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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

American CommontDeaitfjiar

NEW HAMPSHIRE

AN EPITOME OF POPULAR GOVERNMENT

FKANK B. SANBOEN

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANT
1904

COPYRIGHT 1904. BY FRANK B. SANBORN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published April, iqo4

PREFACE
In rewriting the story of early New Hampshire, so
imperfectly told by its first and best historian. Dr.
Belknap, the founder of the Massachusetts Histor
ical Society, an effort has been made to supply those
facts which Belknap, of necessity, could not know,
because the English archives had not then been
opened, except partially to the inveterate Chalmers,
who hated the Colonies, and was mortified at their
independence. It has also seemed needful to correct
the slight bias of Belknap in favor of his native
Massachusetts and the Puritan order of ministers
to which he professionally belonged, though free
from their worst presuppositions. In doing this,
full and grateful acknowledgment is made for the
invaluable aid of Belknap, in all those directions
where his ceaseless diligence and his gentle temper
gave him a clear view of the facts, and the bearing
of the events and tendencies illustrated by him.
Without his preliminary labors and the acute addi
tions and corrections of John Farmer, another Mas
sachusetts historian domiciled in New Hampshire,
the task of arranging our annals would be toilsome
indeed.

yi PREFACE
Later investigators, such as Jenness, C. W. Tut-
tle, and the editors of the long series of State
Papers published at Concord, together with their
collaborators of the New Hampshire Historical So
ciety, have made public facts long unknown, which,
in connection with the researches of Mr. Baxter of
the Maine Historical Society and his coadjutors,
have cleared up many doubtful or disputed points.
Mr. E. N. Toppan's admirable edition of Edward
Eandolph's Letters, prefaced by his biography, and
the Life of Captain John Mason, in the same series
of Prince Society publications, have made the rest
less, but at last fruitless labors of these two related
anti-Puritans intelligible, and less reprehensible
than they have long appeared in the partial chroni
cles of Winthrop and his associates at Boston Bay.
Finally, the indispensable but poorly edited vol
umes of the English Colonial Papers and Historical
Manuscripts have shown the way to truth, where
the writers did not always point it out, nor the
editors know how to find it.
For the method of this volume something may
need to be said. As a native of New Hampshire,
where my latest English ancestors cast in their lot
more than two hundred and sixty years ago, and
where all my later ancestors have been born (with
out exception), I have long known how peculiar has
been the history of that district of New England in

PREFACE vii
one singular respect. Almost every question with
which men of English and Irish ancestry have had
to deal, in the past five centuries, during their long
upward movement towards individual freedom and
orderly government of the people by the people,
has come up in New Hampshire for settlement,
and has been settled; not by direction from the
monarch nor by concession from the feudal lord
or opulent aristocrat, but by steady and reasonable
pressure from below; enforced, when needful, by
that hand and sword which stand in the escutcheon
of Massachusetts, with Sidney's appropriate legend,
but which were even more characteristic of New
Hampshire. Local self-government, land tenure by
free ownership, trial by unpacked juries, represen
tation as the concomitant of taxation, judges decid
ing by reason rather than by authority, and without
the trammels of unequal law, successful resistance
to arbitrary power, and the quiet creation of
suitable government when the fabric of colonial
dependence fell in ruin, — these with their corol
laries and natural sequels have been won by the
plain people of Eockingham and Strafford, and
maintained in war and peace by the children and
kindred of those who won them, in the other eight
counties of this American Switzerland. When with
this achievement is coupled an early emancipation
from the bigotry and barbarity of pharisaical Puri-

viii PREFACE
tanism in the near neighborhood, and a practical
development of liberty of conscience in the face
of provincial intolerance, there would seem to be
room for a chronicle that might make part of the
long history of civilization struggling against the
forces of priestly selfishness and imperialistic power.
Such a chronicle I have sought to present, rather
than a volume of consecutive annals, which spares
us no event, however trivial. Trifles are often the
hinges on which great revolutions turn ; but the
tendencies that develop a free state of free citizens
are not shaped by triflers nor depicted in minute
analysis. Men that lead and men that follow are
there needed, and it has been the good fortune of
New Hampshire that she has ever had leaders, and
never lacked the modest good sense to follow where
they led.
In briefly reciting the eminent services of Eev.
Dr. Langdon (page 264), no mention was made of
one strong claim to remembrance which he has.
In concert with two topographic surveyors, Joseph
Blanchard in 1756 and Abel Sawyer in 1784, Dr.
Langdon prepared two maps of New Hampshire
and Vermont in one sheet, — the first engraved at
London in 1761, and the second, much improved,
in 1784. For the first map, the Province granted
him some acres of mountain land north of Conway,
and the brilliant English Secretary, Charles Town-

PREFACE is
shend, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, to whom
Langdon dedicated it, procured for him a doctorate
at Aberdeen. For the second and much better
map, he may have received no recompense ; and the
governments of the two States, Massachusetts and
New Hampshire, to which (and especially to John
Hancock, then Governor of Massachusetts) he dedi
cated the map of 1784, have not taken the trouble
to preserve a copy in their archives. Its merits
for the historian of the Indian wars and the Ver
mont dispute are that it shows where the Indian
raids from Canada were made and along what lines
the captives were carried off, while it gives the
localities in Vermont most involved in the dispute.
Probably Dr. Langdon, then pastor of a rich con
gregation at Portsmouth, is the only New Hamp
shire man whose map made him a doctor of divinity.
It deserves to be better known.
Another service rendered by Dr. Langdon, late
in life, was to clear up the story of the glebe lands
in Portsmouth, mentioned on page 22. Eeplying
to the successor of Arthur Browne in St. John's
church, in 1792, he showed by a similar case in
South Kingstown, E. I., that the King in Council,
about 1751, had decided that the inhabitants could
adopt the form of worship they chose, and hold
parsonage property.
In tracing the intricate and perplexing sequence

X PREFACE
of governments and statutes in early New Hamp
shire, I have depended much on the elaborate vol
ume of the Colonial and Provincial laws, edited in
1903 by A. S. Bachellor, and covering this ground
fully and clearly. In describing the uprising in
1845 against the pro-slavery democracy headed by
Franklin Pierce, I have fortified my own early re
collections by the monograph of John L. Hayes,
then of Portsmouth, but recently of Cambridge,
Mass., and the too brief autobiography of Amos
Tuck, privately printed by his son, Mr. Edward
Tuck of Paris.
F. B. S.
CoNCOBD, Mass., March 1, 1904.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PAGE

I. Navigatobs and Colonists ..... 1
II. The Pubitan Rule in New Hampshieb . . 27
IH. The Masonian Claims  65
rV. New Hampshire a Province .... 83
V. Eablt Laws and Customs  115
VI. Indian Wars  135
VH. The Final Struggle with Massachusetts . . 152
VIH. The Switzerland or America .... 175
IX. The Revolution and its Sequel .... 204
X. Social and Political Development in the Nine
teenth Centubt  240
XI. The Great and Little Men of New Hampshirb 259
Xn. The Anti-Slavert Contest and its Results . 300
Xm. New Hampshire in the Twentieth Centuby. 314
Index  339

NEW HAMPSHIRE

CHAPTEE I
NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS
It is usual to say that the beginnings of American
history are clear and evident, not wrapped in the
mists of antiquity or legend. But four centuries, for
legendary purposes, are much the same as fourteen
or forty; and in fact the earliest visitation of Euro
peans to New England is as uncertain as the facts
about the founding of Eome. The Norsemen sailed
along our coast before Cabot or Verrazano, and it
is quite possible that Basque fishermen had given
their name for codfish (Bacalaos) to some region
of the mainland or to Newfoundland before Cabot
or Cartier turned their prows toward the shores of
Labrador or the islands in the Gulf of St. Law
rence. The French were explorers and colonizers
in Canada and Maine before Sir Humphrey Gil
bert or his half-brother Ealeigh set forth on their
ill-fated colonizing voyages. Montaigne's friend,
Etienne de la Boetie, had written enthusiastic
verses, pointing out the good that the New World

2 NEW HAMPSHIRE
could do for the war-wasted Old World, several
decades earlier than John Mason, returned from
his command in Newfoundland, indited lines like
these : —
" If Hope of Fame, of quiet Life, or Gaine
May Kindle Flames within our miuds againe,
Then let us joyiie to seeke this Golden Fleece,
Whose like ne'er came from Colchos into Greece."
This Captain Mason must be called the founder
of New Hampshire, which it is doubtful if he ever
saw, though he gave the Colony its name, and fur
nished a name for its first city, Portsmouth, — de
riving both from southern England, where for years
he was governor of Portsmouth. In his Portsmouth
house Buckingham, the royal favorite and patron
of Mason, was assassinated in the summer of 1628
by John Felton, and Mason had invited the duke
there in these lowly terms : " Your Grace's lodging
is prepared in my house here, which will not only
grace it and myself, but shall bind me perpetually
to remain your Grace's most humble devoted ser
vant." The death of his patron did not end Mason's
favor with King Charles, who had already granted
more than one New England patent to him and his
friend. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and would have put
them in command of all New England, to the detri
ment of the Massachusetts Puritans, if Mason had
not died in December, 1635, just as the measures of
the Court and the English prelates were about to
take effect. Mason was a native of King's Lynn in

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 3
Norfolk (December 11, 1586), entered at Oxford
in June, 1602, but never graduated, and became a
merchant and shipmaster before 1610. In that year
he commanded a small fleet sent by James I to re
duce his subjects at the Hebrides ; and this expe
dition, lasting into 1612, cost Mason more than
.£2000, which had not been paid by the frugal
Stuarts in 1629. But meanwhile Mason had been
kept in lucrative offices, at Newfoundland and in
Hampshire, and was thus able to accumulate money
which he was ready to expend in colonizing New
England. He had received a patent for the land
lying between the Naumkeag Eiver and the Merri-
mac, under the name of Mariana (March 9, 1622) ;
a second patent from the same authority, the Coun
cil for New England, was granted August 10, 1622,
to Mason and Gorges, covering all the land lying
on the sea-coast and for sixty miles inland, between
the rivers Merrimac and Kennebec, with the islands
adjacent ; and this was called the " Province of
Maine." Seven years later, November 7, 1629,
Mason alone was granted all that part of the Pro
vince of Maine lying between the rivers Merrimac
and Pascataqua; this he called New Hampshire.
Ten days after (November 17), a much larger
tract, called Laconia, and supposed to extend to
Lake Champlain, was granted to Mason and Gor
ges. By 1632 Mason had become a member of the
Council for New England, which made all these
grants, and many more to other persons, and he

4 NEW HAMPSHIRE
was expending much money in taking possession of
his lands in New Hampshire and Maine.
As early as 1623 David Thomson, a Scot, for
whom Thompson's Island in Boston Harbor is
named, took possession of a grant of land made to
him in 1622, apparently with the consent of Mason,
at what is now Little Harbor in the town of Eye,
but then called Pannaway. Possibly in the same
year, 1623, William and Edward Hilton settled,
under a grant to themselves, in what was afterward
called Dover, some miles up the Pascataqua Eiver,
and this is alleged by some to have been the first
actual settlement made in New Hampshire. As the
Hiltons and Thomsons were friends of the Church
of England, and neither Pilgrims like the Plymouth
colonists of 1620, nor Puritans like those who soon
after settled Massachusetts, it is probable they set
tled in New Hampshire under some agreement with
Mason and Gorges, who were ardent supporters of
the state church. At any rate, in November, 1631,
a new grant was made to Mason, Gorges, and cer
tain associates (named John Cotton, Henry Gard
ner, George Griffith, Edwin Guy, Thomas Wan-
nerton, and Thomas and Eliezer Eyre) of a specified
tract about the mouth of the Pascataqua, which
had already been settled by Walter Neale and a
colony, at a cost of more than £3000, — possession
thereof to be given by Captain Thomas Camock,
nephew of the Earl of Warwick, and Henry Joce-
lyn, son of an English knight, who already had

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 5
lands granted them in Maine, east of the Pascata
qua. This arrangement seems to have been a part
nership affair, for which a special grant was thought
to be needful ; but it was all a part of the great
scheme of Mason and Gorges to settle their lands
and derive profit from them and from the fishery
thereto appertaining. Under this partnership and
the previous arrangements, whatever they were,
with Thomson, Walter Neale, and others, more than
sixty men and twenty-two women were sent out by
Mason and his partners, or adopted by them from
other small colonies ; large and small houses were
built, arms and tools were supplied, a saw-mill was
established at Newichwannock in the present town
of Berwick, and property was taken up on both
sides of the river near its mouth. Mason was nomi
nated by King Charles to be Vice-Admiral of New
England, and was preparing to go out to his
colony, when his plans were defeated by death. By
this time (1635) the little colony had become
established, and the advantages of the situation
were so many that it continued to grow in num
bers and in wealth, and soon became a shipping
and fishing station of some importance. Under
the original name of Strawberry Bank, this par
ticular settlement included all that is now Ports
mouth, Eye, New Castle, Newington, and Greenland ;
a slight organization for local government was
formed, and arrangements made for establishing
there a church conformed to the ritual of the Eng-

6 NEW HAMPSHIRE
lish Church, with glebe lands and proper support
for a clergyman.
All this had been preceded by explorations in the
waters and along the coasts of what, in 1614, Cap
tain John Smith had christened with the pertinent
name of New England. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, half-
brother of Sir Walter Ealeigh (both being kins
men, through the noble family of Champernown,
to Sir Ferdinando Gorges), had made two voyages
westward from English Plymouth in 1578 and 1583,
in the second of which he led forth a colony of 250
persons for settlement in Newfoundland. He had
five small vessels, of which the largest, named for
Ealeigh, turned back in a few days ; with the other
four he reached Newfoundland in August, 1583,
and thence sailed southward for a better situation.
Ill fortune attended him ; he lost one vessel, and,
becoming discouraged for the season, turned back
towards England ; but in the longitude of the
Azores, Gilbert in his Golden Hinde foundered in
the middle Atlantic. He never really saw New
England, any more than Ealeigh, sending forth his
Carolina colony, saw Virginia ; and in spite of great
courage, running into rashness, Gilbert's undertak
ing rather checked than promoted explorations.
Martin Pring was a less venturesome but more
successful voyager ; he coasted along Nova Scotia
and Maine, and in 1603 may have sailed up the
broad estuary of the Pascataqua as far as where the
Hiltons and David Thomson afterward made their

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 7
settlement.^ But his object was discovery rather
than colonization. In 1606 he sailed to the Maine
coast again, commanding a vessel fitted out by Sir
John Popham, who the next year, joining forces
with Ealeigh Gilbert, a brother of Sir Humphrey,
fitted out a colony for Sagadahoc, at the mouth of
the Kennebec, as Mason did sixteen years after at
the mouth of the Pascataqua. But this Maine colony
abandoned their Fort St. George the next year, as
the French had given up their Port Eoyal colony
in 1609, and for some time only fishermen pitched
their tents or built their huts and stages along this
rocky coast. When Smith appeared here in 1614,
that experienced adventurer was charmed with the
rich fisheries and the prospect of settling perma
nent freeholders on the well- wooded hills and among
the rich valleys of what is now New Hampshire.
" Here," he said, " should be no hard landlords to
rack us with high rents, or extorted fines to con
sume us ; here every man may be master and owner
of his own labor and land in a short time. . . .
The sea there," he said, " near the Isles of Shoals
[which he touched at and named Smith's Isles],
is the strangest fish-pond I ever saw. What sport
doth yield a more pleasing content, and less hurt or
charge, than angling with a hook, and crossing the
sweet air from isle to isle over the silent streams of
a calm sea ? " When this was published in Eng
land, with Smith's quaint map of the New England
^ This voyage up the river is denied by good antiquaries.

8 NEW HAMPSHIRE
coasts. Captain Mason was in Newfoundland, gov
erning a colony that had gone there in 1610. It is
quite possible that in some voyage southward dur
ing the six years he was there, from 1615 to 1621,
the patentee of New Hampshire visited his future
colony, sailed up the Pascataqua, and saw with his
own experienced eyes where David Thomson planted
himself at Odiorne's Point, on Little Harbor, and
at Thomson's Point, near the Great Bay in Green
land. Francis Champernown, the kinsman of Ma
son's friend Gorges, afterwards owned a great es
tate along this bay, and from its name, Greenland,
the present town was so called. But no certain
record of such a visit of Mason has yet been found.
Smith's dream of a colony where landlords and
quitrents should be unknown was far enough from
the plans of Mason or Gorges. They believed fully
in the patents and monopolies which excited pop
ular and parliamentary hostility in the Stuart
reigns, and they aimed at baronies and lordships
in New England similar to those of England and
Scotland. They were ready to spend money in col
onizing, but the colonists were to be their tenants,
governed by their kindred and friends as a ruling
class. Moreover, they were stanch royalists, very
loyal to the Church of England, then at issue with
the Calvinistic Puritans, and inclining toward the
Church of Eome, to which the sons of Charles I,
following the example of their grandfather, Henry
IV of France, joined themselves after the Eestora-

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 9
tion. This bent of mind separated them from the
Plymouth Pilgrims, — poor men, seeking to estab
lish a popular government, — and from the Puri
tans of Massachusetts and Connecticut, whose ideal
government was a theocracy, and to whom royalty
was unwelcome, though they must profess allegiance
to kings whom they disliked, and who, in turn, hated
them cordially.
Mason and Gorges preferred a colony resembling
what Virginia soon became, — an aristocracy closely
dependent on the crown, and supplied with a loyal
clergy selected by careful English bishops, who
should preach passive obedience, so far as the tur
bulence of new colonies would permit that servile
doctrine. Mason or his friends sent over several
persons of this kind, one of whom, George Burdet,
coming in the early part of 1635, ingratiated him
self with the planters at Dover, so that they dropped
their former ruler, Thomas Wiggin, and chose Bur
det in his stead. He was then carrying on a secret
correspondence with Archbishop Laud, in which he
denounced Massachusetts Puritans as hypocritical
and disaffected. Under pretext of purity in religion,
he said, they were aiming at independent sover
eignty, — " it being accounted perjury and treason
by their General Court to speak of appeals to the
king." This was an exaggeration of the fact rather
than a falsehood ; for virtual independence was
what the Massachusetts oligarchy desired, and prac
tically enjoyed.

10 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Mason and Gorges set up each his colony, on
opposite sides of the Pascataqua, and did their best
to make both aristocratic and loyal ; but fate and
the grasping Puritans of Boston Bay were too much
for them. So intimate, and indeed allied in busi
ness affairs, were these two friends that it is hard
to distinguish their separate ownership in the two
districts of Maine and New Hampshire. Surveys
of topography were few and inexact, and the bounds
of their granted monopolies very indistinct. Con
sequently, the "patents" and charters they sold or
gave away soon conflicted one with another, and
were for a century a cause of litigation and appeal to
the English Crown. Mason not only had his " Great
House " in Portsmouth for trade and exploration,
but saw-mills on the Maine side at Newichwannock,
now South Berwick. In both plantations he em
ployed many men and women, and spent many
hundred pounds sterling. So far as any profit ac
crued to him or his heirs, this was money thrown
away. At his death, in 1635, leaving a widow
and infant grandchildren, he endowed a church and
a free school in New Hampshire each with 1000
acres of his supposed land " in my County of New
Hampshire or Manor of Mason Hall," and gave
2000 acres to his native town of Lynn in Norfolk,
for the poor. None of his legatees received any-
thing from these well-intended gifts; nor had
Mason ever opportunity to exercise those great
powers as Vice-Admiral of New England which he

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 11
desired in 1635, and which Charles I seems to
have granted. In a letter to Edward Nicholas, ad-
miralty secretary (July 11, 1635), Mason said : —
" New England is large and spacious, and the planta
tions do already extend 300 miles upon the sea-coast.
The English inhabitants are supposed about 13,000, and
six sail of ships at least, if not more, belonging to the
plantations, besides resorters for fishing and trade, and
such as carry people and cattle, yearly amount to above
forty sail."
But the new Vice-Admiral was to have jurisdic
tion over much more commerce than forty ships in
a year could deal with. His patent was to authorize
Mason throughout Charles's " Dominion in New
England, which lieth between 40° and 48° of north
erly latitude, the same being according to the ex
tent of a former patent, which the Council and
Corporation of New England hath now surrendered
to His Majesty ; which new patent is to comprehend
the South Seas and coasts thereof, together with
California and Nova Albion, being all contained
within the said latitude." This quotation may serve
to show the loose geographical ideas of the time.
How extensive were the powers of Mason on land,
within his expected province of New Hampshire,
will appear by the draft of a charter prepared in
August, 1635, which never passed the seals, but
which indicates the fondness of Charles I and his
advisers for arbitrary government, in the control

12 NEW HAMPSHIRE
and settlement of American colonies. The Puritans
were soon to nullify this aim both in America and
England. The document in question, cited in 1728
as an actual charter, must have been but a care
fully written draft.' Yet it sets forth what are
known to have been the wishes and hopes of the
opponents of the Massachusetts charter and the
government at Boston under it ; and we may take
it as the design in which, according to Governor
Winthrop, the Lord " frustrated, and disappointed
them." This phrase occurs in his "History of New
England," in connection with another passage going
to confirm the authenticity of the document now to
be quoted. Winthrop says : —
" One Captain Mason of London, a man in favor at
Court, and a professed enemy to us, . . . provided a ship
which should have been employed to have brought a
general governor, or in some other design to our preju
dice ; but in launching of it her back was broken. He also
employed Gardiner, and Morton and others to prosecute
against us at council table, and by a quo warranto etc.,
so as Morton wrote divers letters to his friends here, in
sulting against us, and assuring them of our speedy ruin.
... As for this Mason, he fell sick and died soon after."
This allusion to a " general governor " supports
the intimation given in the draft of charter, that
appeals may be made from the governor of Mason's
county palatine of New Hampshire " unto such a
1 See the whole document in Mr. C. W. Tuttle's Life of Mason,
published by the Prince Society, 1887.

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 13
General Governor as from time to time shall be
constituted and sent over into the parts of New
England, for the government of the whole country
and territory of New England." But this future
Andros was not to have any power to " do anything
which shall extend unto the right or interest of any
person or persons within the said New Hampshire,
for or in his life or lives, member or members, lands
or tenements, goods or chattels whatsoever, to be
distrained, constrained, restrained, bound, charged
or taken away." With this considerable limita
tion on the power of a governor-general. King
Charles goes on, in the document, to give Mason
power over the land and water, forests, mines,
and fisheries, according to the right and powers
" had, used and enjoyed by the now or any former
Bishop of Duresme within the County Palatine
of Duresme." Specifically, Mason was to have
" all the advowsons and patronages of churches
whatsoever, to be erected within the said tracts,
with license and ability there to build and found
churches, chapels and oratories, and to cause the
same to be dedicated or consecrated according to
the ecclesiastical laws of England." That is, he was
to recognize the state church, and not the dis
senters. And the restrictions on the emigration of
Englishmen, which were such an embarrassment to
the Puritans, were to be suspended in favor of New
Hampshire ; for " We do give and grant, by these
presents, license and liberty to all persons, both our

14 NEW HAMPSHIRE
subjects and liege people for the present, and those
of our heirs and successors in future time, (except
such as shall be specially interdicted) to transport
themselves and their families to the said Province."
Moreover, all the people of New Hampshire and
their descendants were to be " holden, reputed and
had as the faithful liege people of Us, our heirs
and successors, originally springing up within our
Eealm of England." And they were to take by de
scent or purchase, and freely possess, property in
the three kingdoms, as if living therein ; and to
have " all the liberties, franchises and privileges
of this our realm of England, without any impedi
ment whatsoever, — any statute to the contrary not
withstanding," — which shows in the king that sort
of dispensing power which the Stuarts were so
fond of exercising, and which cost them their throne.
What is yet more noteworthy, the favored people
of New Hampshire were to be at liberty to import
and export, to and from the ports of the kingdom,
with no higher tariff imposed than five per cent.,
— confirmed by this asseveration : —
" And our will and pleasure is, and for us, our heirs
and successors we do pubhsh and declare that, for and
upon the payment of the said five pounds jper centum,,
we do freely exonerate, acquit, and discharge the same
wares, goods and merchandise so to be imported, trans
ported or exported, as aforesaid ; beyond which we will
not grieve the inhabitants of the said Province of New
Hampshire, nor any of them. . . . And furthermore we

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 15
do covenant, that we, our heirs and successors will not
impose at any time hereafter any impositions or customs
or other taxations, how small soever, upon the dwellers
or inhabitants of New Hampshire."
Had this gone into effect and been acted upon in
the American Colonies generally, there would have
been no occasion for our Eevolution. Power also
was to be given to Mason and his heirs, " lest the
way to honor and renown might seem difficult and
hard to find in so remote and far distant a country,"
to create and bestow titles, " so they be such as in
England now are in use," and " to create villages
into boroughs, and boroughs into cities." But, —
and here was the blow aimed at the quasi-inde-
pendence of Massachusetts, — " We do declare and
ordain, that the said Province of New Hampshire
shall be immediately subject to our Crown of Eng
land, and dependent upon the same for ever." ^ Had
Mason lived, and the troubles in Scotland and Eng
land, consequent upon the narrow and cruel church
policy of Laud, been early quieted, Gorges and Ma
son, under similar charters, would have introduced
1 This invaluable key to the proposed policy of "Thorough"
in New England, though cited as a charter (which it was not) by
the Mason claimant AUen in 1728, seems to have escaped notice
and publication until 1887, when it was found in a folio volume of
eighty-four pages, containing certified copies of papers supporting
the claim of the heirs of Mason to the ownership of New Hamp
shire and a part of Maine and Massachusetts. This particular
paper is certified by Richard Chamberlain, Secretary of the Pro
vince of New Hampshire from December, 1680, to some time in
1686. It seems to be authentic.

16 NEW HAMPSHIRE
bishoprics and orders of nobility in New England,
and " the Bay horse," as Boston was nicknamed,
would have trotted a very painful course.
As it was, however, the plantations of Mason at
Portsmouth and at Newichwannock, on the Maine
side of the river, were but sources of outlay during
his lifetime, and came to naught, so far as his heirs
were concerned, after his death. He and his part
ners had sent over implements and arms, food and
clothing, cattle and laborers ; but the returns were
slight. Captain Camock, son of the Earl of War
wick's sister, and Henry Jocelyn, son of an English
knight, as we saw, were to put the Mason and
Gorges grantees in possession of their lands under
the patent of 1629, and did so. Captain Walter
Neale had charge of the Portsmouth plantation,
where Humphrey Chadbourne built for the Maso-
nians a " Great House " in which Wannerton, one
of the partners, resided. Ambrose Gibbons took
charge of the saw-mills at Newichwannock, and also
carried on farm work there ; Neale lived at Little
Harbor, with Edward Godfrey, and had the care
of fishing and salt-making. On Great Island, now
New Castle, land was marked out for a fort, and
cannon were sent over to be mounted there. All
went well at first, and so long as the proprietors
had money to furnish supplies ; but the returns in
furs, fish, ores, timber, etc., were very small, and the
partners grew impatient. The food and clothing of
the seventy or eighty agents, servants, and women.

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 17
sent to the two plantations, were so costly that little
was left for their wages, which got in arrears.
Writing in May, 1634, after a division of lands
and goods among his partners. Mason said : —
" The servants with you, and such others as remain
upon the company's charge, are to be discharged and
paid their wages out of the stock of beaver in your hands,
at the rate of 12 shillings the pound. And you must
afford my people some house-room in Newichwannock
house ; and the cows and goats, which are all mine, and
14 swine with their increase, some grounds to be upon,
till we have some place provided upon my new-divided
lands. The chrystal stones you sent are of little or no
value, unless they were so great [as] to make drinking
cups or some other works, as pillars for fair looking-
glasses, or for garnishing rich cabinets. Good iron or
lead ore I should like better of, if it could be found. I
have disbursed a great deal of money in the plantation,
and never received one penny ; but hope, if there were
once a discovery of the lakes, that I should, in some
reasonable time be reimbursed again."
He never was reimbursed ; his new charter
never took effect ; his unpaid servants, a few years
after, divided his houses and cattle among them, in
lieu of wages or other claims, and Mason Hall, as
a manor, took rank among the castles in Spain.
What fortune his heirs had will be told later.
Such, for the present, was the upshot of this
venture of gentlemen and merchants to found a
colony. Another undertaking, by another of the

18 NEW HAMPSHIRE
founders of New Hampshire, with a company of
poor men, united in the bonds of Christian fellow
ship, had even a more speedy dissolution. While
Mason and Gorges were getting their charter of
1629, a small body of dissenters united themselves, ^ ^
in London and some of the country parts of Eng
land, into a fellowship called " The Company of
the Plough." Their union was in form religious,
and implied peculiarities of belief, — exactly what,
we know not ; but their worldly aim was to found
a colony in New England, to which the Plymouth
Pilgrims had gone, and Winthrop and his followers
were just going. They therefore obtained from the
Council of Plymouth, through the Earl of War
wick and Sir F. Gorges, a grant of land described
thus : —
" Two islands in the river Sagadahoc, near the south
side thereof, about 60 miles from the sea ; and also a
tract containing 40 miles in length and 40 mUes in
breadth, upon the south side of the river Sagadahoc,
with all bays, rivers, ports, inlets, etc., together with all
royalties and privileges within the precincts thereof."
This grant was made to Bryan Binckes, a Lon
don man, John Dye, a London merchant, living in
Philpot Lane, John Smith, and others their asso
ciates, among whom were Anthony Jupe, a nephew
of Captain Eobert Keayne of Boston, Thomas Jupe,
his father, a London merchant, John Crispe, Bryan
Kipling, and nearly twenty more, forming the Com-

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 19
pany of the Plough. Their pastor, and one of the
larger contributors, was a vigorous old Puritan
minister, Stephen Bachiler, then nearly seventy, an
Oxford graduate and for eighteen years vicar of
the parish of Wherwell in Hampshire, but then
ejected for Puritanism, and for twenty-five years a
wanderer, with occasional preaching, about Eng
land and (traditionally) Holland, where a son of
his was an army chaplain. He was now ready to
" go to th' American strand," as George Herbert
said of English religion in general, and was warmly
welcomed by the little band of the Plough, —
which was the name they gave their first vessel. It
was but of sixty tons, and carried over in 1630-31
only a part of the brethren of Lygonia, as their
grant was afterwards named. ^
The Plough was a poor vessel and carried a poor-
spirited company. Finding the shores of the Casco
waters rude and inhospitable, as Popham's colony
had found their landing-place, twenty years before,
they tarried but a while there, and betook them
selves to Winthrop's colony near Boston. His first
entry about them in his journal of July 6, 1630,
1 It is singular that Silvanus Morgan, author of a fantastic book
of heraldry. The Sphere of Gentry, in 1661, should give what much
resembles the present escutcheon of New Hampshire as ' ' the arms
which appertain to Stephen Bachelor, the first pastor of the church
of Ligonia in New England, — Vert, a plough in f esse ; in base
the sun rising. Or, — which bearing was answerable to his pro
fession in plowing up the fallow ground of their hearts ; and the
Sun, appearing in that part of the world symbolically alluded to
his motto ' Sol Justitise Exoritur.' "

20 NEW HAMPSHIRE
was : " A small ship of 60 tons arrived at Nan-
tasket, Mr. Graves, master. She brought ten pas
sengers from London. They came with a patent for
Sagadahoc, but not liking the place, came hither.
Their ship drew ten feet, and went up to Water-
town; but she ran on ground twice by the way." A
later hand afterwards added to this, "Most of them
proved familists and vanished away." Their Plough
dropped down to Charlestown, started thence for
the West Indies, but came back in three weeks,
" so broke she could not return home." There was
also some " untimely breach " committed by " Bro
ther German," which did not prevent Mr. Bachiler
from " doubling his adventure " and making it
£100; but worse trouble arose in Boston before
the second ship, the Whale, reached Boston (May
26, 1632), with Mr. Bachiler and Eichard Dum-
mer on board, and the rest of the Plough Company.
The Plough was sold, some of her men were off to
Virginia, and there was a dispute about a division
of the property of this frustrated colony of Casco
Bay. How it was settled does not appear; but
Bachiler and Dummer remained, and both had some
later connection with the patent, which for half a
century longer was a cause of troubles..
The overlapping of one patent upon another was
a constant source of dispute, and in this Lygonia
case we have early and authentic testimony about
it from John Dye, one of the patentees, writing
from London, March 8, 1632 : —

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 21
"There is one Bradshaw that had procured letters
patent for a part, as we supposed, of our former grant ;
and so we think still, but he and Sir Ferdinando think it
is not in our bounds. We cannot possibly relate the labor
and trouble we have had to establish our former grant.
Many rough words we have had from Sir Ferdinando at
the first ; and to this hour he doth affirm that he never
gave consent that you should have above 40 miles in
length and 20 in breadth ; and saith that his own hand
is not to your patent, if it have any more. So we have
shown our good wills, and have procured his love, and
many promises that we shall have no wrong. We be
stowed a sugar-loaf upon Lim of some 16 shillings price,
and he hath promised to do us all the good he can."
Nevertheless, the bounds of this very grant came
into controversy a dozen years later, when the
Plough patent had been bought by Colonel Eigby,
a Puritan member of the Long Parliament, and in
one of the disputes Mr. Bachiler was called on as
arbitrator (" a grave, reverend and good man," said
Eev. Eobert Jordan, the defeated party) to decide
the controversy. He did so in June, 1641 ; but in
the interval of nine years since his landing in Bos
ton as pastor of the scattered Plough Company,
Mr. Bachiler had made an attempt to colonize at
Yarmouth on Cape Cod, and had actually made the
original settlement of Hampton, with some of his
relatives and other English friends. In so doing
he had the countenance of the Massachusetts au
thorities, who afterward turned against him ; and

22 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Hampton was the first of the four primitive towns
to accept the government of Massachusetts, in 1639.
Dover followed in 1641, under the lead of Eichard
Waldron, its principal citizen, and Portsmouth
soon after, — while Exeter, which was on ill terms
with Massachusetts on account of Wheelwright's
settlement there, on his banishment from Boston,
was not taken under the Boston protection until
1643, when Wheelwright had gone to his next
colony, at Wells in Maine.
Practically, if not absolutely, the only " freemen"
or voters in Hampton, and perhaps in Exeter for
some years, under Massachusetts control, were
church members, as in Boston and its sister towns ;
but the members of the Anglican Church in Ports
mouth and Dover stipulated, as a condition of obey
ing the Bay government, that no such ecclesiastical
restriction should be laid on them, and probably
this exemption gradually prevailed in the other
two towns. The result of this union of the Hamp
shire towns with Massachusetts was to quiet inter
nal dissensions to some extent, particularly at
Dover ; but in Hampton, Exeter, and Portsmouth,
these continued. At Portsmouth the settlers had
laid out glebe lands, as desired by their deceased
founder. Captain Mason, and had engaged a clergy
man of the English Church, Eev. Eichard Gibson,
to be their rector. He consented, and began his
work ; but the Boston oligarchy interfered, refused
to recognize him as a pastor, and virtually forced

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 23
him to return to England, from which he had come
to officiate as curate in Maine. This proceeding
left seeds of discontent at Portsmouth; such ex-
• isted at Exeter also, and prevented harmonious
union in a Puritan church. At Portsmouth no such
church was formed for thirty years, although sev
eral Puritan ministers had preached there as mis
sionaries (among them Eev. Stephen Bachiler),
and one had been settled a long time (Eev. Joshua
Moodey) before he gathered a church with a full
church covenant. These facts are worthy of men
tion, since the local church was so much an element
of the political as well as the religious life of the
Puritans. In 1637 Charles I had again taken up his pur
pose, declared in 1635, of sending over a general
Governor for all New England ; but the dissen
sions in Great Britain caused delay and finally
abandonment of the scheme, which had been urged
by Sir F. Gorges after Mason's death. Gorges
himself (who may have gone to Maine in 1617
with Mason, as was afterwards alleged by Eobert
Mason), not being able to leave England, sent over
his kinsman, Thomas Gorges, to govern his Maine
Province on the spot. This was in 1640, and for
three years Thomas Gorges resided in Maine, and
called his abode Gorgeana. With him were asso
ciated in the government Henry Jocelyn and Ed
ward Godfrey, who had formerly lived in Mason's
colony, and Francis Champernown, who long con-

24 NEW HAMPSHIRE
tinned to own land in Portsmouth as well as at
Kittery, where he usually lived. Indeed, so mixed
were the relations of the two colonies of Mason
and Gorges, that almost every prominent person in
either seems to have figured at some time in both.
Portions of both were termed Pascataqua, as lying
on that river, and men passed easily from one town
to another for residence, — looking on themselves,
oftentimes, as mere sojourners in either, until they
should return to the mother country, as many did.^
The confusion of patents and grants, whether
made by the king, by the New England Council,
^ The first record that I have found of Walter Barefoot, who
became so seriously or amusingly prominent in New Hampshire for
nearly thirty years, is among the York Deeds in Maine, where,
under date of May 21 and June 3, 1657, Mr. Walter Barefoot (not
yet Doctor or Captain) has assigned to him four tickets from
James Chaneeller, chirurgeon, and Robert Greenill, able seaman
(two tickets each), for their wages in the navy of the English
Commonwealth under Cromwell, — Greenill as seaman and cook,
from September 1, 1654, to June 10, 1655, and Chancellor as sur
geon's mate and surgeon from September 17, 1655, to May 13,
1657. Evidently Barefoot advanced money to these two men, and
took their tickets to be collected in England, — no amount due
being mentioned. It is possible that Barefoot came over in one
of these vessels, the Golden Falcon, and that he also was a naval
cliirurgeon on board. Apparently he had ready money, for the
next year, November 16, 1658, he advanced to Francis Champer
nown il30 sterling, and received in return a, deed of 500 acres
of land and a dwelling-house, in Kittery. In this deed, and in a
bond of August 1, 1660, Barefoot is called Captain, and in the
bond he is described as " of New England, merchant." The giver
of the bond is a Barbados merchant, Thomas Langley. August 6,
1661, Barefoot sold a house by the seaside in Kittery to S. Harbert
tailor, for £85, with 30 acres of land.

NAVIGATORS AND COLONISTS 25
by the towns of New Hampshire before 1642, or
by Massachusetts afterwards, was very great at
first, and continued to be a source of litigation for
nearly a century and a half. The patents of the
Hiltons on the Pascataqua, and of Thomas Wiggin
in what is now Stratham, though conflicting with
the general grants made to Mason and Gorges,
were sustained by the local courts ; and in Wig-
gin's case he was finally taxed in the town of
Hampton, though never residing within its proper
limits. The Hiltons, opposing the claim of Mrs.
Mason to the ownership of their land, which at one
time was allotted*to her, finally recovered it, under
a decree which shows what the customary rate of
interest was in the early years of the Colony, —
eight per cent. The profit made by successful
trade seems to have been much more than this ;
but it was not until after 1650 that prosperity can
be said to have visited the four New Hampshire
towns ; and it was a natural inference of the plant
ers that, as this had happened under the Puritan
government of Massachusetts Bay, it was due to
that government, which until after 1650 could not
fairly be stigmatized as usurpation, though bearing
heavily upon the members of the Church of Eng
land who dwelt in the little Colony. But as time
went on, and the civil dissensions of England were
quieted by Cromwell, and after his death by the
restored monarchy, the just occasion for Massa
chusetts to dominate New Hampshire and Maine

26 NEW HAMPSHIRE
virtually ceased ; while the revived purpose of the
Stuarts to deprive Massachusetts of its charter
encouraged the malcontent planters to make a
party against the Puritan domination. This led to
a contest which continued, smouldering or violent,
until New Hampshire had its separate provincial
organization in 1679-80, and was renewed upon
the overthrow of James II in 1689. The majority
of the inhabitants no doubt preferred the Puritan
control ; but it led to acts not justifiable upon any
sound theory of equity or English liberty, and this
portion of our history comes now under view.

CHAPTEE II
THE PURITAN EULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
Although the chief stream of colonists in all the
New England settlements was Puritanic in opinion,
and inclined to be democratic in its policy, there
was at first a considerable infusion of the aristo
cratic element, which adhered to the English Church
as against the sectaries, and sought to establish dis
tinctions of rank, founded on landed property and
trade monopolies. The grants so liberally made to
Gorges and Mason, and to other supporters of the
kingly prerogative in England, were sharply criti
cised in Parliament as belonging to the evil class
of monopolies from which the people suffered.
Coke, the great lawyer, who vacillated between ser
vility and sedition in the reign of James I, censured
the privileges accorded to Gorges in the matter of
fishing and trade, though less than had been yielded
to Ealeigh and his friends while they were in the
royal favor. "If you alone are to pack and dry fish,"
said he to Gorges, " you attempt a monopoly of the
wind and sun." The answer to this is found in an
earlier utterance of Gorges, in which he pleaded both
for his chance and for the liberty of his colonists.

28 NEW HAMPSHIRE
" Neither can there be anything more honorable,
he said in 1606, before joining in the frustrated
colony of Popham, "than free conditions to be
granted to such as willingly do hazard themselves
and their estate, without farther charge to the
king." This was the true doctrine of American colo
nization, so far as the Parliament was concerned ;
and it was the neglect and contempt of this princi
ple which separated the Colonies from England in
1776. But Gorges and his partners and his party
expected to transfer to their granted lands the sys
tem of church and society that then prevailed in
the mother country. Great landed estates were to
be held by gentlemen, and leased to tenants who
would maintain by their labor and their rents the
same leisurely and titled class which then and since
has mainly ruled England. And as the support and
decoration of this class, the national Church was to
be maintained, with glebes and schools, and tithes
and bishops, — the whole formalism and control of
conscience that had been cherished by Elizabeth,
less wisely promoted by James, and which, finally,
under Charles I and Laud and Wentworth, was to
provoke the patient English people into rebellion
and civil war.
Against this tendency in Virginia and in Maine,
and to a small degree in New Hampshire, the Pil
grim Colony, with its simple form of government
and its brotherly and tolerant religion, was the
unconscious antidote. Between the two systems

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 29
stood Winthrop's Bay Colony, less democratic than
Plymouth, but more Calvinistic, and therefore more
hostile to the claims of the Arminian and prelatical
church of Laud. Both these attracted, in the perse
cuting days from 1620 to 1640, hundreds of worthy
nonconformists, chiefly of the yeoman and trades
man classes, while along with such, or as a godless
fringe to the pious garment, came a host of the
shiftless, ne'er-do-well, or positively vicious kind,
who naturally found in a new country some relief
from the restraints and some respite from the
fruitless toil of the fatherland. The samples of
gentry that came over were often of the last-named
sort, undisciplined or trained in self-indulgence, or
even, in more vigorous examples, too much like
Ealeigh Gilbert, as portrayed by Gorges in 1607.
" Captain Gilbert is described to me as desirous
of supremacy and rule, — a loose life, prone to
sensuality, little zeal in religion, humorous, head
strong, and of small judgment and experience ; but
otherwise valiant enough." Of a different type,
yet showing the same vices, with hypocrisy and
too much zeal added, was Captain UnderhiU, who
figured for a while in Dover; and several of the
clerical persons who came over to practice their
profession on the edge of our wilderness, and fell
under the temptation described by Hawthorne in
his " Scarlet Letter." In the flshing stations and
seaport towns was the customary riffraff of such
places, — apostolic in their occupation but not in

30 NEW HAMPSHIRE
their life, or else mechanical, in the bad sense that
Shakespeare attaches to that word. From this
seething mixture of imprudently good and incorri
gibly bad arose the need of a stricter discipline in
New Hampshire than the lax organization of the
four town republics could maintain. Hence the
proposal of the Boston Puritans that they should
come under what Edward Godfrey called "their
umbrella of religion," and become a part" of the
Massachusetts republic, which professed itself a
theocracy, and was certainly far more moral than
Ehode Island or New Hampshire claimed to be.
The invitation was accepted, and the useful union
was effected. But this was not done without much
protest from men who suffered either in person,
property, or opinions, under the grasping and
bigoted rule of the Bostonians. Nor did Winthrop
and his less scrupulous associates fail to practice,
both in acquiring and maintaining their power out
side their own charter, some of those arts which
better become the worldly bargainer than the pious
seeker after salvation for himself, and righteous
ness and peace towards others. There were touches
of the pirate also — for trade and piracy were not
distinctly separated by Englishmen in the days of
Elizabeth and the Stuarts — in the unmerciful seiz
ure of lands and power legally granted to others,
by the holders of the Massachusetts patent, — it
self transferring power beyond what the authority
granting it desired or thought reasonable. Even

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 31
in dealing with light-minded rascals like Morton
of Merrymount, who lived in their own territory,
and while their authority was yet " in the gristle,"
as Burke said of their successors, Endicott and his
companions transgressed English law, and height
ened the prejudice against them at Charles's court,
where their royal charter had been procured at
much cost.1 So, too, the accusations of Morton,
Eatcliff-, and Sir Christopher Gardiner, three years
after the charter was procured, fell through be
cause money was freely and shrewdly used against
the promoters of that inquiry. Sir Ferdinando
Gorges and Captain Mason. And it was this hos
tility of the earlier grantees and more loyal gentry,
interested in the colonies of Maine and New Hamp
shire, which seemed to justify the Bostonians in
^ C. F. Adams, who has written much on this period of Massa
chusetts history, says in his Introduction to Morton's New Eng
lish Canaan (page 52) : " At the court of Charles I everything
was matter of influence or purchase. The founders of Massachu
setts were men just abreast of their time, and not in advance of
it. . . . It has never been explained how the Charter of 1629 was
originally secured. . . . That the original patentees of Massachu
setts bribed some courtier near the King, and through him bought
their charter, is wholly probable. Every one bribed, and almost
every one about the King took bribes. That the patentees had
powerful influence at Court is certain ; exactly where it lay is not
apparent. . . . Winthrop's brother-in-law, Emanuel Downing, was
especially serviceable, — a lawyer of the Inner Temple. There is
reason to suppose that he had access to influential persons, — pos
sibly Lord Dorchester may have been amongst them." It is curi
ous that in July, 1630, Dorchester was very angry with Captain
Mason, for holding up the claim of a certain lieutenant for a gra
tuity for which no warrant existed.

32 NEW HAMPSHIRE
undermining and finally setting aside the rights of
Mason and Gorges in their own limits. It required
forty years to accomplish this, and in case of New
Hampshire it was soon labor lost; but the work
was begun in 1633.
When the trial of the accusations against the
Bostonians came up in London, Captain Thomas
Wiggin, who had been associated with Captain
Mason's colony at Berwick and Little Harbor,
and who had a patent himself for what is now the
town of Stratham, happened to be in England, and
bore testimony in favor of Winthrop and Endicott,
and (practically) against Mason. It is noticeable
that the accusations themselves have disappeared,
and that a forged paper, bearing the name of Wig
gin as one of two signers (Captain Walter Neale
being the other), and dated August 13, 1632, early
appeared among the documents used in contest
ing the claim of Eobert Mason, long afterward.
Whether Wiggin had any hand in this forgery is
unknown ; but in October, 1633, appears the first
mention of any claim by the Bostonians to New
Hampshire. Winthrop then wrote in his journal,
October 11, 1633 : " Capt. Wiggin of Pascataquack
wrote to the Governor, that one of his people had
stabbed another, and desired he might be tried in
the Bay [that is, in Boston] if the party died.
The Governor answered that if Pascataquack lay
within their limits, (as it was supposed) they would
try him." In 1635 Wiggin again wrote to Win-

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 33
throp desiring to have two criminals at Pascataqua
tried in Boston, but in neither case did Massachu
setts then take jurisdiction. Wiggin continued to
desire it, however, and when the union was effected,
ten years after his first application, he was treated
with unwonted favor by the Boston Puritans, and
for many years had a share in their oligarchy.
On the other hand, Walter Neale, who represented
Mason and Gorges in New Hampshire and Maine,
was at variance with Winthrop for one of those
acts which the Puritans defended, but which car
ries a bad name with it. In June, 1631, Neale
had sent to Winthrop from Pascataqua a packet of
letters from Gorges to Sir Christopher Gardiner,
supposed to be in Boston. Winthrop entered in
his journal (June 25), this : —
" In the packet was one letter to Thomas Morton (sent
prisoner before into England) by both which letters it
appeared that he [Sir F. Gorges] had sonae secret de
sign to recover his pretended right, and that he reposed
much trust in Sir Christopher Gardiner. These letters
we opened, because they were directed to one who was
our prisoner, and had declared himself an ill-wilier to
our government."
Two years later, being in Boston on his return
from England (August, 1633), Neale declared to
some of his friends who urged him to call on Win
throp, that he had not been well entertained, the
first time he was in Boston, and besides " he had

34 NEW HAMPSHIRE
some letters opened in the Bay." To this last
Winthrop made answer, not quite consistently with
his entry in June, 1631 : " For his letters he pro
tested his innocency (as he might well, for the let
ters were opened before they came into the Bay)."
Whoever opened them, it was an act hardly justi
fiable among gentlemen.
Another transaction concerning the Hilton pa
tent at Dover Point, across the Pascataqua from
Wiggin's Sandy Point patent, shows what pains
the Bostonians took to acquire land rights for their
Puritan friends in New Hampshire. Edward Hil
ton came over before 1628, and was in possession
of his patent then ; he sold much of it to some
Bristol merchants, who had it for two years. Then
the Governor and magistrates of Massachusetts
wrote to their Puritan friends in England, Lord
Say, Lord Brooke, Sir E. Saltonstall, Sir A. Hasle-
I'igg, Mr. BosviUe, George Wyllis, William Whit
ing, Edward Holyoke, etc., urging them to buy out
the Bristol men, " in respect they feared some ill
neighborhood from them." Probably they were
Church of England men, like many of the Ports
mouth planters. The lords and gentlemen named
above did buy the granted land of the Bristol mer
chants, paying X2150 for it, and, after holding it
some ten years, and sending over settlers (presum
ably Puritans), in June, 1641, Mr. Wyllis, Mr. Sal
tonstall, Mr. Holyoke, and Mr. Makepeace, for them
selves and partners, " put the said patent under

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 35
the government of the Massachusetts." This was
one of the final steps before assuming jurisdiction
over the four towns of New Hampshire. One of
these towns, Hampton, had already been granted
bj'^ the Bostonians to a Puritan colony, headed by
Eev. Stephen Bachiler (September 6, 1638), and
in October John Winthrop, Jr., then living at Ips
wich, had gone with Bachiler to lay out the town.i
Two years before they had encroached on Mason
by building a house in what was afterwards Sea-
brook. While these things were going on in New Eng
land, the Charter, and the very existence of the
Boston Puritans as a colonial power, were seriously
threatened in England. The enmity of Mason and
Gorges had been excited by acts of unfriendliness
(such as opening their private letters), and Morton
himself, a ready witness against the Bostonians,
was in London with them. Laud had become
Archbishop of Canterbury in August, 1633, and a
new influence, unfavorable to Winthrop and Endi
cott, had frequent access to the king. In Febru-
1 Bachiler, who was ancestor of the Sanborns, Husseys, and
Wings in America, as well as of Daniel Webster and many of his
own name, was seventy-seven in 16SS. His career in England and
America has been traced by the present writer, and by Mr. Victor
Sanborn of Illinois, in the Sanborn Genealogy, and in several con
tributions to the Granite Monthly, and the Genealogist of Exeter,
England. He was born in 1561 and survived until 1659, dying in
the same year with Rev. Peter Bulkeley, the founder of Concord,
but in England, to which he returned in 1654, from Hampton.

36 NEW HAMPSHIRE
ary, 1634, somebody, presumably Morton, had called
Laud's attention to the fast-increasing migration
of Puritans (whom Laud hated with a pure heart,
fervently), toward Boston. An order was at once
issued by the Privy Council, delaying the vessels
ready to sail that way, and Cradock, the London
chief representative of the Massachusetts Company,
was ordered to produce his charter for the inspec
tion of the Council. To this he replied that it was
not in his keeping, having gone out to New Eng
land in 1630 ; and he was directed to send for it
at once. The usual arguments were now offered to
the pockets of those about the Council, and the ves
sels were released February 28, 1634. But a new
move was in preparation, and, on the 10th of April
following, a strong commission, with Laud at its
head, was created by royal order, to regulate all the
colonies. It was, and long continued to be, a sub
committee of the Privy Council, and at first in
cluded both archbishops, four earls, a baron, two
baronets, and two secretaries, Cooke and Winde-
bank, any five of them being a quorum. Their first
business was to nominate a royal governor-general,
then to dissolve the old New England Council,
under which Gorges and others had acted, and
finally to vacate the Massachusetts Charter, which
had been called in. All this was in view, accord
ing to Morton, May 1, 1634 ; but with that weak
delay which was a feature of the king's conduct,
nothing decisive was done, except to dissolve the

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 37
old New England Council. This was nominally
done June 7, 1635, in a formal surrender of its
powers by the Council ; but even then it did not
take full effect, for meetings of the Council were
had November 26, 1635, March 22, 1637, and No
vember 1, 1638. Yet its powers in America ceased,
and Laud, a year before, had issued an order (June
17, 1634) enjoining -the establishment of the Angli
can Church in all places of trade and plantation.
The Puritans in Massachusetts and New Hamp
shire therefore knew what was in store for them if
they could not evade or defy the power of Laud.
The first impulse at Boston was to resist force with
force, as the Scotch did a few years later, when
Laud tried to coerce that stubborn people into
Episcopacy. When the evasive answer of Edward
Winslow of Plymouth, who went to England to
temporize, was set aside, and, in April, 1635, Laud
announced, by the bigoted king, that Gorges was
named governor-general, and that he could not
suffer " such numbers of people to run to ruin, and
in religious intents to languish, for want of timely
remedy and sovereign assistance," it was seen that
a crisis had come.
The declaration of Laud in 1634, intended to
impose Episcopacy on Massachusetts, alarmed the
magistrates there, and the first impulse was to arm
themselves and fight against it. The ministers of
the few existing churches, Eoger Williams hav
ing been placed under ban, met in Boston in Janu-

38 NEW HAMPSHIRE
ary, 1635, and unanimously resolved "to defend
our lawful possessions if we are able; if not, to
avoid and protract." By the cunning use of the
second alternative they were able to secure the first
without violence. The active colonizers of the An
glican Church party. Gorges and Mason, though
anxious to ship men and legal powers to Boston,
for the installation of Gorges as governor-general
and the reinforcement of Mason's settlements on
the Pascataqua, had first to build their ship and
engage their men, and this cost much money
which could not easily be raised. The king could
not aid them ; he was living from hand to mouth
by ship-money and forced loans, rather than sum
mon a parliament. Laud could not, for all his
church revenues and fines must be devoted to his
fanatical suppression of Puritanism and the sects
in Britain. Gorges had exhausted his means in the
twenty years' struggle to plant colonies in Maine
and maintain his Massachusetts rights against the
active Bostonians. This threw the weight of the
financial business upon Mason, who had wealth, but
was actively engaged in the king's affairs, as pay
master of the army and navy, and reformer of the
abuses therein,^ and he had paid out much money
1 A letter from Mason to Wiudebank, in the summer of 1635,
shows the abuses of money matters in the English forts and
castles, and proves Mason a worthy official. But he says his pay
is but " 13s. 4d. per diem, — a very small pay in consideration of
his so great travail and expenses, and the service that he is to per
form." This would be less than £300 a year, slowly paid.

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 39
in New Hampshire, without return. Consequently,
when the ship he was building for Gorges came
to grief, the grand enterprise which was to intro
duce the Laud and Wentworth policy of " Thor
ough " into New England lagged and languished.
Mason died in the December following, and in
1636 Winthrop in his Journal was able to say
(May 31):-
" The last winter Capt. Mason died. He was the chief
mover in all the attempts against us, and was to have
sent the general Governor, and for this end was providing
shipping ; but the Lord, in mercy, taking him away, all
the business fell on sleep, so as ships came and brought
what they would, without any question or control."
The powers of Mason as Vice-Admiral, who in
that capacity was to regulate immigration, died
with him ; and nothing further was even attempted
till in 1637 the king actually appointed Gorges as
governor-general. But nothing came of this either.
Gorges never saw New England, except in that ex
ploring voyage with Mason from Newfoundland, in
1617, if indeed he undertook that, or came in 1619,
which is doubted. His agents, and those of Mason
and his widow, could make no head against the
active push of the Bostonians, and by 1643, when
Laud and Wentworth were dead, and Charles at
war with his English foes, Massachusetts had toler
ably full control of the four little republics between
the Merrimac and the Pascataqua.

40 NEW HAMPSHIRE
The first act of the Bostonians at Portsmouth
was as bold a defiance of Laud, not yet sent to the
scaffold, as could well be. In May, 1640, the colo
nists sent by Mason and headed by their Governor
and Assistant, Francis Williams and Ambrose Gib
bons, with Henry Sherburne, John Pickering, Dr.
Eonald Fernald, Anthony Brackett, and a dozen
more, had built a chapel, parsonage, etc., and set
aside fifty acres for a glebe, constituted church
wardens, and invited an Anglican clergyman, Eev.
Eichard Gibson, to be their first pastor, — confirm
ing all this by a solemn deed with their signatures.
But the General Court at Boston summoned this
parson before them, " for scandalising the govern
ment and denying their title," but discharged him
upon his promise to leave the country. Winthrop,
noticing this fact, says (1642) : —
" At this Court appeared one Richard Gibson, a
scholar, sent some three or four years since to Richman's
Island, to be a minister to a fishing plantation there, be
longing to one Mr. Trelawney of Plymouth in England.
He removed from thence to Pascataquack, and this year
was entertained by the fishermen of the Isle of Shoals
to preach for them. • He, being wholly addicted to the
hierarchy and discipline of England, did exercise a
ministerial function in the same way, and did marry
and baptise at the Isle of Shoals, which was now found to
be within our jurisdiction."
He was practically banished, his chapel and
manse and glebe were left unoccupied, until the

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 41
Puritan ministers who went on missionary duty
at Portsmouth took possession, and finally they
came into the hands of the Puritan minister first
settled there, Joshua Moodey, in 1658. This was
an anticipation of what the Presbyterians did in
England some years later, a clerical ancestor of
George Washington being so evicted.
" Found to be within our jurisdiction " simply
meant that Massachusetts had finally decided it
was safe to encroach on the lands granted to Mason
and Gorges. As soon as the English courts could
be got to rule on the case, they promptly set the
Boston claim aside ; and this was again done in
1738, when the bounds between New Hampshire
and Massachusetts were finally established as they
now are. But until the Eestoration of Charles II
Boston had its way, and even after that (1672)
bought out the Gorges charter, and became legiti
mately owner of Maine. Meantime, Wheelwright,
the banished minister, finding his old enemies
coming into power at Exeter, in his own colony,
removed to Wells, to be out of their jurisdiction.
Exeter, wishing to supply his place, invited the
aged founder of Hampton, Eev. Stephen Bachiler,
who also was called to Casco, near where his frus
trated Plough colony was to have been. But Boston
was unwilling that he should preach in either place,
alleging quarrels as the excuse. He then removed
for a time to Portsmouth, preaching as a mission
ary, and apparently without obstruction from Bos-

42 NEW HAMPSHIRE
ton. Wheelwright, after a few years, was persuaded
to make a nominal submission to his persecutors,
and was allowed to take his old friend Bachiler's
place at Hampton, as a sort of compromise between
the contending Christians who had turned Mr.
Bachiler out.
These clerical squabbles having been settled in
some sort, the general government of New Hamp
shire under Massachusetts went on fairly well.
Portsmouth at first was not represented in the Bos
ton General Court, except in one year, when
Steven Winthrop, the Governor's son, somehow
got in, before going to England to serve in Crom
well's army. Nor was Exeter ever represented
there ; but Dover and Hampton steadily, from the
first, and Portsmouth after 1651. The Pascataqua
towns had their own court, to which they elected
their own justices, but Massachusetts also sent
judges to try important cases there, and most of
the cases for Hampton and Exeter. Town bounds
were established by order of the Boston legislature,
and extensive land grants were made, sometimes in
Boston and of tener by the towns thefliselves. When
new towns were called for, the General Court
granted them and defined their extent. Little of
this was done, however, until Charles II made the
Colony a royal Province in 1679-80.
At Portsmouth, in 1651-52, Massachusetts ex
erted authority in a singular manner, through one
of its own citizens, Bryan Pendleton of Watertown,

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 43
who had transferred himself and his large property
to New Hampshire, where he at once became in
fluential and aggressive, as Eichard Waldron had
been making himself in the adjoining town of
Dover. It was at this time that the widow of Cap
tain Mason, having sent a kinsman of her husband,
Joseph Mason, to look up her neglected interests,
was beginning to make a stir for her rights and
those of her grandson, Eobert Tufton, who was to
inherit the New Hampshire property, upon taking
the name of Mason. Consequently, the Portsmouth
residents and newcomers, who had somehow en
tered into possession of land, houses, etc., which
really should have gone to the heirs of Mason, be
gan to be uneasy about their tenure of what they
had acquired, part by assumption, part by settle
ment of claims for service, and part by town grant
from the township of Strawberry Bank, as it was
then styled. They appealed to the Massachusetts
authorities to protect them against the claims of
the Masons, and Pendleton seems to have been
there very much for that purpose. He was already
a captain in the militia, and had been a member of
the Massachusetts General Court. On the 5th of
April, 1652, he became chairman of the Strawberry
Bank " townsmen " (equivalent to " selectmen ") ;
and that very night he and his colleagues, Picker
ing, Fernald, Sherburne, and Johnson, proceeded to
destroy or conceal such parts of the former town
records as they did not choose to copy into a new

44 NEW HAMPSHIRE
record-book. It is probable, from subsequent events,
that this was done in part to obliterate certain re
corded transactions which might help the case of
Mrs. Mason, if left in condition to be used in court.
There may have been other reasons for the unusual
act, but none such clearly appear. At any rate,
the record of land-grants and other acts of the
town, which must have existed, however imperfect,
have not since been seen, though allegations about
them have been made and are on record. If the
forgeries to which the names of Walter Neale,
Thomas Wiggin, and George Vaughan were at
tached were made at this time or soon after, they
may have helped the scheme of the squatters on
the Mason lands, for that was their manifest intent.
Captain Pendleton was then sent as deputy from
the town to the Massachusetts legislature, and pro
vided with a petition that the name of Strawberry
Bank might be changed to Portsmouth. This was
granted in 1653, and he continued to sit for Ports
mouth in the General Court most of the time for
ten years.
He was a member, therefore, when one of the most
characteristic of the severities and lenities of the
Bostonians toward their northern fellow-citizens
took legislative and judicial form. In 1652 the
Court had made a law defining as a misdemeanor
the act of any one preaching on the Sabbath who
was not a regularly ordained minister. It was aimed
specially at Joseph Peasley and Thomas Macy of

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 45
Salisbury, who had sometimes exhorted the Chris
tians in that town at the meeting-house. Lieuten
ant Eobert Pike of Salisbury, for many years its
foremost citizen, denounced this law, and was heard
to declare " that those members who had voted for
it had violated their oath as freemen ; that their
act was against the liberty of the country, both civil
and ecclesiastical ; and that he stood ready to make
his declaration good." Upon this bold speech, the
authorities voted that Pike was guilty of defaming
the General Court, and ordered that he be dis
franchised, disabled from holding office, bound to
good behavior, and fined 20 marks, — about £13
6s. For various good reasons. Pike was popular in
Hampton as well as in his own town of Salisbury,
and Christopher Hussey, a leading man in New
Hampshire for many years, seems to have advised
a petition in his behalf to the General Court, which
was probably drawn up by his nephew, John Sam-
borne.-^ It was respectful in tone, but seemed to
^ The first page of this petition, in the original autograph of
the Hampton signers, is preserved at the State House in Boston,
— the Massachusetts signers being copied on annexed sheets in
another hand. It was reproduced in facsimile by Victor Sanborn,
ii. descendant of many of the signers, in his Sanborn Genealogy,
and is perhaps the fullest collection of autograph Hampton names
of that early period. Among them, though not in autograph, was
that of Edward Gove, afterward famous, who signed as of Salis
bury, though living in what was properly Hampton, because the
Massachusetts men had pushed their line half a mile beyond what
their charter allowed, — an encroachment which the order of
Charles II in 1679 corrected.

46 NEW HAMPSHIRE
undervalue the offense of Pike, which in the eyes of
Boston was heinous. It was signed by nearly all
the leading citizens and members of the church in
Hampton and Salisbury, and ran thus : —
" Whereas our loving friend Leaftenant Eobert Pike
of Salsbery hath by occasion, as it is witnessed against
him, let fall som words for w'h this hon'rd Court hath
bine pleased to censuer him, — Wee haveing had experi-
ance that he hath beene a peaceable man and a useful
instrument amongst us, doe thear for humbly desier this
honnered Court that the sd sentance maye be revoaked
and that the sd Leaftenant Pike bee againe restored unto
his former Libertye. Soe shall wee stil praie," etc.
On the margin of this startling page the old clerk
of the deputies at Boston, William Torrey, wrote :
" The depjuties desire the honored magistrates to
declare their Apprehentions in this Case in the
first place." It was the upper branch, the magis
trates, who seem to have formulated the wrath and
grief of Boston at so flagrant a fault : —
" The Court cannot but deeply resent that so many per
sons, of several towns, conditions, and relations, should
combine together to present such an unjust and unrea
sonable request as the revoking the sentence passed the
last court against Lieutenant Pike and the restoring him
to his proper liberty, without any petition of his own, or
at least acknowledgement of his offence, fully proved
against him ; which was no less than defaming this court,
and charging them with breach of oath, etc. — which
the petitioners call some words let fall by occasion."

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 47
This aggrieved Court then appointed commis
sioners in the several towns of Hampton, Salisbury,
Newbury, Andover, and Haverhill, to call the peti
tioners together, " or so many of them at a time as
they think meet, and require a reason of their un
just request, and how they came to be induced to
subscribe to said petition." Captain Wiggin of the
Stratham patent, the early and constant instrument
of the Bostonians in England and New Hampshire,
was designated to make this inquisition in Hamp
ton. In the mean time, however, the Bostonians saw
they must retreat a little, as they did when pressed,
whether from England or New Hampshire, and
they repealed the obnoxious order " concerning pub
lic preaching without allowance ; which order, we
understand, is dissatisfactory to divers of the breth
ren whom we have cause to respect and tender."
But they would not pardon the obdurate men who
held by the petition ; for Wiggin, whose son soon
married the granddaughter of Governor Dudley,
reported in Hampton, " That those persons that
gave their hands to that petition do acknowledge
their offence, and humbly desire the Court to pass
it by ; except two persons who refused to make
answer to any satisfaction ; whose names (Christo
pher Hussey and John Samborne) are here under
written." Accordingly these two recusants, along
with thirteen others in the Massachusetts towns,
were made to give bond in ^610 for each man " to
give answers for their offence before the county

48 NEW HAMPSHIRE
court." ^ Partly in consequence of this affair,
Macy and the children of Hussey soon became
Quakers, and John Emery of Newbury a few
years after, being one of the recusants, was again
brought up before the court and fined for " har
boring Quakers." Pike paid his fine, and was en
franchised again in 1657 ; this was followed in
1658 by his election as a deputy to the General
Court which had fined and disfranchised him.
From that time onward he was seldom out of pub
lic employment, and was usually conspicuous on
the side of justice and common sense, as against
the foolish bigotries of the Massachusetts Puritans.
He took no part in the legislation against the
Quakers in 1658, and he cooperated with Dr. Wal
ter Barefoot in 1662 in releasing the Quaker
women so cruelly sentenced by the merciless Major
Waldron of Dover.
That affair also was characteristic of the Massa
chusetts Puritans, and not of the general good sense
and humanity of the New Hampshire people. The
order of 1652, rescinded by the Bostonians in 1654,
was, as the rescinders " conceived [rightly under
stood]' to be safe, and much conducive to the pre-
^ It is worth mentioning that the two Hampton recusants were
recommended in 1679 to King Charles by Sir William Warren for
royal Councilors of his new Province of New Hampshire, and that
Hussey was appointed. It was this recommendation, perhaps, that
led Chalmers to say, a hundred years later, " The statesmen
of those days sent to Wapping for recommendations of proper
persons."

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 49
servation of peace and truth among us ; yet that all
jealousies may be removed, the Court doth repeal
said order." But when instead of residents and
good citizens " preaching without allowance," like
Macy, English Quakers began to come into the
Colony, Boston was aroused to fierce wrath against
them and their abetters. On the 14th of October,
1656, the Puritan authorities at Boston denounced
the followers of George Fox in these words : —
" Whereas there is a cursed set of heretics lately risen
up in the world, which are commonly called Quakers,
who take upon them to be immediately sent of God,
and infallibly assisted by the Spirit to speak and write
blasphemous opinions, — despising government, and the
order of God in church and Commonwealth, speak
ing evil of dignities, reproaching and reviling magis
trates and ministers, seeking to turn the people from the
faith, and gain proselytes to their pernicious ways, —
this Court doth hereby order," etc., etc.
What were these orders ? (1) That a shipmaster
bringing known Quakers into Massachusetts or New
Hampshire, or the Maine seaboard, should be fined
.£100, and imprisoned till this was paid or secured ;
next that he should carry them back to the place
where he took them on board. (2) That the Quak
ers themselves be " forthwith committed to the
house of correction, and at their entrance to be
severely whipt, and kept constantly to work — and
none suffered to converse or speak with them dur
ing their imprisonment." (3) That persons import-

50 NEW HAMPSHIRE
ing "Quaker books or writings concerning their
divilish opinions " be fined £5 for each book, and
whoever " shall disperse or conceal any such, and
shall not immediately deliver the same to the next
magistrate," be also fined £5. (4) That any per
son defending ex animo Quaker opinions or books.
be fined 40 shillings for the first offence, £4 for
the second, and if still persistent " shall be com
mitted to the house of correction till sent out of
the land, being sentenced to banishment." (6) And
lastly, "What person or persons soever shall revile
the office or person of magistrates or ministers, as
is usual with the Quakers, shall be severely whipt,
or pay the sum of X5."
Barbarous as this law was, it was made worse
in 1657-59, and in 1661, by other enactments pun
ishing the harboring of Quakers, and directing
the cutting off their ears and boring through their
tongues, and inflicting death if any return after
banishment ; and removing all distinction between
domestic and foreign Quakers. Under this unlaw
ful death penalty, totally repugnant to English law,
though that was cruel enough in the seventeenth
century, three Quakers, William Eobinson, Marma-
duke Stephenson, and Mary Dyer, were sentenced
by Governor Endicott in person, to be hanged in
October, 1659, and were hanged on Boston Com
mon, and buried there. In all this wicked legisla
tion, Eichard Waldron of Dover cooperated, being
a deputy from his town every year from 1656 to

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 51
1663, inclusive. He was therefore a suitable per
son to execute these laws in New Hampshire ; and
he made his town and Colony infamous by passing
the following sentence, as magistrate, on three
Quaker women, December 22, 1662 : —
"To the Constables of Dover, Hampton, Salisbury,
Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, Wenham, Lynn, Boston,
Roxbury, Dedham, and until these vagabond Quakers
are out of this jurisdiction : ^ —
" You and every of you are required in the King's
Majesty's name, to take these vagabond Quakers, Anna
Coleman, Mary Tompkins and Alice Ambrose, and make
them fast to the cart's tail ; and drawing the cart through
your several towns, to whip them upon their naked backs,
not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each of them, in each
town ; and so convey them from constable to constable
till they are out of this jurisdiction, as you will answer
it at your perU ; and this shaU be your warrant. Per me,
Richard Waldron."
^ This list of towns points out the road the cart was to follow :
from Dover through Wiggin's Stratham patent to Hampton, thence
through Hampton Falls and Seabrook along the present electric
railway line to Salisbury. There, ferried over the broad Merrimac,
they came to Newbury Port, where Emery and Greenland lived.
Had not Barefoot intervened, they would then have followed the
old winding road through Rowley, Ipswich, and Wenham, avoiding
Salem, to Lynn, and so on. Barefoot, who was a scion of a mer
cantile family in London, the liead of which for a century and a
half held the ancient manor of Lambourn on the Rodon in Essex,
had come to Kittery in 1657, probably in one of the naval vessels
of Cromwell, on which he may have been surgeon. He and his
sister, Sarah Wiggin, were Anglicans, however, and joined with
Jocelyn, Champernown, and others of that faith in resisting the
Puritan domination.

52 NEW HAMPSHIRE
According to uniform tradition, quite supported
by his brave and crafty character, Dr. Walter
Barefoot, then practicing medicine in Dover, where
Thomas Wiggin, Jr., was his brother-in-law, met or
followed this lamentable procession in Salisbury,
and there, with the connivance of Major Pike, a
magistrate, took the poor women from the consta
ble, under pretext of delivering them in Newbury
to the constable there. Instead of which he set
them free, perhaps with the aid of his brother phy
sician. Dr. Henry Greenland, then newly come to
Newbury to practice, and John Emery, one of the
recusants of ten years before, with Lieutenant
Pike. When the Quaker historians came to narrate
these infamies, they said, and perhaps with truth,
that the warrant signed by Waldron was actually
written by the Dover minister, Eev. John Eayner.
The whip used was three-thonged, so that ten stripes
meant thirty blows ; and the peculiar cruelty of this
flogging from town to town, as Mr. Adams has
said,i was that " the victim's wounds became cold
between the times of punishment, and in winter
sometimes frozen, which made the torture intoler
ably agonizing." Charles II, a good-natured per
son, with all his vices and treasons, was shocked at
J See The Emancipation of Massachusetts, by Brooks Adams,
pp. 148, 149. The view taken by this author of the general Puritan
policy is rather extreme, but his facts and comments concerning
the persecution of Quakers are generally sound.

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 53
what he heard from Boston of these Quaker whip
pings, and sent over a letter in 1661 forbidding
such punishments, and directing the accused Quak
ers to be sent to England for trial. It was partly
in consequence of these enormities, though chiefly
at the instance of the ancient colonists who had
been loyal to their king, that Charles in 1664 sent
over his commissioners to bring the Boston Puri
tans to account for their encroachments on his
father's patents and his own subjects. This was the
beginning of the end, so far as the Puritan domi
nation was concerned, although it was nearly
twenty years more before Massachusetts gave up
her control in New Hampshire, and she sought to
reestablish it under William III.
Nothing satisfactory to the heirs of Mason was
done by the Massachusetts authorities from 1651
to 1654. The reason for this may perhaps be found
in statements made by Francis Champernown and
other early settlers at Portsmouth, when the royal
commissioners, Carr, Cartwright, and Maverick,
came to New Hampshire in 1665 to inquire into
the administration of the Puritans there. They
said, and the case seems to have been much as here
stated, whatever justification the Portsmouth Puri
tans may have had for their action : —
" Your petitioners have been kept under the govern
ment of the Massachusetts by an usurped power, whose
laws are derogatory to the laws of England. Under
which power five or six of the richest men of this parish

54 NEW HAMPSHIRE
have ruled, swayed and ordered aU offices, both civil and
military, at their pleasures. . . . And at the election of
officers the aforesaid party, or the greatest part of them,
have always kept themselves in offices for the managing
of the gifts of land and the settling of them : whereby
they have engrossed the greatest part of the lands within
the precincts of this plantation into their own hands.
The parties we petition against are Joshua Moodey, Min
ister, Richard Cutt,- John Cutt, Elias Styleman, Nathan
iel Fryer, Brian Pendleton, Merchants."
Bryan Pendleton has already been mentioned.
The brothers Cutt (who afterward had their name
spelled Cutts by their descendants because they
found or imagined a connection between their fam
ily and that of the brave Lord Cutts who fought
under Marlborough) were wealthy merchants who
established themselves in Portsmouth some time
before 1650. They soon came to be the richest
proprietors there, and perhaps the richest mer
chants in New England. They occupied, and claimed
to own, the " Great House " built for Captain Ma
son by Humphrey Chadbourne, one of his servants,
and they had large estates in land. A third brother,
Eobert, coming over later, founded a family on the
Maine side of the Pascataqua, but had interests in
New Hampshire. Stileman and Fryar were men of
less importance, but active in business, and clerkly
by education. Mr. Moodey, the minister, was of an
other type, but well fitted to lead his parishioners
in aggression or resistance ; a learned, religious, and

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 55
brave man, educated at the Puritan college of Har
vard, and doing credit to his training there. To
him, as to Winthrop and Cotton, Endicott and Nor
ton, the Puritan cause was the cause of God and
His saints ; and they had little hesitation at enroll
ing themselves among the saints. Moodey had come
to Portsmouth from a tutorship at Cambridge,
where he graduated in 1653, and was settled as
minister for more than a dozen years before he
gathered a church, — probably because of the great
number of Anglican and irreligious persons in his
town. We shall hear more of him under the Cran-
field government.
Charles II had been but a few months on the
throne, when, in November, 1660, the heirs of John
Mason and his partners, styling themselves "pa
tentees and inhabitants of the Provinces of Hamp
shire and Maine, and several other tracts of land
in New England," petitioned the king for justice.
Eobert Mason, then a London merchant, and Ed
ward Godfrey, who had been an agent of Gorges
in Maine, were the chief petitioners, alleging that
in settling and improving " sundry tracts of land in
New England, with diverse privileges thereunto
granted" they had expended above ^£20,000; "they
governing the colonies quietly and peaceably many
years, according to the laws of your Majesty's king
dom of England." This might be true of Maine
under Gorges and Godfrey, but was true only for
a few years of Mason's colony. They went on to

56 NEW HAMPSHIRE
allege, raising a prejudice against their Massachu
setts opponents, —
"That during these late sad times of distraction in
England, those of the patent and Colony of the Massa
chusetts, intending to make themselves a free state, and
to bring all that your Majesty's vast territory under their
power aiid subjection, have by strong hand and menaces
deprived your petitioners of their lands and privileges,
seized on their cattle, and would have imposed an oath
of fidelity to their government, without any relation to
your kingdom of England ; laying great fines upon those
that should seek to England for relief."
This also was true of Maine and of some few
individuals in New Hampshire, but was rather
an exaggeration. They then asked that their case
might be referred to a board composed of Lords
Willoughby and Baltimore, Dr. Eobert Mason, Sir
James Bunce, Sir John Jacob, Sir Nicholas Crisp,
Sir Eichard Ford, Drs. Giles Swett, John Exton,
William Turner, and John Myles, and Thomas
Povey, Esq. This was done. Of this board of
twelve, only seven. Sir James Bunce, Sir Eichard
Ford, Mr. Povey, and Drs. Mason, Exton, Swett,
and Myles, seem to have sat. They reported in
1667 that they should only state facts, but render
no opinion ; and among such alleged facts were
these : —
" The said John Mason and the said Edward Godfrey
did expend considerable sums of money in settling colo
nies. Neither they nor the Massachusetts grantees were

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 57
to act anything repugnant to the law of England ; nor
was the corporation of Boston in New England to extend
their limits further than three miles northward of Mer
rimac River. And as a memorial and evidence thereof
the government of the Massachusetts did set up a house
about 30 years since, which was called the Bound House,
and is known by that name to this day. The inhabitants
and corporation of the Massachusetts rested contented
for sixteen years together, until, about the year 1652,
they did enlarge and stretch their line above threescore
miles beyond their known and settled bounds aforesaid.
And have thereby not only invaded and encroached, but
by menaces and armed force compelled your Majesty's
subjects to submit to their usurped and arbitrary govern
ment, which they have declared to be independent of the
Crown of England, and not subordinate thereto. The
Colony of the Massachusetts hath for many years past
endeavored to model and contrive themselves into a free
state or commonwealth, without any relation to the
Crown of England ; and some have been so bold as pub
licly to affirm that, if his Majesty should send them a
Governor, the several towns and churches throughout the
whole country under their government did resolve to
oppose him."
This report was made January 21, 1667, after a
hearing at which John Leverett, the Boston agent,
was present, but without special authority. The
board also said that Eobert Mason and Edward
Godfrey "had been damnified to the value of
X5000." Invidious as this report was, and based
more on the proceedings in Maine thau those in

58 NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire, the facts stated could not be flatly
denied, though they could be ingeniously explained.
Massachusetts had tried to make itself a common
wealth ; indeed, had called itself so ; had adopted
and executed laws unknown to England and repug
nant to the English system ; had encroached on its
neighbors, used menaces and a show of force, and
had even proposed resistance to a royal order.
The commission of 1664 had been sent out and
had made its report ere this board of 1667 reported.
But in May, 1664, Eobert Mason, who was ever
dilatory, had written to Colonel Nichols, a com
missioner, making him his attorney for the disposal
of lands in New Hampshire, and giving these state
ments : —
" My grandfather, John Mason, expended about
8000 pounds there, the benefit of which we enjoyed till
about 1650. There are now about 1000 families on the
land. I have a kinsman, Mr. Joseph Mason, living at
Portsmouth, who was formerly my agent ; but by reason
of his age not now able to act therein."
He then sent Nichols a power of attorney, wit
nessed by Mason's two clerks, Eobert Barlow and
William Story, — which power Nichols, at the sug
gestion of his brother commissioners, made over to
Nicholas Shapleigh, — and gave Nichols this fair
direction as to occupants of his lands " that have
been improved for others at their charge : " "I
leave that to yourself, to take such rent as may give
them encouragement." Indeed, had the matter

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 59
been left to Mason and fair-minded men on both
sides, an arrangement could have been made, equit
able to both. But the affair became complicated
with the question of the Bostonian misdeeds and
the determination of the king to have crown colo
nies there, and so a just settlement was so long
deferred as to be impossible.
The commission of Charles II was signed by him
April 25, 1664, and two of his commissioners, Sam
uel Maverick and Eobert Carr, landed at Ports
mouth July 20, whence they notified William
Coventry, the English statesman, and the Boston
authorities of their arrival ; but they proceeded at
once to the Duke of York's territories, of which a
third commissioner, Colonel Eichard Nichols, was
Governor. A fourth was George Cartwright, and
all were able and fair-minded men, but devoted to
the Cavalier interest and the Church of England.
Maverick was an early colonist, having come to
New England in 1624, six years before Winthrop,
whom he entertained at Winisimet in his fortified
house, late in June, 1630. He was a Cornish man,
born in 1602, well educated and courteous, and was
described by John Josselyn, the botanist, in 1638,
as " the only hospitable man in all the country,
giving entertainment to all comers, gratis." His
home was in what is now East Boston, and he
owned the whole island. In a religious persecution
by the Puritans (1648) he was imprisoned and
fined, and in 1650 sold his fine island and removed

60 NEW HAMPSHIRE
with his family to Virginia, or some other colony
more tolerant than Boston Bay. Before the Eesto
ration he was in England, and it was largely upon
his representations and those of the Maine colonists
that he and his colleagues were sent over in 1664.
In his preamble to their commission Charles II
said : —
" Several of our Colonies in New England, and other
our loving subjects, have complained of differences and
disputes arisen upon the limits and bounds of their several
jurisdictions (whereby unneighborly and unbrotherly con
tentions have and may arise, to the damage and discredit
of the English interests), and that all our good subjects
residing there, and being planters within the several colo
nies, do not enjoy the liberties and privileges granted to
them by our several charters."
These complaints were well founded as regards
New Hampshire, Maine, and Ehode Island, and the
aggressors in all cases were the Puritans of Massa
chusetts. But it was a year later that the commis
sioners began their inquiries in New Hampshire
and Maine. In the mean while the once arrogant,
persecuting Bostonians sent a whining and unmanly
letter to King Charles, prostrating themselves at
his royal feet, and lying there indeed, as these pas
sages will prove : —
" As the high place you sustain on earth doth number
you here among the gods, so we hope you will imitate the
God of Heaven, in being ready to maintain the cause of

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 61
the afflicted, and the right of the poor. ... In this case,
dread Sovereign ! our refuge under God is your royal
self. ... It is indeed a grief to our hearts to see your
Majesty put upon this extraordinary charge and cost,
about a business the product whereof can never reim
burse the one half of what will be expended upon it. For
such is the poverty and meanness of the people of this
country, that if, with hard labor men get a subsistence
for their families, 't is as_ much as the generality are able
to do. . . . Sir, the allknowing God knows our greatest
ambition is to live a poor and quiet life, in a corner of
the world, without offence to God or man. . . . We are
carefuUy studious of all due subjection to your Majesty.
And should divine Providence ever offer an opportunity
wherein we might, in any righteous way, according to
our poor and mean capacity, testify our dutiful affection
to your Majesty, we hope we should most gladly embrace
it. . . . Let our government live, our patent live, our
magistrates live, our laws and liberties live, our religious
enjoyments live ! so shall we all have yet further cause to
say, from our hearts, let the King live forever ! "
Hardly a statement in this fulsome address was
true. The country was not poor, the Puritans were
not afflicted, nor loyal, nor ambitious to live in
quiet; and their gravest falsehood was to say,
" We keep ourselves within our line, and meddle
not with matters abroad." The commissioners were
right in charging them with encroachments thus : —
" It was great reason and high time for us to give over
treating in private with those who, by sound of trumpet
denied that authority which the King had over them,

62 NEW HAMPSHIRE
and by which we were to act. The fixing, naming
and owning a Bound-house, three large miles north from
Merrimac River about 12 years together, by the Corpo
ration of the Massachusetts (after the fixing of which
Bound-house many other patents were granted by the
Council of Plymouth and by the King), must necessarily
determine the limits of the said Corporation. . . . The
King did not grant away his sovereignty over you when
he made you a corporation. When His Majesty gave you
power to make wholesome laws and to administer justice
by them, he parted not with his right of judging whether
those laws were wholesome, or whether justice was ad
ministered accordingly. When he gave you authority
over such of his subjects as lived within the limits of
your jurisdiction, he made them not your subjects, nor
yours their supreme authority. . . . 'Tis possible that
the charter which you so much idolize may be forfeited ;
and it may probably be supposed that it hath been
many ways forfeited, until yon have cleared yourselves
of those many injustices, oppressions, violences and blood,
for which you are complained against."
Here was a plain denial of the Massachusetts right
over New Hampshire and Maine, and a summing
up of the Puritan injustice toward Baptists and
Quakers. But in a later report to the king, Carr
and Maverick were more specific, and told more
truth than the Bostonians were ready to refute.
"To elude His Majesty's desire of their admitting
men civil and of competent estates to be freemen, they
have made an act whereby he that is 24 years old, a
housekeeper, and brings one certificate of his civil life,

PURITAN RULE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 63
another of his being orthodox in matters of faith, and a
third of his paying ten shillings, besides head-money, at
a single rate, may then have liberty to make his desire
known to the Court, and it shall be put to vote. Scarce
three in a hundred pay 10s. at a single rate ; yet if this
rate were general it would be just ; but he that is a
church-member, though he be a servant, and pay not two
pence, may be a freeman. They will not admit any who
is not a member of their church to the Communion, nor
their children to baptism ; yet they will marry their chil
dren to those whom they will not admit to baptism, if
they be rich.
" They have put many Quakers to death of other pro
vinces. First they banished them as Quakers upon pain
of death, and then executed them for returning. They
have beaten some to jelly and been other ways exceed
ing cruel to others. . . . Amongst other laws, whoever
keeps Christmas day is to pay five pounds.
" They hope by waiting to tire the king, the lord chan
cellor and the secretaries too ; seven years they can
easily spin out by writing, and before that time a change
may come. On September 10, 1664, they published by
order of Court a paper to deter and frighten all from
making any complaint to the Commissioners."
These acts of the Bostonians did not all apply to
New Hampshire, but many of them did, and they
were very anxious not to have their authority in that
Colony or in Maine questioned. For circulating a
petition to the king signed by several respectable
citizens of New Hampshire, asking for a separate
government, the Massachusetts authorities, Dan-

64 NEW HAMPSHIRE
forth. Lusher, and Leverett, caused Abraham Cor
bet of Portsmouth to be sent to prison in Boston.
While there. Sir Eobert Carr of the Commission
went to see him and to find bail for him, and was
then (December, 1665) presented with a petition
from John Hoar, ancestor of Senator Hoar, com
plaining of injustice in the Puritan courts. For this
Mr. Hoar was fined £50. The commissioners were
unable to effect anything important by their au
thority, and they were recalled by King Charles in
1666, with directions to the Bostonians to send over
agents to England, to present their case to the Lords
of Trade and Plantations, who then had succeeded
to Laud's commission of 1634. It then appeared
that one object which the king had at heart was to
revive the claims of Mason's heirs to New Hamp
shire ; and as this was a chief occasion of the final
establishment of that Colony as a royal province, it
becomes important to tell the story of these claims,
which kept the courts, the people, and the Legisla
ture of New Hampshire busy and troubled for more
than a hundred years.

CHAPTEE III
THE MASONIAN CLAIMS
At the death of Captain Mason in 1635, he left
his New England property to his wife, and ulti
mately to his grandson, then an infant, upon his
taking the name of Mason, instead of his baptismal
name of Tufton. Mrs. Anne Mason died in 1654,
and in 1655, upon coming of age, Eobert Mason
administered upon her estate and began to form
hopes of profit from his grandfather's expenditure
and grants in New England. In 1659 he petitioned
Parliament for relief, and in 1660 petitioned, as al
ready mentioned, in concert with others, to have the
affair referred to a committee for information, which
committee reported in favor of Mason's claim.
Thereupon the New England Commissioners were
directed to examine into the claims of Mason in
New Hampshire ; and they partially heard his case
at Portsmouth, deciding only that Massachusetts
had no rightful authority there. Encouraged by
this, Joseph Mason, then about seventy, and pre
paring to return to England, left the care of the
lands and rights to Nicholas Shapleigh, whom Colo
nel Nichols made attorney for Eobert Mason ; and

66 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Shapleigh began to lease lands in the Colony to
his political friends, among them Dr. Barefoot. In
writing to his kinsman Eobert, Joseph Mason, in
1667, said that he knew from Major Pike of Salis
bury that the Massachusetts magistrates were will
ing to restore to Mason his right of lands, adding,
" Pike would take pains to be one of three to end
this rupture." This indicates that moderate men in
Massachusetts did not dispute Mason's equitable
claim. But Joseph Mason added, " Nothing must
be conceded to those men of the best estate at
Portsmouth [the Cutts, Pendletons, Fryar, and
Stileman], for they would only confirm themselves
in their own grants of land, which they have given
to one another by the waterside, where 100 acres
are worth 1000 farther inland." This year (1667)
he says two friends of Mason, Edward Hilton of
Exeter and Walter Barefoot of Dover, have taken
two tracts of land on Lampereel Eiver, " reserving
a yearly rent to the Lord Proprietor," Mason. The
transaction brings Barefoot in for the first time as
a Masonian champion, but the date is thrown back
a year earlier by one Captain John Littlebury, who
wrote the Massachusetts authorities that he was
once governor of Holy Island, near Berwick on the
Scotch coast, and that in 1666 he had been injured
by Barefoot and Shapleigh in a land deal. The
letter is dated in 1669, and alleges : —
" In 1631 he had paid 300 pounds to John Mason
and his associates in colonizing New Hampshire, Griffith

THE MASONIAN CLAIMS 67
Gardner and Thomas Eyres, as an adventure there : for
which, in 1663, the survivors, Gardner and Eyres, had
agreed to give him a fourth part of their property, — his
promised share being 6000 acres ; but now he hath been
deluded three years, to his great hindrance and damage,
by Captain Champernoon, Major Shapleigh, Dr. Bare
foot, and other grand incendiaries to the present govern
ment [that is, of Massachusetts], and that Shapleigh hath
lately made leases of lands for 1000 years to Mr. Hilton
of Exeter, Dr. Barefoot, and others." ^
1 This is perhaps the only appearance of this Holy Island Cap
tain in New England story, where captains are so numerous. It
looks as if he was a genuine sufferer by a land speculation ; for
who would have invented a tale of a Scotch captain appealing to
Massachusetts for redress ? Perhaps this appeal tlirows light on
the relation of David Thomson, also a Scot, to Captain Mason and
the Little Harbor settlement of 162.3, which seems to have been
Mason's affair ; yet Thomson had a patent for 6000 acres of land
and an island, belonging to some citizens of Plymouth, and granted
in 1622. Can the island have been Great Island, now New Castle,
and did the Plymouth proprietors make it over to Mason, while
Thomson was yet a resident at Little Harbor, just across a ferry
from Great Island ? The indenture is between David Thomson,
Abraham Colmer, Nicholas Sherwill, and Leonard Pomery, — the
last three living in Plymouth as late as 16.S0. Cotton Mather
says that his father, when at Plymouth, England, in 1692, heard
" from Mr. Sherwill," a minister there, that his grandfather and
two others "had a patent for that which Mr. Mason pretended
unto at Pascataqua." In the Public Record Office at London there
is mention under the year 1622, " of a patent to David Thomson,
M. Jobe, M. Sherwood of Plymouth, for a part of Piscattowa River
in New England." This, except the blundering names, agrees
with Mather's story. I conclude Thomson was either an agent for
Mason, or sold out the 6000 acres to him, — reserving his indefi
nite island, but turning over Great Island to Mason, while fixing
on Thomson's Island in Boston Bay for his own. This theory

68 NEW HAMPSHIRE
From this time until the death of Eobert Mason,
while accompanying Sir Edmund Andros, of whose
Council he was, to Albany in September, 1688, the
claims of that family were an occasion for disturb
ance in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Joseph
Mason's fair offer, in 1653, to have the claims set
tled by inquiry and arbitration, was neglected by
the General Court, to whom he made it, and this
dispute went on to the bitter end, resulting in the
dispossession of Massachusetts from the control of
New Hampshire in 1679, and in the loss of Boston's
idolized charter, as Maverick had foretold, in 1686.
In canceling that charter, James II put into the
Council for governing all New England and New
York Eobert Mason and his cousin, Edward Ean-
dolph, and also Francis Champernown, John Usher,
and Jonathan Tyiig, all favorable to Mason's claims.
In spite of this, the speedy overthrow of Andres's
government, and the stout resistance of the New
Hampshire yeomanry to the demand of Mason for
rents, made the pecuniary result to Mason and his
heirs very small, and its obtaining difficult and
vexatious. Eobert Mason seems to have been a
person of gentle, even weak character, always in
debt, and depending much for the support of his
cause on the more aggressive and persistent Ean-
dolph, his kinsman, and the shifty and courageous
Barefoot, his friend in New Hampshire.
makes Thomson a part of Mason's testimony to the truth of his
claim.

THE MASONIAN CLAIMS 69
The claim of John Mason was well founded, and
has had small justice allowed it by the Massachu
setts historians and scholars. It came into conflict
with the practical rights of the hardy planters who
had settled on Mason's lands, and earned by toil
their right to be exempt from rack-rent. There, of
course, it failed and fell ; but when it conflicted, as
it did, with the assumptions and encroachments of
rich merchants and powerful landlords, like Eich
ard Cutt, Eichard Waldron, and other members
of the Puritan oligarchy in New England, equity
was often on the side of the Mason family. Walter
Barefoot and the Hiltons, with all their affection
for the Church of England and the Stuart family,
were not ill friends to the poor and persecuted in
New Hampshire ; and Barefoot, with his oaths, his
brawls, and his land deals, gives a flavor of English
good humor to the otherwise insipid annals of par
ish squabbles and litigious controversy. It is droll
to see how persistently the Massachusetts Puritans
connected bigamy and the desertion of English
wives with difference of religious opinion. If a Sir
Christopher Gardiner shows himself near Boston,
or a reckless Tom Morton plays the mischief at
Merry Mount, he must needs have deserted a wife
ill Britain or France. So, too, with Walter Bare
foot. So long as he lived peaceably with the Wig
gin family, and practiced medicine successfully in
Dover, he was not censured. But when he became
troublesome to the Lords Brethren in Boston, by

70 NEW HAMPSHIRE
setting Quaker women free or getting the better
of a kinsman of the Winthrops in a land specula
tion. Barefoot was a candidate for bigamy, and a
swearer of round and horrid oaths. Having got
into controversy with the Puritan magnates, it was
(1671) reported that he had deserted a wife in
England ; and in March, 1676, when he and Ean-
dolph were beginning their long assault on the
Massachusetts Charter, the required evidence was
furnished by a convenient deponent, one Davis, who
testified : —
" That in the year 1662, being in England, there came
to my lodging a woman who said she was the wife of one
Walter Barefoot, who was, as she said, in New England.
She complained she was in a very low condition, and de
sired me to endeavor to get him to send her some mainte
nance ; for she had not received anything from him, and
she had two children to maintain, and had no subsist
ence for them. Further, there came an ancient man to
me, who inquired if I knew one Walter Barefoot in New
England. I told him I did. He said, he was a very knave,
in that, desiring him to be security for him to a merchant
in Mark Lane (as I remember) for hnens he had of him,
promising to send pay for the same, but never did ; so
that the old man was forced to lie in the King's Bench ;
he was then a prisoner, as he said. These things I
acquainted Mr. Barefoot with when I came over ; who
owned the linens he had taken up. And as to his wife,
I do not remember he disowned her ; though, it being
so many years since, I cannot speak expressly to it." »
1 Byron, in the fifth canto of Don Juan, introduces an English-

THE MASONIAN CLAIMS 71
Whatever his English experience had been, —
and on that point we have little information, —
Dr. Barefoot was a thorn in the flesh to the Puri
tans in their domination over New Hampshire and
Maine. His friend and professional brother. Dr.
Henry Greenland of Newbury and Kittery, was
also very troublesome ; but he was more easily dis
posed of than Dr. Barefoot, after a career of chi-
rurgery, speculation, and politics. Greenland had
come over from England in 1662, five years after
Barefoot, and partly by reason of his acquaintance ;
he lived in Newbury, near the Merrimac, until
1666, when he went to Kittery, and joined Bare
foot in some of his business. He also took part
with him in favoring the claims of Mason, and
opposing the wealthy Cutt brothers, one of whom
he plotted to have seized and carried over to Eng
land, in 1670, as a traitor to King Charles. There
had been a quarrel a few years earlier about hot
words spoken by Eichard Cutt against the royal
commissioners, to which Dr. Greenland had given
man of the Morton and Barefoot type, who, explaining himself to
Juan, says : —
" I cried upon my first wife's dying day,
And also when my second ran away :
' Well, then, your third,' said Joan, ' what did slie 7
She did not run away too, did she, air ? '
'No, faith.' 'What then?' ' I ran away from her.'"
Barefoot in his will, while leaving a large estate, and remember
ing his English cousin, John Lee of ChadweU St. Mary's, near Lon
don, says nothing of any wife or children in England. This was
in 1688.

72 NEW HAMPSHIRE
testimony; and one of the final transactions of
Cartwright, Carr, and Maverick in Portsmouth in
July, 1665, was to leave on record these singular
papers : —
(By Maverick.) "Whereas there is a report given
out that I should return the name of Mr. Richard Cutt
unto my Lord Chancellor, among those which I conceive
to be rebellious, — I confess, on his being accused for
some words tending that way, I intended so to have
done ; but on better information and consideration, I see
no just cause for it, nor have I done it."
(By the three Commissioners.) "We do hereby
testify that we do freely forgive Mr. Richard Cutt of
Portsmouth, concerning any injury which he might be
supposed to have done us by some words which he was
accused to have spoken against the King's Commission
ers (about having a dagger put into their bellies or guts)
or words to the like purpose. And if the said Cutt never
molest Thomas Wiggin of Dover, or Dr. Greenland of
Newbury, for giving in evidence against him, or for re
porting him to be the author of such words, we promise
never to produce those writings and evidences which
they have sworn to before us, to his hurt or damage. In
witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal
this 17th day of July, 1665, George Cartwkight.
Do. do. set my hand and seal this 24th day of July,
1665, Robert Carr. Do. do. set my hand and seal this
24th day of July, 1665, Samuel Maverick."
When it is remembered that this younger Wig
gin was the brother-in-law of Barefoot, and Green
land his intimate friend, it wiU easily be inferred

THE MASONIAN CLAIMS 73
how warm had been the controversy between the
advocates of Mason and the men who were living
on his alleged property at Pascataqua. In spite of
this reconciliation, the quarrel was revived in 1670-
72, and it was this, with Greenland's ill conduct
in other ways, which led to his banishment from
Maine in 1673. The decree was made the year be
fore, but he was allowed until September 1, .1673, to
depart. He sold his possessions in Kittery, partly
to Barefoot, and removed to New Jersey, where
he was living at Barefoot's death in 1689. In 1671
Barefoot himself was sentenced by the vindictive
Massachusetts magistrates for his " profaneness and
horrid oaths," and they went on to say : " It ap
pearing that he left a wife and two children in
England, we do sentence him to return forthwith
to England by the next ship ; and that he shall
henceforth be debarred to practice chirurgery or
physic in any part of this jurisdiction."
In spite of this severity toward the friends of
Mason, and the constant protest of Massachusetts
that he had no rights in their New Hampshire, and
that the Bostoners, as Mason called them, had just
and absolute control there, these claims would not
rest quiet. They had two foundations, — a series
of grants from Charles I directly or through the
New England Company, which were just as valid
as the Massachusetts Charter, and no more so ; and
the settlement of a part of the tracts granted, by
servants and partners of Mason, and a large out-

74 NEW HAMPSHIRE
lay of money in effecting that. The Massachusetts
Puritans and their partisans in New Hampshire
and Maine had expended more money, and had
held on to their colonies, but their legal and equita^
ble right was no better than John Mason's, whose
heirs had the Crown of England on their side. But
against them was the steady, sturdy belief of the
mass of the New Hampshire planters, men of toil
and thought, who, as Emerson said of the embat
tled farmers of Concord, "supposed they had a
right to their corn and their cattle, without paying
tribute to any but their own governors." They had
not profited by the outlay of John Mason ; they
were not stripping his woodlands or defrauding him
of what he had bought and paid for. They had
brought their own lands from a wilderness condition
to a garden fertility ; they had encountered summer
heat and winter cold, while the Masons were living
easily in London, and enjoying the sunshine of
Court favor. So they resisted the payment of quit-
rent, and thereby made New England measurably
free from the evil of a land tenure such as kept
Ireland in poverty and strife, and separated the
idle from the laborious caste in most European
countries, to the manifest harm of both. A Mas
sachusetts scholar, with that bias against Mason
and for the Puritans which has so much warped
the truth of New England history ,i thought that a
1 Mr. Charles Deane, in Proceedings of the Massachusetts His
torical Society, for May, 1876. The researches of this gentieman,

THE MASONIAN CLAIMS 75
recognition of Eobert Mason's claim to the New
Hampshire lands, "fostered by a government un
friendly to the liberties of its subjects, was one of
the greatest misfortunes that could have befallen
the settlers on the soil ; a prolific source of annoy
ance, which continued for over a century." But
this claim resisted and defeated was of great bene
fit to them in the maintenance and development of
their free commonwealth. It united them in a
cause easy to understand, gave them confidence in
each other, an invincible self-reliance, and enabled
them to make head against the bigotries of Mas
sachusetts, as well as the usurpations of English
landlords and governors. When the more serious
crisis of the Eevolution in 1775 came, they knew
exactly what to do, and they went resolutely for
ward to do it. Both then and in the earlier troubles
of the Stuart regime, worthy individuals suffered
hardship, and property rights were too much dis
regarded, but the final issue was worth the cost.
In certain ways Massachusetts was hardly less un
friendly to the liberties of the people, especially on
the religious side, than were Laud and the Stuarts ;
and it is the glory of New Hampshire that both
were stiffly resisted.
Edward Eandolph, whose tart and unamiable
character will sufficiently appear, was a good friend
in regard to David Thomson and his English partners, have been
careful and useful ; but he carried a natural skepticism rather
too far in his inferences and denial of inference.

76 NEW HAMPSHIRE
to his kinsman, Eobert Mason, and gave him bet
ter advice than he was always willing to follow.
After the failure of Cranfield's efforts to maintain
Mason's claims, in which he, as governor, had a
pecuniary interest, Eandolph, in the autumn of
1685, was made postmaster for New England. He
then wrote to a friend : " What profit arises I de
sign to Mr. Mason's young children in England. I
allow them now X20 a year, till his better fortunes
will afford them a larger supply. I shall not be
wanting to do him and his all the service that lies
in my power; being very unwilling to think he
should be obliged to come for England, to be ex
posed to his merciless creditors." A little earlier
Eandolph had reported to another friend (October,
1685) : —
" Last week Mr. Blaithwait^ was proposing that Mr.
Mason should quit his pretensions in New England, and
lay all at His Majesty's [James Second's] feet, upon His
Majesty's making him governor of Bermuda, and allow
ing to him and his heirs two or three hundred pounds
yearly, forever; to be paid out of the quitrents which
will, in a short time, arise upon this settlement. For
the people will rather pay to His Majesty sixpence an
acre, than one farthing to Mr. Mason. I fear his grants
will hardly hold out upon a trial at the Council board.
1 Mr. Blaithwait was the long-standing and well-skilled clerk
in the Plantation Office at London, who took the money of appli
cants, and favored or opposed them according to the sum paid, or
party interests at the time.

THE MASONIAN CLAIMS 77
He is sure of all assistance from the plantation office ;
but his enemies have the larger purse."
Eandolph was wise in this suggestion, and it was
well for New England that Mason did not accept
it. Fastened upon the planters in the form of royal
quitrents, the claim would have been shaken off
with difficulty, upon the accession of William III,
who was easily persuaded to continue New Hamp
shire as a province, in order that Allen, who had
purchased the claim in part, might realize money
from it.
The English judges, who in 1677 ruled in favor
of Mason as against Massachusetts, were tender of
the rights of the planters, whom they styled " terre-
tenants." Their title must be tried by juries " upon
the place," in accordance with ancient English law ;
and this decision, when fairly carried out, gave the
planters their case. A land-tenure held for the
benefit of absentee landlords in England could not
appeal to a jury of colonists living on their own
acres. Those acres they held by the hard tenure of
toil unceasing, and military service against a savage
and treacherous foeman. Were they to pay rent
upon the graves of their slaughtered children, bur
ied within sight of their rooftree, that the Indian
might not unbury and mutilate their bodies ? Must
they deny themselves the better house in frozen
winters, or a bedstead for wife and daughter, that
silver might be sent across the ocean to the dainty
revelers in London palaces ? Pleas like these.

78 NEW HAMPSHIRE
unspoken but keenly felt, moved every juryman
who had not been bought to stand by the cause of
his neighbors, which was also his own.
On two separate occasions the Mason claim to
the ownership of New Hampshire had much to do
with preserving the Colony from being swallowed
up in Massachusetts, — in 1676-79, when the inter
est of the heirs added to the resolute purpose of
Charles II to humiliate Massachusetts ; and again
in 1690-92, when Samuel Allen, who had bought a
controlling share in the claims, prevailed on Wil
liam HI to let the decision of his Uncle Charles
stand, and New Hampshire remain a royal Province
by itself, though joined with Massachusetts in exec
utive government. On both occasions the majority
of the residents would probably have voted to unite
with the Puritan colony, — at the first, from the
experience of fairly good government for a whole
generation, and at the second (1690-92), from dis
gust at the ineffective tyranny of the royal govern
ors and council. One of this council was Mason
himself, who, as Chalmers says, " was placed at the
head of the provincial Council, and was enabled to
choose two burgesses to the Assembly." His feeble
character made this opportunity practically useless
to him. Chalmers, in 1782, who had access to ori
ginal papers long withheld from American histo
rians, but was prejudiced against colonial rights,
states the case fairly enough when he says : " The
New Hampshire planters had an equitable. Mason

THE MASONIAN CLAIMS 79
a legal right ; " but he adds, with a Tory sneer,
that these planters " were animated by principles
which never recede, because they claim the gifts
of society as the rights of Nature." In their case
they made the society which had gifts to bestow,
and they had subdued that rude nature which lay
wild about them. At the date when they won their
first victory over the claims of Mason, they num
bered hardly more than four thousand. In 1671,
when Mason was urging his claim in London, he
had written, with substantial truth, though in too
optimistic a tone : —
"New Hampshire is a place the best improved for
land, and most populated of any in those parts ; abound
ing plentifully with corn, cattle, timber and fish ; and
the people live generally very comfortably and happy ;
having a great trade to all parts, and store of shipping
at their town, Portsmouth, which exports and imports
yearly some thousands of tons of goods, of their own
growth and foreign. Goods exported yearly are, 20,000
tons of deals and pipestaves, 10,000 quintals of fish,
ten shiploads of masts, and several thousand of beaver
and otter skins. The imports are, 300 tons of wine and
brandy, 200 tons of goods from the Leeward Islands,
and 2000 tons of salt."
This former happy condition is confirmed in a
letter of a dozen years later, written by Simon
Bradstreet to Eandolph, complaining of the effect
of Cranfield's tyranny (December 8, 1684).

80 NEW HAMPSHIRE
" It is no small grief to us in Massachusetts to hear
and see the miserable condition of our neighbors in New
Hampshire ; once a hopeful and flourishing plantation,
but now in a manner undone, — no face of trade, nor
care for anything else, their own vessels being afraid to
come into their own ports, as some of them have declared
unto myself. This makes our people dread the like con
dition." It must be remembered that in the interval be
tween 1671 and 1684 the serious Indian war of
King Philip had occurred, and New Hampshire had
suffered heavily by it, like the rest of New Eng
land. It was this which gave peculiar sting to the
exaction of rent demanded by Mason. Neither he
nor his family had done anything, for more than
forty years, to benefit the planters, while the Bos
ton Puritans had lent a helping hand to those of
their own faith, both in peace and war. This was
strongly set forth in 1680 by William Vaughan, a
connection of the Cutt family, and a pupil of Sir
Josiah Child, the English financier, who thus replied
to Mason in a letter to Charles II : —
" Mr. Mason has not obeyed the conditions of his grant,
viz. the peopling of the place and enlargement of your
dominions, — both of which have been vigorously in
tended by the present inhabitants. The ' vast expense
of his estate ' is mostly if not entirely pretence. . . .
We were possessed of the soil long before Massachu
setts meddled with us : indeed, we invited Massachusetts

THE MASONIAN CLAIMS 81
to govern us, to prevent the confusion of anarchy. We
could not govern ourselves ; and, being under their gov
ernment, used their system of allotting lands, but never
thought of deriving any propriety from them in those
lands which, under you and your royal predecessors,
were accounted our own. Instead of the final expulsion
by Massachusetts alleged by Mr. Mason, we can plenti
fully prove that the undertaking was slighted and the
whole place deserted both by Capt. John Mason and his
agents, many years before Massachusetts was concerned
therein." This also is a partisan statement, but with much
truth in it. It was a favorite notion of the Bos
ton Puritans that New Hampshire could not get
along without them. Four of them in May, 1691
(Henry Ashurst, Increase Mather, Elisha Cooke,
and Thomas Oakes), joined in a letter to influence
the inclusion of the northern colony in the new Mas
sachusetts charter, and said : —
" The people date their ruin from the time when New
Hampshire was separated from Massachusetts. It will
be no one's interest to make New Hampshire a distinct
government now ; as it cannot pay the expenses nor de
fend itself. If every grant were held to imply distinct
rights to govern, there would be more governors than
towns in that province."
These conflicting statements have been disposed
of by the course of history. The small province
was not ruined ; it got its separate government.

82 NEW HAMPSHIRE
rather against its own wish, paid its frugal ex
penses, defended itself, and helped defend Maine
and Massachusetts, and escaped the extreme reli
gious intolerance of the Puritans, without falling
under Episcopacy.

CHAPTEE IV
NEW HAMPSHIRE A PEOVINCE
What the Masons and Godfreys, the Shapleighs
and Champernowns, had been trying for fifteen
years to effect — the separation of New Hampshire
from Puritan domination, at least outwardly — was
brought about in two or three years by the more
energetic action of Edward Eandolph, who, from
1676, for thirteen years, was the spirit within the
wheels that moved the clumsy colonial administra
tion of the Stuarts and their councilors. After his
defeat and expulsion from New England at the
downfall of Sir Edmund Andros, and when he was
pestering the colonial governors of Maryland and
Virginia, Colonel Copley, then governing Mary
land, said of him : " With his exorbitant and malig
nant temper, he has done here what he has done
elsewhere, — made the country weary of him. He
says he has lived for five and twenty years on the
curses of the people ; and I am sure he never lacks
them." This was his reputation in New England,
but he did not wholly deserve it, bitter as his ani
mosity became toward the colonial officials.
Eandolph was the son of an Englishman of the

84 NEW HAMPSHIRE
same name, who studied medicine in Oxford and at
Padua, and practiced it in Canterbury. A younger
son, Bernard Eandolph, resided and traveled long
in the Levant, half a century after young John
Winthrop and his friend. Sir Kenelm Digby, were
there ; and he wrote a small but excellent book
about those islands and countries. Edward, the
head of the family (born in 1632, died about 1702),
was well educated, but devoted himself to an active
life in public business. Naturally a Tory and
loyalist, he profited by the Eestoration to gain office,
though never so well placed as he thought he de
served ; and, being akin to the Mason family, he
took the view they had held for many years about
the Massachusetts colonists and their political am
bitions. Being sent over to Boston and Portsmouth
on a special mission in 1676, he so industriously
collected facts, and so ingeniously presented them,
that he soon gave the Court reason to constitute
New Hampshire and Maine as separate govern
ments, while prosecuting its main purpose of an
nulling the Massachusetts charter, with that of
Connecticut, and ultimately bringing all New Eng
land under a governor-general, such as Charles I
fancied he had found in Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
The ground had been prepared for Eandolph's
incessant activity and complete success, so far as
New Hampshire was concerned, by the petitions
of the Masons and the measures of the convinced
but inefficient royal Commission of 1664. The

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 85
plausible answers of the Massachusetts oligarchy
lost their effect in England by the inconsistent
deeds which accompanied these loyal protestations.
King Charles had been equally inconsistent; for
after showing mercy to the Quakers in New Eng
land, he had allowed them to be cruelly proceeded
against in London ; and while urging liberty of
conscience on Endicott and Leverett and the Bos
ton ministers, he had been mercilessly persecuting
Scotch and English dissenters. Eandolph, with all
his virulence against the Puritans, had juster no
tions of toleration than either Charles or the Mas
sachusetts bigots, and succeeded in forming a small
party of moderates in the New England colonies,
among whom might be reckoned Bradstreet, Stough-
ton, Bulkeley, and Pike in Massachusetts, Josiah
Winslow in Plymouth, and John Cutt and Walter
Barefoot in New Hampshire.^ He was at first san
guine of easy success in bringing all New England
to submit to the king, and to make Mason rich by
the rents of his New Hampshire lands. He reached
Boston early in June, 1676; and though treated
with some incivility by the Governor and a part of
the Council, and boldly told that the Colony was
not bound by the laws of England, having power
1 It may be thought strange that Barefoot is reckoned among
the moderate men; but his private relations with the Wiggin
family, and his business dealings in the three colonies of Maine,
New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, though involving him in law
suits, do not seem to have destroyed general confidence in his
judgment and good nature. His true career is yet to be described.

86 NEW HAMPSHIRE
by charter to make its own laws, and that charter
having been confirmed by the king in his letter of
1662 ; yet Eandolph found so many loyalists in
Boston that he went cheerfully on to Portsmouth
in July, and examined the situation in the four
towns which it was proposed to make into a pro
vince, either by themselves or in conjunction with
the Maine settlements. Or rather, he appears to
have thought that Mason's claim to the whole coun
try between Salem and the Pascataqua would be
maintained by the king ; for he spoke in his report
of a territory " belonging to Mr. Mason, but now
divided by the Bostoners into three counties, Nor
folk, Suffolk, and Middlesex." The malcontent
churchmen and Quakers in Dover, Portsmouth, and
the Maine towns complained loudly to Eandolph,
alleging that they had no religious and little politi
cal freedom, and that the magistrates sent among
them from Boston to try suits laid what fines and
taxes they saw fit, contrary to English law. This
was partly true, but did not amount to a general
grievance. More serious was the menace of the
Massachusetts authorities when the minority in the
invaded towns wished to assert their loyalty by pe
tition to the king, and claimed a right of appeal to
their sovereign, which the Puritans had steadfastly
denied. Eeturning to Boston after a fortnight's absence,
he found his reception cooler, and even hostile.
Leverett, then Governor, reproved him for publish-

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 87
ing to the people the purpose of his mission, and
stirring up, as was said, mutiny and disturbance,
withdrawing the people from their obedience to the
Massachusetts magistrates. Eandolph replied that
if he had done amiss, complaint should be made
to Ihe king, who would do justice. This did not
please the Puritans, who, upon Eandolph's depar
ture for England, confidently told him that " those
who blessed them, God would bless, and those that
cursed them, God would curse." They added that
" whatever reports were raised against them by
wicked and evil-minded men, to draw away the
king's favor from them," the Massachusetts colo
nists were " a people truly fearing the Lord," and
very obedient to Charles II. Eandolph did not
believe this. He reported them as actually in re
volt, and suggested a forcible way of bringing them
to submission : —
"Three frigates of 40 guns, with three ketches well
manned, lying a league or two below Boston, with His
Majesty's express orders to seize all shipping, and per
form other acts of hostility against these revolters, would
bring them all to His Majesty's own terms, and do more
in one week's time than all the orders of king and coun
cil to them in seven years."
This advice was not adopted, but the king was
evidently listening to Eandolph's suggestions, and
sharing his belief that Massachusetts was disloyal.
Yet Eandolph excepted the ministers from this

88 NEW HAMPSHIRE
charge, saying in his report, made October 12,
1676, to the Board of Trade and Plantations : —
"The clergy are for the most part very civil, but
held in subjection by the ruhng elders, who govern all
affairs of the church. The ecclesiastical government is
in the hands of lay members, but no church censure shall
degrade or depose any man from any civil dignity, office
or authority.''
The first point taken up by the king and council,
after Eandolph reached England, was the dispute
over territory. As this went on in 1677, while Ean
dolph was attacking the charter and saying that
the Massachusetts colonists had " no right either
in land or government in any part of New Eng
land, and have always been usurpers," the craftier
Bostonians were negotiating with the grandson of
Gorges for the purchase of his rights in Maine,
and the deed was signed early in 1678. This frus
trated a design of the king to unite Maine and New
Hampshire in one province as a principality for
his son, the Duke of Monmouth, and it naturally
angered him greatly. Meantime the English judges,
Eainsford and North, had decided that Massachu
setts could extend legally only three miles north of
the Merrimac, and that the heirs of Mason had no
right of government in New Hampshire. Accord
ingly, Massachusetts was notified, in the summer
of 1679, that its power over the four towns was to
cease. " As for New Hampshire, the government

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 89
is to rest in the king's hands." Carrying out this
policy, a council was named for the Province, John
Cutt was made its president, and Eandolph, in Oc
tober, 1679, sailed for New York, carrying with
him a commission for setting up the new authority
at Portsmouth. He reached there December 27,
delivered the commission to Mr. Cutt, and remained
in the Province until January 22, 1680, by which
date the provincial government was organized, and
the domination of Massachusetts ended.
The Puritan rule had lasted in Hampton a little
more than forty years ; in the other three towns a
few years less. It had been vigorous, often arbi
trary, but in the main acceptable to the people,
and they saw its termination with regret. The
General Court of New Hampshire in March, 1680,
in its two branches of Council and Assembly, had
this to say to King Charles, of "that shadow of
your Majesty's authority and government, under
which we long found protection," meaning the Mas
sachusetts domination : —
" In the late war, the barbarous natives proved a
heavy scourge to us, and had certainly been the ruin of
these poor weak plantations, if our brethren and neigh
bors had not, out of pity and compassion, stretched forth
their helping hand, and with their blood and treasure
defended us."
In the same letter they thanked the king for
" not imposing strangers upon us," but making up
the Council of residents and leading citizens. Such

90 NEW HAMPSHIRE
was indeed the character of the first royal Council.
The four towns were each represented in it, Ports
mouth by four merchants, all Puritans, Dover by
Eichard Waldron, the Puritan enemy of Quakers,
Hampton by Christopher Hussey, ancestor of many
Quakers, but a Puritan, and Exeter by John Gil-
man, head of the powerful Oilman family of after
years, of large estate and Puritan opinions. John
Cutt, the president, was aged and infirm, but fair
minded, less hasty than his brother Eichard, and
yet firm in the Puritan interest. They were at lib
erty to choose three other members, who were Elias
Stileman of Portsmouth, but formerly of Salem,
Samuel Dalton of Hampton, a nephew of the former
minister Dalton, and Job Clements of Dover, — all
pronounced Puritans and hostile to Mason's claim.
Martyn of Portsmouth was made treasurer, and
Stileman secretary, pending the arrival of Eich
ard Chamberlain from England, whom the king
had made Secretary of his Province. The president
named Waldron as his deputy or vice-president,
who in little more than a year succeeded Cutt
upon his death. The first act of the Council, after
reluctantly taking the oath prescribed, of allegiance
and supremacy, was to call an Assembly by elec
tion, and make up a list of voters therefor. These
numbered but 209 in the Province, — 71 in Ports
mouth, 61 in Dover, 57 in Hampton, and but 20 in
Exeter. They chose eleven deputies for a popular
branch, — John Pickering, Eobert Elliott, and

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 91
Philip Lewis from Portsmouth ; young Eichard
Waldron, Peter Coffin, and Anthony Nutter from
Dover; Anthony Stanyan, Edward Gove, and
Thomas Marston from Hampton ; and Ealph Hall
and Bartholomew Tippin from Exeter. The two
branches met in a tavern at Great Island, and in
March following had a code of laws voted, for the
king's approval, with this proviso at the beginning
of them, as a kind of Bill of Eights (March 16,
1680) : —
" It is ordered and enacted by this General Assembly
and the authority thereof, that no Act, Imposition, Law
or Ordinance be made or imposed upon us, but such as
shall be made by the said Assembly, and approved by
the President and Council from time to time. That
Justice and Right be impartially administered unto all :
not sold, denied or causelessly deferred unto any."
In support of this claim of full parliamentary
powers, the Assembly cited seven English statutes
from Henry III, Edward III, Eichard II, and
Charles I as guaranteeing their rights. This was a
good beginning, and the Province and State have
maintained these powers without diminution, most
of the time for more than two hundred and twenty-
three years.
It was not the intention of Charles II, however,
to allow so broad a liberty, after his Governor
should have arrived, and the claims of Mason had
received public attention, in the manner directed

92 NEW HAMPSHIRE
by the royal commission or charter. His Secretary,
a gentle, inefficient person, fond of music and sub
servient to the Mason party, was to have certain
powers, not dependent on the Assembly ; his Gov
ernor, Edward Cranfield, a gentleman of a decayed
and impoverished family, who had held a place
about the Court, was to have important powers,
which he exercised tyrannically. Eobert Mason
was appointed to the Council, and came over soon
after Chamberlain arrived, in December, 1680 ;
but earlier in the year the Assembly had passed a
law confirming all titles to land, which was in
tended to negative Mason's claim, though the king
had required the Province to allow it. Mason's
presence and assertion of his title at once raised a
quarrel, in course of which Mason returned to Eng
land to make his complaint there. Eandolph had
also returned to England, after having battled with
the Massachusetts authorities in regard to the col
lection of revenue, leaving Barefoot as his deputy
to collect duties and prevent illegal trade in New
Hampshire. The Navigation Acts restricted trade
greatly, and much of it really was illegal ; but when
Barefoot, in March, 1681, published a notice re
quiring all vessels at Portsmouth to enter and clear
under his authority, he was arrested and tried before
Waldron and the Council as a court, and fined ten
pounds. His offenses were thus set forth : —
" For having in a high and presumptuous manner set
up his Majesty's office of customs without leave from the

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 93
President and Council, in contempt of his Majesty's au
thority in this place ; for disturbing and obstructing the
subjects in passing from harbor to harbor and from town
to town ; and for his insolence in making no other answer
to any question propounded to him but ' My name is
Walter.' "
As Barefoot was serving directly under royal
commission, this allegation that he was in contempt
of the king's authority was of the same nature with
the Parliament's declaring they acted under the
king's authority in making war upon Charles I. The
lessons of Massachusetts independence were not lost
on the New Hampshire Puritans, who were soon in
practical revolt against their sovereign.
Eandolph and Mason, acting together in Eng
land, were able to obtain from the Court anything
they wanted except money ; and late in 1681 Mason
came back to Portsmouth with a mandate from the
king requiring the royal councilors in New Hamp
shire to admit him as a member, which they obe
diently did. His agents in the mean time were
demanding rents, while he was forbidding the
planters to cut firewood and timber on his lands,
and threatening to sell their houses if they paid no
rent. The king, though he had promptly disallowed
the laws passed in 1680, among them the Bill of
Eights, had taken no pains to make his veto known
in New Hampshire, and had* delayed, with his cus
tomary negligence, to send over his royal Governor,
Cranfield, who did not land (from an armed vessel.

94 NEW HAMPSHIRE
at Salem) until October, 1682.^ During this inter
val the people were becoming fixed in their resolve
not to lease lands of Mason or to pay rent ; and
the early action of Cranfield seemed to encourage
them in this. He took office at Portsmouth Octo
ber 3, 1682, and at first, upon Chamberlain's sug
gestion, removed the stubborn Waldron from the
Council, at Mason's request. Six weeks after he
restored him, as well as Martyn the treasurer, who
had also been dropped, " finding them," he wrote,
" very useful for the king's service here." They
were wealthy and had popular support, and he
hoped to govern more absolutely through such
men than through weak and unpopular persons
like Mason and Chamberlain. He censured both
these in his report to the Plantation Office (De
cember 1, 1682), saying : —
" Mr. Mason has much misrepresented the whole mat
ter, — the place not being so considerable, nor the peo
ple so humored as he reports. There are but four
small towns, all impoverished by the expenses of the last
^ Edward Cranfield was a descendant by the female line of the
once powerful Catholic family of the Parkers, holding the two
baronies of Morley and Monteagle, which became dormant a few
years later. He was probably the great-grandson of Edward Cran
field, who married Elizabeth, daughter of that William Parker,
Lord Monteagle, who disclosed the Gunpowder Plot to the king
in 1605. This Edward Cranfield may have been a brother of
Lionel, Earl of Middlesex. Dr. Belknap met with a Jamaica gen
tleman (probably named Pigott), a, great-grandson of the New
Hamp.shire Governor, who told him his ancestor is buried in the
Cathedral at Bath.

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 95
Indian war, and several hundred pounds in debt on that
account. I find them very loyal to the king, and respect
ful to myself, — willing to do what they can in support
of the government, but unable to do so much as has
been pretended. Far from being ready to own Mason
as their proprietor, they are very slow to admit of any
one but the king. . . . The general wish is for a decision
of the case by law. Mason thought that, by laying aside
Waldern, Martyn and the principal minister, Moodey, he
would have frightened the people into compliance with
him ; but finds himself mistaken. . . . Had I yielded to
the violent courses that Mason and Chamberlain urged,
I should have greatly disturbed the people, without pro
moting the king's interest. . . . The attempt to settle
the way of the Church of England here will be very
grievous to the people, whatever Mr. Mason may have
said. They are very difigent and devout in their own
worship, very tenacious of it, and very grateful for the
king's indulgence to them therein."
This was a candid and mainly true report. The
New Hampshire people have never been easily
frightened into anything ; and they were instinc
tively loyal to any legal government which regarded
their public and private interests. But Cranfield
had his own interest to look after. He had sold his
office near the king, according to the ill fashion
of the day, and was living off the proceeds. He
must therefore soon begin to draw profit from his
new office, and the people did not incline to bribe
him for their side. He therefore accepted a yearly

96 NEW HAMPSHIRE
fee of ,£130 from Mason, secured by a mortgage
of the province rents, bought a house and garden
for ^450 (as he said), and prepared to support
Mason in all his unwise exactions. Then, four
weeks after the report above cited (December 30,
1682), he wrote to Halifax and the other Lords of
Trade : —
" All of the late Council and chief inhabitants are part
of the grand combination of church members and con
gregational assemblies throughout New England ; and
by that they are so much obliged that the prejudice of
any one, if considerable,' influences the whole party. . . .
His Majesty's ship, Lark, cowed them for a time ; but
as long as the preachers exert themselves against royal
authority, I know not where to turn for honest men to
administer justice. They have been in a confederacy
to carry their cause against the king ; but I doubt not,
in time, to reduce them to reason."
Cranfield was speaking more particularly of the
illicit trade, which Eandolph was then striving to
regulate by seizing vessels that carried contraband,
and Barefoot was aiding him in this effort. Accord
ingly they seized a ketch consigned to George Jaf-
frey, a Portsmouth merchant, and gave orders to
Stileman, who commanded at the Island fort, not
to allow her to pass out of the river. Nevertheless,
December 19, in broad daylight, the ketch slipped
past the fort without a shot, and in the court con
vened to try the malefactor, Jaffrey, ten days later,
the jury, says Eandolph, —

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 97
" Encouraged by the arbitrary and successful verdict
of the Lord Shaftsbury's jury at the Old Bailey, (now
become a leading precedent to the factious here) find di
rectly against the act made in the 12th of the King, and
bring in a verdict with costs against His Majesty ; which
the Governor highly resented, — it being a contrivance
and combination of their minister, a rigid Independent,
and some church members. Of which society is Stileman,
Jaffrey, the pretended owner of the ketch (a Scotchman)
and four of the leading men of that Jury. However, the
•Governor hath in the first place suspended Stileman the
Council, put him out of the fort, and declared him unca-
pable of any place of trust in the Province ; committing
that charge to the care of Capt. Barefoot, one of the
Council, (a sufferer here for his loyalty), — and hath
likewise directed me to prosecute the jury by attaint or
otherwise, and all other persons who shall be found con
trivers in this escape. Resolving, as far as in him lies, to
terrify at least, if not wholly to destroy this combination,
carried on against His Majesty's authority and the Acts
of Trade and Navigation, by a party from whom the
Minister, one Moodey, a private trader, receives no small
profit." Here, then, early in Cranfield's reign, he is found
assuming the arbitrary powers that his monarch
1 The Navigation laws were continued from Cromwell's time
into the Restoration, and if enforced, greatly damaged the colo
nial trade. They were habitually evaded, therefore, as were the
revenue laws in Great Britain by the smugglers, and any effort to
enforce them was sure to unite the merchants in opposition. Joshua
Moodey may have had ventures in the vessels of the Puritan mer
chants of his flock.

98 NEW HAMPSHIRE
had been grasping in England, and the jurymen in
his province were taking pattern by the bold Eng
lish juries who resisted Jeffries and the unscrupu
lous English judges. Having thus united in his
person two weak causes, — the Mason claim, which
affronted the planters, and the revenue laws, which
exasperated the merchants, — it was no wonder that
the disaffection in a naturally loyal people became
general. His next step was to dissolve the popular
Assembly, because they would not pass his revenue.
bills, and thus to make himself and the Council
(his own appointees, if he so chose) supreme both
for legislation and judicial business. They could
hold courts themselves, or they could name the
judges, and through the marshal could pack juries.
He further proceeded to lay taxes, " since the king
has entrusted the disposal and issue of money to
my power, with the CounciF'S assent." All this edi
fice of despotism, administered by one whose moral
character was below the Puritan standard, pro
voked the people to active revolt, and a demonstra
tion was made, even when Cranfield was writing
to Halifax and his colleagues the words last quoted.
Edward Gove, living in the present limits of
Seabrook, and representing Hampton in the dis
solved Assembly, after consulting more or less with
the Puritan leaders, but against their advice, on
the 27th of January, 1683, armed himself, his son,
and his servant, and started on horseback for Exe
ter, seven miles northward. Passing the house of

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 99
Nathaniel Weare, a justice of the peace, Weare
attempted to arrest him ; but he pressed on, and en
listed in Exeter and Stratham eight more men, —
three sons of Eobert Wadleigh, a leading man,
Thomas Eawlings, Mark Baker, Edward Smith,
John Sleeper, and John Young, with a trumpeter,
who escaped arrest, and whose name has not been
preserved. All were armed and mounted, and took
their road to Hampton, where the foot-soldiers of
the town halted and arrested them, — the trumpeter
distancing his pursuers by the speed of his horse.
No resistance was made by Gove, and no blood was
shed. He aimed at a demonstration for which the
people were not ready, and his own eccentric char
acter seems to have kept them back. He was held
under a justice's warrant (probably Weare's), in
dicted by a grand jury at a special court called
February 1, and tried for his life the next day, on
a charge of high treason. Major Waldron sat as
presiding judge, the jury were honest men of the
vicinage, and the fact admitted no denial. It could
not be treason except by a forced construction of
the English law ; but as Gove's declared purpose
was to change a government existing by the king's
special command, the offense could be described as
levying war against Charles II. The good-natured
king did not so regard it, and the barbarous sen
tence that had been executed on the regicides by his
order was not carried out in Gove's case. Waldron,
his hard nature melted to tears by the false position

100 NEW HAMPSHIRE
in which he was placed, since he shared all Gove's
disloyalty, gave the sentence thus : —
" You shall be carried back to the place whence you
came [which was the fort on Great Island, used as a
prison], and from thence be drawn to the place of exe
cution, and there be hanged by the neck, and cut down
alive ; your entrails shall be taken out and burned before
your face, your head be cut off, and your body divided
into four quarters ; and your head and quarters disposed
of at the king's pleasure." '
Cranfield, who was strangely alarmed at Gove's
demonstration, hurried him away to Boston for
transportation to England, writing to Sir Leoline
Jenkins, secretary of state (February 20, 1683) :
" I cannot with safety to myself and the Province
keep Gove longer in custody, for I have reason to
fear that he may escape. I intended to execute him
here, for terror to the whole party, who are still
mutinous, had my commission allowed it. I am or
dered to send home rebels, — and if Gove escape the
^ This is the only sentence of the kind ever passed in New
Hampshire, and I think the only trial for treason ever held there.
It is probable that Cranfield insisted on this specific offense be
cause conviction carried forfeiture of the culprit's estate. Gove's
property was sold, and the proceeds, in part, pocketed by Cranfield,
who was greedy for money in his new office. After Gove's pardon
by James II, the king ordered his estate " to be ascertained and
restored to him,'' which was done, but at whose expense the re-
cords do not yet show. Many of the papers in this case have dis'
appeared ; others exist in England, at the Plantation Office of th(
Lords of Trade. Some that were in Dr. Belknap's hands have not
come to later historians.

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 101
sentence of the law, there is an end of the king's
government in New Hampshire." In regard to the
other prisoners, and the occasion for haste, Cran
field added : —
"Nine others were taken besides Gove [really ten],
and on trial were convicted, but security has been taken
for their appearance, and they have been respited, pend
ing significance of the king's pleasure. I hear that it is
designed to petition for Gove's life, and that it is to be
managed by messengers from Boston ; if so, this will
the more convince me that he received encouragement
from that quarter. Major Pike, one of the magistrates,
and a member of the faction, came to me the night be
fore Gove's trial with several depositions to certify that
Gove was of unsound mind ; in order to avoid his prose
cution I am forced to keep the militia in arms till Gove
is shipped off."
Eandolph, who, with all his prejudice, was a
fairer-minded man than Cranfield, and who carried
Gove to the Tower in London, where he delivered
him June 6, 1683, has left a long account of Gove's
rebellion, which may be quoted, with all allowance
for its partisan tone : —
" Edward Gove, who served for the town of Hampton,
a leading man, and a great stickler in the late proceed
ings of the Assembly, made it his business to stir the
people up to rebellion, by giving out that the Governor,
as Vice-admiral, acted by the Duke of York's commis
sion, who was a papist, and would bring Popery in
among them ; that the Governor was a pretended gov-

102 NEW HAMPSHIRE
ernor, and his commission was signed in Scotland, etc.
He endeavored with a great deal of pains to make a
party, and solicited many of the considerable persons in
each town to join with him, to recover their liberties in
fringed ; further adding that his sword was drawn, and
he would not lay it down till he knew who should hold
the government. . . . Fearing he might get a party too
strong for the civil power (as indeed it proved, for Jus
tice Wyre and a marshal and constable was repulsed),
the Governor, though much dissuaded, forthwith ordered
the militia of the whole Province to be in arms. . . .
Gove was gone to his party at Exeter, from whence he
suddenly returned with twelve men belonging to that
town, mounted, and armed with swords, pistols and guns,
(a trumpet sounding) and Gove with his sword drawn
riding at the head of them in Hampton. The Governor
was taking horse, and with a part of the Troop was in
tending to take Gove and his company : but a messenger
brought word that they were met withal, and taken by
the militia of that town, and secured with a guard. The
trumpeter, forcing his way, escaped, after whom a hue
and cry was sent to all parts, but as yet he is not taken.
" This rising was unexpectedly to the Party made
upon the 27th of January. It is generally believed many
considerable persons, at whose houses Gove then either
sent or called, to come out and stand up for their liber
ties, would have joined with him, had he not appeared
in arms at that time. For upon January 30tb, being
appointed by the Governor a day of public humiliation,
they designed to cut off the Governor, Mr. Mason and
some others whom they affected not. The Governor sent
a strong party (horse) to guard the prisoner, then in

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 103
irons, from Hampton to Portsmouth. They were ex
amined before the Governor and Council, where Gove
behaved himself very insolently. They were all com
mitted to custody, and Capt. Barefoot, having the trained
band of Great Island then in arms, was ordered to
take care of the prisoners, and keep a strict watch upon
them, in regard the prison was out of repair. February 2,
they were all arraigned and indicted upon the 13th of
the King, for levying war against His Majesty. Gove
pleaded to the indictment ' Not Guilty ; ' then Mr. Mar
tin and Capt. Hull, both of Portsmouth, with two jus
tices of the peace and a lieutenant of the foot-company
at Hampton, who was at the taking of them, were all
sworn in court. Then Gove owned the matter of fact,
and to justify his taking up arms, pleaded against the
Governor's power, that he was only a pretended gov
ernor, by reason that his commission, as he said, was
sealed in Scotland. Likewise that the Governor had by
his proclamation appointed January 30 to be annually kept
a day of humiliation, and obliged the ministers to preach
that day ; that he had at his house discoursed to Gove,
and showed him, out of the 10th chapter of St. Mark,
the necessity of children's baptism ; this he urged to be
a great imposing upon the Ministry.
" The other prisoners pleaded not guilty, but had little
to say in defence for themselves, further than they were
drawn in by Gove. The jury, after long consideration,
found Gove guilty of high treason upon the indictment ;
and all the rest in arms ; upon which the court proceeded
to give judgment, and passed the sentence of condem
nation upon Gove. But in regard the other prisoners
were specially found, the Governor ordered the court to

104 NEW HAMPSHIRE
respite their judgment till His Majesty's pleasure should
be known therein ; most of them being young men, and
altogether unacquainted with the laws of England."
Cranfield had named the fast day on the anniver
sary of Charles First's execution, as a test of New
Hampshire loyalty, and a reminder of the Puritan
guilt. He had ho occasion to fear for his life ; yet
it is quite possible, had the demonstration been
delayed till the 30th, that the Governor and his
oligarchy would have been driven from power, as
Andros and his Council were in Boston, six years
later. Gove himself, writing from the Tower June
11, 1683, said to Eandolph : " Had I known the
laws of the land to be contrary to what was done,
I would never have done it. You may well think I
was ignorant of any law to the contrary, since for
fourteen or fifteen years past the same thing hath
been done every year, and no notice at all taken
of it." What he meant by this is hard to say,
unless he intended his movement only for an armed
demonstration of public sentiment ; yet we have no
record of anything similar, though the movements
in Maine against the Puritan usurpation might be
so termed. But it is plain that the king and his
council had no thought of hanging " the Convict of
New England," 'as he was styled in the Colonial
Office. He remained in the Tower, at the king's
expense, but unmolested, for two years and a quar
ter, and was then pardoned and sent home.
Before he reached Hampton in the autumn of

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 105
1685, Cranfield's despotism had fallen, and Bare
foot was acting Governor of the Province. The
course of the royal governor was short, and steadily
downward, though he was so misguided as to sup
pose he might be nominated governor-general of
all New England, when the charters should be
withdrawn, as Eandolph was steadily and success
fully urging. Cranfield's New Hampshire office
happened to coincide in time with that of a far
wiser man, George Savile, Marquis of Halifax,
who was in the English Privy Council during part
of three reigns, and in 1684-85 was president of
the Council. He had joined the cabinet of Shafts-
bury in 1679, and by his combination of wit and
reasoning in 1683 had prevailed on the peers to
defeat the bill excluding James II from the throne
as a Catholic. This entitled him to the gratitude
of Charles and James, yet he sincerely withstood
their tyrannies, as well as the gold of the French
king, which found its way into so many princely
pockets. Macaulay, whose hero he is, says : " When
he had been found incorruptible, all the art and
influence of the French embassy were employed to
drive him from office ; but his polished wit and his
varied accomplishments had made him so agreeable
to Charles II that the design failed." ^ He was still
1 Macaulay's History of England, vol. i. chap, ii., near the end.
The historian assumes that Halifax, and not his uncle. Sir William
Coventry, was the author of the famous Character of a Trimmer,
and that is now the best opinion. The quotation following is from
the papers of Barillou, the French envoy.

106 NEW HAMPSHIRE
in the Council when Charles died, and he was con
tinued there by James long enough to discharge
Cranfield, and set Gove free from the Tower, that
had proved so fatal the year before to Sidney and
Eussell, Gove's most illustrious fellow-convicts.
No doubt the good sense of Halifax had some
thing to do with the speedy resolve of the king's
Council not to hang Gove ; he was by their vote
merely " continued in the Tower." This news
reached Cranfield early in November, 1683, and
he wrote at once to the lords to say : " The news
of Gove's pardon has had a very ill effect on the
people, as appears by the prosecution of Mr. Ma
son's concerns." After obtaining verdicts in his
favor from a packed jury, in thirty or forty suits,
Mason saw that he could not. collect his rents with
out force, and when that was tried, the people,
angered by Gove's cruel sentence and Mason's exac
tions, rose and repelled force with force, — " being
stirred up," said Cranfield, " by Major Waldern,
Mr. Moodey and Captain Vaughan. I have put the
last-named out of the Council for indecent carriage
and dangerous words, and put Mr. Eandolph in his
place." Cranfield also brought suits in his own
name, and by the use of his civil and military offi
cers sent to prison Waldron, Vaughan, Moodey,
Stileman, and many of the other leading men.
Some escaped at once, by the connivance of the
jailer or the aid of the people ; others were fined
and bailed out. While this was beginning, Nathan-

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 107
iel Weare, the chief man of Hampton (ancestor of
the more eminent President Weare of the Eevolu
tion), slipped out of the Province (with a sum of
money raised by the planters and merchants for
the cost of his mission), and took his way to Lon
don, with a numerously signed petition to the king,
complaining of Cranfield's arbitrary acts and his
disturbing government. Eandolph was also in Lon
don, saw the petition and complaint, and wrote pri
vately to a Boston friend (July 26, 1684) : " Wyre
hath lately put in articles against Mr. Cranfield,
which render him here a very ill man, and in time
will do his business." And it was not long after
that Halifax, who had seen and heard both Weare
and Eandolph, was known to argue against the
infamous Jeffries for the liberty of the people in
New England. Barillon reported in a letter to
Louis XIV (December 1, 1684) : —
" My Lord Halifax took upon him to contend, with
great warmth, that the same laws in force In England
ought to be established in a country inhabited by Eng
lishmen ; that an absolute government was neither so
happy nor so safe as one that Is tempered by laws ; and
that he could not make his mind easy to live in a coun
try where the king should have power to take the money
he had in his pocket, whenever His Majesty saw fit."
To this the Grand Monarque replied (he was
first cousin to Charles and James, the sons of a
French princess) : "I do not wonder that the

108 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Duke of York has called his brother's attention to
the consequences of such a view. Lord Halifax's
reasoning on the best way to govern New England
scarcely merits the confidence which my cousin the
king has in him." But those views prevailed in re
gard to New Hampshire, although Massachusetts
and the other colonies had to wait a few years
longer for their application. Charles II died in
February, 1685, and in the following April Cran
field, already warned that his conduct was under
inquiry, received (perhaps by the hand of Weare,
who was then returning to Hampton) a rebuke
from Halifax, president of the Privy Council, say
ing (April 28, 1685) : —
" You have not pursued your instructions in reference
to the propriety of the soil which Robert Mason Esq.
claims in the Province of New Hampshire. You were
instructed. In case the inhabitants should refuse to agree
with the said Mason, that you should interpose and en
deavor to reconcile all differences ; which if you could
not effect, you were then to send to His Majesty such
cases, fairly and impartially stated, together with your
opinion, for His Majesty's determination. Instead whereof
you have caused courts to be held In New Hampshire,
and permitted titles to lands to be decided there, and
unreasonable costs to be allowed."
It might have been rejoined by Cranfield, had
he the spirit or opportunity to reply, that this
"trial upon the place" for the protection of the
" terre-tenants " was precisely what the king's

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 109
judges had suggested in 1677. But in fact Cran
field had seen that the case was going against him,
and had requested leave of absence on account of
his health, which was granted late in 1684, but
did not take effect till June, 1685, and he sailed
from Boston to Barbados June 9. Eandolph had
turned against him before that, and wrote to one of
his patrons, Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph (March,
1685) : —
" Whoever goes over Governor with expectation to
make his fortune, will disserve the king, disappoint him
self, and utterly ruin that country. . . . They are a great
body of people, sober and industrious, and in time of
war able to. drive the French out of all their Ameri
can dominions. . . . Cranfield in New Hampshire by his
arbitrary proceedings has so harassed that poor people
that, although they had cause to complain of the hard
usage of the Boston Governors, under whom they lately
were, yet they have greater reason now to pray an alter
ation, and wish again to be under the Bostoners. For
Mr. Cranfield has quite ruined that place ; and his open
immorality in Boston . . . has rendered His Majesty's
government very contemptible. And should a Governor
go over who will tread in Mr. Cranfield's steps, or do
worse things (if possible), it will cool the inclinations of
good men, and make them take the first occasion to free
themselves. Besides, 't will above all greatly reflect upon
our Church, to have men of ill principle and debauched
lives appear as the promoters of that religion they so
much dishonor."
This was said partly to prevent the appointment

110 NEW HAMPSHIRE
of Kirke, the infamous leader of the king's soldiers
in the campaign against Monmouth, who was seri
ously canvassed for the place soon given to Andros,
a far less objectionable man. Oddly, it was Jef
fries who censured Kirke for his brutality, according
to Eandolph, who wrote to Southwell, August 29,
1685 : " I heard my Lord Jeffries give him a severe
welcome to Windsor, last Sunday, and told him
(Kirke) he had not only a bare report, but in
formations upon oaths of sufficient and loyal wit
nesses ; and that he had done more than he could
answer," etc.
After Cranfield's departure the government of
Walter Barefoot was more sinned against than sin
ning ; for that humorous functionary was growing
old, and was well aware of the popular feeling
against Mason and his friends. There is little re
cord of oppression or misconduct by him or Mason,
who lived in Barefoot's house at Great Island,
where both of them were set upon and maltreated
by Barefoot's brother-in-law, Thomas Wiggin of
Dover, as their agents and officers had been in
Cranfield's time by the indignant people of the
Province. This occurred late in December, 1685,
after Mason had posted certain declarations to the
people whom he regarded as his delinquent tenants,
inviting them to pay what they owed him. Wiggin
and an old Dover planter, Anthony Nutter, who
.had served in the Assembly with Gove, and even
been for a time in the Council, had called on Bare-

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 111
foot, the acting Governor, and been invited by
Mason to supper. What followed was sworn to
by Mason, before Secretary Chamberlain, March 6,
1686: —
" After supper, Wiggin said he and others had read
the papers I had set up, but they did not regard them,
nor value them at a rush ; for I had nothing to do in
that Province, nor had one foot of land therein, nor ever
should have ; and withal did give very abusive and pro
voking language, so that I commanded him to go out of
the room. Which he did not, but asked the Deputy Gov
ernor whose the house was, — Barefoot's or Mason's ?
The Deputy told him that the house and servants were
mine, and entreated him to be gone, and not make a dis
turbance. I then opened the door, and took Wiggin by
the arm to put him forth, saying he should not stay there
to affront me in my own house.
" Whereupon Wiggin took hold of my cravat, and,
being a big, strong man, pulled me to the chimney and
threw me upon the fire, and lay upon me, and did en
deavor to strangle me. . . . Had it not been for the Dep
uty Governor, who was all that time endeavoring to
pluck Wiggin off from me, I do verily believe I had been
murdered. I was no sooner got out of the fire but the
said Wiggin laid hands on the Deputy Governor, threw
him into the fire, and fell upon him, so that two of his
ribs were broke. I did with much difficulty pull Wiggin
off the Deputy Governor. . . . Thereupon I called to a
maid-servant to fetch my sword, saying ' the villain
would murder the Deputy Governor.' The servant com
ing with my sword in the scabbard, I took hold thereof,

112 NEW HAMPSHIRE
— but it was snatched out of my hands by Anthony
Nutter ; nor did the said Nutter give any help to the
Deputy Governor."
This was scandalous ; but it was a natural return
for what Mason had threatened two years before,
in the height of Cranfield's power. In April, 1683,
while Gove was on his voyage to England, in irons,
this same Wiggin, being at the same house of his
brother-in-law, heard Mason say, " He would seize
Major Waldron's, Moodey's, Partridge's and Cap
tain Tippin's lands, who should not have one foot
in the Province, — and that he would live on An
drew Wiggin's farm, being a good one. [A bro
ther of Thomas Wiggin and son-in-law of Governor
Bradstreet, at Exeter.] That the people had been
in one rebellion, and he would force them into a
second, and then hang them. That New England
had now no friends in the [Privy] Council or Com
mittee, though formerly they had the Lord Privy
Seal. That he and his two sons would fight any six
there, for the Province, at sharps." In the two in
tervening years the tide had turned, and Eandolph,
writing in London ten weeks before the assault on
Mason, said : " Since charters are now at so low
an ebb, I fear Mr. Mason will find little benefit by
his antique grants in New England." Yet when
Eandolph came over again the next year, Mason was
appointed a member of the general Council for all
New England, of which Joseph Dudley was presi
dent, and Eandolph secretary ; and their powers

NEW HAMPSHIRE A PROVINCE 113
superseded those of Barefoot and his friends in
New Hampshire. Mason was sent from Boston to
London early in June, 1686, to carry the address
of the new President and Council to James II
at Windsor, where he presented it, July 26 ; and
though he returned to Boston the following May,
he never seems to have visited New Hampshire
again. Sir Edmund Andros, the governor-general,
reached Boston December 19, 1686, and was the
nominal ruler of New Hampshire until his arrest
in Boston, in April, 1689. The only member of his
Council residing in New Hampshire was John
Hincks, and it does not appear that Andros him
self made more than a formal visit to the Province.
Chamberlain was made clerk of the courts, and
Pheasant Eastwick coroner; while Eichard Wal
dron, Jr., son of the old Major, became Eandolph's
deputy register in the Province. The arrest and
imprisonment of Andros, Dudley, Eandolph, and
the rest, in 1689, terminated the old provincial
government, so that it will be convenient to take
up the history under William HI in a separate
chapter. By request of hundreds of the inhabit
ants, among them the Waldrons and Wentworths
of Dover, the Vaughans, Martins, Pickerings,
Langdons, and Sherburns of Portsmouth ; the San
borns, Weares, Goves, and Husseys of Hampton,
and the Gilmans and Wiggins of Exeter and
Stratham, the revolutionary provisional government
of Massachusetts took charge of New Hampshire

114 NEW HAMPSHIRE
(February 28, 1690), having previously made Ma
jor Waldron commander-in-chief of the soldiers of
that Province (April 23, 1689). But this veteran
was murdered by Indians in his own house at Do
ver, June 27 following, and the controversy he had
so long led against the heirs of Mason passed into
other hands. A few years earlier, Eobert Mason
had sold to Dudley, Eandolph, John Usher, Tyng,
and others, a million acres along the Merrimac
northward to Lake Winnipiseogee, and leased to
Hezekiah Usher and his heirs all the mines, miner
als, and ores of New Hampshire for one thousand
years. These transactions, together with a sale of
the whole Province to Samuel Allen, whose son-in-
law was John Usher, in 1691, by Eobert Mason's
two sons, proved the fruitful source of more liti
gation in the early eighteenth century.

CHAPTEE V
EARLY LAWS AND CUSTOMS
The situation of New Hampshire for more than
eighty years after its permanent settlement by Eu
ropeans, in 1623, was anomalous, far beyond the
irregularity of most of the colonies. This was a re
sult of frequent changes in the government, by the
intrusion of Massachusetts into the affairs of New
Hampshire, begun and continued through the Eng
lish Eevolution of 1640-1660 ; and, afterwards, by
the efforts of the Stuart kings to overthrow the
Massachusetts Charter and place all New England
under one government as crown colonies. After
these long-pursued and partially successful efforts
had failed, by the English Eevolution of 1688-89,
the interference, both of Massachusetts and of
royal favorites in England, was prolonged until
1741, when New Hampshire finally became an
independent Province, with its own established
bounds. Governors, and Legislatures. It was thus
prepared for taking a unique part as Colony and
State in the Eevolution of 1775, and in the estab
lishment of the nation, in 1789, under the Consti
tution of Washington, Franklin, and Madison, as

116 NEW HAMPSHIRE
amended with the additions suggested by Jefferson.
These anomalies in legislation and the legal prac
tice were set forth, with learning and humor, by
Mr. John M. Shirley, an eminent lawyer of New
Hampshire, in 1883 : but the whole story, of legis
lation, disallowance of laws, and conflicting juris
dictions, has never been so well told as in an edition
of the New Hampshire Province Laws issued in
1903, as a volume of the State Papers. Without
following all the intricacies of this story, it will be
sufficient here to summarize the facts, and to show
how the good sense and sturdy independence of
the plain people overcame difficulties that would
seem insurmountable to pedants officially prescrib
ing what might or might not legally be done.
The four original towns, Dover, Portsmouth,
Exeter, and Hampton, were, of necessity, inde
pendent republics, for they grew up outside of any
established jurisdiction. Massachusetts claimed
most of Mason's land-grant under its charter from
the Plymouth Company of England ; but in the
period immediately following 1623, this charter
did not exist, while from 1634 onward, until the
power of Charles I and Archbishop Laud was
broken by the Long Parliament in 1641, the royal
favor was so plainly withdrawn from Massachusetts,
and extended to the followers of the Anglican
Church in New Hampshire and Maine, that Win
throp, Dudley, and the Boston oligarchy made no
serious attempt to interfere with the settlements

EARLY LAWS AND CUSTOMS 117
north of the Merrimac and east of the Pascata
qua. Therefore, when John Wheelwright was banished
from Massachusetts, he naturally settled at Exeter,
as Churchmen and Baptists and men of no religion
had settled before at Dover and the Strawberry
Bank. In the same year (1638) which saw Wheel
wright, Leavitt and their company at Exeter, an
older friend of Wheelwright's, Eev. Stephen Bach
iler, himself suspected of heresy in Massachusetts,
but not yet under ban, joined with Winthrop's
son John, afterwards Governor of Connecticut, in ,
laying out a plantation at Hampton, which soon
became a town in special favor with Boston. Each
of these small plantations had its own local govern
ment, and owed no allegiance to any overlord ex
cept the King of England, to whom they professed
themselves loyal subjects. Mr. Shirley observed,
and it is strictly true, that " in the just sense of
the term, the genuine township system originated
and was developed in New Hampshire." Each town
chose a ruler or judge, with assistants or associates,
and courts of first instance, which were also of last
resort, — ¦ for where could an appeal be made ? It is
the opinion of good jurists, of whom may be named
Webster's senior and friend. Judge Smith of Exe
ter, that this town legislation was " not only sensi
ble and wise, but far in advance of what we should
expect ; " and Mr. Shirley thinks the action of
these primitive courts "equally sensible and just."

118 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Thrown upon themselves in a new country, with
wild savages on one side and religious bigots on
the other, they did what was best for the general
good, without too much regard to the law of Moses,
or the laws of England. They established a com
mon or customary law, enacting what was most
fitting for honest men to do, and what would most
surely restrain the dishonest. And therefore, when
Massachusetts poured out upon them her mixture
of Mosaic and English law, from 1641 to 1680, and
when the Stuarts, from 1680 till their downfall,
sought to introduce new rules of land tenure, local
government, and the management of courts and
juries, — the plain New Hampshire planters, trad
ers, fishermen, and lumbermen, easy to lead but
very hard to drive, took what they pleased of this
legislation, and threw aside the rest, with as much
nonchalance as consisted with good neighborhood
and real affection for the English monarchy, under
which they had been bred. It is both touching and
amusing (since the persecutions they suffered for
a time left no permanent ill results) to read the
quiet and successful resistance to arbitrary power
which these small communities in the wilderness
made from decade to decade. Their experience
stood them in good stead at the opening of the
Eevolution ; for they seem to have been no more in
awe of George III in 1775 than they had been of
Charles II in 1685, when they neutralized all his
efforts to make them tenants of the impecunious

EARLY LAWS AND CUSTOMS 119
Eobert Mason. Not that they had any fixed objec
tion to kings as such. If, in 1620, as Emerson
relates, " God said, ' I am tired of kings,' " this
remark had not reached New Hampshire ; her peo
ple accepted the tradition of kingship as they did
other traditions, — but did not let it interfere with
their notion of what good government ought to be.
When the Massachusetts Puritans, in 1641, find
ing that neither Charles Stuart nor his prelates
were likely to give them trouble for some time to
come, proposed to the four New Hampshire towns
to accept the Boston jurisdiction, they must re
nounce their pet notion of a religious oligarchy, in
order to tempt the settlers on the Pascataqua to
renounce their independence and come into an
association which common sense dictated. They
therefore recognized, as freemen in the New Hamp
shire towns, not only church members, who had been
the only voters in Massachusetts since 1633, but
all other substantial persons ; and all the four towns
were practically allowed to govern themselves by
their own officers, as they had done before. Wheel
wright, however, finding the Boston intolerance
following him into Exeter, withdrew to Maine, and
became pastor at Wells ; while his old friend Bach
iler, at Hampton, was invited by George Cleeve to
take a parish at Casco (now Portland). Ancient
acquaintance with the Winthrop family, and per
haps too much reliance on their gentleness, detained
the old founder of Hampton in New Hampshire,

120 NEW HAMPSHIRE
until increasing infirmities, and some of the obli
quities of advanced age, made his children remove
him to England in 1654.
It might be too much to say, as Emerson does
of the old town records of Concord, " I find our
annals marked with uniform good sense ; I find
no ridiculous laws, no eaves-dropping legislators,
no hanging of witches, no ghosts, no whipping of
Quakers, no unnatural crimes." But in the main
this is true for early New Hampshire. The first code
of general law for the Province, framed in 1680,
but disallowed in England, prescribed death for any
Christian " so called," who should " be a Witch,
that is, hath or consulteth with a familiar Spirit ; "
and under the Massachusetts rule the Mosaic law
did not suffer a witch to live. But no witch was
ever put to death in New Hampshire, and very few
old women were molested or complained of as
witches. The first case was that of Jane Walford
of Portsmouth, who in 1656 was brought before
Major Waldron in the Dover and Portsmouth
special court, upon suspicion of being a witch. She
was allowed to go upon her good behavior ; but in
1669 she brought an action for damages against
her accuser, and recovered five pounds and costs.
Before 1672 Mary Greenland, wife of Dr. Henry
Greenland, then living at Kittery, was accused by
some of the New Hampshire gossips of being a
witch, but nothing came of it. In 1680, however, the
coroner's jury in Hampton, including thirteen of the

EARLY LAWS AND CUSTOMS 121
most respectable citizens,^ after viewing the body
of a dead child, found " grounds of suspicion that
the said child was murdered by witchcraft ; " and
the case was carried to court. It was then testified
that Eachel Fuller, the alleged witch, had mentioned
"eight women and two men that she reckoned for
witches and wizards in Hampton, — Eunice Cole,
Benjamin Evans's wife and her daughters. Good-
wife Boulter and her daughter Prescott, and Good-
wife Towle,^ and one that is now dead." This
Eunice Cole had been charged with witchcraft in
1656, convicted, whipped, and sent up to Boston
to be imprisoned for life. But in a dozen years
or more she was sent back to Hampton and there
maintained as a pauper, until a new charge of
witchcraft was made against her in 1672, and she
was again sent to Boston to await trial. No legal
evidence of the fact appeared, and she was returned
once more to Hampton, under " just ground of
vehement suspicion of her having had familiarity
with the devil." But it is to be noted that Hamp
ton was specially connected with the oligarchy of
Massachusetts, where the witchcraft delusion grew
to a disastrous height in 1692, under the rhetoric
of Cotton Mather and other ministers, — the min
ister of Hampton being Seaborn Cotton, an uncle
of Mather, and a persecutor of Quakers.
Eeligious intolerance was mostly foreign to early
1 Several of these were of the author's ancestry, as were Mrs.
Towle and Mrs. Prescott.

122 NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire ; partly because there was a mix
ture of members of the Anglican Church among the
settlers, as well as of heretics and irreligious per
sons whom Massachusetts excluded. The Massa
chusetts spirit of persecution showed itself in 1662,
under Major Waldron, who, as already mentioned,
then issued his order for whipping Quaker women
at the cart's tail through a dozen towns under the
Puritan domination. But Waldron and Cotton
were exceptions to the general mildness of New
Hampshire toward the Quakers, who soon became
numerous in the four towns, and across the Pascata
qua in Kittery and Eliot. The same year in which
Waldron sentenced the Quaker women, he wrote
to a Massachusetts friend: "Major Shapleigh shel
ters all the Quakers that come into our parts, and
foUoweth them where they meet ; which is not only
a disturber upon that side of the river, but also
on our side, where is but the river between. And
some say he is dictated by the little crooked
Quaker [Edward Wharton]. And so they come
into our town, and presently they are gone over the
river ; and so his house is the harbor for them."
Shapleigh, though made a military officer in 1656,
had become a Quaker ; he was a partisan of Bare
foot, Champernown, and the other opponents of the
Puritans, and all the more tolerant because his
friends were under ban as favoring the Church of
England. Yet the Cranfield laws of 1682, supposed
to be less favorable to the Puritans, provided

EARLY LAWS AND CUSTOMS 123
" That whosoever shall speak contemptuously of the
Scriptures, or holy penmen thereof, shall be punished by
a fine not exceeding five pounds. And whosoever shall
behave himself contemptuously toward the Word of God
preached, or any minister thereof, called and faithfully
dispensing the same to any congregation, either by mani
fest interrupting of him, or falsely charging him with
teaching error, shall pay a fine of 20 shillings, or sit In
the stocks two hours."
As such interruptions and charges were part of
the mission of vagrant Quakers, this statute seems
to have been a survival of the Puritan code. Church-
going was enjoined in New Hampshire by law, or
at any rate by custom, and it was ordered in the
Cranfield code that " the Lord's day " should not
be profaned by servile labor, travel, sport, frequent
ing Ordinaries in time of public worship, or " idly
straggling abroad," — the fine for such conduct
being ten shillings or an hour in the stocks. And
because "sundry dissolute persons," if fined, might
not have money to pay, without injury to their
families, it was provided that poor persons should
be whipped instead of fined, — the ratio being, for
a ten-shilling fine, five stripes ; for twenty shillings,
ten stripes ; for fines between one and five pounds,
twenty stripes, and for all higher sums, not exceed
ing forty stripes.
Drunkenness, and the sale of liquors of various
intoxicating power, led to the greatest number of
ordinances and penalties, from the earliest settle-

124 NEW HAMPSHIRE
ment till recent times. A constant business of all
the local and central governments was to license
taverns and drinking-places, and to regulate " Or
dinaries " and their frequenters. The first business
carried on along the New Hampshire coast being
fish catching and curing, a class of seamen, as
thirsty as the proverbial fish itself, frequented the
islands and seaboard towns. All the four original
settlements were maritime, being made on tidewater,
even as far inland as Exeter and Dover ; and when
lumbering became an active and lucrative employ
ment, this also was carried on by men fond of a
dram. The magistrates and gentry, what few there
were, drank wine and brandy freely, and usually
held their meetings in taverns, which were large
and central buildings, and long preceded churches.
Innkeeping was a very respectable occupation.
The founder of the rich and powerful Wentworth
family of Portsmouth was Samuel Wentworth, who
began as the landlord of the Dolphin Inn at Great
Island, and afterward built a great tavern across
the ferry in Portsmouth, which is still standing, and
was one of the largest structures in the provincial
capital. Samuel Sherburne, head of another power
ful Portsmouth clan, was innkeeper at Hampton,
succeeding old Eobert Tucke, the Englishman, from
whom so many of the New England and New York
people are descended ; and Henry Eoby, one of the
subservient justices in the Cranfield and Barefoot
despotism, was a taverner in another part of Hamp-

EARLY LAWS AND CUSTOMS 125
ton. The supply of beverages was large, and came
in from the Azores, the Canaries, and from Spain,
with which the New Hampshire fishmongers soon
got a profitable trade by exchanging salt fish (much
used in Catholic countries) and pipestaves for the
Spanish wine and French brandy that went into
the pipes put together from the Pascataqua staves.
Much of the early revenue of the colony came from
a tariff on wine and liquors, or from fees paid by
the men licensed to sell them. In due time, rum
from the West Indies was added to the intoxicants,
and gin from Holland ; while beer, mead, cider,
and perry were home-made drinks. The beverage
made from pears figures in one of those amusing
incidents with which the career of Walter Barefoot
is variegated, from his first appearance as a neigh
bor of the gentle Captain Champernown, kinsman
of Ealeighs and Gilberts, in 1657, when this chi
rurgeon had newly come over, until he disappears
by death in 1689. In 1675, before he had become
a magistrate, and when living at Dover, the Hamp
ton marshal, Christopher Palmer, a son-in-law of
Edward Hilton, and father-in-law of the Sherman
of Watertown from whom so many famous modern
men descended, went up the Pascataqua to arrest
Dr. Barefoot. Concealing his real mission. Palmer
induced the doctor to go to the Dover jail, and re
lease from arrest two of the Hiltons, who were
lodged there. The jovial doctor took along a gallon
of perry to drink the health of the released, and

126 NEW HAMPSHIRE
so long as it lasted they were all very merry. But
presently, as the jailer's son testified, " there was
a great noise. Dr. Barefoot lying on the ground and
saying he would not go, for he was in prison already,
where he would abide ; but Christopher Palmer
answered ' he was his prisoner,' pulling him very
rough and rudely." Palmer himself testified that
Barefoot " laid himself along the floor at the prison,
more like a pig than a captain ; " for the doctor
claimed that title too. As they went down the river
toward Hampton prison, where John Souter received
the unwilling chirurgeon. Captain Champernown
offered to give bail for his friend, but was refused ;
whereupon Barefoot read the Massachusetts Puri
tans a lecture from their own " Body of Liberties."
In 1664, not long after he had released the
Quaker women at Salisbury, this incorrigible Bare
foot, with his brother physician, Greenland, was
convicted of an assault on two men in a tavern at
Newbury, and in 1671 he was fined by the Mas
sachusetts magistrates " for his profaneness and
horrid oaths." The same court went on to banish
him for alleged desertion of an English wife, and
to forbid his medical practice. In spite of all this,
he became under James II chief justice and acting
Governor of New Hampshire, in which capacity,
as we saw, he was visited by two tall yeomen from
Dover, who insulted the Governor and " Proprie
tor " of the Province in Barefoot's house, and threw
them one after the other on the kitchen fire, break-

EARLY LAWS AND CUSTOMS 127
ing the Governor's ribs, and burning Eobert Ma
son's wig. It will be inferred that wine, the mocker,
and strong drink, which the Bible calls " raging,"
had something to do with these freaks of eminent
citizens. Nevertheless, serious crime was not common in
New Hampshire, though the courts were full of
indictments, complaints, and counter-charges, and
most of the leading men saw the inside of the rude
blockhouse prisons, sooner or later. Many offenses
were nominally punishable with death, but the ex
treme penalty was seldom exacted. It is curious
that in the first formal code of the Province (1680),
while treason was made capital, it was styled
" treason against the person of our Sovereign the
King, State and Commonwealth of England ; " as if
it was expected that kings might again give place
to a Commonwealth, as at the death of Charles I.
Eebellion, in the same body of laws, was to be
punished by death " or other grievous punishment."
But the only persons tried for rebellion (Edward
Gove and his followers in 1683) were indicted for
hiarh treason, and sentenced under the barbarous
English law, which was never carried out, even
against Gove ; for the king's orders were, —
" That in all criminal cases, where the punishment to
be inflicted upon the offenders shall extend to loss of life
or limb, (the case of wilful murder only excepted) the
party convicted shall either be sent over Into this our
kingdom of England, with a true state of his case and con-

128 NEW HAMPSHIRE
viction, or execution shall be respited until the case shall
be here represented unto us, our heirs and successors, in our
and their Privy Council, and orders sent and returned
therein." Under this wise precaution, which sounds as if it
were drawn by Halifax, then in the Privy Council,
Gove was lodged in the Tower under strong guard,
at a cost of £S a week, then allowed greater liberty,
and finally, not only pardoned by James II in
1685, but sent back to his family in Seabrook
(where his grave is), with orders from the king
" authorizing and requiring the President [Joseph
Dudley] of His Majesty's territory and dominion
of New England, to restore the said Gove to his
estate, and to the possession thereof, in such man
ner and form as if he had not been convicted."
This was practically to annul the sentence, itself
manifestly illegal and excessive, but urged on by
Cranfield in order to get money out of the con
fiscated property, as he did. Considering the usur
pations of Cranfield, it is significant that, in giving
him instructions at the outset (May 9, 1682), the
only extract from the " Book of Laws of Eng
land " which the king made and appended to his
formal orders was this : —
" 16th of King Charles the First (1640), — Be it like
wise declared and enacted by this present [Long] Parlia
ment, that neither His Majesty nor the Privy Council
have or ought to have any jurisdiction, power or authority
in any arbitrary way whatsoever, to examine or draw into

EARLY LAWS AND CUSTOMS 129
question, determine, or dispose of the lands, tenements,
hereditaments, goods or chattels of any of the subjects
of this kingdom ; but that the same ought to be tried and
determined in the ordinary course of justice, and by the
ordinary course of the law."
Cranfield's removal (disguised under a leave of
absence) was brought about by Halifax, in effect
for violating this plain precept of English law,
passed in consequence of the ship-money extortions
and other abuses of Charles First's reign. And al
though Andros and his associates attempted like
spoliations, it was with a more careful attention to
the forms of law.
Taxation and currency are subjects of regular
tion by law everywhere, even in Turkey, and they
appear often in the statutes of New Hampshire.
The trade with the West Indies and Spain brought
in much Spanish money, — Spain having had for
many years a monopoly of silver mining and coin
ing. Our dollar was the Spanish piece of eight
reals, and was extensively used in Europe as well as
in America. It was legislated into a variable value
both in England and New England, but generally
it stood at six shillings of English money. New
Hampshire had no mint, and that of Massachusetts
was soon suppressed as an infringement of English
sovereignty. The New Hampshire currency was
never wampum, but from a very early day pipe-
staves, boards, wheat, and Indian corn, at rates fixed
by law from time to time, but not varying greatly

130 NEW HAMPSHIRE
for many years, until the extension of agriculture
inland caused the price of corn to fall. Paper
money had no great favor in the small Province,
though that issued by Massachusetts, after King
William's Indian war, was used to some extent in
New Hampshire. Counterfeiters and clippers of
coin made their appearance in the seventeenth
century, but did not become troublesome until the
period of the Eevolution. Piracy was the mari
time fashion of the seventeenth century, disguised
in part as privateering, and for a while not unpop
ular in Boston and New York. Charles II insisted
in 1682 that New Hampshire should pass a strict
law against piracy, and it was done, but the Pro
vince had not much need of its enforcement. Theft
was common, and was severely punished ; yet the
morals of the people seem to have been better than
in Maine, and probably no worse than in Massachu
setts, though New Hampshire made less parade of
its virtues. Sexual offenses, not uncommon before
1650, must have been increased by the general
looseness of English morals under the restored Stu
arts. A seaport like Portsmouth facilitates such
vice, and Eev. Stephen Bachiler, one of the founders
of the colony, was the victim there of a loose woman
who inveigled him into a marriage of pretext in
1647. She was a landowner in Maine, by reason
of a former marriage with a man named Beedle,
and her third husband was named Turner. Mr.
Bachiler was refused a divorce by the Massachu-

EARLY LAWS AND CUSTOMS 131
setts court, though her immorality was flagrant ;
she afterward seems to have got a divorce, on the
plea that he had gone back to England, — which
was true, — and had married there, — which was
manifestly false, for in 1656, he was ninety-five
years old. Her later life seems to have occasioned
no scandal. She was born in England about 1612,
and lived until about 1680. Women of her charac
ter were numerous on the Maine sea-coast, accord
ing to the report of visitors there and the records
of the courts. In New Hampshire the rapid increase
of population, as the settlements moved inland,
shows that family life was decent and normal. The
worst offenders were officials from England, such
as William Penn had in mind in 1701 when he
wrote to Harley, Earl of Oxford : " Unless gov
ernors and inferior officers are men of good morals
and character at home, they are a punishment in
lieu of a benefit."
The customs of marriage and divorce in New
Hampshire, though without positive sanction of law
at various times, followed the general course of
Puritan legislation, by which marriage was re
garded as a civil contract, to be solemnized by some
magistrate, local or general. Consequent upon this
theory was the corollary that divorce, if not made
according to the Jewish law (as sometimes may
have happened), could be legalized in one or other
of its forms, by the legislature or courts of the
Colony or Province. Causes of divorce were recog-

132 NEW HAMPSHIRE
nized in general or special laws ; but in 1784 the
granting of divorce was taken from the legislature
and made the privilege of the highest court of the
State, and such is the law to-day.
A curious example of the survival of ancient fol
lies in the law of England occurred in two cases of
manslaughter in New Hampshire, less than a hun
dred years after the cessation of Massachusetts
control, — the last occurring in 1776. Apparently
following the criminal code of Plymouth Colony,
under which, in 1654, a convict named Latham
claimed benefit of clergy (which exempted him
from death and substituted branding in the hand),
New Hampshire had the same singular provision.
Whoever could write, if he claimed his clergy, and
the magistrate allowed it, when convicted of felony,
was branded in the hand and then went forth free.
A son, slaying his father in the town of HoUis,
under the last Governor Wentworth, pleaded his
clergy before four judges, and took the branding.
Soon after, John Patten of Chester, having caused
the death of Thomas Shirley, ancestor of the juris
consult Shirley, was convicted of manslaughter, but
claimed his clergy, and went free, with a slight
branding. Probably these were not cases of legal
folly, but of justifiable mercy, arising from peculiar
conditions of the homicide, — the court availing
itself of the old barbarism to avoid a more unjust
sentence. Doubtless unrecorded cases of the sort
occurred earlier.

EARLY LAWS AND CUSTOMS 133
Except in the persecution of Quakers, under the
barbarous laws enacted at Boston and soon set
aside by Charles II ; in the unjust proceedings of
the courts under Cranfield (also practically disal
lowed by Halifax and the Privy Council under
Charles) ; and in the unwillingness of juries to
countenance the claims, more or less lawful, of
Mason and his successor, Allen, few instances of
perverted justice appear in New Hampshire history,
but many of mercy and judicial good sense.
Music was somewhat cultivated by the early in
habitants, and in the inventory of Edward Lyde, a
son-in-law of Wheelwright, appears " a pair of vir
ginals." Eichard Chamberlain, the moody and de
jected royal Secretary, was solacing his griefs with
a musical instrument, perhaps a rebec, at his cham
ber on Great Island, when assailed by the " stone-
throwing devil " described in his " Lithobolia," pub
lished at London in 1698, after he bad withdrawn
from the fruitless strife in New Hampshire (carry
ing with him, it is to be hoped, the j£l0 and
half a dozen dowlas shirts bequeathed to him, in
1689, by his friend Barefoot). His belief in the
demonic stone-throwing, like that of his contem
porary. Cotton Mather, and many others, was com
plete ; and he thought very ill of men who were
skeptical. To disbelieve, said poor Eichard, " one
must temerariously unhinge and undermine the
best religion in the world, and must disingenuously
quit and abandon that of the three Theologic Vir-

134 NEW HAMPSHIRE
tues or Graces to which the great Doctor of the
Gentiles gave the precedence, — Charity, — through
his unchristian and uncharitable Incredulity." That
unchristian turn of mind was not common then in
the Province ; for at the very outset of the new gov
ernment, in 1680, good old John Cutt proclaimed
a fast on account of " that portentous blazing star "
which had lately been seen in the heavens that
overarched the Pascataqua. The fear of the Lord
was heavy upon the Puritans, and accounts for
some of their most censurable actions ; they be
lieved that God would require of them an account,
not only of their own sins, but those of their neigh
bors. As a quaint writer in 1690, E. Daniel, said
to Eobert Harley, " The first chief planters of New
England (called Puritans) were for coactive coun
sels, and so kept the people in awe." And John
Wiswall, writing from Dorchester in 1638 to George
Eigby, brother of that Alexander Eigby who pur
chased the Plough Patent of Bachiler and his flock,
praised the Puritans of Winthrop's time, because
he saw there "Moses and Aaron, in church and
commonwealth, to walk hand in hand, discounte
nancing and punishing sin." They grasped and
usurped, not merely for their own profit and glory,
but as they sincerely thought, "for the glory of
God and the relief of man's estate," which Francis
Bacon held to be the highest motives to noble con
duct.

CHAPTEE VI
INDIAN WARS
In the history of any people, it is first to be con
sidered what inherited traits, or what external con
ditions, have imposed on that people its peculiar
character from the beginning. These have been in
dicated in the circumstances of New Hampshire's
first settlement, and the long-continuing controver
sies over religious opinions and the tenure of lands.
A mixture of those separate races that coalesced
to form, in a thousand years, the composite popula
tion of Great Britain and Ireland, sent out scions
of these races, from different counties and regions,
to populate the sea-coast and river-strands of New
Hampshire. The hardy seamen from Devon and
Cornwall, the descendants of Danes and Flemings
in Norfolk and Essex, the Border men of England
and Scotland, and, in the early eighteenth century,
the well-named Scotch-Irish from Ulster and the
large towns of Ireland and Scotland, — these were
the varied rills of immigration that united to form
the tide of early population in the present counties
of Eockingham and Strafford. Divided in reli
gious faith, or by the lack of it, they were united in

136 NEW HAMPSHIRE
opposition to the exactions of an absentee landlord
and the arbitrary rule of a royal governor who
lacked the physical force to support his tyrannies.
And then came the outside pressure of wars with
Indians and the French, which for nearly a hundred
years kept the little Province in a state of defense
or aggression to preserve what it had got, and to
make that more defensible by extending the inhab
ited limits. Thus was formed and welded together
that tenacious and bold nature of the New Hamp
shire people, easily recognized in the marked in
stance of prominent men, but quite as discernible
in the mass of the population when some exigency
gave the occasion. A militia captain, afterwards a
victorious general in the Eevolution, as he marched
his stalwart company toward Boston after the
opening flght at Concord and Lexington, was asked
what and whence his men were. With an oath he
answered, "Full-blooded Yankees from Eocking
ham County, that never turned their backs on any
man yet ! " and it was allowed to be a fair descrip
tion of the soldiers from Nottingham and Deerfield.
Such military fitness as they had was acquired by
descent or individual practice in the ever-renewed
struggle for life against the wily and harassing
savage and his French instigators.
While the colonists of Plymouth and Connecti
cut were contending against the Pequot savages,
and gradually approaching the desperate conflict
with Philip, in which Massachusetts had a leading

INDIAN WARS 137
part. New Hampshire had been living at peace
with the more numerous northern and eastern
tribes, and, like the neighbors in Maine, carrying
on a profitable trade in furs. No New Hampshire
merchant or captain had kidnaped Indians, or con
spicuously broken faith with that proud race of
warriors. The early outrages of this sort on the
coast of Maine seemed to have been forgotten be
fore 1670 ; but a subtle ecclesiastical influence was
beginning to urge the savage to a kind of religious
warfare against the English settlers. Louis XIV,
at the head of the aggressive French Catholics,
controlled, through his viceroys and missionary
priests, the armed colony of Canada, with its In
dian and half-breed allies ; and even before he en
gaged in war with England, he and his American
subjects had their thoughts directed toward the
repression of Protestant colonization, which was
gradually moving up the Hudson and the New
England rivers toward Canada. What they had
to do with the Indian wars of 1675—77 is uncer
tain, but there are indications that in Maine the
influence of Catholic traders and priests was felt
in keeping up that contest. In 1677 a document
signed by nine Abenaki Indians, and making some
just accusations against Major Waldron and other
Puritans, seems to have been the composition of one
Diogenes Madawaskarbet, whose name implies a
French Canadian baptism. He said : " Because
there was war at Narragansett, you came here

138 NEW HAMPSHIRE
when we were quiet, and took away our guns, and
made prisoners of our chief sagamores ; and that
winter, for want of our guns there was several
starved. Is it your fashion to come and make
peace, and then kill us ? Major Waldin do lie ; we
were not minded to kill nobody ; he give us drink,
and when we were drunk, killed us."
Before these questionable acts of Waldron, how
ever, the settlements on the Pascataqua and its
branches were attacked. In September, 1675, some
of the Abenakis burned houses and killed men in
Durham, then called Oyster Eiver, and waylaid a
man and his son going from Exeter to Hampton,
killing the father, and capturing a third Exeter
man, Eanlet, who escaped by help of a friendly
Indian. They renewed the attack at Durham soon
after, burned more houses, and killed two men.
Eeprisals then began. Some young men of Wal
dron's command went forth scouting from Dover,
and killed two Indians out of five, but this only
increased the Indian fury. The Penacooks, a large
tribe near Concord, remained friendly during
these scenes, having been warned by their old
sachem, Passaconaway, and his successor, Wono-
lancet, not to provoke the English to war. The
eastern Indians from Maine were temporarily re
duced to peace ; but the tribe and allies of Philip,
after his death in August, 1676, strayed northward
and eastward, and committed murders in New
Hampshire. They then took refuge with the Pena-

INDIAN WARS 139
cooks, on the upper Merrimac, and with the tribe
around Chocorua, who were at peace with the
English. Waldron, an old Indian trader, had
made this peace, and till then, though merciless
toward the Quakers, he had been looked upon by
Indians as their friend. At his invitation four hun
dred of the tribes, including two hundred of the
friendly Penacooks, were gathered near his fortress
in Dover, early in September, 1676. William
Hawthorne, ancestor of the novelist, and another
Massachusetts captain, having marched to Dover,
proposed to Waldron to attack these peaceful In
dians. Instead of that, Waldron contrived a ruse,
by which he as major, and three captains, Haw
thorne, Frost, and Sill, should join their forces the
next day, and capture the whole body of savages.
This was done by deluding them into a sham fight,
after the English mode, and allowing the Indians
to fire first, wasting their powder. The captains
then closed upon them with loaded guns, and cap
tured the entire company without bloodshed. But
the Massachusetts captains, selecting two hundred
of the lately hostile but now pacified Indians, swept
them away to Boston, where seven or eight were at
once executed as murderers, and the rest were sold
into slavery. As Hubbard, the Puritan historian,
said, " They had their lives spared, but were sent
into other parts of the world, to try the difference
between the friendship of their neighbors here,
and their service with other masters elsewhere."

140 NEW HAMPSHIRE
This treachery, coming after a smaller example of
the same sort practiced earlier in the year by one
Laughton, professing to act under Waldron's au
thority, was never forgiven by the Penacooks, who
soon became hostile, like the Abenakis, Wampa-
noags, and Narragansetts.
For the present, the western Indians were sub
dued ; but the Abenakis, who had driven the Puri
tan magnates and other colonists from Saco and
the Maine towns, kept up the fight, though eluding
the winter pursuit of Waldron, Frost, and their
soldiers ; and the New England savages were only
provoked further by an incursion of the cruel Mo
hawks from New York, who had been persuaded
by Pynchon of Springfield and Eichards of Hart
ford to join in alliance with the Puritans. In the
spring of 1677, Greenland and North Hampton
were attacked, and four men of Hampton were
slain ; while a more eminent citizen, Captain Swett,
was killed, a fortnight later, in a fight near Black
Point in Maine (June 29, 1677). In August fol
lowing. Sir Edmund Andros, sending soldiers to
Pemaquid, kept the Indians quiet ; and in April,
1678, three residents near Portsmouth, Francis
Champernown, Major Shapleigh, and Nathaniel
Fryar, made a humiliating treaty with Squando and
the Abenakis, by which it was agreed to pay trib
ute for the lands held by the colonists in Maine.
So ended the war called King Philip's ; but its
heavy expense weighed on all the colonies for

INDIAN WARS 141
years. When it was over, the inquiry was raised.
How did the savages get their guns and powder?
articles in which it was forbidden to trade with
Indians except by special license. Of course the
law was evaded or defied, as It had been by Morton
of Merry Mount fifty years before ; but the Puri
tans, shocked and exasperated (as they were soon
after) by the mysterious Popish Plot in London,
had earlier discovered that a Catholic gentilJiomme
on the Maine sea-coast, the Baron de Saint-Castin,
for whom Castine is named, had married an Indian
woman, and was supplying for years the neighbor
ing Indians with weapons and ammunition. This
was a new grievance against the Catholics, of
which much was heard when the Bostonians had
imprisoned Andros, suspected of Catholic tenden
cies, and sent him to England for trial.
But no Indian war came on till about that period
when England freed herself from a Catholic king,
and New England shook off the yoke of Andros,
Dudley, and Eandolph. The flight of James II
from England to France was soon followed by war
between the two kingdoms, and this led to incur
sions from Catholic Canada of French and Indian
fio-hters, who burned towns, raided detached homes
and garrisons, slaughtered men, and carried women
and children away to be sold as servants and
brought up as Catholics. They had been incited
to this, before war was declared, by an affair in
which Andros was concerned in the spring of 1688.

142 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Outside of New England, as the term was then
used, was a tract given to James II, then Duke of
York, by his royal brother, the bounds of It over
lapping the French territory In which the Baron de
Saint-Castin had settled. Andros,- who governed at
Pemaquid for the duke (now king), went In the
Eose frigate with a force of men, and plundered
the Baron's house and fort, leaving him only the
ornaments of his chapel while seizing his arms and
goods. In revenge, he incited his neighbors, the
Indians, to make reprisals, alleging that the treaty
of 1678 had not been kept by the colonists, and
that the savages had been cheated In the fur trade.
Andros sent an army against them, but without
effect. He garrisoned the forts, however, and held
the savages in check until he was arrested in April,
1689. The Puritans then cashiered some of his
officers, and allowed the force of soldiers to be
diminished, thus inviting attack.
The first serious onset was made in revenge for
Major Waldron's perfidy in 1676. More than
twelve years had passed since the friendly Indians
were deluded and captured by him at Dover ;
some of those sold into slavery had escaped and re
turned to their people. A combination was formed
between the Penacook and Chocorua Indians to
visit upon Waldron the penalty of his deceit.
They affected to be peaceful, but had murder in
their hearts. Waldron had no suspicion of what
was preparing, but when some of his neighbors

INDIAN WARS 143
expressed their fears of an outbreak, Waldron bade
them go and plant their pumpkins, and leave him
to deal with the Indians. Mesandowit, a sachem,
was kindly entertained by the old Major, and when
the squaws said that many Indians were coming
next day to trade with him, and the chieftain
asked, " Brother Waldron, what would you do if
the strange Indians should come along with them ? "
" I would lift my finger," was the haughty answer,
" and a hundred warriors would respond to my
call." One squaw lodged in the fortress ; at night
she opened the gates, and many Indians came rush
ing in. They made for the inner room, where the
octogenarian slept. He met them sword in hand,
and drove them through two or three doors. But
while returning for his pistols, they came behind
the old warrior, stunned him with the blow of a
tomahawk, dragged him into his hall, and seated him
in his elbow chair on the long table where they had
eaten food with him. "Who shall judge Indians
now?" they asked him in mockery. Then, calling
for food, which the people In the house were forced
to give them, they satisfied their hunger before tor
turing their victim. As they smote him with their
knives, each man cried out to the veteran merchant,
" I cross out my account." When, overcome with
pain and loss of blood, he was falling from the
table, one, more merciful, held his own sword under
him, which ended his torment. Seldom has the in
justice of man been more unsparingly requited.

144 NEW HAMPSHIRE
The wretches then killed Waldron's son-in-law,
Abraham Lee, a chemist of doubtf«l repute, who
had been indicted for making false money, carried
away Mrs. Lee and other women of the household,
and set the great house on fire, before proceeding
to attack the lesser garrisons, four of which were
near by. Eichard Otis was killed In his garrison,
and his wife and child carried off to a Canadian
nunnery, where the daughter was bred a Catholic.
Mrs. Heard's garrison house was saved by the alert
ness and strength of old Elder Wentworth, pro
genitor of a distinguished New Hampshire family.
Aroused by the barking of a dog just as the In
dians were entering, he pushed them out, shut the
heavy door, and, falling on his back to avoid bul
lets, held it with his feet until the men in the cham
bers were alarmed and came to his aid. The widow
who owned this house, Elizabeth Heard, was re
turning, unconscious of danger. In a boat from
Portsmouth, with her four children, after nightfall.
She heard alarming sounds as they neared the land
ing, and seeing lights in Waldron's garrison, not
yet set on fire, the company betook themselves there
for refuge, and knocked and called at the outer
gate of the stockade. No answer coming, a young
man in her party climbed up the palisado, and saw
an Indian with a gun keeping guard In the house
door. Then ensued one of those acts which enhance
the picture of savage atrocity with a gleam of sav-
agre virtue.

INDIAN WARS 145
Overcome with fright, the poor widow bade her
children save themselves and leave her, helpless,
to her fate. They obeyed her order, but no enemy
attacked her. Eecovering a little, she crept into a
shroud of bushes in the garden, and, as daylight
came on, into a thicket of trees, farther away from
the burning fortress. She next saw an Indian com
ing toward her with a pistol, perhaps one of Wal
dron's ; he looked at her, and went away. Eeturn
ing soon after, he looked at her more earnestly.
She asked him what he wanted, to which he made
no reply, but ran with a warwhoop toward the
house (as If he had killed a victim), and she saw
him no more. When the house-roof fell In and the
savages withdrew, she stealthily sought her own
house, and found all safe. Gathering her distracted
thoughts, she remembered that In the fatal treach
ery of 1676, a young Indian, escaping from the
net of Waldron and Hawthorne, came running
to the house, where she kindly concealed him. He
then promised that he would spare her and hers
in any future war, and would persuade other In
dians to do the same. This grateful savage was one
of the midnight assailants of Waldron, and Mrs.
Heard was well known to many of his party.
Mrs. Heard's daughter, the wife of John Ham,
returned swiftly down the river to give the alarm
at Portsmouth, where Major Waldron's son Eich
ard was living, — the same who narrowly escaped
death in 1694, when Ursula Cutt, widow of the

146 NEW HAMPSHIRE
president, was killed among her haymakers, late
in July. In the same day, by messenger from Jus
tice Weare of Hampton, the son received a let
ter from Governor Bradstreet informing the Wal
drons that Dover was to be attacked, and that
the old Major was specially aimed at. The news
had come from Penacook to Chelmsford by two
friendly Indians, four days before the attack, but
had been delayed in reaching Dover till too late.
Meantime, the savages had divided their captives,
and were making northward by separate routes to
Canada. One party, pursued by a Dover company,
were overtaken near the White Mountain Notch,
and three of the Otis children retaken. But the
young widow, Grizel Warren, daughter of James
Warren, a Scot, and an Irish Margaret and her
baby, Margaret Otis, three months old, were carried
to Montreal, where the child, baptized as Christine,
was educated In a convent, and married at eighteen
to a Montreal carpenter, Le Beau. Her mother,
only twenty-seven at her capture, was married in
1693 to Philip Eobitaille, a cooper, and bore him
four Catholic children. Christine, at twenty-four a
widow, fell in love with Thomas Baker, once a cap
tive from Deerfield, but in 1714 a commissioner to
ransom captives, and fled with him to Boston. The
town of Brookfield made her a grant of land, while
she was living in Northampton, married to Captain
Baker, and resuming her name of Margaret. He
was the first representative to the General Court

INDIAN WARS 147
from Brookfield, in 1719, but removed to Dover,
his wife's native town, in 1734. There Mrs. Baker,
her husband being an invalid, asked and got per
mission from the New Hampshire Assembly to
keep a public house, while the Massachusetts Gen
eral Court gave her five hundred acres in Maine,
" under the care of Colonel William Pepperrell,"
— on the profits of which, and of her Inn, she lived
to the age of eighty-four. She left three Catholic
children In Canada, and in New Hampshire a large
posterity, — living, says her obituary, " in good
reputation, being a pattern of industry, prudence
and economy, and meeting death with calmness." ^
Such was the romance of Indian warfare in New
Hampshire. But the terrible loss and suffering it
brought can hardly be Imagined. In this one raid
upon Dover 23 Inhabitants were slain and 29 cap
tured ; while in the nine years following, at least
150 were kiUed and wounded, and 100 more taken
captive. A loss of 300 in ten years, out of a pop
ulation of less than 10,000, besides as many more
killed In battle or upon long marches, together
with the ruin of homes and farms, and the heavy
cost of defense and attack, — these facts indicate
1 See the very thorough and interesting volume by Miss Alice
Baker, True Stories of New England Captives (Cambridge, 1897).
She covers seventy years with her researches, and brings out the
striking fact that Esther Wheelwright (great-granddaughter of
Rev. John Wheelwright), as Mother Superior of French nuns,
assisted at the burial of Montcalm, and cared for the wounded of
Wolfe's army. Her capture was in 1703.

148 NEW HAMPSHIRE
what the poor Province had to endure from 1688
to 1698. Upon the renewal of the French war
in 1703, incursions from Canada and the Maine
and New Hampshire wilderness began again, and
this war also lasted for ten years, being known
as " Queen Anne's war," while the earlier one was
" King William's." In neither did the colonists, at
least in New Hampshire, get any effective aid from
England. A fourth war, beginning in a sporadic
way in 1721, continued till 1725, New Hamp
shire and Maine being the chief sufferers. In 1744
war was renewed, and lasted till 1749, with many
Indian atrocities ; a final conflict with the united
French and Indian foes la'feted from 1754 tiU 1761,
though practically ended for New England by the
capture of Quebec by Wolfe in 1759. In this war
the great talents of John Stark were first brought
to public notice.
The later wars, involving two captures of Louis-
bourg and the campaigns of Ticonderoga and Que
bec, will be treated In connection with the civil and
social history of the Province before the Eevolution.-
But the Impressive fact about all these Indian
conflicts Is that, in spite of losses and slaughter,
the colonists pressed on their work of pushing the
deadly frontier farther back, and building up a
Christian commonwealth in the shadow of the ever-
receding forest. Mountains were no obstacle to the
courage and persistence of the New Hampshire
pioneers, especially after they were reinforced by

INDIAN WARS 149
that stalwart and pugnacious race from northern
Ireland which founded the inland towns of Derry
and Londonderry and the five townships around
Monadnoc. Elvers and lakes were an invitation
and furtherance rather than hindrances ; for they
furnished pathways through the forest, to the set
tlers as well as to the Indians, and their frequent
waterfalls -gave the needful power to convert the
forest Itself into timber for villages and lumber
for export. On these dashing streams, too, were
set up those water-mills which ground the farmer's
grain and prepared his home-grown wool and flax
for the family clothing, and which early gave way
to the cotton-spinning, wood-working, and iron-shap
ing industries that overran the State in the nine
teenth century. Seldom has a community illus
trated better than New Hampshire, in its first two
centuries of English occupation, the brave maxim
that "obstacles are things to be overcome," and
the familiar truth that hardship and toil are the
best discipline for a colonial people. Well did
Hubbard, the eloquent and scholastic, not less than
Puritanic, chronicler of early New England and
the Indian wars, say in his first book, " It Is with
young colonies as with trees newly planted, which
those winds that are not so boisterous as to blow
down, do so far advantage as to shake them to a
greater fastness at the root." Walter Scott, whose
Lowland dialect was as well known in half of New
Hampshire, when he learned it In boyhood, as It

150 NEW HAMPSHIRE
was in his Border counties, put the same image
into verse in the song of the Highlanders, praising
the pine-tree of their clan : —
" Outs is no sapling, chance-sown by the fountain,
Blooming at Beltane, in winter to fade ;
When the whirlwind has stripped every leaf on the mountain,
The more shall Clan- Alpine exult in her shade.
Moored in the rifted rock.
Proof to the tempest's shock.
Firmer he roots him the ruder it blow ;
" Heaven send it happy dew,
Earth lend it sap anew,
Gayly to bourgeon, and broadly to grow.''
The dismal experiences of ambuscade and sur-
prlsal taught the men of war In these infested
townships the lessons they afterwards practiced
upon these very French and Indian enemies, and
carried Eogers and Stark, Pepperrell and Vaughan,
on land, and the seamen of Paul Jones, through
desperate battle to certain victory.
Hardly a descendant of the tidewater colonists
of the seventeenth century, in the Province of
Waldron and Wentworth, but counts among his
ancestors one or two victims of the savage bullet
or knife, and many of us a score of them. All New
England and New York suffered greatly by this
warfare, which, however unjustly it began, must be
waged by the colonists until the savages and their
priestly instigators and abetters had been rendered
powerless for mischief. This had happened at the

INDIAN WARS 151
close of the war in which Washington and Stark
won their first military renown. In proportion to
Its population and wealth. New Hampshire endured
the most, and profited the most thereby, in tough
ening the fibre of her people. The story Is long
and thrilling ; as a result, hardly an Indian re
mained In the Province in 1770, except, perhaps,
an enslaved captive.

CHAPTEE VII
THE FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS
It has often been observed that the sharpest dis
putes are with members of the same family. Wen
dell Phillips used to say, " You can safely speak ill
of a man to his cousin ; " and there have been irre
concilable antipathies between sisters. Massachu
setts and her elder but smaller Colony can hardly
be styled sisters, at least until they both came into
the confederacy against Britain ; they were more
like the city cousin and the country cousin, out
wardly on good terms, but not rapturously fond of
each other. While the Puritans controlled New
Hampshire, they treated her with alternate kindness
and severity ; she must not endanger their Com
monwealth by allowing heresy or disrespect to ma
gistrates. To the latter form of dissent Massachu
setts was peculiarly sensitive. Her authorities were
in power by God's ordinance, as much as kings
were held by the Cavaliers to be, and must be
treated as " worshipful," — the common term of ad
dress. When the ministers sought a like privilege,
they were reminded, gently or forcibly, that their
power was from men, though their call might be

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 153
from God ; chosen by their church, they were not
its dictators. New Hampshire was from the first a
little rebellious in this point ; there was more of
the stubborn Englishman, and less of the elect of
Heaven, in the mien of her wiUf ul people toward
rulers. Geneva had failed to shape their mind
after Calvin's model so completely as in the Boston
colony. A common distrust of arbitrary power in
the Stuarts drew the two colonies together after the
Eestoration, but New Hampshire men thought
Massachusetts was granting away their wild lands
too freely. When the Stuart power was broken In
1688—89, there was a strong inclination of the ori
ginal towns to reunite with Massachusetts. Singu
larly, this inclination was thwarted by the dissent
of Hampton, which had been a step-child of Boston.
Nathaniel Weare, then the leading citizen of that
town, having been the instrument, in England, of
defeating the tyranny of Cranfield and releasing
his townsmen from prison and from fines, could not
quite decide In 1689 to join the other three towns
In a final submission to Massachusetts, though a
temporary union was formed.
Before this an effort was made to reconstitute
the provincial government by popular elections in
the four towns, all of which chose commissioners
in October and December, 1689, who met In Ports
mouth January 24, 1690, and prepared a simple
constitution, — the first by popular initiative ever
submitted to the people for adoption. The conven-

154 NEW HAMPSHIRE
tion held for this purpose was made up of the lead
ing men in each town, and they were : —
For Exeter., Eobert Wadleigh, William Hilton,
Samuel Leavitt, Jonathan Thing.
For Hampton., Henry Green, Nathaniel Weare,
Samuel Sherburne, Edward Gove,i Henry Dow,
Morris Hobbs.
For Dover, Captain John Woodman, Captain
John Gerrish, Lieutenant John Tuttle, Lieutenant
John Eoberts, Mr. Thomas Edgerly, Mr. Nicholas
FoUet. For Portsmouth, Major WiUiam Vaughan, Cap
tain John Pickering, Mr. Eichard Waldron, Mr.
Eobert Elliott, Mr. Nathaniel Fryar, Mr. Thomas
Cobbett. The names of these twenty-two men are signed to
the draft of a Constitution, only one copy of which
is known to exist, as follows : —
ABSTRACT
Agreed, That a President and Council consisting of
ten persons, as also a Treasurer and Secretary, be chosen
in the Province, in manner and form following, viz. For
the Council,
Three persons of the inhabitants of Portsmouth, three
of the inhabitants of Hampton, two of the inhabitants
of Dover, and two of the inhabitants of Exeter ; which
1 This was the former prisoner in the Tower, who joined with
his fellow-citizens now in a. plan of self-government. The next
summer he was chosen a lieutenant of the Hampton foot company
(the same that had arrested him in 1683), with Samuel Sherburne
as his captain, who was slain by Indians in 1691.

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 155
persons shall be chosen by the major vote of the inhabit
ants of the Town where they live ; and the President,
Treasurer and Secretary by the major vote of the whole
Province ;
Which President shall also have the power over the
Militia of the Province as Major.
And the President and Council so chosen, or the
major part of them, shall with all convenient speed call
an Assembly of the Representatives of the people, not
exceeding three from one town ;
Which said President and Council, or the major part
of them (whereof the President or his Deputy to be
one), together with the Representatives aforesaid, or the
major part of them, from time to time shall make such
Acts and Orders, and exert such power and authority as
may in all respects have a tendency to the preservation
of peace, punishment of offenders, and defence of His
Majesty's subjects against the common enemy :
Provided, they exceed not the bounds his late Ma
jesty, King Charles II, was graciously pleased to limit. In
his Royal commission to the late President and Council
of this Province. (Signed as above.)
PoBTSMOUTH, January 24, 1689-90.
Hampton, suspecting that under this constitu
tion the gentlemen of Portsmouth would exercise
too much authority, finally, in February, 1690, re
fused to choose its three Councilors and three Eepre-
sentatives, and so this promising plan failed. Imme
diately a petition was drawn up and hastily signed
by most of the framers of the Constitution, and

156 NEW HAMPSHIRE
several hundred others, asking Massachusetts to
assume the government, as before 1679. Nathaniel
Weare was not well pleased with this, and wrote
to his friend. Major Pike, about It. His letter is as
dark and confused as a speech of Sir Harry Vane,
but the upshot of his long discourse to his neighbor
Pike (March 15, 1690) was, " Let us wait and see
what is best to do permanently." The effect of
waiting was that Samuel Allen, who had purchased,
as he supposed, the right of the Masons to the fee
simple of lands in the Province, not otherwise
owned, got himself nominated Governor by the
king, and made his son-in-law, John Usher, his
Lieutenant-Governor ; while Weare, than whom no
citizen was more suitable, became a member of the
Council. It is noticeable that this Usher, who had
bought the title to Maine from the heirs of Gorges,
and was one of the owners of the large Merrimac
purchase from Mason, for mining, etc., had now be
come virtually the head of the Province, while his
father-in-law was its titular owner and governor.
This disaffected the people, who had again, ere the
Massachusetts Charter was granted, petitioned King
William to include the Province In Massachusetts.
But the king had Inherited some of the prejudice
of his uncle and father-in-law against the Puritans ;
his theory of government required that the colonies
should be more directly controlled by the king ;
and the money of Allen was doubtless used about
the Court to his own advantage.

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 157
The confidence of the people In Usher seems
never to have been restored; the Council held a
majority of the former opponents of Mason, al
though they sometimes allowed Usher's measures
to pass. Weare, Vaughan, and the surviving Eich
ard Waldron (called Colonel, to distinguish him
from his father) usually voted together, as they
had labored together twenty years before, against
Cranfield and Barefoot. Usher and one of the
Council, Hincks, had been in the hated council of
Andros, which added to the feeling against them.
The lieutenant-governor published his commission
and took up the administration August 13, 1692,
but from the first met with opposition. His manner
was far from conciliatory ; his education was not on
a level with his wealth, and he had a high notion
of his own Importance. He was superseded In office
in 1696 by William Partridge, for whom the people
had petitioned ; but Usher claimed to hold the
place, and did so at Intervals until the arrival of
Lord Bellomont as Governor of Massachusetts and
New Hampshire In 1700. Partridge then held the
place unopposed, the courts were reconstituted, and
Allen, who had come over from London in 1698,
and for a year took his place as Governor, now re
tired from public office, together with his son-in-
law, and next appeared in the new courts as a claim
ant for rents and the possession of unimproved
lands. Allen died In 1705, leaving his widow, a
resident of Hampton, and his son Thomas to prose-

158 NEW HAMPSHIRE
cute his case in the local courts, with only a right
of appeal to Queen Anne, in case of a special ver
dict ; and this the juries refused to give. Before
this Allen had himself pressed the case to a verdict,
in a court made up of the judges who opposed his
claim ; the jury. In 1700, giving a verdict against
him. In favor of the defendant. Colonel Eichard
Waldron, who represented many owners and occu
piers of the lands which Mason had claimed, and
which Allen, as his assignee, now claimed. From this
verdict Allen appealed, but the judges, following
the precedent of Massachusetts, denied the appeal
to King William.
This denial was taken very ill by the king ; and
the Lords of Trade, In a letter to Lord Bellomont
the Governor (April 24, 1701), said : " This de
clining to admit appeals to his Majesty in Council
is a matter which you ought very carefully to watch
against in all your governments. It is an humor
that prevails so much In proprieties and charter
colonies, and the independency they thirst after
is now so notorious, that It has been thought fit
those considerations, together with other objections
against those colonies, should be laid before the
Parliament. A bill has thereupon been brought
into the House of Lords for reuniting the right of
government in their colonies to the Crown." The
measure was aimed at Massachusetts and its neigh
bors having charters, and at the proprietary colo
nies of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Carolina,

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 169
especially. It was defeated, largely by the personal
influence of William Penn, who was able to neu
tralize the waning influence of that old foe of char
ters, Eandolph, and thus render a service to New
England. But the iU name of Massachusetts with
William III was inherited by his successor. Queen
Anne, and was handed down to George II, in whose
reign it aided materially to procure the final deci
sion of the Privy Council against Massachusetts on
the boundary question. And though, by that time,
the wish of the New Hampshire people was strongly
against union with Massachusetts, It is probable
that the decisive Influence in 1737-40 on the Privy
Council came from persons then owners of the old
Mason claim, represented by the Wentworths and
Atkinsons. In this long controversy with the Aliens and
Usher, it was a favorite move of their opponents to
vote and petition and talk in favor of a close union
with Massachusetts. But all this while the senti
ment for a separate existence was growing as the
Province grew, and the Interest of the wealthy and
powerful circle, of which the Wentworths were the
centre, demanded a separate government, which
they should direct. In the early dispute with Eob
ert Mason the Wentworths of that time had little
share ; their head of the family, Samuel of Great
Island and Portsmouth, was busy keeping his tav
erns and increasing his worldly goods and cousin-
ships. But his son, John Wentworth, a successful

160 NEW HAMPSHIRE
shipmaster and merchant of Portsmouth, sided
with the Waldrons, Vaughans, and Weares against
the Aliens ; and when Usher had finally vacated
the important post of lieutenant-governor, upon the
accession of George I in 1715, George Vaughan
at first, and two years after, Wentworth, succeeded
to the office. From that time until John Went
worth, the last royal governor, abandoned the
Province in 1775, it was substantially directed
and governed by the Wentworths and their kins
men, the Atkinsons. The Governors lived in Bos
ton until 1741, but the real power rested with the
lieutenant-governor in Portsmouth, where mercan
tile wealth was accumulating, and political ambi
tions were active. Even in the years 1700-07, when
the great lawsuit was pending in the New Hamp
shire court, and an exhaustive and costly Indian-
war was going on, as much wealth seems to have
been on the side of the planters and merchants as
on Allen's side.
Just before Samuel Allen's death in May, 1705,
the New Hampshire Assembly made a sincere ef
fort to end the long dispute by a compromise with
him. The Queen had sent a message by Governor
Dudley, who succeeded Lord Bellomont, "that
nothing will more tend to your quiet and repose,
and to her Majesty's just satisfaction, than to have
an amicable and quiet issue in that matter." The
Assembly therefore authorized the towns to choose
each two freeholders, to join in convention with

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 161
the Assembly, for making some proposal to Mr.
Allen to settle the pending quarrel. This was done,
and the convention met at Portsmouth. It re
solved that the people had no " claim or challenge
to any part of the Province " outside of four old
towns of Portsmouth, Dover, Hampton, and Exe
ter, and the new towns of New Castle and King
ston ; and that they would allow to Allen and his
heirs five thousand acres of the common lands in
those six townships ; that he and his heirs " might
peaceably hold and enjoy the great Waste, at the
heads of the four towns, containing forty miles in
length and twenty in breadth ; " and the people
would pay them besides j£2000 current money of
New England (about £1350 sterling). On his part,
Allen was to quitclaim to the Inhabitants and their
heirs all the land within the six townships, and to
warrant and defend their title against all mortgage,
entail, or other incumbrance, provided the queen
approved this mode of settlement. All contracts
made by either Mason or Allen " in their own just
right " should be accounted valid ; and all actions
and suits in law concerning the claim and lands
were to cease until the queen's pleasure was known.
Like the proposition of Joseph Mason made to
the Massachusetts General Court half a century
earlier, this was a fair offer, and but for Allen's
sudden death might have been accepted, for it was
liberal toward him. But just as John Mason died
in 1635, as he was coming over to maintain his

162 NEW HAMPSHIRB
right, so Allen died at this new crisis ; the matter
stood still, and the widow and son after some delay
prosecuted their case in the courts. Then ensued
one of those developments of fraud and wrong
which had been too flagrant on both sides before.
When the Aliens in 1704 applied to the Council
for "the records of judgments obtained formerly
by his predecessor Mason, against several persons
of the Province," it was found that the book had
been mutilated, and the judgments cut out. Next
appeared the fact that Chamberlain, who kept the
records from 1682 to 1689, had them forcibly
taken from him at the Eevolution of 1689 by Cap
tain John Pickering of Portsmouth, who kept them
two years, and then handed them over to Usher
and his secretary, Henry Penny, In 1691. The
mutilation (quite similar to the mutilation of the
Portsmouth town records by Pendleton and others
in 1652) was probably done while the books were
in Pickering's hands. If not, it may have happened
while William Vaughan, one of the persons against
whom the judgments were given, had their cus
tody, from 1697 to 1702. For Samuel Penhallow
testified In 1704 that, when he " received the book
now showed (out of which 24 leaves are cut) from
Major Vaughan " in June, 1702, " in such form as
they now are," the twenty-four leaves were cut out
" In the same manner as it is now seen." ^ There
1 When, in July, 1775, Theodore Atkinson, then Secretary of
the Province, and a Tory (being uncle of the royal Governor),

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 163
could be but one reason for defacing the record,
— to obliterate the unjust decrees of the court and
packed juries in Cranfield and Barefoot's time;
and this had manifestly been done. Wicked as
those verdicts and decrees were, — and it was for
those, in part, that Halifax had Cranfield censured
and virtually removed, — they should have been
allowed to stand In the record, until legally set
aside, as they could have been.
Nor did the chief landholders and their service
able friends stop with this summary annulment of
the record. They procured the preparation of false
papers (assuming that the famous Indian Deed to
Wheelwright In 1629 was a forgery, as is now gen
erally held), and had copies of them presented In
court. The original of the Wheelwright Deed has
never been seen, nor does it now exist on the files
of York County in Maine, where it was said to
have been recorded. It first appeared in a copy
was called on by Major William Weeks of Greenland for the
Province records, he declined to give them up, unless forced (as
he was), and one of his reasons was, that in the troubled times of
the English Revolution of 1688-89, which his father well remem
bered, the papers then in the hands of Richard Chamberlain were
taken away and became scattered ; so that widows and orphans
and other innocent persons suffered by not being able to secure
their titles to property ; and that many of these papers had not
yet (in 1775) been restored to the public offices. Yet the Atkin
sons and Wentworths, with the Waldrons, Vaughans, etc , were
of the chief gainers by this pillage and mutilation of the Cham
berlain records ; though some of them afterward profited by the
purchase of the Mason claim from the last owner by that name,
John Tufton Mason, in 1746.

164 NEW HAMPSHIRE
certified as of the original " on file with the filer
of the County of York," at the court in Ports
mouth, in August, 1707. It was put in by Eich
ard Waldron, one of the justices of the court,
but not sitting because defendant in the suit ; and
his language respecting it was this ; " The said
defendant's possession " (that of Major Waldron)
" was grounded on a very good Deed, well executed
in law, from the Indian Sachems and native propri
etors of these parts of America, bearing date the
17th of May 1629."
A copy of the Wheelwright Deed was entered on
the record at Exeter, where it was said to have
been made, but not till 1714, eighty-five years after
its alleged date, and was there certified as " accord
ing to the original" by Vaughan, who may have
had a hand in forging it. Where had It been in
this long period? Wheelwright, who should have
claimed under it, if genuine, never did so, nor any
of his heirs. It was never heard of uutil every one
of the alleged grantors, grantees, and witnesses had
long been dead. It was artfully framed, so that its
genuineness has been maintained by several good
antiquaries. But few who look at the facts without
prejudice now doubt that it was forged, and in the
very nick of time ; for it doubtless had some weight
in the case, though that was settled on other prin
ciples.! Another paper offered by Waldron In 1707
1 The literature concerning the Wheelwright Deed is too vo
luminous evea to be cited here. Dr. Belknap believed it genuine ;

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 165
is so manifest a fraud that nobody defends it, —
the letter signed by Neale and Wiggin (dated in
1633), mentioned in chapter I. In all this pro
tracted litigation, beginning in the New Hampshire
court. In 1683, when Barefoot, Henry Green, and
Fryar were justices, and ending in the court of
1707, above mentioned, — both plaintiff and de
fendant having changed, and most of the judges
and jurymen deceased, the final settlement was
upon no principle of law, but out of regard to the
condition of the people of the Province, whom the
Waldrons, father and son, represented. This pre
vented the Privy Council from trying the appeal
taken by Thomas Allen against the verdict of
but his more exact editor, in 1831, John Farmer, did not. James
Savage first exposed the forgery ; the reasons for which are so
obvious that the generality of scholars and readers now agree
with Savage and Farmer. It was supported in the local court by
various affidavits ; but these do not carry much weight when the
probabilities are all the other way. There was a genuine Wheel
wright Deed of 1638, in which two Indian sagamores did grant to
Rev. John Wheelwright the thirty miles square in which he set
up his stafE of rest at Exeter, when driven away by the Puritans
of Boston. This was sworn to as genuine by Wheelwright and
Edward Colcord, two of the grantees, as early as April, 1668,
and also by Rev. Samuel Dudley, the second minister of Exeter.
Had the other deed (of 1629) existed, there would have been no
need of the later one, and these witnesses would naturally have
mentioned it. It is for my interest to believe the forgery genu
ine ; for one of the five grantees named, Thomas Levitt, is
my ancestor ; but although he lived to be over eighty, he never
made the least claim under it ; any more than did his associates,
John Wheelwright, Augustine Story, Thomas White, and WUliam
Wentworth.

166 NEW HAMPSHIRE
1707 ; reasons of substantial justice being allowed
to have weight, and the technicalities of English
law disregarded.
Indeed, by 1720, the injury feared In the little
Province from the exactions of Mason and his suc
cessor was quite overshadowed by the bolder and
more dangerous claim of Massachusetts. Still ad
hering to her old theory that the southern boundary
of New Hampshire must follow the Merrimac, as
its course, traced upward, changed from east and
west to southeast and northwest, the Puritan col
ony, having swallowed up Plymouth and Maine, was
granting towns and exercising jurisdiction in a con
siderable part of what are now Eockingham and
Hillsborough counties, and the whole of Cheshire,
— thus shutting up New Hampshire to a small seg
ment between the actual Merrimac and the Maine
border. Not much notice was taken of this while
English tyranny and Indian warfare occupied the
minds of the New Hampshire planters ; but as the
Province grew In numbers and wealth, they resisted
the usurpation of their encroaching neighbor. No
longer desirous of annexation to Massachusetts,
the majority, in 1730, when Jonathan Belcher, a
rich Boston merchant, for a time resident in Eng
land, succeeded Bishop Burnet's son William, as
Governor of the two colonies, were ready to take
offense at any partiality of the great man to his
native colony or his private friends in New Hamp
shire. In 1726, under the popular lieutenant-gov-

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 167
ernor, John Wentworth, ill feeling was aroused
about the large grants of land made by Massachu
setts in the territory now New Hampshire, and then
claimed by Wentworth and the Assembly, in an
appeal to the king to establish a boundary line be
tween the two colonies.
New Hampshire retaliated by granting other
townships in the same territory ; and secured court
favor in England by voting her Governor a fixed
salary, as Massachusetts would not. This did not
prevent the appointment of Belcher, who, it was
argued in England, being a native of Massachu
setts, could bring that stiff-necked people to terms.
Nor did John Wentworth oppose Belcher's appoint
ment, though he would have preferred Shute, a
former governor, and did prefer Burnet, who held
the office but a few months, and took a strong
prejudice against the Puritans, as contrasted with
his fellow-subjects in New York and New Hamp
shire. Belcher, in the mean time, instead of concili
ating the powerful Wentworth interest, broke with
his lieutenant-governor, and formed a faction of his
own in New Hampshire, at the head of which was
the third Eichard Waldron, grandson of the Major;
a person of more education than propriety of speech
and conduct, if we may judge by his correspond
ence with Governor Belcher. John Wentworth
soon died, leaving an excellent reputation, and a
son, Benning, afterward Governor, whose abilities
were greater, but his manners not so agreeable, and

168 NEW HAMPSHIRE
his temper more imperious. He had not, however,
the petty traits that appear constantly in Belcher's
public and private papers ; while his connection
and alliances with the Atkinsons, Plaisteds, and
his own Wentworth cousins, gave him great social
and political influence. He was brought up a mer
chant, like Belcher, and had resided in Spain,
against which country, soon at war with England,
he held large claims, which gave him importance
in England. His manners were said by his ene
mies to be haughty and reserved, like the typical
Spaniard's ; and Belcher and Waldron, in their
scurrilous correspondence, nicknamed him " Don
Diego." New Hampshire had a real grievance against
Massachusetts in the boundary affair ; for the
strong Massachusetts towns, claiming limits which
encroached on the young and feeble settlements of
New Hampshire, would arrest men for refusing to
pay taxes in the neighboring colony. The Went
worths and Atkinsons placed themselves at once at
the head of the party which demanded immediate
decision of the boundary questions. And It was
their money, advanced as a loan or given as a bribe,
which finally turned the scale in favor of New
Hampshire. The Lords of Trade early favored
New Hampshire, as Belcher thought, and very
likely with truth. Years after the boundary should
have been fixed the final decision came, — Mas
sachusetts deferring or neglecting the measures

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 169
needful to settle the dispute. It was offensive to
the powers in England to be thus held off by a col
ony which had never stood too well at Court, from
Charles I down to George II, and which George III
was soon to find even harder to manage. New
Hampshire was more fortunate in her agents, and
the simplicity and liberality of her people won her
friends in England, when attention could be given
to so small and remote a province. Her ship-tim
ber, too, was an important article In the affairs of
a naval kingdom like England ; while Massachu
setts was looked upon as a rival rather than a cus
tomer by the shopkeeping nation which England
was fast becoming. Compared with New Hamp
shire, she was large and mercantile ; while the col
ony of the Wentworths, though governed by mer
chants, was chiefly rural and pastoral, with a strong
element of foresters, trappers, and lumbermen. The
number of her towns In 1732 was less than twenty-
five, and a third part of these were made by divid
ing the old towns ; for population pushed but slowly
Into the wilderness, so long as Indian fighting was
frequent. One part of the grievance against Mas
sachusetts was that the towns she granted and set
tled were those less likely to be attacked by sav
ages, because the unquestioned New Hampshire
towns stood between the southern townships and
danger. Finally, in 1737, the Privy Council decided that
the southern boundary of New Hampshire must

170 NEW HAMPSHIRE
run west and not northwest, and the two colonies
were asked to have the line established on that
theory. Massachusetts stiU held off, but the work
went on without her. It was completed in 1741,
and ever since the area of New Hampshire has
been respectable, — something more than nine thou
sand square miles.
The closing months of this contest were marked
by a singular intrigue, in which Massachusetts,
through Edward Hutchinson, became Injuriously
prominent. Having neglected to purchase the claim
of the Masons when to do so might have prevented
harm and loss to all parties, Massachusetts now
began to tamper with the great-grandson of Eobert
Mason, in whom the title had been found to rest,
in consequence of a flaw in the legal proceedings
by which Allen became the owner. The Massachu
setts agents now encouraged this John Tufton Ma^
son, a grandson of Catharine Tufton or Mason, who
was a niece and legatee of Walter Barefoot, to as
sert his claim (for which his grandfather had been
paid by Allen), and quitclaim to Massachusetts
some twenty-four thousand acres which it was fore
seen the line, when established, would transfer to
New Hampshire in the border towns of Salisbury,
Amesbury, Haverhill, Methuen, and Dracut. He
was also, under Massachusetts tuition, to bring for
ward his revived claim as a means of defeating
New Hampshire. This scheme being mentioned to
the king's solicitor, he advised Mason and Massa-

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 171
chusetts not to bring it forward, lest the Lords of
Trade should think it an artifice to perplex the
main cause.
Indeed, the whole course of Massachusetts, and
of the Governor of the two Provinces, was dilatory,
crooked, and unstable ; while the New Hampshire
people, represented In their popular Assembly (for
the Council and Secretary Waldron sided with
Belcher), pressed forward with zeal, sent capable
agents to London, and dealt plainly and promptly
with the colonial commission appointed by the
king, from Nova Scotia, Ehode Island, and New
York. This met in the summer of 1737, and gave
an evasive decision, from which both sides appealed
to the king. It was after this appeal that Hutchin
son, for Massachusetts, intrigued with the younger
Mason, and was obliged to give up his scheme.
But before this, Massachusetts had dealt with
some duplicity in regard to the original Mason
charter, and had apparently left suspicion in the
mind of the Privy Council that her claim had little
real foundation. This suspicion was increased by
the obstructive and capricious course of Belcher,
and the result was, not only to give New Hamjv
shlre more territory than she would have com
promised on twenty years before, but to occasion
the removal of Belcher from both his govern
ments. He was succeeded in New Hampshire, thus
enlarged in area, by Benning Wentworth, son of
the late lieutenant-governor, and in Massachusetts

172 NEW HAMPSHIRE
by William Shirley. Both were the superiors of
Belcher in executive ability, tact, and a certain as
pect of integrity, which in Wentworth's case may
not have covered greater virtue than did the trim
ming and suspicious character of Belcher. Went
worth's appointment was directly due to the Duke
of Newcastle, who, in the complications of the
Spanish war (which Walpole was forced to declare
by the opposition of Newcastle and others of his
former supporters), had come under obligations to
Wentworth, with his heavy claims against Spain.
Non-payment by Spain (which was one of the
causes of war) had made Wentworth bankrupt,
and his creditors were London merchants. They
aided his friends in New Hampshire to get the
separate governorship for him, and paid ^£300
for fees and bribes in that affair, which Atkinson
and the Wentworths afterward repaid. The new
Governor returned from England with his commis
sion in 1741, and took office December 13 in that
year ; he then called an assembly from thirteen
towns, to meet January 13, 1742, and twenty repre
sentatives appeared. In his first speech he con
gratulated them on the settlement of " the tedious
dispute with the Massachusetts Bay, which has
subsisted, in one shape or another, upwards of
threescore years;" and went on to say that the sep
aration of the two provinces was " an event which,
if rightly improved, will, under the direction of
Heaven, be a lasting advantage ; will be a means

FINAL STRUGGLE WITH MASSACHUSETTS 173
of replenishing your towns with people, of extend
ing and enlarging your commerce."
It did have that effect ; and it also led to the
rapid granting of new towns by Wentworth, and
their settlement, after King George's war with
France had ended, and the frontier was no longer
harassed by hostile Indians. The towns granted
by Massachusetts, which came into New Hamp
shire by the determination of the boundary, were
also a valuable accession ; although In some In
stances, as at Eumford (now Concord), a long dis
pute took place between the Massachusetts and
the New Hampshire grantees. From Wentworth's
accession, then, the noteworthy prosperity of the
Province took a fresh start, and the way was pre
pared for the Important part which New Hampshire
played In the Eevolution of 1775.
The Belcher and Waldron Interest In Massa
chusetts and New Hampshire endeavored, from
1747 to 1750, to oust Governor Wentworth, and
they coaxed Colonel Isaac Eoyall of Medf ord, a rich
West India merchant who had retired from busi
ness, to be their candidate, and to put out a thou
sand pounds to help his appointment. After this
intrigue had gone on for some years, it was quietly
dropped, and both provinces came to regard the
separation from each other as a mutual benefit.
So It doubtless was. But the connection had also
been a benefit on several occasions. It had de
fended the adventurer in his trade, the hunter and

174 NEW HAMPSHIRE
coureur des hois in their roving life, and had given
to education and religion that prominence which
they rightfully hold. The animosities excited by
Massachusetts in different periods have reappeared
at Intervals, and were very active from 1830 to
1845, while Daniel Webster was the political leader
in Massachusetts, and Isaac Hill In New Hamp
shire.

CHAPTEE VIII
THE SWITZERLAND OP AMERICA
The triumph of Wentworth over Belcher, and of
little New Hampshire over powerful Massachusetts,
brought the Province, now to be governed by the
Wentworths and their kindred for a whole genera
tion, into broader limits than it could long main
tain. For the adoption of the southern boundary
line, running due west until it should meet other
grants or provinces of English kings, practically
threw all Vermont, for a quarter-century. Into
New Hampshire. This whole territory, as enlarged
by the later Treaty of Paris, contained something
more than 18,300 square miles, of which a little
more than half still remain to New Hampshire. It
Included the highest mountains east of the Eockies
and north of the Carolinas, — the White Hills, —
and also the Green Mountains, which afterward
gave a name to Vermont. This fact, and the ad
venturous and bold character of the people, whether
east or west of the Connecticut Eiver, presently
won for the Province the name of " the Switzer
land of America." It was an ambitious title, not
quite justified by the height of its mountains or

176 NEW HAMPSHIRE
the extent of Its territory ; but the phrase has been
long In use, and was then fairly appropriate. The
domain itself, from 1740 to 1764, when King
George gave to New York nominal jurisdiction
over Vermont, lay between latitude 42° 41' and
45° 11' ; and in longitude, measured from Green
wich, between 70° 40' W. and 73° 26' W. The
number of acres in what Is now New Hampshire Is
a little short of 6,000,000, of which 100,000 acres
are In lakes, and as much more occupied with
the barren summits aiid difficult wooded slopes
of numerous mountains. The highest of these,
Mt. Washington, is 6300 feet above the sea-level,
which can be distinctly seen, near Portland, from
its top. At least thirty more New Hampshire
mountains are above 3000 feet high, and twenty
exceed 4000 feet; higher, that is, thau Cithseron,
in Attica. From this extreme height to the lower
range in Nottingham and Deerfield, of 800 and
1000 feet above the near sea, many mountains are
interspersed, giving rise to rivers small or large,
and sometimes to goodly lakes. Fertile valleys and
sloping plains lie In this network of mountains ;
and these slowly attracted the men ready to take
service in subduing the wilderness or fighting the
hostile savage.
For a hundred years after the first colonists
sat down by the Pascataqua, the inland regions
could not be occupied safely, by reason of Indian
hostilities ; nor did these cease until long after the

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 177
accession of Benning Wentworth as Governor. In
deed, one of his first memorable acts was to help
his neighbor In Kittery, Colonel Pepperrell, fit out
the expedition which In 1745 captured Louisbourg,
— the plan for this surprising attack on the French
fortress having been formed by a New Hampshire
merchant, William Vaughan, grandson of the mer
chant who had been active in resisting Cranfield
and Mason. In this war several of the Governor's
near kinsmen took an active part ; one of whom,
Theodore Atkinson, second of the name in New
Hampshire, had twenty years before made the jour
ney to Quebec to ransom Indian captives, and In
sist on terms of peace with the Indian allies of
France. About that time (1719-23) the Province
received an accession from northern Ireland, the
so-called Scotch-Irish, some of whose elders had
been at the long siege of Derry by James II.
They proved to be among the most resolute plant
ers of new towns in the " chestnut country " and
further north and west ; introducing Scotch Pres-
byterianlsm, Scotch clan-names, and the Irish po
tatoes among the descendants of English Puritans
and Cavaliers. After the Jacobite rebellions of
1715 and 1745, refugees from Scotland itself came
over In small numbers ; and this Infusion of the
Highland and Lowland blood tinged perceptibly
the population that furnished soldiers for the war
which expelled the French arms from Canada, and
at last relieved New Hampshire from all dread of
Indian raids and massacres.

178 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Taking advantage of the acquaintance acquired,
in this final war, with lands along the upper Con
necticut and toward Lake Champlain, Governor
Wentworth, after Wolfe had captured Quebec,
granted numerous town charters In New Hamp
shire and Vermont ; in the latter district not less
than a hundred and thirty between 1760 and 1767.
He had previously made many grants nearer to
Portsmouth and Dover, while Massachusetts had
done the same In the extensive southwestern sec
tion of the Province which she claimed as her own.
Occasionally these grants conflicted, as the early
royal grants did in the seaboard settlements, and
it was necessary to call on the Privy Council to
settle long controversies thence arising. The most
noteworthy of these was the contest between the
Wentworths and their partisans, under the title
of " proprietors of Bow," and the actual settlers
of what is now Concord (earlier known as Eum
ford and Penacook), headed by their two leaders,
Timothy Walker, father-in-law of the eminent man
of science known to the world as Count Eumford,
and his first son-in-law, Benjamin Eolfe. This con
test repeated the principles and secured the result
which had shown themselves in the struggle be
tween the absentee landlords of 1650-90 and their
hard-working tenants on the tidewater. It also
brought out in a glaring instance one source of the
large wealth and extending influence of the Went
worths of Portsmouth, — their reservation of land

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 179
to themselves and their friends in hundreds of town
charters, which they granted between 1720 and
1775. In a peaceful way — for It was not a family
of soldiers, either in England or New Hampshire
— the Wentworths repeated there such aggressions
as the Hapsburg governors more violently practiced
in the Forest Cantons of Switzerland, and thus led
to the independence of the Swiss. The story of
those far-off and legendary days cannot be read,
especially In the verse of Schiller's " William Tell,"
without recalling to a son of the Granite State the
annals of his own ancestors.
While the title to the jurisdiction of the lands
about the Merrimac was stiU undecided by the
Crown, Massachusetts had asserted Its claim prac
tically, and gathered money Into its exchequer, by
granting townships in the disputed territory. It
was not from her General Court that the Scotch-
Irish from Ulster got their original grant of Nut-
field, which they promptly renamed Derry and
Londonderry ; but it was in Massachusetts (at
Newburyport) that they landed, after having the
same experience in Casco Bay that repelled the
colonists of the Plough Patent nearly a century
earlier. It was there, too, that Owen O'SullIvan
of Ardea in Kerry, father of two governors, John
and James Sullivan (one of New Hampshire, the
other of Massachusetts), landed, under the name of
John Sullivan, at the age of thirty-one, and began
to " diffuse learning," as his obituary said, for sixty

180 NEW HAMPSHIRE
years, in the Pascataqua region, — sometimes on
one side of the river, and sometimes on the other.
This descendant of four Irish countesses and the
ancient kings of Kerry had abandoned the pater
nal castle on the Kenmare (for what cause is not
known), changed his name, and come over to New
buryport in an emigrant vessel, bound to service
for the payment of his passage, which he was
" working out " with a Newbury farmer named
Nowell. According to family tradition, being
"genteelly bred and liberally educated, he there
wrote a letter, expressed in several different lan
guages," to Eev. Samuel Moody (one of the an
cestors of Waldo Emerson), the minister of York,
asking his aid towards a better position. The
learned minister could not read all the languages,
for one of them was Irish Gaelic, but he pro
cured the polyglot bondman a private school at
Berwick. Thence he radiated to different towns
in the course of his life of a hundred and three
years, and in 1743 fled to Boston to escape the
scoldings of a too Irritable wife, who appealed to
him, in the Boston " Evening Post " of July 25,
1743, to return to New Hampshire, where she was
then living, and forgive her.^ She had come over,
1 She dated her epistle at Somersworth, N. H., July 11, 1743,
lamenting "your abrupt departure and forsaking of your wife
and tender babes," and confessing that she was to blame " by my
too rash and unadvised speech and behavior towards you." She
added, " Why should a few angry and unkind words from an an
gry and fretful wife, for which I am now paying full dear, make

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 181
like himself, as a bound servant (Margery Brown
by name), had been " ransomed " by Master Sulli
van, and when she was twenty-one, about 1735,
had married him. The New Hampshire General
and the Massachusetts Governor were her chil
dren, John born in 1740 at Berwick, and James In
1744. But this is a digression. The grant from Massa
chusetts at Penacook was not made to the new
Scotch immigrants at Londonderry, — " Irish," as
they were called by their Puritan neighbors, much
you thus to forsake me and your children ? " Master Sullivan re
turned, and at the age of ninety used to mount his horse and ride
from Berwick to Durham, where his son, the General, was living
as judge or Governor ; returning home the same day, a journey
of thirty miles. At ninety-three, he wrote to General Sullivan,
regretting his great age, telling the story of his Irish kinsmen,
and saying, " They were all a short-lived family ; they either died
in the bloom or went out of the nation ; but the brevity of their
lives, to my great grief and sorrow, is added to the length of
mine." He closed his letter with a Latin quatrain in elegiacs,
which reads thus in English : —
*' Was Adam all men's sire, and Eve their mother ?
Then how can one be nobler than another ?
Ennobled are we not, by sire or dame.
Till life and conduct give us noble fame."
This sturdy Irish -veteran, bred a Catholic, but living a New Eng
land Protestant until 1795, has been introduced as a romantic
character (which he surely was) into Miss Jewett's admirable
romance of The Tory Lover. He was evidently one of those
Kerry youths whom Lord Herbert of Cherbury mentioned in his
report of 1673 as ' ' learning of needless Latin instead of useful
trades," — the class subsisting into the reign of Queen Anne,
when Owen O'SuUivan was learning the Latin and Greek which
he taught along the Pascataqua.

182 NEW HAMPSHIRE
to their dislike, — but to the survivors of a memo
rable Indian campaign in 1723-24. The war of
those years had been stimulated by French priests
in Maine and Canada, the attacking parties coming
down to the Pascataqua towns by way of Lake
Winipiseogee, distant in its nearest bay only thirty
miles from Cocheco Falls in Dover. In the sum
mer of 1723 they began their raids at Dover, and
soon were murdering and capturing women and
children at Newmarket and Durham. ^ In the
spring of 1724 they extended their raids to the
^ It should be mentioned, as an example of what particular
families suffered by these attacks, that Mrs. Rawlins of New
market, whose husband and daughter were killed in this raid, was
a daughter of Edward Taylor, who was killed by Indians at the
same place in 1704 ; and that Tristram Heard, slain in Dover,
was the son of that Mrs. Heard whose life was saved in 1689 by
a grateful savage. The Dover Quakers were as little spared by
the Indians and Jesuits as were the Puritans ; one of them, John
Hanson, had two of his children killed and scalped while he was
at the Weekly Friends' Meeting. His wife and four other chil
dren, one an infant of two weeks, were carried to Canada and sold
to the French. Mrs. Hanson, says Belknap, " had a firm and vig
orous mind, and passed through her hardships with much resolu
tion and patience. When her milk failed, she supported her infant
with water, which she warmed in her mouth and dropped on her
breast ; till the squaws, pitying her, taught her to beat the ker
nels of walnuts and boil it with bruised corn, which proved a
nourishing food for her babe." She was redeemed by her hus
band in 1725, with three of her children ; but the eldest daugh
ter was retained, converted, and married to a French Catholic.
Villieu, a French officer, describing his raid of 1694, gives the
plan adopted in many of these affairs. ' ' They divide into bands
of four or five, and knock people in the head by surprise, which
must have a good ^ect."

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 183
new town of Kingston, which had been broken up
by Indian attacks in a former war, and took away
Peter Colcord and three Stevenses to Canada. In
Durham, the following June, after an encounter in
which two townsmen and one Indian were killed,
the assailants withdrew, leaving their leader, of the
Castine family (with his flue fur coronet and bells,
whose sound his men were to follow, his prayer-
book and muster-roll of one hundred and eighty
warriors), to be scalped and conjectured by the
provincials. They thought him a son of Father
Easles by his Indian laundress ; but he seems rather
to have been a son or grandson of the Baron de
Saint-Castin by his Indian wife. Acting under the
impression that the savages were Father Easles'
Christians from Norridgewock, two Maine captains,
with two hundred men. In August, 1724, pushed
through the woods to Norridgewock, killed Easles
and fifty or sixty of his church militant, burned
his church and their huts, and brought away the
church ornaments as trophies.
The Puritan settlements were extending north
ward from Dunstable, and in the same year Thomas
Blanchard and another were captured In Nashua,
and carried to Canada; their friends, following
up the savages, were ambushed and killed. This
incited John Lovewell, a brave man of the Massa
chusetts Dunstable, to raise a band and make a
winter campaign against the Indians, of whom he
surprised and slew ten, in February, 1725, as they

184 NEW HAMPSHIRE
were coming down from Canada with new guns,
blankets, and snowshoes, for the better removal of
captives whom they hoped to take and sell. Three
weeks later, Lovewell, with a party of forty-six, set
forth again, built a fort at Ossipee, and pushed on
to Fryeburg in May, where the Pequaket Indians
had a village. On the shore of a great pond they
espied and shot an Indian, and were themselves
discovered and counted by a band of Indians larger
than their own. Falling Into their ambush, Love
well and a third of his small force were killed or
wounded ; the rest made good their retreat of sixty
miles, with less than half the original force. In
recompense, they and their friends were granted
shares in the Penacook townships, one of which,
Suncook, was granted outright to the survivors of
Lovewell's band and the heirs of the slain. The
upper Penacook grant had been made a little earlier,
by Massachusetts, to Benjamin Stevens and others,
who were jealous of the New Hampshire authori
ties, and afraid the Ulster men might forestall them.
Massachusetts had five years before warned the
Scotch-Irish away from Londonderry, because they
had " presumed to make a settlement upon lands
belonging to this Province, which they call Nut-
field, without any leave or grant obtained from the
General Court." And now the Penacook petition
ers to Massachusetts declared, —
" That many applications have been made to the
government of New Hampshire for a grant of the

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 185
said land ; which, though it be the undoubted right
and property of this Province, yet it is highly
probable that a parcel of Irish people will obtain a
grant from New Hampshire for it, unless some
speedy care be taken to prevent It."
Such care was taken, and the Massachusetts
grant made ; but as the Tyngs, Wainwrights, etc.,
from Boston, were making their survey for the
grantees, in May, 1726, their recorder, John Wain-
wrlght, noted in his diary of May 14 : —
" This day about noon, Messrs. Nathaniel Weare,
Eichard Waldron, Jr. and Theodore Atkinson, a com
mittee from the Governor and Council of New Hamp
shire, came up to our camp, (being attended with about
a half-score of Irishmen, who kept at some distance from
the camp) and acquainted us that the government of
New Hampshire had sent them to desire us that we would
not proceed in appropriating these lands to any particu
lar or private persons ; for that they lay in their govern
ment, and our government's making a grant might be
attended with very ill consequences to the settlers, when
it appeared that the lands feU in the New Hampshire
government." Wainwrlght and his comrades sent back a civil
answer to the lieutenant-governor of the Province
(John Wentworth), but went on with their survey ;
and presently noted that " divers rattlesnakes were
killed by the surveying companies ; but, thanks be
to God, nobody received any hurt from them." Eat-
tlesnakes or Scotch-Irish to the contrary notwith-

186 NEW HAMPSHIRE
standing, the Puritans were bent on carrying out
the order of the Great and General Court, and did
so. Their grantees occupied Penacook In 1727—28,
and had so much increased in number by October,
1730, that they settled a minister, Eev. Timothy
Walker, a recent graduate of Harvard, and ordained
him, where he was to remain for fifty-two years, the
leading citizen of the town, which presently took
the name of Eumford. In the ordination sermon,
Mr. Barnard of Andover directed attention to the
history of the place as having been long the home
of a hostile Indian tribe, saying : " Your settlement
is in a place where Satan some years ago had his
seat, and the Devil was wont to be Invocated by
forsaken Salvages ; a place which was the rendez
vous and headquarters of our Indian enemies." It
was within the limits of Eumford, on an island in
the Contoocook Eiver, that Mrs. Hannah Dustan,
daughter of Michael Emerson of Haverhill, had in
1690 freed herself and her children from Indian
captivity by killing her captors as they lay asleep.
The town thus became a new frontier, and was so
described in the appeal to the king which Colonel
Eolfe and his father-in-law. Parson Walker, sent to
England in 1753, when the New Hampshire courts,
influenced by the Portsmouth gentry and the hos
tility of the people to Massachusetts, had repeat
edly decided against the Eumford colonists, and
sought to Invalidate their land grants and pur
chases. Appealing flrst to Governor Wentworth,

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 187
in 1744, Eolfe said his people were settled " on the
main gangways of the Canadians to this Province,"
and that to dispossess them " will greatly disserve
His Majesty's interest, by encouraging his enemies
to encroach on his derelict dominions ; and be all-
hurtful to the Province, by contracting its borders,
and by drawing the war nearer to the capital,"
which was Portsmouth, then reasonably safe. This
was illustrated in 1746, when the Indians, under
French instigation, attacked the settlement more
than once.
When Weare, Waldron, and Atkinson went
back to Portsmouth In 1726, they reported to John
Wentworth the contumacy of Massachusetts offi
cials. Thereupon Wentworth was angry, and in the
next year, 1727, in a speech which he afterward
withdrew, he recommended the Assembly, —
" That you will consider some expedient to prevent the
disorderly people of the other Province from coming into
this, and pretending to lay out plats of townships in His
Majesty's Province, already chartered by this govern
ment to His Majesty's good subject. Which may tend
to overthrow the good order, and be destructive to our
peace, if not speedily prevented by good wholesome laws
made for that end."
One means taken by the Wentworths was to
grant the town of Bow, in May, 1727, to the Gov
ernor and Council of New Hampshire, and their
associates, a hundred In number, and to include in
its territory the greater part of Eumford and Sun-

188 NEW HAMPSHIRE
cook (now Concord and Pembroke), as well as the
present town of Bow. This was to offset the Mas
sachusetts grant of two years earlier, and, had it
been followed up by actual settlement under the
grant, would have given the Massachusetts planters
much trouble. But no settlement was made by the
New Hampshire grantees, while the Eumford men
went forward and complied with all the conditions
of their grant, long before the order of the king in
council fixed the boundary line so as to bring Eum
ford into New Hampshire. A year after this order
(1742), New Hampshire established the towns
granted by Massachusetts as districts, of which
Eumford was one ; with liberty to tax for the sup
port of church, schools, etc., but without represen
tation in the legislature. This temporary measure
was continued until 1749, when Eumford was dis
franchised by failure to renew the District Act, and
suits were begun against the individual owners
there, by writs of ejectment. The first was entered
In the lower court, December, 1749, and the value
at issue was too small to allow an appeal to the
king. Consequently, the courts being In the hands
of the Governor, sheriff, etc., who were interested
in the Bow charter, verdicts were steadily given
against the Eumford settlers, and no appeal al
lowed, although the king in his order of 1741 had
expressly specified that rights of property should
not be lost or damaged by the change of bounda
ries. The case was flagrant, and even worse in

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 189
some respects than that of Mason and the first set
tlers ; for they could appeal, although the royal
council was prejudiced against them.
The result was a triumph for the settlers, as be
fore, and a fine vindication of the justice of English
law when political considerations do not bias opin
ion and pervert equity. The Eumford " Proprie
tors " (an organization provided for most of the
new towns) were still in legal existence. They
met and voted that they would maintain the rights
of their members at the expense of the whole body,
and proceeded to sell some of their common land
to meet the cost of suits, and of an appeal to Eng
land. When case after case went against them In
the local courts, and the Governor and Council
neglected to do justice, — being parties in Interest,
and unwilling to decide against themselves, — the
Proprietors sent Parson Walker to plead the cause
in London, by an appeal to the king as petitioners.
Colonel Eolfe stayed at home to look after the in
habitants, and Eev. Timothy Walker set forth for
England In the autumn of 1753. He retained as
counsel the famous Murray, better known as Lord
Mansfield, — a bitter Tory, but a just man, apt
and profound in legal lore. He procured a hear
ing before the Privy Council in October, 1754, and
in June, 1755, It was ordered by the king in council,
" That a judgment of the Superior Court of the Pro
vince of New Hampshire, recovered by the proprietors
of Bow against the said John Merrill, on the first Tues-

190 NEW HAMPSHIRE
day of August, 1753, should be reversed ; and that the
appellant be restored to what he may have lost by means
of said judgment. Whereof the Governor and Com
mander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Province of New
Hampshire for the time being, and all others whom it
may concern, are to take notice and govern themselves
accordingly." ^
This ought to have finished the matter ; but did
not. The Wentworths brought another suit, this
time for a larger sum, so as to allow an appeal to
London, and made Colonel Eolfe one of the de
fendants. Once more the courts decided against
justice, and again Parson Walker went to London
to present his appeal. Lord Mansfield, being then
on the bench, could only take part as a friend ; but
Mr. Walker quotes him as laying down the law,
with his usual clearness : —
^ See J. B. Walker's " Bow Controversy" printed in the Proceed
ings of the New Hampshire Historical Society (Concord, 1902), pp.
261-292. In support of the cause of their Rumford grantees, the
Massachusetts General Court voted £100 sterling in 1753, and in
structed an agent, Mr. BoUan, to aid them in London. This action,
had it been remembered at the time, would have served as a pre
cedent for Massachusetts to vote an appropriation in aid of her
former citizens in Kansas, in 1857, as petitioned for in the session
of that year, and advocated by John Brown, the hero of Kansas
and Virginia, who appeared before a committee of the General
Court for that purpose, introduced by the present writer, then
Secretary of the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee. Two
States did make such appropriations, — Vermont by its legisla
ture, and Iowa through its governor and adjutant-general, who
sent in some of the state muskets to defend the Free State set
tlers.

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 191
"Whoever settled under a grant from either side,
if he happened to be on the wrong side of the fine, as
he was precluded from defending himself by his grant,
his possession should he his title ; and possession with a
grant from Massachusetts was as good as with a grant
from New Hampshire. It appeared that Bow had chosen
committees to waive people from trespassing [with a
sneer], but Massachusetts people were strong, and went
on and settled, while Bow only claimed. The order of
the King in Council was the great point ; the words
there were, not private possession, but private property.
What a man claimed under a certain title, part whereof
he actually improved, was his private property."
The king in council heard the report, which
was in accordance with Mansfield's summing up,
and stigmatized the Wentworths and their associ
ates as " certain persons in New Hampshire, desir
ous to make the labors of others an advantage
to themselves ; " and on the 29th of December,
1762, reaffirmed the order of 1755, reversing the
decisions In Portsmouth, and directing "that the
appellants be restored to what they may have lost
by reason of said judgments."
The principle declared by Mansfield is the same
in essence as that affirmed by Halifax in censur
ing Cranfield, and by the council of James II In
restoring his forfeited estate to Edward Gove in
1685. It is this, — that a natural right lies at the
foundation of legal right, and will be maintained
ao'ainst technical fictions and interested verdicts.

192 NEW HAMPSHIRE
It Is the good fortune and should be the pride of
New Hampshire that, when her people were few
and poor, they found citizens stout enough to stand
up for natural right, and maintain the contest
until the slow and heavy artillery of the law came
up to give them the victory.
It will be seen by these transactions that the
Province was like Switzerland of the eighteenth
century in this respect, — that it was an oligarchy,
where powerful persons. Imitating In their small
acre the aggressive nobles of Berne, had their own
way for a while, until the democratic spirit, which
Calvinism fosters, brought about more equality
and freedom. Everything In New Hampshire be
fore 1740 was small, — the territory, the opportuni
ties, the riches, the ambitions, — everything but the
foundation ideas upon which their commonwealth
was based. After that date the landscape broadens.
In 1730, according to a report made to the home
government in that year, the whole population was
but 10,200, of whom 200 were " blacks ; " but the
increase in ten years had been 4000, or more than
65 per cent., and of these " 1000 at least are people
from Ireland, lately come into and settled within
the Province." A reason for the other Increase was
" a peace with the Indians the last four years ;
there are now In time of peace no Indians within
the Province." The shipping is rated at only 500
tons belonging to the Province ; other vessels
annually trading there, at 400 tons ; the number

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 193
of seafaring men only 40. The exports to Europe
and the West Indies were £1000 sterling in a
year, but by the coasting trade to Boston £5000 ;
and all sorts of British manufactures came in, up
to £5000 sterling a year. The militia were 1800,
in two regiments. At this date the inhabitants of
Eumford were probably 300 ; In 1767 they had in
creased to 752, and In 1775 to 1052, — more than
trebling in forty-five years. The rest of the Pro
vince Increased even faster, and wealth in the chief
towns grew rapidly. The expedition which cap
tured Louisbourg in 1745 was carried through by
the enthusiasm of William Vaughan, and the abil
ity and discretion of Governor Shirley of Massa
chusetts, seconded, as both were, by the energies of
the Wentworths, and the popularity of their neigh
bor. Colonel Pepperrell. The soldiers sent by New
Hampshire were 500, or an eighth part of the force
contributed by the three colonies of Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and New Hampshire. Much of the
glory went to Vaughan, who, with only thirteen
men, took and held the great battery on the shore ;
and the New Hampshire troops did much of the
heavy work of putting the siege artillery in posi
tion. They were still more conspicuous in the next
war with France, where John Stark first distin
guished himself.
In the mean time. Governor Wentworth, while
enriching himself by the reservations made in his
town grants, was losing his hold on his offices. He

194 NEW HAMPSHIRE
had a standing quarrel with the Assembly for years,
which lost him some of his friends in England,
although he was sustained in his specific acts of
disallowing his enemy, Waldron, as Speaker, and
summoning several new towns to send representa
tives. The king looked on such acts as part of
his own prerogative, which might well be assumed
by his viceroy. But New Hampshire lost ground in
England on Wentworth's account, and at several
distinct intervals efforts were made to remove him.
He quarreled often with the Assembly, negatived
their choice of Speaker (which they claimed as an
act of usurpation, though the king upheld it with
out exercising his own prerogative in that way),
and in various affairs Wentworth displayed the
imperious temper which he certainly had, and in
which his nephew, who succeeded him as Governor,
was wholly lacking. Yet Benning Wentworth was
in many respects a good chief magistrate ; too In
tent on increasing his riches, and not very scrupu
lous in the manner of meeting his opponents ; but
courageous, active, until age or gout disabled him,
and with all the shrewdness of a successful mer
chant, and all the ambition of a rising man. His
hope was to plant a family, supported by a great
landed estate ; and in this he was by no means sin
gular among New England men. His first children
dying, he married late In life, under circumstances
which brought some discredit on him ; the second
Mrs. Wentworth being some forty years younger

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 195
than himself, and a servant in his house before the
marriage, which was suddenly resolved on, and
imposed by his magisterial authority on the Angli
can clergyman who performed the ceremony (Eev.
Arthur Browne), in 1759. One of his council, James
Nevin, being In London soon after the accession of
George III, was questioned closely as to this mar
riage, and wrote to Secretary Atkinson (November
14, 1761), "111 will had carried a report to the offi
cers that the Governor had married a dirty slut of
a maid. I was asked about it by people of figure.
I told it as I think it really was, and the Governor
was approved of." The name of the bride was
Martha Hilton, a descendant of the Hilton family
who first settled on the Pascataqua, and of as good
an origin, except in wealth, as the Wentworths.
She had the gift of beauty, was a graceful and fa
vorite person. In both her marriages, and her daugh
ter Martha married her distant cousin, a nephew
of Sir John Wentworth.-'
1 Martha Hilton is the heroine of Longfellow's poem Lady
Wentworth, but she never properly had that title. Her second
husband was an English Michael Wentworth from Yorkshire, and
in 1789 she entertained President Washington at her house in
Little Harbor, which the Governor bequeathed her, with most of
his other property, in 1770. He was bom in Portsmouth in 169-"),
and was two years older than his brother-in-law, Atkinson, who
had equal or superior abilities, a better education, and was a firm
supporter of the Wentworth rule, by which he profited in estate
and reputation. The late marriage of Benning Wentworth, and
his bequest of property, led to family jars, by which for a time
the reputation of his wife suffered.

196 NEW HAMPSHIRE
The war between England and France (which
first began in the Colonies, In 1754) found New
Hampshire much exposed to attack from Canada,
as in former wars ; and Indian atrocities were re
newed after a short interval of quiet, during which
the colonists had pushed farther Into the forest on
both sides of the Province. Along the Connecticut
and its tributaries towns had been granted both
by Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and these
now felt the savage assault. The tributaries of the
Merrimac also had their upper settlements raided,
about the time Washington was defending his fort
in the Ohio region. A whole family in 1754 were
carried captive from Salisbury, the native town
of Daniel Webster, sold In Canada, afterward
shipped for France, but captured at sea by an
English vessel, and put ashore at Portland, — re
turning to Salisbury in 1758. In Walpole, Colonel
Bellows, one of the first settlers, at the head of
twenty men, broke his way through a party of fifty
Indians, and gained the shelter of his garrison.
Not far off, John Kilburn, in June, 1765, withstood
a siege of two hundred Indians in his own garrison,
with a force of three men and two women, and beat
them off. He was the first settler In Walpole (in
1749), and lived to see the United States independ
ent and Washington President, — dying in 1789 at
the age of eighty-five. In Hinsdale (Fort Dummer
in former wars), the Indians killed and captured
twenty persons, among them Mrs. Howe, the " fair

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 197
captive " of the poetic David Humphreys in his
life of General Putnam. Another of the Hinsdale
captives, Eunice Gaffield, being sold In Canada,
was sent to France, thence escaped to England,
returned to Boston, and lived in Massachusetts till
1830, when she died at ninety-seven. Such was the
romance and tragedy of the New Hampshire fron
tier towns for a hundred years ; and the campaigns
of this war were no less tragical and glorious for
the yeomen of the Province, fighting or massa
cred after surrender, under the lead of Eogers and
Stark, Messerve, Goffe, and many a brave captain,
— among them a son of the Lovewell slain at
Fryeburg. At the capital the gentry of the Province —
Wentworths, Waldrons, Weares, Gilmans, Atkin
sons, Sherburnes, and the rest — did their part
well, raising regiments and providing funds for the
harassing and often alarming warfare. After de
feats under the incapable Loudoun and Webb and
the incautious Abercromby, which seemed to open
New Hampshire to French invasion, their spirit
rose with the danger. The old Governor, address
ing the Assembly in September, 1756, closed by
saying, —
" Argument or persuasions to lead you into so inter
esting a branch of duty and service, I look upon to
be needless ; because the hour seems to be approaching
when the inhabitants of this Continent must universally
unite in putting a stop to the French king's army. In

198 NEW HAMPSHIRE
failure of which, we shall soon become Provinces and
subjects of the French king ; subjected to a government
whose civil polity is tyranny, and to a religion teaching
superstition and the worship of wood and stone, instead
of that pure and uncorrupted adoration due only to the
Supreme Being."
It was at this crisis that the genius of Pitt
brought him to the front, and the force of one im
perious and intrepid man put a new face on the
hazardous situation in Europe and America. "No
man," said Colonel Barre, " ever entered Mr. Pitt's
closet who did not come out of it a braver man."
His inspiration was soon felt In the Colonies, and
evoked a kindred courage in the people whom he
honored with his confidence. The formal and iter
ated language of his letters to Wentworth can
not disguise the greatness of soul which gleams
through it : —
" His Majesty considering that the several Provinces,
in proximity and accessibifity of situation more immedi
ately obnoxious to the main irruptions of the enemy
from Canada, are of themselves well able to furnish at
least 20,000 men ; I am commanded to signify to you
the king's pleasure that you do forthwith use your
utmost endeavors to raise with all possible despatch,
as large a body of men within your Government as the
number of its inhabitants may allow. It is unnecessary
to add anything to animate your zeal in the execution
of His Majesty's orders on this great occasion ; where
the safety and preservation of America, and of your

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 199
own Province in particular, are at stake. And the king
doubts not, from your known fidelity and attachment,
that you will employ yourself with the utmost despatch
in this urgent and dangerous crisis."
New Hampshire responded nobly to Pitt's ap
peal, and her small army of soldiers, every man a
marksman, and more than half of them bred to
a toilsome woodland life, were at the front in every
encounter, except In those retreats where the post
of danger was at the rear. It was service of this
kind which made them so efficient In the battles of
the Eevolution ; and more than one of their lead
ers won a great name in that conflict, John Stark
in particular.
The debt arising from this war was less burden
some than formerly, because Pitt took pains to see
that the Colonies were In part reimbursed for their
outlays of money. Yet the finances of the Province
were apt to be in arrears and confusion, and a de
preciating paper currency, against which the good
sense of the old Governor revolted, made the rich
richer and the poor poorer. When in 1762 the lei
sure class in Portsmouth, — Wentworths, Eindges,
Livermores, etc., — with the tavern-keepers, peti-
tloned for a playhouse In the wealthy capital, John
Langdon, then first coming into public life as a
" selectman," and several hundred of the more sober
and active of the citizens remonstrated, saying,
among other things : —

200 NEW HAMPSHIRE
" It would bring on many burdens and difficulties, in
addition to those we have so lately suffered for want of
the necessaries of life, and carry o£E the little remaining
silver and gold there is in the town. Especially con
sidering every mouthful of bread we have ate has been,
for many months past, and what we shall use must be,
for many yet to come, imported, we apprehend it would
be destructive to the circumstances of the people, as well
as their morals : and as the poor wiU always imitate the
richer, every servant in town will soon turn player. For
these and other reasons, — which your Excellency knows
better than we do, being better acquainted with things
of this kind, — we humbly pray no liberty for this pur
pose may be granted, at such a remarkable season and
time as this."
The sly hit at the luxurious old Governor, who
was implied to be a play-goer, and whose servant
had lately turned fine lady, was appreciated by the
people ; and this must have been one of the first
documents addressed to them by Langdon, who
was in the public service for the rest of his long
life.i There seems to have been a real affection in New
Hampshire for the worthy old king George II,
who was closing his life as his armies were con-
1 The Portsmouth idlers got their playhouse in time, but not
on this occasion. They had had a newspaper and printing-house
for six years (since 1756), and the sermon of Dr. Langdon, soon to
be quoted, was printed by Daniel Fowle, at the office of his New
Hampshire Gazette, which still exists, and is tlie oldest extant
paper in New England.

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 201
quering Canada. An older member of the Lang
don family, Eev. Samuel Langdon (then preach
ing in the first Portsmouth parish, and chaplain
of the Assembly), in a sermon on the king's sev
enty-sixth birthday (November 10, 1769) and In
gratulation for the conquest of Quebec, said of
him : —
" He has always acted as under a proper sense of his
dependance upon God ; aiming to promote justice and
virtue, love and peace in the nation, and secure to his
subjects their civil rights, and the most valuable liberty,
that of conscience. He has never attempted to deprive
the people of any of their privileges ; the spirit of his
reign has been the most opposite to every degree of tyr
anny and oppression ; and it is no inconsiderable part
of the glory of it that he never would suffer any of the
several denominations of Christians to be compelled to
worship God contrary to the real free persuasion of their
own minds."
These compliments were deserved, in spite of
some imperfections of temper and morals In the
sturdy Hanoverian. He died the next year, and
the grandson who succeeded him earned a very
different reputation in New Hampshire. But at
first George III raised good hopes, reappointed
the aged Governor, In spite of charges against
him, was complimented by Parson Langdon in the
name of his brother ministers in September, 1761,
and urged to perpetuate the privileges of the New
Hampshire churches.

202 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Governor Wentworth went on granting new
towns in both halves of his Switzerland, until
George III, no longer so favorable to New Hamp
shire as his grandfather had been, by royal decree
confirmed the claim of New York to the whole of
what is now Vermont, in 1764. Among the first
towns that he had chartered was that most cele
brated one, named for himself, Bennington, where
thirty years afterward. Stark and the men of New
Hampshire defeated the Hessian mercenaries of
King George. It is on the extreme western border
of New Hampshire's claim, — indeed, the battle was
mainly in what Is now New York. The excessive
fees and reservations made in these town grants,
to enrich the Governor and his kindred, became
subjects of complaint against him in London,
and the king was about to remove him in 1766.
His charming young nephew, afterward Sir John
Wentworth, being in England, and paying court to
the nobles Eockingham, Hillsborough, and Straf
ford, for whom he afterwards in gratitude named
the counties of his native Province, prevailed on
the Council to allow his uncle to resign, and was
himself appointed the successor. He was also given
an important office for the whole thirteen Colonies
(Surveyor of the King's Woods), and in qualifying
for that duty he landed at Charleston in Carolina
in 1767, and came slowly up the Atlantic coast by
land to his provincial capital, Portsmouth. There
he was received with a genuine welcome, due to

THE SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA 203
his agreeable character and the extent of his family
influence. Up to this time few approaches had been made,
except by bold explorers and trappers, to the White
Mountains, which gave the name Switzerland to
the Province. But the new Governor laid out his
country estate, at a great cost, in the new town of
•Wolfeborough (named for the victor at Quebec),
lying on the road to the high mountains, and so
turned the stream of migration in that direction.
The forest was now freed of Indian marauders and
Jesuits hunting Puritan families to convert them
to the old religion ; and by the time John Went
worth had exiled himself from his government in
1776, the " Notches " of the Conway and Franconia
mountains were passes for occasional travel, and
openings into a region to which the patriots could
retire, should the armies of the king occupy the
seaboard, in the contest soon to grow bitter. The
occasion never came, and the brave little Colony
was never again invaded.

CHAPTEE IX
THE EEVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL
Never was a Province better disposed to satisfac
tion with itself. Its Governor, or its King, than was
New Hampshire at the close of Benning Went
worth's administration and the accession to power
of his handsome and amiable nephew, John Went
worth. The conquest of Canada had removed for
ever the danger of savage invasion and the captivity
and conversion of children. The population was
fast increasing, new towns were springing up along
the border of the receding wilderness; trade was
growing, manufactures beginning on a simple but
useful scale ; the local governments were demo
cratic, and every good man had his chance to hold
office and show his capacity for leading other men.
Monarchy and aristocracy had their modest share
in the provincial government ; but the young king
was a true Englishman, faithful to his wife and his
coronation oath, and had not yet been persuaded
into the folly of taxing the colonies without giving
them representation. The Stamp Act had been
passed, but repealed, in deference to the opposi
tion of the larger colonies, and the protest of com-

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 205
mercial England and that Idol of New England,
the elder Pitt. A group of families held the chief
offices in New Hampshire, but the men who filled
them were mostly native-born, and represented
earlier struggles in which they or their fathers had
taken the side of the people ; they were modest,
well-bred men, for the most part, ready for any
service the public interest might require, and liv
ing simply if wealthy, or still more simply if poor,
as several of them were. Taxation was heavy, for
the cost of the seven years' war was great ; but Its
result had been so glorious that public discontent
hardly existed. John, son of Mark Wentworth, the
last of the governors of that name, was in the
prime of life, hardly thirty, when appointed to suc
ceed his uncle, and less than thirty-two when he
took the chair in March, 1768. He had graduated
at Harvard College In the class with John Adams
(1766), two years before his cousin, young Theo
dore Atkinson, whose youthful widow, his beautiful
Boston cousin, Frances Wentworth, he married In
his second year as governor ; and had spent much
time in England, managing important affairs and
making friends with leading noblemen, who re
mained friendly during his later and less prosperous
life. As governor he quieted most of the feuds his
uncle and cousins had raised, but had one inveterate
enemy, Peter LIvius, of foreign birth, who took
advantage of some events In the former adminis
tration to prefer serious charges against the new

206 NEW HAMPSHIRE
governor. These were practically disproved in
England, and Livius was given an appointment
in Canada, to avoid a renewal of the controversy in
the small provincial capital of Portsmouth, where
half the men of property were the Governor's
kindred. The same English minister who had repealed the
Stamp Act had appointed John Wentworth (him
self active for the repeal) Governor, and given
him his other office extending through the Colonies
(Surveyor of the King's Woods). As in pursuance
of this duty he landed in South Carolina, and made
his way northward, proclaiming his commission in
each colony, he was everywhere received with favor
from his connection with the Marquis of Eocking
ham. In the division of counties which was soon
made, he gave to the five New Hampshire counties
the names of his powerful English friends, the
Marquis, the Earl of Strafford, the Duke of Graf
ton, the Earl of Hillsborough, and the Earl of
Cheshire.-^ In granting new towns, or regranting
those which his uncle had unsuccessfully allotted,
he also took pains to preserve the family names of
his English friends and his own numerous connec-
^ To these five counties have been gradually added as many
more by division of the older ones, — Coos (an Indian name), from
the north of Grafton, in 1803 ; Merrimac, from Rockingham and
Hillsborough, in 1823 ; Sullivan, from the north of Cheshire, in
1827 ; and Belknap and Carroll, from Strafford and Grafton, in
1842. Sullivan took the General's name, and Belknap that of the
first state historian. Carroll was named for Charles of Carrollton.

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 207
tions. His grandfather, John Eindge, who had
done much to defeat the Massachusetts boundary
claim, had one of the towns of 1768 named for
him ; and Mrs. Wentworth gave her name to Fran-
cestown, and her mother's name to Deering. Lou
don, Fitzwilllam, and Shelburne still bear the
names of noblemen. Another earl, Lord Dart
mouth, soon became a patron of the new college
which Governor Wentworth did more to found
than either Dr. Wheelock or his patron, whose
name the college perpetuates. Through the Went
worth influence, nearly 50,000 acres of land in the
Province and in Vermont were granted to Dart
mouth College, which opened its doors in 1770, and
graduated its first class of four in the next year, to
each of whom the Governor gave land for a farm.
He also attracted to the Province, or retained there
by appointments, able men from other colonies,
such as Benjamin Thompson, afterward Count
Eumford, and Edward Lutwyche, — both loyalists
and exiles a few years later, along with the Gov
ernor himself. In his own favorite new town of
Wolfeborough, the Governor laid out a large es
tate and built a country house, after the fashion of
English gentlemen, upon which he expended, as he
afterwards said, more than 150,000.^ He thus gave
1 His whole estate, valued at some £20,000, was confiscated in
the Revolution, but did not become available for expenses of the
war, being left for management in the hands of his father, Mark
Hunking Wentworth, who sided with the patriots, but did not

208 NEW HAMPSHIRE
employment to many men, and in every way en
couraged Industry and the arts in his government.
take an active part in affairs, dying in December, 1785. Writing
from Halifax to Edward Winslow, a loyalist self-exiled from
Plymouth, Mass., in March, 1786, Sir John Wentworth said : " In
this vicinity there is nobody that has seen my estate at Wolfboro.
I had selected the best of all my property in that country, granted
in the large measure usual for such cases, — 4387 acres, but
amounted nearer to 6000. It was subject to no service or quit-
rent, a shire, market-and-fair-town, in the centre of a fertile and
populous country. The roads were made ; the Park (substantially
fenced in) about 600 acres ; in it a saw-mill and grist-mill com
plete. The house is 102 feet long, 41 wide, 24 or 25 feet in the
posts ; built of the best, and by the best workmen ; two stable
and coach houses, 62 by 40, 24 feet posts, built for duration,
glazed and painted completely. One bam framed, boarded, shin
gled, painted, and as complete as possible, — 106 ft. long, 32 to
40 wide, and 18 to 22 high ; a large dairy house, smoke house and
ashes house. Carpenter's, blacksmith's, and cabinet-maker's shops,
with all possible instruments and tools ; cattle, sheep, horses,
small stock, boats, implements, and furniture of all sorts, com
plete and in super-abundance. The whole included, I think the
4387 acres are under-valued at £5 sterling per acre (X22,000). I
am sure, had I put the cash it cost me into the Boston treasury,
the sum would have far exceeded. In 1774 the produce on that
estate exceeded the consumption of my whole family ; and you
know how we lived. And every year it became more valuable
without cost. In my estimation I put the whole at i20,000 ster
ling. I shall be obliged if you will be so good as to mention your
opinion of my general establishment in town and country, — for
houses, gardens, furniture, servants, equipages, horses, &c., —
whether they were good, plentiful, and becoming my rank in that
country, in proportion to what was done by other Governors and
men of fortune in America."
In fact, though his town house in Portsmouth was not very
magnificent, it is doubtful if any man north of Maryland had a
finer country estate. It was smaller in area, but better built and

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 209
The rest of the gentry of the Province, with the
clergymen of all denominations, were his friends,
and perhaps no governor, before or since, was more
popular with all classes. His own nature was
manly and attractive, without vices, and with fair
if not distinguished abilities ; a sincere Christian
and a good citizen, and from his office and char
acter the first citizen in northern New England for
a time. The agitation for independence was unknown in
New Hampshire until after the fight at Concord and
Lexington ; but the manifest purpose of the king
to tax the Colonies, and the severity of his measures
against Boston, after the Tea Party of December,
1773, roused the yeomen and mechanics and for
esters of Wentworth's Province to resistance. The
merchants and clergy had remained neutral, largely
by reason of the Governor's popularity, and the ex
tent of his family connection and influence. Young
lawyers like John Sullivan, who had established him
self in practice at Durham, and young merchants
like John Langdon, who had returned from England
fully persuaded of the evil designs of the ministry,
took the patriotic side, and had warm support from
the country towns, but the older towns held back.
equipped than Washington's Mt. Vernon was at that time. As
returned in 1791, the estate was much less in value, and against it,
in 1785, the Governor's father had claims amounting to il8,6S0.
But it is not likely the Governor's estimate was excessive as to
actual cost and value in time of peace. The war much diminished
the value of real property in New Hampshire.

210 NEW HAMPSHIRE
A Provincial Congress was called In New Hamp
shire, in July, 1774, after the regular session of the
Assembly had been dissolved by the Governor, on
account of its forming committees of correspondence
with the other colonies. It met at Exeter, July 14,
and elected Sullivan, then a major in the militia,
and Nathaniel Folsom, also an officer, as delegates
to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. This
movement toward the union of all the Colonies was
only an extension, based on popular agitation, of
that which in 1754 had led to a smaller Congress
at Albany, in which New Hampshire had taken
part, and was represented, with the approval of the
government, by Colonel Theodore Atkinson, then
provincial secretary, and Colonel Meshech Weare,
then one of the leading assemblymen.^ But the
1 The journal kept by Atkinson on this e3q)edition, when he
made the journey in company with Colonel Weare, indicates
how difficult was travel on such errands in 1754. The two gen
tlemen, — Atkinson fifty-seven years old and Weare forty, —
went on horseback, and occupied twelve days going and nine in
returning from Portsmouth to Albany, and vice versa. At pre
sent it would take but twelve hours, and a tenth part of the ex
pense. Atkinson set out at 8 A. m. June 5, from his Portsmouth
house near the waterside, rode fifteen miles to Hampton Falls,
dined there with Colonel Weare, and passed the first night at Ha
verhill. On the 6th they reached Cambridge, where young Atkin
son was in college, lodged with President Holyoke, and the next
day dined with Mr. Vassall, and got as far as Sudbury. On the
8th they reached Worcester, where they spent Sunday. By the
11th they had reached Springfield, on the 12th Hartford, and were
crossing the Livingston Manor in New York on the 13th. In Al
bany they met Dr. Franklin, had a. colloquy with the Indians,

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 211
object of the Congress of twenty years later was
so manifestly for resistance, in some form, to the
ministerial measures, that Governor Wentworth
felt bound to oppose it. He was unsuccessful, and
began to have fears that his moderate course and
general popularity could not prevent New Hamp
shire from following what he thought the ill exam
ple of Boston. These fears were confirmed when,
in December (the 15th), 1774, a party, headed by
Sullivan and Langdon, captured the fort at New
Castle, removed to Durham, near Sullivan's house,
one hundred barrels of powder, and sent most of
the cannon and small arms to other places of safe
keeping, in anticipation of the war which they fore
saw. It was with this powder, the next June, that
the patriots fought the battle of Bunker Hill. Six
weeks later, in a letter written to his Dover friend,
T. W. Waldron, Wentworth related how Langdon
and Sullivan dominated the second Provincial Con
gress, which Indeed chose them delegates to the
Congress at Philadelphia. But at first the Hamp
ton Falls members. Colonel Weare and Eev. Paine
WIngate, tried to stem the rising tide, and were re
fused a hearing. Weare, now a judge, speaking for
moderation, was interrupted with cries of " Tory
nonsense ! We 've had enough of it ! " and when
he next became prominent, it was as chairman of
the new Committee of Safety, which virtually gov-
remained on duty in the Congress until July 10, and on the 11th
started to return through Springfield.

212 NEW HAMPSHIRE
erned the Province until it became a State in 1776.
He was in fact elected by this body, which called
itself a Convention and had a hundred and forty-
four members, one of a committee of seven, with
a cousin of the Governor, John Wentworth of
Somersworth, at its head, to call another convention.
This met in Exeter upon the news of the Lexing
ton fight, with about seventy members, from half
as many towns, who were soon joined by forty more
from thirty-seven towns. They put themselves in
communication with Warren and Adams of the Mas
sachusetts Provincial Congress, and began to raise
soldiers for the war. A fourth Provincial Congress
met in May, with a still larger attendance of mem
bers. The president of it was Matthew Thornton,
who afterward signed the Declaration of Independ
ence, and It was evident that many of the mem
bers favored a separation from Great Britain. This
convention raised soldiers, and voted supplies and
arms ; it also (June 8, 1775) addressed a letter of
remonstrance to Governor Wentworth, for his ru
mored request to have British troops sent Into the
Province. Then it raised money by issuing bills of
credit, and demanded and took possession of the
Province records, so far as they could be obtained
from the members of the provincial government.
In the mean time, more important measures than
mere votes and addresses from the assemblies and
the Governor had been taking place. On the 19th
of April the first battle had occurred, beginning

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 213
at Lexington, renewed at Concord, and continued
through the whole day upon the retreat of the in
vaders. New Hampshire was represented, even in
this unexpected and impromptu fight, by one or more
experienced soldiers, who had fought in the French
war ; and when the swift horsemen carried the news
of the combat over the border into Wentworth's
Province, the angry muster of thousands began
there. Stark, receiving the message at his saw-mill
in Dumbarton, mounted and rode night and day to
Cambridge, where he was soon put in command of
a regiment, many of whom had been with him In
dangerous battle and ambush around Ticonderoga.
The enlistment of New Hampshire soldiers went
on rapidly, and before June 1 more than two thou
sand were under arms, and three regiments were in
the neighborhood of Boston, where General Gage
was besieged by a New England army of at least
fifteen thousand men, commanded by General Arte-
mas Ward of Massachusetts. A New Hampshire
clergyman. Dr. Samuel Langdon, had left Ports
mouth the autumn before to take the presidency
of Harvard College, and around his house and the
halls of study this army was encamped and under
going discipline. Before June 17 Governor Went
worth had taken refuge at the fort of New Castle,
and on that day the British attack on the redoubt
at Bunker Hill was made and twice repulsed by
men who fought with New Hampshire powder, and
of whom a majority were New Hampshire men.

214 NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the final assault, when Warren fell, the slow
retreat of Prescott and his men was covered by the
cool and sagacious Stark, who had piled the British
dead in windrows at the front of his own line of
battle. Several New Hampshire officers were killed
or wounded in the fight or retreat ; but their loss
was trifling compared with the slaughter Inflicted
on the British officers and men by the deadly fire
of marksmen from the woods of New Hampshire.
After this battle, when the Governor, from " Cas
tle William and Mary," required of his aged uncle,
Theodore Atkinson, " the books and charters in
the Secretary's office," that official was obliged to
reply that the Provincial Congress had sent a com
mittee to demand of him all his records and files,
and had forcibly removed them to Exeter, the seat
of the de facto government. The eight years' war
had begun.
All through this war of the Eevolution, the small
and impoverished Province, soon to be the State of
New Hampshire, " behaved itself as a party to the
contest," as Emerson said of his town of Concord.
Its soldiers made themselves felt in every campaign
and almost in every battle. Their officers. Stark,
Eeed, Poor, Cllley, Sullivan, Dearborn, Scammell,
distinguished themselves wherever distinction was
to be won. John Sullivan from a provincial Major
was made a Continental Brigadier, partly, no doubt,
from his ardent eloquence and Irish zeal for the
fight, without the calm and considerate hardihood

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 215
of Stark. He had not Stark's skill in conducting
a campaign, although in 1779, when he led an army
of three thousand men to destroy the Indian habita
tions and cornfields on the Chemung and Susque
hanna rivers, in southern New York, his success
was complete. By sea, also, the New Hampshire
men were active and achieved good results. The
first vessel of Paul Jones, the Eanger, was built
by John Langdon, and fitted for fighting at Ports
mouth, where shipbuilding had long been carried
on. The officers and crew of the Eanger were
mainly from the Pascataqua region, and some of
them had a hand in the renowned sea-fight between
the Poor Eichard and the Serapis, where Jones
was the hero of the day.
While every State of the original Thirteen, and
even the incipient and disputed State of Vermont,
was invaded during this war. New Hampshire alone
escaped. Its position and Its comparative poverty
account in some degree for this. But its soldiers
had early acquired that name for desperate valor
which attaches to the people of certain countries, —
to Scotland, Ireland, and Switzerland, for Instance,
— and the State profited by this. In the invasion
of New York from Canada by Burgoyne, in 1777,
he sent a strong detachment into Vermont, which
seemed to threaten the western settlements of New
Hampshire. Indeed, the whole of Vermont was
then claimed by President Weare and his col
leagues in New Hampshire as part of their domain.

216 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Accordingly, General Stark, who had been unwar
rantably passed over in some promotions by Con
gress, and who had thereupon resigned from Wash
ington's army, was called upon by his native State
to defend her and to repel the invasion. He ac
cepted the task at once, took command of a small
army, mostly made up of New Hampshire natives,
marched across the whole breadth of New Hamp
shire and Vermont, and defeated Burgoyne's de
tachment in what is now New York. Bennington,
which gives its name to this battle (fought in Au
gust, 1777), was left in Vermont by the border line
agreed upon by Congress In 1782 ; but the actual
fortification made by Colonel Baum and his Hes
sians, which Stark assaulted and carried, was west
of that line.
This battle ended the advance of Burgoyne
southward, and was the first step in that series of
events which closed the military life of Burgoyne,
and led to the French alliance and the recognition
of American independence. Up to January, 1776,
whatever individuals may have wished, the general
sentiment of New Hampshire was for a restoration
of the old relation between the Colony and the
parent kingdom. The fifth Exeter Provincial Con
gress, elected late In 1776, after the departure of
Governor Wentworth, and convened December 21,
still called New Hampshire a " Colony," and while
providing a brief form of government substan
tially like that before existing, omitting the royal

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 217
Governor and Council, felt called on to protest and
declare, —
" That we never sought to throw off our dependence
upon Great Britain, but felt ourselves happy under her
protection, while we could enjoy our constitutional rights
and privileges ; and that we shall rejoice if such a re
conciliation between us and our parent State can be ef
fected as shaU be approved by the Continental Congress,
in whose prudence and wisdom we confide."
This was a sincere statement. Its date was Jan
uary 5, 1776, and the Committee of Safety, already
existing, now became the Council, under this Con
stitution, or were chosen from It to act during
the Interval of legislative sessions. The committee
which reported the plan included Meshech Weare,
Matthew Thornton, Wyseman Claggett, and Eben-
ezer Thompson, — the first named being the acting
Governor and soon Chief Justice of the Colony,
and the last named, Secretary. They continued to
hold these places until the war ended in 1783, — ¦
indeed until June, 1784, when an elaborate Con
stitution, adopted in October, 1783, and based on
John Adams's Massachusetts Constitution of 1780,
took effect. But hardly had the new government
organized, with an Implied agreement to reunite
with England under just conditions, when the
extreme severity and unwisdom of King George
began to turn the thoughts of the people to inde
pendence. The first elected Assembly, now styled

218 NEW HAMPSHIRE
the House of Eepresentatlves, began to agitate the
question early in June, 1776, and on the 11th of
that month named Samuel Cutts of Portsmouth,
Timothy Walker of Concord, and John Dudley of
Eaymond a committee " to make a draft of a de
claration of this General Assembly for independ
ence of the United Colonies on Great Britain.''
Four days later, and three weeks before Congress
adopted Jefferson's Declaration, this committee re
ported, and both houses adopted, the first authorita
tive statement of the purpose to cast off allegiance
to Great Britain. After reciting that " the British
ministry, arbitrary and vindictive, are determined
to reduce by fire and sword our bleeding country
to their absolute obedience," and that "foreign
mercenaries " and a formidable fleet are on the
way "to ravage and plunder the sea-coast," the
declaration goes on, —
" Whereas we, of this colony of New Hampshire,
have the example of the most respectable of our sister
colonies before us for entering upon that most important
step of a disunion from Great Britain, and declaring
us free and independent of the Crown thereof ; and it
appearing absolutely necessary, in this most critical junc
ture of our public affairs, that the honorable the Conti
nental Congress, who have this important object under
their immediate consideration, should be also informed
of our resolutions thereon, without loss of time ;
" We do hereby declare that it is the opinion of this
assembly that our delegates at the Continental Congress

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 219
should be instructed, and they are hereby instructed, to
join with the other colonies in declaring the thirteen
United Colonies a free and independent State, — sol
emnly pledging our faith and honor that we will, on our
parts, support the measure with our lives and fortunes ;
and that, in consequence thereof, they, the Continental
Congress, on whose wisdom, fidelity and integrity we
rely, may enter into and form such alliances as they may
judge conducive to the present safety and future advan
tage of these American colonies ; provided the regula
tion of our internal police be under the direction of our
own Assembly."
The similarity in several respects of the language
here used to that afterwards employed by Jeffer
son and Adams hints, what I suppose to be the
fact, that the Adamses had communicated with
Weare, Thornton, etc., in regard to independence.
At the same time, the word " alliances " points to
what was a strong motive with Franklin and Wash
ington, — the desire to use the jealousy of England
among the European Powers for the formation of
some powerful alliance, like that with France,
which, long under consideration, did actually fol
low the surrender of Burgoyne in 1777. It may
then be seen that New Hampshire had a strong in
fluence, first in bringing the more doubting patri
ots to a belief in Independence, and then In giving
France the opportunity (by checking the advance
and compelling the surrender of Burgoyne) to do
what she wished, and ally herself with us.

220 NEW HAMPSHIRE
The organization of government in New Hamp
shire, after the departure of Governor Wentworth
and the removal from office of his kinsmen in the
Council, showed plainly what sort of citizens in
habited the Colony. The magistrates no longer held
office, the courts were closed, but all the functions
of government went on under the system of town
self-government, which had grown up instead of
the squirearchy and lieutenancy that the grantees of
great estates had vainly sought to introduce from
England. More than a hundred towns, representing
an average of a thousand people each, came to
gether in the Provincial Congress, at Exeter, — re
moved by the short Interval of a dozen miles from
the influence of wealth and royal appointments in
the seaport capital. Their flrst care was to establish
post-offices, which the royal government had too
much neglected; these were needful to keep the
towns in communication with each other and with
the suddenly raised army. They next established a
Committee of Supply for the army, and the Com
mittee of Safety already mentioned, which directed
all affairs of the Colony with more efficiency than
the royal Council had usually done. Its seat was at
Exeter ; its members were country physicians like
Thornton and Thompson, country justices and
farmers like Weare and Dudley, with an occasional
man from the learned professions ; its head was in
the small town of Hampton Falls, where President
Weare, In his unpretending but comfortable home.

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 221
overlooking the ocean at Hampton, four miles away,
gave audience and dinners to committee-men, com
manders, officials from Massachusetts, and foreign
travelers. He made his daily trips to Exeter, seven
miles westward, on his jogging horse, returning at
night to his own farm, or, if detained by business,
lodging with the colonial treasurer, Nicholas Gil-
man, whose farm was larger and his house more
spacious, in the township bought by Wheelwright
from the Indians. Both Weare and Oilman were
descended from ancestors who had helped carry
the Colony safely through the troubles with Eobert
Mason and the Stuarts ; they had a hereditary
claim on the popularity they enjoyed, and their
justice and good faith were known throughout the
county which they had served in offices, humble
or important, but always neighborly, for a whole
generation. They knew the local officers of the
towns, had sat with them on juries and in town
meetings, worshiped with them in the plain meet
ing-houses, conducted their funerals, solemnized
their marriages, drawn up their land-titles, settled
their estates, and in every possible way had come
to their notice and merited confidence. Hence the
complete understanding that usually existed be
tween the general and the local authority in the
extemporized revolutionary government, which was
in fact only revolutionary in name. 'Squire Weare
and 'Squire Wentworth, Dr. Bartlett, Dr. Thomp
son, Dr. Thornton, 'Squire Dudley, and 'Squire

222 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Claggett had managed the general business of the
towns under the Portsmouth oligarchy, and had
sometimes won in contests with them. They natu
rally took charge when that oligarchy was dis
possessed, and Its supporters in the country towns
either joined the patriot cause, or fled the country, or
came under suspicion and were bound over to good
behavior, or languished in the Ill-appointed wooden
jails. As Dr. Belknap says, who saw the whole trans
formation, and had good friends on both sides : —
" The Provincial Convention directed the general
affairs of the war, and town committees had a discre
tionary but undefined power to preserve domestic peace.
Habits of decency, family government, and the good
example of influential persons, contributed more to main
tain order than any other authority. The value of these
secret bonds of society was now more than ever con
spicuous." An English writer of clear observation, comment
ing on the American constitutions which grew up
during the Eevolution and soon after, once said
that the men of Massachusetts could make any
constitution work well. The same was even more
persistently true of the men of New Hampshire,
who in every emergency rose quietly to the occa
sion, and sometimes by tumults, sometimes by
town meetings or committees, held nominal rulers
to their duty, or took the reins calmly Into their
own hands. Even the disappointed and disaffected

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 223
came to the rescue when the general peace was
threatened. There was In the little town of New
ington on the Pascataqua an old clergyman, Joseph
Adams, uncle of John Adams, who was seventy-six
years of age when the royal authority collapsed.
He was slow to see what would follow, and his
son, Benjamin, at first inclined to the side of the
mother country. His disaffection was not lessened
by the unwillingness of the town to pay his father's
salary in silver, as the contract required, and he
continued under some suspicion, though holding
town offices because of his education. After the
war, he desired to be a justice of the peace, and his
townsmen objected ; this made President Sullivan
and the Council hesitate to appoint him. He wrote
an angry letter to John Wentworth of Somersworth,
his friend and nearest councilor, in which he re
counted what share he had in suppressing the insur
rection at Exeter a few weeks before, saying, —
" For the President and Council to hear the non
sensical rabble against men of influence is strange and
surprising. I stept forward the other day to support
Government, and was the second man to Col. Brewster,
who stopped the insurgents at the (Exeter) Bridge, till
we were properly reinforced by Gen. Cilley and others,
— to the hazard of my life and horse against them." ^
1 This speedy suppression of the revolt in September, 1786, by
the gallantry of Sullivan and Cilley, and the ready response of
the oro-anized militia when called to arms, are described on a later
page.

224 NEW HAMPSHIRE
If so (and no man contradicted him), this second
cousin of President Adams must have mounted
at night and ridden ten miles from his farm to
Exeter, to support the authorities, who there made
quick work of this preliminary to the Shays's insur
rection in Massachusetts. And throughout the long
war, while disease and death weakened families,
and a depreciated currency, added to the confusion
of trade and industry which civil commotions create,
impoverished most of the inhabitants, no serious
trouble arose in the new State. The wheels of civil
and ecclesiastical government continued to revolve
as of old, and society held together under the sim
plest and homeliest conditions. The plough and the
axe kept at work in farm and forest, the spinning-
wheel hummed, and the household shuttle flew, to
clothe and feed the absent soldier and the bereaved
family ; the minister preached and prayed ; the
schools went on. If for fewer weeks, and the popu
lation Increased, though at a smaller ratio than
before. New Hampshire maintained three regiments in
the army of Washington during the whole contest,
and raised many more soldiers for occasional ser
vice. These regiments accompanied Washington
from the siege of Boston to New York, and were
engaged in the unlucky fights of that region in
1776. Some of them went under General Sullivan
to Canada, when Arnold was forced to retreat after
the death of Montgomery, and had hard fortune

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 225
there. Sullivan himself, at the request of Wash
ington, after the capture of the dilatory and finally
treacherous Charles Lee, hastened forward a de
tachment of this northern army in time to take
part under Washington In the brilliant surprise of
Trenton, December, 1776, where Stark also had
his usual share in the fighting and the success. Ee-
ceiving what he thought shabby treatment from
Congress in the matter of promotions. Colonel
Stark resigned, and returned home to Starkstown,
where his brother William and his nephew had
been proscribed as Tories, along with Stark's old
commander, Eogers, for their allegiance to the Brit
ish crown, under which they had taken the military
oath. But no thought of renouncing his country's
cause arose In John Stark's mind, as In Arnold's
three years later, under like provocation. He had
just recruited a new regiment, when in March, 1777,
he received word that Congress, then full of in
trigues against Washington, had " thought proper
to promote junior officers over my head," as he said
in resigning his command to the New Hampshire
government. He added a hope " that you will
make choice of some gentleman to succeed, who
may honor the cause and his country."
Probably he foresaw what actually happened,
that the movement of Burgoyne would call for
his services In a separate command, to protect the
State against Invasion, and keep New England in
communication with the army of Washington. At

226 NEW HAMPSHIRE
any rate, In July, 1777, that very emergency arose ;
and in the legislature at Exeter, John Langdon
(the wealthiest merchant remaining in Ports
mouth), being Speaker of the House, made the
speech, so often quoted, which offered the means of
repelling Burgoyne : —
" I have $3000 in hard money ; my plate shall be
pledged for as much more ; my 70 hogsheads of Tobago
rum shall be sold for the most they will fetch. These
are at the service of the State ; if we succeed, I shall
be remunerated ; if not, they wiU be of no use to me.
We can raise a brigade ; our friend Stark, who so nobly
sustained the honor of New Hampshire at Bunker Hill,
may safely be trusted to command, and we will check
Burgoyne." So said, so done. In one short and active month
after that speech. General Stark, at Bennington,
had met the detachment of Hessians, fought two
battles in one day, captured or slain hundreds of
Burgoyne's army, and made the defeat of the rest
only a question of time. Next to Washington's
stroke at Trenton and Princeton, eight months be
fore, it was the most brilliant and momentous
battle of the war. Congress, already regretting its
slight to Stark, waited in vain to receive a report
of his victory, which he had made at once to the
legislatures of New Hampshire and Massachusetts,
accompanied with the musket, drum, and Hessian
cap, as trophies of the fight, which still hang in
the Boston State House. Writing to Stark to

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 227
inquire why he had not written, the committee of
Congress were told " that General Stark supposed
his correspondence with that body closed, since his
last letter had never been answered." The hint
was taken. Stark was made a brigadier in the regu
lar array, and continued in the service till the war
ended. In the battles which preceded and followed
Stark's exploit at Bennington, the New Hampshire
troops under Schuyler and Gates distinguished
themselves, and Colonel Cilley of Nottingham, in
particular, fought at Saratoga with as much cour
age as Arnold, and with more coolness. The sol
diers of Cllley's regiment wintered at Valley Forge
In that severe season of 1777-78, and under Major
Gilman of Plalstow went through the hard-fought
battle of Monmouth, and received Washington's
special praise for their gallantry. What were the
perils other than battle in this war can be learned
as well from Major Oilman's statement In 1782 as
from any other source. In November of that year
this veteran, now a lieutenant-colonel, told the story
of his hardships In a petition to the Exeter legisla
ture. He had first been a captain In Nixon's Mas
sachusetts regiment in 1776, the next year was
made a captain in the first New Hampshire regi
ment (Cilley's), and In April, 1777, became its
major. He says : —
" After the 6tli of July following, being the time of
the unhappy retreat from Ticonderoga, the extreme rain

228 NEW HAMPSHIRE
which fell, the forced marches, want of proper covering
and of the necessary sustenance, so far injured his
health that it was with great difficulty that he ever ar
rived at Saratoga. Which was productive of such com
plicated bodily disorders as by their long continuance
since have wellnigh ruined his constitution. At Saratoga
he consulted a physician who advised that he should be
sent out of camp. Whereupon Gen. Poor and Col. Cilley
sent him down to Albany ; which journey, though not
more than half a day's ride, your memorialist, with
great fatigue and industry, was four days in performing.
As soon as he reached Albany he was exercised with a
severe fever, which obliged him to lie bed-rid for several
weeks. The 20th of September, 1777, he had the addi
tional honor of being appointed Lt. Colonel of Col. Cil
ley's regiment ; but just as he was beginning to recover
a little, the fever-ague made a most violent assault on the
feeble and shattered body of your memorialist; which
continued its outrages with very little remission till after
the army had inarched to the southward ; notwithstand
ing the skill and attention of Dr. Treat, one of the
Physicians-general, who attended the memorialist and
fed him with Peruvian Bark by wholesale.^ He fre-
1 Dr. Matthew Thornton, a physician himself, being inoculated
for the smallpox at Philadelphia in November, 1776, a year and a
half before Major Gilman, gave a humorous account of it in a let
ter to President Weare. " VVe had the honor to be attended by
Dr. Cash, Dr. Surly, Dr. Critical Observer, Dr. Gay and Dr. Expe
rience. Between the hours of 10 and 11 A. M. came Dr. Cash.
* How is 't. Sir and Mad'm ? ' — and whatever our complaints
were, his answer was ' All 's pretty,' and vanished in a second.
He was the operator, and for a few days visited as above ; and we
saw no more of him till I paid his bill of S18. Dr. Surly came
two or three times each day, as a friend, viewed us through his

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 229
quently advised him to endeavor to ride homeward, in
hopes the change of air might assist in throwing off the
fever-ague ; notwithstanding which, such was his atten
tion to his duty and attachment to the army, that he set
off in pursuit of the army, as soon as, by the additional
aid of the cold weather, his disorders were so far miti
gated that he was able to ride, though but a small dis
tance in a day. He joined the regiment and proceeded
to Valley Forge, where it was cantoned for the winter.
Col. Cilley and Lt. Col. Reid returning home, your me
morialist had the honor of commanding the regiment
that winter, to the entire satisfaction of that part of the
aj^my. In the spring of 1778 he was obliged by general
orders to take the smallpox, which was followed by the
fever-ague, and which had like to have proved fatal.
However, after considerable time he so far recovered
his health that, when the enemy left Philadelphia,
he was able to pursue them with the regiment. Col.
Cilley being detached with Gen. Lee, your memorialist
glasses, and then, with a smiling grin, softly said, ' What ! no
worse yet ? this is but trifling to what you will feel before all is
over.' Dr. Critical Observer, a young doctor, that told me he
would ' critically observe every stage of the smallpox ' in us, to
gain experience, came once in two or three days, and stayed
about a minute each time. Dr. Gay, a young doctor, that came
as a friend, two or three times every day, tripped round and sung
a tune; and told us 'all would end well.' Dr. Experience, a
merchant who has had the smallpox, visited us every day, and
gave a much truer account of the disease than all the doctors."
This letter is dated at Baltimore, whither Congress had re
moved upon news of General Howe's march on Philadelphia, and
was written January 23, 1777, in Thornton's usual jocose manner.
He was born in Ireland, and had the temper of his countrymen ;
in religion a heretic.

230 NEW HAMPSHIRE
had the honor to command the regiment in the battle of
Monmouth, and the further honor of sharing, with
others, the favorable opinion his Excellency the Com
mander-in-chief was pleased to express of the officers
and soldiers on that occasion. The army moved to
White Plains, and thence to Hartford, where he was
taken down with a putrid fever, and lay despaired of by
his physician for more than three months. In this situa
tion he applied to a private physician, which with other
incidental charges cost him some hundreds of dollars;
for which he never received a farthing. In December,
1778, Gen. Poor and Col. Cilley gave him leave to re
turn home whenever he thought himself able ; who with
difficulty, after many days, with great expense, arrived
home, having been absent almost two years. . . . Con
tinuing in so ill a state of health, he despaired of ever
being able to serve his country again, and it was painful
to him to stand in the way of a better man, that could
render actual service. He continued to solicit a dis
charge, and at length obtained one from Gen. Washing
ton, bearing date March 24, 1780, — the tenor of which
cannot operate to the dishonor of your memorialist."
At the treason of Arnold in the summer of 1780,
Washington had another opportunity to express
his confidence in the soldiers from New Hampshire,
who had never failed him in battle or in camp.
Captain Webster, of the New Hampshire contin
gent, with his complexion so dark, as his com
mander at Bennington said, that burnt gunpowder
could not change it, and his heart " borrowed from
a lion," his son Daniel said, — this descendant of

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 231
the aged founder of Hampton was on guard the
night after Arnold's flight from West Point. As
Washington, his noble mind full of doubt and
anxiety, not knowing who might fail him next, saw
the swarthy farmer from the banks of the Mer
rimac at his post, his face lighted up, runs the
legend, and he said, " Ah, Captain, I know I can
trust you, and your men from New Hampshire."
Of the five more distinguished New Hampshire
officers, — Stark, Sullivan, Cilley, Poor, and Scam
mell, — the last two died in the service. Poor in
New Jersey in 1779, and Scammell in the final
victory at Yorktown. The last named was the only
college graduate among the high officers, and a
man of culture and great promise, only a dozen
years out of college when he was killed in battle.
In New Hampshire the men of education who were
not clergymen were generally either neutral or on
the Tory side. Weare was an exception, and there
were a few others. In Virginia It was quite oth
erwise, and even in Connecticut ; in Massachu
setts the college graduates, other than clergymen,
were about equally divided between the two par
ties. Joshua Atherton, a Harvard graduate who
settled In New Hampshire from Massachusetts,
was at first a Tory, and so was Eev. Asa Dunbar,
the maternal grandfather of Henry Thoreau, and
his brothers-in-law, the sons of Colonel Jones of
Weston. Dunbar gave up the pulpit, became a
lawyer, and practiced in Keene ; his brother-in-law.

232 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Daniel Jones, a classmate of Scammell and Chief
Justice Parsons at Harvard, had the same political
experience. The cause of the Eevolution in New
Hampshire was upheld chiefly by the plain people,
and those who had made their own way in the
world, without much aid from inherited property
or special culture.
As the French alliance inclined the balance of
the war in Washington's favor, the New Hampshire
patriots had another and more domestic difficulty
to encounter. The " New Hampshire Grants," as
they were commonly termed (what is now Ver
mont), were generally faithful to the patriot side,
though Stark was opposed by many Vermont To
ries, in his campaign against Burgoyne. But the
people west of the Connecticut Eiver wished to be
independent both of New York and New Hamp
shire, as ultimately they became ; and in the years
from 1778 to 1782 they found friends on the east
of the boundary river who sought to unite with
them, and take from New Hampshire a large strip
of her territory, which the royal decisions in 1741
and 1764 had assigned to the Province of the
Wentworths. That powerful family had lost its
preeminence, but the new State did not mean to
renounce what had been properly granted. Presi
dent Weare and his council therefore made a claim
to all Vermont, as against New York, and to all
east of the Connecticut, as against the revolted
towns in the valley.

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 233
As the controversy grew warm, double taxes
were laid by the two legislatures claiming control,
and some arrests were made. The prospect of
armed resistance from Vermont, or even of an alli
ance between its people and the British In Canada,
caused Washington, Weare, and the patriots gen
erally much anxiety. Dr. Thornton, writing to
Weare In late December, 1781, and lamenting the
death of Scammell,-' was even more sorrowful for
the threatened contest in Vermont. He said : —
" The Vermont affair grieves me more than our war
with Great Britain. How much ought Christians to shud
der at the very thought of brother killing brother about
a line of jurisdiction ! For mercy's sake, Sir, if possible,
prevent every hostile measure until the Continental Con
gress explicitly fixes the bounds, and informs New Hamp
shire how to conduct. From the best information, a very
great majority, on both sides the river, will acquiesce in
the determination of Congress. If so, and we wait, all
will be peace. . . . Pray, Sir, excuse this trouble. It
does not come to dictate, but to ease my mind, anxious
for the peace and happiness of mankind."
Notwithstanding this appeal, Weare, Sullivan,
and the New Hampshire authorities in general
1 Dr. Thornton, who seems to have turned a verse now and
then, inclosed in this letter to the head of his State some lines in
the customary measure of Pope and Johnson, for commemoration
of Colonel Scammell, among which were these : —
" Such spotless honor, such ingenuous truth.
Such ripened wisdom in the bloom of youth,
So mild, so gentle, so composed a mind.
To such heroic warmth and courage joined," etc.

234 NEW HAMPSHIRE
went forward with their plan for putting down by
force turbulence In the Connecticut valley towns,
and it was voted to send a thousand men under
Sullivan, to support the majesty of the law. As
usual, the influence of Washington was called in,
and a temperate and reasonable letter from him to
Governor Chittenden, of the unrecognized State of
Vermont, led to the acceptance, by Vermont, of the
compromise adopted in Congress, — the eastern
towns to be restored to the jurisdiction of New
Hampshire, and the claim of the Vermonters to the
rest of the grants to be recognized, as against the
conflicting claims of New York and New Hamp
shire. Vermont yielded to this compromise Febru
ary 23, 1782, and the revolted towns (which were
said to have acted under some instigation from the
new college of Dartmouth, at Hanover) gradually
returned to their duty. Nine years after, Vermont
was admitted to the Union as a State, in Feb
ruary, 1791. Stark, who had no less prudence in
civil affairs than skill in war, wrote to Governor
Chittenden congratulating him on the " happy de
termination of Congress." He said : —
" In my opinion nothing can wound a generous mind
more than the mortifying thought of making a large
country miserable ; and the people of Vermont, by their
utter detestation of the management of New York, must
have been wretched under their government. To have
been connected with New Hampshire . . . would have
been very inconvenient and expensive for both bodies of

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 235
people, and no real good resulting from such a con
nection ; therefore every man who consulted the public
interest must be an advocate for a separation. For
had they been connected, there would ever have been a
jealousy between the two States, infallibly dangerous to
both ; but that jealousy, by the separation, must entirely
subside, and New Hampshire and Vermont live in per
fect friendship as sister States."
As the man who had saved Vermont from
subjugation, his opinion should have had weight
with the people there, and doubtless it did. Nor is
it apparent that Weare, who had much of the calm
decision of Stark, ever desired more than to pre
vent the dismemberment of his own State ; for he
and Sullivan, then In Congress, yielded at once to
the compromise that Washington suggested. Sulli
van, with his mercurial temperament and turn for
accepting the first propositions that came up, com
monly needed the restraining judgment of Weare,
of Washington, or of some cooler head ; but his
acute perceptions often inspired the correct policy
finally adopted. A signal instance of this was his
pointing out to Washington In 1780 that the best
man to be finance minister of the Confederacy, to
which post Eobert Morris was soon appointed,
would be young Alexander Hamilton. For the
emergency, then, Morris was the best man ; but Sul
livan had rightly divined the genius of Hamilton,
who took up the burden after It proved too heavy
for even the hopeful and accomplished merchant.

236 NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire was pecuniarily unable to re
spond to the demands of the Confederacy in mat
ters of taxation ; her quota of money was hopelessly
In arrears when Morris came to the Treasury. But
so ready and serviceable was her quota of men,
and so indispensable her service in the Burgoyne
campaign, that this delinquency in taxes was over
looked. Her officers and soldiers came out of the
war poor, and the Society of the Cincinnati, headed
by Sullivan, had but few contributing members
In the Impoverished State. Stark was averse to
any perpetuation by heredity of the distinction
between officers and men, and Washington finally
withdrew from its presidency for something like
the same reason. A New Hampshire branch of the
Cincinnati still exists, with an honorable record,
and so do two other hereditary organizations, per
petuating the memory of the share which the little
State had in the world-renowned Eevolution.
Great was the -loss in life, in trade, in social
morality, and general civilization among the people
of New Hampshire during the war. In 1780 the
authorities of Portsmouth reported that, of 12,000
tons of shipping owned at that port before 1775,
only 500 tons remained; while all the expenses of
government, especially those for the care of the
public poor, had much increased. Privateering and
the supply of the American army had done some
thing to offset this loss of trade ; but the people
generally were poor, and taxation pressed hard

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 237
upon all classes ; while the long surfeit of fiat
money had accustomed the unthljiking, particularly
those who had engaged in speculation, to the delu
sion that paper money, with laws against the speedy
collection of debts, would relieve their embarrass
ments. In New Hampshire, then, as afterwards in
Massachusetts, the poor were encouraged by some
former leaders to take up arms in support of
the demand for stay-laws and unsound financial
measures. Although the New Hampshire Consti
tution of 1783 had given general satisfaction, and
there was no such uneasiness about the framework
of government as In Pennsylvania and some other
States, the movement against lawyers, courts, and
money-lenders, in the older counties of Eocking
ham and Strafford, became threatening In the sum
mer of 1786, — headed, it Is alleged, by General
Nathaniel Peabody of Atkinson, who had been In
Congress, and by General Moulton of Hampton,
— men claiming to be wealthy, but now heavily
burdened with debt. Finally, on the 19th of Sep
tember, a body of armed men, headed by officers in
the Eevolution, came marching down from London
derry, Pembroke, and other towns north of Exeter,
to present petitions, backed by force, in favor of
Issuing paper money in amount equal to the large
state debt, and of making this paper a legal tender,
with other measures of the sort. They reached
Exeter towards evening on the 20th, surrounded
the large church where the legislature was In ses-

238 NEW HAMPSHIRE
sion, and sought to overawe the members and the
president, who happened to be General Sullivan.
Whatever his defects, Sullivan was not to be
frightened or coerced ; he parleyed with the insur
gents, but only long enough to place himself at
liberty, and summon his forces. That night, uuder
special authority from the two Houses, he Issued
orders for all the militia officers accessible to re
port at Exeter the next morning, with their com
mands under arms. The orders were carried over
the county by night, and the next morning there
had rallied at Exeter a force between fifteen hun
dred and two thousand in number, well armed, and
commanded by the officers who had led them to
battle against England. Major-General Cilley, from
the hills of Nottingham, took command under Presi
dent Sullivan, and a considerable number of volun
teers, under Nicholas Gilman, put themselves at
Cilley's orders, among them William Plumer of
Epping and the Irascible Benjamin Adams of New
ington. By noon on the 21st, the insurgents were
driven off, their leaders captured without bloodshed,
and the revolt was at an end. It required a cam
paign of months in Massachusetts to do what Sulli
van, Cilley, the Gilmans, and Plumer, afterward
senator in Congress and Governor, accomplished
in twenty-four hours.
Two years later, when the Federal Constitution
of 1787 was offered for ratification in New Hamp
shire, a longer effort was necessary to establish a

THE REVOLUTION AND ITS SEQUEL 239
good national government with the consent of the
little State. It was done by the same men who had
come to the support of Sullivan in 1786, aided
by many others, then too far from the seat of gov
ernment to take part in the Exeter affair. As in
other States, there was in New Hampshire a feeling
that the new Constitution placed too much power
in the central government. That view, indeed, was
taken by John Quincy Adams, then a law student
at Newburyport, who drove across the country ten
miles to Exeter, to hear the debates In the ratify
ing convention. But the better opinion of the Lang
dons (John, Woodbury, and Samuel), of Sullivan,
the Gilmans, Plumer, etc., prevailed, after an ad
journment of some weeks to allow the delegates to
consult their constituents. The final and conclusive
speech seems to have been made by Captain Web
ster of Salisbury, — the same who had stood guard
for Washington at West Point. It was brief, and
this was Its main argument : " I have followed the
lead of General Washington through seven years of
war ; he never misled us. His name is subscribed
to this Constitution. He will not mislead us now.
I shall vote for its adoption." It was ratified by
New Hampshire in June, 1788, and its wise pro
visions, enforced by the statesmanship of Wash
ington, soon changed the condition of New Hamp
shire Into one of prosperity, and commanded the
full support of Its citizens, whatever their doubts
may have been.

CHAPTEE X
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY
Like the rest of the new nation. New Hampshire,
after the formation of a more perfect union under
Washington and the Constitution of 1787, went
on increasing its inhabitants and their material
prosperity by leaps and bounds. In the ten years
(1790-1800) the little agricultural State gained in
population nearly thirty per cent., and at the open
ing of the nineteenth century had about 184,000
people. In the next decade the gain was little more
than half as fast, yet enough to double its popu
lation in sixty years. But In spite of the intro
duction of manufactures, chiefly textile, this rate
was not kept up, and it was not until 1887 that
the population of 1800 had really doubled. At the
end of the century it was 412,000, and of late has
been gaining at the rate of nine per cent. In ten
years. During the Civil War there was an actual
decrease of inhabitants, from 826,073 In 1860 to
318,300 in 1870. But the prevailing check to a
gain so large as from 1790 to 1810 was the constant
stream of emigration flowing from New Hampshire

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 241
to the new lands of New York, Ohio, and farther
west, and from the rural towns to the cities of south
ern New England. As those new lands became
settled for cultivation, and gained the means of
sending their products eastward, the good markets
of the New Hampshire farmers and foresters were
gradually lost. In the greater cheapness of western
production ; and the near local markets could not
take enough of the products of gardening and dai
ries to make farming in general a profitable indus
try. The Introduction of cotton and woolen mills
for a time favored the farmers by giving them a
home market ; but of late even manufactures have
been deserting many of the mill-streams of the hill-
region, to concentrate in cities near the seaboard.
A new industry of much importance has sprung
up within fifty years, and Is now very important,
¦ — that of caring for thousands of visitors who
frequent the mountain and seashore resorts for a
few months In the warm season. Coincident with
these changes there has been a concentration of
industrial employment in manufacturing cities like
Manchester and Nashua, accompanied by a large
immigration of Irish, English, Canadian French,
and other foreign operatives, who now swell the
census by many thousands.
Amid all these changes the educational, political,
and social development of the people went forward
with the early increase of inhabitants, and was not
checked materially as the population became more

242 NEW HAMPSHIRE
nearly stationary. Two early and useful educational
foundations distinguished the Eevolutionary period,
— Dartmouth College, founded under John Went
worth's government, just before the outbreak, and
the Phillips Exeter Academy, opened at the new
state capital before the war had fairly closed. Until
then the higher education of New Hampshire boys
was carried on in minister's families, or at Har
vard College, although the common schools did some
times give instruction in Greek, Latin, and French.
The location of Dartmouth in the town of Han
over made It accessible to the youth of two or three
States, who were attracted by the cheapness of liv
ing and the reputation for scholarship which the
college soon acquired ; while the Exeter Academy,
under a noteworthy instructor. Dr. Benjamin Abbot,
early drew classical students from all New England
and the more distant States. Washington testified
his regard for New Hampshire, whose soldiers he
had learned to value in the long war, by sending
two of his nephews to be educated by Dr. Abbot ;
the rich merchants and professional men of Maine
and Massachusetts followed the example, and sent
their sons to Exeter. A school so successful stimu
lated other towns, and before 1840 there were many
''academies " in all parts of New Hampshire, which
supplied the place of public high schools, not yet
established. These, with the general excellence of
the short but energetic summer and winter com
mon schools, raised the standard of general Intel-

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 243
ligence In the State, and fitted the youth, as they
came forward, to take an active share in political
government, for which the universal " town meet
ing" was itself a school of practice, as the courts
of local and county justices were schools of every
day law.
New Hampshire was fortunate In its charter of
constitutional government, and has never grown
too populous to derive the best advantage from it.
So well satisfied were the people, during the whole
Eevolution, with the simple forms of government
adopted In 1775, and with the men who adminis
tered them, that they successively rejected three
elaborate Constitutions offered them In 1778, 1779,
and 1781, and finally adopted In 1783 a form largely
based on John Adams's draft for Massachusetts,
but with certain changes in favor of more religious
liberty than the Massachusetts Puritans were yet
ready to allow. After providing for public worship
at the expense of towns, parishes, and religious cor
porations, the Constitution of 1783 went on : —
" Provided, notwithstanding, that the several towns,
parishes, bodies corporate or religious societies shall at
aU times have the exclusive right of electing their own
public teachers, and of contracting with them for their
support and maintenance. And no person of any one
particular religious sect or denomination shall ever be
compelled to pay towards the support of the teachers
of another persuasion, sect or denomination. And every
denomination of Christians demeaning themselves quietly,

244 NEW HAMPSHIRE
and as good subjects of the State, shall be equally under
the protection of the law ; and no subordination of any
one sect or denomination to another shall ever be estab-
Ushed by law."
This Constitution in substance was continued in
1792, the title of president being changed to gov
ernor ; remained without alteration for sixty years,
till 1852, and has been but slightly changed (chiefly
in respect to representation of towns in the legis
lature, and the number of senators and representa
tives), in the hundred and twenty years since Its
first adoption. Indeed, the number of councilors
to advise the governor, originally fixed at five,
when there were but five counties, remains the same
now, when there are ten counties. The Senate, ori
ginally numbering twelve, or one for every 10,000
people, is now twenty-four, or one for every 35,000.
But the growth of the House of Eepresentatlves,
under the first provisions, has been so great as
to make the surplus cumbersome, and It has been
twice reduced. Each House has a veto on the other,
and the Council has a veto on appointments by the
governor, as in Massachusetts. Practically no harm
has resulted from these vetoes ; Indeed, the execu
tive and legislative branches have virtually been
in accord, with annual or biennial elections, nine
tenths of the time. No revolution or threat of revo
lution has occurred since the refractory towns east
of the Connecticut submitted to the mild wisdom of
Weare and the counsels of Sullivan and Stark, for

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 245
the rising of 1786 aimed only at the enactment of a
few special laws. During this century and a quar
ter, France has set up and overthrown a dozen con
stitutions, and England has modifled its imperish
able constitution three or four times. In fact, the
New Hampshire people have shown a steadiness
of political temper which quite verifies their Brit
ish origin. During their Eevolution, though a few
Tories were imprisoned and a few estates confis
cated, no man was put to death for treason.
The growth of aristocratic feeling, so noticeable
at Portsmouth in the middle of the eighteenth cen
tury, was checked by the Eevolution, and did not
revive In New Hampshire for many years, although
the party called Federal cherished opinions dis
tinctly oligarchical, which seem to have been shared
by a few of the leading Federalists in different
parts of New Hampshire, particularly in Exeter.
The power once centred at Portsmouth in a few
families was transferred to Exeter with the Eevo
lutionary government, and a circle of political mag
nates, among whom members of the Gilman family
were prominent, at times controlled the later poli
tics of the State. But the questions at issue for a
few years after the death of President Weare in
1785 were chiefly personal or local ; and it was not
until the treaty with England made by Washington
(Jay's treaty) that party lines began to be drawn
between the Eepublicans, under John Langdon and
General Stark, with other Eevolutionary patriots,

246 NEW HAMPSHIRE
and the Federalists, led by the Gilmans and Jere
miah Smith of Exeter, with whom were associated
William Plumer of Epping, Charles Atherton of
Amherst, and a few lawyers in the Connecticut
valley. General Sullivan and Dr. Bartlett, the im
mediate successors of Weare, with the title of pre
sident, could hardly be ranked in either party;
nor could Washington until after their death. In
the contention between Jefferson and Hamilton,
in Washington's cabinet, Langdon, then In the
national Senate, sided with Jefferson, and his col
leagues, Samuel Livermore and Paine WIngate,
with Hamilton. For eleven years, from 1794 to
1805, John Taylor Gilman of Exeter, a large land
holder and popular gentleman, was chosen gov
ernor annually, but from 1802 with decreasing
majorities over Langdon, who, in 1805, aided by
the secession of John Quincy Adams and William
Plumer from the Federalists (whom they called
disunlonists), defeated Gilman by a vote of 16,000
to 12,287, and for four years ruled as governor.
In 1809 Judge Smith defeated Langdon by a few
hundred votes, but was himself defeated by Lang
don the next two years, and Langdon was suc
ceeded by his recent party associate, Plumer, In
1812. But the war with England, which injured
the growing trade of New Hampshire, already much
damaged by Jefferson's Embargo, threw the State
again into the hands of the Federalists, and Gil
man was reelected in the three years 1813-15.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 247
Plumer defeated Sheafe in 1816, and was governor
for the next three years, when party strife had
much abated under the fortunate administration of
President Monroe. No governor since Benning
Wentworth had so many years of administration
as Gilman, who was elected fourteen years, and
only twice defeated. This success he owed not so
much to his party, which was usually beaten with
any other candidate, as to his own geniality, public
services, and ornamental qualities ; for the New
Hampshire voters (other things being equal) com
monly preferred the handsomer of two candidates.
On this ground John Langdon had equal claims
with Gilman, till age had tarnished a little the
lustre of his good looks. It was during this Federal
ascendancy in the State that the shining abilities
of Daniel Webster brought him forward ; he was
chosen to Congress In 1813 from the Eockingham
district, and served the four years, 1813-17. His
manly eloquence was first exhibited at Washington
in opposing the administration of Madison and the
war with England ; his antagonists being Calhoun
and Clay, with whom for more than thirty years
afterward he was either in conjunction or opposi
tion, — seldom carrying his measures, but always
superior In oratory.
Meantime, whether in peace or war. New Hamp
shire continued to flourish, under governors who
were always sensible and patriotic, and often
accomplished statesmen, like Langdon, Plumer,

248 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Samuel Bell, and Woodbury. In 1823, when
Woodbury, who had been an excellent judge,
and was soon to be senator In Congress, served his
one year as governor, he presented the striking
facts of his State's prosperity in an address to the
legislature, then composed of 12 senators and 201
assemblymen.! He declared that New Hampshire,
with less than 250,000 people, raised in 1822 a
school-tax of f 90,000 for the support of free schools,
in which, he said, " the affluent of both sexes ac
quire the elements of knowledge, and nearly all the
poor and middling classes begin and complete their
education." He computed the exports for 1822
from the only seaport, Portsmouth, at fl40,000,
and the whole farm and forest product exported at
very near $1,000,000. Thirty years before, he said,
the exports were less than a quarter part as much.
The ten state banks had a capital of more than
il,000,000, and at the session of 1822, manufactur-
'Ing companies had been chartered with a nominal
capital of $5,000,000. This indicated that manu
factures were thought to be more profitable than
agriculture or commerce ; and they continued to
develop steadily for half a century after this. But
In the decade 1840-50, railroad building and man-
1 In 1784 there were but 90 members of this lower House ; in
1800, 14l> ; in 1810, 173 ; the increase being wholly due to a gain in
population even larger. The 633 slaves who figured among the
52,000 inhabitants of 1767, and of whom 158 remained in 1790,
were now all freemen, if alive. They had petitioned for freedom
in 1777,

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 249
agement was an Interest of Importance, and has
now become perhaps the greatest single interest
affecting legislation and the convenience of the
people. The year 1822, selected as about midway
between the close of the Impoverishing Eevolu
tionary War and the opening of the great Civil
War, showed a valuation of real and personal
property for taxation of only $50,000,000 for a
population of 250,000, or $200 per capita. The
valuation for a like purpose of taxation in 1902,
seventy years later, was $213,000,000, or $507 joer
capita for an estimated number of 420,000 people.
But the taxes, which In 1822 were but about
$250,000, or $1 for each Inhabitant, had by 1902
become $4,212,000, or $10 for each Inhabitant, in
addition to the national taxes, which fell on New
Hampshire at the rate of at least $6 for each
inhabitant. The ability to pay these taxes, and yet
to increase steadily In aggregate wealth, makes it
needless to say that the State Is still prosperous,
though not one of those where enormous fortunes
are accumulated through tariff laws or the evasion
of public burdens.
The period just reviewed, from 1790 to 1823,
was that In which the older national parties in
politics contended (at first mildly, and then hotly)
for the control of the State. On the whoife, the
advantage was with the Federalists, who also were,
on the whole, the representatives of the wealth and
culture of New Hampshire. But the ardent pa-

250 NEW HAMPSHIRE
triotism of the people, which was apt to show itself
in animosity against England (for which country
the Federalists were generally apologizing or enthu
siastic), gradually brought New Hampshire over to
the Eepublican side, — termed " Democratic " in
disparagement, by its opponents. The war with
England In 1812 contributed largely to this politi
cal change, especially after the barbarous attack
on the national Capital in 1814, and the crushing
defeat of Wellington's tried veterans hy Jackson
and his western riflemen at New Orleans. The
Hartford Convention of 1814-15, which really
aimed at a separate confederacy at the North, if
the domination of Virginia, Carolina, and Ken
tucky In the existing Union could not be thrown
off, got no state sanction from New Hampshire,
so close had become the contest of parties there.
And when Jackson's victory gave a lustre to the
Treaty of Ghent which Its unfruitful conditions
hardly deserved, the defeat of the Federalists was
assured. Governor Plumer, the close friend for
years of John Quincy Adams, who had furnished
him in 1805 with conclusive evidence of the dis
union designs of many leading New England Fed
eralists (scarcely held in check by the wiser Hamil
ton), was elected governor in 1816 over the popular
Oilman's successor, Sheafe, a rich Portsmouth mer
chant ; and New Hampshire gave her presidential
vote for Monroe of Virginia, by nearly two thou
sand majority over Eufus King, the Federalist. In

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 251
the next election Monroe, who had made Adams
his Secretary of State, received nearly nine tenths
of the small vote ; but Plumer, then an elector,
cast his ballot for Adams as President and Eichard
Eush Vice-President. Samuel Bell, who succeeded
Plumer as Governor in 1819, and was of the same
party, was twice reelected almost unanimously.
Woodbury, who succeeded him in 1823, was also a
Eepublican, and, though defeated the next year by
a popular clergyman, on an Issue partly religious,
was chosen senator the year he was defeated as
Governor, and became a supporter of Andrew
Jackson while In Congress.
William Plumer, as Governor, distinguished his
administration by an effort to reorganize Dart
mouth College as a State University, after the
model of Jefferson's University of Virginia. This
effort originated in a quarrel among the Federalist
trustees of the little college, who disagreed with
John Wheelock, son of the nominal founder, and
eventually removed him from the presidency, in a
fit of anger. Against this the sagacious Mason
(New Hampshire's ablest lawyer, among many
of high rank) advised In vain. Plumer as Gov
ernor took up the cause of Wheelock, who, like
Plumer, had left the Federalists for the Eepubli
cans, and submitted to the legislature in June, 1817,
a wise plan for changing a narrow sectarian sem
inary into a broad university. His measure was
adopted, and only resisted In the courts, at first

252 NEW HAMPSHIRE
of New Hampshire, and finally of the United
States, where Marshall, early in 1819, gave his
famous, but of late very troublesome, decision
against Plumer.
The Dartmouth College decision may be con
sidered as good or bad law, or as good or bad pub
lic policy ; and It is not so customary now to call it
good policy as It was at the time it became good
law, by the decision of Marshall and Story. But
whether good or bad policy for the country at large,
it seems to have delayed for half a century that
cordial interest of the State in the affairs of its sole
college, which it was the intention of Plumer and
his friends to promote. It became a subject of
warm political debate, and was one of the many
causes which held New Hampshire for years firmly
in the political party hostile to Marshall and Story.
The decision of Marshall was opposed to a careful
decision of the highest state court ; it was procured
by lawyers prominent in the Federal party, so long
as that party existed ; and it seemed to favor the
clauses of a royal English grant, rather than the
deliberately expressed will of the people in a State
which had renounced the sovereignty of the king
who made the grant. The fact that Plumer's inti
mate friend, J. Q. Adams, was the President who
succeeded Monroe, held the State to his support
for a few years ; and even in 1828, when he was
defeated by Jackson, New Hampshire gave Adams
a fair majority, and elected his supporter, John

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 253
Bell, Governor for a single year, over the Eevolu
tionary veteran, Benjamin Pierce, then Governor,
who supported Jackson. But in 1829 Pierce was
again elected, and from that time until 1855, with
a single exception, the Governors chosen were of
the Jacksonian Democratic party ; and New Hamp
shire was in the North the firmest pillar of support
for that party. Even In the year 1840, when, under
pressure of financial evils, for which President
Van Buren was unjustly held responsible, he was
defeated by a great majority. New Hampshire held
fast, and gave the rejected statesman more than
6000 plurality, in a total vote of 61,000. One rea
son for this doubtless was that Daniel Webster,
who had been Identified with the Federalists in
the War of 1812, and the Dartmouth College case,
and with the denouncers of Jackson in his contest
against the United States Bank, had become a lead
ing opponent of the New Hampshire Democrats,
and was regarded by them as unfaithful to the
State which gave him birth. He became a citizen
of Massachusetts in June, 1816, and the politics of
the two States soon grew sharply antagonistic.
Another cause which threw the party of Web
ster and Mason into disfavor in New Hampshire
was the claim of the " standing order " of Puritan
Congregationalists to special favor from the towns
and the State, as against the rising force of the
newer sects of Baptists, Methodists, Unlversalists,
and Christian Baptists, — a sect which originated

254 NEW HAMPSHIRE
in eastern New Hampshire. The Congregational
clergy, educated either at Harvard, Dartmouth, or
Yale, were generally Federalists. The leaders of the
sects, therefore, naturally joined the Democrats,
and In 1819, under a Democratic Governor, Samuel
Bell, secured the passage of the so-called " Tolera
tion Act," which exempted them from local taxation
for a church which they had renounced. As usual,
the animosity engendered in this religious dispute
continued, and strengthened the Democratic party,
whose representatives were quite often ministers
of one or another sect. The growth of banksj too,
and the political alliance between the banking class
and the opponents of Jackson, contributed to aid
the Democrats, and to make the name of Webster
odious in the State that is now so proud of him.
It has been usual to ascribe the rather narrow
partisanship of New Hampshire, in this period of
Jacksonian supremacy, to the contrivances and in
dustry of Isaac Hill, who for more than ten years
was practically the dictator of Democratic politics
in the State. He was, no doubt, a thorough organ
izer of his party associates, and took advantage of
his widely circulated newspaper, the "Patriot,"
published at the state capital, to hold the party
to his plans, as Thurlow Weed did In New York
politics, and Horace Greeley afterwards, in the
politics of the whole North. All these men, and
other political leaders who could be named (as Eus
sell of the Boston " Centinel " and Buckingham of

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 255
the Boston " Courier "), were practical printers, who
rose from the " case " to the editor's chair, and
had something of the fortune and the sagacity of
Franklin, the first in America to set this example.
Hill, however, was not New Hampshire born, but
came into the State from Massachusetts, and
brought with him a talent, such as it was, for po
litical Intrigue. But he had with him men of
marked ability and thorough education, like Levi
Woodbury, whom he succeeded in the Senate at
Washington, Franklin Pierce, afterward Presi
dent, Henry Hubbard, and Moses Norris.
Of these men Woodbury was the most distin
guished, and exhibited a capacity for varied admin
istrative and judicial tasks which was remarkable.
Like Webster and Chief Justice Chase, who was
born in New Hampshire, he graduated at Dart
mouth, before twenty ; at twenty-seven he was a
judge of the highest state court, where he gave
decisions marked by learning and sound sense ; at
thirty-four he was Governor, and at thirty-six sena
tor in Congress. There he attracted the notice of
President Jackson, and became his Secretary of
the Navy, and afterwards of the Treasury, serving
seven years in the cabinet, and upon the defeat of
Van Buren returning to the Senate, whence in 1845
he was taken by President Polk to fill the place of
Story on the supreme bench. But for his death in
1851, at the age of sixty-two, he would probably
have been nominated by his party for President In

256 NEW HAMPSHIRE
1852, and elected. His younger friend. Pierce, was
then made the candidate, and became President in
1853. Among men of this stamp Isaac Hill made
no mean figure, and his newspaper, apart from its
harsh political tone, was an instructive, civilizing
force in rural New Hampshire. It was even less
violent than the Federalists had been, when they
were strong in the State. He succeeded Woodbury
in the Senate, then was Governor for three years,
and spent a part of his later years in editing an
agricultural weekly. On the whole, though much
inferior to Webster, who despised him, while prais
ing Woodbury as a judge, Hill was probably more
useful to his State than Webster ever was.
Under the control of the New Hampshire Demo
cracy, the financial, educational, and social inter
ests of the people were well cared for, and public
virtue and economy were conspicuous, notwith
standing the bitter political controversies. The
$90,000 raised by taxation for schools in 1823 had
increased In 1857, a generation later, to $234,000,
more than twice as much, although the population
in the interval had only gained thirty per cent.
The ten state banks of 1822 had grown to 52 in
1857, and their capital had quadrupled ; while the
manufacturing interest had invested $20,000,000,
and employed 30,000 operatives, and the 640 miles
of steam railroad had cost another $20,000,000.
Yet the farming interest was still the greatest, and
showed an investment of $60,000,000 in farms and

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 257
farm implements, occupying two and a quarter
million acres of improved land, and more than a
million of unimproved. New Hampshire had then
no funded debt, and her state expenses were but
$200,000 yearly.
The Civil War soon coming on, after this exhibit
of Eepublican frugality and prosperity, enormously
Increased the public burdens. The soldiers of New
Hampshire, as in the Eevolution, fought In every
campaign, and In all parts of the greatly extended
nation. It was a vessel named for one of the New
Hampshire mountains (Kearsarge) which destroyed
the noted Confederate cruiser Alabama, and she
was commanded by a New Hampshire captain and
lieutenant, — the latter a descendant of Matthew
Thornton of the Eevolution. The state debt and
the debts of the two hundred and thirty-five towns
and cities vastly multiplied, taxation was trebled,
and the farms diminished in value from the com
petition of prairie farms with the stony acres of
the Granite State. The population also fell off,
but the courage and industry of those who remained
carried the State through the ten years of reduced
prosperity. Looking at the whole civil and military history
of the State, two observations occur to be made.
The unusual steadiness of popular government, noisy
and vituperative In the excitement of annual elec
tions, but moderate and free from factions in ad
ministration, is more marked In the case of New

258 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Hampshire than in any of the older States except
Vermont. Secondly, the high range of milltaiy
and judicial talent, and the great number of truly
distinguished persons who have been born or
dwelt In the little State, have made It proverbial
for the past century and a quarter. Of these facts
the explanation is to be found, probably, in the
simplicity of life and the hardy self-reliance and
neighborly coiiperation of the people, who have
brought a sterile and mountainous land to such a
degree of excellent human productiveness as the last
hundred years Indicate. Necessity, not superfluity,
has been the companion of the inhabitants ; they
have been trained to labor and to wait, to expect
no grand prizes, but to do their duty wherever it
finds them. The distinctions of rank and fortune
are natural ones, and excite neither envy nor con
tempt ; the great middle class, who In all modern
States are the balance-wheel of the political machine,
have been In New Hampshire also the driving-
wheel, and have kept it In steady movement, while
guarding against explosions and misdirection.

CHAPTEE XI
THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN OP NEW HAMP
SHIRE
In the stress of the anti-slavery agitation in New
England, when New Hampshire was not playing
the most honorable part, and her prominent De
mocrats were active in defense of Southern slavery,
to which both of the old parties were practically
committed, from a mistaken view of their constitu
tional duty, Emerson said in a poem of 1847 : —
" The God who made New Hampshire
Taunted the lofty land
With little men ; —
Small bat and wren
House in the oak."
Yet In that very year there took his seat in the
national Senate from New Hampshire the first sen
ator distinctly chosen to represent the opinion
against slavery which was finally to triumph in the
nation, — John Parker Hale. He was neither a
great nor a little man, but one of the many able
leaders of the people who have carried along the
affairs of the State with distinction and success,
according to the nature of the exigency as it arose,
and whatever it might be. The line began in early

260 NEW HAMPSHIRE
colonial days, and was represented for more than
half a century by stalwart Englishmen who had
chosen to live here in a new country, and who had
plenty of the English virtues of valor, persistency,
patience, and leadership. Such were Wheelwright
and Bachiler, Waldron and Wentworth, founders
or defenders of the infant settlements ; to whom
were added in due time others from England like
Vaughan and the Cutts, or from Massachusetts,
like Nathaniel Weare, Joshua Moodey, and the
Gilmans of Exeter. Some of them were eloquent
preachers, others strict magistrates or brave cap
tains in the long contest with savage foes. It was
not until the next century, however, the eight
eenth, that men appeared In New Hampshire who
might be called great, wherever they had been born
or had lived. Such were Stark, Langdon, and
Weare, of the Eevolutionary period, and Sir John
Wentworth and Sir Benjamin Thompson (Count
Eumford in Bavaria), of that and the succeeding
period. Thompson spent but a few years in New
Hampshire, and his chief reputation was won in
Bavaria or In England. But for Franklin, Count
Eumford would be the most distinguished man of
science produced by colonial America ; and he is
even now more valued than in his lifetime, for
pioneering discoveries not then fully recognized as
important. Sir John Wentworth has already been
sufficiently noticed.
John Stark was the chief military man in the

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 261
whole history of New Hampshire, which Includes
many others noted for courage and conduct. He
was born in the Province, his father, Archibald
Stark, having but recently come over from Glasgow
in Scotland, although the ancestors are said to have
been more remotely German. Trained to a hardy
outdoor life, he became noted for agility and en
durance, though not of such large frame and com
manding aspect as several of his compatriots were.
He early learned all the traits of Indian life and
savage warfare, and was for some time, before the
French and Indian war, a captive among the Ca
nadian Indians, who testified much respect for his
manly qualities. In the war which first showed
Washington to the world for what he was. Stark
also had his years of discipline and his test of sol
diership. He was among the many friends and
admirers of Lord Howe, who died in one of the
fights In which Stark took part, and he seems to
have profited by that great commander's example.
The war ended, he went back to his forest farm
and his saw-mill, and was at work In the mill when
the news of the Lexington fight reached him. He
rode at once to the scene of action, enlisted and
drilled a regiment, and at Bunker Hill did the most
strategic and effective fighting. He was present
at several of the battles of 1775-76, and distin
guished himself again at Trenton ; but his capital
service was what has been described, his capture of a
large British force at Bennington, after two sharp

262 NEW HAMPSHIRE
engagements on the same day. His later services
were not conspicuous during the war, but were
valuable by reason of his strictness of discipline,
at a time when the bonds of civil society were
much loosened through long continuance of a civil
war, — the worst of evils, morally considered, if it
lasts for several years. After the war he remained
true to the democratic principles which he had
ever maintained, and which make a singular con
trast to his ideas of military subordination. He
bore with impatience the slight reaction toward
Tory practices which the Federalists inaugurated,
and welcomed heartily the Introduction of more
Democratic and " Old Whig " practices under Jef
ferson and Madison. In this he had the sympa
thy of John Langdon, the wealthy merchant and
polite gentleman, whose manners were the reverse
of Stark's.
Stark's life extended from 1728 to May, 1822,
longer than any of the noteworthy men of the
Province and the Eevolution. John Langdon, who
was eleven years younger, died three years earlier
(1739-1819) ; his cousin, Eev. Dr. Samuel Lang
don, born in 1723, had died more than twenty
years before, November 29, 1797. Sullivan, the
youngest of these four, died first of aU, January
23, 1795. Each In his way was important in the
crisis of his State and nation. Sullivan early came
to high military rank, and was also an Influential
member of Congress during the war. His cam-

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 263
paigns were varied with success and defeat ; he was
once captured by the British, and then became the
bearer of a message of conciliation from the invad
ing army, from which he hoped more good than
Franklin, Washington, or the Adamses could see
in it. Mercurial In temper, ready of speech, brave,
and confident, he was also accessible to flattery,
and had not that steady, patient valor which was
so marked in Washington and Stark. His educa
tion was good, he wrote and spoke well, and was
usually popular. He lost votes rather than gained
them by his most honorable exploit, the suppression
of the revolt of 1786. His grandson and name
sake, Judge John Sullivan of Exeter, gave this
sketch of General Sullivan's aspect : —
" In person he was short, about five feet six or seven
in height ; very erect and well formed ; his hair and
complexion dark, his cheeks red, and his eyes black
and piercing. His manners were dignified, but easy and
graceful, and he had a faculty of making each one in
a company think himself an object of particular atten
tion. Hospitable and fond of display, he was prodigal
of money ; in his dealings, honest, generous, and honor
able; in temper, ordinarily mild and tranquil, and far
removed from petulance. When roused to resentment
he was stormy and violent. His mother, a small woman,
was remarkable for her beauty, her vanity, talents, and
energy ; and not less remarkable for the violence of her
temper." The Langdons were no less noticeable for their

264 NEW HAMPSHIRE
good looks and good manners. Dr. Langdon, the
eldest, probably the most learned man of his
time in New Hampshire, was for twenty-seven
years pastor of the wealthiest congregation in the
Province, and from his pulpit were taken two
college presidents, — himself for Harvard (where
he had graduated at seventeen) in 1774 ; and Dr.
Ezra Stiles, invited from the church Dr. Langdon
had left, to the presidency of Yale College in 1777.
Though a Bostonian born, Dr. Langdon (whose
doctorate was given by Aberdeen in 1762) did not
please some critical Bostonians who governed Har
vard, and he was perhaps unfitted for the tasks
of college discipline, then rather unhinged by the
long war. Accordingly, he resigned the presidency
in 1780, and spent the rest of his honorable life
in the quiet parish of Hampton Falls, where Presi
dent Weare of New Hampshire was his parishioner,
and where Paine WIngate, afterward judge and
senator in Congress, had preceded him as pastor.^
^ I was born and spent twenty years of miy life in this parish
where Dr. Langdon was still well remembered ; he had been the
pastor of my four grandparents, and my aunts, as children, had
gone in and out of the small parsonage, not so spacious or pic
turesque as the Old Manse. He is buried in the older of two ceme
teries, near the graves of four generations of Sanborns, and two
miles away from the graves of President Weare and the first
minister, Theophilus Cotton, a grandson of John of Boston.
Dr. Langdon had diverged from the stricter Calvinism of his an
cestors, and was perhaps an Arminian, as his pubished writings
rather faintly show. John Eliot, brother-in-law of Dr. Belknap,
the historian, writing in November, 1774, says of the Harvard

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 265
Dr. Langdon aided effectively in forming a Con
stitution for the State, and In promoting the ac
ceptance of the Federal Constitution ; was a clear
and rather lively writer, liberal in his theology, and
a correspondent, like Dr. Stiles, of many of his
learned contemporaries in America and Europe.
John Langdon, though bearing military titles,
and occasionally serving in the field, as at Ben
nington, Saratoga, and Newport, was a man for the
council board and the counting-room rather thaiy"
for the camp. Early successful as a merchant, and
partly bred in England, he was firm in his princi
ples but gentle In his manners, and carried on in
Portsmouth the tradition of hospitality and urban
ity which Governor Wentworth had so agreeably
kept up. He presided over the United States Sen-
President : " In the academical chair I think him a compages of
good sense, much learning, more arrogance, and no less conceit."
When the agitation for his withdrawal began, and the unruly
students petitioned the electors to remove their president, Mr.
Eliot writes that one of their charges against him was " his
unbecoming way of addressing the Deity." This must have
been particularly harassing to the young scapegraces. They
are also said to have addressed the venerable scholar, thus :
" As a man of genius and knowledge we respect you ; as a man
of piety and virtue we venerate you ; as » president we despise
you." Rev. William Gordon, historian of the Revolution, de
clared, in the meeting of the college overseers, " that the whole
proceeding arose from the mere malice of one of the governors
of the College (Mr. Winthrop, the librarian), who had the impu
dence to tell Dr. and Mrs. Langdon that he had long sought an
opportunity to revenge an affront some years since," etc. In his
parish he was useful, courteous, and beloved.

266 NEW HAMPSHIRE
ate for its first few weeks, before Vice-President
Adams took the chair, and is reported to have been
more acceptable in that office than the admira
ble but fidgety and egotistic Adams. As Governor
of New Hampshire, Langdon was popular and
gracious, without distinguishing himself by the
advocacy of any important measures, and he lived
to see his party, that of Jefferson and Madison,
fully established in control of the national gov
ernment, as did his friend General Stark.
Particulars of John Langdon's life are none too
well known. Two sketches of it exist, — by Gov
ernor Plumer, his contemporary and successor at
the head of the New Hampshire Eepublicans, and
by his own grandson and namesake, John Langdon
Elwyn. The latter, a humorous, incoherent writer,
says of him, with justice : —
" The name of Jacobin could not drive him from his
Democratic ground. From his choice of party to his
twelfth year of senatorship, neither the flattering friend
ship of Washington, the sophistry nor the courting of
Hamilton, from whom he said he received the highest
compliment of his life, the fury of John Adams's reign,
the drawing-rooms of Philadelphia, of which he was a
distinguished ornament, nor the long, long discourage
ment of a minority, ever dictated a vote of this well-
tried Democrat. Though the honor afterward paid him,
by a great and triumphant party, for this political career
as Senator, was boundless wherever he was known ; and
though for twelve years he was the gayest of men, and

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 267
conceded to be one of the most engaging and elegant
gentlemen in the most exclusive circles in the United
States, his grandchildren never knew him to speak of
this part of his life, of himself. The speech of Hamilton
to him we never heard him tell but once ; but the spirit
with which he told it showed he understood it. On some
occasion he happened to take the Secretary home with
him in his carriage : ' Sir,' said Mr. Langdon, ' you are
riding with one of your stanchest political enemies.'
' Sir,' said General Hamilton, throwing his hat down on
the floor of the chariot, ' I see an honest man.' He,
with all the Senate but five, voted for the first Bank of
the United States, and was an original subscriber of some
account. He had been concerned in the Bank of North
America, the real first national bank ; he was an inti
mate friend of Robert Morris. He voted in the Senate
for the Funding System of Hamilton ; his colleague,
Paine Wingate, against it. He voted against assuming, or
trying to assume, the real debts of the States : it passed
the House, even Mr. Gerry helping. Mr. Langdon by his
own efforts stopped it in the Senate. He had now to
face a danger he was more likely to take account of than
of his limbs, — public odium for the first time in his life :
he faced it. When the Alien and Sedition laws were
passed, he lost no time in making known his judgment
concerning them. He stood stanchly against the war
like drift of President Adams's majorities, — getting
sometimes into a minority of five, in which was a young
gentleman [Andrew Jackson, then Senator from Tennes
see] whose after-conspicuousness as captain and states
man, he may have foreseen. Investigation of his political
life but discovers some overlooked debt his country owes

268 NEW HAMPSHIRE
him. Of what made the American war and protected it,
of what fabricated the Constitution, he had thorough
knowledge ; the heroes and demigods of our Iliad and
Odyssey, he knew them all. The rest of his political
career belongs to his native State, in which it was as
brilliant as that theatre could make it."
Less whimsical, but perhaps not less prejudiced,
William Plumer said of Langdon : —
" He was a man of decent talents, but neither [were
they] great nor brilliant. In early and middle life he was
liberal of his money, but not profuse or lavish ; his man
ners were easy, polite, and insinuating, and his habits
peculiarly social. He courted popularity with the zeal of
a lover and the constancy of a martyr ; and by his man
ners and habits was well qualified to acquire and retain
it. While most others lost property by the Revolution,
he acquired a considerable estate, and at the same time
rendered useful services to the nation. In New Hamp
shire he was the head of that party which assumed the
name of Republicans ; and before President Washing
ton's second term expired, Mr. Langdon declared he
wished a change of men in the government, from Presi
dent to doorkeeper. Few men in New Hampshire ever
obtained so many offices, or held them for a longer
period. He owed his elections not to distinguished tal
ents, but to his fascinating address, amenity of manners,
and his social habit of greeting every man he met. As
Governor, his deportment was easy and dignified. His
speeches, messages, and vetoes were not above medi
ocrity." Whatever Langdon's other talents were, he had

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 269
the talent for success, and the modesty which too
rarely goes with it. His party, to which he ad
hered as faithfully as he had championed the pa
triot cause In the Eevolution, would have elected
him Vice-President in 1812, had he not declined.
He had wished, the year before, to decline reelec
tion as governor, but so great was the wish of his
friends to vote for him that he was persuaded
to stand, and it was while in this office that he
refused to be Vice-President. He told Plumer, his
successor, that " If his motives were purely selfish,
and regarded his own reputation, he should never
again appear in public, and was impatient to retire
to private life." In his two letters declining the
vice-presidency, he said : —
"I beg leave to add that I am pow [June, 1812]
seventy-one years of age, my faculties blunted, have lived
the last forty years of my life in the whirlpool of poli
tics, and am longing for the sweets of retirement. My
advanced age forbids my undertaking long journeys, and
renders me incapable of performing the important duties
of Vice-President with any advantage to our beloved
country, or honor to myself. To launch again upon the
ocean of politics, at my time of life, appears to me highly
improper. ... I should have thought it an honor, and it
would have been my highest pleasure, to serve my coun
try in any station while my great and good friend, Mr.
Madison, continued in the Presidency ; as I consider him
one of our greatest statesmen, an ornament to our coun
try, and above all, the noblest work of God, an honest
man."

270 NEW HAMPSHIRE
This was very unlike the opinion which young
Daniel Webster and his associates, the New Hamp
shire Federalists, then held and expressed of Madi
son ; but it is what the sober judgment of posterity
maintains. He was not equal to the active tasks
of war, as Langdon had been in his day, but his
statesmanship and integrity were beyond question.
John Langdon survived to see his State return to
the Eepublican faith, after the war with England,
and died in 1819, — never having left New Hamp
shire after 1811, except to attend the funeral of his
sister, the wife of Governor Eustis of Massachu
setts. His only brother, Judge Woodbury Langdon,
who had been, like John, a sea captain and a pros
perous merchant, got the reputation of a Tory early
in the Eevolution, by making a voyage to London
to regain property which was threatened by the
war. Eeturning in 1777, after a year or two in
London, he was imprisoned in New York by the
British, and after his escape, joined his relatives in
active hostility to England. Like his brother, he
was handsome and accomplished, and with a turn
for wit which the more popular John concealed, if
he had it. When impeached by the New Hamp
shire House In 1790, for alleged neglect of his
duties as judge of the highest state court, he ad
mitted the fact, gave his reasons for absence, and
retorted by charging the legislature with improper
interference in the business of the court. In August

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 271
following, his trial by the State Senate was ap
pointed (a body of which he had been president) at
Exeter. He presented himself for trial, but the
Senate found they had no right to sit in the recess
of the whole legislature. Says Plumer, who reports
the case : —
" Judge Langdon urged the Senators to proceed ; the
senior Senator, unwilling to avow the real cause of de
lay, observed there was not a full Senate present. The
judge repfied ' He took no exception to their absence, — ¦
he was even willing to dispense with the attendance of
some who were present.' But the trial was postponed
to the winter session in 1791. Before that time Presi
dent Washington had appointed him to a federal office,
which he accepted, and resigned his office of judge. On
the eve of his departure for Philadelphia (January 17,
1791), in a letter resigning, he stated freely his opinion
of the importance of the office of a judge, the inade
quacy of the salary, — and complained of the encroach
ments of the Legislature upon the Judiciary, in passing
biUs to annul their judgments. He observed, ' Many are
impatiently waiting to fiU my place ; yet I hope the Ex
ecutive wiU be directed to make choice of such a gen
tleman as will be a credit to the appointment, — not
an ignoramus, — no sluggard, no sycophant.' His letter
was accompanied with a vindication of his conduct as
judge, and his answer to the articles of impeachment.
The House of Representatives voted [January 22] that,
as the judge was under an impeachment, he ought not to
be permitted to resign, and that he was guilty of contempt.
But four days later they ordered the Managers not to

272 NEW HAMPSHIRE
prosecute the impeachment. At the same time they
passed an address to the President (Dr. Bartlett) and
Council, requesting them to remove the judge from the
office he had resigned. The Senate unanimously non-
concurred. Thus ended the impeachment, which was
instituted more to gratify personal pique and private re
sentment than to promote the public interest."
This was the first and perhaps the last judicial
impeachment In the State's history. Judge Lang
don forfeited popularity by his plain speech and
arbitrary manners ; but on the whole Plumer, who
knew him well after 1780 till his death In 1805,
gives him a good character : —
" In 1796, when a candidate for Congress, he be
longed to the anti-Federalist party, then in a minority ;
and no man of that party, however pure his character
or great his talents, could command a majority. In the
offices he held he displayed great ability, and no man
ever performed more public duty in less time. He was
a man of great independence and decision, bold, keen
and sarcastic, and spoke his mind with great freedom.
He maintained his opinions with firmness, and looked
with contempt on the mean and base acts practised to
obtain popularity ; abhorred duplicity, and, tho' shrewd
and discerning, was open and frank as prudence required.
He was distinguished for quickness of apprehension and
soundness of judgment, and in point of talents few men,
if any in the State, exceeded him. To his friends he
was attentive, and to his personal enemies (and he had
many) he was unyielding. It was his maxim, when he was

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 273
obhged to quarrel with any man, ' not to quarrel at the
halves: " ^
When the violent Federalist party was formed
in New Hampshire, in the second administration
of Washington, that great name was made to sanc
tion a deal of bitterness and contempt for the "dirty
Deemocrats," as a high-placed dame used to style
the party of Jefferson, Langdon, Stark, and Madi
son. The atrocities of the French Eevolution, to
gether with Its manifest absurdities, had so excited
the fears of the comfortable and respectable minis
ters, lawyers, merchants, and large farmers In New
England, that they really dreaded a social uprising
and overturn In this quiet corner of the earth.
This caused a reaction from the exaltation of mind
in which our ancestors had declared what Abraham
Lincoln called Jefferson's manifesto of 1776, " the
axioms of free society." The aristocratic Instincts,
never far beneath the surface in men of English
descent, revived and became prominent again, as
before the Eevolution, and the sacred cause of re
ligion itself was supposed to be threatened by the
new Eepublicans of Virginia and Vermont. The
natural conservatism of the New Hampshire peo
ple, satisfied with Washington for his grand career
1 A good portrait of this elegant and willful gentleman, appar
ently painted in London, exists, and has been copied for the Sen
ate Chamber in Concord. His impeachment was partly managed
by Judge Smith, afterward chief justice and governor, who had
as much wit and almost as much good looks.

274 NEW HAMPSHIRE
In war and peace, resented any intimation that vio
lent partisans had his ear and misused his authority.
In this period of exaggeration and apprehension,
the State being deeply in debt, and the towns
heavily burdened with their own debts and taxes,
wild schemes for relief, such as came to the surface
in the Exeter rising of 1786, were again agitated,
and the mercantile and legal classes were compelled
to be constantly on their guard against some dan
gerous popular delusion, and the odium that, for
one cause or another, lawyers had provoked or en
countered. The men of this profession therefore
were generally Federalists, and among them were
several who became eminent, — Jeremiah Smith
of Peterborough and Exeter, William Plumer of
Epping, Jeremiah Mason of Portsmouth, and, more
than all, their youngest associate, Daniel Webster.
On the other side were most of the men who had
been officers In the war. Stark, Cilley, Cass (father
of the Michigan governor and statesman, Lewis
Cass), Pierce, the father of President Pierce, and
others of less note. The heads of Dartmouth Col
lege and of the academies (notably that in Exeter)
were Federalists, and so, generally, were men edu
cated as clergymen who became politicians, like
Wingate of Stratham and Foster of Canterbury.
Among the Federalists were several men who
had originally been loyalists, or neutral; aniono-
these were Joshua Atherton of Amherst, and one
of the uncles of Cynthia Dunbar, the mother of

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 275
Henry Thoreau, who lived in New Hampshire.
Her father, Asa Dunbar of Keene, who had also
inclined to Toryism after marrying the only daugh
ter of the loyalist Colonel Jones of Weston, would
have been a Federalist, no doubt, had he not died
in the year the Constitution was framed, 1787.
The leading lawyer In the Connecticut valley, Ben
jamin West, was a Federalist, and so continued,
for he was a delegate to the Hartford Convention
of 1814-15 ; while William Plumer followed the
example of his younger friend, John Quincy Adams,
and left the party during Jefferson's presidency.
The Gilmans of Exeter were generally Federalists,
the exception being Nicholas, who served in Con
gress and the Constitutional Convention with John
Langdon, and he had originally been of the same
party with the rest of his family. The Livermores
of Portsmouth and Holderness were also Feder
alists, — the head of the family having been at
torney-general, chief justice, member of Congress,
and often in the legislature.
All these persons were distinguished, and merited
their distinction, but no sketch of them is called
for here, unless they had some special title to fame.
William Plumer had ; his career was unlike that
of the rest, and gave him prominence In many ways.
Beginning life in Massachusetts, under keen reli
gious impressions, his first aim was to be a preacher.
At the strong desire of his father, he became a
farmer In Epping, but could not relinquish his

276 NEW HAMPSHIRE
ambition for a more public way of life, and studied
law, rather irregularly. His strength of mind and
application were such that he soon became a leader
at the Eockingham bar, and at the same time en
tered vigorously into public life, while privately
cultivating a taste for history and literature, and
conducting an extensive correspondence, particu
larly, for some years, with his rival at the bar. Judge
Smith, who had been a very youthful soldier under
Stark at Bennington, while Plumer in the Eevolu
tion seems to have inclined at first toward the
mother country. After serving for a dozen years
in the state legislature, and accumulating a com
petency in his profession, Plumer became senator
In Congress, in 1803, holding Federalist opinions,
and very severe in his criticism of Jefferson and
the Eepublicans. In 1804, convinced that several
of the Federalist leaders in Congress from New
England meditated disunion, his party zeal cooled
perceptibly. It was from him, in part, that J. Q.
Adams derived information which led him after
ward to denounce Federalists from Massachusetts
and Connecticut as disunlonists ; and the corre
spondence since made public shows that they were.
In the Senate Plumer first met Henry Clay, who,
not yet thirty, had been sent to represent Kentucky
among his seniors. His own observations and the
influence of Adams and Clay led him to support the
party of Jefferson and Madison, though not agree
ing In all their policy, and when Langdon withdrew

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 277
from further public life, Plumer became the head
of the New Hampshire Eepublicans, and was Gov
ernor In the first year of the short war with Eng
land, which Smith and Mason, the Livermores and
Webster, sincerely opposed. When as Governor he
planned to make Dartmouth College a State Uni
versity, modeled after the University of Jefferson
and Madison, it was partly the old virus of political
animosity which brought Smith, Mason, and Web
ster Into the field of law against him ; and their
learning, eloquence, and social Influence defeated
his plans. Eetiring from public life in 1819, soon
after his eldest son entered Congress, Plumer de
termined to write the political history of the United
States, and made large collections of material, both
printed and manuscript, for that purpose. But the
main fruit of his Industry In that direction was a
mass of brief biographies, only a few of which have
yet been printed, and the contributions which his
son used In his spirited life of Plumer. The char
acter of the father was severe and saturnine, a great
contrast to Langdon and Sullivan, and his popu
larity was owing to a strong impression of ability
and honesty, which his puritanic attitude conveyed.
His written style is heavy, and his verdict on his
contemporaries colored by prejudice ; but he has
supplied history with a store of valuable and often
piquant detail.
Plumer was but twenty-four when peace with
England was declared, and he could hardly have

278 NEW HAMPSHIRE
distinguished himself in that struggle ; but he
knew personally most of the patriots, and several
of the loyalists, and what he says of them Is in
structive, if tinged with dislike, of which he was
very capable. Of one patriot, Meshech Weare of
Hampton Falls, he finds nothing but good to say ;
and this exception to his habit of severity points
to the fact that Weare was the one indispensable
man in New Hampshire through the critical period
of the Eevolution. He was older even than Stark,
being born in 1713, in the small township which
he seldom left, except to go through Harvard Col
lege and to transact public business ; and he con
tinued in the service of his Province and State until
within a few months of his death, at the age of
seventy-three. Leaving college in 1735, he expected
to become a clergyman ; but his marriage to a lady
of some landed property turned him aside to its
cultivation, and she built In 1737, on a low hill In
the midst of it, the simple unpainted wooden man
sion, where the rest of his life was spent. With no
special military education, he early bore the title
of Colonel, from his command of a county regi
ment ; and he followed the example of his father
and grandfather In taking an active part in the
Assembly and Council of the Province. He became
a judge by the appointment of Benning Went
worth, — his ancestors having for two generations
held much the same place in Hampton that the
Wentworth family did in Portsmouth, except in

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 279
point of wealth. They were independent in fortune,
but did not accumulate, and had no uneasy ambi
tion for conspicuous office. Nathaniel Weare, his
grandfather, had spent a year or two In England
during the troubled times of Cranfield and Bare
foot, as the agent of his brother planters ; but none
of his numerous descendants had sought to push
their fortune, or waste their substance in the mother
country. Sound judgment. Integrity, and public
spirit were their qualities, accompanied by a mod
esty that withheld them from display. Judge Weare
was a friend of Governor Wentworth, and In the
Provincial Congress, along with his parish minister,
Paine Wingate, had urged moderation when Sulli
van and Langdon were pressing on the resistance
to British aggression. But when the war began, no
sturdier patriot was found than this quiet country
gentleman, who had studied law to qualify himself
for the bench, but relied on his native sagacity and
courage to carry him through the toils of state ad
ministration. The Committee of Safety was elected
twice a year, but nobody seems to have proposed
any other for its chairman than Weare ; and his
hand is seen, energetic and unshaken by danger
and difficulty. In all the measures of government.
Like Washington, of whom, except In his military
character, Weare reminds us, he never seems to
have been depressed by 111 success, or too much
elated by victory. At the close of the war, when
governor of the new State, under the title of Presi-

280 NEW HAMPSHIRE
dent of the Council, he Issued a Thanksgiving
proclamation from Portsmouth (November 2, 1784),
In which, among the causes for gratitude to God,
he mentioned these : —
" That our Supreme and All-Bountiful Benefactor has
triumphed over our unworthiness, and against the force
of all our ingratitude hath crowned the year with his
goodness, following the blessing of Peace with that of
Plenty, to replace the expenditures of a tedious war ;
that he has so far succeeded our Trade and Commerce,
and been the health of his people's countenance and their
God ; that he has wiped off all traces of former subjec
tion from this State, by establishing a new Constitution
of Government, in which our liberties, civil and sacred,
are amply secured ; that he has continued the lives of our
Ambassadors at foreign Courts, and is giving us honor
and respectability with the nations of the earth."
So much for the past ; in future God must be
prayed " to bless our public councils with wisdom
and unanimity, diffuse a true spirit of patriotism
through all ranks and orders of men, . . . smile
upon our Commerce, Navigation and Fishery, bless
the labors of the laborer in every department, take
the interest of Education and Literature under his
nurturing hand, and fill the earth with the Glory
of his great Name."
This may serve as a sample of his later style. In
which are reminiscences of a theological education.
In his correspondence and speeches he was simpler
and more direct ; in all his policy fair and earnest,

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 281
yet with a knowledge of human nature that kept
him from Initiating or carrying out injudicious
measures, however strongly urged thereto. His
effective peaceable settlement of the dispute with
Vermont, which had led to the secession of a large
part of the western townships, and their temporary
union with that State, Is sufficient evidence of his
wisdom and moderation. His freedom from per
sonal interest and ambition is testified by the criti
cal Plumer, who wrote In his sketch of Weare : —
" He was not a theoretic but a practical statesman,
distinguished for amiableness, uprightness and fidelity.
From the Declaration of Independence to the conclu
sion of the war he was invested, at the same time, with
the highest offices, legislative, judicial and executive ;
and continued in them by annual elections. The various
important offices which he held during the long period of
forty-five years made him not proud or haughty. They
did not change his mind, manners or mode of living ;
his old mansion-house remained unpainted, its ancient
furniture was still used, and he continued to the last
the same modest, unassuming man. From all his offices,
and with all his prudence, he added not a cent to his
property, which at death did not exceed that of a good
common farmer."
Probably his estate was diminished by his public
service, and the outfit of his ten children ; for It
might well be true of Judge Weare as of his col
league In the Committee of Safety, Judge John
Dudley, who told Plumer that "according to an

282 NEW HAMPSHIRE
estimation made by himself, he actually lost during
the Eevolution one half of his property." Of his
person we have no portrait, and it is doubtful If he
ever allowed one to be painted ; but the tradition
is that he was " tall, slender, and commanding, erect
and quick of movement, with a bearing of quiet
dignity ; affable In manner, but incisive of speech." ^
1 The house of Weare was one of the first that as a child was
pointed out to me, and then remained exactly as the old President
had left it, more than a hundred years after his bride's father,
Samuel Shaw, had built it for the young couple in 1737. It was
noteworthy among houses for its old-fashioned wall-paper, a hunt
ing-scene, consisting of the stag, the hounds, and the huntsman,
in successive compartments, diagonally above one another, and so
repeated throughout the room. This paper had been put on in
great pieces like tapestry, when the house was building, and was
held in place by the " finish " above the old-fashioned paneling.
In the chamber above was the high-post bedstead, with its cur
tains of checked homespun linen, most likely spun and woven in
the " L " of the house ; and in the bed Washington is said to have
slept, when visiting New Hampshire for the first time, in 1775.
The house was occupied, until 1849, by Mrs. Porter, a daughter of
President Weare, and her niece, his granddaughter. Miss Lang,
who showed me the rooms. Of the sons of the patriot, one was
killed in the French war, and two survived their father : Natlianiel,
who removed to Deerfield, and was long clerk of the Rockingham
Court, and Samuel, a justice of the peace, with a farm adjoining
that of my grandfather, two miles west of the Weare mansion.
The papers of the family have long been scattered and some of
them lost ; the public papers of the President and chief justice
are preserved in the records of the State and the courts, and many
of them have been printed. A full biography of the Weare family
from 1638, when the first Nathaniel settled in Newbury, till the
President's deatli in 1786, is much to be desired. The emigrant
ancestor was of the family of Weare at Wear-GifEord in Devon
shire, and the first chief justice, Nathauiel, sealed with their arms
in 1700.

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 283
His public life began as " moderator " of town
meetings in his native town, which then Included
Seabrook, where his grandfather had settled in
1662. This was In 1739, the year after his first
marriage, and he continued to be chosen to this
office until 1769, when, having taken sides In a
church contest about the location of a new meeting
house, he declined, as moderator, to put a vote, and
was never afterwards elected, though representing
the town In every other capacity. The State elected
him unanimously as its first President under the
Constitution of 1783, two years after he had re
signed his chief-justiceship by reason of age ; he
was reelected In 1785, and continued to act as
President of the Council after his infirmities obliged
him to call them together at his own house, as Ben
ning Wentworth had often done. He died Janu
ary 14, 1786, and was burled at the foot of his hill,
in the first cemetery of the parish, and hardly
a musket-shot from his own door. Seventy years
after his death, the State erected a marble shaft,
at about the same distance In front of his mansion,
as a monument to his memory, and near the site
of the first meeting-house where he worshiped, and
sometimes had preached.
When Weare was dying at Hampton Falls, only
a mile away from the large farm of the Bachelders,
where the grandmother of the child was born, a
dark-eyed boy, in his fifth year, was playing about
the door of his father's new frame-house "in a

284 NEW HAMPSHIRE
valley at a bend of the Merrimac, a few miles be
low the head of that river," in the present town of
Franklin, but in 1786 still a part of what had been
Bakerstown, and became Salisbury. This child was
the most illustrious of all the men of New Hamp
shire, — Daniel Webster; his father was the son
of Susanna Bachelder of Hampton Falls (born In
1713), the granddaughter of Nathaniel Bachel
der, who. In turn, was the grandson of Stephen
Bachiler, the founder of Hampton and the ances
tor of numberless descendants In England and
New England.^ Of this descent Webster was proud,
and with some reason. Writing to his son Fletcher,
on the birth of a grandson (March, 1840), the
statesman, then In the national Senate, said: —
" As the boy has dark hair and eyes, you may give
him my name, if you please. I believe we are all indebted
to my father's mother for a large portion of the little
sense and character which belong to us. Her name
was Susanna Bachelder; she was the daughter of a cler
gyman, and a woman of uncommon strength of under-
^ This stalwart Puritan was born in 1561, three years before
Shakespeare, educated in Laud's College at Oxford (St. John's),
before Laud's arbitrary time, and ejected from his living in
Wherwell by Lord De la Warr, in the early reign of James I, for
puritanic opinions, which he continued to maintain as a wandering
minister, in England and Holland, until he sailed for New England
in 1632. He left several sons in England, at the house of one of
whom, Francis, he died in 1660, in his hundredth year. In Amer
ica he was the ancestor of all the Sanborns, all the Wings, most of
the Husseys, and a great many of his own name. He had the
merits and defects of his time and his class.

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 285
standing. If I had had many boys, I should have called
one of them Bachelder.''
His own father. Captain Ebenezer Webster,
"favored his mother," as they then said in the
Province, and had her dark complexion and glow
ing black eyes. When Daniel Webster had seen
many men, in America and Europe, he still said,
" My father was the handsomest man I ever saw,
except my elder brother, Ezekiel ; " and the tra
ditions bear out this filial estimate. The softer
beauty of the grandmother was reproduced in the
orator in a striking masculine form, of which that
grand word-painter, Carlyle, after seeing Web
ster at London, in 1839, wrote to his friend Em
erson : —
" You might say to all the world ' This is our Yankee
Englishman ; such limbs we make in Yankee-land.' As
a logic-fencer, advocate or parliamentary Hercules, one
would incline to back him at first sight against all the
extant world. The tanned complexion ; that amorphous
crag-like face ; the dull black eyes under the precipice of
brows, like dull anthracite furnaces, needing only to be
blown ; the mastiff mouth, accurately closed ; I have not
traced so much of silent Berserker rage (that I remem
ber of) in any other man. ' 1 guess I should not like to
be your nigger.' "
The insight of Carlyle was not at fault In hinting
a certain arbitrary quality in this well-endowed ora
tor. At the age of thirty or thereabout, while living
in Portsmouth, and representing that part of the

286 NEW HAMPSHIRE
State in Congress, Dr. Goddard, the son-in-law of
Dr. Samuel Langdon, who had taken an opposite
direction In politics from Webster's, told Governor
Plumer that the young Federalist had the temper
of Eobespierre ! In the way Webster had chosen to
walk, he had few scruples as to his manner of deal
ing with opponents. Neither then nor now could the
New Hampshire bar be esteemed a nursery of fine
manners ; and It was in this school that Webster
was trained, after graduating at Dartmouth In 1801.
He had prepared for college in part at Exeter, under
Dr. Abbot ; and In entering the academy, he was
brought from Salisbury, " riding double " behind
his father, in clothes that he had outgrown, and
with rustic manners which caused him mortification
in the little universe of Exeter.^ There, as every
where, he interested his elders, and was kindly
encouraged on the road to public life which his
father had chosen for him, and along which his own
ambition urged him. But his father was too poor,
though himself a public man, to maintain him at
Exeter, and after a few months there, the lad left
to complete his preparation for Dartmouth nearer
home. He attracted attention In college by his mode
of declamation, and by the pronounced originality
of his character.^ Making his own way through the
^ Conversation of Miss Clifford.
^ A slender thread connects John Langdon, the patriot and sub
sequent opponent of the young Federalist, with Webster in col
lege. Ebenezer Webster, the father, had borrowed money of the
wealthy and liberal Langdon, about 1796 ; in 1802, when Daniel

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 287
study of law, with the aid of his elder brother, he
soon began practice in the rural courts, easily im
pressed judges and counselors with his mastery of
the profession, and early removed to Portsmouth,
had graduated and Ezekiel was in college. Judge Webster wrote
to " the Hour. John Langdon '' thus : —
I received a letter dated July 6 from Esq. Shannon, in which
he says that you want the money I owe you, or the note renewed.
I mentioned the matter to you. Sir, at Concord in June last ; told
you that I would come down between now and Fall, and have the
matter settled. You may depend upon it that your demand is safe.
The reason of non-payment is my educating two of my sons in
Dartmouth College. It is now a busy time of the year for farm
ers, and I think the Limitation Act cannot affect the matter at
present. And if Providence spares my life and fortune, you shall
be satisfied to your satisfaction.
With Esteem I remain your Friend and humble Servant,
Ebenbzeb Webstbb.
Apparently, this good resolution was not carried out ; for three
years later (July 9, 1805) Judge Webster writes to say : " It will
not be in my power to raise the money at the August Court, unless
I sell a part of my real estate. If you could make it convenient
to wait till Fall I will delay no longer of paying you to your sat
isfaction ; for at that time I have a considerable sum of money
due. I should have called on you at Concord [Langdon being then
Governor], but the state of my health would not admit of it. My
Son, the bearer, will doubtless make some further statements.''
This son was doubtless Daniel, who in the winter before had
refused the office of clerk of the courts in his native county, with
a salary of $1-500, which would have paid the small debts, and
made his father comfortable during the few remaining months of
his life. Daniel made his first speech in court a month later, in
his father's presence. In 1802 he was at the Fryeburg Academy,
earning money, but not saving it. When he left Portsmouth in
1817, his debts there, unpaid, amounted to thousands, which his
Boston friends cheerfully paid.

288 NEW HAMPSHIRE
the commercial capital of the State, in 1807. He
was already a politician, and so active that, five
years after, he was sent to Congress from the Ports
mouth district. He was in opposition to the admin
istration of Madison, as he had been to Jefferson's ;
he opposed the war with England, and was one
of those who darkly hinted at a dissolution of the
Union, in some indefinite time " when a small and
heated majority, contemptuously disregarding the
interests, and perhaps stopping the mouths of a
large and respectable minority, shall threaten to
destroy essential rights, and lay waste the most
important interests." He meant the interests of
property, which he always sought to serve, and
which led him into his worst mistakes. Property
was something that Webster could acquire, but
never retain ; and this spendthrift habit, which
showed Itself in the provincial parsimony of Ports
mouth, where in a few years he became seriously
in debt, was increased after his removal to Boston
at the suggestion of powerful financial Interests.
From that time forward he was seldom free from
the obligations of debt, nor from political subser
viency to the Interests of invested wealth, which
his career as a statesman frequently manifested.
But his powers and fame as an orator and foren
sic pleader rapidly advanced. In the House of Ee
presentatlves, though among the younger members,
and from a small State, he soon became a force in
opposition to the administration which its support-

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 289
ers dreaded to meet in argument. Only the ablest
of his contemporaries, Clay and Calhoun, were
a match for him then ; and they became by turns
his allies and his rivals afterward. In the Supreme
Court, especially after the Dartmouth College deci
sion, he became one of the most powerful pleaders,
reinforcing his sound knowledge of the principles
of law with a matchless method of presenting the
strong points of his case. Beyond this was that
resource of oratoric genius, an appeal to the imagi
nation and the emotions, — faculties which would
seem to have little place in the calm balancing of
reasons and the marshaling of law precedents, but
which more than once turned the even scale of jus
tice toward his side. This manifestation of innate
genius was aided for many years by the unusual
aspect and bearing of the man, which made him
remarked wherever he was seen, and gave a charm
to his utterances that captivated audiences, either
of the many or the few.
In the powers of his mind the masculine under
standing held the first place ; of the higher reason
which deals with ultimate questions he had less
than mauy men of inferior talents. Thus his grasp
of principles In law and politics was firm and often
profound ; but in philosophy he was content with
the traditional and accepted. His learning was not
vast, but what he had was so well marshaled as to
pass for more than its Intrinsic worth. His glowing
imagination brought him within the ranges of liter-

290 NEW HAMPSHIRE
ature, and the best passages in his orations, while
aiding the effect of his contention at the time (as
we are told Burke's did not), long since took their
place in the literary treasures of his native land.
Much as he was indebted to the accumulations of
English law, politics, and poetry, he yet had a
genius peculiar to New England, and not derived
by acquisition from the mother country. Nay,
beyond this he was endowed with that mysterious
attribute which we specially term "genius," and
which set him apart from all New England, in a
class by himself. It was this that his countrymen
felt, but could not understand ; they propitiated
him with gifts and honors, but they could never
satisfy a deep instinct of his nature which he could
not wholly control, and which made him, for much
of his life, a solitary and melancholy man. The
defeats of his political ambition, keenly as he felt
them, affected him less than the failure of his inner
life to reach the Ideal once set before It. Few of his
critics or encomiasts have taken note of this mark
of his high calling, and its persistent frustration In
the publicity of his illustrious career. But another
man of a genius also foreign to New England in its
manifestations, the elder Hawthorne, in one of his
New Hampshire tales, has well expressed It : —
" Something had been originally left out, or had de
parted. And therefore the marvellously gifted statesman
had always a weary look in the deep caverns of his eyes,
as of a child that has outgrown its playthings, or a man

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 291
of mighty faculties and little aims, whose life, with all
its high performances, was vague and empty, because no
high purpose had endowed it with reality." ^
' This appeared in Hawthorne's Great Stone Face, written
after the election of General Taylor as President, whose allegori
cal shadow, vanishing into the wraith of his antecedent, Andrew
Jackson, also figures in the tale. The Face is the " Old Man of
the Mountain " in the Franconia Notch. N. P. Rogers, the New
Hampshire friend of Thoreau, in 1846 was writing for Horace
Greeley's Tribune reminiscent letters signed " The Old Man of
the Mountain." In one of them (March 28, 1846) he said : —
" Daniel Webster used to come to court in Plymouth when he
was a young lawyer. He and his brother Zeke used to come to
gether after a year or two. I can see them now driving into that
little village in their bellows-top chaise (top thrown back), driving
like Jehu, the chaise bending under them like an elm-top in a
high wind. Daniel was a black, raven-haired fellow, with an eye
as black as death, and as heavy as a lion's, — a heavy look, not
sleepy, but as if he did n't care about anything that was going
on about him. They say the lion looks so when he is quiet. It
was u't an empty look, but one that did n't seem to see anything
going on worth his while."
Rogers was the son of an old physician of Plymouth, and had
himself seen what he here described. In the same letter, speak
ing of Judge Arthur Livermore of Holderness, before whom Web
ster often tried cases, and whose father had been chief justice
before him, Rogers tells this story : —
" ' It is laid down so-and-so in Coke,' said a counsel to him once
in an argument. ' Coke was an arbitrary man,' said the judge in
reply. ' But a Massachusetts judge of some standing. Parsons,
C. J., was of the same opinion.' ' Mr. Parsons was a great adher
ent to precedent,' said Judge Livermore ; ' the law is not so in
New Hampshire.' He would decide for himself, if all the judges
in old England and New were of the other opinion."
Another anecdote of Livermore in Congress (1817-23) is told
by Rogers.
'¦ They sent him to Congress when John Randolph was there.

292 NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the outward world, where he publicly moved,
Webster's purposes were high, — the advancement
of his section, first, and then of the whole coun
try ; the maintenance of the American Union, which
he had once vaguely hinted might be virtuously
broken ; but which he seemed, in his latest years,
determined to maintain at the expense of most of
the virtues. His highest flight of eloquence was
his panegyric on the Union in his reply to Hayne
of Carolina; and next to that was his praise of
sensitive courage In the colonists, rising up against
England in defense of English rights. He said : —
" On a question of principle, while actual suffering
was yet afar off, they raised their flag against a power
to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subju
gation, Rome, in the height of her glory, is not to be
compared : a power which has dotted over the surface of
the whole globe with her possessions and mifitary posts ;
Randolph thought he looked too stately and baronial for a
Northerner, and would make him aware he did not come from
Old Virginia. Livermore had made a few remarks, not to Ran
dolph's mind ; he got up and said in the Roanoke vein and man
ner, ' The gentleman from Vermont had said so-and-so,' etc. The
House felt the taunt all round, — all but Livermore, who quietly
rose, when Randolph had done, and said, ' Mr. Speaker, I respect
the opinions of the gentleman from Rhode Island, but must differ
from him in this instance,' etc. Randolph put on his fur cap and
went out to see what had become of Juba and Syphax ; he did
not mistake Judge Livermore's State after that."
Rogers was celebrated by Thoreau in his short paper. The Her
ald of Freedom, a weekly journal edited at Concord by Rogers
for a dozen years, in the anti-slavery cause.

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 293
whose morning drum-beat, following the sun and keep
ing company with the hours, circles the earth with one
continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of
England." It was a great service to perform, — Webster's
demonstration that the Union was a nation and
not a mere confederacy, — and this sober argument,
reinforced by the graces and force of eloquence,
became the faith of a vast majority of the American
people, and gave strength to their determination
to maintain the nation when it was assailed by the
real disunlonists, the slave-masters of the South.
But Webster and his friends were apt to allege,
for twenty or thirty years before the Eebellion,
that the small band of abolitionists were the for
midable enemies of the Union ; and when a consti
tutional party, the same which afterward saved
the nation, rose up to resist the aggressions of the
slave-masters, Webster, whose principles should
have made him one of them, began to denounce
them as hostile to the Union. Into this error he
was led, not so much by ambition for the presi
dency, as by seeing that the larger interests of in
vested wealth were on the side of slavery. He had
laid it down in one of his earlier orations that it is
" the part of political wisdom to found government
on property," — In which, as he meant it, he was
right ; and when he saw a large part of the pro
perty of the country apparently on the side of the
slave-masters, he forgot the maxims he had used to

294 NEW HAMPSHIRE
qualify his rather offensive statement of 1820, and
went over to the side of the few property-holders
against the many small proprietors. The Ameri
cans pecuniarily interested in the maintenance of
slavery, in 1850, did not, perhaps, exceed one mil
lion out of three and twenty, yet the weight of
Webster's name and influence was thrown on the
side of the one against the two and twenty. In
theory he had always opposed negro slavery ; in
practice, at the critical moment, he was found up
holding It. Love for the Union and fears for its
continuance had weight with him, but an errone
ous weight. The real enemy of the nation was
negro slavery, as was amply shown by Abraham
Lincoln, both in argument and In fact. The safety
of the nation was found to be where Lincoln placed
it, in his Boston letter of 1859, — a recurrence to
the principles of 1776, as expressed by Jefferson
in the Declaration of Independence.
Except as a leader of the minority party, and
occasionally for a year or two as a member of the
national cabinet, Webster had little to do with
New Hampshire In the thirty-five years between
his removal to Boston In 1817 and his death at
Marshfield in October, 1852, at the age of seventy.
At no time, probably, unless in that very last year,
could he have secured the electoral vote for Presi
dent In his native State, whose inhabitants he had
offended by his action in the Dartmouth case, and
by his views on the tariff and the currency. They

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 295
had a pride in his reputation, but a dislike for his
opinions. He retained a pleasing memory of his
native region, and used to spend some part of
every summer there ; he cherished an affection for
the Academy at Exeter, where he first came in
friendly contact with men of cultivation, and for
the little college where he was educated, — a lonely
man, even then, and apart from those of his own
age. He is now the most eminent of all those born
in New Hampshire, and his statue, with those of
Stark and Hale, stands in the park in front of
the Capitol at Concord, where his father helped
to ratify that Constitution which the son so ably
expounded and defended.
To a younger son of New Hampshire, Franklin
Pierce, the State has never been willing to erect a
statue, though he held the office of President, to
which Webster, Clay, and Calhoun long and vainly
aspired. For years, in his younger period, he was
the favorite son of New Hampshire; represented
her in the House and the Senate, and commanded
a few of her soldiers In the Mexican War, in which
Webster's son Edward died. Pierce was the child
of a Eevolutionary patriot who was twice Gov
ernor of the State ; and he might himself have
been its Governor at any time from 1835 to 1853,
when he was chosen President. He had graduated,
along with Hawthorne and the poet Longfellow, at
the Maine College of Bowdoln, and easily won the
place in New Hampshire which was denied to the

296 NEW HAMPSHIRE
larger abilities of Webster. He was socially accom
plished, of popular manners, a well-read and suc
cessful lawyer, but neither profound nor specially
diligent in his profession. His real profession was
politics, and he was fortunate in the circumstances
of his political life, until he came in conflict with
that awakened moral sense of the North which
Garrison and Phillips labored so many years to
arouse, and which was unsparing when once In ac
tivity. His State gave him a good majority when
he was (rather fortuitously) made the Democratic
candidate for President In the summer of 1852, and
his friend Hawthorne wrote his " campaign biogra
phy." But with the first active measures of his
administration for the protection of slavery, and Its
extension into Kansas, New Hampshire, with the
rest of the Northern States, turned against Pierce
and his party ; and for half a century, with rare
exceptions, the State has been out of the hands of
those who, under Pierce's strict "regency," gov
erned it for so many years. He left the presidency
with a bad name in the North, and with few real
friends at the South, and never regained that influ
ence anywhere to which his talents and attractive
manners would have entitled him, had he not taken
the wrong side in the great controversy that fol
lowed. During the Civil War he heightened the
aversion toward himself by presiding at a public
meeting intended to influence Lincoln and the na
tional forces to make a premature peace ; at which

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 297
his friend Hawthorne loyally sat beside him, though
taking no other part in the meeting. He survived
the war, as Hawthorne did not, and was a good
friend to the bereaved family. But he disappeared
from political life, though living entirely in New
Hampshire, where he died in 1869, at the age of
sixty-five. A more virile and eloquent statesman was John
Parker Hale, whose statue also adonis the Capitol
Park In Concord. Born In Strafford County in
1806, two years after Pierce, he graduated at the
same college, and took up in New Hampshire the
same profession of law and the same political con
nection. With the approval of Pierce, who then
controlled the Democratic party In his State, he
was chosen to Congress in 1843, having held for
seven years the office of district attorney by the
appointment of Jackson and Van Buren. Follow
ing the expressed opinion of the latter, but against
what had become the policy of the slave-masters,
who then dominated the Democratic party, Hale
in 1844-45 opposed the annexation of Texas, as
Webster and the Northern Whigs, and a few De
mocrats, also did. Pierce and the party leaders in
New Hampshire called Hale to account, and re
fused to support him for reelection ; but a consid
erable defection from the Democrats in Strafford
and Eockingham defeated the election of Hale's
opponent, and the seat remained vacant until Hale,
In 1846, was chosen senator for six years, — the

298 NEW HAMPSHIRE
first distinctly anti-slavery senator elected and
serving, since the slave question became a national
one. In the Senate he had to endure, for years,
the serious onset and the sportive taunts of the
pro-slavery majority, among whom was his older
compatriot, General Cass of Michigan, a native of
Exeter, who in 1848 was the defeated Democratic
candidate for President. But such was Hale's readi
ness in debate, his wit, and his good nature, that, in
spite of his opinions, he became rather a favorite in
the Senate, as he ever was with popular audiences.
At the end of his term he was not reelected ; but by
a reaction following the unpopular Nebraska Bill
of Pierce's administration. Hale was again sent to
the Senate for four years, and In both his terms
he maintained himself well and secured some useful
legislation. On the election of Lincoln in 1861,
Hale was sent minister to Spain, where he was of
no great service, and could take little part in the
struggle for the Union. He died In 1873, after a
long Illness. For a dozen years no anti-slavery
politician rendered better service than Hale, and
in 1852 he was the candidate of the voting anti-
slaverymen for President,
Isaac HiU and Levi Woodbury have been suffi
ciently mentioned, and it here suffices merely to
name those Illustrious natives of New Hampshire,
Chief Justice Chase, General Cass, and Horace
Greeley, whose mature life was spent elsewhere,
and whose public service was given to other States.

THE GREAT AND LITTLE MEN 299
It is noteworthy that for a brief period In 1851-
52, six of the most active statesmen and publicists
of the nation, Webster, Cass, Greeley, Hale, Chase,
and Pierce, were all born in the small State which
gave birth to Weare, Stark, and Langdon, and for
a few years sheltered the genius of Eumford.
Other men of national fame, such as Henry Wil
son, Senator Grimes of Iowa, John Wentworth of
Illinois, were also born in New Hampshire.

CHAPTEE XII
THE ANTI-SLAVEKT CONTEST AND ITS RESULTS
The institution of slavery never had a sure foot
hold in New Hampshire. At first a few negroes
may have come in from the West Indies, and In
due time a few Indian captives were held to invol
untary service. But the need of labor was supplied,
for the first century and a half, mainly by appren
tices and " bound " servants, the latter imported
and held till they had paid the importer for their
passage-money, clothing, and whatever else they
did not pay themselves out of their small savings
in England, Scotland, or Ireland, from which they
chiefly came. A Venetian sojourner in England in
the time of Henry VII was startled at the custom
of the people, even in the higher ranks, to send out
their children as apprentices, or pupils, or pages,
to be brought up in other families than their own.
Something of this custom descended, with other
old-world traditions, to the colonists of New Hamp
shire ; and apprentices of both sexes were taken
into families to learn that kind of labor which the
head of the family followed. Such a practice dis
pensed with the need of slaves, where the labor of

THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONTEST 301
the family did not suffice for its whole service.
Another usage was to " change works," — that is,
for one farmer or mechanic to help another in his
busiest season, the loan of labor to be returned in
kind. So slight was the hold which negro slavery had,
that the system silently went out of use after the Ee
volution, with little notice taken. During the war
a few negroes petitioned the state government for
their freedom, offering to fight the better against
the foreign foe if their request were granted.
Probably it was granted In some cases by the just
owner of this unjust property ; in other cases the
nominal tie remained, but the master supported the
superannuated slave, rather than throw the cost
upon the town ; while thriftier masters emancipated
the wornout serf, rather than support him. Nor
had the yeomanry of the State much sympathy with
the wealthy slave-traders of Ehode Island, against
whom Webster thundered in his Plymouth oration
of 1820, or with the rich slave-masters of the South.
When the first agitation to check the extension
of slavery came that year (1820) In the form of the
Missouri Compromise debate, the representatives
of New Hampshire in Congress were mostly for re
striction rather than compromise. In March, 1820,
the Portsmouth Democrats sent that able Federal
ist, Jeremiah Mason, to the legislature ; he was
put at the head of a special committee on the ex
clusion of slavery from Missouri ; reported in favor

302 NEW HAMPSHIRE
of it ; and wrote this resolve, which the legislature
almost unanimously passed, as Indicating the opin
ion of the State in 1820 : " That in the opinion
of the legislature the existence of slavery within
the United States Is a great moral as well as politi
cal evil, the toleration of which can be justified by
necessity alone, and the further extension ought to
be prevented." Both parties agreed in this, and it
expressed the sentiment of Webster then. But the
political alliance formed in Jefferson's time between
the agricultural democracy of the North and the
planting aristocracy of the South, calling them
selves " Democrats," gradually brought the domi
nant Democratic party in New Hampshire to the
virtual defense of slavery, as a form of society pro
tected by the Constitution. As the agitation for
immediate emancipation, begun by a few Quakers
in Ohio, and carried on more polemically by Garri
son, attracted notice, the New Hampshire Demo
crats began to denounce and persecute the aboli
tionists ; not so much from love of slavery as from
a dread of political mischief. The poet Whittler,
who had many relatives and religious associates in
New Hampshire, was mobbed there, in company
with the English abolitionist, George Thompson ;
while the more fervid and wild-eyed abolition pro
phets, like Stephen Foster and Parker Pillsbury,
could get mobbed anywhere, and enjoyed it. These
were New Hampshire men, and so was a gentler
spirit, Nathaniel P. Eogers, friend of Thoreau,

THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONTEST 303
who for years published his "Herald of Freedom"
at the state capital. The churches in New Hamp
shire, as elsewhere, generally opposed the agitation
of the question, but occasionally opened their
pulpits to abolitionists ; and on one such occa
sion, the anti-slavery preacher was arrested, while
at prayer, by a Democratic sheriff, acting, probably,
at the suggestion of the sheriff's cousin, Moses
Norris of Pittsfield, a party leader, congressman
and senator afterward.^ In these acts of legal or
illegal violence the bulk of the New Hampshire peo
ple took no part ; they abhorred slavery in itself,
and were ashamed to be giving it this tacit support.
As in the revolt against the Stuart tyranny, re
presented in the new Province by the courtier Cran
field and the roistering Barefoot, which began in
1 The abolitionists did not fail to remind the Democrats of the
inconsistency of their support of slavery with their democratic
principle of " equal rights." The Anti-Slavery Almanac contained
a cut of the poor preacher, dragged from his knees by the merci
less Reuben Leavitt (my mother's cousin) ; and when a coalition
of Whigs and independent Democrats had carried the state election
in 1846, upon the issue of annexing Texas, Whittier wrote a long
satirical poem on the occasion, under the alleged form of a letter
from Pierce, afterward President, to his party associate, Moses
Norris (another cousin of my mother). It began : —
'* 'T is over, Moses, — all is lost !
1 hear the bells a-ringing,
01 Pharaoh and his Red Sea host
I hear the Free- Wills singing."
This phrase implied that the " Free-Will Baptists " (a sect numer
ous in the State) had joined the anti-slavery ranks, which was true.
Whittier also introduced Leavitt the sheriff, as troubled with a
vision of his praying victim.

304 NEW HAMPSHIRE
Portsmouth, Exeter, and Hampton, so the actual
throwing off of the slave-masters' yoke was first
accomplished there, and by the posterity of those
early planters. The motive of active resistance was
not solely a regard for the slave, or an affection
for his enthusiastic champions of the Garrlsonian
school ; it was rather what the earlier revolt Im
plied, — an unwillingness to be governed by any
but themselves, and a resentment of the irregular
ways of their nominal dictators. The counties of
Eockingham and Strafford were In 1843-45 repre
sented in Congress by a spirited Democratic lawyer,
John Parker Hale of Dover, who had been made
district attorney by President Jackson, but was suc
ceeded in that federal office when elected to Con
gress in March, 1843, by Franklin Pierce, lately
retired from the Senate. At Washington Hale had
voted against the irregular annexation of Texas by
Tyler, the accidental President, and a pro-slavery
Congress, and he had addressed a letter to his
constituents explaining his action, and asking their
verdict. He had already been regularly renomi
nated by his party ; but at the dictate of the Demo
crats of the South, who had just elected Polk Pre
sident over Henry Clay, Pierce, the party leader in
Concord, told his Democratic friends in Eocking
ham they must " throw Hale overboard," and had
another man put on the ticket In his place. This
offended the yeomanry of the two counties, who
had shown themselves willing to be led, but never

THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONTEST 305
to be driven. Two young lawyers, J. L. Hayes of
Portsmouth, clerk of the United States Court, and
Amos Tuck of Exeter, meeting at the February
term in Exeter, conferred together, and drew up
a " call " for a mass convention to support Hale ;
and this was taken in hand by the jurors and suit
ors at the court, and widely circulated for signa
tures throughout Eockingham, among Democrats.
In a few days more than two hundred Democratic
farmers, merchants, and mechanics, with a few
clergymen and lawyers, had signed the call, and
the meeting took place on Washington's Birthday,
in the same church at Exeter where the legislature
had resisted the mob of 1786. It was addressed by
Messrs. Tuck and Hayes, and by Professor Hoyt
of the Exeter Academy, afterward Chancellor of
Washington University at St. Louis, and adopted
resolutions which declared : —
" That it is the peculiar duty of the Democratic party
to assert at all times the principles of human equality
and universal justice, which form the basis of the De
mocratic faith ; that slavery is wholly inconsistent with
those doctrines, and an institution which disgraces our
Republic in the eyes of the whole civilized world ; and
that the nomination of another candidate for Congress
than Mr. Hale is wholly uncalled for by the people."
At the election a few weeks later, the candidate
intruded upon the voters by the party leaders was
defeated, and the seat kept vacant until, two years
later, Mr. Tuck himself was chosen, — Mr. Hale in

306 NEW HAMPSHIRE
the interval having been promoted to the Senate.
Upon this result, quite unexpected by the abolition
ists, and due solely to a spirit of independence in
the Democratic yeomanry, Whittier wrote in 1845,
ill a more serious mood than the year following (as
quoted), lines of which these are the best : —
" God bless New Hampshire ! — from her granite peaks
Once more the voice of Stark and Langdon speaks.
Courage, then, Northern hearts ! Be firm, be true ;
What one brave State hath done, can ye not also do ? " ^
^ Every one of the dozen companions of Edward Gove in his de
monstration against Cranfield in 1683 was represented in the call
for this Exeter mass meeting by descendants ; and so were most
of those who in 1653 had resisted the disfranchisement of Major
Pike. Peculiar is the array in the list of those monosyllabic Saxon
names, so common among the early settlers of New England, —
Blake, Brown, Cass, Chase, Clark, Cram, Dow, Fogg, French,
Gale, Gove, Hook, Hoit, James, Lane, Moore, Page, Rowe, Shaw,
Towle, Tuck, Weare, Weeks, York. The more learned or wealthy
polysyllabic names were represented by Bachelder, Bartlett,
Brackett, Cilley, Dudley, Dearborn, Emerson, Greenleaf, Osgood,
Prescott, Tappan, Watson, Wiggin, Winslow, etc. Of the two hun
dred and thirty-three signers, at least one hundred were cousins,
more or less distant, of the present writer, who well remembers the
affair, and the excitement it occasioned. Writing the next year,
when the anti-slavery victory was more complete, \Vhittier, in the
assumed character of Pierce, and speaking of Charles Atherton,
then senator, said : —
" I dreamed that Charley took his bed,
With Hale for his physician ;
His daily dose an old ' unread
And unreferred ' petition :
There Hayes and Tuck as nurses sat.
As near as near could be, Man ;
They leeched him vpjth the Democrat^
And blistered with the Freeman.^'*
These were the names of the Concord newspapers which were

THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONTEST 307
This action of Democratic New Hampshire was
never repented, and was followed ten years later
by the organization of the Republican party, upon
essentially the same basis that the independent
Democrats of the pioneer State had laid down, — ¦
hostility to slavery extension, and a refusal to
accept the slaveholders as political dictators of a
national policy.
When, therefore, the Intrepid and pugnacious
Hale, In 1845, appealed to the people of eastern
New Hampshire to support him in his revolt against
the " Concord clique " headed by Pierce, the De
mocratic voters responded In large numbers. In
some towns half the voting strength of the party
was found to be for Hale ; and so fast did the
movement grow, that In the next year an anti-slav
ery Whig (Anthony Colby), a leading Baptist,
was chosen governor by the legislature, which
contained enough Whigs and independent Demo
crats to outvote the regular Democrats. Taking
advantage of this fact, John P. Hale and Colonel
Joseph Cilley ^ were chosen senators in Congress, —
anti-slavery, — the Independent Democrat, edited by G. G. Fog-g-,
afterward minister to Switzerland, and the Freeman, conducted in
the interest of Whittier's voting abolitionists, the " Liberty Party,"
which had defeated Clay in 1844, by voting for Mr. Bimey, the
Kentucky emancipationist. Atherton had been peculiarly insolent
in rejecting anti-slavery petitions.
1 This gentleman was of the family of the Revolutionary Gen
eral Cilley, and had himself been wounded in a battle of the sec
ond English war. He was a brother of Jonathan Cilley, Haw-

308 NEW HAMPSHIRE
the latter for a short term, and Hale for six years.
This was the real beginning of the Eepublican
party in the nation ; for although that party was
not named until 1854, and not fully organized till
1856, its origin and principles were exactly the
same that had been rehearsed in New Hampshire
in 1846. Nor has the anti-slavery force in any State
been better organized than in New Hampshire,
under the impulse given by the coalition of 1846 ;
although the agitation of 1850-51 by Clay, Web
ster, and their associates, to maintain the Union half
free and half slave, — as Lincoln said, " a house
divided against Itself," — did temporarily restore
the State to the Democracy under Pierce, with
whom Webster finally allied himself, after failing
miserably of the presidential nomination in 1852.
For in New Hampshire the non-voting, or Garri-
sonian abolitionists were never numerous, though
able and active, and the better elements in both
the Whig and Democratic parties came readily into
the new crystallization of parties. From 1847 the
congressional delegation usually had a strong infu
sion of anti-slavery sentiment, while the senators,
after 1855, were all anti-slavery men, cooperating
with Chase, Seward, and Sumner for the restriction
thorne's classmate, who was killed in a duel at Washington, while
a congressman from Maine. He had been one of the earliest op
ponents of slavery in New Hampshire, although his brother like
Pierce, who was in Congress at the same time, was a supporter
of the pro-slavery Democracy, as Norris and Charles Gordon Ath
erton were.

THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONTEST 309
of slavery. The resistance made by the Free-State
pioneers in Kansas (1855-58) to the invasion of
the Territory by Southern slaveholders and " Bor
der Ruf&ans " from Missouri was popular in New
Hampshire, and not a few of the Kansas settlers,
in those disturbed years, were of New Hampshire
origin, though often moving into Kansas from some
State farther west, to which they had first migrated.
The stout partisan leader In Kansas, James Mont
gomery, though not born In New Hampshire, was
the grandson of two soldiers from that Province
who fought at Bunker Hill, and his great-grand
father, a Scottish Montgomery, had fought for
the young Chevalier at CuUoden, and been forced
to flee to the Colonies. This Kansas prelude to the
Civil War temporarily gave New Hampshire a
governor belonging to neither of the great par
ties organized in 1856 (Ralph Metcalf), but who
acted with the Republicans ; and the same Kansas
excitement destroyed the popularity of President
Pierce in the State. He was regarded as having
taken sides with Jefferson Davis, his war secre
tary, in favor of the slaveholder, against his own
people ; and from the odium consequent on this
he never recovered. It Is for this reason that the
State has refused to commemorate him by a statue,
though his portrait' at full length hangs in the
Capitol.^ In the division among the Democrats,
1 Those who came near the good-natured but weak President
Fierce at the time say, however, that he made an honest effort

310 NEW HAMPSHIRE
consequent on the course of Senator Douglas in
resisting the extreme pro-slavery policy of Presi
dent Buchanan in Kansas, the majority of the
New Hampshire Democrats followed Douglas ; but
General Pierce and his friends, among them his
attorney-general, Gushing of Massachusetts, op
posed Douglas, and retained their friendship for
Davis, even after he became the head of the South
ern Confederacy. Following this lead, a section of
their party in New Hampshire violently opposed the
subjugation of the South, In the early years of the
war, and considerably embarrassed the Republicans
and war Democrats by their obstinacy in the matter.
Yet the little State, as in former wars, sent her
quotas of men to the front, and as the contest
lengthened out, put thousands of men in the field
or on board the naval fleets, commanded by brave
and skillful officers, who were seldom known to
retreat, even from opposing odds.
Among those who raised and commanded regi
ments of volunteers for the war were a nephew of
President Pierce, two of the Congressmen, Gilman
Marston and Mason Weare Tappan, T. J. Whip-
to send out capable and honest Democratic governors to Kansas,
such as Geary and Walker, of Pennsylvania, though he did not
sustain them against the clamors of the slaveholders, headed by
Davis, the Secretary of War. Both Geary and Walker, and in
the interval, Stanton, an acting Governor of the Territory, got
converted from the administration side to the popular cause in
these long-continued Kansas troubles. They were sooner or later
removed, because they did not sufficiently favor in Kansas the
cause of negro slavery.

THE ANTI- SLAVERY CONTEST 311
pie, an eccentric officer of the regular army, and
others who distinguished themselves In battle or
siege. In the navy, conspicuous commanders were
Admiral Winslow of the Kearsarge, which sunk
the corsair Alabama ; his lieutenant, Thornton,
descended from Matthew Thornton, Admiral Bel
knap, and others. In spite of the protest of leading
Democrats at the opening of the war against rais
ing soldiers and voting money, the state govern
ment stood firmly by President Lincoln, and the
people became more strongly of the Republican
party than before the war. In the decisive presi
dential campaign of 1860, New Hampshire had
been the first New England State to declare for
Lincoln as its candidate, and the active secretary
of the National Republican Committee was Mr.
Fogg, who had for fourteen years conducted the
efficient weekly organ of the original independents,
the Concord " Democrat." Upon the election of
Lincoln, Mr. Fogg, who had accompanied him to
Washington, and was consulted in the formation
of his first cabinet, was sent minister to Switzer
land, while his leader, J. P. Hale, went to Spain,
where another New Hampshire man, Horatio Perry
of Keene, had long been secretary of legation.
The two men were found incompatible in character,
and the measures of Hale were thwarted by Perry,
whose long residence in the country, and his mar
riage to a Spanish poetess, Carolina Coronado,
had given him great facilities for his peculiar course.

312 NEW HAMPSHIRE
After the assassination of Lincoln in 1865, New
Hampshire stood loyally by the administration of
Johnson, his successor, until he showed himself a
disturbing force in the pacification of the South.
Then the senators and representatives of the State
joined as heartily In his impeachment, and the two
senators. In May, 1868, voted with thirty-three
others for his conviction upon the articles offered
by the House of Representatives ; while nineteen
other senators, just enough to insure acquittal,
voted In the negative. A few of the New Hamp
shire Republicans took sides with Johnson, but the
majority for General Grant, as his successor, was
very large, in the election of that year. A few
years later. In consequence of the insult to Charles
Sumner of Massachusetts inflicted by the Republi
can majority in the Senate, New Hampshire, where
he had of old many friends, elected a Democratic
Governor, — the Republican vote falling off and
the Democratic vote gaining from that circum
stance. In the presidential election of 1872, imme
diately following, the unique spectacle was seen of
one native of the State (Horace Greeley), a candi
date of one party for President, and another native
(Henry Wilson), candidate for Vice-President on
the other party ticket, headed by General Grant.
Wilson was triumphantly successful in his native
State, while Greeley failed to carry it by a minor
ity of thousands. In the vicissitudes of the Recon
struction period, which lasted for more than ten

THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONTEST 313
years. New Hampshire steadily supported the mea
sures which Sumner and Wilson advocated, and
finally carried, including suffrage for the freedmen
of the South, and the perpetual prohibition of hu
man slavery. Since 1877, when the questions grow
ing out of the Civil War were practically settled
by the administration of President Hayes, new is
sues have arisen, on which it Is needless to dwell
in this chapter. Substantially it may be said that
all which the Independent Democrats maintained
at their Exeter meeting of February, 1845, and
more than all, had been gained a generation later.
The extension of slavery ceased with the annexa
tion of Texas, which Is now through all its wide
extent a free State ; and slavery itself, which no
one then expected to see abolished In his lifetime,
Is gone, not only from our country, but from the
West Indies, from Brazil, and from every country
even nominally Christian. Inspired by our exam
ple, Russia has freed her serfs, and one sad chapter
of human miseries has been apparently closed. It
was done at a vast expense of blood and treasure,
of which New Hampshire paid her share. Now
other chapters of man's inhumanity to man have
been opened afresh, and New Hampshire is not
without responsibility for the misfortune ; but we
may well rejoice that (as Thoreau said in his eulogy
on his friend, John Brown) our national form of
slavery is no more.

CHAPTER XIII
NEW HAMPSHIRE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTUET
The close of the Civil War found New Hamp
shire very deeply in debt. She had mustered in
more than 30,000 soldiers and sailors during the
four years ; thousands of them had left their bones
in the region where slavery had prevailed, or had
reached home broken in health and incapable of
self-support ; a few had deserted their colors
and taken refuge in Canada, or remained at the
South. The state expenses, which in the year
before the war had been but 1175,000, were in its
last year nearly §4,000,000 ; while the taxes, on
a diminished population, had gone up from less
than 1200,000 to nearly a million. The state debt,
merely nominal before the war, was now 14,000,000,
while the town and county debts were nearly thrice
that sum. The valuation of property had nominally
increased, because of the inflation and depreciation
of the currency, but the actual value of the pro
perty was less than In 1861. All this might seem
to betoken adversity, but in fact the increase in
the earning power of the people soon made good
the losses of property. Farms were less profitable

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 315
than formerly, but manufacturing Industry had
gained greatly, and the throng of citizens from
other States and countries to enjoy a few months'
rest among the hills was every year growing larger.
In 1875 this was estimated to bring into the State
between $2,500,000 and $3,000,000 yearly, exclu
sive of the large sum paid for railway travel by
the pleasure-seekers. Even in 1862, the English
novelist, Anthony Trollope, said that the White
Mountain district " contained mountain scenery su
perior to much that is yearly crowded by tourists
in Europe, was reached with ease by railways and
stage-coaches, and dotted with huge hotels, almost
as thickly as they lie in Switzerland." Since then
the facilities for travel and residence there, and
among the regions of the lower mountains and the
attractive lakes and river-banks and the seashore
resorts, have more than doubled. This summer
population has extended itself into earlier and later
seasons, and there is even a considerable resort of
visitors during the severe but wholesome winters.
Consequently, the farms are less frequently aban
doned, and when this happens, they are often
bought by residents for the summer and autumn.
Under a fluctuating and locally variable system
of valuation for local taxation, It is difficult to say
what is the actual value of property In the State ;
but the increase since the Civil War may be indi
cated by a few comparisons. In 1864, at the depth
of depression made by the war, the reported valua-

316 NEW HAMPSHIRE
tion was only $129,856,167 ; twenty years after,
it had nearly doubled, — $227,914,613. In the
year 1900 it appeared rather less, — $212,687,051,
and in 1902 was $350,000 larger. But other forms
of property, not subject to local taxation, such
as savings-bank deposits, railroad and insurance
companies, and the capital of banks of discount
and loan companies, had much increased, while the
state debt, which was $4,000,000 at the end of the
war, had fallen to $1,000,000. The town and county
debts still exceed $10,000,000, and the total of
state and local taxation reaches nearly $5,000,000 ;
the state expenses, which in 1860 were less than
$180,000, now exceed $460,000 annually. The
special county expenses for prisoners and the poor
are large, in addition to what the State pays for
those classes, — exceeding $500,000 yearly. The
total outlay by State, counties, and towns for chari
ties and correctional services must exceed $600,000
annually, and the outlay In private charity would
bring the total beyond $1,000,000.
These figures indicate, what is well known, that
the system of public and private charity has been
much extended and developed, in consequence of
the great change from a rural population, inci
dentally engaged In small manufactures, to a pop
ulation more devoted to the great manufactures,
to railroad service, and the care of large estates.
This change has brought into New Hampshire a
class of recent Immigrants and their children, from

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 317
several European countries and from Canada, whose
families make larger and larger demands on the
charity of the public, and that of local and reli
gious societies. Even before the Civil War, this
change had led to the Introduction of county alms
houses and the limitation of ancient pauper settle
ments. Instead of the older method of local relief
in each township. But at that time not more than
one in twenty of the New Hampshire people was
foreign-born, while now the proportion is at least
one in four. The change from farming to manu
facturing industry is less marked, but more general.
The number of farms reported in 1850 and in 1900
was nearly the same (29,229 and 29,324), but the
number of acres had increased in the half-century
more than 200,000, showing there were more great
farms. But the improved acres fell from 2,251,488
to 1,076,879, — showing that more than a million
acres, cultivated in 1850, had gone- back to pas
turage and woodland in 1900. The farm property
had increased in value about 29 per cent., the value
of farm products remaining much the same. But
when we turn to the manufactures, a great increase
is seen in the half-century. The capital employed
and the value of the product were more than five
times as much In 1900 as in 1850 ; the wages paid
were between four and five times as much ; while
the average number of wage-earners grew from
27,092 to 72,612. Manufacturing has thus become
the leading interest of the State, while before the

318 NEW HAMPSHIRE
war, farming was much the foremost interest. It is
true that a tenth part of this manufacturing deals
with products of the improved or unimproved land
in the farms, and employs thousands of persons in
outdoor labor ; but the greater part of the persons
employed are In large factories or workshops, and
tlie tendency is to concentrate them in cities more
and more. This gives the matter a social and polit
ical Importance it would not otherwise have, since
it establishes a conflict of interests between the
cities or larger towns and the scattered population
of the small towns. It also accumulates the people
of foreign birth and parentage In a comparatively
small number of municipalities, and throws upon
those the burdens Induced by illiteracy, unsanitary
habits, and religious divisions, from which the ma
jority of the towns are measurably free.
Naturally, the persons of foreign parentage,
whether born abroad or in the State, are more
likely to be children and youth than adults and
voting citizens. Thus, of 110,895 persons of school
age in New Hampshire In 1900, 52,676 were of for
eign parentage, — nearly half. But of the voting
age, out of 130,648 men, only 48,265, or a little
more than one third, were of foreign parentage.
Yet of these 9039 were illiterate, — almost one in
five ; while of the 82,383 men of native parentage,
only 1256, or one in 66, were illiterate.^
1 In 1820, when the population was 244,161, the occupations of
62,141 inhabitants were reported ; of whom more than five sixths

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 319
Among the whole population in 1900 (411,688),
only 243,300 were of native parentage, while
(52,384) were in agriculture, not quite one seventh (8699) in man
ufactures, and a little more than one sixtieth (1058) in com
merce. Eighty years later, the population having increased to
411,588, the number of occupations reported was more than twice
as great as in 1820, — of whom those on manufactures were more
than 17,000, including owners of the 4671 establishments ; while,
although the number of farms had much increased since 18:^0,
only about 50,000 were engaged in agriculture. This includes,
of course, many of those persons who are also engaged in forestry
and lumbering ; since by estimate 5200 square miles, out of 9005
of the land surface, are said to be in woodland, while the farms
reported are only 5640 square miles. A comparison of these
figures will show that at least 1500 square miles are both covered
with wood and included in the farms. The forest products rated
as farm products are not given in the census tables, but must have
exceeded S500,000, or an average of $20 for each of the 30,000
farms. The reported " forest products " were valued in 1899 at
about $2,.300,000.
In the first census taken after the Civil War, the whole num
ber reported in occupations was 120,568 ; of these, the number in
manufactures was 46,533, in agriculture 46,573, in professional
and personal service, 18,528, in trade and transportation, 8514.
Here, as the women in agriculture reported were but 11, it is plain
that the number 46,573 is too small ; since every farm of the
29,642 counted, must have had at least one woman, by average ;
while of the personal service women (9707), at least 1000 must
have been domestics on farms. It is therefore probable that the
real aggregate engaged in agriculture was not less than 77,000 out
of 151,000 who should have been reported. In 1900, the number
reckoned on the same basis was perhaps 70,000, — the farm labor
being done by machinery and in creameries, etc., off the farms, to
a much greater extent than thirty years before. Probably, then,
out of some 200,000 whose occupations should have been reported
in 1900, a little more than one third were agricultural, where,
eighty years before, five sixths were so.
In the valuation and debt tables of General Walker's census

320 NEW HAMPSHIRE
168,290 were either foreign-born (88,074) or of for
eign parentage born here. Thirty years before, in
a population not quite 100,000 less (318,300), the
foreign-born were but 29,611, and those of foreign
parentage born here, 44,592. Thus In one gener
ation the foreign-born in New Hampshire have
trebled, and those of foreign parentage consider
ably more than doubled, — from 72,203, Increasing
to 168,290. In six cities, Berlin, Concord, Keene,
Manchester, Nashua, and Dover, where manufac
tures are the leading interest, more than 82,000 are
of foreign parentage, while only a little more than
49,000 are of native stock.
To preserve some ratio to the increase of urban
inhabitants, and yet to retain political power, at
least nominally, in the rural towns and larger vil
lages, the State Constitution has been several times
slightly amended, and provision is now made that
the additional representation due to increase of
population shall be one for every 1200 inhabitants ;
of 1870, the New Hampshire figures are curious, and show the
influence of the Civil War in swelling taxation and inflating the
currency. He estimated the " true " valuation of property in
the State at $252,624,000, as against $156,311,000 in 1860, and
.$103,653,000 in 1850. But the taxation, general and local,
wliich was but $1,261,866 in 1860, had swollen to $3,255,793 in
1870 ; and the public debt (very small before the war) had grown
to $11,153,373, or $35 ^cr capita for every man, woman, and child ;
besides their share of the national debt, which was then $2,406,562,
— or $7.50 per capita. That New Hampshire has reached her
present prosperity in the face of such facts shows the vigor of her
people, as well as the general progress of the nation.

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 321
while every town or ward having 600 shall have
one representative, and towns of smaller size shall
be represented as often in twelve years as their
population bears. a ratio to 600. Thus a town of
100 will have a representative once In six years,
and one of 500, five years in twelve.
The Senate remains fixed at twenty-four mem
bers, and the Council at five. As an additional
check on illiteracy in the mass of the people, the
new amendments provide for reading and writing
as a qualification for voting ; and it will be lawful
hereafter to tax franchises as well as property. A
general valuation by town inventories is to be made
every five years. More important in theory, and
perhaps to be made operative in practice. Is a new
provision denouncing "monopolies and conspira
cies which tend to hinder or destroy free and fair
competition ; " and declaring that " the size and
functions of all corporations should be so limited
and regulated as to prohibit fictitious capitalization ;
and provisions should be made for the supervi
sion and government thereof."
This is an intimation that the recent control of
legislation and appointments in New Hampshire,
alleged to reside in a single corporation (the Bos
ton and Maine Railroad), will not be allowed to
grow into a permanent feature of the government.
It is a significant change in the state policy that
while in the years about 1840, when the first rail
roads were building, the legislation was unfriendly,

322 NEW HAMPSHIRE
and many evils were predicted, should corporations
succeed in establishing themselves firmly in New
} Hampshire, now the legislation and administration
' have for many years been favorable to corpora
tions of all kinds. Some of the evils prophesied
are beginning to be feared again, and hence the
warning sections of the amended Constitution.
1 Another great change has occurred regarding the
laws to regulate the sale of liquor. New Hampshire
was one of the first States to follow the example of
Maine and Massachusetts in enacting prohibition
of such sales, except for medical and mechanical
uses ; and the strictness of these laws was kept up
in name long after their violation was frequent in
fact. At last, after a referendum vote on the ques
tion, indicating majorities for a license system, such
as had long prevailed before 1855, the legislature
of 1902 passed a liberal licensing act, which is now
on trial, with very different results in different
communities. It will bring a considerable revenue,
but will perhaps be accompanied, as a like system
has been in Massachusetts, by a large increase in
vice and crime.
So far as education Is a barrier to crime, New
Hampshire may be said to be now better protected
than ever. The teaching of children in the com
mon schools Is carried farther and improved in its
methods ; while the higher education of boys and
girls is endowed and promoted much better than
formerly. Dartmouth College was never so much

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 323
frequented by students as for the past five years,
nor ever so well prepared to carry on their instruc
tion. Technical education has been undertaken by
the State at an agricultural college In Durham,
endowed by a wealthy citizen of that small town ;
and the ancient Academy at Exeter, a few miles
farther south, has greatly enlarged its buildings,
resources, and number of students. It now gives
a more advanced education than Dartmouth did in
the days of Webster, Chase, and Choate, and to
twice as many young men. The higher education of
girls is provided for in numerous seminaries, high
schools, and academies ; many of the older schools
of that name having now been opened to the public
as local high schools. Public libraries, also a won
derful aid and stimulus to education, are every
where gaining both in number and excellence,
maintained as public gifts, but more frequently
owing their existence to private endowment. Of
late the State has encouraged the formation of free
libraries by a small grant in aid. Their whole
number at last accounts was 230, and they were
established in 225 cities and towns.
The average length of the school year in days
has been doubled in New Hampshire since 1870,
being then but 70 days, and in 1902 140 days.
The expenditure for public and private schools has
also more than doubled, being less than $450,000
in 1870, and now more than $1,100,000. The
whole pnroUment of pupils in 1902 was 78,793, of

324 NEW HAMPSHIRE
whom a little more than one seventh were In private
schools. The estimated value of all the public school
property is from $4,000,000 to $6,000,000, and if
the private school and college property is added,
the total would exceed $6,000,000. The State it
self carries on the education of its blind, deaf, and
feeble-minded children, chiefly at establishments
in Massachusetts ; and has recently cared for the
maintenance of pauper children in families at the
expense of the several counties, — all this under
the direction of an efficient Board of State Chari
ties. A State Conference of Charities aids in this
work. The development of a system of public charities
in a small State, that till forty years ago was
mainly rural, must naturally be very unlike the
same in States of dense population and great
wealth. In one respect, the care of the Insane, New
Hampshire has been well abreast of the advancing
movement. Its one hospital for the treatment of
acute cases and the restraint and comfort of the
chronic, built at Concord more than sixty years
since, has been fortunate In the skill, experience,
and long service of its management. It still enjoys
the services of a veteran trustee, Mr. Walker (a
descendant of the founder of Rumford, Rev. Timo
thy Walker), who has been for more than half a
century in office. The two superintendents, father
and son, Drs. J. P. and C. P. Bancroft, have suc
cessively directed its medical service for as long a

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 325
period, and have added to its wards and improved
Its classification, with a steady regard to humanity
and good sense not always found in such establish
ments, where vague theory and costly experiment
have too often gone hand In hand, with little benefit
to the patients or the public.
This New Hampshire State Hospital was origi
nally founded by the donations of individuals com
bining with a state appropriation, and its Board
of Trustees then contained an equal number repre
senting the private donors and the State. Recently
the private donors withdrew from the board at the
request of the legislature, with the privilege of with
drawing their gifts also ; but though withdrawing
from representation on the board, they chose not to
remove their donations. The State then assumed
entire control of the hospital, as well as exclusive
ownership of the property. Somewhat later the
whole question of state ownership was raised by
the legislature of 1899, and a resolution passed
requesting an opinion from the Supreme Court,
' whether, as owner of the hospital and its funds,
the State's title is a fee simple or "charged with
trust." The court decided that the State possesses
absolute ownership with complete control of the
property. When the question of public care for the insane
was first agitated, seventy years ago, an impetus
given to ¦ the general Interest by the activity of
many benevolent persons in different counties led

326 NEW HAMPSHIRE
to considerable private donations, which have been
carefully preserved. The income from this source
has defrayed the expense of many patients with
moderate means, who would otherwise have been
objects of public charity. These funds now amount
to $300,000. It is certain that the position of this
State Hospital is unique, in that it has such large
funds well invested, the income of which aids those
who pay all they can toward their support, rather
than become wholly a public charge.
In reviewing the history of this hospital, the first
of the distinctly state establishments for the de
pendent classes (the State Prison, which was earlier
organized upon a sound principle, being for delin
quents), one is struck with the early and constant
Interest taken in Its foundation and management
by the leading citizens of the State. It was first
recommended by Governor Dinsmoor in 1832,
strongly urged for years by the leading physicians
and professional men, and actually opened In 1842,
with room for 100 patients, out of a supposed
insane population in New Hampshire of 500. On
its board of management have served governors,
senators, and congressmen, and for a time Presi
dent Pierce, before he was chosen to the presidency.
It has pursued a steady policy, always a little in
advance of professional opinion in the country at
large, and has secured large endowment from citi
zens of the State, — a good indication of its high
character. At present it has room for some 500

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 327
patients, in buildings much less costly than most
of such hospitals, and yet quite equal to others in
comfort and classification of Inmates. It has only
of late been exclusively a state establishment, sub
ject to the vicissitudes of party politics; but Its
trustees have drawn its resources from private citi
zens, from towns, counties, and the State, — its
receipts from the taxpayers being now between
$50,000 and $60,000 a year, in an outlay of some
$200,000. This has relieved it from the embarrass
ing dependence on votes of the legislature, which
often restrict the efficiency of such hospitals, and
may yet do so there under the new policy.
There can be no strict separation between the
dependent insane and the mass of the public poor,
for of all the causes of permanent pauperism in
New England, insanity Is one of the largest and
most constant. The poor laws of New Hampshire
were inherited from England, but modified by the
needs of the colonists, and at first left the support
of the poor wholly to the towns. Paupers were few
during the first two centuries, much of the distress
occurring being relieved by neighborly aid without
the stigma of pauperism attaching to the recipients.
But before 1843, with the growth of manufactures
inviting a foreign immigration, the number and cost
of the public poor began to increase, showing itself
first in the county expenses for such as had no law
ful "settlement" in any town. The careful and
frugal state authorities in 1843 required a return

328 NEW HAMPSHIRE
from the ten counties — Belknap and Carroll hav
ing been recently organized — for the five years,
1839-43, of the county cost of the unsettled poor ;
and it appeared that in 1838-39 this did not ex
ceed $10,000. In 1842 It had grown to be nearly
$30,000, — the manufacturing county of Hillsbor
ough alone expending $7000, or two thirds of what
the whole State paid a few years earlier. At that
time (1842-43), the state population being about
300,000, the towns did not pay more than $80,000
for their poor, and the whole cost could not have
exceeded $120,000. In 1902, the population hav
ing reached 420,000, the towns still paid $148,000
for outdoor relief, to which the counties added
$61,000, while the indoor relief, or almshouse cost,
by the counties, was $135,000. This shows a total
of nearly $350,000, where sixty years earlier little
more than a third had sufficed ; and by that time
(1902) at least half the public poor were of foreign
parentage, and a third of them foreign-born. Great
differences exist among the counties In this respect.
Those with a rural population have fewer indoor
poor, and those having a manufacturing popula
tion (notably Hillsborough) have many poor, and
among them a disproportionate number of the in
sane. Thus in 1892 Hillsborough, with less than
300 inmates of Its new and well-built county alms
house at Grasmere, near Manchester, had more of
the foreign-born than of natives, and more than
half were rated either Insane or Idiotic; while

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 329
Carroll, in the mountain region, had only one In
nine of foreign birth, and less than one in three
who were Insane. Of the foreign-born, about two
thirds are Irish, one fifth Canadian French, and
one tenth British. Of the prison population, an
average of less than 500, about the same ratio are
Canadian, but the other foreign-born are less in
proportion. Intermediate between the almshouses and the
insane hospital and prisons are three other estab
lishments, none very large, — the Industrial School
at Manchester, founded in 1855 for young offend
ers, male and female ; the Orphan Asylum at
Franklin, on the farm of Daniel Webster ; and the
new school for the feeble-minded at Laconia, con
taining In all three less than 500 children and
youths. Only the first and last are maintained by
the State, the Orphan Asylum being mainly sup
ported by private funds and the income of gifts.
Each in its way, these are excellent establishments ;
the last named Is a model for thorough care and
sanitation, combined with frugality, and the other
two have the same general character.
The county almshouses (the tenth having been
rebuilt since it burned down) have not had the
same good reputation as the State Charities ; but
they have been much improved in the past ten
years, and are not likely to fall back into the
condition of most poorhouses before the National
Conference of Charities, now for thirty years In

330 NEW HAMPSHIRE
existence, raised their standard in the nation at
large. In New Hampshire the State Conference of
Charities has done much to remedy the neglects
from ignorance, and a few abuses. The character
of the people is fundamentally charitable, and a
guaranty against serious mismanagement.
In penitentiary discipline, New Hampshire was
one of the first States to adopt modern Ideas, under
the direction of the Pilsbury family, who for three
generations managed prisons on the Auburn plan
In Connecticut and New York, as well as in their
native State. It was the most eminent of these dis
ciplinarians, Amos Pilsbury, who trained in his
youth that man of genius, Mr. Brockway of Con
necticut, to whom the world owes the most effective
system for young felons now in use at Elmira and
other reformatory prisons. The small State Prison
at Concord no longer stands in the front rank, yet
is of fair reputation, and a useful adjunct to the
correctional system of county prisons. A work
house for misdemeanants is much needed for those
now sentenced to almshouses. The yearly cost of
the prison system may be estimated at $60,000.
The judiciary of the State stood high when its jus
tices were country gentlemen and clergymen, for
the most part ; it rose to eminence in Its decisions,
when the great lawyers of the older counties. Mason,
Plumer, Livermore, Smith, Webster, Sullivan,
Woodbury, Richardson, etc., adorned the bar and
bench, before 1830. It has well maintained its

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 331
standard since, but not relatively, perhaps, though
its decisions have seldom been overruled since the
Dartmouth College case in 1817. In one marked
instance, twenty-five years later, the state court
declined to modify its decision when reversed by
the national Supreme Court, and that august body
afterward took the New Hampshire view of the
case, when Judge Woodbury had succeeded to
Story's place on the bench.
Whether the Influence of wealth, aggregated In
railroads and other corporations, has affected the
judiciary In New Hampshire, as it occasionally does
in Vermont and New York, Is a question ; but there
can be no doubt that the State has suffered in its
political morals by the growth of corporations. The
governors in 1840-45 were wise In their warn
ings against endowing such aggregations of wealth
with peculiar privileges, not granted to partnerships
or Individuals. Governor Hubbard, an eminent
lawyer, and originally a Federalist, in his addresses
to the legislature (1842-43), expressed opinions
too little regarded of late, even in communities
where property is distributed so equally as It has
been In New Hampshire and Vermont. He said : —
" The great design in the constitution of free political
communities is, to protect the weak from the encroach
ments of the strong ; to defend the impotent from the
influence of power, and to sustain the whole people in
the enjoyment of their liberty and equality. The prin
ciple that individual property shall not be taken, except

332 NEW HAMPSHIRE
for public use, is, in a republic, the surest guaranty of
individual independence. The tendency of our legislation
is to disregard individual rights. The authority to estab
lish private corporations cannot give to the representa
tive body of the people any new power over the private
rights of individuals. Highways are the work of public
corporations, and are wholly distinguishable, in their
character, use, and purpose, from ways wrought by indi
viduals or private corporations. These are constructed
for private benefit, with private means ; of this descrip
tion are the railroads. The public are shut out from a
participation in their government and direction. Upon
such a corporation power cannot be conferred to take
individual property for its use without the owner's con
sent." This exact issue, being raised in Governor Hub
bard's time, was then decided in accordance with
his view ; but now other doctrines seem to prevail
for what are called " semi-public " corporations,
like railroads, whether for steam or electric loco
motion. And it has been found that, though the
public may be " shut out from participation in the
tlirectioh of railroads," railroads are not shut out
from the direction of government. They have had
too much Influence for thirty years In aiding or
thwarting the political fortunes of the ambitious ;
and they seem to have taken advantage of the grow
ing evil of vote-buying, to influence the choice of
legislators and their action when chosen. A percep
tion of this doubtless gave occasion for an amend-

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 333
ment to the State Constitution adopted in 1903.
In the years of Governor Steele, who followed
Hubbard (1844-45), he expressed similar opinions
more pointedly. He was a " poor white " from
North Carolina, who had migrated to Peterbor
ough, and by his mechanic skill and financial fac
ulty made himself independent in fortune, as he
naturally was in mind. When governor he said
(1844): —
" I know of no valid reason why associated wealth in
any form should enjoy by law privileges or exemptions
which are denied to partnerships or individuals."
(1845.) "The granting to combined wealth of exclusive
privileges or immunities would, ere long, raise the gran
tees above the grantors ; and corporate bodies would soon
usurp the power, without possessing the dignity or per
sonal responsibility of the landed and titled aristocracy
of Europe. . . . Grant protection to all who ask it, and
in the end many sections of our country, if not all, will
present the sad spectacle of inordinate wealth on the one
hand, and squalid poverty on the other, — of a people
bought with and scraTnbling after their own money :
a Congress changed into a board of assessors, and the
Executive Department presided over by the man who
promises most to his own supporters."
There are many who think that we have already
attained the position thus depicted by this demo
cratic moralist. He was then considering the exist
ing tariff, which was but moderate In Its taxation
of the consumer for the enrichment of the manu-

334 NEW HAMPSHIRE
facturer, compared with the rates now existing.
These rates New Hampshire before the Civil War
would have resisted by great majorities ; now she
seems to favor them.
No doubt the disproportion between wealth and
poverty In the State increases, not only among those
resident the whole year, but among the rich families
from other States (who buy large tracts and reside
on some corner of them for a few months in the
summer) and their laborers and dependents. One
such estate, of enormous extent for New Hamp
shire, exists on the borders of Sullivan and Grafton
counties, devoted to a park for beasts of the chase.
It was purchased about 1870 by the late Austin
Corbin of New York, contains 25,000 acres, and
has cost half a million. Among its wild denizens
are 150 buffaloes, 300 wild boars, twenty or thirty
moose, and thousands of smaller beasts and birds ;
while a few families of men and women care for
the interests involved. As a museum of natural
history and a forest preserve, this adds to the at
tractions of the State. Other tracts of less extent,
but still large, are owned by rich men or by com
panies for the supply of wood-paper, or other uses
of the timbered regions in the mountain district.
In the wood-pulp manufacture alone, twenty propri
etors (firms or individuals) have 29 establishments,
with a capital valued at more than $8,000,000 and
employing nearly 2500 men and women, whose
annual product exceeds $1,250,000. Including this

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 335
new interest, the whole value of the timber and
wood-working capital Is $20,000,000, vested in
5800 establishments, great and small, and employ
ing 6600 hands, chiefly men. The annual product
of this varied Industry is placed at $17,000,000,
or nearly as much as the capital invested, which
capital has increased by ten millions in twelve
years. Impelled by this growing exploitation of
the forests, the State has created an intelligent
forestry commission, whose report indicates what is
doing to destroy, and what may be done to preserve,
this ornament and treasure of New Hampshire. Its
first report declares that the area In the State now
covered with foliage, including much that has no
present value, is larger than at any time since 1850 ;
and that, though valuable timber and fuel have
been cut off and many forest fires occur, there has
been no perceptible decrease of rainfall, or loss of
water power, — the latter being the greatest single
resource of New Hampshire, especially since the
applications of electricity to industry. This Is more
encouraging than there was reason to expect, and
the measures proposed to reforest the denuded
regions will perhaps keep good this condition.
It is shown that the capital invested in " summer
property " (hotels, boarding-houses, pleasure-boats,
and carriages, etc.) Is but little greater than in the
wood-pulp industry, though employing many more
persons, and providing for 175,000 guests in an aver
age year. Out of 235 towns in the State, 204 share

336 NEW HAMPSHIRE
In this interest. With a capital of $10,500,000,
it pays $540,000 in wages to 12,350 persons, and
furnishes a gross income to railroads and trans
portation companies of more than $700,000. Its
own gross income approaches $7,000,000, and in
creases in magnitude each decade. The connection
between it and the railroad corporations, particu'
larly the Boston and Maine, gives popular strength
to them and to similar Investments of wealth. The
state government for some years past has aided the
influx of summer guests by building state high
ways and protecting the public rights, in lakes and
streams for fishing, against the encroachments of
private owners.
Altogether, it may be said that the material inter
ests of New Hampshire, and its higher civilization,
as shown in education, charity, and the encourage
ment of literature, were never more prosperous or
advancing than now. Its moral interests are some
what imperiled by the influence of unscrupulous
wealth and irresponsible poverty, developing a pro
letariat In the place of that historical yeomanry,
whose possession of landed property gave assurance
that government would not get beyond the control
of families who had, as their ancestors used to say,
" a stake In the country." The scale of political
rectitude in state affairs has been lowered, and the
purchase of voters, which fifty years ago was almost
unknown, is now alleged to be a general custom.
Coincident with this, the eminence of men at the

IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 337
head of the government, of congressmen and sena
tors and leaders in the legislature, is less note
worthy than in the first half of the last century, —
a fact illustrated by the admirable collection of
portraits at Concord, in which New Hampshire ex
cels most of the States. No men of such mark as
Langdon, Plumer, and Woodbury have lately been
governors ; no senators have equaled Mason,
Pierce, and Hale ; few congressmen have ranked
with Webster, Bell, Atherton, Norris, Tuck, and
Wilson. The naive remark of a country member
to John Langdon, when the courtly governor, in
1810, was telling the legislative committee that " he
distrusted his own ability to perform the high duties
of the office," has more than once been strictly
verified. " O Governor," said the encouraging
rustic, " don't be afraid ! it does n't take much of a
man to govern New Hampshire."
Yet in the vigor of its soldiers, the enterprise of
its men of affairs, and the active genius of its whole
population, seeking fields of activity in other States
and countries. New Hampshire is as marked as
ever. Its institutions, if threatened by the sordid
spirit of a too conimerclal age, are still supported
by a courage and independence in the mass of the
people, such as threw off the yoke of the Stuarts in
the seventeenth, and of King George in the eight
eenth century. That sturdy compound of English
obstinacy, Scotch pugnacity, and Irish ingenuity,
which carried the Colony, the Province, and the

338 NEW HAMPSHIRE
youthful State through its perils by land and sea,
and among false brethren, yet makes the founda
tion of its community ; and self-reliance, forged and
tested In the wars and toils of three centuries, is the
lasting fibre of its Individual character.

INDEX

INDEX

Abbot, Db. Behjauih, 242.
Abenaki Indians, document of, 137 ;
raids of, in New Hampshire, 13S,
140; treaty with, 140.
Abolitionists, attitude tovrard, in New
Hampshire, 302 ; non-voting, not nu
merous in New Hampshire, 308.
Adams, Benjamin, patriotic act of,
223, 224; in insurrection of 1786,
238.
Adams, Brooks, quoted, 52.
Adams, Charles Francis, quoted, 31 n.
Adams, John Quincy, attitude of, to
ward New Hampshire Constitution
(1787), 239.
Albany, Congress at, 210.
Allen, Samuel , claims of, in New
Hampshire, 77, 78 ; Province of New
Hampshire sold to, 114 ; named gov
ernor of New Hampshire, 156; denial
of claims of, 157, 158 ; attempts to
compromise with, 160.
"Alliances," purpose of the word in
declarations of independence, 219.
Almshouses, New Hampshire, 328-330.
Ambrose, Alice, sentence against, 51-
Andros, Sir Edmund, 83, 104 ; arrival
of, 113 ; spoliations of, 129 ; Indians
quieted by, 140; imprisonment of,
141 ; Saint-Castin plundered by, 142.
Anglican Church. See England,
Church of.
Appeal, denial of, 158.
Apprentices, custom regarding, 300.
Aristocracy, tendency toward, 28 ; re
vival of instinct of, 273.
Ashurst, Henry, 81.
Atherton, Charles, Whittier's lines on,
306 n., 308 n.
Athprton, Joshua, 231.
Atkinson, Theodore, refusal of, to give
up records, 162 n, ; part of, in attack
on Louisbourg, 177 ; delegate to Con
gress at Albany, 210.
Bacalaos, Basque name for codfish, 1.
Bachelder, Susanna, grandmother of
Webster, 284.
Bachiler, Stephen, pastor of the Com
pany of the Plough, 19, 20 ; arms of,

19 n. ; arbitrator in dispute over Ly
gonia, 21 ; attempt at colonization
by, 21, 35 ; missionary at Forts-
mouth, 23, 41 ; descendants of, 35 n. ;
inveigled into marriage, 130 : career
of, 284 n. '
Baker, Alice, 147 n.
Baker, Mark, 99.
B^er, Captain Thomas, offices held
by, 146, 147.
Baltimore, Lord, 56.
Bancroft, Dr. C. P., 325.
Bancroft, Dr. J. P., 325.
Baptists, Puritan injustice toward, 62.
Barefoot, Walter, first record of, 24 n. ;
Quakers released by, 48, 62 ; Puri
tan domination resisted by, 52 ; Pu
ritan prejudice and charges against,
69-71, 126; legacy of, 71 n.; Ma
son claims championed by, 66, 68;
charges of Littlebury against, 66,
67; forced to return to England, 73 ;
moderation of, 85 ; illegal acts of, aa
Randolph's deputy, 92, 93; efforts
of, against contraband goods, 96;
made acting governor, 105 ; govern
ment of, 110; maltreated by Wiggin,
110-112; powers of, superseded, 113 ;
arrest of, 125, 126.
Barillon, plea of Halifax reported by,
107.
Barlow, Robert, 58.
Barnard, Mr., of Andover, ordination
sermon of, 186.
Barr^, Colonel, quoted, 198.
Basque fishermen, 1.
Bay Colony. See Massachusetts.
" Bay horse," nicknamefor Boston, 16.
Belcher, Jonathan, governor of Massa
chusetts and New Hampshire, 166 ;
faction formed by, in New Hamp
shire, 167 ; removal of, 171.
Belknap, Admiral, 311.
Belknap, Rev. Jeremy, belief of, in
Wheelvrright Deed, 164 n. ; quoted,
222.
Bell, John, elected governor, 253.
Bell, Samuel, governor of New Hamp
shire, 251; Toleration Act favored
by, 254.

342

INDEX

Bellomont, Lord, governor of Massa
chusetts and New Hampshire, 157.
Bellows, Colonel, escape of, from In
dians, 196.
Bennington, grant of, given by Went
worth, 202; battle of, 216; trophies
of, 226.
Berwick, original name of, 5.
Binckes, Bryan, 18.
Blaithwait, Mr., proposal of, concern
ing Mason, 76.
Blanchard, Thomaa, captured by In
diana, 183.
Board of Trade and Plantations. See
Lords of Trade.
Bollan, Mr., 190 n.
Boston, early nickname of, 16.
Boston and Maine Railroad, allegations
against, 321.
Bosville, Mr., 34.
Bound House, 57, 62.
Boundaries, rights of property not lost
by change of, 188.
Bow, proprietors of, 178 ; grant of, 187.
Brackett, Anthony, 40.
Bradstreet, Simon, letter of, to Ran
dolph, 79, 80 ; of moderate party in
Massachusetts, 85.
Branding, as punishment for felony,
132.
Bribery, commonness of, 31, 36.
Brockway, Z. R., debt of Elmira to,
330.
Brooke, Lord, 34.
Brown, John, 190 n.
Brown, Margery, wife of John Sulli
van, 181.
Browne, Rev- Arthur, 195.
Buchanan, President, policy of, in
Kansas, 310.
Buckingham, Duks of, assassination
of, 2.
Bulkeley, Rev. Peter, 35 n., 85.
Bunce, Sir James, 56.
Bunker Hill, New Hampshire men at
battle of, 213, 214.
Burdet, George, reception of, at Do
ver, 9.
Burgoyne, invasion of New York by,
215 ; defeat of, by Stark, 216.
Burnet, William, 166 ; prejudice of,
against Puritans, 167.
Cabot, John, 1.
Camock, Captain Thomaa, 4, 16.
Canada, French explorers in, 1 ; incur
sions from, 141.
Carlyle, Thomas, Webster described
by, 285.
Carr, Robert, royal commissioner, 53,
69, 62, 64, 72.
Cartier, Jacques, 1.

Cartwright, George, royal commis
sioner, 53, 59, 72.
Casco, Company of the Plough di
verted from, 19, 20 ; Bachiler called
to, 41.
Cass, General, 298.
Chadbourne, Humphrey, 16, 54.
Chalmers, George, opinion of, on Ma
son claims, 78, 79.
Chamberlain, Richard, royal secretary
of New Hampshire, 15 n., 90 ; char
acter of, 92 ; censured by Cr^ifield,
94 ; made clerk of courts by Andros,
113; belief of, in "stone-throwing
devil," 133, 134; records taken from,
162, 163 n.
Champernown, Francis, estate^ of, 8 ;
associated with Thomas Gorges, 23 ;
money advanced to, by Barefoot, 24
n. ; Puritan domination resisted by,
51 n. ; petition of , against Massachu
setts usurpation, 53, 54; Littlebury's
charges against, 67 ; appointment to
counsel by James II, 68; treaty of,
with Indians, 140.
Chancellor, James, 24 n.
Charity, increased demand for, in New
Hampshire, 316, 317 ; development
of system of, 324.
Charles I, fondness of, for arbitrary
government, 11, 14.
Charles II, New England patents
granted by, 2 ; action of, regarding
Quakers, 53 ; royal commission ap
pointed by, 59, 60 ; commission re
called by, 64 ; laws passed by New
Hampshire (1680) disallowed by, 93.
Chase, Salmon P., Chief Justice, 298.
Child, Sir Josiah, 80.
Church, the, an element of Puritan
political life, 23.
Church members, privileges of, 22.
Cilley, Jonathan, billed in duel, 307 n.
Cilley, Col. Joseph, at Saratoga, 227 ;
in insurrection of 1789, 238.
Cilley, Col. Joseph, elected to U. S.
Senate, 307.
Cincinnati, Society of the, New Hamp
shire, 236.
Claggett, Wyseman, 217.
Clements, Job, member of first royal
Council of New Hampshire, 90.
Clergy, Randolph's opinion of the
Massachusetts, 88 ; Cranfield's state
ment regarding, 96 ; attitude toward,
in Massachusetts, 152, 153.
Clergy, benefit of, 132.
Cobbett, Thomas, 154.
Codfish, Basque name for, 1.
Coffin, Peter, 91.
Coke, Sir Edward, opposition of, to
grants to Gorges, 27.

INDEX

343

Colby, Anthony, elected governor of
New Hampshire, 307.
Colcord, Edward, 165 n.
Colcord, Peter, captured by Indians,
183.
Cole, Eunice, accused of witchcraft,
121.
Coleman, Anna, sentence against, 51.
College graduates, attitude of, toward
Revolution, 231,232.
Colmer, Abraham, 67 n.
Colonization, parliamentary doctrine
of, 28.
Committee of Safety, New Hampshire,
211, 220.
Committee of Supply, New Hampshire,
220.
Company of the Plough, grant of land
to, 18 ; disasters to, 19, 20 ; disputes
concerning patent of, 20, 21. See
also Plough, ship.
Concord, Mass., Emerson on town re
cords of, 120.
Concord, N. H. , contest over grants in,
173,178,181,184-186; disfranchised,
188 ; anti-^avery newspapers of,
306 n. ; insane hospital at, 324-327 ;
state prison at, 330.
Congregational clergy, claims of, 253,
254.
Continoital Congress, New Hamp
shire delegates to, 210 ; opposition
of Wentworth to, 211.
Cooke, Elisha, 81.
Copley, Colonel, estimate of Randolph
by, 83.
Corbet, Abraham, imprisonment of,
64.
Corbin, Austin, estate of, 334.
Coronado, Carolina, 311.
Corporations, laws regarding, in New
Hampshire, 321 ; dangers of, 331-
333.
Cotton, John, 4.
Cotton, Seaborn, 121.
Council for New England, 3, 68, 112 ;
move to dissolve, ^, 37.
Counterfeiters, 130.
Counties, New Hampshire, named for
Wentworth's English friends, 206.
Coventry, William, 59.
Cradock, Matthew, vessels of, held, 36.
Cranfield, Edward, failure of, to main
tain Mason's claims, 76 ; effect of
tyranny of, 79, 80, 98; powers of, 92,
97, 98 ; arrival of, at Salem, 93, 94 ;
ancestry of, 94 n. ; Mason and Cham
berlain censured by, 94, 95 ; Mason
supported by, 96 ; alarm of, at Gove's
demonstration, 100 ; fast day named
by, 103, 104; fall of, 105, 106 ; suits
brought by, 106 ; petition against.

107 ; rebuked by Halifax, 108 ; goes
to Barbados, 109 ; king's instruc
tions to, 128, 129.
Crime, uncommon in early history of
New Hampshire, 127.
Crisp, Sir Nicholas, 56.
Crispe, John, 18.
Currency, regulation of, 129.
Gushing, General, Douglas opposed
by, 310.
Cutt, John, Champemown's petition
against, 53; moderation of, 85;
named president of council for New
Hampshire, 89 ; fast proclauned by,
134.
Cutt, Richard, Champemown's peti
tion against, 54 ; relations of, with
royal commissioners, 71, 72.
Cutt, Robert, 54.
Cutt, Ursula, killed by Indians, 145,
146.
Cutts, Samuel, 218.
Dalton, Samuel, member of first royal
Council of New Hampshire, 90.
Danforth, Thomas, 64.
Daniel, R., quoted, 134.
Dartmouth College, origin of name,
207 ; Governor Wentworth's aid to,
207; attractions of, 242; effort to
reorganize, 251, 252 ; growth of,
323.
Davis, Jefferson, 309, 310 n.
Deane, Charles, quoted, 76.
Declaration of Independence, New
Hampshire's, 218.
Deering, origin of name, 207.
Democratic (Republican) party, in
New Hampshire, 245, 246, 250-254 ;
attitude of, toward slavery, 302,
303 ; Hale supported by, 305, 306 ;
Douglas supported by, 310.
Derry, founders of, 149, 177.
Dinsmoor, Governor, insane hospital
recommended by, 326.
Dissenters, attitude of Charles to
ward, 85.
Divorce, customs regarding, 131, 132.
Dolphin Inn, Great Island, 124.
Dorchester, Lord, 31 n.
Douglas, Stephen A., supported in
N. H., 310.
Dover, settlement of, 4 ; reception of
Burdet at, 9 ; government of Massa
chusetts accepted by, 22 ; repre
sented in Boston General Court, 42;
an Independent republic, 116 ;
warned of intended Indian attack,
146.
Dow, Henry, 154.
Downing, Emanuel, services of, 31 n.
Dudley, John, 218.

344

INDEX

Dudley, Judge Johu, 281.
Dudley, Joseph, president of Council
for all New England, 112 ; message
brought from queen by, 160.
Dudley, Rev. Samuel, 165 n.
Dummer, lUchard, arrival of, in Bos
ton, 20.
Dunbar, Rev. Asa, 231, 275.
Duresme, Bishop of, 13.
Durham, agricultural college at, 323.
Dustan, Hannah, escape of, 186.
Dye, John, 18 ; letter of, concerning
bounds of Lygonia, 21.
Dyer, Mary, hanging of, 50.
Eastwick, Pheasant, made coroner by
Andros, 113.
Edgerly, Thomaa, 164.
Education, in New Hampshire, 242,
322, 323 ; taxation for, 266.
Eliot, John, opinion of, regarding Dr.
Langdon, 26^ n.
ElUott, Robert, 90, 154.
Elmira, reformatory at, 330.
Elwyn, John Langdon, John Langdon
described by, 266, 267.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, quoted, 119,
120, 259.
Emery, John, fined, 48 ; helps free
Quakers, 52.
Emigration, suspension of restrictions
on, from England, 13 ; from New
Hampshire, 240, 241.
Endicott, John, prejudices against,
in England, 31, 35; defended by
Wiggin, 32 : Quakers sentenced by,
60.
England, Church of, supporters of, 4,
8 ; established in New Hampshire,
5, 6, 13 ; recognized in Portsmouth,
22 ; establishment of, enjoined, 37 ;
difficulties of establishing, 33 ; hos
tility to, in New Hampshire, 95.
Exeter, on ill terms with Massachu
setts, 22 ; source of discontent in,
23 ; Bachiler called to, 41 ; never
represented in Boston General Court,
42; an independent republic, 116;
Wheelwright at, 117 ; conventions
at, 212, 216, 220. See also Phillips
Exeter Academy.
Exton, Dr. John, 56.
Eyre, Eliezer, 4.
Eyre, Thomas, 4 ; agreement of, wiUi
Littlebury, 67.
Farmer, John, 165 n.
Farming, decline of, 241, 317 ; invest
ments in, 256.
Federalist party, of New Hampshire,
245, 246, 249-264 ; some prominent
members of, 274, 275.

Fernald, Dr. Ronald, 40, 43.
Fogg, G. G., 307 n. ; secretary of the
National Republican Committee
(1860), 311.
Follet, Nicholas, 154.
Folsom, Nathaniel, delegate to Conti
nental Congress, 210.
Ford, Sir Richard, 56.
Forests, exploitation of, 336.
Forgeries, as basis of laud claims, 163-
165.
Fort St. George, abandoned by colo
nists, 7.
Foster, Stephen, 302.
Fowle, Daniel, 200 n.
Fox, George, followers of, denounced,
49.
Francestown, named for Mrs. Went
worth, 207.
Franklin, Orphan A^lum at, 329.
Freemen, privileges of, restricted to
church members, 22, 63.
French, in Canada and Maine, 1.
French Revolution, effect of, 273.
Fryer, Nathaniel, Champemown's pe
tition against, 54 ; treaty of, with
liidians, 140 ; member of constitu
tional convention (1690), 154.
Fuller, Rachel, accused of witchcraft,
121.
Gaffleld, Eunice, captured by Indians,
197.
Gage, General, 213.
Gardiner, Sir Christopher, accusations
of, against Massachusette, 31 ; letters
to, opened, 33, 34.
Gardner, Griffith, agreement of, with
Littlebury, 67.
Gardner, Henry, 4.
Geary, John W., governor of Kansas,
310.
General governor, of New England.
See Governor-general.
George U, affection for, in New Hiunp-
shire, 200, 201.
George III, reputation of, in New
Hampshire, 201.
Gerrish, Capt. John, 154.
Ghent, treaty of, 250.
Gibbons, Ambrose, 16, 40.
Gibson, Rev. Richard, rector at Ports
mouth, 22 ; forced to return to Eng
land, 23, 40.
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 1 ; voyages
of, 6.
Gilbert, Raleigh, aa portrayed by
Gorges. 29.
Gilman, Major, aufferlngs of, during
Revolution, 227-230.
Gilman, John, member of first royal
Council of New Hampshire, 90.

INDEX

345

Gilman, John Taylor, governorship
long held by, 246, 247.
Gilman, Nicholas, colonial treasui'er,
221 ; in insurrection of 1786, 238.
Goddard, Dr., comment of, on Web
ster, 286.
Godfrey, Edward, 16, 30 ; associated
with Thomas Gorges, 23 ; petition
of, regarding Mason estates, 55 ;
losses of, 67.
Golden Falcon, vessel, 24 n.
Golden Hinde, foundering of, 6.
Gordon, Rev. William, 265 n.
Gorgeana, abode of Thomas Gorges,
23.
Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, patents
granted to, 2-4 ; colonization doc
trines of, 5, 8, 9, 28 ; confusion be
tween grants given by JVtesou and,
10, 24 ; possible visit of, to Maine,
23 ; grants to, opposed by Coke,
27 ; defends his scheme, 28 ; Gilbert
portrayed by, 29 ; hostility of, to
Bostonians, 31, 35; letters from,
opened, 32, 33; named governor-
general, 37, 39; means of, exhausted,
38 ; probably never saw New Eng
land, 39.
Gorges, Thomas, sent to govern Maine
Province, 23.
Gove, Edward, 45 n., 91 ; revolt headed
by, 98, 99, 101-104; sentence of, 100 ;
pardoned, lOOn., 104; sent to Tower,
101 ; letter of, to Randolph, 104 ;
member of constitutional convention
(1690), 154.
Governor-general, of New England,
powers of, 12, 13 ; plans to appoint,
23, 36.
Grant, General U. S., vote for, in New
Hampshire, 312.
Grants. See Patents.
Graves, Mr., master of the Plough,
20.
Great Bay, Greenland, 8.
Great Inland, now New Castle, 16 ;
first General Assembly of New
Hampshire at, 91,
Greeley, Horace, 298; candidate for
President, 312.
Green, Henry, 154.
GreeniU, Robert, 24 n.
Greenland, included in Strawberry
Bank settlement, 5 ; origin of name
of, 8.
Greenland, Dr. Henry, 52 ; quarrel of,
with Cutt brothers, 71, 72; banish
ment of, 73.
Greenland, Mary, accused of being a
witch, 120.
Griffith, George, 4.
Guy, Edwin, 4.

Hale, John Parker, anti-slavery opin
ion represented by, 259 ; career of,
297, 298, 304 ; members of meeting
called to support, 306 n. ; minister
to Spain, 311.
Halifax, Lord. See Savile, George,
Marquis of Halifax.
Hall, Ralph, 91.
Ham, Mrs. John, 145.
Hamilton, Alexander, Sullivan's re
commendation of, 235 ; contention
between Jefferson and, 246 ; com
pliment of, to Langdon, 267.
Hampton, original settlement at, 21 ;
government of Massachusetts ac
cepted by, 22; granted to Puritan
colony, 35 ; Wheelwright removes to,
42; represented in Boston Generx.1
Court, 42 ; an independent republic,
116 ; Bachiler and Winthrop at, 117 ;
witchcraft in, 120, 121; refusal of,
to choose councilors, 155.
Hanson, Jolin, wife and children of,
captured by Indians, 182 n.
Harbert, S., 24n.
Hartford Convention, not sanctioned
by New Hampshire, 250.
Haslerigg, Sir A., 34.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, quoted, 290 n. ;
friendship of, with Franklin Pierce,
296, 297.
Hawthorne, William, 139.
Hayes, J. L., Hale supported by, 30.
Heard, Elizabeth, escape of, from
Indians, 144, 145.
Heard, Tristram, 182 n.
Hebrides, John Mason's expedition
to, 3.
Herbert, George, on English religion,
19.
Hill, Isaac, 174 ; influence of, 254, 255 ;
offices held by, 256.
Hilton, Edward, settlement of, in
Dover, 4 ; patent of, sustained, 26 ;
disposition of part of patent of, 34 ;
land taken by, on Lampereel River,
66.
Hilton, Martha, wife of Benning Went
worth, 195; heroine of Longfellow's
**Lady Wentworth," 195 n.
Hilton, William, settlement of, in
Dover, 4 ; patents of, sustained, 25 ;
delegate to convention (1690), 1 54.
Hincks, John, 113.
Hinsdale, Indian attack on, 196, 197.
Hoar, John, petition of, agaiiist Puri
tan courts, 64.
Hobbs, Morris, 154.
Holyoke, Edward, 34.
Howe, Mrs. Jemima, captured by In
dians, 196, 197.
Hoyt, Professor, 305.

346

INDEX

Hubbard, Gov. Henry, associated with
Isaac Hill, 255 ; views of, regard
ing corporatiohs, 331, 332.
Hubbard, Rev. William, quoted, 139,
149.
Humphreys, David, 197.
Hussey, Christopher, petition advised
byi 45 ; judgment against, 47 ; ap
pointed royal councilor, 48 n., 90.
Hutchinson, Edward, 170, 171.
Illiteracy, percentage of, in New
Hampshire, 318 ; check on, 321.
Immigration, results of, in New Hamp
shire, 316-321.
Immorality, not uncommon, 130.
Impeachment, judicial, aole case of,
in New Hampshire, 271, 272.
Indian campaign (1723-24), grant to
survivors of, 182.
Indians, outrages against, in Maine,
137 ; treachery of Waldron toward,
139 ; ammunition supplied to, 141 ;
incited against Andros, 142 ; Wal
dron miu-dered by, 142, 143 ; prac
tical extermination of, in New
Hampshire, 151 ; raids of, in New
Hampshire, 182, 183, 196.
Industries, of New Hampshire, 241,
318 n., 334, 335.
ibmkeeping, 124.
Insane, care of, in New Hampshire,
32^327.
Isles of Shoals, 7, 40.
Jacob, Sir John, 56.
Jaffrey, George, 96, 97.
Jefferson, Thomas, contention between
Hamilton and, ^6.
Jeffreys, George, arguments of Hali
fax against, 107 ; Kirke censured by,
110.
Jewett, Sarah Orne, 181 n.
Jobe, M., 67 n.
Jocelyn, Henry, 4, 16; associated
with Thomas Gorges, 23 ; Puritan
domination resisted by, 51 n.
Johnson, Andrew, attitude of New
Hampshire toward, 312.
Jones, Daniel, 232.
Jones, Paul, 215.
Jordan, Rev. Robert, 21.
Josselyn, John, Maverick described by,
59.
Jupe, Anthony, 18.
Jupe, Thomas, 18.
Justice, few instances of perverted, in
New Hampshire, 133.
Kansas, Free-State pioneers in, 309 ;
settlers from New Hampshire in,
309.

Kilburu, John, Indiana repulsed by,
196.
King Philip's war, effects of, 80, 140.
King William's war, 148.
King's Lynn, birthplace of John Ma
son, 2 ; land given to, by Mason, 10.
Kipling, Bryan, 18.
Kirke, Col. Piercey, censured by Jef
fries, 110.
Kittery, Champernown at, 24.
La Boetie, Etienne de, verses of, 1.
Laconia, grant of, to John Mason, 3 ;
school for feeble-minded at, 329.
Lampereel River, 66.
Langdon, John, 199 ; revolutionary
sympathies of, 209; fort seized by,
211 ; Ranger built by, 215 ; offer of,
for repellmg Burgoyne, 226 ; Gilman
defeated by, 246; death of, 262;
career of, 265-270 ; anecdote of, 337.
Langdon, Rev. Samuel, sermon of, on
King George's birthday, 201 ; presi
dent of Harvard College, 213 ; death
of, 262 ; career of, 264, 265.
Langdon, Judge Woodbxiry, career of,
270-273.
Langley, Thomas, 24 n.
Lark, ship, 96.
Laud, Archbishop, secret correspond
ence of Burdet with, 9; church
policy of, 16 ; hatred of, for Puri
tans, 36 ; establishment of Anglican
church ordered by, 37.
Leavitt, Reuben, 303 n,
Leavitt, Samuel, 154.
Lee, Abraham, killed by Indians, 144.
Lee, Charles, 225.
Leverett, John, 57, 64 ; Randolph re
proved by, 86, 87.
Levitt, Thomas, 165 n.
Lewis, Philip, 91.
Lexington, New Hampshire in battle
of, 213.
Liberty party, 307 u.
Libraries, in New Hampshire, 323.
Lincoln, Abraham, New Hampshire
first New England State to declare
for, 311.
Liquor, free use of, 124 ; importation
of, 125 ; laws regarding s^e of, in
New Hampshire, 322.
Little Harbor, original name of, 4.
Littlebury, Capt. John, claims of,
against Barefoot and Shapleigh, 66,
67.
Livius, Peter, charges of, against Sir
John Wentworth, 205.
Livermore, Judge Arthur, anecdotes
of, 291 n.
Londonderry, founders of, 149.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 195 n.

INDEX

347

Lords of Trade and Plantations, Bos
tonians directed to present case to,
64; letter of, regarding right of ap
peal, 158 ; New Hampshire favored
by, 168.
Louis XIV, comment of, on Lord
Halifax, 107, 108; purposes of, in
America, 137.
Louisbourg, capture of, 177.
Lovewell, John, campaign of, againat
Indians, 183 ; disasters to, 184.
Lowland dialect, in New Hampshire,
149.
Lutwyche, Edward, 207.
Lyde, Edward, 133.
Lygonia, granted to the Company of
the Plough, 19; disputeaconceruiug
bounds of, 20, 21.
Macaulay, T. B., quoted, 105.
Macy, Thomaa, law aimed at, 44, 45 ;
becomes Quaker, 48.
Madawaskarbet, Diogenes, Abenaki
Indian, 137.
Madison, James, John Langdon's opin
ion of, 269 ; attitude of New Hamp
shire Federalists toward, 270.
Magistrates, attitude toward, in Mas
sachusetts, 152.
Maine, French explorers in, 1 ; grants
in, to Mason and Gorges, 3 ; to
Camock and Jocelyn, 4, 5 ; Thomas
Gorges acting governor of, 23 ; dom
ination of Massachusetts in, 26;
early aristocratic tendency in, 28 ;
Gorges grants in, bought by Bay
Colony, 41, 88 ; claim of Mason
heirs in, 55, . 56 ; purpose to imite
New Hampshire with, 88 ; Catholic
influence in, 137.
Makepeace, Mr., 34.
Manchester, almshouse at, 328 ; In
dustrial School at, 329.
Mansfield, Lord. See Murray, David.
Manslaughter, two cases of, 134.
Manufactures, development of , in New
Hampshire, 241, 256, 317, 318.
Mariana, grant of, to John Mason, 3.
Marriage customs, 131.
Marston, Gilman, regiment raised by,
310.
Marston, Thomas, 91.
Martyn, Richard, treasurer of first
royal Council of New Hampshire,
90,94.
Mason, Mrs. Anne, claims of, opposed,
25, 43.
Mason, Jeremiah, advice of, in Dart
mouth College' case, 251; fefling
against, 253; attitude of, toward
Missouri Compromise, 301, 302.
Mason, John, lines of, quoted, 2 ;

founder of New Hampshire, 2;granta
to, 2, 3, 4 ; expedition of, to the Heb
rides, 3; colonization schemes of, 5,
8, 9 ; named Vice-Admiral of New
England, 5; possible visit of, to New
Hampshire, 8; confusion between
grants of Gorges and, 10, 24; nothing
received by heirs of, 10 ; never exer
cised powers as Vice-Admiral, 10 ;
proposed extent of those powers, 11,
13, 15 ; cost of plantations of, 16,
17 ; hostility of, to Bostonians, 31,
35 ; financial responsibilities of, 38;
death of, 39 ; efforts of heirs of, 55,
64 ; arbitration offered by, 68 ; jus
tice of claims of, 69, 73, 74 ; decision
regarding claims of, 88 ; further
quarrels concerning claims of, 92.
Mason, John Tufton, 163; encouraged
by Massachusetts, to assert claims,
170.
Mason, Joseph, 43, 58 ; returns to Eng
land, 65; proposition of, for settle
ment of claims, 161.
Mason, Robert, contested claim of, 32,
43 ; petitions of, regarding claim, 55,
65 ; losses of, 57 ; gives power of
attorney to Col. Nichols, 58; death
of, 68 ; appointment to Council by
James II, 68; characteristics of , 68 ;
Blaithwait's proposal concerning,
76 ; ineffectiveness of, 78 ; prosper
ity of New Hampshire described by,
79 ; charges of William Vaughan
against, 80, 81 ; appointed to royal
Council (1680 and 1681), 92, 93 ; cen
sured by Cranfield, 94 ; inability of,
to collect rents, 106 ; maltreated by
Wiggin, 110-112; previous threats
of, 112 ; member of Coimcil for all
New England, 112 ; address carried
to James II by, 113; land sold and
leased by, 114.
Mason, Dr. Robert, 56.
Massachusetts, Puritans of, 9, 10 ; en
croachments of, in New Hampshire,
25, 26, 30, 32, 39, 42, 44-53, 57, 60-
62, 89, 166 ; purpose of Stuarts re
garding charter of, 26; less demo
cratic than Plymouth, 29 ; hostility
of Mason and Gorges to, 31 n. ; ex
istence of, threatened, 35, 36; claims
of, in New Hampshire, set aside, 41,
63, 68, 89; made a royal Province,
42 ; treatment of Quakers in, 48-53 ;
letter of, to King Charles, 60; fur
ther charges against, 62, 63 ; char
ter of, canceled, 68; hostility of,
to Barefoot, 69, 70 ; unfripndly to
liberty of people, 75, 86; effort of,
to include New Hampshire in new
charter, 81 ; inconsistencies of, 85 ;

348

INDEX

purchases of, in Maine, 88 ; decision
regarding boundaries of, 88, 159 ;
claim of, to Mason's land-gi-ant, 116 ;
grants made by, in New Hampshire,
167, 178, 179, 181-191; dislike for, in
England, 169; occasional later ani
mosities between New Hampshire
and, 174.
Massachusetts Company, charter of,
threatened, 35, 36.
lather, Cotton, 67 n.
Mather, Increase, 81.
Maverick, Samuel, royal commissioner,
53, 59, 62, 72 j imprisoned, 69 ; re
moves to Virginia, 60.
Mesandowit, sachem, 143.
Metcalf, Ralph, governor of New
Hampshire, 309.
Ministers. See Clergy.
Missouri Compromise, attitude of New
Hampshire toward, 301.
Mohawk Indians, incursion of, 140.
Monmouth, New Hampshire men at
battle of, 227.
Monmouth, Duke of, proposed princi
pality for, 88.
Monroe, James, New Hampshire's vote
for, 250, 251.
Montgomery, James, ancestors of, 309.
Moodey, Rev. Joshua, minister at
Portsmouth, 23, 41 ; Champemown's
petition against, 54 ; training of, 55;
commercial ventures of, 97.
Moody, Rev. Samuel, John Sullivan
aided by, 180.
Morgan, Silvanus, quotations from his
" Sphere of Gentry," 19 n.
Morris, Robert, 235, 267.
Morton, Thomas, of Merrymount, ac
cusations of, 31; hostility of, to Bos
tonians, 35.
Moulton, Gen., 237.
Murray, David, Lord Mansfield, re
tained in Concord contest, 189; later
opinion of, 191.
Music, cultivation of, 133.
Myles, Dr. John, 56.
Narragansett Indians, hostility of, 140.
Navigation Acts, 92, 97 n.
Neale, Walter, 4 ; partnership of, with
Mason and Gorges, 6 ; in charge of
Portsmouth colony, 16; forged sig
nature of, 32, 44 ; at variance with
Winthrop, 33, 34.
Nevin, James, 195.
New Castle, included in Strawberry
Bank settlement, 5 ; early fort
planned at, 16 ; fort seized, 211 ;
Gov. Wentworth takes refuge in,
213.
New England, early European visita

tions to, 1; christened by Capt.
John Smith, 6. See also Council for
New England.
New .England Commissioners, Mason
claims examined by, 65.
New Hampshire, founder of, 2 ; Capt.
John Smith's impressions of, 7 ; leg
acy of Mason to, 10 ; proposed powers
of Mason in, 11, 13, 15; draft of
charter of, 11-16; domination of
Massachusetts in, 25, 30, 39, 42, 44^
53, 89; separate provincial organi
zation in, 26, 89; early aristocratic
tendency in, 28 ; anxiety of Puritans
to acquire land in, 34; claims of
Massachusetts in, set aside, 41, 53 ;
treatment of Quakers in, 48-53 ;
claim of Mason heirs to, 55, 66;
these claims resisted by, 74, 75; kept
from uniting with Massachusetts, 78 ;
prosperity of, 79 ; decline of, 80 ; ef
fort to include, in new Massachu
setts charter, 81 ; purpose to unite
Maine with, 88; letter from Gen
eral Court of, to king, 89 ; first
royal Council of, 90 ; Bill of Rights
passed by (1680), 91 ; this bill dis-
allowed by king, 93 ; arrival of
Cranfield in, 94 ; tyranny of Cran
field in, 98; comes uuder provi
sional revolutionary government of
Massachusetts, 113, 114; anomalous
situation of, 116, 116 ; township sys
tem in, 117 ; resistance of, to arbi
trary power, 118 ; loyalty of, to
English monarchy, 118, 119; witch
craft in, 120, 121; religious toleration
in, 121, 122 ; character of early set
tlers in, 135, 136 ; losses in, through
Indian wars, 147, 148, 150 ; obsta
cles overcome by colonists in, 148,
149 ; first constitution in, 153-155 ;
petition of, to be included in Mas
sachusetts, 156 ; attempt in, to com
promise with Allen, 160, 161 ; muti
lation of records of, 162 ; forgeries
of records in, 163-165 ; salary voted
to governor of, 167 ; decision of
boundary question demanded, 168 ;
boundary line of, fixed, 169, 170 ;
occasional renewals of animosity
between Massachusetts and, 174 ;
early area of, 175 ; mountains of,
176; Scotch-Irish settlers in, 177;
contest over Massachusetts grant of
Concord, 178, 181-191 ; increase of
population in, 192, 193,240; shipping
of, 192 ; trade of, 193 ; militia of,
193 ; renewed Indian atrocities in,
196, 197; troops raised by, against
French, 198, 199; debt of, 199; affec
tion of, for George II, 200 ; Sir John

INDEX

349

Wentworth, governor of, 202, 203 ;
countries of, 206, 206 n. ; Provincial
Congresses in, 210-212, 216, 220 ;
men from, in Revolution, 213-215,
224, 225, 227, 231; escapes inva
sion during Revolution, 215 ; Ver
mont claimed by, 215, 232-234 ; co
lonial relations favored in, till 1776,
216, 217 ; constitution of 1783, 217,
237, 243, 244; first House of Repre
sentatives in, 218 ; declaration of in
dependence in, 218, 219; town gov
ernment in, 220 ; Revolution upheld
by plain people of, 232 ; financial
condition of, 236-238, 256 ; consti
tution of 1787, 238, '239; emigration
from, 240, 241 ; industries of, 241,
318 n., 334, 335; education in, 242,
256, 322, 323 ; legislature of, 244 ;
party lines in, 245, 246, 250-253, 312 ;
prosperity of (1823), 248, 249 ; effect
of Civil War on, 257, 314 ; slavery in,
300, 301 ; attitude in, toward aboli
tionists, 302, 303 ; masa meeting in,
favoring Hale, 305 ; organization of
anti-slavery force in, 308 ; sympathy
for Kansas in, 309; men raised by,
in CivilWar, 310, 311 ; summer travel
in, 315 ; valuation of property in, 315,
316, 320 n. ; increased demand for
charity in, 316, 317, 326 ; results of
immigration in, 316-321; ratio of re
presentation in legislature of, 320,
321 ; corporations in, 321, 331-333 ;
prohibition in, 322 ; libraries in, 323 ;
care of insane in, 324-327 ; pauper
ism in, 327-330 ; prisons of, 330 ;
judiciary of, 330, 331 ; forests of,
336 ; present type of public men in,
337.
*'New Hampahire Gazette," 200 n.
New Hampshire Province Ijaws, 116.
New Orleans, victory of Jackson at,
250.
New York, jurisdiction of, over New
Hampshire, 176 ; claim of, to Ver
mont, confirmed, 202.
Newfoimdland, reached by Gilbert, 6 ;
colony at, 8.
Newichwannock (now South Berwick),
colony at, 5 ; Mason's property at,
10, 16.
Nicholas, Edward, letter of Mason to,
11.
Nichols, Col. Richard, given power
of attorney by Robert Mason, 58 ;
makes Shapleigh Maaon'a attorney,
58, 65 ; royal commissioner, 59.
Norris, Moses, associated with Isaac
Hill, 255 ; in slavery agitation, 303.
Norsemen, 1.
North, Judge, 88.

Nutfield, grant of, 179.
Nutter, Anthony, 91.
Oakes, Thomas, 81.
Occupations. See Industries.
Odiorne's Point, 8. See also Littl«
Harbor.
" Ordinaries," regulatiota' itJf,'"124.
O'Sullivau, Owen. See Sullivan, John.
Otis, Margaret, captured by Indians,
146.
Otis, Margaret (rechristened Chris
tine), captured by Indians, 146 ;
later adventures of, 146, 147.
Otis, Richard, killed by Indians, 144.
Palmer, Christopher, Barefoot ar
rested by, 125, 126.
Pannaway, present name of, 4.
Paper money, 130, 199 ; movement for,
237, 238.
Parker, William, Lord Monteagle,
94n. **
Partridge, William, Lieutenant-Gov
ernor of New Hampshire, 157.
Pascataqua, name given to part of col
onies of both Mason and Gorges, 24.
Pascataqua towns, court in, 42.
Passaconaway, Penacook sai hem, 138.
Patents, confusion in, 24, 25 ; monopo
listic nature of, 27.
Patten, John, 132.
Pauperism, in New Hampshire, 327-
330.
Peabody, Gen. Nathaniel, 237.
Peasley, Joseph, law aimed at, 44,
Penacook Indians, friendliness of, 138 ;
later hostility of, 140.
Penacook. See Concord, New Hamp
shire.
Pendleton, Bryan, of Watertown, 42 ;
removal of, to Portsmouth, 43 ; part
of, in destruction of records, 43, 44 ;
offices held by, 43, 44 ; Champer-
nown's petition against, 54.
Penhallow, Samuel, testimony of, re
garding mutilated records, 162.
Penn, William, 131 ; influence of Ran
dolph neutralized by, 159.
Penny, Henry, 162.
Pepperrell, Col., aided byGov. Went
worth, 177.
Pequaket Indians, attack on, 184.
Perry, Horatio, 311.
Phillips, Wendell, quoted, 152.
Riillips Exeter Academy, 242 ; growth
of, 323.
Pickering, John, 40, 43.
Pickering, Capt. John, 90 ; delegate
to convention (1690), 154 ; probable
mutilation of records by, 162.
Pierce, Franklin, associated with

350

INDEX

Isaac Hill, 256 ; career of, 295-297 ;
unpopularity of, 309 ; efforts of, in
Kansas, 309 n. ; trustee of Concord
hospital, 326.
Pilgrims, ideal of government of, 9 ;
early aristocratic tendencies offset
by, 28.
Pike, Robert, disfranchisement of, 45 ;
petition in favor of, 45, 46 ; reen-
franchised, 48 ; helps to free sen
tenced Quakers, 48, 62 ; Mason
claims recognized by, 66 ; modera
tion of, 85 ; testimony of, regarding
Gove, 101.
Pillsbury, Parker, 302.
Pilsbury, Amos, penitentiary disci
pline introduced by, 330.
Piracy, law against, 130.
Pitt, William, influence of, in colonies,
198.
Playhouse, remonstrance against, 199,
200.
Plough, ship, 19, 20. See also Com
pany of the Plough.
Plumer, William, 238 ; elected gov
ernor of New Hampshire, 246, 249 ;
effort of, to reorganize Dartmouth
College, 251, 252 ; John Langdon
described by, 268; Judge Langdon
described by, 271-273 ; career of,
275-278 ; Weare described by, 281.
Pomery, Leonard, 67 n.
Poor, Gen. 231.
Poor Richard, the fight between Sera-
pis and, 215.
Popham, Sir John, Sagadahoc colo
nized by, 7.
Port Royal, abandoned by French col
onists, 1609, 7.
Portsmouth, origin of name of, 2 ;
included in Strawberry Bank set
tlement, 5 ; Mason's plantation at,
16 ; government of Massachusetts
accepted by, 22 ; loyal to Church of
England, 22 ; Puritan church at, 23 ;
Anglican church at, dissolved, 40 ;
Bachiler removes to, 41 ; represen
tation of, in Boston General Court,
42 ; Massachusetts authority in, 42,
43 ; Moodey's church at, 55 ; com
merce of, 79 ; an independent re
public, 116 ; importance of, 160 ; re
monstrance against playhouse at,
199, 200.
Post-offices, establishment of, in New
Hampshire, 220.
Povey, Thomas, 56.
Preaching, without allowance, law
against, 44 ; law repealed, 47.
Pring, Martin, voyages of, 6, 7.
Printers, political leaders among, 254,
255.

Property, Web8ter*8 reverence for,
288, 293.
Puritans, ideal of government of, 9 ;
denounced by Burdet, 9 ; restricted
emigration of, 13 ; hatred of Laud
for, 36, 37 ; prejudices of, against
those of different religious opinions,
69, 70 ; cause of certain censm'able
actions of, 134.
Quakers, legislation against, 48, 49-61 ;
method of punishing, 52 ; action of
Charles H regarding, 53 ; Puritan
injustice toward, 62, 63 ; attitude
of Charles toward, 86 ; tolerance
toward, in New Hampslure, 121.
Quebec, capture of, 148.
Queen Anne's war, 148.
Railroad building, 248, 249.
Rainsford, Judge, 88.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 1 ; never saw
Virginia, 6.
Randolph, Bernard, 84.
Randolph, Edward, appointment of,
to Council, by James II, 68 ; made
postmaster for New England, 76;
advice of, to Mason, 76, 77 ; ener
getic action of, in New Hampahire,
83-86 ; Copley's estimate of, 83 ;
toleration of, 85 ; advice of, to
King Charles, regarding Massachu
setts, 87 ; attack of, on Massachusetts
charter, 88 ; returns to England, 89,
92 ; efforts of, against illicit trade,
96 ; account by, of Gove's rebellion,
101-104 ; supplants Vaughan in
Council, 106 ; turns against Cran
field, 109 ; secretary of Council for
all New England, 112.
Randolph, John, anecdote of Judge
Livermore and, 291 n.
Ranger, vessel, 215.
Rasles, S^bastien, killed, 183.
Ratcliff, Philip, accusations of, 31.
Rawlings, Thomas, 99.
Rawlins, Mrs., 182 n.
Rayner, Rev. John, part of, in Quaker
atrocities, 52.
Rebellion, laws against, 127.
Reconstruction, New Hampshire's at
titude toward, 312, 313.
Religious liberty, provision for, in New
Hampshire Constitution (1783), 243,
244.
Republican party, in New Hampshire,
basis of organization of, 307 ; growth
of, 311.
Revolution, beginnings of, in New
Hampshire, 209-214; upheld by
plain people, 232.
Richman's Island, 40.

INDEX

351

Rigby, Col., buys Plough Company's
patent, 21.
Rindge, John, town named for, 207.
Roberts, Lieut. John, 154.
Robinson, William, hanging of, 50.
Robitaille, Philip, Margaret Otis mar
ried to, 146.
Roby, Henry, innkeeper, 124.
Rogers, Nathaniel P., comment of, on
Webster, 291 n. ; anecdotes of Judge
Livermore by, 291 n. ; "Herald of
Freedom" published by, 302, 303.
Eolfe, Benjamin, Wentworth claims
contested by, 178 ; defendant in
Concord case, 190.
Rome, Church of, Stuart return to, 8.
Royall, Col. Isaac, attempt to replace
Wentworth by, 173,
Rumford. See Concord.
Rye, included in Strawberry Bank
settlement, 5.
Sabbath-breaking, puniahment for,
123.
Sagadahoc, colony at, 7.
Saint-Caatin, Baron de, ammunition
supplied to Indians by, 141 ; plun
dered by Andros, 142 ; grandson of,
killed, 183.
Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 34,
Samborne, John, 45.
Saratoga, Col. Cilley at, 227.
Savage, James, 165 n.
Savile, George, Marquis of Halifax, in-
fiuence of, 105, 106 ; argues for lib
erty in New England, 107 ; Cranfield
rebuked by, 108.
Say, Lord, 34.
Scammell, Col. Alexander, 231; Thorn
ton's verses on, 233 n.
Scotch-Irish, parts of New Hampshire
settled by, 177, 179.
Scotland, refugees from, in New
Hampshire, 177.
Scott, Sir Walter, quoted, 150.
Serapis, fight between the Poor Rich
ard and, 215.
Shapleigh, Nicholas, made attorney
for Robert Mason, 58, 65 ; land
leased by, 66 ; charges of Littlebury
againat, 66, 67 ; friendliness of, to
Quakers, 122 ; treaty of, with In
dians, 140.
Sheafe, James, defeated for governor
of New Hampahire, 247, 249.
Sherburne, Henry, 40, 43.
Sherburne, Samuel, innkeeper, 124,
154.
Sherwill, Nicholas, 67 n.
Ship-money, 129.
Shirley, John M., 116, 117.
Shirley, Thomas, 132.

Shirley, WiUiam, made governor of
Massachusetts, 172.
Slavery, in New Hampshire, 248 n.,
300, 301 ; Webster's attitude to
ward, 294 ; universal abolition of,
313.
Sleeper, John, 99.
Smith, Edward, 99.
Smith, Judge Jeremiah, of Exeter,
117 ; contests of, with Langdon, for
governorship, 246.
Smith, John, of the Company of the
Plough, 18.
Smith, Capt, John, explorations of,
6,7.
South Berwick, originally Newichwtm-
nock, 10.
Spain, trade with, 129.
Squando, treaty with, 140.
Stanton, Frederick P, , acting governor
of Kansas, 310.
Stanyan, Anthony, 91.
Stark, John, 193; talents of, 148;
regiment under command of, 213 ;
at Bunker HiU, 214 ; Burgoyne de
feated by, 216, 226; at Treuton,
225 ; resignation of, 225 ; made
brigadier, 227 ; attitude of, in Ver
mont case, 234, 235 ; Cincinnati op
posed by, 236 ; career of, 260-262,
Steele, Gov. John H., views of, on
corporations, 333.
Stephenson, Marmaduke, hanging of,
50.
Stevens, Benjamin, grant to, 184,
Stileman, Elias, Champemown's peti
tion against, 53 ; member of first
royal Council of New Hampshire,
90 ; deposed as councilor, 97.
Stiles, Ezra, 264, 265.
Story, Augustine, 165 n.
Story, William, 58.
Stoughton, William, 86.
Stratham, Wiggin'a patent for, 32.
Strawberry Bank, settlement at, 6 ;
destroyed records of, 43, 44 ; name
of, changed to Portsmouth, 44. See
also Portsmouth.
Sullivan, James, governor of Massa
chusetts, 179.
Sullivan, John (Owen O'Sullivan),
landing of, in Newburyport, 179 ;
polyglot letter of, 180 ; private
school of, in Berwick, 180 ; por
trayal of, by Miss Jewett, 181 n.
Sullivan, John, governor of New
Hampshire, 179 ; revolutionary sym
pathies of, 209 ; delegate to Conti
nental Congress, 210 ; fort seized by,
211 ; made brigadier, 214 ; success
of, in southern New York, 215 ; at
Trenton, 225 ; Vermont compromise

362

INDEX

accepted by, 235 ; suggestion of,
regarding finance minibter, 235 ;
insurrection (1786) suppressed by,
238 ; career of, 262, 263.
Sullivan, Judge John, Gen. Sullivan
described by, 263.
Summer property, 335.
Summer travel, 315.
Sumner, Charles, insult to, resented
in New Hampshire, 312.
Swett, Capt., killed by Indians, 140.
Swett, Dr. Giles, 56.
Switzerland, analogies between New
Hampshire and, 192.
Tariff, imposed on New Hampshire
colonists, 14, 16 ; early, on liquors,
125.
Taverns, early uses of, 124.
Taxation, regulation of, 129.
Taylor, Edward, killed by Indians,
182 n.
Texas, Hale's vote against annexation
of, 304.
Theft, commonness of, 130,
Thing, Jonathan, 154.
Thompson, Benjamin, Count Rum
ford, 207 ; value of discoveries of,
260.
Thompson, Ebenezer, colonial secre
tary, 217.
Thompson, George, mobbed, 302.
Thompson's Island, Boston Harbor,
origin of name of, 4.
Thomson, David, land granted to, 4 ;
partnership of, with Mason and
Gorges, 6; settlement by, 8; rela
tions of, with Mason, 67 n. ; Mr.
Deane's researches concerning, 74 n.
Thomson's Point, 8.
Thornton, Matthew, president of
fourth Provincial Congress, 212 ;
account of inoculation for smallpox,
228 n. ; letter of, regarding Vermont
case, 233.
" Thorough," policy of, 39,
Tippua, Bartholomew, 91.
Toleration, religious, in New Hamp
shire, 121, 122.
Toleration Act, 254.
Tompkins, Mary, sentence against,
51.
Torrey, William, 46.
Town government, establishment of,
in New Hampahire, 220.
Townslilps, system of, originated in
New Hampshire, 117.
Treason, only trial for, ever held in
New Hampshire, 100 n.; laws against,
127,
Trelawney, Mr., owner of Richman's
Island, 40.

Trollope, Anthony, comment of, on
White Mountains scenery, 315.
Tuck, Amos, Hale supported by, 305 ;
elected to Congress, 306.
Tucke, Robert, innkeeper, 124.
Tufton, Robert. See Mason, Robert.
Turner, Mrs., 130,131.
Turner, Dr. William, 56.
Tuttle, Lieut. John, 154.
Tyng, Jonathan, appointment of, to
Council, by James H, 68.
Underbill, Capt. John, 30.
Usher, Hezekiah, mines leased to, by
Mason, 114,
Usher, James, appointment of, to
Council, by James II, 68.
Usher, John, made lieutenant-gov
ernor of New Hampshire, 156 ; op
position to, 157.
Valley Forge, Cilley's regiment at,
227.
Vaughan, George, forged signature of,
44,
Vaughan, George, lieutenant-governor
of New Hampshire, 160.
Vaughan, Major William, charges of,
against Mason, 80, 81 ; deposed
from Council, 106 ; member of con
stitutional convention (1690), 154;
possible mutilation of records by,
162.
Vattghan, William, grandson of above,
plan of, for attack on Louisbourg,
177 ; part of, at Louisbourg, 193.
Vermont, early inclusion of, in New
Hampshire, 176; jurisdiction of New
York over, 176 ; town charters
granted by Wentworth in, 178 ; claim
of New York to, confirmed, 202;
claimed by New Hampshire, 215,
232-234 ; attitude of, in Revolution,
232 ; compromise accepted by, 234,
Villieu, Indian method of warfare de
scribed by, 182 n.
Virginia, early aristocratic tendency
in, 28.
Wadleigh, Robert, 154.
Wainwright, John, 185.
Waldron, Richard, 22, 43 ; cruelty of,
toward Quakers, 48,50, 51 ; member
of first royal Council of New Hamp
shire, 90, 94 ; sentence passed by,
on Edward Gove, 100; made com
mander-in-chief of soldiers, 114;
murdered by Indians, 114, 142, 143 ;
Indian accusations against, 137 ;
treachery of, toward Indians, 139 ;
member of constitutional conven
tion (1690), 154.

INDEX

353

Waldron, Richard, Jr., 91 ; deputy
register of Province of New Hamp
shire, 113; warned of Indian at
tack, 145, 146; victory of, over
Allen, in land suits, 158.
Waldron, Richard, 3d, head of Belcher
faction in New Hampshire, 167.
Waldron, T. W., Weutworth'a letter
to, 211.
Walford, Jane, tried as witch, 120;
recovery of damages by, 120.
Walker, Mr,, trustee of Concord in
sane hospital, 324,
Walker, J. B., 190 n.
Walker, Robert J., governor of Kan
sas, 310.
Walker, Rev. Timothy, Wentworth
claims contested by, 178 ; settled at
Penacook, 186 ; sent to England, to
plead Concord case, 189, 190; on
committee to draft New Hampshire
declaration of independence, 218.
Walpole, Indian attack on, 196.
Wampanoag Indiana, hostility of, 140.
Wannerton, Thomas, 4; residence of,
16.
Ward, Gen. Artemaa, 213.
Warren, Grizel, captured by Indians,
146.
Warren, Sir William, 48 n.
Washington, George, 196 n. ; confidence
of, inNew Hampshire men, 230, 231 ;
part of, in settling Vermont bound-
axjj 234 ; withdrawal of, from the
Cincinnati, 236.
Wealth, concentration of, 334.
Weare, Mason Tappan, regiment raised
by, 310,
Weare, Col. Meshech, delegate to con-
greas at Albany, 210; chairman of
Committee of Safety, 211 ; Vermont
compromise accepted by, 235 ; presi
dent of Committee of Safety, 220,
221 ; career of, 278-283 ; house of,
282 n.
Weare, Nathaniel, 99, 102; petition
against Cranfield presented by, 107 ;
objects to union with Massachusetts,
153 ; member of constitutional con
vention (1690), 154 ; made member
of royal Council, 166.
Weare, Nathaniel, son of Meshech,
282 n,
Weare, Samuel, 282 n.
Webster, Capt., 230, 231 ; defends con
stitution (1787), 239.
Webster, Daniel, 174 ; chosen to Con
gress, 247 ; feeling against, in New
Hampshire, 253; opinion of Madison
held by, 270 ; ancestors of, 284 ; com
ment of Carlyle on, 285 : career of,
286-295.

Webster, Capt. Ebenezer, 286; debt of,
to Langdon, 286 n.
Weeks, Major William, 163 n.
Wells, Maine, Wheelwright's colony
in, 22 ; Wheelwright's removal to,
41.
Wentworth, Benning, 167, 168 ; made
governor of New Hampshire, 171 ;
claims of, against Spain, 172 ; new
towns granted by, 173, 178 ; attempt
to oust, 173 ; Pepperrell aided by,
177 ; contests over grants of, 178 ;
unpopularity of, 194; characteris
tics of, 194 ; second marriage of,
194, 195; allowed to resign, 202.
Wentworth, Frances, 205.
Wentworth, John, lieutenant-governor
of New Hampshire, 160 ; grants
claimed by, 167; anger of, over
Massachusetts grant of Concord, 187.
Wentworth, Sir John, appointed gov
ernor of New Hampshire, 202 ; also
Surveyor of the King's Woods, 202 ;
estate of, in Wolfeborough, 203,
207 ; charges of Peter Livius againat,
205 ; counties named for friends of,
206 ; popularity of, 209 ; opposition
of, to Continental Congress, 211 ;
letter of remonstrance to, from
Provincial Congress, 212 ; takes ref
uge at New Castle, 213.
Wentworth, John, of Somersworth,
212.
Wentworth, MarkHunking, 206, 207 n.
Wentworth, Michael, 196 n.
Wentworth, Samuel, innkeeper, 124;
small share of, in Mason dispute,
169.
Wentworth, William, 165 n.
West, Benjamin, 275.
Whale, ship, 20.
Wharton, Edward, 122.
Wheelock, Dr. Eleazar, assisted in
founding of Dartmouth College, 207.
Wheelock, John, removed from presi
dency of Dartmouth College, 251.
Wheelwright, Esther, 147 n.
Wheelwright Rev. John, 22; migra
tions of, 41, 42 ; Indian deed to,
163, 164.
Whipple, T. J., regiment raised by,
310, 311.
White, Thomas, 165 n.
White Mountains, gradual approaches
made to, 203 ; revenue from summer
travel to, 315.
Whiting, William, 34.
Whittier, John Greenleaf, mobbing of,
302 ; satirical poem of, 303 n. ; lines
of, on anti-slavery victory in New
Hampshire, 306 ; on GharleB Ather
ton, 306 u.

354

INDEX

Wiggin, Sarah, Puritan domination
resisted by, 61 n.
Wiggin, Capt. Thomas, deposed at
Dover, 9; patents of, sustained, 25 ;
defense of Bostonians by, 32 ; juris-
.dictiou of Massachusetts asked by,
32, 33 ; later atiare of, in Boston
oligarchy, 33; forged signature of,
44; instrument of the Bostonians, 47;
Barefoot and Mason maltreated by,
110.
Wiggin, Thomas, Jr., 72 ; helps free
Quakers, 52.
William III, New Hampshire contin
ued as royal province by, 77, 78 ;
theory of colonial government of,
156.
Williams, Francis, 40.
WiUiams, Roger, 38.
Willoughby, Lord, 66.
Wilson, Henry, candidate for Vice-
President, 312.
Wingate, Rev. Paine, 211, 264, 267.
Winslow, Admiral, 311.
Winslow, Edward, 37; letter of Sir
John Wentworth to, 208 n.
Winslow, Josiah, 85.
Winthrop, Mr., librarian of Harvard,
265 n.
Winthrop, Governor John, quotation

from, regarding Mason, 12 ; state
ment of, regarding the Company of
the Plough, 19, 20 ; methods of, 30 ;
defended by Wiggin, 32; opinion of ,
regarding Massachusetts jurisdic
tion in New Hampshire, 32, 33;
statements of, regarding opening of
letters, 33, 34; enmity toward, in
England, 35.
Winthrop, John, the younger, aids in
laying out Hampton, 35, 117.
Winthrop, Steven, 42.
Wiswall, John, quoted, 134.
Witchcraft, laws against, 10 ; alleged
cases of, 120, 121.
Wolfeborough, Wentworth estate at,
203, 207.
Wonolancet, Penacook sachem, 138.
Woodbury, Levi, address of, on pros
perity of New Hampshire, 248 ;
chosen to Senate, 251; offices held
by, 255.
Woodman, Capt. John, 164.
Wood-pulp industry, 334, 335.
** Worshipful " — common term of ad
dress, 152.
Wyllis, George, 34.
Wyre, Justice. See Weare.
Yarmouth attempt at colonizing 21.

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