COLLECTIONS
PROCEEDINGS
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
SECOND SERIES, VOL. II
PORTLAND
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY
1891
t3
CONTENTS
i'AUf
Capture of the Margaretta. By George F. Talbot, . . . i
John Johnston Carruthers, d.d. By Rev. Ephraim C. Cuninilngs, ly The Voice of Maine as heard in tlie Genesis ol' our XatiimaliLy.
By George F. Emery, . . . . . . 51
Proceedings, May 25, 1883, .83
Description of the Society's Seal, ..... 83 Testimonials to Hon. Israel Wasliburu, . . . .86
Letters of Joseph Wheaton, one of the Heroes of the Margaretta, 109
Historical Review of Literature in Maine. By Joseph Williamson, 113
Brunsvsrick Convention of 1816. By William Allen, . I^y
Captain Bartholomew Gosnold's Voyage, .... 143 Letters from General Peleg Wadsworth to William D. Williamson,
1812, ... . . . 1.53
James Loring Child. By James ^Y. Bradbury, . . . 163
Proceedings. 1883, 1884, 1885, . . . . . . 167
Persons taxed in North Parish of Kittery. 1783, . . . . 213
Resident Members, . . . . . . . 215
Captain Herrick's Journal. 1757, ..... 219
Waymouth's Voyage to the Coast of Maine, 1005. By Henry S.
Burrage, d.d. . . . . . . . 225
Traces of the Northmen. By Joseph Williamson, . . 251
The Beginnings of Maine. By James P. Baxter, . . . 273
Memoir of Judge David Sewall. By Edward P. Burnham, . 301
The Sewall Family of New England. By Rufus K. Sewall, . 306 Biographical Data and Letters of the Hon. David Sewall of York.
By Frank Sewall, . . . . . . . 30y
The Division of the 12,000 Acres among the Pattentees at Aganien-
ticus. By William M. Sargent, ..... 319
Proceedings. 1885, 1886, ...... 328
An Interesting Historical Document, ..... 332
A Moravian Colony in Maine, ..... 333
Biographical Data of David Sewall. By Rufus K. Sewall, . . 334
John Appleton. By George F. Emery, . . . • 337
A Lost Manuscript. By James P. Baxter, .... 345
William Allen. By Charles F. Allen, d.d., ... 377 Bibliographic Memorandum of the Laws of Maine. By Josiali H.
Drummond, ....".. 391 Sir John Moore at Castine during the Revolution. By Joseph
Williamson, ....... 403
IV CONTENTS.
Extracts from the Letters of the Jesuit Missionary in Maine, Father P. Biard, 1612-162(). Translated by Professor Fred. M. Warren. Introduction by John Marshall Brown, . 411
Proceedings. 1886, . . . . . . . .429
Order given at Fort Charles at Pemaquid. 1618, . . 434
The Frye Family. Communicated by William B. Lai)ham, . 435
Commissioners Proceedings at Mount Desert, 1808. Communi- cated by William B. Lapham, ..... 439
ILLUSTRATION
John Johnston Carruthers, D.D.
PAGE
1
CAPTURE OF THE MARGARETTA
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHER3. D. D,
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY M. F. KING.
THE CAPTURE OF THE MARGARETTA
THE FIRST NAVAL BATTLE OF THE REVOLUTION.
Read before the Maine Historical Society^ June 10^ 1887.
BY GEOKGE F. TALBOT.
The British attempt to apply military coercion to the American colonies aronsed a feeling of resistance at Machias, just as it did at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill. The people of Machias of 1775, were Yankees of the Yankees. They belonged to Massa- chusetts and believed in Massachusetts politics and Massachusetts religion, just as they have till today. They entered enthusiastically and unanimously into the quarrel of their native state, and if Massachusetts was going to war with George III, they were going to war with him without one thought of. the chances and without waiting to know whether another colony or another man was likely to back them.
When the American revolution broke out about eighty families made their home in the old town of Machias. With them the first consideration had been, not that proximity so convenient for schools, for social visiting and the easy communication which roads and sidewalks afford, but a good site and plenty of land, which should give a homestead for themselves and their posterity. So with their two hundred and fifty acre first division lots they occupied both banks of the river, from the sea and its branches, East, West
Vol. II. 2
2 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
and Middle rivers. The sixteen seven-acre lots of the first mill-owners made the nucleus of the village.
A lumbering community Avork energetically at stated seasons, but have many hours and days of idle- ness. We can fancy these first settlers, following a habit tlieir children have never lost, gathered along the mill brow on the north bank of the river and sit- ting upon the great prostrate pines that here and there skirted it, talking over the affairs of the nation. Two coasters have lately got in from Boston. Captain Icha- bod Jones, the prosperous merchant, who owns the vessels and a store, is too busy, perhaps too proud a man, to spend much time with the loafers who are whittling in their shirt sleeves. But the captain of the Polly, Jones' second trading sloop, is too full of intelligence to lose the opportunity of opening his budget before a crowd of excited listeners. It is dif- ficult to exaggerate the importance of the captain of a coaster in those days. He was the newspaper, the mail and the telegraph, all combined. He brought to the people the news, the fashions and the opinions, as well as the hats and shoes they wore, and the bread, pork, fish, and beans they subsisted upon. His advent to the settlement, only a few times a year, must have been an event important enough to draw together from their scattered lots all the men of the colony. They came to trade for goods, for which they were always waiting, and to hear how the Boston people were getting along in their quarrel with the king. Getting along badly enough, they learned from the sloop's captain. From resisting the Stamp Act and
THE CAPTURE OF THE MAEGARETTA. 6
throwing overboard the taxed tea it had come to actual war. A thousand men had been marched into the interior as far as Concord, when the farmers of the back towns gathered at the bridge and began to fire upon them. The regulars retreated, and militiamen, coming up from all the country round, chased them all da}^ to Charlestown, killing and wounding hundreds of them. Perhaps the Polly's captain was at Charles- town, and saw the bleeding, haggard and dusty red- coats straggling in under shelter of the ships. Per- haps he was in Boston the next day and saw the wounded and stark corpses of the slain taken out of the boats. It was great news to hear and great news to tell ; let us believe he told it well.
It has been too much taken for granted by the local historians that Captain Jones sided with the Tories in the struggle for independence. If he did, it is difficult to understand why Judge Jones, his nephew, who was admitted into all his counsels, was such a zealous pa- triot and republican. Captain Joaes probably felt as merchants generally do when war, that interrupts all their commerce and threatens destruction to all their fortunes, impends. The difficulties with the home gov- ernment he believed and hoped would be settled. Be- side, he was in the enemy's power and had to make the best terms he could. He wanted to extricate his family and household effects, as well as his vessels, from Boston, then in possession of the king's forces under strict military law, and he could only do so by agreeing to take back in his vessels cargoes of lumber to be used in constructing barracks for the English
4 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
troops, for which he was to be fully paid. That he stood well with the promoters of the revolution is ev- ident from the fact tliat the selectmen of Boston fur- nished him with a petition to the people of Machias, desiring them not to hinder him in his enterprise. He seems to have proceeded with the prudence character- istic of his calling ; for before opening his hatches and offering his goods for sale he exacted from the people a stipulation that they, on their part, would not molest him. He tried to get an obligation generally signed by the citizens by which they were to bind themselves to allow him to carry lumber to Boston and protect him and his property. But this many of the people refused to sign, and then, at his desire, a town meet- ing was called, Avhich must have been somewhat stormy. At last a vote, not unanimous, was obtained to permit the vessels to load and sail, and Jones began to open his hatches and retail his goods to his old customers. But it is said he made a discrimination, refusing credit to those who had been prominent in obstructing his wishes, so that on the whole there was more exaspera- tion of feeling than hearty accord produced by the vote of the town extorted under such circumstances. But it is probable that the permission granted in the vote would have been carried out in good faith had not the captain of the Margaretta unnecessarily pro- voked a quarrel with the inhabitants.
The Machias people had received notice in some way through the proclamation of the Provincial Con- gress that hostilities had commenced by an invasion into the very heart of Massachusetts and by the slaughter
THE CAPTURE OF THE MARGARETTA. 5
of its citizensjwlio had resisted the evident attempt of the British government to deprive them of the liberty and right of self-government they had enjoyed ever since their colonial charters. The Machias settlers re- sponded to this proclamation with zeal and unan- imity, and raised a liberty pole to stand as a symbol of their patriotism. Captain Moor, of the Margaretta, when he learned that the liberty pole had been erected and what it signified, ordered it to be taken down, under the threat of firing upon the town. A town meeting was held and voted with great spirit that the liberty pole should stand, but even then Jones induced Captain Moor to withhold hostili- ties until a fuller and larger town meeting, which he promised should be held on the fourteenth of June, and which should take final action in the matter. In the meantime the leading patriots, knowing that the town would never yield the point, looked round to see what means they had for defense and resistance.
There was then living at East River a sort of patri- arch of the settlement, Benjamin Foster, the father of a numerous family, and a man, through his long life, of great consideration in both state and church affairs. The sixteen settlers of 1763 had brought his brother, Wooden Foster, with them to be their blacksmith — an artisan indispensable in an isolated lumbering com- munity. He himself came in 1765, and, being a man of substance and enterprise, took up a lot at East River and built the first sawmill there. At the time of the event I am now reciting he was about fifty years of age, and having been present as a soldier at the first cap-
6 MAIXE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
tiirc of Louisburg in 1745, and having served under Gen- eral Abercrombie in the French and Indian war ten years later, he was probably the man of the largest military experience in the whole settlement. As such he was made lieutenant of the first militia company in 1769, Judge Jones being its captain. Foster was the most prominent man in planning and organizing the expedition that led to the capture of the Margaretta. The sons of Morris O'Brien, six in number — one of them. Colonel Jeremiah, the leader — won the re- nown of the actual capture.
Their counsels were divided. Foster was in favor of taking possession of the now partlj^ laden sloops of Captain Jones and making prisoners of the officers and men of the Margaretta, their convoy. More timid men must have urged that the town had voted to let the sloops be loaded and depart, and it was only on that condition that they had procured their supplies, and it was only by performing their promise that they could expect to be kept from star- vation thereafter. But the coolness of Foster and the impetuosity of the O'Briens overwhelmed all calcu- lations of prudence. Foster, weary of the debate, crossed a brook near which they were standing and called out to all who favored the capture of the Mar- garetta and the two sloops to follow him, and ulti- mately every man stood by his side. This was Sundaj^, the eleventh of June, 1775. Foster was a devout man, but no doubt he believed himself to be engaged in the Lord's business on that day.
A plan of attack was immediately agreed upon. The
THE CAPTURE OF THE MARGARETTA. 7
English officers would be at meeting that morning. A rude building, twenty-five by forty feet, had been built on the site of the present town hall and used for public worship. It had benches arranged on each side of a central aisle. It was decided to at- tempt to surround the church and seize the officers during service. Part of the company remained under Foster to do this at the proper conjuncture, and the rest dispersed, attending church as worshipers, though perhaps giving less heed than usual to the ser- vices. They had brought their guns and secreted them outside the building. John O'Brien says he hid his gun under a board and took his seat on a bench behind Captain Moor, ready to seize him at the first alarm. The day was warm and fine and the windows of the little tabernacle were wide open. A singular accident disclosed the danger of overlooking the negro element. In our late great war we suffered everywhere delay, disaster, and defeat by not taking the negro into our counsels. Just so it happened to the Machias patriots. I have no doubt Parson Lyon was fully possessed of the plot his flock was engaged in. The able, highly educated and eccentric Parson Lyon was called as the first settled minister at Machias, from Nova Scotia, and like many other people of that province who after- ward fled to the States, was a zealous Whig. There were warlike sentiments in the old familiar psalms he might have selected that morning without exciting the suspicion of the English officers in their gay uniforms and decorous demeanor. But London Atus, the ances- tor of all the Atuses, the colored servant of Mr. Lyon,
8 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
had not been taken into the confidence of the military leaders. In some perch of a negro pew, with a better outdoor view than the body of the congregation, he got sight of armed men — Foster's band — crossing a foot bridge that connected two islands on the falls, and giv- ing an outcry, leaped out of the window. The Eng- lish officers followed his example, and by the time Foster's force had reached the meeting-house they had reached their vessel and Jones, who was to have been made a prisoner, had fled and secreted himself in the woods. Captain Moor weighed anchor at once and proceeded down the river. The excited public fol- lowed on each bank of the river, keeping up a harass- ing musketry fire but at too long range to be danger- ous, and shots were fired from the cutter. Foster and O'Brien then determined to seize Jones' sloops and pursue the cutter. One of these — the Polly — could not have been in a condition to be available. Perhaps she was already too heavily laden, but the O'Brien's took possession of the Unity, Jones' other sloop, and during the rest of Sunday mustered a crew of volunteers, numbering in all about forty men, and Foster went to the East River to get a schooner there and a volunteer crew to join in the enterprise.
Early the next morning they proceeded down the river from both villages. The East River vessel got a-ground and had no share in the battle. Of the party on board the Unity only half had muskets and for these there were only three rounds of ammunition- The rest had armed themselves with pitchforks and nar-
THE CAPTURE OF THE MARGARETTA. * 9
row axes. So sudden and impulsive had been the expedi- tion that up to this time it had been an unorganized mob. But as, with a favoring wind, they sailed down the river they had leisure to complete their plans. Jeremiah O'Brien, the oldest of the brothers, was made captain, and Edmund Stevens, lieutenant, and know- ing they had no powder to waste in long shots they determined to bear down on the enemy's ship, board her and decide the contest at once upon her deck.
Nothing can be more beautiful than the aspects in summer time of the trebly branching river and of the estuary inclosed between sheltering islands and steep and rocky cliffs that make its port. How much more beautiful it must have been before the ax had thinned the forest, and fires had bared the shores and islands, not only of the ancient forest, but of the soil that supported it, and left the blanched, bleak rock to be reflected upon the quiet surface of the sea, where the inverted woods once spread their margin of green ! Little eye had those stalwart youths for all that beauty ; the splendor of their heroism has fairly outshone it alb beautiful as it may have been.
Where was the East River schooner and its brave commander ? These daring volunteers did not know ; they did not wait for her. Forty undisciplined men are in chase of a vessel armed with sixteen swivels and four four-pounders, with a complement of men, without any thought of the peril of their adventure. The bravery at Lexington and Concord, where several hundred militiamen fired upon retreating regulars from behind trees, fences, and stone walls, or on Bunk-
10 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
er Hill, where, mainly behind earthworks sheltered from shot, well-armed men resisted three successive assaults of a line of battle, was certainly not greater than that. I do not know of any feat in all the war, or of any war, that for daring and desperate courage can be compared with it.
As the sloop opened out into the broad river below Machiasport village the enemy they were in pursuit of came in sight and soon within hailing distance. Moor hailed the sloop and told her to keep oE or he would fire. O'Brien shouted back a demand for surrender, and Stevens an emphatic defiance. Moor withheld his fire, and the breeze strengthening set all his sails and tried to escape. It is easy to see that Captain Moor owed the loss of his vessel and his life to his own hes- itation — I cannot think to his cowardice.
When he stood out to sea again the sloop was close upon him and a collision had become unavoidable. So he opened fire and killed one man on board the sloop. The sloop answered with a volley of shot, and soon afterward the vessels came together and John O'Brien leaped on board the cutter. Then the vessels swung apart, leaving O'Brien alone on the quarter-deck of the enemy. lie says seven muskets were fired at him without effect, and when the English marines charged upon him with bayonets he jumped over the rail and swam to the sloop. Captain O'Brien next ran the bowsprit of the sloop through the mainsail of the cut- ter, and twenty of his men armed with pitchforks rushed upon her deck. While in contact or at very close range musket shots had been exchanged, the
THE CAPTURE OF THE MARGAEETTA. 11
assailants using all their ammunition. One man was killed, one mortally and one seriously wounded upon the sloop. Five were killed or mortally wounded on board the Margaretta — Captain Moor, who was shot through by two musket balls early in the action ; the man at the helm; Captain Robert Avery, and two sailors or marines. When the man at the helm fell, the cutter broached to and was thus run into. Captain Robert Avery was the skipper of an American coas- ter lying in Holmes Bay and had been forcibly seized by Captain Moor and taken on board the cutter to act as pilot out of the river. The number wounded is not known. John O'Brien* says the American vessel had four killed and eight or nine wounded, and the British ten killed and ten wound 3d. But he says himself that he does not remember the number, but gives it upon the authority of a letter of Captain Joseph Wheaton, written to O'Brien, in which he claims to have been present as one of the sloop's crew. Mr. Smith in his history, gives the name of John Wheaton as one of the heroes, mistaking the christian name which should have been Joseph. I have followed Mr. Smith's state- ment of the number of killed and wounded as more probably correct and more nearly agreeing with local tradition.
* John O'Brien, who lived in Brunswick, Maine, the third brother in rank of age in this famous familj^, in May, 1831, Avhen he was eighty-one years old, gave a detailed account of the taking of the Margaretta and of the exploits of the O'Briens in the Rev- olutionary war. This account was taken down in writing and is published in Yol. 11 of the Maine Historical Society's collections, page 242.
12 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The error by wliicli Ciiptain Moor forfeited his vessel and his Hfe was in not using his heavy guns while the sloop was at long range and had no effective means of returning the fire. . When the vessels were in contact his superior armament had become unavail- able. The firinii: of the Americans had been close and murderous, and when Moor fell, the midshipman Still- ingfleet, next in command was panic-stricken and fled below and gave up the ship. The English officers did not know that the ammunition of their enemy had been exhausted, and the assault was too fierce and hot for the reloading of empty muskets. In a hand-to- hand contest a pitchfork — not the slender and elastic implement our factories now turn out, but such a stout and rude double spear as Wooden Foster would forge upon his anvil, set in a long ash pole — was a formid- able weapon in the hands of a man who Knew tiow to use it. The very novelty of the weapon, against which their tactics and drill had taught them no effec- tive guard, may have dismayed the marines. At any rate the boarding of the cutter seems to have been the end of the strife, and there was nothing else to do but take care of the wounded, secure their prize, and return to the settlement to electrify their friends with the news of their success. They had purchased their victory by the death of two men — Coolbroth and McNeil. John Berry received a severe wound in his head, for which he afterward received a pension, and Isaac Taft and Joseph Cole were slightly wounded. John O'Brien relates that as soon as his brother Jere- miah was elected captain he gave leave to all who
THE CAPTURE OF THE MARGARETTA . 13
were afraid to join in the attack to leave <mcl offered them a boat, and that three men availed themselves of his offer. He also says that the whole six of the O'Brien brothers — Jeremiah, Gideon, John, William, Dennis, and Joseph — participated in the action, and that Morris O'Brien his father was only prevented from accompanying them by the remonstrances of his sons.
Beside these, let ns carefully recapitulate among the heroes every name that tradition has preserved. There was Edmund Stevens of Addison, who shouted back defiance when Moor threatened to fire ; Samuel Watts, ancestor, I think, of the Englishman's Eiver Wattses ; Jonathan Knight, one of the first settlers of Calais, and who has descendants there ; Steele and Merritt from Pleasant River (the name is still preserved in that region) ; Josiah Weston, forefather of the Jonesboro Westons ; John Berry, Isaac Taft and James Cole, who were wounded ; Nathaniel Crediforth, Josiah Libby, Joseph Wheaton, William Fenderson, Ezekiel Foster, son or grandson of Isaiah, brother of Benjamin called the colonel) Simeon Brown, Samuel Whiting, Elias Hoyt and Joseph Getchell, ancestor of those well-esteemed people who have chiefly made their home at Marshfield (he always claimed to have stepped on the Margaretta's deck foot to foot with John 0 Brien), and, last of all, Richard Earle, colored ser- vant of Colonel Jeremiah O'Brien, making good by his courasre the indiscretion of his race that had defeated the bloodless enterprise of the day before.
Great must have been the exultation at Machias
14 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
when the Unity and her prize came up with the returning tide to West Falls, sobered somewhat by grief for the slain and the general respect and regret, whicli was felt for the untimely death of the young English captain. As a part of the preparations of Sunday a messenger had been dispatched to Chandler's River to procure powder and ball, and as the men of that settlement were all absent at Machias — many of them, as we have seen in the expedition — two women, Hannah and Rebecca Weston, nineteen and seventeen years old, procured thirty or forty pounds of powder and balls and brought them to Machias through the woods, following a line of blazed trees, and arriving at the settlement at two o'clock in the afternoon after the capture of the Margaretta.
A committee of safety was elected, who had the control of the military and civil affairs dur- ing the remainder of the war. The armament of the Margaretta was transferred to the sloop Unity, whicli was fitted up with bulwarks and named the Machias Libert}^, and Jeremiah O'Brien, her commander, cruised for three weeks off the coast trying to capture the Diligence, a British coast survey vessel. The Diligence came into the lower harbor che middle of July, with an armed tender. The officers and part of the crew landed at Buck's Harbor as they said, to learn the fate of the Margaretta, and were sur- prised and captured by Captain Smith, grandfather of Bartlett Smith, the lamented historian of Machias, and the next day O'Brien in the Liberty and Foster in the Falmouth packet boarded and captured, without resis-
THE CAPTURE OF THE MARGAEETTA. 15
tance, both the Diligence and her tender. On the twenty-sixth of June the Provincial Congress passed a vote of thanks to Captain Jeremiah O'Brien and Cap- tain Benjamin Foster and the brave men under their command, for these heroic exploits, and placed at their disposal the two sloops and the Margaretta, which they had taken.
The enemy's wounded, as well as those of the expe- dition, seemed to have been as well cared for as was possible. A hospital was improvised out of a shop, and most of the wounded were placed in it and treated as well as they could be in a town, where was neither surgeon nor physician. Captain Moor, who was still alive when the prize was brought up river to the vil- lage, was received in the house of Judge Jones, nephew of Captain Ichabod Jones. A messenger was dis- patched at once to Nova Scotia for a surgeon, but Captain Moor could not profit by his long delayed arrival. His death occurred the day after the battle.
There is this pathetic relation of the unkindly fate of this young officer, who seems to have been a brave man, intent upon his duties, and who, as he must have believed, in a time of peace, did not consid^ ' that it would be actually necessary to turn his heavy guns upon a nearly unarmed party of fellow British sub- jects. It is asserted, that on his voyage to Machias, he brought as passengers from Boston two estimable young ladies, relatives of Captain Jones, to one of whom he was affianced, and that his service at Machias performed, and the two sloops at sea for Boston, he expected to sail to Halifax and there be married.
16 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The expedition to Nova Scotia for a surgeon brought back Doctor William Chaloner, another Nova Scotia Whig, who continued to be a citizen of Machias, and was of eminent service and has left there a large and very respectable progenj^
This unique naval battle fought with such intrepid courage was the first naval contest of the revolution- ary war. Its date is June 12, 1775. Only the Lex- ington and Concord fight had preceded it in that great struggle and the battle of Bunker Hill was not fought till several days later.
In briefly reviewing the event, our surprise and ad- miration pass alternately from the rash audacity of the project to the impetuous bravery of its accomplish- ment. There was a completely isolated lumbering community that did not raise its bread or vegetables, not even potatoes, and brought hay for the teams that were used in logging over sea from far away Nova Scotia, that was fed from hand to mouth, by supplies of'iorovisions brought from Boston and exchanged for pine boards. Their only market and source of supplies was held by the whole British army in America. The cutter they seized was the convoy that had protected the sloops ;rom whose cargoes they had just been fed, and that were to carry back the lumber with which they had paid\for them, under a written permit ob- tained from the\selectmen of Boston, who were of the patriot party. Inv flying at and seizing this vessel and her convoy they se\?med to be arresting this trade and driving themselves aitd their families not only to inva- sion, burning, and pilhWe but to immediate starvation.
THE CAPTURE OF THE MARGARETTA. 17
But we forget the grandeur of this sacrifice in our later admiration of the daring with which they accom- plished their scheme. A trading craft without bul- warks or armed marines, or even sailors is pressed into service driven bows on to an armed cutter with forty trained men on board thoroughly armed and provided with heavy guns and ammunition, and commanded by a brave officer of the royal navy. Of the party of forty perhaps not a man was ever in battle, not more than twenty of them had muskets with only powder enousrh for them to be discharo-ed thrice ; and with this equipment they crowd all sail, rush at their prey, storm across her deck with no effective weapons but pitch- forks and axes, for their ammunition had been spent. The captain of the assailed vessel is slain, the men borne down in the impetuous rush take shelter below, and the panic stricken officer who succeeds to the com- mand surrenders his vessel to the assailants. Surely there is nothing like this in our early or recent history.
Vol. II.
JOHN JOHNSTON CAREUTHERS, D.D. 19
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHERS, D.D.
Bead before the Maine Historical Svciety, Nov. 20, 1890.
BY EPHRAIM CHAMBEELAI^^^ GUMMING S.
On the night of August 5 last, there passed away from among us a venerable man whose years were numbered with those of the century. They would have been ninety, had he lived to see his next birthday, the seventeenth of September. This one dimension of his life is impressive ; and becomes more so in connection with an equally striking range of experience and activity in the world. He was of both hemisphei'es. Starting from the most renowned center of modern enlightenment and civilization he moved eastward to the mouths of the Volga, coming near to those nurseries of mankind that have supplied so many successive streams to the population of Western Europe, then back to his native Britain, where he took for years a man's part in educational and relig- ious activities, and finally across the Atlantic to this Western Continent and to this happy coast, where he finished his course. He awoke betimes, was early in the field, and when the evening shadows gathered about him and his work was done, he was peacefully looking for another country, even an heavenly.
In the near approach to this mysterious migration old age be- comes sacred and prophetic. Something of this character must have belonged, I think, to an interview which took place, when our indefatigable local historian and biographer, the late Hon. William Goold, called on Dr. Carruthers, and obtained from him a brief and accurate outline of his career in chronological order. I am told that the Doctor was uncommonly alert and full of rec- ollection on that occasion, while Mr. Goold in much weakness of body, but diligent to the last, made his notes with the patient ex- actness which belonged to his intellectual constitution. In a very few days Mr. Goold was gone ; and a few days later Dr. Carruthers followed. Mr. Goold's sketch appeared in the " Daily Press " of August 6.
The Rev. William Carruthers, my classmate and friend, and Miss
20 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Carruthers, have kindly put into my hands some data for a more extended memorial of their honored father, Avith the desire that I should bring into Mr. Goold's perspective something of the move- ment and color of the life. Of this pastor and teacher, who has been so long time with us — can we tell whence became? Can we group him with any masters or learners with whom he had his schooling? Can we depict some conditions of the service that took him far a field and brought him back to more hopeful minis- tries ? Can we appreciate in any measure that old woi'ld culture and experience, Avhicli he brought into our society and history, during a formative and most critical period of our national life?
John Johnston Carruthers was of Ecclcfechan, Scotland, known with us chiefly as the birthplace of Thomas Carlj'le. Mr. Fronde describes it as " a small market town on the east side of Annan- dale, six miles inland from the Solway, and about sixteen on the great North road from Carlisle. It consists of a single street, down one side of which, at that time, ran an open brook. The aspect, like that of most Scotch towns, is cold, but clean and orderly Avith an air of thrifty comfort."
But Ecclefechan was a notable place in other respects ; and Thomas Carlyle has celebrated in his own manner the life that was there nourished. The people had their meeting-house thatched with heath ; and for their minister a certain John Johns- ton,^ " the priestliest man," says Carlyle, " I ever under any ecclesiastical guise was privileged to look upon." —
This peasant union, this little heath-thatched house, this simple evan- gelist, together constituted properly the church of that district; they were the blessing and the saving of many ; on me too their pious heaven-sent influences still rest and live. There was in those days a teacher of the people. He sleeps not far from my father who built his monument in the Ecclefechan churchyard, the teacher and the taught. Blessed, I again say, are the dead that die in the Lord.
" The Sunday services in Mr. Johnston's meeting-house," Mr. Froude tells us a little fuither on, " were the events of the week. The congregation were Dissenters, of a marked type, some of
'For an affectionate and beautiful memorial of this good man, styled "The Patriarch of Aniiandale," fee a scries of articles beginning- Aug. 6, 1808, contributed by Dr. Car- ruthers to The Christian Mirror— "Life in Other Lauds,"
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHERS, D.D. 21
them coming from as far as Carlisle." Then follow quotations from what Mr. Carlyle wrote in 1866: —
A man who in those clays awoke to the belief that he actually had a soul to he saved or lost was apt to be found among the dissenting people, and to have given up attendance at the kirk. All dissent is merely stricter adherence to the church of the Keformation. . . . The poor temple of my childhood is more sacred to me than the biggest cathedral then extant could have been; rude, rustic, bare, no temple in the world more so ; but tliere were sacred lambencies, tongues of authentic flame which kindled what was best in one, what has not yet gone out.
The Rev. John Johnston was the maternal grandfather and in fact the foster-father of John Johnston Carruthers. His parents, the Rev. James, and Rohina Johnston, Carruthers, came to America about the year 1813. Their bodies rest in our Eastern cemetery. I may say in passing that the Rev. James Carruthers was a man fervent in spirit with a powerful native eloquence ; and well known in his day from one end of our state to the other for the fresh religious interest which his ministrations were sure to awaken. When he left Scotland, however, his son, whose boy- hood at Ecclefechan is our present concern, was just entering upon his studies at the university of St. Andrews.
This lad, living with his grandfather the minister, was between four and five years younger than Thomas Carlyle, the mason's son ; but in that one open street, and in that small meeting-house, they could not have escaped each other's notice. They were to be brought nearer together. A bright boy soon got too far for the common schooling of the Ecclefechan neighborhood, and Carlyle says of his beginning Latin : —
But the schoolmaster himself did not know Latin. I gradually got altogether swamped and bewildered under him. The Eev. Mr. Johnston, or rather first his son, home from college, and already teaching a nephew or cousin, had to take me in hand, and once pulled afloat I made rapid and sure way.
So here we have the two boys given in charge to Mr. Johnston's son, home from college probably at the end of his course, and afterward taken in hand by the venerable minister himself. It seems likely that John Johnston, the uncle, found means to con-
22 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
tinue his course for several seasons more before his nephew was quite ready for Latin. But they look time by the forelock in those days. Chalmers was eleven years old when he entered the St. Andrews university.
According to Carlyle " Old David Hope " was a great iBgure in the Ecelefechan meeting-house ; and William Hope, it may be, was a prosperous scion of David's house, who, remembering Mr. Johnston's ministry in spiritual things, was thankful to do him a good turn in money affairs.
I am tempted to throw around our studious group at the minis- ter's house the rather threatening atmosphere of the day, as indi- cated in a short fragment of a letter in the hand of the elder John Johnston, but without addi-ess or signature. Its date is 22d No- vember, 1803.
The Clergy are the most forward to learn the military tacticks, and strut in the uniform with a red coat, a cap and feather. An enormous metar morphosis both of their dress and armour,
I m more afraid of the abpunding Atheism, Infidelity and wickedness of Britain than of Bonaparte and all his armed legions.
We hear that you have entered the volunteer corps. If they are of the same cast of those in this country, they will be disagreeable companions and a poor defense against an invading enemy, should Providence per- mit them to enter oiu* borders.
The household school, howevei*, was soon dissolved — not by Bonaparte. The grandfather died in 1812. The uncle became a minister, as I infer, and we shall meet him again in Glasgow. Thomas Carlyle went up to Edinburgh University, for the No- vember term, 1809, when he would be fourteen years old on the fourth of the next December. And at the age of thirteen years John Johnston Carruthers found his way to the university of St. Andrews. After leaving Ecelefechan these scholars met I should think but seldom, if ever. But I have the best assurance that one of the two never gave up the kindness of their j^outhful days, and held on to the hope that his old comrade would yet own allegiance, thougli at the eleventh hour, to that Christianity of confession and covenant, in whidi thej' both had been trained, and to which he most steadfastly adhered.
JOHN JOHNSTON CAREUTHERS, D.D. 23
After two years at the university of St. Andrews, Mr. Car- ruthers completed his studies in the university of Edinburgh. I have looked over with interest certificates of propriety of con- duct, and diligence and proficiency in study, which he received from the professors of Latin, Greek, Mathematics and Logic, in the universities of St. Andrews and of Edinburgh. From his preserved tickets of admission it appears that he attended, also, Thomas Brown's course of lectures on moral philosophy, and Mr. Jameson's lectures on natural history. 'J'hese probably went along with theological studies under Dr. Lawson, mentioned by Dr. John Brown as among his father's most intimate friends, a teacher, for whom Dr. Carruthers had a special regard, and whose instruc- tions would imply a professional aim, and mature responsibility on the part of the student, such as would be more conspicuous by the absence of professorial certificates.
Of two cards giving him the freedom of the university library the latest is from twelfth October, 1817, to twelfth October, 1818 ; the last date being six months before his marriage.
One might wish one's whole life to be written in mementoes of opportunity and of conduct comparable with these. And one cannot help being struck with the simplicity and solidity of the university discipline. No distraction of mind, no frittering away of energy ; but a career for the education of the man. As if to develop and strengthen his original endowment were the best security for good service in any line of effort, to which a man might be called. To appreciate the instruments of thought, namely, the classical types of speech, and the use of symbols in mathematical investigation ; to appreciate the laws of thought — the logical, metaphysical and moral outcome of man's exj^erience and meditation through many ages — is not this a purpose broad and high enough to justify Mr. Fronde's eulogium — that, "as a training in self-dependence no better education could be found in these islands." And in connection with such an education who can measure the importance of those ancient monuments that en- vironed the privileged youths and wrought in their ever active fancies the miracles of poetic creation from their earliest days ? Ecclefechan, church of Fechanus, is much more than a name —
24 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
a history of Celtic Christianity reaching far back to the seventh century ; — while the region around is beset with vestiges of Roman camps and forts that tell of old border warfare. The little St. Andrews was once great, a metropolitan See, reflecting the sovereignty of Rome herself. The castle, the ruined cathedral at one end of the city, the massive antique portal at the other, the tower of St. Rule, the ancient houses, the university dating from early in the fifteenth century, the oldest foundation of the kind in Scotland, — these objects make up a monumental record, ilium-, inated by libraries of religious, historic, poetic and romantic lit- erature,— from the fourth century down. In a metaphorical sense
they are
Storied windows riclily diglit, Casting a dim religious light,
through which the inquiring spirit may look into vistas of time, till he feels that he is heir of all ages, and owes a debt to all climes. But had past generations died and made no sign, how should not the genius of a Shakspeare or of a Walter Scott have slum^ ered on for lack of outward motive and material ? What but the tears or smiles of things can make men weep or laugh?
In whatever way the work was wrought a very serious purpose of missionary service was the result of these years of schooling in the mind of Mr. Carruthers ; — and he found in Dumfries a kindred nature, — one who after counting the cost was ready to share his arduous undertaking.
He was married to Eliza Sloane of Dumfries, on the thirteenth of April, 1819 ; and not far either way from the same date his oi'di- nation took place in Edinburgh.^ In the course of two or three months they left Scotland for Russia under the auspices of the Scottish Missionary Society.
For the whole picture of this Russian episode I am indebted to a private journal kept by Mrs. Carruthers, and now the price-
' In a valuable series of articles in The Christiaii Mirror — " Reminiscences of Distin- guished Men," Dr. Carruthers referring to Dr. Chalmers' ordination before the comple- tion of his nineteenth year, mentions an old statute of the church of Scotland which ordained that " none be admitted to the ministry before they be twenty-five years of age, except such as for rare and singular qualities shall be judged by the General and Provin- cial Assembly to be meet and worthy thereof."
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHERS, D.D. 25
less treasure of her surviving children. This sacred record they have kindly permitted me to examine ; and I have read it with the deepest interest. In its expressions of religious devotion, its rec- ognition of the divine will in the order of events, it is not unlike the " Confessions of St. Augustine," while its simple truthfulness to the experience of the hour, and its keen sense of all the cir- cumstances that made up their situation, as strangers in a strange land, and as teachers of what was of necessity to the people around them a foreign faith, are such as to command unquestion- ing confidence and to call forth unstinted admiration.
The journal makes no record of the stay in St. Petersburg except in connection with the long voyage down the Volga to Astrakhan and still later by incidental alhisions during their resi- dence in the Crimea.
My inference is that the year in St. Petersburg was a very full and happy one. There was a British colony to which Mr. Carruthers acted as chaplain, and which afforded, no doubt, plenty of agreeable society. There was a magnificent capital, the crown of Russian civilization, palaces, churches, art, with the endless spectacle of animated movement and military pageantry in the streets. Petersburg was Russia ; and Russia was what they had to study, and needed to understand. Moreover there was at that time, 1820, much to give them stimulus and hope with respect to their future. Alexander I, then emperor, was a devout man. Of this fact Dr. Carruthers retained a cordial remembrance to his latest years. I vividly recall the impressive manner with which he once told me of his visiting the Winter Palace, coming into an apartment where the books attracted his attention, — and how the usher filled with awe, and under his breath, remarked : — " It's his prayer-room." How full of significance to the young mission- ary must have been the least circumstance that betokened the spirit and tendency of the imperial government, and if there was one dignitary of the Russian church of enlarged views and good learning, the possible possessor of a great library, he would be the man to gain access to, if possible, with reference to such sup- port or toleration as might be secured from a time-honored yet bigoted hierarchy.
20 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Rather encouraging than otherwise were the signs at this time. It was only the previous year, 1819, that Stephen Grellet, a Frenchman of rank, who came to America in the revohitionary troubles, was successful in mercantile pursuits, and had become withal a leading light in the society of Friends, being on one of his repeated religious visits in Europe, passed six months in Russia. Through prince Galitzin, the minister of rehgion in the imperial government, this good man was allowed many inter- views with the emperor ; interviews in which the etiquette of the court was dispensed with, while the majesty of God and the brotherhood of man governed all their conversation. In the life of Stephen Grollet, by William Guest, there are extracts from his journal and letters, whirh throw light upon what was doing in a religious way at this time. Stephen Grellet visited the poor and the prisoners, spoke wnth confidence on behalf of the op- pressed to the emperor, who on his part manifested the deepest interest in the reformation of abuses and the advancement of the people in knowledge and virtue.
Stephen Grellet went to see Michael the metropolitan of the Greek church ; and thence to visit Philaret, an archbishop and A icar of the metropolitan, both inhabiting the monastery called Alexander Nevsky, and had much brotherly and edifying talk with them, explaining at length the peculiar views of the Friends with respect to the church and sacraments. Of Philaret our Friend says : —
He is a man of learning, acquainted with most of tlie ancient and mod- ern oriental lan<;uases; but he bears the marks of great humility, and is considered a man of piety and spiritual mindedness.
I have heard Dr. Carruthers say very much the same thing of one whom he did not name. Philaret said : —
All these forms, ceremonies, and ordinances, that have been introduced into the churches, though they be performed with ever so much sincer- ity and devotion, can only be as the law was to the Jews, a school-master to bring us to Christ.
But perhaps the most noteworthy example of an efficacious Christian ministry mentioned by Stephen Grellet w'as that of Paniel Wheeler, an English Friend, who, with a great feeling for
JOHN JOHNSTON CAREUTHERS, D.D. 27
the welfare of Russia, yet without any call to be a teacher of doctrine, was only too glad to come over and drain the extensive marshes near the city; since it appeared that the Russian con- tractors knew little of their business and were only intent upon making money.
It was not, said the Emperor, the cultivation of morasses, nor any out- ward object that led me to wish to have some of your Friends come and settle here, but a desire that by their genuine piety and upi-ightness in life and conversation, an example might be set before my people for them to imitate ; and your friend Wheeler sets such an example.
A benevolent imperial control, a wise ecclesiastical moderation, such as Stephen Grellet found some assurance of at the summit of society in Russia, was needed as a protection to any spiritual initiative on behalf of the semi-barbarous populations of that vast realm. We know now that the reactionary movement had al- ready set in, and that Alexander was haunted with rumors of rev- olution and terrors of assassination, which continued to aggravate his personal anxieties and to confuse his more liberal purposes up to the hour of his death in 1825. But much of what we know/^ now was then hidden, and men stood ready to enter into fields that seemed at least open to effort, if not very promising as to re- sults. The Scottish Missionary Society had a brief history ; and so had the missions of the United Brethren. The Scottish society, however, was the more important and privileged agency. Their first mission was established in Karsass, Asiatic Russia, in 1802. They obtained a large grant of land, fourteen thousand acres, and larger liberties than were accorded to their Moravian breth- ren. Their converts were allowed to " embrace the religion of the colony, and become members of it." They had the privilege of giving passports to members of their congregation to settle in other parts of the empire. Scotch missionaries redeemed native youths from slavery, schooled them in the Turkish and English languages, taught them the principles of Christianity, and trained them in useful arts. In 1805 a printing press was sent out. The New Testament was printed in Turkish, and tracts in the Tar- tar language. In 1814 they extended their operations to Astra- khan and Orenberg. At Astrakhan a press was set up, which
28 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
printed the Tartar New Testament and other books. These books were carried into Persia by merchants trading between that coun- try and liussia. And in 1817 four thousand tracts and five thousand Testaments were issued, which found their way by means of Mohammedan merchants and pilgrims, with some help of Brahmins and Jews, to Bagdad, Persia, Bokhara, and even China.^ Even so late as 1822 this Scottish enterprise was thought worthy of being reinforced by German missionaries sent out from an Institution at Basle. And if we reflect that here was a work of tried methods, honorable record, and definite programme, sus- tained by the best minds and hearts at home, we shall not be dis- posed to tax our devoted young pair with an ill-considered en- thusiasm in embarking their lives in so benevolent an effort.
The year in St. Petersburg was of course, so much strenuous preparation for coming trials. It gained them a comfortable familiarity with the Russian language. Dr. Carruthers in reply to an inquiry I once made of him, said that he did not regard this language as a difiicult one ; which would infer that he must have acquired it with unusual facility. They got their initiation into the operations of the Bible House, and learned what they had to look for from St. Petersburg as a center of intelligence and base of supplies. They gained friends, and the courage that comes of friendship. It was equally a part of their mission, however, be- fore reaching their contemplated field of permanent labor, to visit the missionary headquarters in Astrakhan. What might they not learn there of the people whom they were to teach, and of the social and religious prejudices they would encounter, of dif- ferent dialects to be grappled with, or ethnical peculiarities to be conciliated, of climate and means of living, of plain laws of health and healing ?
Their way to the Crimea, therefore, was by canals from the Neva to the Volga, and so down to that great delta opening out into the Caspian sea, Avhere on an island the city of Astrakhan is situated : — a voyage of between two and three thousand versts — the verst is two-thirds of a mile — which occupied seventy-four days, with no lack of moving accidents by flood and field. Often
»See Newcomb's "Cyclopedia of Missions:"— Scottish Mis. Soc.
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHERS, D.D. 29
they were in perils of water, in perils of robbers ; — and they suffered much from the cold. But they reached their haven at last, and in the missionary house they once more found safety and comfort.
The departure from St. Petersburg was on the eleventh of August, 1820. It would take too long to tell how their boat be- gan to leak and they were compelled to pass a night under the stars on shore ; how great rocks and deep gulfs threatened their destruction in one place, and in another the water spread out into shallows that were hardly enough to keep them afloat; what difficulties they had with the boat's captain on account of his drunkenness and his debts, till they were compelled to advance money and take possession of the craft, and by and by to have the captain arrested and replaced by another. But it is much to our purpose to know that they had great delight in the eagerness with which their tracts and Testaments were purchased by those who could read, and in the wondering attention given by others to what was read out to them. The voyage itself was a mission- ary journey. At places where they were detained their boat was crowded with all classes of people eager for Bibles, Testaments and tracts. Their progress was enlivened with delightful and mem- orable scenes of this sort. At Tikhvin, the head-man of the town sent them a present of a large can of milk on their arrival. The boy who brought it was given a tract; and very soon re- turned requesting the loan of a Bible for his parents to read. A captain in the army wanted to buy a Bible and a Testament, and was told that they had but one Bible left, which they were keep- ing for an emergency. " Ah," said he, " where will you find an object that has more need of it than I?"
Such Avork as this and much beside would be ready to the hand of a new missionary at Astrakhan. There would be a fresh and eloquent voice to awaken all the associations of Scottish Christianity in the minds of those who had lived long at this frontier station ; and, what was of the most j^ressing urgency, there was the study of the Tartar language. Six months of pre- liminary work at this old city, where Hindoos and Persians mingled with Tartars and oriental Christians, where strange
30 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
tribes and tongues carried on their barbaric barter of speech or merchandise, and our missionary family were ready for another stage of their Russian experience.
They left Astrakhan Tuesday the sixteenth of April, 1821, and in three weeks reached Baktchiserai, a Tartar town in the Crimea, which appears to have been their destination from the first.
The journey was upon the whole delightful. The country was flat, wonderfully green and fertile ; herds of cattle, the riches of the Cossacks, abounded ; towns were well-built and cleanly ; the houses often large and commodious ; the Cossacks of the Don they found, contrary to their expectation, to be of pleasing address and hospitable disposition; there were walls, burial-places, triumphal arches, that told of other times ; and, what was of special importance to them, there was a well-regulated system of post-stations, so that having proceeded a certain distance they were sure of finding relays of horses, and pursuing their journey without delay. The winds were sharp enough to drive away the mosquitoes, M'liile the manners and costumes of the people afforded a dailj^ study. They did not omit to cultivate the ac- quaintance of those who came to see them. When their carriage, which I take to have answered the purpose not only of transpor- tation but of a small house as well, was surrounded by curious visitors, they were asked, "can you read?" If they answered yes, out came a tract, and the missionary would possibly excite their attention by reading to them, and make a distribution from his store if the interest was such as to warrant it. One man, who kept the horses at a station, wanted to know " If there was not a book, in which God revealed himself to us." Mr. Carruthers went one afternoon to visit some Tartars. He was well received and drank tea with them. They said " We know you give away books, and we suppose you are going to the Crimea to convert the Tartars there."
At Sarepta on the Volga, just where it comes very near to the Don, our travelers became the guests of the United Brethren. Here they passed a Sunday. Mr. and Mrs. Rahm, their good friends, had them to dinner with the bishop of the place and sev- eral of the brethren. Their intercourse was most edifying. The
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHERS, D.D. 31
welfare of the heathen was what they chiefly talked about ; and they did not take leave of their friends till the following Wed- nesday. Dr. Carruthers gave at least two lectures in Portland on the Don Cossacks, the matter of which he laid up in this jour- ney.
Not only was the valley of the Don fertile, and beautiful in its vegetation, but the overflow of the river at the time gave aspects of peculiar picturesqueness, — large expanses of water, in which islands of flowers and shrubbery with here and there a cottage, seemed to float as in a summer sea. The Cossack capital, Tcherkask, excited special admiration. It was situated upon an eminence, the apjiroach to which was through a double row of trees skirted with water ; they passed a fine triumphal arch, and on reaching the top of the hill beheld a most beautiful town : — houses all good, many elegant, the interiors which they saw quite in keeping with what met the eye upon the street — not even an English house could surpass them for cleanliness and neatness. The people were frank, open and obliging ; partly it was thought because they had their own laws, and paid no taxes to the impe- rial government, unless it might be in the way of military service. Similar descriptions, however, are frequent. The journey pro- ceeds throvigh a country remarkably well-inhabited, abounding in all the tokens of civilized society and happy household life. And what is perhaps quite as noteworthy, I cannot recall the mention of a single town or village of emphatically repulsive character. The inhabitants, no matter of what race, at that time did not re23resent an " empire of the discontented."
It was an exciting moment when they found themselves at Perekop. Here two seas almost meet, and a wall across the nar- row isthmus marks what no longer ago than 1774 was the bound- ary between Russia and a Turkish province, the ancient Tauric Peninsula, once inhabited by the Cimmerians, from whom the name Crimea is a distinct legacy to our modern world.
Early one morning, before breakfast, our missionary invaders went out to examine this wall and gateway, through which they peacefully passed a little later, and traveled southward over the dreary steppe, with nothing more interesting than an Arme-
32 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
nian bazaar or Tartar village for about a hundred versts. But soon there was a change. Setting off once more at daybreak, they saw to the left a range of beautiful mountains, — one of great height, and flat at the top. Tliis, of course, was what the Greeks called "Table Mountain," and the Tartars call "Tent Mountain." At the base of the mountain there was a fertile plain adorned with luxuriant trees, and dotted over with Tartar cottages, almost hidden beneath the foliage that surrounded them. They crossed the river Selghir, then dried up to a i-ivulet, and the countr}'^ became more and more interesting as they went on. Mountains on mountains rose before them to the left, and to the right Avere Tartar villages and jjatches of cultivated ground. Simferopol was reached, a town in excellent order, well built, in a chai-ming valley surrounded by hills. Much popular interest and inquiry greeted the strangers. " Where were they going? Was Mr. Carruthers an officer? " At length they neared Baktchis- erai. Passing through a pleasant plain, with a few poplars grow- ing upon it, and some poor cottages, they suddenly turned to the left, and all at once the town was presented to their view. In a deep vale, and climbing the side of a steep hill, almost every house having a small garden, — in the gardens poplars and other trees, — here was their future home. This was the end of their journey. Here the}'^ set to work, first to know the place and to find a house. In a few days they were estabUshed in a pleasant part of the city, with room enough for their two friends, Dr. Ross and Mr. Glen, whom they were looking for to share their labors, -at least for a while.
The name Baktchiserai is made up of two wp rds, and signifies "garden-palace" This gardcn-i)alace, so-called, situated in a narrow, rocky, but romantic valley, was the residence of the for- mer Khans of the Crimea, and adjoining it was the large Tartar town bearing its name. It is tAventy miles southwesterly from Simferepol, and about the same distance northeasterly from Sevastopol. The inhabitants of the Crimea are for the most part Tartars, with considerable numbers, hoAvever, of Russians, Germans, Armenians, GA^psies, and Jews. The climate is one of extremes and caprices, with a good share of delightful weather.
JOHN JOHNSTON CAERUTHERS, D.D. 33
The soil is productive, though the Tartars prefer grazing to agri- culture. The hill country abounds in striking scenery, and is rich in vegetation and wild animals. The Tartars of the hills pique themselves on their undiluted descent from the Mongols who took possession of the country under Genghis Khan about the year 1237. In 1441 the Crimea came into possession of a race of Khans of the family of Genghis. But these were sub- jected by the Ottoman Turks, and so continued till they regained their independence nominally through the intervention of Cath- erine II of Russia, in 1774, only to be swallowed up in that empire ten years afterward. The Tartars are all Mohammedans.
A missionary in the Crimea would touch upon many historic problems, and find time to examine monuments of great archaeo- logical significance. A monastery, an old fortress, relics of Ve- netian and Genoese commercial enterprise, and the like, — these are writings which he who runs may read, and which strangers studying a country and its people would by no means neglect.
The Tartar character was well spoken of for sobriety, chastity, cleanliness and hospitality. Yet their intelligence was narrow, and not easily accessible to new ideas ; their religion most oppug- nant to change. But it is in human nature slowly and secretly to assimilate larger notions of life ; and might not some even of the Tartars be roused to a sudden energy of conviction, and con- Btitute the nucleus of a church, that should give a new meaning and lustre to the Christian name ? Might not this be the day of their visitation — not by the word only, but by the power and liberty of the Christian faith ?
Mr. Carruthers had begun to preach to the Tartars in Astrakhan; and must have made very considerable progress in the language. In May, 1821, he was in the Crimea. Some early tours of inves- tigation were enlivened by the assistance of Dr. Ross and Mr. Glen from Astrakhan, as well as of Dr. Peterson and Dr. Hen- derson from St. Petersburg. But these pleasant preliminaries were soon over, and our missionary household was left alone. They became the church in the wilderness. Their house was the sanctuary of reformed Christianity. There the German or the Moravian missionary on his journey found a home. The British
Vol. II. 4
34 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
traveler was received with a welcome of no ordinary hospitality. The kingdom of heaven came with children that were born to them ; — one of whom, a son, was given a place of burial in the venerable monastery of Si. Mary.
No vicissitudes of personal experience could withdraw them from the great purpose of their apostleship. Their excursions of pleasure, their hours of rest or intentional recreation, their worship on the Lord's Day, according to the doctrine and rite of their fathers, — all were composed to the unity of their high service.
Some medical knowledge, especially the use of Peruvian bark in the fever season, helped the missionary's credit with the suffering people. Even the plan of bringing young men into a household relation with the teacher, the characteristic feature of Bishop Patteson's efforts in the Melanesian mission, was not untried.
The main reliance, however, was at first upon perpetual personal contact and conversation with all sorts and conditions of men, together with the distribution of the Scriptures, and tracts intended to illustrate the Scriptures. Week after week and month after month the missionary journeyed over mountains and through valleys, visiting all the Tartar villages, and seeking to bring his message to every mind. From each jom-ney he came back at length, usually on a Saturday evening, sometimes very late and very weary, to the home and holy rest — type of their eternal felicity. Then anxieties were allayed, cares dismissed, there was solemn and sweet discourse, with the celebration of eacred ordinances. Afterward another departure to j)reach the Gospel in other villages also, since for that purpose he was come.
Mrs. Carruthers was no whit behind her husband in missionary zeal ; though her efforts were more Umited by household pre- occupations. She studied persistently, and at length she spoke both Russian and Turkish fluently. She was devoted to her Tar- tar women, ministered to them in their sickness with all her re- sources of domestic medicine ; taught them to sew, and had store of thimbles and needles to distribute among them ; and was most happy, when she so far prevailed against the jealousy of the hus- bands as to be allowed to teach the children in a Tartar house, since they were not permitted to come to her own. She had two
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHERS, D.D. 35
scholars the first day, three the second, and the third five ; but was always in fear lest her privilege should be revoked. In that semi- barbarous society the prying curiosity of the women was often annoying ; and their ceremonious hospitalities were apt to be pro- fuse in proportion to their hope of gifts in return. Once in their carriage Mrs. Carruthers was writing in her notebook, when the women who came to see her went into a sad panic iinder the im- pression that she was reporting something about them, which obhged her to desist. This is very like Mr. Hare's quite recent complaint that lie could not make sketches for the illustration of his book of travels, even in the more civilized parts of Russia, without constant liability to interruption from the police.
The obstructions they met were at first not generally rude, but were such as to allow them no rest. They were forever on a skirmish line with very little assurance of support. Once, for example, without warning, Mr. Carruthers was refused the cus- tomary permit or passport, which enabled him to obtain trans- portation and entertainment in his journeyings. But on visiting the governor of the province, and stating his case, the passport was civilly accorded. Again, the Testaments he had distributed in a village were all packed, sealed and sent to the police with the statement that they were not wanted. But soon came a counter statement to the effect that the books were taken away from their owners by the chief men of the village, and that they were wanted. Then the books were returned.
Their heaviest griefs were due to disappointment in persons of whom they had the best expectations. Their disciples could not endure the relentless ostracism which threatened all their pros- pects in life ; and did not make a bold stand against more or less malicious misrepresentations that were calculated to alienate the people, and to raise suspicion in the authorities. The journal makes early and repeated references to a certain " Sultan and Sultana," so-called, of whom high hopes were entertained, only to be disappointed. But who and what were the " Sultan and Sul- tana," the journal had no occasion to sstj. The history of the Scottish mission, however, given in Newcomb's Cyclopaedia, sup- plies the missing knowledge : — namely, that " a Tartar prince of
36 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
the Crimea called the Sultan of Kataglierry," had been among the first fruits of the Scottish missionary labor. It was Ms defection, doubtless, and that of his wife, which was a great blow to our missionaries on their very arrival. They saw much of these persons in the Crimea, but found them entirely alienated from their Christian profession.
Similarly in 1825, when the reactionary movement had gath- ered force in St. Petersburg, and all the missionaries were in the deepest discouragement, it is noted that " the government has ordered Kazem Bey to enter the service." But hoAV much this meant may be gathered from the not improbable su})position that Kazem Bey, or Alexander Kazem Bey as he is called in another place, is a new, i.e. a Christian name for Mirza Mohammed Ali, Avho in 1828, was employed by the missionaries in Astrakhan as a teacher. He was the son of a Mohammedan judge; but in con- sequence of his discussions with the missionaries came to prefer Christianity to Mohammedism. Notwithstanding the opposition of his friends he obtained from the emjDeror Alexander, through prince Galitzin, permission to be baptized by those who had been instrumental in his conversion, — instead of by the Greek arch- bishop, according to law. He was afterward treated with great harshness by the Russian government of the Caucasus ; especially was compelled in 1825 to enter the Russian service, and ordered to refrain from co-operating in any way with the missionaries. This in fact signified the end of missionary operations.
But to the last, Mr. Carruthers continued his journeying and preaching in the villages with unabated diligence. In October, 1822, news came from the Moravians at Sarepta, that the government had forbidden them to baptize, or even to exj^lain the Scriptures, which they were i>ermitted to distribute. Baptism and instruc- tion were for the holy Synod, The article on missions in the "Encyclopedia Americana," noticing these interferences with the Moravians goes on to say that still " the missionary Carruthers exerted himself with great zeal for the conversion of the Tartars in the Crimea." In fact there was then a moment of apparent promise before the crisis came. The missionary Carruthers act- ually received from the emperor permission to baptize. Embold-
JOHN JOHNSTON CAREUTHEES, D.D. 37
ened by sucli autiiority a number professed their new faith, and were baptized. To one the missionary was able to give a paj^er which made him a free man. Such success drew audience and attention from Greeks and Tartars. At length it seemed to our pioneers perhaps that they might organize their movement with- out shunning observation; that even the jealous dignitaries, who looked on not unmoved by the elevated spirit and eloquent speech of the foreign preacher, might be drawn into respectful sympathy with his aims. But no. From that moment it was open war. The church spoke, and the f)eople obeyed, whether Christians or Moslems. Hospitable attentions, civil discussions, modest refer- ences to teachers and scriptures that were good enough for them, liberal hopes for the welfare of all men who were faithful to what was giv^en them, deferential indifference and compliments to the missionary's learning, — all these polite forms began to give place to quite other expressions. Doors closed, children avoided the teacher they had been delighted to meet, one woman ran to warn anothei- of danger if she was seen talking too freely with the enemy, countenances were averted and men nodded or shrug- ged their shoulders in a sinister way when the missionary aj)- peared. A truculent non-intercourse was more and more de- clared not without threats of violence and hints of prosecution, while converts were tempted to make their peace with society in general by gratuitous zeal in decrying what they had but just now promised to support. In a word, the solid, impenetrable, popular will held on its accustomed way with the slow, resistless move- ment of a glacier.
The fatal year was 1825. Alexander died. Prince Galitzin resigned his place as minister of religion, in consequence of the powerful opposition raised against the Bible Society. The sec- retary of this society was put upon liis trial in the criminal court, for allowing a book to be published in which were some reflec- tions deemed unfavorable to the doctrine of the Greek church, with reference to the Virgin Mary. At Astrakhan the printing of a new and correct edition of Henry Martyn's Persian New Testament was arrested. The Tartar version of the Old Testa- ment, nearly completed, was requu'ed to be submitted to three
38 MAINE HrSTOEICAL SOCIETT.
archbishops of the Greek church, witli small hope of their con- senting to its publication. Those facts, together with the grow- ing indifference or opposition of the native tribes, determined not only the Moravians, but the Scottish society also, to with- draw their forces. And this was done, so far as I can judge, with the perfect concurrence of both missionaries in Russia and direc- tors at home.
I have sketched the general features of this missionary episode with a free hand, not piecing together solid extracts from the record, and have studied sobriety rather than intensity of color- ing. This plan seemed best not only by reason of the necessary hmits which I was bound to observe, but also as affording the needed security against taking any liberty with those sacred privacies of the closet and the home, that are naturally inter- woven with elements that belong to history in a journal like the one from which I have drawn.
Back again over the steppe they took their way. In a little while it began to blow .a hurricane. The dust and smoke ob- scured the sun. They could with difficulty avoid collision with the numerous carts that met them. But at last they came again to the gate of the Crimea, showed their passports, passed over the bridge, and ])ade adieu to the ancient peninsula forever, with this retrospective review taken from Mrs. Carruthers' journal : —
It is but little more than four years since we entered it, but with very different feelings from wliat we have today. Then they were sanguine; now they are cast down. I well remember when we entered it my spirits were quite elevated, when Mr. Carruthers remarked, "Well, if I do my duty here I expect much sorrow," — and in reality these words have been I'ealized.
Their course was through the magnificent valley of the Dnieper for a considerable distance; and many were the thriving and well-built towns they passed. The storm and stress of the heated weather, with casualties incident to bad roads they had to reckon with; yet the journey was one of great interest, and on the sixth of July they entered Moscow, thankful that two-thirds of the way to St. Petersburg had been achieved in perfect safety. A few words without date note their arrival at St. Petersburg, and their welcome at the Bible house from Dr. Peterson and other friends.
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHERS, D.D. 39
Nothing of the voyage to England ; but under date of May, 1826, there is a conchiding record ofa journey from Edinburgh to Glasgow, of a visit in Glasgow to Mr, Johnston, an uncle — the same no doubt who a few years before was tutor to his nephew and the boy Carlyle ; of a short passage to Liverpool by steam packet ending in joyful reunion with kindred and friends.
Great as may have been the disappointment at the result of the Crimean mission, the missionaries were far from representing it a failure. They returned with corrected judgments, proved prin- ciples, tried abilities, exalted motives, in short with characters disciplined and demonstrated by faithfulness to the demands of a difficult and dangerous service. They had suffered in health, they knew the cost of learning strange languages, they had to care for the future of children ; and though the Scottish society was desirous of sending them to a more promising missionary field, they upon the whole concluded to give their permanent efforts to their English-speaking brethren. Their journeying years had been an added schooling for home work, and to this they addressed themselves
Between the return to England in 1825 and the settlement in Gosport 1827, I place the stay in Selkirk or elsewhere while the future way was preparing. The call to Gosport was one of entire unanimity and great cordiality, signed not merely by a committee and the deacons, but by hundreds of members of the church and parish. There was a grave sense of responsibility in this Gos- port society at that time, which caused Mr. Thomas Hoskins to address a letter of inquiry to several ministers in Scotland, as to the character and conduct of Mr. Carruthers, which brought back responses highly commendatory from Dr. Chalmers, Dr. John Brown, father of Dr. John Brown, author of "Rab and His Friends," Mr. David Dickson and Mr. Andrew Lothian.
How well the favorable opinions, so early and adventurously won, were afterward justified in this community need not be told. In 1832, Mr. Carruthers became minister of the Tox- teth Park Chapel, Liverpool, and in 1841 he came to Montreal. Each of these removals gave the people occasion to signify their deep sense of his spiritual service, their earnest desire for its con-
40 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
tinnance, together with their grateful and affectionate personal attacliment. In October, 1842, while Mr. CaiTuthers was in Mon- treal, Dr. Henr}^ Wilkes of that city joined his influence with many others, in favor of placing our lamented friend in the chair of logic and rhetoric in McGill college, and wrote a letter warmly commendatory of his scholarship.
No appointment to the chair in question was made at tliat time ; and Mr. Carruthers continued, so far as I know, in the same pastoral and professorial work up to the time of his call to Portland. Meanwhile, the University of Vermont, under the presidency of Dr. John Wheeler, did itself the honor of bestow- ing upon Mr. Carruthers the degree of doctor of divinity in 1843.
Dr. Carruthers' call to Portland was regarded with an interest by no means confined to a single congregation. The sentiments and votes of the Second church and parish are so accurately analyzed and judiciously summed up in a letter of Dr. J. W. Mighels, which accompanied the official communications, that the entire document deserves to appear, not only as a memento of an esteemed physician, worthy citizen, and cultivated man, but as a chapter of parochial history, creditable to all concerned. It is hojsed, however, that the last paragraph may serve the purpose.
Finally, we are now anxiously awaiting your decision, hoping and praying that our overture may not be rejected. The question is often asked with much anxiety, "Will he come?" "I hope he will come soon," and with all my heart I say Amen; and so say all. I have the honor to be, my dear sir,
Your very humble servant,
J. W. MIGHELS. Rev. J. J. Cakrutheks. Portland, June 11, 1846.
The coming of Dr. Carruthers opened a period of peculiar interest in the history not only of the church to which he min- istered, but of the city and state. He was in the maturity of manhood, a person of unmistakable distinction, having a counte- nance radiant with spiritual emotion, a deportment of winning cordiality, a voice of remarkable depth and richness, an elocution of dignity, harmony and power — the spontaneous utterance of thoughts that bore upon their breath the odors of that S2)iritual
JOHN JOHNSTON CAERUTHEES, D.D. 41
communion and varied experience in which his faculties had ripened — and, above all, not only a deep sense of the sanctity and solemnity of his calling, but a most serious and conscientious predilection for the work he had in hand. How many of the young men and women of that day must remember, as I do, the grave yet animating appeals in which he called his hearers to the high motives and efforts of the Christian hfe.
Certainly, also, this final settlement, as it proved to be, marks a most important ejaoch in the Doctor's life.
In Dr. John Brown's memorable letter to John Cairns, d.d., in *' Spare Hours," under the title of " My Father's Memoir," he says : —
My mother's death was the second epoch in my father's life; it marked a change at once and for life; and for a man so self-reliant, so poised upon a center of his own, it was wonderful the extent of change it made.
Especially it changed the character of his preaching.
He took as it were to subsoil ploughing; he got a new and adamantine point to the instrument with which he bored, and wuth a fresh power, with his whole might, he sunk it right down into the living rock, and to the virgin gold.
In illustration he notes that his father when young had been preaching at Galashiels,
and one wife said to her neebor, " Jean, what think ye o'the lad?" "It's maist o't tinsel wark," said Jean, neither relishing nor appreciating his fine sentiments and figures. After my mother's death, he preached in the same place, and Jean running to her friend, took the first word, "It's agowd noo."
If Dr. Carruthers ever had a time of " tinsel wark," I cannot say ; he had reached the golden period before coming to Portland ; and, through a crisis identical with that which so changed liis friend of the Scottish Mission- ary Society. The brave and devoted wife, who had helped his toil and cheered his solitude in the Crimea, was no longer at his side. She had died in Montreal in 184-4. Under the shadow of that affliction his conversation could hardly be elsewhere than in heaven ; and his preaching had a fervor and
42 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
pathos, which told as no words could tell of detachment from the world. Here again were "sacred lambencies, tongues of au- thentic flame which kindled what was best in one ; " and doubt- less many a soul that did not hold stoutly by the Doctor's theo- logical system, could now say, " on me too their pious heaven- sent influences still rest and live."
But the cares of ordinary citizenship were taken up. He by and by contracted a second marriage. His certificate of natur- alization dated May 20, 1856, is signed by George F. Emery, clerk of the U. S. circuit court for the district of Maine ; and approved by the board of aldermen of the city of Portland, Sep- tember 6, 1856, as certified by Rufus E. Wood, chairman. In short he became one of ourselves, sharing in all national, state and munic- ipal vicissitudes. He was quite deliberate in coming to this full poUtical communion ; and to a critic who thought to serve a pur- pose by setting the native above the adoptive citizen, he j^leas- antly replied : — I am an American by choice. You probably by the necessity of the case. There may be some virtue in volition — there can be none in accident." In fact his patriotism was that of one who had tried the world and found his country at last. It gave him an international function. He kept up a diligent correspon- dence, not only with friends in various parts of the British empire, but with the British public through the press. He promoted the mutual understanding of religious bodies. He was on terms of hospitality with many excellent ministers in the neighboring provinces, so that their voices were not unfrequently heard in our pulpits.
But when the dark years of the civil war came on his service was constant and most important. He wrought upon that intel- ligent and conscientious popular conviction in England, which di- plomacy could not reach ; while at home his eloquent advocacy was never wanting when the national spirit needed to be roused to new courage and zeal for the national duty. "I am here," he humorously declared, when he had been, so to speak, pulled out of his sick-bed to address a war-meeting, " not of constraint ; it is my choice to be here." His personal will was to be counted always. His conduct was never forced upon him.
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHERS, D.D. 43
Of what may be designated as his " war correspondence " I have seen but little ; but that little is of great significance. His chief organ was the British Standard, London, edited by Dr. Campbell. The editorial remarks accompanying some of Dr. Carruthers' communications furnish as good an illustration as I have ever met of the change from an early ignorance and despair of our republic, to a hearty acceptance of the war and its results — on the part of multitudes of the best minds and hearts in Gi'eat Britain. Here is an examj^le. In a letter of January 28, 1862, touching among other things the "Trent affair," Dr. Campbell remarks : —
A letter will be found in another column from our much valued friend and correspondent, Dr. Carruthers, which, although brief, is full of facts of a highly interesting character. Some of his statements, however, fill us with astonishment. While the Doctor was in England he occupied a foi'emost place amongst our ablest men, as large in view, quick in per- ception, and fluent in expression; a thorough, downright, upright, prac- tical Englishman, How changed by his long residence in America! He is now become a thorough Yankee, as blind and as sanguine as any of them. That such a man should have been so carried away is not a little remarkable. How a man so judicious could express himself as follows, we cannot divine : —
"The rebellion will soon be put down. Slavery will soon cease to be! Englishmen long most intensely for both, but utterly despair of either! "
Never were appearances more against any si;ch anticipation. The men of the northern states seem resolutely to close their eyes to all that is passing around them. Their life is a dream; and terrible will be the awakening! Glad, most glad, however, shall we be, should Dr. Carruth- ers turn out a true prophet. We will hasten to acknowledge our error, proclaim his triumi^h, and humble ourselves in the dust as long as we live.
In the following April Dr. Carruthers had other signs of promise to communicate, though the logic of events was yet far from its conclusion. Meanwhile Dr. Campbell's judgment had been somewhat humbled, and his hopes corresjjondingly exalted This is how he introduced his correspondent's letter : —
The letter of our noble-hearted friend will be read with extreme de- light in all parts of the country. He is, we think, still a little "san- guine;" but he is such a prophet of good, that, eschewing criticism, we
44 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
listen with beating hearts, and are filled with intense delight. His epistle is crammed with glorious facts; bnt we wish he had in his own masterly way expanded it to twice the length. The longer the better.
Indeed, Dr. Carruthers, though bUnd, was not prophesying to the deaf. lie was really authorized to say, as he did say in his Thanksgiving sermon of this same year, " the voice of the Brit- ish public is for peace — not with rebellion — not with slavery — but with the free United States of America," The work of con- version so well begun could not stop short of its consummation. The voice of the British public responded at length in one great chorus to the keynote, which he, and others like-minded, had been persistently sounding.
But if this good patriot and citizen of the world was expecting the return of peace to bring him an honored repose for dechning years, he was signally disappointed. The national crisis was closely followed in Portland by a municipal and pai'ochial disas- ter, which laid upon him, as upon many others, a burden to con- stitute the crowning trial rather than the natural reward of life- long service.
The conflagration of 1SG6, that abolished so many old records and opened so many new tables, marks a memorable epoch in the history of the Second church and parish. Old things had passed away. All things were to be made new. Dr. Carruthers be- came at once the preacher, the prophet, and the chronicler, of a renascent church and parish history. From 1866 onward, he kept a careful and voluminous journal with special reference to ecclesiastical matters, but with interesting personal notices, to August 2, 1888, when the record ends in the handwriting of age with these pathetic words : —
The members of the church who visit us are very kind, and I desire to be thankful. Though weak, I am mercifully spared any pain.
Hardly had the embers of the old meeting-house grown cold, when the Doctor began to receive numerous letters from old friends, near and remote, tendering small sums of money to aid in the work of rebuilding. In this way Avas opened an extensive correspondence, which became part of his new calling. But,
JOHN JOHNSTON CAREUTHERS, D.D. 45
more than this, he was in request to present the demands of the situation to other churches. The memorable history and distin- guished ministrjr of the Second Parish church, its frontier position and im23ortant influence, were made the ground of an appeal for prompt aid by Dr. Kirk in the Boston Evening Traveller, Sep- tember 3, 1866; and after due consideration Dr. Carruthers him- self sent to the editors of the Boston Recorder and the Congre- gation alist respectively his own programme : —
In undertaking the solemn mission committed to his trust the under- signed is anxious it should be understood,
1. That he has neither strength, nor heart, nor time, for individual solicitation. Independently, besides, of the irksomeness, not to say oft'ensiveness, of such a method of raising funds^or religious purposes, he cannot be indifferent nor insensible to its re-active influence on those who have given themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
2. That this appeal is to all of like precious faith, who sympathize with us in the day of our calamity. Pastors of churches beloved and trusted by their people will most efficiently plead a cause like this; and, if thus presented, the practical response will prove that Christian faith and love are fully adequate to such emergencies.
3. That if his personal presence and presentation of the object be deemed expedient, he is open to such calls, and will gratefully embrace the opportunities thus afforded of asking the aid of fellow disciples towards the erection of the Payson Memorial church.
J. J. CARRUTHERS.
5 Cambridge St., Boston, September 4, 18G6.
Agreeably to this announcement the doctor visited the chief cities of New Engbmd, the Middle States, and Canada,* with the enterprising zeal of his earliest mission. Despite the moral and financial agitations resulting from tbe war, he was successful to a remarkable degree in gaining both spiritual encouragement and material aid.
Nor was this all. Dr. Carruthers was of the ojDinion that two parishes, the second and third, whose situation and wants were much the same, should unite their resources, both in building a house of worship and in prosecuting their common work for a
1 See " Tbe Dominion." " Notes of a Recent Tour." Christian Mirror, 1S68.
46 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
particular portion of tlie city's population. But as the choice of a minister to preside over this union was one in which the third parish, as well as his own, would be entitled to a voice, he pro- posed, and with a pressing persistency of purpose, to retire from his pastorate, under advice of a council, rather than stand in the way of a consummation, which he had so much at heart. This involved a deliberate sacrifice of personal feeling, of which not even lie could measure the cost. But in his view cost was not to be counted after the way of duty was made clear.
When, however, the matter was referred to an ecclesiastical council, June 19, 1867, there was no such evidence of the prac- ticability of uniting the two parishes on any terms, as to make the proposed retirement appear an advisable step. Things went on in their wonted way, and the Doctor's numerous friends, who had strongly protested against his leaving them, enjoyed his ministry for ten years more.
Meanwhile the work of rebuilding Avent on apace in the devas- tated streets ; and, not to be left altogether out of sight by the general activity, on the fourth of July, 1868, Dr. Carruthers laid the corner-stone of the Paj^son Memorial church, Aj^ril 15, 1869, the day of the annual fast, was signalized by the dedication of the vestry. Dr. Carruthers j)reached, and offered the dedicatory prayer; and on July 4, 1875, the whole solid and comely structure was duly dedicated ; and again Dr, Carruthers, as was most meet and right, preached and offered the dedicatory prayer. " Now lettest thou thj^ servant depart in peace," must have been in his thoughts, if not on his lips, at the accomplishment of this final service. Accordingly, in the affectionate tribute paid to the memory of his venerated friend by the Rev, A, H. Wright, on the funeral day, that law of history, which makes it impossible to limit a public monument to the honor of a single name, was referred to with the eloquence of judgment and of feeling : —
One crowning result of Dr. Carruthers' prolonged and able ministry in our city, was the erection of this massive church edifice, which stands as a worthy memorial of the great Dr. Payson. So let it ever stand ; hut there are many who will likewise look ui)on it as a monument to the energy and efficiency of Dr. Carruthers Maiiy there were to
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHEES, D.D. 47
rise up and build, but Dr. Carruthers was their Nehemiah, to lead the way aud urge them on. Let the generation of youthful worshii^ers, who pass in and out of this house of God with pride and joy, think rev- erently of the man who rose up in the residue of his strength and de- voted the years of his old age to the preparation of a sanctuary for them and for their children, which in ages to come will be the ornament and the defence of our city.
In a long ministry, as in a long life, there is likely to be a more or less marked beginning of the end. Dr. Carruthers' journal for the year 1877, after the entry of January first, has nothing more till the seventeenth of July, when a concluding cha^^ter seems to open as follows : —
How much has passed since last insertion ! On the twenty-fourth of February, my dear wife, after a long and very painful illness, fell asleep in Jesus,
His touching reflections on this event belong to the inner his- toiy, which those who can may read without the additional lines. Successive attacks of pneumonia and other troubles had brought him also down almost to death. He adds : —
I am still very weak, and as yet entirely unfit for any pastoral work. After much deliberation and earnest prayer, I have come to the conclu- sion that my office must be resigned. This, D. V., will be done on the first or second Sabbath of August.
On Sunday, the twelfth of August, accordingly, the Doctor preached, and at the close of the sermon read his resignation ; — reflecting with devout gratitude on the results of his lengthened service, testifying the warmest personal affection for his people, and the satisfaction he had in their work of faith and labor of love, together with his pastoral solicitude for the future, especi- ally for those who had, as he feared, received the grace of God in vain, — and hoping still to embrace any opportunities of use- fulness among them that might be afforded him.
He was "wonderfully strengthened" for this effort, his jour- nal adds ; and his act implied its proper sequel. This however, did not take place till fifteen months afterward, when church, parish and council vied with each other in testimonies of regret, love, and reverence, such as the sober practice of centuries has made appropriate to a ministry of marked excellence and unmis-
48 MAESTE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
takable integrity, wlien the time-honored servant of God and man has passed beyond the sphere of parochial or professional criticism. Nor Averc these testimonies of an altogether convention- al type. The church hoped that the bonds of spiritual affinity might be made dearer and stronger through the preservatit^n of his valuable life in the freshness and serenity of advancing age ; and that he might realize in this Christian community " the de- lightful close of the ministry of tlie beloved disciple in the church of Ephesus." There was a resolution of thanks on the part of the parish for the generous relinquishment of his salary, pending final action on his resignation, which enabled the society to supply the pulpit without extraordinary expense. The council, gratefully recalling his uniform urbanity and kindness, expressed the hope that he might long be spared, " by his pres- ence and occasional ministrations to strengthen and cheer the church of God."
Thus on the fourth of December, 1878, the official connection with church and parish, sustained for thirty-two j^ears, was dissolved. In proposing this dissolution he had said in effect : —
" My way of life Is fallen into the sere, tlie yellow leaf ; " — And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troojis of friends,
he might surely look to have, now that the dissolution had been
declared.
His journal gives this record for December 6 : —
My good and noble friend. Dr. Shailer, called, and expressed his per- fect satisfaction with my course.
Dr. Carruthers not only enjoyed the honors and friendships of old age, he rejoiced in its opportunities and tasks. The series of judicious and interesting articles entitled " Reminiscences of Dis- tinguished Men," was prepared for the Christian Mirror, in 1879. Occasionally, the great passion of his soul was gratified with a call to preach the gospel. And if any appalling event or critical situation of public affairs made men think — " more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of," — then the aged man of God interpreted the common burden, and gave voice to the common desire.
JOHN JOHNSTON CARRUTHEES, D.D. 49
Perhaps there is no vantage ground in this world like " the chamber where the good man meets his fate." Musing upon what should take place in that sacred seclusion, — what calm contemplation of nature and life and what deep communion with the Infinite Spirit through the Word of God might strengthen the self-possessed and waiting soul, I am reminded of the deeply- personal cast of Dr. Carruthers' religion. He agreed with his old friend Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh, the sometime secre- tary of the Scottish Missionary Society, who said : —
A personal Deity is tlie soul of natural religion; a j^ersonal Savior — the real living Christ — is the soul of revealed religion.
In this faith Dr. Carruthers bade us farewell ; and leaving him to that unknown blessedness, which by the law of Christian thought is ampler than the best human anticipations, I would enshrine his memory in words I once heard him deliver with great impressiveness, — from, as he said, " the excellent and admirable Cowper : " —
All joy to the believer! he can speak — Trembling yet happy, confident yet meek. Since the dear hour that brought me to thy foot And cut up all my follies by the root, I never trusted in an arm but thine, Hor hoped, but in thy righteousness divine: My prayers and alms, imperfect and defiled, Were but the feeble efforts of a child ; Howe'er performed, it was their brightest part, That they proceeded from a grateful heart: Cleansed in thine own all-purifying blood, Forgive their evil and accept their good; I cast them at thy feet — my only plea Is what it was, dependence upon thee ; While struggling in the vale of tears below, That never failed, nor shall it fail me now.
Vol. II.
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 51
THE VOICE OF MAINE
AS HEARD IN THE GENESIS OF OUR NATIONALITY. Head before the Maine Historical Society^ January 8, 1885. BY GEORGE F. EMERY.
No man who has ever resided in Massachusetts can have failed to observe the extraordinary care with which the services and fame of her eminent citizens have been perpetuated either in song or history, and with what jealous watchfuhiess everything pertaining to matters of public moment is there preserved for future generations.
Though much has been done by members of this Society and by other praiseworthy persons, to immor- talize the names and deeds of Maine men, there still remains here a wide field to be explored by loyal sons, and a fruitage to be garnered for future use, as well in the interest of truth and justice, as from gratitude to a wise and patriotic ancestry. This sentiment it was that led to the preparation of the paper which I read, relating to a period of our national history, sec- ond in interest to no other, and with which, our people ought accordingly to be reasonably well informed.
I invite my friends on this occasion to accompany me to Boston, to look in upon the Massachusetts con- vention assembled to act on the adoption or the re- jection of the federal constitution. Our chief purpose is to observe the action of the delegates therein from the District of Maine, whose constituents have already,
52 MAIXE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to a considerable extent, begun to sigh for independ- ence, and for a statehood more congenial than that to which they then owed allegiance. But before entering the body, it may be well to take a brief survey of the situation and surrounding circumstances, lest we fail to appreciate the interest with which the scene is invest- ed, and underestimate the magnitude of the results to flow from it.
The confederacy of " free and sovereign states " has confessedly proved inadequate for " the exigencies of government and the preservation of the union." The holding of a convention at Philadelphia in 1787, pur- suant to a resolve of Congress, after twelve years of declared independence, to revise the articles of confed- eration in which twelve of the thirteen states are rep- resented, is proof enough of its necessity, and we need not tarry longer at this point. At that convention, however, it was impossible to secure unanimity either in council or result. Of the Massachusetts delegation, consisting of Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King, Elb ridge Gerry and Caleb Strong, the two latter declined to sign the proposed constitution, hence the new instru- ment comes before this convention with only one-half an indorsement of men deemed among the best and wisest of her eminent citizens. Moreover, as it re- quires the approval of nine of the thirteen states to make it obligatory, only five have yet ratified it, nameh', Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut ; consequently the eye of the entire country is directed to the scene of our visit to learn what Massachusetts will decide for herself, and how
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 53
lead the way for Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island, who are yet to follow. It is well known also, that the popular feeling in Massachusetts is ad- verse to the new constitution, and that men of com- manding influence have publicly declared against it. Samuel Adams, the great central figure of revolution- ary times, in a letter to Richard Henry Lee, of De- cember 3, 1787, has said : —
I stumble at the threshold. I meet with a national govern- ment instead of a federal union of sovereign states. ... If the several states are to become one entire nation, under one legisla- ture, its powers to extend to all legislation and its laws to be su- preme, and control the whole, the idea of sovereignty in these states must be lost.
Governor Hancock and his friends in general, classed as republicans in contradistinction from federalists, are known to be opposed to the new scheme as presented. In the district of Maine the popular feeling is very strong and dominant against it. In short, as we take our seats, January 9, 1788, in the meeting-house on Brattle street, to see and hear what Massachusetts is about to do, we are almost oppressed with the feeling, that upon the action of this convention hinges the life and destiny of the new republic. Williamson justly styles this as a period of extreme anxiety.
But we now enter and first scan the crowd of delegates, three hundred and fifty-five in number, to see who are there to discharge the unusual trust, and acquit themselves of the high responsibility. His Excellency Governor Hancock has been chosen to preside over the convention, but, by reason of ill
54 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
health and the cares of state, he is unable to be present until a late day in its dehberations. The chair is occu- pied by WilUain Gushing, the vice-president, whose learning and standing as a jurist naturally suggest that soon he will be elevated to the bench of the supreme court should the proposed constitution go into effect. The eye then runs over the convention to see Samuel Adams, Theophilus Parsons, Governor Bowdoin, Rufus King, Fisher Ames, George Cabot, Nathaniel Gorham, Caleb Strong, Francis Dana, Chris- topher Gore, Samuel West, Benjamin Lincoln, Theo- dore Sedge wick, Samuel Stillman, and a large number of other celebrities of Massachusetts proper, whose names are familiar as household words. But what is of more interest to us is a view of our Maine delegation. To gratify our curiosity more perfectly, and see and hear more understandingly, we have taken the precau- tion to procure from the secretary, George Richards Minott, a list of our representatives which reads as follows.
County of York : — York, Captain Esaias Preble, Nathaniel Barrell, Esq. Kittery, Mr. Mark Adams, Mr. James Neal. Wells, Rev. Dr. Moses Hem- enway, Hon. Nathaniel Wells, Esq. Berwick, Dr. Nathaniel Low, Mr. Richard Foxwell Cutts, Mr. EUjah Hayes. Pepperelboro, Thomas Cutts, Esq. Lebanon, Mr. Thomas M. Wentworth. Sanford, Major Samuel Nasson. Buxton, Jacob Bradbury, Esq. Fryeburg, Mr. Moses Ames. Coxhall, Captain John Low. Shap- leigh, Mr. Jeremiah Emery. Waterboro, Rev. Pela- tiah Tingley.
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County of Cumberland : — Falmouth, Daniel Hsley, Esq., John K. Smith, Esq. Portland, Mr. John Fox, Captain Joseph McLellan. North Yarmouth, David Mitchell, Esq. Samuel Merrill, Esq. Scarboro, Wil- liam Thompson, Esq. Brunswick, Captain John Dun- lap. Harpswell, Captain Isaac Snow. Cape Elizabeth, Mr. Joshua Dyer. Gorham, Mr. S. Longfellow, jr. New Gloucester, Mr. W. Widgery. Gray, Rev. Samuel Perley.
County of Lincoln : — Pownalboro, Thomas Rice, Esq., Mr. David Sylvester. Georgetown, Mr. Nathan- iel Wyman. Newcastle, Captain David Murray. Wool- wich, Mr. David Gilmore. Topsham, Hon. S. Thomp- son, Esq. Winslow, Mr. Jonah Crosby. Bowdoinham, Mr. Zacheus Beal. Boothbay, William McCobb, Esq. Bristol, William Jones, Esq. Vassalboro, Captain Samuel Grant. Edgecomb, Moses Davis, Esq. Hallo- well, Captain James Carr. Thomaston, David Fales, Esq. Bath, Dummer Sewall, Esq. Winthrop, Mr. Joshua Bean.
In the organization, the post of honor, as respects the Maine delegates, appears to have been assigned to Mr. Widgery by placing him on the committee on rules and orders. We have already learned that he was born in Philadelphia in 1753, that after receiving a public school education he followed the seas and during the revolutionary war was lieutenant of a privateer. His force of character, enterprising spirit, combined with unusual intelligence and patriotic purpose, have naturally led us to anticipate for him an influential and honorable career. As great events are said to
56 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
cast their shadows before, it may safely be predicted, that New Gloucester will be too small to hold him, that he will soon be found among the solid men of Portland, become prominent in the councils of state and nation, five years a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives, two in the executive council, a judge of the court of common pleas, and two a mem- ber of the national house of representatives. Party spirit being likely to rage fiercely, and he being bold find atTfiCressive in maintainino; his convictions, it is not unreasonable to anticipate that he will excite violent animosity in the ranks of his opponents, even to the extent of hooting and mobbing him on his way home- ward from Congress at Newbury port, where Rufus King and Theophilus Parsons reside, though not with their approbation. Being, also, a man of wealth, and having an attractive daughter, it would not be surpris- ing if some estimable gentleman like Elias Thomas should invade his domestic circle and rob Mr. Widgery of the object of his love, for the purpose of founding a family of distinction in the growing town of Portland. There is another Maine man whom we are specially anxious to see, that is General Samuel Thompson of Topsham, or as he is styled in the record " Honorable S. Thompson, Esq." His fame has already extended far beyond Massachusetts for his boldness and intre- pidit}^ in the dawn of the revolution. He it was, you remember, who marched to Portland at the head of fifty men, w4th a pine bough as their banner and green sprigs in their hats, for the special purpose of destroy- ing Mowatt's ship then in harbor threatening the town ;
THE VOICE OF MAINE. , 57
who captured the royal captain, his surgeon and Rev. Mr. Wiswell, found airing themselves on Munjoy's hill, refused to release them on parole until two leading citizens (General Preble and Colonel Freeman) became sureties for their appearance on the next day ; who, on breach of their parole confined their hostages and, in connection with the militia which had rushed in from the country, refused to release them until assured that the soldiers should be furnished with refreshments at their expense, including a barrel of rum for each company ; and who, amidst angry protests of promi- nent inhabitants fearing a bombardment, persistently justified his conduct on the ground that war already existed, and that it was both right and politic to make such seizure of prisoners wdiom Providence had thrown in his w^ay. Moreover, the impetuous General has been a prominent member of the legislature and has just been elected to that body for a second term.
One other preliminary has not escaped our notice, showing that if the opponents of the constitution were likely to be overpowered by their antagonists in point of talent and experience, they were not to be caught napping, namely, voting in Elbridge Gerry as a con- sulting member of the convention to which he had not been elected.
Our ears are now open to hear the discussions, and especially what the down-easters and backwoodsmen have to say in the presence of the assembled brains and best blood of old Massachusetts.
The first important debate is on the question between annual and biennial elections of representatives to con-
58 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
gress. Mr. Strong, in response to Mr. Adams, explains why the biennial plan was adopted by stating in sub- stance, that the East preferred annual elections, the South a congressional membership for more than two years, and that the result reached was a compromise. Fisher Ames, a wise counselor and the most finished orator in the federal ranks, proceeds to make an elaborate speech in favor of the biennial feature. His argument is based (1) on the extent of the country to be governed, (2) the objects of legislation, and (3) the more perfect security of liberty. On the last point he is very emphatic. Faction and enthusiasm he deems to be the prime dangers to which popular governments are exposed. The following words especially ring in our ears : —
A democracy is a volcano, which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction — these will produce an eru2)tion and carry desolation in their way. The people always mean right, and if time is allowed for reflection and information, they will do right. Biennial elections afford security that the sober second thought of the people shall become law.
He is followed by Messrs. Bowdoin, Heath, Turner,
Dawes and Brooks. General Thompson then takes the
floor and speaks as follows : —
Sir, gentlemen have said a great deal about the history of old times. I confess I am not acquainted with such history. But, sir, I am acquainted with the history of my own country. I had the honor to be in the general court last year, and am in it this year. I think, sir, that had the last administration continued one year longer, our liberties would have been lost, and the country involved in blood. Not so much, sir, from their bad conduct but from the susjjicions of the ])eople of them. But, sir, a change took place ; from this change pardons have been granted to the
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 59
people, and peace is restored. This, sir, I say is in favor of fre- quent elections.
These bold utterances and severe reflections on Gov- Bowdoin's administration, having special reference to his vigorous policy in dealing with the insurgents in "Shay's Rebellion," raise a storm. The General is declared "out of order," and so violent is the manifes- tation, that an adjournment is had to allow it to sub- side. On reassembling he is requested to proceed, and closes thus."
Sir, however just, however good, and however upright the administration may be, there is still a great necessity for annual elections. Do the members of congress displease us ? We call them home, and they obey. Now where is the difference of their having been elected for one or two years ? It is said that the members cannot learn sufficiently in that time. Sir, I hojie we shall never send men who are not learned. Let these members know their dependence on the people. I say, it will be a check on them, even if they are not good men.
Here he breaks out in the following pathetic apos- trophe : —
O, my country, never give up your annual elections. Young men, never give up your jewels.
He then draws a comparison between the judges, etc., of this country dependent on Great Britain for their salaries, and those officials who looked to the continent for their compensation, and concludes by expressing a hope that these representatives will be elected every year, so as to feel a greater dependence on the people.
Mr. Gore follows in a speech deducing lessons from past history, and favors biennial elections. Then
60 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
comes to the front Rufus King, a native of Scarboro, but who, in eminence, abiUty and accomplishments, gives promise of reaching lionors and fame hardly inferior to any man of his times. He refrains from any exordium, thinks history can throw little light on the subject, but that the convention must determine the question upon its own principles.
It seems proper, he says, that the representatives should be in office time enough to acquire that information which is necessary to form a right judgment ; but that the time shouhl not be so long as to remove from his mind the powerful cheek i;pon his conduct, that arises from the frequency of elections, whereby the people are enabled to remove an unfaithful representative, or to continue a faithful one.
He favors an election for two years.
The discussion soon drifts to a consideration of the section concerning the manner of holding congressional elections, and the relation of congress thereto. After listening somewhat impatiently, Mr. Widgery rises and insists we have a right to be jealous of our rulers, who ought never to have a power which they can abuse, and claims that there should be a check on congress.
It is in vain, he says, to say that rulers are not subject to pas- sions and prejudices. In the last general court, of which I was a member, I would Anllingly have deprived the three western coun- ties from sending delegates to this hou^e, as I then thought it necessary. But, sir, what would have been the consequence ? A large part of the state would have been deprived of their dearest rights. I mention this, sir, to show the force of passion and prejudice.
This strikes us as a rare specimen of argument ad hominem, for statesmen do not ordinarily plead their own imperfections to promote the public good. Mr.
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 61
Widgery, however, is exceedingly jealous of popular rights, and instances the following case : —
Suppose, sir, Congress should order an election to be in Boston in January, and from the scarcity of money, etc., not a fourth part could attend, would not three-fourths of the jseojile be deprived of their right ? "
Rev. Mr. West then defends the fourth section with vigor, arguing against the probabilities of danger by conferring power on Congress, closiny* with the in quiry : —
May we not rationally conclude that the persons we shall choose to administer the constitution will be in general good men?
This draws a fire from the battery of the stalwart Thompson which is discharged thus : —
Mr. President, I have frequently heard of the abilities and fame of the learned and reverend gentleman last speaking, and now I am witness to them. But, sir, one thing surj^rises me — it is to hear the worthy gentleman insinuate that our federal rulers will undoubtedly be good men, and that therefore we have little to fear from their being intrusted with all power. This, sir, is quite contrary to the common language of the clergy, who are continually representing mankind as reprobate and deceitful, and that we really grow worse and worse every day. I rea lly believe we do, sir, and I make no doubt to prove it, before I sit down, from the Old Testament — when I consider the man that slew the lion and the bear, and that he was a man after God's own heart — when I consider his son, blest with all wisdom — and the errors they fell into, I extremely doubt the infallibility of human nature. Sir, I suspect my own heart, and I shall suspect our rulers.
This brings to the front the old weather-beaten shipmaster and builder. Captain Snow of Harpswell, who delivers himself thus : —
62 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
It has been said, Mr. President, that there is too much power delegated to Congress by the section nnder consideration. I doubt it. I tliink power the hinge on which the constitution turns. Gentlemen have talked about Congress moving the jjlace of elections from Georgia to the Mohawk river, but I can never believe it. I venture to conjecture that we shall have some honest men in Congress. We read that there were two who brought a good report, Caleb and Joshua. Now if there are but two in Congress who are honest men, and Congress should attempt to do what gentlemen say they will (which will be high treason), they will bring a good report of it — and I stand ready to leave my wife and family, sling my knapsack, travel westward, to cut their heads off. I, sir, since the war, have had commerce with six different nations of the globe, and I have inquired in what estimation America is held, and if I may believe good, honest, credible men, I find this country held in the same light by foreign nations, as a well behaved negro is in a gentleman's family.
Suppose, Mr. President, I had a chance to make a good voy- age, but I tie my captain up to such strict orders, that he can go to no other island to sell my vessel, although there is a certainty of his doing well ; the consequence is, he returns, but makes a bad voyage, because he had not power enough to act his own judgment — for honest men do right. Thus, sir, Congress can- not save us from destruction because we tie their hands and give them no power. I think people have lost their privileges by not improving them. I like this power being vested in Congress as well as any paragraph in the constitution, for as the man is accountable for his conduct, I think there is no danger.
Further discussion follows, but the old Brattle street meeting-house being found unsatisfactory as respects accommodations, an adjournment is made to that in Long Lane prepared for the purpose. On our way thither we drop in at the Green Dragon and moisten our throats with a mug of flip. But it is unsafe to tarry long, for the demand for seats is daily increasing.
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 63
So we push through the crowd and find the quahfica- tions of membership the topic of debate.
The irrepressible Thompson demands that a property quaUfication shall be annexed to a representative, for, says he, " When men have nothing to lose they have nothing to fear." Mr. Sedgwick thereupon slyly gives him a thrust by expressing surprise that gentlemen who appear to advocate popular rights so strenuously should wish to exclude a good man because he was not a rich one. Mr. King also uses his keen blade with effect by saying : —
We never knew that property was an index to abilities. We often see men who, though destitute of property, are superior in knowledge and rectitude. The men who have most injured the country have most commonly been rich men. Such a qualifi- cation was proposed at Philadelphia, but was resisted by the delegates from Massachusetts.
The convention now passes to consider the provision relating to the basis of representation and taxation. Mr. Widgery inquires if a boy six years old is to be considered as a free person ? Mr. King replies, "All persons born free are to be considered as freemen ; " and, to make the idea of taxation by numbers more patent, adds, " Five negro children of North Carolina are to pay as much tax as three New England govern- ors." This calls out another Maine man. Major Nasson of Sanford, who says : —
The honorable gentleman should have gone further and shown the other side. It is a good rule that works both ways. The gentleman should have told us that three of our infants in the cradle are to be rated as high as five of the working negroes of Virginia. We hope, while we are making a new government,
64 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
we shall make it better than the old one; if we made a bad bargain before, as has been hinted, it is reason enough for making a better one now.
The subject is destined to elicit a wide and long debate among the ruffle-shirted dignitaries of Massa- chusetts, and we now spend a brief season in visiting the old State-house, King street, the scene of the Boston massacre, the Common, Copp's hill. Bunker hill, and various other spots of special historic interest. On our return we find Mr. Widgery again on his feet replying to Judge Dana thus : —
I hope, sir, the honorable gentleman will not think hard of it if we ignorant men cannot see as clear as he can. The strong must bear the intirmities of the weak; and it must be a weak mind indeed that could throw 'Such illiberal reflections against gentlemen of education as the honorable gentleman complains of.
This was in reply to Judge Dana's expression of pain at the suggestion, that the gentlemen who have had the superior advantages of education are enemies to the rights of their countrymen.
Mr. Widgery throws an additional weight into the scale by affirming, " If Congress has this power of taxing directly, it can assess a poll tax and thereby compel the poor to pay as much as the rich,"
But Saturday having arrived we will now retire and take another look about Boston, attend church at the Old South on Sunday, then resume our seats all the better prepared to accomplish the purpose of our visit. On resuming our places, Monday, Januarj^ 21, just as Mr. King has closed a speech on the taxation and apportionment question, we are startled by the following episode, A gentleman, whose name we
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 65
do not hear, rises with indignation and offers the following : —
Resolved as follows : —
Whereas, There is a publication in " The Boston Gazette " and the " Country Journal " of this day, viz. :
" Bribery and Corruption ! !
The most diabolical plan is on foot to corrupt the members of this convention, who oppose the adoption of the new constitution. Large sums of money have been brought from a neighboring state for that purpose, contributed by the wealthy — if so, is it not probable there may be collections for the same accursed jjurpose nearer home ? Ceisttinel."
Thereupon it is voted to inquire into the subject, and the printers of the " Gazette " are required to appear and give information thereon. An adjournment is then had. In the afternoon the order is responded to by a report from the messenger that one of the printers will attend the convention, and a letter is read from them, Edes & Son, on the same matter which is referred to a committee of five, of which Theophilus Parsons is chairman, and on which are placed Messrs. Nasson and Widgery of the Maine delegation.
The discussion is again resumed. The paragraph concerning keeping a journal of congressional proceed- ings and publication thereof from time to time is intro- duced. Mr. Widgery calls attention to the clause, " except such parts as may require secrecy," and declares that " under this pretense Congress can with- hold everything, and thereby keep the people in utter ignorance of its doings." Mr. Gorham replies. This calls out another Maine delegate. Rev. Mr. Perley of Gray, who describes the alarms and anxiety of the
Vol. II. 6
66 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
public at the commencement of the war. wlien the whole country cried with one voice, " Why don't Gen- eral Washington march into Boston and drive out the tvranti
But, says he. Heaven gave iis a commander who knew better than to do this. I am acquainted with the Roman history, and the Grecian, too, .and I believe there never was, since the creation of the world, a greater general than "Washington, except, indeed, Joshna, who was inspired by the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. Would it, I ask, have been prudent for that excellent man, General Washington, previous to the American army's taking possession of Dorchester Heights, to have published to the world his intention of so doing ? Xo, sir ; it would not.
To such orthodoxy we unanimously respond "Amen." But the principal bone of contention continues to be as to the powers of Congress. Mr. King speaks at length in support of the provision, and is followed by others. The tide appears to be setting in favor of the federal leaders. This arouses the valiant Thompson to a new effort
Mr. President, he says, I totally abhor this paragraph. Massa- chusetts has ever been a leading s'tate ; now let her give good advice to her sister states. Suppose nine states adopt this con- stitution, who shall touch the other four? Some cry out, force them. I say draw them. We love liberty. Britain never tried to enslave us until she told us we had too much liberty ; we cannot have too much liberty.* The confederation wants amendments — shall we not amend if? The convention was sent to Philadelphia to amend this Confederation, but they made a new creature, and the very setting out of it is uncon- stitutional. (A strict construction friend whispers in my ear,
• A forcible reminder, this, of the language of Burke to England, one hundred years ago: — "The greater the freedom of Ireland, the greater must be your advantage.''
TEZ VOICE OF 3CArVE. ^7
^ The General has them on the hip this time, f :-r the •:-•:• mjnis- aon from Alassaclmsetts to her delegates recite? the pQT^<se of the FfailadelpMa conrentkm to be for the seie purpose d reviang the articles of ConlederasioiLp) In the eonroitkra, ihe General adiia, PennsTivania had moare manheis than all Xev Engjand, and two of onr d^egates caiy were porsnaded to sign die coo^i- tntion. Massachosetts once ^int iq> the harbors jgainst the British. True. I confess, I was taken in. Dcm^ let ns be in a hurry again. J jet ns wait to see what ovr aster states will do. What shall we siSer if we adjoam the eonadezatioii ci it for five or dx months? It is better to do this than adopt it so ha^iK-. Take care we don't disunite the state& Br nnitii^ we stand, br dividing we falL
This elicits several able replies, but these onlv have the e5ect to stimulate General Thompson's opposition, and renew hi* appeal for adjonmment to a fntnre day
"We are able to stand oar own groond against a fmneign power.*" savs he. "Thev cann<?t starve ns out; ther cannot iHing their ships on the Ian«i. We are a nation of heahhy, str<:>Dg men ; our land is fertile, and we are ino^iang in nnmbas. It is said we owe money — no matter if we do — oar sa&ty fiea in not paying it. Pay only the interest. I>:«i"t let us go too fist.
Gentlemen sav this section is clear as the son, and that
all power is r^ained which is not given. Bat whae is the l«il of rights which i^iall dieck the power of this Congress, which ^lall say thus far shaU ye come and no farther ? The safety oi the people depends on a biD of rights. If we bmld on a sandy foundation is it likely we shall stand? I aofieal to the fe^ii^ of this convention. There are some parts of this constitutioa which I cannot «iigest ; an<l, sir, shall we swallow a large bone for the sake of a little meat "? Some say, swallow the whirfe now and pick oat the bone afterward. Bat I say, let as pick off the meat and throw the bone away."
He proceeds at some length in this line, and spe- cially points out the danger that may accrue from a standing army.
$8 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Bowcloin, Parsons and others follow with elaborate arguments in support of the proposed powers of Congress. Their ability, coupled with superior skill as parliamentarians, lead three of the Maine men, probably by concert, to insist on reconsidering the mode of debating the constitution by paragraphs so that the entire instrument can be open to discussion. These three are Nasson, Widgery and Thompson. The latter complains because the towns have had no opportunity to be heard. " Ilis own," he said, " had considered the proposed constitution seven hours, and after this there was not one in favor of it." But the motion to reconsider fails, Adams having thrown his influence against it. Mr. Widgery then raises his voice against congressional power, nor can he see "why we need swnllow a great bone for the sake of a little meat, which if it should happen to stick in our throats, can never be got out."
The next serious topic is that relating to the slave trade. Mr. Neal of Kittery specially protests against its continuance for twenty years. " My profession," he says, '' compels me to bear witness against any- thing that shall favor the making merchandise of the bodies of men." This is a pregnant suggestion to General Thompson which he is quick to seize, and he lifts up his voice thus : —
Mr. President, shall it be said, that after we have established our own independence and freedom, we make slaves of others? Ah, Washington ; what a name has he had ! How he has immor- talized himself ! But he holds those in slavery who have as good right to be free as he has. He is still for self, and in my opinion his character has sunk fifty per cent.
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But on the other hand it is urged with adroitness, that the step toward abohtion is one of the beauties of the constitution as distinguished from the Confed- eration, the hitter containing no provision whatever on the subject. Messrs. Nasson and Neal, however, cannot be satisfied in this way. Both pathetically lament a proposed license to continue the slave trade for twenty years. Judge Dana, Mr. Adams and others, on the contrary, " rejoice that a door is now to be opened for the annihilation of this odious traffic in a certain time."
Soon the clause providing against suspension of the habeas corpus is read. Again breaks upon the ear an impatient cry from a familiar voice, the gentleman from Topsham : " Please proceed, Mr. President. We have read the book often enough. It is a consistent piece of inconsistencies."
" Order, order," is heard from federal lips from every part of the House, and the General subsides.
But while we have been listening to the discussions there has been going on outside the convention some very careful caucussing among the wisest heads, to prepare a plan of conciliation, without which rejection of the constitution is almost certain. The main objec- tion to the instrument, in the minds of Sam. Adams, Hancock, and their Massachusetts friends is that it swallows up the states and deprives them of powers deemed vital to self-government and popular liberty. Unless this can be removed Parsons and King, espec- ially, see that with the potential influence of such men against them, defeat awaits them. Accordingly,
70 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
unknown to the mass of delegates, these gentlemen quietly conceive and perfect a series of proposed amendments to be engrafted into the contemplated vote of ratification, the chief of which is " that it be explicitly declared that all powers not expressly dele- gated to the aforesaid constitution, are reserved to the several states to be by them exercised." Adams is luidoubtedly in the secret, and probably found in con- ference* with Parsons and King, to help shape the conciliatory propositions in such manner as to divest opposition of its principal force. These having been carefully matured, it is arranged that to carry addi- tional force in the convention the conciliatory propo- sitions shall be offered, not by their authors (the orig- inal draft was in the handwriting of Parsons), but by President Hancock, as of his own motion, and as evinc- ing his superior wisdom and patriotism to meet a mo- mentous crisis. We stop not to inquire into current rumors about the vanity and ambition of Hancock, said to have been artfully appealed to by his opponents to bring him into the arrangement, but resume our places in the convention. The debate by paragraphs being ended, Mr. Parsons moves " that the convention do assent to and ratify this constitution." Mr. Neal again interposes his objection, and says that unless the article respecting the African is removed he must vote in the negative. Others follow.
♦Joseph Viiial called at Hancock's house while the convention was in session and found hini and Adams in conference. Several gentlemen came in, appearing to be a committee. Adams was asked to state his objections. This he does at length; suggests amendments. Hancock says if these are prepared he will go down and olTer tliem in person. Agi'eed to, at great delight of the committee. — Life of Samuel Adams.
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 71
Finally, January 31, his Excellency, Governor Hancock, for the first time, makes his appearance. He is borne up the broad aisle in men's arms, his gouty limbs wrapped up in flannels to protect him from the cold, is gently landed near the chair which Vice- president Gushing gracefully yields to him, the scene creating an intense sensation, and its new occupant being now the center of attraction. All eyes and ears are strained to the utmost tension, and the more so because it has leaked out that the Governor is to bring forward a proposition for a compromise. The house being in breathless silence the president slowly rises and proceeds to address his hearers as follows : —
Gentlemen of the convention, I am conscious of the impro- priety, situated as I have been, of entering into the deUberations of this body. Unfortunately, through painful indisposition of body, I have been prevented from giving attendance in my place, but from the information I have received, and from the papers, there appears to me to be a great dissimilarity of sentiments in the convention. To remove the objections of some gentlemen, 1 have felt myself induced to hazard a proposition, which, with your permission, I will offer in the afternoon.
This announcement, and the demonstration accom- panying it, have wrought up curiosity to its highest pitch. We dare not leave our seats, even for a lunch, though we can hardly help wishing there was some short mode of access to the Governor's pipe of old Madeira, annually placed in his cellar for refreshing his numerous guests!
(Remember this is January, 1788.) The entire town is on the qui vive to know what is coming, and it is with great difficulty that his Excellency is borne
72 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
through the crowd as before, to resume the duties at the afternoon session. But in due time order is secured, when he rises, breaks silence by referring to his morning announcement and adds, as if an apparent change of front might excite some suspicion of his purity : —
My motive arises from my earnest desire in behalf of this con- vention, my fellow citizens, and the public at large, that such a form of government may be adopted as shall extend its good influ- ence to every part of the United States, and advance the pros- perity of the whole world.
In this style he orates at considerable length, and closes by submitting a proposed series of amendments with the expression of a sincere wish that the measure may have a tendency to promote a spirit of union. Our friend Thompson's head is seen to drop, and his face to become elongated by a depression of his lower jaw. Mr. Adams, not heretofore very conspicuous on the floor, but the great commoner relied on to bring in his associates to the support of the new amendment, rises to express himself happy in contemplating the idea that many benefits will result from " his Excellen- cy's conciliatory proposition" to the commonwealth and to the United States, and advocates immediate action thereon, and prior to voting on the anterior motion of Mr. Parsons. After enlarging on the gen- eral subject, and fully indorsing the constitution thus supplemented by the scheme of amendments,* his motion is seconded and carried. But the Maine dele- gates in opposition, — some of them, at least, — could
*The nine amendments covered the objections stated by Adams in the interview above referred to.
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 73
not be led from their original position. The gallant Major Nasson, especially, feels the double pressure of his own convictions and the force of a determined con- stituency behind him. This constrains him to make an extended and spirited speech, which, though compli- mentary to President Hancock, is strongly adverse to ratification. Among other things, he says : —
Great Britain, sir, first attempted to enslave us by declaring her laws siipreme, and that she had a right to bind us in all cases whatever. What, sir, roused the Americans to shake off the yoke preparing for them ? It was this measure, the power to do which we are now about giving to Congress. And here, sir, I beg the indulgence of this honorable body to permit me to make a short apostrophe to liberty. O, Liberty, thou greatest good, thou fair- est property ; with thee I wish to live, with thee I wish to die ! Pardon me if I drop a tear on the j^eril to which she is exposed. I cannot, sir, see this brightest of jewels tarnished, a jewel worth ten thousand worlds. And shall we part with it so soon ?
He then points out the objectionable features of the proposed constitution. One position is that the confederation is a sacred instrument, a league of sovereign and independent states — if that is to be destroyed there will be no ground of trust for the future. "We, the people," go to an annihilation of the state governments, and to a perfect consolidation of the whole union.
We are under oath ; we have sworn that Massachusetts is a sovereign and independent state. How, then, can we vote for this constitution that destroys that sovereignty ? I demand a bill of rights. I am opposed to biennial elections. I protest against the plan of representation and taxation whereby the poor can be taxed equally with the rich, and five slaves shall be rated no more than three children. The plan for the Senate is unequal because
74 MAINE HISTOKICAL SOCIETY.
the smallest are placed on a level with the largest states, taxing Massachusetts four times as much as New Hampshire to support the dignity of the union. The senatorial term of six years is also too long, and a grievance — too long to trust any body of men with power. We have, in fact, overridden the ])rinciple of three years' rule prescribed for British rulers. The fourth section is specially obnoxious, for Congress can if it pleases order the elec- tion of Massachusetts representatives to be made at Great Bar- rington or Machias.
In discussing the army powers he waxes still
warmer : —
A standing army ! Was it not with this that Caesar passed the Rubicon, and laid jjrostrate the liberties of his country ? By this has seven-eighths of the once free nations of the globe been
brought into bondage Britain attempted to enforce her
arbitrary measures by a standing army. But, sir, we had j^atriots then who alarmed us of our danger; who shewed us the serpent
and bid us beware of it We had an Hancock, an Adams
and a Warren. Our sister states, too, produced a Randoljih, a Washington, a Greene and a Montgomery, who led us in our way. Some of these have given up their lives in defence of the liberties of their country, and my prayer to God is, that when this race of illustrious patriots shall have bid adieu to the world, from their dust, as from the sacred ashes of the Phenix, another race may arise who shall take oiir posterity by the hand and lead them to tramp' e on the necks of those who shall dare to infringe on their liberties. Sir, had I a voice like Jove, I would proclaim it throughout the world, and had I an arm like Jove I would hurl from the globe those villains that would dai-e to establish in our country a standing army. I wish, sir, that the gentlemen from Boston would bring to their minds the fatal evening of the fifth of March, 1770.
The habeas corpus clause, too, he declaims against as dangerous to liberty, since the limitations of sus- pension, " as long as rebellion or invasion shall con- tinue," is too indefinite.
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 75
The apt but practical gentleman from New Glouces- ter (Widgery), also very naturally interposes the objection that the convention is here to ratify or reject the constitution, not to propose amendments, and concludes with the inquiry if it is reasonable to expect that the states which have already accepted it will submit to amendments. It being evident the vote will not be reached at this session we retire to our lodgings, and as we need a little relaxation not to be found in Maine, following the instinct of many sober people when away from home, we conclude the day by visiting the theater.
On our return the next morning Mr. Strong appears to be discussing the entire subject at large, and closes with a confident expression of his belief that the proposed amendments will be generally adopted by the states and the people.
Our plucky friend from Topsham is burning with indignation at the new prospect, for, beside being determined to stand by his own guns to the last, he has smelt out what he regards treason in the republi- can ranks. Accordingly he boisterously exclaims : —
We have no right to make amendments ; it is not the business we were sent here for. But I am glad gentlemen are now con- vinced it is not a perfect system, and that it wants amendments. The present is very different language from that used at first. Nevertheless, as to the amendments I can't say amen to them. But they may be voted for by some men. I do not say Judases, looking daggers at the chair and in the direction of Mr. Adams.
Another sensation follows, but no harm comes of it, and the next move is, after many speeches, to refer the amendments to a large committee to report there-
76 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
on. From Maine the following gentlemen are placed upon it : Rev. Dr. Hemenway of Wells, Nathaniel Barrel! of York, John Fox of Portland, Stephen Longfellow of Gorham, Dummer Sewall of Bath and David Sylvester of Pownalboro. On the coming in of the report of the twenty-four members, fifteen agree thereto, seven are opposed, one is absent, and one declines giving his opinion. Further speeches follow, those of clergymen being specially noticeable as the rear guard relied on to strengthen the feeble knees and nerve the faint-hearted.
The last Maine man to speak prior to taking the question is the plain husbandman, as he styles himself, from York, who is evidently quite embarrassed, but feels compelled to plunge in, and make the best effort of his life. He thus commences : —
Awed in the presence of this august assembly, conscious of my inability to express my mind fully on this important occasion, and sensible how little I must appear in the eyes of those giants in rhetoric who have exhibited such a pompous display of declama- tion ; without any of those talents calculated to draw attention, without the pleasing eloquence of Cicero, or the blaze of Demos- thenian oratory, I rise, sir, to discharge my duty to my constitu- ents, who I know expect something more from me than merely a silent vote.
Proceeding still further in this style he then points out seriatim, the following objectionable features of the constitution : —
It confers too great power on congress, "more extensive than ever Great Britain exercised over us ; too great to be intrusted in the hands of any men." He says : —
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 77
History tells us Rome was made happy under Augustus, though wi'etched under Nero, who could have no greater power than Augustus. And yet, this same Nero, when young in government, could shed tears on signing a death warrant, though afterward became so callous to the tender feelings of humanity as to behold with pleasure Rome in flames.
Because six years is too long a term for any set of men to be at the head of the government.
Because of the uncertainty of being able to support the additional expense of such a government.
Because a continental collector will not be so likely to do justice as collectors of our own.
Because a frame of government on which all laws are founded should be so simple and explicit that the most illiterate may understand it, whereas this appears to be so obscure and ambiguous that the most capa- cious mind cannot fully understand it.
Because the duties of excise and impost, and to be taxed beside, appears too great a sacrifice.
Because this will not furnish the efficient govern- ment we are in pursuit of.
Because salaried officers are to determine their own compensation without any control.
Because such a government may be disagreeable to men with the high notions of liberty we Americans entertain.
He also deprecates the Jehu-like haste with which the constitution has been pushed in some parts of the country, and without adequate consideration. He therefore favors an adjournment; but, if that cannot be had, he says he is " almost tempted to risk the dis- pleasure of his constituents, and adopt the measure without their consent."
78 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
A motion is now made to adjourn to a future day, but fails, one hundred and fifteen of three hundred and twenty-nine only voting for it.
Although our principal purpose is to see and hear Maine men, we are particularly impressed with a speech from Rev. Dr. Stillman of Boston, a Baptist clergyman, which is one of the most able, patriotic and felicitous that has fallen from any lip. After taking a broad and comprehensive view, and giving an analysis of the new system of government proposed, he spec- ially urges its adoption as being in the interest of peace.
But after all, he says, if this constitution were as perfect as the sacred volume itself, it will not secure the liberties of the people unless they watch their own liberties. Nothing written on paper will do that. It is, therefore, necessary that the people should keep a watchful, not overjealous eye on their rulers, and that they should give all due encouragement to our colleges, schools of learning, etc., that so, knowledge may be diffused through every part of the country. Ignorance and slavery, knowledge and free- dom, are inseparably connected. While Americans remain in their present enlightened condition, and warmly attached to the cause of liberty, they cannot be enslaved. Should the general gov- ernment become so lost to all sense of honor and the freedom of the peoi:)le, as to attempt to enslave them, they who are the descendants of a race of men who have dethroned kings, will make an American Congress tremble, strip them of their public honors and reduce them to the lowest state of degredation.
On February 6, the time has arrived for taking the question, which is called for from every quarter. President Hancock rises and proceeds to deliver a closing and well-considered address. After again referring with pleasure to his restoration to health, he tells the convention it would be one of the most dis- tressing misfortunes of his life to be deprived of giving
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 79
his aid cand support to a system which, if amended according to his proposition, as he feels assured it will be, cannot fail to give to the people of the United States a greater degree of political freedom, and event- ually as much national dignity as falls to the lot of any nation on earth. He compliments both sides for the ability and learning evoked by the discussions ; admits there are still defects to be remedied, but these can be trusted to time and a patriotic people. He gives strong assurance that the proposed amendments will be accepted ; and be the result of the pending question what it may, it will give no occasion for triumph or chagrin to either side. He also reminds them that common interests are at stake ; is confident if the pro- posed form of government shall be rejected another zealous attempt will follow, but should ratification now take place it will be followed by quiet acquiescence. He concludes, with great dignity and solemnity, by saying : —
Gentlemen of the Convention, the question before you is such as no nation on earth, without the limits of America, has ever had the privilege of deciding upon. As the Supreme Ruler of the universe has seen fit to bestow on us this glorious privi- lege, let us decide it, appealing to Him for the rectitude of our intentions, and in humble confidence that He will continue to bless and save our country.
The vote is then taken, and every ear is open to catch the yea or nay as it is distinctly announced. On summing up, ratification is declared to have been car- ried by a majority of nineteen. Our tally of the vote of the Maine delegates shows that in York county there are six yeas and eleven nays j in Cumberland,
80 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ten yeas, three nays, which are Daniel Ilsley, William Widgery and Stephen Longfellow ; in Lincoln, nine yeas and seven nays ; totals, twenty-five yeas and twenty-one nays.
Thereupon several of the opponents give in their adhesion, and among them Mr. Widgery, who says he shall return to his constituents and inform them that he has oj)posed the adoption of this constitution, but that he has been overruled, and that it has been car- ried by a majority of wise and understanding men ; that he shall endeavor to sow the seeds of union and peace among the people he represents, and that he hopes and believes that no person will wish for or sug- gest the measure of a protest ; for, sajs he, we must consider that this body is as full a representation of the people as can be convened. After expressing his thanks for the civility which the inhabitants of Boston have shown to the convention, and declaring that in his opinion they have not in the least influenced the decision, he adds that he shall support, as in him lies, the constitution, and believes, as this state has adopted it, not only nine, but the whole thirteen, will come into the measure.
We retire from the scene grateful for the privilege of having attended one of the most remarkable bodies ever assembled, and which has been dealing with a problem fraught with momentous consequences to America and mankind. Many conflicting emotions have been kindled, each striving for mastery. Among the best defined reflections which we bear away with us as we turn homeward to the East may be noted the following : —
THE VOICE OF MAINE. 81
The conveDtion had before it a work of extraordi- nary difficulty and responsibihty ; its action on the whole has been wise and patriotic ; and, borne along in the enthusiasm of the occasion, we participate in the hopes of the majority that the plan adopted will be approved by the sister states and a united people.
The opposition to it, commercial localities pos- sibly excepted, was natural and not unreasonable. Having emerged from a crucial ordeal to throw off a British yoke for the express piirjjose of securing a system of self-government, it is not strange to find strong apprehensions entertained, lest in escaping from that another may be imposed, chafing to the necks of the people, and one even more difficult to remove. We cannot, therefore, but accord to those of our Maine delegation who opposed the plan any but honorable motives, and must always cherish high respect for their bold adherence to convictions of duty, and for the fidelity and ability with which they have repre- sented their constituents.
We have been strongly impressed with the skill and ability of the federal leaders who, at first, were in a decided minority. We have learned that numbers are no match for brains and experience. We have also been reimpressed with the conviction, that neither in state or nation can we safely ignore this fact in the choice of men to conduct public affairs. We have also seen how slender the chord, apparently, on which is suspended the destiny of government and people. We likewise are inspired with new gratitude to the sovereign Head of all nations, who not only gave
Vol. II. 7
82 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
victory to our arms, but has guided the councils of the fathers in laying the foundations of a system that will challenge imiversal admiration. In the discus- sions and action of the convention there has also been developed to observation germs which, in the nature of men and things, will constitute bases for party dis- tinctions for all time, should the new system be per- petuated, under whatever name they may take shape, or whatever pretences or leadership may crystallize about them. But this fact, resulting from honest differences, and being consonant with patriotic intent, excludes boasting in any, and includes charity, and I may add, courtesy toward all.
So, friends on all si<les, whatever opinion May in state or in church assert its dominion, Though conflict and strife may seemingly be Precursors of danger o'er life's troubled sea, Remember that friction, as of flint with the steel, Bright sparkles unknown to observers reveal. Though during the process some badly are burned, Truth only thereby her conquests has earned. But not 't enlarge — disagree as men may. And think as they please, or whatever say, " Fraternity "* cordial shall crown all our strife, And be our broad aegis for the battle of life.
* This allusion is to tlie Portland Fraternity Club before which this paper was read.
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 83
PROCEEDINGS OF THE MAINE HISTOR- ICAL SOCIETY.
May 25, 1883, a meeting was held at the Societ3^'s library in City Building, Portland, called to order at 2.30 P.M. by the President, Hon. James W. Bradbury. The librarian and cabinet keeper, Mr. H. W. Bryant, presented his quarterly report of the accessions to the library and cabinet.
Mr. R. K. Sewall, on the part of the committee having the matter in charge, reported that a device for the Society's seal had been agreed upon and was accordingly presented for the Society's consideration. It was voted that the same be adopted. The follow- ing is a description of the seal : —
The first quartering of the shield is from the aiTas of the Gorges family. A chevron on the lozengy. This device appears as a quartering on the shield of Sir Ferdinando and was used as a seal by Thomas Gorges, his nephew.
The second quaiteiing bears the arms of the Popham family. Two stags' heads cabossed.
The third quartering bears the arms of France, in memory of her early claim to the soil of Maine and of the discoveries of Chaniplain and De Monts.
The fourth quartering bears the cross potent used as a seal by our first governor, Edward Godfrey. This device was borne also by the kings of Jerusalem and was probably adopted by Godfrey in memory of the great Godfi-ey of Bouillon.
Above the shield is a scroll bearing the dates a.d. 1605, 1649, 1678, 1820. The first is the date of the famous voyage of Captain Weymouth. In 1649, the people elected Edward Godfrey as their governor, the first governor of Maine chosen by the people.
84 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
In 1678, the lieirs of Sir Ferdiiiaiido Gorges sold their right and title to this territory to the Colonj^ of Massachusetts, and in 1820 Maine became an independent state. The scroll with the pens supporting it signifies also that the work of the historian is not completed. In the circle surrounding the shield is the legend :
"MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Imtituted A.D. MDCGCXXIIP
Doctor William B. Lapham of Augusta, in behalf of the sons of the late Doctor James Cochrane of Mon- month, presented a fine collection of Indian imple- ments. A vote of thanks was passed for the same.
Mr. Janus G. Elder of Lewiston read the original report of a surveying party that made the ascent of Mt. Katahdin in 1820. The manuscript was found among the papers of the late General H. A. S. Dear- born. Mr. Elder was requested to prepare the same for publication.
General John Marshall Brown of Portland exhibited a photograph of the map of the world, by Sebastian Cabot, made in 1544. This map was discovered in 1843, and though printed, is the only copy known. It is now in the Imperial library at Paris. It shows that Cabot's first discovery of the American coast was made in 1494 instead of 1497, as has been supposed. Twenty- five photographic copies have been made and are all in this country. The map is the size of the original, about five feet by six, and General Brown proposes to leave it in the library of the Society for a time for study by historical students. Doctor Kohl gives a description of the map in the first volume of the documentary series issued by the Maine Historical Society.
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 85
Edward H. Elwell read a paper, prepared by Doctor Charles E. Banks, giving a sketch of the Bonython family who were early settlers of Saco. They were an ancient Cornwall family. The paper was very interestino; and a vote of thanks was returned to Doctor Banks.
James Phinney Baxter, Esq., read a paper on the seal of the Council for New England. An impres- sion of this seal in brown wax, formerly attached to the Old Colony patent procured by Allerton, is pre- served in the recorder's office at Plymouth, Massa- chusetts, but so marred that antiquarians have given up all hopes of deciphering it, and have generally adopted Mr. Charles Deane's conjecture that the arms printed on the reverse of the title page of Captain Smith's Advertisements for Unexperienced Planters, published in 1631, were probably those of the seal of the Council for New England. Mr. Baxter, however, has found on the patent granted to Robert Trelaw- ney and Moses Goodyear in 1631, some fragments of a seal which he has compared with the Plymouth im- pression, and has been able to establish their identity and to partially reconstruct what is undoubtedly the seal of the Council for New England. A ship w^as figured below a shield supported by an Indian on the left and a European on the right. The device on the shield and the motto are still indecipherable.
Edward P. Burnham, Esq., of Saco, read a paper on David Sewall of York, the first judge of the district court and one of the founders of the Historical Society.
SG MAINE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY.
A communication was received from the city gov- ernment, inviting the Society to take part in the cele- bration of the fourth of July and the location of a monument to George Cleeves, the first white settler of the peninsula now occupied by the city of Portland. Messrs. E. 11. Elwell and John M. Brown were appointed a committee to represent the Society.
Hon. Joseph Williamson of Belfast, read a paper on the Capital Trials in Maine before the Separation.
Votes of thanks were passed for the papers read, and copies requested for the archives. Adjourned until evening.
EVENING SESSION.
In the evening the library hall was well filled with members of the Society and their friends, called to- gether to testify their appreciation of the life and labors of the late Israel Washburn, jr., for many years a prominent member of the Society.
On taking the chair, the President, Hon. James W. Bradbur}^ of Augusta, said : —
We sadly miss, this evening, the presence of one whom we have long been accustomed to meet on occasions like the present. We miss the cheering words, the animated voice and wise counsel of him, who was always ready to aid in oiu- deliberations, and to add interest to our proceedings. By the death of Governor Wash- burn, our Society has suffered a great and an almost irrej)arable loss.
I saw him shortly before my departure for the South, and although his health had become impaired, he manifested his usual animation and interest in the events of the day, and in the affairs of our Society, and I hoped for his restoration to health at no dis- tant period. On my way toward the North, I was shocked to
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 87
learn of his lamented death. I did not know, however, of the contemplated action of our Society in respect to his memory until I reached this city last evening.
To do justice to the memory of so excellent a man as Governor Washburn, who possessed such untiring perseverance in the hon- orable pursuits of life, such aptitude for the successful perform- ance of the duties of every situation he attained, and such consci- entious fidelity in their discharge — whose character was so marked and decided, and whose career was so varied and honor- able, requires more than the hm-ried suggestions of the moment, and this can also be better done by his able and accomplished townsmen whom I see present, and with whom he had long been associated in friendly and intimate relations. With the brief testimony that our Society has lost an active and efficient mem- ber, the community a public-spirited, benevolent citizen, the state a valued and faithful public servant, and his family a kind and affectionate husband and father, I shall call upon others to do justice to his memory.
James P. Baxter, Esq., said : —
Mr. President, it is certainly with feelings too deep to brook set phrases of rhetoric, that I speak of our beloved associate to night. He was a man of such admirable qualities, that he en- deared himself to us all in an unusual degree. We all remember him as a wise counselor, a sturdy friend and genial companion ; but in my view, the most remarkable trait of character which he possessed, was his interest in the public weal, which, quickened by an unquenchable enthusiasm, never waned and never failed to enkindle in those about him a kindred interest. In many men who possess the public spirit, one ever detects a dissonance born of selfishness ; but with our friend there was no such sound ; no jar of self marred the clear ring of his heart, and the recognition of this by others gave a potency to his influence which no inge- nuity of argument nor brilliancy of oratory could give.
This complete abnegation of self impressed itself upon me at my last interview with liim. He met me in his usual breezy man- ner, with a hearty hand-grasp and " How goes everything ? " and,
88 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
after discussing the work of the Historical Society, said, "Well, one of these days we must have a house of our own," and then, a little more slowly, " How fine that will be for us when we go down town, to have a cozy place, where we can meet and talk over matters ; it Avill be fine ; it will be fine." There was a pathos in all this which appealed to me forcibly. He was looking down to the future and pLmning for others. He well knew that the con- summation he wished Avas afar off, and that he could not expect to enjoy it. By we he meant the Society — those living after him, and he enjoyed the prospect as a selfish man could not enjoy. My friends, I know that it has been well said that
Praisinji vvliat is lost Makes the reraembrauce dear,
yet I have no heart to add to the many eulogies which will be cast like wreaths of fragrant flowers upon the bier of our beloved associate. I will only say in the words of his favorite poet : —
Know then, O stranger to the fame Of this much-loved, mnch-honored name! (For none that knew liim need be told) A warmer heart Death ne'er made cold.
And now, Mr. President, allow rae to oifer the following reso- lutions of respect to the memory of our deceased associate : —
Eesolved, That the Maine Historical Society, grieving at the loss of its beloved associate, Israel Washbui-n, jr., desires to express its respect for the man who has honored it by his life and labors.
Resolved, That while death has removed him from our fellowship it has not removed him from our memories, and that as a Society, whose office it is to cherish the memory of the men of Maine who have honored the state b}'^ lives of usefulness to it, we will endeavor to j)erpetuate his memory.
Reftolved, That the Society tender, through its secretary, to the family of our honored brother, now deceased, a copy of these resolutions, with our heartfelt sympathy for their great loss.
Hon. George F. Talbot said : —
I have sometimes wondered if an experience of my own is repeated in the thoughts of other men, when for days after the
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 89
final departure from eartli of a cherished friend all the hours seem consecrated to him, as to some new saint in the worship and affection of the heart. His spirit, in our sleeping and waking, seems to hover around us, breathing last farewells and invoking benedictions. Surely the consideration ought to take from our apprehension some of the bitterness of death, tliat there will be a time — perhaps a very brief time — when in the lai ge or small circle of those who have known us, all our serious faults will be forgiven, our limited gifts and virtues will be generously exag- gerated, and our poor half-efforts to be or to do something useful or good will be looked upon with an affectionate admiration and overkind appreciation.
Ever since the, to me, sudden demise of our late esteemed and distinguished associate, Israel Washburn, jr., I have been passing again through this now sadly frequent experience. Among those slim hopes — sinking under our tread — which we put together, as it were, into a raft, bound together by our instincts and our desires, and upon them try to ferry across the dark, all-surround- ing ocean of death to the solid continents of an eternal life, I know of none more valid than this distinct consciousness at the same time in the minds of many friends of the presence of our dead friend, with whom we seem to be interchanging speechless confidences, with a frankness and affection which the formalities, the levities and the jealousies of our actual intercourse had made impossible.
O hearts that never cease to yearn !
O brimming tears that ne'er are dried! Tlie dead, though they depart, return
As tliougli they had not died.
In this interval, consecrated to the memory of a newly emanci- pated soul, I have found it almost impossible to connect him with the idea of death. Thinking of this impulsive, fresh-hearted man, like John Pierpont, lifting the coftin lid to look at the " fair, sunshiny head " of his dead boy, " I cannot make him dead." He took life with such a strong hand, he coerced other men and the adverse circumstance with such a vigorous will, that he seemed able to make his own terms with fate, and bid age and death
90 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
themselves succumb to his sti'ong purj^ose to live and labor. Nothing could overcome the cheerfulness of his hope. Ilis latest auguries of liealth uttered nothing but confidence of recovery; and the fatal and complicated maladies, to which his physical strength at last succumbed, never saddened his spirit or damped the ardor of his courage.
Who of us, who were honored by his friendship, can ever forget the cordiality of his greeting, the warmth of his apprecia- tion, the uprightness and downrightness of his assent and dissent, the invigoration as of sunshine and west winds which he brought into every enterprise, to which he gave his efficient support. His strength of \vill, his persistence of purpose, his contempt of all opposition and obstacle seemed to fit him for a leader of men in those early ages when self-made kings carved their fortunes with the sword, — qualities superfluous in the competitions of a com- plicated civilization, wherein so much is effected by intrigue, by diplomacy and by shrewd waiting upon opportunities.
His active and inventive spirit will be long missed in the maintenance and useful work of the Maine Historical Society, of which he was an enthusiastic and efficient member. The impulse which our late associate, John Alfred Poor — a man in some respects of a kindx-ed energy of character — for several years had given this Society in the study and publication of the early his- tory of our state. Governor Washburn quite kept up by the dili- gence of his researches, and the copiousness and value of his literary contributions.
He had the will and faculty to work himself, and he knew just what historical and biographical work ought to be done, and who inside or outside of the Historical Society could best do it ; so that he not only kept himself assiduously employed, but he stimulated others to kindred labors, suggesting themes and furnishing materials for investigation. Let us hope that his departure from our membership will not cripple the Society in the prosecution of its historical work, but that an ambition has been kindled in some younger mind by his example, to jjrosecute his uncompleted task.
In retiring from political life, as he did, crowned with the highest
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 91
honors his state could confer, Governor Washburn devoted his leisure to literary and historical pursuits. His "sdgorous, mainly self-educated mind, the large experience he had in public affairs, his intimate acquaintance with the leading statesmen of our own land and with political and literary celebrities in our own and other countries, gave him the very qualifications needed for the successful writing of history. lie had a mind capacious of facts and details, and he knew how to appraise and classify facts, and what of them constitute the substance of permanent history, and what — by far the greater volume — are to be thrown away as rubbish. Kindred to this art of the true historian, he had an accurate discrimination and could weigh and catalogue in their proper order the public characters who had made up the personnel of modern history, though perhaps his judgment was sometimes affected by the ardor of his sympathies or the strength of his convictions.
The paper in our published collection, which Governor Wash- burn prepared, upon the northeastern boundary question and its settlement, gathered from a careful study and an intimate knowl- edge, is a most valuable, if not a most honorable and satisfactory contribution to the diplomatic history of our country. His bio- graphical sketch of George Evans, completed after the infirmities of illness had weakened his physical but left unabated the strength of his mental powers, is a just and worthy tribute to one of the great orators, jurists and statesmen of our young state. Written in an iraj^ressive, and at times eloquent style, its early publication will be as fine a tribute to the genius of the biographer, as to the fame of the character it so gracefully por- trays. It is to be regretted that the ancestral longevity, from which we hoped a green and prolonged old age, did not hold out to enable our industrious and well-equipped member to develop, as he would have done, the history of the times in which he was himself a conspicuous actor, and to delineate the characters of popular leaders whose intimacy he l^ad enjoyed.
I have not attempted, nor is this the fitting place or occasion, to give any account of Mr. Washburn's public services, or of his character as a statesman. We see already, and posterity will
92 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
more distinctly see, that the great question of the middle of the nineteenth century in America was the slavery question ; and its summary and complete solution by the processes of a great war and a great pacification were the great events of the same epoch. Mr. Washburn in Congress, and afterward at the beginning of the civil war in the executive chair of this state, was in positions to do nnich to shape and direct public opinion, and to hold the people to the stern duties and terrible sacrifices which the great crisis demanded. In him, above most of his contemporaries and associates, the ethical and religious element was the dominant influence which fixed his opinions and determined his conduct. Not political expediency, not what is popular, what will carry the impending election, but what is duty, what is right, what is the command of God, were the questions he asked himself ; and when he found an answer, no sophistries, no excuses, no 2:)alliations could shake his resolution or break the force of his personal con- viction. It was a time when everything depended uj)on the strength of the moral principle in the hearts of the people. Will they bear the expense of a prolonged war? Will they peril their lives and sacrifice the children of their pride and affection only to do a just deed, to deliver from slavery a degraded and repulsive race ? Mr. Washburn, in the strength of his own relig- ious faith, believed that they would, and did not a little, by his fervor and steadfastness, to nerve them to the sacrifice. But I cannot here enter even upon the glorious and sublime history of which every American heart is proud. History, that never forgets what is heroic and noble, will remember and perpetuate the story of it, and among the brave and right-thinking men, whose courage and clear moral perceptions saved this great nation from an unworthy compromise with a false and dangerous form of civilization, that offered us peace and union with dishonor, will crown with honor and gratitude our own faithful and eflicient patriot and wai' governor.
Hon. Sidney Perliam said : —
In the death of Israel Washburn, jr., the Maine Historical Society has suffered a great loss, and, as individuals, we are called
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 93
to mourn the absence of one of our most distinguished and useful members. It is therefore fitting that, in this public manner, we place on record the tribute of our respect for his memory.
It was my good fortune to have some acquaintance with the father and mother of Mr. Washburn. They were eminently worthy to be the parents of a family so distinguished as theirs has been. The father was a gentleman of the old school, possessing good common sense, strict integrity and an unusual fund of gen- eral information. The mother represented the best type of the New England woman. She possessed energy, determination and courage that would not waver in the presence of any obstacle, however formidable. These qualities she transmitted to her sons ; and with the practical common sense and solid merits inherited from the father, we find, in part, at least, the secret of their remarkable success.
I recall, with pleasure, a few hours spent with Mr. and Mrs. Washburn, at the old family mansion in Livermore, when three of the sons were members of Congress. In answer to my inquiry as to whether she had any methods, unknown to other mothers, by which she had sent her sons out into the world with the possibil- ities of such remarkable success, Mrs. Washburn indulged in some exceedingly interesting reminiscences of their early struggles against what she called very limited means, to feed, clothe and educate their children, and her constant endeavor to impress upon their minds such moral and religious principles as she deemed essential to any success worth achieving.
Israel, whose life and character we commemorate tonight, was the eldest of the family, and his early opportunities for education were limited. But what he lacked in this respect was m'sre than made up by his intense love for learning, and the enthusiasm with which he improved every opportunity for mental development, so that he became one of the best educated men among us, and a consjDicuous example to all young men who are obliged to struggle against adverse circumstances.
As a lawyer, Mr. Washburn took high rank; as a member of Congress and as governor of the state in its most trying emergency,
94 MAESTE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
as an officer for many years in an important executive department of the national government, he stood in the front rank among his peers, having few, if any, superiors.
In tliis Society, in tlie management of the Maine General Hos- pital, in the business, educational, moral and religious institutions with which he Avas connected, he held a position no less conspic- uous. Through his speech and pen, the liberal contribution of his means and his earnest devotion to these interests, he won the hearts of all with whom he was associated, and his death has left many vacancies which will be difficult to fill.
He Avas a man of broad views. One of his eulogists has truly said, " His whole nature was run in a large mould." He was not content with a superficial examination of a subject, but cx2:)lored its length and breadth and depth. Plis convictions were deep and strong, and he followed them with a faith and enthusiasm that never faltered. To these qualities he added extensive reading and liberal culture. He had great tact and ability in marshaling facts and arguments in support of his vicAvs. His public addresses were characterized by intense enthusiasm and great power. He was a brilliant conversationalist, and was always the life of any party of friends he chanced to meet.
His faith in God as the loving Father, solicitous for the welfare of his children, and in the final triumph of good over evil, always unwavering, seemed to strengthen with his years; and no one could listen to his earnest Avords, in his public efforts or private conversation, as he expressed the deep conviction of his soul on these and kindred subjects, Avithout feeling himself raised to a higher plane of spiritual existence.
To enjoy the acquaintance and share the friendship of such a man has been the rare privilege of many, and Avill be remembered A\'ith pleasure.
To him there is no death in the common acceptation of that term. It is but the unfolding of a spirit, already far advanced, into the more congenial activities and greater glories of the higher life, while his example and achievements remain as an ever-living inspiration to those Avho are left behind.
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 95
Hon. Joseph Williamson said : —
It is not my j^urpose, after the eloquent remarks which have been made by my associates, to indulge in any eulogy upon Governor Washburn. It is simply my province to call the atten- tion of the Society to some memorials which he erected during his useful and honored life, and with this in view I will read to the Society a list of the published works of Governor Wash- burn : —
1849.
Charles Lamb. Universalist Quarterly Review, vol. VI, p. 90, Janu- ary, 1849.
Walter Savage Landor. Universalist Quarterly Review, vol. VI, p. 238, July, 1849.
1852.
Plan for Shortening the Transit between New York and London- Speech delivered in the House of Representatives, Washington, March 10, 1852.
Compromise as a National Party Test.. A speech delivered in the House of Representatives, Washington, May 24, 1852.
1854.
The Sandwich Islands. A speech delivered in the House of Repre- sentatives, Washington, January 4, 1854. 8vo. pp. 7.
Speech on the Bill to organize Territorial Governments in Nebraska and Kansas. Delivered in the House of Representatives, April 7, 1854. Washington, 1854. 8vo. pp. 16.
1855.
Speech on the President's Message, vetoing the French Spoliation Bill. Delivered in the House of Representatives, February 20, 1855. 8vo. pp. 8.
1856.
Kansas Contested Election. Speech delivered in the House of Repre- sentatives, Washington, March 14, 1856.
Politics of the Country. Speech delivered in the House of Representa- tives, Washington, June 21, 1856.
The Slavery Question. Speech delivered in the House of Representa- tives, Washington, December 10, 1856.
1858.
Modern Civilization. Universalist Quarterly Review. Vol. XIV, p. 5, January, isoS.
Kansas and the Lecompton Constitution. Speech delivered in the House of Representatives, Washington, January 7, 1858. Washington, 1858. 8vo. pp. 8.
96 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
1859. The Eepiibli(>an Party. Speech delivered in the House of Representa- tives, Washington, January 10, 1859.
1860. The Dred Scott Decision. Speech delivered in the House of Repre- sentatives, Washington, May 19, 18G0.
1801. Address to the Legislature of the State of Maine, January .3, 1861. Address to the Legislature and Executive Council of the State of Maine, February 22, 1S61. Address to the Legislature of the State of Maine, April 22, 1861.
1862. Address to the Legislature of the State of Maine, January 2, 1862.
1864.
Logic and End of the Rebellion. Universalist Quarterly Review, vol. XXI (vol. 1, new series), p. .5, January, 1864.
1868. Dr. Gamaliel Bailey. Universalist Quartei'ly Review, vol. XXV (vol. V, new series), p. 298, July, 1868.
1SG9. Power and Duty of Congress in respect to Suffrage. Universalist Quarterly Reviev,', vol. XXVI (vol VI, new series), p. 4?>, January, 1869. Published in separate form, Boston, 1869. 8vo. pp. 21.
1878. From the Xorthwest to the Sea. Remarks before the Board of Trade, MinneaiJolis, Minnesota, April 7, 1873. 8vo. pp. 11.
1874.
Address at the Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument, at Cherryfield, July 4, 1874. Portland, 1874. 8vo. pp. 43.
Notes, Historical, Descriptive and Personal, of Livermore, in Andros- coggin (formerly in Oxford) county, Maine. Portland, 1874. 8vo. pp. 169.
Address at the Centennial Celebration at Oldtown, Maine, 1874. Port- land, 1874. Svo. pp. 168.
1876.
The Proprietors of the Sudbury-Canada Grant, 1741. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. XXX, p. 192, April, 1876.
1877. Education — Secular and Compulsory; with some reference to recent English legislation and opinion. Universalist Quarterly Review, vol. XXXIV (vol. XIV, new series), p. 59, January, 1877.
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 97
1878.
Memoir of Ether Shepley, ll.d. Read before the Maine Historical Society at Portland, March 14, 1878, Published in collections, vol. YIII, p. 409, 1881.
1879.
The Northeastern Boundary. Eead before the Maine Historical Society at Portland, May 15, 1879. Published in collections, vol. VIII, p. 1, 1881.
The same. Reprinted from Collections of the Maine Historical So- ciety, Portland, 1881. 8vo. pp. 106.
UNPUBLISHED.
Address at Bangor, July 4, 1843. Address at Oldtown, July 4, 1858. Address at Portland, July 4, 1862. Address at Portland, July 4, 1865. Address on Peace, at Portland, 1874. Address on Laws of Success, at Orono, 1875. Address on Walter Savage Landor, 1877. Address on Robert Burns, 1877.
Rev. H. S, Burrao-e said : —
One remark in Mr. Talbot's excellent address recalls an even- ing which I spent with Governor Washburn about a year ago. I refer to the regret expressed by Mr. Talbot, that our late hon- ored associate did not live to sketch the scenes in which he was a conspicuous actor, and the chai-acter of popular leaders whose intimacy he had enjoyed. As an illustration of this remark may I say that in the course of our conversation, during the evening to which I have referred, Governor Washburn gave me one of these sketches.
Let me state a few facts : In September, 1862, the governors of all the New England states had a conference in Providence, R. I. Ostensibly they were there to be j^resent at the Com- mencement of Brown University, which occurred that year, Sejjtember 3. I remember well — having entered the service in a Massachusetts regiment — that my regiment, the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts Volunteers, left the state without receiving, as was the custom, the benediction of its Governor. We left Worcester Sejitember 2, in the afternoon, went by cars to Boston, and em-
VoL. XL 8
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barking on the steamer Merrimac, where we found the Twentieth Maine, we sailed that night for Wasliington. We lost Governor Andrew's parting words on account of this conference at Provi- dence. When I came, at the close of the rebellion, to prepare the " History of Brown University in the Civil War," it occurred to me that it would be fitting to have an opening chapter on the relation of the University to the rebellion. In preparing that chapter, I referred to this conference of the Governors of New England in connection vsdth the Commencement in 1862.
In this way this conference became fixed in my mind, and at the interview with Governor Washburn, to which I have called attention, I asked him in reference to it. You can well imagine how vividly and graphically he at once sketched the scene. It was at the suggestion of President Lincoln, he said, that the governors met in Providence, and they selected that occasion in order that the conference might not excite i^ublic attention. Then he gave a report of the conference. As I listened to Mr. Talbot's words this evening, and recalled that report, I wished that we had on paper, for our collections, what Governor Wash- burn so graphically sketched for me in that memorable conversa- tion. It would be an interesting contribution to the already voluminous history of the civil war.
It was my fortune to go to Governor Washburn's house, and to have a half-hour's conversation with him on the morning of the day before he left for Philadelphia. I did not know when I called that it was his purpose to take this journey ; but he met me in the same cordial, cheery manner as ever, and what was characteristic of him, not a word dropped from his lips that the occasion of this joui"ney was his own state of health ; but he gave me to understand that other considerations called him to Philadelphia, so that I went out from his presence little thinking that it was for the last time. Tidings soon came of his weakened condition, and then the sudden announcement that he had finished his course and entered into rest. Brethren of the Historical Society, we do well to honor his memory here to-niglit, and we shall be happy if, in this review of his useful life and eminent services, we can catch somewhat of his noble, generous spirit.
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 99
Mr. Edward H. El well said : —
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I had no expectation of speaking here to-night. Others are appointed to that duty, who are better able to j^erform it than myself. I ha\'e made no prep- aration to speak, but, sir, no preparation is necessar}'- for one who knew him to pay a tribute of resi^ect, and love and admiration to the character of Israel Washburn, jr. I cannot speak of a long acquaintance with him as many gentlemen here can, but I haA'e watched his course from an early period in his life. I have watched his course through Congress, and admired the manner in which he stood up for the great principles he advocated. I remember particularly on one occasion, in one of those great crises, when all eyes were turned to the action of Congress, and especially to the action of our own delegation, that when they came home to us at the close of their labors, the delegation came in a body to this city. A meeting of the citizens was held to hear some account of their doings, and we all flocked to Lancas- ter Hall to listen to them. The whole delegation was there, but he was the leader among them, and his speech was the great and soul-stirring speech of that occasion.
I need not refer to his services as chief magistrate of this state ; these are known to all. My acquaintance with Governor Washburn extends over a period of about ten years. During the last five years of his life I was accustomed to meet him socially, and occasionally upon some matters of business, and I early learned to note certain points of character which were very strongly marked in him, and one was the intense earnestness and vitality which gave him very great force. Whenever he had occasion to speak for the right or to denounce a wrong, he did it with a power and vehemence and aggressiveness which carried everything before him. That was a strong point in his charac- ter, and yet there was no bitterness in him.
Another salient trait of his character was his geniality, his lieartiness, his whole souledness, his readiness to meet every man. It did not require a long acquaintance to become acqiiainted with him. He met every man more than half-way, greeting him with his
100 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
"whole soul, and every man felt acquainted with him at once, and always. He was a man to love and to cling to in every emer- gency.
Another indication of unusual mental power was the grasp of his mind, the rapidity of decisions, and his readiness for action. I remember on one occasion of hearing him, after he had paid a visit to the great Northwest, and spent a little time there, becom- ing acquainted with its resources in the region of the Red river and the great city of Winnipeg, sit down and speak for an hour "without a note or a scratch, giving details of history, statistics of production and industry, and with minute details a complete description of that great country, its progress, its opportunity, and also how in the future time it was to be developed. I have always admired his enthusiasm for certain literary celebrities, such as Walter Scott, Walter Savage Landor, and Charles Lamb. Of all these characters in literature he was always ready to speak "with great enthusiasm and intelligent appreciation.
I shall never forget my last interview with him. He was stricken on Thanksgiving day. I saw him on that day a few minutes before he was attacked by the disease from which he never recovered. He was ill all the winter. There were certain matters which he had in charge in the interest of this Society, concerning which it was necessary that there should be com- munication with liim, and I called upon him for that purpose, and although his malady had begun to impair his physical powers, he met me with the old breeziness and vitality, which seemed almost to lift him out of it, and with a sanguine, cheerful hope- fulness which would not believe that anything had befallen him which his strong will could not overcome. This went on for one or two interviews, but at the last interview, just before he left for Philadelphia, I said to him : — " Well, (rovernor, how goes it?" He rei)lied : — "It goes slowly, and I am getting tired of it." There was no loss of hopefulness and geniality, and he went on talking of the future and of the work he could not do now, but which he would do when he returned from Philadelphia. But a shadow had fallen upon him ; the brightness had gone. The great shadow had overspread his countenance ; the hand of
PEOCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 101
death was upon him ; it has taken him away from us, to our irreparable loss.
The following communication from Hon. Albert "VV. Paine of Bangor, was received and read by the Sec- retary : —
Bangor, May 21, 1883. To the Maine Historical Society : —
I notice in the papers that at the coming meeting of the Society it is proposed that the evening be devoted to tributes to the mem- ory of the late Hon. Israel Washburn. As an early and life-long intimate friend and acquaintance of the deceased, I desire to add my tribute to those of others on that occasion.
He was of my age, a fellow-student with me in the law, and came within a few weeks of myself to join the Penobscot Bar, at which we both practiced until he went to Portland. The intimacy, thus commenced, continued till death has parted us, so that I feel that I can speak with assurance of his character and history.
As a lawyer,. our deceased brother had all the qualities fitted to make him eminent in his profession. Of unexceptionable habits, industrious and attentive to business, he was peculiarly fitted for his work, in whatever line he happened to select. Of sound judg- ment and discriminating mind, he was well equipped for the pro- fession he early chose for his life's support, as well as for his literary work. Orderly and exact in his method and system of activity, he added largely to his other qualifications for the same position. He was beside a diligent student, a great reader, and had a reten- tive memory, which qualified him to undertake successfully his- torical and literary work. Endowed with hereditary and acquired virtues, he soon took a high stand in his chosen profession, and would undoubtedly have arisen to great eminence in it had not his attention been diverted by the pubUc duties to which he was early called.
When chosen to the ofiice of Representative to Congress, he at once exhibited all those traits of character of which I have already
102 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
spoken. His knowledge of the law, then already acquired, gave him at the beginning, an advanced position in the House, and helped him on largely to the post to which he soon attained, as a valuable member and recognized power in its deliberations. At the same time he was not forgetful or unmindful of his constitu- ency at home. Any of their number whom he happened to meet at the capitol, was sure of his attentions there, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to serve their wishes and administer to their curiosity and desire for information. Business committed to his care was most sure of his attention, and every member of his constituency felt that matters in his hands were safe. At the same time he was a Representative, not only of his own district and state, but also of the Union, and all these equally received his attention and able support. The several Congresses in which he served covered the perilous years of the nation's existence, previous to the war, and always found him firm and able in tlie the defence and support of those great priiicii)les which lie at the foundation of our government. Few more able and ready sup- porters of the cause of true freedom were found in those years of danger on the floor of the House. But yet, modest and unassum- ing as he was, he made little effort to signalize himself, and he consequently attracted little attention beyond what his meritori- ous acts secured.
So signally were the qualities, noAV mentioned, recognized by the people, as the dangers began to thicken about the general government and threaten its existence, the convention called to nominate a governor, at Norombega Hall, in Bangor, in 1860, without apparently any previous concert, at once concurred in unanimously selecting him as their candidate. The nomination was who'ly unsought by him and entirely unexjDected, as he then held a seat in the House, which was not , to be vacated until the fourth of March then next, at the end of President Buchanan's ad- ministration. I can well recollect his expressions of feeling on the occasion, as made privately to me at my office on the day of the nomination. He was, as it were, overwhelmed with the thought, and, as he expressed it to me, he could hardly conceive
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 103
of the idea of his being governor. He had not then had time, so to speak, to "accept the situation" in which the nomination pLaced him, and robe himself with the armor of a candidate, know- ing, as he did, that a nomination by his party, in those days, was equivalent to an election. His ti'iumphant election, by a majority of almost twenty thousand votes, only showed his great popularity and the confidence the people had in his patriotism and his ability.
It is unnecessary for me to speak of the conduct of his adminis- tration, and how satisfactorily and promptly he met the exigen- cies which continually presented themselves, during the course of the war and while he occupied the executive chair. A single inci- dent, coming under my own personal observation at the very begin- ning of the war, may not be inappropriate, as showing how quickly and how energetically he acted when occasion offered or demanded. It is already a matter of history that, immediately after the call for seventy thousand troops on the 15th of April, 1861, as soon as the news reached Bangor, two of our citizens at once drew up a paper for volunteers, and that within the week a company of such had been gathered and organized ready for duty. As yet, however, no provision had been made for their accommodation or " encamp- ment." The City Council was called together to consult as to the best course to be pursued and the whole subject was submitted to a committee. On consultation, it was decided to place the matter before the State Executive. A telegraphic dispatch was accordingly at once sent to the Governor, briefly detailing the facts and ask- ing for instructions. As quickly as the electric current could con- vey the message to the executive rooms at the state capitol and bring back a reply, thei-e came back the short, sharp order : — " Rendezvous the troops and the state will pay." Barracks were at once secured and the company went "into camp." As being probably the first ofiicial act of the Governor in his military ca- pacity in the war, the incident is regarded worthy of being pre- served, as showing his promptness and efticiency under any im- pending necessity. In all his ofiicial stations he was seldom, if ever, accused of mistake, never of a want of fideUty or prompt- ness.
104 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Mr. Washliurn "was a student of no ordinary rank. As such, however, I always felt that he labored under a peculiar difficulty, one which is ever hard to overcome, the want of a good college education. For this scholastic discipline there is hardly any sub- stitute, and this, I have always thought, Bro. Washburn keenly felt. By diligent study in his manhood he in a great measure overcame the defect of his early education, but never his regret for Avhat he had missed. Few, however, accomplish so much in purely intellectual work as he did, but it Avas the result of study and unremitting toil. His perseverance and native powers of thought won for him the way to distinction, as a scholar of no ordinary rank and merit.
It was a matter of especial joy with me, that in the last rites Avhich man could jiay to him on earth, the interment of his re- mains, I was able to be present as a Avitness to the ceremony. Seldom, — indeed never, — have I before been privileged to mt- ness so inspiring a scene. The day was lovely, almost beyond comparison ; a company was in attendance that could but joy his soul if he could have seen it. The place was the highest point, nearest Heaven in significance, on top of Mount Hope, and there his grave had been i^repared and screened by a profusion of evergreens and flowers. At the foot of the grave, before his familiar and intelligent countenance, exposed in the open casket, the funeral exercises were performed by the joint service of two clergymen, usually representing opj)Osing and antagonizing sects, Orthodox and Universalist, but here harmonizing in edifying sentiments and tender sympathies.
For one in death to be able to effect such perfect unanimity of feeling and good- will as was here exhibited by preachers and 2ieoi)le in attendance, is something to be thankful for, and from which only good can result. As the officiating clergyroan repeated with emphasis the words, " Oh, Grave ! Avhere is thy victory — oh. Death! where is thy sting?" the impressive answer seemed spontaneously to come to every mind, silencing and sub- duing every grief and doubt.
Albert W. Paine.
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 105
The following communication was received from Mr. W. H. Smith of Portland : —
I heartily concur in all that has been so well said about this eminent citizen. I wish to add my testimony as a small tribute from one who knew him well and admired his noble character.
He was honest and earnest ; his earnestness was based upon his sincerity.
The following extract from a letter written March 16, 1858, will give the reader a correct idea of this man : —
In my opinion, the Lecompton Bill ought to be killed. It is right that it should be, and, therefore, in my philosophy it is expedient. As it ought to be killed, there is no weapon, cimeter or handspike that we should not use.
That was the man. He first tried the act by the square of truth and justice ; and because it did not stand the test, he used all honorable means to defeat it. His enthusiasm was contagious. All who came in contact with him felt moved by it, for they knew he believed that he was right and he had the courage of his convictions.
With him " nothing was settled that was wrong." Like Owen Love joy, he loved to look from the platform right into the eyes of the people, because he loved and believed in them. He loved our nation, state and city. Reared amid rural scenes, he never forgot the lessons learned by the arm-chair of his mother, the precepts of his honored father, or what he gathered in the coun- try schoolhouse. Training like this has produced men that have made the name of our state o-lorious. /
One of them, in these lines, has fully expressed the views of our lamented friend : —
Had I this tough old world to rule,
My cannon, sword and mallet Should be the dear old district school,
God's Bible and the ballot.
He loved nature. Raised among the hills of "Old Oxford" her "sweeping vales and foaming floods" were dear to him.
106 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The daisies, violets and roses, the rocks, rills and groves, caused him to have an intense love of freedom and its handmaid, poetry. Hence he delighted in Burns, who was the poet of nature and the people. IIoAv earnestly he would chat with one who loved this wonderful genius. " The Cotter's Saturday Night," " The Jolly Beggars," " Twa Dogs," " Tam O'Shanter," « Scots, Wha Hae Wi' Wallace Bled," "Holy Willie's Prayer," "Is There for Honest Poverty," and " To Mary in Heaven," stirred his heart in the same way the victories won by our boys in blue did during the war. The " Big ha' Bible ance his Father's Pride," was rev- erently adored by him. In it was revealed to him a God of love and pity. " To him mercy and truth had met together ; righteous- ness and peace had kissed each other." He abhorred infidelity, whether disguised in the robes of sanctity or the coarser garb of blasphemy.
His views upon religion are expressed by Burns in the follow- ing lines : —
The great Ci'eator to revere,
Must sure become the creature, But still the preaching cant forbear,
And even the rigid feature. Yet ne'er with wits profane to range
Be complaisance extended, An atheist's laugh 's a poor exchange
For Deity offended.
He took an interest in all the movements for good, and every public improvement found in him a warm defender. Everything that was good was loved by him. He believed the newspaper to be a great educator, and stored his mind from its columns.
Could your Society come into possession of his scraj) books, you would find rare treasui-es that he collected daily. Such a man must be missed. We never fully estimated his ability and force of character.
The reaper came suddenly to him. He laid aside the work that his active brain and busy hands had found to do, and left us in the days of spring, when the green carpet of earth was spread and the flowers were opening their mouths in praise of their
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1883. 107
Divine author. To him the flora of paradise was revealed in all of its glorious beauty, and he became re-united with those he loved and mourned on earth. That his sphere of usefulness has been enlarged by the change is to me a precious belief. We mourn his loss, but his influence will remain, for among all her sons Maine had none worthier.
I cannot close my tribute to this man of " worth" without giving expiession to my feelings by using these words from a favorite poem that he loved : —
Mourn, little harebells o'er the lea, Ye stately foxgloves fair to see, Te woodbines hanging bonnilie
In scented bowers, Ye roses on your thorny tree,
The first of flowers. Movirn, Spring, thou darling of the year, Ilk cowslip cup shall kej) a tear. Thou Simmer, while each corny spear
Shoots up its head. Thy gay, green flowery tresses shear
For him that's dead.
LETTERS OF JOSEPH WHEATON. 109
LETTERS OF JOSEPH WHEATON.
Hon. George Walker whose wife is a daughter of Jeremiah O'Brien, for six years a member of Congress from Maine, and a grand-daughter of Gideon O'Brien, one of the heroes of the Margaretta capture, has pre- sented to the Maine Historical Society two letters of Joseph Wheaton, who lived for many years in Wash- ington, D. C, where he held a government office, giving his account of the Machias sea fight in which he par- ticipated.
The first is addressed to Gideon O'Brien, written in 1818, and is as follows: —
Washington City, April 23, 1818.
With respect to the affair of taking the Margaretta schooner, so far as my recollection serves, was thus, and I beg you to cor- rect, add to, strike out, as your recollection may serve you, for I can only state from memory, viz : —
Before the battle of Concord, April 19, 1775, the Margaretta schooner, Captain Moore, sailed from Boston and came to Machias, to convoy two sloops owned by Ichabod Jones ^vith lumber for Boston, and for the use of the British Government. While those vessels were loading, there came to Machias a vessel and brought the news of the battle of Concord, and communicated it to the people on a Saturday evening ; the next morning (Sunday) it was proposed to take the officers, when at public worship and thereby obtain the vessel in retaliation for Concord and Lexington. In at- tempting this, the officers. Captain Moore and others, escaped, and got on board the schooner and fell down to Scott's wharf, when they were fired upon by a party who had come there, headed by Mr. Foster from the East river. But as it fell dark, the Marga- retta fell down the river near where my family then Uved ; on
110 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Monday morning the people got together at Scott's, the schooner in view. Your brother Dennis and myself were standing on the wharf by ourselves, Avhen I said to him, Dennis, let us go and take that schooner. How will you do it, said Dennis ; I said we can take Job Harris' sloop, get the people on board her, the sloop will outsail the Mai-garetta, we can board her, and take her; with all my heart, said Dennis. We then call to our aid two youths, and renewed the proposition, to which they agreed. We four immedi- ately stepped into a boat, and went on board of the .Job Harris sloop, and demanded him to take the sloop to Scott's wharf, which with some little opposition was effected. So soon as we stepped on shore and gained the bank before Scott's house, we four took off our hats and gave three cheers, when your brother Jeremiah stepped forward, yourself and brother John, and called upon the people to undertake the enterprise, to which all consented, who witli one impulse collected the arms, three rounds of loose powder and ball, a number of axes, several hayforks, took on board one barrel of water, a small bag of bread, and a few pieces of pork, and made ready to pursue the Mai'garetta. While the people were thus employed the captain of the Margaretta, ob- serving the movements of our people, going to and from the sloop, by his spyglass, got his schooner under way and proceeded down the river, and on passing the high point of land, some per- * son fired at the schooner, which occasioned her to fire, and by which she carried away her boom, and wlien she had reached Holmes' bay met with a sloop commanded by Robert Avery, from her the captain took the boom, and as soon as it was rigged our sloop came in sight of the Margaretta, when she made sail and stood to sea for Boston with Captain Avery on board and his boat in tow. Our crew in chase chose with one voice Jeremiah O'Brien commander, who arranged our men in ranks across the deck, from the windlass aft, and thus formed and posted, stood ready for action ; in a short time the Margaretta began to cut away her boats, and finding we gained upon her, they cut away all or three boats and commenced a heavy fire in quick succession. A man named INIcNeal took our wall piece, the only one we had, while resting it on the bitts of the windlass to take aim, received
LETTERS OF JOSEPH WHEATON. Ill
a swivel ball in his forehead and fell. A man named Knight, took up the wall piece as it fell from the hand of McNeal, and fired it, and wounded the man at the helm of the Margaretta, at which time she broached to, while our gallant little helmsman still was steering our sloop for the broadside of the schooner, and at which moment our men made a fair fire of musketry on the Margaretta, and as we made- the second fire, our bowsprits took the shrouds of the schooner running through her mainsail, when Captain Moore put a hand grenade among us. But the moment our sloop's bow struck the schooner's side, I believe you led the boarders, for I am sure I was near you, the captain, Moore, was shot down with two balls in his breast, the second officer slightly wounded, or much frightened, Robert Avery killed. When all was quiet and order restored, I ran up the shrouds and cut the pennant halyards from the crosstrees and brought them down. Your brother Jeremiah took down the ensign. The boats were regained which had been cut away from the Margaretta, the rig- ging overhauled and put in order, when a southerly breeze sprang up, and we returned to Scott's wharf about sunset. As soon as the Margaretta was got up to Machias, a hospital "provided for the wounded, the dead deposited. Captain O'Brien with the advice of the j^eople, took possession of Ichabod Jones' larger sloop, named her the Liberty, mounted the canons and swivels on her, and took the Diligence and Tapnagouche with which two vessels sailed to St. John and took the garrison and such mer- chants, English vessels that were in that port.
Any circumstances corresponding with those affairs I shall most thankfully receive etc.
I am very dear sir, your obedient servant,
Joseph Wheaton. Gideon O'Brien, Esq.
The second is a letter from the same Mr. Wheaton, in 1823, to John O'Brien then living in Brunswick, Maine, another of the fio;htin<i: brothers.
The post-office in Brunswick having become vacant, an application was made to the Postmaster General, to
112 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
confer the appointment of local postmaster upon Cap- tain John O'Brien, and his services in the Margaretta affair were urged as entitling him to some public rec- ognition. Mr. Wheaton had presented the Captain's papers to ihe committee on the post-office, and reports as follows : —
I represented to him (Mr. Harris of the House of Representa- tives) your ai-dent zeal for tlie country in your youth, your manly conduct in the affair you touched upon, relating to the Marga- retta schooner, and called to his recollection that in that action we become pirates, traitors and rebels, according to the laws of England at that time ; that our success (established) the neces- sity of manly resistance everywhere or the consequence would have been more distressing than death — it would have been i;niver- sal slavery to all the people ; that Captain Moore was the first naval officer that fell in the revolution ; that your services had been uniform and of the highest manly character, and that you were now advanced in years and it would be most grateful to your feelings to receive some token that you were not refused a small favor.
REVIEW OF LITEEATURE IN MAINE. 113
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE IN MAINE.
Head before the Maine Historical Society/, May 22, 1884. BY JOSEPH WILLIAMSON-
In the year 1700, Samuel Moody, a graduate of Harvard College and a man eminent for learning, piety and benevolence, was ordained as minister at York, which since the charter to Gorges had been the principal town in the province. No worldly influences could have attracted him to the position. Maine was just recovering from a protracted Indian war that had reduced her population to less than six thousand, and had obliterated a majority of her settlements. York had not escaped the general devastation. Only eight years before it had been surprised by a party of French and Indians, which, coming from Canada on snow-shoes, in the dead of winter, burned most of the houses, killed seventy-five of the inhabitants, and carried as many more into captivity. The Rev. Shubael Dummer, who preceded Mr. Moody, was shot dead near his own door, and his wife taken prisoner. The whole country was impover- ished and without resources. There were no mills, no inclosures, no roads ; but, on the contrary, dilapi- dated habitations, wide-wasted fields, and melancholy ruins. Under such discouraging circumstances the young minister entered upon a service which con-
VoL. II. 9
114 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
tinued for nearly half a century, and which termi- nated only with his death. Not only is he remembered in connection with obstacles overcome, with dangers nobly braved, and with sufferings borne unshrinkingly in the cause of rehgion ; but as the pioneer of litera- ture in Maine, the author of the earliest publications written within our limits.
As would be naturally inferred from the spirit of the age in which Mr. Moody lived, as well- as from his vocation, these publications were of a religious char- acter. They were, in fact, sermons. At this lapse of time few copies of them exist.
The first was delivered during the second year of his ministry, and is entitled " The Vain Youth Sum- moned to Appear at Christ's Bar. A Lecture-Sermon, June 26, 1701, at York, in Main." It contains sixty- four duodecimo pages. This was followed in 1710 by a discourse upon " The Doleful State of the Damned, especially of such as go to Hell from under the Gos- pel," and in 1714, by "Judas the Traitor hung up in Chains, to Give Warning to Professors, That they beware of Worldlymindedness, and Hypocricy ; a Dis- course concluding with a Dialogue ; Preach'd at York, in New England." The latter comprises ninety-six pages. All were printed at Boston, where from 1674 printing-offices had been maintained ; the first one in the country having commenced at Cambridge thirty- five years before. Printers were held under strict surveillance until 1719, and not permitted to give anything to the public unless approved by the gov- ernment.
EEVIEW OF LITERATURE IN MAINE. 115
Mr. Moody's name also appears as the author of an "Election Sermon," delivered in 1721; of a " Summary Account of the Life and Death of Joseph Quasson, Executed for Murder at York, June 29, 1726 ; " of " The Confession, Declaration, Dying Warning and Advice of Patience Sampson," who was executed in 1737, and of "An Attempt to point out the fatal and pernicious consequences of Joseph Bel- lamy's Doctrines respecting Mond Evil," printed in 1759. The Prince Collection contains an anonym.ous pamphlet of eight pages, printed in 1737, entitled "A Faithful Narrative of God's Gracious Dealino-g
o
witli a Person lately recovered from the Errors of Arminius." This, a manuscript note by Mr. Prince says, was " Sent from the Rev. Mr. Moody of York." It was probably written by him.
These quaint pamphlets are devoid of interest, and except as curiosities possess no value. The ability and expense wasted upon them cannot but be regretted. In their stead, what a valuable contribution to history might have been given; what a graphic picture might the learned author have drawn of manners, customs and events ; of the characteristics of his little flock ; of that diminishing race then contending with the whites for supremacy, and of the hardships and cruelties experienced by the latter in the desperate struggle. How many materials for song and legend, for poetry and romance might he have rescued !
Beside the publications of Mr. Moody, little is to be found relating to Maine, which was printed up to the close of the Revolution. Some pamphlets concerning
116 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
the conflicting claims of the Pl3''moiith and Pejepscot Companies, public documents giving an account of conferences with the Eastern Indians, General Waldo's Defense of Leverett's title to the Muscongus Patent, Doctor Calf's "Siege of Penobscot," two religious works by Rev. Dr. Hemmenway, and twenty-seven sermons, comprise about the whole of our local litera- ture during that period.
Upon the return of peace the district entered upon an era of great prosperity. During the next seven years her population nearly doubled, and commercial business built thriving towns along the line of the whole coast. A dismemberment from Massachusetts was agitated. In the interest of the movement, on the first of January, 1785, the Falmouth Gazette, being the first newspaper in Maine, was issued. The centennial observance of the establishment of print- ing in our State should therefore take place next January. In 1788, a college was demanded, and the Legislature made an appropriation for the purpose. Some time, however, elapsed before the project Avas effected. In 1790, the district contained forty-six ministers and fifteen lawyers.
Next to the Gazette, the earliest issue from any press in Maine is believed to have been an almanac, w^hich Daniel George of Falmouth caused to be printed in 1785.
In 1789, General Benjamin Lincoln of Massa- chusetts, who was an extensive landowner, published a small quarto pamphlet entitled " Observations on the Climate, Soil and Value of the Eastern Town-
REVIEW OF LITERATURE IN MAINE. 117
ships in Maine." Following it, in order of time, came **The New England Farmer, or Georgical Dictionary," an octavo volume of three hundred and thirty-two pages, from the pen of the Rev. Samuel Deane of Portland, in 1790. An anonymous tract of great value appeared in 1793 called "A Description of the Situation, Soil, Climate and Productions of Certain Lands in Maine." It was written, or caused to be written, by Hon. William Bingham, the owner of the *' Bingham Purchase." A theological treatise, by Rev. Dr. Hemmenway of Wells, bearing the prolix title of "Remarks on Rev. Mr. Emmon's Dissertation on the Scriptural Qualifications for Admission and Access to the Christian Sacraments; and on Strictures on a Discourse concerning the Church," was given to the public in 1794. The most important work with ref- erence to Maine, which appeared before the close of the century, was Judge Sullivan's History, containing four hundred and twenty-one pages, and a new map. Various pamphlets devoted to separation were issued in 1797, among them "The Seventeenth Jewel of the United States of America, shining in its Meridian Splendor, in the Latitude and Longitude of the In- tended State of Maine." All these were printed out of the district.
Before the present century commenced, printing presses had found their way to Hallowell, Augusta, Fryeburg, Wiscasset and Castine, from which sermons, addresses and other pamphlets were occasionally issued. The earliest bound book printed and pub- lished in Maine before 1800, as nearly as can be
118 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ascertained, was a thin duodecimo volume entitled "l^emale Friendships" from the Hallowell press in 1797. The next v/as probably a reprint of " Aken- side's Pleasures of the Imagination " at Portland, in 1805. The first musical wcrk was " The Harmony of Music, by S. Belcher of Farmington," published in 1797. The first trial was that of Jeremiah Hill, before the church at Biddeford, in 1792, for heresy. An address upon Washington, at Machias, in 1794, by Joliii Cooper, is supposed to have been the earliest publication of the kind within our limits; it was printed, however, in Boston.
William Symmes, at Portland, in 1796, delivered the first Masonic address in Maine which was pub- lished. The earliest printed Fourth of July oration was by the Rev. Dr. Deane at Portland, in 1793. Other Fourth of July orations before 1800, which appeared in print, were those of Rev. Elijah Kellogg at Portland, in 1795; of Daniel Davis at Portland, and of Isaac Parker at Castine, in 1796 ; of Samuel S. Wilde at Thomaston, and of William Symmes at Portr land, in 1797; of Dr. Samuel Emerson at Kennebunk, Thomas S. Sparhawk at Buckstown, Thurston Whit- ing at Hallowell, and of Rev. Caleb P. Fessenden at Conway, N. H., in 1798; and of Silas Lee at Wiscas- set. Dr. Jacob Fisher at Kennebunk, Samuel S. Wilde at Pownalboro, and Amos Stoddard at Portland, in 1799. A Masonic address delivered by the latter the same year, appeared in type, as also the commemora- tion sermon at Fryeburg, by Rev. Thomas Symmes. " The Town Officer," by Samuel Freeman of Portland,
REVIEW OF LITERATURE IN MAINE. 119
and the elaborate speech made in the Legislature by John Gardiner of Pownalboro, upon repealing laws against theaters, were published in 1792, but printed away.
With the addition of thirty-seven sermons and religious tracts, the foregoing list comprises about all that was published in Maine, or written by Maine men, up to 1800. It includes nothing in art, science, or education. There is no work of fiction or of the imagination. The only attempt at poetry, during the period, was by Rev. Dr. Deane, whose "Pitchw^ood Hill," of one hundred and forty lines, first appeared in the Cumberland Gazette, in 1795, but did not reach a more permanent form until several years later. All the rest is either practical, political or theological.
In response to a recommendation by Congress, eulogies upon Washington were pronounced through- out the country on the anniversary of his birthday, in 1800. Those by Rev. Alden Bradford at Wiscasset, Rev. Rosswell Messenger at York, Dr. Ammi R. Mitchell at North Yarmouth, Rev. Silas Moody at Arundel, Isaac Parker at Portland, Rev. Jonathan Huse at Warren, William Wetmore at Castine, Rev. Benjamin Whitwell at Augusta, and a poem by Rev. Jonathan Ellis at Topsham, were printed.
Maine rapidly increased in population during the decade of years which succeeded 1800. Of course the diffusion of intelligence by means of the jJi'ess was proportionately great. But the printing of books was very limited. Publishers sent forth works of a high character, but not those of native writers, for at
120 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
that time American literature had no claims to recog- nition. In politics and divinity we had indeed acquired some distinction ; but in history, biography and belles- lettres there was nothing upon which to base a national reputation. Trumbull's " McFingal," Dr. Dwight's " Conquest of Canaan," and the ponderous " Colum- biad " constituted our principal stock of poetry ; works which now can scarcely be found save in the dusty alcove of some large library. In prose works of the imagination we were still more deficient. Beside Irving's "Sketch-Book," which was not fully published in England the same year that the sarcastic Edinburgh reviewer had disposed of our literature in a single sentence, we had given nothing to the world worth reading. Our literature was hardly born before 1820. We were obliged to content ourselves with foreign authors; and volumes of Akenside, Blair, Blackstone, Dr. Brown, Chitty, Pope, Rogers and Thomson, bear- ino- the imprint of Portland or Hallowell, may still be met with. Mr. Everett remarks that at this period " Books we got by importation, even the classics of our language were not republished on this side of the Atlantic." Toward contemporary English literature there was the same indifference. Boswell's "Johnson," of which Lord Macaulay says that " it is read beyond the Mississippi and under the Southern cross, and is likely to be read as long as the English exists, either as a living or a dead language " — the most deUghtful of books by the most despicable of writers — a work which would be republished at the present day in this country before the sheets were dry from the English
REVIEW OF LITERATURE IN MAINE. 121
press, appeared in England in 1791, and was not reproduced in America till 1809. As late as 1815, George Ticknor presented Byron, as an illustration of American progress, with a copy of his poems in two very shabby volumes, printed at Philadelphia and bound in boards. In 1810, the library at Bowdoin College hardly numbered a thousand volumes, while the only private collections of books of any magni- tude in the district were those made by Dr. Benjamin Vaughan and General Knox.
Between 1810 and 1820 the most important books originating or published in Maine were Professor Cleave- land's "Treatise on Mineralogy," Moses Greenleaf's " Statistical View of Maine," "A History of Acadia," by Joseph Whipple, portions of which first appeared in the Bangor Register, and the Rev. Daniel Merrill's " Letters to Baptists." In 1816 was published the first regular work in verse. It was a poem of more than two thousand lines, in heroic measure, by Enoch Lincoln, afterward governor of the state. The title is " The Village," being descriptive of Fryeburg, the village where he resided.
When the separation from Massachusetts took place it was found that we numbered nearly three hundred thousand inhabitants, two-thirds of whom had been acquired since 1790. With this unprecedented increase of population, came also an increase of agricultural, manufacturing and commercial wealth. All the insti- tutions of education, religion, philanthropy and general culture rapidly multiplied. New vitality was infused into literary pursuits. The number of students in our
122 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
seminaries of learning in 1820 was double what it was ten years before. There was a demand for libraries, for teachers, for schools. Comparatively but few books were published between 1820 and 1830, for as has been said, our literature was just beginning to crys- tallize.
The appearance of our first volume of Collections, in 1831, prefaced by an essay from the classic pen of Judge Ware, gave an increased interest in historical ^tud}^, already aroused by the accurate and learned works of Willis and Folsom. What attainments have been since made in this department of literature are attested by the subsequent volumes of both series; by thirty tov/n histories, many of Avhich are elaborate and exhaustive; by biographies and genealogies, and by anniversary addresses, memorial discourses and pro- ceedings of centennial celebrations, which are almost without number. So long as we take pleasure in call- ing to grateful recollection the labors and characters of our ancestors, so long will the contributions of Edward Ballard, Edward E. Bourne, Nehemiah Cleave- land, Charles Deane, John Ward Dean, Cyrus Eaton, George Folsom, Robert H. Gardiner, John E. Godfrey, William F. Goodwin, William Goold, Jonathan and Moses Greenleaf, John Johnston, William B. Lapham, Alpheus S. Packard, Asher Parsons, John A. Poor, Joseph W. Porter, George H. Preble, John H. Shep- pard, John L. Sibley, James Sullivan, Rufus K. Sewall, J. Wingate Thornton, Charles W. Tuttle, Israel Wash- burn jr., William D. Williamson, William Willis, Cyrus Woodman and Leonard Woods, be remembered and appreciated.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE IN MAINE. 123
In other branches, also, during the last sixty years Maine has been equally fortunate, not only by the productions of our own citizens, but of those whom we proudly claim as natives.
During the last century Maine acquired an honor- able reputation in theology from the controversial works of Rev. Moses Hemmenway of Wells, who maintained the liberal side of Orthodoxy with learn- ing and candor. Since his day the literature of the different denominations has been enriched by varied and enlightened contributions from William Allen, Jesse Appleton, Cyrus A. Bartol, Amory Battles, Bishop Burgess, Asa Cummings, William T. Dwight, Eliphalet Gillett, Samuel Harris, Frederick H. Hedge, John B. Herrick, Roswell D. Hitchcock, George T. Ladd, Daniel Merrill, Ichabod Nichols, Edward Payson, Enoch Pond, George W. Quimby, George Shepard, Henry B. Smith, Egbert C. and Newman Smyth, Thomas T. Stone, Benjamin Tappan, Jason Whitman, Adam Wilson and many others. Of these the Rev. Dr. Pond was the most voluminous writer, having published fifty distinct volumes, seventy-seven articles in periodicals, and twenty sermons.
Many essayists and reviewers, of high and deserved reputation, are natives of or have resided in Maine. Allusion can only be made to a few : to Charles S. Davies, whose smooth diction resembles his own silver accents; to Robert H. Gardiner, one of the earliest writers for the North American ; tc George S. Hillard, " whose exquisite and flowing sentences seem allied to music;" to Leonard Woods, the influence of whose
124 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
words, whether written or spoken, was like that which comes from an organ ; to George Shepard, massive and forcible in style; to Professor Everett, polished and refined; to William L. Symonds, "of original thought and brilliant fancy ; " to James Brooks, John Neal, Benjamin B. Thatcher, Joseph H. Allen, William Ladd, Daniel R. Goodwin, and Thomas C. TIpham.
In fiction perhaps John Neal holds the highest rank of any native of Maine. A most versatile writer, his novels, plays, poems and criticisms bear witness to his indefatigable industry, varied talent and vivacity of style. The powers of the Rev. Sylvester Judd, when matured by age and culture, would have placed him in the front rank of novelists. James Russell Lowell pronounced his "Margaret" as the most emphatically American book ever written. Jacob and John S. C. Abbott, Edmund Flagg, Elijah Kellogg, Noah Brooks, Joseph E. Smith, Edward H. Elwell and Arlo Bates have made pleasing additions to this branch of letters.
As Longfellow is ours by birth and education, it would seem superfluous to claim any further distinc- tion in poetr}^, for who is there that should come after a king ? Still Maine has produced several minor poets of sweetness, and often of strength.
The prose and poetical works of N. P. Willis are alike distinguished for exquisite finish and melody, yet it is upon the last kind of writing that his fame depends. Professor Upham's earliest volume of poetry was published while he resided in New Hampshire. His "American Cottage Life " has passed through several editions.
EEVIEW or LITERATURE IN MAINE. 125
Fifty years since, when good poetry, especially of American origin, was rare, the verses of Grenville Mellen were kindly received. William Cutter, Wil- liam B. Glazier, Isaac McLellan, Benjamin B. Thatcher and David Barker have all been public favorites. Lately, however, most of our native poetry has appeared in magazines, its authors hesitating from the prominence of a separate volume.
A belief in the general intellectual inferiority of woman which Dr. Johnson stubbornly adhered to, although compelled to make an exception for Fanny Burney and Mrs. Thrale, has passed away since we became a state. Her influence and position in letters is now recognized and firmly established. Two gen- erations ago hardly a single American female author was known ; today nearly sixty can be named from Maine alone, some of whom have justly acquired wealth, and several fame from their pens. Of those who are prominent in poetry may be mentioned Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith, whose works contain much beauty ; Mrs. Elizabeth Akers Allen, better known as "Florence Percy;" and Mrs. Frances L. Mace, whose verses display pure sentiments and felicitous thoughts. In fiction we have Mrs. Sally S. Wood, Mrs. Laura Curtis Bullard, Mrs. Elizabeth Payson Prentiss, Miss Sara 0. Jewett, Mrs. Margaret J. M. Sweat, who is well known in other departments of literature ; Mrs. Mary H. Pike, whose works given to the world under the nom de plume of " Ida May " have attained a popularity equalled by that of few writers in our country ; Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford, " of large
126 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
knowledge, cultivated taste, and high creative genius;" Mrs. Sarah Payson Wills Parton, whose books have reached editions of over one hundred thousand in number; Miss Blanche W. Howard, who enjoys a transatlantic reputation, and Miss Mary A. Tincker, a novelist rapidly coming into notice ; while in a higher and different rank Mrs. Abba Goold Woolsoii and Miss Laura A. Poor are favorably known, and as writers for the young, Mrs. Frances A. Pike, Mrs. Clara Barnes Martin and Miss Rebecca S. Clarke have produced several creditable volumes.
In law it is pleasing to remember that a portion, at least, of the fame of Simon Greenleaf belongs to Maine. Here for many years was his home, and the earliest volumes of our judicial reports which he edited are of acknowledged merit. The work upon evidence by Chief Justice Appleton, which com- pletely reformed an important branch of jurispru- dence, has gained the distinguished author great credit abroad, and the gratitude of the profession in this country. The decisions of Mr. Justice Clifford and of Judge Ware command signal respect.
In science and in text-books the works of Professors Cleaveland, Upham, Packard, Champlin, Newman, Smyth, Keely, Hamlin, Morse and others have a national reputation.
It has been remarked that the public speeches and legal arguments of a nation are among the highest exhibitions of its intellect. The most of such in Maine have perished with the occasion that inspired them. George Evans, who is regarded as one of the
REVIEW OF LITERATURE IN MAINE. 127
most forcible and ready debaters of his time, is said never to have written out a single word of any speech; and the same is substantially true of William Lithgow, Daniel Davis, Benjamin Orr, Samuel Fessen- den, John Holmes, William J. Farley, Jonathan P. Rogers, and other eloquent advocates, whose forensic efforts, if preserved, would form a valuable addition to our local literature.
According to careful investigation, commencing with the humble work of Mr. Moody, in 1701, the whole number of books and pamphlets since published in, or relating to Maine, her citizens, natives, or institu- tions, or which were written by residents of Maine, but printed elsewhere, exclusive of legislative, munici- pal, corporate and legal documents, exceeds three thousand.
BRUNSWICK CONVENTION OF 1816. 129
BRUNSWICK CONVENTION OF 1816.
MINUTES OF THE BRUNSWICK CONVENTION OF 1816, TAKEN AND PRE-
SEEVED BY THE LATE WILLIAM ALLEN OF NOBRIDGEWOCK, A
MEMBER OP THE SAJNIE.
On the petition of William King and others, the General Court of Massachusetts at the May session in 1816 passed an act authorizing the quahfied voters in the District of Maine to meet in their respective towns on the first Monday in September of that year, and give in their votes for or against the separation of Maine from Massachusetts, and authorizing all the towns in Maine entitled to representatives to elect delegates to meet at Brunswick, to examine the re- turns of the votes ; and if the number of votes was found to be as five is to four in favor of separation the delegates were to prepare a constitution for the new state to be submitted to the people for their approval.
The political lines of parties in Maine v/ere well defined ; one-third of the voters were known as Feder- alists and two-thirds were Democrats.
The canvass durino; the summer was conducted with much spirit and the meetings in the several towns and plantations were holden as directed, and a full vote given in and delegates elected who with few excep- tions met at the time and place of meeting designated, at Brunswick on the last Monday of September of that year.
Having been a member of that convention and
witnessed the proceedings, and having taken and Vol. II. 10
130 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
preserved some minutes thereof, and having been requested by a worthy member of the Maine His- torical Society (recently deceased) to furnish a sketch thereof for the benefit of that Society, I submit the same and rely on the candor of my friends to excuse all imperfections, as I am far advanced in life and am not able to do justice to the case.*
Monday, September 29. The convention met at the meetinsr-house at ten o'clock. The leadinpr members delayed organizing, and opportunity was given for the two parties to ascertain their strength and to make arrangements for the occasion. Lists of the votes had been published in the public papers, and the names of delegates and their character, and it was generally conceded that the required number of votes in favor of separation had not been obtained. Demo- crats were generally in favor of separation ; some twelve or fifteen delegates were opposed to it, as were the Federalists generally, excepting six or seven.
Those opposed met at Eastman's hall and chose Colonel Lewis of Gorham as chairman of their caucus, who presided at all their party meetings with ability during the session of the convention.
* NORRIDGEWOCK, MARCH, 1870.
Eev. Edward Ballard, Secretary of Maine Historical Society Rev. Sir: — On .seeing notice of the death of Hon. William Willis, a worthy patron of said Society, recently, I was reminded of a request made by him for me to furnish him with an account of the proceedings of the Brunswick convention of 1816 from the minutes I took at the time, and papers in my possession for the Society,
I therefore send the same to you in the package herewith, to be dis- posed of as you see fit or desti-oyed.
Very respectfully yours.
William Allen.
BRUXSWICK COXVENTIOX OF 1816. 131
A committee was appointed to ascertain the relative standing of the parties, who reported that as near as could be ascertained two hundred delegates had been elected; that a majority of twelve at least were for separation.
On returning to the meeting-house Judge Widgery of Portland was designated to call the convention to order, but he did not seem to know how to do it. All seemed to be at a loss and discussion ensued and nothing was done during the forenoon. Dinner being announced the convention adjourned till two o'clock
P.M.
In the afternoon many fears were expressed by the leaders of the Democrats that persons not entitled to vote might intrude themselves improperly, as a noted Federal lawyer (B. Orr) was in the house taking notes, as Burns says, " and he may print them."
After some debate a committee of nine, Preble, Cobb, Thompson, Herbert, Parris, Allen, Kinsley, Cooper and Davis, were appointed to prepare a Hst of delegates. Questions were then started about in- structions to the committee. It was generally urged that they need not be bound to observe any special form of certificate of election.
Judge Widgery suggested that some certificates might not be signed by the town clerk, what then ?
Captain Tolman replied, " Those would be like the old woman's tub that had no bottom, who said ' it was no tub at all.' "
After an hour's idle debate the committee were allowed to retire, but seven of the nine declined act-
132 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ing until abstruse questions were debated and certain rules adopted.
Mr. Parris remarked that the question proposed was of no consequence. Allen concurred and stated that the discussion was an idle waste of time, that he and Mr. Parris had nearly completed a list of delegates for these counties which required no discussion. But when he observed Mr. Cobb, an executive councilor, among the disputants, he was somewhat abashed. In a short time we were notified that the House had adjourned. I was satisfied that delay was the only object.
Tuesday, September 30. The absent members nearly all came in and light broke in and General King was chosen president forthwith, and a secretary chosen. Returns of votes were called for by counties and the result in each town announced by the chair. Mr. Preble and other Democratic members took it upon them to collect and hand in the returns in favor of separation, as they had a right to do for their friends. AVhen the returns from Somerset were called for I collected all, both for and against, and among others the returns from Phillips and Avon, nearly unanimous for separation, were handed to me by a friend who had been entrusted with them, being known as in favor of separation. I was not known by Preble, and he, being on the watch, immediately inquired of my friend as to the completion of the returns he had delivered to me and what my views were. On being informed that the returns were for separation, but that I was opposed to it, Preble repri-
BRUNSWICK CONVENTION OF 1816. 133
manded my good friend with severity for what he had done, saying that "those returns would be withheld or destroyed."
In the course of the day all the returns were accounted for except for five or six towns, among them the town of Lyman, in which six only were in favor and one hundred and seventy-nine votes against separation. The return was traced into two or three hands and lost in the fog. Preble was challenged and denied that he had it. I thought he equivocated, and as he had suggested that I ought not to be trusted, I thought of the motto attached to the sign of the Order of the Garter, "Evil to him who evil thinks." When a committee was appointed the next day to make search for returns that were missing, I kept my eye on him until I saw him pass that from Lyman to a respectable clergyman, a member from the county of York, be- hind the corner of the meeting-house as we were coming in at the afternoon session, and whisper a verbal message to him. I followed the bearer in and saw him lay the return on the secretary's table with- out any ceremony. AVhen the convention was called to order the secretary passed the document to the president and said he found it on his table, and did not know how it came there. The contents were announced and the return passed to the committee; but this was not the end of it. It was rejected by the committee — a committee of Hill, Davis and Wood- man to inquire about missing returns.
The returns from Eliot and Frankfort were traced to A, and from A to B, and B to C, and were probably tried by fire and lost.
134 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETT.
A committee of nine was appointed on Wednesday, October 1, as stated in the printed sheet annexed, and but little was done during the remainder of the week. The convention waited impatiently for the report of the committee on the returns, adjourning from day to day till Saturday noon and then adjourned to eleven o'clock A.M., on Monday, when the committee came in with a long report, as per manuscript annexed, and thereon a debate ensued on Tuesday, opened by Joisah Mitchell in opposition to the report as fol- lows : —
I am opposed to the acceptance of this report. I can see no ambiguity in the act authorizing the people of Maine to vote on the question of separation ; that from a clear and fair consti'uction of this act the vote for separation lias not been obtained.
He proceeded at length in opposition to the report.
Judge Weston said he was in favor of accepting the report of the committee ; that their construction of the act was plausible and specious if not correct, but did not manifest entire confidence in it.
Mr. Emery of Portland was in favor of separation, but could not vote for this report. "If," said he, " we adopt the resolution in the report which states that a majority of five to four is obtained, we assert an un- truth. It is a palpable falsehood. In regard to an adjournment of the convention I see no reason why we should not, but I object to the manner in which the recourse is to be had to Massachusetts.
" Is it not possible that a better course may be devised ? For my part I think we should be much more likely to obtain our object respectfully to ask
BRUNSWICK CONVENTION OF 1816. 135
for an amendment of the act, than to demand it, say- ing if you don't grant our request Ave will put our own construction on it. I appeal to those whose sacred duty it is to inculcate the word of truth. I appeal to the judges whose duty it is to expound the law. I appeal to the sober, honest part of this assembly, w^ho are not infatuated with ambitious projects, to say whether by adopting this report they will not adopt a deliberate lie."
John Davis : " If the gentleman last up would recur to the report, I think he would discover a mis- take and that the words ' the majority of ' are not surplusage."
Mr. Adams was opposed to the report.
Mr. Parris argued in favor it.
Mr. Holmes : " I assure the gentleman from Port- land that the aspersions thrown on the committee by him are gross and malignant, and whoever charges me with uttering a deliberate lie, I shall be far from treating with the most profound respect."
Judge Perham avowed the correctness of his motives.
Mr. Abbott, although a member of the committee, was not in favor of the report ; thought the returns gen- erally contain sufficient matter for forming an opinion as to the number of votes given in each town.
Mr. Kinsley and Judge Perham sustained the report.
Colonel Thatcher opposed it sarcastically.
Judge Whitman, although in favor of sepHration, was opposed to the report.
John Low of Lyman : " I object to the acceptance of the report, as it respects the votes from Lyman,
136 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
and move that the yeas and nays may be recorded when the question is taken."
October 7. Colonel Lewis moved that the report be amended by adding the Lyman votes to the list.
Mr. Moody objected that the motion was not in order.
The president decided that the motion of Colonel Lewis was in order.
Mr. Lewis' motion to add the Lyman votes to the list was decided in the negative and the House ad- journed.
Tuesday, October 8. Kinsley inquired if the report had not been accepted, and whether the motion was in order.
Holmes thought it was strictly in order, it being an amendment of the report.
Chandler inquired whether the gentleman by this vote was to establish the return to be correct, or only to place it on the list with the others ?
Colonel Lewis only wished to place the list on a footing with the others, without regard to the for- mality of the return, which may hereafter be inquired into.
Judge Widgery was decidedly opposed to the votes being restored, and was sure it would make no differ- ence in the result; thought that the proceedings of the town of Lyman were an outrage on common decency, and the depositions show it, and called for reading of them.
Captain Ladd objected as they are ex-parte, and expressed his contempt of the course pursued.
BRUNSWICK CONVENTION OF 1816. 137
Holmes explained that the committee decided from other evidence.
Moody called for reading the remonstrance of John Low jr., and others.
J. Low called for reading the statement of the select- men of Lyman.
Judge Stebbins called for the evidence on which these votes were rejected. This convention had a right to the evidence, and ought not to proceed with- out it.
Mr. Holmes said the evidence was contained in two depositions and statements of the members from Lyman. "Every honorable member," he said, " ought to be satisfied with the evidence given. As we are about forming a new state, one of the first things ought to be to resist encroachments on the freedom of elections. I am confident the statements of the memorialists are not false, but substantially correct."
Judge Whitman remarked that " although some irreg- ularity existed at the opening of the meeting, nothing appears to have been incorrect when the votes were given in, and that they ought not to be rejected. If the town officers have been guilty of any crime let them be punished, and not punish the innocent inhabit- ants by depriving them of their votes on this import- ant occasion."
Colonel Thatcher called the attention of the con- vention to the authority by which they were deliber- ating. That the power is not given them to judge of the conduct of individuals. " We are authorized to ascertain the number of votes returned according to
138 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
the provisions of the act, and not to investigate the organization of towns or corporations, or the manner in which town meetings are usually conducted. He had heard much said about voting and votes written on birch bark ; about blue paper and white paper ; all this is nothing to the purpose. If the return is properly made no reason has been offered why the votes should not be received."
The vote was then taken on the question. Yeas, eighty-one ; nays, ninety-seven, and adjourned.
Wednesday, October 9. Mr. Holmes moved to amend the report by striking out the words " might admit." We should adopt such measures as " might be proper and expedient."
Davis moved to restore the votes of Lyman.
Holmes moved that it be laid on the table, and referred to the adjourned meeting of the convention.
Wallingford asked for information, etc.
Herbert hoped it would not be postponed.
Parris had no inclination to call up the question which had been once satisfactorily decided, but was willing the same should be referred.
Davis' motion laid on the table.
In regard to the amendment proposed by Mr. Holmes, Judge Whitman remarked that he was happy to see what he termed a project to correct sentiments; but called the gentleman to order in regard to numbers, and also to the substance of his amendment which goes to alter a material part.
Amendment ordered.
BRUNSWICK CONVENTION OF 1816. 139
On motion,
Ordered^ That the bhink in the resolution concerning adjourn- ment of the convention be filled with the third Tuesday of De- cember next.
On motion of Mr. Whitman
Ordered^ That the secretary of this convention be directed to forward to the secretary of this commonwealth an attested copy of the proceedings of said convention.
Ordered^ That the committee for reporting a constitution con- sist of twenty-five, and Messrs. Holmes, Dunn, Bodwell, Hobbs, Widgery, Foxcroft, Ingalls, Spring, Dawes, Thompson (Lisbon), Neal, Burley, Chandler (Monmouth), Davis, Cushman, Bond, Weston, Prescott, Hooper, Turner, Steel, Moore, W. Allen, Merriam, Kinsley and Leavitt were appointed.
Messrs. Holmes, Chandler and King were appointed a committee to make applications to Congress.
Messrs. Davis (Augusta), Chandler and Preble, a committee to address the Legislature.
The committee appointed to inquire about the Eliot votes and those of other towns missing made a report.
On motion of Mr. Whitman the report was indefi- nitely postponed.
Judge Stebbins presented and read a protest signed by the minority against the proceedings of this con- vention, and moved that it be entered on the journals. After some opposition it was voted that it be inserted.
The business of the convention having been accom- plished, a motion was made to adjourn, and the con- vention was adjourned to the third Tuesday of De- cember next, then to meet at this place at two o'clock
P.M.
140 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The committee on return of votes, appointed on the second day of the session, consisted of Messrs. Hohnes, Preble, Widgery, Foxcroft, Sewall, Barnard, Abbott, Perry, Parris, Rice and J. Davis, Chandler of Monmouth, and Waugh, who reported October 9, and the report was assigned to be taken up the next morning at nine o'clock, and the same was taken up accordingly, and after a warm discussion protracted to a late hour in the evening, when the question of acceptance was taken by yeas and nays and decided in the affirmative. Yeas, one hundred and three ; nays, eiglity-four ; ab- sent, six.
For accepting the report, yeas : Widgery and Hall of Portland, Ingalls of Bridgton, Page of Brunswick, Higgius of Cape Elizabeth, Sanborn of Falmouth, Whitney of Gray, Foxcroft of New Gloucester, Twitch- ell of Poland, Cushman of Pownal, Swett of Raymond, Larrabee and Fogg of Scarboro, Spring and Hasty of Standish, Stermons and Estes of Westbrook, Porter of Baldwin, Holmes of Alfred, Prime and Cutts of Ber- wick, Boothby, Woodman and Wentworth of Buxton, Dunn of Cornish, Smith and Locke of Hollis, Dennett and Chase of Kittery, Boyd of Limington, Buzzell of Parsonsfield, Allen of Sanford, Moody, Pike and Preble of Saco, Bodvvell, Wood and Emery of Shapleigh, Sever of South Berwick, Hobbs of Waterboro, Brad- bury, Mclntire and Bragdon of York, W. King, Eaton of Bowdoin, Lewis of Georgetown, Noel and Burr of Litchfield, Thompson and Small of Lisbon, Davis of Montville, Rand of Nobleboro, Burley of Palermo, Miller of St. George, Bailey of Whitefield,
BEUNSWICK CONVENTION OF 1816. 141
Kichardson of Gushing, Rowell of Jefferson, Weston and Davis of Augusta, Chandler of Belgrade, "Well- ington of Fairfax, Prescott of Farmington, Fisk of Fayette, Robbins of Greene, Frances of Leeds, Cheever of Hallowell, Chandler and Morrill of Monmouth, Mc- Gaffey of Mt. Vernon, Hilton of Malta, Dyer of New Sharon, D. Neal, John Hubbard, R. Burnham, A. Getchell, M. Wing, J. Cushman, J. Randall, M. Weeks, B. Foster, J. Merriam, B. Stevens, B. Bartlett, J. Steel, L. Swallow, E. Berry, J. Ricker, A. K. Parris, J. Hooper, J. Turner, J. Starr, S. Barrett, B. Bradford, W. H. Britton, J. Moore, W. Tuttle, J. Walker, J. Lawrence, J. Leavitt, D. Perham, M. Kinsley, John Wilkins — one hundred and three.
Nays : E. Whitman, N. Emery, J. Adams, M. Cobb, R. D. Dunning, J. McKean, J. Burnham, L. Lewis, D. Harding, S. Stephenson, J. W. Mitchell, B. Sylvester, S. Eaton, G Grosvener, Wm. Ladd, N. Gould, M. Little, A. R. Mitchell, A. Richardson, E. Russell, W. Barrows jr., S. Blake, A. R. Giddings, E. Perkins, J. Mitchell, W. Hobbs, D. Cleaves, J. Hill, J. Burnham, J. Low, J. Waterhouse, G. E. Smith, J. Daniel, G. W. Walling- ford, N. Morrill, J. Gilman, J. Fisher, J. Stebbins, D. Sewall, J. Hyde, C. Lilly, J. McKown, J. McCobb, W. Chamberlain, T. B. Lewis, J. Thompson, E. Farley, P. Drummond, B. Hasey, W. Dawes, J. Barnard, R. Foster, B. Brown, J. Head, J. G. Read, S. Thatcher, Jere Bailey, D. Quinam, P. Tolman, J. Fairbanks, F. Allen, E. Clark, A. Howard, A. Wood, J. Metcalf, A. Johnson, E. Upton, S. M. Pond, Jos. Lee, W. Abbott, P. Spofford, Geo. Herbert, T. Hill jr., S. A. Whitney,
142 MAINE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY.
John Watson, N. Kidder, L. Smith, J. Simpson, Thos. Burridge, S. A. Bradley, W. Barrows, Levi Whitman, P. C. Virgin, E. Rice, B. McLeHan, Wm. Allen, James Wangh, John Cooper — eighty-four.
The report, as first accepted, was copied at the time and sent to my friends and is herewith forwarded, also some memoranda, showing the names of the delegates and state of the votes as they w^ere announced.
William Allen.
NORRIDGEWOCK, MaRCH, 1870.
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD'S VOYAGE. 143
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD'S VOYAGE.*
After a large amoimt of fruitless expenditure in attempting to colonize America, and after tlie great and untiring efforts of Sir Walter Raleigh in several unsuccessful attempts to introduce colonies into what is now called Virginia, and after having used up a large amount of treasure in an unsuccessful search of a colony w^hich was lost, there followed a suspension, a lull in the matter of colonization and naval enter- prise, which continued to the end of the sixteenth century.
In the meanwhile there were men of character and influence, who felt the great importance of the subject to the prosperity of England, and of English com- merce in giving their country a commanding rank and influence among the nations of Europe.
We may place first and foremost among these the Rev. Richard Hakluyt, — then prebendary of St. Augustine's church in Bristol, — the most active and useful, the most indefatigable and eminent man in England, in promoting geographical, naval and com- mercial knowledge, in setting on foot great plans of national enterprise for discovery and colonization. He published in 1598 his " Collection of English Voy-
* Note. The above paper was found in the archives of the Maine Historical Society, without date or signature, and the name of the writer and date when read, are alike unknown to the Publishing Committee. It was thought to be worth preserving.
144 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ages and Travels," and also a great variety of infor- mation upon naval and geographical subjects relating to America and its discoveries.* He was acquainted with many seagoing men, and collected from them such oral information upon voyages and travels as had never been published. The whole bent of his mind was directed to enlighten and inform the public, and to diffuse among them the spirit of enterprise in commerce and colonization.
The results of his labors were soon manifest in the improvement of public opinion, in the diffusion of intelligence upon colonization, and in a disposition to engage in whatever might promote the general inter- est of the country. The spirit of the times brought into public notice that bold, skillful, active and in- trepid mariner, Bartholomew Gosnold, who had been formerly in the service of Sir Walter Raleigh in his voyage to Virginia. He first conceived the idea that instead of going down south and around by the West Indies to Virginia, and so to New England or North Virginia, it would be practicable to sail directly across the Atlantic on a westerly course and thereby save one-third of the distance to the more notherly parts of America. The project was entertained and its feasi- bility approved by Henry, Earl of Southampton, who immediately became enlisted in the enterprise, and went into it with his characteristic energy. He pur- chased a vessel suited to the undertaking, which was
* Kicliarcl Ilakluyt died in 161G, liis papers which were numerous, came into the hands of Samuel Purchase who made use of them in writing his Purchase's " Pilgrims."
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD's VOYAGE. 145
designated by the name of Concord. She was fitted for the voyage and Captain Gosnold was selected as commander, that he might demonstrate his own views and faciUtate the intercourse between tlie two countries, if the plans proved to be successful.
Bartholomew Gilbert was appointed the second in command. He, too, was a man distinguished for his nautical information; was well acquainted with naval tactics and the business of colonization, and could well appreciate the advantage the voyage, if successful, would be to England.
The whole number on board were thirty-two. Twenty were to remain in such a place as should be found suitable for a colony. There were six or eight of the crew, and several gentlemen accom- panied the expedition, some as journalists, others as friends and patrons of the enterprise. It is supposed that Hakluyt had something to do in making out the directions for the voyage. It is not to be supposed that they were going to a coast entirely unknown ; they had received directions where they were to go, and were apprised of some of the landmarks which they might meet with, that they might know their position. There had been various sources of informa- tion whereby they might become, in some good meas- ure, acquainted with the coast of New England. Verrazzano had visited the Hudson and the Narrasjan- sett in 1594. Henry iv of France, in his patent to Sieur De Mont in 1603, states that the whole country had been visited by traders, peddlers and priests, and that De Mont himself knew from personal
Vol. II. U
146 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
observation the whole country as far as Malabar ; Cape Cod, Massachusetts Bay, had been repeatedly visited by a few of the many fishermen who came to Newfoundland for fish ; these had extended their voyage as far to the southwest as fish were to be taken, and some of them had landed upon the shores of Massachusetts Bay ; and also other fortuitous visit- ors had landed upon these shores. Many oral tradi- tions concerning these visitors had been collected and preserved.
That Gosnold received such directions as were sug- gested by Hakluyt is very probable, for he was a prominent man, and was continually engaged in pro- moting the cause of discoveries, and was an intimate friend of Henry, Earl of Northampton. Hakluyt un- doubtedly knew much about Massachusetts Bay, and probably directed Gosnold to follow the course of 43° north latitude which would have carried him into the neighborhood of Cape Ann. Although the course was north latitude 43°, it is probable that he was some- times at variance with his course in consequence of the currents and the different courses of the winds. The account of the voyage is collected from Gosnold's letter to his father, and from the journals of Gabriel Archer and John M. Brereton, two of the gentlemen on board the bark.
These three accounts are published entire in the "Massachusetts Historical Collections," series 3, vol. 8. There is no disagreement in the three if rightly understood. William Strachey, who was cotemporary with them, wrote another account of the voyage with
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD'S VOYAGE. 147
Brereton before him, and added some particulars which he had orally received.
We will now give a collation of these accounts which we have carefully made, and although it may give in some respects a different result from any reached before, we believe it to be just and suscepti- ble of proof.
The bark Concord, Captain Gosnold, sailed from Falmouth, England, on the twenty-sixth of March, old style, 1602, and on the fourteenth of April had sight of the island of St. Mary, one of the Azores. On the twenty-third of April they were in north lati- tude 37°. On the seventh of May they first saw birds of various kinds, an indication that they were approaching the land. On the ninth of May they were near latitude 43° north. On the twelfth of May they had the " smell of land," by which it was believed they were not far from it. But on the four- teenth, being in north latitude 43°, pursuing their course westerly, at six o'clock in the morning they discovered land which lay directly north from the ship, and which Strachey says was " land about Sagada- liock." Pursuing their course westerly they observed the land full of fair trees and somewhat low, certain hummocks or hills lying into the land, the shores full of white sand, but very stony or rocky. They had not proceeded far when they discovered land ahead over the starboard bow. This point of land called by the natives Semiamis, and by the English Cape Eliza- beth, after the name of the reigning queen. Finding this land not what was expected, being short of their
148 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
proposed place, they named it North Land and pur- sued their course. From Cape EUzaboth they veered a little south, and now commenced estimating their distances. They continued their course a fair distance from the land till they came opposite an out point of wooded land, the trees tall and straight. The distance from Cape EHzabeth they estimated at five leagues. This point is now called on our maps Fletcher's Point. It is situated near Saco, and the estimated distance from the cape is very nearly correct.
From this point they shaped their course west, southwest, and sailed seven leagues to a great rock in the land, where they came to anchor. This rock they called Savage Rock, and it is now named on our maps York Nubble.
This likewise corresponds to the course and distance as now estimated on the maps. I am indebted for the two last suggestions to a communication in the Temperance Journal, printed in Portland, of January, 1859, Avhich was over the signature of " Rockport."
To this place, the great rock [in the land] the Concord arrived at twelve o'clock at noon, having sailed from six o'clock in the morning from the first point discovered, bearing north of this place about forty-eight miles. This rock was called Savage Rock because as they were approaching it, a Biscay shallop came from it with eight savages on board. The account says : " They called to us and Ave gave them answer. We at first supposed it was some distressed Christians who might have been cast upon these shores. After making signs of peace, and after a long
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD's VOYAGE. 149
speech from one of the Indians they came boldly on board. Most of them were nearly without clothing, saving loose deerskins about their shoulders, and near their waists seal skins were tied fast like Irish demi- trousers. One of them who seemed to be their chief wore a waistcoat, breeches, cloth stockings, shoes and hat; one or two others had something about them of European fabric. They were disposed to be very friendly and communicative, explained the lay of the land and the coast as far east as Placentia, and that particularly near to them, and no doubt also the coast of Cape Cod. This they did by drawing diagrams upon the deck of the vessel with chalk. They spake divers Christian words."
From sources like this, no doubt, a knowledge of the coast could have been divined and published as we have before named. The roadstead where the Con- cord had anchored being exposed to winds and storms, at three o'clock, after having been there three hours, taking leave of the savages, they weighed anchor, set sail, clearing the coast on a course southerly, pass- ing at the distance of one or two leagues to the eastward a small island, now Boon ; also another farther to the west which may have been the Isle of Shoals. The ship continued its course southerly with a brisk wind all the afternoon and all night. The next morning at nine o'clock they found themselves embayed by a mighty headland which had been pre- viously called Malabar by the French. From the great abundance of cod fish which was found there, it was named by Captain Gosnold, Cape Cod. This name it still retains.
150 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Dr. Belknap tuid all other historians who have written upon this voyage have supposed this landfall of the bark Concord to be Cape Ann, and Savage Rock to be in Massachusetts Bay. This correction is made from the suggestion found in the caption of the sixth chapter of Strachey's " Travels in Virginia," although it is not mentioned in the chapter itself. The idea that it might have been added by another hand is precluded by the fact that it was in the author's own handwriting, and expressed in his own characteristic style It is further evident that we are right in placing this landfall about the Kennebec from the fact that Gosnold could liave been nowhere else to discover land bearing north than Avhere we have placed him. If it had been about Cape Ann, " north of it " would be too far into the land, and to have sailed as far as Gosnold did would have carried him ashore and into the country a long way. The truth was Gosnold was mistaken in the latitude which he gave, because from it he could not have been near enough to discover any land about the Sagadahock, or any part of what he called Northland, for he was very near latitude 43°, 42'. The error was discovered by Captain George Weymouth three years after as will appear from Rosier's " Relation " of the voyage, published in the "Massachusetts Collection," eighth volume.
In coming to the coast of America in May, 1605, he became imperiled among the shoals of Nantucket, and when extricated from them, being out of wood and water, he stood north for the nearest land, where
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLD's VOYAGE. 151
the wind favored, and greatly marveled that he did not find it, whereupon he found the chart very false "putting land where none is." This chart is believed to have been that of Gosnold,* and this the error, and where it was first discovered and revealed.
This, in addition, to the exactness of his latitude of Nantucket shoals, is decided evidence of his thorough seamanship, and of the reputation which he had of being thoroughly acquainted with the theory and practice of navigation. It is said by the readers of Hosier's account of Captain Weymouth's voyage, that the observations giving the latitude of places about the Kennebec were as near to it as he could come at that early period, with such imperfect instruments as he had. The presumption is that he was as correct there as at Nantucket shoals, and in detecting so small an error as he did on Gosnold's chart. Rosier acknowl- edges that he did not give the latitudes as he received them, from considerations which he mentions in his preface to the " Relation."
Strachey, on the forty-second page of his " History of Travel in Virginia," giving an account of the country and of the right of the English by discovery, states that the coast all along had been discovered, " even to the river Sagadahock," and that Captain Argall in 1610 made good what Captain Bartholomew Gosnold and Captain Weymouth wanted in their dis- coveries. This seems to imply that Weymouth and Gosnold discovered all from the Narragansett to the Sagadahock, meaning, it may be supposed, as far as
* Palfrey asserts this fact.
152 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETT.
Pemaquid. He is explicit about the time, for he says it was when he parted with Captain George Somers, the twenty-eighth of July, 1610, while looking for Bermuda. During a storm they got separated. Not finding Somers, Captain Argall steered for Cape Cod and coasted southerly near the shore to what has since been called the Hudson river, and thence to Delaware Bay, and thence to Virginia. This makes Argall the discoverer of this coast in July, 1610, or rather as confirming the right acquired by Hudson, and this is provided that Gosnold had not discovered the Sagada- liock before.
LETTER FROM PELEG WADSWORTH. 153
Letter froim GENERAL PELEG WADSWORTH
TO WILLIAM D. WILLIAMSON.
CONTRIBUTED BY JOHX S. H. FOGG, M.D , OF SOUTH BOSTON.
Hiram, 1 Jany, 1828.
Dear Sir: — In a P. S. to your Circular of 11th ult. you have requested me to give You some particulars respecting sundry Persons relative to the unsuccessful Penobscot Expedition of 1779; which I would gladly do were it in my power. But it is so long time since these things were transacted, & old Age has made such attacks on my memory, that I hardly dare to assert anything as fact relative thereto — a general impres- sion of my mind is all I can pretend to.
In the first place the want of a sufficient land force was a probable cause of failure. We had less than 1000 Men, where 1500 were ordered by the State authority ; whose fault this was I know not; but so it was. This was just about the Number of the Enemy; but they were disciplined Troops & fortified with a simple redoubt, which was good however against a simple assault. Our Troops were entirely undisciplined, having never been paraded but once, on their passage down, being put in to a harbour by head Wind; I think at Townsend, nor had these Men ever had the chance for discipline that our western Militia had ; however they were generally brave & spirited Men. Each in his own opinion willing to encounter two of the Enemy, could he have met them in the bush ; and
154 MAINE rilSTOKICAL SOCIETY.
would our numbers have justified an Attack, I have no doubt but that they would have given the Enemy a brave Assault. Although our numbers were small our Fleet had an imposing Appearance. I think the Enemy must have reckoned upon at least 3000 men from the appearance of our Transports.
The same Morning of our Landing a Council was called of officers both land & naval. Some of the land Officers were for summoning the fort to surren- der, giving them honorable Terms, whilst others dis- suaded from the Measure alledging that in case of a non complyance We should be in a bad predicament; the Commodore and the naval Officers were generally against the Measure; as his Officers were chiefly com- manders of Privatiers bound on a Cruize as soon as the siege was over. The Commodore also refused to lend any more of his Marines in case of Assault & was about to recall the 200 Marines which he had lent on our first landing. They had suffered great Loss in the landing. This seemed to put the Question of Storm- ing the Fort out of the Question. The next Question was, what then shall be done ? & it was concluded to send off two Whale Boats to the Govr & Couucil with the intelligence of our situation & request a reinforcement while we kept our possession in the face of the Enemy & trust to the event of a reinforcement to the Enemy & of ourselves. Li the meantime we reduced their out Posts & Batteries, destroyed a considerable Quantity of Guns, spiked their cannon in all their out works & gave them fair Opportunity of Sallying if they chose it.
LETTER FEOM PELEG WADSWOETH. 155
In the meantime we were employed daily, or rather Nightly in advancing upon their Fort by Zigzag in- trenchments till within a fair gunshot of their Fort so that a man seldom shew his Head above their Works. Whilst thus lying upon our Arms It was urged upon Genl Lovell to erect some Place of resort up the River at the Narrows, in Case of Retreat so that the Troops might have a place of resort in case of necessity & also to have some place of Opposition to the Enemy should tie push us thus far — but the Genl would hear to nothing of the kind; alledging that it would dis- hearten our Army & shew them that we did not ex- pect to succeed — & forgetting the good old Maxim " to keep open a good Retreat."
Had the Genl and Commodore kept upon a good understanding with each other & had they co-operated with each other they had probably stormed and car- ried the Enemy's Post; & been off before there was any danger of the arrival of the Enemy's reinforce- ments. Here we may see the policy of securing a place of Retreat. The Fleet might have been saved, the Army kept together & marched in a body where- ever wanted, instead of scattering, starving &c.
Here we had been laying upon our Arms almost inactive 14 days, when our Spy Vessels bro't the news of a Large Fleet approaching, which might be expected the next day, if the South wind should prevail. Genl. Lovell was now on board the Warren, Commodore's Frigate & sent his Orders to me to retreat with all possible dispatch, which was effected without leaving a cannon or a pick axe behind, the Enemy's Fleet in
156 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
full view standing up with full sail & much snperior to ours in Appearance. As soon as the Troops, the Can- non & all our implements of War, with the the Hospital, were on board, the Transports stood up the River — 0 then how we wished for a place of Ren- dezvous, the Transports might have been saved — the Fleet might have been saved. Our Fleet soon pursued the Course of the transports, but soon out went theirs, forcing their way through the Narrows against a strong tide with Oars & Studen sails all sett, whilst part of our Transports had run on Shore just at the foot of the Narrows. The troops landed, the flames bursting forth from the midst of them, set by their own Crews. The Enemy pursuing to within Cannon Shot, but unable to pursue farther against a strong tide, left those that would be persuaded to enter the Transports & rescue a small Quantity of provisions for the retreat & to collect and embody themselves for their own safety. Three or four Companies were thus kept to- gether with which I marched the next morning for Camden, where they arrived the second day & made a stand. The rest of the* Troops went up the River in the Vessels of War & transports landing as they saw fit, & then Genl Lovell under the Guidance & Assist- ance of the Indians made his way from the head of the Tide in the Penobscot over to the Kennebec ; & in about a fortnite arrived at Townsend where was the first that I had seen or heard from him since Ordering the Retreat. That part of the Fleet that got up the River ahead of the Enemy were either burnt or de- fitroyed by their own crews making their way thro'
LETTER FROM PELEG WADSWORTH. 157
the Woods for the Kennebec in a starving condition. — Had Genl Lovell been furnished with the Number of MiUtia which was at first proposed, or had He been appointed to the sole command of both Army & Nav}^, I think it highly probable that He would have reduced the Enemy for He was a Man of Courage, & proper Spirit, a true old Roman Character, who never would flmch from Danger; but He had not been accustomed to the Command of an Expedition in actual service. The Commodore did not feel himself so much engaged in the Cause. Not that he was, in my opinion, a Coward, but willful & unaccommodating, having an unyielding will of his own. — Genl Lovell was a very personable Man, I should judge about 50, of good repute in the Militia as well as Senate, a Farmer by profession & I believe liked in .Weymouth. Commo- dore Saltonstall about the same age, of New Haven Ct. Report said that he fought a very good battle after- ward in a large Privatier which shew him to be a Man of Courage. The command of a Fleet did not set easy upon his shoulders, tho' he could fight a very good Battle in a single Ship.
Here it may be not improper to mention that the Action at our landing on Bagaduce might have been called brilliant, had the event of the Enterprise been fortunate. But let military Men not talk of glory who lack success. It was on the dawning of the third day after our arrival (the second was prevented by the surf occasioned by a brisk south Avind. The morning was quite still but somewhat Foggy. The Vessels of War were drawn up in a Line just out of reach of
158 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Musket Shot & 400 Men (viz. 200 of Militia & 200 Marines) were in Boats along side ready to push for the Shore on signal. The highest Clift was preferred by the commander of the Party, knowing that his men would make the best shift in rough ground. The fire of the Enemy opened upon us from the top of the Bank or Chft, just as the boats reached the Shore. We step'd out & the Boats immediately sent back. There was now a stream of fire over our heads from the Fleet, & a shower of Musketry in our faces from the Top of the Clift. We soon found the Clift un- surmountable even without Opponents. The party, therefore, was divided into three parts, one sent to the right, another to the left till they should find the Clift practicable, & the Center keeping up their fire to amuse the Enemy. Both parties succeeded & gained the Height, but closing in upon the Enemy in the Rear rather too soon, gave them opportunity to escape, which they did, leaving about 30 kilFd wounded & prisoners. The conflict was short, but sharp, for we left 100, out of 400, on the shore & Bank. The marines suffer'd most, by forcing their way up a foot Path leading up the Clift. This Action lasted but 20 Minutes & would have been highly spoken of, had success finally crowned our Enterprize.
A Committee was appointed by the Genl Court to enquire into the Cause of the Failure of the Expedi- tion, & the result is to be fouml in the inclosed News paper.
Genl Lovell was a man of good repute in the Sen- ate & Counsell, & of high standing in the Militia, but
LETTER FROM PELEG WADSWORTH. 159
unused to command a Military expedition; of good natural Talents, more so than of acquired, of Manly appearance, a Farmer by profession & a valuable Citi- zen. He lived, I believe in Weymoutli Mass. I should think not related to the Indian Killer.
Commodore Saltonstall, I believe, lived at New Haven Ct. a man of personal firmness, but not polished in his Manners, unyielding & unaccomodating. Genl Lincoln was in High repute in Maine & I think it probable that the County of Lincoln was named for Him.
Genl Litho-ow & Govr Sumner stood well with Maiwe — Col. McCobb I think took the command of the Coast after Genl Lovell left it, for the remainder of the year.
The year following 1779 P. W. was appointed by the Govr & Council to superintend the Coast from Piscaqua Piiver to the St. Croix. But a small Number of Men were ordered for the Service (about oOO) but the Genl had power to Call U23on the Militia for any number wanted. Power was also given him to declare & execute Martial Law within certain limmits in case it should be necessary. An Awful Power this, unless exercised with wisdom & Discretion. The Tories from the western part of the State of Massachusetts had flocked into the District of Maine in order to be near the Enemy, & were encouraging the Inhabitants to keep up an Intercourse with them, by Supplies, Allegiance, &c, that the Genl soon found it necessary to draw a Line of Demarcation between Friend & Foe, & to cut off all Communication by Land & water hy proclama-
160 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
tion. However terror by proclamation soon began to loose effect, & small parties finding aid and encourage- ment from the Tories, soon began to be less cautious & the Tories really seemed to gain courage from indul- gence & to be less secret in harbouring these Parties of the Enemy till at last it began to be more unsafe for a Whig than a Tory; & a small party of the Enemy made an Assault upon a zealous Whig, early of a Morning, whose Name was Soul, whilst in Bed, shot him dead & badly \vounded his Wile. this was done at Broadbay, as then called, since Thomaston. This Act produced another Proclamation in which was prom- ised the next Transaction of secreting or giving Aid to the Enemy upon Conviction with Military Execu- tion. Not long after a Man by the Name of Baum was complained of for harbouring & giving Aid to a party of the Enemy, was apprehended, try'd, con- demned & executed at Thomaston. This Act of verity tho' painfull in the highest degree proved salu- tary, for there was not found another Instance of this kind, & People began to realize the sentiment that Lenity to an Enemy was cruelty to Friend. The great object of the Enemy for this season was to gain Alle- giance & Avould easily have gained the unprotected Sea Coast of Maine, tho' as good Citizens as in any other place, in the same Circumstances.
In the Autumn the time of service of the Troops being out, they were dismissed & a few of the neigh- boring Militia were called in daily to serve as a Guard against surprise at Thomaston, the Head Quarters. On the Night of the 18th Feby 1780, the Snow 3 feet
LETTER FROM PELEG WADSWORTH. 161
deep, without a Guard, except two or three domes- ticks, I was suddenly attack'd, & after a short conflict, wounded & taken prisoner, carried to a Tory's house at West-South-Gig, 4 Miles — Ship'd on board a small privatier & carried to Bagaduce where I did not want to go— The Result perhaps you know. After 4 Months imprisonment T with Col Burton made our escape. Soon after, the Morning of our Independence dawning. I had no more to do with the Military.
I was born at Duxbury in the County of Plymouth on the 6th day of May in the year 1748 & lived there till seventeen Years old; when I entered Harvard Col- lege & went thro' the usual Course of 4 years study, when I received the usual honors of the Institution. I then kept a private School in the old Town of Plymouth & fitted a number of Schollars for College & some for the Army — as I mixed the military as well as the Civil. At the end of my School I had one of the prettiest companies of Boys, perhaps that there was existing. From my School, I set out to trade in a Country Town; at that time the Young Men of the Country were forming into minute Companies, pre- vious to the Revolution. I commanded a Company, with which I marched to join the Army at Roxbury; was appointed an Engineer by Genl Thomas for the erection of the Lines in Dorchester & Roxbury & was on that Duty the chief of that season.
The second Year I was appointed Aide de Camp to Majr Genl Ward & was his Aide at the taking posses- sion of Dorchester Hights which started the Enemy from Boston, & I remained with Genl Ward till Indis-
VoL. 11. 12
162 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
position forced him out of the Army. Then being out of the Line of the Continental Army, I was appointed Adjutant Genl of the MiUtia of Massachu- setts. I was in Sulh van's Expedition on Rhode Island & commanded a Regt of Essex Militia in the Action on that Island when the arrival of the English Fleet caused a retreat.
Genl Lovell's Expedition next took my attention, which ended as it did. The next Year I was on the eastern Shore after which was wounded & taken Pris- oner. After my escape the peace of Independence dawning I was not in any military employment. The Revolutionary "War ending I removed to Falmouth, now Portland, where I was in Trade for several Years, & finally I was chosen a Member of Congress where I remained 14 years in succession, since when I removed to the mountains of Hiram where I have been busily employed in County Business.
In Confidence — If from these broken & unconnected Hints you can glean any thing of use for your purpose I shall be happy to have furnished them. Your very humble servt
Peleg Wadswoeth.
Will: D. Williamson Esq:
[Superscription.] William D. Williamson Esquire/ Bangor./ Me.
JAMES LORING CHILD. 163
JAMES LORING CHILD.
Mead before the Maine Historical Society, Dec. 18, 1890. CONTRIBUTED BY HON. JAMES W. BRADBUET.
Me. Child was born in Augusta, May 31, 1792. He was descended from Moses Child, an officer of the old French war and a confidential adviser of General Washington, who sent him into the provinces during the Revolution to sound the people about rebellion.
His father, M,y. James Child, settled in Augusta, then an almost unbroken wilderness, in 1786, and filled many offices of trust and responsibility, and died March 23, 1840. He was a man noted for his honesty, his inflexible uprightness and benevolence.
James L. Child was born with a feeble constitution, increased at the age of fourteen by a blow from an ax, on his left leg, which confined him for many months to the house, and the effects of which followed him to the grave. On the seventh of December, 1807, he entered as law student with Whitwell & Fuller at Augusta, and in the meantime he also acquired a knowledge of land surveying. By a change of part- ners in the law firm, he concluded to enter the office of Bridge & Williams in May, 1812. December 16, 1812, he was admitted to the bar and entered into copartnership with Thomas Rice of Winslow. Janu- ary, 1814, the copartnership was dissolved and Mr. Child continued alone. June 27, 1814, he was chosen captain of the company of militia at Winslow, and
164 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
marched with them to Wiscasset to assist in the defense of that place against the British. December 21, 1814, he was admitted to Kennebec Lodge in Ilal- lowell, and during his life held the highest positions in Masonry.
April 15, 1816, Mr. Child sailed from Wilming- ton, N. C, as supercargo of the armed brig "Lady Mary Pelham," bound to Gibraltar; from there to Malaga, thence to Rio de Janeiro, thence to Buenos Ayres, thence to Baltimore, arriving in 1817. He then went to Charleston, S. C, and formed a copartnership in commission business with Robert Witherspoon of Scotland, September 1, 1817, but after many months of prosperous business they were compelled by the failure of their consignee in Liverpool to suspend, he having failed by being largely interested in French securities, which had become worthless by a change in the government. October 11, 1819, Mr. Child was chosen assistant secretary of a convention which met at Portland for the formation of a constitution which he afterward engrossed. At this time he was prac- ticing law in Augusta, from whence, in 1822, he removed to Alna and took the office and practice of Hon. Edward Smith. Mr. Child was clerk of the first and of twelve subsequent sessions of the Legislature. In 1830 he was on the commission to make a new valuation of the state of Maine. In 1820 Mr. Child became a member of the Orthodox church in Augusta. In 1821 he was appointed clerk of the board of commissioners under act of separation, to divide the property between Massachusetts and
JAMES LORING CHILD. 165
Maine. This commission continued seven years, and usually met in Boston.
November 10, 1822, Mr. Child was married to Jane Hale of Alna. On the second of May, 1823, he was appointed division inspector by Governor Parris, with rank of lieutenant-colonel. In February of the same year he was admitted a counselor of the United States District Court of Maine, and was afterward admitted to the United States Circuit Court. In 1824 he was elected Grand King of Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Maine. September 24, he was elected to the Legisla- ture of Maine, but declined it, preferring the clerk- ship. March, 1824, he was appointed corresponding secretary of Grand Lodge of Maine.
January 14, 1825, he was appointed by the Grand Lodge with others to receive General Lafayette. He was for many years commissioner from nearly all the states to take depositions. He was one of the originators of " Forest Grove Cemetery," established in 1834, and took a deep interest in establishing the Augusta high school.
Mr. Child was first secretary to the Kennebec and Portland railroad corporation previous to its organiza- tion as a company. In December, 1846, he was ap- pointed acting military store keeper in the United States army, and continued in the office two years.
In October, 1832, Mr. Child removed to Augusta and opened a law office. He retired from an active practice of the law, owing to infirm health, more than fifteen years before his decease. He died August 16, 1862, at the advanced age of seventy years, two months and sixteen days.
PEOCEEDINGS AT ANNUAL MEETING, 1883. 167
PROCEEDINGS.
Annual Meeting, July 13, 1883.
The annual meeting of the Maine Historical Society was held at Brunswick, Hon. James W. Bradbury of Augusta, presiding.
The annual reports were first in order. The libra- rian's report shows a gain of several hundred bound volumes and over a thousand pamphlets.
Officers were elected for the ensuing year, as fol- lows : —
President, Hon. Jataes W. Bradbury of Augusta.
Vice-president, Hon, William G. Barrows of Brunswick.
Treasurer, Lewis Pierce, Esq,, of Portland.
Corresponding Secretary, Hon. William Goold of Windham.
Secretary and Librarian, Mr. H. W. Bryant of Portland.
Standing Committee, R. K. Sewall of Wiscasset, Joseph Wil- liamson of Belfast, Edward H. Elwell of Deering, William Goold of Windham, William B. Lapham of Augusta, Stephen J. Young of Brunswick, James P. Baxter of Portland.
Four vacancies were reported in the roll of resident members, and were filled by the election of Charles E. Nash of Augusta, Charles W. Goddard of Portland, H. K. Morrell of Gardiner, and Edward Johnson of Belfast.
The following corresponding members were chosen : —
G. D. Scull, Oxford, England. Edward Stanwood, Boston, Massachusetts. Hon. John D, Long, Boston, Massachusetts. Prof. F. W. Putnam, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
168 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Noah Brooks, Newark, New Jersey.
Frank W. liackett, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Daniel S. Durrie, Madison, Wisconsin.
Robert N. Gourdin, Charlef:ton, South Carolina.
Charles Francis Adams, jr., Boston, Massachusetts.
The annual field day of the Society was referred to a committee of three, with authority to appoint time and place. Georgetown was suggested by the Rev. S. F. Dike of Bath, and Bangor by President Bradbury. The committee are: —
E. B. Nealley of Bangor. J. P. Baxter of Portland. S. F. Dike of Bath,
The unfinished business was the amendment of the by-laws, as proposed at the last annual meeting.
The annual meeting will be held, as heretofore, at Brunswick, during commencement week, and special meetings when and where the standing committee may direct.
At the suggestion of the standing committee the office of biographer was created for the collection of statistics relating to members of the Society, and Joseph Williamson of Belfast, was appointed to this duty.
December Meeting, 1883.
December 21, 1883, a meeting was held at the So- ciety's library in the city building, Portland. Called to order at 2.30 p.m., President Bradbury in the chair. The Librarian, Mr. H. W. Bryant, read his quarterly report of accessions to the library and cabinet.
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1884. 169
The following papers were read at the afternoon session : —
On the British Occupation of the Penobscot, during the Revo- lution. By Joseph Williamson.
A Biogra})hical Sketch of Edward Godfrey, Maine's first Gov- ernor. Contributed by Dr. Charles E. Banks.
A History of the Banks and the Early Bankers of Portland was read by WilUam Edward Gould.
At the evening session : —
An Account of the Rev. William Screven of Kittery. By Henry S. Burrage, d.d.
A Biographical Sketch of the Rev. Eugene Vetromile. By Hubbard W. Bryant.
Col. Alexander Rigby, m.p. Contributed by John E. Bailey of Stretford, England.
The Plough Patent and the Province of Ligonia. Contributed by Dr. Charles E. Banks.
The customary votes of thanks were passed and copies of the papers requested for the archives of the Society.
May Meeting, 1884.
May 22, 1884, a meeting was held at the Society's library, in the city building, in Portland. President Bradbury called the meeting to order at 3 p.m. Mr. Bryant, the Librarian, read his report.
The following papers were read : —
An Historical Review of the Literature of Maine. By Joseph Williamson.
The Speech of Wywurna, the Indian Chieftain, at the Treaty at Georgetown, in August, 1717. By Rufus K. Sewall of Wis- casset.
170 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
At the evening session, Hon. Joseph W. Porter of Bangor, read biographical sketches of Col. Jonathan Eddy and Gen. David Cobb, heroes of the Revolution, and prominently identified with the history of Eastern Maine.
Votes of thanks were passed to Messrs. Williamson, Sewall and Porter, for their papers, and copies re- quested for the archives.
Annual Meeting, 1884.
The annual meeting was held at Brunswick, July 11, 1884, and was called to order at nine a.m., by the Pres- ident, Hon. James W. Bradbury. The records of the preceding year were read and approved. The reports of the Librarian and Cabinet-keeper, H. V/. Bryant, were read and accepted. The report of the Treasurer, Lewis Pierce, Esq., was read and accepted; also the reports of the Corresponding Secretary, William Goold, and of the Biographer, Joseph Williamson, were pre- sented and accepted.
W. G. Barrows reported a new draft of by-laws, with some slight changes in phraseology, but not changing the substance. They were adopted, and will soon be printed with the Act of incorporation and a list of res- ident members.
The President reported that he had received a letter from Mr. Francis Bennoch of London, chairman of the committee who placed a bust of Longfellow in West- minister Abbey, saying that having a sufficient surplus they had procured two plaster casts of it, one of which
PROCEEDINGS AT SEPTEMBER MEETING, 1884. 171
would be given to the library of Harvard College, and one to the Maine Historical Society. He had answered thanking him on behalf of the Society and accepting it. The following officers for the ensuing year were elected: —
President. James W. Bradbury, Augusta.
Vice-president, William G. Barrows, Brunswick.
Corresponding Secretary, William Goold, Windham.
Treasurer, Lewis Pierce, Portland.
Biographer, Joseph Williamson, Belfast.
Recording Secretary, Librarian and Cabinet Keeper, H. W. Bryant, Portland.
Standing Committee, Rufus K. Sewall, Wiscasset; William B. Lapham, Augusta; William Goold, Windham; Edward H. Elwell, Portland; Joseph Williamson, Belfast; James P. Baxter, Portland ; J. L. Chamberlain, Brunswick.
The following resident members were elected : —
George F. Emery, Portland.
John F. Sprague, Monson.
Alden F. Chase, Bucksport.
Charles F. Libby, Portland.
Charles F. Allen, Readfield.
Corresponding Members, Col. Charles C. Jones, Augusta, Ga. ; John E. Bailey, Stretford, England ; Rev. Robert Jamblin, Dart- ford, England ; Charles C. G. Thornton, Madison, Wisconsin ; Francis Bennoch, London, England.
Honorary Members, James G. Blaine, Augusta.
James P. Baxter was appointed a committee on field day with power to make the necessary arrangements.
Field Day at Richmond Island, Sept. 12, 1884.
The steamer Cadet was chartered for the day, and members of the Society, with friends, embarked for the island at 10 a.m., and arrived soon after 11.00.
172 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETr.
The steamer went around the island into the shel- tered harbor made by the breakwater, and disembarked the party in small boats upon the beach. A long pro- cession of people with baskets and wraps, presently streamed up to the farm house, and finally took pos- session of the barn, where President Bradbury called the company to order, and prayer was offered by Bishop Neely.
President Bradbury then made a short address, say- ing that they were assembled on historic ground, and eulogized the early settlers. He then presented the orator of the day, Mr. James P. Baxter, who gave an account of the early settlement of the island, which is believed to be the Isle de Bacchus, alluded to by Samuel Champlain, probably from the abundance of the wild grape formerly found there : —
Dim and uncertain are the glimpses we get of the period from 1605 to 1625. We have the names of several men who were liv- ing " in the house at Casko," in 1630, and for a brief moment the shadowy curtain of the past is lifted, revealing to us one George Richmond of Bandon bridge, in Irelaml, the cradle of Puritanism in that unfortunate land ; but he suddenly disappears, leaving us perplexed and disappointed. Certain, however, is it, that George Richmond was at the head of some enterprise which employed men ; which required the building of a vessel and the possession of a considerable stock of merchandise, and there seems to be reason to believe that he gave his name to this island, which was soon to become an important station for trade, and a goal to which ships coming upon the coast, directed their course.
Among the English merchants who sent ships to trade with the new world, were Robert Trelawny and Abraham Jennings of Plymouth.
The death of the senior Trelawny took place near the close of 1627, and he was succeeded by his son, Robert, who, in company
PROCEEDINGS AT SEPTEMBER MEETING, 1884. 173
with Moses Goodyear, the son-in-law of Jennings, inherited the spirit and tradition, as well as the business of the two pioneers in the New England trade. John Winter, probably a son of the early navigator of that name, was in the employ of Trelawny and Goodyear, and was familiar with Richmond Island and Casco Bay. The new partnei-s were well fitted to continue the enter- prise of their predecessors ; especially Robert Trelawny, who had inherited the ability and ambition of his father, a man not only successful as a merchant, but of considerable political prominence before his death.
Until the death of John Winter, the agent of Robert Trelawny, which took place in 1645, this island was a noted station for fish- ing and trade. Ships coming to New England dropped anchor in its harbor, which was often crowded with vessels, some being from England on private fishing enterprises ; some on voyages for trade with the settlers and Indians along the coast, and others from Spain and the West Indies, with liquors and wines to be exchanged for fish. Some of these ships which bore fire water to work ruin among the red men and the hardy toilers of the sea, scattered along the coast bore striking names, as the ship Holy Ghost, the Angel Gabriel, the White Angel of Bristol, and others of similar nomenclature, for this was an age when pious phrases were more common than practical piety.
The shores of this island are now unpeopled. The memorials of those who lived here have perished. The dust of John Winter and of his associates is beneath our feet, and the waves sing the same incomprehensible song which they sang when De Monts landed here, or when the treacherous Indian pulled his birchen canoe upon the beach, intent upon the murder of Bagnall. Yet here came Richard Mather, fleeing from oppression; William Wood, the quaint author of "New England's Prospect ; " Tom Morton, who wi'ote the " New English Canaan ; " Thomas Josse- lyn, Gent, made immortal by his " Two Voyages ; " the old knight, his father; Richard Vines, the trusted friend of Gorges and the founder of Biddeford ; Richard Gibson, the first clergyman of the Church of England, who established himself on the soil of Maine ; Robert Jordan, his successor, who began preaching here in 1641 ;
174 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
and many others as well known. Here, nearly two and a half centuries ago, Robert Jordan, the ancestor of thousands of Jor- dans in this country, preached to Winter's little colony.
At the close of Mr. Baxter's address, Dr. Charles E. Banks read a sketch of the life of Walter Bagnall, the first known inhabitant of Richmond Island, and who built there a trading post. Here he dickered with the uncommercial savages for the valuable furs of the beaver, otter and marten, giving them in return "stronge drinke," which he had taught them to imbibe. But a day of reckoning soon came for Bagnall, and he was killed by the Indians. The pot of gold and silver coins ploughed up on the island in 1855 may have been a part of Bagnall's ill-gotten treasure.
Votes of thanks were passed to Messrs. Baxter and Banks for their interesting papers; also a vote of thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Hugh J. Chisholm for their kind reception and attention to the party on the island.
January Meeting, 1885.
The January meeting, at the Society's library, city building, Portland, was called to order by Presi- dent Bradbury, at 2.30 p.m. Mr. Bryant, the librarian, read his report and at its conclusion stated that at the annual meeting last July the president had an- nounced that a copy of the bust of Longfellow, which had been recently placed in the " Poets' Corner," Westminster Abbey, had been offered to the Society by the Longfellow Memorial Committee of England. Acting on this offer Mr. Bryant had been in corres-
PROCEEDINGS AT JANUARY MEETING, 1885. 175
pondence with Francis Bennoch, the treasurer of the English Society, and he had now to announce that the bust had been sent on to Liverpool and would there be taken in charge by the management of the Allan Line of steamships, who had volunteered to bring it to Port- land free of charge. Messrs. Baxter, Barrage and Bry- ant were appointed a committee to receive the bust, and on motion of James P. Baxter,
Voted, That the thanks of the Maine Historical Society be extended to Francis Bennoch, Esq., of London, and the committee which he represents, for the valuable bust of the poet, Longfellow, which they have so kindly presented to the Society, and which will be preserved and cherished by us not only as a memorial of our beloved townsman, but also as a fraternal token from our kinsmen across the Atlantic ; also.
Voted, That this Society extend its thanks to Messrs H. & A. Allan for generously transporting to this country, free of expense, the bust of Longfellow presented to us by the kindness of our English brethren.
The following papers were read : —
The Aborigines of Maine. By Edward H. Elwell, Esq., of Peering.
The Voyage of George Weymouth in 1602, in Search of a Northwest Passage to India. By Rev. H. S. Burrage, d.d., of Portland.
Biographical Sketch of John G. Deane of Portland, and brief mention of his services in connection with the northeast boundary of Maine. By Llewellyn Deane, Esq., of Washington, D. C, read by Gen, John Marshall Brown.
President Bradbury then spoke as follows : —
At our annual meeting in Brunswick, on the eleventh of July last. Professor Packard was with us in his usual good health. Two days afterward he was numbered with the dead.
176 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The first meeting of our Society after that sad event, was our field-day meeting on Richmond Island, on the eleventh of Sep- tember, at which a committee was appointed, consisting of Judge Barrows, Dr. Lapham and myself, to prepare and report for the action of the Society some appropriate resolutions expressive of our appreciation of his character and respect for his memory, to be placed upon the records of the Society. I am instructed by your committee to make such report from the pen of Judge Barrows.
You will pardon me for detaining you a few moments before offering it for your consideration.
Professor Packard has been so long with us, and his agreeable presence has been so uniformly enjoyed at our meetings, that it almost seems as if he was a necessary part of our assemblage. He was one of the earliest elected members after the organization of the corporation, and was associated with its founders. The act of incorporation was approved February 19, 1822. It embraced forty-nine corjaorators. The Society was organized April 11, 1822. Albion K. Parris was chosen president; Chief Justice Mellen, treasurer, and Rev. Dr. Payson, librarian. Only twenty- five merabei's were added prior to 1828, at which time Professor Packard was elected a member.
The corporators numbered 49
There were elected prior to 1846 117
Making 166
Of this number, Professor Packard, before his death, was the sole survivor. In 1846 there were sixty-nine members elected, swelling the list to two hundred and thirty-five ; and of this num- ber, I think there remains but two names against which the fatal * must not be placed : CuUen Sawtelle * of New York, and his who now addresses you. It is a remarkable fact, to which I have heretofore alluded, that the average life of the forty-nine corporators was more than seventy-two, and nearly seventy-three years.
From the time of Professor Packard's election, in 1828, up to the day of his decease, — a period of fifty-six years, — he was an
* Since deceased.
PKOCEEDINGS AT JANUARY MEETING, 1885. 177
active, interested and useful member. He became librarian and cabinet-keeper in 1836, as the successor of Henry W. Longfellow ; and by annual re-elections he continued to hold and discharge the responsible duties of that position until 1881, when the library was removed to Portland, at which time he declined a re-election. While the death of this good man, this Christian gentleman, always so courteous, so delicately respectful of the feelings of others, without losing his own self-respect, calls forth the sym- pathy of the whole community, we who have enjoyed the privi- lege of so intimate an association in fraternal relations, are oppi'essed with a deeper sorrow.
He lives in our memory. We recall the incidents of the meet- ing held in this hall on the twenty- third of December, 1882, in commemoration of his eighty-fourth birthday. The proceedings of that meeting are fresh in our recollection. The graceful manner in which he received the congratulations of his friends, the erect figure, the undimmed eye, the elastic step with which he came forward, and the delicate taste of his classic response to our greetings, made a scene so beautiful and impressive that it cannot be effaced from the memory of those who witnessed it.
During the last year of his life he filled the important position of acting president of Bowdoin College. Three days before his death he performed the arduous duties of president at Commence- ment. He presided during all the Commencement exercises, and the conferring of the degrees ; and he closed the service by a prayer, so appropriate, devout and touching, it almost seemed an inspiration. He then presided at the Commencement dinner, and when the hour for post jyrandial speeches arrived, in a most graceful and happy manner he introduced the different speakers who were called upon for remarks : The Governor, Mr. Hale of Boston, Mr, Blaine, Mr. Frye and others. In the evening, with- out apparent fatigue, he and his graceful partner gave a presiden- tial reception at their residence, at which the members of the college boards, the students and strangers, were most hospitably received.
In the full possession of his mental and bodily powers, and in the enjoyment of the affections of the hosts of students he had Vol. II. 13
178 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
taught, and of tlie community in which ho lived, he passed with- out sickness or debility, at a bound, from this to a brighter life.
I have the honor to j^resent, for your consideration, the mem- orial from the pen of Judge Barrows : —
" RESOLUTIONS ON THE LATE DR. PACKARD.
" In view of the recent death of their senior member, the Maine Historical Society, desiring to place upon their records some token of the love and esteem in which they held him, and of tlieir sense of his worth and their loss, adopt the following minute : —
"Alpheus Spring Packard, eldest son of Kev. Dr. Hezekiah Packai-d, was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, December 23, 1798 ; entered Bowdoin College from Wiscasset, whither his father had removed, and graduated in regular course with the class of 1816; became connected with the college as an instructor in 1819, and so remained, exercising various functions throughout his long and useful life, which closed on Sunday, July 13, 1884, while he was the acting president of the institution, to the service of which that life was mainly devoted for sixty-five years. He became a member of our Society in 1828, and for forty-five years prior to 1881, he served assiduously as our librarian and cabinet- keeper, and for the last ten years of that term as secretary, also ; faithfully performing the duties thus devolving on him until the removal of the library and cabinet to Portland made a change necessary.
" We cannot appropriately express the feelings with which we have long regarded him in the wonted phrases of inflated or com- mon-place panegyric ; and we feel that they would be distasteful to him who filled, as few ever can, the character of a poUshed, modest yet self-respecting, Christian gentleman.
" Most noteworthy among the traits of his truly venerable character, were his nice sense of honor and probity, his honest hostility to all shams and pretenses, and his ready and faithful response to the sternest requirements of duty as he understood it. His life exemplified his faith in the maxim,
Puras Deus^ non plenas, adspicit manus.
" He was one of that corps of instructors in Bowdoin College whose names are so pleasantly familiar to the generation of schol-
PKOCEEDINGS AT JANUARY MEETING, 1885. 179
ars in Maine and New England that is now fast passing aAvay — that single minded and unselfish body of men who, in the midst of a people rapidly growing more greedy of gain and less scrup- nlons of honor, devoted their lives and energies to making a reputation for their college by diligent and methodical work in their several departments, with results far surpassing in practical utility any that could have been obtained from a richer endow- ment less worthily manned.
" It was to him as the sole suiwivor of that honored band that Longfellow in the Morituri Salutamus addressed the eloquent and graceful tribute commencing with the Jines : —
" Honor and reverence and the good repute That follows faithful service as its fruit, Be unto him, whom, living, we salute.
" Vainly should we strive to add anything to such sweet praise so fittingly bestowed. We chronicle now only the sense of loss we experience in his departure. He was with us at our annual meeting on Friday, July 11, and 'his face was as the face of an angel.' Two days later he received from the Master whom he reverently served the only plaudit that he ever with set purpose sought, — ' Well done ! good and faithful servant.' "
The meeting then adjourned until evening at 7.30.
Evening Session.
There was a good attendance at the evening session. Mr. George F. Emery read a paper on the Voice of Maine, as heard in the formation of the Federal Gov- ernment.
Next followed a paper by Mr. Rufus K. Sewall of Wiscasset on the extent of the Spanish Occupancy of Maine.
Mr. E. H. Elwell followed with a paper on the origin and Growth of the Newspaper Press in Maine. He began with a brief description of newspaper history
180 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
down to the time of publishing the Portland Ga- zette in 1785, just one hundred years ago. Portland was then a village of about two thousand people. In 1786 the name of the paper was changed to the Cum- berland Gazette. In 1790 the Gazette of Maine' was first issued. In 1831 the first daily paper was started. The Eastern Argus was issued in 1803 and became a daily in 1835. From this time papers increased rap- idly in number.
Votes of thanks were passed for the papers read at both sessions and copies of the same requested for the archives.
LONGFELLOW BIKTHDAT. 181
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY.
The committee appointed at the January meeting made arrangements for a meeting at the City Hall, Portland, on the evening of the seventy-eighth anni- versary of the Poet's birthday, February 27, 1885, and sent out the following invitation to the members of the Society, and to friends in other States : —
INVITATION.
1807. 1885.
The Maine Historical Society Will unveil the Replica of the Westminster Abbey- Bust of the Poet
LONGFELLOW,
at the City Hall, Portland, Me., Fridaj^ evening, 27 February, 1885, with brief addresses by prominent speakers, and music by the Haydn Association, for the benefit of the
LONGFELLOW STATUE ASSOCIATION OF PORTLAND.
James P. Baxter, ^
Henry S. Burrage, >- Committee.
H. W. Bryant, )
In response to this invitation poems and letters were received, and the following programme was arranged :
182 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Unveiling of the Replica of the Westminster Abbey Bust of Longfellow, City Hall, Portland, Me., F'riday evening, 27 Feb- ruary, 1885, for the benefit of the Longfellow Statue Association of Portland.
Order of Exercises.
opening address and unveiling of the bust By James P. Baxter, Chairman.
A WELCOME HOME TO LONGFELLOW,
Poem by Mrs. Frances L. Mace, of Bangor.
Choral — to god on high, Mendelssohn.
Haydn Association.
letters from invited GUESTS. poets' corner, WESTMINSTER abbey,
Address by Hon. Joseph W. Symonds.
EXCELSIOR
By Messrs. Coyle and Pennell, and Chorus by the Haydn Association, Arranged by H. Kotzschmar.
AMERICAN LITERATURE IN ENGLAND,
Address by Professor Henry L. Chapman, of Bowdoin College.
Chorus — THE HEAVENS ARE TELLING, Haydn.
Haydn Association.
THE DEBT OF PORTLAND TO THE MEMORY OF LONGFELLOW, Address by George F. Talbot, Esq,
Address by Hon. Charles F. Libby, President Longfellow Statue Association.
Hallelujah Chorus — from the mount op olives.
Beethoven. Haydn Association.
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 183
UNVEILING OF THE BUST.
On the evening of the twenty-seventh of February, the city hall was filled with a large and attentive as- sembly. At the front of the platform was a pedestal six feet in height, draped with maroon colored felt, on which was placed the bust, veiled by the American flag. On the platform were seated the Portland Haydn Association, one hundred in number, under the leader- ship of Mr. Hermann Kotzschmar, the speakers of the evening, and several other members of the Historical Society. Mr. Harvey S. Murray was the pianist, and Miss Belle Bartlett, Mr. Albert E. Pennell, and Mr. John B. Coyle, jr., were the soloists.
The music was of the high class for which the Asso- ciation is noted. The sino-ino; of "Excelsior " created an enthusiastic encore, which was denied only on account of the length of the programme, until later in the evenino;.
OPENING ADDRESS.
BY JAMES PHINNEY BAXTER, PORTLAND.
Members of the 3faine Historical Society, Ladies and Gentle- men: —
It is my privilege and pleasure to unveil before you, on the anniversary of his nativity, a bust of Portland's most honored son, honored not only in America, but in our Fatherland, as no other American has hitherto been.
The honor conferred upon the memory of our Poet, by placing his bust in the Poets' Corner of that temple of magnificent memo- ries, "Westminster Abbey, and a presentation of a copy of that bust to the Poet's native city, has more than a passing signifi- cance. It signifies that the bonds of sympathy and affection be- tween us and our kinsfolk on the other side of the Atlantic are
184 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
still strong, and while this bust exists it will be between us and them a token of fraternity and good-will.
As all may not know how the Maine Historical Society came into possession of this bust, it is proper that I should inform you*
When the news of the death of our Poet reached the other side of the Atlantic, a common impulse seemed to direct the mitids of Englishmen to one thought, which was to adopt Longfellow as one of their own native poets, and domicile him, by symbol, in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. This thought drew into active association a large number of persons eminent in liter- ature, art, science and religion, and this association is known as the Longfellow Memorial Committee, the chairman of which is the Prince of Wales. Among its members are the Earl of Derby, Earl of Granville, Baroness Burdett Coutts, Rev. Dr. Bickersteth, Professor John Stuart Blackie, Sir Thomas and Lady Bi-assey, Wilkie Collins, Moncure D. Conway, Thomas Faed, Sir John Gilbert, Jean Ingelow, John Everett Millais, Max Miiller, Lyon Playfair, Sir Frederick Leighton, Alfred Tennyson, and others of equal note ; in fact, the Memorial Committee is a large one, numbering over four hundred persons. After the organization of the committee, the necessary funds were speedily subscribed, and the choice of an artist was assigned to Sir Frederick Leighton, the President of the Royal Academy, who selected Thomas Brock, an associate member of the Academy, to make the bust for the Abbey. Mr. Brock is well known by many important works, among which we may recall Hereward of the Wake, the Nymph of the Fountain, A Moment of Peril, also portrait statues of Robert Raikes, Rowland Tlill, and others of like merit. Hav- ing secured a bust for the Abbey, which was the admiration of all, the committee conceived the hai)py idea of presenting a copy of it to the Poet's native city, as well as to the town where he died. This note, which I now read, will explain the rest : —
London, 1st December^ 18S4.
To the President and Council of the Historical Society of Maine: —
Gentlemen. — The Executive Committee of the Longfellow Memorial Fund have much pleasure in presenting to the President and Council of the Historical Society of Maine, a copy of the bust of Henry Wadsworth
LONGFELLOW BIRTHPAT. 185
Longfellow, executed by Thoraus Brock, a.r.a., and recently placed amongst the memorials of British worthies, in Poets' Corner, Westmin- ster Abbey.
They trust that a prominent place may be assigned to it, in connection with your Society, under its guai'dianship, and in the Poet's native city of Portland, where the memorial bust will testify to future generations the aifectionate and fraternal regard which binds in closest amity the kindred people who speak the same language on both sides of the Atlantic ocean.
Albert EdwAUD P., Chairman of Committee.
W. C. Bennett, Hon. Secretary.
F. Bennoch, Treasurer.
Having given you these simple particulars, I now withdraw the veil from the counterfeit presentment of one who is to be here- after numbered among those
Olympian bards who sung
Divine ideas below. Which always find us young
And always keep us so.
As the speaker concluded, he drew the drapery from the replica, disclosing the familiar face of the Poet, chiseled with such skill that it seemed as though the man himself were present, the artist having impressed upon his work the dignity and sweetness which were the Poet's especial characteristics.
At the request of the chairman, the secretary then read extracts from the replies that had been received to the committee's circular of invitation.
Fkom Hon. James W. Bradbury, op Augusta, President of Maine Historical Society.
Augusta., 20th February, 1885. I regret that the state of my health will not allow me to be with you on the twenty-seventh, as the occasion is one in which I feel an especial interest.
It is to do honor to the memory of him who has conferred
186 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
signal honor not only upon our Society, of whicli ho was a mem- bei', but also upon his native city and his native land.
He has made " Longfellow " a historic name in the Republic of Letters, in the old world as well as the new, so that represent- atives of the learning, the culture, and the rank of the great nation, whose language he adorned, have assigned his bust a place in Westminster Abbey, by the side of those of its own most illustrious names, an honor for the first time conferred upon an American citizen. These distinguished gentlemen have done us the honor to present to the Maine Historical Society a replica of the bust, to be preserved here in the city of his birth, the beautiful commercial metropolis of the State, in close proximity to the home in which he was reared, in the midst of his own kindred and fellow citizens, to be a perpetual reminder, not only of our beloved Poet, but also of the friendly spirit of those distinguished representatives who have contrib- uted this new bond of friendship between our land and that of our ancestors.
Very truly yours,
James W. Bradbury.
From Hon. Geo. Baxcropt.
1G23 H. St., N. W., Washington, D. C.,) 25th February, 1885. j
My Dear Sirs, — T rejoice in what you have done in securing a copy of the bust of Longfellow, which has been placed in "Westminster Abbey, and still more applaud your plan of erect- ing a statue to his name in the state of his birth. The best statue of a poet that I have ever seen is that made by Thor- waldsen, and preserved in the Library of Trinity Hall in Cam- bridge, England. It is an exquisite work of art, in pure white marble, and was by ThorAvaldsen a labor of love, given to the college where Bj'^ron had been a student. The plan of a bronze statue, out of doors, on the public highway, near the headquar- ters of Washington at Cambridge, did not seem to me to be adequate. The statue of our Poet should be of marble, and find
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 187
its place in your State library, or in the library of the University in which Longfellow was educated, or in the rooms of your own Society. Wishing you perfect success in yoijr endeavor,
I am most sincerely yours,
Geo. Bancroft.
From John G. Whittiee.
Oak Knoll, Danvees, Mass., "> 2d Mo., 15, 1885. }
Dear Friend : — I am sorry it is not in my power to accept the invitation of the committee to be present at the unveiling of the bust of Longfellow, on the twenty-seventh inst., or to write anything worthy of the occasion in metrical form.
The gift of the Westminster Abbey committee cannot fail to add another strong tie of sympathy between two great English sj^eaking peoples. And never was gift more fitly bestowed. The city of Portland, the Poet's birthplace, " beautiful for situation," looking from its hills on the scenery he loved so well, Deering Oaks, the many-islanded bay, and far inland mountains delectable in sunset, needed this sculptured representation of her illustrious son, and may well testify her joy and gratitude at its reception, and repeat in so doing the words of the Hebrew prophet : — " O man, greatly beloved ! — Thou shalt stand in thy place." I am very truly thy friend,
John G. Whittier.
From Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Boston, February 24, 1885.
Mt Dear Sir : — I thank you and your associates for your kind invitation to be present at the unveiling of the bust of Long- fellow. I regret that I shall be unable to be with you on that very interesting occasion.
Of all the marbles that fill Westminster Abbey with the glory of great memories, not one bears one speaking a language so eloquent as that which is faithfully reproduced in the bust before
188 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
US, for it announces itself as a pledge of brotherhood recorded iu the most sacred shrine of a great nation with which we have sometimes been at variance, but to whose home and race our affections must ever cling so long as blood is thicker than water.
The seemingly feeble link of a sentiment is often stronger than the adamantine chain of a treaty. It is the province of literature, and especially of poetry, which deals Avith the sentiments common to humanity, to obliterate the geographical and jjolitical bound- aries of nations, and make them one in feeling. The beautiful tribute of Englishmen to an American poet, giving him a place in their jjroudest mausoleum, by the side of their bravest, best, noblest, greatest, is a proof of friendship and esteem so genuine that it overlaps all the barriers of nationality. How much we owe to the memory of tlie Poet who has won for his birthplace, for his country, for American literature, the honors sparingly granted to the children of the land which holds his monumental effigy.
Yours very truly,
Oliver Wejs^dell Holmes.
Fkom John Ward Dean of Boston.
Boston, 20th February, 1885.
I regret that I cannot meet with j^ou on such an interesting occasion.
I remember Professor Longfellow when I lived in Portland, which I left in 1835. I remember his courteous manners and his line appearance. His father, Hon. Stephen Longfellow, and his father-in-law, Hon. Barrett Potter, resided in Portland, and he, then a professor in i3owdoin College, often visited them. I was an admirer of his poetry. His Outr^ Mer^ which was published about that time, led me to an appreciation of him as a prose writer.
It is with pride that I remember that I am a native of the state which gave the world the genius of Longfellow.
Your friend,
John Ward Dean.
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 189
From Mrs. Elizabeth Akers Allen (Florence Percy), Inclosing a contribution to the Longfellow Statue Association.
WOODBRIDGE, N. J., \
February 24, 1885. j I very much regret that I am unable to accept the invitation of the Society to be present at the unveiling of the bust of Longfellow. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to testify thus my appreciation of the late Poet. I admire his genius, and marvel at his achievements. I respect and revere him for his gentle courtesy and kindliness, and I love him for the utter blamelessness and purity of his life, which proved that it is not necessary for genius to be accompanied by what are kindly called « eccentricities," but that a great man may be also a good man. No sweeter memory than his can be perpetuated; no better example can be placed before American youth. Being dead, he yet speaketh, and will continue to speak so long as his coimtrymen and countrywomen have ears to be charmed and hearts to be touched.
Respectfully yours,
Elizabeth Akers Allen.
From George William Curtis.
West New Brighton, Staten Island, ) February 23, 1885. |
I regret sincerely that I am unable to accept your kind invitation.
I do not wonder that the citizens of his native state should wish to do honor to the memory of the Poet, whose serene and gracious genius has endeared his name to his country and to the English speaking worid, and whose hfe was as pure and beauti- ful as his song.
Very truly yours,
George William Curtis.
190 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
FitoM Edmund C. Stedman.
New York, February 20, 1885. It is with regret that I find mj-self unable to be present at the unveiling of the bust of Longfellow, on the 27th, inst.
Among all the associations which the name of your city brings to mind, there is no other so lasting and so full of honor as, that it was the birthplace of Longfellow, for that exquisite Poet, more than any other American, awoke in his countrymen a sense of the beautiful, interpreted for them the beauty of the old world, and stimulated them by his example to create and develop new forms of beauty in the world that is their own.
Very truly yours,
Edaiund C. Stedman.
From Prop. Charles F. Richardson, of Dartmouth College.
Hanover, N. H., | February 20, 1885. )
I hope I am not obli\'ious to the claims of our other chief
poets, but, all in all, I do not see how the fii'st place among
American poets can be assigned to another than Longfellow,
when we think of his inner purpose, outward expression, breadth
of range, and character at once national and catholic.
Yours faithfully,
Charles F. Richardson.
From John Boyle O'Reilly.
Boston, February, 20, 1885. I regret that my engagements will not allow me to be present. Next in human value to the Poet's own teaching is the people's love and jserception. These two constitute the symbol of a poem.
Yours very truly,
John Boyle O'Reilly.
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 191
UNVEIL THE BUST.
BY CALEB DAVIS BEADLEE, BOSTON.
Unveil the Bust ; reveal the face
So full of light, so full of grace !
Where soul doth speak and heart doth glow,
And all, the Poet's worth can know !
Give honor to the one so good, Who fed each day on angels' food, Whose words, like music, charmed us all, And seem e'en now on us to fall !
Unveil the Bust ; recall the man ;
Do all you may, and all you can
To make alive the one so grand.
Whose works are known throughout the land !
He still doth live, thanks be to God !
His feet through earth and heaven have trod !
We love him here, he's loved above.
For all his life was filled with love !
HE IS NOT DEAD,
BY CAROLINE DANA HOWE, PORTLAND.
He is not dead ? Behold him here, Still living in this semblance clear, Though silent to our pleading eyes. As stars that gleam thi'ough misty skies.
He is not dead ! His anthems grand Of flowing sweetness or command, Find answering hearts, divinely thrilled, That vibrate as his song has willed.
192 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
To pure emotion kindled warm, His poet-soul gave life and form, Enfolding all ideal thought In royal vestment, love enwrought.
With native sovereignty of mind. Life's higher forces he combined ; For he who greatness would achieve Must comprehend it and believe.
If separated from its God, The soul leaves noblest ways untrod; This truth upon his heart he bore A sacred shield for evermore.
So voiced he with unsullied lips, Broad Nature's 'lumined manuscripts, Until old ocean's organ-tones Rehearsed his songs in far-off zones.
O Bard ! whose life can never end, Thy greatness will all rank transcend ; For virtue here thy fame outran And stamped thee clear, a noble man.
A WELCOME HOME TO LONGFELLOW.
BY MRS. FRANCES L. MACE, BAXGOR.
Face of our Bard Belov(^d ! Clothed upon With an immortal beauty, welcome home !
Bringing the crown in Song's dominion won, To the dear city of thy boyhood, come !
Though now no more the wind from off the sea
Shall bring the " long, long thoughts of Youth " to thee.
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 193
Loyal and fond thy heai't to us was turned
From proudei^seats of honor and renown. Through shadowing years, thy memory still discerned
The haunts and faces of the seaside town. And we, — though round the world thy songs had flown, Rejoiced to know the minstrel was our own.
From yonder waves that moan along the hay, From yonder woods that whisper of thy fame,
Awoke the themes of many a soaring lay
Whose wings, unfurled, were dij^ped in sunrise flame.
Here Nature taught thee her serenest truth,
And gave thy soul to drink of deathless youth.
Sovereign of hearts ! It was thy heritage
A rare and happy realm to have and hold. Magician ! bringing forth from every age
Treasures time-worn, and changing them to gold ; — Priest ! at the altar of the world's delight. With garments beautiful and always white.
Far shone abroad thy fair and full orbed life
With the still radiance of a morning star, And fell thy songs on days of cloud and strife
Like bells of peace, rung clearly from afar, The latest cadence wafted on the air. Thy life's Amen, — " 'Tis daybreak everywhere ! "
O well may generous England give a place
To thee among her sons of song sublime ! No purer life that haunted shrine shall grace.
No sweeter voice ring down the aisles of time. Yet we, with tender worship, lift above Thy laurels the undying rose of love.
Vol. IL 14
194 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
LONGFELLOW AS THE AUTHOR OF ETANGELINE.
BY JOSEPH WILLIAMSON, BELFAST.
When Pope was asked to furnisli an inscription for Shakes- peare's monument in Westminster Abbey, he replied, " No ! I cannot write it. Let us have some of his own lines. No other man is worthy to record his fame. Let us say nothing ; we can- not praise Shakespeare." And so the tablet bears only a few immortal worJs uttered by Prosjiero, in the play of Temi>est.
A similar feeling influences us this evening. It seems like gilding refined gold, or painting the lily, to attempt any pane- gyric of Longfellow, and that our fittest eulogy would be a recital of some of his own poems, that give resignation in sorrow, or make still brighter the bright moments of life, or which, in these winter days, recall " the breath of the pines, the odor of the sea, the fragrance of the summer fields, the voices of the brooks and of the ocean, the glories of the heavens, the serene light of the evening sky, the pensive beauty of the firmament blossoming with stars," — subjects of which he has so frequently sung, and wliich are so deeply associated with him in our memory.
It is a pleasant thought that places upon which the light of genius has been shed, partake of human sympathy when that light is withdrawn. Hawthorne, by his mystic romances of early New England life, has given a permanent attraction to the homes of the Puritans ; while the glowing topical descriptions of Cooper have invested the regions of the west with an imperishable charm. But however graceful and enduring are the works of our native prose writers in imjjarting a deep and vivid interest to American localities and traditions, Longfellow has produced the first purely indigenous American poem which will have more than a brief existence. Before Evangeline appeared, Campbell was the only author of reputation who had attempted to portray objects and events of the new world in verse, but his story of Gertrude of Wyoming is too abruptly told, and its images are drawn with too little regard for the truth of scenery or manners ever to make the valley of the Susquehanna classic ground. Such deficiencies are absent from Longfellow's beautiful pastoral.
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 195
" Painting with Homeric simplicity " the plain features of life in Acadie, he has rendered the inhospitable shores of that country- more familiar to the general reader than any otiier portion of our coast. He has clothed scenes, before regarded as barren and desolate, with life and matter, with interest and passion. His wand of genius has struck the desert rock, and it flows with the tide of fancy. It has converted Nova Scotia into holy land, toward which the feet of literary pilgrims will ever tend. " Upon the publication of Marmion," remarks Lockhart, "post- horse duty rose to an extraordinary degree in Scotland, from the eagerness of travelers to examine the places described," Every year now sees an increase of visitors to the former home of the unfortunate French exiles, drawn there solely by that tale of love and sadness which has so indelibly inscribed the author's name upon every hill and forest of that region. So accurately has he described natural objects, that Blomidon, Gaspereau, and the Basin of Minas are identified as if one was directed by a golden bough, although they were never seen by Longfellow. In a let- ter written during his last illness to Father Beaudry of Montreal, he regretted that he had never been at Grand Pre. He added, that Evangeline was historical only as founded on the dispersion of the Acadians, and that its story was a legend or tradition. The origin of the poem was found in his own hand- writing, as follows : —
" Hawthorne dined one day with L. (Longfellow), and brought with him a friend from Salem. After dinner the friend said : 'I have been trying to persuade Hawthorne to write a story based upon a legend of Acadie, and still current there, the legend of a girl who, in the dispersion of the Acadians, was separated from her lover, and passed her life in waiting and seeking fcr him, and only found him dying in a hosjjital when both were old.' L. wondered that this legend did not strike the fancy of Haw- thorne, and said to him : ' If you have really made up your mind not to use it for a story, will you give it to me for a poem ? ' To this Hawthorne assented, and moreover promised not to treat the subject in prose, till L. had seen what he could do with it iu verse."
196 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Although the recent researches of Parkraan have somewhat detracted from the sympathy formerly felt for the Acadians, and have shown that their removal was not merciless persecution, but only necessary banishment, ihe -poetic version of the event will always be received to the exclusion of prosaic history. The words of old Fletcher, " If a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation," is as true at the present day as when written two centuries ago ; and the brilliant imagery of Longfellow, in delineating a peaceful retreat rendered desolate by a relentless foe, has secui'ed a po)>u- lar verdict which dry facts cannot reverse. "You can never weed these household songs and stories out of Scotland," said Sir Walter Scott. " It is not so much that the people believe in them, as that they delight in them." Tradition and legend are })reserved in the song of the minstrel, rather than on the page of the chronicler.
Evangeline caused a recognition of Longfellow's merits in England more than any of his previous works had done. Her growing esteem for American writers is manifested by the posi- tion which she has assigned him in the great re2>ublic of letters. Milton observed that " the Italians were not forward to bestow encomiums on men of this side the Alps." Until recently, a similar remark would apply to the English concerning men on this side of the Atlantic. It is fitting that their departure from this exclusiveness should l)e shown by giving a place to Long- fellow among the memorials of Chaucer and of Spencer ; of Shakespeare and of Milton; of Addison, Dryden, Gray, G-old- smith, and others of the great and revered in Poets' Corner. And it is right and becoming that the city which gave him birth, where his youth was spent, and toward which his affections always leaned, together with the Society, of wlaich he was an early and valued member, should be the guai'dians of the ex- quisite copy of the protoplast which adorns that consecrated spot. Long may this bust, typifying as it does the purity of his character and works, be faithfully protected, that future genera- tions may gaze u]ion it, and be inspired to noble thoughts, and hisfh levels of action !
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 197
POETS' CORNER, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
BY JOSEPH W. SYMOXDS, PORTLAXD.
One of our New England authors, after describing the first meeting-house of its early forest-settlers, — "a small structure, low-roofed, without a spire, and built of rough timber, newly- hewn, with the sap still in the logs, and here and there a strip of bark adhering to them — a meaner temple was never consecrated to the worship of the Deity," — pauses to wonder how they could have dispensed with the carved altar- work, the pictured windows, transfiguring the light of common day, the lofty roof hallowed by the prayers which had gone upward for centuries, the solemn organ pealing through the dim arches ot" vast cathedr;ils, or along the aisles of the old ivy-covered churches of rural England.
" They needed nothing of all this," he adds. " Their house of worship, like their ceremonial, was naked, simple and severe. But the zeal of a recovered faith burned like a lamp in their hearts, enriching everything around them with its radiance, making of these new walls and this narrow compass its own cathedral."
Their own exi^erience, too, had heightened this love of sim- plicity of life and worshij). Bitter memories of the strife and suffering which had driven them over the sea, made their hearts cold to the native land which had found no place for them in its stately order of church and state, and for a while, perhaps, exile from it all seemed sweet to them.
But neither men nor nations can cut themselves off from the past. They who were of the English race, consciously or uncon- sciously, planted in the wilderness the seeds of the English civil- ization, to flourish in new vigor and beauty on the new soil, under the strange sky. English traditions ruled the little settlements on the sea-board, or in the edge of the forests, till at length they shaped themselves into laws and institutions that were only an- other growth upon the old stock.
And when the fury of sects and factions had burned and ex- pired, when the old feuds were ended and time had softened or effaced the enmities of generations, it was natural that we should
198 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
turn more and more to England again, to claim, as a rightful inheritance, our share in the glories of her history and literature, in the monuments of her greatness and renown, in the historical interest and charm of those ages which jjreceded the time when our history divided from hers.
Who ever loitered in Westminster Abbey, with a mind and heart more open to the lesson and influence of the place, than Washington Irving? As Edmund Burke said : — " The moment I entered Westminster Abbey, I felt a kind of awe pervade my mind which I cannot describe ; the very silence seemed sacred," so Irving said, " On entering, the magnitude of the building breaks fully upon the mind. The eye gazes with wonder at the clustered columns of gigantic dimensions, with arches springing from them to such an amazing height. It seems as if the awful nature of the place presses down upon the soul, and hushes the beholder into noiseless reverence."
When the shouts of the Westminster schoolboys break in upon his revery and upon the monastic stillness about him, he escapes into the deeper solitudes of the pile, following the verger through " the portal rich with the crumbling sculpture of former ages," into the library, and there holds his fanciful colloquy with the talkative quarto volume of Shakespeare's time upon the mutability of literature.
The courts of the Alhambra, to Irving, even, could never have been so thronged with memories as were the old gray cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
The place itself, consecrated as the site of a Christian church from an immemorial date, almost from the time when the last Roman legion left Britain ; over which successive waves of inva- sion have swept, and the wars and revolutions of English history have rolled ; where Saxon, Dane and Norman kings have reigned, and the long succession of English sovereigns have been crowned; the abbey, on which the shadows of the middle ages still seem to rest ; itself a mosaic of English history, of the taste, judgment and resources of different epochs ; a mormment and memorial of ages more picturesque than our own, of the ages of myth, miracle, romance and mystery, in which it was founded ; eloquent at once
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 199
of all that the beautiful and grand in architecture can teach, and of the moral and meaning of change and decay ; which has sur- vived sudden and violent, and gradual and silent changes in the church and faith which reared it ; this immemorial resting-place of the illustrious dead; "this great temple of silence and recon- ciliat'on, where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried ; " — in what a revery or rapture may memory and the imagination, hand in hand, wander here at will, while the silent influences of the place steal in upon the haunted mind.
I believe Goldsmith is said to have first applied the name Poets' Corner to the southern end of the south transept of Westminster Abbey. Here, about the simple memorials of the poets, visitors at the abbey are most likely to liiiger. " A kinder and fonder feeling takes the place of that cold cuiiosity or vague admiration with which they gaze on the splendid monuments of the great and heroic. They linger about these as about the tombs of friends and companions."
Many a name commemorated here is already forgotten. Many a famous and brilliant name in English literr':;ar3 is without mem- orial. Chaucer, Spencer, Shakespeare and Sen Jonson, Milton, Drydea, Gray and Goldsmith, these are among the names in the brilliant lineage of English genius which are read upon the mem- orials in Poets' Corner.
But Westminster Abbey and its monuments to the great of past ages and of our own times, are too familiar to you all for me to hope to excite a moment's interest by any words of description.
The event we celebrate tonight is the reception hj our Maine Historical Society, from the munificence of the English committee, of a copy of the bust which has been placed in Poets' Corner, in memory of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The admission of an American name, however illustrious, to the honor of commemora- tion in Westminster Abbey, is an event that has excited the interest and touched the hearts of all our countrymen.
The reception, by our State Historical Society, of this admirable bust is an event that may well be celebrated with peculiar pride here in our city, where Longfellow was born, where his boyhood and early youth were passed, with which his family has been
200 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
identified from an early period, and where his family name was an honored one before his life and works had given to it the luster of his genius and fame.
At the close of his address, Mr. Symonds, at the request of the Secretary, read the last stanza of Long- fellow's poem on Robert Burns, from the original man- uscript presented to the Maine Historical Society by Rev. Samuel Longfellow of Cambridge.
Then came the musical feature of the evening. Excelsior, given by Messrs. A. E. Pennell and John B. Coyle jr., and chorus by the Haydn Association, arranged by Prof. Kotzschmar. The fine tenor of Mr. Pennell and the grand bass of Mr. Coyle charmed every one, while the chorus was in no whit deficient. Seldom has more delightful singing been heard in City Hall. Mr. Murray's accompaniment was also worthy of high praise.
AMERICAN LITERATURE IN ENGLAND.
BY PROFESSOR HENRY L. CHAPMAN OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE.
There are some interesting points of resemblance between nations and individuals. Those who go forth from an ancestral home that is enriched with the traditions of a proud family life, and filled with the refinements and luxuries that have been added through successive generations, — those who go forth from such a home, and build for themselves a lodge in the wilderness,]' — are no sooner established in their new dwelling, with its w^ealth of discomforts and its poverty of associations, than they begin to be solicitous about their standing with those who are left in posses- sion of the inherited traditions and privileges of the family home. And especially is this true if the separation has not been a kindly
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 201
one, if there has been harshness on the one side, and indepen- dence on the other ; if hard thoughts have been cherished, and ungenerous words exchanged. The feeling of alienation does not so much stifle as stimulate the pride of the exile to appear well, at least in the eyes of those from whom he has voluntarily separated himself. He has the suspicion, — not without some good grounds, — that they will hold themselves superior to him in manners, if not in morals. And about the old hearthstone the sentiment probably prevails that there must be deterioration in the transplanted stock ; that it must, of necessity, lose the graces that cluster under the old roof-tree, and must take on something of the rudeness of its present surroundings. And so with a feeling of calm superiority on the one hand, and of acute sensitiveness on the other, there is an absence or an awkwardness of family intercourse, which is apt to degenerate into the more unkindly forms of mutual criticism. It is not until the new home has acquired a stability and refinement of its own, and the in- dissoluble ties of blood have reasserted their power in spite of distance and difference, that the relations of equality and kinship are renewed, and there is unrestrained intercourse, accompanied by a friendly and cordial recognition of each other's merits as well as defects. The superficial differences of experience and expression and habit are of slight import to those who trace their descent from the same honored ancestx'y, who bear the same family name, who speak the same language, who cherish the same faith.
It is every day becoming clearer that English and American are two names for one people. The stress of intellectual conflict upon religious themes first separated them ; the stress of actual war widened the breach, and diversities in their forms of gov- ernment seemed to make permanent the unhappy division. But the family tie has never been broken. It has been lost to sight, and therefore unreraembered, at times, not unlike the cable that runs, slight and silent, beneath the disuniting sea, and through it have flashed the unspoken messages of sympathy and kinship, which begin to be felt in their significance and power only when the waves of conflict are at rest.
202 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
With enlarged culture and multiplied comforts and increasing leisure here in our western home, we feel a growing self-respect that " casteth out fear," and we receive also from our English cousins a respect tliat makes them appreciative of our good qual- ities, and tolerant of our defects. This puts lis on terms of easy intercourse with them, as brethren of the same household.
It is not an objection to this view, but rather a confirmation of it, that we both alike claim and exercise the family privilege of expressing irritation and impatience toward each other. Indeed, we should begin to distrust the love of England for us if it did not sometimes utter itself in a growl ; and we might even doubt our fondness for her if it always took the form of endearing epithets. The serene assurance of mutual respect enables us to bear with equanimity these lapses from diplomatic courtesy. There was a time, and it was not so very long ago, when the sneering question, " Who reads an American book? " set us all in a quiver of excitement and indignation. But it could have no such effect now ; for not only do we know that all intelligent Englishmen read American books, but we are also besfinninrr to appreciate the fact that American books are not essentially dif- ferent from English books. The literature which is American because it has its birth on these shores, is at the same time Eng- lish because it embodies the purity of thought, and the love of liberty and of justice which are a priceless inheiitance from our Saxon ancestry. The literature which is conditioned by the narrow limits, and venerable culture, and traditional customs of the mother-island, will have a gait and bearing different in some measure from that which represents the generous expanses, and practical life, and forming customs of the continent which is proud to be the " beautiful daughter of a more beautiful mother," — but they are animated by the same spirit, and it is the spirit that giveth life.
In these later years, indeed, we have sometimes allowed our spirits to be unnecessarily ruttled by the cordial disposition exhibited across the water to claim the best literature we have produced, as English, as in these remarks by Mr. Edward Dowden : —
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 203
" Longfellow's was a sweet and characteristic note, but, except in a heightened enjoyment of the antique, — a ruined Rhine castle, a goblet from which dead knights had drunk, a suit of armor, or anything frankly medieval, — except in this, Long- fellow is one of ourselves, an European.
" ' Evangeline' is an European idyl of American life
'Hiawatha' might have been dreamed in Kensington by a Lon- don man of letters, who possessed a graceful idealizing turn of imagination, and who had studied with clear-minded and gracious sympathy the better side of Indian character and manners.
" Longfellow's fellow-countryman, Irving, might have walked arm-in-arm with Addison, and Addison would have run no risk of being discomposed by a transatlantic twang in his compan- ion's accent. Irving, if he betrays his origin at all, betrays it in somewhat the same way as Longfellow, by his tender, satisfied repose in the venerable, chiefly the venerable in English society and manners, by his quiet delight in the implicit tradition of English civility, the scarcely-felt, yet everywhere influential pres- ence of a beautiful and grave past, and the company of unseen beneficent associations.
" In Bryant, .... prairie and immemorial forest occupy the broad spaces of his canvas, but he feels pleasure in these mainly because he is not native to their influences. The mountains are not his sponsors ; there are not the unconscious ties between him and them which indicate kinship, nor the silences which prove entire communion.
" The works of Lowell, taken as a whole, do not mirror the life, the thoughts, and passions of the nation. They are works, as it were, of an English poet who has become a naturalized citizen of the United States, who admires the institutions, and has faith in the ideas of America, but who cannot throw off his allegiance to the old country and its traditions."
Although these words of Mr. Dowden were not written with any view to the purpose for which they are here cited, but rather as part of an argument to prove that Mr. Walt Whitman is the nearest approach we have yet seen to a poet of democracy, yet they are none the less valuable as the undesigned testimony of a
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competent critic to the essential unity of English and American literature.
It is not as a stranger and an alien that our revered Poet has been admitted to that sacred corner of Westminster Abbey. He is there as an American, and we are })roud that it is so ; and we may, tonight, take some just pride in the fact that our beloved Commonwealth, which held within its borders the ancient settle- ment of Pemaquid, is the first of American Commonwealths to be welcomed to the ancestral privilege of representation in that venerable mausoleum of the family. But he is there also as one in whose veins ran English blood, and in whose words spoke out the old English spirit. The chaste symbol of his personality may hold silent and brotherly communion with the neighbor dust of him who five hundred years ago told the story of the Canterbury pilgrimage with a scorn of baseness, and a'love of the beautiful and the true, which re-appear undimmed in the winsome " Tales of a Wayside Inn."
A like experience of suffering, and a common nobility of pur- pose, make him brother in sympathy and speech to him who, amid the discords of unhappy Ireland, sang in the undying harmony of his own verse the glories of the Faery Queen, and dedicated the song to "Ehzabeth, by the Grace of God Queen of England, France and Ireland, and of Virginia."
Not more by his lineage than by the inspiration of a common faith, his name is forever linked with those of the noble singers who have made the English tongue chief among the Pentecostal tongues of earth, which, through the ages, are joining, ever more melodiously, with the heavens in telling the glory of God.
THE DEBT OF PORTLAND TO THE MEMORY OF LONGFELLOW.
BY GEORGE F. TALHOT, POKTLAXD.
A CITY is justly more proud of its eminent men than of its ■wealth, its natural beauty, or its military renown. We take to
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ourselves the credit of genius, and say, this soil and sky produce this kind ; he is but a specimen nugget of the gold that permeates this vein, and every miner has but to dig to provide himself with others equally valuable. We reckon confidently that the crop of great minds shall be as regular and bountiful as the crops of fruit and corn. But this is an overweening presumption, for, as Em- erson says : — " Rotation is the law of nature. When nature removes a great man, people explo)-e the horizon for a successor, but none comes, and none will. His class is extinguished with him."
Two Ionian cities. Cyme and Smyrna, contended with each other as to which was the birthplace of Homer, so great was the distinction esteemed of reckoning among its citizens the master and father of song. The Homeric age was quite too unconscious to note such an event as the birth of a great poet. That was a time when great actions were performed, but the effort spent itself in the doing, and not in the telling. Our modern times are in- tensely self-conscious. The reporter interviews all our privacy, and the daily newspaper chronicles our gossip, and makes into history our whims and our resentments. It is an age when no man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. If the con- fidences of our friendships, the satisfactions of our affections, our aspirations, our regrets, our erroi's, and our offenses, have in them aught to point a moral or adorn a tale, anything to feed the every- where stimulated hunger for news, they must be surrendered to the interviewer for the edification or amusement of the public. The difficulty with the historian of the future will be the abund- ance of his materials ; his task will be —
From the table of his memory, To wipe away all trivial, fond records. All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there.
We know exactly in what city or town our Homers were born, nay, the very street and house and room, so that no city will con- tend with us for our natal honors.
Mr. Longfellow, in recognition of the fact that every country has its local muse, and that the poetry of each people takes on.
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from mountain, shore and sky, a quality of its own, as the wines of each region give to the delicate taste a flavor of its own soil, has collected with great industry and intelligence his volumes of the Poems of Places. Strains like these you may catch in the misty vales and on the bare hillsides of Scotland ; in the silence of the upper Alps, after the thunder of the avalanche. Magic tones like these ravish the listening ear of the traveler ; these rude sounds harmonize with the dash of the cataract in the forests of America, and these with the time-worn monuments of ancient art that make Greece and Italy classic.
Longfellow is himself our local poetry. The memory of his placid life, the artistic charm of his faultless verse, give a pic- turesqueness and beauty to the fair peninsula thrust among the green islands of Casco bay ; and when the tourist rambles through our closely-built streets, or looks out from the Eastern or West- ern promenade upon the beauties of sea and land, it is his pres- ence that seems to brood over, and make hallowed the whole picture. Just as in Genoa all memories of its commercial renown center around the statue of the great navigator and discoverer, Columbus ; as in Florence we seem to be walking in the company of Dante, Michael Angelo and Savonarola ; as Burns and Walter Scott are more to us in Edinburgh than the whole population of its thrifty and shrewd merchants and artisans ; as Rubens, though two centuries dead, still dominates Antwerp, and Hans Sach, the cobbler poet, is more alive in Nuremburg than whole streets full of money-making and wealthy Jews ; so Longfellow is the local genius of our city, of whose subtle presence and power every educated traveler becomes aware.
The black wharves and the slips And the sea-tides tossing free,
"the bulwarks by the shore and the fort on the hill," and " the breezy dome of groves, the shadows of Deering oaks," the islands that were the Hesperides of all his boyish dreams, everything in the scenery of "the beautiful town that is seated by the sea," owes its i)rincipal charm to the fact that it has been set in the transparent amber of his verse.
LONGFELLOAV BIRTHDAY. 207
Beside tliis local gift, which the memory and affection of our Poet have bequeathed to the place of his birth, the whole country, whose legends he has transformed, whose scenery he has described, the heroic action of whose brave men he has celebrated, owes him a like debt.
Every sensitive person has felt the incompleteness, the discord, which afflicts the Urst dweller in a new house or new room. No matter how symmetrical may be its form and proportions, how tasteful its ornamentation and furniture, how commodious and serviceable all its appointments, there is a bleak rawness about it that affects and depresses. It has never been lived in, it is empty of all associations, and so of all poetry. It has no record of the joys and sorrows of human lives. Our whole country, not long ago, had the same raw aspect of novelty. It had no history behind it ; it was a mere lair of savage beasts and scarce less savage men, in whose fates and fortunes we had little sympathy. Our forests of gigantic trees, our wide stretch of prairies, our lakes and rivers, that dwarf the proportions of those of the old world, beau- tiful and grand as they were in themselves, had no human inter- ests. They were divorced from the fates and fortunes of our fellowmen, or if they had any connection with them, there was no poet or historian to tell the story.
As our new world grows older, it becomes more interesting, the colonial settlements, the terrors of savage massacres, the marches across it of armies of sturdy patriots fighting for inde- pendence, even the quiet domestic lives full of pathos, as all human Hves are, have consecrated and illuminated the dull soil and made it beautiful. And it is poetry which has perceived and expressed the new meaning wlii:,"h the memorable places of our land have gained from human experiences and historic actions. That which consecrates Westminster Abbey, and makes every English-speaking man tread its aisles vtdth awe and reverence, is not the grandeur of its lofty arches, nor the artistic perfection of its architecture, but it is the heroic English history that has progressed through it, and left enduring records upon its walls, in the monuments and statues of its kingly rulers, its statesmen, its orators and poets. All England would wear today the trivial
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aspect of a Dutch landscape or the thrifty smartness of a rapidly growing western city, had not the charm of Shakespeare's verse blazoned it with the glamour of romance. With wdiat fascination for every schoolboy has the descriptive poetry of Walter Scott clothed the bare hillsides and the leaden skies that brood over the mist}' lochs of Scotland ! Mr. Longfellow, in the Song of Hia- watha, has given language to the whispering of the pines, the twinkle of mountain streams, the orchestra of forest birds, the loves and hates and superstitious fears of races of wild men, Avho lived in closer relations with nature than we ever understood. In the story of Evangeline he has embodied the most pathetic legend that the long colonial struggle between two people of different language and different faith had created, while his poems of slavery and of the great war in which it was overthrown have carried over the world the history which makes this century memorable.
Everything that makes country and fatherland more dear and venerable to the loyalty of the citizen should be strengthened and diffused. Men live by the nobility of their ideals. It is the office of the poet so to inspii-e the hearts of men with noble sentiments, that when a great crisis or great peril comes upon a generation, as it did upon ours, and as it did upon our forefathers, they shall gladly sacrifice matei'ial advantages for spiritual, nay, throw life itself into the venture at the summons of patriotic duty.
ADDRESS
BY HOX. C. F. LIBBY, PRESIDENT OF THE LONGFELLOW STATUE ASSOCIATION.
It is a proof of the permanent basis of moral distinctions, and of the clear apprehension by our race of its best line of develop- ment, that the highest tribute of our admiration is paid to moral worth rather than to material success. There is danger in a country like ours, where the struggle for wealth is so fierce and persistent, that the value of lives devoted only to literary pur-
LONGFELLOW BIRTHDAY. 209
suits, and taking no part in the great political and commercial movements of the day, shall be underrated, and that the debt which the community owes to these men, as the exemplars and advocates of a higher life, shall be ignored.
The recognition which the world accords to the great actors ia its drama is far different. For its eminent statesmen, its great military leaders, its brave and daring explorers, it has always ready the chaplet of laurel ; and yet the debt which the world owes to them, considered with reference to the permanent value of their lives and work, is far less, perhaps, than that it owes to its great poets and philosophers, who are identified only with its intellectual and moral growth. He who brings home to a people a realizing sense of the true elements of human worth and char- acter, and by his inspiring song or eloquence Ufts them up to a higher ideal of excellence, is certainly'- doing as much for his race as he who fights their battles or makes their laws and treaties.
The desire to perpetuate, in some enduring material, the form and lineaments of those whom the world would not willingly let die, has found expression in the best work of the sculptor's hand, since the earliest days of antiquity. As we gaze upon the marble forms of the heroes and sages of Greece and Rome, they seem to live again for us, and to speak with all the charms of jjersonal presence. They are no longer dim ghosts flitting through the perspective of historic jjage, but grand and noble figures instinct with life and thought.
It is but natural that the place of a man's birth should be the spot about which his warmest affections cluster, and that what- ever of fame and honor he attains should be the peculiar heritage of its people. Our city claims the honor of being the birthplace of one who, as an American jjoet and man of letters, has won a world-wide fame, and yet, great as is his fame, the man himself was greater ; his poems were but the expression of his life, and his life was incomparably the greatest of his poems. In him the poet was but "the flower and fruit of the man." It has been said of him that: — "Those who knew only the poems that he wrote could form but a faint notion of the harmony, the sweet- ness, the manliness and the tenderness of that which he lived." Vol. II. 15
210 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
In Henry Waclsworth Longfellow our city recognizes her most illustrious son, and would fain do honor to his memory. She desires to perpetuate by the sculptor's art, his noble form and presence, that he vaay stand in our midst as the re])resentative of the highest and purest manhood. Slie would have her children learn from him the lessons of hope and faith and love and cour- age, which his life teaches, and catch some of the inspiration which flows from his broad and deep-hearted humanity. Thus may the influence of his gracious nature be perpetuated as a ben- diction to the generations yet unborn.
Other nations may do him honor, as worthy to stand among the Avise and great in their Valhalla. But we will cherish his memory as one of our own sons, dear to us by the associations of his birth, and by the rich memories of his long and fruitful life.
As we unveil this bust and gaze upon his face — a face that Charles Kingsley said was " the most beautiful human face he had ever seen" — we cannot but rejoice that Henry VVadsworth Longfellow lived his life, and that our city can claim him as her son.
Immediately after his death steps were taken to organize the Longfellow Statue Association, for the j^^i'pose of erecting a bronze statue of the Poet in some public place in the city. It seemed wise to place the matter on such a footing that the small- est subscriptions might be made available, and that participation in the project should be general. As Longfellow is essentially the poet of the whole people — the one Avhose genial spirit per- vades every home — all have been invited to subscribe. The school children of our city and state have subscribed their mites, others have contributed of their means more abundantly. At a meeting of the Association held February 27, it was an- nounced that a larger part of the amount required had already been raised. The remainder, we believe, will soon be obtained; and Portland will then have among its earliest public monuments a statue of the most honored and loved of American poets, our own Longfellow.
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1885. 211
May 28, 1885.
A MEETING of the Society was held at the library in the City Building, Portland. Called to order at 2.30 P.M. by the President, Mr. Bradbury, who made some remarks reviewing the work of the Society, and describing acts of the State Legislature which had enabled the Society to accumulate a fund.
Mr. Biyant the Librarian then read his quarterly report on the Library and Cabinet.
Especial attention was called to the handsome port- folio containing the various state and government commissions issued to the late Associate Justice Nathan Clifford and presented by his family. Also to the collection of Indian implements from Arizona and New Mexico, the gift of Lieut. William C. Manning, U. S. A.
Mr. Joseph W. Williamson read a paper giving an account of the visit of President John Adams to Pownalboro in 1765.
In the absence of Mr. Albert W. Paine of Bangor, by whom the article had been prepared, Mr. William- son read a tribute to the late John E. Godfrey of Bangor, and also presented a paper containing a col- lection of facts incident to the part taken by Maine in the war of 1812. This MS. was found among the papers of the late William D. Williamson, the his- torian.
Mr. Edward H. El well then read two broadsides concerning the news of the treaty of peace, received in Portland, February li, 1815. It took thirty-two
212 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
hours to get the dispatch from New York to Boston at a cost of $225, and thirteen hours from Boston to Portland at the cost of $50.
Mr. WilUam Gould described the receipt of the news of peace at his home in Windham.
Adjourned until 7.30 p.m.
Mr. Fritz H. Jordan presented a photograph of the brig Boxer and read a paper giving full descriptions of both the vessels Enterprise and Boxer.
A sketch of the life of Louis Annance, the Indian of Mooseheed lake, was contributed by John F. Sprague of Monson and read by E. H. Elwell.
The pro])lem of Hammond's Fort, Richard Ham- mond, his home and death was read by Rev. Henry A. Thayer of Woolwich.
Votes of thanks were passed for the papers read at both sessions, and copies requested for the archives.
Adjourned.
PEK80NS TAXED IN KITTERY, 1783.
213
PERSONS TAXED IN NORTH PARISH OF KITTERY, 1783.
COMMUNICATED BY W. B. LAPHAM.
Thb following i^ersoiis were taxed in the northerly parish of Kittery in bills committed to Captain William Raitt, November 1, 1783, by Joseph Hubbard, Thomas Hanscom and Nathaniel Rogers, assessors : —
John Heard Bartlett, Jeremiah Bartlett, James Bai'tlett, Sarah Bartlett, ^ Henry Black, Nathaniel Barrell, Amos Chick, Ebenezer Clark, Nathaniel Clark jr. Wid. Sarah Frost's estate, Thomas Clark, Col. Sparhawk's estate, Cotton Cotton, John Davis, Daniel Emery & Sons, Daniel Emery jr., Noah Emery, Wid. Anne Emery, Japhet Emery, Caleb Emery, Zachariah Emery, James Emery, Simeon Emery jr., Isaac Emery, Stephen Emery & Son, Stephen Emery jr., Simon Emery,
William Emery, Wid. Patience Ferguson, Reuben Ferguson, Daniel Ferguson, Dennis Ferguson, Stephen Ferguson, Timothy Ferguson, William Ferguson, Elizabeth Ferguson, Capt. William Ferguson, Wid. Abigail Foster, Joseph Furbish & Son, David Furbish, James Furbish, Capt. Charles Frost & Son, Wid. Sarah Frost, Simeon Frost, Madam Mary Frost, John Frost Esq., Hannah Frost, Samuel Fernald, Noah Fernald, Benjamin Gould, Alex. Gould, Daniel Gould jr., Madam Lois Gowen, Capt. John Cole,
214
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETT.
Samuel Gowen, Lady Mary IV-pperell, John Goodwin lioirs, Sparhawk estate, Daniel Good, Joseph Gould, Joseph Gould jr., John Gould, Joshua Hubbard, Benjamin Hill, John Hill, Andrew Hill, Ebenezer Hear], Capt. Philip Hubbard, Thomas Hodsdon, Benjamin Hodsdon, Wid. Sarah Hodsdon, Jonathan Hamilton, Samuel Hammond, Tobias Hanscom, Joseph Johnson, Capt. John Mclntire, Joseph Mclntire, Samuel Jenkins, Noah Johnson, Samuel Jones, John Kingsbury, Joseph Kingsbury, Paul Lord, Mark Lord, Simon Lord, Daniel Lord, Simeon Lord jr., Capt. Nathan Lord, Jeremiah Lord, John Lord,
Maj. Samuel Leighton, Samuel Linscott, Robert Morrill, Joel Morrill,
Nicholas Morrill, Andrew Morse, Azariah Nason, Jacob Nutter, Daniel Odiorne, Moses Paul, Joseph Pillsberry, Wid. Miriam Raitt, Capt. William Kaitt, John Rogers jr., Plenry Sherburne, Nathaniel Sparhawk, heirs, Samuel Roberts, Capt. Elisha Shapleigh, Jacob Shorey, Joseph Shore}^, Elder Richard Shackley, James Smith, William Smith, liicabod Stacey, Mehitable Stacey, James Hill, John Stacey, Capt. Eben Simpson, Capt. Joshua Simpson, Zebediah Simpson, William Stacey, William Stacej^ jr., Wid. Jane Tucker, Joseph Thompson, Robert Tidey, William Tctherly 3d, Stephen Tucker, James Waldron, Dr. Pelatiah Warren, Timothy Waymouth. Andrew Wittum, Jonathan Wittum, Jacob Brewer, Joshua Young.
RESIDENT MEMBERS.
215
RESIDENT MEMBERS
OF THE Maine Historical Society, April 1, 1891.
Allen, Charles Edwin, Cedar Grove.
Allen, Charles Frederic, Kent's Hill.
Bailey, Samuel Donnell, Bath.
Banks, Charles Edward, Portland.
Barrett, Franklin Ripley, Portland.
Baker, Orville Dewey, Augusta.
Barrows, George Bradley, Frj^eburg.
Baxter, James Phinney, Portland.
Berry, Stephen, Portland.
Boardman, Samuel Lane, Augusta.
Bonney, Percival, Portland.
Bourne, Edward Kmerson, Kennebunk.
Bradbury, James Ware, Augusta.
Briggs, Herbert Gerry, Portland.
Brown, John Marshall, Portland.
Brown, Philip Henry, Portland.
Bryant, Hubbard VVinslow, Poi-tland.
BuRBANK, Horace Harmon, Saco.
Burgess, George Canning, Portland.
Burnham, Edward Payson, Saco.
BuRRAGE, Henry Sweetser, Portland.
Butler Francis Gould, Farmington.
Chamberlain, Joshua Lawrence, Brunswick,
Chapman, Henry Leland, Brunswick.
Chapman Leonard Bond, Deering.
Chase, Alden Fitzroy, Bucksport.
CiLLEY, Jonathan Prince, Rockland,
CoE, Thomas Upham, Bangor.
CoNxVNT, Frederic Odell, Portland.
Connor, Selden, Portland.
Cummings, Ephraim Chamberlain, Portland.
Crosby, Josiah, Dexter.
Cochrane, Henry Hayman, Monmouth.
216
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
CoRxisii, Leslie Colby, Dalton, Asa, Daveis, Edward Henry, Deahorx, Jeremiah Wadleigh, Deerixg, Hexry, Dexter, Frank Henry, Dike, Samuel Fuller, Douglas, Joshua Lufkin, Drew, Franklin Mellen, Drummond, Josiah Hayden, DuREN, Elnathan Freeman, Elder, Janus Granville, Emerson, Luther Dorr, Emery, George Freeman, Emery, Lucilius Alonzo, Fernald, Merritt Caldwell, Fessenden, Francis, FisKE, John Orr, GiLMAN, Charles Jaryis, Goodenow, Henry Clay, Haskell, Thomas Hawes, Hathaway, Joshua Warren, Heath, Herbert Milton, HiGHT, Horatio, Hill, John Fremont, Hill, Winfield Scott, Holway, Oscar, Humphrey, Samuel Fishek, Hyde, William DeWitt, Ingalls, Henry,
Jackson, George Edwin Bartol, Jordan, Fritz Herman, Johnson, Edward, Johnson, Henry, King, Marquis Fayette, Lapiiam, William Berry, Lee, Leslie Alexander,
Augusta.
Portland.
Portland.
Parsonsfield.
Portland.
Springvale.
Bath.
Bath.
Lewiston.
Portland.
Bangor.
Lewiston.
Oakland.
Portland.
Ellsworth.
Orono.
Portland.
Bath.
Brunswick.
Bangor.
Portland.
Norridgewock.
Augusta.
Portland.
Augusta.
Augusta.
Augusta.
Bangor.
Brunswick.
Wiscasset.
Portland.
Portland.
Belfast.
Brunswick.
Portland.
Augusta.
Brunswick.
EESIDENT MEMBEKS.
217
Levensaler, Henry Coombs, Thomaston.
LiBBY, Charles Freeman, Portland.
LiBBY, Charles Thornton, Portland.
Little, George Thomas, Brunswick.
Locke, John Staples, Saco.
Longfellow, Alexander Wadsworth, Portland.
Manning, Prentice Cheney, Portland.
Marble, Sebastian Streeter, Waldoboro.
Morrell, Hiram Kelley, Gardiner.
Moses, Galen Clapp, Bath.
Nash, Charles Elventon, Augusta.
Nealley, Edward Bowdoin, Bangor.
Neely, Henry Adams, Portland.
O'Brien, Michael Charles, Bangor.
Paine, Albert Ware, Bangor.
Perham, Sidney, Paris.
Peters, John Andrew, Bangor.
Phelps, Albert Irving, Damariscotta.
Philbrook, Luther Groves, Castine.
Pierce, Lewis, Portland.
Porter, Joseph Whitcomb, Bangor.
Putnam, William Le Baron, Portland.
Reed, Thomas Brackett, Portland.
Reed, Parker McCobb, Bath.
Richardson, Albert Francis, Castine.
Roberts, Charles Wentworth, Bangor.
RocKwooD, Hiram Fuller, Augusta.
Rowell, George Smith, Portland.
Safford, Moses Atwood, Kittery.
Sargent, William Mitchell, Portland.
Sew all, Frederic Dummer, Bath.
Sewall, John Smith, Bangor.
Sewall, Rufus King, Wiscasset.
SiMONTON, Thaddeus Roberts, Camden.
Small, Albion Woodbury, Waterville.
Smith, Howard Daniel, Norway.
Smith, William Robinson, Augusta.
218
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Spalding, Jajies Alfred, Sprague, Joiix Francis, Stewart, David Dintsmore, Symoxds, Josrph White, Talbot, George Foster, Tenney, Albert Goriiam, Thayer, Hexry Otis, Thomas, Willi vm Widgery, Jr. Thurstox, Brown, Torsey, Henry Pierson, Waterman, John Anderson, Wilson, Franklin Augustus, Wheeler, George Augustus, Williams, Joseph Hartwell, Williamson, Joseph, WiTHERLE, George Henry, Witherle, William Howe, Wood, William, Wood, Joseph, Woods, Noah, youNG, Stephen Jewktt,
Portland.
Monson.
St. Albans.
Portland.
Portland.
Brunswick.
Liniington.
Portland.
Portland.
lleadfield.
Gorham.
Bangor.
Castine.
Augusta.
Belfast.
Castine.
Castine.
Portland.
Bar Harbor.
Bangor.
Brunswick.
CAPT. herrick's journal, 1757. 219
CAPT. HERRICK'S JOURNAL, 1757.
SCO.UTIlSrG PARTY BETWEEN THE ANDROSCOGGIN AND KENNEBEC RIVERS.
Thursday Mat yk 12 1757. I marclit from Boxford to Bradford to Joyn my Lieut With a party of men from Bradford and Andover. Friday May ye 13. I left Bradford and proceeded on my March for the Eastward With My Lieut and Thirty Plight men the Other two I Left to Com by Warter With our Baggage Who are since Arrived.
Saturday May ye 21. I Arrived at Brunswick after Meeting With Much Difficulty.
Sunday May ye 22. I Marched as far as Topsham Xear Brunswick Falls from thence To the Mills that stand on Cathance River.
Monday ye 23. In the Morning Pearly I Proceeded on My March a North East Course by Compass and Arrived at Abagadasset River A Bout two of the Clock from thence to Old Richmond from thence In the Evening to Frankfort.
Tuesday May ye 24. this Morning Lieut Foster Went With a party of ten Men A Bout four Miles up ye River Kennebeck But Made No Discov- ery of ye Enemy.
Wednesday May ye 25. I Marchd With Lieut Foster and Thirty one Men Back as far as Abagadasset Mills.
Thursday May ye 26. I Marchd from sd Mills With ye Same party to Ammarscog- gin River.
Friday May ye 27. Lieut Foster and Twenty Men Marchd as far as Mairpiut and Returned the Same Day.
220 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Saturday ye 28. A Sarjeant and ten Men Mai'cht as far as Catliance and Re- turned In tlie Evening the Same Day Eight Men Marcht five Miles up Araraarscoggin River and Returned Without Any Dis- covery of ye Enemy.
Sunday May ye 29. I Marcht from Ammarscoggin to Cathance Mills With Lieut Foster and tliirty three Men.
Monday May ye 30. I Marcht With the Same party to Abagadasset.
Tuesday May ye 31. I Marcht from Abagadasset River to Frankfort.
Wednesday June ye 1. Lieut. Foster With ten Men Marcht About Eight Miles up Kennebeek River Made No Discovery of the Enemy.
Thursday June ye 2. Lieut. Foster Marcht With Twenty Men from Frankfort to Abagadasset.
Friday June ye 3. he Marcht With ye same Party to Cathance.
Saturday June ye 4. the Lieut. Marcht With the Same party to Abagadasset.
Monday June ye 6. Lieut Foster With Thirty four Men Marcht from Ammarscog- gin River to Cathance Mills from thence an Eastwardly Cours Into ye Woods About Eight Miles and There Camped.
Tuesday June ye 7. he Marcht to Abagadasset from thence to Frankfort.
Wednesday June ye 8. The Lieut. Leaving ten Men Behind to Scout up Kennebeek River marcht With Twenty four men to Abagadasset Mills.
Thursday June ye 9. he Marcht from Abagadasset to Cathance Mills Where I met him and Marcht to Ammarcoggin.
CAPT. heerick's journal, 1757. 221
Friday June ye 10. One Sarjeut With ten Men Marcht as far as Cathance and Re- turned the Same Night But made no Discovery of the Enemy.
Saturday June ye 11. I Marcht With Twenty three Men as far as Cathance Mills.
Sunday June ye 12. I Marcht With the same party from Cathance Mills on a North East Course by Comj^ass and arrived at Abagadasset Mills in ye Evening.
Monday June ye 13. I marcht with the Same pai'ty to Old Richmond and from thence to frankfort,
Wednesday June ye 15. there Being Some talk of Indians in them parts I Left Six Men Behind and Marcht with Seventeen men as far as Abaga- dasset Mills.
Thirsday June ye 16. I Marcht With ye Same pai-ty to Ammarscoggin.
Friday June ye 17. by Reason of a Fals alarm I marcht Some way up Ammarscog- gin But Made No Discovery of ye Enemy and Returned the Same Day. I Sent a Corp. with ten men up to Cathance who Returned In ye Evening.
Saturday June ye 18. One Sargent and ten men marcht up to Cathance River about five Miles Returned in ye Evening.
Sunday June ye 19, this Day Being Sunday Garded the Inhabitanse to Meeting.
Monday June ye 20. Lieut. Foster With 23 men marcht as far as the faUs upon Ca- thance River.
Tuesday June ye 21. he Marcht to Abadagasset River.
Wednesday June ye 22. he Marcht to Frankfort Where I mett him and his Party.
222 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Thursday June ye '23.
I Conlcl here Nothing from the General Court of the times Ree- ing Longer Continued for our Stoping at the Eastward and tlie Com])any all But one Man belonged to the VV^estward thay ware Mutch Set upon Returning home tlie Second of Jul}^ Except thear time was further Continvard By Order of ye General Court According to thear Inlistment But upon Considering the Diffi- culty that Might Arise if the Company had Been Discharged — and ye Court had (-Jiven further Orders for thear Continuance ; upon which Consideration I Set out for Falmouth In order to Gain Some Intillagance from the Court; the Same Day Lieut Foster Set out for Ammarscoggin River with 24 Men and Arived at Abagadasset River,
Friday June ye 24.
ye Lieut. Marcht to Brunswick falls.
Saturday June ye 25. the Lieut. Sent One Sarjent and 10 Men to Cathance River himself and a Scout Marcht to Merryraeeting Bay.
Sunday June ye 26. A Sarjent & ten Men Marcht to Mequaite Who Returned in ye Evening.
Monday June ye 27. the Lieut With a Scout Marcht to Muddey River and Returned to the fails In ye Evening.
Tuesday June ye 28. one Sarjent and Eight men Marcht to Cathance and Returned In ye Evening.
Wednesday June ye 29. the Lieut Marcht with 25 Men from Brunswick falls to Ca- thance Mills and from thence to Abagadasset Mills. Thursday June ye 30. the Lieut Arrived at Frankfort Whear I Met him on My Ar- rival from Falmouth Whear I Saw Mr. Waldo Who Informed Me that ye Court had Continued the Scouting Companys untill the Last Day of September.
Friday .July ye 1. I sent Some Men up With Capt Fitches Sarjent In ye Whail Boat to P^ort westuen In Order to Bring Down Frovition for the Company.
Saturday July ye 2. A Sarjent and ten Men Marcht on the Back of Richman A bout Eight Miles Returned In ye Euining. Sunday July ye 3. I Marcht With Lieut Foster & 27 Men from Frankfort to the Westward at Night Campt in ye woods.
CAPT. IIERRICK'S JOURNAL, 1757. 223
Monday July ye 4. this IMorning Set out on our March & Arrived at Brunswick falls in the Evening.
Tuesday July ye 5. Rainey Weather.
"Wednesday July ye 6. One Sarjent Witli Thirteen Men Marcht to Cathance Mills and from thence to ye Mouth of Cathance Kiver A Bout Nine Miles. I took Thui'teen Men with Me and Marcht to Merry meeting bay and Met ye other Party at Abagadasset.
TriUKSDAY .July ye 7. Marcht from Abagadasset to Frankfort. FiiiDAY July ye 8. Shuory and Rain.
Saturday July ye 9. Waited at Frankfort for Stears.
Sunday July ye 10. Capt. Sanders Arrived hear A Bout 6 O. Clock in the afternoon.
Monday July ye 11. Took Allowance.
Tuesday July ye 12. Set out from frankfoi't with the Lieut and 27 Men, by Reason of Rain Lodged at Richmond that Night.
Wednesday July ye 13. Marcht With 23 Men to the Mouth of Abagadasset River.
Thursday July ye 14. Marcht from the Mouth of Abagadasset Hiver by Merrymeet- ing bay to the Month of Cathance from thence up the River A Bout hue Miles to the Mills Crost the River to the Northwest by sd Mill Marcht up sd River one mile upon Discovery then Crost the Riuer to ye Southward from thence Shapt a Coarse to Brunswick falls VVhear we Arrived In ye Evening. Friday July ye 15. Sent 2 Sai-jents and 10 Men to Mc-quaite, one of them to Gard A Teem one Returned at Night.
Saturday July ye 16. this Day ye Other Sarjent Rsturned from Me-quaite with his Party Clowday & Rain for ye Most part of the Day.
Sunday July ye 17. this Day Clowday and Rain.
Monday July ye 18. this Day we Went up to Cathance Riuer A Bout four Miles from the Month and then as far as Abagadasset.
Tuesday July ye 19. I Marcht from Abaga lasset to Frankfort with Twenty two Men.
224 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Wensday July ye 20.
this Day Being plesent Wither and the Inhabitance"] intended for to go to thear Medows the Next Week I thought Best to Rang the Woods further to ye North vvard then I used to Do that if 1 Could find any Signs of the Enemy the Peapol Might Bee More upon thear Gard.
Thursday July ye 21.
I Left Frankfort A i3out 8 O Clock in the Morning With Lieut Foster and Twenty Eight Non Comraisitaion Oiercers and Pri- vets Marcht by Richmond on a W. N. W Cours to a Large body of Medow Six Miles Distance from Frankfort from sd Medows on a West Cours live Miles Whear we found Good water and Campt that Night.
Friday July ye 22.
this Day we Steared N. W. A Bout Eight Miles in our Cours Crost five Brandies Cabbasaconti and two of Cathance A Bout three O Clock in the afternoon Ave Came to a Large Branch of Sabbattesses Riuer Whear we Made a Raft to tranceport our Selves ouer sd River from Whence we Steared a S. W. Cours A Bout one Mile and Campt.
Saturday July ye 23.
Steared S. W. B. S. Cours a Bout fine Miles and Struck Am- marscoggin Riuer a Bout three Miles a Boue the Great falls Marcht Down to the Falls Where Arrived A Bout twelve o Clock A Bout four Left sd Falls Marcht that Night A Bout Six Miles Down the Riuer and Campt.
Sunday July ye 24.
Set out Early this Morning A Bout ten oclock Crost Sabattas- ses Riuer at the Mouth. Sarcht J]very Brook and Gulley But Discoured No Signs of ye Enemy Arrived at Brunswick Falls in the Evening.
Monday July ye 25.
I Sent Corperl and a Small Party A Bout four Miles up ye Westarn Branch of Cathance who Returned in the Afternoon. Tuesday July ye 26.
this Day I took fore Men with Mee In the Whail Boat to go to Cathance for Provition Divided the Remainder of my Company as foUoweth one Sarjent with his Party to Gard the Inhabintance that Ware Moying on Abagadasset A Nother With his Party to Gard at Cathance A nother With A Party to Gard at Muddy River Left Lieut Foster to Give Orders as Should be Propper. Saturday July ye 30.
I Returned from Frankfort to Topsham Whear the a Boue sd Sarjeants Meet Mee With there Parties and Made Return that thay had faithfully Discharged There Duty in Garding ye Lihab- itance at thei-e Several Stations. Israel IIerbick.
Attest.
WAYMOUTH'S voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 225
WAYMOUTH'S VOYAGE TO THE COAST OF MAINE IN 1605.
Bead before the Maine Historical Society, Nov. 16, 18S1; re-written, 1891, BY HENEY S. BUKRAGE, D.D.
The opening to colonization of the new world dis- covered bj Columbus was long delayed, and success at last was achieved only at a great cost of life and treasure. The efforts of Spain to seize and hold the Carribean coasts and Florida, and of France to found a new empire in Acadia and along the St. Lawrence, were attended with disaster and failure. England at length turned her eyes toward these western shores, and in the latter part of the sixteenth century several unsuccessful attempts were made to plant English col- onies in North America. The first of these was under- taken by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who, in 1578, having obtained an extensive land grant from Queen Eliza- beth, sailed from England with his half-brother. Sir Walter Raleigh. But misfortunes overtook the expe- dition, and Gilbert ere long returned to England with- out having even set foot upon the shores of the new world.
Four years later, with five ships and two hundred and sixty men, Gilbert again left England, and suc- ceeded in reaching Newfoundland ; but on the return voyage his little vessel of ten tons foundered, Septem- ber 9, 1583, and Gilbert and all on board perished.
In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh, who after Gilbert's Vol. II. 16
226 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
death had been made lord proprietor of a large tract of country in North America, sent thither two vessels under the command of Philip Amidas and Arthur Bar- low. On reaching the American coast they explored Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, and on their return to England Queen Elizabeth was so deeply interested in their reports of the recently discovered territory that she gave to it the name Virginia. .
Another and larger expedition was sent out by Raleigh in 1585, but the settlers were soon discour- aged, and the colony was abandoned. A site farther north, on the shores of Chesapeake bay, was selected in 1587, and a large body of emigrants were sent thither under command of John White. But the col- onists landed at Roanoke island, the site of the former settlement, where, overtaken by a fateful and "un- tymely destiny," they soon miserably perished. Hav- ins: now exhausted all his means, Raleicrh made no further effort to colonize his North American j^osses- sions, and when the seventeenth century opened not a single Englishman was to be found at any point on the American coast, from Florida to Newfoundland.
But notwithstanding the failure of these various enterprises there were those in England to whom the colonization of some part of North America was still a fondly cherished dream. Other adventurers were ready to cross the seas. March 25, 1602, Captain Bar- tholomew Gosnold sailed from Falmouth, England, in a small vessel called " The Concord." The point he aimed to reach was "the north part of Virginia," and making land north of Massachusetts bay, he sailed
WATMOUTH'S voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 227
southward along the coast, and passing Cape Cod, which received its name from Gosnold because of the "great store of codfish" he there secured, he at length came to Martha's Vineyard and EUzabeth's Isle, now Cuttyhunk. Here he made preparations for a settlement, and erected a storehouse and a small fort ; but some of the company who had "vowed to stay " refused to do so, and Gosnold, June 18, reluct- antly abandoned the enterprise and sailed homeward.
A narrative of this expedition was published in England, and the glowing language of the "Relation" awakened added interest in the new world. " Sundry of the chief est merchants of Bristol," to whom Master Richard Hakluyt, Prebendary of St. Augustine's Ca- thedral church in that city, presented " many profit- able and reasonable inducements," resolved to under- take further discoveries, and two vessels, the Speedwell and the Discoverer, with Martin Pring as " Master and Chief e Commander," sailed from Milford Haven, April 10, 1603. Pring took a direct oourse for the "north coast of Virginia," which he sighted in latitude °43^, on an unknown day in June, and passing westward along the coast of Maine, probably from Penobscot bay, he at length " bore into that greate gulf [Massa- chusetts bay] which Captaine Gosnold ower-shot the yeare before," and landed "in a certaine bay," which he called Whitson bay, probably Plymouth harbor. Here he loaded his vessel with sassafras and returned to England. This safe return, and the reports which he brought of the beauty and fertility of the country, and the prospect of a remunerative trade with the
228 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Indians, confirmed, tlie report of Gosnold, and increased the interest that had already been awakened in the new world.
Among those who had aided in fitting out Gosnold's expedition was Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southamp- ton. He was connected with Essex in the conspiracy to seize the person of Queen Elizabeth ; and though at his trial he protested that he had never entertained a thought against the queen, he was stripped of his titles and estates, and thrown into prison. In the first year of James i, however, he was released from con- finement, and his titles and estates were restored to him by a new patent, July 21, 1603. Shortly after occurred the return of Pring, and in his ardor for new enterprises, where could he find so inviting a field for noble endeavor as in the land concerning which Gos- nold and Pring had brought such favorable reports. Associated with the Earl of Southampton was his son- in-law, Thomas Arundel, afterward Baron of Wardour, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, whose name from that time onward is so prominent in the history of the coloniza- tion of northern Virginia. Gorges was a cousin of Sir Walter Raleigh, and doubtless because of this rela- tionship early became interested in the new world beyond the seas. Indeed, it is altogether probable that the interest of the Earl of Southampton, and other prominent Englishmen of the period, in this new-world movement was secured through the inde- fatigable efforts of Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
The command of this new expedition was given to Captain George Waymouth of Cockington, Devon-
waymouth's voyage to coast of maeste, 1605. 229
shire. His sea service, he tells us, commenced in his boyhood, and he passed through all grades of the service from the lowest to the highest. He seems to have had unusual advantages for study, and not only secured a good English education, but acquired a knowledge of the higher mathematics, and became an accomplished draughtsman. He extended his studies so far as to make himself famiUar with ship building and the art of fortification.^
This was not Waymouth's first command. In 1593,^ at the joint expense of the Russia and Turkey mer- chants of London, Waymouth with two ships had made a voyage in search of a northwest passage to the Indies, the record of which, however, has not been pre- served. In 1602, also, under the patronage of the "Wor- shipful Fellowship of the Merchants of London trading into the East Indies," he had made another voyage iu search of a northwest passage, sailing from the Thames, May 2, with two vessels, the Discovery and the Godspeed, and bearing a letter from Queen Eliza- beth to the Emperor of Cathay. But the voyage brought only dissapointment to all concerned, and
ila 1885, in tlie King's Library in the British Museum, London, James P. Baxter, Esq., of Portland, Maine, found a manuscript volume of three hundred and twenty pages prepared hy Captain George Waymouth, entitled "the Jewell of Artes," and dedicated to King James. It is a -work on navigation, ship building, etc., and contains about two hundred pages of drawings, skillfully executed, many of them being exceedingly elaborate and in several colors. The volume bears no date, but as James became King of England March 24, 1603, and as iu this volume Waymouth refers to his sea service, but is silent with regard to the voyage of 1605, it may be inferred that the manuscript was placed in the King's hands during the latter part of 1603 or in 1604. It could not but have made a favorable impression on the King, and it is possible that among those to whom the King exhibited its beautiful and elaborate "Demonstrations" was the Earl of Southampton, and that these had Bomc influence in securing Waymouth's appointment as commander of the vessel In which he visited the coast of Maine in 1605.
* Calendar of State Papers, p. sxxl.
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Waymouth arrived in Dartmouth Haven, Aug. 5, 1602, a few days after Gosnold's return. Waymouth cleared himself of all blame on account of the failure of the expedition, and it was at first decided by those who were interested in it to place him in command of another expedition. But the proposed expedition was at length abandoned, apparently from pecuniary con- siderations, and Waymouth's connection with the Fellowship came to an end.
We next hear of him in connection with this voy- age to the coast of Maine, in 1605. An account of the voyage, entitled "A Trve Relation of the most prosper- ous voyage made this present yeere 1605, by Captaine George Waymouth, in the Discouery of the land of Virginia: Where he discouered 60 miles vp a most excellent Riuer; together with a most fertile land," was published by *'James Rosier, a Gentleman em- ployed in the voyage." Happily this "Relation" has been preserved,^ and in Rosier's pages we have a graphic account of the results of Waymouth's expedi- tion. It has been said that Rosier wrote obscurely so that enterprising navigators in other countries might not profit by Waymouth's discoveries. This is true so far as locality is concerned. . There were those in Spain and other lands who, as Rosier says in his pre- fatory note to the reader, " hoped hereby to gaine some knowledge of the place." And he adds: "This is the cause that I haue neither written of the latitude or
>Tho John Carter Brown Library in Providence, R. I., haa a superb copy of this "Belution." Quaritch, the well known Lonilon bookseller, secured at an auction sale a few years ago a copy for which he paid £275, and for which he asked £325. At the S. L. M. Barlow library sale in New York, in February, 1890, a copy of the "Eelation" was sold for $1,825.
WAYMOUTH'S voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 231
variation most exactly obserued by our Captaine with sundrie instruments, which together with his perfect Geographicall Map of the countrey, he entendeth here- after to set forth." He Ukewise omitted a collection of many Indian words, reserving them " to be made knowen for the benefit of those that shal goe in the next Voyage." But this was all that was withheld. " Our particular proceedings in the whole Discouerie," says Rosier, " the commodious situation of the Riuer, the fertilitie of the land, with the profits there to be had, and here reported, I refer to be uerified by the whole Company, as being eye-witnesses of my words." Rosier could hardly have used stronger language in insisting upon the absolute accuracy and trustworthi- ness of his narrative.
The prominent facts in connection with Waymouth's voyage as thus recorded, are these : — In a vessel whose name has not been preserved, his whole com- pany numbering twenty-nine persons, Waymouth left the Thames, March 5, 1605, and Dartmouth Haven, March 31. May 14, land was descried, " a whitish sandy cliff e," probably Sankaty Head, on the eastern extremity of Nantucket ; for as he approached. Way- mouth found himself in such dangerous shoals as abound at the eastward of this island. Standing northward he anchored, May 18, on the north side of an island, " some six miles in compasse," unmistaka- bly Monhegan, the most prominent landmark in ap- proaching the coast of Maine. On the following day Waymouth anchored his vessel in a harbor formed by islands, which he called Pentecost harbor, and not
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long after, in his shallop, he discovered "a great riuer." Some traffic was had with the Indians, five of whom were captured with their bows and arrows and two canoes. The return voyage commenced on the sixteenth of June, and on the afternoon of July 18, AVaymouth brought his vessel into Dartmouth Haven.
Gorges says that this voyage of Waymouth was " the means under God of putting on foot and giving life " to all efforts for English colonization in the new world. Rosier' s " True Relation" of the voyage was published before the close of the year, probably shortly after Waymouth' s return, and its glowing de- scription of the country must have been read with eager interest, and have awakened in many a heart the hope of English dominion upon these western shores. It is not my purpose in this paper, however, to trace the influence of Waymouth' s discovery upon English colonization, but to throw added light, if pos- sible, upon the discovery itself.
William Strachey, in his "Historic of Travaile into Virginia Britannia" (chap, vii, Maine Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. 3, page 287), writing it is believed in 1618, sug- gested that the river Waymouth discovered was the Kennebec.^ Gorges, in his " Briefe Narration," (London, 1658, Maine Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. 2, page 17,) writing late in life, says Waymouth happened "into a river on the coast of America, called Pemaquid." Rev. William Hubbard, Avho died in 1704, the next to refer to Waymouth's voyage, says in his "General History of New England (Cambridge ed. 1815, page 12) that
>Strachey, however, was never on the coast of Maine, although he came to Virginia in 1609 and was for a time secretary of the colony.
WAYMOUTH's voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 233
Waymouth discovered a great river "supposed to be Kennebecke neere unto Pemaquid." Oldmixon, in his "British Empire in America," published in London in 1702, says (ed. of 1761, vol. 1, page 354) with a singular disregard of the requirements of Hosier's "Relation" that Waymouth entered the Powhatan, now known as the James river; while Beverly, in his "History of Virginia" (2d ed. London, 1722), contain- ing Oldmixon, affirmed in one part of his work (the preface) that Waymouth entered the Hudson river, and in another part (page 11) that he entered the Connecticut river. Rev. William Stith, in his "His- tory of Virginia," published in 1747, added his guess (Sabine's Reprint, pages 33, 34) that it was the Narra- gansett or the Connecticut. In 1797, Jeremy Bel- knap, D.D., who was about to prepare an article on Waymouth for his "American Biography, "requested Captain John Foster Williams, of the United States Revenue service, to examine the coast of Maine with reference to Waymouth's discovery. This he did, and came to the conclusion that the Pentecost harbor in which Waymouth anchored his vessel was St. George's harbor, and that the Penobscot was the river Waymouth discovered and ascended. This view was subsequently adopted by Williamson in his "History of the State of Maine" (vol. 1, pages 192, 193) and later writers down to the middle of the present century. In 1857, John McKeen, Esq., in a paper read before the Maine Historical Society, rejecting the Penobscot theory as untenable, advocated the view that Boothbay harbor was the Pentecost harbor of Rosier's "Relation," and
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that the river Waymouth discovered was the Kenne- bec, from which he passed into the Androscoggin. Captain George Prince, in a paper read before the Maine Historical Society in 1859, presented objections to the theory advocated by Mr. McKeen, and sug- gested that Pentecost harbor was the present St. George's harbor, and that the river Waymouth dis- covered was the St. George's river. Prince's view was accepted by Rev. David Cushman and others, also by officers of the United States Coast Survey, who at the request of Hon. George Bancroft, examined the various localities mentioned in that discussion, and Mr. Bancroft, who in the earlier editions of his "History of the United States" had adopted the Penobscot theory, accepted the St. George's theory and changed his narrative to conform with it. Up to the present time the Kennebec theory has retained a few earnest advocates, but nothing is more evident than that the St. George's theory has for quite a number of years been regarded by a large and constantly increasing num- ber of members of the Maine Historical Society, as meeting far more satisfactorily the requirements of Hosier's "Relation."
The reason for this is to be found in the fact that the " Relation" cannot be brought into harmony with any other theory. It is conceded by all parties in this discussion that Waymouth, in his approach to our coast, first anchored between Monhegan and the main- land. Hosier's language is as follows : —
"Friday the 17 of May, about sixe a clocke at night we de- scried the land, which bare from vs North-North-East; but because
WAYMOUTH'S voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 235
it blew a great gale of winde, the sea very high and neere night, not fit to come vpon an vnknowen coast, we stood off till two a clocke in the morning, being Saturday : then standing in with it againe, we descried it by eight a clocke in the morning, baring North-East from vs. It appeared a meane high land, as we after found it, being but an Hand of some six miles in compasse, but I hope the most fortunate euer discoured. About twelve a clocke that day, we came to an anker on the North side of this Hand, about a league from the shore.
Waymoutli at once landed upon this island, to which he gave the name St. George.
From hence [adds Rosier, referring possibly to the island or possibly to the vessel at her anchorage] we might discerne the maine land from the West- South- West to the East-North-East, and a great way (as it then seemed, and as we after found it) vp into the maine we might discerne very high mountaines, though the maine seemed but low land; which gaue vs a hope it would please God to direct vs to the discouerie of some good ; although wee were driuen by winds farre from that place, whither (both by our direction and desire) we euer intended to shape the course of our voyage.
Those who hold the Kennebec theory maintain that the " very high mountaines " here referred to were the White mountains. But the White mountains can be seen from Monhegan only in the clearest weather, and therefore only occasionally. According to a rec- ord kept from September 1, 1885, to January 1, 1886, by the lighthouse keeper at Monhegan, the White mountains were seen during that time only once all day from Monhegan, and only three times from the shore of the island, while in the entire four months they were seen only twenty-one times. In 1885 I spent several days on Monhegan without obtaining a
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glimpse of Mount Washington until the Last morning of my visit, which was exceptionally clear, with a brisk north wind. Indeed, the day was so clear that the observer at the government station on Mount Wash- ington sent a telegram to the Associated Press in these words : — " This has been a perfect day. Ships on the ocean off Portland have been easily distin- guished." Yet while the Camden and Union moun- tains were clearly and sharply defined against the hori- zon, apparently "a great way vp into the maine," I could not see Mount Washington until its precise loca- tion was indicated by the light-keeper, and then I dis- covered a faint blue mountain summit on the north- western horizon. I left Monhegan for Boothbay soon after, taking the same course over which McKeen and others think Waymouth sailed, but Mount Washington was not visible during the entire passage, while the Union and Camden mountains were in full view for some time after leaving Monhegan, a most notable feature of the " maine," and such as no mariner ap- proaching the coast could possibly fail to notice.
In Purchas his Pilgrims, vol. IV., page 1660, the words, "north-north-east" are added in this passage from Rosier's " Relation," so that it reads, " and north- north-east from vs a great way .... we might dis- cerne very high mountaines," etc. On what author- ity Purchas added these words we do not know ; but it is a fact of no slight importance that twenty-one years after Waymouth' s return to England, and before any discussion had arisen in reference to the harbor and river which he visited, just these words were in-
watmouth's voyage to coast or malne, 1605. 237
serted in this passage, not as an editorial emendation but as a part of the narrative. The Union and Cam- den mountains are in the direction indicated in this passage in Purchas.
But Rosier has other testimony bearing upon this point. He says : —
The next clay being Whit-Sunday ; because we rode too much open to the sea and windes, we weyed anker about twelue a clocke, and came along to the other Hands more adjoyning to the maine, and in the rode directly with the mountaines, about three leagues from the first Hand where we had ankered.
By " the other Hands more adjoyning to the maine" it is natural to understand the islands between the place of anchorage a league north of Monhegan and the mainland. The St. George's islands, sixteen in number, answer to this description. Moreover, they are "in the rode directly with" the Union and Cam- den mountains. Williamson ("' Hist, of Maine, vol. 1, page 61) says, Monhegan lies nine miles southerly of the St. George's islands. The southern end of Allen's island, the outermost of the group, is five and a half miles from Monhegan. The distance given by Rosier was only an estimate, and is somewhat excessive as are most of Rosier's estimates in the "Relation." But the difficulty — if one finds a difficulty here — is not removed if by " the other islands " are meant the Damiscove islands, a group of islands olf Boothbay, the nearest of which must be fourteen miles from Monhegan. Besides, no one on a vessel a league north of Monhegan could possibly speak of the Dam- iscove islands as " more adjoyning to the maine," and
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they are certainly not " in the rode directly with " the White mountains or with any mountains.
Continuing his narrative, and referring to the islands toward which Waymouth sailed on leaving his anchor- age off Monhegan, Rosier says: —
When we came neere vnto them (sounding all along in a good depth) our Captaine manned his ship-boat and sent her before with Thomas Cam one of his Mates, whom he knew to be of good experience, to sound a search betweene the Hands for a place safe for our shippe to ride in; in the meane while we kept aloofe at sea, hauing giuen them in the boat a token to weffe in the ship, if he found a counenient Harbour ; which it pleased God to send vs, farre beyond our expectation, in a most safe birth de- fended from all windes, in an excellent depth of water for ships of any burthen, in six, seuen, eight, nine and ten fathoms vpon a clay oaze very tough.
This harbor they called Pentecost harbor in recogni- tion of the day of their arrival in it.
The depth of water in the harbor as here stated corresponds with the figures given in the Coast Survey chart of St. George's harbor. The lowest depth given near the shore is four fathoms; but in the harbor proper there are six, seven, eight and a half, nine, ten and eleven fathoms, and the bottom is marked "hard."
Having anchored his vessel in this harbor, Way- mouth and six of his men landed upon one of the islands " to seeke fresh watering and a conuenient place to set together a pinnesse," they had brought in pieces from England. If they were in St. George's harbor they would naturally land upon Allen's island close to the shore. Rosier speaks of '^a little Hand adjoyning." Such a little island is Benner's island,
WAYMOUTH'S voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 239
which is separated from Allen's island by a narrow but deep channel.
One day, says Rosier, "we marched about and thorow part of two of the Hands, the bigger of which we judged to be foure or fine miles in compasse, and a mile broad." This may have been Burnt island, which is about " a mile broad " and " foure or five miles in compasse," but Allen's island, though not so broad, is really " the bigger."
While Waymouth was at Pentecost harbor he
"diligently searched the mouth of the Harbour and about the rocks which shew thernselues at all times, and are excellent breach of the water, so as no Sea can come in to offend the Har- bour. This he did to instruct himselfe and thereby able to direct others that shall happen to come to this place. For euery where both neere the rocks & in all soundings about the Hands, we neuer found lesse than foure and fiue fathoms, which was seldome . but seuen, eight, nine and ten fathoms is the continuall sounding by the shore. In some places much deeper vpon clay oaze or soft sand, so that if any bound for this place should be either driuen or scanted with winds, he shall be able (with his direc- tions) to recouer safely his harbour most securely in water enough by foure seuerall passages, more than which I thinke no man of judgement will desire as necessarie."
Important points, capable of identification it would seem, are mentioned in this paragraph. In the first place there were rocks which showed themselves at all times at the seaward mouth of Pentecost harbor, — rocks which broke the force of the sea, and so ren- dered the harbor more quiet. Such rocks are the Dry Ledges between Allen's and Burnt islands, and the depth of water around them corresponds with the figures given by Rosier.
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Then, too, there were "^foure several! passages" by which the harbor could be entered. St. George's har- bor has four entrances. First, there is the passage between Allen's island and Burnt island, in which the Dry Ledges are found. Second, there is the passage between Allen's island and Benner's island. A third passage is that which lies between Benner's island and Davis' island. The fourth passage and the Avidest is that between Davis' island and Burnt island. In all of these passages there is water enough to enter safely.
Moreover the position of the harbor in relation to the river subsequently discovered by Waymouth is in harmony with the view that St. George's harbor is the Pentecost harbor of Hosier's "Relation." Referring to Friday, May 31, Rosier says : —
About 10 a clocke this day we descried our Shallop returning toward vs, which so soone as we espied, we certainly conjectured our Captaine had found some vnexpected harbour, further vp to- wards the maine to bring the ship into, or some riuer.
"Further vp towards the maine" — certainly no one could describe more accurately the direction of the St. George's river from St. George's harbor. Rosier sub- sequently says that after Waymouth had sailed up the river in his vessel he returned to the mouth of the river and anchored. "The next day," adds Rosier, "being Saturday, we wayed anker, and with a briese from the land, we sailed vp^ to our watering place"
' The phrase " sailed vp to our watering place" is not accurate, for Rosier had already said that when Waymouth discovered the river he went in his shallop " vp towards the maine." If the shallop went up, the vessel came doivn the river and down to Pentecost harbor.
WAYMOUTH's voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 241
[i.e., to Pentecost harbor]. It is intimated here that the breeze was a favorable one, and a land breeze could easily bring a vessel from the mouth of the St. George's river to St. George's harbor.
It will be seen, therefore, that Hosier's references to Way mouth's approach to Pentecost harbor, both from the sea and from the river, and also his ref- erences to the harbor itself, furnish points of identifi- cation to which the facts concerning St. George's har- bor fully answer. I know of no other harbor on the coast of Maine of which this can be said. The attempt I as been made to identify Boothbay harbor with Pen- tecost harbor. But first of all, to proceed from Way- mouth's anchorage, three miles north of Monhegan, "to the other Hands more adjoyning to the maine," suggests a movement in toward the main land, while if Waymouth and his fellow voyagers made their way to Boothbay harbor, they sailed along the coast. Again, as they sailed "in the rode directly with the mountaines," even if it were true that Boothbay is in a line drawn from Monhegan to Mt. Washington, they could not have seen Mt. Washington from the vessel's deck, while the narrative indicates that the mountains Waymouth saw were in full view from his ship. Be- sides, Boothbay harbor is not a harbor formed by islands only as was Pentecost harbor. Nor can the harbor at Fisherman's island, which some have identified as Pen- tecost harbor, be made to answer to Hosier's description. Like Boothbay harbor it is not in the right direction from Waymouth's anchorage north of Monhegan, while the distance from that position is much too great Vol. II. 17
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From Monhegan to Fisherman's island is from four- teen to fifteen statute miles and from twelve to thir- teen nautical miles. Again, Fisherman's island har- bor has not four entrances, has no rocks always visible at its entrance from the sea, and has too great a depth of water, the Coast Survey chart indicating a depth of from fourteen and three quarters to seventeen feet. Moreover, no one would think of describing it as "a most safe birth defended from all windes."
I now proceed to notice those points of identifica- tion which Rosier's "Relation" presents in reference to the river which Waymouth discovered and ascended. On Thursday, May 30, about ten o'clock in the fore- noon, according to the " Relation," Waymouth, with thirteen of his men, leaving his vessel in Pentecost harbor, proceeded in his shallop " further vp towards the maine." They returned at ten o'clock the next forenoon. Referring to their return Rosier says : — " Our Captaine had in this small time discouered vp a great riuer, trending alongst into the maine about forty miles." The return was for the purpose of flank- ing the shallop against arrows, " least it might hap- pen," says Rosier, " that the further part of the riuer should be narrow, and by that meanes subject to the volley of Saluages on either side out of the woods." Ten days more were passed at Pentecost harbor and among the adjoining islands. Then, as Rosier contin- ues, on "Tuesday, the 11 of June we passed vp into the riuer with our ship about six and twenty miles." Describing the river he says : —
The Riuer it selfe as it runneth vp into the main very nigh forty miles towards the great mountaines, beareth in bredth a mile, some-
WAYHIOUTH'S voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 243
time three quarters, and halfe a mile is the narrowest, where you shall neuer haue vnder 4 and 5 fathoms water hard by the shore, but 6, 7, 8, 9 and ten fathoms all along, and on both sides euery halfe mile very gallant Coues, some able to conteine almost a hun- dred saile, where the ground is excellent soft oaze with a tough clay vnder for anker hold, and where ships may ly without either Cable or Anker, only moored to the shore with a Hauser.
It floweth by their judgement eighteen or twenty foot at high water.
Heere are made by nature most excellent places, as Docks to graue or Carine ships of all burthens ; secured from all windes, which is such a necessary incomparable benefit, that in few places in England, or in any parts of Christendome, art, with great charges, can make the like.
Besides, the bordering land is a most rich neighbour trending all along on both sides, in an equall plaine, neither mountainous nor rocky, but verged with a greene bordure of grasse, doth make tender vnto the beholder of hir pleasant fertility, if by clensing away the woods she were conuerted into meadow.
As we passed with a gentle winde vp with our ship in this Riuer, any man may conceiue with what admiration we all con- sented in joy. Many of our company who had beene trauellers in sundry countries, and in the most famous Riuers, yet affirmed them not comparable to this they now beheld. Some that were with Sir Walter Ralegh in his voyage to Guiana, in the discou- ery of the Riuer Orenoque, which echoed fame to the worlds eares, gaue reasons why it was not to be compared with this, which wanteth the dangers of many Shoal es, and broken ground, wherewith that was incombred. Others before that notable Riuer in the West Indies called Rio Grande ; some before the Riuer of Loyer, the Riuer Seine, and of Burdeaux in France, which, although they be great and goodly Riuers, yet it is no detraction from them to be accounted inferiour to this, which not only yeeldeth all the foresaid pleasant profits, but also appeared infalli- bly to vs free from all inconueniences.
I will not prefer it before our riuer of Thames, because it is
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England's richest treasure ; but we all did wish those excellent Harbours, good deeps in a continuall conuenient breadth and small tide gates, to be as well therein for our countries good, as we found the hero (beyond our hopes) in certaine, for those to whom it shall please God to grant this land for habitation ; which if it had, with the other inseparable adherent commodities here to be found ; then I would boldly aflirrae it to be the most rich, beautifuU, large and secure harbouring riuer that the world affoordeth.
Rosier's statements with reference to the breadth and depth of the river, also with reference to the char- acter of its bottom and the boldness of its shores, answer to the St. George's river. Then, too, on either hand, as one sails up this river, are the " very gallant Coues " of which Rosier writes. Many of these have names on the coast survey chart such as Deep cove. Gay cove, Turkey cove, Maple Juice cove, Otis cove, Watt's cove, Cutler's cove. Broad cove, and Hyler's cove. Furthermore, the direction of the river as it " runneth vp into the main " is, as Rosier says, " to- wards the great mountaines." All the way upthe St. George's river to Thomaston one has before him the Union and Camden mountains.
Rosier proceeds : —
Wednesday, the twelfth of June, our Captaine manned his light-horseman with 17 men, and raune vp from the ship I'iding in the riuer vp to the codde thereof, where we landed, leauing six to keepe the light-horseman till our returne. Ten of vs with our shot, and some armed, with a boy to cany powder and match, marched vp into the countrey towards the mountaines, which we descried at our first falling with the land. Vnto some of them the riuer brought vs so neere, as we judged ourselues when we landed to haue beene within a league of them ; but we marched vp about foure miles in the mains, and passed ouer three hilles ;
WAYMOUTH's voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 245
and because the weather was parching hot, and our men in their armour not able to trauel farre and returne that night to our ship, we resolued not to passe any further, being all very weary of so tedious and laboursom a trauell. . . . We were no sooner come aboord our light-horseman, returning towards our ship, but we espied a Canoa coming from the further part of the Cod of the riuer eastward, which hasted to vs.
Waymouth seems to have anchored his vessel near the present rums of Fort St. George. The "codde"^ of the river was the bay at the bend of the river at Thomaston, and to the eastward, as indicated in the "Relation." The account of the march made by Waymouth and his men toward the mountains they saw at their first arrival on the coast, answers fully to the geographical features of the country back of Thomaston. On the other hand the White moun- tains cannot be seen from the landing at Bath, or at any landing on the Kennebec, and if they could no one would think of making a journey to them on foot and returning the same day.
The next day Waymouth, in his shallop, ascended " that part of the riuer which trended westward into the.maine." At Thomaston the St. George's river takes the direction that is here indicated. Making; a right angle the course is westerly about two miles and then northward. "By estimation" Waymouth pro- ceeded twenty miles. Describing the river in this part of its course Rosier says : —
The bredth and depth is such, that any ship drawing 17 or 18 foot water, might haue passed as farre as we went with our light
•Capt. John Foster Williams, who in 1797 examined the coast of Maine witll reference to Waymouth's discoveries in 1605, says : "The word ' codde ' is not com- mon, but I liave often heard it, as ' vp in the codde of the bay,' meaning the bottom of the bay. I suppose what he calls ' the codde of the river ' is a bay in the river."
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horseman, and by all our mens judgement much further, because we left it in so good depth and bredth, which is so much the more to be esteemed of greater woorth by how much it trendeth further vp into the maine : for from the ^^lace of our ships riding in the Harbour at the entrance into the sound, to the furthest part we were in this riuer, by our estimation was not much lesse than three-score miles.
The St. George's river above Thomaston is by no means the magnificent river which Hosier's language indicates ; yet ships of twelve hmidred tons have been built as far up as Warren.
The following points, therefore, are in favor of the St. George's river, viz., the direction from Pentecost harbor, the general description of the river as far as "the codde thereof," its breadth, depth, character of its bottom, boldness of its shores, its many gallant coves, its being in the direction of the great mountains up in the main, the " codde " of the river, the appear- ance of the mountains as seen from Thomaston, the trend of the river westward at that point — indeed everything but the flow . of the tide and the distance explored as given by Rosier. But these last are too great upon any other theory that has been advanced. Evidently Rosier shared the enthusiasm of his fellow voyagers, and his estimates were as excessive as the estimates of travelers in an unknown country are likely to be.
On the other hand, if with McKeen^ and Ballard"^ we hold that the river discovered by Waymouth was the Kennebec, then instead of going " further vp to- wards the maine " when he made this discovery, Way-
1 Maine Hist. Soc. CoH., vol. 5. page 317. 'Popliam Memorial volume, pagea 304, 305.
WAYMOUTH'S voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 247
mouth followed the coast until he came to the mouth of the Kennebec. Furthermore Hosier's discription of the river does not answer to the Kennebec. Its course is not in the direction indicated, that is of high mountains, and we do not find on either hand the " very gallant Cones " which were so notable a feature of the river Rosier describes.
If we adopt the theory advocated by R. K. Sewall, Eqs.,^ that Waymouth followed the " inland passage north westerly across or up the waters of the Sheepscot and the Bay of Hockomock, through to the Sagadahoc, opposite Bath," where he discovered "'a great river' which he imagined ran ' far up into the land, by the breadth, depth and strong flood ' and following the broad reach of the mouth of the Androscoggin, which trends west into the main and flows from the White mountains, he explored that river or a part of the Sagadahoc," we have no less difficulty in bringing this theory into harmony with the description in Rosier' s "Relation." For according to this theory Waymouth did not reach the "great river" until he entered the Kennebec opposite Bath, and Rosier has passed over in silence the passage of the vessel through Townsend gut, across Sheepscot bay and along the manifold in- tricacies of the Sasanoa river. Is this probable? Moreover Waymouth descended the river by a single tide with "little helpe of the winde," and anchored at the mouth of the river. The "' Relation" indicates that Waymouth returned to Pentecost harbor by the same waters upon which he made his way up into the main.
> Ancient Dominions of Maine, page 76.
248 MAIXE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
If he did, he certainly could not have entered the Ken- nebec by the inland passage from Boothbay harbor.
In closing this paper it only remains for me to notice an argmnent which the advocates of the St. George's theory have not been able satisfactorily to meet until recently, viz., that on John Smith's map of 1G14 and on the so-called "Figurative map," of the same year, — the earliest maps of the New England coast that had come down to us, — the St. George's river has no place whatever, while on Champlain's large map of 1632, it hardly attracts attention. But the force of this argument is broken by the recent dis- covery in the archives at Simancas, Spain, of a copy of a map^ which was prepared in 1610 by a surveyor whom King James i, of England sent to Virginia that year for this purpose. The map, doubtless, was not made from original surveys except in part. The un- known surveyor^ evidently made use of the maps of Gosnold, Pring, Waymouth and other voyagers. Cer- tainly it is a map surprisingly accurate for that early
1 Alexander Brown's " Genesis of the United States," vol. 1, page 157.
• Mr. Alexander Brown, in his note concerning this map, says "I am inclined to think that the map was compiled and drawn either by Robert Tyndall or by Cap- tain Powell. However I cannot be certain." And he adds (Genesis of the United States, vol. 1, page 438), " I think the map evidently embodies [besides the surveys of Champlain and other foreigners], the English surveys of White, Gosnold, Waymouth, Pring, Hudson, Argall, Tyndall, and possibly others. Strachey, referring to Argall's voyage of June to August, 1010, says he 'made good from 44 degrees, what Captayne Bartho' Gosnold and Captayne Waymouth wanted in their <iiscoveries, observing all along the coast anil drawing the plotts thereof, as he steered homewardes unto our bay.' Purchas (vol. iii, page .590), in a side note to the narrative of Hud.son's voyage along our coast in August, 1609, says, ' This agreeth •with Robert Tyndall.' Tyndall made a plan of James river for the Prince of Wales in 1607, which is now probably lost. He made a chai-t of James and York
river in 1608 The North Carolina coast, on this map, was evidently taken
chiefly from Captain John White's survey and drawings. . . . The coast from Cape Charles to about 41° north latitude and up the Hudson river to a little beyond the entrance of the Mohawk, contains only one or two names, and I think was drawn from the recent surveys of Hudson (1609) and Argall (1610)."
WAYMOUTH's voyage to coast of MAINE, 1605. 249
period in its delineation of tlie coast of southern and northern Virginia. On the coast of Maine familiar names greet us, such as Cape Porpus, Sagadahock, Cinebaque (Kennebec), Pemerogat (Pentegoet, Penob- scot), lies de Mountes Deserts, Isle Haute, etc. Monhe- gan, called St. George, is correctly located, and the multitudious islands along the coast are largely repre- ented, considering the scale upon which the map is drawn. Such marked features of the landfall as the Camden and Union mountains are indicated, and a single moun- tain west of the Kennebec may be intended to repre- sent Mount Washington as seen from Small point. As to the general trend of the coast line the superiority of this Simancas map of 1610 appears when compared with the other maps of the same period.
But what is especially noteworthy in connection with this paper is the fact that upon this map, which antedates the maps with which the cartography of New England in the seventeenth century has hitherto been supposed to begin,^ the St. George's river under the Indian name Tahanock, now for the first time made known, is delineated with singular accuracy. It has already been noted that the St. George's river has this marked peculiarity that on either side are large coves, by which here and there the breadth of the river is greatly extended. These " very gallant Coues " as Rosier described them in the " Relation," are distinctly marked on the Simancas map, although of course not with the minuteness of accuracy exhibited in our own present careful surveys. The " codde " of the river,
1 Narrative and Critical History of America. Vol. 3. p. 381. Kote.
250 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
also, appears exactly where from Hosier's description we should expect to find it. Moreover, Rosier tells us that Wajmouth, when he ascended the river the sec- ond time, took with him " a Crosse " to erect at that point where the river trends westward. It is a remark- able fact that on the Simancas map of 1610, where the St. George's river trends in the direction indicated, there is the mark of a cross. What is this cross, but the cross to which Rosier refers, and which Waymouth erected as a token of English discovery ? Its indica- tion on this map is very strong evidence that this part of the Simancas map was taken by King James' sur- veyor from what Rosier calls Waymouth's " perfect Geographicall Map."
The evidence, therefore, may now be regarded as in every way conclusive that St. George's harbor is the Pentecost harbor of Rosier' s " Relation," and that the river which Waymouth discovered was the Tanahock or St. George's river.
TRACES OF THE NORTHMEN. 251
TRACES OF THE NORTHMEN.
Read before the Maine Historical Society, February 9, 1888.
BY JOSEPH WILLIAMSON.
In the whole of the territory lying between the Alleghany and Rocky mountains; in the valleys of the South, and on the prairies of the West, are found the most wonderful vestiges of an extinct civilization. Far removed from the jDathways of ordinary travel — buried for the most part in the depths of an unbroken wilder- ness, or hidden beneath the growth of centuries, are mysterious monumental remains of a people who have faded from the earth without leaving more than these vestiges behind. Alike objects of wonder to the ad- venturous Spaniard and to the intrepid French and English pioneer, they stood in solitary ruin ; and there they still stand, hoary chronicles of ages long past, almost perplexing the imagination as it wanders in search of their history. Who were they that erected them ? Whence came, and whither went that race ? When were those monuments built? — how con- structed?— for what purpose designed? These are questions which have been long asked, but never sat- isfactorily answered. The red man, who for centuries had held undisputed sway over the plains and solitudes of America, could give no explanation of these mys- terious relics, and the researches of Stephens and of Catherwood have alike failed to deduce their origin.
Nor are the remains of antiquity confined to more remote portions of our continent. Vestiges exist in
252 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
New England, which, although not resembling in mag- nitude the mounds of the Mississippi valley, nor indi- cating the civilization of Yucatan, still constitute unmistakable evidence of a people upon which con- jecture in part alone can throw light. Not only in Rhode Island, in southern Massachusetts, and in New Hampshire have they been found, but our own state exhibits pre-historic monuments, which have attracted the attention of foreign archaeologists, and engaged the speculations of local historians.
That America was visited from the north of Europe before the voyage of Columbus, has been frequently regarded as a vague tradition, like the Egyptian legend narrated by Plato, concerning the island of Atlantis. The general import of the tradition as given by early historical writers, is that about the beginning of the eleventh century, some portion of our coast was dis- covered by Norwegian navigators sailing from Green- land; that they finally made a settlement here, calling the place Vinland or Wineland, from the abundance of grapes which it produced ; that subsequently, a mis- sionary enterprise was undertaken from Greenland to America, for the purpose of converting the natives to Christianity ; and that after an intercourse had been maintained with our continent for three centuries, the colonial establishments either became amalgamated with the native population, or from other causes dis- appeared, till the existence of Vinland was forgotten. Recent researches and discoveries, if they have not converted this tradition into a fact, have at least ex- cluded every other theory which has been offered.
%
TRACES OF THE NORTHMEN. 253
Until within comparatively a few years the inclination of the popular mind has been averse to adopting a proposition which would in the least detract from the glory of Columbus, and its advocates, like many re- formers, have been obliged to combat an obstinate conservatism. The gradual extension of the idea forms a curiosity of our historical literature. Dr. Belknap, the distinguished author of American Biography, was among the first to venture upon this almost forbidden ground, unnoticed as it had been by the earliest historians of Maine and Massachusetts. Writing in 1794, he says: "Though we can come to no positive conclusion on a question of such remote antiquity, yet there are many circumstances to con- firm, and none to disprove these ancient voyages." Irving expresses himself with great distrust on the sub- ject, while admitting that there is no great improbabil- ity "that such enterprising and roving voyagers as the Scandinavians may have wandered to the northern shores of America, about the coast of Labrador, or the island of Newfoundland." On the other hand, Bancroft, whose first volume of the history of the United States appeared in 1834, disposes of the matter in a few lines. "The story of the colonization of America by the Northmen," he says, "rests on nar- ratives, mythological in form, and obscure in meaning ; ancient, yet not contemporary." In a ballad entitled "The Skeleton in Armor," suggested by the disinter- ment of human remains at Fall River, wrapped in sheets of copper, the sweet muse of Longfellow con- nected its subject with the stone tower at Newport,
254
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
then claimed as the work of the Danes, prior to the thirteenth century. Subsequent investigations proved that the structure was erected by early English set- tlers, for a windmill. So jealously guarded, however, was the fame of Columbus, that after Mr. Bancroft's summary rejection of the Northmen theory, the poet found a public apology necessary, and in a note, ad- mitted that his point had been destroyed. "It is," he added, "perhaps sufficiently established for the pur- pose of a ballad; though doubtless many an honest citizen of Newport, who has passed his days within sight of the"Round Tower, will be ready to exclaim with Sancho; 'God help^e ! did I not warn you to have a care of what you were doing, for that it was nothing but a windmill ; and nobody could mistake it, but one who had the like in his head!' "
Edward Everett, then regarded as one of the most accomplished of American scholars, differed from Bancroft, and in 1838, gave his matured conclusion " that there is no sufficient reason for doubting that these traditions of the discoveries of the Northmen are founded on fact, and that our continent was visited by them in the eleventh century." Humboldt, the great critic of geographical history, at about the same time affirmed that " the Scandinavian Northmen were the true, original discoverers of the new world," and Harry Wheaton, whose life for many years at the court of Denmark, was devoted to the study of northern literature, and to the society of the learned men of the Danish capital, in his elaborate work entitled "The History of the Northmen," adopted a similar view.
TRACES OF THE NORTHMEN. 255
Emboldened by such high authority, we find Dr. Pal- frey's elaborate history of New England, published twenty-four years later than Bancroft's, conceding, with some apparent reluctance, that " it is no wise unlikely that eight or nine hundred years ago the Norwegian navigators extended their voyages as far as the American continent." The author remarks: — Possessing the best nautical skill of their age, they put to sea in substantial ships, having decks, and well con- trived rigging. Iceland they had undoubtedly reached and colonized ; and from Iceland, Greenland. From Cape Farewell, the southern extremity of Greenland, to the nearest point on the American continent in Labrador, the distance is no greater than the distance to Iceland from the point of departure in Norway. It is altogether credible, that the rovers who explored every sea from the Baltic to the ^gean should, by stress of bad weather or by favor of good, have been conveyed a distance of only three or four days' sail from land. When they had often prosperously made the passage from their homes to Iceland, they might well have had confidence for another like adventure, which would have brought them from Greenland to Labrador. And from Labrador, the exploration of as much more of the coast of North America as they might be disposed to visit would require only a coasting voyage.
Professors of Icelandic literature in the English Un- iversities now accept the Icelandic chronicles, which tell of the Northmen's colonies in America, as veri- table history. One of them. Professor Magnusson of Cambridge, says in a recent letter: "There is no learned body in Europe that even breathes a doubt about the question of the settlement of Vinland by the Northmen." Thus we see the development of a new spirit in scholarship, which has the courage of
256 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
modern science, " dropping hard and fast dividing lines, doubting many statements which have hitherto accounted for the world's history, and trusting rather to everyday and natural operations, through longer periods, to accomplish results;" a spirit, which only a few months since, in the city of Boston, with im- posing ceremonies, sanctioned by the highest state and municipal authority, culminated in the dedication of a statue of the typical Northman, inscribed in both Runic and English characters : —
"Leif, the Discoverer, Son' of Erfc, who Sailed from Iceland, and Landed on this Continent, a. d. 1000."
The inquiry is at once suggested : '' Who were the Northmen?" They were the descendants of the Scandinavians, who it is thought sprung from the Thracians mentioned by Homer ; a nation now extinct. Passing from Asia into Germany and Denmark, they spread from thence into Sweden and Norway, beside furnishing at a later period, large additions to the population of England. In the year 860, the remote island of Iceland became definitely known to them, and soon after immigration there commenced. It continued without interruption until the tenth century, when the population numbered over sixty thousand. A large portion of the colonists came from Gei'man}'-; many, also, were from Denmark ; while others sailed from the British Isles. The Danes, the Swedes, the Norwegians and the Icelanders, therefore, are all em- braced under the name of the Northmen, or Norse- men. Mr. Everett remarks: —
Something of the reluctance to admit their discovery of Amer- ica unquestionably springs from a superficial notion of the im-
TEACES OF THE NORTHMEN. 257
probability that a people locked up, as we almost think them, within the icebergs of the north, should have preceded the Genoese, the Venetians, the Spaniards, and Portuguese in cross- ing the Atlantic. It happens, however, that at the very period when this discovery is alleged to have been made by the North- men, they were, of all the tribes of men, precisely the people to make it. Out of a little speck of a barbarous horde, not impoi-tant enough to be named by Tacitus in his account of the Germans, there had sj^rung up, in the course of a few years, that bold, enterprising, warlike race, who, under a strange political organiza- tion in which feudalism, traffic, knight-errantry and piracy bore equal parts, covered the ocean with their commercial and their naval marine, discovered, or colonized, or both, the archipelago of the North, Iceland, and Greenland, the Orkneys, the Shetland Islands, Ireland, and the main of England; all littoral Germany, the LoAV Countries, and the northern coast of France; ravaged the shores of the Mediterranean; sacked the cities of Tuscany; wrested Apulia from the Greek emperors ; made successful war with the Pope ; over-ran Greece, and carried terror to the walls of Constantinople. Naval skill, experience, and power, were the foundation of this ubiquitous dominion.
Their situation near the sea, and the advantage which that element possessed over the resources of a rough soil and a cold climate, led them at an early period to the science and practice of navigation. That their vessels were constructed in a manner to defy the storms of the northern ocean is apparent from the Viking ship of the eleventh century recently exhumed in Norway, of which a recent number of Scrib- ner's magazine contains an account. This vessel was seventy-eight feet long by sixteen feet wide ; built of oak, with planks laid over the timbers in lap-streak style, and with caulked seams. Sir Walter Scott, in Vol. II. 18
258 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
his Lay of the Last Minstrel, referring to the West- ern isles, thus speaks of this remarkable people : —
Thither came, in times afar,
Stern Lochlin's sons of roving war ;
The Northmen, trained to spoil and blood,
Skilled to prepare the raven's food ;
Kinsrs of the main — their leaders brave —
Their barks, the dragons of the wave.
The Northmen were by no means illiterate, and at an early period their language had a written form com- prised of rough characters called Runic, or Runes. No manuscript employing these characters exists, and our knowledge of them is derived from a multitude of inscriptions on stones which are scattered through Norway, Sweden and Scotland. It is doubtful if either history or literature has derived much value from the Runic letters, which at the present day the most learned scholars find difficulty in deciphering. After the conversion of the Danes and Norwegians to Christianity, they adopted the Roman alphabet. In Iceland there were educated men called skalds, de- noting "^smoothers or polishers of language," or bards; and sagamen, who recited in prose, with greater de- tail, what the skalds had given in verse. By these, the real and traditionary annals of the country were transmitted to posterity. With a third generation from the discovery of America, a series of national writers of reputation commences, whose works are preserved and form a satisfactory basis of authentic history. Until a comparatively recent date, many of these writings, untranslated and inaccessible, existed
TRACES OF THE NORTHIMEN. 259
only in the Danish libraries. Their historic purport deduced from compositions of some eighteen credible authors as contained in a volume published at Copen- hagen, entitled "American Antiquities, or Northern Writino;s of Things in America before the Time of Columbus," is substantially as follows: —
About a hundred years before the Norman conquest of England, an Icelander named Biarne sailed from Iceland for Greenland, in search of his father, who had gone thither. Overtaken by fogs, he lost his reckoning. When the weather became clear, he found himself sailing in a northeasterly direction, with low and wooded land on the port side. He continued on the same course for nine days, and at the end of them arrived in Greenland, reaching it in an opposite direc- tion to that with which the voyage had been begun.
The subject had been pondered several years, when in 1000, one Leif, with a single vessel and a crew of thirty-five men, sailed from Greenland in search of the land reported to have been seen by Biarne. He found it, went on shore, and called the place Helluland, from a word signifying slate in the Icelandic tongue. Em- barking again and proceeding southwardly along the coast, he came to a country well wooded and level, except as it was broken along the sea by a succession of bluffs of white sand. This he called Markland, in allusion to its wood. Sailing two days more with a northeasterly wind, out of sight of land, he reached an island, and passed westward along its northern side. He disembarked, built huts, and wintered on the main- land, which he named Vinland or Wineland, in conse"
260 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
quence of a report from one of his crew, a German, that, wandering in the woods, he had seen abundance of grapes such as wine was made from in his native country.
On returning to Greenland, Leif gave his vessel to his brother Thorwald, who set sail on an expedition to explore the new county further toward the south. He passed a winter in Vinland, and during the fol- lowinii: summer found several uninhabited islands. After another winter, he sailed to the eastward, and then to the north. Doubling a cape, which he called Kialarnes, or keel-cape, and coasting along the shore of the bay within, he received a mortal wound from some natives by a woody promontory, which was called Krossanes, from a cross set up at the head of his grave. His companions passed a third winter in Vinland, and then returned to Greenland.
The next expedition was planned on a larger scale. Thorfinn, a person of rank and wealth, with a hundred and sixty men in three vessels, sailed from Greenland for Vinland for the purpose of establishing a colony. They touched at Helluland and Markland, saw Cape Kialarnes as they steered south, and, passing by a long beach of sand, came to a bay extending up into the country with an island at its entrance. Southwesterly from this island, they entered the mouth of a river, and passed up into a lake, upon whose banks wheat and vines grew wild. The natives, who came about them in canoes, were of a sallov/ complexion, with large, ill-formed faces and shaggy hair. There was no snow, and the live stock which had been brought
TRACES OF THE NORTHIMEN. 261
wintered in the woods. After some conflicts with the savages, Thorfinn relinquished his project of coloniza- tion and returned to Greenland. Accounts of two naore voyages to Vinland within the next three or four years make the last of these circumstantial nar- ratives ; but the communication between the countries is represented as having been not entirely discontinued before the middle of the fourteenth century.
The name Helluland may have been given to what we call Labrador, or Newfoundland; Markland may answer to Nova Scotia ; and it has been asserted that Yinland applied to Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Dr. J. G. Kohl, an eminent German author and traveler, in his " History of the Discovery of Maine," published in 1869, supposes that our coast was repeatedly visited by the Northmen, who probably included it under the name of Vinland; though it may, perhaps, sometimes have been considered as a part of Markland. He thinks that both Biarne and Leif crossed the Gulf of Maine, that Thorwald, in 1004, landed here, and that the cape where he was buried was not far from our southern boundary. But the materials for identifying any of these localities are insufficient; the strongest argument in behalf of Maine consists in the discovery of certain stone works, rock inscriptions, and articles composed of metal, which point unmistakably to a race existing here before the Indians.
A century and a half ago, the earliest settlers on Kennebec river found near Waterville remains of a blacksmith's forge with moldered and decayed bricks.
262 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Shortly after, at the head of Merrymeeting bay, the outlines of thirteen hearths were brought to light, in the midst of trees whose concentric rings indicated an age of over six hundred years. Similar structures, composed of round boulders, arranged in parallel rows, together with charred wood, have been ex- humed from beneath a peat bed in Massachusetts. Archoeologists agree that they were not the work of the savages, for if the custom of hearths had been once adopted by them, the whole continent would have abounded in like remains, occurring under deposits progressively thinner up to the surface. In Scandina- via, such hearthstones are frequently uncovered.
The mining and working of copper have never been attributed to the red man ; yet these Kennebec hearths disclosed several implements composed of that sub- stance. So also have ancient burial places in different places of our State. Among human remains found in the town of Union, were copper rods about a foot long, of the diameter of a pipe-stem, and also a quan- tity of small copper balls. In 1860, the exhumation of skeletons at Harpswell disclosed several hundred copper tubes, probably forming a belt or breastplate. The tubes were of different lengths, accurately rolled into shape, and preserving uniformitj^ in their resj^ec- tive rows. Several sheets of flat thin copper were also embedded, but so corroded and broken as to leave no indication of their use. Two years since, a chain twenty feet long, composed of copper beads, was found among human bones at Front's Neck, near Port- land. Native copper seems to have been a favorite
TRACES or THE NORTHMEN. 263
material among the momid-builders of the West. The metal was probably taken directly from the Lake Superior deposits, as they exhibit abundant evidence of ancient mining operations.
Stone inscriptions, like those existing in the north of Europe, have been found along our coast. That on Menanas, a small island near Monhegan, has at- tracted attention from both the scientific and the curious. It is engraved with a sharp instrument upon the vertical face of a ledge, in a ravine which extends some distance across the island, where glacial action could not operate, to leave as it has done, all over the rocks of Maine, unquestioned scratches. It covers a space of about four feet long by six inches wide. The characters are composed of straight lines, resembling the Runic letters N.W.L.V. and X. Although regard- ed by many as of Scandinavian origin, the learned societies of Denmark have never recognized it as such, perhaps for the reason suggested by Professor Halde- man at a meeting of the American Scientific Associa- tion in 1856, where a cast was exhibited, that there were not three men in Copenhagen who understood the Runic symbols.
It will be remembered that Leif, after sailing two days and nights from Markland or Nova Scotia, reached an island. This may be supposed to have been Monhe- gan from the following circumstances : — On the hori- zon, mountains blue with distance were seen. Such the Camden hills appear to the observer at Monhegan. "The island lay east of the main land," says the ac- count. This is the position of Monhegan. From the
264 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
island, the Northmen entered a neighboring river, through which they were carried into a lake filled with salmon. Near by, their houses were erected, and they passed the winter. The river is well represented by the Kennebec, which joins the ocean near Monhegan, and Merrymeeting bay corresponds to the lake. Near the latter were found the stone hearths that have been described. It does not require much aid from the imagination to connect the inscription with the latter, as the work of the Northmen;, the one rude- ly intended to commemorate their discovery, or to mark the resting-place of a companion; and the other as the ruins of their winter settlement, the relics of seven centuries. The advanced position of Monhegan presents the earliest view of land to an approaching mariner, and it is not improbable that it attracted the attention of the bold Vikings. We find difficulty in reconciling the description of the temperate climate with modern experience. But the cold winters of New England, compared with those of Greenland, to which the Northmen were accustomed, must have resembled the mildness of spring; and beside, the seasons may have changed. Because grapes are not now indigenous to our soil, we cannot say that they may not have been so in the days of Leif. Early French settlers found grapes in such abundance in Canada that the Island of Orleans, near Quebec, was named by them the Isle of Bacchus. The letter of Popham to King James, in 1607, from the mouth of the Kennebec, affirming that nutmegs, mace, and cin- namon, besides pitch, cochineal and Brazil wood were
TEACES OF THE NORTHMEN. 265
produced there, is more inconsistent than that grapes grew in Newfoundland or Maine.
On Damiscove islands are said to be inscriptions re- sembling the Monhegan one. A granite tablet, four- teen feet by two, of compact texture, is covered with figures and characters of various sizes and lengths, some cut with gouge-like instruments, and others by sharp- pointed tools. At Machiasport is shown a picture, or perhaps a map, engraved upon a rock just below the high-tide margin. The ledge into which it is cut, is a green stone trap, of a flat, tabular form, and sloping to the sea at an angle of about ten degrees. A space about sixty feet long, measuring at right angles to the shore, is quite closely covered with figures of men and animals, together Avith lines apparently indicating streams and ponds. Stinson's neck, near Deer Isle, contains a causeway connecting the two islands, com- posed of worn, rounded boulders. It is about thirty feet wide, regular on its sides, and a quarter of a mile long from shore to shore. Its origin is unaccounted for.
In this connection, may be given an interesting fact noted by the Rev. Jacob Bailey, an Episcopal minister at Pownalboro, now Dresden, before the Revolution: —
On the western side of the Kennebec river, about thirty-two miles from its mouth, there is a round hill, nearly of a circular form, with a base whose area may occupy half an acre, which rises above the surrounding level, nearly fifty feet perpendicular. This hill is one entire pile of stones, covered with herbage and several stately oaks, which make a fine appearance from the water. There is some probability that it was erected by art, and what serves to confirm this opinion is that not a single stoue
266 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
can be found on the adjacent plains. Two hills of a similar aspect, and the same materials, may be seen in Gardinerstown, about three miles distant. It is conjectured that these were raised by the natives in former ages, or else were designed to cover the bodies of some mighty heroes.
Outlines of what is thought by some to have been a prehistoric road, exist in Northport, near the bluff. The wonderful shell heaps at Newcastle, measuring three hundred and fifty feet by one hundred and twenty-five, with an average depth of twelve feet, were long supposed to have been the work of the Indians, who dwelt during successive seasons on the coast, for the same purpose that the natives in Ore- gon now annually visit the Pacific cojist — to dry fish for winter use. Recent investigations by scientific men however, prove that they are at least six hundred years old, and that while the Indians are probably re- sponsible for some of the upper deposits, the presence of bones of extinct animals, and other evidences in the lower strata, show their connection with an earlier race. Some of the implements are almost identical with those found in European mounds. Archaeologists who have explored similar heaps in Denmark, are of opinion that they constitute the refuse of prehistoric feasts. It may be that history is now repeating itself, and that the Newcastle shells point to mammoth clam- bakes of the western mound builders, whose course is marked by fragments of pottery, copper tools, and other indestructible articles, just as at the present day tin cans, sardine boxes, and broken glass indicate the line of summer excursionists along our coast.
TRACES OF THE NORTHMEN. 267
Upon a consideration of the subject of the North- men, many perplexing questions naturally arise. Why is our knowledge of their occupancy continued as it was for over three hundred years, so limited and un- satisfactory ? Why do so few proofs of their coloniza- tion remain ? What became of them ? Why did not some traditionary account of the race reach us through the Indians ? Mr. Everett remarks : —
That such a discovery should have been made, so vast, so in- teresting; that expeditions to explore, to settle, and to evange- lize the countiy should have been undertaken ; and that a com- munication between America on the one hand, and Greenland and Iceland on the other, should have been kept up for three centuries and a half ; that written accounts of these very impor- tant events should be in existence; and that the discovery should have been j^ushed to no greater consequences ; nay, that all ef- fective knowledge of it after a time, should have perished ; are, it must be admitted, circumstances somewhat difficult to explain. If it be hard to find a continent, one would think it must be harder to lose one. When America was said to be discovered by Columbus, the intelUgence rung through Europe. The old world seemed to pour itself out upon the new. The discovery by the Northmen appeared to produce no sensation in the world. It had no effect upon the mind of Europe at large. It led to no vigorous efforts at colonization ; awoke no spirit of adventure ; occasioned none of those mighty revolutions which were caused by the discovery of Columbus, and was before long forgotten. These are difficulties which must be looked in the face.
Are they sufficiently accounted for by the want of the art of printing; by the comparative barbarism of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as contrasted with the kindling intelligence of the beginning of the sixteenth ? Was the attention of men called forth in other quarters;
268 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to the revolutions that were advancing under Norman banners in Apulia and Scicily ; to the magnificent con- quest of England by a Norman prince; and, above all, to the great movement of the crusades, which shook Europe to its center? Again, the Spanish discoverers, on the first islands, and first portions of the continent which they visited, found the precious metals in abun- dance. This discovery urged the passion for advent- ure to madness. Gold and silver were found in heaps. The tale went home of rivers, that flowed over beds of golden sands; of temples, whose walls blazed with the precious ore; of captive princes, purchasing their ransom by halls full of piled ingots. It turned the heads of men in the old country. They grew frantic to attain this gold; and it soon became necessary, in order to avoid the depopulation of Spain, that severe restrictions should be laid on emigration. But avarice was not the only master-passion which was enkindled. The Spanish adventurers encountered at the outset a delicious tropical climate, a region inhabited by races, which, compared with themselves, were un warlike and timid, — whose civilization had furnished many of the arts of luxury and gaudy display but few of those of defense, at least against a mounted, iron-clad enemy, who fought with thunderbolts. Ambition was fired at the thought of achieving the conquest of vast realms, by a trilling expense of the resources of European warfare. The career of Cortez and Pizarro was enough to ruin a generation of young men, — to corrupt the imaginations and unsettle the judgments of men for a century. Far otherwise the case with the Northmen.
TRACES OF THE NORTIEMEN. 269
They landed, at best, on an unhospitable coast ; inhab- ited by a warlike race of savages; they themselves had no firearms; and the country, and those who oc- cupied it, offered little to awaken ambition or avarice. At a much later period, we witness the effect of this diversity in the character of the two portions of the continent upon the conduct both of governments and individuals. Newfoundland, we know certainly, was discovered by Cabot for England, a few years after the West Indies were discovered by Columbus for Spain. And yet, though the example of Spain, in turning her almost undivided attention to her new American acquisitions, was before the eyes of England, she neglected hers for three-quarters of a century, and, at last, did little more than extend a parsimonious countenance to the feeble attempts of private com- panies to colonize the continent.
It must be remembered, also, that the event took place during the middle ages, when the light of science in southern Europe was wholly extinguished, and only a faint glimmering of learning, confined to the cells of the monks, was visible. At a time when the very existence of such cities as Pompeii and Herculaneum was forgotten; and when forests concealed the splen- did structures of Poestum and Petra, it is not strange that all recollection of our western region should have faded away. Besides, the discoverers of Vinland did not consider it as a new world. They regarded it as a continuation of the old — as a part of their Scandina- vian home. Their settlement produced no lasting or important results for civilization.
270 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Why no Indian tradition bears testimony to the last colony, does not seem strange, if we consider the lim- ited mental capacity of that race. Remarks one writer : —
The proceedings of the second generation before his own, were as unknown to the North American native, as the events of the ancient world. In ballads, songs, or other rhythmical form of legend, most communities inherit some kindling association with the past. But he had nothing of the kind, nor of any other poetry. He possessed no chronicles, no memorials.
His connection with other races has been fondly attempted by fanciful historians, in referring to his hope of felicity in fields beyond the gates of death, where he should meet his ancestors, and be happy in a state of immortality. Judge Sullivan, however, who wrote an account of the tribes which occupied Maine, and who had studied their origin and character, says that : —
From any conversation had with the Indians here, or from any- thing which can be gathered from those who have been most with them, there is no reason to believe that the Northern sav- ages ever had any ideas of that nature.
Upon a careful review of all the evidence in the case, I think that the conclusion must be reached that the coast of Maine was at least temporarily occupied by the Northmen. Had their stay been of any dura- tion, some architectural monuments would exist, as in Greenland and in Iceland, where ruins of their stone churches and other buildings are still to be seen. But nothing definite, of a permanent, lasting nature has been found. Why settlements were continued in the
TRACES OF THE NORTHMEN. 271
dreary latitude of those countries, and abandoned here ; whether the race disappeared under some sudden or overwhelming irruption of hostile nations; were swept away by devastating pestilence, like those which Mexican tradition records ; or migrated elsewhere im- der the inducement of powerful neighbors or the seduc- tions of a more genial climate, are questions of deep interest, but to which as yet, no satisfactory answer can be given.
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 273
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE.
Read before the Maine Historical Society, December 21, 1889.
BY JAMES P. BAXTER.
The history of the colonization of Maine begins not long after that of her sister state, Virginia; but the first settlements in the latter were more continuous than the former, hence we have more complete and satisfactory records of the early history of Virginia than of Maine. Owing to the fragmentary and often obscure character of the beginnings of Maine history, her historians have been perplexed and even, in some instances, misled by imperfect records of events, simple enough in themselves, but troublesomely complex when taken into view with other associated events. With respect to the obscurity of some of these early records, we may cite in illustration the building of the first vessel in the English colonies, known as the Virginia, built by the Popham colonists at the mouth of the Sagadahoc, in the autumn and early winter of the year 1607.
So obscure was the record of the building of the Virginia, that an able Massachusetts writer some time ago ridiculed the idea, and denied in an article of con- siderable force, that such a vessel had been built by the colonists; yet we now possess ample evidence that the Virginia was not only built, as we had been vague- ly informed she had been ; but that she returned to England ^ and performed at least one successful voyage
1 Vide History of the Virginia Compauy of London, by Edward D. Neill, Albany, 1869. Pages 29 ei seg'.
Vol. II. 19
274 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to southern Virt^inia in the fleet of Sir George Som- ers, having outridden a storm, which caused disaster to other vessels of the fleet built in the well equipped dockyards of England. We may, therefore, still just- ly claim that Maine built the first vessel in the English colonies, and in this respect, as in so many others, is entitled to bear her ambitious motto, Dirigo.
Having experienced in common with other students of early Maine history the difficulty of obtaining a clear view of events connected with the first attempts at colonization on our coast, owing to the paucity of material at command, I spent several months while in England in an endeavor to add to that material. In pursuance of this object, I searched in public and private archives for manuscripts of the 17th century, relating in any way to America, especially to that portion known as New England.
Perhaps the most valuable discovery was made at Hatfield House, whose invaluable treasures were gen- erously thrown open to me by the present owner. The great muniment room of Hatfield House contains the correspondence of Lord Burleigh, Queen Eliza- beth's famous minister, and of his son, Sir Robert Cecil, as well as other correspondence of a later date. Among this correspondence I found a large number of the letters of Sir Ferdinando Goro:es, the oriijrinal proprietor of Maine, several of which relate to his efforts at colonization, and which clear up points hitherto obscure, rendered in a measure so by Sir Ferdinando's own account of his colonial undertak- ings, written at an advanced age, under the title of "A Brief Narration."
THE BEGINTflNGS OF MAINE. 275
The first settlement at Sagadahoc has been a fruit- ful theme of discussion, and has given rise to much speculative, critical, and I may add intemperate writing.
We will not stojo to discuss the character of the colonists, who have been denominated " Old Baily con- victs," "cut purses," and other opprobrious names,^ but quote what has heretofore been the popular theory of the settlement. This is to the effect, that the ships Mary and John, and Gift of God, bearing the colo- nists, reached the mouth of the Sagadahoc in the sum- mer of 1607, and, on the twentieth of August, prepara- tions were begun for settlement. That the colonists, erected a fort ; laid the keel of a small vessel ; built a church and fifty houses; and, on the fifteenth of Dec- ember, the Mary and John was dispatched for England with supplies, bearing a letter from George Popham to the king. That this vessel upon reaching England was furnished with supplies for the colonists and returned in the spring, bearing the news of the death of Chief Justice Popham, and also of Sir John Gilbert, the brother of Raleigh Gilbert, who was then in command of the colony, George Popham having died during the winter; whereupon the settlement was abandoned, and the colonists returned to England.^ A theory has also been advanced, that a portion of the colonists re- mained behind, perhaps forty-five, mentioned by Har- low, who has left us a few brief particulars of the expedition, and that eleven of them were subsequent-
1 Vide The Popham Colony, (P.) Boston 1866. P. 9, 29, et passim.
276 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
ly slain by the Indians.-^ This theory is based upon the following statements of Pere Biard.
"This people [the Indians] do not appear to be wick- ed, although they have undone the English, who wished to live among them in the year 1608 and 1609. They excused themselves to us for this act, and recounted to us the outrages that they had received from the said English, and flattered us, saying that they loved us well, because they knew that we did not shut our doors against the savages like the English, and that we did not chase them from our tables with blows of a stick, nor make our dogs bite them.
"But inasmuch as I have here made mention of the English, perhaps some one will desire to know their for- tune, which we learned in this place. It is then as fol- lows: that in the year 1608, the English began to settle in one of the mouths of the river Kini beqae, as we have before said. They had there a leader, a very honest man and he bore himself very well with the natives of the country. They said nevertheless, that the Armouchiquoise were afraid of such neighbors, and for this reason made this aforesaid captain die. These men use the art of killing by magic. Now the second year, 1609 the English under another captain changed the fashion. They drove away the savages without any consideration; beat, bruised, and tore them with dogs without restraint, wherefore these poor, abused people, impatient of the present, and foreseeing still worse things for the future, resolved as they say,
1 Vide Relations dcs Jesuites, & Canada, Lyons, 1616 ami Premit^re Mission des Jes- uites i. Canada par Le P. Auguste Carayon, Paris, 1864, p. 70 et set/. Cf also Collec- tiona of the Maine Historical Society, Bath, ISTO, vol. vii, pp. 291-3-22.
THE BEGINXENGS OF MAINE. 277
to kill the wolf's cub before he had stronger teeth and claws. The opportunity came to them one day, when three boats went away to fish, my conspirators followed on their track, and approaching them with a fine show of friendship (for thus they display the more carts^es where they conceal the more treachery) they entered [the boats] and at a given signal, each one chooses his man and kills him with knife strokes. Thus were dis- patched eleven Englishmen. The others, intimidated abandoned their enterprise the same year, and have not pursued it since, contenting themselves with com- ing in the summer to fish at this island of Emeteric, which we have said to be about eight leagues from the fort, which they had begun."
Considerable stress has been laid upon the date here given by Biard : namely, "1608 and 1609," to show that a portion of the colony were residing at Sa- bino, or in the vicinity, in 1609; but that Biard made the very natural error of a year in his statement, is evident from the fact, that he says, that the English began the colony in 1608 and that the second year of its existence was 1609, while we know positively, that the first year was 1607, and second was of course 1608.
He tells us also that the successor of Popham changed the fashion of his predecessor, who was kind to the natives, and treated them cruelly, which caused them to avenge themselves by killing eleven of his men. Popham's successor was Gilbert, and we know that he returned home in 1608. When Biard's account is carefully read it affords no support to the theory of
278 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
a continuance of colony after 1608; indeed, it quite disproves it, as he expressly declares, and he is the most valuable witness we have besides Gorges, that "they abandoned their enterprise the same year," the year 1608, as we have shown, "and have not pursued it since."
Fortunately the discovery of the correspondence of Sir Ferdinando Gorges enables us to clear up many points in the history of the Sagadahoc expedition hitherto obscure.
Before scanning these letters, let us review the facts relating to the Popham expedition, many of which are disclosed by the journal of the voyage kept on board the Mary and John, and of which we are now fortu- nately possessed.
On the last days of May, 1607, Sir Ferdinando Gorges took leave of George Popham and Raleigh Gil- bert in the harbor of Plymouth, and saw the two ships which they respectively commanded, the Gift of God, and the Mary and John of London, depart for the new world in which he took a deep interest.
He had received accounts from George Waymouth and Martin Pring of the coast of Maine, 3Iawooshen, as we have been told it was called by the natives ; and of the river Sagadahoc, and to this unexplored and mysterious region, peopled by savages and with bound- less possibilities of wealth, the expedition commanded by George Popham, to the preparation of which he had zealously devoted many months, was to direct its course.
Popham had doubtless been selected to the chief place in the enterprise, not only on account of his re-
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 279
lationship to the chief justice, but also in consideration of his distinguished services in the West Indies, which were well known to those interested in maratime af- fairs, and had been emphasized by the publication of important letters relating to Spanish discoveries, cap- tured on one of his voyages, and published by Walter Raleigh.
His last act before sailing was to write Sir Robert Cecil to remind him of a former letter relatino; to mer- cantile affairs with Spain, and to recommend a friend to the position of collector of customs at the port of Bridge water, which he had just vacated.^ From the language of this letter he evidently expected to re- turn, but he took his last look that day from the deck of the Gift, of the green fields and blossoming hedge- rows of his beloved Enorland.
In four weeks from their departure the expedition reached the Azores, where they supplied themselves with water and fuel. On the twenty-ninth of June, having left the Azores, they fell in with two Flemish ships, one of which hailed the Mary and John, where- upon Gilbert invited her captain to visit his ship and take a can of beer. This invitation was accepted, and the Flemish captain and several of his men were enter- tained in a friendly manner by Gilbert. In return for the civility of the Englishmen, they were invited on board the Flemish ship, and when there, to their great surprise, were ill-treated, and some of them placed
» Vide Letter of George Popham, dated May 31, 1607, to Secretary Cecil, Hatfield House. This request was granted, as will be seeu by the following : "Whereaa Mr. George Popham his Mats Customer of the Port of Bridgewater and the mem- bers thereof being by my good liking and consent gone in the late voyage to Virginia," etc. appoints Rowland Jones as Deputy during his absence. End. 1607 from Copy of Letters Patent, Cecil Papers, 124, 115.
280 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
on the bilboes. Some of the mariners on board the Flemish ship happened to be Englishmen, and sj^mpa- thized with their countrymen to such a degree as to tlireaten a mutiny, whereupon the Flemish captain tliouoht it best to look at Gilbert's commission, and to find an excuse for his Uberation, after an imprisonment of ten hours.
The Mary and John, in the meantime, had been fly- ing signals of distress, which were not noticed by the Gift, which kept on her course and was lost to sight. On the last day of July, Gilbert reached the coast of Maine, and had friendly intercourse with the natives, but did not meet with the Gift until the seventh of Au- gust. The meeting was a joyous one, and the two cap- tains anchored their ships under the lee of Georges' Is- land, where they found the cross erected there by George Waymouth. From here they sailed to the mouth of the Sagadahoc and fixed upon the peninsula of Sabino as the site for their prospective town. On the ninth of August possession of the territory was formally taken; a sermon was preached by Rev. Richard Seymour in the shade of the primeval forest ; the laws which they had brought from England and which were to govern them in their new home were read, and their rulers announced. Having thus inaugurated, under all the necessary forms of law, the first New England colony, the colonists on the next day began breaking ground for their fort and storehouse. The ship carpenters also went to work cutting timber for a small vessel.^
1 Vide Harlow's IJelation in Tlie General Ilistoiy of Virginia by Captain John Smith, Richmonil, Va., 1819, vol. ii, page 174. The History of Travel into Vir- ginia by William Strachey, Maine Historical collection, vol iii, p. 308. The Saga- dahoc colony, Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, May, 1880.
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 281
Bv the letters of Goro-es written on the first and third of tlie following December, we learn that within the period of two months after the arrival of the colo- nists at Sagadahoc, the Mary and John was dispatched to England to carry the news of their safe arrival and to get supplies. On the first day of December this ship reached Plymouth, and Sir Ferdinando at once hastened, " late at night," to inform Cecil by letter of the fact. This letter is as follows : —
(Cecil Papers 123, 77.) •
SIR F. GORGES TO SIR R. CECIL.
Eight Honorable. This present day, here is ar- rived one of our ships out of the parts of Virginia, with great news of a fertile country, gallant rivers, stately harbors, and a people tractable (so discreet courses be taken with them), but no return, to satisfy the expectation of the adventurers, the which may be an occasion to blemish the reputation of the design, although in reason it could not be otherways, both be- cause of the shortness of their abode there (which was but two months) as also their want of means to follow their directions, their number being so small, and their business so great, beside in very truth, the defect and want of understanding of some of those employed, to jDerform what they were directed unto, from whence, there did not only proceed confusion, but thorough pride and arrogancy, faction and private resolution, as more at large your Lordship shall perceive, by my next, with the particulars thereof; in the meantime, I have sent this inclosed, humbly beseeching it may be delivered to Sir Francis Popham, whom I doubt not.
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but will at large acquaint your Lordship what ho re- ceiveth, although I believe he will not hear of all that hath passed. For my own opinion, I am confident that there will be divers reasons to persuade a constant res- olution to pursue this place, as first the boldness of the coast, the easiness of the navigation, the fertility of the soil, and the several sorts of commodities, that they are assured the country do yield, as namely fish in the season, in great plenty, all the coast along mast- ing for ships, goodly oaks and cedars, with infinite other sorts of trees, rosin, hemp, grapes very fair and excellent good, whereof they have already made wine, much like to the claret wine that comes out of France, rich furs if they can keep the Frenchmen from the trade, as for metals, they can say nothing, but they are confident there is in the coxmtry, if they had means to seek for it, neither could they go so high as the alum mines are, which the savages doth assure them there is great plenty of. Thus much I humbly desire may satisfy your Lordship at this present, until I be better able to furnish your Lordship with the rest that they can say. I have likewise sent your Lordship Mr. Challons his letter, brought me out of Spain, whereby it may appear unto your Honor what hopes he had at the writing thereof; howsoever for my particular I do infinitely think myself bound to your Lordship in their behalf, and do yield humble thanks for your Honor's favor, showed towards them ; their case is miserable, and the wrongs proffered them infinite. I know not how to help it, but humbly implore for their releases those who are best able to do them good and to ease
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 283
their necessities in what I may, all the rest of the ad- venturers having given them over. Even so recom- mending your Lordship to God's protection, I humbly take my lei'ive, resting in all service during my life Your Lordship humbly to be commanded,
Fakd. Goeges.
I should have remembered your Lordship that the country doth yield Sarsaparilla in great abundance and a certain silk that doth grow in small cods, a sample whereof I will send this night or to-morrow.
Plymouth this 1st of December, late at night, 1607.
Add : To the Right Honorable my very good Lord the Earl of Salisbury these.
End. pri. Decemb. 1607 Sir Fardi. Gorges to my Lord.
What a glowing description is this of the shores of Maine, which have so often been painted as sterile and forbidding; yet, it is not a whit more exaggerated than the descriptions of adventurers into new lands from that day to this. Maine, indeed, possessed gal- lant rivers and stately harbors ; goodly oaks and cedars ; valuable minerals and rich furs; but its grapes have failed to produce wine to compare with the vintage of la belle France. Strange metamorphosis! Maine which, in 1607, was to be the pioneer in the production of intoxicants to become the pioneer in prohibiting their manufacture and use! And what of the alum mines, the sarsaparilla and the silk plant?
If the colonists had not seen these alum mines, how came they to suppose that such mines existed? The
284 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Indians could have known nothing of the nature of the mineral, though it is possible that the colonists found specimens of pyritic shales in the vicinity of their camps, and were told by the Indians that farther away such rocks might be found in large quantities. It is probable that in accordance with a prevalent cus- tom, the Popham expedition had a mineralogist at- tached to it, and that when he found any mineral of value he questioned the natives respecting it, in order to learn from them if it existed anywhere in considerable quantities. Such was Thomas Graves, subsequently sent to New England " to exercise his scientific qualifi- cations," and who is described as " a man experienced in iron works, in salt works, in measuring and surveying of lands, and in fortifications, in lead, copper and alum mines." Be this as it may, Sir Ferdinando stated a fact to Cecil, as large deposits of pyritic shale, or more popularly alum stone, exist near Shagadahoc. It occurs at the mouth of Sprague's river, near Small- point, in Georgetown; and an extensive belt of it ex- tends through the towns of Lisbon and Litchfield. On Jewell's island alum has been successfully manu- factured from pyritic shales within a recent period. At the time when Sir Ferdinando wrote this letter, the manufacture of alum was exciting public attention throughout Europe, and was considered an enterprise of great importance in England; indeed, property bearing pyritic shales appeared to the subjects of the English monarch almost as valuable as property bear- ing the precious metals appears to us in this age. A few years before, Sir Thomas Chaloner, a gentleman
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 285
of considerable scientific attainment and an extensive traveler, had discovered pyritic shale on his estate in Yorkshire, and was successfully manufacturing it in spite of the anathemas of the pope, who forseeing inter- ference with a profitable monopoly, which the Papal States had long enjoyed, hastened to lay the enter- prise under the ban of the church ; but pope's bulls had ceased to terrify Englishmen, twenty-two chests of the precious documents having been publicly burnt a short time before in Plymouth, and the manufacture of alum in England flourished. From this it will be seen that Sir Ferdinando had reason to take a deep interest in alum mines on the Sagadahoc.
He must also have been much interested in the dis- covery of Sarsaparilla, a plant highly esteemed at this time, throughout Europe and which, on account of the monopoly of the trade by Spain, was of high cost. Its virtues are said to have been discovered to the world by a Spanish physician, Dr. Parillo; hence its name from Zarza, a prickly shrub, and Parillo, the name of the learned medico, equivalent to Parilld's shrub. It belongs to the family Smilacece. The wild plant sent home by the colonists was one of many varieties of the Araliacece found growing from Canada as far south as Tennessee; and while it did not possess the virtues of the Spanish plant, became useful, especially for flavoring beer.
The silk plant of which Sir Ferdinando speaks was one of several varieties of Asclepiadacece all having pods or follicles containing long silky down, which has given to them the name of silkweed.
286 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The variety here alluded to, which attracted the at- tention of our early colonists, and which their fervid imaginations wrought into a botanical wonder which would make England independent of Indian looms and revolutionize the silk industry of the world, was with- out doubt the common milkweed, whose long pods, bursting in the golden sunshiue of autumn, disclosed to them a wealth of silky filaments as fair to the eye as the glossy roll evolved from Oriental cocoons, but, alas, lacking the fiber which would render them capa- ble of being wrought into enduring form.
In this letter is sounded the first note of warning against the French, who were quite as anxious as the English to monopolize this wealthy region.
Gorges doubtless slept little on that first night of December, 1607. He was eager to gather news of the colony at Sagadahoc, and after the interval of a day was able to give Cecil the following information re- specting it.^
(Cecil Papers 123, 81.)
SIR F. GORGES TO THE EARL OF SALISBURY.
Right Honorable: — It seems to be most certain, there is no enterprise how well so ever intended, but hath his particular impediments meeting with many oppositions, and infinite crosses, as in this small attempt, begun by my Lord Chief Justice out of a noble zeal to his prince and country, amongst many
1 We can determine by th5s letter very nearly the date of the sailing of the Mary and John. I>r. De Costa in his e<lition of the "Journal of the Voyage to the Sagada- hoc," discoven-d by him at Laniheth Palace, appends to it the concluding portion of Strachey's account of the expedition, and which, without doubt is a copy of the last leaves of the journal, which have been lost from the original. The last date in this addition to the journal is October 6, and the Mary and John must have sailed very soon after to have reached Plymouth by December 1.
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 287
others, it is experienced for first as he was honorable himself, so he thonght all others were, believing what they told him, and trusting to what they promised by w^hich means his lordship was not a little deceived of what he expected, for neither were his provisions an- swerable to his charge bestowed, nor the persons em- ployed such as they ought; inasmuch as the wants of the one was cause of inability to perform what was hoped; and childish factions, ignorant, timorous, and ambitious persons, for of that nature I found the composition to be, hath bred an unstable resolution, and a general confusion in their affairs. For first the president himself is an honest man, but old, and of an unwieldy body, and timorously fearful to offend, or contest with others that will, or do oppose him, but otherwise a discreet, careful man. Captain Gilbert is described to me from thence to be desirous of suprem- acy and rule, a loose life, prompt to sensuality, little zeal in religion, humorous, headstrong, and of small judgment and experience, otherways valiant enough, but ho holds that the king could not give away that, by patent, to others, which his father had an act of Par- liament for, and that he will not be put out of it in haste, with man}^ such like idle speeches, which (al- though he be powerless to perform ought) were not unfit to be taken notice of, because it were good in my opinion that all such occasion were taken away, as may hinder the public proceeding, and let the cause of sedition be plucked up by the root, before it do more harm; beside he hath sent (as I am further in- formed) into England for divers of his friends, to come
288 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to him, for the strengthening of his party on all occa- sions (as he terms it) with much more that I have received notice of to this effect ; which I thought it my dut}^ to advertise your Lordship in time, that some course may be taken, to prevent mischief, which must be done by immediate authority from thence, taking no further notice hereof, than your wisdom shall think good, but the better to manifest, and to bring all to light, without calling the authors in question, your lordship may be pleased to send down present com- mand, to intercept all letters whatsoever, and to whom- soever, and to cause them to be sent up, for I know in whose possession these letters are yet, and I think I shall find the means to keep them from being delivered in haste. As for the rest of the persons employed, they are either fit for their places or tolerable, but the preacher is most to be commended, both for his pains in his place, and his honest endeavors ; as also is Cap- tain Robert Davis, and likewise Mr. Turner their phy- sician, who is come over to solicit their supplies, and to inform the state of every particular. I have said in my last to your lordship what I think how neces- sary it is, this business should be thoroughly followed, but if I should tell your honor how much I am affected unto it in my own nature, it may be that my commen- dations thereof, would be of the less credit, but I desire in my soul, that it would please God, his maj- esty would take it into his own hands, unto whom (of right) the conquest of kingdoms doth appertain and then should I think myself happy to receive such employment in it, as his highness should think me fit
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 289
for, and I would not doubt, but with a very little charges, to bring to pass infinite things ; I will say no more of it, at this present, only I make no question but that your lordship will find it to be of greater moment, than it can easily be believed to be ; I have sent unto your lordship the journals that were taken by one of the ships, as I received it from their going out, until their return, by which the navigation will appear to be as easy as to Newfoundland, but much more hopeful. Even so commending your lordship to God's holy protection, I will ever rest during life Your lordship humbly to be commanded.
Fard. Gorges.
Plymouth 3 of December. Add. To the Right Honorable, my good lord the Earl
of Salisbury. End. 3 December, 1607 Sir Fardi.
Gorges to my lord.
This letter introduces for the first time to the student of history in propria 'persona, George Popham and Ralegh Gilbert, the son of the famous Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The Popham whom we see before us " is an honest man, but old and of an unwieldy body, and timorously fearful to offend, or contest with others that will or do oppose him, but, otherwise, a discreet careful man " ; while Ralegh Gilbert is a man, " de- sirous of supremacy and rule " of " a loose life, prompt to sensuality," with " little zeal for religion, humorous, headstrong, and of small judgment and experience, otherwise valiant enough." These are word pictures of the men of great value to us. We Vol. II. 20
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also learn for the first time one of the principal causes of discontent in the colony
Ralegh Gilbert had been exploring the magnificent coast of Maine ; had viewed with admiration some of its " stately harbors " its " gallant rivers " and broad bays gemmed with verdant isles, and partially realizing their prospective value, had bethought himself of the ample charter granted his noble father in 1578/ Although this charter had been resigned to his uncle Walter Ralegh, he questioned in his mind the validity of the act of the king in transferring to his uncle what was his own rightful patrimony ; hence he declared to his associates that he would " not be put out of it in in haste," and he busily occupied himself in writing letters to friends in England to join him at Sagadahoc and aid in supporting his cause.
These letters which were on board the Mary and John when Gorges penned this epistle to Cecil, threat- ened the existence of the colony at Sagadahoc, and as we see caused the writer sufficient anxiety to prompt him to suggest that means should be taken by the pow^erful minister to prevent them from reaching their destination.
Gorges beheld as in a vision a great state springing from this feeble colony at Sabino, and he believed that it should be fostered by ro3^al power. In the magnifi- cent scheme, the beginnings of which had taken form in his own ardent mind, he was willing to play any
»The patent to which Sir Ferdinando refers, and upon which Ralegh Gilbert based his hopes, is to be found in Hazard's Historical Collections, vol. I. pp, 24-28. This patent had, however, been assigned by Sir Humphrey to Sir Thomas Gerrard and Sir George Peckham, according to a petition to be seen in the Public Records Office, Domestic Correspondence Elizabeth. Vol. cxlvi. no. 40, Gal. p. 695.
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 291
subordinate part which might be useful, doubting not that he might " bring to pass infinite things."
Only one of the '* journals that were taken by one of the ships, from their going out until their return," has come down to us. This journal as now existing in the Lambeth Palace library, ends the twenty-sixth of September, but some of the last entries are evidently wanting and are to be found in Strachey's Narrative, containing the history of the colony to October 6. It is from this journal that we have quoted.
The colonists having witnessed the departure of the Mary and John for England, an event of deep interest to them, continued their labor on the fort upon which, when completed, they mounted twelve guns. Having secured a suitable defense against possible enemies, they proceeded to erect a church and suitable habita- tions to protect them from the inclemency of the approaching winter. They also launched their new vessel, which they named the Virginia in honor of their new home, while Gilbert explored the coast from Pemaquid to Richmond's island and noted its impor- tant features.
On the fifteenth of December, Popham dispatched the Gift of God to England, upon which he sent all but forty-five of his men, and the well-known letter to King James, bearing date of December 13. No doubt will occur to any one who peruses this letter, that George Popham had full faith in the feasibility of colonizing Maine, although he realized the desperate condition in which he was placed, on account of the lawless character of some of his men and the scarcity of
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provisions. Had his life been spared, and had he con- tinued to receive suitable support from home, we have reason to believe that the colony he had planted at Sabino would have grown to permanency.
Realizing the fact, that an enterprise like the one under his care, which was dependent for financial sup- port upon the hope of immediate gain, must be in con- stant danger of failure, he was, in common with Gorges, deeply anxious to enlist the interest of the king in its behalf, hence he urged upon James its importance to the realm. Doubtless he and his associates had from the first expected to draw the government eventually to its support, but in this they were to be disappointed. The colonization of New England was to be effected by a spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to principle, not common to kings or dependents upon royalty.
On the seventh of February, the second vessel of the colonists arrived in the barber of Plymouth, and Gorges at once apprised Cecil of the fact, as will be seen by the following letter : —
(Cecil Papers 120/66.)
SIR F. GORGES TO SIR R. CECIL.
Right Hororable : Our second ship is returned out of the parts of Virginia, but with advertisement of nothing more than we received at the first, only the extremity of the winter hath been great, and hath sorely pinched our people, notwithstanding (thanks be unto God) they have had their healths exceedingly well, although their clothes were but thin and their diets poor, for they have not had one sick from the
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 293
time they came thither, to the instant of their coming away. The jDresident and his people feed us still with hopes of wonders that will be had from thence in time, but I fear me there must go other manner of spirits to settle this business before it will be brought to pass, for I find the continuance of their idle pro- ceedings to have much prejudiced the public good, dividing themselves into factions, each disgracing the other, even to the savages, the one emulating the other's reputation amongst those brutish people, whose con- versation and familiarity they have most frequented, which is one of the chiefest reasons we have to hope in time to gain that which presently cannot be had. They show themselves exceeding subtle and cunning, concealing from us the places where they have the commodities we seek for, and if they find any that hath promised to bring us to it, those that came out of England instantly carry them away, and will not suffer them to come near us any more.
These often returns without any commodity hath much discouraged our adventurers, in especial in these parties, although in common reason it be not to be looked for, that from a savage wilderness, any great matters of moment can presently be gotten, for it is art and industry that produceth those things, even from the farthest places of the world, and, there- fore, I am afraid we shall have much ado to go for- ward as we ought, wherefore it were to be wished, that some furtherance might be had (if it were possi- ble) from the chief spring of our happiness, I mean his majesty, who at the last must reap the benefit of
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all our travail, as of right it belongs unto him; be- sides if it please your lordship to look into it with those eyes with which you pierce the greatest and most obscure conjectures, you will find it most neces- sary it should be so, both for many public and pri- vate reasons, as first the certainty of the commodities that may be had from so fertile a soil as that is when it shall be peopled, as well for building of shipping, having all things rising in the place wherewith to do it, as also many other hopes thereof to ensue as the increase of the king's navy, the breeding of mariners, the employment of his people, filling the world with expectation, and satisfying his subjects with hopes, who now are sick in despair, and in time will grow desperate through necessity ; also he shall seize that to himself and to his posterity, the which he shall no sooner quit, but his neighbors will enter into and thereby make themselves great, as he might have done, for at this instant the French are in hand with the natives, to practice upon us, promising them if they will put us out of the country, and not trade with none of ours, they will come unto them and give them succor against their enemies, and as our people hear, they have been this year with four ships to the southward of them some fifty leagues ; and the truth is, this place is so stored with excellent harbors, and so bold a coast as it is able to invite any actively minded, to endeavor the possessing thereof, if it were only to keep it out of the hands of others. I could say much more in this, but I am loath to be over- troublesome to your lordship, and therefore I will
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 295
thus conclude under your lordship's favor, that I, wish his highness would be pleased to adventure, but one of his middle sort of ships, with a small pinnace, and withall to give his letters and commission to coun- tenance and authorize the worthy enterprise, and I durst myself to undertake to procure them to be victualed by the adventurers of these parts, for the discovery of the whole coast along from the first to the second colony, especially to spend the most part of the time in the search of those places already pos- sessed, and for my own part I should be proud if I might be thought worthy to be the man commanded to the accomplishment hereof by his highness, and should think it a season well spent, wherein I should have so many hopes, to serve my country, whereof the least would be in this sleepy season, the enabling of my own judgment and experience in these marine causes, thereby the better hereafter on all occasion to discharge my duty to my sovereign. All which I humbly recommend to your honor's wisdom, to be so handled as you shall vouchsafe to think good for the reputation of him whom you have tied to you by many obligations, and even so I will humbly commend your lordship to God's holy protection, resting ever, Your lordship's humbly to be commanded.
Feed. Gorges. Plymouth, this 7tli of February. Add. To the Right Honorable, my very good lord, the Earll of Salisbury. End. February, 1607. Sir Ferd. Gorges to my lord. 3 pp.
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This letter but confirms other accounts of the sever- ity of the winter of 1607, in the new world ; in fact, it was in Europe the most severe winter which had been recorded for many years. That many of the colonists were wholly unfit for an enterprise like the one in which they had engaged at Sagadahoc, is all too evident from the frank account given of them by Gorges, and yet, he was not discouraged. True, the Gift had returned without '' commodity," which was certainly discouraging to those who looked for immedi- ate pecuniary returns for their adventures ; but Gorges saw in this no cause for despondency ; indeed, no one, he said, should expect to gather in an unexplored and sav- age country those fruits of success, which are only the result of art and industry. Looking beyond immedi- ate personal gain he saw how important the coloniza- tion of the new country would be to England. Not only would it tend to increase the royal navy, and to breed mariners, but it would furnish employment to a class of people dangerous to the common weal. Here was an opportunity for the avaricous James to acquire possessions of inestimable value to his posterity, which his rival on the throne of France was plotting to acquire. He could not doubt that the king would ven- ture a single ship for so noble an enterprise, especially if it were victualed by private means, and if Gorges him- self would go in it and conduct further explorations along the coast. But Gorges misunderstood the character of James, a weak, vain and avaricous man, to whom the new world was something too distant and intangible to engage his interest for any length of time.
THE BEGINXmGS OF MAINE. 297
When Gorges wrote this letter, the remnant of the colony at Sagadahoc was in a sad condition. George Popham, the mainstay of the colony, had been dead two days and the ambitions and headstrong Gilbert was in command. But Gorges was in blissful ignor- ance of this new calamity, which had befallen his enterprise, and he bent all his energies towards gath- ering supplies for the hungry colonists.
The next letter of Gorges bears date the twentieth of March, and opens with a reference to Challons, whom he had before dispatched on an expedition to the shores of Maine, and who was then a prisoner in Spain. It inclosed a letter to Cecil disclosing the effect which that statesman's efforts in the interest of the prisoners in Spanish dungeons had produced, and Gorges with just indignation ventures the remark, that if the king did not choose to sustain the rights of his subjects, he might at least permit them " to use their best means to right themselves of their insupportable wrongs." provided that they violated no article of peace further than the Spanish had already done.
But the most important information to us, contained in this letter, is the announcement that he had victu- aled two ships and already dispatched them from Topsham, and would send a third of two hundred tons burden in May. " We frame," said he, " unto our- selves many reasons of infinite good, that is likely to befall our country, if our means fail not to accomplish it. But we hope before summer be past, to give such satisfaction to the world hereof, as none that be lovers of their nation, but will (for one cause or other) be
298 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
willing to wish it well at the least, what crosses soever we have received heretofore."
The two vessels, one of which was the Mary and John, which had already departed from Topsham, bore to the colonists the news of Chief Justice Popham's death in the preceding June ; but George Popham was not alive to hear the tidings of his kinsman's death. Those of the colony who remained, doubtless the better portion of tliose who originally formed it, the more tarbulent men having been sent home in the preceding December, were in good condition. They had collected a stock of furs and had the Virginia afloat, intending, doubtless, to employ her in explora- tions during the summer ; but already an event had occurred in England which was to be fatal to the existence of the colony.
In July, 1608, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his associ- ciates dispatched the third ship, of which the former had written to Cecil in March, bearing provisions and possibly men to strengthen the colony, but while this ship was spreading her sails to the winds which would waft her across the Atlantic, news was carried to her of the death of Sir John Gilbert, the elder brother of Ralegh Gilbert, then in command at Sagadahoc. Being the heir of Sir John, Ralegh Gilbert, when he received the news of his brother's death, deemed it imperative that he should return to England and take charge of his inheritance. There seems to have been no man in the colony of sufficient ability to take his place ; hence it was decided to break up the settlement and return home. Had the colony possessed a few
THE BEGINNINGS OF MAINE. 299
governing minds, it might still have proved a success ; but having no one to assume Gilbert's place, and per- haps, if Biard's account be true, influenced by the loss of a number of their companions, the colonists all took passage with Gilbert for home, and the aban- doned settlement of Sabino became but an object of curious regard to wandering tribes of savages, and Christians of another race and creed, quite as hostile to Anglo-Saxon success.
The return of the vessels to England with the colo- nists overwhelmed Gorges with disappointment, which years after, when writing on the subject, found expres- sion in that graphic sentence, " All our former hopes were frozen to death." In spite of this severe blow to his hopes, he did not, however, despair of ultimate suc- cess in planting colonies in the new world, and al- though all thought of farther colonial enterprise was "wholly given over by the body of the adventurers," he was firm in his determination to go forward as best he could, "not doubting," he says, "but God would effect that which men despaired of," and, as he could get no help from others, he tells us that he "became owner of a ship — fit for that employment," and "under color of fishing and trade," sent her across the Atlantic. Of his persistent efforts at colonization for nearly forty years after the date of these letters we know much, as not long before his death he em- bodied many particulars concerning them in his little book, " A Brief Narration." »
Written in advanced age, and so long after the occurrence of the events which are described in it, the
300 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
"Narration" leaves in obscurity much of which we would know more. Yet, upon the whole, it has proved of great value to those who have desired to know something of the beginnings of Maine. Of the failure of Gorges to perfect his colonial schemes we also know. No one realized this failure better than himself, as we may see from these words with which he closed the recital of his life-work — words, however, which have in them a ring of triumph : " But I end and leave all to Him who is the only author of all goodness, and knows best His own time to bring his will to be made manifest, and appoints his instruments for the accomp- lishment thereof; to whose pleasure it becomes every one of us to submit ourselves, as to that mighty God and great and gracious Lord, to whom all glory doth belong."
JUDGE DAVID SEWALL. 301
MEMOIR OF JUDGE DAVID SEWALL, LL.D.
Read before the Maine Historical Society, May 25, 1SS3.
BY EDWARD P. BUENHAM.
David Sewall, one of the original members of the Maine Historical Society, was born in York, October 7, 1735, and was the son of Samuel and Sarah (Bachellor) Sewall. He graduated in 1755, at Harvard College, in the same class with President John Adams, Sir John Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire, United States Senator Tristram Dalton ; and ranked ten in a class of twenty-four. He studied law in Portsmouth with Judge William Parker, to whose daughter, Mary, he was married, December 30, 1762, by Rev. Dr. Samuel Lang- don. She was born, December 23, 1730, and died. May 20, 1788.
May, 1760, he settled at York, then the shire of the county, and was admitted as an attorney in the court of common pleas, July, 1760. At that time there was but one other practicing lawyer in the county, Noah Emery of Kittery. He was appointed. May 28, 1763, collector of excise for York county. At the June term of the superior court, 1763, he was admitted barrister-at-law. April 11, 1766, he was appointed register of probate, and held the office until January 1, 1782, serving under John Hill, Jonathan Say ward, John Bradbury and Joseph Simpson, judges.
In 1770 he was an original proprietor of Wolfboro,
302 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
New Hampshire, owning four hundred and forty acres. May 4, 1772, he was appointed captain of the 2d mili- tary company of foot in York. He was delegate from York, November 15, 1774, in a county congress held at York " to take into consideration what measures may be pursued tending to the peace and welfare of the county." From May, 1776, to May, 1778, he was a member of the executive council of Massachusetts. There being no governor from 1775 to 1780, the council performed the executive duties of the province. From this council, he received, September 11, 1777, the appointment of judge of the superior court, in place of Judge William Gushing, promoted to be chief justice. For nearly five years after being appointed judge, he continued register of probate, which indicates that his services as such were valuable to the judges of probate, neither of whom were lawyers. While judge from 1777 to 1789, he was associated with Chief Justice AYilliam Gushing, Nathaniel P. Sargent and Francis Dana, after- ward chief justices, James Sullivan, Increase Sumner, afterward governor. The attorney-general was Robert Treat Paine, afterward judge. Few of Judge Sewall's opinions are to be found, for there was no reporter of decisions until Ephraim Williams was appointed, in 1804. It was his custom to travel his circuit on horse- back, the usual manner in those days.
He was a delegate December 2, 1779, to the conven- tion to frame a state constitution, and on the commit- tee to report the same. Eight of the delegates were from Maine. With six others he was appointed, No- vember 30, 1780, to revise the laws of the Gommon-
JUDGE DAVID SEWALL. 303
wealth. Under the constitution he was reappointed judge, February 16, 1781, the name of the court being changed to supreme judicial court. The two Houses called upon him, February 22, 1781, to give an opinion in writing respecting the right of the Senate to join with the House in fixing a valuation on taxable property.
He was, May 4, 1780, an original member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. At the first election, 1788, of president of the United States, Judge Sewall was an elector at large, and the only elector from Maine. He attended to this service, January, 1879. Among his associate electors were Chief Justice Gush- ing and Judge Francis Dana, afterward chief justice. As agent of Massachusetts he disposed of the lands of royalists, confiscated by the act of 1779.
Timothy Langdon of Wiscasset was, in 1778, ap- pointed by the provincial government judge of the maritime court for the district of Maine. Upon the organization of the United States government in 1789, Judge Sewall was commissioned, September 26, 1789, judge of the United States Court for the District of Maine, and was qualified, December 1, 1789. The office of justice of the supreme judicial court he resigned, December 10, 1789. Thomas Bird and Hans Hanson were tried before Judge Sewall June, 1790, for murder and piracy. Bird was convicted, sentenced and exe- cuted, June 25, 1790, being the first person executed in the district under United States law. Skinner and another were tried 1792, before Judge Sewall and found guilty of fitting out a ship and importing thirteen slaves.
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He performed the duties of judge more than twenty- eight years, until his resignation January 9, 1818, be- ing then more than eighty-two years of age. His service as judge in the state and United States courts was continuous for forty years and four months. He was succeeded, in 1818, by Albion K. Parris, then re- siding at Paris, and representative in Congress from the Oxford district. In the circuit court he was asso- ciated with Judges Gushing and Story of the supreme court. During the same period the district attornej^s were William Lithgow jr., Daniel Davis, Silas Lee, Wil- liam P. Preble. General Henry Sewall of Augusta was clerk. The marshals were General Henry Dearborn, afterward secretary of war, John Hobby, Isaac Parker, afterward chief justice, Thomas G. Thornton of Saco. Judge Sewall was chosen, May, 1790, to represent York in the general court, but the House decided adversely to his claim because of his being United States judge. This decision he considered arbitrary and unconstitutional.
Judge Sewall, whose wife (Mary Parker), had de- ceased in 1788, was married at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, November 21, 1790, to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Rev. Dr. Samuel Langdon. He was named one of the trustees in the charter of Berwick Academy, March 11, 1791. The Massachusetts Historical Soci- ety, October, 1791, elected him the first resident mem- ber after the organization of the society, and upon the incorporating of the society, February 19, 1794, he was named as one of the corporators.
He contributed a topographical description of York
JUDGE DAVID SEWALL. 305
to volume three of the collections of the society ; also a transcript in his own beautiful hand of early records of Maine, which is now in the cabinet of the society. Late in life — in 1821 — he wrote an entertaining narrative of a journey from Cambridge to Portsmouth (1754) and return, by himself and Tutor Flynt, then eighty years old, in a chair drawn by a pacing mare. This paper was printed in the proceedings for January, 1878.
Judge Sewall was a member of the first board of over- seers of Bowdoin college, and was the person named in the charter to iBx the time and place of the first meeting and give notice of the same. They met at Portland, December 31, 1794. He was one of tbe early bene- factors of the college, and the " Sewall prize " is annu- ally awarded. For many years he was an overseer and part of the time president of the board. The college conferred upon him in 1812, the degree of doctor of laws. His portrait is in the college library. Another portrait is in one of the rooms attached to the United States court room. In his religious opinions he was a Congregationalist, and from 1803 to 1808 he was a trustee of the funds of the First Congregational Society in York. Other offices of trust were held by him, but from those that have been mentioned it is supposed that for sixty years, from 1758 to 1818, he was a busy man. He died in York, October 22, 1825, aged ninety years.
He was a learned and upright judge, — a man of great benevolence, unassuming in his deportment, soci- able and amiable in his manners, and of great purity of Vol. II. 21
306 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
character. Shortly before he died he remarked to a friend that if he were to live his life over again, he did not know that he should wish to alter it. In our county of York have died many able men — Pepperrell, Sullivan, Thacher, Cutts, Mellen, King, Preble, Holmes, the Shepleys, Dane, Mclntire, Fairfield, Clifford, How- ard, Goodenow, Bourne, Bradley, Appleton and others — but probably no one was more entitled to respect than David Sewall of York.
THE SEWALL FAMILY OF NEW- ENGLAND.
With Biogkaphical Data' from the Diary of Hon. David Sewall, ll.d.
Contributed to the Maine Historical Society. BY RUFUS K. SEWALL.
The name is one of great antiquity in England. It appears on the records of ancient authorities there, as spelled, " Saswalo,' Sewald, Sewalle, Sewall," and in many instances these different names evidently were used to designate the same individual. The primitive name is believed to have been " Sas-wald, or Seswald," and to be of Saxon origin.
Nether Eatendon, Warwickshire, was the earliest recorded dwelling-place of the family in England ; and
»The Biographical Data, together with several original letters of Judge David Sewall, will be found in the appendix of the present number of this magazine.
sFuUer's Workea of England, Dugdale's "Antiquities," "Warwickshire," « 'American Quarterly Kegister," no. lii, vol. xiii.
THE SEWALL FAMILY OF NEW ENGLAND. 307
in A.D. 1066 before the Norman conquest, the head of this family, Saswalo (or Sewald), held in possession sev- enteen hides of land, in the village of Warwickshire, where he resided, each hide being what one plow could cultivate in a year. He built and endowed a church in the place of his residence ; and was supposed to be a Saxon Thane.
But in the conquest of William the Conquerer, his possessions were confiscated, and awarded to Henry de Feriers, a Norman knight, who, however, permitted him to retain his Nether Eatendon estate, which passed down in the line of his male posterity, to a. d. 1730, a period of seven hundred years. The christian name of Henry, seems to have been the favorite, in the suc- cession of the family, to Henry " Sewall de Eatendon," a knight of the third generation.
In 1607, the family seems to have held its eminence still, in England, where Henry Sewall a linen draper of Coventry, a "prudent man" of "great estate," was mayor of that city, an office which he had held more than once.
The period of English colonial possession in New England, now opened, had become fully and attractively established in 1634 ; and this year, the mayor of Coventry aforesaid, disliking the " English Hierarchy," sent over his eldest son, Henry Sewall, well supplied with money, neat cattle, English servants and provis- ions, and other things, necessary to the success of a new plantation. He wintered at Ipswich, Massachu- setts, but elected to settle in Newbury, where he made his homestead in 1635, and died and was buried in
308 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Rowley, Massachusetts, in March a.d. 1656,' aged eighty- seven years, and was the common ancestor of the several branches of the New England family of Sew- alls, who are all entitled to the ancient heraldic symbol, in a coat of arms, sable" cheron or; between three gad-bees volaiit.
Crest, a chaplet of roses, argent, leaved vert. A bee volant, of the first : and traceable in the family in England, down to the tenth and twelfth centuries. Motto "vlvere est acjere.''
Samuel Sewall, the third son of John Sewall, son of Henry of Newbury, settled in York, state of Maine, was an elder of the church at York, and died there, April 28, 1769, aged eighty-one years. He was the father of the subject of this memoir.
During one hundred' and forty-eight years of the judicial history of Massachusetts as a province of the crown and as a commonwealth, eighty-four years, col- lectively, descendants of Henry aforesaid, of the Sewall name, have held a seat on the bench ; and three of the name, that of chief justice' of whom the subject of this paper was one. Having resigned his seat, on the bench of the commonwealth, he was called to that of district judge of the United States.
iMr. Hcnery Sewall (sent by Henery Sewall his father in the ship "Eliza and Dor- cas," (Captain Wates commander), arrived at Boston 1034; wintered at Ipswich, began the plantation 1635, furnishing English servants, neat cattle and provisions. Man-ied Miss Jane Dunimer, March 25, 164t); died May 16, 1700, aged eighty-six. The father, Henry, finally came over to his son's plantation, in New England, as recited iu the text.
2\Villis
3American Quarterly Register, no. iii : vol. xiii, Kev. S. Sewall, Burlington, Mas- sachusetts.
<David Sewall was not chief justice, Stephen and Samuel Sewall were chief jus- tices. If it reads " two of the name " — then " these judges " instead of " whom."
DATA AND LETTERS OF HON. DAVID SEWALL. 309
BIOGRAPHICAL DATA* AND LETTERS OF
THE HON. DAVID SEWALL, LL.D.
OF YORK.
Contributed to the Maine Historical Society.
BY PROF. FRANK SEWALL OF THE URBANA UNIVERSITY, OHIO.
Urbana, Ohio, July 2, 1879. Rev. Samuel F. Dike, d.d.
Dear Sir : — I beg leave to present through you to the Maine Historical Society the accompanying biographical data and let- ters of the Hon. David Sewall, ll.d., of York, judge of the district court of the United States, for the District of Maine during the administration of President Washington and his suc- cessors down to President Munroe. I believe that these papers are of sufficient personal and historical value to warrant their preservation in the archives of the Maine Historical Society, and perhaps they may be deemed worthy of a place in some forth- coming volume of printed documents, and I have therefore had them carefully copied from the original journal of Judge Sewall which has been kindly placed at my temporary disposal by Cap- tain John Fernald, the present occupant of the Sewall Mansion in York village.
With my best wishes for the continued prosperity and progress of the Society in its important work I remain.
Sincerely and respectfully yours,
Frank Sewall.
The following Data^ and Letters have been copied under my direction from the mss. diary of Judge Sewall, through the kindness of Capt. John Fernald of York, Me., and are herewith presented to the Maine Historical Society for preservation.
Frank Sewall,
Urbana University, Urbana, Ohio, July 2, 1879.
'The Biographical Data refen-ed to, are the same as those presented to the Maine Historical Society by cue of its members, Rufus K. Sewall, Esq., and printed in this number of the magazine.
310 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
[Copy of a letter to the President of the Council.]
York, Sept. 24^ 1777.^
Sir. Since ray return from Boston I am surprised to find by a letter from the Secretary, that my dec- laration in, and out of Council, have not availed to prevent an appointment, which my sentiments have uniformly deemed improper. 'Twould look like arro- gance in me to say that the Council seemed to be stripping the County of York of its valuable mem- bers, unless I should add the old proverb "That in the the kingdom of the blind, He that has one eye is a Prince." My long experience in the Probate Office, makes me as thorough an adept in that department, as a dull pupil with 12 or 15 years apprenticeship, can be supposed to have, and the present Judge of Probate is very desirous of retaining it. Were I de- sirous of being discharged, — should be at a loss to nominate a successor. — I have therefore acquainted him, that should I be persuaded to try the new office, the Secretary writes me I am appointed unto, I will still continue in the Probate Office, as the business in it is small, that it may be done without injury to the County.
Should I attempt to discharge the duties of this last appointment,^ let it be remembered that as soon as I knew myself in nomination I did publicly and private- ly decline it, that my private Judgement and Inclina- tion, are out weighed and given up to that of the
1 John Bradbury was then (1777) Judf?e of Prob.ate.
'Elected a Councilor in May 1770 from the Province of Maine under the pro- visions of the chiu-tcr of William & Mary. The chair being vacant, the major part of the Council perfonneU the duties of Governor, Captain-General and Com- mander-in-Chief.
DATA AND LETTERS OF HON. DAVID SEWALL. 311
Council. — That I look upon myself in this matter as a drafted Person, and any bad consequences, that may ensue from my Cormorancy,^ Obscurity, want of finances or Incapacity, after endeavoring to discharge the duties of the office with a good conscience, and to the best of my ability will be placed to the Council and not to my self — my dutiful respect wait upon the Council, and believe me to be your honours most humble Servant,
David Sewall. Hon. Jeremiah Powell.
[Copy of the letter declining the reelection as Councilor of Massachusetts.]
May 25, 1778.
Sir. To discharge the duties of the important of- fice which with great diffidence at the instance of my County friends I have been ever persuaded to attempt, neccessarily takes up so large a portion of time, that I do not conceive it expedient to accept a seat in Council the ensuing year, in case I should have the honor of being Reelected. You are therefore re- quested to communicate this to the general assembly; that they may make choice of some other person whose time and ability will give him an opportunity to serve the State, in that department with greater punctuality and attention than is in the power of your humble Servant,
David Sewall.
Mr. Secretary Avery.
iSic, Ed.
312 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
[Copy of a letter to President Washington upon being ap- pointed Judge of the District Court of Maine.]
York, Nov. 24^ 1789.
Sir. The letters and commissions from the Presi- dent of the United States with sundry Statutes relat- ing to the Judical department did not find me until some time after their date ; this was not owing to any failure in the conveyance by Post but to my absence on a remote Circuit of the Supreme Judicial Court. This circumstance, it is presumed w^ill be an apology for not earlier noticing their reception. The appoint- ment of Judge of the District Court of Maine was on my part unsolicited and unrequested.
I fear Sir, my abilities have by the partiality of some of my acquaintance been overrated. For al- thouo-h the Judicial decisions of the hifirhest law court of Mass., have for a series of years met the general approbation of its citizen; this may be satisfactorily accounted for from the abilities of the worthy gentle- men, with whom I have had the honor to be connected in that department.
In this new appointment, the Judge is to stand alone and unassisted in some instances in matters of the greatest magnitude — such as relate to the life of man. Some unhappy Persons are now under confine- ment, within the District upon a charge of Pyracy and Felony on the high Seas, and whose situation, will claim an early attention in this court.
But from the laws of the U. S. hitherto enacted, it strikes me some other provision is necessary to be made, before a trial of this nature, can with propriety
DATA AND LETTERS OF HON. DAVID SEWALL. 313
be had; more especially in case of conviction, to have the Judgement carried into execution. These difficultys I shall take the liberty of stating to some Gen., in the legislature, to the end they may be thus considered, rather than arrest your attention from the many other important business of the union.
Permit me now Sir to thank you, for the particular mark of attention in this appointment and to acquaint you, thus impressed with the Idea of the necessity of civil government to the nation, over Which in the course of divine providence you are called to preside, with a considerable degree of diffidence in my own ability. I have concluded to accept the appointment of Judge of the district court of Maine, and shall in a few days proceed to Portland (about fifty miles dis- tant) to organize the same. Whether my Service in this new department will meet the approbation of my fellow citizens, or the reasonable expectation of those who have placed me in the situation. Time must determine. All I can promise on the Occasion is, that I will endeavor to merit them by striving to discharge the duties of the office with fidelity and impartiality according to the best of my ability. I am Sir with the greatest esteem and respect,
Your most Obedient humble Servant,
David Sewall. President Washington.
[Copy of a Letter to Gov. Hancock resigning the office of a Judge of Mass., S. J. C]
York, Dec. 10, 1789. Your Exccellei^cy — has doubtless heard of the ap- pointment of a judge of the District Court of Maine.
314 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
An appointment on my part unsolicited and unex- pected.
Upon its being announced in the newspapers I did not conceive my self at liberty to leave the business of the Supreme J. Court, until the duties of the year upon the Circuit were ended.
And my Mind, I must acknowledge has been a little agitated on the occasion.
In 1777, When I was first appointed a member of the highest law Court of the State, it was not from pecuniary motives, or my own inclinations, that I ac- cepted the Trust. It was against my intention and inclination. But from an Idea that the Government had a right (in an especial manner in times of diffi- culty) to the services of all its citizens.
A diffidence in my own abilities for the employ- ment, was overruled by others in the acceptance. And at that period I rather looked on myself (to use the language of the day) as drafted to the service, than a voluntier.
The general satisfaction of the citizens and Suiter with the determination of the Court and the cordial harmony and agreement among the members that have composed it;^ it made the duty altho' laborious and fatiguing, much more agreeble, than my appre- hension had led me to expect. I think it may be truly said in my case, amusements, or private business, has not diverted my attention, from an endeavor faith- fully and impartially to discharge the duties of the
1 William Cushliig, Nathan P. Sargent, David Sewall, Francis Dana, Increase Sumner, were in office in 17S9, and for several years preceding.
DATA AND LETTERS OF HON. DAVID SEWALL. 315
office. And now Sir I heave to acquaint you that I have accepted the appointment of Judge of the Dis- trict Court of Maine under a commission from the Pi:-esident of the United States, with the advice of the Senate. Which by the constitution of Mass common- wealth, renders it incompatible, that I should any longer, exercise or discharge the duties appertain to the office of a Judge of a Supreme Judicial Court there of.i And I do hereby resign the same. It af- fords me satisfaction to find the business pending in the several counties, by the great Industry and appli- cation of the Court the year past, (Which from the first day of Feb. to the last day of November has had collectively only about Seven Weeks intermission) as much and more reduced than it has been for many years preceding. That there will be time to fill the vacancy before the Session of the Court in Febuary next. And your Excellency will excuse my express- ing my earnest desire that some Person may be ap- pointed in my stead that will fill the department with reputation, and be also agreeable to my worthy breth- ren, and fellow laborers remaining in that important Station.
For in addition to what is to other Citizens of hav- ing their Person and property under the protection of the government of Massachusetts, by an impartial interpretation of the laws, I feel myself particularly interested that the vacancy made by my Resignation
iJudge Gushing was in 1789 appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of the United States, and Sargeant, was appointed chief justice, Robt. T. Paine and Theophilus Bradbury supplied the vacant seats. Upon the death of Sargeant, Dana became chief justice.
316 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
should be filled, by a Gent of Integrity, Reputation, and abilities — And of such I suppose there are several within the Government, and who would also be agree- able— It shall be my endeavor in addition to an Opin- ion upon some law Question that stand continued for advisement (Which they have a mind of claim upon for) to afford them all the Constitutional aid in my power. Wishing your excellency all the satisfaction and happiness, your laborious Station of first Magis- trate of the Commonwealth requires
I am Sir your Obedient
humble Servant David Sewall Gov. Hancock.
[Copy of a Letter to the Secretary of State, John Q. Adams.]
York Jan^ 9"^ 1818. Sir. — bavins^ officiated as Judyje of the district Court of Maine for 23 years without for once being prevented attending its duties by any providential event. I think my age and the distance, from the place where the Courts are holden render it uncertain whether I shall hereafter be able to attend I therefore inclose my Resignation of the Said Office, which you are desired to lay before the President to the end a successor may be seasonably appointed. And in that respect I take the liberty to Suggest, That Stephen Longfellow Jun^', Nicholas Emory, Ezekiel Whitman, Josiah Stebbius & Prentiss Mellen, are Persons of es- tablished character, for Integrity, Morality, and re- spectable in the knowledge of Jurisprudence, that in
DATA AND LETTERS OF HON. DAVID SEWALL. 317
my humble Opinion either of them are quaUfied to perform the duties of that office.
I am Sir your humble Servant.
David Sewall. Hon^^® John Q Adams
Secry of State of the U. S.
[Indorsed in the above was the following to James Munroe President of U. S.]
York. Jan^ 9*^ 1818.
Sir. — The Judge of Maine District recollects with satisfaction, the honour and pleasure he received by having the first Magistrate of the Union under his Koof. — That not with standing his powers of Body & mind remain nearly in the same situation, yet he is Admonished by his advanced years^ that they are diminishing, and claim a relief from the cares of a publick nature.
He therefore hereby resigns the office of Judge of the District Court of Maine. District; unto which he was commissioned in the year 1769. And he makes this communication while Congress are in Session, that a successor may be appointed with the least possible inconvenience ; and he is with the greatest esteem and respect his obedient hum^ servant
David Sewall
James Munro.
President of the United States of America.
1 M. 83.
DIVISION or THE TWELVE THOUSAND ACRES. 319
THE DIVISION OF THE 12,000 ACRES
AMONG THE PATENTEES AT
AGAMENTICUS.
Bead bofere the Maine Historical Society, January 22, 1891,
BY WILLIAM M, SARGENT.
Much that has been written of the earliest history of Agamenticus (York) seems now very incomplete, in view of the new material brought to light by the pub- lications of our own and other kindred societies.
Much, however, remains yet to be found out. If Savage would have given a pound per Hue for any original record concerning John Harvard, of what value would it be to us to discover the full text of any one of the several patents of the territory now in- cluded in the town of York ? Perhaps no one can so well tell its value, as certainly no one of us can its probable cost, as our own president, who has been so lavish in his expenditure of pounds in tracing original Gorges material.
In the paper just discovered^ your attention is in- vited to one missing link in the chain of early titles and history of old York that is of great value and will afford to the coming historiographer of our first incor- porated city great assistance that must have been sought for and greatly missed by such local historical writers as David Sewall and N. G. Marshall.
It is pretty generally understood that the origin of the land titles on the north side of York river is in
i Hooke vi. Nowell, Court Files 1716-18.
320 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
the patent by the Council for New England to certain gentlemen therein named of twelve thousand acres ; but how many know or have ever paid any attention to the fact that this first patent was succeeded by a second one, and that in its turn by a third patent? or have given any study to the changing ownership as disclosed by the different names in these successive papers ?
The writers of the history of that locality have as a rule taken as their starting-point in place of time the borouo-h incorooration of Agramenticus in 1641, fol- lowed eleven months later by the city incorporation of Gorgeana by Sir Ferdinando Gorges ; yet Samuel Maverick, who was one of the original patentees and one of the first settlers on the land thus granted, tells us that there was a much earlier settlement there, with an organized form of government, which was called Bristol, his language being, " and according to the Patent the Government was conformable to that of the Corporation of Bristol .... for which the first combination was named."^
" York " it is to be remembered, had been appropri- ated by Captain Christopher Levitt for his settlement in Casco bay upon the tract formerly called " Quack " by the Indians, and the name was not applied to this locality till conferred upon the newly organized town by the Massachusetts authorities in 1652.^
But that the forms and orders of good government prevailed there after the return of Governor William Gorges, and before the issuance of Gorges' royal char-
i New England Hist. Gen. Register, xxxix, 36. * York Deeds, i, 27.
DIVISION OF THE TWELVE THOUSAND ACRES. 321
ter of 1639, is shown by a recital by William Hooke, in 1638-39, who terms himself " governor of Agamen- ticus."^
Throughout the volumes of York Deeds, edited under the supervision of our Society, there appear continual references by some of the grantors, who are known to have been either among the number of the original owners by virtue of one or the other of the three successive patents of Agamenticus, or else to have been the assigns of such original owners, to the divisions amongst themselves of the twelve thousand acres included in those patents. The recitals in these deeds direct attention to two distinct facts ; first, that some of the patentees claimed under the first patent of first (or second) December 1631, while others claimed under another patent, which I find to have been the third, of 23 March 1637-38 ; second, that there were two separate and distinct divisions, one made October 30, 1641, upon petition by Roger G^rd and others in August, 1611 ; and another made November 11, 1641, upon a petition to the Court dated October 7, 1641.
The following are some of the recitals referred to :
York Deeds, i., part i, 9 ; "William Hooke, Samuel Maverick and Edward Godfrey deed to John Heard, recites a Patent of 23 Mch 1637 /8 ; a petition to the Court for a division among the patent- ees dated 7 Oct. 1614; and the division made 10 Jan'y (which is an error for Nov. 11,) 1641.
Id. i., 118; Samuel Mavei'ick, for himself and other patentees, deed to Roger Gard, recites the first Patent of 1°* (or 2"*^) Dec. 1631 and also the subsequent Patent of 23 March 1637/8. Id. ii., 178 ; Edward Godfrey deed to Abraham Preble, recites the Patent of 23 March 1637 /8 and the division made 11 Nov. 1641.
1 York Deeds, vi, 74.
Vol. II. 22
322 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
• These recitals have engendered the hope that some day the missing one of these divisions might be dis- covered, and that by supplementing one another the two would afford important geographical, historical and title data, — a hope that has been modified by a fear lest both might prove as incomplete and unsatis- factory as the one preserved to us has proven, which is so general and sketchy in its outline as to afford little of such needed information.
This "first division," as it is called by Godfrey^ was, as it states upon its face, only a partial division ; it is in reality but little more than a preliminary plan for the division that was made twelve days later as by the newly discovered paper. It has been preserved to us among the Massachusetts Archives^ and is printed by Dr. Banks in his ''Life of Edward Godfrey;"^ but it is considered desirable to rej)rint it here because of its intimate and supplementary connection with the other, giving as it does the sizes in rods of the lots, which are not therein expressed, and to afford an op- portunity to examine and compare the two.
THE FIRST DIVISION
A Cojjpy of a divission made by m'" Edw : Godfrey and others in pte of 12000 acres of land of Agament :
In Performance of a Court order at the Peticon of Eoger Gard &, others as by the same appeareth, August: 1641 :
The Devission of 12000 m Acres of Land amongst the Pat- tentees of Agamenticus October 30 1641 : by us whose names are here subscribed.
6 Miles & 4 long & 3 Miles broad makes 12000 which being
1 York Deeds, iii, 37. 2 vol. 112, p. 12. ' Maine Hist. Soc. Coll. ix.
DIVISION OF THE TWELVE THOUSAND ACRES. 323
devided into 13 parts each parte will contayne 154 m:^ which makes }4 a Mile wanting 6 poole.
ffower of these pai-ts putt together contayning 616 poole In breadth, and 68 lynes at Nine poole by lyne make 616 poole & 2 poole over and above.
There is already layd out towards every of the fower parts 26 Ijmes & one over and above, Soe there is more to be layd out for every fowereth parte 42 lynes, & the salt Marsh ground to be devided in the like maner.
A Division already of the Land below M' Gorges house on the Lower side of the Crick.
Thomas Gorge Edw : Godfrey Roger Gard
Recorded according to the originall by me
Edw : Godfrey
(Certified as a true copy of the original by Edw : Rishworth, Recorder, 10 Jime 1667.)
It will be noticed that no date is given of the time of its original record. But the second or supplemental division just discovered, after lying hidden so many years in the moldering court files of York county, sup- plies the probable date of the record of both and enables the fixing approximately in point of time the date of the loss of the original record, and with considerable precision the place of their first recording.
THE SECOND DIVISION.
November 11 : 1641. A devission of twelue thousand Acers of Land amongst the Pattentees of Agamenticus | made by us Thomas Gorges Esq'' and Edw: Godfrey Gentled Chancellers of the Por- vince of Mayn, & Roger Gard, who are deputed In the be- halfe of the sayd Pattentees | Inp""^ to Fardinando Gorges Esq% all the Land from the Cricke below the house vp to the bass cricke, & soe North East from. a.
* Query: r. for poles or rods?
324 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Certen Oake marked for a bound on the vpper side of the sayd Cricke |
To Ilumfrey Hooke, & Gyles Ellbridg Esq" & Willia : Ilooke, & Tho : Ilooke Gentlem : all the Land from the sturajje of a tree neare Hene : Donells house, vp to a certen tree marked for a bound, on the vpper side of Mr Edw : Godfreys fejld, & from those bounds North East the yland at the Harbours Mouth, & wast ground between the sea side, & the lower bound North Eastwards, to remajn In coman amongst all the pattentees |
To Edw: Godfrey Lawrence Brinely, Willia: Pistor, & Robert Tomsou Gentlem : All the Land from the Last bound to a certen Oake Marked for a bound neare the path Leadeing from the plantation to Mr Gorges house, alsoe all the Land vp from the lower Corner of Mr Lynns fejld to the Cricke below Mr Gorges house, & from all the s*^ bounds North East |
To Mr Samell Mavericke, Ely as Mavericke, Wilham Jefferys, & Hugh Bursly Gentle : All the Land between those two pcells of Land last mentioned, & alsoe all the Land aboue the bass cricke from Mr Gorges bounds, there vp the River to a little Hil- locke, by the River side, aboue the next poynt of Land, & from thence North East |
To Mr Humfrey Hooke & partners, all the Land from the afores* Hillocke to the Poynt or Cove of Marsh, next aboue the farme house & from the head of the sayd poynt or Cove of Marsh North East |
To Mr Samell Mavericke & ptners, all the Land from the bounds last mentioned, vp the River side soe fare as It runnes North Westwards, and soe oner the s"^ River North West wards to a tree marked for a bound, & from thence North East |
To Mr Humfrey Hooke & partners, from the afores*^ bounds North West nine Lynes In length, at 9 poole p lyne, & from thence North-East |
To Mr Edward Godfrey & partners, that pcell of Land cora- manly Called the Necke of Land, partly compassed about Avith the River & to take soe fare vp as shall Contayne the like quantity, that Mr Humfrey Hooke & partners hath on the East side |
DIVISION OF THE TWELVE THOUSAND ACRES. 325
The sault Marsh devided as followeth |
To Mr Hooke & partners all the Marsh from the first Entrance to his farme house ; All the rest vpwards on that branch of y" River, To Mr Mauericke & partners And that on the Western branch of y^ River to Mr Godfrey <& partners, & to Mr Gorges the Pattentee |
Concordat cum origine | examined & Re : Corded | July : 2 : 1646 : by mee Edw : Godfrey |
A trve Coppy of this devission aboue written taken out of the originall & therewith Compared this 10* : d : June 1667 :
p Edw : Rishworth Re : Cor :
154 poole In breadth, soe every Pattentee w*"*^ being measured by a lyne of 9 poole In length ammounts to 17 lynes & one poole I
It will be observed that this was recorded July 2, 1646, by Edward Godfrey in his capacity as magis- trate — for he was never recorder — during the time that William Waldron filled the office of recorder, and doubtless during his absence. Waldron did not live in the province, but at Dover ; he came down to the places where the court was being held and either there recorded upon the regular books the instruments that had accumulated for record, or copied the record of them that had been kept upon temporary blotters into the regular books, so that both the original record made by Godfrey in 1646 of this division and its sec- ond or regular record now being missing, the first pre- sumption would be that it was lost with Waldron at the time of his drowning, in September, 1646, in the Kennebunk river, on his way home from attendance at court, as it is an historical fact that some of our
326 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
public records were lost with him ; but that presump- tion is disproved by the fact that the oria^inal, or God- frey record of this division was certainly in existence June 10, 16G7, for this copy is certified by Edward Rishworth as recorder, as of that date and as from the original, the copy being in his unmistakable hand- writing;. So that the conclusion is irresistible that this division was recorded in the twenty leaves of the first book of York Deeds that are now missing; that that particular leaf of record, as well also as the one con- taining the first or preliminary division given above were both in existence September 10, 1667, when Rishworth certified copies of both, and that those leaves have been torn out, lost or mislaid between that date and 1731, when Joseph Moody made his tran- script of the first book, from which transcript these and eighteen other leaves are unfortunately now missing.
Some of the satisfactory results obtained from the record of this division are : the fact thus established that for ten years the original thirteen parts or shares had been preserved ; the tracing down of those parts or shares and showing to whom they had descended, or been assigned, at the end of that period, and w^ho held them in 1641; the additional number of new names that can thereby be added to the previously known list of the early landed proprietors of York, thus increasing the number of such names to twenty- seven.
A list of these proprietors is given for the purpose
DIVISION OF THE TWELVE THOUSAND ACRES.
127
of comparison, with references to the printed Minutes of the Council for New England : —
In the fi rst Patent, December 2, 1631.^ Ferdinando
Gorges, [Esq.] "Walter Norton. Thomas Coppyn. Samuel Maverick. Thomas Graves. Ralph Glover. William Jeffreys. John Busley. Joel Woolsey. Robert Norton. Richard Norton. George Norton. Robert Rainsford.
In the amended Pa- In the Division tent, 2 March 1632.2 November 11, 1G41.
The same patentees except Ferdinando that tliesie four were sub- stituted for those opposite whose names they stand.
Seth Bull.
Dixie Bull.
Matthew Bradley. John Bull.
Gorges- [Esq.] Edward Godfrey. Robert Tomson. Samuel Maverick. Elias Maverick. Gyles Elbridge. William Jeffreys. Hugh Bur sly. Humphrey Hooke. William Hooke. Thomas Hooke. Lawrence Brinely. William Pistor.
1 Am. Antiq. Journal, Apr., 1867, p. 101. ^ jd. p. io5.
328 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETT.
PROCEEDINGS.
The annual meeting was held at Brunswick, June 26, 1885.
The meeting was called to order at 9 a.m., President Bradbury in the chair. The record of the last annual meeting was read and approved. A report on the library and cabinets was presented by the librarian, Mr. H. W. Bryant, and was accepted. Mr. William Goold read his annual report as corresponding secre- tar}^, and it was accepted. The annual report of the treasurer, Mr. Lewis Pierce, was read by him in detail, and it was accepted.
The following officers were then duly elected by ballot : —
President, James W. Bradbury; Vice President, William G. Barrows ; Corresponding Secretary, William Goold ; Treasurer, Lewis Pierce; Biographer, Joseph Williamson ; Recording Sec- retary, Librarian and Cabinet Keeper, Hubbard W. Bryant.
Standing Committee. — Rufus K. Sewall of Wiscasset, William B. Lapham of Augusta, William Goold of Windham, Edward H. Elwell of Deering, Joseph Williamson of Belfast, James P. Baxter of Portland, Joshua L. Chamberlain of Brunswick.
Professor Charles H. Smith of Brunswick and Mr. William H. Smith of Portland were elected resident members.
The following were elected corresponding members :
Albert B. Otis of Boston ; Robert A. Brock of Richmond, Va.; Rev. Elias Nason of North Billerica, Mass. ; Dr. John R. Ham of Dover, N. H. ; Llewellyn Deane, of Washington, D. C.
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin of Bangor was elected an honorary member. Mr. J. L. Douglas of Bath, in behalf of the Sagada-
PROCEEDINGS AT DECEMBER MEETING, 1885. 329
hoc Historical Society, extended an invitation to the members of the Maine Historical Society and their friends to unite with the former Society in a field day excursion to Stage island and Fort Popham. Messrs. Tenney and Dike made some remarks in favor of the excursion, and it was voted to accept the invitation.
The following were appointed a committee of ar- rangements on the part of this Society : R. K. Sewall, Samuel F. Dike and Albert G. Tenney.
It was voted that a committee be appointed to apply to the Legislature for an act to prohibit the voluntary reduction of the interest paying funds of the Society below the sum of ten thousand dollars, the act to take effect when accepted by the Society.
After some discussion the matter was referred to a committee of three, consisting of James W. Bradbury, William G. Barrows and John A. Peters.
A vote of thanks was extended to Robert H. Gar- diner, Esq. for his gift of one hundred dollars.
December 22, 1885.
The winter meeting of the Society was held at their library in the City Building, Portland.
The afternoon session called to order at 2.30 p.m. by President Bradbury. The librarian and cobinet keeper, Mr. Bryant, read a report of the acquisitions received since the annual meeting. Mr. Curtis M. Sawyer made a written communication concerning the vestiges of Indian camping-grounds in Maine.
Mr. George F. Talbot read a biographical sketch of the late James Shepherd Pike.
330 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Rev. Henry 0. Thayer read a paper entitled Notes on the Popham Colony.
At the evening session Mr. Edward H. Elwell read a paper on the British view of the Ashburton treaty and the northeastern boundary question. Mr. Brad- bury made some remarks of interest, bearing upon the subject, as he had represented the interests of Maine in Washington, at the time of the treaty.
Mr. Joseph Williamson contributed a paper on the rumored French invasion of Maine in 1798, which was read by Mr. Stephen Berry.
At the close of the paper Mr. Bradbury explained briefly the origin of the French spoliation claims.
Rev. Henry S. Burrage followed with a paper giving some additional facts concerning George Waymouth the early navigator.
Dr. Charles E. Banks contributed a paper on the administration of William Gorges 1636-37 which was read by Mr. Elwell.
Votes of thanks for the papers read at both sessions were passed and copies requested for the archives.
Adjourned without day.
May 20, 1886.
The spring meeting of the Society was held May 20, 1886, at the library in the City Building. It was called to order at 2.30 p.m., by the president. The librarian read his quarterly report of accessions to the library and cabinet.
Mr. J. H. Drummond read a paper contributed by
PROCEEDINGS AT MAY MEETING, 1886. 331
Mr. John F. Sprague of Monson, on James S. Holmes the pioneer lawyer of Piscataquis county.
Mr. Rufus K. Sewall read a paper entitled A Lost Race of New England and its Relations to European Civilization.
Rev. Amasa Loring read a paper on the lives of the four eminent judges of North Yarmouth, Maine.
Mr. WiUiam H. Smith followed with a paper giving some account of the late Jonathan Morgan of the Cumberland Bar, and presented the old straight-back chair commonly used by Morgan, also his photograph with autograph.
Mr. William Goold gave an extended account of Col. Thomas Westbrook and the expedition which he commanded against the Norridgewock Indians in 1725, and presented to the Society as the gift of the Rev. E. Q. S. Waldron of Pikesville, Md., the strong box or portable desk of Father Rale, which was taken by Col. Westbrook at this time. Mr. Bryant the keeper of the cabinet presented as the gift of Mr. A. R. Bixby of Skowhegan, the httle bronze crucifix lately un- earthed in Norridgewock, and which no doubt was worn by Father Rale, thus these two inestimable reUcs are reunited after a separation of 161 years.
Messrs Williamson, Sewall and Emery were ap- pointed a committee to draft resolutions on the death of the late WiUiam G. Barrows of Brunswick.
The evening session was held in the Common Coun- cil Chamber, Mr. Edward H. Elwell presented a brief report of the doings of the American Historical Asso- ciation at its recent sessions held in Washington, D. C.
332 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Rev. Henry S. Barrage read a paper on the military occupation of Pemaquid during the second war with Great Britian. At the close of the paper Mr. R. K. Sewall spoke of the recent interesting discoveries in the ruins of Pemaquid.
Votes of thanks were passed for the papers read at both sessions, and copies were requested for the ar- chives. Adjourned.
AN INTERESTING HISTORIC DOCUMENT.
Wb have been furnished with the following interesting historic document from the original, now in the possession of Mrs. Charles A. Milliken of Maiden, Mass. It is, as will be seen be- low, dated November 17, 1814, during the war of 1812-15, and is still in an excellent state of preservation : —
PROCLAIM AT lOX.
Whereas, Sir John Sherbroke did by proclamation capture all that part ot" the District of Maine lying betwixt the Penobscot and St. Croix rivers for and in behalf of His Majesty the King of Great Britain, I do by all the power in me vested declare it recaptured, excepting Castine and Eastport, for and in behalf of the tJnited States of America, and the subjects thereof having again become citizens are hereby ordered to conduct themselves accordingly.
And whereas, it has been customary for British officers to de- clare large extent of sea coast in a state of blockade without a sufficient force to enforce such a blockade : I do by my power as aforesaid, declare all the Ports, Harbors, Rivers, Bays, and in- lets, from the River Penobscot to River St. Croix, that remain in the actual ])ossession of the enemy, in a state of rigorous blockade, having under my command a sufficient force to enforce the same, and the officers under my command are hereby ordered to govern themselves accordingly.
D tne on board the Schooner Fawn in Machias, this 17th day of November, 1811:, and nailed to the flagstaff of the Fort at Machias.
(Signed) Alexander Milliken.
Commander of the private armed Schooner Fawn.
A MORAVIAN COLONY IN MAINE. 333
A MORAVIAN COLONY IN MAINE.
It is well known that the state of Maine was settled by peo- ple of nearly all the known Christian sects— Quakers and Shak- ers as well as Chnrchmen, Independents, several kinds of Bap- tists, and Methodists and Roman Catholics. It is not so well known that we once had a colony of Moravians, and came near havino- a growing community of those peaceable and exemplary people as permanent elements of our population.
Broad Bay, afterward incorporated as Waldoboro, was the the- ater of this unsuccessful attempt at colonization, which began in 1739, and lasted till 1770, when the last of the discouraged set- tlers left our inhospitable coast, and sought homes among their brethren in Bethabara, under the milder skies of North Carolina, where their descendants still live.
Mr. John W. Jordan has published, among the Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society, a paper, kindly sent to the Maine Histoi-ical Society, giving a carefully prepared and minute history of this early Maine Moravian settlement, and telling how it happened to be abandoned. It seems that the colonists were recruited in Germany, and beside Moravians included German- Lutherans and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, numbering about one thousand persons. They had been induced to emigrate by the son of Samuel Waldo, sent out as an agent, and were promised each one hundred acres of land if they settled on the Waldo estate. But after taking up their lands they found their titles defective, and some had to purchase their holdings, while others got discouraged and abandoned them. The land was poor ; they had no ploughs, cultivating grain with hoes. The winters were long and cold, and the children had no clothing but shirts.
Spiritually they prospered, held meetings and love-feasts, and gained converts. Their other world affairs got on better than their this world affairs, for although the rival Reformed Pastor Schaiffer got ahead at first by slandering the blameless flock and their shepherd, a story soon came to the settlement from a de- serted wife, of an unsavory reputation of the parson, under which his influence and power of perseciation suddenly succumbed. Still the worldly difticulties were too serious, and in two ship- ments the entire Moravian contingent abandoned Maine, and found refuge in North Carolina.
334 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
BIOGRAPHICAL DATA
or THE
PUBLIC LIFE OF JUDGE DAVID SEWALL.
Presented to tlie Maine Illstorical Society. BY RUFUS K. SEWALL.
The following items are copied from the private minutes of the Hon. David Sewall, of York, Maine.
David the son of Sam^ Sewall Esq' & Sarah his Wife was Born at York Oct^ 28th 1735
Admitted Bachellor of Arts at H. Colledge July 1755
PubUshed his first Almanack for 1758 Nov"" 1757
Admitted Master of Arts a Harvard Colledge July 1758
Went to Housekeejiing at York in Company with Doc' Job Lym;>n May 1700
Admitted & Sworn as Attorney at Law in the Inferiour Court of Common pleas at York July 1760
Admitted Barister at Law in the Supe"" Court of the Mass^ Bay June Term at York 1763
Married by the Rev'' Samuel Langdon d.d. to Mary Parker the Daughter of VV" Parker Esq' of Portsm Thursday DecemV SO^^ 1GC2.
She was Born 23"i Decem' 1738. Obiit 28 May 1788. 2. p.m.
P"'irst Chosen by the General Court of the Mass"^ Bay Collector of Excise for the County of York & Coraniissionated under the Seal of the s^ Province to j" office May 28"^ 1703
Appointed by the Governour and Council under the Seal of the Province Register of the Probate of Wills for York County May 28 1766
Appointed a Justice of the Peace for the County of York Nov i'^ 1767
& Sworn into the office Jan^ 6"" 1708
BIOGRAPHICAL DATA OF JUDGE DAVID SEAVALL. 335
Appointed Cap* of the 2""^ Military Com])aiiy of Fort in the Town of York May 4 1772
Chosen one of the Delegates for the Town of York to rep- resent them in a County Ct)ngress Nov. 7"^ 1774
Appointed a Justice of the Quoi'um for the County of York, by the Mass^" Councill Sep"" (5"^ 1775
Chosen a Councillor for the Province of Mayne May 1776
Appointed by the Massachusetts Council a. Justice of the Sup"" Court Sep^ IV^ Mil
And first took a seat in said Court at Salem y® first Tu^ Nov' 1777
Resigned a seat in Council May 30* 1778
Appointed a Jiistice of the Quorum through the State of Massachusetts Baj^ By Commission from y® Council Dec. 25 1778
Chosen by the Town of York a delegate for forming a Consti- tution or frame of Government, & was also on the Committee of Convention, for reporting the same.
Appointed by the General Court with Six others to revise the Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Nov"" 30*^ 1780
Appointed by the Governour & Council of the Commonwealth of Mass a Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court under the Con- stitution Feby 1(3'** 1781
& took a seat in Court at Boston 3*^ Tuesday of Feb^ 1781
Called upon by the two Houses to give an opinion in writing respecting The Eight of the Senate to join (in fixing a valuation on Taxable property) with the House Feb^ 22"*^ 1780
Appointed an Elector of the President of Congress under the Federal Consti' 1789 Jan^'y
and attended that Service Accordingly.
Appointed & Commmissioned Judge of the District Court of Maine by the President of the U. States 26 Sep' 17S9
& Sworn in the 1-day of Decem"" following, and after having officiated 28 years resigned the office .Tan''. 9"* 1817
The first Tuesday of June 1790, Made the P' charge to the grand Jury at Portland. Tried two persons for murder & passed Sentence of Death on one Thomas Bird, who was Executed ac- cordingly the 25"" June 1790.
336 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Being chosen in May 1790 to Represent the Town of York in the General Court in Jan^ 1791 I went into the House of Repre- sentatives and claimed a Seat there but the House determined by a great Majority (and as I tliink arbitrarily & unconstitution- ally) that a district Judge of the U. S. was by the Constitution of Mass' unable to have a seat in that House.
Nov. 2, 1790 Married at Hampton Falls to Miss Elizabeth Langdon, eldest Daughter of the Rev"*. Sam^ Langdon d.d.
The above is a copy, letter for letter & stroke for stroke.
Benj. W. Pond,
York.
Inside the cover at the other end of the book is a minute as follows :
" Samuel Sewall his children born in York of his
second wife Sarah the Daughter of John Bacheller.
David born Oct' 7, 1735"
JOHN APPLETON. 337
JOHN APPLETON.
Bead before the Maine Historical Society, December IS, 1890. BY GEORGE F. EMERY.
The subject of this sketch was a descendant, in the sixth generation, from Samuel, the common ancestor of the New England family of Appleton, who emi- grated from Waldingfield, Suffolk County, England, in 1635, and settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The homestead of the immigrant is now owned and occu- pied as his summer residence, by Daniel Fuller Apple- ton of New York, a cousin of John. The father of the latter was John W., who at the time of his death had been a well-known citizen of Portland for many years. His mother, Sophia, descended from the some- what noted Williams family of Connecticut. His wife, who survived him, but is now deceased, was a daughter of Ebenezer Dodge, long a prominent merchant of Salem, Massachusetts. Their only child, Eben D., now resides in Washington, D. C.
John was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, February 11, 1815, but his youth was spent in Portland, where he fitted for Bowdoin college whence he graduated in 1834. His class, in which he held an honorable rank, was above the average in point of scholarship, and numbered four upon whom has been conferred the degree of ll. d. These were Peleg W. Chandler, John C. Dodge, Cyrus Hamlin and Henry B. Smith. Upon leaving college Mr. Appleton became thoroughly Vol. II. 23
338 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
equipped for practice in the legal profession, at first under the tutelage of George W. Pierce, whose early exit cut short a career of unusual promise, then at the Harvard law school in the summers of 1835 and 1836, and closino; in the office of Willis & Fessenden. He was admitted to the Cumberland Bar June 20, 1837, in company with the late Judge Edward Fox, with whom he was a fellow student at the law school. He thereupon opened an office in Portland, but did not long pursue his profession, his attention having been diverted from it to the more fascinating field of politics. His ambition in that direction was stimulated, if not encouraged, by the example of Mr. Pierce, a brilliant leader among the younger men of the Demo- cratic party, whose political views he imbibed, and to which he tenaciously adhered to the end of his life.
His first introduction to the public was made under favorable conditions, on the fourth of July, 1838, when he delivered an oration at a party celebration in Port- land, which was participated in by a large concourse of people in which all sections of the state were rep- resented. An additional stimulus was given to the occasion by the fact that the Whigs had a celebration on the same day at which John Neal was the orator, before a large audience bivouacked under a canvas tent on Munjoy Hill. The Eastern Argus, of which Hugh W. Greene was then editor, claimed that the Democratic procession was the largest ever before wit- nessed in Portland on any occasion. Some idea of the zeal and number of celebrants is suggested by the fact, that at the dinner, beside the regular toasts of
JOHN APPLETON. 339
fourteen, one hundred and sixteen volunteers fol- lowed, including some from ladies.^
Mr. Appleton was then but twenty-three years of age. Of his effort the Argus spoke as follows : —
Mr. Appleton's oration was all that could have been wished. There was no intermingling of the political slang of the day, no attacks upon individuals of the opposition, nothing that could offend the most refined and delicate taste in this performance ; while the principles of democracy were enforced and defended with an energy which evinced how deeply they were felt and sacredly beheved by the orator. The whole was chastened and well adapted to the great occasion, in a manner that could not excite inharmonious or unpleasant feeling in a single individual, of whatever political party he might be. It was impassioned, fervid, chaste and patriotic, delivered in a beautiful, energetic and impressive style of eloquence.
After making reasonable discount from this eulogium on the score of personal and party friendship, the gen- eral impression produced by Mr. Appleton's oration is attested by the fact, that it was published by request in pamphlet form and was widely distributed.
In the winter of 1838 Mr. Appleton was called to take charge of the editorial department of the Eastern Argus, and in this service he continued four or five years. Naturally an easy and graceful writer, and highly gifted as a popular speaker, he at once attained prominence in the councils and leadership of his party His first official life began as register of probate for Cumberland County, deriving his appointment from Governor Fairfield.
iThe following appears in the list — By a lady — " The orator of the day — If the vestal fire of liberty burns in his bosom as brightly as it is eloquently breathed from his lips, he more than merits the applause he this day has received."
340 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
In 1845 George Bancroft, secretary of the navy, invited him to accept the office of chief clerk in his department, the duties of which he assumed, and continued to discharge until 1848 when he became chief clerk of the state department under James Buchanan, then secretary of state. In March of the year last named he was appointed by President Polk Charge d' Affaires to Bolivia and, en route to his post, the vessel in which he embarked was wrecked and he narrowly escaped with his life. That country was then almost a terra incognita^ which had to be reached by traversing mountains on mules, and a journey to which was one of hardship and hazard ; a country which set at defiance all rules of diplomacy, and was by no means inviting but to those schooled in the ranks of bandits and hardy adventurers. On reaching his post, finding little to employ his diplomatic pen, and time hanging heavy on his hands, he addressed himself to studying, as best he could, the history and con- dition of that country, and made extended notes of his researches and observation of which it was his purpose to give the public the benefit, but this plan he did not execute, owing to his brief residence there and the incompleteness of material gathered for its consummation. But some of the more salient points of general interest he embodied in a popular lecture which was delivered before lari!:e audiences in Portland and elsewhere.
On the accession of General Taylor to the presi- dency, he felt constrained to resign his position, and after a little more than a year's absence he returned
JOHN APPLETON. 341
to Portland where he resumed the practice of law for a brief period, being associated as partner with the late Justice Clifford. But, as at first, public life had greater attractions for him, and in 1851 he was elected to represent the Portland district in the 32d Congress, defeating William Pitt Fessenden, after a hard fought contest, by a majority of forty votes in a total of about twelve thousand. The margin was so close that the friends of Mr. Fessenden strongly urged him to contest the election, but this he declined to do be- lieving, as he doubtless did, his competitor had fairly won his honors.^
Mr. Appleton participated in congressional debate quite freely, and at once won favor by the finished style of his speeches, and the graceful and impressive manner of their delivery. This is well attested by the fact that, although a new member and one of the youngest in Congress, he was selected among the honored ones to make an obituary address in Decem- ber, 1852, on the occasion of the death of Daniel Webster. His effort on that occasion elicited wide applause, and fully justified the honor conferred upon him. Although widely differing with Mr. Webster in most of his political views, he was in full sympathy with him in his loyalty to the constitution ; and in one of his speeches had eulogized it as, —
That admirable instrument for its structure, its simplicity, its
'In one or more biographical sketches of Mr. Fessenden it is affirmed that he was in fact elected, but that the seat was awarded to Mr. Appleton in consequence of defective re- turns, which if properly dealt with would have given it to the former. But the editor of the leading Whig journal in Portland, a zealous partisan, and Mr. Willis, the partner and bosom friend of Mr. Fessenden, made no such claim. It may be further added, that the condition of parties, and the anti-slavery excitement, were then such that Mr. Fessenden would have been compelled, even against his own wish, to have contested the seat had there been good ground for so doing.
342 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
wise adaptation of means to ends, whicli is still one of the won- ders of political science wherever it is known.
But he felt constrained to add : —
Yet what, after all, is its great merit. Why, as it seems to me, that it governs so little. Other systems have failed because they have attempted too much. Ours has succeeded because it under- took only what it could perform.
Having retired from Congress in 1855 he was ap- pointed secretary of legation at London under Mr. Buchanan, U. S. minister at that court, discharging the duties of that position, says the historian of Bow- doin college, with credit to himself and to the country. On the retirement of Mr. Buchanan, at his request, Mr. Appleton was appointed Charge d' Affaires ad in- ierwi, but declined accepting the appointment and re- turned hofne and took a prominent part in the presi- dential election, which resulted in the elevation of Mr. Buchanan to the presidency. Immediately following the inauguration of Mr. Buchanan he assumed charge of the Washington Union, the administration organ of the administration at the capital, but by reason of ill health, was compelled to relinquish that position after but a few months' service therein. He was then ap- pointed assistant secretary of state in fact, under Lewis Cass, then at the head of the state department, and for three year's continued to perform the duties of that position.^ It is no violation of confidence to add, that, during this period, most of the state papers em-
iln Mr. Buchanan's memorandum of December 15, 1860, on the resignation of Cass, it is said " most of the important dispatches bearing his name (as secretary of state) were ■written by Mr. Appleton, Judge l$lack and myself." The onerous duties imposed on Judge Black and the president in their own departments necessarily accredits ittr. Apple- tou with the chief labor and responsibility in preparing those dispatches.
JOHN APPLETON. 343
anating from that department were from the pen of Mr. Appleton, while his advice and assistance were uniformly sought by both the president and secretary of state on all questions of public and political im- portance.
In 1860 he accepted the position of minister to Russia, made vacant by the resignation of Mr. Pickens of South Carolina, and remained at St. Petersburg un- til the election of Abraham Lincoln, when he tendered his resignation, and in 1861 returned to Portland. His health, never vigorous, had been failing under the severe pressure of exhaustive labors and exposure to the severity of 'a Russian winter which aggravated a tendency to consumption with which he had been threat- ened. After a lingering illness he died at Portland, August 22, 1864, and closed a career of rare promi- nence in public service, for one of his age. Always a firm friend of the union and constitution his life ter- minated at a time when both voice and pen would gladly have been devoted to the service of his country. It is known to have been the fact that one of the greatest sorrows of his closing years was the feeling and conviction that had he remained at Washington during the complications which surrounded President Buchanan in the closing year of his administration, the horrors of a civil war might have been at least de- layed if not averted, and the nation brought through its crisis in safety. Whether or not this conviction was well founded, certain it seems that during that trying ordeal, the president greatly needed the pres- ence and counsel of the one who of aU others had
344 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
shared his fullest confidence/ and whose cool judg- ment and devotion to the public weal, combined with a wise and discriminating knowledge of men and the trend of public affairs, would have at least tended to check, if not arrest, the drift into the vortex finally reached.
The life of Mr. Appleton was a brief but laborious one. He was remarkable for his industry, and pos- sessed all the requisites for an accomplished statesman, whether before the public eye or in the less conspic- uous but difficult field of diplomacy. But his labors enured largely to the benefit of others rather than himself, and were of a nature to leave but few visible footprints to perpetuate his memory. He was a firm believer in the Christian religion whose consolations smoothed his descent to the end of mortal life, and illumed his entrance into the society of those who have filled up their earthly career with honor and usefulness.
'The letters published by George T. Curtis, in his elaborate memoir of Buchanan, afford Kbundant evidence of the high esteem in which the latter held Mr. Appleton, and of the friendly and confidential relations existing between them. Li one of them to his niece, 3Ii98 Harriet Lane, Mr. Buchanan strongly deprecates Mr. Appletou's return to the United States anterior to his own, and adds, "he is a perfect secretary as well as an ex- cellent friend."
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 345
A LOST MANUSCRIPT.
Read before the Maine Historical Society, December 18, 1890,
BY JAMES p. BAXTER.
On a catalogue of books and manuscripts issued in 1843 by Rodd of London, an antiquarian bookvender, appeared the title of a manuscript, which in time fell under the eyes of Maine historical students, and awakened their interest.
Inquiries went to Rodd, but he had disposed of the manuscript, to whom it was not known, and then the hunt began. The British Museum was ransacked ; the Admiralty office appealed to, and collectors bored with questions, which bore no fruit.
In 1857, Willis, in whom the mere scent of a musty manuscript awakened inexpressible delight, was still hunting for it, as we know from a letter received by him from a brother antiquarian. This letter is as follows : —
Cambridge, 27th Feb., 1857. Mr. Willis:—
I send the Report of which I spoke to you. I have not been able to find the reference to Mowat : but in Rodd's Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts, published in London, 1843, page 62, is this :—
" Mowat (Capt. Henry, R. N.) Relation of the services in which he was engaged in America from 1759 to the close of the American war, 1783, fol. 18 shillings."
What has become of this I know not, Rodd died long since. It may have got into possession of John Carter Brown of Provi- dence, or Peter Force of Washington, or Lenox of New York.
346 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETT.
Henry Stevens of Morley House, London, would be most likely to know about it, though if he wei'e written to ten to one he would not answer your letter.
Truly yours,
J. L. Sibley.
Following this letter, Willis, who indulged the hope of finding the manuscript on some happy day, wrote as follows : —
We trust we shall be able to procure some account of Capt. Mowat for a future volume of our collections ; it seems he had a long tour of duty on our coast.
He was with Governor Pownall in his expedition to the Penob- scot in 1759.
In 1858, our associate, Mr. Williamson, inserted an inquiry for the missing manuscript in London Notes and Queries ; and in 1862, published a similar inquiry in the advertising columns of the London Times ; and again in 1853, through the London Notes and Queries, offered a reward of five guineas for information, which would enable him to procure a transcript of the manu- script. All these efforts failed, and in 1883, Mr. Williamson directed letters of inquiry to the librarians of the Admiralty, Foreign Of&ce, Colonial and Royal United Service Libraries of London, which elicited only disappointing replies. But this persistent seeker after historic treasure was not to be discouraged, and in 1887, thirty years after Willis' first attempt to find the manuscript, he issued the following advertisement which he sent abroad.
Rodd's Catalogue of Books and Mss., London 1843, p. 62, has the following title : —
**• Mowat {Capt. Henry B. JV.) Relation of the services in
A LOST MANUSCRIPT.
347
which he was engaged in America, from 1759 to close of the American War in 1783, Fol. 18s."
I will pay five pounds for evidence of the existence of this manuscript. Joseph Williamson,
Belfast, Maine,
August 1, 1887. U. S. America.
In spite of these persistant efforts of Mr. William- son, the manuscript remained undiscovered and was beheved to be irretrievably lost. When in London in 1885-86 I was also a searcher for matters relating to Mowat as well as others, and was as desirous as were my predecessors, dead and Hving, of finding his own account of his services in America ; but my search was attended with such unsatisfactory results, that I finally almost abandoned hope of discovering anything farther relating to him. I was therefore pleasantly sur- prised to receive in October last a letter from my friend, Dr. Samuel A. Green of the Massachusetts Historical Society, informing me that Professor Justin Winsor, then in Europe, had seen a Mowat manuscript in the pos- session of Mr. William Brown of Edinburgh, and asking if I did not want to procure it. Without loss of time I wrote to Mr. Brown for the manuscript, and on Novem- ber 20, as I was on the point of leaving my house to attend the monthly meeting of the Maine Histori- cal Society, I received from him a package containing it. As soon as I had looked at the manuscript, I was convinced that it was the one, which had been so long sought in vain. I was not intending to call the atten- tion of my confreres to my good fortune, until I had found opportunity to estimate its importance; but
348 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
during the progress of the meeting, Mr. Williamson having read a paper upon the services of Sir John Moore in Maine, narrated his experience in searching for the manuscript advertised by Rodd so long ago, which took me by surprise, as I was hitherto unaware of my friend's efforts to find the Mowat manuscript, and as it seemed cruel to permit him to remain longer in suspense, I could not refrain from informing him, that the long coveted manuscript was in my possession, and that he should soon hold it in his hand, without pajdng five pounds for the privilege.
Of course all who have searched for Mowat's ac- count of his services in America, from Willis to my- self, have expected to find a particular description of the destruction of Falmouth by the chief actor in that forbidding drama. In this respect the manuscript is disappointing, as it does not even allude to that event; a fact of great significance.
Before, however, considering the manuscript, we may well briefly review the facts connected with the destruction of Falmouth.
Captain Samuel Coulson had, in the spring of 1775, completed the building of a ship of a thousand tons burden, near the site of the present Grand Trunk wharves, and a ship of his from Bristol, England, was lying in the harbor, having on board the rigging, sails and stores for the new vessel. At this time the non- importation act was in force, and a committee of in- spection, comprising the principal men of Falmouth, was appointed at a public meeting of citizens to ascer- tain Coulson's intentions, and to protest against his
A LOST MANUSCEIPT. 349
infringement of the law. After a conference with him, the committee voted not to allow him to land his goods, and he was directed to return them to England with- out breaking the packages. Disregarding this order, Coiilson proceeded to Boston and secured the assistance of the British sloop of war Canceaux, under the com- mand of Captain Henry Mowat, and protected by her guns, landed his goods and fitted his vessel for sea.
While these events were taking place, the excite- ment of the public mind was increased by the battle of Lexington, the news of which was carried to the remotest hamlets in Maine, and an expedition consist- ing of fifty men was organized in Brunswick by Lieu- tenant Colonel Samuel Thompson, a member of the Provincial Congress, for the avowed purpose of de- stroying Mowat's ship, then in the harbor of Falmouth. These men, wearing sprigs of spruce in their hats, and bearing a young spruce denuded of everything but its tufted crown for a standard, marched to Falmouth and encamped, on the ninth of May, in a pine grove on the northerly slope of Munjoy. Not suspecting the presence of these men in the vicinity, of which even the inhabitants of the town were ignorant. Captain Mowat with his surgeon and the Reverend Mr. Wis- wall, the Episcopal minister, were walking on the Eastern Promenade when they were surprised and made prisoners. This act caused the inhabitants of the town much disquietude, and when the officers in charge of the Canceaux threatened to lay the town in ashes if the prisoners were not set at liberty, the people were thrown into a panic. Women rushed
350 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
from their homes witli their children in their arms, weeping and screaming with terror, and many hurried their effects into countrymen's carts for removal be- yond the limits of the town.
An earnest effort was made by the leading citizens to induce Thompson to set his prisoners at liberty, which he finally consented to do upon receiving their parole to deliver themselves up the next day, and the guaranty of Gen. Preble and Colonel Freeman for its fjiithful performance. Mowat was therefore permit- ted, during the evening of the day upon which he was arrested, to return on board the Canceaux.
During the night, the militia from the surrounding towns began to pour into Falmouth, and civil authority was at an end. An uproar was raised against the more prudent men, who had advised the release of Mowat, and those who had been the most conspicuous, es- pecially Preble and Freeman, were subjected to many indignities. The town was in the possession of a semi- military mob, maddened with liquor, which exacted tribute from those who were suspected of entertaining conservative views, and rifled their houses. Under such a condition of affairs, Mowat would not keep his parole, as he probably feared personal violence from the mob. A drunken man fired a musket at his ship, and one of Coulson's boats was seized and dragged by a party of Thompson's soldiers across the town.
These acts aroused the indignation of Mowat, who threatened to fire upon the town, but was persuaded to desist from his purpose by the inhabitants, who as- sured him that the country people, who occupied the
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town, were beyond their control. After several days of rioting, the townspeople succeeded in persuading the countrymen to return home, and Falmouth was again quiet. The acts of " the armed body," which they had been "unable to resist," were formally dis- approved by the inhabitants, and when the Canceaux sailed, all apprehension from that quarter ceased. When, therefore, on the sixteenth of October, five months later, the Canceaux appeared off the town, ac- companied by four other vessels, no danger was appre- hended, as it was supposed they were seeking cattle and forage, of which there were considerable quanti- ties on the islands in the bay. What, then, was the consternation of the inhabitants when they received, on the afternoon of the seventeeth, a missive from Mowat, informing them that he had been sent "to execute a just punishment upon the town of Fal- mouth," and that but two hours would be allowed to remove "the human specie out of the said town."
When this letter was read in the town house by The- ophilus Bradbury, the Rev. Jacob Bailey tells us that "a frightful consternation ran through the assembly," and " a profound silence ensued for several moments." A committee, consisting of some of the men who had before befriended him, was dispatched to the Canceaux to treat with Mowat, but they could only persuade him to suspend the execution of the cruel orders, which he professed to have, until he could receive an answer to a message, wdiich he would dispatch by ex- press to Admiral Graves, and this upon condition that the cannons and small arms in the town should be de-
352 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
livered to him before eight o'clock the next morning. The small arms were sent to the Canceaux in accord- ance with this condition ; but the four small cannons belonging to the town were not given up.
At half past nine, "the flag," says Bailey, "was hoisted to the top of the mast, and the cannon began to roar with incessant and tremendous fury."
It is not necessary to describe the terrible scenes which ensued ; the suffering of the people ; of inno- cent women and children ; of the sick and infirm, forced to fly from comfortable homes in the face of a New England winter, with no prospect of shelter, but such as the reluctant hand of charity might bestow upon them. It is sufficient for us to say, that Henry Mowat ruthlessly and needlessly destroyed a thriving and well ordered town, peopled with men and women of his own race, and scattered them abroad exposed to suffering and death from Avant, hardship and exposure.
One would naturally suppose that when he deliber- ately set to work to describe his services to the crown, Mowat would particularly describe this event, the most important in which he was engaged during his whole career ; but he does not even allude to it, ex- cept in the following terms : That in 1775, " he was appointed by Admiral Samuel Graves to command the Expedition Against the Seaports to the eastward of Boston," and " this done, he cruised in Boston Bay to January, 1776." His services at the seige of Penob- scot, where he played a minor part, are made as im- portant as possible, and upon these services he largely bases his claims to recognition, which he bitterly com-
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 353
plains have not been regarded ; indeed; he asserts that junior officers, one of whom at least had been his subordinate, had been raised above him. We may well ask Avhy this silence respecting the destruction of Falmouth ? and why this studious neglect of an active officer, who was evidently not backward in pressing his claims upon the attention of his superiors ? If he had performed the services intrusted to him by Ad- miral Graves with discretion, why did not that officer support his claims, and why did Sir George Collier, who raised the seige of Penobscot, and Lord Howe turn their backs upon him, and leave him as he forcibly says, " to exert himself on the theatre of war, amidst the daily mortification for seven years of seeing every Post Promotion, excepting three, put over his head ? " These are pertinent questions and one may solve the other.
In this connection, a letter in the office of the Public Records, written by Lord George Germaine to Major General Howe, becomes significant. In it is the fol- lowing relating to the destruction of Falmouth : —
I am to suppose that Admiral Graves had good reasons for the step he took to destroy the town of Falmouth, and that he did not proceed to that extremity without an absolute refusal on the part of the inhabitants to comply with those requisitions stated in the orders he received from the Lords of the Admiralty tohich however does not afppear from any account 1 have seen of that Transaction.
May we not have here one of the keys to Mowat's failure to secure promotion ?
At this point it may be well to ascertain what the Vol. II. 24
354 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
orders were which Admiral Graves received from the Lords of the Admiralty to which Lord Germain e re- fers. Upon receiving the Mowat manuscript, I imme- diately wrote to London and caused a search to be made for these orders, and yesterday received a copy of them. It appears that they were passed September 12, and were issued September 14, 1775, in accord- ance with a letter from Lord Dartmouth, desiring that the Lords of the Admiralty would instruct Vice Admiral Graves to send such transports as he could spare under convoy of His Majesty's ships to the several ports of the rebellious colonies, with orders to their commanders to demand of inhabitants of mari- time towns to furnish at reasonable prices provisions, etc., for the use of the fleet and navy. The orders issued to Admiral Graves were as follows : —
It having been represented that the King's Subjects in North America in Rebellion against His Majesty's government have found means of preventing His Majesty's Fleet and Army from being Supplied with such Provisions and Stores as are necessary for their Subsistence and maybe procured in Several of the Colo- nies : You are hereby required and directed, in pursuance of His Majesty's pleasure signified to us by the Earl of Dartmouth, one of his principal Secretaries of State, in his Letter of the 12th inst., to send from time to time, such of the Transports as can be spared from other Service, to the several ports in those Colonies in North America which are in Arms against the King, under convoy of one or more of His Majesty's Ships as the case shall require, with directions to the Commanders of such Ships to de- mand of the Inhabitants of the Maritime Towns that they do furnish at a reasonable Price, such Supplies of Provisions and other Necessaries as may be procured there, for the use of His Majesty's Fleet and Army, and in case of refusal to comply with
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 355
SO just and reasonable a demand to proceed hostilely against such Towns as are in Open Rebellion.
Vice Adm'l Graves &c. &c. Given &c 14th Sept., 1775.
No. America at Boston, Sandwich.
By &c P. S. J. Buller.
C. Spencer.
These orders certainly do not justify the burning of Falmouth. They were issued for the single purpose of compelling the inhabitants of maritime towns to furnish supplies at a reasonable compensation. No such demand was made upon the inhabitants of Fal- mouth, indeed it is questionable how far the order to proceed hostilely was intended to go ; not necessarily, it is certain, to the destruction of a defenseless town. But view the matter as we please to view it, the cruel act which Mowat performed in the burning of Fal- mouth, did not command the approbation of those high in command. Whether he rashly exceeded the com- mission given him by Admiral Graves, or whether that officer rashly gave him orders for the execution of which he was not willing to be responsible we may not know. That there was reason for his non-promo- tion, which he did not care to discuss, Mowat himself suggests in the following paragraph : —
The representation will naturally carry the insinuation of blame,, however those, to whom the chief part of it belongs, may have reconciled it to themselves. It is hoped the i^icture, which may justly excite surprise, will not be found overcharged.
This passage certainly adds significance to the view, that the disappointment which Mowat experienced in failing to receive promotion, was the result of his
356 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
destruction of Falmouth, which citizens of Portland will doubtless regard as a fitting punishment for such an act; an act, which has been generally regarded as inhuman ; indeed, in a French document of his time, he is spoken of as "Capt. Mowat, that miscreant who burnt Falmouth."
Mowat died of apoplexy at the age of 64, April 14, 1798, on board his ship, the Assistance, near Cape Henry, and his body was carried to Hampton, Virginia, where it was interred.
The following comprises all the manuscript which is of historical interest : —
SERVICES OF HENRY MOWAT, R. N.
A RELATION OF THE SERVICES IN "WHICH CAPTAIN HENRY MOWAT OF THE ROYAL NAVY ^VAS ENGAGED IN AMERICA, FROM 1759 TO THE END OF THE AMERICAN WAR IN 1783.
The treatment of the officer, whose case is the Subject of the following Sheets, is perhaps the most extraordinary Example of Neglect, that is to be met with in the Annals of the British Navy, not but there have existed at all times too many Instances of that Nature, Which if their Merit could be equally ascertained & pub- lickly Known, would certainly excite the patriotic feelings of the Nation And of its guardians not only to redress the Individual, but also to have long agoe effectually repressed the exercise of a growing abuse destructive of the Rules, Spirit, Interest & Justice, of the Service.
But it is the Singular Instance of an Officer, who for 28 years has only had a vacancy of 11 months from active Service : Whose Knowledge, Experience & Attention has attracted the Notice of Commanders to employ them on important Occasions, received the Most honorable Approbation of his Sovereign, & of Minis- terial Departments with encouraging j^romises of that Boon which is the Natural pursuit and almost Ambition of Officers,
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 357
Under the Influence whereof, as well as of his Spirit & duty he Continued to exert himself on the theatre of the War, Amidst the daily Mortification for Seven Years of seing every Post-Pro- motion, excepting three, put over his head, And in the Mean time performed a Service, Such as has ever been followed up by the next Step of promotion, And may be considered in every point of view without Ostentation ( : for now the truth must be plainly told : ) Superior to any thing done on that Station during the Rebellion : After all, equally for years thereafter neglected as formerly, And now reduced to the very disagreeable Necessity of Stating fully his case & to become supplicant for being placed in that proper Rank of the Service Which has been all along his due.
The Representation will naturally carry the Insinuation of blame: however those, to whom the Chief part of it belongs, May have reconciled it to themselves, it is hoped the picture which may justly excite Surprise, will not be found overcharged.
After serving the usual time, Captain Henry Mowat received his first Commission in 1759, and continued employed during the War.
In March 1764 he was appointed to Command His Majesty's Armed Ship Canso in the Rank & Pay of Lieutenant only And to be employed on the Survey of the Coast of North America, Under a promise from the Earl of Egmont, then first Lord of the Admiralty, of being soon promoted to the Rank of Master & Commander, but his Lordship's death happening soon After he was thus far disappointed.
In the Command of this Ship, & principally on this Service, he continued until he was called by Admiral Montague to the Blockade of Boston in 1774 and was employed in various Ser- vices in, & about, Boston Bay till in the following year he was appointed by Admiral Samuel Graves to Command the Expedi- tion Against the Sea-ports to the eastward of Boston : This done he cruised in Boston Bay to January 1776, when the Ship was found unfit to continue any longer on that Service, And in Con- sequence thereof was put under orders to proceed to England, carrying Dispatches & Letters from the Commanders in chief
358 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
representing Captain Mowat's Services and Usefulness on that Coast, And at the same time a request from tliem, that he might therefore be returned to America without loss of time in a Ship fit to do Justice to his Experience of the Station.
On his arrival he was received with the most gracious approba- tion of His Majesty, of the Admiralty Board & of the Secretary of State, & had the Step of Master & Commander Conferred on him, but it was to a Ship then at Boston.
Captain Mowat, finding the Ship was in America & considering the time it would take him to join & to prepare her for Sea, ex- pressed to Lord Sandwich & to Lord George Germaine a wish of being appointed to one on the Spot & his hopes that the long time he had Commanded the Canso & the Services performed in her intitled him to the promotion of a Post Ship.
Lord Sandwich was pleased to observe he had every desire to give him a frigate, but none were ready for Commissioning; & if there were, it would require Months to Man her, urging at the same time the desire of Admiral Shuldham & of General Howe for his Speedy return & adding that there was no doubt on his arrival in America he would be appointed to the first vacnnt Post Ship on the Station, And the same encouragement was equally given by the Secretary of State.
On this foundation he readily Sett out for America : On his Arrival he found the evacuation of Boston had taken place & the Ship intended for him was left there — Admiral Shuldham, then at Halifax, having no other Ship to give but a pi-ize Mer- chant man of about 230 tons, he had purchased into the King's Service & Commissioned but two days before, & which was every way to alter for carrying Guns, Captain Mowat, rather than lose time by returning to England, accepted of her in the mean time, but in the full Expectation of never going to Sea in her, relying on the Influence of the protnises made to him before his depar- ture from England.
Before she Avas ready for sea Capt. Mowat as the oldest Master & Commander there was appointed by the Senior Officer at Hal- ifax to command the Milford Frigate in the absence of hei- Cap- tain at Sick Quarters, and he cruised in her on the coast of New
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 359
England from October to the last of December of the same Year : Captain Burr dying soon after his return to Halifax, he had every reason to expect being Confirmed in the vacancy, when Capt. Barclay of the Scarborough arriving from New York claimed a Senior title to the Milford as a preferable Ship and he was appointed to her by Sir George Collier Accordingly. Captain Mowat was removed into the Scarborough and he continued in her until thei month of May following, all along in the idea of being confirmed in the vacancy by the Commander in Chief : But to his infinite Mortification after returning from a two Months Cruise be found Captain Barclay waiting to resume the Command of the Scarborough. Sir William Barnaby being Sent from New York, made Post Captain into the Milford, And Capt. Mowat had no alternative but to return to the wret«*hed Albany.
From this time to January 1779 the Albany was destined to guard the Harbour of Canso & other such places for the protec- tion of the fishing Craft, a Service however well adapted for her, yet very different from that -we had lately seen Capt. Mowat chosen to execute in a Rank, & on principles admissable only, in regard to the other Senior Ofiicers on the Sole Idea of his Knowl- edge of the Coast, & equally different from the Expectations expressed by the departments of the Admiralty & of the Secre- tary of State in result of the approbation of the Commander in Chief & of their earnest request for his speedy return to the theatre of Action.
But it is now in vain to dwell on the change of System for the reduction of the Colonies, which commenced with this period, and ever after pervaded every circumstance relating to the Ser- vice in that Quarter of the Empire.
Capt. Mowat continued in this situation during Lord Howes Command, in the course of which every one, excepting three, of the numerous promotions were all of oflScers Junior both as Lieutenants & Masters & Commanders, to him, And among them one of the officers even who had served under his command on the Expedition.
The Albany at last was called to New York in the beginning of 1779 — orders had not long before arrived from Britain for
360 MAINE niSTOmCAL SOCIETY.
taking Post in Penobscot Bay, and Capt. Mowat's Experience of the New England Coast being well known to Sir Henry Clinton on former occasions, he was proposed by his Excellency & ap- proved by Admiral Gambler as the fittest to command the naval part of the Force. The Admiral desiring to know the force necessary for the Service, was answered it should be Superior to any the Enemy at Boston could readily collect on such an Emer- gency ; It was accordingly settled it should be so, and that Cap- tain Mowat should have a ship equal to the Importance of the object.
In the meantime the Store of Powder in the Garrison at Hali- fax being totally exhausted Captain Mowat received on board the Albany & proceeded with an ample Supply, the orders and Every Equipment for the Expedition, being intended to follow : But he had no sooner landed the Powder, than he was ordered by Sir George Collier to the Bay of Fundy, And Sir George rei^aired soon after to New York where he was left the Senior Officer on the American Station.
On this change taking place. Captain Mowat, from reasons otherwise foreign to this Narrative, Considered it Necessary to urge what he had formerly represented to Admiral Gambier, And he wrote to New York from the Bay of Fundy, that if the Al- bany were to be the leading Ship, in would by no means be safe to trust the Expedition with one of her class, unless a Sufficient force should cruize between it & the Enemyj until the Post should be established.
This Representation appears to have had no effect, for the orders for the Albany alone soon after arrived at Halifax, and were delivered by Capt. Gaylor of the Romulus to General M Lean until the Albany should arrive.
Thus, if the Albany had happened to lead the Expedition according to the order, the whole must have been intercepted as we shall shortly see, & carried to Boston for a mere Novice might have conceived at once She wag not fit to conduct it safely : The Consequences, which must be estimated according to the view & State of affairs at that time in America, Would have been tre- mendous : It would have been equivalent to a Second Burgoyn-
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 361
aile before there were time for repairing, or forgetting, the first : an immense Encouragement for the Americans, who were tiring of the length of the war, to exert their remaining resources, for the Opposition to exercise their clamor, & a proportional depres- sion of the Spirits of the Loyalists — To the Southward we had but a slender footing in Georgia ag linst such a disaster, the rein- forcements not arrived as yet, And the Army there inactive for Security : To the Northward Canada was not so strong as it had been rendered in the Succeeding Year, And Nova Scotia nt least, lying contiguous to the territory of Penobscot, would have been overwhelmed, for by this detachment the Garrison at Halifax had been by the one half reduced — This disposition of the Service must appear the more strange as we know Sir George Collier was by no means ignorant of the rebel force in the New England Ports.
Bat the dire Event was prevented by a mere accident & that the most fortunate in the World ; for the Dispatch, forwarded by General M Lean, did not reach the Bay of Fundy where Capt. Mowat was stationed, nor did he in Consequence get round to Halifax, until the latest moment having elapsed the General put the order into the hands of Captain Barclay of the Blonde Frig- ate, then Senior officer of the Navy there, who immediately put the No'th & Nautilus Sloops of war under orders to proceed with himself And they were on the point of sailing when the Albany arrived: However this did not alter Captain Barclay's Judicious Determination. They proceeded, had a long passage As might be expected at that Season, and at last arrived at Pen- obscot : The Rebel frigates, Boston & Providence who were cruizing on the coast of Nova Scotia westward of Halifax, find- ing the Convoy Superior to what they expected, did not think proper to attack it.
In a few days after the troops were landed, the Blonde depart- ed, leaving Captain Mowat under a copy of Sir George Collier's original orders, with directions for the North and Nautilus & all the transports to return to Halifax. Now soon the stores were landed for Capt. Barclay had brought the Sloops of War there without Sir George Collier's orders, Captain Mowat finding the
362 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
wretched Albany was to be left thus alone, to lie in an open har- bour distant from every Aid-and in the J;i ws of the most powerful of the rebellious Colonies, to cooperate with about 700 troops in a fort not yet begun to be erected, was convinced it would be for the good of His Majesty's Service to use the utmoi*t Latitude, the order woidd admit of, to postpone the departure of the Ships, from the following view of the Situation of the Armament.
The Bay of the Penobscot is spacious & capable of containing all the Navy of the World: In a corner of it about 14 Leaifues distant from the open Sea, near, the Embrochure of Penobscot River is the Harbour of Magebigwaduce : This Harbour is formed on the one Side by the Mainland, and along the entire other side of it Stretches the Peninsula of Mngebigwaduce Cross — now Nautilus Island is at the entrance of the Harbor: The Peninsula of Magebigwaduce is a high Ridge of land at that time much encumbered with wood : To its summit, where the fort was ordereil to be erected there is an ascent of more than a quai'ter of a mile from the nearest shore of the harbour.
The Provisions, Artillery & Engineer Stores and the equipage of the troops, being lauded on the Beach, must be carried to the Ground of the fort chiefly by the labor of the men against the ascent, there being only a Couple of small teams to Assist in it- The ground & all the Avenues to it, was to be examined, cleared from wood, and at the same time guurded — Materials were to be collected & prepared, And the defences, as well as every conven- ience of the foi"t, were to be reared. Let any one conversant ia Matters of this Nature, reflect what a work it was for 700 men, And he will also readily allow, that in the Course of it they could not possibly, whether from fatigue, or in point of Necessary Preparation be in Condition of repelling any powerful attack : That, as appears also from the rebel General Lovel's letter, every- thing depended an our Men of War being able to prevent the Enemy from entering the Harbour, which was not liable to be commanded or protected by the Guns of the fort : That the Harbour once forced, a Superior Number of the Enemy might land on the most convenient parts of the Peninsula, cut off the communication of our Trooj^s with that considerable part of the
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Necessary Stores, which to the last Avhile the fort was erecting, must unavoidably be left on the Beach, force them to retire within the unfinished Breast work, where Surrounded without cover Comfort or defence, they could have no alternative but to yield Prisoners of War in a few days, or to risk an action against thrice their number on ground from its Nature more favorable to the Enemy's Mode of fighting than for theirs — It is altogether Superfluous to comment any farther on the orders by which a harbour, of this Importance must be left to the sde protection of the Albany Sloop, carrying ten Six & Six four Pounders.
The Blonde Frigate had not been many days departed, when Capt. Mowat having taken Measures for procuring the best infor- mation from Boston, concluded that the Post would soon be attacked, and he proposed to General M Lean to give his concur- rence for detaining the North & Nautilus, as well as the Trans- ports, judging the General's Consent to be eligible, because oth- erwise he would be liable to Account for acting contrary to the orders left with him.
The General equally confiding in the inteligence, gave his Concurrence, and accordingly in the fifth week from the Arrival of the Royal Armament at Penobscot, the Rebel fleet appeared in the Bay, consisting of 18 vessels of war as j^er the margin, beside Transports having on board all necessary Stores & between two and three thousand Lnndforces.
At that time a great portion of the Stores had not as yet been carried up to the Fort : Its Scite was lower by several feet, than a piece of ground at the distance of six hundred yards. The Parapet, fronting this higher ground was scarcely four feet high : All the other j)arts of the Parapet, paralell to the Harbour of Magebigwaduce and in the rear, were not three feet high. The two Bastions to the harbour were quite open : The troops were encamped on the area, which might be about the Space of an Acre : there had been a Shade erected for the Provisions : The Powder was lodged in covered holes, dug in the proposed Glacis: There was but a Single Gun Mounted, & that a Six Pounder.
The Naval force in Magebigwaduce Harbour were the Albany, North & Nautilus Sloops of War, Commanded by Captain Mow- at, Selby and Farnham, and four Transports.
364 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
In this force and State of Preparation, one may easier conceive than describe the anxiety & hopes of all concerned on the ap- pearance of so formidable an Armament.
The enemy came up, and paraded before the entrance of the harbour, in perfect confidence of entering it without difficulty, which would have been the case had the Albany been alone, And then every thing would have been over at once : but there was such an excellent Disposition made of the Sloops of War & Transports in the entrance of the Harbour, as baffled every attempt of the Enemy to force it for three days — then they pre- pared to land their troops* on a Bluff of the Peninsula without the Harbour, where the General could place Pickets communicat- ing with the Main body in the fort, to watch & to oppose, the debarkation.
These three or four days of Embarrassment on the part of the rebels gave our troops time to do something more to the Fort, to carry up the most necessary Stores, to mount several guns, and in short to devote every Endeavor to the present Exigency, — The Enemy, having failed in their attempts on the harbour, effected at last a landing on the bluff, and by superior numbers forced the Pickets into the Fort, took possession of the high ground, above mentioned, within Six hundred Yards thereof & immediately erected their Batteries and Lines.
In this Position both Parties continued firing at one another during the whole Siege : Our Troops, tho extremely harrassed, were daily getting into a better Situation, with the Assistance of the Seamen, and the Requisites which the Men of War furnished, as well as their own Stores : Secui-e on the Flanks & in the rear while our Ships maintained the Harbour, they had only to exert their chief attention & Efforts on the side fronting the Enemies Lines, which effectually deterred the latter from advancing in that direction.
They had erected Batteries on Nautilus Island, & in the rear of the harbour, all within point blanc shot of any position, in which the ships could be placed, but the proper choice of different stations on every emergency eluded their utmost efforts to enter it.
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 365
Thus both sides were employed, ashore & afloat, for 21 Days, in a variety of Manouveres, which are in part described in a Journal kept by an officer on shore & published by I. C. Esq.
In the Mean time Inteligence having reached New York, that Penobscot was attacked. Sir George Collier Sailed to its relief, with the Raisonable Ship of the Line, Blonde, Virginia, Carmilla, Galatea &c. They were perceived off Penobscot Bay by the rebel look-out vessel in the Eveninof. In the course of the nio-ht they embarked their Troops &c. and in the Morning early their fleet was seen under Sail ; but the wind failing them to get round the upper end of Long Island, they had no alternative but to run up Penobscot River.
These Manouvres were a proof that the Strange Ships sailing up the Bay were a relief and the three Sloops of War being em- ployed from daylight in embarking the part of their Guns that were ashore on the Batteries &c. &c. were able to join in the center of the King's Ships : during the pursuit one of the rebel vessels struck, after a few shot, to the Blonde & Virginia: An- other ran ashore at the same time some distance below the mouth of the River, and was some time after taken possession of by the Raisonable, which brought up the rear : All the rest, with the advantage of good pilots & of whole flood tide which happened in the night, got such a distance up the River, as afforded time for destroying them, And the crews made the best of their way to New England, thro' the woods, in the utmost distress.
Thus ended the attack on Penobscot. — It was positively the severest blow received by the American Naval force during the War. The trade to Canada, which was intended, after the ex- pected reduction of the Post of Penobscot, to be intercepted by this very armament, went safe that Season : The New England Provinces did not for the remaining period of the contest recover the loss of Ships, and the Expence of fiting out the Expedition : Every thought of attempting Canada, & Nova Scotia, was thence- forth laid aside, and the trade & Transports from the Banks of Newfoundland along the Coast of Nova Scotia &c : enjoyed unu- sual Security.
After all was over, it was natural to be expected, that Sir
366 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
George Collier would have been Supremely happy to have rej^re- sented this important Service in its proper colors, and that Capt. Mowat would, according to the Custom of the Service, have been sent home with the Account : But in answer to the Claim, Sir George expressed the utmost regret, that he could not spare a Ship from the Station : assured that if he intended to send an officer to England Ca])t. Mowat would certainly be the person : that he only meant to transmit the Despatches by New York, in which he pledged his word, as he held it to be no more than his duty, that the Services of the Sloops of War would be represent- ed in the most honorable Manner to the Admiralty.
On the next day & before there was time to attend to writing the Official Account of the Siege, he put the Albany under orders to proceed up Penobscot River to the Rebel Wrecks, observing it would be-some time before he would leave the Bay — This done he departed abruptly for New York, And had no sooner gone out to Sea, than the Greyhounds Signal was made to part Com- pany, And she procecied directly to England with his Account.
Her destination had been Kept a Secret from every one, Gen- eral M Lean excepted, who in his publick Letter Acknowledges having been privately informed. This is the Manner, in which Captain Mowat was prevented Sending an Official Account of the Siege, And, Notwithstanding Sir George Collier having sol- emnly pledged himself as above, we See his account to the Ad- miralty confined to the Mejit which we will readily allow him of sailing from New York to the relief with a Squadron Which the United Naval force of All America was incompetent to resist even in a Crescent & to a description of the Disposition & de- struction of the Rebel Ships, which however could not be dis- cerned by any one from on board the Raisonable : The Services of the three Sloops of War during the Siege were totally omitted & their Captains not even named.
When Admiral Arbuthnots arrival had put an end to Sir George Collier's Command, Captain Mowat hoped some Justice wouhl have been done him for the Service performed at Penob- obscot, at least so far 'as the laying a fair representation of it before the Admiralty, but there was not the least notice taken of
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 367
him, and he was left at Magebigwaduce under a continuation of the distress of seeing also, that every Pi-omotion, made by this Admiral, was without a single exception, of officers Junior to him : Among these an Officer, who had received his first Com- mission into the Albany when Captain Mowat was appointed to her, was made Post Captain : It is not from any invidious Mo- tive this Instance is given on Captain's Mowat's part : ISTone can be more happy in the good fortune of an Officer, with whose great Merit he has had opportunities of being well Acquainted : but it is a Contrast to the glaring Injustice himself has Met with.
All the Promotions under Admiral Thomas Graves were in a similar Manner of Officers Junior to him, for in fact there had not been, for a long time, any Senior to be had on the American Station, and probably very few Such, if any, remained in Employ- ment on any Station whether of Europe or of the West Indies, for who ever did not find himself on some Admiral's list for Pro- motion, found means to get to another Station for trying his chance & the Interest of friends & they all were generally for- tunate enough to Succeed at last.
Capt. Mowat alone, chained down to Stations, in which he was Supposed to be necessary & the most Calculated tor being useful, has been all along totally neglected & in this light Shamefully Oppressed, tho for Six Complete years the Senior Master & Com- mander in America, tho he had for the greater part of a year Commanded two Post Ships And tho there was nothing collec- tively or individually done in all the fleets, we have had in Amer- ica during the War, sufficient to justify the rule of Seniority to be laid aside to his prejudice, or that equalled the Single Service of the defence of Magebigwaduce.
Seeing Matters goe on in this Manner, he had, since the affair of Penobscot And indeed ever Since the first Instance of Lord Howe's promoting a Junior Officer over him, rested his chief hope in the Justice of His Sovereign, & of the Board of Admi- ralty, Considering the Rules & Spirit of the Service, and the Promises made to him when he left England. In this confidence he determined to serve out the whole War, & to be useful in every point within the Compass of his Abilities, from the feelings
368 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
of an Oflicer & of duty to his King & Country : And having thus deserved it, to lay his case before both with a chiiin to be placed in that Rank of the Service, which was his Right when the first Junior Officer was promoted over his head. Accordingly the Albany being found by Survey nnfit for service in July 1782, the Parliament having already prohibited offencive War in Amer- ica, and every view concentering in the prospect of Peace, he repaired to New York to request Leave from Admiral Digby to return to England.
Havinc: been a Stranger to the Admiral & hitherto at a distance from him, without that interest, and Recommendations which bowever foreign to the Service, are now a days too generally the only road to promotion, & being warranted from his own experi- ence to entertain the Severest Ideas of the practice in that respect which he had so long been witness to on the American Station, Captain Mowat had neither indulged any hopes, nor made any Application, whatever to Admiral Digby, but for leave to goe to Europe,
But the Admiral was pleased to assure liim, that having lately been well informed of his Services & Situation there was on his part the most earnest desire of doing them every possible Justice : That he would readily give leave to return to England, but sorry to lose the Advantage of his Experience & Service on the Coast, wished him rather to wait until an Opportunity Should occur of Appointing him to a proper Ship. Soothed with the Spontane- ous Condescension Capt. Mowat Accepted the offer, more from the Most feeling Sense of Gratitude to its Author, than from any possibility on his part, of Considering post rank from any such date, as Satisfaction for the time he had been deprived of it.
Under Admiral Digby's orders he Conducted the Loyalists to Nova Scotia. But being Superceded in the La Sophie by another Appointment from the Board of Admiralty, he returned to Eng- land with the Admirals Consort in October 1783.
He had the Satisfaction of being received in the best Manner by the Board of Admiralty, then directed by Admirals Lord Vis- count Keppel & Piggot, professional men & unbiassed Judges of Merit. They did him the honor of declaring at once their Knowl-
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 369
edge and Approbation of His Services And Confirmed his Com- mission into the La Sophie without any Solicitation, under Cir- cumstances, which clearly evinced their preference of Justice to any other Consideration And in a gracious Manner that enhanced its value.
This Act of Justice he received from them in the same Senti- ments, in which he had originally received it at the hands of Ad- miral Digby, of perfect Acknowledgement & Gratitude, Satisfied that he had the good fortune of serving all along under Such Commanders as should at this day have had No cause of Com- plaint.
But it is impossible for him to Acquiesce in taking Post rank from that Period, instead of that date which was his proper Right when Lord Howe had made the first Junior promotion over his head, after such long & particular Services, And the prom- ses Made to him in Consequence on his Setting out from Eng- land in 1776. Having entered the Navy with a determined Res- olution of doing his duty on every occasion, he has been Con- stantly employed for 28 years, eleven months excepted — If this Claim is not allowed he must either retire, which would be con- trary to the favorite System of his life, or as being one of the latest Post Captains always liable to be Commanded by those he was Accustomed to Command, or by Officers who were not born when he received his first Commission, & thus have the bitter reflection of his treatment Constantly held up to his mind : His feelings as a Man, his Spirit & honor as an Officer & his duty to the Service, injured & Degraded, in his Rank all equally forbid it.
There may appear at the first view. Considerable difficulty in Admitting this claim : It may occur, that promotion does not goe regularly on in the Suborinate Ranks of Lieutenant, as well as Master & Commander: That when a Commander in chief h.is power given him to appoint Officers, in Ships under his Command, in foreign parts, it is a delicate Matter and rather Unusual to interfere with what he shall have done, or neglected in that respect, And that to enter upon the Claim in question would encourage and introduce a Variety of others.
To this it is answered there may be abuses in the execution of Vol. II. 25
370 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Service in all Dej^artments of the State, but this only points out the greater Necessity of correcting them on a fair and just Represen- tation : Captain Mowat's Case is hard and singular, And as the objections, just now proposed, can only derive their utmost weight from a frequency of Abuse, which seem not only to have Ob- scured, but also to have almost expunged the Justice of the Ser- vice, it is necessary, on his part, to enter upon a full discussion of the Principles & rules of Promotion : There will be no diffi- culty in proving, that Seniority of Rank is essentially & neces- sarily the general Rule : that the only exception to it which is in the more Subordinate Commissions of Lieutenant & Master and Commander, is only admissable when the greater good of the Service requires it, but otherwise it is by no Means optional to the Commander in Chief : That the only Condition on which the Exception is Admissible, so far from operating against him, was clearly in his favor all along : That therefore he was at least entitled to be promoted in his turn of Seniority, but that having been neglected is an Incident in the Service which calls aloud for redress : That as no doubt can be entertained of His Majesty's Power to place him in his proper Rank, which in every view was his Right when the Junior promotions began to be made over him. So if he shall have been graciously pleased to refer the Consideration of it to the Boai'd of Admiralty, the Board is per- fectly Competent, with or without Precedents, to report on what so essentially Concerns the Justice and Honor of the Service : That the Measure may be attended with the best Consequences, as the Redress may in the Most delicate Manner check an Abuse which threatens the ruin of the Service : That as there is no difficulty in a Commander in Chief, having powers to Commission officers on foreign Service, exercising the discretion of making the Exception according to the strict Principles of the trust so delegated, there is less difficulty in the Boird of Admiralty dis- tinguishing the cases which require Animadversion : Nor can the Admission of this claim excite the Number of other Claims, that is ai)prehended.
If all this shall have been placed in an adequate light on Capt. Mowats part, it is humbly hoped, the Objections to his claim
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will vanish, And that His Majesty's Known Goodness & gracious Regard for long and faithful Services will have room to operate accordingly.
Following this is a long and ingenious argument in support of Mowat's claims to recognition by the Ad- miralt}^ for his services in America, and the manuscript concludes as follows : —
These points being demonstrated on the most obvious principles of Government, of Military Institution & of Common Sense it remains to apply them more iiitiraately to the facts of Capt. Mowat's case by a final Recapitulation.
If from th? beginning of the War to the period of Lord Howe's arrival on the American Station & during the Whole period of his Command in Chief, as well as during the Command of the succeeding Admiral, there were any uncommon attention to & knowledge of, the Service, or any extraordinary Action displayed on the part of Any Officer, sufficient to Authorise making the Exception to the general Rule of Senioi'ity, and if these were in Capt. Mowat's favors more, than in any others, the Exception when it was to take place Should have been made in his favors. If these points were not in any one's favors in a degree superior to Capt. Mowat's, then the general Rule of Seniority should have taken place, when it came to his turn, & no Junior officer should have been preferred over him.
It is impossible, that on the part of any Junior pi'eferred over his head, any Superior attention to or Knowledge of the Service or uncommon Actions could have justly militated against him: for they had to a very few arrived on the Station only with Lord Howe or afterwards and none of them could even have equalled him in Knowledge of the Coast.
In short positively nothing occured or was achieved by the fleets collectively or by Individuals of them, during All the time of Lord Howe's Command, or that of the others to justify the Rule of Seniority to be sett aside in any Instance. This is noto- rious to us all that have been all along on the other Side of the Atlantic : Britain feels it, & it requires no farther proof.
372 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
But in Capt. Mowats favors it is well knoAvn, that having heen in the Service twenty-three Years prior to Lord Howes Com- mand, he had been but Eleven Months of that time unem])lo3'ed.
From the Year 1764 he had Commanded, during the remaining period of Peace, a Kings Ship on the Station of America, which gave him a great degree of knowledge thereof, of the Country & Peoi^le in general & in particular rendered him the best Pilot in the Navy for all the Harbors, Creeks & Incidents of Navigation from Rhode Island Northward to Quebec. On these scores he had the Honor to be remarked by Admiral Samuel Gi-aves, a most vigorous Commander, & to be proposed for being joined to Sir Henry Clinton, one of the most Eminent Commanders of the Land Forces in a projected Expedition against the Coast ToAvns in New England. It being at the time impossible to Spare from Boston a Sufficient Number of troops, proper for General Clinton to Command, or adequate to the Resistance which a Landforce would meet with Captain Mowat was detached by the Admiral on a reduced plan for the purpose, not only in preference to all the Officers of his Rank, but also in preference to all the Post Captains, on the Station, Who were expressly prohibited inter- ferring with his Command if any of them Should accidentally fall in with him, but on the contrary to give him every assistance he should make requisition for : And all this, as the order ex- presses, on account of his superior knowledge of the Coast, It is to be remarked that the very first Junior Officer, whom Lord Howe preferred over him, had served under his orders on this occasion. Having had the good fortune to execute this Service to the utmost approbation of Admiral Graves, he was employed thereafter in cruising for different purposes until the Ship was worn out: He was then sent to Britain, received with the most gracious Approbation of his Sovereign of the Admiralty, And of the Secretary of State, Appointed Master and Commander, And immediately sent out to America, at the desire of the Com- manders in Chief there, that a Moment's time of his Service might not be lost, to take Command of a Ship lying at Boston recommended as extremely fit for the Service, Not without more than an insinuation that he might be made Post Captain into her,
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 373
and an absolute Assurance, that at any rate he would be appoint- ed to the first vacant Post Ship in America as there was none ready to be given him in Britain When the Departments of Gov- ernment take notice of an Officer not on the score of i^rivate connection, but encourage & promise to him on Account of his utility, there arises an obligation of honor. Justice & Policy, which it is pernicious and Shameful not to discharge : All this happened prior to & up to the very Commencement of Lord Howe's Command.
We have already seen the fate of the ship lying at Boston : how he fell into the Command of the Albany & what happened after Lord Howe's Arrival.
So that hitherto, if the Exception according to the Spirit of the Service were to be Made to the general Rule of Seniority in favor of any, Capt. Mowat had already proved himself to be a fit object, if not the very fittest on that Station : and consequent. ly, since Seniority Appears to have been no part of Lord Howe's system of Promotion, His Lordship might very Consistently, whether on the grounds of his own rule, or that of the Service, have confirmed Captain Mowat Post Captain of the Millford, or Scarborough, frigates when in Consequence of Captain Bur's Sickness & Death, he was put into the Command of the Milford, as the Senior Master & Commander on that part of the Station & cruized in her, & in the Scarborough, for the greatest part of a Year. However His Lordship having sent a Senior Master and Commander from New York to Supercede him — Capt. Mowat does not pretend to find fault with what was so far consonant with the Rule of the Service.
But when His Lordship Subsequently Made every Post promo- tion of Junior officers, commencing with the very one who as above related, had served frequently under Captain Mowat's orders on the Same division of the Station : & none of them all without any reflection being due or intended, having discovered in any respect talents superior to what Captain Mowat had all along displayed, these must be estimated remarkable Instances & violent and Partial, Acts of thrusting out of its rank, without
374 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
caiise & against all order tire Complete Rule & Spirit of the Service.
Shall we venture to pronounce Captain Mowat's Conduct on the occasion of the Expedition to Penobscot & in the defense of Magebigwaduce Harbour, not unworthy the highest Expectations ■we have ever been led to Conceive of. Admiral Lord Howe's abilities for Command & Execution or of those of the other Suc- ceeding Commanders? But what shall we say of Sir George Collier's neglect of that Service above described? What must we think of eveiy Post promotion for three Years of the War there after, having been of Junior Officers & in particular of the Officer who had received his first Commission into the Albany & served above two Years in her under Capt. Mowat's Command.
It is needless to enlarge : The conclusion is obvious. After such Authentic & most honorable Acknowledgement of Capt. Mowat's superior Knowledge of the Station & of his Attention & Services on it, as well as the Encouragement & promises of the Departments of Government prior to the period of Lord Howe's Arrival in America. After performing the most difficult & most Officer like Action for Command & execution that occurred in the Naval line on that Station, during the War, on the part of any detached officer or even on tlie part of the whole fleet col- lectively : A service which may be said to have saved a large detachment of our troops and the most important Province we now possess in America, Secured our trade in that part & deeply affected the Resources of the Enemy for the remaining period of the contest : a Service such as is ever followed up with the next step of Promotion, the annals of the British Navy jDcrhaps not being stained with a single instance to the Contrary: Capt. Mowat's having been neglected for six Years of the War, in the course of which all this happened, under five or six Commanders in Chief, every one of a most profuse List of Promotion being of Junior Officers excepting those made by Lord Howe, the first of these Commanders : So that being now among the very latest Post Captains on the List, he is liable to be Commanded by all such as he has been accustomed to Command, and what is more grievous, by many that entered Midshipmen only with the Com-
A LOST MANUSCRIPT. 375
mencement of this War, & were in their cradle after he had served in his first Commission.
Surely all this Must appear to the Sovereign, to the Board of Admiralty & to all impartial men, who are not interested in de- fending at any rate the Misconduct by which he has been neg- lected, a Most extraoi'dinary Instance of Neglect, that calls in the loudest Manner & without alternative on the Justice, Honor, Interest & Spirit of the Service, and of the State to redress it.
WILLIAM ALLEN. 377
WILLIAM ALLEN.
Read Before the Maine Historical Society, February 26, 1S91.
BY CHARLES F. ALLEN, D.D.
Families of the name of Allen were scattered in the counties of Essex and Durham in England. The name is spelled in many different ways; Allyn is the name of some families in England and in this country, though many whose ancestors spelled the name with y have adopted the common spelling. Samuel with his broth- ers, Thomas and Matthew Allyn, from which family William Allen, President of Bowdoin College, descend- ed, came to America from Essex County, England, in 1632, and settled first in Cambridge, Mass. Samuel afterward removed to Connecticut. George Allen came from Durham, England, in 16.36, to Lynn, Mass., and afterward removed to Sandwich on Cape Cod. His son, George Allen, had previously emigrated to this country and was among the first settlers in Boston, in 1630. The fact that George Allen, senior's, sons had the names of Samuel and Matthew, and that many of Samuel Allen's descendents were named George, indi- cates a relationship between the families.
James Allen, grandson of George Allen, senior, with his brother-in-law. Lieutenant Josiah Standish, son of the renowned Puritan, Captain Miles Standish, and William Peabody had letters patent from the Lords Proprietors through their agent, Thomas Mayhew, governor of Martha's Vineyard, authorizing them to purchase of the
378 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Indian sachems land on that island. James Allen pur- chased the share of his associates in a large tract called Chocame, in the manor of Tisbury and Chilmark, settled on it in 1660, and was appointed deputy, or first magistrate of the manor. His descendant, Captain William Allen, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Chilmark in 1756, and married Love Coffin, who belonged to one of the first families in Nantucket. He was a prosperous young trader at Vineyard Haven with a good capital which was lost, when, at the close of the revolutionary war, the vessel that contained his goods was plundered by a British privateer. After the war, thinking to retrieve his fortune, he borrowed money of his father and purchased a cargo of provis- ions to be sent to the starving loyalists in Nova Scotia, in exchange for lumber, under charge of his relative Dr. Tupper who afterward settled in Dresden, Maine. The vessel was detained so long that before it arrived at Halifax the market was supplied, and the supercargo with difficulty traded off his provisions. On the return voyage after a boisterous passage, the schooner arrived at Cape Ann. The crew all went on shore, leaving the vessel well anchored. The doctor on landing shook his fist at the wind, exclaiming "Now blow, Mr. Devil, the vessel is well anchored in a good harbor." Thus defied, the prince of the power of the air manifested his might. A violent wind arose, the cable parted and vessel and cargo were ground to fragments on the rocks. By this disaster Captain Allen was reduced to bankruptcy. To support his family he shipped as a mate on board a brig bound to Surinam and then to
WILLIAM ALLEN. 379
the Carolinas. At Wilmington he was left sick with a fever and was not able to return home until he had been absent two years, and had spent all his wages and outfit. For awhile he worked as a clothier in a fulling mill. From the glowing accounts of the fertility of the soil, and the cheapness of farms in the Province of Maine, he was induced to commence a farmer's life in the frontier settlements on Sandy river.
In the spring of 1792, Captain Allen started forth to prepare a home for his family in the wilderness. His usual lack of success followed him in this new enter- prise. The victim of an unscrupulous landowner, he was induced to purchase a miserable, swampy lot, two miles from any settler, and three miles north of the site of Farmington village. After clearing a few acres, planting some corn and building a rude log camp, in the month of August he returned to Martha's Vine- yard.
William Allen was born in Chilmark, April 16, 1780. He was the oldest son of Captain William Allen, and when twelve years old emigrated to Maine with his father's family. The household consisted of the father, mother and seven children, the youngest a babe six weeks old. There was also John, an Indian appren- tice, and his mother, a servant in the family. Of the children, Truman, a lad of nine years, who came in the spring with his father, was left with a settler in Far- mington, and two of the children were left with their grandparents at Chilmark. The rest of the family, eight persons, with their stock, consisting of a horse, cow, heifer, six sheep and a hog, and their household
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goods were embarked on board the Speedwell, a schooner of forty tons, and set sail on the twelfth of September for the land of promise. After battling with equinoctial gales twelve days they arrived in Hal- lowell, and the next day started for Farmington through rough roads and wood paths, a distance of forty miles. After three days' weary traveling they arrived at Sandy River, and were kindly entertained by Stephen Titcomb, the first settler in Farmington.
William, then a lad twelve years old, gives the fol- lowing description of the future home of the family, on his first visit : —
The next day we boys, with Indian John to pilot us, went to see oui- new habitation in the woods. We found it in a rude, forbidding, desolate looking place. The trees about the house and opening were mostly spruce and hemlock. They had been cut down on about five acres, a strip forty rods long and twenty rods wide ; and were burned over the first of July. The surface was black as coal, and the trees on the north side of the opening were burned black to their tops. The logs and stumps on the ground were all burned black. A small bed of English turnips, on a mellow knoll, sown after the fire, was the only green thing visible on the premises. A log house, forty feet long and twenty feet wide, had been laid up on the banks of a small brook. The walls, composed of straight spruce logs, were laid up seven feet high, with hewed beams and a framed roof, which was covered with wide strips of spruce bark, secured in place by long poles that were wythed down. The gable ends were also rudely cov- ered with l)ark. There was neither door nor windows, chimney nor floor. A doorway had been cut out on the front side. The building was on uneven ground, and one corner was laid on a large log to bring the bottom logs to a level, leaving a space at that side nearly two feet from the ground. We saw our furni- ture deposited in a rude mass on the ground. I viewed the
WILLIAM ALLEN. 381
premises with most unpleasant feelings in regard to our lonely- dwelling place and future prospects.
Planks were prepared of basswood logs split into slabs and hewed down three or four inches thick. Five hundred feet of boards were procured for doors and partition, and the next day we took formal possession of our camp. A week afterward, my mother and the children moved in, not to enjoy the comforts of life, but for five years to undergo all the hardships of a most wretched pioneer life. Our land was hard to clear and unpro- ductive, not one-eighth part of it was fit for cultivation. Our growing corn, planted a mile from the house was devoured by bears. Our clothes were torn by trudging through the bushes and worn out. Our feet were scratched, and our necks and faces stung by insects. We had been compelled to sell our horse to procure food and clothing. I used to carry corn on my shoulders to mill, sometimes going ten miles. The longer we stayed in this wretched place, the worse we fared.
After five years the family, consisting of six sons and four daughters, removed to a more productive lot on the Plymouth Patent, about four miles distant.
Here they lived four years in a log house with greater prosperity until the ywere able to build a more commodious dwelling.
When Mr. Allen arrived at his majority, he owned a good ax, and had possession of a hundred acres of wild land without a title, on which he had made some im- provement. But he did not have a decent suit of clothes, and had enjoyed little privilege of school edu- cation. He had however the advantage of having been trained in his wilderness home by a cultured mother, and though without books he had acquired by oral instruction a fair knowledge of English studies, with good habits of industry, economy and virtue.
The next year he was persuaded by a young friend
382 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
to go with him for six weeks to Hallowell academy. In this short time, under the guidance of Samuel Moody the preceptor, he obtained a thorough knowl- edge of EngUsh grammar, trigonometry and the the- ory of surveying. This attendance at the academy was the foundation of the future business success of the young farmer. On leaving school the teacher Avithout solicitation gave him a most flattering certifi- cate of his literary acquirements and moral character.
Provided with this certificate, on his way home from Hallowell, he had two applications to teach in the best schools in the county.
He went out of his way to carry a message from the agent of the proprietors to their surveyor, Mr, Perham. This noted surveyor employed him for two days to assist in completing the survey of the town, and he went home rejoicing that he had paid his ex- penses, had a dollar in his pocket, and had received ten dollars' worth of practical instruction in surveying.
Mr. Allen worked on his farm summers and taught school winters in Farmington and Winthrop. In 1803 the plantation was incorporated into a town with the name of Industry. He was chosen first selectman, which office he held while a resident in town.
In 1805, through the influence of his friendly teach- er, Samuel Mood}'', the young farmer from Industry was called to be an instructor in Hallowell academy, as an assistant to the principal, William Kinnie. Here he prepared an arithmetic, which was published in the principal's name and known as Kinnie's arithmetic, which for more than thirty years was the text-book in
WILLTAM ALLEN. 383
the schools in this state. Beside attending faithfully to his duties as a teacher, he received a hundred dollars a year for evening clerk work in the bank, and he also posted books for the traders ; but such assiduous em- ployment seriously threatened his health.
After two years at Hallowell, in which he was intro- duced iuto the best society, and formed friendships with leading men that continued through life, he re- turned to his farm in Industry. He had succeeded in obtaining a title for his own and for his father's firm by paying an exhorbitant price to the proprietors.
Having built him a good barn and partly finished a dwelling house, in 1807 he was married to Hannah Titcomb, daughter of Stephen Titcomb, Esq., the first settler in Farmington. Her father had explored the territory on Sandy river in 1776 and selected his lot, and four years after he moved his family from Tops- ham, seventy miles into the wilderness and more than twenty miles beyond any settler. Hannah was brought in her mother's arms on horseback through a forest path, guided by blazed trees, from Readfield Corner. At the early age of thirteen she became one of the first members of the Methodist Ej^iscopal church in Maine.
In his minority Mr. Allen had not confidence to claim equality with young people of his age, whom he looked upon as of a higher class than himself. He was some- times slighted on account of his poverty, and the mis- fortunes of his father. But in two years the dark clouds were dispelled and he was admitted as an equal into the most ftivored families. In the autumn of ] 802
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he ventured in a timid manner to make proposals of marriage to the object of his choice, whom he had long looked upon as one every way his superior, and to his great delight these proposals were favorably received. After four years' intimacy the union took place, which continued for fifty-one years, when his beloved companion passed away from earth.
After marriage they removed to their new unfin- ished house in Industry. Although they suffered some during the first year from their cold house and limited means to supply conveniences, as he would not run in debt, yet soon the farm was well stocked and rendered productive, so that they had bread and butter enough and to sell.
The people of the town were kind and confided in his business capacity and integrity. He was chairman of the board of selectmen till he removed from town, though the majority of voters diff'ered from him in their political opinions. In 1809 he received his first commission as justice of the peace, which was renewed from time to time for fifty-seven years. The same year he was appointed special justice of the court of com- mon pleas. This court was abolished in 1811.
As a justice of the peace he was a popular magis- trate in the newly organized county of Somerset, and in neighboring towns, so that in four years the entries of cases decided by him amounted to two hundred. In 1812 he served as temporary clerk of the courts, and the next year was appointed clerk, and moved to Nor- ridgewock, then the shire town of the county. The popularity acquired during his residence in Industry,
WILLIAM ALLEN. 385
founded on his intelligence, integrity and prompt busi- ness habits, followed him in his new residence. He was chosen town clerk, and chairman of the board of selectmen, assessors and overseers of the poor. These municipal offices he held by successive reelections for seventeen years, and subsequently for five years. The business of the town was successfully transacted under his efficient and prudent administration, so that other towns made him their agent to avail themselves of his skill and integrity. In 1816 he was chosen a delegate to the Brunswick convention for the separation of Maine and Massachusetts. The required majority of live-ninths of the votes was not in favor of separation, but some unscrupulous politicians figured out that the majorities of the towns in favor of separation, com- pared with the majorities opposed to separation, were as five to four. The whole number of votes was 22,316, of which 11,969 were in favor, and 10,347 op- posed to separation. The general court of Massachu- setts then in session did not sanction the illegal count- ing of the convention. In 1819 another convention was called in Portland, in which Mr. Allen was a delegate. A large majority of both political parties in the state were now in favor of forming a new state, for the republican majority agreed that the state offices should be distributed equitably to both federalists and repub- licans. Mr. Allen was an active member of the com- mittee appointed to draft the constitution which was adopted. In this draft were many of his suggestions. When he left the office of clerk of courts in 1825, he received invitations to go as a cashier of one of the Vol. II. 26
386 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
banks in Portland, and also of the Ticonic Bank in Waterville, which he declined. He was somewhat inclined to retnrn to his fiirm in Industry, but the nu- merous friends gained by his prompt business habits, gave him assurance of sufficient employment if he remained in Norridgewock, so that it was not necessary to incur the trouble and expense of removal. The day after he gave up the keys of the office to his suc- cessor, he started to go to Portland as representative. He also went to Portland as a representative to the legislature in 1828. After his return he had sufficient employment in town business, surveying, agent for pensioners, settlement of estates, agencies for land proprietors, and justice business. After his first ap- pointment in 1809, he served by successive reaj)point- ments for sixty years as a justice of the peace. Dur- ing this period he had more than two thousand cases in which judgment was rendered. All these cases were fully recorded and properly indexed. He audited the accounts of the county, and was auditor in disputed accounts in the courts ; he was referee in many im- portant cases. For fourteen years he was president of Skowhegan Bank. At the time of his election the bank had suffered from the general depression in busi- ness and from bad debts, till the stock was ten per cent below par. By prudent management its credit was restored, and while he was in office good dividends were made. He usually attended probate court and at each session had the management of five or six cases, assisting in the administration of estates, and being guardian of orphans. He served for four years
•WTLLIAM ALLEN. 387
as register of probate. From his thorough acquaint- ance Avith probate business he was sometimes consulted in intricate cases by judges of the supreme court. At the advanced age of eighty-eight the office of register being vacant, there being a large amount of business and several hard cases to attend to, by the earnest request of the judge he accepted the office of register pro tempore, for two months, and faithfully performed the duties. At the first session of the court after his appointment there were sixt}" cases that were attended to.
He served as clerk of the valuation committee in the state legislature in its first session, in 1820, and at every decade till 1860, and also in 1865. In 1843 he was assignee for one hundred bankruj)ts; not very profitable business for one-third of them were too poor to pay any fees, and haU of the remainder he let off at half-price. In 1831 he was appointed agent of the proprietors of the towns of Ripley and Cambridge, and sold for them ten thousand acres. After having served for ten years he forwarded to the heirs in France, at their request, in a bound volume, a full ac- count of all sales, collections, taxes, payments, con- tracts and lands unsold, for which they paid him $50. At their earnest request he paid them $1000 for the lands unsold, and the proprietors threw into the bar- gain some unsettled mortgages and accounts. By reducing the price of the unsold land and compro- mising with the debtors, he succeeded in the course of ten years in getting back the money paid, with inter- est, and $3000 net profit. Always dihgent in business,
388 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
he was moderate in his charges, which were usually promptly paid. He earned the bread he ate, was con- tent with his wages, and did violence to no man. Pru- dent in his expenses, and judicious in his investments he acquired a competence to support him in his old age. Charitable to all, he was generous in aiding those that had a claim on his assistance. He assisted his brother, Rev. Harrison Allen, through Bowdoin Col- lege. This brother became a missionary to the Choc- taws, and died after three years' residence among the Indians. He sent three sons also to Bowdoin College, and contributed liberally to various institutions of learning. He contributed liberally to the support of the Methodist Episcopal church of which he was a member. As long as he lived his house was a home for the itinerant preacher.
As a writer, Mr. Allen compiled a genealogy of the Allen family, wrote a history of Norridgewock and of Industry, and contributed many articles for the Maine Farmer and other periodicals. In his old age he was induced to record the reminiscences of his long and eventful life, which are written out, filling a journal of two hundred pages, in his own beautiful, clerkly pen- manship. He retained his wonderful memory and other faculties to the last. On my last visit to him a few weeks before he died, I found him busy doing bus- iness for some of his townsmen, writing a deed and other papers relating to the sale of real estate. Witli- out any memoranda before him he was describing the boundaries of the lot he had surveyed a half-century before. He was consulted by many of his townsmen
WILLIAM ALLEN. 389
and the inhabitants of neighboring towns in their legal difficulties, and they confided implicitly in his advice, which was freely given, without money and without price.
At length his long and useful life of ninety-three years drew to a close. A short time before his death he said: "For the last ten years I have undertaken no business for others that I could not accomplish in a single day, so that when I shut up my desk on retiring for the night I felt that my work Avas all done. If I did not awake in the morning no one would suffer by my neglect. T have all my life been doing business for others, and I am not conscious there has been a single instance, in which I did not work as faithfully for my employers, as I would have done if the work had been for myself. I can say with the dying Wol- sey, '- Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my fellowmen,' I should have no regrets. But I rest not in my own merits, but in the merit of my blessed Savior." With this peaceful trust in the Re- deemer he calmly spent the closing hours of his long and eventful life.
Two of his four sons, who were students at law, died in early life, distinguished for literary attainments and mental activity. The two who survived their father, only one of whom is now living, entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church fifty years ago.
The only daughter, Elizabeth Titcomb, married John S. Abbott, Esq., a distinguished lawyer and attorney of the state of Maine. She died in 1858. The same year his beloved companion, with whom he had lived
390 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
in happiest union for fifty-one years was taken away, and the last fifteen years of his old age were uncheered by her love and tender care.
Mr. Allen died at Norridgewock, July 1, 1873, aged 93 years 2 1-2 months. A simple marble slab in the village graveyard, on the banks of the Kennebec, marks the grave of an honest man, a useful citizen, and a devoted Christian.
MEMORANDUM OF THE LAWS OF MAESTB. 391
BIBLIOGRAPIC MEMORANDUM OF THE LAWS OF MAINE.
BY JOSIAH H. DRUMMOND.
Accepted at a Meeting of the Maine Historical Society^ May P,
1891.
My object in this paper is to give a description of the volumes and pamphlets containing statute laws of Maine. They are as f olloAvs : —
1. Pamphlet published in 1820, containing the Con- stitution with the names of the delegates who signed the original copy (pp. xxxvi), and Laws of Maine passed at the session commencing May 31, and ending June 28, 1820 (pp. 48 and unpaged index). In this pamph- let the Public and Special Laws are intermingled ; it is not included in any of the bound volumes hereinafter mentioned.
2. In 1874, the Special Laws in the preceding pamphlet and the Special Laws of 1821 were reprinted in one pamphlet (pp. 111).
3. Laws of the State of Maine (Public) published in 1821, by J. Griffin, Brunswick, paged continuously (pp. 872) and usually bound in two volumes, each hav- ing a title page and table of contents for that volume (vol. I, pp. Ixx, and vol. II, pp. xlii), but an index (pp^ xciv) to both volumes. Each volume also has a page of errata.
4. Laws of the State of Maine (Public) published in 1822, by William Hyde, Portland (pp. 682), with index (pp. xcvi). The publisher announces that he had
392 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
added to the matter in the other volume the Act of Congress admitting Maine to the Union, and the Or- dinance of the Convention determining the style and title of the state, and had corrected the errata officially enumerated in the other edition. But he "felt unwilling to alter punctuation, and more so to alter words," when he " recollected that the supreme court of Massachusetts, as stated in one of the volumes of Massachusetts Reports, gave construction to an im- portant statute of that state by merely shifting a comma from one part of the clause to another." He suggests that committees on engrossing bills in the legislature should give more care and attention to their duties than, apparently, they had been accustomed to give. The suggestion as to the importance and scope of their duties is as forcible now as it was then.
5. Sheets of the edition last described were appar- ently kept on hand and, in 1830, issued as a new edi- tion, with a new title page, by Glazier, Masters & Co. at Hallowell. Except the title page the pages are literally the same as in the edition of 1822. This last edition is styled on the back as "Vol. 1-2."
6. Laws of the State of Maine (Public), from 1822 to 1831, inclusive. This was an official edition (pp. xlviii, 432, and xxxviii), intended to follow the former official volumes (see No. 3), and is styled Vol. Ill, and made up by binding the j^amphlets of public laws for those years.
7. In 1834, Glazier, Masters & Smith issued Volume II of their series intended to follow their former volume (see Nos, 4 and 5) containing the Public Laws from
MEMOKANDUM OF THE LAWS OF MAINE. 393
1822 to 1833, inclusive (pp. 370 and xxxviii). The chapters in this volume, as well as in the official volume (No. 6), are numbered consecutively from those in the preceding volume.
8. In 1834, Francis 0. J. Smith, edited, and Thomas Todd printed an edition of the Public Laws in two volumes. They are paged continuously, 1,048 pages, of which 546 are in the first volume, except that an index to both volumes (pp. civ) is inserted in the first volume. This edition contains notes referring to amendments made from 1821 to 1834, and to decisions.
From 1820 to 1839, three pamphlets were issued each year ; one containing the Public Laws ; one the Private or Private and Special Laws ; and the other the Re- solves ; except that but two pamphlets were issued in 1820 and 1821 ; in 1820 pamphlet No. 1 above describ- ed and one containing the Resolves of 1820 ; in 1821, one pamphlet contained the Special Laws of 1820 and 1821, and the other the Resolves of 1821. Each set of these pamphlets was paged continuously, until a good sized volume was, in that manner, completed.
This was done under the Resolve of June 28, 1820, which provided in substance : —
That the laws passed at the several sessions should be printed in volumes of the royal octavo size, of not less than seven hun- dred pages, with suitable title pages and analytical indices; and
That the Resolves should be printed in the same manner.
Suitable provision was also made for the superinten- dence of the printing and distribution of the laws.
The three jDamphlets having been published annually with the exception already stated, in 1828, a resolve
394 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
was passed that the Private or Special Laws and the Resolves, up to and including those of that session, should complete a volume of each, and that the secre- tary of state prepare and publish with the pamphlets of that year a title page, table of contents and index for each volume, and make up and have bound into volumes all the pamphlets on hand.
9. Accordingly the Private or Special Laws from
1820 to 1828, inclusive (except the 1820 pamphlet), were bound in a volume, styled Vol. I. •
10. Also the Resolves from 1820 to 1828, with title page, etc., were bound in one volume styled Vol. I.
Quite a number of imperfect volumes were bound ; the supply of pamphlets for some years, notably 1820 and 1821, was smaller than that of other years, and volumes containing the pamphlets for only a part of those years were bound.
This was the cause for reprinting the Resolves of
1821 (No. 2).
These pamphlets were published annually till 1840, when the Public Laws, the Private or Special Laws, and the Resolves, were all printed in one pamphlet in three divisions, but paged continuously. The same course was followed in 1841, the pamphlet paged, however, continuously from that of 1840.
In 1842 a joint order of both branches of the legis- lature was passed directing the secretary of state to compile in one or more convenient, separate volumes, the General Laws, the Special Laws, and the Resolves passed prior to 1840, with suitable indexes.
11. The Public Laws from 1832 to 1839, inclu-
MEMOEANDUIVI OF THE LAWS OF MAINE. 395
sive, were bound as Vol. III. A title page for the vol- ume was prepared, but no ''suitable index;" instead, the indexes of the annual pamphlets were collected and bound in the volume in place of that ordered by the legislature.
12. But the Special Laws from 1829 to 1835, in- clusive (paged continuously) were bound wdth a title page, table of contents, and index to the whole volume which was styled Vol. II.
13. The Resolves from 1829 to 1835, inclusive, were bound in the same manner and styled Vol. II, but the Resolves of 1839 were not paged continuously from those of 1838.
14. So also the Special Laws from 1836 to 1839, inclusive, and styled Vol. III.
15. And the Resolves for the same years, and styled
Vol. m.
16. The Laws and Resolves of 1840 and 1841 were bound in one volume, as Vol. IV of the Public Laws, the Special Laws and the Resolves, all in one.
17. In 1840, the Public Laws were revised and in 1841, the revision, together with an act of amendment passed in 1841, and the other Public Laws of 1840 and 1841, was published under the title " Revised Statutes of Maine" (896 pp.).
18. The first edition having become exhausted, a second edition of the Revised Statutes of 1841 was issued in 1847, edited by Henry K. Baker (896 pp.), from which one repealed act was omitted, and in which the amendments to the constitution and acts affecting the boundaries of counties since 1841 were included ;
396 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
sections and parts of sections understood to have been repealed were printed in italics, and other amendments and more recent decisions were referred to in marginal notes. By an oversight, however, references to sev- eral of the statutes of 1845 were omitted in their proper place, and were given in the " Advertisement," p. viii.
The number of pages in these two editions is pre- cisely the same, and the contents of most of the pages the same ; this would indicate that the work had been stereotyped and the old plates used in the second edi- tion ; but a comparison of the same pages in the two editions show such diiferences in the lines as prove conclusively that old plates were not used, but the whole matter reset.
From 1842 to the present time, including one pamph- let for each regular session of the legislature has been issued, containing in separate divisions and paged sep- arately the Public Laws, the Special Laws and the Re- solves. Generally there has been but one index, but divided under each letter so that the references to each division are grouped, the chapters have been numbered and the paging arranged with the view of binding them into volumes — one for each division.
19. The Public Laws from 1842 to 1851 were paged for a volume for which an index was prepared ; but later, in order that the volumes for each division might cover the same years, the Public Laws for 1852, with separate paging and index were bound in the same volume, which was designated as Vol. Y and VI of the Public Laws.
MEMORANDUM OF THE LAWS OF MAESTE. 397
20. The Special Laws from 1842 to 1846, inclusive, paged continuously, with the title page, table of con- tents and index for the volume makes Vol. Y.
21. Vol. V of the Resolves includes the same years and is made up in the same manner.
22. Vol. VI of the Special Laws includes those passed from 1847 to 1852, inclusive, made up in the same manner, except that there was a printer's error in the last two hundred and twenty-two pages of the volume which has been corrected in ink.
23. Vol. VI of the Resolves includes the same years, made up in the same manner.
24. Since 1853, inclusive, bound volumes have been made, with title page and new index, for all three sets of the Laws and Resolves, including the same years in each set.
We have, therefore, a volume of the Public Laws, a volume of the Special Laws, and a volume of the Re- solves, all bearing the same number and including the same years. Since 1853 the following sets of three volumes have been issued : —
Vol. VII, 1853 to 1856. Vol. XII, 1872 to 1874.
Vol. VIII, 1857 to 1860. Vol. XIII, 1875 to 1877.
Vol. IX, 1861 to 1865. Vol. XIV, 1878 to 1880.
Vol. X, 1866 to 1808. Vol. XV, 1881 to 1885.
Vol. XI, 1869 to 1871. Vol. XVI, 1887 to 1889.
Some of the more recent volumes are not numbered.
25. In 1862 a " Digest of the Resolves from 1820 to 1862" (pp. xiii, 175, and xii), compiled by Joseph B. Hall, secretary of state, was published by order of the legislature. It is a reprint of the more important resolves rather than a digest.
398 MAINE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY.
26. The legislature of 1855 directed a new revision of the Statutes, and appointed Joseph Baker, John B. Hill and James Bell, commissioners to prepare the revision and to report it in print to the next legisla- ture. They did so, dividing their work into twelve "titles," and paging each "title" by itself; copies were bound by individuals, but none by the state.
27. The legislature of 1856 did not act upon this report, but appointed Ether Shepley a commissioner to revise the report of the former commissioners, make such changes as he deemed necessary and report in print to the next legislature. He adopted the same plan as his predecessors, and copies of his report have been bound by individuals, but not by the state.
28. The legislature of 1857 completed the revision, including in it the Public Laws of that year; this was done through a committee of nine members on the part of the Senate and sixteen on the part of the House, Joseph Baker, not a member of the legislature, was clerk of this committee and put in form much of its action before the legislature passed upon it. Noah Smith, Warren H. Vinton and Lewis 0. Cowan were appointed commissioners to superintend the publica- tion. They completed their work and the " Revised Statutes of Maine" were published (pp. xvi and 968) in season for distribution on the day on which they took effect, January 1, 1858.
29. In 1869 a Resolve was passed authorizing the governor and council to cause the Public Laws to be "faithfully revised, collated and consolidated," really restricting the work to the incorporation into the Re-
MEMOEANDUM OF THE LAWS OF MAINE. 399
vised Statutes of the amendments adopted since the former revision, adding marginal notes referring to the decisions. They were authorized to contract with responsible parties to do the whole work, revising and printing ; but none of the printing was to be done until the revision should be examined and approved by two "suitable and competent persons," to be appointed by the governor " with the advice and consent of the council."
Or failing to make such a contract, the governor, with the same advice and consent, was authorized to appoint three commissioners to revise the Statutes in the manner provided, and report to the next legisla- ture, on or before the tenth day of the session.
The governor and council concluded to adopt the plan of a commission, and on May 6, 1869, appointed Ephraim Flint, Jr., Joseph Baker and Edwin W. Wedge- wood, commissioners. They reported in writing to the legislature of 1870, which after directing the omission of Chapter X, in relation to the militia, and Chapter XLVII, in relation to banks (which chapters were to be left unrepealed), and the incorporation of the Public Laws of that session, adopted the revision on March 24, 1870, to take effect, however, on February 1, 1871.
Provision was made for the publication of the revis- ion under the direction of the governor and council, who intrusted it to the commissioners. The work was printed during the summer, but after it had been sub- stantially completed, the governor and council discov- ered that changes in phraseology had been made, so that the printed statutes did not conform to the en-
400 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
grossed laws, and they came to the conclusion that the commissioners had no power to make such changes, and, therefore, that the matter should be submitted again to the legislature. Accordingly on the sixth of January, 1871, the governor, by special message, pre- sented to the legislature the whole work as printed, with a statement in relation to the changes, for its con- sideration. The result was the enacting of the printed copy, January 25, 1871, to take effect on the first day of February, as originally contemplated. There fol- lowed immediately the issue of the "Revised Statutes of Maine, 1871" (pp. x, 1,273).
30. B}^ a resolve of the legislature approved March 8, 1881, Charles W. Goddard was appointed a commis- sioner to revise the Statutes, upon the same general plan as was adopted in relation to the revision of 1857, and to cause five hundred copies of his report to be printed in season for presentation at the next session of the legislature (1883). The work was completed within the time specified and bound copies prepared for use (pp. 59, x, 1,621, viii).
The commissioner rewrote several of the chapters after they had been printed and, of course, embraced in his report only the reprinted sheets. In one or more instances these original sheets were bound in a volume distinct from the regular report.
31. His report was accepted, but he was directed to incorporate into it the legislation of 1883, under the supervision of a committee of both branches of the legislature acting as a legislative commission, and to report finally at an adjourned session to be held August
MEMORANDUM OF THE LAWS OF MAINE. 401
29, 1883. On that day the legislature met and enacted the revision to take effect January 1, 1884. The print- ing was done apparently under the supervision of the commissioner and the "legislative commission," and early in 1884, the fourth revision of the Statutes was issued under the title "Revised Statutes of Maine, 1883" (pp. xxvi, 1,436). In this revision is included, by way of introduction, a very valuable historical paper upon the "Sources of Land Titles in Maine."
32. To complete fully this sketch a brief account of the history of the Constitution of Maine seems proper.
The original Constitution was framed by a conven- tion which commenced its session October 11, 1819, and completed its labors on the twenty-ninth of the same month. It submitted the Constitution to the people at meetings to be held December 6, 1819, and adjourned to meet January 5, 1820, to ascertain the result. It found and announced that the Constitution had been adopted by a large majority. It also applied to Congress for the admission of Maine to the Union. The application was successful, and Maine became a state, March 15, 1820.
Amendments to the Constitution made in the manner provided therein were adopted as follows: I, 1834; II, 1837; III, 1839; IV, 1841; V, 1844; VI and VII, 1847; VIII, 1850; IX, 1855; X, 1864; XI, 1868, and XII, 1869.
By virtue of a Resolve of January 12, 1875, the governor appointed Edward Kent, William P. Haines George F. Talbot, William M. Rust, Henry E. Robins' Washington Gilbert, James E. Madigan, Artemas Libby' Vol. II. 27
402 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Frederick A. Pike, and William K. Kimball, a commis- sion "to consider and frame such amendments to the Constitution of Maine as may seem necessary to be reported to the legislature." Nine of the amendments reported by them were submitted to the people and adopted at the annual election in the same year.
Under one of the adopted amendments the chief justice (John Appleton) arranged the Constitution as amended, and his draft was approved by the legislature and enrolled, and by virtue of that amendment became " the supreme law of the state."
Subsequent amendments have been adopted, as fol- lows: XXII, 1877; XXIII (biennial elections and ses- sions), 1879; XXIV, 1880; XXV, 1880, XXVI (pro- hibitory amendment), 1884 ; XXVII, 1888. In unof- ficial publications these later amendments are num- bered from one to six, with reference to the revised Constitution.
SIR JOHN MOORE AT CASTINE. 403
SIR JOHN MOORE AT CASTINE DURING THE REVOLUTION.
BY JOSEPH WILLIAMSON.
Head before the Maine Historical Society^ November 20, 1890. The brilliant military career of Sir John Moore in Europe, and in the Egyptian campaign, has eclipsed his humble services in this country during our revolu- tion. Born in Glasgow in 1761, he received the ap- pointment of ensign when only sixteen years old, being at first stationed at Minorca, an island in the Mediter- ranean. The part which he took at the seige of Cas- tine in 1779, as condensed from his life and from his letters, is as follows : —
In 1777 or 1778, as there was no appearance tbat Minorca would be attacked, and as the American war was then raging, Moore cast a wistful eye to that scene, and wrote his wishes to his father. These were gratified in a manner he scarcely expect- ed, for his friend, the Duke of Hamilton, became fired with a transitory passion for the army, and sent in proposals to govern- ment to raise a regiment for immediate service. Lord North, the prime minister, accepted the offer; the regiment was raised, and the duke obtained the commission of caf)tain. He also seized this opportunity of getting promotion for his young friend, who was immediately sent for and advanced to the rank of lieutenant, and was also appointed paymaster. By this double appointment, which was then usual, a knowledge of regimental accounts, and of other military details was attained.
The command of the Hamilton regiment was given to Brigadier- General MacLean, who for some years had held high rank in the Portuguese service. He was an officer of rare merit. As soon as six companies were raised and trained they were embarked for
404 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Halifax, in NoA^a Scotia, but the Duke of Hamilton did not ac- company them. The j^assion of glory was superseded by that of love ; his Grace married, and resigned his commission.
The young troops, among whom was Lieutenant Moore, reached their destination in safety, where they continued in garrison imtil more actively employed. Sir Henry Clinton, commander-in-chief of the British army, thought it advisable to take possession of the Bay of Penobscot and to build a fort, as a maritime station, to interrupt the trade of Boston. Brigadier MacLean was ordered to perform this service, who embarked with a few troops, among whom were the six companies of the Hamilton regiment. In June, 1779, this detachment sailed with a favorable wind, and proceeded to the river Penobscot. The troops were landed on a woody and deserted coast, and the general, after examining the country, selected the proper spot on which to erect a fort. The officer of engineers was ordered to draw out a plan, but the gen- eral detected numerous imperfections in his designs. It was not without difficulty, and after many alterations, that a tolerable one was procured. Then the felling of trees and the construction of the fort commenced with alacrity. This operation excited a very serious alarm among the citizens of Boston, ever jealous of their commerce, who having intelligence that the British were few in number, resolved to overwhelm them with a superior force. The exertions made on this occasion by that city were extraordinary, for in a few weeks six large frigates, thirteen stout privateers, and twenty-four transports were equipped and filled with three thousand troops, and stores of eveiy species requisite for a siege.
On the twenty-fifth of July this fieet was descried steering to the mouth of the river Penobscot, when the walls of the fort were not yet breast high.
The general, experienced in resources, instantly reduced the plan of the works, and hastened their .construction, to render them in some degree defensible.
During this bustle ashore the American fleet sailed up the river and anchored nearly opposite to the unfinished fort, but the inter- vening woods concealed the operations of the British. Next day, after a cautious examination of the coast, some troops were put
SIB JOHN MOORE AT CASTESTE. 405
into boats to make a descent. But, on approaching the shore, they were fired at by a party concealed behind trees, which arrested the Americans, who rowed back to their shipping. Sim- ilar ineffectual attempts to land were made on the two subsequent days. At length the Americans, instructed by these miscarriages, made preparations to overcome all opposition, and to disembark their whole force. Early in the morning three ships of war, arranged with their broadsides toward the shore, opened a heavy fii"e of round and double-headed shot upon the wood. The roar- ing of the guns, the falling of the trees, and the crashing of their branches astounded the young soldiers, when suddenly the can- nonading ceased, and boats full of troops were rowed off to the beach. It happened on that day that a comj^any of the Hamil- ton regiment formed the picket to oppose the landing, and Lieu- tenant Moore was posted on the left with only twenty men under his orders. The captain who commanded, unused to action, ordered the soldiers not to fire until the enemy landed ; so the Americans, undistui'bed, rowed briskly till their boats grounded, then giving a shout they sprang on shore. The British, who were only recruits, saw the great superiority of the numbers of the enemy ; they fired a volley, and ran back in disorder. Lieutenant Moore called to his small party, "Will the Hamilton men leave me ? Come back and behave like soldiers." They obeyed, and recom- menced firing. The Americans returned the fire, without ventur- ing to advance into the wood. Moore observed their commanding ofiicer flourishing his sword, and encouraging his men. He lev- eled his piece, for subalterns then carried fusils, and he believed that lie could have killed him, but he rejjlaced his firelock on his shoulder without discharging it. While this resistance was per- severed in on the left the rest of the detachment reached the fort and the captain reported to the general that the enemy had landed in great numbers, and forced the picket to retreat. " But where is Moore ? " said General MacLean. " He is, I fear, cut off." « What then is the firing I still hear ? " He could not tell. The general then commanded Caj^tain Dunlop with his company to march to the shore and repel the enemy, or bring off Lieutenant Moore. Moore was found by Captain Dunlop at his post, still
406 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETr.
holding the Americans at bay. But as they were advancing on both flanks, Dunlop saw that it was necessary to retire to prevent being surrounded. He therefore ordered Moore to form in the rear of the column the remains of his i:)arty, for seven out of the twenty had fallen, and the detachment marched back to the fort in good order. In a letter to his father, Moore wrote ; —
I was upon picket the morning the rebels landed. I got some little credit, by chance, for my behavior during the engagement. To tell you the truth, not for anything that deserved it, but because I was the only officer who did not leave his post too soon. I confess that at the first fire tliey gave us, which was within thirty yards, I was a good deal startled, but I think this went gradually off afterward.
On the return of the detachment the general learned from Moore the particulars that had occurred, and he expected that the Americans, flushed with success, would immediately storm the unfinished works when the garrison were in consterna- tion by the cannonade and the rejiulse of the pickets. Measures for defense were immediately adopted, the works were lined with troops and instructions given to the oflicers in every event. The general gave Moore the command of fifty men, posted in reserve, with orders " that should the enemy rush forward, as soon as they got into the ditch of the fort he should sally out and attack them on the flank with charged bayonets." But the Americans were not so enterprising, for, being somewhat disconcerted by the loss which they had sustained, they took iip a position out of the reach of the guns of the fort, and remained tranquil.
For some days they were busied in lauding artillery and stores for a regular siege, and only skirmishing occurred. At length they broke ground and raised a battery at about twelve hundred yards from the fort. This opened early in the morning, and the new levies, of which the garrison was composed, were much alarmed. The general, hearing this, came forth from his tent and observing that the oflicers and men, none of whom had ever seen service before, were stooping their heads at every shot, he re- proached them sharply, and calling for his aid-de-camps went to the gate, and commanded it to be thrown open. Then walking erect toward the battery he examined it with his spyglass : "You see," he said, "there is no danger from the fire of these wretched
SIP- JOHN MOORE AT CASTINE. 407
artillei-y-men." After this observation, he returned deliberately and ordered the gate to be closed. This behavior of their gen- eral inspired the garrison with so much courage that there was no risk afterward of their shrinking from their duty.
The approaches of the Bostonians were much retarded by the skill of General MacLean; yet a train of heavy artillery and superior numbers might at last have prevailed. But after a siege of three weeks, Commodore Sir George Collier, apprized of the danger, arrived off Penobscot bay with a line-of -battle ship and a few frigates. Before this squadron could be seen from the fort it was discovered from the topmasts of the American ships, and in the hours of the night the besieging army hastily reembarked. Next morning the American fleet drew up in line, making a show of resistance. On the approach of the British, however, this resolution was relinquished, and an attempt was made to escape up the river. But their ships of war intermingled with the trans- ports were closely chased and driven on shore. Some were cap- tured, others set fire to by their own crews, who leaped out and fled to the woods. Yet these disasters did not soon terminate, for the seamen and soldiers accused each other of cowardice ; they fought, many lives were thus lost, others perished by famine, and the remainder reached Boston in a miserable plight. General Mac- Lean having finished the construction of the fort, left in it a suf- ficient garrison and returned to Halifax with the Hamilton regi- ment. Moore's sentiments on commencing the rudiments of war are thus expressed in a letter to his father : —
You may conceive, dear father, how happy this siege has made us, independent of the success we met with, as to see a httle service was what all along we had been wishing for. Your friend, Dunlop, who hap- pened to command the regiment during the siege, got, very deservedly, credit for his activity; he exerted himself more than anybody there.
In this first essay of arms Moore acquired the warm friendship of General Francis MacLean, from whom he was wont to say he had derived much instruction. This experienced ofiicer had a library of the best military books in the French and German lan- guages, and had studied his profession thoroughly. But merit is often lost from being unknown. In this instance it was recog-
408 MAINE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY.
nized too late, for he was about to be employed in a conspicuous station when his health tiailed. Previously he had resided long in Portugal, which had rendered his constitution unable to sustain the frigid climate of Nova Scotia. He perished that winter deeply lamented, and never forgotten by his young friend.
After this, Halifax being remote from active warfare, became a spiritless quarter to Moore. He, however, was promoted to the rank of captain, and then applied for leave to go to New York, the headquarters of the commander-in-chief.
(Vol. II, pp. 277-281.)
(Lieutenant Moore to his father)
Camp Majibaquiaduce, near Halifax? Nova Scotia, 24th Aug., 1779. Dear Father — By my last you will be informed of our arrival here, etc. ; since that our operations have been rather more interesting. Upon the twenty-third of July a rebel fleet consisting of about forty ships and vessels, eighteen of which were armed, the rest carrying troops and stores, sailed up the bay and immediately began cannonading the Albany, North, and Nautilus, three sloops of war, the only shipping we had to oppose them. They were moored across the harbor, and supported by a battery from us. Though the firing was smart from both sides, yet the T — s kept at such distance that little or no damage was done. Some of their vessels anchored opposite a wood at one end of the peninsula, and kept up a constant fire upon the British posted there to oppose their landing. They continued this kind of play for several days, endeavoring at different times to land, but they were constantly beaten back, till upon the 28th, when after a very sharp cannonade from the shipping upon the wood, to the great surprise of General M'Lean and the garrison, they effected a landing. I happened to be upon picket that morning, under command of a captain of the 74th regiment, who, after giving them one fire, instead of encouraging his men (who naturally had been a little startled by the cannonade) to do their duty, ordered them to retreat, leaving me and about twenty men to shift for ourselves. After standing for some time I was obliged to retreat to the fort, having five or six of my own men killed and several wounded. I was lucky to es- cape untouched. This affair of the captain is only whispered, so you need not mention it. Having got possession of the wood, they made a road from the shore to the opposite edge, by which they dragged up their cannon, and erected two batteries within about seven or eight hun- dred yards of us. Before tbeir arrival the four curtains and two of the
SIR JOHN MOORE AT CASTINE. 409
bastions of the fort had been raised about eight feet; the other two bas- tions were open, but afterward a fascine work was thrown around the well which was in one of them ; the interval of the other was filled up with logs, storming which, at first, would not have been difficult. By the addition of chevaux-de-frise, abatis, etc., this became a serious un- dertaking, and as they had been falsely informed that we were short of provisions, they soon expected hunger would oblige us to lay down our arms. But on the 13th inst'. Sir George Collier, with a 64, two frigates, B and three 20-gun ships was seen sailing up the bay, the rebel fleet never attempted to make a stand, but run up the river in the utmost confusion. Two of their vessels only were taken, the rest the rascals ran ashore and burned before our shipping could get up with them. Un- luckily they had intelligence of our fleet the day before, and in the night time their army got on board their shipping, and took along with them most of their cannon and stores, unknown to us. This is undoubtedly the greatest coup for us that has been done this year; it will make up the defeat at Stony Point. Upon the whole we have lost but few men in the small skirmishes we had with them. The only officers wounded are Graham Douglestone's son, and one M'Neil, but they are getting very well. Our regiment is to return to Halifax in about four or five weeks with General M'Lean. Colonel Campbell and his regiment are to be left here.
It is said that he continued in America until peace was declared ; if so, he took no active part. His sub- sequent services, terminating with his death at Coruna in 1809, are too well known for repetition. If nothing else rendered his memory immortal, the beautiful verses upon his burial, by WoKe, would do so.
N
EXTRACTS FEOM LETTEES OF FATHER P. BIARD. 411
EXTRACTS FROM THE LETTERS OF THE JESUIT MISSIONARY IN MAINE, FATHER P. BIARD.
FROM caraton's lettres ined. 1612-1626.
Translated by Pkof. Fred. M. Warren, with an Introduction BY John Marshall Brown.
Head Before the Maine Historical Society, February 26, 1891.
The efforts of the French to explore and colonize the northern portion of our continent have received full and generous treatment in history. The contem- porary accounts leave little to be desired, and all sub- sequent narratives have been based chiefly upon works issued from the press within a few years of the events described.
Lescarbot's History of New France was published in Paris in 1609, and a paraphrase published in English at London the same year.
Champlain's narrative was published in Paris, 1613, and like the work of Lescarbot passed through several editions.
In 1616 was published at Lyons the Relations of Father Biard of the Society of Jesus.
These three works are of extraordinary interest and of great literary merit. Charlevoix embodied them in his history and subsequent historians have relied upon them as well. The actors in the scenes described were still alive when the books were printed, and the whole story is full of the flavor of the times. Champlain was the geographer royal, and made charts and maps
412 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
and pictures of men and things. Lescarbot was a law- yer and bon-vivant, and managed to entwine the dull routine of the colonists' isolated existence with jest and sport and good cheer. His story is tinged with the coloring of his own vivacity. Pierre Biard was a churchman and missionary, willing to spend and be spent in the Master's service, and yet a keen observer and no mean diplomatist.
Lescarbot' s history is seldom seen and comparatively unknown at this day.
Champlain's voyages have recently been translated for the Prince Society and published under the edito- rial supervision of the Rev. Dr. Slafter.
Biard' s Relation can only be read in its original French, but it was reprinted in Quebec in 1858, and may be found in our library. A translation with care- ful editing would be most welcome to students of our history.
Those who have read Mr. Parkman's delightful book entitled Pioneers of France in the New World are familiar with the main features of Biencourt's attempts to hold his inheritance in Maine and Acadia, and of the Jesuit efforts to found a religious colony at Mt. Desert and Penobscot under the protection of Madame de Guerchville. It seems proper for societies like our own, dealing with events of local rather than general interest to lay hold' of everything, however trivial, which may illustrate the life of those days almost three centuries gone by. The narratives I have enumerated have the freshness of a story of yesterday. Mr. Park- man condenses in six lines what in a full translation
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF FATHER P. BIARD. 413
would fill many pages of our quarterly publication. It is, in m}'' judgment, the business of the Maine Histori- cal Society to collect and preserve the materials of history, rather than to write history. That can only be satisfactoril}^ done by the few, the very few, who are endowed b}'^ nature and fitted by long and patient study for the work; the field for the antiquary is large enough for all to work in.
If this is so we are justified in gathering after others have harvested and in preserving our gleanings for those who are to follow. The extracts which I am to read are of this character, of singular and permanent local interest and importance.
Michelet in his history of France in the eighteenth century treats the Jesuits with great severity, attack- ing particularly the character and motives of the Cana- dian missionaries. His words have a bitterness which only comes from deep seated, unreasoning prejudice, and therefore to a fair critic able to separate good from bad, the sting is lost. The faithful brethren of the company thus assailed could not, however, submit pa- tiently to such charges from such a source, and, in defense of their order and in justification of their brethren martyred in the Canadian wilds, replied not by argument, but by publishing for the first time to the world the evidence of their patient sufferings and painful labors. From the archives at Rome were col- lected and translated, by Father Martin, rector of St. Mary's College, Montreal, and Father Carayon of Paris, many original letters, covering the early part of the seventeenth century. These were published in 1864 at Paris.
414 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The portions especially interesting to us in Maine are : 1, a letter from Father Biard to Aquaviva, general of the order at Rome, dated at Dieppe, January 21, 1611, translated from the Latin original; 2, a letter from the same to Balthazar, provincial of the order at Paris, dated Port Royal in New France, June 10, 1611* The first is written just before the departure of the missionaries ; the second shortly after their arrival. A 3d letter is of the same date as the last written by Father Masse Biard's companion; 4, a brief letter from Biard to Aquaviva, June 11, 1611 ; 5, a letter from Biard to the provincial at Paris, dated Port Royal, January 31, 1612; 6, from Biard to the general at Rome in Latin of same date, the last two are of great interest, giving at length and much more in detail than in the Relation, to which reference has been made, an account of the coasting voyage with Biencourt to the St. Croix, Kennebec and Penobscot rivers. Portions of these have been translated and published by Mr. Alexander Brown in the Genesis of the United States, by Rev. Mr. Thayer for his forthcoming Popham vol- ume, and now much more at length by Professor War- ren.
The seventh letter is dated at Amiens, 26 May, 1614, written in Latin to Aquaviva. In the interval between the last two the attempt had been made to found a colony at St. Sauveur, Mt. Desert, the settlement had been destroyed, the enterprise had failed. Captain Argall had taken the survivors to Virginia and thence to Eng- land. This account agrees of course with Biard's more careful statement in the Relation of 1616, but it was
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF FATHER P. BIARD. 415
written immediately after his landing in France, has the spirit and vivacity of one still chafing under a sense of wrong with wounds not yet healed.
It is to be hoped that this episode in the history of eastern Maine, of which so much has been said and written and printed, may be finally and dispassionately and exhaustively described in the light of recent con- tributions and discoveries.
As I have said these letters traverse the same ground as the Relation, but they are in some instances much fuller, and in others a sober, second thought seems to have modified and tempered criticism, as, for instance, in the account of the Popham colony. Biard seems to have been convinced that the statements made to him by the Indians were unfounded, for in the Relation many of them are omitted altogether.
It is certainly a fortunate circumstance for France and New France and America that a man of learning and piety, a professor of theology in a French univer- sity, should have been so imbued with the lofty spirit of propagating the gospel that he could leave country and family and friends, and bury himself in the western wilderness nearly three centuries ago. j. m. b.
EARLY FRENCH RECORDS OF MAINE.
In the collection of letters and documents entitled Premiere Mission des J e suites au Canada, and edited by Father Auguste Carayon (Paris, 1864, pp. xvi-304 800), are several passages which have reference to the early settlements of the Maine coast. Acting on the suggestion of your Secretary, that a translation of these
416 MAINE IIISTOKICAL SOCIETY.
few pages might be of service to the members of the Maine Historical Society, I take the liberty of select- ing them from the various letters in which they occur, and present them here consecutively.
The first allusion to what is now the coast of Maine is found in a letter of Father Pierre Biard to the head of the order at Paris. It is dated " Port-Royal, January 31, 1612." After describing the situation at the colony and giving an account of the religious work, Father Biard continues (pp. 58-74) : —
I have been on two journeys with M. de Biancourt, one of per- haps a dozen days, the other of a month and a half, and we skirted all the coast from Port-Royal to Kinibequi, west-southwest. "We entered the large rivers, Saint John, Saint Croix, Pentegoet and the aforesaid Kinibequi ; we visited the French, who Avintered here this year in two places, on the river St. John and on the St. Croix ; the men from St. Malo on the St. John, captain Plastrier on the St. Croix.
During these travels God kept us from great and noteworthy perils, and that often; but though we should always be mindful of them, so as not to become ungrateful, it is not necessary to j^ut them all on paper, for fear of being wearisome. I will relate only what, ia my opinion, you would prefer to hear.
We visited the men of St. Malo, to wit : the young Sieur du Pont and captain Merveilles, who, as we have said, wintered on the river St. John, on an island called Emonenic, some six leagues up river. We were still about a league and a half from the island when twilight deepened into night. Already the stars were begin- ning to appear when suddenly, toward the north, a part of the sky became red and bloody, like scarlet, and gradually shaping itself into pikes and spindles took its stand over the habitation of the men of St. Malo. The redness was so vivid that the whole river was tinted and lighted by it. This apparition lasted some ten minutes and immediately, on its disappearance, commenced another of the same shape, direction aud substance.
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF FATHER P. BIARD. 417
Each and every one of us considered such a meteor ominous. As for the natives tiiey cried out instantly : Gara gara, enderquir Gara gara; that is to say, " We shall have war ; such signs indi- cate war." Nevertheless both our approach that evening and OWY lauding the next morning were very quiet and friendly. By day nothing but friendship. But (misfortune !) when evening came all tiu-ned upside down, I know not how ; between our peo- ple and those of St. Malo confusion, broils, anger, uproar. I have not the least doubt but that an accursed band of mad and blood- thirsty spirits hovered about there all that night, expecting any hour and moment a horrible massacre of the few Christians of us who were there ; but the compassion of God held them in check, the wretches ! No blood was shed and the next day that noc- turnal gale ended in a calm, fine and cheering, the shades and phantoms having vanished in the light of the serene day.
To be sure, the kindness and prudence of M. de Biancourt ap- peared mightily in this chance disj^lay of human passions. But also 1 saw clearly that fire and arms being once in the hands of ill-disciplined people, the masters have much to fear and to suffer from their own men. I do not know whether any one shut his eyes that whole night. For my part I made many fine proposi- tions and promises to our Lord never to forget his good works if it pleased him that no blood be shed. This he granted us in his infinite compassion.
It was three o'clock in the afternoon of the following day be- fore I had time to feel hungry, so busy was I coming and going from one to another. Finally about that hour all was quieted, thanks be to God.
Certainly Captain Merveilles and his people manifested no ordinary piety. For notwithstanding this so disconcerting obsta- cle and encounter, the second day after they confessed and com- muned most edifyingly, and, furthermore, at our departure, they besought me most earnestly, all of them and especially the young du Pont, to visit them and remain with them as long as con- venient to me. I promised them to do so, and now await only the opportunity. For truly I love those honest people with all my heart.
YoL. II. 28
418 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
But leaving them behind in thought, as we then did in body, let us continue our route and journey. Returning from that river St. John our way was directed toward the Armouchiquoys. For this two chief reasons actuated JNI. de Biancourt ; the first, to receive news of tlie Englisli and to know whether he could get the better of them ; the second to barter for grain with the Armouchiquoys, to help us pass the winter without starving., in case we received no relief from France.
To understand the first reason you must know that a little be- fore. Captain Platrier of Honfleur, before mentioned, wishing to go to Kinibequi was taken prisoner by two English ships, which were at an island called Emmetenic, eight leagues from the afore- said Kinibequi. His release was obtained by means of some presents (so called for appearance sake), and the promise which he made to submit to the commands given him, not to trade on that entire coast. For these English pretend to be masters of it and to this intent produce letters of their king, which we how- ever believe to be forgeries.
Now M. de Biancourt, having heard all this from the very lips of Captain Platrier, earnestly pointed out to these people how it was incumbent on him, officer of the crown and lieutenant of his fathei", and also on every good Frenchman, to resist this usurpa- tion of the English so obstructive of the rights and possessions of His Majesty. " For," said he, " it is well-knoAAm to all (not to go further back) that the great Henry, whom may God jaardon, according to the rights acquired by his predecessors and himself, gave to M. des Monts, in the year 1604, all this region from the fortieth degree north latitude to the forty-sixth. Since this grant the aforesaid Seigneur des Monts, through himself and through M. de Potrincourt, my much honored father, his lieutenant, and through others, has often taken actual possession of the whole region, and that, too, three or four years before the English settled, or before one had ever heard anything of their claim." This and many other things the said Sieur Biancourt recounted, encouraging his people.
As for myself 1 had two other reasons for undertaking this journey; the one, to act as spiritual adviser to the said Sieur de
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF FATHER P. BIARD. 419
Biancourt and his people ; the other, to become acquainted with and to see the disposition of those nations to receive the Gospel. Such then were the reasons for our expedition.
We arrived at Kinibequi, eighty leagues from Port-Royal, the 28th October, day of St. Simon and St. Jude, of the same year, 1611. Our people immediately landed eager to see the fort of the English ; for we had heard in various ways that there was no one there. Now, as in a new thing all is fine, each one strove to praise and extol this undertaking of the English, and to relate the advantages of the place ; every one said what he most valued in it. But in a few days we changed our opinion very much; for we saw that it was easy to make a counter-fort which would have shut them up and deprived them of the sea and river ; also that though they had been left alone yet would they not have enjoyed the advantages of the river, since it has several other fine mouths some distance from there. Moreover, what is worse, we do not believe that for six leagues round about there is a single acre of arable land, the soil being wholly stony or rocky. Now, inasmuch as the wind hindered us from going farther, on the third day of our arrival M. de Biancourt turned the event into advice and de- termined to receive the aid of the wind, to ascend the river so as to examine it.
We had gone already about three leagues and the tide ebbing we had anchored in the middle of the river, when suddenly we see six canoes of the Armouchiquoys coming toward us. There were twenty-four people in them, all warriors. They went through a thousand trials and motions before coming uj) to us. You could have rightly likened them to a flock of birds, which wishes to enter a hemp field but fears the scarecrow. This amused us very much, for our people needed time to arm themselves and to cover the ship. In short they came and went, they reconnoitered, they looked keenly at our numbers, our cannon, our arms, everything ; and the night coming they lodged on the other bank of the river, if not beyond the range at least beyond the sighting of our cannon.
All that night there was nothing but haranguing, singing, danc- ing; for such is the life of all those i>eople when they ci'owd to-
420 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
gether. But since we presumed that probably their songs and dance were invocations to the Devil, in order to resist the domi- nation of this accursed tyrant. I had our people sing some hymns of the Church, as the Salve, the Ave Maris Stella and others. But when once they had begun to sing, spiritual songs failing, they seized on the others which they knew. These in turn being exhausted, as it lies in the French nature to imitate every- thing, they began to mimic the song and dance of the Armouchi- quoys who were on the bank, coimterfeiting them so well in every respect that the Armouchiquoys kept still in order to hear them ; and then our people becoming siletit, they commenced again in turn. Truly it was prime fun ; for you would have said that they were two choruses, which agreed very well, and scarcely could you have distinguished the genuine Armouchiquoys from the spurious.
Morning come, we continued our way up river. They accom- panying us, said to us if we wished some 2yioysqiieni'in (that is their wheat), we could easily turn to the right, and not go up river with great labor and danger; that by turning to the right, through the arm of the river which was shown us we could in a few hours reach the great sachem Meteourmite, who would supply us with everything ; that they would act as guides to us, for they too were going to make him a visit.
It is to be supi^osed, and we have strong j^roofs of it, that they gave us this advice with no other intention than to ensnare us and to easily conquer us with the aid of Meteourmite, whom they knew to be the enemy of the English and presiimably of all for- eigners. But, God be thanked, their plotlings turned against them.
However we believed them ; therefore a part of them went before us, a part behind us, a part also with us in the vessel. Nev- ertheless M, de Biancourt was always on his guard and often had the long-boat go before with the plummet. We had gone not farther than half a league when, coming into a great lake, the leadsman cries out, " Two fathoms of water, one fathom, only one fathom eveiywhere." Immediately : " Strike sail, strike sail, let go the anchor." Where are our Armouchiquoys ? where are they.
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF FATHER P. BIARD. 421
The traitors ! how -well God has helped us ! They had led us to the snares. " Go about, go about," We return on our track.
Meanwhile Meteourmite, having been informed of our approach, was hastening to meet us, and although he saw us turn back he certainly followed after us. M. de Biancourt profited much by being more discreet than many of his command who were then urging him to kill all comers. For they were in a great rage and in as equally great fear ; but rage made the greater noise.
M. de Biancourt restrained himself, and in no other way receiv- ing Meteourmite unfriendly, learned from him that there was a way by which we could get through ; that, so that we might not miss it, he would send to our vessel some of his own people; tliat furthermore we should go to his wigwam and he would try to satisfy us. We believed him but soon thought we should repent it ; for [we passed such dangerous rapids and narrows that we thought we should hardly ever escape alive. In fact, in two places, some of our people cried out piteously that we were all lost. But, praise be to God, they cried out too soon.
Once there M. de Biancourt put on his arms to visit Meteour- mite in that dress. He found him in his grand decorations of savage majesty, alone in a hut well thatched both toj^and bottom, and some forty powerful young men around the hut, as a body- guard, each one having his shield, his bow and his arrows on the ground before him. Those people are no ninnies, not at all, and you can believe me.
For my part I received that day the larger share of the em- braces ; for as I was without arms the most distinguished, forsak- ing the soldiers, seized on me with a thousand protestations of friendship. They led me into the largest of all the huts, which held at least eighty people. The seats filled I threw myself on my knees and having made the sign of the cross recited my Pater, Ave, Credo and some prayers ; then, at a pause, my hosts, as though they understood me well, applauded in their way crying out Ho! ho! ho! I gave them some crosses and images making them understand what I could. They eagerly kissed them, made the sign of the cross and, each by himself, endeavored to bring me their children that I might bless them and give them some-
422 MAINE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY.
thing. Thus passed that visit and another which I afterward made.
Now Meteourmite had answered M. de Biancourt that, as for wheat, they did not have much ; but that they had some skins if he wished to trade.
The day of the barter havirtg come I went away with a boy to a neighboring island to there offer up the consecrated host of our reconciliation. Our ship's people, in order not to be surprised, under pretense of trading, had armed and barricaded themselves, leaving space for the savages in the middle of the deck ; but to no purpose for the latter rushed on in such a crowd and with such eagerness that they immediately filled the whole vessel, all mixed up with our men. We began to cry : "Go back, go back." But of what avail ? They also cried out on their side.
It was then that our people thought they were truly captured and already it was all clamor and uproar. M. de Biancourt has often said that many times he had his arm raised and his mouth open in order to shout, while giving the first blow : " Kill, kill ; " but that this consideration alone restrained him, I know not how, that I was away, and consequently if there was a fight, I was lost. God made use of this good intention of his, not only as regards my safety, but also as regards that of the whole expe- dition. For, as all now see clearly, if this mad act had been com- mitted, not one would have escaped and the French would have been forever in bad repute along the entire coast.
God willed that Meteoui-mite and some other leaders should perceive the danger and thus withdraw their men. Evening hav- ing come and all having gone away, Meteourmite sent some of his people to apologize for the insolence of the morning, affirming that the whole disturbance had come not from him, but from the Armouchiquoys ; that they had also stolen from us an ax and a gamelle (a large wooden bowl), which utensil he returned to us ; that this theft had displeased him so much that, immediately on discovering it, he had dismissed the Armouchiquoys; that for himself he was well intentioned and knew well that we neither killed nor beat the savages of that region, but rather received them at our table, often made the tabagie with them, smoked
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF FATHER P. BIARD. 423
with thera and brought them many good things from France, for which they loved us. These people ai-e, I believe, the greatest speechifiers in the whole world ; they do nothing without much talk.
But since I have mentioned the English in this place, perhaps some one may wish to know about their experience, which we learned here. It is then as follows : In the year 1608 the Eng- lish commenced to settle on one of the mouths of this river, the Kennibequi, as we said before. They had then a very honorable leader and one who demeaned himself excellently toward the natives. They say, however, that the Armouchiquoys feared such neighbors and therefore caused the death of the aforesaid captain. These people have a way, in use with them, of killing by magic. Now in the second year, 1609, the English changed their tactics, under another leader. They shamelessly drove away the savages; they beat them, overburdened them and tore them with dogs be- yond all measure ; consequently the poor abused people, irritated at the present and divining worse things for the future, made a resolve, as the saying is, to kill the wolf's cub before he had stronger teeth and claws. Their opportunity came one day when three long-boats had gone off fishing. Our conspirators followed on their track, and drawing near with a fine pretense of friend- ship (for they thus lavish the more caresses whei-e they plan the more treachery), they enter the boats and, at a given signal, each one chooses his man and kills him with slashes of the knife. Thus eleven Englishmen were dispatched. The others, overawed, abandoned their undertaking that same year and have not followed it up since, being satisfied with coming in the summer to fish at that island, Emetenic, which we have said was about eight leagues from the fort they had begun.
For this reason then, the abuse offered to the person of Cajstain Platrier by the said English having taken place on this island, Emetenic, M. de Biancourt determined to reconnoiter it and to leave there some mark of revindication. This he did, erecting on the harbor a very handsome cross bearing the arms of France. Some of his j^eople advised him to burn the boats which he found there ; but since he is mild and huiuane he would not do so, seeing that they were boats not of soldiers, but of fishermen.
424 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
From there, inasmuch as the season urged us on, being alrearly November sixth, we set our sails to return to Port-Royal, landing at Pentegotit as we had promised the savages.
Pentegoet is a very fine river and can be likened to the French Garonne. It empties into the French gulf (Bay of Fundy) and has several islands and rocks at the mouth ; so that if you do not go up the river some ways you think it is a great bend or bay of the sea, there where you begin clearly to recognize the bed and course of a river. Its mouth is about three leagues broad, at forty-four and a half degrees from the equator. You cannot divine what is the Norembega of the ancients if it is not this; for otherwise both the others and myself inquiring after this word and place have never been able to learn anything.
We then, having gone up stream three leagues or more, en- countered another fine river called Chiboctous, which comes from the northeast to empty into this great Pentegoet.
At the meeting of the two rivers there was the finest gathering of savages that I have yet seen. There were eighty canoes and a long-boat, eighteen huts and about three hundred souls. The most prominent chief was called Betsabes, a prudent and conservative man ; and in truth one often finds in these savages natural and political merits, which put to blush whoever is not shameless when, in comparison, he looks at a good share of the Frenchmen who come to these parts.
After they recognized us they showed great joy at night, ac- cording to their custom, by dances, songs and speeches. And we also, very glad to be in a friendly country ; for among the Etche- mins, such as are those here, and the Souriquois, such as are those of Port-Royal, we are not on our guard any more than we are among our own domestics and, God be thanked, we have not yet fared ill by it.
The next day I visited the savages and proceeded in my usual way, as I have related concerning Kinibqeui. But this in addi- tion here, since they having told me there were some sick ones there. I went to see them and in my character as priest, as is laid down in the ritual, read over them the gospel and prayers, giving a cross to each one to hang on his neck.
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF FATHER P. BIARD. 425
Among others I found one stretched out near the fire, as is their custom, the eyes and face much distorted, sweating great drops from his head alone, being hardly able to speak, in a great access of fever. They told me he had been ill for four months and that from his appearance then he would not live long. Now I know not what his sickness was, whether it was periodic or not I do not know ; but what is certain the second day after that I saw him in our vessel, hale and hearty, wearing his cross on his neck, and he showed his gratitude to me with a very good countenance, taking me by the hand. I had no way of speaking to him, since they were then bartering, and for this reason the deck was filled with people and all the interpreters busy. In sooth I was very glad that the goodness of God was beginning to make these poor and abandoned nations feel that there is nothing but good and prosperity in the sign of the holy and redeeming cross.
In short, not to repeat often the same thing, both here and everywhere else that we have been able to talk with these poor Gentiles we have tried to impress on them some elementary con- ceptions of the greatness and truth of Christianity, as much as the means allowed. And to give a general summary, this is the fruit of our journey. We have begun to know and to be known; we have taken possession of these regions jn the name of the Church of God, placing there the royal throne of our Savior and Mon- arch, Jesus Christ, his holy altar ; the savages have seen us pray, extol, enjoin by our sermons, the images and cross, the manner of living and like things ; (they) have received the first apprehension and seeds of our holy faith, which will shoot forth and germinate abundantly some day, if it pleases God, when they receive a longer and better cultivation.
The rest of this letter, only a page and a half, sounds the praises of the converts at Port-Koyal.
The next letter of the good Jesuit missionary is dated on the same day as the former, January 31, 1612, but is written in Latin (of which Carayon gives a French translation), and addressed to the general of the order, Claude Aquaviva. It consequently contains the same
42 G MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
general features as the former, but is less confidential, less detailed and contains but few statements regard- ing Maine. After sketching the territory of New France and speaking of what is now Nova Scotia, he continues (p. 81-82): —
To the west and north Hve the Etheminquois, from the river St. John to the river Pentegoet and even to the river Kinibequi. The latter has its mouth under 43° 3'. Near it hes Chonacoet, which forms one of the sides of the French bay. In fact the promontory which we call Cape Sable is at the east and Chona- coiit is at the west. [The text reads est twice, an evident error. F. M. w.], both in lattitude 48°, although there is between them a distance of an hundred leagues. The Armouchiquoys occupy vast lands from the river Kinibequi to 40°.
Again (p. 83-84) :—
The natives are few in number. The Etcheminquois (sic) do not comprise a thousand souls, and the Algonquins and Montag- nais together do not much exceed this number. The Soriquois (in Nova Scotia) are not two thousand all told. Hence we cannot say of these peoples that they occupy the coast or the interior, but that they roam over them. They are nomads, haunting the woods and much scattered, because they live by the chase, by the fruits of the earth and by fishing. They are almost beardless and in general are a little smaller and more slender than we are, without lacking, however, in grace or dignity. Their complexion is slightly tanned. They generally paint their faces and, in mourning, blacken them.
Various descriptions of the habits and customs of
the Indians follow, an account of their mission is given
and the honest Jesuit alludes again in a few lines to
the main subject of his other letters, his expedition to
the Kennebec (p. 101) :
I saw with M. de Biancourt a great part of the country, all that which the ancients called Norembega, and I entered the
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF FATHER P. BIARD. 427
principal rivers. The result was to give us a better knowledge of things and to make us better known.
The incident of the sick native is referred to.
The next letter written to Aquaviva from Amiens (May 26, 1614), relates the descent of the English from Virginia on a mission station and the dispersion of the missionaries there found. The locality of the station is not given, but it was evidently near the St. Croix river.
This is all the book contains, which bears on the early history of the Maine coast. Apart from the let- ters of Father Biard which I have cited (letters v, vi and vii), the settlement at Port-Royal is the subject of three by him (letters i, ii, iv), and of one (letter iii), by Father Masse. All were written during the year 1611. Letter viii, by Father Lallemant, dated Au- gust 1, 1326, begins a series of accounts of the Cana- dian missions, pure and simple.
PROCEEDINGS AT ANNUAL MEETING, 188G. 429
PROCEEDINGS.
Annual Meeting, June, 1886.
The annual meeting was held at Adams Hall, Bruns- wick, June 25, 1886, and was called to order by the President at 9 A. m.
Members present were Messrs. Gilman, Douglas, Goold, Allen, Burrage, Bryant, Dike, Gardiner, Pierce, Elwell, Waterman, Emery, Ham, Tenney, Cram, Little, Morrell, Crosby, Bradbury and Woods.
The record of the last annual meeting was read and approved. The annual reports of the Librarian, the Treasurer, the Corresponding Secretary and the Biog- rapher were read and accepted. A report of the doings of the Standing Committee was also read and placed on file.
Mr. Bradbury read the draft of the Act which had been prepared by the committee to prohibit the vol- untary reduction of the interest paying funds of the Society, and on motion of Mr. Marshall Cram it was voted that the sum of ten thousand dollars be inserted in the Act as the limit of reduction.
The Act was approved, and Messrs. Bradbury, Lap- ham and Elwell were appointed a committee to present the same at the next session of the state legislature for enactment. The Act to take effect when accepted by a formal vote of the Society.
430 MAINE HISTOEICAL SOCIETY.
The following list of officers was then balloted for and elected : —
For President — James W. Bradbury.
Vice President — Rev. Samuel F. Dike.
Corresponding Secretary — William Goold.
Treasurer — Lewis Pierce.
Biographer — Joseph Williamson.
Recording Secretary, Librarian, Cabinet Keeper — Hubbard W. Bryant.
Standing Committee — Rufus K. Sewall of Wiscasset, William B. Lapliam of Augusta, William Goold of Windham, Edward H. Elwell of Deering, Joseph Williamson of Belfast, James P. Bax- ter of Portland, Henry L. Chapman of Brunswick.
The following were elected members of the Society :
Rev. AVilliam De W. Hyde, d.d., of Brunswick, as a resident member ; and for corresponding members Rev. John B. L. Soule of Highland Park, 111.; Henry Kensington of London, Edward Russell of Boston, Horatio King of Washington, Charles Gay- arre of New Orleans.
Mr. A. G. Tenney made a verbal report on the Field Day of last year, and the following were appointed a committee of arrangements for the Field Day excur- sion of the current year : Messrs. Sewall, Tenney, and Elwell.
It was voted that hereafter the annual meeting of the Society be held during Bowdoin College Com- mencement week, prior to Commencement Day, the day and the hour to be determined by the Standing Committee.
Adjourned without day.
PROCEEDINGS AT DECEMBER MEETING, 1886. 431
The Field Day Excursion was made September 3, 1886, to Damariscotta and Newcastle, the principal objects of interest being the famous shell heaps in Newcastle, which were thoroiio-h- ly examined, together with a collection of stone imple- ments, fragments of pottery and bones recently taken therefrom. After a noonday repast at the hotel the company assembled in the vestry of the Con o-re {Ra- tional church in Damariscotta, and were called to order by Mr. Rufus K. Sewall, who made some remarks and introduced Mr. A. T. Gamage of Newcastle, who made a report of the measurements of the shell heaps and gave an account of the excavations now being made. Professor Edward S. Morse of Salem being present he was called upon for his views on shell heaps in general and the shell heaps of Maine in particular. The Pro- fessor entertained and instructed the company by his remarks.
Messrs. John Marshall Brown, William Goold, A. G Tenney, and E. H. Elwell also made interesting and in- structive addresses, after which the meeting adjourned.
Votes of thanks were passed to the residents of Dam- ariscotta and Newcastle for their polite attentions.
December Meeting, 1886.
The winter meeting of the Society was held at their rooms in the City Building, Portland, December 21, 1886, and was called to order at 2:30 p. m., by Mr. President Bradbury.
A report of the accessions to the Library and Cabi- net was made by the Librarian.
432 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETT.
A paper on De Monts and his colony on the St. Croix River, in 1604, was read by Mr. Joseph William- son, who also read a biographical sketch of Governor Thomas Pownall, accompanied by the gift of an auto- graph letter of the governor.
Mr. George F. Talbot narrated some interesting facts concernino; the island in the St. Croix River where De Monts and his colony wintered.
Mr. William H. Smith read a genealogical paper on the Livermore family of Maine.
Mr. James P. Baxter presented, in the name of Mr. Josiah Pierce of London, copies of papers connected with a law suit against the Kennebec proprietors.
Mr. Baxter exhibited a fac similie copy of a manu- script work by George Weymouth, entitled the "Jew- ell of Artes," the original of which is in the King's Library of the British Museum.
Mr. Baxter gave an interesting account of the rare books and manuscripts contained in the King's Library, so called, from its having been the gift of King George IV, of Great Britain, to the British Museum.
A paper prepared by Mr. Hobart W. Richardson, beini^r an introduction to the first book of the York Deeds, w^as read by the Recording Secretary, Mr. Bryant.
Messrs. E. P. Burnham and Joseph Williamson were appointed a committee to represent the Society at the Annual Meeting of the New England Historic Genea- logical Society, in Boston, and express the sympathy of this Society in the loss of their President, the late Hon. Marshall P. Wilder.
PROCEEDINGS AT DECEMBER MEETING, 1886. 433
The meeting then adjourned until the evening ses- sion, which was called to order at 7 : 30.
Mr. William W. Thomas, Jr., delivered an address on the Island of Gotland and its Ancient City of Wisby, and Mr. Edward H. Elwell read a paper on the Schools of Falmouth and Portland.
Votes of thanks were passed for papers read at both sessions, and copies requested for the archives.
Adjourned.
Vol. II. 29
434 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
KIJ^G, Defender of the Faith ^'-c Annoq BOMIKI 1688. E. ANDROS.
By His Excellency's Command. John West. d'. Secr'.
GOD SAVE THE KING.
Printed at Boston in New-England by E. P.
And that although His Majesty had Notice that a foreign Force was preparing against Him, yet His Majesty hath alwaies declined any forreign Succour, but rather hath chosen (next under God) to rely upon the true and ancient Courage, Faith and Alle- giance of His own People, with whom His Majesty hath often ventured His Life for the Honour of His Nation, and in whose Defence against all Enemies His Majesty is firmly resolved to live and dye ; and therefore does solemnly Conjure His Subjects to lay aside all manner of Animosities, Jealousies, & Prejudices, and heartily & Chearfully to Unite together in the Defence of His MAJESTY and their native Countrey, which things alone, will (under GOD) defeat and frustrate the principal Hope and Design of His Majesty's Enemies, who expect to find His People divided; and by publishing (perhaps) some plausible Reasons of their Com- ing, as the specious (tho' false) Pretences of Maintaining the Protestant Religion, or Asserting the Liberties and & Properties of His Majesty's People, do hope thereby to conquer that great and renowned Kingdom.
That albeit the Design hath been carried on with all imagina- ble Secresie & Endeavours to Surprise and deceive His MAJES- TY, HE hath not been wanting on His part to make such pro- vision as did become Him, and, by GOD's great Blessing, His Majesty makes no doubt of being found in so good a Posture that His Enemies may have cause to repent Such their rash and unjust Attempt. ALL WHICH, it is His Majesty's pleasure, should be made known in the most publick manner to His loving Subjects within this His Territory and Dominion of NEW- ENGLAND, that they may be the better prepared to resist any Attempts that may be made by His Majesties Enemies in these parts, and Secured in their trade and Commerce with His Ma- jesty's Kingdom of England.
THE FRYE FAMILY. 435
I DO therefore, in pursuance of His MAJESTY'S Commands, by these Presents make known and Publish the same ac- cordingly ; And hereby Charge and Command all Officers Civil & Military, and all other His Majesty's loving Subjects within this His Teriitory and Dominion aforesaid, to be Vigilant and Care- ful in their respective places and stations, and that, upon the Ap- proach of any Pleet or Forreign Force, they be in Readiness and use their utmost Endeavour to hinder any Landing or Invasion that may be intended to be made within the same.
Given at Fort Charles at JPemaquid, the Tenth Day of Janu- ary^ in the Fourth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord JAMES the Second of England^ Scotland, France and Ire- land.
THE FRYE FAMILY.
The following in the handwriting of General Joseph Frye of Fryeburg, was found among the papers of the late William Frye of Bethel, and was carefully copied by me for publication.
Augusta, Maine. W. B. L.
A genealogical account of the family of the Fryes in Andover, in the County of Essex and Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England, taken by the Subscriber from Captain Nathaniel Frye who kept in remembrance the Lineage of the family down to Anno Domini 1769.
The Progenitor of the Family was named John. He came from a Town or Borough or Parish called Andover near Basingtoke, in Hampshire, in Old England, and landed at Newbury in the afore- said county of Essex (but the time of his arrival is lost), and from Newbury he came to Andover in Its infant State. His chil- dren were : lly John, 21y Benjamin, Sly Samuel, 41y James.
lly John, of these children in particular was born in old Eng- land, and after he had lived in Andover some time, and being esteemed a good sort of a man was made a Deacon of the first church in said Town, and lived to considerable age there but died childless.
436 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
21y Benjamin. His children were John, Joseph, Nathaniel, Mary, Anue, Mehitable, Esther, Hepsibah. John is dead but left children, Joseph, Mary, Anne, Mehitable, all died young Nathaniel (from whom this account is princi])ally taken) has had three wives who are dead. He had no children by them and as he is now an aged man, its likely he will die childless. Esther and Hepsibah married but left no children.
Sly SamueL His children were John, Ebenezer, Nathaniel, Sam- uel, Benjamin, Hannah, Mary, Phebe, Deborah — all married and all left children.
41y James. His children were James, Lydia, Dorothy, Sarah, Mary, Jonathan, all married and had children except Jonathan^ who, in A. D. 1725 went chaplain of a company of volunteers under the command of Captain John Lovewell after the Indians who were then at war with New England. This company (who consisted of but thirty-four men), met and fought three score In- dians on the bank of a pond at Pigwacket, on the 8th day of May in said year, when the captain and the greatest part of his men were killed, and the said chaplain received a mortal wound. He was able to get off the place where the battle was fought but died in the wilderness. Jonathan being dead, and his elder and only brother James being dead sometime before, the old gentle- man, their Father, gave his estate to his Grandson James, the son of his deceased son of that name. As this account was taken by the subscriber in order to show his children from whence and from whom they descended, he now confines his account to that branch of the Family he Sprang from, which was from Samuel the 3d son of the Old Gentleman, the Father of the Family as before shown. The subscriber's father was John (the oldest son of the said Samuel) who was the 3d son of the Progenitor of the Family, the account of whose family now follows —
John — His children : 1 John, 2 Isaac, 3 Joshua, 4 Abial, 5 Me- hitable, 6 Anne, 7 Phebe, 8 Joseph, 9 Hannah, 10 Anne, 11 Sam- uel 12 John, 13 Tabitha. The subscriber now proceeds to par- ticularize concerning this family (of which he is the 8th child in the course of Birth), all which particulars have occurred within his memory and are as follows, viz : —
THE FRYE FAMILY. 437
1 Jolin died at the age of twenty-one, not married; left no child nor children behind liim.
2 Isaac. His children were 1 Naomah, 2 Martha, 3 Dorothy, 4 Dorcas, 5 Susanna, 6 Huldah, 7 Tabathy. The Father of these children and his youngest Daughter Tabatha died within a few hours of each other and were both buried in one grave; the other three children lived to marry and have children. N. B. The mother of these children died about a year before the death of their Father.
3 Joshua — His children by his first wife were Mary, Joshua, Jonathan; the two last died young; Mary married and is the mother of several chil- dren. His children by his second wife were Joshua and John.
4 Abiel. His children were Abigal (who died young), Abiel, Simon, Abigail, Isaac — all married (except Abiel) and have children.
5 Mehitable married and lived to considerable age but died childless.
6 Anne died young, not of age to marry.
7 Phebe married and lived to considerable age but died childless.
8 Joseph — His children were Joseph, Samuel, Mehitable, all died young and within a few days of each other, with a terrible distemper, called the throat distemper in A. D. 1738, which swept off a great number of children in many parts of New England. His next child was Mehitable, who lived but sixteen days. After which his children were Mehitable, Joseph, Tabitha, Hannah, Kichard, Nathaniel, Samuel.
9 Hannah — married, is now a widow and mother of several children.
10 Anne married, is now a widow and mother of several children. She was named Anne to bear up the name of her that died young as above shown.
11 Samuel died in the thirteenth year of his age.
12 John was so named to bear up the name of John who died about twenty-one years of age as above shown, but he died unmarried about nineteen years of age; left no offspring.
Joseph Frye, the son of Joseph and Mehitable Frye, was born on the 17th of July, 1733. Samuel Frye, the son of Joseph and Mehitable Frye, was boi-n on the first day of January, 1735; Mehitable Frye, daughter of Joseph and Mehitable Frye, was born on the 16th day of April, 1738; Mehitable Frye, daughter of Joseph and Mehetable Frye, was born on the 12 day of May, 1739, and died on the 28th of the same month; Me- hetable Frye, the daughter of Joseph and Mehetable Frye, was on the 8th day of April, 1741.
Joseph Frye, the son of Joseph and Mehitable Frye, was born on the 10th of July, 1743. Tabitha Frye, the daughter of Joseph and Mehetable Frye, was born on the 11th day of October, 1744. Hannah Frye, daugh- ter of Joseph and Mehetable Frye, was born the 23d day of March, 1748/9. Richard Frye, son of Capt. Joseph Frye and Mehitable Frye, was born on the 5th day of August, 1751.
438 MAESTE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Nathaniel Frye, son of Capt. Joseph Frye and Mehetable Frye, was born on the 22d day of April — 1753.
Samuel Frye, son of Col Joseph Frye and Mrs. Mehetable Frye, was born on the ath day of July, 1758.
Joseph Frye, the son of Joseph and Mehetable Fi-ye, died on the 27th day of August, 1738. Mehitable Frye, the Daughter of Joseph and Me- hitable Frye, died on the 9th day of September, 1738. Samuel Frye, the son of Joseph and Mehetable Frye, died on the 10th day of September 1738.
Dear Children: Being sensible the foregoing genealogy neither is or can be of any public benefit, it cannot be woi'thy of piiblic notice. I therefore have no other meaning than to hand it down to you, to the end that you and your descendants may (if you or any of them have or may have the curiosity) look back to the first of the family in Andover, from whom you derived your nativity, and may continue it along to many generations, if you or any of them think proper to do it; with that view (and no other) it is presented to you by your
Affectionate Father
Joseph Fkye. March 19, 1783.
COIVDHISSIONEES' PROCEEDINGS AT MOUNT DESERT. 439
COMMISSIONERS' PROCEEDINGS AT MOUNT DESERT, 1808.
COiyrMUNICATED BY WM. B. LAPHAM.
In 1785, the General Court of Massachusetts passed a resolve which provided that persons who had settled upon unincorporated lands of the Commonwealth prior to that date, should hold pos- session of one hundred acres each of the lands upon which they had settled, as against subsequent grantees of the townships in which such lands were situated. After this date the Common- wealth granted the western moiety of this island to John Bernard, son of Governor Francis Bernard, to whom the whole island had been previously granted, reserving the lots of those who had set- tled upon the lands prior to 1785. This rendered it necessary for those settlers to prove their claims, and in 1808 commissioners were appointed to sit at Mount Desert and take testimony, and the following is the report of this commission. This report is valuable as showing who had settled upon the westerly half of the island prior to 1785, and who were entitled to the benefit of the resolve, and also as showing who had taken up land subsequent to the passage of this resolve and prior to 1808.
Andkew Tarrs lott. — Philip Langley& Joshua Mayo testify that An- drew Tarr lived on this lott before the year 1785 & built upon it & has continued to improve the same
George Hermans lott. — William Baker saith, there was improvements on this lott when I came here in 1785 & John Bunker lived on the lott of Daniel Gott afterwards in 1785
Samuel Hadlock saith I came into this Country in May or June 1785, John Bunker lived Southward of a brook & he moved away to Frenchmans Bay and afterward moved back again into the same house,
There was then a house on the North side of the brook.
It appears George Herman holds under Joseph Bunker, or John Bunker as they had two lotts in June 1785 & changed settlements
440 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Ebenezer Eaton 1st lott. — Benjamin Bunker saith Isaac Bunker lived on this lott on which Mr Ebenezer Eatons house now stands before the 1785 and since and conveyed it to Bennet, & Beunet to Eaton Isaac Bunker improved said lott in 1779
2d lott Benjamin Bunker lott was purchased by said Eaton & the im- provements were about the same
3d lott Andrew Tucker gives the same evidence concerning said lotts & also the lott of Benjamin Bunker Jr
Joseph Legko. — Andrew Tucker saith Joseph Legro went on to his lott in the year 1784 & has improved it ever since
Pktek Dolliver. — Andrew Tucker saith Aaron Bunker took up this lott in the year 1784 he Sold it to Andrew Bennit, & Bennit to Emmerson, & Emmerson to Peter Dolliver who has continued the improvement
Augustus Rufnell. — Andrew Tucker saith Twisden Bowdin took up this lott in the year 1779. Reuben Salesbury lived on it in 1784 Augustus RufCnell bought it of him and has lived on it ever since.
Andrew Tucker. — Joshua Mayo saith Andrew Tucker took up the lott in the year 1780 & has lived on it ever since.
Samuel Bowden. — Andrew Tucker saith Samuel Bowdens Father lived this lott in 1780 & Samuel Bowden has continued the improvement
Benjamin Ward. — Joshua Mayo saith Elijah Richardson took up this Lott first James Barton entered upon it in 1780 as tenant to Mr Bowden who purchased the right
Andrew Tucker saith Benjamin Ward laboured on this lott in 1785 & raised potatoes there but laboured for him part of the time, but built a house there and has continued the possession to this time
Joshua Mayo. — Andrew Tucker saith Joshua Mayo Settled on this lott before the year 1785 & has continued on the same to the present time
John Rich Jr & Nich's Tucker. — Andrew Tucker saith Jabez Sales- bury took up this lott in the year 1785 & Sold the same to the Claimants who have continued the possession. Joshua Mayo agrees with Tucker & believes it was improved before the mouth of June.
Nancy Mooke. — Joshua Mayo saith Ph: Langley took up this lott in 1783 lived upon it 4 or 5 years & Sold it to Joseph Moore & his Widow Nancy Moore continues the improvement.
Philip Lanc.ley. — Joshua Mayo saith Andrew Ilerricktook up this lott in the year 1778 & built a house on it and went off
commissioners' proceedings at mount desert. 441
Benjamin Spyling saith Samuel Moore bought the same & his Widow, now the Wife of Philip Langley, has continued the pos- session.
Thomas Kichabdson. — Joshua Norwood saith Thomas Richardson set- led on this lott in the year 1778 & has continued on it ever since
Thos. Richabdson Jr. — Thomas Richardson saith Thomas Richardson Jr had a house on this lott in the year 1784 and has been on the place ever sine. Joshua Norwood agrees with the other witness.
Peter Gott. — Joshua Norwood saith Peter Gott took up this lott in the year 1780 & has lived on it ever since
Stephen Richardson. — Joshua Norwood saith Stephen Richardson took up this Lott in the year 1778 & has lived on it ever since
Benjamin Benson. — Ruth Norwood saith James Barton took up this lott about the year 1781 & Sold it to Joshua Norwood & said Nor- wood to said Benson.
Daniel Merbts Heirs. — Joshua Norwood saith John Rich setled on this lott about the year 1780, he lived on it untill about the year 1800 then sold it to Daniel Merry
Enoch Wentworth. — Joshua Norwood saith Enoch Wentworth pur- chased the lott of Stephen Norwood.
Thomas Richardson saith Stephen Norwood lived on the place in 1785 & sold it to Enoch Wentworth who has continued on the same.
William Nutter. — Joshua Norwood saith John Tinker took up this lott he was drowned in the year 1785 his family lived upon it & sold the same to Wm Nutter the Claimant
William Norwood. — Thomas Richardson saith Joshua Norwood deceas- ed took up this lott. his Widow improved it in 1785 William Norwood is in possession under the Heirs
Joshua Norwood. — Thomas Richardson saith Joshua Norwood lived on this lott at the close of the war and has continued on it ever since
Daniel Gott. — Martha Barton saith when Mr. Norwood died in 1785 Daniel Gott lived on this lott and had a house & barn on it.
Ezra H. Dodge. — Ephraim Pray saith John Robinson was on this lott before the year 1784 said Robinson Sold to Jacob Read Said Read to Dodge
George Freeman. — Ephraim Pray saith this lott was taken up by Sam- uel Milliken about 30 years since & sold to George Freeman
Ephraim Pray.— Susannah Millikin saith Ephraim Pray took up this in the year 1778 and has continued on it ever since.
442 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Reuben Noble. — Margaret Pray saith that Epliraim Pray raised grain on this lott in the year 1784 & 1785 said I'ray sold to Reuben Noble
James Richaudsons Heirs. — Samuel Read saith James Richardson was on this lott in the year 1777 & lived on it untill the last winter & Died, his Heirs are now in possession.
Abraham Somes — Samuel Read saith Abraham Somes was in possession of this lott in the year 1778, built a house thereon and continues upon it.
Samuel Read.— David Richardson saith this lott was improved by Sam- uel Read in 1784 and he has continued upon it ever since.
John Chepaw. — David Richardson saith John Chapaw was setled on this lott in 1784 & he has lived upon it ever since.
Tyler Read.— Joshua Mayo saith Daniel Gott took up this lott thirty years ago.
Andrew Tarr saith the same & that David Eaton lived on the lott afterwards John Bunker succeeded him & it appears he sold it to Tyler Read of Marble head
William Heath — Samuel Millikin saith Abraham Read took up this lott in May 1785, had a Camp there, planted and continued the set- tlement about Six years, then sold it to Wm Heath the present Occupier.
Susannah Millikin saith the was a house built on the lott in 1785 & she was there on a visit George Butler saith the mill was built on this lott in the year 1785.
James Read. — This lott was purchased of Joseph Hutchinson see two Deeds Oct'r 10th 1807 & is held by the possession of of Jacob Read.
Davis Wasgatt. — James Richardson saith he took up this lott in the year 1777 & Sold it to Turueworthy Tuttle after having cleared up an acre or two. Trueworthy Tuttle sold it to Samuel Read in the year 1787. he sold it to Davis Wasgatt in the year 1788. . Samuel Read saith the house was built in the year 1786 on said lott.
William Gilley.— Benjamin Bunker saith 27 years ago Josiah Paine was in the possession of this lott.
James Richardson saith said Paine built a house on this lott in the Summer of 1785 John Day lived on the lott afterAvards and, it was said, Sold it to Wm Gilley.
William Grow. — Andrew Tucker saith Aaron Bunker took up this lott in the year 1785.
Mrs Langley saith this lott was never without a family upon it while she lived on her lott except the year when Rueben Salisbury. By Evidinc taken by Mr Town Abigail Bunker was on the lott in the year 1785.
COMIMISSIONERS' PROCEEDINGS AT MOUNT DESERT. 443
John Stone Grow.— Samuel Bowden saith this lott was setled in the year 1783 by Thomas Floss he removed to Eden iu Feby 1785 Floss sold it to Wm Tucker, he died leaving one child which is since dead— Capt Grow moved on to the place John Stone Grow his son keeps up the possession
Abkaham Richardson. — Thomas Richardson saith Daniel Gott Hved on this lott several years and died leaving a house on the same Abra- ham Richardson lived with him in the year 1785 the lott was ver- bally given by said Gott to said Richardson & he has since a Deed from the Heirs.
Reuben Freeman. — Samuel Millikin saith Joseph T. Hodgdou took up this lott in June 1785.
Susannah Millikin saith Reuben Freeman deceased purchased Hodgdons right and moved his family on the next year. Reuben Freeman his son has continued the possession to this day.
David Batons heir.— Susannah Millikin saith David Eaton took up this lott in the year 1784 had a house on the lott and a child born therein in 22 years ago. Margaret Pray agrees in evidence.
George Butler. — Samuel Millikin saith John Hynes took up this lott in the Summer of 1785. he lived at Ephraim Prays part of the year the lott is about half a mile Northerly of Ciel Cove
Daniel Somes. — David Richardson saith Stephen Gott took up this lott in the year 1770 there was a house thereon which was burnt about 10 years since & and no house is on it now.
James Read saith Daniel Somes purchased the lott after said Gott returned from the american war but said Gott was to improve it during his life.
The next lotts not alowed
William Heath, 2d lott. — John Robinson by his Deposition saith this lott was taken up in the year 1776 by his Father & he lived on it with him in 1785
David Robinson saith his father John S Robinson held this lott in the year 1784 & 1785 that the deponant & John Robinson Jr plant- ed and sowed the lott under their father & that he held no other lott
NB Ezra H. Dodge holds a lott under Johns Robinson his father lived on Robinsons Island & David Robinson was under age iu the year 1785.
Caroline Bartlet, Widow of Israel Bartlet. — Ephraim Pray saith Christopher Bartlet took up this lott 30 years ago & lived upon it one year.
444 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Susannah Millikin saith Christopher Bartlet took up this lott <fe built a house thereon in the year 1778 possession was continued untill November 1786 when Israel Bartlet came and lived upon it and remained untill he died in 1804. Christopher Bartlets family were on the lott in the year 1785.
NB Isral Bartlet lived on Bartlets Island in 1785 & his Widow lives there now
William Richabdson. — John G. Richardson saith my father Stephen Richardson took vip this lott in 1784 & raised a mill there, & a house the same year, and the possession was continued by part of the family of my father to this day. NB Stephen Richardson held an other lott on the Island.
Amos Eaton. — Andrew Tuker saith Gershom Manchester took up this lott but he does not remember the time
William Bakek. — Andrew Tucker saith William Baker laboured for him 5 months in the year 1785 & began in May he took up the land he now lives on about that time but did not much labour on it un- till his time with him was expired & when John Bernard came to to the Island he gave said Baker encouragement to continue his labour
Joshua Mayo saith said Baker began to work on the lott in 1785 but he advised him not to continue as the lott was before taken up. he has however continued on the lott to this time.
Samuel Millikin. — Ephraim Pray Junier saith Elijah Richardson took up 30 years sine & sold the same to Samuel Millikin & the improve- ment has been continued said Millikin built a house there in the year 1778 said Richardson improved the place about a year.
NB Mills stand between Millikin & Prays lotts, George Freeman holds a lott on Samuel Millikius possession
Aabon Sawyer. — Samuel Millikin saith Joseph T. Hodgdon took up this lott in the year 1785 & began to work on the same in July or August.
NB Reuben Freeman holds his lott under the possession of of Joseph T Hodgdon
Jonathan Dawes.— Susannh Millikin saith Thomas Cox took up this lott in the fall of the year 1785
Joseph Munroe Obear. — Witneses agree this lott was taken up in the fall of the year 1785.
John MC Kinset.— Witnesses agree that this lott was taken up in the fall of the year 1785
COIMIMISSIONERS' PROCEEDINGS AT MOUNT DESERT. 445
David Richardson. — Samuel Read saith that Elijah Richardson took
up this lott , he left the Country & his Nephrew now
improves the same he is 43 years of age this month
It was Improved by James Richardson in the year 1777 and it has been improved by Richardson family only but no person has ever lived on it
John Somes. — Samuel Read saith Thomas Richardson took up this lott about the year 1768. Abraham somes purchased the same and his Son John Somes has improved it about 20 years, there has been no house on it since the year 1777 John Somes is 41 years of age.
NB Abraham Somes holds a lott by liiS own possession his son was free in the year 1788.
Samuel Read Jr. — John Somes saith Constant Abbot lived on this lott in 1786 and continued from 6 to 9 months on the same. It was claimed by Samuel Read in time of the last war James Read saith said Abbot sold the lott to Phinley in 1706. Pliinley to John Wasgatt, he to Atherton, he to Samuel Read Samuel Read Jr is 25 years old.
NB This lott is said to be the first that was taken up on the Island; but Samuel Read holds a lott on his own possession, & his son holds under his Father.
William Read. — John Somes saith Samuel Read improved this lott at the close of the american war, but no person has lived upon it since. William Read is now a minor & lives with his father Sam- uel Read.
NB Samuel Read holds a lott by his own possession as above stated
John G Richardson. — Samuel Read saith this lott was taken up by Daniel Gott Jr in 1785 he built his house there and moved in in the fall & left it next year. John G Richardson moved on in the spring of the year 1786 and has continued to this time having bought Daniel Gotts right as it is said
NB Daniel Gott hols a lott by his own possession This is the same Daniel Gott Jr it is said who was on this lott in 1785
Daniel Tarr. — David Richardson saith Thomas Jones took up this lott before the American war Robert Oliver was in possession in the year 1779, said Oliver left it & Daniel Tarr took possession 7 or 8 years afterwards no person having lived on it for that time.
446 MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Benjamin Atiierton. — James Richardson saith Samuel Read took up this lott in the year 1777 a house was built on the line between this & Davis Wasgatts lott then improved by the Deponant in the year 1786
NB Samuel Read holds a lott by his own possession
John Somes Junr. — Samuel Read saith Abraham Read took up this lott in the year 177S & sold it to Ezra H Dodge in 178S but no person was on the lott befoi'e that time, nor had any planting been done there
Thomas Summers. — Andrew Tarr saith John Buckley was on this lott befoi-e August 1785 and that salt was stored there.
David Richardson saith John Buckley took up this lott & had a house there in October 1785 & he went there to get shoes for his father.
Buckley sold to Day, he to Cummings, he to said Summers.
Jacob Lurvey. — Samuel Read saith David Eaton took up this lott in the Spring of 1785, built a house there and moved in in the fall. Andrew Tucker saith David Eaton was not there at that time.
Richard Heath — George Freeman saith Abraham Read and Jacob Read took up two lotts & built a house on the lott now claimed by Williaro Heath & lived together but each laboured on their respec- tive lotts they also built a mill in the year 1785
George Butler saith he laboured for Jacob Read in the year 1785, as a hiered man, and that the work was done only on William Heaths lott. John Robinson & James Flye it was said fell trees Fly on Wm Heaths lott & Robinson on Wm Heaths 2d lott the other side of the brook & they sold their rights to Abraham Read & Jacob Read
NB James Read holds a lot under Jacob Read, & William Heath under Abraham Read.
John Rich. — John Rich conveyed his lott to Daniel Merry, whose heirs now Claim it (See the Somes lott so called).
commissioners' proceedings at mount desert. 447
Names of persons in Possession June 23d 1805.
Andrew Tan- Joseph Bunker Benjamin Bunker Jr Benjamin Bunker Isaac Bunker Joseph Lergro Aaron Bunker Reuben Salesbury Andrew Tucker Samuel Bowden Benjamin Ward Joshua Mayo Jabez Salisbury Nancy Moore ) Philii) Langley ) Thomas Richardson Peter Gott Stephen Richardson James Barton John Rich Stephen Norwood John Tinker or his Heirs Joshua Norwood Joshua Norwood Daniel Gott John Robinson Jr Samuel Millikin & Josep T ) Hodgdon \
Ephraim Pray Ephraim Pray Jr James Richardson Abraham Somes
Name of persons in possession June 23d 1785
Samuel Read John Chepan John Bunker Abraham Read Jacob Read Trueworthy Tuttle Josiah Paine Abigail Bunker William Tucker Daniel Gotts heirs David Eaton John Hynes Stephen Gott
Names of the present Claimants
Andrew Tarr George Herman Ebenezer Eaton Ebeuezer Eaton Ebenezer Eaton Joseph Legro Peter Dolliver Agustus Rafnell Andrew Tucker Samuel Bowden Benjamin Ward Joshua Mayo
John Rich Jr & Nicholas Tucker Nancy Moore „ , . . ) Philip Langley ^ ^^^^^ f
Thomas Richardson Peter Gott Stephen Richardson Benjamin Benson Daniel Merrys Heirs Enoch Wentworth William Nutter William Norwood Joshua Norwood Daniel Gott Ezra H Doge
George Freeman & Reuben Free- man Ephraim Pray Reuben Noble James Richardsons heirs Abraham Somes (with mill Pr)
Names of the present Claimants
Samuel Read John Chepan Tyler Read William Heath Jacob Read Davis Wasgatt William Gilley William Grow John Stone Grow Abraham Richardson David Eatons Heir George Butler Daniel Somes
448
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Names of persons on Mount Desert who have not lotts assigned them luader the Resolvs
of June 23d 1785
|
William Heath 2d lott |
SeeP7 |
John Somes See P 9 |
|
Widow Caroline Bartlet 7 |
Samuel Read Jr 9 |
|
|
William Richardson |
7 |
William Read 9 |
|
Amos Eaton |
8 |
John G Richardson 10 |
|
William Baker |
8 |
Daniel Tarr 10 |
|
Samuel Millikin |
8 |
Benjamin Atherton 10 |
|
Aaron Sawyer |
8 |
John Somes Jr 10 |
|
Jonathan Dawes |
8 |
Thomas Summers 10 |
|
Joseph Munroe Obear |
8 |
Jacob Larvey 10 |
|
John MC Kinsey |
9 |
Richard Heath 11 |
|
David Eichardson |
9 |
John Rich 11 |
The above laid in their Claims but were not allowed & the value of these, & the following lotts, are estimated as in a state of nature.
Names of persons who have taken up lotts but donot Claim them under the Resolve
of 1785.
Francis Appleton Jonathan Brown Benjamin Bunker Thomas Carter Benjamin Davis William Dix Jr Samuel Emmerson Thomas Flyn Benjamin Gott John Gott Peter Gott Joseph Hodgdon Jr Samuel Hodgdon William Harper David Higgins Sparrow Higgins Reuben Higgins Shaw Higgins Oliver Higgins Ichabod Higgins Jesse Higgins Richard Jordan Kendall Kitteridge Samuel Kent Benjamin Kent Abner Lunt John Langley
Samuel Millikin Jr Simeon Millikin Moses Norwood W Nutter
George Murphy Nathaniel Massey Joseph Obear Stephen Richardson Isaac Obear Benjamin Robbins David Robbins William Rich Jonathan Rich Elias Rich Samuel Stanley Jabez Salisbury Cornelius Wasgatt Ter S Turrill J Lovey John Gilley James Trufry Jonathan Brown Sarah Moore Thomas Flyn Amos Eaton David Robinson
I N D KX
INDEX.
IISTDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Addresses of J. P. Baxter, 87, 172,
183.
J. W. Bradbury, 86, 175.
H. S. Bur rage, 97.
H. L. Chapmau, 200.
E. H. Elwell, 99.
C. F. Libby, 208.
S. Perham, 92.
J. W. Symonds, 199.
G. F. Talbot, 88, 204.
J. "Williamson, 9.5, 194. Agamenticus, Division of the 12,000
Acres Among the Patentees at, 319. Allen, William, Memoir of 317. Alum Mines in Maine, 282, 283,
284, 285. American Literature in England,
200. Andross, Edmund, Proclamation
of, 434. Appleton, John, Memoir of, 837. AraliacesB, 285. Asclepiadaceaj, 285. Ashburton Treaty, 330.
Baxter, James P., Addresses of, 87,
172, 183. Beginnings of Maine, The, 273. Biard, Pierre, Extracts from Let- ters of, 411. Bible Society, 28, 37, 38. Bibliographic Memorandum of the
Laws of Maine, 391. Bingham Purchase, 117. Biographical Data and Letters of
David Sewall, .309, 334. Biographical Sketches: —
Gilbert, Ealeigh, 289.
Hakluyt, Eichard, 143.
Lovell, General, 157, 158, 159.
Moody, Samuel, 113, 114.
O'Brien, John, 11.
Packard, Alpheus, S., 178.
Saltonstall, Commodore, 157, 159.
Biographical Sketches: —
Sewall de Eatendon, 307.
Sewall, Henry, 307, 308,
Sewall, Henry of Newbury, 307, 308n.
Sewall, Samuel, 308.
Thompson, Samuel, 56.
Wadsworth, Peleg, 161.
Waymouth, George, 228, 229.
Widgery, W., 55. Bradbury, J. W., Addresses of, 86,
175, (
Bradlee, Caleb D., Poem by, 191. Brunswick Convention, 129, 385. Bulls, Popish, 285. Burrage, H, S., Address of, 97.
Cabots, Map of 1544, 84. Capture of the Margaretta, 1. Carruthers, John J., Memoir of, 19. Castine, Sir John Moore at, During
the Revolution, 403. Chapman, H. L., Address of, 200. Codde, defined, 245. Codfish, Great Store of, 227. Coins found at Richmond's Island?
174. Colony, First in New England, 280. Commissioners' Proceedings at
Mount Desert, 1808, 439. Confederation, Articles of, 67. Congress, Provinicial, 4, 15, 349. Congress of United States, 52, 56,
57, 58, 59, 61, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68,
73, 74, 76, 78, 92, 93, 96, 98, 101,
102, 109 119, 139, 162, 304, 341,
342. Continental Army, 161, 162. Convention at Brunswick, 129. 385. Convention at Philadelphia, 67; see
under Massachusetts. Council for New England, 85, 320,
327. Cu-nberland Bar, 331.
452
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Dispatches, cost of sending, 211,
212. Division of the 1200 Acres Among
the Patentees at Agamenticus,
319.
Elwell, E. H., Address of, 99.
Essex Militia, 162.
Executions, first under United
States Law in Maine, 303, 335. Expedition Against the Seaports
to tlie Eastward of Boston, 357. Exti-acts from tlie Letters of tlie
Jesuit Missionary in Maine, 411.
Friends, The Society of, 26.
Genealogy : —
Frye Family, 435.
Sewall Family, 306. General and Provincial Assembly
of Scotland, 24. Genesis of our Nationality, The
Voice of Maine as heard in the,
51. Gosnold, Bartholomew, Voyage of,
143. Grand Lodge of Free Masons, 165. Grand Koyal Arch Chapter, 165.
Historical Keview of Literature in
Maine, 113. Historical Societies: — Moravian Historical Society,
333. Sagadahoc Historical Society, 328, 329. Hooke vs. Nowell, 319. Howe, Caroline D., Poem by, 191.
Jewell of Arts, 229, 432.
Journal of Capt. Herrick, 1757,
219. Kennebec Lodge, 164. Kennie's Arithmetic, the True
Author of, .382. Kittery, Persons taxed in the North
Parish of, 1783, 213.
Lecompton Constitution, 95.
Letters: —
Allen, Elizabeth A., 189.
Allen, William, 130.
Bancroft, George, 186.
Bradbury, James W., 185.
Curtis, George W., 189.
Dean, John W., 188.
Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 281, 286,
292.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 187.
Longfellow Memorial Commit- tee, 184.
O'lleily, J. B., 190.
Paine, Albert W., 101.
Popham, George, 279.
Richardson, Charles F., 190.
Sewall, David, 310, 311, 312, 313,
316, 317.
Sewall, Frank, 309.
Smith, W. H., 105.
Stedman, Edmund C, 190.
Wadsworth, Peleg, 153.
Wheaton, Joseph, 109, 111, 112,
Whittier, John G., 187. Libby, C. F., Address of 208. Libraries in Maine, 121. Ligonia, Plough Patent of the
Province of, 169. Literature in Maine, Historical
Review of, 113. Longfellow, H. W., as the Author
of Evangeline, 194; Birthday
Meeting, 181, 183; Bust of, pre- sented to the Maine Historical
Society, 170, 174, 181.
Mace, Frances L., Poem by, 192.
Maine. The Beginnings of, 273; Bibliographic Memorandum of the Laws of, 391 ; Early French Records of, 415; Early Publica- tions of, 116, 117, 118; Review of the early Literature of, 113; Mo- ravian Colony of, 333; The Voice of, as Heard in the Genesis of our Nationality, 51.
Maine Historical Society. Pro- ceedings of. May 25, 1883, 83; July 13, 1883, 167; Dec. 21,
INDEX.
453
1883, 168; May, 22, 1884, 169; July 11, 1884, 170; Sept. 12, 1884, 171; Jan. 1885, 174; Feb. 27, 1885, 181; May 28, 1885,211; June 26, 1885, 328; Dec. 22, 1885, 329; May 20, 1886,330; Juue 25, 1886, 429; Sept. 3, 1886, 431; Dec. 21, 1886, 431; Kesideut Members of 215; Resolu- tion, on the death of Israel Wash ■ burn jr., 88; Resolutions upon Re- ceiving the Bust of Longfellow, 175; Seal of, 83. Maine Twentieth Regiment, 98. Manuscript, A Lost, 345. Maps, Argall's 248; Chaplain's, 248; GosnokVs, 248; Pring's, 248; Simancas 248, 249, 250; Smith's, 248; Tyndall's, 248; Waymouth's, 231, 248, 250; White's 248. Margaretta, Capture of the, 1. Masonic: — First Address in Maine, 118; Grand Lodge of Maine, 165. Kennebec Lodge, 164, Royal Arch Chapter, 165. Massachusetts Convention of 1788,
51, 54, 70, 71, 79, 81, 82. Massachusetts Thirty-sixth Regi'
ment, 97. Memoirs : — Allen, William, 377. Appleton, John, 337. Carruthers, John J., 19. Child, James L., 163. Sewall, David, 301, Meteoric Display considered Omin- ous, 416, 417. Milliken, Alexander, Proclamation
of, 332. Monuments, to George Cleeve,
86, Prehistoric, 252. Moore, Sir John at Castine during
the Revolution, 403. Moravian Colony of Maine, 333. Mount Desert, Proceedings of the
Commissioners at, 439. Muscongus Patent, 116. Musical Work, First in Maine, 118.
Newspaper, the first in Maine, 116,
ISO. New Testament, printed in the
Tartar language, 27, 28; printed
in the Turkish, 27. Northmen, Traces of the, 251.
Orations of the Fourth of July, First printed in Maine, 118.
Penobscot, Expedition to, and
Siege of, 116, 153, 158, 162, 352,
353, 365, 366, 367, 374, 403, 406,
407. Perham, Sidney, Address of, 92. Persons taxed in the North Parish
of Kittery, 1783, 213. Plough Patent and Pro\dnce of
Ligonia, 169, 381. Plymouth Patent, 381. Poems of, Bradlee, C. D., 191.
Howe, Caroline D., 191.
Mace, Frances L., 192, the First
published in Maine, 121. Popham Colony, 330, 414, 415. Printing Presses in Maine, Early,
116, 117. Proclamations : —
Andross, Edmund, 434.
Milliken, Alexander, .332. Publications, Early in Maine, 116,
117, 118. Puritanism, the Cradle of, in Ire- land, 172.
Pyritic Shales, in England, 284,
285, in Maine 284.
Resolutions of Respect upon the
death of Israel Washburn, jr.
88 ; upon the Present of the Bust
of Longfellow, 175. Revolution, The American, the
first Naval Battle of, 1. Rhode Island Expedition, The, 162. Richmond Island, Account of, 172,
173.
Sagamen, 258.
Saisaparilla grown in Maine, 283, 285.
454
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Scottish Missionary Society, 24, 27
28, 35, 41, 49. Seal of the Council of New Eng- land, 85; of the Maine Historical
Society, 83. Sewall, David, Biographical Data
and Letters of, 309, 334; Memoir
of 301. Sewall Family in New England,
306, Shay's Rebellion, 59. Silk grown in Maine, 283, 285, 286. Skalds, defined, 258. Slave-shiiJ fitted out from Maine,
303. Smilacete, 285. Stamp Acts, The, 2. Symonds, J. W., Address of, 197.
Talbot, George F., Addresses of 88,
204. Traces of the Northmen, 251. Trent Affair, The, 43.
United Brethren, 27. 30.
United States Coast Survey, 234,
238, 242, 244. United States Revenue Service,
233.
Vessels: — Albany, 359, 360, 362, 363, 366,
367, 368, 373, 374, 408. Angel Gabriel, 173. Assistance, 356. Blond, 361, 363, 365. Boston, 361. Boxer, 212. Cadet, 171.
Canceaux, 349, 350, 351, 352. Canso, 357, 358. Carmilla, 365. Concord, 145, 147, 148, 149, 150,
226. Diligence, 14, 15, 111. Discovery, 229. Eliza and Dorcas, 308. Enterprise, 212, Falmouth Packet, 14. Fawn, 332. Galatea, 365.
Vessels: —
Gift of God, 275, 278, 280, 291, 296.
Godspeed, 229.
Greyhound, 366.
Holy Ghost, 173.
Lady Mary Pelham, 164.
Liberty, 14, 111.
Machias Liberty, 14.
Margarctta, 1, 4, 5, 6, 11, 13, 14, 15,109, 110, 111, 112.
Mary and John, 275, 278, 279, 280, 281, 286, 290, 291, 298.
Merrimac, 98.
Milford, 358, 359, 373.
Nautilus, 361,363, 408.
North, 361, 363, 408.
Polly, 2, 3, 8.
Providence, 361.
Romulus, 360.
Scarborough, 359, 373.
Sophie, 368, 369.
Speedwell, 227, 380.
Tapnagouche, 111.
Unity, 8, 14.
Virginia, 273, 291, 298, 365.
Wairen, 155.
White Angel, 173. Voice of Maine as heard in the
Genesis of our Nationality, 51. Voyage of Bartholomew Gosnold,
143.
Wadsworth, Peleg, Capture of, 160,
161. Washburn, Israel, jr., Bibliography
of, 95; Meeting in Honor of, 86;
Memorial Addresses upon, 86,
87; Resolutions of the Maine
Historical Society in Memory of,
88. Waymouth, George, his Jewell of
Arts, 229, 432; Voyage to the
Coast of Maine, 1605, 225. Westminster Abbey, Poets' Corner,
197. Williamson, Joseph, Addresses of,
95, 194.
York Deeds, 432.
INDEX.
455
INDEX OF NAMES.
Abbott, Constant, 445.
Elizabeth T., 389.
Jacob, 124.
John S., 389.
John S. C, 124.
W., 135, 140, 141. Abercrombie, James, 6. Adams, Charles, F., jr., 168.
I., 135.
John, 211, 301.
John Q., 316, 317.
Mark, 54.
Samuel, 53, 54, 58, 68, 69, 70, 72,
74, 75. Addison, Joseph, 196, 203. Akenside, Mark, 118, 120. Alexander, 1, 25, 27, 36, 37. Alexander, Kazem Bey., 36. Algonquins, the, 426.
Allyn;}F^™ily'3^7''"S8-
,of Sanford, 140.
Charles E., 215.
Charles F., 171, 215, 377, 429.
Elizabeth Akers, 125, 189.
Elizabeth Titcomb, 389.
F.,141.
George 1st., 377.
George 2d. , 377.
Hannah (Titcomb), 389.
Harrison, 388.
James, 377, 378.
Joseph H., 124.
Matthew, 377.
Samuel, 377.
Thomas, 377.
Truman, 379.
William of Norridgewock, 123, 129, 130, 131, 132, 139, 142, 377, 379, 381, 382, 383, 385, 388, 390.
William of Bowdoin College, 377.
Capt. William, 378, 379. AUerton, Isaac, 85. Ames, Fisher, 54, 58.
Moses, 54. Andrew, John A., 98,
Andross, Edmund, 434. Annance, Louis, 212. Appleton family, 337.
Daniel F., 337.
Eben D., 337.
Francis, 448.
Jesse, 123.
John, 126, 306, 402, 337, 339, 341, 341?i., 342, 343, 344, 344?i.
John W., 337.
Samuel, 337.
Sophia, 337. Aquaviva, Claud, 414, 415, 427.
Arbuthnot, Admiral, , 366.
Archer, Gabriel, 146.
Argall, Samuel, 151, 152, 248,414.
Armenians, 32.
Armidas, Philip, 226.
Armouchiquoise, the, 276, 418, 419
420, 422, 423, 426. Arundel, Thomas, 228. Atherton, 445.
Benjamin, 446, 448. Atus, London, 7. Avery, , 311.
Robert, 11, 110, 111.
Bacheller, John, 336.
Sarah, 301, 336. Baguall, Walter, 173, 174. Bailey, , of Whitefield, 140.
Gamaliel, 96.
Jacob, 265, 351, 352.
Jere., 141.
John E., 169, 171.
Samuel D., 215. Baker, Henry H., .395.
Joseph, 398, 399.
Orville D., 215.
William, 439, 444, 448. Ballard, Edward, 122, 130, 246. Balthazar, 414. Bancroft, George, 186, 187, 234, 253,
254, 255, 340. Banks, Charles E., 85, 169, 174. 215
322, 330.
456
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Barclay, Capt., , 359, 361.
Barker, David, 125. Barlow, Arthur, 226.
S. L. M., 230. Bamaby, Sir William, 359. Barren, Nathaniel, .54, 76, 213. Barrett, Franklin R., 215.
S., 141. Barrows, George B., 215.
W., 142.
W. jr., 141.
William G., 167, 170, 171, 176,178, 328, 329, 331. Bartlett, B., 141.
Caroline, 443, 448.
Christopher, 443, 444.
Israel, 444.
James, 213.
Jeremiah, 213. •
John Heard, 213.
Sarah, 213. Bartol, Cyrus A., 123. Barton, James, 440, 441, 447, Bates, Arlo, 124. Battles, Amory, 123.
Baum, , 160.
Baxter, James P., 85, 87, 167, 168,
171, 172, 174, 175, 181, 182, 183,
215, 229, 273, 328, 345, 430, 432. Beal, Zacheus, 55. Bean, Joshua, 55.
Beaudry, Father, , 195.
Belcher, S., 118. Belknap, Jeremy, 150, 233, 253. Bell, John B., 398. Bellamy, Joseph, 115. Bennett, , 440.
Andrew, 440. Bennoch, Francis, 170, 171, 175, 185. Benson, Benjamin, 441, 447. Bernard, Francis, 439.
J., 140, 141.
John, 439, 444. Berry, E. 141.
John, 12, 13.
Stephen, 215. Betsaber, 424. Beverly, Robert, 233.
Biard, Pierre, 276, 277, 299, 411,
412, 415, 416, 427. Biarne, 259, 261.
Bickersteth, Rev. , 184.
Biencourt, Charles de,412, 414, 415,
416, 417, 418, 419, 420, 421, 422,
423, 426. Bingham, William 117. Bird, Thomas, 303, 335. Bixby, A. R., 331. Black, Judge, , 342n.
Henry, 21,3. Blackie, John Stuart, 184. Blaine, James G., 171 177. Blake, S., 141. Boardman, Samuel, L., 215. Bodwell—, 139, 140. Bonaparte, Napoleon, 22.
Bond, , 139.
Bonney, Percival, 215.
Bonython family, 85.
Boswell, James, 120.
Bourne, Edward E., 122, 215, 306.
Bowden, ) ^^
Bowdin, f '^^'
Samuel, 440, 447.
Twisden, 440.
Bowdoin, James, 54, 58, 59, 68.
Boyd, , of Limington, 140.
Bradbury, , of York, 140.
Jacob, 54.
James W., 83, 86, 163, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 174, 175, 185, 186,211,215,328,329,330, 429, 430, 431.
John, 301, 310.
Theophilus, 31.5, 351. Bradford, Alden, 119.
B., 141.
Bragdon, , of York, 140.
Bradlee, Caleb, D., 191. Bradley, , 306.
Mathew, 327.
S. A., 142. Brereton, John M., 146, 147. Brewer, Jacob, 214. Bridge and Williams, 163. Briggs, Herbert, G., 215. Brinley, Lawrence, 324, 327.
INDEX.
457
Britton, W. H., 141. Brock, Robert A., 328.
Thomas, 184, 185. Brooks, , 58.
James, 124.
Noah, 124, 168.
Brown, Alexander, 248, 414.
B., 141.
James Carter, 2.S0, 345.
James M., 86.
John Dr., 23, 39, 41.
John Rev., 39, 49.
John Marshall, 84, 175, 215, 411, 431.
Jonathan, 448.
Philip H., 215.
Simeon, 13.
Thomas, 23. Bryant, Hubbard W., 83, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 174, 175, 181, 211, 215, 328, 329, 331, 429, 430, 432.
William Cullen, 203. Buchanan, James, 340, 342, 342n,
343, 344. Buckley, John, 446. Bull, Dixie, 327.
John, 327.
Seth, 327. Bullard, Laura Curtis, 125. BuUer, J., 355. Bunker, Aaron, 410, 442, 447.
Abigail, 442, 447.
Benjamin, 440, 442, 447, 448.
Benjamin jr., 440, 447.
Isaac, 440, 447.
John, 439, 442, 447.
Joseph, 439, 447. Burbarik, Horace H., 215. Burgess, George, 123.
George C.,215.
Burley, , of Palermo, 139, 140.
Burham Edward P., 85, 215, 301,
432.
J.. 141.
J. 2d., 141.
R., 141. Burns, Robert, 97, 106, 131, 200,
206.
Burr, , of Litchfield, 140.
Capt., , 3-9.
Burrage, H. S., 97, 169, 175, 181,
215, 225, .330, .332,429.
Burridge, Thomas, 141. Bursby, Hugh, 324, 327.
Burton, Col., , 161.
Busley, John, 327. Butler, Francis G., 215.
George, 442, 443, 446, 447. Buzzell, , of Parsonsfield, 140.
Cains, John, 41. Calf, John, 1 16. Cam, Thomas, 238. Campbell, Col., , 409.
Dr., 43.
Thomas, 194. Carayon, Auguste, 276, 411, 413,
415. Carlyle, Thomas, 20, 21, 22, 23, .39. Carr, James, 55. Carruthers, James, 21.
John J., 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 2.5, 26, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 49. '
John J. Mrs., 34, .35, 38, 41. Carter, Thomas, 448. Catherwood, Frederick, 251. Cecil, Robert, 274, 279, 281, 284,
286, 292, 297, 298. Chaloiier, William, 16. Challons, Henry, 282, 297. Chalmers, Thomas, 22, 24, 39. Chamberlain, Joshua, L., 215, 327
W. 141. Champlain, Samuel de, 172, 248,
411,412. Champlin, James Tift, 126. Chandler, , of Belgrade, 141.
John, 136, 139, 140, 141,
Peleg W., 337. Chapman, Henry L., 182, 200, 215, 430.
Leonard B., 21.5. Charlevoix, P. F. X.,411. Chase, , of Kittery, 140.
Alden F., 171, 215.
458
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Cheever, , of Hallowell, 141.
Cbepan, John. 442, 447. Chick, Amos, 213. Child, James, 163.
James Loring, 103, 1G4, 165.
Moses, 163. Chisholm, Hugh J., 174. Chitty, Josepli, 120. Choctaws, the, 388. Cilley, Jonathan P., 215, Clark, E., 141.
Ebenezer, 213.
Nathaniel jr., 213.
Rebecca, S, 126.
Thomas, 213. Cleaveland, Parker, 121, 126. Cleaves, D., 141. Cleeves, George, 86. Clifford, Nathan, 126, 211, 306, 341. Clinton, Sir Henry, 360, 372, 404. Cobb, David, 170.
M., 131, 132, 141. Cochrane, Henry H., 215.
James, 84. Coe, Thomas U., 215. Coffin, Love, 378. Cole, James, 12, 13.
John, 213.
Joseph, 12, 13. Collier, George, 353, 359, 360, 361,
365, 366, 374, 407, 409. Columbus, Christopher, 206, 225,
252, 253, 254, 267, 269. Conant, Frederic, O., 215. Connor, Selden, 215.
Coolbroth, , 12.
Cooper, John, 118, 131, 142. Coppyn, Thomas, .327. Cornish, Leslie C, 216. Cotton, Cotton, 213. Coulson, Samuel, 348, 349, 350. Cowan, Lewis, O., 398. Cox, Thomas, 444. Cram, Marshal, 429. Crediforth, Nathaniel, 13. Crosby, , 429.
Jonah, 55.
Josiah, 215.
Curamings, , 446.
Crosby, Asa, 12.3,
Ephraira C, 215. Curtis, George T., 344.
George W., 189. Cushing, William, 54, 71, 302, 303,
304, 314, 315. Cushman, , of Pownall, 140.
David Q., 234.
J., 139, 141. Cutter, William, 125. Cutts, Richard F., 54, 140, 306.
Thomas, 54.
Dal ton, Asa, 216.
Tristram, 301. Dana, Francis, 54, 64, 69, 302, 303,
306, 314, 315.
Dane, , 306.
Daniel, J., 141. Dartmouth, Lord, 354.
Savles,[ —,of Augusta, 139, 141.
, of Montville, 140,
Benjamin, 448.
Charles S., 123.
Daniel, 118, 127.
David, 304.
Edward H., 216.
John, 131, 133, 138, 139, 140, 213.
Moses, 55,
Eobert, 288. Dawes, Jonathan, 444, 448.
W., 58, 139, 141. Day, John, 442;
Seane,fj*^^°W^^d,122,188.
Charles, 85, 122.
JohnG., 175.
Llewellyn, 175, .328,
Samuel, 117, 118, 119. Dearborn, Henry, 304,
Henry A. S., 84.
Jeremiah W., 216. DeCosta, B. F. 286, Deeriug, Henry, 216, DeMonts, Pierre Guast, 83, 145,
175, 418, 432,
Dennett, , of Kittery, 140,
Dexter, Frank H., 216, Dickson, David, 39.
INDEX.
459
Digby, Admiral, , 368, 369.
Dike, Samuel F., 168, 216, 329, 429,
430. Dix, William jr., 448. Dodge, Ebenezer, 337.
Ezra H., 441, 443, 446, 447.
John C, 337. Dolliver, Peter, 440, 447. Donell, Henry, 324. Douglas, Joshua L., 216, 328, 429. Douglestone, , 409.
Graham, 409. Dowden, Edward, 202, 203. Drew, Franklin M , 216, Drummoud, Josiah H., 216, 330, 391.
P., 141. Dryden.John, 196, 199. Dugdale, William, 306. Dummer, Jane, 306.
Shubael, 113.
Duulap, John, 55.
Dunlop, Capt. , 405, 406, 407.
Dunn, , of Cornish, 139, 140.
Dunning, R. D., 141. Duren, EInathan F., 216. Durrie, Daniel S., 168. Dwight, Timothy, 120,
William T., 123. Dyer, Joshua, 55, 141.
Earle, Richard, 13.
Eaton, , of Bowdoin, 140.
Amos, 444, 448.
Cyrus, 122.
David, 442, 443, 446, 447.
Ebenezer, 440, 447.
S., 141. Edes and Son, 65. Eddy, Jonathan, 170. Egmont, Earl of, 357. Elder, Janus G., 84, 216. Elizabeth, Queen, 226, 228, 229,
274, 290. Ellbridge, Gyles, 324, 327. Ellis, Jonathan, 119. Elwell, Edward H., 85, 86, 99, 124,
167, 171, 175, 179, 211, 212, 328,
330, 331, 429, 430, 431, 433.
Emerson, Luther D., 216.
Samuel, 118. Emery, , of Portland, 134.
, of Shapleigh, 140.
Anne, 213.
Caleb, 213.
Daniel, jr., 21.3.
Daniel and Son, 213.
George F., 42, 51, 171, 179, 216, 331, 337, 429,
Isaac, 213.
James, 213.
Japhet, 213.
Jeremiah, 54.
Lucilius A., 216.
K, 141.
Noah, 213, 301.
Simon, 213.
Simon, jr., 213.
Steijhen and Son, 213.
Stephen jr., 213.
William, 213.
Zachariah, 213. Emmerson, , 440.
Samuel, 448.
Emmons, Rev. , 117.
Emory, Nicholas, 316. Essex, Earl of, 228.
Estes, , of Westbrook, 140.
Etchemins, ( ,,^a .,^f. Etheminquois, ( ■*^'*' '*-^"- Evans, George, 91, 126. Everett, Edward, 120, 124, 2.54, 256,
267.
Fairbanks, J., 141. Fairfield, John. 3u6, 339. Fales, David, 55. Farley, E., 141.
Wil iam J., 127.
Farnham, Capt. , 363.
Fenderson, Benjamin, 13.
Ezekiel, 13.
Isaiah, 13.
William, 13. Ferguson, Elizabeth, 213.
Daniel, 213.
Patience, 213.
Reuben, 213.
460
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Ferfjuson, Stephen, 213. Timothy, 213. William, 213. Fernald, John, .309.
Meriitt C, 210. Noah, 213. Samuel, 213. Fesseuden. Caleb P., 118.
Francis, 216.
Samuel, 12.
William Pitt, 341, 341n. Fisher, J., 141.
Jacob, 118. Fiske, , of Fayette, 141.
John 0.,216.
Fitche, Capt. , 222.
Flags, Edmund, 124.
Flint, Ephraim, jr., 399.
Floss, Thomas, 443.
Flye, James, 446.
Flyn, Thomas, 448.
Flynt, Henry, 3').5.
Fogg, , of Scarboro, 140.
John S. n., 153. Folsom, George, 122. Force, Peter, 345.
Foster, Lieut. , 219, 220, 221,
222 224.
Abigail, 213.
B., 141.
Benjamin, 5, 14, 15, 109.
Ezekiel, 13.
R., 141.
Wooden, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12. Fox, Edward, 338.
John, 55, 70. Foxcroft, , of New Gloucester,
139, 140.
Francis, , of Leeds, 141.
Freeman, Col. , 57, 350.
George, 441, 444, 446, 447.
Reuben, 443, 444, 447.
Samuel, 118. Frost, Charles & Son, 213.
Hannah, 213.
John, 213.
Mary, 213.
Sarah, 213.
SimeoD, 213.
Frye, , 177.
family, 435.
Abiel 1st, 436, 437.
Abiel 2d, 437.
Abigail 1st, 4.37.
Abigail 2d, 437.
Anna 1st, 436.
Anna 2d, 436, 437.
Anna 3d, 436, 437.
Benjamin 1st, 435,436.
Benjamin 2d, 436.
Dorothy 1st, 436, 4.37.
Dorothy 2d. 437.
Ebenezer, 4.36.
Esther, 430.
Hannah 1st, 436.
Hannah 2d, 436, 437.
Hannah 3d, 437.
Hepsibah, 436.
Huldah, 437.
Isaac 1st, 436, 437.
Isaac 2d, 437.
James Jst, 4.35, 436. James 2d, 436. James 3d, 436. John 1st, 43,5. John 2d, 435. John 3d, 4.36. John 4th, 436. John 5th, 436, 437. John 6tli, 437. Jonathan 1st, 436. Jonathan 2d, 437. Joseph 1st, 4.30. Joseph 2d, 430, 4.37. Joseph 3d, 437, 438. Joseph 4th, 437. "General" Joseph, 4.35. Joshua 1st, 436, 437. Joshua 2d, 4.37. Joshua 3d, 437. Lyda, 436. Martha, 437. Mary 1st, 436. Mary 2d, 436. Mary 3d. 436, 437. Mehitable, 1st, 436. Mehitable 2d, 4-36, 4.37. Mehitable 3d, 437.
INDEX.
461
Frye, Mehitable 4th, 437.
Naomah, 437.
Nathaniel 1st, 435, 436.
Nathaniel 2d, 436, 437, 438.
Phebe, 1st, 4.36, 437.
Phebe 2d, 436.
Eichard, 437.
Samuel 1st, 435, 436.
Samuel 2d, 436.
Samuel 3d, 4.36, 437.
Samuel 4th, 437.
Samuel 5th, 437, 438.
Sarah, 436.
Simeon, 437.
Susanna, 437.
Tabitha 1st, 436.
Tabitha 2d. 437.
Tabitha 3d, 437.
William, 435. Fuller, Thomas, 306. Furbish, David, 213.
James, 213.
Joseph & Son, 213.
Galitzin, Prince , 26, 36, 37.
Gamage, A. T., 431.
Gambler, Admiral , 360.
Garde, Roger, 321, 322, 323. Gardiner, John, 119.
Robert, H., 122, 123, 329, 429. Gayarre, Charles, 430.
Gaylor, Capt. , 360.
George Daniel, 116.
Germaine, Lord George, 353, 354,
358. Germans, -32. Gerrard, Sir George, 290. Gerry, Elbridge, 52, 57. Getchell, A., 141.
Joseph, 13, Gibson, Richard, 173. Giddings. A. R., 141. Gilbert, Bartholomew, 145.
Humphrey, 225, 289, 290
John, 184, 275, 298.
Raleigh, 278, 279, 280, 287, 289 290, 291, 297, 298, 299.
Washington, 401, Gillett, Eliphalet, 123.
Gilley, John, 448. Glazier, William. 442, 447. Gilman, Charles J., 216, 429.
J., 141. Gilmore, David, .55.
William B., 125. Glover, Ralph, 327. Goddard, Charles W., 167, 400. Godfrey, Edward, 83, 169, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 327.
JohnE., 122,211. Good, Daniel, 214. Goodenow, , 306.
Henry C, 216.
Goodwin, Daniel R., 124.
John, 214. William F., 122. Goodyear, Moses, 85, 173. Goold, William, 19, 20, 122, 167,
170, 171, 212, 328, 331, 429, 430,
431. Gore, Christopher, 54, 59. Gorges, Sir Ferdmando, 83, 84, 113, 173, 228, 232, 319, 320, 323, 325, 327,
Thomas, 83, 323.
William, 320, 324, 325, 330. Gorham, Nathaniel, 52, 54, 65. Gosnold, Bartholomew, 14:3, 144,
145, 146, 147, 149, 150, 151, 152,
226, 227, 228, 230, 248. Gott, Benjamin, 448,
Daniel, 439, 441, 442,443,445, 447.
Daniel jr., 445.
John, 448.
Peter, 441, 447, 448.
Stephen, 443, 447. Gould, Alex., 213.
Benjamin, 213.
Daniel, jr., 213.
John, 214.
Joseph, 214.
Joseph jr., 214.
N., 141.
William E., 169. Gourdin, Robert, N., 168. Gowen, Lois, 213.
Samuel, 214. Grant, Samuel, 55.
462
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Graves, Samuel, 351, 352, 353, 354, 355, 3:>7, 372. Thomas, 284, 327, 367.
Gre"nX[H"g^W..338.
Nathaniel, 74.
Samuel A., 347. Gieenleaf, Jonathan, 122.
Moses, 121, 122.
Simon, 12(5. Grellet, Stephen, 20, 27. Griffin, J., 391. Gosvener, G., 141. Grow, .John Stone, 443, 447.
William, 442, 447.
Hadlock, Samuel, 439. Haines, William P., 401, Hakluyt, Richard, 143, 144, 145, 146,
227, 263. Hale, . 177.
Jane, 165. Hall, , of Portland, 140.
Joseph, H., 397. Ham, John R., 328. 429. Hamilton, Duke of, 403, 404.
Jonathan, 214. Hamlin, Cyrus, 337.
Hannibal. 126, 328. Hammond, Richard H.,212.
Samuel, 214. Hancock, John, 53, 69, 70, 71, 73,
74, 78, 313, 316. Hanscora, Thomas, 213.
Tobias. 214. Hanson, Hans, 303. Harding, D., 141.
Hare, , 35.
Harlow, Edward, 275, 280. Harper, William, 448. Harris, , 112.
Job, 110.
Samuel, 123. Harvard, John, 319. ■Hasey, B., 141. Haskell, Thomas H., 216.
Hasty, , of Staudish, 140.
Hathaway, Joshua W., 216. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 194, 195.
Haydn, Joseph, 182. Hayes, Elijah, 54. Hazard, Ebenezer, 290. Head, J., 141. Heard, John, .321. Ilearl, Ebenezer, 214. Heath, Herbert M., 216.
Richard, 446, 448.
Gen. William, 58.
William of Mount Desert, 442,
443, 446.
William 2d, 448. Hedge, Frederick H., 12.3. Hemmenway, Moses, 54, 76, 116,
117, 123.
Henderson, Dr. , 33.
Henry, George, 181, 138, 141. Herman, George, 439, 447. Ilerrick, Andrew, 440.
Israel 219, 224
John R., 123.
Higgins, , of Cape Elizabeth,
140.
David, 448.
Ichabod, 448,
Jesse, 448.
Oliver, 448.
Reuben, 448.
Shaw, 448.
Sparrow, 448. Hight, Horatio, 216. Hill, Andrew, 214.
Benjamin, 214.
J., 141.
James, 214.
Jeremiah, 118.
John, 141, 214, .301.
John B., 398.
John F., 216.
Rowland, 184.
T., jr., 1.33, 141.
Winfield S., 216.
Hilton, , of Malta, 141.
Hitchcock, Roswell D., 123. Hobbs, W., 139, 140, 141. Hobby, John, 304. Uodsdon, Benjamin, 214.
Joseph jr., 448.
Joseph T., 443, 444, 447.
INDEX.
463
Hodsdon, Samuel, 448.
Thomas, 214.
Sarah, 214. Holmes, John, of Alfred, 127, 135, 136, 1.37, 138, 139, 140, .306.
James S., .331.
Oliver Wendell, 187, 188. Holway, Oscar, 216. Hooke, Humfrey, 324, 327.
Thomas, 324, 327.
William, 319, 321, 324, 325, 327. Hooper, J., 1-39, 141. Hope, David, 22.
William, 22. Hoskins, Thomas, 39. Howard, A., 141.
Joseph, 306. Howe, Lord, 353, 3-58, 359, 367, 369, 371, 272, .373, .374.
Caroline Dana, 191. Hoyt, Elias, 13. Hubbard, John, 141.
Joseph, 213.
Joshua, 214.
Philip, 214.
William, 232. Hudson, Henry, 152, 248. Humphrey, Samuel F., 216. Huse, Jonathan, 119. Hutchinson, Joseph, 442. Hyde, J., 141.
William, 391.
William D., 216, 430. Hynes, John, 443, 447.
Hsley, Daniel, 55, 80.
Ingalls, , of Bridgton, 139, 140.
Henry, 216. Irving, Washington, 120, 198, 203,
253.
Jackson, George E. B,, 216.
Jamblin, Kobei't, 171.
James 1st, 228, 229, 248, 250, 264.
291, 292, 296. Jefferys, William, 324, 327. Jenkins, Samuel, 214. Jennings, Abraham, 172, 173.
Johnson, A., 141.
Edward, 167, 216.
Henry, 216.
Joseph, 214.
JSToah, 214.
Samuel, 120, 125. Johnston, John, 122.
Rev. John, 20, 21, 22, 39.
Robina, 21. Jones, Judge , 3, 6, 15.
Charles C. jr., 171.
Ichabod, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 15, 109.
Rowland, 279.
Samuel, 214.
Thomas, 445.
William, 55. Jordan, Fritz, H., 212, 216.
John W., 333.
Richard, 448.
Robert, 173, 174. Josselyn, Thomas, 173. Judd, Sylvester, 124.
Keely, , 126.
Kellogg, Elijah, 118, 124. Kennebec Proprietors, 432. Kensington, Henry, 430. Kent, Benjamin, 448.
Edward, 401.
Samuel, 448.
Keppel, Admiral , 368.
Kidder, N., 142. Kimball, William K., 402. King, Cyrus, 132, 306.
Horatio, 430.
Marquis F., 216.
Rufus, 52, 54, 56, 61, 63, 64, 66, 69, 70.
William, 129, 139, 140. Kingsbury, John, 214.
Joseph, 214. Kingsley, Charles, 210. Kinnie, William, .382. _ Kinsley, M., 131, 135, 'l36, 139, 141. Kitteridge, Kendall, 448. Knight, Jonathan, 13, 111. Knox, Henry, 121. Kohl, John G., 84, 261.
4fi4
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Ladd, Capt. , 136.
George T., 123. William, 124, 141. La Fayette, Marquis de, 165.
Lallemant, Father , 427.
Laugdon, Elizabeth, 304, 336. Samuel, 301, 304, 334, 336. Timothy, 303. Langley, John, 448. Philip, 439, 440, 441, 447. Mrs. Philip, 441, 442. Lapham, William B., 84, 167, 171, 176, 213, 216, 328, 429, 430, 439.
Larrabee, , of Scarboro, 140.
Lawrence, J., 141.
Lawson, Dr. , 23.
Leavitt, J., 139, 141. Lee, Joseph, 141. Leslie A., 216. Richard Henry, 53. Silas, 118, 304. Legro, Joseph, 440, 447. Leighton, Samuel, 214. Lescarbot, Marc, 411, 412. Levensaler, Henry C, 217. Levitt, Christopher, 320.
Lewis, Col. , of Georgetown,
130, 136, 140. L., 141. T. B., 141. Libby, Artemas, 401. Charles F., 171, 182, 208, 217. Charles T., 217. Josiah, 13. Lief, 256, 259, 260, 261, 263, 264. Lilly, C, 141. Lincoln, Abraham, 98, 343. Benjamin, 54, 116, 159. Enoch, 121. Linscott, Samuel, 214. Lithgow, William, 127, 159.
WilUam jr., 304. Little, George T., 217, 429.
M., 141. Livermore family, 432.
Locke, , of Hollis, 140.
John S., 217. Long, John D., 167.
Longfellow, Alexander W., 217.
Henry W., 124, 174, 175, 177, 179, 181, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 192, 191, 195, 196, 199, 200, 203, 204, 205, 206, 208, 210, 253.
Samuel, 200.
Stephen, 188.
Stephen jr., 55, 70, 80, 316. Lord, Daniel, 214.
Jeremiah, 214.
John, 214.
Mark, 214.
Nathan, 214.
Paul, 214.
Simeon jr., 214.
Simon, 214. Loring, Amasa, 331. Lothian, Andrew, 39. Lovejoy, Owen, 105. Lovell, James, 155, 166, 157, 158, 159, 162.
Solomon, 362. Lovewell, John, 436. Lovey, J., 448. Low, John, 54, 135, 137, 141.
John jr., 137.
Nathaniel, 54. Loyalists, 368. Lunt, Abner, 448. Lurvey, Jacob, 446, 448. Lyman, Job, 334. Lyon, Rev. , 7.
Mace, Frances L., 125, 182, 192. MacLean, Francis, 360, 361, 363,
366, 403, 404, 405, 407, 408, 409. Madigan, James E., 401.
Magnussou, Prof. , 255.
Manchester, Gershom, 444. Manning, Prentice C, 217.
William C, 211. Marble, Sebastian S., 217. Marshal, N. G., 319. Martin, Father, 413. Martyn, Henry, 37. Massey, Nathaniel, 448. Mather, Richard, 173. Maverick, Elias, .S24, 327.
Samuel, 320, 321, 324, 325, 327,
INDEX.
465
Mayhew, Thomas, 377.
Mayo, Joseph, 439, 440, 442, 444,
447. McCobb, Col. , 159.
J. , 141.
William, 55. McGaffey, , of Mount Vernon,
141. McKinsey, John, 444, 448. Mclntire, Eiifus, 140, 306.
John, 214.
Joseph, 214. McKeau, J., 141.
John, 233, 234, 246. McKown, J., 141. McLellan, B., 142.
Isaac, 125.
Joseph, 55.
McNeal, , 12, 110, 111.
McNeil, , 409.
Mellen, Grenville, 125.
Prentiss, 176, 306, 316. Merdam, J. 139, 141. Merrill, Daniel, 121, 123.
Samuel, 55.
Merritt, , of Pleasant River, 13.
Merry, Daniel, 441, 446, 447.
Merveilles, Capt. , 416, 417.
Messenger, Roswell, 119. Metcalf, J., 141. Meteourmite, 420, 421, 422. Mighels, J. W., 40.
Miller, , of St. George, 140.
Milliken, Alexander, 332.
Mrs. Charles A., 332.
Samuel, 441, 442, 443, 444, 447, 448.
Samuel jr., 448.
Simeon, 448. Minot, George R., 54. Mitchell, A. R., 119, 141.
David, 55.
J. B., 141.
J. W., 141.
Josiah, 1.34, 141.
William M., 217. Monroe, James, 309, 317. Moutagnais, The, 426. Montague, Admiral , 357.
Moody, William P., 136, 1.37, 140.
Joseph, 326.
Samuel, 113, 114, 115, 127, 382.
Silas, 119.
Moor, Capt. , 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12,
15, 109, 111, 112.
J., 139, 141.
Sir John, 348, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408. Moore, Joseph, 440.
Mary, 440, 447.
Samuel, 441.
Sarah, 448. Moravians, 27, 36, 38. Morgan, Jonathan, 331. Morrell, Hiram K., 167, 217, 429. Morrill, , of Monmouth, 141.
Joel, 214.
K, 141.
Nicholas, 214.
Robert, 214. Morse, Andrew, 214, Morton, Thomas, 173. Moses, Galen C, 217. Mowat, Capt. Henry, 345, 346, 347,
348, 349, 350, 351, 3.52, 353, 354,
355,356, 357, 3.58, 359, 360, 361,
363, 366, 367, 368, 370, 371, 372,
373, 374. Murphey, George, 448. Murray, David, 55.
Nash, Charles E., 167, 217, Nason, Azariah, 214.
Elias, 328.
Samuel, 54, 63, 65, 68, 69, 73. Neal, D., 139, 141.
James, 54, 68, 69, 70,
John, 124, 338. Nealley, Edward B., 168, 217. Neely, Henry A., 217. Neill, Edward D., 273. Newman, S. P., 126. Nichols, Ichabod, 123. Noble, Reuben, 442, 447. Norridgewocks, The, 142, 3^31. Norton, George, 327.
Richard. .327,
Robert, 327.
Walter, 327.
4G6
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Norwood, Joshua, 441, 447.
Moses, 448.
Ruth, 441.
William, 441, 447. Nutter, William, 214, 441, 447, 448.
Obear, Isaac, 448.
Joseph, 448.
Jo-seph M., 444, 448. O'Brien, Dennis, 13, 110.
Gideon, 18, 109, 111.
Jeremiah, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 1U9, 110, 111.
John, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 1-3, 110, 111, 112.
Joseph, 13.
Michael C, 217.
Morris, 6, 13.
William, 13. Odiorne, Daniel, 214. Oldmixon, John, 233. Oliver, Robert, 445. Orr, Benjamin, 127, 131. Otis, Albert B., 328.
Packard, Alpheus S., 122, 126, 175, 17(5.
Hezekiah, 178.
Page, , of Brunswick, 140.
Paine, Albert W., 101, 104,211, 217.
Josiah, 442, 447.
Robert Treat, 302, 315.
Parillo, Dr. , 285.
Parker, Isaac, 118, 119, 304.
Mary, 301, 304, .334.
William, 301. Parkman, Francis, lOR, 412. Parris, Albion K., 131, 132, 138, 140^
141, 165, 176. Parsons, Usher, 122.
Theophilus, 54, 56, 65, 68, 69, 70,
72, 316. Paul, Moses, 214. Payson, Edward, 46, 123, 176. Peabody, William, 377. Peckham, Thomas, 290. Pepperell, Lady Mary, 214.
air William, 306.
Perham, Mr. , 382.
D., 135, 141.
Sidney, 92, 217. Perkins, E., 141. Perley, Samuel, 55, 65. Peters, John A., 217, 329.
Peterson, Dr. , .33, 34, 38.
Phelps, Albert I., 217. Pliilbrook, Luther G., 217. Pierce, George W., 338.
Josiah, 432.
Lewis, 167, 170, 171,217,328, 429, 430. Piei'pont, John, 89.
Piggot, Admiral , 368.
Pike, , of Saco, 140.
Francis A., 126.
Frederick, 402.
James S., 329.
Mary II., 125. Pillsberry, Joseph, 214. Pistor, William, 324, 327.
Plastrier, Capt. , 416, 418, 423.
Polk, James K., 340. Pond, Benjamin, 336.
Enoch, 123.
S. M., 141. Pont Grave, Sieur de, 416, 417. Poor, Laura A., 126.
John A.. 90, 122. Popham Colonists, 273, 275.
Family, 83.
Francis, 275, 281, 298.
George, 264, 275, 277, 278, 279, 289, 290, 291,297. Porter, , of Baldwin, 140.
Joseph W., 122, 170, 217. Potter, Barrett, 188.
Pondtrincourt, , 418.
Powell, Jeremiah, 311.
Nathaniel, 248. Pownall, Thomas, 346, 4.32. Pray, Ephraim, 441, 442, 443, 444, 447.
Ephraim jr., 447.
Margaret, 442, 443. Preble, Abraham, 321.
Esaias, 54.
George H., 122.
INDEX.
467
Preble, Jedecliab, 57 350.
William P., 131, 132, 133, 135, 139, 140, 304, 306. Prentiss, Elizabeth P., 125. Prescolt, , of Farmington, 139,
141.
Prime, , of Berwick, 140.
Prince, George, 234. Prince of W iles, 184, 185, 248, Pring, Martin, 227, 228, 248, 278. Purchase, Samuel, 144, 23o, 237,
248. Putnam, F. W., 167.
William L., 217.
Quimby, George W., 123. Quinam, D., 141.
Eafnell, Augustus, 440, 447. Kainsford, Robert, 327. Eaitt, Miriam, 214.
William, 213, 214. Kaleigh, Walter, 143, 144, 225, 226,
228, 243, 279, 290. Ralle, Sebastian, 331.
Rand, , of Xobleboro, 140.
Randell, J., 141.
Randoljib, Peyton, 74.
Read, Abraham, 442, 446, 447.
J. G., 141.
Jacob, 441, 442, 446, 447.
James, 442, 443, 445.
Samuel, 442, 445, 446, 447.
Samuel jr., 445, 448.
Tyler, 442, 447.
William, 445, 448. Reed, Parker M., 217.
Thomas B., 217. Rice, E., 140, 142.
Thomas, 55, 163. Rich, Elias, 448.
John, 441, 446,447,448.
John jr., 440.
Jonathan, 448.
William, 448. Richardson, , of Gushing, 141.
A., 141.
Abraham, 448, 447.
Albert F., 217.
Richardson, Charles F., 190.
David, 442, 443, 445, 446, 448.
Eli jail, 440, 444, 445.
Hobart W. 432.
James, 442, 445, 446, 447,
John G., 444, 445, 447, 448.
Stephen, 441, 444, 447, 448.
Thomas, 441, 443, 445, 447. Thomas jr., 441.
William, 448. Richmond, George, 172. Ricker, J., 141. Rigby, Alexander, 109. Rishworth, Edward, 323, 325, 326. Robbins, ) - ^ , ^
Robins, } ' «f ^^««"«' 1^1-
Benjamin, 448.
David, 448.
Henry E., 401. Roberts, Charles W., 217.
Samuel, 214. Robinson, David, 443, 448,
John, 441, 443, 446.
John jr., 443, 447.
John S., 443. Rockwood, Hiram F., 217. Rodd, Thomas jr., 345, 346, 348. Rogers, .John jr., 214.
Jonathan P., 127.
Nathaniel, 213.
Samuel, 120. Rosier, James, 1.50, 151, 230, 231,
2^2, 233, 234, 235, 236, 2:!7, 2!8,
239, 240, 241, 242, 244, 245, 246,
247, 249, 250. Rowell, , of Jefferson, 141.
George S., 217. Russell, Edward. 141, 430. Rust, William, 401.
Sabine, Joseph, 233. Sach, Hans, 206. Safford, Moses A., 217. Salisbury, Earl of, 283, 286, 289, 295.
John, 440, 447, 448.
Reuben, 440, 442, 447. Saltonstall, Dudey, 157, 159. Sanborn, , oi Falmouth, 140.
468
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Sanders, Capt. , 223.
Sandwicli, Lord, 3.j5, 3o8. Sar;?ont, N':ithaiiiel P., 302, 314, 315.
William M., 31!).
Saswalo, , 306.
Savaoe, James, 319. Sawtelle, Cullen, 176. Sawyer, Aaron, 4-14, 448.
Curtis M., 329. Sayward, Jonathan, .301. Scott, Walter, 24, 100, 196, 206, 208,
257. Screven, William, 169. Scull, G. D., 107. Sedgewick, Tlieodore, 54, 63.
Sever, , of Soatli Bevwick, 140.
Sewall, Ddvid, 85, 140, 141, 301,302, 303, 30-1, 305, 308, 303, 309, 311, 313, 314, 316, 317, 319, 331, 336.
Dummer, 55, 76.
Elizabeth, 336.
Frank, 309.
Frederick D., 217.
Henry, de Eatendon, 307, 308.
Ilenry, of Nevpbury, 308.
Gen. Henry, 304.
John, 308.
Johns., 217.
Mary, 301, 314.
Rufus K., 83, 122, 107, 169, 170, 171, 179, 217, 247, 306, 309, 328, 329. 331. 332. 334, 430, 431.
Samuel, 301, 308.
Sarah, 301, 334, 330. Seymour, Rev. Richard, 280. Shackley, Richard, 214. Shapleigh, Elisha, 214. Shepard, George, 123, 124. Sheppard, John IT., 122. Shepley family, 306.
Ether, 97, 398. Sherburne, Henry, 214. Shorey, Jacob, 214.
Joseph, 214.
Shuldham, Admiral , 358.
Sibley, John L., 122,346. Simonton, Thaddcus R., 217. Simpson, Eben, 214.
J., 142.
Joseph, 801.
Simpson, Joshua, 214.
Zebediah, 214. Sloane, Eliza, 24. Small, , of Lisbon, 140.
Albion W., 217. Smith, , of Hollis, 140.
Bartlett, 14.
Charles, H., 328.
Edward, 164.
Elizabeth Oakes, 125.
Francis O. J., 393.
G. E., 141.
Henry B., 123, 337.
Howard D.,217.
James K., .55.
James, of Kittery, 214.
John, 85, 248, 280.
John K., 55.
Joseph E., 124.
L., 142.
Noah, 398.
William, 214.
William H., 105, 328, 331, 4.32.
William R., 217. Smyth, , 126.
Egbert C, 123.
Newman, 123. Snow, Isaac, 55, 61. Somes, Abraham, 442, 445, 447.
Daniel, 443, 447.
George, 152.
Sir George, 275.
John, 445, 448.
John jr., 446, 448. Soule, John B. L., 4-30. Souriquois, The, 424, 426. Southampton, Earl of, 144, 228, 229. Spaulding, James A., 218. Sp.arhawk, Nathaniel, 213, 214.
Thomas S., 118. Spencer, C, 35.5. Spofford, Harriet Prescott, 125.
P., 141. Sprague, John F., 171, 212, 218, 331.
Spring, Mr. , 139, 140.
Spyling. Benjamin, 441. Stacey, Ichabod, 214.
Jolin, 214.
Mehitable, 214.
William, 214.
INDEX.
469
Stacey, William jr., 214. Standish, Josiah, 377.
Miles, 377. Stanley, Samuel, 448. Stanwood, Edward, 167. Starr, J., 141.
Stebbins, Josiali, 137, 139, 141, 316. Steele, L, 139, 141. Stephens, John L., 251. Stepenson, S., 141.
Stermons, , of Westbrook, 140.
Stevens, B., 141.
Edmund, 9, 13.
Henry, .346. Stewart, David D., 218. Stillman, Samuel, 54, 78. Stith, William, 233. Stoddard, Amos, 118. Stone, Thomas L., 123. Story, Joseph. 304. Strachey, William, 147, 150, 151,
232, 248, 280, 286, 291. Strong, Caleb, 52, .54, 58, 75. Sullivan, James, 117, 122, 162, 270. Summers, Thomas, 446, 448. Sumner, Increase, 159, 302, 314. Swallow, L., 141. Sweat, Margaret J. M., 125.
Sweet, , of Raymond, 140.
Sylvester, B., 141.
David, 55, 76. Symmes, Thomas, 118.
William, 118. Symonds, Joseph W., 182, 197, 199, 200, 218.
William L., 124.
Taft, Isaac, 12, 13.
Talbot, George F., 88, 97, 98, 182,
204, 218, 329, 401, 432. Tappan, Benjamin, 123. Tarr, Andrew, 439, 442, 446, 447.
Daniel, 445, 448. Tenney, Albert G., 218, 329, 429,
430, 431. Tetherly, William, 214. Thatcher, Col. , 137.
Benjamin B., 124, 125.
S., 141.
Thayer, Henry Otis, 212, 218, 330,
414. Thomas, Elias, 56.
John, 161.
William, W. jr., 218, 433.
Thompson, , of Lisbon, 131,
139, 140.
Joseph, 131, 141, 214.
Samuel, 55, 56, 58, 61, 63, 06, 67, 68, 72.
Col. Samuel, 349, 350.
William, 55. Thomson, Edward, 120.
Eobert, 324, 327. Thornton, Charles C. G., 171.
J. Wingate, 122.
Thomas G., 304. Thurston, Brown, 218. Tidy, Robert, 214. Tincker, Mary A., 126. Tingley Pelatiah, 54. Tinker, John, 441, 447. Titcomb, Hannah, 383.
Stephen, 380, 383. Todd, Thomas 393. Tallman, Peleg, 131. Torsey, Henry P., 218. Trelawny, Robert, 85, 172.
Robert jr., 172, 173. Trufy, James, 448, Tucker, Andrew, 440, 442, 444, 446, 447.
Jane, 214.
Nicholas, 440, 447.
Stephen, 214.
William, 447. Turner, , 58.
, of Mount Pleasant, 288.
J., 1.39, 141. Turrill, Ter. S., 448. Tuttle, Charles W., 122.
Trueworthy, 442, 447.
W., 141. Twitchell, , of Poland, 140.
Upham, Thomas C, 124, 126. Upton, E. 141.
Vaughau, Benjamin, 121.
470
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Vetromilc, Eugene, 169. Vinal, Joseph, 70. Vines, Kichard, 173. Vinton, Warren H., 398. Virgin, P. C, 142.
Wadsworth, Peleg, 1.53, 162. Waldo, Samuel, 116, '222, 333. Waldron, E. Q. S., 331.
James, 214.
William, 325. Walker, George, 109.
J., 141. Wallmgford, G. W., 138, 141. Ward, Artemus, 161.
Benjamin, 440, 447. Ware, AsUur, 122, 126. Warren, Fred M., 411, 414.
Joseph, 74.
Pelatiah, 214. Wasgatt, Cornelius, 448.
David, 446.
James, 442.
John, 445. Washburn, Israel jr., 86, 87, 88, 89,
90,91,92,93,95, 97, 98, 99, 101,
104, 122. Washington, George, 66,68,74,118,
119, 163, 186, 309, 312, 313. Waterhouse, J., 141. Waterman, John A., 218, 429. Watson, John, 142. Watts family, 13.
Capt. , 308.
Samuel, 13. Waugh, James, 140, 142. Waymouth, George, 83, 1.50, 151' 175, 225, 228, 229, 230, 231, 2.32, 233, 234, 235, 2-36, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 245, 246, 247, 248, 250, 278, 280, 330, 432.
Timothy, 214. Webster. Daniel, .341. Wedgewood, Edwin W., 399. Weeks, M., 141.
Wellington, , of Fairfield, 141.
Wells, Nathaniel, 54.
Wentworth, , of Buxton, 140.
Enoch, 441, 447. John, 301. Thomas M., .54, West, John, 434.
Samuel, 54. Westbrook, Thomas, 331. Weston, Nathan 134, 139, 141.
Hannah, 14.
Josiah, 13.
Rebecca, 14. Wetmore, William, 119. Wheaton, Henry, 254.
John, 11.
Joseph, 11, 13, 109, 111, 112. Wheeler, Daniel, 26, 27.
George A., 218.
John, 40. Whipple, Joseph, 121. White, John, 226, 248. Whiting, Samuel, 13.
Thurston, 118. Whitman, Ezekiel, 135, 1.37, 138, 139, 141, 316.
Jason, 123.
Levi, 142. Whitney, S. A., 141. Whitwell, Benjamin, 119. Widgery, William, 55, 50, 60, 61,
63, 64, 65, 68, 75, 80, 131, 136, 139,
140. Wilde, Samuel S., 118. Wilder, Marshal! P., 432. Wilkes, Dr. Henry, 40. Wilkins, John, 141. Williams, family, 337.
Ephraim, 302.
John F., 2.33, 24,5.
Joseph, H., 218.
Sophia, 337. Williamson, Joseph, Se, 95, 113, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 194, 211, 218, 251, 328, 330, 331, 346, 347, 348, 403, 4.30, 4-32.
William D., 53, 122, 153, 162, 211, 233, 237. Willis, N. P., 124.
William, 122, 130, 308, 341, 345, 346, 348.
INDEX.
471
Wilson, Adam, 123.
Franklin A., 218. Wing, M., 141. Winsor, Justin, 347. Winter, Jolin, 173, 174. Wiswall, Jolm, 57, 3-49. Witherle, George Henry, 218.
William H., 218. Witlierspoon, Robert, 164. Wittnm, Andrew, 214.
Jonathan, 214. Wolfe, Charles, 409. Wolsey, Thomas, 389. Wood, , of Shapleigh, 140.
A., 141.
Joseph, 218.
Wood, Sally S., 125.
William, 173, 218. Woodman, , of Buxton, 133>
140. Cyrus, 122. Woods, Leonard, 122, 123.
Noah, 218. Woolsey, Joel, .327. Woolson, Abba G., 126. Wright, Rev. A. H., 46. Wyman, Nathaniel, 55. Wywurna, 169.
Young, Joshua, 214. Stephen J,, 167, 218.
472
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
INDEX OF PLACES.
Abagadasset Mills, 219, 220, 221, 222, 22:5, 224.
River, 219. 220, 222, 228. Acadia, 121, 195, 225, 412. Addison, Maine, 13. Agamenticus, 319, 320, 321, 322. Alfred, Maine, 140. Allegheny Mountains, 251. Allen's Island, Maine, 238, 239, 240. Alna, Maine, 164, 165. Ammarscoggin Falls, 224.
River, 219, 220, 221, 222, 224. Andover, England, 435.
Maine, 219.
Massachusetts, 435. Androscoggin County, 96.
River, 219, 234, 247. Annandale, Scotland, 20, 20n. Apulia, 257, 268. Arundel, Maine, 119. Astrakhan, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 36, 37. Atlantic Ocean, 19, 120, 144, 175,
183, 184, 196, 257, 298, 299, 371. Atlantis, Island of, 252. Augusta, Georgia, 171.
Maine, 84, 86, 117, 119, 141, 163, 165, 167, 171, 185, 215, 216, 217- 218, 304, 328, 430, 435.
Bagaduce, 157, 161, see, Magebig-
waduce. Baldwin, Maine, 140. Bandon Bridge, Ireland, 172. Bangor, Maine, 97, 101, 103 168,
170, 182, 192, 215, 216, 217, 218,
328. Bar Harbor, Maine, 218. Bartlett's Island, Maine, 444. Basingstoke, England, 435. Bath, Maine, 55, 76, 168, 215, 216,
217. 245, 24 . 3^;s.
Bay of Fundy, 360, 361, 424. Belfast, Maine, 167, 171, 194, 216,
218, .328, 347, 430. Belgrade, 141. Benner's Island, 238. Berwick, Maine, 54, 140, 141.
Berwick Academy, 304. Bethabara, N. C, 333. Bethel, Maine, 435. Beverly, Mass., 337. Biddeford, England, 173.
Maine, U8. Bingham Purchase, 117. Blomidon. Nova Scotia, 195. Boon Island, Maine, 149. Boothbay, Maine, 55, 140, 236, 237.
Harbor, 233, 241, 248. Bowdoin College, 121, 140, 177, 178,
182, 187, 188, 200, 305, 337, 377,
388, 430. Bowdoinham, Maine, .55. Boxford, Maine, 219. Bradford, Maine, 219. Bridgton, Maine, 140. Bristol, England, 173, 320.
England St. Augustine's Church, 143, 227.
Maine, 55. Broadbay Mf^ine, 160, 333. Broad Cove, Maine, 244. Brunswick, Maine, 11, 55, 111, 129,
130, 140, 167, 168, 170, 171, 175,
215,216,217,218, 219, 328, 331,
349, 391, 429, 430. Buck's Harbor, Maine, 141. Bucksport, Maine, 171, 215. Buckstown, Maine, 118. Bunker Hill, 1, 9, 10, 16, 64. Burnt Island, Maine, 239, 240. Buxton, Maine, 54, 140.
Cabbasconti River, 224, Calais, Maine, 13. Cambridge, England, 186, 255.
Massachusetts, 114, 167, 186, 200, 305, 345, 387. Camden, Maine, 156, 217, 236, 237.
249, 263. Cape Ann, 146, 150, 378. Cape Charles, 248. Cape Cod, 146, 149, 150, 152, 227,
377. Cape Elizabeth, 55, 140, 147, 148.
INDEX.
473
Cape Farewell, 255.
Cape Henry, 356.
Cape Porpus, 249.
Casco Bay, 173, 206, 320.
Castine, Maine, 117, 118, 119, 217, 218, 332, 4ii3.
Cathauce Mills, 220, 221, 222, 223 > 224. River, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224-
Cedar Grove, Maine, 215.
Chandler's River, 14.
Charleston, S. C, 164, 168.
Chelmsford, Mass., 178.
Cherryfield, Maine, Soldier's Mon- ument, 96.
Chesapeake Bay, 226.
Chiboctous River, 424.
Chihnark, Mass., 378, 37».
Chocame, Mass., 378.
Chonacoet, 426.
Cockingham, England, 228.
Concord, Mass., 1, 3, 9, 16, 109.
Connecticut, 52, 337.
Cove of Marsh, Maine, 324.
Coventry, England, 3u7.
Coxhall, Maine, 54.
Cushing, Maine, 141.
Cutlers Cove, 244.
Cuttyhunk, Isle of, 227.
Damariscotta, 217, 431. Damariscove Islands, 237, 265. Dartford, England, 171. Dartmouth Haven, England, 230,
231, 332. Davis Island, 240. Deep Cove, 244. Deering, Maine, 167, 328, 430. Deer Isle, Maine, 2o5, Dexter, Maine, 215. Dorchester, Mass., 161.
nights, 66, 161. Dover, N. H., 325, 328. Dresden, Maine, 265, 378. Duxbury, Mass., 161.
Eastport. Maine, 332.
East River, Machias, 1, 5, 8, 109.
Edgecomb, Maine, 55.
Edinburgh, Scotland, 22, 23, 24, 39
49, 206, 347. Eliot, Maine, 1.33. Elizabeth's Isle, Mass., 227. Ellsworth, Maine, 216.
Emmetenic, ( I^^^' ^16, 418, 423. Englishman's River, 13, Essex County, Mass., 162, 435.
Fairfax, Maine, 141. Fall River, Mass., 253. Falmouth, England, 147, 226.
Maine, 55, 140, 162, 222, 348, 349, 350, 351, 353, 355, 433. Farmington, Maine, 118, 141, 215,
379, 380, 3S2, 383. Fayette, Maine, 141. Fisherman's Island, Maine, 242. Fletcher's Point, Maine, 148. Fort Charles, 445.
Hammonds, 212.
Popham, 329.
St. George, 245.
Weston, 222. Forts and Garrisons :—
at Castine, 1.54, 155.
at Pemaquid, 4-3.5.
at Penobscot, 155, 363, 364, 404, 406, 408, 409.
at York, 335. Frankfort, Maine, 133, 220, 221,
222, 223, 224. Frenchman's Bay, 439. Frj-eburg, Maine, 54, 117, 118, 121,
215, 435.
Gardiner, Maine, 167, 217. Gardinerstown, Maine, 266. Gaspereau, N. S., 195. Gay Cove, Maine, 244. Georges Islands, 280. Georgetown, Maine, 55, 140, 167,
169, 284. Georgia, 52, 62, 361. Gorgeana, 320.
Gorham, Maine, 55, 76, 1-30, 218. Gotland, Island of, 433. Grand Pre, N. S., 195.
474
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Gray, Maine, 55, 65, 140. Greene, Maine, 141.
Halifax, N. S., 15, 358, 359,360, 361,
404, 407, 408. Hallowell, Maine, 55, 117, 118, 120,
141, 380, 382, 383, 392. Hampton, Virjjin a, 356.
Falls, N. H., 3U4, 336. Hanover, N. H., 190. Harpswell, Maine, 55, 61, 262. Harvard University, 113, 161, 171,
301, 334, 33S. Hatfield House, 274, 279. Hiram, Maine, 153, 162. Hockomock Bay, 247, Hollis, Maine, 140. Holmes Bay, 11, 110. Hyler's Cove, 244.
Industry, Maine, 382, 383, 384, 386,
388. Ipswicli, Mass, .307, 308, 337. Isle Haute, 249. Isle of Bacchus, 172, 264. Isle of Orleans, 264. Isle of Shoals, 149.
James River, 233, 248. Jefferson, JVfaine, 141. Jevrell's Island, 284. Jonesboro, Maine, 13.
Kennebec liivev, 1.50, 151, 1.56, 219,220,232, 233, 2-34, 2:].}, 246, 247, 248, 249, 261, 26-', 265, 276, 3!)1, 414, 416, 418, 423, 424, 426.
Kennebunk, 118, 215. River, 325.
Kent's Hill, 215.
Kittery, Maine, 54, 68, 140, 169, 217, 301.
157, 245, 264, 419,
213,
Lebanon, Maine, 54. Leeds Maine, 141. Lewiston, Maine, 84, 216. Lexington, Mass., 1, 9, 16, 109, 349. Limiugton, Maine, 140, 218.
Lincoln County, 55, 1.59. Lisbon, Maine, 140, 284. Litchfield, Maine, 140, 284. Livermore, Maine, 93, 96. Liverpool, England, 39, 164, 175. Long Island, Maine, 365. Lyman, Maine, 133, 137, 138,
Machias, 1, 4, 5, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 74, 109, 118, 332.
Scott's Wharf, 110, 111.
East River, 1, 5, 8, 9, 109. Machiasport, 10, 265. Madison, Wisconsin, 168, 171. Magebigwaduce, 1.57, 161, 362, 363,
364, 367, 374, 408. Maple Juice Cove, 244. Marshfield, Maine, 13. Mawooshen, 278, Menanas Island, 263. Mequaite, 222. Merrymeeting Bay, 222, 223, 262,
264. Monhegan, Island of, 231, 234, 235,
236,237,238, 241, 242, 249, 263,
264, 265. Monmouth, Maine, 84, 139, 140,
141, 215. Monson, Maine, 171, 212, 218, 331. Montville, Maine, 140. Mount Desert, Island of, 249, 412,
439, 448. Mount Hope, 104. Mount Katahdin, 84. Mount Washington, 236, 241, 249. Muddy River, 222, 224. Muujoy's Hill, 57, 338, 349. Muscongus Patent, 116.
Nantucket, 150, 151,231, .378. Nautilus Island, Maine, 362, 364. Newbury, Mass , 307, .308, 435, Newcastle, Maine, .55, 266, 431. New Gloucester, Maine, 55, 56, 75,
140. New Haven, Conn., 1.57, 159. New Sliaron, Maine, 141. Nobleboro, Maine, 140. Norombega, 424, 426.
INDEX.
475
Norridgewock, Maine, 130, 142, 216, 331, 384, 386, 388, 390,
Northport, Maine, 266.
North Yarmoutli, Maine, 55, 119, 331.
Oakland, Maine, 216. Oldtown, Maine, 96, 97. Orono. Maine, 97, 216. Oxford County, 96, 105, 304.
Palmero, Maine, 140. Paris, Maine, 217, 304, Parsonsfield, Maine, 140, 216. Pemaquid, 152, 204, 2:53, 249, 291,
332. Penobscot, 156. 168, 227, 233, 234,
249, 3H2, 346, 360, 361, 362, 383,
365, 366, 367, 404, 407, 412, 414. Pentecost Harbor, 2:^, 233, 234,
238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 246. Pentegoet, 249, 416, 424, 426. Pepperellboro, Maine, 54. ,
Pigwacket Pond, 436. Piscataquis River, 159. Pleasant River, 13. Plymouth England, 172, 278, 281,
283, 285, 286, 292 295. Poland, Maine, 140. Popham Colony, 330, 414, 415. Port Royal, K S., 414, 416, 418,424,
425, 426. Portsmouth, N. H., 168, 301, 305,
334. Powhatan River, 233. Pownalboro, Maine, 55, 76, 118, 119,
140, 211, 265. Prout's Neck, 262.
Readfield, Maine, 171, 218, 283. Pdchmond, Maine, 219, 221, 222,
223, 224. Richmond's Island, 171, 172, 173,
174, 176, 291. Ripley, Maine, 387. Robinson's Island, Maine, 443. Kockland, Maine, 215.
Sabino Peninsula, 277, 280, 290,
292, 299. Saco, Maine, 85, 140, 148, 215, 217,
304. Sagadahoc, 150, 151, 247, 249, 273,
275, 278, 280, 281, 284, 285, 286,
290, 296, 297, 298. St. Albans, Maine, 218. St. C;roix River, 159, 332, 414, 416,
42f, 432. St. George, 140.
St. George's Harbor, 233, 234, 238, 240, 241,
Islands, 235, 237, 249.
River, 234, 240, 241, 244, 245, 246, 248, 249, 2.50. Sandy River, 379, 380, 383. Sanford, Maine, 54, 140.* Sankaty Head, 231. Scarboro, Maine, 55, 140. Shapleigh, Maine, 54, 140. Sheepscot River, 247. Skowhegan, Maine, 331. Small Point, 219, 284. Somerset, Maine, 132. South Berwick, Maine, 140. Sprague's River, 284. Springvale, 216. Stage Island, 329. Standish, Maine, 140. Sudbury— Canada Grant, The, 96.
Thomaston, Maine, 55, 118, 160,
217, 244, 245, 246. Topsham, Maine, 55, 56, 69, 119,
219, 224, 297, 298. Townsend, Maine, 153, 156, 247.
Union Maine Mountains, 236, 237, 244, 249, 262.
Vassalboro, Maine, 54, 55. Vineland, 252, 255, 259, 260, 261, 269.
Waldoboro, Maine, 217, 333. Waterboro, Maine, 54, 140.
476
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Waterville, Maine, 217, 261, 386. Watt's Cove, 244. Wells, Elaine, 54, 70, 117, 123. Westbrook, Maine, 140. West Falls, Machias, 14. Weymonth, l.j", 159. Whitelield, Maine, 140. Windham, Maine, 167, 171, 212,
328, 430. Winslow, Maine, .55, 163. Winthrop, Maine, 55, 382.
Wiscasset, Maine, 117, 118, llfl, 164, 107, 109, 171, 178, 179, 216, 217, 303, 328, 430.
Wolfboro, N. H., .301.
Woolwich, Maine, .55, 212.
York, Maine, .54, 76, 85, 113, 114,
115, 119, 140, 248, 301, 302, 304;
305, 306, 308, 309, 319, 321, 334, 335, 303.
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