Loyalists of the Kennebec And One of them: John Carleton Sprague's Journal of Maine History Vol. V FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL 1918 No. 5 Vol 5 pages 240-262 Please see photo at: FORT POWNALL An ancient Maine fort built in 1759, at what was then known as Wasaumkeag Point, and now Fort Point, in what is now the town of Stockton. It was named in honor of Thomas Pownall then Governor of the Massachusetts Colony. He took a deep in- terest in developing the resources of Maine, and historians have generally regarded him, as Williamson says in his history of Belfast, "the most popular royal governor Massachusetts ever bad." Sprague's Journal of Maine History Vol. V FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL 1918 No. 5 Loyalists of the Kennebec And One of them-John Carleton (By REVEREND HENRY 0. THAYER OF NEW YORK CITY..) No man can think to put himself into another's net of circum- stances and promise sure escape. No men, no leaders of men can now place themselves in the exigent conditions of various former periods of history and promise wiser judgments, or superior action. No statesmen of today can rightfully declare they would have entered upon the American Revolution with as clear vision, wiser counsels, as heroic purpose. The passing of a century has set in clearer light the great struggle for independence; has also given a fairer view of the colonies in their relations with the mother country, and especially a juster appreciation of the deplored fact,-two parties in the colonies, one against the measures of the King and Parliament and another still standing for and approving: they bore the names, the whig or son of liberty, the loyalist, or in common speech the tory. The name tory once carried intense odium, a hiss and a sting of contempt; loyalist declared the fact, intending no dishonor. Now the juster judg- ment issues upon the principle of action,-for or against the king, not upon the insults, outrages, harm to property and person by either party upon the other. If now the loyalist be not adequately judged, certainly the harsh censures, implacable resentments are softened, or dissipated; in place of passions and heat then, are now candor and truth with fairness whether to condemn, apologize for, acquit, or approve. By strong sympathies and attachments some did not, by fixed, firm opinions some consciously could not break allegiance with Eng- land, when resented exactions, taxes, and constraint were laid on the colonies. Men do not think alike, can not feel alike; judg- 242 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY ments will differ; it is a human trait, inherent, axiomatic, has been shown in every age, in every year, in all lines of thought and ac- tion, and the good man intelligent and sincere cries out regarding his friend equally sound and worthy-how can he take that side? So once with perplexity, or angry recoil, one spoke of his neighbor because he was a tory. Such considerations may temper harsh judgments while we review incidents of the war and deeds of whig and tory of the lower Kennebec. In an early stage of the uprising that sagacious and intrepid leader, Samuel Adams sought to diffuse information, to incite dis- cussion, out of which he believed would come convictions and ac- tion: to that end he proposed correspondence far and wide, which the historian Bancroft termed "organizing Revolution." Adams declared if each town would declare its sense, our enemies could not divide us. This germinant idea grew into that efficient agency thruout the towns-"Committees of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety"- by correspondence to get and give information; inspection, care- ful scrutiny of persons and events in every town; safety, such ac- tion as the time required. Guiding and supporting were the town meetings which for the discussion of affairs the tory governor Hutchinson declared "ridiculous," and King George at first dis- liked and later denied the right to hold. Still New England held them all the same. Agreeably to suggestion from Boston special town meetings were held thruout the state in December 1779 from which reports went back to headquarters. In all Kennebec towns I assume townsmen assembled, but certainly in Woolwich. I do not learn that a Committee of Correspondence had yet been chosen, but the town met, voted, and sent on its response: an infant people in an infant country do not think their answer perfect in spelling or the words well placed, but had hearty good-will for the cause. I have failed to obtain in full the reply declaring the sentiments of the men of Woolwich in the first stage of the Revolution as they gathered in the old meet- ing house at Nequasset on that December day (unless it was too cold). In the next year, 1773, the town meeting voted to draw an answer to a letter of correspondence from Boston concerning our liberties and privileges. Similar action extended from Maine to Georgia, and there did no+ fail approval and applause for bold leaders in Boston when in December fragrant imported tea-342 chests, went overboard and LOYALISTS OF THE KENNEBEC 243 was put to steep in the harbor. It was currently reported some Indians did it. In the next year, lines were drawn more sharply between whig and tory. Joseph Warren, soon to be the lamented patriot of Bunker Hill, proposed "The Solemn League and Covenant," not to buy nor to use the merchandise of Great Britain: no trade with those who would sell it, names to be published of those refusing to sign:-a veritable boycott then though the name was not known. Gen. Gage called it "an unlawful, hostile, and traitorous combination." It be- came intensely practical to the man and the family: was a test ap- plied by the radical whig often despotically in order to hunt out the suspected, or the wavering. The Kennebec towns did not lack zealous men to apply the threat and force decision upon a man to write his name in promise not to buy British goods. In previous years here some who had the king's license to sell tea and coffee were Joshua Baily, James Blin, Samuel Gould, Israel Smith. No more of that trade at their peril. In respect to events in these times of testing and turmoil much of our information comes from a loyalist source, the letters and journals of Revd. Jacob Bailey, the Episcopal missionary and rector of the West Pownalboro parish, now Dresden. He was ardently loyal to the British crown, as nearly all Episcopal clergymen and churchmen were. Intense in his feeling, severely hostile to "the rebels" as he termed those opposing British demands, he revealed by choleric epithets and overheated language the excess of his partisan bitterness; yet one should condone in a measure his asperity in view of what he suffered, as ill-treated, reviled, threatened, put under bonds, mobbed, property injured, ministry hindered, he wisely removed in the third year of the war, fled it may be said to Nova Scotia after nineteen years of service extended into adjacent towns, and to this town. In 1774 the first Continental Congress was created by delegates of twelve colonies gathered in September at Philadelphia. The last days of August had brought the enforcement of the League and Covenant. Free acceptance, declared patriotism; denial was held to reveal enemies to liberty. Pushed, often fiercely, it yielded rancor, and turmoil for a time. Excitement and wild doings at the Kennebec, not more than else- where doubtless, are narrated by Parson Bailey with vigorous and rasping language. He writes: A furious mob at Georgetown [Bath mainly perhaps] was running about in search of tea and compelling people by force of arms to sign the solemn league. 244 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY It is likely that some packages of proscribed tea were cast into the Kennebec tides. He tells of another mob up river from which Mr. Nathaniel Gardiner fled: how they hunted up John Jones, the noted surveyor, and insisted on his signing the covenant. He stripped open his bosom and told them they might stab him to the heart. They threw him headlong into the river, and then dragged him about till they almost tore him to pieces. He writes that a mob led by the noted radical leader Samuel Thompson of Brunswick threatened to tear down Pownalboro jail and assaulted several persons on their route to Wiscasset. There they forced a trader to sign the league, and afterwards recalling an ill remark of the man "went back and almost demolished him." Also there they ill- treated Abiel Wood, a village merchant, importer, shipbuilder, bold in tory sympathies with whom the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts was forced to deal. These lawless deeds of vehe- ment patriotism occurred in September 1774, for on the 23rd of that month Rev. Mr. Bailey was mobbed at Brunswick and soon after was obliged to flee from his home and be concealed for sev- eral days. I assume that after the first hot outburst of unbridled radicalism muder forms of enforcing the League and Covenant prevailed. We may regret that some other pens more sober, less partisan, did not write full details of those tumultuous times. In a few years the Kennebec atmosphere became too hot for Mr. Bailey's comfort and he fled to Halifax. The British had just seized Castine and to General McLean in command, Mr. Bailey sent Lack lists of men loyal to the king in these eastern towns. One must however believe that his own strong sympathy for that side would put into the lists every man believed by him to favor the British cause even in slight degree. Hence his list will show the open bold tory, the half tory, the toryish by policy of keeping quiet, the wavering, the undecided. You who are here and others in town may wish to know his opinion of your ancestors, if he put the loyalist mark upon your Grandfather, or great-grandfather. This list has the names in the order as he wrote them. 1. John Carleton, 2. David Gilmore, 3. Capt. James Fullerton, 4. Mr.- Stinson (Robert), 5. James Smith, 6 to 9. Philip White and 3 sons, 10. Mr. Chalmers (Wm.), 11. William Gilmore, 12. David Gilmore, Jr., I3. Mr. Blanchard (James), 14 to 17. Mr. Lancaster and three sons, 18. James Sav- age, i9. Mr. Brookings (Josiah). LOYALISTS OF THE KENNEBEC 245 There exists 1 conceive not the least reason now to conceal these nineteen names, nor for any one to hide the head, or blush, because standing in the family line leading back to one of these men. We can now see more clearly, judge more justly concerning personal opinions on the desperate issues of those times. A few years previous Woolwich listed I27 polls. Nineteen out of that number shows 15 per cent, about the same ratio appears in Georgetown-the five present towns-36 in 322 Polls, Pownalboro. east and west, has 53 listed out Of 263 polls, or 2o per cent. I have no means to compare these Kennebec towns with other parts of Maine. In parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut and beyond, the propor- tion was greater: in localities the loyalists equalled the whigs, or were in excess. In the list of Woolwich loyalists the first name is John Carleton. Of him Mr. Bailey has written a man of the highest integrity, the most undaunted fortitude, and inflexible loyalty. He had been an intimate and staunch friend of the Dresden rector. His father was also John Carleton of Andover, Mass., an original proprietor and settler of Woolwich, a great-grandson of the im- migrant Edward, coming from an English family traceable to the 5th century. The younger Carleton had early married Jane Gil- more, the daughter and sister of neighbors likewise placed by Par- son Bailey in the loyalist list. He was in 1776 thirty-six years old with eight children, increased later to nine. His and his father's farm bordered on Nequasset (Tuisset) bay (a short distance above the upper Hellgate of the tidal river Sasanoa) and was early termed Walnut Point, and is in full view with its ancient farm-house on the inland sail from Kennebec to the Sheepscot. John Carleton was a useful townsman, was entrusted with office, stood in the highest social class-if indeed any social line were then ever thought of-and seemed to be in the path to matured years of large distinction. Then came the upheaval of the Revolu- tion, when a new compelling force swayed him and drove him in the view of many townsmen into a path of dishonor, and to a wretched death. Woolwich by its location shared in the riotous disorders arising between whig and tory disturbing the peace from Brunswick to Bristol. Another instance of mob lawlessness associated with those already mentioned is recorded by Mr. Bailey and concerned his friend John Carleton, and is a sample of the turbulent tactics of 246 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY fierce radicals in that campaign against the king's friends. He writes: They seized Captain Carleton of Woolwich and having prepared a coffin commanded him to dig his own grave, but after all permitted him to escape. I fear Parson Bailey's imagination embellishes a first rumor into a telling story, for when a mob proposes to bury obnoxious people they do not stop to make coffins, nor do they carry them about in readiness; cold earth is thought good enough. Six years later in Halifax, recalling Kennebec events he writes this same incident more fully. When the whole country was rising into sedition and mobs spreading their rioting in every region, nothing could shake his (Carleton's) firmness, or abate his intrepidity: and he was met in a lonely forest by near 200 men in arms requiring him to sign the Solemn League and Covenant, or consent to be buried alive: he nobly acquiesced with the latter and with great reso- lution assisted in digging his own grave, but finding him still unmoved by their menaces they allowed him to escape. There were generous spirits among them swearing he was a good fellow. Now pruning off a few excrescences on the story and cooling the rhetoric a few degress-notice no coffin this time-we still have a fact, a band of mobbish men voicing a wicked threat. We could wish a simple and unbiased statement without color. As written it reveals strong points of character. We can conceive a rugged inde- pendence which threats will not move, but responsive to calm rea- son, or kindly solicitation. Many men rebel at being driven. What elsewhere is disclosed of this man makes for belief that John Carleton never would have then written his name at torture, or real peril of life. Were there in town others who would stand an equal test? We can not know; some I believe. It may be that leaders of the wild crowd knew well the man, his opinions and his spirit, and gleefully used the chance to test his mettle. According to Mr. Bailey's story he met them fully half way. Nor was this a single instance of insulting, terrorizing ordeal. In Topsham a Mr. Wilson was actually buried to the chin-they have nice white sand there-and was left for friends to dig out. In Harpswell in April, 1775 following a spirited address on Sunday afternoon by Rev. Samuel Eaton, an excited crowd seized upon a British supporter and local officer for the king and with fierce threats buffetings, kicks, did put him in peril of his life, and he was only saved by soberer townsmen. The adventure and assaulting test seems to have made no change in Mr. Carleton, nor in the confi- dence of his townsmen. He was chosen to act with two others to LOYALISTS OF THE KENNEBEC 247 lay out an important road. In the next spring, he with two other responsible men, Thwing and Fuller, agreed with business men of Georgetown and sent a vessel to Nantucket for corn, rye, and am- munition, and were to take I-12 of the venture for Woolwich. Corn, rye, powder were essentials in 1775, certainly after the thrill- ing Lexington affair had forced the issue with George Third. That year the town sent Capt. John Bailey as delegate to the Pro- vincial Congress which convened at Concord and then removed to Watertown in April. Nor should any forget that in September Arnold's ships and men sailed along the Woolwich shore thru the Chopps towards Quebec on that disastrous expedition; a few weeks later as depressing to the whig, as joyful to the tory, was the return of Colonel McCobb's regiment and others of Col. Enos' division, containing Woolwich men-the hopeless march abandoned. Slowly grew the demand of people and widened sentiment for full separation from Great Britain even against the doubts and recoil of good men. Indeed Washington when he took command of the army rejected the idea of independence, but in '76 declared "nothing else will save us." In March of that year his skill forced the British army out of Boston. Then in dismay were hundreds of loyalists, who had fled from home towns to British protection: now defenceless, powerless, hated; their former jeers at the sons of liberty cast back upon themselves, beggary threatening, no way was open but to flee to Nova Scotia. Eleven hundred tory refugees crowded the army transports to get away from the city. One among them was David Phipps, owner of Phipps Neck, but resid- ing in Cambridge. His Woolwich property was soon in the grasp of the Provincial Congress under the tory confiscation act. The confiscation policy was applied in June I776 in Woolwich. Three estates were taken for the government by Nathaniel Thwing, chairman of the Committee of Correspondence and Safety. Ile was a judicious leader devoted to the cause of liberty. The one. thousand acre lot at the Chopps, originally Robert Temple's grant, and possessed by Samuel Waterhouse, who had slipped away to London, was taken and leased to James Blair for one pound, ten shillings yearly. A farm of fifty acres at Monsweag in the pos- scssion of Philip Goldthwait was put likewise under lease but in the end by peculiar circumstances was restored to the owner, his brother. It was the Richard Hunnewell farm. The confiscated 248 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY Phipps estate, comprised five hundred acres, with a yoke of oxen and steers, six cows, a heifer and calf, and fourteen sheep. This was leased to Phipps' farmer, Jonathan Fuller for four pounds ten. By a legal technicality it escaped but Col. Phipps lost it all the same by that other omnipresent confiscation, even now, debt. As the conflict went on from '76 to '78, the issue at times seeming desperate for the weak army, thirteen colonies against the British empire, harsher became the dealings with loyalists. In social and business life in sections of New England they were proscribed: millers would not grind their corn; in Worcester county forty-three blacksmiths pledged to do no work for them; no trading with, no labor for them was urged. Sometimes their guns were taken away: wealthy men, former office-holders were insulted, bullets shot into their houses. Tar and feathers was a common threat and in some cases applied. Also, laws were passed bearing severely upon them. In Massachusetts persons under suspicion for tory aid or sympathy might be disarmed, could hold no office, might be sent to jail, or into the British lines. To return would invite severe penalty. Still these men were only loyalists,-loyal to their accepted king and government, loyal to ingrown attachments, and in the main to conscientious convictions. Let us not fail to yield them proper respect, their honest due. The Rev. Mr. Bailey wrote with bitterness: one must not deny measures of truth in his censure. He says: They aimed to suppress the tories, so enacted the most cruel and unrea- sonable laws, putting in the power of any ill-natured and malicious man to ruin his neighbors. He also charges arbitrary proceding by magistrates, and asserts that several conscientious people to avoid their unjust and merciless tyranny fled out of the country. Instances he gives, as do others, of that tyranny. Nathaniel Gar- diner of the Gardiner family fled from enforcement of the Covenant; again aiding the enemy he was captured, carried to New Meadows, there taken by several men, called rebels-Wood, Lamont, and others, before Dummer Sewall Esq., at Bath, who at once sent him to Casco jail from which he escaped after several months. John Jones was also in that jail a while. William Gardiner was con- demned to be transported. Captain Charles Callahan, one of Mr. Bailey's parish officers in Dresden, intending to be neutral was still harassed, fined, till believing himself unjustly treated he unmasked into a bold tory, became a daring scourge by seizing small vessels LOYALISTS OF THE KENNEBEC 249 in the river and outside, but was driven out by the coast guards in 1778, and became commander of a twelve gun man-of-war. John Bernard of Bath was under bonds awhile and in Casco jail, but later cast off the harsh charge of disloyalty and recovered lands at Mt. Desert. Edward Parry, mast contractor at Harward's cove for Halifax shipyards, was put under bonds, guarded, then sent far in- land for safe keeping. I was told of two or three men of Arrowsic who slipped away, but returned after the war, but have learned of no Woolwich men except some young fellows who shared Mr. Carle- ton's adventures. After the war, in the new era of Independence a resolution was offered in town meeting July I783, by Nathaniel Thwing and voted concerning Absentees in severely accusing language. It is not safe for those Tories, or Refugees, who have left their country and acted the unnatural part of parracides and murderers to come and have their lot and portion' with us. This may not intend--or it may-particular townsmen: more likely it declared the proper sentiment and attitude of the whole country towards refugees and loyalists. Laws against loyalists did not lie inert in Woolwich more than elsewhere in New England. In July 1777 the town voted, To, choose a person firmly attached to the American cause to procure and lay before the court-the county board of justices-the evidence that may be had; and that the selectmen lay before town the list of persons who shall be thought inimical enemies to this or any of the United States. An agent of the town was deputed to hunt out tories. The Committee of Inspection and Safety this year was,-Nathaniel Thwing, Samuel Harnden, Solomon Walker, Joseph Wade, Jona- than Fuller, Elijah Grant, Nathaniel Tibbetts,-the strong, lead- ing patriotic men. Mr. Samuel Stinson, afterwards the Baptist elder, was selected to seek evidence. Later within these very walls without doubt the list was presented to the assembly, Brigadier Hamden, Modera- tor,-a list exceedingly interesting now if we had it, showing whig opinions of suspected loyalists. We can only know this:-it was voted that four names be struck from the list, James Blanchard, John Carleton, William Gilmore, Robert Stinson. All were in Mr. Bailey's tory list; against all, or all but one, the court took action. But that day the town voted them off the black list. Why? One will ask in vain. What evidence, lack of evidence, what under- current of motive, or personal feeling, entered into that vote? The town did erase imputations of disloyalty from its agent's re- 250 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY port, and -one man was his own brother. But who were left on the list ? Did any tremble? Nay, they would regard themselves light weight cases when four chief suspected men were freed from the charge. Intensity of feeling fired by trifles into wrangles, or in- stilt revealed itself in this quiet town. It is told that a squad of militiamen at their drill wore the liberty emblem, the whig cockade. Two men in levity, or derision, twisted a handful of grass into a knot for their hats. The company, demanded quick removal of the mocking wisps, and apology under threat to bury alive. At a similar gathering the testing question was passed along a line of spectators, What are you? On which side? One or two not mak- ing reply were pulled forth, hooted at, threatened, "Speak out, tell what you are, or we'll dig a grave and shoot you into it." Several men met in the mill-house here, near the falls to consult regarding evidence and action against tories. A hint of it reached Mr. David Gilmore at the mill. Violently denouncing such busi- ness by whatever sentiment he stopped his saw, rushed to the house and into the room, jumped-on their table smashing it, kicked away the papers and wrathfully drove all out with fists and feet, and only by a friendly arm was hindered from delivering a hard blow ernphasizing an angry threat, onto the jaw of Reverend Mr. Will- ship, a spirited whig assisting the private inquiry. Such wrangles and brawls, threats and assaults, pertained, I think, to the first years of dividing opinions and drawing lilies of fealty. The Woolwich voters revised the list of suspects, names were carried to the old Dresden court house, and from other towns as well. On Oct. 7 a special court was held. Warrants and arrests followed. John Jones, then of Vassalboro, and eight others were haled before the magistrates, and Mr. Blanchard of Woolwich. John Carleton avoided arrest as Mr. Bailey tells with usual asperity: He was cleared by a unanimous vote of the town, but was pursued by a warrant from those inexorable and avaricious judges: he had the good fortune to conceal himself from their malicious scrutiny till the season of persecution was over. Not now intrepid and defiant, as formerly in the woods, but shrinking and cautious, he put himself beyond the sheriff's reach. Another name struck from the list was Robert Stinson Never- theless the court summoned him by officers with a. warrant. By Parson Bailey's heated pen we get a glimpse of the distressing facts. LOYALISTS OF THE KENNEBEC 251 Pursued by the same virulent combination, but arming himself to resist officers who, attempted to break into his house, his wife was so terrified at the commotion that she fell into travail and expired. A tragedy in a few lines; truly a tragedy, threats of sheriffs, resistance, the terrors of death, with the infant's birth that day in that house on the hill. 1 wish I had more incidents by a calmer pen. We accept two facts-forcible entry in the name of the law, a wife's deplorable death in such a way at such an hour! Imagina- tion must fill in details of the calamity. Yet public records sup- plement the woeful recital. "Mary Paine, wife of Lieutenant Robert Stinson, died Oct. 9, 1777, aged 38." Jane his (then) young- est child was born Oct. 9, I777. Special Court sat at Pownalboro Oct. 7, two days previous to the attempted arrest. I will believe that those officers learning the occurrences, the terror, the bereave- ment, the dead, the living, a husband and eight children in that home, and one more, an infant of an hour, those men sworn to duty, imperative by law, yet humane and pitying, retired to report at court-no arrest. If valid evidence against Lieutenant Stinson existed I may not say. His own brother had found it duty to bring in charges: the same, or others, went up to the court. The magistrates summoned him for examination. Then the tragedy, months of trial, merciless testing of his convictions or wavering loyalty, and the wreck at home. Did his opinions need revision and did such chastening and the next year produce a change? I know not. Whatever had intervened, certainly his townsmen's confidence three years later made him selectman: he was selected to be one of the Commit- tee of Correspondence and Safety, an office requiring judicious, active men of known fidelity to the cause of American liberty. In 1781 he served in procuring men for the town's quota in the army. Had :he changed? I can not know only that sound con- scientious men as that conflict grew on did not at first, not at once know the path of personal duty. There was one, Thomas Percy, ancestor of the honored family of the name in these Sagadahoc towns, who had a sore trial in conscience and intelligent inquiry in respect to the stand he must take, but did put himself on the right side at length. Parson Bailey wrote him down a loyalist, as also his two sons, who after a time, with no alacrity, signed the Covenant, rather by necessity under complaint of General Samuel McCobb. 252 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY It was natural that some men slow in decision, unconvinced at the outset, in clearer light of events and drift of sentiment, should reconstruct their opinions, and approve and support the new patriotism. At a second session of the tory court, Mr. Bailey says, James Blanchard was released by lack of evidence, yet that year both he and John Carleton paid twelve pounds in fines for not going into the Continental army. If we would like to see those magistrates in session- Samuel Harrden and Nathaniel Thwing among them, in the old Dresder. Court House, we may take Parson Bailey's eyes and pen at one trial:- Justice Bowman sat swelling in gloomy solemnity surrounded with the ac- cusers and other dark and determined instruments of his indignation. Each one of them had divested himself of every humane and tender senti- ment. Mild indeed were arrest, trials, fines in Maine compared with horrible deeds in other states: whig upon tory and tory upon whig, as plundering, rapine, murder, shrieking barbarities followed vengeful retaliations. I must believe that subsequent to those trials in the autumn of 1777, there was at the Kennebec cessation in tory hunting, and if no active disloyalty was shown, the open, or suspected loyalists as other citizens, applied themselves to their concerns, their struggles to get a living and bear the burdens of the war. Clothing and food for the army made demands: as late as 1781 Lincoln County was called on for 528,000 lbs. of beef: Woolwich's share was 2,177 lbs. Food was scarce with many at the Kennebec. Mr. Bailey knew families without bread for three months at a time: many even twenty miles inland sought the clam- banks. Such privations in part, but more, increasing hostility to his un- concealed tory attitude, forced Mr. Bailey to abandon his parish. He obtained official permission in Boston to leave the state. After forced delays he left the Dresden parsonage June 7, 1770: the family consisting of four persons. For farewell visits he went down directly to Squirrel Point, Arrowsic, to William But- ler's. I have not found names of parishioners, or friends, visited by him which he did not put in his tory lists, except one, for Epis- copal people were almost wholly on that side. Next morning un- able to visit Mr. Percy at Cox's Head, the family with tearful fare- wells at the shore, a salmon and pot of butter from Mrs. Butler's LOYALISTS OF THE KENNEBEC hand, swept up on the tide to Mr. (Joseph) Preble's at the head of the island,-"that friendly and loyal family" he remarks. Thence they sailed across the bay to Mr. Carleton's at Walnut Point. He made farewell calls on David Gilmore, then at William Gilmore's where on the previous autumn he had baptized a child of Captain James Fullerton. At evening he says he drank coffee, not tea of course, in a company of twenty-two, yet Mr. Carleton was absent, having gone to Wiscasset to procure supplies for the voyage. Mr. Bailey was much alarmed at seeing a sail coming across the bay, and admitted grave fears in his acrid language, that it might be Sheriff Cushing, or some of his infernal attendants in a mis- chievous design to interrupt the voyage. In fact his fears had good reason, for he knew that he had papers highly treasonable which he, a citizen of Massachusetts, was carrying directly to the enemy. Had the sheriff searched him, what would be his fate? His alarm was dispelled for the boat brought only Mr. Carleton's brother. In the home of "this generous, friendly hero," as he calls John Carleton, he spent the last night in his mission field, disturbed at the thought of leaving such benevolent friends exposed to the rage of persecution and vengeance of rebels, which means that he knew that the friendly hero might be put in extreme peril. With sun- rise they hasted away up the hill on to the old ferry-Tibbett's.- where Capt. James Smith's little schooner of fifteen tons was moored in waiting. Many times have I gone forth from that same farmhouse by that road and have seen in imagination the com- pany of pitying friends attending the minister and family into exile, and likewise beheld the little craft slip away by Hockomoc to the Sheepscot. -But also now we must take a look at Skipper Smith at the wheel pictured by Bailey's facile pen:- clothed in a long swingling coat and the ret of his habit (clothing) dis- played the venerable signatures of antiquity both in form and materials. His -hat carried a long peak before exactly perpendicular to the longitude of his aquiline nose. Then in grim pleasantry he describes the raiment of himself and spouse, ancient, dilapadated, deep-worn, patched, and bedraggled, and mortifying, when he must first show himself at Halifax. But sadly for himself the one necessitous universal inner garment was more irritating than any rough robe of penance, because it was "a coarse tow and linen shirt manufactured in the looms of sedi- 254 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY tion." Alas! humiliated man, forced to the looms of sedition to obtain a shirt. Here as he sails away we can not wholly bid farewell to Parson Bailey, whose affairs have been so closely entwined in this narra- tion, because his pen furnished so much by aid of which could be exhibited the loyalists of the Kennebec. At Halifax he met the wife of David Phipps, a refugee there, and wrote her request to Mr. Carleton to point out her property to British officers if they come that way, that it might escape plundering. A British force had just seized the Penobscot and fortified Castine, and there was alarm least they would sweep along the coast and take possession of Portland harbor. Rev. Mr. Bailey highly appreciated the open-handed generosity of Mr. Carleton to himself and family, also to other loyalists, de- claring that he had concealed in his house and aided to escape several men sought by sheriffs. However real his toryism at this time, how disguised or how open, he held his townsmen's confidence for at the next March meeting he was chosen surveyor of lumber and deer-reeve. Within a year startling events occurred. Mr. Bailey wrote a friend:- Mr. Carleton was plundered by the rebels and after a variety of adventures reached British lines in company with several young men of his neighbor- hood. This was written April 7, 1781. Another letter gives further de- tails: Carleton being taken by a British vessel and carried to Castine was sent in his own schooner by Col. Campbell as a cartel to Boston. But without any regard to the sanctity of a flag, the rebels seized his vessel and plun- dered his effects. He was fortunate enough to escape and with two or three young fellows belonging to Woolwich reached Penobscot in safety leaving a wife and ten (9) children to the mercy of rebels. Spiteful whigs might say, sailed out on purpose to be taken. Much more is needed to complete Mr. Bailey's statement and to show the actual facts. High coloring, intense and bitter censure entered whatever he wrote concerning the so-called rebels, tho large freedom would be expected in private letters. That year anxiety and distress prevailed in Maine. In February the Legislature petitioned for a vessel of war to cruise on the coast because armed vessels commit horrid depredations and cruelties on the inhabitants, of the sea-coast towns of Lincoln County. LOYALISTS OF THE KENNEBEC 255 Mr. Carleton took risk in sailing whatever were his enterprises. Ile was captured. At Castine he was known: his name was first in the list sent from Halifax by Bailey to the commander. What- ever was the report he made of himself, General McLean believed him a suitable messenger to army officers at Boston. We need the other side of the story of what happened there. I cannot credit fully so plain a violation of the white flag, of a messenger. Rash radicals there were, blustering officers no doubt, also politic leaders who would not flatly disregard the usages of war nor affront an enemy able to seize Portland Harbor. Was there a reputed tory in the state not listed in the books of inspection com- mittees? Mr. Carleton could not be unknown in Boston. Hence granting colorable truth to Mr. Bailey, a fair view will say that rash zealous men might arrest the master of this craft in the dock and rudely search his vessel, even confiscate articles thought con- traband, before his credentials and the purpose of his coming were fully determined by the governor's officers. They might do it, for a Kennebec skipper and schooner in the service of the enemy would excite doubt or anger in hangers-on at the wharves or sounder men. Carleton would fall under suspicion, meet insolence or threats and feel insults to his crew. Out of imperfect reports by whomsoever made Rev. Mr. Bailey could construct his story, could write "fortunate escape" for Mr. Carleton, when having performed his messenger's duty he with due clearance sailed out free. He might well be sore or resentful at indignities and lawless threats. He returned to Castine as in duty bound. The adventure and mishap by capture at sea seems to have forced him with no previous intention into undisguised and active toryism, obliging him to remain at Penobscot, a prisoner of war if the commander pleased or a voluntary refugee. Thus he was started on a path of dis- honor and of peril and the -way closed to a return home and to former town relations. I must believe that whatever were the actual facts of this obscure affair, it marked a turning point in his career. it separated him from his family. The adventure I place in February or March 1781,-yet possibly in the previous late autumn. Now practically perhaps heartily identified with British in- terests and refugee life at Penobscot, he sailed away to the Ken- nebec in May under the white flag for some families. Many loyalists of Maine timid or resentful had fled to the British for pro- tection. Some were from these river towns and now sought their wives and children. I heard one family name of Arrowsic men- 256 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE, HISTORY tioned but the matter is too uncertain to assign a name. It is only for conjecture also who were the young men of Woolwich in Mr. Carleton's schooner crew. The aggressive enemy established at Castine brought on a form of border warfare. Loyalist residents there or in home towns be- coming confederates and assistants made it more terrible. There- fore in May 1781, the General Court at Boston voted:- Lincoln County being far from the seat of government and near the enemy and execution of the laws 'inefficient, the Committee of Safety are em- powered to arrest any seeming dangerous to the Commonwealth and aiding the enemy, and send them if expedient to Boston with evidence. Active tories were put in peril by this act, and it had a sharp threat for men like John Carleton. He by luckless capture at sea, by insults and lawlessness at Bos- ton, and by motives undiscerned had been driven over to the enemy,-perhaps by him now called friends because subjects and friends of his acknowledged king. Nevertheless to his credit, his heart drew him towards his family and soon he was devising means to return. He obtained from leaders at Kennebec promise of pro- tection against radicals. In Woolwich, Thwing, Hamden, Walker and associates were good men and would deal fairly with him, but outside headstrong violent whigs might spring a trap on him. He bad written to Mr. Bailey his intentions to return home. His friend dissuaded, urging: It would not be prudent to put yourself in their power for however honest Mr. McCobb's intentions, there is a power in the Governor and Council to apprehend any person they please and to proceed with him according to martial law, for it can not be denied that according to their laws you have been guilty of treason. By such advice maturing his own convictions of wise policy he postponed the attempt,-a decision we may believe involving his ruin though he could not foresee it, by opening a new path hedged in by fated necessity and more perilous than the desired return to the Kennebec and his home. In those momentous times the sea and the land alike witnessed the ravages of war. Yankee privateers up to the year 1778, had swept off British commerce to the extent of nine millions of dollars, as was declared by an English Lord in Parliament. In the entire war about 800 vessels of all kinds were taken by cruisers and privateers, but British cruisers captured about as many. Of armed vessels, the Americans lost 24 with 470 guns, but the British loss 102 vessels and 2,6oo guns. But on land British soldiers LOYALISTS OF THE KENNEBEC 257 in some states wantonly burned villages and farmhouses some- times adding murders with fiendish barbarity. Seizure and destruction of an enemy's property was sanctioned by the laws of war. One instance, a sample:-Royal troops from New York made a raid on Martha's Vineyard, burned a score of vessels, many buidings, demanded large sums of money, and carrier off at one time 300 oxen and 200 sheep. Refugee loyalists in towns held by the British were execrated for vengeful plundering as they became agents of the soldiers to raid whig property. Similar evil work was done in Maine. Its seacoast, especially east of Casco bay, suffered incursions of large and small craft from the provinces and later from the post -at Penobscot. Seamen tories piloted British craft or made raids on their own account. Thieving boats and sloops dodged along shore. They were called "shaving-mills." I do not get the point in that name, unless they shaved off everything wherever they could tie up in a cove or stream and get ashore unseen-cattle, sheep, crops, geese, pigs. Such shavings largely fed Penobscot refugees. An instance else- where reveals the doings and the excuses of loyalist plunderers. A party associated with the British holding New York, went to Nan- tucket, carried off every thing usable from the land, the warehouses, also vessels at the wharves. They left posted up a proclamation in their defence,-asserting that they had been compelled to abandon their dwellings and friends and to lose their property; therefore they believed themselves warranted by the laws of God and man to wage war against their persecutors and to ob- tain compensation for their sufferings. No delay is needed with the ethics of that plea or the value of the excuse. We may believe it was a frequent form of self- justification of tory thieving, and often sufficed self-exiled men at Penobscot, respecting a sheep from the pasture, corn or potatoes from the field, West India goods in a warehouse, or boats at a -wharf. Among such foragers along the shores of Lincoln and Cumber- land counties, must be placed John Carleton. Testimony has not been lacking. People of Phipsburg knew and told it all thru the last century. Whether much or little, alone or with companions no details remain,-pilot for a marauding craft, skipper for a tory boat crew, or as probable taking his trips alone on the shores he knew so well he did gather the fruits of other men's labors, I wish it were not the fact. 258 SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY 1 urge a broadened view now, a true charity for the conscientious loyalist; for him a right of free opinion, however misguided. Less will be the charity, weaker the apology for the lawless ravager along the coast. Still it were easy for him to put himself on the same ground with the soldier foraging by the laws of war. A good woman, Mr. Carleton's granddaughter,-admitted to me the well-accepted fact; yet offering the excuse,-"to support his family"; evidently a concealing and palliating remark which had fallen into her ear in childhood. To her no reply could be made yet I felt a doubt to what extent a fugitive at Penobscot could supply his family in Woolwich. Yet a man of his resource and daring might slip into the Sheepscot by night and by the tortuous channels up to some cove by Hockomock, thence bearing a sheep's carcass on his shoulders thru the dark forest could seek his path a mile to his home and to his own. He might take such a difficult and dangerous step once or twice risking much for his family but with slight benefit to them, but it must be doubted. This friend told also how little she ever knew of that part of her grandfather's life which put the stigma of dishonor on him; that the families, his sons and daughters in their homes, and to their children seldom referred to him and those years of trial; nothing to tell, every- thing to conceal that all might be forgotten. Those children there- fore grew tip to know scarcely more of their granmother's life in those years, than that he took the British side and lost his life. In 1782, the last year of the memorable struggle, thoughts of peace were in the ascendant on both sides of the Atlantic. States- men sought wise methods of conciliation: no campaigns, only brief operations in Georgia and in the South. Some dastardly deeds of hate and retaliation by soldiery and vengeful tories shamed hu- manity. The Maine coast towns still suffered by shaving mills and sly thieving. Here an event startling and dubious comes into the Carleton family's history. In September a sheriff appears at the home- stead at Walnut Point and makes attachment of the entire prop- erty. Two men force the legal process. And who? David Gil- more, the only brother of Mrs. Carleton, and Thomas Percy, an intimate friend at Cox's Head. Gilmore seized go acres, 16 tons of hay, one mare and colt. What did it mean? How hard, how cruel to secure debts at such a time of trial; to seize on the prop- erty and living of a wife and her nine children, whose husband had apparently abandoned her and was an enemy of the state. Or were LOYALISTS OF THE KENNEBEC 259 there explanations tempering the harshness and changing cruelty in- to real kindness ? Indeed might not this affair be a scheme of friends under guise of the law to safeguard the family interests? Certainly the plan did have that effect. Other debts were threaten- ing. The farm had been under mortgage for a dozen years. The creditor had fled in that loyalist crowd from Boston to Nova Scotia. There is a hint that he was now seeking to exact the debt; that could mean no less than taking possession. But could a tory do so? Yet assuredly when these friends had fastened their de- mands upon the property by the sheriff's hand, then one Thomas Brown a tory in Halifax would get slight notice in a Massachu- sett's court. The claims of these friends were afterwards adjusted; the farm retained and passed down to son and son's son to the last descendant in that line, Deacon Franklin Carleton; after his early lamented death in 1885 it passed in a few years from the Carleton name, so held for 154 years. One more chief event will fill out the narration. John Carleton while engaged in depredations along shore at last met his death. just what were his operations, how much, how long, none can say. His doings became well known: no word of denial or of doubt can be raised in respect to lawless foraging. Therein his life warped from early honor by tory proclivities was at last by subtle forces given over to deeds which can not escape reprehension, and had a wretched ending. In that and in what had preceded was the sorest spot in the memory of family and friends. One can consider the man: becoming an alien in his native town; opposed, insulted by radicals; hardships at Penobscot; separated from home, viewed needless; sense of ill-treatment; severe neces- sities; accumulated ills of his position: in all were sources of acute temptation not by us to be apprehended and wrenching moral staunchness in a previous inflexible soul. Such stress on him bent a strong man into reprobated lawlessness of border warfare. Who knows his own strength, how he may endure the test, the aching trial? Therefore one may apologize for this loyalist; but one may not go too far. Associated and acting with the enemies of the new American nation, John Carleton necessarily was rated likewise an enemy. Did no acrid soul along Sagadahoc shores cry out, "Thief," and by deeds a despicable enemy? Can we apprehend the rancor, the engendered passions of those times? 4 26o SPRAGUE'S JOURNAL OF MAINE, HISTORY By whatever disguised skill, by whatever bold dexterity in his foraging, his doings as of others were known, were well attested: he was watched for, was hunted. In order to spy out British move- ments but more the skulking shaving mills, all the prowling dodging crafts of marauders, coast guards were maintained. The Phips- burg militia held the shore with lookouts on Cox's Head and Morse mountain. Specially would men who had gone to the enemy-tories execrated with a hiss,-be hated and trailed when by keen spies sighted stealing into creeks and coves. Anxieties by fear of British invasion, by raids on farmhouses for eggs and butter,-sheep and lambs gone by stealth,-caused sharp tension of feeling: the militia, responsible defenders, could feel they were dealing with pirates and robbers: the alert determined guard would be pardoned if he were more ready to shoot than to capture. John Carleton did not become a prisoner of war. The bullet in- tercepted escape. All accounts assign his death to the vicinity of Small Point. One told me "Shot off the Point," another added "standing straight and bold at the tiller." He may have been so seen and fired on. The end was not there. Statements on which I rely declare the deadly stroke came on an island of Casco bay: One said definitely, jaquish, now Little Bailey's island, on the charts. Some island seems well attested, and is probable for they were noted sheep pastures. There is general agreement that he had -one ashore, doubtless had been discovered near or off Small Point; had been pursued; had escaped to the shore and sought concealment. The hunted man was alert against his hunters of the coast guard. On the watch he slightly raised his head above a protecting boulder or pile of logs for a moment, and that moment enough for a keen eye and a quick trigger to send the deadly missile thru his head. A devious, path thru the years of loyalism had led to that island, to that rock, to the last step of a misguided life. Exact particulars,-the dis- covery, the trailing, the island hunt, the tragedy, were never writ- ten. It is known that the shot was not at once fatal: it did destroy his sight. Blinded, doubtless unconscious, he was taken to Small Point to the friendly Percy home tho another was named. Death delayed, one said, four days. Dr. Philip Theobald a sur- geon from the Hessian army who had settled in Dresden gave medical attendance. Of course his wife was summoned to watch thru days and hours of fevered agony while death waited. Not an LOYALISTS OF THE KENNEBEC 261 incident, not a word came to me from the scene at the death bed at Cox's Head; nor of the excitement abroad as the tragic tale of what had happened to this well-known man went flying from the soldier's report as the wind up the Kennebec valley nor of the suspense during delaying days as each morning and evening salutation of a man to his neighbor said, What of John Carleton? I have not been able to certify definitely the fateful day in the loyalist's life, but evidence points to the month of September, 1782- He was then forty-two years of age. This man so far portrayed belonged here;-(Woolwich, Maine,) here was his home; here now are his desendants; here was his work; yonder is his farm; in the town annals his name appears in duty and in office; once to it he gave the credit of his name for food and ammunition early in the war: yet also believing that George the Third was rightful sovereign here, he bowed and gave steadfast allegiance. When came entanglements and danger he held fast his loyalty; tempted and tested in dire straits as few men are, he was driven astray into a course of dishonor. This however I must say and give him the honor due; he was loyal to his convictions: he believed not as others: he followed that line unswerving: lie was true to himself. High commendation for any soul is it to be loyal to self, to conscience and to God. It may be that John Carleton, because open and frank had right to higher honor than some about him, silent, truckling, hiding, pre- varicating, rather than be true and make avowal. Staunch, unbending convictions-God alone knew his heart-led this man into a net of circumstances, enmeshed with peril conceal- ing a death-trap. There the end. From a few facts obtained I construct the final scene. To the fugitive and forager becoming burial was due. Not there certainly, the stricken wife would say, but at home, a dozen miles away. At once intelligence was sent up river: his near friends, Fullerton and Gilmore went down to Cox's Head and re- turning by night ensured for the Penobscot refugee at his death such a home-coming as had been furthest from -his thought. By the shore of Nequasset bay, at Walnut Point, forty years ago I knew a bit of pasture land, showing at least fifteen graves, be- yond question the burial place of the early Carletons and neighbor settlers. There must have been the grave of the bold loyalist of the Kennebec. 262 SPRAGUE'S. JOURNAL OF MAINE HISTORY In the dim autumn morning, the woe-freighted boat reached the shore. Soon privately, with a few friends the family gathered, the widow and all her nine chilrdren, I believe, bereaved as others, yet not as others but bearing a grief aching by a sting of dis- honor. There in sight of the house he had built, yet now standing, the home which had lost him, in the stillness of the bay and the forests, with not a word, not a prayer, the loyalist was laid be- neath the sod,-the end of life's aims, joys, conflicts, defeats. At that burial place visited a few years since, now concealed by a tangled thicket of briers and bushes as it stood forty years ago, so now stands a giant oak, in diamater forty-four inches, and begin- ning to decay; and notice,-standing directly upon a grave mound, marked by rough sunken stones for a tall man. Was that one the tory's grave ? On that day long ago, did a squirrel bury an acorn in the fresh earth? Or did a loving hand plant a shoot, a little sappling in that mound to grow, the only monument allowable for the dead? Why did that one stem thrive, why alone pre- served becoming a tall tree to spread its branches above the graves? Did the family keep it for a memorial? I do not know: it is a pleasing fancy. These few events at the Kennebec, are merely hints of others far more virulent, deeds evil in excess and foully outrageous in other colonies. Patiently endured then was the sacrifice, the ex- haustion, nor counted too dear the cost and loss of that struggle for independence. Will any now refuse equal sacrifice or cry out in fear of immense cost of treasure and of life in the terrors and atrocities of world-wide war, that there may be secured a larger, a nobler freedom for the nations of the world. Rather should we cry out for ourselves and our land as another for the motherland:- God of our fathers, known of old I Lord of the far-flung battle-line: Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine: Lord God of Hosts: be with us yet: Lest we forget; Lest we forget. (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.