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 18
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In this attack upon the town, Hubbard says there were thir- ty-four persons killed and carried into captivity. The names of those who were killed as far as we can ascertain, were Ben- jamin Atwell, Thomas Brackett, Robert Corbin, Humphrey Durham, Nathaniel Mitton, John Munjoy, and Isaac Wakely ; the prisoners were Anthony Brackett, his wife, five children, and a negro servant, Thomas Brackett's wife and three children, Corbin's wife, the wife of Atwell or Durham, and the children of the other, and James Ross, with his wife and children, making seventeen prisoners, exclusive of the unknown number of chil- dren in the families of Ross and of Atwell or Durham. Others were killed and captured whose names are not mentioned. All upon the Neck probably escaped by the timely notice they had received, except Munjoy, Wakely, and the Brackett family. No mention is made of any lives having been lost at this time on the south side of Casco river ; they were undoubtedly admonished of their danger, by the burning dwellings of their neighbors, in season to save their lives if not their property.1
1 The following letter written by Brian Pendleton, of Saco, two days after the
.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
To what extent the buildings were destroyed, we have no means of ascertaining. It seems that the houses of Lewis and Wallis were not burned the first day, as one was visited in the
transaction, with which I have been favored through John Farmer, Esq., who has the original in his possession, will be read with interest in this connection. It is superscribed "ffor the Honored Governor and Counsell for the Matacusets at Bos- ton, With all speed." "Honored Governor together with the Counsell."
"I am sorry my pen must bee the messenger of soe greate a tragedye. On the 11 of this instant wee heard of many killed of our naybors in Falmouth or Casco bay, and on the 12 instant Mr. Joslin sent mee a briefe letter written from under the hand of Mr. Burras, the minister. Hee gives an account of thirty-two killed and carried away by the Indians. Himself* escaped to an island-but I hope Black Point men have fetched him off by this time-ten men, six women, sixteen clildren. Anthonyt and Thomas Brackett and Mr. Munjoy his sonne onely are named. I had not time to coppye the letter, persons beinge to goe post to Major Walden ; but I hope he hath before this sent the originall to you, How soon it will be our portion wee know not. The Lord in mercy fit us for death and direckt ye harts and hands to ackt and doe wt is most needful in such a time of distress as this. Thus in hast I commit you to Gidance of our Lord God and desire your prayers alsoe for us.
Yours in all humility to serve in the Lord
Winter Harbour at night the 13 of August 1676" >
BRIAN PENDLETON."
On the 20th of August, George Munjoy was sent to Falmouth from Boston, with fifteen hundred pounds of bread, for the relief of persons there. In their in- structions to Mr. Munjoy the government say, "Considering the distress the soldiers may be put into for want of their provisions as also the distress of the people on Mr. Andrews' Island, you are hereby required forthwith to dispatch said vessel away without delay and deliver the said bread according to the order from Mr. Rishworth for the ends aforesaid and for the speedy relief of those on the island, the charge whereof is to be borne by that county." by order of Council.
Munjoy rendered this service, but not receiving compensation from the ex- pected source, he petitioned the General Court for allowance in October, 1679.
The following letter from] Richard Martyn of Portsmouth, to Gen. Dennison, contains interesting information relative to this period.
"Honored Sir,
This serves to cover a letter from Capt. Hathorn from Casco Bay, in which you
* Burroughs.
+ His ¡information with respect to Anthony Brackett was not correct as we have seen; the letter was no doubt written before his fate was ascertained.
207
THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
night and the other continued to be occupied until the next day. Hubbard mentions generally that the houses of those killed and taken prisoners were burned, we therefore conclude that those of the two Bracketts, Corbin, Atwell, Ross, and Dur- ham at least, were destroyed. The houses no doubt, like most of those of the first settlers in every new country, were of very ordinary description, probably one story with thatched roofs and wooden chimneys, many of them mere temporary shelters built of logs filled in with clay.
The Indians proceeded with their captives from Falmouth to the Kennebec river. On the 14th of August the war begun
will understand their want of bread, which want I hope is well supplied before this time; for we sent them more than two thousand waight; which I suppose they had last Lord's day night : the boat that brought the letters brings also word yt Saturday night the Indians burnt Mr. Munjoy's house and seven persons in it, yt is his house at ye fishing Island. The Sagamore of Pegwackuk is taken and kil'd and one In. Sampson by our army ; but the enemy is doing mischiefe apace. On Sabbath day a man and his wife namely one Gouge were shot dead and stript by ye Indians at Wells. Yesterday at 2 of the clocke Cape Nedick was wholly cut off only two men and a woman with two or three children escaped, so yt-we expect now to hear of farther mischiefe every day. They send to us for helpe both Wells and Yorke but we had so many men out of our town yt we know not how to spare any more. Your speciall speedy order for the impress- ing some from the Shoales will be of good use at present. Sir please to give notice to ye Councill yt supply be sent to ye army from ye Bay for they have eatin us out of bread, and here is little wheat to be gottin and lesse money to pay for it. Supplysmay as easily be sent ym from Boston as from hence, and should there be another army come among us as I suppose there must speedily be wee shall be very hard put to it to find bread for them, the Lord direct you and us in ye great concerns that are before us, which dutifull service presented in haste I remain
Sr your servant,
Portsmouth Sept. 26, 1676.
RICHARD MARTIN. Directed,
To ye Honored Maj. Generall Daniel Denison these present In Ipswich.
Hast Post Hast.
By an Indian yt was taken the army was informed yt at Pegwacket there are wenty captives. D. DENISON."
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
in that quarter, in the first scenes of which, our Indians were probably not concerned ; Richard Hammond's house was at- tacked on that day, and himself with Samuel Smith and Joshua Grant were killed. The Indians then divided, eleven went up the river and captured Francis Card and his family, the remainder went down to Arrowsic Island, now Georgetown, took the fort by surprise, killed Capt. Thomas Lake, one of the chief proprie- tors, with many others, and wounded several, among whom was Capt. Silvanus Davis, afterward a prominent inhabitant of Falmouth. Here they were joined by the Indians from Fal- mouth and those who went up the river, and laid plans of future depredations.
It was on this occasion that Anthony Brackett and his family escaped out of their hands by means of an old birch canoe which his wife repaired with a needle] and thread found in a deserted house. Their captors were so anxious to press for- ward and share in the success of their friends on the Kenne- bec, that they left Brackett and his family to follow after them. Hubbard says, "In that old canoe they crossed a water eight or nine miles broad, and when they came on the south side of the bay, they might have been in as much danger of other Indians that had lately been about Black Point and had taken it; but they were newly gone ; so things on all sides thus con- curring to help forward their deliverance, they came safely to Black Point, where also they met with a vessel bound for Piscataqua, that came into that harbor but a few hours before they came thither, by which means they arrived safe in Piscata- qua river soon after."
The Indians who had collected on Arrowsic in the begin- ning of September were about one hundred, who having laid waste the country round, one division went to Sheepscott and Pemaquid, another made an attack on Jewell's Island. Many of the inhabitants had fled from the main to this remote island, as a place of safety, and had trusted too securely in its distance, without taking sufficient precaution against a sudden invasion.
209
THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
There was at this time a fortified house upon the island, but it was almost without occupants and feebly guarded. Many of the people were absent procuring provisions for their families, when the enemy suddenly made their appearance. The occu- pants of the garrison resolutely defended it, until some who had been abroad returned "and desperately broke in through the Indians" to the fort, and prevented its being taken. The Indians soon after drew off and the inhabitants were relieved by a government vessel, which was called to their assistance by some who escaped from the island at the time of the attack. Sev- eral of the Indians were killed, and three of the English; two women and two children were taken captives. The wife of Richard Potts, who was washing by the water side, was taken · with her children in sight of her husband, who was unable to afford his family any relief.
On the 23d of September, a number of those persons who had been driven from Casco and the vicinity, whose names are not given, except George Felt's, being driven by the distress which their families were suffering for the necessaries of life, ventured to go upon Munjoy's Island 1 to procure provisions, there being a number of sheep there. They had scarcely landed six or seven men, when the Indians fell suddenly upon them ;" and although they defended themselves with desperate courage from the ruins of a stone house, to which they had retreated, yet they were all destroyed. Felt was much lamented; he was a useful and enterprising man, and had been more active against the Indians than any other in this vicinity. He left a family, who moved to Chelsea, in which neighborhood his descendants are yet living. His wife was a daughter of Jane Macworth, by whom he liad three sons, George, Samuel, and Jonathan.2
1 I think this is what is now called House Island. This unfortunate event is referred to in Martyn's letter, ante. p. 206, note.
2 The father of George Felt was born in 1601; he lived in North Yarmouth [three years . He was one of the Malden settlers, where he died in 1693, aged
210
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
As soon as news of the commencement of hostilities reached the government of Massachusetts, measures were taken to afford protection and assistance to the inhabitants. One hun- dred and thirty English and forty friendly Indians were dis- patched under the command of Captains Hawthorn, Sill, and Hunting, who were to be joined with such forces as could be raised in the province. They proceeded by the coast to Fal- mouth, where the head-quarters of the enemy were supposed to be. They arrived at Casco Bay, September 20, and although every plantation west of it had suffered depredations from the enemy, they met with but two Indians on their march. One they killed and the other escaped at Falmouth to Back Cove and gave notice of the approach of the forces to his comrades, who had been heard a short time before threshing in Anthony Brackett's barn. They were thus enabled to escape. This expedition produced no permanent advantage; wherever the troops appeared, the enemy fled from their presence, and nothing could be found of them but the desolation which they had caused. They left this part of the country in the begin- ning of October, and about a week afterward, the Indians rallied their forces, one hundred strong, and, October 12, made an assault upon Black Point, The inhabitants had collected in the garrison of Henry Jocelyn, who endeavored to nego- tiate a treaty with Mugg, for their safe retreat. When he re- turned from this service to the garrison, he found the inhabi- tants had fled to their boats and carried their property with them, leaving Jocelyn alone with his family and servants ; he was consequently obliged to surrender at discretion. 1
1 Mr. Farmer has favored me with the following document. "A list of the in- habitants at Black Point Garrison October 12 1676.
In ye Garison Daniel Moore John Tenney Henry Brookin
Living muskett Ralphe Heison
shott from ye Mathew Heyson Garison Joseph Oliver
ninety- two. His wife died the same year. The Rev. Joseph B. Felt of Salem the distinguished antiquarian and historian, is of this family.]
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THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
They next proceeded to Richmond's Island; a vessel was lying here belonging to Mr. Fryer, of Portsmouth, which had been sent, by the solicitation of Walter Gendall, to preserve the property upon the island. While they were engaged in this duty, they were attacked by a multitude of the enemy. Owing to the unfavorable state of the wind, they were unable to get their vessel out of the harbor; the enemy seized this advantage and proceeded to cut the cable of the vessel, while part of them stood ready to shoot down every man who appeared on her deck to render any assistance. Under these circum- stances the vessel was driven on shore, and the crew, consisting of eleven persons, were taken prisoners. Among them was James Fryer, son of the owner, a respectable young man of Portsmouth, who afterward died of wounds received in that engagement ; also Walter Gendall, who became of service to the enemy as interpreter and messenger.
Nathaniell Willett Charles Browne Edward ffairfield Hampton & Salisbury soldiers.
Chris'r Edgecome John Edgecome Michael Edgecome
In ye hutts wth ffrancis Sholet
out ye Garison but joining to it
Anthony Roe
ye garison
John Ashden John Warrick Goodman Luscome
James Lybbey John Lybbey Anthony Lybbey
Tymothy Collins Andrew Broune sen. Andrew Broune John Broune Joseph Broune Ambrose Bouden Constable Tho. Cuming John Herman
George Taylor James Ogleby Dunken Chessom William Sheldon John Vickers Rrd. Bassen
Sam'l Oakman sen.
John Elson
Peter Hinkson
Ricd. Willin John Symson
Tho. Cleaueley
John Cooke
R'rd Burroughs
James Ogleby John Cocke Daniel Moore
Dunken Chessom
Richard Burrough William Burrage."
A list of ye names of those yt ware prest by vertue of Capt. Hartherne's order to be for ye service of ye Garison of ye inhabitants aforesaid.
ffrancis Shealett Edward Hounslow
Living thre mus- Robert Edgecome kett shott from Henry Elkins
Thomas Bickford Robert Tydey Richard Moore
Samuel Lybbey
Ro'rt Eliott
ffrancis White
Richard Honeywell John Howell
212
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
The affair at Richmond's Island was the last in Falmouth, during the war ; and the war here may be said to have ceased for the want of victims. Mugg, who had led the Indians in the two last attacks, seemed now to be desirous of peace, and for that purpose went to Portsmouth on the first of November, carrying James Fryer, and offered to enter into a treaty. The commanding officer there, not being authorized to negotiate, sent him to Boston, where on the 6th of November, articles of pacification were entered into with the government, by Mugg, in behalf of Madockawando and Cheberrina, Sachems of Penob- scot. Mugg, as a pledge of his fidelity, consented to remain a hostage until the property and captives were restored.
There was a great reluctance on the part of the Indians to comply with the terms of the treaty, and on one pretext and another they evaded the principal articles. They had no reason thus far to be dissatisfied with the war; they had taken at least sixty prisoners and a large amount of property, and had lived upon the best fruits of English industry, while they had lost but very few men. Their range over the country was now unimpeded, and they had nothing but a dread of future retribution from the English, to induce them to lay down their arms. That so small a number of Indians should have been able to have committed so great depredations and outrages up- on such a long line of settlements, can only be accounted for by supposing the energy and judgment of the people to have been overcome by panic. Although their habitations were scattered and their preparations for defense feeble, still had they in the first onset made a resolute resistance, they would have inspired terror into the enemy instead of feeling it themselves. It appears from an estimate presented to the committee of the colonies in England, in 1675, that the militia in Maine, includ- ing Sagadahock, amounted to seven hundred, of which eighty were in Casco bay, eighty in Sagadahock, one hundred in Black Point, one hundred in Saco and Winter Harbor, eighty in Wells and Cape Porpus, eighty in York, and one hundred
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THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
and eighty in Kittery.1 The Indians never had fighting men to be compared with this number, and yet they entirely de- stroyed most, and for three years harrassed the remainder of the settlements in the province.
Madockawando and Squando were the most powerful chiefs during this war ; they are described by Hubbard as "a strange kind of moralized savages ; grave and serious in their speech, and not without some show of a kind of religion." "It is also said they pretend to have received some visions and revelations, by which they have been commanded to worship the great God and not to work on the Lord's day." These notions are attribu- ted to their intercourse with Catholic priests. These two cele- brated persons held in their hands for a time the destinies of the eastern country. Mugg was the prime minister of the Penob- scot Sachem, an active and shrewd leader, but who by his intimacy with English families, had worn off some of the fero- cities of the savage character.
The attempts at peace in the latter part of 1676, proving unsuccessful, the war was continued through the next year; spending its force principally in the western part of the State. Simon who commenced the tragedy at Casco, was not idle in its closing scenes. On the 16th of May, a party under Mugg, attacked the garrison at Black Point, which was resolutely defended for three days ; in the latter part of which, the active leader of the beseigers having been killed, the seige was precipi- tately abandoned. This ill success was however revenged on the - same spot in the following month, when a large force liaving been sent to that place, without experience in the kind of warfare, were drawn into an ambuscade and nearly all destroyed.
1 The daily pay of the militia who served in this war was for a general, six shillings; captain, five shillings; commissary general, four shillings ; surgeon general, four shillings; lieutenant, four shillings ; ensign, four shillings ; ser- geant, two shillings six pence; corporal, two shillings ; private, one shilling six pence .- Chalmer's Annals, Indian corn was from two shillings six pence to three shillings a bushel. A cow, forty-five shillings .- Morton's Memorandum, p. 460.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
In the summer, the enemy were checked near the seat of their power by the interference of Major Andross, Governor of New York, who sent a force to protect the interest of the Duke of York in his province. He established a strong garrison at Pemaquid, which overawed the Indians of that neighborhood ; the next spring they made proposals to the government for peace, and commissioners were appointed to treat with them. The commissioners, Messrs. Shapleigh and Champernoon, of Kittery, and Fryer, of Portsmouth, proceeded to Casco, where they met the Indians, and mutually signed articles of peace on the 12th of April, 1678. By this treaty the people were per- mitted to return to their habitations, and it was agreed that they should occupy them without molestation, paying annually to the Indians one peck of corn for each family, except Major Phillips, of Saco, who having a larger estate, was required to pay one bushel annually. The captives were all restored, and an end was put to a relentless war, in which whole families were sacrificed, human nature exposed to detestable cruelties, and property wantonly destroyed. The doom of Falmouth was pronounced at once ; it was not called to transient and often repeated suffering, but after the unhappy fate of the Wakely family it was crushed by a single blow, and I do not find one trace of its having been reoccupied until the peace. Some of the persons from Falmouth who were taken captives, will be briefly noticed; we have already spoken of the escape of Anthony Brackett and his family ; the wife of Thomas Brack- ett perished in the first year of her captivity ;1 her three chil- dren survived, and afterward lived in Greenland. James Ross and his family were restored and afterward lived in Falmouth.
1 She was Mary, a daughter of Michael Mitton ; her children were Joshua, who died in Greenland, and was father of our townsmen, Anthony and Joshua, who owned the large tract of land extending from Clark's Point across the Neck to Back Cove. Her other children were Sarah, who married John Hill of Ports- mouth, and Mary, married to Christopher Mitchell, of Kittery. They did not return to Falmouth. [Anthony and Joshua, Jr., returned on the resettlement of the town and died here, leaving large families. ]
215
WALTER GENDALL INDICTED.
Walter Gendall was subsequently an inhabitant of Falmouthı, and then of North Yarmouth, where he was killed. He had exposed himself to suspicion, while a prisoner among the enemy, of having betrayed the English, and was tried for the offense at Boston in September, 1677. The record is as follows: "Walter Gendall of or near Black Point being presented and indicted by the grand jury, and left to trial, was brought to the bar and was indicted by the name of Walter Gendall, for not having the fear of God before his eyes, and being instigated by the devil, in the time of the war with the Indians, in a perfidious and treacherous way, against the inhabitants of this colony's peace and safety, sought to betray them into the enemy's hands, by his endeavour and counsel, contrary to the peace of our sover- eign lord the king, his crown and dignity, and the law of this commonwealth-To which indictment he pleaded not guilty, and referred himself for his trial to the bench. The magis_ trates having duly weighed the indictment, and the evidences in the case produced against him, found him guilty of the indictment, and do therefore sentence him to run the guante- lope through the military companies in Boston on the 10th inst. with a rope about his neck ; that lie forfeit all his lands to the country, and be banished out of this jurisdiction, to be gone® by the 6th day of October next, on penalty of perpetual im- prisonment if he return again, and discharging the costs and charges of this prosecution." What was the nature of the offense for which this severe punishment was inflicted, does not appear; that there was some misinformation to the court about it, may be inferred from the fact that he was soon after re- stored to the possession of his lands and to public confidence. In July, 1680, we find him acting as one of the commissioners of Falmouth ; in 1681, he was appointed by President Danforth to regulate the settlement of North Yarmouth ; in 1683, Fort Loyal, in Casco, was committed to his care, and in 1684 he was deputy to the General Assembly of this province. Gen- dall's name occurs first in Falmouth, as a juryman, in 1666;
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
in 1669, he exchanged farms with Michael Madiver, of Black Point, and is then called "Planter, dwelling in the town of Fal- mouth." June 3, 1680, he bought of George Felt, Sen., of Casco, planter," one hundred acres "on the westward side of George Felt's ould house in Casco bay ;" this tract adjoined Falmouth line, and was afterward occupied by Gendall. [He was killed in the subsequent war, as will be seen hereafter.]
Among the persons who were driven from Falmouth and did not return, was the Rev. Robert Jordan. This ancestor of the numerous race of Jordans, ended his active and uneasy life at Portsmouth, N. H., in 1679, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. His will was made at Great Island, in Piscataqua river, Jan- uary 28, and proved July 1, 1679. He had lost the use of his hands before his death and was unable to sign his will. He left a widow, Sarah, the only daughter of John Winter, and six sons, viz : John, Robert, Dominicus, Jedediah, Samuel, and Jeremiah. In his will he confirmed to his sons John and Rob- ert, the land that he had previously conveyed to them, which was situated at Cape Elizabeth ; John had Richmond's Island.1 He bequeathed to his wife "the ould plantation" in Spurwink, containing one thousand acres, and lying between the lands of his sons John and Dominicus ; and also the Nonsuch farm in Scarborough, containing two thousand acres. To Dominicus he bequeathed one thousand acres at Spurwink, adjoining the old plantation ; to Jedediah, one thousand acres, and to Samuel eleven hundred acres, both at Spurwink. The particulars of the various bequests may be found in the will which we have reserved for the Appendix.2
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