History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 179

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 179
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 179

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Of those disarmed John Underhill's name has the honor of heading the list. On the 12th of October, 1637, there had been a day of thanksgiving kept for the victories against the Pequots, and "the captains and soldiers who had been in the late service were feasted." In the next month the sword he had gal- lantly won at Mystic he was forced to " deliver in at Mr. Cane's," because of speculations on the doctrine of justification by faith. Deprived of his sword, he was also deprived of his office and disfranchised. He endeavored to argue the case. He "insisted much on the liberty which all States do allow to military officers for plainness of speech, etc., and that he him- self had sometimes spoken so freely to Count Nassau." But his remonstrance was useless. His good sword had done the State some service, but he had doubted the magistrates' doctrine of the Holy Ghost.

took occasion to question him "abont some speeches he had used in the ship lately in his return out of England, viz., that he should say that we were zeal- ous here as the Scribes and Pharisees were, and as Paul was before his conversion," and that he came to his "assurance" "as he was taking a pipe of tobacco." The first charge he denied, but Winthrop says it was proved by the testimony of a "godly woman." The second he defended, "showing that inasmuch as the Lord was pleased to convert Paul as he was persecut- ing, etc., so He might manifest ITimself to him as he was taking the moderate use of the creature called tobacco." As to his " retraction" of obnoxious "re- monstrance," he admitted that he meant to retract the manner but not the matter of it. Another charge, that of immoral condnet, was not " clearly" proved.

He was banished from the jurisdiction, and so in the autumn of 1638 he came to Dover. A hardy sol- dier of the Netherland wars, fresh from the sturdy storming of the Pequot fort, and one who took "great pride in his bravery and apparel," he was gladly wel- comed by the small settlement. Nor was it in the minds of the people here anything to his discredit that he had fallen under the displeasure of the Bay Puritans. In the course of a few weeks, certainly by December, by the voice of the people he had super- seded Burdett, and was Governor of Dover, and chief magistrate of its court.

Whittier, almost the poet of the Pascataqua, so tenderly he sings its legends, has written, with par- donable license, as follows :

" A score of years had come and gone Since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth stone, When Captain Underhill, bearing scars From Indian ambush and Flemish wars, Left three-hilled Boston and wandered down East by north to Cochecho town.

" Hle cheered his heart as he rode along With screed of Scripture and holy song, Or thought how he rode with his lancers free By the Lower Rhine and the Zuyder Zee, Till his wood-path grew to a trodden road, And Hilton Point in the distance showed.

"Goudly and stately and grave to see, Iuto the clearing's space rode he, With the sun on the hilt of his sword in sheath, And his silver buckles aud spurs beneath ; And the settlers welcomed him, one and all, Frotn swift Quampliegan to Gonic fall."

Underhill had not been made Governor when the hostility of Massachusetts pursued him. The Bay imagined itself also to have another grievance in that Dover people had given aid to Mr. Wheelwright's settling at Exeter. Perhaps they had fed Wheel- wright's wife and family in February as they sailed up the Pascataqua, and so on to Exeter. By order of the very court which banished Underhill (doubtless at a later session), the Governor wrote to Mr. Burdett, then Governor, Mr. Wiggin, and others to this effect: " That whereas there had been good correspondence

Underhill made a short visit to Europe. Return- ing, he proposed to join Mr. Wheelwright's new set- tlement at Swamscot Falls. But first he asked the court to give him the three hundred acres of land it had once promised him, and at the same time he made a kind of apology for " condemning the court." The court (that of September, 1638) does not appear to have given the promised land, but, on the contrary, | between us formerly, we could not but be sensible of

765

DOVER.

their entertaining and countenancing, etc., some that we had cast out, etc., and that our purpose was to sur- vey our utmost limits and make use of them." The government of the Bay kept a watchtul eye on the colonies which adjoined it on the north. The Pascat- aqua had a harbor, which made it independent of Bos- ton as a seaport. Its founders were of a different spirit, as well as of different origin. The river was peopled mainly by the hardy West-of-England stock. The majority of the people favored, so far as any re- ligion, the ancestral Church of England. Here the disaffected or banished citizens of Massachusetts could find welcome. Such a free colony was a standing menace to Massachusetts, A claim by the Bay to a right over the Pascataqua had been hinted at before ; now for the first time there was openly avowed a con- struction of their patent which, though now acknowl- edged, and in the next century finally defeated, would have reached far beyond the whole of what is now Southeastern New Hampshire.

To this letter Burdett returned what Winthrop calls a " scornful" answer. Such an answer would natur- ally and reasonably be given to such a threat. The Pascataqua was held under patents from the same au- thority as that of Massachusetts. Evidently it was this threat which caused Burdett to write to Arch- bishop Laud, Nov. 29, 1638, communicating the tend- ency of Massachusetts to a practical independence, and its purpose to get control of Pascataqua River, a copy of which letter, of course, Massachusetts in due time received by means of the secret agents it em- ployed, even in the archbishop's trusted household, -- a wonderful Providence they used to call such good fortune.

Burdett's reply greatly irritated the Bay govern- ment, so much so that the Governor " was prepared to summon him to appear at our court to answer his contempt," on the ground that Burdett had once been a citizen of Massachusetts, and was still a member of the church in Salem. But policy prevailed. If Bur- dett " should suffer," Winthrop ingenuously records, " it might ingratiate him with the archbishop." He might as well have recorded that such a summons would have been useless unless backed by a military force, and the times were not ripe for that. It was therefore determined to " undermine him."

In the mean time, soon after Underhill's departure from Boston, alleged proof was had of the criminal conduct of which he had been suspected. The church in Boston summoned him to answer in person to this charge, and the Governor and Council sent him a safe-conduct. He refused to go unless his banish- ment should be first rescinded, and, if Winthrop is correct, alleged that the safe-conduct lacked authority. The General Court then sent him one for three months, but it was equally disregarded.

To "undermine" Burdett, Winthrop wrote to Ed- ward Hilton, 13th Dec., 1638. He inclosed a copy of Burdett's "scornful" reply, "advising them to take

heed how they put themselves in his power, etc., but rather to give us a proof of their respect towards us." The Governor "intimated withal how ill it would relish if they should advance Capt. Underhill, whom he had thrust out," and he gave information also of Underhill's alleged criminal conduct. But before this letter reached Dover Underhill had been chosen Governor, and Hanserd Knollys had organized the First Church in Dover, being the first church organ- ized on New Hampshire soil, and second in date to the Hampton Church, which was organized in Massa- chusetts.

The new church wrote to the church in Boston in commendation of Underhill, styling him their right worshipful and honored Governor. That church, nevertheless, determined to proceed with the charges against him. The court of 13th of March, 1639, sent him another safe-conduct, "to come to answer the church of Boston between this and the General Court of the 22d of the 3d month (May) next," which proved useless. Massachusetts was persistent. At the court just mentioned, the first in 1639, "It was ordered that letters should be written to Capt. Wiggin, Capt. Champernoone, Mr. Williams, Mr. Wannerton, Mr. Edward Hilton, Mr. Trelworthy, and their neighbors, and Mr. Bartholomew' to carry the same and have instructions."

Winthrop says of these letters, " The General Court wrote to all the chief inhabitants of Pascataquack and sent them a copy of his (Underhill's) letters (wherein he professed himself to be an instrument ordained of God for our ruin), to know whether it were with their privity and consent that he sent us such a defiance, etc., and whether they would maintain him in such practices against us, etc."

The substance of the replies, as given by Winthrop, was this : The Dover " plantation disclaimed to have any hand in his miscarriages, etc., and offered to call him to account, etc., whensoever we would send any to inform against him,"-evidently a reply mildly declining any acknowledging Massachusetts authority. "The others at the river's mouth," says Winthrop, "disclaimed likewise, and shared their indignation against his insolences, and their readiness to join in any fair cause for our satisfaction ; only they desired us to have some compassion of him, and not to send any forces against him," which, being interpreted, prob- ably objected to any attempt of Massachusetts to carry out by force its threatened extension of bound- ary. "After this," says Winthrop, "Capt. Under- hill's courage was abated, for the chiefest in the river fell from him, and the rest little regarded him, so as be wrote letters of retraction to divers."

Prior to this, however, Burdett's letter home had replies from the " archbishops and the lords commis- sioners for plantations." By the wonderful Providence

1 At the court of 6th June, 1639, "Mr. Wille Bartholomew was granted to have forty shillings for his journey to Pascataque."

766

HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

which regularly disclosed to the Bay government letters opposing them, a copy of a letter of Burdett of the preceding autumn had been furnished by " one of Pascataquack having opportunity to go into Mr. Burdett's study." Winthrop's abstract of this letter is " that he did delay to go into England because he would fully inform himself of the state of the people in regard of allegiance, and that it was not [church] discipline that was now so much aimed at as sover- eignty, and that it was accounted perjury and treason to our General Court to speak of appeals to the king," -an abstract which does not correspond with Bur- dett's actual letter.

By another remarkable Providence the answers of the " archbishops and lords commissioners for planta- tions," which were brought by " the first ships which came this year,"-that is, in the spring of 1639,-lay in the bay above fourteen days, and although the Gover- nor and some of the Council " thought it not safe to meddle with them," yet the letters were opened with- out "any of their privity or consent." The Lords thanked Mr. Burdett for his zeal, and would take a Ar time to redress the disorders of which he had informed them. When Burdett found that his letters had been opened he was indignant, but there proved to be no redress. It was an added but needless Providence that somebody at Dover also sent to Massachusetts a copy of the same letter.

But in 1639, Burdett, detected in some loose actions, went across the river into Maine. There he was placed in authority, to which the coming of Thomas Gorges in 1640 put an end. On the 23d 12 mo., 1640,-that is, Feb. 23, 1641,-Gorges wrote to Governor Win- throp as follows :

" Mr. Burdith [ Burdett] is at Pemiquid, which lies on the borders of this Province. He is grown to that height of sinn that it is to [be] feared he is given over. His time he spends in drinkinge, dancinge, singinge scurrnlous songs ; for his companions he se- lects the wretchedest people of the country ; at the springe I hear he is for Ingland."

In that spring he returned to England, joined the royal troops, was captured by the Parliament forces, was thrown into prison, and disappears from history.

At a General Court in 1639 some of the people of Dover wrote to Massachusetts, proposing that Dover come under that jurisdiction. Who led in this move- ment no records show. It was, of course, the Puritan element, and Underhill's proceedings later in the year indicate a probability that he, the chief magis- trate, was concerned in it. Answer was returned that if the people would send " two or three" with full powers, it was likely the court would agree to their proposal. Governor Underhill then wrote, 12th Oc- tober, 1639, asking a safe-conduct for such as should be sent from Dover, but taking the opportunity to refer to his own affairs, and intimating that he was endeavoring to help forward the business.

At the court of November, 1639, three commis-

sioners appeared from Dover, whose names are not preserved. The court appointed three persons to treat with them. The appointment and result is recorded thus :

" The Deputy Govenor [ J.

Mr Emanuel Dowoing, & Capt. Eilward Gibons were appointed to treate with the three comittees from the towne of Dover upou Pascataqua, wth whom they did agree, and certified the same."

A particular account of this transaction is given by Winthrop :

" And now at this Court, came three with commission to agree upon certain articles annexed to their commission, which being read, the court appointed three to treat with them; but their articles not being reasonable, they stand not upon them, but confessed that they had ab- solute commission to conclude by their discretion. Whereupon the treaty was brought to a conclusion to this effect: That they should be as Ipswich and Salem, and have courts there, etc., as by the copy of the agreement remaining with the recorder doth appear. This was ratified under our public seal, and so delivered to them; only they desired a promise from the court, that, if the people did not assent to it, (which yet they had no fear of ) they might be at liberty, which was granted them."

Hanserd Knollys was now pastor of the church; he wrote, Jan. 21, 1640, a kindly letter. Born in Cawk- well, Lincolnshire, England, in 1598, of pious parents ; educated at the university at Cambridge; after grad- uation was chosen master of the free school at Gains- borough ; ordained June 30, 1629; received from the bishop of Lincoln the living of Humberstone; was inde- fatigable in labor ; became scrupulous as to " the law- fulness of using the surplice, the cross in baptism, and the admission of persons of profane character to the Lord's Supper ;" and therefore resigned his living after holding it "two or three years;" preached two or three years longer in various churches by the bishop's good nature; in or about 1636 he renounced his Episcopal ordination and joined the Puritans ; was imprisoned, released, harassed, and left England.

Knollys came to Boston in 1638. His child had died on the passage. He was very poor. Some money of his wife's had paid their passage, he having on embarking "just six brass farthings left." The Boston ministers represented to the magistrates that he was an Antinomian, and advised that he be not allowed to remain. At Boston, he says, "I was necessitated to work daily with my hoe for the space of almost three weeks." Two persons from Dover happened to be in Boston, and invited him to go to Dover. He did so, but by Rev. George Burdett, then ruler, was forbidden to preach. Burdett was speedily superseded in the government by Capt. John Underhill. Knollys began to preach, and in December, 1638, he organized the first church in Dover.

From Dover, Knollys, incensed with his treatment by the Massachusetts government, early wrote to Eng- land, inveighing against that power. He compared it especially to the IIigh Commission Court. Coming from a Puritan, this letter was calculated to be very harmful, and it excited great resentment in the Bay, where, of course, a copy was sent back by agents in England.

767

DOVER.

The commissioners returned to Dover. Their agreement was not ratified by the people. Under- hill was afterwards charged with being chiefly in- strumental in its rejection, while "he had written to our Governor and laid it upon the people, especially upon some among them; and for this they produced against him a letter from our Governor, written to one of their commissioners in answer to a letter of his, wherein he had discovered the captain's proceed- ings in this matter."

It does not appear that any further proceedings were had in the Dover Court, or that any copy of Knollys' letter to England was forwarded. It was the rather in accordance with the steady policy of Massachusetts to cause the Governor and the minis- ter of Dover to answer in person before the Boston Church and the Bay magistrates. This course was in tacit harmony with the yet quiescent claim of juris- diction.

The result was that both persons went to Boston. Each had a safe-conduct, dated Jan. 29, 1640.

Regarding Knollys, Winthrop says, date not given, but apparently in March, “Upon a lecture day at Boston (most of the magistrates and elders in the Bay being there assembled), he [Knollys] made a very full and free confession of his offence, with much ag- gravation against himself, so as the Assembly were well satisfied. He wrote also a letter to the same effect to his said friends in England, which he left with the Governor to be sent to there." A copy of this letter is preserved.

It is difficult to account for the intensity of lan- guage in his letter to Winthrop and apparently in his publie confession. IIad he committed murder, he would have found it difficult to find stronger expres- sions of remorse. There may be two explanations. One is the exaggerated and morbid style of that day, the other is that Knollys, really a Puritan, came to see that Puritanism, true religion as he believed, had its only American bulwark in the power of Massachu- setts. His own surroundings impressed it upon him. Prelatic at the lower Pascataqua, prelatic across the Newichawannock, partly prelatie and partly indiffer- ent at his home, the Bay had his returning sympathies, and to help its enemies in England seemed a great sin. But certainly most of his original letter, even as reported to us, was but simple truth.

Underhill also went to Boston and made his con- fessions of far different offenses. He did not have the success of the simple-hearted Knollys. Massa- chusetts had had experience of his double-dealing, and her astute ministers and magistrates could readily deteet any want of sincerity. Winthrop's description is peculiar :

"Capt. Underhill also being struck with horror nud remorse for his offences, both against the church and civil State, could have no rest till he had obtained a safe-conduct to come and give satisfaction; and ac- cordingly (1) 5 [5 March, 1640], at a lecture nt Boston (it being court time), he made a public confession both of his living in adultery with Faber's wife (upon suspicion whereof the church had before ndmonished

him) and attempting the like with another woman, and also the injury he had done to our State, etc., and acknowledged the justice of the court in their proceedings against him, etc. Yet all his confessions were mixed with such excuses and extenuations, as did not give satisfaction of the truth of his repentance, so as it seemed to be done rather out of policy und to pacify the sting of his conscience than in sincerity. But, however, his offences being so fonl nnd scandalous, the church presently cast him ont ; which censure he seemed to submit unto, and for the time he' taid in Boston (being four or five day-) he was very much dejectedl," etc.

Underhill returned to Dover before the middle of March, but evidently in no pleasant frame of mind. Winthrop is onr only authority again for his proceed- ings :

" But being gone back, he soon recovered his spirits again, or at least gave not that proof of a broken heart as he gave hope of at Boston ; for (to ingra- tiate himself with the State of England and with some gentlemen at the river's mouth, who were very zealous that way, and had lately set up common prayer, etc.) he sent thirteen men armed to Exeter to fetch one Gabriel Fish, who was detained in the offi- cer's hand for speaking against the king,1 the magis- trates of Exeter being then in the Bay to take advice what to do with him."

Knollys remained in Boston until after the 23d of March. On that .day he consulted with the Boston Church as to the proper treatment of excommuni- cated members.

The people of Dover, of course, were informed of Underhill's confessions of criminality, and they pro- ceeded to action. Winthrop says of this action, com- pleted before the middle of April, 1640,- .

" When the church and people of Dover desired him to forbear to come to the next court, till they had considered of his case, and he had promised so to do, yet, hearing that they were consulting to remove him from his government, he could not refrain, but came and took his place in the court. .. . In the open court he committed one of his fellow-magistrates for rising up and saying he would not sit with an adnl- terer, etc. . . . And though he had offered to lay down his place, yet, when he saw they went about it, he grew passionate and expostulated with them, and would not stay to receive his dismission, nor would he be seen to accept it when it was sent after him. Yet they proceeded, and chose one Roberts to be president of the court, and soon after they returned back Fish to Exeter."

In this action against Underhill three points ap- pear to have been made : first, his criminal conduct, acknowledged in Boston ; secondly, his arbitrary con- duet upon the bench ; and, thirdly, his double-dealing in a matter of union with Massachusetts, having, in his letters to Governor Winthrop, laid the blame of failure upon some citizens of Dover, while he himself was the

1 Of course there was some pretext in this matter. The favorers of the royal prerogative at the river's mouth would not take the part of one " speaking against the king," nor would tho magistrates of Exeter take the trouble to go to Boston for advice unless the offense concer ned the policy of Massachusetts.

768

HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

chief cause. It does not appear that he was deprived of his military command nor of a subordinate magis- tracy. He appears in both these capacities in the confusions of the spring of 1641, a year later. But his governorship was at an end.

The "one Roberts" who succeeded Underhill as chief magistrate of Dover was Thomas Roberts, an- cestor of the extensive family of that name in New Hampshire and Maine. Tradition makes him a native of Wales, and a very early settler, even so far as to claim that he came with Edward Hilton, of which, however, there is no evidence. He lived on the east side of the Neck,1 below Meeting-house Hill.

Bishop's "New England Judged" says that Thomas Roberts, in 1662, had "lived in Dover thirty years, and a member of their church above twenty years." He was at the time of his election a member of the church, and was probably one of its original members. Bishop says also that in 1662 "his labour was at an end," and that the authorities "took away his card for not coming to their worship" in the time of the Quaker troubles.

Underhill again went to Boston, going " by water." He was there on the 20th of April, " to tender (as he said) satisfaction to the church." Some ofthe magis- trates regarded this as presumptuous, and would have had him imprisoned, on the ground that he had used his safe-conduct already. But the date of its limit had not yet expired, and it was deemed wise not to arrest him, " seeing it might be objected against us to our great prejudice when we should not have oppor- tunity to clear our innocency ;" that is, in England. The church would not, however, admit him to public speech, and after a week's visit he returned to Dover, passing the Sabbath at Salem on his way. While in Boston he addressed to the Governor a characteristic letter.

On the 3d day of September, 1640, Underhill again appeared in Boston. This time it was to make full and humble confession. Winthrop is again our au- thority :

"Capt. Underhill being brought, by the blessing of God in this church's censure of excommunication, to remorse for his foul sins, obtained, by means of the elders, and others of the church in Boston, a safe- conduct under the hand of the governor and one of the council to repair to the church. Ile came at the time of the court of assistants, and upon the lecture day, after sermon, the pastor called him forth and declared the occasion, and then gave him leave to speak ; and indeed it was a spectacle which caused many weeping eyes. . . . lle came in his worst clothes (being accustomed to take great pride in his bravery and neatness) without a band, in a foul linen cap

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 179

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