USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Rye > History of the town of Rye, New Hampshire, from its discovery and settlement to December 31, 1903 > Part 19
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HISTORY OF RYE.
enemy overpowered them in numbers, then burned their houses, and inflicted personal cruelties on all within their reach.
The men, when fully repelled from their desperate struggle, fled for the garrison to take firearms and swords, expecting there to find secure their wives and little ones. The Indians knowing the directions to be taken by those who would seek garrison protection, intercepted their course, and early lay in ambush to meet those who were passing by. By this means solitary individuals were taken prisoners. Some were maimed, some killed, and others secured and carried off. But those who sought for the garrison in company passed on without interruption. The garrison house is said to have been located about north of the present site of the schoolhouse, in the field between the barn of Mrs. Joseph Sherburne and the elevation on the east. A cellar and well are yet visible in the field not far east from the orchard. When they had armed themselves for meeting the Indians, on return none were to be seen. The dead and wounded they found in the pathway and around the houses. Of dwelling houses burned there were five, and nine barns.
When news was sent from the Plains to the Bank, the name by which the commercial part of Portsmouth was then known, Capt. Shackford rallied his military company, and the orders to the soldiers were that they proceed to a large rock which was then, and has been till within the last six* years, standing within a quarter of a mile east of the Plains, and was ever after- wards called "Valour Rock." The company was there organized and pro- ceeded in pursuit of the enemy.
The Indians, about fifty in number, were observed in their canoes passing up the Piscataqua a day or two previous to their assault at the Plains. When the news of the attack reached the commercial part of the town, it was generally supposed by those who saw them when they were going up the river that escape from the inhabitants would be effected by the Indians passing down the river in their canoes to avoid justice for their barbarity. The strategem on the part of the Indians was too successful; it served to lead the attention of the people in an improper direction and prevented any effectual action. The savages had moved their canoes in the night time (unperceived in the town), carried them down the river to Sandy Beach, and secreted them in bushes.
Capt. Shackford pursued in the course supposed to have been taken by the Indians. Their direction was through Great Swamp, in a course for Rye. About four miles distant from the Plains the military company dis- covered the incendiaries with their plunder and captives ; the four prisoners whom they had captured being placed in a position to receive the first effect
*This account was first published by Mr. Brewster in the Portsmouth Journal about 1856 or '57.
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INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.
of a discharge of guns should a military force appear for attack. The com- pany rushed upon the ground, rescued the prisoners, and retook the plunder ; but the enemy escaped and concealed themselves in the swamp till night ; then in their canoes took their departure. One party was sent out in boats, which were arranged in a line to intercept the enemy in their passage to the eastward. This enterprise would have been successful had not the com- mander indiscreetly given too early orders to fire. This caused the Indians to change their course and thus make their escape by going outside of the Isles of Shoals.
When Captain Shackford routed them at Breakfast Hill and the boats in the river were waylaying them in their preparations to return to the eastward, it was discovered that those who were seen going up the river toward Dover were but a small party, and the whole number which were then making escape was much larger. It was from the circumstances of the Indians and their captives being engaged in taking breakfast on the declivity of a hill near the bounds of Greenland and Rye, that the location was called Breakfast Hill, and has ever since been known by that name. The tribe to which these Indians belonged was never known, nor was it ever known what course they took for their homes after they arrived on the high seas.
Belknap, in his brief account of this massacre, says: "Four- teen persons were killed on the spot, one was scalped and left for dead, but recovered, and four were taken." Mr. Brewster's account, which gives the names and ages of the persons killed, and the names of the wounded, shows that Dr. Belknap was correct as to the number slain, but that the number who were wounded but afterwards recovered was six-one man, two women (including the woman who was tomahawked and scalped ), and three children. The names of the persons who were taken captive and+ rescued by the rush of Captain Shackford's men at Breakfast ITill have not been preserved.
* It was reported that a body of six hundred Indians were preparing an attack on Casco and the head of Piscataqua river. No such force as this appeared, but small parties kept hovering on the outskirts. Ordered, that all the inhabitants of Little Harbor and Sandy Beach take their turns, two or three in a night, to watch and scout from Rendizvous Point along the sea side till they meet with the Hampton scouts, and to begin at midnight and continue till sunrise. And that Mr. Wm Wallis have a due inspection as corporal over the same. In consideration of which duty it is further ordered that the said several inhabitants of Little Harbor and Sandy Beach be ex-
*N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. II, p. 437.
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HISTORY OF RYE.
empted from doing any duty at New Castle, unless upon an alarm or an order from his excellency or the commander-in-chief for the time being. And that the secretary send a copy of this order attested unto the com- mander of his Majtys Fort Wm & Mary at New Castle and another to said Wm Wallis ordering him immediately upon sight hereof to see said watch and scout duly performed.
Betty Quondy and John Quondy were, it is said, the last " tame " Indians who lived in the woods at Sandy Beach.
GARRISON HOUSES.
Garrison houses (which were simply two-story houses built of timber, usually somewhat larger than the ordinary dwellings of the settlers, and with the upper story projecting several feet over the lower, the heavy flooring of the projection being pierced with holes to enable an enemy attempting to force an entrance into the lower story, or to set fire to the building, to be fired upon from above) were thickly sprinkled among the settlements during the early years of the colonization period. These garrison houses were rallying points, and places of refuge for the families of the settlers in their vicinity, in case of Indian invasion, and history records many instances in which they were successfully defended from determined and prolonged attacks by the savages.
With the first settlement of Sandy Beach a garrison house was built, as a matter of course, and was probably located on or near the present Washington road, not far from the seashore.
It is tradition that at this garrison house the settlers had a " blunderbuss," or large gun, which they fired to frighten the Indians ; but as powder was very precious in those days it is not probable that it was very often fired for this purpose, unless hostile Indians were known or believed to be in the vicinity. There are writings that show that the Sandy Beach garrison house had some kind of a gun much larger than was ordinarily found in such strongholds. When a settlement was made at Joslyn's (later Locke's) Neck, it was found that one of a number of tall trees there, from the branches of which a view could be had of the Sandy Beach location, had been worn very smooth, sup-
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INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.
posedly by the climbing up of Indians to watch the garrison house and see when people left it and where they went.
The Locke garrison house at Locke's Neck and the Berry garrison house at Sandy Beach were in existence, as mention made of them in writings shows, as late as 1708; and the Gar- lands had one on Garland road which there is reason to believe was standing in 1720, and possibly later. That there were other such houses in the town is more than probable, but these three are the only ones of which mention has been found in the writings. It is not known that any garrison house in Rye was ever attacked, but if a full record of all of them had been kept it would have made interesting history of the times.
ANECDOTES, TRADITIONAL AND HISTORICAL.
John Locke, who settled at Joslyn's Neck, which thereafter for more than two hundred years was known as Locke's Neck, was noted among the Indians for the daring and success with which he fought them, and was correspondingly hated by them in consequence. A raiding party of the savages from the east- ward landed one night at the Neck, concealed their canoes in the bushes, and proceeded inland to some point that had been selected to be attacked. Going into the bushes Sunday morn- ing to read his Bible in solitude, Locke discovered the canoes, and immediately cut generous gashes in them with his knife, in places where the cuts would not be seen at a glance. The Indians, on arriving back at the place where they had left their canoes, after their murderous expedition, found the canoes ap- parently all right, not discovering in the darkness that they had been tampered with ; but as soon as they put off from the shore the canoes took in water so fast that they were compelled to hurriedly land again, and finding the canoes damaged beyond repair the savages were obliged to make their way eastward by land, suffering many hardships and losing several members of their party on the way. Afterward a party came from the castward with the express purpose of killing Locke, and sur- prised him as he was reaping grain in his field, his gun being some distance away, standing against a rock. Securing pos-
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HISTORY OF RYE.
session of his gun they shot him through the thighs, and he fell prostrate, but as the savages ran up to tomahawk and scalp him he struck at one of them with his sickle, and cut off the savage's nose. This Indian, it is said, was seen in Portsmouth several times, years later, after trouble with the Indians had ceased in this section, and it was from his account of the man- ner in which he received his mutilation that the circumstances of Locke's last fight with Indians were learned. The date of Locke's death was August 6, 1694.
Jonathan Locke, a grandson of John Locke of Locke's Neck, was born in 1720, and lived in a house built by himself on what is now Washington road, near the Center. One day see- ing an Indian not very far from the house he raised the window in the westerly end a little way, propped it up by putting a hymn book under it, rested his musket on the window-sill, took careful aim and shot the red man dead. On being accused by one of his neighbors with killing an Indian in time of peace he replied that the Indians killed his grandfather, and he would kill an Indian whenever he had a chance. Jonathan Locke's house was taken down many years later, and the present residence of Dea. Jonathan Locke was built by him on its site.
Mark Randall's mother when a girl was carried away by the Indians and held in captivity nine years. She sometimes suf- fered terribly from lack of food, and on one occasion, it is said, having got a kernel of corn, she kept it in her mouth nine days, not daring to swallow it during that time, fearing it would be the last morsel she would ever get to eat.
On one of the Indian raids the savages came when Thomas Rand was out fishing, killed his father and other members of his household, and took several captives. On returning to land and learning what had occurred, Rand, who was an energetic and daring man, followed the marauding party, which was a small one, came upon them near Brackett's lane, fired upon them and put them to flight, thus rescuing their prisoners. Rand lived on the Wallis place.
An old lady named Rand, who was nearly blind, one day protested against her husband making a proposed trip to the
253
RYE IN WAR TIMES.
mill with a grist of corn, saying she felt that Indians were lurk- ing in the neighborhood, and if she was left alone they would kill her. Her husband made light of her apprehensions, say- ing there were no Indians nearer than Winnipiseogee, and went to the mill with his corn. On his return he found his wife dead,-tomahawked and scalped by Indians during his absence.
The Mr. Berry who first settled on the General Brown place on Washington road (now the residence of A. H. Drake) used to go up there from Sandy Beach frequently to work. At that time Indians were numerous and hostile, and one day, when he was going or returning, he heard the report of a gun not far away, and a wild turkey fell dead in the path at his feet. He saw no Indians, and picking the turkey up carried it home.
A girl named Mary - was stolen by Indians from her home in Newcastle, but was not carried far by her captors, who remained in the woods in this vicinity, and procured milk for their prisoner, who was very young, by slyly milking the cows of the settlers in the pastures. Her father bought her back with a gallon of rum, and when grown to womanhood she mar- ried a man named Waters, who after a time deserted her and ran away. Later she lived in Rye many years, in the family of Col. Benjamin Garland, who kept the inn at the Center.
RYE IN WAR TIMES.
THE FRENCH WAR.
Rev. Huntington Porter, in his New Century discourse deliv- ered Jan 1, 1801, said: " In the Canada or French war (so called), fourteen persons belonging to this town were killed or died in the service of their country," their names being as fol- lows: "Job Libbey, Richard Parsons, Thomas Rand, Stephen Rand, Stephen Palmer, Joseph Chase, John Jenness, Simeon Wells, Joseph Towle, William Shannon, John Locke, John Berry, and Caleb Berry, and one whose name is unknown."
There is probably no list or record in existence giving the names of all the persons belonging to this town who served in that war. It was a war between England and her American
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HISTORY OF RYE.
colonies, on the one side, and France and her colonies on the other. Quebec was captured by General Wolfe's forces in 1759, and the conquest of Canada was completed the following year. Rev. Mr. Porter, writing only forty years after the close of the war, would be able to make up his record of the dead from information supplied by their families or friends; that he had no full official list is indicated by his failure to discover the name of one of the decedents. There is no record of a com- pany having been raised in Rye to serve in that war; but a considerable proportion of the whole number of adult males in the town must have been engaged in it, when so large a num- ber as fourteen lost their lives.
There is nothing in the town records in regard to the part taken in the war by the town of Rye or its residents, and but little in the Provincial Papers, from which the following ex- tracts-all that could be found bearing on the subject-are taken :
Capt. Lock's Company from Rye at Fort.
A muster roll of Sundry Mens Service Mounting the Guns att his Majes- tys Fort William & Mary, Rie Company two days, each man July 2 dy, 1746.
Captain Francis Lock
Elisha Lock
Elexander Salter
Wm Bary
Sam1 Nolls
Jnº Bary
James Philbrick
Richª Lock
Nath1 Foss
John Lebbey
John Rand
Wm Chamberlin
Isaac Lebbey
Benjm Marden
Noah Molton
Simon Garland Wallas Foss
Osom Douse
Joseph Nolls (Knowles)
old tenor £19, 2, 0
Sworn before Ye House ;
In House of Representatives May 21, 1747, the amount of the foregoing roll was ordered to be Paid.
In the House of Representatives :
Voted that such Inhabitants of the Towns of Portsmouth & Rye who are by Law subject to Common Muster & Military Exercises, them as are will- ing to be enlisted into the Service shall repair to Fort Wm & Mary ten days in a year and shall be by the Gunner & Quarter Master exercised in the Mounting, dismounting, levelling & firing the great guns.
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THE REVOLUTION.
Jonathan Philbrick, Soldier, 1760.
In a petition dated March 24, 1761, James Philbrick stated that his son, Jonathan, was in the Province service as a private under Capt. Jeremiah Marston in the expedition against Canada in 1760; that he was taken sick at Crown Point. He asked for an allowance to pay for getting him home, and for the services of Dr. John Weeks of Hampton, which was granted to the extent of £4, 10s, sterling.
Joseph Towle, Soldier, 1761.
In a Petition dated Feb. 4, 1761, Jonathan Towle stated that his son, Joseph, was in the province service under the command of Capt. George March, in the expedition against Canada, and died on the way home, and " Everything he had was lost." He asked for an allowance, which was not granted.
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
We quote again from Rev. H. Porter's interesting and val- uable New Century discourse : "In the late American Revolu- tionary war, or war with Great Britain, this town experienced the loss of thirty-eight of its inhabitants, partly by sea and the rest by land ; most of them young men, dear to their friends, and for whom the tears of affection and condolence have yet scarcely ceased to flow." And his list of the lost, the only one in existence, so far as is known, is as follows :
John Lock Ephraim Rand
Christopher Gould
Abner Lock
Michael Moulton
Samuel Knowles
John Rand
Richard Goss
Tobias Trundy
Edward Rendall
Robert Morrison
Joseph Hall
Samuel Rand
Robbison Trefethen
Stephen Rand
Ezekiel Lear
Jonathan Goss
Samuel Seavey
Jonathan Jenness
Joseph Trefethen
William Marden
John Odiorne
Ephraim Hall
Nathaniel Tucker
William Hall
Thomas Foy
Samuel Moulton
Richard Rand
John Lear
Abraham Clifford
Job Foss
Aaron Seavey
William Foss
Josis Rendall
John Rendall
Richard Tucker
and two blacks, Nimshi and Prince.
The first reference to the approaching conflict to be found in the town records is under date of July 16, 1770, when Joseph Parsons, Mark Randall, and Joseph Brown were "chosen com- mittee men to stand by the Sons of Liberty."
In 1774, July 18, " chose Sam1 Knowles and Samuel Jenness
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HISTORY OF RYE.
to go to Exeter to make choice of delegates to go to the Con- tinental Congress, and voted to raise £3 towards paying the delegates that shall be chosen to go to the Continental Con- gress and to pay the charges of the men going to Exeter. Richard Jenness entered his dissent to the above."
In May, 1775, twelve minute-men were enlisted from Rye and went to Cambridge, Mass. Who these men were, or what organization they were attached to at Cambridge, is unknown, as no list of their names or record of their service is to be found. The town's action in regard to these minute-men is recorded as follows :
Voted, That twelve minute men be enlisted to go on any expediation that a committee shall think proper. Chose Joseph Parsons, Jeremiah Locke, Nathan Goss, Sam1 Knowles, Benjamin Garland, Joseph Jenness, and Wm Seavey said committee, and as a committee of Inspection, and to have power to send the minute men on any expediation they think proper. Voted, the minute men exercise 3 day in a week and have two shillings each for every time they exercise. And that the committeemen enlist and discharge the men when they think proper, and that the minute men have 40 shillings per month from the time they are ordered on any expedition till they return, and that the committee shall find the minute men powder, balls, and provisions when out on any expediation.
A call having been made for more troops at Newcastle, to protect Portsmouth harbor, Joseph Parsons raised a volunteer company of which the following is the muster roll, all the mem- bers of the company except Abraham Clifford and James Ryan having been residents of Rye :
Joseph Parsons, Captain Timothy Berry, Sergt Jeremiah Berry, Corporal
William Seavey, Ist Lieut Samuel Knowles, do Peter Johnson, Drummer
Nathan Goss, 2d Lieut
Henry Shapley, Corporal Michael Dalton, Fifer
Abraham Libby, Sergt William Rand, do
Alexander Salter, do
Joshua Locke, do
Privates
Joseph Rand
Elijah Lock
John Rand
Samuel Jenness, Jr
James Seavey
Robert Morrison
Job Brown
Joshua Rand
John Jenness
Nathan Towle
Abraham Matthews John Lock
Peter Jenness
Tobias Friendy Edward Randall
Nimshi Locke
Stephen Rand Jacob Tibbetts
an Indian or negro
Richard Jenness
Thomas Lang
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THE REVOLUTION.
Abraham Clifford
Joseph Brown
George Saunders
Edward Verrill
William Yeaton John Foss
James Ryan
Benjamin Marden
William Treferrin
This company, which was stationed at Fort William and Mary during the summer and fall of that year, was, so far as is known, the first company organized for service in the Revolu- tionary war from Rye. And at the close of the company's term of service at the fort, most of its members enlisted under Captain Parsons and went to Cambridge, Mass., where they remained until February 1, 1776.
It is more than probable that Captain Parsons was one of the party that, under the leadership of John Langdon, on the 14th of December, 1774, assaulted and captured Fort William and Mary, overpowered the garrison-a feeble garrison indeed, but representing the authority and power of the crown-hauled down the British colors, and took from the magazine about one hundred barrels of powder, part of which afterward rendered good service at Bunker Hill. It is certain that men from Rye were in the assaulting party. Governor Wentworth, in a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated December 20, 1774, giving the most complete account of the seizure of the fort that any official document affords, says the Portsmouth party "went to the island, and, being found there by the inhabitants of New- castle and Rye, formed in all a body of about four hundred men," and took the fort and hauled down the king's colors. He does not name any individuals of the party, and the names of but few are positively known: Concerning the second visit to the fort, on the night of December 15, by the party which took away the light cannon and small arms, the governor in the same letter says that party was led by John Sullivan, who came down from Durham that day ; but in connection with the assault and capture of the fort on the 14th, " the first overt act of the American Revolution," he is silent as to the personal iden- tity of the assailants.
But among them were "the inhabitants of Rye," and this in all likelihood included the Sons of Liberty of the town and the three men-Joseph Parsons, Mark Randall and Joseph Brown
18
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HISTORY OF RYE.
-who four years previous had been "chosen committeemen to stand by" them. On that day, as stated by Governor Wentworth and other authorities, the Sons of Liberty of Ports- mouth paraded the streets of that town with drum and fife as early as twelve o'clock, collecting men to make the assault; and a letter written by a Portsmouth man, and published at the time, says "two hundred men immediately assembled and went to the Castle, in two gondolas, who on their way were joined by one hundred and fifty more," etc. Captain Cochran, who commanded the fort, in his report of the affair to Governor Wentworth, dated the day of the assault, said: "About three o'clock the fort was beset on all sides by upwards of four hun- dred men." The people throughout New England were in- tensely excited at that time, and none more so than those of this section; to carry from Portsmouth to Rye the news that the Sons of Liberty were parading the streets of the former town, preparatory to an attack on the fort, would take a horse- man but a short time ; and the three hours that elapsed between the parading of Portsmouth's streets with the drum and fife, and the attack upon the fort, afforded ample time for persons many miles away to get there in time to take part in the assault. It is no straining of probabilities to assume that the Sons of Liberty of Rye and their "standbys," as well as those of Newcastle, helped make up the one hundred and fifty men who joined the Portsmouth party on the latter's way to the fort, and that Rye was well represented by its patriotic residents in an act characterized by Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D. D., in the following often quoted terms :
"The daring character of this assault cannot be overesti- mated. It was an organized investment of a royal fortress, where the king's flag was flying, and where the king's garrison met them with muskets and artillery. It was four months before Lexington, and Lexington was resistance to attack, while this was a deliberate assault. When the king heard of this capture it so embittered him that all hope of concessions was at an end. It made war inevitable."
Every man who took part in that affair placed his neck in a
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THE REVOLUTION.
noose by doing so, and no doubt most of them realized this ; it is not to be wondered at that they did not take pains to place themselves on record as having been participants.
The following, from the Revolutionary papers at Washing- ton, indicates the character of the employment of the Rye vol- unteers at Fort William and Mary during the summer of 1775 :
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