USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > History of Coos County, New Hampshire > Part 53
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" Portsmouth 12th April 1773."
There were eighty-nine petitioners, principally from the southern part of the state and from the vicinity of Boston. In answer to the foregoing petition, a township was granted July 4, 1774, purporting to contain 19,077 acres with an allowance of 1,070 acres for unimprovable land, and named Whitefields. The name occurs three times in the record of the grant, and it has the plural termination in every instance.
[We are indebted to Mr. Levi W. Dodge for much of this history of Whitefield .- ED.]
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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.
The Grant .- Prior to 1760, following the conquest of Canada, there were no white settlements in the Connecticut valley north of Charlestown, then "No. 4." Indeed many of our fathers well remembered when no foot of white man had penetrated the primeval solitudes of Northern New Hampshire, save that of the daring hunter, or the unfortunate Indian cap- tive on his way to or from Canadian exile. But the capture of Montreal in 1761 was the signal for the hostile savage to retire before the northern march of civilization.
Immediately upon the cessation of hostilities there was an unprece- dented rush of adventurers and speculators for the ungranted lands upon both sides of the Connecticut. Applications for charters increased, and Gov. Wentworth, in no wise loth to grant them, filled his coffers with the required fees, and opened up the new country to his gratified subjects.
The promised rewards to returned soldiers were not forgotten entirely, but they stood, apparently, no better chance than did the stranger appli- cant, or him who had not consented to bear arms during the long and bloody French and Indian wars.
The survey and mapping of this northern country along the line of the Connecticut river as a base, was made by Hubertus Neal, as deputy sur- veyor of the King's Woods in 1761-62. He was directed to continue the Blanchard survey, which ended at the mouth of the lower Ammonoosuc, observing the same general rule of marking every six miles along the river for the line or corner of a future township. He extended his survey sixty miles, or to the present north line of the town of Lemington, Vermont. It was from this survey that a plan of Connecticut river was drawn, and three tiers of towships projected upon either side of the river (for Vermont was then a part of the " New Hampshire Grants"). Upon the east side the general order was broken above the towns of Lyman and Monroe, which then constituted one township. Applications were made for these un- granted divisions as soon as mapped; and, during the few years immedi- ately preceding the Revolution, nearly two hundred grants of townships were made between the White and Green Mountains above Charlestown.
It was during this new township-fever, or season of ungranted land- patents, that Benning and Paul Wentworth and six others from Ports- mouth, a score from Massachusetts in the vicinity of Boston, and sixty-two others, mostly from Southern New Hampshire, applied for a tract of wild land in Northern New Hampshire. This division was given then. It was to them a "terra incognita," but it, like western lands of the present day, showed well by the map.
The petition was granted under date of July 4, 1774, according to the following instrument, after the prescribed formula of all the charters of those days, emanating from King George the Third.
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TOWN OF WHITEFIELD.
Charter of Whitefields, (verbatim copy of Jonas Minot's manuscript.)
"Province of 1
Newhampshire.
"George the Third by the grace of God of Great Brittain, France & Ireland King Defender of the faith &c. To all to whom these presents shall Come, Greeting. Know ye, that we of our especial, certain knowledge and mere motion for the due encouragement of Settling a new planta- tion: within our Said province, by and with the advice, of our trusty and Well beloved John Wentworth Esquire our Governor & Commander in Chief of our Said province of Newhampshire in New England and of our Council of the Said province, Have upon the Conditions and reserva- tions herein after made, given and granted and by These Presents for us our heirs & Successors do give and grant in Equal Shares unto our Loveing Subjects Inhabitants of our Said province of Newhampshire, & our other Dominions who have petitioned us for the same, setting forth their readiness to make immediate settlement, & to their heirs & assigns forever, whose names are entered on this Grant to be Divided to & amongst them into ninety four Equal Shares, all that Tract or parcel of Land situate, lying & being within our Said province of Newhampshire, Con- taining by admeasurement Nineteen Thousend & Seventy-seven acres more or less, out of which an allowance is to be made for highways & unimprovable lands by rocks, mountains & waters, one thousend and Seventy Seven acres free, according to a plan or Survey thereof exhibeted by our Surveyor General of lands for our Said province by or Said Governors order and returned into the Secretarys office of our Said Province a Copy whereof is hereunto annext, Butted and Bounded as follows-viz. Begening at a Beech Tree on the Southeast Corner of Lancaster being in the Northerly Line of Apthorp & running South twenty six Degrees East one mile & one hundred eighty rods to the Northeasterly Corner of Apthorp-thence on the Easterly Line of Apthorp South fifty six Degrees west four miles one hundred twenty rods to the Northwest Corner of Lloyd's Hills, then on the Northerly line of Lloyds Hills South fifty eight Degrees East five miles ten rods to the west Line of Britton wood, thence on the West Line of Britton woods North two miles one hundred Sixty Six rods to the Northwest Corner of Said Britton woods-then on the North Line of Britton woods East three miles and one-half to the westerly Line of Dartmouth then on Said Westerly Line of Dartmouth North five miles two hundred Sixty rods to the Easterly Line of Lancaster thence on Said Easterly Line of Lancaster South Sixty nine Degrees west five miles fifty rods or to the Bounds first mentioned.
"To have and to hold the Said Tract of Land as above Expressed togather with all prevelidges and appurtenances to them and to their respective heirs and assigns forever by the Name of White- fields uppon the following Conditions viz: First that the Grantees at their own Cost Shall Cut & Clear Bridge and make pasable for Carriages of all Kinds a road of four rods wide through the Said Tract hereby Granted as shall be at any Time hereafter Directed by our Said Governor and Counsel which road Shall be Compleeted within one year from the date of Such Direction in fail- ure of which, the premises and Every part thereof Shall be forfitted and revert to us our heirs & Successors to be by us or them re-entered uppon and regranted to any of our Loveing Subjects, Secondly that all white pine & other Pine Trees within the Said Township fit for masting our Royal Navy be Carefully preserved for that use and none to be Cut or felled without one Special Licance for So Doing first had and obtained upon the penalty of the forfeeture of the right of the Grantee his heirs and assigns, to us our heirs and Successors as well as being Subject to the pen- alties of any aet-or acts of Parliment that are or hereafter shall be Enacted, thirdly-that before any Division of the Land be made to & amongst the Grantees, a Tract of Land as near the Center of Said Township as the Land will admit of Shall be reserved and marked out for Town lots one of which Shall be allotted to Each Grantee of the Contents of one acre,-Fourthly-Yelding and paying therefor to us our heirs and Successors on or before the first day of January 1779 the rent of one Ear of Indian Corn only if Lawfully Demanded-Fifthly that Every proprietor Settler or Inhabitant Shall yield and pay to us our heirs and Successors yearly and Every year forever from and after the expiration of ten years from the Date of this Grant one Shilling proclemation money for Every hundred acres he So ownes Settles or possesses and So in proportion for a grator or Less Tract of the Said Lands which money Shall be paid
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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.
by the respective Persons abovesaid their heirs or assigns in our Counsel Chamber in Portsmouth, or to such officer or office as shall be apointed to receive the Same-Sixthly -- that any Part of the premises apearing well Adapted to the groath of hemp or Flax or either of them Shall be Cultivated with those useful articles of Produce in the proportion of ten Acres in Each & Every hundred of these granted premises within ten years of this Date. Seventhly-that six Famelies Shall be Setled and actually resident in the Town within two years of this date; Eathtly that additional Setlement be made So as to Complete Sixty Families in Eight years from this Date. Ninthly -- that this Grant Shall not interefere with any of our Grants formerly made and now in force nor interrupt the Grantees in their improvements making thereon agreeable to the Condi- tions thereof these to be in Lieu of all others rents and Services whatsoever. In Testimony where- of we have Caused the Seal of our Province to be here unto affixed. Witness John Wentworth Esqr our Governor and Commander in Chief aforesaid the fourth Day of July in the foarteenth year of our reign and in the year of our Lord Christ 1774 by his Exelenys Command with Advice of Counsel Theadore Atkinson Sect the names of the Grantees of Whitefields. Josiah Moodey, Thomas Clough, Leavit Clough, Jonathan Moodey, Jonathan Bailey, Jonah Lang, Nathan John son, Eliphalet Neal, William Norton, Samuel Swan, James Merrick, Phinehas Merrick, Aaron Merrick, Jose Merrick, Obed Merrick, William Frothingham, Samuel Cate, Samuel Cate, Juner, Phinehas Hodgdon, Samuel Langdon, Jeremiah Clough, Esqr, Peter Green Esqr, John Flagg Esqr, David Woods, David Waite, David Woods Juner, Samuel Swan, Juner, Eleazer Richard- son, William Farrington, Holten Johnson, Henry Oliver, Mathew Farrington, John Stevens, Jonathan Dix, Stephen Greenleaf, Nathan Waite, Samuel Nutter, David Gardner, Timothy Nast, Samuel Boltwood, Benjamin Newell, Aaron Newell, Ichabod Weeks, Benjamin Johnson, John Lewis, Jeremiah Clough Jr, Esqr, James Gibson, John Holden, Aaron Sargent, Edward Mar- deen. Henry Clough, Abner Hains, Moses Randal, Jeremiah Gibson, Henry Gerish, Esqr, Will- iam Simons, Capt. Stephen Gerish, Samuel Pickering, Joseph White, Increase Newhall, Joseph Hart, Jolın Hurd Esqr, John Hodgdon, Benjamin Hurd, Benjamin Hurd Junr, Joseph Hurd, Isaac Hurd, Josiah Harris, Junr, Samuel Harris, Nehemiah Rand, Thomas Rand, Patric Dough- erty, James Bradish, James Braddish Junr, Seth Sweetsire, Benjamin Sweetser. William Harris, Josiah Harris, these Last fifteen persons are all of Charlestown in the province of the Massachu- setts Bay-Nehemiah Estabrook in Lexington of Said province Benjamin Rand of Weston in Said province Roger Bartlet & Samuel Bartlet of Boston in Sd province John Cockran Esqr Benning Wentworth, Thomas Macdonough, Paul Wentworth, Revd Jeremy Belknap, John Marshall of Portsmouth Revd Stephen Peabody, Ephraim Pickering one whole share for a Glebe for the Church of England as by Law Established-one whole Share for the propagation of the Gospel in Forrign parts one whole share for the Benefett of a School in Said Town & one whole Share for the first Setled minister [L. S.] John Wentworth.
"Recorded According to the original Charter under the province Seal this 4th of July, 1774 Attest George King Deputy Secretary."
Considerations for land grants in the name of the King in those days were various. Many individuals were in that way rewarded for actual or supposed service to the King or his local governments. After the close of the French and Indian wars, many of the returned soldiers were kindly remembered in that way. Some of those are found among the grantees of Whitefield. Some grants were made for stipulated sums of money, and some were only required to pay the incidental expenses, perhaps nominally expressed.
It is a fact noticeable to those interested in the local histories of the state, that many of the grantees of townships conveyed during the last years of the administration of New Hampshire's last royal governor, John Wentworth, Esq .. were of those holding commissions, civil or military,
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TOWN OF WHITEFIELD.
under the royal seal. There were many also connected with the governor's family, either by marriage, or the strong ties of friendship.
Striving to uphold the cause of the King, it was but natural he should wish to retain the influence of his principal friends, and the support of the more active minds in the province, both civil and military; nor were the clergy to be overlooked, for many of them were wielding political influ- ence. It was reported by the "Sons of Liberty, "-" We cannot depend on the countenance of many persons of rank here, for royal commissions and family connections influence the principal gentleman among us, at least to keep silence in these evil times." It was in reward for this * keep- ing silence," or for open support of the governor in those trying days, that we find many of their names among the grantees of new towns chartered at that time. It was a "favor-me-and-I-will-reward-you " policy, and it appeared in the list of the first individual owners of Whitefield.
There was Paul Wentworth, a relative of the governor, under whose auspices the first map of New Hampshire was produced according to Hol- land's survey. He received an appointment in the governor's council, but never took his seat. He was one of the benefactors to Dartmouth college. He died at Surinam, in December, 1793.
Benning Wentworth, in the list of Grantees, was a cousin of the then governor, and brother to his wife, Frances. He was one of the " pro- scribed " upon the public records of 1788 for espousing the cause of the King. He afterward held office in Nova Scotia, while his cousin and brother-in-law was governor of that province. He was a native of Boston, born in 1757, and died in Nova Scotia. February, 1808.
Thomas McDonough was private secretary to Gov. Wentworth, and, as recognition for faithful service, or faithful silence, he was remembered in Whitefields' allotment. He fled the country, and was among the con- scripted. After the return of peace he was appointed to a consulship at Boston, and died there in 1805.
John Cochran was commander at Fort William and Mary in Ports- mouth harbor when Paul Revere rode up post-haste from Boston, bring- ing a copy of a recent act of the King prohibiting the exportation of gunpowder and military stores to America. He was a true servitor of the King, but the sop of one ninety- fourth part of the wild township of White- fields proved of little value; for, being one of those of whom it was written "certain persons who have left the state and joined the enemies thereof," his property was confiscated.
One of the alleged petitioners for lands in Whitefields in 1773 was Peter Green, Esq., who held a justice's commission under the Wentworth seal. He was an outspoken tory, and made himself so obnoxious that he was advertised in the public prints as an enemy to his country, and was threatened with violence by a committee of his own neighbors. He was
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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.
afterward arrested and confined in the jail at Exeter. Upon taking the oath of allegiance he was set at liberty, and he afterward became one of Concord's most loyal and influential citizens.
Capt. Jeremiah Clough and his four sons, Jeremiah, Leavitt, Henry, and Thomas, received each a ninety-fourth part of Whitefields' territory in recognition in part for valuable military services rendered by the father during the French and Indian war. They were of Canterbury, and Jere- miah. Sr., was a noted scout and ranger. He was afterward a captain in the Revolutionary service, and his descendants are men of mark and influ- ence in Canterbury and Loudon to this day. Henry joined the Shakers, and was one of the founders of that society at Lebanon, N. Y.
Capt. Stephen Gerrish, another of the grantees, was of Canterbury; a zealous leader in the border wars of those days, and a sterling patriot in the time of the Revolution. Of rough nature, unlettered, unpolished, yet worthy of honor, he died in 1788, aged seventy-six.
Henry Gerrish, Esq., son of Capt. Stephen, and one of the original owners, (by the grace of George III., and doubtless on account of the valu- able military service of his father. ) was one of the foremost leaders, both civil and military, in those "days of '76." He, in company with Capt. Jeremiah Clough, made the first known survey of Whitefields in the fall of 1774.
This is the survey that the first settlers disclaimed as never having actually occurred, as no trace of it was discernable about 1798. But in 1815. cut in the bark of an ancient hemlock standing near the southeast corner of the town, was still plainly traceable the "H. G." (Henry Ger- rish) of the surveyor of 1774; and the writer hereof saw, but a few years since, the original bill for services (and which is still preserved) of Henry Gerrish and Jeremiah Clough in this same survey. It is in the hand- writing of the former, and is as follows :-
" The Proprietors of Whitefields to Henry Gerrish and Jeremiah Clough, Dr.
"To 15 Days of each of them at 6s. per day, £9-0-0.
" To 15 days four other men at 3s. per day, 9-0-0.
" The above is for cutting a horse road through said town Dec. 5th, 1774.
" The Proprietors of Whitefields to Henry Gerrish, Dr.
" To 21 days service in laying out lots in said town at ?s. per day, £7-7s .- 0d.
" To 75 days labor of other men at 4s. per day, Mar. 20, 1775, 15-0-0.
" The Proprietors of Whitefields to Henry Gerrish Dr., for 8 days service in surveying of Whitefields at 8s. per day, £4-16-0.
" For cutting and clearing a road through said town which is 7 miles and 200 rods, 24-0-0.
" To Warning Proprietors Meeting, Mar. 1777, 1-4-0. . £61-7s-0d."
Then follow credits to the proprietors for taxes received or allowed upon various allotted shares under dates from January 13, 1776, to April 16, 1778. So much in proof of first survey; the result of which was a roughly-marked road through the town, and 104 lots of seventy-five acres
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TOWN OF WHITEFIELD.
each located upon either side of this road from " Lloyd's Hill " northward toward Lancaster.
Jonathan Dix was a sharer in the original ownership of Whitefields. He was living in Canterbury at that time, espoused the cause of the King, and was among the " proscribed " of 1788. He was the great-grandfather of Gen. John A. Dix, the famous war governor of New York. In the town of Dixville is commemorated the family name through the grand- son, Col. Timothy Dix, Jr.
Timothy Nash, the re-discoverer of the White Mountain Notch, was a grantee of Whitefields. He was of Lunenburg, Mass., and among the first settlers of Lunenburg, Vt., while it was yet a part of the " New Hampshire Grants." about 1764.
Rev. Jeremy Belknap, the early historian of the state, received the royal gift of one ninety-fourth part of Whitefields. He was then pastor of the first church in Dover. In 1784 he was one of a party of explorers who gave to Mt. Washington its name. He died in Boston in 1798.
Samuel Langdon, another whose good will and influence Gov. Went- worth sought by gifts and grants, was pastor of a church in Portsmouth when he was made one of the petitioners for a share in the division of lands in " Whitefields," and also in that of "Bretton Woods," on the south. It was in the following year, 1774, that he was called and accepted the presidency of Harvard university, which he held until 1780, when, re- signing, he was installed over the church at Hampton Falls, where he died in 1797. At the breaking out of the Revolution he zealously espoused the cause of the patriots, and. at the gathering for battle at " Breed's Hill," it was Dr. Langdon who invoked the blessing of God upon the occasion. He was delegate to Exeter, in 1788,as member of the convention to adopt the Federal Constitution. In religion he was a Trinitarian and a Calvinist.
Rev. Stephen Peabody, a grantee, and who was chosen by the proprie- tors to draw the names and numbers in the original draft of lots in White- fields, was the first settled minister of Atkinson, some time prior to 1772. He was a man of large social and political influence, but no gift of the provincial governor could purchase it for the cause of the King. He was chaplain in Col. Poor's regiment when stationed at Winter Hill. He preached the election sermon (as was a custom of those early days) before the General Court of New Hampshire in 1797. Mr. Peabody died in 1819, aged seventy-seven years.
Gen. Nathaniel Peabody, though not one of the grantees, was chosen assessor at the first called meeting of the proprietors after the declaration of peace. He also, as justice of the peace, signed the first call for a meet- ing in the interest of the original owners. He was a practicing physician at Atkinson in 1774, and also held a civil commission under the King, and was the first man in the provinces (so it is said) to resign his commission
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HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.
on account of political differences. He was a member of the Council in 1785, and afterward member of Congress. He moved to Exeter, where he died in 1823, aged eighty-two. The early records of the town contain his signature in broad, bold characters.
The first moderator of Whitefields' proprietary deliberations was Col. Samuel Adams, of pre-Revolutionary and subsequent political fame. He was, at this time, lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts; and, as he was also chosen one of the assessors at this meeting. it is more than likely he had either become by purchase owner of some of the original rights, or was acting as agent for the Massachusetts proprietors, of whom there were originally nineteen. And here let me note a fact of which few read- ers are, perhaps, aware, that, in the first records of the proceedings of these proprietors, the town has the genuine signature of Col. Adams, attesting, as moderator, to the election of Jonas Minot as proprietors' clerk. He was nearly seventy years old when he gave to the town this autograph, but it is in the same bold, unmistakable characters that are found along with Hancock's. Franklin's, Josiah Bartlett's, William Whipple's, and the rest of the immortal band of "the Declaration." We all remember that he was one of the marked men by the British authorities as a "stirrer-up of faction."-one of whom it was said "he could not be conciliated by any offer of office or pension." He was one of the excepted two in Gen. Gage's proclamation of pardon to all rebels-John Hancock being the other.
Capt Jonas Minot .- To no one man is the town more indebted for its first awakening. after the dawn of peace to the country following the Revolution, than to its first proprietors' clerk and treasurer, Capt. Jonas Minot, grand- father of Judge Minot, of Concord. Having obtained, by purchase, certain of the original titles, he called a meeting of the proprietors, through the Ports- mouth Gazette, to look after their almost forgotten interests in Whitefields. He was, at the time, a resident of Concord, Mass., where he was born in 1735, and there he died, in March, 1813. He was a farmer and a man of wealth, and was largely interested in the organization and settlement of several townships in New Hampshire, among which was this town, of which he at one time owned, by the purchase of forfeited land titles, more than three-fourths. The ownership of other lands afterward passed to his son Samuel, who was born in Concord. Mass .. in April. 1774. He was early interested with his father in these "up-country " wild lands, and many were the horseback rides taken in those primitive days of rude highways and little travel to look after their land investments in this section. In 1802 Samuel Minot settled in Bath, then one of the most enterprising towns of Northern New Hampshire, the better to superintend the sale and settlement of his Whitefields possessions.
The first settlers, as is usual in a new country, were men of small means: and to encourage immigration, Mr. Minot agreed to receive from
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TOWN OF WHITEFIELD.
those who would purchase and settle upon his lands, their grain in pay- ment, to be delivered at his house in Bath. Wheat was more largely grown in those days in proportion to other farm products than now; hence it became the principal purchasing medium with the pioneers of White- field, and a descendant of the Minots, still a resident of Bath, informs us he distinctly remembers how, in his boyhood, those land debtors of his father's would come with their ox-sleds loaded with wheat for his granary, brought in barrels, bags, and bed-ticks, all the way from that "terra in- cognita." Whitefields, (wherever that might be!) coming to day, departing to-morrow.
It was through the influence of Mr. Minot that Asa King was induced to exchange his farm in Sutton for a thousand-acre tract around the pres- ent village of Whitefield, of which Mr. King may be said to have been the founder, and, by the same influence, or that of his father, some years before, came Major John Burns, from New Boston, the pioneer of several families from that vicinity and Francestown in after years. So that to Jonas Minot and his son Samuel may be accorded the credit of White- fields' first awakening.
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