USA > New Hampshire > Strafford County > Dover > The first parish in Dover, New Hampshire : two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, October 28, 1883 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
52
THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
" And how, in log-built cabin, They braved the rough sea weather ;
And there, in peace and quietness, Went down life's vale together.
" How others drew around them, And how their fishing sped, Until to every wind of heaven Nantucket's sails were spread."
The famous order of Captain Richard Walderne, magistrate, dated 22 December 1662, directing the constables of several towns to whip certain "vagabond Quakers," viz., Anne Coleman, Mary Tompkins, and Alice Ambrose, is preserved in Quaker annals. Whittier's recent poem, " How the Women went out of Dover," commemorates it, and he makes one of them predict Walderne's fate sixteen years later : --
" In the light of the Lord a flame we see Climb and kindle a proud roof-tree, And beneath it an old man lying dead, With stains of blood on his hoary head."
Bishop's New England Judged gives a narrative of this transaction, and of later incidents of Quaker work here, evidently furnished by the Quaker participants. A few other cases of imprisonment of visiting Friends, or of setting in the stocks, are mentioned.
Under the old system of enforcing uniformity, these records are not surprising. Yet the laws were not enactments of Dover, but of Mas- sachusetts, and the magistrates were of Massachusetts appointment. The penalties were not unusual ; stripes were no uncommon form of punishment ; nor were women exempt from them anywhere. Neither Quakers nor Quaker women were singled out for exceptional kind of punishment. It is interesting to see what Massachusetts thought of Quakers. "Whereas," says the statute of 14 October 1656, " there is a cursed sect of heretics lately risen up in the world, which are commonly called Quakers, which take upon themselves to be immediately sent of God, and infallibly assisted by the Spirit to make and write blasphe- mies, despising government and the order of God in church and com- monwealth, speaking evil of dignities, and reviling the magistrates and ministers, seeking to turn the people from the faith and gain pros- elytes to their pernicious ways," etc. In 1657, a law calls it "the cursed sect of the Quakers," and imposed a fine of forty shillings an hour for entertaining a Quaker. In 1661 was passed a law to whip " vagabond Quakers," and the order of Walderne, in 1662 (to whom 8 October 1662 the Bay government committed the duty of enforcing
1
53
THE MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
this law " within the said town of Dover "), was almost a verbatim copy of the statute. This transaction was, also, not long after the letter of Charles II. to the Massachusetts authorities (dated 28 June 1662), in which he required that the free exercise of worship and sacraments be allowed to members of the Church of England, but was careful to say : "We cannot be understood hereby to direct or wish that any indul- gence be granted to those persons called Quakers, whose being [is] inconsistent with any kind of government. We found it necessary, by the advice of our parliament here, to make sharp laws against them here, and we are well contented that you do the like there."
Against the Quakers were the universal spirit of the age, the declared opinion of the king, and an honest fear of their assertions of being individually directly guided by God, even in denunciation of existing governments. Nor did the conduct or speech of travelling " Friends " tend to conciliate. They were not the peaceable citizens of later gen- erations. They interrupted public worship. They write that they entered a session of our court, not summoned and with no interest there, and addressed the magistrates, " Ye who spoil the poor and devour the needy, ye who lay snares and traps for the innocent." To Judge Thomas Wiggin, "Thou art old and very gray, thou art an old perse- cutor." Neither a church nor a court would now endure what the writer calls "these words of advice and counsel."
Whatever may have been provocations, however, the treatment of the Quakers was barbarous, as was similar punishment of home offend- ers against any laws. Nor were these people punished because they interrupted public worship, or were disrespectful to judges. They suf- fered simply because they were Quakers. This treatment has no ex- cuse. Fortunately for our annals no gallows-tree disgraced our ances- tors. The few punishments here were a brief episode, inflicted by a Massachusetts magistrate, under Massachusetts laws, and earnestly pro- tested against by some citizens of Dover. The great doctrine of the inner light emerged from the roughness of its first preaching, and mel- lowed into the beauty of its present truth. In this parish it made many proselytes, and became very strong. The old names of Austin, Canney, Dam, Evans, Hanson, Nute, Otis, Pinkham, Roberts, Smith, Tebbets, Tuttle, Varney, suggest the directions into which the new doctrine spread. Thomas and John Roberts were the constables, " like sons of Belial," says the Quaker writer ; and their descendants largely became Qua- kers. Alice Ambrose was confined in a " wicked man's house," mean- ing thereby the jail, kept by Thomas Canney ; and the Canney descend- ants made plentiful Quakers. The persecuting period was very brief here. The "Friends' Meeting " is believed to have been a permanent
54
THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
institution in 1680. It is significant that in 1679, the year previous, New Hampshire had been made a separate province, its government inaugurated in 1680 ; and the Massachusetts laws ceased to govern.
In the charter of the new province, liberty of conscience was allowed to all Protestants. It took New Hampshire nearly two centuries more to remove invidious distinctions against members of the Church of Rome. "
The first meeting-house of the Friends was built early, perhaps in or near 1680. It stood on Dover Neck, in the enclosure of the ancient Friends' burial ground, on the west side of the road. This house stood there until about 1770, when it was taken across the river, upon the ice, into Eliot, and used by a Friends' society there. The growing importance of Cochecho led to the building of another house, consider- ably prior to 1720,1 which stood on the southwest corner of Locust and Silver streets, where Jacob K. Purinton now lives. Both this and the one on Dover Neck became disused when the present house was built ; but their "business" house remained on that corner, and was long used as a dwelling-house by Samuel Watson, who died in that house 8 October 1800. The present meeting-house was raised 9 June 1768. " Heard Rachel Watson," says Belknap, 11 July 1769, " preach in ye Quaker meeting-house.". A small house for business purposes, and for meetings in the winter, once stood in the southern part of the same enclosure. This house was moved away, perhaps fifty years ago, and now stands on Spring Street, owned and occupied as a dwelling house by George W. Glines.
It is significant of a change in public sentiment, that the town granted, 20 May 1717, "to the inhabitants of this town commonly called Quakers," ten acres of land for a pasture, "for the better Inabling them to accommodate their Travelling friends." And this grant was renewed, or a new one made,2 30 March 1733. It is also significant of a changed sentiment, that when Dover sold lots upon the "Landing " to pay for a bell, the town, in deference to the scruples of the Friends, or from a sense of justice to persons who conscientiously abhorred bells upon meeting-houses, voted 28 March 1791 to pay to the Friends "their proportion of what the Lots sold for, so far as it respects the Expense of the bell."
1 Samuel Bownas, an English minister of the Society of Friends, visited America in 1701 and 1726. In the latter year he came to the Pascataqua, and attended a meeting, called at his instance, " in the new meeting house " at Cochecho.
2 This grant of ten acres was laid out 25 July 1733, " by the way that goes to Mallego"; "at the head of our town bounds between Bellemans Bank River and the Mast path that now goeth to Mallego."
1
55
THE MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
III. THE SUCCESSIVE MEETING.HOUSES.
Where the emigrants held their first Sunday worship, on the last Sunday in October 1633, we cannot know. Perhaps it was in one of the few houses on the extreme point which pierces the tides of the Pascataqua. Perhaps it was under some broadly spreading tree. " In spirit and in truth" was more than wall or rooftree.
The first house. - Tradition said more than a hundred years ago, that they proceeded at once to build a meeting-house. I do not know whether they had time to build their own family shelters and a meeting- house also before the cold season came. Winter was soon upon them. When they built, it was farther up the Point, but not so far up as the site of the second, where the earthwork remains. Nothing gives us the precise spot. There is a list which records the granting of lots in Cochecho marsh, in 1648. The list evidently follows the order of resi- dence of the grantees, beginning at the Point. The order is : -
I. Anthony Emery. 2. Blank. 3. Mr. Bellew. 4. George Walton. 5. The Church. 6. Blank. 7. John Hall. 8. John Heard. 9. Henry Beck. 10. William Walderne. 11. Hatevil Nutter. 12. John Newgrove. 13. Henry Longstaff. 14. John Goddard. 15. James Nute. 16. Robert Hurkenes. 17. James Rallenes. 18. Wil- liam Furbur. 19. Richard Walderne. 20. John Baker. Of these, Rallenes [Rollins] and Furbur were of Newington. Richard Walderne and John Baker were of Cochecho. The others had houses in the order of names. We know where Mr. Nutter lived. His house stood on the east side of the road, about fifteen rods north-northeast from the northeast corner of the old fortification ; there is the remnant of the cellar to this day. According to the list above given, the church's lot was little more than half-way to the Point. Next to it was George Walton's, and his house was the tavern.
To this building I have found but two allusions in its own time. Thomas Larkham, the fourth minister of this parish, wrote1 to John Winthrop, the governor of Massachusetts, 3 January 1640-1, giving some account of the unhappy dissensions between himself and Han- serd Knollys, with whom he was colleague. In that letter he says, " He gave forth words that he would deale with one of our magis- trates, & mee first of all, before any exercise should goe one, & indeede was ready in the meetinge house so to doe, in a marvellous stiffe way, had not the magistrates interposed." The other is similar.
1 The original letter is still preserved by Robert C. Winthrop of Boston. The letter is printed in { Mass. Hist. Collections, Vol. I.
56
THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
In this first house successively preached William Leverich, George Burdett, Hanserd Knollys, Thomas Larkham, and Daniel Maud. It had no bell, but the following vote of the town shows the primitive method of summoning the people to this house of God :-
"27th of the 9th mo. 48. It is this day ordered at a publique Towne meeting that Richard Pinckome shall beate the drumme on Lord's days to give notice for the time of meeting, and to sweep the meeting house for the which hee shall be allowed six bushells of Indian corne for his pay this yeare and to be freed from Rates."
In this house, doubtless, took place the organization of the First Church. It was under the ministry of Hanserd Knollys. The date is not closely certain, but a comparison of events recorded in the jour- nal of John Winthrop shows conclusively that it was before the end of December 1638, and probably not before that month. It was the sec- ond church in New Hampshire. The church at Hampton, its senior, came here from Massachusetts as an organized body, apparently in 1638.1
The second house. - The increase of population by reason of the in- creasing business in manufacturing lumber outgrew the accommoda- tions of the first house. Perhaps the people wanted a better as well as larger house, - for public town business meetings, as well as public worship. On the 5th of December 1652 the town granted extensive timber lands, or rather the right to cut thereon, for his mills, to Mr. Richard Walderne : -
"In consideration whereof the aforesaid Mr. Richard Walderne doth bind him- self, his Heirs, his Executors & Administrators to erect a Meeting house upon the hill near Elder Nutters : the dementions of the said House is to be forty foot longe, twenty-six foot wide, sixteen foot studd, with six windows, two doores fitt for such a house with a tile coveringe, & to planck all the walls, with glass & nailes for it, & to be finished betwixt this & Aprill next come twelve month wch will be in the year 1654 :"
From the southern extremity of the Point, this site is distant a mile and three quarters upward as the road goes. It is at the southern extremity of the swell of land which slopes gently on either side to
1 The original first church in Exeter was once the third church in New Hampshire. Some claim was formerly made that this church was formed in 1638 ; but as the records of the First Church in Boston show the dismissal of Rev. Jolin Wheelwright and others to forin this church as not taking place until 6 January 1639, it is manifest that the organization could not have been in 1638. But that original first church ended when, in 1643, Wheelwright and his friends left Exeter. An attempt was subsequently made to organize another church, but it was stopped by the Massachusetts General Court. The now existing First Church in Exeter was organized 21 September 1698, whose record commences, "The order of proceeding in gathering a particular church in Exeter." A claim formerly made, that the present church, formed in 1693, was a reorganization of the church which expired in 1643, and of which not one soul was "reorganized," is too absurd to need a reply.
57
THE MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
the waters, - to the Newichawannock on the east, and to the Bellamy on the west. It seems as if our hardy ancestors chose this spot for its beauty. From it one sees the river on the east, the Eliot woods be- yond, and Agamenticus rising on the coast of Maine. On the south the eye follows the broad Pascataqua on its way to the ocean. On the southwest is seen the same river coming out of Great Bay, with lovely islands in the waters, and Newington's fertile meadows and stately trees across the broad stream. Westward, it is but a few rods down to the Bellamy, and across it are the Three Points, and the wooded luxuriant farms. To the northwest you see the distant hills of Notting- ham and Northwood, and, from a spot close by, the great Blue Hills. " Beautiful for situation " was the Mount Zion of our fathers.
The house appears not to have been finished at once, for -
At a Meetinge of the Neighbourhood of Dover Neck Cochecho & Bloody Point, the 20th day of 12 Mº 58.
Voted by the said Inhabitants that the Meetinge house on Dover Neck is to be underpin'd & Catted, & sceled wth Boards, And a pulpett & Seats convenient to be made & a Bell to be purchased, And this to be paid for by way of Rate upon each Man's estate accordinge to the Law of the Country.
It was probably on account of this vote that, 13 June 1660, a tax of £100 was voted, " for ye fittinge up ye meeting house on dover Neck." The following vote shows another advance : -
By the sellecktmen the 15th 2th mo 65. Ordered that Mr. Petter Coffin shall be Impowered by this writing to Agree with som workman to Buld a terrett apon the Meitting house for to hang the Bell wch wee have Bought of Capt. Walldern and what it Cost to pay out of what credet the Neck of land hathe in your hand and if Cost moer wee doe ingage to pay you apon the Towne acompt.
RICHARD WALLDERNE. WILL WENTWORTIL. JOHN ROBERDS.
'The exiles of 1633 had been thirty years in the land and were grow- ing old, when the Sabbath bell first rang out over the waters, like the bells of old England; but doubtless they praised God with tears.
Richard Pinkham's drum was needed no longer.
Deacon John Hall' was engaged 13 January 1671-2 to "swiep " the meeting-house and ring the bell for one year, and was to be paid three pounds for his service.
But troublous times were at hand. The following vote foreshadowed them : -
{ Deacon Hall lived near; his dwelling was southwesterly, towards the " back cove," and his spring is still known as " Hall's spring."
58
THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
By the sellecktmen the 4th 5th [16]67.
It is Agreid with Capt. Coffin to Buld the forte about the metting house on dover neck on hundred foot square with too Sconces of sixteen foot square and all the timber to be twelfe Inches thick and the wall to be Eaght foot hige with sells and Braces and the sellecktmen with the melletorey ofecers have agreed to pay him on hundred pounds in days workes at 2s 6d p day and alsoe to all persons Concerned in the worke on day to help to Rayse the worke at so many on day as he shall appoynt.
This fortification was erected. Set in earth were the upright tim- bers around the house of God. From the alternate corners, south- east and northwest, were the projections from which sentinels could each cover with their muskets two sides of the work. No enemy could approach unseen from any quarter.
The timbers have been gone for a century and three quarters. The house which stood within was ruinous a hundred and sixty years ago.
On that spot a schoolhouse stood for many years in this century, and children's feet ran over the crests and played upon the slopes. The farmer's cattle have cropped the grass from its banks. But, crown- ing that gentle eminence, that earthwork remains clearly marked and sharply outlined after the summer rains and winter snows of two hun- dred and sixteen years. Men have stood in that earthwork, where you can stand, who came hither in the emigrant year 1633. Whether this parish will secure and set apart this historic spot and this memorial work is yet unknown.
This is not the time nor is this the place for narrative of the Indian wars. I cannot even mention in detail the sufferings of this parish. To group the years and suggest the trials is all that is possible.
Why the fortification about the meeting-house was built in 1667, I am at a loss to know. It seems to have been a time of profound peace. The crushing blow which Massachusetts had dealt the Pequots in 1637 had impressed the Indians with a fear already continuing thirty years. Passaconaway, the great Bashaba at Penacook, who included the tribes of the Pascataqua in his broad domain, was still alive and in favor of peace. In his old age, indeed, he called his sons and infe- rior rulers together, and warned them against war with the English. Wonolancet, son and successor, adhered to his father's counsel, although eventually driven to the homes of the Indians on the Kennebec. Kan- kamagus (grandson of Passaconaway) and Mesandowit, also of the Penacook blood, destined to become chieftains of note, had not then, perhaps, appeared in the councils of their nation.
Some event or suspicion must of course have caused the town to take this precaution. There were Indians on the Cochecho, and sachems dwelt at Newichawannock and Swampscot. Wahowah, known better
59
THE MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
as Hopehood, was a hereditary sagamore of the lands from Exeter to Salmon Falls, and Hopehood's Point still gives the name to the lowest point on the western side of the Bellamy River. It would seem that he was but a stripling then, but he may have foreshadowed the ferocity with which he led the murderous assault on Salmon Falls in 1690.
But eight years elapsed before the suspicions were justified. In 1675, Philip began war in southern Massachusetts, and in twenty days after, the Indians began war on the Pascataqua. The first attack of the war was made in this parish, in September of that year. Then came three years of bloodshed. It was war with an enemy who dealt his blows in stealthy surprises, who knew every path in the forests, who made engagements and treaties a cover for treacherous murders, who tortured prisoners by fire, and whose thirst for blood spared neither women nor helpless babes. Families by night were crowded into block-houses. If men worked in their fields, it was with the musket in one hand; if they met for the public worship of God, the guns were stacked within the palisades, and sentinels kept watch while prayer and psalm went up to the Lord.
Thirteen years of peace followed; yet it was such a peace that in its thirteenth year the people still kept up their little forts, and resorted to them at night. Of these fortifications, timber-walled forts, there were six at Cochecho, one at Bellamy, perhaps two at Back River, twelve in Oyster River and Madbury, several at Salmon Falls, with perhaps others. Even this peace was rudely broken in 1689, by the treachery which sought shelter for women by the firesides only to open the doors for the murderers. In that June Cochecho was desolated. In the next season, Salmon Falls was destroyed. In 1694 Oyster River was nearly annihilated. Minor attacks were continually made. From that year 1689, to the end of the Indian wars, thirty-six years, twenty- three years were years of warfare on our soil. Dover was a frontier post. At no time were the people free from sudden attacks; and in return, as they became stronger, their expeditions ravaged the Indian villages and destroyed their cornfields, until the enemy had no perma- nent home this side of Canada. In time, every man, without excep- tion save among the Friends, became a trained soldier of the woods, a keen marksman, a tireless ranger. A man of forty-six had spent half his years in the field. They fought to defend their dwellings, their wives, their children. They succeeded; but in that fearful fifty years the suffering was great. They mourned for children seized from their agonized parents, and if not slain reared by aliens in an alien faith. Dover blood was perpetuated in Canada in the descendants of these captives. Scarcely a family but had its history of inhuman torture or bloody deaths.
60
THE FIRST PARISH IN DOVER.
When the end of the Indian wars came, it was fated that as Dover had been the scene of the first slanghter, that of 1675, so it was the scene of the last bloodshed, fifty years later. The Indian wars of Maine, New Hampshire, and Canada began and ended in this parish.1
The third house. - Dover Neck was long the seat of public business, - the meeting-house was the house for town meetings, - but its terri- tory was too limited to allow much growth; nor was it a place of busi- ness. Oyster River rapidly passed it in the numbers of its people. Northward, Cochecho was the place of much making of lumber, and the frontier trading-post with the Indians. Some settlements in what is now Rollinsford, and especially at Salmon Falls, carried the extent of population still farther northward. In 1648 Dover Neck had twenty tax-payers, Bloody Point had nine, and Cochecho (including the Rol- linsford lands) had twenty-eight. In 1666 Dover Neck had twenty- two, Bloody Point sixteen, and Cochecho forty, while Oyster River had fifty-five. The disparity continued to increase. It was therefore inevi- table that the northern section should in time demand a removal of the place of public worship.
The town records contain no vote as to the erection of the third meeting-house, the one which stood upon Pine Hill. The reason is, because it was erected by private individuals.
Newington was made a parish 16 July 1713. This act removed from our limits all the lands on the south side of the Pascataqua, the old Bloody Point. On the same date with the act incorporating Newing- ton, the assembly voted : --
"And upon Representation of the great alteration that this Grant makes in the Town of Dover, and that there is a new meeting House built at Cochecho, much nearer the centre of the remaining Inhabitants of the said Town,
"Ordered, that the selectmen of Dover give reasonable notice to the Town to choose proper persons to attend the next session of the General Assembly, to show cause why that House at Cochecho may not be the place of public worship for the future, or any other consideration thereupon."
1 The first slain in these wars were in September 1675, when the Indians burned the houses belong- ing to the Chesleys, killed two persons in a canoe, and carried off two prisoners. The last was in Lit- tleworth, 15 September 1725, when Benjamin Evans and William Evans were killed, and Benjamin Evans, jr., taken to Canada. John Evans, also, was wounded, scalped, and left for dead, but recov- ered. Whittier, in " Snow Bound," says: -
"Our mother, while she turned her wheel, Or run the new-knit stocking heel, Told how the Indian hordes came down At midnight on Cochecho lown, And how her own great-uncle bore His cruel scalp-mark to fourscore."
Whither's mother, Abigail ( Hussey), born at Cochechu Point, was granddaughter of Joseph Evans, whose brother John bore the scalp mark.
61
THE MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
In accordance with the order of the assembly, the town made choice of its committee, voting, 17 August 1713, as follows : -
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.