History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 10

Author: Hazlett, Charles A
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 1390

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A few rods southwest of the fort at Odiorne's Point they erected their fish flakes, which gave the name of Flake Hill to the knoll, which is still retained. "During the first few years of the existence of the colony," remarks Potter, "the people suffered every hardship, and not being acclimated many of them were carried off by disease." The graves of such are still to be seen a few rods north of the site of the fort, and is worthy of remark, that the moss-covered cobble stones at the head and foot of the graves, still remain as placed by mourners of two hundred and eighty years since, while a walnut and a pear tree, each of immense size, and possibly of equal age with our state, stand like sentinels, extending their ancient arms over the sleepers below. Evidence is now apparent that a smith's shop was erected near the house. There were between three and four thousand acres regarded as attached to this branch of the plantation. The provisions of the grant were ample for the carrying out of the idea of the proprietors, which was to establish a manor here agreeably to the English custom-the occupants of the land to be held as tenants by the proprietors of the soil.

A description (and it is the only one we have), of the building erected by Thompson at Pannaway, for such was the Indian name of the locality, is derived from a sketch written by Samuel Maverick, in 1660. The docu- ment, "A brief Description of New England," was drawn up as a report to be laid before the King of London after the restoration. It came to light some thirty years ago. In 1902 Mr. Frank W. Hackett consulted and veri- fied the original manuscript in the British Museum. Maverick, who was a few years younger than Thompson, was a gentleman of good family, either from Devon or Cornwall, a staunch churchman and a royalist. He came into Boston Bay in 1624, where he built and fortified (it is said with Thompson's help), a house at Winnesimmet, now Chelsea. The site, which was near the river. is now comprised within the limits of the grounds of the United States Naval Hospital.

Maverick tells us that Thompson built a "Stronge and Large house and enclosed it in a large and high Palizardo and mounted gunns and being stored

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY

extraordinarily with shot and Ammunition was a terror to the Indians, who at that time were insulting over the poor weake and unfurnished planters of Plymouth. This house and Fforte he built on a point of land at the very entrance of the Pascataway River."

Maverick and Thompson were more or less in each other's company. Thompson, it seems, went into the bay to live about three years after he had planted this settlement at Ordiorne's Point. He selected an island in Boston Harbor and built a house there, which island has ever since borne his name.

We have good reason to believe that Maverick, though writing so long after the event, retained a perfectly clear recollection of the original build- ing that Thompson's men erected at Pannaway. Had it been built entirely of stone, it would seem as though Maverick would have mentioned the cir- cumstance, since a building of this material was a very unusual object along the coast. The palisade that he speaks of was not uncommon in those days as a necessary protection against attack from hostile Indians. Maverick's own house was attacked at one time, he tells us, and the Indians were hand- somely repulsed.

The story of this settlement at Ordiorne's Point is told in a lively narra- tive, yet with strict adherence to historical truth, by the late John Scribner Jenness, a son of Portsmouth, in a volume, privately printed at Portsmouth in 1878, entitled "The First Planting of New Hampshire." Few men had a more extensive or accurate knowledge of the early history of this locality than Mr. Jenness. His little book brings together every fact that had been disclosed up to that time, bearing upon the object of Thompson's landing and the step taken by him in beginning the settlement. The picture which this pleasing and exact writer outlines is remarkable for its fullness of detail, seeing that the material with which he worked was fragmentary and slight.

Had Mr. Jenness lived to see Maverick's narrative, it is possible that he would have hesitated to say positively that the house was built of stone. His authority is Hubbard (not always accurate), and a deposition made by Robert Pike at the age of eighty-eight. Pike says that the house was commonly known as "Captain John Mason's stone house." Perhaps the foundation had been carried up higher than usual while the house itself was built of heavy timber. At all events the question of whether the building was constructed wholly of stone, may be considered as still unsettled.

The Council for New England, among other active agencies for promoting the planting of settlements, printed in 1622 a pamphlet of thirty-five pages entitled "A Briefe Description of The Discoverie and Plantation of New Eng- land." It praised the country, its resources and climate. We learn from it that more than thirty vessels in 1622 sailed from the western port of Eng- land for this coast for fishing and trade.

A circumstance that connects Thompson with the plans of Mason and Gorges is, that late in the autumn of 1623 Capt. Robert Gorges came to Pannaway, meeting here Capt. Christopher Levett and Capt. Francis West. The object of their meeting was to carry out a plan of the Council for setting up a general government in New England. We are told that Thompson was

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

authorized to receive possession of the Province in the name of Gorges and Mason from Captain Gorges.

Levett has left an account of his experience in 1623, in a little book pub- lished in 1628, at London, and "sold by Edward Brewster at the sign of the Bible in St. Paul's Church Yard." He arrived at the Isles of Shoals in November and then came over and stayed a month with Thompson. The weather being cold and the snow deep, our visitor did not gain any too favor- able an impression of the neighborhood. "In these parts," he says, "I saw much good timber, but the ground it seemed to me not to be good, being very rocky and full of trees and brushwood. There is a great store of fowle of diverse sorts whereof I fed very plentifully. About two English miles fur- ther to the East I found a great river and a good harbor called Pascataway. But for the ground I can say nothing, but by the relation of the Sagamore or King of the place who told me there was much good ground up in the river about seven or eight leagues."

Captain Levett was not the first sailor to speak a good word for the River Pascataway. As early as 1614 Capt. John Smith had told his country- men that this river furnished a safe harbor with a rocky shore. Indeed, that anyone in any century can see this river and go away and not praise it, is incredible.

Just how long Thompson stayed at Pannaway is not yet within our power to determine. He was certainly there as late as 1626, and perhaps for a short season after that date. An infant son was born to him, who in his man- hood is the John Thompson who petitioned the General Court at Boston in regard to Thompson's Island. There is reason to believe that the date of John Thompson's birth was 1626, so he most likely first saw the light of day at Ordiorne's Point. If such be the fact, there may be claimed for him the honor of having been the first white child born within the present limits of New Hampshire.

In 1628 settlements along the coast were levied upon to meet the expense of expelling Morton from Merry Mount in the bay for sundry offenses, the chief of which was furnishing firearms to the Indians. Among the con- tributors appears the name of Mrs. Thompson. That her name is used instead of that of her husband is an indication that by 1628 David Thomp- son had died. Not long after her husband's death the widow, as we know, was married to Samuel Maverick. We find a letter written by Amias Maver- ick to friends at Plymouth, England, in relation to her father ; and thus, all doubt is dispelled of the identity of the wife of Samuel Maverick with her who was originally Amias Cole.

It was formerly supposed that Thompson had been sent out by an asso- ciation called the Laconia Company. So Doctor Belknap wrote, and in his statement he is followed by Mr. Adams, the author of the Annals. As a matter of fact the Laconia Company did not come into existence until 1629, six years later.

Mr. Hackett gives some more details in reference to the Laconia Patents, for an error of so long standing should be corrected whenever opportunity offers.

In 1626, England, already at war with Spain, became engaged in a war

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY

with France that lasted until 1629. An enterprise was set on foot by the Canada Company in which Gorges and Mason were interested, to capture Canada. This company of private persons-a procedure that seems strange at this day-fitted out a naval expedition. David Kirke, in command of three ships, succeeded in capturing Quebec, whereupon he brought Champlain as a prisoner to England. Upon arrival Kirke learned to his chagrin that peace had already been declared, and that by the terms of the treaty, what they had conquered was to be restored to France.

One result of this expedition was that Kirke and his men had gained new and valuable information with regard to the fur trade in that region, a trade which held out very alluring prospects of gain. Certain members of the Canada Company stirred by the hope of turning this information to their immediate advantage, resolved to launch out into a bold undertaking to this end. They were convinced, it seems, that a shorter way could be opened for getting to the fur country then by the river of Canada. What is now Lake Champlain, then called the Lake of the Iroquois, they imagined could be reached by a slight portage from the headwaters of the Pascataway.

Accordingly, within a few days after the return of Kirke's expedition these adventurers obtained a grant from the Council of all the lands border- ing upon the lake and the rivers called the Iroquois, as well as the right to select a thousand acres upon the sea coast, where the same had not already been disposed of to other persons .. The patent provided that the grantees could associate others with them, to adventure in "plantations trafiques and discouvryes." They who associated themselves in this undertaking adopted the name of the Laconia Company. Gorges and Mason and seven London merchants were thus associated. The scheme on hand was to send over cargoes of goods to the Pascataway, thence to be taken up the river in canoes, and carried to Champlain to convenient places, where they could be disposed of in barter to the Indians, for peltries to be brought back to the mouth of the Pascataway. The company, however, did not take up, as had been con- templated, the thousand acres on the coast, as a site for their factory.

Like many great speculations, this enterprise absorbed the capital and taxed the energies of its promoters, but came to nothing. Captain Mason said, in 1634, that he had never received a penny for all his outlay in his plantations in the Pascataway. Had he come over in person, the result might have been different. He died in 1635. Though his investment yielded him no return. Mason gained an honored name. One may visit today the ancient church of Domus Dei, at Portsmouth, England, and behold four standards and a tablet, raised in memory of Capt. John Mason, a "faithful church- man, devoted patriot and gallant officer, * * the founder of New Hampshire," a memorial gratefully put there in 1874 by five men and two women of this Pascataway region, some of them his descendants.

We thus see not only that Thompson in 1625 had not been sent over by the Laconia Company, but that his coming did not widen out to the extent of the grand purposes just outlined. It should be mentioned in passing that while the fur trade of Canada gave impetus to the movement in 1631. it was the intention of Mason, as one of the company, that the building up and developing of a plantation in this neighborhood engaged likewise in the

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

fisheries and other pursuits, should go hand in hand with the carrying on of the great trade that they expected would come here.

The ambitious design of the Laconia Company, as may well be imagined, created a stir and bustle upon our river. In 1630, a bark, belonging to George Griffith, one of the Laconia partners, the Warwick of eighty tons and carry- ing ten pieces of ordnance, sailed from Plymouth for the mouth of the Pascat- away. She brought over Capt. Walter Neale, a soldier who was to act as governor, and Ambrose Gibbons, the factor of the company.

As soon as the Warwick arrived Neale took up his residence in the house built by Thompson. About this time, through some means not as yet clearly to be made out, this house appears to have become the property of Capt. John Mason, or of the Laconia Company. Neale's orders were to start in September to discover a route to the Iroquois country. But some cause of delay ensued, and he wrote home that it was too late in the season for him to make the attempt. Another ship, the Pied Cowe, came over that year. Both vessels returned to England and were ready the next season to sail for the plantation.

The Warwick arrived here in September, 1631, bringing passengers, the most distinguished of whom was Capt. Thomas Cammock, a nephew of the Earl of Warwick. After a short stay, the bark sailed for Virginia, and went some distance up the river Potomac. She came back to the Pascataway, arriving in February, 1632. These details are to be gathered from a journal kept by Henry Fleet, her factor, the MS. of which was discovered a few years ago and printed.

In 1632 another ship, the John, was employed in bringing over goods. In the years 1631 and 1632, a number of men, suited to the work of beginning a plantation, came over in these vessels; or, some may have taken passage in other vessels of which we have no record. The incoming probably continued for two years longer.

From the Belknap papers we obtain a list of names numbering between fifty and sixty men, of the stewards and servants sent by Capt. John Mason into New Hampshire. There were twenty-two women, showing that some of the settlers brought their wives with them; no doubt there were children not enumerated. A large proportion of this company, to judge from their names, came from Devon and Cornwall. There was a sprinkling of foreigners of the laboring class, styled Danes in one account, and spoken of in a later record as Frenchmen. They were eight in number, but we do not know the name of any one of them.

Of those that came over between the years 1631 and 1634 (for such is the period to which this list of names may be applied), there were not a few the descendants of whom, bearing the name, are yet to be found in this neighborhood. We may mention, for instance, Vaughan, Fernald, Johnson, Rand, Sherburne, Canney, Goddard, Seavey, Berry, Brackett, Pickering.

This period marks the beginning of a continuous and growing settlement here upon the Pascataway.

I ought to have said that the Pascataway patent covering both sides of the river was granted by the Council, on November 3, 1631, to Gorges and to Mason. Mention is made in the patent of the "house and chief habitacion

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at Pascataway wherein Capt. Walter Neale and the colonie with him now doth or lately did reside, together with the garden and corn grounds occupied and planted by the said colonie and the salt works already begun."

Later, Mason divided the territory with his partner Gorges, the former 1 retaining the New Hampshire side of the river, while Gorges took that part which is now in the State of Maine.

A portion of the force thus sent over by the Laconia Company went up the river about fifteen miles, and settled at Newichewannock ( Berwick Falls). Others took up their abode on Great Island (New Castle), which for many years continued to be the most important, as it was the most popu- lous part of the settlement. Here they promptly occupied the northeastern projection of the island, known to this day as Fort Point, where they planted guns to command the river,-the forerunner of the Castle, of Fort William and Mary and of Fort Constitution, as these works were successively named.

The settlers up the river built a house and surrounded it with palisades, meaning that it should be an important post for the projected fur trade. They set up a saw mill there, which was kept busy getting out lumber for their buildings. They experimented with the planting of vines, but it did not prove successful. A little later Mason sent over a stock of neat cattle. They appear to have been kept at Pascataway. The company also furnished shallops, fishing boats and skiffs for the carrying on of a fishery.

Of these newcomers Renald Fernald was a surgeon; William and Hum- phrey Chadbourn were master builders. One of the Chadbourns (I believe it to have been William) built at Straw Berry Banke, probably in 1631, the Great House, at the southwest corner of what is now Water and Court streets. A letter of instructions from London, dated 5th of December, 1632, to Gibbons, who had become discouraged with his work at Newichewannock, and who proposed to remove to Saunders Point near Sagamore Creek, opposite Great Island, announces the fact that the company had written to Mr. Wannerton "to take care of our house at Straw Berry Banke." The pleasing name of Straw Berry Banke, as we all know, was derived from the circumstance that the river bank commanding that beautiful view from what is now Church Hill, was in those early days rich in wild strawberries.

Unfortunately, our early records were almost totally destroyed by the action of the selectmen in 1652, who copied out a few entries from the old book into a new book. What became of the old book nobody can tell, though in all probability it was long ago destroyed. We do not know, therefore, whether a street or lane was ever laid out to start with.

The sole memorial that remains to us of an ancient date is the grant of the Glebe ( May 25, 1640). Nor is this an original. It is an entry in the town book made as late as 1664, the selectmen finding the original on file nearly worn-out pieces by passing through so many hands. So, they had it copied into the records.

Here is an appropriate place for a word or two upon the subject of the term of "Great House," as found in our early records. Two structures acquired this name, one the original building put up by Thompson, at Pan- naway. This subsequently became known as Captain Mason's house. Being

GOV. JOIIN WENTWORTH HOUSE, 1769; PORTSMOUTH

GOV. ICHABOD GOODWIN HOUSE, 1811; PORTSMOUTH

THE FIRST WENTWORTH HOUSE, 1670; PORTSMOUTH

GOV. JOIIN LANGDON HOUSE, 1784; PORTSMOUTH

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larger than any habitation built for a single family, it naturally took the name of Great House, to distinguish it from other and smaller dwellings.

A like reason accounts for the name applied to the building at the Banke. Both these houses were doubtless intended not only to accommodate at the outset a large number of inmates but also to furnish a secure place for the deposit of stores. Not far distant from the Great House in a westerly direction there was a great white rock. It is spoken of, at one place in the record, as standing in the field of John Cutt.

The existence of two buildings each called the Great House has led to a little confusion. For instance, Mr. Adams, under the year 1644, after reciting the fact that Sampson Dane succeeded to Warnerton in the possession of the Great House, says of the house itself, "there were attached to it about a thousand acres of land, consisting of marsh, meadow, planting and pasture grounds and mostly under improvement." Brewster follows this authority. and also tells us that Richard Cutt occupied the Great House, and that about the year 1685 it had fallen down, and the ruins were then visible.

Evidently, the source of information for both these statements is the deposition of George Walton, given at the age of seventy years, and used at the famous case of Allen against Waldron. It is printed in the appendix to the Annals. Examine this deposition closely, and you will see that Walton draws a distinction between the Great House at Pascataway, meaning the house that Thompson built, and the Great House at Strawberry Bank. Of the former he says :

"To the great house at Pascataway aforesaid there were adjoining about one thousand acres of improved lands, marsh, meadow and planting grounds, which were divided and parcelled out by the servants of Captain Mason and others, the select, or prudential men (of the town of Portsmouth) as they were so-called who still enjoy the same or their heirs and assigns, whereof William Vaughan and his brother-in-law have a large share given them by their father-in-law. Richard Cutt, and the said Great House, by the means aforesaid, came to decay and fell down the ruins being to be seen, out of which several good farms are now made."

What this means, is that at Little Harbor a very large tract of land was appurtenant to the Great House, and that the house itself, having been deserted, had fallen down, and Walton had seen the ruins. Hubbard appears to have learned of this fact, and his language has the same significance. The deponent means also that out of the thousand acres or more several good farms had been made.

On the other hand, the Great House at the Banke had land appurtenant to it, but there is no authority that we know of for saying that the planting grounds were of the extent of "about a thousand acres." Moreover, it is capable of demonstration that the house had not fallen in ruins in 1685. It is two or three times referred to in records much later than that date. In August, 1692, Samuel Penhallow conveys to John Snell a "lot near the house in which John Partridge now dwelleth commonly called the Great House in the town of Portsmouth" ( Rockingham Records VI, p. 151). There is no reason to believe that this structure, built as it undoubtedly was, of heavy timber, was at any time ever deserted, or that it ever fell into ruin.

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It may have been burned, or because of its size the owner may have thought fit to take it down rather than repair it. One who cares to search the records might discover the date when it ceased to exist as the Great House.

Walton's deposition, at its close, makes it perfectly clear that a large part of what is now Portsmouth was originally planting grounds and pasture belonging to the Great House on Water street.

PORTSMOUTH NAMED

For thirty years from the first settlement, we might roam through forests without leaving the present limits of the thickly settled part of Portsmouth. The growth of the colony was slow, the Great Island portion being more rapid than at the Bank. In 1653 there were but fifty or sixty families in the limits of what now comprises Portsmouth, Newcastle, Greenland and Newington. In May of that year the inhabitants petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for a definite township, and the privilege of taking the name of Portsmouth. As this petition, obtained by Rev. Dr. Burroughs from the file in the early documents in Massachusetts, has not been placed in our town records or annals, we give it here, verbatim, for preservation :

"To the hon'd Gen'l Court at Boston, this present month of May 1653. The humble petition of the Inhab'ts of the Towne at present called Strabery Banke, showeth. That whereas your petitioners petitioned to the last Gen'l Court to grant to the P. Inhab'ts, a competent portion of land to make us a township, whereby we may be enabled to subsist and be useful to the church and Common'th. Our desire is, that this honor'd Court will be pleased to show their favor and good will towards us, and willingness to accommodate us to the uttermost. And for that purpose have desired the honor'd Capt. Wiggins to bring his pattent to this present Court. Now it may please this hon'd Court to take our case into consideration; and to con- sider of our extreme necessities, first in respect of the number of families, which are between and 50 and 60, of W'ch some are constrained to remove from what of land to accommodate them with their families stocks-secondly, the qualities of the land wee live upon is soe badd, its incredible to beleeve except those who have seen it-thirdly the place being settled a plantation, the first of any in these parts, and our willingnesse in submitting to yr government-fourthly, that all the neighboring plantations about us, w'ch were settled since wee, have their townships settled and bounded; onely we as yet have none-fifthly, that whereas there is much benefit by saw mills in other townes in this river and adjacent townes there is none in this town but onely one, w'ch was never perfected no likely to bee. We humbly intreat his honor'd Court to take into theire view this necke of land w'ch we live upon; w'ch nature itselfe hath bounded with the maine sea and river, as may be seene by the draft of the river, w'ch was presented to the last Gen'l Court, and now presented againe by our deputie, w'ch necke of land is farre less than any neighboringe towne about us. The desire of yr humble petit'rs is. that this hon'd Court would grant us the necke of land, beginning in the great bay at a place called Cotterill's delight, soe runninge to the sea according

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History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 10

Author: Hazlett, Charles A Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Number of Pages: 1390

Author: Hazlett, Charles A
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 1390