USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Rye > History of the town of Rye, New Hampshire, from its discovery and settlement to December 31, 1903 > Part 17
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The promoters of the second special meeting were evidently in doubt themselves as to what effect the action taken by that meeting might have, for early the next year a petition as fol- lows, signed by Thomas J. Parsons, George G. Lougee, and one hundred and thirty-four other legal voters of the town, was presented to the selectmen :
"Being informed by the administrator that the late Oliver Sleeper has given and bequeathed to the Town of Rye about $8,000 for the purpose of founding a Public Library, and being in favor of the acceptance of said legacy by the town and believing that said bequest would be of great and lasting bene-
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fit to the whole people and tend to the prosperity of the town, we, the subscribers respectfully request that you will insert in your warrant for the annual town meeting to be holden on the second Tuesday of March, 1884, an article 'To see if the Town will vote to accept the legacy bequeathed by the will of the late Oliver Sleeper ; also to see if the Town will vote to reconsider and rescind all votes taken at any previous meeting not favor- able to the acceptance of said legacy.' " The article was in- serted in the warrant as requested, and at the town meeting it was voted, by a majority of about two to one, "that the Town accept the legacy bequeathed by the late Oliver Sleeper, and rescind all votes taken at any previous meeting not favorable to the acceptance of said legacy ;" and at the same meeting it was also voted " that the Moderator appoint twelve persons to act as trustees of the Sleeper legacy."
Of course the executor of the will refused to pay over the legacy while there was any doubt as to who was entitled to receive it, and measures were taken to have the question decided by the courts ; and at the town meeting in March, 1885, it was voted "that the twelve persons appointed by the Town at the annual meeting in March, 1884, to act as trustees of the Sleeper legacy, be authorized to act for the year ensuing ; and that they make a formal request upon the Christian and Congregational societies to relinquish their claim to the said Sleeper legacy." The final action taken by the town, according to the records, was at the March meeting in 1886, when it was voted " that the committee on the Sleeper legacy be instructed to enquire whether the counsel employed by said committee has presented the claims of the Town before the Court."
It was about ten years from the time of the first town meet- ing to act in the matter before the dispute was settled by the court, the decision being that the legacy, which in the mean- time had been much reduced by the litigation, belonged to the two churches, which together received about $3,000. All the benefit the town ever received from the legacy was three or four hundred dollars as costs of court, which it had to pay.
Every year since the movement for providing state-aided
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town libraries began, an article has been inserted in the election, warrant for Rye to take the sense of the voters on the question " Is it expedient to establish a town library?" and every year the town meeting has voted "No" by a large majority.
SOME STORIES.
Mr. Joseph Seavey said Joseph Langdon had a horse that had good foreparts, and when he came up from the eastward he saw Mr. Banfield's horse, and wanted to get it to carry down East; that he rode there with the intention of exchanging horses, and intended to keep the forward part of his own horse towards Mr. Banfield ; that at the door he was invited in, but declined. The old gentleman called for some cider, which was brought out in a silver tankard by the daughter. In the twink- ling of an eye the swapping of horses was forgotten. He, knowing himself rather poor, dare not apply to the old gentle- man for his daughter, but went down East to scrape something together. He then came back and became acquainted with the daughter, and eventually married her.
During Walter Barefoot's administration in 1684, the gover- nor on a certain occasion struck Samuel Seavey, and some one remarked that it was well for the governor that Seavey's mother was not there, for if she had been there would have been bloody work for him. Samuel's mother must therefore have been, if not a virago, a pretty spunky damsel.
Joshua Rand owned the land formerly belonging to Eliza Ann Walker, and lived there. `He met Minister Morrill one Sunday morning, when the latter was coming from the Isles of Shoals with a bundle of fish, and Rand took him to due for it. Morrill asked him to come to meeting and he would give him a bone to pick. He preached from the words, "Bear ye one another's burdens."
Old Betty Smith once went over to Esquire Peter Jenness' and wanted currants to make an apple dumpling, because her father and mother and Mrs. Mace were coming to see her. It must be remarked that her own mother was dead and her father had married Mrs. Mace.
16
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Esquire Peter Jenness was very absent minded or forgetful. He went to Portsmouth and went into Samuel Elkins' store and asked if he would buy a quarter of veal. Elkins said yes. Jen- ness went out to his carriage to get it, but came back and said, "La, I left it hanging up in the porch." He was known to leave his vests in the field when he went out to work until he had seven out there. When hauling out manure he had at every load to get a new " tail board," never thinking to put it in the cart when unloaded.
It has always been said Master Richard Locke, when out fishing on what was known as half-way ledge, saw a man on horseback come to James Goss'. He said the horse was white and told who the man was. It proved to be right. He was a man from up country. It is also said one Downs could see the windows in a house at the Shoals from Sandy Beach, and told how many panes of glass there were in it. Old Master Locke also saw a boat coming around York Nubble, and told what boat it was and who were in it. It was some of our people who had been down East (Penaquid) fishing. They must have been very peculiar days to see so far.
Dr. Joseph Parsons on going after Richard Lang, Esq., met Lang who was going after the doctor for the laying in of his wife. The doctor spoke first and said, " You are just the man I was going after to help me to-day." The Esquire said, " I am engaged this forenoon, but if you will help me this forenoon, I will help you this afternoon," which the doctor agreed to. On arriving at Lang's house the doctor inquired what he was going about, and Lang replied, " You go into the house and they will tell you what they want you to do." The joke was in the dif- ference of fees for services.
Deacon John Jenness was sitting on the seat which let down the pew door, and getting drowsy and by nodding and moving loosened the hook on the door in the old meeting house and fell out into the aisle during the service. Some one shouted out, " Take care there," which created quite a commotion, and probably awakened other sleepy members.
Minister Parsons missed hay from his barn and suspecting
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old George Rand, who kept two cows with little or no hay, watched with a dark or concealed lantern. Seeing Rand going with a back load he slipped up behind and touched the light to it and stepped back and concealed himself. The next day old Rand came up to him and said he would not steal any more of his hay, as the Lord sent fire from heaven and burnt it up.
It is said Dowrst Foss was sick after moving to Rochester. One of his religious neighbors called on him and inquiring as to the state of his mind, etc., Dowrst replied, " I have nothing to do with my soul, I pay Dr. Haven [the minister] for taking care of that." The above Foss lived near the Center and had considerable real estate on the new Portsmouth road and was a son of Wallis Foss and Mary Dowrst.
Mr. Daniel Goss bought the Josiah Webster place and wanted to move the grave, and his widow, Sarah Webster, remarked she thought he (her dead husband) would not find any fault as it was a much pleasanter place where Goss proposed putting the remains. Webster lived on the Orin Drake place. Web- ster's wife, Mary Locke, was born in Fern. avenue.
" An act for the Selectmen of each town & Parish & District of this Province to bring in a list of the Poles and Inventory of the Estates belonging to their Respective towns & districts- Negro, Indian & Mulatoe Slaves at £20 each, Women Slaves excluded, and the Value of Ye Trades. Ryes part be ten Pounds & New Castle Island & fifteen, to make New Castle £25. Poles be vallued at £25 each, all tillage, meadow & marsh land six Shillings pr acre."
XIII. The Isles of Shoals.
By an act of the legislature, approved July 20, 1876, the town of Gosport was annexed to Rye. The territory of Gos- port consisted of all that portion of the Isles of Shoals group situated within the boundaries of the state of New Hampshire ; its transfer to Rye was not asked by this town, nor by the in- habitants of Gosport; the transfer added but little to the taxable valuation of Rye, and nothing at all to its voting list or popula- tion.
But though Gosport had ceased to exist as a town, except in name, before its legal existence was terminated by the legislature, there was a time when it was a place of importance, and for some 250 years the fisheries were extensively pursued there.
It is history that all through the sixteenth century the British, Hollanders, French, and Portuguese sent vessels across the Atlantic to fish in the waters along the coast of what are now the New England states and the British maritime provinces; and it is inconceivable that all that time the Isles of Shoals, with their favorable location for fishing and their excellent facilities for curing the product, was neglected by all these adventurers. But it is not until the following century that any recorded men- tion of them has been found.
Gosnold must have sighted them in 1602, and Martin Pring in 1603; but it is not until the voyages of Champlain along this coast in 1605-'06 that a distinct and unmistakable reference to them is to be found in the chronicles. Capt. John Smith, who in 1614 explored and charted this coast as far south as Cape Cod, and named the country New England, in his " Description of New England " says that " Among the re-
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markablest Isles and mountains for landmarks are Smith's Isles, a heape together, none neare them, against Accominticus ;" and later he describes the islands as " a many of barren rocks, the most overgrown with such shrubs and sharp whins you can hardly pass them, without either grass or wood, but three or four short shrubby old cedars."
Capt. Christopher Levett, in his " Voyage Into New England, 1623-24," says, "The first place I set my foot upon in New England was the Isles of Shoulds, being islands in the sea about two leagues from the main. Upon these islands I neither could see one good timber tree, nor so much ground as to make a garden. The place is found to be a good fishing place for six ships, but more cannot well be there, for want of convenient stage room, as this year's experience hath proved." Shortly af- terward he crossed over to the plantation just began by David Thomson at Odiorne's Point (called " Pannaway " by Levett in his narrative), the first settlement on the main land of New Hampshire. Levett in his account informs us that the " fishing ships" he speaks of carried about fifty men each. It was the custom in the fisheries, in those days, for about one third of the company to stop on shore to cure the fish caught while the other two thirds were cruising in their boats catching more; of course the shore men had to have habitations of some kind, so Levett's story makes it apparent that at the very time David Thomson and his handful of companions were building the first permanent white man's dwelling in New Hampshire at Odiorne's Point, the Isles of Shoals had a population of about six hun- dred, of whom about two hundred lived on shore. But the men at the Shoals were not there with any idea of permanently remaining ; they were not settlers, but fishermen ; and it is not probable that the large party there at the time of Levett's visit and of Thomson's settlement of New Hampshire was the first one to so utilize the islands, although it was the first one to secure mention in the chronicles of the time.
After the time of Levett's visit the islands rapidly advanced in importance as a business and commercial centre. The ex- tensive fishing operations continued, and in addition, as other
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settlements were made along the coast, a large magazine or storehouse was established there, and the island became a re- ceiving depot for the fish and furs from other localities, for shipment to England, and for the reception of goods for barter- ing with the Indians, clothing, rum, gunpowder and other necessaries of pioneer life for distribution to the other settle- ments. So valuable had the islands become at the time that Mason and Gorges made their final division of territory in 1635, Mason taking New Hampshire and Gorges taking Maine, that neither cared to surrender his entire interest in them to the other, and the group was divided between them precisely on the line of division that exists to-day, Gorges taking the northerly half to the province of Maine, and Mason annexing the southerly half to the province of New Hampshire. This accounts for the strange division of this cluster of barren rocks between two states, a matter which has puzzled a great many people to account for.
After the dissolution of the Laconia company and the separa- tion of Mason and Gorges, the Shoals continued to prosper. Many persons settled there, many dwellings were built, and the resident population ran up to about 600 souls ; " they had a meeting house on Hog island, a court house on Haley's island, and a seminary of such repute that even gentlemen from some of the towns on the sea-coast sent their sons here for literary instruction." [Williamson's History of Maine.] The meeting house is said to have been of brick; the dwellings of the more substantial residents were comfortable and of good size, the furniture as ample as then known in New England. An ordi- nary, or tavern, was kept on Smuttynose, a bowling alley on Hog island, and ale houses abounded. [York County Records.] The estates of the leading men at the islands were at this time among the largest in New England.
For the first fifty years the population of the islands was located mostly on the northerly or Gorges portion, although Star island had a few inhabitants. On the southerly slope of Hog island (now Appledore) was a considerable village, and the traces of cellar and garden walls to the number of seventy
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or eighty can still be made out there. On Smuttynose were the dwellings and holdings of the most prominent and wealthy residents. Why the Mason portion of the islands should have attracted so few settlers during this period is not explained.
In 1652 the islands came under the domination of the Mas- sachusetts Bay colony, and the following year about twenty of the principal inhabitants petitioned the Massachusetts general court for the erection of the islands into a township. The general court granted the islanders "liberty to determine all civil actions, where either or both parties are inhabitants, to the amount of ten pounds," but refused to create the island town- ship asked for. In 1659 a general petition of all the inhabi- tants for the creation of a township was addressed to the Massa- chusett's authorities, but again a refusal was returned ; but two years later, in 1661, the petition was renewed, with the result that the general court decided, May 22, 1661, that " ffor the better setling of order in the Isles of Shoals, It is ordered by this Court that hence forward the whole Islands apperteining thereunto wch doe lye partly in the County of York & the other parte in the Jurisdiction of Dover & Portsmouth shall be re- puted & hereby allowed to be a Towneship called Apledoore, & shall have aequall power to regulate theire Towne affaires as other Townes of this Jurisdiction have."
While the whole group was now one town for " regulating their towne affaires," the old division for county and provincial purposes continued until 1672, when in compliance with a peti- tion it was ordered that the whole group " be adjoined unto the same county, unto which Star island belongs;" in other words, to the county of Dover and Portsmouth, in the province of New Hampshire. Thus was obliterated, temporarily, the old division line of Mason and Gorges.
In 1679 the connection between New Hampshire and Massa- chusetts Bay was terminated by the erection of New Hampshire into a royal province under the presidency of John Cutt, whose commission, however, did not mention the Isles of Shoals. In the commission issued to Lieut-Gov. Cranfield in 1682 it was held, by construction, that the southerly half of the islands was
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included, though not expressly mentioned ; and in subsequent royal commissions the southerly half was embraced by name. The original division of the group was now restored, the northerly half returned to Maine and the southerly half laid off once more to New Hampshire, and the township of Appledore was dissolved. The boundary line between the two portions, as subsequently confirmed by the commissioners of the two provinces, in 1737, and reaffirmed in 1820 by convention be- tween New Hampshire and Maine, runs " through the middle of the harbor between the islands, to the sea, on the southerly side."
About 1680 there was a remarkable migration of the inhabi- tants of the northerly islands of the group to Star island, which up to that time had had but few settlers ; no less than forty families, according to tradition, crossed over from Hog island to Star at one time, and in the course of a few years nearly the entire population of the group was settled on Star. That Star island was considered by the islanders as being more secure from Indian attacks than Hog or Smuttynose has been suggested as a possible reason for this general change of location, but it is hardly a satisfactory one, for the advantage of Star island in that respect is not apparent. The real reason for the sudden and wholesale migration of the inhabitants of the northerly islands to Star island is as obscure as the reason for the pre- vious avoidance of that island.
Whatever the reason for the movement, by 1700 the popula- tion and wealth of the northerly islands had been in a great degree transferred to Star island ; and ten or fifteen years later, in a petition of the inhabitants of Kittery for a remission of taxes, it was stated that there were seldom at "the Isle Shoals (the north half thereof) more than ten or fifteen persons, and they were all poor; had about three or four small boats for fishing, and they never paid half the rates and taxes that was added to the town of Kittery upon the account of their being annexed to it; and besides that, as soon as they joined to Kit- tery several poor families came from thence to the town for support, which cost the town more money than all the rates and
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taxes that ever the Isle Shoals paid to Kittery, exclusive of the charges since their being so annexed. For several years past the Isle Shoals has paid no taxes at all, though the town was taxed for them every year."
But in the meantime Star island had so prospered that in 1715, by act of the provincial assembly of New Hampshire, it was created a town, by the name of Gosport; and in 1720, of every £1,000 raised in the province by taxation £20 was as- sessed upon Gosport, a proportion which was maintained with but slight variations for many years. In 1767 the number of residents of Gosport was 284, of whom four were slaves.
In 1745, on the breaking out of the French and Indian war, a small fort was built on a slight eminence near the westerly point of Star island, and mounted with nine four-pounders. This fort was dismantled at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, and the guns removed to the mainland; and " as it was found that these islands afforded sustenance and recruits to the enemy " the inhabitants were ordered to quit the islands, and the greater part of them dispersed into the seaport towns along the coast, the exodus being so general that, according to Bel- knap, only forty-four persons were remaining on the islands at the end of 1775.
At the close of the war some of the former inhabitants of Gosport returned, but the town never regained its former popu- lation and prosperity. In 1790, Belknap informs us, the - population had increased to 93 ; and in 1800, according to the Gosport town records, the number was 112, although another authority gives the number as 120, of families fifteen, and of houses eleven. In 1819 the number of inhabitants of the islands had become reduced to 86, and in 1824 to 69; and from that time till the end came the number slowly dwindled, year by year, until the last family and resident of the old Shoals stock disappeared.
The islanders, even when their number was largest and pros- perity at its highest, never paid much attention to political affairs. While dominated by Massachusetts Bay the northerly half of the group, which then held almost the entire population,
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was never represented in the Massachusetts general court but once [Williamson's Maine, Vol. II], and after the erection of New Hampshire into a royal province and the migration of the Shoals population to the southerly half of the group, "the south half rarely, if ever, consented to send deputies to the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly, and paid little or no tribute to the province rates."
In 1701 the provincial government designated one of the principal men of the islands " to settle the inhabitants, where he lives, under this government, and to call them together to appoint a representative for said place to sit in General Assem- bly," but the islanders paid no manner of heed to this order. Again in 1711, and still later, in 1716, the Star islanders were served with a warrant to send a representative to the house, but they paid no attention to the summons either year; and the government, apparently in despair and as a last resort, in 1716 annexed Star island to Newcastle for election and assess- ment purposes. But this attempt to arouse the islanders to political activity and the paying of taxes was as futile as those that had preceded it, for they neither attended the elections nor paid the rates; and in 1761, when the arrearages had mounted to the sum of £512 new tenor, the selectmen of Gosport in- duced the General Assembly to abate the entire debt !
" After the organization of the present state government of New Hampshire, at the close of the Revolution, the Shoals had fallen, as we have seen, into such decay as for many years to escape the notice of the officials; until, in a season of high political controversy, in the year 1851, a Democratic legisla- ture, regarding the handful of fishermen at Gosport as natural upholders of 'free trade and sailors' rights,' admitted their representative to the House, since which they have annually elected one of their number to serve in the General Court."*
About 1870 a large summer hotel, The Oceanic, was built on Star island by the late John R. Poor, who had acquired title
*This paragraph is taken from " The Isles of Shoals; an Historical Sketch," an interest- ing little book giving evidence of wide research, published in 1873 by the late John Scrib- ner Jenness, and to which we are indebted for much concerning the islands contained in this article .- THE AUTHOR.
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to the entire island with the exception of one dwelling and hold- ing of land owned by John B. Downs. Mr. Poor was desirous of buying that property, also, but Mr. Downs, who was born and had passed his life on the island and had seen a family of his own grow up around him there, was much attached to his home, and being in comfortable circumstances, financially, he declined to sell. The Oceanic, two or three years after it was built, took fire one night in the spring during a violent south- east storm, and was entirely consumed, as were also a number of uninhabited houses; but owing to the direction of the wind the house of Mr. Downs, though nearer the hotel than any others, escaped with a severe scorching. The Oceanic was immediately rebuilt, larger than before, but not on the same site. Mr. Downs had his house repaired and continued to live in it until a short time before his death, which took place at North Hampton on the 23d of April, 1888, in the 77th year of his age. He was the last of the old stock of " Shoalers" to retain a homestead in the town of Gosport, and he held it until the town went out of existence. After his death, and some years after Mr. Poor's hotel and surroundings had passed to other ownership, his heirs transferred his Star island property to the new owners of the island.
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