The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Maine History Documents Special Collections 2019 History of Pemaquid Maine - Ancient Pemaquid John Wingate Thornton Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistory Part of the History Commons Repository Citation Thornton, John Wingate, "History of Pemaquid Maine - Ancient Pemaquid" (2019). Maine History Documents. 244. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistory/244 This Other is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine History Documents by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ANCIENT PEMAQUID: AN HISTORICAL REVIEW. I'llEl'ARED ,\'r TflE REQUEST OF THE HAINE HISTORICAL BOCIE'l'Y FOR ITS COLLECTIONS, BY J. WINGATE THORNTON. PORTLAND: BROWN THURSTON. MDCCCLVII. PREF ACE. WITDIN a few years, several of the States,awaken ed to ajust sense of the value of their legislativerecords, and archives, as indispensable to an accmate knowledge of our institutiom,their origin and developement, 1111fe­ guards and dangers,have adopted means for their collection andpublication. The volum.inoUBcollections of New York, edited with distinguishedjudg� ment and learning, are of national importance; Connecticut emulates the great example; Rhode Island publishes her proud annals, enriched with illustrative contemporarydocuments; MassachUBettspresents a rigid copy of her Colonial records, in the costliest style of typographic art; and Maine yields to the noble impulse, by judicious aid to her Historical Society. By this beneficentact of the State, we have a collection of originaldocu­ ments, touching one of the most interesting port.ions of our territory, of of which ANCIENT PEMAQUID was, in fact, the Capital I have not attempted a "town history, a task said to be already taken in hand by Mr. Johnston,a faithfulson of Pemaquid,but rathera general review, dwelling on the more lllllient points,illUBtrating our ante-colonial history; on the nature, and design of her settlements, the political andsocial theo­ ries tested by them, and the relations of the Colonists, to the _French Papists and their Indian allies on the North and East, and to the Puritans on the South; the eft"ects of European politics, reaching even these distant and obscure hamlets, and on the position of Pemaquid, the Capital ofthe East,as the great outwork of Protestantism,at whose base surged thewaTea of savage passion, stirred by Jesuit intrigue and brutality. •" The genuine history of a country can never be well understood without a complete and searching analysis of the component parts of thecommunity, as well as the country. Genealogical inquiries and local topography •o far from being unworthy the attention of the philosophical inquirer are amongst the best mate­ rials he can use; and the fortunes and changes of one family, or the wants of one upland township, may explain the darkest and most dubious portions of the an­ nals of a realm." 2 PalgraH'• Preface t,o the Parliamentar Writa. 10 PREPA.C& It would be difficult to finda history BO romantic,and replete in exam­ ples, distinct in their teachings, as is that amid the ruins of AncientPema � quid. The citations are chiefly from originalauthorities, BO far as they have been within my reach, and thefavors of correspondents,which are gratefully ackno�ledged, are particularly noticed in the appropriate notes. I am in­ debted to my friend Samuel F. Haven, Esq., for the privilege of verifying my copy of the Pemaquid Charter, by that in poBSeSBion of the American Antiquarian Society, and to the Rev. John L. Sibley, Li'brarian of Harvard College, for ,aluable references. APnn., 1857. CHAPTER I. The first voyagers--e. Spanish sballop left at Pemaquid, before 1607-Sa­ maset,Sagamore of Pemaquid, speaks English-welcomes the Pilgrima­ Fishermen early at Pemaquid-Codfisheriea milColonization. On the outskirts or our historical panorama, we can just descry, here and there, wanderers along the solitary shore ; but their foot-prints were effaced by the tide, before the Chronicler appeared, and even the names or these earliest voyagers are lost in the twilight or history.1 They were among those adventurous spirits, who are the forerunners in every realm or discovery, but scarce leave a shadow behind them. We only know that they were here. Thus, on Gosnold's visit to the coast in 1602,2 some of the aborigines stepped upon the deck or the "Dartmouth," clothed in European apparel, and with a boldness, in strik­ ing contrast to the awe excited by the ships or Columbus; 1 In Captain Smith's " Historie " he entreats pardon for omitting to men­ tion " divers others that have ranged those parts whose true discript.ions were concealed or diedwith their autlwr•. He had purchased six or seven different maps of the coast, but true neither to each other, nor to tht' coun• try." Lib. 'Vi, fol. 207. Perhaps one of these lost worthi..., may have been Capt. Hanam, in 1606-eee Maine H. C. iii, 297. 2iii Hakluyt's Voyages, Lond. Ed. 1810. 12 .ANCI.ERT PEMAQUID. and in 1607,1 Popham and Gilbert had not been at anchor; near Pemaquid, two hours, when _they were visited by a party of savages, in a Spanish shallop, a part of whom re• mained on board all night. So the Pilgrims at Plymouth,9 were surprised to hear their mother tongue from the lips of the Indian, Samoset, in the pleasant greeting of"much welcome Englishmen I" This man, so celebrated from this incident, was" a Saga­ more towards the North, where Engli1Jh ships came to fish, from a very early period." Those fishing vessels some­ times took savages to England, as curiosities. At that time, says Shakspearo,3"when they would not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they would lay out ten to see a dead Indian." It has been well suggested, that this welcome from Sa­ moset leaves no unfavorable impression of the early Eng­ lish fishermen, and visitors at Pemaquid, and its vicinity, and tends to relieve the dark shades of character sometimes given to them. Recent collations of the early historical narratives de­ monstrate, that the progress of geographical discovery in 1 MameH. C. iii, 293. 11" Wonder working Providence,n 1664, ch. viii. " Momt's Relation," New YorkEd. 1848, p. 67. Smith's Historie p. 233. Bradford's Hist. of Plymouth Plant.at.ion, p. 93; fora brief notice of thediscovery of Bradfords Mas., and the singular and very honorable appropriation or it by another, see the N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg, October 1866, vol x, 353,354, compare with p. 6 of the " Editorial Preface "of Bracltord. 3Tempest, A�t ii, sc. ii, acted at Whitehall, Nov. l, 1611. .\bout 1615, Epenowan lndim, t'rom Martha's Vmeyard waB shown up and down Londo!). for money, asawonder. Smith, fol 206. Drake's Book of the Indians, p. 72. Strakey refers to " the Salvadgeaat tliis tyme ahowedin Londonfrom ihe river of Canadan ANCIENT PEMAQUID. 13 America is to be credited to the fisheries more than to all other causes.1 The accomplished author of the Congressional " Report on the principal fisheries of the Amelican seas," regards it as" historically accurate, to say, that the earliest consiclerablo / demand for English ships, of proper size and strength to per- form long and perilous voyages, was for explorations and fishing upon our coasts; that British navigation increased -with the growth of the fisheries, without which fleets there would have been neither ships nor seamen to execute the plans for the colonization of New England, and of other parts of the continent during the reign of James and Charles." From the fisheries originated the first of the series of di!lputes that sealed the fate of King Charles, 1st., and glo­ riously revolutionized England. The great navigator, Davis, of the Arctic "Straits," having shown to Walsyngham some of the "great cods," taken in his voyage to the North West; in 1586, that S8c,<racious minister told him to present some of them to Cecil, the Lord Chancellor; and, says Davis, " when his Lordship saw them, and heard the relation of my second voyage, I re­ ceived favorable countenance from his honor, advising me to prosecute the action of which his Lordship conceived a very good opinion." 2 Thus did a few "great cods " secure the good will of tlie goverment to the highest interests of this country; and now, three centuries later, a figure of the cod, in the Capi­ tol of the commercial metropolis of New England, still symbolizes one of the chief sources of our prosperity. I Sabine'11Report, 1863, pp. 45-47. Biddle's Memoir of Cabot. Barrow's ChronologicalHillt.1Sl8, pp 36-38. Maritime andInland Diaccmiry,ii, 13& t Hakluyt, F.d..1810, iii, 16& • CHAPTER II. Uelation of Pemaquid to English Commerce-Bristol on the Avon­ Political Elementsof the Colony-Aprivate not a royal enterprise- The Aldworths-Theybefriend Hakluyt-ThomasAldworth'• death­ Robert Aldworthequips Pringin 1603-His description of Monhegan and Pemaquid.- Families of Aldworth and Elbridge-Thomas El­ bridgecomes to Pemaquid. THE history of ANCIENT PmrAQUID has a, peculiar interest not belonging to any other point on our shores. It unites us intimately to one of the principal commercial cities of England, for a lengthened period, second only to· 1London; and, with singular happiness, this historical affiliationis per­ petuated in her recent corporate name, BRISTOL. Seldom has a simple name transmitted greater and richer historical associations. There is a moral beauty in the present quiet and solitude of this ancient capital, whither the man of reflection may retire and more freely contem­ plate the wonderful history of his country.