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 9
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79
PERIOD V .- 1713-1741.
1735.]
The leading man of this party was Richard Waldron the Provincial Secretary ; whose father, Col. Richard Waldron, an eminent Merchant and Counsellor, had lately died, and whose grandfather was the celebrated Major Waldron, in old- en times the most conspicuous character in the Province .- The talents and virtues of Secretary Waldron sustained the high respectability the family had possessed for almost a century.
Of the two parties, that opposed to the Governor was the more powerful, and had the address to persuade the majority of the people that it would be for the honor and interest of New-Hampshire to have no connection with Massachusetts ; that a portion of the waste lands would be granted to this Province ; and that the expense of obtaining a final settlement of the lines would hardly exceed " a pullet per man." Influ- enced by these views the House of Representatives, after one more ineffectual trial to accommodate the matter with the sis- ter Province, determined to refer it to the decision of the King. Without the concurrence of the Council they ap- pointed John Rindge, who was preparing to visit England on commercial business, their Agent to petition the King to es- tablish the boundary lines. The petition was presented and referred to the Lords of Trade, and Rindge on his departure from London in 1732 left the business in the hands of John Tomlinson, Esq., a shrewd, active, and persevering man, to whose uuremitting exertions this State is indebted for a large slice of its present territory. A more efficient Agent could not have been found. He employed as his solicitor a Mr. Parris, who performed his part with much address; and the two proved an overmatch for the agents on the side of Mas- sachusetts.
Mr. Tomlinson was ready to promote the religious as well is political interests of New-Hampshire. Several persons in Portsmouth, attached to the liturgy and forms of the Episco- pal church, having undertaken to erect a chapel, lie contribu- ed largely himself, and procured benefactions from others in London, among whom was the Queen, who gave several folio prayer books and a service of plate for the altar. In acknowl- dgment of her bounty the building was called Queen's chapel. A few years afterwards, the Rev. Arthur Browne became the minister of this church, with an allowance of the greater part of a salary from the Society in England for propogating the gospel in foreign parts.
A severe check was given to the progress of population in 1735 y the prevalence of the Malignant Throat Distemper, which
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80
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1737.
began its ravages at Kingston, and gradually spread over this and other British Provinces from Maine to Carolina. In little more than a year a thousand persons, chiefly children, died in New-Hampshire. Twenty families in Hampton Falls buried all their children. The death of twenty thousand persons at this day would be scarcely a greater mortality in proportion to the present population. This epidemic has revisited the country at different times since, but with a virulence considerably di- minished.
The two political parties continued their dissensions with increasing animosity. Belcher, ardent in his feelings and unguarded in expression, threw out many reflections on his opponents, while on their part they were not wantiug in rep resenting him as indifferent to the King's interest, partial to Massachusetts, opposed to the settlement of the lines, and ready to connive at the destruction of the King's timber on th waste lands. The letters of the leading partisans to thei correspondents in England were filled with mutual criminal tions. The Governor represented Dunbar as perfidious an malicious, "a plague to the Governor and a deceiver of th people," and not only excluded him from a seat in the Cour cil, but conferred on Walton the senior Counsellor, th command of the fort and the granting of passes for ships an of licenses for marriage :- powers which had been formerl exercised by the Lieut. Governor, and which were the source of no inconsiderable part of his emoluments. Reduced b these measures to a state of insignificance, Dunbar retired ind Maine and was long absent from New-Hampshire.
Not only was he an object of suspicion to Belcher, but dislike to many of the people. As Surveyor General of th King's woods he had acted with extreme rigor, visiting tl sawmills, siezing and marking large quantities of timber, ar then throwing on the owners the burden of proving the property : a procedure which exposed him to insults and one instance excited a riot. His unpopularity notwithstandin he was courted by the party opposed to the Governor, u der the impression that his influnece with the English Minist might aid in procuring for New-Hampshire the appointme of another Governor. Full of the hope of obtaining the a pointment for himself, he returned in 1737 to England, bi was there imprisoned by his old creditors. By the interferen of Tomlinson he was liberated; but not having sufficie influence to obtain the office he sought, he never returned America. After a few years he was appointed Governor
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81
PERIOD V .- 1713-1741.
1740.]
the Island of St. Helena, since so celebrated as the prison of Napoleon Bournaparte.
Tomlinson in the mean time supported the petition of New-Hampshire with all his address, and obtained a royal order constituting a Board of Commissioners, to be selected from the Counsellors of the neighboring Provinces, with pow- er to settle the contested lines. This Board inet at Hampton, August, 1737; and in a few days the Assemblies of the two contending Provinces met in the same neighborhood, that of Massachusetts at Salisbury and that of New-Hampshire at Hampton Falls. At the head of two Provinces, cach jealous of the designs of the other, the Governor had a part to act of no little delicacy. Massachusetts not only asserted her right to all the lands south and west of a line drawn three miles from the left bank of the Merrimac up to the confluence of its two main branches, but also contended that the eastern boundary of New-Hampshire should be a line drawn from the mouth of the Pascataqua to the source of the Salmon Falls branch, and then due north-west, which would have cut off from New-Hampshire small portions of Strafford and Grafton, and ahnost the whole of Coos County. New-Hamp- shire claimed for her southern boundary a line drawn due west from a point three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimac ; and for her castern, a line passing up the Pascata- qua to the source of Salmon Falls river, and thence north one or two degrees west. After an infinity of pleas, replications, rejoinders, exceptions, and protests, the Commissioners agreed on a result which established the eastern line as it now runs, but left the southern undetermined.
It was seen by all parties that this protracted controversy could be brought to a close only by a royal decision. The Agents of both Provinces submitted to the King their respec- ive claims; the "petition of appeal" on the part of this Province was drawn up by Parris, in which he artfully rep- 'esented "the poor, little, loyal, distressed Province of New- Hampshire" as in danger of being devoured by "the vast, pulent, overgrown Province of Massachusetts." A decision was not obtained till 1740, when the king terminated the dis- ute more favorably for New-Hampshire than she had ever 'entured to anticipate, and established the eastern and south- 'rn lines as they now run. The substitution of the present outhern line in lieu of one running due west from a point hree miles north of the mouth of the Merrimac, gave New- Hampshire a territory of fifty miles in length, by fourteen in breadth more than she had ever claimed.
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82
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1740
To Massachusetts this result was extremely mortifying .- In the whole management of the affair, her agents had been altogether surpassed in point of dexterity and address, b those of this Province. This however was not the only rea son of her failure-her inflexible refusal to settle a permaner salary on the royal Governors had excited in England a spir of resentment, and awakened in the Ministry a jealousy tha she was aiming at independence. From these feelings aros a disposition to punish her obstinacy and cramp her ambition by diminishing her extent and importance.
The next year the lines were run and marked. From the ocean to a station three miles north of Patucket Falls, th line was surveyed by George Mitchell. Richard Hazen bega at that station, forming a corner of Pelham, and marked th line running west across the Connecticut river to the suppe sed boundary of New-York. Walter Bryant marked th East line from the head of Salmon Falls river about thir miles, when the difficulties of travelling in the wilderness an some fears of the Indians induced him to desist.
While this important affair had been pending in Englan the opponents of Gov. Belcher had not intermitte their efforts to effect his removal, In one instance th base arts of forgery were employed against him. A lett was sent to England purporting to have been written by som of the people of Exeter, accusing him of having encourage them to cut the king's timber, by a promise of screening the from prosecution. The forgery was indeed detected, but n till it had produced an impression unfavorable to his chara ter. A petition was forwarded, signed by several leading me in Portsmouth, charging him with suffering the Fort in th harbor of Pascataqua to fall into ruin, neglecting the disc pline of the Militia, and hindering the prosperity and grow of the Province. These attacks had subjected him in 1739 a reprimand from the king : but having some powerful friend among the Lords in office, he stood his ground awhile longe His friends in this Province made all the efforts in their pov er to support him, and procured the signatures of 500 of tl inhabitants to a petition for his continuance in office. But still greater number petitioned for his removal, and the Assen bly passed a resolution of disapprobation of his administratio His friends, particularly the inhabitants of the new tow settled by people from Massachusetts, attached as they we: to their former government and institutions, would have glad seen New-Hampshire annexed to that Province, and petitione
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83
PERIOD V .- 1713-1741.
74 1741.]
to that effect, but without success. The British Government n 1741 removed him from the Chair.
He immediately repaired to England, and was able to exhi- it such convincing proofs of his own integrity and of the ane nisrepresentations of his opposers, as in a great measure ef- aced all unfavorable impressions ; and he soon obtained the y th arve bitio: appointment of Governor of New-Jersey. In that Province he passed his remaining days in peace, and his memory is held there in high respect. Of Princeton College he was a Founder and liberal Benefactor. It is now generally admitted mth hat his difficulties in Massachusetts and New-Hampshire bech ed rose from a warm and quick temper, and not from any want f integrity. His religious character possessed much excel- ence; no man more carefully redeemed time from the suppbusiness of the world for the study of the Holy Scriptures, ed thand the performance of the various duties of Christian devo- this ion.
ess From the close of the short administration of Governor Allen in 1699, through a period of more than forty years, ngls rmitt ice Massachusetts and New-Hampshire, though each had its sep- rate Lieutenant Governor and Legislative Assembly, had een placed under the administration of the same Governor. s he generally resided at Boston, this arrangement made ew-Hampshire a kind of appendage to Massachusetts, and ad become disagreeable to the people. The enlargement of heir territory, population and wealth, by the settlement of butthe boundary lines, gave them a higher sense of their own political importance ; and in anticipation of this result they ad for some time been desirous to have a separate Governor " their own. It was now determined in England to gratify eir wishes, and Benning Wentworth of Portsmouth, the armest opponent of Belcher, received the appoint- ent of Governor and Commander in Chief of New- ampshire. He was a son of the former Lieut. Governor Tentworth, a reputable merchant, and a favorite with a ma- rity of the people. With civil life he had been quite con- rsant as a Representative and Member of the Council.
The series of incidents which paved his way to the chair quite interesting. He had contracted with a Spanish officer furnish a large quantity of oak timber, to the amount of ,000 or 60,000 dollars ; but on the delivery of it in Spain, e officer with whom he had contracted was out of place, d his successor declined to make payment. This disap- intment was followed by the disaster of a shipwreck as he is returning home, and he with others was saved in a boat.
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84
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1741
Reduced to bankruptcy and repulsed in an application to the Spanish government for redress, he laid before the British ministry his wrongs and misfortunes. The appeal procured him their sympathy, and together with his popularity and the rank of his family, backed by the influence of Tomlinson, induced them to appoint him to the Chief Magistracy of his native Province. Invested with this honorable office he ar- rived at Portsmouth after a long absence, near the close of 1741, and was received with great cordiality and respect .- The Assembly granted him a handsome salary ; and not long after, Dunbar was prevailed on by a valuable consideration to resign in his favor the office of Surveyor General of the King's woods, the emoluments of which made a large addi- tion to his income. In consideration of these appointments, he was required to relinquish his claim on the Spanish Gov- ernment.
The fact that no public, execution took place here for a period of almost 120 years, gives a favorable impression of the early state of morals. Two women were executed at Portsmouth near the close of this period for the crime of murder : the first occurrence of the kind in the Province.
In the course of the twenty-eight years sketched in this Chapter, the community lost by death, in addition to Love- well, Col. Richard Waldron, and Lieut. Gov. Wentworth, already named as deceased, other distinguished members .-- The Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, the second Pastor of the first Church in Portsmouth died in 1723, greatly beloved ; of whom his people were accustomed to speak as "the good Mr. Rog- ers !" He was the sixth in lineal descent from John Rogers, the well known martyr in the reign of Queen Mary. In 1726 died Samuel Penhallow, who had been Provincial Treasurer and Chief Justice of the Superior Court. His History of Indian Wars has been useful to subsequent historians, and his hospitality, charity, and piety rendered his character respecta- ble. Doctor Thomas Packer, who was not only the principal Physician and Surgeon of his day, but also Judge of Probate and Counsellor, deceased in 1728; and in 1734, the Rev. John Emerson, the first Pastor of the second Congregational Church in Portsmouth, who used to deliver a commemorative discourse in each year after the great earthquake of 1717, on the anniversary of its occurrence-a circumstance indicative of the strong impression it made on the public mind. John Rindge, the late Provincial Agent in England, whose efforts had contributed much to the final settlement of the boundary lines, died in 1740.
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PERIOD VI.
FROM THE SETTLEMENT OF THE BOUNDARY LINES AND THE ACCESSION OF BENNING WENTWORTH TO THE CHAIR IN 1741, TO THE CLOSE OF THE SECOND FRENCH WAR IN 1763.
To the party who had obtained the recal of his predecessor, the accession of Gov. Wentworth was a triumph. As might have been expected, among his first measures were numerous and important changes among the office-holders. Secretary Waldron was suspended from his seat in the Council and removed from his other offices ; being succeeded as Secretary by Theodore Atkinson, and as Judge of Probate by Andrew Wiggin. Most of the offices of consequence were bestowed on the kindred and connections of the Governor-such indeed was the accumulation of office and power in his family, that the Government of New-Hampshire during his administration and that of his nephew and successor, has been styled, not unfitly, A FAMILY GOVERNMENT.
This period is memorable as the date of a remarkable attention to religion which overspread most of the northern Provinces. It began some years before at North Hampton, Ms. under the ministry of President Edwards, and extended gradually through Massachusetts, Connecticut, and sections of New-York, New-Jersey and Pennsylvania. It was at its height in 1742. Two years before this date, that eloquent and successful itinerant, the Rev. George Whitfield, came into this region by invitation of the ministers of Boston, and preached in various parts of the country. He visited this Province and preached with his usual acceptance and success. Perhaps no uninspired preacher ever possessed such power over the feelings of his auditors, or was attended by such multitudes as he sometimes addressed in the fields, no building being large enough to contain them. His ministry aroused to serious reflection numbers who had before been thoughtless and inattentive hearers, and large additions were made to
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86
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1744.
many of the churches. Though extravagancies on the part of some individuals attended this remarkable scene, especially in the southern parts of New-England, yet it is certain great good was done ; many places exhibited a new moral aspect ; and multitudes who then received their first religious impres- sions, gave ample evidence of the genuineness of their piety by the usefulness, benevolence, and integrity of their subsequent conduct. Mr. Whitfield, who was a native of England, crossed the Atlantic several times, and probably labored more indefatigably than almost any other man since the Apostolic age. His ministry excited not less attention in Britain than in this country. He confined his preaching to the plain truths of the Bible, which he stated with such clearness and enforced with such power, as to be the means of communicating the pure principles of religion to thousands on both sides of the Atlantic. Many who came to his meetings strongly prejudiced against him, went away with altered views of their own char- actor and of the importance of christianity. His character. was happily drawn by the poet Cowper :-
"He loved the world that hated him ; the tear That dropp'd upon his Bible, was sincere : Assailed by scandal and the tongue of strife, His only answer was a blameless life."
War had existed for some time between England and Spain, and it had been anticipated that France, attached to Spain by the relationship of their royal families, would be likely to become a party engaged. This expectation was realized in 1744, when a declaration of war on the part of England against France again involved this country in hostilities with the Canadians and Indians. Duquesnel, the French Governor of Louisburg in the Island of Cape Breton, attacked and destroyed the English settlement at Canseau, and menaced their posts in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. This early disaster led the Colonists to percieve that Louisburg, in the hands of an active enemy would be a source of perpetual alarm to the commerce, fisheries, and settlements of all the eastern shores, and inspired them with a strong wish for its reduction. It had been fortified at a vast expense by the labors of twenty- five years, and was extremely well situated for the purpose of annoying the New-England trade. A plan for its capture was conceived by William Vaughan, an enterprising merchant of Portsmouth and son of the former Lieut. Gov. Vaughan ; and was adopted and matured chiefly by Gov. Shirley of
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87
PERIOD VI .- 1741-1763.
1745.]
Massachusetts, who had succeeded Belcher in the Chair of that Province. He communicated it to the General Court in Boston under an oath of secrecy, who after a warm debate approved it by a majority of only one.
At ameeting of the New-Hampshire Assembly in January, 1745, he disclosed the scheme to that body, and found it warmly seconded both; by them and by Gov. Wentworth .- They immediately raised 450 men, of whom 300 were formed into a regiment of eight companies under Col. Samuel Moore ; the others were attached to one of the Massachusetts regi- ments. Mr. Samuel Langdon, afterwards a minister of Portsmouth and President of Harvard College, went as Chaplain of the New-Hampshire troops. The combined forces of the four New-England Colonies made up a large body, the whole commanded by Col. William Pepperell of Kittery, Maine, one of the most popular men of the day .- At his request the celebrated Mr. Whitfield, being then in this country, gave to be inscribed on the flag a motto : it was this- " Nil desperandum, Christo duce." * Having been joined on the passage by several British men of war under Commodore Warren, the troops arrived at their destination in April, effected a landing and invested the place. Such was the inexperience in military affairs of both officers and men, that the scene was said to have resembled rather the disorder of a College Commencement than the regular operations of a disciplined army. To many, it was matter of wonder that the army was preserved from destruction. But the French had been taken by surprise, and the garrison was in almost a mutinous state at the delay of their pay. Could their officers have depended on the men, they might have easily surprised the Provincial camp and put numbers to the sword. Disunited among them- selves, and disheartened at the capture by the English of a large store ship from France richly laden with supplies for the garrison, they surrendered the city in June. On entering and beholding the strength of the fortifications, the victors were astonished at their own success! The event filled America with joy, and even in Europe it was regarded as a capital exploit ; for next to Quebec, Louisburg was the strongest hold of the French in the western hemisphere. While the services of the civil officers who matured the plan, and of the military and naval commanders who executed it, were amply requited by the British government-Vaughan,the original projector,re- ceived no adequate reward, and died the next year in London.
The import is, With the help of Christ nothing is impossible.
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88
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1746.
The progress of population had much enlarged the extent of the settlements, and a force proportionally increased was necessary for their protection. A line drawn from Rochester and Barrington, to Boscawen and Concord ; thence through Hopkinton, Hillsboro' and Peterboro' to Keene, Swanzey, Winchester, and Hinsdale, then constituted the frontier line. The whole region north of it, with the exception of small openings at Westmoreland and Charlestown, occupied by a few families, was a gloomy forest-a fit lurking place for savages. On the west bank of the Connecticut, opposite to Hinsdale and within the present limits of Brattleboro', was Fort Dummer, originally built and garrisoned by Massachu- setts. The settlement of the line left it within the limits of New-Hampshire, then supposed to extend westward beyond the Green Mountains. Though urged to do it by Gov. Wentworth, her Assembly declined to support the Fort, on the plea of their poverty, its distance from the towns granted by them, and the deep interest Massachusetts had in its preserva- tion. It would have been no more than equitable for New- Hampshire to have shared the burden, as some of her towns received protection from it ; but as she was inflexible in her refusal, the sister Province continued to furnish and sustain a garrison. The people on the whole line of the frontier were in imminent danger. They could hardly venture out to milk their cows; the Indians destroyed their crops by breaking down the fences and laying open the fields; and their horses and cattle were killed. Into Westmoreland and Keene the enemy made incursions, and a few persons were slain.
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