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THE LAMSON COLLECTION UNIVERSITY OF N.H. DIMOND LIBRARY DURHAM, N.H.
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HISTORY
OF THE
TOWN OF EXETER
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
BY CHARLES H. BELL.
EXETER : THE QUARTER-MILLENNIAL YEAR. 1888.
PRESS OF J. E. FARWELL & CO. BOSTON.
PREFACE.
MY chief aim in preparing this history has been to make it useful. I have quoted largely from the manuscript records of the town, because they are liable to be destroyed, and what is in print is safe. For the same reason, and for the benefit of gene- alogists, I have given many lists of early names.
A town history is valuable almost in proportion to the accessi- bility of its contents. For the sake of ease of reference I have made a general classification of subjects in the present work ; have introduced numerous sub-titles ; have arranged all consider- able lists of names in alphabetical order ; have given a full table of contents at the beginning and a sufficient index at the end. Classification necessitates some repetition, but that is of small consequence in comparison with the advantages of the method.
A complete genealogical history of Exeter is a desideratum. But it would be a work of years. In this volume will be found all the information deemed most valuable to the investigator of family history, which is contained in the records of the town ; to wit : all the " family registers " in any books ; all the marriages and births in the first (oldest) book, and all the deaths in the same, before the year 1800.
In addition to these I have added, from other sources, the fol- lowing : excerpts from the records of old Norfolk county, Massa- chusetts ; a list of all the baptisms of children in Exeter, by the Rev. Woodbridge Odlin, between 1743 and 1763 ; a list of all the publishments of intentions of marriage in the town between 1783 and 1800. These lists may properly be termed new, as they are
iv
PREFACE.
taken from manuscripts which have not been open to public inspection.
The orthography of proper names has been a source of per- plexity. A uniform rule is hard to fix and harder to follow. In spite of the best intentions variations have crept in. My only consolation is that I have probably not spelt names in half so many ways as their owners did.
My thanks are especially due to Professor Bradbury L. Cilley for the unlimited use of the manuscripts of his grandfather, the Hon. John Kelly, and of the late William Smith, Esq., each of whom planned a history of the town ; also to John Ward Dean, Esq., of Boston, and to my townsmen Messrs. George W. Dear- born, John T. Perry, William H. Belknap, Edward Giddings and many others who have most obligingly aided me in obtaining information.
It would be idle to suppose that this work is free from mistakes. In writing the history of a town the difficulties may be said to be in a direct ratio to the remoteness of the period treated of. Exeter being two hundred and fifty years old. the information respecting it has had to be gleaned from a multitude of sources, and the liabilities to errors of all kinds are correspondingly increased. The greatest care and pains have been bestowed, however, to insure accuracy, and it is hoped that mistakes will not be found to be numerous or important.
My townsmen will of course note many omissions, due for the most part to limited time and space. It is not believed that they will seriously detract from the value of the work to others.
CHARLES H. BELL.
.
CONTENTS.
-
MUNICIPAL.
CHAPTER I.
EXETER AS AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC. - The Rev. John Wheelwright ; the deeds from the Indians ; the disputed Indian decd of 1629; trials of the opening year; the first church ; another Indian deed ; the Combina- tion ; the first criminal proceeding ; the Elders' oath ; the oath of the people ; first allotment of lands ; notices of early settlers ; early enact- ments. 3-43
CHAPTER IJ.
EXETER UNDER THE MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNMENT. - The conditions of annexation ; the fishery ; the care of the cattle ; the staple commodity ; project for a change of government; number and names of inhabi- tants. 44-61
CHAPTER III.
EXETER UNDER THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT. - Gove's rebellion against Cranfield ; Robert Tufton Mason's land suits ; resistance to illegal taxation ; the province without a government ; specimens of early town accounts ; the mast-tree riot of 1734; a dis- orderly election ; demonstration against the stamp act ; patriotic action of the town in 1770; another patriotic expression of the town ; help for the suffering poor of Boston ; the census of 1775; the earliest written Constitution. 62-89
CHAPTER IV.
EXETER UNDER THE STATE GOVERNMENT. - The Association test of 1776; first reading of the Declaration of Independence ; the evils of a paper currency ; the paper money mob of 1786 ; the Convention for the adoption of the Federal Constitution ; the visit of Washington ; court- house, fire engine, library, etc. ; honors to the memory of Washington ; temperance ; War of 1812; prayer in town meetings ; support of the poor ; celebration of bi-centennial anniversary ; re-naming streets ; new court-house ; lighting streets ; sidewalks ; steam fire engine; water works. 90-111
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
BOUNDARIES AND DIVISIONS ; ROADS AND BRIDGES. - The Hampton bound of 1653 ; the Dover bound of 1653; Captain Thomas Wiggin's deed of gift; enlargement of Exeter bounds ; Squamscot Patent under Exeter government ; townships carved from Exeter territory ; highways, their location, laying out and repairs; bridges; the village streets. 112-128
CHAPTER VI.
THE COMMON LANDS. - Lands of Edward and William Hilton ; grants of town lands ; list of distributees of land as reported in 1725 ; proceedings to hasten a distribution ; final distribution. . 129-146
CHAPTER VII.
OFFICERS OF THE TOWN. - List of town officers : rulers ; assistant rulers ; town clerks; selectmen ; moderators ; representatives. . 147 - 152
ECCLESIASTICAL.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SOCIETY. - Attempts to get a pastor, after Mr. Wheelwright's departure ; Mr. Dudley engaged; new house of worship ; difficulty of paying salary ; fears of losing Mr. Dudley; death of Mr. Dudley ; Elder Wentworth temporarily employed. . 155-170 .
CHAPTER IX.
THE FIRST SOCIETY AND ITS OFFSHOOTS. - A new meeting-house; re- organization of the church; death of Mr. Clark ; engagement of Mr. John Odlin ; parish of Newmarket set off; a new meeting-house ; Epping parish set off; Brentwood parish set off; Rev. Woodbridge Odlin, colleague ; second parish incorporated ; succession of pastors, Isaac Mansfield, William F. Rowland, John Smith, William Williams, Joy II. Fairchild, Roswell D. Hitchcock, William I). Hitchcock, Nathan- iel Lasell, Elias Nason, John O. Barrows, Swift Byington. 171-193
CHAPTER X.
THE SECOND PARISH; OTHER RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES. - Rev. Daniel Rogers ; his epitaph ; Joseph Brown ; Isaac Hurd ; Asa Mann ; Orpheus T. Lanphear ; John W. Chickering, Jr .; George E. Street ; Quakers ; the Baptist society; the Universalist society; the Christian society ; the Methodist society; the Advent society; the Roman Catholic society; the Unitarian society ; the Episcopal society. 194-211
vii
CONTENTS.
MILITARY.
CHAPTER XI.
THE INDIAN AND FRENCH WARS. - Philip's war; King William's war ; services of Exeter men ; a fortunate escape ; Queen Anne's war ; Colonel Winthrop Hilton's expeditions ; his death ; occurrences of 1712; assault upon the Rollins family ; the Louisburg expedition ; roll of Captain Light's company ; occurrences of 1746; the Crown Point expeditions ; Captain Nathaniel Folsom at Lake George ; capitulation of Fort William Henry ; inventory of Major John Gilman's losses ; later expeditions against French posts ; the Exeter Cadets. . 215-239
CHAPTER XII.
THE REVOLUTION AND THE WAR OF 1812. - The powder from Fort Wil- liam and Mary; the Exeter volunteers march to Cambridge ; Exeter soldiers in 1775; in 1776; in 1777; in 1778; in 1779; in 1780; in 1781 ; supplies furnished by the town to soldiers' families ; the War of 1812; roll of Captain Nathaniel Gilman's company ; roll of Captain James Thom's company. 240-259
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WAR FOR THE UNION .- Exeter soldiers in the several New Hampshire regiments ; in the military or naval service. Notices of officers, Gen. Gilman Marston; Lieutenant Colonel Henry H. Pearson ; Lieutenant Colonel Moses N. Collins ; Captain Albert M. Perkins. . 260-282
EDUCATIONAL.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES. - Law of Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire ; list of early instructors ; town orders concerning schools; forma- tion of school districts ; the Robinson Female Seminary; the Phillips Exeter Academy ; the Female Academy. 285-300
CHAPTER XV.
THE PRESS. - The earliest newspaper ; first New Testament printed in the State ; samples of early journalism ; the News-Letter; the Gazette and present publications ; contributors to the press. 301-314
INDUSTRIAL. CHAPTER XVI.
MILLS AND MANUFACTURES. - The first saw-mill ; Pickpocket falls granted ; Crawley's falls; Pickpocket ; paper-mills ; powder-mills ; " falls of the Squamscot ;" Exeter Manufacturing Company; other water-mills. 317-334
viii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVII.
BUSINESS AND TRADE. - Lumbering ; ship-building ; pottery ; duck manu- factory ; saddlery and carriages ; hats; wool; leather; the earlier mer- chants ; banks ; insurance companies. 335-348
BIOGRAPHICAL.
CHAPTER XVIH.
JUDGES AND LAWYERS. - John Gilman ; Robert Wadleigh ; Kinsley Hall ; Peter Coffin; Richard Hilton; Nicholas Gilman ; Samuel Gilman ; Nicholas Perryman ; Noah Emery ; William Parker; John Pickering ; Oliver Peabody ; Nathaniel Parker ; George Sullivan ; Moses Hodgdon; Solon Stevens; Jeremiah Smith ; James Thom ; Joseph Tilton ; Jotham Lawrence ; Stephen Peabody; Jeremiah Fellowes; George Lamson ; William Smith; Oliver W. B. Peabody ; John Sullivan ; Samuel T. Gilman ; James Bell; John Kelly; Timothy Farrar; Amos Tuek : Henry F. French ; John S. Wells ; William W. Stickney; Alva Wood ; George C. Peavey ; other lawyers. 349-377
CHAPTER XIX.
MEDICAL MEN. - Thomas Deane ; Josiah Gilman ; Dudley Odlin ; Robert Gilman ; Eliphalet Hale; John Giddinge ; John Odlin ; Nathaniel Gil- man ; Caleb G. Adams ; Joseph Tilton ; Samuel Tenney ; Nathaniel Peabody; William Parker, Jr., Nathan North ; William Perry ; David W. Gorham ; Samuel B. Swett ; other physicians. . 378-389
CHAPTER XX.
FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS. - Dudley family ; Folsom family; Leavitt family ; Thing family ; Conner family ; Lyford family ; Robinson family; Smith families ; Odlin family ; Barker, Coleord, Dolloff, Kimball, Shute and others. Jonathan Cass ; Enoch Poor : John Rogers; James Bur- ley ; Samuel Hatch; Seth Walker: Joseph Pearson ; Waddy V. Cobbs; John C. Long. The colored population. 390-399
MISCELLANEOUS.
CHAPTER XXI.
HOMICIDES ; BURIAL-PLACES ; THE " WHITE CAPS."-Mrs. Willix ; John- son ; John Wadleigh ; Mrs. Ferguson ; first four publie burial-places ; the cemetery ; other burial-places. The " White caps ;" their search for hidden treasure. 403-414
.
ix
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXII.
THINGS NEW AND OLD. - Trees ; the oldest elm ; carly houses ; the Clif- ford house ; Dean house ; Ladd house ; Rowland house ; Odiorne house ; Hildreth house ; Peabody house ; Gilman house ; Tilton house ; other old houses ; statistics ; societies ; localities. . 415-428
APPENDIX.
I. The Indian deed of 1629 to Wheelwright and others. II. Transcripts of the Exeter Records, 1639 to 1644. III. Extracts from Hon. Jeremiah Smith's bi-centennial address, 1838. 431-469
GENEALOGICAL.
FAMILY REGISTERS, from the Exeter Records. MARRIAGES, from the Exe- ter Records. BIRTHS, from the town Records. DEATHS, prior to the year 1800, from the town Records. BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES from the earliest town Records. MARRIAGES, BIRTHIS AND DEATHS from the Records of old Norfolk county, in Massachusetts. BAPTISMS of children in the First society, from 1743 to 1763. PUBLISHIMENTS of intentions of marriage, from 1783 to 1800. 3-82
CORRECTIONS.
Page 149, Thomas Deane, Nathaniel Webster and Josiah Gilman were " selectmen in 1741.
" 151, John Gilman was representative in 1697 as well as in 1693.
66 219, line 38, for Huntson, read Huntoon.
220, note, for Edward, read Nathaniel, Swasey. .
239, line 13, for lieutenant, Colonel, read lieutenant colonel.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Fac-simile of Exeter "Combination " drawn July 4, 1639; re-subscribed April 2, 1640
Frontis.
Plan of the village of Exeter in 1802
Page 103
Exeter with its sub-divisions
¥ 121
Plan of the township of Exeter in 1802
317
MUNICIPAL.
HISTORY OF EXETER.
CHAPTER I.
EXETER AS AN INDEPENDENT REPUBLIC.
THE river Pascataqua which forms the bound, next the sea, between New Hampshire and Maine, may, with its tributaries, be rudely represented by a man's left hand and wrist laid upon a table, back upwards and fingers wide apart. The thumb would stand for the Salmon Falls or Newichwannock river, the forefinger for Bellamy river, the second finger for Oyster river, the third for Lamprey river and the fourth for Exeter or Squamscot river ; while the palm of the hand would represent the Great Bay, into which most of those streams pour their waters, and the wrist the Pascataqua proper.
Before the foundation of Exeter there were but two organized settlements within the limits of New Hampshire, the one at the month of the Pascataqua about Strawberry Bank, now Ports- mouth ; the other about Dover at the confluence of the Salmon Falls and the Pascataqua. Both settlements were straggling, small and weak, being wholly self-ruled, for as yet there was no general government in New Hampshire. The Europeans who composed the population had most of them come thither to better their worldly condition by fishery and trade, and with no purpose of a religious character. The greater number of them were bred in the English church, and had little sympathy with the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay.
Besides the inhabitants of these two settlements there were a few scattered dwellers along the Pascataqua and its affluents. Two of the most prominent of these, Edward Hilton and Thomas Wiggin, belong to Exeter history. Hilton was originally a fish- monger in the city of London, and emigrated to this country in 1623, doubtless with the expectation of engaging in the fishery here. He settled in Dover at what is now styled the Point, and after seven years obtained from the Council of Plymouth, under the authority of the British Crown, a grant of lands on the upper
3
4
HISTORY OF EXETER.
Pascataqua, known as the Hilton or Squamscot Patent. It em- braced Dover Point and a belt of territory south of the Pascataqua and east of the Squamscot, three miles in breadth, and extending to the falls of the latter river, at what is now Exeter. This grant afterwards passed into the hands of a company who appointed Captain Thomas Wiggin their agent.
Hilton and Wiggin had before 1640 both quitted Dover, and planted themselves on opposite sides of the Squamscot, and within three or four miles of the falls. There they were found by the company who settled Exeter, on their arrival, or soon afterward, Hilton domiciled in what is now South Newmarket, and Wiggin in what is now Stratham. Both were men of enterprise and natu- ral leaders, and each, no doubt, had his retainers about him. Ilil- ton was attached, in a quiet way, to the observances of the Eng- lish church, and, consequently, was held in small consideration by the Puritan authorities of the Massachusetts Bay, when they came subsequently to rule over the New Hampshire settlements. Wig- gin's religious professions harmonized more nearly with their own, and he consequently enjoyed a much greater share of their appro- bation and confidence.
If we are to credit tradition there were three other persons dwelling at the falls of the Squamscot before the arrival of the company of Wheelwright in 1638. These were Ralph Hall, Thomas Leavitt and Thomas Wilson, all of whom were located on the eastern side of the river, while most of the other early comers chose the western side. Hall and Leavitt were young men, and may, for aught we know, have been the pioneers of the settle- ment ; but the antecedents of Wilson leave little room to doubt that he was of Wheelwright's company.
The falls of the Squamscot, round which the village of Exeter has clustered from the beginning, are formed by the passage of a beautiful inland stream over a succession of ledges into a broad basin below, where its waters mingle with the tides from the sea. This was a well known fishing place of the Indians. The country around was covered, for the most part, with dense forests, broken here and there by tracts of natural meadow, and by marshes bor- dlering upon the tide-water.
On the third day of April, 1638, the Rev. John Wheelwright purchased by a deed from the local sagamore and his son, a re- lease of the right of the Indian occupants to this locality and to a tract of the surrounding country, thirty miles in extent, reaching
5
HISTORY OF EXETER.
from the northern boundary of the Massachusetts Bay on the south, to the Pascataqua patents on the east, and on the north to Oyster river. His purpose in making the purchase was to begin a settlement, to which he gave the name of Exeter .*
THE REV. JOHN WHEELWRIGIIT.
Mr. Wheelwright, who is justly styled the founder of Exeter, deserves a more extended notice. He was born in or near the hamlet of Saleby in Lincolnshire, England, probably in the early part of the year 1592. His father was a man of sufficient means to afford him a university education, and to leave him heir to some freehold property. At Sidney College, Cambridge, he gained his bachelor's degree in 1614, and that of M. A. four years later. One of his fellow collegians was the famous Oliver Cromwell, who afterwards bore testimony to his athletic vigor and pluck, "that he was more afraid of meeting Wheelwright at football than he had been since of meeting an army in the field, for he was infalli- bly sure of being tripped up by him." Mr. Wheelwright was married on the eighth of November, 1621, to Marie, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Storre, vicar of Bilsby, in the county of Lincoln ; and on the ninth of April, 1623, having taken holy orders, on the death of his father-in-law, succeeded him in the vicarage. He is described as a faithful and zealous minister ; but like many able and conscientious men of his time, he was led to question the au- thority of certain dogmas and observances of the English church, until he found himself at length arrayed in the ranks of the Puri- tans, so that after about ten years he was silenced by the ecclesi- astical powers, for non-conformity. He continued to reside in England for two or three years afterwards and then emigrated to the new world. He took with him his wife by a second marriage, Mary, daughter of Edward Hutchinson of Alford, and his five children, and landed in Boston on the twenty-sixth of May, 1636.
There he soon became highly esteemed, insomuch that after about six months, it was proposed by some of the members of the Boston church that he should be settled over them as a second teacher, in conjunction with the Rev. John Wilson and the Rev.
* Of course this name was borrowed from Exeter in England. The cause of its se- lection is unknown. There is no evidence that Wheelwright ever had any acquaint- ance with the English Exeter, and the only one of his companions who is known to have come from that place, or its vicinity, was Godfrey Dearborn.
6
HISTORY OF EXETER.
John Cotton, two of the most eminent divines of the colony. But upon some objection being made to this, Mr. Wheelwright was placed in charge of a new church gathered at Mount Wollaston, afterwards Braintree and now Quincy ; and received a grant of two hundred acres of land there.
About this time Anne Hutchinson, a woman of keen wit and dominant disposition. the wife of William Hutchinson, a brother of Wheelwright's second wife, rendered herself a conspicuous figure in the religious circles of Boston. With the fondness for theological speculations which was characteristic of that age, she had adopted some opinions not in unison with those of the major- ity of the ministers and elders of the Massachusetts Bay, and was in the habit of enunciating them in the shape of criticisms on their sermons and doctrines, at weekly meetings of the sisterhood held at her house in Boston. These heterodox opinions were the merest theoretic abstractions imaginable, such as that "the person of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justified person," and that " no sanctifica- tion can help to evidence to us our justification," and the like, and had no possible relation to the practical concerns of life. Their opponents, however, gave them the bad name of "Antinomian." But Wheelwright also professed the same views in the main, and Cotton timidly indorsed them, while a large proportion of the members of the Boston church approved them. All this was bit- terly unpalatable to the authorities of church and state (who were substantially the same) in the Massachusetts Bay, and they took counsel together how to suppress the rising heresy. Excommuni- cation of the offenders was the obvious remedy ; but as by far the greater part of the Boston church were in sympathy with them, there was danger that in the attempt to apply that remedy the movers might find themselves victims instead of victors. They therefore resolved on other and safer measures.
Apparently every utterance of Wheelwright was strictly watched, to find cause of accusation against him. At length the desired pretext was obtained, in a sermon which he preached on a Fast day in Boston, on the nineteenth of January, 1636-7. It is impossible for any unprejudiced person of our time to discover in this production, which is still extant, anything to cause alarm to the most timorous heart, but to the jaundiced eyes of the Massa- chusetts rulers of that day, it seemed to be filled with threatenings of ruin and destruction. And they determined that out of his dis- course they would find matter for his condemnation. It would
7
HISTORY OF EXETER.
require too much space to follow in detail the various proceedings which they instituted against Wheelwright. First, the great and General Court, backed by an advisory counsel of the clergy, pro- nounced him guilty of " sedition and contempt of the civil author- ity." Wheelwright was not daunted by this. The next applica- tion was a synod of the clergy of the colony, who, after a laborious session of twenty-four days, condemned no less than eighty-two erroneous opinions, which they alleged had been brought to New England and " spread underhand there." Wheelwright attended the meetings of the synod, and, of course, understood very well that its conclusions were in effect, if not by name, a condemna- tion of his position and course ; but he did not swerve a hair's breadth for that. Then his prosecutors determined to oust him by force. The General Court was to be the instrument; and in order to make sure of a majority of deputies who would perform their beliests, the authorities resorted to the extraordinary course of a special election. Before this tribunal, thus organized to con- vict, Wheelwright appeared and pleaded not guilty. To such a trial there could be but one ending. For the offences of which he had previously been found guilty, " and for now justifying himself and his former practice, being to the disturbance of the civil peace," he was by the court disfranchised and banished.
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