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 27
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Sent up for concurrence,
J QUINCY, Speaker.
In Council, Dec. 14th 1734. Read & Non concurred.
J. WILLARD, Sec'y.
In Council April 17th 1735, Read & Reconsidered, and Con- curred, with the amendments [A] To extend three miles East- ward of the Said River conformable to the Settlement of the Divisional Line betwixt this Province & the Province of New Hampshire, made by order of King Charles the Second in Council in the twenty ninth Year of his Reign, Anno Dom. 1677.
[B] To be admitted by a Committee of this Court who Shall take Care that Bonds be given for their Respective Per- formance of the Condition of this Grant to the Treasurer of the
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THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
Province, to the value of Twenty Pounds at least by each Grantee, as well by such as personally appear, as by those who are the Descendants as above said, who may appear by their Guardian or next Friend, & ordered that William Dudley Esq., with Such others as shall be joyned by the Hon'ble House of Representatives be the Committee for the Purpose within men- tioned.
Sent Down for concurrence
J. WILLARD, Sec'y. In the House of Representatives April 17th, 1735. Read & Concurred, & Col. Prescott, & Capt. Thornton are joyned in the affair.
J. QUINCY, Spk'r.
18th, Consented to
J. BELCHER. .
A true Copy, Exam'd by THAD MASON, Dep. Sec'y. Copy Examined by GEO. JAFFREY, Cl.
The reader cannot fail to notice, that whatever course their committees took as to the lines, the Legislature of Massachu- setts was very careful, that their record should stand right in the eyes of the public and the King. Thus, although their committees had frequently prevented the adjustment of the lines, and in 1716 had rejected the offer of New Hampshire to run the line according to the decision of the Lord Chief Jus- tice, in 1677, again in 1719 had refused all propositions and as late as September 1731, had prevented "an accomodation" of the line, yet the Governor and Council were particular in making an amendment to the grant of Tyngstown as passed by the house, recognising this very decision of the Chief Jus- tice of the King's Bench in 1677, which by committee they had repudiated ! The action of a committee could be excused and if need be repudiated, but the public records must stand, and place responsibilities where they belonged.
The township was surveyed by Capt. Joseph Blanchard, of Dunstable, and due return made of the same. Upon this re- turn the following proceedings were had.
Friday, 26th March, 1736.
"A Plat containing twenty four thousand nine hundred & Sixty Acres of Land laid out by Capt. Joseph Blanchard sur- veyor, & two Chairmen on oath to satisfy a grant of this Court passed in April last to Capt. William Tyng & Company, the first snow-shoe-men against the enemy, there being two thous- and one hundred and fifty Acres in the Plat, formerly granted & reserved for taking Fish, & one thousand Acres of Ponds, so that there wants One thousand Six hundred and Eighty
I
9
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205
GRANT OF TYNGSTOWN.
Acres to make up the contents of six miles Square lying on the East side of Merrimack River Northerly on Suncook, West on Merrimack, South on Litchfield, & East on a paral- lel Line with the River three Miles distant therefrom was pre- sented for Allowance. Read & ordered that the Plat be ac- cepted and the Lands therein delineated & Described be & are hereby confirmed to the Grantees, mentioned in the Petition of Hildreth & Shepley, in Behalf of the Officers & Soldiers in the Comp'y under the Command of the late Capt. 'I'yng dece'd, their Heirs & assigns Respectively forever, Exclusive of the former Grants within mentioned, and the Land reserved for the common Benefit of taking Fish at Amoskeeg Falls, & provided it does not exceed the Quantity of twenty-two Thous- and three hundred & Sixty acres of Land besides, & Inter- feres with no other grant, and the Grantees are allowed to make a new Pitch of Sixteen hundred & Eighty acres in the Province Lands elsewhere, and return a plat thereof to satisfy the Remainder of the Grant.
Sent up for Concurence."
The Council concurred, and the grant was completed.
The 18th of June following, the House annexed the town to the County of Middlesex by the following order.
" In the House of Representatives, Ordered that the new township lately granted to the officers and soldiers of the com- pany under the command of Major Wm. Tyng deceased, ly- ing on the east side of Merrimack River commonly called Old Harrystown, be and hereby is declared and determined to be- long and henceforward to be accounted a part of the County of Middlesex."* In this order the council concurred, and it became a law.
'T'he township thus granted was called Tyngstown, in hon- or of Major Wm. Tyng of Dunstable, who led the expedition in 1703, " on snow shoes as far as Winnepissiokee Lake, and killed six of the enemy."
In granting this township and Narraganset No. IV, the Legis- lature had reserved certain lands at Amoskeag for the benefit of the fisheries. These lands scon became a kind of neutral ground cver which the people of Tyngstown had no control, and to which the people of Londonderry and those of " Har- rytown" professed to have an equal if not a better claim.
* Mass. Gen. Court Records.
18
206
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
Altercations and collisions were continually taking place among the fishermen at these falls. To obviate this difficulty, to ex- ercise jurisdiction over this reservation and at the same time to raise a revenue, the Legislature of Massachusetts passed the following order.
"In the House of Representatives Jan. 17 1738,
Ordered that Robert Hale Esquire, and Capt. Samuel Cham- berlain, with such as shall be joined by the Honorable board be a Committee to repair to Amniskeag Falls at the beginning of the next fishing season and be fully impowered to regulate the fishery there and to make such rules and orders as they shall find necessary for that purpose, and for the general benefit, and that they shall be impowered to lay a small duty on the first fish taken there, viz., not exceeding three pense a score for Shadd and one penny a piece for Salmon, and that they be im- powred also by themselves or such agent as they may ap- point in behalf of the Province, by due course of law to evict and eject all such persons as have entered upon and held any part of the land laid out for the benefit of the fishery at or near said falls, and that the said Committee render an ac- count at the sessions of this Court in May next, of what money they shall receive of the fishermen, and receive such reward out of the same for their time and expense, as this Court shall order.
Sent up for concurence.
J. QUINCY, Speaker."*
This order became a law, and of course this Committee came to Amoskeag to make "such rules and orders" as they found necessary. It would be interesting to know the result of their journey and this attempt at delegated legislation, but we have no means of obtaining such result, as no scrap of information has been handed down as to it, either by tradition or otherwise. That the attempt was a complete failure however, can readily be supposed, when the fact is considered that the hardy fisher- men of Amoskeag, contrived for three quarters of a century af- ter, to evade most of the laws regulating the fishery at this place, when passed by the legislature of their own state. Their mot- to was "fishing and fowling is free to every one," and they could ill brook any limit of such freedom. The laws as to game and fish in "the old country," were ever considered by all emigrants as among the most annoying and oppressive, and in this new land of promise, they always deprecated and op-
# See Mass, Records.
207
SETTLEMENT OF TYNGSTOWN.
posed the introduction of any such laws. And when intro- duced, a petty warfare was at once commenced and continued by the fishermen, against all fishwards and their friends and abettors,
It is highly probable that Major Hildreth and others of the grantees were already located upon the granted premises. Ma- jor Hildreth seems to have been active in getting the grant and was equally active in carrying on the settlement. One of his first improvements was to build a saw-mill. This was built upon the Cohas Brook, a little east of the mill now owned by Mr. Jonas Harvey, and was the first mill erected within the present limits of Manchester.
Other energetic and immediate measures were taken to set- tle the township according to the provisions of the grant. With those people from Massachusetts already settled upon the territory, it was not difficult to comply with that condition of the grant, that there should be sixty families settled in the township within four years, particularly so, when the Legisla- ture had neglected to confine them to English families, thereby leaving an oppportunity for the grantees, if there was difficul- ty in making up the sixty families from English settlers, to take in a few of the Scotch Irish families already settled in the township! Neither under such circumstances, could there have been much difficulty, in having the required number of houses, "eighteen feet square, and seven feet stud" in as much as timber was had for the cutting, and the building of a log house of those dimensions was but the work of a few days. But that each settler within four years should have "four acres brought to and plowed, or stocked with English grass and fit- ted for mowing," and that they should, "within said Term set- tle a learned, orthodox minister, and build a convenient house for the public worship of God," were requirements not so easily fulfilled.
Yet, they were carried into effect, if not to the very letter, so near to the spirit of the grant, that no advantage could have been taken of any seeming deviation, had the township re- mained under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and not have become a nullity. It is certain that the proprietors built a meeting house, and its locality is equally certain, but there is no reason to believe that they settled "a learned, or orthodox minister."
The meeting house was located upon the rising ground a few rods east of the road to Mr. J. Harvey's and near the south west
208
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
corner of Chester as then bounded, and upon land now owned by Capt. Amos Weston. This was a frame house, and after having been used for some years was destroyed by fire from the burning woods. The graveyard was near it and many of the graves are now to be seen, although the ground is covered with a heavy growth of wood, and some of them have tower- ing oaks immediately upon them, a foot and more in diameter ! A road from Chester to Amoskeag, then passed in front of where Capt. Amos Weston formerly lived, upon the high ground a little south of the road leading from Rodnia Nutt's to the Mc Queston farm and very nearly in the same direction. The road from the mouth of the Cohas, crossed the same near the Harvey mill, passed up the hill, near the corner of Chester and intersected the Chester road a few rods east of Rodnia Nutt's house. The location of the meeting house was some sixty rods south east of the forks of these roads, towards Cohas Brook. The English were settled south and south west of it; upon Cohas Brook, or to the north west upon the Merrimack, while north, and north east of it, the Scotch Irish were set- tled. And the location of the meeting house, so far east from the river, and from the English Inhabitants, can be accounted for only upon the supposition, that they thought in due time to secure the attendance of the "Scotch Irish" upon the min- istrations of a "learned orthodox minister." If this were their object, it was a complete failure, as the Scotch Presbyterians had little sympathy with other sects-and still less for the re- ligious teachings of a people, who had threatened to drive them from the township.
And the Scotch presbyterians of Tyngstown, were strength- ened in their position by their brethren of the same faith and "kith and kin" upon the west side of the Merrimack, in Narra- ganset No. V, or Souhegan East. The grantees of this town- ship, had taken immediate measures to comply with the re- quirements of the grant, and had the foresight to adopt a liberal policy in the admission of settlers. They admitted Scotch Irish emigrants, and were thus able to prosecute the objects of the settlement with energy, and without those elements of dis- cord so deliberately sown in the grant and settlement of Tyngs- town. Of course, the best feeling existed betwixt those of the same religious faith in the two townships, and this feeling contributed not a little to sustain the Scotch Irish of Tyngs- town in their difficulties with their English neighbors.
The grant of Narraganset No. V, or Souhegan East, was the fifth, and that of Tyngstown, the sixth grant of land in
209
BORDER DIFFICULTIES.
part or wholly included within the present limits of Manches- ter.
Narraganset No. VI, as may be seen from the return of the survey of No. IV,* was located on the west lines of Sun- cook and Pennacook, being four miles and forty rods wide on its southern line, and embraced most of the lands now includ- ed in the bounds of Dunbarton and Hopkinton. The gran- tees howevr not being pleased with the location, made another selection vithin the present limits of Massachusetts.
During these rival and conflicting grants, it may well be sup- posed that the excitement among the parties must have been intense. Governor Belcher by his instructions was obliged to recommend the settlement of the lines, but in private, he was undoubtedly opposed to a settlement. And having recom- mended to the Legislature such settlement, committees were again chosen from both provinces for that purpose in 1731. The attempt again failed by reason of objections on the part of the committee from Massachusetts. The Legislature of New Hampshire now took up the subject with fresh deter- mination, and appointed John Rindge, Esq., a merchant of Portsmouth, their agent to petition the King upon the subject. He attended to his duty faithfully, and made a favorable im- pression as to the demands of the Province. The tenor and spirit of Mr. Rindge's petition may be gathered from the follow- ing extract :
"That your said province of New Hampshire being inclosed (as it were) between the several parts of the province of Mas- sachusetts, is daily encroached and usurped upon by its pop- ulous, and powerful neighbors of the Massachusetts, bothin matters of property and government, and without your Majes- ty's Gracious Interposition, will soon be absorbed and lost, as well in dishersion of your Majestie's Crown as to the utter ruin of your faithful subjects and tenants in New Hampshire, who hold immediately of and under your Majesty."
In 1734, the Attorney and Solicitor General, gave their opinion that the initial point of the survey should be "three miles north of the Merrimack, where it runs into the sea," and upon this the Lords of trade reported that Commissioners should be appointed by the King, to establish the dividing line.
After much finesse and delay, eight of the Commissioners met at Hampton, and organized on the 1st day of August 1737.
* See p. 200.
210
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
These eight were William Skene, (President,) Erasmus Jas. Phillips, and Otho Hamilton from Nova Scotia, and Samu- el Vernon, John Gardner, John Potter, Ezekiel Warner and George Cornel from Rhode Island. The Commissioners from New York and New Jersey were not present.
New Hampshire put in her claim, but Massachusetts was not ready, and the Commission adjourned to the 8th day of Au- gust. Meantime the Legislature of New Hampshire met at Hampton Falls on the 4th day of August, and that of Massa- chusetts met at Boston the same day, and adjourned to meet at Salisbury on the 10th of August. On the 8th day of August, the Commission met according to agreement, having been join- ed by Philip Livingston, of New York. The Legislature of Massachusetts met at Salisbury on the 10th, and thus the Leg- islatures of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, were in session at one and the same time in two adjoining towns, separated only by the line in controversey. Governor Belcher rode in state from Boston to Hampton. He was accompanied by a cavalcade and a troop of horse to Newbury, where he was met by a second company of horse, and conducted to the Province line. There three companies of horsemen from New Hamp- shire received him, and escorted him to the George tavern in Hampton Falls. The pomp and ceremony attending this jour- ney of the Governor, were the cause of much remark among his enemies, and one of them wrote the following lines upon the occasion.
'Dear Paddy, you ne'er did behold such a sight, As yesterday morning was seen before night. You in all your born days saw, nor I did'nt neither, So many fine horses and men ride together. At the head, the lower house rode two in a row, Then all the higher house trotted after the low ; Then the Governor's coach gallop'd on like the wind, And the last that came foremost were troopers behind ; But I fear it means no good, to your neck or mine ; For they say 'tis to fix a right place for the line.'*
While at Hampton Falls, Gov. Belcher and a party visited "the mighty Falls at Skeag."
* Collection of Poems.
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BORDER DIFFICULTIES.
The following account of the journey appeared in the Bos- ton News Letter of that time.
"Hampton Falls in New Hampshire, Aug. 18th.
On Monday last at 8 o'clock in the morning, His Excellency our governor, attended by several of His Majesty's Council, and sundry other gentlemen, set out for Londonderry, and on monday night lodged at the house of Robert Boyes Esq., in that town ; on Tuesday His Excellency went to Amoskeag, and returned in the evening to Mr. Boyes, and yesterday came back to this place in good health, having dined in his way hith- er with Mr. Sanborn of Kingston (the Represenative from that town.) His Excellency was much pleased with the fine soil of Chester, the extraordinary improvements at Derry, and the mighty falls at Skeag."
Yet after all this parade and show the lines were left undecided. The Commissioners decided some trifling matters condition- ally, and then reported that they had a doubt upon a point of law, and submitted the same to the King for decision. They then adjourned to the 14th of October following to receive ap- peals. Governor Belcher adjourned the Legislature of New- Hampshire forthwith to the 12th of October, without giving them time to frame an appeal, while the Massachusetts legisla- ture was kept in session five days longer to complete their ap- peal, and then adjourned to the same time and place. On the 12th of October the House of Representatives of New Hamp- shire met at the place of adjournment. Some of its members had prepared their appeal, and a message was forthwith sent to the Council, but that body being in the interest of the Gov- ernor and of Massachusetts and opposed to an appeal, had met and adjourned, for the purpose of preventing an appeal. The ap- peal on the part of Massachusetts was presented in due form, while that from New Hampshire, came from the House alone. And then the committee of Massachusetts had the opportunity to object to the appeal from New Hampshire, because it was informal, not having the concurrence of the Governor and Coun- cil ! But the Commissioners would not countenance such bare- faced, unfair dealing, and received the appeal. Thus both ap- peals were carried before the King. And after much manage- ment by the politicians, the subject was heard before the Lords of trade, in March 1740, and on the 5th day of that month, this long controversy was settled, it being determined, "that the northern boundary of the province of Massachusetts be a sim- ilar curve, pursuing the course of the Merrimack river, at three miles distance, on the north side thereof, beginning at the Atlan-
212
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
tic ocean and ending at a point due north of Pawtucket falls, and a straight liue drawn from thence due west till it meets with his Majesty's other governments."
This decision cut off from Massachusetts as claimed and granted by her, twenty-eight townships.
Among these towns was Tyngstown. This decision left the proprietors of this town in a very unpleasant situation. They had evidently carried things with a high hand, with a strong Province to sustain them and had treated their Scotch Irish neighbors rather distantly, not to say rudely ; and now to be deprived of their granted powers, and to be really intruders upon the territory themselves, was anything but pleasant.
CHAPTER XII.
Want of harmony among the Scotch Irish and Puritans .- Entails evils upon their posterity .- Effects upon religion and education .- Deposition of Gov. Belcher .- New Hampshire formed into a separate Province .- Ben- ning Wentworth appointed Governor .- Takes the oath of office .- Calls a new Assembly. - Message .- Indian war .- Taking of Louisburg .- Indian at- tacks .- Scout under Capt. John Goffe .-- Roll of this scout .- Attack at Hop- kinton .- Scout under Capt. John Goffe .- Letter from Goffe .- Attack on Con- toocook .- Governor Wentworth's Message .- Difficulties of cros ing Sun- cook .- Goffe goes against the Indians .- His Roll .- Scout under Capt. Samu- el Barr .- His Roll .- Canada expedition .- Attack at Rochester .- Scout under Capt. Nathaniel Drake .- Scout under Andrew Todd .- His Roll .- Scout un- der Capt. Daniel Ladd .- Massacre at Pennacook .- Fort at Amoskeag .- Fear of French invasion .- Col. Atkinson's Regiment ordered to New Castle .- Ordered to winter quarters on the Winnepesaukee .- Build a Fort near Union Bridge .- Attack at Suncook .- Attack at Epsom. - Mrs. McCoy's captivity .- Sabattis and Christo .- Garrisons under Capt. Goffe .- His Roll .- Attack at Hinsdale .- Treaty of Aix La Chapelle .- Peace.
The controversy as to the lines, was but a small part of the difficulties under which the first settlers of this town labored. This, after the final settlement of the line in 1741, would have soon been forgotten, and if not, would have been remembered with waning asperity. There was another more important and more abiding cause of contention and strife. The people were of different races, different religion, and different manners and customs. A bitter feud existed between the Scotch Irish sec- tarians in the city of Londonderry, which broke out in open strife and collision, when the citizens were upon short allow- ance, and a powerful army besieging the city, and little more of harmony could have been anticipated among a people, in
213
DEPOSING OF GOV. BELCHER.
the wilds of America, made up of Scotch Irish Presbyterians, and New England Puritans. The ancestors of the two races had imbibed bitter prejudices against each other, and the chil- dren inherited their prejudices. They were inculcated in nur- sery tales, strengthened at the fireside, and unchecked even at the altar. The Scotch Irish, naturally clannish, had little fel- lowship for those outside their limits, while the Puritans, nat- urally dogged, were equally inclined to limit their acquaint- ance.
An intermarriage among them was considered dishonorable, and seldom one occurred, for near half a century. In short, no kind feelings existed among them naturally. And as we have seen,they had but just got seated upon their lands, before the controversy as to the lines was introduced, which increased the natural prejudice, and ill will betwixt them. The Scotch Irish thought their title to these lands, legally and morally good, and they considered the Massachusetts men as intruders, and very readily came into the belief that the claim of the govern- ment of Massachusetts to the lands at Amoskeag, was found- ed upon a mere quibble, and was morally and legally void. On the other hand, the Massachusetts men looked upon their Scotch Irish neighbors, as mere foreign adventurers, squat- ters upon land to which they had no rightful claim. Such con- tinuous causes of controversy and strife, not only produced their ill effects upon the people of that day in the settlement ; but they formed a state of feeling, a state of society, antago- nistic to the greatest good of the little community, and which like a hereditary disease, descended to their posterity, entailing evils upon them, over which they had little control, and which would yield to no treatment save that of adversity and the slow hand of time.
The most noticeable of these evils, and to be placed down as entirely the result of this state of things, was the want of stated, church or school instruction for three quarters of a cen- tury. United, but small in numbers, the entire population could hardly have supported such instructions ; but divided as they were, it was impossible.
Another matter was settled this same year, of great impor- tance to the people of the province at large. This was the deposing of Governor Belcher from his office, and erecting New Hampshire into a separate Province. It was thought by his friends that the death of Lt. Governor Wentworth, in 1730, was hastened by the harsh treatment of Governor Belcher.
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