History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 21

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 21
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 21

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JOHN PICKERING .- In the list of inhabitants of Portsmouth who, in 1640, made a grant of fifty acres for a glebe land for the use of the ministry we find the name of John Pickering, who in himself and his descendants was to play a conspicuous part in town matters, both civil and ecclesiastical.

The first John Pickering appears in Portsmouth as early as 1635, perhaps as early as 1630. He came here from Massachusetts, and probably was the same person spoken of as being at Cambridge soon after that town was settled. He died on the 18th of January, 1668- 69, leaving a large family. It was his son John who became so prominent in church and town affairs. He was born about 1640, and died about 1721. He first comes into notice as a military man, for which his character and talents seem eminently to have quali- fied him. As captain, he had a command in Ports- mouth for a number of years. When John Cutt was

It is mentioned in the early records that during the suspension of government consequent on the in- prisonment of Andros in 1689, Capt. John Picker- ing, a man of " a rough and adventurous spirit and a lawyer," " went with a company of armed men to the home of Richard Chamberlain (who wrote the book called Lithobolia, or Stone-throwing Demon at Great Island, of which we have given an account), & who had been secretary of the province under Andros & files wh. were in his possession, & upon refusing to deliver them up without some warrant or security, Pickering seized them by force, carried them off, and concealed them, and in turn was by force compelled to deliver them to Lieutenant-Governor Usher." Voluntarily or by selection he seems to have been engaged in several such enterprises about records of both church and State. In 1697 he was appointed king's attorney, with Charles Story secretary of the province and clerk of the Council, with all the records and files committed to his care. Story did not attend one of the adjourned meetings of the Council ; was reprimanded for neglect of duty, and ordered to sur- render all his papers. Upon refusing to do so the sheriff and Capt. Pickering were ordered to take with them sufficient assistance, and to make diligent search in any houses, rooms, closets, chests, trunks, or other places within the province for the said papers. He was a member of the convention which in 1690 recom- mended a reunion with Massachusetts, and was chosen a member of the Assembly which met at Boston for a number of successive years, and was several times chosen its Speaker. As a lawyer he could not have been without popularity and confidence, for in 1707, when the great cause of Allen vs. Waldron, involving Allen's title to the province of New Hampshire, was tried for the last time, and all the strength of each side was brought out, embracing some of the first men in the province, Capt. Pickering was selected as one of the counsel to defend the houses and lands of the inhabitants. The Hon. John Pickering, LL.D., of Newington, was a descendant of the second son of the first John Pickering, of Portsmouth, but the ancestor of the distinguished Timothy Pickering was a John Pick- ering, of Ipswich. In the affairs of the church it was this Capt. Pickering who was appointed to build the stocks and pillories for the punishment of offenders, and on account of his remarkable strength, of which stories apparently fabulous were handed down, was chosen at the time of Mr. Moodey's settlement to keep the congregation in order, reserve seats for the dis- tinguished guests ; but he let all in before the time, on the theory that at church one person was just as

PORTSMOUTHI.

good as another. When the difficulties began in regard to the site for the new church, which ended in the formation of a new parish and animosities which disturbed the peace of the whole province for a generation, Capt. Pickering was the leading spirit in the old South Parish, who carried everthing as he willed at the town-meetings, either by persuasion or by force, strenuously opposed building the new meeting house so far up as the site of the North Church, car- ried the matter again and again to the General Court, and generally with success for his side ; was foremost in all matters concerning the okl parish, and when at last the old church could be no longer repaired and kept as he made the town vote it should be, "the meeting-house of the town forever," he devised to the South Parish a lot of ground for a convenient site for another meeting-house to be set off to the said parish, " on the highest part of his neck." He was a large real-estate owner at the south end of the town, and what was called " Pickering's Neck" was a part of the land on which the fourth place of wor- ship for the town of Portsmouth was built, being the church of the South Parish until the present stone church was built in 1824.

SAMUEL WENTWORTH .- In the list of subscribers to the support of Mr. Moodey, and so, of course, among the worshipers at the old South, we find the name of Samuel Wentworth. This is the first of the family, afterwards so prominent in public affairs, who ap- pears in our town. At that time the vicinity of Point of Graves was the principal part of Portsmouth. For a while Samuel Wentworth lived at Great Island, and afterwards built by Puddle Dock, on the south side of the dock, at the north end of Manning Street, the first Wentworth house, still in good preservation. It was in this house that the first Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, John Wentworth, his son, lived, and here was married in 1693, and owned all that part of the town as far as the South Church.

After the gathering of the new or North Parish some of the family of Samuel Wentworth are found in that, while to others belonged an active part in the formation of the Episcopal parish.

When Great Island became a town, under the name of New Castle, in 1693, several of the prominent parishioners at the old South beeame identified with the church at New Castle, and some still retained a nominal connection and even an active interest in the old parish, as well as in the North after its estab- lishment in 1714. Among these were Cranfield and Barefoot, Robert Cutt and Pendleton, Stileman and Fryer, Atkinson and Story, Sheafe and Jaffrey.

for the taking of Louisburg, was the last baptism recorded by Mr. Moodey, May 9, 1697. I am in- lebted to a careful and valuable manuscript life of Sir William PeppereH, by the Rev. Dr. Burroughs, which is far better than the printed life of the distin- guished merchant by Parsons, for much of the fol- lowing biographical and historical matter.

William Pepperell was born in 1647, in Cornwall, England, and became a settler at the Shoals in 1670, attracted to the commercial advantages of Appledore and the prominence of its fisheries. lere, about 1680, he married a daughter of Mr. John Bray, one of the leading islanders, who had for some time re- fused the offer of marriage from Pepperell, but, says Dr. Burroughs, "relented in proportion to the in- erease of his property." As his business increased the Shoals offered too small a field for his enterprise, and he and his partner, a Mr. Gibbins, resolved to leave the weather-beaten islands, and to resort to chance and determine their separate destination. The story runs that they each set up a long pole and left it to fall as Providence should direct. Pep- perell's fell towards the northwest, Gibbins' to- wards the northeast. Following with obedience and enthusiasm the plan they had adopted and the course pointed out by the fallen sticks, Pep- perell established himself on the Kittery side of the mouth of the Piscataqua, and made large purchases of Tand there, while Gibbins obtained that tract on the Penobscot afterwards known as the Waldo patent. As early as the year 1681 we find the name of Pep- perell and his father-in-law, Bray, on the town rec- ords of Kittery, then a province of Massachusetts, and here Pepperell spent the remainder of his days. Ilis business enterprises were so successful that in 1712 there were but three persons in Kittery, then in- cluding Eliot & Berwiek, whose property was esti- mated to be of more value than his. In this year Pepperell interested himself in organizing a church at Kittery, whose inhabitants attended worship under serious inconveniences of distance, weather, and tide at Strawberry Bank. He was chiefly instrumental in the settlement of the Rev. Mr. Newmarch at Kittery, not far from his own mansion, in 1714, and was one of the first signers of the covenant. Up to this time, William Pepperell, at age of almost seventy, and his son, afterwards Sir William, at the age of eighteen, had been constant worshipers at the old South. William Pepperell died in Kittery in 1734, leaving Sir William the principal heir, and with the care and responsibility of a large property. But even before this he had manifested remarkable enterprise and sagacity as a merchant, and his ships were found in all parts of Europe and the West Indies. One of the first things he did was to build the family tomb, still standing in that open field not far from the old family mansion, but without care and rapidly being desolated by time and intruders. In 1722, at the age of twenty-

SIR WILLIAM PEPPERELL .- I have now to notice two persons who in a day when titles of nobility or birth in the aristocratic families of Old England con- ferred a real eminence upon men were conspicuous figures in our early history. William Pepperell be- came a communicant at the old South Nov. 5, 1696; and his son, who was afterwards created a baronet . six, Sir William married Miss Hirst, of Boston, to

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

whom all traditions give the highest praise for natu- ral and acquired powers, for brilliant wit, and sweet- ness of temper. I have copied a few verses of hers, written upon the death of an infant child, which have never been printed, and were handed down by the memory of one who deemed them worthy, and are certainly of a merit equal to much that is printed :

" A little bird that lately pleased my sight, Ravished my heart and filled me with delight, And as it grew, at once my joy and pride, Beloved by all whoe'er its heanty spied, I fondly called it nine, nor could I bear The thought of losing what I held so dear ; For it had just begun, with warbling strains, To soothe my pleasure and to ease my pains; Its artless notes and lisping melody Made in my ears a grateful harmony. Least while I heard or dreamed of its decay, This pretty bird by death was snatched away. Snatched, did I say ? No, I recall the word; 'Twas sent for home by its most rightful Lord, To whose blest will we must and do resign That which improperly I claimed as mine. 'Twas Thine, blest Lord, Thy goodness lent it me, 'Twas doubly Thine, because given back by Thee. Then go, sweet bird, mount np and sing on high, While winged seraphs waft thee through the sky ; They're clad in glory bright, and sit serene On boughs immortal, ever fresh and green ; They chant thy praises with a lovely train Of spirits just, for whom the Lamb was slain ; Touch David's harp with wonder and surprise, Whilst ours, neglected, on the willow lies."

Sir William had no opportunities for an education, except such as came from a multiplicity of relations with men in all ranks of society ; but Dr. Stevens, his pastor, who preached a sermon upon his character soon after his death, says, "Such were his abilities and virtues, so distinguished and admirable his social qualities, that he soon drew the notice and engaged the affections of all." " So elevated were his princi- ples and disinterested his views, and so active was his benevolence, that his fellow-citizens considered him as their patron and friend, and bore towards him the sentiment of filial veneration and affection." To the various duties and large responsibilities of one of the greatest merchants of New England, Sir William had added a number of important civil offices, but it was reserved for his military success to give to him his title of nobility.

The Siege of Louisburg .- The siege and capture of Louisburg were the great warlike achievements in our early history, and the command and success of the whole enterprise belonged to Sir William. Upon his return he was received at Portsmouth, entertained, and escorted to his boat, as it departed from our shore to his mansion at Kittery, with an outburst of enthu- siasm from the inhabitants and an oration, both civil and military, even greater than were paid to Wash- ington. As in our late war, there were in this ad- venture some rivalries and jealousies as to whom be- longed the credit of the expedition, and Col. William Vaughan, a grandson of Maj. William Vaughan, who came to Portsmouth about 1650, is said to have first

prepared a plan of the capture and proposed it to the government, and Governor Wentworth and others were disappointed, not being given the charge of the enterprise ; but all eyes turned to Col. Pepperell, as of well-known and eminent moral worth, of acknowl- edged military skill, of tried statesmanship, of ele- vated rank in the confidence of the community, and the best fitted to command the expedition. If the | success of an engagement might be always predicted from the character of the principal supporters, we might have foretold the capture of Louisburg, for the number of persons prominent in Portsmouth, under the command of Pepperell, was certainly large.

While Pepperell had the matter under considera- ation, Whitefield, the celebrated Episcopal and itin- erant clergyman, and founder of the Calvinistic Methodists, was on a visit to Maine, and Pepperell became well acquainted with him, and asked White- field's advice.

" Your scheme," said the great preacher, "I think not very full of encouragement. The eyes of all will be upon you, and should you not meet with success the widows and orphans will utter their complaint and reflection, and if it be otherwise numbers will look upon you with envy and endeavor to eclipse your glory. You ought, therefore, in my judgment, to go with a single eye, and then you will receive strength proportioned to your necessities." White- field furnished the motto for the flag of the expedi- tion, " Nil desperandum Christo."

New Hampshire furnished five hundred men, one- eighth of the whole land force. Among these was the Rev. Mr. Langdon (once the grammar school teacher, and then pastor of the North Church), as chaplain, and Jacob Sheafe, son of Sampson Sheafe, of Great Island, as commissary. There was Nathaniel Meserve as lieutenant-colonel ; there was Samuel Hale with the rank of major; there was John Storer, grandfather of George Storer, of this town ; there was Rev. Ammi R. Cutter, of the Massachusetts regiment, whose eldest son was Dr. Ammi R. Cutter, of Ports- mouth ; there was Rev. Samuel Moodey, of York, son of our Mr. Moodey, remarkable for his eccen- tricities, and private chaplain to Sir William. The expedition was completely successful, and Pepperell was rewarded with an English knighthood. One by one he was compelled to give up his duties and enter- prises, and died at his mansion at Kittery on the 6th of July, 1759.

Champernowne .- There remains for us to notice briefly still another important character, whose life has been so carefully written by C. W. Tuttle, Esq., of Boston, that beyond his thorough researches no one need desire to go. In his sketches of this prom- inent person, recently printed in The Historical and Genealogical Register, may be found authority for most of the following. Among the early settlers of our province more persons perhaps came from Devon and Cornwall than from all other counties in Eng-

PORTSMOUTH.

land. and of all the noble families in the west of England, few if any surpass in antiquity and splen- dor of descent the family of Champernowne, being connected with the Plantagenets, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Capt. Francis Champernowne, one of that family, came to New England in 1636.

In 1636, Sir Ferdinando Gorges granted to Champer- nowne's father two tracts of land bordering on the eastern shore of the Piscataqua and at the mouth. One embraced what has been for the last hundred years and more known as the Gerrish and the Cutts Islands, and the stream now known as Chauncey's Creek for a long time bore the name of Champer- nowne. To this grant came Capt. Francis Champer- nowne in 1636, at the age of twenty-two. . About 1640, and at the time of the granting of the globe land, Champernowne bought four hundred acres in Greenland, where he built a house and lived for twenty years. Afterwards he added three hundred acres more, including the farm of Col. Peirce, and seems to have lived in a baronial style. At a later date he preferred his residence on Cutts Island, and went there to live. He was a councilor in the gov- ernment of Gorges, and for a few years, with his asso- ciates, had the sole authority in Maine, and opposed strenuously the usurpation by the Massachusetts Bay. He was councilor to Cranfield, to Dudley, and to An- dros. Strange to say, when some examinations were made a few years since about this almost forgotten character, traditions in Greenland were brought to light of the descent from royalty of one Champer- nowne who used to live there, and in Kittery of one who was "the son of a nobleman." He was a thor- ough royalist and churchman, and about ten years before his death married the widow of Robert Cutt, of Kittery. He lived a retired and dignified life, was reserved in disposition, and took little interest in matters which did not concern him, but, without seek- ing for place and power, was in that day of prominence on account of his high birth, and altogether respected. He was doubtless one of the most active supporters of Episcopacy, and from his residence at Greenland a constant worshiper at the first chapel, and there- after, unless too strict a churchman to take any in- terest in the services of Puritanism, at the old South for thirty years. He died on Cutts Island in 1687, and a small cairn marks the place of his burial. I am inclined to think he was one who carried out a plan held by many of the leading old families of Eng- land, and especially of second or later sons who would not inherit the family estates, to establish themselves in the New World, and for religious and political reasons they turned naturally to the settlement at the Piscataqua.

Successive Ministers at the Old South Parish. -EMERSON. John Emerson, the fourth minister of the South Parish, was the third minister of that name settled in New England. He graduated at llarvard

in 1689, and in 1703, as we have seen, was settled over the recently gathered parish at New Castle. After a good deal of inconvenience there on account of arrears of salary and some trouble about a parson- age, he resigned in 1712, and in the midst of the difficulty at Portsmouth in regard to the formation of a new parish, Mr. Emerson was invited to preach to the parish at the old South. It was in a great measure owing to the remarkable pulpit gifts and the pleasing manners of Mr. Emerson that the South Parish seems not to have seriously regarded the se- cession of the North Parish. Mr. Emerson was born at Ipswich in 1670. In 1708, while over the parish at New Castle, he went to England, spent some time in London, and from his fine presence and courtly manners was handsomely noticed by Queen Anne.

We find in the town records under date of 17th February, 1713, " Whereas, John Plaisted, Mark Hunking, Esq., Capt. John Pickren, & W. Cotton, at a legall town meeting called & commenced ye 9th of Sep., 1713, were chosen and appointed to call & agree with a minister of ye Gospel to Preach att ye old meeting-house, & according to sd vote, weh call was made to ye Reverend John Emerson by and with ye consent of above s4 persons; sd Emerson came ac- cordingly in ye month of Jannary in above sd year : ye Feb. 7 following xd Pickren & Cotton, with the consent of approbation of sd Hlunking & Plaisted, made agreement with him ye sª Emerson to be our settled minister, & engaged that he should be paid yearly & every year £100, strangers' contribution, & a Parsonage house at Town charge so long as sd En- erson continue preaching in sª House."

The next year, June 7, 1714, it seems there was another committee chosen by the town, and evidently by the influence of the new parish, and with three persons from it opposed to the settlement of Emer- son, who were to settle an orthodox and learned min- ister on ye south side of ye mill dam. But when it was found that the South Parish was firm in its choice of Mr. Emerson, and some of the selectmen had been arrested on account of his salary, it was voted by the town the next year "yt if any lawsuit on ye like occasion be again commenced, yt itt be impleaded at ye expense of ye town, for that he i Mr. Emerson ] is not ye settled minister of the town pur- suant to order of ye government & vote of the town, June, 1714."

Then, again, 25th March, 1717, " Whereas, by ver- tue of a Pretended vote on the 9 Sept., 1713, there is a sham agreement made with Mr. Emerson to officiate as a minister at ye old Meeting-House, ye same being Clandestinely put upon record, Voted that ye same be null and Rassed out of ye Town book, for that he ye sd Emerson is not a legal settled minister of ye Town."

This contention was ended by the Legislature de- elaring both to be settled ministers of ye town.

In the South Parish records, under date of March

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

23, 1714-15, is the following record : "The church belonging to the old meeting-house in Portsmouth having chosen the Rev. John Emerson to take the oversight of them, the Reverend Christopher Toppan, in the presence of the Rev. Caleb Cushing & The- ophilus Cotton, gave him the pastoral charge of them and the congregation attending God's publick wor- ship in that place, having been ordained before to the work of the ministry by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery, viz .: the Rev. Mr. John Cotton, John Pike, & Johu Clark." Mr. Rogers would not assist at the services of installation, and was greatly displeased with Mr. Emerson for being settled over the old parish, and carried his bitter feeling all through his ministry.

The ministry of Mr. Emerson lasted from the 23d of March, 1714-15, to the 21st of February, 1732-33, a pastorate of seventeen years, and, after the settle- ment of the difficulties occasioned by the secession of the North Parish, of undisturbed tranquillity and unexampled prosperity.

A Church on the Plains .- Quite a little village | home with Goodwife Barton, she separated from her at had grown up at and about the Plains, of so much importance that in 1725 a meeting-house was built on the rise of ground east of the training-field, and wor- ship regularly maintained for nearly two years, when, in 1727, it was voted "to free and exonerate them from any tax or charge towards the support of the gospel ministry (at the North Church), or any parish at the Bank for the future, provided they have fre- quent preaching more for accommodation than at the Bank." The meeting-house blew down in 1748.

Absence of the Spirit of Persecution .- It has often been remarked that our early settlers were sin- gularly free from religious bigotry, and in an epoch fruitful of dogmatism and persecution but few in- stances of fanatical zeal can be laid at their feet. Themselves strictly of the Church of England, when they could not maintain their own form of worship, the Non-conformist clergymen of the Bay found no hindrance here except when Cranfield instituted pro- ceedings against Moodey for refusing to administer the sacrament according to the order of the Church of England. There has come down to us an account of but a single instance of the infliction of violence in the province for heterodoxy, and that was under the law of Massachusetts (for New Hampshire as a separate government never authorized such a penalty ), when in 1662 Richard Waldron ordered three Quaker women to be led at the cart's tail through New Hamp- shire and Massachusetts out of the jurisdiction and whipped in each town; but Walter Barefoote, after- wards a royal Governor of New Hampshire, by a pious stratagem, obtained the custody of the women in Sal- isbury, and saved them from further cruelty by send- ing them out of the province. The refuge of Quakers and Anabaptists in these days was Rhode Island, a State from the beginning to the present day remark- able for its hospitality towards various opinions, but

at that time regarded as the drain or sink of New England for the shelter it gave the heretics, so that it has been said of Rhode Island, " If any man had lost his religion he might find it there among such a general muster of opinionists." We have, in 1656, { under rule of the Bay, the several enactments against "a cursed sect of hereticks lately arisen up in the world which are commonly called Quakers, who took upon them to be immediately sent of God."

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 21

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