CHAPTER VI. Capt. Mason intends a permanent settlement in New Hampshire.-Opposition of Massachusetts, and its cause.. - New construction of their charter.Claim a portion of Mason's grant.-Take possession at Hampton.-Lords Say and Brook purchase Hilton's Patent, at the suggestion of Massachusetts.Mason attempts to thwart thoir plans.-Prosecutes his schemes with vigor.Mason's death.-His will.-His tenants and servants divide his personal effects among them, and his affairs are left in confusion.-Massachusetts establish their north line three miles north of the forks of the Merrimack and thus cover Wheelright's purchase.-Certain people at Dover, propose to put Piscataqua under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.-A committee negotiate a union. The people reject the treaty.-Capt. John Underhill.-His intrigues. Difficulties at Dover.- Underhill in the interest of Massachusetts,Purchase of Hilton's Patent of "the gentlemen in England."-Peters, Dalton and another, committee to visit Dover.-Get lost in the woods. The proprietors arrive from England. The patents upon the Piscataqua are duly transferred to Massachusetts.-She extends her jurisdiction over them.-Opposition, but it is silenced by force.-Underhill departs to New York, himself and family being sent there at the charge of Massachusetts.-Wheelwright flies to Maine but finally makes his peace.-Massachusetts extends her claim still farther north.-A committee establish their nothern boundary at a point three miles north of the outlet of Winnepesaukee.-The Endicott rock. She then claims Maine.-Gov. Godfrey and council resist.-Massachusetts carries her point by persuasion and force.-Principal men arrested.-Bonython outlawed.-Massachusetts completes her usurpation of the best part of New Hampshire and Maine. It has been suggested in a preceding chapter, that Capt. John Mason intended making a permanent residence in New Hampshire; but his intentions were frustrated. So long as his settlement at Piscataqua, was prosecuted as a mere mercantile speculation for the obtaining of fish, furs, and lumber, and that with indifferent success, he received little opposition; but as soon as his trading establishment began to be prosecuted with vigor, and to assume a permanent character, then the colony of Massachusetts began their opposition to him and his little colony. There were two causes of this opposition. One that Mason and his dependants were Episcopalians, and the other, the intention on the part of Massachusetts to claim the most of his grant of New Hampshire, and that of Gorges' grant in Maine, by a forced construction of their Charter. The charter of Massachusetts defined its northern bounds to be a line three miles north of the Merrimack river, and every part of it. It is evident that the grantors supposed the Merrimack had an east and west course, as from Dracut to its mouth, and it is highly probable that the grantees had the same belief at the same time; but after coming upon the grant, finding from the Indi ans that the Merrimack made an elbow at Pawtuckett, and that from its source to that place it ran nearly north and south, they began to claim a portion of Mason's grant, and to push their orthern line father north than the three miles named in their charter. Thus as early as 1631, they took possesion of Winnecowett, the south part of old Hampton and built a "bound house" there, for the purpose of defending their northern limits, or of taking possession of the territory claimed.* And in 1633 or thereabouts, the Lords Say and Brook with others purchased the Hilton patent. These men were of the same religious views of the people of Massachusetts, the Governor and Magistrates of which colony wrote to them, advising and encouraging the purchase, for the express purpose of throwing obstacles in the way of Mason and his colony.This they most effectually accomplished as the sequel will show. These proceedings with others, naturally engendered hostilty on the part of Mason and his friends, and he entered into measures with the Government in England, for the purpose of limiting the power, and thwarting the intentions of the Massachusetts colony. Meantime he prosecuted the affairs of his infant colony with renewed vigor and in 1634 sent over a large and valuable accession to the settlement, as before suggested, in servants, cattle, and stores. But death put a stop to all his schemes of aggrandizement. Capt. Mason died on the 26th of November, 1635, leaving his manor of Mason Hall to his grand son Robert Tufton, and the residue of his property in New Hampshire except two thousand acres of land for the support of a "preacher of God's word," and a grammar-school, to his grandson John Tufton, on condition that they should take the name of Mason, which c ndition they complied with.After the death of her husband, Mrs. Anne Mason, the executrix of his estate, attempted to prosecute the business of the settlement, but the returns not meeting the outlay, she abandoned the attempt, and sent directions to her agent, Col. Francis Norton, to dispose of her personal property.† He succeeded in getting possession of some of it and drove an hundred head of cattle to Boston and sold them; but most of the tenants who had arrears of pay due them, kept the property in their possession, personal as well as real, claiming and holding houses, and lands as their own. See Appendix No. 22, Belknap's History. † Sec files in Secretary's office. See Farmer's Belknap pg. 23. But in 1636, Mason's affairs being in confusion, the Massachusetts colony began to talk of pushing their northern boundary still farther north than their bound, or possession house, at Hampton. At this time, some of the persons who had been sent out of Massachusetts on account of their Antinomian principles, took refuge at Dover. Upon this, Governor Winthrop wrote to Capt. Wiggin the Governor or Agent of Dover, and the Rev. Mr. Burdet and others of that plantation, that if they received any persons they had "cast out" it would be much resented, and threatening them, if they should receive such exiles, "they should survey their utmost limits and make use of them."* Again in 1638, the Rev. John Wheelwright having been "cast out," with his associates, and having settled down at Exeter, which tract of land they had previously purchased of Passaconnaway, Runnawit and others, they found that portion of the territory known as Winnecowett, settled upon by the people of Massachusetts. It seems also that certain Indians still claimed Winnecowett, and to quiet them, as well as to obtain in their estimation a good title to the soil, they purchase d the tract of the Indians for a valuable consideration. After completing their title to the lands at Winnecowett, they notified the people to desist from farther occupying said lands, and also the colony of Masachusetts, that "they intended to lot out all these lands in farms except" they "could show a better title "t Upon this a committee was sent up the Merrimack to examine its source and course, who reported, as Winthrop has it, that they "found some parts of the Merrimack about Penkook, to lie more northerly than forty-three and a half," and so continues Winthrop, "We returned answer to them (Wheelwright and his associates) that though we would not relinquish our interest by priority of possession, for any right they could have from the Indians, yet seeing they had professed not to claim any thing which should fall within our patent, we would look no further than that, in respect to their claim. This answer was altogether mysterious, and was probably intended as such, to cover some ulterior design. For if they claimed the land to "Penkook," as the language of the reply Winthrop's His. N. E. Vol. 1. pg. 276. + Winthrop's N. E. Vol. 1. pg. 290. Winthrop N. E., Vol. 1, pg. 304. seems to imply, a line passing east upon the latitude of Pennacook, would take in, not only Hampton, Exeter and Dover, but the greater part of the County of York, in Maine. But this indefinite answer was doubtless made to Wheelwright and his associates, to set them at ease, while by negotiation or otherwise, they might get some color of title to their lands. In 1639, they sent another committee " to find out the northmost part of Merrimack river."* At this time the north line was established at a great pine, three miles north of the forks of Merrimack, in Franklin. They were induced to take this step doubtless from the fact that the people of Dover, in spite of their remonstrances, continued to receive the exiles "cast out" by Massachusetts, and had elected one of the most obnoxious of them, Capt. John Underhill, as their Governor. The people of Massachusetts thought this against good neighborhood, and determined to make good their claim to the lands at Piscataqua, at the first fitting opportunity. Meantime they exercised jurisdiction over the people at Hampton, but left those on the Piscataqua to govern themselves. But policy prevented their pressing their claim any farther north, at this time, as a line extended east and west through the forest, three miles north of the forks of the Merrimack, not only included the most of New Hampshire but a large portion of Maine; and although they might have been successful in claiming New Hampshire, as it were deserted by the heirs of the deceased proprietor; yet in asserting their full claim to that, they must also have claimed the south part of Maine, and that was a position they did not wish to assume at that time. The grant to Gorges had lately been confirmed to him by the King, and the Lord Proprietor, as well as the proprietors of Lygonia, were altogether too powerful men, and of too much influence at Court, to be bearded with impunity. Under these circumstances they very prudently refrained from pressing their claim, and entered upon a system of finesse and negotiation, to get the government and the patents at Piscataqua into their own hands. Meantime the policy of Massachusetts in encouraging their friends, Say, Brook, and others, to purchase the Hilton patent began to develop itself, for certain individuals at Dover, comprising those sent over by them, and who were friendly to the interests of Massachusetts, made a proposition to come under the jurisdiction of that government, and in September, 1639, sent a Hutchinson's His., Vol. 1, pg. 104. committee of three to Boston, to agree upon terms of union. After some negotiation, terms were agreed upon, and a "treaty was brought to a conclusion," stipulating that Piscataqua "should be as Ipswich and Salem, and have Courts there;" but it was understood that this treaty was not to take effect unless the people of Piscataqua agreed to it.* Upon the return of the committee the people rejected their agreement. Most of the people went against the union, for the reason that the proprietors mostly lived in England, and they wished to consult them upon a matter of such moment to them. Others consulted their own interests in their opposition; among them Capt. Underhill, who had been chosen Governor in place of Burdet, and did not care to lose his place any more than to come under the government of Massachusetts, where he had been guilty of many misdemeanors, for which he had been banished. He, however, true to his character, wrote the Governor of Massachusetts, laying the blame of the rejection upon others at Dover, but his duplicity in the matter was fully exposed.t After the expulsion of Burdet from Dover, and the election of Underhill as Governor of the plantation, he procured the services of Hanserd Knolles to preach at Dover, who was his friend and supporter, and had been prohibited from preaching, by Massachusetts, and at Dover by Burdet. In the fall of 1640, a Mr. Larkham came to Dover from Massachusetts, where he had arrived during the previous summer, from England. He soon eclipsed Knolles, and raised so much of a party as to displace him. Many of the people became disgusted with Larkham's arbitrary assumption of power, restored Knolles to his office, who excommunicated Larkham. Underhill, of course, supported Knolles' party, and through him sought to ingratiate himself with the government of Massachusetts. In fact, as early as December, 1639, Underhill it seems, made the attempt to gain once more the good graces of the people of Massachusetts, and having obtained a safe conduct, repaired to Boston, where he made a public confession of his faults, but with such apparent insincerity that the "Church presently cast him To this he seemed to submit, and while he remained in Boston "he was very much dejected." But upon his return to Dover "he gave not that proof of a broken heart, as he gave hope of at Boston." Again soon afterwards he repaired to out." * Winthrop's His. N. E., Vol. I, pg. 319. + Winthrop's His. N. E., Vol. 1. pg. 327. |