On the 10th day of August, 1622, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and Capt. John Mason obtained from the Council a grant of land "situated between the Rivers of Merrimack and Sagadehock, extending back to the great lakes and river of Canada," by the name of Laconia. Gorges and Mason, afterwards admitted associates, and several merchants of London, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Shrewsbury, and Dorchester, became interested in the grant.2
Upon this patent, the grantees forthwith proceeded to establish a colony. Accordingly in the spring of 1623, they sent David Thompson a Scotchman, and Edward Hilton and his brother William, with a sufficient number of men, to prosecute the business of the colony--which was the catching and curing of fish. The Hiltons established themselves at a point of land, now known as "Dover Neck," in Dover, and which is a cape, or point extending south betwixt the main branches of the Piscataqua. Thompson and his party established themselves upon a cape or point of land, west of the mouth of the Piscataqua, extending into the sea, and now known as Odiorne's Point, in the town of Rye. This is the same point, discovered and named Cape of the Islands, by Champlain in 1604. It is a point of highland properly called a peninsula, as it is almost surrounded by water, at all times; being bounded south by the ocean, east and north, by Little Harbor, and upon the west by an extensive salt marsh, into which extends a small creek from the south. During the highest tides, this point becomes an island, being entirely surrounded by water.
The place was well chosen, being almost inaccessible to the Indians. Here, upon a flat, near the creek upon the inner and north west side of the peninsula, the party built a fort, and upon a small hill, a few rods to the south west of the fort, they erected their fish flakes; and it is a singular circumstance, that at the present time, this small hill, is known by the name of "Flake Hill," by the inhabitants upon the point, although it is doubtful whether a fish has been dried upon the hill for near two hundred years. A few rods north east of the fort, they erected "the great house," used for trading and the general purposes of the Colony, and which was afterwards known as "Mason Hall." This was the first house built in New Hampshire, and with it commenced the first settlement of our State.
During the first few years of the existence of the colony, 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 it 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 twenty-five years since, while a walnut and a pear tree, each of immense size, and possibly of equal age with out State, stand like sturdy sentinels, extending their ancient arms over the sleepers below.
The site of the fort is still pointed out, and the cellar of "Mason Hall" is yet plainly to be seen.
Thompson left the colony in the spring of 1624, and settled upon an island in Boston Harbor, which was confirmed to him by the General Court of Massachusetts, and which is still known as Thompson's Island.
It is probably that Capt. Mason had become aware of the fact, that his territory of Mariana was of small extent, being limited by the ignorance of the grantors and grantee, as to the length of the Naumkeag and the course of the Merrimack, and hence his desire for the grant of Laconia in conjunction with Gorges. And hence too, his acquiescence in the grant made five years subsequent, to sir Henry Roswell.
Sir Henry, with several gentlemen in the vicinity of Dorchester, on the 19th day of March, 1627, obtained from the Council of Plymouth, a grant of the territory between a line running from the Atlantic ocean three miles south of the mouth of the Charles River, and every part thereof, and a line extending from the Atlantic ocean, three miles north of the Merrimack river and every part thereof. This grant was afterwards embraced by charter from the King, under the name and style of "Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England."
Now this grant covered the territory embraced in Mason's grant of Mariana, and also a strip three miles wide on the south of Laconia, and as Mason was Secretary of the Council of Plymouth, and an influential member of that Council, it is evident that this grant of Massachusetts made to Sir Henry Roswell and others, must have been made by Captain Mason's consent; and it is highly probable that it was made upon a relinquishment of Mariana, on the part of Captain Mason, he being moved thereto, by the facts before suggested, the grant of Laconia, and the insignificance of Mariana.
In the spring of 1629, Mr. Edward Colcord, purchased of Passaconaway and three other Sagamons, a tract of land from the Piscataqua to the Merrimack, bounded as follows, viz. "beginning at Newichewannock falls in Piscataqua river, aforesaid, and so down said river to the sea, and so along the sea shore to Merrimack river, and so up along said river to the falls of Pautucket aforesaid, and from said Pautucket falls, upon a northwest line, twenty English miles into the woods, and from thence, to run upon a straight line Northeast and Southwest, till it meets with the main rivers that run down to Pautucket falls and Newichewannock falls, and the said rivers to be bounds of said lands, from the thwart line, or head line, to the aforesaid falls, and the main channel of each river, from Pautucket falls and Newichewannock falls to the main sea, to be the side bounds, and the main sea between Piscataqua river and Merrimack river, to be the lower bounds, and the thwart or head line, that runs from river to river, to be the upper bounds; together with all islands within said bounds, as also the Isles of Shoals, so called."3
This purchase was made for the Rev. John Wheelwright and his associates, and a deed for the same was duly executed, at Squamsauke, on the 17th day of May, 1629--by Passaconnaway, and three other Sagamons.4
This purchase includes the southern part of New Hampshire, its northern line passing through Manchester, Hookset, Candia, Deerfield, Northwood, Strafford, and intersecting with the Newichewannock in Rochester.
This purchase, doubtless coming to the knowledge of Captain mason, as suggested by Dr. Belknap,5 on the 7th day of November, of the same year, he obtained from the Council of Plymouth, a grant of land "from the middle of the Piscataqua river, and up the same to the farthest head thereof, and from thence northwestward, until sixty miles from the mouth of the harbor were finished; also through Merrimack river to the farthest head thereof, and so forward up into the land westward, until sixty miles were finished; and from thence to cross over land to the end of the sixty miles as counted from the Piscataqua river; together with all islands within five leagues of the coast." The land within this Patent, was called New Hampshire, and of course covered the land purchased of Passaconnaway and other Indians. It not only covered that purchase, but it covered the lands north of the Merrimack granted to Massachusetts. This was done, doubtless, by agreement with Mr. Cradock, the Governor of the "Company of Massachusetts Bay," as named in the report of the Commissioners of Charles II.6
The affairs of Laconia being less prosperous than anticipated, and the part of that patent west of the Piscataqua, having been set apart to Capt. Mason, a grant of a tract of land was made to Edward Hilton and his associates, who had settled at much cost of time and labor at Hilton's Point, now known as Dover Neck. This grant took in Dove Neck, the north part of Newington and Greenland, the whole of Stratham, and a part of Exeter, up to Squamsauke Falls, carrying a breadth of three miles down the Exeter river, and the Great Bay to the Piscataqua.
This grant was made March 12, 1630.
On the 3d day of November, 1631, a grant was made, of the land south upon the Piscataqua, to Sir F. Gorges, Capt. John Mason, John Cotton, Henry Gardner, George Griffith, Edwin Gay, Thomas Wannerton, Thomas Eyre, and Eliezer Eyre. These individuals had expended three thousand pounds upon the settlement at the mouth of the river, and this grant seems to have been made to them out of the grant of Mason, on the west side of the River, and the land of Gorges on the east side, as an equivalent, in part for their expenditures, for settling this part of the patent of Laconia. This grant included the land on which "the buildings and salt works were erected on both sides the harbor and river of Piscataqua, to the extent of five miles westward by the sea coast, them to cross over towards the other plantation in the hands of Edward Hilton."7 This patent included part of the present town of Kittery in Maine, all of New Castle, Rye, and Portsmouth, and the south parts of Newington and Greenland. These grants were made by the consent of all parties and for their mutual advantage. From this time the adventurers prosecuted the business of their colonies with energy.
After this division, the Patentees seem to have enlarged their views beyond the mere establishment of fishing stations, as men and women were soon sent over by Capt. Mason, and a large number of cattle and hogs, with an abundance of stores for the use of the colony. The cattle were brought from Denmark, were large and of a yellow color, and with them came Danes to have care of them, and to manufacture potash, with which manufacture, they had become acquainted in Denmark.
With this accession of colonists, came Renald Fernald, a surgeon and physician, whose presence was rendered necessary, by the prevalence of disease and the anticipated wants of the increasing colony.
This speculation did not meet the expectations of the proprietors, and Mason and Gorges soon had, by purchase, or the withdrawal of the members of the company, the entire control of the Patent, at the mouth of the Piscataqua. Mason and Gorges, in 1634, divided their property, real and personal, and Gorges relinquished to Mason his title to all lands west of the Piscataqua, and about the same time sold to him a tract of land three miles in width, east of the Piscataqua, and extending from the mouth of the same to the head of the Newichewannock river. The entire control of the Plantations upon the Piscataqua, except that of Hilton's patent before described, thus fell into the hands of Capt. Mason, while Gorges concentrated his energies upon his colony at York and Saco.
It is highly probable that Mason intended to emigrate to New Hampshire, and this accounts for the zeal with which he prosecuted the enterprise, and for the fact, that he had erected the large house known as "Mason Hall," and had attached thereto, a manor of some four thousand acres of land, and stocked the same with cattle, swine, and goats, with well skilled servants for the care of the same.
1Belknap's Hist. page 4. Return
2Adams' Anns. Portsmouth, page 9. Return
3See copy in Register's Office, Rockingham County. Return
4We are aware that the authenticity of this deed has been doubted,--and that much pains have been taken to prove the same a forgery;--but still, there are most conclusive proofs of its genuineness.
The original documents in the Secretary's office, show of themselves, that this deed to Mr. Wheelwright, from the four Sagamons, was executed prior to 1633; and more than this, there are two depositions, one in the files of the superior Court at Exeter, and the other at Salem Mass., made by the Rev. John Wheelwright, in 1663, showing that he made a purchase of the Indians at Exeter, before he settled there in 1638, and that this purchase of land was conveyed to him by the deed of 1629, and by no other deed whatever.
These affidavits are similar, and one only is subjoined, as follows.--
"This deponent testified, that himself, with some others who were to sit down at Exeter, did employ Edward Colcord to purchase for them as he remembers a certain tract of land from Oyster River to Merrimack, of the Indians for which they gave him ten or twelve pounds in money and had a grant thereof signed by some Sagamons with their marks upon it of which Runnawit was one.
Sworn before the Court at Hampton ye 13 of ye 8 mo. 1663. Thos. Bradbury, Recorder."
This shows that the purchase by Wheelwright was made before the settlement of Exeter, as he speaks of himself and others, employing Colcord to make the purchase for them, "who were to sit down at Exeter." Then again he avers that Runnawit was one of the signing Sagamons, and it so happens that Runawit's name is attatched to the deed of 1629 and is not upon the deed of 1638, or upon any other, most conclusively showing that Wheelwright, in his deposition refers to the deed of 1629 and to that only. Now, this affidavit goes to the git of the whole matter. For it is charged that this deed of 1629, was forged after Wheelwright's death, to bear upon the suit of 1707 between Allen and Waldron. Now, this affidavit, showing that Wheelwright knew of this Deed in 1663, takes away the inducement to forgery, as the suit between Allen and Waldron was not commenced for near a half century after ! and farther than this, it shows most conclusively, if the Rev. Mr. Wheelwright is to be believed, that the Deed of 1629, is authentic. Now, no doubt can be thrown upon the honest or veracity of the Rev. John Wheelwright. His enemies, even, acknowledge his moral worth, and those who pronounce his deed of 1629, a forgery, yield to none in his confidence in his integrity.
Hence the conclusion is inevitable that the deed of May 17, 1629, to the Rev. John Wheelwight and others, is a genuine deed. Return
5Belknap's History, p. 8. Return
6See Hutch. Coll. Papers, p. 423. Return
7Hutch, Vol 1, page 216. Return
