USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Sheepscot > The history of ancient Sheepscot and Newcastle [Me.] including early Pemaquid, Damariscotta, and other contiguous places, from the earliest discovery to the present time, together with the genealogy of more than four hundred families; > Part 2
USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Newcastle > The history of ancient Sheepscot and Newcastle [Me.] including early Pemaquid, Damariscotta, and other contiguous places, from the earliest discovery to the present time, together with the genealogy of more than four hundred families; > Part 2
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June 2, 1621, Mr. John Pierce,* a citizen of London, obtained a Patent from the Council of Plymouth to come and settle in New England. He came and settled at Broad Bay and there his posterity continued more than a hundred years. This was the most ancient grant thereabouts ; and it is said Mr. Pierce's house was not burnt in the time of the general massacre, because he was friendly to the Indians.
* Samuel Well's certificate made in 1780.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY PEMAQUID.
ABOUT four miles to the Northeast of Pemaquid Light House, there is a beautiful sheet of water which makes in from the ocean, and is perfectly safe for vessels of small size from all winds, except those which come from a south- easterly direction. This body of water was called by the early inhabitants, New Harbor. It now retains that name. Sometime previous to the year 1625, an Englishman by the name of John Brown, came and settled there. He, with his family, continued to reside there till the breaking out of the first Indian war in 1675, when they were driven off; and with the rest of the inhabitants, sustained the loss of dwellings, cattle, sheep, hogs, and whatever other personal property they had been able to accumulate. John Brown lived the rest of his years with his son John, in Boston, and died there ;* but his wife, marrying again, returned to New Harbor, where she built a house, and lived several years, after Indian hostilities had ceased.+
In the year 1625, Brown bought of Captain John Som- erset and Unongoit, Indian Sagamores, the following ex- tensive and fertile tract of country, as by deed described : "Beginning at Pemaquid Falls, and running a direct course to New Harbor ; from thence to the South end of Muscon- gus Island, taking in the island, and so running twenty-five
* Benjamin Prescott, Deposition.
+ Ruth Barnaby, Deposition.
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EARLY PEMAQUID.
miles into the country North and by East; and thence eight miles North and by West; and thence turning and running South and by West to Pemaquid, where first begun.'
This deed was dated July 15, 1625, only five years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth ; and it was ac- knowledged, as appears on the back of it, by Somerset and Unongoit, July 24, 1626, before Abraham Shurt, Justice of the Peace, at Pemaquid. It likewise has this further indorsement, made nearly one hundred years after. "Charleston, Dec. 26, 1720. Received, and at the request and instance of James Stilson and his sister, Margaret Hilton ; they being the claimers and heirs of said lands, accordingly entered by Samuel Phipps, one of the Clerks of the Committee of Eastern lands." And an attested copy of it was recorded in York County Registry, Aug. 3, 1739; and in authenticity of this deed, is the deposition of Simon Frost of Kittery, in this District, formerly Dep- uty Secretary of the Province under Josiah Willard, Esq., in which he testified that when he was in the office, he drew from one of the books in the office, called the Book of Records, the aforementioned deed, which was then fairly recorded, and of which the deed aforesaid was a true copy ; and that when the Court House in Boston was burnt, about 1748, he had reason to believe that the Book of Records was consumed by fire ; for he had searched for it, but could never find it afterwards.
And in accordance with this, is the testimony of John Pearce of Marblehead, taken at Essex, Nov. 20, 1764, when he was past 70 years of age, in which he says, that about fifty years before, he was well acquainted in the Eastern parts of the Province, his father, Richard Pearce, having lived at a place called Muscongus. He says he knew the Gould family, was well acquainted with John Brown, son of old John Brown of New Harbor who owned a large tract of land there, as he understood, by deed
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EARLY PEMAQUID.
from the Indians, which deed Pearce himself had seen. And he goes on to state : "I never heard any person what- ever claim any of said land but Brown whose title, in that day, was always esteemed good ; and when the wars with the Indians broke out, I took a vessel and thirty men, and brought my father's family away from thence. I always understood that the Indian deed aforementioned, con- veved all the lands at New Harbor and Broad Bay, that Gould and Brown claimed ; and about forty years ago, I assisted at the survey of those lands, the lines being run according to the deed given by the Sagamores to Brown, and I remember that the tract was twenty-five miles long, but its breadth I have forgotten."
In opposition to these statements, is the testimony of John Brown, son of the grantee, who says that his father had a lease of his plantation from Elbridge and Aldsworth ; and also of Benjamin Prescott, taken at Salem, Jan. 28, 1765, in which he declares that he had never, till very lately, heard of the claim of Margaret Hilton and knew of no foundation for it. Here was the origin of years of perplexity, months of toil, lawsuits, strifes and quarrels which lasted nearly two centuries afterwards.
John Brown had one son and two daughters. His son, named John, lived, according to his own testimony, with his father till he was about thirty years of age ; and then it appears, that he went and built on the point of land next Southerly from Damariscotta Bridge, and not far from Metcalf & Norris' shipyard. According to the Deposition of John Pearce of Manchester, he lived on the Eastern side of the Damariscotta river, near the Salt Water Falls, and there possessed a large tract of land tending down- ward from thence toward Pemaquid, to the smelt brook, it being about two miles ; and so back to Pemaquid Fresh River. He also says he mowed two meadows adjoining, for him. These boundaries are easily traced ; but how far North his dominions extended, we are not informed ; but
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EARLY PEMAQUID.
it is probable that they reached to Robert Scott's line, who lived directly across the river from the Oyster Banks, and about a mile to the North of Brown.
One of Brown's daughters, Margaret, married Sander or Alexander Gould who lived at Broad Cove, in Bremen ; probably at the upper end of it, where is a very good mill privilege, and where mills were afterwards built.
On the eighth of August, 1660, John Brown executed the following deed in favor of Sander and Margaret Gould. "To all people to whom this deed may come. Know ye that I, John Brown of New Harbor, have given to Sander Gould and Margaret, his now lawful wife, and to the heirs of her body, a certain tract or parcell of land, lying in the Broad Bay, beginning at a pine tree marked in the west- ernmost part of the Bay ; from thence North, Northeast by Museongus River eight miles ; from thence eight miles Northwest and by West ; from thence South, Southwest eight miles ; from thence South and by East eight miles, to the tree where first began." This tract "lyeth four- square," and was a fine little farm truly ! What would the original claimants say if they couldl come back and see their little farm cut up into small patches, the innnense forests cleared away, dotted thickly with dwellings and filled with families ! They might learn, at least, that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance which he pos- sesseth."
Richard Pierce or Pearce married the other daughter of Brown, and lived at Muscongus. Thus, this fine tract of country which Brown bought of the Sagamores, whose boundaries were somewhat elastic and tended to enlarge- ment, was divided amongst his family, in the following manner. Brown himself kept and improved the Southern portion ; Richard Pierce took a parcel more central, and directly North of his, making Muscongus his home; his son, John, took a portion directly West of Pierce and lying between Biscay Bay and Damariscotta river ; while
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EARLY PEMAQUID.
Margaret had the "eight mile square" tract, directly North of the whole. This was probably intended to comprise the whole of the original grant. It embraced what is now Bristol, Bremen, Damariscotta, Nobleboro, and parts of Newcastle, Jefferson and Waldoboro. All this fine tract of country was bought for "fifty skins"-beaver skins.
Sander Gould had three daughters, Margaret, Mary and Elizabeth. William Stilson married Margaret and resided on the premises till killed by the Indians .* Their children, James and Margaret, survived ; and in the next century laid claim to these lands. Margaret married William Hil- ton who was shot by the In lians and afterwards died of his wounds. John Brown, senior, was the great-grand- father of Margaret, his wife; and he was the ancestor of all the Hiltons that have resided in Bremen and vicinity since.
The "pine tree" mentioned in the deed given by Brown to Gould, as marked on four sides, was standing in 1763, when James Noble of Boston, and William Vaughn, claimants under the Brown right, through the Gould fam- ily, caused the "eight mile traet" to "be run out." Jonas Jones* of Georgetown, surveyor, in his deposition before William Lithgow and John Stinson, Commissioners, taken June 5, 1765, testifies that he was acquainted at Broad Bay and knew William Hilton, who lived there, and heard him say, that he was one of the heirs of the "eight mile tract" and improved a portion of it, and in 1760, he was em- ploved by James Noble to "run out" this tract, a part of which included Hilton's improvements ; and the survey was by the order of the other heirs with Noble. The courses were run, as by deed given from Brown to Sander Gould in 1660. The survey included the sawmill built by Capt. Cooke on the Eastern side of Damariscotta Fresh Pond. William Hilton had lived there many years, and
* John Pearce's testimony.
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EARLY PEMAQUID.
had made good improvement ; and his widow said he was wounded by the Indians and afterwards died ; and the son stated that a brother of his was killed, at the same time, on the premises.
David Terry# who was one of the chainmen in this sur- vey, testified that they set out from a point near Arthur Noble's, Esq., not far from the falls and where the saw mills then stood, and run towards Broad Cove, and com- pleted the survey of the eight mile tract. The pine tree was made one of the corners.
As stated above, John Brown, the Englishman who took the deed from the Indians of the twenty-five mile tract, died about the time of the first Indian war ; but his wife, marrying again, after these troubles were ended, returned and dwelt at New Harbor. Her son John appears to have come back also; but on the breaking out of King Wil- liam's war in 1688, savage violence was raised to such a pitch that it could not be resisted. It rushed upon the English settlements like a tornado. Houses were burned ; fields laid waste ; inhabitants murdered ; and the remnant that survived, were obliged to flee at the peril of their lives, to other parts for protection and food. Many of them never returned. The land lay desolate for thirty years.
John Brown, the son, who had formerly lived near Dam- ariscotta Lower Falls, fled with the rest, and went to Framingham, where, it would seem, he spent the remainder of his days. And in his old age, Dec. 10, 1720, he caused to be executed "to my dutiful, well-beloved and only son John Brown of Saco" and his heirs a deed conveying "all my rights, title, interest, property, elaim and demand what- soever, in and unto all these my lands, lying and being sit- nated in New Harbor, Damariscotta and Sheepscot, either in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England
* Commissioners' Report, 1811.
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THE PLYMOUTH COUNCIL.
or Annapolis Royall, --- To have and to hold the said par- cels of land, howsoever bounded or reputed to be bounded, in a good, sure and perfect estate of inheritance forever." The deed was properly witnessed and executed, his wife Elizabeth "consenting thereunto, in the year 1720 and in the seventh year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George of Great Britain and King."
These transactions were of vital importance, and had a bearing upon the destinies of families and communities for a long series of years afterwards. We design to trace this matter only incidentally, and as it unfolds and elucidates the subject before us; and indeed the history of this sec- tion of the country cannot be written without an under- standing of these Land Titles, Deeds, Claims, Claimants and their proceedings.
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CHAPTER II.
THE PLYMOUTH COUNCIL; ALDSWORTH AND ELBRIDGE.
Ox the 20th of February, 1631, six years after the date of Brown's deed from Unongoit and Somerset, the follow- ing transaction took place in England. A Patent or rather Indenture, between the President and Council of New England on the one hand, and Robert Aldsworth and Giles Elbridge of Bristol, England, on the other, was solemnly executed, by which it was arranged, that these two gentle- men should undertake and transport "divers persons" into New England, and there to erect and build a town and settle inhabitants. The said President and Council granted
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THE PLYMOUTH COUNCIL.
and assigned unto the said Aldsworth and Elbridge, their heirs and assigns forever, one hundred acres of land for every person by them transported, within the space of seven years next ensuing, "that shall abide and continue there three years" after they are transported. And the said Aldsworth and Elbridge were to have 12,000 acres of land "over and above such settlers' lots," to be taken and laid out near the Pemaquid river, and next adjoining the place where the people and servants of these two Agents are now settled, or have inhabited for the three years that are last past, "to be taken together along the sea coast, as the coast lieth, and so up the river as far as may contain the 12,000 acres, with all the islands and islets within the limits next adjoining the said land, three leagues into the ocean." And it was further agreed "that upon lawful in- formation given of the bounds, metes and quantity of land so chosen and possessed, the President and Council upon surrender of this present grant and upon reasonable request by Aldsworth and Elbridge, their heirs and assigns, within seven years now next ensuing, shall and will by deeds indented, grant, enfeoff and confirm, all and every of the said lands set out and bounded as aforesaid to the said Robert Aldsworth and Giles Elbridge." And it was further covenanted that these two men, their heirs and assigns, "shall not at any time hereafter, alien these prem- ises or any part thereof, to any foreign nation, or to any person or persons whatsoever, without the license, consent and agreement of the President and Council, and their successors and assigns, except it be to their own tenants or undertakers, belonging to the town by them erected, upon pain of forfeiture of said lands so aliened, to the use of the said President and Council again."
The same Indenture also constituted Capt. Walter Neale and Richard Vines the attorneys of this President and his Council, to enter the premises and deliver posses- sion thereof; and there appears the following memoran-
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THIE PLYMOUTH COUNCIL.
dum endorsed thereon. "The possession of all the lands contained in this patent, was delivered by me, Walter Neale, to Abraham Shurt, to the use of Robert Aldsworth and Giles Elbridge, merchants of the City of Bristol this 27th of May, 1633. WALTER NEALE."
The Patent appears to have been duly recorded in the York Registry, April 2, 1737. It also appeared by the deposition of Abraham Shurt, not signed, but taken and sworn to before Richard Russell, Magistrate, Dec. 25, 1662, that in 1629, two years before the Patent was dated, Walter Neale gave him possession of the lands under that Patent ; and that he bounded the 12,000 acres therein, "from the head of Damariscotta to the head of the river Muscongus, and between it, to the sea." And that some years afterwards, Elbridge to whom the Patent belonged, "coming to Pemaquid, held a court there, to which the inhabitants repaired, and continued their fishing, by pay- ing a certain acknowledgement."
Now, it is to be particularly noticed, that this patent covered precisely the same ground-the islands of the sea only excepted-that John Brown had purchased of the Indians, six years before ; and, by some means or other, was made to swell its boundaries to the West, so as to include Newcastle as far as Coressix, Mill river. In other directions, it spread itself, so that it contained not only twelve, but some seventy or eighty thousand acres. It covered other deeds and other grants ; so, that deed embraced deed, grant lapped over on to grant, and lines, metes and boundaries cut and crossed each other in many directions.
Hence the origin and nature of the contests which were waged among the descendants, respecting claims, and which were not settled till near two hundred years after- wards.
And we, at this late day, looking back on the transac- tions, may with propriety ask, Whose was the right of sale ?
ยท
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THE PLYMOUTH COUNCIL.
the Indian who was born and bred on the soil and whose fathers had inherited it from time immemorial, no man forbidding him, and no one questioning his right, or a com- pany of gentlemen belonging to a foreign nation, three thousand miles off, and speaking a different language, neither whose ancestors nor themselves had ever taken a title deed or tendered a single dollar for it, perhaps never had seen it? Who, I ask again, had the best right of sale, the Indian or the Englishman? And whose title, in the nature of things, is the clearest ? Brown, who bought of the Sagamores, or Aldsworth and Elbridge who came with a patent from Old Plymouth, England ? Let not the law of nations and of convenience, nor the love of gain, answer ; but let truth and right decide the question.
It does not appear that these gentlemen, Aldsworth and Elbridge, ever introduced any settlers as occupants of this soil, or built a town. And Aldsworth, dying not long after the patent was issued, and leaving no children, the patent fell into the hands and was held by Elbridge. In process of time he died. His eldest son, John, according to the law of primogeniture, became the sole heir of this immense estate. He, dying without issue, devised it by will to his brother Thomas.
In Feb. 1st, 1651, Thomas conveyed one-half of the whole patent to Paul White; and in April, 1653, Paul White conveyed this moiety to Richard Russel and Nicholas Davidson, and in July, 1657, Russel sold his quarter to Davidson ; and on the 3rd of September, 1657, Thomas Elbridge conveyed his other half of the patent to Nicholas Davidson, so that Davidson became the owner of the entire estate .*
Davidson's home was in Charlestown, Mass, where he had a wife and two children, one son and one daughter. He himself followed the sea for a living ; and being bonnd
* Commissioners' Report, 1811.
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THE PLYMOUTH COUNCIL.
on a voyage to the island of Barbadoes, and "from thence to England, Ireland, or to any other port or place, or hither to New England again," and knowing not what dis- posal a wise Providence might make of him in "those voy- ages and undertakings," on the 26th of March, 1655, he devised and executed the following will. "After my debts are paid out of my estate, the remainder I bequeath as followeth :- One-third part to my loving wife Joan David- son ; one-third part to my son, Daniel Davidson ; and one- third part to my daughter, Sarah Davidson." The ship he sailed in was called the "Trader's Increase," Chris- topher Clark, Master. In his will, he styles himself, Mar- iner. Whether he ever returned from this voyage, does not appear ; but he had a daughter, Catharine, born after this voyage was commenced, who, at a proper age, married Shem Drowne, a tin plate worker in Boston. This man, in behalf of the other heirs of Davidson, in 1735, more than a hundred years after the Pemaquid Patent was issued, laid claim to all the lands embraced in that Patent. He came into the country ; caused surveys to be made ; and performed other necessary business; but it was proved that instead of confining himself to 12,000 acres, as stated in the Patent, he actually surveyed, and attempted to hold 70,000 or 80,000 acres. He included all that Aldsworth and Elbridge had appropriated to themselves, under it.
The power of Attorney was given to Drowne, by the rest of the claimants, Sept. 3, 1735 ; being the . ninth year of the reign of the Second George. In 1736 or 1737, he came to Pemaquid, with Alexander Erskine, and was introduced to the settlers and began to make surveys. He brought a quantity of stores with him which Erskine had the care of. Drowne* took lodgings at the fort ; and being accompanied by Erskine, visited, by boat, the inhabitants
Alexander Erskine's testimony.
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THE PLYMOUTH COUNCIL.
there. He also employed John North, Lieutenant Patrick Rogers, George Caldwell, Robert Paul, Nathaniel Bull, Jun., John Forbush, to whom he allowed, as wages, thirty shillings a day, old tenor. They went from Medomak Falls round Pemaquid Point, and up the Damariscotta river, near the Falls, and settled eight or nine families, some of which were new comers there. He allowed the families farms of one hundred acres each ; and accom- modated the old inhabitants with improved lands, as far as they held out. He also gave other lands to all the inhabitants that he found there settled, under Col. Dunbar, that chose to tarry. These farms soon became of consid- erable value.
Drowne, at that time, was offered one thousand pounds, old tenor," for a piece of land adjoining Pemaquid Falls, but he refused, telling the person who offered it, that the fishery there, should be free for all the inhabitants ; thus effectually checking this man's grasping desire to appro- priate this source of wealth wholly to himself.
The people generally were satisfied with Drowne's right and proceedings. At the same time, Drowne who desired a home there, employed George Caldwell, John Forbush, Nathaniel Bull and John North, to build him a house on Muscongus Island. Drowne himself superintended the erection of it.
Patrick Rogers who had been a resident at Pemaquid about 66 years, and who, for a long time, was Lientenant at the fort there, in 1773, testified to particulars of impor- tance there, locating families and giving information that would otherwise be lost. He says he knew a man by the name of James Bailey who lived at the Southwest part of Round Pond, whose house was near the sea, in the field which he enclosed, and that he continued there eight or nine years. Capt. Thomas Henderson lived on
* Alexander Erskine's deposition.
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THE PLYMOUTH COUNCIL.
at point of land to the South of Bailey's house, and on the Northerly side of small brook, then, 1773, improved by John Randall; and, about the beginning of the Spanish war, 1745, Bailey moved his family from Round Pond to the Westward, but returned again about the year 1766, and built his house in his former field -the first having been destroyed-near where he formerly dwelt. Simeon Elliot came to Round Pond and settled about the year 1755, and James Yates in 1742. Yates continued to live there, except three or four years that he was absent, at the seige of Louisburg, and was never disturbed in his posses- sion, except in the year 1768, when one Thomas Bodkin brought an action of ejectment against him for his land.
In 1773 there were many inhabitants settled near Pema- quid and about the year 1735, these settlers took deeds under the "Pemaquid Company," to the member of forty families, and they "hold their lands to this day by their Patent right."
James Yates purchased his land of Capt. Arthur Sav- age, consisting of about 300 acres ; and Erskine and Alex- ander Nickels were selected to set a price upon it. John North was surveyor under Drowne, and made the survey of the entire Claim of the Pemaquid Proprietors about the year 1736. Some years before this survey, many of the inhabitants met Drowne at Pemaquid, when the Patent was read, which satisfied the people that their title was good. Dunbar, who had come into the country about 1729, signified, on his removal, that the lands there were private property, and that the king had set him aside for that reason. The inhabitants, therefore, to the number of forty or fifty families, took their lots of land under Drowne, as Agent for the Proprietors.
Rogers purchased two lots of land of settlers who held under Drowne; and many of the settlers, together with himself, took leases of him for the Fresh Meadows. And none of the inhabitants who extended from Pemaquid to
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WARS AND TROUBLES.
Muscongus, that claimed under him, were ever disturbed in their possessions, till the year 1768, when one Thomas Bodkin sued. many of the settlers upon their titles. James Morton, William Burns and many others to the North of Muscongus, took deeds and held their lands under the Pemaquid Proprietors.
Drowne made three grand divisions of the immense estate which he marked on his plan A, B and C. These severally were subdivided into "house lots" and "out lots."
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