USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Warner > The history of Warner, New Hampshire, for one hundred and forty- four years, from 1735 to 1879 > Part 9
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156
HISTORY OF WARNER.
merly occupied by Capt. Joshua Sawyer, and is now occupied by his grandson, Herbert Sawyer.
Let him who can appreciate the grandeur of a perfect landscape go up from the guidepost, at the Parade, to the site of Rev. William Kelley's house. It will be on his left hand. He must not come to this place from the opposite direction, nor in the middle of the day. It must be at the hour of sunset, for all views are comparatively tame at any other hour. Standing there, on the strong foundations of the Kel- ley house, facing the north, he will catch a view that transcends in some respects all other views to be had in Warner.
THE SURVEY.
The town was surveyed in August, 1772, as stated in the second chapter. The work was done under the supervision of Hubertus Neal, of Penacook, deputy surveyor. William Perkins and Zebulon Davis were the sworn chainmen ; Francis Davis and Ezekiel Evans were the committee for conducting the survey. This party, failing to find an unappropriated territory six miles square, and corresponding with the terms of the grant, found an equivalent by extending the town- ship westward.
Zebulon Davis was the oldest son of Capt. Francis. He was at this time 24 years of age. When he set- tled down in life, he lived at the Charles P. Sawyer place. His sons were Stephen, Alpheus, and Zebulon.
157
FIRST BRIDGE.
At a proprietors' meeting, September, 1772,-
£. s.
Ordered for the proprietors' part for preaching, 18- 6
Ordered to Hubertus Neal for running out the town, 6-13
FIRST BRIDGE.
In the warrant for a meeting, October 13, 1772, the following article appears :
" To see if the proprietors will assist the inhabitants in building a bridge over Amesbury River, near Mr. Daniel Flanderses, and in repairing road to Perrys- town."
At the meeting which followed, David Bagley and Ezekiel Dimond were chosen a committee to repair said road, but no mention is made of the bridge, in the records of this meeting. Still, it is probable that some provision was made at that meeting, or at one which soon followed, for building the bridge. A bridge was built the next year (1773), and it stood about twenty rods down the river from the present bridge by the brick school-house.
At the annual meeting, March 24, 1773,-
Voted that the assessors raise five dollars on each right to de- fray charges :
£. s. d.
Voted to allow Ezekiel Evans for 11 days service running out the town, 2-17-0
Voted to allow Francis Davis, self and son, for the same service, 2- 2-6
Ordered to pay to the settlers' committee for preaching, 18-0-0 At the same meeting,-
Chose Benjamin Evans and Simeon Bartlett a committee to proceed in the law and eject Jonathan Parmer off his lot of Land, and all other trespassers in the township.
CHAPTER XII.
PROPRIETORS' RECORDS-THE RYE GRANTEES-BOARD OF ARBI- TRATORS-THEIR AWARD-"PARMER" AGAIN.
T the annual meeting in March, 1773, " Chose a committee to meet a number of Gentlemen belonging to Rye, upon their desire, and hear their proposals and make report at the adjournment of this meeting-then the meeting adjourned to the 5th day of May."
No business was transacted at the adjourned meet- ing ; but at another, held June 3, 1773, " Voted, that Nehemiah Ordway, , Nathaniel Currier, Benjamin Evans, Simeon Bartlett, Henry Morrill, Samuel Bar- nard, Daniel Morrill, Theodore Hoyt, Peter Sargent, and Thomas Barnard, or any five of them, be a com- mittee to proceed with the Rye committee and have the case submitted to men for Arbitration, unless the Rye committee propose to take a sum of money which our committee shall deem reasonable and think proper to pay."
Said Rye committee consisted of Richard Jenness,
159
BOARD OF ARBITRATORS.
Richard Jenness, Jr., Samuel Jenness, Francis Jenness, Nathaniel Rand (cordwainer), and Ozam Doust.
BOARD OF ARBITRATORS.
The proprietors' committee met the Rye committee in conference, and July 20th, 1773, the two commit- tees agreed to submit all matters in dispute to a board of arbitrators. Each party gave bonds in the sum of 1000 pounds, lawful money of the province of New Hampshire, to abide the judgment of this board. Their agreement was in the words following :
" All disputes and controversies that have been and still are existing between sundry persons who, under the name of Jen- nestown Proprietors, claim title to lands within the bounds of New Amesbury in the county of Hillsboro' and Province of New Hampshire, and the Proprietors of said New Amesbury, are submitted for final determination, to Thomas Waldron, Ben- jamin Chadbourn, Benjamin Greenleaf and Woodbury Langdon."
After due deliberation, the arbitrators announced the following
AWARD.
" Know all men by these presents : That, whereas, the above named Richard Jenness, Richard Jenness Jr., Francis Jenness, Samuel Jenness, Nathaniel Rand and Ozam Doust-Nehemiah Ordway, Daniel Quimby, Simeon Bartlett, Nathaniel Currier and Benjamin Evans, have, by their Bonds of even date with these presents by them respectively executed, submitted to our final determination the controversies and disputes in the condi- tion of the foregoing obligation mentioned : having taken upon us the Burden submitted to us, and heard the parties and their evidence thereupon,-We do, for the putting an end to the said
160
HISTORY OF WARNER.
Controversy and Dispute make and publish this our Award, in manner following ;
" That, within six months from the date of these Presents, the said Proprietors of New Amesbury shall pay unto the Proprietors of Jennestown, the sum of 140 pounds Lawful money of the Prov- ince of New Hampshire, with interest for the same sum from this day until paid; And that the said Proprietors shall, upon the receipt thereof, release unto the said New Amesbury proprie- tors all their Right, Title, and Interest in and unto all the Lands lying within the bounds of said Township of New Amesbury, and shall free them from the claims of all persons claiming right un- der the said Jennestown Grant, and the said Proprietors of Jen- nestown shall indemnify them of all damages that may accrue by such claims-and that this Award shall be a final end of all said controversies and disputes between said parties to us submitted.
"Witness our hands and seals this twentieth day of July Anno Domini, 1773.
Thomas Waldron Benjamin Chadbourn Benjamin Greenleaf Woodbury Langdon."
The proprietors met at the Widow Esther Colby's, in Amesbury, July 27, 1773, and voted to raise eight dollars on each right, to sustain the action of the com- mittee in relation to the settlement of the difficulties with the Rye proprietors.
December 2, 1773,-
£. s. d. g.
Ordered to committee for settling dispute with Rye pro- prietors- 143-3-8-0
Ordered to Benjamin Evans for services and money,
paid- 14-3-8-2
" PARMER" AGAIN.
At the annual meeting, held March 10, 1774, Ben- jamin Evans and Simeon Bartlett were chosen a com-
161
ACTION AGAINST TRESPASSERS.
mittee to " eject Jonathan Parmer," or any other per- son on land in New Amesbury, claiming under the Jennestown proprietors, in case the said Jennestown committee neglect to remove the said trespassers.
At the same meeting, voted to lay out and allot all the common land in the township.
Voted that Isaac Chandler, Joseph Pudney, and Dea. Kimball, of Hopkinton, be a committee to exam- ine and see whether the settlers " have fulfilled ac- cording to agreement."
At the same meeting, voted to raise four dollars on each right, to defray the charges for the year.
The Jonathan Palmer case seems to have been a perfect " Pandora's box" to the proprietors of War- ner. A multitude of evils sprang from it, and much litigation grew out of it. It appears that Palmer was from Chester; that he came to Warner about the year 1765; that he came when the town was techni- cally the property of the Rye grantees ; that he came under their auspices, and took up a 40-acre lot, and made certain improvements upon it. It appears, fur- ther, that the Amesbury proprietors made repeated at- tempts to drive him out, taking the ground, first, that the Rye people had no jurisdiction ; and, second, that, even if they had jurisdiction, Palmer had failed to comply with their conditions of settlement. He had selected an ordinary lot to make a farm of, though it was very fair for pasture land. It was a half mile
162
HISTORY OF WARNER.
long, and forty rods wide. It has for a great many years constituted a part of the Joshua Bagley farm, which is now Samuel H. Dow's. It heads on the Ori- gen Dimond lot, and stretches along northward, on the upper side of the Dunbar farm, across Ballard brook, the north-east corner running over the main road and just reaching the railroad. At that point is the corner bound, a little below the buildings on the said Bagley farm.
On this lot Palmer cleared, or partly cleared, three or four acres, and built something that he called a house, though the Amesbury proprietors called it a " frame." The new Joppa road runs very near the site where this frame stood. The Amesbury proprie- tors allowed that if Palmer had complied with the terms of settlement prescribed by the Rye grantees (even though they had no authority), he should go unmolested. But they denied that he had done this, and claimed that he was simply a trespasser on land
not his own. They therefore voted, in March, 1767, " to give Increase Morrill a 40 acre Lot near where Parmer built a frame, he [Morrill] complying with the terms and settling as other settlers." This meant that Morrill was to have the very lot that Palmer had pre- empted, and the first step was to drive Palmer off. The law was appealed to for this purpose, and Ports- mouth was the theatre of the conflict. But the law's delays and the law's uncertainties were again exem-
163
ACTION AGAINST TRESPASSERS.
plified. Palmer still " held the fort." Seed-time and harvest came, years passed on, and, in August, 1770, a meeting was called at Amesbury " To see if the pro- prietors will choose a committee to carry on the Law- suit commenced by Increase Morrill, against Jonathan Palmer, of Chester, for Trespass ;" and Ezekiel Evans and Jonathan Barnard were chosen to take the advice of the Lords' proprietors in relation to the law-suit against said Palmer.
Then, after another long delay intervened, the pro- prietors, March 24, 1773, chose a committee to proceed in this law-suit, and eject this man from the lot he had selected. And, finally, this latter vote is repeated and emphasized at the annual meeting, March 10, 1774.
Justice requires the presentation of the grounds on which Palmer stood and claimed a verdict. He con- tended he was rightfully there, because he entered upon the lot under the sanction of the Rye grantees. He contended further, that even if he had acquired no rights under the Rye people, he had acquired a perfect title under the Amesbury proprietors by ful- filling every obligation which they demanded of set- tlers. This the Amesbury people denied. They rep- resented, in court and elsewhere, that he had not com- plied with a single condition ; that the land he had pretended to clear was covered with logs and with standing trees, and that the house he had built " was unfit for a pigeon-roost."
164
HISTORY OF WARNER.
Palmer fought valiantly, single-handed, and against great odds. He evidently lost the field in one en- counter, but he seems to have regained it in another. The records of Hillsborough county show that this redoubtable Jonathan, of New Amesbury, in May, 1774, sold and deeded to his brother, James Palmer, of the same place, for the sum of fifteen pounds, lawful money, a tract of forty acres of land, described by him as follows :
" It being a Lot that was laid out to me by my right, and afterwards recovered to me by law."
Thus the contest with this individual seems to have ended in a victory for him, whatever may have been the fate of the one who held under him. He was not ejected. He sold his lot, and took his money and his departure from the scene of action.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE TOWN INCORPORATED-MILLS AT GREAT FALLS-MORE TROUBLE WITH RYE-BURYING-YARD AND PARADE-CAPTAIN FRANCIS DAVIS-NEARING THE END-FINAL MEETING.
T the annual meeting in March, 1774, the pro- prietors took further action by choosing Moses Flanders, Ezekiel Evans, and Francis Davis as a com- mittee for getting the town incorporated. This com- mittee attended to their duty, and in the month of September following the town was incorporated by the name of
WARNER.
October, 1774, Ordered to Capt. Francis Davis for
£ s. d. getting the town incorporated- 24-13-6
Ordered to committee in Warner, for preaching- 18- 0-04
At the same meeting, Francis Davis and Ezekiel Evans were appointed "to allot all the undivided land in the township into Lots to each Proprietor in Divi- sions as it will hold out."
In November following, this committee reported as follows :
" In pursuance of the above vote, We the subscribers have been on the Township of New Amesbury (now Warner), and
166
HISTORY OF WARNER.
have layed out all the undivided land, and find it to make (with what lots were drawn and thrown up) an 80 acre Lot, a 60 acre Lot and a 40 acre Lot, to each Proprietor, reserving the County Road (main road), that goes through any part of the above Divi- sion of 40 acre Lots, and any other roads that may be wanted for the use of the town and that may be laid out by the Select- men; also reserving the mill privilege belonging to Capt. Davis from damage of flowing the 40 acre Lots according to the true intent of the Proprietors in granting said Privilege.
Francis Davis Ezekiel Evans Committee." Nov. 1774.
MILLS AT GREAT FALLS.
At the annual meeting, March, 1775, at Amesbury, the proprietors chose their officers for the ensuing year, and then,-
" Voted that the collector give notice by News Pa- per in Newbury Port, Mass. and in Portsmouth, N. H. at what time the taxes must be paid by the Proprie- tors, and that said collector shall have sixpence per pound for gathering the Rates."
At the same meeting,-
" Voted to empower the assessors to sell the mill privilege at Great Falls in the upper part of the town to any person that will pay $100, one half of the purchase money to be paid next December, and the other half to be paid one year after; said assessors to give a Deed to the purchaser and take security for the money."
Voted to raise $3 on each right, to defray the necessary expenses of the year.
167
MILLS AT GREAT FALLS.
Other business was transacted at this meeting, as was usual at most meetings, in reference to lines, lots, and divisions. Constant changes, in these particulars, were being made.
The great falls, mentioned above, are the falls at Waterloo village.
Nothing occurred at the annual meeting of the proprietors, in March, 1776, worthy of note, but at the annual meeting of 1777, a committee was chosen " To guard against encroachments upon the proprie- tors' lands." Said committee were authorized to see, when in Warner, that no person had taken possession of any lot of land without grant or purchase.
At the annual meeting in March, 1778, John Barn- ard and Simeon Bartlett were chosen "to advertise and make sale by auction of the Mill Privilege at the Great Falls, and to give the buyer a lawful convey- ance, and oblige him to build a Saw Mill in one year and a Grist Mill within three years from the time of his purchase, and to keep the mills in repair."
Voted $2 each to a committee who had settled a land difficulty between Christopher Gould and Chris- topher Flanders.
" Voted to give Charles Barnard 4 acres if there be so much of Common land at the end of Carter's Lot- as Sawyer must have 4 acres from said Barnard's Lot or have a law-suit."
-
168
HISTORY OF WARNER.
MORE TROUBLE WITH RYE.
At the annual meeting, March, 1779, nothing but routine business was transacted ; but at a meeting held at Amesbury, April the 29th of that year, Simeon Bartlett and John Barnard were chosen " to confer with a committee of the Proprietors of Jennestown, so called, and see if they will remove the encroach- ments in the township by persons acting, or claiming under said Jennestown Grant."
In case of a failure of this committee to get a fair settlement, they were instructed to take counsel, and appeal to a court of law for redress of their wrongs.
It is difficult, in the absence of any records of their own, to understand this conduct of the Rye people. According to the award of the commissioners, they were to relinquish "all their right, title, and interest in and unto all the lands in the township of New Amesbury." To this award they submitted (as did the other party), but such records as are in existence show that they did not in good faith abide by it.
The head man of the Rye grantees, or proprie- tors, was Richard Jenness. Perhaps this trouble is chargeable to his door. Perhaps it was lands in War- ner that he conveyed to parties by fraudulent papers, and if so, these difficulties are accounted for.
This Richard Jenness, representative for the towns of Rye and Newcastle, was expelled from the assem-
169
BURYING-YARD AND PARADE.
bly of the province, at Portsmouth, May 12, 1773, for the forgery of deeds of conveyance of lands.
The inhabitants of Rye and Newcastle, after this action of the assembly, were called upon to elect another representative to take the place of the ex- pelled member, and Amos Seavey, of Rye, was chosen. This man was the ancestor of all the Seaveys of War- ner. His son Andrew settled between the Mink hills and Bradford pond; and the three sons of Andrew,- Burns, Marden, and James,-are well remembered by the people of Warner.
BURYING-YARD AND PARADE.
At their annual meeting in March, 1784, the pro- prietors took steps for having ample grounds set off from the meeting-house lot, for a cemetery and a per- manent training-field. Simeon Bartlett and David Bagley were appointed a committee to carry forward this project. They attended to their duty, and report- ed that they had " set off from the Meeting House Lot about thirteen acres of land for Burying-Yard, Train- ing-Field [or Parade] and Highways."
The metes and bounds of this tract are given in detail in the report of the committee, but they would not interest the reader, and are therefore not present- ed here. It is sufficient to say, that this tract of land is at the old cemetery, heading on the Gould road, and extending back north to the river. It is forty-
170
HISTORY OF WARNER.
one rods in width on the road, and some sixty rods deep. It is now mostly covered with a thrifty pine growth; but in 1784, and for twenty years before that, it was a beautiful slope, carpeted with greensward down to the river's edge. Here, on this tract, was erected the first house of worship within the town- ship, and here the second house also. Here all classes, ages, and conditions were wont to congregate on the Sabbath day. They toiled up the long ascent from the east; they came in from the north, crossing the river almost under the shadow of the church edi- fice ; they came down the Gould road from Waldron's hill and the Minks; they poured in from the south in great numbers, passing the residence of their minis- ter, and often receiving kindly recognition from him on the way. The young and gay assembled at that sacred place ; and the aged pilgrims, leaning upon their staves, were there also, waiting for the consola- tion of Israel. During the intermission, these vener- able fathers and mothers, on bright summer days, " gathered at the river" to recount the past, and to recall the graves of their kindred, far away.
Here, also, was planted the first " city of the dead " within the township. Here, year after year, were the town elections held, and here the class, embracing Warner, Fishersfield, Perrystown, and New Breton, assembled annually, to make choice of a representa- tive to the general court. Here the town militia,
171
CAPTAIN FRANCIS DAVIS.
both under the king and under the United States, met on parade for discipline and drill. Here Captains Davis, Flood, and others, in the exercise of lawful authority, drew the sword and took command. Here the men were warned to meet on parade; and, before the independence of the country, they were sometimes "notified and warned to assemble at the King's Parade for military drill and exercise."
CAPTAIN FRANCIS DAVIS.
As Francis Davis was the first man to be put in command of the soldiery of Warner, his authority, in the shape of a commission, is herewith presented.
Province of John Wentworth Esq., Captain General and New Hampshire § Governor in Chief, in and over His Majesty's Province of New Hampshire, in New England,
To Francis Davis Esquire-Greeting.
By virtue of the Power and Authority, in and by His Majes- ty's Royal Commission to Me granted to be Captain General, &c. over His Majesty's Province of New Hampshire aforesaid, I Do, by these Presents, reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty, Courage, and good Conduct, constitute and appoint You the said Francis Davis, to be Captain of the 22d Company of Foot, in the Ninth Regiment of Militia, in the Province of New Hampshire, of which John Goffe Esq. is Colonel.
You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the Duty of a Captain in leading, ordering, and exercising said company in Arms, both inferior Officers and Soldiers, and to keep them in good Order and Discipline; hereby commanding them to obey you as their Captain, and yourself to observe and follow such Or- ders and Instructions as you shall from time to time receive from Me, or the Commander in Chief for the time being, or other your superior Officers for His Majesty's Service, according to Military Rules and Discipline, pursuant to the Trust reposed in You.
12
172
HISTORY OF WARNER.
Given under my Hand and Seal at Arms, at Portsmouth the Ninth Day of March, in the thirteenth year of the Reign of His Majesty King George the Third.
Annoque Domini 1773. J' Wentworth.
By His Excellency's Command, Theodore Atkinson, Sec'y.
As the cemetery in those days did not extend so far down towards Levi Bartlett's as now, Captain Davis often paraded his company on ground now within its enclosure. At other times the company was paraded in the road, by the ledge, and at other times on the gentle slope just at the north-east corner of the cemetery.
These grounds are the property of the town to-day, but time has wrought great changes there. Unbroken silence now reigns on that venerable spot. The voice of prayer and the voice of command will be heard there no more forever. The dead only sleep there. But with what unrivalled poetic beauty Longfellow says,- " There is no death ! what seems so is transition ; This life of mortal breath Is but the suburb of the life elysian, Whose portal we call death.
" In that great cloister's stillness and seclusion, By guardian angels led, Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution, They live whom we call dead."
NEARING THE END.
As the work of the proprietors of Warner drew towards a close, it naturally became less and less
.
173
NEARING THE END.
important. The record of proprietors' meetings, from about 1785 onward, becomes yearly less interesting. From 1784 to 1792 the proprietors met annually, to keep their organization intact, and to transact what- ever business must necessarily come before them, but they did little in those years except to confirm titles, to rectify the boundaries of lots, to make trifling grants to certain settlers, for one reason and another, and to divide up and draw the last remnants of their lands. Having become, to a large degree, residents of Warner, the proprietors, from 1792 onward, held all their meetings in old township Number One.
On the 13th day of April, 1792, the following warn- ing was posted up at two public places in Warner:
" In the name of the State of New Hampshire, we Do Hereby Notify and warn all the proprietors of the township of Warner in the County of Hillsboro' in this State that are legal voters in proprietors' meetings, to assemble and meet together at the house of Doct. John Currier in Warner on thurs Day the 24th Day of may next att one of the clock in the P. M. to act as followeth, viz. :
firstly to chuse a moderator to govern said meeting :
2 ly to see if the proprietors will vote to Ratify and Confirme the proceeding of the former proprietors meetings which ware warned and held out of this State or any part thereof :
3 ly to See if the proprietors will vote to chuse a committee to Bring an action or actions against any person or persons that are in possession of lands in the town of Warner not having any title to the same from under the proprietors of the township of said Warner.
4 ly to See if the proprietors will chuse any committee to settle with the former Collectors and all other persons indebted to the
174
HISTORY OF WARNER.
proprietors or that have any demand against them ; and to Dis- pose. of the Remaining Common Land or any part thereof.
James flanders Tappan Evans Committee."
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