USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Holderness > Holderness : an account of the beginnings of a New Hampshire town > Part 2
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1 Little's History of Warren, 80-86; Stearns's History of Plymouth; Penhallow's Indian Wars, Coll. N. H. Hist. Soc. i, 60, 128.
17
THE INDIAN TRAIL
He had afterwards served as a guide. Thus he had learned the trail. He died in 1753, "of lethargy!"
Captain Lovewell, in the process of the campaign which bears his name, came up here and marched around Squam Lake. Near the scene of Baker's adventure, he killed an Indian. Afterwards, coming again, he scalped ten Indians who were sleeping by a fire beside a frozen pond. At last, in 1725, near Fryeburg, he encoun- tered Paugus, a chief of the Pequakets. In the fierce fight which ensued both Lovewell and Paugus lost their lives.
After that, the Pequakets abandoned their lands and retired to St. Francis, whither the Pemigewassets had already gone. Chocorua, however, one of their warriors, stayed behind and made friends with the whites. One time, while he was on a visit to St. Francis, his son, whom he had left in charge of a settler named Campbell, tasted some poison which was meant for foxes, and died. Chocorua, on his return, finding his son dead, killed all of Camp- bell's family. Campbell pursued him, so the story goes, to the rocky peak of the
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HOLDERNESS
mountain which now bears his name, and there killed him as he stood on that great eminence with arms outstretched, calling down curses on the settlers.
The next chapter of the war, which in- cludes the capture of Louisburg, furnishes no material for our local history; though I cannot forbear to quote the comment on that extraordinary victory, which Dr. Belk- nap cites from an old writer. "This siege," he says, "was carried on in a tumultuary random manner, resembling a Cambridge commencement."
Finally, in the last days of the century- long struggle, in 1759, Major Robert Rogers the Ranger 1 led over two hundred men from Crown Point, over Lake Cham- plain, to St. Francis. After a hard march, he saw the place afar off from the top of a tall tree. That night he and two others went in disguise to the village, and looked on at a great dance in which the Indians were cele- brating their forays upon the settlements. The place was appropriately decorated
1 Rogers wrote an account of his adventures, published in London, 1765, reprinted in Concord, 1831. See also Little's History of Warren, 141 ff.
19
THE INDIAN TRAIL
with poles set along the streets, from which hung the scalps of several hundred victims. Before dawn, while the savages were still asleep, Rogers and his rangers fell upon them. They killed many, and sacked their houses, which they found filled with New England spoils. There was a French church in the midst of the village, from which they took a silver image of the Vir- gin Mary, and a pair of golden candle- sticks. Then they set fire to the village and retreated, keeping together till they passed Lake Memphremagog, and then dividing into parties. They lost their way. Some perished in the woods by hunger and weariness; some were led by deceptive Indian guides into impenetrable wastes; all suffered great hardships before they reached the settlements. Some of them must have come down this way by the old trail. The golden candlesticks were found, in 1816, near Memphremagog, but the silver image still lies hidden under the leaves of the forest.
The Indians left no lasting traces of their existence in these parts. In the fertile intervales by Livermore Falls and at the
20
HOLDERNESS
junction of Baker's River and the Pemige- wasset, the early settlers found the ridges of old cornfields and the ashes of old fires, with arrowheads and pestles. Priest Fowle found traces of the ancient inhabitants on his glebe by Squam Lake. There they lived, "drawn to the spot," he says, "from the convenience of water and fishing." A French sword was once dug up in the vil- lage, a relic of the long war. The Indians came no more to attack the settlements, but their descendants still make visits to these parts, bringing gayly colored baskets of sweet-scented grass to sell to summer visitors.
With Robert Rogers the Ranger we come at once to the settlement of Holder- ness, for Mrs. Robert Rogers was a daugh- ter of the Rev. Arthur Browne of Ports- mouth, who married Martha Hilton to Governor Benning Wentworth, as we read in "The Tales of a Wayside Inn;" and Mrs. Robert Rogers's sister was the wife of Samuel Livermore, who presently became the squire of this parish.
. III
THE CHARTER
TN the course of the long fight with the savages, men had noted the fertile lands, the great forests, the lakes and hills and streams of central New Hampshire, and were waiting for an opportunity to take possession. Captain Willard, Captain Fair- banks, Captain Goffe had brought up com- panies of Indian fighters. About 1746, the New Hampshire soldiers who were enlisted for Shirley's expedition against Canada were encamped for some time by Winnepe- saukee, where they whiled away their sea- son of waiting by exploration of the region, and hunting and fishing.
Already, in 1751, the township of Hol- derness had been asked for and granted. On October 15 in that year, His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, laid before the coun- cil a "petition of Thomas Shepard and others, inhabitants of the Province, praying for a grant of His Majesty's lands of the
22
HOLDERNESS
contents of six miles square on Pemidg- wasset river, on the east side thereof, as surveyed and planned by Samuel Lane, surveyor. ... to which the Council did advise and consent."
Thomas Shepard's petition was signed by sixty-four persons, to whom accordingly the grant was made. Lane's plan of the township accompanied the charter. The most interesting detail of it to us is the name given to what we call the Squam River. It is there called the Cohoss River; that is, the river of the woods. Colonel Cheney of Ashland writes me in this connection: "From my earliest boyhood a point on Squam River in this village, the junction of Ames Brook and Squam River, has always been known as 'the Old Cohoss.' It was where all the boys were allowed to go in bathing, and where we all learned to swim. We used to say, 'Let's go down to the Old Cohoss, and go in swimming.'" Accord- ing to the tradition of the place, Cohoss was the name of the last of the Pemigewasset Indians, but it was really the old name of the river.
The river was called Squam as early as
nches
Three
The Great Falls
West six miles to a Red Oak Tree Marked SL. 1750 TS.TE.
BW.
North six miles
Chohoss River
From a White Pine Tree Spotted or Marked
East six miles to a White Pine Tree. SL. 1750 TS TE
THE PLAN OF THE TOWNSHIP MADE BY SAMUEL LANE TO ACCOMPANY THE CHARTER OF 1751
23
THE CHARTER
1765, when the hundred-acre lot, No. 51, was described in the proprietors' re- cords as bordering "Squam river at the mouth of the Pond." But the lake bore the name of Cusumpy as late as 1784. The earliest map which shows the Holderness region is dated 1756, and the lake is named Cosumpia Pond; on a map of the next year, it is Cusumpe Pond; on the map which Robert Fletcher made in 1768, the name is Cusumpy; so in 1781, with a little difference in the spelling, Kusumpe. But in 1784, in Samuel Holland's map, -"Sur- veyor General of Lands for the Northern District of North America," - we read Squam or Cusumpy Pond.1 In 1813, when President Dwight, of Yale, passed by this way on one of his tours of observation, he dis- liked the name of Squam. "We shall take the liberty," he says, "to call [Squam] by the name of Sullivan, from Major General Sul- livan, formerly President of the State." And so it appears, as Lake Sullivan, on the map in his second volume. Happily, the Indian name continued; but how the change was
1 Boston Public Library, Collection of Maps, 119, 7: 5; 17, 4: 24; 17, 4: 45.
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HOLDERNESS
made from Cusumpy to Squam does not appear. Probably the Indians called it by both names, - Squam or Asquam mean- ing simply "water," or, as we would say, "the pond," "the lake;" while Cusumpy is perhaps the same word as Sunapee, from coös "the woods," and ipe or nipe "stream or pond."
In October, 1752, matters had proceeded so far that Samuel Lane laid out a plan of lots in the rich intervale beside the river. Each proprietor drew for three lots; a three-acre lot in the Upper Intervale north of the great bend, a three-acre lot in the Lower Intervale, south and east of the great bend; and a one-acre lot for a house, in a section set apart for the town on the north side of what was then called Town Brook, afterwards Spring Brook. In the midst of this section, a square of land containing four acres was reserved for a church, and has ever since been called Church Hill. The other names, Middle Street and Cross Street, Long Street and Short Street, King Street and Church Street, have existed only on the map. Indeed, the map itself repre- sents an intention rather than an attain-
Laid out Mrough Bank Contenente tos Ril inde culto width kret, or such the walls are poly lamina as by this why Croft Strat I als hn lord's wide as by the Plan
The day that Decide the souls of the West Side of middle But all win Win from the plumber and.
Hunter Great on both Sides there any this from the dethe Bight both in Light and Brudt very Yupland and on the ligh way as by the Plan " Exch lod Contains More Here
The Second Intervale halk a High Way Goed But he Found below the Bands of thealphand, and ale By the River ( the plot fine Lett Excepto) as by this Pear, there is also a ligh very laid out, Runing North from a Free. N' In till it Strikes the great River, love kicking Nothirty bythis River till it comes to a Bone Sie Mari B.W. then Runing Ninth to deld Never, Then on Soud River till
is cated Long Street . There is also another High big which runs North and South as by the Plan, Call That Stint all lund High why are two Ride home pack
Long Street Run West from their thinker Trees, harry cross hundred and posted in two. Corners of each att ; signing 11"1. N'a and So on till yo is complici's us by this Plan. Each Lott in this Second Entervale. Contains next three lares
The upper Interest de calle, Bunded inte za qual Shares of volte, each containing the line
Kg
A
PLAN OF INT
Jord. part
confusing of theyear of
ome Lett i Ih of which to and ten Let, en of october, arino Relamuel
There by reason of the Quality of me Land have Some. allowances and we and Boundhouby WE Play all Hun. Joiifk. From Their number Tras, and cose, founded os in, thu Man
wn, By each.
The Roads between the Ranger are Laid out there Rady wide, and are on the North Side of The. Number The as by this Plan, and The Croft ways are two Rods wide, foring Brest & este aus
neas frur lleres, for the poilidy, of Selling a church tipon.
Hundred north
there is a High way Laid out all round, upon the upper Side of the Banks of the Interinte hade was Said Banks and the House call, two todo with There are also Severst, water priviledges low cost as remarks on this Man."The Roads between the Range all run last und West.
Chuối
Los
Brook
Langs,
hint of hand rejans
LOTS, 1752
د
25
THE CHARTER
ment, for nobody settled in the place, and the charter lapsed; probably for fear of the savages.
The decisive defeat of the French at Quebec, in 1759, removed that terror from this region. The land was open for safe occupation. In 1761, Governor Benning Wentworth issued grants for eighteen townships. It was under one of these grants that Holderness was finally settled.
The charter, as it appears to-day, is a much creased and thumb-marked docu- ment, patched with strips of paper. It is printed in the conventional form, with blank spaces appropriately filled in. The name of George the Third stands at the top in bold letters, with the title, "By the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c." It incorporates into a township a piece of land of six miles square, "butted and bounded as follows, Viz. Beginning at a red oak tree at the foot of the great Falls of the Pemidgwasset river, thence running East six miles, Then turning off at right angles and running South six miles, Then turning off again and run-
26
HOLDERNESS
ning Westerly six miles to a White Pine Tree marked, standing on the bank of the river aforesaid, then running up said river northerly as that runs to the Bound first above mentioned as Bound begun at."1 As soon as there are fifty fam- ilies actually settled they may have two fairs, on dates left blank in the charter. These dates were stated in 1751 as the first Wednesday in June and in October, not to continue longer than the following Fri- day. Also a market may be kept open one or more days of each week. Lieutenant Thomas Shepard is to call the first town meeting and act as moderator of the same.
Five conditions accompany these privi- leges: 1st, that every grantee shall culti- vate five acres out of every fifty, within two years; 2d, that all white and other pine trees, suitable for making masts for the royal navy, be reserved for that purpose; 2 3d, that a tract of the township be marked
1 These limits continued to enclose the township of Holder- ness until 1868, when the southwest corner was set off as Ash- land.
2 A New Hampshire law of 1708 had reserved for the broad arrow all white pines which were 24 inches in diameter at 12 nches from the ground. Belknap's Hist. N. H. i, 188.
PROVINCE of NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
GEORGE the Third, By the Grace of GOD, of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c. Th all Perfons to whom thefe Prefents fall comt, Greeting.
K NOW ye, that We of Our Special Grace, certain Knowledge,, and meer Motion, for the due Encouragement of fettling a New Plantatien within our faid Province, by and with the Advice of our Trud. Well-beloved BENNING WENTWORTH, Efg; Our Gwverdur and Commander in Chief of Ou Elf Province of New HAMPSHIRE in Nearinglandy intofour Corners of the faid Province ; HAVE upon the Conditions and Refervations herein after made, given and granted, and by! thefe Prefents, for us, our Heirs, and Succeffors, do give and grant in equal Shares, unto Our loving Subjects, Inhabitants of Our faid Province of New-Hampshire, and Our other Governments, and to their Heirs and Affigns for ever, whole Names are entred da this Grant, to be divided to and amongft them" into fax /if
And that the fame be, and hereby is Incorporated into a Townhip by the Name of Hero Holdernelse And the Inhabitants that do or thall hereafter inhabit the faid Townfhip, are hereby declared to be Enfranchized with and Intitled to all and every the Priviledges and Immunities that other Towns within Our Province by Law Exercife and Enjoy: And further, that the faid Town as foon as there Shall be Fifty Families refident and fettled. thereon, Chall have the Liberty of holding Tue Fairt, one of which Shall be held on the And the other on the
annushy, which Fairs are not.to continue longer than the ted list .... following the fish that as foon as the faid Town Chall confift of Fifty Families, a Market may be opened and kept one or more Days in each Week, as may be thought moft advantagions to the Inhabitants. Alfo, that the first Meeting for the Choice of Town Officer, agreable to the Laws of our faid Province, that be held on the Third fluent way. which faid Meeting thall be Notified by are h Shimied inte -.. who is hereby alfo appointed the Moderator of the laid firft Meeting, which he is to Notify and Govern agreable to the Laws and Cuftoms of Our fald Province ; and that the annual Meeting for ever hereafter for the Choice of fuch Officers for the faid Town, (hall be on the Year) quarto of March annually, To HAVE and to HOLD the faid Tract of Land as abote expreffed, together with all Privileges and Appurtenances, to them and theit refpective Heirs and Affigns forever, nyon the following Conditions, viz.
f .. That every Grantee, his Heirs on Affigns (hall plant and cultivate five Acres of Land within the Term of liva Years for every fifty Actes contained in his or their Share or Proportion of Land in fad Township, and continue to improve and fettle the fame by additionà Cultivations, on Penalty of the Forfeiture of his Grant or Share in the faid Towathip, and of its reverting to Us, our' Heirs and Succeffors, to be by Us or Them Re-granted to fuch of Our Subjects as thall effectually fettle and fultivate the fame.
II. That all white and other Pine Trees within the faid Townthip, fit for Mafling Our Royal Navy, be carefully preferved for that Ufc, and none to be cut or felled without Our (pecial Licence for fo doing firft had and obtained, upon the Penalty of the Forfeiture of the Right of fuch Grantee, his Heirs and Afugns, to Us, our Heirs and Succefors, as well as being fubject to the Penalty of any Act or Acts of Parliament that now are, or hereafter thall be Enacted.
III. That before any Divifion of the Land, be made to and among the Grantees, a Tract of Land as near the Centre of the faid Townthip as the LAnd will admit of, thall be referred and marked out for Town Lots, one of which shall be allotted to each Granteelof the Contents of one Acre.
IV. Yielding and paying therefor to Us, our Heirs and Succeffurs for the Space of 4 Years, to be computed from the Date hereof, the Rent of one Ear of Indian Corn only, on the twenty-fifth Day of December annually .. if lawfully demanded, the firft Payment to be male on the twenty-fifth Day of Decembersa 762
V. Every Proprietor, -Settler or Inf ahitant, thall yield and may tutto Us, our Heits and Succefors yearly, sod every Year forever, from and after the ispiration of four Yous froin the aheyelid to Hainely, on the twenty-filtri" Way of's cember, which will be in the Year of Our Word 1766 One pilling Proclamation Money for every Hundred Acres he fo owas, fettles or poffeffes, and fo in Proportion for a greater or leffer Tract of the faid Land ; which Money fhall be paid by the refpective Perfons abovefald, their Heirs or Affigns, in our. Council Chamber in Porifinesth, or to fuch Officer or Officers as fhall be appointed to receive the fames and this to be in Lieu of all other Rents and Services whatfoever.
In Teflimony whereof we have caufed the Seal of our faid Province to be hereonto affixed. Witness BENNING WENTWORTH, Elq, Our Governor and Commander in Chief of Our faid Province, the 24" Day of defeber In the Year of our Lord CHRIST, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty PAL And in the out Year of Our Reign.
By His EXCELLENCY's' Command, With Advice of Council
Wentworth
Decried in the back of Clans left Paye Legmegs
THE HOLDERNESS CHARTER
27
THE CHARTER
out for town lots, each of one acre: 4th, that for four years, the tax on the township shall be one ear of Indian corn, to be paid on Christmas Day; and 5th, that after that time, every proprietor, settler or inhabitant shall pay annually on Christmas Day one shilling Proclamation Money for every hundred acres which he owns, settles or possesses.
The charter was signed by Governor Wentworth and by Theodore Atkinson, secretary of the colony, on the 24th of Oc- tober, 1761.
On the back of this document were in- scribed the names of the grantees, sixty- one in number; but two of them held one share between them. The seven shares, which completed the sixty-seven stated on the face of the charter, consisted of one for the Society for Propagating the Gos- pel in Foreign Parts, one for the School, one for the First Settled Minister in com- munion with the Church of England, one for a glebe for the Church of England as by Law Established,1 and three for His
1 March 3, 1762, Rev. Arthur Browne calls attention of S. P. G. to grants of land made by Governor B. Wentworth
28
HOLDERNESS
Excellency the Governor. This provision of land for the governor appears in most of the charters of this period. In Holder- ness it amounted to eight hundred acres. The endorsement of the charter carefully stipulated that this should include "The Neck," that is, the great bend of the river, in the midst of the fertile intervale; and in the accompanying plan this was marked "B. W."
The charter gave the township thus erected the name of New Holderness.
in one hundred towns; to this, in another letter, he adds twenty. "The Governour," he says, "has not only made this generous Provision [i. e. for the S. P. G.] but has set apart glebes in each of the Towns for the support of the ministry of the Church of England; and has also granted an equal portion or right to the first settled Minister of the Church of England, and his heirs, with the rest of the Proprietors of every town for ever." Batchelder's History of Eastern Diocese, i, 153. In 1773, the Society appointed Rev. Ranna Cossitt of Claremont, with Governor J. Wentworth and Chief Justice Livius, attorneys for this land, mentioning, among other places, their shares in Holderness. But the Revolution interfered.
IV
THE NAME
T name of Holderness was well known in England, where it belongs to that considerable peninsula in the East Riding of Yorkshire which juts out into the German Ocean above the Humber. Kingston is one of its chief cities. Beverley, with its famous minister, is on the western border.
The initial syllable is like that in the name of Holland, and means "hollow," i. e. low-lying. Ness means "peninsula." Der perhaps survives from the ancient name of the district in the days of the Angles, - Deira.1 In this low-lying penin- sula of Deira those Angles had their home, whose fair faces and yellow hair attracted the attention of Gregory as he walked through the slave market of Rome, one day late in the sixth century. "Who are you ?" he asked; and the Holderness men an-
1 Poulson's Seigniory of Holderness.
30
HOLDERNESS
swered, "We are Angles." "God grant you to be angels," he replied, punning and praying in the same breath. "Whence do you come ?" "From Deira." "May you be delivered from the ire of God." And presently he sent Augustine to preach the gospel to the English people.
Domesday Book contains a list of the landholders of this old Holderness. The district was called a wapentake; the hun- dred-acre lots were carucates; and the names of Alestan and Ravenchill and Aldene and Siward had the places which in New Holderness were taken by the Livermores, the Shepards, the Coxes and the Pipers.
When Little John in the ballad took service with the Sheriff of Nottingham, and the sheriff asked him where he belonged, he said that his name was Greenleaf and that he lived in Holderness.
"In Holdernesse, sir, I was borne I-wys al of my dame; Men cal me Reynolde Grenëlef Whan I am at home."
There Chaucer laid the scene of the Sompnour's Tale.
THE EARL OF HOLDERNESS
31
THE NAME
" Lordings, there is in Yorkshire, as I gesse A marsh contree ycalled Holdernesse."
Scott brought from this district one of the minor characters of "The Monastery," where Sir Percie Shafton turns out to be the son of Overstitch the tailor of Holder- ness.
The adjective "new," however, in the Charter of 1761, has no reference to the country by the Humber. It signifies only that a charter for Holderness had been given already, ten years before: now the town then granted begins anew. The name is derived from the Earl of Holderness, who in 1751, just at the time of the first grant, became a Secretary of State in the English Government, and was made responsible for the good conduct and welfare of the colonies. Benning Wentworth named the town in compliment to the new secretary, to whom, in common with other colonial governors, he made his official reports.
Robert D'Arcy,1 fourth and last Earl of Holderness, was at that time thirty-three years of age. His mother's father was the Duke of Schomberg, whereby he had for-
1 See under the name, Dictionary of National Biography.
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HOLDERNESS
eign relations of influence. Thus in 1744, he was made ambassador to the Republic of Venice, and, in 1749, became minister plenipotentiary to The Hague. His princi- pal house was Hornby Castle, near Leeds, now owned by a descendant, the Duke of Leeds. He was very fond of plays and music, and used to direct masquerades and private theatricals. One season, he and Lord Middlesex managed the London opera.
Horace Walpole called the earl " a formal piece of dulness." But the Duke of New- castle, while confessing that he might be thought trifling in his manner and carriage, maintained that he had a solid understand- ing. He was a somewhat silent person, the duke added, but very good-natured, endur- ing to be told his faults, and, though he was a D'Arcy, had no pride about him. In 1755, he had his portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds; this, therefore, repre- sents him as he was in the days of the be- ginnings of Holderness.
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