USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Manchester > History of Manchester, formerly Derryfield, in New-Hampshire : including that of ancient Amoskeag, or the middle Merrimack Valley, together with the address, poem, and other proceedings of the centennial celebration of the incorporation of Derryfield at Manchester, October 22, 1851 > Part 19
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
1
t
0
a
t
P
I
0
f
123
MASON SELLS HIS CLAIM TO ALLEN.
proposed a settlement to the people of the province, and negotia- tions for so desirable a result were now entered upon with every prospect of success,-but were prevented by the sudden death of Mr. Allen on the 5th of May, 1705. He left a son and three daughters as heirs of his estate and controversy. His son, Thomas Allen, resided in London, and forthwith resumed the controversy to recover his estate. Upon petition to the Queen, . he had leave to bring a new suit of ejectment against Waldron. This was tried in the Inferior Court and the defendant obtained a verdict. It was then carried by appeal to the Supreme Court. Here after a full hearing the judgment of the Lower Court was affirmed. Allen appealed, and gave bonds to prosecute the same, but a hearing was postponed by the ministry on account of the war, and fi: ally was prevented by the death of Allen in 1715. The controversy was now in a worse situation, if possible than
ever. Thomas Allen, had sold one half of his claim to Sir Charles Hobby,-Usher claimed by mortgage from Governor Samuel Allen, and was constantly endeavoring to sell lands to settlers, and thus Usher, the guardian of the heirs of Thomas Allen, the son of Sir Charles Hobby, and the administrator of his estate for the benefit of his creditors, were at one and the same time claimants for the soil of the province. The heirs of Allen however, never prosecuted the claim,-while John Hobby the heir of Sir Charles, petitioning the Assembly to purchase his claim, was treated with inattention. The waste lands however in New Hampshire had been conceded as be- longing to Mason and his heirs and assigns, and Allen had taken possession of them. This fact prevented any extension of settlements in the colony. Allen claimed the whole and would not sell a part, and hence there was no effort to make new settlements. True, Usher made repeated attempts to in- duce settlers to purchase of him, but with no success, as his title was considered doubtful. Under such circumstances, the colony remained weak and possessed little of energy or enter- prise. Such a state of things had principally been brought about by the encroachments of Massachusetts and the unfor- tunate Masonian controversy.
But a better day was at hand. In 1718, a colony of Scotch Presbyterians from the north of Ireland landed at Boston in pursuit of a home. Tired of the rents and tythes of King William as well as the illiberal exactions and persecutions of the English Church, these Presbyterians had come to America to find an asylum, where they could enjoy greater freedom both of person and conscience. They were a hardy, industrious race
124
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
of men. Persevering and adventurous, they were just the men to commence a new settlement. Having heard of the lands upon the Merrimack, they soon turned their attention towards them, and hearing a good report of an unsettled tract north of that river, known as "Nutfield " or the "Chesnut Country," they determined to obtain a grant there if possible. Accord- ingly in the spring of 1719, having left their families at Haver- hill, sixteen of these hardy " Scotch Irish " went upon the land and commenced their settlement by erecting some log huts " upon West-running Brook,"-a stream that empties into Beaver River. Here they soon gathered their families and commenced their clearings. Their first care was to plant their potatoes the seed for which they had brought from Ireland, and then next to sow their flax-seed, that their wives might have employment for their linen wheels which they had also brought from Ireland. Thus was introduced into New England the growing of potatoes and the manufacture of linen. Under- standing that the lands upon which they were settled were within the jurisdiction of New Hampshire, they applied to Governor Shute for a grant, but were refused. Their history and character were not understood. It was supposed they were Irishmen and Catholics, hence certain men, to prevent their ob- taining a grant had anticipated these Irish Presbyterians, and petitioned the Governor for a part of the "Chesnut Country " which they had already in possession, having placed three of their number upon the land in question for that purpose. They claimed a tract of land ten miles square, which they called " Cheshire " or Chester. The "Chesnut Country " was a name applied to all that tract of land lying betwixt Exeter and Kingston on the east, Massachusetts on the south, and the Merrimack on the west, from the abundance of chesnuts found upon some parts of it.
The knowledge of the country on the part of the petitioners was so indefinite, that they supposed a township of ten miles square would cover all the "Chesnut Country " and thus pre- clude the Irish emigrants,-but in this they were mistaken. The petitioners being well known citizens were successful in their application, and a township ten miles square was granted them, August 26, 1720. This grant included near one half of the present city of Manchester, and was the second grant of any portion of the land embraced in the limits of the city of Manchester ; the first having been made to Passaconnaway in 1663, as already shown. When the township was laid out, taking in the good lands occupied by them, a large tract
1 S
t F F a
1
t
T
t
t
I
S
125
SETTLEMENT OF LONDONDERRY.
remained between the south line and Massachusetts, and the Irish settlement at "Nuttfield" was left undisturbed. Mean- time these emigrants had not been idle. Desirous of getting a title to the land upon which they had settled, they applied successively to Massachusetts and the agent of Allen for a title, but were told that the lands were in controversy, and they could give no title. They then applied to Mr. John Wheelwright of Wells, who held the title of the lands in question from his grandfather, the Rev. John Wheelwright, to whom they had been conveyed by Passaconnaway and other Sagamons in 1629. From him they obtained a deed bearing date October 20, 1719, which they considered as valid in a moral point of view. The tract was described as follows, viz ;
"A certain tract of Land, bounded as followeth, not exceed- ing the quantity of ten miles square : beginning at a pine-tree, marked, which is ye south-west corner of Cheshire, and run- ning to ye north-west corner of ye said Cheshire, and from ye north-west corner, running upon a due west line unto the River'Merrymack, and down the River Merrymack, until it meets with ye line of Dunstable, and then running eastward upon Dunstable line, until it meet with ye line of Dracut, and con- tinuing eastward upon Dracut line, until it meet with ye line of Haverhill, and Extending northward upon Haverhill line, un- till it meet with ye line of Cheshire, and then running west- ward upon ye syd Line of Cheshire, unto the pine-tree first mentioned, where it began."*
At this time their numbers had greatly increased, as the grantees in this deed were Mr. James McGregore, Samuel Graves, David Cargill, James McKeen, James Greg, and one hundred more mentioned in a list."* These grantees, with . their families, constituted a respectable colony, both in num- bers and influence, and this fact the government of New Hamp- shire were not long in discovering ; as, although they had refused to grant them a township of land, they extended to them the protection of the laws, and appointed a justice of the Peace and a sheriff of their number. After the prayer of the petitioners for a grant of the "Chestnut Country" had been answered by the grant of Chester in 1720, farther objection came with an ill grace from them, as they had obtained what they had asked, if they had not gained their ulterior object .- So that the emigrants still pressing their claims for a grant, one
See Records in County of Rockingham.
13
126
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
was made them in 1722, embracing a tract ten miles square. The bounds mentioned in this grant were as follows :-
"All that Tract of Land within the following bounds, being ten miles square, or so much as amounts to ten miles square, and no more : Beginning on the north-east angle at a beach Tree, marked, which is the south-east angle of Chester, and running from thence due south, on Kingston line four miles and a half; and from thence, on a west line, one mile and three quarters ; and from thence south, six miles and a half ; and from thence west-north-west, nine miles and a half ; and from thence north, eleven miles and a half ; from thence north-north east three miles ; from thence, east-south-east, one mile ; and from thence south-south-west, to the south-west angle, of Ches- ter, and from thence, on an east-south-east line, bounding on Chester, ten miles, unto the Beach tree first mentioned."
The form was very irregular, embracing a strip of land ex- tending from the north-west corner of the main body of the township, a mile in width, and three miles in length. This was intended to cover the gore of land between Chester and the Merrimack River, and to secure the fisheries at Namaoskeag which were covered by their deed from Mr. Wheelwright. But some misapprehension as to the course of the river, or mis- take in the original survey, thwarted their design ; for upon laying out their township according to the bounds and courses laid down in the grant, the projection or tongue of land that extended three miles north-north-east up the Merrimack, inter- fered with the westerly line of Chester, and as Chester had been previously granted, her line held good and cut off one half of this strip of land, granted to the proprietors of London- derry. It is difficult to perceive at this time, how any "chain- ing according to quantity and quality" even, could have brought this strip of land within their grant, which was to have been "ten miles square, or so much as amounts to ten miles square and no more," as they had their ten miles square, as subsequent surveys have shown, long before they came to this strip of land, or crossed Cohas Brook even. But their anxiety to se- cure the fishing grounds at Namoskeag, as well as their actual want of knowledge as to the nature and position of the lands granted them, led to mistakes as to the course of their north- west line and the quantity of land included within the bounds named in their grant. 'These mistakes have proved a source of difficulty and litigation for more than a century and a quar- ter, and the end thereof is not yet.
127
SETTLEMENT OF LONDONDERRY.
This was the third grant of land within the present limits of the city of Manchester.
The colony thus established, had a most important bearing upon the interests and character of our State. Emigration still continuing to the little colony, the new comers, if they could not make satisfactory purchases from their friends and prede- cessors in Londonderry, seated themselves in the adjacent towns, or upon the ungranted lands in the immediate neighbor- hood. Thus many of them moved into that part of Chester nearest to the Merrimack and north of "Cohas Brook ;" others moved to the adjoining township of Dunstable, that part of it known as "Brenton's Farm" now Litchfield ; others passed over the Merrimack and settled upon that part of Namoskeag afterwards known as "Souhegan East" or "Narragansett No. 5"' subsequently as Bedford, and now in part constituting a portion of the city of Manchester ; and still others, important in char- acter, if not in numbers, settled upon the strip of land upon the bank of the Merrimack, lying along the Namoskeag Falls, and which the proprietors of Londonderry had failed to secure with- in their grant. This tract, in width two miles in no place, but some eight miles in length, extending from Brenton's Farm, now Litchfield, to that part of Chester now knownas Hooksett, was called Harrytown, or at least that part of it adjacent to the Falls.
But this emigration from Londonderry did not take place un- til the close of "Lovewell's War."
Those of the Scotch Irish who first removed from Londonderry and settled in Harrytown, were James McNeil, John Riddell and Archibald Stark, with their families. These were followed by others at different periods, so that in spite of the occupation of a part of the territory by settlers from Massachusetts at an ear- lier period, and its subsequent grant from that government, the "Scotch Irish" and their descendants continued to control the affairs of the place for more than a century.
12S
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
CHAPTER VIII.
History of the "Scotch Irish."-Irish Rebellion of 1599 .- Essex sent against Tyrone .- Makes a humiliating truce .- Tyrone breaks the truce and over- runs Ulster .- Rebellion suppressed by Mountjoy,-Tyrone carried to Lon- don .- Pardoned by Elizabeth .- Raises a new Rebellion in connection with Tyrconnel .- Conspire to seize Dublin .- Discovered, and Tyrone and Tyrcon- nel flee .- Lands in Ulster forfeited .- Scotch Presbyterrians emigrate to Ul- ster under the patronage of James the Frst .- Conspiracy of the Irish .- Mas- sacre of Protestants in 1641 .- Cromwell crushes the rebellion .- James the II. persecutes the Presbyterians .- Macaulay's description of James .- Scotch Presbyterians flee to Ireland .- The Prince of Orange invited to England .- Accepts and sails for England with a large force .- James flees to France .-- Determines to pass over into Ireland .- Finds an obstacle in the Scotch Pres- byterians .- They oppose him .- Derry .- Grant of sequestered lands to Lon- don and London companies .- They fortify Derry and Coleraine .- Name of Derry changed to Londonderry .- A description of it .- Its public square and buildings .- Cathedral, its cupola turned into a battery .- Defence of in 1689. Siege of Derry .- Antrim marches against the city .- The Apprentice boys close the gates .- The troops retire .- Other troops sent .- Mountjoy and Lundy re- ceived into the city .- Mountjoy recalled .- Lundy conspires to surrender the
city .- Rev. George Walker .- His Regiment .- Gen. Hamilton with a large ar- my arrives opposite the city, and crosses .- Cols. Cunningham and Richards ar- rive with a reienforcement .- Lundy contrives to send them back .- King James marches from Dublin .- Lundy proposes to surrender. - The people rise and the garrison fire upon the troops .- King James' army .- Lundy deposed and escapes .- Walker and Baker made Governors. - City invested .- Supplies arrive, but caunot come up to the city .- Gen. Kirke .- Suffering from sick- ness and famine .- Gen Kirke succeeds in sending supplies to the city .-- The Irish raise the siege and retire in disorder .- Gratitude of King William .- His exactions and oppressions .- The Scotch Presbyterians determine to emigrate to America.
The "Scotch Irish" having been of the first to settle this town, and having for so long a period controlled its affairs, it seems highly proper that something of their history and the causes of their emigration to this country, should be given in this place.
Their history commences in the reign of James the First of England, in 1603. England for centuries had exercised sovereignty over Ireland, but it was uncertain and precari- ous. So much so, that even as late as the prosperous reign of Queen Elizabeth, in 1599, the entire power of England was near being subverted in Ireland. In that year, the Earl of Essex was sent with a powerful army to suppress a rebellion headed by the Earl of Tyr Owen, or Tyrone, as he is commonly
t
f
S
129
HISTORY OF THE SCOTCH IRISH.
called. In this expedition, the British forces were unsuccessful and it was terminated by a humiliating truce with the rebel Earl. In a short time after the departure of Essex, the treach- erous Tyrone violated the truce, subdued the entire province of Ulster, and having received a body of troops from Spain, threatened the complete subversion of the British power in Ireland. In this posture of affairs, the Earl of Mountjoy was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland as successor to the Earl of Essex, and by his energy and skill soon brought the affairs in Ireland to a happy issue. He led his army immediately into the province of Ulster, routed Tyrone and his Spanish allies in a pitched battle, took the rebel Chief, prisoner, and carried him to London. Through a mistaken policy, Tyrone was par- doned and returned to Ireland, where he soon crowned his treachery by raising a new rebellion in concert with the Earl of Tyrconnel. Their object was to seize upon the castle of Dublin, but their plot was discovered and the conspirators took to flight. Tyrone, Tyrconnel and many others fled to Spain, and the principal leaders and rebels being absent, the rebellion was readily crushed. To make sure work, the property of the rebels was attainted, and by this means some two million acres of land, covering six Counties in the Province of Ulster, became the property of the crown-and almost completely depopulated. To operate as a check upon the rebellious spirit of the Irish, James the First conceived the design of colonizing these crown lands with protestant and loyal subjects. A Scot, King James very naturally looked to Scotland for colonists. But it was some time before he could put his plan in execution. The peo- ple of Scotland did not readily accede to the wishes of their sove- reign in this particular, as the emigration to Ireland was looked upon as a calamity. At length such inducements were offered by the government, that a respectable colony emigrated from Argyleshire in Scotland, and settled in the Province of Ulster in 1612. These were Scotch Presbyterians. In the next twenty years, many ministers of the same sect, with their con- gregations, emigrated to Ulster, and the province under the in- fluence of their energy and enterprise, began to flourish. This intrusion of protestants upon the confiscated lands of the rebels soon excited the most intense hatred in the bosoms of their Irish neighbors. Those who had been ruined in their estates, waited only a convenient opportunity for revenge. At length, in the succeeding reign, when a severe contest was raging be- tween Charles the First and his parliament, the Irish leaders entered into the most sanguinary measures for revenge, and to
130
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
recover their estates. Religious bigotry soon led the Irish peo- ple into the measures of the conspirators. Their sanguinary project was nothing less than the massacre of the entire pro- testant population of Ireland. This bloody design was carried out in part in 1641, when some 40,000 protestants were mas- sacred in different parts of Ireland. In Dublin the conspiracy was discovered in season to prevent the massacre, but not in sea- son to notify the protestants in other parts of the country. This formidable rebellion was completely crushed by the en- ergy of Cromwell, who very little to his credit, visited upon the catholics, the same cruelties they had practiced upon the protestants. Cromwell by his severity, so completely crushed the spirit of rebellion in Ireland, that in the succeeding reign of Charles the Second, they were perfectly quiet. Still there ex- isted the most unrelenting spirit of hatred betwixt the Irish catholics and the emigrating protestants, who occupied the lands of which they had been despoiled. During the reign of Charles, his brother James, a bigoted Catholic, was Viceroy of Scot- land. The Scotch Presbyterians were the peculiar objects of his hatred and persecution. After he came to the throne, for- getting that he was the sovereign of a protestant kingdom, he determined to make his own religion the established religion of the kingdom, and prosecuted his design of persecution against the presbyterians with renewed determination and energy. To accomplish his design, he had recourse to the most injudi- cious and unjustifiable measures. In utter disregard of jus- tice and law, he trampled upon the civil and religious rights of his subjects. The historian Macaulay thus truthfully and graphically describes this despot.
t
I
d
từ
"When fortune changed, when he was no longer afraid that others would persecute him, when he had it in his power to persecute others, his real propensities began to show them- selves. He hated the puritan sect with manifold hatred, theo- logical and political, hereditary and personal. He regarded them as the foes of Heaven, as the foes of all legitimate au- thority in church and state, as his great-grandmother's foes and his grand-father's, his father's and his mother,s his brother's and his own. He, who had complained so loudly of the laws against Papists, now declared himself unable to conceive how men could have the impudence to propose the repeal of laws against the Puritans .* He, whose favorite theme had been the injustice of requiring civil functionaries to take religious
*His words reported by himselt. Clarke's life of James II, i. €56 Orig. Mem.
ti
I
131
CHARACTER OF JAMES II.
tests, established in Scotland, when he resided there as Viceroy, the most rigorous, religious test that has ever been known in the empire .* He, who had expressed just indignation when the priests of his own faith were hanged and quartered, amused himself with hearing Covenanters shriek and seeing them writhe while their knees were beaten flat in the boots.t In this mood he became king, and he immediately demanded and obtained from the obsequious Estates of Scotland, as the surest pledge of their loyalty, the most sanguinary law that has ever in our islands been enacted against Protestant Nonconformists.
With this law the whole spirit of his administration was in per- fect harmony. The fiery persecution which had raged when he ruled Scotland as Vicegerent, waxed hotter than ever from the day on which he became sovereign. Those shires in which the Covenanters were most numerous were given up to the license of the army. With the army was mingled a militia, composed of the most violent and profligate of those who called them- selves Episcopalians. Pre-eminent among the bands which oppressed and wasted these unhappy districts were the dra- goons commanded by James Graham of Claverhouse. The story ran that these wicked men used in their revels to play at the torments of hell, and to call each other by the names of devils and damned souls .¿ The chief of this Tohpet on earth a soldier of distinguished courage and professional skill, but rapacious and profane, of violent temper and of obdurate heart, has left a name which, wherever the Scottish race is settled on the face of the globe, is mentioned with a peculiar energy of hatred. To recapitulate all the crimes by which this man, and men like him, goaded the peasantry of the Western Low- lands into madness, would be an endless task."§
Such cruel persecutions drove many of the presbyterians from their country to seek safety in other lands. Large num- bers fled to Ireland, and joined their friends there. Among these were many of the immediate ancestors of the "Scotch Irish" who came to this country in 1718-and settled in Lon- denderry in the following year. But while James was playing the tyrant, and exulting in the exercise of arbitrary power, there
* Act. Parl. Car. II. August 21, 1681.
+Burnet, i. 583; Wodrow, III. v. 2. Unfortunately the Acts of the Scot- tish Privy Council during almost the whole administration of the Duke of York are wanting.
Wodrow, III, ix. 6.
§See Macauly, vol. 1, pages 390, 391.
132
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
were causes in operation destined soon to produce his over- throw.
His trampling upon the civil and religious rights of his sub- jects disgusted men of his own party and of his own religious views. The Pope even was displeased at his tyrannical meas- ures. At length people of influence and distinction began to look about them for an antidote to this tyranny and oppression. Their thoughts were turned to William, Prince of Orange, the nephew and son-in-law of James, he having married Mary the eldest daughter of that monarch. After some considerable negotiation, seven of the principal men of the realm, Shrews- bury, Devonshire, Danby, Lumley, Compton, Russell, and Sid- ney signed a formal invitation to Prince William to make a de- scent upon England. Thus invited, the Prince with a fleet of 500 sail of ships of war and transports-and an army of 14,- 000 men set sail for England,-where he landed November 5, 1688, and made declaration of his object to be, to restore the church and the state to their rights. He was immediately joined by people of all parties, whigs and tories, and among the latter many high in the confidence of the unfortunate James. Even his own daughter Anne, with her husband, the Prince of Denmark, deserted him and went over to the Prince of Orange.
In this position, surrounded as usual with bad advisers, dis- affection and defection staring' him in the face, King James determined upon taking refuge in France, first having sent his wife and child there. The throne thus left vacant, was offered by the Parliament to the Prince of Orange, who accepted it in conjunction with his wife, and they were duly proclaimed king and queen of England. His catholic subjects still adhered to James in Ireland, where the army under Tyrconnel was stead- fast in his interests, and the Earl was straining every nerve to sustain the power of his master. On the other hand, the pres- byterian and protestant Irish were equally zealous for the new king. But the catholics were by far the most numerous and had a powerful army in their interests. Under these circum- stances, James with the advice and assistance of the French king, determined to make Ireland the theatre of a war for the recovery of his throne. His plan was well arranged. He was to pass over to Ireland with the troops furnished by Lewis, join forces with Tyrconnel, march immediately and attack the protestant forces at Ulster, then pass into Scotland, where he was to have been joined by a large force of partisans under the di- rection of Graham of Claverhouse. There a descent upon
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.