USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 3
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At the same time when that Combination was formed, a regular scheme of government was apparently established. The executive and judicial functions were vested in a board of three magistrates, or elders, of whom the chief was styled Ruler. They were chosen by the whole body of the freemen, who were the electors and legis- lators, their enactments, however, requiring the approval of the Ruler. An inhabitant had to be admitted a freeman, before he could enjoy the privileges of an elector ; and there is one instance of a freeman being deprived of his privileges as such, by reason of misconduct.
Both the Elders and the People were required to take certain prescribed oaths, which are here given.
THE ELDERS OATII, Ye 4TH DAY, 5TH Mº. 1639.
You shall sweare by the great and dreadfull name of the high God maker & Govr of heaven and earth, and by the Lord Jesus Christ ye Prince of the Kings and Rulers of the earth that in his name and feare you will Rule and Governe this his people according to the righteous will of God's Ministeringe Justice and Judgmt upon the workers of iniquity and Ministering due incurridgmt and Countinance to well doers - protecting of people so farre as in you by the helpe of [God] lyeth, from forren Annoyance and in- ward disturbance that they may live a quiett and peacable life in all godlyness and honesty. Soe God bee helpful and gratious to you and yors in Christ Jesus.
* These made their marks; although at least one of them James Wall (here written Walles) was capable of writing a neat signature.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
THE OATII OF THE PEOPLE.
Wee doe here sweare by the Great and dreadfull name of ye high God, maker & Gonern" of Heaven & earth and by the Lord Jesus Xt ye King & Savior of his people that in his name & fear we will submitt or selves to be ruld & gouerned by, according to ye will & word of God and such holsome Laws & ordinances as shall be derived theire from by or honrd Rulers and ye Lawfull assistance with the consent of ye people and yt wee will be ready to assist them by the helpe of God in the administracon of Justice and p'servacon of peace with or bodys and goods and best endeavors according to God, so God protect & saue us and ors in Christ Jesus.
Isaac Gross was chosen the first Ruler, and undoubtedly quali- fied himself by taking the Elder's oath. It is not unlikely that he was also a ruling elder in the church. On the eighteenth of January, 1640, Augustine Storre and Anthony Stanyan were joined with him, and the three were to have " the ordering of all town affairs according to God." These officers corresponded closely to our modern selectmen, in respect to their duties, and under their administration the affairs of the little town went on satisfactorily.
A glimpse of the customs of the time is afforded us by a trans- action recorded in the Note Book of Thomas Lechford, Esq., an English lawyer, who practised his profession in Boston in Massa- chusetts from 1638 to 1641. Under date of July 5, 1639, he records the drawing of a covenant between Elizabeth Evans of Bridgend in the county of Glamorgan in Wales and John Wheel- wright, minister, by which she engaged to become his servant for three years from June 25 then last past, for three pounds per annum as wages, and in consideration that her passage to this country was paid by Wheelwright. The instrument appears not to have been executed in Boston, and we know that Wheelwright's sentence of banishment was still in force. No doubt it was com- pleted in Exeter, having been brought thither by Richard Bulgar or Richard Morris, both of whom had business with the lawyer about that time.
FIRST ALLOTMENT OF LANDS.
It was near the close of the second season before any general distribution of land appears to have been made, from the ample domain at the disposal of the town. On Wednesday of the first week in December, 1639, the town made a beginning, by first
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
defining the extensive uplands and meadows which belonged to Edward Hilton, whose claim was treated as antedating that of the Exeter proprietors.
They then provided that all the meadows belonging to the town between the village and Mr. Hilton's house, and from Lamprey river to the head of the Little Bay should be equally apportioned into four parts ; of which one part should be divided by lot among those inhabitants who had no cattle, or a less number of goats than four ; the hay growing thereon, however, to be distributed among the others, until such time as they should have cattle of their own, or sell the meadows to those having cattle. The other three parts of the meadows were to be divided by lot among the inhabitants having cattle, according to the number thereof ; and the division was to be made before the next court or town meeting.
The town also provided that upland lots for planting should be laid out by lot to all the inhabitants, by the river between Stony creek and the creek on this (the south) side of Mr. Hilton's, according to the number of persons and cattle belonging to each, except such persons as lived on the eastern side of the river, and William Hilton and John Smart, who were to have lots on that side of the river, where the town should think most convenient, [acting] by Ruler Needham and Augustine Storre.
The division of lands thus ordered was duly made, doubtless in the course of the same month .*
The marshes and meadows, bearing spontaneously a species of grass on which when dried the cattle could well subsist, were at this early period, when no considerable clearing away of the forest had been effected, of great value to the settlers. The whole extent of them was but one hundred and ten acres, but they were appor- tioned with particularity among the thirty-seven heads of families then belonging to Exeter, excluding Edward Hilton, whose lands had already been secured to him. These marshes were situated partly in the vicinity of Lamprey river, and partly between the Hilton place in what is now South Newmarket, and the present village of Exeter.
The uplands for planting-lots, which were also divided, amounted to about four hundred and thirty-three acres, and were allotted to thirty-two inhabitants, not including Edward Hilton, nor those who lived on the eastern side of the river. The shares varied from
* A complete record of the allotments may be found in the appendix (II).
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four acres and twenty rods, per man, to eighty acres. Ten of the inhabitants received each no more than the smaller amount ; and only Wheelwright received the larger. The uplands here dis- tributed lay on the western bank of the salt river, beginning at the brook on the southerly side of the Hilton place in South Newmarket and extending towards Exeter village about one mile and three- quarters, if the measurements are correct.
The inhabitants began early to exercise their new privileges as legislators, and before the second year of the settlement had passed by, had enacted a small body of orders, made necessary by the circumstances of a frontier life. Setting fire to the woods and thus destroying the feed of the cattle was forbidden. So was digging a saw-pit and leaving it open, and the offender was made liable to pay the damage caused thereby to man or beast. Every man was required to cut down such trees on his own lot, as were offensive to any other, under the penalty of half a crown for each refusal. This last requirement is a refinement of legislation, the like of which is probably not to be found in any other code in Christendom.
NOTICES OF EARLY SETTLERS.
The close of the second year of the new settlement found the inhabitants increased in numbers, with an organized government founded on a voluntary association, and constituting a complete autonomy ; with rights of property secured, and apparently noth- ing wanting but greater population and strength to insure their perpetuity.
This seems a convenient time to take an inventory of the mate- rial of which the original settlement of Exeter was composed. The following is a list of the adult males, almost without exception of English birth, and mostly heads of families, who are known to have been inhabitants of the place within the first two years after its foundation in the spring of 1638.
1. George Barlow, of whom, prior to his appearance in Exeter, nothing has been learned. He had no assignment in the uplands or marshes in 1639, but was a subscriber of the restored Combina- tion, April 2, 1640 ; so it seems probable that he came in the early spring of that year. In 1641 he received from the town a grant of forty acres of upland, and in 1650 four acres more. In 1649-50 leave was given him and others to set up a saw-mill at
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
the falls on Lamprey river a "a little above the wigwams." He is said to have been a preacher while in Exeter, and he certainly was so in Saco in 1652; but his style was so little relished by the powers of Massachusetts that in 1653 they forbade him to preach or prophesy under a penalty of ten pounds for each offence. About 1660 he removed to Plymouth and there essayed to be a lawyer. He is referred to in Bishop's New England Judged for his severity against the Quakers.
2. George Bates, a thatcher, was an inhabitant of Boston as early as December, 1635, and, two years later, received a grant of fifteen acres of land there. He had been admitted to the Boston church in January, 1636, but having taken his departure to Exeter he was on the sixth of January, 1639, in company with several others, dismissed to the church newly gathered in that place. His stay in Exeter, however, proved brief, and he was received back again into the Boston church May 31, 1640. From his associa- tions he was probably a sympathizer with Wheelwright, but though his handicraft must naturally have been in request in a new place, it is very likely that the hardships and privations of a frontier life were too much for his strength or his resolution, and he aban- doned it.
3. Jeremiah Blackwell came to this country in the ship True- love in 1635, being then eighteen years old. Where he passed the succeeding three or four years is not ascertained. At the end of that time he appeared in Exeter. In the division of the up- lands in 1639 he received four acres and twenty poles, being, no doubt, the share of a single or childless man. After that his name is not mentioned. It is clear that he made no long stay in Exeter.
4. Richard Bulgar, born in 1608, probably came over in the fleet with Winthrop, and in 1637 had an allotment of twenty acres of land in Boston. He was admitted to the church there in 1634, and had a child baptized the same year. Ilis residence was in Roxbury, and he is described as a bricklayer. His handwriting would indicate that his education was good. Being disarmed in 1637 on account of his sympathy with the Antinomian party, he departed the next year to Rhode Island, but in 1639 received his dismission to the church in Exeter. There he was allotted four acres and twenty poles of upland, and subscribed the Combination. In 1641 he was chosen lieutenant of "the band of soldiers," and in 1644 lot layer. Soon afterwards he left Exeter, and in 1616 was described as of Boston. Later he returned to Rhode Island,
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
where his intelligence and business capacity were rewarded with the office of Solicitor General, which he held in 1656, and two or three subsequent years.
5. Edward Colcord was born in 1616 or 1617 and came to this country in 1631. For the next seven years he probably lived somewhere on the Pascataqua, and being an active man and acquainted with the Indians he rendered assistance to Wheelwright in obtaining his land grants from the sagamores, and was a party to one of the deeds.
A religious colony could not have been greatly to his taste, and in 1640 he had removed to Dover, where he was a magistrate to end small causes. But in 1645 he was a resident of Hampton, and the following year saw him back again at Exeter, where he obtained a grant of lands from the town, and the right of an inhabitant. It is doubtful if he availed himself of this, for in 1652 the town again voted to receive him, together with two others, as inhabitants, and invited them to take up their residence in Exeter. Colcord received more than one grant from the town, and was appointed to some minor offices. But he was incorrigibly litigions and something of a rolling stone, and after a brief sojourn in the town he made himself a home in Hampton, where he died February 10, 1681-2. He and his wife Ann had ten children, several of whom were married. Their descendants still live in Exeter and the vicinity.
6. William Cole was of Boston February 20, 1637, when he received an allotment of two acres of land "only for his present planting," at Mount Wollaston. No doubt he was a parishioner there of Wheelwright, and certainly was one of his earliest com- panions at Exeter, for he witnessed one of the Indian deeds of April 3, 1638. In the first division of lands he received a share both in the marshes and the uplands, and he was a signer of the Combination. He was appointed an overseer of fences in 1643, but probably soon followed Wheelwright to Wells. He after- wards removed to Hampton, where his wife Eunice became " velie- mently suspected " of being a witch. He died in Hampton May 26, 1662, aged eighty-one years. His descendants are still found in the vicinity.
7. John Compton was of Roxbury in 1634, and was disarmed in 1637 for his adhesion to the Wheelwright party. The circum- stance that a summons was issued March 12, 1638, to him and others who " had licence to depart " out of Massachusetts, to
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
appear at the next court if they were not gone before, was not likely to have prolonged his stay there, and it is safe to infer that he was at the falls of the Squamscot with Wheelwright on April 3, 1638, as he was a grantee in one of the Indian deeds then exe- cuted. In the first division of lands he received a considerable share both of marsh and upland. He did not subscribe the Com- bination, but probably soon returned to Boston, where the Book of Possessions shows that he owned a house and garden, about 1652.
8. Lawrence Copeland was of Braintree and presumably a pa- rishioner of Wheelwright. He was in Exeter April 3, 1638, and witnessed one of the Indian deeds of that date. It is not probable that he remained long in the town. Ile returned to Braintree to reside, where he attained the extraordinary age of one hundred years.
9. John Cram probably began to live in Boston as early as 1635, and in 1637 was assigned sixteen acres of land at Muddy River (Brookline). At the first division of lands in Exeter he was no doubt settled there, as he was allotted eight acres and forty poles of upland ; he was also a signer of the Combination. He had a wife and two or more children when he came to Exeter. His son Joseph, supposed to be the oldest, was drowned June 24, 1648, aged fifteen years ; and his daughter Lydia was born July 27 of the same year. IIe served as townsman in 1648 and 1649 and soon after removed to Hampton and there died March 5, 1681-2. The town record commemorates him as " good old Jolin Cram, one just in his generation." He was twice married, his first wife being named Lydia ; his second Esther. His descendants are still found in the vicinity.
10. Thomas Crawley, of whom nothing is learned, prior to his appearance in Exeter. Ilis name does not occur in the first ap- portionment of lands, but as he subscribed the Combination, it is very likely that he came to Exeter between January and April, 1640. In 1644-5 he had a grant of a house lot of four acres on condition of building upon it and fencing it within a twelvemonth. Other grants were subsequently made him by the town, the most important of which was that of a saw-mill privilege, in the present Brentwood, in 1652, which has been known as " Crawley's falls," to this day. He had children, one of whom was named Phebe, a ninor in 1660. Crawley probably went to Maine, where his name was afterwards found.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
11. Godfrey Dearborn was from Devonshire in England, perhaps from the city of Exeter, and brought to the new Exeter a wife and two or three children. An assignment of ten acres and fifty poles of upland was made him, and his name is affixed to the Combina- tion. Later he received other grants of land, and in 1648 was one of the selectmen. It has been supposed that he lived in what is now Stratham, near the Seammon place. About 1650 he removed to Hampton. ITis wife having died he married November 25, 1662, Dorothy, the widow of Philemon Dalton, and himself died Febru- ary 4, 1686. His posterity is numerous.
12. Henry Elkins, a tailor, was of Boston in 1634, and there had an assignment of eight acres of land in 1637. Siding with Wheelwright in the theological controversy of that year, he was disarmed, and came in 1638 to Exeter. Ile, with his wife Mary, was dismissed from the Boston church to that of Exeter March 3, 1639. They had a daughter, Maria. baptized in Boston, April 8, 1638. In the first division of lands in Exeter he received one of the smaller shares of upland ; and he set his name to the Combina- tion. He continued in Exeter till 1645, but some time afterwards removed to HIampton and died there November 19, 1668.
13. Darby Field is described by Winthrop as an Irishman, though some slight evidence has been discovered to connect his patronymie with the Ilutchinson family. He appeared in Exeter as one of the grantees of the Indian deed of April 3, 1638, and witnessed the deed of confirmation of Watohantowet April 10, 1639. Ile had no share in the first division of lands, but was a subscriber of the Combination. He is noted as the first European who visited the White mountains, which he did in 1642. In 1645 lie was living at Oyster river, now Durham, and died in 1649, leav- ing children.
14. Gabriel Fish, fisherman, was an early inhabitant of Boston and moved to Exeter in 1638. On the third of August, 1639, he gave Edward Rishworth a letter of attorney to receive ten pounds from James Carrington of Thorsthorpe in Lincolnshire, England ; whence we may infer that he, perhaps, came from that great hive of the friends of Wheelwright. After Fish was arrested for speak- ing against the king, as has already been mentioned, he probably thought it wise to return to Boston, where apparently his offence was easily condoned. The records show the birth and baptism of several of his children there in 1642 and subsequently. Fish was a householder in Boston, according to the Book of Possessions, compiled about 1652.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
15. Isaac Gross, of Boston in 1635, was termed husbandman, and received a " great " allotment of fifty acres of land at Muddy River in 1637. Being a friend of Cotton and Wheelwright he was disarmed, and followed the latter to Exeter. There in the first division of lands he had, under the honorary title of "Mr.," an assignment of twenty-eight acres and one hundred and forty poles of upland, and of marsh land six acres and fifty poles "on this side of Mr. Hilton's " and two acres at Lamprey river. From this liberal allowance, it is to be inferred that he had a considerable family, and also an unusual number of cattle. He was dismissed January 6, 1639, from the Boston to the Exeter church, and was chosen the first Ruler of the plantation of Exeter, in which capac- ity he served about a year, probably. He returned to Boston " in a few years," according to Savage, and there died in 1649, leav- ing a good estate to be divided among his widow, children and grandchildren.
16. Ralph Hall, said to be a son of John Hall, senior, and a brother of Deacon John Hall of Dover, was born in 1618. If, therefore, as tradition asserts, he was located in Exeter before the arrival of Wheelwright's company, he could not have been above twenty years of age. It is understood that he lived on the eastern side of the salt river, down nearly to the mouth of Wheelwright's creek. It might have been for that reason that he had no share in the first division of lands, but his name appears to the Combina- tion. He may have lived in Charlestown about 1647 with his wife Mary, as has been alleged. The Exeter records show the death of his daughter Mercy in July, 1648, aged about one year and a half, and the birth of his daughter Hildea, April 16, 1649. He is said to have gone to Dover in 1650. But he returned to Exeter fourteen years afterward, when he was admitted an inhabitant, October 10, 1664, and received a grant of fifty acres of land. He was a lieutenant, then an officer of responsibility, and held various positions of trust in the town, the most important being that of delegate to the first provincial assembly in 1680. His death took place in March, 1701. Some of his descendants have been men of note, and the name has always been kept alive in the town.
17. Christopher Helme, a Lincolnshire man, connected by blood with others of the Exeter pioneers, arrived in Boston in July, 1637, no doubt, and was suffered to remain there not above four months, so that he probably reached Exeter among the fore- mnost. He received no share in the first allotment of lands, for
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
what reason it is not known, but he set his hand to the Combina- tion. Upon the departure of Wheelwright in 1643, Helme returned for a little time to Boston, and thence migrated with the Gorton- ists to Warwick, Rhode Island. There he died before December, 1650, leaving a widow Margaret and a son William. Some of his name, presumably descendants, have been prominent in Rhode Island.
18. Edward Hilton has already been mentioned. The records of Exeter show that he was settled and had a house in the part of Exeter which is now South Newmarket, at least at early as Decem- ber, 1639. He became a leading man in the place, serving as townsman or selectman from 1645 nearly every year up to 1652. In 1646 he was one of the purchasers of Wheelwright's house, in order that it might be used as the residence of the Rev. Nathaniel Norcross, afterwards of Lancaster, who had been invited to settle in Exeter ; and after the declination of Mr. Norcross he was in 1650 one of the inhabitants who, in behalf of the town, entered into the engagement with the Rev. Samuel Dudley to become their minister. Mr. Hilton was repeatedly chosen by the inhabitants on important committees to look after their interests, and was in all respects a useful and valuable citizen. He died early in the year 1671.
19. William Hilton, a brother of Edward, and a member of the Fishmongers' Guild of London, came over to Plymouth in the ship Fortune, November 11, 1621. There he remained till the arrival of his wife and two children in the Anne, in July or August, 1623. In a little time afterwards they settled themselves on the Paseat- aqua with Edward Hilton at or near Dover. In the first division of lands in Exeter, he was assigned three acres of marsh, and it was voted that he and John Smart were to have lots on the other (eastern) side of the river, where it should be thought most con- venient ; and on the third of February, 1641, it was agreed by the town that he might enjoy certain marshes and uplands at Oyster river. He seems to have occupied some part of the de- batable ground between Exeter and Dover, but was perhaps accounted a citizen of the latter place. This was certainly the case in 1644 when he was chosen a deputy to the Massachusetts General Court from Dover. But shortly afterwards he went further to the eastward, and maintained much the same divided citizenship between Kittery and York. His death occurred in the latter place in 1665 or 1666.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
20. Samuel Hutchinson was an unmarried brother of Mrs. Wheelwright, and no doubt landed in Boston with other Lincoln- shire friends July 12, 1637, and was upon his special request licensed to remain there until the first month after winter. Then he proceeded to Exeter, and was made a grantee in one of the Indian deeds of April, 1638. Little more than a month after- wards a grant of land appears to have been made him in Rhode Island, where his brother William had gone. Though Samuel resided there at a later period, he probably did not go at once, but staid for a year or two in and about Exeter. His mother, Mrs. Susanna Hutchinson, was there, an inmate of Wheelwright's family, as probably he was also. He, with Needham and others, negotiated with Thomas Gorges, September 27, 1641, for the tract of land at Wells, which was the second place of refuge of Wheelwright and his followers. He died in Boston, it is believed, in 1677.
21. Christopher Lawson, a connection of Helme and others of the Combination, without much question arrived with them from Lincolnshire at Boston in New England, in July, 1637, and proba- bly proceeded to Exeter the next year. His name appears on the Combination, but not in the division of lands. He was a cooper by trade, and a trader by nature. Some of his dealings in Exeter appeared rather too sharp for the primitive fashions of the place, and on the fifth of September, 1643, he was bound over in the sum of ten pounds to answer to the charge of extortion brought against him by five of his neighbors. Apparently his character was not seriously affected by this circumstance ; for the town bestowed upon him, the next year, a right of fishery in the river, which would now be regarded as an indefensible monopoly. Lawson vibrated for some years between Exeter and Boston, two of his children being baptized in the latter place, one in 1643 and the other in 1645. In 1648 he was a member of a committee to invite the Rev. Mr. Tompson of Braintree to settle over the church in Exeter, and the same year the town made him a grant of one hun- dred acres of land. After buying and selling lots in Dover and in Boston, and dabbling to a considerable extent in shares of the " Squamscot Patent," Lawson went, before 1665, to Maine, where he became a considerable man. There he suffered some domestic infelicities, which resulted in bringing mutual complaints between his wife Elizabeth and himself before the General Court in 1669. And there, for want of further knowledge, we leave him.
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