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 3
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In June of the next year, these unwelcome visitants came to Portsmouth, where they called a public meeting and released ne people from the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. They ap- ointed Magistrates of their own selection, and excited a small arty disaffected to the existing order of things, to frame a
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24
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1669.
petition to the King in the name of the several towns to be erected into a distinct Province. So overbearing was their de- portment that Sir Robert Carr threatened an old man with death merely for his forbidding a child to open a door to them. They soon left this State for Maine: no sooner were they gone than the people, firmly attached to the government of Massa- chusetts, refused to recognize the newly appointed Magistrates and avowed their determination to remain obedient to the Ma- gistrates and laws of that Colony. The towns of Portsmouth and Dover formally disavowed the petition for a separation which had been got up in their name. On the return of the Commis- sioners to England, they presented to the King a report of their doings, filled with bitter reproaches of the Colony of Massachu setts. Amid many evils one benefit resulted from their visit- the erection of a Fort mounted with cannon for the defence o the harbor of Pascataqua, on Great Island, now New-Castle .- This was done by the express order of the King.
An incident occurred in 1668 strikingly indicative of good sense on the part of the Indians, and not unworthy of a brie memorial. Two English traders having established a "trucking' house among the Penacooks, some of the Chiefs took a journey to Pascataqua to request that no spirituous liquors might be sold Their motion was disregarded ; and not long after, a white mai was killed by an Indian in a drunken carousal within the pres ent limits of Concord. The Chiefs then renewed their entrea ties to the traders to furnish no more rum, and even complained to the General Court, urging the plea that the Mohawks migh come upon them when drunk and destroy them. Who can sup press the wish that this early Temperance movement had beer attended with better success? The only apology to be offered for the traders is, that the public mind was then unenlightened on the subject, and that the traffic in ardent spirits was not the viewed as it now is by thousands, in the light of an immorality
The next year is the era of a memorable expedition underta ken by the New-England Indians against their old enemies th Mohawks, in New-York. Chickatawbut, one of the chief Sa chems of the Massachusetts tribe, was the leader of the enter prise and collected a force of 600 men. From the enmity know to have long subsisted between the Mohawks and the New-Hamp shire Indians, it is almost certain that some of the latter wer engaged. Their English neighbors dissuaded them from th attempt as too distant and perilous ; but they would not be ad vised. Having arrived in the country of their enemies, the" laid siege to one of their forts. Being distressed by sicknes and want of provisions they at length concluded to return home the Mohawks pursued them on their retreat, and having forme
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PERIOD II .- 1641-1679.
1673.]
an ambush at a defile between two swamps, attacked them at great advantage and killed fifty of their chief warriors. Never again did the New-England Indians venture to attack this powerful tribe.
That the early inhabitants of New-Hampshire,though few and comparatively poor, were not insensible of the importance of Education, is plain from the liberal contributions made by the towns, particularly by Portsmouth, then become the richest of the four, toward the erection ofa new College edifice at Cain- bridge. Soon afterwards a Congregational church was formed in Portsmouth, in 1671, and the Rev. Mr. Moodey, who had for years preached in the place, was ordained as its Pastor, being the eighth settled Congregational minister in the State. Gov. Leverett and several other magistrates came from Massachu- setts to attend the ordination. Mr. Moodey was a man of con- siderable distinction, and afterwards acted a conspicuous part in resisting the encroachments of arbitrary power. The first settlers were now passing fast off the stage-Edward Hilton the founder of Dover, died this year at Exeter, having lived in the Colony almost haif a century.
About the year 1673 a settlement, the earliest in the County of Hillsborough, was begun at Dunstable which soon included thirty families. The grant was quite large, embracing either the whole or parts of several adjacent towns. For half a cen- tury afterwards the rest of the County remained a wilderness. In the course of a few years a church was gathered in this town, of which the Rev. Thomas Weld was Pastor.
We are now approaching the interesting period of the first general Indian war. With the exception of the short Pequot war in Connecticut, the Colonists had lived with the Indians half a century in profound peace. In the minds of the latter, suspicions and jealousies began to operate ; they saw the En- glish settlements extending on every side ; their own hunting grounds were narrowed; and they began to be apprehensive they might be eventually dispossessed. Philip, Sachem of the Wampanoags, who resided at Mount Hope in Rhode-Island, an ambitious, shrewd, and bold man, was the most active insti- gator of the impending war. Though Belknap supposes he was hurried into it rather by the rash ardor of his young war- "iors than by his own inclinations, yet the preponderance of historical evidence is certainly on the side of the latter opinion. Possessing great influence not only in his own tribe but among all the Indians in New-England, he resolved to free his coun- ry from those whom he deemed intruders. He sent his run- a forr hers in all directions, and had the address to engage in the C
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26
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1675.
enterprise most of the tribes in the region. The Penacooks on the Merrimac were the only tribe who"resisted his solicita- tions-their Sachem Wonolanset not having forgotten the charge of his father Passaconaway, now dead, to cultivate the friendship ofthe white men. The Ossipees in Strafford Coun- ty and the Pequawketts on the Saco river, both included in the name of Northern Indians, ardently engaged in the hostile confederacy. Of the Eastern Indians, as those of Maine were called, almost the whole body came into the plan with readi- ness ; and as truth compels us too add, not without serious provocation. As not long before, the wife of Squando a noted Pequawkett Sachem was passing on Saco river with her infant child in her frail bark canoe, some rude sailors who had heard that Indian children could swim as naturally as the young of brutes, met her and wantonly overset her canoe. The child sunk ; the mother instantly dived and recovered it; but the child dying soon after, not only Squando, but the Indians in general ascribed its death to this brutal treatment. Their dis- contents were inflamed by other provocations received from the Eastern settlers, some of whom it must be acknowledged, were unprincipled men. Philip engaged as his allies most of the tribes in Massachusetts and Rhode-Island. An artful plan to enlist the Mohawks in the war proved not only abortive, but pernicious to himself. He had murdered, it has been said, some of this tribe and left their bodies unburied in the woods, imagining their brethren would ascribe the deed to the En- glish, and be provoked to join the confederacy against them : but one of the number who had been left for dead, unexpec- tedly recovered and disclosed to his countrymen the perfidy of Philip-a circumstance which made them his implacable ene- mies.
For some time had the Colonists been apprehensive of hos- tile designs on the part of the Indians. Their suspicions were confirmed by the following occurrence : Sausaman, a christian Indian, whom Philip suspected of giving intelligence of his plots to the English, was murdered at his instigation and his body thrown into a pond. This act was considered as equiva- lent to a declaration of war.
In June, 1675, open hostilities were commenced. Philip attacked Swanzey, Mass. and in a few hours killed several of the inhabitants. The flame of war spread with rapidity .- Forming themselves into small bands, the eastern and northern Indians robbed and killed many of the scattered inhabitants of Maine, and in September extended their incursions into New- Hampshire. Houses were burnt and persons slain in Somers-
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PERIOD II .- 1641-1679.
1675.]
worth, Durham, and on the road between Exeter and Hampton. A party of savages attacked a house in Berwick, a town in Maine on the border of New-Hampshire, in which were fifteen women and children. A girl of eighteen discovering their approach, shut the door and stood against it till the Indians cut it in pieces with their hatchets, and on entering knocked lier down and left her for dead. While this was doing, the rest of the women and children fled ; and all arrived safely at another fortified house, excepting two children who being unable to get over a fence, were overtaken and slain. The adventurous girl who thus saved the lives of thirteen persons, recovered of her wounds : but we must regret that her name has not been preserved.
Parties of men occasionally scoured the woods in quest of the enemy, but with no great success. In common with the rest of New-England, the towns of New-Hampshire were filled with alarm ; business was at a stand ; the people, deserting their own habitations, collected themselves together in the larger houses which they fortified as they could. They could neither go into the fields, nor even step out of doors but at the peril of life. The seventh of October was observed as a day of fasting
A few men having been killed at Berwick, the alarmed in- habitants sent an express to Maj. Waldron at Dover imploring succor. None liowever could be granted, as an attack was hourly expected there. Resolving to attempt the recovery of the bodies of the slain, Lieut. Plaisted, the principal military officer of Berwick, ventured out for that purpose with a party of twenty men ; but was himself slain together with two of his sons. These successes emboldened the savages to shew themselves on the east side of the river opposite to Portsmouth, in the attitude of menacing that town. They were however dispersed by the firing of some cannon ; and a light snow ren- dering it easy to follow their track, they were pursued, over- taken, and compelled to flee precipitately, leaving behind them their packs and plunder.
In this crisis winter set in with uncommon severity and cov- ered the earth with a snow four feet deep. This circumstance, while it prevented a meditated expedition against the winter quarters of the Indians around Winnepiseogee and Ossipee lakes, produced a consequence still more important, the incli- nation of their minds to peace. Pinched with famine they came to Major Waldron with professions of sorrow for the past and promises of amity for the future, and a peace was ca- sily concluded with the northern and eastern Indians, which
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HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1675.
restored the captives and gave New-Hampshire a breathing time of several months. On the part of the savages the war had been conducted with not a few circumstances of barbarity, of which the following may serve as a specimen : in one of their incursions they killed an old man at Durham, cut off his head, and set it on a pole in derision.
In the mean time Philip at the head of the southern tribes continued the war in Massachusetts, and burnt, plundered, and slew with a high hand. That Colony suffered severely and was now struggling for existence. It falls not within our plan to relate in detail the attack on Brookfield, where a providen- tial shower of rain extinguished the flames of a garrisoned house which had been set on fire by the savages, and saved se- venty persons from an awful death ; the conflagration of Deer- field, Mendon, Groton, Rehoboth, Providence, and Warwick ; the desolation of Lancaster, whence Mrs. Rowlandson, a lady who had been tenderly and delicately educated, was led cap- tive into the wilderness ; the defeat of Capt. Beers, accompa- nied with the fall of himself and twenty of his men, at North- field ; the surprise of Capt. Lothrop and his company while gathering grapes at Muddy Brook in Deerfield by some hund- reds of Indians, who slew him and more than seventy young men, the flower of the county of Essex ; the disastrous uchtavs Captains Wadsworth and Brocklebank at Sudbury, who after fighting with great gallantry and killing 120 of the enemy, themselves fell with fifty of their men. These bloody rever- ses overspread the country with gloom ; it indeed seemed that unless a speedy check were given to the career of Philip, the whole region from the Pascataqua to Long Island Sound would be overswept and left desolate.
Threatened with utter extermination, the Colonists resolved on a desperate effort at self-preservation, and projected a plan, at once bold and perilous, which was happily crowned with success. Philip, after his career of victory, had fortified a camp in a great swamp in Rhode-Island, to which he repaired with a multitude of warriors, old men, women and children, for winter quarters. A large force from Massachusetts, Ply- mouth, and Connecticut attacked this fort in December, forced an entrance after a desperate conflict, kindled a fire which soon wrapped in flames 600 weekwams, and killed or burnt one thou- sand Indians. The terror-struck survivors fled into the woods, where, deprived of shelter and unfurnished with provisions they suffered great extremities.
From this dreadful blow the southern Indians never recov- ered, and the events of the war in the next campaign, 1676,
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PERIOD 11 .- 1623-1641.
1676.]
were decidedly adverse to them. English scouting parties trav- ersed the woods in all directions, killing and captivating large numbers. A considerable body of the enemy on the west bank of Connecticut river, near Miller's Falls, were attacked by surprise : many were killed outright ; others ran into the river and were drowned; others took to their canoes, but forgetting in their panic to seize the paddles, were borne down the falls and lost. In August, Capt. Church surprised Philip himself, the soul of the war, who being shot by an Indian friendly to the English, fell dead on his face in the mud and water .- Thus perished this terrific and celebrated savage, whose name, had he succeeded in his favorite enterprise, had gone down with applause to future generations of Indians as the Deliverer of their country. Broken and dispirited, the southern tribes after his fall ceased from hostilities, and Massachusetts rested from war.
The joy occasioned by peace in southern New-England, was quickly damped by the renewal of hostilities on the part of the Eastern Indians against Maine and New Hampshire. They were excited to this step by some refugees from the wes- tern tribes, who, after the death of Philip, fled to the East rather than submit to the English. A bloody outrage having been committed by them at Portland, all the inhabitants to the east of that place abandoned their plantations. Freed from the terror of Philip, Massachusetts was now able to extend a helping hand to the Eastern settlements, and two companies of soldiers marched for this purpose from Boston. On their arrival at Dover in September, they found a large body of Penacooks, and other New-Hampshire Indians at Maj. Wal- dron's, with whom they had confirmed a peace. Among then, were many refugees from the Massachusetts tribes who were known to have been engaged in the war, as the confederates of the late Philip. By the stratagemn of a pretended sham- fight, to which the Indians agreed for diversion, the whole body was surrounded ; and while the Penacooks were peace- ably dismissed, the southern Indians intermingled with them, to the number of two hundred, were seized, a few executed, and the rest sold into slavery, some of whom were carried to Tangiers in Africa. Maj. Waldron's personal inclinations were averse to this act, but he felt himself compelled to it by the orders of the government. The morality of it is more than questionable: and the Penacooks, wlio had hitherto been peaceable, deeply resented it, as a breach of faith on the part of the Major. Some years afterwards they inflict-
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HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1677.
ed on him ample revenge, in accordance with their well known character of not forgetting an injury.
After this seizure of the southern Indians at Dover, the two Massachusetts companies, reinforced by some of Waldron's men, went Eastward ; but on their approach the enemy fled into the woods, and they found the region deserted and deso- late. On their return from this fruitless march, they under- took a winter expedition over frozen mountains and deep snows, to Ossipee Lake, on whose western shore the Indians had constructed a strong fort; but found this region also deser- ted by the enemy. A third expedition into the country of the hostile Indians was undertaken in the depth of winter, and led by Waldron himself ; but after a few unimportant skirmishes, and the erection of a fort on the Kennebec, the troops return- ed with little success.
With the existence of an inveterate enmity between the Mohawks of New York and the New-England tribes, the rea- der has been made acquainted in a preceding page. The Penacooks had a great dread of these formidable enemies, with whom, according to an old tradition, their fathers had once fought a great battle in the vicinity of Concord, where they had a fortified position to which they might retire in case of attack. Imagining that an incursion of Mohawks might terrify the hostile Indians into submission, the Government of Massachusetts sent agents into their country, who found it easy to persuade them to take up arms against their eastern enemies. A party of them came from the west, in March, 1677, and made their appearance at-Amoskeag. The son of Wonolan- set, who was hunting on the east side of the river, no sooner discovered them than he found by their language that they were Mohawks. Instantly he fled, and escaped uninjured amid a shower of bullets. They next appeared in the neigh- borhood of Dover, and killed several of a scouting party of friendly Indians whom Waldron had sent out to watch their motions. One of the victims was Blind Will, who being drag- ged away by the hair of his head and wounded, was left to perish on a neck of land in Dover, which has ever since borne his name.
This incursion of the Mohawks not only failed of its object but infused into the minds of the Penacooks, already soured by the seizure of their associates, a suspicion that the English were plotting their destruction. The people passed the ensu- ing summer in ceaseless anxiety, and a few individuals were killed by parties of the enemy continually hovering in the pre- cincts of the settlements.
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PERIOD 11 .- 1641-1679.
1678.]
Early in 1678, the hostile tribes discovered an inclination for peace. Messrs. Champernoon and Fryer, of Portsmouth, and Maj. Shapleigh of Maine, met their chiefs at Casco, now Portland, and negotiated a treaty. The captives were restor- ed, and a war which had raged in some one or other of the Colonies for three years, destroyed a multitude of their young inen, and threatened their very existence, was happily termin- ated. Portsmouth suffered less than the other towns, its pe- ninsular situation contributing much to its protection.
It is worthy of remark that while this war was raging in most parts of the country, the numerous Indians of Martha's Vineyard, who had been christianized by the benevolent la- bors of Mayhew, abstained from all participation in hostilities, and exhibited towards the English the most friendly disposi- tion. A striking instance of the influence and value of Chris- tian instruction.
A circumstance related by Belknap and others, deserves no- tice, as illustrative of the spirit of the age. In the course of the war many people imagined they heard drums and guns in the air ; numerous reports were spread of the appearance of flaming swords and spears in the sky ; and eclipses were not seen without serious apprehension. The occurrence of some battles was affirmed to be known on the very day, in places so distant as to render a conveyance of the news by human effort impossible, and to infer some mysterious and supernatural communication. Instead of ridiculing these weaknesses of that age, it becomes us rather to be thankful that superior light has freed the present age from such groundless apprehensions, and given us juster views of the providential government of God.
While the people of New-Hampshire were defending their possessions at the price of blood, the heir of Mason in Eng- land made a second attempt to recover possession of the Prov- ince. A petition presented by him to the king, complaining of his wrongs, procured a royal order to Massachusetts to shew cause why slie exercised jurisdiction over New-Hamp- shire. This order was brought to Boston by Edward Ran- dolplı, a kinsman of Mason, in that day looked upon as the Evil Genius of New-England-an artful, ambitious man, deep- ly interested to establish the claim of his relative, and viru- lently opposed to the government and religious establishments of Massachusetts. He soon came into this province, publisli- ing a letter from Mason to the inhabitants, in which he claimed the soil of New-Hampshire as his own property. The people were seriously alarmed, and called public meetings in which
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HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1679.
they protested against the claim, and agreed to petition the king for protection. To pay quit-rents for lands they had fairly bought of the Indians, cultivated for half a century, and defended at the risk of their lives ; was a submission they deemed unreasonable. Had Mason confined his claim to the unsettled part of his patent, quieting the inhabitants of the four towns in their possessions, they would have made no op- position. Randolph, on his return to England, misrepresented their sentiments, reporting to the King that the country was opposed to what he called the usurpation of Massachusetts, and wished for a separation ; at the same time employing all the means in his power, to inflame the prejudices of the King's ministers against that colony.
Two agents from Massachusetts repaired to England to de- fend against the claim of Mason and the accusations of Ran- dolph. After a hearing of the parties before the king's judges, it was decided that the construction put by Massachusetts on her Charter, which would make it cover all the south-eastern section of New-Hampshire, was inadmissible; and that the four towns of Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter and Hampton, were out of her jurisdiction. It was also decided that Mason had no right of jurisdiction over New-Hampshire ; of the justice of his claim to the right of soil, the judges gave no opinion, as the occupants, a party deeply concerned, were not before them.
This decision paved the way for the separation from Mas- sachusetts, and the erection of New-Hampshire into a distinct Province. Several considerations influenced the king to de- termine on this step : his displeasure against Massachusetts- his willingness to favor the claim of Mason-and the necessi- ty of erecting a jurisdiction by which the conflicting claims to the right of soil might be decided, it being admitted that no Court in England had cognizance of the case. He first re- quired Mason to renounce all claim of rents for time past, and to bind himself to give to all occupants of land, provided he should establish his claim to the soil, a title forever on condition of the annual payment of one fortieth part of the yearly value of their possessions. Next, he issued a Royal Commission in 1679, restraining the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and erect- ing New-Hampshire into a Royal Province. The government was committed to two distinct branches, a President and Coun- cil to be appointed by the Crown, and an Assembly of Rep- resentatives to be chosen by the people. John Cutts, an eminent and popular merchant of Portsmouth was appointed President of the Province, and Richard Martin, William Vaughan, and Thomas Daniel of Portsmouth, Richard Wal-
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