History of Strafford County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 9

Author: Scales, John, 1835-1928
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 988

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He was assistant justice at Dover in 1642. Later he removed to Kittery Point, where, October 27, 1648, he was licensed to keep a public house at Warehouse Point, near Phyllis' Notch. He had ferry boats which ran to various points on the Great Island and Strawberry Bank side of the river.

In 1650, Mr. Hilton removed to York, where he was one of the signers that made that town come under the rule of Massachusetts, November 22, 1652, and took the oath of freeman; there were fifty signers. He was one

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of the Selectmen of York in 1652, 1653, 1654. He owned the ferry across York river. He died there in 1655 or 1656, as letters of administration are dated June 30, 1656, to his son-in-law, Richard White.

THOMAS ROBERTS

Another man who came over with Edward Hilton in 1623 was Thomas Roberts, who has lineal descendants, in the name, residing on Dover Neck today on the very land that he owned 275 years ago. He was made presi- dent of the court in March or April, 1640, hence Governor of the Colony at Dover, succeeding Capt. John Underhill, which office he held until Dover and all the New Hampshire settlements were united with Massachusetts in October, 1641. The correct locality of his first residence on Dover Point is not known, but it is probable it was very near that of Edward Hilton, the site of which is where the present Hilton Hall stands-at the extremity of the Point.

After Capt. Thomas Wiggin's company came here in 1633, having bought Edward Hilton's land, Mr. Roberts moved further up, on the Neck, and located himself on the bank of the Fore river, where the spot on which he built his house is still identified and pointed out by his descendants, who reside on the land, which has been preserved in the Roberts' family, in uninterrupted succession for 275 years.

In his old age he favored the Quakers, and reprimanded his sons, Thomas, and John Roberts, who were constables when the Quaker women were whipped by order of the court.

He died September 27, 1673, about two years after Edward Hilton died. They were about the same age. His grave, not marked, is in the northeast corner of the old burial ground on Dover Neck.

LEONARD POMEROY

Leonard Pomeroy, one of the three merchants who signed the Thomson Indenture, and who was a partner in the 6,000-acre venture, owned the ship Providence, in which Edward Hilton came over; Mr. Pomeroy probably came with him, to inspect the investment he had entered into with David Thomson, Abraham Colmer and Nicholas Sherwell. Mr. Pomeroy was not a permanent resident at Hilton's Point, as were the Hiltons and Mr. Roberts, but he was there on various occasions between 1623 and 1628, so many times that his name was given to the cove that is between Dover Point and Dover Neck, on the east side. That cove has, from the very first, been called Pomeroy's Cove; and is so called today. That cove is where the Dover and Portsmouth railroad crosses the tip-end of it. There was where the

HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY

Providence landed its passengers when it brought Edward Hilton and his party up the Pascataqua, in the spring of 1623.

There was some special reason for calling it Pomeroy Cove; it would not have been so named had he not been there repeatedly. No other Pomeroy was ever in any way connected with the history of Dover.

Other families were undoubtedly added to this colony between 1623 and 1631, but their names cannot be given.

Now what are the proofs of all this? How do I know they came here in 1623?

EVIDENCE OF THE SETTLEMENT IN 1623, AND TIIAT THEY REMAINED AT HILTON'S POINT

What is the evidence that the Hiltons and Roberts, and others, con- menced the settlement at Hilton's Point in 1623?

First. The historian, Hubbard, says so in his "History of New Eng- land," which was published about fifty years after that day, but was in manuscript much earlier than that. He was, probably, personally acquainted with Edward and William Hilton, and conversed with them on the subject. Edward Hilton did not die until 1671, and lived at Exeter thirty years; and it would seem strange if Hubbard did not interview Mr. Hilton when he was collecting the material for his history. He says in his history :

"For being encouraged by the report of divers mariners that came to make fishing voyages upon the coast, they sent over that year ( 1623), one Mr. David Thomson, with Mr. Edward Hilton and his brother, William Hilton, who had been fishmongers in London, with some others that came along with them, furnished with necessaries for carrying on a plantation there. Possibly others might be sent after them in the years following, 1624 and 1625; some of whom first in probability seized on a place called the Little Harbor, on the west side of the Pascataqua river, toward or at the mouth thereof; the Hiltons meanwhile setting up their stages higher up the river, towards the northwest, at or about a place since called Dover."

Belknap, and other historians following, repeat the statement above quoted from Hubbard.

Second. William Hilton says they came to Hilton's Point in 1623. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, of 1882, Vol. 36, has the following petition, which had but recently been found in the old court records, and no historian had ever known there was such a document; it settles the question of date, as 1623, beyond a doubt :

PETITION OF WILLIAM HILTON, 1660

To the Honored Generall Court now Assembled at Boston. The Petition of William Hilton Humbly Showeth :

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Whereas your petitioner's father, William Hilton, came over into New England about the year Anno: Dom: 1621 : & yr. petitioner came about one year and a half after, and in a little tyme following settled ourselves upon ye River of Paschataq with Mr. Edward Hilton, who were the first English Planters there, William having much intercourse with the Indians by way of trayde and mutuall giving & receiving, amongst whom one Tahanto, Sag- amore of Penacooke, for divers kindnesses received from your petitioner's father & himself, did freely give unto ye aforesaid William Senior and Wil- liam Hilton, Junior, Six Miles of land lying on ye River Penneconaquigg, being a riverlette running into Penacooke to ye eastward, ye said land to be bounded soe as may be most for ye best accomodation of your said petitioner, his heyres & assignes. The said Tahanto did also freely give to ye said father & son & to their heyres forever, Two Miles of ye best Meddow Land lying on ye North East Side of ye River Pennecooke, adjoining to ye said River, with all ye appertenances which said Tract of Land & Meddow were given in ye presence of Fejld & Severall Indians, in ye year 1636: At which tyme Tahanto went with ye aforesaid Hiltons to the Lands, and thereof gave them possession. All of wch commonly is known to ye An- cient Inhabitants at Paschatq; & for the further confirmation of ye sd gyft or grant Your petitioner hath renewed deeds from ye sd Tahanto, & since your petitioner understands that there be many grants of land lately given, thereabouts, to bee layd out : And least any shoud bee mistaken in Chusing yr place & thereby intrench apon yr petitioner's rights, for preventing whereof :

Your Petitioner humbly Craveth that his grant may be confirmed by this Court, & that A- B- C-, or any two of them, may be fully Impowered to sett forth ye bounds of all ye above mentioned lands, & make true returne whereof unto this honored Court. And your petitioner, as in duty hee is bound, shall pray for your future welfare & prosperity.

Boston, June 1, 1660. The Committee having considered ye contents of this petition, do not judge meet that ye Court grant ye same, but having considered the petitioner's ground for ye approbaccon of ye Indian's grant, doe judge meet that 300 acres of ye sd Land be sett out to ye petitioner by a Committee Chosen by this Court, so as that it may not prejudice any plantation, and this as a finall end & issue of all future claims by virtue of such grant from ye Indians.

THOMAS DANFORTH, ELEA LUSHER, HENRY BARTHOLOMEW.

The Magists Approave of this returne if theire ye Depu'ts Consent hereunto.

Consented to by ye Deputies.

EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary. WILLIAM TORRY, Cleric.

(Endorsed.) The Petition of William Hilton Entered with ye Magistrates 30 May, 1660, & ex. pd. ents Tahanto's Deed dd and p Mr. Danf, William Hilton's petition enterred & referred to the Committee.

Now it is a matter of record that William Hilton arrived at Plymouth, in the ship Fortune, November 11, 1621; his wife and two children came to

HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY

Plymouth in the ship Anne, in June or July, 1623; one of the children was William Hilton, Jr., the above named petitioner. He says that he and his mother arrived at Plymouth about "one year and a half later;" that reckoned from November 1I, 1621, makes the date in June or July, 1623; he further says : "and in a lyttle tyme following, settled ourselves upon ye River of Paschatq, with Mr. Edward Hilton, who were the first English planters there." That settles the question.

Third. We have the evidence of Edward Hilton himself, as shown in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register of July, 1870, Vol. XXIV, wherein is published the "Grant of the Council of Plymouth to Edward Hilton of Land in New England, dated 12 March, 1629 (O. S.)," that is, 1630 (N. S.). It was found among the court records of the lawsuit of Allen vs. Waldron, of date of February, 1704-5. This suit was one of the Mason heirs' claims against the New Hampshire land owners. It was put in as evidence that Capt. John Mason never owned what is Dover and other towns adjoining.

THE HILTON GRANT

Know ye that said President and Council by virtue and authority of his Majesty's said Letters Patent, and for and in consideration that Edward Hilton and Associates hath already at his and their own proper cost and charge transported sundry servants to plant in New England aforesaid, at a place there called by the natives Wecanacohunt, otherwise Hilton's Point, lying some two leagues from the mouth of the River Paskataquack, in New England aforesaid, where they have already built some houses and planted Corne. And for that he doth further intend by God's Divine Assistance to transport thither more people and cattle, to the good increase and advance- ment, and for the better settling and strengthening of their plantation, as also that they may be better encouraged to proceed in so pious a work which may especially tend to the propagation of Religion, and the great increase of trade, to his Majesty's Realms and Dominions, and the advance- ment of public plantations-

Have given, granted and Engrossed and confirmed, and by this their pres- ent writing, doe fully, clearly and absolutely give, grant, Enfeoffe and Con- firme unto the said Edward Hilton, his heirs and Assigns forever : All that part of the River Pascataquack, called or known by the name of Wecanacohunt, or Hiltons Point, with the south side of said River, up to the fall of the River, and three miles into the main land by all the breadth aforesaid; Together with all the shores. creeks, bays, harbors, and coasts alongst the sea, within the limits and bounds aforesaid, with woods and islands next adjoining to the land not being already granted by said Council unto any other person or persons, together also with all the lands, rivers, mines, min- erals of what kind or nature soe ever, etc. etc .;

To have and to hold all and singular the said lands and premises, etc. etc. unto said Edward Hilton, his heirs and assigns, etc. they paying unto

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our sovereign Lord the King, one-fifth part of gold or silver ores, and another fifth part to the Council aforesaid and their successors, by the rent hereafter in these presents reserved, yielding and paying therefor yearly forever, unto said Council, their successors or assigns, for every one hun- dred acres of said land in use, the sum of twelve pence of Lawful money of England into the hands of the Rent gatherer for the time being, of the said Council, for all services whatsoever: And the said Council for the affairs of England, in America aforesaid, do by these presents nominate, depute, authorize, appoint, and in their place and stead put William Black- ston, of New England, in America, aforesaid, Clerk: William Jeffries and Thomas Lewis, of the same place, Gents, and either or any of them jointly or separately, to be their (the Council's), true and lawful Attorney or Attorneys, and in their name and stead to enter into each part or portion of land and other premises with the appointments by these presents given and granted, or into some part thereof in the name of the whole, and peacable and quiet possession and seisin thereof for them to take, and the same so had and taken in their name and stead, to deliver possesssion & seisin thereof unto Edward Hilton, the said Edward Hilton, his heirs, associates and assigns, according to the tenor, forme and effect of these presents, Rati- fying, Conforming and allowing all & whatsoever the said Attorney, or Attorneys, or either of them, shall doe in and about the Premises by virtue hereof.

In witness whereof the said Council for the affairs of New England in America aforesaid, have hereunto caused their Common Seal to be put, the twelfth day of March, Anno: Domi: 1629. (1630, N. S.)

Ro. WARWICK.

Memo: That upon the seventh day of July, Anno: Domi: Annoq; R's Caroli pri. Septimo: By Virtue of a warrant of Attorney within mentioned from the Council of the affairs in New England, under their common Seal unto Thomas Lewis, he the said Thomas Lewis had taken quiet possession of the within mentioned premises and livery and seisin thereof, hath given to the within named Edward Hilton in the presence of us :

Vera copia efficit per nos. TIM : NICHOLAS. PET. COPPUR.

THOMAS WIGGIN, WM. HILTON, SAM'L SHARPE, JAMES DOWNE,

Vera Copia, Attest, RICH : PARTRIDGE, Cleric.

In conclusion it may be well to repeat what has already been mentioned- that the reason for his getting this grant was that Capt. John Mason had obtained his New Hampshire grant on the 7th of November preceding; and the Laconia company only ten days later; which grants entirely surrounded Hilton's possessions. The result was that Hilton did what every sensible business man would do under similar circumstances; that is, he secured a new and specific patent, to cover what he had had possession of for seven years,

HISTORY OF STRAFFORD COUNTY

under the David Thomson grant of six thousand acres. If he had not done that, no doubt Capt. Walter Neal would have tried to drive him off, as he did William Hilton from the cornfield in Kittery, now Eliot. The very wording of the grant shows that the Council regarded him as a permanent settler ; not a new man just come over ; and that he really owned the land.

Again, there is further evidence that he had been settled there several years before 1630. In 1628 Governor Bradford sent a letter to Thomas Morton, the head man of a lively lot of settlers at Merry Mount, in Wol- laston, requesting him not to sell guns, ammunition and rum to the Indians, as he and his men had been doing. To this letter Morton replied that he defied the Plymouth authorities to molest him; and assured the Governor that there would be bloodshed should they attempt it.

Upon receipt of this letter, Bradford, in June, 1628, sent the Plymouth militia, under the command of Captain Standish, to subdue them. When the Captain arrived he found the settlers barricaded in Morton's house; and Morton, after taunting Standish with a volley of abuse, led his men out against the men of Captain Shrimp, as he styled Standish. In the scrimmage which followed, Morton was taken prisoner, and the others surrendered; the only shedding of blood being from the nose of a drunken Merry Mount settler which was scratched with the sword-point of one of Standish's soldiers.

Soon after this, Morton, under arrest, was sent to Engand in a ship that sailed from the Isles of Shoals. The charges incident to arresting Morton and sending him to England were apportioned among the settlements along the coast, from Plymouth to Monhegan. The total was £12, 7s; of which Edward Hilton paid £1 ; his men at Pascataquack £2, IOS; Thomson, at Thom- son's Island, 15 shillings; Plymouth, £2, IOS; Naumkeag (Salem), £I, IOS; Jeffrey and Burslem, £2; Nantascott, £1, IOS; Blackston at Shawmut ( Bos- ton), 12 shillings.

That shows that Hilton was one of the most substantial citizens in New England, and was an old resident, interested in preserving order. It also shows that Hilton and his men at Pascataqua paid more than any other place.

As regards the names of the two places: Hilton's Point was so named because Edward Hilton settled there in 1623, and stayed there. Odiorne's Point was so named from the Odiorne family that settled in that neighbor- hood more than a century after David Thomson built his house there in the spring of 1623. It never had any name before that. If David Thomson had remained there, a permanent settler, as Hilton did at Dover, the place, as a matter of course, would have been called Thomson's Point. He did not do that; he went to Boston Harbor in 1626, and resided on the island that had been granted him in 1622; and the place bears the name, Thomson's Island,

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to this day. The names themselves show that the first permanent settlement in New Hampshire was at Hilton's Point, in Dover.

In conclusion it seems proper to say that it has always been the tradition in the Roberts family, passed down from father to sons to the present day, that Thomas Roberts came over with Edward Hilton, and settled at Dover Point; and that they came in the spring of 1623; and that he remained there ten years ; in 1633, when Capt. Thomas Wiggin's company arrived, and the settle- ment was begun on Dover Neck, Mr. Roberts removed from the Point to the Neck, and built his house on a grant of land the town gave him on Fore river, which land has remained in possession of his descendants to the present day.

The Laconia grant of November 17, 1629, led to the first settlement of Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth), in 1630. The Thomson grant of October 16, 1622, led to the settlement of Hilton's Point (Dover), in 1623. Dover was never in any way under control of the Laconia company. Dover is seven years older than Portsmouth, and fifty years older than New Hampshire.

CHAPTER VI HISTORY OF DOVER (II)

EARLY NAMES IN OLD DOVER

As has been stated, the first settlement began in Dover at Hilton's Point (Dover Point), in the spring of 1623. The founder was Edward Hilton; two of his associates were his brother William and Thomas Roberts. The place where they landed the ship in which they came over is called Pomeroy's Cove, named for Leonard Pomeroy, who owned the ship. It is where the Dover and Portsmouth railroad crosses the tidewater between Dover Neck and Dover Point. Edward Hilton built his house where Hilton Hall now stands. The settlement on the hill, above this cove, began ten years later.

As regards names. At first the locality was Hilton's Point-on-the-Pascat- aqua and that part of the town continued to be called Hilton's Point for more than two hundred years; the present name, Dover Point, is of comparatively recent use. When Hilton sold out to Capt. Thomas Wiggin's company in 1631 and the colony came over in 1633 and began the settlement on Dover Neck, the settlement was called Bristol, as many of the men came from towns in the west of England, along the Bristol Channel; but the whole settlements at Dover and Portsmouth were known by the common name Pascataqua; locally Portsmouth was Strawberry Bank and Dover was Bristol. In 1637 the name was changed to Dover.

When the First Church was organized in November, 1638, a new element was introduced. The second minister, Rev. Thomas Larkham, had been pastor of a church at Northam, England, at the mouth of Bristol channel, and he induced the settlers to change the name from Bristol to Northam, by which name it was known a few years. After Mr. Larkham had left the church and the town had come under the rule of Massachusetts in 1642, the name was changed to Dover. So the names have been Hilton's Point-on-the-Pascat- aqua, Bristol, Northam, and Dover. It is not known that any of the settlers came from Dover, England.

Dover is fifty years older than New Hampshire; that is, the town is half a century older than the province and state. New Hampshire was never a colony, except for a few months in 1775, when it was so called for con-

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FIRST PARISH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, DOVER, N. H.

WASHINGTON ST. F. B. CHURCH, DOVER, N. H.

ST. CHARLES CHURCH, DOVER, N. H.

PEIRCE MEMORIAL CHURCH, DOVER, N. H.

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venience in acting with the other colonies. The name New Hampshire was not used until about 1675, up to which time Dover was a town in Norfolk county, Massachusetts, and it sent its representatives to the general court in Boston every year and helped make the laws; but in addition to which it made many of its own local laws in town meetings at Dover Neck.

Old Dover comprised the present city and Somersworth, Rollinsford, Dur- ham, Madbury, Lee and Newington. For more than a century, when you find the name Dover in the old records, town and province, it means what we now call Dover Neck. There was the meeting house, what in modern parlance is called town house, and church. There was the business center of the town, and they were strong men who ruled in those days. Other localities had local names for convenience in use in business affairs. Here, where now is the heart of the city and now the center of business, was called Cochecho-in-Dover. Durham was Oyster River-in-Dover, Newington was Bloody Point-in-Dover. The great Inmbermen, like Major Waldron, had names for their timber lots, which were granted to them by the town. Many of those names remain to the present time. For example, Tolend is simply an abbreviation of Tolland, England, near where Major Waldron emigrated from when he came to Dover and settled, and built his mill here at the Cochecho falls, in 1642. Mad- bury gets its name from a timber lot up in that territory, which was called Modbury by its owner, who came from the neighborhood of that town in England. The men remembered their old homes. Timber lots had to have names in order to designate transfer titles in buying and selling land, so they applied names that were familiar to them in their old home in England.

There is one name of special interest on account of its origin-"Bloody Point," that section of Old Dover now Newington. It will be seen in the first chapter of these historical sketches, that Capt. John Mason secured a grant from the Council of Plymouth defining the boundary line between his territory and that of Edward Hilton; the local name for Mason's territory was Strawberry Bank; the other was Hilton's Point. At the beginning in 1630, and for several years following. Capt. Walter Neale was Governor at Strawberry Bank; in 1633 and for several years following, Capt. Thomas Wiggin was Governor at Hilton's Point and the settlement on Dover Neck. Captain Wiggin contended that the line between his territory and that of Strawberry Bank was where the present division is between Newington and Portsmouth. Captain Neale contended that Mason's territory extended up to where the Newington railway station is now located, at the east end of the railroad bridge. So, many collisions occurred while the controversy was going on, not only between the settlers, but between Captain Neale and Captain Wiggin, in regard to the division line. On one occasion they came near fight- ing a duel with swords. The Massachusetts historian, Hubbard, informs us that Wiggin, being forbidden by Neale "to come upon a certain point of land,

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that lieth in the midway between Dover and Exeter, Captain Wiggin intended to have defended his right by the sword, but it seems both the litigants had so much wit in their anger as to wave the battle, each accounting himself to have done very manfully in what was threatened; so as in respect not of what did, but what might have fallen out, the place to this day retains the formidable name of Bloody Point." So, in the town records of Dover, as well as in com- mon speech among the people, Dover territory on the south side of the Pas- cataqua river was called Bloody Point in Dover until it was made a separate parish and town in 1712, by the Provincial Assembly, and given the name Newington.

CHAPTER VII HISTORY OF DOVER (III)

THE FIRST PARISH AND FIRST CHURCH

Edward Hilton was a Church of England constituent ; he does not appear to have had any special sympathy with the Pilgrims or the Puritans. For ten years he and his associates attended strictly to business, fishing and trading with the Indians. It does not appear that any clergyman of any persuasion did service at Hilton Point during the first decade. But as they were fre- quently going back and forth between Old England and New England, they no doubt kept in touch with the religious movements that were going on in their old home. They were not Godless men, but God-fearing and honest in their dealings.

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History of Strafford County, New Hampshire and representative citizens, Part 9

Author: Scales, John, 1835-1928 Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold Number of Pages: 988

Author: Scales, John, 1835-1928
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : Richmond-Arnold
Number of Pages: 988