USA > New Hampshire > Sketches of the history of New-Hampshire, from its settlement in 1623, to 1833: comprising notices of the memorable events and interesting incidents of a period of two hundred and ten years > Part 1
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
L
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01085 8865
SKETCHES
OF THE
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE,
FROM ITS SETTLEMENT IN 1623, TO 1833 : 1623-1833
COMPRISING NOTICES OF THE MEMORABLE EVENTS AND INTERESTING INCIDENTS OF A PERIOD OF . TWO HUNDRED AND TEN YEARS.
BY JOHN M. WHITON.
774. 2 06/S CONCORD:
MARSH, CAPEN AND LYON. 1834.
Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1834, BY JOHN M. WHITON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of New-Hampshire
CONCORD, Eastman, Webster & Co., Printers.
1.40456
ADVERTISEMENT.
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THIS book is but an outline, intended chiefly for those who lack time or inclination to encounter a large work. Valuable as is the History of Belknap, its size and cost exclude from the number of its readers a large proportion of the citizens of New-Hampshire. Our State History is not to any great ex- tent in the popular mind. To exhibit its memorable events r and interesting incidents in a condensed form, fitted to produce a salutary moral impression, is the object of the author. How far he may have succeeded, must be left to the decision of the public. From all quarters he has borrowed whatever suited his purpose. In relation to the earlier periods of our History he is indebted to Belknap for a large proportion of the materials ; though many facts of interest derived from other sources, will be found interwoven with the narration. He acknowledges his obligations to the Historical Collections of Messrs. Farmer and Moore ; the Collections of the N. H. Historical Society ; and the valuable Notes appended by Mr. Farmer to his edition of Belknap. He has derived important materials from the Ga- zetteer of Farmer and Moore, the Travels of Dwight, and the Annals of Portsmouth by Adams. Some facts have been gleaned from the Histories of Winthrop, Mather, Hutchinson, Trumbull, Williams, Sullivan, and Hoyt ; from the Annals of Holmes ; from the American Biography of Belknap, and the Biographical Dictionaries of Allen and Eliot ; from Thatcher's Lives of the Indians; from the Ecclesiastical Sketches of Greenleaf ; from Bouton's History of Education in New- Hampshire ; from a variety of Pamphlets; from Newspapers ; from Manuscripts, and Records in the office of the Secretary
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iv
of the State ; and from the oral communications of aged and intelligent persons.
For some important hints and corrections the author is in- debted to the kindness of John Farmer, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the N. H. Historical Society. This gentleman authorizes the statement, that the design some time ago en- tertained by him of preparing for the press an Abridgement of Belknap, has been relinquished.
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
To fix in the mind of the reader, by an arrangement designed to aid the memory, the principal Epochs of our History, it will be divided into Periods, according to the following
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PERIOD I .- Extending from the first settlement of the State in 1623, to the voluntary union of the inhabitants with Massa- chusetts in 1641.
PERIOD II .- From the union with Massachusetts in 1641, to the separation and erection of New-Hampshire into a distinct Royal Province in 1679 ; including the events of the first In- dian war, called Phillip's war.
PERIOD III .- From the erection of New-Hampshire into a Royal Province in 1679, to the close of King William's war in 1698.
PERIOD IV .- From the peace of 1698, to the close of Queen Ann's war in 1713.
PERIOD V .- From the peace of 1713, to the establishment of the Provincial lines and the appointment of a separate Gover- nor for New-Hampshire in 1741 ; including the events of the three years', or Lovewell's war.
PERIOD VI .- From the appointment of a separate Governor for New-Hampshire in 1741, to the end of the second French war in 1763.
PERIOD VII .- From the peace of 1763, to the commencement of the Revolutionary war in 1775.
A*
vi
PERIOD VIII .- From the commencement of the Revolutionary contest in 1775, to the establishment of the present Constitution of New-Hampshire in 1784.
PERIOD IX .- From the establishment of the present State Constitution in 1784, to the commencement of Gov. Langdon's Administration in 1805.
PERIOD X .- From the commencement of Gov. Langdon's Ad- ministration in 1805, to the year 1833.
8
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PERIOD I.
FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE STATE IN 1623, TO THE VOLUNTARY UNION OF THE INHABITANTS WITH MASSACHU- SETTS IN 1641.
The coast of New-Hampshire and the fine harbor of the Pascataqua are commonly, but somewhat incorrectly said to have been discovered in 1614 by the celebrated English navi- gator, Captain John Smith. It is certain that the coast from Cape Cod to Passamaquoddy had been frequently visited by European vessels engaged in Indian traffic and the fisheries for a preceding period of thirty years ; and highly probable that some of the adventurers must have found the river Pas- cataqua. Smith however explored the coast from Cape Cod to Penobscot, and constructed the first map of it,which on his return he presented to Prince Charles, afterwards the unfor- tunate Charles I., who gave the country the name of NEW-ENG- LAND. Eight years afterwards, Captain Jolın Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges obtained from the Council of Plymouth in England, who held a Charter from the British King of an immense region in America, a grant of the lands lying between the Merrimac and Kennebec rivers, and extending back to the river and lakes of Canada. This tract was called LACONIA, and it included New Hampshire and all the western part of Maine. They admitted several merchants of London and otlier trading places to some sort of partnership in the concern, and styled themselves THE COMPANY OF LACONIA.
This Company sent over in 1623 several persons to form a settlement on the Pascataqua. They arrived in safety, well supplied with provisions, tools of various kinds, and other ne- cessaries. The precise time of their landing is not known : from the name of "Strawberry Bank " which they applied to the spot where the compact part of Portsmouth now stands, it would seem that a profusion either of strawberry blossoms or fruit welcomed their arrival, which must have been of course sometime before midsummer. Of these Colonists, a part un-
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8
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1623.
der the conduct of David Thompson established themselves on Odiorne's point at Little Harbor, two or three miles below Portsmouth, where they erected a house called Mason's Hall, and constructed works for the manufacture of salt. The oth- er part, under the direction of Edward and William Hilton, planted themselves at Dover Neck, to which they gave the name of Northam. For some years these establishments were merely fishing places and advanced but slowly, Dover being the more important of the two. Fish were taken in abundance ; and salt being indispensable to their preservation, the people at Little Harbor prosecuted the manufacture of it with dili- gence and success. Their nearest neighbors on the south were those at Plymouth ; on the east were a few scattered settlers at Kittery, Saco, and one or two other points on the coast of Maine.
From the surrounding Indians they obtained by barter some furs and peltries. A considerable number of this aboriginal race, amounting probably to 5000, then dwelt within the State. A small tribe was planted in the vicinity of Exeter; another under a chief named Rowls, near Dover; and a third, the Pascataquas, on the banks of the river of that name. The Ossipees roamed around the Winnepiseogee and Ossipee lakes, and the Pequawkets on the upper branches of the Saco river. The large tribe of the Penacooks occupied the lands on the Merrimac, making Concord and Amoskeag their chief places of resort. Passaconaway, famous in the early annals of New- England, was their Sachem. This man pretended to be a Sorcerer and made his credulous subjects believe that he could produce a green leaf from the ashes of a dry one, a living ser- peut from the skin of a dead one, and could make water burn and trees dance! He probably excelled in the arts of leger- demain and became one of the most noted Powahs or Conju- rors among the tribes of New-Hampshire. No Indian resident of this region ever acquired so great a celebrity among both red men and white. He extended his dominion not only over the Indians in the central and eastern parts of this State, but over some small bands in the northeastern part of Massa- chusetts, and his authority was acknowledged from the mouth of the Merrimac to a point considerably above Concord, and also on the different branches of the Pascataqua. The tribes within these limits formed a confederacy distinguished by the general name of PAWTUCKETS, of which the Penacooks were the most important member, and Passaconaway the Supreme Head. He was advanced far in years when the English first settled here, lived at least forty years after that event, and was
9
PERIOD I .- 1623-1641.
1629.]
said to have died at the great age of an hundred and twenty -- a statement which has justly been pronounced to have "an air of exaggeration." On the Connecticut river were some small tribes whose names, with the exception of the Coos Indians, whose hunting grounds extended over large portions of the Counties of Grafton and Coos, are now unknown. These tribes for half a century exhibited in general a peaceful dispo- sition, and treated even with friendship the little band of En- glish immigrants whom they might easily have exterminated. They have disappeared from the earth and most of their me- morials have perished forever ! The occasional exhumation of their bones, and the frequent discovery of arrow-heads, stone pestles and hatchets turned up by the plow, are all that remind the present inhabitants of their ill-fated predecessors! Scarce an Indian now remains in the State.
It might be expected that a Colony so feeble as was that on the Pascataqua, would furnish during its first years few events of interest-and such is the fact. As is usual in such cases, the adventurers had their hands full in preserving in any tol- erable comfort their own existence. Some events of the date of 1628 awakened apprehensions,which however proved to be premature, of Indian hostilities. One Morton, an unprincipled man, had formed an establishment at Weymouth in Massa- chusetts, where he harbored runaway servants and sold guns and powder to the Indians, many of whom were met in the woods armed. Apprehensive of the consequences, the people on the Pascataqua joined with others in requesting the Plym- outh Colony to break up Morton's establishment: which was effected by an armed force under the gallant Capt. Standish, who made Morton a prisoner and sent him to England for trial.
The year 1629 is the date of a deed signed by four Indian Sagamores or Chiefs, conveying to the Rev. John Wheelwright and others a large tract of land between the Merrimac and Pascataqua rivers, extending back into the country as far as to the present town of Amherst. The consideration was a few coats, shirts, and kettles. Recent investigation has resulted in the discovery that this deed is not genuine, and that Wheelwright never made a purchase from the Indians till 1638. The mo- tive of the forgery, it would seem, must have been to throw some obstruction in the way of Mason's claim.
There is evidence that the founders of New-Hampshire purchased their lands of the aboriginal possessors, on terms satisfactory to the latter. It is not uncommon of late to charge our forefathers with cheating the Indians in these purchases ;
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10
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1631.
but a little reflection will in most cases acquit them. To the Indian, who had a profusion of other lands, a few coats, axes, or kettles were a capital object : and trifling as their value may seem to us, were a greater benefit to him than he could possi- bly derive from keeping the land. To the English purchaser, the value of his acquisition was created chiefly by the labor bestowed on it, and the price, under all circumstances, as much as he could well afford. In relation to both par- ties the transaction was fair and beneficial. An amusing occurrence illustrative of the justness of these views, is re- lated by Dr. Dwight. Among the early settlers of Springfield, Ms. were a carpenter and a tailor. The latter had purchased of an Indian for a trifle, 5000 acres of interval in West-Spring- field. Wishing to purchase a wheelbarrow of the carpenter, he offered him at his choice, the making of a suit of clothes, or the tract of land. After some hesitation the carpenter took the land. If the state of things was then such that an En- glishman could sell 5000 acres of fine land for a wheelbarrow, an Indian might well afford it for a shirt or a kettle.
Near the close of the year, Mason and Gorges by mutual agreement divided Laconia into two parts. The tract on the east of the Pascataqua was relinquished to Gorges, who called it Maine ; while the part west of this river, and north of the Merrimac extending back into the country 60 miles, was con- firmed to Mason by a new patent, and called NEW-HAMPSHIRE, after the County of Hampshire, in England, the place of his residence. This new grant must of course have been sub- ject to the subordinate rights and properties acquired by his associates in the company of Laconia. For the security of their interests, a part of these associates obtained a grant of the township of Dover ; the remaining part of them, inclu- ding Mason himself, procured not long after, a Charter of Portsmouth. Thomas Wiggin was appointed Superintendent of the plantation at Dover, and Walter Neal of that at Ports- mouth. Neal's agency was commenced in 1631, and he had under his direction several stewards, of whom the principal were Ambrose Gibbons, George Vaughan, Thomas Warnerton, Humphrey Chadbourne, and Edward Godfrey, who had the oversight of the several departments of trade, fishery, salt- making, building, and agriculture. These men each superin- tended a number of hired servants, including several Danes whom the proprietors had sent over to the Pascataqua. Prior to this date the chief seat of business and population had been at Little Harbor: now, they began to be removed to Straw- berry Bank, or Portsmouth, where Chadbourne erected what
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11
PERIOD I .- 1623-1641.
1632.]
was called The Great House. Neal however resided at Little Harbor with Godfrey the manager of the fishery, who had un- der his care quite a little fleet of shallops, fishing boats, and skiffs. The Danes sawed lumber and made potash. The pro- prictors sent over several cannon which were placed on Great Island, in a position to command the main entrance into the harbor.
Wiggin, the proprietary Agent at Dover, took possession of a point of land in Newington, and began to make some improve- ments. Viewing the measure as an encroachment on his planta- tion, Neal, the agent at Portsmouth ordered him to desist .-- Wiggin refused with threats, on which the parties became exas- perated and prepared to appeal to the sword. They would doubtless have proceeded to extremities, had not some conside- rate persons persuaded them to refer the dispute to their employers in England. The place acquired the name of Bloody Point, which it retains to this day.
The White Mountains, so prominent a feature in the scenery of New-Hampshire, failed not to attract the attention of the early settlers. To the whole group the Indians gave the name of Agiocochook. The summits they regarded with superstitious veneration as the abode of invisible beings, and never ascended them, supposing that these spirits would resent the attempt as an intrusion into their sacred precincts. They had a tradition that when the land was once covered with a flood, one man and one woman only found a refuge on the highest summit, by whose posterity the country was afterwards repeopled. Capt. Neal, who was by no means devoid of the passion for discovery, had heard a glowing description of the interior region as containing large lakes, goodly forests, fair valleys, and fertile plains .- Something he had heard of the White Mountains. Stimulated by the desire of exploring these regions and especially by the hope of discovering precious metals, he visited the mountains in 1632, and on his return published a romantic and exagger- ated description of them under the name of the Crystal Hills. The anticipated mines of silver and gold he did not find.
Not long afterwards he was summoned to an expedition of quite another sort. The coast of Maine was infested by a no- ted pirate, Dixy Bull, who had taken and plundered several fishing vessels and made himself the terror of those parts .- Neal equipped four vessels manned by forty men from Dover and Portsmouth, then distinguished as the upper and lower plantations, and being joined by a party from Boston, sailed in quest of the pirate : but bad weather and contrary winds com- pelled them to return without meeting him. Justice however
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12
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1633.
overtook him at last, for on his arrival in England he was ar- arested and executed.
Neal returned to England in 1633 after having presided over the lower plantation about three years, leaving in the hands of Gibbons and Warnerton the superintendence of its affairs .- Wiggin returned from a visit to England not long after Neal's departure, bringing with him several additional Colonists, a- mong whom was the Rev. William Leveridge, who officiated sometime as Minister of Dover and was the first preacher of the gospel who came into New-Hampshire. A meeting-house, the first one erected in the State, had been built at Dover Neck the year before, and fortified in such a manner that in case of an attack it might serve as a garrison. Mr. Leveridge was an estimable character ; but his support proving inadequate he was compelled soon to remove into Massachusetts, to the great injury of the people he left behind. For several succeeding years Dover was agitated by divisions occasioned by loose and immoral Ministers, such as retire from well-principled societies to places where their characters are but imperfectly known .- The ill examples of these men, whose names are unworthy of a place in history, had a lasting and baleful influence on the religious interests of the infant plantation.
The support of the colony, including the wages, food, cloth- ing, and other supplies of their agents and servants, was now felt by the Proprietors in England to be a burden. Their out- lays had been large ; they had received but small returns ; and their fond expectation of the discovery of precious Metals had been disappointed. Planted in this vast wilderness, their a- gents and servants had as much as they could well do to take care of themselves. They had indeed no reason to complain that their employers withheld supplies ; but such was the dis- tance of the sources whence they were drawn, that the occur- rence of occasional scarcity could hardly be avoided. One of the principal men with a family of ten persons had been re- duced in one of the preceeding seasons to a single half bushel of corn, and had but one piece of beef or pork for three months. The people were dependent on England and Virginia for bread- stuffs which must be sent to the Windmill in Boston to be ground, there being at that time no mill in the Colony .- Most of the proprietors became discouraged and either re- linquished or sold their interests here to Mason and Gorges. The latter soon transferred his claims to the former, who be- came almost sole proprietor of Portsmouth. Endued with untiring perseverance and sanguine in his anticipations of profit, he lost no time after Neal's return in sending over fresh sup-
its
13
PERIOD I .- 1623-1641.
1635.]
plies of settlers and goods, and appointed Francis Williams, a discreet and worthy man, Governor of that place.
While fondly anticipating from these arrangements an im- provement in the state of his affairs in the new world, Mason was removed by death near the close of 1635. Originally a merchant of London, he afterwards became Governor of New- foundland, and of Portsmouth in England. His name merits the respectful remembrance of future generations as the FATHER OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. Unquestionably he committed some ma- terial errors in the management of the Colony, never coming in person to oversee the people le employed, but trusting every thing to the eyes of others. He failed to establish a govern- ment of sufficient energy to maintain good order, and erred much in granting lands to the settlers by lease, rather than as free-holds : it being certain that the latter tenure would have given them a much deeper interest in the prosperity of the plantation. In directing their attention less to the cultivation of the soil, that surest source of competence, than to lumber- ing, fishing, traffic, and searching for precious metals which were never found, he erred greatly. No wonder a settlement planted in a vigorous climate and thus managed, should ad- vance with tardy steps and yield but small returns. Still he persevered in his efforts till death : but neither himself nor his heirs ever received returns at all proportioned to the outlays .- He left the mass of his properties and claims here to two grand- sons ; devising however one thousand acres of land for the support "of an honest, godly, and religious preacher of God's word," and another thousand for the support of a Grammar school.
Of the war with the Pequots in 1637, which resulted in the extermination of that powerful tribe, the chief burden fell on Massachusetts and Connecticut, leaving the Pascataqua settle- ments undisturbed. Among the whole number of troops who achieved the victory was found but one pint of strong water, as rum was then called-and that was reserved for the sick .- To that adventurous and hardy generation, the use of ardent spirits was almost unknown, nor did it become common in New-England for more than a century afterwards.
The next year is memorable on account of the first great earthquake which occurred after the settlement of the country. Its course was from west to east ; its duration, four minutes ; its noise like that of a multitude of carriages driven swiftly on the pavements. It threw down the tops of chimneys, agitated the waters, and shook the vessels in the harbors.
Religious controversies for a season convulsed Massachusetts
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14
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1638.
and issued in the banishment from that colony of several distin- guished men. The Rev. John Wheelwright, one of the exiles, with a company of his friends and adherants, began this year the settlement of Exeter. They entered into a voluntary asso- ciation for the purpose of self-government, and having obtain- ed a dismission from the church in Boston, organized the first Congregational church in this Colony. Soon after, a compa- ny of fifty-six persons from England with the Rev. Stephen Batchelor for their minister, planted themselves at Hampton and organized the second Congregational church. Messrs. Wheelwright and Bachelor were the first settled ministers in the State. A third Congregational church was collected not long afterwards at Dover, where the celebrated Capt. John Under- hill, another of the exiles from Massachusetts, had obtained the place of chief magistrate ;- an eccentric man, who afterwards went among the Dutch at New-York and was actively engaged in their wars with the Indians. Prior to these events, an Epis- copal society at Portsmouth, afterwards under the temporary ministry of the Rev. Richard Gibson, had erected a small house for Divine worship, there being no Congregational church in this town for many years afterwards.
After the death of Mason, his widow, who had sent over Francis Norton as her agent, discouraged with a concern which required great expense and brought in no adequate returns, sent word to her agents and servants in 1639 that they must provide for themselves. Appropriating her goods and cattle in payment of the arrears of their wages, and carrying with them the avails of their shares, some left the plantation ; while others remained, keeping possession of the buildings and im- provements which they henceforth claimed as their own .- The Colonists, who had hitherto been governed by the rules and orders of the Proprietors in England, were now left des- titute of regular government. As a temporary expedient the people of Portsmouth and Dover, following the example of Exeter, formed themselves by voluntary combination into bod- ies politic : Hampton having been considered from the first as under the government of Massachusetts. So acceptably had Williams conducted the public affairs of Portsmouth, that he was now by the choice of the people continued in the chief magistracy of the place, with Ambrose Gibbons and Thomas Warnerton as assistant magistrates.
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