USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
221
A HISTORY
houses and garrisons. A body of five hundred French and Indians divided into several parties and fell upon Casco and Wells, August tenth. Every house between those places was attacked, and the usual slaughter followed. Many were killed, and one hundred and thirty persons were captured.
On the seventeenth of August, 1703, Captain Tom with thirty Indians attacked a small village in the southern part of Hampton, near the Salisbury line. Two houses were plundered, and five persons were killed. Widow Mussey, a noted speaker among the Quakers, was dragged into the bushes of a swamp where the Indians were concealed, and there her brains were beaten out with a tomahawk. Thomas Lancaster was killed on his way home from mill. They beat the head of Jonathan Green with the butts of their guns and mangled him in a horrible man- ner. Nicholas Bond was killed and scalped in his own house, and a little boy of William Hinckley was seized as he was climb- ing a fence and his brains were dashed out against a plow.
The province was thoroughly alarmed. Every fourth man who was fit for service volunteered. Scouting parties, under Major Winthrop Hilton and Captain John Gilman of Exeter and Captain Samuel Chesley and Captain James Davis of Oyster River scoured the woods in vain to find the sculking enemy. Sentinels were posted to guard men working in the fields. The garrisons were filled with women and children. There was con- tinual fear of a massacre in some unexpected place. A public fast was ordered to pray "for the preservation of this Province and the good success of the forces now gone against the Indian Rebels."
On the twenty-fifth of April 1704, Nathaniel Meader, who lived at the mouth of Oyster River, on the north side, was shot "not far from the place where Nicholas Follet formerly lived." This was on the south side of the river. Meader's dead body was mangled in a barbarous manner. The next day Edward Taylor of Exeter was slain near Lamprey river, and his wife and son were carried to Canada. She was afterward redeemed. Thence the Indians went to Cochecho, hoping to get Colonel Richard Waldron, son of the Major Waldern who was slain in 1689. His servant maid, Tamsen Meserve, was surprised by four In- dians, at a spring in the colonel's pasture and, having examined her as to her master, the state of the garrison and other affairs,
222
NEW HAMPSHIRE
knocked her on the head and left her for dead. She recovered, however, and married Joseph Ham the same year. There is some doubt about this particular narrative. The Rev. John Pike affirms it, but Mr. Belknap says the girl invented the story to palliate her too long absence. It may be that tradition has confused Tamsen Meserve with her daughter Tamsen Ham, who certainly was captured by Indians and remained in captivity several years, returning to marry Thomas Drew and after his death Thomas Spinney of Kittery. She died in 1799, aged 90. Both Penhallow and Belknap say that William Tasker was wounded about this time, but he had died in 1697. It was Samuel Tasker, his son, who was slain by Indians June 1, 1704, as narrated by the Rev. John Pike. Mark Giles senior of Co- checho and his son John were slain by eight or nine Indians, as they were passing a corner of their field. This was on the eleventh of August. On the nineteenth of the same month Joseph Pitman of Oyster River was slain as he was guarding some mowers, not far from the old meeting house, at the oyster beds.
During the year 1705 New Hampshire was quite free from depredations, the Indians giving special attention to Kittery. Twenty friendly Indians from Massachusetts were sent to scout on the borders, and these with two hundred and fifty men, under command of Colonel Winthrop Hilton of Exeter went to Nor- ridgewock on snow shoes, but found no Indians there. Their deserted wigwams and chapel were burned, nothwithstanding the Indians had spared the church at Oyster River, in the mas- sacre of 1694. Pike records that Nathaniel Tebbetts of Oyster River was carried away by the Indians about sun-set of Nov- ember 4, 1705, it being a sabbath. Ten men were employed as scouts continually on the frontier, and a nightly patrol was established along the shore from Hampton to Rendezvous Point, now Odiorne's Point, to prevent a surprisal by sea. The winter passed without further molestation, the Indians not being able to use snow shoes as the soldiers and scouts of the province did.
The spring showed that hostile plans had not been aban- doned, and Oyster River again suffered. On the twenty-seventh of April, 1706, the Indians stole into the southern part of the Point district, which fronts easterly on Little Bay, and attacked the house of John Drew, killing eight and wounding two. No
223
A HISTORY
man was in the garrison near by, and the women defended it, firing so briskly that the enemy were deceived and went away. The women put on hats and loosened their hair so as to appear as men. John Wheeler met the Indians and supposing them to be friendly fell into their hands and was slain with his wife and two children. Four other children are said to have been saved by taking refuge in a cave by the bank of Little Bay.
A party of two hundred and seventy Indians, concerning whom warning had been given by Colonel Schuyler, attacked Dunstable in July, 1706. The Weld garrison, so called, about half a mile from the present state line, was occupied by twenty troopers. They were surprised and half of their number were slain. Six inhabitants of the town also were killed, viz., Na- thaniel Blanchard and his wife, Lydia, their daughter, Susan Blanchard, Mrs. Hannah Blanchard, the wife of John Cumings and Rachel Galusha. The town records say that they died the third day of July. A bounty of forty pounds had been offered for Indian scalps, and Captain John Tyng of Dunstable went in winter to the Indian headquarters and got five, receiving therefor two hundred pounds. From Dunstable the Indians went to Amesbury and killed eight persons, and thence to Kingston, where they killed some cattle, and slew Joseph Eng- lish, a friendly Indian, and Captain Butterfield, taking Mrs. Butterfield prisoner. Samuel Blake of Hampton was shot on the fourth sabbath of June. On the fourth day of June Marturin Ricker of Cochecho was killed in his field and a little son was taken. At the same time George Ricker was killed while run- ning up the lane near the garrison. On the twenty-third of July about twenty Indians attacked ten men in Exeter, while they were mowing. Four were killed, viz., Richard Mattoon and his son, Hubertus, Robert Barber and Samuel Pease. John Taylor was sorely wounded but recovered. Edward Hall, Sam- uel Mighill and a mulatto were captured, but two of them escaped, wandering three weeks in the woods and subsisting on roots and rinds of trees. On the first of August Sergeant Ben- jamin Fifield of Hampton was barbarously killed in his pasture by an ambush of seven or eight Indians, as he was riding horse- back. A lad, his kinsman, was carried away. The next day Nicholas Pearl of Dover was slain in a cave, where he had dwelt three years and would not be persuaded to seek a place
224
NEW HAMPSHIRE
of safety. Probate records show that he came from Ipswich and left a son, John Pearl, born there July 17, 1692. Thus the sculking foe struck here and there, usually in the night, or toward morning, killed the surprised and defenceless and hid out of sight. Therefore few Indians comparatively were killed. It was estimated that every Indian killed cost the country a thousand pounds.
In 1707 we read that Colonel Winthrop Hilton had learned to imitate the military tactics of the enemy. He intended to lead an expedition of over two hundred men to Norridgewock, but got only as far as Black Point, in Scarborough. It was in January, and the snows were deep. Here he struck an Indian trail and following it up killed four and took an old squaw, who conducted them to a party of eighteen, asleep on a neck of land. The Indians were surprised at break of day, and seventeen of the number were slain, and one was captured. This is Pen- hallow's account. Pike says that this event occurred on the seventh of Febrary, that two men and a squaw were killed, while a young squaw and two children were taken. Penhallow records that on the very morning that Hilton slew the seventeen Indians "it was publicly talked of at Portsmouth in every article, and with little or no variation, although ninety miles away." Some would explain this as a plain case of telepathy.
It was during this year that a wounded squaw was brought in to Portsmouth and received medical aid. The bill for med- icines, provisions and nursing was seventy-one pounds, fifteen shillings and four pence, and the bill was allowed by the Gen- eral Assembly, poor as the province then was. There is another record, not so honorable to New Hampshire, dated the twelfth of May, 1711, when the Assembly voted, "That for Indian man slayn in the Province sixty pounds, for every woman thirty pounds, and for every minor or Papoose fifteen pounds be payd out of the treasury." This must mean that the bounty was offered for the capture of squaws and papooses, and not for their killing. New Hampshire never offered a reward for the murder of women and children. Penhallow tells us that Samuel But- terfield killed a noted sagamore and that he was brought to the Indian's widow to receive his sentence, thinking that the pen- alty would be something terrible. The philosophic squaw said, "If by killing him you can bring my husband to life again, I
225
A HISTORY
beg you to study what death you please; but if not, let him be my servant." Let the squaw teach us how to treat criminals.1
In 1707 some aspersions were cast upon the character of governor Joseph Dudley, because he had not allowed Major Church to attempt the capture of Port Royal, in Nova Scotia, it being alleged that Dudley was interested in a clandestine trade with the French there. A petition asking for his removal was addressed to the queen, and upon its being read before the general assembly of New Hampshire, both houses unanimously requested the queen to continue Gov. Dudley in his office, ex- pressing their entire satisfaction in the way he had administered the affairs of the province and defended it against the enemy. Six ministers of the province also addressed to the queen a pro- test against the governor's removal from office, calling him "an example of religion, virtue and moderation to all good men." This may have stirred up the governor to attempt the capture of Port Royal without aid from England, and an expedition was sent against it, commanded by Colonel March. Colonel Win- throp Hilton of Exeter commanded one regiment, and Captain Samuel Chesley of Oyster River led a company of men from Hampton. The expedition accomplished nothing more than the killing of some cattle. There was a lack of harmony among the officers, and the invaders departed in a disorderly manner. Chesley affirmed, when called to an account by the Council at Portsmouth that "general orders were given at Port Royal for every person to make the best of his way home."2 Accordingly his men scattered on their arrival at Portsmouth, to be reas- sembled at beat of drum. Governor Dudley ordered the troops back to Port Royal, a pardon being offered to those who vol- untarily returned. On the second landing near Port Royal some shirmish occurred between the troops and Indians in ambush, but the little army grew sick and discouraged, and after a month of inactivity came home again, having lost sixteen killed and as many wounded.
Meanwhile the frontiers of New Hampshire were harassed as before. On the twenty-second of May, 1707, two young girls were captured near Bunker's garrison at Oyster River and
1 See Penhallow in N. H. Hist. Coll., Vol. I, p. 53, top.
2 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. II, p. 505.
226
NEW HAMPSHIRE
carried to Canada, where they were baptized. The record there shows that one of the girls was Marie Anne, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Bunker) Drew; the other was Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel and Deliverance (Clark) Lomax. On the eighth of July John Bunker and Ichabod Rawlins of Oyster River were slain by a party of twenty or thirty Indians, as they were driving a cart from Zachariah Field's garrison to Bunker's for a loom, and fifteen or more cattle belonging to Stephen Jones were slaughtered. Again the foe crept into the settlement at Oyster River and on the seventeenth of September Captain Samuel Chesley, only just returned from Port Royal, his brother James Chesley and six other stout young men were slain by a party of French Mohawks while they were cutting and hauling timber, not far from Captain Chesley's house. At the first fire of the hidden Indians seven were killed. Philip Chesley and three more escaped. The Indian that killed James Chesley was at once shot by Robert Thompson, who afterward received five pounds for his scalp, by order of the governor. Stephen Gilman and his brother, Jacob, were ambushed and shot at, as they were riding from Exeter to Kingston. The former had his horse shot under him and narrowly escaped being scalped. On the seven- teenth of September Henry Elkins was killed at Kingston. That place was much alarmed, and eight of its inhabitants who fled for safety were ordered back to help defend the town.
The Indians again appeared at Oyster River on the eigh- teenth of September, 1708, when three of them assaulted David Kincaid at his house, not far from Woodman's garrison, firing three shots at him and his lad. The last depredation committed at this place during this war was on the thirtieth of June, 1709, when Bartholomew Stevenson, Jr., was slain by an ambuscade near Woodman's garrison.
On the eighth of May, 1709, William Moody, Samuel Stevens and two sons of Jeremiah Gilman were captured at Pickpocket mill in Exeter. Moody escaped and was retaken, and having been bound to a stake was roasted alive. Ephraim Folsom was slain June eleventh, between Exeter and Hilton's garrison. The following year, on the twenty-second of July Colonel Winthrop Hilton of Exeter was surprised while peeling bark fourteen miles from his home. Hilton was killed and two more, and two were taken. The rest made no opposition, their
-
227
A HISTORY
guns being wet, but fled in terror. Hilton was scalped, his brains was split by hatchets, and a lance was found that pierced his heart. One hundred men were quickly mustered and marched in pursuit of the Indians, but as usual they found none. Colonel Hilton was thirty-nine years of age, a skillful military officer, much esteemed for his noble character. His friends greatly lamented his death, while the Indian foe rejoiced that so mighty a white sachem had fallen. The same day that he fell the Indians appeared in the open road at Exeter and took four children at their play. These may have been children of Richard Dolloff, to whom the council and assembly granted ten pounds towards the ransom of three children in Canada. He paid nearly twenty-three pounds for the ransom of one of his children, besides expenses of journey to Canada. In a petition he expressed his intention to go again for the other two children. He married in 1700, Catherine, daughter of John Bean of Exeter.3 They also took John Wedgwood and killed John Magoon, who for three days before was in melancholy apprehension arising from a dream of being murdered. That same day also a band of Indians that had pretended friendship for the inhabitants of Kingston ambushed a road in that town and killed Samuel Wins- low and Samuel Huntoon, carrying into captivity Philip Hun- toon and Jacob Gilman, who afterward purchased their liberty by building a saw-mill for the governor of Canada. The same year an expedition was sent against Port Royal, in which one hundred New Hampshire men were commanded by Colonel Shadrach Walton, who long had command of the fort at New Castle. The expedition was successful, and the name of the place was changed to Annapolis, in honor of Queen Anne.
Jacob Garland of Cochecho was slain toward the end of the season as he was returning from public worship. In the spring of 17II Thomas Downs, John Church, son of the John Church who was killed in 1696, and three more were slain at Cochecho, by an ambuscade that waylaid them returning from meeting. John Horn was wounded, and Humphrey Foss was taken, but rescued by the bravery of Lieutenant Heard. In the same year an expedition against Quebec met with disastrous failure. The fleet sailed from Boston on the 30th of July. It consisted of
3 N. H. Prov. Papers, p. 585.
228
NEW HAMPSHIRE
fifteen ships of war and forty transports, and carried over five thousand troops, most of them from England. Colonel Shadrack Walton of Portsmouth commanded one regiment, and New Hampshire's quota was one hundred men, spared with difficulty from the forces needed to defend the frontier. All went well till the fleet arrived some leagues within the Saint Lawrence river. On the night of the twenty-third of August, the weather being thick and dark, nine transports were wrecked on the north shore, and about six hundred men perished, only one of them being from New England. The expedition was abandoned and the land forces that had been sent against Montreal were re- called. The fleet returned to England, and the New England troops came home, unjustly blamed for their failure. The fog and east wind were their worst foe. If little events may be compared with great, this disaster may be likened to the over- throw of Pharaoh's host by a strong east wind, or to the wreck of the Spanish Armada.
In the year 1712 the Indians renewed their raids on the western frontier of New Hampshire, killing Mr. Cunningham on the road from Mr. Hilton's to Exeter on the sixteenth of April, shooting Jeremiah Crommett at Oyster River, near to Lamprey River, on which stream a mill was burned with many boards. Next day Ensign Tuttle was slain at Tole-end, in Dover, and a son of Lieutenant Heard was wounded as he stood sentinel. Soon after, at Kingston, Stephen Gilman was wounded, captured and barbarously murdered, and Ebenezer Stevens was wounded. Two children belonging to John Waldron were taken on a sab- bath in July, at Cochecho, from Heard's garrison, "and not hav- ing time to scalp them, they cut off both their heads and car- ried them away. There was not a man at that time at home; however, one Esther Jones supplied the place of several, for she courageously advanced the watch box, crying aloud, 'here they are, come on, come on'; which so terrified them as to make them draw off, without doing any further mischief." Captain James Davis of Oyster River kept his scouts moving on the frontier, from Salmon Falls to Kingston and so further harm was pre- vented. The province of Maine suffered somewhat after this, but in the autumn arrived the news of the treaty of Utrecht, and on the twenty-ninth of August the suspension of arms was proclaimed at Portsmouth. This was followed the next year
229
A HISTORY
by a formal treaty with the eastern Indians, through their sachems convened at Portsmouth, July eleventh. The Indians acknowledged that they had wickedly broken former treaties and solemnly promised to do so no more, and that no Indians should come nigh any settlements west of the Saco river. All difficulties were to be settled in courts of justice, held by the English of course, where justice poised her balances in the hand of the whiteman. Thus ended another war in New England which never would have been fought except for the rivalries of Eng- land and France.
Chapter XI ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR SHUTE AND HIS LIEUTENANTS, VAUGHAN AND WENTWORTH
Chapter XI
ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR SHUTE AND HIS LIEUTENANTS, VAUGHAN AND WENTWORTH.
Death of Usher-Governor Burges-Death of Dudley-Appointment of Governor Shute-Lieutenant Governor George Vaughan-Concentration of Power at Portsmouth-New Councilors-Bills of Credit-Arrogance of George Vaughan Rebuked-Appointment of John Wentworth as Lieutenant Governor-Character of Wentworth-Pine Trees-Hemp and Flax-Public Punishments of Criminals-The Boundary Line Unsettled -Settlement of Londonderry-Incorporation of Chester, Nottingham, Barrington and Rochester-Grant to the Children of Samuel Allen- Dignity of the Legislators-Oppositions between the Two Houses- Valuation of the Province-Triennial Act.
T HE accession of George I. to the throne in the year 1715 occasioned a change of officers in the provinces. Governor Joseph Dudley had been very popular, and the assembly of New Hampshire petitioned that he be continued in office. His pop- ularity was due in large part to the fact that he favored the claims of the freeholders against those of Allen. On the other hand Lieutenant Governor Usher, although he had done more for the province than Governor Dudley and had expended a con- siderable sum from his own property in the time of the wars for the defence of the province, was unpopular because of his austere and perhaps too dignified manner and because he was interested in sustaining the claims of Allen. Usher seems to have done his whole duty to the king and to the province. He visited it often and remained as long as he could be of any service. In spite of the unwillingness of council and assembly to vote him any proper compensation for his services he con- tinued to uphold the honor of his office and to render service for parsimonious neglect. A few pounds was all that was ever voted to him, to pay the bare expenses of his lodging in New Castle and his traveling expenses to and from Boston. Once he complained to the council that "his negro servants were much better accommodated in his house than the queen's governor was in the queen's fort." On his dismission from office he re-
233
234
NEW HAMPSHIRE
tired to his home at Medford, Massachusetts, where he died September 5, 1726, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
Governor Dudley was succeeded by Colonel Eliseus Burges as governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and George Vaughan, son of William Vaughan, the well known councilor, was appointed lieutenant governor. George Vaughan had acted as agent of the province in London, and for his services the province paid him four hundred pounds in the year 1709.1 He was in London at the time of his appointment. His aged father and the people of Portsmouth were well pleased at his appoint- ment to this high office, and they expected more from a resident lieutenant governor of their own number than from an absentee stranger. Indeed it was feared that Burges would not be accept- able, and so Sir William Ashurst, Jeremy Dummer, agent for Massachusetts, and Jonathan Belcher offered to him one thous- and pounds sterling on condition of resigning his commission, and he was wise enough to accept the money advanced by Dummer and Belcher. How they were reimbursed does not appear. In the place of Burges Colonel Samuel Shute was made governor of both provinces, and his commission was published October 17, 1716. Governor Dudley retired to Roxbury, where he died in 1720, in the seventy-third year of his age.
Colonel Shute was a native of London and had served in the army in Flanders, being wounded in one engagement. He con- tinued in the office of governor a little more than six years, and spent much of this time in London. In his absence during the first year George Vaughan acted as governor of New Hampshire, and his administration is said to have given general satisfaction. Formerly other towns than Portsmouth had been represented in the council, but now six councilors, all from that town, were appointed. This caused a remonstrance on the part of the assembly, addressed to the governor with the request that it be forwarded to the king. It recounts that formerly the councilors resided proportionally in the several towns of the province and that this practice had continued more or less till the present time; that now some of the experienced, just and good men had been laid aside and that all the present councilors resided within two miles of each other, which had occasioned great
1 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. III, p. 375.
235
A HISTORY
differences and animosities; that the new council consisted prin- cipally of merchants and traders, who obstructed a revenue to the crown by imposts, so that unequal burdens rested upon farmers and laborers, many of whom had hazarded their lives and been reduced to desolation and poverty by the late Indian wars; that the traders now in no wise assisted the lightening of the land tax; that the courts are now all held in Portsmouth, whereas they were formely held in all the four towns; and that the judges are mostly of Portsmouth. They pray that the courts and judges may be as formerly, and that each town may be fairly represented in courts and in council. The reasonableness of this request is apparent, if anything like a representative gov- ernment was to be maintained; and it is noticeable that about this time we find the assembly alluded to in the records as the House of Representatives, and the council and assembly are mentioned often as the upper and the lower houses, in imitation probably of the language of parliament.2
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.