USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 22
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1 In 1762 happily the Bow controversy, which had been so long waged, was drawing to a close. In the courts of New Hamp- shire every case brought to trial, touching the title to their lands, had been decided against the proprietors of Rumford ; but the Rev. Mr. Walker and Benjamin Rolfe, Esq .- the men to whom the proprietors had entrusted their cause-confident of its justice, were neither baffled nor discouraged. With a firmness of purpose worthy all praise, and sustained by the unanimous will of the people, the Rev. Mr. Walker persevered in his agency. In the fall of 1762 he visited England for the third time, to attend the trial of the cause, which was still pending. He had formed valuable acquaintances among ministers of re- ligion, members of Parliament, and members of his Majesty's Council. Sir William Murray, his learned counsellor and advo- cate in the first trial, was now Lord Mansfield, chief justice of the King's Bench. After long and anxious suspense the trial came on, and Mr. Walker announced the result in a letter dated in December as favorable to the Rumford and Suncook settlers. The decision of the King in council states : -
That some years since, upon a dispute about the boundary line between the provinces of the Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, his Majesty was pleased to issue a commission to mark out the dividing line between the said Province of New Hampshire and Massachusetts Bay, but with an express declaration that private property should not be affected thereby. And upon hearing the report of the commissioners appointed to settle the said boundary, his Majesty was pleased, by his order in council, made in 1740, to adjudge- and order that the northern boundary of the said Province of the Massachu- setts Bay are and be a similar curve line, pursuing the course of Merrimack
I Rev. Dr. N. Bouton.
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river at three miles distance on the north side thereof, beginning at the At- lanticocean, and ending at a point due north of a place called Pautucket Falls, and a straight line drawn from thence due west, cross the said river, till it meets with llis Majesty's other governments; by which determination two third parts at least of the said river Merrimack, with the lands and settlements thereon, and among the rest the said towns of Pennicook, or Rumford, and Suncook. would lay upon the said river considerably above the said Pautucket falls, were excluded out of the said Province of Massachusetts Bay, in which they had before been thought and reputed to be, and thrown into the said other Province of New Hampshire. That notwithstanding his Majesty had been pleased, at the time of issuing the said commission, to fix the said boun- dary, to declare the same was not to affect private property : yet certain per- sons in New Hampshire, desirous to make the labors of others an advantage to themselves, and to possess themselves of the towns of Pennicook, otherwise Rumford, and Suncook, as now improved by the industry of the appellants and the said first settlers thereof, whom they seek to despoil of the benefit of all their labors.
His Majesty this day took the said report into consideration, and was pleased, with the advice of his privy council, to approve thereof, and to order, as it is hereby ordered, that the said judgment of the inferior court of common pleas of the Province of New Hampshire, of the 2d of September, 1760, and aiso the judgment of the superior court of judicature, of the 2d Tuesday in November, affirming the same, be both of them reversed, and that the appel- lants be restored to what they may have lost by means of the said judgment, whereof the Governor or Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Province of New Hampshire, for the time being, and all others whom it may concern. are to take notice and govern themselves accordingly.
But notwithstanding his Majesty's decision the controversy had become so complicated, and involved so much personal in- terest and feeling, that many years elapsed before its final set- tlement. The difficulty with the government of the Province in respect to taxes was terminated by a charter of incorporation, but conflicting personal interests had to be compromised. The prudence, decision, and readiness for reconciliation on just prin- ciples, which distinguished the proprietors in all their subse- quent proceedings, appear from the records. The controversy was finally terminated in 1772. The common lands which had been reserved were divided and laid off to the respective proprietors and grantees.
At length Mr. Walker's able management of the Bow case having won a favorable decision, Rumford was to remain intact, and
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so was Suncook. Suncook, however, had given over the strug- gle and was no more ; in its place was Pembroke, a creation of the General Assembly of New Hampshire. Who would blame their worthy divine, the Rev. Aaron Whittemore, if he upbraided the people for their want of faith in the. paternal guardianship of the Old Bay Colony, in which he had filial confidence ? Probably he had no soft answers to turn away their wrath, but rather enkindled it ; for they met one November day and voted their old minister out of his parish. Here their anger ended, for the next year they petitioned for, and obtained, the charter for a separate parish for the Presbyterians, allowing the minority to retain the services of their faithful minister; and not forcing them, in retaliation for past acts, to support the Rev. Daniel Mitchel.
1 In 1762 the population of that part of the "Chesnut Coun- try " called Charmingfare numbered so many families who were obliged to make their way over bridle-paths and through woods ten or twelve miles to meeting, that the freeholders of Chester voted to set off a new parish north and west of their present limits and north of Long Meadows, now Auburn. The new township was supposed to measure five and one half miles one way, by four miles the other, being nearly a parallelogram in shape, and was divided into one hundred and thirty proprietary lots.
The earliest date at which anyone moved within the limits of the new parish cannot now be determined. The late Colonel R. E. Patten claimed to have heard it said by one of the fathers who knew, that David McClure built his log cabin on the north-east slope of Patten's hill, in 1743. Chase, in his history of Chester, remarks that McClure did not take his farm at Chester Centre before 1744. On page two hundred and sixty, however. of that history, the invoice table of 1741 gives David McClure as assessed for a house and a horse.
William Turner, generally considered the first settler, and who appears to have been in Chester in 1741, or before, built a house in 1748, on a swell of land near the present Candia 1 F. B. Eaton.
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village. The next year came Benjamin Smith from Exeter, and began a clearing about one half mile south-east. Enoch Colby came from Hampton about the same time, and settled a mile or more south-west from Turner. They appear to have been neighborly, for Mr. Turner married Colby's sister, and their daughter Sarah was the first child born in town. In 1753, Nathaniel Burpee came from Rowley, Massachusetts, and built one quarter of a mile north ; he united in his person two very useful functions - he was tailor and deacon. After this the influx of population, if not rapid, was steady. The earliest recorded census in 1767 gives the number as three hundred and sixty-three. Eight years later it had more than doubled.
Under the consent signified by the vote of Chester, thirty- eight freeholders petitioned for a charter, and in 1763 it was duly granted by the Governor, Council and Assembly, whereby "the inhabitants and their estates are made a parish by the name of Candia."
In Moore and Farmer's New Hampshire Gazetteer, it is said that this name was given by Governor Benning Wentworth, who had been a prisoner on the island of Crete, now Candia, in the Mediterranean. The statement was adopted in Eaton's His- tory, and also by the late Rev. Dr. Bouton, in some notes on the names of towns in his State Papers. I have not seen any allusion to this imprisonment in Belknap's or in Brewster's Rambles. Some circumstances in the life of Wentworth, how- ever, give it an air of probability.
It is to the distinction of the people of that rough but thrifty little town, that the world knows but one other place of like name. There are Chesters and Raymonds and Deerfields in abundance, but, especially to those to the manor born, but one Candia in fact or in sentiment.
It would be interesting to know where the first town meeting was held, but the record gives us no hint, though John Carr's tavern was surely built (and is now the oldest inhabited house in town), and Deacon Palmer's "Lintel " received the worship- ping congregation on Sunday.
It was on March 13, 1764, that this precursor of a long and
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lively series of March meetings was called by Samuel Emerson, Esq., duly authorized for that purpose. Doctor Samuel Moore, as the record styles him, who came from Hampstead two years before, was chosen Moderator and Parish Clerk, which latter office he held twenty-nine years. He was one of those univer- sal factotums useful and indispensable in the building up of new towns, not a regular physician but able to pull teeth, perform simple surgical operations, and give common sense if not legal advice in matters of dispute. His wife was reputed equally cffi- cient and capable in her own particular sphere.
The chief reason for the new charter was the difficulty of at- tending public worship, and so the first vote to raise money was of one hundred and fifty pounds old tenor, to hire preaching, and one hundred pounds for schooling. A small sum, the old tenor currency having depreciated to about one twentieth of its nominal amount, but it was enough for immediate use.
"Shirbane " Rowe was chosen inspector of deer, and John Carr tythingman. Three hawards or hay wardens were also chosen, whose duty it was to take up and impound any cattle found trespassing on inclosures or cornfields.
As there were few fences, cattle were of course allowed to roam at large, as well as sheep. To identify the sheep a system of ear marks was used, and they are recorded in quaint lan- guage in the " town book," as for instance : "'Shirbane' Rowe's mark for creatures a happenny under side left ear." "Silas Cammet mark for his creatures a slit in ye Rite ear." " Nicho- las French's mark for his creatures a cropp of the left ear sival- low tail ye right." Inspectors of deer were appointed to see that the game laws were enforced, which forbade the killing of deer at certain seasons. The tythingmen served as local police, not only maintaining the order and attention in meeting, but they arrested unlucky travellers making more than a Sabbath day's journey, and saw that the guests in Colonel John Carr's Inn did not carry their carousing to excess. The remaining officers chosen did not differ in title or function from those chosen at the present day, and therefore call for no mention.
About this time the following terse vote appears upon the
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record, without gloss or comment : "Concerning Hoggs, we will stand by the old laws in that case provided."
In all those days they were looking out for a minister, and various sums were voted for preaching. Rev. Tristram Gilman very acceptably served them for forty-one Sabbaths, Rev. Mr. Webster fifteen, and Rev. Jonathan Searle ten. Besides, Rev. Messrs Hall, Joseph Currier and Thomas Lancaster preached each a shorter time. Calls were extended to Messrs Gilman and Searle, but not accepted. Neither were the schools neglected, eighteen pounds being appropriated to each quarter or district, and a writing and reading school established the whole of the year. In January, 1766, the amount voted for preaching and schools was more than doubled, and four hundred pounds old tenor expended on the parsonage lot. September Sth, at a special meeting of the parish, they voted sixty pounds lawful money in labor, and five pounds in cash, toward building a meeting-house, preaching having been maintained meanwhile in Deacon Palmer's "Lintel," the house thus designated being sit- uated a few rods east of the present parsonage, on the spot where the late N. B. Hall resided. There was a triangular pediment over the front door from which the name given to the whole structure doubtless came. Whether this is anything more than a local term my observation or reading does not inform me.
It was voted, that the meeting-house frame should be begun on the 22nd of the month, and "John Clay, Walter Robie, Esq., Benjamin Cass, Moses Ba- ker, Jonathan Bean. Nathaniel Emerson and Abraham Fitts," were chosen a committee to take the work in charge.
The sixty pounds could be paid in labor at two shillings six pence per day, or in lumber at current rates, and the frame was to be completed by the last of October. If any member of the parish failed to pay in lumber or labor the constable could collect it in money.
October 20th the selectmen were authorized to assess a sufficient sum to. finish the frame, and codfish, potatoes and butter were provided for the rais- ing supper. The house was forty-five feet long by forty wide and was laid out into pew lots which were sold to raise money to complete the building. Eighty-two years after, when this meeting-house was burned, a neighboring blacksmith, with whimsical thrift, sowed turnip seed in the ashes, to save, as he said, the interest on his money. Nearly all the materials required could be furnished home made, except the glass, and in order to provide for what the record calls the "glassing," liberty was given to cut red oak timber on the school and parsonage lots, to be made into staves three feet eight inches long. Eighteen shillings per M was allowed for the staves until enough had been cut to amount to sixty pounds lawful money. It took several years to finish the glazing, and in 1771 a committee was chosen to look after the glass rate, and see that no more red oak staves were cut than was necessary. Possibly the incumbent, Rev. Mr. Jewett, made some objections, as the income of the lot was part of his salary. The committee offered, if allowed to cut the staves, to build a fence around the lot.
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In addition to the ordinary trials of a frontier life, the war of the Revolution approached. In 1770 they had called and settled the Rev. David Jewett, engaging to pay him eventually sixty-five pounds a year, with the income of the parsonage, to build him a house and barn, and dig a well, thus increasing the burdens of the day. In 1796 a steeple and porch were added to the meeting-house, and in 1802 a bell and weather-cock. Major Samuel Moore seems to have been the contractor for finishing the steeple, as it is said that he employed a Newbury- port copper-smith to make the weather-cock, and soon after, failing in business, did not pay him. The town had paid Mr. Moore all that was his due, but on a representation that the copper-smith was a poor man, voted to allow his claim. One of the townsmen, antedating Wall Street by a century, hurried down to Newbury, bought the claim at half price, paying in sugar which he had got in trade, probably for barrels, and came back to the selectmen to realize: by some means the transaction became known to the town fathers, and they sent down the full amount to the artisan. Let us be thankful that thus this bird was an honest rooster, and served the parish well for thirty-six years, when, at the burning of the house, he took his final flight, and was resolved into his native copper, ceasing forever to breast the storm, or guide the winds. The oaken frame of the house was very massive, but, heavy as it was, the famous gale of Sep- tember, 1815, started the roof, which was seen to lift as if meditating a flight, but finally thought better of it, and settled back to its old position.
The house stood on the hill, or central plateau, fronting the south, and not far from the geographical centre of the parish ; it was at least beautiful for situation.
1 In June, 1735, the Massachusetts General Court granted to Samuel King and others, in consideration " of their sufferings " in the expedition to Canada in the year 1690, the township of Lyndeborough, and about one third of Wilton on the north side, under the name of Salem Canada. In this part of Wilton, in June, 1739, was the first settlement made. The first settlers
1 J. B. Conner.
.
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were Ephraim and Jacob Putnam, and John Dale, who removed to this place from Danvers, Mass. In 1749 the Masonian pro- prietors made a grant of the rest of the town under certain conditions, to forty-six persons. The grantees had it laid out, and annexed to a part of Salem Canada, and called No. 2. It was incorporated June 25, 1762, under the name of Wilton, a name probably derived from an ancient borough in Wiltshire, England ; and the first town meeting was held July 27, 1762, twenty-three years after the first settlement. Before the Revolution, a range of lots, half a mile wide, was set off to Tem- ple, and thus the town finally assumed its present size and shape. Improvements of all kinds were slow and gradual. The first settlers went to Dunstable to mill; and when Shep- pard's mill in Milford, seven miles distant, was built, it was so great a convenience that it was hardly thought less of than a modern railroad. The first grist mill in Wilton was built by Deacon Samuel Greeley of Nottingham West. The first saw mill was near Philip Putnam's, on the North Stream ( Stony Brook ). The second grist and saw mill was Hutchinson's, at the east village. These were all the grist mills erected before the Revolution. The roads were at first little more than foot- paths marked by spotted trees. For a long time there were apprehensions of danger from the Indians; Wilton seems never to have been a fixed residence for them, but merely a hunting- ground. They, however, lived along the Merrimack, and in time of hostility, or when hostility was feared, the first settlers went into garrison. This continued about ten years. One garrison was in Milford, the other in Lyndeborough, near where Ephraim Putnam settled. The ecclesiastical history of our New England towns has always been of great interest and importance, and it must be gratifying to all whose native place is Wilton, that the means for religious improvement have ever been carefully provided by its inhabitants.
When the town was first laid out, one share of two hundred acres was set apart for the first minister, and another for the support of the ministry. There had been occasional preaching here most of the time ; and from the records it appears that at
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least two persons had been invited to settle; but the first minister actually installed was Mr. Jonathan Livermore, who was ordained December 14, 1763; on the same day a church was formed, consisting of eight male members. Mr. Livermore was minister thirteen years and resigned. It may be men- tioned as an interesting fact, that there were only two families in town during his ministry whose children were not baptized. The first meeting-house was built in 1752. It was used twenty- one years and then taken down.
The second one was built during the ministry of Mr. Livermore. They commenced raising it in September, 1773. Such things were conducted differ- ently then from what they are now, and were considered a work of two days. People came from distant towns to see the spectacle, and great preparations were made. A committee of the town appointed the raisers, and ample pro- visions were made to entertain strangers. The morning dawned amid all the glories of that beautiful season, and people from all parts came in great numbers. Some came on foot, and some practised the method, unknown to modern days, of riding and tying; others were on horseback with their wives or sisters behind on a pillion. It was an occasion of universal expecta- tion. The timbers were all prepared, the workmen ready, and the master- workman, full of the dignity of his office, issuing his orders to his aids. All went on prosperously. The good cheer, the excitement of the work, the crowd of spectators, men looking on, women telling the news, boys playing their various games, all made it a scene of general rejoicing. The sides of the house were already up, and also a part of the roof at the east end of the build- ing. One of the raisers from Lyndeborough, Captain Bradford, had brought over his wife, whom he left on account of illness at the house of Mr. Baldwin, while he went on to take part in the work. Having to pass along the centre of the building, he observed that the middle beam, extending across the centre of the church, was not properly supported. A post was under the centre, but it was worm-eaten and was already beginning to yield and give way under the pressure. In raising the middle part of the roof, the weight of the workmen would come on this beam, which was evidently not strong enough to bear up the timbers and men. He immediately ascended to the roof and informed the master-workman, who, being made over-confident by the success thus far, re- plied that if he was afraid he could go home, that they wanted no cowards there. Indignant at the reply, Captain Bradford went down and started off for his wife, with the intention of returning home. Before reaching Mr. Baldwin's he looked back, and saw the men swarming upon the unsupported beam. They were raising up with much exertion and shouts of direction and encour- agement the beams and rafters, when suddenly he saw the frame already erected tremble, the men shrink back aghast; the building seemed to rock for a moment to and fro, then all, timbers and tools and men, rushed down to- gether in one mingled mass. The crash was so loud as to be heard nearly a
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mile. For a moment all was silent, then the air was filled with groans, and outcries, and shrieks of terror. Of the fifty-three men who fell with the frame, three were instantly killed, two died shortly afterward, and most of the others were more or less mangled and wounded. To understand the im- pression that the event made at the time, it must be remembered that the whole population of the town was less than five hundred. At a fast which was kept, Mr. Livermore preached from the text, which then must have been peculiarly impressive : "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." After many mishaps the church was finally completed near the end of the year 1774, and dedicated the next January, when Mr. Livermore preached a sermon from the text : "But who am I and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort." In July, 1804, the house was struck with lightning, and the middle part at the end rent from top to bottom.
In former days, before people had become so delicate and luxurious as now, there was no fire in the church in winter. The older men chose to have it understood that their zeal kept them warm; while the young men, fearing perhaps lest their reputation for hardihood might suffer in the eyes of the gentler sex, would not confess that they were to be made to feel cold by any weather. But it has been intimated that there were lads who, when the thermometer was at zero, by the middle of the afternoon sermon, were ready, after some misgivings, to give up their reputation for zeal and pride of sex, for the chance of holding their fingers for a few moments over their mother's foot-stove.
Many of the town papers relating to the affairs of Wilton during the war of the Revolution have been lost. An examin- ation of those remaining prove, that nearly every able-bodied man belonging in the town was out in the war, and either did service personally, or hired another to fill his place for a longer or shorter period. Wilton was represented in the battle of Bunker Hill, and a large number of her men were in the army at Cambridge. It is known that at least eight, and probably more, were in the battle of Bennington, one of whom, Ebenezer Perry, was killed.
New Ipswich, Wilton, and Dresham were incorporated in 1762. The former town was granted by Massachusetts and settled, before 1749, by Reuben Kidder, Archibald White,
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Joseph and Ebenezer Ballard, Joseph Stevens, and others. It was regranted in 1750 by the Masonian proprietors. The first minister was Rev. Stephen Farrar, who died in 1809. He was succeeded, in 1812, by Rev. Richard Hale.
1 Lisbon was first granted in the year 1763, under the name of Concord, which name it retained for the succeeding five years. The grantees not complying with the conditions of the charter, the same became forfeited, as was supposed, and in 1768 it was regranted to an entirely new company of proprietors, under the name of Gunthwaite. Through the influence of Captain Leon- ard Whiting, who was instrumental in procuring the second charter, and Major John Young, of Haverhill, Mass., some set- tlements were made. Matters, however, progressed slowly, and for several years there were but few additions. The war of the Revolution came to a close, and a new impetus was given to emigration.
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