USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 8
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The town-house was finished in 1732 and stood nearly opposite the meeting-house. It was flanked by the stocks and whipping- post, erected in the most public position as a terror to evil-doers. The "town-house rates " amounted to two hundred and forty pounds, four shillings and eight pence .*
THE MAST-TREE RIOT OF 1734.
The lumbermen of the New Hampshire frontiers were not men troubled with nice scruples. They regarded the legal claim of the king to the most valuable trees on their lands, as one which it was not morally wrong for them to evade or to transgress. And this feeling was intensified by the domineering conduct towards them of the surveyor general and his agents. Consequently there were not a few of them who had no hesitation in taking the risk incurred by despoiling the royal navy of its timber, and the surveyor gen- eral of his perquisites. If they were detected and convicted, they were willing to pay the penalty ; if they escaped discovery they slept none the less soundly.
Complaints had been repeatedly made in regard to some of the people of Exeter that they paid small regard to the laws on this subject. As early as 1708 John Bridger, then surveyor general, addressed a letter to Peter Coffin and Theophilus Dudley, justices of the peace in Exeter, charging that several mast trees which were reserved for her majesty's navy, had been felled, cnt and destroyed by Jeremiah Gilman, James Gilman, David Gilman, Samuel Piper, John Downer, Moses Pike and Jonathan Smith ; and requiring said Coffin and Dudley to do them justice according
* On March 26, 1733, the town excused the tax-payers of the new parish of New- market from an assessment of twenty-five pounds for this object, " in considera- tion that they had lately been at great expense in building a meeting-house and settling a minister there."
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to law. What came of the application is not known, but it is questionable whether the surveyor general got much satisfaction.
His successor in office, David Dunbar, who had been a soldier and was arbitrary, needy and litigious, learning or suspecting that mast trees had been cut in Exeter, in the early part of the year 1734, visited a saw-mill at the Copyhold, as it was and still is called, in that part of Exeter which is now Brentwood, to see if he could discover any lumber there, from trees of the size reserved for the navy. The people employed in the woods around were of course at onee apprised of his presence, and divined his purpose ; but having very little respect for dignitaries of his sort, made the welkin ring with their shouts and cries and with the discharges of small arms. The surveyor general, fearing that if he persisted in his investigations, they would proceed to aets of violence, con- eluded that discretion was the better part of valor, and retreated. But he was satisfied that the law had been violated, and that an inspection of the piles of lumber about the mill would prove it. On his return to Portsmouth, therefore, he employed ten men to proceed in a sail boat to Exeter, and thenee to go to the Copyhold mill, to set the king's broad arrow on any lumber they might find there, which gave evidence of being cut from mast trees.
These men landed at the village of Exeter in the evening of April 23, 1634, and proceeded to the public house of Samuel Gilman on Water street, the same house afterwards occupied by Oliver Peabody, and still standing, though much altered. There they passed the evening, in the fashion of the time. Meanwhile the fact of their arrival and the nature of their errand spread rapidly through the town. A number of the persons who were most aggrieved by the operations of the surveyor general, assem- bled at the public house kept by Zebulon Giddinge,* afterwards occupied by the family of the Rev. William F. Rowland, and also still standing, and there disguising themselves so as to resemble Indians, sallied forth, about thirty in number, to head off Dunbar's expedition.
What they did, we learn chiefly from the testimony of those whom they assailed, men neither by character nor by feeling likely to give a perfectly impartial account. But there seems little doubt that the quasi Indians seized upon several of Dunbar's party as they were about going to bed, and handled them pretty roughly,
* The orthography of this name has been modernized into Giddings.
17341
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hauling them down stairs and hustling them out of the door, at the same time uttering dire threats against them. They certainly frightened and dispersed the party, and scuttled their boat and destroyed the sails. The unlucky wights, who little expected such treatment, were fain to retrace their way to Portsmouth as best they could, bearing the marks of their adventure in the shape of torn clothes and bloody noses, if nothing worse.
The actors in this illegal proceeding were probably well known in Exeter, and included men who were by no means habitual law- breakers. Dunbar was furious at their demonstration. Holding the office of lieutenant governor as well as of surveyor general, he instantly summoned a meeting of the council, Belcher, the gover- nor, being at the time absent from the province. To them he represented that he believed the justices of the peace in Exeter had some knowledge of the affair, and proposed that they should be sent for and examined before the council, and that a proclama- tion should be issued, offering a reward for detecting the persons that were guilty of the offence. The council, however, were not prepared to sanction these proposals of the testy lieutenant gover- nor, but replied that in their opinion the examination of the matter appertained to the justices of the peace, and not to the council, and the issuing of a proclamation appertained to the governor ; and therefore they did not advise it without his order.
The governor did, indeed, issue a proclamation, but offered no reward, except the vague promise that "whosoever shall detect the offenders above mentioned, or any of them, shall receive all proper marks of the countenance and favor of this government." The governor and his lieutenant were not friends.
The baffled lientenant governor subsequently addressed a letter to Nicholas Gilman, John Gihnan and Bartholomew Thing, justices of the peace at Exeter, in which he demanded that some of them should go with Charles Gorwood, his assistant, to Copyhold mill, Black rock mill, upper and lower Tuckaway mills. Wadleigh's mill, the Book mill, Gilman's mill and Piscassie mill, all in Exeter, and the last two near Newmarket, and there oblige men to separate and mark for his majesty's use such white pine boards as they found sawn from mast trees. And in case of the non-compliance of said justices with the above order, he required them to hire or impress a man to go with said Gorwood for the purpose aforesaid.
The justices, after nearly a month's delay, replied that they had employed a man to go with Gorwood as desired ; but as to his
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demand that some of them should go, they could not, upon the most deliberate consideration, find any authority to support them in so doing. Thus Dunbar had to submit to a snubbing in every quarter.
The ludicrous phase of the affair is to be found in the testimony of Peter Greeley, who was Dunbar's particular assistant and henchman. He deposed that Simon Gilman of Exeter revealed to him in confidence that the people of Exeter had hired three Natick Indians to kill Dunbar, Theodore Atkinson, and himself (Greeley), and had supplied the Indians with a quart of rum each every day, " that they should not fail of their work :" and that the Indians, as soon as they had accomplished the deed, were to go at once to Natick, where they would not be discovered. Apparently it never dawned on Peter Greeley or his headstrong employer that Simon was " chaffing " them, and that the whole demonstrations, from Dunbar's visit at Copyhold mill to the riotous proceedings at Exeter, were simply intended to prevent the further interference of the surveyor general with the lumbermen, however they failed to respect the trees reserved for the use of his majesty's navy.
At the annual town meeting in March, 1738, Elisha Odlin was chosen town clerk in the place of Bartholomew Thing, who had held the office for several years before. So far as we can now discover, the change was made in consequence of the feeling that had arisen on the then engrossing question of the division of the town's common lands. For some cause, now unknown, Thing declined to deliver up the town books and records to his successor.
It may be that he had some show of right for withholding the records. Concealment of the public archives was no new thing in the history of the province, and it had taken place probably with very general approval. But in the present case the majority of the inhabitants were indignant at the late town clerk's conduct. A meeting of the town was called, and voted that the books should be removed out of Thing's hands and put into Odlin's ; that Jona- than Wadleigh, Edward Hall, John Robinson, John Odlin, Jr. and Zebulon Giddinge, should be a committee to prosecute Thing if he refused to deliver them, and that the selectmen should raise money to defray the charges of such prosecution. Nothing further is heard of the recalcitrant town clerk's scruples.
The town meeting of June 15, 1738, was held in the town-house, the first information which the record affords, of its completion.
It appears that the town was somewhat infested with wolves,
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even as late as 1742, for at the March meeting in that year a bounty of five pounds was voted " to any person of the first parish who should kill a grown wolf within said parish limits." At the first glance it does not appear why this offer should be confined to a single parish, unless indeed it referred to a "wolf in sheep's clothing." But when it is remembered that the inhabitants of the southwesterly part of the town had recently been set off into a separate parish, it is easy to see that the intention was to bind Exeter to pay the bounty, and to leave the new precinct of Brent- wood to act for itself. The reason of making the bounty so large, undoubtedly, was the depreciation of the paper money of the period.
In looking over the records of the town meetings we are often met by entries of adjournments for fifteen minutes, or for other brief periods. The cause of these little intermissions of business was ostensibly to allow the voters time for consultation, or the committees the opportunity to prepare their reports. But when . we remember the habits of the times, and that there were compara- tively few men who did not indulge in strong potations pretty regularly every day, we can see that another consideration was, perhaps, not without its weight. It was manifestly only fair that men should be allowed time to take their customary refreshment, without apprehension that some objectionable vote might be carried in their absence. An adjournment put all upon an equal footing,- in one sense, at least. It is proper to say, however, that in the matter of dram-drinking, Exeter was no worse, and probably no better, than all other places. Indeed, in after years, when the temperance reform arose, the town early took advanced ground in its favor. As indicative, however, of the universal use of strong liquors on all occasions, we find among the town accounts for 1722 these entries : " Expenses of town, rum and shuger 5/6 ; rum, raising the bell 1/ -; rum and shuger 2/6 ; same 10/ -; same 1/6." In the accounts for 1736 are found the following : "paid Capt. Samuel Gilman for drink given to those men that signed a deed for land in the way that led to drinkwater road 17/4," and " for 1 gall. rum and 2 lb. sugar and allspice for William Gay's (a town pauper's) funeral, 1 1. 5 s. 2 d." and in 1743, these : " for rum and sugar in proving the bounds of Kensington 17/9;" and " Benjamin Thing for rum to move the pound 10/ -. "
In the year 1746 the people of Newmarket and others presented a petition to the General Assembly for leave to erect a draw-
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bridge over the Squamscot river between Newmarket and Strat- ham. As early as the year 1700, a right of ferry had been granted there to Richard Hilton, which had been in use up to that time.
The convenience of a bridge to the people of the towns which had in the meantime grown up on the northwestern side of the river, who had to pass it in order to go to Portsmouth the seat of government, furnished a powerful argument to the petitioners. But Exeter feared that a bridge would cause injury to its business, and appointed Ezekiel Gilman, Daniel Gilman and Nicholas Perryman a committee to oppose the petition. They set out, in a lengthy remonstrance to the assembly, various reasons against the erection of a bridge ; the likelihood that it would prevent the ascent of the fish, especially the bass, which were represented as abundant ; the obstruction to the free passage up and down the river, of mast trees, rafts, gundalows and vessels, and the conse- quent injury to the navigation and ship-building interest of Exeter ; and, in fact, made the best of a rather weak case. But the Legis- lature passed a bill permitting the bridge to be built, under some restrictions. Various difficulties postponed the erection of it, and more legislation was found needful ; among other things a lottery was legalized in aid of the enterprise ; and it was not till a quarter of a century had elapsed that the bridge was fairly completed.
A DISORDERLY ELECTION.
The demeanor of the people of Exeter at town meetings in the earlier part of the present century, is said to have been in general a pattern of decorum. Every voter, for example, respectfully doffed his hat in passing the moderator to deposit his ballot. But it was not always so. At a meeting of the town held on the twenty-fifth of October, 1755, for the choice of representatives in the assembly, things were not conducted in this orderly fashion. The long contest over the question of incorporating a second parish had just ended in the triumph of the seceding members, who had procured an act of the assembly freeing them from all liability to the old parish ; and it is more than likely that some bitterness of feeling was the result. Peter Gilman and John Phillips, two prominent partisans of the new parish, were declared elected representatives. A remonstrance was presented to the assembly, against their being allowed to take seats, upon the ground of unfair practices in their election. A hearing was had
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thereon, at which Ephraim Robinson, a prominent member of the old parish, testified that " when the votes were numbered and the person declared to be chosen, the moderator was told the votes were not all brought in; to which he answered it was too late to bring in, then, for the person was chosen. Then there was a poll desired by seven persons or more, and it was denied. In voting for the second person, a number of persons declared they would not vote till the first vote was decided ; and in voting for the last person there was one vote changed after it was put into the hat, and some more was asked to be changed. And when the second person was declared to be chosen, there was a poll again demanded by seven persons or more, but not granted. The whole of the meeting was carried on with the greatest irregularity and confn- sion, after the moderator was chosen, that ever I see in any town meeting before."
The Legislature ordered the return to be set aside and a precept to be sent to the town for a new election ; at which Peter Gilman and Zebulon Giddinge were chosen.
For several succeeding years the attention of the people was much occupied with the French and Indian wars, which, though carried on at a distance, yet demanded new military organizations at home, every season. Exeter sent forth her annual quota of combatants, and was substantially the headquarters of one or more battalions, as will appear in the chapter devoted to military history.
The year 1758 was memorable for the prevalence in the town of that most dreaded scourge, the small-pox, a legacy, not improba- bly, of the camp. It made such inroads among the inhabitants that a town meeting was found needful, to give authority to the selectmen to take effectual measures for its eradication.
DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE STAMP ACT.
Scarcely had the welcome news of peace with France and her savage allies been proclaimed, before the determination of England to exact tribute from her American colonies was manifested, by the passage of the Stamp Act; which was rendered no more agreeable to the people of New Hampshire by the knowledge that it originated from the suggestion of one of her own sons, Mr. John Huske. There is no need to repeat here the oft told tale of the mingled sorrow and indignation with which this injudicious piece
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of legislation was universally received on this side of the water. The feeling of the citizens of Exeter was well expressed by the Rev. Daniel Rogers, pastor of the Second church, who wrote in his diary under date of November 1, 1765, the day when the law went into effect : " The infamous Stamp Act, abhorred by all the British Colonies, took place."
The fifth of the same month used in many places in New Eng- land to be observed as "pope's day," in commemoration of the discovery of Guy Fawkes's gunpowder plot. This year it was made the occasion of a display of popular feeling in Exeter against the Stamp Act. Three effigies, representing, according to the Rev. Mr. Rogers, the pope, the devil and a stamp master, but according to another eye witness, Lords North and Bute as two of the characters, were carried about the streets of the town, and finally taken across the river, to the front of where the jail after- wards stood, and there set fire to and burnt to ashes. We may safely assume that the exhibition was witnessed by the citizens, with abundant tokens of approbation.
The person appointed stamp-distributor for New Hampshire was constrained by the expressions of popular feeling to resign his office, and consequently no stamps ever got into use. This led to the opinion on the part of some persons, that proceedings in the courts of law could possess no validity, and to fears that universal license was to rule. But the substantial citizens of Exeter did not hesitate to array themselves against disorder. They entered into a written engagement for mutual protection and defence, which they subscribed and published, in the following terms :
Whereas many evil minded persons have, on account of the Stamp Act, concluded that all the laws of this province, and the execution of the same, are at an end ; and that crimes against the public peace and private property may be committed with impunity, which opinion will render it unsafe for the peace officers to exert themselves in the execution of their offices :
Therefore we the subscribers, inhabitants of the town of Exeter, to prevent, as much as in us lies, the evils naturally consequent upon such an opinion, and for preserving the peace and good order of the community and of our own properties, do hereby combine, promise and engage to assemble ourselves together when and where need requires, in aid of the peace officers, and to stand by and defend them in the execution of their respective offices,
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and each other in our respective properties and persons, to the utmost, against all disturbers of the public peace and invaders of private property.
Witness our hands at Exeter this 15th day of November A. D. 1765.
John Bellamy
John Ward Gilman
Thomas Parsons
Theodore Carleton
Josiah Gilman
Benjamin Philbrick
Eliphalet Coffin
Josiah Gilman ter. John Phillips
Peter Coffin
Nieholas Gilman
John Dudley
Peter Gilman
Enoch Poor John Rice Charles Rundlet
Noah Emery
Samuel Gilman
Nathaniel Folsom
Samuel Gilman 4th John Hall
Theophilus Smith
Trueworthy Folsom
John Lamson
Daniel Tilton
John Giddinge
John Nelson
Jacob Tilton *
Bartholomew Gilman
Thomas Odiorne
Daniel Gilman
Winthrop Odlin
PATRIOTIC ACTION OF THE TOWN IN 1770.
The following year the Stamp Act was repealed, to the great joy and gratitude of the colonists. But England insisted on her claim of right to tax the Americans without their consent, and imposed a duty on the importation of tea and a few other articles into the provinces. This renewed the irritation among the col- onists, which, however, did not fairly break forth into open expres- sion until the intelligence of the "Boston massacre," March 5, 1770. Twelve days after that tragical occurrence a meeting of the town of Exeter was called, upon a petition of a number of the inhabitants, to act upon the following articles :
1. To see whether the town will pass any vote for the encour- agement of the produce and manufactures of this country.
2. To see whether they will pass any vote or votes to discoun- tenance the importation and consumption of unnecessary and superfluous foreign articles ; and very particularly, as the duty on TEA furnishes so enormous a sum towards the support of a set of miscreants who devour the fruits of our honest industry, and [are] justly deemed the bane of this country, to see if the town will pass a vote not to make use of any foreign tea, and use their influence to prevent the consumption of it in their respective families, till the duty is taken off.
* Two copies of this agreement have been found, differing slightly in the names of the subscribers. All the names upon each are hore retained.
Joseph Swasey
Samuel Folsom
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3. To see if the town will inquire, or choose a committee to inquire, of the representatives of this town, what legal and consti- tutional measures have been taken by the General Assembly of this province for the redress of our grievances, in order to know what, or whether any measures may now be advisable to be pro- moted by them, and if any measures be advisable, to give their Representatives [instructions] to be by them observed, at their next session.
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At the meeting of the town, held on the twenty-fifth of March, 1770, the vote for the encouragement of the produce and mann- factures of this country passed in the affirmative, as did also that to discountenance the importation and consumption of unnecessary and superfluous articles. The town also resolved not to make use of any foreign tea, but to exert their influence to prevent the con- sumption of it in their respective families, till the duty should be taken off. Upon the article relative to the inquiry and instruction of the representatives, a committee was appointed, consisting of Nathaniel Folsom, John Phillips, Nicholas Gilman, Samuel Folsom, Joseph Gilman and Enoch Poor.
The meeting was then adjourned to the succeeding second of April, on which day the committee made their report, at consider- able length. The substance of it was, that the General Assembly of this province had authorized a letter to be prepared and signed by their Speaker, addressed to their agent at the Court of Great Britain, to be presented to the king, expressing their hearty con- currence with the patriotic sentiments contained in a communica- tion received from the house of Burgesses of Virginia; that the proposed letter was drafted and sent to the Speaker (Peter Gilman) at Exeter, for his signature, but as it did not express his personal views, he failed to subscribe it, wherefore it was not transmitted to England seasonably to co-operate with the petitions from the other colonies ; and " that our American brethren may not construe it as deserting their interest upon any ungenerous separate views, we therefore give it as our instruction to the rep- resentatives of this town to use their influence in the House to promote a more public demonstration of their being governed by those noble, patriotic and loyal principles in which they have so happily harmonized with the other provinces, and, particularly, that an address to his majesty for redress of grievances, may (though late) be forthwith transmitted without further loss of time."
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The representatives were also instructed to expedite the act for dividing the province into counties.
The report of the committee was adopted by the town.
The facts of the case were that Peter Gilman, who was then, perhaps, the foremost citizen of the town, and had occupied the Speaker's chair in the General Assembly for a number of years, was opposed to measures looking to resistance to the Crown of England. He had received honors and emoluments from the royal governors, had repeatedly taken the oath of allegiance in his official capacity, had nothing to gain, but much that might be lost by a change of government, and had arrived at a period of life when a man becomes conservative and averse to radical measures. It is only fair to say, however, that in compliance with the evident will of his constituents he soon after set his signature to the letter referred to ; and though it was well known that he disapproved of the measures of the Revolution, yet he remained at his home, nnmo- lested, throughout the war that followed, and apparently retained the respect of his townsmen, though they, with scarce an excep- tion, were whigs of the most determined character. In 1771, when he ceased to be a member of the assembly, the town gave him a vote of thanks for his past services as their representative.
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