USA > New Hampshire > Sketches of the history of New-Hampshire, from its settlement in 1623, to 1833: comprising notices of the memorable events and interesting incidents of a period of two hundred and ten years > Part 10
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Early in 1746 an event, sufficiently important to make the people forget for a time the ravages of war, terminated the tedious controversy between them and the Proprietor. This was the sale by Mason's heir of his whole claim on the soil of New-Hampshire to a company of gentlemen in Portsmouth. It had been discovered some years before, that there was a defect in the conveyance from Mason to Allen in 1691, and that the legal title still remained in the heir of Mason. Tom- linson had negociated in behalf of theProvince a purchase of the claim from Mason : but the Assembly unwisely delayed to ratify the contract. Mason at length informed them that if they delayed much longer, he should sell his claim to others who stood ready to make the purchase. Startled by this intimation they concluded to ratify the contract, on condition that the ungranted lands should be granted at the pleasure of the House of Representatives only. To this condition the Council warmly objected ; it was their wish to refer the
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PERIOD VI .- 1741-1763.
1746.]
granting of lands to the King, under the expectation that he would commit this important power not to the Assembly, but to themselves. While the two branches were thus disputing on the terms of purchase, the Portsmouth gentlemen took the bargain out of their hands. Both the Assembly and the people resented their interference, and not a few angry threats were thrown out against them : but the popular indignation was much abated by the prudent measure on their part of quitclaiming all the towns previously granted by New-Hamp- shire; and afterwards, all those which had been granted by Massachusetts. These concessions quieted all the inhabitants in their claims, and prevented any strenuous opposition to the title acquired by the purchasers to the ungranted lands. As they pursued a judicious course in making grants, and promo- ting the settlement of these lands, the public mind was grad- ually reconciled to the course the affair had taken ; and the interests of the MASONIAN PROPRIETORS, as these purchasers were called, became identified with the interests of the people in general. These gentlemen were Theodore Atkinson, Mark H. Wentworth, Richard Wibird, John Wentworth, George Jaffrey, Samuel Moore, Nathaniel Meserve, Thomas Packer, Thomas Wallingford, Jotham Odiorne, Joshua Pierce, and John Moffat-the leading men of wealth and business of that day. Among the terms on which they granted lands were the following : that the grantees within a given period should erect a meeting house ; settle a minister ; lay out a right of land for the first settled minister, another for a Parsonage, and a third for schools ; clear out roads, and erect inills.
Encouraged by the spendid success at Louisburg, the Colo- nists concerted a plan for the reduction of Canada and raised numerous forces for this purpose, of which a New-Hampshire regiment under Col. Atkinson formed a part; the whole to be joined by a powerful fleet and army expected from England. From some want of vigor in the British councils, this force never left England, and the Colonial troops wore away the summer in idly awaiting their arrival. This inactivity left the Indians at leisure to infest the frontiers, and slay or capti- vate persons at Charlestown, Boscawen, Swanzey, Hinsdale, and Rochester. Often did the war whoop " wake the sleep of the cradle." A band of fifty savages hid themselves at night in a swamp at Keene, intending in the morning to surprise the peo- ple in garrison. By a man, who happened out quite early, they were discovered in season to prevent the surprise ; and after burning some houses and killing one or two unhappy persons found without the Fort, they drew off. Another party entered
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HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
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a house in Hopkinton in which the inmates were fast asleep, the door having been left open by one who had gone out early to hunt, and captivated eight persons. This disaster spread such alarm in the vicinity, that the few families planted in Hillsborough deserted their habitations and retired to places of safety, from which they did not return till after the lapse of fifteen years. These people had erected an house for religious worship, which, during their protracted absence, some reckless hunters, happening that way, set on fire; from no other motives it has been said, than an idea that the owners would never return, and a wish to enjoy the pleasure, such as it was, of seeing it burn ! To prevent the destruction of the towns on Connecticut river, Massachusetts sent a company commanded by the gallant and celebrated Capt. Phinehas Stevens, to oc- cupy a fort which had been built at Charlestown in the very teeth of the enemy. To maintain this position required great vigilance and resolution. Some of the men going out on an excursion, fell in with a party of Indians who fired on them and attempted to cut off their retreat, when Stevens marched out to their relief and beat off the enemy. At another time he went into the meadow with a body of men to look for some horses. The dogs discovered a concealed party of savages, who after a sharp conflict retreated, carrying off their dead, and leaving behind so many of their arms and equipments, as were sold for a sum which was reckoned " a great booty from such beggarly enemies."
Though the chief weight of savage hostilities now fell on the western and central towns, the eastern did not altogether escape. A party of Indians rushed upon five men working in a field at Rochester, who fled for their lives into a house not far distant. Here they found but a momentary refuge- the enemy stripped off the roof and entered the building, killing some and making prisoners of the rest.
The people of Winchester being in want of bread, Col. Willard of that place went with a guard of twenty men to a mill in Hinsdale to grind corn. Scarcely was the guard set, when they received from the lurking enemy a fire which they returned with spirit. With a loud and animating voice Willard ordered his men to rush upon them; the savages, inferring from this that they were numerous, fled in such haste as to leave behind " what Indians never leave if they can avoid it, their packs and provisions."
In August, one hundred Indians concealed themselves in the woods about Concord, intending to make an attack on the next Sabbath. Happily some troops from Massachusetts, and
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PERIOD VI .- 1741-1763.
a company from Exeter under Capt. Ladd arrived in town in scason to afford protection, forming in the whole a consider- able force. Aware that the enemy was lurking around, the inhabitants on the sabbath went armed to the meeting, and after the religious services marched out of the Church in a body, presenting a front so imposing that the savages did not venture an assault. The next morning seven of the Concord people on their way to Hopkinton were waylaid, five of the number slain, and two made prisouers. Jonathan Bradley, a man of singular intrepidity, being offered quarter, refused to accept it, and was - not killed till he had sustained for some time a desperate conflict with a great superiority of numbers.
In Autumn a report of the arrival in the eastern waters of a powerful fleet and army from France, under the command of the Duke de Anville, for the purposes of recovering Lou- isburg and ravaging the coasts of New-England, excited great alarm and led to every possible preparation to repel the ap- prehended invasion. Col. Atkinson's regiment was employed in fortifying the harbor of Pascataqua. A day of fasting and prayer was observed at this crisis in some portions of the country with unusual solemnity ; and on the very next night a violent tempest shattered the French fleet. The coincidence of the Fast and the Tempest was much noticed by the people of that day as a remarkable interposition of Divine Provi- dence. This disaster, added to the losses which had been occasioned by a mortal sickness among the crews and troops, of whom eleven hundred were buried at Halifax, besides hundreds thrown overboard, so dejected the French Com- mander that he ended his life by poison, and the second in command fell on his own sword. The remains of this great armament returned to France, without having effected any thing cither for the interest or honor of their nation.
On the approach of winter the garrison at Charlestown was withdrawn, and many of the scattered inhabitants of that region, being left without protection, abandoned their dwellings. Whatever of their effects they could, they car- ried off; much of what could not be transported was buried in the earth ; and the residue, together with their buildings left to be destroyed by the enemy. When the alarm of the French invasion was past, Atkinson's regiment marched to Winnepiseogee for the defence of the frontiers, and passed the winter in an encampment on the margin of the lake .- Annapolis in Nova Scotia being exposed to an attack by the French and Indians, two hundred men from this Province sailed eastward to unite with other forces in defending the
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HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1748.
town. By some mismanagement, the most of them returned home without having even landed at the place of destination. The Massachusetts troops in that quarter, disappointed of their aid and inferior in number to the enemy, were attacked at Minas in a snow storm, and after losing their Commander and having one hundred men killed or wonnded, were com- pelled to surrender.
The spring of 1747 brought with it a renewal of savage devastations. Capt. Stevens returned to Charlestown with a company of rangers, and found the fort there in the same condition in which he left it the preceding autumn. In a few days the incessant barking of the dogs announced the approach of a body of 400 French and Indians commanded by Dubeline. Frustrated in their design of taking Stevens by surprise, they set fire to the surrounding fences and log houses and attempted to burn the fort by shooting flaming arrows. These efforts, accompanied with horrid shouts and yells, they continued two days. The French commander next employed various threats and artifices to induce the gar- rison to surrender, but his attempts failed :- these brave men resolved to perish rather than yield. A renewal of attacks and shouts on the part of the enemy then followed,but with no bet- ter success. On the third day they offered to retire if Stevens would sell them provisions. Having received a decisive refusal they fired a few more guns ; this done, they drew off inalmost a starving condition. By this brave defence he acquired much honor, and received from the British Commander Sir Charles Knowles, then at Boston, the present of an elegant sword --- a circumstance which gave the township, when afterwards incorporated, the name of Charlestown. Other and smaller parties of the enemy went further east and did mischiefs in Rochester, Concord, Pembroke and Nottingham. Bridg- man's fort near Hinsdale was burnt by the Indians in Au- tumn and several persons slain.
The death of James Carr of Pembroke, who was killed by the enemy early in 1748, was attended with a singular instance of canine attchment and fidelity. He with two others was plow- ing on the west bank of the river, within the present township of Bow. Towards night some Indians, who, concealed in a thicket of bushes, had been watching them all day, rushed up- on them ; his two companions were taken ; but in attempting to run to the river, Carr was shot and fell dead on his back with his arms somewhat extended. As the savages ran up to scalp him, his dog, a large and fierce animal, instantly attacked them ; but was stunned by the blow of a tomahawk and left for dead.
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93
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PERIOD VI .- 1741-1763.
The people in garrison at Pembroke heard the firing, but it being near night did not venture on an immediate pursuit, from the apprehension of falling into an ambuscade. After the de- parture of the enemy the dog revived, guarded the corpse of his master through the night; and was found next morning with his nose laid in its open hand ; nor would the faithful an- imal permit any one to remove or even touch the body, till after the use of much flattery and some force.
Several men belonging to Fort Hinsdale having been killed or inade prisoners, Capt. Hobbs, the second in command at Charlestown, was sent with a ranging party of forty men to scour the woods west of Connecticut river. Having halted to refresh his men at a spot a few miles west of Brattleborough, he was suddenly attacked by 150 savages. Promptly placing his men behind the shelter of trees, he maintained a combat of three hours, and whenever the foe attempted to rush upon him, the fire of his sharp shooters drove them back. They at length retired, carrying off their dead and leaving the ground profusely sprinkled with their blood. In this fierce engagement Hobbs lost but three of his men. The defeated Indians were not however deterred from further efforts; they not long after at- tacked a party of seventeen men in Hinsdale, and killed or made prisoners a majority of the number.
Peace was re-established between England and France by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle in October. The good news soon crossed the Atlantic and was followed by a treaty with the In- dians, concluded at Portland. Prisoners were to be restored without ransom, and conquests made during the war to be giv- en up. 'The English captives had been treated with far more humanity than in any former war. Of deliberate murder or torture there was not a single instance ; the old practice of ma- king prisoners run the gauntlet was chiefly discontinued ; and often, when sick or feeble, they were assisted to travel, and in times of pinching scarcity received an equal allowance of pro- visions with the captors themselves.
If we imagine the Indians to be altogether unsusceptible of the finer feelings of humanity, we do them injustice. Of their moderation Belknap relates the following instance : " An In- dian surprised a man at Ashuelot ; the man asked for quarter and it was granted. While the Indian was preparing to bind him, he seized his gun and shot him in the arm. The Indian however secured him, but took no other revenge than to say with a kick, ' You dog, how could you treat me so ?' " A little incident which occurred soon after the war, exhibits striking traits of their sympathy and humanity. A party of their war- riors came to Concord and encamped near the house of the
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94
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1749.
Rev. Mr. Walker, who was much respected by them as well as beloved by his parishioners. He being from home, his wife expressed apprehensions of danger. The Indians remarked to each other, " Minister's wife afraid." To allay her fears they gave up their guns, left them in her possession till they were ready to depart, and treated her with courtesy and respect.
Some of the Ecclesiastical transactions which had occurred during the war, demand a brief notice. In 1745, the Rev. Messrs. Moorhead of Boston, McGregor of Londonderry, and Abercrombie of Pelham, Ms. formed the first Presbytery in New-England, called the Boston Presbytery. Thirty years afterwards, its numbers having been much increased, this body was divided into three, called the First Eastern Presby- tery, the Presbytery of Londonderry, and the Presbytery of Palmer, united in one Synod, called the Synod of New-Eng- land, which subsisted some years and held its annual meet- ings at Londonderry. The first and third of these Presbyteries became extinct: that of Londonderry still subsists, and includes all the Presbyterian Ministers and Churches, eleven in number, now in the State. The Congregational Ministers of the Province, of whom at that period there were more than thirty, formed a Convention in 1747 to meet annually for the purposes of mutual improvement and consultation on the interests of religion. The meetings of this body, origi- nally holden in Portsmouth, are now holden at Concord on the week of Election.
The influx of immigrants from Massachusetts had doubled the population of New-Hampshire in eighteen years. It amounted in 1749 to thirty thousand. The enterprising men of the day, who were projecting new settlements, began to turn their attention to the fine country forming the present State of Vermont. It was claimed by New-Hampshire on the grounds, that the king allowed her southern line to extend to the west till it met his Majesty's other Provinces; and as Connecticut and Massachusetts extended to a line drawn twenty miles east of the Hudson, that New-Hampshire ought to have an equal extension westward. This was contested by New-York for the following reasons : that her chartered limits extended eastward to the Connecticut river ; that her concessions of territory to the Provinces of Connecticut and Massachusetts gave no right to New-Hampshire to demand further concessions ; and that her Eastern boundary, north of Massachusetts, ought of course to extend to the limit pre- scribed by the charter. As a practical assertion of the claim of New-Hampshire, Gov. Wentworth, granted the town of perel t
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95
PERIOD VI .- 1741-1763.
1749.]
Bennington, and two or three years afterwards several other townships west of the river; till the second French war in- terrupted the business of granting and settling new lands.
On the expiration of the triennial period for which the Assembly was elected, a new one met in 1749, between whom and Gov. Wentworth arose warm and protracted altercations. They chose Richard Waldron, the former Secretary, who had been for some years in retirement from public life, Speaker of the House. The Governor negatived the choice. They complained of his negative as a breach of their privilege; as being, if not an usurpation, yet an abuse of power ; and re- fused to choose another Speaker. There was another con- tested point : the Governor had exercised at pleasure the power of sending Writs of Election to some new towns not before represented, leaving others of equal or superior popu- lation, unrepresented. The House denied his authority to determine without their concurrence, what towns should en- joy the privilege of representation, and refused to admit the new members to their seats. The exigencies of the late war had compelled Wentworth at the meeting of the preceding Assembly to yield the point for that time ; but now, supported by fresh instructions from the King, he was inflexible. The Assembly was equally indisposed to recede, and tlie conse- quence was, that although it was kept alive by adjournments and prorogations for the term of three years, no public busi- ness was transacted. The Treasurer's accounts remained unsettled, the soldiers who had served during the war were unpaid, and the Recorder's office was closed. His term was expired and a new choice could not be made till the Assem- bly wes duly organized.
Great inconvenience and clamor were the inevitable results of this suspension of public business, and many were inclined :o lay the blame on the head of the Governor. The confu- sion was occasioned in no small degree by the want of a definite, written Constitution The Governor's Com- mission from the King was almost the only substitute for such an instrument; and as neither this nor the Triennial Act, determined on what principle Writs of Election should be sent to the new towns, the Governor issued them to such is he thought proper, and neglected others. The controversy vas injurious to his popularity and led to the transmission of . complaint against him to England, to be laid before the King. His opponents wislied to compass his removal from office, and to procure the appointment of Sir William Pep- erell to succeed him. The person to whose care the com-
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96
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1752.
plaint was entrusted, having ascertained that the English Ministry was disposed to sustain the Governor, and that a complaint to the King against one of his servants for follow- ing his instructions would be ill received, thought it not prudent to present it, and the affair was dropped.
A new Assembly was convened in 1752. The evils of past altercations inclined them to caution and moderation ; the members returned from the new towns were admitted to seats without controversy ; and Meshech Weare of Hampton Falls, a man fast rising into distinction, whom it was foreseen the Governor would approve, was chosen speaker. The measures demanded by the public interest were adopted with tolerable harmony, and the Governor by a liberal distribution of civil and military Commissions, brought over some of his opponents, softened the resentment of others, and reinstated himself in some degree in his former good standing with the people.
An occurrence which took place at this time alarmed the people of Hinsdale, and proved one of the mountains of New- Hampshire to be in an humble degree volcanic. It was a loud explosion like the report of a cannon attended with a column of smoke proceeding from the West River mountain, situated in Hinsdale and Chesterfield. A similar phenomenon alarmed the garrison of Fort Dummer more than twenty years before, and again occurred near the commencement of the Revolu- tionary war. Dr. Dwight, who visited the spot in 1798, found apertures which must have been formed by blasts of air from the bowels of the mountain, and a considerable quantity of calcined and vitrified matter, the product of subterranean fire.
Vigorous efforts were made to extend the settlements in the western parts of the Province. Many of the former set- tlers whom the war had driven off, returned with accessions to their number, to their homes in this great wilderness, dotted with here and there a patch of cultivation. Grants of new townships were induced by various motives, such as the de. sire of attracting emigrants from other Provinces, and a regard on the part of the Governor, to the fees and emolu- ments accruing to himself, which were great. In each o: the townships he reserved to himself a right of land, and others for the support of the Episcopal Church, to which he was warmly attached. It has been said that "during his ad ministration there wasa triple union of the State, the Church and Himself, of which He however, was the most considera
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PERIOD VI .- 1741-1763.
1753.]
ble part." For the purpose of shutting out the French from the rich meadows of Coos, included in the present towns of Haverhill and Newbury, in which it was feared they might establish themselves, it was concluded to form a settlement there ; a party was accordingly sent up the river to lay out two townships, and make preparation for the reception of many families soon to follow them. This scheme awakened the jealousy of the St. Francis Indians, residing on the river of that name in Canada, to whom were united the remains of the tribes once planted in New-Hampshire and the western parts of Maine. Some of their warriors came to Capt. Stevens of Charlestown, with a message from the tribe, importing, that the English already owned more land than they could culti- vate, and threatening hostilities if they persisted in the design of occupying still more-a threat which disheartened the ad- venturers and led to an abandonment of the plan. These Indians made a further discovery of their ill temper, by sur- prising four men who were hunting in the wilderness near Baker's river, within the present limits of Rumney. Only one of the four escaped ; one was killed ; the other two were made prisoners and carried to Canada.
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