History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 188

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 188
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 188

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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Constitution which he is sworn to maintain, then the ; which you are engaged is just, and if you find that it government degenerates into tyranny."

Perhaps the most remarkable passage in this noble sermon is the following :

" Would it not be astonishing to hear that a people who are contending so earnestly for liberty are not willing to allow liberty to others? Is it not astonish- ing to think that there are at this day, in the several colonies upon this continent, some thousands of men, women, and children detained in bondage and slavery for no other crime than that their skin is of a darker color than our own ? Such is the inconsistency of our conduct ! As we have made them slaves without their consent and without any crime, so it is just in God to permit other men to make slaves of us."

The tidings of the battle of Lexington reached Belknap at Dover Point, as he was on his way home from Portsmouth. He sent from the Point the follow- ing note to his wife :

" Before you receive this you will hear the awful The people of Dover took an early part as a munici- pality in remonstrating against those aggressions of the British government which led to the Revolution, and when remonstrances failed, and the cause of lib- news by the express I met just now at the ferry of the devastation the troops have made at Concord and the commencement of a civil war, which makes it absolutely necessary that I should proceed immedi- ; erty was submitted to the stern arbitrament of arms, ately to Boston, if it is not in ashes before I get there. I shall try and get a chaise at Greenland. As neces- sity has no law, the people must excuse my absence next Sabbath if I should not return before it."

Ile arrived at Cambridge in due time, and found 1 himself "among ten thousand armed men who had ; The first record which is made is the following :

gathered from every quarter" to take part in the next battle. From there he writes to his wife in Dover, " Don't let my gun and munition get out of the house if you can help it." The brave parson knew his gun well. Among his papers is a very precise description of it. He doubtless thought it most probable that he should be called to fight, in which case no "carnal weapon" could have served him better.

While at Cambridge, he preached in the morning in the street and in the afternoon in the meeting- house to the provincial army there assembled. He soon returned home with his parents.

Dover for the next few months was astir with mili- tary preparations. There was a company at once enlisted here by Capt. Benjamin Titcomb. On the 14th of June, three days before fire opened on Bunker Hill, Dr. Belknap preached to these soldiers on the " Nature of true courage." He said, " It is a very fashionable doctrine, especially among the British troops, that the soldier has nothing to do with the conscience of war, or to inquire whether it be just or not. He has only to obey orders. If soldiers had no consciences, if they were horses instead of men, this doctrine might be propagated with the utmost safety. But, my brethren, you are reasonable crea- tures. You are accountable to a higher tribunal than any earthly power, and you have a right to examine, and it is your duty to examine, whether the cause in

is so, you can fight with a good conscience, and with a hope in the Divine Providence for liberty and suc- cess. Let, then, every man behave himself in his proper station according to the duty required of him, and serve his country to the utmost of his power."

Four days after, news having been received that a battle had commenced at Charlestown, this company, under Capt. Titcomb, marched to the scene of battle.

It is matter of known tradition that Dr. Belknap, when news arrived of the Declaration of Independence, went to the one town school at Pine Hill, then kept by Master Wigglesworth, announced that America was now a nation, and himself and the master at the head, stopping to take up a drummer by the way, the whole school marched through town as far as the Col. John Walderne mansion, and returned. At the school- house Dr. Belknap offered prayer, and a holiday was then given.

none exerted themselves more cheerfully or contrib- uted more in proportion to their means to render that cause successful. As a record of interest, we publish from the town records all the proceedings, votes, etc., which we find in reference to the Revolutionary war.

"At a legal meeting of the qualified voters of the town of Dover, this tenth day of January, 1774, con- vened at the Friends' Meeting-House in said town on purpose to consider of the innovations attempted to be made on American Privileges-

" Col. OTIS BAKER was chosen Moderator-

" Although we deprecate every thing which in its infant motions tends to alienate the affection which ought to subsist among the subjects of the same King, yet, we cannot longer behold the Arts used to curtail the Priviledges purchased with the blood and treasure of British America, and of New England in particular, for their Posterity, without bearing our Testimony against them.

" As these Colonies have recognized the Protestant Kings of Great Britain as their Lawful Sovereign, and WE in this Province the Man whom the King has pleased to send us as his Representative-We ac- knowledge this Representative from our first formation into a Government has had a negative voice on all Bills proposed by Laws in the manner his Majesty has at home.

" And as it doth not appear that any Parliaments have been parties to any Contracts made with the European Settlers in this once howling Wilderness, now become a pleasant field-We look on our Rights too dearly bought, to admit them now as Tax masters -Since (by laws as firm as the honor of crowned heads can make them, and which we have no Apprehension

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so good and gracious a King as we obey, will suffer to be abridged) we have Parliaments of our own-who always with the greatest Cheerfulness furnished his Majesty such Aids as he has been pleased to require from time to time according to the Abilities of the People, and even beyond them, of which, none but themselves could be adequate Judges.

" Why the King's Subjects in Great Britain should frame Laws for his Subjects in America, rather than the reverse, we cannot well conceive, as we do not admit it to be drawn from any PACT made by our an- cestors, or from the Nature of the British Constitution, which makes Representation essential to Taxation- and this supposed Power of Parliament for taxing America is quite novel, some few Instances for the better Regulation of Trade excepted, which no more prove their supposed Right, than the Tortious Entry of a Neighbor into the Infant's field does that of the Intruder-but if Superior Strength be the best plea, how would they relish the Alternative ? which if po- litical Arithmetic deceives not advances with Hasty Strides; tho' nothing but downright oppression will ever effect it.

" Therefore, Resolved, Ily, That any attempt to take the Property of any of the King's Subjects for any purpose whatever where they are not represented, is an Infraction of the English Constitution ; and man- ifestly tends as well to destroy it, as the subject's pri- vate property, of which recent proofs are plenty.

"Resolved 2ly, That We, and our American Breth- ren, are the liege People of King George the Third, and therefore have as full, and ample a Claim, to all the Priviledges and Immunities of Englishmen, as any of his Subjects three thousand miles distant- the Truth of which, our Demeanorer clearly evinces.

"Resolved 3ly, That the Parliament in Britain by suffering the East India Company to send us their Teas subject to a Duty on landing, have in a measure testified a Disregard to the Interests of Americans, whose liberal Services ill deserves such ungenerous Treatment.

" Resolved 4ly, That we are of opinion that any seeming Supineness of this Province in these very -- very interesting matters, hath proceeded from a Con- sideration of their Smallness among their Brethren, rather than from any insensibility of impending Evils.

" Resolved 5ly, That this Town approves the gen- eral Exertions, and noble struggles, made by the op- ulent Colonies through the Continent, for preventing so fatal a Catastrophe as is implied in Taxation with- ont Representation, viz SLAVERY -- than which, to a generous Mind, Death is more Eligible.

" Resolved 6ly, That We are, and always will be ready in every constitutional Way, to give all the Weight in our Power to avert so dire a Calamity.

" Resolved 7ly, That a Dread of being enslaved Ourselves, and of transmitting the Chains to our Posterity (by which we should justly merit their

curses) is the principal Inducement to these Meas- ures.

"And Whereas, our house of Commons have a Committee for corresponding with those of the sev- eral Colonies on these matters, and the Committees of the several Towns in this Government to corre- spond with each other at the necessary Times, may be subservient to the common Cause-Therefore resolved that a Committee to consist of five persons be chosen for that purpose.

"Voted that Col. Otis Baker, Capt. Caleb Hodg- don, Capt. Stephen Evans, Capt. Joshua Wingate, and John Wentworth, jr, or either three of them, be the Committee of Correspondence for this Town.

"Voted that the proceedings of this meeting be entered in the Records of this Town, and that an attested Copy thereof be sent to the Committee of Correspondence at Portsmouth, to assure them, and all concerned, that our hearts are knit with those, who wish the weal (as it is constitutionally fixed) of our most gracious Sovereign, and all his numerons subjects."

July 18, 1774 .- A committee of five was chosen to represent the town at a meeting to be held at Exeter for " appointing Delegates to join in a General Con- gress of the Provinces for considering of and advising to the most conciliating methods of establishing their rights and harmony among all the subjects of our gracious Sovereign, which meeting is proposed to be held on the Ist Sept. at Philadelphia." And £6 108. were voted as the proportion of Dover towards paying the expenses of the delegates, which the selectmen were authorized to advance.

Nov. 7, 1774 .- A town-meeting was called to see if the inhabitants would raise anything, either "in Money, Fat Cattle or Sheep," for the relief of the Poor in Boston, then suffering from the operations of the Port Bill. And it was voted that the town would "give something."

Dec. 26, 1774 .- At a town-meeting the following preamble and resolutions were adopted :

The Designs of the Continental Congress holden at Philadelphia being so humane and benevolent, the result of their proceedings so salutary and effective as justly to attract the notice of the millions of freemen in America, this town on mature consultation are fully convinced that nothing (under Heaven) will so evidently tend to preserve the rights of Americans or frustrate the attempts already made for their destruc- tion as carrying the same into full execution. For which purpose,

Voted, That Messrs. Otis Baker, Shadrach Hodg- don, Stephen Evans, Joshua Wingate, John Wal- dron 3d, Caleb Hodgdon, John Wentworth, Jr., John Kielle, and John Gage be a committee.

Voted, they have the following instructions, viz. :

Ist. We expect that to the utmost of your power you carefully intend the preservation of peace and good order in the town so far as the same may be en-

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HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

dangered by a discussion of sentiment relative to political matters.

2dl. We enjoin you that by every lawful means you see the recommendations and proceedings of the Continental Congress strictly complied with by the inhabitants of this town so far as we are therein con- cerned.

3dly. As examples you are to encourage every kind of Temperance, Frugality, Industry, and Economy and to disconntenance every species of Vice, Immo- rality, and Profaneness. Neither to use any sort of Gameing or unlawful diversions yourselves nor suffer it to be done within your knowledge without inti- mating your own dislike and the displeasure of the town thereat.

4ly. Whereas, Hawkers, Pedlars, and Petty Chap- men are continually strolling through the country with Goods, Wares, and Merchandise (much of which was undoubtedly forwarded by the enemies of Amer- ica) in order to vend the same to the great hurt and decay of trade and in defiance of a good and whole- some law of this Government-You are therefore not knowingly to harbor, conceal or entertain any one of them, nor purchase any of their wares, nor permit any within your knowledge to do it, and in case any Taverner, Innholder, or Retailer within this town, after being duly informed thereof, shall be knowingly guilty of either the aets in this instruction mentioned -You are to take every legal measures to prevent their ever hereafter being licensed by the Court of Sessions either as Taverners or Retailers.

5ly. Notwithstanding any persons may be so daring and hardy as to counteract the sense of the town ex- pressed in these instructions, you are by no means to suffer any insult or abuse to be offered to either their persons or estates, but use your utmost endeavor to prevent the same.

6ly. Of all breaches of these Instructions you are as soon as may be to inform your neighbors and the Selectmen of the town that whenever it may be neces- sary the town may be convened in order to consult , with the two Captains of the Companies in Dover be and advise thereon.

July 13, 1776 .- Voted that forty-two shillings be given by the town to each of the soldiers enlisted and that shall enlist since the 11th inst., and proceed in the present expedition to Canada, not exceeding fif- teen or sixteen men, and that the Selectmen hire the money (and pay the same) in the best manner they can immediately on the town's account.

May 5, 1777 .- Voted that Col. Otis Baker, Capt. Thomas Young, and Capt. Jobn Hayes be empowered to enlist what men is wanting to make this town's quota of men for completing the Battalions to be raised in this State, on the best terms they can.

Voted, that the Selectmen furnish the Committee with money to hire said men and raise the same in the next tax bill.

ling and sixpence a half day allowed them by the town for each day they train in a year more than the law requires.

Sept. 10, 1777 .- It was " voted that thirty dollars be given to each soldier who enlists for the Continental Service until the last of November next, and that the Selectmen pay each soldier the said sum when mus- tered."

March 30, 1778 .- It was "voted that a committee of two persons be chosen to inquire into the state of our quota of Continental troops, and if we are found lacking to take the most effectual measures for filling up the same."

June 15, 1778 .- 1t was " voted that Mr. John Bm. Hanson, Col. Joshua Wingate and Maj. Caleb Hodg- don be a committee to hire six men as soldiers to go to Rhode Island to reinforce General Sullivan's Di- vision."

May 10, 1779 .- It was "voted that the Selectmen advance the Continental and State bounty agreeable to a request of the Committee of Safety if they have it in stock, and if not the Selectmen are empowered to hire money for said purpose."

July 5, 1779 .- It was "voted that the Selectmen advance the Continental bounty being £60 and State bonnty of £30 and travel for five men, and if they have it not in hand that they hire the same and have | power to raise it in the next year's tax."

" Voted that a committee be chosen to hire eight men for the Continental Army one year and five men for the service at Rhode Island six months."

Aug. 30, 1779 .- It was " voted that a hundred dol- lars a month be given nine men to serve as soldiers at Portsmouth, &c., including what the State is to pay them."

June 26, 1780 .- It was " voted that the Selectmen be a committee for the purpose of getting eight men for the Continental Service on the best terms they ean.

July 4, 1780 .- It was "voted that the Selectmen a committee to get our quota of militia men for the Continental service."

Jan. 22, 1781 .- It was "voted that Mr. Andrew Torr, Capt. John Gage, and Maj. Benja Titcomb be a committee to get the proportion of men wanting from this town to fill up and complete the Conti- nental Army in the cheapest and most expeditious manner possible."

March 5, 1781 .- It was " voted that each Recruit from this Town as their quota of men for completing the Continental Army have and receive as wages four- teen bushels of Indian Corn per month during their stay in service, and that the Selectmen give their security for the payment of the same accordingly."

July 16, 1781 .- On the petition of Capt. Thomas Young and Capt. James Calef, stating that they had time to enlist or draft fourteen able bodied effective

May 15, 1777 .- Voted that the Alarm and Train | been "ordered by Col. Stephen Evans without loss of Band Lists have three shillings a day and one shil-

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men to serve three months if not sooner discharged, wherever the commander in chief shall order ax sol- diers," it was "voted that Capt. Young and Capt. Calef be a committee to raise the 14 men required, and that they give thirty shillings silver money to each man that enlists, which they shall have whether called on to go into service or not, and when they march each man shall receive thirty shillings more like money."

Sept. 19, 1781 .- At a town-meeting held for raising soldiers, it was " voted that nine men now to be raised for three months be given ten silver dollars each as bounty and paid fourteen bushels of merchantable Indian corn per month by the town in January, 1782."

After this date we find no record of any further proceedings in relation to the war.

The capture of Fort William and Mary, Dec. 14, ' 1774, largely by men from Durham, intensified the struggle. Of the men concerned in it prominently were Sullivan, Adams, Scammel, and others.

The then Governor, John Wentworth, the best of all the royal Governors of that day, descended from that William Wentworth who was elder of the Dover First Church, and of the same blood with that Earl of Straf- ford who was beheaded in the time of the first Charles, and with the British premier, the Marquis of Rock- ingham, soon sailed away never again to set foot upon his native soil. John Langdon, after gallant service in the war and priceless service in its civil support, became Governor and the first president of the Senate of the United States. John Sullivan, then a lawyer in Durham, was son of that John Sullivan who was once schoolmaster of the town of Dover, and who was the father of Governors, and was born on Dover side of the Salmon Falls. To him the refugee Livius wrote from Montreal in 1777 urging his return to the royal cause, promising him particular reward, and saying, "You were the first man in active rebel- lion," and Livius had fled from Portsmouth. Sul- livan became major-general and Governor of his State. Winborn Adams, also of Dover blood, was lieutenant- colonel when he met his death at Stillwater. Alex- ander Scammel, of that Durham party, was adjutant- general of the army when he fell at Yorktown. De- meritt, Griffin, Bennett, Chesley, Noble, and Durgin of that expedition all did service in the army of the Revolution.

When news came of the slaughter at Coneord, New Hampshire was aroused. Men collected from every quarter. "It is surprising," wrote Col. Jolin Went- worth, April 25th, " to see the number who collected. Some came to Dover, twenty miles or more." Shad- rach Hodgdon and Stephen Evans represented Dover in the convention of the " Friends of Liberty," which met at Exeter on the 13th of May. That convention voted to raise two thousand men, and to accept those who had already hurried to the field. Three regi- ments were raised. Stark's and Reid's had the glory

of fighting at Bunker Hill. The other, the Second, Col. Poor's, was largely on duty on the coast, from Odiorne's Point to the Merrimac. Most of the Dover soldiers were in that Second, but there were scattering recruits in the Third certainly.

In the Second was the company of Capt. Winborn Adams,-John Griffin, first lieutenant, Zebulon Drew, second lieutenant,-from Durham, which was at Bunker Hill. In the same regiment was Capt. Jon- athan Wentworth, "old Colonel Jonathan," of Rol- linsford, James Carr, first lieutenant, Jethro Heard, second lieutenant. He made a forced march of sixty- two miles previous to the battle of Bunker Hill, and arrived in Chelsea on that morning, but could not cross the river on account of the enemy, and went round by way of Medford. Jonathan Wentworth was adjutant of Col. Evans' regiment at the capture of Burgoyne, and in 1778 was on the staff of Sulli- van with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. His pos- terity are here. He had two brothers in service, one of whom died in the army. In the Third Regiment was Ezra Green, its surgeon, well known to many liv- ing, who had passed his hundred years when he died in Dover. He served on land until 1778, and then sailed with John Paul Jones, and was surgeon of the " Ranger" in its great battle. Immediately after the battle of Bunker Hill reinforcements went for- ward. I find in Belknap's diary, on the second day after the battle, " Benj. Titcomb's co. marched from here." This was that Benjamin Titcomb, brother of old Col. John, who afterwards became lieutenant- colonel, and one of the most gallant men in the army. Though severely wounded in three different battles he served through the war, and ended his days here at his house by Dunn's bridge. His descendants are still in Dover. With him in 1775 was his first lieu- tenant, Frederick Mordantt Bell, who, a captain in 1777, was mortally wounded at Stillwater. His granddaughter is still here. Ephraim Evans was second lieutenant in the same company. The pres- ent Dover also raised at once another company,-John Waldron, captain, Timothy Roberts, first lieutenant, Paul Welland, second lieutenant, John Heard, ensign, -and sent it to Cambridge, mustered in July 3, 1775.

In 1775 the six towns which composed ancient Dover had, between the ages of sixteen and fifty, one thousand and seventy men, including the sick, the feeble, the exempt, and the sailors off at sea. Of this . number, in the early autumn of that year, one hun- 1 dred and fifty, or nearly one-seventh of the whole, had shouldered the musket and were actually in the field. It was evidence of the same alacrity which caused New Hampshire to furnish more than half the men who fought the battle of Bunker Hill, at the very gates of Boston.

Washington made an urgent appeal to New Hamp- shire for men, and Sullivan added his influence. Thirty-one companies volunteered and marched to

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Cambridge. In this force were the companies of Elijah Dinsmore, of Lee; Alpheus Chesley, of Dur- ham; Moses Yeaton, of Somersworth; and John Waldron, of Dover. In December, 1775, New Hamp- shire had in the field over five thousand men ! John Waldron was in service when the exigency arose. He came home to Dover to raise recruits. Of his own company, Ebenezer Ricker was first lieutenant, and John Goodwin was second lieutenant. Tradition has told us that in four days he and his selected officers enlisted in this vicinity seven hundred men, which he commanded as colonel. The roster does not appear on our adjutant-general's books, and we had therefore doubted the truth of his colonelcy ; but documents recently produced show him at Cambridge the next spring, in command of his regiment, and with the missing roster. The energetic Col. John Walderne lived where the late Taylor Page lived, above Garri- son Hill. The son of Harrison Haley, of this city, is the grandson of the colonel's grandson. An entry in Belknap's diary says : " Dec. 9, 1775, dined at Capt. .John Waldron's, and prayed in the companies." The companies of the upper vicinity were, therefore, camped at Waldlerne's. The fathers pitched their tents there, on that high ground looking down into Dover. They saw then hut one spire, if the parish church had one. They looked down on a few score of houses. "Route step, march!" As they obeyed, with flint- lock guns at a shoulder and powder-horns by their side, they passed beautiful Garrison Hill and its few houses, and the spot where Heard's garrison had stood out against the savages eighty-six years before, almost as lonely as then. From that spot they found no houses till the site of Otis' garrison, the scene of barbarous slaughter in 1689. And next was the then elegant mansion of the soldier of Louisburg, Thomas Westbrook Walderne. They crossed the then new upper bridge (no historian tells us whether its piers were of faced stone or of crib-work), and they saw only a grist-mill and a saw-mill on the dam which then fretted the waters of the Cochecho. They passed over a hill in front of the place where Varney's Block now stands, and saw one house high up on the side of the road, where Coffin's garrison had once fallen. Crossing the gully, they must have stopped in front of the first house reached, that of John Wentworth, Jr., that old house still standing next south of the . Belknap Church, and saluted the youthful patriot lawyer, whose heart was alive in the cause. Then the houses became more plentiful, and they passed in front of the Dover llotel, then in its early prosperity, and so went on the Durham road and on to the siege of Boston.

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 188

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