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 8
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A. D. 170º to 1712. Effects of
A more promising prospect, at length, opens to these eastern Provinces,-presenting a revival and gradual advancement of the late war. their settlements, and political importance .* The force of the natives appeared to be in some measure broken, and the tribes greatly disheartened. As conquest or achievement is a great point with them, the reverses of fortune attending the French arms, in the late war, had filled the tribes both with disappoint- ment and distrust. For instead of recovering from the English colonists any part of their territories, so eagerly coveted by the French, and claimed so strongly by the Sagamores ; the former had actually lost, and the English acquired, the whole of Nova Scotia. The event was important to both nations ; and in the estimation of Massachusetts and Maine, it ought, in no small de- gree, to enhance the joys and advantages of peace.
* For nearly 30 years past, few records of town-meetings were to be found in any part of Maine.
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The benefits of good government, in the Province, enjoyed A. D. 1702 now for more than twenty years, were extensively felt and duly to 1912. appreciated. The evils of sectional conflicting jurisdictions, and a good ad- Benefits of the discrepances of anomalous rulers, formerly so perplexing to tion. ministra- the people of Maine and Sagadahock, were all lost in the unity of a settled and vigilant administration. The affairs of the war had been managed with care and adroitness, and the minuter in- terests of the community were treated with particular attention. When a system of jurisprudence was fully established, trials; ap- peals ; the process of forcible entry and detainer ; the manner of assigning dower ; the admission of town inhabitants; the relief of the poor and insane ; the appointment of watches and fire- wards ; the limitation of real actions; the term set for redeem- ing lands mortgaged or taken by extent of execution, and other legal proceedings, received from the hand of the legislature an original form, or evident improvements.
In 1700, the office of Coroner was first introduced. He was Improve- appointed by the executive, and a summary of his duties pre- scribed by statute. Another law provided originally for the choice of Town treasurer. A third, passed the year following, regulated the professional practice of Attorneys, and the rights of parties in courts of law. To every one was expressly secured the privilege of pleading or defending his own cause, or employ- ing whom he chose. Upon taking a statute-oath prescribed, which has never since been altered, practitioners at the bar were admitted officers of the Courts, and authorized to tax an attorney's fee in every suit. Mills were uniformly considered as being of public utility, and their owners, the objects of particular favor. There were two evils, frequently attending this species of prop- erty, which arose from the number of individual proprietors, and the back water occasioned by dams. In both, a remedy was pro- vided by committing the management of all mills to the major voice of the partners ; and by prescribing a summary process, to settle all questions of damage caused by a reflow of water.
Common schools and an orthodox ministry, which had gone Schools and hand in hand since the first settlement of the country, were still ministers. high in popular estimation and legislative support. Time and change had rather increased than abated the ardor. Besides sharpening the penalties against towns, remiss and negligent, in VOL. II. 10
ments in the statute code.
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A. D. 1702 support of schools as required by law, they were rendered liable to 1712. to be indicted by the grand jury ; and in such towns as failed to raise the monies requisite for the support of the ministry, the Courts of Quarter Sessions were empowered to appoint assessors Laws to prevent im- moralities. for that purpose. In the zeal of the times for the purity of morals, -lotteries were denounced as pernicious to the public; and in 1712, a memorable act was passed, which forbade all singing and dancing at taverns or in the streets, after dark ; all walking abroad during public worship on the Sabbath; and all sporting in the evening of that day. Nay, an obscene song or pamphlet, or a "mock sermon," incurred a fine of £20 or the pillory,-the culprit having at the same time the name of his crime placed in capital letters over his forehead.
Blacks and Indians.
Colored people, increasing in numbers, had become exceed- ingly obnoxious and despicable. A duty of £4, therefore, was exacted and paid for every negro imported ; and so depraved, ignorant and shiftless were slaves, that not one of them, even in this age of freedom and equality, might be manumitted, unless security was first given for his maintenance. All negroes and mulattoes were expressly excluded from watches and military duty, as well in war as in peace ; and whoever presumed to join one of them in marriage with a white person, incurred a heavy penalty. Equally great was the general antipathy towards In- dians. They were heathens, ignorant, lazy and revengeful ;- the authors of accumulated evils to New-England. By law, it was strictly forbidden to bring into the Province any of this race, either for slaves or servants .*
Coins ; Post-Office, trees. At this period, several acts of parliament were passed concern- and timber- ing the Colonies. These prescribed the value at which foreign coins should pass current within them ;} established a general Post-Office ;} and provided for the preservation of white pine and other timber-trees. The latter, enacted in 1710, had evidently in view the Sagadahock forests, which were extensive and be- longed principally to the crown.
In the upper House of the General Court, the eastern Provin-
* Province Law, A. D. 1712. + Passed, A. D. 1707.
Į Post-Office first attempted, A. D. 1692, in Virginia and failed ; estab- lished by Parliament, A. D. 1710, in America. A general letter office was opened in London ; another in New-York; and others in each colony. A single letter from London to New-York, Is .- thence, 60 miles, 4d.
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ces, Maine and Sagadahock, were uniformly represented by the A. D. 1702 number of Councillors prescribed in the charter ; and some of to 1712. Members of them were men of considerable eminence. Those, during the the Council. late war, were, for Maine, Elisha and Eliakim Hutchinson, Ben- jamin Brown, Joseph Hammond, Ichabod Plaisted, and John Wheelwright :- For Sagadahock, John Leverett and Joseph Lynde. The Messrs. Hutchinsons resided in Boston. Elisha, a gentle- Elisha and Eliakin!
man of military distinction, was chief commander of the Massa- Hutchinson. chusetts militia, in 1692, and was one of the Council, sent in 1707, to revive and prosecute the enterprise against Port-Royal. Eliakim sustained an excellent character, though less eminent. The former was senior Councillor for Maine two, and the latter a member, twenty-one years .* Mr. Brown, t who was member of Bı Brown. the Board six years, is supposed to have been a son of the benev- olent William Brown, whose residence was in Salem, and whose daughter was the wife of Wait Winthrop. Mr. Hammond was J. Ham- an inhabitant of Kittery, where he died, February 24th, 1709, mond. after having been a Councillor nine years. He was also one of the Judges of the Common Pleas-a man of great integrity and worth, whom the people held in high estimation. He left a son of the same name, the worthy heir of his virtues, who first rep- resented his town in the legislature in 1711; and in 1718 was chosen into the Council, of which he was a member twelve years. Mr. Plaisted lived at Berwick, where he died, November 16th, J. Plaisted. 1715, in the 52d year of his age, deeply lamented. He was a member of the Council, from his first election in 1706, to his death. He was also several years a Judge upon the bench of the Common Pleas. No other name at this period, in the Pro- vince of Maine, was more distinguished for military intrepidity, than that of Plaisted. Mr. Wheelwright resided in Wells,
J Wheel- wright.
* They both died in 1718-Elisha aged 78, and Eliakim 77; the latter, and probably the former, being son of William Hutchinson, of Boston, who settled there in 1636 ; and in 1673 purchased a large tract of land at Saco, of William Phillips, which Eliakim sold in 1750 .- Elisha married Mrs. Phillips' daughter by her Sandford husband, and had an interest in Phillips' great Indian purchase, made in 1661, embracing mostly Sandford, Alfred, and Waterborough. Elisha's son Thomas, was father of the Governor.
t The widow of Capt. Roger Plaisted, who was killed by the Indians in 1675, married Mr. Brown, of Salem; after whose death she returned to Salmon Falls, where she died.
# Ante, A. D. 1675. Ichabod Plaisted was the grandson of Capt. Roger Plaisted, and the father of Samuel Plaisted, who died March 20th, 1731, aged 36.
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A. D. 1702 10 1712. probably upon the patrimonial estate of his grandfather, Rev. John Wheelwright,* who was one of the original settlers of the town, in 1643, and of his father, Samuel Wheelwright, the min- ister's son, who was a member of the Council six years, from 1694. He died in 1700. John, the grandson, was first elected into the Council in 1708, and continued a member twenty-five years. His death was in 1745. He was also a Judge of the Common Pleas many years,-a gentleman of talents, merit and J. Leverett, distinction. Messrs. Leverett and Lynde were both non-resi- dents. The former, a son of the colonial Governor Leverett, was a member of the Council, only in 1706, being the next year elected President of Harvard College. He had previously been J. Lyude. a Judge of the Superior Court five years. Mr. Lynde was one of the Charter Councillors for Massachusetts, and resided in Bos- ton. At the first election, in 1693, he was omitted ; but the next year he was chosen for Sagadahock, and afterwards had an annual re-election until 1716, inclusive, except the year Mr. Leverett was Councillor.
Terms of the Sup. Court re- vived.
On the memorial of the councillors and representatives from the Province of Maine, the General Court, June 5, 1711, re- vived the annual term of the Superior Court appointed by law, to be holden at Kittery for the county of York,-which for six or seven years prior, had, by reason of the war, been entirely sus- pended. This was followed, the next year, by a settlement of the county treasurer's accounts, a speedy return of order, and the regular administration of law and justice.
York, Kit- lery and Wells.
The late treaty closed a period of eight and thirty years' al- ternate warfare and peace with the natives -a period, in which very little more than a third part of the time could be consider- ed tranquil. Amid those uncommon wastes, occasioned by French and savage hostilities, three towns, York, Kittery and Wells, maintained their ground with a fortitude and persever- ance, which redounded highly to their credit. Every year dur- ing the last war, the two former were represented in the General Court,-and Wells, five years, including that of peace. But be- sides their own meritorious exertions, and the liberal supplies furnished them by government, they were otherwise frequently aided and encouraged. In 1706-7, £257 of their taxes were
* Edward Rishworth married Rev. John Wheelwright's daughter.
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remitted, and there were granted out of the public treasury to A. D. 1713. York, £65, and to Wells, £56, for the support of their respec- tive ministers.
The northern settlements of Kittery, denominated " the parish Berwick in- of Unity,"* and the " precinct of Berwick," having been success- corporated. fully defended through the late war, the inhabitants renewed their application to be incorporated. Disposed to gratify their wishes, the General Court, by an order of 1711, caused a survey to be made of the township, or rather of its northern limits; and on the 9th of June, 1713, by another ordert erected all above Thompson brook, into a town by the name of BERWICK.} It was subsequently quite flourishing; the soil being good, and the inhabitants a respectable well-informed people. The heart of the elder parish was at Quampeagan, where a church was gath-
* This was incorporated the parish of Unity, in 1673 .- Sullivan, p. 243-
246. + 8 Mass. Rec. p. 251 .- Sullivan's Hist. p. 245-253 .- MS. Letter. { This had been called the plantation of Newichawannock, and is the ninth town established in the present State of Maine. [The other 8 are Kittery, York, Wells, Cape-Porpoise, Saco, Scarborough, Falmouth, and North-Yarmouth. ] The original settlement of Berwick, was at Quampea- gan Falls, and Great-works river, by men whose surnames were Frost, Heard, Shapleigh, Chadbourn, Spencer, Broughton, Leader, Plaisted, and Wincoln. In 1720, the town was extended eight miles above Quampeagan to Stair Falls, thence from the river, N. E. by E. 8 miles and 298 rods, to Bonnebeag pond, thence S. E. to Baker's spring and a rock-being the bounds between York and Kittery. At that time there was not a house standing " between Quampeagan and Canada." All, which were built here, between 1690 and 1745, were of hewed logs, sufficient to oppose the force of small arms. There was a block house on the western side of Sal- mon Fall brook, a mile above Quampeagan, where William Gerrish lived ; a mile higher, was Key's garrison ;- next were Wentworth's and Good- win's block houses. The fort on Pine Hill, called Hamilton's garrison, was standing in 1750. It was made of poles 20 feet high, and picketed at the upper end .- As to land-titles of the settlers, Mr. Spencer, A. D. 1649, purchased of Sagamore Rowles or Knowles, a tract on the banks of New- ichawannock and Great-works rivers. George Broughton, the same year, obtained lands of the Sagamores, between Spencer's and Salmon Falls ; where Broughton and Wincoln had lands granted by the town of Kittery, on condition of erecting a mill. Lands above, are holden under proprietary grants .- Berwick was first represented in the General Court, in 1714, by Elisha Plaisted. In 1751, the town was divided into two par- ishes ; and the first parish was made a town, in 1814, by the name of South Berwick. In 1790, Berwick contained 3,894 inhabitants. Since the divis- ion, upper or Old Berwick contains 30,000 acres ;- had within it ten mills, in 1820, 6 of them being at Doughty Falls on Great-works river.
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A. D. 1713. ered, and Mr. John Wade, settled in 1702. Dying the next year, he was succeeded in Nov. 1707, by the Rev. Jeremiah Rev. J. Wise. Wise, who was their minister upwards of 48 years ;- a man of learning, " eminent piety and goodness." But the learning, in which he made so much proficiency, exhibited, according to the taste and passion of the age, the efforts of deep and scholastic investigation, rather than the beauties of rhetoric, or the solids of philosophy. Five years before his death, a new or northern parish was formed, over which, John Morse was first settled, who was soon succeeded by Rev. Matthew Miriam.
Kittery made two parishes.
Rev. J. Rogers.
The same year Berwick was incorporated, the residue of Kit- tery was divided into two parishes. The new one was at Stur- geon-creek, [Eliot] where a church was gathered, and Rev. John Rogers, settled in 1715; whose ministry was continued during the uncommon period of 52 years .*- In the old parish at Kitte- ry-point, a parsonage, provided as early as 1669, and subsequent- ly improved, was occupied, and an annual stipend received, by Rev. J. Rev. John Newmarch, t in consideration of ministerial services, Newmarch. for 15 years, prior to 1714; when a church of 43 members was formed, and himself ordained. He was afterwards, more than 35 years, the faithful minister of an affectionate people ; re- ceiving the late Doct. Benjamin Stevens, May 1, 1751, his col- league ; whose pastoral connexion was dissolved by death at the end of forty years.# It was at Kittery-point, near the residence of the celebrated William Pepperell, that the courts of judica- ture were holden several years.
York. Rev. S. Moody.
In York, the successor of the beloved and lamented Dummer, was the Rev. Samuel Moody. He was a graduate of Harvard, in 1697 ; and in 1700, received his ordination. He declined a settlement upon a stipulated salary ; choosing rather to live through faith, dependant upon his Divine Master, and the voluntary con- tributions of his people. He continued in the ministry 47 years ;
* Rev. Mr. Spring was ordained his colleague, June 29, 1768, and died in 1791. He was succeeded the next year by Rev. Samuel Chandler. t He was graduated at Harv. Col. in 1690, married at Kittery-point, and lived on the westerly side of Spruce-creek, near the ferry.
Į Another church was organized at Spruce-creek, in 1750, where Rev. Josiah Chase was a settled minister, till Dec. 1778. He was succeeded, in 1782, by Rev. Joseph Littlefield .- Greenleaf's Ecclesiastical Sketches, p. 83. See ante, A. D. 1647, and 1652.
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when he died,-greatly endeared to his charge, and highly re- A. D. 1713. spected by his country. His praise is in all the churches of this region, as a godly minister and useful man. Amidst his pastoral zeal, many of his eccentricities afford curious anecdotes, which will be related in story to a succession of listening generations .*
Seventeen years before his death, he had the pleasure of see- Scotland ing a religious society formed in the north-west section of York : parish form- and of assisting, in 1732, at the ordination of his only son, the Rev. Joseph Moody. A Harvard graduate, at the age of 18, Rev. J. this gentleman lived in his native town 14 years, and held the Moody. offices of Town Clerk, County Register of Deeds, and a Judge of the Common Pleas, before he was ordained.+ He was a man of talents, piety, and peculiar sensibilities of mind. This, the second parish in York, was settled in Cromwell's time, by Scotch people, and has been since called Scotland. The Protector, having obtained a victory over a body of Scottish royalists, thought transportation to be the best disposition he could make of the prisoners ; and therefore he sent them to America. Acquainted with Gorges, who had taken arms in the civil wars on the same side, they settled upon a section of his patent.
Few towns, not wholly destroyed, ever experienced greater priva- Wells. tions and severities in the Indian wars, than Wells. After the Rev. Mr. Wheelwright finally left the place, the inhabitants were favor- ed only with the pastoral services of unlocated or itinerant preachers, during that century .¿ But on the return of munici-
* His wife was the daughter of John Sewall of Newbury. He had two children, Joseph and Mary. The latter married Rev. Mr. Emerson of Malden. Mr. Moody died, Nov. 13, 1747, Æt. 72. An ingenious epitaph on his gravestone, near his meeting-house, shews where his relics are de- posited. In 1749, he was succeeded by Rev. Isaac Lyman, a graduate at Yale, in 1747, who died, 1810.
t After six years he fell into a gloomy state of mind, and died in March, 1753. His successors were, in 1742, Rev. Samuel Chandler, and in 1754, Rev. Mr. Lankton, who died in 1794 .- Greenleaf's Ecc. Sketches, p. 13.
# Rev. Joseph Emerson of York, was employed in 1664, for 2 or 3 years ; Rev. Robert Payne, 1667, for 5 years, with a salary of £45; Rev. John Buss, Sept. 2, 1672, 10 years, having a salary of £60, and "a parsonage house and land ;" Rev. Percival Greene, in 1683, 5 or 6 years ;- and in 1689, Mr. Richard Marten, a schoolmaster in town, became the people's minister .- They voted him £50, besides the parsonage, to be paid thus ;- wheat at 4s .- rye at 2s. 6d .- peas at 4s. per bushel ; pork at 2}d. per lb .; boards at 19s. and staves at 17s per thousand .- Messrs. Greene and Mar-
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A. D. 1713. pal order, subsequent to the close of the second Indian war, the inhabitants became anxious to enjoy the stated ministrations of the gospel; and hence, twelve professors of religion entered into an ecclesiastical covenant ;- and in October, 1701, by the Rev. S. Emery and concurrent voice of them and the people, Mr. Sam'l Emery receit- S. Jefferds. ed the rites of ordination over the whole town .* His ministry of 24 years, was succeeded by that of Rev. Samuel Jefferds, a graduate at Harvard, in 1722, and a spiritual teacher, who in the course of his professional labors and untiring zeal, through a pe- riod of 26 years, had the high satisfaction of witnessing the re- peated effusion of divine influences, upon the people of his Kennebunk D. Little. charge .;- Nor was it till 1750, that the second or Kennebunk parish, Rev. parish was established, and the Rev. Daniel Little settled ;}- before which time, the town formed a single religious society, containing at no period more than a thousand inhabitants.§
These cotemporary and successive ministers of the altar, had no small influence in forming the moral taste and general charac- ter of a rising community ; and they acquitted themselves of the high trust, in a manner which entitles their names to the particu- lar notices of history. Their emoluments were small, though their labors and privations were great ; being eminent examples of fortitude, and worthy patterns of disinterestedness.
Condition of the eastern country.
The eastern Provinces, at the close of the late war exhibited a melancholy aspect. More than 100 miles of coast, once interspers- ed and adorned with flourishing settlements, improved estates, and comfortable habitations, lay unpeopled and desolate. Title-deeds, records and other papers of value, were either burnt or lost ; and so many years had succeeded the wastes of several places, that they had resumed the appearance of their original solitude.
ten were both Harvard graduates, in 1680 .- 1 Coll. Maine Hist. Soc. p. 263-5.
* The meeting-house had been burnt by the Indians, but " the settlement was advancing." -- 1 Coll. Maine Hist. Soc. p. 265 .- Mr. Emery was grad- uated at Harvard, 1691.
t Mr. Jefferds died, Feb. 1752, ÆEt. 48. In 1754, Rev. Gideon Richard- son succeeded Mr. Jefferds. After his death, Rev. Moses Hemmenway, Aug. 8, 1759, was ordained ; and in Feb. 1811, Rev. Mr. White was settled with him as colleague pastor .- See Wells, ante, A. D. 1653.
# Rev. Mr. N. H. Fletcher was associated as a colleague with Mr. Lit- tle, in August 1800, who died Oct. 1801.
§ Number in Wells, 1790, 3,070 .- See 3 Mass. Hist. Coll. p. 138-140.
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Yet the government, the landholders, and the former inhabitants A. D. 1713. or their descendants, appeared ready to engage with courage and Committee spirit in a resettlement of the country. Hence, " a Committee and settle- of claims of eastern claims and settlements"* was appointed, in 1713, by the ments. General Court, consisting of nine gentlemen,t four from the Council, and five from the House ; and after appointing clerks, and notifying by printed circulars, the times and places of their meetings, they were directed to receive and examine all exhibited claims to lands in Maine or Sagadahock, to sanction the titles of such as appeared sound and clear, and report the residue .- In reviving the wasted towns, it was thought to be more conducive to the people's safety and quiet, if they were to replant them- selves in neighborhoods of 20 or 30 families,-near the seaside, -upon lots of three or four acres to a family,-united in a close and defensible manner, and possessed of out-lands in quantities equal to their necessities or wishes. Accordingly the General Order of Court authorized the resettlement of five towns ;- these were General Court to settle Saco, Scarboro', Falmouth, North-Yar- Saco, Scarborough, at Black-point ; Falmouth, at Casco-penin- sula ; North-Yarmouth, t and one at the mouth of Sagadahock including Arrowsick Island. In no other than these and the sur- mouth and viving towns previously mentioned, were people allowed to re- Arrowsick. plant or resume habitances, without licenses from the Govern- or and Council ; till the proper designations and plans, through the medium of the Committee, could be matured.
The next year, 1714, these towns became inhabited by sever- A. D. 1714. al returning families ; to which accessions were annually made, Saco reset- until they were enabled to resume their municipal privileges. named Bid- tled and The settlement of Saco was so rapid, that the inhabitants, in deford. 1717, settled Mr. Short as their minister, and exhibited at Win- ter-harbor a compact hamlet. To encourage their pious zeal, £40 were annually granted out of the Provincial treasury, for
* A Committee of this sort was first appointed in 1700.
t Of the Council, Elisha Hutchinson, Isaac Addington, John Phillips and Paul Dudley [Attorney General] ;- of the House, John Clark, Edward Quimby, Thomas Oliver, William Dennison and the Clerk of the House .-- 8 Mass. Rec. p. 288 .- The General Court said " the settling of the eastern " parts and frontiers will be of great benefit to this Province."-Preamble Statute, 1715.
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