USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 3
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30
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1623
preservation all over the old country," as Mr. Jenness states. Had it been of this character it would hardly have been reduced to the dilapidated condition in which it was found by Hubbard in 1680, less than fifty years after its erec- tion, when only " the chimney and some parts of the stone wall were stand- ing." It is probable that, as it must have been hastily built, it only sufficed for the immediate needs of Thomson and his little party, as a shelter from the elements. Such as it was it passed into the hands of Mason's men, and was sometimes called his " stone-house," though it is now conceded that the term " Mason Hall" was never, as has been popularly supposed, applied to it.
Further researches, which will undoubtedly be made by those who feel an interest in the early history of the State, may remove any doubts which now exist in relation to its first settlement. In England there are in all proba- bility records which would throw light on the subject. Until this investigation is made Little Harbor is entitled to the monument which it is proposed to erect "in commemoration of the first settlement of New Hampshire," be- cause it is the place where Thomson, the leader in the enterprise, and his as- sociates, first touched its soil ; and Dover Neck, the site of the first meeting- house erected in the State, is also entitled .to a monument in commemoration of that fact as well as that contemporaneous with the settlement at Little Harbor, or very soon thereafter, a portion of the same company established themselves in that vicinity.
Under the lead of David Thomson, this little band of ad- venturers, evidence to the contrary not being obtainable, prob- ably arrived at the mouth of the Piscataqua sometime in the early summer of 1623; and as their little vessel, with its high stern and antique prow, floated into the land-locked harbor of Portsmouth, with its islands decked to the water's edge with verdure, and on every side the lofty pines, the stately oaks, and the flowering shrubs of the primeval forest indicat- ing a generous soil, the change from a long sea voyage, with its storms and fogs and terrors, to a peaceful haven, - more enchanting then in its wild and picturesque beauty than now, with its navy yard, coal pockets, spile-bridge, and evidences of thrift and commerce, -must have been welcome. Their not leaving on record an account of their hardships is evidence that they arrived at an auspicious time. They must have been delighted with the prospect. Here they and their children were to found a State.
It was a goodly scene. Fair islands lay,
In virgin beauty, greening to their marge,
.
31
1614]
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENTS.
Enfolded in the atmosphere of June.
The birds sang welcome to the stranger ships, And from their coverts timid deer looked out To shyly scan the unfamiliar sight.
Far swept the coast, marked by its piny fringe,
And there upon the near horizon's verge Rose gentle isles, with verdure clad, that seemed Fair satellites of the majestic main,
Resting, like emerald bubbles, on the sea,
And all was wonderful and new and grand !
It is probable that before disembarking their goods they met the grave and friendly natives in council, and in return for knives, fish-hooks, gaudy beads, and such commodities, obtained the good will of the lords of the soil, permission to start their settlement, and the right to all the land they could use for years to come.
The Hilton brothers, who afterwards became so prominent in the plantations, probably explored the river and Great Bay and located their infant colony with reference to the future agricul- tural prospects of the region round about. They may have bought of the Indians a deserted corn field,-cleared land being of the utmost importance to those early comers,- but the sea afforded a never-failing supply of cod-fish ; salmon and trout were in the river and brooks ; clams were on the shore; game was in the woods, and birds were flying overhead or feeding in the marshes.
Any land about Great Bay, with its islands, creeks, and sinu- osities, like a section of a park in the domain of some mighty monarch, must have seemed good to these Englishmen. All their lives they had been cramped for room on the estate of some landowner of the old world, who valued his game and his trees more than the lives of his tenants. Here they could have land for the taking ; its value would depend on the labor ex- pended. Here they could grow, and their children in coming gen- erations would rival, in store of worldly goods and breadth of mental culture, the descendants of the ancient nobility of Europe.
I By E. P. Shillaber, a native of Portsmouth.
32
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1620
They were fishermen, farmers, laborers and servants. Some of them ignorant of the learning of the schools, superstitious, imbued with the prejudices of the time ; some of the Established Church, :some Puritans, but all pious after a fashion ; the most of them honest, believing in fair play and scorning treachery and hypoc- risy. They were self-reliant and law-abiding, and being left in a few years without lawful authority over them were competent to establish a little State of their own. Without a lawfully consti- tuted ruler, they did not lapse into anarchy, but accepted of their own will the strong government and stern justice of their ascetic neighbors of the Bay colony.
1
hit
GREAT BAY.
The scattered settlements from Plymouth to the Piscataqua, made during these years, maintained a neighborly intercourse, following their respective employments of fishing, trading and planting, until, in 1628, they were united in a common alarm by the course pursued by Thomas Morton, who, from his station at Mount Wollaston or Merry Mount, was charged with furnishing arms and ammunition to the Indians. Eight settlements along the coast shared the expense of arresting Morton and sending
33
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENTS.
1632]
him to England for trial. The settlement at the mouth of the Piscataqua paid towards the expense the same as the colony at Plymouth, and over twice as much as that at Dover, showing their relative importance.1
Morton is said to have returned to New England and is re- ported to have died at one of the Piscataqua settlements.
To understand the early history of New Hampshire it becomes necessary to consider the various grants issued by the Plymouth Council, for these grants led to a conflict of interests and a strug- gle which lasted for over a hundred years and was not finally settled until the breaking out of the Revolution. The grant to Gorges and Mason of 1622 was not perfected, nor was the earlier one to Mason of Mariana, for we learn from a grant by the Plymouth Council to Sir Henry Roswell, dated March 19, 1627-8, that he and his associates were entitled to all lands embraced between the Charles river and the Merrimack river, and also all lands "which lie * * within the space of three English miles to the northward * * of the Merrimack or to the north- ward of any and every part thereof." The following year2 King James I chartered the Massachusetts Company, confirming to them the early grant to Roswell.
November 7, 1629, the Plymouth Council, "upon mature de- liberation, thought fit, for the better furnishing and furtherance of the plantations in those parts, to appropriate and allot to several and particular persons divers parcels of land within the precincts of the aforesaid granted premises," and deeded to Captain John Mason "all that part of the mainland in New Eng- land lying upon the sea-coast, beginning from the middle part of the Merrimack river, and from thence to proceed northwards along the sea-coast to Piscataqua river, and so forwards up with- in the said river and to the furtherest head thereof, and from thence north-westward until three score miles be finished from the first entrance of Piscataqua river; also from Merrimack through the said river and to the furtherest head thereof, and so forwards up into the lands westwards, until three score miles be finished ; and from thence to cross overland to the three score
I John Farmer. 2 March 4, 1628-9.
34
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1632
miles end accompted from Piscataqua river ; * which said * portions of land, * * the said Captain John Mason, with the consent of the President and Council, intends to name NEW HAMPSHIRE." 1
It would seem that Mason had the earliest claim to the three- mile strip north of the Merrimack river from previous grants ; but his claim was never sustained, and the land, so far up the river as Pawtucket Falls, went into the undisputed possession of the Massachusetts Company and remained there ever after.
Captain John Mason died in November or December, 1635,2 and left his title to lands in New England to be a source of litiga- tion to his heirs for several generations, as will hereafter appear.3
In the spring of 1631, Edward Hilton and his associates received from the Plymouth Council the grant of Dover Neck.
After his grant of 1629 had been confirmed to him, Captain Mason was especially active in advancing the interests of his. manor in New Hampshire. He sent over eight Danes to build mills, saw timber, and make potash, and forwarded twenty-two women to the colony. At Newichwannock he built the first saw-mill and corn-mill in New England, and a large house, well fortified. The " great house," so-called, was at Piscataqua, or Strawberry Bank. He imported a large number of cattle, from which descended the so-called native cattle of New Hampshire and Maine. At about this time, the Isles of Shoals, which, while one of the earliest, was one of the most important fishing stations on the coast, was divided between Gorges and Mason, the southern section, in after years, becoming incorporated as a New Hampshire town by the name of Gosport.
After the grant to Hilton, Captain John Mason and his asso- ciate adventurers obtained a further grant from the Plymouth Council of "that part of their patent on which the building and salt-works were erected, situate on both sides the harbor and river Piscataqua, to the extent of five miles westward by the sea-coast, then to cross over towards the other plantation in the
I N. H. Provincial Papers, vol. i. p. 24.
2 N. Bouton, D.D.
3 By patent of Plymouth Council to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason, dated Nov. 27, 1629, LACONIA was granted, including "lands lying and bordering upon the great lakes and rivers of the Iroquois and other nations adjoining."
35
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENTS.
1632]
hands of Edward Hilton." The whole interest having been divided into two parts, Captain Thomas Wiggin was appointed agent for the upper, and Captain Walter Neal for the lower plantation. With Neal were associated Ambrose Gibbons, George Vaughan, Thomas Warnerton, Humphrey Chadbourne, and Edward Godfrey, as superintendents of trade, fishery, salt- making, building and husbandry. Neal resided at Little Harbor with Godfrey, who had the care of the fishery. Chadbourne built the great house at Strawberry Bank, in which Warnerton resided. Gibbons had the care of the saw-mill, and lived in the fortified house at Newichwannock, where he carried on trade with the Indians. He afterwards removed to Sander's Point, and was succeeded by Chadbourne. The proprietors provided for the defence of the settlement by sending to the plantation several cannon ; and a fort was planned on the northeast point of the Great Island at the mouth of the harbor.1
SCENE IN WHITE HILLS.
Captain Neal's mission was to explore and report on the province of Laconia, and accordingly, in 1632, in company with 1 Belknap.
1159759
36
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. [1632
Jocelyn and Darby Field, he set out on foot to discover the interior, and establish a trade with the Indians. The party visited the White Mountains, which they christened the Chrys- tal Hills ; 1 but probably they did not go beyond the foot-hills of the great White Mountain range.
Some writers, depending on a statement in Rev. Samuel Danforth's Almanac for 1647, have ascribed this visit to June
SUMMIT OF THE RAVINE, WHITE MOUNTAINS.
4, 1642. 2Among recent authors, however, Chandler E. Potter was of the opinion that the original account of Dr. Belknap was the true one, that Walter Neal, Jocelyn, and Darby Field went to the White Hills in 1632, that the Jocelyn here mentioned was not the author of "New England Rarities Dis- covered," whose first visit to New England was in 1638. This
I Belknap. 2 Prof. J. H. Huntington.
37
1633]
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENTS.
among other things had given discredit to Dr. Belknap's account. By some it is thought that the man referred to was Mr. Henry Jocelyn. The first mention of the White Hills in print was by Mr. John Jocelyn, in the book just mentioned. It is stated that about a month after Field's first visit, he went again with five or six in his company, and that the glowing account he gave " caused divers others to travel thither, but they found nothing worthy their pains." Among those who went are mentioned' Thomas Gorges and Mr. Vines, two magistrates of the province of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. They went about the end of August, of the same year. Prof. E. Tuckerman, in 1840, endeavored to trace the path of these early explorers, and he had little doubt that Field entered the valley of Ellis River, and left it for the great south-east ridge of Mount Washington, the same which has since been called Boott's Spur. Not finding minerals or precious stones, but only high mountains with narrow valleys and deep gorges, there were no inducements for further explor- ations.
Neal, on his return from this expedition, raised a force of forty men from both plantations, and in company with a party of twenty from Boston, pursued the pirate Dixy Bull to Pem- aquid, which place the latter had pillaged. The freebooter hav-' ing gone further east, and the party pursuing being detained by contrary winds and bad weather, they returned in their four small vessels to the Piscataqua, stopping long enough on their way to hang an Indian at Richmond's Island.1 During the following year, 1633, the proprietors were put to large expense in the way of wages to their employees on the Piscataqua, for the settlements were not self-supporting. Very little attention had been paid to agriculture, and not only provisions, but clothing, utensils, medicines, articles of trade, implements for building, husbandry, and fishing had to be furnished to the plantations, so that the proprietors, discouraged in the hope of the discovery of mines or a remunerative commerce, one after the other lost their interest or sold to the original and more hopeful proprietors, Gorges and Mason.
I Belknap.
38
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1633
Captain Walter Neal recorded that (in company with Captain Thomas Wiggin) he divided the patent into four townships in this year, 1633, which were afterwards known as Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter and Hampton ; and later in the year, returned to England.1 John Albee, the graceful writer, and historian of Newcastle, thus writes of the first governor of New Hamp- shire :
Captain Walter Neal was a true soldier of fortune; always ready for an expedition or campaign ; always seeking that kind of employment from the English court or any transient patron among the gentry; always begging for something and not averse to recounting his own services, merits or demerits. He describes himself, when seeking an appointment in these parts, as never having had any other profession but his sword, nor other fortunes than war; and he adds, pathetically, that his debts are clamorous and his wants insupportable. When not otherwise engaged he acted as captain and drill master of the London Militia. He was a free lance, among the last of the knights-errant and of the Round Table. Such was the first governor of New Hampshire and all the lands to the eastward of Massachu- setts Bay. He has nothing in common with the solemn and pragmatical Winthrops and Endicotts, and instead of settling down at Mason Hall to found a church and raise corn, he goes in search of the fabled land of Laconia, in expectation of finding precious stones and mines of gold. For three years he explored the woods, planned fortifications, drilled the settlers in arms, and chased pirates. He is a typical character, of the same family of Raleigh, Smith and Standish, men who discovered new countries, founded colonies, -uniting the real and romantic as never before, - and went trading and exploring round the world, writing love songs and marvelous narratives, and all as if it were the pastime of the moment and every day would bring a' " noble chance."
Although the names bestowed upon the towns were not given until several years afterward, it may be well to believe that some such a survey was made during the year, although not recorded until later, when the towns were named. Certain it is, how- ever, that in 1633 the Massachusetts authorities intimated that their jurisdiction extended over New Hampshire.2 There was Mason's claim to Mariana interfering with their grants from the Charles river to the Merrimack, which had to be offset by a claim, founded on however doubtful an origin, upon New Hampshire.
I Belknap. 2 Winthrop's History of New England, and Provincial Papers, vol. i. p. 106.
1635]
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENTS.
39
These differences were in the way of an amicable adjustment at the time of Captain Mason's death, Henry Jocelyn, representative of Captain Mason, agreeing with Matthew Cradock, first gov- ernor of the Massachusetts Company, to give Massachusetts that land about Cape Anne secured to Mason by a patent granted before the Massachusetts patent, while Cradock agreed that "Captain Mason should have that land which was beyond Merrimack and granted to the Massachusetts'.' 1 This agree- ment was sent to Henry Jocelyn to get recorded at Boston, but before he could have leisure to go there, he heard of Captain Mason's death and failed in his duty. To this time very little improvement had been made on the lands; the lakes were not explored ; the vines were planted, but came to nothing ; no mines were found but those of iron, and those were not wrought; three or four houses only were built during the first seven years. The peltry trade with the Indians was of some valuc, and the fishing served for the support of the inhabitants, but yielded no great profit to the adventurers, who received but inadequate returns in lumber and furs. Bread was either brought from England or Virginia.2
In 1634, Mason and Gorges gave new life to the settlement by sending over a fresh supply of servants and materials for carrying on the plantation, and appointed Francis Williams their governor,- a gentleman of such good sense and discretion, and so acceptable to the settlers, that when they combined in a body politic they continued him at their head. The next year, 1635, the Plymouth Council surrendered their charter to the King, first securing, or having confirmed, certain grants to individ- uals; and Captain John Mason died, an event of much importance to the New Hampshire settlers. It had been his design to establish in his province of New Hampshire a manor, but death overtook him before his plans had been consummated. His personal property in New England seems to have been appropriated by his former servants and agents, with what justice it is unnecessary to inquire, while his interest in the
1 Hutch. Coll. Papers, p. 423. F. Belknap, 55.
2 Farmer's Belknap, 13.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1635
land was left to youthful heirs, who were in no condition to assert their rights until many years afterward.
In the meanwhile, the affairs of the settlement on Hilton's Patent, at Dover, were managed by Captain Thomas Wiggin with sagacity. In 1633 he brought from England Rev. Wil- liam Leveridge, a worthy and able Puritan minister, and settled him over the parish, building for him the first church in New Hampshire. Mr. Leveridge remained a short time only, removing to the Plymouth colony. During the year the small-pox raged among the Piscataqua Indians, greatly reduc- ing their numbers. The next year, 1634, Rev. William Bur- det, an artful impostor,1 who had been minister at Yar- mouth, England, and who was a good scholar and plausible in his behavior, settled in Dover, and "continued for sometime in good esteem with the people as a preacher, till, by artful insinuations, he raised such a jealousy in their minds against Wiggin, their governor, that they deprived him of office and elected Burdet in his place."
Burdet, while loyal to the Church and King, was not in sympathy with the authorities of the Massachusetts colony and com- plained of them as hypocritical and disaffected with the govern- ment, as was shown by intercepted correspondence in 1638. He received the exiles from the Bay colony and was at length forced to remove to Agamenticus, whence he was again obliged to remove, finally going to England and joining the royal- ists.1 It was charged that he was not altogether circumspect in his habits while residing in New Hampshire. Among the Anti- nomians, who were banished from Boston and took refuge in these plantations, was Captain John Underhill. He had been a soldier in the Netherlands and was brought over to New England by Governor Winthrop, to train the people in military discipline. He served the country in the Pequod war, and was in such reputation in the town of Boston that they had chosen him one of their deputies. Coming into conflict with the Massachusetts authorities, from his sympathy with Wheel- wright, he came to Dover, where he procured the office of
1 Belknap.
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DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENTS.
1638]
governor in place of Burdet. Being settled in his government he gathered a church at Dover. Rev. Hansard Knollys was chosen minister, who was not only not orthodox, but an Anabaptist and an Antinomian, which rendered him very obnoxious to the Puritans of Boston. They complained to the principal inhabit- ants on the river of a breach of friendship in advancing Under- hill, and summoned both Underhill and Knollys to appear before the court at Boston to answer to charges. The people of Dover voted Underhill out of office and chose Thomas Roberts in his place. Rev. Thomas Larkham, a native of Lyme, Dorsetshire, a minister from Northam, near Barnstable, differed from the church authorities of Boston, and settled in Dover, where he drew away the followers of Knollys and caused much trouble, which terminated in a riot. Underhill siding with Knollys, the Larkham party called in the intervention of Governor Francis Williams of the lower settlement, and at a trial Underhill was found guilty of disorderly conduct and banished from the plan- tations. Knollys was dismissed from the church and returned to England, where he died over sixty years later, "a good man in a good old age." 1 Captain Underhill returned to Boston. and later went to the Dutch settlement on the Hudson, where he received important commands in the military service of that colony. After Knollys' departure, Mr. Larkham, for whom the township was named Northam, charged with moral obliquity, hastily left the colony, returning to England, where he died some thirty years afterwards, "well-known there for a man of great piety and sincerity."
One of the exiles from Massachusetts was Rev. John Wheel- wright, a preacher at Braintree, who, having been banished from Massachusetts on account of his Antinomian principles, obtained a grant from the Indians, and settled, in 1638, with many of his followers, at the falls of Squamscott, giving the place the name of Exeter. Wheelwright was a friend and fel- low collegian of Oliver Cromwell ; had been vicar of Bilsby, in Lincolnshire, England, and brought his family to this country in 1636. Landing in Boston, the next year he was banished
I Belknap.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1640
from the colony. There is a distinct tradition that there were residents at Exeter before Wheelwright arrived. He at once gathered a church there, built a meeting-house, a primitive structure of small dimensions, and became the minister. He drew up a form of civil government, called a "combination," which, in a modified form, was signed by him and thirty-four others in 1640. He remained at Exeter until the extension of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts over the settlements of New Hampshire, when he withdrew, with some of his warmest supporters, to Wells, in Maine. In the year 1638, Rev. Stephen Batchelor, with whom was soon after associated Timothy Dalton and a party, chiefly from Norfolk, in England, to the number of fifty-six, made a settlement at Hamp- ton at a place known to the Indians as Winnicumet. This was strictly a Massachusetts colony ; and although their settle- ment was objected to by the agents of the Mason estate and the settlers at Exeter, it was persisted in, and soon after led to the claim of Massachusetts to jurisdiction over the whole of the territory of New Hampshire. After the death of Captain Mason, his widow and executrix sent over Francis Norton as her attorney to manage the estate. The expense exceeding the income, she was obliged to relinquish the care of the plantation, and to let the servants shift for themselves. They shared the goods and cattle,- Norton driving one hundred head to Boston - and there selling them. Some removed to other parts, but many remained, claiming their lands and betterments, and formed a permanent settlement about Strawberry Bank.
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