USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire > Part 54
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I perceive you have a great mynd to the lakes, and I as great a will to assist you. If I had 2 horses and 3 men with me I would by God's helpe soon resolve you of the situation of it, but not to live there myselfe.
The Pide-Cow arrived the 8th Julie, the 13th day she cast an- chor some halfe a mile from the fall, the 18th day the shippee unladen, the 19th fell down the river, the 22d day the carpenters began about the mill, the 5th of August the iron stoane taken in the shipe. There is of 3 sorts, on sorte that the myne doth cast fourth as the tree doth gum, which is sent in a rundit. On of the ยท other sortes we take to be very rich, there is great store of it. For the other I know not; but may it please you to take notice of the waight and measure of every sort, before it goeth into the furnace and what the stone of such waight and measure will yeeld in Iron. This that 'e take to be the best stone is one mile to the south- ward of the great house* it is some 200 rodd in length, 6 foote wide, the depth we know not, for want of tooles for that purpose we tooke onely the surface of the mine.
I have paled in a piece of ground and planted it. If it please God to send us a drie time, I hope there will be 8 or 10 quart- ers of corne. You have heare at the great house 9 cowes, 1 Bull, 4 Calves of the last yeare, and 9 of this yeare they prove very well, farre better than ever was expected, they are as good as your ordinary cattle in England and the goates prove some of them ve- ry well both for milk and breed. If you did send a shippe for the westerne Islands of 6 score tunne or thereabouts for cowes and goates it would be profitable for you. A stocke of iron worke to be put away with your boardes from the mill will be good, nayles, spikes, lockes, hinges, iron workes for boats and pinaces, twine, canvis, needles and cordage, pitch and tarr, graples, ankers, and necessarys for that purpose.
Sr I have written unto Mr. John Round to repaire unto your worship, he is a silver smith by his trade but hath spent much time and means about iron, may it please you to send for him, he
# The great house stood opposite to the house of Mr. Temple Knight.
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dwelleth in Mogull street, if you are acquainted with any finer or mettle man enquire of him and as you sce eause send for him, he is well seene in all myneralls if you deale with him he will give you a good light for your proceedings.
The 6th of August, the shippe ready to set sayle for Saco to load cloave boardes and pipe staves. A good husband with his wife to tend the cattle and to make butter and cheese will be pro- fitable ; for maides they are soon gone in this country. For the rest I hope Mr. Jocelyn for your own particulars will satisfie you for I have not power to examen it. This with my humble ser- vice to your worship, I rest your ever lovinge servant,
AMBROSE GIBBINS.
Newichwannock, the 6th of August 1634.
No 10. An original Letter from George Vaughan to Mr. Ambrose Gibbins.
Boston, August 20, 1634.
Mr. Gibbins,-We only waite for a faire wind. I shall acquaint Mr. Mason and the rest of the owners fully of what you and I have formerly diseourst and if they give me incouradgment hope shall see you againe the next yere. Lookeing over my papers found the inelosed, it being the division of the Townes and the copia of what Capt. Nele and Capt. Wiggins wroate hoome to the Patentees of Laconiah and Hilton's poynt. It may be of som use to you hereafter, therefore sent it you, leste Capt. Wiggins should make another Bluster. Which with my kind Love to you & your spouse and little Beck, I am your assured frend, GEORGE VAUGHAN.
No. 11. Another from the same.
London, 10th April, 1636.
Loving frend Gibbens,-Wee put into Ireland goinge home, and there was taken sike and lefte behind, and laye so long before I got well that it was the latter end of December laste before I got to London, and Mr. Mason was ded. But I spoke with Sr Ferdinan- do Gorges and the other owners, but they gave me no incouradg- ment for New-England. I acquainted them fully of what you and I discoursed, but they were quite could in that matter, Mr. Mason being ded and Sr Ferdinando minding only his one divityon .- He teles me he is geting a pattente for it from the king from Pis- cataqua to Sagadehocke, and that betwene Meremaeke and Pis- cataqua he left for Mr. Mason, who if hee had lived would a tooke a pattent for that also, and so I suppose the affairs of Laconia is ded al- so. I intend to goe for the Este Indyes, a frend of mine have made mee a very good proffer and I thinke to take up with it. Which is what offers at present. Thus with my kind love to you and your wife and daughter, I am your loving friend, GEORGE VAUGHAN.
(The ten preceding papers are in the Recorder's office for Rockingham county.)
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No. 12. Combination for government at Exeter, with the forms of oaths for rulers and people. [Not inserted in the former editions.]
Whereas it hath pleased the Lord to move the heart of our dread sovereign Charles, by the grace of God, King, &c. to grant license and liberty to sundry of his subjects to plant themselves in the western parts of America :- We his loyal subjects, brethren of the church in Exeter, situate and lying upon the river Pascataqua, with other inhabitants there, considering with ourselves the holy will of God and our own necessity, that we should not live without wholesome laws and civil government among us, of which we are altogether destitute, do in the name of Christ and in the sight of God combine ourselves together to erect and set up among us such government as shall be to our best discerning agreeable to the will of God, professing ourselves subjects of our Sovereign Lord King Charles, according to the liberties of our English colony of Massa- chusetts, and binding of ourselves solemnly by the grace and help of Christ, and in his name and fear, to submit ourselves to such godly and christian laws as are established in the realm of England to our best knowledge, and to all other such laws which shall upon good grounds be made and enacted among us according to God, that we may live quietly a peaceably together in all godliness and honesty. Mo. 8. D. 4. 1639.
John Wheelwright, Darby Field,
Augustine Storer,
Robert Read,
Thomas Wright,
Edward Rishworth,
Thomas Wilson,
William Wentworth, Francis Matthews, Godfrey Dearborne,
George Rawbone,
Henry Elkins,
William Wardhall,
William Cole, James Wall, Thomas Leavit,
Samuel Walker,
Robert Smith, Ralph Hall,
Edmund Littlefield,
Henry Roby,
Robert Seward,
John Cramme,
William Winborne,
Richard Bulgar,*
Philemon Purmot,
Thomas Crawley,
Christopher Helme,
Christopher Lawson, Thomas Wardhall. George Barlow,
Richard Morris, Nicholas Needham,
George Walton,
Thomas Petit,
The Elder's or Ruler's Oath.
You shall swear by the great and dreadful name of the high God, maker and governor of heaven and earth, and by the Lord Je- sus Christ, the prince of the kings and rulers of the earth, that in his name and fear you will rule and govern his people according to the righteous will of God, ministering justice and judgment on the workers of iniquity, and ministering due encouragement and countenance to well doers, protecting of the people so far as in you lieth, by the help of God from foreign annoyance and inward dis- turbance, that they may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godli- ness and honesty. So God be helpful and gracious to you and yours in Christ Jesus.
* This name is erroneously Biellyer in Hazard's Collections and in Coll. N. H. Hist. Soc. i. 322.
APPENDIX. 433
The Oath of the People.
We do here swear by the great and dreadful name of the high God, maker and governor of heaven and earth, and by the Lord Je- sus Christ, the king and saviour of his people, that in his name and fear, we will submit ourselves to be ruled and governed according to the will and word of God, and such wholesome laws and ordi- nances as shall be desired therefrom by our honored rulers, and the lawful assistants, with the consent of the people, and that we will be ready to assist them by the help of God, in the administra- tion of justice and preservation of the peace, with our bodies and goods and best endeavors according to God. So God protect and save us and ours in Jesus Christ.
(Taken from the Town Records of Exeter.)
No. 13. The Combination for Government at Dover.
Whereas sundry mischiefs and inconveniences have befallen us, and more and greater may, in regard of want of civil government, his most gracious Majesty having settled no order for us to our knowledge-We, whose names are underwritten, being inhabitants upon the river Pascataqua, have voluntarily agreed to combine our- selves into a body politic, that we may the more comfortably enjoy the benefit of his Majesty's laws, together with all such laws as shall be concluded by a major part of the freemen of our society, in case they be not repugnant to the laws of England and adminis- tered in behalf of his Majesty. And this we have mutually prom- ised and engaged to do, and so to continue till his excellent Majes- ty shall give other orders concerning us. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands, October 22, [1640] in the 16th year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c.
THOMAS LARKHAM, RICHARD WALDRON, WILLIAM WALDRON,* with 38 more.t (From Hubbard's History of New-England.)
No. 14. Petition of the Inhabitants of Portsmouth.
To the honored General Court, assembled at Boston this present month of May, 1653.
The humble petition of the inhabitants of the town at present called Strawberry-Bank, sheweth :
That whereas your petitioners petitioned to the last General
* William Waldron was their recorder. He afterward removed to Saco and was drowned in Kennebunk river, in September, 1646. [Hubbard.] Edward Colcot was sometime governor of this plantation. Ibid.
+ [The names of these 38 cannot be found.]
57
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Court to grant unto the said inhabitants a competent portion of land to make us a township, whereby we may be enabled to sub- sist and be useful to the church and commonwealth, our desire is, that this honored court will be pleased to shew their favor and good will towards us and willingness to accommodate us to the uttermost. And for that purpose, hath desired the honored Captain Wiggin to bring his patent to this present court.
Now may it please this honored court to take our case into con- sideration and consider of our extreme necessities : First, in re- spect of the number of families which are between 50 and 60, of which some are constrained to move for want of land to accom- modate them with their stock : Secondly, the quality of the land we live on is so bad, it's incredible to believe, except those which have seen it : Thirdly, the place being settled a plantation the first of any in these parts, and our willingness in submitting to your government : Fourthly, that all the neighboring plantations about us which were settled since we, have their townships settled and bounded; only we as yet have none : Fifthly, that whereas there is much benefit by saw mills in other towns in this river and adja- cent towns, there is none in this town, but only one which was never perfected, nor like to be.
We humbly entreat this honored court to take into their view this neck of land which we live upon, which nature itself hath bounded with the Maine sea and river, as may be seen by the draft of the river, which was presented to the last General Court and now presented again by our deputy, which neck of land is far less than any neighboring town about us.
The desire of your humble petitioners is, that this honored court would grant us the neck of land, beginning in the great bay at a place called Cotterill's Delight, and running to the sea according to our former petition presented to the last General Court.
And whereas the name of this plantation at present being STRABERY BANKE, accidentally so called by reason of a bank where strawberries was found in this place. Now your petition- ers humbly desire to have it called Portsmouth, being a name most suitable for this place, it being the river mouth and good harbor as any in this land-And your petitioners shall humbly pray.
BRIAN PENDLETON, RENALD FERNALD, RICHARD CUTT, SAMUEL HAINES, JOHN SHERBURNE, In behalf of the rest.
On this petition, it was first proposed to postpone, " because of Mr. Mason's claim to the land ;" afterwards granted 28 May, 1653, and allowed to be called PORTSMOUTH, "and the line of the township of Portsmouth to reach from the sea, by Hampton line to Winnicowett river leaving the proprietors to their just rights."
(Frora the Massachusetts Colony Files.)
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No. 15. Declaration of John Allen, Nicholas Shapleigh and Thom- as Lake respecting the Dover and Swampscot Patents.
The General Court ordering that the petitioners, John Allen, Nicholas Shapleigh and Thomas Lake, might make a brief decla- ration of their right in the two patents, Swampscot and Dover, (November, 1654.)
We humbly present to this honored court as followeth :
1. That Mr. Edward Hilton was possessed of this land about the year 1628, which is about 26 years ago.
2. Mr. Hilton sold the said land to some merchants of Bristol, who had it in possession for about 2 years.
3. The Lord Say, the Lord Brook, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Sir Arthur Haslerigg, Mr. Bosville, Mr. Wyllys, Mr. Whiting, Mr. Hewett and others bought the said land of Bristol merchants and they have paid &2150. They being writ unto by the governor and magistrates of the Massachusetts, who encouraged them to purchase the said lands of the Bristol men, in respect they feared some ill neighborhood from them, as some in this honored court may please to remember.
4. The lords and gentlemen engaged the said land (so purchas- ed) about 9 years, and placed more inhabitants at Dover, some of which came over at their cost and charges, and had their several letters set forth unto them.
5. The 14th of ve 4 mo. 1641, Mr. Wyllys, Mr. Saltonstall, Mr. Holyoke, and Mr. Makepeace, for themselves and partners, put the said patent under the government of the Massachusetts, reserving 1-3 of Dover patent, and the whole of the south part of the river, to the lords and gentlemen, and the said court confirmed the lands on them, their heirs and assigns forever, as by the said con- tract fully appears, the 14th 4th mo. 1641, and the 2-3 of Dover patent should remain to the inhabitants of Dover.
6. The 7 mo. 1342, Mr. Samuel Dudley and others were ap- pointed by the court to lay out the limits of Dover according to the agreement with Mr. Whiting and company, and that nothing be done to the prejudice of Mr. Whiting and company appears per the court record 7 mo. 1642.
7. The 7 mo. 1643, the marsh and meadows in the great bay and 400 acres of upland was granted to Dover, reserving the right to the proprietors.
Now we humbly pray this honored court to take into considera- tion that, this conditional grant to Dover was 2 years and 3 months after your contract with Mr. Whiting and company, and 15 years after the owners had purchased and possessed it, during which time, the whole patent was twice sold and several parts also, and also it was enjoyed by the owners 13 years before the honored court challenged any interest in the said land by the extent of your patent. And that this honored court will be pleased to grant a di- vision of the said lands according as you have formerly ordered.
[Copied from the Massachusetts files and communicated to the editor by Mr. Joshua Coffin.]
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APPENDIX.
No. 16. Copy of a report of a Committee of Reference on the peti- tion of Robert Mason, Edward Godfrey, and others to the king, (in 1661.)
To the King's most excellent Majesty,
According to your majesty's reference upon the petition of Rob- ert Mason, Edward Godfrey, and others, hereunto annexed, bear- ing date at Whitehall, the seventeenth of November, 1660, we have heard the claims and complaints of the petitioners, and also summoned by process publicly executed at the exchange on the 21st day of January last against all persons interested in that bu- siness, but none appeared but Capt. John Leverett, who acknowl- edged that formerly he was commissionated as an agent of the corporation of Boston in New-England, but that now he had no authority to appear or act on their behalf.
Upon producing of divers letters patents and examination of witnesses, we find, That Capt. John Mason, grandfather to Robert Mason, one of the petitioners, and Edward Godfrey, another of the petitioners, by virtue of several letters patents under the great seal of England granted unto them and others by your majesty's late royal father,by themselves and their assigns have been in ac- tual and quiet possession of several tracts, parcels and divisions of land in New-England, as in and by the said letters patents is par- ticulaily expressed, and that the said Capt. John Mason and the said Edward Godfrey did expend and lay out considerable sums of money in settling plantations and colonies there ; That the said Edward Godfrey has lived there for five and twenty years, having undergone and discharged the office of governor of the province of Maine with much reputation of integrity and justice, endeavor- ing the regulation and government of those parts, where he lives according to the known and settled laws of this kingdom ; That notwithstanding, the said Edward Godfrey has not only been turn- ed out of his said place of governor, but has been utterly outed and dispossessed of his lands and estate in that country, which the inhabitants of the Massachusetts have forcibly seized and still do detain the same from him ; That it appears as well by testimony of witnesses as by a copy of the letters patents that they were not to act any thing repugnant to the laws of England, nor to extend' their bounds and limits of the said corporation farther than three miles northward of Merrimack river, and as a memorial and evi- dence thereof, the governor of the Massachusetts did set up a house about thirty years since, which is called the bound house, and is known by that name to this day, and with this division and as- signment or lot of land the inhabitants and patentees of the said corporation of the Massachusetts rested content for the space of sixteen years together, until about the year 1652, they did enlarge and stretch their line about threescore miles beyond their known and settled bounds aforesaid ; and have thereby not only invaded and encroached upon the plantations and inheritances of the peti- tioners and other your majesty's subjects, but by menaces and arm- ed forces compelled them to submit to their usurped and arbi- rary government, which they have declared to be independent of
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this your majesty's crown of England, and not subordinate there- unto.
It appears further by the witnesses, that the colony of Massachu- setts has for these many years past endeavored to model and con- trive themselves into a free state or commonwealth without any relation to the crown of England, assuming on themselves the name and style of a commonwealth, issuing of writs in their own name, imposing of oaths to be true unto themselves contrary to that of allegiance, coining of money with their own stamps and signatures, exercising an arbitrary power over the estates and per- sons of all such as submit not unto their government, allowing them no appeals to England, and some have been so bold as publicly to affirm, that if his majesty should send them a governor, that the several towns and churches throughout the whole country under their government did resolve to oppose him, and others have said that before they of New-England would or should sub- mit to any appeal to England, they would sell that country or plantation to the king of Spain .*
That by reason of the premises the said Robert Mason and Ed- ward Godfrey have been damnified in their plantations and estates to the value of five thousand pounds, according to the judgment and estimation of several witnesses, examined in that behalf. But by what pretence of right or authority the Massachusetts have taken upon them to proceed and act in such manner doth not ap- pear to us.
All which we most humbly represent to your majesty in duty and obedience to your commands, not presuming to offer any opin- ion in a business of so high importance, wherein the public inter- est and government of your majesty appears so much intermixt and concerned with the private interest of the petitioners.
ROBT. MASON, G. SWEIT,
JA. BUNCE, RICHARD FOXE,
TH. EXTON, JO. MYLLES,
THO. POVEY.
( [Without date] in the recorder's office for Rockingham county.)
No. 17. Copy of a Commission granted by the Massachusetts Gen- eral Court in 1665, for settling the eastern parts, when disturbed by the King's Commissioners.
[Not inserted in the former editions.]
The General Court of the Massachusetts Jurisdiction in New- England,-
To Thomas Danforth, Eleazar Lusher and John Leverett, Esquires,-
You or any two of you are hereby fully authorized and impowered ' to repair in person to the counties of Norfolk, Pascataqua and Isle of Shoals and York, and to call before you any or every person or per- sons that have or shall act in the disturbance or reviling of the
* Vide Hutchinson's collection papers, page 339.
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government there settled according to his majesty's royal charter to this colony under the broad seal of England and to proceed against them according to their demerits and the laws here established, and to do any act for the settling the peace of the said places by declaration or otherwise according to your good and sound discre- tion, appointing of constables and associates for the courts, and keeping of the same, according to the articles of agreement made with said people of said counties respectively. And for the better enabling you herein, all officers military and civil and all others the inhabitants of this jurisdiction are required to be aiding and assisting to you for the ends aforesaid, as you shall see meet to re- quire; and in case you shall find it more expedient you may send for any delinquents as abovesaid, by warrant, directed to any of the officers of this jurisdiction, or such other as you shall appoint for the apprehending of their persons and causing them to appear be- fore you in such places as you shall appoint, where after examina- tion you shall further proceed as the matter shall require, and what you shall do herein to make return to the next General Court, &c.
No. 18. Copy of an address of the town of Dover to the Gener- al Court of Massachusetts. [Not inserted in the former editions.]
To the honored General Court of the Massachusetts in Boston, these presents shew this 9th day of October, 1665,
May it please the honored Court,-
Whereas we the inhabitants of Dover have received credible information that the inhabitants of the towns bordering upon the river of Pascataqua have petitioned his majesty, our dread sove- reign with respect to wrongs and usurpations they sustain in the present government, under which they reside, for an alienation to be made among them in the government as his majesty shall please to order the same. We thought it necessary, being orderly assem- bled in a town meeting, to clear ourselves for our own part by these presents, from having any hand in any such petition or remon- strance ; and in case any such act hath passed, we look at it as an unworthy misrepresentation of us the inhabitants of Dover to his majesty, as being done without any either consent or meeting or cognizance of the town or the major part thereof. Furthermore, as it is our bounden duty, so upon this occasion we, profess the same that God assisting, we shall continue in our faith and allegiance to his majesty by adhering to the present government, established by his royal charter in the colony of the Massachusetts, being well contented with the privileges thereof, and willing to perform what is required of us therein according to the articles of agreement.
We beseech the Lord for his presence in the midst of you, and his blessing upon all your public and weighty occasions, and hum- bly take leave.
It was voted in a public town meeting, October 10, 1665, that the contents thereof be presented to the General Court as the
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town's act, and that it be presented to all the rest of our neighbors to subscribe their hands as they are willing. This is a true copy taken from the original, per me.
[Subscribed also by 25 others. ]
WM. POMFRET, Town Clerk. RICH'D WALDRON, WM. WENTWORTH, JOHN ROBERTS, JOHN DAVIS, --
Selectmen.
No. 19, Copy of a similar address from Portsmouth. [Not inserted in the former editions.]
To the honored General Court of the Massachusetts.
May it please you,-
That whereas there was a bruit or fame of a petition drawn up by us the inhabitants of Portsmouth and sent to his majesty ; the contents of which is to charge the government of the Massachu- setts with usurpation upon us, and to supplicate an alteration of governors and government that his majesty hath at present estab- lished among us,-We, the selectmen for the prudential affairs of the said town, and sundry other inhabitants, do certify the honored court that we are innocent and clear of any such act, and do dis . claim the same as any of our town act, and do account ourselves abused by any that have fathered such a thing upon us.
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