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 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81
It is generally assumed that this patent was for the settlement of Plymouth ; but it contains no allusion to that colony, nor is it in trust for it. The language of the charter is, " that whereas the said [John Pierce and his associates have already transported, and undertaken to transport at their cost and charges, themselves and divers persons into New England, and there to erect and build a town, and settle divers inliabitants," &c. "Now the said president and council, in consideration thereof, have granted, allotted, assigned, and confirmed unto the said John Pierce and his associates, &c., one hundred several acres of ground in New England for every person so transported, or to be transported. The same land to be taken and chosen by theni, their deputies, or assigns, in any place, or places, whatsoever, not already inhabited by any. English." * * And they further grant to them fifteen hundred acres besides, in consideration of said Pierce and associates having undertaken to build churches, hospitals, bridges, &c.
This language has no application to Plymouth : it is the same used in the grant to Aldsworth and Elbridge of a portion of Pemaquid, 1629, and Mr. Welles expressly says in his deposition that Mr. Pierce came over and settled at Broad - Bay under his grant, and his posterity continued there above one hundred years.
It does not appear to me that the patent or charter referred to in Weston's letter of July 6, 1621, contained in Bradford's history, is at all identified with that of Pierce, but the fair construction of the language is against it. Weston says, page 107, " We have procured you a charter, the best we could, which is better than your former, and with less limitation." Now the famed charter to Pierce of June 1, 1621, does not at all answer that description, and I must still consider that the lost document has not yet come to light.]
24
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
erected his fort upon the site of the old trading house, and that spot, together with the adjacent territory still perpetuates the name of one of the most persevering enemies that our early colonists had to contend with. In 1632, the French rifled this trading house of property to the value of £500 sterling.
The same government having obtained a patent on the Ken- nebec river, erected in 1628, a house for trade up the river, and furnished it with corn and other commodities for summer and winter.1
About this time, Thomas Purchase settled upon land now included within the limits of Brunswick : the precise year in which he went there we cannot ascertain. In a deed to Richard Wharton, July 7, 1684, from Worumbo and other sagamores, they confirmed to him " lands conveyed to and possessed by Thomas Purchase, deceased, who came to this country near threescore years ago."2 Purchase continued to live on the same estate, which he purchased of the Indians, until the first Indian war, and is frequently noticed in the affairs of the province. His widow married John Blaney, of Lynn, and was living in 1683 ; he left three children, Thomas, Jane, and Elizabeth.3 *
1 Prince, vol. i. p. 62, 2d part.
2 George Way was associated in the patent with Purchase; the grant included land lying on both sides of Pejepscot, on the eastern end of Androscoggin river, on Kennebec river, and Casco bay. Eleazer Way, son and heir of George, con- veyed his moiety to R. Wharton, 1683. The patent has long been lost, and is only known to have existed by references in early deeds.
3 York Records.
* ["June 16, 1632. The council for New England grant to George Way and Thomas Purchase, certain lands in New England called the river Bishopscotte, and all that bounds and limits the main land adjoining the river to the extent of two miles." Sainsbury's Cul. Paper, vol. i, p. 152. The river intended is doubtless the Pejepscot, which was that part of the Androscoggin lying between the Ken- nebec river and Lewiston Falls. In August, 1639, Purchase conveyed to the Massachusetts Company his land at Pejepscot, reserving the portion occupied and improved by him. An abstract of the deed is in Hazard, vol. i, p. 457. For further interesting particulars relating to this title and the settlements at Pejepscot, I refer to Vol. iii., Me. Hist. Col. pp. 311 and 325.]
25
VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
In 1628, the Massachusetts company procured a charter from the council of Plymouth, and in June sent over Capt. John Endicott and a few associates to take possession of the grant.1 They arrived in September at Naumkeag (Salem) and laid the foundation of that respectable town and the colony of Massachusetts.
Some time in the course of this year, Walter Bagnall, called Great Walt, established himself upon Richmond's Island, with- in the limits of the ancient town of Falmouth. Winthrop3, un- der 1631, says, he lived alone upon the island three years, and had accumulated about £400, mostly in goods, by his trade with the Indians, whom he had much wronged. He and a companion were killed by an Indian sagamore, called Squi- drayset, and his company, Oct. 3, 1631, who burnt his house and plundered his property. Bagnall had been a servant to some one in Massachusetts, but when or with whom he came to this country is not known. §
1 Prince, vol. ii, p. 174. Hazard, vol. i, p. 239.
2 I am not able to determine whether the original name of this island was Richman's or Richmond. Winthrop in his first notice of it, calls it Richman's Island. It is afterward in the same work, and by other authors sometimes called Richman's, and sometimes Richmond. In the early records it is often written Richman's, it is so written in a deed from Robert Jordan, its owner, to his son John, in 1677. On the other hand, it has borne its present name for the last century, and that mode of writing it is met with nearly as often in the previous period. A Mr. John Richmond lived in the neighborhood in 1636 and some years afterward ; but he does not appear to have had any connection with the island ; and Mr. Trelawny, its owner, had a bark called the Richmond, which traded to the island in the year 1639. It may have derived its name from the Duke of Richmond, who was one of the council of Plymouth. The Indian name is en- tirely lost, it has never been known by any other in our history but one of those before mentioned.
3 Winthrop's Journal, vol. i, p. 62. Prince, 2d part, p. 36.
§ [In Sainsbury's Colonial papers is this memorandum : "Dec. 2, 1631, Patents to Walter Bagnall for a small island called Richmond, with 1500 acres of land : and for John Stratton for 2000 acres of land south side of Cape Porpus river or creek."]
3
!
26
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Squidrayset, Squidragusset, or Scitterygusset, in each of which modes the name is spelt, was a sachem over a tribe on the Presumpscot river. He subsequently conveyed lands up- on the Presumpscot to the English, and a creek near the mouth of that river still bears his name. This occupation by Bagnall is the first attempt to establish a plantation within the limits of Falmouth :* and it seems that he had undisturbed posses- sion there until the time he was murdered. In January, 1633, an expedition fitted out in Massachusetts to intercept a pirate, who was said to have been hovering about Pemaquid, on their return stopped at Richmond's island, and inflicted summary
* [This is an error revealed by recent investigation. In Sainsbury's calendar of state papers vol. i, p. 45, is this minute of Council : "May 5, 1623, Christopher Levett to be a principal patentee & to have a grant of 6000 acres of land." "June 26, 1623. The King judges well of the undertaking in New England & more particularly of a design of Christopher Levett one of the Council for settling that plantation, to build a city there and call it York." In pursuance of these arrangements, Levett came over in 1623, touching first at the "Isle of Shoulds," thence to the Piscataqua, from which he sailed eastward along the coast as far as Pemaquid, visiting the various harbors and rivers with a view to select a suitable place to establish his plantation. He says, "And now in its place I come to Quack, which I have named York. At this place there fished divers ships of Waymouth this year (1623). It lieth about two leagues to the east of Cape Elizabeth. It is a bay or sound betwixt the main & certain islands which lieth in the sea about one English mile & half. There are four islands which make one good harbor." There can be no doubt of this location ; the islands are what are now called Bangs. House, Hog, and Peaks. He adds, "And thus after many dangers, much labor & great charge, I have obtained a place of habitation in New England, where I have built a house & fortified it in a good reasonable fashion, strong enough against such enemies as are these savage people."
Levett, after making these arrangements, returned to England to bring over his wife and children, leaving ten men in charge of his house and property. But it does not appear that he ever came back. nor what became of the men he left or his property. He gives no account of it in his narrative, although it was not published until 1628. That the settlement was broken up and aban- doned, is certain.]
27
VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
justice upon Black Will, one of the murderers of Bagnall, by hanging him without the forms of law.1*
On the 12th of February 1630, the council of Plymouth made two grants on the Saco river ; each being four miles up- on the sea, and extending eight miles into the country. That upon the west side of the river was to John Oldham and Rich- ard Vines? Oldham had lived in the country six years, partly within the Plymouth, and partly within the Massachusetts jurisdiction, and Vines had become acquainted with the country by frequent voyages to it, and spending one winter at the place where his patent was situated. It is mentioned in the deed that the patentees had undertaken to transport fifty persons thither within seven years to plant and inhabit there. This condition was undoubtedly complied with, and Vines, who managed the whole concern, immediately took possession of his grant (June 25, 1630) and entered with zeal and ability upon the means of converting it into a source of profit. 1
1 Winthrop, vol. i, p. 99. 1
* [On the 11th of May, 1855, the occupant of Richmond's island, in ploughing a field near the northern shore, turned up a stone pot lying about a foot under the surface near what had been the foundation of buildings. On examination, the pot was found to contain twenty silver coins of the reign of Elizabeth, viz : four one shilling pieces, sixteen sixpences, one groat, and two half-groats ; of the reign of James I, there were four one shilling pieces, and one sixpence, the latter, the only one dated, had the stamp of 1606. There were also twenty-one gold coins, of which ten were sovereigns or units of the reign of James I, and three half-sovereigns, seven sovereigns of the reign of Charles I, and one, a Scottish coin of James as king of Scotland, dated 1602. A full description of this discovery and of the coin, was published in the "State of Maine," news- paper, May 24, 1855, and another article on the subject soon after in the Massachusetts Historical Collection. A more full account is contained in Me. Historical Collection. vol. vi. p. 127. A gold wedding signet 'ring was also found in the pot, with the initials G. V. in a love knot, inscribed upon it. No clue was given as to the time the deposit was made, and it is only left to con- jecture, to form any conclusion on the subject. The latest date on the coin is 1625, and it therefore may be justly inferred that the concealment was made at or about the time of Bagnall's murder in 1631.]
2 York Records.
28
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
The patent upon the east side of the river was given to Thomas Lewis and Richard Bonighton, and recites that it was made "in consideration that said Thomas Lewis Gent, hath already been at the charge to transport himself and others to take a view of New England for the bettering his experience in the advancing of a plantation, and doth now wholly intend by God's assistance, with his associates to plant there," &c1. The patentees undertook to transport fifty persons there in seven years at their own expense. Livery of seisin was given June 28, 1631, and the proprietors in person successfully pros- ecuted the interests of their patent. Such were the beginnings of the towns of Biddeford and Saco, and the lands continue to be held under those patents at this day. Oldham never ap- pears to have entered upon his grant2; Vines occupied it fifteen years, and sold it in 1645, in which year or early the next, he went to Barbadoes, where he probably died. Lewis died on his estate previous to 1640, without male issue, but Bonighton continued to enjoy his proportion of the patent to a ripe old age, when he was gathered to his fathers, leaving a large es- tate to his children.3
In 1630, the colony of Plymouth procured a new charter from the council, for a tract of land fifteen miles on each side of Kennebec river, extending as far up as Cobbisecontee. Under this grant, they carried on a trade with the natives upon the river for a number of years, and in 1660, sold the title for four hundred pounds sterling, to Tyng, Brattle, Boies, and Winslow4.
1 The original patent was accidently found by Mr. Folsom, when he was col- lecting materials for his history of Saco, and has been deposited by him in the Archives of the Maine Historical Society.
2 Oldham was killed by the Indians off Block Island July 20, 1636. Winthrop, vol. i.
3 For further particulars relative to these grants and the early history of Saco and Biddeford, we take pleasure to refer to Mr. Folsom's history of those places, in which is collected all the information of value that is to be obtained on the subject.
4. Hazard, vol. i. p. 298. Prince vol. i: p. 196. Sullivan p. 303.
29
VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
The same year, March 13th, the grant to John Beauchamp, of London and Thomas Leverett of Boston, in England, was made. It was ten leagues square, and was situated between Muscongus and Broad bay, and Penobscot bay. Large prepa- rations were immediately made for carrying on trade there, and agents were employed for conducting it.1 This was origin- ally called the Lincoln grant, and afterward the Waldo patent, a large part of it having been held by Brigadier Waldo, to whose heirs it descended. It now forms part of the counties of Waldo and Knox.
In the course of the same year (1630) the council of Ply- mouth granted to John Dy and others, forty miles square, lying between Cape Porpus and Cape Elizabeth. This was named the province of Lygonia, though commonly known in early times as the plough patent2. The latter term is supposed to have been applied either from the ship, named the Plough, which brought over the first company, or from the circum- stance that the adventurers were generally husbandmen, while the usual employment of others upon the coast was commer- cial.
The first company arrived at Winter Harbor in the summer of 1631, in the ship Plough, but not being satisfied with the appearance of the country and their future prospects, the prin- cipal part of them continued on to Boston and Watertown, where they were soon broken up and scattered3. No further effective measures seem to have been taken for the occupation
1 Douglas, vol. i. p. 384. Prince, vol. i. p. 203.
2 Sullivan, pp. 114, 304, 310. I never have been able to discover this patent, nor ascertain its date, nor who were the patentees. I do not know that there is a copy of it in the country ; the original was sent over to Richard Dummer of Newbury, in 1638, as agent, but was afterward ordered home. Hubbard men- tions as patentees, John Dy, Thomas Luke, Grace Harding, and John Roach of London. Sullivan says they were John Dye, John Smith, Brian Brinks, and others.
3 Winthrop, vol i. p. 58.
30
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
of this grant until 1643, when it fell into the hands of Alexan- der Rigby, under whom a government was established. This subject will be adverted to hereafter more particularly ; the claim to soil and sovereignty in that province, occupies a con- siderable space in our affairs, and gave birth to a conflict with Gorges, which was only quieted by a submission of all parties to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.
This year (1630) Richard Tucker established himself at the mouth of Spurwink river in Cape Elizabeth, where he was joined the same year by George Cleeves, and they unitedly carried on business there between two and three years. In 1632, they were ejected by John Winter, who acted as agent for Robert Trelawny and Moses Goodyeare, of Plymouth, Eng- land who had procured a patent of a tract including all Cape Elizabeth.1 Driven from their residence on the Spurwink, they sought refuge on the north side of Casco or Fore river, and laid the foundation of the first settlement upon the Neck, now Portland, in 1632.
The same year a settlement was commenced at Agamenticus, now York, by Edward Godfrey. This was on York river, and probably near the mouth; the inhabitants subsequently ex- tended up the river for the purpose of erecting mills. Godfrey states in a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts in 1654, "that he had been a well willer, encourager, and furderer of this colony of New England, for forty-five years past, and above thirty-two years an adventurer on that design, twenty- four years an inhabitant of this place (York) the first that ever bylt or settled ther." In 1634, he procured of the coun- cil of Plymouth, a grant to himself and associates, Samuel Maverick, Wm. Hooke, and others, of twelve thousand acres of land on the north side of the river Agamenticus.2 The same
1 York Records.
2 Godfrey was for several years an agent of the Laconia company at Piscata- qua ; after he established himself in Maine, his activity and intelligence soon
31
VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
year another grant of twelve thousand acres on the west side of the river was made to Gorges' grandson, Ferdinando .*
The next grant we meet with of land upon this coast, was of Black Point, now a part of Scarborough, to Thomas Cam- mock, dated Nov. 1, 1631. This was by the council of Ply- mouth, and extended from Black Point river to the Spurwink, and back one mile from the sea. Cammock is said to have been a relative of the Earl of Warwick ; he was one of the company sent to Piscataqua, and was there as early as 1631. Possession of his grant, which included Stratton's Islands, ly- ing about a mile from the point, was given to him by Capt. Walter Neale, May 23, 16331. The patent was confirmed to him by Gorges in 1640; the same year he gave a deed of it to Henry Jocelyn, to take effect after the death of himself and his wife. He died in the West Indies, in 1643, and Jocelyn immediately entered upon possession and married Margaret,
* [Sainsbury, vol. i. p. 266 says, "Grant to Edward Godfrey and others of Dec. 2, 1631 to be renewed, March 2, 1638."]
1 York Records.
brought him into notice. Sir F. Gorges appointed him a counselor of his prov- ince in 1640; and in 1642, he was Mayor of Gorgiana. He was chosen Gov- ernor by the people in the western part of the State in 1649, and was the first in Maine who exercised that office by the election of the people. He is said by a committee on the Mason title in England in 1660, "to have discharged this office with much reputation of integrity and justice." He died about 1664, at an advanced age, leaving a son, Oliver. In a report to the king, 1661, signed by Robert Mason and others, it is said "That Edward Godfrey hath lived there many years, and discharged the office of Governor with the utmost integrity." Winthrop says (vol. i. p. 137) that Sir F. Gorges and Capt. Mason sent a person in 1634, to Agamenticus and Piscataqua, with two saw-mills to be erected, one at each place .- Mass. files, 1654.
[Agamenticus was the Indian name for the river now called York, and was also applied to the adjoining hills and territory. The composition of the word, as the Rev. Mr. Ballard informs me, is Anghemak-ti-koos, means snow shoes river, from the pond at its source in that shape.]
32
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
his widow. The tract is now held under this title by convey- ance from Jocelyn to Joshua Scottow, dated July 6, 1666 .*
December 1, 1631, the council of Plymouth granted to Rob- ert Trelawny and Moses Goodyeare, merchants of Plymouth, the tract lying between Cammock's patent "and the bay and river of Casco, and extending northwards into the main lands so far as the limits and bounds of the lands granted to the said Capt. Thomas Cammock, do and ought to extend toward the north."1 The reason given for making this grant was, "the having expended great sums in the discovery of those parts, and their encouragement in settling a plantation there." This in- cluded Cape Elizabeth, but Winter, the agent of the patentees contended for a larger extent north, than seemed to be within the just construction of the grant. A contest was maintained many years on this subject, and although in practice, the pa- tent never extended north of Fore river, yet the proprietors . affirmed that the Presumpscot river was the northern bound- ary ; and this was asserted by the Jordan proprietors, as late as the year 1769, when they became incorporated under the stat- ute. They then described the bounds of the grant to extend from the sea near the east side of Cammock's patent into the country north-westerly fifteen miles, and then north-easterly to a river called Casco or Presumpscot river, then down said river to the sea, then along the sea-shore to the first mentioned bounds by Cammock's patent. These limits included nearly
* [At the same time and included in the same minute of council, as copied by Sainsbury, a patent was granted to Richard Bradshaw, of 1500 acres. The memorandum does not define its locality, but its being included in the same paragraph with Cammock's grant, and being mentioned by Cleeves, in his decla- ration against Winter, (see appendix No 1,) as lying at Spurwink, I infer that it was adjacent to Cammock's grant. Cleeves and Tucker claim it by purchase of Bradshaw, but it clearly conflicts with the right of Trelawny and Goodyeare,next mentioned, and so the court of Gorges in 1640 decided. Appendix No. 1, an- nexed to this article in the volume, gives the pleadings and the result of the trial.]
1 York Records.
33
VARIOUS SETTLEMENTS ON THE COAST.
all of the ancient town of Falmouth and part of Gorham, and are entirely unsupported by any record. One cause of diffi- culty on this subject arose from an uncertainty as to the true Casco river, which was agreed to be the northern boundary of patent. One party contended that it was the Presumpscot, and the other, with equal obstinacy, that it was Fore river. A de- cision of the Court in 1640, applied the name to Fore river ; but a certificate1 was soon afterward obtained and transmitted to England, founded, as was pretended, on the statements of the Indians and ancient settlers, that the Court had made a mistake on the subject, and that the Presumpscot was the true Casco river, This again revived the controversy and kept open a most unhappy quarrel during the lives of the first settlers2.
We have now touched briefly upon all the settlements made upon the coast of Maine previous to the year 1632. It will be perceived that the grants were all obtained from the council of Plymouth, notwithstanding the patent to Gorges and Mason of 1622, which extended from the Merrimack to Sagadehock, and nominally covered the whole of that territory. From this circum- stance, it would be natural to conclude that the patent of 1622 was unexecuted, and that no title passed by it; and it appears by the opinion of Sir William Jones, the Attorney General in 1679, that the "grant was only sealed with the council seal, unwitnessed, no seisin indorsed, nor possession ever given with the grant3." This idea is corroborated by the facts that Gorges was sitting at the council board, and was a party to all the subsequent conveyances which parceled out the land within the limits of that patent; and that both he and Mason received
1 York Records.
2 There is a tradition in the Jordan family, that the wife of a son of the first Robert Jordan, needing some paper to keep her pastry from burning, took from a chest of papers, Trelawny's patent, and used it for that purpose, which thus perished, like many other ancient and valuable manuscripts.
3 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 285. Hubbard, vol i. p. 614.
34
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
a grant with six or seven others in 1631, of a small tract on both sides of the Piscataqua, which included the improvements they had previously made there. If the patent of 1622 was valid, it would have been wholly useless to have procured another within the same limits.
The settlements which commenced at Plymouth in 1620, now dotted the whole coast from Cape Cod to the Bay of Fundy ; they were indeed few and far between, but an inter- course was kept up among them by their common weakness and wants, as well as for the purposes of trade. And although Massachusetts was the most powerful of the whole, and from motives of religious zeal, no doubt sincere, discountenanced the less strict settlers upon this coast, who on such matters differed from them both in doctrine and practice, she fain would profit by their fish and fur, which enabled her to pro- cure from Europe articles of the first necessity for the infant colony.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.