USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Freeport > Three centuries of Freeport, Maine > Part 2
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Nothing is known of Peter Hicks of Dorchester, who is said to have married Sarah Clapp Mather (the young widow of Joseph Mather) save that he lived on Harraseeket's or Hick's Island. He was probably the son of Samuel and Hannah Evans Hicks. After the sale of this island property to John and Eliza Danforth he moved to South Carolina, where he founded a place known as Dorchester.
First mention made of Richard Bray is on February 3, 1651, at which time he bought one-half of John Cousins' Island and land in the present Freeport. We know that he had holdings here and sold to Nathaniel Wallis "4 acres of marsh ground lying in the place called Wesgostukett, being betwext Ari- sickett river & Westgostuggo river. . . . [also] 40 acres upland & 15 acres of Marsh Joining both together, Scituate & being be- tween Wosgoostukett & Ariseekett river, the Marsh being bounded with a river, comonly called ye Little river, ye up- land Joining to it." These latter two parcels had been owned
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
jointly by Bray and John Cousins, the above conveyances being made in 1672.
He probably lived near James Lane, whether later than 1672 is not clear. According to Savage he was of Dover, 1657, Casco, 1658, and probably of Boston, 1687, as gunner's mate. We do know, however, that he deeded to his son John in 1669 half the land he bought of John Cousins. And also that his wife's name was Rebecca and that the daughter, Hannah, married one Hazeltine. A son had married Mary Sayward, daughter of Henry and Mary Sayward. Both sons, John and Nathaniel, were killed by Indians in 1676 while trying to save their cattle from this enemy.
John Bustian (Bustin) owned Bustian's Island and lived there until he sold it to William Haines, who lived nearby on Flying Point.
William Haines came from Salem, Massachusetts, between 1652 and 1672, to escape the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. He was the son of William and Sarah Ingersoll Haines, whose family on the maternal side had lived in Falmouth during the latter part of 1600. He had been a schoolmaster in Fal- mouth, fleeing to Lynn when the Indian wars broke out. He was "clark of ye band" (trainband), the North Yarmouth mili- tia. Previous to 1674 he married Margery, daughter of Nicho- las and Margery White, and had "Severall children born in ye sd place [North Yarmouth]; the sd claimer being one of them."
This entry appears in the Book of Eastern Claims, in the testi- mony of their son, Francis, who made a claim for the lands owned by his father at Pine Point and Bustin's Island, which his father had improved for some years "previous to his death in Newburyport 1702." William Haines had lived in Boston, Lynn, Kittery, Portsmouth and various places, and for a living teaching school in some and drawing papers in others. The family lived for some time at their place in Spurwink, being there in 1675, then buying at Purpooduck they made their residence there for awhile, later living in Gloucester and Marblehead.
There appears to have been some lack of neighborliness be- tween this Haines and John Cousins, for on October 1, 1667 among the Presentments and Indictments by the Grand Jury at Casco we find that "William Haynes is indicted by John Cos-
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First Settlers
sons for a common liar. William Haynes being questioned up- on his indictment, which could not be legally proved was discharged." But Haines was not to be outdone and the records bear witness that "John Cossons is indicted by William Haynes for playing cards upon the Sabbath day, the indictment not legally proved further Cossons was acquitted."
Little is known about Richard Dummer other than the fact that he lived at Pine Point (now Flying Point) about 1666 and was probably born at Bishopstoke about 1598, but the English records being lost there is no proof of this extant. He was a well-known inhabitant of Old Newbury, Massachusetts and in all probability connected with the so-called "Company of Herdsmen" that projected a settlement at Sagadahoc. An in- teresting description of his holdings as set forth in a claim made by his son, Jeremiah, is as follows:
"Febry 8th, 1713-14. Dummer Boston Esqr. claims a tract of land (as he saies att Casco Bay) beginning at a point called Pine Point, running from thence to another point called Tobacco Point [late called Little Flying Point in an old deed, also in County & Coast Survey maps] & so Up- wards into sd woods till eight Hund & odd acres, not ex- ceeding nine Hund acres, are made up, by vertue of a Grant from Presedent Danforth Dated 27th June 1684, hiered [heard?] by said Danforth & Sealed: Mr. George Cleaves had Granted the sd tract to Mr. Richard Dum- mer."
Thomas Redding and his wife Eleanor lived on what is now known as Lambert's Neck on the east bank of the Cousins River. Their house was possibly situated on "Reding's Creek" and in a westerly direction from James Lane's. Redding had lived in Saco in 1653 and had been at one time a tenant of Mr. Purchase at Mare Point. A son, John, born 1660, lived in Wey- mouth, Massachusetts and died November 17, 1716 in Glouces- ter, Massachusetts. There were also two daughters, one of whom married John Taylor, the other Henry Donnell of Jewell's Island. As Thomas Redding is not mentioned in the Indian wars it has been assumed that he died previous to 1676.
Even in those early times when neighbors were very few and scattered and there were fair distances between their houses
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
life did not appear to be any more harmonious than it is today. A grievance against Eleanor Redding was aired in court con- cerning her neighbor across the creek and we read that on No- vember 13, 1666:
"In answere to a Complaynt made by John Cossons, Con- stable of Westquotoqua to this Court against Ellenor Red- ding, touching her abuseing of Ann Lane, wch Complaynt upon examination this Court finding not to come within yr proper Cogniscence, as not being presented to them within one yeare & a day: Do thence determine to give the sd Ellner Redding an Admonition & shee paying the of- ficers' fees, five shillings is discharged."
What the punishment for this offense would have been had the complaint been presented within the one year and a day limit is problematical, for the town appears to have been lack- ing in the instruments of punishment usual in that day. This, however, did not escape attention for the preceding year, 1665, "Westcustogo was presented and fined 40 shillings for not at- tending to the Court's order for not making a pair of stocks, cage & a ducking stool."
There is little known of Arnold Allen's life in old North Yarmouth other than that he owned land at Boardman's Point, on the west side of the Harraseeket River in 1643.
Thomas Shepherd and his wife Anne in 1666 lived on a pen- insula, then called Shepherd's Point and now known as Wolf's Neck.
The dwellings of these pioneers were of necessity log cabins and a description of them, how they were built and the appear- ance they presented, is given by Sewall in his Ancient Dominions of Maine, which informs us that:
"A simple structure of logs was reared from the buts of the ancient trees, fallen by the pioneer axe on the spot where they were cut down for a clearing. The walls of a rectangular structure thus built were covered with bark or thatch. The enclosed earth was excavated for a cellar, which was unwalled. The excavation was then planked over with riven logs of pine, and a trapdoor in the centre of the flooring let you into the bowels of the primitive
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First Settlers
structure, consisting of a single room below and a garret above, to which a ladder led the ascent. In one corner of the log-walled room, a large fireplace opened its cavernous depths. The back and one side was built of stone, while a wooden post set the opposite jamb, supporting a horizon- tal beam for a mantel-piece. Through the bark, thatch, or slab roof or outside and up the back wall of the building, was reared a bobwork of cleft wood, whose interstices were filled with a mortar-clay, which, in place of brick and mor- tar, was called 'cat and clay.' On the hearth, usually a flat stone, an ample store of wood was heaped, which was felled at the door, while the capacious fireplace, glowing with light and heat from the blazing hearth-pile, not only illumined the whole interior, but afforded a snug corner for the indiscriminate stowage of a bevy of little ones."
During the years of their settlement in this new country we should know very little of the everyday life of these pioneers from actual record were it not for a description of the people of Casco Bay of those days which has come down to us. This was related by a contemporary writer, John Jocelyn, in his Voyage Up The Coast of Maine in 1670:
"The people in the Province of Maine may be divided into magistrates, husbandmen or planters, and fishermen; of the magistrates some be royalists, the rest perverse spirits, the like are the planters and fishers, of which some be planters and fishers both, others meer fishers.
Handicraftsmen there are but few, the tumelor or cooper, smiths and carpenters are best welcome amongst them, shopkeepers there are none, being supplied by the Massachusetts merchants with all things they stand in need of. English shoes are sold for 8 or 9 shils. a pair, wor- sted stockings of 3s.6d. for 7 and 8s. a pair, Douglas, that is sold in England for 1 or 2 and 20 pence an ell, for 4s. a yard, serges of 2 or 3s. a yard, for 6 and 7 shillings.
They have a custom of taking tobacco, sleeping at noon, sitting long at meals, sometimes four times a day, and now and then drinking a dram of the bottle extraordinarily. ... They feed generally upon as good flesh, beef, pork,
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
mutton, fowl, and fish as any in the world besides. Their servants, which are for the most part English, will not work under a half a crown a day, when they are out of their time, although it be for to make hay, and for less I do not see how they can, by reason of the dearness of clothing. If they hire them by the year, they pay them 14 or £15 at the year's end, in corn, cattle, and fish; some of these prove excellent fowlers, bringing in as many as will maintain their master's house, besides the profit that accrues by their feathers.
The fishermen take yearly upon the coast many hun- dred kentals of cod, hake, haddock, polluck, &c., &c., which they split, salt, and dry at their stages, making three voyages in a year. When they share their fish, which is at the end of every voyage, they separate the best from the worst, which is known when it is clear like a lanthorn horn and without spots; the second sort they call refuse fish, that is, such as is salt-burnt, spotted, rotten and care- lessly ordered; these they put off to the Massachusetts merchants, the merchantable for 30 and 32 reals a kental [112 pounds], the refuse for 9 and 1os. the quintal. The merchants send the merchantable fish to Lisbon, Bilbo, Burdeaux, Marsiles, Talloon, Rochel, Roan, and other cities of France, to the Canaries with claw-board and pipe- staves, which is there and at the Charibs a prime com- modity. The refuse fish they put off at the Charib Islands, Barbadoes, Jamaica, &c., who feed their Negros with it.
To every shallop belong four fishermen, a master or steersman, a Midshipman, and a foremast man and a shore man, who washes it out of the salt and dries it upon bun- dles and tends their cookery.
These often get in one voyage 8 or £9 a man, but it doth some of them little good, for the merchant to increase his gain by putting off his commodity in the middest of their voyages, and at the end thereof comes in with a walking tavern, a bark laden with the legitimate bloud of the rich grape, which they bring from Phial, Madera, Canaries, with brandy, rum, the Barbadoes strong water, and tobac- co; coming ashore he gives them a taster or two, which
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First Settlers
so charms them, that for no persuasions will they go to sea, although fair and seasonable weather for 2 or 3 days, nay, sometimes a whole week, till they are wearied with drinking, taking a shore 2 or 3 hlds. of wine and rum to drink when the merchant is gone."
Intermittent killings and burnings by the Indians had been endured by the courageous pioneers, but the outbreak of King Philip's War in 1675 pointed only too clearly to but one thing for them - annihilation - and those who were able to escape death from the enemy abandoned their homes and fled.
V
THE SECOND SETTLEMENT
M ASSACHUSETTS took over the Province of Maine through purchase from the Gorges heirs in March, 1678. The following month April 12, 1678, the Peace of Casco was signed between government commissioners and the sachems of the Androscoggin, Kennebec and Saco tribes at Falmouth (Portland), which was very encouraging to the settlers who were returning to their lands to rebuild the homes they had lost. Apparently this optimism was shared by the Bay State as well, for although the opinion had been held that the recently ac- quired Province should be sold to help meet the Indian War expenses (the General Court having at one time even ordered that this be done) nothing ever came of it. Instead of disposing of this acquisition the Court cast about for a suitable method of government for it. The plan of government evolved had for its head a Provincial President, a Council and Chamber of Depu- ties, Deputy-Governor Thomas Danforth of Massachusetts be- ing chosen for Provincial President.
This taking over of Maine by Massachusetts was opposed by a large number of inhabitants of the former state, chiefly be- cause of their land titles. If Massachusetts did not recognize as valid those titles held under either Rigby or Indian deeds many of the settlers stood to lose their holdings. It was this fear which caused them to send a petition to King Charles the Second, protesting their governing by Massachusetts and entreating his direct jurisdiction. Richard and John Bray, Robert and Wil- liam Haines, as old proprietors, were among the signers of this document. Nothing appears to have been done concerning this by the Crown, for during March, 1680, Provincial President Thomas Danforth set up the first Provincial Government of Maine at York.
In his history of Ancient North Yarmouth and Yarmouth, Maine, the author says that:
"There was an ancient grant of a part of the region of Wescustogo given either by Gorges or his son to a body of proprietors represented by Joseph Phippen, prior to the breaking up of the first settlement. We know this, how-
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The Second Settlement
ever, only by allusion and no record of it has as yet been found. It evidently consisted of the country lying to the east of Royall's River along the lower bay and known by the original Indian name of the locality, Magocook. In the days before the first Indian war its settlement had been vigorously promoted. The enterprise, now that peace had been restored, was renewed."
A petition in regard to this matter made to the General Court brought the petitioners the following act of confirma- tion:
"Plantation Grant 11 June 1680. In ansr to the peticon of John Royall, Joseph Phippen, Francis Neale, Sen., Georg[e] Ingersoll, Robert Nickles, Jno. Inger[s]o][1], Francis Neale, Jun., Jno. Wales [Wallis?], Jno. Johnson, Jonathan Putnam, Jno. Pickering, Jno. Marston, humbly desiring this Court to grant them a plantacon at the bot- tom of Casco Bay, on a river called Swegustagoe, &c., the Court, consisting of the Gounor & Company judgeth it meet to grant the peticioners five miles square, to be al- lotted out for a towneship & two of the Islands adjacent to the place propounded for by the peticoners, and doe or- der that a committee be impowered for the enterteyning of Inhabitants & granting of allottments and laying out the bounds of the said toune, and no Indian purchase formerly or hereafter to be made shall give interest to any person in said lands, but by the approbation and allow- ance of the said committee, reserving to the Gounor & Com- pany the royalties and priviledges due by charter, to the cheife lord proprietor & a farme of three hundred acres in any place where the president of the said province shall appoint and choose: and all this on condition that they settle twenty or thirty families, with an able minister, within two years: also they shall allow, as an acknowledge- ment of the Govnor & Company, or the cheife proprietors by his majesties' charter, after the first seven years expired, five beaver skins pr annum."
The Provincial Government was established in August, 1680, at Fort Loyall (Portland) by President Danforth, who, accom- panied by his assistants Nathaniel Saltonstall and Samuel Nor-
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
well and something less than a company of soldiers had arrived there in two sloops.
During the following month an order was issued by this authority concerning the new town and in which it is men- tioned for the first time by its present name:
"Att Fort Loyall in Falmouth 22d September 1680; and for the further Inlargement & Incouragement to the Set- tlement of the Township by the Governour & Company of the Massachusetts on the Easterly side of the Westcus- togo River in Casco Bay: It is hereby granted unto them that the waste Lands lying between the said Grant and Fal- mouth shall be added to the Township: also an Island ly- ing between the Sea and said Township called New Dam- eras Cove: It is also hereby ordered and declared that the name of the said plantation shall be North Yarmouth.
Pr. THOMAS DANFORTH President."
An early form of town government was attempted when the General Court in June, 1680, appointed four men, Silvanus Davis, Bartholomew Gedney, Walter Gendall and Joshua Scot- tow to care for and further its interests. No doubt preliminary work on this matter of starting a new town was done during the year before they met on July 13, 1681, but there does not ap- pear to be any record of meetings of these trustees previous to that date. Main's Point was chosen by them as an advantageous spot for the settlement and a plan drawn for laying out the town, but nothing came of it.
The record of the return of the old proprietors to what is now Freeport gives us but one family, Samuel and Henry Lane, sons of James Lane, who resettled at Fogg's Point.
Through deeds of land more than any other means, we know of the presence of a small number of the inhabitants of the town, however, these deeds are very few. Among them are:
"12 April 1680 Ellner Redding widow of Thomas Red- ding of Casco sold to Mary Higginson late widow and ex- ecutrix of Joshua Atwater of Boston 200 acres of land in Westgustoggoe River bounded by Jas. Lane."
"On November 1682 Warranty Deed: John Royall of North
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The Second Settlement
Yarmouth to Amos Stephens, of Boston, Sailor, to four- teen acres of land off from his part of the neck."
This Amos Stephens married a daughter of the original Wil- liam Royall and died before the final resettlement in 1722.
There is one other deed some years later, bearing the date of:
"16 November 1687 Joseph Nash ... of Boston to Enoch Wiswell of Dorchester all other land in Casco Bay which said Nash purchased of John Mosure, running by the side of the Arisecket River containing 300 acres. Also three parcels more on the side of the upper part of the river, containing 30 acres, with a dwelling-house & frame of a barn there."
That there might be no question of the validity of the land- holders' titles President Danforth, as representative of Massa- chusetts was impowered to make conveyances to the trustees of North Yarmouth who represented their townspeople. Accord- ing to the deed given below, the land embracing part of the present Freeport was turned over to Jeremiah Dummer, John Royall, John York and Walter Gendall, through which four men the inhabitants agreed to the following terms:
"July 26, 1684 According to the proposalls made and mu- tually agreed upon att the General Assembly held in above-named Province att York June 16, 1681, Viz, that they, the above-named Inhabitants of the said Town of North Yarmouth for the time being and in like manner that if there be from time to time for their behalf, as an Acknowledgement of Sr Fardinando Gorges & his as- signes right to Soyle and government: do pay twelve pence for every family whose Single Country rate is not above two Shillings, & for all that exceed the Sum of two shillings in a Single rate to pay three Shillings pr family Annually in money to the Treasurer of the said Province for the use of the Cheif Proprietor thereof .... and in case of Omission or Neglect on the part or behalf of the said Inhabitants to make full payment Annually in manner as is above ex- pressed and hath been Mutually consented and agreed un- to itt shall then be Lawfull for the said President of the said Province. ... to Levie or distress upon the estates of
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Three Centuries of Freeport, Maine
any of the Inhabitants. ... as well as for the said quitt rent, as also for all costs & Charges Accrueing and Arriseing upon the same, And the estates so levied or distreyned and bear, drive or carry away that so much as it shall cost to convey the same to the Treasurer of the Province for the time being or to such place as he or they shall order and appoint."
An earlier historian, Edward Russell, has stated that "At a general town meeting at the house of Thomas Blashfield Feb- ruary 24, 1685, the inhabitants determined on the form of grants to the settlers. ... here commences an interval in the proprietors' records of thirty-seven years; but by papers on file it appears that a town meeting was held at the house of John Royall, June 7, 1686, 'to hear a proclamation sent by the Presi- dent and Council of his Majestie's territories and dominions of New England, in America.' At the same meeting, other grants of land were made."
The charter of Massachusetts having been annulled in 1684, the new Governor, Sir Edmund Andros (who had displaced President Joseph Dudley), arbitrarily demanded that owners of land which Massachusetts had granted should obtain confirma- tion of the same from him. He declared their titles worthless, having become so when the charter was annulled. The magis- trates' fees for securing these new titles to landowners were ex- tortionate, but to retain their holdings the latter were forced to comply with the Governor's demand. Among those proprie- tors receiving such land warrants in 1687-1688 were John, Henry, Job and Samuel Lane.
In the summer of 1685 a group of families who had lost their possessions and been forced from their homes on the island of Eleutheria, of the Bahama group, by their Spanish enemies ap- peared in Boston. When this became known in North Yar- mouth, the idea was conceived of settling some of them in that town and accordingly a petition regarding the matter was pre- sented:
"To The Honble The President & Council
The Humble Petition of Jeremiah Dummer, Simeon Stoddard, Jno. Foster & Walter Gendall. In behalf of themselves & sundry others: Sheweth: That Mr. Danforth,
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The Second Settlement
late President of the Province of Maine, formerly granted to ye Petrs - Gendall & others, a tract of Land for a Town- ship in Casco Bay on which some Settlemt & Improvement are Began & towne Called 'North Yarmouth.' But In grants of farms in the Sd town and Lands adjacent and the propriettyes of Mr Gidney and Mr Wharton, the said town is not likely to arive to any Considerable growth nor sustaine the Charges incident without assistance and In- largement: & whereas most of the Distressed people that are come from Ilutherea [Eleutheria] are rather willing (if any will venture for their supply & accomodation) to settle in the Country than to transport themselves: - And yor Petrs who have Some of the Best & most accomodable farmes for ye sd Town, being not only willing to annex the Same thereto butt Otherwise to concerning themselves for promoting a Settlemet and hoping Mr Gidney & Mr Wharton may be prevailed with upon Condishon that the west & Interjacent Lands & Islands may also be added thereto to afford further Enlargement & accommodation. Yr Petrs Humbly pray that all the waste lands between Mr Whartons Land being about three miles to the west- ward of Puggamugga river [probably Burgoming river] & Mr Gidneys bordering upon the Same, being not Impro- priated, may be granted to yor Petrs for themselves & Such as may be willing [to] concern themselves with them in planting & peopling the sd Town & that the sd Pugga- mugga river, if Mr Wharton consents thereto, may be the Stated Easterly Bonds of sd township, or Otherwise, that meet persons may be appointed to run the line between such lands as you shall be pleased to allow to ye sd Town & Mr Wharton's Land that the present Settlemt may not be discouraged nor these poor people who may make a con- siderable addition to a new plantation may nott be driven away for want of those supplys yor Petrs are willing to add to the puplique Charyty & Benevolence.
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