USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > Ryegate > History of Ryegate, Vermont, from its settlement by the Scotch-American company of farmers to present time; > Part 2
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These trails existed from time immemorial, and the principal ones were so much traveled that they could be easily followed. It will help us to understand this subject to study the journal of Capt. Benjamin Wright, who commanded an expedition which passed through Ryegate in 1725.
JOURNAL OF CAPT. BENJAMIN WRIGHT.
A true journal of our march from Northfield to Messiscouh Bay under ye command of Benj. Wright, captain, began July 27 Ano Dom., 1725.
July 27. It rained in ye forenoon ; about 2 o'clock in ye afternoon I set out from Northfield, being fifty-nine of us, & we came yt night to Pomroy's Island, 5 miles above Northfield.
28. We set off from Pomroy's Island & came to Fort Dum- mer & there we mended our canoes & went yt night to Hawley's Island 5 miles above Fort Dummer, in all 10 miles.
29. We departed from Hawley's Island, & came to a meadow 2 miles short of ye Great Falls 18 miles.
30. We set off from ye great meadow & came to ye Great Falls, & carried our canoes across & from there we went 10 miles.
31. From there we set out & came within 3 miles of Black river, 17 miles.
August 1. We came to ve 2d falls 15 miles.
2. We set off from hence & came to the upper end of White river falls 15 miles & 1/2
3. From ye upper end of White river falls to paddle Island 13 miles.
4. Foul weather, and we remained on paddle Island all day.
5. From paddle Island we went up 13 miles and encamped.
6. From hence we came to the third meadow at Cowass 20 miles yt day.
7. From thence we came to Wells river mouth, 15 miles.
8. We encamped here and hid our provisions and canoes, it being foul weather yt day.
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HISTORY OF RYEGATE, VERMONT.
August
9. Foul weather in ye forenoon, in ye afterpart of ye day we marched from the mouth of Wells river N. 5 miles.
10. This day we marched West & by North 10 miles.
11. We marched to ye upper end of ye 2d pond at the head of Wells river upon a N. W. course ten miles. About noon this day we came to ye first pond, 5 miles & then we turned round N. West & travelled 5 miles further in very bad woods.
12. We marched from ye upper end of ye upper pond 3 miles in very bad woods & here encamped by reason of foul weather ; here David Allen was taken sick.
13. We lay by to see if Allen would be able to travel.
14. We marched from ye upper end of ye 2d pond W. by N. to French river 9 miles; we crossed French river and trav- elled 1 mile & 12; in all ten miles & half.
15. Here we encamped all day by reason of foul weather; this day Clark Hubbard being very lame was sent back & two men with him to the fort at the mouth of Wells River.
16. We marched from our camp 3 miles and came to a branch of ye French [Winooski or Onion] river; from thence we marched 6 miles & came to a beaver pond out of which ran another Branch of said river; from thence we trav- eled 6 miles and came upon another Branch where we camped our course being W. N. W. 15.
17. We marched from said branch 13 miles and crossed a vast mountain & there we camped that night, 13.
18. We marched from our camp a Little & came to a 4th branch of French river & we traveled down sd branch 10 miles & then struck over ye Mountain 6 miles further & there we camped, our course was W. N. W. 12.
19. We marched from thence W. N. W. to the top of a vast high mountain which we called Mount Discovery, where we had a fair prospect of ye Lake 4 miles, from whence we went down said mountain 2 miles on a N. course & then travelled 6 miles N. W. on a brook; here arose a storm which cansed us to take up our lodgings some- thing before night.
20. We followed said brook N. N. W. 2 miles and then ye brook turned N. & we travelled on it 9 miles further & ye brook increased to a considerable river, 18.
21. We marched 6 miles N. & then came to where ye river emptyed itself into another very large river coming out from ye east somewhat northerly; we travelled down said river W. 7 miles; then the river turned south & we marched 7 miles farther & here we encamped at the foot of ye falls, 20.
22. Here we lay still by reason of ye rain.
23. Now I gave liberty to some yt they might return home by reason that our provision was almost spent, & there appeared 41. The Capt. Lt. & Ens. (Ensigns)
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THE EARLIEST DAYS.
with 12 men marched over ye river at ye foot of ye falls & marched 6 miles S. S. W. & 3 miles W. & yn came to ye Lake & marched 6 miles down upon ye Lake & this N. W. & ye N. W. end of ye Lake or bay being at a great distance, & then we turned homeward without making any discovery here of any enemy.
August 25. We set off from ye Lake to return home, & came to ye mouth of Wells River in five days and a half; here we discovered 3 Indians who had waded over ye River just below ve fort which we took to be our own men by reason yt ye two Indians which were with us & one man more set away early in ye morning to hunt; but it proved upon examination that they were enemies, but it was too late, for they were moved off.
29. We set off from ye fort at ye mouth of Wells river & came to Northfield Sept. 2d at Night.
* BENJ. WRIGHT.
Several points are settled by Wright's journal. Not only is the existence of some kind of shelter and defense at the mouth of Wells River long before the country was settled, but another very interesting fact is brought to light. We have mentioned the Indian trail which lay across the mountains to Onion or Winooski River then called French River. We observe that the company, led by their Indian guides, did not follow along the banks of Wells River, but took a more northerly course, coming out at Ricker's Pond in Groton, taking the general direction of the road from Wells River to Ryegate Corner, and thence to Ricker's Pond. This was one of the great trails between Canada and the Connecticut Valley, along which passed not only hunters and migratory families, but war parties for attacks on the English settlements, and the same bands returning with their captives and spoil.
Along this trail, where now lie the sunny farms of Ryegate, came in February 1704, a force of two hundred French and one hundred and forty Indians, bound upon one of the most fearful errands recorded in the long chapter of Indian massacres. They came up Lake Champlain on the ice to the mouth of French or Winooski River, which they followed, and passed through the mountains very nearly where the railroad now runs. They went down Connecticut River on the ice, and on the night of the 29th fell upon Deerfield, Mass., burned the village, killed fifty per- sons, and carried away one hundred and fifty prisoners, eighteen of whom were killed on the march. At the mouth of White River the
* NOTE. This journal is taken by permission from Sheldon's History of Deer- field. In a note Mr. Sheldon says that the distances given as traveled by the company must not be considered as accurate, but were computed by their time and difficulty. To the men struggling through the wilderness the way must have seemed long.
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HISTORY OF RYEGATE, VERMONT.
. captives were divided into small companies, making their way to Canada by different routes.
Rev. John Williams, the minister of Deerfield, lived to return and publish a narrative of their sufferings, entitled, "The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion." This little volume when first printed may have been sold for a shilling. A copy of the first edition is now worth many times its weight in gold. It has been often reprinted.
The narrative of Stephen Williams, * the minister's son, is of special interest in local history, and his experience was probably that of hundreds of others at different times between 1650 and 1760. The small party to which Stephen was attached reached the great meadows at Newbury on the ninth day after the massacre, where they remained two days, then proceeded up Wells River, a day's travel, making a camp among the hills not far from the line between Ryegate and Groton, and there spent some days in hunting.
"Twelfth Day. March 11th. While we tarried here the French that were in the army passed by," says Stephen's narrative. His master with a small company, turned north, and made a camp somewhere in Peacham, it is believed, where they were joined by some other captives from Deerfield, who had been left by the French army in its passage. They remained there hunting over a wide area of country, and collecting furs till about the middle of June, when the party started for the Coos meadows, it being their custom to spend their summers there, cultivat- ing the land, feasting, and having a general good time.
But when they had gone only a few miles they met some Indians, who told them that a party of white men and hostile Indians had come up the river, and, a short distance below the great meadows, had fallen upon a camp of Indians and killed them all, so that all the Indians were fleeing from Coös. This was Caleb Lyman of Northampton, who left that place about the first of June and fell upon the Indians near Coos, and all who were there, fled, and their fields were not cultivated that year.
The party to which Stephen and his master belonged, returned to their camp, and were joined by several other prisoners. After some time they ventured back to the Newbury meadows, where they suffered from hunger, and where one of the prisoners, Dea. David Hoyt of Deerfield, died of starvation.
* Samuel Carter's address at Deerfield, 1884.
NOTE. Stephen Williams was only eleven years old when he was taken prisoner. He graduated from Harvard College in 1713, and was for 66 years a noted minister at Longmeadow. He was a chaplain in the expedition to Louis- burg in 1745, and a son of his was killed in the old French War. Mr. Williams had three sons who were prominent clergymen in their time. See "Longmeadow Centennial," also "Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Association." These, with the History of Deerfield, are in the library at Newbury.
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THE EARLIEST DAYS.
About the 1st of August they set away for Canada with large packs of furs which they had taken, and which the captives were compelled to carry till French River was reached. Another of the captives, Jacob Hix of Deerfield, died of starvation and fatigue, somewhere, probably in what is now Plainfield, "at the first carrying-place on French River." The company arrived at Chambly in August. This narrative is here given to show something of the life which went on in the wilderness two hundred years ago.
This bloody warfare came to an end with the close of the Old French War in 1760. The destruction of the St. Francis Village by Rogers' expedition in that year, struck terror to all the Indian tribes. The story of his expedition has been told too often to need repetition here. Some of the survivors of that company struggled along through the dense woods on the banks of the Connecticut. It is said that several of the men fell down and died between the mouth of the Passumpsic and that of Wells River.
It will be observed that Wright's Journal of 1725 mentions the latter stream by the name we know it now and speaks of "the fort at the mouth of Wells River." A tradition handed down from the first settlers of Newbury is that in 1704 one Captain Wells ascended the Connecticut with a small force of men, and at the mouth of this stream one of the men fell sick with small pox, and a small building was erected there, in which some of the men spent a part of the winter, and the stream has been called Wells River ever since. This was the year of the destruction of Deerfield, and the company was probably commanded by Capt. Jonathan Wells of that town, and one of several expeditions which were sent to Canada to negotiate for the ransom of captives.
Other narratives of journeys along the Connecticut Valley between 1710, and 1770, are extant, but they give little information concerning the country. It is probable that, between these dates, several hundreds of white persons passed through Ryegate.
The "Fort" we have mentioned was probably a rude structure of logs, and large enough to give shelter and protection to such as needed either, in the wilderness. When Er Chamberlin, in 1770, began settle- ment in what is now Wells River village, he found the ruins of a build- ing in the woods, a little above the junction of the two rivers. It was the first building erected by Englishmen in this part of New England.
CHAPTER II.
"A CERTAIN PARCEL OF LAND CALLED RYEGATE."
SETTLEMENTS ON CONNECTICUT RIVER .- OPENING OF THE COOS COUNTRY .- PROS- PERITY OF NEWBURY AND HAVERHILL .- RYEGATE CHARTERED .- SALE TO JOHN CHURCH .- NEW YORK CLAIM .- THE SECOND CHARTER .- THE PAGAN LANDS. - CONDITION OF SCOTLAND. - EMIGRATION .- WAGES. - THE SCOTCH- AMERICAN COMPANY.
T HE settlement of Vermont begins with the close of the Old French War. There had, indeed, been a few small settlements established along the Connecticut River near Brattleboro, which were main- tained only by the intrepidity of the settlers. But in 1759, Quebec was taken, and North America passed into English hands, the Indians were no longer to be feared, and the "New Hampshire Grants," as the coun- try between Lake Champlain and the Connecticut was called, were open for settlement. The fertility of the soil was well known, the land was cheap, and from all parts of the long settled towns along the coast men and families prepared to remove to the new lands. Settlements began at Newbury and Haverhill before any of the towns below them were occu- pied; in other words, civilization made a leap of sixty miles into the wil- derness. It is necessary to speak of the settlement of these towns, for it is certain that Ryegate would not have been selected by the representa- tion of the Scotch American Company, had it not been for its proximity to a strong and well established community.
In October, 1760, four officers of Col. Goff's regiment, who had been released from service by the surrender of Montreal, made their way to the great meadows of the Lower Coos. They were, to call them by the military titles by which they are always mentioned, Gen. Jacob Bay- ley, Col. Jacob Kent, Col. Timothy Bedel and Capt. John Hazen. They spent some time in examining the surrounding country, and decided that it was, for many reasons, a very desirable region for settlement. In the summer of 1761, men were sent up to cut and stack hay on the "Great Oxbow" in Newbury, and the "Little Oxbow" in Haverhill. In the fall cattle were driven up from Hampstead and Plaistow, which were shel- tered and fed through the winter by men employed by Bayley and Hazen. In the spring of 1762, families began to settle in both towns along the meadows, and on the 18th of May, 1763, Newbury and Haverhill were chartered to Jacob Bayley, John Hazen, and their associates, many of whom became actual settlers in one town or the other.
400
BLUE MOUNTAIN FROM W E. BAILEY'S, JEFFERSON HILL.
THE NEW YORK LOIC LIBRARY.
ASTOR, LEWOS ANS , LDEN FOUNDATIONS:
9
A CERTAIN PARCEL OF LAND CALLED RYEGATE.
In the twelve years that passed before Ryegate was settled, Newbury and Haverhill had grown very rapidly, and in 1774 their joint popula- tion was about 800, the most important settlement in the valley north of Charlestown. There were several men in each town who had seen service in the late war, and these were men of enterprise and business sagacity. There were also men of liberal education who, with their families, gave a high tone to the settlements, which were well established, with good society, a church, schools, mills, taverns, courts and all the adjuncts of the best communities of that day, while as yet there was not a habitation of white men, save perhaps a few hunters and fisher- men, in all that is now Caledonia, Orleans and Essex Counties.
We will now speak of the charter of Ryegate. When the territory, now called Vermont, was opened for settlement there was a great desire among speculators and men with money to invest to get hold of wild land. In those days there were few ways in which people could invest their money, and so wild land was bought as an investment, as people now buy stocks and bonds, or western land. In order to secure a legal claim it was very common for a sufficient number of associates to obtain from the Governor of the province a charter for a town in the ungranted part of the country; and, having divided the land into "lots" or "shares", wait for a rise in the value of wild land to realize a profit by selling their holdings. In this manner some large fortunes were made by shrewdness in selection of lands, and success in creating a demand for them by encouraging and promoting their settlement. But there were those who, through inexperience and credulity, found themselves the owners of large tracts of wild land which could not be sold readily and finding it hard to pay the taxes assessed were called "land poor."
On the eighth of September, 1763, the charter of Ryegate was granted to Richard Jenness and ninety-three associates, by Benning Wentworth, "Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of New Hampshire." The township contained 23,040 acres, and there were 100 shares, which made about 230 acres to each right. Gov. Wentworth retained for himself a tract of 500 acres in the south-east corner of the town, which was accounted as two shares. There was also reserved one share for the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; one for a Glebe for the Church of England; one for the first settled Minister of the Gospel, and one for the benefit of a school.
The Governor's tract was counted as two shares, and as his corres- ponding reservations in Newbury, Haverhill and Bath lay in the adjacent corners, he hield in one body 2000 acres of land, part of which is now covered by the flourishing villages of Wells River and Woodsville.
Of the ninety-four grantees of Ryegate, not one became an actual settler, and in only one instance did a son of a grantee settle in the town.
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HISTORY OF RYEGATE, VERMONT.
Indeed, with the exception of Joseph Blanchard, it does not appear that any one of them ever set foot within its limits. Blanchard had been an officer in the late war and afterwards a surveyor of lands in the new country. He had been disappointed in his endeavor to secure grants of Newbury and Haverhill for himself and his friends. His name, however, was inserted in the charters of twelve towns in this state.
Why the name, Ryegate, was selected is not quite clear. It is asserted that several of the grantees, among them William Thomas, whose sons settled here, lived in Rye, N. H., and wished the new town called by that name, to which the suffix, "gate," was added; while another tradition is that the Jenness family, of whom ten names appear in the charter, originated near Reigate, England, a town of some importance about 20 miles from London, and wished it to be called by that name. On old maps, made before its settlement, the name is spelled Reigate. Most of the grantees lived near Portsmouth, and were mer- chants and business men. They did not, however, long retain the land, but on the 3d of July, 1767, through their agent, Col. Israel Morey, of Orford, N. H., conveyed, for one thousand pounds sterling, all their rights to John Church of Charlestown, N. H., who sold the south half of it to Rev. John Witherspoon, D. D., President of Princeton College. Not all the grantees signed this deed, a circumstance which caused some trouble in later years .* They were, perhaps, induced to take this step in con- sequence of the difficulties between the authorities of New York and New Hampshire, as to the ownership of what we now call Vermont, and which must now be explained.
We have seen that the town was granted to Richard Jenness and his associates by the royal governor of New Hampshire, the authori- ties of that province at that time considering its western boundary to be a line drawn from the northwest corner of Massachusetts to the southern extremity of Lake Champlain, and up the middle of the lake to Canada line, thus including all of what is now Vermont.
But the New York authorities contended that their province, north of Massachusetts, extended to Connecticut River and denied the right of Governor Wentworth to make grants of towns in that region. But in spite of the remonstrance of the New York authorities, Wentworth con- tinued to make grants of towns in the disputed territory, which came to be known as "The New Hampshire Grants," until he had made grants of one hundred and eighty towns between Lake Champlain and Con- necticut River.
In 1764, the claims of the conflicting parties were laid before the King in Council, who decided the case in favor of the New York claimants, and a proclamation was issued declaring the west bank of Connecticut
* Whitelaw to William Neilson of New York, Dec. 31, 1798. Whitelaw Papers.
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A CERTAIN PARCEL OF LAND CALLED RYEGATE.
River, from the province of Massachusetts Bay to the 45th parallel of north latitude, to be the boundary line between the provinces of New York and New Hampshire.
William Tyron became Governor of New York, and with his advisers contended that in consequence of the Order in Council, all the grants of towns made by Governor Wentworth were null and void, and the grantees and owners of lands in the Grants were ordered to surrender their chart- ers and repurchase those lands under grants from New York. It is not necessary to our narrative to give here any general account of the troubles which arose, and the determined resistance made by the "Green Mountain Boys," which is the pride of every Vermonter. At that early date there were only a few settlements on Connecticut River, and their inhabitants were far removed from aid and could not well act in concert with the leaders west of the Green Mountains. Therefore the proprietors of Newbury, in 1772, considered that their wisest policy would be to apply for a charter from the governor of New York, which, being granted on the 19th of February 1772, secured them from all molestation from that quarter. Acting probably by advice of the leading men of Newbury, Mr. Church applied for a similar charter, which was granted to Samuel Wells of Cumberland Co., N. Y., James Cobham, Waldron Blaan, Samuel Avery, John Fowler, James Abel, John McDowel, Henry Broadwell, John Campbell, Thomas Campbell, John Abel, William Kennedy, John Kelley, Isaac Ball, Jun., Henry Holland, Dennis Carleton, John Broadhead and William Strong, all of the City of New York, and Samuel Gale of the County of Cumberland, the same tract which had been granted on the 8th of September, 1763, by the governor of New Hampshire, to Richard Jenness and his associates, with the same reservations: "To their only proper and separate use and behoof respectively forever as tenants in common and not as joint tenants in fee and common socage, as of the Manor of East Greenwich in the County of Kent, within the Kingdom of Great Britain."
It is to be noted that the names of Waldron Blaan, Joseph Beck, John Kelley, and James Cobham, are also affixed to the Newbury charter, and were residents of New York who allowed their names to be thus used for a consideration The original charter is now owned by the Vermont His- torical Society.
On the 30th of June, 1775, these fictitious grantees conveyed all their title to John Church, receiving each £5 for their services. William Patter- son and Malichi Church were witnesses to an instrument acknowledged before Henry Holland, one of the Masters of the Court of Chancery for the Province of New York.
This was about eighteen months after the south half of the town had been sold to the Scotch American Company, but as we shall see in
.
12
HISTORY OF RYEGATE, VERMONT.
the sequel, the legal transfer was not made till after this date. This charter covered all the interest which had been conveyed to Dr. Wither- spoon. On Jan. 20, 1776, Mr. Church sold to the Doctor, twenty-eight lots of land in the North Division containing 2,7603/4 acres for £210, New York money, and a little later 5,2121/2 acres in the same section to John Pagan, a merchant of Glasgow. This John Pagan and others of the name held considerable land in America, whose ownership and transfer is rather interesting. In 1792, Mr. Pagan, then removed to Greenock, was owner of a tract of 833 acres in Newbury, another of 2000 acres in Cav- endish, and the above-mentioned land in Ryegate, while Dr. Witherspoon was proprietor of 12,057 acres in Nova Scotia, being a part of what was called the Philadelphia Grant.ª In that year the latter, being in London, executed a bond to exchange his land in Nova Scotia, for the three tracts owned by Pagan in Vermont, transferring the former to Robert, Thomas and John Pagan, Jun., merchants at Poictou, Nova Scotia. The rate of exchange was two acres of the Nova Scotia land for one in Newbury and Cavendish, and four acres for one in Ryegate.b It would thus appear that an acre of Ryegate Land was worth two in Newbury. But the Pagan land in Newbury lay in the hilly region between the Limekiln neighborhood and the Centre, so the difference is easily accounted for. This exchange gave the Doctor 1597 acres in Ryegate, and the remainder he purchased outright.º In 1774, he had purchased for his son James a tract of 600 acres, in the northwest corner of the town, of which a further account will be given in the annals of the Whitehill family.
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