USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire > Part 5
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One of the exiles on account of the Antinomian controversy,
(1) [Winthrop, Hist. N. E. i. 276.] (2) [Hubbard, Hist. N. E. 361.]
* The records of the court mention him as " a man of ill name and fame, in- famous for incontinency." Lib. A. Sept. 8th, 1640.
. 20
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [163S.
was John Wheelwright, brother to the famous Anne Hutchinson. He had been a preacher at Braintree, which was then part of Boston, and was a gentleman of learning, piety and zeal. || Hav- ing engaged to make a settlement within ten years, on the lands he had purchased of the Indians at Squamscot falls, || he with a number of his adherents began a plantation there, ||which ac- cording to the agreement made with Mason's agents, they called Exeter.|| Having obtained a dismission from the church in Bos- ton,* they formed themselves into a church ; and judging them- selves without the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, they combined into a separate body politic, f and chose rulers and assistants, who were sworn to the due discharge of their office, and the people were as solemnly sworn to obey them. Their rulers were Isaac Grosse, Nicholas Needham, and Thomas Wilson ; each of whom continued in office the space of a year, having two assistants. 1 The laws were made in a popular assembly and formally consent- ed to by the rulers. Treason, and rebellion against the king, (who is styled "the Lord's anointed") or the country, were made capital crimes ; and sedition was punishable by a fine of ten pounds, or otherwise, at the discretion of the court. This combi- nation subsisted three years.
About the same time, a plantation was formed at Winnicumet,t which was called Hampton. The principal inducement to the making this settlement was the very extensive salt-marsh, which was extremely valuable, as the uplands were not cultivated so as to produce a sufficiency of hay for the support of cattle. With a
(1) Exeter Records.
* The names of those who were thus dismissed were-
John Wheelwright,
Philemon Purmot, George Baytes,
Richard Morrys,
Isaac Grosse,
Thomas Wardell,
Richard Bulgar, Christopher Marshall, William Wardell.
› Boston Church Records.
t [The persons who entered into an agreement at this time ' to erect and set up among themselves, such government as should be to their best discerning, agreeable to the will of God,' were the following :
George Barlow,
Edmund Littlefield,
Thomas Pettit,
Richard Bulgar,
Philemon Purmont,
Samuel Walker,
William Cole,
Henry Roby,
James Wall,
John Cram,
Francis Matthews,
George Walton,
Thomas Crawley,
Richard Morris,
Thomas Wardhall,
Henry Elkins,
Nicholas Needham, William Wardhall,
Godfrey Dearborn,
George Rawbone,
William Wentworth,
Darby Field,
Robert Read,
John Wheelwright,
Ralph Hall,
Edward Rishworth,
William Winborne,
Christopher Helme
Robert Seward,
Thomas Wilson,
Christopher Lawson, Thomas Leavitt,
Robert Smith, Augustine Storre,
Thomas Wright.
Descendants of several of the persons here named are still found in Exeter and its neighborhood. The name of Storre has been variously written, as Star, Starr, Stor and Story, but I am assured by John Kelly, Esq., of Northwood, that his signature to the agreement alluded to, is Storre. The name of Wardhall is found written Wardell and Wardwell. Rawbone may be a mistake for Rath- bone.]
# [This name is called Winicowett by Winthrop.]
21
SETTLEMENTS.
1638.]
view to secure these meadows, the general court of Massachusetts had, in 1636, empowered Mr. Dummer* of Newbury, with John Spencer, f to build an house there at the expense of the colony, 1 which was to be refunded by those who should settle there. Ac- cordingly, an house was built, and commonly called the Bound- house ; though it was intended as a mark of possession rather than of limits. The architect was Nicholas Easton, who soon after removed to Rhode-Island, and built the first English house in Newport.º į
This entrance being made, a petition was presented to the court by a number of persons, chiefly from Norfolk in England, praying for liberty to settle there, which was granted them.3 They began the settlement by laying out a township in one hundred and forty- seven shares ;4 and having formed a church, chose Stephen Batch- elor for their minister, with whom Timothy Dalton was soon after associated. The number of the first inhabitants was fifty-six.|
(1) Massa. Records. (2) Callender's Century Sermon, p. 73. (3) MS. of Mr. Gookin. (4) Massa. Records, Sept. 8, 1638.
* [Richard Dummer was one of the principal men of the Massachusetts col- ony. He was born at Bishop-Stoke, England, and came to N. E. in 1632, re- sided first at Roxbury, from whence he soon removed to Newbury, where he died 14 December, 1679, aged 88. He was elected an assistant in 1635 and 1636, and representative in 1640, and from 1645 to 1647.]
t [John Spencer resided in Ipswich and Newbury. He was representative one year in 1635. He returned to England in 1638, and died in 1648.]
# [Nicholas Easton, one of the first settlers of Ipswich, for which place he was elected a deputy to the General Court of Massachusetts in March, 1635, but did not hold his seat, after a short residence at Newbury, removed to Rhode-Island, where he was elected governor in 1672 and 1673. He died in 1685, aged 83.]
|| Some of their names are mentioned in the Court Records, viz. Stephen Batchelor, Thomas Molton,
Christopher Hussey, William Estow,
Mary Hussey, widow,
William Palmer,
Thomas Cromwell,
William Sargeant,
Samuel Skullard,
Richard Swayne,
John Osgood,
William Sanders,
Samuel Greenfield,
John Molton,
Robert Tucke, John Cross.
[Among the files of the ancient county of Norfolk, kept in the office of the clerk of the court of common pleas, in Salem, is " A Note of the Families in Hampton, the first summer Mr. Batchelor came to Hampton," which will be here added. The names of baptism are generally omitted, but I have en- deavored to supply them, including them in parentheses. Those with a | prefixed are styled Goodman ; the year added to each shows the time of ad- mission as freemen.
" John Browne 1638 ?
Married Men ..
Mr. (Christopher) Hussey 1634
||(Philemon) Dalton 1636
||(Edmund) Johnson
[(John) Huggins
If(Robert) Tucke 1639
¡¡ (Jeoffry) Mingay 1640
Thomas Jones
1638
Thomas Moulton
1638
Il(Robert) Saunderson 1639
1640
Willianı Palmer 1638
[](Richard) Swaine
1640
|| (Thomas) Marston 1641
Il(Samuel) Greenfield 1635
il(William) Estowe 1638
Abraham Perkins
1640
Lieut. (William) Hayward 1640
John Moulton 1638
||(James) Davis
22
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1638.
The authority of Massachusetts having established this settle- ment, they, from the beginning, considered it as belonging to their colony.1 Though the agent of Mason's estate made some objec- tion to their proceeding, yet no legal method being taken to con- trovert this extension of their claim, the way was prepared for one still greater, which many circumstances concurred to establish.
After the death of Captain Mason, his widow and executrix sent over Francis Norton as her "general attorney ;" to whom she committed the whole management of the estate.2 But the expense so far exceeded the income, and the servants grew so impatient for their arrears, that she was obliged to relinquish the care of the plantation, and tell the servants that they must shift for themselves ; upon which, they shared the goods and cattle. Nor- ton drove above an hundred oxen to Boston, and there sold them for twenty-five pounds sterling per head, which it is said was the current price of the best cattle in New-England at that time .* These were of a large breed, imported from Denmark, from whence Mason had also procured a number of men skilled in sawing plank and making potashes. Having shared the stock and other materials, some of the people quitted the plantation ;
(1) MS. Deposition in Superior Court files. (2) Anne Mason's Letters, and MS. Depositions in Superior Court files.
Isaac Perkins
1642
Robert Cassell
Francis Peabody
1642
! (John) Cross 1639
Young Men that had Lots.
William Sargeant
William Wakefield
1638
Arthur Clark 1640
William Fifield
The second Summer.
Moses Cox
| (Robert) Page 1642
Thomas King
||(William) Marston
Anthony Taylor
¡(Joseph) Austin
Thomas Ward
1637
||(Joseph) Smith
Giles Fuller
¡¡ (John) Philbrick
||(William) Saunders
¡(William) English 1642
Daniel Hendrick
(Walter) Roper 1642
John Wedgewood
(Henry) Ambrose
1641
Thomas Chase
Widdow Parker
||(William) Fuller
1641
The names of Stephen Batchelor, Timothy Dalton, Mary Hussey, widow, Thomas Cromwell, Samuel Skullard and John Osgood, which are in Dr. Belknap's list, do not appear in the preceding. Cromwell and Skullard re- sided in Newbury, and Osgood settled at Andover, where he died in October, 1651, aged 56. Most of the first settlers of Hampton had previously lived in other towns in the Massachusetts colony, after their emigration from England. In 1643, I find the following additional names at Hampton, viz. James Davis, jr., Francis Swaine, William Marston, jr., Thomas Linnet, William Sanborn, John Sanborn, Stephen Sanborn, William Huntington, Aquila Chase, ances- tor of the Chase families in New-Hampshire, Richard Knight and Edward Tucke.]
* [Norton did not return to New-Hampshire, but took up his residence at Charlestown, and being, as Johnson says in Hist. N. E., 192, "a man of a bold and cheerful spirit, well disciplined, and an able man," was admitted freeman of the colony in 1642; chosen a member of the Ancient and Honor- able Artillery Company in 1643, and captain of the Charlestown train band. He was elected a deputy to the General Court eleven years, viz. in 1647, 1650, 1652-1661, excepting 1656 and 1657. He died 27 July, 1667.]
23
SETTLEMENTS.
1638.]
others of them tarried, keeping possession of the buildings and improvements, which they claimed as their own; the houses at Newichwannock were burned; and thus Mason's estate was ru- ined. These events happened between 1638 and 1644.
Among the Antinomians who were banished from Boston, and took refuge in these plantations, was Captain John Underhill, in whose story will appear some very strong characteristics of the spirit of these times.1 He had been a soldier in the Netherlands, and was brought over to New-England by Governor Winthrop, to train the people in military discipline. He served the country in the Pequod war, and was in such reputation in the town of Bos- ton, that they had chosen hiin one of their deputies.2 Deeply tinctured with Antinomian principles, and possessed of an high degree of enthusiasm, he made a capital figure in the controversy ; being one of the subscribers to a petition in which the court was censured, with an indecent severity, for their proceedings against Wheelwright. For this offence, he was disfranchised. He then made a voyage to England ; and upon his return petition- Nov. 15, ed the court for three hundred acres of land which had 1637. been promised him for his former services, intending to remove after Wheelwright. In his petition, he acknowledged his offence in condemning the court, and declared " that the Lord had brought " him to a sense of his sin in that respect, so that he had been in " great trouble on account thereof." On this occasion, the court thought proper to question him concerning an offensive expression, which he had uttered on board the ship in which he came from England, " that the government at Boston were as zealous as the " scribes and Pharisees, and as Paul before his conversion." He denied the charge, and it was proved to his face by a woman who was passenger with him, and whom he had endeavored to seduce to his opinions. He was also questioned for what he had said to her concerning the manner of his receiving assurance, which was " that having long lain under a spirit of bondage, he could get no " assurance ; till at length as he was taking a pipe of tobacco, " the spirit set home upon him an absolute promise of free grace, " with such assurance and joy that he had never since doubted of " his good estate, neither should he, whatever sins he might fall " into." This he would neither own nor deny ; but objected to the sufficiency of a single testimony. The court committed him for abusing them with a pretended retraction, and the next day passed the sentence of banishment upon him. Being allowed the liberty of attending public worship, his enthusiastic zeal broke out in a speech in which he endeavored to prove "that as the Lord " was pleased to convert Saul while he was persecuting, so he " might manifest himself to him while making a moderate use of " the good creature tobacco ; professing withal that he knew not " wherein he had deserved the censure of the court." The el-
(1) Hubbard's MS. Hist. (2) Prince's Annals, MS.
24
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1638.
ders reproved him for this inconsiderate speech ; and Mr. Cotton told him, " that though God often laid a man under a spirit of " bondage while walking in sin, as was the case with Paul, yet " he never sent a spirit of comfort but in an ordinance, as he did " to Paul by the ministry of Ananias ; and therefore exhorted him " to examine carefully the revelation and joy to which he preten- " ded." The same week he was privately dealt with on suspicion of adultery, which he disregarded; and therefore on the next sabbath was questioned for it before the church ; but the evidence not being sufficient to convict him, the church could only admon- ish him.
These proceedings, civil and ecclesiastical, being finished, he removed out of their jurisdiction ; and after a while came to Do- ver, where he procured the place of governor in the room of Bur- det. Governor Winthrop hearing of this, wrote to Hilton and others of this plantation, informing them of his character. Un- derhill intercepted the letter, and returned a bitter answer to Mr. Cotton; and wrote another letter full of reproaches against the governor to a gentleman of his family, whilst he addressed the governor himself in a fawning, obsequious strain, begging an ob- literation of former miscarriages, and a bearing with human in- firmities. These letters were all sent back to Hilton ; but too late to prevent his advancement.
Being settled in his government, he procured a church to be gathered at Dover, who chose Hanserd Knollys for their minister. He had come over from England the year before ; but being an Anabaptist of the Antinomian cast, was not well received in Mas- sachusetts, and came here while Burdet was in office, who forbade his preaching ; but Underhill, agreeing better with him, prevailed to have him chosen their minister. To ingratiate himself with his new patron, Knollys wrote in his favor to the church in Boston ; styling him " the right worshipful, their honored governor." Not- withstanding which, they cited him again to appear before them ; the court granting him safe conduct. At the same time, com- plaint was made to the chief inhabitants on the river, of the breach of friendship in advancing Underhill after his rejection ; and a copy of Knollys's letter was returned, wherein he had written that " Underhill was an instrument of God for their ruin," and it was inquired whether that letter was written by the desire or consent of the people.1 The principal persons of Portsmouth and Dover disclaimed his miscarriages, and expressed their readiness to call liim to account when a proper information should be presented ; but begged that no force might be sent against him. By his in- stigation, Knollys had also written to his friends in England, a calumnious letter against the Massachusetts planters, representing them as more arbitrary than the high-commission court, and that there was no real religion in the country. A copy of this letter
(1) [Winthrop, i. Hist. N. E. 281, 292.]
25
SETTLEMENTS.
1639.]
being sent from England to Governor Winthrop, Knollys was so ashamed at the discovery, that obtaining a license, he went to Bos- ton ; and at the public lecture before the governor, magistrates, ministers and the congregation, made confession of his fault, and wrote a retraction to his friends in England, which he left with the governor to be sent to them.1
Underhill was so affected with his friend's humiliation, and the disaffection of the people of Pascataqua to him, that he resolved to retrieve his character in the same way. Having obtained safe conduct, he went to Boston, and in the same public manner ac- knowledged his adultery, his disrespect to the government and the justice of their proceedings against him. But his confession was mixed with so many excuses and extenuations that it gave no satisfaction ; and the evidence of his scandalous deportment being now undeniable, the church passed the sentence of excommuni- cation, to which he seemed to submit, and appeared much dejec- ted whilst he remained therc.
Upon his return, to please some disaffected persons at the mouth of the river, he sent thirteen armed men to Exeter to rescue out of the officer's hand one Fish, who had been taken into custody for speaking against the king. The people of Dover forbade his coming into their court till they had considered his crimes and he promised to resign his place if they should disapprove of his con- duct ; but hearing that they were determined to remove him, he rushed into court in a passion, took his seat, ordered one of the magistrates to prison, for saying that he would not sit with an adulterer, and refused to receive his dismission, when they voted it. But they proceeded to choose another governor, Roberts, and sent back the prisoner to Exeter.
A new scene of difficulty now arose. Thomas Larkham, a native of Lyme, in Dorsetshire, and formerly a minister at 1640. Northam near Barnstable, who had come over to New-Eng- land, and not favoring the doctrine, nor willing to submit to the dis- cipline of the churches in Massachusetts, came to Dover ; and be- ing a preacher of good talents, eclipsed Knollys, and raised a party who determined to remove him. He therefore gave way to pop- ular prejudice, and suffered Larkham to take his place ; who soon discovered his licentious principles by receiving into the church persons of immoral characters, and assuming, like Burdet, the civil as well as ecclesiastical authority. The better sort of the people were displeased and restored Knollys to his office, who excom- municated Larkham. This bred a riot, in which Larkham laid hands on Knollys, taking away his hat on pretence that he had not paid for it; but he was civil enough afterward to return it. Some of the magistrates joined with Larkham, and forming a court, summoned Underhill, who was of Knollys's party, to appear before them, and answer to a new crime which they had to allege
(1) [Winthrop, Hist. N. E. i. 306, 326.] 6
26
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1640.
against him. Underhill collected his adherents : Knollys was armed with a pistol, and another had a bible mounted on an hal- bert for an ensign. In this ridiculous parade, they marched against Larkham and his party, who prudently declined a combat, and sent down the river to Williams, the governor, at Portsmouth, for assistance. He came up in a boat with an armed party, beset Knollys's house, where Underhill was, guarded it night and day till a court was summoned, and then, Williams sitting as judge, Underhill and his company were found guilty of a riot, and after being fined, were banished the plantation. The new crime which Larkham's party alleged against Underhill was, that he had been secretly endeavoring to persuade the inhabitants to offer them- selves to the government of Massachusetts, whose favor he was desirous to purchase, by these means, as he knew that their view was to extend their jurisdiction as far as they imagined their limits reached, whenever they should find a favorable opportunity.1 The same policy led him with his party to send a petition to Boston, praying for the interposition of the government in their case. In consequence of which, the governor and assistants commissioned Simon Bradstreet, Esq., with the famous Hugh Peters, then min- ister of Salem, and Timothy Dalton, of Hampton, to inquire into the matter, and effect a reconciliation, or certify the state of things to them. These gentlemen travelled on foot to Dover, and find- ing both sides in fault, brought the matter to this issue, that the one party revoked the excommunication, and the other the fines and banishment.
In the heat of these disputes, a discovery was made of Knollys's failure in point of chastity. He acknowledged his crime before the church ; but they dismissed him and he returned to England, where he suffered by the severity of the long parliament in 1644 ; and being forbidden to preach in the churches, opened a separate meeting in Great St. Helen's, from which he was soon dislodged, and his followers dispersed." He also suffered in the cause of non-conformity in the reign of King Charles the second, and at length (as it is said) died " a good man in a good old age," Sep- tember 19, 1691, Æt. ninety-three.3
Underhill having finished his career in these parts, obtained leave to return to Boston, and finding honesty to be the best poli- cy, did in a large assembly, at the public lecture, and during the sitting of the court, make a full confession of his adultery and hy- pocrisy, his pride and contempt of authority, justifying the church and court in all that they had done against him, declaring that his pretended assurance had failed him, and that the terror of his mind had at some times been so great, that he had drawn his sword to put an end to his life. The church being now satisfied, restored him to their communion.4 The court, after waiting six
(1) [Winthrop, Hist. N. E. ii. 27, 28.] (2) Neal's Hist. Puritans. 4to. vol. ii. p. 118. (3) Neal's Ilist. N. E. vol. i. p. 216. Mather's Magnal. lib. 8. p. 7. (4) Prince's Annals.
27
SETTLEMENTS.
1640.]
months for evidence of his good behaviour, took off his sentence of banishment, and released him from the punishment of his adul- tery : the law which made it capital having been enacted after the crime was committed, could not touch his life. Some offers being made him by the Dutch at Hudson's river, whose language was familiar to. him, the church of Boston hired a vessel to trans- port him and his family thither, furnishing them with all necessa- ries for the voyage.1 The Dutch governor gave him the com- mand of a company of an hundred and twenty men, and he was very serviceable in the wars which that colony liad with the Indians, having, it is said, killed one hundred and fifty on Long-Island, and three hundred on the Main. He continued in their service till his death .*
We find in this relation a striking instance of that species of false religion, which, having its scat in the imagination, instead of making the heart better and reforming the life, inflames the pas- sions, stupifies reason, and produces the wildest effects in the be- haviour. The excesses of enthusiasm have often been observed to lead to sensual gratifications ; the same natural fervor being sufficient to produce both. It cannot be strange that they who decry morality, should indulge such gross and scandalous enormi- ties as are sufficient to invalidate all those evidences of their re- ligious character on which they lay so much stress. But it is not so surprising that men should be thus misled, as that such frantic zealots should ever be reduced to an acknowledgment of their of- fences ; which, in this instance, may be ascribed to the strict dis- cipline then practised in the churches of New-England.
(1) Hubbard's MS. Hist. [p. 365 printed copy.]
[Mr. Wood says he settled at Stamford in Connecticut, and was a dele- gate from that town to the court of New-Haven in 1643, and was appointed an assistant justice there. In the war between the Dutch and Indians from 1643 to 1646, he had a principal command. After this war, which was ter- minated by a great battle at Strickland's plain, and in which the Dutch with difficulty obtained the victory, he settled at Flushing, on Long-Island. He had some agency in detecting and exposing the intrigues of the Dutch treas- urer in 1653. In 1665, he was a delegate from the town of Oyster-Bay to the Assembly, holden at Hempstead by Governor Nicolls, and was appointed by him, under-sheriff of the north riding of Yorkshire or Queen's county. In 1667, the Matineeoc Indians gave him 150 acres of land, which has remained in the family ever since, and is now in possession of one of his descendants that bears his name. It is supposed that Captain Underhill died at Oyster- Bay in the year 1672. See Wood's Sketch of the First Settlement of the sev- eral, Towns on Long-Island, 3d edit. 1828, 76. The author of this work in a letter to me, dated at Huntington, L. I., 5 November, 1827, says, " the de- scendants of Captain Underhill are numerous and very respectable. His el- dest son John was a magistrate and a man of influence and very serviceable. The most of his posterity have changed the warlike habiliments of their an- cestor for the Quaker habit. One of his female descendants, who resides within six miles of Huntington, is clerk of a meetingin that neighborhood, an office of considerable importance among the Friends. She is regarded as a woman of superior talents and acquirements." The name of Underhill still exists in New-Hampshire. Whether those bearing it are descendants of Capt. John Underhill, I have not ascertained. There was a Giles Underhill in New-Hampshire in 1668, who is mentioned in the N. H. Republican of 20 January, 1823, printed at Dover.]
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