USA > Maine > Lincoln County > Wiscasset > Wiscasset in Pownalborough; a history of the shire town and the salient historical features of the territory between the Sheepscot and Kennebec rivers > Part 53
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At one time we were so completely inclosed that I got out with a part of the crew, and walked on the ice, - a walk the few mariners have probably ever enjoyed at that distance from land, on the Western Ocean. At 8 o'clock in the evening, found the surrounding
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ice much thinner and the islands less frequent: handed all sails except close reef main topsail, which we hove to the mast to keep her from ranging ahead on the islands, we made sail and steered E.S.E. and E.N.E. for three days, with a good breeze, and under short sail during the night.
It was the opinion of all hands that we sailed 300 miles before we were clear of the large islands of ice.
The Ajax arrived in Hampton Roads twenty-sixth of June from London, twenty-seven days from Deal.33
Pirates
Tradition has been rife with tales of pirates' buried booty secreted in every hidden cove and sand dune all along the coast from Campobello to Kitty Hawk and the pirate usually named is Captain Kidd. Had he possessed all of the hid- den hoards with which golden legends accredit him, the Maharajah of Jypore would seem a pauper in comparison with Kidd.
Witches and seers have alike been consulted, all to no purpose, for the loca- tion of the hiding places of pirates' gold in the valley of the Sheepscot. When someone tried to wheedle out of Moll Pitcher, the celebrated fortune teller of Lynn, the location of at least one cache of Captain Kidd by promising to halve it with her, the astute old hag exclaimed: "Fool, if I knew could I not have it all myself?"
Despite the absence of reliable corroboration, tradition persists that the skull and cross bones of the buccaneers followed the fleur-de-lis of the Bourbons to the upper reaches of the Sheepscot River. Buried treasure chests have been sought by divining, diving, delving and digging both on shore and in the stream at Woodbridge's Narrows, Folly Island, Merrill's Cove in Edgecomb, the Oven's Mouth, at Middle Mark Island off the Westport shore, where in 1 873 a band of money diggers from the Kennebec bored fruitlessly into the sand and rocks to a depth of from fifty to sixty feet in search of Captain Kidd's forgotten gold.34
To Dixie Bull is assigned the rôle of First Pirate of New England. He ap- pears to have lived in London until 1631, when he came to this country and engaged in the beaver trade. He lived for a brief time in Boston but soon came to the coast of Maine, sent perhaps by Sir Ferdinando Gorges. His name ap- pears as one of the thirteen grantees of land on the coast of the river Agamenti-
33. Lincoln Intelligencer, issue of July 7, 1826.
34. Seaside Oracle, Vol. VII, No. 32.
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cus.35 He bartered with the natives at Monhegan and Pemaquid and in June, 1632, was trading in Penobscot Bay "when some Frenchmen in a pinnace came upon him and seized his shallop and stock of coats, rugs, blankets and bisketts."
Various and conflicting are the stories told of Captain Kidd and the dou- bloons and diamonds he brought from the Spanish Main and buried in either the Sasanoa or Sheepscot River; for some persons hold that gold and gems are still secreted on the east side of Folly Island beneath the tree where the eagle makes his home, while another legend is that this location was known to more than one person and that on a moonlit night a man came in a boat, dug up the treasure and departed for parts unknown. Both his identity and his discovery are veiled in mystery.
The bed of the Sheepscot below the site of the ancient New Dartmouth for a whole summer was dragged and drawn in the hope of raising one of Kidd's chests of treasure,36 by men who went down in diver's suits in the hope of find- ing gold, that magnet whose power of attraction is greater than that of steel.
The foundation for the belief that treasure lay beneath the river was that Samuel Trask, when a boy, was stolen by the Indians from his parents in Salem, Massachusetts, and carried to the eastward and for many years was among the missing. Anselm, a son of Baron de Castine, the noted Frenchman, mentions the fact, having redeemed Samuel Trask from the savages on the Penobscot. While among them he made himself very useful as a huntsman. His skill and seamanship were noticed by Castine, who purchased him and em- ployed him on his vessel. One day while at anchor off the coast of Maine, an English ship ran in and fired on Castine's vessel. He and Trask fled to the shore in a small boat. The Englishman ran up a flag of truce and Castine with Trask went on board where they were both made prisoners. Castine was after- ward set on shore, but the English freebooters seized his property and sailed away with Samuel Trask, who was transferred to a vessel owned by Captain Kidd, the pirate.
Kidd is said to have visited this coast at that time, frequently visiting the shores and creeks of the Sheepscot River to cut spars from the high headlands, and according to tradition, buried heaps of gold in iron-bound chests along its shores, or on some of the lower islands of Sheepscot Bay.
When Kidd landed in Boston in his futile attempt to convince Lord Bello-
35. New England Register, Vol. XXXIX.
36. Ancient Dominions of Maine, p. 219.
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mont of his innocence,37 Samuel Trask retired to his former home on the Sheepscot, where, in years gone by, he had often visited, and made a clearing on the east side of the river, near Folly Island, in what was afterward Free- town (now Edgecomb) opposite to Wiscasset.
Captain Trask, having lived a long time among the Indians of the Penob- scot tribe, became quite skilled as a physician, and when he came among the early settlers of Freetown he was known as Dr. Trask. Here he lived until his death, August, 1789, at the age of one hundred and eighteen years.
An early settler of the place, by the name of Cunningham, got the story from Dr. Trask that Kidd, the pirate, had buried a pot of gold over on Folly Island, and the tradition is that Cunningham one dark night visited the spot before Trask knew it and dug up the buried treasure. It has always been the tradition even down to the present day that Kidd buried his gold somewhere on the banks of the Sheepscot. In fact, so deeply rooted became the legend of Captain Kidd's treasure chest in the Sheepscot River that in the early fifties an attempt was made to find it.
When the Blue Ship came A-hunting Gold
"In 1852-3 a golden bubble was blown and for more than a year floated among the island channels of the Sheepscot below the falls and off the shores of the ancient homestead ruins of the 'Sheepscot Neck.' The glittering phan- tom was, however, the alleged product of the rappings of metropolitan spirits, raised from between the lids of one of Captain Kidd's treasure chests, sup- posed to have been buried at the landings of the ancient and populous site of the Sheepscot Farms, an alleged off-shoot of Popham's planting of 1607. The transaction was the offspring of one of those traditional myths, which for gen- erations has floated over the waters of the Sheepscot. A boat of inland model, strange build and stoutly timbered, painted blue and named the Hunter manned with bipeds-whereof one was of the order of amphibia artificialis and genus homo - laden with strange fixtures-leaden shoes, belts and neckties, a brazen bonnet glazed and barred, a mourning suit of black elastic with breathing tubes and feelers to walk about the deep, withal unheralded, made her appearance in the Sheepscot between two little islands whose channel waters here were twisted into many a deep pool, near Woodbridge's narrows. The public curi- osity was at once startled. The vision of the blue boat moored each slack water
37. Captain Kidd was hanged at Wapping, England, May 23, 1701, for causing the death of a seaman whom he struck on the head with a bucket.
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in the center of the basin, and the man in uncouth array, launched from the gunwale into the depths below, attracted crowds to the spot.
"The mystery became insupportable. Every submarine dive stirred breath- less interest but not a spark of light appeared. No iron chests came up in sight of the lookers on. Rumor whispered that an old anchor fluke was at one time seized, and an iron strapped box was sounded, but nothing more definite could be reached.
"On the bank a canvas awning declining to the earth from a cross-bar, was the only shelter for roof and sides and underneath heaps of quilts and cooking vessels, with smouldering ash brands for a fire place.
"As may be easily conjectured the whole region soon became excited and Madam Rumor with torch in hand, soon raised the dust of a century and a half with marvels of blood, treasure and mystery. Sam Trask, the Indian captive Salem boy of Kidd's adventures, who is said to have careened his ship and cut spars, screened by the Sheepscot cliffs, indeed had his homestead but a little further down the river on Edgecomb heights, where he reached the unprece- dented age of 118 years, and the tradition of his age and adventures linger still about the nooks and headlands of Sheepscot waters.
"Nevertheless, six men from distant interior parts, actually spent a season or two in search of the channel bottoms of the Sheepscot waters, at the point described with the rumored result of sending their diver to a spot where he put his hand on a metallic chest some 3 feet by 16 inches, hooped and riveted, and this on his third descent. A man by the name of Trask singularly enough headed the treasure searchers, following, he averred, the tradition of his an- cestor, Samuel Trask, the captive, that Kidd deposited a box of gold in this river as he fled from ships of war which followed him into Sheepscot waters."3
The Polly and the Pirates
Extracts from a letter from Major Tinkham, in the schooner Polly, belong- ing to Wiscasset, to his friend there, dated Charleston, South Carolina, No- vember 28, 1795:
I have to inform you that I am once more within the United States. I will now tell you the cause of my being here. We sailed from New Orleans the 17th ult. with a number of passengers bound for Baltimore. On the 10th inst we were boarded by Pirates (calling themselves Republicans) who robbed us of 11, 1 19 dollars in cash, a considerable quantity
38. The above account is believed to have been written by Rufus K. Sewall.
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of silver plate belonging to a lady who was a passenger, the buckles from my knees, a pair of gold buttons from the sleeves of a gentleman, a watch from another; they took from us likewise a quantity of rum &c &c.
After robbing us in this manner, they let us go, without giving us any information as to the name of the vessel or the commanders; all they told us was, they were from Port a Paix. But we suspected they were from this port; and in consequence we put in here with the vessel to see if we could obtain any information or satisfaction. We have not yet been able to get any further information than that there was such a vessel sailed from here about two months ago; but we cannot find the owner; that part of the business is kept a secret in this place. The gentlemen here appear much disposed to render us every assist- ance in their power; but unless the privateer should get in, I doubt whether we shall get any redress, except we find out the owner. Thus are the Americans used by their "good friends"; as some of my countrymen call them; but from such, good Lord deliver me.
The Brig Betsey
Although Wiscasset can boast no weather-beaten pirate with sin-scarred face, its merchant vessels engaged in the West Indian trade were constantly at- tacked and seized by buccaneers of the Spanish Main where privateers as well as pirates preyed on the Spanish commerce when the treasure ships and silver fleet were homeward bound for Cadiz. During the first quarter of the nine- teenth century the local papers reeked with piratical encounters off the Cuban coast, but the most gruesome and blood-curdling of all the pirate tales is that of the brig Betsey, built by Henry Cargill of Sheepscot at New Milford in 1 803. She was a hermaphrodite brig with a main topsail and of 120.92 tons burthen, a low decked vessel built for carrying timber and lumber to Liver- pool and the West Indies. Capt. Spencer Clifford of Edgecomb commanded her for several voyages and he was succeeded by Capt. Thomas Cunningham, from the same town. Next came Capt. Ellis Hilton of Wiscasset, who had been mate with Captain Cunningham and who succeeded him in command of the Betsey when Cunningham was transferred to the Illuminator. This was the third voyage made by Hilton as captain of the Betsey.
On November 28, 1824, the Betsey sailed from Wiscasset for Matanzas, Cuba, laden with lumber. It was wrecked on a reef near this island and its crew attacked and murdered by pirates.
When the details of the gruesome butchery reached Wiscasset through a let- ter written to Abiel Wood by Captain Holmes, the shocked citizens immedi- ately held a mass meeting of which the following is the record.
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Ships and Pirates
At a meeting of the merchants and citizens of Wiscasset in the County of Lincoln and State of Maine, on Monday, the 14th day of February, 1825, on the subject of memorial- izing Congress relative to Piracies committed at and near the Island of Cuba, Hon. Abiel Wood was chosen Chairman, and Nathan Clark, Jr., Secretary.
Voted, That Messrs. Samuel Miller, John H. Sheppard, Alexander Johnston, Wm. M. Boyd, John Babson, Ebenezer Hilton, and John Erskine, be a Committee to draft a me- morial on this subject; the Committee having retired and prepared the following, it was unanimously voted that the same be signed by said Committee and forwarded to Congress without delay.
N. CLARK, JR., Secretary.
A. WOOD, Chairman.
MEMORIAL
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled.
The Merchants and Citizens of WISCASSET in the State of Maine, respectfully repre- sent, that on the twenty-eighth day of November last past, the Brig Betsey, commanded by Captain Ellis Hilton sailed from this port for the Island of Cuba, loaded with lumber, and after being at sea 22 days, was shipwrecked on a reef of rocks called the Double Headed Shot Keys, near said Island of Cuba; that said Hilton and crew in their distressed situa- tion then took to the long boat of said brig and attempted to reach the land - that on their way they were seized by Pirates, carried into a cove, and there Captain Hilton was in- humanly beheaded; Joshua Merry the mate was murdered, and the crew put to death, ex- cepting Daniel Collins, second mate, who escaped after being wounded, and through great danger and suffering arrived at Matanzas, - and also one seaman who fled and saved his life - and that said Hilton and crew were American citizens, part of whom be- longed to this port and have left families, and were in the lawful pursuit of commerce with a nation with whom the United States were then, and now are, at peace.
Your memorialist will not trouble Congress with the particulars of this horrid and atro- cious violation of the laws of nature and of nations, as documents will be forwarded of the facts. But they would represent that there has been no instance of cruelty so unprece- dented and wanton bloodshed so unprincipled in the innumerable piracies committed on American property and on American citizens in the West Indian seas, - for the unfor- tunate captain and crew who were slain were shipwrecked mariners seeking protection of the benevolent and not offering a temptation even to Pirates to murder them for gain, - they were cast away on the shores of an Island belonging to the Spanish Government, whose subjects wantonly killed them in cool blood at a time when their situation would have commended sympathy of any savage on earth but the Spanish Pirate, - and they were American citizens, free born and entitled to be respected for the flag under which they sailed.
Your memorialists will not dwell upon the deep affliction of the widow and orphan, nor on the general commiseration felt by every class of society in this section of the country on account of a deed so barbarous and cruel in its nature. But they unite with the general and decided voice of our common country, manifesting itself in memorials and complaints
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from various parts of the United States, in earnest supplication that Congress would take some decisive resolute and effectual measures to suppress and annihilate the awful system of Piracy in the West Indian Seas.
With due respect your memorialists consider that the duty of Government is to protect every part of our country and every member of the community from violence and out- rage, for allegiance and protection are reciprocal rights. They consider that when the political body is attacked, in whatever part, however humble or minute, by domestic or foreign enemies, the whole is affected and the whole should feel; as every citizen has an equal claim on the protection of his country. If the preservation of the meanest and humblest member of society require the strong arm of Government to be extended, let it be done. If a single American citizen is slain or destroyed by the subject of another country, contrary to the laws of nations, it should be common cause and felt no less than a general attack on the body politic and freedom of our Republic. If Spain cannot govern her colonies but permits any one of them by harboring pirates to violate the laws of na- tions, your memorialists would respectfully ask, whether by the same universal laws such a colony ought not to be amenable to such power as can compel it to preserve the peace of the world from shameful violation?
The language of your memorialists may appear warm and energetic, but circumstances justify a warmth of feeling which no American citizen can suppress if he feel for the un- fortunate or for the honor of his country.
They would therefore respectfully supplicate Congress that such measures may be adopted and such a course immediately pursued as will maintain our lawful commerce, - protect the lives of American seamen, and prevent in future such unheard of and awful barbarities.
Wiscasset, Feb. 15, 1825. SAMUEL MILLER JOHN H. SHEPPARD ALEX'R JOHNSTON WILLIAM M. BOYD JOHN BABSON EBENEZER HILTON JOHN ERSKINE.
A letter received by the Charleston (S. C.) Courier, dated Matanzas, January fifteenth, says:
I have nothing to communicate except the report of the capture of a Piratical Boat by the boats of H. B. M. ship Portsmouth, who had a few days since murdered the crew (ex- cept one man who escaped and is now here) of the Brig Betsey, of Wiscasset, bound here - a circumstance at which humanity shudders, and of which the American government will doubtless take notice.
Issue of March 4, 1825:
The memorial from Wiscasset was presented in Congress by Mr. Herrick on the twenty-first of February.
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J
B
JEFFERSON BORDEN
Schooner Jefferson Borden of Fall River, Lemuel Hall, master, entering Leghorn in 1868. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Salem.
1
Celestial Empire, 1,630 tons, built by Jotham Stetson at South Boston, 1852.
Ships and Pirates
Issue of March II, 1825:
SUPPRESSION OF PIRACY
The bill recently reported to Congress, clothing the Executive with discretionary powers to suppress this evil, has been so modified as to authorize only the building of ten Sloops of War. We are free to express our disappointment at this result. After so many earnest appeals to that body, it was confidently believed that measures more effectual than any heretofore would be adopted to extirpate those demons who lurk in and about the Island of Cuba. But as Moderation seems to be the ruling maxim of the times both with the government and political parties of our country we must wait a few years longer, until some hundreds more of our seamen shall be butchered, when perhaps our Government will assume that attitude now so loudly called for to avenge the murder of our seamen and the insulted honor of our flag.
Lincoln Intelligencer. Issue of April 29, 1825:
The recent capture and execution of Pirates must be gratifying to all; but the capture of the schooner under the command of the identical Pirate who murdered the crew of the Brig Betsey of this port, is peculiarly gratifying to its inhabitants. The papers do not explain how this gang was recognized. It was through Manuel, a Portugese, one of the only two survivors of the Betsey's crew, who shipped on board the Sea Gull on his arrival at Matanzas.
It would appear that the murderers escaped to the shore when the schooner was cap- tured. The bodies of thirteen persons were found tied to trees on shore, near where the pirates were captured. It was supposed that they had starved to death in that situation. The murderers were finally taken.
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XX
Separation
M AINE was, on the whole, well governed by Massachusetts, but a geographical separation, a determination to be rid of the burden of a large state debt, and a difference of economic interests as well as political ones, for Democrats predominated in Maine while Massachusetts was most- ly Federalist, caused a desire for an independent commonwealth.1
A few years after the setting off of Lincoln and Cumberland Counties from York, the question regarding a separate government from Massachu- setts for these three counties in the District of Maine was agitated. A con- ference to consider this proposal was called for October 5, 1785, at the meeting-house of Rev. Messrs. Smith and Deane in Falmouth, now Port- land. Our county was represented at that conference by William Lithgow, Esq., from that part of Pownalborough now called Dresden, and Daniel McFadden, of Georgetown; Samuel Thompson, Esq., of Topsham; Sam- uel Nickels, Esq., of Newcastle; William Jones, Esq., of Bristol; Daniel Cony, of Hallowell; Dennis Getchell of Vassalboro; Zimri Haywood, of Winslow; Jonathan Whiting of Winthrop; Reuben Colburn, of Pittstown, and Lemuel Cumings of Lewiston.
That convention was kept alive by adjournment to the first Wednesday in September, 1786, and the recommendation that a new delegation be had to meet at the same time. In the new delegation a few additional names appear: John Philbrook of Hancock plantation, now Clinton; Dummer Sewall, of Bath, and Joshua Bean, of Winthrop. The conventions united by a "coalesce" of the two. After many adjournments, the appointments of committees from time to time, and a referendum at one time and another, it is stated that the whole business and the convention, itself, gradually fell asleep, and, at the last adjournment, there were but three members present, all residents of Portland, and "the convention expired not only without a groan, but without a single mourner to weep over its remains!"
At the next convention, called to meet at Portland in June, 1794, "to consider the expediency of erecting the whole District of Maine into a sep- arate State," the representatives from our town, Thomas Rice and Capt. China (Chaney? ) Smith were chosen.
1. "Maine," in Encyclopædia Britannica.
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Separation
To those familiar with the cost of government today, the estimate of probable expenses of a new government as presented at the convention of I794, may be of interest:
Governor's salary,
£300
Lieut. Governor's salary,
120
Secretary and Treasurer,
300
Clerks of ditto,
140
Judges of the Supreme Jud. Court,
850
Attorney General,
150
Legislative Department,
1,500
Clerks of both Houses,
60
Messenger,
30
Contingencies,
1,200
£4,650
It was further estimated that the sum to be paid by the District into the treasury of Massachusetts was £6,200, making a difference of £1,550 in favor of the new government. But the time was not ripe for such a separa- tion and the opposition prevailed.
The lack of protection during the War of 1812 revived the question, but it was still unaccomplished at the Brunswick convention of 1816, to which Jeremiah Bailey, Esq., and Daniel Quinnam, were chosen as delegates from this town on September 2, 1816, at a meeting held in the old meeting-house facing the Common. At that meeting, to quote the record, "The Votes for Separation of the District of Maine from Massachusetts proper, were 68; against separation 123; whole number of Votes 191." Earlier in that year, the town had voted upon the question, "Shall the Legislature be requested to give its consent to the separation of the District of Maine from Massa- chusetts proper, and the erection of said District into a separate State," the result of which showed the majority to be against separation.
The two great political parties of the day appear to have taken sides upon the question. The members of the party of Jefferson and Jackson, consisting of King, who became our first governor, of Abiel Wood and McCrate, also Taylor, Tucker and Lennox, were in favor of the separation; while those of the Federalist party were opposed.
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