USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Durham > History of the town of Durham, New Hampshire (Oyster River Plantation) with genealogical notes, Volume 1 > Part 4
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It was in this vicinity that David Davis, who was taxed in 1680, built his garrison house in 1695, which until recently stood about a quarter of a mile west of where Warren Smith now lives. The road has been changed so as to run over the site of the old garrison. Davis was killed by Indians, 27 August 1696. John Smith got possession of this land also and kept adding to his landed estate till he owned a stretch of about four miles along the northerly shore of the Great Bay, and here his descendants have lived unto the present day.
Needham's Point, called later Jewell's Point, derived its name probably from Nicholas Needham of Exeter, though no record has been found of land owned by him here. Needham's Cove is northeast of the Point, and the point of land at the easterly extremity of the Cove was anciently called Pinder's Point. The next point of land was called Morris's Point, and between the two points was Clift Cove. John and Ruth York 14 October 1680, sold to John Pinder, brickmaker and bricklayer, "land beginning at the little point in Clift Cove adjoining to Thomas Morris and so over the neck to a pine tree by the path going to Lubberland." John York had bought this land of Thomas Roberts, senior, I July 1669. Here lived the Pinder family for several generations.
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Lubberland seems to have been a name given first to the region between Lamprey River and Goddard's Creek and to have gradu- ally been applied to all the adjoining region along the north shore of Great Bay.
Thomas Morris was taxed in 1663 and died 30 July 1707, as Pike's Journal says. His will gives his land to his friends James and William Durgin. James Durgin's son, John, sold to John Smith, 2 January 1735, twenty acres of land "with one dwelling house thereon situate lying & being in Durham ajoining on ye north west side of ye Great bay & bounded by John Pinders land on ye Southwest & on ye North by John Smiths land & on ye northeast by ye Creek call Thomas Morrys [Morris's] Creek."
Next east of Thomas Morris came land of Thomas Footman, granted to him in 1653. He first lived on the shore of Little Bay, as we shall soon see. An island, still called Footman's Island, was granted to him on the 19th of 8th month, 1653, con- taining one acre of land more or less, in the mouth of the Great Bay. The island, "laying against the house," is mentioned in Thomas Footman's will, 1667. The site of the Footman house is easily found in about the middle of the field.
Next to Thomas Footman lived William Durgin. This ap- pears from the following citation. December 20, 1723, Francis Durgin of Exeter sold to John Smith his right, title and interest in "one certain neck of land situate lying & being on ye norwest side of great bay & aioyning to Matheses Creek so called which being yt half of sd neck of land which my father William Durgin lived on in his life time & died in ye Persetion." December II, 1694, William Furber was licensed to keep a ferry from his house at Welchman's Cove, to transport travelers over to Oyster River, at the rate of three pence for each person and eight pence for man and horse, if landed "at Mathews his neck," and six pence for each person and twelve pence for man and horse, if landed "at Durgins the west side of Mathews his neck." See N. H. Province Papers, Vol. II, 146-47.
Eli Edgerly has long lived on the old Durgin farm. In front of his house and about two rods distant there was a cellar where now is a large cherry tree. Here was probably the Durgin garri- son mentioned in 1695. The ferry landing seems to have been in a little cove at the southeast corner of the field. The site of
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Thomas Footman's house is plainly seen from Mr. Edgerly's doorway.
South of Crommett's Creek and west of the road a winding road near the creek led to the home of the Daniel family in the old days. Certainly John Daniel lived here and probably his father, "Davey" Daniel. The cellar can be found easily.
On the 23d of the 10th month, 1654, a grant was made to Francis Matthews of "all the marsh in the Great Creek on the norwest side of the Great Bay, being the first creek, and one
ADAMS POINT, FIRST CALLED " MATTHEWS NECK" In the distance, beyond Crommett's Creek, is the old Durgin farm
hundred acres of upland adjoining to it." This creek was for many years called Mathes Creek, till Joshua Crommett and his son, Jacob, settled on the north side of it and west of the road, where a Mr. Quimby has recently lived. They managed the grist mill, the ruins of which may be seen on the west side of the creek, south of the road. Crommett was living here before 1772. It is still known as Crommett's Creek.
All that neck of land, which is almost an island, has been known since 1654 as Matthews, or Mathes, Neck. Benjamin Matthews
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had a grant, 10th of 2d month, 1654, of "a Little Plott of marsh at the head of the Little Bay, with the neck of land there." Matthews Neck is now called Adams Point, from the name of the present owner. This is now a beautiful summer resort. The view of the extensive meadow, of Great and Little Bays, and of Furber's Point opposite in Newington is one of the best in all this region of fine scenery. The present house is the fourth that has stood on the same site. Here lived Capt. Benjamin Mathes for a time.
Next north of Matthews Neck and stretching from Crommett's Creek to the head of Little Bay is the old Kent farm, where eight generations of the Kent family have lived. There were laid out to Oliver Kent, 3d of 2d month, 1658, seventy acres of land, "bounded betwixt William Drewes and Mrs. Mathes and Charles Adamses by the cricke side commonly called Mr Mathews Cricke." Oliver Kent was taxed in Dover in 1648 and perhaps had lived here from even earlier than that date, since grants of land were often made years after occupation and improvement. His house stood on the hilltop westerly of the present barn of Mr. Eben Kent, and the old Kent burial-ground is southeasterly of said barn. It contains marble headstones of some of the later generations and rough unlettered granite stones to mark the resting places of the early families. The outlook from the Kent lawn is alone enough to make life happy. Oliver Kent's son, Joseph, added to the original grant the above mentioned lot of Charles Adams by purchase from his heirs, 15 February 1714/5. It had been granted to Charles Adams as an out lot in 1656, "one necke of land lying on the south side of Bronsons Crick bounded from the western branch upon a south line to the Great Bay." Oliver Kent bought of George Smythe, administrator of the estate of George Webb, in 1651," an acre and a half of land in Oyster River Plantation heretofore in the possession of said George Webb," who in 1642 was presented at court "for living idle like a swine." This is all we need to know of him. He probably lived as a fisherman, in single wretchedness, on the south shore of Branson's Creek.
Jonas Bines had a grant of "an out lot being on the south west side of a Creeke caled by the name of Bransons Creeke being ten acres, the west side ioyning to George Webb, from a great white Oke marked and the east side coming to a little gutt,
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right over against a place called the hay stack and lyeth next to Charles Adams Lott." This lot was sold to John Hill, 26 Febru- ary 1668, by John Bickford, senior, who may have acted as executor of the estate of Jonas Bines, since there is no record of Bines after that date. It was laid out to John Hill thus "The head line begins at a pine tree by Bransons Crick and runs south west 29 or 30 rod along Georg web his lot to the corner tree and from the pine tree down the Crick 40 rod Est South Est to a letell gut by the Crick and from that gut it Runs south west 37 rods to a little Pine tree marked and from that tree it Runs west south west 60 rod to a marked tree and from that marked tree it Runs to the upper Corner of George Webes lot." This lot seems to be now a portion of the Kent farm.
Branson's or Bronson's Creek next engages our attention, a small inlet, about the size of Willey's Creek, which is better known. It is on the south side of the old Thomas Drew farm and was named from George Bronson, or Branson, who was taxed in 1648 and was killed by a bull, 2 July 1657. John Ault testified that "Bronson went well out of his house and he went after him and found Bronson lying on the ground crying that the bull had killed him." He left nothing to perpetuate his name but this creek. There is no grant or sale of land in his name. Even the creek is called Brands Krick in 1691 and half a century later it is called in a deed Blanchard's Creek. Let the old name be retained. It is better than a tombstone for George Branson.
The next lot was granted to William Drew, 10th of 8th month, 1653, "sixty acres of upland being on the north side of Bransons Creeke joining to his marsh." This was assigned to his son, Francis Drew, and laid out in 1669, "on the north side of Bran- sons Crieck from the marsh thirty rods north est to a marked tree at the cricke next to Thomas Willes land and from thence 160 rods northwest to a marked tree and from thence 90 rods southwest to a marked tree." Francis Drew deeded this to his son Thomas, 9 October 1691. Some time after the return of Thomas from captivity in Canada he settled here with his wife, Tamsen, but the other heirs of Francis Drew long afterward claimed some right in this farm. This explains a deed of Elijah Drew, son of Thomas and Tamsen, dated 15 May 1744, when he conveyed to Joseph Wheeler and Zachariah Edgerly "all right in lands and tenements which did belong unto Mary Green of
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Stratham, being a fifth part of sixty acres of land lying by ye Little Bay & by Bransis Creek."
John Drew, brother of Thomas and son of Francis, escaped from a window in the old Drew garrison at Drew's Point, on the south side of Oyster River, at the time of the massacre in 1694, and was slain by Indians in 1706. He left two daughters, as a deed shows, Mary, who married Joseph Wheeler, and Joanna, who married Zachariah Edgerly. A deed of partition, dated 13 July 1747, between Joseph Drew and John Drew, sons of Thomas, and Joseph Wheeler and Mary his wife and Zachariah Edgerly and Joanna his wife, gives to Joseph and John Drew their part of sixty acres, "Beginning at a stake and stones standing half a rod south west from the south corner of the old house cellar & from said stake and stones it runs south fifty Degrees and a half Degree east to the Salt River, with lands, buildings and appurtenances thereto belonging, " and to said Wheeler and Mary his wife & Zachariah Edgerly and Joanna his wife all on the other side of a line, "with all that Land which Thomas Drew late of Dover aforesd son of Francis Drew late of the same place purchased of Margaret Squire." This land also reached down to the salt river. Margaret Squier, widow of Bernard Squier probably, conveyed to Thomas Drew, 24 July 1701, eighteen acres on the northwest side of little bay, joining to lands of aforesaid Thomas Drew. This land had been granted to her first husband, Thomas Willey.
This old Drew farm many years ago came into the possession of Richard Kent. The buildings now standing unoccupied were erected by him, but the old Drew residence could not have been far from the same site. Old residents in this vicinity say that it stood a little lower down, eight or ten rods from the present barn. It was demolished about one hundred years ago and Mr. Joseph Adams has now one of its doors. The Drew burial- ground is in the field below the house, on the west side of a gulley through which flows a small brook into Branson's Creek. The cemetery is unfenced. The inscriptions on two headstones can be read with some difficulty. Many rough granite stones appear. Here sleep the ashes of Thomas and Tamsen Drew and many of their fourteen children and more numerous grandchildren.
In 1653 there were granted to Rice Howell twenty acres "next to William Drews grant." This he exchanged with Thomas
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Footman for land further north, and Footman sold these twenty acres to Thomas Willey, who, 4 August 1666, sold land adjoining to Henry Hollwells to William Perkins, who seems to have added thereunto, for, 10 June 1694, William Perkins and wife, Elizabeth, who had removed to Exeter, conveyed to their daughter, Eliza- beth Wheeler, sixty acres of land with house, "over against Little Bay," reserving a moiety of mowing land and of growth of apples during lifetime. Here lived John Wheeler and wife, Elizabeth, till they were killed by Indians, in 1706. His son, Deacon Joseph Wheeler, inherited the farm, added more to it and passed it along to his son, Benjamin Wheeler. The old cellar near the stone house, belonging to Mr. Edward Rollins of Boston and formerly belonging to Charles H. Mathes, and built by James Fernald, perhaps seventy-five or one hundred years ago, on the farm next north of the old Drew estate, is probably that of the Wheeler family. October 30, 1765, Benjamin and Elizabeth Wheeler of Gardners Town, Lincoln County, Mass. (now Gardiner, Me.), Daniel Edgerly and Hannah, his wife, of Madbury and Abigail Wheeler, spinster, of Durham (who married William Buss), children of Joseph Wheeler, tailor, sold to Daniel Warner all right in half of a certain farm joining on Little Bay, "between the land of John Edgerly and Joseph and John Drew." The farm then contained one hundred and twenty acres.
In 1658 the selectmen laid out for the use of the town a grove of pine trees, "lieinge and beinge on the north west sied of the letell Bay half a mile or thereabout from a creeke called the Long Creek, bounded upon the South by Tho Willey his grant." On the 10th of the 2d month, 1654, Thomas Willey had a grant on the northwest side of Little Bay, "threescore rods by the Water side to begin at the mouth of the Long Creeke and so upwards eight score rods into the woods." Willey sold this to William Perkins, and, 28 January 1669, William Perkins and Elizabeth, his wife, conveyed to Thomas Edgerly a parcel of land "lying & being on the northwest side of the Little Bay and on the southwest side of the long creek in the town of Dover aforesd containing twenty pole by ye water side, being marked and bounded by the long creek aforesd on the north east side of said parcell of land and by a hemlock tree on the other side which standeth by the water side, containing twenty acres more or less, the which parcell of land is a part of the sixty acres
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purchased of Thomas Willey." These twenty acres passed to Thomas Edgerly's son John, and, 4 February 1711, John Edgerly and wife, Elizabeth, conveyed to Samuel Edgerly (his brother) twenty acres on the northwest side of Little Bay, bounded on the north "by the Creeke called and known by the name of the Mill Creek, bounded on the east with the aforesaid Little Bay, bounded on the South with the land of John Wheelers lately deceased." Thus it seems that John Wheeler had acquired before 1711 the land laid out in 1658 for a pine grove for the use of the town. This land of Edgerly's is now in the possession of James Meader, and Long Creek is called today Meader's Creek. A two-branched
MOUTH OF LONG CREEK
brook flows through the field in front of Meader's house and empties into the head of Long Creek, called also Mill Creek in some deeds, because a mill was erected at an early date near the mouth of it.
Long Creek winds up into the woods that conceal it perhaps less than an eighth of a mile. It is broad and deep, an admirable refuge for fishing craft in the old days. Just south of it, on the elevated land, amid the woods that may have formed a part of the pine grove reservation, have recently been built some summer cottages.
North of Long Creek it is difficult to locate with precision the first settlers, because there were so frequent transfers of small
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grants of land. The following citation from Dover records will aid us. The record has been slightly mutilated. "The grant of land by the Town of Dover to Thomas Footman of twenty acres, as appears by ye date of of the first month, 1651, and also a grant of ten acres granted to John Hill, granted to him by ye town of Dover at a meeting they had ye 10 of ye 8
These two grants are laid out and bounded as follows, 65 rod along ye shore from Thomas Humphreys next John Alts long creek near ye mill and from thence west nor west 90 rods to a marked tree marked T. C. and from yt tree it runs north north- east 50 rods to a red oack tree marked again with T. C. and from thence it runs east south east till it comes to ye same brook where it began, and whereas the Town intended a high way & landing place att long Creek it is ordered yt there all be three rod in bedth as it is now marked to the end of the lott and what wast land is between the high way and ye creek, eqall with ye creek, is Thomas Edgerlys in consideration of ye high way. This land we find to be Thomas Edgerlys by ye consent of his father in law John Alt and John Bickford of Oyster River senior, so then we finde that the brook that is between John Alts and Thomas Edgerlys is the bound given by John Alt to ye said Ed- gerly his land and is laid out and bounded this 18 of November 1678." Signed by John Davis and Robert Burnum.
Here mention is made of a mill on Long Creek and a highway therefrom. These are again mentioned in a deed from Thomas Edgerly, senior, and his wife, Rebecca, to their son, Samuel Ed- gerly, dated 21 May 1700. It conveyed fifteen acres "bounded from a marked pine tree at ye head of ye old dam, seated be- tween the long Cricke brook and the high way that goeth out into ye Commons, lying to ye west of ye little bay in Oyster River."
January 28, 1711, Thomas Edgerly and wife, Rebecca, sold to their son, John Edgerly, seventy or eighty acres of land on the northwest side of the Little Bay, "bounded on the north by land of John Rand. It fronteth on the aforesaid little bay and is bounded on the south by the creek called and known by the name of the mill creek, at the water side and from there into the woods."
Thus we see that Thomas Edgerly owned land on both sides of Long or Mill Creek. That on the north side came to him by marrying Rebecca, widow of Henry Hallwell, and daughter of John Ault. The marriage took place in 1665. His garrison
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house was evidently north of Long Creek, now Meader's Creek, and was burned by the Indians in 1694. Shortly afterward he petitioned that the neighboring house of John Rand should be made a garrison. Rand had married Remembrance, the other daughter of John Ault, and so had half of the original estate of John Ault, who was one of Capt. John Mason's colonists and must have settled at Oyster River about the year 1635. His farm lay between Long Creek and the next brook north called in ancient deeds Plum Swamp Brook. John Ault conveyed to his son-in-law, John Rand, 21 April 1674, "all ye place or planta- tion whereon I now live."
SHORE OF LITTLE BAY Durham Point on the left, Fox Point on the right
November 17, 1718, John Rand, son of the John Rand, who with wife, Remembrance, was probably killed by Indians in the massacre of 1694, conveyed to Francis Mathes thirty acres of "Rands Plantation," "on the northwest side of ye Little Bay," between John Edgerly's land on the south and John Ambler's land on the north.
November 26, 1720, Job Runnels sold to John Ambler land which John Ault gave to his son-in-law, John Rand and wife, Remembrance, in 1764, which land Runnels bought of Nathaniel Rand and Francis Rand.
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In August, 1912, Hon. Lucien Thompson and myself carefully explored this region. We found what seems to have been the landing place at the mouth of Long Creek, on the north side, where in later times bricks were made. The mill dam may have been that of a tide mill, at the very mouth of the creek, where upright ledges form natural abutments and where a dam could have been built at little expense. The supply of water from tide and brooks would have been abundant for those times. An ex- cavation on the hilltop, perhaps ten rods from the mouth of the creek and on the north side, probably marks the site of the Ed- gerly garrison, burned in 1694. The pasture land around it is now overgrown with small pines and bushes, yet traces of the old road from the landing to the main road are easily discovered. Walking in a northerly direction over this wooded and hilly pas- ture one comes to a large field of the John Emerson farm, where Mr. Bela Kingman has a camp. In the southeast corner of that field, a few rods from the shore, not far from a fine spring of water, is a depression that marks the cellar of the house built by John Ault, given to his son-in-law, John Rand, and used as the gar- rison of this region after 1694. A portion of a brick was found near the surface.
On the 17th of the 4th month, 1667, Thomas Seabrook and wife, Mary, conveyed to John Ault, for twelve pounds paid by Thomas Edgerly, all right, title, and interest in "all such lands that John Hill did purchase of Thomas Footman, did purchase and pass over to Richard Bray, situate & lying in ye Little Bay on ye south west side of ye Brooke wch runneth between ye lot of sd Richard and ye Lott of Thos Humphreys near John Aults land wth ten acres of land more ajoyning to the land aforesd." N. H. Deeds, III, 149a.
It would seem, then, that Thomas Humphreys' land began at the mouth of Plum Swamp Brook, near the "Falling-off Place," where, on the north side, there is a very old stone wall, that may have been a division fence. How Thomas Humphreys acquired this does not appear in the records. His name does not appear in grants or sales of land. He was taxed at Oyster River in 1659 and is called "Thomas umfirie the stiller," or distiller. He evi- dently furnished the liquid then deemed almost indispensable. He took the oath of fidelity in 1661. He married, I December 1665, Hannah, daughter of John Lane of Hingham Mass., where
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his sons had families recorded. He was constable, sergeant and clerk of the writs at Sagadahock, Me., in 1674. He and James. Middleton, once of Oyster River, sold land on the Kennebec in 1676. Mention is made of his house at Oyster River, near which Thomas Canyda was killed by the falling of a tree in 1660, as- said a coroner's jury.
It may be conjectured that Thomas Humphreys got posses- sion of a small lot on the shore in this way: Thomas Footman owned land a little north of Plum Swamp Brook. He conveyed to Rice Howell, 29th of the 10th month, 1654, one messuage or tenement of land on the northwest side of Little Bay next to John Ault's lot, seven or eight acres, bounded by a freshet that runs on the southwest side of said land. This land probably passed from Howell to Humphrey. The "freshet" spoken of is Plum Swamp Brook, on the farm formerly of the late John Emerson.
Mention has been made of Richard Bray, who had a small lot just south of Plum Swamp Brook, probably acquired from John Ault. He had a grant, in 1658, "of twenty acres of upland at the head of his lot." He was taxed in Exeter in 1664, and there is no record of how he disposed of his land at Oyster River. He died in 1665, and his estate was administered by his widow, Mary, appointed administratrix 10 April 1665, then of Exeter and hav- ing children, John and Mary. This John Bray was of Middle- town, N. J., 31 May 1689, when he sold to John Sleeper of Exe- ter eighty acres in Exeter. The deed is also signed by his mother, then Mary Whitlock.
April 3, 1674, John Ault sold to his son-in-law, Thomas Ed- gerly, "one fourth of an acre of land at west end of a field called Hilliards" and joining Edgerly's land, near Plum Swamp. Did Emmanuel Hilliard once live here, he who was later of Hampton and perished in the Wreck of Rivermouth, as sung by the poet Whittier? He seems to have been the only known Hilliard in New England at that time.
We have learned that Thomas Footman exchanged a small piece of land with Rice Howell. The latter was taxed in 1648 and in 1657. The following deposition throws some light on his pathway: "The Deposition of Philip Chesley this deponent witnesseth that hee Being at a Bargain making between Thomas Johnson of Oister River and Rise Howell of the said river which was to this effectt that if the said Howell would leave the places
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hee was then in where he had good wages and come and live with the said Johnson hee should have fouer Ackers of Land joyning to his feild the said Howell Breaking of it up and house Roome to dwell in all wch the said howell was to in Joye as Long as he lived and further saith not." Deposed 27 July 1661. N. H. Court Records, I, 87.
It has been shown that Thomas Footman owned a small piece of land north of Plum Swamp Brook. He had land from Henry Symson in York previous to 15 April 1640, and lived there as late as 1648. He had a grant on the northern shore of Great Bay in 1653 and there he made his home. It is questionable whether he lived for a short time on the shore of Little Bay, al- though he owned several pieces of land there.
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