History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 61

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 61
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 61


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He was about the only Exeter man of note whose fidelity to the American cause came early under sus- picion. At a later period, however, another person who had previously held himself out as a zealous Whig was found guilty of the blackest defection. This was Robert Luist Fowle, the printer, whose office in 1776, as he advertised, was "on the grand country road, near the State House,"-probably on Water Street not far from the present Court Square. Fowle had been employed to print the paper money of New Hampshire, and was afterwards suspected, on very good grounds, of using his press for issuing counterfeits of the same to be put in circulation by disaffected persons; it being considered a legitimate way of opposing the popular government to discredit its circulating medinm. Fowle was arrested and held in durance for a time, and apparently undertook to secure his own safety by betraying his accomplices. Perhaps he was thought to be playing false in this ;


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for we are informed that he owed his escape at last to the unfaithfulness of his jailor, whose carriage was believed one stormy night to have conveyed him away, and he sought refuge within the British lines.


As has already been stated, the inhabitants of Ex- eter were almost to a man in favor of resistance to the oppressive measures of the British Parliament. Conspicuons among the patriots was Col. Nicholas Gilman, the father of Governor Gilman. At the | commencement of the Revolution he was forty-four years of age, in the very prime of his powers, a man of resolution, firmness, and sound judgment. He was largely engaged in business, and was command- ing officer of a regiment of militia, He was a great favorite with Governor Wentworth, who undoubtedly


Gen. Nathaniel Folsom acted an important part in the Revolutionary drama. A native of Exeter, and descended from one of its most ancient families, he had been a soldier long before that time. In 1755, at the age of twenty, he was entrusted with the com- mand of a company in a New Hampshire regiment, used all his influence to keep him on the side of his , raised to serve under Sir William Johnson against royal master, and it is said never ceased to retain his attachment for him. But Col. Gilman occupied no doubtful ground. Early declaring himself on the side of his country, his counsel and services were eagerly sought for in her behalf and cheerfully ren- dered. Money, the sinews of war, was the thing most needful, and he was placed at the head of the fiscal department of the State, where he accomplished almost as much for New Hampshire as Robert Morris did for the country. But his efforts were not limited to any narrow sphere. No plan for the public se- curity or advantage was adopted until it received the sanction of his approval. President Weare held the chief executive office, and Nicholas Gilman was his premier.


The two sons of Col. Gilman who were old enough for the military service took up arms at the beginning of the Revolutionary struggle. John Taylor, the elder, served in the company of volunteers who marched to Cambridge on the morning after the first effusion of blood at Lexington and Concord. Afterwards he became an assistant to his father at home, and rendered invaluable aid to the patriot cause throughout the war in various capacities. The second son, Nicholas, entered the army early, and served in it six years and three months. He was assistant adjutant-general during the latter part of his service, and as such returned an account of the prisoners captured on the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Nathaniel, the third son of Col. Nich- olas Gilman, was but sixteen when the war began, and did not take part in the fighting, though very desirous to do so ; but he was useful to his father in his manifold employments, and succeeded him at an early age in his official positions.


Detachments from Col. Gilman's regiment were from time to time called into the field for active duty, and there is no doubt that they received his supervision there. But it is not known that . he served in person during any campaign, though it is likely that he was from time to time at the front. It is related that he visited Gates' headquarters in 1777 for the purpose of doing his devoir in aiding


to arrest the invading march of Burgoyne, but that the decisive battle had been fought before his arrival. He probably enjoyed there the opportunity of wit- nessing the surrender of an entire British army to the power of united America, which must have yielded him heartfelt satisfaction. Col. Gilman re- sided, in 1776, in the house afterwards long occupied by Col. Peter Chadwick, and now by his son and daughter.


Crown Point, and distinguished himself greatly by his gallantry and good conduct. He afterwards re- ceived promotion in the militia, and in 1774 was in the commission of the peace, which was then no small honor. He had also been for several years a member of the Assembly of the province, and was regarded as one of the leaders of the popular cause. In 1774 he was chosen one of the members to repre- sent New Hampshire in the General Congress at Phil- adelphia. Apparently Governor Wentworth hoped to the last that Folsom might be brought to repent and renew his fealty to the king, for it was not till the 22d of February, 1776, that he cast him off. On that day Folsom had the honor of receiving a letter of the fol- lowing tenor :


" SIR,-I am commanded by his Excellency to acquaint yon that he has, with advice of his Majesty's Council, ordered your name to be erased from the commission of the peace for the County of Rockingham, -that it is done accordingly, and that you act no more as a justice of the peace for said county.


" By his Excellency's command, " Is. RINDGE, " Clerk of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace for the County of Rockingham,"


The ex-justice did not make himself unhappy over the loss of his commission, but was undoubtedly glad to be freed from the very semblance of holding office under the king, or rather, as the phrase then was, under the king's ministers, for the Americans com- monly believed that his gracious majesty was at heart very friendly to them, and that his advisers were solely responsible for every tyrannical act visited upon the colonies. At a later period the publication of the letters of George III. to Lord North showed that this idea was totally erroneous, and that the American Revolution was due to the obstinacy, folly, and des- potic notions of the king himself.


Col. Folsom (for that was his title in the beginning of 1775) was evidently held in the highest estimation as a military commander, for on the 24th day of May, in that year, a month after Lexington, and a month before Bunker Hill, he received the appointment of major-general of "all the forces raised (by New Hampshire) for this and the other American col-


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onies." The province had then three regiments in the field,-Stark's, Poor's, and Reed's. Gen. Folsom at once repaired to Cambridge to take the command of the brigade. Stark complained (without reason) at Folsom being put over him, and was inclined to despise the authority of this colony, till his native good sense taught him to act more wisely. The mis- understanding and rivalry between Folsom and Stark, however, prevented the nomination of either as a general officer on the Continental establishment, and Sullivan was selected as brigadier from New HIamp- shire. Gen. Folsom remained in command of the New Hampshire troops at Cambridge until the adop- tion of the army, and the appointment of its com- manders by Congress. He then returned home, but though not again called actively to the field, he was allowed no respite from military or civil employment. He was retained in command of the militia, who were continually kept in readiness for active service in emergencies, and frequently called forth. In the course of the war he was four years a member of the Committee of Safety ; was repeatedly chosen to the Legislature, and in 1777, and again in 1779, elected a delegate to the Continental Congress ; and in addition to all the rest, was made a judge of the Court of Common Pleas.


There was evidently an incompatibility, or at least an impropriety, in a single person exercising such diverse functions at the same time, and some excep- tion was taken to it in the Legislature; but a ma- jority were of the opinion that the occasion justified a departure from ordinary rules, and the perfect con- fidence reposed in Gen. Folsom's honesty and pa- triotism silenced all criticism. Gen. Folsom lived in a house which formerly stood where Mr. George Sul- livan's residence (now the Squamscot House) was afterwards built. The Folsom house was removed farther up Front Street, and placed on the lot next westerly of the residence of Mr. Luke Julian, where it still remains.


Enoch Poor was one of the most active business men of Exeter when the war began. He had come here some ten years before from Andover, Mass., his native town, and had engaged in trade and ship- building. He showed himself to be decided, bold, and fitted for command, and as he was an ardent friend of liberty, he was regarded at an early period as a leader in organizing resistance to the British authority. He was absent from home when the first shot was fired at Lexington, but in a very short time was found at Cambridge marshaling the sons of New Hampshire, who at the first note of alarm had quitted the plow to take up arms in behalf of their im- periled brethren of Massachusetts Bay. He was at once made colonel of the Second Regiment of New Hampshire troops, and thenceforward until his death shared the fortunes of the American army. He was in command of his regiment on the Canada expedi- tion, and was appointed a brigadier-general in 1777, 1


in which capacity he did excellent service in Gates' army in the battles which resulted in the capture of Burgoyne. In Valley Forge he bore his part in the privations and sufferings of the troops, and at Mon- mouth he won distinction by his efforts in retrieving the fortunes of the day, at first imperiled by Lee's "ill-timed retreat." He accompanied Sullivan in 1779 in his expedition against the Indians; and in 1780 was put in command of a brigade of light in- fantry under the orders of Lafayette, who had a high opinion of him.1 He died at Paramus, N. J., on the 8th of September in that year, of fever, after a short illness. It has been believed by some persons that he was killed in a duel with a French officer, and that the manner of his death was kept a secret, lest it might excite ill feeling between our own countrymen and the French who were then our useful allies. But it is now the opinion of those who have the best means of knowledge that the story of the duel was unfounded.


Gen. Poor was much esteemed by his brother- officers. Washington wrote of him in terms of high commendation ; and when Lafayette visited this country, half a century ago, he paid a graceful tribute to his merit, as well as to that of another dis- tinguished New Hampshire officer, by giving as a sentiment on a public occasion, "The memory of Light-infantry Poor and Yorktown Scammell."


The residence of Gen. Poor was in the house for- merly at the easterly corner of Centre and Water Streets, where his widow continued to live during the fifty years that she survived him. We have, unfor- tunately, no portraits of many of the principal citi- zens of Exeter one hundred years ago. But a like- ness of Gen. Poor is still extant. The tradition is that it was drawn by the accomplished Polish engin- eer in the American service, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, upon the fly-leaf of a hymn-book in church. It represents the general in the Continental uniform, with a cocked-hat and epaulets. The features are bold and prominent, and we can easily believe that the original must have been a man of mark.


Another of the foremost men of that time was Col. John Phillips, the location of whose dwelling has already been described. Though he wore a military tile, he was noted not so much for his warlike as for his civic achievements. He was, however, the command- ing officer of the Exeter Cadets, and a very well drilled and disciplined corps it was said to be. He was also a decided friend of his country, it is under- stood, notwithstanding he took no active part in public affairs in the Revolution. He was bred to the ministry, though he was engaged in business as a merchant for the greater part of his working life. Hle employed his large accumulations wisely and generously in promoting the cause of education in this and other States.


1 There is some reason to believe that he died from a wound received in a duel with an American officer.


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In the house now occupied by Mr. John W. Get- chell lived Col. James Hackett in 1776. He had been for some time engaged in ship-building here, and was a man of enterprise and determination. He was no Jaggard in evineing his willingness to enlist in his country's cause, for he was one of the first to march to the scene of hostilities on the morning after the Concord fight. The unanimous voice of his fellow- volunteers made him the commander of the extem- porized company, and he acquitted himself well of the trust. Repeatedly afterwards during the war he was chosen to important military commands, but his contriving head and skillful hands were so constantly needed in constructing ships-of-war and flotilla for offensive and defensive purposes on our coast that he is not known to have served as a soldier in any cam- paign, except in Rhode Island, under Gen. Sullivan, in 1778, where he held the post of lieutenant of a company of light horse, of which no less a person than John Langdon was captain.


Col. Hackett appears to have passed much of his time, at a later period, in Portsmouth, where he pur- sted the business of ship-building, and on the occasion of Washington's visit to New Hampshire in 1789 commanded a battalion of artillery, which received his excellency on his arrival in Portsmouth with a grand salute.


The same house was years afterwards tenanted by another person, who filled during the Revolution a still more conspicuous public position. This was Gen. Nathaniel Peabody, who was in 1774 a physician in Plaistow, practicing his profession with great success. He was popular and aspiring. He denounced the usurpations of Britain at the outset, and is said to have been the first man in the province to resign the king's commission from political motives. He was repeatedly chosen to the Legislature, and upon the Committee of Safety, and was in 1779 and 1780 a delegate to Congress. Besides these, he held numerous other offices, civil and military, of dignity and im- portance. As adjutant-general of the State his only active service, by a singular coincidence, was in the same Rhode Island campaign in which his predecessor in the habitation, Col. Hackett, first heard the sounds of actual conflict. After the war, Gen. Peabody's popularity was undiminished, and he received fre- quent testimony of the confidence of his fellow-citi- zens in the shape of elections to office. He afterwards removed his residence to Exeter, where he passed the remainder of his life. Towards the close of his career he was annoyed by pecuniary troubles, and is said to have become petulant and rough in his manners. Many stories are yet current of his sharp speeches and harsh conduct. They furnish an exemplification of the truth of the oft-quoted words of Shakspeare :


-


"The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones,"


Gen. Peabody was undoubtedly possessed of abili- ties far above the average, and rendered valuable ser-


vice as a legislator to his State and country, and in his professional capacity to the sick and suffering. We can make allowance for faults of temper, and even for more serious defects in one who so stanchly de- fended the rights of his country in the hour of her sorest trial, and bore so important a part in laying the foundations of the nation's prosperity and greatness.


Where the town-house now is, Joseph Gilman lived in 1776, in the gambrel-roofed house which, having been reduced one story in height, now occupies a place on the north side of Franklin Street. Mr. Gilman was bred to mercantile pursuits, and for several years before the Revolution was a member of the firm of Folsom, Gilman & Gilman, which did a large busi- ness in Exeter, in trade, in ship-building, and in ven- tures at sea. A printed shop-bill of the concern has been preserved, which shows that almost as great a variety of merchandise found a sale among the good people of the place three or four generations ago as now.


"Crimson, scarlet, and various other color'd Broad Cloths; scarlet and green Ratteens ; scarlet, blue, and green Plnshes ; crimson, cloth color'd and black figur'd cotton waistcoat Shapes; Velvet of most colors for capes ; crimson, scarlet, black, blue, green, and cloth color'd Shaloons," are all articles which indicate the prevailing taste of that day for bright colored cloth- ing; a taste which must have rendered an assemblage of ladies and gentlemen a spectacle much more im- posing and pleasing to the eye than a company at- tired in the sombre hues, or the white and black, which are prescribed by more recent fashions.


Folsom, Gilman & Gilman dealt in hardware also, and in their enumeration of merchandise of this de- scription, we find almost identically the tools and iron utensils which are advertised by their successors in the same line of business in 1876. Of course there are more or less Yankee inventions of modern date, however, which have superseded the older contriv- ances. The almost universal use of cooking-stoves, for example, has rendered much of the apparatus of the old-fashioned fireplaces obsolete; gun-flints are little in demand since percussion locks were invented ; hour-glasses are now mere matters of curiosity, and " H and HL hinges," thumb-latches, warming-pans, and shoe- and knee-buckles are certainly no longer articles of common use. Some of the goods are de- scribed by names that sound strangely to our modern ears. Tammys and Durants, Dungereens, Tandems, Romalls, and Snail Trimmings would be inquired for in vain, we fear, at our dry-goods stores; and it is doubtful whether Firmers, Jobents, Splinter Locks, or Cuttoes would be recognized under those designa- tions among our dealers in ironmongery.


In connection with this subject it may be men- tioned that another printed Exeter shop-bill of the ante-Revolutionary period is still extant. It con- tains a brief list of the articles to be sold by William Elliot, " at his shop formerly occupied by Mr. Peter


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Coffin, and opposite Peter Gilman, Esq'rs." It indi- catex that Mr. Elliott's stock in trade was also quite miscellaneous, comprising dry-goods, hardware, and groceries.


Indeed, there was one article under the last head that was then kept by every trader,-spirituous liquor. Its use was all but universal. We have already re- lated an incident to show that good men, engaged in a religious duty, sometimes partook of the enticing cup with freedom. In fact, there was no occasion of unusual interest, from a christening to a funeral, but must be observed by a plentiful oblation. The select- men when they met to transact the town business re- paired to a tavern, where it was convenient to obtain the means to moisten their clay ; and the landlord duly scored the mugs and bowls of fragrant beverages which they consumed to the account of the town, and his bill was promptly met at the close of the year. The judges ou their circuit were unable to hold the courts without spirituous refreshment. We have seen a bill of the "Courts' Expences," of some- what earlier date than the era we have been refer- ring to, in which the dinners each day were supple- mented by a liberal number of " Bottels of wine" and " Boules of punch."


Mr. William Elliott left his business when the country called for armed defenders and joined the army. He was adjutant in the regiment of Col. Na- than Hale in 1777, and at the disastrous fight at IIub- bardtown was taken prisoner. He was probably ex- changed subsequently.


But we have wandered from the subjeet on which we commenced. The house of Mr. Joseph Gilman was the place where most of the meetings of the Com- mittee of Safety were held during the war. The Legislature was in session more than one-third part of the year 1776, and the committee nearly the entire residue of the year. It would seem to be a hazardous thing to delegate to a dozen men the power to arrest, imprison, and release at their pleasure any of their fellow-citizens of the province. If they had been vindietive, here was ample opportunity to wreak their vengeance ; if they had been rapacious, here were plenty of chanees to fill their pockets. Many who were apprehended by their authority made bitter complaints, of course ; but the action of the Commit- tee of Safety is believed, on the whole, to have been characterized by much prudence and moderation.


They had a great variety of characters to deal with. Not a few of the men of wealth and position were op- posed to resistance to the British authority. They feared the result of an organized insurrection against the power and warlike resources of England, and they preferred to submit to what they considered the small evil of taxation without representation rather than to incur the hazards of rapine and confiscation which might come in the train of a rebellion suppressed by force of arms. These timid souls were treated ten- derly, and after a taste of jail-life were allowed to go


at large upon giving security for their good behavior. It may have been one of these who wrote to the com- mittee the following letter :


" PRISON IN EXETER, 24th Apl. 1776. "may it Please your Honors,


" Gratitude being a Duty Incumbent on those who have Receiv'd Favors, begg Leave to Return your Honors most sincere thanks for the Very Great Favor you have Done me in admitting me to Bail for the Liberty of this house and the Yard thereto adjoyning, & am with the utmost Respect, Sincerity & Esteem


"yr Honors most obedient Servant, " JOHN PATTEN. "THE HONORABLE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY."


As the "liberty of the yard" is alluded to in this letter, a word on the subject of that ancient legal fiction, as it may be termed, will perhaps not be void of interest to the people of this age, to whom impris- onment for debt is happily unknown. In former times, when a man who could not pay what he owed was liable to compensate for his inability by the loss of his personal liberty, debtors in many cases could enjoy the privilege of living outside the jail walls, provided they did not exceed certain limits, which were fixed at a convenient distance-for a long time two hundred rods-from the building in every direc- tion. In order to secure this advantage, which was obviously a great relief from actual incarceration, the debtor was obliged to give a bond, with good sureties, that he would keep within the prison "yard," as the limits were called. And if he overstepped the line, even for a single inch, his bond was forfeited, and his sureties were liable to pay the debt.


Apropos of this, a story is told of a debtor in Exeter in the olden time who, being under bond to confine himself to the jail yard, saw a child who had fallen into the river struggling for its life at a point just beyond the line which he was bound not to transeend. His humanity outweighed all other considerations, and he broke bounds without hesitation and saved the child. It is pleasant to record that though the creditor might have extorted his debt from the bonds- men, for this act of mercy on the part of their prin- cipal, he never made the attempt. If he had forgiven bis debtor in full it would have been better still.


But some of the Tories who came under the cogni- zance of the Committee of Safety were not to be handled with too much tenderness. They were sullen and vindictive, and ready to do anything to obstruet the progress of popular government. One of the men concerned with Fowle, the printer, in emitting coun- terfeit paper money was of this description. He had occupied a position of some distinction in the prov- ince. It was a bitter humiliation for him to lie in the jail with common malefactors, but he was too proud | and obstinate to recant the opinions he had often ex- pressed ; and so he chafed in confinement, until by the aid of friends without he was enabled to make his escape. This was the well-known Col. Stephen Hol- land, of Londonderry. His influence on those about him must have been rated high, since it was deemed necessary to imprison his negro man Cato as well as


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his master. After the colonel's flight, the committee appear to have issued hand-bills for his apprehension, and employed Benjamin Boardman to go express to Boston, " to carry advertisements after the Col. Hol- land." They turned out to be " after" him indeed, for he was so far in advance of them that he reached the enemy's lines in safety. IIe was banished by a formal act of the General Court, and his property confiscated.




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