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 4
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John Jocelyn, the traveler, who visited his brother Henry at Black Point in 1638, sailed along the coast from Boston to that place in July : he says "Having refreshed myself for a day or two upon Noddle's island, I crossed the bay in a small boat to Boston, which was then rather a village than a town, there being not above twenty or thirty houses."1 "The 12th day of July I took boat for the eastern parts of the country, and arrived at Black Point, in the province of Maine, which is one hundred and fifty miles from Boston, the 14th day. The country all along as I sailed, being no other than a mere wil- derness, here and there by the seaside a few scattered planta- tions with as few houses."2
1 Jocelyn's voyages, p. 18.
2 Jocelyn's voyages, p. 20.
CHAPTER 1.
From 1628 to 1640.
1235125
RICHMOND'S ISLAND-SPURWINK-DISPUTE BETWEEN CLEEVES AND TUCKER, AND JOHN WINTER ABOUT THE TITLE-TRADE AT RICHMOND'S ISLAND-THE NECK, NOW PORTLAND, FIRST OCCUPIED-GRANTS IN OTHER PARTS OF FALMOUTH-MITTON, MACWORTH-FIRST JUDICIAL COURT FOR THE PROVINCE-SET- TLERS IN FALMOUTH IN 1640.
The first occupation of any part of Falmouth by a European, of which we have any evidence, was of Richmond's island, by *Walter Bagnall in 1628. The sole object of this man seems to have been to drive a profitable trade with the Indians by whatever means were in his power. He lived on the island alone, until by his cupidity he had drawn down the vengeance of the natives upon him, and they put an end to his life and his injuries October 3, 1631. He had accumulated a large property for those days, which was scattered by liis death.'§ His residence promoted the future settlement of the town in no other way than by showing to others that the situation was favorable for the accumulation of wealth, and thus tempting them to engage in the same enterprise.
Richmond's Island lies nearly a mile from the southerly side
* [This must be taken with the exception of Levett's attempt to establish a plantation on one of the islands in Portland Harbor in 1623, mentioned in a pre- ceding page.]
1 Winthrop, vol. i. Four hundred pounds sterling.
([ Was not the pot of gold and silver coin discovered on the island in 1855, part of Bagnall's gain?]
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
of Cape Elizabeth, is about three miles in circumference, and contains about two hundred acres of land; the passage may be forded on a sand-bar, at low water. Although now it contains but a single family, it formerly afforded employment to a large number of men engaged in the fisheries ; and a market for con- siderable cargoes of foreign merchandise sent every year to this coast. As early as 1637, Richard Gibson, an episcopalian minister was settled upon the island', and it is handed down by tradition with great probability, that a church was formerly established there. Among the items of property in 1648, men- tioned in an inventory as belonging to the patentees, which will be more particularly referred to hereafter, are described vessels for the communion service, and the minister's bedding.
*Bagnall occupied the island without any title ; but within two months after his death, a grant was made by the council of Plymouth, bearing date December 1, 1631, to Robert Tre- lawny and Moses Goodyeare, merchants, of Plymouth, in Eng- land, which included this island and all of the present town of Cape Elizabeth. The patentees appointed John Winter, who was then in this country, their principal agent. A copy of the grant was immediately sent to him, and on the 21st of July 1632, he was put in possession of the tract by Richard Vines of Saco, one of the persons appointed by the grantors for that purpose ?.
There were at that time settled upon the territory near the mouth of the Spurwink river, George Cleeves and Richard Tucker, who had established themselves there in 16303. They had selected one of the most valuable spots in the tract, and
1 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 66. York records.
* The records in the State paper office, London, show a grant to Bagnall of Richmond's Island, dated Dec. 2, 1631, which was after his death.
2 Two other persons mentioned, were "Capt. Walter Neale and Henry Joce- lyn, leiftenant," both of whom lived on the Piscataqua.
3 Cleeves » Winter, 1640. York Records. See Appendix, No. 1.
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FIRST OCCUPATION OF THE TOWN.
claimed to hold against Winter two thousand acres of land, with their improvements, of which however they were forcibly dispossessed. Cleeves in 1640, when regular courts were es- tablished by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, brought an action of tres- pass against Winter, to recover damages for the removal; and in his declaration he stated his title as follows: "joining him- self in partnership with Richard Tucker, then of Spurwink, who had also a right of inheritance there, the which he bought and purchased for a valuable consideration of Richard Brad- shaw, who was formerlie settled there by Capt. Walter Neale,1* by virtue of a commission to him given by some of the lords patentees, and soe as appeareth the said Richard Tucker was lawfully possessed of a right of inheritance at and in the said Spurwink. Alsoe the plaintiff further declareth that he join- ing his right by promise and possession, with his partner's right by purchase and possession, and soe being accountable to his said partner, they both agreed to joyne their rights together, and there to build, plante, and continue ; which when the plain- tiff had done and was there settled for two years or thereaboutes, this defendant, John Winter, came and pretended an interest there, by virtue of a succeeding pattent surrupticiouslie obtain- ed and soe by force of arms expelled and thrust away the plaint, from his house, lands, and goods."
1 Walter Neale arrived in this country in the spring of 1630, and returned in the summer of 1633. He came out as Governor of the company at Piscataqua. * [Walter Neale in a petition to the King in 1638, says, "He has served in all the Kings expeditions for the last 20 years; commanded four years, and brought to perfection the Company of the Artillery Garden. Lived three years in New England and made greater discoveries than were ever made before. Exactly discovered all the rivers and harbors in the habitable parts of the country, Prays to be appointed Governor."-Sainsbury, vol. i. p. 285.] We annex his full and handsome autograph.
wa neale
发
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
The verdict in this case was as follows, "the jury find for the plaint, the house and land enclosed, containing foure acres or thereaboute joyning with the said house, and give him eighty pounds for damage, and twelve shillings and six pence for the cost of Courte." The whole court consisting of Thomas Gorges, Henry Jocelyn, Richard Bonighton, Edward Godfrey, and Richard Vines, concurred in rendering judgment, except Vines, who dissented.
This document enables us to fix. the time of the settlement of Cleeves and Tucker, upon the Spurwink at 1630, which was probably the first made there ; and from the same record, it appears that as early as 1632, they had buildings erected, and had made preparations there for a permanent establishment. The grant to Trelawny and Goodyeare defeated their plans and drove them to another spot in Casco bay, within the limits of Falmouth.
Winter, now left without interruption, immediately employed himself to bring into action all the resources of the grant. He soon built a ship upon the island, " settled a place for fishing, and improved many servants for fishing and planting." * In August, 1632, the general court of Massachusetts in reference to the murder of Bagnall, speak of a plantation existing there, but notice it in such a manner that leads us to infer that it was under no regular government. They say, 2" in consideration that further justice ought to be done in this murder, the court order that a boat sufficiently manned be sent with a commission to deal with the plantation at the eastward, and to join with such of them as shall be willing thereto for examination of the murder, and for apprehending such as shall be guilty thereof, and to bring the prisoners into the bay." Winter was in the country at the date of the grant, for, in his defence of the action
1 Prince, vol. ii. p. 36.
*[The bark Richmond was probably the vessel built.]
2 Prince, vol ii. pp. 39, 65. Colonial Records.
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FIRST OCCUPATION OF. THE TOWN.
before referred to, he speaks of the patent having been sent over to him ; and he had probably made such a representation to the patentees as induced them to procure it. He, as well as Cleeves, came from Plymouth, England. Bradshaw, of whom Tucker is said to have purchased land at Spurwink, could not have occupied it previous to 1630, for he was put into possession of it by Walter Neale, who did not come to the country until the spring of that year. The probability is, that Bradshaw did not long occupy the land, as we find no other notice of him than appears in Cleeves's declaration.
. We may suppose that the plantation referred to in the court's order, was composed of Cleeves, Tucker, and Winter, with their servants : we are not able to connect with it at that time any other names. After the ejection of Cleeves and Tucker, in the latter part of 1632, Winter took the entire control of it, and managed it several years for the patentees. In 1634, as early as the first of March, Winthrop says, " seventeen fishing ships were come to Richman's island and the Isle of Shoals."* The fish were undoubtedly cured on the islands and neighboring main, and must have afforded employment to a large number of men. Jocelyn in 1638, says that Winter employed sixty men in the fishing business.1 The trade in beaver this year in this neighborhood was also very successful ; the government of Plymouth colony procured at their trading house on the Kennebec, twenty hogsheads, which were sent to England.2 This was a principal article of commerce in the early settlement of the country ; it was a sort of circulating medium or standard of value among the white people and natives, and remittances to the mother country were made by it. About the year 1640, the price of it in Casco, was from six to eight shillings a pound, and it was received in payment for commodities and labor.
*[Levett also speaks of a large number of fishing vessels in that vicinity, in 1623.]
1 Jocelyn, p. 25.
2 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 138.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Winter, in 1640, was complained of for attempting to keep down the price to six shillings.1
In the spring of 1635, a ship of eighty tons, and a pinnace of ten tons arrived at Richmond's island .? In 1636, Mr. Trelawny alone is mentioned as proprietor of the patent, and March 26th of that year, he committed the full government of the plantation to Mr. Winter, who appears after that time to have had an interest of one-tenth in the speculation ; and in addition to his proportion of the profits, he was to receive from the general fund " forty pounds per annum in money for his personal care and charge." 3 After this time the business of the plantation was pursued with great activity until the death of Trelawny, which took place in 1644 .* They employed the ship Agnes, the bark Richmond, the ships Hercules and Margery, and one other, whose name is not mentioned. In 1638, Mr. Trelawny sent a ship of three hundred tons to the island, laden with wine. This was probably the proceeds of a cargo of fish sent to Spain or Portugal. Large quantities of wine and spirits were early sent to this coast, and produced as much wretched- ness among those who indulged in them then, as they do at the present day. Jocelyn described their effects from personal observation in lively colors; he says the money which the fish- ermen received, did them but little good, for at the end of their voyage " the merchant comes in with a walking tavern, a bark laden with the legitimate blood of the rich grape, which they bring from Phial, Madera, and Canaries ;" and after they get a " taster or two," they will not go to sea again for a whole week, till they get wearied with drinking, "taking ashore two or three hogsheads of wine and rum, to drink when the merchant
2 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 157.
1 York Court Records.
3 Jordan's Claim, York Records.
*[Robert Trelawny was of a respectable and wealthy family of Plymouth, and represented that borough in Parliament. Moses Goodyeare was also well con- nected, he married the daughter of Abraham Jennings, of Plymouth, the pa- tentee of Monhegan.]
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FIRST OCCUPATION OF THE TOWN.
is gone." "They often," he adds, " have to run in debt for their necessaries on account of their lavish expense for drink, and are constrained to mortgage their plantations if they have any, and the merchant when the time is expired is sure to turn them out of house and home, seising their plantations and cattle, poor creatures, to look out for a new habitation in some remote place, where they begin the world again."' Such is the description which this voyager gives of the early settlers of our State, and it accounts for the fact which would otherwise seem extraordinary, of the shipment of so large a quantity of wine, as is above mentioned, to plantations then in their in- fancy.
The merchandise sent to the proprietor in England, consisted principally of pipe staves, beaver, fish, and oil. In 1639, Win- ter? sent in the bark Richmond, six thousand pipe staves, which were valued here at eight pounds eight shillings a thou- sand. Some shipments were made directly from the plantation to Spain :2 and a profitable intercourse seems to have been carried on for the proprietors a number of years, until it was suspended by the death of Trelawny. After that time the want of capital, probably prevented Winter from employing ships on his own account, and Trelawny's heir was but a child of six or seven years old. The commercial character of the plantation declined from that time, and the trade gradually sought other channels, until the mouth of the Spurwink and Richmond's island became entirely deserted. Their mercan- tile prosperity are now only to be found among the perishable
1 Jocelyn, p. 212.
2 Below we present the autograph of this prominent pioneer, John Winter.
8 me
[Per me, John Wynter.]
3 Joran's claim, York Records. Appendix. 4
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
and almost perished memorials of a by-gone age. In 1648, after Winter's death, the plantation and all its appurtenances were awarded to Robert Jordan, by a decree of the general assembly of Ligonia, to secure the payment of a claim which Winter's estate had upon the proprietors. Jordan married Winter's only daughter, and administered upon the estate. He presented his claims to the court of Ligonia, in Sept. 1648, by whom a committee was appointed to examine the accounts and make report of the state of them. This committee went into a minute investigation, and reported in detail ; upon which an order was passed, authorizing Jordan to retain " all the goods, lands, cattle, and chattels, belonging to Robert Trelawny, deceased, within this province from this day forward and for- ever, unless the executors of said Robert Trelawny, shall redeem and release them by the consent and allowance of the said Robert Jordan, his heirs," 1 &c.
Winter died in 1645, leaving a daughter Sarah, the wife of Robert Jordan. Jocelyn says of Winter that he was " a grave and discreet man ;" 2 and his management of the plantation proves him to have been an enterprising and intelligent one. He had much difficulty with George Cleeves respecting the right to the soil both on the Spurwink and on the north side of Casco river, which, although suspended during the latter part of Winter's life, was revived by his successor. Jordan came over about the year 1640, at least we do not meet with his name before that year, as successor to Richard Gibson, the minister of this and the neighboring plantations. The precise time of Gibson's arrival cannot be ascertained. We find him here as early as April, 1637 ; he went to Portsmouth in 1640, and was chosen pastor of the episcopal church there ; in 1642, he was preaching on the Isles of Shoals, and probably the same
1 See Appendix No. 2, for Jordan's petition and the proceedings thereon.
2 Jocelyn, p. 25.
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FIRST OCCUPATION OF THE TOWN.
year returned home.1 Gibson is called a scholar, by Winthrop .* He made himself obnoxious to the government of Massachu- setts by the zeal with which he maintained his religious tenets, and was in some danger of being punished for it ; but on mak- ing a suitable submission, and " being about to leave the country" he is excused.
Having mentioned some of the most interesting particulars relating to the early settlement of Richmond's island and Spurwink, the spots first occupied within the territory of Fal- mouth, we return to follow the fortunes of George Cleeves and Richard Tucker.
Driven from the place which they had selected as the most favorable for their purposes, and where they had made im- provements and prepared accommodations, their next care was to provide another convenient situation in the wilderness, where they might hope to enjoy without interruption the com- mon bounties of nature. They selected the Neck, called Machigonne by the natives, now Portland,2 for their habitation, and erected there in 1632 the first house, and probably cut the first tree that was ever felled upon it, by an European hand .*
1 York Records, Annals of Portsmouth, p. 27. Winthrop, vol. ii, p. 66. In 1640, Gibson brought an action in Gorges' Court against John Bonighton, of Saco, for slander, in saying of him that he was " a base priest, a base knave, a base fellow," and also for a gross slander upon his wife, and recovered a verdict for " six pounds, six shillings, and eight pence, and costs, twelve shillings and six pence, for the use of the court." York Records.
*[Gibson was educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge, from which he took his degree of A. B., 1636.]
2 This was first called Cleeves' Neck, afterward Munjoy's Neck, by which name it was long known ..
*[I have long endeavored to ascertain the meaning of the Indian term Machi- gonne, without success. The Rev. E. Ballard, of Brunswick, who has paid much attention to Indian dialects, thinks the name was given to the whole Neck, beginning with or near Clay Cove, and that the word means bad clay. He says that in the dialects of New England Matche means bad; it appears, he says, to
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
We are induced to fix upon this year as the one in which the first settlement was made upon the Neck, from a number of circumstances which will be briefly adverted to. In Winter's answer to Cleeves's action, before noticed, he says that after possession was given to him of the land granted to Trelawny, in July 1632, he warned Cleeves to leave the premises ; and on his refusing to do it, he repaired to Capt. Walter Neale, who required him to yield up the possession; he then adds, " and soone after, the plaintiff left his said possession to the defendant." It is very reasonable to suppose that this appli- cation to Neale was the immediate consequence of Cleeves and Tucker's refusal to give up the possession, and that the removal which followed "soon after," was not protracted beyond the year ; at any rate it must have been done before midsummer of the next year, for Neale then returned to Europe.
Again, Cleeves in another action against Winter in 1640, for disturbing his possession on the Neck, has the following decla- ration : "The plaintiff declareth that he now is and hath been for these seven years and upwards, possessed of a tract of land in Casco bay, known first by the name of Machigonne, being a neck of land which was in no man's possession or occupation, and therefore the plaintiff seised on it as his own inheritance by virtue of a royal proclamation of our late sove-
be formed from Mat, no, not. The syllable gon is given by Schoolcraft as a pri- mary Algonquin term denoting clay land. He considers the name descriptive of the soil upon and around Clay Cove and other parts of the Neck.
On the contrary, Mr. Porter Bliss, who is conversant with Indian languages, says that Mr. Ballard's interpretation is not correct : that in the Micmac or Algonquin dialect, Mach means great, and Chegun, knee or elbow. and its appli- cation is to the promontory on which the Neck or Portland is situated, as a great curve or elbow, sweeping round from the Fore river to Back Cove. He compared it to the name Michigan, which in the Chippewa language, a branch of the Algonquin from the same original, means the great bend or curve which the lake Michigan takes from Huron. When such learned pundits disagree, we do not feel competent to pronounce judgment.]
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FIRST OCCUPATION OF THE TOWN.
reign lord King James, of blessed memory, by which he freely gave unto every subject of his, which should transport himself over into this country, upon his own charge, for himself and for every person that he should so transport, one hundred and fifty acres of land ; which proclamation standeth still in force to this day, by which right the plaintiff held and enjoyed it for the space of four years together, without molestation, interrup- tion, or demand of any ; and at the end of the said first four years, the plaintiff, desirous to enlarge his limits in a lawful way, addressed himself to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the proprie- tor of this Province, and obtained for a sum of money and other considerations a warrantable lease of enlargement, bounded as by relation thereunto had, doth and may appear." 1 The lease from Gorges, referred to by Cleeves, was dated January 27, 1637, at which time he says he had been in possession of the Neck four years ; this . in connection with the possession up- ward of seven years previous to the trial, will carry us back to the latter part of 1632, or the very first of the year following, and leaves no room to doubt that Cleeves and Tucker entered upon the Neck, immediately on being dispossessed of the land on the Spurwink.
That they were the first that settled here, there can be no doubt ; Henry Jocelyn a cotemporary of Cleeves, has left his testimony of that fact in the following deposition given before Henry Watts, commissioner : "August 18th, 1659. Henry Jocelyn examined, sweareth, that upwards of twenty years, Mr. George Cleeves have been possessed of that tract of land he now liveth on in Casco Bay, and was the first that planted there, and for the said lands had a grant from Sir Ferdinando Gorges, as Sir Ferdinando acknowledged by his letters, which was in controversy afterwards between Mr. Winter, agent for
1 York Records, Appendix No. 3.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Mr. Robert Trelane of Plymouth, merchant, and the said Cleeves, and they came to a trial by law at a court held at Saco, wherein the said Winter was cast, since which time the said Cleeves hath held the said lands without molestation." 1
Cleeves and Tucker erected their house near where the three story house now stands on the corner of Hancock and Fore Streets, and their corn field extended westerly toward Clay Cove. This location is fixed by a comparison of several docu- ments ; the first is the conveyance of the same premises by Cleeves to John Phillips in 1659, in which he gives this des- cription, " all that tract, parcel, or neck in Casco. Bay, and now in possession of me, the said George Cleeves, on which my now dwelling house standeth by the meets and bounds herein expressed, that is to say, to begin at the point of land com- monly called Machagony, and being north-easterly from my said house, and so along by the water side from the house south- westerly to the south-west side of my corn field."2 In 1681, Phillip's daughter, Mary Munjoy, claimed the land, and the government of Massachusetts awarded it to her by the follow- ing description, " the easterly end of said neck of land where- upon her said husband's house formerly stood, bounded by a strait line from the mouth of a runnet of water on the easterly side, where Mr. Cleeves's house formerly stood, and so on to the old barn on the top of the hill." 3 This "runnet of water" still continues its course, although exceedingly diminished in its size, and discharges itself on the beach as it did two hun- dred years ago, notwithstanding the numerous and vast changes
1 Jocelyn lived at Black Point, to which he came from Piscataqua about 1635. He was at Piscataqua as agent of Mason and Gorges in 1634, and we find him a member of the court at Saco in 1636.
2 York Records.
3 York Records.
.
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FIRST OCCUPATION OF THE TOWN.
which have since taken place in the physical as well as the moral features around it .* These references and others upon record, which it is unnecessary to cite, clearly designate the spot on which the first settlers of Portland pitched their habi- tation. The situation had advantages of utility and beauty : it was open to the sea by a small but handsome bay, accessible to fishing boats, and near the islands, while it was protected from the north winds by the hill in the rear of it. Here the first settlers cultivated the soil and pursued their traffic with the natives, for a number of years, holding the land by a mere possessory title. Cleeves and Tucker continued partners for many years, the former seems to have managed the land speculations, while the latter carried on the trade : but the
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