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 II 1700-1833 > Part 11
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
In 1745, the town and school tax was £310 and the parish tax £316. 14. 6. O. tenor, assessed upon 305 polls. In 1747, £370 O. ten. were raised for town charges ; this was a time when money was at its lowest rate of depreciation. In 1753, when the currency had returned to a sound state, the town tax was £40 and the next
towns with the power of sending representatives ; new towns and parts set off from old ones were therefore called districts.
1 By the valuation act passed in 1736, polls were taxed at 2s. 3d. each, and income one penny on the pound ; an ox was valued at 40s. a cow at 30s. swine 8s. a goat 33.
2 They set forth in their petition " that about three years past, the court had ordered that the waste lands in Falmouth should be taxed, but owing to delay the inhabitants have had no benefit therefrom ; that this present year 1739, they have been at near £2000 charge in building a meeting-house and bridges in said town, and will be obliged to fortify their houses and to pay about £500 more for support of their minister and school-master, if the proprietors of un- improved land are not obliged to help them defray that charge. And in regard that the unimproved lands are defended and bettered by the inhabitants who venture their lives in this time of apprehended danger, and meet with many difficulties in their settlements, and the waste lands make up near 9-10's of the whole township."
.
.
100
Stroudwater Bridge-Taxes. [P. 11.
year only £20.1 These were exclusive of the road tax which was paid in labour.
The inhabitants found Stroudwater bridge a heavy expense to them, to relieve themselves from which they resorted to various ex- pedients. In 1747, they applied unsuccessfully to the court of sessions to make its support a county charge. In 1749, they raised £100 O. T. for repairing it, and the same year petitioned the gener- al court to grant them a toll to maintain it. But this measure not succeeding, they raised a committee to select a place higher up the river for a new bridge, and apply to the court of sessions for leave to build one. They were however still doomed to bear the burden, and as a last resort, they levied a tax of 8d. a day on each vessel that loaded at the bridge.2
The principal money taxes were those for schools, and the sup- port of the ministry ; the highway tax was usually paid in labour upon the roads. The support of the poor had not become so bur- densome as it was after the revolution. The town had not thought it necessary to procure a building for paupers until 1761, when they appropriated £106 to buy a house and adjoining land of Ebenezer Mayo, which was afterward used for a work-house.3 The highest school tax before the revolution, was £300 raised in 1773, it had for several years fluctuated between 100 and £250-the tax for town charges the same year was £123 ;4 the highest parish tax was in 1774 £375. 11. 2. excluding the year 1749, when although nom-
1 Of a Province tax assessed on 11 towns in Maine in 1743, of £52. 17. 01. Falmouth's proportion was £7. 13. 10. paying the highest tax but two, Kittery and York being before it. In 1761, of a provincial tax of £1000, Maine's pro- portion was £74. 6. 4 3-4, Falmouth then paid the highest tax, being £13. 16. 2 1-4-the next highest was Kittery, whose tax was £9. 10. 8 3-4. 2 Will. 357.
2 In 1757, a lottery was granted by Massachusetts to raise £1200 for the purpose of building a bridge over the Presumpscot at the lower falls, and another over the Saco at Biddeford. The sum was raised and the bridges built.
5In 1755, a large number of Acadians were carried from Nova Scotia and landed in different colonies with a view to prevent the continual out-breaking of that people against the English arms ; more than 1000 persons were brought to Massachusetts in an utterly destitute condition ; these were distributed to different towns to be supported. Falmouth had a number of them for whose support in one year government allowed £141.
4 The same year men were allowed 4s. a day on the roads, and 3s. for a pair of oxen. The whole valuation of property on the Neck, and the families at Back Cove was £9408. 16. 0. The highest valuation on the Neck in 1772, was Brig. Preble's, £3311. 8. ; the next E. Ilsley's, £300, B. Titcomb's £187, J. Waite £171, J. Butler £136.
101 .
Currency.
C. 6.]
inally higher, in consequence of the depreciation of the paper medi- um, being £511. 13. 9. it was really not more than an eight part of that sum.
As we have occasion to speak so often of the currency of the ante revolutionary period, it may not be improper in this connection to give a brief view of the introduction and fluctuation of paper money in the colony. - The first emission of paper in Massachusetts was made in 1690, to pay the expenses of an unfortunate expedition against Canada.1 . The facility of raising money in this manner made it popular with the government, who frequently resorted to it in cases of emergency, in preference to the slower method of taking it direct- ly from the pockets of the people. The people also preferred it, because it saved them from direct taxation. The system repeatedly produced great embarrassments to trade and ruinous effects upon all the interests of the community, by the fluctuation in the value of the paper, which was always considerably depreciated. Different expe- dients were resorted to at different periods to counteract the burthen- some effects of the depreciation, but with only temporary success ; the paper was never the representative of gold and silver. The currency successively bore the names, as new emissions were made, of old tenor, middle tenor, new tenor first and new tenor second. In 1748, old tenor was worth only 25 per cent. of new tenor, and at that time the provincial debt was about £2,450,000 old tenor, equal to about $1,000,000 in silver. The amount had been vastly in- creased by the expedition to Cape Breton, to meet the expenses of which, bills to an amount exceeding £2,000,000 old tenor had been issued. At the commencement of the expedition, the depreciation was about five to one ; that is, it required an issue of £500 in paper to pay £100 in silver. But at the termination of the war, the large amount of bills issued had so much reduced the value, that it required £1100 in paper to purchase £100 in silver.
The following table will exhibit at a single view the depreciation of the bills at successive periods during the existence of the paper- system as compared with exchange on London and the price of silver;
1 The form of the bills first issued was as follows : " This indented bill of -, due from the Massachusetts colony to the possessor, shall be in value - equal to money ; and shall be accordingly accepted by the Treasurer and the Receivers subordinate to him in all public payments and for any stock at any time in the Treasury. Boston, in New-England, February 3d 1690. By order of the General Court."
13
102
Currency.
[P. II.
to which is added the daily pay of the representatives, and the amount of the province tax at different periods.
Years. Exc. on London.
One oz. of silver.
1702,
133
6s. 10d.
Daily pay of Rep. 3s.
£6,000
1705,
135
7s.
1713,
150
8s.
1716,
175
9s. 3d.
1717,
225
12s.
1722,
270
14s.
4s.
£6,000
1728,
340
18s.
1730,
380
20s.
6s.
£8,000
1737,
500
26s.
1741,
550
28s.
10s.
£39,000
1749,
1100
60s.
30s.
1
By this table it will be perceived that £133 in New-England cur- rency, which was worth £100 sterling, the par value in 1702, had so much depreciated in 1749, that £100 sterling could not be pur- chased short of £1100 of the paper.
In 1748, the English government appropriated £183,649 sterling to defray the expense of the Cape Breton expedition incurred by Mas- sachusetts, and in December of that year the provincial government passed an act to apply this fund to the redemption of the bills of credit, over £2,000,000 of which it would redeem at their depreci- ated rate. This judicious law took effect April 1st, 1750. The amount paid by the English government was remitted in silver to enable the province to carry into effect its just design.2 By the act . there was paid from the treasury, one Spanish milled dollar for every 45 shillings of old tenor bills, and the same sum for every 11s. 3d. in bills of the new or middle tenor. All debts contracted after that time, were to be paid in coined silver. This sudden change in the currency of the country produced at first, as might have been ex-
1 Doug. Sum. In 1743, the province tax was £60,000, in 1745, it was £120,000, in 1747. £168,324, in 1748, £381,672, the nominal amount having been swelled up by the rapid fall of the currency ; silver had been driven out of circulation by the immense issues of paper.
2 April 2, 1750. This day the province treasury is open and silver is given out for our province bills, which now cease to pass. This is the most remark- able epoch of this province. Its affairs are now brought to a crisis." Smith's Jour:
-
Prov. tar.
103
C. 6.] Currency.
pected, great embarrassment. The immediate consequence was a serious deficiency in the circulating medium, and an advance in price of all the articles of necessity as well as of traffic. Our minister, Mr. Smith, was in Boston in June after the law went into operation, and makes the following remarks on the subject. " 'Tis a time of great perplexity and distress here, on account of the sinking of the paper currency. There is a terrible clamor, and things are opening for the extremest confusion and difficulties. The merchants, shop- keepers and others in Boston, having for some years past got money easily and plentifully by the abundance of that fraudulent and iniqui- tous currency, and abandoned themselves to the utmost extravagance and luxury in all their way of living, are now in a sad toss and make outrageous complaints at the stop put to it by the late act." The true cause of the difficulty however, although extravagance and luxu- ry may have inflamed the evil, was an actual deficiency in the circu- lation, for commercial and other purposes ; and it was sometime before the new medium could wear for itself an appropriate channel. The poorer classes from a wrong estimate of the value of silver, sup- posed that the rich had hoarded it up, and riots took place in Bos- ton and other towns in consequence of the real and imaginary evils which had been conjured up. But these, at length, all yielded to the steady and salutary progress of a sound currency, which like the light and dew of heaven, diffused its blessings alike on rich and poor; and in a few months the people came to entertain an unconquerable aversion to paper. So great a change after this time took place in the monetary system of Massachusetts, and gold and silver had so much increased in it by the wise policy of the government in rela- tion to paper money, that it obtained the name of the silver money colony.1
While population, as we have noticed, was making rapid progress in town, its wealth and business increased, and its resources were constantly developing. The construction of their buildings created at the commencement of the settlement an urgent demand for lumber, the manufacture of which soon gave employment to a large number of people. At what precise time, or in what place the first mill was built, we cannot ascertain. The earliest record we find in relation to this subject is in May 1720, when the town voted " that every
1 3 Hutch. 350.
104
Saw Mills. [P. II.
saw mill already erected, and that shall hereafter be erected, shall pay 6d. per M. for each thousand sawed in said mills for three years next ensuing." We believe the first mill to have been at Capisic, and are confident that after the destruction of the town in 1690, none had been built on the Presumpscot previous to this time. The width of that river in our neighbourhood, rendered the expense of a dam upon it, too serious an undertaking for our settlers. Much was not done in this branch of business until after the peace of 1726, proba- , bly nothing more than to supply the immediate uses of the people. After that event, the influx of speculators and settlers gave increased animation to the trade. In 1727, Mr. Smith says " a saw mill was built, and several of the inhabitants begun to get logs ;" the mill re- ferred to by him was no doubt at Capisic, he speaks of it as " the old saw mill that was Ingersoll's .? '
In June 1728, the privilege of Long Creek was granted "to Sam- uel Cobb, Wm. Rogers, Francis Hull and John Owen, to build a saw mill on," and at the same time Muscle Cove Stream was grant- ed to Benjamin Blackstone for the same purpose. It was also voted " that Samuel Proctor, John Perry and Simon Armstrong have the privilege, if they can find one unappropriated, to build a mill on -within 18 months, fit for service, to pay the usual custom for sawing to the town, and to saw for any persons that bring timber for their own houses and buildings, to the halves." The stream called Bar- berry Creek at Purpooduck, was granted to Joshua Moody and John Brown for the same purposes and on the same conditions. On the 9th of July in the same year, the north west branch of the Piscata- quis, a small stream emptying into the Presumpscot, was granted to Major Samuel Moody for a saw mill instead of the one granted to him in 1720, and January 2, 1729, the falls on the east branch of the Piscataquis, were voted to Jeremiah Riggs, John East and Hen- ry Wheeler. It was not until December 2, 1729, that the falls at Saccarappa, now the most valuable in our vicinity, were disposed of; they were then granted to Benjamin Ingersoll, John Bailey, Benja- min Larrabee jr. and company, for the purposes for which they have ever since been improved. In 1732, Col. Westbrook, the Moody's, Henry Wheeler, Phineas Jones, Moses Pearson and others, erected a saw mill on the northwest branch of the Piscataquis ; and finally
.
-----
-
----
C. 6.]
Bread Stuffs Imported. 105
in 1735, Westbrook, Samuel Waldo and others built a dam and mill on the lower falls of the Presumpscot.
All the privileges of sufficient consequence to attract attention or to be used profitably, appear now to have been improved. This branch of business, whose increase was astonishingly rapid, contri- buted essentially to advance the growth and prosperity of the town. In 1752, there were ten saw and grist mills in the limits of the first parish, and in 1754, there were six saw mills and ten additional saws in operation within the same precinct. The demand soon extended beyond the supply of the immediate wants of the settlers, and lun- ber became an important article of exportation. In January 1765, Mr. Smith remarks, " the ships loading here are a wonderful benefit to us. They take off vast quantities of timber, masts, oar rafters, · boards, &c." But many years before this the exportation of lumber was one of the principal sources of the prosperity of the town. In fact so entirely engrossed was the attention of our inhabitants in pro- curing timber and lumber, and in building vessels, that the cultiva- tion of the land was neglected and the people were compelled to procure by commerce articles of the first necessity. The lumber business particularly, by its more ready command of money, held out irresistible temptation to the people to engage in that pursuit, which, while it produced more sudden prosperity, was yet hostile to the agricultural interests of the territory, on which are laid the broad and deep foundations of wealth and happiness.
In consequence of this dependence upon commerce for the supply of their most common wants, the inhabitants were often reduced to distress by the failure of the usual supply.1 Indeed so great was the
' Mr. Smith's Journal furnishes us ample evidence of the suffering often produced by the deficiency of bread stuffs.
" 1737, March 5. It is a melancholy time in regard to the scarcity of corn, some have had none for several weeks. April 21. All the talk is no corn, no hay, and there is not a peck of potatoes to eat in all the eastern country.
1741, Jan. 10. There has been for some time a melancholy scarcity of corn. May 14, Mr. Jones came in with 900 bushels of Corn. Mr. Jones sells his corn at 15s. a bushel. People groan terribly at the price.
1758, Feb. It is now a time of dismal scarcity for bread.
1763, March 1. To-day in God's gracious providence, we were relieved by the coming in of Mayhew's schooner from Connecticut, with 1000 bushels of Indian corn. People were reduced to the last and extremest distress; scarce a bushel of corn in the whole eastern country.
1772, Oct. 3. There is a famine of bread in town, no indian and no flour ; no pork in town or country. 1775, Jan. 2, there is a great scarcity of corn in this part of the country."
-
-
106
Grist Mills. [P. II
scarcity at times, that instances occurred, where the cobs from which the corn had been taken, were ground for bread. The coasting trade was nourished by this course of business, and a number of ves- sels were constantly employed in the importation of corn, sometimes procured directly from the south, at others from intermediate ports, by the exchange of our fish and lumber.1 .
The principal article of bread stuff imported in the early days of the settlement, was corn, which rendered the construction of grist mills necessary ; but little wheat seems to have been used. In 1722, the stream which empties into Lawrence's cove in Cape- Elizabeth, was granted to a company to erect a corn mill upon, and the town's right in a 100 acres of land there, was given them to en- courage the undertaking. But the project did not succeed, and the people were under the necessity of carrying their corn to Biddeford to be ground.2 In 1727, Mr. Sawyer who came here from Cape- Ann, erected a mill at Capisic, which was very successful. In 1729, James Winslow built another on Fall-brook at Back Cove, and the town established the toll at two quarts in a bushel.3 There was also a grist mill at Lawrence's cove in 1733. In 1748, it appears from Mr. Smith's Journal that there was but one corn mill in town in operation at that time, and this was owned by Mr. Conant at Sacca- rappa ; there was then no other between Saco and North-Yarmouth. 4 Soon after this, a wind-mill was erected on the corner of School and Congress-streets, where Mr. Hussey's house now stands, which con- tinued through the revolutionary war. After the war, another was
1 " 1737. Mr. Goodwin came in with 300 bushels of corn. 1763, March 23, to-day came in a sloop from Boston with 3000 bushels of corn. March 24, a schooner came in from Cape-Ann with 1600 bushels. 25, Capt. Gooding got in with 2300 bushels more. 1765, Feb. 25. A vessel from Newbury brought in 500 bushels of corn, and Dyer of Purpooduck 1000. March 4, one Davis brought from Boston 1000 bushels of corn ; and neighbor Mayo and Lt. Thomes 1000 more. 14. Jeremiah Pote came in from North-Carolina, and brought 2900 bushels of corn. 1766. March 20. Harper came in with 3000 bushels of corn."-Sm. Jour. These are only occasional notices made in seasons of scarcity.
2 In the early history of Portsmouth, the inhabitants carried their corn to Boston for the same purpose.
3 This stream has become nearly dry and wholly incapable of turning a mill, in consequence of the clearing up of the country. It has not been occupied for many years as a mill site.
4 " 1748, Feb. 27. Mr. Conant tells me he has ground 1000 bushels of corn this winter, there being no other mill than his between North-Yarmouth and Saco."-Sm. Jour.
107
Trade.
C. 6.]
built on a rocky hill in Free-street, now occupied by a double brick house ; this was moved about 30 years ago across Back Cove, on the ice, and placed on the rising ground near Fall-brook. In 1754, there were in the first parish two grist mills and one wind-mill. In later times the inhabitants have been accommodated by mills at Law- rence's Cove, Capisic, Saccarappa and Stroudwater.
The favourable situation of the town for commercial operations, early rendered it a place of considerable trade.1 Coasting and fish- ing at first employed a few small vessels, and cord wood, fish and lumber were transported to the western and southern ports. Large quantities of wood cut in town, and some of it upon the Neck as late as the revolution, were sent to Boston, the vessels frequently going round Back Cove and up the creek which empties into it to receive their cargoes. Ship building soon came to be a very important aux- iliary and a lucrative branch of business." The ancestors of many of our present men of property laid the foundation of their fortunes in this profitable pursuit. The first ship yard in town was on the -cove east of King-street, which has continued to be occupied for the same purpose to the present time ; there was another near the foot of King-street, and another between Titcomb's wharf and clay cove. James Gooding who came from Boston, was among the earliest ship builders in town ; it is said that he was concerned in building the first ship ever launched here. He followed the occupation more than a half a century, and instructed many active and intelligent young men in the same business.3
1 " April 9, 1726. Twenty-six vessels now in the harbour. Sept 17. Capt. Langdon came in with a large ship. This month we always have a great number of fishermen in here. 1727, Sept. 10. About 30 vessels before the door for several days. (Mr. Smith then lived at the foot of King-street. ) 1732, Sept. 24. There are 12 coasting sloops, beside some schooners, that all lie close before the door."-Sm. Jour.
2 1728. One Reddin came here to build a ship. Aug. 9. A sloop built be- fore my door was launched to day. In 1737, a mast ship was built here. Sm. Jour.
3 He lived in a story and a half house, which he early built in King-street, which stood on the spot now occupied by a three story house, built by his grandson, Major Lemuel Weeks, in 1804. He married the widow of Henry Wheeler for his second wife in 1753. He was born in 1696, and died at the house of his grand-daughter, Mrs. Bryant, in Congress-street in 1780. He had always enjoyed excellent health, having never been sick until a few days before his death, and never lost a tooth. He had a son James who died in 1793, and several daughters. Two of his apprentices were Deacon James Milk and Samuel Cobb.
108
Trade. [P. II.
A few years after the commencement of the settlement, the Eng- lish government turned its attention to this place as a central situation for procuring masts for the royal navy. This brought a number of large ships here annually until the revolution, and became a business of great importance to the town, furnishing a ready market for timber and encouragement to ship building. Col. Westbrook, who was the agent appointed by government for procuring the masts, came here from Portsmouth in the spring of 1727, from which place the busi- ness had been transferred to Falmouth the winter previous. The first ship of this kind was loaded here in May 1727.1
The masts were brought down Fore and Presumpscot rivers, and together with spars were prepared upon the banks, and the ships sometimes went above Clark's point to take them in. There was a mast-house on the bank of the river a little below Vaughan's bridge, where the business was pursued, until the revolution. The govern- ment of England kept in the colony a surveyor general of the woods under a large salary, whose duty it was to prevent depredations, and to select and mark trees suitable for the navy. All persons were forbidden to cut down the marked trees without a license, under a heavy penalty imposed by a statute passed in 1722. The govern- ment paid a premium of £1 a ton on masts, yards and bowsprits, and the commissioners of the navy had a right of pre-emption for these articles twenty days after they were landed in England. By the usual contract, the mast was not to exceed 36 inches in diameter at the butt, and as many yards in length as there were inches in its diameter at that end.
The ships for the transportation of this species of merchandise, were constructed particularly for the purpose ; they were about 400 tons burthen, were navigated by about 25 men, and carried from 45
1 The New-Eng. Weekly Journal May 8, 1727, printed at Boston, observes: " We have an account that the mast business, which has for some time been so much the benefit of the neighbor province of New-Hampshire, is removed farther eastward, where it has been carried on the last winter with such suc- cess as could hardly have been expected, considering the very little seasonable weather for it. Capt. Farles, in one of the mast ships, now lies in Casco Bay, who, we hear, is not a little pleased with the peculiar commodiousness of that fine harbour to carry on the said business. And as this must tend very much to encourage the settlements of those parts of the country, especially the flour- ishing bay that will be the centre of it ; so there is no reason to fear but that our government will, in their wisdom, look upon it very much to their interest to protect and encourage it."
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.