USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Portsmouth > Early Portsmouth history > Part 7
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two hed lands, which we have given the names of the little Bores-hed and the great Bores-hed, and from the mouth of that little river to go on a straight line to the creeke, which we have named Wheelwright Creeke, and from thens down to the harbor mouth, where it began. And North-ham is the bounds of all the land of Hilton's Point side, and the other land from the little river between the two Boores-heds, to run by the sea till it meets with the line between Massachusetts and you, and so to run from the sea by the said Massa- chusetts line into the woods eight miles, and from thence atwart the woods to meet with Portsmouth line neere Wheelwright's creeke, and that tract of land to be called Hampton, so that there is foure townes named as you desired, but Exeter is not within the bounds of your patents." 7 This letter goes on to speak of conflicts of patents.7 This letter indicates that Mason desired that the name Portsmouth be given the territory which now bears the name of Portsmouth, and if not a forgery is of historic importance in this connection. There seems no collateral testimony that Mason ever had the design of calling Strawberry Bank, Portsmouth. Just, however, as Mason proposed that the territory under his grant of 1629 should be called New Hampshire, he may have proposed that the town which his vision saw growing where Portsmouth now stands should be called Portsmouth. Mason had had so long an association in England with Hampshire, and, as stated, living in Portsmouth in Hampshire, he may easily have expressed this wish.
Capt. John Mason was a good man, ambitious, yet fair and kindly. He was bitterly disappointed over the way his affairs went on the Piscataqua. After two
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THE LACONIA ADVENTURERS
years or so from the receipt of their charter, the La- conia Adventurers, disheartened at their expenses, abandoned their plan, and the company passed out of existence as an active organization; but the Laconia Company, as stated, never relinquished their charter rights, and, also, as stated, their original grant was the cause of much litigation in after years.
On December 6, 1633, a partial division of property on the Piscataqua occurred between Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason. . It was agreed that " Pascat- taway House," the house at "Strawberry Banke," and all the "islands and isletts" within the river of " Pascattaway," "the Isles of Shoales," the house at Newichwannock, and all land on the southwest side of the river, should remain in common until a more general division could be made.10 "Soon after this the Laconia Company appears to have been dissolved, so far as regards joint action in maintaining the plantations." 12 At, or about the date 1633, Gorges and Mason bought most of the rights of the others of the Laconia Com- pany.7 On February 3, 1634, the Council for New Eng- land, which was about to resign its authority, con- firmed Mason in certain lands on the Piscataqua. 10 This confirmation covered the land from the "Name- kecke" River, around "Cape Anne" to "Pascataway" Harbor, and up the river to the head of the "Newiche- wannock." This grant also included "the south halfe of the Isles of Shodles." 10 Gorges and Mason planned to divide their property on the Piscataqua in as friendly and fair a way as they could.7 Mason also wished to simplify his activities.7 Writing, in 1634, to his agent Gibbons, after the division, Mason said: "The serv- ants with you, and such others as remain upon the
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Company's charge, are to be discharged, and paid their wages out of the stock of beaver in your hands, at the rate of twelve shillings 2 the pound. And you must afford my people some room at Newichwannock House, and the cows and goats which are all mine, and fourteen swine with their increase, some grounds to be upon til we have some place provided upon my new divided lands. The cristall stoanes you sent are of little or no value, unless they were so great to make drinking cups or some other good works, as pillars for fair looking glasses or for garnishing rich cabinets. Good iron or lead ore I should like beeter of if it could be found. I have disbursed a great deal of money in ye plantation, and never received one penny, but hope, if there were once a discovery of the lakes, that I should, in some reasonable time, be reimbursed again." 7 Mason signs himself "Yor verie loving friend" John Mason.7
The Council of Plymouth, that is, the Council for New England, granted to Capt. John Mason, April 22, 1635,7 the territory from the "Naumkeeke" River,7 around Cape Ann to "Pischataway" Harbor, and up the Piscataqua River to the headwaters of the "Ne- witchawannack," then inland, northwestward, for sixty miles from the mouth of the Piscataqua, then back across country to a corresponding point above the "Naumkeeke."7 This territory included the original Hilton patent. It was "from henceforth to be called New Hampshire." 7, 10 This grant also included the south half of the Isles of Shoals,7 dividing them on a line which still separates Maine and New Hampshire. This grant confirmed the authority given Mason by the Council February 3, 1634, over this territory. In addition to this grant of April 22, 1635, in September,
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1635,3 Gorges sold to Mason a tract of land on the northeast side of the Piscataqua River, three miles in breadth, and following the course of the river from its mouth to its furthest head.7 This included the sawmill, and, presumably, the other buildings which had been built at Newichwannock.
There were occasional unexpected excitements in the colony, not wholly overshadowed in history by the territorial alignments that were being put through England at this time. "Sept. 1, 1635 divers lewd serv- ants, viz., six, ran away [from Massachusetts Bay] and stole a skiff and other things. A commission was granted at the General Court, to Captain Trask, to fetch them and other such from the eastward. He pursued them to the Isle of Shoals, and so to Pascata- quack, where, in the night, he surprised them in a house, and brought them to Boston. At next court they were whipped and ordered to pay all charges." 7
Mason, perhaps, was preparing to come to his colony on the Piscataqua when he died, in November, 1635,3 leaving his rights on the Piscataqua largely to his in- fant grandsons, Robert and John Tufton, on condition that they should take the surname of Mason.3 Mason's estate in New England was valued, in inventory, at £10,000.3 Mason was the chief patron of the lower Piscataqua settlement. He seems to have been a fine type of man. After Mason's death, his widow sent over Francis Norton as her general attorney,3 but the house at Newichwannock was burned, the cattle sold, and Mason's estate here was ruined.3,15 There was not enough left to pay expenses. 3
In 1635 Sir Ferdinando Gorges obtained from the Council of Plymouth, that is, the Council for New Eng-
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land, before it gave up its charter to the King, a grant covering the territory from the Piscataqua River to the Kennebec, and up the Kennebec until a square was formed of about one hundred and twenty miles.17 Later, April 3, 1639, Gorges obtained from the Crown a charter of the soil and jurisdiction of Maine.17 This included, as did his grant of 1635, the north half of the Isles of Shoals.7 This grant of 1639 carried "as ample powers as were ever granted by the King of England to any subject."17 The province designated under this royal charter, 1639, was to be called "the province of Maine." 16
In 1639, Gorges, who was then about seventy-three years old, 16 appointed a governor and council, and as a result, government in Maine was administered on this basis until 1652, when the inhabitants submitted to Massachusetts.16 In 1691, through a charter from William and Mary, the Province of Maine was defi- nitely incorporated with Massachusetts.16 In 1642, in spite of Sir Ferdinando Gorges' efforts in this country, all that his deputy could find in Maine belonging to him "was not enough for the scanty furniture of a cot- tage." 18 Gorges died in 1647,19 at the age of about eighty-one years.
The Council for New England had been much at- tacked, and had enemies in the Virginia Company, and in Parliament.3 In 1635 the Council for New Eng- land was dissolved, surrendering its charter to the King, when it was thought best to place the American colonies directly in the King's hands.3 There is in existence a printed report that Mason had his patent confirmed by the King, but it is not clear that there was any such royal confirmation.3 Gorges, as stated,
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later received a royal grant, when it was decided to divide New England into royal provinces, responsible directly to the Crown. If Mason had lived he very probably would also have secured a royal charter, covering New Hampshire.
The close of 1635 marked the end of a definite era for the Piscataqua colonies. The Laconia Adventurers had ceased to be an active body. Gorges and Mason had divided their rights, Gorges withdrawing from what became New Hampshire. Then Mason had died. It was a somber phase of the Piscataqua settlements' history.
CHAPTER V
SOME COLLATERAL HISTORY
A LITTLE to the west of the Piscataqua River a more important settlement occurred. In 1624 a small company of fishermen had come to Cape Ann and had formed a colony there under the leader- ship of Roger Conant.1,2 This group removed in 1626 to a spot called Naumkeag, now Salem.3 Naum- keag, with Plymouth, Weymouth and Mount Wollas- ton, kept Massachusetts prominent in the minds of those in England. On March 19, 1628, the Council of Plymouth granted John Endicott and others territory from three miles south of the Charles River to three miles north of the Merrimac, and west to the Pacific Ocean. 2, 8, 10 A royal charter, dated March 4, 1629,11 confirmed this grant and incorporated the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay.2 The full title of the government was to be "The Governor and Coun- cil of London's Plantation in the Massachusetts Bay in New England."8 Endicott was elected Governor April 30, 1629 10 (new style); but he had already ar- rived at Naumkeag the previous September, with six vessels.8
Augmented by Endicott's considerable company, Naumkeag quickly turned into, relatively, an impor- tant English colony. Endicott took the leadership, and not favoring the name Naumkeag, he and his colony changed the name to Salem.3 As Hubbard has it, in 1629 "three ministers" and "sundry honest, well- affected people in several ships arrived safe at Naum-
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keag, intending to settle there." They then christened. Naumkeag, "Salem."3 They at once proceeded to carry out their plan of developing that colony.
Meanwhile, in England, in the spring of 1630, about. fifteen hundred persons were contemplating a final departure to America.1 Charles I had succeeded James I in 1625, reigning until his execution in 1649.13: Already the departure of the Pilgrim Fathers to Plym- outh, and other less spectacular, but important reli- gious upheavals in England, had indicated what was. soon to come. Four religious parties had grown up in England by 1600, - the Catholics, the members of the English Church, the Puritans, the Separatists. The Puritans were simply non-conformists.8 The Pilgrims. at Plymouth were Separatists.8 This new contem- plated emigration was further expression of the religious. movement which finally resulted in the civil war which broke out at Portsmouth, England. The war, in turn, gave rise to the successful armies of Parliament, the leadership of Cromwell, the execution of Charles I, and the Commonwealth.
The fifteen hundred or so men and women who planned to go to America were under the leadership of John Winthrop.10 He was a man "well approved for his piety, liberality, wisdom and gravity."6 In the group about him, "all of the forty counties of England. were more or less represented," but "the shires on the eastern side of England contributed far more than all the rest." 6 In the spring of 1630 this large company, under Winthrop, sailed for Naumkeag.1 Five ships. made up one section of the fleet that bore these immi- grants to New England. These ships were the "Tal- bot," the "George," the "Lyons Whelp," the "Four Sisters," the "Mayflower."11 The "Lyons Whelp"
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is described as "a neat and nimble ship of 120 tunnes and 8 peices of ordinance."11 In all, seventeen ships were employed.2 On June 12, 1630, John Winthrop, Governor of the company, arrived off Baker's Island. 1,3 That night, the Governor, with certain associates, went to Salem, where they were entertained "with a good venison pasty, and good beer, which was probably not their everydays commons."3 By the end of July, 1630, eleven ships from England had arrived in Mas- sachusetts Bay. "Six more came before the end of the year,"1 bringing in all fifteen hundred passengers.1
When Winthrop arrived at Salem he found but eight or ten pitiful hovels, and one larger tenement for the Governor. The newcomers did find an abundance of corn fields,8, 11 but actual corn and bread only enough for a fortnight's supply.2 The total population when Winthrop arrived was about one hundred souls, above eighty having died the previous winter.6
Winthrop, after a few days' rest, went in search of a more suitable site for a town than Naumkeag, or Salem.6 On July 12, 1630, his expedition removed to Charlestown.6 "Winthrop's government superseded Endicott's," and the colony around Charlestown 5 became at once the principal settlement in New Eng- land. Winthrop remained as Governor or Deputy Governor for twenty years, until his death.7 As was natural, with so many settlers at hand, a considerable spreading out soon occurred. Boston, Dorchester, Cambridge and other near-by centers were settled in 1630.1
Governor Winthrop's colony was of sturdy disposi- tion. The group of men and women comprising it were generally well educated, of excellent English stock, and of high minds and firm convictions. Re-
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ligion and law played important rôles in their lives. From the first, the Boston colony was a religious one. 1 From the first a firm basis of law was inaugurated.1 A General Court was established October 19, 1630.2 Over one hundred inhabitants were admitted to be freemen.2 Religion and law went hand in hand. Wrongdoers and semi-traitors were sternly dealt with. One Morton and one Gardiner1 appeared in this class, and with them was grouped one Ratcliffe. On June 14, 1631, the General Court ordered "that Philip Ratcliffe shall be whipped, have his ears cut off, be fined £40, and banished out of the limits of this juris- diction for uttering malicious and scandalous speeches against the government and the church of Salem." 6
Transported from the days of his Puritan environ- ment to the present time, Morton's own story of the doings at "Mare Mount" has considerable fascination. It was Morton who raised the Maypole at Mount Wollaston with due celebration, Mount Wollaston be- ing named for Captain Wollaston who was at the head of the enterprise. The "New English Canaan," by Thomas Morton, genially describes the author's leader- ship in search of a certain amount of revelry in the face of physical hardships and a most antagonistic Puritan influence. "In the month of June, Anno Salutis 1622," Morton writes, "it was my chaunce to arrive in the parts of New England with thirty servants and pro- vision of all sorts for a plantation; and whiles our houses were building I did endeavour to take a survey of the country. The more I looked the more I liked it." Morton's further account makes him appear in perspective, as he was, a thorn in the flesh of the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies. 14
We have spoken of the Rev. John Wheelwright. At
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religious odds with the authorities at Salem, and of an adventurous and honest mind, Wheelwright, in 1629, is said to have traded with the Indians for a tract of land around what became shortly after, Exeter, New Hampshire. On May 17, 1629, for consideration in coats, shirts and kettles, conscientiously thinking that they must buy the land from the Indians, a group of men, among whom was John Wheelwright of the Mas- sachusetts Bay colony, William Wentworth, Thomas Leavit, Thomas Wight and Augustine Story, or Storer, held a mass meeting of the Indians at Squamscott Falls. For the consideration specified they obtained a deed from the Indians, who sold to Wheelwright and the others, "all that part of the mainland, bounded by the river Pascataqua and the river Merrimack, to begin at Newichwannock Falls,12 in the Pascataqua river," then running down to the sea, then along the coast to the Merrimac, and up the Merrimac, thence northwest for twenty miles, and thence northeast to the starting point.12 "The Wheelwright deed was for a long time in controversy as to its genuiness." 16 Wheelwright had been desirous of founding a settle- ment near the Piscataqua, which was the cause of this purchase. For the Indians the deed was signed by Passaconaway, sagamore of Penacook; Runnaawitt, sagamore of Pantucket; Wahangnonawitt, sagamore of Squamscot; and Rowls, sagamore of Newichwan- nock.12 As Governor Hutchinson says, in his "His- tory of Massachusetts," "Mr. Wheelwright went to New Hampshire and laid the foundation of the town and church of Exeter." 1 Wheelwright later, in 1637, was banished from Massachusetts .! A little later, when Exeter came under Massachusetts jurisdiction, Wheelwright moved to Wells,12 Maine. He was re-
The Benning Wentworth House
Published through the courtesy of The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
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SOME COLLATERAL HISTORY
leased from banishment by the Bay Colony, in 1644.1 Freed from banishment he moved at this time to Hampton, where he was minister many years.12 He was in England in 1658, and in favor with Cromwell.1 He returned to this country, and lived to be, as is said, the oldest minister in New England, dying at Salisbury,23 where he had settled on his return from England. 1
At the same time that the Massachusetts Bay colony was getting under way, while Wheelwright was founding Exeter, and while the Laconia Adven- turers were dreaming and failing on the Piscataqua, the Hilton settlement at Dover Point, on the Piscat- aqua, was moving forward. Edward Hilton was a gentleman of energy and probity. After he secured on March 23, 1630 (new style), his patent of Dover Point and the relatively small tract of land near it, already referred to, Hilton and his associates were placed in still more formal possession of their terri- tory July 7, 1631.15 This occurred through another patent which Hilton and his associates, who were west county adventurers of Bristol and Shrews- bury,12 secured from the Council for New England, covering Hilton's Point, "called by the natives We- canocohunt, in the River Paskataquack, where they [Hilton and his associates] have already built some houses and planted corn." 15 This patent was known as the Hilton or Squamscott patent. 15
The Wheelwright purchase from the Indians may have been a disturbing influence in Hilton's mind. It may have been that his neighbors, the Laconia Adventures, were in a position to annoy him as to land titles. All concerned on the Piscataqua River seem to have wished, and to have obtained, con-
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firmations of their titles at this time. Perhaps one was obtained in protection against the other. The first grants made were vague, and, as we have seen, there were various conflicts. As, year by year, more definite knowledge of the territory was obtained by the owners, and as their plans for development of this territory changed, it was but natural that they should have wished renewed legal confirmation of their rights.
As early as 1631 there appeared "upon the banks of the Piscataqua one Capt. Thomas Wiggin, a stern Puritan, and a confidential friend of Governor Win- throp of Massachusetts Bay." 15 The Bristol mer- chants associated with Hilton, and those operating with them, about 1631 had sent Wiggin to the Dover Point colony to manage the same and to represent the English owners.12 After about a year Wiggin returned to England, - this was in 1632, - hav- ing in mind securing more money and support for the colony, and probably with personal ambition in connection with the same. Before he returned to this country he, through associates, among whom were the Lords Say and Brooke, bought all of the rights to Hilton's land, under Hilton's patent cover- ing Dover Point and the near-by country, paying £2,150 for it.15 It is said that two-thirds of the Hilton patent belonged to merchants of Bristol, and one-third to those of Shrewsbury.12 The Bristol men sold now their interest to the Lords Say and Brooke and others,12 "who continued Wiggin in the agency." " 12 The rights which Wiggin and his asso- ciates bought from Hilton and his associates were later the cause of much litigation. Wiggin, appar- ently, had the right to grant land.12
Wiggin returned almost at once from England to
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the Dover Point settlement. Edward Howes wrote from London to Governor John Winthrop, March 25, 1633: "There are honest men about to buye out the Bristol men's plantation in Pascataqua, and do propose to plant there five hundred good people before Michelmas next."16 Again, this same man wrote, June 22, 1633: "He [Captain Wiggin] intends to plant himself and many gracious men there [Dover Point] this summer."16 Mr. Everett S. Stackpole, in his "History of New Hampshire," gives Wiggin the credit for founding the town of Dover Neck, and says that it was first named Bristol, and so called on a map in 1634.16 We have not come across further confirmation of this name of Bristol as at any time given the town of Dover.
There is the report that in 1633 Wiggin was "chosen Governor." 21 Edward Hilton, at about this time, withdrew largely from the picture, although he lived for many years on the Piscataqua, and was looked up to as a man of high quality.
When Wiggin returned to the colony he found him- self unpopular.15 The settlers were on a frontier and having none too easy a time of it. Wiggin was a friend of Governor Winthrop and of the Massachu- setts Bay government. There was at this time much jealousy and enmity between the little Piscataqua settlements and the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Massachusetts point of view was that the Bay Colony was in peril from Capt. John Mason because he and Gorges had endeavored to get their charter set aside, claiming certain lands under old charter rights, within the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Massachusetts also stated that Gorges and Mason had encouraged Morton and Gardiner,9, 12
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whom the Massachusetts Bay Colony had censured and sent back to England, to petition against the Massachusetts Bay authorities. 12 There was keenly the thought that the Piscataqua territory itself could be claimed under the charter given the Massachusetts Bay Company. Then, too, there existed a wide gap in religious feeling between those associated with Gorges and Mason and those directly concerned with Massachusetts.
The Piscataqua point of view was that Massachu- setts was greedy for their lands, that Captain Wiggin was desirous of turning over the Dover Point colony to Massachusetts, and that he was working for Win- throp, if not actually in his employ.15 Wiggin, if he wished, was unable to effect any such consolidation with Massachusetts because of the hostility he at once encountered.
When Wiggin returned to the Piscataqua, Neale was still at the lower settlements and in command of them. A collision between Wiggin and Neale occurred almost at once.15 Neale forbade Wiggin to go upon a certain point of land (Fox Point), a little to the west of Dover Point and on the opposite side of that west- erly arm of the Piscataqua which, branching from the main river at Dover Point, flows into Great Bay. The disputed point (Fox Point) lay "in the midway," 15 between Dover and Exeter. Wiggin decided to defend his rights in the matter by force of arms, as did Neale and the lower river colonists. The two parties met at the point in question (Fox Point), ready to do battle with each other, but both sides had sense enough "to waive battle." No blood was shed, but the point is still called " Bluddy Poynt," 21 because of the blood both sides were so eager at first to spill there. 15
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Neale, in early 1633, was still in command of the lower river settlements, and Wiggin, as stated, had assumed the governorship of the Dover Point colony. The two districts were separated by a few miles only, but each was directed by its own respective financial backers and each was independent of the other. The little settlement on the north arm of the Piscataqua, on the opposite side of the river and above Dover Point, namely, Newichwannock, later part of Kittery, and later still, of South Berwick, was grouped with the lower settlements under Neale. In spite of friction, the various colonies seem to have been able to work with each other. Neale and Wiggin, in 1633, so re- port says, as has been stated, jointly surveyed their respective patents and did further work in this con- nection for Capt. John Mason.
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