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 12
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Bangs' Island was owned by James Andrews before the first Indian war, and was called by his name; but how he derived his title we have no means of determining; it was confirmed to him by president Danforth, July, 1682. Hannah Hallom of Boston, 1733, testified that she lived in Falmouth in 1667, and "well remembers that said Andross improved a certain island in the mouth of Casco harbor, which was called Andross's own, and she never knew or heard any other person claim said island, or question said Andross's title thereto." Joshua Brackett, in a deed of Peak's Island to his son-in-law, Trott, in 1762, de- scribed it as "lying between Anders, Hog, Long, and House
* [The access to the voyage of Christopher Levett, published in the second vol. of the Maine Historical Collections, leads me to doubt whether the stone house referred to, was not in part the one built by Levett in 1623, rather than by Munjoy. We have no evidence that Munjoy ever lived himself on the island, although he improved it; Palmer, who married his daughter, lived there. Lev- ett says, in his narrative, "And thus after many dangers, &c. I have obtained a place of habitation in New England; I have built a house and fortified it in a reasonable good fashion." This was at the place called by the Indians, Quack, and which he named York, and which was one of the four islands, between which he made his boastel harbor. The four were Bangs, House, Peak's, and Hog, which now, as then, form the same beautiful and safe shelter for thousands of vessels annually seeking its protection.]
§ [Elizabeth Mitton, wife of Michael Mitton, October 7, 1661, conveyed Pond's or Peak's Island to John Phillips of Boston, who gave it to his granddaughter, Mary Munjoy, wife of John Palmer. It has borne the successive names of Pond, Michael, Munjoy, Palmer, and Peak's.]
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Islands." May 17, 1698, Andrews conveyed this island, which he called Portland Island, and the small one adjoining it, called Ram Island, to John Rouse of Marshfield ; Rouse claimed it under the resolve of Massachusetts before referred to, and after- ward conveyed it to John Bourne of Marshfield. This island was also called Fort Island, probably from its having been a place of retreat from the Indians in 1676, when a fort was hast- ily thrown up there for protection ; there are now remaining the ruins of a stone building upon the island .*
Hog Island was granted by Gorges to Cleeves and Tucker in January, 1637 ; in May, 1658, Cleeves conveyed it to Thomas Kimball of Charlestown, who, with Henry Kimball, sold it to Edward Tyng of Boston for twenty-five pounds, July 24, 1663. He conveyed it to his daughter Eunice, wife of Rev. Samuel Willard, September, 1679. Elizabeth Clark, granddaughter of Cleeves, and mother-in-law of Edward Tyng, testified in 1728, "that Phillip Lewis lived a considerable time on Hog Island, as tenant to Mr. Tyng, her son-in-law, and received money several times of the people of Falmouth for feeding their creatures on the said island."' This beautiful and valuable island contain- ing about two hundred and fifty acres, is held at the present day under the ancient title. Through all the changes of its owners it has preserved its original name, which, although not very classical, is a more common name for islands, than any other upon our coast. Cousin's Island in North Yarmouth, was anciently called Hog Island, and by the Indians, Suscussong, but the name of its first white proprietor has prevailed over them both.§
* [Bangs bought the island of Ezekiel Cushing, September 14, 1760, and soon after mortgaged it to his son-in-law, Jedediah Preble, describing it as contain- ing two hundred and fifteen acres. Preble afterward acquired the whole title, and it descended to his heirs.]
1 This fragment was furnished me by Wm. Gibbs, Esq., of Salem, a descend- ant of Edward Tyng. to whom I am indebted for some other particulars from the records of that county .- Essex County Record.
6 [The origin of this very common name for islands on our coast it is difficult
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TITLES TO ISLANDS IN FALMOUTH.
House Island was very early improved by persons engaged in the fishing business, for which its eligible situation peculiarly adapted it. In October, 1661, "Nicholas White, of Casco bay, planter," sold to John Breme, "now in the same bay, fisher- man," for five pounds three shillings, all his interest in House Island, being one quarter part, with one quarter of the house , but reserved liberty for Sampson Penley to make fish on said island during his life, and to have the refusal of the purchase, if Breme should sell. In 1663, Penley levied an execution against Joseph Phippen upon one quarter of the island, half of the old house and all of the new house, together with half of the stages ; and in March of next year he sold his whole inter- est in the island to George Munjoy. In November, 1663, William Noreman, "resident in Casco, fisherman," sold to George Munjoy, quarter of the island and quarter of the house upon it. Munjoy seems now to have acquired the whole title, which was confirmed to his widow in 1681, by president Dan- forth, and descended to her heirs under whom it is now held. White, after selling his interest in the island, moved further up the bay, and we afterward find him in North Yarmouth, then called Westcustogo. Phippen probably used the island until dispossessed by Penley; he lived at Purpooduck .* We do not meet with the name of Noreman after this occasion ; he was probably a transient person. Richmond's Island, we have be- fore sufficiently noticed ; the other, islands, the Green, Cow,
* [House Island has continued to the present day to be used as a place for fishing stages. The government of the United States purchased the western part of it in 1808, erected a wooden block-house upon it, which is now (1864) being greatly enlarged and strengthened, and made a formidable fortress.]
to learn or conjecture. It is very clear that it could not be derived from the animal of that name, for they did not exist there. I suppose it must be a cor- ruption of some Indian term having local sense. Is not the word Quack which Levett applies to one of these islands, the true name, and may it not have reach- ed its appellation, thus, Quack-Quoag, spelt by Webster Quahauj, a species of (lam-Hog. I cannot give a more probable interpretation.]
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Marsh, Overset, and two small ones called the Brothers, which belong to the Macworth property, are of small extent, not inhabited, and not of sufficient consequence to claim particu- lar attention.
In 1663, the court of York, consisting of two commissioners specially appointed by the general court, and the associates of the county, passed the following order relative to the islands : "We, by virtue of a commission to us granted by the general court of Massachusetts, do grant that all the islands in Casco bay lying within the jurisdiction of the government of Massa- chusetts, and within the limits of the breadth of the lines of the town of Falmouth, eastward into the said bay shall belong and are hereby ordered to be within the said town and under the government thereof, and bear town charges in proportion with other inhabitants there, saving the propriety of each per- son in every of the said islands, with Richman's Island."
The extension of the laws and jurisdiction of Massachusetts over this territory had an important influence upon its set- tlement and prosperity. Hitherto we may presume that no permanent code of laws had been established, the records fur- nish no indication of the kind ; but temporary ordinances were framed as they were called for by the wants of the people and the emergency of the occasion ; and the execution of these must . have been inefficient and fluctuating. But when the laws of Massachusetts were introduced, sanctioned by her example and power, and enforced with rigor, security was afforded for the enjoyment of property and civil privileges. Persons were en- couraged to migrate to this province from the neighboring col- onies, by the prospects which were furnished in the facilities for fishing, for agriculture and trade. Among those who were drawn here at that time, was George Munjoy, a man of educa- tion and enterprise, and who united with these advantages the command of a capital, which enabled him to exercise an exten- sive influence over the prosperity of the place. He was the son of John Munjoy, of Abbotsham, in the county of Devon,
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NEW SETTLERS.
England, or Mountjoy, as the name still exists in that county, and was born in 1626. At the age twenty-one, in 1647, he was admitted a freeman of Massachusetts, and soon after mar- ried Mary, the only daughter of John Phillips, deacon of the first church in Boston, and a respectable merchant ; his eldest son, John, was born April 17, 1653, in Boston, as were also George in 1656, and Josiah in 1658 ; his other children were Pelatiah, Hepzebah, married to Mortimore, and Mary, his eld- est daughter, married to John Palmer ; the date of her birth* we have not ascertained, but it was probably before that of John; the other two we suppose were born in Falmouth. Munjoy had visited Falmouth as early as 1657, as we perceive by his signature as a witness to several deeds, but he did not settle here until after May, 1659; for in an agreement entered into in that month, he is styled of Boston. His father-in-law, in September, 1659, purchased Cleeves's homestead at the lower end of the Neck, and erected a house for him upon a part of the land ; this continued to be his residence during his abode here, although he subsequently purchased a large tract of land on the Presumpscot, at Ammoncongin, and a farm of four hun- dred acres on the northerly side of Long Creek, both of which he improved for several years immediately previous to the first Indian war. He lived on this farm in part, about four years be- fore the Indian war. He had a sister Mary who married John Saunders of Braintree, Mass.
Beside Munjoy, there came, in 1661, the three Wakelys, Thomas, John, and Isaac, and Matthew Coe, who married a daughter of Thomas Wakely. They came from Gloucester, Cape Ann, and settled at Back Cove on two hundred acres, purchased of Richard Tucker, west of Fall brook. Mather, in his Magnalia, speaking of Thomas Wakely, says, "Now this honest old man was one who would often say with tears, that
* [Savage says Mary was born in Falmouth, and came to Boston for baptism, July 9, 1665. Savage also mentions sons, Phillip, Benjamin, and Gershom ; they died unmarried. The name is extinct except in the hill at Portland.]
10
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
he believed God was displeased at him, inasmuch as albeit he came into New England for the sake of the gospel, yet he had left another place in the country where he had enjoyed the gos- pel in the communion of a gathered church, and now lived many years in a plantation where there was no church at all, nor the ordinances and institutions of the Lord Jesus Christ."
John Wakely, the son, afterward settled upon the east side of Presumpscot river, below the falls ; Matthew Coe died be- fore the war, leaving several children, John,1 his eldest son; Isaac ; Martha, married to a Farnum of Boston ; Elizabeth, married to a Tucker of Roxbury ; who were both widows in 1731 ; and another daughter, married to Joseph Ingersoll, one of our early settlers.
Two other persons, one of them of great influence in the subsequent affairs of the town, came here about this time, Anthony and Thomas Brackett, They were brothers, and came from that part of Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, which is now called Greenland. We first meet with Anthony's name in 1662, as a witness to the delivery of possession of the Bram- hall farm to Hope Allen, June 3rd, of that year ; he married Ann, the daughter of Michael Mitton, and occupied the one hundred acres granted to her by George Cleeves, at Back Cove. He subsequently enlarged his farm to four hundred acres, in- cluding one hundred acres which belonged to Michael Mitton and his son Nathaniel, Durham's fifty acres, and two lots of fifty-five acres each, which belonged to Ingersoll and Rider. His brother Thomas married Mary, another daughter of Michael Mitton, and occupied the homestead on Clark's Point, having entered into covenant, in 1671, to support his mother-in-law ?. during her life.
1 John Coe moved to Rhode Island, his son John was a cordwainer in Little Compton in 1731, and is undoubtedly the ancestor of Dr. John Coe, late of this town.
2 There were at least two distinct families of Brackett early settled in New England, one in Boston, the other in Portsmouth. Richard was the head of the
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EARLY SETTLERS.
Thaddeus Clarke, who married Elizabeth, also a daughter of Michael Mitton, appears for the first time in our records in 1663 ; he was then married but could not long have been, as his wife at this time was but eighteen years old. The record referred to is an assignment to him of the deed from Cleeves to Mitton of the one hundred acres at Clarke's Point; it is dated March 1, and is as follows : "These presents witness that I, Elizabeth Mitton, late wife to Michael Mitton, deceased, in consideration that Thaddeus Clarke married my daughter Elizabeth, I do by these presents grant, give, and make over all my right, title, and interest in the lands within mentioned, un- to the said Thaddeus Clarke, his heirs,1 etc." We do not know where Clarke originated, or when he came here; the Rev. Timothy Alden, in his notice of the Tyng family, says Clarke came from Ireland, but he does not say when, nor does he give any authority for the statement.
Beside those before mentioned, the following persons appear to have been inhabitants of the town previous to 1670, viz: John Cloice, Robert Elliott, Lawrence Davis, George Felt, Walter Gendall, John Guy, John and Joseph Ingersoll, Phillip Lewis, Michael Madiver, Robert Nichols, James Ross, John Skillings, Ralph Turner, William Whitwell, and Jenkin Will- iams, of whom Elliott, Davis, Gendall, Guy, Madiver, and Turner settled upon the south side of Fore river; Cloice and
1 York Records.
Boston family ; he was admitted freeman in 1636, moved to Braintree in 1642, and the same year was ordained deacon of the church there. He died in 1689, having had seven children, four sons and three daughters. There were others who did not belong to Richard's family ; the name was common in Boston and the vicinity in those days, and sustained a respectable standing. The first of the name we meet with in New Hampshire, is William, who was sent by Capt. John Mason to Piscataqua, in 1631, among "his stewards and servants." May 25, 1640, Anthony Brackett, one of the inhabitants of Portsmouth, signed a deed of glebe land to the church wardens for a parsonage. This person, I conjecture to be the father of Anthony and Thomas, who came here, and whose descend- ants are widely scattered over the State,
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Nichols on the west side of Prescumpscot river ; Lewis, Ross, and Skillings at Back Cove; the two Ingersolls near the nar- row of the Neck, their farms stretching westerly toward Capi- sic ; Whitwell on the Neck, near Robinson's wharf; and Will- iams on the east side of Presumpscot river, near Scitterygusset creek. The father of George Felt was one of the first settlers of North Yarmouth, having established himself at Broad Cove about 1640 ; here he built a stone house, made improvements, and raised a family. His son George was concerned in a large purchase of the Indians in 1672, of land on the north-easterly side of the Presumpscot ; he married a daughter of Jane Mac- worth, and joined the freemen of Falmouth in a petition to the general court about 1660. He had a brother Moses, born in 1650, who lived in North Yarmouth and Falmouth until 1690, with the exception of the Indian war, and was living in Chelsea in 1733, aged eighty-three years.1
John Cloice or Cloyes was a mariner and probably came from Watertown, in Massachusetts, with his family ; he was here in 1660 ; his first wife's name was Abigail, his second Juliann. His children by his first wife, born in Watertown, were John, August 26, 1638 ; Peter, May 27, 1640; Nathaniel, March 6, , 1642; Abigail, married to Jenkin Williams ; Sarah, married to Peter Housing ; and Thomas, born of the second wife. The
1 George Felt, Senior, was born in 1601, and was living in Malden 1688, aged eighty- seven ; in a petition to Andross, 1688, he stated that about eighteen years before he had bought a plantation or farin of John Phillips of Boston, at a place called Great Cove, in Casco bay, containing about two thousand acres, for which he paid sixty pounds, that he had occupied it about three years before the pur- chase ; that after the Indian war, it was withheld from him by Casco people, and he being impoverished could not recover it; that he was then suffering for want, being about eighty-seven years old. In 1727, Moses Felt in a deed to a committee of North Yarmouth of three hundred acres on Broad Cove, recited that his father, George Felt, bought said land of John Phillips of Casco bay, and afterward again purchased it of the agent of Sir F. Gorges, about the year 1643 ; that said Felt built a house on this land and lived in it above forty years without molestation until 1684 .- North Yarmouth Records.
[George Felt, Senior, died at Malden, in 1693.]
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EARLY SETTLERS.
name is not found here now, nor in the vicinity ; the last per- son who bore it in town was Thomas, who was killed by the In- dians in 1690, leaving two sons, Thomas and George, and a daughter Hannah ; Thomas moved to Boston and George to Salem.
An active, hardy, and enterprising population was fast spread- ing over the town, clearing up the forest and opening the soil to the face of day. The children of the first settlers were coming forward on the stage ; and we find even at this early period, that town born children were arriving at the age of maturity and becoming themselves the heads of families. The deaths of adult persons as far as we have been able to ascertain, were few ; Winter and Macworth alone occur previous to 1660: we have now to notice in the latter year that of Michael Mitton. Mitton's last act was his release to Jordan before mentioned, dated August 25, 1660 ; his widow alone acknowledged the deed, and October 7, of the next year, she alone conveyed Peak's Island to John Phillips. We have supposed that Mit- ton came over from England with Cleeves in 1637, for in that year he makes his first appearance upon our soil as the grantee of Peak's Island. The time of his marriage with Cleeves's only child Elizabeth, cannot be precisely ascertained ; their daughter Elizabeth was born in 1644, she gave her deposition in Boston, in 1735, in which she testified that she was about ninety years old : their daughter Anne was probably the eld- est; she signed as witness, a deed from her grandfather Cleeves to her father, in 1651. They had five daughters and one son, whose names were as follows: Anne, married to Anthony Brackett; Elizabeth, to Thaddeus Clark; Mary, to Thomas Brackett ; Sarah, to James Andrews; and Martha, to John Graves, who lived in Kittery first, and subsequently in Little Compton ; last, Nathaniel, who was never married. The name is now extinct in this country, but his blood in the female line flows over the whole State, and is not confined to it. Mitton is styled in conveyances, Gentleman, a title which had not lost
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
all its meaning in that day ; in 1640, he was appointed by the first general court in the province, constable of Casco, an office of respectability in our early history. John Jocelyn says of him, "The gentleman was a great fowler." Mitton's charac- ter partook of the licentiousness which prevailed throughout the province in the first stages of its history ; and one trans- action which is recorded, must ever leave a perpetual stain upon his memory. Richard Martin, an early inhabitant of Casco, was the father of two daughters, whom, being about to return to England to arrange his affairs, he left in the family of Mitton. During their residence of several months with him in 1646, he insinuated himself into the favor of the eldest, named Mary, whom he seduced. She afterward went to Bos- ton and was delivered of a bastard child, of which she confessed Mitton to be the father ; overcome with shame, she endeavored to conceal her first crime by the commission of a more heinous one in the murder of her infant. For this she perished upon the scaffold, at the early age of twenty-two years in March, 1647.1
The want of a regular government east of the Piscataqua for many years, encouraged a laxity of morals which did not prevail in any other part of New England. We meet upon the records numerous and frequent complaints of adultery and for- nication, the parties in which escaped with a small fine or other slight punishment .?
The widow of Mitton, a few years after his death, married a Harvey, an undistinguished man, who died before her, leaving her a second time a widow ; she died herself in 1681.
1 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 302.
2 The commissioners of the king in the Report of their doings here in 1665, speaking of the people east of the Kennebec, say "those people for the most part are fishermen, and never had any government among them : most of them are such as have fled from other places to avoid justice. Some here are of opinion that as many men share in a woman as they do in a boat, and some have done so."
CHAPTER
1659 to 1665,
FIRST COURT UNDER MASSACHUSETTS-STATE OF RELIGION IN THE TOWN-DEPUTIES-COURTS-PAY OF JURYMEN-HIGHWAYS-PRISON-ABRAHAM PREBLE-OPPOSITION TO MASSACHUSETTS-KING'S COM- MISSIONERS SUSPEND THE AUTHORITY OF THAT COLONY-MEMORIAL FROM CASCO-RETURN OF THE COMMISSIONERS.
The first court held after the submission of Falmouth and Scarborough, of which we have any record, was at York, July 4, 1659. Massachusetts sent two of her magistrates to preside at this court, who were assisted by Major Nicholas Shapleigh,1 Mr. Abraham Preble,? and Mr. Edward Rishworth,2 local magis- trates. Several actions were entered by and against persons living in the eastern part of the country, as we have before noticed. George Lewis was appointed constable for Falmouth, and Henry Jocelyn,3 Robert Jordan, George Cleeves, Francis Neale, and Henry Watts,3 commissioners for Falmouth and Scarborough.
1 Of Kittery.
2 Of York.
3 Jocelyn lived at Black Point, and Watts at Blue Point, on the opposite side of the river; Watts was born in 1604, was in Saco as early as 1631, and was living in 1684.
[The following is a fac-simile of the hand-writing and signature of Henry Watts.]
that 182 of August 1659 Houry watto Come
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
The care of the morals of the people and the promotion of religious instruction among them, early and steadily occupied the attention of the government after they acquired a jurisdic- tion over the province. They wished however to instruct in their own way, and to have the people conform to their modes of thinking and practice on religious subjects. The following order relative to Falmouth was passed at the first court : "This court being informed that the inhabitants of Falmouth are at present destitute of any public means for their edification on the Lord's Day, and by reason of the people not meeting to- gether for their mutual furtherance in the ways of God, great advantage is given unto the common enemy, joining with the corruption of such as have no delight to sanctify God's holy rest, the neglect whereof being an inlet to all profaneness, and cannot but be provoking to the jealousy of him who is the fountain of our peace and welfare ; for the prevention whereof these are therefore to require all the inhabitants of the said place from time to time in one or more convenient place or places to meet together on the Lord's Day, for their mutual edification and furtherance in the knowledge and fear of the Lord, by reading of God's word and of the labors of known and orthodox divines, singing of psalms, and praying together, or such other ways as the Lord shall enable them, till the favor of God shall so far smile upon them as to give them better and more public means for their edification."
It appears by a petition of the inhabitants to the general court, which we have before noticed, that in the May following the date of this order, they had a preacher among them ; they say, "God begun to answer our prayers and send us a faithful dispenser of the word," which, they add, they hoped to enjoy, if "their destractions doe not discourage him." He was probably with them in 1661, for the general court in that year, require Saco, Scarborough, and Wells to procure able and orthodox ministers in six months time, but say nothing of Falmouth. This, without doubt, is the only preacher they had been favored
145
STATE OF RELIGION.
with, beside those of the Episcopalian order, Gibson and Jor- dan ; but it appears that he did not stay long among them, for in July, 1669, the court order Falmouth and Scarborough both, "forthwith to seek out and provide themselves of an able and orthodox preacher to be their minister ; and in case of neglect to supply themselves by the 20th day of September next, they shall each pay unto the ministry of the next town adjoining to theirs that is supplied, fifty pounds per annum, during their being destitute."
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