USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 3
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Hugh James is unknown. William James was in Kittery about 1650 and then sold land to John Diamond.
Alexander Jones, born in 1615, was the first owner of the land where now is the village of Kittery. He sold to William James. He was of Portsmouth in 1657 and of the Isles of Shoals in 1661. He perhaps married Mary, daughter of Thomas Wal- ford. Children were probably Sarah, Samuel, John, and Alex- ander.
John Ault, born in 1601, lived at Oyster River Point 1645- 1679. He had wife Remembrance, who came over about 1638. Children were John, Remembrance who married John Rand, and Rebecca who married Thomas Edgerly. The two last lived at Oyster River Point.
William Bracket is unknown, perhaps an error for Anthony Bracket, a settler in Portsmouth before 1640, whose descendants are well known.
James Newt, or Nute, lived on Back River in Dover. He was alive in 1691. He signed the Dover Combination in 1640. Children were James and Abraham, whose descendants are numerous.
Thus we have passed in review the company of men who are said to have been servants of John Mason, though the ac- curacy of the list may be distrusted, and apparently Thomas Walford and William Seavey did not come over as his servants. These were among the earliest settlers of New Hampshire, and certainly their families grew up with the country. They helped largely to make the State what it now is. Their labors and their spirit contributed to its prosperity and drew other settlers to join them. The town of Newbury, Mass., has erected a granite shaft on the old village green near the mouth of Parker River, with the names thereon of the first settlers; somewhere in Portsmouth there should be a similar memorial, while at Hilton's Point should be erected a monument to the first permanent settler of New Hampshire, Edward Hilton.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE
In 1635 the Council of New England was dissolved. Its work had been careless and the occasion of many conflicting claims. It aimed to monopolize the natural resources of New England and to distribute them to a favored few. Gorges was accused of the desire to monopolize sunshine and air, in order that he alone might cure fish. Mason, probably foreseeing the discontinuance of this corporation, leased, April 18, 1635, to his brother-in-law, John Wollaston, all his possessions lying between the Naumkeag and Pascataqua rivers, which Wollaston promptly transferred back to Mason, June II, 1635, after the dissolution of the aforesaid Council. Under date of April 22, 1635, there are two grants to Mason, confirmations of his claim to the lands between the Naumkeag and the Pascataqua, together with a grant of ten thousand acres lying southeast of the mouth, of the Sagadahock, or Kennebec, river, the latter to be called Masonia. The heirs of Mason never made any claim to this grant. The difference between the two grants of the same date is verbal to a slight extent, and, moreover, the power of government is in- cluded in one of the grants, "with ye power of Judicature in all causes and matters whatsoever as well criminal capitall & civill ariseing or which may hereafter arise within ye limits bounds & precincts aforesaid to be exercised and executed according to ye laws of England as near as can be by ye sd Capt. John Mason his heirs & assignes or his or their Deputies Lieu- tenants Judges Stewards or officers thereunto by him or them assigned deputed or appointed from time to time."17 Little claim was ever made by the heirs of Mason based upon this clause, and judges decided that they had no power of government. The second grant also differs from the first in this respect, that Henry Jocelyn or Ambrose Gibbons was authorized to deliver posses- sion and seizin to Capt. John Mason or to his attorney. It was said that Jocelyn was on his way to make such delivery when he heard of the death of Mason and so desisted from his undertak- ing. An argument oft repeated in after years against the validity of Mason's claims was that no legal delivery of the lands had ever been made.
To further strengthen his claim Capt. John Mason is said
17 N. H. State Papers, Vol. XXIX, pp. 62-66.
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A HISTORY
to have obtained a royal charter from King Charles I, dated August 19, 1635, although the authenticity of this charter is disputed. It confirms to him all the lands between the Naum- keag and the Pascataqua and sixty miles inland and the south half of the Isles of Shoals, to be called New Hampshire, and the ten thousand acres near the mouth of the Sagadahock river, to be called Masonia. The asserted charter confers legal rights upon Mason and makes him true and absolute lord and pro- prietor, subject only to the laws of England and allegiance to the king. He had power to make laws with the consent of the freeholders and in emergencies without consulting with them. He also was given power to appoint judges, justices and magistrates, to use martial law in case of rebellion, to confer titles of honor, to raise troops and transport arms and munitions of war, to build forts, to collect tolls and taxes, to erect Courts Baron, and to give titles to estates sold. Such extensive powers were not granted to other proprietors. The charter was not recorded in England. In the Masonian claims it was not pro- duced as evidence. In opposition to the powers conferred in this charter in later litigation all powers of government were disclaimed or denied. It seems, then, that objections to the genuineness of this royal charter are well founded.18 A letter from George Vaughan to Ambrose Gibbons, dated London, April 10, 1636, says that if Mason had lived he would have taken a patent from the king. Perhaps the royal charter was drawn up in desired form and never executed; perhaps it was a bold forgery, like the Wheelwright deed.
Capt. John Mason was the son of John Mason of King's Lynn, county Norfolk, England, who married Isabel Steed. He was baptized December 14, 1586. There is some evidence that he was for a time a student at the University of Oxford. He be- came a captain in the English navy and governor of Newfound- land, where he remained about six years, making a survey and map of the island. In 1626 he was made treasurer and pay- master of the English armies employed in the wars with France and Spain. In 1634 he was appointed captain of the South Sea Castle, at Portsmouth, England. When Sir Ferdinando Gorges
18 N. H. State Papers, Vol. XXIX, pp. 69-85. Cf. notes by John Farmer to Belknap's History of New Hampshire, pp. 14, 15.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE
was governor of New England, Mason was chosen vice-admiral. All these offices show that he was highly esteemed and a man of executive ability. He spent a small fortune in his planta- tions at Newichawannock and Strawberry Bank. His purpose was lofty and his faith in the future development and growth of the American colonies was great. The state of New Hamp- shire owes much to him, who gave to her a name and a founda- tion. He was a churchman and therefore was not in favor with Gov. John Winthrop and other authorities of Massachusetts Bay, but he was as wise, able, patriotic and unselfish as any of the founders of the rival colony. His death in December, 1635, put an end to his endeavors for the upbuilding of his cherished plantations. In his will he names "the Mannor of Mason Hall" as though it included all New Hampshire. In that will he be- queathed a thousand acres to support a church and another thousand to maintain a free Grammar School, where they might be suitably located in New Hampshire. The bulk of his prop- erty and all his claim to New Hampshire descended to his grand- son, Robert Tufton, on condition that he should take the sur- name Mason. The condition was complied with and thus were founded legal claims to an extensive province, which occasioned law suits throughout a century.
Chapter II THE FOUR TOWNS
Chapter II THE FOUR TOWNS.
Forged Letter-Division of Mason's Goods-Governor Francis Williams- Combination at Strawberry Bank-Granting of the Glebe-Earliest Records Destroyed-Towns Without a Charter-Episcopalians in Ports- mouth-Early Officials-Settlement at Hilton's Point-Capt. Thomas Wiggin and Company on Dover Neck-First Church in Northam-Capt. John Underhill-Dover Combination-Limits of Ancient Dover-First Mills-Church at Oyster River-Leading Men of Dover-The Wheel- wright Deed a Forgery-Settlement of Exeter-Sketch of Rev. John Wheelwright-Exeter Combination-Wheelwright and Others Remove to Wells, Me .- Rev. Samuel Dudley-Later Division of Exeter-Settle- ment of Winnacunet or Hampton-The Bound House-Leaders in Hampton-Rev. Stephen Bachiler-Home Rule in the Four Towns.
T HERE is on record a letter, whose genuineness can not be admitted, purporting to have been written by Capt. Walter Neale and Capt. Thomas Wiggin to Capt. John Mason, dated at Northam, 13 August 1633, in which they say that they have received orders from the patentees "to make a division of those patents into four towns." Accordingly they make such a division, only reporting the fourth town, Exeter, as lying outside of Mason's grants. The other towns were Portsmouth, Dover and Hampton, names which were not in use till some years after the date of the so-called letter. Nevertheless the fabricator of this epistle, who wrote it many years later, displays considerable knowledge of the early history of New Hampshire and its leading men. There were four towns, and these comprised all the then known province or grant to Capt. John Mason. Each town has a somewhat distinct history.
After the death of Mason, in 1635, his servants at Newicha- wannock and at Strawberry Bank, left without property to shift for themselves, scattered at their pleasure, divided Mason's movable goods among themselves, and took possession of any unoccupied land that pleased them, with silent consent of their neighbors. The mills fell into disuse and decay. The cattle, to the number of one hundred, were driven to Boston by Francis Norton and there sold. Thomas Wannerton lived in the Great
29
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NEW HAMPSHIRE
House1 at Strawberry Bank till about.1644, when, according to deposition of Francis Small, he carried "quantities of goods and arms belonging unto Mason's Plantation and sold them unto the French that did inhabit Port Royal." The same year he lost his life in an attack upon a house on the Penobscot river. Henry Jocelyn acted as agent for widow Ann Mason for a short time, and in 1640 we read of one Francis Williams as governor of the colony at Strawberry Bank. It is probable that he was. elected to that office by the inhabitants, who had some combina- tion for government perhaps as early as 1636, or immediately after the death of Mason, the same year that a court was first established and civil government commenced at Saco, in the province of Maine. The Rev. George Burdett, in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 29 November 1638, says that there was yet no government in Pascataqua, "none but combina- tions ; because ye several patents upon ye river are thought to comprise no commission of jurisdiction." "The old combination at Strawberry Bank" is mentioned earlier than 1643. The his- torian Hubbard says that the people at Strawberry Bank entered into a combination for self-government soon after the departure. of Capt. Walter Neale, which was in 1633. It is certain that there must have been some sort of a combination for government in 1640, for on the twenty-fifth of May of that year a grant of fifty acres of glebe land for the support of the ministry was signed by twenty persons. A chapel and parsonage already had been erected by the same persons. The signers were Francis Williams, Governor, Ambrose Gibbons, Assistant, William Jones, Renald Fernald, John Crowther, Anthony Bracket, Michael Chatterton, Jno. Wall, Robert Buddingson, Mathew Cole, Henry Sherburne, John Lander, Henry Taler, Jno. Jones, William Berry, Jno. Pichering, Jno. Billing, Jno. Wolton, Nicholas Row and William Palmer.
Little can be learned about the first steps in local self- government at Strawberry Bank, because the first book of records has not been preserved. In the first book extant, under date of January 13, 1652, there is a record of the meeting of the selectmen at the house of George Walton, who kept an' ordinary on Great Island. "This night the select men exsamened
1 See Appendix A.
Original Town Boundaries
Present Town Boundaries 1 Odierne's Point: First Housebuiltin: 623
SOMERSWORTH
-7
1
SOUTH BERWICK CARS RIVER
ROLLINSFORD
aRE
10/
COCHECHO RIVER
DOVER
YORK
MADBURY
13
10." SLigo".
il. Jumpheyan 12. Salmon Falis.
:3. Thomasi's Point
E
1
O T
14. For Point
& RIVER
15. Furler's Point
18
L
E
E
URIHAM
18: Wheelwright Pond
MPREY
RIVER
NEWINGTON
5
16
NEWMARKET
PORTSMOUTH
E
P
1
N
G
SOUTH NEWMARKET
21
RISCASSIC, RIVER
STRATHA
EXETER
FREMONTIBRENTWOOD i
NORTH HAMPTON
HAMPTON
DANVILLE
EAST
KENSINGTON
KINGSTON!
1.
1
KINGSTON
1
SOUTH HAMPTON
SEABROO
174%
NEWTON
1
AMESBURY
PLATSTOW
MERRIMAC!
LVER
ERRIMA
NEWBURY
THE FOUR TOWNS
OCEAN
ATLANTIC
2. Strawberry Bank.
3. Great Island, ern Dau Custie.
4: Schampernowni's derund.
5. Szavai's Island
6. Bloody Point 2. Hilton's Point-
8: Dover Neck.
9. Conhecho.
1
16. "LutterZand ".
17. Oyster River Falls.
L
KITTERY
GREAT BAY
VER
.
REINLAN
R
Y E
HAMPTON FALLS
SALISBURY
HAVERHILL
3I
A HISTORY
the ould Town booke and what was not aproued was crossed out, and what was aproued was left to be Recorded in this booke and to be confermed by the present select men."2 From the old book were copied into the new one grants of land dated as early as 1645, showing that some form of town government then existed. The fact is that the first towns of New Hampshire, that is, Strawberry Bank and Northam, did not wait to receive a charter or to be incorporated before doing the business of a town. The first settlers acted on the principle later enunciated, that all government derives its authority from the consent of the governed. Human society can not exist without acknowledged customs, which soon become laws. The basal principles of law, with some of its precepts, the first settlers brought with them from England. New regu- lations had to be made to suit changed conditions, and these were made by common consent, or by majority vote of the settlers assembled. Thus the town meeting became the legisla- tive assembly.
The name, Strawberry Bank, arose from the abundance of strawberries found where the town first began. It was changed to Portsmouth by the General Court of Massachusetts, 28 May 1653, in response to a petition signed by Brian Pendleton, Rich. Cutt, Renald Fernald, Samuel Haynes and John Sherburne, in behalf of the town. The petition reads thus, "Whereas the name of this plantation att present being Straberry banke accidentally soe called by reason of a banke where Straberries was found in this place, Now your petitioners Humble desire is to have it called Portsmouth, being a name most sutable for this place, it being the River's mouth and a good harbour as any in this land." 3 The petition states that there were fifty or sixty families at Strawberry Bank.
The earliest inhabitants of Portsmouth were Episcopalians and as such chose Richard Gibson as their parson previous to the grant of the glebe. 1640. Gov. Winthrop says that he was . "wholly addicted to the hierarchy and discipline of England and exercised his ministerial function" according to the ritual. Naturally he had no favor with the Puritans of Massachusetts
2 Hackett's Portsmouth Records, p. 21.
3 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. I. p. 208.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE
Bay. Gibson did marry and baptize as well as preach at the Isles of Shoals, which, in 1642, were found to be within the jurisidiction of Massachusetts. He also got into controversy with the Rev. Thomas Larkham of Dover, scandalizing the Massachusetts government, denying their title, etc. He was summoned to court in Boston, where he submitted and was discharged without punishment. He left the country soon after. This seems to have put an end to Episcopalianism in New Hampshire, for the next minister called was the Rev. James Parker from Weymouth, Mass. He, too, remained but a brief time, yet long enough to have a religious revival, wherein about forty confessed their sins. "Most of them fell back again in time, embracing this present world." Such is the comment of Gov. Winthrop. 4
The earliest records of Portsmouth are made up principally of grants of land, the inhabitants voting to themselves indi- vidually portions of land that had been granted to Capt. John Mason, and some of the same had been improved at his expense. About 1647 Richard Cutt is found in possession of the Great House. Soon after John Pickering and Ambrose Lane were running saw-mills, the latter on Sagamore Creek. Brian Pendle- ton was chosen commander of the Train Band in 1652. Ferries were established from the "Rendezvous," at Odiorne's Point, to the Great Island and the Great House, and from Sherburne's Point to the same places. There was also a ferry to Warehouse Point in Kittery, where the first houses in that town were built. William Seavey was treasurer of Strawberry Bank, succeeded by Henry Sherburne. Licenses were granted to sell wine for a small tax paid to the town, five shillings a hogshead for French wines. A fort was built upon the Great Island, commanding the mouth of the Pascataqua. Highways were laid out to Hampton and throughout the town. In 1656 a Mr. Browne was officiating in the pulpit, and in 1658 eighty-six persons sub- scribed for the maintenance of the minister. Thus the town grew by shipbuilding, trade in lumber and fish, and agriculture. Being the only seaport, its population quickly outgrew that of the other three towns. This fact and its location made it the capital or seat of government of the province in after years.
4 Journal, Vol. II, pp. 79, 93.
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A HISTORY
John Pickering, Richard Cutt, Francis Champernowne, Henry Sherburne, Brian Pendleton, Dr. Reginald Fernald and Samuel Haines were the leading men and officers of the town.
The grant obtained by Edward Hilton of Hilton's Point was soon in the possession of a company of merchants of Bristol and Shrewsbury, England. Captain Thomas Wiggin came over in 1631 as agent of the Bristol company, and the town he founded on Dover Neck was first called Bristol, appear- ing as such on a map in 1634. Edward Howes wrote from London to Gov. John Winthrop, March 25, 1633, "there are honest men about to buye out the Bristol men's plantation in Pascataqua and do propose to plant there 500 good people before Michelmas next. T. Wiggin is the chief agent therein." And again he wrote, June 22, 1633, "He intends to plant him- self and many gracious men there this summer. I have and you all have cause to bless God that you have soe good a neighbour as Capt. Wiggin." Merchants of Bristol owned about two-thirds of the patent and merchants of Shrewberry owned the other third. After about two years the Bristol men sold their share to a company of lords and gentlemen, of whom Lord Say, Lord Brooke, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Sir Arthur Heselrigge, Mr. Willis, Mr. Whiting, Mr. Hewett or Hewell (perhaps Bosville) are named. The patent was divided into twenty-five shares, which were bought and sold as in modern land speculations. Thomas Wiggin continued to be the agent of this company. After a visit to England he returned in the ship James, arriving at Salem, Massachusetts, October 10, 1633. Winthrop says that he brought with him "about thirty with one Mr. Leverich, a godly minister to Pascataquack." The names of some of those who came with Wiggin have been gathered from various sources. Among his companions we may safely mention Elder Hatevil Nutter, Richard Pinkham, Thomas Leighton, Richard York, William Williams, William Beard, Thomas Stevenson, Samuel Haines, John Heard, John Dam, George Webb, Philip Chesley, William Pomfret, William Storer, Henry Tibbetts, George Walton, William Furber, and the Rev. William Leveridge, above mentioned. At least all these lived on Dover Neck within a few years of Capt. Wiggin's second arrival, and they were joined, not long after, by Anthony Emery
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NEW HAMPSHIRE
from Newbury, Mass., Joseph Austin from Hampton, John Tuttle, who came in the Angel Gabriel and was wrecked off Pemaquid, Job Clement from Haverhill, Mass., Ralph Hall, John Hall, Philip Cromwell, Capt. John Underhill and the Rev. John Reyner. 5
It was the design of Capt. Thomas Wiggin to found a city or compact town on Dover Neck, about one mile north from Hilton's Point. Old deeds mention High street and Low street and Dirty Lane. The location was ideal, commanding a view for many miles around. Each settler had a home lot of three or four acres, while out lots, or farms, were assigned by common consent on the shores of Back River and other streams, easily reached by boat. Soon a meeting house was erected on Low street, to be succeeded by a larger one on High street in 1654, used after 1675 as a fortification. Its foundations are well marked and preserved. Not many of the above named settlers lived long upon Dover Neck. Broader acres and better soil were easily found along the rivers and bays, the property of those who got there first. Land was bought of the Indians as early as 1635, according to the testimony of John Ault and Richard York, although no deed of the same is on record. It reached down to Lamprey river, long the disputed boundary between Dover and Exeter. 6
The Rev. William Leverich, or Leveridge, remained about two years and was then forced to seek a field that promised a better support. The settlers were really too poor to maintain a minister. After his departure came one George Burdett, in 1637, and by vote of some combination for government was chosen governor in place of Capt. Thomas Wiggin. On account of some misdemeanors and unfavorable criticism of the Massa- chusetts government in correspondence with Archbishop Laud he removed to Agamenticus, now York, Maine, where he secured favor for a little time, till his villainy was discovered. He was convicted in court of adultery and was obliged to return to England and obscurity.
He was succeeded by the Rev. Hansard Knollys, who on his
5 Dr. Quint's First Parish in Dover and Stackpole's Hist. of Durham, N. H., p. 5.
6 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. I, p. 204.
.
35
1481616
A HISTORY
arrival in December, 1638, organized the first church in Dover. He remained about three years and then returned to England, where he became a Baptist, suffered various persecutions and died at the age of ninety-three. He was reputed as a man of piety, courage and learning, author of twelve books, versed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. It was just before his pastorate that Capt. John Underhill, having been cast out by Massachusetts, came to Dover Neck and succeeded in getting himself chosen as governor,7 which was interpreted by the government of the Bay Colony as an unfriendly act. He had been a soldier in the Netherlands and had served acceptably as an officer in the Pequod war, also as a deputy to the General Court in Boston. But Underhill at Dover was in too small a field for the full exercise of his turbulent spirit. He attempted more than he could perform. The Rev. Thomas Larkham had been called as assistant to Mr. Knollys, and the two ministers did not agree on some small points of doctrine and practice. Dr. Belknap's manuscript church records contain the following bit of ecclesi- astical comedy: "The more religious sort adhering to Mr. Knollys, he in their name excommunicated Mr. Larkham, who in turn laid violent hands on Knollys, taking the hat from his head, pretending it was not paid for, but he was so civil as to send it back to him again. In this heat it began to grow to a tumult, and some of the magistrates joined with Mr. Larkham and assembled in company to fetch Capt. Underhill before the court. He also gathered some of their neighbors together to defend themselves and keep the peace, and so marched out to meet Mr. Larkham, one carrying a Bible on a halbud for an ensign, Mr. Knollys being armed with a pistol. When Mr. Larkham saw them thus provided, he withdrew his party and went no farther, but sent down to Mr. Williams, Governor of Strawberry Bank, for assistance, who came up with a company of armed men and beset Mr. Knollys's house, where Capt. Under- hill was, kept a guard upon him night and day till they could call a court, and then, Mr. Williams sitting as judge, they found Underhill and his company guilty of riot and set great fines upon them and ordered him and some others to depart out of
7 Sept. 6, 1638. "Mr. John Underhill is banished to go out of this jurisdiction within 14 days & not to returne any more."-Records of Mass., Vol. I, p. 237.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE
the Plantation. 8 Soon after Underhill made public confession in Boston of his many sins, "with many deep sighs and abund- ance of tears," and Mr. Larkham left Dover in 1641, returning to England. He had been settled at Northam, near Barnstaple, before coming to New England, and so it was probably through his influence that the name of Bristol, first given to Dover, was changed to Northam. This name did not stick long to the settlement. Perhaps some scandalous rumors about Mr. Lark- ham induced the people to adopt the name Dover for their township, in the year 1642, a name that for many years included not only the present town of Dover, but also Durham, Lee, Madbury, Rollinsford, Somersworth, and parts of Rochester and Newington.
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