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 2
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6 Hazard, vol. i, p. 319.
7 Hazard, vol. ii, p. 78. Some writers have supposed this name to be derived from a tribe of Indians in that territory called the Passamaquoddy or Passa- macadie tribe.
. * [Mr. Porter Bliss, long a resident among the Seneca Indians, and who has a good understanding of the Indian language, in 1861 informed me that Acadi is a pure Micmac word, meaning "place," and is always used in combination with some explanatory word, as Suga-bun-Acadi, the place of ground nuts, the present Shebenacadi in Nova Scotia ; Umskegu-Acade, Great Meadow, Grand Pré, Passam-Acadi, a place of fish.]
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
occupied the country exclusively as far east as the Kennebec, and the French, except when dispossessed by treaty or actual force, had exclusive occupation as far west as the Penobscot. The country between these two rivers was debatable land, both parties continually claiming it, and each occupying it by intervals. In the commission to the French governor before the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Acadia is described as extend- ing to the Kennebec, and the whole was then ceded to the English. But in the construction of that treaty, the French restricted the territory to Nova Scotia. In fact the limits of the province were extremely indefinite, and the title de- pended upon possession, which was continually fluctuating.
The colony of Du Mont was undoubtedly the first attempt to plant upon the coast of Maine, and continued longer than any other which did not become permanent.
The expedition of Du Mont, [with the voyage of Martin Prinn in 1603, and the very successful exploration of the coast of Maine, between the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers, of which a glowing account was given by Rosier,] drew the attention of the English to this side of the Atlantic ; and in April, 1606, a charter was procured for the large extent of territory lying between the thirty-fourth and forty-fourth degrees of north latitude, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. This large tract was divided between two colonies; the first, stretch- ing to the forty-first degree of north latitude, was bestowed upon a London company, and called South Virginia, the northern part was called North Virginia, and was granted to a company of adventurers in the town of Plymouth. Each colony had a distinct council of thirteen appointed by the king for the management of its affairs.2
Under this charter, the adventurers sent out colonies in 1607.
1 Hutch. vol. iii, p. 3. Memorials of the English and French Commissioners, respecting the limits of Nova Scotia, London, 1755.
2 Hazard, vol. i, p. 50.
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VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
The one from Plymouth destined to the northern shore, con- sisted of two ships and one hundred men, under command of Capt. George Popham, as president, and Capt. Rawly Gilbert, as admiral. They sailed from Plymouth on the 31st of May, and arrived at Monhegan upon this coast August 11th, and then continued on to the Kennebec, where they planted them- selves upon an island, in the mouth of that river.1* Here they built a fort, called St. George, and made preparations for a permanent settlement. But a succession of peculiarly un- favorable circumstances2 terminated the existence and hopes of this colony within one year from its commencement ; and at the same time raised prejudices against the northern coast, which checked the spirit of colonization and discovery, and threw back the settlement of the country for a number of years. Smith says that "the country was esteemed as a cold, barren, mountainous, rocky desert ;" and Prince adds, that
1 Prince, vol. ii, pp. 21, 254. Smith's N. E., p. 173. Jocelyn. The late Gov. Sullivan thought he found traces of this settlement on Stage Island, as late as 1778 ; others suppose the settlement to have been made on Parker's Island, forming part of Georgetown.
*[Recent investigation has proved the statements of Sullivan and others, in regard to the locality of the first settlement to have been erroneous; and it is now known to have been on the peninsula on the west bank of the river near its mouth, called by the Indians Sabino, but now bearing the English name of Hunnewell's Point. Strachey, who was one of the colony, gives a description of the spot, which cannot be mistaken. The United States government are erecting a fort upon or near the site of Fort George, called Fort Popham, in honor of the Governor of the first colony. The occasion was improved, August 29, 1862, by the Historical Society, and a very large and respectable assemblage of persons from our own and neighboring States, and the British Provinces, to commemorate the two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of the planting of the colony, by addresses and appropriate services, and placing memorial stones on the walls of the fortress. The leading address was by John A. Poor, Esq., of Portland. A full account of these interesting transactions was published in a "Memorial Volume of the Popham Celebration," issued from the press of Bailey & Noyes, of Portland, in 1863.]
Prince, vol. ii, p. 25.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
they " branded the country as over cold and not habitable by our natives."
The large preparations that were made, and the circum- stances attending this expedition, show that the design of the adventurers was to establish a permanent settlement. They had their President, their Admiral, Master of Ordnance, Sergeant- major, Marshall, Secretary, Captain of the Fort, Chaplain, and Chief Searcher, all of whom constituted the council. But the colony arrived late in the season, and had but little time to make those preparations which were necessary to protect them from the severities of our climate in an inhospitable wilder- · ness. They had been led to expect from the highly-colored descriptions of previous voyagers, a winter not more unfavor- able than those to which they had been accustomed in England, and did not take those precautions which experience would have dictated. We can easily imagine that the hardships which they endured, would have discouraged stouter hearts than even they possessed, inexperienced as they were in the long and severe winters which then visited our northern region.
After the ill success of this undertaking, the patentees turned their attention rather to commercial enterprises than to the forming of settlements ; and some of them individually sent out vessels every year to fish upon the coast, and to trade with the natives. Sir Francis Popham, son of Chief Justice Popham, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges were principally engaged in this business.
In the spring of 1614, an expedition was fitted out under command of Capt. John Smith, " to take whales," " and also to make trials of a mine of gold and copper ; if those failed, fish and furs were then their refuge."1 Smith adds, "we found this whale-fishing a costly conclusion, we saw many, and spent much time in chasing them, but could not kill any ; they being a kind of jubartes and not the whale that yields fins and oil as
1 Smith's N. E., p. 175, and his letter to Lord Bacon.
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VARIOUS. SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
we expected." They were also disappointed in their. mines, and he thinks the representation was rather a device of the master to get a voyage, "than any knowledge he had of any such matter." Leaving his vessels, Smith, with eight men in a boat, ranged the whole coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod : within which bounds he says, he saw at least forty several habitations upon the sea-coast, the principal of which was Penobscot. He adds, "westward of Kennebeke, is the country of Aucocisco, in the bottom of a large deep bay, full of many great Iles, which divides it into many great harbours."1 This refers to Casco bay, and Aucocisco, may be supposed to express the English sound of the aboriginal name of that extensive and beautiful bay .* Smith returned to England, where he arrived the 5th of August, and immediately prepared a map of the country which he had visited, and gave it the name of New England.
The next year (1615) Capt. Smith was again employed by Sir F. Gorges and others to visit New England, with a view of beginning a settlement there: for this purpose he was furnished with two ships, and a company of sixteen men to leave in the country. But he was driven back to port by a violent storm which carried away his masts. On the second attempt, he was captured by the French. It does not appear that this celebrated adventurer ever came to America after 1614: he published his description of New England in London in 1616, and died in that city 1631.
Every year after this, vessels were sent to the coast to trade with the natives and to fish; many of which made profitable
1 Smith's N. E., p. 192. The same name is given to this bay by Jocelyn in his voyages, and the natives about it are called the Aucocisco, by Gorges in "America painted to the life." p. 43.
*[ Aucocisco came as near the sound of the Indian word for the bay as could be expressed in English, as Smith and the early voyagers caught the sound. It should be pronounced Uh-kos-is-co, the Uh being a guttural. The meaning of the Indian term according to the best interpreters is Crane or Heron, from the bird which then frequented its waters, as it does still.]
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
voyages. In 1615, Sir Richard Hawkins sailed from England with a commission from the council of Plymouth to do what service he could for them at New England ; but on arriving here he found a destructive war prevailing among the natives, and he passed along the coast to Virginia.1 In 1616, four ships from Plymouth, and two from London, made successful voyages, and obtained full cargoes of fish, which they carried to England and Spain. Sir F. Gorges also sent out a ship under the charge of Richard Vines, who afterward became conspicuous in the early history of Maine ; he passed the win- ter at the mouth of Saco river ; from which circumstance, I suppose, was derived the name of Winter Harbor,2 which it still bears.
In 1618, Capt. Edward Rocroft was sent by Gorges in a ship of two hundred tons, to fish upon the coast. He captured a French bark lying in one of the harbors, sent her crew in his own ship to England, and retained the bark with a view to winter here. But some of his men conspiring to kill him and run away with his prize, he put them on shore at Sawguatock (Saco) and in December, sailed for Virginia. The men who were thus left, succeeded in getting to Monhegan Island, where they spent the winter,3 and were relieved in the spring by Capt. Dermer, in another of Gorges' ships.
Monhegan was a convenient stage for fishermen, and had become a place of usual resort ; it is therefore probable, that buildings, or temporary shelters, had been erected upon it.
In 1620, a new charter was obtained of King James, by the Northern Company, bearing date November 3d. It embraced the territory lying between the forty and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, including the country from Philadelphia to
1 Prince, vol. ii, p. 43.
2 Douglass, vol. i, p. 394, derives the name from Mr. Winter, who he says had a farm there; but in this fact he is mistaken : Winter's farm was at the mouth of the Spurwink.
3 Prince, vol. ii, p. 54.
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VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
the Bay of Chaleurs, which empties into the gulf of St. Law- rence.1 The patentees were the Duke of Lenox, the Marquises of Buckingham and Hamilton, the Earls of Arundel and War- wick, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and thirty-four others, who were styled the council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New England, in America.
Under this patent, were all the grants made, which originally divided the country between the Hudson and the Penobscot rivers ; beyond these bounds the patent of 1620, had no prac- tical operation.
While these patentees were procuring a new charter, the more successfully to prosecute their design of private emolu- ment, another company was arising of an entirely different character, who, without concert with the patentees or without their concurrence, and it may even be said without any design of their own, were to give the strongest impulse to the coloni- zation of New England, and to stamp their peculiar features upon its future destinies.
The English residents at Leyden, had determined to seek security and freedom of worship in the wilderness of America, and in the summer of this year commenced their voyage for the Hudson river. But either by design or accident, they fell short of their destination, and arrived at Cape Cod, on the 10th of November, 1620. In this neighborhood they resolved to remain, and having selected the spot which they named Plymouth, they established there the first permanent settlement that was made in New England. The French had then a plantation at Port Royal, and the English had settlements in Virginia, Bermuda, and Newfoundland. The nearest planta- tion to them was the one at Port Royal.2
We can merely allude to this interesting company, in the
1 Hazard, vol. i, p. 103. Prince, vol. ii, pp. 70, 94.
Prince, vol. ii, p. 94.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
pursuance of our plan to bring into view the different settle ments and attempts at settlement upon our coast previous to the one, of which it is our purpose. particularly to speak.' Other hands have done justice to this important event in the history of this country.
On the 10th of September, 1621, the north-eastern part of the territory included in the charter to the council of Plymouth,. was granted by James I, to Sir Wm. Alexander.1 This was done by the consent of the company, as Gorges in his descrip- tion of New England declares .? The grant to which the name of Nova Scotia was given, extended from Cape Sable north to. the St. Lawrence, thence by the shore of that river and round by the sea to the first point ; included Cape Breton and all the islands within six leagues of the western, northern, and eastern: parts, and those within forty leagues south of Cape Sable. Sir William was engaged in this adventure by becoming acquainted with Capt. Mason, who a short time before had returned from Newfoundland.
In 1622 or 1623, Sir William Alexander subdued the French inhabitants within his grant, carried them prisoners to Virginia, and planted a colony there himself.3*
New England being now brought into notice by the respec-
1 Prince, vol. ii, p. 111. Hazard, vol. i, p. 134. 2 Hazard, vol. i, p. 387.
3 Jeremiah Dummer's Mem., vol. i. 3d Ser. Mass. H. Col., p. 232.
*[On the 12th of April, 1635, the council of Plymouth granted to Sir Wm. Alexander all that part of the main land in New England from St. Croix ad- joining New Scotland along the sea coast to Pemaquid, and so up to the Kine- bequi to be called the county of Canada. Also Long Island, west of Cape Cod,. " to be holden per gladium comitatus, that is to say to find four able-bodied men . to attend on the Governor of New England on fourteen days notice." Sainsbury's . Col. Papers, vol. i, p. 204. In 1622, Capt. Robert Gorges, the eldest son of Sir F. Gorges was appointed Governor of New England, with Capt. Francis West, Christopher Lewitt, and the Governor of New Plymouth as his counselors. Lewitt came over in 1623 and visited the coast of Maine from Piscataqua to Pemaquid. An interesting account of this voyage is contained in the 2d Vol. of the Me. Hist. Col.]
1
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VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
tability of the persons who had engaged in its cause, and especially by the profits derived from the fish and fur trade, the intercourse with it was yearly increasing. In 1621, ten or twelve ships from the west of England, procured full cargoes of fish and fur ; in 1622, thirty-five ships, in 1623, forty ships, and in 1624, fifty ships were engaged in the same trade.1 So great seems to have been the excitement in this new channel. of speculation, that the Plymouth company found it necessary to procure a proclamation from the king, which bears date, Nov. 6, 1622, to prevent "interloping and disorderly trading " upon the coast.2 It is alleged in the proclamation, that persons without authority committed intolerable abuses there, not only by destroying timber and throwing their ballast into the har- bors of the islands, but by selling war-like implements and ammunition to the natives and teaching them their use.
The same year, August 10th, the council of Plymouth: granted to Sir F. Gorges and Capt. John Mason, two of their company, " all the lands situated between the rivers Merrimac and Sagadehoc," extending back to the great lakes, and the river of Canada.3 In 1623, they sent over David Thompson, Edward and William Hilton, and others, who commenced a plantation upon the west side of the Piscataqua river, which was the first settlement in New Hampshire, and the beginning of the present town of Portsmouth.4 Gorges and Mason con- tinued their joint interest on the Piscataqua, having procured a new patent in 1631, including all their improvements on both sides of the river until 1634, when they made a division of their property ;5 Mason took the western side of the river, and Gorges the eastern, and they each procured distinct patents for their respective portions, which they afterward separately pursued.
1 Prince, vol. i, pp. 99, 117. 2 Hazard, vol. i, p. 151. Sainsbury.
3 Hutchinson, vol. i, p. 285. Hubbard, N. E., p. 614 ..
4 Prince, vol. i, p. 133. An. of Portsmouth. 5 Belk., vol. i, N. H. App.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Gorges did not confine his attention exclusively to Piscataqua, even while he continued a partner in the Laconia patent ; for in February 1623, we find that he had already a plantation established upon the island of Monhegan. This was probably for the accommodation of the fishermen ; but it had become of sufficient importance to draw thither the persons settled in Massachusetts bay for supplies.1 This plantation must have been commenced in 1621, or 1622, and was the first which continued for any length of time upon any part of the territory of Maine. Monhegan is a solitary island, about twelve miles south-east of Pemaquid point, which is the nearest main land. From this island the transition to the main was easy ; and from the concourse of vessels to this neighborhood in the fishing season, it might naturally be expected that here settlements would be early formed. Such appears to have been the fact, and we find that in 1625, a settlement was commenced at New Harbor, on Pemaquid, which continued to increase without interruption, until the destructive war of 1675.
On the 15th of July, 1625, John Brown, of New Harbor, purchased of Capt. John Somerset and Unongoit, two Indian Sachems, for fifty skins, a tract of land on Pemaquid, extend- ing eight miles by twenty-five, together with Muscongus island.2 The next year Abraham Shurt was sent over by Alderman Aldsworth and Giles Elbridge, merchants of Bristol, as their agent, and was invested with power to purchase Mon- hegan for them. This island then belonged to Abraham Jennings of Plymouth, of whose agent, Shurt purchased it for £50.3 In 1629, Aldsworth and Elbridge sent over to Shurt a patent from the council of Plymouth, for twelve thousand
1 Prince, p. 127. Morton's Mem., p. 109.
2 Report of Mass. Com. on the Pemaq. title 1811, p. 107.
3 Shurt was about forty-four years old when he came over, and was living in 1662, aged about eighty. 1n 1675, there were no less than one hundred and fifty-six families east of Sagadahoc, and near one hundred fishing vessels
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VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
acres of land on Pemaquid, bounded north by a line drawn from the head of the Damariscotta to the head of the Muscongus river, and from thence to the sea, including the islands within three leagues of the shore.1* Here was commenced the first permanent settlement on the main land within the territory of this state, by any European power. Thomas Elbridge, the son of Giles, the patentee, came over a few years afterward and held a court within this patent, to which many of the inhabitants of Monhegan and Damariscove repaired, and made acknowledg- ment2 of submission. This place from its numerous harbors and islands, possessed many advantages of trade as well as of farming and fishing, and rapidly increased in population and business. An additional grant was made to the same persons in 1532, in which it is recited, that the land is " next adjoining to this place, where the people or servants of said Giles and
1 We here present a fac-simile of the signatures of Abraham Shurt, and Thomas Elbridge.
Thomas Eller golf
*[Sainsbury in his colonial calendar, says that this grant was to be laid out near the river of Pemaquid. with an additional one hundred acres to every per- son who should settle there, in consideration of the patentees having undertaken to build a town and settle inhabitants there for the good of the country. He .. puts this down under date Nov. 24, 1631.]
2 Sil. Davis's Report, p. 40.
owned between Sagadahoc and St. Georges' river. Sil. Davis's statement to the council in 1675.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Robert are now settled, or have inhabited for the space of three years last past."1*
1 Since the above was put to press, I have discovered among a bundle of old papers, just put into my hands, a certificate or declaration of Samuel Welles, of Boston, made in 1750, relative to a settlement at Pemaquid two or three years earlier than I have stated in the text. I have introduced this certificate as noticing an important fact, which, it is surprising, has hitherto escaped obser- vation.
" This may certify all concerned, that' I have in my hand, a certain patent, signed by the Earl of Warwick, and several other members of the council of Plymouth, in England, dated June 1st, 1621, about three years after the patent, constituting the council of Plymouth for ordering the affairs and settlement of New England ; that is, of land between the fortieth and forty-eighth degree of north latitude. The sum and substance of this patent of June 1st, 1621, is a grant to one John Pierce, a citizen of London, of liberty to come and settle in New England, with divers privileges in such place as he or his associates should · choose under certain limitations of not interfering with other grants, or settling within ten miles of any other settlement, unless on the opposite side of some great and navigable river, and on return made, to have further grants or privi- leges. Now, as I am informed, and hear it is agreed on all hands, Mr. Pierce came over and here he settled ; that is, at a place called Broad Bay, and there his posterity continued above one hundred years ; some time after the settlement was begun, one Mr. Brown made a purchase of a large tract of land of the natives ; and as Mr. Pierce's was the most ancient grant thereabouts, they united the grant from home with the purchase of the natives, and it is said, that the Indians have ever acknowledged the justice of our claims, and never would burn Pierce's house, even though he left it. This patent is the ancientest I ever saw about any part of New England, except the original grand patent to the council of Plymouth, made as I remember in November, in 1618. This patent is eight years older than that to Bradford and his associates for Plymouth Colony, and nine years older than Massachusetts' first charter. I do not think of anything further material or needful to be said, and the above is the best account my time will now allow me to give.
There are six seals signed by the Duke of Lenox, Duke of Hamilton, Earl Warwick, and some others, whose names I cannot find out.
SAMUEL WELLES."
BOSTON, 11th September, 1750.
*[In "early documents relating to Maine," is the following memorandum, "A. D. 1753, April 6. Deposition of Samuel Welles, of Boston, in New England, declaring that in 1727, great searchi was made after the patent of the late colony of Plymouth, which was studiously sought after in the years 1733 and 1739;
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VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
In 1626, the government of Plymouth colony established a trading house on Bagaduce Point, at the mouth of the Penob- scot, and first gave this name to that river. The Indian name was Penobsceag or Penobscook ; the French called it Penta- quevette or Pentagoet.' The Baron de St. Castin, afterward
1 Sul. Hist. of Maine, pp. 36, 38, and His. of Pen. Ind., Mass. Hist. Col., vol. ix, p. 209.
and again in 1741 at Plymouth, Ipswich, and Cambridge. At length Perez Bradford, Esq., was desired to inquire, and with much difficulty he procured it, having been designedly concealed."
Mr. Deane in a note to "Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation," p. 107, says, "this charter or patent was granted by the president and council of New England " to John Pierce and his associates," and was in trust for the benefit of the colony. The original is now at Plymouth, and is probably the oldest document in Massachusetts officially connected with her history." A copy. is published in the Appendix to the " Popham Memorial Volume," p. 118.
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