USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 4
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At this time there were four distinct governments, including Kittery, on the Piscataqua river, united by mutual "combinations" or forms of government. The political revolution in England deprived the people of hope of receiving the royal attention, and being divided among themselves, the Massachusetts party, which had been strengthened by large additions among the new settlers of Dover, prevailed, and it was resolved by the "more considerate persons" to treat with Massachusetts about tak- ing them under their protection. The affair was more than a year in agitation, but was finally concluded, April 14, 1641, when
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DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENTS.
1632]
Strawberry Bank, and the inhabitants of Hilton's Patent, or Northam, and Exeter, submitted to the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts colony. This was greatly desired by the authori- ties at Boston, for they hoped thus to stretch the limits of their patent so as to take in a great extent of territory. It was of advantage to the people of the Piscataqua, for it gave a strong government, which to them was the same as peace and justice.
Exeter at that time was not very orthodox, nor was Dover ; while the people of Strawberry Bank inclined to the Established Church of England. So the people demanded and received several concessions before consummating the union. Captain Thomas Wiggin seems to have been the most influential man in the colony in bringing about the desired end, and was rewarded by high magisterial authority, under the new order of things. One of the most important concessions made was that a representative from the Piscataqua could serve, though he was not a church member.
Thus was formed a union, under which, for nearly forty years, New Hampshire submitted to the laws and jurisdiction of Mas- sachusetts.
Of the second governor of the Piscataqua settlements, Francis Williams, who succeeded Walter Neal and continued as governor until the union with Massachusetts, little is known to the writer, save that he became a magistrate, and an associate justice in Norfolk county, and continued in office until 1645.
The obscurity which surrounds the first settlement of New Hampshire has been partially cleared up by the researches of the late John Scribner Jenness. A careful perusal of the fol- lowing extracts from his "Notes on the First Planting of New Hampshire and on its Piscataqua Patents," may be of general interest, especially as the work was privately printed, and had a very limited circulation :
" Advancing from this starting-point (the settlement of David Thomson and his company, in 1623, at Pannaway, or Little Harbor), only a few steps further into the early history of New Hampshire, the student is again shut in by a dense fog,
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
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through which, for a long time, he is compelled to grope his uncertain way. Before the year 1632 is passed, he finds him- self in the midst of a number of patents on the Piscataqua, none of which can he clearly make out and define. He perceives long and bitter contests between those rival patents, the true ground of which he cannot understand. He discovers that at last all these contending patentees and planters are in some way swept into the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay, but the dexterous legerdemain by which the annexation was effected entirely escapes his detection. In vain does he seek for light in the pages of the Pilgrim or the Puritan historians. That whole confraternity, indeed, avowedly look upon the Piscataqua plan- tations with utter contempt, and waste little or no time upon the annals of those 'sons of Belial' who haunted about the lower part of the river." It became the policy of the Bay Colony, in prosecuting their designs over the Piscataqua, to say or write as little as possible on the subject, so that in case they should ever be called to account for their conduct in the matter, they could not, in any event, be condemned out of their own mouths.
The instrument which has been the chief cause of the confu- sion and obscurity was the patent granted in 1629-30 to Edward Hilton and his associates -a petty conveyance of a small tract of land around Dover Neck -covering "all that part of the river Piscataquack, called or known by the name of Wecanacohunt or Hilton's Point, with the south side of the said river, up to the fall of the river, and three miles into the main land by all the breadth aforesaid." Beginning at Hilton's Point or Dover Neck, the boundary line ran up along the south- erly side of the Piscataqua river to the lower, or Quampegan Falls, a distance of seven or eight miles, and reached back into the interior country three miles along the entire river frontage. Formal possession was given to Hilton, July 7, 1631.
Before Hilton's title was perfected, Strawberry Bank had begun to be settled. No less than sixty men were employed in the Laconia Company's business on the Piscataqua, and a plantation had been established at Newichwannock, not
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DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENTS.
1631]
far from Quampegan Falls, and on the opposite side of the river from Hilton's grant.
As the Laconia patent conveyed to the adventurers no por- tion of Piscataqua river, and as during two years' occupation they had acquired an accurate knowledge of the region and its many advantages for traffic and commerce, it was their first care to procure a grant of the desired region not previously con- veyed to Edward Hilton. Their grant was dated November 3, 1631, and embraced all lands east of Great Bay, and five miles south of Little Harbor, and a width of three miles on the north and east of the Piscataqua from the sea to Quampegan Falls. It included the present town of Portsmouth, Newington, Green- land, Newcastle and Rye. It did not conflict with the Hilton patent, as it was made by the same grantor, the grand council for New England.
The charter of Massachusetts Bay passed the seals March 4, 1628-29, thus ante-dating Mason's patent of New Hampshire as well as both the Piscataqua river grants. If the Massachusetts construction of their charter should prevail, then all the patents on the river would be swept away; the whole of that region would fall by prior title into their hands and jurisdiction, and neither Mason nor Hilton could have offered any effectual opposition.
This ingenious interpretation of the charter having been hit upon, there appeared as early as 1631, upon the banks of the Piscataqua, one Captain Thomas Wiggin, a stern Puritan, and a confidential friend of Governor John Winthrop, who spent his whole after-life in maintaining the title of Massachusetts Bay Colony, under their great charter of 1628, to the lands about the Piscataqua.
As the construction the Bay Colony put upon their charter would, if enforced, have swept away the entire property of all the Piscataqua planters, it must have encountered a hot and determined opposition from the whole river. The Massachu- setts perceived that the Piscataqua planters were bitterly hostile to them in political and religious principles, and would on that account be likely to receive official aid from the old country in
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1640
case of an open conflict. In these difficulties, the Bay magis- trates deemed it prudent to break up and confuse, if possible, the solid front of opposition before making an attack; and to that end they resolved to get into their own hands the entire Hilton patent.
Accordingly, after concerting the plan with Governor Win- throp and his assistants, Captain Wiggin, shortly after his quar- rel with Captain Walter Neal over possession of Bloody Point, went out to England in 1632, and forming a company of " honest men," as Winthrop calls them, succeeded, with their aid, in purchasing from Hilton and his Bristol associates the entire Hilton patent, at the price of £2,150. The purchasers were all Puritans and friends of the Massachusetts colony who had been " writ unto."
Captain Wiggin, appointed manager for the new company, returned to New England in 1633, with reinforcements and supplies, and took immediate steps to submit the territory to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts ; but Wiggin found it impos- sible to complete the bargain. Intense hostility against the design sprang up at once among the original Hilton Point planters, many of whom were Royalists and Churchmen, who could not maintain their titles to land before a legal tribunal ; and they set up an independent government among themselves under the name of a combination. In 1637, they chose George Burdet, a staunch Churchman, as their governor, in place of Wiggin.
Captain John Underhill, who was chosen governor in 1638, on account of his supposed opposition to the Massachusetts claim, was found to be plotting with his ally, Hanserd Knollys, to establish that claim. This led to the riot in which Mr. Larkham led the people against the governor, and was sustained by Governor Francis Williams of Strawberry Bank. Underhill and Knollys were both ordered out of the Piscataqua plantations by a court presided over by Mr. Williams.
But now at last, in 1640, amidst the turmoils and bitter quar- rels among the inhabitants, Massachusetts saw her long awaited opportunity to spread her jurisdiction over the Piscataqua.
1640]
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENTS.
47
Hugh Peters and two others were sent "to understand the minds of the people, to reconcile some differences between them, and to prepare them." On his return in 1641, he reported to Governor Winthrop that the Piscataqua people were "ripe for our government. They grone for Government and Gospel all over that side of the Country. Alas! poore bleeding soules."
"The precise methods used in preparing the people for the Puritan annexation have never been fully disclosed. Edward Hilton's assent was purchased by a covenant. Governor Francis Williams, of the lower plantation, was secured for the measure, but the manner is not revealed. The chief inducement, however, held out to the population at large seems to have been the prom- ise of the Bay Colony, that they should "enjoy all such lawful liberties of fishing, planting and felling timber as formerly."
The inhabitants at Strawberry Bank and vicinity at the time of the Union, 1640, were :
Gov. Francis Williams. Jno. Wall.
William Berry.
Asst. Ambrose Gibbons .* Robert Puddington. Mathew Cole. Jno. Billing.
William Jones.
» Dr. Renald Fernald. >Henry Sherburne. Jno. Wolten.
John Crowther. John Lander. Nicholas Row.
Anthony Bracket. Henry Taler.
William Palmer.
? Michael Chatterton. John Jones.
Among the stewards and servants sent to New Hampshire by Captain John Mason were : Thomas Comack.
William Raymond.
Wm., Wm. Jr., and Hum- James Newt .* phrey Chadbourne. -- Francis Mathews .*
George Vaughan. Jeremiah and Thos. Wal- Francis Rand.
Thomas Wannerton. ford.
James Johnson. Anthony Ellins.
Francis Norton.
John Williams.
Henry Baldwin.
Sampson Lane.
John Goddard .* Thomas Spencer.
Ralph Goe.
Thomas Fernald.
Thomas Furrall.
Henry Goe. William Cooper.
Thomas Withers.
Thomas Herd. Roger Knight.
Henry Longstaff .*
Thomas Canney .* John Symonds. John Peverly. Joseph Beal.
William Seavey.
Hugh James.
Thomas Moore. John Ault .*
William Bracket. William Brakin.
Alexander Jones. James Wall.
Eight Danes and twenty-two women.
* Settled in Dover.
-
Henry Jocelyn.
Thomas Chatherton.
Jno. Pickering.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. [1640
Among the Dover settlers at the time were also :
Thomas Beard.
Thomas Johnson.
Richard Pinkham.
George Burdet.
Hanserd Knowles.
Wm. Pomfret.
Edward Colcott.
Thomas Larkham.
Thomas Roberts.
John Darn. Thomas Layton.
Henry Tebbits.
William Furber.
William Leveridge.
John Tuttle.
John Hall.
James Nute.
Richard Waldron.
John Heard.
Hatevil Nutter.
Thomas Wiggans.
Edward and Wm. Hilton. James Ordway.
At Exeter the signers of the " combination " were :
Rev. John Wheelwright.
Chr. Helme.
Nicholas Needham.
Augustus Storre.
Darby Ffield.
Thomas Willson.
Thomas Wight.
Robert Reid.
George Rawbone.
William Wentworth.
Edward Rishvorth.
William Coole.
Henry Elkins.
== Francis Matthews.
James Wall. Thomas Leavitt.
George Walton.
Ralph Hall.
Samuel Walker.
Robert Soward.
Edmond Littlefield. John Crame.
Thomas Pettit.
Richard Bullgar.
Henry Roby.
Christopher Lawson.
Godfrey Dearborn.
William Wenbourn.
George Barlow.
Philemon Pormot.
Thomas Crawley.
Richard Morris.
Thos. and Wm. War- dell.
Fourteen of whom made their marks.
At Hampton were early the following settlers :
Rev. Stephen Batchelor. William Fuller.
James Davis. Abraham Perkins.
Mr. Christopher Hussey. \William Sargeant.
Thomas Cromwell.
-Richard Swayne.
Philemon Dalton.
Samuel Skullard.
William Sanders.
John Huggins.
John Osgood.
- Robert Tucke.
Jeoffrey Mingay.
Samuel Greenfield.
John Cross.
Thomas Marston.
John and Thomas Moul- ton. William Estow.
Thomas Jones.
~Isaac Perkins. Francis Peabody.
William Palmer.
Robert Saunderson.
Robert Page.
Robert Caswell.
Arthur Clark.
Joseph Smith.
William Marston.
Joseph Austin. Wm. English.
Henry Ambrose.
Wm. Wakefield.
Moses Cox. Thomas King.
Thomas Ward.
Giles Fuller.
Thomas Chase.
Daniel Hendrick.
John Wedgewood.
Walter Roper. Wm. Fifield. Anthony Taylor. Wm. Saunders.
John Philbrick.
John Brown.
Lieut. Wm. Hayward.
Edmund Johnson.
Robert Smith.
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CHAPTER II.
UNION WITH MASSACHUSETTS, 1641-1679.
LAWS - COURTS - JUDGES - MASONIAN CLAIM -DEPUTIES-MAGISTRATES -DOVER - NORFOLK COUNTY - TOWN LINES - ROADS -PORTSMOUTH -SURVEY OF NORTHERN BOUNDARY - ENDICOTT ROCK - MARKET - DUNSTABLE - WITCHCRAFT - QUAKERS-KING'S COMMISSIONERS -COR- BET - MASTS - SABBATH LAWS - HARVARD COLLEGE - OYSTER RIVER - INDIAN WAR - EFFECT OF UNION - CHURCH HISTORY : HAMPTON - EXETER -DOVER-PORTSMOUTH -MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNORS - MAG- ISTRATES AND DEPUTIES.
A T the time of the union, the breach between the Puritans and the Established Church of England was not so wide as it was soon destined to become. Most of their early ministers were regularly ordained and many had been educated at Oxford or at Cambridge. The differences were not so much in the creed as in church government and the forms of worship. Even the ritual had not been entirely discarded. There were at that time, and for many years after, even until the creation of the royal province, two parties within the New Hampshire towns, the Puritan or republican party, and the opposition, made up of ardent Churchmen, Royalists, Anabaptists,1 Antinomians,2 Quakers, freethinkers, and free lances.
During the union of these plantations with Massachusetts they were governed by the general laws of that colony and the terms of the union were strictly observed. Exeter and Hamp- ton were at first annexed to the jurisdiction of the courts at Ipswich, till the establishment of a new county, which was called
I The Anabaptists denied the validity of infant baptism and believed in immersion.
2 The Antinomians believed in " the indwelling of the person of the Holy Ghost in the heart of the true believers " and encouraged the women in taking part in religious meetings.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
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Norfolk, and comprehended Salisbury, Haverhill, Hampton, Exeter, Strawberry Bank and Dover. These towns were then of such extent as to contain all the lands between the rivers. Merrimack and Piscataqua. The shire town was Salisbury, but the Piscataqua settlements had always a distinct jurisdiction, though they were considered as part of this new county. A court was held in one or the other, sometimes once and some- times twice in the year, consisting of one or more of the magis- trates or assistants, and one or more of the commissioners, chosen by the General Court out of the principal gentlemen of each town. This was called the Court of Associates, and their power extended to causes of twenty pounds' value. From them there was an appeal to the Board of Assistants, in Boston, which, being found incon- venient, it was, in 1670, ordered to be made to the county court of Norfolk. Cases under twenty shillings in value were settled in each town by an inferior court, consisting of three persons. After some time, the towns had liberty to choose their associate justices, which was done by the vote of both towns, opened at a joint meeting of their selectmen, though sometimes they re- quested the Court to appoint them as before. "That mutual confidence between rulers and people which springs from the genius of a republican government is observable in all their transactions." 1
2 The extension of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts over New Hampshire could not fail of being noticed by the heirs of Mason ; but the distractions caused by the civil wars in England were invincible bars to any legal inquiry. The first heir named in Mason's will dying in infancy, the estate descended after the death of the executrix to Robert Tufton, who was not of age till 1650. Joseph Mason came over as agent to look after the Masonian interests. He found the lands at Newichawannock occupied by Richard Leader, against whom he brought suit in the county court of Norfolk; but a dispute arising, whether the lands in question were within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, there was an appeal to the General Court at Boston, which resulted in the survey by Jonathan Ince and John Sherman. Two experi-
1 Farmer's Belknap, pp. 53, 54. 2 Belknap.
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UNION WITH MASSACHUSETTS.
1641]
enced ship masters determined that the parallel of latitude ex- tended from the outlet of Lake Winnipiscogee to a point in Casco Bay, on the coast of Maine, and this line was determined by the Genera: Court to be their northern boundary, thus including the most of the territory granted to Mason. They also decided that a quantity of land proportionable to Mason's disbursements, with the privilege of the river, should be laid out to his heirs. The agent made no attempt to recover any other part of the estate, but returned to England, and the estate was given up for lost, unless the government of England should interfere. During the Commonwealth, and the protectorate of Cromwell, there could be no hope of relief, as the family had always been attached to the royal cause, and the colony stood high in the favor of the Parliament and of Cromwell.
At the restoration of Charles II, Robert Tufton, who took the name of Mason, applied to the King for redress, and the attorney-general decided that the claim of Mason to the province of New Hampshire was good and legal. The commissioners who came over in 1664 were to inquire into this as well as other matters. The reception of the commissioners resulted in a re- port to the King unfavorable to the Massachusetts claims. While in New England they took many affidavits, but made no determination of the controversy. After the return of the commissioners, the government took no active measures for the relief of Mason, who became discouraged and joined with the heirs of Gorges in proposing an alienation of their respective rights in the provinces of New Hampshire and Maine to the crown, but the Dutch wars and other foreign transactions pre- vented any determination concerning them till the country was involved in all the horrors of a general war with the natives.
From the annals of New Hampshire, gathered with great care by the late Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Bouton, from town records, court records, Massachusetts records, and New York documents, and published in the first volume of the "Provincial Papers," are extracted most of the following items of more or less interest.
The union of the four New Hampshire towns with Massa-
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chusetts was perfected by an act passed by the General Court held at Boston on the "9th day of the 8th month, 1641." The preamble having asserted that, according to the Massachusetts patent, the Piscataqua river was within their jurisdiction and that a conference had been had with the people living there, who con- sented to the arrangement, it was ordered that the people "in- habiting there are and shall be accepted and reputed under the government of the Massachusetts"; that " they shall have the same order and way of administration of justice and way of keeping courts as is established at Ipswich and Salem "; "that they shall be exempted from all publique charges other than those that shall arise for or from among themselves "; " shall enjoy all such lawful liberties of fishing, planting, felling timber as formerly "; that " Mr. Simon Bradstreet, Mr. Israel Stough- ton, Mr. Samuel Symonds, Mr. William Tynge, Mr. Francis Williams and Mr. Edward Hilton, or any four of them, whereof Mr. Bradstreet or Mr. Stoughton to be one, shall have the same power that the Quarter Courts at Salem and Ipswich have" ; that "the inhabitants there are allowed to send two deputies from the whole river [settlements] to the Court at Boston " ; that the commissioners have power to appoint two or three to join with Mr. Williams and Mr. Hilton to govern the people for the ensuing year as was done in Massachusetts ; and that the authority exercised by the officers of the " combination " should continue until the arrival of the commissioners.
On the 10th of December, 1641, " Mr. Wiggin, Mr. Warnerton and Mr. Gibbons " were joined in commission. In May, 1642, Captain Wiggin, Mr. Edward Hilton, Mr. Warnerton and Mr. William Waldron were commissioned magistrates on the Piscata- qua, with whom were associated William Hilton and Edward Colcord ; and William Hayward, John Crosse and James Davis, at Hampton ; with power to settle cases under £20.
During the year it was granted that all the inhabitants of Pis- cataqua who formerly were free there should have the liberty of freemen in their several towns to manage all their town affairs, and that cach town should send a deputy to the General Court, though he was not a church member. During the year Northam
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UNION WITH MASSACHUSETTS.
1647]
was regularly incorporated and Samuel Dudley, William Paine, Mr. Winslow and Mathew Boyes were appointed to settle the town limits or bounds. The town was called Dover the follow- ing year.
In 1643 Norfolk county was established, containing Salisbury, Hampton, Haverhill, Exeter, Dover, Strawberry Bank. Exeter petitioned to have its bounds determined ; and William Wen- bourn, Robert Smith and Thomas Wardell were appointed magistrates.
In 1644 the inhabitants of Exeter were enjoined from gather- ing a church and settling the Rev. Mr. Batchelor before their reconciliation and fitness was manifest. The decree of banish- ment against Rev. Mr. Wheelwright was recalled. Passaconaway and his sons submitted to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. The bounds between Dover and Strawberry Bank were deter- mined. Samuel Greenfield, innkeeper of Exeter, had his license revoked, and Richard Bulgar of Hampton was commissioned lieutenant of the militia. Francis Williams, Mr. Fernald and William Sherburne were appointed magistrates at Strawberry Bank. Trouble between Mr. Batchelor and Hampton was re- ferred to a commission.
In 1645 Philemon Dalton was licensed to marry at Hampton. Anthony Stanyan, Samuel Greenfield, Robert Smith and John Legatt were appointed magistrates of Exeter; Captain Wiggin, Mr. Williams and Mr. Smith, associate magistrates at Dover. The General Court discountenanced the holding of slaves at Piscataqua and ordered that a negro brought from Guinea should be returned.
In 1646 the bounds between Exeter and Hampton were deter- mined by Samuel Dudley, Edward Rawson and Edward Carle- ton. William Waldron was appointed recorder of deeds at Dov- er, and Mr. Waldron and Lieutenant Hayward laid out a road from Dover to Salisbury. The court of the Piscataqua district was holden twice at Dover and Captain Wiggin, Mr. Smith and Ambrose Gibbons were appointed associate magistrates. A road was laid out across the Hampton marshes.
In 1647 a road was laid out from Haverhill to Exeter ; and
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
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" towne marks " agreed upon by the General Court "for horses, [were] ordered to be set upon one of the nere quarters. S(traw- berry-banke) N(ortham) H(ampton) E(xeter)."
In 1648 it was ordered that court should be holden at Salisbury, the neglected shiretown of Norfolk county, and also at Hamp- ton. Musters for military training were held eight times a year. Samuel Dudley, Captain Wiggin and Robert Clements were com- missioned justices for the county and authorized to administer the oath to the three commissioners for small causes in the sev- eral towns. Edward Starbuck was tried, having been charged with " profession of Anabaptism." The courts had to deal jus- tice for the crime of murder, as in the case of Mrs. Willip, as well as for the crime of wearing the hair long, and professing " Anabaptism."
In 1651 the inhabitants of Strawberry Bank petitioned for a survey of their bounds and for the establishment of a court and for the protection against the heirs of John Mason. Brian Pen- dleton and Henry Sherburne were appointed associate magis- trates with Captain Wiggin, and the line between Strawberry Bank and Hampton and between Hampton and Exeter was or- dered to be determined. Exeter was authorized to choose a con- stable "acceptable to the court." Four hundred acres of land between Hampton and the Piscataqua were granted to Captain William Hathorne and six hundred acres to Emanuel Down- ing. Governor John Endicott, learning that the inhabitants of Strawberry Bank were designing to throw off their allegiance to Massachusetts and set up an independent government, com- manded Captain Wiggin to arrest the ringleaders and send them to Boston for trial. Dover was fined fio for not sending a deputy to the General Court.
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