USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > The history of Portland, from its first settlement: with notices of the neighbouring towns, and of the changes of government in Maine, Part I > Part 2
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New-England being now brought into notice by the respectability of the persons who had engaged in its cause, and especially by the profits derived from the fish and fur trade, the intercourse with it was yearly increasing. In 1621, 10 or 12 ships from the west of Eng- land, procured full cargoes of fish and fur ; in 1622, 35 ships, in 1623, 40 ships, and in 1624, 50 ships were engaged in the same trade4. So great seems to have been the excitement in this new channel of speculation, that the Plymouth company found it necessary to procure a proclamation from the king, which bears date Nov. 6, 1622, to prevent "interloping and disorderly trading" upon the coast5. It is alleged in the proclamation, that persons without author- ity committed intolerable abuses there, not only by destroying timber and throwing their ballast into the harbours of the islands, but by selling war-like implements and ammunition to the natives and teaching them their use.
The same year, Aug. 10, the council of Plymouth granted to Sir F. Gorges and Capt. John Mason, two of their company, " all the lands situated between the rivers Merrimack and Sagadehock," extending back to the great lakes, and the river of Canada6."
1Pr. 2. 111. 1 Haz. 134. 21 Haz. 387. 3Jeremiah Dummer's Mem. 1, 3d Ser. Mass. H. Col. 232. 4Pr. 99. 117. $1 Haz. 151. 61 Hutch. 285. Hub. N. E. 614.
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History of Portland.
In 1623, they sent over David Thompson, Edward and William Hilton and others, who commenced a plantation upon the west side of the Piscataqua river, which was the first settlement in New-Hamp- shire, and the beginning of the present town of Portsmouth'. Gorges . and Mason continued their joint interest on the Piscataqua, having procured a new patent in 1631, including all their improvements on both sides of the river until 1634, when they made a division of their property? ; Mason took the western side of the river, and Gorges the eastern, and they each procured distinct patents for their respec- tive portions, which they afterwards separately pursued.
Gorges did not confine his attention exclusively to Piscataqua, even while he continued a partner in the Laconia patent ; for in February 1623, we find that he had already a plantation established upon the island of Monhegan. This was probably for the accommo- dation of the fishermen ; but it had become of sufficient importance to draw thither the persons settled in Massachusetts bay for supplies3. This plantation must have been commenced in 1621 or 1622, and was the first which continued for any length of time upon any part of the territory of Maine. Monhegan is a solitary island, about 12 miles S. E. of Pemaquid point, which is the nearest main land. From this island the transition to the main was easy ; and from the concourse of vessels to this neighbourhood in the fishing season, it might naturally be expected that here settlements would be early formed. Such appears to have been the fact, and we find that in 1625, a settlement was commenced at New-Harbour, on Pemaquid, which.continued to increase without interruption, until the destructive war of 1675.
On the 15th of July 1625, John Brown, of New-Harbour, pur- chased of Capt. John Somerset and Unongoit, two Indian Sachems, for 50 skins, a tract of land on Pemaquid, extending eight miles by twenty-five, together with Muscongus island4. The next year Abraham Shurt was sent over by Alderman Aldsworth and Giles Elbridge, merchants of Bristol, as their agent, and was invested with power to purchase Monhegan for them. This island then belonged to Abraham Jennings of Plymouth, of whose agent Shurt purchased
1Pr. 133. An. of Portsmo. 21 Belk. N. H. App. 3Pr. 127. Morton's Mem. 109. 4Report of Mass. com. on the Pemaq. title 1811. 107.
Settlements on the coast of Maine. 13.
it for £50.1 In 1629, Aldsworth and Elbridge sent over to Shurt a patent from the council of Plymouth, for 12000 acres of land on Pemaquid, bounded north by a line drawn from the head of the Damariscotta to the head of the Muscongus river, and from thence to the sea, including the islands within three leagues of the shore. Here was commenced the first permanent settlement on the main land within the territory of this State, by any European power. Thomas Elbridge, the son of Giles, the patentee, came over a few years afterwards and held a court within this patent, to which many of the inhabitants of Monhegan and Damariscove repaired, and made acknowledgmentª of submission. This place, from its numerous harbours and islands, possessed many advantages of trade as well as of farming and fishing, and rapidly increased in population and business. An additional grant was made to the same persons in 1632, in which it is recited, that the land is "next adjoining to this place, where the people or servants of said Giles and Robert are now settled, or have inhabited for the space of three years last past."*
'Shurt was about 44 years old when he came over, and was living in 1662, aged about 80. In 1675, there were no less than 156 families east of Sagadehock, and near 100 fishing vessels owned between Sagadehock and St. Georges' river. Sil. Davis' statement to the council in 1675. 21b. Rep. 40.
*Since the above was put to press, I have discovered among a bundle of old papers, just put into my hands, a certificate or declaration of Samuel Welles, of Boston made in 1750, relative to a settlement at Pemaquid two or three years earlier than I have stated in the text. I have introduced this certificate as noticing' an important fact, which, it is surprising, has hitherto escaped observation ..
"This may certify all concerned, that I have in my hand, a certain patent, signed by the Earl of Warwick, and several other members of the council of Ply- mouth, in England, dated June Ist, 1621, about three years after the patent, constituting the council of Plymouth for ordering the affairs and settlement of New- England, that is, of land between the 40th and 48th degree of north latitude. The sum and substance of this patent of June 1st 1621, is a grant to one John Pierce, a citizen of London, of liberty to come and settle in New-England, with divers privileges in such place as he or his associates should choose under certain limita- tions of not interfering with other grants, or settling within ten miles of any other settlement, unless on the opposite side of some great and navigable river, and on return made, to have farther grants or privileges. Now, as I am informed, and hear it is agreed on all hands, Mr. Pierce came over and here he settled, that is, at a place called Broad Bay, and there his posterity continued above one hundred years; some time after the settlement was begun, one Mr. Brown made a purchase of a large tract of land of the natives ; and as Mr. Pierce's was the most ancient grant thereabouts, they united the grant from home with the purchase of the natives, and it is said, that the Indians have ever acknowledged the justice of our claims. and never would burn Pierce's house, even though he left it. This patent is the ancientest I ever saw about any part of New-England, except the original grand patent to the council of Plymouth, made as I remember in November, in 1618. This patent is eight years older than that to Bradford and his associates for Plymouth Colony, and nine years older than Massachusetts first charter. I do not think of
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History of Portland.
. In 1626, the government of Plymouth colony established a trading house on Bagaduce Point, at the mouth of the Penobscot, and first give this name to that river. . The Indian name was Penobsceag or Penobscook; the French called it Pentaquevette or Pentagoet1. The Baron de St. Castine, afterward erected his fort upon the scite 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 about £500 sterling ..
The same government having obtained a patent on the Kennebec, erected in 1628, a house for trade up the river, and furnished it with corn and other commodities for summer and winter ?.
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 three score years ago" *. 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 Elizabeth3.
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 gran 4. They arrived in September at Naumkeag (Salem) and laid the foundation of that respectable town and the colony of Massachusetts.
any thing further material or needful to be said, and the above is the best account my time will now allow me to give. SAMUEL WELLES. Boston, 11th September, 1750.
N. B. There are six seals signed by the Duke of Lenox, Duke of Hamilton, Earl Warwick, and some others, whose names I cannot find out.
· S. WELLES."
1 Sul. Hist. of Maine 36, 38, and His. of Pen. Ind. 9 Mass. Hist. col. 209. 2Pr. 62, 2d part. 3York Rec. 4Pr. 2. 174. 1 Haz. 239.
*George Way was associated in the patent with Purchase ; the grant, included land lying on both sides of l'ejipscot, on the eastern end of Androscoggin river, on Kennebeck river and Casco bay. Eleazer Way, son and heir of George, convey- ed his moiety to R. Wharton 1683. The patent has long been lost, and is only known to have existed by references in early deeds.
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Settlements on the coast of Maine.
Some time in the course of this year, Walter Bagnall, called Great Walt, established himself upon Richmond's* island, within the limits of the ancient town of Falmouth. Winthrop1, under 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 Squidrayset, 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.
Squidrayset, Squidragusset or Scitterygusset, in each of which modes the name is spelt, was a sachem over a tribe on the Presump- scott river. He subsequently conveyed lands upon the Presumpscott 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 possession 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 justice upon Black Will, one of the murderers of Bagnall, by hanging him without the forms of law2.
On the 12th of February 1630, the council of Plymouth made two grants on the Saco river ; each being four miles upon the sea, and extending eight miles into the country. That upon the west side of the river was to John Oldham and Richard Vines3. Oldham had lived in the country six years, partly within the Plymouth, and partly within the Massachusetts jurisdiction, and Vines had become acquaint-
1 Wint. Jour. 1. 62. Pr. 2d part 36. 2Winth. 1. 99. 3York Rec.
*I am not able to determine whether the original name of this island was Rich- man'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 neighbourhood 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 entirely lost, it has never been known by any other in our history but one of those before inentioned.
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History of Portland.
ed 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 50 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.
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 50 persons there in seven years at their own expense. Livery of seisin was given June 28, 1631, and the proprietors in person successfully prosecuted 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 appears to have entered upon his grant2 ; Vines occupied it 15 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 estate to his children *.
In 1630, the colony of Plymouth procured a new charter from the council, for a tract of land fifteen miles on each side of Kennebeck 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 £400 st. to Tyng, Brattle, Boies and Winslow.3
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The same year, March 13th, the grant to John Beauchamp, of London and Thomas Leverett of Boston, in England, was made. If
1The original patent was accidently found by Mr. Folsom, when he was collect- ing materials for his history of Saco, and has been deposited by him in the Archives of the Maine Historical Society. "Oldham was killed by the Indians off Block island July 20, 1636. 1 Winth. 31 Haz. 298. Pr. 196. Sul. 303.
*For further particulars relative to these grants and the early history of Saco and Biddeford, we take pleasure to refer to MIr. Folsom's history of those places, in which is collected all the information of value that is to be obtained on the subject.
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Settlements on the coast of Maine.
was 10 leagues square, and was situated between Muscongus and Broad bay and Penobscot bay. Large preparations were immediately made for carrying on trade there, and agents were employed for conducting it1. This was originally 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 county of Waldo.
In the course of the same year (1630) the council of Plymouth 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 com- pany, or from the circumstance that the adventurers were generally husbandmen, while the usual employment of others upon the coast was commercial.
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The first company arrived at Winter harbour in the summer of 1631, in the ship Plough, but not being satisfied with the appearance of the country and their future prospects, the principal 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 of this grant until 1643, when it fell into the hands of Alexander Rigby, under whom a government was establish- ed. This subject will be adverted to hereafter more particularly ; the claim to soil and sovreignty in that province, occupies a consider- able space in our affairs, and gave birth to a conflict with Gorges, which was only quieted. by a submission of all parties to the jurisdic- tion 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 Good-
'Dougl. 1. 384. Pr. 203. ^Sul. 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 mentions 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. 31 Winth. 59.
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- History of Portland. .
yeare, of Plymouth, Eng. who had procured a patent of a tract including all Cape-Elizabeth'. 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 extended 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 N. E. for 45 years past, and above 32 years an adventurer on that design, 24 years an inhabitant of this place (York,) the first that ever bylt or settled ther." In 1634, he procured of the council of Plymouth, a grant to himself and associates Samuel Maverick, Wm. Hooke and others of 12000 acres of land on the north side of the river Agamenticus'. The same year another grant of 12000 acres on the west side of the river was made to Gorges' grandson, Ferdinando.
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The next grant we meet with of land upon this coast, was of Black Point, now a part of Scarborough, to Thomas Cammock, dated Nov. 1, 1631. This was by the council of Plymouth, 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, lying about a mile from the point, was given to him by Capt. Walter Neale, May 23, 16333. 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
1York Rec. 2 Mass. files 1654. Godfrey was for several years an agent of the Laconia company at Piscataqua ; after he established himself in Maine, his activity and intelligence soon brought him into notice. Sir F. Gorges appointed him a counsellor of his province in 1640 ; and in 1642, he was Mayor of Gorgiana. He was chosen Governor 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 dis- charged this office with much reputation of integrity and justice." He died about 1661. Winthrop says (1. 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. SYork Rec.
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Settlements on the coast of Maine.
upon possession and married Margaret, his widow. The tract is now held under this title by conveyance from Jocelyn to Joshua Scottow, dated July 6, 1666.
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December 1, 1631, the council of Plymouth granted to Robert 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 towards the north1." This included 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 patent never extended north of Fore river, yet the proprietors affirmed that the Presumpscot river was the northern boundary ; and this was asserted by the Jordan proprietors, as late as the year 1769, when they became incorporated under the statute. They then described the bounds of the grant to extend from the sea near the east side of Cammock's patent into the country northwesterly 15 miles, and then northeasterly 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 all of the ancient town of Falmouth and part of Gorham, and are entirely unsupported by any record. One cause of difficulty on this subject arose from an uncertainty as to the true Casco river, which was agreed to be the northern boundary of the patent. One party contended that it was the Presumpscot, and the other with equal obstinacy, that it was Fore river. A decision 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 Pre- sumpscot was the true Casco river. This again revived the contro- versy 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
1 York Rec. 2There 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 bura- ing, 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.
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History of Portland.
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 territory. From this circumstance, 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 Wm. Jones, the Attorney General in 1679, that the " grant was only sealed with th council seal, unwitnessed, no seisin indorsed, nor possession ever given with the grant1." 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 parcelled out the land within the limits of that patent ; and that both he and Mason received a grant with six or seven others in 1631, of a small tract on both sides of the Piscata- qua, which included the improvements they had previously made there. If the patent of 1622, were 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 Funday ; they were indeed few and far between, but an intercourse 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, discoun- tenanced 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 procure from Europe articles of the first necessity for the infant colony.
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