USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Pittston > Vital records of Pittston, Maine, to the year 1892 > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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The lot east of the Kennebec, next south of No. 16, was
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called the Diamond Lot. It was of the same dimensions as the other lots, containing five square miles. Its name was probably derived from its shape. A settler's lot of 100 acres was granted to Nathaniel Bailey of Pownalborough, yeoman, June 8, 1763. It was on the river, extending 50 poles each side of the center line and E. S. E. 320 poles. The con- ditions of the grant were that he should build a house not less than twenty-five feet square and seven feet stud, clear and bring to fit for tillage five acres of land within three years, live on the premises during said term, and that he or his heirs, or some person under them should dwell there for seven years after the expiration of said three years. The occupant was also to work on the ministerial lot or in build- ing a house for the public worship of God two days in a year for ten years when required, and two days in a year on the public roads until the lands should be incorporated into a township.
The remainder of the north half was granted to Robert Temple, Esq., of Charlestown, May 9, 1764. Of the south half, eighty acres were granted to Silvester Gardiner June 21, 1769. It was south of the Bailey lot, measuring forty poles on the river and extending back one mile. Aug. 28, 1756, Gardiner had deeded the same land to Abner Marson of Pownalborough, labourer, showing that it had been allotted to Gardiner several years before he received his grant. All of the south half not included in previous grants became the property of Silvester Gardiner Aug. 22, 1770. Each of the 80-acre grants referred to above reserves "'liberty of passing and repassing in a Creek leading out of Kennebec River across said Lot."
Lot No. 17, sometimes referred to as the Vassall Lot, was "Voted, granted and assigned to Florentius Vassall, Esq., of London", Feb. 4, 1756. Nov. 2, 1763, he deeded to Walter Cane of Kennebeck River a lot of 100 acres from the center, similar to the other hundred acre lots which have already been described. This did not prevent him from giving Robert Twycross a deed of the same land in 1768, but the Cane deed was the one under which the land passed to future purchasers. James Flagg as administrator of Cane's estate sold it to Samuel Goodwin, Jr., of Pownal-
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borough, who in turn conveyed part to Samuel Eastman and part to Jonathan Burnell of Sherburn, Nantucket Island.
The original grant of the Vassall Lot is not on record in this county. The remaining 3100 acres were sold for taxes in 1784, and were conveyed by tax deed to Joseph North of Hallowell. Dec. 27, 1786, they were redeemed by Richard Vassall of London, Florentius Vassall's son, and North reconveyed to him. The payment was made by Samuel Goodwin, and there is on record a long deposition in which he relates how he tried to get a bill of items from North, who refused to give it, said that the amount ten- dered was correct, put the money in his pocket and offered the deed, which Goodwin was obliged to accept.
Florentius Vassall died in 1778, and by his will his real estate in America was to go to his son Richard and Richard's daughter Elizabeth, and then to Elizabeth's male heirs. Elizabeth had married Sir Godfrey Webster, and they had two sons, Godfrey, who died in 1836, and Henry. While in Italy, in 1795, she became intimate with Lord Holland, and her husband obtained a divorce from her and a verdict of 6000 pounds against her paramour. After the divorce, Lord Holland married her, and she returned to England to be- come mistress of Holland House and leader of that illustrious Holland House Circle whose fame endures even to this day. To these family complications has been ascribed in part the neglect of the Kennebec property.
Neglected at any rate it was, and like many tracts be- longing to absentee owners, it was taken possession of by "squatters." Henry Webster became a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, and in 1846 an action in his name against Peter Cooper was entered in the U. S. Circuit Court at Portland for the recovery of a part of the Pittston property. A trial resulted in a verdict for the defendant, but the case was carried to the U. S. Supreme Court, which reversed the judgment and sent the case back for further proceedings. In 1854 the defendant was defaulted and judgment was entered for the plaintiff, but there is no record of any attempt on his part to enforce it. Sabine says in his "Loyalists of the American Revolution", that the suit was prosecuted in the interest of some persons in Boston who had purchased the
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rights of Henry and his mother, and that the litigation was terminated by the defendant paying "a small sum for the land he occupied and each party his own costs." Both of these statements appear probable.
We have nearly reached the south line of Pittston. Jan. 7, 1764, the Proprietors conveyed to "Martin Hayley of Kennebeck, Husbandman," a lot of land beginning on the river at the westerly end of a road eight poles wide "which Road is the Northern Boundary of the Town of Pownal- borough", running E. S. E. 390 poles, then N. N. E. 45 poles, then W. N. W. to the river, then southerly to the first bounds, containing one hundred acres. The consideration was 40 pounds, and the conveyance was absolute and with- out conditions. Hanson says that the first English hay cut in Pittston was raised on this land. The tax deeds of . the Vassall lot make Martin Haley's land its southern boundary.
The part of Pittston which lay east of the Kennebec, as originally laid out, contained six and one half of the mile lots which we have now described, together with the forty five rods which constituted the width of the Haley lot. The southern and eastern boundaries are still a part of the original lines. In 1844 a strip measuring fifty rods on the river and extending easterly one mile was annexed to the town from the town of Hallowell, and in 1855 the farm of John Barker was set off from the town of Chelsea. These annexations account for the irregularity of what was once the north line of Pittston, now the north line of Randolph.
At the breaking out of the Revolution, Silvester Gardiner favored the cause of Great Britain. He accordingly left Boston when it was evacuated by the British army, in 1776, and went to Halifax and from there to England, where he remained until the conclusion of hostilities. His property in Massachusetts and Rhode Island was confiscated, and proceedings for the same end were instituted against his Gardinerstown estates ; but they were not properly com- menced and had to be begun anew. The treaty of peace put an end to this action before it could be consummated, and so the property was saved.
After peace was declared, Dr. Gardiner returned to this country and resumed the practice of his profession in New-
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port, R. I., where he died August 6, 1786. Hanson's History of Gardiner contains a full but not quite accurate copy of his will. Only such parts will be quoted here as relate to the disposition of his Gardinerstown estates. They are as follows :
"I give and devise unto my two sons in law, Robert Hallowell, Esq., and Oliver Whipple, of Portsmouth, in the State of New Hampshire in North America, Esquire all my Cobbiscontee Tract of land, so called, at Gardinerstown, ly- ing on the west side of Kennebec river, abutting on Cob- biscontee Great Pond, and lies on the North and South side of Cobbiscontee Great River, as by the several Grants to me will appear ; Also an Island on Kennebec river, containing one hundred and twenty acres, which was formerly called Lynd's Iland, but now Gardiner's Island, and now let upon lease to Joseph Smith ; the foregoing Island and land upon this special trust, for the express following purpose (that is to say), To and for the sole use and benefit of my son William Gardiner, during his life, and afterwards to the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, and in default of such heirs male, then to the eldest daughter of the said William Gardiner and the heirs male of her body lawfully begotten, and in default of such issue, male or female, I give and devise all the aforementioned premises to my grandson, Robert Hallowell, son to Robert and Hannah Hallowell, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, and in default of heirs male, then to the eldest daughter of the said Robert Hallowell, and to the heirs male of her body lawfully be- gotten, and in default of such heirs male or female of the said Robert Hallowell, then I give and devise the aforementioned premises to my grandson Silvester Whipple, son to Oliver and Abigail Whipple, and to the heirs male of his body law- fully begotten, and in default of such heirs male, then to his daughter and the heirs male of her body lawfully be- gotten. On this condition that in case the devised premises should pass to the heirs male of the said Robert Hallowell, or the heirs male of the said Oliver Whipple, in such case the said male or female heirs, shall be obliged to change or procure his name to be changed from Hallowell or Whipple, as the estate may happen to pass, to the one or the other, to
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the name of Gardiner, and in default of such issue male or female before specified, then to the next heir at law and in default of lawful heirs, then to Saint Ann's Church in Gardinerstown."
"I give and bequeath to my two daughters, Hannah Hal- lowell and Abagail Whipple, the whole of Worromontogus Tract, containing six thousand acres of land, bounded Westerly on the east side of Kennebec river, by the three grants of the said land from the Kennebec Company to me will more fully appear, to be equally divided between them, the northerly half I devise to Mrs. Hallowell, the southerly half I devise to my daughter Whipple, each of them paying annually forever three pounds sterling out of the rents and profits of the said land, to the Episcopal Minister for the time being of St. Ann's Church in Gardinerstown, who shall be elected and duly inducted in said Church. I give and devise to my daughter Dumaresque my lot of land called the Diamond Lot, containing sixteen hundred acres, as pr grant from the Kennebec Company, as delineated and laid down on the Kennebec Company's plan made by John North, Esquire to hold during her natural life, and then to the male heirs of her body lawfully begotten, and in default of male heirs, to be equally divided among her daughters that may be living at the time of my decease she and her heirs paying annually the sum of forty shillings sterling out of the Rents and profits of the said land, to the ministry of St. Ann's Church in Gardinerstown, who shall be duly elected and inducted to the Church."
Robert Hallowell and Oliver Whipple were appointed executors.
William Gardiner died without issue about a year after his father. The Cobbosseecontee Tract accordingly passed to Robert Hallowell the younger, who assumed the name of Gardiner according to the terms of the will. Mrs. Whipple and Mrs. Dumaresque both survived their father, and as both had direct male heirs, the real estate devised to them vested in accordance with the terms of the will.
HENRY S. WEBSTER.
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