annexation, a few of the Puritan sort and faith had crept into the country,
and by the aid of the B.iy had seized on the offices and places of power and
appropriated to themselves nearly all the common lands; but the original
planters grew daily more and more incensed. In 1651 the inhabitants
of Strawberry Bank openly rebelled and attempted to withdraw their subjec-
tion to the Boston government. But this outbreak was suppressed. Another
elTort was made to the same purpose on the arrival of the Royal Commis-
sioners, in 1664, though without permanent success. But in 1679, the
Massachusetts usurpation over the Piscataqua was terminated by the erection
of New Hampshire into a Royal Province.
Thus did the last fruits of the Hilton Patent decay and perish; thus were
the angry broils of forty years composed. The proprietors of the Patent
had, after all, profited little or nothingAv the attempted appropriation of
Piscataqua lands. The Massachusetts were in the end coni'ielled to disgorge
the purloined jurisdiction they had so uneasily obtained and kept, and thus
retributive justice was at last meted out to all actors in the transaction.
It was the desire of Massachusetts Bay to include the Piscataqua region
within her limits and to secure there a good neighborhood of" honest men."
which led her magistrates to effect, through their friend, Captain Thomas
Wiggin, in 1633, a purchase and transfer of the Hilton Point Patent to the
Puritan Lords and Gentlemen of Shrewsbury, whose successors in 1641, in
accordance, we suppose, with the original understanding, made a full sub-
mission of the Patent to Massachusetts jurisdiction. At tlie same time, in
furtherance of the same general design, a statutory construction was pu*
upon the Patent, by which it was split into two distinct portions, and the
lower or .Squamscott portion was violently stretched, so as to cover the whol"T
southern bank of the river from Squamscott Falls to its mouth.
74 HISTORV OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. ['665
The Hilton Patent having thus served its political and religious purpose,
ivas never fully enforced. Large portions of its territory were granted to
Dover, and a still larger part was letained by Strawberry Bank, and in the
conclusion o£ the whole matter, the Squamscott patentees took but trifling
advantages from the distorted misconstruction of their grant.
The long controversy was no doubt of trifling importance, but whoever
will study it attentively will see displayed such a stubborn conflict between
patentee and planter, such a hot contention between Royalist and Round-
head, such a fierce hatred between Puritan and Churchman, and at all times
such political sagacity and vigor of thought, as make the story of the Hilton
Point Patent the most instructive, if not entertaining, in the early annals of
New Hampshire.
Until a very recent date, the only original materials for a real history of
New Hampshire during the first half century of its existence, available
to students, were the scanty relics of town and county records, and a
few documents preserved among the archives of Massachusetts, or in
private hands, together with some casual hints and prejudiced notices of the
Piscataqua to be found among the historians of Plymouth and the Bay.
Governors of M.\ssachvsetts during the Union.
At the time of the union, Richard Bellingham was governor of Massachu-
setts. He was re-elected in 1654 and again in 1665, serving eight years for
his last term. He died Dec. 7, 1672, aged eighty years.
John Winthrop, a former governor, was re-elected in 164J, 1^43. 1646
1647 and 164S. He died Match 26, 1649, aged sixty-one years.
John Endicott was elected governor in 1644, 1649, 1651, 1652, 1653 and
every 3'ear for ten years from 1655. He died March 15, 1665, aged seventy-
six years.
Thomas Dudley was elected governor in 1645, and was re-elected in iCi^o.
He died July 13, 1653, aged seventy-seven years.
John Leverett was elected governor in 1673 and served six years. He died
March 16, 1679.
Simon Bradstreet, elected governor in 1679, served until 1685. He was
again elected in 16S9 and served three years. He died March 27, 1697, aged
94 years.
During the union with Massachusetts, Hampton was represented at the
General Court at Boston by Lieutenant William Hayward,* William English,
William Estow,* JeofTrey Mingay, Roger Shaw, Mr. Anthony Stanyon,*
Henry Dow, Mr. Robert Page, Lieutenant Christopher Hussey, Mr. William
Fuller, Mr. Samuel Dalton,* Captain William Gerrish, Mr. Thomas Mai'ston,
Mr. Joshua Gilman.
The magistrates of the town, aside from the representatives, were William
Wakefield, John Cross, and James Davis.
* Magistrates.
GOVERNOR WINTHROP.
76 IlISTOKV OI' NEW IIA.MPSHIHE. [1679
Strawberry Bank, or Portsmouth, was represented at tlie General Court
by Mr. James Parker, Mr. Stephen Winthrop, Mr. Brian Pendleton,* Mr.
Henry Sherburne,* Mr. Nathaniel Fryer.* Mr. Elias Stileman.* Captain
Richard Cutt,* Mr. Rich. Martyn,* John Cutt. of whom Brian Pendleton and
Richard Cutt were longest in service.
The magistrates of the town, during the union aside from the representa-
tives, were Francis Williams, Thomas Warnerton, Ambrose Gibbons, Renald
Fernald and Thomas Daniell.
Dovci- was represented at the General Court by Edward Starbuck. Mr.
William Hilton,* Caplain Thomas Wiggin,* William Heath. William Wal-
dron.* William Furbur, Lieutenant John Baker, Mr. Valentine Hill,* Major
Richard Waldron,* Lieutenant Richard Cooke, Lieutenant Peter Coffin,
Anthony Nutter. Aside from these, the magistrates were Edward Hilton,
William Waldron, George Smith, William Pomfret, John Hale, Thomas
Clarke and Edward Colcord. Richard Waldron, first elected in 1654, was
re-elected twenty-three consecutive times, twenty-five times in all, being in
command of a force during the King Philip war in I676. In 1679 he was
elected from Kittery. Durini; eight sessions he was chosen speaker.
Exeter sent no representative. Robert Smith and John Legatt were
magistrates.
* Magistrates.
CHAPTER III.
KING PHILIP'S WAR, 1675-1678.
Long Peace — Character of Indians ^ Edward Randolph — French
— Dutch — New York — Mohawks — Causes of War — Indian Vices —
Sachem Philip — Mount Hope — Rum — Indian Shortcomings — Lic-
ensing the Sale op Arms — Loss to the Colonies — ■Loss to the
Indians — ■Philip's Straits — Terms of Peace — French Estimate of
Indian Character — Kindness to Qi^iakers — Injustice to Indians
— Indian Youth anxious for War — Sc^jando — Insultto SquAW —
Attitude of Penacooks and Cochecos — Praying Indians — Their
Loss — Murder of their Old People — Indian Depredations in
New Hampshire — Peace — Death of Philip — Simon, Andrew, and
Peter — War in Maine — Treachery at Major Waldron's Garrison
— Expedition to Ossipee — Mohawks warring on Friendly Indians
Defeat at Black Point — Major Andros and Peace — Independence
OF THE Colonists — St. Castine.
OOON after the juristliction of Massachusetts was cxtcncled
over New Hampshire and the coast of western Maine, a
combination had been effected between the New England c<il()n-
ies for offensive and defensive purposes. According to its
provisions, the quota of men and money required from eacli
of the members of the combination was strictly determined in
case of war ; and it had all the advantages of a .centralized,
although a republican, government. It made possible the defeat
and extermination of Philip and his followers.
The colonists had been settled along the shores of New England
for half a century before there was any general trouble with the
natives. With the exxeption of the Pequod war, in which that
tribe was practically exterminated, there had been a profound
peace, the Indians in their contact with the white men even
78
lUSTOKV OK NEW llAMf SIl IKE.
[1675
submitting to the coloni:al laws. They were held accountable
for crimes the same as the settlers, and even the hanging of an
offending Indian, if done legally, did not provoke hostility
between the races. We have been accustomed to take the
Massachusetts view of the trouble which so exasperated the
- Jf^
ITING THE SETTLERS
Indians that a general war was waged all along the New England
coast. Supposing the reader familiar with the often told story
of the bravery of their ancestors, and the treachery and cruelty
of their savage foes, a view of the other side may be of interest.
Physically the American Indian is asplendi'l type of manhood.
1775] KING Philip's wak. 79
As he was found by the first comers, he was honest, honorable,
and hospitable. He welcomed the newcomers as neighbors and
surrendered to them for a paltry consideration his most valuable
lands and privileges.
The settlers did not treat them fairly. They were " children
of the forest " and should have been treated as children or wards.
The land was theirs by every human law and their rights should
have been protected and guarded. Under a proper cultivation, a
very small part of their territory would have amply sufficed for
their maintenance and would have been as valuable as the vast
area which they did not use and needed only for the wild game.
For fifty years they had lived beside the settlers as friends.
Edward Randolph came to New England in 1676, and from
his report to the Council of Trade a few extracts ma)' show the
view taken of the war by an unprejudiced Englishman.
' The French have lield a civil con-espondence with the inhabitants of
Hampshire, Maine and the Duke's Province, althougli llie government of
Boston, upon all occasions, is imposing upon the French and encouraging
an interloping trade, which causeth jealousies and fears in the inhabitants
bordering upon Acadie, that the French will some time or other suddenly
fall upon them, to the breach of the national peace.- The government of the
Massachusetts hath a perfect hatred for the French, because of their too near
neighborhood and loss of their trade, and look upon them with an evil eye,
believing they had a hand in the late war with the Indians. * * *
For the government of theMassachusetts loves no government that is not like
their owne, and therefore they were more kind and friendly to the Dutch (even
in time of warr) when they were possessed of New York, than they are to their
countrymen, the English.
However, the governor of New York hath proved very friendly' and
serviceable to the Massachusetts in this warr, and had the magistrates of
Boston either conferred with or hearkened to the advice of Colonel Andross,
the Indian warr had either been diverted or proved less destructive, for he
offered and would have engaged the Mohawks and Maquot Indians to have
fallen upon the .Sachem Phillip and his confederates ; but his friendship,
advice and offers were slighted.
Nevertheless, Colonel Andross, out of his duty to his Majestie kept the
aforesaid Indians from taking any part with the Sachem Phillip.
Various are the reports and conjectures of the causes of the late Indian
wars. Some impute it to an an imprudent zeal '' \ the magistrates of Boston
to Christianize those heathens, be'bre they were civilized, and enjoining
them to the strict observation of their laws, which, to people soe rude and
â– X. H. p. p., vol. ;,p. 441.
80 IlLSTORV OF NEW HAMI'SHIKE. [^775
licentious hath proved even intolerable; and that the more, for while the
magistrates, for Iheir profit, severely putt the laws in execution against the
Indians, the people on the other side, for lucre and gain, intice and provoke
the Indians to the breach thereof, especially to drunkenness, to which these
people are so generally addicted, that they will strip themselves to the skin
to have their fill of rum and brandy.
The Massachusetts government having made a law that every Indian being
drunk should pay ten shillings or be whipped, according to the discretion of
the magistrate, many of these poor people willingly offered their backs to
the lash, to save their money. Upon the magistrate finding much trouble
and no profit to arise to the government by whipping, did change that pun-
ishment of the whip into a ten days' work, for such as would not or could
not pay the fine of tenn shillings; which did highly incense the Indians.
ijome believe that there have been vagrant and Jesuitical priests, who have
made it their business and design for some years past to go from sachem to
sachem, to exasperate the Indians against the English and to bring them
into a confederacy, and that tliey were promised supplies from France and
other parts, to extirpate the English nation out of the continent of America.
Others impute the cause to arise from some injuries offered to the .Sachem
Phillip, for he being possessed of a tract of land called Mount Hope, a very
fertile, pleasant and rich soil, some English had a mind to dispossess him
thereof, who, never wanting some pretence or other to attain their ends,
complained of injuries done by Piiillip and his Indians to their stocks and
cattle. Whereupon tlie Sachem Phillip was often summoned to appear
before the magistrates, sometimes imprisoned, and never released but upon
parting with a considerable part of his lands.
But the government of the Massachusetts (to give it in their own words)
doe declare these are the great and provoking evils which God hath given the
barbarous heathen commission to rise against them :
The woful breach of the fifth commandment, in contempt of theirauthority,
which is a sinn highly provoking to the Lord.
For men wearing long hair and perriwigs made of women's hair.
For women wearing borders of hair and for cutting, curlingand laying out
their hair and disguising themselves by following strange fashions in their
apparel.
For prophaneness of the people in not frequenting their meetings, and
others going away before the blessing is pronounced.
For suffering the Qiiakers to dwell among them, and to sett up their
thresholds by God's thresholds, contrary to their old laws and resolutions,
â– with many such reasons.
But whatever was the cause, the English have contributed very much to
their misfortunes, for they first taught the Indians the use of arms and
admitted them to be present at all their musters and trainings, and showed
them how to handle, mend and fix their musquets, and have been constantly
furnished with all sorts of arms by permission of the government, soe that
the Indians are become excellent fire-men, and at Natick, a town not far
1/75] i^i-^fi riiii.ip's WAR. 8i
distant from Boston, there was gathered a church of praving Indians who
were exercised as trained bands, under officers of their own. These have
been the most barbarous and cruel enemies to the English above an v otiier
Indians, — Captain Tom, their leader, being l.ntely taken and hanged at
Boston, with one other of their chiefs.
That notwithstanding the ancient law of the country, made in 1633, that
no persons should sell anv arms or ammunition to any Indian : * * yet
the government of the Massachusetts, in the year 1657 (upon design to
monopolize the whole Indian trade to themselves), did publish and declare
that the trade of furs and peltry with the Indians, within that jurisdiction,
did solely and properly belong to their commonwealth, and not to everv
indifferent person ; and did enact that no person should trade with the
Indians for any sort Of peltry, except such as were authorized by that Court :
* * giving liberty to all such as should have license from them to sell unto
any Indians, guns, swords, powder and shot, paying, etc. * * By which
means the Indians have been abundantly furnished w-ith great store of arms and
ammunition, to the utter ruin and undoing of many families in the neigh-
boring colonies, for to enrich some few of their relations and church
members.
No advantages, but many di.sadvantages, have arisen to the English by the
warr, lor about six hundred men have been slain and twelve captains, most
of them stout and brave persons and of loyal principles, whilst the church
members had liberty to stay at home and not hazard their persons in the
wilderness.
The loss to the English in the several colonies, in their habitations and
stock, is reckoned to amount unto one hundred and fifty thousand pounds ;
there having been about twelve hundred houses burnt, eight thousand head of
cattle, great and small, killed, and many bushels of wheat, pease and other
grain burnt (of which the Massachusetts colony hath not been damnified one
third part, the great loss falling upon New Plymouth and Connecticut
coloniesi, and upward of three thousand Indians, men, women and children,
destroyed, who. if well managed, would have been very serviceable to the
English: which makes all manner of labor dear.
The warr, at present, is near ending, for Sachem Phillip, not being able to
support his party or confederates, hath left them to make the best terms they
can: he himself sculking in the woods with a small party of two or three
hundred men, being in despair of making his peace.
In Plymouth colony the Indians surrender themselves to Governor Wins-
low upon mercy, and bring in all their arras, and are wholly at his disposal,
excepting life and transportation ; but for all such as have been notoriously
cruel to women and children, soe soon as discovered, they are to be executed in
the sight of their fellow Indians.
The government of Boston have concluded a peace upon these terms ;
I. That there be from henceforward a firm peace between the English and
Indians.
3. That after the publication of the articles of peace by the General Court,
82 IIISTOKV OK NEW HAMPSHIRE. ['775
if any English sliall willfully kill an Indian, upon due proof lie shall die for
the fact; and if an Indian kill an Englishman and escapeth, the Indians are
to produce him, and he to pass tryal bj the English laws.
3. That the Indians shall not conceal or entertain any known enemies to
the English, but shall discover them and bring them to the English.
4. That upon all occasions the Indians are to aid and assist the English
against their enemies, and to be under English command.
5. That all Indians have liberty to sit downe at theirformer habitations
â– without any lett or interruption.
By this report it will be seen that the English lost six hundred
men — the Indians, three thousand men, tuonien and children.
Mens, du Bratz says of the Indians : " There needs nothing
but prudence and good sense to persuade these people to what
is reasonable and to preserve their friendship without interrup-
tion. We may safely affirm, that the differences we have had
with them have been more owing to the French than to them.
When they are treated violently or oppressively, they have no
less sensibility of injuries than others." They are said to have
been cruel. So have been all races and nations, rude or civilized,
from the Persians, Romans, Carthaginia"hs, to the modern Euro-
pean people. The English have always been cruel. There
are cruel laws on the statute books of New Hampshire to-day.
If they were treacherous, so were their foes. A Quaker would
trust them, it seems, rather than the tender mercies of the Mas-
sachusetts magistrates, who bored his tongue, lopped off his ears,
and put him to death.
It is said that Philip was forced on by the fury of his young-
men, sorely against his own judgment and that of his chief
counsellors ; and that as he foresaw that the English would, in
time, establish themselves and extirpate the Indians, so he
thought that the making war upon them would only hasten the
destruction of his own people. The inhabitants of Bristol show
a particular spot where Philip received the news of the first
Englishman that was killed with so much sorrow as to cause
him to weep : a few days before he had rescued one who had
been taken captive by his Indians and privately sent him home.
There dwelt near the river Saco, a sachem named Squando,
ajjerson of the highest dignity, importance and influence among
.1675] Kixii i'im.n>'s WAK. S3
all the eastern Imlians. His squaw, passing along the river in
a canoe, with her infant child, was met by some rude sailors,
who, having heard that the Indian children could swim as natu-
rally as the young of the brute kind, in a thoughtless and un-
guarded humor overset the canoe. The child sunk and the
mother instantly diving fetched it up alive, but the child dying
soon after, its death was imputed to the treatment it had received
from the seaman ; and Squando was so provoked that he con-
ceived a bitter antipathy to the English and employed his great
art and influence to excite the Indians against them.^
The first alarm of the war in the Plymouth colony spread
great consternation among the distant Indians and held them a
while in suspense what part to act. Quarrels and misunder-
standings soon drew the Eastern Indians into the contest.^
In this first war it is uncertain just what part the native New
Hampshire Indians took. In 1660, Passaconaway, the chief of
the Penacooks, to whom all the New Hampshire Indians were
in subjection, had relinquished all authority over his tribe to his
son Wannalancet. Numphow, who was married to one of Pas-
saconaway's daughters, was the chief for some years of the vil-
lage at Pawtucket Falls. In 1669, Wannalancet, in dread of the
Mohawks, went down the river with his whole tribe, and located
at Waaiasit, and built a fortification on Fort Hill, in Belvidere,
which was surrounded with palisades. The white settlers in the
vicinity, catching the alarm, took refuge in garrison houses. In
1674 there ware at Wamesit fifteen families, or seventy-five souls,
enumerated as Christian Indians, aside from about two hundred
who adhered to their primitive faith in the Great Spirit. 'Nump-
how was their magistrate as well as chief. The log meeting
house presided over by the Indian preacher, Samuel, stood near
the Eliot church in Lowell. In May of each year came Eliot
and Gookin : the former to give spiritual advice, the latter to
act as umpire or judge, having jurisdiction of higher offences
and directing all matters affecting the interests of the village.
Wannalancet held his court as sachem in a log cabin near
Pawtucket Falls. At the breaking out of King Philip's War,
84 IIISTOKV OF NEW IIAMPSHIKE. [l^/S
he, with the local Indians, are said to have remained faithful to
the counsels of Passaconaway to be friends with the English, and
either took sides with the colonists or remained neutral. Be-
tween the two parties they suffered severely. Some were put
to death by Philip, for exposing his designs; some wer^put to
death by the colonists, as Philip's accomplices ; some fell in
battle, fighting for the whites ; some were slain by the settlers,
who mistrusted alike praying and hostile Indians. During the
following year, 1676, the able-bodied Indians of Wamesit and
Pawtucket withdrew to Canada, to be out of the contest, leaving
a few of their helpless and infirm old people at the mercy
of their neighbors. When the Indians returned, after peace had
been declared, their old people and dependents were no more,
having been wantonly murdered, and their lands confiscated.
After a while, having been located on an island in the river,
they had parted with their last acre, and in after years took
refuge with the St. Francis tribe on the St. Lawrence.
Squando, possibly, was the chief who directed the attack on
tlie New Hampshire settlements. The war raged mainly to the
eastward and to the westward, the trouble in New Hampshire
being caused by one or more small companies of mischievous
Indians. In September they burned two houses at Oyster
River, killed two men in a canoe and carried away two captives,
both of whom soon after made their escape. About the same
time a party of four laid in ambush near the road between
Exeter and Hampton, and killed Goodman Robinson. His son,
who was with him, escaped into the swamp, and reached Hamp-
ton about midnight. They took another captive, who escaped
by the help of an Indian. A few days later they made an
assault on a house in Newichawannock and captured two children.
The two following days they made several appearances on both
sides of the river, using much insolence, and burning two houses
and three barns, with a large quantity of grain. Five or six
houses were burned at Oyster River and two more men were
killed. A scouting party from Dover, of twenty young men^
came upon a party of five Indians near a deserted house, two of
whom the)' captured, tne others escaping. All the plantations