USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire > Part 10
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coat and petticoat were red, with an old green apron, and a black hat upon her head." Oliver Trimmings, her husband, said, " my wife came home in a sad condition. She passed by me with her child in her arms, laid the child on the bed, sat down on the chest, and leaned upon her elbow. Three times I asked her how she did. She could not speak. I took her in my arms, and held her up, and repeated the question. She forced breath, and something stopped in her throat, as if it would have stopped her breath. I unlaced her clothes, and soon she spake, and said, Lord have mercy upon me, this wicked woman will kill me. I asked her what woman. She said Goodwife Walford. I tried to persuade her, it was only her weakness. She told me no, and rela- ted as above, that her back was as a flame of fire, and her lower parts, were, as it were, numb and without feeling. I pinched her, and she felt not. She continued that night, and the day and night following, very ill, and is still bad of her limbs, and complains still daily of it."
Nicholas Rowe testified, " that Jane Walford, shortly after she was accused, came to the deponent in bed, in the evening, and put her hand upon his breast, so that he could not speak, and was in great pain till the next day. By the light of the fire in the next room, it appeared to be Goody Walford, but she did not speak. She repeated her visit about a week after, and did as before ; but said nothing."
Eliza Barton deposed, " that she saw Susannah Trimmings at the time she was ill, and her face was colored and spotted with several colors. She told the deponent the story, who replied that it was nothing but her fantasy ; her eyes looked as if they had been scalded."
John Puddington deposed, that " three years since, Goodwife Walford come to his mother's. She said that her own husband called her an old witch ; and when she came to her cattle, her husband would bid her begone, for she did overlook the cattle, which is as much as to say in our country, bewitching."
Agnes Puddington deposes, that " on the 11th of April, the wife of W. Ev- ans came to her house, and lay there all night; and a little after sunset the deponent saw a yellowish cat; and Mrs. E. said she was followed by a cat, wherever she went. John came and saw a cat in the garden-took down his gun to shoot her ; the cat got up on a tree, and the gun would not take fire, and afterward the cock would not stand. She afterwards saw three cats,- the yellow one vanished away on the plain ground ; she could not tell which way they went."
On the 20 October, 1657, " a boat going out of Hampton River, was cast away, and the persons drowned, who were eight in number, who all perished in the Sea." Records of Norfolk County. The records give the names of seven who were lost, viz. Em. Hilliar, John Philbrick, Anne Philbrick, his wife, Sarah Philbrick, their daughter, Alice Cox, wife of Moses Cox, John Cox, his son, and Robert Read.]
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" Robert Mason, grandson and heir to Captain John Mason, had " a good and legal title to the province of New-Hamp- Nov. 8. " shire."1 Nothing farther was done at this time, nor was the matter mentioned in the letter which the king soon after sent to the colony, though some offensive things in their conduct 1662. were therein reprehended, and divers alterations enjoined. 2
But the directions contained in this letter not being strictly attend- ed to, and complaints being made to the king, of disputes which had arisen in divers parts of New-England concerning the limits of jurisdiction, and addresses having been presented by several persons, praying for the royal interposition ; a commission was is- sued under the great seal to Colonel Richard Nicholls, Sir Robert Carr, knight, George Cartwright* and Samuel 1664. Maverick, esquires, impowering them " to visit the several Apr. 25. " colonies of New-England ; to examine and determine all com- " plaints and appeals in matters civil, military and criminal ; to " provide for the peace and security of the country, according to " their good and sound discretion, and to such instructions as they " should receive from the king, and to certify him of their pro- " ceedings."3 +
This commission was highly disrelished by the colony, as in- consistent with the rights and privileges which they enjoyed by their charter, and which the king had sacredly promised to con- firm. It is therefore no wonder that the commissioners were treated with much coolness at their arrival ; but they severely re- paid it in their report to the king.4
(1) MS. in Sup. Court files. (2) Hutch. Coll. of papers, p. 377. (3) Hutch. Hist. Mass. vol. i. p. 535. (4) Hutch. Coll. papers, 417.
* [This name is Carteret in the former editions, but it should doubtless be Cartwright as will appear from 2 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. viii. 58-90.]
[Rev. Timothy Dalton, minister of Hampton, died 28 December, 1661, being somewhat advanced in years. Mr. Savage, in Winthrop, ii. 28, has given him descendants, but none are named in a copy of his last will and tes- tament which I have seen. He gave a portion of his property to Samuel, the son of Philemon Dalton, who was probably brother to the minister, and from a sermon of Rev. Jonathan French of North-Hampton, 1820, it appears that the ministerial fund in that town and Hampton arose from a liberal donation he made to the last named town. Mrs. Ruth Dalton, his widow, died at Hampton, 12 May, 1666. Johnson (Hist. N. E. 135) has bestowed some verses upon him, which will conclude this brief note on one of the earliest and miost worthy of the ecclesiastical fathers of New-Hampshire.
" DOULTON doth teach perspicuously and sound,
" With wholesome truths of Christ thy flock doth feed,
" Thy honour with thy labour doth abound,
" Age crounes thy lead in righteousnesse, proceed
" To batter doune, root up, and quite destroy
" All Heresies and Errors, that draw back
" Unto perdition, and Christ's folk annoy ;
" To warre for him, thou weapons dost not lack :
" Long dayes to see, that long'd-for day to come,
" Of Babel's fall, and Israel's quiet peace :
" Thou yet maist live of dayes so great a sum
" To see this work, let not thy warfare cease."]
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[1665.
In their progress through the country, they came to Pascata- qua, and inquired into the bounds of Mason's patent. They heard
the allegation of Wheelwright, who when banished by the
June.
colony, was permitted to reside immediately beyond what was called the bound-house, three large miles to the northward of the river Merrimack. They took the affidavit of Henry Jocelyn concerning the agreement between Governor Cradock and Cap- tain Mason, that the river should be the boundary of their respec- tive patents. They made no determination of this controversy in their report to the king ; but having called together the inhabi- tants of Portsmouth, Sir Robert Carr, in the name of the Oct. 10. rest, told them that " they would release them from the " government of Massachusetts, whose jurisdiction should come " no farther than the bound-house."1 They then proceeded to appoint justices of the peace and other officers, with power to act according to the laws of England, and such laws of their own as were not repugnant thereto, until the king's pleasure should be farther known.
There had always been a party here who were disaffected to the government of Massachusetts.2 One of the most active among them was Abraham Corbett, of Portsmouth, who, since the arri- val of the commissioners at Boston, and probably by authority de- rived from them, had taken upon him to issue warrants in the king's name on several occasions, which was construed a high misdemeanor, as he had never been commissioned by the author- ity of the colony.3 Being called to account by the general court, he was admonished, fined five pounds, and committed till the sen- tence was performed. Irritated by this severity, he was the fitter instrument for the purpose of the commissioners, who employed him to frame a petition to the king in the name of the four towns, complaining of the usurpation of Massachusetts over them, and praying to be released from their tyranny. Corbett, in a secret manner, procured several persons both in Portsmouth and Dover to subscribe this petition, but the most of those to whom he offer- ed it refused.
The sensible part of the inhabitants now saw with much con- cern, that they were in danger of being reduced to the same un- happy state, which they had been in before their union with the colony. Awed by the supercilious behaviour of the commission- ers, they knew not at first how to act ; for to oppose the king's authority was construed treason, and it was said that Sir Robert Carr had threatened a poor old man with death for no other crime than forbidding his grandchild to open a door to them. But when the rumor was spread that a petition was drawn, and that Corbett was procuring subscribers, the people, no longer able to bear the abuse, carnestly applied to the general court, praying " that in
(1) Mass. Records. (2) Hutch. Coll. papers, 488. (3) Mass. Records.
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" some orderly way they might have an opportunity to clear them- " selves of so great and unjust aspersions, as were by this petition, " drawn in their name, cast upon the government under which " they were settled ; and also to manifest their sense of such per- " fidious actions, lest by their silence it should be concluded they " were of the same mind with those who framed the petition." In consequence of this petition, the court commissioned Thomas Danforth, Eleazar Lusher, and Major General Leverett to inquire into the matter, and settle the peace in these places according to their best discretion.
These gentlemen came to Portsmouth, and having assembled the inhabitants, and published their commission, they told them that they were informed of a petition subscribed in behalf Oct. 9. of that and the neighboring towns, complaining of the government ; 'and desired them if they had any just grievances to let them be known, and report should be immediately made to the general court. The next day, they assembled the people of Do- ver and made the same challenge. Both towns respectively pro- tested against the petition, and professed full satisfaction with the government, which they signified in addresses to the court. Dud- ley, the minister of Exeter, certified under his hand to the com- mittee, that the people of that town had no concern directly nor indirectly with the obnoxious petition .* They received also full satisfaction with regard to Hampton ; a certificate of which might have been obtained, if they had thought it necessary.
They then proceeded to summon Corbett before them for se- ditious behaviour ; but he eluded the search that was made for him, and they were obliged to leave a warrant with an officer to cite him to the court at Boston. The commissioners had now gone over into the province of Maine, from whence Sir Robert Carr in their name sent a severe reprimand to this committee, forbidding them to proceed against such persons as had subscribed the peti- tion, and inclosing a copy of a letter which the said commissioners had written to the governor and council on the same subject.
The committee returned and reported their proceedings to the court, and about the same time, the commissioners came from their eastern tour to Boston ; where the court desired a conference with them, but received such an answer from Sir Robert Carr as determined them not to repeat their request. A warrant was then issued by the secretary, in the name of the whole court, to appre- hend Corbett and bring him before the governor and magistrates,
* [The certificate of Mr. Dudley, in the files of the Massachusetts colony records, is as follows : " This may certify whom it may concern, that con- cerning the Question that is in hand, whether the town of Exeter hath sub- scribed to that petition sent to his Majesty for the taking of Portsmouth, Do- ver, Hampton and Exeter under his immediate government, I do affirm to my best apprehension and that by more than probable conjecture, that the town of Exeter hath no hand in that petition directly or indirectly. Witness my hand, 10. 8. 65.
SAMUEL DUDLEY."]
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HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1666.
" to answer for his tumultuous and seditious practices against the
" government." The next spring, he was seized and
1666. brought before them ; and after a full hearing was adjudg- May 23. ed guilty of sedition, and exciting others to discontent with the government and laws, and of keeping a disorderly house of entertainment, for which crimes he was sentenced to give a bond of one hundred pounds, with security for his peaceable behaviour and obedience to the laws ; he was prohibited retailing liquors ; disabled from bearing any office in the town or commonwealth, during the pleasure of the court ; and obliged to pay a fine of twenty pounds, and five pounds for the costs of his prosecution.
This severity in vindication of their charter-rights, they thought fit to temper with something that had the appearance of submis- sion to the royal commands. The king's pleasure had been sig- nified to the commissioners, that the harbors should be fortified. This instruction came to hand while they were at Pascataqua, and they immediately issued warrants to the four towns, requiring them to meet at a time and place appointed to receive his majes- ty's orders.1 One of these warrants was sent by express to Bos- ton, from whence two officers were dispatched by the governor and council to forbid the towns on their peril to meet, or obey the commands of the commissioners. But by their own authority, they ordered a committee to look out the most convenient place for a fortification, upon whose report " the neck of land on the " eastward of the Great Island, where a small fort had been al- " ready built, was sequestered for the purpose, taking in the Great " Rock, and from thence all the easterly part of the said island." 2 The court of associates being impowered to hear and determine the claims of those who pretended any title to this land ; a claim was entered by George Walton,* but rejected ; and the appropri- ation confirmed. The customs and imposts on goods imported into the harbor were applied to the maintenance of the fort, and the trained bands of Great-Island and Kittery-Point were dis- charged from all other duty to attend the service of it, under Richard Cutt, esquire, who was appointed captain.
The people of Massachusetts have, both in former and latter times, been charged with disloyalty to the king in their conduct towards these commissioners, and their disregard of authority de- rived from the same source with their charter. To account for their conduct on this occasion, we must consider the ideas they had of their political connexion with the parent state. They had
(1) Hutch. Coll. papers, 419. (2) Mass. Records.
* [George Walton appears to have been of Exeter in 1639, having pre- viously resided at Pascataqua. He finally settled on Great Island, where he died in 1686, aged about 71 years. See Mather, ii. Magnalia, 393. Adams, Annals of Portsmouth, 44, 398. Coll. N. H. Hist. Soc. i. 322. It is probable that he was the father of Col. Shadrach Walton, who is several times men- tioned in this history.]
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been forced from it by persecution : they came at their own charg- es into a wilderness, claimed indeed by the crown of England ; but really in possession of its native lords ; from whom they had pur- chased the soil and sovereignty, which gave them a title, consid- ered in a moral view, superior to the grant of any European princc. For convenience only, they had solicited and accepted a patent from the crown, which in their opinion constituted the only bond of union between them and their prince, by which the nature and extent of their allegiance to him was to be determined. This pa- tent they regarded as a solemn compact, by which the king had granted them undisturbed possession of the soil, and power of government within certain limits ; on condition that they should settle the country, christianize the natives, yield a fifth of all gold and silver mines to the crown, and make no laws repugnant to those of England. They had, on their part, sacredly performed these conditions ; and therefore concluded that the grant of title, property and dominion which the crown had made to them was irrevocable. And although they acknowledged themselves sub- jects of the reigning prince, and owned a dependence on the royal authority ; yet they understood it to be only through the medium of their charter.
The appointment of commissioners who were to act within the same limits, independently of this authority, and to receive ap- peals from it ; whose rule of conduct was not established law, but their own " good and sound discretion," was regarded as a dangerous stretch of royal power, militating with and superseding their charter. If the royal authority was destined to flow through the patent, it could not regularly be turned into another channel : if they were to be governed by laws made and executed by offi- cers of their own choosing, they could not at the same time be governed by the " discretion" of men in whose appointment they had no voice, and over whom they had no control. Two ruling powers in the same state was a solecism which they could not di- gest. The patent was neither forfeited nor revoked ; but the king had solemnly promised to confirm it, and it subsisted in full force. The commission therefore was deemed an usurpation and infringe- ment of those chartered rights, which had been solemnly pledged on the one part, dearly purchased and justly paid for on the other. They regarded " a royal donation under the great seal (to use their own words) as the greatest security that could be had in hu- man affairs ;"1 and they had confidence in the justice of the su- preme ruler, that if they held what they in their consciences thought to be their rights, and performed the engagements by which they had acquired them, they should enjoy the protection of his providence,* though they should be obliged to abandon the
(1) Hutch. Hist. Mass. vol. i. p. 543.
* " Keep to your patent. Your patent was a royal grant indeed ; and it is " instrumentally your defence and security. Recede from that, one way or
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[1666.
country, which they had planted with so much labor and expense, and seek a new settlement in some other part of the globe.
These were the principles which they had imbibed, which they openly avowed and on which they acted. Policy might have dic- tated to them the same flexibility of conduct, and softness of ex- pression, by which the other colonies on this occasion gained the royal favor. But they had so long held the sole and uninterrupt- ed sovereignty, in which they had been indulged by the late pop- ular government in England ; and were so fully convinced it was their right ; that they chose rather to risk the loss of all, than to make any concessions ; thereby exposing themselves farther to the malice of their enemies and the vengeance of power.
The commissioners, having finished their business, were recall- ed by the order of the king, who was much displeased with the ill treatment they had received from the Massachusetts government, which was the more heinous, as the colonies of Plymouth, Rhode- Island and Connecticut had treated the commission with acknowl- Apr. 10. edged respect. By a letter to the colony, he commanded them to send over four or five agents, promising " to hear " in person, all the allegations, suggestions, and pretences to right " or favor, that could be made on behalf the colony," intimating that he was far from desiring to invade their charter ; and com- manding that all things should remain as the commissioners had settled them until his farther order ; and that those persons who had been imprisoned for petitioning or applying to them should be released.1 The court, however, continued to exercise jurisdiction, appoint officers, and execute the laws in these towns as they had done for twenty-five years, to the general satisfaction of the peo- ple who were united with them in principles and affection.
This affection was demonstrated by their ready concurrence with the proposal for a general collection, for the purpose of 1669. erecting a new brick building* at Harvard college, the old wooden one being small and decayed. The town of Portsmouth, which was now become the richest, made a subscrip- tion of sixty pounds per annum for seven years ; and after five years, passed a town vote to carry this engagement into effect .- Dover gave thirty-two, and Exeter ten pounds for the same laud- able purpose.2
The people of Portsmouth, having for some time employed Joshua Moodey as a preacher among them, and erected 1671. a new meeting house, proceeded to settle him in regular
(1) Hutch. p. 547. (2) Harvard College Records.
" the other, and you will expose yourself to the wrath of God and the rage of " man. Fix upon the patent, and stand for the liberties and immunities con- " ferred upon you therein ; and you have Gon and the king with you, both " a good cause and a good interest : and may with good conscience set your " foot against any foot of pride and violence that shall come against you."- President Oakes's Election Sermon, 1673.
* This building was erected in 1672, and consumed by fire in 1764.
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order. A church consisting of nine brethren* was first gather- ed ; then the general court having been duly informed of it, and having signified their approbation, according to the established practice, Moodey was ordained in the presence of Governor Lev- erett and several of the magistrates.1 f
The whole attention of the government in England being at this time taken up with things that more immediately con- 1674. cerned themselves, nothing of moment relating to Ma-
son's interest was transacted. He became discouraged, and joined with the heirs of Gorges in proposing an alienation of their respective rights in the provinces of New-Hampshire and Maine to the crown, to make a government for the duke of Monmouth. The duke himself was greatly pleased with the scheme, as he had been told that an annual revenue of five thousand pounds or more might be collected from these provinces. But by the more faithful representations of some persons who were well acquainted with the country, he was induced to lay aside the project. Many complaints were made against the government of Massachusetts ; and it was thought to be highly expedient that more severe meas- ures should be used with them ; but the Dutch wars, and other foreign transactions, prevented any determination concerning them, till the country was involved in all the horrors of a general war with the natives .?
CHAPTER V.
Remarks on the temper and manners of the Indians. The first general war with them called Philip's war.
Ar the time of the first discovery of the river Pascataqua by Captain Smith, it was found that the native inhabitants of these parts differed not in language, manners, nor government, from their eastern or western neighbors. Though they were divided into several tribes, each of which had a distinct sachem, yet they all owned subjection to a sovereign prince, called Bashaba, whose residence was at Penobscot. It was soon after found that the
(1) Portsmouth Church Records. [Adams, Annals of Portsmouth, 51-55, where is a particular account of the measures preparatory to the ordination of Mr. Moodey.] (2) Hutch. Collection of papers, 451, 472.
* Joshua Moodey, John Cutt, Richard Cutt, Richard Martyn, Elias Stile- man, Samuel Haynes, James Pendleton, John Fletcher, John Tucker.
t [1671. April 1. A great storme of driving snow came out of the N. W. and drove up in drifts about 6 feet deep, as appeared by those that measured the banks of snow. For the space of 14 days after, it was a sad time of rain, not one whole fair day, and much damage done to mills and other things by the flood which followed. Town Records of Hampton.]
11
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ยท Tarrateens, who lived farther eastward, had invaded his country, surprised and slain him, and all the people in his neighborhood, and carried off his women, leaving no traces of his authority. 1 Upon which the subordinate sachems, having no head to unite them, and each one striving for the pre-eminence, made war among themselves ; by which means many of their people, and much of their provision were destroyed. When Sir Richard Hawkins visited the coast in 1615, this war was at its height; and to this succeeded a pestilence, which carried them off in such numbers that the living were not able to bury the dead ; but their bones remained at the places of their habitations for several years. 2 During this pestilence, Richard Vines and several others, whom Sir Ferdinando Gorges had hired, at a great expense, to tarry in the country through the winter, lived among them and lodged in their cabins, without receiving the least injury in their health, "not so much as feeling their heads to ache the whole time." 3 By such singular means did divine providence prepare the way for the peaceable entrance of the Europeans into this land.
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