USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire > Part 23
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As to the motion for a special verdict, it was said that a jury could not find one, if they had no doubt of the law or fact, for the reason of a special verdict is a doubt either in point of law or evidence ; nor was it consistent with the privileges of Eng- lishmen that a jury should be compelled to find specially. In addition to these pleas, it was further alleged, that by the statute law, no action of ejectment can be maintained except the plain- tiff, or those under whom he claims, have been in possession with- in twenty years ; and if they have been out of possession sixty years, then not only an ejectment, but a writ of right, and all other real actions are barred in respect of a subject, and that in such cases the right of the crown is also barred : and that by the statute of 32 Hen. 8. ch. 9., it is enacted, that no person shall purchase any lands or tenements, unless the seller, or they, by whom he claims, have been in possession of the same or the re- version or the remainder thereof, or have taken the rents or pro- fits thereof by the space of one whole year next before such bar- gain is made ; and that the appellee and his ancestor, and no other person whatever had been in possession of the premises, nor was it ever pretended by the appellant that the Masons, of whom the purchase was made, were in possession within one year, or at any time before the alleged purchase ; that all the mischiefs provided against by the above statute have been experienced by the people of New-Hampshire from the purchase made by the appellant's father, of the bare title of the propriety of the province. The council on this side were John Pickering and Charles Story.
166
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1707.
A certificate from the lieutenant-governor respecting tlie Aug. 12. queen's directions was delivered to the jury who return- ed the following verdict : " In the cause depending be- " tween Thomas Allen, Esq., appellant and Richard Waldron, " Esq., defendant, the jury finds for the defendant a confirmation " of the former judgment and costs of courts. Mark Hunking, " foreman."
The court then sent out the jury again, with this charge, " Gen- " men, you are further to consider this case and observe her " majesty's directions to find specially and your oaths." They returned the second time with the same verdict ; upon which, the court ordered judgment to be entered, and that the defendant recover costs of the appellant. The council for the appellant then moved for an appeal to her majesty in council ; which was allowed on their giving bond in two hundred pounds to prose- cute it.
But the loyalty of the people, and the distresses under which they labored by reason of the war, prevailed on the queen's min- istry to suspend a final decision ; and before the appeal could be heard, Allen's death, which happened in 1715, put an end to the suit, which his heirs, being minors, did not renew.1
-
CHAPTER XII.
The war with the French and Indians, called Queen Anne's war. Conclu- sion of Dudley's and Usher's administration.
THE peace which followed the treaty of Ryswick was but of short duration, for the seeds of war were already sown both in Europe and America. Louis had proclaimed the pretender king of England, and his Governor, Villebon, had orders to extend his province of Acadia to the river Kennebeck, though the English court understood St. Croix to be the boundary between their ter- ritories and those of the French. The fishery was interrupted by French men of war, and by the orders of Villebon, who suffer- ed no English vessels to fish on the banks of Nova Scotia. A French mission was established, and a chapel erected at Nor- ridgewog, on the upper part of Kennebeck, which served to ex- tend the influence of the French among the Indians. The gov- ernor of Canada, assuming the character of their father and pro- tector, instigated them to prevent the settlement of the English to the east of Kennebeck, and found some among them ready to . jisten to his advice. The people in those parts were apprehen-
(1) Council and Assembly Records. Printed state of Allen's title, p. 10.
167
PROVINCE. JOSEPHI DUDLEY.
1703.]
sive of danger and meditating a removal, and those who had en- tertained thoughts of settling there were restrained.
Things were in this posture, when Dudley entered on his gov- ernment. He had particular orders from England to rebuild the fort at Pemaquid ; but could not prevail on the Massachusetts assembly to bear the expense of it. However, he determined on a visit to the eastern country, and having notified his intention to the Indians, took with him a number of gentlemen of both 1703. provinces, * and held a conference at Casco with delegates June 20. from the tribes of Norridgewog, Penobscot, Pequawket, Penacook and Ameriscoggin ; who assured him that " as high as " sun was above the earth, so far distant was their design of ma- " king the least breach of the peace." They presented him a belt of wampum in token of their sincerity, and both parties went to two heaps of stones which had formerly been pitched and called the Two Brothers, where the friendship was further ratified by the addition of other stones. They also declared, that although the French emissaries among them had been endeavoring to break the union, yet it was " firm as a mountain, and should continue " as long as the sun and moon." Notwithstanding these fair ap- pearances, it was observed that when the Indians fired a salute their guns were charged with shot ; and it was suspected that they had then formed a design to seize the governor and his attendants, if a party which they expected from Canada, and which arrived two or three days after, had come in proper season to their as- sistance. However this might be, it is certain that in the Aug. 10. space of six weeks, a body of French and Indians, five hundred in number, having divided themselves into several parties, attacked all the settlements from Casco to Wells, and killed and took one hundred and thirty people, burning and destroying all before them.+
The next week, (August 17) a party of thirty Indians under Captain Tom, killed five people at Hampton village; among whom was a widow Mussey, a noted speaker among the Friends, and much lamented by them. They also plundered two houses ; but the people being alarmed, and pursuing them, they fled.±
The country was now in terror and confusion. The women and children retired to the garrisons. The men went armed to their work and posted sentinels in the fields. Troops of horse
* Mr. Hutchinson has misplaced this transaction by a year. [In the third edition of Hutchinson's History, printed in 1795, this transaction is assigned to the year 1703.]
t Mr. Hutchinson takes no notice of this remarkable devastation, which is particularly related by Mr. Penhallow in his " Wars of New-England," p. 5. [See Coll. N. H. Hist. Soc. i. 23.]
# [The five who were killed were Jonathan Green, Nicholas Bond, Thomas Lancaster, Widow Mussey, and a little boy of Will. Hinckley. Lancaster and the Widow Mussey were Quakers. Town Records of Hampton.]
168
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1703
were quartered at Portsmouth and in the province of Maine. A scout of three hundred and sixty men marched toward Pequawk- et, and another to the Ossipee ponds, but made no discoveries. Alarms were frequent, and the whole frontier country from Deer- field on the west, to Casco on the east, was kept in continual ter- ror by small parties of the enemy.
In the fall, Col. March, of Casco, made a visit to Pequawket, where he killed six of the enemy and took six more. This en- couraged the government to offer a bounty of forty pounds for scalps.
As the winter came on, the frontier towns were ordered to pro- vide a large number of snow-shoes ; and an expedition was plan- ned in New-Hampshire, against the head-quarters of the Indians. Major Winthrop Hilton, and Captain John Gilman of Exeter, Captain Chesley and Captain Davis of Oyster river, marched with their companies on snow-shoes into the woods ; but return- ed without success. This is called in the council books " an honorable service." Hilton received a gratuity of twelve, and each of the captains, five pounds.
With the return of spring, there was a return of hostilities ; for notwithstanding the posting a few southern Indians in the garrisons
1704. at Berwick, the enemy appeared at Oyster river, and shot Apr. 25. Nathaniel Medar,* near his own field, and the next day, killed Edward Taylor, near Lamprey river, and captiva- ted his wife and son. These instances of mischief gave color to a false alarm at Cochecho, where it was said, they lay in wait for Col. Waldron a whole day, but missing him by reason of his ab- sence from home, took his servant maid as she went to a spring for water ; and having examined her as to the state of the garri- son, stunned her with an hatchet, but did not scalp her. (The girl invented this story to palliate her too long absence.)+
In May, Col. Church, by Governor Dudley's order, having planned an expedition to the eastern shore, sailed from Boston with a number of transports, furnished with whaleboats for going up rivers. In his way, he stopt at Pascataqua, where he was joined by a body of men under Major Hilton, who was of emi- nent service to him in this expedition,¿ which lasted the whole
* [He was the son of John Medar, and was born at Durham, 14 June, 1671. Descendants of the family still remain in New-Hampshire.]
t [This sentence is added by the author in the corrected copy. Rev. Mr. Pike in his MS. Journal thus notices this affair : " Ap. 28. Thamsin Me- sarvey, Mr. Waldron's maid servant was taken by four Indians, betwixt sun- set and dark, at a spring in the major's pasture, between his house formerly burnt, and barn, and after examination was knockt down and left for dead, but recovered again-the enemy flying away hastily at the outcry of the watch, by which means Mr. Waldron escaped that was then coming over the Boom."]
# This is called in the council books " an expedition to Port-Royal," and this was the ostensible object. But Church in his memoirs says that Dud- ley would not permit him to go there. Church, p. 104. Hutch. ii. 146.
169
PROVINCE. JOSEPH DUDLEY.
1704.]
summer, and in which they destroyed the towns of Minas and Chignecto, and did considerable damage to the French and In- dians at Penobscot and Passamaquoddy, and even insulted Port Royal. While they were at Mount Desert, Church learned from nine of his prisoners, that a body of six hundred Indians" were preparing for an attack on Casco, and the head of Pascataqua river ; and sent an express to Portsmouth which obliged the peo- ple to be vigilant. No such great force as this appeared ; but small parties kept hovering on the outskirts. At Oyster river, they wounded William Tasker ;} and at Dover, they laid in am- bush for the people on their return from public worship, but hap- pily missed their aim. They afterward mortally wound- ed Mark Giles at that place, and soon after, killed several Aug.11. people in a field at Oyster river, whose names are not men- tioned.Į
In the former wars, New-Hampshire had received much assist- ance fromtheir brethren of Massachusetts ; but these now re- monstrated to the governor that his other province did not bear their proportion of the charge for the common defence. The representatives of New-Hampshire urged, in reply, the different circumstances of the two provinces ; " most of the towns in Massachusetts being out of the reach of the enemy, and no oth- erwise affected by the war than in the payment of their part of the expense, whilst this province was wholly a frontier by sea and land, and in equal danger with the county of York, in which four companies were stationed, and the inhabitants were abated their proportion of the public charges." They begged that twenty of the friendly Indians might be sent to scout on their borders, which request the governor complied with.1
In the winter, Col. Hilton with two hundred and seventy men, including the twenty Indians, were sent to Norridgewog 1705. on snow shoes. They had a favourable season for
(1) Council Records.
* I suppose this is the party whom Penhallow mentions, p. 23, who quarrel- led on their march about dividing the plunder which they might take, and of whom two hundred returned while the rest pursued their march, and did dam- age at Lancaster and Groton.
t [This name is Tasket in the records of the court of Quarter Sessions .- He had been in 1686, " several times summoned to attend this court, or some justice of the peace, upon complaint mnade against him for cruelty to his ap- prentice, Joseph Pitman," who was, in 1686, by the court, discharged from the service of the said Tasket.]
# [From the MS. Journal of the Rev. John Pike, it appears that on the 19 of August, Joseph Pitman was slain by the Indians, as he was guarding some mowers, not far from Oyster River Meeting house. It is also stated that John Giles, the son of Mark Giles, was killed at the same time with his father. The party of Indians who attacked them was seven or eight. Mr. Pike, in his Journal, has no notice of William Tasker, but he records the death of Samuel Tasker, who was killed on the first day of June, at Oyster River.]
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170
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1705.
their march, the snow being four feet deep. When they arrived there, finding no enemy to contend with, they burnt the deserted wigwams, and the chapel. The officers who went on this expe- dition complained that they had only the pay of private sol- diers .*
The late repairs of fort William and Mary at New-Castle were always complained of as burdensome to the people, and a repre- sentation thereof had been made to the queen, who instructed Dudley to press the assembly of Massachusetts to contribute to the expense; as the river belonged equally to both provinces. They urged in excuse that the fort was built at first at the sole charge of New-Hampshire, to whom it properly belonged ; that the whole expense of the repairs did not amount to what several of their towns singly paid toward the support of the war for one year ; that all the trade and navigation of the river, on both sides, paid a duty toward maintaining that fortress ; and that they had been at great expense in protecting the frontiers of New-Hamp- shire, and the parties who were employed in getting timber and masts for her majesty's service ; while New-Hampshire had nev- er contributed any thing to the support of the garrisons, forces and guards by sea, which were of equal benefit to them as to Massachusetts. One thing which made New-Hampshire more in favor with the queen was, that they had settled a salary on her governor, which the others never could be persuaded to do. The repairs of the fort, however, went on without their assistance, un- der the direction of Col. Romer ; and when they were complet- ed, a petition was sent home for a supply of cannon, ammunition and stores.
The next summer was chiefly spent in negotiating an exchange of prisoners ; and Dudley had the address to protract the ne- gotiation, under pretence of consulting with the other governments about a neutrality proposed by the governor of Canada, by which means the frontiers in general were kept tolerably quiet, although the enemy appeared once or twice in the town of Kittery. The line of picketst which enclosed the town of Portsmouth was re- paired, and a nightly patrole established on the sea shore, from Rendezvous Point to the bounds of Hampton, to prevent any
* [It was on the 21 January, this year, that the English settlements at Newfoundland were attacked by the French and Indians under M. de Suber- case. Rev. John Pike, in his MIS. Journal, says that the attack was made by a strong party of French and Indians (Penhallow says 550; Charlevoix, 450) on Sabbath night, and that they " destroyed all excepting the forts. They cut off about seventy families, sparing none save a few young men, that were fit for service. They afterwards besieged the fort at St. John's for di- vers weeks but could not take it." Pike, MS. Journal .- Penhallow, in Coll. N. H. Hist. Soc. i. 44, 45 .- Holmes, Annals of America, i. 492, who quotes Charlevoix, Nouv. France, ii. 298, 299 .- Univ. Hist. 155.]
t This line extended from the mill-pond on the south, to the creek on the north side of the town. It crossed the main street a few rods westward of the spot where the State House [in Portsmouth] now stands.
171
PROVINCE. JOSEPH DUDLEY.
1705.]
surprise by sea ; the coast being at this time infested by the ene- my's privateers.
During this truce, the inhabitants of Kingston who had left the place, were encouraged to petition for leave to return to their lands ; which the court granted on condition that they should build a fort in the centre of the town, lay out a parsonage and settle a minister, within three years. This last condition was rendered impracticable by the renewal of hostilities .*
The governor of Canada had encouraged the Indians who in- habited the borders of New-England. to remove to Canada, where being incorporated with the tribe of St. Francis, they have ever since remained. By this policy, they became more firmly at- tached to the interest of the French, and were more easily des- patched on their bloody business to the frontiers of New-England, with which they were well acquainted. Dudley, who was general- ly apprized of their movements, and kept a vigilant eye upon them, apprehended a rupture in the winter ; and gave orders for a cir- cular scouting march, once a month, round the heads of the towns from Kingston to Salmon falls ; but the enemy did not appear till April ; when a small party of them attacked the house of 1706. John Drew at Oyster river, where they killed eight and wounded two. The garrison was near, but not a man in it : the women, however, seeing nothing but death before them, fired an alarm, and then putting on hats, and loosening their hair that they might appear like men, they fired so briskly that the enemy, ap- prehending the people were alarmed, fled without burning or even plundering the house which they had attacked. John Wheeler, meeting this party and mistaking them for friendly Indians, un- happily fell into their hands and was killed, with his wife and two children. Four of his sons took refuge in a cave by the bank of the Little Bay, and though pursued by the Indians, escaped un- hurt.+
In July, Colonel Schuyler, from Albany, gave notice to Dudley
* [Kingston had been incorporated in 1694. The charter, granted by Lieut. Gov. Usher, is dated 6 of August. The first inhabitants were Ebenezer Web- ster, ancestor of Hon. Daniel Webster, Moses Elkins, Jonathan Sanborn, Ichabod Robie, who died 15 May, 1757, aged 92, Aaron Sleeper, Thomas Webster, Thomas Philbrick, and Jabez Colman, who was killed by the In- dians, as will be seen, under 1724. Benjamin, son of Thomas and Saralı Webster, born in 1701, is said to have been the first child born in the place. Kingston in 1725, contained 81 families. In 1732, it had 164 ratable inhab- itants and 115 dwelling houses, of which 64 were two stories high. In 1767, it numbered 999 inhabitants, but before this time, East-Kingston, Sandown and Hawke had been detached from it. The first having built a meeting house as early as 1738, was that year incorporated as a parish. Sandown was incorporated in 1756 and Hawke in 1760.]
t [This outrage occurred on the 27 of April. On the fourth of June fol- lowing, George Ricker and Maturin Ricker, of Cochecho, were slain by the Indians. George was killed while running up the lane, near the garrison. Maturin was killed in his field, and his son, a boy, was taken captive. Pike's MS. Journal.]
172
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1706.
that two hundred and seventy of the enemy were on their march toward Pascataqua, of which he immediately informed the peo- ple, and ordered them to close garrison, and one half of the mil- itia to be ready at a minute's warning. The first appearance of this body of the enemy was at Dunstable ;" whence they proceed- ed to Amesbury and Kingston, where they killed some cattle. Hilton, with sixty four men, marched from Exeter; but was o- bliged to return without meeting the enemy. The reason he gave to the council for returning so soon was the want of provision, there being none in readiness at the garrisons, notwithstanding a law lately enacted, enjoining it on every town to have stores ready and deposited in the hands of their captains. For the same rea- son, he had been obliged to discontinue a small scout, which he had for some time kept up. Hilton was so brave and active an officer that the enemy had marked him for destruction ; and for this purpose a party of them kept lurking about his house, where they observed ten men to go out one morning with their scythes, and lay aside their arms to mow; they then crept between the men and their guns, and suddenly rushed on them, killed four, wounded one, and took three. Two only of the whole number es- caped .; They missed the major for this time, and two of their prisoners escaped ; but suffered much in their return, having nothing to subsist on for three weeks, but lily roots and the rinds August 2. of trees. After this, they killed William Pearl,t and took Nathaniel Tebbets at Dover. It was observed dur- ing this war, that the enemy did more damage in small bodies than in larger, and by scattering along the frontiers, kept the peo- ple in continual apprehension and alarm ; and so very few of them fell into our hands, that in computing the expense of the war it was judged that every Indian killed or taken, cost the country a thousand pounds. |1
(1) Penhallow, p. 40.
* [Joseph Kilburn and Jeremialı Nelson of Rowley were killed by the In- dians at Dunstable, 10 July 1706, and John Pickard was mortally wounded, and died at Billerica, on the 5 August following. MS. Letter of J. Coffin, S. H. S.]
t [Rev. Mr. Pike says that three escaped, viz. Joseph Hall, John Taylor, who was " sorely wounded, but recovered," and one other. Those captured were Edward Hall, Samuel Mighill and a mulatto. The four persons killed were Richard Mattoon, Hubertas Mattoon, son of Richard, Robert Barber and Samuel Pease. The number of the enemy was about twenty, who attacked the English as they were mowing in a field, between Exeter and Lamprey River. Rev. Mr. Pike.]
# [Rev. Mr. Pike says Nicholas Pearle. '" He was slain by the Indians in the day time in his cave, some miles above Oyster river, where he dwelt night and day, winter and summer, from the last breaking out of the war, precisely three years, though 'twas in the very wake and way where the enemy used to pass. He was a man of strange confidence and would not be persuaded to leave his place." Rev. John Pike, MS. Journal.]
Il [“ Benjamin Fifield, aged about 60 years, was barbarously killed (in his
173
PROVINCE. JOSEPH DUDLEY.
1707.]
In the following winter, Hilton made another excursion to the eastward, and a shallop was sent to Casco with stores and provisions for his party, consisting of two hundred and 1707. twenty men. The winter being mild, and the weather unsettled, prevented their marching so far as they intended : cold dry weath- er and deep snow being most favorable to winter expeditions. However, they came on an Indian track, near Black Point, and pursuing it, killed four, and took a squaw who conducted
them to a party of eighteen, whom they surprised as they Jan. 21. lay asleep on a neck of land at break of day, and of whom they killed seventeen, and took the other. This was matter of triumph considering the difficulty of finding their haunts. It was remark- ed that on the very morning that this affair happened, it was re- ported, with but little variation from the truth, at Portsmouth, though at the distance of sixty miles.
When Church went to Nova-Scotia, he very earnestly solicited leave to make an attempt on Port Royal ; but Dudley would not consent, and the reason he gave was, that he had written to the ministry in England, and expected orders and naval help to re- duce the place. His enemies however assigned another reason for his refusal ; which was, that a clandestine trade was carried on by his connivance, and to his emolument, with the French there. This report gained credit and occasioned a loud call for justice. Those who were directly concerned in the illegal traffic, were prosecuted and fined ; and the governor suffered much in his reputation.1 To wipe off these aspersions, he now determined to make an attack in earnest on Port Royal, even though no assis- tance should come from England. It was intended that an arma- ment should be sent to America, and the commander was ap- pointed ; but the state of affairs in Europe prevented their com- ing .*
(1) Hutch. Hist. Mass. vol. 2, p. 154.
pasture not far from his house) by the Indians, August 1, 1706." Town Records of Hampton.
On the 3 of July, the same year, Nathaniel Blanchard, Lydia Blanchard, his wife, Susan Blanchard, their daughter, Mrs. Hannah Blanchard, Mrs. Cummings, the wife of John Cummings, and Rachel Galusha, were killed by the Indians at Dunstable. Records of Dunstable.
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