History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 17

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714

USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 17
USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 17

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the town. Here were the Governor's residence, the fort called William and Mary, on the site used ever since for the same purpose, the prison where Moodey and others were confined, the houses of several of the most wealthy and influential settlers, mansions of note for their day.

In the year 1693 there appears the following record :

" To the Honorable, je Lient. Governor and Councile of this their Majestser Province of New Hampshire : the humble petition of the Inhabitants of the Great Island humbly sheweth :

"That whereus we, being part of ye towne of Portato', and having found for many years grent Inconveniences arising thereby in regard of the distance we are from the banck, and no way to it but by water, wherem there is great difficulty at any time, but sometimes more esjer- ially to the hazard of our healths and lives. in going up to attend the publike worship of God at Strawberry banck and having many poore people amongst ns, both men and women and children, which have no convenience of passage, by which means ye greatest part of our people cannot enjoy ye hearing of ye word preached to them, wch causeth many times ye breach of yo Sabbath, and yo dishoner of God's holy wor- ship; as also, our Island being ye mouth of ye harbor and Inlet into ye province, having the King's fort placed here, and all the stores of am- ninnition, wh. is of great Consequence and ought at all times to he care- fully attended and lookt after ; but if the Inhabitants of this I-land most he confyned to attend their duty at Strawberry banck upon every pub- like ocation, the King's fort is left destitute of assistance, and lyes ex- posed to ye surprizall of ye enemie and our owne destruction ; we there- fore, the Inhabitants of ye Great Island, being a competent number to make nnd uphold a towneship, do humbly bog and desire of this honor- able board ye Governr and Councill that we may be constituted a Towne. ship by ourselves, and that you would grant us the previleges und imunities as their Majesty's have bin grationsly pleased to allow sutch a Towneship, . . . and ye petitioners shall ever pray."

This petition is signed by a number of persons, among whom we find names still common at New Castle. Of course there was considerable opposition on the part of Portsmouth to the petition. The select- men appeared before the Council and confessed it was inconvenient for the inhabitants of Great Island to go to meeting at the Bank, and that the fort and stores ought not to be at any time deserted ; but there should be a minister settled on the island rather than a separate town.

The Council, however, decided that Great Island should be made a township, and divided from the Bank, taking in Little Harbor and a part of Rye, and on the 30th day of May, in the fifth year of the reign of William and Mary, 1693, the charter of the town of New Castle was given. It is written on parchment in black letter, or old English, and pre- served with great care among the town papers.

The early records of New Castle, beginning in the year the town was chartered, and for a long time sup- posed to be lost, have recently been returned from England in a state of good preservation, and written with accuracy and distinctness beyond our own. From these records it appears that a meeting-house had been erected at least as early as 1693, for in De- cember of that year an order was put on " ye Meeting- House" for a town-meeting to agree with a " minister and discorse other things Necessary for the towne's Benefitt." The record of the meeting runs thus : " The Town mett on the 20th December at the Meet- ing-House and by the Inhabitants ; then to discorse

1 See chapter xv.

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

a minister were chosen 'a committee of five to join the selectmen to discorse and agree with a minister for the whole year next ensuing.'" The result was that Mr. (Benj'e) Woodbridge was engaged to be the minister for a year at a salary of sixty pounds and the contribution of strangers. Whenee he came and when and why he left there is no record, but he is mentioned two or three times in a strange book writ- ten about that time and printed in London in 1698, to which we shall soon refer, and called Mr. Wood- bridge, a divine. 1 judge there was some trouble in regard to the salary, as this is a trouble which seems to run through the record, or the inhabitants felt that they had not been sufficiently consulted, for soon after Mr. Woodbridge was settled his advice was asked in regard to a successor. He named three clergymen, and of course the parish did not agree upon any one of them ; but in 1694 Mr. Samuel Moodey was " dis- coursed," and called by the parish at a salary of sev- enty pounds, finding himself honsing and all other things on his own charge. This Mr. Moodey was a son of Joshua Moodey, the minister of Portsmonth, and was graduated at Harvard in 1639. He remained until the latter part of 1702, or early in 1703, and thereafter appears at the Shoals, where he is spoken of as " a man of piety and a pathetic and useful preacher." The last record in regard to him is on a matter of salary, the town agreeing to pay him not all in money, but part in provisions, and thereafter he is spoken of as the late pastor.

At a town-meeting held on the 24th of May, 1703, it was voted to settle Mr. John Emerson, at a salary of sixty-five pounds and the contributions of stran- gers ; and also to build a minister's house, " when the town is able," and to fence in the land belonging to the "ministry," and to pay the minister the freight on his house goods. Altogether they seem to have begun with Mr. Emerson with a good deal of enthu- siasm, perhaps because of his distinguished presence and gifts, which won promises they could not make good in money, for in 1710 Mr. Emerson complains to the town of the poor house in which he has lived ever since he came among them, and puts them in mind of their promise to build a parson's honse. This seems to have led to some difficulty, which re- sulted in the loss of their minister, for although the town voted to build a parsonage, Jan. 18, 1710, the vote was not carried into effect for two years, and on the 17th of September, 1711, Mr. Emerson in- fornied the town that he being sickly of the "ague, and the town not agreeing with him, he thinks it absolutely necessary for his regaining his health to move farther from the sea." He left in 1712, and in 1715 was settled over the South Parish of Portsmouth. When he left New Castle application was made to the president of the college and the minis- ter at Cambridge to procure a minister suitable for the place, and in 1712, November 24th, it was voted "that Mr. William Shurtleff shall be ye minister in this

town, and that he be called to office and ordained here," and in the same year it was voted "that ye Reverend Mr. William Shurtleff shall have sixty-five pounds per year for his annual salary during the time he lives single, but when his family increases by mar- riage it is voted that he shall have eighty pounds per year." In 1732 he gave up the parish at New Castle, and on the 21st of February, 1733, was installed over the South Parish, where he had a ministry of great prosperity for fourteen years.

The first meeting-house at New Castle, built in or before the year 1693, gave way to another in 1706, which was furnished with a bell of fine tone sent over from England, decorated with a beautiful altar- piece, and supplied with a silver communion service, to which was added a splendid silver cup, the bequest of a sister of Sir William Pepperell, and on the pul- pit was a large folio Bible with illuminated letters, printed at the University of Oxford. This meeting- house was, perhaps, as a whole, finer than the first old Sonth at Portsmouth, standing at the same time.

In these early records there are votes at the town- meetings which show the same general characteristics of the inhabitants in regard to social and religious customs that we have already noticed. We find the same order as to seating the townspeople in the meeting-house. We find it ordered " that one house- holder or more walk every Sabbath day in sermon time with the constable to every Publick House in ye town to suppress ill order, and If they think con- veiniant, to private Houses also." We find the same votes in regard to the entertainment of strangers, and giving their names to the selectmen if they re- main more than a few days. We find it ordered, " for the prevention of fire or other dangers which may hap- pen by smoking in the Meeting-House, that every per- son soe smoking at any meeting in the Meeting-House be fined." We find it ordered, " for the prevention of charge coming on the town by some certain noted com- mon drunkards, that the names of such persons be given by the selectmen to every publick house in the town in a paper, and a fine to be inflicted on whomsoever shall sell any drink to persons so noted and named." We find a vote that all the inhabitants shall pass the ferry free on Sabbath days and on all other public days; and we find many votes at various meetings about 1720, and thereafter, in regard to bnikling a bridge over Little Harbor, which was built, fell into decay and disuse, was swept away by the tides. An- other was built upon its site, of which within a few years almost the last traces have disappeared, and now, after the lapse of a century, the old discussion is renewed, and soon a third bridge will span the Little Harbor. Thus do the ways of travel return to their former courses.

Lithobolia .- The most remarkable incident in the history of Great Island is connected with one of the few cases of witchcraft in our neighborhood, and while one instance of the appearance of the witches

PORTSMOUTH.

at Little Harbor is in all the accounts, this, the far that he insisted upon it that it was only the waggery more extraordinary, has been almost entirely lost , of some unlucky boys, but this Chamberlain regards sight of. There are two roads that lead into the an- as impossible after the sight and testimony of so many considerable persons. These preternatural occurrences were supposed to be caused by the ma- liciousness of a neighboring woman, who pretended that some land of her field had been taken into the bounds of this George Walton, and who had been heard to say with much bitterness that Walton should never quietly enjoy that piece of ground. It would often be.a source of grim satisfaction to many if they could thus call all the evil spirits to their aid in tormenting those who have infringed upon their rights. This true narrative, the writer says, is set down to rectify the depraved judgments and sentiments of such unbelieving persons as reject the operations and being of witches, and convince all who hear without prejudice by the testimony of eye-witnesses almost every day for a quarter of a year together. cient village, one by the water and the other a little farther inland. About a third of a mile east by south of the last bridge, on the latter road and very near to it, perhaps, indeed, on it, as the highway has been opened since the building disappeared, and on the land now owned by Mr. John Locke, there stood, as early certainly as 1686, a large mansion with a gambrel roof, a hall extending through the lower story, with several spacious chambers above. The house belonged to one George Walton, called a planter, and among the inmates was one Richard Chamberlain, a prominent publie functionary under Cranfield, being variously styled justice of the peace, Secretary of State, clerk of the court, etc., and near by was a friend of his, also prominent in provincial matters, Capt. Walter Barefoot. When Chamberlain went home to England he wrote a book, which was printed in London in 1698, of which the following is the name and its explanation : " Lithobolia ; or the Stone-throwing Devil. Being an Exact and True Account (by way of Journal) of the various actions of infernal Spirits or (Devils Incarnate) witches, or both, and the Great Disturbance and amazement they gave to George Walton's family, at a place called Great Island, in the province of New Hampshire, in New England, chiefly in throwing about (by an In- visible hand) stones, bricks, and brickbats of all sizes, with several other things as hammers, mauls, Iron Crows, Spits, and other domestic utensils, as came into their Hellish minds, and this for the space of a quarter of a year. By R. C., Esq., who was a sojourner in the same family the whole Time, and an Ocular witness of these Diabolical Inventions. The Contents hereof being manifestly known to the Inhabitants of that province and known of other provinces, and is upon record in his Majestie's Council Court, held for that province, 4to. Dedication 2 pp. 16, London : Printed and are to be sold by E. Whitlock near Stationer's Hall, 1698."

Lithobolia is a Greek word, signifying a throwing of stones, and is the title given to this book because it describes the intervention of supposed evil spirits whose manifestations took that form. The belief in witcheraft was then almost universal even among legal minds best trained to the examination and sift- ing of evidence. So easy is it for persons to see what they believe they will see therefore the book begins with a charge against the skeptical, incredu- lous, and infidel spirit of the age which should ven- ture to disbelieve such well attested things, as with equal reason one might as well deny his very senses, infidelity being always nothing more than the reproach of not accepting the belief of the majority, no matter how much stronger or higher our faith may be in something different. The malicious aets of these fiends ceased about the time the Governor arrived, so

One Sunday night, about ten of the clock, this Richard Chamberlain, justice of the peace, lodging at the house of George Walton, heard many stones thrown and hit with great noise, against the top and all sides of the house. Walton and his neighbor, Amazeen, an Italian, had gone to examine the gate between their houses, which had a habit of being swung off the hinges and cast upon the ground, and as they returned to the house they were assaulted with a peal of stones, taken, as was supposed, from the rocks hard by the house (thus always, in spite of their belief in the supernatural and omnipotent ageney, persons try to let the attendant circumstances make it easier for the divine ageney) and by human hands as agents.

Everybody in the house was aroused by the strange alarm, and all looked out as sharply as possible, it being a bright moonlight night, but could make no discovery. Then a shower of stones, some of them as big as the fist, eame into the entry of the house, whereupon they withdrew into the next room, none being hit save two youths. " Praised be Almighty Providence," says Richard Chamberlain ; for cer- tainly the infernal agent, constant enemy to man- kind, had he not been overruled, intended no less than death or maim. Forthwith they began a search ; they searched the hall, they searched the cellar, and of course the shower of stones began to diminish, but when they came into the room " these unfriendly lapidary salutations" were renewed. The windows were broken, and yet the stones had a way of coming apparently from the inside, foreing the bars and cast windows ont, and themselves falling back into the room. One stone they took out of the glass of the window where it lodged itself in the breaking of it, in a hole exactly fit for the stone. Sometimes they scratched the stones, and found that the same ones were taken up and thrown at them again and again.

After four hours of fright Chamberlain coneluded

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

to go to bed (thus do the powers of nature overcome the supernatural, and we go to sleep even in the pres- ence of demons), but soon he was again awakened by another battery, when it seemed as if shelves, pic- tures, books, and everything had been knocked down, and upon all the household rushing to his room, they found a stone weighing eight pounds and a half, which had burst open the door. Soon after the mani- festations ceased for that night. It was a disturbed night for the household, and in the morning each one had some strange experience to relate, which probably Jost nothing in the relation. That day while the men were at work in the field, and with Mr. Woodbridge, the divine, now present to see, the stones came jump- ing and tumbling on the grass, and upon one person skeptically asserting he was not persuaded, but that the boys at work did throw them, the devil rewarded his infidelity by a blow with a stone upon the boy, which convinced the one and set the boy a-crying. That night Chamberlain began to play upon a musical instrument, perhaps to drive away his fears,-as boys whistle in the night,-when a great stone came rumb- ling into the room, which, he says, was on a much different account than in the days of old, and of old fabulous enchantments, his music being none of the best ; and while many gathered at the house on ac- count of the marvelous thing, just as the stones were being thrown about, two youths saw a black cat in the fields, which was shot at, but missed by its chang- ing places, and being immediately at some distance, and then out of sight.

The next Monday Walton went by water to a place called Great Bay, and as the men were at work in the woods felling wood, there came another shower of stones, which they gathered into a pile under a tree, and returning after a time found they had disappeared, and were again thrown about. Once again, returning from Great Bay with a load of hay, about midway in the river he found his boat in a sinking condition by the pulling out of the stopple in the bottom,-"a con- trivance, a combination," says Richard Chamberlain, " of the old serpent to have doomed my good landlord and his company." At one time, after a number of prominent persons gathered there had been won- drously affected by these strange things, they offered themselves to give testimonies, which Richard Cham- berlain, Esq., then wrote down, and several signed a paper attesting the truth of their being eye-witnesses of at least half a score of stones that evening thrown invisibly into the field and entry and hall and cham- ber of George Walton. Among these we find the Governor of West Jersey and the Deputy Governor of Rhode Island and other persons of note. Strange sounds sometimes attended the throwing of the stones, and besides the stones strange things flew about, and familiar things strangely changed their places.

maliciously pulled down to let their cattle into his ground, and when he and his servants went to put it up again they were pelted with above forty stones. Walton was hit divers times, and all that day as they were reaping it ceased not, and there fell above one hundred stones. Sickles were bent, and Mrs. Walton going out to make most diligent observation, to dispel the incredulity of some and confirm her own belief, met with a severe blow from the Unseen Power; and Mr. Woodbridge, the divine, and Mr. Jaffrey, the merchant, were all hit and injured.

Thereafter the stony disturbances grew less, and last of all they ended with Mr. Walton, who, going in his boat from the Great Island to Portsmouth, to attend the Council which had taken cognizance of the matter, he being summoned thither for examination, as if to have a final fling at him (all such things generally ending upon proper examination), the devil hit him sadly with three pebble-stones as big as one's fist. One gash broke his head, which for evidence Cham- berlain saw him show to the president of the Council, and from the stroke of another he complained after- wards to his death.

The " Lithobolia" closes thus : " Who that peruses these preternatural occurrences can possibly be so much an enemy to his own Soul and irrefutable Reason as obstinately to oppose himself to, or con- fusedly fluctuate in, the Opinion and Doctrine of Daemons and Spirits and Witches ! Certainly he that do's so must do two things more. He must temerani- ously unhinge or undermine the best Religion in the world, and he must disingenuously quit and abandon that of the three Theologick Virtues or Graces, to which the great Doctor of the Gentils gave the pre- cedence-Charity-through his unchristian and un- charitable incredulity."

So it was the faith of that day that if witchcraft and a belief in the devil went, Christianity went too ; still they have gone, and Christianity remains.

Prominence of New Castle .- At Great Island re- sided Cranfield and Barefort, and here was the Gov- ernor's house. Here, too, lived Robert Cutt, the royal- ist Episcopalian, whose Puritan brothers, Richard and John, at the Bank, took such a prominent part in our early history. IIere lived Pendleton, Stileman, and Fryer, three leading persons in early church matters, and the first two among the seven names of those who became members at the organization of a church in 1671. Here lived Theodore Atkinson, for a long time foremost in all provincial matters; Richard Chamberlain, holder of several offices, and author of " Lithobolia ;" Charles Story, secretary of the prov- ince. Here we first find the name of Tobias Lear, whose descendant became a somewhat eminent diplo- matist, and the private secretary of Washington. .

It would be a serious omission, and would leave this sketch quite incomplete were I not to mention another name whose descendants have held a prominent place

One of the worst days was Friday, the 4th of Au- gust, when the fence between Mr. Walton and the neighbor who was supposed to be the witch was | in the town until the present day,-

PORTSMOUTHI.

The Sheafe Family .- On an ancient monument within the diocese of Norfolk, of St George, Norwich, is this inscription :

" Here are buried under this stone, Thomas Sheff and his wife, Marion; Sometyme we warr as yee now bee, And now we are an bre shall yee ; Wherefore of your charite, Pray for us to the Trinite. "Obyt. Mecclxxxxiii."

Here, at Cranbrook, Kent, in England, we first find the Sheafe family, of whom it is believed Jacob Sheafe came to America with Rev. Henry Whitfield, and died in Boston. His son, Sampson Sheafe, came to Great Island in 1675, and here was the beginning of the family in this neighborhood. He had at New Castle housing, wharf, and lands, was one of his Majesty's Council, and collector of customs at Ports- mouth. His descendant, Mrs. White, was, in 1821, the sole member of the ancient church in Newcastle.

The Jaffrey House .- This brings us to another and the last name of persons living at Great Island who had a conspicuous place in civil as well as eccle- siastical matters. In 1677, after Sampson Sheafe had returned to Boston, he contracted with one George Jaffrey to go to Great Island and take charge solely of his goods, housing, orchard, and land, and to do no other business, in consideration of forty pounds lawful money of New England for two years, and to be found and allowed "good and sufficient meat and drink, washing and lodging." In 1682, Jaffrey was tried for an attempt to defraud the revenue, and this matter brought him into conflict with Rev. Joshua Moodey. It seems he was afterwards forced to flee and his house was taken by the government, for there is a record, dated May 16, 1684, ordering the " General Assembly to convene at Great Island, at the house late in posses-

sion of George Jatfrey," and, again, "the talk is that his [George Jaffrey's] house must be court-house and prison both, and standing so near the Governor, it is judged suitable for both these ends, that he may have the shorter journey to Court, and the prisoners may be always under his eye." And last of all there is a note in the journal of Rev. John Pike: "George Jaffrey, Sr., of Portsmouth, one of the Council, journey- ing from Boston to Piscataqua on a very cold day, was taken sick and died at Ipswich. A man of singu- lar understanding and usefulness among us." The following description of the old Jatfrey house is from an account of it, partly a history, partly a faney, by its present owner, and perhaps one day to be published :

On Jaffrey's Point, which has been corrupted into Jerry's Point, stands this house, wellnigh two hun- dred years old, "substantially as he (Jaffrey) built and left it, and since he himself somewhere says of his dwelling, that as any one might through his clothing see the general outline of his form, and through his form his soul, so his house was only a little farther removed from his essential nature." His house so near the sea was even nearer when it 5

was built. There is a succession of garments which a man wears who is in any degree free to choose, and which reflect his being, and the spot where he fixes his abode is one of them. The sight of the sea must have been to George Jaffrey a necessary condition of healthful activity. From no window of his house is it hidden. And it is equally open to the sun, which goes round it in winter and over it in summer. Hle built it low to be out of the wind; at the same time he chose a situation where no height was needed to bring into view all he wished to see, and he wisely spread it over a wide area of ground for comfort, con- venience, and because land was cheaper than air. The modern architect knows only how to put floor over floor, as is necessary in large towns, but the lines of buildings in the country should be horizontal and irregular. Under the root, which he hung so low, be put many rooms, in no way resembling one another, all being of various forms, sizes, and heights. You seem to be in a different house as you step from one room to another. In the centre, and to erown the whole, he built the huge chimney-stack, with fire- places on every side, wide enough for a whole family to gather in, deep-mouthed, where you hear the wind roar in winter, and the swallows beat their wings in summer, and where children may stand and look up at the stars and sky,-a bringing, as it were, a piece of out of doors into the very heart of the domes- tie inclosure. Others build chimneys as a convenience for their houses, conecaling and thrusting them out of the way as much as possible, but he evidently built his house as only an adjunct to the chimney, account- ing ample hearthstones of more consequence than rooms. This was the primary idea in the plan of the , old mansion, and around this firm, capacious column of brick it grew as the ship grows from the keelson. When all was finished and he sat down by his open fires, now in one room, now in another, he grew more and more thoughtful ; " the affairs of the world sounded more and more distant."

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 17

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1714

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1714