Fall 2019 • Vol
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Th e Castine Visitor Fall 2019 • vol. 29 / no. 3 Castine’s Imperial Moment Baron de Saint-Castin, Governor Edmund Andros, and the Boston Revolution of 1689 “Le Mariage du Baron de Castine [sic] et la Belle Sauvage,” serving tray, tin, painted black and decorated with a colorful, imagined scene of the historic wedding of a daughter of Penobscot Indian Chief Madockawando and Baron Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie de Saint- Castin,19th century; Collection Castine Historical Society, Gift of Jim and Leila Day by Kevin March April 1688, a party of unsolicited visitors arrived at the house of Baron Jean-Vincent Editor’s Note: This article by d’Abbadie de Saint-Castin in Penobscot. English offi cials and soldiers led by Kevin March, our 2019 summer Governor Edmund Andros had come to “inspect” the French merchant’s dwelling intern, revisits a politically for evidence of anti-English activities.1 The Englishmen had sailed north along the coast from tense incident between Baron PemaquidIn [New Harbor, Maine] in the frigate Rose. When the Rose anchored in the mouth de Saint-Castin and Governor of the Bagaduce River, Andros sent her captain to inform the French Baron of his arrival, Edmund Andros near modern “but upon notice of the Governor’s comeing, Casteen …[retired] and left his house shut.”2 Castine, Maine. March uses this Undeterred, Andros’s men broke in and seized Saint-Castin’s “armes, powder, shott, iron incident to suggest that highly kettles and some trucking cloath and his chaires…” When the Rose returned to Pemaquid, local encounters on the northeast Andros sent word to the Baron that his confi scated property would be returned after he swore “frontiers” could have signifi cant obedience to England.3 political consequences in New England and beyond in London. When Andros raided his habitation in 1688, Saint-Castin was a retired military offi cer and successful fur trader who had cultivated economic relationships both with Penobscot Natives and colonial merchants (including Englishmen). He featured prominently in the historical memories of New Englanders and French Canadians into the twentieth century, and his name remains familiar to many residents of modern Castine, Maine.4 While the Baron is continued on page 4 2019-2020 Board of Directors Abbott School Exhibits (17 School Street) Ellen Benjamin, President President emeritus: September 6 – October 14 George Hatch, Vice President James M. Day Fri, Sat., and Mon. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Sun. 1 – 4 p.m. Jill Schoof, Secretary Honorary directors: Susan C. Hatch, Treasurer Risky Business: Square-Rigged David K. Adams Ships and Salted Fish Alice Alston Sara F. Foote Richard M. Ames Ann Miller The Penobscot Expedition 1779: Making Revolutionary History William Buchanan John Parish Mary Dearborn Robert B. Rettig The Castine Community Bicentennial Quilt Lisa Haugen Staff: Howard Lowell Lisa Simpson Lutts, Executive Director John S. Macdonald Paige S. Lilly, Curator Grindle House Brooke Tenney Angela Bonacasa, Administrative Assistant (13 School St) Staff Hours Monday through Friday 9 – 5 Contributions received New members: Research appointments in memory of: Kelly, JB, and Evelyn Cooney may be made by calling Jack Curtin Lisa Tyson Ennis and John J. Ennis 207-326-4118 or emailing Nancy Curtin Barbara Jackson [email protected]. Frank Kneisel Gary M. and Jan T. Johnson Wendy Knickerbocker Charles and Susan Lassen Herbert Bailey Lilly Jr. Mary Meri Virtual History Tour Michael Morrison Olive Mulligan of Castine Phil and Lindsay Scott Donations in memory of Randy and Courtney Tilinski Visit www.castinehistoricalsociety.org/ Wendy Knickerbocker castine-virtual-tour to download the app or access the web version. for collection purchase: Donations to the collection: Sally Chadbourne and Del Davis Lorinda Bradley-Lewis Lynne Dearborn Sharon Bray We seek to invigorate Paula Dunfee Brooksville Historical Society our community through Sally Foote James and Leila Day collaborative exploration and Berna Kaiserian Leslie Ellison stewardship of our region’s rich Paige Lilly Sara F. Foote history, engaging residents and Howard Lowell Ted Hale visitors of all ages in Castine’s Lisa Simpson Lutts Bob and Judy Hall Roger Moss extraordinary past and, through Gordon S. Lameyer it, that of New England and Meg Noah North America. Miscellaneous donations: Bill Petry Patricia FitzGerald Joy Pott The Castine Visitor is published Dubravka Freiberger Priscilla Bakeman Robinson three times a year by the Castine Doris Russell Historical Society as a benefit Dorothy Shaw of membership. Christopher Silver Karen V. Lyons, Editor Brad Tenney 2 The Castine Visitor Executive Director’s Lett er A View From The Common the time you read this, fall will offi cially be here. The In addition to the exhibit, we hosted a full slate of related leaves around town will be changing and the air will maritime programs including lectures, a reading group, and be cool and crisp. The midshipmen will have returned even co-sponsored the Castine Town Band’s performance of and we will hear the recess bell ringing and the sounds of children maritime music. playingBy from the Adams School. With the fall, the Historical Society also transitions to our shorter open hours, Friday – While our exhibits and programs are the public face of the Monday from Labor Day through Indigenous People’s Day. Historical Society, so much goes on behind-the-scenes year- round. On any given day the staff will be juggling website updates, This summer has been another busy one. After last years’ record- press releases, assisting researchers with the collection, sending breaking numbers, attendance has again increased. Everyone donation thank-you notes, or writing grants. Volunteers work who visits is thrilled with the quality and content of our exhibit, the front desk greeting visitors, give Saturday walking tours, Risky Business: Square-Rigged Ships and Salted Fish. Far-reaching or help process new collection donations. Everyone keeps busy publicity and advertising have helped bring new faces to our door year-round attending to these projects that, taken as a whole, including feature articles in Maine Boats, Homes and Harbors and allow us to provide educational services to the public while The Island Institute’s Working Waterfront. growing and becoming more professional as an institution. We’ve also been getting strong on-line reviews. Here’s a recent review a visitor left on TripAdvisor that made our day: We know you take as much pride in the Castine Historical Society as we do. As members, you play a crucial role in While we were visiting Castine last month, we walked over supporting the Historical Society. How? By visiting our exhibits to the Historical Society to see their current exhibit, “Risky or programs, by telling your friends and family about us, and by Business: Square-Rigged Ships and Salted Fish.” I was incredibly supporting us through your membership and Annual Appeal impressed by the quality of the exhibit and the accompanying donations. We couldn’t do it without you and we thank you! catalog. The exhibit was well-researched and professionally presented. It was on a par with exhibits at the Maine Maritime — Lis Simpso Lut Museum. I also bought the exhibit catalog, which is thoroughly researched, well-written, and well-illustrated. Fall 2019 3 continued from page 1 Castine’s Imperial Moment often memorialized in the earlier literature as an “Indian Chief” The Raid of 1688 significantly heightened Puritan anxieties who aided the French, historical documents indicate that he in Boston. Though Andros had few reservations about seizing actually desired to “live indifferent” and continue his trade with the Baron’s property, his men also “…found a small [Catholic] French, English, and Natives. Andros and other colonial leaders altar in the common roome…and some pictures and ordinary tacitly accepted these sentiments when the “frontiers” were ornaments,” which they left untouched.9 Ignoring Saint-Castin’s relatively calm. But when rumors of an Indian “rebellion” led by sacramental vessels likely constituted an effort to avoid adding Saint-Castin incensed New Englanders in 1687-88, the governor a religious dimension to the already tense political situation. went north to demand his allegiance. Andros may have intended Yet Andros’s reluctance to destroy these “papist relics” was to stabilize English-Native relations in the northeast and improve deemed further evidence of his involvement in the imagined his dreadful political reputation in Boston. However, the Raid Catholic conspiracy by Puritan ministers in Boston. Cotton of 1688 accomplished neither aim and inadvertently incited a Mather wrote that the governor was a “papist” for preserving “frontier” conflict now called King William’s War (1688-97).6 Saint-Castin’s sacramental vessels and that his raid was intended to incite war with the French and Wabanaki Natives. While In June 1686, King James II appointed Andros Governor of the historians now understand that this “Popish” conspiracy theory Dominion of New England, a “supercolony” that united eight was entirely the invention of Protestant leaders in Boston, to northern colonies into a single political entity.7 Andros quickly contemporary English settlers it was a persuasive justification centralized his new government by banning selectman councils. to rebel against the new government. On April 18, 1689, about He also raised taxes, which soon made him widely despised 40 Puritan Bostonians imprisoned the governor and his cabinet, in New England, especially among vocal ministers and ousted quickly dismantling the Dominion of New England.10 Over the leaders in Boston. These prominent colonists were most alarmed course of about twelve months, the Raid of 1688 ballooned from by the new governor’s insistence on holding Anglican services a small-scale “frontier” conflict into a colony-wide grievance that in major Puritan churches in Boston. Because King James II catalyzed political revolution in English North America.