USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Warner > The history of Warner, New Hampshire, for one hundred and forty- four years, from 1735 to 1879 > Part 29
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Taken upon oath, April 18, 1656.
Now, according to this affidavit, only one guilty party has put in an appearance, and that is Susannah Trimmings, the accuser. She lied in saying that she had no consort, and probably lied, also, in regard to the amount of cotton she had. Perhaps that accounts for the clap of fire that struck her on the back.
But let us hear the damaging testimony of other witnesses who appeared against old mother Walford in this important suit.
The account continues :
Her husband, Oliver Trimmings, says, she came home in a sad condition. She passed by me with her child in her arms, laid it on the bed, sat down upon the chest and leaned upon her elbow. Three times I asked her how she did,-she could not speak. I unlaced her clothes, and soon she spake and said, this wicked woman will kill me. I asked her what woman. She said Good-
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wife Walford. I tried to persuade her it was only her weakness. She told me no, and related as above, that her back was a flame of fire, and her lower parts were numb and without feeling. I pinched her and she felt not.
Taken on oath.
Nicholas Rowe testified that Jane Walford, shortly after she was accused, came to the deponent in bed in the evening and put her hand on 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.
Agnis Puddington deposes, that on the 11th of April, 1656, Mrs. Evans came to her house and lay there all night; and a lit- tle after sunset the deponent saw a yellowish cat; and Mrs. Evans 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 went up a tree, and the gun would not take fire. She afterwards saw three cats, the yellow one vanished away on the plain ground; she could not tell which way they went.
Court of Associates, June, 1656.
Jane Walford being brought to this court upon suspicion of being a Witch, is to continue bound until the next court, to be responsive.
What downright absurdity is here !- and yet a court of justice (so-called) listened to this sloppy stuff, in- stead of ordering the accusers under arrest, or out of the court-house.
As no further record is found of this case, the pre- sumption is that the woman was not brought up for a second trial.
Elizabeth, wife of William Morse, of Salisbury, Mass., was accused of witchcraft, and sentenced to be hung ; but by the persistence and firmness of Gov. Brad-
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street, her life, after a severe and protracted struggle with the courts, was saved.
The accuser of this woman, and the main witness against her, was Zachariah Davis. His testimony, in full, here follows :
When I lived at Salisbury, William Morse's wife asked me whether I could let her have a small passell of winges and I told her I woode, so she woode have me bring them over for her the next time I came over, but I came over and did not think of the winges, but met goody Morse, she asked me whether I had brought over her winges and tel her no I did not thinke of it, so I came 3 or 4 times and had them in my minde a litel before I came over but stil forgot them at my coming away so. meting with her every time that I came over without them aftar I had promised her the winges, so she tel me she wonder at it that my memory should be soe bad, but when I came home I went to the ยท barne and there was 3 cafes in a pen. One of them fell a danc- ing and roreing and was in such a condition as I never saw on cafe in before, but being almost night the cattle came home and we put him to his dam and he sucke and was well 3 or 4 days, and on of them was my brothers then come over to Nubery, but we did not thinke to send the winges, but when he came home and went to the barne this cafe fel a dancing and roreing so wee put him to the cowe, but he woode not sucke, but rane a roreinge away soe wee gate him againe with much adoe and put him into the barne and we heard him roer severall times in the night and in the morning I went to the barne and there he was seting upon his taile like a doge, and I never see no cafe set aftar that man- ner before and soe he remained in these fits while he died.
Subscribed and sworn to, June 7, 1679.
On this evidence a jury of twelve men,-no, of twelve idiots or devils,-in Essex county, Mass., in the year of our Lord, 1679, condemned a woman to death ! Shame on our country, that a score of innocent lives
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were sacrificed in the province of Massachusetts, on testimony as contemptible as this !
For a time nobody was secure. Old and young alike were dragged to execution. In and about Salem many people fled the country. Fear sat on every countenance. Terror filled every breast. The mania was irresistible ;- and to Cotton Mather, more than to any other one, belongs the honor of leading this in- famous crusade against persons guilty of no crime.
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CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE BOUNDARIES OF NEW HAMPSHIRE : AN ADDRESS BY GEN. WALTER HARRIMAN, DELIVERED AT CANTERBURY, N. H., MAY 3, 1878.
HE question of boundary has always been an interesting one, even from that period of antiquity when "Terminus, the tutelar god of bounds, was so obstinate that he would not stir an inch for Jupiter." The boundaries of nations, of states, of towns, and even of farms and city lots, vitally concern us. What litigation, what strife, what wranglings and wars, have not grown out of this question of boundary. Men are peculiarly sensitive about their territorial limits ; they want all that belongs to them, and some want more. They go to law and follow the courts for years, and spend thousands of dollars about the title to a strip of land not worth a ten-dollar bill.
I believe the people of New Hampshire of the present day are but imperfectly informed of the bitter and protracted controver- sies which the state has had in regard to her boundary lines. Perils by false brethren have beset her, and perils on every hand. Indeed, she has barely escaped annihilation. More than two hundred years elapsed, from the time when John Mason received his grant of the embryo state, before the territorial limits of New Hampshire were, by due metes and bounds, determined.
The title to a new country is acquired by discovery, by pur- chase, or by conquest. The British government claimed title to this country by discovery. To be sure, they found it occupied by various Indian tribes, but the English did not recognize the claims of the roving aborigines to the proprietorship of the soil. Holding that that belonged to civilized man, the authorities of that realm proceeded to occupy this country, and to found settle- ments here.
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BOUNDARIES OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
On the third day of November, 1620, King James the First chartered the Council of Plymouth. I quote from the words of that charter. "There shall be forever, in our town of Plymouth, in our county of Devon, a body corporate, consisting of forty persons, with perpetual succession, called by the name of the council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New England in America."
And then the names of those appointed to this council are an- nounced. The charter continues : " And we do grant to said council all the lands from forty to forty-eight degrees north lati- tude, from sea to sea, and all jurisdictions, royalties, etc., in said land, and islands and seas adjoining, provided they are not ac- tually possessed by any other Christian prince or state."
On the nineteenth of March, 1628, the Council of Plymouth made a grant of Massachusetts to Sir Henry Roswell and others. We of New Hampshire are only interested now in the northern boundary of that grant. After naming the boundaries on the south and the Merrimack river on the north, it is then added,- "And, also, all those lands and hereditaments whatsoever, which lie and be within the space of three English miles to the north- ward of the said river Merrimack, or to the northward of any and every part thereof." (I shall have occasion to notice this language more particularly hereafter.) The Atlantic ocean was the eastern boundary of this Massachusetts grant, and the South sea, meaning the Pacific ocean, the western. To our minds, the extension of this grant, on westward, across plains and over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific ocean, appears perfectly wild and chimerical. On the fourth of March, 1629, King James the First chartered the Massachusetts Company. This charter recites the establishment of the Plymouth Council and its grant to Roswell and others. It confirms this grant to them, and to Saltonstall, Craddock, and others, who had been admitted associates with them. It constitutes the grantees a corporation by the name of " The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England." It grants the same lands as were granted to Roswell and others, and by the same description, verbatim.
Now we come to the grant on which the state of New Hamp- shire is builded. I therefore ask you distinctly to remember that
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the Council of Plymouth, Nov. 7, 1629, " and in the fifth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles, by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith," etc., granted, assigned, aliened, enfeoffed, and confirmed unto Capt. John Mason, his heirs and assigns forever, "all that part of the main-land in New England, lying upon the sea-coast, beginning from the middle part of Merrimack river, and from thence to proceed northwards along the sea-coast to Piscataqua river, and so forwards up within the said river and to the further- est head thereof, and from thence north-westward until three-score miles be finished from the first entrance of Piscataqua river. Also, from Merrimack, through the said river, and to the further- est head thereof, and so forwards up into the land westwards, un- til three-score miles be finished; and from thence to cross overland to the three-score miles end accounted from Piscataqua river, to- gether with all islands and isletts within five leagues distance of the premises and abutting upon the same." Then it is added, " which said portions of lands, with the appurtenances thereto be- longing, the said Capt. John Mason, with the consent of the President and Council, intends to name New Hampshire."
In this great charter we find the foundation of our state. It was the state, in its early infancy, and every loyal son and daugh- ter of New Hampshire feels a deep interest in these initial steps in its creation. Mason conferred the name New Hampshire upon this domain in the New World, because the county of Hampshire in England was the place of his residence.
Capt. John Mason was a merchant of London, but became a sea officer, and afterwards governor of Newfoundland in America, where he acquired a knowledge of this country, which led him, on his return to England, into a close attachment with those who were engaged in its discovery. Upon the occurrence of a vacan- cy in the Council of Plymouth, Mason was elected a member, and became their secretary. He was also appointed governor of Portsmouth in Hampshire, England.
It is essential to my purpose to state that the Province of Maine, so-called, bounded west by the Piscataqua river, was grant- ed April 3, 1639, by the Crown, to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The Plymouth Council, prior to this, namely, the seventh of June, 1635, had surrendered its charter to the King, and ceased to exist.
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BOUNDARIES OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
October 7, 1691, a new charter was granted to the Massachusetts Company, by William and Mary, and in this charter was included the Province of Maine, formerly granted to Gorges. So, from this time forward, New Hampshire had Massachusetts to contend with, not only on the south, but on the east as well.
I do not feel called upon, in this place, to give. particular attention to the grant made to Gorges and Mason, August 10, 1622, of what was called " The Province of Maine," which grant extended, on the coast, from the river Merrimack to the Sagada- hoc, as that was superseded by later grants; nor to the supple- mentary grant of " Laconia " to the same parties, for that soon disappears from the public records, and the presumption is that it was forfeited, or that it failed through some defect or informal- ity. Besides, the boundaries of that grant, on the north and west, were painfully indefinite and uncertain,-" The said lands lying and bordering upon the great lakes and rivers of the Iro- quois, and other nations adjoining." One is reminded here of what Rufus Choate said, when attacking the Commissioners on the boundaries of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Said he, -- "I would as soon think of setting forth the boundaries between sovereign states as beginning at a blue-jay on the bough of a pine tree, thence easterly to a dandelion gone to seed, thence due south to three hundred foxes with fire-brands tied between their tails."
I need not consider here the union of New Hampshire with Massachusetts under one government, which lasted thirty-nine years, nor the fact that at a subsequent time one governor ruled over both provinces for a long period. I need not consider the famous Wheelright Deed, even if that deed was genuine and not a forgery. I need not investigate the question whether the line, from point to point in Mason's grant, should be a curve or a straight line ; nor need I attempt to settle the question of the validity of the claim of Mason's heirs to certain portions of the soil of the state; nor allude to the grant made to Edward Hilton in 1630, sometimes called the Swamscot patent. In none of the disputes arising upon these points were the outer limits of New Hampshire involved. The boundaries of the state were not menaced, and I shall therefore permit those questions to sleep.
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
STRIFE WITH MASSACHUSETTS ..
During periods of great public concern, like King Philip's War of 1675, or the invasion of Canada in 1690, the boundary controversies were silent, but, generally, till the final adjustment of those questions, the condition of affairs was substantially as stated by Gov. Belcher, in a letter to the Lords of Trade in Lon- don, in which he says,-" I have taken all possible care to have the long-contested boundaries betwixt the Massachusetts and New Hampshire adjusted agreeable to His Majesty's Royal Or- ders to me, but I can see no prospect of its being accomplished, and the Borderers, on the lines (if your Lordships will allow me so vulgar an expression), live like toads under a harrow, being run into jails, on the one side and the other, as often as they please to quarrel, such is the sad condition of His Majesty's sub- jects that live near the lines. They pull down one another's houses, often wound each other, and I fear it will end in blood- shed unless His Majesty, in his great goodness, gives some effect- ual Order to have the Bounds fixt."
This strife having become intolerable, unusual efforts were initiated, about 1730, for a settlement. The Assembly of New Hampshire proposed that a committee, consisting of disinterested persons, be appointed by the two. governments to "sit on the case." They proposed Col. William Codrington and Col. John Wanton, of Rhode Island, and Mr. John Lydall, merchant, of Boston, to act for New Hampshire. After much wrangling be- tween the two governments, and the failure of this project, on the recommendation of Gov. Belcher, who was governor of both provinces, and a native of Massachusetts, an act was passed as follows : "Be it enacted by His Excellency the Governor, Coun- cil, and Representatives convened in General Assembly, that the Hon. Adolph Phillips of New York, chosen and appointed by the two governments, and the Hon. Joseph Jenks of Rhode Island, chosen and appointed on the part of this government, and the Hon. Joseph Talcott of Connecticut, chosen and appointed by the government of Massachusetts Bay, be commissioners to repair to the places where the aforesaid controversy arises, and fully to hear each side, and finally to fix and settle said bounda- ries between the said provinces, according to His Majesty's afore-
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BOUNDARIES OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
said instructions ; that is to say, the boundary between the prov- ince of New Hampshire and the late province of Maine, as well as the other boundary between New Hampshire and the Massa- chusetts Bay."
In April, 1731, Gov. Belcher, in his message to the Council and House of Representatives of New Hampshire, says,-"I am now to acquaint you, gentlemen, that the late General Court of the Massachusetts Bay have past a law much of the nature of that past here the last fall, for settling the long-disputed bounds." The secretary brought down a copy of this act of Massachusetts, and Joshua Pierce and Nathaniel Weare, Esqrs., were appoint- ed a committtee to draw up objections to the same. I will not quote in extenso from the objections they drew up. A single paragraph will be sufficient. They say,-" We have carefully perused the transcript of the act passed by the government of Massachusetts Bay for settling the boundary lines, which we can by no means think reasonable, nor corresponding to His Maj- esty's instructions in scarce one paragraph." New Hampshire * adhered substantially to the terms of her act; Massachusetts adhered to hers, and, after much irritation and bickering, this scheme also failed. Perplexed, but not in despair, New Hamp- shire tried again. On the seventh day of May, 1731, she voted "That there be a Committee from the General Assembly ap- pointed, to meet a like Committee from the General Assembly of Massachusetts, at Newbury, the tenth day of June following," to try once more for an agreement. But the Assembly of Massa- chusetts did not readily respond. They did not come to time on the tenth of June. Effort upon effort was made to secure such meeting at Newbury, but for weeks and months to no purpose. At length, however, a meeting of the committee of the two prov- inces was effected at the appointed place. It occurred the thir- tieth of September, 1731, but was utterly barren of results. At this meeting, the committee on the part of Massachusetts claimed that all lands or towns which either government are in possession of, be reserved to the several governments, both as to jurisdiction and property. The New Hampshire committee utterly refused to comply with this demand, stating that it would bring the dividing line at least eleven miles and three quarters to the north ward of the Merrimack river, instead of three miles, according to
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HISTORY OF WARNER.
the terms of their grant. When the New Hampshire committee had peremptorily refused these hard terms, the Massachusetts committee stated that "they could not act any further, for, as they had particular directions, they were obliged to conform to them." And this attempt at settlement went also to the "tomb of the Capulets."
An appeal to the king was now the only alternative. Such appeal was taken, and New Hampshire having no agent in Eng- land to present her cause, appointed Capt. John Rindge for that purpose. He was a merchant in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and was about to take passage for London on his mercantile busi- ness. Being a man of means, he advanced what money was necessary to prosecute the design of his appointment. On his arrival in England he petitioned the king in behalf of the prov- ince of New Hampshire to establish its boundaries. Having accomplished his private business, and being obliged to return home, Capt. Rindge left the care of the petition with John Thom- linson, Esq., a merchant of London, who was well known here. This petition was presented to the court of Great Britain, Feb. 28, 1732. His Majesty referred it to the Lords of the Council, March 29, 1733, and their Lordships referred the same to the Lords of Trade in April. Five long, wearisome years elapsed after the presentation of this petition before definite action was taken. How execrable is procrastination ! This matter, so vital to the well-being of the provinces, must be put off. Disorder and contention are again rampant ; men pass away ; years come and go ; and at last, on the ninth day of April, 1737, His Majesty's commission, under the great seal, is issued. It was directed to twenty commissioners, discreet men, living in His Majesty's other loyal provinces, not less than five of whom should consti- tute a quorum. The king directed that the commissioners should hold their first session at Hampton, N. H, Aug. 1, 1737.
This commission was sent to Capt. John Rindge, of Ports- mouth, who kept it till the meeting of the commissioners, and then delivered it to them. The expense of it, amounting to 135 pounds sterling, was paid by the agents of New Hampshire.
On the day appointed, eight of the commissioners met at Hamp- ton. They published their commission, opened their court, chose William Parker, of Portsmouth, clerk, and George Mitchell, sur-
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veyor. The following are the names of the eight who met and constituted the court :
Wm. Skene, President, Erasmus James Phillips, Nova Scotia.
Otho Hamilton,
Samuel Vernon, John Gardner,
John Potter,
Rhode Island.
Ezekiel Warner, George Cornel,
Able men from each of the two provinces were to act as agents before this board. The Assemblies of the provinces convened at the same time, that of Massachusetts at Salisbury, and that of New Hampshire at Hampton Falls, only six miles apart. "With the utmost vigilance and jealousy they watched one another." It was an occasion of vast moment to those directly concerned.
To overawe the adverse party, a large cavalcade was formed in Boston, which, with a troop of horse, escorted Gov. Belcher to the scene of conflict. This pomp and display was the occasion of the following satirical verses, in an assumed Hibernian style :
Dear Paddy, you ne'er did behold such a sight As yesterday morning was seen before night : You in all your born days saw, nor I did n't neither, So many fine horses and men ride together.
At the head, the lower House trotted two in a row : Then all the higher House pranced after the low : Then the Governor's coach galloped on like the wind. And the last that came foremost were the troopers behind.
The commissioners met at the place and on the day appointed. The New Hampshire agents were ready, and they presented their case. The Massachusetts agents were not ready. The purport of the New Hampshire claim was this : that the southern bound- ary of the province should begin at the end of three miles north from the Merrimack river where it runs into the Atlantic ocean, and from thence should run, on a straight line west, up into the
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main land, towards the South sea, until it meets with His Majes- ty's other governments. That the eastern boundary should be- gin at the entrance of Piscataqua harbor, and so pass up the same into the river Newichwannock (now Salmon Falls), and through that unto the farthest head thereof, and from thence north-west- ward, that is, north, less than a quarter of a point westerly, as far as the British Dominion extends. That the western half of the Isles of Shoals lay within the province of New Hampshire.
Such was the New Hampshire case as contended for through weary years, and as presented, by the agents of the province, to the king's commissioners at Hampton. There was no ambiguity about this claim, and it came to the comprehension of every mind. It will be seen that New Hampshire did not claim from the mouth of Merrimack river, according to the conditions of Mason's grant, but from a point three miles north of it. The reason is this : the grant of Massachusetts antedates that of New Hamp- shire, and the boundaries of that grant began "at a point three English miles north of the Merrimack river." The authorities of New Hampshire readily assented to this claim on the part of Massachusetts.
The commissioners adjourned to Aug. 4, met again, and the Massachusetts agents were ready. They now presented their case. It demanded a boundary line on the south side of New Hampshire, beginning at the sea, three English miles north from the black rocks at the mouth of the river, as it emptied itself into the sea sixty years ago; thence running parallel with the river as far north as the junction of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesau- kee at Franklin, thence due north as far as a certain tree, com- monly known, as they said, for more than seventy years, as Endi- cott's tree, standing three English miles northward of the said junction, and from thence due west to the South sea. This Endi- cott tree was at, or very near, Sanbornton Square.
On the easterly side of New Hampshire, their case claimed a boundary line beginning at the entrance of Piscataqua harbor, passing up the same to the river, through that to the farthest head thereof, and from thence a due north-west line till 120 miles from the mouth of Piscataqua harbor be finished.
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