History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 87

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 87
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 87

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).

Joseph Brown, the father of Stephen Brown, and the grandfather of Capt. Joseph Brown, was born in Kensington, and married Miss Ann Brown. They had twelve children. The names of the sons were Moses, Jonathan, Joseph, Sewell, Nehemiah, Nathan, Stephen, William, and John.

CHAPTER LIV.

KINGSTON.1

Geographical-Topographical-Original Charter-Occupations of the People-Ecclesiastical History-The Epidemic.

THE town of Kingston lies in the southern part of the county, and is hounded as follows : on the north by Brentwood, on the east by East Kingston and New- ton, on the south by Newton and Plaistow, and on the west by Plaistow, Hampstead, and Danville. The sur- face of the town is rolling, and the soil very fertile.

Original Grant or Charter .- The town of Kings- ton was granted in 1694 by the following charter:

" William & Mary by the Grace of God of England, Scotland France & Ireland King and Queen, Defendr. of the Faith, &c.

" To all people To whom these presents shall come, greeting know ye that we of our special Grace certain knowledge & mere motion for the due encouragement of settling a new plantation by & with the advice & consent of our Council have given & granted & by these presents as far as in na Lies Do Give & Grant unto our beloved subjects, James Prescott Sen. Isaac Godfrey Gershom Elkins Thos, Phibrick Jr. Samuel Colcord, Thomas Webster Sam'l Dearborn William Godfrey, Jacob Garland John Mason Ebenezer Webster, Nathaniel Sandburn Benjamin Sandburn John Moulton Daniel Moulton & Francis Tonle and several others of their Majestys Loving Subjects that Inhabit or shall inhabit within the said Grant, within our province of New Hampshire all That Tract of Land to begin seven miles Westward of the meeting house now standing in Hampton from thence to run a Dne course West & by North Ten miles into the country for its breadth, four miles Northerly from the Head point of the West Line from said Meeting house & Southerly within three miles of the Northermost side of Merrimack river. & that the same be a town corporated by the name of Kingstown to the persons above named or other of their Majestys Subjects that do and shall forever, & we do by these presents give & grant unto the said men & Inhabitants of our said Town of Kingstown & to such others that shall hereafter inhabit all & every the streets & Lanes & Highways within the said Town for the poblick use & service of the men & Inhabitants thereof & Travelers there Together with full power License and authority to the said men & In- habitants & such as shall inhabit within the said Town forever to establish appoint order & direct the establishing making Laying ont ordering amending & Repairing of all streets, Lanes Highways Ferries places & Bridges in & throughout the said Town necessary needful & con- venient for the men & Inhabitants of the ed Town & for all Travellers & Passengers there provided always that our said License to as above granted for the establishing making & Laying out of such Lanes High- ways, Fences places & Bridges be not extended nor Construed to Extend to the taking away of any person or persons Rights or property without his or their consent, or by Some Law of our said province To have & to hold & Enjoy all & Singular the premises as aforesaid to the said men & Inhabitants or those that shall inhabit the said Town of Kingstown & their successors forever Rendering & paying therefor to us our Heirs & Suc- cessors, or to such other officer or officers as shall be appointed to Receive the same yearly the annual Quitt Rent or acknowledgnient of one pepper Corn in the said Town on the 25th of October, yearly forever & for the Better order, Rule & Government of our Said Town, We do by these Presents, Grant for ns out heirs & successors nnto the said men & In- habitants or those that shall inhabit the said Town that yearly and every year upon the first Tuesday in March for ever They the said men & in- habitants & such as shall inhabit the said Town shall elect & chnee by the Major part of them Two sufficient & able men, Honseholders of the said Town to be constables for the year Ensuing, which ssid men so chosen & elected shall be presented to the next Quarter sessions of the Peace to be held for said province there to take the accustomed oaths appointed by Law for the Execution of their offices under snch penalties as the Law in our said province shall direct upon refusal or neglect therein & We Do by these presents Grant for us our Heirs & Successors unto the said persons & Inhabitants & such as shall inhabit in said town. That yearly & every year upon the first Tuesday in March forever, then the said mien & Inhabitants or the Major part of them shall elect & chose Three In-

1 By Rev. Jacob Chapman.

Brown Joseph

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habitants & Householdere within our seid Town, To be overseers of the Poor & Highways or selectmen of our said Town for the year ensuing, with such powers Priviledges & authoritys asany Overseers or select men, within our said province, have & enjoy or ought to have & enjoy.

" In testimony whereof we have caused the seal of our said province to be liereunto affixed. Witness John Usher Esqr. our Lieutenant Gov- ernor & Commander in Chief of our said Province at our Town of New Castle the 6th Day of August in the sixth year of our Reign Anno que Domini, 1694.

" JOHN USHER, Lt. Govr.

" WILLIAM BEDFORD, Dep'y Sec'y.

" Copy Examined, THEODORE ATKINSON, Sec'y.

" Province of New Hampshire, March 1st, 1743.

" Entered and Recorded According to the Original, pr. Theodore Atkin- son, Sec'y.

"Copy Exam'd.

Pr. GEOROE JAFFREY, Clerk."

From the charter it appears that Kingston is one of the older towns of the State. Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter, and Hampton were the only towns incorpo- rated when Kingston received its charter. It was also one of the large towns, extending from Hampton, which then included Kensington, ten miles west to what is now the eastern boundaries of Chester, Derry, and Hampstead. On the north it was bounded by Exeter, which then included Brentwood and Fre- mont.1

On the south it was bounded by an indefinite line, which became the occasion of much trouble between the inhabitants of Kingston and their southern neigh- bors. In 1739 East Kingston became a separate par- ish, and in 1756 Sandown was incorporated. On Feb. 22, 1760, another section of the northwest part of Kingston was ent off and incorporated with the name Hawke (now Danville).

The southwest part of Kingston lies between New- ton on the 'east, with Danville and Hampstead on the west and Plaistow on the south, and is called Southı Kingston. Though it is not a separated town, its position is such that there is little intercourse be- tween its inhabitants and those of the remaining part

! The boundaries of Kingston were oot definitely fixed for many years after its settlement. About 1714, by a correction of the survey of the line between Exeter and Kingston, a part of Exeter was found to belong to Kingston, and several of the inhabitants of Exeter, Abraham Folsom and others, who had received grants of land on the southern border of what is Dow Brentwood, lost a large part of their land.

The southwestern boundaries were not settled till long after this period. Previous to the establishment of the State boundaries in 1741, Haverhill and Amesbury claimed & considerable section of land which the people of Kingston supposed to be included in their charter. This troublesome diepute was not settled till 1767, when the town of Hampstead, which had been granted in 1749, pand one thousand pounds, old tenor, and the Governor graoted to Kingston the town of Unity, in Cheshire County, July 18, 1764. John Lad, Charles Huntoon, and other early settlers of that place are supposed to have gone from Kingston.

The early settlers of Kingstoo having suffered so much from the ware with Indians, had petitioned for the grant of a new township, that those who had become poor might have new lands for themselves and their children.

There was also a difficulty respecting the line between Kingston and Chester, which arose in 1728, And continued till after the west part of Kingston was incorporated as Sandown.

The Massachusetts government had made grants of land covering the same ground covered by the Kingston charter, which led to much strife; but this trouble was removed when the two provinces fixed more cor- rectly the boundaries between theo).

of the town, which is now in territory one of the smallest in the State.

The whole town contains 12,188 acres, of which 800 are supposed to be covered with water.

Great Pond, with an island of ten or twelve acres, covers three hundred acres, It is on the southwest of the village, called " The Plain." Little Pond, covering over fifty acres, lies but a few rods west from the three churches and the town-house. Country Pond, with an island of six or eight acres, lies on the southeast boundary, and is partly in Newton. There are smaller ponds, named Moon Pond, Long Pond, and Barberry Pond.

The highest land in town is on the Great Hill, in the northeast corner of the town, on the line between Exeter and Kingston. Rock Rimmon, in the west of the town, near Danville, is a high ledge of granite, very steep on the south, but falling off gradually on the north.

The first houses in town were built on the plain, and were several of them garrisons. The village where most of the business of the town is done is called Kingston Plains, near the centre of the town, on a plain more than a mile long from north to south, and about half a mile wide, with a common in the centre half a mile long and twenty rods wide, upon the west side of which are some stately elm-trees, planted more than one hundred and fifty years ago, some of them by the first pastor of the church, Rev. Ward Clark, who died in 1737. The water from the northeast side of the plain runs into the Exeter River, but from the southwest part it runs into the ponds which are connected with the Powow River, that carries their waters into the Merrimac River.

From Kingston Plains to Exeter is six miles north- east; to Portsmouth, twenty miles; to Haverhill, Mass., twelve miles south ; to Concord, thirty-seven northwest.

The Boston and Maine Railroad runs through East Kingston, two and a half miles east from Kingston, and the Nashua and Rochester runs through Fre- mont, five miles northwest of Kingston.

The soil of Kingston is usually a sandy loam, easily cultivated, and productive if well dressed. There is an abundance of pure water, and the cli- mate is healthy. There have been some cases of re- markable longevity. Samuel Welch, one of the first settlers, had a son Samuel, born Sept. 1, 1710, who married, Jan. 22, 1732, Elenor Clongh, and had a son, Reuben, born Feb. 15, 1740. When about forty-five years of age he removed to Pembroke. He was a quiet, industrious, and temperate man, living the last fifty years of his life on a little farm in an obscure corner of the town of Bow. Mr. John Farmer visited him in March, 1823, and spoke of him as feeble, but with mental faculties little impaired and quite inter- esting in conversation. He died the 5th of April fol- lowing, aged one hundred and twelve years and seven months. His mother and his sister are said to have

368

HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

lived, each of them, to the age of one hundred years, and his brother lived to near ninety years of age.

Abigail Sanborn, a native of Kingston, died in Canterbury, among the Shakers, aged one hundred and one years; and Mrs. Judith Webster, born in South Hampton, Aug. 29, 1775, was a member of the Kingston Congregational Society, and died in East Kingston, March 11, 1876, aged one hundred years and six months.

The ponds in Kingston are well stocked with fish, which afforded much food for the Indians long before the white men visited the country. Many of their implements of stone and some old French coins have been found in the vicinity.

In the swamps, lying near the ponds and streams, there was formerly much valuable cedar Inmber ; hut the dams, built by the manufacturing companies, have flowed much low land, and injured the growth of timber ; but we are told that the companies long ago paid for the right of flowage, much more than the lauds were ever worth to anybody for any other purpose. The water upon these lands has been very productive of fish, which are freely taken without any price.

Occupations of the People .- At the settlement of Kingston much of the land was covered with valua- ble timber. In 1705 the town granted one hundred acres of land to the persons who would build a saw-mill upon the Little River, on the condition that they should saw the town's lumber. When the roads were built so that lumber conld be hanled to market, it became an important article in the productions of the town. From 1750 to 1775 there were six or seven stores in the town, and a brisk business was done at the " Plains" in the lumber trade. There were large Inmber-yards on the common, where great quanttiies of the article collected from this and other towns were kept for sale.

At one period in the early history of Kingston a company engaged in the manufacture of iron, using the bog iron ore taken from the bottom of Great Pond, but the quantity of the ore was small, and it was pro- cured with so much difficulty that the business was unprofitable and finally abandoned.

The cultivation of the soil has from the settlement of the town been the main business of the inhab- itants. Those who have patiently and intelligently continued this business have not failed to secure a reasonable reward for their labors and a secure invest- ment for their funds.

Kingston was for many years one of the frontier towns, and for more than fifty years the inhabitants

suffered, often severely, from the attacks of the French and Indians, so that the people were much hindered and discouraged in their efforts to clear the land and secure safe homes for themselves and their families. There were natural meadows, much more numerous and profitable then than now. The Indians used to burn the grass upon these meadows, and thus pre- vented the bushes from growing upon them as they do now.

The native grasses npon these lowlands were of much value to the new settlers before they had time to fell the large trees, clear the new land, and inclose the fields and pastures for raising the English grasses.

Ecclesiastical History .- As the main object of the proprietors and early settlers in obtaining a char- ter and organizing a separate town or parish was to aid them in establishing public worship and public schools within a distance convenient to the settlers, the main part of the history of the town for many years which has been preserved for us is the ecclesias- tical history of Kingston.

The first settlers of this town were from the families of the Puritans who had settled Ipswich, Newbury, and Salisbury, Mass., and Hamptou, N. H. They were ardently attached to the principles of the Puritans, and anxious to train up their children with a correct knowledge of their own doctrines. Some of the pro- prietors and early settlers were natives of England, who had not been sent out from the prisons and the almshouses of the old country, but men who, at a great sacrifice of property, etc., had left the homes of their fathers and encountered the dangers of a long voyage over the wide ocean for the purpose of finding on this wild, inhospitable shore freedom to worship God. Here, exposed to the treachery of the murderous sav- ages, they were in still greater dangers.

If their religion was tinctured with any supersti- tion, it may have been owing somewhat to the cir- cumstances in which they were placed.

The town-meeting in January, 1700, was to consult about the division of their lands, and to establish public worship. They hoped that their treaty with the Indians would be permanent, and in their joy at a release from the burdens and the dangers of the war they were preparing to establish the public wor- ship of God in the place.

The second meeting, in June, 1700, was to discuss "the plan for hiring a minister." They "voted to have a minister, if he can be obtained," and "that his salary shall not exceed £80 a year." They must have roads, and they voted that the road north and south across the plain for nearly a mile be twenty rods wide, and from the plain to the Exeter line eight

Next to this, the main branch of industry for many years has been the manufacture of carriages, which is still carried on at the Plains. It is said that Mr. Wil- liam Patten was the first to commence this business, and that the first chaise ever made in New Hampshire | rods wide. They were not narrow men, as some have (except one at Portsmouth) was made by him at supposed. Kingston.

In 1702, when the lots of land were laid out, No. 14 was assigned for a parsonage lot, and in the year following a grant of one hundred acres was made for

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KINGSTON.

the first minister who should settle with them. They also chose a site for a meeting-house.

But they were sadly disappointed, for in 1703 the war with the Indians suddenly broke out again, and many of the people left their lands and returned to safer localities in the older settlements. Some of those who remained on their lands were obliged to send back their wives and children to the homes of their friends. These were perilous times, when their cattle were killed, their crops destroyed, their build- ings burned, and their lives in constant danger.

Ensign Tristram Sanborn, from Hampton, had commenced clearing a piece of land where some of his descendants still reside on the Exeter road. He had erected a cabin of logs, where he took his food and found shelter till it was safe to bring his family to the place.

One evening, on returning from his work in the Great Meadows, where he had been to cut his grass, he found instead of his food and shelter a heap of ashes. The Indians had been there, and taken what they chose of his property, and burned what they could not carry. He did not, like many others, desert the land which they could not carry off or con- sume, but built a garrison-house upon it, where his wife and children need not be constantly exposed to death or captivity from any roving Indians who were prowling about intent upon pillage and murder. This building probably afforded a refuge to some of his neighbors in seasons of peculiar danger.

Tradition says that some years afterwards a band of savages, taking advantage of the absence of the men, made a furious attack upon this house. The women defended it till their assailants were repulsed and retreated. The next day a dead Indian was found not far from the garrison.

Aaron Sleeper erected another garrison not far east from Sanborn's, and the town-meeting in 1705 was held in it. One object of this meeting was " to con- sider some way to secure a minister."

During some years the Indians, supplied with am- munition and incited by the French in Maine and in Canada, kept the people of this whole region in a state of continued anxiety and fear. This fear was not groundless, but reasonable.

Though patrolmen and scouts were employed on a line of frontier for fifty miles at great expense of money and life, it was impossible to prevent small bodies of Indians from passing this line by night or by day. They could conceal themselves by day, and visit the larger villages by night.

The grants of lands to the original settlers of these new towns were attended with certain conditions, so that if a man felt obliged to leave his lot without improvements for a certain period he lost his title to it.

Some of the first settlers of Kingston, who, on ac- count of the danger, had left the place and had for- feited their rights, with others "who wished to settle

there in the fall of 1705," sent a petition to the Gen- eral Court in May, 1705, for leave to return to their lands. This was granted upon the condition that there be not less than thirty families, and that they " build a fort in the centre of the town," and "laye out in the centre of this a forty-acre lot for ye par- sonage, and settle an able orthodox minister within three years next coming." The people had already suffered so much that on May 9, 1705, "The Council voted that the town of Kingston be excused from sending a representative and paying any part of ye province charge for the present year, provided that they assist the scouts with pilots at their own charge whenever required."

Soon after this the settlers made the attempt to comply with the conditions of their settlement. They chose a committee to look for a minister, but it was a difficult business for these thirty or forty families, some of them not permanently settled themselves, to " settle an able orthodox minister." They could not offer a very safe and comfortable home, nor a tempting salary, nor a large and inviting field for usefulness. The people had, many of them, become poor, having suffered so much from the depredations of the In- dians. While they were toiling to fell the heavy trees and open fields for cultivation, their families in their humble cabins were exposed to the murderous, ene- inies secretly hovering round, ready to destroy the lives and the property of the poor laborers. Having been heavily taxed in erecting garrison-houses, and in furnishing the means of self-protection, they were unable to promise their preacher more than forty pounds, one-half as much as they had hoped to pay when they commenced their settlement.

In October, 1707, two years later, they succeeded in hiring a Mr. Benjamin Choate, A.M., who was born in Ipswich, Mass., in 1680, and graduated at Harvard College in 1703, who had for a time been a teacher in the garrison at Deerfield, Mass. He was probably licensed, but was never ordained nor united with the church in Kingston, though he remained there more than forty years. He seems to have been a teacher a part of the time while he supplied their pulpit, and afterwards he held different offices in town.

They engaged to pay him fifty pounds a year,-thirty pounds current silver money and twenty pounds in labor and provision pay. They also voted to gire him a grant of land, and from time to time we find the record, "that the town give Rev. B. Choate 40 cords of wood this year."

The same year the first meeting-house, with two stories and gallery, was built on the plains, on the southwest part of the common, near the house of Deacon Moses Elkins, and nearly opposite to the Scotland road. Tristram Sanborn, before mentioned, was one of the building committee. "It was paid for by a tax on improved lands, and by a tax on heads." It was standing in 1760, and perhaps later, but was probably never finished, for Mr. Choate

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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

preached a part of the time-perhaps during the ' or fifteen years, except God should take him away winter-in the garrison-house. It was not used for public worship only about twenty-five years, when the second church was erected in 1732, a larger build- ing three stories high.

Mr. Choate is supposed to have preached about ten years. On April 16, 1716, a committee was chosen to confer with Mr. Choate " upon terms of continuance with us in the work of the ministry." Also a vote was passed to "add £10 to the salary, making the whole £60; at the end of two years £5 more, if he continues with us in the work of the ministry." Also a vote that " £40 shall be presented to him when he builds a house in this town." Five voters entered their dissent from this vote. Tradition says the objection to him was that lie sometimes used too much strong drink.

The people still continued to suffer from the fear- ful attacks of the merciless savages. On the 17th of September, 1707, they killed Henry Elkins. In 1710 they killed Samuel Winslow and Samuel Huntoon. In 1712, Steven Gilman was killed and Ebenezer Stevens wounded. The terrible butchery of so many men, women, and children in 1708 at Haverhill, only twelve miles distant, must have filled with alarm the people of Kingston, who were equally exposed to such murderous attacks. It is not strange that such cruel and bloody acts aroused in the minds of our fathers a lasting hatred of the Catholic missionaries, who, instead of preaching the gospel of peace, incited the Indians to such deeds of blood and murder; and that as a means of self-protection they followed the example of the French, and bounties were offered for the scalps of these murderers, who lurked about the settlements, waiting their opportunities to kill the in- nocent and then retreat to their hiding- places. Such a state of things was not very favorable to the success of Mr. Choate's labors in preaching the gospel. It seems the form of public worship was kept up, though it was with danger that the people left their homes on the Sabbath to attend the house of God.

For twenty-five years after the settlement of the town no church was organized, and the citizens in the town-meeting were the only religious society. The town records are the only source of information re- specting the progress of religion in the place. It is not known that Mr. Choate kept any records, unless he was town clerk, or that he baptized any. He may, as a civil magistrate, have married some couples, but I find no records of any such marriages.

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History of Rockingham and Strafford counties, New Hampshire : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 87

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