USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 26
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To this Mr. Thomlinson replied that he thought "it would be the wrongest Step that Could be taken." Instead he urgently ad- vised them to buy the claim of the heirs and assigns of Samuel Allen, whose right had been conceded in the charter given to Massachusetts by William and Mary, and who "are so far from Being a Sleep, that they are at this very time in treaty with Some Gentlemen here for the sale of their Said right." No, he said, get your legal rights acknowledged first and controversies settled; then the king will, doubtless, sanction any encroach- ments you may be pleased to make, so long as the province is getting well settled.5
About forty years passed away before a final settlement was made with the heirs and assigns of Samuel Allen. Their claim was doubtful, yet it had foundation enough on which to base law suits and occasion uncertainty. Therefore in 1790 Gen. John Sullivan and others, as agents, effected a sale of all right of the Allen heirs and assigns to the then claimers of eleven shares of the Masonian proprietors, for five pounds in money and the reservation of eight thousand five hundred acres, scat- tered in different towns and gores. Thus the proprietors "re- stored that which they took not away," to end the struggle for conquest and spoils that was going on in the courts.6
It seems to have been the settled policy of provinces, town- ships, combinations of men, and individuals to get as large grants of land as possible and then expand the boundaries. Hence the principle business of courts was to settle land claims. Speculators saw the future possibilities. The wise ones, the seers, knew that they were acquiring valuable properties. The growth of the country in population would surely make them rich. Besides, there were valuable timber, large water powers, and perhaps rich mines. Let the king have the white pines for the royal navy. It would cost more than they were worth to get them out to sea from far inland. There would never be any more land, but there would be many more inhabitants ; therefore, get land. Better than to buy it was to claim it by getting there first. Let a part of it pay for the develop- ment of the other part; then sell at advanced prices.
5 N. H. State Papers, XXIX. 280-282.
6 N. H. State Papers, XXIX. 345-350.
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Such was the plan of the Masonian proprietors, and it worked well,-for them, and possibly as well as any other plan would have worked for the settlers of New Hampshire and their posterity.
Chapter XVI ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR BENNING WENTWORTH
Chapter XVI ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR BENNING WENTWORTH.
Departure of Governor Belcher-Appointment of Benning Wentworth as Governor-The Old Wentworth Mansion-Places that Served as a State House-Opposition between the Governor and the House-Attempts to Oust Governor Wentworth-Correspondence of Richard Waldron and Isaac Royall-New Hampshire's Part in the Siege of Louisburg-Col. William Vaughan-Plans for the Invasion of Canada-The New Towns on the Connecticut-Fort Dummer and the Fort at Number 4-Capt. Phinehas Stevens-Surprises and Massacres by the Indians-Disastrous Expedition to Crown Point-Attacks of Indians in Hopkinton and Con- toocook-Defense of Rumford and Massacre of the Bradleys-Victims at Rochester-Improvement in Indian Warfare-Offensive War pays better than Defensive.
IN the two preceding chapters it seemed better to group events logically rather than chronologically. It is now neces- sary to go back to the closing year of Governor Belcher's administration. The part he took in the settlement of the bound- ary line made him unpopular both in Massachusetts and in New Hampshire. He had quarrelled with his lieutenant, David Dunbar, and there was continual opposition between him and the New Hampshire house of representatives. He expressed his mind too freely in correspondence and utterances. He was an aristocrat and wanted unquestioning obedience to his advices. The only reason why he tolerated a house of representatives was, that they alone could initiate the assessment of taxes and the granting of money. When they would not do as ordered, he dissolved the assembly, and the people generally re-elected the former members to serve in the new house.
Effort was made to quiet opposition and prolong his term of office by arousing interest in the war with Spain. It was proposed to raise a company of one hundred men and to furnish a transport to take them to Virginia and thence to Cuba. A captain was appointed and he had beating orders to raise troops
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in New Hampshire, but nobody was willing to volunteer. On this failure there was a vote of disapproval in the house, and their agent in London made use of it against Governor Belcher. His mistakes and his misfortunes were arrayed as arguments against his administration. Falsehood and forgery were em- ployed to misrepresent him to the king's ministry, where he had friends loth to set him aside. The will of the people proved to be law even to the chief rulers, and so Governor Belcher was sacrificed. He had given up mercantile business in order to devote all his time to the duties of his office in the two provinces, and he expended out of his private revenues much more than he received as salary and gifts. He certainly did not seek to enrich himself and his friends by exercise of gubernatorial power. If his enemies had been as frank and open as he, there might have been more harmony and a longer term of service. He felt grieved that at the age of sixty, after long and faithful service to the king, he should be deprived of the means of supporting his family, and his confidence in the justice of the English government was shaken. He repaired to court and personally advocated his claims upon royal favor, thereby securing for himself the post of governor of New Jersey, which position he held till his death in Elizabeth, New Jersey, August 31, 1757. His one faithful friend throughout all his trials, as shown by his correspondence, was secretary Richard Waldron of Ports- mouth, to whom he wrote in more familiar and unguarded style than to any other.
In May, 1741, commissions were made out to William Shir- ley as governor of Massachusetts and to Benning Wentworth as governor of New Hampshire, thus completely and finally separa- ting the two provinces. Benning Wentworth, son of the popular Lieut .- Gov. Wentworth, was born in Portsmouth July 24, 1696. He was graduated at Harvard college in 1715 and became one of the leading merchants of Portsmouth. His business took him frequently to England and Spain, and he thus made acquaintance with men of influence in political circles. He had served as a member of the house and of the council for some years and knew well the state of affairs in the province. His failure to receive payment for a cargo of oak timber delivered at Cadiz and the loss of his ship on her return voyage is said to have
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reduced him to bankruptcy, and some creditors in London gave him trouble. Mr. Thomlinson there befriended him and wrote to persons in Portsmouth, urging them to rally to the assistance of Mr. Wentworth and especially that his brothers would send him money. The war with Spain prevented his recovery of what was due him there, estimated to be fifty-six thousand dollars. The English government at first supported his claims and later may have felt under some obligation to measurably recompense him for his loss. The expense of procuring his com- mission, in the way, as would now be said, of lobbying, fees and tips, was three hundred pounds, which Thomlinson secured for him in London and which was repaid by friends in Portsmouth, Thomlinson assuring them that he had something in view for Mr. Wentworth that would enable him to pay all his debts. This proved to be the office of general surveyor of the king's woods in America, an office which David Dunbar was induced to re- sign on receipt of two thousand pounds. The office paid what was equivalent to about eight hundred pounds per annum, out of which four deputies had to be paid. With a salary of five hundred pounds additional as governor, together with some presents and large grants of land he managed to redeem his for- tunes and after ten years or so to build himself one of the oddest and most spacious mansions in New England.
This famous house is about two miles from old Strawberry Bank, the present city of Portsmouth, and situated near the shore at Little Harbor. Who can tell the style of architecture? Some have described it as a "noble pile" and an "architectural freak." It looks as though additions had been made from time to time as afterthoughts. Originally it had fifty-two rooms, but a portion of the house has been removed, leaving only forty- five rooms. Here he married, as his second wife, his young housekeeper, Martha Hilton, whose parentage has never been learned. The house and the marriage are the subjects of Long- fellow's poem, "Lady Wentworth," in "Tales of a Wayside Inn."
Here he died October 14th, 1770, after a quarter of a century's service in the gubernatorial office. Here he is said to have held court, but whether this served as state house, or meet- ing place of the general assembly, is in great doubt. The coun- cilors without question often consulted with him here. Records
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show that in 1745-8 Mrs. Sarah Priest was paid four pounds and ten shillings "for the use of her two rooms for council and representatives." The use of her rooms is last mentioned in 1753, and that year there was a vote in the council to build a brick state house eighty feet long and thirty wide. Sarah Col- lins married Thomas Priest in Portsmouth December 1, 1720, and she administered his estate in 1740. He is called mariner and she shopkeeper. Legal suits show that her principle stock in trade was rum, which she bought by the barrel and retailed. It was a convenient place for meetings of the legislature, an "ordinary" with spacious rooms and a bar for liquid refresh- ments, then thought to be quite a necessary accompaniment for the transaction of important business. From 1755 to 1762 at least a house was rented, for the use of the assembly, of Captain David Horney and his widow, Hannah Horney, innkeeper, who was daughter of Joseph Buss and grandaughter of the Rev. John Buss of Oyster River. Many votes were passed about the purchase or erection of a state house, but it was not finished till the year 1765, a long, two-story, wooden building, a part of which is standing on Court street, removed from the "parade," its first site.
Governor Benning Wentworth was careful to conserve all the dignity and power that belonged to his office, on the plea of guarding the prerogatives of the crown, by putting a curb on the house of representatives. It was the old question, whether the people should serve the ruler, or the ruler should serve the people. Whence flows governmental authority? Con- duct expressed different answers. The house thought they had a right to choose a recorder of deeds; the governor and council claimed a share in his election. They yielded to the choice of the house, Joshua Pierce holding that office for a long time. When the house chose Richard Waldron for speaker, the gov- ernor promptly vetoed the choice. Waldron had been suspended as a member of the council on account of his friendship for Governor Belcher and his opposition to Governor Wentworth. The house denied the right of the governor to veto their choice of speaker. They had elected Waldron before admitting to membership certain representatives from recently chartered towns. It looks as though Governor Wentworth tried to pack
OLD COLONIAL STATE HOUSE
WHIPPLE HOUSE
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the legislature in his own favor by appointing several new councilors and securing the election of representatives from new towns, without any authorization from the house of representa- tives. The house refused to admit representatives from South Hampton, Methuen, Chester, Haverhill and Rumford, because the house had never taken any action enabling those towns to thus take part in the government of the province. The governor had sent precepts to those towns without consulting the house. This led to a deadlock in legislation which continued nearly two years. The governor, by advice of council, kept adjourning and proroguing the house for short periods, urging them from time to time to choose a speaker and proceed to business. They were as firm as he was stubborn. They were contending for as large a measure as possible of self-government; the governor and council were determined to rule the province, in the name of the king. If the governor could create new towns at will and call their representatives to the house, if he could negative their choice of speaker, if he could send them all home whenever he chose and order a new election, how much self-government had the people? Nevertheless, the correspondence of that time with Mr. Thomlinson, their agent in London, shows that the action of the governor was regarded as within his rights. Representative government in the provinces was in an infantile condition, and a house of representatives had less power than the English house of commons. After two years the governor dissolved the house and a new election was ordered. Nearly the same per- sons were chosen by the towns, and among them was Richard Waldron from Hampton, but he refused to sit. The question of the admission of the representatives from the new towns was indefinitely postponed. Those sent were allowed to vote for choice of speaker and Mechech Weare of Hampton Falls was chosen to that office.
During those two years of opposition attempts were made to get rid of Governor Wentworth. Some wanted Sir William Pepperrell appointed in his stead, while Richard Waldron, Henry Sherburne and some other members of the house were seeking to have Colonel Isaac Royall of Medford, Massachusetts, appointed to that office. His principal qualifications seem to have been that he was ambitious for prominence and had the
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money needed to secure the coveted place. He expressed him- self as willing to help the oppressed people of New Hampshire to gain their liberties; later on, when the colonies were strug- gling for real liberty, Royall fled as a tory. He was a merchant and large speculator in land. Royalston, Massachusetts, and Royalsborough, Maine, were named for him. The name of the latter town was changed to Durham, when Col. Royall sided against the patriots of the Revolution.
The letters of Waldron to Royall show an embittered spirit as well as a keen intellect. He calls Benning Wentworth a tyrant and an ignoramus and alludes to him as "the Don" and "Diego," thinking perhaps that Wentworth had caught the spirit of the Spaniards in business dealings with them. Colonel Royall wanted to know what offices would be at his disposal, wherewith he might reward his friends, if he were appointed governor, and Secretary Waldron replied as follows, showing that office-seekers had not so strong allurements in those times as now, yet aspirants were not lacking:
The General Court appoints the Register of Deeds, claiming the right by prescription, and the Superior and Inferior Courts appoint their Clerks by authority of the law, but those Clerks are generally recommended by a letter from the Governor. The Judges of the Superior Court have no salary, and each saves perhaps 5 or Iof a year new Tenor out of their Fees; the Judges of the Inferior Court may each probably save about 25£ a year. The Secretary's allowance and honest perquisites may amount to about 70f a year. The Treasurer who is also Commissary makes good earnings in Time of war; I cannot guess what, but in peace I believe his office isn't worth more than 40 or 50f a year, the Clerk of the Superior Court's office is worth about 30f a year, and the Register of Probate's the same. The Clerk of the Inferior Court's office and the Sheriff's are the two best offices in the government, and are probably worth near 125f a year each. The Judge Probate's office is worth from 20 to 25f a year.1
The governor insisted on having a regular salary, and was a little disappointed that it was not made at least six hundred pounds. Instead the general assembly voted him two hundred and fifty pounds, proclamation money, to be paid out of the excise, or liquor-licenses, and after twenty-five thousand pounds in bills of credit had been issued on loan for ten years, they added two hundred and fifty pounds more, to be paid out of the
1 N. H. Prov. Papers, VI. 60.
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interest on the loan. But this was not all. The assembly voted him five hundred pounds out of the money raised for the West India expedition "towards the charge he has been at in coming to the government &c," and at the same time he was presented with one hundred and twenty-five pounds, bills of credit. Also the sum of one hundred pounds was voted "for his Excellency's use to hire a house to live in for the year 1742 from the 25th March Current." Considering the value of money at that time it must be concluded that the governor's relatives and friends saw him very decently provided for.2
It appears from the records that Gov. Benning Wentworth lived in the Brick House, the only brick house in Portsmouth at that time, into which he moved about the year 1753. This house was built by Archibald McPhaedris and is now known as the Warner house. Efforts were made to purchase this for a provincial house, or governor's residence, but no agreement could be made as to the price. House rent for Governor Went- worth was paid after he built his private mansion at Little Harbor, which leads to the inference that as governor he lived in town at the expense of the province for house-rent, while Little Harbor was his summer house or rural residence.3
The opposition to Governor Benning Wentworth seems to have been confined to members of the house of representatives and a few others of Portsmouth, under the leadership of Secre- tary Richard Waldron. The people throughout the province cared little about political disputes and the extent of the gov- ernor's authority. They were more interested in the war with France and in the protection of their frontiers against the Indians. Early in Wentworth's administration the siege of Louisburg stirred the hearts of New Hampshire men. This
2 N. H. Prov. Papers, V. 623.
3 N. H. Prov. Papers, V. passim. The governor informed the House that the ways were so bad that he could not come up to Town and should be glad that a number of the House and of the Council would come down and con- fer with him upon the affairs. This was March 22, 1753, and evidently he was then living in his mansion at Little Harbor.
Again, January 2, 1754, "his Excellency desired the House to wait upon his Excellency at the Council Chamber, which was at the dwelling house of the late Coll. Moore, deceased." N. H. Prov. Papers, VI. 195, 231.
Again, June 10, 1755, the governor told the House that he had left a letter from Governor Shirley at Little Harbor and would send it up tomorrow. Id., p. 392.
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expedition has been described by Dr. Belknap with great fullness and particularity, almost as though it belonged solely to the. history of New Hampshire. The truth is that Massachusetts, with the province of Maine then belonging to her, took the lead- ing part in that expedition. The leadership of Sir William Pepperrell and the participation of three Maine regiments rather eclipsed the glory of New Hampshire in that campaign. Of the ten regiments, comprising 4070 men, Massachusetts furnished eight regiments, including the three from Maine, and Connecti- cut one regiment of 516 men, leaving only one regiment to New Hampshire and that a small one of only 304 men, com- manded by Col. Samuel Moore of Portsmouth. About one hundred and fifty more men from New Hampshire are said to have enlisted in regiments from Massachusetts, but there is no certainty about this number. After the surrender of Louisburg New Hampshire sent 115 more men as a reinforcement to its regiment. In all New Hampshire had from 450 to 500 men engaged in that expedition, about one-eighth of the entire force. They sailed from Portsmouth in advance of the others, under convoy of an armed sloop commanded by Captain John Fernald and having thirty men. They arrived at Canso the first of April 1745, nearly a week before the Massachusetts troops. The surgeon of the New Hampshire regiment was Matthew Thorn- ton, afterward one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. A muster roll shows that the lieutenant-colonel of the New Hampshire regiment was Nathaniel Meserve and the major was Ezekiel Gilman, while the captains were Samuel Whitton, Thomas W. Waldron, True Dudley, John Tufton Mason, William Seward, Daniel Ladd, Henry Sherburne, John Fernald, Samuel Hale, Jacob Tilton and Edward Williams.4
The expedition against Louisburg was suggested to Gov- ernor William Shirley of Massachusetts by William Vaughan and was at once advocated by the former with enthusiasm. Vaughan went to Portsmouth and soon stirred up interest among the people of New Hampshire, who voted men and supplies with readiness, fifty barrels of gunpowder and masts for men of war. William Vaughan was born in Portsmouth September 12, 1703, son of Lieutenant-Governor George
4 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. V., p. 368.
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Vaughan. He was graduated at Harvard college in 1722 and soon after he launched out into an extensive business in fishing and lumbering, on the coast of Maine. He had his fishing and trading post on the 'island of Martinicus, off the entrance to Penobscot Bay, and he set up saw and grist mills at the outlet of Damariscotta Pond, where he had a company of seventy men, women and children that he took there in his service from Dover, Somersworth, Oyster River, Exeter, Kittery and Scarborough. Here he built a fort one hundred feet square and had very extensive grants of land from the David Dunbar that we have met before. Vaughan went with the expedition to Louisburg and took a very prominent part in the siege, with rank of Lieutenant Colonel. It was very early in the siege that Vaughan had the good fortune to be detailed, with four hundred men, many of them from New Hampshire, to reconnoiter north of the town and harbor. Here he found warehouses filled with naval stores and wholly undefended. Having no way of trans- porting them, he set them on fire, and the smoke of tar and turpentine rolled toward the Royal Battery. The French sup- posing that they were being attacked in force abandoned the battery, having hastily and ineffectually spiked their guns. Vaughan had sent back to camp all but thirteen men, whom he retained as a bodyguard. The next morning these crept up toward the Royal Battery and to their surprise found it deserted. At once Vaughan sent the following note to the commander, Colonel William Pepperrell: "May it please your Honor to be informed that with the grace of God and the courage of about thirteen men I entered this place about nine o'clock and am waiting here for a reinforcement and a flag."
Thus without the firing of a musket thirty pieces of cannon were captured and were soon doing effective service in bombard- ing other fortifications and the town. Although the Massachu- setts forces had no cannon larger than twenty-two pounders, they took along with them forty-two pound balls, expecting to capture French cannon to fit them, in which they were not disappointed. The hope of taking the strongest fortress in the western world with the weapons of the enemy,-a fortress that had cost twenty years of labor and the expenditure of six millions of dollars,-indicates perhaps more courage and pre-
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sumption than military science. Governor Shirley had worked out in his law office a detailed plan of just how the thing was going to be done by surprise, and it is needless to say that his plan was not followed. The land forces under Colonel Pepper- rell did most of the fighting; the ships commanded by Commodore Peter Warren succeeded in capturing the Vigilant, a French ship of sixty-four guns and manned with five hundred men. It carried stores of all kinds, and its capture was a great loss to the besieged. The Vigilant was at once manned by Colonel Moore's New Hampshire regiment, taken from the land forces at the urgent demand of Commodore Warren, and a naval assault was planned. But the fortress surrendered on the sixteenth of June, just forty-nine days from the arrival of the colonial forces.
Colonel William Pepperrell was knighted for this exploit, and William Vaughan thought himself deserving of some honor and went to London in search of recognition, but died of small- pox before his hopes were realized. The New Hampshire troops brought back a bell, which was presented to Queen's Chapel in Portsmouth. Later it was recast and is now in the tower of St. John's church, reminding with peaceful tones the inquisitive hearer of what valor without discipline can accomplish, when favored by Providence. This expedition united the colonists and encouraged them to feel that they could take care of them- selves without the aid, and possibly in spite of the opposition, of old England. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored the fortress to the French and another siege was necessary after a few years, yet the efforts and sacrifices of the people of New England were not in vain. They helped to determine the character of western civilization and to bring all America under the sway of English people. The cost to New Hampshire was about a dozen men, who died of wounds and sickness, and the expenditure of 26,489 pounds in money. The province was reimbursed by England to the extent of 16,355 pounds. The very drums which led the triumphal march into Louisburg sounded in the ears of the patriots at Bunker Hill.5
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