USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 5
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49. John Wheelwright deserves here a brief sketch of his
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
subsequent career. He retreated before the advance of Massachu- setts to Wells in the spring of 1643, and while he was there the General Court, in not the most gracious manner, annulled his sentence of banishment, and re-enfranchised him. After minister- ing to the little community at Wells for four years, he accepted the invitation of the church at Hampton to settle over them as the pastoral colleague of the Rev. Timothy Dalton, their religious teacher. In Hampton he continued, to the entire acceptance of his flock, until 1655 or 1656 when he made a voyage to England. There he was received with high favor by Oliver Cromwell, his fellow collegian, now the highest personage in the land ; and also by Sir Henry Vane, a friend and fellow sufferer in the Antinomian struggle in Massachusetts. After Cromwell's death Wheelwright returned to New England, in company with several other minis- ters, in the summer of 1662. He accepted the invitation of the church at Salisbury, Massachusetts, to become their spiritual guide, and, though then arrived at the age of threescore and ten, enjoyed among them the longest pastorate of his checkered life. He had his trials there, indeed, for he was not one to yield his opinions because another opposed them, but on the whole his min- istrations were useful and his motives and independence were respected. It was a pleasant episode in his later life that he preached a sermon in 1671-2 in behalf of Harvard College, solic- iting contributions for the rebuilding of Harvard Hall which had been destroyed by fire,-thus showing that he harbored no malice against the dignitaries of Massachusetts for the harsh treat- ment that he had formerly received at their hands. His death took place at Salisbury November 15, 1679.
50. Thomas Wight, of whom nothing is learned prior to his appearance in Exeter, had six acres and thirty poles allotted him as his share of the uplands ; and was a subscriber of the Combina- tion. In the five subsequent years that he spent in the town, his name appears seldom on the records. He had a house, and perhaps two, as his " old house" is referred to ; and he was cen- sured and fined in 1642 by the town court for "contemptuous carriage and speeches against the court and magistrates." He lived in the town at least two years and a half, afterwards, and then went away, we know not whither. Mr. Savage thinks Thomas Wight was the same person elsewhere called Thomas Wright, but he gives no authority for the belief. The name is uniformly written Weight in the town records ; but is subscribed Wight, apparently in his own hand, to the Combination.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
51. Balthazar Willix, whose name would indicate that he was of foreign origin, was undoubtedly in Exeter as early as the beginning of 1640, as he was then awarded one of the smaller shares of the uplands. He was not a signer of the Combination. His name appears, however, repeatedly in the records, at a later date, in his own bold and handsome chirography. In May, 1643, he was one of the petitioners to the General Court of Massachu- setts to receive Exeter under their government. His name is not found in the records after 1650. In the month of May or June, 1648, Willix's wife was robbed and brutally murdered on her way from Dover to Exeter. Whether the perpetrator of the outrage was ever brought to justice is not known. Willix did not remain in Exeter long afterwards, but took up his residence in Salisbury, where he was taxed in 1650, and died March 23, 1651.
52. Thomas Wilson came to this country in June, 1633, with his wife and three sons ; Humphrey, Samuel and Joshua. He also had children born here : Deborah in August, 1634, and Lydia in November, 1636. His home was in Roxbury, and he had the misfortune to lose his house and goods by fire. Being in sympa- thy with Wheelwright he came with him to Exeter to reside, but subsequently made peace with the church which he had left. He was a signer of the Combination, and occupied the island at the falls and some lands on the eastern side of the river. In the first division of lands he received four acres and twenty-eight rods of marsh. He built the first grist-mill in the town. On the twentieth of October, 1642, on the resignation of Nicholas Needham as Ruler, he was elected his successor. Ile died in the summer of 1643, leaving a will in which he made provision for his widow and children. The former was married the next year to John Legat. A difference arose about the estate between her and her oldest son, Humphrey, which was by the General Court referred to the County Court at Ipswich. Humphrey Wilson continued an inhabi- tant of the town through life, probably, and his descendants, though none bearing his name, are still living in Exeter.
The foregoing are the names of all the men who are known to have been inhabitants of Exeter in the first two years of its exist- ence. William Furber and John Underhill, though temporarily in the place at the times of the execution of the Indian deeds, which they respectively witnessed, were residents of Dover, and never of Exeter.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
EARLY ENACTMENTS.
The third year opened upon Exeter, in the spring of 1640, with a population of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred souls, including women and children, living under a practicable and regu- lar system of government. The municipal regulations adopted by the inhabitants from time to time, as long as they ruled them- selves, were generally marked by equity and good sense. A few examples are given :
It was enacted that any inhabitant might sell to the Indians such merchandise as he pleased, except weapons, ammunition and strong waters. The charges of the town were to be ratably pro- portioned among the inhabitants, owners of land, and cattle, and privileges. In conformity with the professions of the Combina- tion, treason, " reviling his majesty the Lord's anointed " and the like, were made punishable capitally. Judicious regulations were prescribed in regard to the purchase of lots, the felling of timber, and the attendance of the inhabitants at town meetings. The miller's toll was limited ; all creeks were declared free for fishing ; fences were ordered to be erected, and highways of three rods in width to be made. Rules were laid down to prevent injury to growing crops by swine. The control of the lands by the town was jealously preserved ; and no inhabitant was permitted to buy for his own use from the Indians any of the planting ground reserved for their cultivation ; but must tender it first to the town.
It would appear that even in this early stage of the settlement, slander was not wholly unknown, and an order was passed that any persons spreading abroad any accusation which could not be proved by the mouth of two or three witnesses, should be liable to the court's censure. Thus early too was enacted the law that no foreigners should be employed to work in the town, if inhabitants would do the work as cheaply and as well. Of course it was not natives of foreign countries that were here referred to, but any persons not citizens of Exeter. This disinclination to encourage " foreigners " to come into the town, was exhibited repeatedly by similar orders, at later dates ; and, indeed, is thought by some not to have entirely died ont yet !
These regulations appear to have been serupnlonsly carried into effect, without distinétion of persons.
- The first clerk of the town and court was Edward . Rishworth. The second was John Legat, who had been a resident and school-
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
master of Hampton in 1640, and afterwards filled the same impor- tant station in Exeter. He wrote a handsome hand, and was well informed and business-like, and for several years took a somewhat prominent part in the affairs of the town. He received repeated grants of lands and privileges, and was one of the townsmen from 1647 to 1649. It was probably in the latter year that he removed back to Hampton. There he was living in 1664. His name is not extinct in the vicinity.
By the spring of 1641 a " band of soldiers " had been organized in Exeter, and the freemen elected Richard Bulgar lieutenant and Thomas Wardell sergeant; and their choice was approved by Ruler Needham.
On the twenty-sixth of October, 1642, Nicholas Needham re- signed his office of Ruler, and Thomas Wilson, being chosen in his place, gave his approbation to all the laws and orders which had been made during Ruler Needham's administration.
The grain crop of the season of 1642 was for some reason a very scanty one, and by the succeeding spring the poorer class of inhabitants began to suffer from scarcity of food. The majority of the town made no scruple in applying the doctrine of " eminent domain " to the case. On May 6, 1643, they appointed a commit- tee of discreet and judicious citizens, and authorized them to search the houses, and take therefrom any corn not needed by the owners, and dispose of the same to such poor people as stood most in need of it, for such pay as they could make ; the owners, how- ever, to be compensated at market rates ; an arbitrary measure, but one entirely justifiable under the peculiar circumstances.
Meadow or marsh lands were considered specially desirable by the owners of cattle, as no other mowing ground had yet been res- cued from the forest. Patches of this natural grass land were found by explorers here and there, on the margins of streams ; and it was ordered, August 21, 1643, that any inhabitant who should discover any piece of marsh land of less than twenty acres, should be at liberty to enjoy it as his own ; if above twenty aeres, it was to be at the disposal of the town, except that the finder was to be entitled to a double proportion of it.
At a town court held September 5, 1643, Christopher Lawson was put under recognizance to answer to the charge of extortion "at the next Court to be holden for Exeter either here or else- where." This language indicates an understanding that the town government was about to be merged in an authority of a wider
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
sweep, which we shall see was soon accomplished. One of the last acts of the town court was to fill up the measure of justice to Thomas Biggs, who was found guilty of sundry petty larcenies, by adjudging him to make ample restitution to the sufferers, and also to be whipped six stripes. It is satisfactory to know that this punishment was very likely the making of the young culprit, for he became a useful citizen, and was repeatedly elected to posts of responsibility in the town, in after years.
The records of the town, during the period of its self-govern- ment, contain many particulars of interest that could not well be included in this chapter ; and for the satisfaction of the curious, it has been thought expedient to print them entire in the original language and orthography, in the appendix (II).
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CHAPTER II.
EXETER UNDER THE MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNMENT.
BY the spring of 1643 all the New Hampshire plantations, except Exeter, were under the sway of Massachusetts. Hampton had orignally been settled from that colony ; Dover and Portsmouth had been induced to submit themselves to her rule, partly by her claim that they fell within her patent, but more, perhaps, by the favorable terms which she held out to them. That church-mem- bership was a prerequisite to the privilege of voting in civil affairs, was a cardinal doctrine in Massachusetts. This was now surren- dlered, and the citizens of the New Hampshire towns were to be allowed the elective franchise without reference to that qualifica- tion ; a proof of the price which the Bay Puritans were ready to pay, to purchase an extension of their jurisdiction.
Exeter was the last to yield. A large part of her inhabitants felt that they had been treated with harshness and injustice by the authorities of Massachusetts, and some of them utterly refused to submit again to her dominion but quitted the place to avoid it. A petition, however, was forwarded in May, 1643, to the Massa- chusetts General Court, that Exeter might be received within their jurisdiction. It was subscribed by Thomas Rashleigh, Richard Bulgar, William Wenborne, Thomas Wardell, Samuel Walker, Christopher Lawson, John Legat, Henry Roby, Thomas Biggs, William Cole, Thomas Pettit, Robert Smith, John Cram, Nathan- iel Boulter, Robert Seward, Abraham Drake and William Moore. Eleven of these were signers of the Combination. The petition itself has been destroyed, and we can only infer its contents from the reception it met with. It could not have been an uncondi- tional surrender to Massachusetts, but must have stipulated for some terms which her rulers were unwilling to grant. The Gen- eral Court answered curtly, that " as Exeter fell within the Massa- chusetts patent, they took it ill that the petitioners should capit- nlate with them." In other words the Exeter people must accept such conditions as Massachusetts chose to impose.
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
Immediately afterwards a second petition was forwarded, couched in language sufficiently humble, as follows :
To the Right Worshipful the Governor, the Deputie Governor and the Magistrates, with the assistance and deputyes of this honored Courte at present assembled in Boston.
The humble petition of the inhabitants of Exeter, who do humbly request that this honored Court would be pleased to appoint the bounds of our Towne to be layed out to us, both towards Hampton & also downe the River on that side which Capt. Wiggons his farm is on, for he doth Clame all the land from the towne downwards, on the one side, & Hampton on the other side doth clame to be neere us, that we shall not be able to subsist to be a Towne except this honored Court be pleased to releave us. And we suppose that Capt. Wiggens his farme and a good way below it, may well be laid within our Township if this honored Court so please.
Also we do humbly crave that the Court would be pleased to grant that we may still peaceably enjoy thouse small quantities of meddows, which are at Lamperell river that Dover men now seeme to lay clame to, notwithstanding they know we long since purchased them & allso quietly possest them with their consent.
Likewise we do humbly request that this honored Court would be pleased to establish three men among us to put an Ishew to small differences amongst us, & one to be a Clarke of the writes, that so we might not be so troblesom to the Courts for every small matter. The three men which we desire the ending of Controver- sies are Anthony Stanean, Samuel Greenffield & James Wall & we do desire that John Legat may be the Clarke of the writes. Thus leaving our Petition to your Judicious Consideration & your- selves to the Lord, we rest and remaine ever ready to do you our best service.
Samuel Greenfield *
Henry Roby
Anthony Stanyan
Richard Carter
William M[oore]
Thomas Wight Nathaniel Boulter John Tedd * Robert Hethersay John Legat Abraham Drake
James Wall
Humphrey Willson
Ralph Hall John Bursley *
Francis Swain
Thomas Jones *
John Davis
Balthazer Willix
Nicholas Swain Thomas King *
John Smart
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
Of these twenty-two subscribers only four had set their hands to the Combination, and not one of them was in any way connected with the Antinomian dissensions of 1637.
This petition bore date May 12 [1643], and apparently was pre- sented near the close of the current session of the General Court. The printed records make no mention of it then ; but an indorse- ment upon the petition shows that both branches of the Legislature acceded to it.
On the seventh of the following September the General Court formally received Exeter within the Massachusetts government and assigned it to the newly formed county of Norfolk. But it is a curious fact that in the appointment of permanent town officers the nominees of the accepted petition were rejected, and signers of the rejected petition and of the Combination were preferred. William Wenborne was appointed clerk of the writs, and William Wenborne, Robert Smith and Thomas Wardell were made magis- trates to decide small canses. Massachusetts knew how to con- ciliate as well as to coerce.
THE CONDITIONS OF ANNEXATION.
The terms on which Exeter was admitted were substantially those accorded to the other New Hampshire towns : namely, " the same order, and way of administration of justice and way of keep- ing courts, as is established at Ipswich and Salem ;" exemption from " all public charges other than those that shall arise for or from among [the people] themselves, or from any occasion or course that may be taken to procure their own proper good or benefit ;" and the enjoyment of " all such lawful liberties of fish- ing, planting, felling timber as formerly they have enjoyed in the said [Pascataqua] river." The town was to send no delegate to the General Court, but this was no hardship, as the inhabitants could ill afford the expense which would thereby fall upon them, and their apparent need of a representative in the Legislature was small.
At first it was ordered that Exeter causes at law should be tried at Ipswich ; afterwards at the courts held in one of three or four towns (not including Exeter) in the county of Norfolk. There ample opportunities were afforded to the inhabitants for settling all litigated questions above the jurisdiction of the town magis- trates ; and towns were compelled by presentments of the grand
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
jury to keep their meeting-houses, watch-houses, stocks, roads and bridges in good and serviceable order ; while the General Court exercised a watchful and paternal care over their ecclesiastical and municipal concerns.
The government of Exeter was of course modified, to conform to the usages of Massachusetts. Three townsmen were chosen, Richard Bulgar, Samuel Greenfield and Christopher Lawson, whose duties approximated those of selectmen of the present day. By a vote of the town, April 8, 1644, they were empowered to "make town rates; to distrain for all town debts ; to pay the town's debts out of the town's treasury, or to make rates for it ; to look to the execution of all town orders ; to grant and lay out lots, provided they be not above twenty aeres ; to receive into the town as inhabitants, or to keep out, such as they in their wisdom think meet."
TIIE FISHIERY.
The fishery furnished a very important article of subsistence to the early inhabitants ; indeed, for the first few seasons, before the land had been brought fairly under cultivation, it must have been well nigh indispensable. The river, above and below the falls, abounded in fish of various kinds, and the salmon, we learn from tradition, were especially plentiful. Still we can hardly give credence to the often repeated tale that the ancient indentures of apprenticeship in Exeter used to contain a proviso that the apprentices should not be compelled to eat salmon more than twice a week ! No instrument containing such a clause has ever been found ; and the story has been told of half a score of towns in England, and was, undoubtedly, an importation from that country.
The salmon, for the excellent reason that they can no longer pass the dams to breed their young in the fresh water above, have long deserted the Squamscot; but the alewives still frequent the river, though probably not in such profusion as formerly. At first the latter were chiefly used as manure for the cultivated lands ; and thus rendered necessary the stringent regulations that were adopted to prevent swine and dogs from feeding upon them.
As early as the second of November, 1640, it was ordered by the town that " all creeks are free ; only he that makes a weir therein is to have in the first place the benefit of it in fishing time ; and so others may set a weir either above or below, and enjoy the same liberty."
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
On the twenty-eighth of June, 1644, the town granted to Christo- pher Lawson and his heirs " the right to set a weir in the river of Exeter " upon certain conditions, one of which was that the inhabi- tants should be supplied with alewives to fish their land, at three shillings a thousand, in such pay as the town afforded ; and another that he should make flood gates " so that barks, boats and canoes may come to the town." The inhabitants reserved to themselves liberty to fish in the falls and elsewhere in the river, but not to set any other weir so as to forestall Lawson's. This monopoly, though formidable in sound, being extended to Lawson's " heirs forever," enjoyed but a brief span of life ; for the very next year, April 26, 1645, the town resumed the control of the fishery by passing the following vote :
All the creeks for fishing this year are divided into three divi- sions by lot, eleven or twelve persons to a division according as the lots lie, as follow : the first division of lots, from the mill downward, are to have Rawbone's creek and the creek above it ; the second division from the mill downward, are to have all the creeks on the mill side of the river ; and the third division are to have all the creeks on the town side of the river, except Mr. Needham's creek and the great cove creek, which two creeks lie common.
This vote casts a little light upon the topography of the town at that early date. The mill (there was then but one) was Wilson's, on the eastern side of the island at the falls. The " mill side " of the river was the opposite from the " town side " which was, of course, the western. This indicates that, from the very begin- ning, the main settlement was on the western side of the river; though tradition asserts that two or three settlers planted their houses on the opposite bank, between what is now styled Powder- house point and Wheelwright's creek ; and depressions in the soil, which may have been cellars, go to confirm the tale.
The people of Exeter were not long in discovering that the Massachusetts control was to be no sinecure, but was to extend sometimes to their pettiest concerns. When, in 1644, they chose Samuel Greenfield to " keep a sufficient ordinary, and draw wine and strong waters, and trade with the Indians," the General Court " denied him to draw wine until they had a more full and satisfac- tory information of him." And when the town "took the minds of the trained bands for the re-establishing Richard Bullgar in his former office of lieutenant," the General Court "thought it not meet that he should be their lieutenant until further information
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IIISTORY OF EXETER.
be given to this Court of said Bullgar ; in the meantime he to exer- cise the trainband as their sergeant."
The first three or four years after Exeter submitted to Massa- chusetts appear to have formed a critical period in the history of the town. The departure of Wheelwright and other leading inhabi- tants was a heavy draft upon the little colony, not to be counter- balanced by the ordinary recruits of a frontier settlement. Relig- ious differences had crept in among the inhabitants to such an extent that the aid of the General Court was evoked to compose them. A committee of ministers was accordingly appointed to examine the ground of the complaints, and to do their best to bring about harmony. At the same time the town prayed to be excused from the payment of taxes - " rate and head money,"- no doubt upon the plea of their poverty and unsettled condition. The General Court, willing as they were to afford relief in spirit- ual matters, were not inclined, however, to remit their pecuniary obligations, but " conceived meet that they forthwith send in their rates to the Treasurer."
Two events concurred, however, within the next three years, to give renewed strength to the town, and tide it over the threatening period, to stability and prosperity. The first was the settlement in Exeter of Edward Gilman in 1647, and his relatives shortly afterwards, men of property and energy, who set up saw-mills and gave an impulse to the business of the place. The second was the engagement in 1650 of the Rev. Samuel Dudley as the minister of the town, who united the previously discordant religious elements, and became in every respect one of the most useful citizens.
THE CARE OF THE CATTLE.
On the first of May, 1649, the selectmen, in behalf of the town, entered into a written agreement with Gowen Wilson to drive, and take the oversight of the cows and other cattle of the inhabitants, for the season. As the transaction illustrates the customs of the times, the instrument is here given in full :
It is covenanted and agreed upon between Gowen Wilson and the town of Exeter that the said Gowen is to keep all the neat herd of the town of Exeter from one-year-old and upward (work- ing cattle excepted) from the day of the date hereof until three weeks after Michaelmas, to go every morning through the town at 4
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
the usual time that cow-herds go forth, and so to have the cattle turned into the town street and the said Gowen to drive them into the woods, and all the day to keep them in such convenient places as may be best for their feeding, on both sides of the river, and at night to bring them home again, at the like usual time of herds coming home ; in like manner to bring them through the street from the first house to the last who have cattle in that street, and to seek up or cause to be sought any that shall be lost from before him, and in like manner to keep them every third Sabbath day.
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