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 20
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It was Danforth's object to prepare a settlement here which should contain within itself the means of defense, and having accomplished this point, as he supposed, by making grants around the fort in every direction, he paid no regard to the out- lands. It was one of the conditions of each grant of a house lot, that the grantee should make improvements upon it by building ; we consequently find that a village arose at once, where before was little else than an unfrequented forest. The grantees whose names follow, did not reside here, viz : Gedney,
1 Nathaniel Saltonstall was one of the magistrates of Massachusetts, and was here at this time with Danforth.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
John Marston, Mason, Smith, Clemens, Lowell, Ingalls, John1 and Nathaniel Jacob, Robert Greenhaugh, and Farley. Ged- ney and Mason lived in Salem, the former sold his house lot to Silvanus Davis, the latter to Peter Morrill, who respectively improved them ; John Jones improved Farley's on India street.
The eleven lots laid out on the west side of Clay Cove are supposed to have extended about seventy rods, which would carry them to about where Union street now is, and back to Middle street, which was not then laid out, but was probably the place reserved for a highway to the mill. We are able to locate but a part of the eleven lots ; Gedney's is sufficiently described in the grant as lying next to the cove, and John Ingersoll's next. George Ingersoll's extended westerly to where Willow street now is; his son Daniel occupied it and sold it to Moses Pearson, whose heirs or assigns now improve it. The lot of Lt. George Ingersoll, the father of the before named George, was situated on the east side of Exchange street ; Samuel Ingersoll's adjoined it, on the east, and Joseph Ingersoll's on the west. The lots of Marston, Isaac Davis, Mason, and Nicholls, undoubtedly lay between John Ingersoll's, the second from Clay Cove, and George Ingersoll's on Willow street. Marston's heir living in Salem, sold his ancestor's lot to Samuel Moody in 1719, and described it as adjoining Isaac and Silvanus Davis's.
On the west side of India street, the first lot was Capt. Ed- ward Tyng's, nearly opposite the fort, of which for a time he was commander, and extended from India street to Clay Cove; the next was Henry Harwood's, who was a Lieut. ; next came Michael Farley, Jr., who does not appear to have lived here, John Jones improved the lot, Farley was living in Ipswich in 1730; Augustine John's lot came next, which was improved
1 A John Jacob was the first deacon of the church in Cohasset in 1721, an aged and very worthy man .- History of Cohasset. In the war of 1688, a person of the same name was commissary for the troops in Maine. A family of this name was implicated in the witchcraft tragedy of Salem, in 1692. Ephraim Marston settled here; he afterward lived in Salem; he may have taken John's place.
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LOCALITY OF INDIVIDUALS.
by Wm. Pierce.1 These four lots bring us to Middle street, on the opposite side of which was the land of Thomas Cloice, ex- tending north to Fleet street, [now, 1864, Sumner street ,] he had a house on the lot. From Fleet to Queen, now Congress street, Silvanus Davis had a tract containing two and a half acres which was surveyed to him in 1687.
We have not been able to ascertain that the lots on the east side of India street were occupied by the persons to whom they were granted. Their names are not familiar in our history, and we conjecture that they and some others who received grants, were persons who accompanied Danforth in his expe- dition and received lots as gratuities or under the expectation that they would settle here. The lots lying on the great bay, as it was called, east of India street, which at this time and long afterward were the most valuable spots in town, were occu- pied as follows : 1st. Richard Seacomb, who may possibly have taken the lot granted to Daniel Smith or William Clemens on India street. Jonathan Orris, blacksmith, and John Brown adjoined Seacomb, and probably extended up India street ; but next, and the first on the bay came Silvanus Davis, whose lot was one hundred and forty-seven feet front and extended back six hundred and thirty feet, to the burying-ground, which occu- pied a small spot in the south-westerly part of the present eastern cemetery. On this spot Davis had a dwelling house in which he lived, and a warehouse, the most extensive in this part of the country in 1687. The Munjoy family occupied that part of the Neck east of Davis's, and Robert Lawrence who married Munjoy's widow, built a stone house upon the brow of the hill near the old breast work, where he lived until the second overthrow of the town, in which he perished.
In looking at the upper part of the Neck, within the present
1 Pierce was heir of Launcelot Pierce of Pejepscot; his mother was daughter of Thomas Stevens of the same territory ; he bought the lot above mentioned of Samuel Webber, November 24, 1683. After the destruction of the town, he lived in Milton, Mass.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
limits of Portland, we find Bramhall's large farm covering nearly the whole western extremity ; next on the eastern side were forty-five acres, part of the estate of Nathaniel Mitton, which his administrator, John Graves, sold to Silvanus Davis, John Phillips of Charlestown, John Endicott, and James Eng- lish of Boston, in 1686;1 it extended from Fore river across the neck. It is now occupied under the original title. Next came the large tract extending down the river to Robison's point,* occupied by Mrs. Harvey, Michael Mitton's widow, and her son-in-law Thaddeus Clarke, whose house was on the bank of the river just above the point which bears his name and where the cellar may still be found, 1831. Clarke subsequently conveyed to Edward Tyng, who married his daughter Elizabeth, forty-four acres of this tract, which extended from the river north-westerly across where Congress street now is. Tyng had this lot surveyed in 1687, and then had three houses upon it, in one of which he lived. Next were three acres which Mrs. Harvey sold to Richard Powsland in 1681; then Anthony Brackett had five acres, which he sold to Peter Bowdoin in 1687 ; next came a lot belonging to Nicholas Bartlett, the ex- tent of which we have not succeeded in ascertaining; then three acres belonging to Capt. Tyng; next two acres belonging to Joseph Hodgdon, sold to James Mariner in 1686. After these came the thirty acres confirmed by the town to George Burroughs, the minister, in 1683. Of this thirty acres Bur- roughs sold twenty-three to Peter Bowdoin in 1688, lying between Fore river and Back Cove a few rods above Center street; the remaining seven acres extending about Cotton and Center streets, he conveyed to John Skillings in 1683, in ex-
1 This was a company which engaged in very large speculations in this town between the years 1680 and 1690.
* [This point is at the foot of Park street and was known in subsequent con- veyances as the "Point of rocks," from the ledge which extended there. It was afterward owned by Capt. Thomas Robison, who built the two-story house now standing corner of Canal and Park streets.]
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LOCALITY OF INDIVIDUALS.
change for the house lot granted by Danforth to the latter. Each lot had a house upon it. That of Burroughs was erected by the town and stood on Congress street, near where Preble street now joins it. The description of the seven acres in this agree- ment is as follows : "Imprimis it is agreed that the said George Burroughs doth make over and confirm unto the said John Skil- ling, carpenter, and his heirs forever, his house built and given him by the people of Falmouth, with seven acres of land joining to the said house; laid out and bounded, viz : lying from the edge of the swamp behind the house, from thence running four- score poles southerly, fronting upon the river fourteen poles." The land from Congress street to the river where Cotton street now is, was formerly a swamp. We are able to fix upon the lo- cation of this tract with more certainty by conveyances subse- quently made by Samuel, son of John Skillings, from whom the Cotton title on Center and Cotton streets is derived. The site of the house is determined by an ancient plan. [The rea- son of the exchange on the part of Burroughs was the distance of his house from the meeting-house, and Skilling's house was near the meeting-house, which stood on the point below King street.]
Joseph Webber, Samuel Webber, Richard Broadridge, Dennis Morough, and Francis Jefferds had lots on Queen, now Con- gress street : Morough's was three acres lying where School, now Pearl street is ; he sold it to Anthony Brackett. Broad- ridge's was next above and Jefferd's next below. John Ingersoll and Francis Nichols had a lot on the south end of Morough's, which extended to Middle street.
It appears by the record of Danforth's proceedings here, that the town was reorganized under a municipal government pre- vious to his court in September, 1580. That document presents us only the names of the inhabitants who had grants around the fort, other of the former settlers returned to their farms in
16
.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
other parts of the town.1 Some however never returned as Francis Neale? and Jenkin Williams, the former continued to live in Salem, the latter is subsequently found in Manchester, in the county of Essex. Nor do we meet, after the war, with the names of John Cloice, John Lewis, Phineas Rider, Thomas Skillings, and John Phillips; some of them were probably . killed during the war. Other settlers however flowed in rapidly and the places of those who did not return were soon more than supplied.
The most enterprising of the new settlers was Silvanus Davis. In October, 1680, he and James English addressed a petition to the selectmen of Falmouth, in which they stated that they were desirous of settling in town, if they could receive certain grants and privileges which are set forth in their petition as follows : "Imprimis, that we may have the free privelege of ye falls of Capissicke to build a sawmill and to make a damm or damms. (2) That we may have a grant of timber both oak and pine within three miles of the falls on both sides not in- fringing upon any lots already granted by the town. (3) That we may have sufficient land laid out on both sides of the Falls and river for pasture of oxen and settling some farms near the mills for employing workmen in time when the mill stands still for want of water or timber, and that such lands shall remain free to the mills as free land a mile square. (4) That we may have the privelege of swamps or fresh marsh within a mile of the Falls to produce hay for our oxen and that we may have it as free land. (5) That we may have privelege to cut timber upon all commons within the township that is not already
1 "Upon the peace the English returned unto their plantations ; their number increased; they stocked their farms, and sowed their fields ; they found the air as healthful as the earth was fruitful ; their lumber and their fishery became a con- siderable merchandize ; continual accessions were made unto them." Mather's Mag. vol. ii. p. 505.
2 Mrs. Macworth, Neale's mother-in-law, died in Boston, in 1676. Neale sold his land in Falmouth to Joseph Holmes, who, April 16, 1681, mortgaged it to Joshua Scottow, and styled himself "late of Cambridge, now resident in Casco."
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LAND GRANTED BY FALMOUTH.
granted to any persons. (6) That we may have equal divi- sions of all meadows with others according to our publick work. (7) That we may have a tract of good land appointed us for settling our farms.
"Gentlemen according to your encouragement to us we shall be ready to bear part of town charges with you and subscribe ourselves your humble servants Oct. 28, 1680."
To this petition the following answer was returned : "3. 10.1 1680. The above articles are granted with a mile square free land unto Capt. Davis and Mr. 'Ingles as Test. Anthonie Brackett Recor. And it is agreed that Capt. Davis shall let the inhabitants that are now here have boards at five shillings in a thousand under price currant for provisions for their own proper use for building houses for themselves."
At the same time the following grants were made by the selectmen, which with the foregoing is one of the few scraps of the town records which have escaped destruction and found its way to the York registry. It was probably rescued by the avidity of some of the speculators, who at a later day were purchasing all the old titles to land in this town that they could procure.
"It is concluded that Mr. Gendall shall have a grant of one hundred acres of land to begin at our outmost bounds, and so to come this way till one hundred acres be ended. Thomas Daeve (or Daebe) it is agreed shall have a lot granted him. John Ingersoll one hundred acres of land. Goodman Sanfort and his son granted sixty acres of land about the great marsh. Joel Madefer twelve acres of land adjoining to Goodman San- fort's land on the north side upon a square. Fifty acres granted to John Wallis on the rocky hill. Joseph Daniel granted fifty acres of land adjoining to Robert Stanfort, twenty poles in breadth by the water side. Granted to Robert Haines fifty acres of land on the plains toward the great marsh .? Granted
1 December 3.
? The Stanifords, Madefer, Wallis, and Haines all lived at Purpooduck, and the grants were probably of land there.
-
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
to Capt. Edward Tyng one hundred acres of land. It is agreed that Capt. Davis shall have a mile square of upland at Capis- sick Falls, a quarter of a mile on this side of the falls, and three-quarters of a mile on the other side the falls. Also Nonsuch point is concluded shall be divided between Capt. Davis and Mr. Ingles and Joseph Hodsden, one hundred acres a man, and if the point will not do it, to have it elsewhere. It is concluded Thomas Cloys shall have sixty acres of land granted to him at Capessack. Granted to Lt. George Ingersoll forty acres of land to make up his hundred."1
We will here introduce the record of another meeting of the town, which has a connection with the preceding. "At a town meeting August 10, 1681. There was granted to Samuel Webber the falls which is above Mr. Munjoy's land in Long Creek, to erect and set up a saw-mill in, and to finish the said saw-mill within six months. Also it is granted unto the said Samuel Webber one hundred acres of upland for his accom- modation to his mill,2 with ten acres of some swamp to make meadow of, with the privelege of cutting timber, both oak and pine, upon the commons from his mill down so far as Ralph Turner's, as also to cut timber about Presumpscot, both oak and pine, and the said Webber is to cut Boords for the in- habitants of this town to the halves for their own proper use, and what Boords they have occasion for of said Webber for
1 All the persons mentioned in the preceding record, except Daeve, of whom I know nothing, and Ingles, were inhabitants. There were persons of the name of Davie of respectable standing about the Kennebec, but I have met with no other notice of any one in this town. Ingles or as the name is now universally written, English, resided in Boston, where, or in its vicinity, his posterity continue to live. He was a mariner, and commanded a vessel which coasted between Boston and the towns in this bay. He died in 1703, leaving a widow, one son and three daughters, of whom one, Joanna, married James Grant, Jane, John Smith, and Elizabeth, Benjamin Bream. The daughters were principal legatees of Silvanus Davis.
2 One half of this lot Webber sold to John Skillings, 1685, with half the mill. The mill was probably situated near the spot where a grist-mill now stands on Long Creek, on the road from Stroudwater to Scarborough.
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LIFE OF CAPT. DAVIS.
their building, they are to have them half a crown under price currant for provisions. Anthonie Brackett, George Ingersoll, Jno. Wallis, Thaddeus Clarke."
In 1680, George and John Ingersoll petitioned the General Court for confirmation of their land on Capisic river, and for certain privileges. The court confirmed to them "sixty acres a piece granted them as expressed in their petition, and refer it to the President of the province" to grant accommodation, etc. Danforth, under the above order, March 3, 1682, granted "to George Ingersoll, Jr., and John Ingersoll, the privelege of the stream where the old mill stood, for erecting a new saw and grist-mill and to cut such timber as may be conveniently brought down that stream, paying to the head proprietor five pounds per ann. in good merchantable timber." In 1684 these persons conveyed all their interest in the saw-mill on mill river to Silvanus Davis & Co.
Davis for several years before 1676, had lived in the neigh- borhood of the Kennebec. He purchased land at Damariscotta of the Indians as early as June, 1659. He bought other large tracts in that country and continued to reside there, having considerable influence, until the attack upon the fort at Arrow- sic in August, 1676. He then fled with Capt. Lake, but they were sharply pursued and he escaped with a severe wound, while Capt. Lake was killed. Early next year he accompanied the expedition under Major Waldron, and was left in command of a garrison on Arrowsic Island ; but the government per- ceiving little prospect of their rendering service to the country in this situation, the garrison was soon after recalled.
On the conclusion of peace, Capt. Davis turned his attention to Falmouth, and finding it possessed great advantages for fish- ing, lumbering, and trading, he resolved to abandon his former residence and establish himself here. In September, 1680, he received from President Danforth, a grant of one of the most eligible spots for trade in town, being on the bay east of India street, at the head of the town landing. Following up this
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
acquisition, he procured from the town, as we have already seen, some of the most valuable mill sites, with greater privi- leges and accommodations than were ever granted here to any other individual. The town had been entirely prostrated under the most calamitous circumstances, and the returning exiles were undoubtedly desirous of availing themselves of the enter- prise and capital of Mr. Davis and the company which he represented. And to these advantages may, in a great measure, be attributed the rapid prosperity of the town, until the period of its second destruction. The subsequent events in the biog- raphy of this enterprising man, will be noticed in the progress of the work.
In 1681, Mrs. Munjoy, the widow of George, having made complaints that President Danforth had appropriated her land without authority, for the settlement of the town, an arrange- ment was entered into between her and the government on the 10th of June of this year. After reciting that President Dan- forth, by commission from Massachusetts, had "ordered the settlement of a town at Casco, erecting fort Loyall thereon, and disposed of house lots for the furtherance and encourage- ment of the said settlement," and that said Mary "doth lay claime to a neck of land lying about said fort," but had "not entered upon any possession or improvement thereof since the devastation made by the Indian war ;" to end all differences it was therefore agreed that said Mary "shall have, retain and enjoy the easterly end of said Neck of land whereupon her husband's house formerly stood, bounded by a strait line from the mouth of a Runnet of water on the easterly side where Mr. Cleeves' house formerly stood, and so to pass by the old barn on the top of the hill, and from the barn the shortest line to the salt water, excepting and reserving to the said township and fort, for the laying out of house lots, the lands all along the southerly side of said Neck of land as far as the meeting- house, to extend twenty poles backwards in length, reserving only twenty poles front of her own house lot, adjoining to said
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LAND GRANTED TO MRS MUNJOY.
runnet. Further that the said Mary Munjoy shall have and enjoy the island called House Island, which her said late hus- band formerly purchased of sundry of the inhabitants there. And more the said President doth yield and grant unto her two hundred acres of land upon the nearest of the islands that remain free and undisposed of, by way of exchange and in full compensation for the land hereinafter mentioned by her re- leased." The land released was the remainder of the Neck east of Clay Cove, "to be disposed of according to the present settlement made by said President."
On the 30th of August the same year, the selectmen of the town also entered into articles of agreement with Mrs. Munjoy relative to her outlands, by which she relinquished her claim to all lands in the town, whether derived from the Indians or otherwise. In consideration of which the town confirmed to her two hundred acres at Ammoncongan, the plantation at Long Creek which Mr. Munjoy bought of Anthony Brackett, also all her marsh at Capisic, and "that long marsh adjoin- ing to Thomas Cloice's point of land which he bought of Mr. Munjoy ;" also five hundred acres of upland, to begin next to Samuel Ingersoll's land, to run in breadth on the west side of Capisic river to the little falls and so into the woods. They also confirmed to Mary, daughter of George Munjoy, Sen., deceased, all that island given her by her grandfather, Mr. J. Phillips, known by the name of Pond Island or Mr. Munjoy's Island."
It appears by the foregoing record, that the elder Munjoy was now dead. He died in 1680, at the age of fifty-four. His last appearance in our records is as one of the associates of the county court held at Wells, July 4, 1676.1 During the Indian troubles he probably lived in Boston, where his wife's family resided. In 1680, Danforth names him as a grantee of land
1 After the destruction of the town in August of this year, he was sent with supplies for the inhabitants and troops from Boston.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
on the Neck. He was an intelligent and enterprising man, and had enjoyed for many years the confidence of the government of Massachusetts, and of the people among whom he lived. He had a sister who came to this country and married John Saunders, of Braintree. He left five children, Mary, George, Josiah, Pelatiah, and Hepzibah ; his eldest son, John, was killed in the attack upon the town, August 11, 1676. John left a widow and one daughter, named Huldah. He was George Munjoy's eldest son and was born in Boston, April 17, 1653. Mary married John Palmer,1 who lived here after the war ; she left no issue. George, Jr. was born April 21, 1656, and died in Braintree in 1698, leaving a son and two daughters; the son died without issue, as did also the other sons of the elder George; his daughter Mary married Philip Thompson, a physician in Roxbury ; the other, Susanna, a man named Gwynn. [Josiah was born in Boston, April 4, 1658. His daughter Mar- tha, born in Charlestown, 1710, married John Pulling of Boston, 1740. His daughter Mary married Capt. James Hornby of Boston ; he also had a son Jolin.] The name is extinct in this country, and no monument remains to perpetu- ate the name of Munjoy, but the hill in this town, on which he first fixed his residence.2 An inventory of his estate was re- turned in 1685 by Anthony Brackett and William Rogers, described and valued as follows: a tract of land at Capisic,
1 There appear to have been about this time three persons in Maine bearing the name of John Palmer; one married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Andrew Alger, and lived in Scarborough in 1676, Another married the eldest daughter of Munjoy, and was living in Falmouth between 1680 and 1690; the third was com- missioner in 1686 in the Duke of York's province east of Kennebec, and was a counselor of Gov. Andross. Whether these were three distinct persons or not, I am unable to say. It is very clear that the commissioner was a different person from either of the others.
2 This hill was formerly called Mount Joy; the family name was sometimes in later days written Mountjoy ; but the true mode as invariably used by the head of the family, who wrote a beautiful hand, was Munjoy, which is the proper name of the hill.
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THE MUNJOY FAMILY.
thirty pounds ; one tract of land bought of Thomas Brackett,! twenty pounds ; a tract of land lying at Long Creek with the marsh to it, one hundred and ten pounds ; an island called House Island, thirty pounds ; a tract of land at Piscataqua, forty pounds ; an island called Bastine's Island, twenty pounds; a tract of land on the other side of Ammoncongan river, twenty pounds. There was also an inventory of debts amounting to seventy pounds.
Munjoy's youngest children, Pelatiah and Hepzibah, in 1686 nominated guardians for themselves ; Pelatiah selected his brother-in-law, John Palmer, and Hepzibah her father-in-law, Robert Lawrence ; she afterward married a Mortimore. The widow married Robert Lawrence, and after his death, in 1690, Stephen Cross, of Boston ; she died at that place in 1705.
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