USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 2
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land now granted to Hilton, yea, and very soon after confirmed Mason in possession of this same land. On the seventh day of July, 1631, Thomas Lewis gave possession of this tract to Edward Hilton by "Livery and Seizin." The records of Massa- chusetts speak repeatedly of this tract of land as covered by two patents, whereas there was only one. The part at Hilton's Point has been estimated to contain three thousand five hundred acres. Mr. John S. Jonness argues that the intent of the original grant to Hilton was, that his land extended from Hilton's Point up to Quamphegan falls in the Newichawannock and that in- terested parties purposely misinterpreted the location of the grant. But the patent distinctly reads "the south side of the said river up to the fall," and it is impossible to make the west side of the Newichawannock mean the south side of the Pas- cataqua, which was the Indian name of the flood that pours out of Great and Little bays. Moreover, Hilton had lived long enough to learn where the good land was, and that stretching along the west side of the Newichawannock is very inferior in fertility and ease of access to that on the south side of the Pas- cataqua.11
In the year 1629 Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason agreed to divide the grant made to them of the afore- said province of Maine, and on the seventh of November of that year the President and Council of New England, seated at Plymouth, England, granted to Mason a province, to be called New Hampshire, "all yt part of ye Mane land in New England lying upon ye sea Coaste beginning from ye middle part of Merrimack River & from thence to proceed Northwards along ye Sea coaste to Pascattaway river & soe forwards up within ye sd river to ye furthest head thereof & from thence North- westwards until Threescore miles be finished from ye first en- trance of passcataway river & also from Merrimack through ye sd river & to ye furthest head thereof & soe forward up into ye land Westwards untill Threescore miles be finished and from thence to cross over land to ye Threescore miles end accounted from Passcataway river, together with all Islands & Isletts
11 N. H. State Papers, Vol. I. pp. 29. 209, 211, 217; N. E. Reg., Vol. XXIV, p. 264.
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wthin five leagues distance of ye premises & abutting upon ye same or any parte or parcel thereof," reserving two-fifth of the ore of gold and silver, which tract "ye sd Capt. John Mason intends to name New Hampshire." Capt. Walter Neale was declared lawful attorney to deliver possession and seizin.12
Only ten days later than the grant just mentioned, that is, November 17, 1629, a grant was made to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason of "all those lands & Countrys lying adjacent or bordering upon ye great lake or lakes or rivers commonly called or known by ye name of ye river & lake or rivers & lakes of ye Irroquis a Nation or nations of Salvage people inhabiting up into ye landwards betwixt ye lines of west & Northwest conceived to passe or lead upwards from ye rivers of Sagadahock & Merrimack in ye Country of New England aforesaid Together with ye lakes & rivers of ye Irroquis & other Nations adjoining, ye midle part of wch lakes is scittuate & lying nearabout ye latitude of forty four or forty five degrees reckon'd from ye Equinoctial line Northwards as alsoe all ye lands, Soyle & grounds wthin tenn miles of any partof said lakes or rivers on ye south or west part thereof & from yewest end or sides of ye sd lakes & rivers soe farre forth to ye west as shall extend half way into ye next great lake to ye Westwards & from thence Northwards unto ye north side of ye maine river wch runeth from ye great & most westerne lakes & falleth into ye river of Canada."13 The intention expressed in the grant was to name this province Laconia. Gorges and Mason covenanted to govern their plantations according to the laws of England and within three years to build a fort with a competent guard and to settle at least ten families. They were given permission to take possession of one thousand acres of land on any ports, harbors, or creeks in New England, not already occupied, whence it would be most commodious to transport merchandize to the great lakes. Edward Godfrey was named to deliver possession and seizin. It is evident that the grantors did not know the direction of the rivers named, nor the distance of lake Champlain from the seacoast, nor the difficulty of reaching the region granted. They conceived that Laconia lay back of and adjoining
12 N. H. State Papers, Vol. I, pp. 21-26.
13 N. H. State Papers, Vol. XXIX, pp. 33-38.
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to the previous grant that reached sixty miles inland from the ocean. The tract called Laconia had nothing to do with New Hampshire, and nothing was ever done by Gorges and Mason to develop the tract, save that the agent of Mason, Capt. Walter Neale, tried to explore a way thereto and failed to reach the goal of his journey.
It may have been for the development of Laconia that an indenture was drawn up and sealed November 3, 1631, between the President and Council of New England and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Capt. John Mason and their associates, John Cotton, Henry Gardner, George Griffith, Edwin Guy, Thomas Wanner- ton, Thomas Eyre and Eliezer Wyer, wherein the Council unto the aforesaid persons did "grant, bargaine, sell, assigne, aliene, sett over, enfoffe and confirme" to them, in consideration of the fact that already they had done much for the advancement of the plantation, in the making of clapboards, pipe staves, salt pans and salt, in transporting vines, in searching for iron ore, and in the expenditure of upwards of three thousand pounds, "All that house and chiefe habitacon situate and being at Pascataway in New England aforesaid, wherein Capt. Walter Neale and ye Colony with him doth or lately did reside, together with the Gardens and Corngrounds occupied and planted by the sd Colonie, and the Salt workes allready begun aforesd, And also all that porcon of land lying within the precincts hereafter menc'oned beginning upon the Seacoast 5 miles to ye Wtward of or from the sd chiefe Habitacon now possessed by ye sd Capt. Walter Neale for the use of the adventurers to Laconia (being in the latitude of 43 degrs or thereabouts in the Harbour of pascataquack al's Pascataquack al's Pascataway), and so forth from ye sd beginning Eastwd & North Eastwd and so preceed- ing Northwds or North Westwds into ye harbour and River along the Coasts & Shoares thereof including all the Islands and Isletts lying wthin or neere unto the same upwards into the headland opposite unto the plantacon or Habitacon now or late in the Tenure or Occupation of Edwd Hilton & from thence Wtwds & South Wtwds in ye midle of ye River and through ye midle of ye Bay or lake of Boquacack al's Boscaquack or by what other name or names it hath towards the bottome or West- ermost part of ye River called Pascassockes to the falls thereof,
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and from thence by an Imaginary Line to pass over, and to the sea, where the pambulacon began, And also the Isles of Shoales, and ye fishings thereabouts, and all the seas within 15 miles of the aforesd Sea Coasts, And also all the Sea Coasts and Land lying on ye East and Northeast side of the Harboure and River of Pascataway aforesd and opposite to the bounds above menc'oned, beginning 15 miles to ye S: eastwards of ye mouth or first entrance and beginning of the said Har- boure, and so crossing into the Landward, at right angle by the space of 3 miles the whole length thereof from ye sd mouth or first entrance from the Sea and Eastwds into ye Sea, wch sd 3 Miles shall be allowed for the breadth of ye sd land last menc'- oned both upon ye land and sea." This description takes in the present towns of Rye, Portsmouth, Newington, Greenland and Stratham in New Hampshire, and in Maine the towns of Kittery, Eliot, South Berwick, Berwick, North Berwick and a portion of Lebanon. Capt. Thomas Cammock or Henry Jocelyn was authorized to deliver possession and seizin. Here, too, we see that a portion of the land thus granted was included in the grant made to Edward Hilton a little while before in what is known as the Squamscot Patent. The Council of New England, at Plymouth, England, had a way of granting lands again and again, seemingly without any reference to maps or records of previous proceedings.
The above is called a grant and confirmation of Piscataway. The company to whom it was granted has been called the Laconia Company, because of the word Laconia in the inden- ture, and it may be that from this region as a base of supplies the intention was to develope the region about lake Champlain. The company did not remain long in existence, and in the divi- sion of its property on the east side of the Pascataqua river, December 6, 1633, Newichawannock fell to Capt. John Mason, to whom Sir Ferdinando Gorges gave a deed, September 17, 1635, of a strip of land three miles broad and about fifteen miles long, reaching from a quarter of a mile below the mouth of Great Works river to within the present town of Lebanon, Maine. Doubtless Mason acquired possession of this tract be- cause of his having already planted a settlement and built mills there. Indeed more is recorded about this settlement than about
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the other made by him at Strawberry Bank, now Portsmouth. While Capt. Walter Neale was his agent at Strawberry Bank, Ambrose Gibbons conducted operations at Newichawannock, on the upper falls of the Asbenbedick, or Great Works river, in what is now South Berwick, Maine. Thither came, with Am- brose Gibbons, Thomas Spencer and William Chadbourne, both of whom remained after Gibbons left the place. The correspond- ence of Gibbons is of great interest, showing the difficulties and disappointments of proprietor and settlers. Mills and houses were erected; a vineyard was planted in the low ground below the upper falls; and considerable trade was carried on with the Indians through the friendly sagamore Rowls at Quamphegan, the Indian name of the site of the village of South Berwick. It is probable that Gibbons removed to Saunders Point before the death of Mason and he was living there in 1640. Henry Jocelyn testified, July 4, 1661, that about twenty-eight or twenty-nine
years ago Walter Neale gave to Ambrose Gibbons a tract of land in Pascattaway River, called Sanders Point, lying between the Little Harbor and Sagamore Creek.14 Under date of De- cember 5, 1632, Mason and other proprietors wrote to Gibbons thus, "You desire to settle yourself upon Sander's Point. The adventurers are willing to pleasure you not only in this, in re- gard of the good report they have heard of you from tyme to tyme, but alsoe after they have conferred with Capt. Neale, they determine some further good for your incouridgment," and on the thirteenth of July, 1633, Gibbons replied, "For my settlement at Sanders Point, and the further good you intend me, I humbly thank you; I shall do the best I can to be grateful."15 The "further good" here mentioned may have been a grant of two hundred acres of land on the south side of Oyster River, in the present town of Durham, about a mile below the Falls, where his cellar on a commanding hill of the old Burnham farm may be easily found and where Gibbons died in 1656.16 He was one of the first board of selectmen of Dover. Tradition says that he was buried at Saunders Point. The only child of Gibbons, Re- becca, married Henry Sherburne, who received the place and
14 N. H. Prov. Deeds, V, 83.
15 N. H. Prov. Papers, I, 69, 81.
16 Hist. of Durham, N. H., I, 56, and Old Kittery and Her Families, pp. 21-24, 26-36.
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conveyed it, January 29, 1677/8, to his son, John Sherburne, about three acres. The name may have been derived from Ed- ward Saunders, who was a witness in 1643 and agent for Capt. Francis Champernowne in 1644. If so, Edward Saunders must be reckoned as one of the earliest settlers of New Hampshire.
A list of stewards and servants sent over by Capt. John Mason has been handed down. It contains the names of fifty persons, besides eight Danes and twenty-two women, whose names are not given. This list was probably made some years after their coming and from memory and was used in connec- tion with a law suit. In it may be some mistakes and omissions. Of the women one was the wife of Ambrose Gibbons and an- other was wife of Roger Knight. Since many in the list were the earliest settlers of New Hampshire and numerous descend- ants may be found there now, it may be interesting to the gen- eral reader to know what has been gleaned concerning them, without the trouble of reference to many books and manuscripts.
Capt. Walter Neale came over in 1630, having been a soldier by profession. He was governor of all New England east of Massachusetts, although he had but few people to govern. He built the earliest fortification on Great Island, now New Castle. On his return to England in 1633 he was appointed captain of the London Artillery Company and retained that office till 1637. Nothing is known of his origin, family or subsequent career. A Walter Neal, born in 1633, was living in Greenland, N. H., from 1653 to 1702, from whom there are many descendants.
Of Ambrose Gibbons, first steward of Mason's colonists, enough has been said already.
Capt. Thomas Cammock was a nephew of the first Earl of Warwick and was sent over "for discoverie" or exploration. Neale gave him a deed of a large lot of land in what is now Eliot, Maine, which later became the Shapleigh homestead. In 1631 he had from the Council of New England a grant at Black Point, in Scarborough, where he made his home. Henry Jocelyn married his widow, Margaret, and received nearly all the prop- erty of Cammock.
William Raymond is named in the list, possibly an error for John Raymond, who was purser of the Pied Cow. Nothing more is known of either.
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Francis Williams is called governor. He made an agree- ment in 1635 with Sir Ferdinando Gorges to plant a small colony on six thousand acres of land in any place he might chose. He brought with him to the Pascataqua eleven persons. His wife's name was Helen. Hubbard says that he died at Barbadoes about 1640.
George Vaughan remained but a short time in the province. He started for England in 1634 and arrived the following year. William Vaughan came soon after. Whether they were related has not been determined. The Vaughan family were prominent in the early history of Portsmouth.
Thomas Wonerton, or Wannerton, had charge of the house at Strawberry Bank till about 1644. He was killed in an attack upon a house on the Penobscot in that year. Winthrop says that he had "been a soldier many years and lived very wickedly." He should not be confused with the partner of Gorges and Mason, who bore the same name. He was once admonished by the local court for striking his wife with a stool and told to do so no more. His widow, Ann, married Thomas Williams of Portsmouth and in 1670 brought action against Richard Cutt for refusing to let them have the third of a house and land which was her former husband's. This was probably the Great House, built by William Chadbourne for Mason, and belonged to neither Wannerton nor Cutt, although both lived in it.
Henry Jocelyn, born about 1611, was son of Sir Thomas Jocelyn. He was a man of high character, holding official posi- tions and opposed to the claims of Massachusetts. He had land in what is now Eliot, and Watts' fort is once called "Point Joslain." He removed to Black Point, Scarborough, and thence to Pemaquid, where he died in 1683.
Francis Norton was an inhabitant of Charlestown, Mass., in 1637. He was steward of Mrs. Ann Mason after 1638 and drove one hundred of her cattle to Boston and there sold them for twenty-five pounds apiece. He became a member of the church at Charlestown in 1642, and his sympathies were with the government of Massachusetts.
Sampson Lane succeeded Wannerton as steward in 1644, returning to England after three years. Of the above mentioned ten governors or stewards only Ambrose Gibbons left a descend- ant in New England.
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Reginald, or Renald, Fernald was the surgeon or physician of Mason's company. He lived at Strawberry Bank and died in 1656 on Pierce's Island and was buried, tradition says, at the Point of Graves in Portsmouth. His wife, Joanna, died in 1660. He was a surgeon in the English navy, it is said, before coming to New Hampshire, resigning his post to come here. He served as Clerk of Court, Recorder of Deeds, Commissioner and Sur- veyor, and was town clerk at the time of his death. His descen- dants are said to number over fifty thousand.
A deposition of Henry Langstaff, about 1699, states that Ralph Gee kept the cattle of Mason and was employed in making staves. He lived for a while in the house built by David Thom- son at Little Harbor. He had a plantation adjoining, which at his death in 1645 passed into the possession of William Seavey. Henry Gee also was one of Mason's servants, of whom nothing more is known.
Another servant was William Cooper. Hubbard mentions the fact that a person named Cooper was drowned at Pascataqua in December, 1633.
William Chadbourne was one of the millwrights and car- penters who came in 1634 to build the mills at Newichawannock or Great Works, Maine. His son, Humphrey Chadbourne, came in 1631 and built the Great House at Strawberry Bank, after- wards settling at what is now South Berwick, Maine. From him are descended many prominent men, among them President Paul Chadbourne of Williams College.
Francis Matthews married, November 22, 1622, Thomasine Channon, at Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, and came over in 1634. Wannerton in 1637 gave him a lease of a hundred acres of land for a thousand years on the northwest side of Great Island, "commonly called Muskito Hall." The title was after- ward disputed. He signed the Exeter Combination in 1639, then living at Oyster River Point, where he died in 1648. Many of his descendants write the surname Mathes.
Francis Rand. born in 1616, lived at Portsmouth and was killed by Indians, September 29, 1691, his wife having been killed before. He left children, Thomas, John, Samuel, Nathaniel, Sarah Herrick and Mary Barnes.
James Johnson, born in 1602, signed a petition from Bloody
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Point in 1643, was a ferryman in 1648 and had a part in the distribution of land in Portsmouth in 1657. Widow Mary John- son was living in Portsmouth in 1678. He left two daughters, Mary who married John Odiorne, and Hannah who married Thomas Jackson.
Anthony Ellins lived in Portsmouth and died there about 1681. His wife Abigail died the same year.
Henry Baldwin, named in the list, is altogether unknown. No such name appears in early records of New Hampshire. Beatrice Baldwin is one of the legatees in Capt. John Mason's will.
Thomas Spencer was born in England in 1596 and came over in 1630. He has the honor of being the first permanent settler in Maine, so far as historical records show. He married Patience, daughter of William Chadbourne, bought lands of the sagamore Rowls and lived at Quamphegan, now the village of South Ber- wick, Maine. He was a planter, lumberman and inn-keeper. He died December. 15, 1681, and his descendants are very numerous.
Thomas Furral and Thomas Herd are unknown. John Heard of Dover and another John Heard of Kittery are well known among the earliest settlers.
Thomas Chatherton does not again appear. This may be an error for Michael Chatterton, who signed the grant for the Glebe in Portsmouth, in 1640. In 1646 the court ordered that "good wife Chatterton shall go to her husband before ye 20th of ye next month; if she will not goe, to make a warrant to send her by the Marshall."
John Crowther signed the grant of the Glebe in 1640. He sold land to Ambrose Lane in 1648 and died in 1652. His house, land and island were granted to John Jackson in 1656.
John Williams is unknown. Thomas Williams of Ports- mouth and William Williams of Oyster River are well known.
Roger Knight, born in 1596, bought land in Strawberry Bank of Thomas Wannerton in 1643 and was living in Ports- mouth in 1667. His wife's name was Anne and a daughter, Mary, is said to have married John Brewster of Portsmouth.
Henry Sherburne, son of Joseph and grandson of Henry, was baptized at Odiham, Hampshire, England, March 22, 1611. His grandfather was of Beam Hall, Oxford. He came in the ship
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James, arriving June 12, 1632, in eight weeks from London. He married, November 13, 1637, Rebecca, only child of Ambrose and Rebecca Gibbons. She died June 3, 1663, and he married (2) Sarah, widow of Walter Abbot. Henry Sherburne was one of the associate judges and died in 1680, aged 69. His descend- ants are many, and some have held prominent places.
John Goddard came as a millwright in 1634. He had a lot on Dover Neck in 1648 and was made freeman of Dover in 1653. He lived on the south side and near the mouth of Goddard's Creek, in what is now Newmarket, dying there in 1660. His widow, Welthean, married John Symonds. The surname be- came extinct with the next generation. A daughter Mary mar- ried Arthur Bennet, and another daughter, Martha, married James Thomas and (2) Elias Critchett.
Thomas Fernald is supposed to have been a brother of Dr. Reginald Fernald. Nothing more is known of him.
Thomas Withers was born in 1606. Sir Ferdinando Gorges gave him a deed of four hundred acres in Kittery, directly op- posite the city of Portsmouth, and eight hundred acres more at the head of Spruce Creek, in Kittery. He was a Commissioner in 1644 and Deputy to the General Court in Boston in 1656. He died in 1685, and his widow, Jane, married William Godsoe of Kittery. Three daughters are known, Sarah who married John Shapleigh, Mary who married Thomas Rice, and Elizabeth who married Benjamin Berry and (2) Dodavah Curtis.
Thomas Canney bought land of Capt. Thomas Wiggin in Dover in 1634. He lived in Newington, on the shore of the Pascataqua. Children were Thomas, Joseph, Mary who married Jeremy Tibbetts and a daughter who married Henry Hobbs of the place now known as Rollinsford.
John Symonds came in 1634 and was in the employ of John Winter in 1636. He was a selectman of Kittery in 1659, living near the Boiling Rock, on the east bank of the Pascataqua. He was a juryman in Dover in 1672, having married the widow of John Goddard. A daughter, Rebecca, married William Hilton of Exeter.
John Peverly was a resident of Portsmouth in 1678. Thomas Peverly was a land-owner there in 1657 and married Jane,
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daughter of Thomas Walford, and had children, John, Thomas, Lazarus, Samuel, Jeremiah, Sarah and Martha.
William Seavey, aged about 75 years, deposed, September 3, 1676, that he came as a fisherman to the Isles of Shoals "about a year before Capt. Neale went from this country for England," that is, in 1632. He was a selectman in Portsmouth in 1657. He had a grant of fifty acres in 1652 in what is now the town of Rye. His children were William, John, who re- moved to Bradford, Mass., Elizabeth who married - Odiorne, and Stephen.
Henry Langstaff was living at Bloody Point, Newington, in 1643 and was selectman of Dover in 1651 and several times later. He died July 18, 1705, aged nearly one hundred years. He had a son Henry and a son John, who removed to New Jersey about 1667. A daughter, Sarah, married Anthony Nutter. An- other daughter, Mary, married Eleazar Coleman.
William Berry is said to have been the first settler at Sandy Beach, in the town of Rye. He died about 1654, and his widow, Jane, married Nathaniel Drake. Children were Joseph, John, James, William, and Elizabeth, who married John Locke.
Thomas Walford was the first settler of Charlestown, Mass. He removed to Portsmouth and lived on Great Island and later at Sagamore Creek. He was a church warden in 1640 and died in 1656. His children were Thomas, Jeremiah, Martha who married Thomas Hinckson and (2) John Westbrook, Jane who married Thomas Peverly and (2) - Goss, Hannah who mar- ried - Jones, Mary who married William Brookin and (2) William Walker, and Elizabeth who married Henry Savage.
James Wall, millwright and carpenter, signed the exeter Combination of 1639 and later lived in Hampton, where he died October 3, 1659. His daughters were Elizabeth who married Thomas Harvey, Sarah who married Thomas Dow, Mary who married John Marston, and Hannah who married Benjamin Moulton. There were no sons to perpetuate the surname.
William Brookin or Brooking resided in Portsmouth from 1657 or earlier. He married Mary, daughter of Thomas Walford and died in 1694. His widow married William Walker and was living in 1720 at a great age. His daughters were Rebecca who married Thomas Pomeroy, Mary who married Thomas Lucy, Sarah
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who married Jacob Brown, Martha who married John Lewis, Rachel, and another who married John Rouse.
Thomas Moor is unknown. Of Joseph Beal no other record is found. Edward Beal is found in the next generation at Ports- mouth, and Arthur Beal was at the same time of York, Maine.
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