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 27
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Hutchinson estimates the loss to the country by the three late Indian wars as follows: "From 1675, when Philip's war began, to 1713, five thousand or six thousand of the youth of our country had perished by the enemy, or by distempers con- tracted in the service ; nine in ten of these would have been fathers of families, and in the course of forty years have multi- plied to near one hundred thousand souls."2
In 1715, Governor Dudley having been superseded in the
1 The government was at the expense of furnishing merchandise for these es- tablishments, and providing a person to attend them, who was called a Truck- master ; they occasioned a continual expenditure, with but little satisfaction to the Indians. The one at Falmouth was not long continued, and the failure of the government in this particular became a subject of complaint .- New Hamp- shire Collections, vol. ii. p. 240.
2 New Hampshire Collections, vol. ii. p. 183.
319
DEMOLITION OF CASCO FORT.
government of Massachusetts, the House of Representatives seized the opportunity to secure the demolition of the fort at Casco, and passed the following resolve in June, 1716. "This house being informed, that the votes to demolish Casco fort and remove the stores from thence have not been fully complied with, which this house apprehend may be of dangerous conse- quence by exposing his majesty's stores and the few people that still remain there, contrary to the acts of this court, to the in- sults of the Indians ; Resolved, that his Hon. the Lt. Governor be desired to direct a full performance of the votes of this court, and order the removing of the stores to Boston, and the entire demolishing of the fort and the houses therein, without delay." This order was immediately carried into execution,. . and a sloop was dispatched from Boston to remove the stores belonging to the government to that place. Major Moody, who had probably continued at the fort until it was demolished, and Benjamin Larrabee, the second in command, with the other persons who had occupied the houses which were ordered to be destroyed, removed their residence to the Neck.1 At that time there was but a solitary family upon it by the name of Ingersoll.2 Where Ingersoll built his hut, we have no means of ascertaining. James Mills, from Lynn, built the second or third house in town,3 and as he had subsequently a grant of
! One of these persons was Joseph Bean, from York, who was an Indian inter- preter. Having been taken by the Indians in 1692, when sixteen years old, and kept by them eight years, he had become familiar with their language. He was here with his family as early as 1710, having had a child born here in March of that year. His first three children were born in York, and five last in Falmouth. He was probably connected with the fort at New Casco. In 1724, he had the rank of Captain, and served in the Indian war of 1722. His descendants still live among us in respectable rank.
2 Rev. Mr. Smith says, "In 1716, one Ingersoll built a hut on Falmouth Neck, where he lived sometime alone, and was thence called Gov. Ingersoll." I have thought this must have been Elisha, son of John Ingersoll of Kittery, who had been driven from here in the war of 1688. Whoever he was, he was drowned in Presumpscot river a few years afterward.
3 Proprietors' Record.
320
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
an acre house lot, "where his house stood," which included the land in Middle street, where the late Judge Freeman's house now is, we conjecture that his early habitation was erected near that spot.1 The first notice, however, that we have of the return of any of the former inhabitants is in 1715, when Benjamin Skillings and Zachariah Brackett occupied the farms at Back Cove, which had belonged to their fathers ;? these ad- joined each other. Skillings had resided in Salem, where his mother had married a second husband by the name of Wilkins. Brackett was the son of Anthony by his second marriage, and had been living at Hampton in New Hampshire, where his mother originated.3 Early the same year, Dominicus Jordan, son of Dominicus, who was killed in the last war, reoccupied the paternal estate at Spurwink ; his eldest son Dominicus was born there in June of that year. At Purpooduck, Gilbert Winslow, called Doctor, who probably had been surgeon at the garrison, built the first house in 1716 or 1717,4 and the same year he was joined by Samuel Cobb, who built the second house there, but who next year moved to the Neck, and erected a house in Queen, now Congress street, near the head of India street.5 In July, 1716, the inhabitants who had already gath-
1 The grant of the house lot was made by the town, April, 1727. His family did not come here until after June, 1716, in which month he had a daughter born in Lynn. [Judge Freeman's house is now, 1864, kept by Mr. Hay, as a hotel, and called the Freeman House.]
2 Rev. Mr. Smith's Ch. Records.
3 Zachariah Brackett had four children born in Hampton, the first in 1709; his fifth child, Zachariah, was born in Falmouth, November 30, 1716. He moved to Ipswich about 1740, and died there.
4 Doctor Winslow, in a few years, moved to North Yarmouth. [Winslow's name was Gilbert. In 1720, he built a mill in North Yarmouth. His son Benja- min, born in that town, 1740, was living there in 1826.]
5 Samuel Cobb was a ship-carpenter, and came from Middleborough, Massa- chusetts ; he was thirty-eight years old and married when he came here ; he was followed next year by his three brothers, Jonathan, Ebenezer, and Joseph, who settled at Purpooduck. Ebenezer died in 1721, aged thirty-three. From the above, all of the name in this part of the country descended.
321
RESETTLEMENT AFTER THE WAR.
ered upon the Neck, being probably the disbanded soldiers, were fifteen men, beside women and children.1 Samuel Moody built his house fronting the beach below India street, on the spot which forms the corner of Fore and Hancock streets ; this for a number of years was the principal house in town. Ben- jamin Larrabee built his, a one-story house, where Mr. New- hall's now stands, on the corner of Middle and Pearl streets. Richard Wilmot, and John Wass, who married his daughter Anne, built on Queen street, near the entrance of Wilmot street, which took its name from the early occupant. [In 1726, Wass sold his grant to Isaac Sawyer.] Thomas Thomes built
1 The following order was passed by the Council, July 20, 1716. "A memorial presented by Capt. Samuel Moody, late commander of his Majesty's fort, at Cas- co Bay, praying that he might have liberty to build a small fortification, with stockades, at the town of Falmouth, commonly called Old Casco, about his own house, upon his own land in the said town, and that he may furnish the same with arms and ammunition at his own charges for himself and the inhabitants there, being in number fifteen men, beside women and children. Ordered that the prayer of said petition be granted." A part of these men were James Doughty, John Gustin, Mark Rounds, Matthew and William Scales, Ebenezer Hall, Thomas Thomes, John Wass, James Mills, Joseph Bean, and John Barbour, father and son ; the father came a year after his son with his family, consisting of a son James and a daughter, the widow Gibbs with her daughter Mary, ten years old, and son Andrew, five years old. John Barbour the elder, was drowned January, 1719. Doughty was a shoemaker, born about 1680, probably son of James of Scituate ; Rounds was a gunsmith ; he died about 1720, leaving three sons, Joseph, George, and Samuel. Collier came from Plymouth Colony. [John Gustin had settled in Lynn after he was driven from Falmouth ; he died in 1719, leaving a wife, Elizabeth, and children, Samuel, David, John, Ebenezer, Thomas, Sarah, and Abigail. The family from which Matthew and William Scales de- scended, settled in Rowley, Massachusetts. John was there in 1648, and William was made freeman May 13, 1640. Our settler William was chosen one of the selectmen, and representative to the General Court in 1719. Their father owned land in North Yarmouth, and they both went there to live in 1720. William's eldest son, Thomas, was born there in 1721, the first male child born in that town. The two brothers were killed by the Indians at their house, in April, 1725. William had seven children. Collier had a grant of a house lot on the beach east of India street and built a house there. He died without issue, January 17, 1732, aged fifty-five. His widow, Mary, in 1735, married Robert Dabney of North Yarmouth.]
322
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
in Clay Cove ; Barbour on Middle, near Court street, on land which was afterward granted to him, and part of which still remains in the family ; probably a solitary instance in this town of hereditary transmission of an estate for so many years. James Doughty built next below Barbour, on Middle street. Samuel Proctor, who moved his family here from Lynn in 1717 or 1718, built on Fore street, near where Silver street en- ters it.1 John Pritchard came from Boston about the same period, and erected his house on Thames street, and Richard Collier from the old Colony, occupied a spot near Jordan's Point. These were all, or the principal persons who had seized upon the vacant soil on the Neck, within the five years after the peace ; in 1718, when Samuel Cobb moved from Purpoo- duck, there were settled here thirteen families, beside his own.2
The inhabitants of the previous settlement and the persons claiming under them, finding their ancient possessions becom- ing the resort of a new population, begun to turn their attention to the means of improving their property and placing the set- tlement under due regulations. In 1715, the General Court had appointed a committee of five persons, on the petition of Cape Porpus and Black Point, "to prosecute the regular settle- ment of the eastern frontier," who were "directed to lay out the town platts in a regular and defensible manner at the charge of the proprietors, and of such other towns as shall af- ter apply agreeably to the order of court ; and passed an order that no settlement should be made in the eastern country with- out authority from government.3 It was their object to prevent scattered plantations from being established over the country which would invite the Indians to renewed depredations, and expose the lives and property of the people. Under this act,
! Samuel Proctor's son Benjamin was born in Lynn, September 6, 1717.
2 Mr. Smith's Church Record.
3 This committee consisted of "Major John Wheelwright, Mr. Abraham Preble Mr. Joseph Hammond, Charles Frost, Esq., and Mr. John Leighton."
323
PETITION FOR REBUILDING THE FORT.
several of the old proprietors and their representatives to the number of thirty-six, petitioned the General Court in May, 1717, for liberty to rebuild their ruined settlement, stating that per- sons were continually making encroachments upon their prop- erty, and plundering the wood and timber. The prayer of the petition was granted, and the petitioners were referred to the committee already appointed to lay out the town. The com- mittee however did not attend to the duty, and the next year, a more urgent application was made to the legislature. The delay had subjected the proprietors to loss, and their affairs were thrown into confusion for want of municipal regulations. These injuries they earnestly set forth in their petition, which pressed the court to relieve them from their embarrassment.1
In this latter petition, some of the new settlers joined the old proprietors.
The General Court added Lewis Bane and Capt. Joseph Hill to the committee, and authorized any three of them to perform the necessary duties of it. The subject was attended to with- out further delay ; the committee proceeded to Falmouth, in July, 1718, where they established the lines of the town, and designated the Neck as the most suitable place for the settle- ment. Their report was as follows : "Pursuant to a vote of a great and general assembly of his majesty's province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England, held at Boston, May, 1715, empowering and appointing the subscribers to be a com- mittee to prosecute the regular settlement of the eastern front- iers, and in answers to the petition of the proprietors and set- tlers of the town of Falmouth, in Casco Bay, in the years 1717 and 1718, who have made application to us, the said com- mittee, according to the direction of the general court. We have, upon the 16th day of the present month of July, taken a view of the said town of Falmouth, and upon mature de- liberation and consideration, we offer the report to their hon- orable court, as follows, viz : The dividing bounds between
1See petitions in Appendix.
324
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Scarborough and Falmouth, we find to be the line from the first dividing branch of Spurwink river, from thence to run into the country, eight miles north-west, and from said branch as the river runs, into the sea ; and the easterly bounds of Fal- mouth to extend to certain islands known by the name of the Clapboard Islands, from a red oak tree upon the main, over against said islands, marked F. on the south side, and so south- east over a white rock into the sea, and from said tree eight miles into the country ; and according to the best of our judg- ment, we have determined the spot whereon the ancient town of Falmouth stood, and a fort was formerly built by order of government, and where there are already settled above twenty families in a compact and defensible manner, to be- a very agreeable place for the settlement of a town, being bordering on a fine navigable river, guarded from the sea by adjacent islands, most commodious for the fishery, and is accommodated with several large streams for mills, as well as a large quantity of good land for the encouragement of husbandry ; and we are of opinion there is a fair prospect of its being in a little time a flourishing town; and in order to enable them to a methodical proceeding in their affairs, we are of opinion that it is absolutely necessary that they be invested with power to act as a town as soon as may be with conveniency. We have also left our advice with respect to the laying out their streets and highways, as also for the placing of their meeting-house after the most commodious manner, for the benefit of the town in general."
This report was accepted, and the town incorporated with the "proviso, that this order shall in no measure prejudice and infringe any just right or title that any person has to land there, and that fifty families at the least more than now are, be ad- mitted as soon as may be, and settled in the most compact and defensible manner that the land will allow of."
In the autumn of this year, 1718, a vessel arrived in the harbor with twenty families of emigrants from Ireland. They
325
ARRIVAL OF EMIGRANTS.
were descendants of a colony which went from Argyleshire in Scotland, and settled in the north of Ireland about the middle of the seventeenth century. They were rigid Presbyterians, and fled from Scotland to avoid the persecutions of Charles I.' They suffered severely during the winter here ; their own provisions failed, and our inhabitants had neither shelter nor food sufficient for so large an accession to the population. In De- cember the inhabitants petitioned the General Court for relief ; they stated their grievances as follows : "That there are now in the town about three hundred souls, most of whom are arrived from Ireland, of which not one-half have provisions enough to live upon over the winter, and so poor that they are not able to buy any, and none of the first inhabitants so well furnished as that they are able to supply them ;" and they pray that the court would consider their desolate circumstances by reason of the great company of poor strangers arrived among them and take speedy and effectual care for their supply. On this appli- cation the court ordered "that one hundred bushels of Indian meal be allowed and paid for out of the public treasury for the poor Irish people mentioned in the petition."2
| Belknap N. H., and Parker's Cen. Ser. 6th Me. Historical Collection, p. 10.
2 Massachusetts Records. Robert Temple in a letter contained in the reply of the Pejepscot Pro. to the remarks of the Pro. of Brunswick, published in 1753, says, he contracted for a passage for himself and family to come to this country, September, 1717 ; on his arrival, he first went to Connecticut to look out a farm, on his return he went to Kennebec with Col. Winthrop, Dr. Noyes, and Col. Mi- not; he liked the country, and concluded 'to settle there. The same year he was concerned in the charter of two large ships, and next year three more to bring families from Ireland; in consequence of which several hundred people were landed at Kennebec, some of which or their descendants are there to this day ; but the greatest part removed to Pennsylvania, and a considerable part to Lon- donderry for fear of the Indians. The emigrants mentioned above, were not a part of Temple's colony. James McKeen, grandfather of the first President of Bowdoin College, was of the company which wintered here, and the agent who selected the land on which they settled ; he had twenty-one children. [The late John McKeen of Brunswick, informed me that a brother of James McKeen, one of the company. died in Falmouth, that winter.]
326
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
These people took their vessel up the river and secured her nearly opposite Clark's Point, where they remained on Purpoo- duck shore during the winter; in the spring most of them embarked, sailed for Newburyport, reached Haverhill, April 2, and soon established themselves at the place to which they gave the name of Londonderry. Several families however remained here, among which was James Armstrong, with his sons, John, Simon, and Thomas, and Robert Means, who married his daughter. [There were also Wm. Jameson, Wm. Jeals or Gyles, Wm. and Andrew Simonton, and Randal McDonald ; these became valuable inhabitants, and their descendants still remain among us .* ]
The first meeting of the inhabitants to organize the town after the incorporation, was held March 10, 1719. At this time, Joshua Moody was chosen clerk,' John Wass, Wm. Scales, Dominicus Jordan, John Pritchard, and Benjamin Skillings, selectmen ; Thomas Thomes, constable, and Jacob Collings and Samuel Proctor, surveyors of fence. At the same meeting, William Scales was chosen representative to the General Court.
The inhabitants having provided a municipal government for the town, began to turn their attention toward the means
* [Robert Dinsmore, the "Rustic Bard" of Londonderry, states in a letter, tath" a ship with immigrants arrived at Casco bay, now Portland, August 4, 1718, and after they had wintered there, sixteen of those families, of which James McKeen is first on the list, came to Nutfield (Londonderry) April 11, O. S., 1719, and there begun the settlement of Londonderry." This colony, with the Rev. Mr. McGregor at their head, left Ireland in five vessels containing one hundred and twenty fam ilies, and arrived safely in Boston, August 4, 1718. From this point they scattered in various parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. One party, in a brig, visited the eastern coast, seeking for a favorable location ; among these were the Armstrongs, Means, McKeen, Jameson, and Gregg. After visiting various points on the shores of Maine, they came to Portland. But the winter was long and severe, and they were discouraged from making a settlement at this point; and in the spring most of them joined their companions in Nutfield. ]
1 Joshua Moody was the eldest son of Samuel Moody, born 1697, and gradua- ted at Harvard College, 1716; he married Tabitha Cox in 1736, and had three sons, Houtchin, William, and James; he died in 1748.
327
DISPUTE BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW PROPRIETORS.
of securing their possessions. Most of the people had settled here upon land to which they had no title, trusting to the future arrangements of the town for protection and suitable provision. This subject was one of great embarrassment, and caused the inhabitants inconceivable confusion and difficulty. The land was all claimed by persons who had been inhabitants of the former settlement, or their heirs or assigns, who called themselves the "Old Proprietors ;" while the settlers composing a majority of the inhabitants who came without title, were called the "New Proprietors." The Old Proprietors claimed under the deed from Danforth of 1684, the exclusive right to the common lands as a propriety. This construction of that deed was denied by the New Proprietors, who contended that the act of the legislature incorporating them as a town, and the condition imposed upon them to settle fifty families imme- diately in a compact manner, was sufficient authority to them to grant the vacant land. The interest of the town undoubt- edly required that the land should be taken up by actual set- tlers.1
The new proprietors having in their hands the management of the affairs of the town, went steadily on, appropriating the unimproved lands to settlers ; always, however, avoiding the actual possessions of former inhabitants when they were ascer- tained, or regranting them to the heirs or assigns of the claim- ants. And whenever it appeared that grants to new occupants
1 One source of confusion between the old and new proprietors, was the diffi- culty of obtaining evidence by the old proprietors of their titles, owing to the loss of the town records in 1690. The proprietors of North Yarmouth, perceiv- ing the embarrassment occasioned by this unfortunate circumstance, petitioned the General Court in 1722, that their town book, which was then in the office of the Secretary of State, might be put into the hands of some of the proprietors to be copied, "that so the ancient records of the said town may be kept safe, and secured from falling into the hands of the Indians, and other casualties that may happen, which was the unhappy case of Falmouth, in Casco Bay, whose records were lost, the loss of which has run them into great confusion, and has almost proved their utter ruin and destruction."
328
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
covered former titles, new assignments were made. The grants were not confined to settlers, but the unappropriated territory was applied as a common patrimony for the public uses of the town.1 [The rights of the Old Proprietors were established by a decision of the Supreme Court held at Boston in May, 1731. The suit was brought by Samuel Moody and al., in 1729, against Bailey and Hodgekins for possession of lots on Mun- joy's hill, occupied and built upon by the defendants. The demandants claimed under the heirs of Mary Munjoy, whose title to the hill had been confirmed by the government under Danforth in 1681. The original title to the tract was examined, and the right of the town to grant land owned and claimed by former settlers carefully considered, and the just conclusion reached, that the ancient title was valid and ought not to be disturbed. The trial involved a consideration of the grants from Gorges and Rigby, and the conveyances under them by Cleeves and Tucker. This judgment settled the controversy between the two sets of claimants and led to an amicable ar- rangement between the Old and New Proprietors in 1732, by which the rights of the Old Proprietors were recognized and respected.]
The Neck which had now assumed a higher rank among the several districts of the town, than it had hitherto held, became the subject of the earliest attention. The legislature had se- lected this spot as the central point of the future settlement, and nature herself seems to have designated it as the one most suited for the foundation of a flourishing town. In May, 1719, immediately after the organization of the town, a committee was appointed to lay out lots upon the Neck. The lots which fronted upon King street, then the most central and valuable situations, were half an acre each ; those on the Fore street, as it was then called, were one acre, being eight rods front and
I The lawyers who were employed in the controversies which grew out of this subject, were paid in common lands ; parts of them were also sold to pay the expenses of litigation.
329
ALLOTMENT TO SETTLERS.
twenty rods deep ; on the Middle street, they were an acre and a half, being twelve rods front, and running north to the Back or Queen street ;' from the latter street to the Back Cove, the land was divided into three acre lots. The old claims of Mit- ton and Bramhall at the west end of the Neck, of Munjoy and Silvanus Davis at the east end, and of John Skillings about Center street, were not included in this division. It was at the same time voted, that no person should enjoy any town lot granted to him unless he settled it personally or by another with- in six months after the grant; and it was also voted that "the house lots be laid out in order to a confirmation to such as have built upon them." Each person admitted a proprietor was en- titled to lots of one, three, ten, thirty, and sixty acres respect- ively, from the common land, making to each one hundred and four acres. It was designed to grant in addition to these lots one hundred acres to each proprietor ; but it was found that after deducting land sold for common charges, and that to which claims were maintained by old proprietors, the terri- tory was not sufficient for that appropriation.
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