USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 5
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In 1652 court was holden by Mr. Bellingham at Hampton, Sal- isbury, Dover and Strawberry Bank, and Mr. George Smith, Mr. Richard Waldron and Mr. Valentine Hill were appointed associate justices. Captain Simon Willard and Captain Edward Johnson were appointed commissioners to determine the most northerly part of the Merrimack river. They accord- ingly employed John Sherman of Watertown and Jonathan
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Ince, a student at Harvard College, to determine the latitude of Aquadahian, the name of the Merrimack where it issues out of Lake Winnipiseogee ; and on August I they found the latitude was forty three degrees, forty minutes, and twelve seconds, "be- sides those minutes which are to be allowed for the three miles more north which runs into the Lake."
1 One of the most interesting objects connected with the early history of New Hampshire, yet one that is little known, is the " Endicott Rock," which is situated on the head of a small island in the channel, at the Weirs. Prob- ably the exploring party who left their names chiseled upon it, were the first white men that ever gazed upon the waters of the beautiful lake. Al- though two and a half centuries have elapsed since that time, yet this inscrip- tion still remains as a monument to their bravery and endurance.
The inscription can still be entirely read by much study, but is fast wearing away, and must soon entirely disappear under the constant action of the ele- ments. Recognizing this fact, the Lake Company, on whose domain it stands, have had several plaster casts taken, one of which is to be seen in their office at Lake Village ; while others have been presented to the Historical Societies of New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
When, and by whom, the discovery of this interesting relic was made, is not definitely known, but is supposed to have been made by Stephen Lyford and Nathan Batchelder of Meredith Bridge, the constructors of the " Old Bel- knap," as they built a dam across the channel on the Meredith side, in 1832, for the purpose of deepening the other one, in order that that famous steamer could pass down to Lake Village, which was then a thriving village of about a dozen houses. Others claim that Messrs. Daniel Tucker and John T. Coffin, president and cashier of the Meredith Bridge Savings Bank, were the original discoverers. The State has recently provided for the preservation of this interesting monument.
The inscription reads as follows : -
EI S W. W. P. JOHN ENDICVT GOV
Dover was declared entitled to send two deputies to the General Court and Strawberry Bank one. It was determined that the northern bounds of Dover should extend from the first fall of the Newichawannock river upon a north by west line four miles ; and the Lamperecl river was confirmed as the bound be- tween Exeter and Dover.
1 Granite Monthly.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1655
In 1653 the inhabitants at Strawberry Bank, claiming to have between seventy and eighty men able to bear arms, and between fifty and sixty families, desired the privileges of a township, and were incorporated by the name of Portsmouth. The free- men of Dover chose Captain Waldron and Valentine Hill as associates; and their choice was confirmed by the General Court.
In 1654 William Pomfret was " appointed and authorized to marry such at Dover as shall be duly published and otherwise fitt to joyne in marriage according to law :" and Roger Shaw of Hampton was " impowered and ordered to sell wine of any sort and strong liquors to the Indians as * * shall seeme meete and necessary for their relief, in just and urgent occasions, and not otherwise." The rates assessed for supporting the ministry were payable in money, beaver, beef, pork, wheat, pease, malt, cheese, butter, or in any one of these commodities ; and the dep- uties at the General Court at Boston dined together during the session at Lieutenant Phillips' tavern, at the expense of the col- ony, and "the keeper of said tavern shall be paid for the same by the treasurer by discounting the same in the custom of wine :" and they were also required to provide boarding-places for the deputies who should succeed them. Lieutenant Phillips charged three shillings a day for breakfast, dinner and supper, fire and bed, " with wine and beer between meals," or eighteen pence for dinner alone, "with wine and beer betwixt meals." The Great and General Court defined the law thus: " and by wine is in- tended a cup for each man at dinner and supper, and no more." 1
In 1655, "at the request of the towne of Hampton, by theire deputy, itt is ordered that there shall be a market kept there on one day in every week, viz., on the fifth day, which is theire lec- ture day."
In August, 1655, Captain Simon Willard and Edward John- son, surveyors, who were employed by the provincial court of Massachusetts, came from Woburn with an exploring company, which usually consisted of a guard of eight or ten men, to pro- tect the surveyors from Indian invasion as they penetrated the
I The deputies were paid by the towns they represented. The Dover deputy was allowed thirty shillings for travelling expenses, two shillings and sixpence per day besides his " diet," while in at- tendance.
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unbroken forests. They are supposed to be the first white men ever in West Dunstable,- traversing the Merrimack river and its tributaries, going up Pennichuck brook to Pennichuck pond, also exploring what has been known for a period of over two hundred years as the Witch Brook Valley, and embraced that portion of West Dunstable known later as Monson and Hollis.
Witch Brook was discovered by those who belonged to the ex- ploring company of Johnson and Willard. Some of their number went up this brook quite a distance, and, leaving its bank to get a view of the surrounding forests, were unfortunate enough to lose their way. Night came on before they regained the brook ; and a thick fog set in, which rendered it extremely difficult for the men to follow it. Some one of their number remarked that the place was bewitched, and that the brook was bewitched; hence, it received its present name long before any settlement was made in the vicinity. There were many considerations which helped to promote the early settlements there. One was, that a great portion of meadow land was made available by reason of the beavers building their dams for the purpose of flowing ponds, which hunters and trappers would break; and the whole tract was drained, leaving a mowing-field already cleared for the new settler. Another consideration was, that the Indians had planted fields of corn on the uplands as late as 1665, which were found ready for cultivation. And still another reason that actuated the people in settling in the section was that its facility for fur catching was second to no other in the State. *
In 1656 the witchcraft craze reached New Hampshire. March 30, Susannah Trimmings of Little Harbor, Piscataqua, going home at night with Goodwife Barton, separated from her at the freshet next her house. On her return, between Good- man Evans' and Robert Davis' she heard a rustling in the woods, which she at first thought was occasioned by swine, and presently after there did appear to her a woman, whom she apprehended to be Goodwife Walford, who asked her where her consort was and wanted to borrow a pound of cotton. Upon
* C. S. Spaulding.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1656
being refused, the old woman threatened and then left her, vanishing toward the water side in the shape of a cat, while Sus- annah was struck as with a clap of fire on the back. She returned to her home and was ill a number of days. This statement was sworn to before Brian Pendleton, Henry Sherburne and Renald
THE MILES STANDISH HOUSE, DUXBURY.
Fernald, and the fact of her sickness was corroborated by the tes- timony of others. Agnes Puddington testified that a little after sunset she saw a yellowish cat ; that her husband, John Pudding- ton, saw a cat in the garden and took down his gun to shoot her.
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1657]
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"The cat got up on a tree, and the gun would not take fire," and afterwards the lock would not work. She afterwards saw three cats. On this and similar testimony, Goodwife Walford was bound over to the next court. At the court of associates, holden in June, Jane Walford was bound over until the next court, "upon suspicion of being a witch." The complaint was probably dropped at the next term, for some years afterwards Goodwife Walford brought an action for slander against one Robert Couch, for calling her a witch, and recovered five pounds and costs.
By an act of the General Court this year, a fine of one hundred pounds was imposed on any ship master who should import a Quaker, and that "what Quakers soever shall arrive in this country from forraigne parts, or come into this jurisdiction from any parts adjacent, shall be committed to the house of correction, and at their entrance to be severely whipt." A penalty of five pounds was imposed for importing any Quaker books, the same for keeping on hand such books ; while any person within the colony defending the opinions of the Quakers, for a first offence should be fined forty shillings, four pounds for the second offence, while a third offence would subject the guilty party to imprison- ment and banishment from the realm. The act closed with the gentle assurance that "what person or persons soever shall revile the office or person of magistrates or ministers * shall * be severely whipt or pay the some of five pounds."
In 1657 the land and properties of "the honored Capt. Wiggin," not hitherto within the limits of any town, were placed within the limits of Hampton. The people of Portsmouth built a meeting-house, and the next year settled Rev. Joshua Moody as minister. This year the law against Quakers was made more severe. Whoever harbored them was fined forty shillings for every hour's entertainment or concealment of Quakers. Any Quaker who should return to the jurisdiction of the colony after having been banished, should, if a male, for the first offence, have one of his ears cut off ; for the second offence, have the other ear cut off ; if a woman, she should be "whipt severely." For a third offence, every Quaker, he or she, " shall have their
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1662
tongues bored through with a hot iron, and kept at the house of correction, close to worke, till they be sent away at their own charge." A native Quaker fared the same as a foreign Quaker. Our ancestors sought, in the wilderness, to obtain religious freedom for themselves, without toleration for other creeds than their own. A party of eight persons were drowned off Hamp- ton during the year. The line between Hampton and Salisbury was determined, beginning at the ocean in the middle of Hampton river.
In 1658 the inhabitants of Portsmouth were ordered to attend all military service under command of Capt. Brian Pendleton, and to observe the laws concerning the selling of strong liquors and to keep good order in ordinaries. Dover this year voted to raise twenty pounds for the maintenance of a schoolmaster, who could " reid, write, cast accompt * as the parents shall require."
In 1659 occurred the execution, at Boston, of several Quakers, under the authority of the law passed in 1656.
The forefathers must have been sorely afflicted with Quakers, for in 1661 the General Court decreed that any discovered within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts should " be stripped naked from the middle upwards, and tied to a cart's tayle and whipped thro' the towne, and from thence immediately conveyed to the constable of the next town towards the borders of our jurisdiction ; *
* so from constable to constable, till they be conveyed thro' any the outwardmost townes of our jurisdic- tion ;" and for a third offence should be branded on their left shoulder with the letter R. Truly, in those days, these shores may be said to have been inhospitable. The unkindest part of this act was in the provision that "the constables of the several townes * were empowered * * to impresse cart, oxen, and other assistance." The Isles of Shoals were incorporated as a town by the name of Appledore, during the year.
In 1662 Eunice Cole, a reputed witch of Hampton, after an imprisonment, was banished from the colony. A New England poet, John G. Whittier, has immortalized the name of Eunice Cole, in his " Tent on the Beach," as the witch of Hampton
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1665]
who caused the drowning of the party off the mouth of Hamp- ton river, in the year 1657. Still more cruel was the execution of the sentence imposed by Richard Waldron upon Anna Col- man, Mary Thompkins, and Alice Ambrose, Quakers, who received ten strokes each on their naked backs, while made fast to a cart's tail, in each of the towns of Dover and Hampton on their way through Massachusetts. The order to the constables was dated at Dover, in midwinter, December 22, 1662. The order was executed in Dover, Hampton, and Salisbury, but in the last named town the women were rescued by Walter Bare- foote, who sent them out of the Province. They were probably shipped to Rhode Island, the Barbadoes, or Nova Scotia.
In July, 1664, the King's commissioners, Sir Robert Carre, George Cartwright and Samuel Maverick, arrived at the Piscat- aqua, and during their visit found the King's authority of very light weight within the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts colony. They informed the Massachusetts authorities that the King did not grant away his sovereignty when he granted powers to the corporation to make wholesome laws and to administer justice by them. Nor had he parted with his right of judging whether those laws were wholesome, or whether justice were administered accordingly or no. He had not granted supreme authority over such of his subjects as were within the jurisdic- tion of Massachusetts. The King reserved that authority and prerogative for himself. The commissioners threatened the
Massachusetts Colony with the loss of their charter. They were not kindly received by the authorities, and having made a tour of the settlements, in 1665, they made a report, in which they charged that Massachusetts had usurped authority over the Province of New Hampshire as well as over Maine, writing of the former: "This Province reaches from three miles north of the Merrimack river to Piscataquay, and sixty miles into the country. We find many small patents in it, and the whole Province to be now under the usurpation of the Massachusetts, who once set up a bound house three larg miles north of the Merrimacke and owned it for about twelve years, yet since claims all this and sixty miles more to the north to be within
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
[1665
their patent." "We were up with the Piscataquay River, July the 9 (1665), when we received his Majesty's letter of Janu- ary 28. There being an excellent harbor, large and safe, and seven or eight ships in it, and great store of masts, we sent warrents to 4 towns upon that river, with an intent to have gotten that harbour fortified by them; but the Massachusetts sent a prohibition to them and a letter to us, by their Marshall, which put a stop to our endeavours. This place, we think, deserves fortifying as much as any place in New-England." " We are told by some of themselves that they have appointed a General Court *
* to consider how to manage their opposition, for * * they intend to maintain the bounds of their patent as far as they have stretched them."
Then came a conflict of authority on the Piscataqua. The King's commissioners having settled the Province of Maine under the King's immediate government, one Abraham Corbett, of one of the Piscataqua towns, who had assisted the commis- sioners by circulating petitions and obtaining evidence, was summoned by the Massachusetts authorities to appear at court, and was arrested by the marshals of Dover and Portsmouth, and lodged in jail in Boston. Bail was refused for him.
In the report of the King's commissioners are the following charges against the Massachusetts colony: "To elude His Matie's desire of their admitting men civill and of competent estates to be free-men, they have made an act whereby he that is 24 years old, a house keeper, and brings one certifi- cate of his civill life, another of his being orthodox in matters of faith, and a third of his paying ten shillings (beside head money), at a single rate, may then have liberty to make his desire known to the court and it shall be put to vote.
"The comissrs examined many townshipps and found that scarce three in a hundred pay Ios. at a single rate ; yet if this rate was general it would be just; but he yt is a church member, though he be a servant and pay not 2d., may be a free man.
" They will not admit any who is not a church member of their church, to the communion, nor their children to baptisme, yet they will marry their children to those whom they will not
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admit to baptisme, if they be rich, They did imprison and barbarously use Mr. Jourdain for baptising children.
"Those whom they will not admit to the communion, they compel to come to their sermons by forcing from them five shill- ings for every neglect ; yet these men thought their own paying of one shilling, for not coming to prayer in England, was an in- surportable tyranny.
"They have put many Quakers to death of other Provinces.
First they banished them as Quakers upon pain of death, and then executed them for returning. *
" They have beaten some to jelly, and been (other ways) exceed- ing cruell to others. They yet pray constantly for their persecuted bretheren in England.
"They have many things in their lawes derogatory to His Matie's honour ; of which the Comrs made a breviat and desired that they might be altered ; but they have yet done nothing in it. Amongst others, whoever keeps Christmas day is to pay Five Pounds.
" They caused, at length, a map of their Territories to be made, but it was made in a chamber by direction and guess. In it they claime Fort Albany, and beyond it all the land to the South Sea. By their south line they intrench upon the colonies of New-Plymouth, Rode Island and Conecticot, and on the East they have usurped Captain Mason's and Sr Ferdi- nand Gorges patents.
"The comissrs being at Piscataquay when they receaved His Matie's letter, which comanded them to see the Harbours fortified, &c., sent their warrants to fower towns upon that river requiring them to meet at such time and place to heare his Matie's letter read; one of these warrants was sent post to Boston, from whence two marshalls were sent by the Governor and Councell, with another warrant to forbid the townes either to meet or to do anything comanded them by the Com's. at their utmost perill.
" Colonel Whalley and Goff [the regicides] were entertained by the magistrates with great solemnity, and feasted in every place ; after, they were told they were Traytors, and ought to
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. [1665
be apprehended. They of this colony say that King Charles ye First gave them power to make laws and execute them * and that they are not obliged to the King, but by civility.
" This colony furnished Cromwell with many instruments out of their corporation and their colledge; and those that have retreated thither since His Matie's happy returne, are much respected and many advanced to be magistrates. They did solicit Cromwell, by one Mr. Winsloe, to be declared a Free State, and many times in their lawes stile themselves this State, this Commonwealth, and now believe themselves to be so.
"They demand what taxes they please, but their accounts could never yet be seen. Some few soldiers they keep at their castle. * * They convert Indians by hiring them to come and hear sermons * which the more generous natives scorne.
" This colony, which hath engrossed the whole trade of New England, and is therefore the richest, hath many towns, but not one regularly built within its limits; wch the comissrs find to be Seconnet Brook on the southwest and Merrimack River on the northeast, and two right lines drawn from each of those two places till they come within twenty miles of Hudson's River.
" The comodities of the countrey are fish, which is sent into France, Spaine and the Streights, pipe-staves, masts, firr-boards, some pitch and tarr, pork, beif, horses and corn; which they send to Virginia, Barbadoes, &c., and take tobacco and sugar for payment, which they (after) send for England. There is good store of iron made in this Province. Theire way of govern- ment is Common-wealth-like; their way of worship is rude and called Congregationall; they are zealous in it, for they persecute all other forms."
The action of the Massachusetts authorities was prompt in arresting Corbet, who was an innkeeper at Portsmouth and had been active in circulating the petition to the King, but revealed that he was not alone in his wish to escape from the tyranny of the elders. The next year he was arraigned before the General Court and fined £20, and costs £5, and put under bonds of £100 for his peaceable demeanor, "prohibiting his irregular practices by retailing Beer, Cider, Wine or Licquors," and disabling him
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from " bearing any office in the town where he lives." During the year 1665, the General Court so far complied with the wishes of the King, as expressed by the King's commissioners, as to vote a fortification at the mouth of the Piscataqua, and the people of Dover voted a "Terrett" upon the meeting house " for to hang a bell."
In 1666 the Massachusetts colony received a summons from King Charles II to send as delegates four or five persons to represent their cause before him, and explain their course towards the King's commissioners, and were forbidden to punish any one for petitioning or appealing to the King.
In 1667 the General Court granted a township, six miles square, above Dover, to be within the jurisdiction of Dover, to pay for fortifying the mouth of Piscataqua, and ordered that all dis- affected persons seeking to change the form of government of the townships on the Piscataqua should be sent to Boston for trial.
In 1667 the fur trade with the Indians had become so import- ant that the Provincial Court of Massachusetts passed an act regulating it ; and the exclusive right of this trade upon the Merrimack river was sold to Major Simon Willard for the sum of £25. The trade on Nashua river was sold at the same time for £8 ; that of Penichuck brook and its tributaries was sold to Joseph Burroughs for £4. Almost all the first land grants were selected by eager adventurers, with a view of having within their borders the greatest facilities for trapping.
In 1668 the bounds of Exeter were determined, and trees fit for masts were reserved as public property, and a proper observance of the Sabbath was commanded. No servile work was allowed that day, save works of piety, of charity, or of necessity. The penalty was more severe in case of "prophan- ers or high handed presumption." Who ever should " travell upon the Lord's day, either on horse backe or on foote, or by boats from or out of their owne towne to any unlawful assembly or meeting not allowed by law," were "declared to be pro- phaners of the Sabbath," as were those who did " servile work."
In 1669, Portsmouth appropriated £60 per annum for seven
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. [1676
years for aid to Harvard College. The inhabitants of that part of Dover, called Oyster River, petitioned the General Court for parish privileges, and that they might have a minister set- tled over them. They mustered seventy soldiers.
In 1670 there were sixty soldiers in Exeter, and John Gilman was commissioned lieutenant. A causeway was built across the marsh at Hampton. Dover and Portsmouth seem to have been raised to the dignity of a county.
In 1671 the custom dues on imported goods and powder, raised at Portsmouth, were declared due to the colonial treasury, except such as were imported by the inhabitants of the river settlements.
The next year, 1672, the duties collected at Portsmouth, as well as rates derived from the selling of beer and wine, were voted to be used in fortifying the harbor. Dunstable, including Nashua and a part of Hudson, Londonderry, Litchfield, Merrimack, Amherst, Milford and Hollis, was incorporated by Massachusetts authority, Oct. 15, 1673 ; and a tract of land for a village was laid out above Dover township to the inhabitants of Portsmouth.
The soldiers of Great Island, with the soldiers of Kittery, from Spruce Creek eastward, were detailed to garrison the fort on Great Island, and Richard Cutt was appointed commander-in- chief of the fort and garrison.
In 1674 Mr. Stoughton was appointed to hold court in Nor- folk county, and Major Thomas Clark in Dover and Portsmouth, as well as in Yorkshire, in Maine.
In 1675 the inhabitants of Oyster River were granted liberty to choose their selectmen. A company of forty men was placed under command of Major Waldron, twenty-two of whom were from Essex County. Hampton was assessed £28 and Exeter £8, to defray the expenses of the war, which will be treated of in another chapter.
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