USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 16
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The next house attacked was that of Ensign John Davis, who lived half a mile below the Falls. He surrendered on the promise of safety, yet he, his wife and several children were
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killed and his house was burned. Two daughters were made captive and carried to Canada, where one, Mary Ann, became a sister of Saint Benedict of the Ursuline Convent. The other, Sarah, returned and married Peter Mason.
The garrison of Jeremiah Burnham was on the hilltop where Ambrose Gibbons had built his house over fifty years before. Hither fled Moses Davis and gave the alarm. John Willey also spent the night at this garrison and had been kept awake by toothache, thus hearing the first shot. Ten Indians had been sent to surprise this garrison, but they fell asleep on the bank of the river. Shouts aroused the family of Ezekiel Pitman, who lived only a gunshot's distance from Burnham's. They escaped through one end of the house while the Indians were entering the other, and protected by the shade of trees found their way to the Burnham garrison, on which no serious attack was made, the place being well situated for defence and the occupants now ready for action.
The house of Stephen Jenkins was attacked by Bomazeen and ten Indians more. The family fled into the corn field, where Mr. Jenkins was shot, tomahawked and scalped by Bomazeen himself, the same sachem that had signed the treaty of peace at Pemaquid and who in 1724 was killed in war at Taconnet Falls, near what is now Winslow, Maine, while trying to escape by swimming. Mrs. Ann Jenkins was carried captive to Penacook and thence to Norridgewock, but returned to give testimony against Bomazeen in his trial at Boston after he had been taken at Pemaquid. She said that Bomazeen knocked one of her children on the head, scalped her and then put her in the arms of her dying father and stabbed the breast. He also killed and scalped the grandmother of Mr. Jenkins. Three children went into captivity with their mother. Bomazeen's wife was espe- cially cruel to her and beat her seven times, intending thus to put an end to her life, but she was kindly bought and rescued by an Indian minister called prince Waxaway, who also bought three more captives and rescued them, so that it appears that the influence of the Jesuit missionaries upon Indian character produced some good results.
The next house to that of Stephen Jenkins was the parson- age of the Rev. John Buss, who was away from home. The house was plundered and burned, while the church near by,
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built in 1656, was left uninjured. The family of Mr. Buss escaped by hiding among the trees. Tradition says that the French priests made some chalk-marks on the pulpit of parson Buss, some words of holy writ perhaps, as has been conjectured and as we are privileged to hope. The house of Bartholomew Stevenson was burned, and probably his two brothers, Thomas and Joseph, were slain.
Thomas and Francis Drew were killed, and the Drew gar- rison was destroyed. Francis Drew's wife was taken and was so enfeebled by hunger that she was left to die in the woods. His oldest son, Thomas, and his young wife were taken, he being carried to Canada and she to Norridgewock, whence she returned after four years, rejoined her liberated husband and became the mother of fourteen children. She was dragged out of a window of her house by the chief, Bomazeen. She was delivered of a child in the winter, in the open air, in a violent snow storm. The Indians killed it, since she was unable to provide it with food. She lived fourteen days on a decoction of the bark of trees. There were fifteen in the Drew family. John Drew escaped from a window, to be slain by Indians a few years later. Benjamin Drew, only nine years of age, was carried over lake Winnepiseogee and there made to run the gauntlet till he was cut down with tomahawks.
The garrison of Charles Adams, at Oyster River Point, was burned and all its inmates perished, to the number of fifteen. One pregnant wife was ripped up, and her child was found scorched. All were buried in a mound that still tells its sad story.
Thomas Bickford defended his garrison at the extreme Point by a ruse, having sent his family in a canoe over to the opposite shore. He had several guns and appeared from time to time in different costume and issued his military orders, so that the Indians were deceived into the belief that the garrison was well manned. Three daughters of the Willey family, next to Bick- ford's, were captives in Canada five years later.
The garrison of Thomas Edgerly was burned and some children were killed. He, his wife, and her sister escaped by hiding in the cellar. Thomas Edgerly Senior, who had been a judge, barely escaped, while his son was wounded, and some daughters were captured. John Rand and wife Remembrance
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were probably killed and some of the family were carried away. Joseph Kent hid himself in a drain and lay there all day, while the Indians were drawn off by firing elsewhere, thus giving his wife and children opportunity to escape. William Graves was wounded, Peter Denbow was made captive, and the inhabitants of Lubberland, along the north shore of Great Bay, were forced to flee in boats to the other side. Not much damage was done at Lubberland. There is no account of any attack upon the Mathes garrison at the Point.
Another band of Indians were doing their deadly work on the north side of Oyster river. The barking of a dog woke Ensign Stephen Jones, who just escaped the bullet that a con- cealed Indian fired at him, as he was sitting on the top of a flanker of his garrison. Hester Chesley, who married John Hall, leaped from a window with a babe in her arms and found refuge at the Jones garrison. Others were not so fortunate and were cut down in their flight, among them being Robert Watson, whose wife was later redeemed from captivity and married Deacon John Ambler. Her son also was captured. Twenty pounds was the price of her ransom. The wife of Edward Leathers and some of her children were killed, as well as a woman named Jackson. Mrs. Judith (Davis) Emerson was taken and held in captivity several years. Her aged mother hid in a field of corn, but was discovered and slain. The aged Robert Huckins, who had escaped the massacre of 1689, was killed at this time.
Further down the river the garrisons of Bunker, Smith, and Lieutenant James Davis were successfully defended, doubtless being warned by the sight of other burning houses. Lieutenant Davis was fired upon by three Indians, and he shot one whose bones were found in a swamp soon after. The Meader garrison was abandoned and burned, the family escaping by boat.
In the northern part of the plantation the house of John Derry was burned, some of his children were killed, and he with his wife and one son was taken into captivity, where he soon died. William Tasker, who lived near by was wakened by an Indian asking at his window if it was not time for him to get up. The reply was a shot that mortally wounded the Indian. The family escaped to Woodman's garrison, which was assailed by the united bands of Indians after their bloody raids on both
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sides of the river. The garrison held out, and after the priests had said mass within sight of it, on a ledge of rock, they went away with their plunder and captives. To sum up what has been written, sixteen houses and garrisons were burned, forty- nine or more were slain, and nearly fifty were taken captive. Yet the surviving inhabitants did not run away. Soldiers from Hampton came to their relief, and most of the families soon re- built their houses. Here and there a lonely cellar may be found, concealed amid trees and bushes, where a garrison stood before 1694, and a mound of earth with some unlettered, oblong, granite stones tells where some of the slain were buried.
After the massacre at Oyster River the party of Indians divided, some going to Groton to ravage that town, and the rest crossing the Pascataqua and surprising Ursula, widow of President Cutt, with three men, as they were making hay in the field. She lived about two miles above Portsmouth. All were killed and scalped. Colonel Richard Waldron and wife were about to take boat to dine with her when they were prevented by the arrival of friends, and while they were at dinner news was received of Mrs. Cutt's death.
Two men were killed at Exeter in July, 1695, and no further depredations are on record for that year. The following year, on the seventh of May, John Church of Cochecho, who had been captured and had escaped in the massacre of 1689, was killed and scalped "as he traveled to seek his horse, up a little hill, betwixt Cochecho and Tole-end," and on the twenty-seventh of August David Davis was killed at Lubberland, in the parish of Oyster River. There are no particulars of these sad events. On the twenty-sixth of June the Indians fell upon the settle- ment at Sagamore Creek and Sherburne's plain, about two miles from Portsmouth village. They came from York to Sandy Beach in canoes. The following is the fullest account that has been preserved of this attack, by one who had unusual oppor- tunity to learn the details, "The Indians secreted themselves among the bushes the night preceding. They were at their stations before daylight, and early in the morning made an as- sault on five houses at the same time. The people ran out as soon as the alarm was given, and the Indians killed fourteen per- sons; one, whom they supposed was dead, and had scalped, afterwards recovered. They took four prisoners, and having
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plundered the houses they set them on fire and retreated through a great swamp about four or five miles, where they stopped on the declivity of a hill to prepare some breakfast; which has ever since retained the name of Breakfast Hill. A company of militia, under the command of Captain Shackford and Lieuten- ant Libbey, immediately pursued and overtook them in this situation. The Indians had placed their captives above them on the hill to receive the fire in case they should be attacked. The militia rushed upon them, rescued the prisoners and the plunder, but the enemy escaped by concealing themselves in the swamp till night, when they took possession of their canoes. A party was sent out in boats, which were arranged in a line to intercept them in their passage to the eastward; the captain being too sanguine, gave orders to fire before the enemy were within reach of their guns, upon which they altered their course and escaped by going round the Isle of Shoals."6
In Brewster's Rambles About Portsmouth a list of the killed and wounded in this massacre at the Plains is given. The killed were Thomas Onion aged 74, Joseph Holmes aged 20, Hixon Foss 17, Peter Moe 40, James Jaffrey's child 4, John Jones 32, William Howard 30, Richard Parshley. 25, Samuel Foss Jr. 16, Betsey Babb 14, Nancy White 8, William Cate Jr. 16, and Dinah the slave of John Brewster. The wounded were Peggy Jones aged 76, William Cate's three children, Daniel Jackson aged 41, and Mary Brewster, who was scalped and left for dead, yet lived to be the mother of four sons.
On the same day the people at Cochecho were waylaid and fired upon as they were returning from meeting. The persons killed were Nicholas Otis, Mary Downs and Mary Jones. The wounded were Richard Otis, Anthony Lowden and Experience Heard. Those captured were John Tucker, Nicholas Otis Jr., and Judith Ricker. These named were recorded by the minister, the Rev. John Pike. The following year administration on the estate of Samuel Heard was granted to his widow, Experience Heard.
On the twenty-seventh of August, 1696, Lieut. John Locke was surprised and killed in his field, at Jocelyn's Neck, in Hamp-
6 Adams' Annals of Portsmouth, p. 102-3.
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ton, and soon after Arnold Breck was shot at between Hampton and Greenland.
While the province of Maine and the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts, suffered severely during the year 1697, the only one killed in New Hampshire, of which there is record, was Thomas Chesley Senior, of Oyster River, who was slain near Johnson's Creek, on the fifteenth of November. At the same time William Jackson was captured and soon made his escape. It was during the assault on Haverhill that Hannah Dustin was taken and conveyed to a small island at the mouth of the Con- toocook river, about six miles above the city of Concord. The story of how, with the assistance of another woman and a youth, she rose in the night and tomahawked and scalped her captors, returning to her home, is well known. A monument to com- memorate the daring deed has been erected on the island and another may be seen in Dustin Square, Haverhill, and the site of the Dustin residence is now a public park, with an immense commemorative boulder thereon.
After the peace of Ryswick, 1698, Count Frontenac advised the eastern Indians to make peace with the English, which accordingly was done at Casco on the ninth of January, 1699. Some captives were then restored to their friends, and the re- turning of others was promised in the spring, but many of the younger captives remained in Canada, having married there. A public thanksgiving was ordered by the governor and council of New Hampshire, December 13, 1698. Among other causes of gratitude to God was mentioned the fact of His "so long re- straining the Heathen Enemie from making their barbarous incursions upon us," which shows how quickly people can for- get their calamities. During the previous "Decade of Grief" sixty distinct attacks had been made on New England settle- ments by the French and Indians, as enumerated by Mr. Farmer. Five hundred and seventy-one had been slain. He reports only eighty-two wounded during this time. This may be because the Indians were in the habit of leaving but few wounded, since the scalps of dead men were profitable. One hundred and sixty-two prisoners are reported, though this must have been only a small part of those who were carried to Canada and to Norridgewock. Many of those taken to Canada were baptized into the faith of the Roman Catholic Church, and very few of
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such ever returned to the Protestant faith. Some were content to spend their lives in nunneries. Others were ransomed after years of captivity, and some who were anxiously sought could not be found. As for the Indian tribes their loses were not heavy. They always came by night, killed, plundered and ran away to attack some distant place in like manner. Continual warfare, however, for ten years wasted their possessions, and they were eager to accept the advice of the French, after France had made peace with England, and submit themselves, in the words of a treaty at least, to the British government. But wars stir up hatreds that last long and flame out on slight provoca- tion. History has shown that the nations of Europe must be at peace, or else their colonies are drawn into the quarrels of the old world. Hence the story of the Indian wars in New England must be long drawn out in later chapters, although it is far from being "linked sweetness."
Chapter 1X FIVE TROUBLOUS AND TROUBLED GOVERNORS
Chapter IX
FIVE TROUBLOUS AND TROUBLED GOVERNORS.
John Usher-Removal and Mutilation of Records-No Salary for Governors -William Partridge as Lieutenant Governor-Charles Story Secretary- Shadrach Walton Commander of the Fort-Report of Usher to the Lords of Trade-Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont-A Diplomatic Letter-Governor Samuel Allen-Reception of Bellomont-His First Impressions-Scheme to Employ Mohawks as Allies-The Earl Changes His Mind-Contempt for Mechanics in Office-Would Prohibit Expor- tation of Lumber and Turn New Hampshire Settlers into Fishermen- Matrimonial Alliances Proposed by Allen-Bellomont's Opinion of New Hampshire Lawyers-No Laws Binding on People not Represented in Parliament-Partridge a Mere Figure-head-Repair of Fort William and Mary-Obstinate Juries-Evasions of Law-Joseph Dudley Appointed Governor-Letter of George Jaffrey-No Special Verdict-Waste Lands Conceded to Allen-New Commission of John Usher as Lieutenant Governor-Convention of Landholders-Their Proposal-Death of Samuel Allen-New Castle Incorporated-Kingston.
J OHN USHER arrived and published his commission as Lieu- tenant Governor, August 13, 1692. He had been a wealthy stationer in Boston and continued to reside there and carry on his business, visiting the province from time to time. He had little sympathy with the people of New Hampshire in their contention with Samuel Allen for the possession of their estates. It was known that he had been a member of the council of the hated Andros and that he was an owner in the million acre purchase. His letters to officials in London indicate that he soon caught the spirit and views of his predecessors in office and looked upon the political leaders in New Hampshire as disloyal and rebellious. He seems to have had an undue sense of the dignity and importance of his office, as is the manner of many "dressed in a little brief authority." He was a man of business, intent on gains, rather than a statesman and courtier. His letters have neither learning nor literary polish, and his speech is said to have been loud, stern and domineering. If his hand was not of iron, it was at least ungloved. Doubtless the oppositions he met tended to make him more imperious and
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to assert his independence of subordinates. Those who crossed his pathway were treated with severity, and some of the obstin- ate ones of Portsmouth were shown the way to prison. Yet he cared for the interests of the province, so far as they did not conflict with the claims of Samuel Allen. In the time of Indian raids he advanced money from his own pocket for pay- ment of military expenses in the defence of the frontiers. He wanted to be a real governor and put into effect the decisions of the royal council; the people wanted only a nominal governor, who would allow them practical independence and especially leave them undisturbed in the possession of their lands. Hence he encountered the same difficulties as Cranfield.
While Richard Chamberlain was secretary of the province and clerk of the council, the records had been taken forcibly from him by Capt. John Pickering and carried to Kittery, where they are said to have been kept in the garrison house of Major Joseph Hammond, at a place now known as Greenacre, in Eliot. Usher had difficulty in recovering the records. Pickering said that they had been committed to him by the people and would be restored only by a vote of the assembly. It was found in 1702 that the records had been mutilated, twenty-four leaves having been cut out, which contained the decisions of court against the landowners in the times of Cranfield and Barefoot. Whether this unjust mutilation of public records was the work of John Pickering or of William Vaughan does not appear, yet suspicion falls on one or the other, as they had the opportunity, Vaughan having the custody of the records from 1697 to 1702. John Pickering probably will be held accountable, who after being threatened and imprisoned delivered the records to the new Secretary, Henry Penny. It was asserted, seventy-five years later, by Theodore Atkinson, then secretary of the province, that "widows and orphans and other innocent persons suffered by not being able to secure their titles to property."1
In the organization of Usher's council there was a hitch in the proceedings because some were unwilling to take oath of office with hand upon the Bible, according to custom in England, and insisted upon being sworn with the uplifted hand. The objectors were Major Elias Stileman, Samuel Keais and Job
1 Sanborn's New Hampshire, p. 163.
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Clements. The council voted to allow them the liberty formerly granted in the province, though John Hinckes objected and refused to administer the oath in this manner.
The old question of raising money troubled the new gov- ernor. The assembly would vote nothing for the support of government, pleading poverty occasioned by the Indian war. They asked him to appeal to the king for aid, and finally voted a duty on articles of export, "provided he and the council would join with them in petitioning the king to annex them to Mas- sachusetts." Such a petition is not on record. The province was always very poor in the estimation of the assembly when- ever they were asked to assess a tax for what they did not approve. Mr. Usher alludes to this propensity in a letter to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, dated July 1, 1694, in which he tells of the suspension of John Hinckes as a member of the council and of the imprisonment of William Partridge, treasurer of the province. He adds, "If ever there was any Sore Tryall to manage a government by virtue of the King's Commission, am sure none like to the province of Hampshire. Tho' butt a few people, yett being overawed by 2 or 3 persons, doe what in them Lyes to affront & oppose the King's Commission .. .. Time was when they could govern among themselves without Com- mission, the Strings of their Majestys Subjects purse could be stretched to pay for their Irregularities, tho' poorer than now, butt now let the King appoint a Governor, tho' they doe not kill him outright, yett will starve him to death before they will contribute one penney to his subsistence."2 Later he wrote that he had been in New Hampshire five years at a cost to him- self of five hundred pounds and had never received one penny from the province, and that he had paid out of his own purse four hundred pounds for the relief of those who had suffered from the depredations of the Indians and for their defense; that the people of New Hampshire were not poor but sullen ; that they wanted everything for nothing; that they asked Massa- chusetts to send men for their defense and to pay the bills of the same; that to his own knowledge there were persons in Portsmouth who had one hundred pounds per annum and were rated at only twenty pounds, when if the same estate was in
2 Ms. at Concord No. 697.
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Boston it would be rated at forty pounds, "and yet they plead poverty, but the truth is that it's not poverty but only the King will have it a distinct government immediately under him- self, but the people will not have it soe; so much for loyalty."
Again Mr. Usher wrote to the Lords of Trade and Planta- tion, September 30, 1696, that his estate had been wasted for support of the honor of the government, "my sperritt even sunk within me, to have to do with a disloyall people That is for noe King att all, de facto, and none to strengthen my hands, and to see the King like to lose a government, wherein he is most immediately concerned in these parts, that I am brought to Lord have mercy upon me, desiring that after four years Algier Captivity have a deliverance."3
He said it was difficult to find men who would be faithful to the king. He dismissed Nathaniel Weare from being judge and put Joseph Smith in his place. He suspended John Hinckes, William Vaughan and Colonel Richard Waldron as members of the council, yet these with divers others reseated themselves, seized the government, dismissed several persons from office and commissioned others "without any legal authority," as Usher writes. Hence he protests against such proceedings and names Capt. Nathaniel Fryer, president, and Peter Coffin, Rob- ert Elliot, Henry Green, Nathaniel Weare, Joseph Smith, Kings- ley Hall as councilors. This protest was dated February 8, 1696/7.4
Mr. Usher was disappointed in not receiving the two hundred and fifty pounds that had been promised to him by Samuel Allen, in whose stead he was trying to govern New Hampshire, and to whose interests he had been faithful. Tired out and discouraged he desired Allen to come over and take the reins of government in his own hands and try to drive unbroken steeds, or to send over a successor to act as lieutenant governor. He was not aware that a petition to that effect had already been sent to the king, and that William Partridge, a native of Portsmouth, had been recommended to Usher's office. He was a wealthy shipwright, treasurer of the province, and well known among merchants in England, having supplied the
3 Ms. at Concord No. 753.
4 Ms. at Concord No. 772.
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navy with masts and timber. Mr. Partridge made a voyage to England and returned with a commision appointing himself as lieutenant governor. This commision was not formally and legally published, although the people knew what had taken place. The reason why he did not publish it at once may appear later in certain correspondence. John Hinckes as presi- dent of the council assumed to act as lieutenant governor before Partridge's commission was proclaimed, and John Pickering was made king's attorney. Thus New Hampshire, represented by a small group of men in Portsmouth, had self-government, almost independency, for a short time, while Usher was disputing with Partridge as to who was lieutenant governor. Partridge's com- mission was dated June 6, 1696, and was obtained by the aid of Sir Henry Ashurst, whose attitude toward the contestants is shown in a letter to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, dated June 22, 1697. "By uninterrupted information for nine years last past I have been assured that Mr. Waldron and Mr. Vaughan are persons of the greatest interest in New Hampshire, of good affection to the government, of great wisdome and integ- rity, that however they may be represented to your Lordships you will find them unworthy of Censure when they have liberty to answer for themselves."5
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