USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hillsborough > The history of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, 1735-1921, Volume 1 > Part 8
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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
ance for Ever with all the Powers and authorities Priviledges, Im- munitiees and Franchises which any other towns in said province. by Law hold hold & enjoy to the said Inhabitance or those who- shall hereafter inhabit there, and to their Successors for Ever aloways reserving to us our Heirs and Successors all white Pine. Trees that are or shall be found being and growing within and upon said Tract of Land fit for the use of our Royal Navy Re- serving also to us our Heirs and Successors the power of Devid- ing Said town when it shall appear necessary & Convenient for the Inhabitance thereof Provided nevertheless and 'tis hereby declared that this Charter and Grant is Not intended and shall and shall Not in any manner be Construed to affect the private. property of the soil with in the Limits aforesaid and as the several towns within our Said Province are by the Laws thereof enabled and authoriz assemble and by the majority of the voters. present to chuse all officers & transact such affairs as in the Said. Laws are declared. We do by these presents nominate and ap- point Mr. Isaac Baldwin H H to call the first Meeting of said Inhaitants to be held within the said Town at any time within thirty Days from the Date hereof. giving Legal Notice of the: time and design of holding such meeting; after which the annual meeting for said Town; Shall be held for the choice of said officers and the porposes aforesaid on the last thursday of March annually.
In Testimony whereof we have Caused the Seal of our Said prouince to be hereunto affixed Witness our aforsaid Gouerner & Comander in Cheif the fourth day of Nouember in the Thirteenth year of our Reign annoqus' Domini 1772
J. Wentworth By
By his Excellcys Command with advice of Council Theodore Atkinson Sec.ry
prouince of New Hampshire 14th novem' 1772
Recorded in the Secrys office Book 4th Page 120
Theodore Atkinson Sery.
Coppy Examened pr Isaac Andrews Town Clark
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SETTLEMENT OF MR. BARNES.
Under authority of the foregoing instrument Isaac Baldwin issued the following warrant :
Hillborough Novem" 24th 1772
At A church meeting it was voted unanimously that Mr Jonathan Barnes take the Charge and oversight of the Church and flock of Christ in this town aforesaid, and that he settle with us in the work of the Gospell Ministry according to the platform of Church Disapline Comanly Called Cambridge platform so far as it agrees with the word of God or the Sacred Scripture . . . . Voted: that they will Give him thirty pounds, Lawfull money by way
of Settlement, and they give him thirty pounds Lawfull money a year for the first fore years, and that they will give him thirty five pounds Lawfull a year for the next four year and then forty pounds a year untill there be 70 famelys in town, and when there is Seventy famelys in town he is to be Intietled to fifty pounds a year Sooner or Later, and is to be fifty pounds a year from the time of .70 famelys Coming in to town till there be ,90 famelies, and after there is 90 families itisto be sixty pounds a year untill there is won hundred and ten families in town and after their is. -110-famelies in town it is to be sixty pounds thirteen shillings and fore pence anerely so long as he shall continue in the ministry among us, and furthermore that we will allow him two or three Sabbaths in a year to visit his frinds
the Sam Day Directly after the Church meeting the Town meet. and concored with the Church in Giving Mr Jonathan Barnes a. Call to Setle them in the work of the Gospell Ministry and would Give him a Settlement as Salary above mentioned and there was Not one opposing
John Sargent
Timothy wilkins Joseph Clark
Nehemiah wilkins
Benjn Lovejoy Samll Bradford
Anthony moriss Willm Williams archable Taggart
John mead
George booth
Jonathan Durant Isaac Andrews
Joshua Esty Sam Bradford Junr
timothy Bradford
Samll Bardford r Chose as a Committy Isaac Andrews Isaac Baldwin to present there call to the person elect
Baxter how
willm Jones andrew wilkins Samll Bradford 3d Isaac Baldwin 7
the Congregation
the church
willm Pope
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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
WARRANT FOR FIRST TOWN MEETING.
and County of Hillborough
Provens of New Hampshir to the Constable of the town of Hillborough in Said County Greeting
In his maiestys Name you are hereby Requiered forthwith to warn the freeholders and other inhabitance of said Hillborough that are Duly Qualified to Vote in town meeting to meet at the House of Samll Bradford Junr in said town on thursday the 25th Day march instant persuant to our Charter from the Governor and Counsel, at ten of the Clock in the fore Noon for the following porposes : uiz :
1st to Chuse a moderator, town Clark, Selectmen and all Comen and ordenary town offecers
2ly to see if the town will agree to buld a meeting house for the Publick worship of God in said town
3ly to see where the town will agree to set said house, and also to gains the dementains how Large to buld, and Chuse a Comety to buld said house, see when it shall be bult
4ly to see if they will Ratify Establish and Confirm the several maters and things voted at their meeting held on the 24th Day of Novem Last past
5ly to see if they will buld a pound, and where to buld it
fly what they will Rais to Defray Corant Charges
7ly to hear the town accounts to see if they will alow or Disalow them hereof fail not and mak Due Return Given Under my hand and seal, this Eighth Day of march A 1773 and in the thirtenth year of of the Reign of our soveran Lord George the third King of Grate Britain &c
By order of the selectmen
Cope atested Isaac Andrews town Clark
in obediance to the above warant I have warned all the free holders and other inhabitance Qalified acording to Law to Vote to meet at time and place above mentioned
Copy atested
Samll Bradford 3d Constable Isaac Andrews town Clark
It will be noticed that the province had already assessed taxes on the inhabitants of this isolated community before its unification into a township, and no doubt Samuel Bradford had been constable to collect the money, so it will be seen that taxes
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COLONEL HILL MEETS WITH LOSSES.
entered into affairs even before official action, which goes to prove that taxes cannot be escaped early nor late. It is certain that community meetings had been held, as witness the fact that Samuel Bradford, 3rd, had been directed to "warn the town meeting" as Collector, and also by the vote "to Renew their call to Mr. Jonathan Barns to settle in the work of the Gospel Ministry." These earlier meetings were probably religious meet- ings; that is, the getting together of the inhabitants to establish a church. At this early stage it was necessary to have moderators and clerks of the meetings, and then collectors to gather in the money needed to support public movements. This church history will be given in another chapter.
Colonel Hill showed his good intentions towards the new town by giving ten acres of land near the Centre for the site of a meeting house, a burial ground and a common. He reserved nearly three hundred acres of land as a gift to the first settled minister. No doubt he would have assisted the town very much more, but he had begun to meet with reverses of fortune, and these made it impossible for him to make further benefactions.
CHAPTER VII.
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.
Causes that Led to the American Revolution-Hardships Laid upon Trade and Manufacture-Troops Sent to "Protect" the People- Stamp Act-Its Enforcement a Day of Mourning-Tolling of the Bells in Hillsborough-"A Liberty Funeral" in Portsmouth-The Boston Riot-First Blood Shed in the Revolution-Tea Party- Beginning of Organized Resistance-Pine Tree Act-Patriots of the Pines at Riverdale-Capture of Fort William and Mary-Still more Troops and Oppression-The Concord and Lexington Fight- Action of Citizens of Hillsborough Always Loyal and Harmonious -First Committee of Safety in Town-How the News of the Concord Fight Was Brought to Hillsborough-Captain Baldwin's Volunteers-March to Cambridge-Captain Baldwin's Company at Bunker Hill-Battle of Bunker Hill-Fall of Captain Baldwin- . Major McClary's Fate-List of Larum Men in Hillsborough in 1776-Names of Militia Men-Tax List for 1776-Number of Military Age-Association Test and Signers-Excerpts from Town Records-Soldiers in the War-Arnold's Expedition-Hillsbor- ough's Part in It-Lieutenant Ammi Andrews-Dark Days of the Revolution-Battle of Long Island-White Plains-Trenton- British Hold New York-Retreat Across the Delaware-The Winter at Valley Forge-Burgoyne Prepares to Invade New Eng- land-Vermont's Appeal to New Hampshire-The Answer-Stark's Independent Command-Battle of Bennington-Hillsborough Men at Bennington-Hillsborough Men in the Rhode Island Expedition -Absentees from the Army-Hillsborough Bounties-Hillsborough Men Credited to Other Towns-War Rolls-Soldiers of Hillsbor- ough and Abstracts from Their-Records.
The "Seven Years' War" with the French and Indians had barely drawn to a close-a satisfactory conclusion-and the pioneers of the second settlement in Hillsborough had not ad- vanced very far in their work of breaking the wilderness than the rumblings of another and greater storm began to be heard. At first these ominous sounds were merely the mutterings of a people that felt the hand of oppression being laid upon them; not severely at first, but with increasing heaviness. The underlying
94
95
CAUSES THAT LED TO THE REVOLUTION.
cause of this hardship placed upon the colonists by the mother- land was the fact that England had come out of her long series of wars with France, Spain and other nations with a depleted treas- ury. Now she came back to New England in actions that spoke plainer than words that, as she had fought New England's wars and won her victories, the recipient must pay the cost. In doing this England forgot, or what was worse ignored, the fact that it was the raw New England troops that had given her that French stronghold Louisburg; forgot that it was the forest soldiery of the colonies that had stemmed the tide of French invasion on the shores of the Horicon and saved to her New England; forgot that it was New England troops that had made the capture of Quebec and Canada possible.
Anyway, immediately the arms of New England were not needed to help fight her battles, England began to replenish her treasury from the scanty stores of her dependents. It can be truthfully said that she had been doing this quietly and stealthily for more than a quarter of a century. All of the exports of the colonists had to be carried to her markets, and did they import goods straightway a duty was imposed which made them unduly expensive. More galling than all of this were the restrictions laid upon home manufactures, and so minute and far-reaching that they became tyrannical. Her own Pitt frankly acknowl- edged that "the colonies are not allowed to manufacture a hob- nail." Parliament in 1750 forbade the colonists from the manu- facture of steel and refused to let them erect iron works. The manufacture of cloth was restricted, and the very clothes on their backs were ordered to be bought in the old country. Perhaps not easily aroused the inhabitants here quietly submitted, excus- ing the act by the claim that New England, having been benefited by the overthrow of the French and Indians, should be willing to bear their portion of the cost.
The powers overseas did not stop there, and this fact reflects the spirit of the times. The colonists were making such rapid strides in growth and prosperity, and there were those in Great Britain, overzealous for their king, who began to whisper that it would not be long before the American colonies would be looking for their freedom from the mother government. In the expecta- tion of checking any such movement troops were sent here under
96
HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
pretence of protecting the people, the expense of supporting these soldiers thrown upon the very ones they were ordered to over awe. Then followed the Stamp Act of 1764, which was expected to "execute itself." The fallacy of this effort was soon shown. The American people, while scattered and unorganized, began to awaken to their situation. The result was heavy duties upon goods which were evaded by contraband trade; English cloths gave place to domestic manufactures; the rich sacrificed their luxuries; the poor, their comforts. The interruption of trade injured England, while the Stamp Act called forth such organiza- tions as "The Sons of Liberty."
The day upon which this obnoxious measure was to go into effect, November 1, 1765, was proclaimed to be a day of mourning. Even in obscure little Hillsborough feelings of resentment pre- vailed, the inhabitants moved moodily about their work. In Portsmouth a public funeral was held, and the coffin supposed to contain the object of the ceremonies, inscribed, "Liberty aged 145, stampt," was borne slowly and solemnly to the burial plot, followed by a long line of mourners. Upon reaching the place the procession halted, the inscription was replaced by that of "Liberty revived," when the throng marched back with a quicker and prouder step.
In New Hampshire business papers were exchanged without any regard to the law demanding stamps, and everywhere the feeling was so intense and vehement that on March 18, 1766, the act was repealed, followed by a day of rejoicing among the colonists. But this respite was of short duration, and when the sun set again it left the night blacker than ever. Pitt and other friends in England, who had made a gallant fight for the American cause, were now overruled. More missed than all of the others, Pitt, the champion of freedom in America, whose voice had "rung across the seas and continents in defense of personal liberty had become weak; the eagle eye which could gaze un- blenched upon the sun of power, had lost its lustre ; that manly form, whose presence could awe the most august legislative body on earth, was bowed with age and disease. Pitt was no longer master of the occasion." Under the changed condition a bill was passed to tax the colonists for the glass, paper, painter's colors and the tea one and all used.
From an OLD PRINT
THE OLD BRIDGE AND MILLS, 1850.
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FIRST VICTIMS OF THE REVOLUTION.
This act was followed by the landing at Boston of seven hundred British troops from Halifax. If it were thought they would be needed to enforce the new hardship about to be placed upon the people, their presence served to arouse, not to intimi- date, them. Mobs overran the streets of Boston, and led to riots. Four men, the first to sacrifice their lives in the cause of Amer- ican liberty, were shot down by the British soldiers. Beginning to understand the quicksand upon which they were building, the English statesmen sought to retreat by repealing the duties except upon tea. This was retained to show that the mother country had not lost her power as yet. Every schoolboy knows the result. In Boston the tea was destroyed by a party of men at night. At Portsmouth it was reshipped without disorder. Everywhere the colonists were strongly opposed to the hardship of "taxation with- out representation." Some, generally men of wealth who felt it was for their personal interest to do so, dared to uphold the king. This party, styled Loyalists or Tories, were not numerous enough to create much trouble, once the sentiment of freedom was fairly awakened.
The leaders, seeing the political breakers ahead, consulted with each other and it was decided to create a Continental Con- gress as soon as possible to meet in Philadelphia, then the most central and important city in the country. Colonial assemblies in several provinces appointed "Committees of Correspondence," whose duty it was to ascertain the state of public opinion and keep their constituents informed. Determined not to be behind the others, in May, 1774, New Hampshire appointed a similar body. Learning of the move on foot the royal Governor appeared and ordered the sheriff to dissolve the assembly, hoping thus to defeat the object of the gathering. Retiring without showing any resent- ment the members adjourned to another building, where it was voted to ask all the towns in the province to send delegates to Exeter for the purpose of choosing two representatives to the general congress about to convene in Philadelphia. There is no vote on record to show that Hillsborough responded to this ap- peal, though it is not only possible but probable that Captain Isaac Baldwin and Lieutenant Samuel Bradford attended. Nathaniel Folsom and John Sullivan were chosen delegates to represent
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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
New Hampshire in the proposed congress, which met in the following September.
In the midst of this patriotic uprising an incident took place which brought the storm of resentment very close to the people of Hillsborough.
It will be remembered that in the charter of Hillsborough, as in other towns, there was a reservation made of all pine trees suitable to be used in the Royal Navy of Great Britain. So, before the pioneer was allowed to begin his work of clearing the land he had been granted, the King's agent was sent to mark those pines of sufficient size to make masts for 74-gun ships of war with what was known as "The King's Arrow." This symbol was really a huge, inverted V about four feet in length and cut deep into the bark. Should one dare to molest one of these reserves it would cost him dear. During the winter, when the snow lay deep upon the earth, men were employed by the provincial govern- ment to cut these trees and team them to the nearest point where they could be prepared for the purpose designed, and then trans- ported to the nearest port. The majority of these lumbermen and teams were from the towns along the coast, the leader of them having made a contract to deliver so many trees for a certain sum. The men would build for themselves cabins in the wilderness, where a number of these trees were to be found. Many of the giants were drawn in the round log from sixty to one hundred feet in length all the way to Newburyport, a favorite destination for the majority. Along the Contoocook what was the "Mast Yard" was an objective point, which spot was near the railroad station which keeps alive the name. These huge logs were generally floated down the river.
It is related that one of these mighty monarchs of the forest was cut in the Contoocook valley which required fifty-five yokes of oxen to draw to the river bank. There is no record to show how large it was at the foot, but at the top of a hundred and ten- foot log it measured three feet in diameter! Is it any wonder the man who had secured this prize for his king, boasted loudly of his undertaking. Captain Chamberlain did not dare risk his giant captive to the rocky course of the Contoocook, so he hauled it with his big team all the way to Concord, where it was rolled
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THE GREAT PINE.
into the Merrimack. But it had been a trying passage so far, uphill and down, sometimes the lives of his best oxen imperiled when working their way over some sharp summit or down a rocky declivity, but the master mover breathed easily as he saw his mighty trophy borne merrily in the swollen waters of the Merri- mack. All did go the king's benefit until Amoskeag Falls were reached. Here, as the great monster swung over the jagged brink of the cataract it caught on the ragged edge of rock. For a moment it hung half suspended above the boiling flood, and then it snapped in twain like a pipe stem! Captain Chamberlain, who had been following on horseback along the bank of the river, witnessed this mishap with a look of horror. Throwing up his hands he shouted, so his voice was heard above the roar of the cataract, "My God! I'm a ruined man!" Putting spurs to his horse, he rode madly down the valley, and was never seen in this vicinity again, very much to the disappointment of the workmen whom he was owing for all their hard work.
Occasionally one of these forest monarchs escaped the king's lumbermen and lived on for a hundred years or more, to be remembered by the generation just gone before us. Mr. Joseph Barnard of Hopkinton described one of these relics which stood in his day. The top of this tree had been blown off fifty feet above the ground, and it was finally cut down by coon hunters. Fifteen feet from its base it measured fifteen feet in circum- ference. It was estimated to have contained more than six thousand feet of lumber. It was supposed to have been more than 400 years old, and so was standing when Columbus discovered America.
This reservation of the best pine trees for the use of the royal government became no small bone of contention between the colonists and the British officials. In fact it was one of the causes that finally led to the open rebellion of the men of New England.
Some innocently, others wilfully it may be, now and then cut some of the pines marked with the king's arrow. As often as they were detected these offenders were haled into court and made to pay a fine. In some cases these fines were large and paid under protest.
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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH.
I have not found that any culprits were caught in this town, but a deputy "Surveyor of the King's Woods" making a raid upon the mills in Pascataquog valley early in the spring of 1772, among others at mills elsewhere, laid an attachment upon nearly three hundred logs at Clement's mills at Oil Mills village, now Riverdale, and swore a good round oath that the offenders should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, if they did not pay the fine that might be exacted of them.
The "culprits" at other mills went forward and paid the fines assessed against them and retained the logs, which were really theirs by right of domain. But the men of Clement's mills resolved that they would not humble themselves to the British officer. So they paid no attention to the notice, and quietly awaited the result.
In due course of time a warrant was made out against Ebenezer Mudgett, known to be one of the leaders in the affairs, and placed in the hands of Sheriff Benjamin Whiting of Hollis to serve. This redoutable(?) officer, took along his deputy, John Quigley of Francestown, and this precious pair, both prov- ing tories when the war broke out, went in quest of their victim. They had no trouble in finding Mr. Mudgett, and with better grace than they had expected the prisoner accompanied them to the village inn kept by one Aaron Quimby.
It was then nearly night, and Mr. Mudgett declared that he would furnish any reasonable bail before morning. So, elated over the ease with which they had secured the principal offender, and deciding the whole crowd was a set of "hoodlums with no more spine than rabbits," they sought their couches at an early hour so as to take a good start in the morning.
Meanwhile the friends of Mudgett had arranged to carry out a dare-devil plot that possibly had been premeditated for sometime. Anyway, while the sheriff was sleeping peacefully in the quiet hours of morning, dreaming no doubt of the fat fee he would receive for his work, the door was thrown open and in stalked half a dozen grim-visaged men intent on his harm! Before he could offer resistance, if he had had the mind to do so, he was dragged from his warm nest into the cold air, to be given a severe drubbing. If he begged off, and he showed himself to be an
IOI
FORT WILLIAM AND MARY.
arrant coward, the blows fell thicker and faster, while no one answered his appeals for help. Finally he was hustled out of the house and tossed upon the bare back of his horse, seated so he was looking backward instead of ahead. Here he was bound by greenhide thongs. The horse had been ignominiously shorn of its mane and tail and decorated with pine boughs.
In this lamentable condition for a High Sheriff the victim was escorted out of town, amid the jeers and hoots of his per- secutors and the eye-witnesses to this audacious performance, all of which shocked a few more sober-minded of the village people, who foresaw direful results from this reckless adventure. Of course the sheriff within a few days entered his complaint and the perpetrators of the outrage were haled into court. But already public opinion was with the audacious culprits-at least so strongly had the tide set in that direction that a decision was not reached in the first trial, and armed resistance elsewhere put an end to the proceedings so that judgment was never rendered, the incident passing into history as one of the opening acts of the war which was inevitable.
Great Britain, already awakening to the possibility of the coming outbreak, but still blindly resolved to hold it in abeyance by sheer defiance, prohibited the exportation of gunpowder to America, and a ship of war was sent forthwith to take possession of Fort William and Mary, the key to Portsmouth. If news flew slowly in those days, this movement was anticipated by the inhabitants about the vicinity, and under the leadership of Captain Thomas Pickering, with those staunch supporters Major John Sullivan and John Langdon, a body of men surprised the officers of the fort on the night of December 15, 1774, took the com- mander and five soldiers prisoners, and carried away one hundred barrels of gunpowder, ammunition afterwards used at Bunker Hill. The next day another company removed fifteen cannon, with small arms and stores from the fort, all of which was suc- cessfully secreted at different places in adjoining towns. This bold act was one of the most daring achievements in the Revo- lution.
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