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 7
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
1 Hazard, vol. i. p. 442.
* [By the charter, persons who were in possession of land under former grants, were to be protected in their possessions, on acknowledging the jurisdiction, "Jura regalia" of Gorges, the chief proprietor.
2 Page 49.
71
POLITICAL AFFAIRS OF THE PROVINCE.
The following extract from Sir F. Gorges' narrative, will show the manner in which he regulated the administration of the province : "1st. I divided the whole into eight bailiwicks or counties, and those again into sixteen several hundreds, conse- quently into parishes and tythings as people did increase and the provinces were inhabited. The form of government. 1st. In my absence I assigned one for my lieutenant or deputy, to whom I adjoined a chancellor for the determination of all dif- ferences arising between party and party, for meum and tuum, only next to him, I ordained a treasurer for receipt of the pub- lic revenue, to them I added a marshal for the managing the militia, who hath for his lieutenant, a judge marshal, and other officers to the marshal court, where is to be determined all criminal and capital matters, with other misdemeanors or con- tentions for matters of honour and the like. To these I ap- pointed an admiral with his lieutenant or judge, for the ordering and determining of maritime causes. Next I ordered a master of the ordnance, whose office is to take charge of all the public stores belonging to the militia, both for sea and land, to this I join a secretary for the public service of myself and council. These are the standing councillors to whom is added eight deputies, to be elected by the freeholders of the several coun- ties, as councillors for the state of the country, who are author- ized by virtue of their places to sit in any of the aforesaid courts, and to be assistants to the presidents thereof."]
This magnificent outline was never filled up; the materials were lamentably deficient. Gorges proceeded on the 2d Sept.
1 Narrative, p. 46. This narrative was written in 1640, and published by his grandson in 1658; he also says in it, p. 50, "I have not sped so ill, I thank my God for it, but I have a house and home there; and some necessary means of profit, by my saw-mills and corn-mills, besides some annual receipts, sufficient to lay the foundation of greater matters, now the government is established." The unfortunate knight did not anticipate so soon being deprived of his posses- sions and stripped of all his golden prospects. [These works are reprinted in the Maine Historical Collections, vol ii. p. 1.]
.
72
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
1639, to appoint his officers, and granted a commission at that time to Sir Thomas Jocelyn, Richard Vines, Esq., his steward general, Francis Champernoon,1 Esq., his nephew, Henry Joce- lyn, and Richard Bonighton, Esquires, Wm. Hooke,2 and Ed- ward Godfrey, Gents, as counselors, for the due execution of justice in his province, and established in the same commission certain ordinances for their regulation.3 Sir Thomas having declined the office, another commission was issued by him on the 10th of March following, in which the name of Thomas Gor- ges, whom he styles his cousin, is substituted for Sir Thomas Jocelyn, but similar in other respects to the former. He gives as a reason for the new commission the uncertainty whether the other arrived, and his desire that justice might be duly executed in the province. The first commission did arrive, and a general court was held under it, at Saco, June 25, 1640,4 before Thomas Gorges reached the country. This was the first general court that ever assembled in Maine, and consisted of "Richard Vines, Richard Bonighton, and Henry Jocelyn, Esquires, and Edward Godfrey, Gent., counselors unto Sir Ferdinando Gorges, knight proprietor of this province for the due execution of justice here." It does not appear that any deputies were present. The following officers were sworn at this court, viz : Vines, Bon- ighton, Jocelyn, and Godfrey, as counselors ; Roger Garde, register ; Robert Sanky, provost marshal; Thomas Elkins, under marshal; Nicholas Frost, constable of Piscataqua, Mr. Michael Mitton, constable of Casco, and John Wilkinson, constable of Black Point. This court had jurisdiction over all matters of a civil or criminal nature arising within the province. At the first session there were eighteen entries of civil actions and nine complaints.
1 Champernoon lived in Kittery.
2 Wm. Hooke lived in Agamenticus or Kittery. Sir Thomas Jocelyn never came to this country. I find no subsequent mention of him Henry and John were his sons.
3 Sullivan, appendix. Popham Memorial Vol., appendix.
4 York Records, vol. i.
73
POLITICAL AFFAIRS OF THE PROVINCE.
Thomas Gorges arrived in the course of the summer ; Win- throp1 says of him, that "he was a young gentleman of the Inns of court, a kinsman of Sir F. Gorges, and sent by him with a commission for the government of his province of Som- ersetshire. He was sober and well disposed, and was very careful to take advice of our magistrates how to manage his affairs." He held his first court at Saco, Sept. 8, 1640, assist- ed by the counselors before mentioned.2 At this session there were pending twenty-eight civil actions, of which nine were jury trials ; and thirteen indictments, which were tried by the court without the intervention of a jury ; four of them were against George Burdett, minister of Agamenticus, for adultery, breach of the peace, and incontinency ; and what appears singular, Burdett recovered judgment in two actions for slander against persons for reporting the very facts for which he was at the same court found guilty and punished .* The court passed an order that the general court should be held at Saco every year, on the 25th of June; they also divided the province into two parts, one extending from the Piscataqua to Kennebunk ; the other from Kennebunk to Sagadahoc ; and in each division estab- lished an inferior court, to be held three times a year, which had cognizance of all cases except "pleas of land, felonies of death, and treason." An order also was passed that all the inhabitants "who have any children unbaptised should have them baptised as soon as any minister is settled in any of their plantations."
The government seemed now to have been placed on a respect- able footing, and to have afforded hope of permanency ; but in
1 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 9.
2 York Records.
*[ Burdett came from Yarmouth, County of Norfolk, England. He took the freeman's oath in Salem in 1635, where he preached near two years. He mov ed to Dover, N. II., in 1637 or 1638, and on occasion of a quarrel there he came to York in Maine. He left a wife and children in England, to which, after these trials in our courts, he probably returned.] 6
74
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
1642, the civil war broke out in England, the influence of which extended to the colonies and destroyed all that Gorges had so long labored to establish. He was a firm episcopalian and royalist, and joined the king's party with the same zeal which governed all his former life; although he was more than sev- enty years old, he did not hesitate to buckle on his arniour and trust himself once more to the chance of war in defence of his principles and the person of the king. But interested individ- uals were not idle to take advantage of this state of things to aggrandize themselves, and to gratify feelings of jealousy and hatred against those who were unfriendly to them or stood in their way. Among such, circumstantial evidence would seem to place our first settler, George Cleeves. Early in 1643, we find him in England, and on the 7th of April of that year,1 Col. Alexander Rigby, an ardent republican, and a member of par- liament, purchased of the surviving proprietors of the prov- ince of Ligonia, or a part of them, a conveyance of their charter. It is inferred that he was stimulated to this undertaking by Cleeves. Cleeves probably took advantage of political preju- dices in England, to gain power in the province for himself ; he had not been noticed by Gorges among the officers of his gov- ernment ; and with Trelawny and his agent he had openly. quarreled. He therefore addressed himself to Rigby, who had warmly espoused the republican side, and no doubt persuaded him to engage in the speculation of purchasing Ligonia, which was a dormant title, and under existing circumstances, but a nominal interest, in the hope that by the aid of political ma- chinery, it might be elevated to a real and valuable estate. We are inclined to the opinion that Cleeves was active in this meas- ure, because he was appointed by Rigby, his first deputy for the government of the province, and because he succeeded in obtaining a confirmation from him of the valuable grant in Falmouth, originally made to him by Gorges in 1637. Another
1 Sullivan, p. 312.
75
POLITICAL AFFAIRS OF THE PROVINCE.
circumstance which throws suspicion upon Cleeves, is an at- tempt upon the character of Richard Vines, the leading sup- porter of Gorges. On the 28th of April, 1643, he procured a commission from the parliament, directed to Gov. Winthrop, Arthur Macworth, Henry Bode,' and others, to examine into cer- tain articles exhibited by him to parliament against Vines. It appeared at the court held in Saco in October, 1645, that Cleeves had himself affixed the names of the principal planters, viz : Macworth, Watts, Aulger, Hamans, West, Wadleigh, Wear, Robinson, etc. to the petition to parliament without any author- ity from them, and which they severally under oath in court, disclaimed ; declaring "that they neither saw nor knew of said articles until the said George Cleeves did come last out of England," and that they "could not testify any such things as are exhibited in the said petition." It does not appear that Gov. Winthrop accepted the commission, and Macworth and Bode both refused to act. Cleeves arrived at Boston in 1643, with his commission from Rigby, to act as his deputy in the government of Ligonia.2 Knowing that he should have to con- tend against an authority already established, he petitioned the general court of Massachusetts to afford him their protection. This they declined doing, but were willing that the governor should write an unofficial letter in his favor. They wished, probably, to render what assistance they could to a representa- tive of the popular party in England, without involving them- selves in the result of its ill success. The letter of the governor did not have the desired effect of procuring the submission of Gorges' friends to the authority of Cleeves ; for when Cleeves proclaimed his commission at Casco, and called a court there, Vines, the deputy of Gorges, opposed his proceeding, and called a court at Saco. The inhabitants of course divided, those of Casco principally joined Cleeves, although some dissented as
1 Bode lived in Wells,
2 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 154. Hubbard. vol. i. p. 368,
76
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
appears by an order of the court, held at Saco, October, 1645, assuring them of protection.1 Vines was resolutely supported by Macworth, in Casco, and, it may be supposed, by the princi- pal inhabitants of Saco and Black Point, and he was elected deputy-governor for the following year. In this juncture, Cleeves wrote to Vines, that he would submit the decision of the question, as to jurisdiction, to the government of Massachu- setts, until a final determination could be had from England ; but Vines not only declined the arbitration, but imprisoned Richard Tucker, who was the bearer of the communication, and required a bond for his appearance at court and his good behavior, before he released him. Upon this violence, Cleeves and his party, about thirty in number, wrote to the governor of Massachusetts for assistance, and offered themselves as par- ties to the confederacy of the united colonies. The governor returned an answer unfavorable to their claim for admission to the confederacy, objecting that "they had an order not to re- ceive any but such as were in a church way."2 Afterward in April, 1644, Vines went to Boston with a letter from the com- missioners of. Sir F. Gorges, and between twenty and thirty other inhabitants of the province; but without effect; they would render aid to neither party ; and although their prede- lictions were undoubtedly on the side of Rigby, with their usual cautious policy they withheld themselves from any inter- ference in the disputes here, recommending both parties to live in peace, until the controversy should be definitely settled by the authorities in England. Cleeves continued to maintain a feeble sway, and must eventually have submitted to the author- ity of Gorges, had not the party of Rigby been triumphant in England ; the distress to which he was reduced will appear
1 "Ordered by joint consent that we will aid and protect the inhabitants of Casco bay as namely, Mr. Arthur Macworth and all others in confederacy with us there, and their estates from all opposition, wrong, and injury, that may be offered them by Mr. George Cleeves or any under him."-York Records.
2 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 155.
77
POLITICAL AFFAIRS OF THE PROVINCE.
from his letter to the government of Massachusetts of July 3, 1645. "To the honoured governour and deputy governour, and court of assistants of the Massachusetts colony, these. Honoured sirs, may it please you, I have lately received from Mr. Rigby, letters of instruction and advice to proceed in the government of Ligonia, and because we are opposed by Mr. Vines and others, his confederates, that we could not proceed according to our instructions and being daily threatened, and are still in danger of our lives, and also to have ourselves seized on by them for not submitting to a pretended authority to them given by Sir F. Gorges, without any lawful commission; and thereupon we are in danger of being ruined and undone, unless the Lord do move your hearts to protect us with your assistance. I do not hereby presume to direct you, but hum- bly crave leave to show mine opinion, which is, that if you will be pleased to write but your general letter to our opponents to deter them from their illegal proceedings, and a letter to our people of Ligonia, to advise and encourage them, that notwith- standing Mr. Vines and the rest do oppose, that they may and ought to adhere to Mr. Rigby's lawful authority. I hope you may not need to put yourselves to any further trouble to finish the work, but in so doing you will much oblige Mr. Rigby unto you all, who doubtless would have sent over other order at this time, if he had known the injuries offered him and us. These letters now come are in answer of my letters sent to him on my first arrival and not of my last nor of the * of the com- missioners, as you may see by the date of them. I herein shall send you Mr. Rigby's letter of request to you and also a letter of his to me, whereby you may see how the parliament approves of his proceeding, and that we may expect further orders forth- with ; and in the interim we do most humbly beseech you to afford us such speedy assistance as the necessity of our present condition requires, and we shall forever petition the throne of
78
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
grace for you all, and rest your humble servants. George Cleeves for and in behalf of the people of Ligonia."1
This letter produced no alteration in the policy of Massachu- setts, and in October following, Vines held his court as usual, assisted by Richard Bonighton, Henry Jocelyn, Francis Robin- son, Arthur Macworth, Edward Small, and Abraham Preble.2 It being represented at this court, "that not having heard from Sir Ferdinando Gorges of late for establishment of government," they proceeded to elect Richard Vines, Esq., deputy-governor for the year, and "if he should depart, Henry Jocelyn to be deputy in his place." They also laid a tax for the charges of the general court; in which Casco is assessed ten shillings, Saco eleven shillings, Gorgiana3 one pound, Piscataqua, which included Kittery and Berwick, two pounds ten shillings. The certificates before referred to, respecting the articles exhibited against Vines by Cleeves, were offered, and his practices cen- sured; but some allowance is undoubtedly to be made by us for the unfavorable light in which Cleeves appears in this trans- action, since we receive the representation of it from bitter and prejudiced opponents, who acted under the highest degree of excitement ; and having no opportunity to hear the exculpa- tion of the accused party.
Vines sold his patent to Dr. Child, in October, 1645, and soon
1 From files in secretary's office, Mass.
2 Robinson lived in Saco, Macworth in Casco, Preble in Agamenticus. These persons may be supposed to be the leaders in their respective plantations of the party of Gorges.
3 Agamenticus, now York, was incorporated as a city by Gorges in 1641, by the name of Agamenticus; the next year a new charter was granted, giving it the name of Gorgiana; Thomas Gorges was appointed the first mayor, by the charter. This tax exhibits the relative value of the settlements in Maine at that time, if Casco were fully taxed, of which from its having a separate govern- ment there may be some doubt.
79
POLITICAL AFFAIRS OF THE PROVINCE.
after left the province ;1* Henry Jocelyn succeeded to the of- fice of deputy-governor. The contest had increased to such a height, that in the beginning of 1646, Cleeves was threatened with personal violence; he therefore once more appealed to Massachusetts, to aid him in this emergency. The other party also making their representations to the same power, that gov- ernment addressed a letter to each of them, persuading them to suspend their hostilities, and live in peace until the arrival of the next ships, by which it was expected that an order would come from the commissioners of the colonies to adjust the con- troversy. On receiving these letters, both parties came to the determination of referring the subjects of contention between them, to the arbitration of the court of assistants of Massachu- setts, to be held at Boston, June 3d, 1646. At the time ap- pointed Cleeves and Tucker appeared in support of Rigby's title, and Henry Jocelyn and Mr Roberts for Gorges.2
The result of this arbitration was inconclusive and unsatis- factory. Winthrop? says, "upon a full hearing, both parties
1 Vines must have had one daughter at least. I find a petition to Andross, on Massachusetts Files, from Vines Ellicott for Cousins' Island in Casco bay, in which he styles himself a grandson of Capt. Richard Vines. [Savage says Ellicott came to Bostoni in the Supply in 1679. Ellacott or Ellicott was a respectable family in Devonshire, England, and still is. Vines went to Barbadoes, where he and his family were comfortably settled in 1648. He was there in the practice of physic. He addressed from there, two letters to Gov. Winthrop, one dated July, 1647, the other April, 1648 .- Hutchinson's Papers.]
* [Dr. Robert Child came from the county of Kent, England ; was educated at Cambridge, England, from which he took his first degree in 1631, second in 1635. He afterward studied medicine at Padua, in Italy. It does not appear that he made any use of his purchase of Vines. The next year he got into a furious quarrel with the authorities of Massachusetts, whom he petitioned for further freedom in religion and civil government. He returned to England in 1647 and never came back.]
2 I think there must be some mistake in this name; I find no such person in the province at that time; a Giles Roberts subsequently lived at Black Point. I have thought it probable that Francis Robinson was intended ; he was a re- spectable magistrate of Gorges' court at this period, and lived at Saco.
3 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 256.
80
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
failed in their proof. The plaintiff (Cleeves) could not prove the place in question to be within his patent, nor could derive a good title of the patent itself to Mr. Rigby, there being six or eight patentees, and the assignment from only two of them. Also the defendant had no patent of the province, but only a copy thereof attested by witnesses which was not pleadable in law. Which so perplexed the jury that they could find for neither, but gave in a non liquet. And because both parties would have it tried by a jury, the magistrates forebore to deal any further in it. "
The government of Massachusetts was undoubtedly quite willing that the cause should take this direction, they preferred to keep neutral and not identify themselves with either party until they could safely do it under the decision of the commis- sioners for the plantations, in England. This decision arrived soon after, and declared Rigby to be the "rightful owner and proprietor of the province of Ligonia, by virtue of conveyances, whereby the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing the said province is settled." The commissioners further ordered that all the inhabitants of said province should yield obedience to Rigby ; and the government of Massachusetts was required, in case of resistance, to render support to his authority.1
Winthrop? says that the decision of the commissioners brought the bounds of the patent to the sea-side, when, by the language of it, it fell twenty miles short; this explains what he before said in speaking of the evidence adduced by Cleeves in support of Rigby's title, that the grant did not cover the disputed territory.
This decree was the result of political events in England ; the republican party was now triumphant, and Gorges, who had been taken prisoner at the seige of Bristol in 1645, and imprisoned, was probably now dead ; 3 although, why the title
1 Sullivan, p. 314, who cites an ancient British manuscript.
2 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 320.
3 In June, 1647, Gorges' friends in the western part of the State, addressed a letter to his heirs. [He died in 1647.]
81
POLITICAL AFFAIRS OF THE PROVINCE.
to the province of Ligonia was not good, as to the soil at least, may be difficult to comprehend. The patent bears date pre- vious to the title of Gorges, setting aside the grant of 1622, which appears never to have been executed ; the proprietors came over and took possession, and no evidence remains that the patent was ever relinquished, or the title revoked. But the sovereignty or the right of government is placed on a dif- ferent ground, and not having been transferred to the propri- etors that we have any evidence of, must have reverted to the king, with the surrender of the grand patent by the council of Plymouth. The question then arises, whether the charter of the king to Gorges, conveyed the right of government to him within the province of Ligonia, which was then held un- der another and distinct title. But this question we shall not stop to discuss.
Cleeves, now triumphant over his adversaries, assumed un- disputed sway in the whole province of Ligonia, extending from Cape Porpus to Cape Elizabeth, including both. Under this government were the settlements at Cape Porpus, Winter Harbor, and Saco, Black and Blue Points, now Scarborough, Spurwink, Richmond's Island, and Casco. Saco was the larg- est, and the next, those of Spurwink and Richmond's Island. He immediately commenced making grants in his newly-ac- quired territory ; as early as May, 1647, he granted to Richard Moore four hundred acres in Cape Porpus, and in September of the same year, he conveyed to John Bush a tract "in the village of Cape Porpus ;" he also made grants in Scarborough and Falmouth, all of them as the agent of Col. Alexander Rigby, president and proprietor of the province of Ligonia.1
* [In January, 1656, Edward Rigby petitioned the Lord Protector to aid in the settlement of his plantation in New England, called the province of Laconia, granted by patent from the king to his father. Referred to the Commissioners or plantations .- Sainsbury.]
1 Rigby was a sergeant at law, and one of the Barons of the Exchequer in the kingdom of England ; Cleeves was styled deputy-president.
82
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Records of only three courts held by Cleeves are now to be found, and these are very imperfect ; one relates to a court held at Black Point, by George Cleeves, Henry Jocelyn, and Robert Jordan, in which merely the appointment of an admin- istrator is noticed ; and the others held at Casco in September and December of the same year, exhibit the proceedings which took place on the petition of Robert Jordan, the executor of John Winter, for the allowance of his claim against Trelawny. These are presented in the appendix. The style of the court, as we learn from Jordan's petition, was the "General Assem- bly of the Province of Ligonia," We owe the preservation of this record to che vigilance of private interest, and not to the care of public officers. The repeated changes in government, the confusion of the times, but most of all, the desolation spread over the whole eastern country by Indian hostilities, have been fatal to the preservation of any perfect records either of the courts or towns.
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.