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 9
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Thirdly, Mr. Robert Jordan having recovered the said actions against me, takes forth executions against me for it, as also for the cost of court aforesaid, all which with charges of extending did amount unto the sum of £17 or thereabouts, as appears by the constable's testimony, who levied it on my house and household goods and cow.
Fourthly. Mr. Robert Jordan having soe recovered and extended as aforesaid, notwithstanding did not then expel me, my house, nor tooke possession of it, but tooke my word and ingagement to pay him
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Controversy between Cleeves and Jordan.
the just sum due to him by virtue of the said judgements, which accordingly I did pay unto him. Notwithstanding which, I having given him under my hand, that the house and goods should remaine as his till the sum were paid. And though I had paid it fully, yet at a court of Associates in March last, (himself being. one of the Asso- ciates,) he sues me again for delivery of my house, goods and cow, and recovered against me and hath taken them from me and holds them, the house being prised but at £8, which but a little before cost me £60.
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Fifthly. Mr. Jordan at the former court of that county aforesaid, (which I should have minded before,) After he had cast me in the action of interruption aforesaid, did under pretence of law sue me in an action of molestation, because I recovered not the action against him, though it was a just action, which I prosecuted, but himself being of that court, I was cast £5 again in that action, and he not being therewith contented, demands of me £15, alleging that the law gives treble damages in such cases, which I conceive I shall make appear to the Hon. Court to be a very unjust and injurious thing.
Sixthly. At the same court of Associates in March last, having again recovered my house, cow, Bed and Bolster and bedclothes, my brewing kettle, pott and other goods, obtains an execution di- rected to the constables Deputy to possess him, the said Jordan, of the said house and goods, and commanded the constables Deputy (being his own creture) to throw out all my other goods as apparel, chests, trunks and provisions out of doors, who so acted to the spoyl- ing and breaking of many of my things, and whereby I lost much of my goods and writings and apparel of my wife's, and many other things, to my damage more than £100 sterling., And more to vex and grieve me, he brought with him one of his own men (to assist the constable's Deputy) who was starke drunke, taking my kettle ; and pott, being full of worte for beere, ready to tun up, and threw it about the house, and carried away the said kettle and pott and de- taineth them to this day, being contrary to the law in such cases provided ; and further to increase my griefe, he requested his drunken man and Deputy constable to go into my wife's chamber where she was laid on her bed and very sick, who in a Barbarous manner pulls her from off her bed and takes her bedd from under her, and the .
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bed clothing and carries all away, my wife being no less than four score and seven years of age, and all this done after a warrant of Attachment was served upon the said house, goods and cow, by the said Deputy constable under the hand of Mr. Edward Rishworth, one of the Associates, requiring the said house and goods to be re- sponsible to answer my action of review to be tried at the next court of Associates, where (in truth) I have but small hopes of good success in my sutes against him, he being one of them, and one that Boudly said, let them, if they durst, find any thing against him : My suspicion being the greater for that I proved at the last court, that I had paid Mr. Jordan £20 towards the two executions to purchase my peace for the present, until I might by some review or complaint, redress my wrong, for all which I had no allowance by any order of court, Albeit the two first executions came but to £15.10. besides what I paid the constable for fees and other charges as appeareth by the constable's testimony, soe that Mr. Jordan detaineth from me wrongfully my goods and two cows, being all the cattle I had for my subsistence for the present, and hath proferred to sell my house to any that would buy it, and all this of purpose to starve and ruin me and my family. All which I hope this Hon. Court will duly consider and order my reparations. GEORGE CLEEVES." ,
:. " The Deputies conceive in answer to this petition, that the coun- ty court of York next are hereby ordered to examine the grounds of these complaints exhibited against Mr. Jordan, and proceed therein as they shall judge meet according to lawes here established."
- This order was entered at the October session in 1662, at which the petition was probably presented ; but what was the final result of the complaint, the records do not disclose. Jordan, Jocelyn and others before the next court had seceded from the authority of Mas- sachusetts and set up a jurisdiction under Ferdinando Gorges, the grandson of Sir Ferdinando, who after the restoration of Charles 2nd. had procured from the king a favorable notice of his title, and letters to the inhabitants, requiring them to submit to his government.
These representations would make it appear that Cleeves' fortune was at this time at a low ebb, he seems to have been deprived of property and friends, and was living to behold himself turned out of the last acre of the large domain of which he was once the owner, and over which he formerly ruled. But the circumstances show
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Controversy between Cleeres and Jordan.
that his case was not so piteous as he would represent it. It ap- pears that he was chosen one of the commissioners of the town in 1659 and 1662 ; and in 1663 and 1664 he was the Deputy from Fal- mouth to the general court. He probably would not have been notic- ed in this manner, had his affairs been so desperate as they appear in his own representations. There was a strong party undoubtedly against him ; he had made himself unpopular, partly perhaps by the violence of his temper, and partly by the zeal with which he pursued his landed interests. It appears by the record of the county court in 1659, that at the same time that he sued Jordan for disturbing his posses- sion, he brought actions against Francis Small for presuming to build and settle on his land, and felling timber without his leave, and against John Phillips for trespass. These suits probably related to land which the defendants claimed under Indian deeds at Capisic ; Cleeves was unsuccessful in them both. At the same court he was sued by Thomas Elbridge, who lived at Pemaquid, in two actions, one for defamation, the other for assault and battery. In the first case, the jury returned a verdict against him for £50, and also that he should make an acknowledgement of his offence when the court shall ap- point ; which the court ordered to be in presence of the court and at Casco the next public town meeting. He was also presented for denying to vote for magistrates, &c. These contradictory circum- stances, appointments to public office, and open condemnation in court, indicate a most unsettled state of society, if they do not on the whole leave a shade upon the character of Cleeves. And the inference cannot be resisted, that a state of party existed here at that time as virulent and bitter as has been witnessed in any subsequent - stage of our history.
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CHAPTER 4 .- 1660.
Petition of the inhabitants against the claims of Cleeves and Jordan- The freeman petition the Gen. Court-Islands belonging to Fal- mouth-New settlers, Munjoy, Wakely, Coe, Brackett, Clarke, Felt, 'Closie, &.c .- Mitton's death and family.
WHILE the large proprietors were contending for the title to the lands lying between the Presumpscot and Fore rivers, the tenants and other inhabitants were not free from trouble attendant upon the . controversy. In 1660, a part of the inhabitants sought the aid of government to protect them from the inconvenience which arose from these conflicting claims, and at the May session of the general court, they presented the following petition which sets forth their grievances.
"To the Hon. General Courte now assembled at Boston, 30 May 1660, the humble petition of some of the distressed inhabitants of the town of Falmouth.
" The humble desire of your poore petitioners hoping that you will take it into serious consideration, our present condition that we " stand in, in respecte of the pretended patenes and clames that Mr. Robert Jordan and Mr. George Cleeves laies clame to, so that much : trouble cometh to us, suing men to Cortes, as witnes the many sutes and actions at Cortes and are still goen on against us and other tretened against, so that we are much destracted in our afares and know not what we shall doe in thes our trobeles, only our prayers are to God and you, that you would be pleased to consider our condition and distractions that we are in, and that it will be the overthrow of thes hopeful beginenes that is amongs us. God begun to answer our prayers, and to send us a faithful dispenser of the word to us for which we desire to bles God for and we hope shall enjoy, if these destractions doe not discourage him, therefore our oumbell request is to this onered assemblie that you would be pleased to take it into consideration our present condition, for if that Mr. Jordan's paten and claim hould with Mr. Cleeves, the town is overthrown and noe man shall injoy what he hath labored uppon and possessed, unless it be uppon ther terms, and at ther wills and pleasures, but we hope that we shall injoy our priveleges and town affairs with the rest of the
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Petition against Cleeves, &c.
towns in the jurisdiction, thes not to trobele your oners noe farther, but leave the case to God and you, hoping for a comfortable answer, We remain yours in all faithfullness. George Ingersoll, George Lues, Joseph Phippen, Nathaniel Wallis, Thomas Cellen (Skillin) Houmphry Durham, John Walles, Nicholas Wite, Phinchas Rider'." .
What was the result of this petition, does not appear ; it is prob- able that the contentions referred to had the effect, as Cleeves suggested in his memorial, not only of preventing persons from entering upon his grant, but even of driving from the debateable ground some of those who had already settled upon it. Of the above petitioners, who it would seem, all lived upon the disputed territory, four of them at least, removed from it to other parts of the town, viz. Phippen, Durham, White and Rider. The petitioners include all the inhabitants on that territory, except Martin, Corbin, Phillips, Munjoy and Cleeves' family. Munjoy seems to have bought his · place of Jordan, by taking a deed from him of 10 acres on the Neck "" near unto the now dwelling house of Mr. George Cleeves ;" Jordan warranted the title against the claims of Trelawny and all other persons ; the deed is dated August 24, 1660. The next day, mutual releases passed between Jordan and Michael Mitton, relative to land upon the Neck? ; by these, it would seem that Munjoy and Mitton were willing to admit that Jordan either had title, or a colour of title on this side of the river.
Although in practice we are confident that Jordan never occupied any territory north of Fore river under the Trelawny title ; yet this unhappy controversy so vexatious to the inhabitants and productive · of so much evil to the parties themselves, was never determined by a judgment of court. While it was raging at its highest point, a temporary separation took place from the government of Massachu- setts, during which the feeble administration of the laws, and the balanced state of parties prevented, we may presume, a judicial inves- tigation of the subject ; and when the jurisdiction of Massachusetts was again restored, Cleeves was probably dead. The Indian troubles soon after commenced, in which Jordan fled never to return ; after that time we hear no more of the controversy, until the resettlement in 1718, when Jordan's grand children revived the claim : it was
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finally adjusted in 1729, by compromise with the town of Falmouth, when Dominicus Jordan released for a grant of 200 acres all title " from himself, his heirs and all and every other Jordan whatsoever" in any land " between the rivers1."
..... Soon after the jurisdiction of Massachusetts was established, the inhabitants of the town undertook to exercise ownership over some part of the lands claimed by Cleeves. Nor was he the only one of the large proprietors who was exposed to injury from the effects of Agrarian law, which the people seemed disposed to adopt. Com- plaints were made to government in 1660 by Cleeves, and large land holders in Saco, John Bonighton, Richard Foxwell and William Phillips, " craving the help of the court for settling their respective interests and possessions in the east parts of this jurisdiction." The general court appointed a committee to repair to Saco, and investi- gate the facts. This committee adjusted the controversy between Phillips and the inhabitants of Saco, and recommended that a division should be made of the Bonighton patent ; they thus close their report : "And as for the complaint of Mr. George Cleeves, when we were at Saco attending the general court's before mentioned order. - His writings and evidences were not present, therefore we can make no certain return thereof, but judge meet, The townsmen of Falmouth be ordered not to dispose of any lands, which are within the boundaries of the patents or grants of the said Mr. George Cleeves until this court take further order therein ;" dated Oct. 25, 16602.
The terms on which Cleeves lived with a part of the inhabitants, may be gathered from a petition, which they sent to the General Court about this time ; it has no date, but internal evidence fixes it - upon this period ; " To the Hon. Gen. Court of the Mass. or whom els it shall or may concern, the humble petition of divers inhabitants and freemen of Falmouth, humbly sheweth,
That whereas there hath been a sad contention in these parts concerning government, Your petitioners most of them living upon their labour, and desirous rather to live in peace and learne to be. obedient and submit to what government it shall please the Lord and our sovereign to appoint over us, than to contend or determine who our governors shall be, yet there hath latelie certaine men appeared
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The Freemen's Petition.
in our names att ye Hon. Gen. Court, and as we are informed, presented a petition which was without our consents or knowledge, -for had ye government been settled and that we could have acted with freedom of spiritt wee would never have dishonoured the Hon. Gen. Court with men of such lives and conversations, as are first George Cleeves, who is upon record for breach of oath and accused of forgery. Mr. Phippen not many days before his departure was beating and drawing of ye blood of his Majesties subjects and stands upon record for slandering ye deputie governor and was always a man of contention and strife since he came in our parts. John Phillips hath acknowledged himself guilty of keeping a woman which is none of his wife this 14 years. These men cam in your names and exercise authoritie over us with many soare threatenings, wherefore our humble request is, That if itt please the Lord to continue us still under your government, you would be pleased to grant us the liberty that other of his Majesties' subjects have, and you by Article grant- ed, yt is freedom to vote for our officers and not such men imposed upon us, and we shall ever pray, &c. Francis Neale, Jane Macworth, widdow, Nath. Wharfe, Robert Sandford, Sampson Penley, Francis Small, Richard Martin, George Felt, Thomas Sandford, John Win- ter, Robert Corbin, James Andrews, Benja. Hatwell, John Cloyes, Edw." (This last name I cannot decypher). Then follows, " There is butt 12 or 13 freemen in our towne according to ye Article of free- men in our submission to ye government, 6 of whom have subscribed hereunto, and 5 voted for governor and other officers, yet there are several who say they are free, butt we know it note, and most of us would have voted if we had had warrants as formerlie, to command us so to doe1."
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In 1664, Cleeves made the following explanation relative to his grants : " Whereas I, George Cleeves, of Falmouth, Gent. have by virtue of a patent granted from Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and also from Alexander Rigby, granted several parcels thereof unto sundry men as per deeds given under my hand appeareth, and the bounds in said deeds are to run from the water side northwest-Now to prevent any mistakes in any of the said bounds, and any future trouble among neighbours, it is therefore hereby declared my intent is and ever was when I granted any of said lands that the bounds should be north-
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History of Portland.
west as direct as may be, excepting the Back Cove grants are to run a little more westerly, to run right up the country to those bounds there, and all other, though expressed northwesterly, accord- ing to sea affairs, yet I meant, and is the true intent, according to the husbandman's account, who knows but eight points of the com- pass, which this northwesterly or northwest is one, and this I do assert to be a truth, as witness my hand this 12th day of April, 1664, by me, George Cleeves1."
:. We will now briefly notice the titles to some of the islands within the limits of ancient Falmouth. The names are Clapboard, Chebeag, Jewell's, Long, Peak's, Green, Bang's, Hog, Cow, House, Marsh, Overset, Mackey's, Ram and Richmond's ?.
We find no early conveyance of the lower Clapboard island, nor are we able to say by whom or how early it was occupied ; it contains about 30 acres and lies about a mile from the shore, near the eastern line of Falmouth ; it was granted by the town to Mrs. Munjoy in 1681, as part compensation of land taken from her on the Neck for the use of the inhabitants3. The upper Clapboard is in Cumberland, and was very early occupied by Thomas Drake and his grantees. There are two islands in the bay called Chebeag, distinguished by the addition Great and Little ; the latter only belongs to our limits, the former is in Cumberland. Great Chebeag contains something over 2000 acres, the other about 180. In the early grants they are not distinguished ; the first conveyance of either of them which we find is from Cleeves to Walter Merry, Sept. 18, 1650 ; this grant is referred to by Danforth in a deed to Edmund
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1Y. Rec. 2The ancient names of some of the islands have been preserved as Clapboard, Chebeag, Jewell's, Long, Hog, Cow and House ; Chebeag was sometimes called Chebaccho and Jewell's Donnell's island, from Henry Donnell, an ancient occupant and owner, who went from York. Mackey's is a corruption of Macworth, and derived its name from its first occupant. Peak's was originally called by the English, Pond island ; Cleeves gave it the name of Michael in 1637 when he conveyed it to Michael Mitton ; after it passed into Munjoy's possession it bore his name; his son in law, Palmer, after the decease of Munjoy, occupied it and gave it his name ; to whom it owes its present appellation, I am unable to say, it is however at least coeval with the name of Palmner. Bangs' island was originally called Portland, it is so namned in Hubbard, as is also the point opposite on which the light house stands ; and the passage between them was called Portland sound ; the island afterward received the name of Andrews' island from James Andrews, who owned that and Ram island lying near it ; for its present name, it is indebted to Joshua Bangs, its modern owner, who came here from Cape Cod, and died in 1761. "So say the depositions of Wallis and Lane, but the statement is doubtful.
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Islands within ancient Falmouth.
White of London, in 1685, in which he recites that " George Cleeves Gent. Deputy President of the Province of Ligonia in New-England by order of Alexander Rigby, Esq. sergeant at law, and one of the Barons of the Exchequer in the kingdom of England did grant unto Walter Merry of Boston, all that small island in Casco bay commonly called Chebeag and now by the name of Merry's island"." Whether this conveyance refers to the large or small island, we cannot precisely ascertain ; it would seem to be Great Chebeag from the fact that President Danforth, in 1682, granted Little Chebeag to Silvanus Davis, which remained in his possession many years. It cannot be supposed that Danforth so soon as three years afterward . would have conveyed the same island to another. July 12, 1680, Dominicus, Samuel and Jeremiah Jordan, sons of Robert Jordan, conveyed to Walter Gendall, 650 acres on Great Chebeag, which his administrator Theodosius Moore, who married Gendall's widow, claimed under a resolve of Massachusetts2. This tract was on the eastern side of the island, where improvements had been made. It had probably been used as a stage for fishermen, for which purpose it was advantageously situated. In 1683, the government of Massa- chusetts granted or confirmed to Richard Wharton, 650 acres on the western side of the island, which his administrator, Ephraim Savage, conveyed to the Deacons of the first church in Boston, for the use of the poor, and which they claimed, calling the island Chebeag, or Recompense island. This latter name, however, it did not retain. In 1743, it was owned by the 1st church in Boston, and Col. . Thomas Westbrook, and in that year Westbrook's half was set off on execution to Samuel and Cornelius Waldo as was Little Chebeag also belonging to Westbrook and Waldo, and derived by them from the legatees of Silvanus Davis.
"The same island by the description of Chebeag or Merry's island was conveyed by Robert Thornton of Canton, in New-Plymouth, to Josiah Willes of Boston, Oct. 8, 1675.
2The Legislature of Massachusetts, on the 7th March 1700, passed a resolve appointing " a committee to receive and examine the claims of all proprietors of lands and of such as challenge propriety, in any of the lands lying within this province to the eastward of the town of Wells, laid waste by the late war." In 1697, an act had been passed for quieting possessions which limited all actions for lands east of the Piscataqua to five years after the termination of the Indian war then pending. In 1715, this provision was extended five years : the additional act provided " that there shall be a further time of five years, from the last of this instant July 1715, allowed all persons to pursue their right and claim, to any houses and lands in those parts and places, and every of them, and no longer." Under these provisions numerous claims were entered for lands between Wells and the Penobscot river.
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Jewell's island was purchased by Henry Donnell of the Indians, and occupied by him as a fishing stage for thirty years, until driven away in the war of 1688, according to the statement of his son Samuel, who claimed it in 1710. Donnell went from York and married a daughter of Thomas Reading, an ancient inhabitant in the bay, who died previous to 1674, leaving a widow and children. Donnell gave his own name to the island, but it has not prevailed in practice ; its first name was probably derived from George Jewell, an early inhabitant of Saco, who was drowned in Boston harbour in . 1638. It was laid out by the new proprietors of Falmouth .to John Tyng, under whom it is now held.
:Long island contains 650 acres, and was early taken up by John Sears, but at what particular time we are unable to determine ; he was an inhabitant of the bay before 1646. In June 1655, Sears · sold this island to Isaac Walker of Boston, who in August 1667, 'conveyed it to Richard Russell of Boston. It was confirmed by Massachusetts in 1683, to James Russell, son of Richard, who conveyed it to John Smith of Boston in 1706. We have lately found it called Smith's island in an old map of Casco bay, published in London, without date, but probably in 1702 or 1703.
We have often had occasion to notice Peak's island ; from its vicinity to the town, and the goodness of its soil and situation, it early attracted attention ; it was conveyed by Cleeves to his son in law Mitton, Dec. 28, 1637, confirmed to him by Thomas Gorges in 1652, and again by Cleeves, as Rigby's agent, in 1650. Mitton's widow transferred it to John Phillips in 1661, by whose son in law Munjoy, and his son in law John Palmer, it was occupied many years, and was said to have been given to Palmer's wife Mary, by her grandfather Phillips. Munjoy erected a stone house upon the island before 1675. This island became the fruitful mother of law suits in modern times, it having been claimed by the posterity of Mitton, and by persons who purchased Phillips' title from the heirs of Munjoy. And it is believed now to be held under both titles by a sort of compromise ; the Brackett branch of the. Mitton family occupying part of it, and the grantees under Phillips the remainder.
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