USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 18
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It was the opinion of the Earl of Bellomont that the fort on Great Island should be rebuilt. Hence a Dutch engineer, Colonel Wolfgang William Romer, was employed to investi- gate, draw plans and make estimates of expense. It was or- dered in the king's council that a new fort should be built where the old one stood, and also a strong tower on the point of Fryer's Island, a battery on Wood Island and another on Clark's Island. The people were amazed when Romer asked for over six thous- and pounds. The assembly replied that they never had been able to raise one thousand pounds in a year by taxation, and that they were impoverished by the long Indian war, in which they had expended more blood and money than their estates were worth, and that they were engaged in legal controversy with a pretended proprietor. How, then, could they tax them- selves so enormously to defend property that might be adjudged
17 Ibid, No. 1009.
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to another? Besides, the building of such a fort concerned Massachusetts as much as themselves, her territory being just across the Pascataqua. So they implored the king for mercy and aid. They also complained that they were required to furnish a quota for the defence of New York in time of need, although New York had never lent them any assistance against the Indians, while their enemies had received supplies from the Dutch at Albany.
Samuel Allen renewed his suits in the courts with as little success as Mason had had. The decisions of New Hampshire juries were invariably for the defendant, in spite of all evidences and arguments. The courts would not even allow an appeal to the king or queen. This was contrary to fundamental law, and on petition of Allen an appeal was granted. This refusal of courts in the colonies to allow an appeal awakened suspicions and fears in England. The drift toward independence was felt. "It is a humor that prevails too much in proprieties and charter colonies, and the independency they thirst after is now so noto- rious," that the whole matter was laid before Parliament for some action. So wrote the lords of trade to Bellomont, but be- fore the letter was received the Earl died at New York, on the fifth of May, 1701, much to the regret of many, among whom he had made himself popular.
The assembly tried to confirm grants of land already made and to ascertain the bounds of their townships, but acts to that effect were repealed by the king's court. One act of the assem- bly was "that no royal action or writ of ejectment for ye posses- sion or title of any lands, nor any personal action or suit where the value sewed for exceed the som of twenty pounds" should be prosecuted in any court within the province for the space of two years. The reason assigned for this was the expenses incurred in defending their estates during the Indian wars. Meanwhile the persons in possession were to continue in their holdings and any trespassers were to pay the damages accruing thereby. This was meant to put a bar to the suits of Allen, and was as plain a violation of common law as an act of con- fiscation of private property. But Allen was very annoying, and the people were growing more and more determined to hold their possessions by every trick and device possible. It was an economic war, and all was considered fair in that struggle.
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Allen was getting old and lacked ready money. Therefore he mortgaged one-half of the province to his son-in-law, John Usher, for fifteen hundred pounds. The test suit was against Colonel Richard Waldron. William Vaughan again was New Hampshire's agent at court, and the assembly voted the neces- sary funds in spite of their often pleaded poverty.
Meanwhile King William died and Queen Anne came to the throne. She appointed Joseph Dudley, formerly president of New England, as governor of Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire, April I, 1702, and John Usher soon became lieutenant governor of New Hampshire once more, continuing in that of- fice from 1703 to 1710. Dudley's commission was published at Portsmouth, July 13, 1702, and the assembly voted him a present of five hundred pounds and he accepted only two hun- dred and fifty pounds. Such gratuities were quite the custom in England and in the colonies. They were thought to win favor more surely than a fixed salary would do, the latter being not so dependent on the good will of the assembly. We have already seen how Queen Anne put an end to that sort of bribery. Its design was something like that of the more recent free railroad passes to legislators, "only for courtesy."
Governor Dudley soon learned the situation and, February I, 1703, he wrote to the lords of trade that there had been some irregular proceedings. "The judges are ignorant and the jurors stubborn. It is a very hard thing to obtain their just service to the Crown, all which will be prevented, if your Lordships please to let me have a judge of the admiralty settled here, who by the acts of Parliament proceeds without a jury."
An historical sidelight is a letter of George Jaffrey, a Scotch merchant, of Portsmouth, to John Usher, August 20, 1702. He writes that the assembly had voted three hundred pounds to William Partridge; that Partridge had suspended him from the council through prejudice and malice and because of a personal quarrel; that almost all the council were for Partridge; that Partridge had illegally admitted a vessel laden with iron from Bilboa and had doubled the taxes of the province, while Part- ridge himself, although a man of considerable wealth was free of all taxes ; that he exacted arbitrarily half of the naval officer's fees and made the most of other perquisites. On the other hand Partridge said he suspended Jaffrey from the council for irregu-
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larities in trade. It should be remembered that one of the first acts of the council, in 1682, was to declare that the governor and council, as well as ministers and elders, should be free from taxation. Such sidelights reveal that graft is an old evil under a new name.
The test suit of Allen versus Waldron was won by the latter on appeal, because there was no proof that Captain John Mason had ever been put in possession of lands by delivery of turf and twig, yet the queen's council gave Allen permission to begin a new suit, with the proviso, "that if any doubt in law should arise, the jury should declare what titles each party did severally make out to the lands in question, and that the points in law should be referred to the court; or if any doubt should arise concerning the evidence, it should be specially stated in writing, that if either party should appeal to her majesty, she might be more fully informed, in order to a final determina- tion." This looks fair and impartial, but it was a trap that the freeholders who composed the juries of New Hampshire did not fall into. They refused to render a special verdict, even when asked to do so by the court. They knew that they had no legal title to their estates that would hold in an English court of law. They were led to water, but they could not be made to drink. So they kept on refusing and delaying and petitioning and making excuses and sending agents and continuing to culti- vate their farms and to cut as much timber as they wanted to use and sell.
Failing in the law courts Samuel Allen petitioned to the queen to be put in possession of the waste lands of the province. His petition was referred to the attorney-general, who reported that Allen had a valid claim to the waste lands, that all lands uninclosed and unoccupied were waste lands, and that Allen might take possession of such and prosecute any trespassers. Such a decision, if it could be enforced, would take away the common pasturage and the wood-lots of the farmers. New Hampshire's agent, William Vaughan, protested against Allen's claims and especially against the reappointment of John Usher as lieutenant governor, but without avail.
The lords of trade recommended to the Queen, April 23, 1703, that William Partridge be removed from office and that John Usher be appointed in his stead. They said that Part-
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ridge had neglected his instructions and that being a trader he had an opportunity to monopolize trade. The next day the queen ordered that a draught for a commission for Usher be prepared. Vaughan represented that Usher had oppressed the people during his former administration; that he had sent to prison and to remote garrison duty some who opposed him; that he wasted gun powder in requiring salutes of nine, eleven and sometimes fifteen guns, to his own honor, to be fired when he went out of or came into the harbor; that he had turned com- petent men out of office and appointed mean men, who some- times in drunkenness abused and fined the people; that he was egotistical and arbitrary in ordering the militia and trainbands to wait on him and accompany him. To all these objections of Vaughan a sufficient answer was sent by Usher to the board of trade, showing Vaughan's exaggerations and misrepresentations. He had never impressed any assemblymen, nor anybody else, except with the advice of militia officers. The pleas of both Vaughan and Usher, by counsel, were heard by the lords of trade and their decision was that Usher "does not appear to them to have been guilty of Vaughan's charges, but that the dis- turbances which happened in that time did in great measure proceed from the disorderly practice of some of those men who now oppose his being restored by your Majesty to that Govern- ment."18
John Usher obtained a new commission as lieutenant gov- ernor, July 26, 1703, but he was especially restricted from med- dling "with the appointment of judges or juries, or otherwise in matters relating to the disputes between Allen and the inhab- itants." On the appearance of Usher, William Partridge was dismissed at his own request, to attend to business affairs. He removed to Newbury, Massachusetts, and devoted the remainder of his life, as he had done before, to the accumulation of wealth in the mercantile profession. Usher was unable to get posses- sion of the records of the province, held by the recorder in spite of an order from the home government to deliver them to the new secretary, Samuel Penhallow; nor could he get any sal- ary voted to himself nor grant of a house to live in. The utmost they felt able to do was to allow him the use of two rooms in
18 MS. at Concord, No. 1178.
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New Castle till the next meeting of the assembly and thirty- eight shillings for his trip to and from Boston, where he lived most of the time. At the same time governor Dudley directed him to live in New Castle during the time of the war, thinking that a lieutenant governor at least ought to live within the bounds of the province he was supposed to rule.
The council and assembly were willing to recognize Allen's claim to waste land, they meaning by that term land outside of the four original towns and Kingston. In response to a speech of governor Dudley they replied that the "province is at Least Sixty miles Long and twenty miles Wide Containing 1200 Square miles and that the inhabitants have only Claim to the Property of such land as is Contained within their Town Bounds which is less than one-third part of the Province and has been Possess't by them and their Ancestors for more than Sixty years, but have nothing to offer as a grievance if the Other two thirds be Adjudged to Mr. Allen, but shall be glad to See the Same Planted and Settled for the Better Securitye & Defence of the whole .... We humbly hope that her Majesty's Intention is not to take Off the Herbage Timber and Fuell from the inhab- itants without which they Cannot Subsist, and less than the Bounds of their Present Towns, which were but four in Number untill of Late two were Divided, will not give Feed for their Cattle and Timber and Fuell Necessary, it being not usual in these Plantations to Fence much more of their Lands than Serves for Tillage & Leaving the Rest Unfenced for the Feed of their Cattle in Common."19
Allen had entered upon the waste land within the townships and had taken legal possession in the presence of witness by "cutting down trees, and by turf and twig, and by grazing his horses" at the following places, at Wiggin's brook in Exeter, near the great hill in Portsmouth, within half a mile of William Furber's house in what is now Newington, within half a mile of Mr. Seavey's house in New Castle, and near the Little Boar's Head in Hampton. Again he began his suit against Waldron and the jury found for the defendant and refused to bring in a special verdict. Governor Dudley tried to reach the court, but was hindered by reports of a raid by Indians and again by sick-
19 N. H. State Papers, Vol. XXIX, p. 163.
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ness. So nothing was done to compel or persuade the juries to find a special verdict and show on what grounds they based their titles. Allen could do nothing but again appeal to the queen. He was now worn out with age and troubles and was willing to make a compromise with the freeholders. The terms proposed seemed to offer something better than continual litigation that might be pressed by Usher or the heirs of Allen, and an end of strife and uncertainty was much desired. Therefore a conven- tion of delegates chosen by the freeholders of all the towns was called, to meet at Portsmouth May I, 1705, each town to send two delegates. The convention came to the following resolu- tions :
That they had not on behalf of themselves nor any the Inhabitants of this Province, whom they represented, any Challenge or Claim to Any part of this Province extra the Bounds of the four Towns of Portsmouth, Hampton, Dover and Exeter with the Hamlets of Newcastle and Kingstown &c appertaining, which were all comprehended by a Line, on the western part of Dover and Kingstown already known and laid out, and should be forthwith revised, but that the said Samuel Allen Esqr his Heirs and Assigns might peaceably hold and enjoy the said great waste Containing 40 Miles in length and 20 Miles in Breadth or there abouts at the Heads of the four Towns aforesaid, if so should please her Majesty: and that the Inhabitants of this Province at all times be so far from giving Interruption to the Settlement thereof, that they declare on their behalf and by the power given them that they desire by all means, that the Waste might be planted and filled with Inhabitants, the Lands being very capable thereof, to whom they would all give their assistance and encouragement as far as they were able.
That in case Samuel Allen should for himself his Heirs Executors &c for ever quit clame unto the present Inhabitants, their Heirs and Assigns for ever of all that Tract of Land and every part and parcell thereof with all privilages &c Situate lying and being within the several Towns of this Province to the extents of the Bounds thereof, and also warrant and defend the same to the Inhabitants against all manner of persons whatsoever free from Mortgage Intailment and all Other Manner of Incumbrances; and that this agreement and the Lands therein Contained should be Accepted and confirmed by her Majesty, then and in such case they agree to lot and lay Out Unto Samuel Allen his Heirs and Assigns for ever five Hundred Acres of Land Out of the Townships of Portsmouth; And Newcastle; 1500 Acres Out of the Township of Dover, 1500 Acres out of the Township of Hampton and Kings Town, And 1500 Acres out of the Township of Exeter; All which Lands should be laid out to him, the said Samuel Allen Out of the Commonages of the respective Towns in such place or places not exceeding three places in a Town as should be most convenient to Mr. Allen and least detrimental to the Inhabitants of the Town-
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And further they agree to pay Samuel Allen his Heirs or Assigns two thousand Pounds Current Money of New England, that is to say, one thousand Pounds within Twelve months after the receipt of her Majesty's Confirmation of this their Agreement and the Other thousand pounds within Twelve Months after the first payment.
And further that all Contracts and bargains formerly made between Mr. Mason and Mr. Allen with any the Inhabitants or Other her Majestys Sub- jects which were bonafide for Lands or other Privileges in the Possession of their Tenants in their own just Right, besides the Claim of Mr. Mason or Mr. Allen and no Other shall be accounted good & valid by these articles ; But if any the Purchasers, Lessees or Tenants should refuse to pay their just part of what Should be agreed to be paid, referring to this Affair in equal proportion with the rest of the Inhabitants According to the Land they hold for their Share should be abated by Mr. Allen Out of the Two Thousand Pounds payable to him by this Agreement.
And further that Upon Mr. Allens Acceptance and Underwriting of these Articles they promised to give good Personal Security for the pay- ments aforesaid.
And further that all Actions and suits in the Law depending or there- after to be brought Conserning the premises Should cease determine and be void, Untill her Majestys pleasure Should be further known therein."
Mr. Allen died the next day and so the whole plan fell to the ground. It was a generous offer made to Mr. Allen. It was an acknowledgment of the justice of his claim, while it safeguarded the freeholders in their improved estates.
Mr. Allen died May 5, 1705, in his seventieth year, and was buried in the fort at New Castle.
After the death of Governor Allen, his son, Thomas Allen, renewed the suit against Waldron, having sold to Sir Charles Hobby, for seven hundred and fifty pounds, one-fourth of all the possessions in New England that Captain John Mason claimed. As this was a test case, all the evidences and docu- ments for and against the claim of Mason and his heirs and assigns were brought together and arrayed by able lawyers. The counsel for Allen were James Meinzies and John Valentine ; for Waldron, John Pickering and Charles Story. In this suit were first produced the famous Wheelwright deed and other papers in supporting it, now acknowledged to have been forg- eries, and also it became publicly known that the province records had been mutilated by the removal of twenty-eight leaves. The arguments of the defendant were specious and technical, well suited to the prejudices of jurors from the towns especially concerned. Each juryman must have felt that it
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was his own case under an assumed name, and that his decision must be such as to defend his own property. The jury found for Waldron and refused to render a special verdict. Appeal was made to the queen, who delayed judgment till the death of Thomas Allen, in 1715, put an end to the suit, with nothing finally determined.
During the period covered by this chapter the town of New Castle was incorporated. Its charter is dated May 30, 1693. It included within its limits Great Island, Little Harbor and Sandy Beach (now Rye), all taken from the town of Portsmouth after considerable opposition from the other portions of that town. The line ran from "a point of land on the south side of Sagamores Creek called Sampsons point, and from thence south- west by the outside of the fenced land of Sagamores Creek to the head of Aaron Moses field, to an old hemlock tree by the side of the Road way, and from thence upon the aforesaid Southwest point to the Road way, between Sandy Beach and Greenland, leaving Greenland about three miles to the West- wards, soe forwards upon the same point to Hampton bounds, and then east to the sea." A quit rent of one peppercorn, pay- able to the crown on the twenty-fifth day of October yearly for- ever, is specified in the charter. Two constables and three overseers of the poor were to be chosen annually. Every Wed- nesday was to be a Fair, or market day, when there should be free use of the ferry. Two years later the inhabitants of New Castle petitioned for the annexation of a large part of the com- mons of Hampton, which bordered on their southern limit, but this was opposed by the people of Hampton.
On the sixth of August, 1694, the town of Kingston was incorporated, taken from the western part of Hampton, on pe- tition of James Prescott Senior, Ebenezer Webster and others. It comprised the present towns of East Kingston, Danville (formerly Hawke), and a part of Sandown. The first settlers came from Hampton, Ipswich, Newbury and Salisbury; among them were Moses Elkins, Jonathan Sanborn, Ichabod Robie, Thomas Philbrick, Jabez Coleman, and Ebenezer Webster, an- cestor of Daniel Webster. The Rev. Benjamin Choate was the first settled minister.
Chapter X QUEEN ANNE'S WAR
Chapter X QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.
Samuel Penhallow-French Mission at Norridgewock-Conference of Dud- ley with Sachems at Casco-Indians Suspicious and Untrustworthy- Indian Tom Attacks Village in Hampton-Scouting Parties and Senti- nels-Nathaniel Meader Killed at Oyster River-Captivity of Tamsen Ham-Burning of Norridgewock-Families of John Drew and John Wheeler Killed at Oyster River Point-Attack on Dunstable-Samuel Blake Killed at Hampton-The Rickers Slain at Cochecho-Four Mowers Killed at Exeter-Nicholas Pearl of Dover Slain in His Cave-Bounty Offered for Killing and Capturing Indians-The Philosophic Squaw- New Hampshire Men at Port Royal-Girls Captured at Bunker's Gar- rison-Capt. Samuel Chesley and Others Slain at Oyster River-Inhabi- tants of Kingston Flee-Victims at Exeter and Death of Col. Winthrop Hilton-Children of Richard Dolloff Taken to Canada-More Killed at Cochecho-Treaty of Utrecht followed by Treaty with the Indians at Portsmouth.
TT is the aim of this chapter to give as full an account as can be gathered of the depredations of the French and Indians in New Hampshire during the ten years of guerrilla warfare that began in 1703. Fortunately a valuable history of this period was written, as he says, with tearful eyes, by the Hon. Samuel Penhallow of Portsmouth, who was a man of literary culture as well as prominent in the government of the province. Educated in England he came to New England in 1686, with the purpose of entering the christian ministry, and propositions were made him to become a missionary among the Indians. He attributes the punishments received by the settlers of Maine and New Hampshire to the fact that they had not cared as they should have done for the spiritual welfare of the natives. Marrying a daughter of President Cutt, he attained to wealth and position easily. For some years he was a member of the governor's council, and he also served as recorder and treasurer of the province, as captain in the militia and as justice and chief justice of the superior court. He died at Portsmouth, December 2, 1726, aged sixty-one years and five months. The events of this chapter are substantially as narrated by him, the account being
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supplemented by statements from the Rev. John Pike's Journal and by extracts from public records.
As in previous Indian raids the cause of these ten years of suffering was mainly across the Atlantic, in the war between England and France. All the territory east of the Kennebec river was claimed by France. This took in the old English settlement at Pemaquid and other smaller places along the coast and rivers of Maine. The French established a mission among the Indians at Norridgewock, on the upper Kennebec, a mission that had political and military as well as religious ends in view. It was a rallying place for hostile forces and thither were led many captives.
Governor Dudley had orders to rebuild the fort at Pemaquid and so hold the eastern country, but he was unable to raise the money necessary for such purpose. On account of insults and threats offered by the Indians, instigated by French agents, the governor took with him a number of gentlemen from both Massachusetts and New Hampshire and met the sachems of several tribes at Casco, on the twentieth of June, 1702. The tribes represented were those of Norridgewock, Penobscot, Pequaket, Penacook and Ameriscoggin. The Indians numbered two hundred and fifty, in sixty-five canoes, well armed and painted in suspicious colors. Their orator, Captain Simmo, assured the governor that the Indians "aimed at nothing more than peace; and that as high as the sun was above the earth, so far distant should their designs be of making the least breach between each other." A belt of wampum was given, and both parties added more stones to the piles, called the Two Brothers, which had been heaped up at a former treaty. Subsequently it was discovered that the Indians at that time intended to seize the governor and his attendants, and they failed to accomplish their design only because of the delay of two hunderd French and Indians to arrive at the expected time. In the salute fired the Indians were careful to have the whitemen discharge their guns first, remembering perhaps the fact that the Indians did this in the sham fight at Dover, some years before, with results disastrous to themselves. While the whitemen fired guns loaded only with powder, the Indians were cautious enough to ram home leaden bullets. The affair passed quietly, but within six weeks all the eastern country was ablaze with burning
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