USA > Maine > The history of the state of Maine; from its first discovery, A. D. 1602, to the separation, A. D. 1820, inclusive, Vol. II > Part 29
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But what more particularly engaged again tlie attention of the Settlement government and the people, was the settlement and the safety of of the east- this eastern country.§ In the autumn of 1750, Richard Ha- zen was employed at the public expense, to make surveys, and form a correct chart or map of the whole coast, between the
* This trade was less profitable, than in the reigns of William and Anne. -2 Hutch. Hist. p. 397.
t " It has killed more Indians than the wars and their sicknesses ; it does " not spare white people, especially when made into flip."-1 Doug. Summ. p. 540.
N. B. The Sugar Act passed A. D. 1755, by which a duty of 9d. per gal- lon was laid on rum ; on molasses 6d .; on 100 wt. sugar 5s .; if imported from any other than English Islands .- 1 Minot, p. 301. # 1 Minot, p.
§ " Every new house, new farm, new subject, adds to the consumption of " British manufactures ;- and nothing contributes more to speedy set- " tlements, than a vent for the lumber-a great help in clearing lands." -- 2 Hutch. Hist. p. 399.
rn country.
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[VOL. II.
A. D. 1750, Merrimack and the St. Croix. Also two new townships were, in to 1752.
consideration of military services, appropriated and ordered to
Grants of be surveyed. One was assigned to Captain Pierson and his as- Piersontown and Hobbs- sociates, who were in the expedition against Louisbourg-called town, now Standish. Piersontown plantation. The other township was appropriated to the benefit of Capt. Hobbs* and his company, who were in the same service ; each to be laid out and settled on the general terms ;- both now forming the town of Standish, For several Penobscot visited. years, the Islands, the waters, and the banks of the Penobscot, had all attracted great attention ; and in July, (1750,) a large vessel " full of people," visited these parts. The view, as it was designed, afforded the passengers an opportunity to select places for their future residence. A settlement of these lands had hitherto been retarded by the hostilities of the Indians, more than in consequence of their belonging to the crown ; therefore nothing but their opposition, jealousy, and ill-will, now prevented several enterprizing people from planting their habitations perma- nently, upon the banks of that commanding river. Every prac- ticable method, subsequent to peace, was used to keep the tribes tranquil, two trading houses were opened and well supplied ;- Truck-mas- William Lithgow being appointed, in 1752, truck-master at ters. Richmond fort, and Jabez Bradbury, at St. Georges; and a confidence began to be strongly entertained in the future safety of settlers.
Settlements enlarged upon St. Georges' river.
Nor indeed were the great and various exertions made, during the last thirty years, to settle this section of country, without considerable success .; Emigrants had been introduced and planted within it, from Ireland by Dunbar and his friends ; from Germany, by Gen, Waldo, and the Muscongus patentees ; and from some parts of New-England, by Drowne and other propri- etary claimants. Between 1733, and 1735-6, Irish protestants of Scottish descent, settled in the 'Upper and Lower towns,' on St. Georges' river ; also on lands towards its mouth [now Cush- ing ; ]¿ and at Broad-bay ; and the English settled Medumcook,
* Jour, House of Rep. (1750,) p. 209,-called Hobbstown.
+ 4 Coll. Mass. His. Soc. p. 20.
# MS. letters from St. George, Cushing, and Thomaston .- Also MS. Narrative of C. Eaton .- Samuel Waldo, son of Gen. Waldo, went to Ger- many in 1753, and " circulated proclamations to induce emigrants to come to America."-J. Ludwig's testimony .- Report, 1811, p. 164.
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CHAP. XI.]
[now Friendship.] Accessions were made in 1740, to the plan- A. D. 1750, tation at Broad-bay ;" in 1743, to those on St. Georges' river, to 1752. and on the Kennebeck ;f and a few migrated to other places soon afterwards. Early in 1750, Mr. Crelleus, a German gen- Also the tleman, presented a memorial to the General Court, in which he Germans at proposed to remove several protestant families from his country, Broad-bay. into the Province, provided they could see sufficient inducements. It seems he had made a voyage across the Atlantic, upon this errand. So favorable to the proposal was the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, that he threw his weight into the scale with the applicant, and stated to the General Court,-' from the character and dispo- " sition of that people, I apprehend it to be of great importance ' to encourage their settlement among us; as they would intro- " duce many useful manufactures and arts.'-Four townships of land therefore, were appropriated for the accommodation of for- eign protestants ; and the Province frigate offered to transport them, after arrival, to the places of their selection or destination. The Legislature also adopted provisional measures for their ac- commodation and comfort, for naturalizing them and their fami- lies, and for encouraging their ministers and interpreters. The next year, (1751,) between 20 and 30 families arrived, with Mr. Etter, their interpreter : ¿ whose necessities, in the ensuing winter, were relieved at the public expense, as well as by private char- ity ; beds, bedding and other articles being furnished them, till their removal to Broad-bay and other places.
By the new valuation finished in 1751, there were exhibited New valua melancholy proofs, how much war, sickness, the small-pox, and tion. other adversities, had checked the progress of population ; for the inhabitants of the whole province of Massachusetts, within the last seven years, had actually increased only about 500; and no more than five added to the corporate towns in that Province. In Maine, the towns at that and the present time, were eleven ; and the proportion of £1,000 tax, assigned to her, including a few plantations, was merely £2 11s. 3d. more than in the preceding valuation.§ Hence it would appear, that, on the whole, her pop-
* Germans emigrated to Broad-bay. - MS. Letter of Mr. Ludwig .
t MS. Letter from Dresden .- New settlers planted at Frankfort, [Pownal- borough.]
Į MS. Let. M. R. Ludwig, Esq .- 8 Jour. H. of Rep. p. 76.
§ See ante, 1743,
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A. D. 1752. ulation, during seven years, had in a small degree increased. To Excise and lessen the direct taxes, however, there were excise and impost impost du- ties. laws still in force, which brought considerable sums into the Pro- vincial treasury .* The excise was laid on ardent spirits, distil- led ; and duties exacted on wines, rum, sugar, and molasses, tobacco, logwood, and West India fruits; also on most other articles imported, unless by law exempted.t The tonnage duty was " a pound of good pistol powder per ton," on every vessel not British, nor English colonial-which was to be paid every voyage. There were also, in 1750, duties exacted on tea, cof- fee, and arrack-also on coaches and chariots imported ; and the Collector duties. same year, Jabez Fox, of Falmouth, was chosen Collector of the duties or imposts, for Yorkshire ; the excise being usually farmed out for periods of three years.}
New style.
A very important alteration was made at this period in the record of dates, which deservedly claims particular notice. It had been satisfactorily ascertained, and generally conceded through- out European countries, that in consequence of small increments during a long series of years, the computation of time was in- correct. An act of Parliament, therefore, was passed, January 22, 1752, extending to all the British dominions ; which ordain- ed, that every year, including the present one, should begin Jan- uary 1, instead of March 25 ; and that eleven days be expunged from the Calendar ; and the 3d of September, in the present year, be called the 14th. This correction has been denominated the NEW STYLE.§
Commis- sioners meet at St. Geor- ges.
To pave the way for a conciliatory conference with the Indians, the Indians government transported to Fort Richmond and to St. Georges, six hogsheads of bread and six barrels of pork, to be distributed among them ; and, Oct. 20, four commissioners were met at the latter place, by delegations of Sagamores from all the eastern tribes, except the Mickmaks and those of St. Francois. The
* The duties on articles ad valorem were 4d. in £1.
t Duties by the Hhd. on molasses, 16d. ; rum, £4; sugar, £2; tobacco, £2; a pipe of wine, f4,-" old tenor:"-aggregate of excise, impost, and tonnage, in 1748, f33,480, old tenor. On every gallon of rum distilled, 2s .- 1 Doug. Summ. p. 521-3.
# Farmers of the excise in Maine, (1752) were " Major Cutts, Capt. Plaisted, and Hon. John Hill."
§ Prov. Laws, p. 579-586 .- where the act is entire.
CHAP. XI.]
OF MAINE.
287
non-appearance of the latter was an unfavorable circumstance ; A. D. 1752. otherwise, as Lieutenant-Governor Phips told the General Court, -"we have succeeded as well as we could expect, and the " conference may have a good tendency to prevent any further " molestation of our frontiers."
ment of the
The present aspect of Indian affairs extensively encouraged Encourage- residents and landholders, to undertake some new improvements people and of their condition and estates. Settlements in what are now proprietors. Woolwich, Edgecomb, Bath, Dresden, Bowdoinham, Topsham and in many other places, were found to be permanent and increas- ing ; and the people of Wiscasset, Sheepscot, and Merryconeag, were severally desirous of being incorporated into towns, or districts. The claim of Sir Richard Edgecomb's heirs to a tract between Richmond fort and Cathance river, was revived by John Edgecomb of New-London. He traced the title from Sir Fer- dinando Gorges. The proprietors of the Plymouth patent for the purpose of establishing their limits, took depositions in per- petual remembrance, made some surveys, and exhibited an ingenious chart of their claim. Nay, to facilitate the meetings of " proprieties," a law was passed giving them equal privileges, whether their lands were within or without a located township.
Fortifications were repaired or enlarged,-that at St. Georges Fortifica- river, being constructed of hewn timber, 20 inches square, with tions im- walls about 16 feet in height. Its form was quadrangular, each enlarged. proved, or side being 100 feet. Within were the barracks, or apartments, built of timber against the walls, for the dwelling or retreat of the people, every one being occupied by a single family or more, St. Georges according to the size of the rooms or numbers in the families. fort. In the centre, was a good well of water; and from the southern wall, a covered way was formed by means of logs, and extended to a large timber block-house, 200 feet distant, at the water's edge. Here, 12 or 15 pieces of cannon were mounted, com- pletely commanding the river. This fortress was erected in 1719-20 ;* improved in 1740; and since the last war, the es- tablishment had been enlarged at the expense of the settlers. They built what they called block-houses, about 100 rods west- ward of the fort, in two rows or ranges; and surrounded the whole by a picket made of posts driven into the ground, as thick
* See ante, A. D. 1719.
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THE HISTORY
[VOL. 11.
A. D. 1752. as they could stand, and ten feet in height. Thus accommodat- ed and secured, they formed themselves into a military company for their mutual defence. In times of danger, either they or the soldiers, were continually scouting ;- such as went to labor in the field were well armed ; and when the signal of a general alarm was given at the fort by ' the discharge of a heavy cannon,' all who were abroad made a speedy retreat to the garrison. " Year after year, the inhabitants had no other way of cultivating their farms, and obtaining wherewithal to support their families."* Fortifica- tions at the Narrows. The garrison was commanded by Jabez Bradbury. The block- house at the Narrows above, was garrisoned by a party of the In Cushing. inhabitants, under Capt. Kilpatrick ; that in Cushing by another party of volunteers, under. Capt. Benjamin Burton ; and that In St. George. At Broad- bay and Medum- cook. near the mouth of the river [in the present town of St. George,] by others, under Capt. Henderson.t The forts at Broad-bay and Medumcook, were also rendered defensible, and the inhabi- tants were determined never more to be driven from their homes.
A petition for a new county on the Kenne- beck.
A petition signed by Jacob Wendell, Edward Winslow, and their associates, proprietors of the Plymouth patent, and a large number of settlers, was presented to the General Court, Decem- ber 18, 1752, complaining of the inconveniences they suffered in consequence of their remote situation from the shire-towns and the seats of justice, and praying to be erected into a new county. A bill to this effect was reported in December of the following year ; but through the apprehensions of another rupture, it was never matured into a law.
there dis- turb the Indians.
A. D. 1753. The embers of conflicting claims, which circumstances had Settlements only smothered, were now in several places, either disturbed or rekindled. Heated controversies among proprietors might have soon spread, had not a back fire been set by the Indians. On seeing the English make improvements, they complained loudly, as heretofore of encroachments, and shewed impatience and some ill-temper. An able committee of seven, to whom the matters were all referred, after giving notice in the Boston news- papers to all concerned, carefully investigated the subjects of claim and complaint, and reported, that the lands on both sides of the Kennebeck, had long before been conveyed by the chiefs
* MS. Letter of Hez. Prince, Esq.
+ Ms. Nar. C. Eaton, Esq .- See Thomaston, A. D. 1777.
289
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to the English ; and settlements made by consent of the Indians, A. D. 1753. and continued " many miles," above Fort Richmond ; that they, within sixty years, had repeatedly engaged by solemn treaty, not to molest any of the English in the exercise of their rights, or the enjoyment of their possessions ; and that if the law, which The hunting forbade all hunting eastward of Saco and northward of the set- ed. law enforc- tlers' habitations, were carried into rigid execution, they believed the Indians would manifest no more inquietude. Copies of the law, therefore, were distributed throughout this eastern country ; and the commanders of the garrisons and the keepers of the truck houses were ordered to see its provisions strictly observed. But when untutored Indians, dupes to designing Frenchmen, were under the influence of jealousy and suspicion, every incident or even mishap spread and faned the flames. Though all were forbidden to hunt, or to cut timber in the extensive forests, or to settle contiguous to them ; thoughtless people were, without doubt, careless of their preservation, and indifferent, whether the In- dian hunter, or the British king suffered. But the Provincial Great fires government always conducted in respect to the crown lands, ac- woods. in the king's cording to the principles of duty, honor, and justice; and in consequence of the immense damage lately done by fires, spread by accident or design, actually passed a penal statute against set- ting fires in or near the woods. Yet nothing could tranquillize an affronted or disaffected Indian. It was sufficient offence, that against set- Penal law these destructive fires, which alarmed and annoyed them and ting fires. ruined their nearer hunting grounds, were the works or wrongs of Englishmen.
Hence, it was correctly stated by the Lieut. Governor, in his speech, June 12, to the General Court, that ' the two principal and ' perhaps only material obstacles to the settlement of the eastern settling the ' country, were its exposed situation to the Indian enemy in case of country. eastern 'rupture ; and the great controversy about titles, by reason of ' different claims to the same tracts of land.' As the readiest means to obviate these evils, he recommended the establishment of a special tribunal to settle land-titles ; and the adoption of all practicable measures, for filling the country with inhabitants. En- couraged by the public sentiment, Florentius Vassal, an emin- ent gentleman from Jamaica, proposed to the General Court, that if the territory between the waters of the Penobscot and VOL. II. 37
The two ob- tacles in the way of
290
THE HISTORY
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A. D. 1753. St. Croix, were granted to him and his associates ; they would Vassal's project for settle there within a stipulated time, such number of inhab- setiling the itants, as would form a barrier to the French, and a check to the country be- tween Pe- nobscot and St. Croix. Indians. It was a suggestion at a favorable moment; and the legislative branches assured him, that if he would, by May, 1758, obtain his Majesty's approbation, introduce 5,000 settlers, and a proportionate number of protestant ministers, and satisfy the Indians as to their claim ; the emigrants should have all the lands they would settle, and all the Islands within three miles of the coast .*
New castle incorporat- ed.
If Georgetown were within the old Province of Maine, the first municipality, established by the Provincial government with- in the territory of Sagadahock, was that of Sheepscot planta- tion, which was incorporated June 19, 1753, into a town, with the usual powers and privileges, by the name of NEWCASTLE ;t-
* 8 Jour. House of ·Rep. p. 50, 169.
t It was so called probably in compliment to the Duke of Newcastle, the king's principal secretary at that time, and a friend to the American Colonies. It was the same name given by the royal Duke's agents, 1664-5, to another part of his patented territory on the Delaware .- Newcastle, first settled about 1630-1, was for thirty-five years, or longer, called the " Sheepscot" plantation. Walter Phillips, an early settler, resided on the western side of the Damariscotta, not far from the lower or salt water Falls, where the Newcastle village now is. In 1661-2 and 1674, he pur- chased large tracts around him, of the Sagamores,-whence is deduced the " Tappan Right." John Mason was a cotemporary or earlier settler, on the easterly side of the Sheepscot, at the " Great Neck"-a short dis- tance from Phillips'. About the year 1649-50,-Mason also purchased of Robinhood and Jack Pudding, two Sagamores, a considerable tract about his residence. In 1665, the king's Commissioners sat at his house, when they organized a government within the Duke's patent. They called the plantation Dartmouth, or New Dartmouth, and appointed Mr. Phillips, Re- corder. They both finally left the country at the commencement of the 2d Indian war, in 1688 ;- Phillips went to Salem, Massachusetts, where he was living in 1702 ; and Mason removed to New-Jersey, where he died .- See 1st Vol. this Hist. p. 56, 330, 408, and 536 .- In August, 1676, the inhab- itants fled before the Indians, but returned after the war. However, in Sept. 1688, the first year of king William's war, the settlement was wholly destroyed, and lay waste thirty years .- The plantation was revived and resettled in 1719. It is believed the settlement was erected into a district or precinct, in 1751 .- See 18 Council Records, p. 19-20, 51 .- 8 Jour. House of Rep. (1753,) p. 44 .- It was first represented in the General Court, A. D. 1774, by Benjamin Woodbridge. By the census, in 1764, there were then 454 people in town. Newcastle lies between the rivers Damariscot- ta and Sheepscot. It is the western section of the Tappan Right ; and in
291
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CHAP. XI.]
the twelfth in the present State. According to usage, it received A, D. 1753. a law-book, presented at the public expense; and in respect to the number, reputation and enterprize of its inhabitants, it has always holden an elevated rank among the towns.
On the 6th of August, the return of Governor Shirley, was August 6. heartily greeted by the people of the whole Province .* 'It Return of Governor ' would have given us singular pleasure,' say the General Court Shirley. to him, ' if your Excellency had succeeded in settling the boun- " daries with the French in America ; for which his Majesty has ' been pleased to detain you so long from us. But for a long " time, that nation has been famous for doing justice by compul- " sion, rather than by inclination.'-In reply, the Governor says,- " my employment as one of his Majesty's commissioners at Paris, ' has occasioned my absence from you, three years longer than ' I proposed to myself, when I left Boston.t Among other inter- ' ests of the crown, which I had it in my heart to secure by this ' negotiation, was a large portion of territory [Sagadahock,] be- sagada- ' longing to this Province claimed by France ; and the preserva- hock. "tion of the whole of it, against her encroachments, will in a ' great measure finally depend upon the issue of this dispute.'
As the territory of Sagadahock was thus involved in the same controversy, it is important to give a short outline of its merits.
The French contended that ancient Acadia or Nova Scotia admitted of this territorial description-beginning at Cape St. of France The claims to it, specifi- Mary's on the southerly side of the entrance into the Bay of ed. Fundy, thence following the westerly and southerly shore of the
it, are also lands purchased of the Sagamores by John Mason, as mention- ed .- Sullivan, p. 166, 286 .- One Randolph, many years before the Ameri- can revolution, came from New-Jersey, and endeavored, in vain, to revive the Mason claim, in right of his mother, Mason's daughter. Randolph said his parents informed him, he was born at Sheepscot, and carried away while an infant, when they fled from the savages .- There was a fort on Sheepscot river, before the 2d Indian war. Rev. Alexander Boyd, was employed to preach in Sheepscot soon after it was made a district. He was ordained by the Boston Presbytery, Sept. 19, 1754, and dismissed in 1758. After a lapse of 18 years, in which time, Messrs. Ward, Lain, Per- ley and Benedic, were employed as preachers, Rev. Thurston Whiting was settled, in July, 1776, and a Congregational Church formed. Rev. Kiah Baily was settled in 1797 .- Greenleaf's Ecclesiastical Hist. p. 101-6. -There is now a society there of Roman Catholics.
* 1 Minot, p. 173 .- He had gratulatory addresses from the College, Clergy, and Courts. t See ante, A. D. 1749, p. 260.
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A. D. 1753. great peninsula eastward to Cape Canseau; thence by the shore to the head* of Chedabucto bay ; and thence westerly and diag- onally, through the heart of the peninsula, to Cape St. Mary's be- fore mentioned-on an imaginary line along the heads of the rivers, that run southerly and empty into the Atlantic, or northerly and empty into the bay of Minas, or the bay of Fundy ; and they claimed as a part of Canada or New-France, all the territories northerly of this imaginary line ;- embracing Annapolis and both the southerly and northerly coasts of those two bays, even to the St. Lawrence, and also extending westwardly to the river Ken- nebeck.
The claims of England to Nova Scotia.
'The ques- tion stated.
On the contrary, the English insisted, that Nova Scotia or Acadia manifestly embraced the whole country southerly of the St. Lawrence and eastwardly of St. Croix, including the great peninsula .- Hence, the question was, how much of the country belonged to England, and how much to France ?- and where ought the divisional line between Canada and Nova Scotia, to be drawn ?+
The English, in support of their position, adduced certain 13 argu- ments ad- duced by documents and facts, thought by them to be conclusive :- such the English as,-the discovery of Newfoundland, in 1497, by Cabot ;- for- to support their claim. mal possession taken of the country, in 1583, by Humphrey Gil- bert ;- the patent of North and South Virginia between the 34th and 45th degrees of north latitude, granted in 1606 ;- that of New-England, in 1620, between 40° and 48° of north latitude ;- and that to William Alexander, Sept. 10, 1621, called Nova Scotia, which embraced the lands claimed, whereof commensur- ate possession had been taken and continued : and though the Commission of Governor Temple, by extending his jurisdiction to the river St. Georges, seemed to imply, that Nova Scotia, as the French under the treaty of Breda, 1667, contended, must extend as far westward ; yet that Province, it is well known, did always extend northward, to the Bay Chaleur, and eastward to the Passamaquoddy bay only. For the Provincial charter, A. D. 1691, did embrace the whole territory eastward to the St.
* A few leagues north-westerly of Cape Canseau.
+ 1 Minot, p. 120-130 .- But Mr. Minot is in part, incorrect .- See Col- lection of Memorials, printed in English, 1756 ; also the Report of the doings and arguments of Messrs. Shirley and Galissionere, the Commissioners, in French and Latin .- Boston Athencum.
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