USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Antrim > History of the town of Antrim, New Hampshire, from its earliest settlement to June 27, 1877, with a brief genealogical record of all the Antrim families > Part 2
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The first king that thus governed all Scotland was Kenneth Macalpin; and the Scottish kingdom, with various changes and vicissitudes, maintained its integrity till James the Sixth, who was heir of the English kingdom, quietly ascended the throne of England as successor of Elizabeth in 1603, as James the First, thus uniting the two countries under one sovereign. Previous to this event, Scotland had many excellent kings. There was a long war with the Danes, resulting in the entire expulsion of the invaders. Subse- quently there were wars with England, and the borderland between the two countries was a scene of blood and devastation for many a year, until this union in James.
In the year 1290 there was a vacancy in the Scottish throne, John Baliol and Robert Bruce being aspirants therefor. The next year the question of succession was referred to Edward I. of England, and in 1292 he declared John Baliol entitled to the crown, - but not until he had exacted from the Scottish barons an oath of fealty to himself as feudal lord of Scotland. But Edward soon scraped a quarrel with this weak sovereign, overran his kingdom, and sent John as a prisoner to the Tower of London. He soon suc- ceeded in subduing most of the fortresses of Scotland; but soon a deliverer arose in the person of William Wallace, who descended from an ancient family in the west of Scot- land, and, though being of small fortune and few resources, he succeeded, by great courage
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and endurance and wisdom, in freeing his country from foreigners. But at length Wal- lace was betrayed into the hands of the king, who caused him to be executed with the cruelty and shame of a culprit. This is to the everlasting disgrace of Edward and of England. Few nobler spirits than Wallace ever lived. But his death (1305) only set tighter the teeth of every Scotchman ; and the struggle was continued by young Robert Bruce, grandson of that Robert who claimed the crown in 1290. The English had abun- dance of men and means, and often it looked dark for Scotland; but the unconquerable spirit of her warriors was never broken, and they kept up the unequal contest in one way or another till their land was free. In the spring of 1314 Edward II. collected an army of one hundred thousand men for the purpose of finishing up the Scottish conflict, marched into Scotland, and met little opposition till Bruce confronted him at Bannockburn. The battle of that name was June 25, 1314. The Scottish chieftain had but thirty thousand men, but they were heroes all, and were admirably managed. Full half the English army was either slain or captured. The young Scotch leader was covered with undying glory, and his land was free. He was succeeded by many sovereigns, until the crowns of England and Scotland were united in James, as named above. The latter had no further history as a separate nation, though it was more than a hundred years before the two Parliaments were united in one as at the present time. This event occurred in the autumn of 1706, and since then the two countries have been more and more blended in interest and character.
Having now taken this brief view of the history of England and Scotland for the read- er's convenience, we will now, for similar reason, glance at the causes which led to the settlement of New England. Henry VIII., who ascended the throne of England in 1509, married Katherine of Arragon in the first year of his reign. After the death of Henry in 1547, and the brief reign of Edward VI. who died at the age of nearly sixteen, Mary I., daughter of Henry VIII. and Katherine of Arragon, ascended the throne. This was in 1553. She was the most bloody and cruel and devilish of women. When her licentious father determined to get rid of Katherine, he divorced her (1532), and was set in bitter opposition to the Pope for declining to sanction the act. He declared his opposition to Rome openly; and his passion led to what has been called the "Reformation " in Eng- land. He had previously written a book against Luther, for which the Pope gave him the title " Defender of the Faith," a title still retained by the sovereigns of England; but now he proceeded to persecute the Papists, and many met death at his hand. Perhaps, therefore, it was to be expected that Mary, the daughter of Katherine, and a zealous Catholic, should feel herself called upon to retaliate in blood, and establish the persecuted sect. And she did her worst. The leading Protestants were condemned to the flames; many were thus burned at the stake; and scarcely in the five years of her reign did the fires of martyrdom go out. Great numbers were tortured, and in the most cruel conceiv- able methods put to death. But " Bloody Mary " died 1558, and her memory is covered with the abhorrence and execration of mankind.
On her death, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII. and the murdered Queen Anne Boleyn, succeeded to the throne; and in the first year of her reign Protestantism was forever established as the religion of England. This was by act of Parliament. But for the object of putting down the Catholics, laws were passed requiring the abjuration of all foreign authority both in spiritual as well as temporal things, and the acknowledgment of the sovereign of England as the head of the church. It was made a crime to attend the religious services of any clergyman not belonging to the established church. This arbitrary enforcement of religion was the mistake and dishonor of Elizabeth's reign. It was only doing on the other side, and in a milder way, what the infamous Mary had done before her. Yet these wicked laws were in force for generations, and many suffered per- secution and death at the hands of so-called Protestants, in the reign of Elizabeth, and that of her successor, James I. But many of the Protestants themselves were not satisfied with the established religion, which, though freeing them from papal tyranny, gave them no real freedom of conscience. Soon parties called " Non-conformists " arose in the king- dom; and in subsequent years there was a very determined opposition, both in England and Scotland, to all these encroachments upon the rights of the people in religion. Those who professed to follow the "Pure word of God" were called Puritans. They grew up under the reign of Bloody Mary, but do not seem to be called Puritans till about 1564.
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They desired a wider separation from the Roman Catholics than that allowed by the established church, and willingly accepted the appellation given them in reproach. As they were opposed and ridiculed and persecuted, none joined them except such as were conscientiously devoted to Christ, so that the name Puritan came to be significant of great self-denial and excellence in religion. They were both godly and intelligent people, and were exalted by the fires they passed through. The name Puritan has been differently used at times. In later days, every one that wanted to live a decent life was called a puritan by the irreligious multitude, even though he were conformed to the established church. Under Charles I., all people opposed to his arbitrary government were called puritans. The historian Hume applies the name to three classes; the political puritans, who advanced the most radical ideas of civil liberty; the puritans in polity, who . opposed the government and forms of worship in the established church; and puritans in doctrine, who strenuously insisted on the tenets of the reformers. The Puritans that set- tled New England certainly embraced all of these, and there never was a time when any such lines of distinction could be drawn this side the water.
It will not be judged out of place to devote one page here to Macaulay's description of the Puritans, though familiar to many, for it is a surpassing sketch ; and as he was a mem- ber of the Church of England, he will not be accused of speaking too highly in favor of its opponents.
" We would speak of the Puritans as the most remarkable body of men the world has ever produced. The odious parts of their character lie on the surface. Nor have there been wanting malicious observers to point them out. For many years after the Reforma- tion, they were the theme of unmeasured invective and derision. . . But the Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with acknowledging in general an overruling providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of that Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. To know him, to serve him, to enjoy him, was with them the great end of human existence. They rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects sub- stituted for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching obscure glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and to commune with him face to face. Hence originated their contempt for terrestrial distinctions. They recognized no title to superiority but the divine favor; and, confident of that favor, they despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world. If they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of God. On the rich and eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language, - nobles by right of an earlier creation, and priests by the interposition of a mightier hand. Those had little reason to laugh at them who encountered them in the hall of debate or in the field of battle."
These inimitable lines from the unprejudiced historian show what sort of stuff the early settlers of New England were made of.
The first settlement permanently made by the Puritans in New England was in Salem, Mass., in 1628, by John Endicott and a few associates. June 29, 1629, five ships, one of them being the " Mayflower,". came to Salem, bringing more than two hundred settlers. This was called the Massachusetts colony, and John Endicott was chosen gov- ernor. The next year (1630), Gov. John Winthrop came with eight hundred more. Thus this colony, seeking religious freedom, was strong and numerous at the start; and though meeting many hardships, they grew in numbers, settled Boston and many surrounding towns, spread in every direction, and finally absorbed all the other colonies, the date of formal union being 1692. These Puritans, though persecuted for their opinions, held old England as very dear; and it is said their minister, Rev. Francis Higginson, cried aloud as they parted from their native land : "Farewell, dear England! Farewell, all the Christian friends there !"
There was another colony that settled within the present limits of Massachusetts some years earlier than that of Endicott, named above. This was called the Plymouth colony. They were Puritans, - but they were more and better. By some they were called " Sep-
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aratists"; but they were not strictly such, since they would admit to communion a godly member of the Church of England, or even hear a preacher of that church when they couldn't find better, on account of which extreme Separatists denounced them as sharing the " Harlotry of Episcopacy." Their religious ideas were far in advance of their time, and more in accordance with the tolerant, evangelical principles that are held at the pres- ent day. These now bear the honored name of "The Pilgrim Fathers," or "The Pilgrims," though the word is often used in a larger sense. Being more careful in doc- trine and more widely separated from the Church of England than many who were substantially agreed with them, they were more intensely persecuted; and consequently they fled to Holland, where there was tolerable religious liberty. But in Holland they had a hard time, and were under some social disadvantages; and, as they were greatly desirous of " advancing the gospel in the remote parts of the world," they determined to make a home in the wilds of America. There were upwards of a thousand of these "Pilgrims " - on the way "to heaven, their dearest country " - then waiting in Hol- land; and about one hundred of them were selected as most fit to commence the new settle- ment. They sailed in July, 1620, in the "Mayflower," and steered for the Hudson river, intending to begin there. But they were driven by storm onto the coast of Massachu- setts. They sailed along with great care, exploring here and there for a favorable location. Having spent a month in this way, they came into Plymouth harbor (so called by a pre- vious explorer), and fixed on that as the most favorable location. They landed Dec. 21, 1620. Before disembarking they formed a compact for government on the basis of equal rights among them; chose John Carver for their first governor, and Miles Standish for their military captain. The first foot on Plymouth Rock was that of Mary Chilton. But it was a wintry shore, and the prospect before them was dark enough. Winter had just begun. The land was supposed to be full of savages. There was neither house nor barn on all the shore. There was no help they could reasonably look for. But at once they resolutely went about building houses. They had log houses, with thatched roofs and paper windows. And these small, humble apartments, they afterwards said, "were as full of beds as they could lie, one by another." At once they built a church and put cannon upon it for defense. They subsisted largely by hunting and fishing. But their privations and hardships were so great that fifty-one, just one-half the entire number, died the first winter, their governor among them. It is said they planted corn over their graves in the spring to prevent the Indians from finding out how they were diminished in numbers ! At the same time the " Mayflower" returned to England, but not one of the colo- nists chose to return with her. They struggled on slowly and bravely for years. Gradually increasing and extending, they got firm hold of the soil, and the prospect had greatly brightened for them when their neighbors of the Massachusetts colony arrived. There had been some differences between the two; but once on the shore of the New World, - with a common object in view, and a common dislike of the authority of the Church of England, and with need of mutual defense, the Pilgrims of Plymouth found allies in the Puritans of Salem, - gradually they came together, and ultimately they became one, making the large and powerful State of Massachusetts at the time (1718) when our Scotch ancestors arrived at Boston.
Having now followed Puritan and Pilgrim from persecution in England to a permanent and free condition in America, and left them united, and enlarging on every side, it will be expected of course that we look particularly at the causes and history of the "Scotch- Irish " emigration. Ireland had been invaded and conquered by the English in the reign of Henry II., A. D. 1172. But for four hundred years they really exercised but little authority in the island, and that in such a way as to exasperate the ignorant and suffer- ing Irish beyond endurance. They frequently rebelled against the English authority during the reign of Elizabeth, and it was not till near the close of her reign (1601) that her government could very properly be said to be established there. To a great extent the lands of the Catholic rebels were confiscated by the crown. These lands being attract- ive in soil and climate, and offered at a very low rate, many English and some Scotch settlers were induced to come over and settle upon them, -a course of things greatly encouraged by the government, in the hope that an intelligent Protestant population would counteract the plots of the uneasy and troublesome Irish. James I., ascending the throne
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in 1603, pursued the same course and offered increased inducements to any of his country- men who would settle on the vacant farms. Indeed, soon after his accession, a company was formed in London to colonize Ireland. Large parts of the eastern counties, and nearly the whole of the Province of Ulster, comprising nine counties in the north, or in all full one-fourth of the island, came by attainder into the hands of James. Those parts next to England were slowly filled up and occupied by the British; but Ulster in the north, being a wild and lawless province, remained for the most part unoccupied except by lin- gering bands of the rebel Irish who had now no legal right to the soil. James, whose government of Ireland was about the only record of good to be found in his reign, own- ing now more than two millions of acres in Ulster, and being very desirous of a loyal population there, thought of the Scotch as the only ones likely to meet his wish. These Scotch were rigid and decided Presbyterians, and James hated them badly enough, as being set to the death against all his pet schemes for establishing Episcopacy in Scotland. But they were near by, and exceedingly brave and industrious, and were people of intel- ligence, reliable in every place. More still as the Scotch were poor, and their land was rocky and hard, it was thought they could be induced to plant a colony over the channel, where cultivation was so much easier. This vacant territory was therefore divided up into small farms and offered to the Scotch on such favorable conditions, that, like our young men going West, a great number went over and settled early in the year 1612. These settlers were young men from all parts of Scotland, but chiefly from the adjacent county of Argyle, - hardy, vigorous, independent Scotchmen. The Irish were removed from the hills and strong places, and put out into, the open country ; and the Scotch, though by honest purchase, occupied all the best of the soil. They spread over the counties of Antrim, Down, and Londonderry, and some of them settled still farther to the south and west. The Irish Catholic rebels, living among and around these Protestant Scotch, not only looked upon them as invaders supplanting them of their rights, but as heretics and foreigners; and they felt the keenest hatred towards them, though, being awed by the government and over-matched by the superiority of the Scotch, they remained quiet. The new settlers flourished, multiplied, built churches, formed presby- teries, and extended themselves largely over all Ulster. This happy state of things lasted nearly thirty years. But the Irish hate during these thirty years did not soften with time, and was only as a smothered fire, heating and burning unseen, and ready to burst forth into dissolving flame. They associated with the Scotch in treacherous kindness while they were waiting an opportunity to murder them. This favorable moment for the great murder came in 1641, when they thought, from the disturbances in England and Scot- land, the Protestant settlers could get no help from abroad. Perhaps they may have been roused to this bloody action by notice of the thrift and increase of the settlers, and the fact that respectable accessions were being made to them by new emigrants from Scotland about this time, - suggesting the thought that something must be done, or Ireland would speedily become a Protestant land. King James I. and Charles I. had, step by step, as they supposed and hoped, forced Episcopacy upon Scotland, -when in 1638 the whole people of that land rose in opposition and entered into what was called the " Solemn League and Covenant." This was a solemn agreement to maintain the reformed religion, and to put down Popery and Prelacy in Scotland ; and it was signed by almost the whole body, men, women, and children, high and low. Then followed the controversy with Charles, - the efforts at compromise on his part, - the preparations for war, - the trea- ties with that weak king, - the raising of new armies, - entirely engaging the attention of Scotland until the visit of Charles to that kingdom in the summer of 1641, and a set- tlement of their difficulties, - which doubtful negotiations lasted into the autumn of that year. Thus the Papish intriguers in Ireland concluded that Scotland was out of their way.
In England in 1640 and 1641 the arbitrary conduct of Charles was stirring the kingdom from border to border; the conflict between king and parliament was intense; people were looking forward to the threatened arbitrament of arms, which followed ere long; the gov- ernment had no sufficient force in Ireland; and the universal interest was in affairs at home. At this juncture, therefore, the long-quiet malcontents of Popery in Ireland thoughit the favorable moment to strike for supremacy and revenge had come. Some
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eight thousand disciplined Catholic soldiers disbanded by Charles, and ready for any des- perate adventure, were at this time let loose. Help to the Catholics was promised from France. Priests excited the old Irish to revolt. All the English and Scotch in the island only amounted to one-sixth of the whole population. They were for the most part unarmed, and were entirely unaware of the storm that was ready to break upon them. The plan was to rise in all parts of the kingdom at once and wipe out the unsuspecting Protestants by death. The plot was discovered in Dublin, in season to save that place and the surrounding country to the Protestants and prevent an outbreak ; but in the north of Ireland it was carried out with all the cruelty which Popery and the devil could invent. The time fixed upon for this universal murder was Oct. 23, 1641. On that morning (an exceedingly hard, cold day for that season of the year), the Catholics, being everywhere intermingled with the Protestants, fell upon them by surprise and commenced their contemplated butchery on every hand. The Protestants, outnumbered five to one, unarmed, scattered, and surprised, had no chance at all. Their neighbors whom they had befriended and instructed, became their murderers. Entreaties and tears availed not. The young, and the old, the mother with her babe, the languishing invalid, the strong man, the fair and innocent child, were murdered together. Whole families were butchered, one after another, slowly, so that each living one night see the anguish of the dying before enduring the same cruel fate. Even the Irish women went further than their husbands in exquisite torture of young mothers and helpless children. Fugitives, fleeing naked from their burning homes, perished from hunger and cold. A few survivors were changed into maniacs by the awful scene, never to think of anything but murder and flame, or know the quietudes of home again. By the hundred there were instances of lust and torture, the minute description of which would shock the most hardened heart. And this was done chiefly in the name of the Catholic religion. Priests were guilty of those murders. Those rivers of innocent blood flowed by Popery's accursed hand! Of this quiet and harmless people, who had not shown the least unkindness to the Catholics, nor been in any open way opposed to them, living in neighborly love and peace, it has been estimated that two hundred thousand were thus butchered in a single day. The lowest estimate ever made was forty thousand. Probably the mean between them would be nearly correct. It has been said by English authority that the victims were mostly English; and, without question, the English colonies in the northern counties were blotted out in this most inhu- man massacre. It may not be denied that the Irish pretended some friendship to the Scots, and murdered the English first ; and 'so arranged things that the Scots to some extent had time to escape, or a chance to band together in defense, so that far fewer of them were murdered. Yet it is certain that many of the Scotch were murdered too, and that fire and robbery did not distinguish much between theirs and the English homes. Many fled back to Scotland. And there is little room to doubt that many ancestors and kindred of the Londonderry families, and therefore of those of our own town, perished on that bloody day.
After this sad event those Scotch who remained in Ireland lived in alarm and on the lookout for defense, during seven or eight years, until in 1649, Cromwell, having leisure from affairs in England, came over the channel and subdued the Irish. Thence onward for several years the Protestants lived in comparative peace and prosperity, and slowly recovered their former condition. The Papists were disarmed, and the Protestants were supplied with means of defense. From this fact arose the habit which long prevailed of firing guns at Scotch weddings, as being then the best way of expressing their triumph and their gladness.
In Scotland during the last years of the reign of Charles II., the Protestants, or Presby- terians as they nearly all were, were growing less and less secure; and on the accession of James II., 1685, they began to be openly and terribly persecuted. The latter monarch was narrow-minded, small, and bigoted. Charles II. had been secretly a Papist; James II. was openly such, and sought in the most bloody and arbitrary ways to enforce it upon the nation. To attend any meeting except that of the established order, was made pun- ishable with death. In the western lowlands of Scotland in particular, military bands were sent out everywhere to spy out the Covenanters and bring them to death. Some of these were commissioned to shoot on the spot any who would not renounce the Covenant,
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