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 21
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Lawrence improved the farm at Ammoncongan for several years until the second war. The following extract from an ancient deposition will explain the manner of conducting the business. "The deponent2 further saith that he also remem- bers the said George and Mary Munjoy having a house and some improvements on the south-west side of Ammoncongan, in the great river Presumpscot, where the said Munjoy and his servants used to go in planting and reaping times, and often at other times, where they usually tarried about a week at a time; and this deponent further saith that the house last mentioned was opposite to part of the said Munjoy's planting ground on the north-east side of the river Ammoncongan, where this de ponent saith the said Munjoy had a very large tract, which said Munjoy, to this deponent's certain knowledge, improved many years, sowing peas and wheat without interruption, and this deponent heard his right esteemed by all old proprietors,
1 This was fifty acres extending from Deering's bridge up the south side of the creek toward the alms-house, which was conveyed to Brackett by his mother-in- law Mitton in 1667.
2 Elisha Corney, of Gloucester, 1742, "aged upwards of 73."
242
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
a very good one. He has often seen Munjoy's servants at work, and said Munjoy's oxen ploughing on said tract on the north- east side of Ammoncongan, and he never heard of any body else improving on the north-east side until after Munjoy's death; after which, Mr. Lawrence improved for several years the land on the north-east side, and lived on the south-west side in the manner Mr. Munjoy did, and said Lawrence rebuilt the house on the south-west side after it was burnt by the Indians, and he has often seen said Lawrence and his servants ploughing and sow- ing the land on the north-east side of Ammoncongan, and making more improvements than Mr. Munjoy had done, and he made considerable improvements before and at the time Pres- ident Danforth resettled the town and some years after, until his being drove off by the Indians."*
[George Munjoy was the son of John Munjoy or Mountjoy of Abbottsham in the county of Devon, and was born in 1626. At the age of twenty-one, in 1647, he was admitted freeman in Massachusetts, and in four or five years after he married Mary daughter of deacon John Phillips of Boston. He had a sister Mary who married John Saunders of Braintree. The family still exists in Devonshire, England, but uniformly spell the name Mountjoy.]
In September, 1681, Richard Seacomb was licensed to keep an ordinary in Falmouth. The order of court is as follows : "In answer to the desire of the selectmen of Casco in Mr. Sea- comb's behalf for license to keep an ordinary there, the court considering the necessity thereto do grant a liberty and license to be granted unto said Seacomb to keep a public house of en- tertainment for said town for the year ensuing ; he providing
* [Ammoncongan, Amoncongin, Ammoscoggin, Amoncongon, now universally called Congin, was applied to a portion of Presumpscot river around the falls next below Saccarappa. Mr. Ballard and Dr. Potter both agree in its interpreta- tion as "A fish place," or "Fish drying place," or "High fish place," .as Dr. Potter says, from Namaas, fish, Kees, high, Auke, place, It was probably the re- sort of alewives and perhaps salmon.]
243
FIRST LICENSE FOR A PUBLIC HOUSE.
for it as the place requires by suitable accommodations for strangers or others, of drink, victuals, and keeping good order and rule by his retailing strong drinks, to ye performance whereof Wm. Rogers witli said Seacomb stand equally bound in a bond of twenty shillings."
This is the earliest notice that we find relating to the estab- lishment of a public house here, and it is probably the first of the kind that was opened. Munjoy, nearly twenty years before had been licensed to retail strong liquors, but that doubtless was as a trader. The intercourse with the town before this period was so limited and the habitations so scattered, that a tavern was neither needed nor could be supported.
Seacomb's house was near the town landing-place, a few rods east of India street. In May, 1682, he was fined fifty shillings for selling liquors to the Indians. Seacomb came from the west of England and settled at Lynn as early as 1660; his children were Noah, Richard, and Susannah. There was also here at the same time a John Seacomb, who joined Richard, in 1683, in a conveyance of land near Barberry Creek. Rich- ard was constable in 1684, and was sometime a selectman : he purchased of George Lewis's children the land at Back Cove which had belonged to their father, on which he subsequently lived; the neck extending down to Back Cove bridge, was called from him Seacomb's Neck, which name it still retains ; he died in 1694.1 His son Richard lived in Portsmouth, R. I., in 1715.
John and Isaac Jones, of Charlestown, probably came here in 1681; in November of that year, Thomas Cloice and Susan- nah, his wife, sold to them a tract of land on the Presumpscot river, formerly conveyed to them by their father, John Cloice, "with the new dwelling-house and barn." This was the home- stead of John Cloice before the war. John Jones lived on the Neck west side of India street.
1The name Seacomb's Neck is not in general use, but it is not obsolete; it is mentioned in the act incorporating the proprietors of Back Cove bridge in 1794
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
We find this year a conveyance in Wells from Thomas Mills to his sons-in-law, John and Nathaniel Cloice ; Peter Cloice was living there before ; these persons were probably the sons of John Cloice, formerly of this town, and it may be inferred that after the flight from Falmouth, they established themselves in that place.
In 1682, died Elizabeth Harvey, the only daughter of George Cleeves. She came from England with her father probably in 1637, and was either then or soon after married to Michael Mitton. She was the last survivor of the first settler, and had been through scenes of great suffering and sorrow. She had buried two husbands and three adult children, one of whom, her only son, was killed by the Indians, and the lives of two of her daughters, the wives of the Bracketts, were proba- bly shortened by their captivity. Two daughters only survived her, Elizabeth, the wife of Thaddeus Clark, and Martha, the wife of John Graves,* neither of whom, that we are aware of, has posterity now residing here. The descendants of her daughter Mary, the wife of Thomas Brackett, are numerous among us. Mrs. Harvey had seen the town whichi on her first visit was an entangled forest, inhabited by wild beasts and savages, become the seat of civilization and prosperity, and holding forth the promises of future greatness.
About the same time died also George Lewis of Back Cove. In July, 1683, the following deposition relating to him and his family was given: "Nathaniel Wallis' aged fifty-two or there- abouts testifies that sometime before the first Indian war began, I being at George Lewis's house, said Lewis showed me his will and this deponent heard said Lewis's will read and there was in the will that his two sons should have twelve pence apiece, but for his land he had given it to his three youngest daugh-
* [Graves was living in Kittery in 1712, aged about sixty-seven. He moved to Little Compton, R. I., where he died, leaving one son and two daughters.]
Nathaniel Wallis was the nearest neighbor of Lowis; he bought of John Lewis the adjoining farm.
245
CHARACTER OF REV. GEORGE BURROUGHS
ters and all his goods, and said Wallis asked said Lewis why he gave his land to his daughters, said Lewis replied he had given his sons enough already-before Anto. Brackett com'r."
Lewis's sons were John and Philip ; he had four daughters, Ann married to James Ross, a shoemaker ; Susannah to Thomas Cloice ; Mary, first, to Thomas Skillings, second, Jotham Lew- is, and third, to Wilkins; she was born at Falmouth, 1654, and was living in Salem, 1732; the fourth daughter Hannah, married James Darling. John sold one hundred acres in Back Cove to Nathaniel Wallis, in 1674 : he continued to live here until the commencement of the Indian war, but we do not find him mentioned afterward ; his wife's name was Ellinor. George, as we have before intimated, was probably the son of George Lewis, freeman in Scituate, Plymouth colony, 1636.
George Burroughs returned to the ministry here in 1683. The first notice of his return that we find, is in June of that year, when at the request of the town he relinquished one hun- dred and seventy acres of land which had been granted to him previous to the war. In their application for this purpose they offered to give him one hundred acres "further off," for the quantity relinquished, but Burroughs replied "as for the land already taken away, we were welcome to it, and if twenty acres of the fifty above expressed would pleasure us, he freely gave it to us, not desiring any land any where else, nor any thing else in consideration thereof .*
This disinterestness places the character of Mr. Burroughs - in a very amiable light, which nothing can be found during the
* [I find on a tax list rescued from the destruction of the town in 1690, the following items of town charges.
."Richard Powsland for money lent the town to go for Mr Burroughs 20 or 30 shillings in good pay
3 £1.10.
Anthony Brackett to pay part of Mr Burroughs' passage 5.
Passage and boards and nails for ye minister's house and workmen 5.05.
To George Ingersoll and John Ingersoll for '1000 boards to floor the meeting-house
1.10.
This document is dated October 7, 1683.]
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
whole course of his ministry here to impair. The large quan- tity of land which he relinquished was situated upon the Neck, which was then daily becoming more valuable by the location of the town upon it. All this, except thirty acres, he freely returned without accepting the consideration offered by the town.
The unhappy catastrophe, which terminated the life and usefulness of Mr. Burroughs, has cast a shade upon many facts relating to him, which it would be interesting to us to know. We have no means of ascertaining whether he was regularly settled, and had gathered a church here or not ; we have how- ever sufficient authority for asserting that he preached to our predecessors a longer period than any other person prior to the Rev. Mr. Smith. We must be understood to except from this remark the Rev. Robert Jordan, who lived in town, occasionally preaching and administering the ordinances under the episco- pal form, for thirty-six years, except when "silenced" by the government of Massachusetts.
There has nothing survived Mr. Burroughs, either in his living or dying, that casts any reproach upon his character, and although he died the victim of a fanaticism as wicked and stupid as any which has ever been countenanced in civilized society, and which for a time prejudiced his memory, yet his reputation stands redeemed in a more enlightened age from any blemish.
In November, 1680, he was employed to preach in Salem village, now Danvers, on a salary of sixty pounds a year, one- third in money, and two-thirds in provisions at the following rates, viz : rye, barley, and malt at three shillings a bushel ; corn, two shillings ; beef, one and a half pence a pound ; pork, two pence, and butter six pence.1 He continued there probably until 1683, when in May, Mr. Lawson was invited to preach to them ; from Salem, it may be supposed that he came directly here.
1 Annals of Salem, p. 268.
247
CHARACTER OF REV. GEORGE BURROUGHS.
A work entitled "European settlements in America," in speak- ing of Mr. Burroughs as a victim of the Salem witchcraft says, "that he was a gentleman who had formerly been minister of Salem ; but upon some of the religious disputes which divided the country he differed from his flock and left them." Mather in his "Wonders of the invisible World," countenances this idea ; he says, "he had removed from Salem village in ill terms some years before."
He was tried for witchcraft in Salem, May 8, 1692, and con- demned upon testimony which nothing but the most highly wrought infatuation could for a moment have endured. His great strength and activity for which he had been remarkable from his youth, were enlisted against him, as having been derived from the prince of evil ; it was in evidence that he liad lifted a barrel of molasses by putting his fingers in the bung- hole, and carried it round him, that he had held a gun more than seven feet long, at arms length with one hand,1 and per- formed other surprising feats above the power of humanity. Some evidence was also exhibited against his moral character, in relation to his treatment of his wives and children, but the source from which it proceeded renders it unworthy of credit. He was executed on the 19th of August, 1692. The writer before quoted, on this case says, "Yet by those judges, upon that evidence, and the verdict founded upon it, this minister, a man of most unexceptionable character, was sentenced to die, and accordingly hanged." He had been three times married, his third wife was the daughter of Thomas Ruck, who survived him. His children were Charles, George, who lived in Ipswich, Jeremiah, who was insane, Rebecca married a Tolman of Bos- ton, Hannah married one Fox and lived near Barton's Point, in Boston, Elizabeth married Peter Thomas of Boston, and Mary married to a man in Attleborough. George and Thomas
1 This gun is said now to be in the museum of Fryeburg Academy, but upon what evidence we do not know. For further particulars of this interesting case, + Calef's "Salem witchcraft" and Sullivan's history may be consulted.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Burroughs of Newburyport, the former a tanner, conveyed to N. Winslow in 1774, the right of George Burroughs in proprie- tary land in Falmouth,1 These were probably descendants of our minister .? [Savage thinks that Burroughs was son of that "Mrs. Rebecca Burroughs who came from Virginia that she might enjoy God in his ordinance in New England." She united with Eliot's church in Roxbury, July 19, 1657, and George in 1674. His daughter Rebecca was baptized April 12, 1674, and George, November 21, 1675, both at Roxbury. His daughter Hannah was born at Salisbury, April 27, 1680, by wife Hannah; Elizabeth at Danvers, 1682. He was sent to Boston, May 8, 1692, charged with witchcraft, andk ept nine weeks in prison, previous to his trial. Our fellow citizen, Elias Thomas, of Portland, born January 14, 1772, and living 1864, is a descendant in the fifth degree from George Burroughs through his daughter Elizabeth, who married Peter Thomas.]
1 Cumberland Registry of Deeds.
2 Bentley in his history of Salem published in the Collections of the Massachu- setts Historical Society, says, that Burroughs was about four score years old at the time of his death. But strong circumstances oppose this statement; his great strength, his going to a new country to preach, the entire want of evidence rela- tive to him previous to the facts which we have noticed, lead us to the conclusion that he was the graduate whose name stands in Harvard Catalogue for the year 1670, and consequently a much younger man than Bentley supposed. Upham's lectures on witchcraft which have just issued from the press, confirms the favor- able opinion above expressed of Mr. Burroughs.
CHAPTER IX.
FORT LOYAL-SAW MILLS TAXED FOR ITS SUPPORT-DEED OF FALMOUTH TO TRUSTEES-GOVERNMENT OF ANDROSS, NEW PATENTS FOR LAND REQUIRED-FRENCH EMIGRANTS-ROADS AND FERRIES-BUSINESS OF THE TOWN AND ITS INTERNAL CONDITION-QUARREL BETWEEN LAWRENCE AND DAVIS.
As soon as the inhabitants were quietly settled upon their possessions, it became an object of deep interest with them, in which the government also partook, to provide for the security of the settlement. It was in some degree a frontier post, and the safety of all the plantations in the province depended upon its preservation. The General Assembly in 1681, made application to the General Court of Massachusetts to make further provision for its security. In answer to this petition the court granted that in case of a defensive war, the whole revenue accruing to the chief proprietor should be appropriated for the safety of the inhabitants. And "that the annual reve- nue arising by the trade with the Indians shall be allowed toward the maintenance of Fort Loyal. The appointment of the captain as well as the other militia being still reserved as the charter appoints, in the power of the chief proprietor. Fur- ther it is ordered that the arrears of the Capt. and garrison at Fort Loyal be forthwith passed by the President to the Treasurer for payment." This order was laid before the council of the province, who authorized the treasurer, Capt. Hooke, of Saco, to pay Capt. Tyng his salary as commander of Fort Loyal, at
17
250
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
the rate of sixty pounds per annum for himself and servant, till May following, and to furnish necessary supplies for the garrison. They also ordered six men to be raised for the pres- ent supply of the garrison, two from Kittery, one from each of the towns of York, Wells, and Falmouth, and one from Saco, Scarborough, and Cape Porpus. In pursuance of the grant of revenue arising from the Indian trade, Walter Gendall, the Indian agent, was called upon to pay to the treasurer "twenty pounds or as much as he has." The whole garrison consisted of thirteen men, part of whom were supported by Massachu- setts.1 At the same session it was ordered that "for the better
1 From the General Court Files, May 31, 1681.
"Maj. Pinchon, Maj. Savage, and Mr. Nowell are nominated by the magistrates to be a Com. to joyn with some of our Breth. the Dep. to inquire concerning the present state of ye Province of Maine and ye settlement of Fort Loyal and to con- sider what is farther necessary to be done for the maintainance thereof and to present ye same to ye Court in ye afternoon.
The magistrates have past this order our brethren the Deputies consenting. J. DUDLEY, per order.
The Deputies have chosen Maj, Pike
Capt. Sprague, Capt Waite, and Lt. Johnson to joyne
with our hon. magistrates to be a Committee as in the above bill. May 31. 1681. ELISHA HUTCHINSON, Speaker.
The returne of the Committee appointed by the Gen. Court to enquire into the state of the Province of Mayne and what was further needfull to be done for the settlement of Fort Loyal and the maintaintance thereof
1. For the province itself we cannot as yet by any enquiry satisfy ourselves so as to give information to the Court what it may produce.
2. For the Fort we apprehend needful that it should be continued or defended both for the securing of the people in those parts against the Indians and any bad neighbours and also from the encouragement that people take from it to replant themselves there.
3. In order to the maintaining or defence of that fort and place we judge there cannot well be less than thirteen men viz. a Capt. a Serj. a Gunner, and ten pri- vate soldiers.
4. We are informed that the people of that Province are so sensible of the benefit to themselves that they are willing to maintain six private soldiers.
5. The remainder of the charge for the captain's salary, Serj., Gunner, and
251
TAXATION FOR SUPPORT OF FORT LOYAL.
settling and preserving of order and peace in our eastern towns of Saco, Scarborough, Falmouth and North Yarmouth, that these towns do choose in each place one commissioner for end- ing small causes, civil and criminal, who being first sworn by Capt. Scottow or by some other in authority either Capt. Tyng or who nearest to them, have liberty and power, with any one of the justices of this Province to hear and determine any action (without a jury) or case not exceeding ten pounds and punish with ten stripes at their discretion."
The next year, 1682, a further provision was made for the support of Fort Loyal and a tax was laid upon the saw-mills in the province for the purpose. The following document will exhibit the number of mills and the amount of the tax. "In answer to an act and order of the council made the last court of sessions at Wells, the 12th of April 1682, viz. Major John Davess Dep. Pres. Capt. John Wincoll, Mr. Samuel Wheel- wright, Mr. Francis Hooke, Capt. Charles Frost, and Edward Rishworth, recorder, Justices.
"The Trustees or Representatives,
"Major Nicholas Shapleigh, Left. Abra. Preble, Wm. Ham- mond, John Puddington, John Harmon, Mr. Benjamin Black- man and Left. Anthony Brackett.
"An agreement made with Left. Brackett about keeping fort
four soldiers with a magazine will amount to four hundred pounds per annum country pay.
6. We hope something to ease this burthen may be raised out of the Beaver trade and from the saw mills and some other ways, which may in a little time wholly ease this Colony of the present burthen.
JNO. PYNCHON, in ye name of ye Committee.
The Deputies have perused this returne of
the Committee and doe approve of it and order that Fort Loyal bee maintained at ye charge of this Colony provided ye Province maintain six soldiers and the Hon. President is desired to take care yt it be maintained with as little charge as may be. Past by the Deputies, our hon. magistrates consenting 1 June 1681.
ELISHA HUTCHINSON Speaker."
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Loyal for the term of a year's time, beginning the 24th of May next ensuing, 1682. Province of Maine. It is hereby mutu- ally agreed and concluded by the council and the representa- tives of the several towns now assembled at York, on the one party and Left. Anthony Brackett, on the other party, of Casco. That for the present and more easy carrying on and settling of fort Loyal that said Left. Brackett stands engaged from the time above mentioned to be the sole officer taking the charge and care of fort Loyal by continual watch and ward to keep it as a fort ought to be kept, with all necessary supplies of men, six efficient men constantly during the summer season and four men in the winter, with sufficient arms, ammunition and provisions and whatever else shall be needful for that ser- vice for the term of one whole year. In consideration of said Anthony Brackett his performance of the premisses, the coun- cil and the representatives in the behalf of this province do promise and stand engaged in the province behalf to pay or cause to be paid unto said Anthony Brackett or his order, the just sum of one hundred and sixty pounds in money or pay equivalent. In order to the performance of this agreement to Left. Brackett of one hundred and sixty pounds, we have cal- culated the value of the mills in several towns arising by an indifferent proportion as follows, boards at thirty shillings per M. Mills at Kittery. Wells Mills.
Mr. Hutchinson's £10.
Salmon Falls 10.
Humphrey Chadbourn's 4.
Major Shapleigh's 1.10.
£25.10.
Left. Littlefield's £4
Jos. Littlefield's 2
Wm. Frost's 1
Mousum Mill 6
Kennebunk Mill 4
£17
York Mills.
Cape Porpus.
Mary Sayward's
Cape Nuttacke 1.10
£5.
Phanea Hull's £2
Gilbert Endicott's 1
£6.10.
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TAXATION FOR SUPPORT OF FORT LOYAL.
Saco Mills
Black Point.
Mr. Blackman's £4.
Mr. Blackman's Mill £1
Thomas Doughty's 5.
£9.
Casco Mills.
Samuel Webber's £2.10.
Walter Gendall's 6.
£8.10. Total is £70.10
"A new addition of some other saw-mills to pay those rents as follows :
Casco Mill, Capt. Silvanus Davis', mill rent £4.
Cape-Porpus Mills, John Barrett's 40s.
John Batson's 30s. 3.10.
Wells, Jonathan Hammond's and Wm. Frost's mill, 4.
York mill, being John Sayward's mill 20s. 1.
Kittery Spruce mill, Mr. John Shapleigh, 4.
Quamphegan mill that is in Thomas Holmes' hands 6.
£22.10"
The whole number of saw-mills in the province appear by this table to have been twenty-four, of which six were in Kit- tery, which then included Elliott, Berwick, and South Berwick. It appears that the lumber business was then carried on to a greater extent in that place than in any other in the province. Wells was next and Falmouth the third, if Gendall's mills may be included, of which we have some doubt. They were either at the lower falls on Presumpscot river or on Royall's river in North Yarmouth. Webber's mill was on Long Creek, and Davis's at Capisic. There was also a grist-mill at Capisic ; and in 1682, George Ingersoll built a grist-mill at Barberry Creek in Purpooduck. It can hardly be presumed that the falls on the Presumpscot, which had been improved before the war
254
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
for mills, should now be entirely destitute, and as no others are mentioned, although North Yarmouth was then existing as a town, it may reasonably be inferred that Gendall's mills were on those falls, more especially as North Yarmouth could not be considered as within the limits of Massachusetts at that time. If this conjecture be correct the mill rates in Falmouth amounted to twelve pounds ten shillings.1
The next year, 1683, the General Assembly of the province on the petition of Henry Harwood, discharged him from the command of the foot company in Falmouth and empowered "Capt. Anthony Brackett" to take charge of it : "Requiring all the foot soldiers to obey him as their captain, till further order, and in case said Anthony Brackett accept not thereof, then Mr. Walter Gendall, or whom he shall appoint is hereby empowered to take the command of the foot company of Casco; and all the soldiers therein are required to yield obedience to him or his order as their commander during the court's pleasure." Gen- dall is also authorized to take charge of Fort Loyal, if Brackett declined the appointment. Harwood soon after this moved to Boston and sold his property here to Bozoun Allen of that place, a tanner,
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