A Visit to an Richmond's Island, a bleak knoll lying off the southerly side of Cape Elizabeth Sprague's Journal of Maine History VII NOV. DEC. 1919, JAN. 1920 No. 3 pages 154-155 A Visit to an Historical Island (By Marguerite Ogden.) Noticing various allusions in the newspapers to the Centenary of the State and the Episcopal Diocese of Maine which are to take place early next summer, I venture to think that your readers might be interested in what I learned on a trip made last fall to Rich- mond's Island in the company of one of the descendants of Robert Jordan. Richmond's Island is a bleak knoll lying off the southerly side of Cape Elizabeth. It is about three miles in circumference, con- taining about two hundred acres and at low tide is connected with the mainland by a sand bar. The island is now owned by Mr. Sprague of Boston who was most kind in allowing the caretaker of his house to do everything possible to speed us on our pilgrimage. The first inhabitant of the island, we are told, was Walter Bag- nall in 1628 who sole object in life was to amass a large fortune by driving hard bargains with the Indians. They showed their resentment of this treatment by murdering him in 1631 and steal- ing, as was supposed, all his accumulated wealth. In 1855, how- ever, a resident of the island, while plowing, turned up a stone pot containing gold and silver coins of the reigns of Queen Elizabeth, James the First and Charles the First. From the dates on these pieces it has been inferred that they were buried a short time before Bagnall's death. The island was later granted to Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyeare, merchants of Plymouth, England, and with it was in- cluded all of the present town of Cape Elizabeth. John Winter was appointed their agent, and appears from the records to have been a able, industrious, and successful merchant. He lived on Richmond's Island and employed over sixty men in the fisheries and fur trade. As early as 1637 the Rev. Richard Gibson, an Episcopal minister, was settled over the island and the records imply that there may have been an Episcopal Church built there, too, as there is mention in an inventory, of vessels for the Com- munion Service and the minister's bedding. Tradition has it that Cape Elizabeth might now be peopled largely with Gibsons instead of Jordans if the Rev. Richard would have consented to marry Winter's only daughter. Apparently he re- fused to accept her had and fortune, which was a large one for those days and returned to England heart free. He was succeeded by the Rev. Robert Jordan who came over at this instance of Robert Trelawney to take pastoral care of the set- tlement. He straight away married Miss Winter and at the death of her father became the manager and possessor of his estate. He was a man of decided character, good judgment, fearless and up- right. He was much respected in the community and was elected one of the Commissioners of the settlement. He incurred the censure of the Massachusetts government by administering the rites of the Episcopal Church and was imprisoned for baptising children. The font which he used is now in the room of the His- torical Society in Portland. As time went on, he built a house on the mainland which we imagined was near the mouth of the Spurwink river. It was burned by the Indians in King Philip's war and Mr. Jordan and his family fled for their for their lives to Newcastle, N.H. He died at the age of 68 years, leaving as a monument to posterity six sons whose descendants still perpetuate his name (c) 1998 Courtesy of the Androscoggin Historical Society ************************************************* * * * * NOTICE: Printing the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. * * * * The USGenWeb Project makes no claims or estimates of the validity of the information submitted and reminds you that each new piece of information must be researched and proved or disproved by weight of evidence. It is always best to consult the original material for verification.