USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Portsmouth > Early Portsmouth history > Part 8
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Governor John Winthrop's Journal reads: "The Governour received a letter from Capt. Wiggin of Pascataquack, informing him of a murder committed the third of this month, October 1631, at Richman's Isle [near Portland, Maine], by an Indian sagamore." 21 This was not in Wiggin's jurisdiction, but Wiggin tried to have Governor Winthrop send twenty men to take revenge. Winthrop declined, "understand- ing that Neale would attend to it, and it being the season of frost and snow and they having no fit boats for the expedition." The man killed was one Walter Bagnall, called Great Watt. Bagnall had been a serv- ant in the Bay Colony, and was a wicked fellow.21 Perhaps the Indian sagamore had some justification for his act. Again, in 1634, Wiggin appealed to his friend, the Bay Colony, writing to Winthrop asking him to have two men tried.21 Winthrop's entries are not too complimentary to his more easterly neighbors.
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He writes, in 1631: "Then came a shallop from Pas- cataqua, which brought the news of a small English ship come thither [1631], with provisions and some Frenchmen to make salt. By this boat Capt. Neal, Governor of Pascataqua, sent a packet of letters to the Governor, directed to Sir Christopher Gardner, which, when the Governor had opened, he found it came from Sir Ferdinando Gorges (who claims a great part of the Bay of Massachusetts). In the packet was one letter from Thomas Morton (sent prisoner before into England) by both which letters it appeared that he had some secret design to recover his pretended right, and that he expressed much trust in Sir Chris- topher Gardner." 21 Again Winthrop writes: At Pascataquack [1632] a party bound for the Bay, "com- ing to Pascataquack in a shallop, with £200 of com- modities, one seaman going to light his pipe, set fire to a barrel of powder on board" and was blown to pieces. "Some on the boat was so drunk and fast asleep they did not wake with the noise." 9 In 1632 Winthrop's journal tells us of a fishing shallop upset at the Isles of Shoals.9 All of Winthrop's news from Pascataquack seems of an unfavorable nature. Again, as of the same year, Winthrop's journal reads: "one Cowper [William Cooper], of Pascataquack, going to an island upon the Lord's day to fetch some sack, he and a boy coming back in a canoe, (being both drunk) were driven to sea and never heard from."9
The Massachusetts Bay Colony had some reason for their lack of friendliness. Dangers surrounded them, both within and without. Morton, at Mount Wollaston, had behaved in so disorderly a fashion, through selling arms to the Indians in defiance of the King's proclamation, that the colonists were afraid
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that Indians in the woods might be armed with guns. They were in much terror, the fear spreading to the Piscataqua settlements.12 Morton had also allowed his plantation to accept discontented servants, whose desertion weakened the settlements they left.12 Mor- ton, as stated, was sent prisoner to England, but came back again, in 1643, and died at Agamenticus about 1645.1
The Massachusetts Bay government was resentful of and antagonistic toward those of New England who were not with that government, both politically and religiously. The Piscataqua settlement felt that Massachusetts was greedy for their lands, and al- though of the same race, and of much of the same stock and way of thinking, there were so many differ- ences of viewpoint between the lower Piscataqua River settlements plus the Dover Point settlement, as op- posed to the Massachusetts Bay government, that, about 1635, there was a distinct antagonism between them. The lower Piscataqua River settlement and the Dover Point settlement also had differences of opinion, and, except in a minor way, could not operate together. On the Piscataqua, however, the affair at Bloody Point seems to have been the only physical expression of the difference in point of view between these two settlements.
Early New Hampshire history makes many refer- ences to "the four towns." 16 These were Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter and Hampton. Hampton is reported surveyed as early as 1633.19 A little later the salt marshes there attracted the attention of Massachu- setts, which claimed this part of the seacoast. In 1636 the Bound house was erected at Hampton under authority of the General Court of Massachusetts
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Bay.19 On October 7, 1638, under authority of the Massachusetts Bay government, the right to settle in Hampton was extended to several persons of Norfolk, England.19 It is said that in 1639 as many as sixty families were resident at Hampton.19 The first town meeting in Hampton was probably held October 31, 1639.22
There was still another colony near the Piscataqua, on Gorges' land in the Province of Maine. This grew into what is now York. Politically, this colony did not materially influence the situation on the Piscata- qua, and it was not politically grouped with the Piscat- aqua River settlements. Its history, however, is col- lateral to that of Portsmouth. Gorges had early been interested in settling a plantation on the Agamenticus River, at what is now York, only eight miles or so to the east of the Piscataqua River. It is not known exactly at what date this settlement commenced, but as we have seen, it was receiving support through the medium of one of the ships sent over by the La- conia Adventurers in 1634. Edward Godfrey was liv- ing there at about this time. The copy of the letter to Mason from "Nele" and Wiggin in regard to the sur- veying of Portsmouth, Dover and Hampton, claimed to be spurious, was dated from Georgeana, August 20, 1633. It was attested as a true copy by Richard Vines and Henry Jocelyn, who gave as their address and place of affidavit Gorgeana, now York.12
The colony went by the name of the Plantation of Agamenticus, up to early 1641,19 and was at that time the principal settlement in Maine, with about three hundred inhabitants.20 It was then, April 10, 1641, though a wilderness, incorporated as a borough, 19 and officially named Georgeana. 20 A borough was an in-
Council Chamber, Benning Wentworth House
Published through the courtesy of The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
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SOME COLLATERAL HISTORY
corporated town, usually governed by a council chosen by the freemen, and a bailiff appointed by the lord who granted the borough its charter.20 A town was a place that had a church.20 On March 1, 1642, Sir Ferdinando Gorges named this borough a city, and gave a new charter to the settlement to this effect, 19 confirming the name Gorgeana by this charter. 19 Thomas Gorges, a son of Ferdinando Gorges, had been appointed mayor.19 The colony went by the name sometimes of Georgeana and sometimes of Aga- menticus until about the year 1652, when Massachu- setts sent commissioners to that part of the county.19 These commissioners proposed to name and did name the county "York County," and changed the name of Georgeana to York.19 York retained its city privi- leges given it by Gorges until 1662, when it was made a town.19 In 1716 it was made the shire town of York County, then called Yorkshire. 19
CHAPTER VI
THE PISCATAQUA SETTLEMENTS, 1635-1641
T HE division of property on the Piscataqua, be- tween Capt. John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and the death of Mason, which very shortly followed this division, left the lower Piscata- qua settlements without a controlling influence, and without financial backing. Though Mason's widow investigated her husband's estates in New England, when she found that there was almost nothing there of tangible value, she gave no further support to the Piscataqua colony, which was left to shift for itself. 4
The lower river settlements consisted of Pannaway, which soon after seems to have grown inactive as a settlement, Strawberry Bank, where the Great House stood, later called Portsmouth, and Great Island, later called Newcastle; also, in 1636, Kittery. Added to this group was the trading post and sawmill at Newichwannock on the east side of the upper river, and scattered claims in what became Newington, Greenland and Rye.1 This group of settlements was still, in 1635, of small size. The fifty men, eight Danes and twenty-two women whom Mason had sent over, or whom he had accepted from other colonies, had separated and had spread out. They did not form a unit, and the group of settlements representing Mason was not an important factor in New England in 1635. Dover, though also small, had grown in 1635 to a greater degree than had the combined settlements representing Mason.
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THE PISCATAQUA SETTLEMENTS, 1635-1641
Capt. Walter Neale did not stay long on the Pis- cataqua. He went back to England, probably in 1633, saying, as has been stated, in regard to the beautiful inland lakes, and the Province of Laconia: "Non est inventa provincia." Hubbard says that Neale did noth- ing noteworthy outside of his conflict with Wiggin at Bloody Point.5 When Neale left, Capt. Henry Josselyn succeeded him as head of Pannaway, then called Pascataway, the name Pannaway by this date appar- ently not being used. Josselyn remained the leader there until about 1638. Mr. Wannerton, who lived at the Great House at Strawberry Bank, had charge there till about 1644.19 He took over much or all of the property Neale held for the benefit of Mason and. the Laconia Associates.2 Wannerton later was killed in 1644, on a venture in which he was engaged at Port Royal.2 Mr. Francis Williams, who had come in 1631, when Humphrey Chadbourne came, to take charge of the salt works for the Laconia Adventurers,5 by 1638 had been appointed, or chosen, Governor of the lower settlements on the Piscataqua.5 He remained Governor for some years. Hubbard says that Mr. Williams was "a prudent man and a better quality than the rest" sent over.5. Belknap says he was continued in office by annual suffrage.1 Hutchinson reports him as "a discreet sensible man and a gentleman." 6
The settlements on the lower Piscataqua grew slowly, but they did grow. They were of some impor- tance in the eyes of the Massachusetts Bay colony, though not at this time to so great a degree as Dover, which was then the larger colony. At Dover, Capt. Thomas Wiggin was still Governor, representing his English associates, who were banded together for profit. Wiggin was a stern Puritan, and he remained
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a confidential friend of Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay colony. As such, and because of what went with this friendship, Wiggin remained unpopular in Dover. With religious fervor he had brought over a minister, one William Leverich, "a worthy man,"6 but Leverich's allowance was so small he could not afford to stay, and he moved to other parts.1 Leverich was succeeded, in 1634, by George Burdett,1 a staunch churchman but otherwise of not so good a character.18 "Ye River of Pascataqua is very beneficiall for plantacon," wrote Burdett, in 1638, "having also an excellent harbor." 7
Governor Wiggin steadily maintained his allegiance to Winthrop and to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Increasing friction arose between Wiggin and the settlers he governed. England and the financial back- ers of the colony were far away. The settlers believed they had won the right to govern their own lives, and they did not wish to be under Wiggin's direction. In 1637 they deposed Captain Wiggin, setting up an in- dependent government by themselves, the governor- ship, for want of a better name, going to George Bur- dett, the minister.7 Belknap says that Burdett thrust out Captain Wiggin.1 The colonists, however, soon quarreled with Burdett, who removed to York,6 where he later bore an unsavory reputation.9 In his place, in 1638, the colonists elected as Governor, Capt. John Underhill,6, 10 very likely on the basis that he was hostile to Massachusetts Bay.7 Captain Underhill was reported in the Bay as an immoral man, who had been ex-communicated for adultery, "an enthusiast, who obtained his assurance, as he expressed himself before the church of Boston, while he was taking a pipe of the good creature tobacco." 6 Captain Under-
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THE PISCATAQUA SETTLEMENTS, 1635-1641
hill had been banished from Massachusetts and had come to Dover.7
Underhill's rise to power in Dover was displeasing to Massachusetts. That same year, 1638, the General Court of Massachusetts had instructed Governor Winthrop to write those at "Pascataquack," meaning both the lower river settlements and Dover, to signify to them that they looked on it as an unneighborly part. that they should encourage and advance such as "we had cast out." & The claim was that the Piscataqua. River settlements had aided John Wheelwright in the commencement of his plantation, and that they had planned to make Captain Underhill their Governor in the place of Burdett. Those at Pascataquack returned answer in two letters, disclaiming any such plan. "The others, at the River's mouth, disclaimed likewise, and showed their indignation," and offered to call him (Underhill) to account, "only they desired us to have some compassion of him, and not to send any forces against him. After this Captain Underhill's courage was abated, for the chiefest in the River fell from him, and the rest little regarded him." & Underhill seems to have turned about after this. The Dover Point population came to believe, in 1640, that he was plotting to deliver the colony into the hands of Massachusetts.7
There was increasing friction. When the Lords Say and Brooke had bought, in England, from the Bristol owners, their rights to the original Hilton patent, that. is, to Dover,1 it was stated that they had done so at the instigation of Massachusetts, and for the benefit of Massachusetts. A definite party rose against Under- hill, his opponents believing that he was plotting to turn the Dover colony over to the Bay.7 On Underhill's
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side was the minister of Dover of that day, the Rev. Hanserd Knollys1 or Knolles.6 He had a rival minis- ter, one Larkham, who had arrived from Northam in England. Many of the colonists had been much taken with him, and were determined to have him for their minister in the place of Mr. Knolles.6 Knolles' party, however, stood by him, laid violent hands on Larkham and excommunicated Larkham.6 "The mag- istrates of the colony took part in the dispute, some on one side and some on the other." 6 Hutchinson says that Larkham's party, being the weaker, went to Francis Williams, who was then at the head of the lower river settlements, asking him for aid.6 Williams came up from the lower river with a force of men, be- sieged Knolles' house, where Underhill then was, and took him prisoner.6 Larkham was leading the rebel- lion against Underhill as much as he was opposing Knolles. Francis Williams, sitting as judge, set a fine on Underhill and obliged him to remove from the plantation.6,7 Knolles was charged with being too fa- miliar with some of his female domestics, and found it necessary to depart.6 Hutchinson says that Lark- ham, a zealous churchman, followed him for an offence of the same nature.6 Captain Underhill later, "being struck with horror and remorse for his offences against church and state," writes Winthrop, "could have no rest till he had obtained a safe conduct to come and give satisfaction; and accordingly, in 1639, at a lec- ture in Boston, he made a public confession." 8 Win- throp, in 1639, refers to "the upper part of Pascata- quack," "viz. Dover." 8
Church and State at Dover had not progressed satisfactorily. The need was felt by the settlers in Dover for a more definite civic structure, and it was
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THE PISCATAQUA SETTLEMENTS, 1635-1641
natural that the little colony should look towards the larger and stronger colony of Massachusetts Bay for inspiration and aid. Massachusetts governed at this time, 1637-1640, with a strong hand. To prevent tumults, about fifty to sixty inhabitants of Boston were required to give up their arms. Fines were established for any who should profane any court or any court sentence. The fines might be increased to banishment.6
"In 1639, a committee from Dover was sent to the General Court at Boston, proposing that Dover should come under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay." 9 The General Court at Boston appointed a commis- sion of two to look into the matter.9
Meanwhile, at Exeter, though probably to a less degree, a desire and need arose for a more definite government. On October 4, 1639,6 John Wheelwright and those with him entered into a political Combina- tion, signed by John Wheelwright, William Wentworth, John Walton and thirty-two others. It read: "we his loyal subjects (of our dread sovereign Charles), bretheren of the church of Exeter, situate and lying upon the River Piscataquacke, with other inhabitants there, considering with ourselves the holy will of God, and our own necessity, that we should not live with- out wholesome laws and civil government amongst us, of which we are altogether destitute, do, in the name of Christ and in the sight of God, combine ourselves together to erect and set up among us such govern- ment as shall be, to our best discerning, agreeable to the will of God, professing ourselves subject to our Sovereign Lord, King Charles, and binding ourselves solemnly by the grace and help of Christ and in his name and fear to submit ourselves to all such christian
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laws as are established in the realm of England." 6, 20 In 1640 a similar Combination occurred at Dover, the signatories binding themselves together on the follow- ing terms: "Wee, being inhabitants upon the River Pascataquack, have voluntarily agreed to combine ourselves into a body Politique, that wee may the more comfortably enjoy the benefit of his Majesties Laws." 11 Among those who signed this document were the following: -
John Follett
William Jones
William Waldern William Storer
Richard Pickhame
Edward Starr
Bartholomew Hunt
William Furbur
William Bowden
Tho. Layton
John Heard
Richard Laham
John Hall
Samuel Haines
Francis Champernoon
John Underhill
Hansed Knowles
John Cross John Dam
Edward Colcord
Stephen Teddar
William Pomfret
Robert Huggins
George Webb
Thomas Larkham
James Rawlins
Richard Waldern
Peter Garland
There were forty-two signatures to this document.11
Hutchinson says of this Combination: "The lords and others concerned had prevailed upon several per- sons of good estates, who made the profession of reli- gion, to transplant themselves and families to Piscataqua so as to make inhabitants enough for a considerable township; and having no charter, commission or power of government from the Crown, they were under the necessity of entering into a combination of agreement among themselves," which they did, October 22, 1640.6 The lower settlement at Strawberry Bank, which
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Hall, Moffat-Ladd House
Published through the courtesy of The New Hampshire Society of the Colonial Dames of America
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THE PISCATAQUA SETTLEMENTS, 1635-1641
at this time, 1639-1640, included Great Island or Newcastle, Rye, Greenland and part of Newington, also felt the need of a stronger government. The King was over all, but the civil government, the English law had stated, about 1636, remained vested in the hands of those who were the principals in the patents grant- ing territory placed under colonization. A majority of freeholders, however, had the right of veto.12 When Mason and Gorges divided their original rights on the Piscataqua, Mason had kept as his share what fell within the confines of the lower settlement on the west bank of the Piscataqua. Then, as has been stated, Mason died and his widow left her husband's colonists to their own devices. As a result there were no gov- erning hands over Strawberry Bank, representing those to whom the patents covering Strawberry Bank had been granted.
The lower river settlement had the sound hand of Francis Williams as its Governor, but the colony was poor, the population small, and there was little or no support. Even though Strawberry Bank included a wide territory, there were not enough early settlers on the river to give any strength of population. Across the river, the very small settlement of Kittery was, for purposes of social intercourse, included as part of the lower river settlement, but it was known as "Pas- cattaquacke in the Province of Mayne," 12 and from a legal aspect it was not included with the lower river settlements on the land acquired through charter by Capt. John Mason.
Besides the question of law and order, the religious factor in the situation was of importance at this time. "The first who enterprised the settlement of Piscat- aqua had some religious as well as civil views," 6 but
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EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
their assistance was over, and there was no other back- ground in England to guide and strengthen the colony religiously. The lower river settlements were Episco- palian, in so far as they were to be catalogued from a church standpoint. This was at the greatest variance from the situation in Massachusetts Bay.
At Strawberry Bank and its allied settlements, no such formal combination in body politique apparently occurred as at Dover. There probably was not the same need. The smaller population had at its head the much respected Francis Williams. In harmony with . the characteristic legal turn of mind of New England colonists, Williams was probably, from time to time, reappointed head of the colony, or Governor, by some sort of mutual understanding among the colonists under him. Much the same result was ob- tained at Strawberry Bank as at Dover and Exeter, but apparently in a less formal way. Many of the first town records were destroyed in 1652.13 These may have included the record of some form of political agreement among the early settlers, though no refer- ence occurs elsewhere to any such combination.
The lower river settlement, namely, Strawberry Bank, did evolve a written declaration of union among the settlers. This was non-political, and on the basis of church organization. Provision for worship had been made at Strawberry Bank as early as about February, 1639.14 There was a small chapel with par- sonage house attached,4 probably built of logs. It stood on the land this side of the present Universalist Church, and apparently faced toward the marsh land. In 1635 there were available for religious use one great Bible, twelve service books, one pewter flagon, one communion cup and cover of silver, two fine table
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THE PISCATAQUA SETTLEMENTS, 1635-1641
cloths and two napkins. In this chapel and with these furnishings, Rev. Richard Gibson, a Church of England minister, officiated, from probably about February 1639 to November 1640.4, 14
On May 25, 1640, the townspeople of Strawberry Bank joined in the aforesaid common declaration of purpose in writing.4 This declaration was effected through a deed of trust made by twenty settlers of the lower Piscataqua settlements. This deed of trust con- sisted of a grant of fifty acres of land for a glebe. It read as follows: "Whereas divers and sundry of the Inhabitants of the lower end of Pascataquack, whose names are hereunder written, of their free and volun- tary mind, good wills and assents, without constreint or compulsion of any manner of person or persons, have granted, given and contributed divers and several sums of moneys toward the building, erecting and founding of a parsonage house with a chappell thereto united, as also fiftie acres of Glebe land which is an- nexed and given to the said Parsonage. Now, the said Inhabitants aforesayd, by their common assent and consent toward the furtherance and advancement of the honor and glory of God, doe give, grant, alien and sett over with Thomas Walford and Henry Sherburne, church wardens of this Parish, to them and their suc- cessors, all the said parsonage house, Chappell, Corn- field, Garden, Glebe land, with the appurtenances in perpetuite, to the use of the aforesayd parish, and that the said Church Wardens and their successors and either of them which are yearly to be chosen bye said parishioners, be deemed and adjudged only as ffeofes in trust to the use and behoofe of the said parish. Foreasmuch as the said parishioners have furnished and built ye said parsonage house and chaple with the
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EARLY PORTSMOUTH HISTORY
appurtenances at their own proper costs and charges, and have made choyse of Mr. Richard Gibson to be the first parson of the said parsonage, soe likewise whensoever the said parsonage happens to be voyd by death of the incumbent or his time agreed upon ex- pired, that then the patronage presently and nomynin- ation of the Parson to be vested and remane in the power and election of the sd parishioners, or the greater part of them forever." 13
Francis Williams, Governor
Henry Sherburn
Ambrose Gibbons, assistant
John Landon or Lander
William Jones
Henry Taler
Renald Ffernald
Jno. Jones.
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