USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The history of Portland, from 1632 to 1864: with a notice of previous settlements, colonial grants, and changes of government in Maine > Part 11
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
them, the house being prised but at eight pounds, which but a little before cost me sixty pounds.
Fifthly, Mr. Jordan at the former court of that county afore- said, (which I should have minded before,) after he had cast me in the action of interruption aforesaid, did under pretence of law sue me in an action of molestation, because I recovered not the action against him, though it was a just action, which I prosecuted, but himself being of that court, I was cast five pounds again in that action, and he not being therewith con- tented, demands of me fifteen pounds' alleging that the law gives treble damages in such cases, which I conceive I shall make appear to the Honorable Court to be a very unjust and in- jurious thing.
Sixthly, At the same court of Associates in March last, hav- ing again recovered my house, cow, Bed and Bolster and bed clothes, my brewing kettle, pott and other goods, obtains an execution directed to the constables Deputy to possess him, the said Jordan, of the said house and goods, and commanded the constables Deputy (being his own creture) to throw out all my other goods, as apparel, chests, trunks, and provisions out of doors, who so acted to the spoyling and breaking of many of my things, and whereby I lost mnch of my goods and writings and apparel of my wife's, and many other things, to my damage more than one hundred pounds sterling. And more to vex and grieve me, he brought with him one of his own men (to assist the constable's Deputy) who was, starke drunke, taking my kettle and pott, being full of worte for beere, ready to tun up, and threw it about the house, and carried away the said kettle and poct and detaineth them to this day, being contrary to the law in such cases provided ; and further to increase my griefe, he requested his drunken man and Deputy constable to go into my wife's chamber where she was laid on her bed and very sick, who in a Barbarous manner pulls her from off her bed and takes her bedd from under her, and the bed clothing and carries all
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JORDAN'S CLAIM AND QUARREL WITH CLEEVES.
away, my wife being no less than fourscore and seven years of age, and all this done after a warrant of Attachment was serv- ed upon the said house, goods, and cow, by the said Deputy constable under the hand of Mr. Edward Rishworth, one of the Associates, requiring the said house and goods to be responsi- ble to answer my action of review to be tried at the next court of Associates, where (in truth) I have but small hopes of good success in my sutes against him, he being one of them, and one that Bouldly said, let them, if they durst, find anything against him: My suspicion being the greater for that I proved at the last court, that I had paid Mr. Jordan twenty pounds towards the two executions to purchase my peace for the pres- ent, until I might by some review or complaint, redress my wrong, for which I had no allowance by any order of court, Albeit the two first executions came but to fifteen pounds ten shillings, besides what I paid the constable for fees and other charges as appeareth by the constable's testimony, soe that Mr. Jordan detained from me wrongfully my goods and two cows, being all the cattle I had for my subsistence for the present, and hath proferred to sell my house to any that would buy it, and all this of purpose to starve and ruin me and my family. All which I hope this Honorable Court will duly consider and order my reparations. GEORGE CLEEVES."
"The Deputies conceive in answer to this petition, that the county court of York next are hereby ordered to examine the grounds of these complaints exhibited against Mr. Jordan, and procced therein as they shall judge meet according to lawes here established."
This order was entered at the October session in 1662, at which the petition was probably presented; but what was the final result of the complaint, the records do not disclose. Jor- dan, Jocelyn, and others, before the next court, had seceded from the authority of Massachusetts and set up a jurisdiction under Ferdinando Gorges, the grandson of Sir Ferdinando, who,
9
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
after the restoration of Charles II., had procured from the king a favorable notice of his title, and letters to the inhabi- tants, requiring them to submit to his government.
These representations would make it appear that Cleeves's fortune was at this time at a low ebb; he seems to have been deprived of property and friends, and was living to behold him- self turned out of the last acre of the large domain of which he was once the owner, and over which he formerly ruled. But the circumstances show that his case was not so piteous as he would represent it. It appears that he was chosen one of the commissioners of the town in 1659 and 1662; and in 1663 and 1664 he was the deputy from Falmouth to the general court. He probably would not have been noticed in this manner, had his affairs been so desperate as they appear in his own repre- sentations. There was a strong party undoubtedly against him ; he had made himself unpopular, partly perhaps by the violence of his temper, and partly by the zeal with which he pursued his landed interests. It appears by the record of the county court in 1659, that at the same time that he sued Jor- dan for disturbing his possession, he brought actions against Francis Small for presuming to build and settle on his land, and felling timber without his leave, and against John Phillips for trespass. These suits probably related to land which the defendants claimed under Indian deeds at Capisic ; Cleeves was unsuccessful in them both. At the same court he was sued by Thomas Elbridge, who lived at Pemaquid, in two ac- tions, one for defamation, the other for assault and battery. In the first case, the jury returned a verdict against him for fifty pounds, and also that he should make an acknowledge- ment of his offense when the court shall appoint ; which the court ordered to be in presence of the court and at Casco the " next public town meeting. He was also presented for denying to vote for magistrates, etc. These contradictory circumstan- ces, appointments to public office, and open condemnation in court, indicate a most unsettled state of society, if they do not
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JORDAN'S CLAIM AND QUARREL WITH CLEEVES.
on the whole leave a shade upon the character of Cleeves And the inference cannot be resisted, that a state of party ex- isted here at that time as virulent and bitter as has been wit- nessed in any subsequent stage of our history.
1
CHAPTER IV.
INHABITANTS PETITION THE GENERAL COURT AGAINST THE CLAIMS OF CLEEVES AND JORDAN-PETITION OF THE FREEMEN TO THE GENERAL COURT-ISLANDS BELONGING TO FALMOUTH-NEW SETTLERS, MUN- JOY, WAKELY, COE, BRACKETT, CLARKE, FELT, CLOISE, ETC .- MITTON'S DEATH.
While the large proprietors were contending for the title to the lands lying between the Presumpscot and Fore rivers, the tenants and other inhabitants were not free from trouble attendant upon the controversy. In 1660, a part of the in- habitants sought the aid of government to protect them from the inconvenience which arose from these conflicting claims, and at the May session of the general court, they presented the fol- lowing petition which sets forth their grievances.
"To the Honorable General Courte now assembled at Boston, 30 May, 1660, the humble petition of some of the distressed inhabitants of the town of Falmouth.
"The humble desire of your poore petitioners hoping that you will take it into serious consideration, our present condition that we stand in, in respecte, of the pretended patenes and clames that Mr. Robert Jordan and Mr. George Cleeves laies clame to, so that much trouble cometh to us, suing men to Cortes, as witnes the many sutes and actions at Cortes and are still goen on against us and other tretened against, so that we are much destracted in our afares and know not what we shall doe in thes our trobeles, only our prayers are to God and you,
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PETITIONS TO THE GENERAL COURT.
that you would be pleased to consider our condition and des- tractions that we are in, and that it will be the overthrow of thes hopeful beginenes that is amongs us. God begun to an- swer our prayers, and to send us a faithful dispenser of the word to us, for which we desire to bles God for and we hope shall enjoy, if these destractions doe not discourage him, there- fore our oumbell request is to this onered assemblie that you would be pleased to take into it consideration our present condi- tion, for if that Mr. Jordan's paten and claim hould with Mr. Cleeves, the town is overthrown and noe man shall enjoy what he hath labored uppon and possessed, unless it be uppon ther terms, and at ther wills and pleasures, but we hope that we shall injoy our priveleges and town affairs with the rest of the towns in the jurisdiction, thes not to trobele your oners noe farther, but leave the case to God and you, hoping for a com- fortable answer, We remain yours in all faithfulness. George Ingersoll, George Lues, (Lewis,) Joseph Phippen, Nathaniel Wallis, Thomas Cellen, (Skillin,) Houmphry Durham, John Walles, Nicholas Wite, Phinehas Rider."]
What was the result of this petition does not appear ; it is probable that the contentions referred to had the effect, as Cleeves suggested in his memorial, not only of preventing per- sons from entering upon his grant, but even of driving from the debatable ground some of those who had already settled upon it. Of the above petitioners, who it would seem all lived upon the disputed territory, four of them at least, removed from it to other parts of the town, viz: Phippen, Durham, White, and Rider. The petitioners include all the inhabitants on that territory, except Martin, Corbin, Phillips, Munjoy, and Cleeves's family. Munjoy seems to have bought his peace with Jordan, by taking a deed from him of ten acres on the Neck, "near unto the now dwelling house of Mr. George Cleeves ;" Jordan warranted the title against the claims of Trelawny and
1 Massachusetts Files.
¥
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
all other persons ; the deed is dated August 24, 1560 .* The next day, mutual releases passed between Jordan and Michael Mitton, relative to land upon the Neck ;1 by these, it would seem that Munjoy and Mitton were willing to admit that Jor- dan either had title or a color of title on this side of the river.
. Although in practice we are confident that Jordan never oc- cupied any territory north of Fore river under the Trelawny title ; yet this unhappy controversy, so vexatious to the inhab- itants and productive of so much evil to the parties themselves, was never determined by a judgment of court. While it was raging at its highest point, a temporary separation took place from the government of Massachusetts, during which the feeble administration of the laws, and the balanced state of parties prevented, we may presume, a judicial investigation of the subject ; and when the jurisdiction of Massachusetts was again restored, Cleeves was probably dead. The Indian troubles soon after commenced, in which Jordan fled never to return ; after that time we hear no more of the controversy, until the reset- tlement in 1718, when Jordan's grandchildren revived the claim ; it was finally adjusted in 1729, by compromise with the town of Falmouth, when Dominicus Jordan released, for a grant of two hundred acres, all title "from himself, his heirs, and all and every other Jordan whatsoever" in any land "between the rivers."2
* [The original is in my possession, from which the annexed fac-similes of at- testation and signature are taken.]
By man Riboul Jorden
1 York Records.
2 Town Records.
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PETITIONS TO THE GENERAL COURT.
Soon after the jurisdiction of Massachusetts was established, the inhabitants of the town undertook to exercise ownership over some part of the lands claimed by Cleeves. Nor was he the only one of the large proprietors who was exposed to injury from the effects of Agrarian law, which the people szemed disposed to adopt. Complaints were made to govern- ment in 1660, by Cleeves, and large land-holders in Saco, John Bonighton, Richard Foxwell, and William Phillips, "crav- ing the help of the court for settling their respective interests and possesssions in the east parts of this jurisdiction." The general court appointed a committee to repair to Saco, and in- vestigate the facts. This committee adjusted the controversy between Phillips and the inhabitants of Saco, and recommended that a division should be made of the Bonighton patent ; they thus close their report : "And as for the complaint of Mr. George Cleeves, when we were at Saco attending the general court's before mentioned order. His writings and evidences were not present, therefore we can make no certain return thereof, but judge meet, The townsmen of Falmouth be or- dered not to dispose of any lands, which are within the bound- aries of the patents or grants of the said Mr. George Cleeves until this court take further order therein ;" dated October 25, 1660.1
The terms on which Cleeves lived with a part of the inhabi- tants, may be gathered from a petition which they sent to the general court about this time ; it has no date, but internal evi- dence fixes it upon this period : "To the Honorable General Court of the Massachusetts, or whom els it shall or may concern, the humble petition of divers inhabitants and freemen of Fal- mouth, humbly sheweth,
"That whereas there hath been a sad contention in these parts concerning government, Your petitioners most of them living upon their labour, and desirous rather to live in peace and
1 York Records.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
learne to be obedient and submit to what government it shall please the Lord and our sovereign to appoint over us, than to contend or determine who our governors shall be, yet there bath latelie certaine men appeared in our names att ye Honor- able General Court, and as we are informed, presented a peti- tion which was without our consents or knowledge, for had ye government been settled and that we could have acted with freedom of spiritt wee would never have dishonoured the Hon- orable General Court with men of such lives and conversa- tions, as are first George Cleeves, who is upon record for breach of oath and accused of forgery. Mr. Phippen not many days before his departure was beating and drawing of ye blood of his Majestie's subjects and stands upon record for slandering ye deputie governor and was always a man of contention and strife since he came in our parts. John Phillips hath acknowl- edged himself guilty of keeping a woman which is none of his wife this fourteen years. These men cam in your names and exercise authoritie over us with many soare threatenings, wherefore our humble request is, That if itt please the Lord to continue us still under your government, you would be pleased to grant us the liberty that other of his Majestie's subject have, and you by Article granted, yt is freedom to vote for our offi- cers and not such men imposed upon us, and we shall ever pray, &c. Francis Neale, Jane Macworth, widdow, Nathaniel Wharfe, Robert Sandford, Sampson Penley, Francis Small, Richard Martin, George Felt, Thomas Sandford, John Winter, Robert Corbin, James Andrews, Benja. Hatwell, John Cloyes, Edw." (This last name I cannot decipher.) Then follows, "There is butt twelve or thirteen freemen in our towne accord- ing to ye Article of freemen in our submission to ye govern- ment, six of whom have subscribed hereunto, and five voted for governor and other officers, yet there are several who say they are free, butt, we know it note, and most of us would have
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TITLES TO ISLANDS IN FALMOUTH.
voted if we had had warrants as formerlie, to command us so to doe."1
In 1664, Cleeves made the following explanation relative to his grants : "Whereas I George Cleeves, of Falmouth, Gent., have by virtue of a patent granted from Sir Ferdinando Gor- ges, and also from Alexander Rigby, granted several parcels thereof unto sundry men as per deeds given under my hand appeareth, and the bounds in said deeds are to run from the water side north-west. Now to prevent any mistakes in any of the said bounds and any future trouble among neighbors, it is therefore hereby declared my intent is and ever was when I granted any of said lands that the bounds should be north- west as direct as may be, excepting the Back Cove grants are to run a little more westerly, to run right up the country to those bounds there, and all other though expressed north-west- erly, according to sea affairs, yet I meant, and is the true in- tent, according to the husbandman's account, who knows but eight points of the compass, which this north-westerly or north- west is one, and this I do assert to be a truth, as witness my hand this 12th day of April, 1664, by me, George Cleeves."2
We will now briefly notice the titles to some of the islands within the limits of ancient Falmouth. The names are Clap- board, Chebeag, Jewell's, Long, Peak's, Green, Bangs', Hog, Cow, House, Marsh, Overset, Mackey's, Ram, and Richmond's.3
1 Massachusetts State Files.
2 York Records.
3 The ancient names of some of the islands have been preserved, as Clapboard, Chebeag, Jewell's, Long, Hog, Cow, and House; Chebeag was sometimes called Chebaccho, and Jewell's, Donnell's island, from Henry Donnell, an ancient occu- pant and owner, who went from York. Mackey's is a corruption of Macworth, and derived its name from its first occupant. Peak's was originally called by the English, Pond Island; Cleeves gave it the name of Michael, when he in 1637 conveyed it to Michael Mitton ; after it passed into Munjoy's possession it bore his name ; his son-in-law, Palmer, after the decease of Munjoy, occupied it and gave it his name. To whom it owes its present appellation, I am unable to say ; it is however at least coeval with the name of Palmer. Bangs' Island was orig .
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
We find no early conveyance of the lower Clapboard Island; nor are we able to say by whom or how early it was occupied ; it contains about thirty acres, and lies about a mile from the shore, near the eastern line of Falmouth ; it was granted by the town to Mrs. Munjoy in 1681, as part compensation of land taken from her on the Neck for the use of the inhabitants.1 The upper Clapboard is in Cumberland, and was very early occupied by Thomas Drake and his grantees. There are two islands in the Bay called Chebeag, distinguished by the addi- tion Great and Little; the latter only belongs to our limits, the former is in Cumberland. Great Chebeag contains some- thing over two thousand acres, the other about one hundred and eighty. In carly grants they are not distinguished ; the first conveyance of either of them which we find, is from Cleeves to Walter Merry, September, 18, 1650; this grant is referred to by Danforth in a deed to Edmund White of Lon- don, in 1685, in which he recites that "George Cleeves, Gent., Deputy President of the province of Ligonia in New England, by order of Alexander Rigby, Esq., sergeant at law, and one of the Barons of the Exchequer in the kingdom of England, did grant unto Walter Merry of Boston, all that small island in Casco bay commonly called Chebeag, and now by the name of Merry's Island."? Whether this conveyance refers to the large or small island, we cannot precisely ascertain ; it would seem to be Great Chebeag, from the fact that president Danforth,
1 So say the depositions of Wallis and Lane, but the statement is doubtful.
2 The same island by the description of Chebeag or Merry's Island, was con- veyed by Robert Thornton of Canton, in New Plymouth, to Josiah Willes of Boston, October 8, 1675.
inally called Portland, it is so named in Hubbard, as is also the point opposite on which the light-house stands; and the passage between them was called Portland sound ; the island afterward received the name of Andrews' Island from James Andrews, who owned that and Ram Island lying near it; for its pres- ent name, it is indebted to Joshua' Bangs, its modern owner, who came here from Cape Cod, and died in 1761.
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TITLES TO ISLANDS IN FALMOUTH.
in 1682, granted Little Chebeag to Silvanus Davis, which re- mained in his possession many years. It cannot be supposed that Danforth so soon as three years afterward would have conveyed the same island to another, July 12, 1680, Domini- cus, Samuel, and Jeremiah Jordan, sons of Robert Jordan, conveyed to Walter Gendall, six hundred and fifty acres on Great Chebeag, which his administrator, Theodosius Moore, who married Gendall's widow, claimed under a resolve of Mas- sachusetts.1 . This tract was on the eastern side of the island, where improvements had been made. It had probably been used as a stage for fishermen, for which purpose it was advan- tageously situated. In 1683, the government of. Massachusetts granted or confirmed to Richard Wharton, six hundred and fifty acres on the western side of the island, which his admin- istrator, Ephraim Savage conveyed to the deacons of the first church in Boston, for the use of the poor, and which they claimed, calling the island Chebeag, or Recompense Island. This latter name, however, it did not retain. In 1743, it was owned by the first church in Boston and Col. Thomas West- brook, and in that year Westbrook's half was set off on execu- tion to Samuel and Cornelius Waldo, as was Little Chebeag, also belonging to Westbrook and Waldo, and derived by them from the legatees of Silvanus Davis .*
1 The legislature of Massachusetts, on the 7th of March, 1700, passed a re- solve appointing "a committee to receive and examine the claims of all proprie- tors of lands and of such as challenge propriety, in any of the lands lying with- in this province to the eastward of the town of Wells, laid waste by the late war." In 1697, an act had been passed for quieting possessions which limited all ac- tions for lands east of the Piscataqua to five years after the termination of the Indian war then pending. In 1715, this provision was extended five years ; the additional act provided "that there shall be a further time of five years, from the last of this instant, July, 1715, allowed all persons to pursue their right and claim, to any houses and lands in those parts and places, and every of them, and no longer." Under these provisions numerous claims were entered for lands between Wells and the Penobscot river.
* [On May 26, 1685, Massachusetts granted to Thomas Danforth, Esq., presi- dent of the province of Maine, and to Samuel Nowell, Esq., for their great
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Jewell's Island was purchased by Henry Donnell, of the In- dians, and occupied by him as a fishing stage for thirty years, until driven away in the war of 1688, with the loss of several lives, according to the statement of his son Samuel, who claimed it in 1710. Donnell went from York and married a daugh- ter of Thomas Reading, an ancient inhabitant in the bay, who died prievous to 1674, leaving a widow and children. Donnell gave his own name to the island, but it has not pre- vailed in practice ; its first name was probably derived from George Jewell, an early inhabitant of Saco, who was drowned in Boston Harbor in 1638. It was laid out by the new proprie- tors of Falmouth to John Tyng, under whom it is now lield.
Long Island contains six hundred and fifty acres, and was early taken up by John Sears, but at what particular time we are unable to determine ; he was an inhabitant of the bay be- fore 1646. In June, 1655, Sears sold this island to Isaac Walker of Boston, who in August, 1667, conveyed it to Richard Russell of Boston. It was confirmed by Massachusetts in 1683, to James Russell, son of Richard, who conveyed it to John Smith of Boston in 1706. We have lately found it called Smith's Island, in an old map of Casco bay, published in Lon- don, without date, but probably in 1702 or 1703.
We have often had occasion to notice Peak's Island ; from its vicinity to the town, and the goodness of its soil and situation, it early attracted attention ; it was conveyed by Cleeves to his son- in-law, Mitton, December 28, 1637; confirmed to him by Thomas Gorges in 1642, and again by Cleeves, as Rigby's agent, in 1650. Mitton's widow transferred it to John Phillips of Boston,
pains and good service done by order of this court in the expedition and several journeys to Casco, for which no recompence hath been made them, an island called Chebiscodego, in Casco bay, in the province of Maine, provided they take the same in full satisfaction for all service done, referring to the settlement of the province of Maine. This is no doubt Great Chebeag ; and did it not re- ceive the name Recompense, from the word in the grant, and the fact that it was payment for the grantees' services ?]
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TITLES TO ISLANDS IN FALMOUTH.
in 1661, by whose son-in-law, Munjoy, and his son-in-law, John Palmer, it was occupied many years, and was said to have been given to Palmer's wife, Mary, by her grandfather Phillips. Mun- joy erected a stone house upon the island before 1675 .* This island became the fruitful mother of lawsuits in modern times, it having been claimed by the posterity of Mitton, and by per- sons who purchased Phillips's title from the heirs of Munjoy. And it is believed now to be held under both titles by a sort of compromise ; the Brackett branch of the Mitton family occupy- ing part of it, and the grantees under Phillips the remainder.§
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