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 22
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In 1684, the General Assembly appointed Capt. Joshua Scot- tow of Black Point, Capt. Edward Tyng, Mr. Nathaniel Fryer, who probably then lived at Spurwink, Capt. Silvanus Davis, and Mr. Walter Gendall "to take care of the repairing and well ordering of fort Loyal in Falmouth and settle a chief officer there." And next year they order that the fort "be appointed a prison or jail to the four associate towns and that the several justices in the respective towns shall direct their mittimusses
1 Bartholomew Gedney of Salem, had a mill on Royall's river in North Yar- month, in 1680, which he afterward sold to Gendall. A petition was made to the Gen. Court in 1680, for liberty to cut timber on three thousand acres in the vicin- ity to feed the mill .- Massachusetts Files. See also Gedney's petition, 1687, to Andross for confirmation of his title. The mill rents were annually granted for the support of Fort Loyal until the arrival of Andross.
255
DEED OF FALMOUTH TO TRUSTEES.
to the keeper of his majesty's jail at fort Loyal, and that there shall be a committee appointed for ye settling of said jail and the keeper thereof," the charges to be paid by the common treasury. The associate towns referred to were Saco, Scarbor- rough, Falmouth, and North Yarmouth.
After Massachusetts acquired a right to the soil of Maine by. purchase, some fears seem to have been entertained by the land- holders in regard to the security of their titles. That govern- ment carly took measures to quiet these apprehensions, and in 1681, the General Court empowered "the President of said province to make legal confirmation to the inhabitants respect- ively of their just proprieties in the lands there under his hand and seal according to the directions of their charter ; and do further grant that they, making their annual acknowledge- ment of the right of the chief proprietor to the soil and gov- ernment, shall then be acquitted and discharged from any further subsidies to the chief proprietor, further than shall be necessary and orderly levied, for their own protection and gov- ernment."
In pursuance of this authority, Danforth on the 26th of July, 1684, executed an indenture of two parts, interchangeably to "Capt. Edward Tyng, Capt. Silvanus Davis, Mr. Walter Gen- dall, Mr. Thaddeus Clark, Capt Anthony Brackett, Mr. Domin- icus Jordan, Mr. George Brimhall and Mr. Robert Lawrence, trustees on the behalf and for the sole use and benefit of the inhabitants of the town of Falmouth within the above named province of Maine," in which he granted and confirmed to them in trust "all that tract or parcel of land within the town- ship of Falmouth."
This is recited in the deed to have been the result of a mutual agreement between Massachusetts and the General Assembly of the province, concluded at York in June, 1681, and it is covenanted on the part of said trustees that the in- habitants shall pay to that government a quit rent, as an acknowledgment of proprietorship of "twelve pence for every
256
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
family, whose single country rate is not above two shillings," and three shillings for every family whose single rate exceeds two shillings, annually, in money to the treasurer of the pro- vince for the use of the proprietor.1 A similar conveyance was made of North Yarmouth, September 6, 1684, and of Scarbor- ough. Under this deed the trustees or committee of Falmouth, proceeded to lay out many lots of land, and "granted them to sundry persons, who builded thereon, and made improvement." 2 This policy produced a state of repose among the people in regard to their titles, after the long and numerous conflicts, which had taken place for the proprietorship.3 These con- tests had occasioned great inconvenience to the tenants of the soil, who had been continually harrassed by contested claims.
The trustees named in the deeds were probably appointed by each town ; those of North Yarmouth were Jeremiah Dummer Walter Gendall, John Royall, and John York.
The quit rents reserved in the conveyances by Masschusetts were soon found to produce dissatisfaction, although they were apparently light; and they became the subject of complaint to Sir Edmund Andross immediately on his arrival about two years afterward. Edward Tyng, who had been appointed one of the counselors of that governor on the 10th of January, 1687, twenty days after his arrival in Boston, presented the
1 For this deed in extenso, see Appendix VII. A single rate was twelve pence on each poll, and one penny upon twenty shillings estate, and six years' income of real and personal estate and faculty, as it was then styled, were considered as principal in the tax.
2 Petition of old proprietors to the General Court, 1728. In this they state,' that in consequence of the loss of the town book they "cannot find out the whole number that were admitted settlers by the Trustees."
3 That the possession of Maine had been attended with no pecuniary advantage to its successive proprietors, was fully evinced by experience. Sir F. Gorges had expended twenty thousand pounds in his various enterprises here, from which he reaped no benefit, and it had cost' Massachusetts eight thousand pounds for its defense in the war of 1675.
257
PETITION FOR ABATING QUIT RENTS.
following petition to him in behalf of the whole province, in relation to this subject : "May it please your Excellency. The late Govr. of the Massachusetts colony having purchased the land and title of Sir F. Gorges in the province of Mayne and upon such purchase intending and designing to give all encour- agement to all persons inclined to goe and set down and settle themselves and famalyes in and upon the said province of Mayne. The said late Government did by commission under the seale of the late Government empower Thomas Danforth, Esq., to lay and appoint places for such townships in the said province and also to grant power unto such townships to give and grant lands to any persons whatsoever, that would settle themselves and famalyes in the said province under such Quitt rent as did then seeme good unto the said Tho. Danforth. In pursuance whereof several persons and their famalyes have satt down in several townshipps, in and upon the said province with great charge, trouble and expence and many more in probability would, had not the burden of Quitt Rents discour- aged.
"It is therefore humbly prayed of your Excellency that such townshipps and settlements so made as above may have your Excellency's confirmation of their titles obtained as above, and the Quitt rents appointed to be paid as above for such lands being experimentally found to lye heavy upon the inhabitants there residing, may receive some abatement."1
The repose which the people of Maine had hoped to enjoy under the dominion of Massachusetts, was again interrupted by the dissolution of the charter of that colony in 1684. The death of Charles II. soon after (Feb. 6. 1685) delayed the for- mation of a new government until 1686, and in the meantime the authorities in the colony continued to conduct affairs, but with great sluggishness and indifference until May, 1686, when a commission arrived to Joseph Dudley as President of New England. This was followed in December by the arrival
! Massachusetts Files.
258
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
of Sir Edmund Andross as Governor of New England and New York. On this occasison the local government in Maine ceased and was not again introduced until the final separation from Massachusetts, in 1820.1 Sir Edmund exercised his office by the advice of a council without the intervention of an as- sembly of the representatives of the people. The people were made to feel the effects of this change in affairs in a variety of shapes, not the least of which was through the purse. One of the most grievous expedients resorted to, a gross act of rapacity and tyranny, was that of requiring the owners of land to pro- cure new patents for their possessions, it having been assumed that on the dissolution of the charter, their former titles had become invalid. The fees for these patents were exorbitant, in some cases amounting to fifty pounds. To avoid vexatious collision with the ruling powers, landholders generally complied with this requisition. To give plausibility to this scheme of extortion certain forms were adopted ; a petition was required to be filed describing the land and praying for confirmation ; this was referred to a committee to ascertain facts and thien a warrant was granted for a survey ; for each step in the pro- cess fees were exacted. Numerous tracts were surveyed in Falmouth under this system in 1687 and 1688. Edward Tyng, of the council, was one of the first from this quarter, to com- ply with the arbitrary edict; his petition is dated August 30, 1687 ; others immediately followed the example until most of the large proprietors here had procured surveys. Tyng and Sylvanus Davis made themselves active in persuading the peo- ple to comply with this severe requisition of the government, by which they drew upon themselves the odium of the inhabi- tants. And although the people generally complied with the decree, they took the earliest opportunity to express their re- sentment against those whom they considered as having had
1 The Deputies from Falmouth in the assembly of the province had been Antho. Brackett for 1681 and 1682. Lieut. George Ingersoll for 1683 and 1685, and Thaddeus Clarke for 1684.
259
OPPOSITION TO GOVERNMENT.
any influence in procuring the measure. They even made some opposition to the proceedings of the surveyor when he first commenced his duties. Davis, in a letter to John West, the secretary of Massachusetts, as early as November 16, 1687, thus notices the state of feeling here : "Mr Clements is follow- ing his warrant but meets with continual disturbance from Mr. Lawrence who will not be satisfied till he makes all the town his tenants ;"* he adds that "he thinks all the settlers will pe- tition." It appears from a memorial of the inhabitants two years afterward that his conjecture was right ; they say "Capt. Davis did persuade the inhabitants of our town to patent their lands and he drew petitions for them near fifty, and now he chargeth them six shillings for every petition."1
From the time peace was proclaimed, in 1678, until the re- commencement of hostilities by the Indians, the town had been continually increasing in population and the development of its resources. Fishermen settled upon Cape Elizabeth and the islands which were convenient stations for successfully pursuing
*[It may be gratifying to the curious reader to see the signatures of the noted Governor of Massachusetts, and his Secretary, West, which I annex.]
(Andross and West.)
Andrus
1 This petition is recited at length in a subsequent part of this chapter. It was occasioned by difficulties which existed between Davis and Tyng on the one hand, and Lawrence and the principal part of the inhabitants on the other , originating chiefly in a spirit of jealousy against those two prominent men.
260
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
that branch of business. The mill sites were constantly demand- ing attention from their peculiar advantages, and the forests were resounding to the stroke of the woodman's axe, and were falling before the march of improvement. In addition to the immigration from neighboring colonies, which was considerable, the town received an accession in 1686, by the arrival of a small company of French protestants, who sought refuge on our shore, from the persecutions which followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes on the 8th of October, 1685. The number of persons who came to this town on that occasion we are unable to ascertain, we have succeeded in tracing but four, viz: Peter Bowdoin, Stephen Boutineau, Philip le Bretton, and Philip Barger.
Peter Bowdoin, or according to French orthography, Pierre Baudouin,1 was a physician of Rochelle, in France, from which place he fled to Ireland on the revocation of the edict, with his wife Eliza and several children ; from Ireland he came to Fal- mouth, and we have found his name for the first time in the records April 7, 1687, when he purchased five acres of land on the Neck near Robison's Point, of Anthony Brackett. Le Bretton, who was undoubtedly one of the company, is found pur- chasing land as early as September, 1686. [October 8, 1687, government issued a warrant to Bowdoin for one hundred acres of land on Casco bay. This was probably in answer to a petition from him without date, in the French language, stating that he brought to this country his family, consisting of six persons, of whom four were young children, and wishing land surveyed and confirmed.] April 1, 1688, Bowdoin bought of George Burroughs twenty-three acres extending across the Neck about where South street now is ; he had also another tract at Barberry Creek.
1 He however adopted the English mode of spelling, immediately, as appears by an original signature in my possession, as a witness, dated March 6, 1688. [A fac-simile of this signature may be seen on a future page .]
261
THE BOWDOIN FAMILY.
It appears by an original letter from him, August 2, 1687, now in possession of the Winthrop family of Boston, descend- ants in the female line, that his family at that time consisted of six persons.1 He had two sons, James and John, and two daughters ; Mary married to Stephen Boutineau, 1708, and Elizabeth married to Robins. He escaped to Boston just pro- vious to the destruction of the town in 1690, where he became an active and enterprising merchant. He died September, 1706 ; his will was dated June 16, 1704, but was not proved until 1719, although his widow Elizabeth's will was proved in 1717.2 The family became distinguished in Massachusetts, and one of his descendants was a munificent patron of the college in this State, which bears his name. The male branch is now ex- tinct, but the name is revived by a descendant in the female line. [This gentleman, James Bowdoin, son of the late Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop, of Boston, died without issue, in 1833 ; so that the name in Massachusetts is now passed away. John, the son of Peter, was a mariner and settled in Virginia, where his posterity remain.]
Le Bretton, who subsequently dropped the French article from his name, was born in 1660; he was a rigger by trade, and moved to Boston during the Indian troubles, where he died in 1737, leaving eight children, viz : Peter, David, Mary, Eliza- beth, Rachel, Sarah, Jane, and Ann; his daughter Elizabeth married John Young of Boston, joiner, another married Ed- ward Dumaresque, and a third Henry Venner .? [Philip Barger died in 1703, leaving a widow, Margaret, and probably a son Philip, who died 1720. Boutineau had six sons and four daughters. He was living in 1748 in Boston.]
1. Massachusetts Historical Collections, vol. ii. 3d series, p. 49. Dr. Holmes' account of the French protestants. In a petition to Gov. Andross for confirma- tion of his title in Falmouth, he says, "his family consisted of six persons, of whom were four children not of an age to procure their living."-Massachusetts Files.
2 Suffolk Probate Records. The ship John arrived at Salem, September 9, 1687, with French protestants .- Massachusetts Files, 1687 pet.
262
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
As the population and business increased, it became necessary to increase the facilities of traveling. A water communica- tion had always been kept up with neighboring towns, and also with those more remote ; the coasting trade between Falmouth and the towns in Massachusetts was successfully carried on, and our fish and lumber, as well as agricultural products, at that early period found a market there, for which returns were made in English goods and groceries. It is believed that two sloops commanded by Captains English and Phillips, plied regularly between this bay and Boston. The communications were not however as they had formerly been, wholly confined to the water ; a road, several years previous to the time of which we are speaking, had been laid out from the ferry-way in Cape Elizabeth, near where it is now established, which passed round Purpooduck Point by the water and joined the present road near Simonton's Cove ; then passing by the light-house and the head of Pond Cove as the road is now traveled, it bent westerly and crossed the cape directly to Spurwink river, which travelers crossed by a ferry, about a mile from its mouth. It then kept by the shore the whole distance to Piscataqua, cross- ing the several rivers by ferries, near their mouths. This road passed through all the settlements, as they then clustered upon the coast, but was circuitous and long. It was soon found expedient to strike out shorter paths at the expense of going greater distances through the woods. In 1686, the Court of Sessions at York granted a ferry at Nonsuch Point to Silvanus Davis "for passage of man and horse over Casco river for the benefit of travelers." This point was on the south side of Long Creek and between that and Nonsuch Creek ; the landing on this side must have been a little above Vaughn's bridge. A road was laid out from Scarborough to the ferry, which shortened the distance between the Neck and that place sev- eral miles.
In addition to this route, there was a road to Stroudwater and Capisic which passed along on the bank of the river to
263
SURVEY FOR A COUNTY ROAD.
Round Marsh, and thence probably as the road is now traveled to those places. Another road or path was laid out by the set- tlements on Back Cove to the Presumpscot, crossing Weir Creek at the foot of the hill near the almshouse. As carriages were not then in use here, these roads may properly be con- sidered merely foot-paths through the woods, which then cov- ered the whole territory and overshadowed the settlements.
In April, 1688, Richards Clements, a surveyor, was required by the government of Massachusetts to make a survey of land from Kennebec, "so as to head the several rivers of Casco bay, and see where they may be best passed in order for settling a county road as far westward as Capisic, or any other remarkable place thereabouts toward Saco, and also observe what places were proper for cross-roads to each town or settlement." A like warrant was given by Nicholas Manning, chief magistrate of the Duke of York's province, for a survey from Pemaquid and New Dartmouth to the Kennebec.1
The only place of business in town at this time was on the bay below India, then called Broad street ; here Silvanus Davis had a warehouse, large for those times. In 1687, he was licensed by the court, "to retail liquors out of doors in the town of Falmouth," paying duties and imposts. It does not appear that there was any other store in town ; Seacomb, who had been licensed to keep an ordinary, several years before, had moved to Back Cove and occupied the farm which he bought of the heirs of George Lewis, situated on the point where Back Cove bridge now lands ; this point was for many years called Sea- comb's Neck. The business whichi had been conducted on a large scale at Richmond's Island, in the early days of our his- tory, had wholly ceased, and a proportion of it, we may suppose to have been transferred to the Neck; it consisted probably in furnishing supplies to fishermen and other similar dealing. It
1 July 11, 1688, Nicholas Manning was appointed by Andross, Judge of the Inferior court in Cornwall; this was a county in the Duke's province .- Massachu- setts Files.
264
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
does not appear that at this time any foreign trade was carried on, as there formerly had been at Richmond's Island ; when the interest of the proprietors in England ceased in lands here, their foreign intercourse was wholly suspended.
The town at this period was agitated by a violent internal commotion. A dispute had arisen among the principal men respecting titles to land, in which the other inhabitants took sides. The assumption of title by the government and their distribution of the lands in town, although submitted to, was never quietly acquiesced in. The ancient inhabitants who had been driven from their possessions by the war, felt themselves injured, when the government undertook to bestow upon stran- gers the soil which they had labored to subdue, and from the fruits of which they had been driven by an irresistible violence. This spirit of opposition was most loudly expressed by the large landholders against those who had received the largest share of favor under the new order of things. We find there- fore that Davis and Tyng became the objects of popular odium while Robert Lawrence led the crusade against them. Law- rence complained to government that a grant had been made to Davis of a mile square at Capisic, which embraced his land; in his memorial he represented that Davis had erected a saw- mill on a small brook that was dry most part of the year, for no other purpose than to deprive the petitioner of his marsh, and if Davis's claim should be allowed, the petitioner would have "to starve his cattle for such a person who seeks nothing but the ruin and destruction of all his neighbors, as is well known to all ye inhabitants, for whom it would have been happy had he not come amongst them, seeking to enjoy that for which other men have honestly paid and spent their time and labor and estates and lives upon, when he run away from his own at Kennebeck, where he pretendeth he hath land and marsh enough." Lawrence, for the purpose of a decision on the title, undertook to take grass from this marsh which Davis had cut; upon which Davis procured a warrant from Tyng to arrest him
265
DISPUTE IN REGARD TO LAND TITLES.
for stealing his thatch ; this, Lawrence refused to obey, and in the course of the controversy he called Tyng "a hypocritical rogue." The case now assumed an unexpected shape, and he was carried before the court for scandal upon a counselor of the governor. The people became enlisted in the quarrel, and the town was kept in a ferment by it, until the more ab- sorbing interest of personal danger from Indian hostilities ended the unhappy controversy.
The question however of title to the land was discussed be- fore the Governor ; Lawrence claimed under Munjoy from an Indian title, which we have before noticed; Davis resisted this title, and offered the following considerations "to prove that Indian grants are not sufficient to eject a present possessor."
"1. Because of the king's patent to Sir F. Gorges in the year 1622 or 1629.
2. The former government made several publications after the land was conquered from the Indians, that all should bring in their claims in such a time as was therein expressed and limited, or that otherwise the land should be disposed of to any of his majesty's good subjects that would present for the set- tling of the country.
3. If Indian titles be of force, that Mr. Lawrence's title can- not be good, being not obtained from the right Sagamore, as several of the Indian Sagamores did declare before Capt. Tyng, Capt. Joshua Scottow, Capt. Gendall, and others, that Cheber- rina1 was the the right Indian Sagamore of all these lands.
4. If the Massachusetts government have confirmed the title to the said lands to the said Lawrence or his ancestors, yet not legal, because they did not confirm the said lands in a legal and requisite way,
5. Mrs Mary Munjoy did make an agreement with Mr. Thomas Danforth, late President of said province of Maine, to divest herself of all claims to lands within the town of Fal-
1 A Penobscot chief.
18
266
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
mouth, excepting what was reserved in that instrument."1
The latter seems to be the better ground of defense and probably the one on which Mr. Davis succeeded. The tract was confirmed to him and surveyed by Clements in 1687 or 1688 .*
Davis and Tyng were in favor at court during the adminis- tration of Andross, and consequently carried all their points. After his downfall the inhabitants hoped to have prevailed against them, and on the 24th of May, 1689, addressed the fol- lowing petition : "To the right Hon. President, Simon Brad- street and Hon. Council," "The petition of ye inhabitants of ye town of Falmouth, in Casco bay, whereas our town hath been under the command of Lt. Col. Tyng and Capt. Sil- vanus Davis and Lt. Thaddeus Clarke, an Irishman, who had their commissions from Sir Edmund Andross, who have done our town a great deal of damage to the loss of many of our men, as far as we know the abovesaid Col. Tyng and Capt. Davis did inform Sir Edmund Andross that the people of our town were an unsubdued people, for they would obey no orders, and that he would take some course with them; then Sir E. Andross said that he would set up a court of guard and that
1 Massachusetts Files.
* [The following is a copy of the original notice from Andross to Lawrence, in my possession,
"By his Excellency,
Whereas Capt Silvanus Davis hath by his petition among other things desired his majesty's grant and confirmation for a parcel or tract of land att Kippiseck containing about one mile square, to which I am informed you make some clayme or pretence ; these are therefore to require you forthwith, after receipt hereof to make known unto Edward Tyng Esq. one of his majesty's councill what clayme or pretence you make," &c. "On default whereof the said land will be granted to said Silvanus Davis as desired. Dated att Boston the 30th day of August, 1687.
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