History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 163

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168


USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire > Part 163


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137 | Part 138 | Part 139 | Part 140 | Part 141 | Part 142 | Part 143 | Part 144 | Part 145 | Part 146 | Part 147 | Part 148 | Part 149 | Part 150 | Part 151 | Part 152 | Part 153 | Part 154 | Part 155 | Part 156 | Part 157 | Part 158 | Part 159 | Part 160 | Part 161 | Part 162 | Part 163 | Part 164 | Part 165 | Part 166 | Part 167 | Part 168 | Part 169 | Part 170 | Part 171 | Part 172 | Part 173 | Part 174 | Part 175 | Part 176 | Part 177 | Part 178


John Jewell, from Old Derryfield, now Manchester, was the second settler. He moved into town in May, 1751 and built his cabin in South Weare. The place where it stood is still pointed out. It was on the north side of the present road from Oil-Mill Village to Dearborn's tavern and about one fourth mile from the latter place. His sons, John Jewell, Jr., and Jacob Jewell, came to Weare with him. His daughter was the bride of the first wedding in town and they had a wedding feast consisting of bear's steaks and Jotham beans. A wild bear from the woods was killed for the occasion and the beans were procured from Jotham Tuttle, hence the name Jotham beans.


Thomas Worthley was the third settler. He was originally from Bedford, but came to Weare from Goffstown October, 1751. He settled on the west bank of the Otter near a cold spring and a few rods east of the north road from Oil-mill to Sonth Weare. His old cellar is yet plain to be seen, and his wife's grave, paved with white pebbles, is near by. By his eabin was an open meadow, where once was a beaver's pond, and from it he got wild grass for his stock. His sons,-Timothy, Jr., Jonathan and Thomas,-came to Weare with him, and one of his daughters married Jotham Tuttle, who found the beans for Miss Jewell's wedding.


Moses Quimby was the fourth settler. He came from Derryfield to South Weare and built his house near where the meeting-house now stands about April 8, 1752. He was born in what is now Danville (for- merly Hawke).


Timothy Corliss, originally from Haverhill, Mass., came from Bedford about December 6, 1753 and sat down in South Weare near where stands the present


681


WEARE.


church. He was the father of Timothy, Jr., who was carried away by the Indians during King George's War; and the son probably came to Weare at the same time and they lived together.


William Quimby came from Derryfield to Weare late in the year 1753 and settled in South Weare about one-half mile south of the church.


These were atl who came in the first four years, and the grant would have been forfeited had not the old French and Indian War, sometimes called the Seven Years War, broke out. The exception in their grant of an Indian war saved them.


While the war was going on new settlers were few and far between, but the following came on or about the dates named :


Aaron Quimby, 1754; Jeremiah Corliss, 1757; Caleb Emery, 1758; lotham Tuttle, 1759; Bond Little, 1759 ; Joshma Maxfield, 1760; Joshua Corliss, 1760 ; Caleb Atwood, 1760 ; James Emerson, 1761.


Mary Corliss, born June 2, 1759, daughter of Jere- miah Corliss, was the first white child of Weare.


Miss Lydia Jewell, daughter of John Jewell, and were the first couple married.


Abigail Corliss, wife of Joshua Corliss, deceased March 17, 1763, was the first one who died.


When the war was over then the tide of immigra- tion flowed faster and these settled about the dates given :


Stephen Emerson, 1762 ; Stephen Emerson, Jr., 1762; Moses Gile, 1762; Paul Dustin, 1762; William Dustin, 1762; John Mudget, 1762; Asa Heath, 1762; William Hutchins 1762; Ebenezer Bayley, 1762; Samuel Nutt, 1763 ; John Simons, 1763; Jonathan Clement, 1764 ; Ezra Clement, 1764 ; Stephen George, 1764 ; Benoni Coburn, 1764; Jeremiah Allen, 1764; Jonathan Atwood, 1764; Josiah Brown, 1764; James Dickey, 1764 ; Moses IInse, 1764; Nathaniel Corliss, 1764; Abraham Johnson, 1764; Joshua Quimby, 1764 ; William Darling, 1764.


Saw-Mill .- The proprietors, March 16, 1752, voted to build a saw-mill on the twenty acres of land set apart for that purpose, and Moses Blake took the contract to do the work and put in a strong dam for seven hundred pounds old tenor. The proprietors were to find the mill irons, saw and all things to fit the mill for work. It was built on the Piscataquog, a short distance above East Weare, where Robt. Peaslee's mill now stands. At this place there is almost a natural dam across the stream. At a proprietors' meeting, held October 24, 1752, Blake reported that he had got the mill done and Moses Wadleigh, the man they had chosen to judge of that fact, said he had helped build it in the two or three months just past and that it was done in all things. This was such good news that they voted to pay Blake and not hold him to do any more work. It was good luck for the contractor that he had the work done and the money in his pocket. In a very short time there came an immense freshet which swept the dam and mill away. When the waters subsided some one gathered up the mill irons and hid them under a great pine log on the bank of the stream. Robert Peaslee found them there more than three-fourths of a century afterwards, 1828.


The Old French War .- Many of the settlers of


Weare were out in the old French war, some of the early ones going from Weare and others from the towns where they lived before they came to Weare.


Their names are :


Captain Nathaniel Martin, David Moulton, Ebenezer Sincler, Joshua Corliss, stephen George, John Worthley, Jeremiah Corliss, Jacob Jewell, Joseph George, Ezra Clement, Asa Heath, Moses Huse, William Darling, John Darling, Aaron Quimby, Thomas Worthley, Cornelius Bean, Joseph Ordway, Daniel Emerson, Caleb Emery, Bond Little, Benoni Coburn, Samuel Ayers, Benjamin Collins, Nathaniel Fifield, Ithamer Eaton, Thomas Eastman.


Meeting-House .- We are not certain about the time the first meeting-house was built. There was one in South Weare about 1768, and we think the proprietors must have built it several years before that date to fulfill the conditions of their grant. It stood at the fork of the roads about one half mile west of the present church, south side of the Deering road and west of that to New Boston. Jacob Jewell probably gave the land on which it stood. It was never completed, but both religious and town-meet- ings were held in it. The Antipædo-Baptist Church claimed to own it and afterwards sold it.


Incorporation .- The town thus far had not been incorporated, no town-meetings had been held, no taxes raised, no highways laid ont and no bridges built. These things were sadly needed, and so they got up the following petition :


" PETITION OF INHABITANTS OF HALE'S TOWN, NOW WEARE.


Province of . 1 To his Excellency Bening Wintworth, Esq" New Hampshire. [ Capt. General and Governor and commander-in- Chief in and over this his Majesty's Provence of New Hampshire Honnourable his Majesty's Counsel.


"the Humble Pettition of the Inhabitants'of that Tract of land known by the name of Hails Town, otherwise called C'olo Weares Town, Hum- bly shewith :


" That your Pettitioners are under grate disadvantages for want the Prviligs of other Towns in this Provence in chusinge Town officers and laying out and manding High-Ways, gitting and supporting a Minister and maney other things that are Netsetry for the good and Bennfit of the Town : Wherefor your Pettitioners Humbly pray your Excelency and Honors in Corprate us into a Town, granting us all the Prebilidgs and Immunitys of other Towns in this Provence, and your Pettitioners, as in Dutey Bound, shall ever pray.


" Dated at Hailes Town this 3d day of April, 1764.


" Asa Ileath, Stephen George, Caleb Emory, Thomas Worthly, Na- thaniel Corliss, John Mudget, Jeremiah Corlles, Favon (?) Quinbe, William Hutchins, Josiah Brown, John Jewell, Jeremiah Allen, Stephen Emerson, Stephen Emerson, Jr., Benony Coben, Bond Little, Jacob Jewell, Abraham Johnson, Jonathan Atwood, John Simons, William Darling."


Benning Wentworth, Governor of the Province, with the advice and consent of his council, on the 21st day of September, 1764, issued an order, often called a charter, whereby the inhabitants of " Hailes Town," as they called it, were "erected and Encorpo- rated " into a township with town privileges.


The document recited the bounds making the town six miles square; annexed a slip of land on the south six miles long and one mile wide, belonging to the Masonian proprietors and often called the Gore; named the town Weare; gave the inhabitants all the powers, authority, privileges, immunities and fran- chises which other towns enjoy ; reserved all white


682


HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.


pine trees fit for masting the royal navy, and also the right to divide the territory of the town : promised that private property should be held inviolate by the owners; that they should choose their own officers and transact their own town business; appointed John Goffe, Esq., to call the first town-meeting and preside therein, and declared that hereafter the an- nual town-meetings should be held on the second Tuesday of March.


First Town-Meeting .- Colonel John Goffe called the first town-meeting September 28, 1764. It was held at the inn of Lieutenant Jeremiah Allen on Tuesday, October 9, 1764. John Goffe presided.


" l'oted, to Except the ('harter.


" l'oted that the Offecers be chosen by Powl.


" The Selectmen that shalle be chosen this year shall have no allowance for their labor Except charges born by the Town.


" Chose Jeremiah Corliss, Town Clark ; Capt. Nathaniel Martin, John Mudget, Moses Quimbe, Jeremiah Corliss and Moses Gile, Selectmen ; Ensine Jacob Jewell, Jonathan Clement, Thomas Worthley, William Darling, Surveyors ; John Jewell Constable ; Josiah brown, Jonathan Clement, Commity Men to Examine Selectmen's accounts ; Aaron Quim- by, to take the invoice ; Abraham Johnson, Asa Heath, HIog Reafs ; Na- thaniel Corlles, Tiding Man.


" Voted no money for preaching ; Forty-Eight pounds old Tenor for Cornel Goffe's Troble and Charges in Gitting the Charter; Eighteen Pounds old Tenor for Cornel Goffe's Trouble for Swaring the officers and other Trobles.


" A true Record by me, " JEREMIAHI CORLLES, Clark.


First Inventory .- Aaron Quimbe at once took the invoice. The citizens were thus taxed :


€ s. d.


James Emerson


6 IC


Jonathan Clement


12 16


Ezra Clement


6 10 0


Jotham Tuttle .


10 0


Stephen George


S


0 (


Thomas Worthley 6


0


0


Jonathan Atwood 10


4


5


Caleb Atwood .


0


0


Josialı Brown


8


=


()


Stephen Emerson . 24


17 5


Stephen Emerson, Jr


15 Moses Gille 10


0


Captain Nathaniel Martin


17


9


5


Benoni Coburn .


6


0


Moses Huse


8


10


9 Joshua Corlles 0


Nathaniel Corlles -T


0


0


Caleb Emery


G


0


0


Timothy Corliss


S


10


Timothy Corlles,Jr.


10 0


Jeremiah Colles .


II


10 =


Joshua Martin 1


0


0


Thomas Worthly


16


1


5


Panl Dustin .


G


0


0


William Dustin


13


4


5


Jeremiah Allen, Esq


15


4 5


John Jewell 19


14 5


Moses Quimbe 12


0


Samuel Nut.


0


James Dicke


=


()


John Mudget


4


5


Asa Heath 9


0 0


John Simons


0


0


William Hutchins 8


0


0


Ebenezer Bayly . .


9


0


(


Insine Jacob Jewell


8


4 5


George Little


1 13 4


Aaron Quimbe


10 0


0


£ 8. d.


William Quimbe


9 10 0


Bond Little 0


0


William Smith 7 14 5


Abraham Johnson G


0


0


Joshua Mackesfield 5


0 0


Second Town-Meeting .- The next town-meeting was held March 12, 1765, at Jeremiah Allen's inn. The town officers were chosen by "hand votes," and they were to have no pay for their labor except the charges " borne " by the town. Voted to build a pound; that Insign Jacob Jewell and Asa Heath be deer keepers; that Jonathan Clement should keep the charter ; that eighty pounds, old tenor, should be raised for preaching, which should be at the house of Esquire Allen ; fifty pounds to defray town charges. From 1764 to the present time Weare has never failed to hold its annual town-meeting.


First Church .- The vote of eighty pounds to pay for preaching brought many preachers to Weare. In 1766 Samnel Haven, of Portsmouth ; John Strick- land, of Andover; John Houston, of Bedford; and David McGregor, of Londonderry, were each paid one pound four shillings for preaching. Elders Samuel Hovey and Hezekiah Smith preached in South Weare several times during the two years previous to April 19, 1768, and Elder Pelatiah Tingley came to town January 9, that year. "God was pleased," says the church record, "to follow with his blessing," and on said April 19 the Antipædo-Baptist Church of Christ was gathered. They adopted a Covenant which had for its principal planks, first, the doctrine of election, " That all ye Elect were personally chosen in Christ before ye Foundation of the world ;" second, that once elected always elected, no matter what they might do; they said distinctly the elect " can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly be kept by the power of God and be eter- nally Saved," and third, that the wicked or non -. elect shall be turned into hell to experience misery and torments through all eternity. These were sweet mild doctrines full of God's love.


The original members who signed the covenant were: Caleb Atwood, John Simons, Ebenezer Bayley, Elizabeth Atwood, John Ardway, Enoch Jewel, John Mudget, William Hutchens, Abigail Hutchens, Sarah Mudget, Mehitable Ardway, John Jewel, Mary Corlis, Louis Corlis, Betty Simons, Ruth Little.


The above signed their names with their own hands, and the following had their names written after- wards :


Nathaniel Corlis, Mehitable Bailey, Molly Corlis, Jr., Jonathan Atwood, John Jewel, Jr., Hannah Jewel, Dorothy Atwood, Martha Jewell, Joseph George. These, with the first-mentioned, were bap- tized and received.


The following were received by the laying-on of hands : Pelatiah Tingley, Jacob Jewel, Joshna Corlis Samuel Bailey and John Mudgit.


683


WEARE.


This was the second Baptist Church formed in New Hampshire, the first being at Newton, formed in 1755.


Elder Pelatiah Tingley was the first minister, but he was not settled. It was voted, at a meeting held in July, 1768, to notify the selectmen that they had given Mr. Tingley an unanimous call, "in order that they might have opportunity to do as the Lord might direct them about it."


August 23, they met to consult about the settle- ment, and "On Account of Some unsatisfactorious- ness in Mr. Tingley's mind (& perhaps some others) it was concluded this Day to determine ye Matter for ye Present by Lot, Accordinly after Prayer & a public Discourse on ye peaceable Kingdom of Christ & of ve Nature of Casting Lots & in a Solemn Manner commending the Decision of ye Matter to ye Lord proceeded to draw : And ye Lot fell not to settle now on ye present invitation of ye Church."


Elders Hezekiah Smith, Shepard, Greenleaf and Hovey also preached with this church at intervals till 1773.


The church did not get along very harmoniously; one-half of it was generally engaged in disciplining the other half. Letters of admonishment were plenty.


Brother Enoch Jewell, who had been admonished November 17, 1769, met with the church August 3, 1770, and after prayer "Confised he had Dune ronge to the Caus of Christ in Commiting fornification and Such like sins and Desierd for giveness of the Chh and to be recvied in to you en again which thing was granted to him."


August 24, 1770, the church heard the charge brought by Sister Mehetabel Bayley that she had seen "Sume of the other Sisters Do & She thought it was not Lawful to Do which was this putting Linnen and wooling yarn together. She was affrade they put too much of it together." The church found she had not commenced the action rightly and dismissed it.


Brother Caleb Atwood was admonished for " gaging Joseph Quimbe maier." He confessed and was re- stored.


Sister Ordway had brother Joseph Webster up. Webster had charged brother John Worth with "Saying that if Sinners would do what they could they would have an Esier place in hell than in a Chh meeting" in South Weare. The church found they did not hear him say any such thing.


But soon a great schism arose. The point on which they split was "whether ministers should exhort sinners to repentence, or should simply tell them God's law, and then leave them to God." Brother Joseph Corles maintained the latter, "but it served to be to no porpurces." Elder Samuel Hovey held another way. They had a great council to consider the matter. Four ministers and three deacons from abroad were present and debated the point. They made a report which did no good. 44


August 1, 1773, Elder Hovey preached his mind, and then the storm burst. They held a meeting, got mad, adjourned, and so full of pions wrath were they that they did not meet again for eight years.


Schools .- The first effort made by the town for a public school was in 1769. At the annual town- meeting held March 14th, " Voted to raise money for Schooling, and voted to the Nigitive." But, before the meeting was dismissed, they " Voted to Reconsider the Vot that was to Raise money for Scoling, and Voted to the Negitive, and Voted five pounds Law- ful money for Schooling to hier a scoll dame."


The next year, 1770, nothing was done at the an- nual meeting for schools; but, August 16th, "by Verty of a pettion from a number of Signers to See if the town will Raise money to hier Scholing this year," the selectmen called a town-meeting to be held Aug- ust 30th, when it was " Voted to Raise money for Scoling." " Voted to Raise fifteen pounds for Schol- ing." " l'oted to divide the money into destricts."


In 1771, thirty-five dollars were raised for school- ing.


In 1772, fifty dollars; this was divided as follows:


€ s. d. g.


" paid to the district by Capt. Awoods 3: 3 :0:0


paid to the new Boston Rode 1 : 2 :0:1 paid to the mounting Road 1 :17 :0 :0 paid to Philbricks Road . 1:11 :0 : 0 paid to Jediah Dow for the north Road 1:17 : 0 : 0 paid to Jediah Dow for the Senter Road 2 : 16 : 0 : 0


Paid the selectmen for going after a grammar School mas- ter and getting him aprabated 1 : 1:0:0 paid to Doctor Page for taking the Charge of the grammar School 0 :12 : 0 : 0 paid the Select men for Dividing the School money into destricts 0 : 5 :0 :"


In 1773 and 1774 money was raised for schooling ; but in 1775, after the war began, voted June 19th, "to Drop the Chooling for the present." Nothing more was done for schools till 1779, when it was voted to raise three hundred pounds, and "all Delinquent Destricts Neglect or refuse to hire masters or mis- tresses, their proportion of School money shall be turned into the town Stock." Schools were kept this year ; for we find that, in 1780, the town " Voted that the mountain Destrict and the Destrict by Caldwell Shall Draw theire Proportion of School money for the year 1779."


Then there were no schools kept till 1785. Sixty pounds, lawful money, were raised that year, and "the selectmen are to Divide the town into Destricts and to provide the Schools." Since 1785, schools have been regularly kept.


There was a grammar-school part of the time hold- ing its sessions in different places in town. Often it was omitted, and in 1787 the town was indicted and fined for its neglect. Soon after this the law compel- ling towns to support a grammar-school was repealed.


The schools at first were kept in the houses or barns of the settlers. In 1789 a few school-houses were built by the districts, and in 1793 the town


684


HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.


voted to build school-houses in each district by a tax in proportion to the school-tax, and give credit to all districts who have already built houses.


A committee was chosen in 1806 to divide the town into districts (the selectmen had done it before), and they reported the following:


"N. W. Corner, No. 1; Page District, No. 2; Shugar Hill, No. 3; School Hill, No. 4; Hoit, No. 5; Melvin, No. 6: Worthley, No. 7; Capt. Hadley, No. 8; George, No. 9 ; Bayley, No. 10; Hodgdon, No. 11 : To- bie, No. 12; Center, No. 13."


New districts were afterwards formed from time to time, till there were twenty-six of them.


In 1853 a committee was chosen to "rebound and make new school-districts;" they acted, reported, and the town accepted the report; then began a fight that lasted several years; dozens of petitions were put in, dozens of votes passed, and but few were sat- isfied. Another committee was chosen to re-district the town in 1866. They did the work, made a report, the town accepted it, and for years every attempt to alter it " was voted down with a rush."


Superintending school-committees were first ap- pointed about 1829. In 1837 voted that they should not visit the schools ; in 1847, that they should visit each school twice a year for one dollar a district, and in 1850 that they should publish their school-report, and that the town should pay for it.


Pine Tree Riot .- The Masonian proprietors, in their grants, and Governor Benning Wentworth, in all his charters, had a clause reserving to the king all " White Pine Trees" fit for masting the royal navy. In 1722 the New Hampshire General Court passed an act making it a penal offence to cut such trees twelve inches or more in diameter,-a law that stood till the time of the Revolution. The fine for cutting a tree twelve inehes through was five pounds; twelve to eighteen inches, ten pounds; eighteen to twenty-four, twenty pounds; and twenty-four and more, fifty pounds; and all lumber made from such trees was forfeited to the king.


This law was not popular ; farmers wanted such trees for their houses, preachers for their churches and mill owners to saw. In 1771 Governor Johu Wentworth was appointed "Surveyor of the King's woods." He had many deputies and tried to enforce : men who cut the logs. the law. They rode about the country, searched the saw-mill yards and if they found any such trees they atlixed the broad "R" mark, libelled and sold them and turned the proceeds into His Majesty's treasury. A deputy went to Weare ; he found two hundred and seventy logs, from seventeen to thirty-six inches in diameter, in Clement's mill yard at Oil Mill village. They were marked, and complaint and warrant made out against Ebenezer Mudget who had got them in. It was put into the hands of Benjamin Whiting, Esq., of Hollis, sherifl' of the county, for service. April 13, 1772, he went with his deputy, Mr. Quigley, of New Boston, to Weare to serve it. Whiting arrested Mud- get, who agreed to give bail in the morning. The


sheriff and his deputy then went to Aaron Quimby's inn near by for the night. The news that the sheriff had come for Mudget spread over town like wild-fire. Scores of men said they would bail him. They got together at his house and made a plan how to give it. Mudget went to the inn at dawn, woke the sheriff, burst into his room and told him his bail was ready. Whiting jumped out of bed, chid Mudget for coming so early and went to dress. Then more than twenty mnen rushed in, faces blacked, switches in their hands and went to give bail. Whiting seized his pistols and would have shot some of them, but they took his small guns away and with their rods beat him to their heart's content ; two on a side holding him up from the floor by his arms and legs while the rest crossed out their account of all logs cut, drawn and forfeited upon his bare back much to his great comfort and de- light. They made him wish he had never heard of pine trees fit for masting the royal navy.


Quigley, his deputy, showed fight ; they had to take up the floor over his head and beat him with long poles thrust down from the garret to capture him, and then they tickled him the same way.


Their horses, saddled and bridled, with ears, manes and tails cut and sheared, were led to the door and the King's men told to mount. They refused ; force was applied ; they got on aud rode off down the road while jeers, jokes and shouts rang in their ears.


They were mad ; they would give the Weare men a dose of the law; they went to Colonels Moore, of Bedford and Lutwyche, of Merrimack, and from their two regiments got a posse comitatus. This with guns and swords marched upto Weare ; but the rioters had fled to the woods and not a soul of them could be found. But soon after one was caught and put in jail, and the rest gave bail to come to court.


At the September Term, 1772, they were indicted. and when brought into court plead " that they would not contend with our lord, the King; but submit to his Grace." Then the court imposed a fine of twenty shillings with costs and they went free. Meshech Weare, who gave his name to the town, was one of the judges of the court, and the light fine imposed shows that he did not like the law any better than the


War of the Revolution. - The prohibition to cut pine trees was as much an oppression as the tax on tea, and the Weare riot was as great a feat as the Bos- ton tea party and would occupy as prominent a place in history if only as well written up. Taxation with- out representation, the stamp act, the tax on molasses, the law that all exports should be seut to England and that England should furnish all the imports, the attempt to govern by force and the quartering of troops on the people roused the colonists to armed re- sistance.


The battle of Lexington woke up the land and hun- dreds of New Hampshire men hurried to the scene of action near Boston. Thirteen citizens of Weare


685


WEARE.


marched at once to Cambridge. They were Captain Jonathan Atwood, Caleb Atwood, Nathaniel Weed, Samuel Worthing, Mark Flood, Samuel Caldwell, Abraham Melvin, Samuel Brocklebank, Philip Hoit, Aaron Quimby, Marden Emerson, Ephraim Hardy and Levi Hovey. But these men soon came home; some of them enlisted, and the following were in the battle of Bunker Hill; Jonathan Page, Stockman Sweat, Reuben Trusell, Ebenezer Sinelear, John Flanders, Jacob Flanders, Ephraim Hadley and Sam- uel Caldwell, Jr. These also went to Cambridge at the time and might have been in the battle: Marden Emerson, Joshua Maxfield, Jacob Carr, Joseph Hunt- ington, Joseph Colby, Jesse Bayley, Asa Heath and Daniel Watson. Captain Aaron Quimby, Lieutenant Henry Tuxbury, Jonathan Worthley and Moses Fol- lansbee went to Canada; others from Weare went to Coos, to St. Johns, to Mount Royal and La Prairie. Some tramped with Colonel Benedict Arnold's de- tachment through the Maine wilderness to Quebec ; twenty under Lieutenant Timothy Worthley marelied to Canada to join Captain Henry Dearborn's company ; five were in Captain Henry Clement's company at New Castle and three were in the first New Hamp- shire regiment.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.