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 8
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This unfortunate issue, seems to have damped the spirit of colonization for a time, as no farther attempt was made, to plant a colony upon the New England shore, till 1620. The coast, however, was often visited for private adventure.
In 1611, Edward Harley and Nicholas Hobson, under the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, made a voyage of dis- covery to the New England coast. Little is known of their success, other than upon the score of their inhumanity. Upon their return, they seized upon five of the natives whom they had decoyed on board, and carried them to England. They
10
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
seized upon a sixth, Pechmo, who succeeded in making his escape, by leaping from the vessel into the water and swim- ming to the shore. By such inhuman conduct the natives became exasperated, and sought revenge upon future voyagers to the coast. It was the conduct of such men as Wey- mouth and Harely, which sowed the seeds of those destructive, and bloody wars, that afterwards so harrassed the infant colonies of New England.
In 1609, the fourth day of April, Henry Hudson, an English navigator, but now in the employment of the Dutch East India Company, set sail in the Crescent in search of the north west passage. The crew of the Crescent consisted of Englishmen and Hollanders, and a son of Hudson accompanied the expedi- tion. Impeded by ice in his course towards Nova Zembla, Hudson turned to the West in quest of discoveries, passed Green- land, and Newfoundland, and running down the coast of New' England, he made Cape Cod, to which he gave the name of New Holland. Sailing hence, he made the Capes of Virginia and turning northward, on the third day of September, he an- chored within the bay of New York, and on the eleventh day of September, passed the Narrows, and anchored in the harbor of New York. With the Crescent and his boats, Hudson made his way up the noble river that bears his name, beyond Al- bany-where he had friendly intercourse with the Indians. Returning, the Crescent arrived safely at Dartmouth, from which place, Hudson despatched an account of his discoveries to his employers at Amsterdam. This voyage of discovery of Hudson's, was the foundation of the claim on the part of the Dutch to New York, and the territory south and east of the Hudson, from cape May to Cape Cod, under the name of New Netherlands. But colonization was no object of the Dutch. Their visits to America were purely for traffic with the natives, so that New Netherlands existed for a long time, rather in name than in the fact of population.
In 1613, there were only two or three rude hovels upon the island of Manhattan, and these merely as a temporary residence. In 1615, a settlement was commenced on an island just below Albany-as a mere outpost for the Indian trader. In 1623, there were a few houses with thatched roofs and wooden chim- nies, about the trading house on Manhattan Island. From this time the settlement was permanently occupied. This is the small beginning of New York-now the commercial emporium of the New World. The Dutch discovered the Connecticut river, and in 1633 built a fort within the present limits of Hart-
11
SMITH EXPLORES THE COAST OF NEW ENGLAND.
ford. But the enterprise of their pilgrim neighbors surrounded the fort with towns-and compelled them to give up the idea of colonizing the valley of the Connecticut. The Dutch colony at New York progressed with various success-sometimes har- assed by vindictive war with the natives, and again by internal divisions, until 1664, when the Duke of York, having obtained a charter of the territory " from the Connecticut river to the shores of the Delaware," an English squadron, under Richard Nichols, sailed into the harbor of New York, and demanded the surrender of New Amsterdam, and the immediate acknowledg- ment, on the part of the Dutch, of English sovereignty. On the eighth day of September, 1664, the demand was acceded to, and New Amsterdam, with the name of New York, passed into the hands of the English. The surrender of Fort Orange soon followed, and the Fort was named Albany from the Scot- tish title of the Duke of York. Thus, in less than a half cen- tury from its permanent settlement by the Dutch, was their large territory of New Netherlands, wrested from their hands and placed in those of a rival power. Had the Dutch had the enterprise and power to have made good their claim by the right of discovery, the western part of New Hampshire, the whole of Vermont and the best part of Massachusetts and Con- necticut, as well as the whole of Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey-must have been subject to their control. How widely different must have been the destiny of New England- of this republic.
In 1614, Capt. John Smith, the chivalrous founder of Virgin- ia, made a voyage of discovery to the coast of New England. At the Island of Monheagan, he made a number of boats, in one of which, in company with eight men, while the others of his crew were engaged in fishing, he examined the coast from the Penobscot river to Cape Cod. He examined the Isles of Shoals, which he called " Smith's Isles;" and posterity should not have deprived him of this modest tribute to his distinguished merit. He examined also the Piscataqua river, and "found it to be a safe harbor with a rocky shore." After his return to Eng- land, Capt. Smith published a description of the country he had explored, which he called New England, and made a map of its coast, which he presented to Charles, Prince of Wales.
Smith left Capt. Hunt on the coast of Maine, completing his freight of fish, intended for the Spanish market. Hunt being an unprincipled man, destitute alike of justice or humanity, seized upon twenty-four of the natives, and carrying them to Spain, sold them as slaves. This was the third outrage of the
12
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
kind, committed against the natives, on this coast, and was the foundation of an implacable hostility towards the whites, on the part of the Indians-that, sharpened by a continued series of like outrages upon the rights of hospitality, grew at length, into a fiend-like malignity, which spared neither age, or sex.
Not far from this time, a tribe of the Tarratines, east of the Penobscot, attacked the Penobscots, and killed the Bashaba. Upon the death of the Bashaba, the greatest confusion prevailed among his people, as many of their most powerful Sachems aimed at the sovereignty, and a fierce and bloody war ensued. This was followed by a most fatal disease, which swept throughout the tribes of New England. So that it has been estimated, that by these calamities, of war and pestilence, nineteen twenti- eths of the Indians, upon this coast, were destroyed.
In 1616, Gorges, whose adventurous spirit had not been checked by the preceding misfortunes, sent out to the coast of Maine, an exploring party, under the command of Richard Vines, with express reference to establishing a permanent settle- ment. Vines and his party, undoubtedly passed the winter up- on the banks of the Saco. This was during the raging of the pestilence among the Indians. Vines and his party were re- ceived by the natives, with the utmost hospitality, passed freely among them, slept in their wigwams, and yet suffered not from the dreadful malady.
This expedition of Vines, was successful in its main object, as it proved that colonists could withstand the vigorous winter climate of New England. Gorges, and his adventurous friends, were pleased with the result of their enterprise, and set about forming plans for permanently colonizing the country. In this matter, however, they were anticipated by accident.
At the time the first voyagers to New England, visited its shores for private gain, or for the purposes of colonizing its shores, that aggrandizement might follow to lordly proprietors, and chartered monopolies ; events had for a long time been ripen- ing in England, that in the end, prepared the way for a perma- nent settlement, in the wilds of New England, by a colony, asking no other boon, than religious freedom. The Pilgrims, persecuted alike by Catholic, and Episcopalian, determined to forsake England, that they might enjoy that religious liberty in a foregn land, that was denied them in their native country. They chose Holland as their place of refuge. After much toil, and suffering from their persecutors, they arrived in Holland. Here they tarried for nine years, when from a variety of cir- cumstances, and after mature deliberation, they determined to
13
THE PILGRIMS LEAVE THE OLD FOR THE NEW WORLD.
remove to America. Accordingly, in 1617, they sent Agents to England, to obtain consent of the London Company, to their settling "the most northern parts of Virginia." After various delays they obtained a patent in 1619, and immediately set about the work of emigration.
Two ships, the Speedwell of sixty tons, and the Mayflow- er, of one hundred and eighty tons, were provided for the voy- age. In these small vessels, the Pilgrims "left the old for the new world, Aug. 5, 1620." The Speedwell proving leaky, the expedition put back for repairs, and sailing again, was forced back by a storm, till at length, abandoning the Speedwell, on the sixth day of September, 1620, the Pilgrims, in the May- flower, left the harbor of Plymouth, for the wilds of America. After a long and tedious passage of sixty-five days, duped by the Captain of the Mayflower, who was in the interest of the Dutch, they "were conducted to the most barren and inhospita- ble part of Massachusetts," and "were safely moored in the harbor of Cape Cod," on the eleventh day of November, 1620. Exploring parties were sent out to discover a more favorable lo- cation. On the eleventh day of December, Carver, and others, in a shallop, landed at a place that they thought inviting for a settlement, and on the fifteenth of December, the Mayflower was brought into its harbor. The place, they called Plymouth, in grateful remembrance of the many kindnesses, they had ex- perienced in the town they had last left, in their native land.
Thus was established the first permanent colony in New England. "The vine had been planted, which has long en- riched her valleys, and adorned her hills." 6
14
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
CHAPTER II.
Origin of the settlement of New Hampshire, and Maine. - Sir Ferdinando Gor- ges .- Capt. John Mason .- The Council established at Plymouth .- Mariana. -Laconia .--- Thomson .-- Hilton .- Odiorne's Point .- Dover Neck .- Flake Hill .;- Mason Hall, its site .- Sir Henry Roswell .- Massachusetts Bay .- Col- cord .- Passaconnaway .- Rev. John Wheelwright .- Grant of New Hamp- shire .- Hilton's Patent .- Piscataqua Patent .- Accession of colonists .- Danes. -Renald Fernald, chirurgeon. Gorges and Mason become sole proprie- tors .- They divide their possessions .- The manor of Mason Hall.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges was one of the most zealous advo- cates for American colonization. He engaged in various enter- prises for discovery in the New World, and fitted out ships at his own expense, for traffic with the natives, or for the equally laudable object of testing the capacities, and climate of Amer- ica. He was a man of a lively imagination, warm tempera- ment, great energy and perseverance of character, and from ser- vices rendered the government, of much influence at Court.
He had been attached to the navy, and after the peace of 1604, was appointed governor of the fort of Plymouth in De- vonshire.
The fact that three of the natives seized by Weymouth- were received into the family of Gorges and were supported by him for two or three years, bespeaks the generosity of his char- acter, and the great interest he took in the affairs of the New World. To the favorable accounts of these natives, coupled with the desire of family aggrandizement, are to be attributed the determined energy and enterprise, with which he prosecuted his design of planting a colony in New England. He had ex- hibited so much zeal, and had been so assiduous in asking a charter from the King, that when the enlarged patent was granted to the Duke of Lenox-the Marquises of Buckingham and Ham- ilton, the Earls of Pembroke, Arundel, Bath, Southhampton, Salisbury, and Warwick-the Viscount Haddington-the Lords, Zouche, Sheffield, and Gorges-together with twenty-seven knights and gentlemen, Sir Ferdinando Gorges was made Pres- ident of the Company.
Associated with Gorges, as Secretary of the "Council of' Plymouth," was Captain John Mason. Mason was a man of
t!
a
15
GRANT OF MARIANA.
ardent temperament, and from his former associations had im- bibed the adventurous spirit of the times. Originally a mer- chant, at a later period, he had followed the seas, and from his well known energy of character, was appointed Governor of Newfoundland. Returning to England, he was made Govern- or of Portsmouth, in Hampshire, and being conversant with American affairs, he was elected a member of the Company, and subsequently Secretary. Thus Gorges and Mason, from their position, became leading members of the Company, and their private interest becoming identified with those of the pa- tentees, they, in the end, exhausted ample fortunes in the prose- cution of various enterprises for colonizing New England. The patentees were styled, " The Council Established at Plymouth, in the County of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing New England in America," and their patent was granted Nov. 3, 1620. This patent or charter was much more definite and comprehensive than that of 1606-as it gave the corporation the control of the territory between the forti- eth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude ; perpetual suc- cession, by election of the majority-and exclusive jurisdiction over the same, with power to exclude all others from trading within their limits, or fishing in the adjacent waters. The Courts for the transaction of business under this Charter, were for ten years holden in England, and it may well be supposed, that the Council had little knowledge of the country which they governed-as the only geographical account, that of Smith, in existence, had been obtained from a partial survey of the sea coast only. Hence the grants which they made of the ter- ritory of New England were indefinite and inaccurate. in de- scription, and so interfered, one with another, that controver- sies arose as to their boundaries, of serious injury to the colo- nies,-some of which were not settled for a century.
Captain Mason, on the 9th of March, 1621, " procured a grant from the Council, of all the land from the river of Naumkeag, now Salem, round Cape Ann, to the River Merrimack, and up each of those rivers to the farthest head thereof ; then to cross over from the head of the one to the head of the other, with all the islands lying within three miles of the coast." This grant was called Mariana .*
This grant shows the entire ignorance of the geography of the country on the part of the Council, as the river Naumkeag, being but some eight or ten miles in length, its source, length
* Belknap's Hist. page 4.
16
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
and breadth, being confined to the towns of Danvers and Salem, and the Merrimack, having its source in the north, instead of the northwest, a line extending from the farthest head of the Naumkeag to the farthest head of the Merrimack, would inter- sect the Merrimack betwixt Haverhill and Lawrence, and thus limit the grant of Capt. Mason to a territory of land, now com- prising little more than two thirds of the county of Essex in Massachusetts. Those making the grant evidently supposed the Naumkeag to have been a large river, and that both the Naumkeag and the Merrimack had their sources in the North- west, near to " the great Lake Iroquoice" -- now Champlain.
On the 10th day of August, 1622, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and Capt. John Mason obtained from the Council a grant of land " situated between the Rivers of Merrimack and Sagadehock, extending back to the great lakes and river of Canada," by the name of Laconia. Gorges and Mason, afterwards admitted as- sociates, and several merchants of London, Bristol, Exeter, Ply- mouth, Shrewsbury, and Dorchester, became interested in the grant .*
Upon this patent, the grantees forthwith proceeded to estab- lish a colony. Accordingly in the spring of 1623, they sent David Thompson, a Scotchman, and Edward Hilton and his brother William, with a sufficient number of men, to prosecute the business of the colony-which was the catching and curing of fish. The Hiltons established themselves at a point of land, now known as " Dover Neck," in Dover, and which is a cape, or point extending south betwixt the main branches of the Pis- cataqua. Thompson and his party established themselves up- on a cape or point of land, west of the mouth of the Piscata- qua, extending into the sea, and now known as Odiorne's Point, in the town of Rye. This is the same point, discover- ed and named Cape of the Islands, by Champlain in 1604. It is a point of highland properly called a peninsula, as it is al- most surrounded by water, at all times; being bounded south by the ocean, east and north, by Little Harbor, and upon the west by an extensive salt marsh, into which extends a small creek from the south. During the highest tides, this point be- comes an island, being entirely surrounded by water.
The place was well chosen, being almost inaccessible to the Indians. Here, upon a flat, near the creek upon the inner and north west side of the peninsula, the party built a fort, and upon a small hill, a few rods to the south west of the fort, they
* Adams' Anns. Portsmouth, page 9.
17
SITUATION OF FORT AND MASON HALL.
erected their fish flakes ; and it is a singular circumstance, that at the present time, this small hill, is known by the name of " Flake Hill," by the inhabitants upon the point, although it is doubtful whether a fish has been dried upon the hill for near two hundred years. A few rods north east of the fort, they erected " the great house," used for trading and the general pur- poses of the Colony, and which was afterwards known as " Ma- son Hall." This was the first house built in New Hampshire, and with it commenced the first settlement of our State.
During the first few years of the existence of the colony, the people suffered every hardship, and not being acclimated, many of them were carried off by disease. The graves of such are still to be seen a few rods north of the site of the fort, and it is worthy of remark, that the moss covered cobble stones at the head and foot of the graves, still remain as placed by mourners of two hundred and twenty-five years since, while a walnut and a pear tree, each of immense size, and possibly of equal age with our State, stand like sturdy sentinels, extending their ancient arms over the sleepers below.
The site of the fort is still pointed out, and the cellar of " Mason Hall" is yet plainly to be seen.
Thompson left the colony in the spring of 1624, and settled upon an island in Boston Harbor, which was confirmed to him by the General Court of Massachusetts, and which is still known as Thompson's Island.
It is probable that Capt. Mason had become aware of the fact, that his territory of Mariana was of small extent, being lim- ited by the ignorance of the grantors and grantee, as to the length of the Naumkeag and the course of the Merrimack, and hence his desire for the grant of Laconia in conjunction with Gorges. And hence too, his acquiescence in the grant made five years subsequent, to sir Henry Roswell.
Sir Henry, with several gentlemen in the vicinity of Dor- chester, on the 19th day of March, 1627, obtained from the Council of Plymouth, a grant of the territory between a line running from the Atlantic ocean three miles south of the mouth of the Charles River, and every part thereof, and a line extend- ing from the Atlantic ocean, three miles north of the Merrimack river and every part thereof. This grant was afterwards em- braced by charter from the King, under the name and style of " Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England."
Now this grant covered the territory embraced in Mason's grant of Mariana, and also a strip three miles wide on the south
18
THE HISTORY OF MANCHESTER.
of Laconia, and as Mason was Secretary of the Council of Plymouth, and an influential member of that Council, it is ev- ident that this grant of Massachusetts made to Sir Henry Ros- well and others, must have been made by Captain Mason's con- sent ; and it is highly probable that it was made upon a re- linquishment of Mariana, on the part of Captain Mason, he being moved thereto, by the facts before suggested, the grant of Laconia, and the insignificance of Mariana.
In the spring of 1629, Mr. Edward Colcord, purchased of Passaconnaway and three other Sagamons, a tract of land from the Piscataqua to the Merrimack, bounded as follows, viz. " be- ginning at Newichewannock falls in Piscataqua river, aforesaid, and so down said river to the sea, and so along the sea shore to Merrimack river, and so up along said river to the falls of Pau- tucket aforesaid, and from said Pautucket falls, upon a north- west line, twenty English miles into the woods, and from thence, to run upon a straight line Northeast and Southwest, till it meets with the main rivers that run down to Pautucket falls and Newichewannock falls, and the said rivers to be bounds of said lands, from the thwart line, or head line, to the aforesaid falls, and the main channel of each river, from Pautucket falls and Newichewannock falls to the main sea, to be the side bounds, and the main sea between Piscataqua river and Merri- mack river, to be the lower bounds, and the thwart or head line, that runs from river to river, to be the upper bounds ; to- gether with all islands within said bounds, as also the Isles of Shoals, so called."*
This purchase was made for the Rev. John Wheelwright and his associates, and a deed for the same was duly executed, at Squamsauke, on the 17th day of May, 1629-by Passacon- naway, and three other Sagamons.t
* See copy in Register's Office, Rockingham County.
+ We are aware that the authenticity of this deed has been doubted,-and that much pains have been taken to prove the same a forgery ;- but still, there are most conclusive proofs of its genuineness.
The original documents in the Secretary's office, show of themselves, that this deed to Mr. Wheelwright, from the four Sagamons, was executed prior to 1633; and more than this, there are two depositions, one in the files of the superior Court at Exeter, and the other at Salem Mass., made by the Rev. John Wheel- wright, in 1663, showing that he made a purchase of the Indians at Exeter, before he settled there in 1638, and that this purchase of land was conveyed to him by the deed of 1629, and by no other deed whatever.
These affidavits are similar, and one only is subjoined, as follows .-
"This deponent testifies, that himself, with some others who were to sit down at Exeter, did employ Edward Colcord to purchase for them as he remembers a certain tract of land from Oyster River to Merrimack, of the Indians for
19
GRANT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
This purchase includes the southern part of New Hampshire, its northern line passing through Manchester, Hookset, Candia, Deerfield, Northwood, Strafford, and intersecting with the Ne- wichewannock in Rochester.
This purchase, doubtless, coming to the knowledge of Cap- tain Mason, as suggested by Dr. Belknap,* on the 7th day of November, of the same year, he obtained from the Council of Plymouth, a grant of land " from the middle of the Piscataqua river, and up the same to the farthest head thereof, and from thence northwestward, until sixty miles from the mouth of the harbor were finished; also through Merrimack river to the farthest head thereof, and so forward up into the land westward, until sixty miles were finished ; and from thence to cross over land to the end of the sixty miles as counted from the Piscata- qua river ; together with all islands within five leagues of the coast." The land within this Patent, was called New Hamp- shire, and of course covered the land purchased of Passacon- naway and other Indians. It not only covered that purchase, but it covered the lands north of the Merrimack granted to Massa- chusetts. This was done, doubtless, by agreement with Mr. Cradock, the Governor of the "Company of Massachusetts Bay," as named in the report of the Commissioners of Charles II.+
which they gave him ten or twelve pounds in money and had a grant thereof signed by some Sagamons with their marks upon it of which Runnawit was one.
Sworn before the Court at Hampton ye 13 of ye 8 mo. 1663.
Thos. Bradbury, Recorder."
This shows that the purchase by Wheelwright was made before the settle- ment of Exeter, as he speaks of himself and others, employing Colcord to make the purchase for them, " who were to sit down at Exeter." Then again he avers that Runnawit was one of the signing Sagamons, and it so happens that Runawit's name is attatched to the deed of 1629 and is not upon the deed of 1638, or upon any other, most conclusively showing that Wheelwright, in his deposition refers to the deed of 1629 and to that only. Now, this affidavit goes to the git of the whole matter. For it is charged that this deed of 1629, was forged after Wheelwright's death, to bear upon the suit of 1707 between Allen and Waldron. Now, this affidavit, showing that Wheelwright knew of this Deed in 1663, takes away the inducement to forgery, as the suit between Al- len and Waldron was not commenced for near a half century after ! and far- ther than this, it shows most conclusively, if the Rev. Mr. Wheelwright is to be believed, that the Deed of 1629, is authentic. Now, no doubt can be thrown upon the honesty or veracity of the Rev. John Wheelwright. His enemies, even, acknowledge his moral worth, and those who pronounce his deed of 1629, a forgery, yield to none in confidence in his integrity.
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