baxter, George Cleeve, Collateral Documents, 238-240.
2 Ib., 243, 244.
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allowed to drift on as hitherto. But, in accordance with a sug- gestion by Winthrop, Vines agreed that matters as to govern- mental relations should be held in abeyance until further orders should come from England. There is evidence, however, that Vines did not hold to his agreement, and after some time had elapsed, in opposition to advice he had received from Winthrop, he proceeded to reopen hostilities by sending out warrants for the arrest of Cleeve and Tucker, indicating a purpose also to "subdue the rest unto obedience".1
But, in 1644, affairs in England were adverse to Charles, and increasingly so in 1645. In fact, after the battle of Naseby, when the royal forces were so utterly defeated that the king "never ventured to lift his head again in the field",2 there was no longer occasion for hesitancy on the part of Winthrop and his associates, and they entered upon the task assigned to them. This was not pleasing to Vines, who complained to Winthrop that by the action of the House of Commons he had not been afforded that "lawful favor and means" he should have received in order to vindicate himself from Cleeve's "most unjust accusations". That he had not answered the summons to appear in Boston, he explained, was on account of a fear of danger to himself and lest some mis- chief should befall his family in his absence. As to Rigby's right, he regarded it as without any foundation. It rested upon "an old broken title (for we hear of nothing but the Plough patent, which was deserted thirteen years past)", while Sir Ferdinando Gorges' right was from the king, and in not defending it he "might be justly condemned of infidelity and pusillanimity". This much, however, he would concede: "If there come an order, either from King or Parliament, for the establishing of Mr. Rigby in that patent", he and those in agreement with him would submit. This letter was written August 4, 1645.3
Parliament, as represented by the House of Commons, had
1 Baxter, George Cleeve, Collateral Documents, 253. .
2 S. R. Gardiner, The Puritan Revolution, 149.
3 Baxter, George Cleeve, Collateral Documents, 258-262.
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already spoken ; but no word came from the king or from Sir Ferdinando Gorges, whose authority Vines and his associates recognized. The general court of the Province of Maine accord- ingly proceeded October 21, 1645, to elect Vines deputy governor "for one whole year", and directed that a deputy governor should be elected annually. It was also provided that "in case said Richard Vines should depart the country before one year expired", Henry Josselyn should become his successor.1 In this last provi- sion there is an indication that Vines had in view intentions that would withdraw him not only from his official position in the province, but also from the strife in which largely because of this position he hitherto had been involved. And this was the fact. Evidently Vines was disheartened. Things on the other side of the sea were not moving in accordance with royalist hopes and expectations ; and wearied with this burden of continual disap- pointment, he decided to lay it off and with it the other burdens he had carried so long. Accordingly, he sold his landed interests on the Saco and shortly after sailed for Barbadoes, where he made for himself and his family a new home under sunnier skies and more peaceful conditions.
But while the departure of the deputy governor deprived Cleeve's opponents of a forceful, inspiring leader, Vines had in Henry Josselyn, the new deputy governor, a successor no less resolute and aggressive. In fact, he was so aggressive that he proceeded at once to carry war into Cleeve's own territory, aim- ing, as Cleeve and his friends reported, to draw away the people of Lygonia "from their subjection to Mr. Rigby's lawful author- ity", and by force of arms to deal with the supporters of Cleeve as opportunity and pleasure suggested.2 Cleeve had called a court to meet at Casco on the last day in March. This was the day selected by Josselyn and his associates for a warlike demon- stration, and Cleeve and his followers, deprecating "a civil war", hastened to implore the aid of the Puritans of Massachusetts bay.
1 Early Records of Maine, I, 107.
2 Baxter, George Cleeve, Collateral Documents, 265-269.
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Governor Winthrop, in his reply to this appeal, addressing a letter to Josselyn as well as to Cleeve, discouraged acts of hostility and urged forbearance on the part of both parties until expected advices, then on the way from England, were received. What happened on court day was described by Rev. Thomas Jenner 1 of Saco in a letter to Governor Winthrop,2 both Cleeve and Josselyn having united in a request that Mr. Jenner, who had opened the proceedings of the day with a sermon, should present the report. "Mr. Josselyn and his company", he said, "came armed with guns and swords, or both : Mr. Cleeve and his company unarmed. After sermon was ended, Mr. Josselyn and his company separated themselves about a furlong from Mr. Cleeve and his company. They sent unto Mr. Cleeve a demand in writing (with all their hands subscribed) to have a sight of his originals, promising a safe return. After some hesitation and demur, Mr. Cleeve, upon con-
1 Rev. Thomas Jenner was the first Puritan minister in Maine. That we find him in Saco was due doubtless to the suggestion of Governor Winthrop, who had known him probably since his arrival in New England in 1634-35. In 1640, he represented in the General Court the town of Weymouth, where he served as pastor. Williamson (Me. Hist. Society's Coll., Second Series, III, 293), says it would seem that his mission was to "remove some impres- sions supposed to have been made by Rev. Mr. Gibson, favorable to the Epis- copal sentiments and form of worship". It is easy to understand why the services of a Puritan minister at Saco would be deemed desirable by Governor Winthrop ; but that Richard Vines shared the governor's feelings is not to be considered in the least probable. It is quite likely, however, that there were those in Saco who had made known to the Massachusetts governor a desire for a Puritan minister, and that Winthrop opened the way for Mr. Jenner's coming. This may be inferred from a letter addressed by Mr. Jenner to Governor Winthrop, April 2, 1641, in which he says that his preaching seemed to him to make a good impression on those who heard him except "Mr. Vines and one more", who told him he "struck at the Church of England". This Mr. Jenner disclaimed, and there was no complaint from others. Unquestionably at Saco, as in other places in the Province of Maine, there was an increase of the Puritan element with the increase of population by immigration. It is not known how long Mr. Jenner remained in Saco. Folsom (History of Saco, 82) limits his stay to two years, but it may have been longer. Afterwards he returned to England.
2 Baxter, George Cleeve, 273-276.
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dition they would come together in one place, promised to gratify them". By the "originals" evidently were meant the Lygonia patent, its assignment to Rigby, Cleeve's appointment as deputy president and the instructions Cleeve had received from Colonel Rigby. To place such documents in the hands of Cleeve's mili- tant opponents might well have occasioned hesitation; but the rightfulness of the demand was recognized and the documents were produced. These were "publicly read and scanned", but nevertheless the next morning there followed a demand on the part of Josselyn and his associates that Cleeve and his adherents should "submit themselves unto the authority and government derived from Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and that for the future they address themselves unto their courts". Thereupon Cleeve demanded a sight of the originals of the other party. "None being produced", says Mr. Jenner, Cleeve "disclaimed obedience, and told them there was no equality between his something and their nothing". This ended the conference, the Gorges party, as a final word, offering to submit all matters in dispute to the Massachusetts magistrates as arbitrators. The offer was accepted and both parties bound themselves "each to other in a bond of five hun- dred pounds personally to appear at Boston the next court after May, then and there to implead each other". In this outcome of the conference, Mr. Jenner saw "the power of God's holy word awing their hearts", so that "thus after two or three days' agita- tion each man departed very peaceably to his own home".
At the hearing in Boston, Cleeve and Tucker represented the Rigby interests, and Josselyn and Robinson the Gorges interests.1 At the outset there was doubt on the part of some of the magis- trates as to whether the matters in dispute came properly within their jurisdiction ; but the majority, considering that it was the "usual practice in Europe for two states being at odds to make a third judge between them", saw an opportunity for a peaceful settlement, and the trial proceeded. The statements and evidence presented, however, were of such a contradictory character that
1 Winthrop, Journal, under date March 26, 1646.
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both parties, according to Winthrop "failed in their proof". The perplexed jury, therefore, "could find for neither, but gave in a non liquet''; and the magistrates closed the case with an exhorta- tion for "the parties to live in peace, etc., till the matter might be determined by authority out of England."
Evidently it was within the knowledge of the Massachusetts magistrates that Parliament was about to direct its attention to these New England matters. In fact, they themselves may have urged such consideration. It is altogether likely, also, that simi- lar action had been urged by Colonel Rigby, who was in frequent communication with Cleeve and was fully informed with reference to the difficulties that Cleeve had encountered in his conflict with the Gorges interests. Neither party, however, had long to wait for the desired authoritative decision. The case came before the Earl of Warwick and the commissioners for foreign plantations. Colonel Rigby appeared for himself, and John Gorges, the eldest son of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, represented the Gorges interests. Details with reference to the hearing are wanting. March 27, 1647, judgment was rendered in favor of Rigby, who was declared "the rightful owner and proprietor" of Lygonia, which in the decision was made to cover the territory from the Kennebunk river to the Sagadahoc, leaving to Gorges and his heirs only the small tract of land between the Kennebunk and Piscataqua rivers.1
Of course it is to be remembered that naturally the sympathy of the judges was with Rigby. It is also to be remembered that for some time affairs in England had been moving very strongly against the royalist party. Had it been otherwise, the decision might have been different. It is difficult, however, to escape the conclusion that the decision was a just one. When, in 1630, the council for New England granted to the London Husbandmen the Lygonia patent, Sir Ferdinando Gorges was a member of the council, indeed one of its prominent members, and so was not ignorant of its action in making this grant. He never denied participation in that action, or protested against it. Moreover, as
1 Winthrop, Journal, II, 390.
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the province which the grant covered received the designation Lygonia, in honor, it is supposed, of Cicely Lygon, the mother of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, his connection with the grant from the first seems to have been especially close. The grant was legally made ; it legally came into the possession of Colonel Rigby ; and the Earl of Warwick,1 and his associates, the commissioners for foreign plantations, evidently saw no reason why they should not confirm the validity of Rigby's title to it.
It is possible that no information concerning this decision came to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, adding to the disappointments that had so frequently darkened his pathway through life. His last work was in writing his Briefe Narration, in which are found so many evidences of failing mental powers. As the decision of the judges was rendered only a few weeks before the aged knight closed his eyes in death,2 it may be that then the things of earth had so far faded to his view that the loss of so large a part of his Province of Maine, as the decision announced, had no message and therefore no sorrow for him.
Cleeve, with a commission as deputy president, now proceeded to organize the Province of Lygonia. In this he had the assist- ance of a commission appointed by Parliament, and consisting of such prominent Massachusetts officials as Winthrop, Dudley and
1 He was a member of the council for New England when the grant was made.
2 He died at his residence, Ashton Phillips, in a suburb of Bristol. "His will bears the date of May 4th, 1647, and the date of his burial in the church at Long Ashton, a few rods from his residence called Ashton Phillips, is the 14th." Baxter, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, I, 196. Lewis Upton Way, in a paper on "The Smyths of Ashton Court"', Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archæological Society, XXXI, 255, says, "Sir Ferdinando [Gorges] died in May, 1647, and his widow in 1658, both being buried in the Smyth vault at Long Ashton". Ashton Court is still in the possession of the Smyth family, and the large, attractive mansion, with its beautiful gar- dens, extensive grounds, and doubtless fine old trees as to-day, must have been a familiar place to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The widow of Sir Hugh Smyth was Gorges' last wife, and a portrait of her continues to adorn the walls of Ashton Court. The mansion was erected by Inigo Jones in 1634.
ASHTON COURT NEAR BRISTOL.
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Bellingham. In the selection of assistants necessary for the proper administration of the affairs of the province, Cleeve's most strenuous opponents were not overlooked. Unhappily only a few of the early records of the province have come down to us, and we are unable to tell with any fulness the story of the establish- ment of generally recognized authority and order within the pro- vincial limits. Among these records,1 however, in a report of a court held at Black Point on the last of May, 1648, signed by the three judges of the Province of Lygonia-George Cleeve, Henry Josselyn and Robert Jordan, -there is furnished an illustra- tion of the new order of things that followed the establishment of Rigby's claim. The decree of Parliament was accepted at least for the present; and the inhabitants of the province, however divided hitherto, worked together in harmonious relations, seek- ing the common weal.
All that now remained of Sir Ferdinando Gorges' Province of Maine was the small territory between the Kennebunk and Pis- cataqua rivers, comprising the settlements of Piscataqua (name changed to Kittery in 1647), Gorgeana and Wells. Since the return of deputy governor Thomas Gorges to England in 1643, Edward Godfrey, at Gorgeana, had been at the head of the pro- vincial government, and had faithfully served the Gorges inter- ests. But from all that has come down to us concerning him it is evident he had not caught even a glimpse of the new political era then opening in England, and which found its speediest develop- ment in the Puritan colonies on this side of the Atlantic. Old, established forms of government were good enough for him, and he deprecated movements that would bring in an order of things that was new and untried. Sad days he had seen in his efforts to do the right as he saw the right ; but he had fallen on what to him were evil times, but his saddest days were those yet to come.
1 Early Records of Maine, I, 121.
CHAPTER XX.
ROBERT JORDAN AS WINTER'S SUCCESSOR.
C ONCERNING Winter's attitude toward Cleeve after the lat- ter's return from England as the deputy president of the Province of Lygonia, there is no information. In his last letter to Robert Trelawny, written in Boston, July 19, 1642, Winter recorded Cleeve's departure in these few words : "Cleeve is come for England in a ship that came from Virginia, that spent her masts and stopped here in Massachusetts bay to new mast. The ship is of London." 1 Evidently Cleeve's latest movement had no important significance to John Winter. In charge of Robert Trelawny's interests at Richmond's island and vicinity, he then regarded those interests as in every way secure. Plainly in his opinion any effort on the part of Cleeve to thwart the declared purposes of one so powerful as Robert Trelawny was sure to fail, and accordingly Winter, in his letter to Trelawny, saw no need of added reference to his Machegonne opponent.
Moreover, while Cleeve was taking advantage of conditions in England that opened to him an easy way to desired success, Winter apparently gave them no heed. His letters to Trelawny had no reference to differences between king and parliament then dividing the kingdom. He makes mention of the fact that on the Maine coast "the times are very bad". He represents business as at a standstill. "Here lies fish unsold for want of a ship to carry it to a market", he writes. He mourns over the distress of the people because there is "no money to be gotten". He regrets
1 Trelawny Papers, 322. Probably the ship was the Eleanor of London. "She was laden with tobacco from Virginia, and was well fitted with masts, sails, rigging and victuals at such reasonable rates as the master was much affected with his entertainment." Winthrop, II, 75.
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ROBERT JORDAN AS WINTER'S SUCCESSOR.
that English manufactures were not coming to New England as formerly. "Cloth of all sorts", he says, is "very scarce; both linen and woolen are dear".1 Indeed all trade relations were in such a depressed state that Trelawny wrote to Winter concerning the sale of his interests at Richmond's island and vicinity. In his reply, Winter praised the property, but expressed a doubt if, under the circumstances, a purchaser could be found.2 In a sub- sequent letter, Winter added : "I [have] written into the Bay to give notice of the intent and purpose of the sale of [this] planta- tion ; but as yet I hear nothing from them. I purpose, God willing, to go into the Bay, but I make doubt of find[ing] any there that will buy& it". Winter went to Boston as he pur- posed, but he found the same conditions there as at the eastward. "I have acquainted some here of the sale of the plantation", he wrote to Trelawny, "but cannot learn of any that will buy it".4 The correspondence shows that Winter saw and felt existing con- ditions in the New England settlements. Writing to Trelawny in one of his most depressing moods, he said : "There is a great many weary of this country, and I think have spent most of their estates, and now are going for the West Indies to live there, as soon as they can get passage".5 The statement of course was an exaggerated one, but unquestionably it represented a widespread feeling in the province at the time. The noteworthy thing in connection with it is the entire absence in Winter's letters of any reference to affairs in England as affecting conditions in New England.
Winter's first awakening to a recognition of the changed politi- cal conditions in England apparently occurred in connection with the arrest and imprisonment of Robert Trelawny. It will be remembered that in his last letter to Winter, Trelawny, then a member of Parliament, had insisted that all things in Parliament
1 Trelawny Papers, 321.
2 Ib., 284.
8 Ib., 309.
4 Ib., 321.
5 Ib., 309.
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were going "well", and he expressed the hope to Winter that in a few days its members would "settle religion in peace and restore the subject to his ancient liberty and right of property".1 Doubt- less Winter without hesitation accepted Trelawny's encouraging statements. It was enough for him that one so well informed as Robert Trelawny had made this forecast concerning England's immediate future, and he was satisfied.
Winter was not left long, however, in this condition of satisfac- tion. Because of his hearty sympathy with the royal cause and his readiness to aid it in all possible ways, Trelawny soon fell under suspicion, and on March 9, 1642, by order of the House of Commons, he was arrested, tried and expelled for having said "that the House could not appoint a guard for themselves without the king's consent, under pain of high treason". Lord Claren- don 2 says an attempt was made to prove the charge by a witness who pretended to have overheard Trelawny. The person with whom the conference was held, however, "declared that he said it might be imputed to them for high treason; and it was confessed on all parts that the words were spoken long before the discovery, and some days before the House had resolved 'that they would have a guard' ". According to the Journal of the House of Com- mons, also, the testimony presented at the trial in support of the charge was of very little worth.3 Obviously it would not have been given any weight whatever in ordinary times. But this was not an ordinary time. England was rapidly approaching the brink of civil war, and suspicions not only were rife on the part of com- batants on either side, but they were influential, and too often decisive.
It is known that the imprisonment of Robert Trelawny by order of the House of Commons followed his expulsion, but it may not have followed immediately. Lord Clarendon says, "when the
1 Trelawny Papers, 274.
2 History of the Rebellion, folio ed., I, 349.
8 Baxter (George Cleeve, 136) says Trelawny was "a martyr to the preju- dice and bigotry which seemed to inspire all parties alike".
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war began to break out", meaning the civil war, Trelawny was "again imprisoned",1 thus indicating that there had been a pre- vious arrest and imprisonment ; and such probably was the fact.
When, and in what way, the tidings of Trelawny's arrest and imprisonment reached John Winter, there is no record. The Trelawny Papers have preserved to us important information con- cerning life and affairs in connection with Trelawny's interests at Richmond's island and vicinity, but they fail us in our search for any letter or letters in which there is even a hint at the misfor- tunes that overtook Plymouth's representative in Parliament and the possessor of the Trelawny patent. But such information must have found its way hither. It may have long been delayed. Robert Trelawny was arrested and tried March 9, 1642, as already mentioned ; but a letter written by Winter to Trelawny July 19, 1642,2 makes no mention of Trelawny's misfortunes. Prudential considerations cannot account for such silence on Winter's part. If Winter had received such intelligence, it seems impossible that he should have failed to give some expression of regret and hope in a letter to one with whom he had held very close personal business relations for many years. It is to be remembered, how- ever, that letters then came to Richmond's island only occasionally, and for the most part by some vessel making its way to the coast for fishing or trading purposes. Accordingly the opportunities for such transmissal were exceedingly irregular.
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