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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01092 3024
1
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofnewhamp1831belk
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THE
HISTORY
1
OF
NEW - HAMPSHIRE.
BY JEREMY BELKNAP, D. D., MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, OF THE AMERICAN ACAD- EMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, AND CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
FROM
A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION,
HAVING THE AUTHOR'S LAST CORRECTIONS.
TO WIIICH ARE ADDED
NOTES,
CONTAINING VARIOUS CORRECTIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE TEXT, AND ADDITIONAL FACTS AND NOTICES OF PERSONS AND EVENTS THEREIN MENTIONED.
BY JOHN FARMER, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE N. II. HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
974.2 B41
DOVER :
S. C. STEVENS AND ELA & WADLEIGH.
.
1831.
.
DISTRICT OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE-to wit : DISTRICT CLERK'S OFFICE.
BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the eighth day of February, A. D. 1831, and in the fifty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, GEORGE W. ELA, GEORGE WADLEIGHI, and SAMUEL C. STEVENS, of the said District, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors in the words following, viz :
" The History of New-Hampshire. By Jeremy Belknap, D. D., Member of the American Philosophical Society, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Corresponding Secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society. From a copy of the original edition, having the author's last cor- rections. To which are added Notes, containing various corrections and il- lustrations of the text, and additional facts and notices of persons and events therein mentioned. By John Farmer, Corresponding Secretary of the N. H. Historical Society. Vol. I."
In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled " An act for the encouragement of learning by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times there- in mentioned ;" and also to an act entitled " an act supplementary to an act entitled an act for the encouragement of learning by securing the copies of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints."
CHARLES W. CUTTER, Clerk of the District Court of the United States, for the District of New-Hampshire.
A true copy of Record .- Attest-
CHARLES W. CUTTER, Clerk.
ELA AND WADLEIGH, PRINTERS.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
1186759
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THE first volume of the History of New-Hampshire was pub- lished at Philadelphia, in 1784, with the following title-page : " THE HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. VOLUME I. COMPREHENDING THE EVENTS OF ONE COMPLETE CENTURY FROM THE DISCOVERY OF THE RIVER PASCATAQUA. BY JERE- MY BELKNAP, A. M. Member of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge.
Tempus edax rerum, tuque invidiosa vetustas, Omnia destruitis : vitiataque dentibus ævi Paulatim lenta consumitis omnia morte. Hæc perstant. OVID.
Philadelphia : Printed for the author by ROBERT AITKEN, in Market Street, near the Coffee House. M. DCC. LXXXIV."
The author was then the minister of Dover, and it being diffi- cult for him, at such a distance from the press, to superintend the publication of the work, it was entrusted to his friend, EBENEZER HAZARD, Esquire, a gentleman well acquainted with the history and antiquities of our country, who faithfully executed the trust committed to him.
The second volume of the work was published at Boston in the year 1791, after the author had removed from New-Hampshire, and had been installed over the Congregational church in Federal Street. The title of this volume is as follows : " THE HISTO- RY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. VOLUME II. COMPREHENDING THE EVENTS OF SEVENTY FIVE YEARS, FROM MDCCXV. to MDCCXC. Illustrated by a Map. By JEREMY BELKNAP, A. M. Member of the Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and
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PREFACE.
of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Massachusetts. Printed at Boston for the Author, by ISAIAH THOMAS & EBENEZER T. AN- DREWS, Faust's Statue, No. 45, Newbury Street. MDCCXCI." It is believed that there was a reprint of the first volume soon af- ter the publication of the second.
The work having been nearly all sold, a new edition was called for by the public in 1810, and Mr. Samuel Bragg, of Dover, com- menced the printing of it from a copy, into which had been tran- scribed the marginal notes and corrections made by the author at different times in a printed copy which he kept for this purpose. The printing had not proceeded far before the office of Mr. Bragg, with his printing materials and the corrected copy of the first vol- ume, which contained nearly all the corrections and additions made to the historical part of the work, was consumed by fire. A new edition however appeared in 1812, printed at Dover by JOHN MANN and JAMES K. REMICH, for O. CROSBY & J. VARNEY, but without the advantages of the corrected copy of the first volume, which had been used by Mr. Bragg, and which it was supposed could never be replaced. Some of the copies, and it is believed a considerable part of the impression, have a false title page, pur- porting that the work was published at Boston by Bradford & Read, and that it contains " large additions and improvements from the author's last manuscript," but it is not apprehended that either the original publishers or printers had any agency in such a gross imposition on the public.
After the copy for the present edition had been prepared for the press, I received from JOHN BELKNAP, Esquire, of Boston, son of the venerated author, a letter respecting the work, of which the following is an extract. " When I sold to Mr. BRAGG and Mr. VARNEY the corrected copy, with the right to print an edition, with the corrections, two other copies had all the corrections trans- cribed into them, and remain in the family. My object in writ- ing, is to offer you an opportunity to avail yourself of these cor- rections, in case you proceed in the publication, which may be done, by exchanging one of these corrected copies, for a copy of your new edition." I lost no time in accepting the kind offer of Mr. BELKNAP, and soon received the copy which had been corrected by the author, together with the original appendix which had been prepared by him, and in his hand writing. The corrections and additions of the historical part have been introduced into this vol-
V
PREFACE.
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ume ; and the appendix of original papers and publie documents has been printed from the manuscript copy of the author.
. . In the Notes which I have added to the work, endeavors have been made to correct the errors occasioned by the author's reli- ance on the authenticity of the Wheelwright deed of 1629 ; to supply some facts which had been omitted for want of information, and to give short biographical notices of some of the most promin- ent characters mentioned in the course of the history. The notes which I have added are included within brackets.
At the head of the left hand page, is the running title of the former editions ; at the head of the right hand page, stands the name of the governor or chief magistrate for the time being. The authorities, which were placed on the side margin of the former editions, are here placed next after the text, at the bottom of the page. The references to them in the text may be sometimes mis- placed, as none had before been used, but they are believed to be generally correct. In spelling the names of persons, autographs have been followed, whenever they could be obtained. This has occasioned a difference in the orthography of the names of Andros, Chamberlain, Cutt, Endecott, Godfrey, Holyoke, Leveridge, Moodey, Wheelwright and Wiggin, which were before printed, An- drosse, Chamberlayne, Cutts, Endicot, Godfrie, Holiock, Leverich, Moody, Whelewright and Wiggen. The name of Pickering was often, at an early period, written by those bearing it, Pickerin. The name of Hinckes which occurs a number of times in the text should probably be Hinks. The spelling of the names of places has been altered in a number of instances ; and the orthog- raphy of common words and the punctuation have undergone some changes. The latter might have been still further improved. In all these alterations, great care has been taken to preserve the text unimpaired, and no changes affecting that have been allowed.
A copious General Index, embracing every important subject and every name in the text, notes, and tables to the 418th page, has been prepared with considerable labor, but is necessarily omit- ted. It may, however, appear with the second volume.
Concord, 2 February, 1831.
CORRECTIONS.
l'age 4, therefore, in the Gth line, should be whereuf.
74, Pequawet, in the 18th line, should be Pequawoket.
100, in the 2d and 3d lines of second note, 9 December, 1687, may be substituted for about the year 1689.
110, after to, in the 20th line, be should be inserted.
116, insert the name of John Cummings as one of the founders of the church in Dunstable.
133, is, in the 11th line, should be his.
144, the figures 13 against Groton, and under Wounded, should be placed under Capt'd.
164, council, in the 14th line, should be counsel.
166, Gen-men, in the 8th and 9th lines, should be Gentlemen.
285, St. Frances, in the 19th line, should be St. Francis.
292, Shattack's in the 9th line, should be Shattuck's.
336, Charlestown, in the 9th line, should be Charleston.
355, acat, in the 40th line, should be net.
390, which, in the last line of the text, should be with.
410, the year 1681, preceding Job Clements, should be placed before Robert Mason, and the year 1717, after Job Clements, Dover, should be 1683.
411, the year 1745, in the first note, should be 1715.
412, Gamling, in the 7th line, should be Gambling.
413, the year 1778, in the 2d line, should be 1776.
416, the year 1669, in the 11th line, should be 1699.
the list of Treasurers requires the following corrections :
1809, Thomas W Thompson, Concord, 1810. 1810, Nathaniel Gilman, Exeter, 1814. 1814, William Austin Kent, Concord, 1816.
418, the list of Representatives in Congress requires the following ad- dition : 1825, Nehemiah Eastman, 2 years.
the year 1830, in the last line, should be 1823.
422, the Nos. 55 and 59, in the 20th line, should be 58, 59 and 62.
464, after they, in the 41st line, the word frecly should be inserted, and conferred, in the same line, should be confessed.
continuance, in the 45thi line, should be contrivance.
admit, in the last line, should be attaint.
480, scw, in the 34th line, should be serce.
It may be gratifying to some readers to know something further respecting the three men, who commenced the first settlement of New-Hampshire .- The following note is therefore added.
EDWARD HILTON lived at Dover between fifteen and twenty years, and then removed to Squamscot patent, or Exeter, and died about the year 1671, leaving sons, Edward, William, Samuel, and Charles, who administered on his estate, which was appraised at £2204. WILLIAM HILTON removed from Dover, and his name is found at several places, particularly at Newbury, where five of his children were born. He was a representative at the Gener- al Court at Boston, at the March and May sessions in 1644. He finally re- moved to Charlestown, where he died 7 September, 1675. Of DAVID THOMP- SON I had concluded that nothing farther could be known than what is given in the text and notes, page 5, when unexpectedly the Rev. Joseph B. Felt, of Hamilton, Massachusetts, sent me from the Mass. Colony Records some ex- tracts, which enable me to state, that Thompson took possession of the island known by his name, situated within the present limits of the town of Dorches- ter, in the year 1626; that he died in 1628, or soon after that time, leaving an infant son, John, who, in 1648, claimed the island which belonged to his fath- er, as he had done before, and which was granted to him by the General Court of Massachusetts. Descendants of the Hiltons are numerous in the state of New-Hampshire, and in Maine. Of a name so common as that of Thompson, it would be difficult to identify any of the posterity of the first settler of Little-Harbor.
PREFACE
TO THE FIRST VOLUME.
WHEN a new publication appears, some prefatory account of the reasons which led to it, and the manner in which it has been conducted, is generally expected.
The compiler of this history was early impelled by his natural curiosity to inquire into the original settlement, progress, and improvement of the coun- try which gave him birth. When he took up his residence in New-Hamp- shire, his inquiries were more particularly directed to that part ofit. Having met with some valuable manuscripts which were but little known, he began to extract and methodise the principal things in them ; and this employment was (to speak in the style of a celebrated modern author) his " hobby horse."
The work, crude as it was, being communicated to some gentlemen, to whose judgment he paid much deference, he was persuaded and encouraged to go on with his collection, until the thing became generally known, and a publication could not decently be refused.
He owns himself particularly obliged to the public officers both in this and the neighboring state of Massachusetts, under the former as well as the pres- ent constitutions, for their obliging attention in favoring him with the use of the public records or extracts from them. He is under equal obligation to a number of private gentlemen, who have either admitted him to their own collections of original papers or procured such for him. In the course of his inquiry, he has frequently had reason to lament the loss of many valuable ma- terials by fire and other accidents : But what has pained him more severe- ly, is the inattention of some persons, in whose hands original papers have been deposited, and who have suffered them to be wasted and destroyed as things of no value. The very great utility of a public repository for such papers under proper regulations, has appeared to him in the strongest light, and he is persuaded that it is an object worthy the attention of an enlighten- ed legislature.
The late accurate and indefatigable Mr. PRINCE, of Boston, (under whose ministry the author was educated, and whose memory he shall always revere) began such a collection in his youth and continued it for above fifty years. By his will, he left it to the care of the Old South Church, of which he was pastor, and it was deposited with a library of ancient books in an apartment of their meeting-house. To this collection, the public are obliged for some
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PREFACE.
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material hints in the present work, the author having had frequent access to that library before the commencement of the late war. But the use which the British troops in 1775 made of that elegant building, having proved fatal to this noble collection of manuscripts ; the friends of science and of Ameri- ca must deplore the irretrievable loss. Had we suffered it by the hands of Saracens, the grief had been less poignant !
Historians have mentioned the affairs of New-Hampshire only in a loose and general manner. Neal and Douglass, though frequently erroneous, have giv- en some hints, which, by the help of original records and other manuscripts, have, in this work, been carefully and largely pursued. Hutchinson has said many things, which the others have omitted. His knowledge of the antiqui- ties of the country was extensive and accurate, and the public are much obliged by the publication of his history ; but he knew more than he thought proper to relate. The few publications concerning New-Hampshire, are fu- gitive pieces dictated by party or interest. No regular historical deduction has ever appeared. The late Mr. FITCH, of Portsmouth, made a beginning of this sort, about the year 1728. From his papers, some things have been col- lected, which have not been met with elsewhere. The authorities from which information is derived, are carefully noted in the margin. Where no written testimonies could be obtained, recourse has been had to the most authentic tradition, selected and compared with a scrupulous attention, and with proper allowance for the imperfection of human memory. After all, the critical reader will doubtless find some chasms, which, in such a work, it would be improper to fill by the help of imagination and conjecture.
The author makes no merit of his regard to truth. To have disguised or misrepresented facts, would have been abusing the reader. No person can take more pleasure in detecting mistakes, than the author in correcting them, if he should have opportunity. In tracing the progress of controversy, it is impossible not to take a side, though we are ever so remote from any personal interest in it. Censure or applause, will naturally follow the opinion we adopt. If the reader should liappen to entertain different feelings from the writer, he has an equal right to indulge them ; but not at the expense of candor.
The Masonian controversy lay so directly in the way, that it could not be avoided. The rancor shewn on both sides in the early stages of it, has now subsided. The present settlement is so materially connected with the gener- al peace and welfare of the people, that no wise man or friend to the coun- try, can, at this day wish to overthrow it.
Mr. HUBBARD, Dr. MATHER and Mr. PENHALLOW, have published narra- tives of the several Indian wars. These have been compared with the pub- lic records, with ancient manuscripts, with CHARLEVOIX's history of New- France, and with the verbal traditions of the immediate sufferers or their de- scendants. The particular incidents of these wars, may be tedious to stran- gers, but will be read with avidity by the posterity of those, whose misfor - tunes and bravery were so conspicuous. As the character of a people must be collected from such a minute series, it would have been improper to have been less particular.
The writer has had it in view not barely to relate facts, but to delineate the characters, the passions, the interests and tempers of the persons who are the subjects of his narration, and to describe the most striking features of the times in which they lived. How far he has succeeded, or wherein he is de- fective, must be left to the judgment of every candid reader, to which this work is most respectfully submitted.
Dover, June 1, 1784.
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PREFACE
TO THE SECOND VOLUME.
WHEN the first volume was printed, I had not seen the ' Political Annals' of the American Colonies, published in 1780, by George Chalmers, Esq. This gentleman, being in England, was favored with some advantages, of which I was destitute ; having access to the books and papers of the Lords of Trade and Plantations, from the first establishment of that Board. He seeins to possess the diligence and patience which are necessary in a historian ; but either through inadvertence or want of candor, has made some misrepresen- tations respecting New-Hampshire, on which I shall take the liberty to re- mark .*
In page 491, speaking of the first Council, of which President CUTT was at the head, he says, ' they refused to take the accustomed oaths, as the Eng- ' lish law required, because liberty of conscience was allowed them.' In the first volume of my history, page 91, I have said, ' they published the com- ' mission and took the oaths ;' for which I cited the Council records ; and on recurring to them, I find the following entry, in the hand writing of Elias Stileman, Secretary.
' January 21, 1679-80.
' His Majesty's Commissioners, nomynated in said commission, tooke their ' respective oathes, as menconed in said commission.'
That the oaths were really taken, is a fact beyond all dispute ; but if there is any ground for what Mr. Chalmers is pleased to call a refusal, it must have been respecting the form of swearing ; which was usually done here by lift- ing the hand, and not by laying it on the bible, as was the form in England. Was it a forced construction of the clause respecting liberty of conscience, to suppose, that this indulgence was granted to them ? What other use could they have made of this liberty, than to act according to the dictates of their consciences ? Is it then consistent with candor, to publish an asser- tion, so worded as to admit the idea, that these gentlemen refused to obey an
* [It appears from the History of the Rise and Progress of the United States of North America, till the British Revolution in 1688, by James Gra- ham, Esq., that Mr. Chalmers commenced his acquaintance with colonial history in this country. Prior to the American revolution, he emigrated to the American colonies, and settled as a lawyer at Baltimore, but adhering to the royal cause, he returned to England, and was rewarded by an appoint- inent from the Board of Trade. The North American Review, No. LXX. (January, 183I,) p. 179, has pronounced a severe, but probably just sentence on the character of the work above mentioned.]
2
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PREFACE.
essential part of the duty prescribed by the commission, which they under- took to execute ? Or is it consistent with the character which he gives of the President, CUTT, p. 492, that ' he was allowed to have been an honest ' man and a loyal subject ?' The commission required them to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and an oath of office, which last is recited in the commission ; but not a word is said of the mode and form, in which the oaths should be taken ; neither was it said that they should be taken ' as the ' English law required.' They were therefore left at their liberty, to take them in any form which was agreeable to their conscience, or their former usage.
In the same page (491) he says ; ' An Assembly was soon called, which, by ' means of the usual intrigues, was composed of persons, extremely favorable ' to the projects of those who now engrossed power.' And in a note (page 507) ' the Council transmitted to the towns, a list of those who should be al- ' lowed to vote.'
With what propriety can it be said that these gentlemen engrossed power, when they were commissioned by the king ; and it is acknowledged, that not only their appointment, but their entering on office, was contrary to their inclinations ?
That the persons chosen into the Assembly should be ' favorable' to the sentiments of the Council, or of ' the wise men of Boston,' was not the result of any intrigues ; but because the majority of the people were of the same mind. As to sending 'a list of those who should be allowed to vote ;' the true state of the matter was this. The commission provided for the calling of an Assembly, within three months after the Council should be sworn, by sum- mons under seal, ' using and observing therein such rules and methods, as to ' the persons who are to choose the deputies, and the time and place of meet- ' ing, as they (the Council) shall judge most convenient.' The mode which they judged most convenient was, to order the select men of the four towns, to take a list of the names and estates of their respective inhabitants, accord- ing to their usual manner of making taxes, and send it to the Council. The Council then issued an order, appointing the persons thercin named, to meet in their respective towns, and elect by a major vote, three persons from each, to represent them in a general Assembly, on the 16th of March ; and in the order, there is this proviso, ' Provided that wee do not intend that what is ' now done be presidential for the future, and that it shall extend noe farther, ' than to the calling this first assembly.'
Now as the rules and methods of calling an assembly, and the persons who were to choose deputies, were left to the discretion of the Council ; what more proper method could they have taken, than to call for a list of the in- habitants and their estates, and by that means to determine, who were quali- fied in point of property and habitancy to be electors ? And as the numbers were few, and the persons well known, was it not as proper to name them at once, in the writs, as to establish qualifications, and appoint other persons to judge of those qualifications ; especially when there was no law in force by which they could be judged ? It is observable that each voter was ordered to take the oath of allegiance, if he had not taken it before ; and in the list of names in the book, a mark is set against several persons, who did not take the oath ; and another against those who did not appear at the election. Has this the appearance of intrigue ?
In page 492, he says, ' they were extremely slow in conforming to present ' requisitions, and passed no laws during the first session.' Having again consulted the records, I find in the Journal of the Council this entry, 'At a ' general Assembly held in Portsmouth, the 16th of. March, 1679-80. Pres- ' ent, &c. Sundry laws and ordinances made at this session are in another ' booke, for that purpose.'
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