USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, from its first discovery to the year 1830; with dissertations upon the rise of opinions and institutions, the growth of agriculture and manufactures, and the influence of leading families and distinguished men, to the year 1874; > Part 6
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discloses, in the briefest manner, the origin of Portsmouth, for that lofty and self-forgetting devotion to great principles which baptized many of the early settlements lining the New England coast never set its seal on the brow of Strawberry Bank. The first colonists, fishmongers of London, more intent on trade than religion, arrived three years after the Pilgrims at Plymouth. They first settled at Little Harbor, nor was it until seven years that houses began to dot the ridge which ran along from Pitts street to Chapel Hill, then called 'the Bank.' Here the church, with its wholesome discipline and heavenly comforts, found no early home. Though a chapel and parsonage seem to have been built, no regular provision was made for a settled ministry until 1640, when twenty of the inhabitants deeded to some church wardens fifty acres for a glebe." The first preacher was Rich- ard Gibson. "He was wholly addicted to the hierarchy and discipline of England, and exercised his ministerial function ac- cording to the ritual." He remained in office but a short time, and was succeeded by several temporary preachers till the people built a new meeting-house and, in 1658, called and settled Rev. Joshua Moodey from Massachusetts. He was a devout, earnest and impressive preacher ; yet the original tendencies of the col- onists were so strong that it required thirteen years of assiduous labor for him to gather a church. Finally, in 1661, the civil authorities invited several churches to assist in the formation of the first church in Portsmouth, and "in the ordination of offi- cers therein. "
Dover was settled in 1623 ; after the lapse of seven years only three houses had been erected. Its progress was very slow for ten years, and, during all that time, there was no public religious instruction. After the territory passed into the hands of Puritan owners, they sent out from the west of England some colonists " of good estate and of some account for religion," and with them a minister of their own faith. William Leveridge, an Oxford graduate, " an able and worthy Puritan minister," came to Dover in 1633, and remained about two years ; then, for want of ade- quate support, removed to Boston. He was succeeded by George Burdett, a churchman, politician and an intriguing demagogue. His popular talents made him governor, and, in that capacity, he opened a correspondence with Archbishop Laud, the bitter enemy of the Puritans. He not only deceived the people over whom he ruled, but violated the laws he had sworn to execute. He committed a heinous crime, in consequence of which he left the Plantation and went to Agamenticus, in Maine. In July, 1638, Hanserd Knollys, a graduate of Cambridge, came to Bos- ton. He had received episcopal ordination, but had joined the Puritan party. At the invitation of "some of the more re-
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ligious," he came to Dover. Dr. Quint thus states the con- dition of affairs when he arrived :
" When Knollys came to Dover, in 1638, he found a settlement originated under Episcopal auspices, though enlarged under other influences; a people mixed in their character, none of them emigrants for conscience' sake, and none of them Puritans of the Bay type; the settlement a refuge for men who could not endure the Massachusetts rigor ; no church organized after fifteen years of colonial life, and a minister who, in spirit a churchman, was corresponding with Archbishop Laud, and who was supported by a portion of the people. 'Of some of the best minded' Knollys gathered a church. But it was in the midst of a people who had generally no love for Puritan- ism. Burdett left the town, but 'another churchman,' Larkham, came in, and by appealing to the looser elements succeeded in superseding Knollys."
Such was the origin of the first four churches of New Hampshire.
CHAPTER XVII.
ELEMENTS OF POPULAR LIBERTY.
In England, cities, boroughs and parishes have existed from time immemorial ; but no such political organizations as towns. The Pilgrim fathers found Holland divided into townships, which regulated their own internal affairs through municipal officers of their own selection. Of Holland Motley says : "It was a land where every child went to school ; where almost every individual inhabitant could read and write ; where even the middle classes were proficient in mathematics and the classics, and could speak two or more modern languages." Their industry and economy are noticed with high commendation. The Pilgrims probably gained from the Hollanders some of their excellent notions res- pecting local legislation and public schools.
Town organizations in New England are the purest democ- racies the world has ever known. They constitute the chief safeguard to our national liberties. The militia, the town, the school and the church are the corner stones of the temple of liberty. Through their agency, we obtain free men, free thought, free opinions and free speech. The town organizations in New Hampshire grew naturally out of the plantations. The limited number of settlers in each locality produced mutual dependence, a community of interests and frequent deliberations upon the common welfare. Each of the first four plantations became a town when they made their "combinations" for the purposes of local government and mutual safety. The town-meeting which
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grew out of these infant states was as purely democratic as the ecclesia in ancient Athens. Here the whole body of freemen met in deliberation ; and as there then existed no religious or property qualifications for suffrage in New Hampshire, nearly every adult man was a voter, and every such voter was person- ally interested in the decrees of this popular assembly. After the union with Massachusetts, these town-meetings assumed new importance. In them the local power was delegated to a board of selectmen, and the legislative power was conferred on depu- ties who were to represent the towns in the General Court at Boston. This delegation of power to representatives laid the foundation of the state and national republics. But the town meeting was the freeman's school. There he learned to delib- erate and to discuss and decide questions of public interest. "Town-meetings," says De Tocqueville, "are to liberty what primary schools are to science : they bring it within the people's reach; they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it." In these democratic assemblies, the planters resolved to defend their homes against the incursions of savages, the aggressions of pro- prietors and the prerogatives of monarchs. This element of popular liberty was so important through the whole colonial his- tory of New England, that it has been affirmed with great truth, that the American Revolution had its birth in the town meetings and school-houses of the scattered colonists. The king's com- missioners of the revenue, writing from Boston in 1768, com- plained of New England town-meetings, in which they said : "The lowest mechanics disscussed the most important points of government, with the utmost freedom." The cry of the Court party was : "Send over an army and a fleet to reduce the dogs to reason."
In 1647, Massachusetts established a system of free schools. Scotland had some years earlier set up a system of parochial schools under the control of the Presbyterian church, which in that country was united with the state. These schools were designed to educate all the children of each parish. The New England sys- tem was more liberal than the Scotch and was under the super- vision of the government and not of the church. It is the first establishment of schools without tuition, open to all and free to all, known to history. The formation of districts in each town for the purposes of general education, near the beginning of the present century, furnished another occasion for the local ad- ministration of these schools by all the freemen residing in each district. The school-house became a Hall of Legislation for the little community that built and owned it; and here taxes were imposed, rules adopted and committees chosen for the govern- ment and maintenance of the school.
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The church, like the school and town, became a seminary of liberty. Most of the early churches were congregational in government and discipline. All questions of interest in the church were decided by major vote ; and the congregation gave their voice in the same way when a pastor was called and set- tled. Most of the early ministers were settled by the towns where they officiated; of course the entire body of the freemen was called upon to vote for or against the candidate.
Thus all local affairs pertaining to law, learning and religion were debated and decided by the votes of the towns in purely democratic assemblies. The power of the press was soon ad- ded to these other educational forces. The first newspaper in New Hampshire was issued on the seventh of October, 1756, at Portsmouth. It was called the New Hampshire Gazette and Historical Chronicle. It was owned and published by Daniel Fowle, till the year 1784. Other editors succeeded him, who have continued the paper to the present day. Other journals of a similar character were soon published, till in process of time the press became the most potent political educator in the state.
Trained in a similar school, the town-meeting of Providence, R. I., thus addressed their friend, Sir Henry Vane, who is styled, "under God, the sheet anchor of Rhode Island": "We have long been free from the yoke of wolvish bishops ; we have sit- ten dry from the streams of blood spilt by the wars of our na-
tive country. * * * We have not known what an excise means ; we have almost forgotten what titles are. We have long drunk of the cup of as great liberties as any people that we can hear of under the whole heaven."
NOTE .- Colonel Charles H. Bell, President of the New Hampshire Historical Society, has a well-preserved copy of the first book printed and published in the state. It is entitled "Good News from a Far Country, in Seven Discourses; Delivered in the Presbyterian Church in Newbury, by Jonathan Panny, A. M., and Minister of the Gosple there, and now Published at the desire of Many of the Hearers and Others." "Printed in Portsmouth by Daniel Fowle, 1756." The book, with a modern binding, is in excellent condition, and is printed upon clear type and good paper and is easily read.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
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CONDITION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AFTER ITS UNION WITH MASSACHUSETTS.
The growth of New Hampshire was not very rapid for many years after its political union with an older and more prosperous state. The four original plantations continued to be the centres of population and influence. From them went forth small col- onies and began settlements in the adjacent territories, which in process of time became independent, so that nearly twenty sep- arate towns have been incorporated from the territory first in- cluded within the bounds of Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter and Hampton. The laws, customs and religion of Massachusetts immediately took root in the soil of New Hampshire. Exeter and Hampton were at first annexed to the jurisdiction of the courts of Ipswich, till the establishment of a new country called Norfolk, which embraced the four settlements of New Hamp- shire, with Salisbury and Haverhill in Massachusetts. This county then included all the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua. Salisbury was the shire town; though Dover and Portsmouth each had separate courts in which magistrates of their own presided. An inferior court, consisting of three justices, was established in each town, with jurisdiction in all cases under twenty shillings. Here were the germs of the Su- preme Court and Court of Common Pleas. For a few years the associate magistrates were appointed by the General Court. In 1647, the towns of Dover and Portsmouth were allowed in joint meeting to choose the associates ; so that a democratic element was early introduced into the New Hampshire courts. In 1649, the assembled wisdom of the two colonies condemned as sin- ful the wearing of long hair, and the magistrates declared their detestation and dislike of the practice "as a thing uncivil and unmanly, whereby men do deform themselves, and offend sober and honest men and do corrupt good manners."
The heirs of Capt. Mason now began to assert their claims to the territory of New Hampshire. The eldest grandson of Mason died in infancy. His brother Robert Tufton became of age in 1650. After the lapse of two years, Mrs. Mason sent over an agent named Joseph Mason to regain possession of her husband's estate. He found Richard Leader occupying lands at Newichewannoc and brought a suit against him in the
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court of Norfolk. A question arose whether the land in dis- pute were not within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. An appeal was made to the General Court, who ordered a survey of the northern boundary of their patent to be made. Two com- petent surveyors, with Indian guides, proceeded up the Merri- mack to find its most northerly head. The Indians affirmed that it was at Aquedoctan, the outlet of the Winnipiseogee lake .* The latitude of this place was found to be forty-three degrees, forty-three minutes and twelve seconds. Experienced seamen were then sent to the eastern coast who found a point of an island in Casco Bay to be in the same latitude. A line was then drawn through these two points, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, which was declared to be the northern boundary of Massachusetts, within which the whole claim of Mason was included. After thus throwing the ægis of their protection over this immense territory, with a show of generosity they granted to the heirs of Mason "a quantity of land proportionable to his disbursements, with the privilege of the river." The agent made no further effort to recover Mrs. Mason's estate, but returned home, hoping that the government of England would interpose. As the Mason family had always belonged to the royalist party, they expected no relief during the commonwealth and the pro- tectorate of Cromwell. After the restoration of Charles II., Robert Tufton, who now took the sirname of Mason, petitioned the king for redress. The attorney-general reported that "Rob- ert Mason, grandson and heir of Capt. John Mason, had a good and legal title to the province of New Hampshire." This decis- ion was made in 1662. The king did not act decisively in the matter till 1664, when he appointed commissioners "to visit the several colonies of New England, to examine and determine all complaints and appeals in matters civil, military and criminal." Imperial power was here delegated. The commissioners were authorized to decide matters of the highest moment "according to their good and sound discretion." Of course such dictation was offensive, in the highest degree, to the colonists. The com- missioners were treated with great coolness. No public honors awaited their arrival in any town. They passed through New Hampshire, taking affidavits and listening to the complaints of disaffected persons. Among these was one Abraham Corbett, of Portsmouth, who had been censured by the general court for the assumption of power under the king, which they thought was inconsistent with their chartered rights. Corbett drew up a
* NOTE .- It is said that there are more than forty different modes of spelling the name of this lake. There is no uniformity of the orthography of Indian names among carly writers. Each person endeavored to represent in letters the sounds which his ear caught from native lips ; hence it is extremely difficult to trace the etymology of Indian names. The name of the lake is now often written and pronounced Winnipesaukee.
-
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petition, praying for a separate government for New Hampshire. A few seditious persons signed it ; the majority opposed it. The commissioners were haughty and supercilious. They threatened heavy penalties for disobedience to the king's mandates. The people were alarmed. They appealed to the General Court for an opportunity to exculpate themselves from all participation in the sentiments expressed in the petition. Commissioners from Massachusetts visited Dover and Portsmouth and from the as- sembled people received assurances of their entire satisfaction with the present government. Exeter did the same through their minister Rev. Mr. Dudley. Corbett was arrested and brought before the governor and magistrates of Massachusetts, "to answer for his tumultuous and seditious practices against the govern- ment," and was fined and disfranchised. Lest this bold vindi- cation of their rights should seem disloyal to the king, they pro- ceeded at once to obey his order respecting the fortification of the harbors. Every male inhabitant of Portsmouth was required to work one week, between June and October, on the, fortifica- tions on Great Island. In other respects the decrees of the royal commissioners were little heeded. After their business was completed they were recalled by the king, who was greatly dis- pleased at the treatment they had received, and, by letter, com- manded the colony to send agents to England, promising to hear in person "all allegations, suggestions, and pretences to right or favor on behalf of the colony." Here was, undoubtedly, a con- flict of authority. They were disobedient to the king because, as they maintained, his commission invaded their chartered rights. They pleaded "a royal donation, under the great seal, as the greatest security that could be had in human affairs." We can easily forgive them for that particular act of disloyalty.
CHAPTER XIX.
MORAL EPIDEMICS.
Cicero remarks: "There is no opinion so absurd that it may not be found in some one of the philosophers." Culture is no safeguard against errors of opinion. The most learned are often the most erratic. Astrology and alchemy originated with schol- ars and men of science. In past ages, both the wise and igno- rant have been disposed to ascribe whatever was mysterious or
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inexplicable to spiritual agents. Hence, evil demons and those who pretended to deal with familiar spirits have held an impor- tant place in the popular creeds of all nations. Magicians, wiz- ards and sorcerers have addressed themselves with immense advantage to the love of the marvelous in men ; and thus impos- ture has been enriched at the expense of popular credulity. The mind has its diseases as well as the body ; and, like
-" the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,"
they are contagious. They spread by involuntary sympathy. We, from our exalted throne of Sadduceeism, wonder at the su- perstition and credulity of our fathers. Many volumes have been written upon the Salem witchcraft. The ink is now hardly dry, that has recorded the pious horror of pantheists, positivists and liberal christians, concerning this sad delusion.
"'Tis true 'tis pity, And pity 'tis 'tis true,"
that such abominations should be committed anywhere under the light of day, or in the gloom of night ; and, it is especially grievous that religious men should perpetuate them. But it is nothing strange that the Pilgrims and their children believed in witchcraft, when it was the transmitted creed of all the preced- ing ages. The Bible taught it; the Church preached it; the law punished it, and the people feared it. The ignorant are usually the greatest dupes of such delusions. On this point I will quote the words of the late President Felton :
" Our fathers knew this better perhaps than we. Their earliest care was to secure the benefits of learning to their posterity. The measures they took to carry into practical effect this illustrious purpose were suggested partly by a love of solid scholarship as warm as ever animated the heart of students since their day, and partly by their firm belief that learning was to be the great arm of their warfare against the Adversary of mankind.
Milton, in describing the conflict of Michael with the Prince of Darkness, says :
"The griding sword, with discontinuous wound Passed through him; but the ethereal substance closed Not long divisible."
For spirits, he afterwards adds,
"Cannot but by anniliilating die."
Earlier than our fathers engaged in the struggle, Luther drove out the Foul Fiend who haunted his cell and broke in upon his pious labors, by hurling an inkstand at his Mephistophelian head. The battle was not fin- ished by the learned weapons our fathers forged and wielded. The same Ancient Adversary, cloven down by Michael, battered and bespattered by Luther's inkstand, has stood the tug of war with modern science and educa- tion. But he has been driven from the open field; he has been humbled into a "fantastic Duke of dark corners;" and finally, in our own day, he has lost all the glory of the "archangel ruined;" he has dropped even the Mediaval terrors of tail, hoof and horn; he has become a mean, contemptible and sneaking Devil. His greatest exploits are to rap under tables for silly women and sillier men; to spell out painfully, by the help of whispers and winks
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and explanations of self-deluded bystanders, and with many an orthographic blunder (for he has not learned phonography yet) a name or two in as many hours; to construct awkward and unmeaning messages, and convey them from the spirit-world to gaping fools around, by joggling tables' legs. Re- duced to this most shabby and pitiable condition of Devilhood, I think the armory of learning our fathers left us, if we burnish it up and use it aright, will soon dislodge him from his crazy quarters, and disarm, if not annihilate him."
The first victim of the law against witches in New England was Margaret Jones of Charlestown. She was executed in 1648. The charges against her were that her touch was malignant, pro- ducing vomitings, pain, and violent sickness ; that the medicines which she administered, as a doctress, though harmless in their nature, produced great distress ; that her ill will towards those who rejected her medicine prevented the healing of their mala- dies ; that some of her prophecies proved true; and that she nourished one of those little imps of Satan called incubi. The persons accused at first were old, wrinkled and decrepit women. The witnesses were mischievous children and malignant fanatics. Spectral evidence, ocular fascination, apparitions, and other un- real creations of a diseased imagination were adduced as proofs of guilt. "A callous spot was the mark of the Devil ; did age or amazement refuse to shed tears, were threats after a quarrel followed by death of cattle or other harm, did an error occur in repeating the Lord's prayer, were deeds of great physical strength performed, -these all were signs of witchcraft." In 1656, Goodwife Walford was arraigned before the court of as- sistants at Portsmouth, on complaint of Susanna Trimmings. The complainant testified that on her return to her home, on the thirtieth of March, she heard a noise in the woods like the rust- ling of swine. Soon Goodwife Walford appeared and asked a favor. On being refused, Mrs. Trimmings adds : "I was struck as with a clap of fire on the back, and she vanished toward the water side, in my apprehension in the shape of a cat." Other testimony of a similar nature was produced, but it does not ap- pear that the accused was convicted. The complaint was prob- ably dropped at the next session of the court. The next trial for witchcraft was at Hampton, September, 1680. A jury of twelve men, on examination of the corpse of the child of John Godfre, found, under oath, grounds of suspicion that the child was murdered by witchcraft. Rachel Fuller, wife of John Ful- ler, was arraigned and tried for the supposed crime ; and as no record is found of the verdict, it is presumed that she was ac- quitted. This subject seems to have slept in New Hampshire till the great excitement in Salem in 1692 and 1693. But as there were no newspapers to publish the doings of Satan either in pandemonium or in Massachusetts, New Hampshire was but
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little disturbed by the unjust accusations and judicial murders of another state.
Unice Cole of Hampton was reputed to be a witch. Her name has been "married to immortal verse" in Whittier's "Tent on the Beach." It appears from the records of Hampton that eight persons were drowned in sailing from that town to Boston, on the eighth of August, 1657. Their fate was supposed to be connected, in some way, with the mysterious words of Unice Cole as the vessel rounded the point where her cottage stood. A few stanzas from the poet illustrates her supposed agency in an event which the recorder denominates "the sad hand of God." This very phrase reveals the pendulous motion of the human mind from faith to superstition. The poet thus writes :
"Once, in the old colonial days, Two hundred years ago and more, A boat sailed down through the winding ways Of Hampton river to that low shore, Full of a goodly company Sailing out on the summer sea, Veering to catch the land breeze light, With the Boar to left and the Rocks to right.
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