Chapter 7 - Portsmouth from History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire From: Barbara Gottlock - BGOTTLOC@ccsd.edu Source: History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and Representative Citizens by Charles A. Hazlett, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill., 1915 Page 90 CHAPTER VII PORTSMOUTH Motives of the Colonists-Early Voyagers-John Smith-The Piscataqua- Thomson's Settlement at Little Harbor-Mason and the Laconia Patent -The Great House Portsmouth Named--Celebration in 1823. The editor in the chapters relating to Portsmouth has condensed the prin- cipal facts from articles on the early church history from the writings of Rev. James DeNormandie, and the editor's sketch of the Congregational meeting houses delivered at the semi-centennial of the North Church in 1905, also from the historical address of Hon. Frank W. Hackett at the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Portsmouth delivered May 28, 1903. THE POPULATION OF PORTSMOUTH IN 1910 WAS 11,269 Several reasons may be assigned for persons leaving the comfort, order , luxury, and associations of an old land and an old home. There is in every community a class of adventurers of the type of John Smith, men fond of the excitement of trave of novelty, ready to undertake any strange enter- prise for the sake of the hazard, for exploration, for science, for notoriety, for profit, or for curiosity. The wildness of the new is more inviting than the regularity of the old. In all old and wealthy states there is a large class of persons, representatives of families of past prominence or departed splen- dor or dilapidated fortunes, who in a new place can maintain a position on cheaper terms, or follow with an easy grace employments they would not undertake where they are known, or more sons than can be placed in the ancestral neighborhood, or sons of wealth for whom many reasons conspire to make it better to seek situations elsewhere, as on the continent one con- stantly meets with English who in humble places or at low rates keep up an appearance of respectability they could not have at home, and as many from New England begin life at the west. An old writer says, "If without offense it .may be spoken, the multitude of patents granted to several gentlemen of broken fortunes hath provided an honorable exile or confinement, whither many deserving persons of better education than fortune were sent to shirt for themselves in a foreign land without being further troublesome to those nearer home, on whom they had their hopes and dependence; yet it must not be denied but that some of the undertakers were at vast expenses, casting their bread upon these waters, Page 91 where none of their friends and relatives have as yet had opportunity to find it." And this class of far-seeing, shrewd business men is always ready to send others or embark itself, and to bear any danger, delay, or loss in any enterprise which promises satisfactory returns, and especially questions of government and religion, of persecution and freedom, make it grateful for many to endure any hardships or abandon any associations for a free rule and a broader liberty of worship. It is difficult to analyze all the motives which enter into colonization; perhaps all we have named do in some degree with every settlement, nevertheless each has its prominent characteristics easy to be traced; in the Plymouth Colony the prevailing idea at first was religious liberty for themselves, not for anybody else; in the Piscataqua Colony it was the spirit of mercantile enterprise. EARLY VOYAGES Three hundred and ten years ago two small vessels came into the waters of the Piscataqua from the eastward-the Speedwell, a ship of about fifty tons, and the bark Discoverer, of twenty-six, or thereabouts. They were from Bristol, under the command of Capt. Martin Pring, fitted out for trade and discovery by the "chiefest merchants of that port." Sailing along the coast the youthful navigator (he was but twenty-three) had looked into other inlets-the Saco, the Kennebunk and the York. "The fourth," he says, "and the most westerly was the best." In all these places they "found no people but signs of fires where they had been." It was the Englishman of 1603 upon the track of the Indian. Stretched out in front is an irregular expanse of hill and valley. Further over there greets him a mass of living green, sentinel to forest and tangled undergrowth beyond. At his feet is juniper in profusion. The maple and beech are here, and many a stately pine. Close at hand spruce and hemlock tell of ledge, and its scanty covering of soil. The eager glance of the Eng- lishman spies more than one sturdy oak, destined to give grateful shade to coming generations. The party were searching for sassafras, thought in that day to be pos- sessed of wonderful medicinal qualities. From an account of the voyage printed in "Purchase His Pilgrimes," (London, 1625), we learn that thirty men and boys were on the Speedwell, Edmund Jones (her mate) with Robert Salterne, who appears to have been what we should call a supercargo. William Brown was the master of the Discoverer, with Samuel Kirkland, thirteen men and a boy. They had all manner of goods, including looking-glasses and beads, wherewith to trade with the savages. They were delayed for a fortnight at Milford Haven, whence they sailed on the 10th of April, 1603, just after having heard the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth. They got back to Bristol in October. This is the first printed account so far as yet known of our river; though there is little reason to doubt that more than one English fishing vessel had at an earlier date than this sailed into the harbor of the Piscataqua. The editor quotes the following from the eccentric John Elwyn's book, "Some Piscataway Things and a Good Deal Else," published in 1870, on page 59. Page 92 "The small de I'Isles atlas that showed the forgery is in my hut; Capt. John Mason, our New Hampshire patentee, he knew the Bay Puritans well. Since I wrote this too our cousins of Main have found things out to the rage of our others of the bay that told the world there never was no kind of Englishmen in New England till the Plymouth Pilgrims: wonderful though that one of Gorges' Indian spoke to them in English when they got here, and Christopher Levett in Twenty-three stayed a while on Witch ( Saga- more) Creek below where my hut is, and says nothing of ours being a new plantation, and the Spaniard, Herrera, tells of a English cruiser of three hundred tons a hundred years before the Pilgrims of her coming to Puerto Rico by the banks of Newfoundland : all afishing already, Englishman was coming to fill North America with Englishmen never no Puritan in the world." John Smith.-By 1614 the knowledge of our coast had grown more definite, and colonization began to assume larger and more permanent direc- tions. The zeal for sudden wealth from the riches of mines led to a hasty occupation of the South, of Peru and Mexico by the Spaniards and Portu- guese, but the English and French came with a tardier pace to the fur and fishing trade of the North, and yet found, as we have found in California, that the vineyards and pasture lands and husbandry are a surer and greater source of wealth than mines of gold or fields of diamonds. In March of this year the remarkable adventurer, John Smith, sailed for North Virginia, seek- ing a mine of gold and copper, or, failing in that, to fish and trade. He named the shoals which had previously been sighted and described Smith's Islands, spoke of our river, and on his return drew a quaint map of the coast and wrote a history of his voyages, and left it for Prince Charles to christen the new realm, so that in 1614 first appears the name of New England. The map is printed in J. S. Tenness' "Isles of Shoals." The Piscataqua.--It cannot but be interesting to notice the praises which the Pjscataqua has called forth from the early voyagers and historians. One says "that westernmost and best river;" another, "the safe harbor and rocky shore of the Piscataqua ;" another, "that famous, brave, and navigable river of note, which has been frequented ever since the country was first planted, whose channel is very swift and spacious, fit for vessels of great burden;" And in an old deed, dated 1671, there is a will of one of the early merchants which runs thus : "I, Richard Cutt,. for ye love I bear unto Wm Vaughan, I do give unto him my stone warehouse, situate at Strawberry Bank and front- ing upon the Create Riyer Piscataqua." And one of the truest poets of Ports- mouth, Albert Laighton, wrote : "Like an azure vein from the heart of the main, Pulsing with joy forever, By verduous isles, with dimpled smiles, ,- Floweth my native river. "Singing a song as it flows along, Hushed by the ice-king never; For he strives in vain to clasp a chain O'er thy fearless heart, brave river ! Page 93 "Singing to one as full and free As it sang to the dusky daughters, When the light canoe like a sea-bird flew Over its peaceful waters." Thomson's Settlement at Little Harbor.-In 1623 this spirit of enterprise took for us a more definite form, and with results reaching to the present day. Among a council of forty noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, to whom King James granted a charter for the "planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New England in America," we find two persons conspicuous in energy and adventure, Sir Ferdinand Gorges and Capt. John Mason. Gorges was an officer of the English navy, intimate with Raleigh, and sharing his dar- ing spirit. He had learned from some Indians many particulars of this part of the country, its rivers, harbors, islands, fisheries, and products; his enthu- siasm to found a colony was not abated by many successive misfortunes, and his faith in its final success never died out. "I doubt not," he writes, "it will prove a very flourishing place, and be replenished with many fine homes and cities, it being a province both fruitful and pleasant." Mason was a London merchant, some time governor of Newfoundland, where he learned in a gen- eral and indefinite way of these parts, and became as enthusiastic as Gorges to plant a colony, an enthusiasm which appears never to have left him amidst all the discouragements and difficulties which beset his attempts. He was also governor of Portsmouth, in Hampshire, England. Mason and the Laconia Patent.-The tradition that the first settlement at the Piscataqua was owing to the efforts of Gorges and Mason, or to the Laconia Company, of which they were members, has no foundation. From "An Indenture of David Thomson," recently discovered among the papers of Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, with careful "Notes" in explanation by Mr. Charles Deane, of the Massachusetts Historical Society, many of the doubts and uncertain dates and confused traditions are dispelled, and it appears that David Thomson and three merchants of Plymouth entered into an agreement, in pursuance of which Thomson came over in the ship Jonathan in the spring of 1623, and settled at Little Harbor, a name which first appears in 1655, on the west side of the Piscataqua. These three merchants were Abraham Colmer, Nicholas Sherwill, and Leonard Pomerie, and with Thomson they were to contribute to the expenses and to share the profits. It is provided in the partnership that the colony "shall and will use their best endeavors (by the direction of said David Thomson), with as much convenience as maye be, to find out * * * some fitt place to settle & Builde some houses or buildings for habitacons, on which they are to begin with as muche expedicon as they maye; to the lymits & precincts of which habitacons or buildings soe intended to be there erected. there shall be allotted of the lands next thereunto adjoininge. at or before the end of five years next ensuing the date hereof, the full qutantitie of six hundred acres of land or neare thereabouts." John S. Jenness referring to the landing at Little Harbor on page 6 in "The First Planting of New Hampshire," says: "The site selected for the settlement was chosen with excellent judgment. Page 94 From the Little Harbor fronting the north side of the promontory a salt water creek runs back so far towards the ocean as almost to convert the inclosed point into an island of about six hundred acres area, which was the precise amount of land required by the indenture to be allotted to the new plantation. The soil is good, and among the rocks on the harbor shore is a living spring of fresh water. The harbor is safe and accessible at all times to vessels of light draught, and most commodiously situated for the prosecu- tion of the fisheries as well as for the peltry traffic with the Indians of Saga- more Creek and Piscataqua River. Above all other advantages in those peril- ous times, the Point, rising on every side towards its center and almost sur- rounded by water, was easily defensible against the assaults of savages. These considerations probably determined Thomson in the selection of this site for the new plantation, which he named, perhaps, from the Indian appellation 'Pannaway,' a name which seems, however, not to have survived the period of Thomson's own occupation and ownership of the plantation." In Winslow's "Good News," published in 1624, describing events appar- ently of the preceding summer, we find reference to "on Mr. David Tomson, a Scotchman, who also that spring began a plantation twenty-five leagues northeast from us, near Smith's Iles, at a place called Pascatoquack, where he liketh well." Thomson most likely remained at the Piscataqua until 1626, and deserves to receive the undivided praise as the founder of this sett!e- rnent, while Mason had nothing to do with its beginning. In a deposition of several aged persons, including Edward Colcord, taken at Piscataqua August 25, 1676, they make oath and affirm that "Capt. John Mason did never settle any government nor any people upon any land called the prov- ince of New Hampshire, on the south side of Piscataqua River, either by himself or any of his agents to this day." The earliest trace that we have of David Thompson is the record of his marriage at St. Andrew's Church, Plymouth, England, July 13, 1613. His wife was Amias Cole, daughter of a resident of Plymouth. According to the late R. N. Worth, the historian of Plymouth, who discovered this entry, Thompson probably was a stranger at Plymouth, for his name has not been found elsewhere in their records. Morton describes him as "a Scottish gentleman, a scholar and a traveller." From the wording of an early instru- ment (Aspinwall papers) I we infer that he either had been educated as a doctor, or had at least some skill in medicine. The Plymouth Councjl created f()r planting, ruling and governing New England was established in November, 1620. For a while they appear to have employed Thompson as a messenger. Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason stand forth as the two commanding spirits of the asso- ciates that formed the council. From a position where he must have made .himself useful, it is likely that Thompson secured the confidence of both these great leaders in the settlement of New England. There is a mcmorandum which shows that a patent was made out to Thompson of land in New England, in November, 1622. More or less speculation has sprung up as to the true character of Thomp- son's enterprise. In a vague way it has been understood that he came in the interest of Gorges and Mason. There is not space afforded here to pursue Page 95 the inquiry. It is enough to say that everything points to the fact that the venture had the hearty good will of the council. While independent, and meant to be confined within a moderate area, it is reasonably well estab- lished that Thompson's coming formed part of the larger enterprise of Gorges and Mason and their associates in occupying and developing the entire territory covered by their patents. Odiorne's Point at Little Harbor was the spot selected for the site of the first building erected on the grant. The first settlers were sent from England by the company in 1623, "to found a plantation on Piscataqua River, to cultivate the vine, discover mines, carry on the fisheries, and trade with the natives." As the materials of many of the early houses were brought from England, it is possible that in the liberal provision made for the plantation, those of the Manor House were also. The house was a little north of the hillock, which was between it and the ocean,- and on that elevation there was o a small fort built, to protect from savage incursions. Fishing being one of the objects of the settlement, salt works were early erected in connection with the establishment. A few rods southwest of the fort at Odiome's Point they erected their fish flakes, which gave the name of Flake Hill to the knoll, which is still retained. "During the first few years of the existence of the colony," remarks Potter, "the people suffered every hardship, and not being acclimated many of them were carried off by disease." The graves of such are still to be seen a few rods north of the site of the fort, and is worthy of remark, that the moss-covered cobble stones at the head and foot of the graves, still remain as placed by mourners of two hundred and eighty years since, while a walnut and a pear tree, each of immense size, and possibly of equal age with our state, stand like sentinels, extending their ancient arms over the sleepers below. Evidence is now apparent that a smith's shop was erected near the house. There were between three and four thousand acres regarded as attached to this branch of the plantation. The provisions of the grant were ample for the carrying out of the idea of the proprietors, which was to establish a manor here agreeably to the English custom-the occupants of the land to be held as tenants by the proprietors of the soil. A description ( and it is the only one we have) , of the building erected by Thompson at Pannaway, for such was the Indian name of the locality, is derived from a sketch written by Samuel Maverick, in 1660. The docu- ment, " A brief Description of New England," was drawn up as a report to be laid before the King of London after the restoration. It came to light some thirty years ago. In 1902 Mr. Frank W. Hackett consulted and veri- fied the original manuscript in the British Museum. Maverick, who was a few years younger than Thompson, was a gentleman of good family either from Devon or Cornwall, a staunch churchman and a royalist. He came into Boston Bay in 1624. where he built and fortified ( it is said with Thompson's help) , a house at Winnesimmet, now Chelsea. The site, which was near the river, is now comprised within the limits of the grounds of the United States Naval Hospital. Maverick tells us that Thompson built a "Stronge and Large house and enclosed it in a large and high Palizardo and mounted gunns and being stored Page 96 extraordinarily with shot and Ammunition was a terror to the Indians who at that time were insulting over the poor weake and unfurnished planters of Plymouth. This house and Fforte he built on a point of land at the very entrance of the Pascataway River." Maverick and Thompson were more or less in each other's company. Thompson, it seems, went into the bay to live about three years after he had planted this settlement at Ordiorne's Point. He selected an island in Boston Harbor and built a house there, which island has ever since borne his name. We have good reason to believe that Maverick, though writing so long after the event, retaIned a perfectly clear recollection of the original build- ing that Thompson's men erected at Pannaway. Had it been built entirely of stone, it would seem as though Maverick would have mentioned the cir- cumstance, since a building of this material was a very unusual object along the coast. The palisade that he speaks of was not uncommon in those days as a necessary protection against attack from hostile Indians. Maverick's own house was attacked at one time, he tells us, and the Indians were hand- somely repulsed. The story of this settlement at Ordiome's Point is told in a lively narra- tive, yet with strict adherence to historical truth, by the late John Scribner Jenness, a son of Portsmouth, in a volume, privately printed at Portsmouth in 1878, entitled "The First Planting of New Hampshire." Few men had a more extensive or accurate knowledge of the early history of this locality than Mr. Jenness. His little book brings together every fact that had been disclosed up to that time, bearing upon the object of Thompson's landing and the step taken by him in beginning the settlement. The picture which this pleasing and exact writer outlines is remarkable for its fullness of detail, seeing that the material with which he worked was fragmentary and slight. Had Mr. Jenness lived to see Maverick's narrative, it is possible that he would have hesitated to say positively that the house was built of stone. His authority is Hubbard (not always accurate), and a deposition made by Robert Pike at the age of eighty-eight. Pike says that the house was commonly known as "Captain John Mason's stone house." Perhaps the foundation had been carried up higher than usual while thc house itself was built of heavy timber. At all events the question of whether the building was constructed wholly of stone, may be considered as still unsettled. The Council for New England, among other active agencies for promoting the planting of settlements, printed in 1622 a pamphlet of thirty-five pages entitled " A Briefe Description of The Discoverie and Plantation of New Eng- land." It praised the country, its resources and climate. We learn from it that more than thirty vessels in 1622 sailed from the western port of Eng- land for this coast for fishing and trade. A circumstance that connects Thompson with the plans of Mason and Gorges is, that late in the autumn of 1623 Capt. Robert Gorges came to Pannaway, meeting here Capt. Christopher Levett and Capt. Francis West. The object of their meeting was to carry out a plan of the Council for setting up a general government in New England. We are told that Thompson was Page 97 authorized to receive possession of the Province, in the name of Gorges and Mason from Captain Gorges. Levett has left an account of his experience in 1623, in, a little book pub- lished in 1628, at London, and "sold by Edward Brewster at the sign of the Bible in St. Paul's Church Yard." He arrived at the Isles of Shoals in November and then came over and stayed a month with Thompson. The weather being cold and the snow deep, our visitor did not gain any too favor- able an impression of the neighborhood. "In these parts," he says, "I saw much good timber, but the ground it seemed to me not to be good, being very rocky and full of trees and brushwood. There is a great store of fowle of diverse sorts whereof I fed very plentifully. About two English miles Łur- ther to the East I found a great river and a good harbor called Pascataway. But for the ground I can say nothing, but by the relation of the Sagamore or King of the place who told me there was much good ground up in the river about seven or eight leagues." Captain Levett was not the first sailor to speak a good word for the River Pascataway. As early as 1614 Capt. John' Smith had told his country- men that this river furnished a safe harbor with a rocky shore. Indeed, that anyone in any century can see this river and go away and not praise it, is incredible. Just how long Thompson stayed at Pannaway is not yet within our power to determine. He was certainly there as late as 1626, and perhaps for a short season after that date. An infant son was born to him, who in his man- hood is the John Thompson who petitioned the General Court at Boston in regard to Thompson's Island. There is reason to believe that the date of John Thompson's birth was 1626, so he most likely first saw the light of day at Ordiorne's Point. If such be the fact, there may be claimed for him the honor of having been the first white child born within the present limits of New Hampshire, In 1628 settlements along the coast were levied upon to meet the expense of expelling Morton from Merry Mount in the bay for sundry offenses, the chief of which was furnishing firearms to the Indians. Among the con- tributors appears the name of Mrs. Thompson. That her name is used instead of that of her husband is an indication that by 1628 David Thomp- son had dierd. Not long after her husband's death the widow, as we know, was married to Samuel Maverick. We find a letter written by Amias Maver- ick to friends at Plymouth, England, in relation to her father; and thus, all doubt is dispelles of the identity of the wife of Samuel Maverick with her who was originally Amias Cole. It was formlerly supposed that Thompson had been sent out by an asso- ciation called the Laconia Company. So Doctor Belknap wrote, and in his statement he is followed by Mr. Adams, the author of the Annals. As a matter of fact the Laconia Company did not come into existence until 1629, six years later. Mr. Hackett gives some more details in reference to the Laconia Patents, for an error of so long standing should be corrected whenever opportunity offers. In 1626, England, already at war with Spain, became engaged in a war Page 98 with France that lasted until 1629. An enterprise was set on foot by the Canada Company in which Gorges and Mason were interested, to capture Canada. This company of private persons-a procedure that seems strange at this day-fitted out a naval expedition. David Kirke, in command of three ships, succeeded in capturing Quebec, whereupon he brought Champlain as a prisoner to England. Upon arrival Kirke learned to his chagrin that peace had already been declared, and that by the terms of the treaty, what they had conquered was to be restored to France. One result of this expedition was that Kirke and his men had gained new and valuable information with regard to the fur trade in that region, a trade which held out very alluring prospects of gain. Certain members of the Canada Company stirred by the hope of turning this information to their immediate advantage, resolved to launch out into a bold undertaking to this end. They were convinced, it seems, that a shorter way could be opened for getting to the fur country then by the river of Canada. What is now Lake Champlain, then called the Lake of the Iroquois, they imagined could be reached by a slight portage from the headwaters of the Pascataway. Accordingly, within a few days after the return of Kirke's expedition these adventurers obtained a grant from the Council of all the lands border- ing upon the lake and the rivers called the Iroquois, as well as the right to select a thousand acres upon the sea coast, where the same had not already been disposed of to other persons. The patent provided that the grantees could associate others with them, to adventure in "plantations trafiques and discouvryes." They who associated themselves in this undertaking adopted the name of the Laconia Company. Gorges and Mason and seven London merchants were thus associated. The scheme on hand was to send over cargoes of goods to the Pascataway, thence to be taken up the river in canoes, and carried to Champlain to convenient places, where they could be disposed of in barter to the Indians, for peltries to be brought back to the mouth of the Pascataway. The company, however, did not take up, as had been con- templated, the thousand acres on the coast, as a site for their factory. Like many great speculations, this enterprise absorbed the capital and taxed the energies of its promoters, but came to nothing. Captain Mason said, in 1634, that he had never received a penny for all his outlay in his plantations in the Pascataway. Had he come over in person, the result might have been different, He died in 1635. Though his investment yielded him no return. Mason gained an honored name. One may visit today the ancient church of Domus Dei, at Portsmouth, England, and behold four standards and a tablet, raised in memory of Capt. John Mason, a "faithful church- man, devoted patriot and gallant officer, * * * the founder of New Hampshire," a memorial gratefully put there In 1874 by five men and two women of this Pascataway region, some of them his descendants. We thus see not only that Thompson in 1625 had not been sent over by the Laconia Company, but that his coming did not widen out to the extent of the grand purposes just outlined, It should be mentioned in passing that while the fur trade of Canada gave Impetus to the movement In 1631, it was the intention of Mason, as one of the company, that the building up and developing of a plantation in this neighborhood engaged likewise in the Page 99 fisheries and other pursuits, should go hand in hand with the carrying on of the great trade that they expected would come here. The ambitious design of the Laconia Company, as may well be imagined, created a stir and bustle upon our river. In 1630, a bark, belonging to George Griffith, one of the Laconia partners, the Warwick of eighty tons and carry- ing ten pieces of ordnance, sailed from Plymouth for the mouth of the Pascat- away. She brought over Capt. Walter Neale, a soldier who was to act as governor, and Ambrose Gibbons, the factor of the company. As soon as the Warwick arrived Neale took up his residence in the house built by Thompson. About this time, through some means not as yet clearly to be made out, this house appears to have become the property of Capt. John Mason, or of the Laconia Company. Neale's orders were to start in September to discover a route to the Iroquois country. But some cause of delay ensued, and he wrote home that it was too late in the season for him to make the attempt. Another ship, the Pied Cowe, came over that year. Both vessels returned to England and were ready the next season to sail for the plantation. The Warwick arrived here in September, 1631, bringing passengers, the most distinguished of whom was Capt. Thomas Cammock, a nephew of the Earl of Warwick. After a short stay, the bark sailed for Virginia, and went some distance up the river Potomac. She came back to the Pascataway, arriving in February, 1632. These details are to be gathered from a journal kept by Henry Fleet, her factor, the MS. of which was discovered a few years ago and printed. In 1632 another ship, the John, was employed in bringing over goods. In the years 1631 and 1632, a number of men, suited to the work of beginning a plantation, came over in these vessels; or, some may have taken passage in other vessels of which we have no record. The incoming probably continued for two years longer. From the Belknap papers we obtain a list of names numbering between fifty and sixty men, of the stewards and servants sent by Capt. John Mason into New Hampshire. There were twenty-two women, showing that some of the settlers brought their wives with them; no doubt there were children not enumerated. A large proportion of this company, to judge from their names, came from Devon and Cornwall. There was a sprinkling of foreigners of the laboring class, styled Danes in one account, and spoken of in a later record as Frenchmen. They were eight in number, but we do not know the name of anyone of them. Of those that came over between the years 1631 and 1634 ( for such is the period to which this list of names may be applied) , there were not a few. the descendants of whom, bearing the name. are yet to be found in this neighborhood. We may mention, for instance. Vaughan, Fernald, Johnson, Rand, Sherburne, Canney, Goddard, Seavey. Berry. Brackett. Pickering. This period marks the beginning of a continuous and growing settlement here upon the Pascataway. I ought to have said that the Pascataway patent covering both sides of the river was granted by the Council, on November 3, 1631, to Gorges and to Mason. Mention is made in the patent of the "house and chief habitacion Page 100 at Pascataway wherein Capt. Walter Neale and the colonie with him now doth or lately did reside, together with the garden and corn grounds oocupied and planted by the said colonie and the salt works already begun." Later, Mason divided the territory with his partner Gorges, the former retaining the New Hampshire side of the river, while Gorges took that part which is now in the State of Maine. A portion of the force thus sent over by the Laconia Company went up the river about fifteen miles, and settled at Newichewannock (Berwick Falls). Others took up their abode on Great Island (New Castle), which for many years continued to be the most important, as it was the most popu- lous part of the settlement. Here they promptly occupied the northeastern projection of the island, known to this day as Fort Point, where they planted guns to command the river,-the forerunner of the Castle, of Fort William and Mary and of Fort Constitution, as these works were successively named. The settlers up the river built a house and surrounded it with palisades, meaning that it should be an important post for the projected fur trade. They set up a saw mill there, which was kept busy getting out lumber for their buildings. They experimented with the planting of vines, but it did not prove successful. A little later Mason sent over a stock of neat cattle. They appear to have been kept at Pascataway. The company also furnished shallops, fishing boats and skiffs for the carrying on of a fishery. Of these newcomers Renald Fernald was a surgeon; William and Hum- phrey Chadbourn were master builders. One of the Chadbourns (I believe it to have been William) built at Straw Berry Banke, probably in 1631, the Great House, at the southwest corner of what is now Water and Court streets. A letter of instructions from London, dated 5th of December, 1632, to Gibbons, who had become discouraged with his work at Newichewannock, and who proposed to remove to Saunders Point near Sagamore Creek, opposite Great Island, announces the fact that the company had written to Mr. Wannerton "to take care of our house at Straw Berry Banke." The pleasing name of Straw Berry Banke, as we all know, was derived from the circumstance that the river bank commanding that beautiful view from what is now Church Hill, was in those early days rich in wild strawberries. Unfortunately, our early records were almost totally destroyed by the action of the selectmen in 1652, who copied out a few entries from the old book into a new book. What became of the old book nobody can tell, though in all probability it was long ago destroyed. We do not know, therefore, whether a street or lane was ever laid out to start with. The sole memorial that remains to us of an ancient date is the grant of the Glebe (May 25, 164O). Nor is this an original. It is an entry in the town book made as late as 1664, the selectmen finding the original on file nearly worn-out pieces by passing through so many hands. So, they had it copied into the records. Here is an appropriate place for a word or two upon the subject of the term of "Great House," as found in our early records. Two structures acquired this name, one the original building put up by Thompson, at Pan- naway. This subsequently became known as Captain Mason's house. Being Pages 101 and 102 contained photos Page 103 larger than any habitation buiut for a sing]e family, it naturally took the name of Great House, to distinguish it from other and smaller dwellings. A like reason accounts for the name applied to the building at the Banke. Both these houses were doubtless intended not only to accommodate at the outset a large number of inmates but also to furnish a secure place for the deposit of stores. Not far distant from the Great House in a westerly direction there was a great white rock. It is spoken of, at one place in the record, as standing in the field of John Cutt. The existence of two buiudings each called the Great House has led to a little confusion. For instance, Mr. Adams, under the year 1644, after reciting the fact that Sampson Dane succeeded to Warnerton in the possession of the Great House, says of the house itself, "there were attached to it about a thousand acres of land, consisting of marsh, meadow, planting and pasture grounds and mostly under improvement." Brewster follows this authority, and also tells us that Richard Cutt occupied the Great House, and that about the year 1685 it had fallen down, and the ruins were then visible. Evidently, the source of information for both these statements is the deposition of George Walton, given at the age of seventy years, and used at the famous case of Allen against Waldron. It is printed in the appendix to the Annals. Examine this deposition closely, and you will see that Walton draws a distinction between the Great House at Pascataway, meaning the house that Thompson built, and the Great House at Strawberry Bank. Of the former he says : "To the great house at Pascataway aforesaid there were adjoining about one thousand acres of improved lands, marsh, meadow and planting grounds, which were divided and parcelled out by the servants of Captain Mason and others, the select, or prudential men ( of the town of Portsmouth) as they were so-called who still enjoy the same or their heirs and assigns, whereof William Vaughan and his brother-in-Iaw have a large share given them by their father-in-Iaw, Richard Cutt. and the said Great House, by the means aforesaid, came to decay and fell down the ruins being to be seen, out of which several good farms are now made." What this means, is that at Little Harbor a very large tract of land was appurtenant to the Great House, and that the house itself, having been deserted, had fallen down, and Walton had seen the ruins. Hubbard appears to have learned of this fact, and his language has the same significance. The deponent means also that out of the thousand acres of more several good farms had been made. On the other hand, the Great House at the Banke had land appurtenant to it, but there is no authority that we know of for saying that the planting grounds were of the extent of "about a thousand acres." Moreover, it is capable of demonstration that the house had not fallen in ruins in 1685. It is two or three times referred to in records much later than that date. In August, 1692, Samuel PenhaIlow conveys to John Snell a "lot near the house in which John Partridge now dwelleth commonly called the Great House in the town of Portsmouth" (Rockingham Records VI, p. 151). There is no reason to believe that this structure, built as it undoubtedly was, of heavy timber, was at any time ever deserted, or that it ever fell into ruin. Page 104 It may have been burned, or because of its size the owner may have thought fit to take it down rather than repair it. One who cares to search the records might discover the date when it ceased to exist as the Great House. Walton's deposition, at its close, makes it perfectly clear that a large part of what is now Portsmouth was originally planting grounds and pasture belonging to the Great House on Water street. PORTSMOUTH NAMED For thirty years from the first settlement, we might roam through forests without leaving the present limits of the thickly settled part of Portsmouth. The growth of the colony was slow, the Great Island portion being more rapid than at the Bank. In 1653 there were but fifty or sixty families in the limits of what now comprises Portsmouth, Newcastle, Greenland and Newington. In May of that year the inhabitants petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for a definite township, and the privilege of taking the name of Portsmouth. As this petition, obtained by Rev. Dr. Burroughs from the file in the early documents in Massachusetts, has not been placed in our town records or annals, we give it here, verbatim, for preservation : "To the hon'd Gen'l Court at Boston, this present month of May 1653. The humble petition of the Ihab'ts of the Towne at present called Strabery Banke, showeth. That whereas your petitioners petitioned to the last Gen'l Court to grant to the P. Inhab'ts, a competent portion of land to make us a township, whereby we may be enabled to subsist and be useful to the church and Common'th. Our desire is, that this honor'd Court will be pleased to show their favor and good will towards us, and willingness to accommodate us to the uttermost. And for that purpose have desired the honor'd Capt. Wiggins to bring his pat tent to this present Court. Now it may please this hon'd Court to take our case into consideration; and to con- sider of our extreme necessities, first in respect of the number of families, which are between and 50 and 60, of W'ch some are constrained to remove from what of land to accommodate them with their families stocks-secondly, the qualities of the lan4 wee live upon is soe badd, its incredible to beleeve except those who have seen it-thirdly the place being settled a plantation, the first of any in these parts, and our willingnesse in submitting to yr government-fourthly, that all the neighboring plantations about us, w'ch were settled since wee, have their to-wnships settled and bounded onely we as yet have none-fifthly, that whereas there is much benefit by saw mills in other townes in this river and adjacent townes there is none in this town but onely one, w'ch was never perfected no likely to bee. We humbly intreat his honor'd Court to take into theire view this necke of land w'ch we live upon: w'ch nature itselfe hath bounded with the maine sea and river, as may be seene by the draft of the river, w'ch was presented to the last Gen'l Court, and now presented againe by our deputie, w'ch necke of land is farre less than any neighboringe towne about us. The desire of yr humble petit'rs is, that this hon'd Court would grant us the necke of land, beginning in the great bay at a place called Cotterill's delight, soe runninge to the sea according Page 105 to the former petition. And whereas the name of this plantation att present being Strabery Banke, accidently soe called, by reason of a banke where straberries was Łound in this place, now we humbly desire to have it called Portsmouth, being a name most suitable for this place, it being the river's mouth, and good as any in this land, and your petit'rs shall humbly pray. "BRIAN PENDLETON RICHARD CUTT AND RENALD FERNALD SAMUEL HAINES, JOHN SHEREBOURN In behalf of the rest." On this petition it was first proposed to postpone "because of Mr. Mason's claim on the land," afterwards granted 28 May, 1653, allowed to be called Portsmouth, "and the line of this township of Portsmouth to reach from the sea by Hampton lyne to Wynnacot river, leaving the propriet'rs to their just right." The people living here had, about ten years before, put themselves under the control of the Massachusetts authorities. Those authorities, however, did not create or incorporate our town. They had no power to do that. The town had existed previously, with all the rights and privileges that grew out of the association into a community, under a "Combination" some time prior to 1640. The authorities of the Bay simply recognized that the free and independent people here wanted to have the limits of their township definitely marked out. Besides, they wanted a name that would take rank with some of the great names of English towns. Straw Berry Banke was pleasing, but Portsmouth was a little grander; and, as they argued in their petition, more suitable since it was a saŁe port at the river's mouth. But the other and our real birthday is identical with the date of the first settlement of New Hampshire. As yet nobody can point to precisely what day of what month this honor belongs. All that we know is that the fateful event fell upon a day in the early spring. Let us hope that it was a bright, clear, sunshiny morning, with the spring birds singing-when, in 1623, an active energetic man, with his young wife and a handful of followers and servants, landed upon what is now Odiorne's Point, for many years a part of Portsmouth, but now in the town of Rye. That day's doings was a plain, business-like procedure, though of great moment from the standpoint of local history. I have said that we do not know the precise date of Thompson's landing. Ninety years ago, when the spring of 1823 was coming on, our fathers cast about to determine what date should be assigned for a grand celebration. They fixed upon the twenty-eighth of May as being that which in their judgment approached nearest to the anniversary of the actual time. But it having been found for some reason inconvenient to adopt the twenty-eighth, they finally settled upon Wednesday, a week earlier, as the day for their exercises. The twenty-first of May, 1823, was a red-Ietter day in the history of Portsmouth. The town was crowded with visitors. The Gilman Blues led off as escort. Then came in full force the school children, bringing their masters along for company. The Mechanic Associa- tion and the Free Masons were also in line. Then followed the orator of the Page 106 day, accompanied by the poet, and sundry distinguished personages. There were the clergy, the judges and other civil officers, while the army and navy were represented from the fort and navy yard. The procession passed through some of the principal streets to the North Meeting House, where a brilliant throng of ladies were filling the spacious galleries. Nathaniel Appleton Haven, then in the prime of early manhood, delivered the oration. One or two original odes, set to music, were finely rendered by the Portsmouth Handel Society. If the literary feast were ample, so was the dinner, which came off at Jefferson Hall, at half-past 2 in the afternoon. More than two hundred gentlemen partook of the fare, which, the record tells us, consisted "chiefly of fish of all known names and cooked in all possible variety." Among the guests of distinction one finds the names of Jeremiah Mason, Daniel Webster, Joseph Story, George Ticknor, and John G. Palfrey. In response to a toast Webster spoke of his love for his native state, and of his happy associations of nine years with his former home in Portsmouth. The festivities of the day were concluded by a brilliant ball in the evening, in the hall of the Franklin House. Nearly four hundred were present. The sides of the ballroom were covered with pictures of prominent persons who had flourished at Portsmouth before the Revolution-the Wentworths, Jaffreys, Waldrons, Wibirds, Pepperrells, Moffatts, Sherburnes, Sparhawks and many another. Altogether, it was a great day. Out of these memorable exercises sprang into life the New Hampshire Historical Society, which with rare felicity dates its organization in Portsmouth from May 21, 1823. Every fact, no matter how trivial, which throws light upon the venture begun on these shores, in 1623, is of value in the eyes of all who take an interest in the early annals of Portsmouth. The sum of our information, however, we are obliged to confess, is as yet small and insignificant. The figure of the leader of the enterprise is but dimly outlined, though during the last fifty years the veil has once or twice been lifted for a moment by the discovery of a document or of a record entry thus affording a glimpse that was denied to our fathers. At the initiative stage of our local history nobody appears to have thought it worth his while to write down an account of what was going on around him in the hope that some day it might prove of interest to a descendant. Here and there a stray paper has been preserved, a business letter, a bill of goods or a memorandum of work done. A few depositions are still on file in the court records used as they were in some suits brought many years after the events which they mention had occurred. But such a document is not explicitly to be relied upon. An old man who is telling what he thinks that he recalls as happening half a century earlier, may be pardoned for an occa- sional want of precision. To Dr. Jeremy Belknap, the historian of New Hampshire, a schoolmaster at Portsmouth and minister at Dover from 1767 to 1786, we owe a debt of gratitude for the pains with which he hunted up and saved every scrap of ancient document that he could lay hands upon. He began none too soon. Nathaniel Adams, the author of the " Annals of Portsmouth," relied almost Page 107 wholly upon Belknap in collecting the events of the opening pages of his admirable volume. Portsmouth must ever hold Adams in grateful remembrance. For many years he was clerk of the court, and in that capacity became familiar with old records, a familiarity that suggested no doubt his taking the wise step to prepare and publish the Annals in 1825, a brief history of the town arranged under the heading of the respective years. A like sentiment of obligation has been richly earned by the late Charles W. Brewster, the author of two volumes of "Rambles About Portsmouth," first published in 1859. The dullest reader may not fail to note how large is the proportion of interesting material that would have been lost forever had it not been for the foresight of this lover of his native town. A word of appreciative mention is likewise due to the "Portsmouth Guide Book," by Miss Sarah H. Foster, The pages of this little book, unpretentious but really valuable, breathe an air of refinement as not the least of its literary charms. The Rev. Charles Burroughs and the Rev. Andrew P. Peabody have each left behind them contributions to the history of Portsmouth that I need not say are of enduring worth, A third historian who dealt with this early period of New England, although touching to a slight extent only upon New Hampshire, was William Hubbard, the minister of Ipswich, ordained there in 1658. When he died, in 1704, he left a MS. history which was published in 1815. Doctor Belknap placed a greater degree of confidence in Hubbard's narrative than local historians of the present day are willing to accord. Hubbard, of course, labored under many and great disadvantages, Documents discovered since show that not a few of his statements are incorrect. Still, his pages are profitable when read in the light of our later knowledge. On the 22d of April, 1635, Mason obtained for himself, after discourage- ments and failures on the part of the previous company, a grant of the lands "between Naumkeag and Piscataqua," which, "with the consent of the Council, shall henceforth be called New Hampshire." It seems that after this grant Mason had great hopes and plans; he calls his whole grant on the Piscataqua "my country of New Hampshire, or Mannor of Mason Hall ;" he doubtless had large expectations of some manor hall, with its surrounding estates, and of an inflowing Łortune, but death put an end to all his dreams, leaving to another generation only an inheritance of lawsuits, which, amidst the perplexing grants to successive companies and individuals, given with little geographical knowledge, disturbed, convulsed, and embittered the settlement for many years. It was this high hope and this grand residence in the future which formed the only reality of a Mason's or manor hall at Little Harbor. There never was any such building, The settlers who came over in the Warwick doubtless occupied the houses at Little Harbor which were built by Thompson. It may be well to advise one not familiar with the facts that much that hitherto has been published of the settlement here, and of the character of the early planters, should be taken with a grain of allowance. Until recent times the early history of New England has been written almost exclusively by Page 108 men who, though no doubt meaning to be fair-minded, were either Puritan themselves, or strongly imbued with the Puritan prejudice. No one knew more accurately or minutely the facts of our early history than the late John Elwyn. The following extract, though caustic, is true enough; and I quote it to emphasize the need of the caution just mentioned. "The stream of the early history of New England," says Mr. Elwyn, in his remarkable sketch entitled "Some Account of John Langdon," "has been so corrupted by the subsequently predominant Puritan faction, who troubled themselves about nothing that did not go to their own glory, in their phrase, the glory of God, that one half the world think this coast was unvisited until about the time it was honored by their presence. In all likelihood the English came to the Pascataway for fifty years before. Cornish fishermen did not print their voyages then more than Yankee fishermen do now." (XX N. H. State Papers, 850.) ********************************************************************** * * * 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 t other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIORto 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.