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EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
BY
RALPH MAY
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Gc 974.202 P83m 1129734
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01188 4274
GEN
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EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
EARLY PORTSMOUTH. .. HisTony
PORTSMOUTH IN 1777 OR A LITTLE EARLIER.
This engraving appeared in 1777 in the "Atlantic Neptune," pub- lished by the British Admiralty, for the use of the admiral of the British fleet on the North Atlantic Coast. J. F. W. Des Barres, hydrographer.
This print probably represents very closely the appearance of Portsmouth from across the Piscataqua River in 1777. It includes the original strawberry bank. The township of Strawbery Banke, which later took the name of Portsmouth, derived its name from this bank.
Published through the courtesy of C. E. Goodspeed & Co.
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بطاوسعة برئاسة بقة وست
EARLY PORTSMOUTH N.H. HISTORY
BY RALPH MAY
C. E. GOODSPEED & CO., BOSTON
1926
Copyright RALPH MAY 1926
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY WRIGHT AND POTTER, BOSTON
1129734
PREFACE
Much has previously been written about early Portsmouth history. A number of these accounts, however, are parts only of wider historical reports, and no one of them has combined all of the facts that have especially interested the writer of the following pages.
It is, primarily, to satisfy a personal desire that the following compilation is presented. The author has also felt that he has had, by circumstance, exception- ally easy access to many important references on Portsmouth history.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE
7
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
11
CHAPTER
I. THE PISCATAQUA AWAITS DISCOVERY 13
II. DISCOVERY 26
III. SETTLEMENT 55
IV. THE LACONIA ADVENTURERS 80
V. SOME COLLATERAL HISTORY 108
VI. THE PISCATAQUA SETTLEMENTS, 1635-1641 122
VII. STRAWBERY BANKE
138
VIII. PORTSMOUTH, 1652-1682
154
IX. INDIAN DIFFICULTIES 177
X. EARLY INDEPENDENCE 190
XI. A COLONIAL CAPITAL 211
XII. THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 236
XIII. LATER MARITIME AND OTHER HISTORY 254
REFERENCES
273
1
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTSMOUTH IN 1777
.
·
.
Frontispiece .
Facing Page
LOWER HARBOR, NEWCASTLE, FORT POINT, GERRISH
ISLAND AND THE SEA
32
THE UPPER HARBOR . 48
REACH OF THE PISCATAQUA RIVER ABOVE ELIOT NECK 64
THE JACKSON HOUSE . 80
INTERIOR, JACKSON HOUSE
96
THE BENNING WENTWORTH HOUSE
112
COUNCIL CHAMBER, BENNING WENTWORTH HOUSE 120
HALL, MOFFAT-LADD HOUSE . 128
LANDING AND PANELING, MOFFAT-LADD HOUSE 144
FOUR PORTSMOUTH DOORWAYS 160
FOUR PORTSMOUTH DOORWAYS
168
Two WINTER SCENES IN PORTSMOUTH
176
FOUR PORTSMOUTH DOORWAYS
192
THE LANGDON-PICKERING HOUSE 208
THE RUNDLET-MAY GARDEN AND HOUSE 224
DOORWAY AND LANDING, RUNDLET-MAY HOUSE 240
THE "RANGER"
248
THE U. S. S. "PORTSMOUTH" AT PORTSMOUTH NAVY YARD 256
EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
CHAPTER I
THE PISCATAQUA AWAITS DISCOVERY
T HERE is a saying that every one who has made his or her home in Portsmouth loves to return there. The old town does exert a pull on the hearts of all who truly know it, and there is something like a fraternity the world over among men who hail from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Portsmouth has a dignity and a repose that are above the changing times and that carry on through the years, not wholly unaffected by new and foreign influences, but still evi- dent in the face of them. It is, perhaps, this continued indication of a rich past which especially delights the home-comer, coupled with the remembrance of happy days spent near the shores of the Piscataqua.
Those who are conscious of the charm of Ports- mouth will doubtless agree that much of it is due to the Piscataqua River. This beautiful inlet of the sea, unchanging except as nature changes it, with the rush- ing ebb and flood of its tide, its swirling eddies, its calm breadth at high water, is the commanding influ- ence in the history of Portsmouth. The Englishmen who first saw the Piscataqua gave it prominence in their reports and on their maps. Capt. John Smith called the surrounding country by the Indian name characterizing the river.1 It was near the mouth of the river, and, presumably, because of the river and its
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EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
near-by fishing grounds, that the first settlement in New Hampshire, in 1623, occurred.8
The earliest stages of settlement found the river an easy line of progress and of unity, and as the separate settlements along the river banks grew, it was the Pis- cataqua that for a considerable time identified them. Once firmly rooted, these same settlements developed more rapidly and with greater relative importance because of the Piscataqua River and its harbor.
History does not record the discovery of the Piscat- aqua until 1603.7 Voyagers may have visited it earlier, or coasted by its mouth and seen it, as is indicated by Gosnold and the Popham Expedition, in 1602 and 1607, respectively, finding French and Spanish imple- ments and boats already in the hands of the Indians, near what was probably Nahant, and at Monhegan. But 1603 is the earliest date of any known description by Europeans of the Piscataqua River. Whether or not explorers of American waters before 1603 reached what is now the short New Hampshire coast line, all of them, in some degree, influenced the discovery of the Piscataqua, and their adventures and risks seem to have a place in the history of Portsmouth.
Tradition has it that in A.D. 1000, Lief "the Lucky," the son of Eric "the Red," an Icelandic chief, sailed with thirty-five brave companions along what is now the New England shore. Lief is reported "a mickle man and stout, most noble to see; a wise man and moderate in all things."18 This same tradition carries Lief from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod. The report pic- tures his party as wintering in New England and as returning in the spring to their homeland, with news of the discovery of the new country, which they had named Vineland.6
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THE PISCATAQUA AWAITS DISCOVERY
A further Norse tradition states that in A.D. 1007, Thorfin Karlsefni, another famous Icelandic sea rover, headed an expedition of one hundred and fifty-one men and seven women, with the purpose of founding a plantation in Vineland. This party is said to have explored the bays and harbors of the New England coast. They built huts, carried on a brisk trade with the natives, and stayed for three years. Lief's brother, Thorvald, is reported as the first Christian buried in America.6 He was killed by the natives, apparently after some provocation on the part of the Norse. It was on this same expedition, as the Sagas indicate, that the first white child was born in America.6
The Norse contact as reported, though intermittent, lasted for a considerable time. According to the Sagas, the last year of the Norse occupation of Vineland was in 1347.6 This was about the date of the black plague, from the ravages of which it took Europe one hundred years to recover. It was probably the black plague that put an end to the Norse expeditions to the far westward.6
After the dates of the Norse contact with the Amer- ican continent, if such occurred, there was a long lapse of time before published history shows Europeans again setting foot in the New World. Whatever foothold the sea rovers had obtained was lost or absorbed, and no physical evidence of their sojourn remained other than a few rude buildings attributed to them.
The Sagas probably had their effect on the later dis- covery of the New World by Europeans. It is likely that some report of the voyages of the Norsemen pene- trated the courts of Spain, and it is possible that the Sagas themselves, relating to the Norse occupation of Vineland, were retold in southern Europe, and that,
16
EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
coupled with the reports of other and later voyages, they stimulated the imagination of Columbus.6 Their romantic record was likely to spread beyond their immediate sphere.
Rude as their ships, was navigation then, No useful compass or meridian known; Coasting, they kept the land within their ken, And knew no North, but when the pole star shone.
- JOHN DRYDEN.
The Rev. William Hubbard, who lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts, wrote the first history of New Eng- land.8 On October 11, 1682, the General Court of Massachusetts granted him £50 "as a manifestation of thankfulness and for this history."8 It is perhaps fitting that the words of the Rev. William Hubbard should introduce the generally acknowledged discov- erer of the New World. As the Rev. William Hubbard put it, "Christopher Columbus, a Genoesian, had the happiness and honour first to discover this before unknowne part of the world."8 Columbus, "a gentle man of Italie,"15 first saw and landed in the West Indies on October 12, 1492.10, 16, 17 The details of his voyage spread rapidly throughout Europe, his discovery being of especial interest to the Italian Republics, enriched by the commerce of the Middle Ages.9
After the return of Columbus from his first voyage, almost immediately, in 1493, Pope Alexander VI issued a Bull, or legal statement, in which he referred to Columbus in happy terms, and in which he drew an imaginary line from the North Pole to the South, one hundred leagues west of the Azores, assigning to Spain all that lay to the west of that boundary, while all to
17
THE PISCATAQUA AWAITS DISCOVERY
the east of it he confirmed to Portugal. 10, 14 This Bull of Pope Alexander VI, in 1493, established the prin- ciple that discovery alone gave an inchoate title, to be perfected by occupation. 14 In this Bull, Pope Alex- ander VI authorized the King and Queen of Spain to subdue all newly discovered countries not in the possession of any Christian prince. He incidentally threatened with excommunication all who did not conform to his edict. 14
After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, maritime enterprise was transferred to the European Atlantic coast.9 The Italian Republics were no longer relatively in so strong a position, and England became a com- petitor in the New World.9 News of the discovery by Columbus, and the Papal Bull of Alexander VI, stimu- lated Henry VII, in 1497, to send John Cabot, a Vene- tian residing at Bristol, England, and with him per- haps also his son, Sebastian Cabot, some say English, some Venetian born, 15 on a voyage of discovery.16 The purpose of this voyage was to find a northwest passage to the East Indies, 15 the theory of which is said to have originated with Sebastian Cabot.10 John Cabot and those who went with him discovered, in 1497, Cape Breton 16 and the western continent of North America, which they reached, probably, in the latitude of about 56° north.9 The next year, 1498, John Cabot headed another expedition to the New World. 16 As Hakluyt's "Voyages" has it, this expedition discovered "that great tract of land stretching from the Cape of Florida unto those islands which we call Newfoundland, all of which they brought and annexed unto the Crownne of England." 15 We have no definite information that John Cabot or any one with him saw or landed on the New England shore; but he is recorded as ranging a
18
EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
great part of the unknown coast line from 67º north latitude far southward, and he returned not only with news of his discovery, but also with a detailed descrip- tion of Newfoundland, - its salmon, the cod of its waters, the partridge on its shores, the Indians to be met with. 15, 16
As were those who heard the story of the first dis- covery by Columbus, Columbus himself was stimu- lated to further adventure. In November, 1493, he arrived again in the West Indies, 10 this time with sev- enteen ships carrying fifteen hundred persons 12 and cows, seeds, lime, bricks, etc.10 In 1498 Columbus made a third voyage, on this expedition discovering the continent of South America. 10
It is of interest that the Piscataqua River was not discovered until relatively late. The great number of the voyages that came to the American coast, before the voyage that resulted in the first report in history of the Piscataqua, seems important. Expeditions radi- ated from England and from continental Europe to the south and the north for over one hundred years before any one of them is reported to have hit on the Piscataqua.
One of those who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage was Alonzo de Ojeda. 10, 12 In 1499 he continued the explorations which Columbus had initi- ated.10 With de Ojeda sailed Amerigo Vespucci, 10 who later gave his name to the American continents. 12 Though he "never saw any other part of the continent than that the admiral [Columbus] had discovered, yet he impudently pretended to have first discovered the continent."10 At the same time, Pedro Alonzo Niño, who had been with Columbus on his third voyage,
19
THE PISCATAQUA AWAITS DISCOVERY
"conducted a successful trading venture in the West Indies, and Vincente Pinzon, who had been with Columbus on his first voyage, explored the coast of Brazil." 12 Just later, in 1501, Cortereal, a Portu- guese, sailed along the coast of North America for six or seven hundred miles.9 Cortereal and his own vessel were lost on the return voyage, but two of the accom- panying ships reached home safely from the expedi- tion. 16 "That this record of successful navigation and discovery was possible within so few years and with vessels of so small a size, is a marvel, and that more were not lost is testimony to the high courage and expert seamanship of these early voyagers."12
Safe home, safe in port! Rent cordage, shattered deck. Torn sails, provisions short And only not a wreck: But, oh the joy upon the shore, To tell our voyage perils o'er! - Adapted from the Greek by J. M. NEALE.
"Tidings of the great West Indian adventure of Spain awoke in other countries of Europe a spirit of emulation."12 "In 1501 Rodrigo de Bastidas and Juan de la Cosa added some three hundred miles to the known coast line,"12 southwest of the first landing place of Columbus. The French also soon appeared in the New World. Within seven years of the dis- covery of the continent, the fisheries of Newfoundland were visited by the French.9 In 1506 a map of the St. Lawrence was drawn by Denys, a citizen of Honfleur.9 In 1508 "savages from the New England coast had been brought to France." 9
20
EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
Balboa and Pizarro were in the West Indies in 1509,12 and by 1510 "Juan Ponce de Leon had settled and established a firm government in the Island of Puerto Rico."12 In 1517 Francisco Fernandez de Cordova discovered Yucatan.9 Magellan, 1519-1522, sailed around the world. 11 Cortez was in Mexico in 1519.10, 15 Pizarro, in 1524, began his exploration of the west coast which resulted, a few years later, in the conquest of Peru.10 While this activity was occurring in southern waters, Verrazzano is said to have sailed along part of the New England shore. The report of his voyage speaks of Verrazzano as in latitude 41° 40' north, and as trading with the Indians on what is now believed to be Cape Cod.15 There is thought to be some indication that Verrazzano landed on the New England coast north of Cape Cod.9 Returning to the West Indies, Narvaez was busy there in 1527.9 In 1541 and 1542 the Spaniards appeared in the Missis- sippi Valley.9 From 1530-1540 "the work of conquest and occupation in the New World progressed without interruption." 12
Though the principal early explorations were in the tropics, the northern waters also received attention. A letter to Henry VIII of England, written in August, 1527, from what later was St. John, Newfoundland, where an English captain lay, declared that "he found in that one harbor eleven sail of Normans and one Breton engaged in the fishery." 9 A Florentine, James Cartier, employed by King Francis I of France, arrived in Newfoundland in 1534, and in August of that year discovered the St. Lawrence River.9 On his return Cartier described the country he had visited.9 By 1550 the Spaniards had sailed along the coast as high as 44°.10
21
THE PISCATAQUA AWAITS DISCOVERY
As was natural, the tide of exploration and of annex- ation developed earlier in the warmer zones. There was some earlier exploration and speculative attempt to gain wealth, and some definite business undertaking in the fisheries to the north, along the Newfoundland and the Labrador coasts, which were comparatively near the northern countries of Europe; but the great- est effort of Europe, 1525-1600, was made in the tropics and in the semi-tropical countries, which had greater wealth, and which provided a more ready money return to European adventurers. Up to 1575 little, apparently, was known of the great middle ground from northern Florida to Newfoundland. Much was known of the West Indies and of the shores of the Caribbean Sea, and to a less extent of the Newfound- land country. Around 1550 the press "teemed" with books of travel, maps and descriptions of the earth.9 In England in 1548 a great company was in existence, at the head of which was Sebastian Cabot, organized for the benefit of commerce and under the title of "Merchant-Adventurers for the Discovery of New Lands."10 Undoubtedly the purpose of this company was rapid money profit. About 1575 "from thirty to fifty English ships came annually to the bays and banks of Newfoundland."
During the middle part of the sixteenth century Spain was the great power of Europe.12 In 1583 the seamen in England were found to be but 14,295 men, 13 and, earlier, Henry VIII had been obliged to hire ships to fit out a navy.13 Elizabeth bettered this situation, . and she also greatly encouraged expeditions to the West Indies. There was, toward the middle part of the sixteenth century, considerable English adventure and exploration in the newly discovered seas. Hawkins
22
EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
was in the West Indies in 1565,12 sailing there with one ship of seven hundred tons, one of one hundred and forty tons and two of fifty and thirty tons, respec- tively.12 In 1576 Martin Frobisher, an Englishman, reached Labrador.9,15 Perhaps it was he who brought back the stone from the "frozen region" which in London was pronounced to contain gold.9 In 1577- 1578 Drake added to the prestige of England in the new waters by sailing through the Straits of Magellan and then northward to California. 11, 12, 15 In 1579 Gilbert and Raleigh unsuccessfully attempted an ex- pedition to go to the New World.9 In 1583 Sir Hum- phrey Gilbert sailed to Newfoundland and took posses- sion of that country in August of that year, in the name of his sovereign.9 It seems worth while to state that Gilbert probably did not see the New Hampshire coast. William Sanderson, a London merchant, in 1585, was the principal man in an undertaking that sent out Capt. John Davis on a voyage of discovery.10 Davis made the American coast in north latitude 64° 15'.10 It was in 1585, also, that Sir Walter Raleigh sent out one hundred and eight colonists to Roanoke Island, Virginia, Virginia being named by Elizabeth for herself. 17 Raleigh sent out a relief expedition in 1587. The settlement tragically failed. 10, 17
Spain, throughout this period, was threatening, and it was not until the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English in 1588 13 that English explorations and plans for colonization in the New World led to real success. 12 The defeat of the Armada made possible English colonization in New England.12 If victory had lodged with Spain, New England's history might easily have been different.
23
THE PISCATAQUA AWAITS DISCOVERY
We have fed our sea for a thousand years And she calls us, still unfed,
Though there's never a wave of all her waves But marks our English dead: We have strawed our best to the weed's unrest To the shark and the sheering gull.
If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha' paid in full!
We must feed our sea for a thousand years, For that is our doom and pride,
As it was when they sailed with the Golden Hinde Or the wreck that struck last tide - Or the wreck that lies on the spouting reef Where the ghastly blue-lights flare.
If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha' bought it fair!
- RUDYARD KIPLING.
Elizabeth's reign lasted from 1558 till 1603.13 Eng- land under Elizabeth developed steadily. "She kept France in great awe," 10 and after the defeat of the Armada, although Spain was still a dangerous enemy and a great stumbling block in the path of English adventure in the New World, English incentive to such adventure was greatly increased. Hakluyt's "Voyages," or, as the title reads, "The Principal Nav- igations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation," by Richard Hakluyt, abounds in fascinating reports of the adventures and early voy- ages by Englishmen. "One Henry May, a worthy mariner," tells of the sailing, in April, 1591, of three tall ships from Plymouth, England, for the West Indies. On his return voyage May was wrecked on
24
EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
the Bermudas, and he and his comrades were the first Englishmen to set foot on that soil. They finally escaped and sailed to Cape Breton and from there to England, which they reached in 1594.15
Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins led an expedition against the Spanish settlements in America in 1597. They were unsuccessful in their endeavor and Drake died on the expedition.15 Spain was still very strong.13 Up to 1600 the principal interest of Europe still centered on the lands explored and con- quered by Spain. More was known of them than of the vaguer regions to the northward, and there seemed more definite possibilities of return on any money ven- ture in this particular part of the world. It is to be noted that by 1600 there was a very considerable fund of information in England and in Europe generally in regard to the New World. The many English voyages, particularly those toward the end of the century, had been reported and printed in detail. The Spanish conquest and the gain of great wealth, reports of which were very likely exaggerated, had aroused great interest throughout Europe. There was zeal in the hearts of Englishmen, as in the hearts of men of all other European maritime countries, to find easy riches, especially gold, in the new continent. There was also the thought of wealth to be acquired from trading and from the fisheries. Towards these ends the lines of seemingly least resistance, based on information which had already come in, were being followed. This meant particular interest in territories and waters previously explored. Those who engaged in the great adventure of the day - that of discovery and of the attempt at the acquisition of wealth in the New World - tried not to go blindly into their program of adventure.
25
THE PISCATAQUA AWAITS DISCOVERY
They followed the experience of as many as possible before them, and they did not wholly feel that they were pitting themselves against a great unknown. This was true, also, later, when the time came for the northern settlements by Englishmen who ventured their lives in New Hampshire and in Massachusetts. These men did not venture their lives with utter reck- lessness. By a slow process information came in from voyagers, probably largely fishermen, regarding newer territory, including the New England shore. The men who finally settled in New England knew when they went there much of what they had to face, and their fund of information, considerable in quantity, but not very specific in quality by 1605, was improved ma- terially between the years 1605 and 1625.
I remember the black wharves and the slips, And the sea tides tossing free; And Spanish sailors with bearded lips, And the beauty and mystery of the ships, And the magic of the sea. - H. W. LONGFELLOW.
CHAPTER II
DISCOVERY
D AVID HUME, in his "History of England," says that what chiefly renders the reign of James I of England memorable is the com- mencement of the English colonies in America, - "colonies established on the noblest footing that has ever been known in any age or nation."1 James I reigned from 1603 to 1625.1 England's grasp on the New World, well developed by the end of the reign of Elizabeth, carried over into the reign of James and increased in force. Emigration naturally follows parallels of latitude. It was only natural that English incentive under James should have turned toward colonization of the middle northern part of the coast line of North America.
Sir Walter Raleigh had, before 1600, projected Eng- land into Virginia. France, before 1600, had gained an uncertain foothold in what is now Canada. The coast line from Virginia to Nova Scotia was little known, and was especially debatable. The history of the twenty-five-year period, 1600-1625, proved Eng- land the permanent winner of almost this entire coast line, her grip to be broken only by the American Revolution.
France at this time was under the mild rule of Henry IV, who died in 1610.2 Henry IV was the wisest, bravest and best monarch of the House of Bourbon.3 The reign of Henry IV was tolerant, which made it easy for ventures in the New World, but it
27
DISCOVERY
was without any especial impulse for foreign conquest. At the death of Henry IV he was succeeded by the young King Louis XIII, and Richelieu held the reins of power. Richelieu2 was of a sterner mould than Henry, and under him a great incentive was given to French conquests overseas. In 1619 French court pol- itics threatened civil war; 2 but a little later, when the New England settlements had just started, if they had not secured their foothold when they did, it is likely that France would have been a much sterner competitor along the shores of Maine, New Hamp- shire and Massachusetts, 4 even to preventing the Eng- lish holding land in this territory. 4
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