History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 178

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 178
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 178

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Edward llilton and his associates in England de- sired some specific title or enlargement of title to lands. These titles were given by an organization usually known as the "Plymouth Council," which had received letters patent from the king, Nov. 3, 1606, and whose lands purported to extend from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degree of north latitude, and from sea to sea. From this body, which had made many grants along the coast, was made one to Ed- ward Ifilton and associates, March 12, 1629-30,-that is, March 12, 1630, in modern usage. This grant re- cites as follows :

" Now know yee that the said President and Councell by Virtue & Au- thority of his Majties said Letters Pattents, and for and in consideracon that Edward Hilton & his Associates hath already at his and their owne proper costs and charges transported sundry servante to plant in New England aforesaid at a place there called by the natives Wecanacohunt otherwise Hilton's point lying som two leagues from the mouth of the River Pascatagnack in New England aforesaid where they have already Built some houses, and planted Corne, And for that he doth further in- tend by God's Divine Assistance, to transport thither more people and cattle, to the good increase and advancemt & for the better settling and

strengthing of their plantacon as also that they may be the better en- couraged to proceed in soe pious a work which may Especially tend to the propagacon of Religion and to the Great increase of Trade to hie Majtien Realmes and Dominions, and the advancement of publique plan- tacon, Ilave given granted Enfeoffed and Confirmed, and by this their p'sent writing doe fully clearly and absolutely give grant enfeoffe and Confirme unto the said Edward Hilton his heires and assignes for ever, all that part of the River Pascataquack called or known by the name of Wecanacolmuut or Hilton's Point with the south side of the said River, up to the fall of the River, and three miles into the Maine Land hy all the breadth aforesaid. Together with all the Shoares Creeks Bays Harbors and Coasts, alongst the sea within the limits and Bounds aforesaid with the woods and Islands next adjoyneing to the said Lands, not being already granted by the said Councell nuto any other person or persons together alsoe with all the Lands Rivers Mines minerals of what kinde or nature soever, woods Quarries, Marshes, Waters, Lakes ffishings, lluntings, Hawkings, ffowlings, Contodities Emolumts and hereditaments whatsoever withall and singular their and every of their Appts in or within the limits or bounds aforesaid, or to the said Lands lying within the same limits or Bounds belonging or in any wise appertaining. . . . unto the said Edward Hilton his heires, Associates and Assignes forever to the onely proper use and behovfe of he said Edward Hilton his heires Associates & Assignes for ever, yield- ing and paying unto our Soveraigne Lord the King one ffifth part of Gold and Silver Oares, and another ffifth part to the Councell aforesaid and their successors to be holden of the said Councell and their successors by the rent hereafter in these ji'sents Reserved, yielding and paying there- for yearly for ever unto the said Councell their successors or Assignes for every hundred Acres of the said Land in use the sume of twelve pence of Lawfull money of England into the hands of the Rent gatherer for the time being of the said Councell yr successors or Assignes for all ser- vices wlintsoever."

The actual delivery of this land was by Thomas Lewis, by power of attorney, to Edward Hilton, on the premises, July 7, 1631, in presence of Thomas Wiggin, William Hilton, Samuel Sharpe, and James Downe.

From this grant proceed all the land titles in Dover and several neighboring towns. There has lately been raised a question as to what was meant by " the south side of the said river," the river being the Pas- eataqua, and it has been assumed that the grant cov- ered a "three miles" on the southwesterly side of the river which divides Maine and New Hampshire, up to the present Salmon Falls. This assumption re- quires the belief that the laying out of the traet in Newington and Stratham was a fraud, that the Massa- chusetts government was the instrument in commit- ing the fraud, that the owners were the beneficiaries of a known fraud, and that so upright a man as Edward Hilton stood by in silence and saw the fraud committed. The grant undoubtedly conflicted with the Paseataqua grant, but that is to be expected. Great conflicts were usual in the early grants.

There is no question about that portion ineluding present Dover. Anticipating what need not be referred to later, the locating of the territory of this grant in 1656 will show what it covered on the north side, known as the Quamscott :

" Wee whose names are hereunto subscribed according to nn order of the Honored General Court in November 1655, appointing vs to make a just division of the Pattent of Quamscott doe thus make or returne: when we came to peruse the Pattent wee found it to extend for the length of it from the lower part of the River of Pascattaquick on the sayd side of the sayd River vnto the falls of the sayd Hiver at Exeter & for breadth along the sayd River three miles-from the head lyne for the breadth of it which head lyne wee runn upon a south east poynt of the compas which ended three quarters of a mile beyond Aspe Brooke

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towards Hampton about fforty poles below the high way, where wee marked a greate Oake on foure sides. 2ly, from the sayd head lyne wee measured for the length upon the north East point of the Compas six miles & a halfe the which Extended to that part of the Bay neere Wini- cunnet River, 3' ly. Wee also measured a second cross ly ne for breadth beginning at Quamscott house, Extending it three miles upon the South East point, where wee did marke severall pine Trees, The part of the Land belonging to the Pattent abont & below the great bay wee under- stood bee impassable (as to measuring) by Reason of the Extreame thick swamps-but wee tooke the best information wee might, of diners & Benerall inhabitants of the great bay & of Strawberry Banck & their reports agreed, viz, that from the lower part of the bottome of the Bay, neere to Captaine Champernoones house to the River neere the boyling Rock, or thervabonts, all the neck of Land within that line vnto the little bay, contayning as neere as men of best Experience can informe is about fowre mile square-being all within the Patent. And whereas fro n the Easterly part of the great bay being a part of the River wee should have measured three miles into the Land wee find in tint place by Credible information, the Land soe narrow to the Seaward that wee cannot nllow more according to the Intent of the P'attent as wee under- stand it, then one mile & halfe to bee runn from ench point of the bot- tome of the bay upon an Easterly line into the Land."

In this southern traet also Dover had rights which were recognized :

" As also the Land lying upon the bottome of the great bay, being er Extending one mile & a halfe from enery part of the bottome of the bay vpon an Easterly line into the woods in which Dimission all the land & marish granted vuto Dover by the Generall Count shall bee & remaine to them forever : the Land from Kenneys Creeke to a certain cone neere the month of the great bay, called Ilogsty cone, with all the marish from that place round about the bay vp to Kitterelle delight, with fowre hun- dred Acies of vpland as it is granted by the Court bounded layd out & possessed by the inhabitants of Douer with ffifty Acres of vpland more about as neere the great Bay with ffifty Acres to bee layd out and dis- posed of by Capt. Richard Walderne to some of the inhabitants of Douer whome hee sees fitt."

The doubt referred to as to the location of the lands on the " south side of the river" has doubtless arisen from ignorance of the fact that the Pascataqua River is not the river which flows from South Berwiek down the eastern side of Rollinsford and Dover, but the river which flows from Great Bay by the southern end of Dover Point, Some maps make the mistake. The river from South Berwick (old Quamphegan) to the end of Dover Point is the Newiehawannoek.

There is no record of any Dover history for the years between the date of the grant and the presenec here of Thomas Wiggin, who first appears as witness to the delivery. Belknap says that two-thirds of the patent belonged to some merchants of Bristol, and one-third to some of Shrewsbury ; but there is nothing to verify this precise division, and there are records of sales which conflict with it. It is certain, how- ever, that Bristol men were concerned in the enter- prise, apparently taking the present Dover as mainly theirs, and it is probable that it was in their interest only that Capt. Thomas Wiggin came here in 1631. He remained here about a year, returning in 1632, in the expectation of procuring men and means to carry on this plantation.

The original settlement of Dover was, so far as it had any religious anspices, by members of the Church of England. Edward Hilton was in that sympathy. It is significant that, notwithstanding his high char- acter, he now held public office, after Massachusetts

took possession of the New Hampshire towns, except- ing in the one year of union. This is explained by a later statement of his son that the father and sons were adherents of the Established Church.

Under Capt. Thomas Wiggin .-- But Capt. Wiggin was of Puritan sympathies. Edward Howes, writing from London to Governor John Winthrop, March 25, 1633. says,-

" There are honest men about to buye out the Bris- toll mens plantation in Pascataqua, and doe propose to plant there 500 good people before Michelmas next -T. Wiggin is the chief agent therein."

Capt. Wiggin was, of course, in sympathy with the Massachusetts government and policy. While he was still in England, after his visit to the Paseataqua, he is thus spoken of in a letter from Edward Howes to Governor Winthrop, June 22, 1633:

" Before I end, I must not forgett to put you in minde of one that is cominge to yon, whoe hath deserved exceedingly of your father & the plantation, many wayes ; he discovered (under Gud) our enemies plotts, & helpt to prevent them; he hath also dispossest our enemies of their hope. Pascataqua, and intends to plant him selfeand many zracions men there this sommer. Noe doubt but this may be and wil be by diverse in this shipp reported to you; but ont of the month of diverse witnesses the truth is confirmed. I have, and yon all have cause to blesse God that you have soc good a neighbour as Capt. Wiggen."

The sale of the Dover plantation by the Bristol men in 1633, for two thousand one hundred and fifty pounds, is said to have been made to the Puritan Lords Say and Brook, George Willys, and William Whiting. It seems that other persons were concerned, inasmuch as more persons were later concerned in the transfer to Massachusetts. However, Capt. Wiggin was con- tinued in the agency, and on the 10th of October, 1633, landed at Salem, Mass., from the ship "James," with "about thirty" colonists for Dover, "some of whom were of good estates and of some account for religion," "They had been eight weeks between Gravesend and Salem," and they proceeded at onee to the settlement on Hilton's Point, Capt. Wiggin writing from that place in November.

It is impossible to give the names of many of these emigrants. Capt. Wiggin's grant of house lots on the high and beautiful lands a mile up from the Point, where they intended to "build a compact town," affords a very few names. John Dam, Thomas Layton appear. But chief in note appears Rev. William Leverich, " an able and worthy Puritan minister," to be minister of the settlement. He remained, how- ever, only until 1635, leaving for inadequacy of sup- port. He went from Dover to Boston, and was ad- mitted a member of the First Church, Aug. 9, 1635, and soon after was of Duxbury, where a lot of land was laid out for him in 1637. He was admitted free- man in the Plymouth Colony, Jan. 2, 1637-38. He was of Sandwich in 1638, as appears by " Plymouth Colony Records," i. 88, and was minister there from near that time (certainly from 1639) until 1652. In 1651 he was studying the Indian language, with a view to labor among that class ("Plymouth Colony

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Records," ix. 196). In 1653 he was in the service of the commissioners of the United Colonies, laboring among the Indians ("Records," x. 34). In the an- tumn of that year he was removing to Oyster Bay, L. I., and the vessel carrying his goods was seized by a captain commissioned by the Rhode Island authori- ties. In 1657 and 1658 he is found at work among the Indians. Tu 1658 he accompanied the first set- tlers to Iluntington, L. I., of which he was one of the patentees, and resided there until 1670, when he re- moved to Newtown, L. I., where he died in 1677. Ile had two sons, Caleb and Eleazer. The latter was married, but left no issue. Caleb had one sou and two daughters; the son left posterity.

The colonists built, in 1634 apparently, an humble meeting-house for the worship of God. Where it stood is not accurately known, although it can be approximated as not far from the Back Cove. The establishment of public worship and a regular minis- try in 1633 gives this old parish, whose two hundred and fiftieth anniversary is to be observed in the au- tumn of 1883, the priority in the parishes of New Hampshire.

During Capt. Wiggin's superintendency nothing appears but the granting of house lots, and that the object of the settlement had turned from mere fishing to trade with the Indians in furs and useless explor- ations for valuable minerals and metals. Darby Field was here, an Irish explorer, who was, in 1642, the first white man to visit the White Mountains. There was no power of government, unless voluntarily submitted to. Within a year after the added colonization Gov- ernor Winthrop says,-

"Capt. Wiggin wrote to the Governor that one of his people had stabbed another, and desired he might be tried in the [Massachusetts] bay if the party died. The Governor answered that if Pascataquack lay within their limits (as it was supposed) they would try him."

Nothing further appears as to this case, but it is significant of the feeling of Massachusetts, which was jealous of colonies on its northern border, and which, eight years after, succeeded in obtaining control of the Paseataqua.

The name of Bloody Point came to be attached to part of Newington (long in Dover jurisdiction) during Capt. Wiggin's control. The two patents, the Dover (or Swamscot) and the Pascataqua (or Ports- mouth) conflicted. A point of land in the now New- ington was convenient for each, and included in each. Capt. Wiggin, agent for the upper plantation, and Capt. Neal, agent for the lower, disputed about its possession, and drew their swords. "But," says Hubbard, "both the litigants had so much wit in their anger as to waive the battle, each accounting himself to have done very manfully in what was threatened, so as in respect, not of what did, but what might have fallen out, the place to this day retains the formidable name of Bloody Point."

Under George Burdett .- In 1637, or perhaps in 1636, Rev. George Burdett came to Dover, successor of Rev. William Leverich. He had been a minister of the Church of England, employed at Yarmouth, England, as lecturer. Here he fell into difficulty from real or pretended scruples as to some of the ceremonies of the church ; had in April, 1635, been suspended by the high commission court, and pre- cipitately took passage for New England, leaving behind, in distressed circumstances, a wife and family. Ile landed at Salem, and became a mem- ber of the church there, and was admitted free- man Sept. 2, 1635. Ile soon, perhaps in 1636, came to Dover, where he was received as preacher. He was a man of marked abilities, and became, in 1637, the principal magistrate. A letter to him and Wiggin, in September or October, from Governor Winthrop, found Burdett in authority. Belknap, writing in Massachusetts' sympathies, says that he "thrust out" Capt. Wiggin, " who had been placed there by the Lords and others." But the " Lords and others" were a mere planting and trading corporation, and had no power of government. Mr. Burdett was made ruler by the agreement of the people, who were otherwise destitute of civil government. It was a democratic election in the necessities of the case. He was not, however, in favor with Massachusetts. He wrote to Archbishop Laud from Salem, Decem- ber, 1635, explaining his course, and attempting a reconciliation. This letter is extant in the Public Record Office, London. A second letter, written from Dover, in 1637, is not preserved, but it became known, as did all such documents, to the Massachusetts gov- ernment, by means of the agents it employed. Its drift was that it was not new church discipline aimed at in Massachusetts, but sovereignty. The amount of truth in this letter was particularly offen- sive to the Bay government, which as easily found the contents of the archbishop's reply in 1638, thank- ing Burdett for his zeal. A third letter from the latter, still preserved, was written from Dover, Nov. 29, 1638, in which he reiterates his declarations as to Massachusetts, speaks of the river Pascataqua as valuable for harbor, the desire of Massachusetts to obtain control of that barbor, the need of securing it for ITis Majesty's use, and the value of the planta- tion as a place for "loyal" settlers. He says also that government ought to be established on the river, there being only " combinations," and that for a year previous " ye helme" had been in his hands.

Capt. John Underhill and the Ministers .- It was in the autumn of 1638 that Capt. John Underhill came from Boston to Dover. He was a native of Warwickshire, England. A soldier by profession and seemingly a free lance, he had served with reputation in the Netherlands, in Ireland, and at Cadiz, and was still a young man when he was captain of a company of auxiliaries under the Count of Nassan. John Win- thirop needed a soldier of experience, and he induced

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Underhill to join the Massachusetts emigration of 1630. His name stands the fifty-seventh in the list of members of the Boston First Church, the church of the emigration. His first wife, Helena, a native of Hol- land, where he married her, became a member of that church Dec. 16, 1638.

To the first General Court of Massachusetts, that of 1634, Underhill was a deputy from Boston. Governor Winthrop speaks of him occasionally as performing various services in the routine of affairs. When, in 1631, the mysterious Sir Christopher Gardiner had been arrested and taken into Plymouth, he was brought to Boston by Capt. Underhill; and when Roger Williams was to be arrested, that he might be returned to England, the warrant was sent to Under- hill. On the 25th of October, 1631, "the Governor, with Capt. Underhill and others of the officers, went on foot to Sagus, and next day to Salem, where they were bountifully entertained by Capt. Endicott." On the 30th of August, 1632, "ten sagamores and many Indians" were said to be assembled at Brookline, and Capt. Underhill was sent out with "twenty mus- keteers" to investigate. In September of that year a camp was established at Boston "to exercise the soldiers against need might be ;" and the old captain one night " (to try how they would behave themselves) caused an alarm to be given upon the quarters, which discovered the weakness of our people, who, like men amazed, knew not how to behave themselves." In 1637 he was a member of the artillery company which still exists. The duty of training the raw but courageous material of Massachusetts militia was varied in 1634 by a visit across the ocean, for which he had "leave to go see his friends in Holland." " I wrote you," wrote Governor John Winthrop, 12th December, 1634, to his son John, in London, " by Capt. Underhill, who went hence in Mr. Babb's ship."

But he saw some service. The murder of John Oldham at Block Island by the Indians, in 1636, pro- voked punishment. On the 24th of August, ordered by the Governor and Council, an expedition set sail from Boston. It consisted of four companies of twenty men each,-Underhill being senior captain,-the whole being under command of "John Endecott, Esq., one of the assistants." They reached Block Island, landed with but two casualties from the enemy, killed and wounded a few Indians, and burnt the wigwams and some corn; went thence to Pequot Ilarbor with similar results, and on the 14th of Sep- tember arrived home at Boston.

On the 10th of April, 1637, Underhill was sent with twenty men, by his friend Governor Henry Vane, to Saybrook, "to keep the fort, both in respect of the Indians, and especially of the Dutch." The Indian hostilities soon determined Massachusetts to send a much larger force, but it had not arrived when the work was done. The Connecticut towns placed ninety men and some Indian auxiliaries, under the command

of Capt. John Mason, also a former soldier of the Netherlands. Underhill at once united with Mason, and on the morning of the 26th of May they attacked the Pequot fort at Mystic. The whites were divided into two parties, Underhill leading on one side and Mason on the other, and stormed the fort. A hand- to-hand conflict ensued. The plate-armor and fire- arms of the whites gave them an immense advantage, but the vastly superior numbers of the Indians, who fought with desperation, was not to be despised. " We must burn them," said Mason ; and he hurled a

blazing torch into their mats. Six hundred Indians were slain, and the power of the Pequots was broken. Of this affair Underhill afterwards published, in Eng- land, a narrative entitled, "News from New Eng- land," containing an engraved plan of the fort and the assault. "Great and doleful," says Underhill, " was the bloody sight to the view of the young soldiers, to see so many souls lie gasping on the ground, so thick you could hardly pass along." "We had sufficient light from the Word of God for our proceedings."

But the religious controversy styled " Antinomian" began to rend the young commonwealth. " One Mrs. Hutchinson," writes Winthrop in October, 1636, " a member of the church of Boston, a woman of a ready wit and bold spirit, brought over with her two dan- gerous errors : 1. That the person of the Holy Ghost dwells in a justified person. 2. That no sanctification can help to evidence to us our justification. From these two grew many branches. . .. There joined with her in these opinions a brother of hers, one Mr. Wheelwright, a silenced minister some time in Eng- land." The new doctrine rapidly gained adherents. The young Governor Vane, whom Forster calls "one of the greatest and purest men that ever walked the earth," favored complete liberty of opinion. John Cotton, teacher of the Boston Church, became en- tangled in the heresies. And that church itself was, " all save five or six," captured by Mrs. Ilutchinson. The sentiment of Boston was, however, overpowered by that of the country towns. The General Court stood firm. Homogeneousness of faith seemed essen- tial in the early life of the colony. Religious liberty was no theory of the Bay emigrants. They came to the wilderness to enjoy their own freedom, but not to allow freedom to any who differed from them. Others had other parts of the wilderness open before them.

Mr. Wheelwright was summoned before the court of March, 1637, on account of a sermon he had preached on a fast-day. That sermon is still preserved, and it is difficult to see wherein it was dangerous, but he was adjudged guilty of "sedition and contempt." A remonstrance or petition was offered to the court, signed by many members of the Boston Church, con- taining, says Winthrop, "scandalous and seditious speeches,"-though none such appear in the paper,1-

1 Winthrop unaccountably says this petition declared that the court had " condemned the truth of Christ." No such language appears in the document itself.

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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

for which the signers soon after felt the vengeance of the rulers. The election in May threw the tolerant Vane out of office, and Winthrop was again placed in the Governor's chair ; but Boston shared its spirit by immediately choosing Vane as one of its deputies. On a shallow pretext, Vane and his colleague were re- jected, "the court being grieved" at their election, finding " a means to send them home again," and the next day Boston re-elected them. But Vane, to whom and to Charles II. alike the now Duke of Cleveland traces his lineage, disappointed in his hopes of lib- erty, returned to England.

The power was in the hands of the opponents of Mrs. Hutchinson, and it was boldly used. A synod of all the churches in New England was summoned. Closing on the 22d of September, it condemned eighty two "erroneous opinions" and nine "un- wholesome expressions," scarce a sentence of which had anybody attested or believed. Convinced "that two so opposite parties could not contain in the same body without apparent hazard of ruin to the whole," the triumphant majority proceeded to act. Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson were banished, Wheelwright being forced to leave the colony in the deep snows which periled his life in his journey to Pascataqua. Some were disfranchised and some deprived of public office. The signers of the peti- tion were remembered, and fifty-eight of them, citi- zens of Boston, and seventeen of other towns, were disarmed, being ordered " to deliver in at Mr. Cane's house at Boston all such guns, pistols, swords, pow- der, shot, and match, as they shall be owners of or have in their custody," and they were forbidden to buy or borrow any more.

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 178

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