year another grant of twelve thousand acres on the west side of the river was made to Gorges' grandson, Ferdinando.* The next grant we meet with of land upon this coast, was of Black Point, now a part of Scarborough, to Thomas Cammock, dated Nov. 1, 1631. This was by the council of Plymouth, and extended from Black Point river to the Spurwink, and back one mile from the sea. Cammock is said to have been a relative of the Earl of Warwick; he was one of the company sent to Piscataqua, and was there as early as 1631. Possession of his grant, which included Stratton's Islands, lying about a mile from the point, was given to him by Capt. Walter Neale, May 23, 1633'. The patent was confirmed to him by Gorges in 1640; the same year he gave a deed of it to Henry Jocelyn, to take effect after the death of himself and his wife. He died in the West Indies, in 1643, and Jocelyn immediately entered upon possession and married Margaret, *[Sainsbury, vol. i. p. 266 says, "Grant to Edward Godfrey and others of Dec. 2, 1631 to be renewed, March 2, 1638."] 1 York Records. brought him into notice. Sir F. Gorges appointed him a counselor of his province in 1640; and in 1642, he was Mayor of Gorgiana. He was chosen Governor by the people in the western part of the State in 1649, and was the first in Maine who exercised that office by the election of the people. He is said by a committee on the Mason title in England in 1660, "to have discharged this office with much reputation of integrity and justice." He died about 1664, at an advanced age, leaving a son, Oliver. In a report to the king, 1661, signed by Robert Mason and others, it is said "That Edward Godfrey hath lived there many years, and discharged the office of Governor with the utmost integrity." Winthrop says (vol. i. p. 137) that Sir F. Gorges and Capt. Mason sent a person in 1634, to Agamenticus and Piscataqua, with two saw-mills to be erected, one at each place.-Mass. files, 1654. [Agamenticus was the Indian name for the river now called York, and was also applied to the adjoining hills and territory. The composition of the word, as the Rev. Mr. Ballard informs me, is Anghemak-ti-koos, means snow shoes river, from the pond at its source in that shape.] his widow. The tract is now held under this title by conveyance from Jocelyn to Joshua Scottow, dated July 6, 1666.* December 1, 1631, the council of Plymouth granted to Robert Trelawny and Moses Goodyeare, merchants of Plymouth, the tract lying between Cammock's patent "and the bay and river of Casco, and extending northwards into the main lands so far as the limits and bounds of the lands granted to the said Capt. Thomas Cammock, do and ought to extend toward the north." The reason given for making this grant was, "the having expended great sums in the discovery of those parts, and their encouragement in settling a plantation there." This included Cape Elizabeth, but Winter, the agent of the patentees contended for a larger extent north, than seemed to be within the just construction of the grant. A contest was maintained many years on this subject, and although in practice, the patent never extended north of Fore river, yet the proprietors affirmed that the Presumpscot river was the northern boundary; and this was asserted by the Jordan proprietors, as late as the year 1769, when they became incorporated under the statute. They then described the bounds of the grant to extend from the sea near the east side of Cammock's patent into the country north-westerly fifteen miles, and then north-easterly to a river called Casco or Presumpscot river, then down said river to the sea, then along the sea-shore to the first mentioned bounds by Cammock's patent. These limits included nearly *[At the same time and included in the same minute of council, as copied by Sainsbury, a patent was granted to Richard Bradshaw, of 1500 acres. The memorandum does not define its locality, but its being included in the sanie paragraph with Cammock's grant, and being mentioned by Cleeves, in his declaration against Winter, (see appendix No 1,) as lying at Spurwink, I infer that it was adjacent to Cammock's grant. Cleeves and Tucker claim it by purchase of Bradshaw, but it clearly conflicts with the right of Trelawny and Goodyeare,next mentioned, and so the court of Gorges in 1640 decided. Appendix No. 1, annexed to this article in the volume, gives the pleadings and the result of the trial.] 1 York Records. all of the ancient town of Falmouth and part of Gorham, and are entirely unsupported by any record. One cause of difficulty on this subject arose from an uncertainty as to the true Casco river, which was agreed to be the northern boundary of patent. One party contended that it was the Presumpscot, and the other, with equal obstinacy, that it was Fore river. A decision of the Court in 1640, applied the name to Fore river; but a certificate' was soon afterward obtained and transmitted to England, founded, as was pretended, on the statements of the Indians and ancient settlers, that the Court had made a mistake on the subject, and that the Presumpscot was the true Casco river, This again revived the controversy and kept open a most unhappy quarrel during the lives of the first settlers?. We have now touched briefly upon all the settlements made upon the coast of Maine previous to the year 1632. It will be perceived that the grants were all obtained from the council of Plymouth, notwithstanding the patent to Gorges and Mason of 1622, which extended from the Merrimack to Sagadehock, and nominally covered the whole of that territory. From this circumstance, it would be natural to conclude that the patent of 1622 was unexecuted, and that no title passed by it; and it appears by the opinion of Sir William Jones, the Attorney General in 1679, that the "grant was only sealed with the council seal, unwitnessed, no seisin indorsed, nor possession ever given with the grant3." This idea is corroborated by the facts that Gorges was sitting at the council board, and was a party to all the subsequent conveyances which parceled out the land within the limits of that patent; and that both he and Mason received 1 York Records. 2 There is a tradition in the Jordan family, that the wife of a son of the first Robert Jordan, needing some paper to keep her pastry from burning, took from a chest of papers, Trelawny's patent, and used it for that purpose, which thus perished, like many other ancient and valuable manuscripts. 3 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 285. Hubbard, vol i. p. 614. a grant with six or seven others in 1631, of a small tract on both sides of the Piscataqua, which included the improvements they had previously made there. If the patent of 1622 was valid, it would have been wholly useless to have procured another within the same limits. The settlements which commenced at Plymouth in 1620, now dotted the whole coast from Cape Cod to the Bay of Fundy; they were indeed few and far between, but an intercourse was kept up among them by their common weakness and wants, as well as for the purposes of trade. And although Massachusetts was the most powerful of the whole, and from motives of religious zeal, no doubt sincere, discountenanced the less strict settlers upon this coast, who on such matters differed from them both in doctrine and practice, she fain would profit by their fish and fur, which enabled her to procure from Europe articles of the first necessity for the infant colony. John Jocelyn, the traveler, who visited his brother Henry at Black Point in 1638, sailed along the coast from Boston to that place in July: he says "Having refreshed myself for a day or two upon Noddle's island, I crossed the bay in a small boat to Boston, which was then rather a village than a town, there being not above twenty or thirty houses." "The 12th day of July I took boat for the eastern parts of the country, and arrived at Black Point, in the province of Maine, which is one hundred and fifty miles from Boston, the 14th day. The country all along as I sailed, being no other than a mere wilderness, here and there by the seaside a few scattered plantations with as few houses."2 1 Jocelyn's voyages, p. 18. 2 Jocelyn's voyages, p. 20. CHAPTER 1. From 1628 to 1640. RICHMOND'S ISLAND SPURWINK—DISPUTE BETWEEN CLEEVES AND TUCKER, AND JOHN WINTER ABOUT THE TITLE-TRADE at Richmond's ISLAND-THE NECK, NOW PORTLAND, FIRST OCCUPIED GRANTS IN OTHER PARTS Of Falmouth-MITTON, MACWORTH-FIRST JUDICIAL COURT FOR THE PROVINCE-SETTLERS IN FALMOUTH IN 1640. The first occupation of any part of Falmouth by a European, of which we have any evidence, was of Richmond's island, by *Walter Bagnall in 1628. The sole object of this man seems to have been to drive a profitable trade with the Indians by whatever means were in his power. He lived on the island alone, until by his cupidity he had drawn down the vengeance of the natives upon him, and they put an end to his life and his injuries October 3, 1631. He had accumulated a large property for those days, which was scattered by his death.'§ His residence promoted the future settlement of the town in no other way than by showing to others that the situation was favorable for the accumulation of wealth, and thus tempting them to engage in the same enterprise. Richmond's Island lies nearly a mile from the southerly side * [This must be taken with the exception of Levett's attempt to establish a plantation on one of the islands in Portland Harbor in 1623, mentioned in a preceding page.] 1 Winthrop, vol. i. Four hundred pounds sterling. [Was not the pot of gold and silver coin discovered on the island in 1855, part of Bagnall's gain?] |