NARRATIVE OF EVENTS PERTAINING TO OUR TITLE--MARTIN PRING--CHAMPLAIN--GEORGE WEYMOUTH--CHARTER OF THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY--GEORGE POPHAM--CAPT. JOHN SMITH--SECOND GRANT--COUNCIL OF PLYMOUTH--COUNCIL OF PLYMOUTH TO MASON--COUNCIL OF PLYMOUTH TO GORGES AND MASON--GRANT OF LACONIA--PLYMOUTH COLONY GRANTS TO SIR HENRY ROSWELL--PLYMOUTH COLONY GRANT TO CAPT. MASON--NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1629--PLYMOUTH COLONY GRANTS TO JOHN MASON 1635--GORGES QUITCLAIMS TO MASON¹--MASON¹ DIES--JOHN TUFTON MASON² AND ROBERT TUFTON MASON² INHERIT--JOHN² DIES--PLANTATION IN AMERICA ABANDONED--SURVEY OF MERRIMACK RIVER--KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND--MASON³ PETITIONS FOR POSSESSION OF HIS TERRITORY IN AMERICA--NEW HAMPSHIRE BECOMES A ROYAL PROVINCE IN 1679--JOHN CUTTS GOVERNOR--EDWARD CRANSFIELD--MILLION ACRE SALE--MASON³ DIES--MASON'S TWO SONS⁴ SELL TO ALLEN--ALLEN CONTESTS IN LAW--BELLOMONT GOVERNOR, 1698--THOMAS ALLEN CARRIES ON THE SUIT--BELLOMONT DIES IN 1699--ALLEN DIES IN 1705--THOMAS ALLEN DIES 1715--CONTEST RESTS--REVIVAL OF MASON⁵ CLAIM--MASON⁶ SELLS TO TWELVE PURCHASERS.

In this chapter we shall briefly undertake to explain through the discoveries, grants, litigations and purchases, how the title of the town of Goffstown vested in its early inhabitants. Or in other words try to furnish an abstract to the title of the soil to our ancestors. Professor Sanborn says, "The right of property in a new country is based on discovery, conquest or occupation." The title to land discovered by an explorer belongs by the law of nations to the sovereign of the discoverer, consequently the discoveries of English explorers along the New England coast placed the title to the land they discovered with England.

The Indians seemingly had the best title as regards occupation, and in many cases the New England colonists purchased their lands from the Indians. The compensation the Indians received from the New England colonists might have been trivial, but he was content with his consideration.

In New Hampshire the early settlers paid little attention to Indian claims but dealt with chartered companies as we shall see later. The first white man that ever visited New Hampshire was Martin Pring in the spring of 1603. He visited the Piscataqua River and saw "goodly groves and woods" and "sundry sorts of beasts".¹ His fleet consisted of the Speedwell and the Discoverer, the former a ship of fifty tons and thirty men and the latter a bark of twenty-six tons and thirteen men, both fitted out by merchants of Bristol, England, at an expense of 1,000�. Pring explored the Piscataqua River for twelve miles. He afterwards made a second voyage to the coast of Maine.

The celebrated French explorer Samuel de Champlain visited the harbor of Piscataqua in July, 1605, and discovered the Isle of Shoals; he landed at what is now known as Ordiorne Point, which he called "Cape of the Islands,:" and made presents to some of the Indians who he found there.² Champlain probably was the first white man who ever set foot upon New Hampshire soil as we have no evidence that Pring left his ship for the land.

The same year George Weymouth was dispatched by some English nobleman on an expedition of discovery. He visited the coast of Maine, where he enticed on board his ship five Indians whom he carried to England. Three of these Indians he gave to Sir Ferdinando Gorges then governor of Plymouth, who took them to his house and educated them for three years in order that he might acquire a better knowledge and a history of their native land.

In May, 1607, two ships sailed from Plymouth, England, with two of the Indians on board, acting as guides and interpreters, to plant a colony on the coast of Maine. The accounts that the Indians gave of the country, magnified by the flowery language of Gorges, had its effect upon the people of England.

The previous year through the influence of Gorges a charter was obtained from King James giving them "the continent of North America from 34th to 45th degree of north latitude, extending one hundred miles into the main-land and including all the islands of the sea within one hundred miles of the shore," and known as the "Plymouth Company."

This colony located at the mouth of the Kennebec River. The governor of the colony was George Popham and a section of the coast bears his name. Unfortunately no copy remains of this charter. It took precedence of all others. The colony failed, the governor died, and the colonists returned to England in 1608 in a ship of their own building, the first built upon this continent. The one important point to be particularly emphasized by this charter is that it gave to England a plea of title by occupation.³

There is no further record of any other explorer visiting New Hampshire shores until 1614, when Capt. John Smith examined the New England coast from the Penobscot River to Cape Cod. He visited the Piscataqua, described it as "a safe harbor and a rocky shore," and discovered the Isle of Shoals and named them "Smith's Isles." A small marble monument was erected upon one of the islands to commemorate the event. Captain Smith claims "to have brought New England to the subjection of Great Britain," and his claims seem just. He made a map of the country which he explored, presented the same to Prince Charles, and it was called "New England."

The advantage to be derived from the occupation of the new country and the settling of the same King James was quick to perceive, and on November 3, 1620, a grant was made to Sir Ferdinando Gorges as president of the Council of Plymouth to include "all that circuit, etc., in America from 40 to 48 degrees north latitude, and by the breadth aforesaid, from sea to sea, with all seas, rivers, islands, etc." And the same shall be called by the name of New England in America.⁴

And for the better plantation ruling, etc., we ordain that there shall be forever in our town of Plymouth, in our county of Devon, a body corporate consisting of forty persons, with perpetual succession, called by the name of "The Council, established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering and governing of New England in America."⁵

It will be noticed that this grant or charter was issued before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,⁶ and it further states that the Council was to be favored in all constructions, and aided by all offices, and this is the first charter having a direct bearing upon and including the town of Goffstown. About this time Gorges formed an acquaintance with Capt. John Mason, an active enterprising merchant of London, then governor of Portsmouth, Hampshire County, England.

Captain Mason soon filled an important place in the Plymouth Company--he was made scribe. These two men, Gorges and Mason, took an active part in the management of the Plymouth Company and hold a high place in the early history of New Hampshire.

A second charter was issued March 9, 1621, to Capt. John Mason by the Council of Plymouth, which assigned to them their heirs and assigns "all the land from the river Naumkeag, now Salem, round Cape Ann, to the river Merrimack; and up each of those rivers to the farthest head thereof; then to cross over from the head of the one to the head of the other with all islands lying within three miles of the coast." The territory thus granted was called Mariana.⁷ And this is the second charter or grant in our chain of title. This grant shows the entire ignorance of the geography of the country by the grantors. They evidently supposing the river Naumkeag having its source far inland, instead of being a river of only about ten miles in length.

Third, on the 10th day of August, 1622, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason⁸ obtained from the council a grant of all the country bounded by the Merrimack and the Kennebec rivers, the ocean and the river of Canada. This was called "Laconia," and it is supposed it was so named from the lakes lying within its boundaries. They soon after admitted as associates several merchants of London and other English cities forming what was called the "Company of Laconia." The Council gave what they never owned, set bounds to that which had never been seen, fixed lines that had never been surveyed and laid the foundation for countless quarrels and much trouble in future years. The description given of Laconia differs by different authors--Provincial Papers, Vol I, page 12, describes it as follows: "all that part of the main land in New England lying upon the sea coast betwixt y^e rivers of Marrimack and Sagadahock, and to the furthest heads of said rivers, and soe forwards up into the land westward until three score miles be finished from y^e first entrance of the aforesaid rivers." The following spring in 1623 they determined to establish colonies, and one David Thompson, a Scotchman, a resident of London, and Edward and William Hilton, two brothers, with a sufficient number of men to carry on the business of catching and curing fish, arrived.

The Hilton brothers located at Dover Neck in Dover; Thompson and his party established themselves at Ordiornes Point, the same place discovered by Champlain some nineteen years before. David Thompson was probably the first white settler, and his son John the first white child born in New Hampshire. Thompson left New Hampshire about 1624 and settled upon an island in Boston Harbor, and the same is still known as Thompson's Island.

Capt. John Mason sent men to take up the work began by Thompson and it was carried on quite extensively; Mason sending supplies from England. Other emigrants continued to arrive, also wives for the men, and the settlement was quite flourishing.

¹Sanborn's History of New Hampshire, Chap. LX, p. 28. Return
²Sanborn's History of New Hampshire, Chap. LX, p. 28. Return
³Sanborn's History of New Hampshire, p. 30. Return
⁴Provincial Papers, Vol. I, p. 5. Return
⁵Provincial Papers, Vol. I, p. 9 Return
⁶Provincial Papers, Vol. I, p. 9 Return
⁷Belknap's History, p. 4 Return
⁸Sanborn's History of New Hampshire, p. 32 Return

       

ALHN Hillsborough County

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