USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Windham > The history of Windham in New Hampshire (Rockingham country). 1719-1883. A Scotch settlement (commonly called Scotch-Irish), embracing nearly one third of the ancient settlement and historic township of Londonderry, N.H > Part 4
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But a day black with darkness was coming with unwonted swiftness. Its long deepening shadows reached the Scotch colonists at the death of Cromwell, Sept. 3, 1658, and the commencement of the end of the Protec- torate, which had been established nearly nine years before, and which end was reached five months later, when the government fell from the weak grasp of Richard Cromwell. In 1660 the Stuarts returned, and Charles II became king, In 1661, persecutions of the Scotch Presbyterians com- menced afresh in Ireland, and every expedient short of extermination was used to break the attachment of the people to their church polity. Many ministers were deposed and fled to Scotland. But the greater the perse- cution, the greater was the tenacity with which the Scotch clung to the tenets of their church. From this time forward, for nearly thirty years, continued a series of persecutions, either in Ireland or Scotland, in which multitudes became martyrs to their faith. "From 1670, till the accession of William and Mary, the Presbyterians of Scotland worshipped in hidden places and at the peril of their lives." Thus the persecutions went on, nor did they cease until James II was driven from his throne,-not till after the " Siege of Londonderry," that event which shall always live in human history, and which shall inspire and thrill human hearts wherever heroism is honored, and devotion to immortal principles is loved and commended.
King James II, who came to the throne in 1685, was a papist, and his officers in Ireland were mostly of the Catholic faith, and determined to advance that cause. Under Catholic rule in Ireland the Protestants were disarmed, placed in a defenceless condition, and being surrounded by papists, were not safe in life or property. In 1687 they were subjected to many outrages. Their houses were burned, their cattle were stolen, and the Catholic soldiers roamed the country, pillaging, maiming, and committing all kinds of ontrages. Fifteen hundred families left the country in a few days, it was said. The tyranny of the king had awakened the flercest alarm in the three kingdoms. Some of the leading men of England invited William, Prince of Orange, who had married the eldest daughter of James II, to come over from Holland and assume the gov- ernment. He "did consent"; and late in the autumn, with 500 vessels and 14,000 men, he arrived in England, landing at Torbay, Nov. 5, 1688. The army, the nobility, the clergy, and the people went over to William, and James II fled to France. He still retained a few friends in England, some of the strong Scottish-Catholic clans were still loyal, but his greatest strength was in his Irish-Catholic adherents in Ireland, who com- prised the larger part of the population.
He resolved not to give up his kingdom without a struggle; so with the aid he could seeure from Lonis XIV of France, he determined to make a descent upon Ireland, and with a great army of Irish cross over to Scotland, and gathering in his loyal Highlanders, enter England, drive his enemies before him, and recover his crown. He landed March 12, 1689, at Kinsale, in the southern part of Ireland, and proceeded to Cork, and thence to Dublin.
The Protestant communities of the north of Ireland stood in the way of the accomplishment of the king's plans, and those Protestant towns with their forces must be overcome. The strongest of those towns was the
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PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
original town of Derry. In the reign of James I, the name was changed to Londonderry. It is in the province of Ulster, is the capital of the county of Londonderry, lies on the river Foyle, and is one hundred and fifty miles northwest of Dublin. At this place the Protestants made a heroic defence, there was the arena upon which was decided the fate of re- ligious liberty for the British nation, and there some of the first resi- dents of Londonderry, N. HI., and the ancestors of many of the first set- tlers of Windham and Londonderry, and of many of the present inhabi- tauts of both towns, heroically contended, winning imperishable renown for themselves and their descendants.
As the Catholics advanced northward, they laid the country waste . flocks aud herds were swept away; freebooters who roamed the country, accustomed to live on potatoes and sonr whey, now had the luxury of meat. Everything was abandoned to the papists, who comprised four fifths of the population, though four fifths of the property belonged to the intelligent Protestants. Every native was armed, the Scotch and English were disarmed, and it was reported and believed that the papists were to rise on Sunday, Dec. 9, 1688, and massacre the Protestants without re- gard to age or sex, thus repeating the horrors of 1641. During these troublous times, and subsequently, many murders were committed by the Catholics. History records the fact, and manuscript records handed down to the present time in the Gregg, the Davidson, the McIlvaine, and other Windham families, some of whose members were slain, confirms it. The Scotch and English residents, men, women, and children, retreated before the Catholic army. Whole towns of Protestants were left without an inhabitant. Thirty thousand Protestants, of both sexes and all ages, were crowded within the walls of Londonderry. Says Macaulay, " There at length, on the verge of the ocean, hunted to the last asylum, and baited into a mood in which men may be destroyed but will not easily be sub- jugated, the imperial race turned desperately at bay."
It was at that time, while the minds of the people of Londonderry were alarmed with the rumors before mentioned, that Alexander Macdonald, Earl of Antrim, with 1,200 Catholics, was rapidly approaching Londonderry to occupy it. The troops at length appeared in view, and a squad of officers appeared before the city's gate, and demanded admittance for the troops. It was at this supreme moment, upon which hung great destinies, that thirteen young apprentice boys, namely, --
Alexander Irwin, James Stewart, Robert Morison,
Alexander Coningham, Henry Campsie,
William Crookshanks, Samuel Harvey,
Robert Sherard, Daniel Sherard, William Cairnes,
by one heroic act placed their names high on the scroll of fame. They armed themselves, seized the keys of the city, closed the Ferry Gate, and refused admission to King James's soldiers. The other gates were secured. James Morison, a citizen, advised the soldiers to depart; but not leaving, he cried from his place on the top of the wall of the city, " Bring a great gun this way!" when they, desiring to be out of the way of flying bullets, retreated to the other side of the river Foyle. This event was of the highest importance, as it frustrated the design of the papists. The city received reinforcements, and additions to their pro- visions and military stores. In the following April affairs were approach- ing a crisis.
The opposing and now powerful army of King James was bent upon the capture of the city, which refused to surrender. The French and Irish army of James appeared before the city April 15, 1689, and entered into negotiations with the traitorous Lundy for the delivery of the city against the will of the people. On the 17th, King James appeared with 15,000 additional soldiers, and was anxious that the city should surrender without delay. But the people knew that to give up Londonderry was to give up Ireland, the cause of William, and religious liberty, and to this they would never consent. The authority of Lundy was at an end, and two
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
valorous soldiers, Major Henry Baker and Adam Murray, called the people to arms. Men of all ranks rushed to the walls and manned the guns. James, who expected the city to surrender, had approached within a hun- dred yards of the Southern Gate, and with a cry of " No surrender! " and a discharge of guns, an officer at his side was killed, while the king and his attendants fled. That day, April 17, 1689, the historic struggle com- menced in earnest. The city was now without civil or military govern- ment. Two governors were soon elected by the people, namely, Major Henry Baker and Rev. George Walker. The military was under the com- mand of Baker. Walker was to look after the internal affairs of the city. The military force of the city was rising 7,000 men.
The bitter animosities between members of the Established Church and the Dissenters, between Conformists and Non-conformists were iu the main forgotten, in the presence of a common peril. The affairs of the city were managed with great prudence and forethought. With a small army with which to cope with the great masses of the enemy, the city was very weakly fortified, "the wall being less than nine feet thick along the face of the ramparts, with a ditch and eight bastions." It was scantily sup- plied with provisions. Operations against it were vigorously commenced. The city was bombarded, shells continually bursting within it, destroy- ing dwellings, and setting them on fire, causing the death of the inmates. Chimneys were demolished, and the city often on fire; danger, horror, and death were everywhere. But as dangers thickened, the grit and pluck of the besieged became fearfully developed. Brave sorties were made from the city, assaults upon the walls with superior force were brilliantly repulsed, and by ceaseless vigilance and heroic means parties who sought to undermine the walls were driven away and destroyed. The besiegers sought to gain by artifice and threats what their valor could not win, but in vain. The siege was turned into a blockade, and the enemy waited for starvation to compel a surrender. The place was surrounded ; every ave- nue by which provisions could reach the city was closely guarded. The river Foyle, by which succor could come, was strongly lined with troops, and batteries and forts which no vessel could safely pass, bristled its banks at all points. To make things doubly secure, the enemy sunk great stones in the river, piles were driven, and a boom made of wood was stretched from shore to shore. Provisions now began to fail, and the de- fenders suffered for want of water. On the 8th of June, horse-flesh was almost the only meat which could be bought. On June 15th, the hopes of the besieged were raised by the near approach of a fleet of vessels for their relief, with troops, ammunition, and provisions; but Kirke, the cow- ardly commander, was dismayed at the obstacles in his way, and retired without striking a blow. Famine pressed heavily on the besieged.
On June 19, General Conrad de Rosen determined to compel the surren- der of the city by a scheme so infamous that it excited the anger of his own troops. He gathered together from the surrounding country some 4,000 Protestants, men, women, and children, and drove them beneath the walls of Londonderry, where they should starve within sight of their friends in the city, and also be exposed to the missiles of both armies, imagining that the sufferings of their friends would induce the defenders to yield. An order was immediately issued that whoever spoke of sur- render should die; and the word was not spoken. Among those driven beneath the walls were John Morison, who died in Londonderry, N. H., in 1736, æ. 108 years (?), and his family, who were subsequently admitted within the city. He was the ancestor of the Morrisons of Windham, and many of those of Londonderry and Peterborough. Starvation was sadly and rapidly doing its work in July, yet no thought of surrender. The thought was, first, eat the horses, then the hides, then the prisoners, then each other -then - die-but never surrender. Dogs, fattened on the blood of the slain, and rats, feasting upon decaying bodies, were luxuries, and eagerly eaten. A quarter of a dog brought five shillings and sixpence ; a dog's head, two shillings and sixpence ; a quart of horse's blood, one shil-
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PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
ling ; a rat, one shilling ; a mouse, sixpence ; a pound of hides, one shilling, and a cat, four shillings and sixpence.
On the 30th of July, only one half pint of meal remained for each man, and only two days more of life were reckoned upon. On the evening of that day, three vessels came up the Foyle. This was the day of deliver- ance. It was the one hundred and fourth day of the siege. The English commander had received positive orders to relieve the besieged. Within the town, the starving and heart-broken congregation had just left the cathe- dral, after the evening sermon. It was the twilight hour, and their hearts were full of darkness; but just then the sentinels saw the approach of the succoring ships. It was quickly noised through the city that relief was at hand, and the people thronged the walls. The river was low and nar- row, and the besiegers were active; their guns and bristling cannon on its banks covered every point. But the vessels bravely approached the place of peril. The ship Montjoy, from Londonderry, with Micajah Browning of that place in command, drove straight at the boom, broke the great ob- struction, but was itself by the rebound hurled out of the way, and stuck in the mud. The Irish raised a yell of triumph, and attempted to board the ship, but by fierce shots from the Dartmouth, were repelled. The Phenix, a vessel of Coleraine, dashed through the aperture made by the Montjoy. The rising tide enabled the latter ship to join her. When that vessel grounded in the mud, the yell of fiendish triumph which burst from the Catholic hosts filled the hearts of the starved besieged with unutter- able anguish. It was a moment never to be forgotten by those who expe- rienced it. Another half-hour of agony and suspense followed before the ships reached the quay, at ten at night. Then the city was relieved; its starving inhabitants had turned out en masse, and welcomed their deliv- erers. The joy and gratitude of the people were unutterable. The " watch- fires of a hundred circling camps" made bright the night. The booming of the enemy's artillery, flying shot, and screaming bombs, combined with the answering peals of joyous defiance sent forth by the ringing bells of the city, made that night one of awful grandeur, of fear, and of supremest joy. Through the 31st the guns of the enemy were active, but after night- fall the defeated and baffled foe silently withdrew. So closed the most memorable siege in the history of the British Isles.
This defence of Londonderry saved Protestantism in the United King- dom. It was a great check to King James, and for one hundred and five days had kept back his proud army of 40,000 men, which William of Orange soon met and defeated -June 30, 1690-on the banks of the Boyne, which compelled James, after a few months, to retreat to France. So important did the government of Great Britain consider this defence, and the nnparelleled heroism of the defenders, that Parliament passed an act exempting from taxation, throughout its territory, all who had borne arms in the city during the siege. There were, under this Act, exempted farms in Londonderry, N. H., which so continued till the Rev- olution. The besiegers lost over 8,000 men and one hundred officers, and the defenders were reduced from 7,500 to 3,000 effective men. Since the memorable siege, six generations have passed away, and still the wall of Londonderry is sacred, and the places where the important acts trans- pired are considered holy ground, and many memorials of the struggle are carefully preserved. The old battle flags and ancient guns are kept as valued relics. Each year bright flowers are placed on the graves of the valiant dead. A lofty monument was erected about 1825, surmounted by a statue of Walker, and inscribed with the names of many brave men.
The foregoing sketch shows the strong character of the Scotch exiles in Ireland. Thirty years later, these same Scotch people of Londonderry. Ireland, made a " new departure " for religious liberty, and planted in the American wilderness the new settlements of Londonderry and Windham, N. H. In 1719, some of the heroic defenders settled in Londonderry, N. H. From that sturdy race were descended the first settlers of Windham, Among them may be mentioned the MeKeens, the Cochrans, the Morisons,
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IHISTORY OF WINDHAM IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
and probably many others, the early records of whose families are not pre- served. After the close of hostilities and the triumph of the Protestant cause, the colonists in the north of Ireland for many years were at peace. They made the region in which they lived a comparatively rich and flour- ishing country, by their industry, skill, and frugality. Agriculture was improved, manufactures introduced, and they attracted trade to their markets by the excellence of their productions. Their numbers were in- creased by accessions from Scotland, among whom were the Nesmiths and others. Though the Scotch had many privileges, though they had triumphed over the Catholics, still there was neither true religious nor civil liberty, and the Presbyterians were not satisfied. They were com- pelled to pay one tenth of all their incomes for the support of the estab- lished church, which they did not attend, as they attended and supported their own church. The government made embarrassing regulations upon their trade and industries. Their lands were not their own, but were held by leases from the crown or individuals. As the leases expired, and as the lands had been greatly improved by them, the prices of rent were greatly advanced, thus discouraging and crushing every principle of prog- ress or enterprise in the occupants, and reducing many to poverty. The landlords were the same arbitrary class, and made the same trouble, and oppressed the occupants of the Irish soil, the same as they do in 1883, which causes such an unrest of the population. But our ancestors, in- stead of refusing to pay their rents, paid them, like honest men as they were, and then came to America. As an example of this, there is in ex- istence the last receipt for rent paid in Ireland by Alexander Park, who was the first settler on the Robert Armstrong farm in the " Range," and was ancestor of the Parks of Windham.
In Ireland they were surrounded by the ignorant native Catholics, with whom they had no affinity, and from whom they had suffered so much. The government was a monarchy; there was an aristocracy, and. many people with titles, none of whom were agreeable to the independent Scotch. They looked into the future, and had an irrepressible longing to be free, to found a community by themselves, where there would be no established church, no ecclesiastical oppression, and no Catholics; where there would be a freer field for their industry and skill, and where they could worship God according to their ideas of right. Ireland was not their home; it was endeared to them by no traditions, and they determined to find a bet- ter home for themselves and their posterity in the wilds of America. Col- onies had been planted in America, and favorable reports had returned to the Old World.
As early as 1627, the Antrim monthly meeting was organized by the Presbyterians in Ireland, and as early as 1631 they planned an cmigration to New England, but did not carry it out. This was about the time there was such a large influx of English Puritans into the towns of Ipswich, Newbury, and surrounding towns in Massachusetts. Soon after this they sent an agent to America, and selected a tract of land near the mouth of the Merrimack River. They sailed from Loch Fergus, near Belfast, Sept. 9, 1636, for the Merrimack River. After sailing 2,500 miles, they encoun- tered gales and tempests till the vessel was obliged to return, reaching its starting-point Nov. 3, 1636. This shows that the Scotch had the land near the Merrimack in view long before the advent of our ancestors in 1719. Nor is this strange, considering that so large a class of English were settling and had settled in that locality. This early enterprise prob- ably led to the later settlement of Londonderry, N. H., in 1719. A young man by the name of Holmes gave a cheering report, and his father, Rev. Mr. Holmes, Rev. William Boyd, Rev. William Cornwell, and Rev. James McGregor, with portions of their respective congregations, determined upon a removal to America. Early in 1718 they sent Rev. William Boyd with a petition to Governor Shute, of Massachusetts, to secure a place to settle, and to make the necessary arrangements. This " Memorial to Gov- cruor Shute " was signed by three hundred and nineteen men, of whom
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PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
nine were ministers, and three others were graduates of the University of Scotland. The memorial is on parchment, in a fair state of preservation, and a few months since was in the rooms of the New Hampshire Histor- ical Society at Concord, N. H. Quite a number of the inhabitants of Windham could there see the name of their emigrant ancestor. This bore date of March 26, 1718. Governor Shinte gave them encouragement to settle, and Mr. Boyd was so favorably impressed with the country, that he returned to Ireland with the cheerful tidings. A large number imme- diately sold their property and made preparations to leave for the New World, where they arrived in five ships, Aug. 4, 1718, landing in Boston Harbor. They separated into three parts. A portion of this company remained in Boston, and formed the first Presbyterian church there, in 1727, under Rev. John Morehead. This is known now as the Federal- street Church, - became Congregational in 1786; became Unitarian under the celebrated Dr. Channing; and the present pastor is the Rev. John-F .- W. Ware. Another portion repaired to Worcester, Mass. ; the antipathy of the people was ferocious against them. They formed a church, and Edward Fitzgerald was their first pastor. They, like all of their countrymen, were a hardy, thrifty people, but their English Congre- gationalist neighbors were ignorant of them and of their form of wor- ship. They became jealous; and from the fact that they came from Ire- land, called them " Irish," and commenced a strong persecution of them. When, in 1736 or 1740, the frame of their meeting-house was erected, the Congregationalists rallied and tore it down. Rev. William Johnston, the first minister of Windham, was a successor of Rev. Mr. Fitzgerald, and was there as early as 1736. The people were not permitted to build a house of worship, and soon after 1740 dispersed, some to Otsego Co., N. Y., some to Coleraine, Palmer, and Pelham, Mass., and Rev. William Johnston came to Windham as early as 1742.
But the history of that portion of the emigrants in which we are most interested, will now be given. On the eve of their departure from Ire- land, their pastor, Rev. James McGregor, preached a sermon to them, re- counting the reasons for their removal to America. They were "to avoid oppression and cruel bondage; to shun persecution and designed ruin; to withdraw from the communion of idolaters; to have an opportunity of worshipping God according to the dictates of conscience and the rules of his inspired Word." That portion of his flock to whom he had ministered in Ireland, on their arrival in America, with others who joined them, wished still to have the benefit of the labors of Mr. MeGregor; so sixteen of these families embarked in a vessel for Casco Bay, in order to select a township, while the remaining families retired into the country, some to Dracut, and some to Andover. The emigrants for Casco Bay, now Portland, Maine, having embarked late in the season, suffered severely during the winter, and most of them passed the winter on board the ships. They suffered for want of provisions, and the General Court of Massachusetts sent them one hundred bushels of meal. They decided in the spring not to remain in that locality, and returned, arriving at Haverhill, Mass., April 13, 1719. They had heard of a large tract of unoccupied and ungranted land, called the "Chestnut Country," because of the large number of chestnut trees. This tract was afterwards called Nutfield. The men left their families in Haverhill, went and examined the land, and decided to take there the grant of land twelve miles square, granted them by Massa husetts. They built a few temporary huts, and then returned to Haverhill for their families and worldly possessions. When they returned to Nutfield, a portion came by way of Dracut for the purpose of bringing with them the Rev. James McGregor, who had passed the winter in the place teaching. The two parties met at Horse Hill, being on the highway between Derry upper and lower villages. They arrived there April 22, 1719, N. S.
The first sermon ever preached in Londonderry was delivered April 23. They assembled under the spreading branches of a large oak on the east of Tsienneto (pronounced Sho-neeto) Lake or Beaver Pond. The text was
.
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Isaiah 32 : 2. "And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place; as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." "Then, for the first time, did this wil- derness and solitary place, over which the savage tribes had for centuries roamed, resound with the voice of prayer and praise, and echo to the sound of the gospel." The Presbyterian church was soon after formed, and in May, 1719, without installation, he became their pastor. Services were held at Derry upper village, and there the people of Windham wor- shipped till the incorporation of the town in 1742. In the ancient ceme- tery, in the rear of the present church, on that high elevation which can be seen for miles around, lie buried the founders of many Windham families.
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