LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Chap.f^'^^.Copyright No, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. iimmm ^ec ^s 190Q wm f ri lISiyLiiiiiiiiilaiii c .1; 1! m THE ISLES OF SHOALS HISTOEICAL SKETCH BY JOHN SCRIBNER JENNESS. BOSTON: HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street. (C][)C liilirrffilie pixs^, rhaps, than many others on the New England coast. Thev are but stacks of bulo-incr crranite, weather- bleached, tossed over with boulders of all sizes, ragged and torn on the edges where they confront the ocean, and everywhere of a broken, irregular surface. No smooth ground is upon them, except a few acres of mowing land on Halev's, and a few small vegetable (3) 4 ISLES OF SHOALS, gardens upon Star. They are wholly destitute of trees, and even of shrubs, except huckleberry and bayberry bushes, woodbmes, wildroses, and such like, wherever in the crevices of the rocks the shallow roots have found a handful of soil. Moreover, this dearth of vegetable life is naturally accompanied by a scarcity of animal life. Land animals are rarely seen; sing- ing birds find little here to attract their stay. The stillness of tlie Islands, in calm weather, is profound; their barrenness absolute. The reason of the preference these bare Islets have acquired as a " ivatering place^^'' is not, however, far to seek. It is to be found chiefly in their climate. The easterly wands that sweep landward over New England, are caught in the north by the long coast of Acadia and Maine, and emptied into Casco Bay; while, on the south, the projecting arms of Cape Cod and Cape Ann gather them up and pour them into the " Bay of the Massachusetts." Thence come the cheerless fogs, and mists, and soaking rains, which visit so frequently the region of Boston and Portland, while, at the same time, the shores of New Hampshire, at an equal distance between these cities, rejoice in clear skies and gentle breezes. Impressed with the importance of this circumstance, we have taken pains to collate such meteorological observa* TSLES OF SHOALS. O fcioiis at those three points as were accessible. The results show a wider discrepancy than we had sus- pected. According to the careful observations taken by the officers of the Medical department of the army, at Fort Preble in Portland Harbor, Fort Constitution at New- castle, and Fort Independence at Boston, during the period from 1831 to 1843, it turns out, that while there are during the year, on the average, fifty-eight rainy days at Portland, and nearly fifty-eight at Boston, there are but twenty-five at the Piscataqua. The mean annual rain-fall at Portland is thirty-seven inches, at Boston forty-two inches, and at Portsmouth but thirty inches. On the other hand, while the aver- age temperature of the summer months is at Portland 66° Fahr., and at Boston 68°, that of Portsmouth is but 63°. The mean annual range of temperature at Fort Preble is 100.66° Fahr., at Fort Independence in Bos- ton 96.75°, at Portsmouth 92.20°; the bleak »-^asterly winds blow on the average at Portland 86 days in the year, at Boston 118 days, at Portsmouth but 81 days.i It is this marked superiority of New Hampshire over her neighbors in respect of climate, that has brought (he coast of that state into great and growing favor 1 Meteorolog. Reg. for U. S., pp. 322, 324. 6 ISLES OF SHOALS. as a summer resort ; and as the knowledge of that superiority of cHmate shall extend, the multitude of summer visitors to her mainland and adjacent islands, will, we predict, continue to increase indefinitely. The Isles of Shoals thus depend very largely upon the exceptional beauty of their summer climate for their charm. Seated within dim view of the main- land, the summer winds from all quarters are tempered and refreshed by the wide expanse of ocean around them ; the thermometer is singularly steady ; sudden changes are rare ; ^ the skies are clear ; the sea is blue and bright ; pleasant breezes cool the blood and brace the nerves, and sleep is relaxed and soothed by the perpetual plash of a slumberous ocean. Some- times, indeed, the tempest rises in its wrath and dwakes old ocean from its repose, and then, for a space, the uproar of the elements is appalling ; but this fierce mood is not the habitual temper of the place during the summer months. Those who love to witness Nature in her wild and angry humor, should visit her here in the December storms. None of the group are of any considerable size. The total area of the cluster, seven or eight in number, 1 So strangely equable is tlie temperature, especially during the summer, that visitors are said sometimes to suspect the mer- 3ury has been craftily removed from the thermometers, and the Aihe painted to stand always at 65°. ISLES OF SHOALS. 7 does not exceed, says Williamson, 600 acres ; of which. Appledore, formerly Hog Island, is the largest, being about a mile in length from east to west, and five- eighths of a mile across. SmuUy Nose, or Haley's Island, is next in size, about a mile long and half a mile in width. These two islands, together with Ma- laga, Cedar, and Duck Islands, belong to the State of Maine. The next in size to Smutty Nose, is Star Island, on which formerly stood the town of Gosport, — on the New Hampshire side of the line. " It is three- fourths of a mile long from N. W. to S. E., and half a mile wide." The harbor of the Shoals — enclosed between Appledore, Haley's, Cedar, and Star Islands, — fur- nishes a tolerably secure refuge for small vessels " in distress of weather." With a view of improving this little port, Mr. Samuel Haley constructed about the beginning of the present century, a sea-wall between Smutty Nose (now named after him HaleT/s Island^., and the small rock on its north, called Malaga. In 1821, the United States Government reconstructed and improved this wall, and also built another of considerable length from Smutty Nose to Cedar Island on the south. While this latter sea- wall stood, it furnished a great protection to the en closed anchorage ground ; but the contractor, Mr 8 TSLES OF SHOALS. Thomas Plaven, of Portsmouth, was unable, with the scanty appropriation at his command ($2,500), to l)uild it sufficiently solid to resist the tremendous attacks of the ocean under a north-east storm. A few years after the sea-wall had been completed, it was overthrown so thoroughly, that hardly a ves- tige of it is now remaining ; only a part of its course being discernible at low water. Lying, how- ever, as the harbor does, under the lee of Apple- dore. Smutty Nose and Malaga, it affords a tolera- ble shelter for the fishing craft and coasters who still take refuge there. It is to be hoped that the U. S. Government, in view of the great importance of this little harbor as a refuge from our frequent easterly storms, will, ere long, make an appropriation adequate to the permanent restoration of the Cedar Island sea-wall.^ It is not our purpose, in these pages, to enter upon any detailed description of these noted Islets. The magazines and newspapers have of late years abounded with articles on that subject. Poetry and romance have chosen these rocks as favorite themes. Wliittier, Hawthorne, and Lowell have ili::mined them with the magical light of their genius ; and above all, the pencil of Mrs. Celia Thaxter has por- ^ Such an appropriation has been made since the publication of the first edition. ISLES OF SHOALS. 9 trayed their sublimity and picturesque beauty with so much both of vigor and dehcacy, that nothing is left to be desired. The general interest of the public in these Islets miglit, however, be pleased, we have thought, with a fuller account of their earli/ history than has hitherto been furnished. The Shoals have never enjoyed their local antiquary. A few facts and anecdotes concerning them were gathered up, in 1800, by the Rev. Jedidiah Morse, and published in the Mass. Hist. Collections ; Williamson, in his history of Maine, has reproduced this essay with slight additions ; the Coast Survey Reports may have contributed a little more, and in the collections of our various Antiquarian Societies, allusions to the group may be found, sparsely scattered here and there ; but the reader will in vain seek, amid these jejune and trivial materials, for much of instruction or entertainment. It is only from the ancient town and Provincial Records, the statutes, documents and correspondence which have descended to us, as w^ell as from the careful study of general American and European chronicles, that any thorough local history of the Isles "kf Shoals can, at the present day, be compiled. Such a task would, however, be laborious to the T\^nter, while the minate rtlation of petty occurences 10 ISLES OF SHOALS. among a community of fisliermen and sailors, especially now that the entire population has been swept away, must needs prove wearisome to the general reader. It is our utmost hope, that some selections from the highly romantic early annals of the Isles of Shoals, together with a brief sketch of the social, moral, and religious condition of the motley, shifting population, who formerly in large numbers inhabited these rocks, may serve to while away a vacant hour or two of somn summer idler, amid these once busy scenes. CHAM PLAIN ISLES OF SHOALS. CHAPTER I. THE Isles of Shoals played a more important part in the early history of New England, than the general reader would probably imagine. Long before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, these barren rocks were visited and described by the French and English navigators, and were the annual resort of fishermen from Virginia and maritime Europe. Indeed, when we consider that durino; the entire sixteenth cen- tury, fleets of fishing vessels yearly visited our eastern waters, we are justified in conjecturing, that for many lustres of years anterior to the settlement of New England, the commodiousness of the Isles of Shoals for the prosecution of the fisheries must have, summer after summer, attracted thither the Doggers and Pinckes of the English ; the clumsy Busses of Hol- (11) 12 ISLES OF SHOALS, land and Zealand, the light Fly-Boats of Flanders, the Biskiner, and the Portingal, and many another of those odd high-peaked vessels, whose models seem so quaint, and whose rig is so incomprehensible to us of the present day. The first unmistakable mention of these Islets falls, however, within the succeeding century. There can be Httle doubt they were sighted by Gosnold in 1602, and by Martin Pring in 1603 ; but it is not until the voyage of the French along our coast in 1605, that a distinct reference to them is made in the chronicles. In 1603, the French monarch, Henry of Navarre, beino; desirous of extendino; his dominions in the New World, granted to Pierre de Guast, sieur de Monts, a patent for the entire territory from the 40th to the 46th dea'ree of North Latitude — embracino; thus the whole of our present New England.^ The next year (1604), De Monts, accompanied by Samuel Cham- plain de Brouage, and a considerable party of emi- grants, sailed from France, to take possession of the granted territory; and coasting along the rock-bound shores of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, landed at last on the Island of St. Croix (now called Neutral Isl- jind), in Passamaquoddy Bay. Here De Monts set up 1 Murdock, Hist, of Nova Scotia, Vol. I., p. 22. ISLES OF SHOALS. 13 the royal standard of France, and passed the winter. The next summer (1605) he resolved to seek a warmer climate for the permanent foundation of his French colony. Accordingly, he undertook a voyage of discovery to the southward, in a pinnace of fifteen tons, which he had built at St. Croix Island, during the winter, — the firstling, probably, of our New England marine. In his company went Champlain, the chronicler of the voyage, Champdore, the master, and a crew of about twenty sailors and soldiers. As the waters to be traversed were little known to them, the pinnace was piloted along the coast by a young Indian of Acadia, named Panounias^ and his lately wedded squaw, " whom," says Champlain, " he did not wish to part from."^ Panounias was of the Souriquois, or Micmac, tribe who inhabited Acadia, but his gentle spouse came from the hostile Armouchi- quois of the western coast. Her mother's wigwam had been pitched near the Chouahouet, or Saco River. It was in the course of his stolen visits by sea to th« Indian maiden, that Panounias had, doubtless, become familiar with the coast from the Oigudi (or St. Johns) to the Saco River. From headland to headhmd 1 Panoniac, according to L'Escarbot. ^Les Voyages de Champlain, Quebec ed., Vol. III., p. 45. 14 ISLES OF SHOALS. Panounias now pointed out the course to de Monts and Champlain ; through the thousand islets along the coast, he tlu'eaded the way ; he led them mto the harbors, and piloted them up the rivers, and showed them where provisions and sweet waters were to be had. The cruise was most prosperous and delightful ; the Indian girl, who stood by the side of Panoun- ias in the prow of the pinnace, proved, indeed, a very Halcyon of the seas. Soft breezes wafted the bark everywhere over a smiling ocean, and the light of moon and stars gleamed tranquilly by night on its surface. Sometimes, bands of the natives would come down to the shore, and, with every token of amity, would dance and o;ambol beside the vessel, for miles aloncj the sands ; sometimes, Panounias and his bride would be set ashore to hold tahagie^ or council, with them, and to carry them presents ; and then, says the chroni- cler, "z7s redaunserent mieux qiC awparavant^'* (they danced better than ever). And now comes the yachting party to Richman's Island, near Casco Bay ; and there they find such abundance of grapes, that they name it " L'isle de Bacchus"; the natives gather around them, and the aight is spent in mirth and revelry. Next day the pinnace swept along to Chouahouet, ISLES OF SHOALS. 15 nowSaco ; and there they met with bands of musicians, who could play rustic melodies upon flageolets made out of reeds or cornstalks, " en gamhadant^^'' says L'Escarbot, " selon leur coutume,^''^ (gambolling, as they are wont). Shortly after, they landed at Cape Porpoise, named by Champlain, " Le Port aux isles," and here they were charmed with the glad song of infinite numbers of blackbirds and bob-o-links ; and thence to the Kenne- bunk River, where they Avere astonished with the immense flocks of turtle doves or wild pigeons. On the 15th day of July, 1605, the French navi- gators sailed smoothly on from Cape Porpoise twelve leagues toward the south ; they coasted along the beaches of Maine and New Hampshire, passing the Piscataqua River without notice, and by nightfall, had reached Great Boar's Head in Hampton. Finding no harbor there, they again put to sea, a couple of leagues, and looked about them in the twilight. What they saw shall be better given in the language of Cham- plain, for his words are the first written description, however brief, of the Isles of Shoals. " Nous airperceusmes un cap a la grande terre au in quart du suest de nous, ou il pourioit avoir quelque %ix lieues; a Vest deux lieues, apperceusmes trois 1 Hist, de la Nouv. France, Vol. II., p. 562. 1(3 JSLES OF SHOALS. ou quatre isles asses hautes, et a Vouest^ un grand cul de sac^ " We saw a cape, bearing south, a quarter southeast from us, distant some eighteen miles ; on the east, two leagues distant, we saw three or four rather promi- nent islands, and on the west Ipswitch Bay." The three or four *' isles asses hautes^^^ spoken of by Champlain, were our present Isles of Shoals. After this, the French navigators sailed on as far as Long Island Sound, and thence returned to Acadia, without having selected any particular spot in New England for a settlement. The following year they renewed their search, but with the same lack of success, and from that time, the French turned their eyes wholly to the St. Lawrence and Canada ; Champlain, in 1608, founded Quebec, and New England was left unoccupied, to be some years later colonized by the English. Had de Monts and Champlain been moved by the virgin charms of New England, it is quite certain the flood of French emigration would have been diverted to her shores, and she would have embraced for ages, perhaps even to the present time, the fortunes of the French people ; the French language would have been heard to-day on the banks of the Piscataqua, and over the rocks of Champlain'a ISLES OF SHOALS. 17 asses Jiautes,'^ the vivacity of French manners would have startled the precise streets of Boston itself, and the Jesuit or the Franciscan would have cele- brated high mass upon her altars. Some of our readers may perhaps regard this rescue of New England, as a RemarkaUe Frovidenccy— par- Mcularly those who are not much acquainted \-ath France. The melancholy fate of poor Panounias, who piloted the French pinnace so happily past the ''isles asses Jiautes,'' must not be passed over unlamented. Only two years afterwards, his bride was called to bewail his cold-blooded murder at the hands of her own jealous kindred. Panounias had gone, in his canoe, to the Saco River, upon a trading voyage with some goods of De Monts. He was there treacherously set upon by the warriors of tlie Armouchiquois, and put to death; in retaliation, they pretended, for injuries inflicted on them by some of Panounias' tribe in Acadia. The corpse of the murdered brave was, however, rescued from their fury, and carried back by the faith- ful Ouagimou to Port Royal, Tnow Annapolis,) where long and bitter lamentations, after the Indian fashion, were held over the embalmed remains by his bereaved 2 18 ISLES OF SHOALS. widow, his father and mother, and at length by the whole body of his tribe. In the spring, the corpse of Panounias was borne ytealthily away by night in a solitary canoe, to be buried on a lone sandy islet, near the stormy Cape Sable. The situation of this Island of the Bead was known only to the Aoutiyioins^ or sorcerers of the tribe, and by them sacredly concealed, in order that the repose of their departed warriors might never be disturbed by enemy or stranger. In this wierd, grewsome island, desolated by the winds, and resounding with the roar of an ever tempestuous sea, Panounias lies asleep — dreaming, it may be, of the bhssful voyage when, with his dusky bride, he guided the Frenchmen along our New England coast, and pointed out to Champlain and Champdor^ the " isles asses hautes.^^ But Panounias died not unsung nor unavenged. Membertou, the Sagamo of the Souriquois, summoned all his braves to the war-path, and, the next summer, made a determined assault upon the murderers at Saco. Many of the Armouchiquois fell, and much blood was shed, before Membertou's vengeance was satiated. L'Escarbot, who witnessed the departure of the aveng- ing expedition from Port Royal, in 1607, and also its triumphant return, composed a poem upon its achieve- ISLES OF SHOALS. 19 ments, which is — such as it is — the first epic, in form, composed in North America. ^ ^ It is to be found in "Les Muses dela Nouvelle France," Paris, 1612. CHAPTER II. I^OR a number of years after the French abandoned this attempt at the colonization of New England, our coasts remained, in the language of Captain Smith, "a rockie, barren, desolate desarV The Popham colony at Sagadehoc had vanished, and seven years later, we are told, " there was not one Christian in all the land." But the teeming waters of the Gulf of Maine were still frequented by considerable fleets of fishing vessels during the summer season. Among others, came up from Virginia the renowned Sir Samuel Argal. His first acquaintance with these waters was made in 1610, when he and a consort, under Sir George Somers, were driven by a tempest far out of their course, into the mouth of the Penobscot River. It was during the previous year (1609), that Sir George Somers, being on a voyage from England with emigrants and stores for the perishing colony of Virginia, was wrecked on the Bermuda Islands — the *' still vexed BermootJies " of Shakespeare — the fabled (20) o% . < ISLES OF SHOALS, 21 island of ambergris, and pearls and gems — the beauti- ful realm of sprite and fairy ; of " sounds and sweet airs that give delight, but hurt not — " where the great Master has laid the scene of the " Tempest." Upon this island, Sir George built a " new cedar ^ ship," though without any " iron at all, but one bolt in her keele," and embarking in her, succeeded next year in reaching Jamestown, where he found the colony in sore distress for lack of provisions. Sir George at once volunteered, accompanied by Su' Samuel Argal, to make a voyage back to the Bermudas in quest of supplies. Sir George's pinnace was named the " Pa- tience " — 'the same cedar ship he had built at Ber- muda. For days and weeks did the frail barks encounter "a most terrible and vehement storm, which was a taile of the West India Horacano," as though the magic wand of Prospero had again for some wise pur- pose put the " wild waters in a roar." But the " Pa- tience " had been constructed in an enchanted isle, and seemed to possess a charmed life. She and her consort, named the " Discovery, " bore away at last towards the north, and took refuge among the islands along the coast of Maine, " Not L hair blemished, But fresher than before.'* 22 ISLES OF SHOALS. The ves-sels then became separated, — the " Pa- tience " at lencrth reachlno; her destmation at the Bermudas, while Argal spent the whole summer in cruising and fishing up and down the coast of Maine. The account of his voyages to and fro the gulf, to be found in PurcJias' Pilgrims, puts it out of doubt, that the intrepid Sir Samuel Argal must have fre- quently, during that summer, made a harbor at the Isles of Shoals. He returned to Virginia, at the close of the season, in good safety, heavily freighted with fish. Sir Samuel's experience, acquired in this enforced voyage to New England, w^as to have an important influence upon her future history. In 1613, he re- newed his visit to our coast, as a pilot and convoy to a fleet of ten or eleven fishing vessels, which set out from Virginia, according to their yearly custom, for our waters. On the arrival of the squadron at Pemaquid, he received from the Indians the start- ling intelligence, that the French were again making encroachments upon English territory, by the recent settlement of the Jesuits at jSaint Sauveur on Mount Desert. Argal at once fell upon that settlement, de- stroyed the buildings in progress of erection, killed one of the Jesuit priests, named Gilbert du Thet, shipped away to France a portion of the prisoners ISLES OF SHOALS. 23 and carried off the remainder to Jamestown. The same summer, under the instructions of the Governor of Virginia, he returned to Acadia, and destroyed all the French settlements at St. Croix and Port Royal, with such thoroughness, indeed, that " he even caused the names of de Monts and other cap- tains, and the fleurs de lys, to be effaced with pick and chisel from the massive stone at Port Royal, on which they had been engraved." A few of the home- less French took refuge in the friendly wigwams of the Micmac tribes, but their national power was extin- guished in Acadia for many years.^ Thus was New Eno-land ao;ain rescued from an impending French invasion ; the first time by the capricious indifference of de Monts and Champlain ; the second time, if we may indulge the fancy, by the friendly help of the mighty magician of the Bermudas. His prophetic spirit, perhaps, descried far away in the north the peril to which New England was exposed, and in his own deep counsel he evoked the " horicano," wnich drove her champion. Sir Samuel Argal, into the ^ For authorities concerning the story of Sir Samuel Argal, see Relations des Jesuits (Quebec Ed.) p. 46, et seqr^ Smith's Gen, Hist, Vol. II., pp. 6-112, ei seq.\ Murdock's Hist, of Nova Scotia, Vol. I., p. 55, et seq.\ Champlain's Voyages; Purcbas (lis Pilgrims, pp. 1733, 1734, et seq. 24 ISLES OF SHOALS. waters of the Gulf of Maine, in season for her protec- tion. Is not Prosperous motive, indeed, suggested in his reply to his daughter ? "Miranda. And now, I pray you, sir, (For still 'tis beating in my mind) your reasons For raising this sea-storm ? **Prospero. Know thus far forth — By accident, most strange, bountiful Fortune (Now my dear lady) bath mine enemies Brought to that shore; and by my prescience I find my zenith doth depend upon A most auspicious star ; whose influence 1£ now I court not, but omit, my fortunes Will ever after droop. — Here cease more questions." ^^^^,i SMITH'S MAP OK W ENGLAND. CHAPTER III. IT was in the following year, 1614, that the Isles of Shoals were visited by another of the mar- vellous men of that heroic age — Captain John Smith. He came out in command of two London ships, upon a fishing and trading voyage, and arrived at Monhegan Island in April 1614. " Our plot was," writes the captain; " there to take whales, and also to make trials of a mine of gold and copper; if these failed, fish and furs were then our refuge to make ourselves sauers howsoever ; we found this whale fishing a costly conclusion ; we saw many, and spent much time in chasing them, but could not kill any, they being a kind of Juhartes, and not the whale that yields fins and oil, as we expected; for our gold, it was rather the masters device to get a voyage that projected it, than any (25) 26 ISLES OF SHOALS. knowledge he had at all of any such matter." Mean- time, while the crew fished, Smith and eight sailors in a small pinnace, very much after the manner of his great predecessor, Champlain, ranged the whole New England coast as far as Cape Cod, and trucked successfully with the natives for peltries. Return- ing thence to his vessels about Monhegan, he sailed for home on the 18th of July. Shortly after his arrival in England, he published his interesting account of our coast, which, by the leave of Prince Charles, he named JVeiv England^ and accompanied it with the chart, a fac-simile of a later edition of which is prefixed to this chapter. "Among the remarkablest Isles and mountains for landmarks," writes Capt. Smith in his "Description of New England," " are Smiths Isles, a heape together, none neare them, against Accominticus." The islands referred to were the present Isles of Shoals. The great navigator chose, out of his vast dis- coveries in the New World, these wild and picturesque rocks to perpetuate his name, and, as we shall here- after see, selected the headland and islands in view to the south, to keep the world in memory of some of his most gallant achievements. A few years after his return to London, the numer- ous patentees of New England formed a 'scheme ISLES OF SHOALS' 27 to divide up its territory into twenty parts, and cast lots among tliemselves for the different portions. "But no lot for me," writes the Captain sorrowfully, " but Smiths Isles, which are a many of barren rocks, the most overgrowne with such shrubs and shai'p w^hins you can hardly pass them, without either grass or wood, but three or four short shrubby old cedars." We thus perceive, that Admiral John Smith was not only the first to name these Islets, but also that he claimed to be Lord and Proprietor of them, until the scheme of rafflino; for New Eno;land was aban- doned. We pause for a moment over the memory of the gallant Captain, New England's earhest and best friend, who by his untiring zeal, probably contribu- ted more than any other man to the settlement of her shores and islands. His career was as marvellous as the fabled exploits of Sir Launcelot, in quest of the San Graal, or of Sir Roland, who winded his horn at Roncevalles. Stung with a spirit of adventure, he left his home with ten shillings in his pocket, while yet a boy, and served several years in the wars of the Low Countries. On his return to Scotland, he narrowly escaped death in the wreck of his ship on Holy Isle, near Berwick. Then, for a time, he retired 28 ISLES OF SHOALS, into the midst of a dense forest, and dwelt*' in a secluded pavillion, built of bouglis," where he de- voted himself to the study of Marcus Aurelius and Macchiavelli's " Art of War." When his restless s])irit had wearied of a hermit's life, he returned to thu continent, and after encountering many perils, reached Marseilles, where he embarked for Italy. On this voyage, the ship fell into bad weather, and in the hope of appeasing the wrath of Neptune, the superstitious sailors threw our unfortunate hero into the Mediterranean. Again, however, he es- caped death, having been picked up by a couple of ships from Britanny, with whom he enhsted, and shortly afterwards engaged, in their service, in a bloody but victorious fight with a Venetian argosy. After that, he made his way into Hungary, and took service under the German Emperor, in his wars against the Turk. Splendid feats of valor did he there perform ; his fame resounded over that far quarter of the world. But at last, he fell prisoner to the Paynim, and was carried cap- tive into the Steppes of Crym-Tartary. Escaping thence, he made his way back to Europe, and carried lis free lance into the wars of Africa; ere long,- we find him again at sea, wliere, with his single ship, he fought triumphantly against ^ pair of Spanish men-of- ISLES OF SHOALS. 29 vfox^ and returned with his prizes to EngUind. Hav- ing thus performed, in all the three quarters of the known earth, such "doughty deeds of high emprise," as would put to shame the yery knights of the Round Table, though with such modesty, says one of his. eulogists, that he deemed all his exploits no more than " to go to bed or drink," the redoubtable cap- tain entered upon his career in the New World. His valorous deeds in Virginia, of which plantation he was one of the earliest and most efficient promoters, are familiar to all Americans, and his rescue from Powhattan by the love-stricken Pocahontas is one of the staples of American story. Some years after, in 1614, he came over to New England and landed upon " Smitlis Isles,^^ now the " Isles of Slioals ;" and the next year (1615), hav- ing resolved to take possession and permanently settle the new country, he sailed from Plymouth for that purpose with two ships, laden with emigrants and supplies, but was captured by a squadron of French pirates, and for a long time was compelled^ as he as- sures us, to assist them in many a buccaneering enter- prise on the high seas, until at last, in the midst of a terrible tempest in the Bay of Biscay, he deserted them in an open boat, and made good his escape all alone to Rochelle, while the pirate ship he had abau- 80 ISLES OF SHOALS. cloned, was totally wrecked in tlie storm, and nearly all her crew perished.^ Then he returned to England, where he had long been given up for dead, and there he wrote the strange story of his life, discoveries, and exploits, as he expresses it, " witJi his own hayidJ'^ Except for this untoward capture by pirates, Cap- tain John Smith might have been the father and founder of New Hampshire and Maine, as he long had been and long continued to be their warmest and most efficient friend. 1 Smith's letter to Bacon, Eng. State Papers (Colonial), Vol. J., No. 42, and Gen. Hist., pcn^shn. CHAPTER IV. WE should hardly have felt justified in sketch- ing here, even thus briefly, the strange adven- tures of this last of the Paladins and Lord of the Shoals, had not our hero seen fit to record some of the most gallant and stirring incidents in liis career upon the very headland and rocks within view from his own Islets. During the wars in Hungary, where Smith's sword, as we have seen, played so bright a part, it chanced that the town of Kegall was besieged by the Christian army, and long time stoutly defended by the Moslem. At leno;th, when the sieo;e had become tedious and monotonous, one Lord Turbashaw, in the words of the chronicle, " to delight the ladies of Regall, who did long to see some court-like pastime, did defie any captain in the German army to combat Vt'ith him (31) 32 ISLES OF SHOALS. for Ills head." The gallant Captain Smith, tliough but a small, slight man, accepted the Turk's chal- lenge. '^ Truce being made for that time," continues the c*hronicle, " the Rampiers all beset with fair dames iwA men in arms, the Christians in Battalio, Turba- shaw, with a noise of Howboyes, entered the field well mounted and armed; on his shoulders were fixed a pair of great wings, compacted of eagle feathers, within a ridge of silver, richly garnished with gold and precious stones ; a Janizary before him, bearing his lance, on each side another leading his horse ; where long he stayed not, ere Smith, with a noise of trumpets, only a page bearing his lance, passing by him with a courteous salute, took his ground with such good success, that at the sound of the charge, he passed the Turke thorow the sight of his beaver, face, head, and all, that he fell dead to the ground, where alighting and un- bracing his helmet he cut off his head, and the Turkes tooke his body, and so he returned without any hurt at all." The next day, ^' a vowed friend" o£ the slain Tur- bashaw, named Grualgo, " enraged with madnesse^^ sent Smith a '•''particular challenge to regaine hii friend's head, or lose his own." Suffice it to say, the ISLES OF SHOALS. 38 defiance was accepted, the tournament was held, and the brave httle captain was rewarded with a second Paynim head, that of the grim Grualgo. And now Smith, elated with his successes, sent back a cartel to the ladies of Regall, '' that he was not so much enamored of their two champions^ heads,^^ but that if any Turk would come to the lists to redeem them, such Turk might carry back Smith's head also, " if he could ivinne ity Upon this, still a third champion of Turkish beauty and chivalry entered the lists. He saw no less than the stout, stark. Bonny Mulgro himself. We may be sure, the captain's heart rejoiced to encounter the infidel bravo. At it they went, and after a desperate conflict, the head of that truculent Mos- lem was added to those of Turbashaw and Grualoro. These exploits soon reached the ears of Duke Sigismund, and in guerdon of Smith's bravery he granted him, by patent under his princely hand and seal, " Three Turks heads in a shield., for his coat of arms.''^ Smith ever after bore these arms, and was thus constantly reminded of the exploits by which he had won tUem. Accordingly, when in 1614, he came out to the Isles of Shoals, one of the first names he conferred upon the neighboring locali- ties, was that of the Three Turks'* Heads., which he 3 34 ISLES OF SHOALS. gave to the three rocky islets at the head of Cape Ann, in view from the Shoals, of a clear day. In these Turkish wars, however, fortune at last played false with the Christians. At the battle of Rottenton,^ the army of the latter was routed, and the intrepid captain was taken prisoner, and sold as a slave to the Bashaw Bogall. The Bashaw, who chanced to be at the time enamored of the fair Princess Charatza Tragabigzanda, sent him in chains to Constantinople, as a rich present to his mistress ; arrived, there, however, the captain found ex(ieeding favor in the eyes of the Oriental beauty. His chains were speedily stricken off, and in order to remove him from danger, she sent him to the care of her brother, the Prince of Nalbrits, a province in Crym-Tartary, on the Black Sea. But the brother, resenting his sister's affection for the Christian slave, treated him so harshly, that, at last. Smith " beat out the Timur's brains with a threshing bat," and don- ning the slain man's apparel, escaped after infinite perils and fatigues, into Europe. But the gallant captain never could forget the devotion of the lovely Princess Tragabigzanda, an( u]3on his arrival, many years after, at the Shuals, ^ In German, Rotherthunn, in MagyaTjVerestoronj/ (both whicL names signify Red Tower), a pass in the Carpathian Mountains much used by the Turks in their invasions of Hungary. ISLES OF SHOALS, 35 he conferred upon the Cape in view, the cherished name of Cape Tragahigzanda. Captain Smith, afterwards appointed Admiral of New England, never beheld his beloved Islands after his visit of 1614. Even the names he conferred upon our coast were doomed to be soon forgotten. Cape Tragahigzanda in a few years became Cape Ann ; the *' Three Turks' Heads " were translated into the " Salvages,^^ and in 1623, the rightful appel- lation of " Smithes Isles " was supplanted among the English, by that of the ''Isles of SlioaW — the last English writer to stand by the honest name, being Edward Winslcw, of New Plymouth, who, under date of 1623, describes the plantation, begun that year at the Piscataqua, by David Thompson, as being " near Smith's Isles." The more constant Dutch, however, maintained their allegiance to the admiral for half a century later. On the quaint chart of " Novi Belgii " con- tained in Montanus' " Nieuwe onbekende Weereld," published at Amsterdam in 1671, and translated by John Ogleby, Cape Ann is still called Cape Tra- gahigzanda ; the three rocks, at its point, the 3 TurcJcs hoofden, and the Isles of Shoals, " Smifs Eylant^ As applied to the rocks themselves, the name of John Smith has long since passed into oblivion, unless, 36 ISLES OF SHOALS. as we may fondly hope, it lingers in the little cove at the south-west angle of Appledore, which is stilJ called SrnWs Cove, Captain Smith died in London, in 1631, at the age of 52, and was buried there in St. Sepulchre's Church. Upon his monument is cut the following inscription : — " To the living memory of his deceased friend, Capt. John Smith, some time Governor of Virginia and Admiral of New England, wLo departed this life the 21st of June, 1631. ACCORDIAMUS, VINCERE EST VIVERE. Here lies one conquered, that hath conquered kings, Subdued large territories, and done things Which to the world impossible would seem, But that the truth is held in more esteem. Shall I report his former service done, In honor of his God and Christendom ? How that he did divide from Pagans three Their heads and lives, types of his chivalry; For which great service, in that climate done, Brave Sigismundus (King of Hungarlon) Did give him, as a coat of arms to wear Those conquered heads, got by his sword and spear? Or shall I tell of his adventures, since Done in Virginia, that large continent? How that he subdued kings unto his yoke. And made those heathen flee as wind doth smoke ; And made their land, being of so large a station A habitation for our Christian nation. Where God is glorified, their wants supplied, Which, for necessaries, might have died ? But what avails his conquest, now he lies Interr'd in earth, a prey to worms and flies ? ISLES OF SHOALS. 37 O may his soul in sweet Elysium sleep, Until the Keeper, that all souls doth keep, Return to judgment ; and that after thence, With angels he may have his recompence."^ A neat marble monument, erected some years ago, on the southerly summit of Star Island by several pub- lic-spirited citizens of New Hampshire, puts the sum- mer visitor in mind of the departed hero and of his long and intimate connection with these, his ^'heape of rocks, none neare them against Accominticus.** ^ 3 Jesse's Hist, of London, 231. CHAPTER V. SOME five years after the memorable expedi- tion of Admiral John Smith to New England, there is evidence,^ that our coasts were visited, about L619, by those two great men, who subsequently became the fathers and founders of the Provinces of New Hampshire and Maine. John Mason, then Governor of New Foundland, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges made, that summer, it is said, a cruise of discovery along the New England coast, and on their return to London, presented a report of their voyage to the King. That report is not now extant, but from the general course of their voyage, as well as the strong interest both those gentlemen afterward took in the Isles of Shoals, there is reason to believe that they failed not to pay them a visit. Upon the return of these renowned men to Eng ^ NeAv England Papers (Eng. Pub. Recs.) Vol. 42, No. 139. (38) ISLES OF SHOALS. 39 land, evidently pleased with the aspect of the country they had visited, Gorges, who had been for several years a merchant adventurer to our coasts, set about the colonization of New Eno;land w^ith renewed ardor. Mason, upon the termination of his office in New Foundland, entered into his friend's project with equal zeal. Gorges, the next year, 1620, obtained from His Majesty a new and enlarged patent for the extensive territory between the 40th and 48th parallels of latitude, incorporating forty noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, under the title of " The Council es- tablished at Plymouth in the County of Devon, for planting, ruling and governing New England in America." This charter is the foundation of the numerous subsequent patents by which New Eng- land was first parcelled out, and its settlements and colonies located and limited.^ Shortly after this great charter of New England had passed the seals. Mason and Gorges, " the projectors and j^rosecutors of still greater designs," procured of the Plymouth Council, August 10th, 1622, a sub-patent, for all the country between the Merrimac and the Sagadahock, under the title of the Province of Maine.2 It is doubtful, however, whether any set- ^ Gorges' Brief Narrative, p. 32. 2 1 New Hamp. Prov. Pap., p. 10. 40 ISLES OF SHOALS, fclements in New Hampshire or Maine were made under this Patent. The next yeai', 1623, the Council of Plymoutli, having projected the estabhshment of a permanent general government over all New England, sent out Robert Gorges, son of Sir Ferdinando, " an active, enterprising genius, and a brilliant officer in the late Venetian war," as Eoyal Governor of the country. His council was to consist, among others, of Christopher Levett, who had already arrived in New England, and was now visiting David Thomp^ son, at Odiorne's Point on the coast of New Hamp- shire. The reign of Governor Robert Gorges was, how- ever, very brief. He returned to England the next year, and the attempt to estabhsh any general govern- ment over New England was for the time abandoned. The reason of this sudden change of policy, on the part of the Grand Council of Plymouth, is worthy a moment's attention, on account of its impor- tant political significance, as well as the influence our poor fishermen exercised in the matter. The Council, enjoying, by the terms of their charter, a monopoly of the fisheries in the " adjoining seas " of 1 Seethe Charter, 1 Hazard, State Pap., p. 103. ISLES OF SHOALS. 41 New England, with a right to " take ana surprise" anj sliips, that presumed to visit the said seas, " unless it be with the license of said Council, under the common seal," promulgated an order, shortly after their incorporation, imposing a charge of five pounds sterling upon every thirty tons of shipping engaged in the American fisheries, as the cost of such neces- sary license.^ The ostensible purpose of this license system was, by a careful scrutiny into the character and previous conduct of all applicants, to protect the poor American savages from the cruelties and frauds practiced on them by disorderly fishermen.^ It was urged " that the mischiefs already sustained from these disorderly persons are inhuman and in- tolerable. That, in their manners and behaviour, they are worse than the very savages, openly abus- ing their women, teaching their men to drink drunk, to swear and blaspheme the name of God, and in their drunken humor to fall together by the ears, thereby giving them occasion to seek revenge. Be- sides that, they cozen and abuse the savages in trading and trafficking, selling them salt covered with butter, instead of so much butter, and the like cozen- ages and deceits, whereby to bring the planters and 1 2 Smith's Gen. Hist., p. 263. a Gorges' Brief Nar., p. 38. 42 ISLES OF SHOALS, all the nation into contempt and disgrace."^ But the real design of the order, notwithstanding this specious pretext, was to raise a revenue for the use of the Grand Council itself, and it was therefore met at the outset with loud complaints from the fishermen, who had for so many years enjoyed the absolute free- dom of the New England seas. The Commons of England, who were just at that time warming up to that determined struggle with the roval prerogative, which culminated by-and-by in the Great Rebelhon, seized eagerly upon the present op- portunity, to make a stand against King James. Par- liament convened in June, 1621, and proceeded at once to the examination of the national grievances. In the very head and front of them all, they set the odious fishery monopoly of the Council of Plymouth. The Commons then summoned Sir Ferdinando Gorges to defend the patent. " The whole House being dissolved into a com- mittee," writes Gorges, " Sir Edward Coke being in the chair, I was called for to the bar, where after some space, it pleased him to tell me, that the House under- stood, that there was a patent granted to me and divers other noble persons therein nominated, for the estab- ^ Gorges' Brief Nar., p. 38. ISLES OF SHOALS. 48 lishing of a colony in New England. Tliis (as it seems) was a grievance of the Commonwealth, and so complained of, in respect of many particulars therein contained, contrary to the laws and privileges of the subjects, as also that it was a monopoly."^ Sir Ferdinando defended the charter at the bar of the House with pertinacity and skill, but the Com- mons, under the leadership of Coke, Selden, and Pym, stood resolute against this and all other monopolies, in defiance of the overbearing and supercilious reproofs of King James. At length, in the winter of 1622, despairing of any concession on the part of the House, the King dissolved the Parliament in a rage, and committed Sir Edward Coke, Selden, Pym and others to prison.^ The Commons had thus failed in their effort to vacate the great charter of New England, the fishing monopoly still remained legally in the hands of the patentees, and the next spring, (1623), the bolder of their number determined to enforce it. Tliey sent out, accordingly, Robert Gorges as Governor, and Frances West as Admiral, to make their mouop- oly effectual. But the confidence of many of the patentees and ^ Gorges' Brief Nar. , p. 34. 2 5 Hume, p. 133. 44 ISLES OF SHOALS. adventurers in the stability of their monopoly had been shaken by the commotion. Many of them Avith- drew altoo-ether from New Eno-land affairs : the fisher- men from whom the revenue was to be derived, " grew so discontented," says Capt. Smith, " that few or none would goe,"^ and as to the few who did go, Admiral West found it as difficult to collect fines of them, as of the cod-fish in the ocean. Hence the Grand Council of Plymouth, deeming it the part of prudence to yield for a time to the popular storm, withdrew their Governor and Admiral from New England, a few months after their arrival, and aban- doned their project until a more favorable season. The scheme, however, of a General Governor and a State religion for all New England was a deeply cher- ished one with the Grand Council of Plymouth until its dissolution, and was persisted in by its leading spirits. Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason, to the last. Robert Gorges died in 1624, shortly after his re- turn from New England ; and Captain Christopher Levett, already mentioned as one of Gorges' Coun- cil, was appointed to succeed him as General Gov- ernor of New England ; upon his death, Captain Walter Neale, of the Piscataqua, was commissioned to succeed Levett in that office. 1 Smith's Gen. IIi:^t., p. 263. ISLES OF SHOALS. 45 Shortly after Neale's retirement from tlie country in 1633, Sir Ferdinando Gorges himself accepted the post and made preparations to emigrate to the new world, while a warrant was issued in 1635 for a commission to Mason, as Vice-Admiral. But for the latter's death at that time, it is alto- gether probable that a successful effort to found a general government under Gorges and Mason would have been speedily made. Winthrop seems to have feared such an attempt. He says : " The last win- ter 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 provid- ing shipping ; but the Lord, in mercy, taking him awayj all the business fell on sleep." ^ 1 Winthrop, Vol. I., p. 187. CHAPTER VI. AMONG the chief adherents of the Gorges family, in this futile attempt to found a general government for New England, was Capt. Christopher Levett, "his Majesty's Woodward of Somersetshire, and one of the Council of New England," and as he describes himself, " an ancient traveller by sea.'' Capt. Levett, having procured for himself, the previous year, a patent for six thousand acres of land, to be located at his own pleasure upon the vacant territory of New England,^ set sail from England early in the year 1623, in a vessel bound for the Isles of Shoals, and arrived there the same spring. He describes the group as follows : ^ " The first place I set my foot upon in New Eng- land was the Isles of Shoulds, being islands in the sea, about tvvo leagues from the main. " Upon these islands I neither could see one g.ood timber tree, nor so much ground as to make a garden. 1 English Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, p. 45. 2Levett's Voyage, 2 Maine Hist. Coll., p. 72. (46) ISLES OF SHOALS. 4T " The place is found to be a good fishing phice for six ships, but more cannot well be there, for want of convenient stage room, as this year's experience hath proved. " The harbor is but indifferent good. Upon these islands are no savages at all." Shortly afterward, Capt. Levett crossed over to the plantation just begun by David Thompson at Odiorne's Point, (called by Levett, Pannaway,) the first settlement on the mainland of New Hampshire. Here he remained about a month, until the arrival of Governor Robert Gorges, from whom Levett learned that he had been appointed a Councillor to the new Government of New England. Levett was a staunch churchman, as were also his friends, the Governor and Admiral West ; and in furtherance of the scheme to establish a general gov- ernment over New England, he seems to have been specially charged with the founding of the Episcopal church. The first step to that end, according to churcb usage, was the creation of some citT/, with all the pomp and paraphernalia of city government, as a suitable Episcopal see ; and accordingly Captain Levett, for the purpose of selecting the most favorable site for the establishment of tlie projected metropohs, made a cruise in two boats, with all his company, along 48 ISLES OF SHOALS. the coast of Maine, as far as Cape Manwagait, now Bootlibay, putting in on the voyage at a place called " Quack," which was at that time under the government of an Indian sagamore, named " Cogawesco." The peninsula of Quack, (now called Portland), seemed in the captain's eyes a preferable site for his projected plantation, to any other he had visited; and, accordingly, after sailing as far east as Booth- bay, he resolved to return and settle there ; especially because, as Levett writes, " Cogawesco, the sagamore of Casco and Quack, told me if I would set down at either of those places, I should be very welcome." " The next day," the captain continues, " the wind came fair, and I sailed to Quack or York, with the King, Queen and Prince, bow and arrows, dog and kettle in my boat, his noble attendance rowing by us in their canoe." " And thus," he concludes, " after many dangers, much labor, and great charge, I have obtained a place of habitation in New England, where t have built a house and fortified it in a reasonable good fashion, strong enough against such enemies as are those savage people." At the beginning of summer, Levett made ready to return into England, in furtherance of his enter- ISLES OF SHOALS. 49 prise, leaving ten of his men in his garrison house at Quack, until his proposed return the next year. He was visited before his' departure by the great sag- amores of the country, who entreated him to still remain among them. " They asked me," writes Levett, " why I would be gone out of then- country ? I was glad to tell them my wife would not come thither, except I did fetch her; they bid a pox on her hounds (a phrase they have learned and do use when they curse), and wished me to beat her; I told them no, for then our God would be angry; then they run out upon her with evil terms, and wished me to let her alone and take another. I told them our God would be more angry for that. Again they bid me beat her, repeating it often and very angerly, but I answered no, that was not the English fashion. Then they told me that I and my wife and children with all my friends should be heartily welcome into that country, at any time, 'ea, a hundredth thousand times, yea, moucldche^ inoiichicJce, which is a word of weight." " And Somerset told me that his son, (who was born whilst 1 was in the country, and whom he would needs have me to name,) and mine would be brothers, and that there should be mouchicJce Zegamatch (that is friendship) between them, until Tanto carried them to his wigwam (that is, until they died)."^ 1 2 Maine Hist. Col., p. 72. 50 ISLES OF SHOALS. Despite these moving arguments and entreaties, Captain Levett sailed for England, and on his ar- rival took energetic measures to promote his planta- tion in New England, which, as we have seen, he had named " York." On the 26th June, 1623, he pro- cured a royal letter to the Lord President of York, England, recommending the plantation to the especial favor of that ancient city and county, after which the peninsula of " Quack " had been named. But the dis- turbed condition of England at this period compelled Captain Levett to give over his design for several years, and his fortified habitation at Casco Bay was perhaps deserted by its garrison. When war broke out with France and Spain, shortly after his return to England, Captain Levett entered the Royal Navy, where he seems to have served in important posts, and with distinction. Towards the close of the war, Levett resumed with vigor his design of founding a plantation in New England, and in February, 162^, having been commissioned General Governor of New England, he was authorized to raise contributions throughout England, towards the ex- pense of founding his proposed colony.^ Captain Levett's enterprise, however, took no effect and makes no further appearance in the early history of the Isles of Shoals. 1 See Appendix No. 1. ISLES OF SHOALS. 51 Captain Levett's brief description of the Shoals il- lustrates the importance of that station, even so early as 1623. When we consider, that each of the six fishing vessels at the Islands, while he was there, carried at least fifty men, as he informs us was the custom, and that the shores were inconveniently crowded with fishing stages, we perceive tliat, even before the first settlement of the mainland, our group of Islets was already the scene of a busier activity, than any other spot in New England, north of New Plymouth. It was the usual course of the fishery, in those days, for about one-third of each crew to live ashore, and at- tend to the drying and curing of the catch, while the remamder, in their pinnace and shallops, cruised about the neighboring ocean in quest of mackerel or cod. Shelter for the large number of shoremen out of these six ships would, of course, be essential, and numerous cabins, however rude, must have already been built for their accommodation. The " fishing stages," which Capt. Levett speaks of, ,vere floating platforms, projecting from the margin cf the Islands into the waters of the harbor, and the rocks at the shore end were roofed over by an open shed, used for the splitting and salting of the fish, which were afterwards dried upon the flakes in the rear. These 52 ISLES OF SHOALS. structures, which are still used in Newfoundland, were somewhat expensive, and convenient stage- room for their erection upon the generally steep shores of the Islands was difficult to obtain. For many years, on this account, the stage-room and fishing stages formed the most valued part of the islanders' property. The circumstance that the har- bor was inconveniently crowded with stages at the time of Capt. Levett's visit, conveys a lively idea of the extent of business already transacted there. The Islands enjoyed, indeed, singular advantages for the prosecution of the fisheries. " In March, April, May and half June," says the Lord of the Isles, in his own quaint language, " here is cod in abundance. The salvages compare the store in the sea with the hairs upon their heads, and surely there are an incredible abundance of them upon the coast. Then, too, young boies and girles, salvages or any other, be they never such idles, may turne, carry, or return a fish, without either shame or any great pain. He is very idle, that is past twelve years of age, and cannot do so much, and she is very old, that can- not spin a threede to make engins to catch a fish. " He is a very bad fisher, that cannot kill in one day with his hook and line one, two, or three hundred ?ods. And is it not pretty sport to pull up two pence ISLES OF SHOALS 58 six pence, and twelve pence, as fast as you can hale and veare a line ? And what sport doth yield a more pleasing content and less hurt or charge, than angling with a hook, and crossing the sweete Ayre from He to He over the silent streams of a calm sea ? wherein the most curious may find pleasure, profit and content. "^ The codfish caught in the seas about the Islands were larger and finer than those brought from the Banks of Newfoundland, " six or seven making a quintal, whereas they have fifteen of the latter of the same weio-ht."^ And besides the cod, "there is," continues old William Wood, " all manner of otbftt fish, as followeth : — " The king of waters, the sea shouldering Whale, The snuffing Grampus, with the oily Seale, The storm-presaging Porpus, Herring-Hogge, Line shearing Sharke, the Catfish, and Sea Dogg^, The scale-fenc'd Sturgeon, cony-mouthed Ilollibut, The flounsing Sammon, Codfish, Greedigut, Cole, Haddocke, Haicke, the Thornebacke, and t\i<^. Whose slimie outside makes him selde in date, The stately Basse, old Neptune's fleeting post, That tides it out and in fi'om sea to coast. Consorting Herrings, and the bony Shad, Big bellied Ale wives, Mackrills richly clad A™i rainbow colors, the Frostfish and the Smelt As good as ever lady Gustus felt; The spotted Lamprons, Ecxcs, the Lamperies, 1 2 Smith's Gen. Hist., pp. 188, 201. - Wood's New England rrospcct, p. 35. 54 ISLES OF SHOALS. Tliat seeke fresh water brooks with Argus eyes ; These waterie villagers with thousands more, Doe passe and repasse neare the verdant shore."(i) In addition to all these advantages for the fisheries, the Isles of Shoals enjoyed in their climate a very marked advantage over other parts of the New Eng- land coast, in the curing of their fish for the market. The dryness and salubrity of their atmosphere, to which we have referred in the Introduction, enabled the fishermen to prepare by a process of alternate dry- ing and sweating, without salt, the famous dun or dumb fish, which could not be rivalled elsewhere. The market price of these fish was three or four times that of tlie Poor John and Haberdine, made at New- foundland. Within the present century, we find the Labrador cod selling in our market at $2.40 per quin- tal, while the Shoals-cured dun-fish brought fS.OO per quintal.^ The superiority of the Gulf of Maine, in respect to the fisheries, over the Grand Banks of New Found- land, whither great fleets of fishing craft had been swarming for nearly a century, and gathering vast wealth out of its waters, is clearly pointed out by Captain Smith in his letter of 1618, written to the ^reat Lord Bacon. ^ Wood's New England Prospect, p. 37. 2 rortsmoiitli Journal, May, 1822. ISLES OF SHOALS. 55 " New England," he writes, " hath much advantage to serve all Europe farr cheaper than they can (at the Grand Banks, etc.), who have neither wood salt nor foode, but at a great rate, nothing to help them, but what they carry in their shipps 2 or 300 leagues from tlieir habitacon, noe Port or harbor, but the mayne sea. Wee the fishing at our dores & the helpe of the land for wood water fruites, fowle, corne, or what we want to refresh us when we list." " That all sortes of Timber for shipping is most plentifully there, all those w^^ retourned can testifye." " Now if a shippe can gaine 59 or 60 <£ in the 100, only by fishing, spending as much tyme in going & coming as in staying there, were I there planted, seeing the ffish in their seasons serueth the most part of the yeare and with a little labour I could make all the salt I need use, I can conceive noe reason to distrust, but double and treple their gaines, that are at all the for- mer charge & can fish but two moneths." ^ By reason of all these and other advantages of the Isles of Shoals as a fishing station, they must have been, we may reasonably infer, a place of very gen- eral resort long before the settlement of the main-land. Phinehas Pratt, who visited the islands a year before the arrival of Captain Levett, speaks of them, in sim- 1 Smith's letter to Bacon, Col. St. Pap., Vol. I, p. 42. 66 ISLES OF SHOALS. ilar terms to the latter, as a rendezvous for English fishing vessels. Pratt, in company with nine others, arrived at Damariscove Island in May, 1622, in the ship " Spar- row," and shortly after, with a part of the crew, left the vessel, and cruised along the coast in a boat to- wards Massachusetts Bay. " We first arrived," he writes, " att Smithe's Islands, first soe called by Capt. Smith att the time of his discovery of New England, afterwards called ' Islands of Sholes.' " Having then proceeded to Plymouth and Wessagus- cus, he returned the next March (1623) to the Isles of Shoals and rejoined his ship, the " Sparrow," in that harbor. " At this time," says Phinehas, in his manuscript now partly illegible, " ships began to fish at ye Isl- ands of Sholes, and I, having recovered a little of my health, went to my company, nearabout this time . . . . the first plantation at Pascataqua the .... thereof was Mr. David Tomson, at the time of my arrival att Pascataqua." ^ 1 '* At the time of his (Captain Levett's) being ai Pascata- way '^ (1623), writes Pratt, "a Sacham or Sagamor gave two oi his men, one to Captain Levett and another to Mr. Tomson ; bu one that was there said, 'How can you trust those salvages? Call the name of one "Watt Tyler" and y^ other "Jack Straw," after the names of the two greatest Rebills y* ever were in England.'" — Phinehas Pratt's Narrative. ISLES OF SHOALS, 67 And when John Winthrop sailed past the Islands on June 11, 1630, he informs us that he " saw a ship lie there at anchor and five or six shallops under sail up and down, and met a shallop, which stood from Cape Ann towards the Isles of Shoals, which be- longed to some English fishermen." -^ Indeed, from all the contemporaneous testimony which has descended to our time, the Isles of Shoals, several years before the establishment of permanent plantations on the neighboring main-land, or the or- ganization there of any semblance of civil govern- ment, had become a well-known and much frequented centre of general resort. ^ 1 Winth. 24. CHAPTER VII. IN the year 1630, the Company of Laconia ap- 2Deared, like a mirage^ on the rocks of the Isles of Shoals and the banks of Piscataqua river. Their Patent conveyed to them not a single acre of New Hampshire territory ; nor were they authorized to take and hold, within her limits, more than one thousand acres, for the convenience of their proposed traffic. The Laconia Company simply established two or three trading posts on the river and at the Shoals, after the manner of the East Indian Factories^ and for a short time carried on the peltry traffic and the fisheries at a heavy loss, until at the end of three years, in bankruptcy and disaster, the Company dis- solved and vanished away. The story of the sudden rise, momentary brilliancy, and speedy extinction of the meteoric Company of Laconia cannot be wholly omitted from the annals of the Isles of Shoals. In earlier times New England had richly abounded (58) ISLES OF SHOALS. 59 in fur-bearing animals. During Smith's brief cruise down our coast in 1614, he procured, he tells us, by- purchase from the natives, 1,000 beaver, and 100 each of otter and marten skins,^ and other voyagers hither ui those days met with similar success. So greedily, however, did Europeans pursue this lucrative traffic, that in the lapse of a few years, the ponds and water- courses near the coast had been deprived of a large portion of their treasures, and the trade had much declined. To discover and appropriate new terri- tories, still rich in peltries, then became a purpose of earnest solicitude with the English adventurers to our coast. But it was already too late. The immense terri- tories around the great inland seas, abounding more richly than any other part of the country in the otter and the beaver, the deer and the bear, had long ago been annexed to the French crown by Champlain — that same great Navigator, who, in his younger days, had cruised down our coast, and was the first to de scribe the Isles of Shoals. In Champlain's hands was now grasped the entire traffic of that vast undefined region, named IVeto France. From the remote waters of Lake Superior and Lake Iroquois, drained by the great river of ^ Smith's letter to Lord Bacon. 60 ISLES OF SHOALS. Canada (now the St. Lawrence), the immerous ranoes of French and Indian trappers brought down rich cargoes of furs, and laid them at the feet of Cham- plain's lofty fortress at Quebec. In 1627, the profits of that traffic were estimated at .£30,000 per annum.^ The envy and cupidity of the English, as well aa their national rivalry, were keenly aroused, and on the outbreak of war with France in 1627, they greedily seized the occasion to capture New France by force of arms. A Company, headed by Sir William Alex- ander, entitled the Canada Company^ undertook the conquest as a private enterprise, and setting out a strong naval force, under command of Sir David Kirke, succeeded in capturing Quebec and bringing the whole French territory into subjection. Loaded with booty, and bringing Champlain him- self as prisoner, the expedition returned triumphantly to England (November 6, 1629) only to learn that peace had been for several months restored, and that by the Articles of the Treaty, all their hard-won con- quests in the New World were required to be restored to Prance. Among the most stirring members of the now sadly baffled Canada Company, was one Thomas Eyre, a London merchant, who had acted as its Accountant 1 2 Court and Times of Charles I., by Birch, 90. rSLES OF SHOALS. 61 mid Treasurer.'^ Thomas Waniierton, a notary pub lie and merchant of London, George (friffith, another London merchant, as well as Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges ^ seem to have been in- terested in the Canada Company, and must have been chagrined at its disastrous issue. These men now inquired after some shorter and easier way of reaching the fur country than by the river of Canada, and one which might be used by the English without infringement of the late Treaty. Captain Smith had written, that in his exploration of the New England coast in 1614, he sailed up a river " 40 miles and crossed the mouths of many, whose heads, the inhabitants report, are great lakes, where they kill their beaver, inhabited with many people, that trade with them of New England and those of Canada." ^ The interior of the country had not as yet been explored, and little or nothing was known of it by the English, except from the rude maps of the Dutch and French, chiefly those of L'Es- carbot and Champlain. An inspection of these charts 1 Admiralty Court Book, Vol. 271, Sub. An. 1633. Public Rcc. Off., London. ^ See the numerous affidavits and orders in the Court of *x- iiiiralty, relating to the affairs of the Canada Compan). " Smith's letter t:. Baccn. 62 ISLES OF SHOALS. corroborated the statements of Smith. On these maps, the Iroqnois Lake (now Lake Champlain) which, by the recent capture of Quebec, was now known to be one of the richest trapping grounds of New JB ranee, was laid down close in the rear of New Hampshire, and the Piscataqua river took its source near its banks, if not directly from the Lake itself, thus affording easy access to the Iroquois beavei country at an immense saving of distance and ex- pense. It was but ten days after the return of the Canada Company Expedition that, accordingly. Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges and Captain John Mason took out for themselves and their associates, a grant dated Novem- ber 17, 1629, of a large vaguely bounded territory on the Iroquois Lake, named Laconia,^ and admitted as their associates in the Patent, Thomas Eyre, Thomas Wannerton, John Cotton, Henry Gardner, George Griffith, Edwin Guy, and Eliezer Eyre. The scheme of these Patentees is apparent from the language of the Grant itself. It was to send over cargoes of In- dian truck-goods to the Piscataqua and unlade theni at the factories near the mc^th of the river, and the»'e to transport them in boats or canoes up the Piscataqua to Lake Champlain, to be bartered there ^ See Appendix No. 2. ISLES OF SHOALS. 63 for peltries for exportation from the factories to Europe. For the better accommodation of this traffic, the Company were authorized to take up one thou- sand acres of land on the side of the Piscataqua river, as a site of their factory ; but they seem not to have availed themselves of this privilege, the territory at the mouth of the river being acquired by the adven- turers under a subsequent patent. The next spring after the grant of Laconia was made, the Company sent out to the Piscataqua a party of men, under command of Captain Walter Neale, to explore and take possession of their new province. Captain Walter Neale was one of those soldiers of fortune so numerous in that stirring age. Prior to 1615, he had served as Captain of the Artillery Gar- den^ in London, wherein the principal citizens were disciplined and instructed in the art of war. He then enlisted into active military service, both abroad and at home, wherever his sword could find employment, for the ensuing thirteen years. He says of himself in 1628, that " he hath never had any other profes- sion but his sword, nor other fortune than the warre ; that he hath been an officer in his Ma*' service five years, both in the expedicon w"' Count Mannsfelt and in several expeditions since, and served in the Isle 64 ISLES OF SHOALS. of R^ many weeks a voluntary, without recQUia^^ pay." I On Neale's petition, in 1628, for compensa.tJon fo^ these military services, it was, by order, referred i i Captain John Mason, to cast up the accounts and certify as to the amount due. The acquaintance, thus formed, probably led to the selection of Neale as commander of the expedition sent out by the Laconia Company in quest of the Iroquois country and th^ French trapping grounds. Captain Neale and his company arrived at the Pin- cataqua, in the bark '' Warwick," June, 1630, and took possession, as his " chiefe habitation," of the buildings at Ordiorne's Point, Little Harbor, whict had been erected by David Thompson in 1623. As Thompson had removed about 1626, to an island in Massachusetts' Bay, and two years later had there died,2 it seems probable that Neale's occupation of the plantation at Ordiorne's Point was under some ar- rangement with Thompson's heirs. All the efforts of Captain Neale to reach the coveted Laconia proved, however, fruitless. He made the attempt, says Ferd. Gorges, Esq., " and the dis- covery wanted one day's journey of j&nishing, because 1 Eng. State Pap. (Domes.), Vol. 136, No. 43. 2 Bradford's Hist. (Ch. Dearie's note), p. 209. ISLES OF SHOALS. 65 their victuals were spent, which for want of horses, they were enforced to carry with their arms and their clothes on their backs ; they intended to make a set- tlement for trade by pinnaces upon the said Lake (Champlain), which they reckon to be about 90 or 100 miles from the plantation overland." ^ " Three years," says Hubbard, " were spent in la bor and travel for that end or other fruitless endeav- ors," and at last " they returned back to England, with a ' non est inventa Provincial " ^ During these three years of vain search after La- conia, the adventurers had made strenuous efforts to sustain their factories on the Piscataqua by traffic and the fisheries under the charge of their factor, Ambrose Gibbons, who had come out for that purpose in the same vessel with Captain Neale. Several car- goes of trade goods were sent over and put off for beaver skins at advantage, clapboards and pipe-staves were manufactured, salt-pans set up and salt made from the sea-water ; vines were planted, and a consid- erable tract of ground brought under cultivation. So bright seemed at one time the prospects of the Com- pany, that it was determined to enlarge and extend its operations. A grant was accordingly prociu'ed, ^ America painted to the Life. 2 Hubbard's New Eng., 216. 5 66 ISLES OF SHOALS. November 3, 1631, to tlie Adventurers jointly of a small tract of land on each side of the Piscataqua, called the " Grant and Confirmation of Pescataway to S"" Ferdinando Gorges and Cap* Mason & oth- ers." 1 The Isles of Shoals being at that time, as we have seen, the resort of fishing vessels, were important to the adventurers in the prosecution of their business ; and we find, accordingly, that in the Patent, the en- tire group of the Shoals was included, a magazine was established there, and a close intercourse maintained between them and the mainland. But upon the whole, what with bad management and bad faith on the part of the Company's servants, the business turned out unprofitable, and the adven- turers became discouraged. As a final effort, they determined, in 1632, to try a venture in the fisheries alone. In the spring of that year they chartered from Mathew Craddock, and others, a pinnace of 100 tons named the " Lyon's Whelp of London," John Gibbs, master, for a fishing voyage to the Piscataqua and the Isles of Shoals, thence to Bilboa, etc., and back to London. By the charter party, she was to sail from London in season to reach the Shoals before Aprii 30 ; or if she arrived later in the season, then she ^ Appendix No. 3. ISLES OF SHOALS. 67 was to proceed at once to Newfoundland, and procure there a fare of fish.i By reason of the unseaworthi- ness of the vessel, she did not arrive at the Piscataqua until after the end of April, and the fishing seasor was over ; and failed to proceed to Newfoundland, aa directed in such case by the charter party, but re- turned to London in the fall with heavy loss to all concerned in the adventure. This last blow proved the destruction of the Com- pany of Laconia. Their brilliant visions of sudden and boundless wealth from their Province of the Iro- quois Lake had melted away ; their traffic at the Pis- cataqua Factories had brought them nothing but vex- ation and loss ; even their hopes from the Isles of Shoals fisheries had been bafiled by bad management and misfortune. They gave over all further efforts in despair. No more vessels, either for fishing or trade, were sent out. The Company was disbanded ; Cap- tain Neale with ten of his men returned to England o in August, 1633 ; the assets of the Company were partitioned among those interested ; and then there sprang up between the adventurers a numerous crop of quarrels and litigations, the mouldy records of which, among the archives of the long abolished " Court ot Requests," have preserved to our time the story of the hapless Company of Laconia. 1 Appendix No. 4. 68 ISLES OF SHOALS. In 1633. a diyision of the joint estate on the north- erly side of the Piscataqua River ^vas made among the adventurers ; but the Shoals, and the estate on the south side of the river, ^vere expressly retained as common property, until another and final distribu- tion of the assets in 1635 ; at which time, as neither Mason nor Gorges wished to surrender their entire interest in these valuable islands, the group was di- vided between them precisely upon the line, which, with a brief interruption, has been maintained to the present day. Gorges took the northerly half, and carried it with him into his subsequent province of Maine, while John Mason took the southerly half and annexed it to his abeady granted province of New Hampshire.^ This circumstance accounts for the sin- gular division of our " many of barren rocks," be- tween the two governments. And we have ventured to explain this part of their history at some detail, as none of our authors, to our knowledge, have set these matters out in a clear light. During the existence of the Company of Laconia^ both the Islands and the main land had become peopled with considerable niunbers of laborers of all sorts, and permanent buildings had been erected. This popula- tion had remained long enough to take root, anq npon the withdrawal of the Laconia Company, they * Catalogue of Early Doc. rel. to Maine, p. 46. ISLES OF SHOALS. 69 fomied themselves into voluntary combinations, and laid the foundation of a new and independent State. The Isles of Shoals, under the patronage of the Laconia adventurers, had gained considerably in popu- lation and business, their rateable property being equal to that of New Plymouth itself; no less than seven- teen fishing ships from Europe having arrived there and at Richman's Island m the month of March, 1633-4.^ Edward Johnson, in his History of New England, written not long after, truly describes the Isles of Shoals as having become, at that day, " a gi'eat place for fishing for our Enghsh nation. "^ Lechford, in his " Plaine Dealing," written a few years later, character- izes the group in very similar language. ^ The un- portance of this little cluster of bare rocks was now, indeed, generally recognized, as a chief fishing station in the Gulf of Maine. 1 1 Winthrop, p. 124. ^ Johnson's New England, ch. SO. ^Plaine Dealing, p, 107. CHAPTER VIII. AMONG those who visited the Shoals at this early period must not be forgotten the great name of Richard Mather, the founder and progenitor of that ''^ decemvir ate ^^ of Mathers, who exercised such an important influence over the early history of New England. Richard Mather writes, in the diary of his voyage to New England, under date of August 14, 1635 : — " This evening by moonlight, about ten of-the-clock, we came to anchor at the Isles of Shoals, which are seven or eight islands and other great rocks, and there slept sweetly that night, until break of day." In the morning, however, one of the most terrible easterly storms broke on the sea, that has ever been known in New England. " Whereby," continues Richard, " we were in as much danger as I think ever people were. For we lost in that morning three great anchors and cables; of which cables, one, having cost .£50, never had been in any water before; two (70) ISLES OF SHOALS. 71 were broken by the violence of the waves, and thci third cut by the seamen in extremity and distress, to save the ship and their and our lives. And when our cables and anchors were all lost, we had no outward means of deliverance, but by loosing sail, li' so be we might get to the sea from amongst the islands and rocks where we anchored. But the Lord let us see that our sails could not save us neither ; no more than our cables and anchors. For, by the force of the wind and rain, the sails were rent in sunder and split in pieces, as if they had been but rotten rags, so that of the foresail and spritsail there was scarce left so much as a hand breadth that was not rent in pieces and blown away into the sea. So that at this time, all hope that we should be saved, in regard of any outward appearance, was utterly taken away; and rather because we seemed to drive with full force of wind and rain directly upon a mighty rock, standing out in sight above the water; so that we did but continually wait, when we should hear find feel the doleful rushing and crashing of the ship u[)on the rock. In this extremity and appearance i)t' death, as distress and destruction would suffer us, we cried unto the Lord, and he was pleased to have compassion and pity upon us ; for by his over- ruling Providence and liis own immediate good hand, 72 ISLES OF SHOALS. lie guided the ship past the rock, assuaged the violence of the sea and of the wind and rain, and gave us a little respite to fit the ship with other sails and sent us a fresh gale of wind, by which we went on that day toward Cape Ann. It was a day much to be remem- bered, because on that day the Lord granted us as wonderful a deliverance, as I think ever people had, out of as apparent danger, as I think ever people felt. I am sure our seamen confessed they never knew the like. The Lord so imprint the memory of it on our hearts, that we may be better for it, and be more care- ful to please him, and to walk uprightly before him, as long as we live; and I hope we shall not forget the passages of that morning until our dying day."^ " The mighty rock," past which the immediate good hand of Providence guided the James of Bristol on this fearful morning was probably White Island, the west- ernmost of the Isles of Shoals.^ The three great anchors, which Mather's ship then lost, still lie, no doubt, beneath the waters of the Shoals harbor ; most interesting relics, could they be recovered, of the first generation of our Puritan Fathers, and particularly of one of tlie greatest families an ong them. ^ Young's Chronicles, p. 473. 2 Compare 1 Winthrop, p. 165. ISLES OF SHOALS. T3 The tempest in wliich she was caught was, perhaps, the most furious that ever visited these exposed Islands Nearly all the contemporaneous writers of New Eng land describe its violence with dismay. Says Morton, who witnessed it at New Plymouth : "It was such a mighty storm of wind and rain, as none now living in these parts, either English or Indian, had seen the like, being like unto those hurricanes or tuffins that writers mention to be in the Indies. It began in the morning a little before day, and grew not by degrees, but came with great violence in the beginning, to the great amazement of many ; it blew down sundry houses and uncovered divers others ; many vessels were lost at sea in it, and many more in extreme danger. It caused the sea to swell in some places to the southward of Plymouth, as that it arose to twenty feet right up and down, and made many of the Indians to climb into trees for safety. It blew down many hundred thous- ands of trees, turning up the stronger by the roots, and breaking the high pine trees and such like in the midst, and the tall young oak and walnut trees of good bigness were wound as withes by it, very strange and fearful to behold ; the marks of it will reniain this ma-ny years in those parts where it was forest. Tlie iiio'»n sufferei a great eclipse two nights after it."^ 1 Morton's Memorial, p. 112. 74 ISLES OF SHOALS. Winthrop adds, that such was the violence of the tempest at sea, that in Boston harbor there were two flood tides within two hours of each other.^ It was, probably, in this same great storm, that a house, belonging to a tailor, named Tucker, was swept away by the waves from the rocks on Haley's or Smuttynose Island, and carried entire to Cape Cod, where it was hauled ashore, and a box of linen, papers, etc., which was found in it, made known from whence it came. The family had barely time to escape before the house was washed into the sea.^ That same fearful morning, Anthony Thatcher and his cousin Avery, with their famihes, were wrecked upon one of the small islands at the head of Admiral John Smith's Cape Tragabigzauda, near the Three Turks' Heads and in view from the Shoals. • Thatcher who had been a non-conformist minister in England, gave a narrative of the catastrophe, which, by its pa- thos, its unaffected piety, its homely truth, cannot fail, we think, to interest the reader. ''I must turn my drowned pen and shaking hand," writes Thatcher, "to indite the story of such sad news, as never before this happened in New England. *' There was a league of perpetual friendship bo. 1 1 Winthrop, p. 1G4. * 7 Mass. Hist. Coll. p. 2.52. ISLES OF SHOALS. "^5 tween my cousin Avery and myself, never to forsake each other to the death, but to be partakers of each other's misery or welfare, as also of habitation in the same place. *' We embarked at Ipswich, August 11, 1635, with our families and substance, bound for Marblehead, we being in all twenty-three souls, viz. : 11 in my cousin's family, 7 in mine, one Mr. Eliot, and 4 mari- ners. The next morning, having commended our- selves to God, with cheerful hearts we set sail. But before dayhght, (of August 15), it pleased the Lord to send so mighty a storm, as the like was never known in New England. It was so furious that an anchor came home ; whereupon the mariners let out more cable, which at last slipped away. Then our sailors knew not what to do; but we were driven before the wind and waves. " My cousin and I perceived our danger, and sol- emnly recommended ourselves to God, the Lord both of earth and seas, expecting with every wave to be swallowed up and drenched in the deeps. And as my cousin, his wife, and my tender babes sat comforting and cheering one the other in the Lord against ghastly death, which every moment stared us in the face, and Bat triumphing on each one's forehead, we were by dhe violence of the waves and fury of the winds (by 76 TSLES OF SHOALS. the Lord'ri permission) lifted up upon a rock between two high I'ocks, yet all was one rock. The waves came furiously and violently over us and against us, but by reason of the rock's proportion, could not lift us off, but beat her all to pieces. Now consider of my misery, who beheld the ship broken, the water violently overwhelming us, my goods and provisions swimming in the seas, my friends almost drowned, mine own poor children so untimely before mine eyes drowned, and ready to be swallowed up and dashed to pieces against the rocks by the merciless waves, and myself ready to accompany them. "But from the greatest to the least of us, there was not one screech or outcry made ; but all, as silent sheep, were contentedly resolved to die together lov- ingly, as since our acquaintance we had lived together friendly. *' Now as I was sitting in the cabin room door, with my body in the room, when lo I one of the sailors, by a wave being washed out of the pinnace, was gotten in again, and coming into the cabin room over my back, cried out: 'We are all cast away! The Lord have mercy upon us ! I have been washea overboard into the sea, and am gotten in again.' His speeches made me look forth, and seeing how we were, I turned myself to and spake these words : ' O, ISLES OF SHOALS. 77 cousin, it hath pleased God to cast us here between two rocks, the shore not far from us, for I saw the tops of trees when I looked forth.' Whereupon the master of the pinnace, looking up at the scuttle hole of the quarter deck, went out at it, but I never saw him afterwards. Then he that had been in the sea went out agam by me and leaped overboard toward, the rocks, whom afterwards also I could not see. " My cousin thought I would have fled from hiiix, and said unto me ; ' O, cousin, leave us not ; let us die together,' and reached forth his hand unto me. Then I, letting go my son Peter's hand, took him by the hand, and said : ' Cousin, I purpose it not ; whither shall I go ? I am willing and ready here to die with you and my poor children. God be merciful to us and receive us to himself ! ' " Which words 1 had no sooner spoken, but by a mighty wave I was, with the piece of the bark, washed out upon part of the rock, where the wave left me almost drowned. But recovering my feet, I saw above me on the rock my daughter, Mary, to whom I had no sooner gotten, but my cousin, Avery, and his eldest son came to us, being all four of us washed out by one and the same wave. " Then," Bays Cotton Mather, " did Mr. Avery lift up his eyes to Heaven and say, ' We know not what the pleasure 78 ISLES OF SHOALS. of God is. I fear we have been too unmindful of for* mer deliverances. Lord ! I cannot challenge a pres- ervation of my life, but Thou hast promised to de- liver us from sin and condemnation and to bring us safe to Heaven, through the all-sufl&cient satisfaction of Jesus Christ. This therefore I do challenge of Thee.' " i' ^ " We called," continues Thatcher, " to those in the pinnace to come to us. My wife, see- ing us there, was crept up into the scuttle of the quarter deck to come unto us. But presently came another wave, and dashing the pinnace all to pieces, carried my wife away in the scuttle, as she was, with the greater part of the quarter deck, unto the shore, where she was cast safely but something bruised. All the rest that were in the bark were drowned in the merciless seas. We four by that wave were clean swept away from off the rock also into the sea ; the Lord, in one instant of time, disposing of fifteen souls of us, according to his good pleasure and will. " As I was sliding off the rock into the sea, the Lord directed my toes into a joint in the rock's side, and also the tips of some of my fingers, by means whereof, the wave leaving me, I remained so, hang- ing on the rock, only my head above the water. By another wave I was washed away from the rock 1 1 Mather's Mag. 332. ISLES OF SHOALS. 79 and driven hither and thither in the seas a great while, and had many dashes against the rocks. At length, past hopes of life, and wearied in body and spirits, I even gave over to nature, and being ready to receive in the waters of death, I lifted up both my heart and hands to the God of Heaven, — for note, I had my senses remaining perfect with me all the time that I was under and in water ; who at that instant lifted my head above the top of the water, so I might breathe without any hindrance by the waters. I stood bolt upright, as if I had stood upon my feet, but I felt no bottom, nor had any footing to stand upon but the waters. " Suddenly I was overwhelmed with waters, and driven to and fro again, and at last I felt the ground with my right fc ot. I made haste to get out, and with safety crept to the dry shore, where, blessing God, I turned about to look for my children and friends, but saw neither, nor any part of the pinnace. But I saw my wife about a butt length from me, gotten to the shore. "When we were come together, we went and sat down together under the bank. But fear of the seas roaring and our coldness would not suffer us i\\(ivQ to remain. But we went up into the land and sat us down under a cedar tree, which the wind had 80 ISLES OF SHOALS, thrown down, where we sat about an hour, almost dead with cold. " Now came to my remembrance the time and manner, how and when I last saw and left my children and friends. One was severed from me sitting on the rock at my feet-, the other three in the pinnace ; my httle babe (ah, poor Peter !) sitting in his sister Edith's arms, who, to the uttermost of her power, sheltered him from the waters ; my poor William standing close unto them, all three of them looking ruefully on me on the rock, their very countenances calling unto me to help them. Oh, I yet see their cheeks, poor silent lambs, pleading pity and help at mv hands ! *' I and my wife were almost naked, both of us, and wet and cold even unto death. I found a knap- sack cast on the shore, in which I had a steel and flint and powder-horn. Going further, I found a drowned goat ; then I found a hat and my son Wil- liam's coat, both which I put on. My wife found one of her petticoats which she put on. I found also two cheeses and some butter driven ashore. Thus the Lord sent us some clothes to put on, and food to sustain our new lives, which we had lately given untc us, and means also to make fire ; for in a horn I had some gunpowder, which, to mine own, and smce tc other men's admiration, was dry. ISLES OF SHOALS. 81 " There we remained until the Monday following ; when, about three of the clock in the afternoon, in a boat that came that way, we went off that desolate island, which I named, after my name, Thatcher's Woe, and the rock, Avery his Fall, to the end that their fall and loss, and mine own, might he had in perpetual remembrance."^ The worthy man's hope in this latter regard has been fully gratified. Thatcher's Island, at the head of Cape Ann, still perpetuates the remembrance of Thatcher's Woe, and Avery's Rock still puts us in mind of Avery his Fall. 1 Young's Chronicles, p. 485. CHAPTER IX. FOR some twenty years after the dissolution, in 1633, of the trading company of Laconia, and the partition of the Isles of Shoals between Gorges and Mason, they remained substantially free and in- dependent. In the year 1635, Mason died, and, for a long time afterwards, his heirs delayed to make good their title to the south half of the Shoals, or any part of the Province of New Hampshire. The northern half was, it is true, attached to Gorges' Province, but so loosely that the restraint of its courts was little felt. During this long period of independence, the Isles of Shoals made important advances in popula- tion, business, and wealth. The inhabitants became sedentary ; numbers of dwelling-houses were erected, and the titles to these bare rocks became of substan- tial value, worthy of careful record in the County books. The number of the resident population ran up to about 600 souls ; they had a meeting-house ^ and a 1 Appendix No. 5. (82) ISLES OF SHOALS. 83 court-house on Haley's Island, " and a seminary of Buch repute, that even gentlemen from some of the towns on the sea-coast sent their sons here for literary instruction." ^ The meeting-house is said to have been constructed of brick ; the dwelling-houses of the more substantial resi- dents were comfortable and of good size, the furni- ture as ample as then known in New England. An or- dinary, or tavern, was kept on Smutty Nose, a bowling alley and brewery were on Hog Island, and ale-houses abounded. 2 Flocks and herds, and swine, were nu- merous upon the Islands. Philip Babb, in 1671, kept five head of cattle and seven sheep ; William Seeley at the same time kept four sheep and several " shoates " ; and other residents, no doubt, were pro- prietors of domestic animals. The soil of the islands was much deeper in those early days than it is at pres- ent. About the beginning of the present century, a great deal of the turf is said to have been consumed as fuel by the destitute islanders, and the soil has now be- come so scanty, that but for the extinction of the settle- mer.t, burials must, ere this, have been made in the sea. The estates of the leading men at this early period were very large — among the largest in New England. 1 1 WiUiamson's Hist, of Maine, p. 277. * York County Records, passim. 84 ISLES OF SHOALS. Philip Babb, at his death, left an estate valued at £200; William Seeley, one of £631 7s.', Walter Mathews, one of £400. James Waymouth's estate was appraised at £595, and that of John Lines at £729 13s. Id., sterling money. All these men were residents of the islands at the same period, and died there about 1674, within a few years of each other. ^ At this period the population of the Isles of Shoals was chiefly located on the northern or Gorges portion, although Star Island was not wholly vacant. The earliest of the settlements had been made upon Hog Island, on account of a good spring of water there. A v.,onsiderable village was built on the sheltered southerly slope of that Island, running back from Smith's Cove to the eastward, and straggling here and there over the rocks up the broken slope. The visitor of to-day may easily trace the general figure of the hamlet in the cellar and garden walls (some 70 or 80 in number), which, though now tumbled down and overgrown with vines and weeds, clearly mark the site of a once thriv- ino; viUao-e. The Island, called Smutty Nose (now Haley's) pos- sessed, in its smoother surface and arable fields, su- perior attractions over the rest of the group, as a place of residence. From the very first, accordingly, we find considerable numbers, and those among the chief * Records of York and Rockino-hain Counties. ISLES OF SHOALS. 8 of the population, selecting that Island as the site of their dwellings and fishing stages. The precise period, when the several Islands cf tlie group acquired their present names, cannot now be hxed. As long as the population remained concen- trated upon the large Island of the cluster, the name " Isle of Shoals " would be quite definite enough to designate that particular Island, though it was also used sometimes, in a larger sense, to denote the whole group. As soon, however, as the other Islands became inhabited, convenience would require the application to them of separate names. Until the dissolution of the Company of Laconia, the only name given to the Islands, whether general or specific, was that of the Isle or Isles of Shoals. The name of Hog Island we have traced back to 1635, that of Smutty Nose to about 1650, and that of Star Island to 1647, though the atter names were, doubtless, conferred prior to those fcieveral dates. Hoo- Island is said to have derived its name from the fancied resemblance of its elevated ridge to a hog's back."^ Smutty Nose was so nick-named from a long black projection or nose on its southeast side. Star Island took its title from its star-shaped outline. Upon Cedar Island grew perhaps the " three or four 1 More probably, from the number of hogs kept upon it. 8(j ISLES OF SHOALS. Bhort shrubby old cedars," spoken of by Captain Smith, which gave the Island its name, and the view of which by John Winthrop, as he sailed by in 1630, at a dis- tance of two leagues, misled him into describing the Isles of Shoals as being " woody ^ ^ The appellation of Isles of Shoals — spelt variously in early times, Shoulds, Sholes, or Showles — was per- haps conferred on the group, on account of the reefs or shoals, which lurk about the Islands.^ It is not our purpose to enter into minute details, as to the names, characters or genealogies of the early settlers upon our then busy islets. Such particulars could interest none but the devoted antiquary. Among the principal residents there, however, about the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Islands had at- tained a high prosperity, we may mention the three brothers, John, Richard, and Robert Cutt. They set- tled there very early, and although they all removed to the mainland about 1647, Richard and John car- 1 2 Winthrop (Addenda), 341. 2 It is proper to observe, however, that one of the most learned and exact antiquaries of New England, Charles W. Tuttle, Esq., of Boston, is of opinion that " the name of the group was ob- viously suggested by their plurality." On Captain Smith's map he says : " Eighteen distinct islands are laid down. A number that suggests the idea of a ' Shoal of Isles,' shpal being current in those days to signify a multitude, a throng or a crowd. Writers have chosen to write 'Isles of Shoals,' -in place of ' Shoals of Isles/ thereby concealing to some extent the origin of the name. ISLES OF SHOALS. 87 ried on business at the Shoals until their death. ^ Richard Cutt seems, from his last will, to have owned a large property at Star Island at the time of his death in 1676, and to have carried on an extensive trade there in partnership with his son-in-law, Wil- Ham Vaughan. John Cutt was, in 1679, created the first Royal President of the Province of New Hamp- shire. Robert Cutt was an Episcopalian and Royal- ist, like most of the founders of Maine and New Hampshire ; but his brothers, Richard and John, were strongly tinctured with Puritanism, and when they had removed to the mainland, after New Hampshire came under the rule of Massachusetts Bay, they were intrusted by the latter for the ensuing thirty years with the chief offices and influence over the Piscata- qua, and thus accumulated very large estates. Hav- ing secured wealth and honors. President John, near the close of his life, turned his back on the Puritans and courted the Royal favor and protection. " He was cast out," says Randolph, in 1679, "of all Publick Employments by the Government of Boston," but se- cured full compensation from the King, and died in the enjoyment of his ample property .2 The tliree brothers, William, Richard and John Seeley were also among tlie more distinguished of the 1 See their Last Wills. Probate Rec., Rock. Co. 2 N. Eng. Pap., Vol. 42, p. 202. Rec. Off., Lopaon. 88 ISLES OF SHOALS. early settlers there. They came over from England before 1640, and established themselves on Smutty Nose Island, where for many years they occupied chief positions as magistrates, constables, deputies and merchants.^ Another group of brothers, William, Roger and John Kelly, make a considerable figure in the early records of the Shoals, as men of energy and substance. They also settled upon Smutty Nose. A fourth group of brothers, living on that Island at this time, were William, Benedict and Richard Ohver, v/ho not only acquired there "dwelling-houses, houseings, staging and stage-room, flakes and flake-room and mooring places," in the language of the ancient deeds, but also purchased tracts of territory on the mainland. The singular circumstance, that so many groups of brothers are found among our early emigrants is due to the fact that most of them were young unmar- ried men, and naturally sought the companionship of their brothers in emigrating to a new world. The brothers, Michael and Richard Endel, (or Endle) emigrated to the Shoals about 1650, while yeivy young men. They subsequently married young women of the Islands, accumulated property, and ex «rcised considerable influence for many years. 1 York County Records. ISLES OF SHOALS. 89 Among the many other names to be met with in the ancient records of the Islands, are those of Wil- liam Pepperell, father of Sir WilHam Pepperell, Wil- liam Wormwood, Gabriel Grubb, Walter Boaden, the brothers Peter and John Twisden, Hercnlus Hun- kins, Philip Babb, Nick Hodge, the brothers Stephen and Richard Forde (alias Downs), Jack Crossom, Arthur Clapham, Fortunatus Home, and others equally queer. But the most attractive figure among all these early settlers is that of Mistress Rebecca Sherburne, wife of Henry Sherburne, who made her home for a time on the small Island of Malaga. Am- brose Gibbins and his wife, Rebecca's parents, had settled in New Hampshire as early as 1630. Am- brose, who had been for the previous eight years in- terested in New England matters, was sent out, as be- fore stated, as a steward or manager of the affairs of the Laconia Company, and resided in that capacity at Newitchawannock (now South Berwick) until about the time of the dissolution of that company ; when, hav- ing procured from them a grant of Saunders' Point in Little Harbor, he removed his family there, and estab- lished a home on that beautiftil locality. His daughter, Rebecca, was a mere child at the time of her arrival in New Hampshire, probably the first white child ever resident within the limits of that Province. She was naturally a favorite in the settle- 90 ISLES OF SHOALS. ment, and always spoken of in pleasant terms. For instance, George Vaughan writes to her father, in 1634: "My kind love to you and your spouse, and little Beck,"^ and John Raymond, while riding in the harbor of the Shoals, before sailing away to England, sends back to him a letter, remembering " my love to yourself, Mrs. Gibbins, little Becke, and the rest."^ The association of our little Becke with the Isles of Shoals, thus early begun, was destined to endure for many years. When she had reached about her seven- teenth year she married Henry Sherburne. A few years later, her husband purchased, in 1647, of Antipas Mav- erick, a dwelling-house on Appledore Island ; and there it is possible the young pair for a while resided. After a time, however, they removed to the little Island known as Malaga (then written Malagoe), and lived there probably at intervals, until 1660, when they sold out their property at the shoals to Nath'l. Freyer, and took up their future home on the mainland.^ Little Becke seems, as is fitting, to have lived a prosperous and happy life, and her descendants are still numerous in the land. The trade and commerce of the Isles of Shoals at this period was by no means insignificant. Not only 1 1 New Hamp. Prov. Pap., p, 95. 2 New Hampshire Pro. Pap,, p. 76. '^ 1 Id., p. 357. ISLES OF SHOALS. 9 were vast quantities of fish taken and cured by tlie fishermen of the Islands, but the harbor became the entrepot for the fish caught in other parts of the Gulf of Maine,^ and were thence exported " to Lisbourne, Bilbo, Talloon, Rochel, and other cities of France, together with claw-boards and pipe-staves, which is there and at the Charibs a prime commod- ity,"^ bringing rich return cargoes of wine, sugar, to- bacco, etc., Avhich were distributed from the 'wai-ehouses of the traders at the Shoals and Strawberry Bank among the various settlements from Martha's Vine- yard to Acadia. In 1636, for instance, Thomas May- hew visited the Shoals for the purpose of purchasing so large a quantity as eighty hogsheads of provis- ions at one time, and expended a hundred pounds sterling in imported '' ruggs and coates."^ It was from these busy Islets that voyagers to the old world often embarked, and prisoners of state, ordered to be transported to England, were sent out to the Isles of Shoals to take passage in vessels bound from thence. The famous Thomas Morton, of Merry Mount, one of the first victims of the intolerance of the Pilgrim Fathers, was, in 1628, banished from Nov,* 1 Lechford's " Plain Dealing," p. 116. Appendix No. 6. 2 Josselyn's Voyages to New England, p. 161. 3 Mass. Hist. Col., 4tli Series, Vol. \ll, p. 31. 92 ISLES OF SHOALS. England in a vessel, wliich sailed from these Islands in June of that year.^ As Morton, after many tribu- lations, finally settled down at the Piscataqua, and passed there the remainder of his life, we have felt a curiosity to discover the grievous offences, which just- ified so severe a punishment as banishment, and the confiscation or destruction of his estate. One of his chief sins proven seems to have been a mirthful and sportive temper, and the evidence of it was that he and his merry men were guilty of dancing around a Maypole — a ealfe of Horeh., groaned the Puritans — and of composing a profane, licentious song, which was sung, says Morton himself, " with a Corns, every man bearing his part ; which they performed in a daunce, hand-in-hand about the Maypole, whiles one of the Company sung, and filled out the good liquor, like Gannemede and Jupiter." The song itself, if any of our readers may desire to glance at so wicked a composition, ran thus : — THE SONGE. Drinke, and be merry, merry, merry boyes, Let all your delight be in Hymen's joyes, lo to Hymen, now the day is come, About the merry Maypole take a roome. Make greene garlons, bring bottles out, And fill sweet Nectar freely about ; Uncover thy head and feare no harm. For here's good liquor to keep it warme. 1 Morton's New England Memorial, p. 141. ISLES OF SHOALS. 93 Then drinke and be merry, etc. Nectar is a thing asi?igned By the Deitie's owne mind To cure the hart oppressed with griefe, And of good liquors is the chiefe. Then drinke, etc. Give to the mellancolly man A cup or two of 't now and then ; This physick will soone revive his bloud, And make him of a merrier moode. Then drinke, etc Give to the Nymphe that's free from scorne No Irish stuiF, nor Scotch o'erworne ; Lasses in beaver coats come away, Yee shall be welcome to us night and day. Then drinke and be merry boys, etc.^ Th3 (lancing about a Maypole, the other chief article in Morton's indictment, was a hearty old English pastime, by no means uncommon with the first plant- ers. Phinehas Pratt, who visited the Isles of Shoals as early as 1622, the year before the arrival of Ca[)t. Levett, was guilty, on his own confession, of the same sin. He informs us, in his curious and quaint Narra- tive, that they went ashore, on arrival at Damariscove Island, '' set up a Maypole and were very merry." Not only did voyagers and traders and fishermen appear at the Shoals, but the islands seem to have !)ecome a chief emporium of foreign news. 1 Morton's New English Canaan, p. 91. 94 ISLES OF SHOALS. For instance, Gorges writes to Winthrop, in 1640, from Gorgeanna (now York) : "I cannot send you news from England, because the contrariety of winds hath hindred it from coming from the Isles of Shoals ;"-^ and tlie great tidings of the breaking out of the English rebellion, as well as the news of the execution of King Charles in 1649, did not reach New England until it was brought out by a Shoals' vessel."^ Indeed, if it were consonant to the plan of this sketch to accumulate still further instances and de- tails of the active prosperity of the Isles of Shoals, during the middle of the seventeenth century, abun- dant evidences might be gathered out of the Mass. Colonial Records, the New Hampshire Provincial Papers, and the different county and town records, to which we must content ourselves at present with sim- ply making a reference. 1 7 Mass. Hist. Col., 4th Series, p. 334. 2 2 Wintlirop, pp. 60, 413. Savage's Notes. CHAPTER X. THE Isles of Shoals, for many years after the dis- solution of the Company of Laconia, to which they had belonged, enjoyed almost unrestrained civil and religious liberty. At last, about 1652, they fell under the dominion of Massachusetts Bay. The dissensions between the King and Commons of England, which, as we have seen, began partly in the grievances of the poor fishermen of the Gulf of Maine, as early as 1622, had deepened in importance and bit- terness, until, in 1640, the nation was on the eve of that momentous struggle which was, for the next de- cade, to plunge the kingdom in blood and anarchy. The Massachusetts colony, who deeply sympathized with the Roundheads throughout the rebellion, and were confident of the latter's support in the usurpation they meditated, considered the occasion auspicious to seize upon the Provinces of New Hampshire and Maine, under the pretext tnat a true construction of their charter extended their northern limits as far as Clapboard Island, in Casco Bay. (95) 96 ISLES OF SHOALS. Accordingly, in 1640, following the example of Joshua, the son of Nun, Gov. Winthrop sent into those parts the famous Hugh Peters, to " view the land," and sound the inclinations of the people. The messenger returned and reported to the Governor, that the people of the Easterly provinces were, in his own words, " ripe for our Government, as will appear by the note I have sent you. They grone for Government and Gospell all over that side of the country. Alas, poore bleeding soules ! "^ Some of the people of the Piscataqua were then procured to sign a petition for admission, and accordingly, in 1641, that section of the country was taken under the protecting wing of the Mass. Bay ,2 and so re- mained for nearly forty years afterwards. The Pro- vince of Maine, however, stood out against the arguments and allurements of Governor Winthrop for ten years longer ; but when at last King Charles, in 1649, perished on the scaffold, and the cause of the Roundheads was triumphant, the Puritans of Mas- sachusetts, having no longer any punishment to dread for their deed of violence, as soon as the necessary arrangements could be perfected, took forcible posses- sion of the Province of Maine, which they managed to hold for nearly two centuries after. 1 6 Mass. Hist. Col., 4th Series, p. 108. « 1 New Hamp. Prov. Pap., 158. ISLES OF SHOALS. 97 The Isles of Shoals, during the progress of this struggle between Maine and Massachusetts, ranged themselves stoutly on the side of their royalist and Episcopalian friends on the mainland. When the New Hampshire towns submitted to the Bay rulers in 1641, the Shoals openly revolted against the Puritan Roundheads, and declared their independence. Their minister, Richard Gibson, of the Church of England, who was settled at the Shoals in 1641 and 1642, spared no pains nor zeal to confirm his people in their resolution. Being in Boston in the summer of the latter year, on his return to England, he was seized by the authorities there, and indicted for " exercising the mmisterial function at the Shoals according to the discipline of the Church of England, opposing the Mass. title to those parts, and provoking the people to revolt" ; but as it turned out that Master Gibson was then " upon the wing of removal " from the fountry, it was thougiit better to suspend further pro- ceedin2:s a":ainst him.^ When, however, the province of Maine, in 1652, was compelled to bow before the Mass. Bay, the Islea of Shoals could no longer maintain the attitude of open .resistance. The whole group were then brought into uominal obedience to the Bay, and so remained for 1 2 Wintlirop's Hist., p. 66. 7 8 ISLES OF SHOALS. nearly thirty years thereafter. A sound Puritan minis- ter, the Rev. John Brock, was sent over to them. Three judges or commissioners to " end small causes '' were appointed among them by the Puritans;^ "constables and a Sargeant Major " were empowered, " to pre- serve order among them and to train their militia " ; and so heavy a tax was imposed on them and Kittery, to which the northerly half was then annexed, as tc amount to half the sum assessed upon the entire county of Yorkshire.^ The following year, 1653, some twenty of the prin- cipal inhabitants petitioned the Mass. Gen. Court that the Islands might be erected into a separate township, and for certain other privileges therein specified. As this petition set forth clearly the considerable population Df the Shoals at this period, as well as several other matters of interest, we hope to be pardoned for quot- ing it, in extenso. It runs as follows : — To the much honored Court held at Boston, ye IS**" of ye 3^,53. The humble petition of the Inhabitants in the Isles of Shoules Sheweth That whereas wee the said Inhabitants Uveing so remote from the neighbuor-townes upon the Maine and having thereby allready sustained much vexinge through want of a power deputed amongst our selves to helpe, whom it may coneerne U 1 Mass. Rec, Vol. IV., Part i., p. 133. 2 Mass. Rec, Vol. IV., Part i., p. 233. ISLES OF SHOALS. 99 their due debts, and findinge alsoe by unsutable wind and weather, that wee cannot (upon occasion) vlsite the Court that we might enjoy the benefitt of the Law, to recover our owne, in way righteousnes. Wee therefore upon such Hke reasons doe thinke it our dutie to make petition to this much honored general Court that you mought be pleased to take our condition into your serious and sage consideration & to grant us the privilege of a Towneshipp, as farre as your wisdomes shall think us capable, as that we may have amongst us a Clarke of the Writts & some others authorized to have the hearing & issuing of such causes as may fall out under the summe of Ten pounds, we finding as wee under your favor, more neede of such a prevelege than our neighbor- townes, forasmuch as some of our transient ones as it may fall out, they cannot tarrie untill their causes may be issued else- where. Alsoe, may it please the honored Court to take notice that our situation is such, as many times wee necessarilie shall not be able to joyne with our neighbors in militarie affaires through unseasonable weather, without great hazard or damage to our- selves. Our request is therefore that, you would be pleased to make us a distinct company in that respect, wee being upwards of a hundred men at this time, & that our loving friends John Arthur Lieut : & William Sealy Ensigne so chosen amongst us, to beginne that service, they mought be instated into such places, for the benefit of the rest, according to your order. Thus Avee nothing doubting, but yee will be pleased to pass by any of these our unsuitable expressions, & grant us whatsoever your discretion shall see mostly conduceing to our best good. Wee for your fatherlie ceare allready enjoyed, & yet expected doe account our selves in bounden dutie to be ready, to doe you any service to our abilitie, & to make supplications yet in your behalfe, for the further influences of the holie ghost upon your hearts, in these approaching & all after agitations, f-)r his own glory, with his L'hurches wellfare. We now hurablie take our leave, & subscribe ai the name & with general consent. Hercules Hunkins John Arthur 100 ISLES OF SHOALS. Rice Cadogan Edward Smale Samuel Jewell Benjamin Bickford Rice Joanes Phillip Babb William Sealy Peter Gee William Vren Walther Mathews Peter Twisden Richard Sealy John Bickford Humphrey Horewell John Bretnell Mathew Giles John Fabins George Sealy This document was copied by Charles W. Tuttle, Esq., from the original on file in the office of the Secretary of State in Boston. Every signer, says Mr. Tuttle, '' wrote his name in a good fair hand. Upon its reception, the Court ordered that the inhabitants of the ' Isles of Shoals ' have hberty to determine all civil actions, where either or both parties are inhabi- tants, to the value of ten pounds. A ' Clark of the Writts ' was authorized to be appointed ; but the modest request to be made a township was ignored." In 1659, the inhabitants of all the islands again pe- titioned the Massachusetts General Court to be created a separate township.^ This petition was at first denied, on the ground that " the Court doe not judge the persons petitioning to be in a capacity at present to make a township. "^ The reason of the Gen. Court's 1 4 Mass. Rec, Part i., p. 375. 2 Id., p. 136. Ififtiiii iiter;:,*- «?:. 11 '' •€ I'lJi", ^ ' ■', 'iililllll. Il'l'l.' '^'■^ife ISLES OF SHOALS. 101 rejection of this petition was, probably, that at this time, there were few or no persons residing there, who were members of the established Puritan Church in good standing ; and at that time, mdeed, such a church had not been gathered in the orthodox way. Two years later, however, the petition was renewed with better success. In 1661, it was ordered, that the whole group " shall be reputed and hereby allowed to be a township called Apledoore,^ and shall have 1 The name Apledoore was derived from that of an ancient and picturesque fishing hamlet in the parish of Northam, Eng- land, on Barnstaple Bay, North Devon. The engraving at the end of this chapter is an accurate representation of the village at the present time. The English hamlet of Appledore (called by the ancient Saxons, Apleireo) is situated at the confluence of the rivers Taw and Toiridge, a few miles below Barnstaple on the former, and Biddeford on the latter, and being accessible at all times of tide has always been much used as a port by the merchants of these considerable towns, who have from early times been much en- gaged in the American trade and fisheries. From this neigliborliood emigrated many of the first planters of New Hampshire and Maine. When I was in Northam and Appledore, during the summer of 1874, I was struck by the great abundance of surnames there identical with those of the early settlers on the Shoals, the names of Locke, Rand, Tucker, Gar- .and, Kelly, Downs, Dimond, Saunders, Ford, which were to be read on every hand, were borne also by those fishermen, who conferred on their new American home the beloved name of Vheir native hamlet in the old country. Indeed, Edmond Pick- ard, one of the principal proprietors at the Shoals in 16^1 (the 102 ISLES OF SHOALS. equall power to regulate their towne affaires, as othat townes of this jurisdiction have." ^ It will be observed that the Islands were by this act created a township, only for the " regulating their towne affairs." The ancient division was maintained in full force for County and Provincial purposes, and must have subjected the inhabitants to a considerable year tlie name was conferred), expressly describes himself in a Deed, as " of Northam, near Biddeford, in Devon, in Old Eng- land " The village of Appledore was once famous for Its great castle, called Kimoiih, in ancient days ; at the siege of which, saith old Camden, "in the yeare of Christ, 879, Hubba, the Dane, who, with many slaughters and overthrows, had harried the English nation, was (with many other Danes) slaine. And then it was that the Englishmen won the Danes' banner, called Reafan . . . The Danes bare in this Ensign a Raven wrought (by report) in needle worke by the daughters of Lothbrooke, that is Leatherhreech, the Dane, with such an opinion of good luck, as they thought it could never be wonne." — Camden's Brit- annia^ p. 208. This prophetic raven, adds another writer, drooped its wings before defeat, and clapped them triumphantly before a victory. The fortunes of the ancient Appledore has not been unlike that of her younger namesake. By the latest gazeteer, it appears Jhat trade and the fis^heries have now deserted the venerable hamlet, but " as there is an extensive beach and good accommodation for utrangers, Appledore is fast growing into notice as a bathing and watering place," under the name of Westward Ho ! taken from the title of a romance, the scene of which is laid chiefly here, »rrilten by Charles Kingsley. 1 New Hamp. Prov. Pap., p. 240. ISLES OF SHOALS. 103 .inconvenience, which was not obviated until 1672. In that year, in compKance with the petition of the islanders for redress of this grievance, it was or- dered that the whole group " be adjoined unto the same county, unto which Star Island belongs,"^ in other words, to the County of Dover and Portsmouth, and the Province of New Hampshire. This union was brief; in the year 1679, the con- nection between New Hampshire and Mass. Bay, which had now lasted for nearly forty years, was finally broken by the erection of New Hampshire into a Royal Province, under the presidency of a former resident and merchant of the Shoals, Mr. John Cutt. In this commission, the Isles of Shoals, by some oversight, were not mentioned ; but in that issued in 1682 to Cranfield, it was held, by construction, that the south half was included, though not expressly named, and a warrant was issued to bring the inhabitants into obedience. 2 In subsequent royal commissions, the southerly half of the Islands was embraced by name. The original division of the group was now restored, the township of " Apledoore'* was dissolved; the north half returned to Maine, and the southerly half was 1 4 Mass. Rec, Part iu, p. 520. 2 1 N. II. Prov. Pap., p. 132. 104 ISLES OF SHOALS. laid off once more to New Hampshire, a partition which has liever since been disturbed.^ The dividing line, as subsequently confirmed bv the Commissioners of the two Provinces, in 1737, ran ' throuo-h the middle of the harbor between the islands, to the sea, on the southerly side"^ — a boundary line reaffirmed, in 1820, by convention between New Hampshire and Maine. 1 Belknap's Hist, of New Hamp., p. 151. 5* \ Belknap's ^list. of New Hamp., p. 114. CHAPTER XL FROM the earliest settlements, down to the erec- tion of New Hampshire, in 1679, into a Royal Province, the inhabitants of the Shoals had chiefly- dwelt, as we have stated, on Hog Island and Smutty Nose (alias Church) island, the northerly or Gorges part of the group. The shores of Star Island, how- ever, on account of their convenience for the fisheries, were very early lined with fishing stages and studded with fish houses. 1 The most available space on Star Island for moor- ing places, stages, flakes, and fishing houses, seems to have been taken up before 1660, though the Church, Court House, and principal Ordinary still remained on Smutty Nose, and the majority of the population yet resided on the northern islands. But about the time when, on the erection of New Hampshire into a royal province, the southerly half zi the Shoals was reclaimed from Massachusetts and * Appendix No. 7. (105) 106 ISLES OF SHOALS. annexed to the new Province, a large part of the in- habitants of the northerly half, for some unexplained reason, removed across the harbor, and took up their homes upon Star Island on the New Hampshire side. No less than forty families, according to tradition, crossed over from Hog Island at one time. The reason of this exodus, usually assigned, is that Star Island was thought more secure against assaults from the Indians ; but it is difficult to perceive the superi- ority of Star Island in this respect, and it is more probable that the removal was actuated by a desire to escape from the burden of Massachusetts taxation. At all events, the northerly part of the group be- came, at this time, almost depopulated ; the meeting- house on Smutty Nos.e or Church Island had in 1685 fallen to decay, and courts ceased to be held there after 1684. Eight years later, we are informed by a petition from Roger Kelly, the ancient magistrate and taverner of Smutty Nose that there then remained ^' on Smuttinose, alias Qhurch Island^ and Hog Isl- and onely your Peticon' Kelly and one more, that are able to set out any ffishing boats &c., notwith- standing all which the Treasuror of this Province by his Warr* hath sent to demand X 25. as a levy laid upon our Two poor Islands, which is a sum wee are altogether incapable of paying and if Insisted on will ISLES OF SHOALS. 107 enforce us (as others have) to desert the Islands." ^ Twenty or thirty years later, we are informed by a doleful petition from Kittery for the remission of taxes, that there were seldom at ''the Isle Shoals (the north half thereof) more than ten or fifteen persons ratea- ble, and they were all poor ; had about three or four small boats for fishing, and they never paid half the rates and taxes that was added to the town of Kittery, upon the account of their being annexed to it; and besides that, as soon as they joined to Kittery several poor families came from thence to the town for support, which cost the town more money than all the rates and taxes that ever the Isle Shoals paid to Kittery, exclusive of the charges since their being so annexed. For several years past, the Isle Shoals has paid no taxes at all, though the town was taxed for them every year."2 This petition of Kittery to be relieved from taxation sets the singular poverty of that town, of which the north half of the Shoals was a part, in such a thoroughly convincing, if not ludicrous light, that perhaps our readers may be amused with an epitome •)f it. " The township of Kittery," say the petitioners, " is ft long strip of land, a great part unprofitable ; about 1 Appendix, No. 8. « See this Petition in 4th Maine Hist. Col, p. 204. 108 ISLES OF SHOALS. one quarter part of the lands in said town are not capable of any improvement in husbandry. Such mossy, rocky ground and boggy swamps, as bear noth- ing to support any useful creatures, is not profitable for anything. Poor fishermen, and sailors, and some laborers purchased small house lotts here and there amongst the rocks, built little cottages to live in, on which lotts some may raise a bushell of Potatoes and a hundred cabbages, and many cannot raise as much ; and those cottages make a great part of the number of houses (so- called) throughout the town of Kittery. In the whole town are about 284 families, and one quarter of them cannot raise one bushel of corn or any sort of grain, in a year, nor are tliey able to raise a supply of any sort of provisions, but depend upon others for their supply. Not one in ten, through the whole town, does raise a full sufficiency for their own family s to live on the year about. The town in general depend upon buying, but have nothing to purchase withall. The fishery is dwindled into noth- ing. Not one fishing vessel in the town improved; the fishermen driven to other business and lost, leaving their poor and helpless widows and familys to the towr for support. In a great many of these houses is noth. ing but a continual cry of hunger, poverty and want. ISLES OF SHOALS. 109 "There is not any one commodity of the produce of the town of Kittery, sufficient to supply the whole town with what is necessary for their own use. The inhabitants don't make, nor are they able to make, one half of their own clothing, neither is all the cattle annually raised in the town sufficient to supply the town with meat. " The town of Kittery produces no lumber . -.r any other commodity for any market, not so much as one half part of what is used in the town. " There is but two merchants in the town and their trading cannot be any thing of the produce of the town ; but the goods they bring to trade upon, they trust out to the poor, many of whom never pay. " There has been very little building of ships in Kit- ttsry, for many years past. Tradesmen have httle or nothing to do, farmers have nothing to spare, and others have nothing to live upon. '* There is not three rich men in the town, most all are very poor. Many are wretched and miserable. Kittery has not wood and timber enough for their own use. Kittery is the least quantity of land of any town in the county. " No person liveing can show that Kittery does pro- duce any one commodity to trade upon, of any sort , wt poor widows and orphans they have in plenty, more 110 ISLES OF SHOALS. than any otliev town in the country. The Province bills never depreciated in their value so much, as Kit- tery has depreciated in its value. It has nothing to shew but integrity and honesty for its support, and poverty for its defence. " We subscribe ourselves, in behalf of the poor town of Kittery ; Your Humble Servants, Jos. Hammoxd and others." It is to be hoped that the rueful town of Kittery, to which the north half of the Isles of Shoals was then and has ever since been attached, experienced some measure of relief from this lamentable petition. It would be difficult to present the justice of their suppli- cation in a stronger or more moving light. It was upon Star Island, on the New Hampshire side, that from about the time of the royal charter of that Province, in 1679, the population and business of the group were concentrated. And the continued im- portance of that business appears from a statement of Randolph in June, 1676, that " notwithstanding these disturbances (from the Indians) the ffishermen have killed above 12000 Kintals of Codfish at the Islands of Sholds " ^ and in 1692, there were still re- siding at the islands 106 able-bodied men capable of military service, besides the non-resident proprietors.^ 1 New Eng. Pap., Vol. 43, p. 86. Pub. Rec. Off., London. 2 Letter of Capt. Willy. Appendix No. 14. ISLES OF SHOALS. Ill In 1715, by Act of the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly, Star Island was created a township, by the name of Gosport^ (sometimes written Gosper^, and b}^ that name was known until the extinction of the settlement. The decay of Gosport dates from about the begin- ning of the 18th century. Already, in 1721, we are told that " the inhabitants have been very much richer and more numerous, and their trade greater than at present ; that the people are very few in num- ber and most of them are men of no substance, live only by their daily fishing, and near one third of them are single men."^ About 1756, the population was still further reduced by an exteiisive migration. " Thirty-two Ratable poles left them to serve the King or removed to other places six of which had familys ; " ^ and in 1767, the number of residents had become reduced to 284, among whom were four slaves.^ On the outbreak of the War of the Revolution, " as it was found that these Islands afforded sustenance and recruits to the enemy, early in the war, the in- •jabitants were ordei-ed to quit the Islands. In obe- 1 3 N. H. Prov. Pap., p. 620. 2 See Pet. of Yeaton. Appendix No. IG. 8 Petition of Selectmen . Appendix No. 20. 4 1 Farmer & Moore, N. H. Hist. Col., ll>6 112 ISLES OF SHOALS. dience to government, the greater part of the people dispersed mto the seaport towns along the coast, and most of them never after returned ; about twenty famihes removed to Old York, where their descend- ants now hve." The only evidence we have discovered, on the subject of the patriotism of the Shoalers during our struggle for independence, is the circumstance that in 1765 " efiBgies were exhibited there (at Gosport) Sep- tember 16, and burnt in the evening, to show their detestation of stamps," ^ and that there was paid " 11 Mch 1775, /or histing the flag to Henry Andres 20s." ^ So general was, at this time, the dispersion of the people, that in 1775 only forty-four persons were remaining on the islands.^ At the close of tho Revolutionary war, a few of the former inhabitants straggled back to their dilapidated cabins on Gosport ; but their ancient prosperity has never since revived. In 1790, Belknap informs us, the population had recovered to 93, and in 1800, as 1 Boston Evening Post, Sept. 23, 1765 2 This fact is one of those for -which the author is indebted to Mr. D. P. Corey, of Maiden. While these pages were going through the press, Mr. Corey generously placed at our disposal his large and most valuable collection of materials on the subject Had these papers fallen into our hands earlier, much of our labor- ious research would have been dispensed with. The manuscripts of Mr. Corey display remarkable antiquarian zeal and learning, 33 Belknap, p. 227. ISLES OF SHOALS. 113 appears from the Gosport town records, their num- ber was 112, " including sohtaries,'' most of them, continues the record, "in a state of great poverty and wretchedness, such as to force the tear of commisera- tion, and to draw from the humane every effort to afford rehef." In 1819, the number of residents on the Islands had become reduced to 86, and in 1824 to 69 ; since which time, the population has continued to dwindle away, year by year, until hardly one individual remains of the ancient race. The town of Gosport, though per- haps a formal town organization may be still kept up, has become practically extinct, and Star Island, swept clean of its weather-beaten cabins and unsavory fish houses, has been dedicated to the entertainment of th(j valetudinarian and the summer idler. CHAPTER XII. THE Islands, whose decay we have traced, enjoyed one advantage over the mamland, which, no doubt, contributed materially to their early prosperity — we mean their general exemption from Indian dep- redations. Capt. Christopher Levett fails not to per- ceive this advantage, in his visit of 1623. " Upon these Islands," says he, "are no savages at all." The brave islande]*s, however, did not fail to come to the aid of their more exposed brethren on the mainland, in the emergencies of our numerous Indian wars. The mar- vellous escape of John Abbott, of the Shoals, from captivity at the hands of the eastern tribes, in 16T6, as recorded by Hubbard, in his " History of the Indian Wars in New England," may perhaps interest our readers. John Abbott, who has been described as one of the " meteoric class of heroes," was probably in the em- ployment of Nathaniel Freyer, at his fishing establish (114) ISLES OF SHOALS. 115 ment on Malaga Island, which, as we have seen, had been purchased by him in 1660, from Henry Sher- burne and his wife, little Becky. In company with young James Freyer, Abbott had sailed to Richman's Island, in 1676, in a ketch belonging to Freyer, and had there been surprised by a considerable band of sav- ages, under the command of a famous Sagamore, named Mugg. Freyer was mortally wounded, the re- mainder of the company taken prisoners, and all except John Abbott carried away captives towards Canada. The ketch was removed eastward to Shipscot River, with Abbott on board, and moored there all the next winter. " In which timo," continues Hubbard, " the Indians, having spent all their ammunition, etc., counted it high time to be looking out for more ; to which end they caused the said Abbott to fit up the vessel (being a pinnace of about thirty Tun) as well as he could, with such assistance as they could afford him ; and ten of them shipped themselves in the same, intending for Penobscott, and thence to pass on to Canada, in their canoes, to buy powder of the French there. But as Providence ordered it, after these Marriners were launched in+^^o the Deep, a small storm with contrary winds began to arise ; of which the English skipper found wayes in his steering to make the danger seem 116 ISLES OF SHOALS. more than really it was, insomucli that they resolved to put in at Cape bona-waggon, three leagues to the eastward of Shipscot ; where eight of them went ashore, leavino; two Indians aboard with the EnMish skipper. After he had got so well rid of them, he con- trived how to get shut of the others also. Therefore he persuaded them that the vessel would not fide well in that place, so as he prevailed with them to let him go to another harbor called Damaris Cove, two or three leagues more eastward. In the way, as he sayled, he so ordered his steering, that sometimes the waves were read}/ to overtake the vessel, which put his two Indians into a fright, so as they made all the haste they could to get ashore, as soon as ever they came in the harbor urging him to go along with them ; but he pretended a necessary excuse to stay behind to look after the vessel, but with intent, as soon as ever he could see them ashore, to hoyse sayl for some EngHsh harbor, having nobody aboard with him but a small English child about three years old. It seems the Indians had a child or two of their own dead in the vessel, who dying after they began their voyage, they were for- warder to go ashore with them for buryal. The said Abbott, now perceiving he had obtained his purpose (for he oft resolved on this project before), first tallow- ing the mast with a piece of fat pork, left by the ISLES OF SHOALS. 117 Indians, as high as he could reach, that he with his own hands might the more easily hoyse the sayl, so choosing rather to cast himself upon the Providence of God in the waters, than to trust himself any longer with perfidious salvages on the dry land; he came sate to the Isle of Shoals, before the evening of the next day, February the nineteenth. "^ There is a tradition, that during this Indian war, the savages invaded the Islands and carried away some female captives. One Betty Moody saved her- self by hiding, during the invasion, in a remarkable chasm on the southeast point of Star Island, which still bears her name. Others say she was drowned there.2 In 1677 a contribution was raised throughout New England for the ransom of several inhabitants of Hat- field, Mass., who had been carried captive into Canada by the Indians, during this King Philip's War. The benevolence of the Shoals on this occasion was re- markable. The Isles of Shoals contributed a sum ex- ceeding that raised in Salem. ^ A few years after this time, the Isles of Slioals nar- rowly escaped utter destruction at the hands of the French and Indians, during the distressing and san- 1 2 Hubbard's Ind. Wars, p. 210. « 7 Mass. Hist. Coll., p. 244. 1 Williamson's Maine, p. 276. • Drake's Boston, p. 430. 118 ISLES OF SHOALS. guinarj conflict, commonly known as "King William's war." In that conflict, the w^hole coast of Maine and New Hampshire was devastated, and all the settlements in the former province utterly destroyed, except the four towns of Wells, Kittery, York and the Isles of Shoals. To capture and annihilate these remaining settlements, and thus close the war, the French and Indians, in 1691, resolved upon the most desperate efforts, with all the combined forces by land and sea, they could muster. Their design was, howevjer, for the present, thwarted by an accidental conflict with the New England forces at Pejepscot falls. The next year, 1692, their attempt was renewed with a large force. York was burned, and nearly all its inhabitants killed or taken prisoners ; but the heroic resistance of the few remaining soldiers, in their block-house, at last compelled the retreat of the assailants. The baffled enemy then turned their assault upon the next remain- ing town, Wells. A force of 500 French and Indians, under their French officers, Burneffe and Labrocree, fell upon the garrison at Wells, defended by but fifteen soldiers, under command of the heroic Capt. Converse, reinforced, just before the assault, by two sloops, having on board fourteen men. The conflict, which now ensued, was one of the most desperate and bloody ISLES OF SHOALS. 119 that had ever occurred in New England. The stor}' of it, as related by Cotton Mather in his " Magnaha," is one of the most thrilling in our early annals ; but it is not within our limits to do more than refer to its result. After a desperate fight of forty-eight hours, '' prosecuted by a host against a handfull," the allies were beaten off with severe loss, and the projected expedition against the Isles of Shoals was again abandoned. Later in the same year, the attempt was renewed by a still heavier force, assisted by two French frigates. This last expedition was concerted at Que- bec, between Count Frontenac, Governor of Canada, and the Indian Sagamore Madockawando, and would„ probably, have prevailed, but for the brave patriotism of Mr. John Nelson. This gentleman, being at that time a prisoner in Quebec, obtained from Madocka- wando the secret of the projected enterprise, and at once, to the great hazard of his life, bribed two French- men to carry intelligence of it to Boston.^ The mes- sengers were captured on their return, and shot to death as spies, and the patriotic Nelson himself was transported to France, and imprisoned five years in solitary confinement in the Bastille. But his warning gave New England time to prepare for the meditated blow, and thus proved the salvation of the Isles of 1 1 Hutchinson, p. 338. 120 ISLES OF SHOALS. Shoals, and the few other settlements still clinging to the coasts of Maine. At the brave defence of Wells by Captain Converse, which we have spoken of, one John Diamond was taken prisoner by the Indians, and dragged away by his hair into the thickets. After their humiliating defeat, in their *' nefandous rage," the savages put their captive to the most dreadful tortures. " They stripped him," writes Cotton Mather, " they scalped him alive ; they slit him with knives between his fingers and toes ; they made cruel gashes in the most fleshy parts of his body, and stuck the gashes with firebrands, which were afterwards found sticking in the wounds."^ This poor John Diamond was a relative of Andrew Diamond (or Dymont), for many years a taverner and magistrate upon the Isles of Shoals, and himself a resident at Smutty Nose Island until 1667. The peril which impended over the Shoals, during this King William's war, was early manifest not only to the population, but to the Massachusetts authori- ties, who, in 1690, had appointed Roger Kelly Cap- tain of the Isles,^ and now, on the petition of the peo- ple both of the Maine and New Hampshire side, sen^ ^ 2 Mather's Mag., p. 535; I Williamson's Maine, p. 634. 2 Maps. Council and Court Records yf^. ISLES OF SHOALS. 121 them a company of soldiers under command of Cap- tain Edward Willy, for their protection. There had existed for many years a small fort on the point of Star Island, commanding the harbor, on which had been mounted two great guns. This fort had probably been constructed and the guns placed on it about the year 1653, when an effort was made by the people of the Shoals, as well as those of the Pis- cataqua, that these places should be " fortified against any forraine assaults that may be attempted." ^ After a neglect of almost forty years, the great guns still re- mained, but Captain Willy found them " without any platforme or carrage fitt to travis them on and with- out powder bullet or match." Neither was much re- liance in the present emergency to be placed on the effective aid of the people themselves. The first gen- eration of English-born emigrants had passed away ; hardly a single one of the ancient family names now remained among the population. The Northern half of the Islands had become deserted, and on Star Isl- and the business and wealth had fallen principally into the hands of three chief Proprietors — Francis Wanewright, Andrew Dimond, and Nathaniel Baker — who resided in Massachusetts^ and carried on the fisheries at the Shoals, by means of thirdsmen, as they were called. Many of these hands had no fixed resi- 1 Appendix, Note 9. 122 ISLES OF SHOALS. dence on the islands, but came over from the main- land " for an employ only because they would be un- governed and free from all manner of public charge, and were altogether unperswadeble to any thing that is rational, either for quartering the soldiers or help- ing to defray the charges of their wages." The Absentee Proprietors refused to countenance the coming of Captain Willy and his company, on the ground that they had not been consulted in the mat- ter, and that there was no need of soldiers. Nor was there found on the islands any regularly constituted civil authority to whom Captain Willy could appl}^ for the imposition upon the islanders of any compulsory rates. In these straits, Captain Willy withdrew from the Islands,^ and left them exposed to the depreda- tions of the French, who, in 1695, captured and car- ried away a considerable number of their fishing shallops. 2 In 1724, during the three years' or Lovewell's war, the savages made up a flotilla of fifty canoes, and strange to relate, carried on for a time a successful naval war along our coast. In a few weeks, they were in possession, by capture, of twenty-two vessels, severa. of good size, and one armed with swivels. They made an assault upon the Shoals, and succeeded in 1 See Appendix Nos. 10 to 18. 2 7 Mass. Hist. Coll., 1st ser., p. 245. isl:£.s of shoals. 123 cutting out and carrying away two shallops, which they added to their fleet. The Indian squadron was pursued speedily by two vessels, with about forty men from New Hampshire, and followed into Pe- nobscot, where a naval battle occurred, and vic- tory pronounced for the savages. Shortly after, the Indians dispersed, and although other expeditions were fitted out against them, not a particle of Intelligence concerning them could be afterward obtained.^ During the war with the French and Indians, in 1745, during which Louisburg was captured by Sir William Pepperell, son of the William Pepperell who had been an early resident at the Shoals, the old fort at the point of Star Island was repaired and mounted with nine four-pounders ; and the Province of New Hampshire voted " in answer to the Petition of ye inhabitants of Gosport, they be allow 'd fifteen pounds to purchase ammunition, the money to be paid to ye selectmen of said Gosport, for ye use of sd town out of ye public Treasury." ^ On the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, and the general dispersion of the population, the old fort was lit last dismantled, and the guns sent to Newburyport, but the ruins of the ancient fortification are still dis- cernible. > Penhallow's Indian Wars, p. 103; 2 Hutchinson, p. 278; 2 Williamson, p. 128. 2 o N. H. Prov. Pap., p. 493. CHAPTER XIII. rE pupulation of the Isles of Shoals, whose po- litical connection with New Hampshire and with Maine, we have briefly, though, we fear, te- diously traced, was not of a kind, after all, to be very deeply moved by questions of government, or much concerned with statutes or courts. While they remained annexed to Gorges' Province, the complaints of the Maine courts were frequent, of the difficulty, on account of their remoteness, of settling and maintaining order there.^ And a con- siderable proportion of the criminal complaints against them were for resisting, assaulting and reviling the officers of the law, and treating with contempt the awe-inspiring badge of his office.^ For instance, we ^ York County Records. 2 This badge, " that no man shall pleade ignorance when a nonstable shall call assistance," was required by statute to be " a staff, black and about five foots or five and a half foote long, tipped at ye upper end, about five or six inches, with brasse." Some years later (1735) these portentous staves were tipped at thi Shoals with pewter. (124) ISLES OF SHOALS. 125 read in the York County Records, how that Samuel Matthews and Abraham Kelley, of the Shoals, were indicted for abusing and reviling the constable there ; Nicholas Hodges was presented for a similar offense; Robert Mace, " for abusing the constable by very op- probrious Languidg " ; Richard Ohver, for resisting and treating contumehously the magistrate's mittimus; Stephen Forde, " for abusing the constable, and call- ing him rogue and rascall " ; William Curtis, for assaulting his majesty's officer; Gabriel Grubb, for saying " he could find it in his heart to kill the con- stable," and Bartholomew Mitchell, Rebora Downs, and Bartholomew Burrington were charged with as- sailing the Shoals' constable " by words and blows, and threatening to break his neck on the rocks, and pulling off his neck cloth. "^ The hostility of the Shoalers to all manner of Gov- ernment rates and taxes, as well as to all sorts of Courts and Statutes, was ever most bitter, and some- times amusing. When the Massachusetts authorities, in 1677, undertook to collect of them a little some- thing towards the expenses of Government, they flew into open rebellion. Walter Randall fell foul of the constable ; Henry Joslyn climbed up into the beKry of the meeting-house and rang the tocsin of alarm ; 1 York County Court Records. 126 ISLES OF SHOALS. the people ran together into the church ; a combina- tion for open resistance was entered into, and it was solemnly declared, that they would never pay a penny of rates^ unless they had it under the hand of the Governor and Council, that the money raised should be *' laid out upon y^ Ides of SJioles. And this teas the end of the meeting. ^^ ^ The same spirit of insubordination remained among them, after the erection of New Hampshire, in 3679, into a Royal Province. In 1682, they are represented by the Council of New Hampshire to King Charles n., as " not being at present under any government at all";2 and after the annexation of the south half to New Hampshire, abundant evidence exists of their Utter indifference to the laws and courts of the mainland. The north half was never represented in the Mass. Genl. Court but once,^ and the south half very rarely, if ever, consented to send deputies to the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly, and paid little or no tribute to the Province rates. In 1701, Mr. James Blagdon, one of the principal Inhabitants of the Isles of Shoals, is ordered by the Council and General Assembly of the Province of New Hampshire, " to settle the inhabitants, where he 1 See loose Court papers of that period at Exeter. 2 1 Belknap, p. 151. ^ 2 Williamson's Maine, p. 13. ISLES OF SHOALS. 127 fives, under this government, and to call them together to appoint a Representative for said place to sit in Genl. Assembly and to observe such further orders and directions as he shall receive from the Honble. the Lt. Govern, concerning the same."^ As the Shoalers paid no manner of heed to this order. Star Island was again, in 1711, served with a warrant to send up a representative to the House f and again in 1716,^ but they paid no attention to either summons. The government, as a next* resource, thought fit, in 1716, to annex Star Island to New Castle, for election and assessment purposes,* but the islanders neither attended the elections nor paid the rates.^ At length their arrearages ran up, in 1761, to the sum of X512, 8s Id, new tenor; and the Selectmen of Gosport procured a vote of the Provincial Assembly, that the whole debt should be abated.^ Nor does it appear that the Provincial Government ever made any profit out of their recusant citizens of the Shoals, beyond, perhaps, a few pounds in the way of paying Province debts to the people of Gosport itself. For instance, m 1724, it seems that one Robert Saunders, of Star Island, had brought into Portsmouth intelligence of a 1 3 N. H. Prov. Pap., p. 124. 4 3 Id., p. 648. 2 Id , p. 465 . 84 Id., p. 61 7. 5 4 Id., p. 623. 6 6 New Hamp. Prov. Pap., p. 795. Appendix No. 19. 128 ISLES OF SHOALS. " pirate ship hovering about the coast." The Gen. Assembly allowed him for this service the sum of 40 ghiUings, but very shrewdly added, "to be paid by the constable of Gosport, as he is behind hand in the payment of his Province rates for ye year 1723."^ It is not probable that Robert ever reahzed any reward for what some of his neighbors regarded as his officious- ness in reporting the pirate ship to the New Hampshire authorities. There is strong ground of suspicion, indeed, that the islanders were generally indulgent, and sometimes friendly and serviceable in their inter- course with the numerous pirate ships which visited their harbor. After the organization of the present State Govern- ment of New Hampshire, at the close of the Revolu- tion, the Shoals had fallen, as we have seen, into such decay, as for many years to escape the notice of the officials ; until, in a season of high political controversy, in the year 1851, a Democratic Legislature, regaiding the handful of fishermen at Gosport as natural up- holders of "free trade and sailor's rights," admitted their Representative to the House, since which, until the extinction of the town, they annually elected a member of General Court. This indiiference, or rather dislike towards all estabhshed authority, to which we have referred, waa 1 4 New Hamp. Prov. Pap., p. 142. ISLES OF SHOALS. 129 very natural characteristic of the motley shifting community of fishermen, seal hunters, sailors, smugglers and picaroons, who made the Isles of Shoals their rendezvous, and their home. Too remote from the mainland to be within effective reach of the feeble governments established there ; able to set the law and its officers at open defiance, or to elude them by a ready escape into the open sea, these rude and hardy men would naturally despise all courts and their minions, and would come to look to their own sturdy right arms alone for the redress of grievances.^ We are aware that the Rev. Jedidiah Morse, author of the brief " Description of the Isles of Shoals," printed in the 7th Vol. of the Mass. Hist. Coll., has described the population as, in early times, " industri- ous, prudent, temperate, and regular and decent in their attendance on the institutions of religion " ; in which description he has been blindly followed by all the subsequent writers on the subject; but as we 1 We may mention, in illustration of this spirit among the Islands, that some years ago, one of these stalwart Shoals fisher- men was arraigned before the author, as a magistrate, upon a charge of " assault and battery." The man admitted frankly that he had severely beaten the complainant in a square stand-up tight, but he set up, as a complete defence, that, in his own lan- guage, " they had agreed to heave the law one side." His rude Bense of Shoals justice was sensibly shocked at a judgment against tho sufficiency of his plea. 9 130 ISLES OF SHOALS, have now entered upon some account of the general character, habits, and social and religious condition of the islanders, it is proper to say, that we are compelled by the evidence on the subject, to dissent entirely from that writer's conclusions. The class of virtues, which the learned divine ascribes to the Shoals community, in the times prior to the Revolution, not only seems inconsistent with the natural genius of such a community ; utterly in- congruous with the brave, but reckless and improvi- dent character of '^ toilers upon the sea"; but also from the abundant evidence on the subject, which remains to us, it is precisely that class of virtues in which the islanders have ever been lamentably de- ficient. No one can, we think, decipher the ancient rec- ords of York county, of the township of Kittery, of Mass. Bay and New Hampshire, or peruse the writings and correspondence of the time, without per- ceiving that the pictures usually drawn of early societj at the Shoals are very broad distortions of truth. CHAPTER XIV. ONE of the most remarkable peculiarities in the social condition of the Shoals, in very early times, was the exclusion by law of all women from in- habiting there. When and under what circumstances such a law was enacted, we are ignorant ; but that an order of Court had been passed to that effect prior to 1647, we have the most controlling authority; while there is a probability, that the law was enacted even prior to the dissolution of the Company of Laconia in 1635. We know, from the records, that shortly after the dissolution, the law was treated as already obsolete, and women began to make their appearance in that com- munity without objection. For instance, one of the grounds of complaint against Richard Gibson, the Shoals minister,^ who was arraigned in Boston in "* Indeed, the parson himself, who resided at the Islands during 1641 and 1642, was a married man, and, we may presume, car- ried out his wife in his company. Mr. Gibson had, about 1637, (131) 132 ISLES OF SHOALS. 1642, was, in the language of Wintlirop, that "he, being wholly addicted to the hierarchy and discipHne of England, did exercise a ministerial function in the same way, and did marry and baptize at the Isle of Shoals, which was now found to be within our juris- diction."! Some excuse, if not justification, for the enactment of this singular rule of Court, may be found in the circumstances of the Shoals community in the earheet times. The original settlers, were, as we have re- marked, young unmarried men ; while the large num- ber of transient fishermen, who entered the harbor during the summers, of course brought no women in their company. The strange females, therefore, who while settled at Ricliraans Island, married Mary, daughter of Mr. Thomas Lewis, of Saco, and his life with her seems not to have been one of unruffled confidence and repose. In January, 1638, he writes to Gov. Winthrop, in a distracted state of mind, how that " some troublous spirits, out of misaffection, and others, as is supposed for hire, have cast an aspersion upon her, and generally avouch that she so behaved her self in the sliipp, which brought her from England hither some two years agoe, that the block was reaved at the mayne yard to have duckt her, and that she was kept close in the ship's cabin 48 houres for Bhelter and rescue," and he therefore prays the Governor to take the testimony of several passengers in Boston, who came over in the same ship with his Mary, and " give a testimony of these Exacons." — 1 Mass. Hist. Coll., 5th ser., p. 267. 1 2 Winthrop, p. 66. ISLES OF SHOALS. 133 visited the islands in those days, must have been of a kind to provoke great disorder and Hcentiousness among the people, and in the end to justify their ex- pulsion by law. But before long, the young men began to marry, and married men brought their wives over with them from Europe. The character of the community in this respect underwent a change, and the rule of Court against the fair sex gradually, by general consent, fell into oblivion. In 1647, however, although there were at that time a considerable number of women residing at the Shoals, it was attempted to revive and enforce this now obso- lete law. Richard Cutt and John Cutting, of the Isles of Shoals, petitioned the Court, held at " Pascata- quack in the Province of Maine, in 1647, by his Excel- lency Henry Josselyn and the Associates," as follows : " The humble petition of Richard Cutt and John Cutting, sheweth : that John Renolds, contrary to an Act in Court, that no woman shall live upon the Isle of Shoals, hath brought his wife thither, with an intention there to live and abide ; and hath also brought upon Hog Island a great stock of goats and hogs, which doth not only spoile and destroy much fish, to the great damage of several others, and likewise many of your petitioners, but also doth spoile the spring of water, that is on that Island, by making it unfit or serviceable for any manner of use, which is the only relief and sustenance of all the rest of the Islands. Your petitioners, therefore, pray that the said Renolds may be or lered to remove his said groats and swine from the Islandi 134 ISLES OF SHOALS. forthwith. Also, that the Act of Court, before mentioueJ, may be put iu execution, to the removal of all women from inhabiting there; and your petitioners shall pray, etc. ORDER OF COURT ON THE _ ABOVE. Whereas, by the above mentioned request, the general com- plaint of the chief of the fishermen and others, of the Isles of Shoals, that it is a great annoyance and prejudice for Mr. John Renolds to keep his swine and goats at the Isle of Shoals; it is by mutual consent of this Court ordered, that ^Ir. Renolds shall, within twenty days, remove his swine and goats that he hath at Hog Island from thence, or any of those islands that are inhab- ited with fishermen. And as for the removal of his wife, it is thought fit, if no fiirther complaint come against her, she may as yet enjoy the company of her husband. Dated the 20th day of October, 1617."i Although, from the above petition and order, it appears that the fishermen of the Shoals were gen- erally in favor of the expulsion of John Renolds' goats and swine, and although the petition was clearly drawn up by Cutts and Cutting, to be signed by " many petitioners," not a signature was procured by them for the expulsion of the women. Richard Cutt himself, although a large owner upon Star Island until his death, had at the time the peti- tion was presented, already removed his residence tc the Great House, at Strawberry Bank,^ and thus was ^ York County Court Records. * 2 Mass. Records, p. 232. ISLES OF SHOALS. 135 restrained bj no social terrors from this assault upon the women. Xor is it likely that either he, or his brother John, were upon very friendly terms with the hihabitants of Hog Island or Smutty Xose. These two brothers were staunch adherents of Mass. Bay, and deeply tinctured with the Puritanical spirit ; while r.he islanders, generally, were RoyaKsts, Episcopahans, and at that time in open rebellion against the Massachu- setts. It is thus probable, that the ungallant petition of Richard Cutt was a piece of spite against liis former neighbors, m retaliation for the jibes and flings of the fishwives, who, as we shall hereafter see, were, like fishwives the world over, the mistresses of shrewd and bitinor tononies. However this may have been, the married men of the Islands, when this obsolete law had been brouo-ht to notice, were not permitted to rest in peace, until it was expunged from the statute book. A peti- tion for the repeal of the obnoxious law was presented to the Court by one William Wormwood, the hapless husband of Jane Wormwood, who had been already complained of as a common scold ; and it was urged with such zeal, that at the General Court, held at Gorgeana, in 1650, " It was ordered, upon the petition of William Wormwood, that as the fishermen of the Isles of Shoals ivill entertains womanhood, they have 136 ISLES OF SHOALS. liberty to sit down tliere, provided they shall not sell neither wine, beare, nor Hquor."^ We regret to add, that the " womanhood," thus licensed to sit down at the Shoals, did sometimes sorely abuse their privilege. Their offences generally con- sisted, it seems, in a singular volubility of tongue, and a certain asperity of temper. For instance, at the Court held at Saco, in 1665, Joane Forde, wife of Stephen Forde, of the Isle of Shoals, was presented and convicted for "calling the constable Hornheaded roo;ue and Cowhead rog-ue."^ " Joane Forde," continues the record, " was punished for this offence by nine stripes given her at the post, at a Court holden in York, Decem. 2, 1665." Shortly afterwards, the same Joane Forde is pre- sented, " for revihng and abusing the neighbors by very evil speeches ; and for abusing the constable and other her neighbours." For this offence, Joane w^as "appointed to have ten lashes at the post, which was," says the record, " by John Parker, in presence of the Court, accordingly executed."^ In 1669, Mary Kelley, wife of Roger Kelley, of the Shoals, is presented "for abusing of her neighbours ir an unseemly manner with badd words." ^ York County Court Records. 2 1 Maine Hist. Coll., p. 375. ISLES OF SHOALS. 137 In 1666, Richard Down's wife is presented " for Bcoulding and abusing of her neighbours," and Gabriel Grubb's wife is brought before the Court "for slander- ing and abusing her husband." Joane Andrews, the same year, is convented before authority, "for abusing of Mrs. Lockwood," and pun- ished " with ten lashes on the bare skin at the whip- ping-post ; " and Grace Tucker, the wife of William Tucker, of the islands, is convicted of abusing her neighbors "by evill and rayling speeches." So serious and prevalent, indeed, was this sort of offence, that a law was enacted by the General Court, held at Gorgeana, in 1649, "that any woman, that shall abuse her husband, or neighborhood, or any other, by opprobrious language, being lawfully convicted, for her 1st oflPence, shall be put in the stocks two hours ; for her 2nd offence, to be doucked : and if incorrigable, for to be whipped." ^ For the proper infliction of the second kind of pun ishment, the Court ordered the erection in each town in Maine of a cucking stool. " This instrument," says Willis, " was reserved exclusively for scolds and brawHng women ; a class of offenders which modern times have permitted to go unpunished. It was a chair, suspended by a crane over water, into which 1 York County Court Records. 138 ISLES OF SHOALS. the offender was plunged repeatedly, until her impa- tience and irritability were moderated. This species of punishment was quite popular, both in England and this country, in early days."^ The establishment of this infamous implement among the termigants of the Isles of Shoals was successfully resisted.2 The cucking stool was not permitted to rise upon the breezy rocks of the Isles of Shoals, and the natural liberty of tongue, which the fishwives of Gosport and Hog Island seem to have prized so highly, was never afterwards assailed. If the goodies and gammers of the Islands were sometimes guilty of intemperance of language, the men, on the other hand, were still more intemperate in the abuse of intoxicating liquors, the besetting sin of sailors and fishermen. The character given by old Josselyn to this class of people along the coast of Maine, is not, probably, overdrawn. " These fishermen," writes he, about 1670, " often get in one voyage 8 or 9 pounds a man for their shares, but it doth some of them little good, for the merchant, to increase his gains by putting off his commodity, in the midst of their voyages, and at the end thereof comes in with a walking Tavern, a Bark laden witli 1 1 Willis Hist, of Portland, p. 117. 2 Id. ISLES OF SHOALS. 139 the legitimate bloud of the rich grape, which they bring from Phial, Madera, Canaries, with Brandy, Rhum, the Barbadoes strong- water and Tobacco; coming ashore, he gives them a taster or two, which so charms them, that for no persuasions, that their employers can use, will they go out to sea, although fair and seasonable weather, for two or three days, nay, sometimes a whole week, till they are wearied with drinking, taking ashore two or three Hogsheads of Wine and Rhum, to drink off. when the merchant is gone. If a man of quality chance to come, where they are roystering and gulling in wine with a dear felicity, he must be sociable and Roly-poly with them, taking off their liberal cups as freely, or else be gone, which is best for him ; for when wine is at full tide, they quarrel, fight, and do one another mischief, whicli is the conclusion of their drunken compotations." ^ The Puritan histories of Mass. Bay abound with the Special Providences visited upon the Shoals fisher- men and their neighbors on account of this vice. " April 20, 1658," writes Hubbard, " was observed to be the coldest night in all the year, in which two men, going from aboard a ship, which lay in Piscataqua River towards Kittery side, and being so drunk that 1 Josselyn's Voyages to New England, p. 1 60. 140 ISLES OF SHOALS. they were not able to get to the ship again, were found next mornincT near the shore dead." " June 5, 1666, one Tucker, a tailor, who belonged to the Isles of Shoals, being then at the point in Pis- cataqua River, was so drunk in the Lecture time, that, pulling off his clothes, he ran into the water, cursing and swearing, and was drowned." ^ About that time, " two fishermen, after sermon on the Lord's day at Portsmouth, going into a house, drank so much rum, that being intoxicated therewith, they fell out of their canoe, as they were going down the river, and were both drowned." " In June, 1671, one, J. S., having profanely spent the Lord's day, by passing to and fro from the Great Island to Kittery side, was so excessive drunk, that he fell over his canoe and was drowned, and his body not found till twelve days after." " July, 1678, one Antipas Maverick, of the Isles of Shoals, being observed to be often overtaken with drink, at the last, in that distemper, fell out of his canoe and was drowned. "^ " In Dec, 1633, one Cooper, of Pascataqua, going 1 This was the same Tucker, we believe, whose house was so strangely washed away from Smutty Nose Island and cap ried to Cape Cod, in the great storm of 1635. a Hubbard's Hist, of N. England, p. 597. ISLES OF SHOALS. j41 to an Island in the river there, to fetch sack to make merry on the Lord's day, was carried to sea and never heard of afterward. Thus they, that wander from the path of understanding shall, sooner or later, unless they return home hy repentance, be found in the con DTegation of the dead."^ "In the year 1643, three fishermen, belonging to the Isles of Shoals, very profane and scorners of re- Hgion, being drinking all the Lord's day, the boat was cast away the next week and themselves all drowned. "^ Others of similar "Remarkable Occurrents " may be found in Winthrop's History, Mather's Magnalia, etc. The York County records also abound with evidence, as to the general abuse of intoxicating liquors among the Shoals people. We will only instance the case of Roger Kelly, of Smutty Nose, who in 1667, was pres- ented at Court, for selling, without due license, to a party of ten fishermen, while " playing at ninepinS on Hog Island," the quantity of " twelve gallons of wine, which they drank in one day." ^ And besides Kelly, there were engaged at this time in selling spirituous liquors on Star Island, James Waymouth, John Moore, the Widow Urin, Richard Wilcom and prob- ably others, not only to the resident population, but 1 Hubbard's History of New England, p. 197. 2 1d., p. 497. 3 York County Records. 142 ISLES OF SHOALS. to the transient fishermen whose vessels still continued to make the harbor their rendezvous.^ Large numbers among the fishermen vrere ar- raigned and convicted of being drunkj cursing, and swearing; and among that number are, naturally, enrolled the names of those hapless husbands, whose wives had been punished as " notorious and common scolds." Richard Downs, and Gabriel Grubb, and Tucker, and Andrews -and Stephen Forde, among others, seem to have sought consolation in the bottle. They were all convented before authority, as being common drunkards, profane swearers and the like. John Andrews, the husband of scolding Joane, was convicted the same summer ''for swearing, by the blood of Ch — t, that he was above the Heavens and the stars, at which tyme the said Andrews did seeme to have drunke too much and did at that time call the witnesses doggs, toads, and foul birds." Without entering into further detail, we think our readers will be satisfied, from the illustrations already presented, that the inhabitants of the Isles of Shoals, in early times, were far indeed from being the " industrious, prudent, and temperate " people, they have been so often represented. Their virtues like those of all communities similarily situated, lay in a widely different region of human character. 1 Exeter Court Records, 1665. CHAPTER XV. WHEN one of the New Hampshire ministers reproached his people, says ElHot, " that they had left the first purpose of their ancestors, who came to this howling wilderness to enjoy, without molest- ation, the exercise of pure principles of religion, one of his congregation interrupted him, saying truly : ' Sir, you entirely mistake the matter. Our ancestors did not come here on account of their re- ligion, but to fish and trade.' "^ The founders of the Isles of Shoals, such as we have described them, like those of Maine and New Hampshire in general, felt little sympathy with the religious tenets of New Plymouth and Massachusetts. Indeed, hardly more than one or two Congregational churches, after the New England model, had been gathered north of the Merrimac river, until after the country fell un- ler the government of Massachusetts Bay. 1 1 Elliott's Hist, of N. England, p. 237. (U3) 144 ISLES OF SHOALS. Any attempt to introduce the Puritan form of worship among tlie Eastern people was considered hopeless. " There is noe possibilit}-," writes William Hooke of Accominticus to John Winthrop in 1639-40, " of gathering a church here with us (after the Puri- tan fashion), except God in mercy open there eyes, and lett them see there supersticious wave, which they desier to goe.' "^ The Eastern people, as to what religion they had, were thorough-paced Episcopalians, or conformists to the Established Church of England. The Episcopal Church, at that period, contrasted itself from the sour austerities of the Reformers, by a genial patronage of gaiety and merriment, which com- mended it to the hearty favor of the sons of Mam- mon, who carried on fishing and trading around the Gulf of Maine. It encouraged maypoles, mor- ris dances, wassails and junketings of all sorts ; it smiled approvingly upon mince pies, cakes and ale, "bone lace and tiffimy hoodes," and all man- ner of "bravery of apparel"; while, on the other hand, it discountenanced the intellectual vexations that tormented the fantastic dissenters of that day. Its consecrated service book supplied, ready always for use, a beautiful liturgy, which was amply sufficient 1 7 Mass. Hist. Col., 4th Ser., p. 197. ISLES OF SHOALS. 145 for all the spiritual needs of the rude population of the Eastern settlements. The inhabitants of the Isles of Shoals adhered, accordingly, to the Established Church, until their an- nexation to Massachusetts Bay. Prior to 1640, the Rev. Joseph Hull, who was settled at Accomiiiticus, visited the Islands occasionally and administered the sacraments in the chapel on Smutty Nose. During the year 1640, Rev. Robert Jordan, of Richmans Island, officiated in a similar way, and in 1641 and 1642, Richard Gibson, the first minister of Strawberry Bank, was nettled at the Shoals. On Mr. Gibson's return to Eng- land in 1642, Joseph Hull, of Accominticus, renewed his occasional ministrations to the islanders, and as would appear from the inventory of his estate, main tained such relations until his death many years after.^ All these ministers were devoted adherents of the Established Church ; and therefore, when the Shoals found it necessary or expedient to yield to the author- ity of the Massachusetts colony, one of the first measures, taken by the latter, Avas to send over to the Islands a sound Puritan divine. His name was John Brock, the first of a line of Congregational ministers, 1 Soe tlie Inventory, in York County Rec, wherein a claim against the Islands for £20, for pastoral services, is set down among his assets. 10 146 ISLES OF SHOALS, who maintained that faith on the Shoals, until the decay of the settlement. Rev. John Brock, though it seems probable that a portion of the inhabitants still adhered to their former pastor, Joseph Hull, was settled at the Shoals from about 1650 to 1662. " He dwelt as near Heaven," says Cotton Mather of him, " as any man upon earth. I scarce ever knew any man so familiar with the Great God, as his dear servant Brock."^ He was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Hall, and the latter by Rev. Mr. Belcher. During the pastorate of the latter, the population of the northerly half of the Islands removed, as we have seen, to Star Island, on the New Hampshire side. The old church on Smutty Nose, which had now been standing upwards of half a century, was suffered to go to decay. In 1685 the northern half of the group was presented at Court ^' for their neglect in not maintaining a sufficient meet- ing house for the worship of God."^ No heed seems to have been paid to this complaint ; the chief part of the inhabitants having already re- moved, and erected a substantial new meeting hous( on Star Island, a building 28 by 48 feet, with a belfry tind a bell. The loftiest point of the island was chosei; 1 2 Mather's Magnalia, p. 32. 2 York County Court Rec. ISLES OF SHOALS. 147 as the site of the building, in order that its elevated spire might serve as a landmark for mariners ; in dark and tempestuous nights, the warning light may have gleamed from its belfry ; and in times of fog, the grop- ing fisherman was guided safely home by the note of its friendly bell. Mr. Daniel Greenleafe was one of the first ministers of the new church. He was supported in part by contributions from the mainland, as will appear from the following vote of the New Hampshire Gen. Assembly in 1705 : — " The Representatives being informed that the Gen- eral Assembly of the Massachusetts have given to Mr. Daniel Greenleafe, minister of the Isle of Shoals, foui'teen pound^^ provided this Province pay six pounds more for his support ;" " Voted that the Treasurer pay six pounds to Mr. Greenleafe for his encouragement in the ministry at Starr Island."^ When we consider that at this time there was a thriving community settled on Star Island, and that so considerable a contribution in those days as <£20 was requisite for the encouragement of the Con- gregational ministry there, it seems clear that the population felt quite indifferent to religious concerns. 1 3 N. H. Prov. Pap., p. 319. 148 ISLES OF SHOALS. Mr. Greenleafe was succeeded, in 1706, by Mr. Moody, " a man of piety and a pathetic and useful preaclier," who remained until 1733. During Mr. Moody's ministrations, in 1720, a new meeting-house was built on Star Island at a cost of jG200, defrayed by the islanders. Mr. Moody was followed by Eev. John Tucke, the first minister regularly ordained to the congregation upon the Islands. He filled the pastoral as well as medical ofiice until his death, in 1773, and in the words inscribed on his tombstone, at Star Island, " was a useful Physician both to the bodies and souls of his people." During the pastorate of Mr. Tucke, the islanders certainly exhibited more of thrift and sobriety than they had ever shown before. His influence over them seems to have been strong and salutary. He was a man who attended to the material interests of his parishioners, as well as their spiritual welfare. He spent less effort in expounding abstruse dogmas they could not comprehend, than in inculcating morality and charity in the affairs of every day life. His letter of acceptance of their call gave them fair warning that he should expect, or rather exact, a reas- onable stipend for his services among them. " But, brethren," he writes, " I must say to you, as in 1 Cor., ix. 14 : 'So hath the Lord ordained that they whict ISLES OF SHOALS. 149 preach tlie gospel should live of the gospeh* The same I expect amongst you." His parishioners seem to have appreciated highly this frank sort of dealing. They paid him the liberal salary of XlOO, Province money, besides promising further voluntary contributions ; and for a part of his pastorate over them, from 1754 to 1771, they raised his salary to a quintal of " merchantable whiter fish per man." As there were ahout one hundred men at that time on the Islands, and a quin- tal of fish was reckoned at a golden guinea, the salary was one of the highest at that time paid in New Eng- land.i The Rev. John Tucke was buried oil Star Island. His grave was accidentally discovered by Dudley A. Tyng, Esq., on his visit to the Shoals in 1800, and a monument erected to his memory, with a suitable in- scription carved upon it.^ The Rev. Jeremiah Shaw succeeded Mr. Tucke in the ministry, and preached until the dispersion of the settlement, on the outbreak of the Revolution- ary war. From that time to the close of the cen- tury, the ministrations of religion were suspended. So few were the numbers and so impoverished the circumstances of the islanders during that period, 1 7 Mass. Hist. Coll., pp. 249, 256. Gosport Records. * Tyng's manuscript Journal, p. 22. 150 ISLES OF SHOALS. that " they had not the ability, and by degrees lost the disposition, to support the ministry. The peo- ple neolectcd the annual choice of town oificers. They had no regular schools. The Sabbath was neglected and profaned. The vices of cursing and swearing, drunkenness, quarrelling and disobedience to parents became, in an awful degree, prevalent ; and they were degenerating fast to a state of heathenism." The marital relation was often entered into without the sacrament of marriage, and annulled at the whim of the parties, without the sanction of a divorce. A lamentable instance is to be found recorded at length by Rev. Jedidiah Morse in the town books, which sets this laxity in a clear, though painful light. Says the record : — "Aug. 10, 1800. Thomas Mace was married to Hannah Randell, both of Gosport, alias Star Island, by Jedidiah Morse, V. D. M. " Richard Randall was married to Nabby Robinson, both of Gosport, by Jedidiah Morse, V. D. M. *' The two couple, above mentioned, had been pub- lished eight or ten years ago (but not married), and cohabited together since, and had each a number of children. Mr. Mace had been formerly married to another woman who had left him and cohabited with ISLES OF SHOALS, 151 ner uncle, by whom she has a number of children. No regular divorce had been obtained. Considering tlie peculiar, deranged state of tlie people on these Islands, and the ignorance of the parties, it was thought expedient in order, as far as possible, to pre- vent future sin, to marry them." So profound had their ignorance become, that some years afterwards, one of their missionaries, Mr. Ca- leb Chase, found it impossible to make a record of their ages, as all memory on that subject had been lost ; according to tradition, their very language had so degenerated, as to be understood with difficulty by the people of the mainland. The parsonage house, constructed for Mr. Tucke, was taken down by his son-in-law, and carried away to Old York in 1780 ; and as appears from the Gosport town records, the meeting-house itself, which had stood during nearly the whole 18th century on Star Island, having been erected at the expense of the islanders, about the year 1720, was wantonly pulled iown about 1790, by a gang of fishermen, and used for fuel.^ The following entry of this circumstance on the Gosport Town Records was made by the Rev. Jedidiah Moi'se, during his visit to the Shoals in 1800 : — ^ Gosport Town Records. 152 ISLES OF SHOALS. " About the year 1790, some of the people of the baser sort, not liaving the fear of God before their eyes, pulled down and burnt the meetmg-house, Avhicli was a neat and convenient building, and had been greatly useful, not only as a place for religious worship, but as a landmark for seamen approaching this part of the coast. The special judgments of Heaven seem to have followed this piece of wickedness to those immediately concerned in it, who seem since to have been given up to work all manner of w^ickedness with greediness. '' By means of the exertions and benevolence of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, established in Boston, and some liberal minded gentlemen in New- buryport, Portsmouth and other places, there is a prospect and hope that another place of worship will be erected on the site of the old one, and the means of religious and moral instruction be again regularly afforded to the unfortunate and almost forsaken people of these Islands. " Star Island, alias, Gosport, " August 10, 1800." The new meeting-house was built under the super- vision of Dudley A. Tyng, Esq., the collector of tlie Dort of Newburyport ; the necessary funds were ISLES OF SHOALS. 153 obtained by the voluntary contributions of humane people along the coast. Five hundred dollars were subscribed in Salem, three hundred in Portsmouth, about one hundred in Exeter, and the remainder, about five hundred dollars, was taken up in Boston and Newburyport. The Rev. Dr. Morse interested himself deeply and efficiently in procuring these benevolences, and also in providing for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Shoals people for many years after. The new meeting-house w^as somewhat smaller than the former one, being but 36 by 24 feet on the outside, two feet thick, and eleven feet high in the clear. The walls, which are still standing, were built of stone, a material which was preferred by Dr. Morse, as having, in his own words, " two great advan- tao-es over wood. The inhabitants cannot hum it for fuel^ and it will be imperishable." The new meeting-house was completed and dedi- cated by Rev. Jedidiah Morse, on the 24th Nov., 1800. The interior wood-work was partially destroyed by fire en Jan. 2, 1826, but shortly after was restored by the bounty of religiously disposed people on the mainland, and dedicated anew in 1830.^ In 1859, the steeple of 1 The foregoing particulars concerning the meeting-house have been obtained from the manuscript Journal of Mr. Tyng, now in my possession. 154 ISLES OF SHOALS. tlie church was adorned with a vane, to the high and mighty pride and satisfaction of the islanders. The glowing entry of this transaction on the town records is as follows : "At a considerable expense, the inhabitants of these Isles have put up a beautiful vane on our chapel. May their own hearts yield to the breathings of the Divine Spirit, as that vane does to the wind." The meeting-house was, according to the original design, used during week days as a school-house, when a school has been maintained, and has al- ways proved of great service as a landmark. When not required for the purposes of religion or instruction, it has been sometimes turned to good account by the islanders, it is said, in the drying and storing of cod- fish. CHAPTER XVI. SINCE 1800, the pulpit of the Shoals has been filled by missionaries, supported by religious associations on the mainland. In 1799, the ancient " Society for Propagating the Gospell among the Indians and others in North America" sent out to the Islands, the Rev. Ja- cob Emerson, of Reading, as a pastor and school- master ; he remained there about three months. The next year (1800), the same Society procured Rev. Jedidiah Morse, the distinguished geographer, his- torian, and divine, to make an enquiry into the state of the people at the Shoals, and report as to the expediency of sending over another missionary and schoolmaster among them. Mr. Morse spent five days on the Islands, and preached four times, and distributed a number of books among them. On this occasion he also gathered up all the historical facts and traditions, not yet fallen into oblivion, and on his (155) 156 ISLES OF SHOALS. return to Charlestown, prepared for the Mass. Hist. Collections, that valuable article on the Isles of Shoals, to which subsequent enquirers have been so deeply in- debted. By his recommendation, the " Society for Propagating the Gospel," etc., continued to send out missionaries for many years to the Islands. It is not within the design of this sketch to set forth the long catalogue of worthy and pious men (some thirty in number), who now succeeded each other, at brief intervals, in the pastoral office, until the extinc- tion of the settlement. We may only venture to ex- tract from the numerous reports of these missionaries to the mother Society such particulars concerning the social and domestic condition of the islanders during the last half century, as may interest the general reader.^ Mr. Josiah Stevens, one of the first of the mission- aries, married, in 1802, Susanna, daughter of Mr. Samuel Haley, Jr., of Smutty Nose, and in conse- quence of this connection and his interest in the people, he was willing to be engaged as a permanent minister. 1 In the year 1841, the Rev. T. B. Fox, at that time settled in N^ewburyport, compiled, mostly from these Reports, a very inter- esting and accurate account of the then condition of the Islands. This account, together with all the other historical matter gathered by him, including the manuscript Journal of Dudley A. Tyng Mr. Fox has most kindly contributdl to our use in these pages. ISLES OF SHOALS. 157 From the " Society for Propagating the Gospel," and from individuals, he received a salary of $300 per annum. By the exertions uf Mr. Tyng, money enough was raised, and articles given by the charita- ble, in the town and elsewhere, to build and furnish ,\ parsonage house on the very spot where the house of Mr. Tucke had stood. Mr. Stevens received a commis- sion from the State of New Hampshire, as a Justice of the Peace ; and appears to have acted with vigor in his office. In one of his letters to Mr. Tyng, he asks for a pair of " stocks," and from a subsequent commu- nicaticn to the same gentleman, we learn that he received and used, with good effect, those now anti- quated instruments of punishment for evil doers. But he was removed in the midst of his usefulness by death, July 3d, 1804, aged 64. One of the later missionaries was Mr. Reuben Moody, a theological student, who remained a few months in the spring of 1822. '' We have been favored," continues Mr. Fox, ''with extracts from a journal kept by Mr. Moody. They are, most of them, of a character too private for publication. But to show what was the state of society at that time, we venture to give a few items. Under date !)f April 1st, he says, — ' Mr. came into my 158 ISLES OF SHOALS. room and asked when I intended to open my school ? I answered, I could not before I had wood ; and that I was not authorized to purchase any ; but if the people were willing to purchase it, and find me a room, I was ready to commence it any day. After about three hours he sent a message to me, to come and view a room. I found he had provided wood and seats in a small but convenient room. He said, this is all I can do ; here is the key, and you may open your school as soon as you please. He afterwards gave me his reason for it : ' that Ms children made such a disturbance at home, he could not sleep in the day time.'' Again : April 20 — ' My school presents a singular appearance in the morning. As soon as they see me with my brand of fire and key, they all leave their plays and run ; and when I am building the fire they flock round me and squat down on the hearth like pappooses. Some with their books, some with their Indian bread, and some with none.' " In another part of the journal there is an account of an old man, who lived alone and drank forty gallons of rum in twelve months. But there is even a worse story than this to be told. "I am informed," says Mr. Moody, June litli, " that one poor person's rum bill, for one month past, amounts to four gallons he has cjarried home, and 175 gills drank at the house of a ISLES OF SHOALS. 159 person for whom he fishes. The person with whom I board informs me that since I have been here, he has drawn out two barrels of rum ; and he has but two hired men, his wife, and a child thirteen months old, who with himself compose his family. Since the first of April, his brother has drawn out seven barrels of rum. Admit- ting the other persons, four in number, who sell rum, to have retailed as much, in less than three months more than six hundred gallons of rum have been drank here. The Island contains Q5 inhabitants ; of these 24 are under the age of twelve, 10 are females, who have not all drank a gallon since I have been here : subtracting these, there remain 31 ; to these add 16 hired men — making 47 men, whose average allowance has been 12 gallons and 3 quarts to a person, or about 5 gills per day." " Mr. Origin Smith, one of the late missionaries," continues Mr. Fox, writing in 1841, " first visited the Shoals Aug. 26, 1835. Since June, 1837, he has been permanently settled at the Shoals with his wife and fam- ily. Mr. Smith is supported in part by the Society for Propagating the Gospel — in part by the Rev. ^Ir. Pea- body's parish, in Portsmouth, N. H. — in part by the Islanders — and in part by donations from individuals in this town. A few extracts from Mr. Smith's Reports, and a letter to the Rev. Dr. Parkman of 160 [SLES OF SHOALS, Boston, will give the reader an idea of the present condition of the Shoals, and of the improvement that has taken place among them. In 1840, Mr. Smith says — " The people of my charge seem to be willing to do what tliey can for my support, yet they are able to do but little. For the past year they have raised forty dollars for my salary, and about ten dollars to procure fuel for the School and Sabbath. * * * " The cause of temperance is slowly advancing. About forty belong to the Temperance Society, which excludes all intoxicating liquors. The person who sold spirits the past year, has abandoned the sale, joined our Society, delivered an excellent address to the people, and pledged his future influence on the side of temperance. There is one man here who keeps spirit to sell to strangers and water parties ; but he does not sell to the inhabitants on the Islands. There are four or five drunkards on all the Islands, and four who call themselves ' moderate drinkers.' There are five men and five women who never attend pubhc worship — three of the men, however, will frequently come and sit on the steps of the meeting- house and listen to what is said ; but we cannot pre- vail upon them to enter the sanctuary." In 1855, Rev. J. IMason was the missionary upon the Islands, and in his report to the Society for Propagat ISLES OF SHOALS' 16^ ing tlie Gospel, etc., gives an interesting account of the character and condition of his people at that time. " The kind of business which the people pursue," writes Mr. Mason, " aifects unfavorably their habits, physical, social, and religious. Family discipline is neg- lected ; religious duties in the household performed (if attended to at all), irregularly and in haste ; and much time, apparently wasted, is spent in watching for favor- able indications to pursue their calling. " But the people express their approval and appre- ciation of what is doing for them in a way peculiar to themselves — one evening, unsoHcited, * taking up a' collection ' of five dollars, made up of very ' small change,' to pay Mr. Mason ' for hghting the house '; another evening a similar sum ' for more fuel for the singing school'; and again surprising us unceremo- niously by putting a barrel of extra fine flour, a leg of bacon and a bucket of sugar into our back kitchen, saying, 'our neighbors have sent you this.' Such expressions of regard towards their minister should not be overlooked ; for ' their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.' " We hope that our example, as well as instructions, while mingling with the people by their own firesides and in our domestic arrangement, has not been lost. I never refused to render aid, when solicited, even in 11 162 ISLES OF SHOALS. making a coffin for the dead ; and Mrs. Mason has had the privilege of exercising her taste, and trying her skill upon ' coats and garments,' probably not very dissimilar to those ' which Dorcas made.' '' In the relations they sustain to the missionary, they require of him more than is just and proper. He must have the whole care of the public buildings. This includes repairing, cleansing and preserving from injury. On the Sabbath and in the day schools, I have made, during two years past, all the fires, swept the buildinjTS, rano; the bell or hoisted the ' Bethel flag.' Furthermore, unconscious of any impropriety, they have sought the missionary to mow their grass, file their saws, repair their clocks, pull their teeth and make coffins for the dead. I speak of these insignifi- cant matters only to give you an insight into some peculiarities of this people. " In conclusion, I would add that to withdraw those humane ChristHke influences, which your Society have, through so long a period, exerted on this population, however slight the impressions felt, would be ruinous. Their degeneracy into a kind of civilized lieathenisra would be rapid, and the Shoals would soon show one of the most desolate, hopeless moral wastes in New England."! 1 Report of Soc. for Prop, the Gospel among the Indians, etc, for year 1865. ISLLS OF SHOALS. 163 Several other missionaries succeeded to Mr. Mason, one of the last of whom was Rev. George Beebe, whose wife discharged for a time the duties of schooj- mistress. The Rev. Mr. Barber succeeded Mr. Beebe in 1867, and was followed in 1869 by the last of the long line of missionaries, the Rev. Mr. Hughes. For several years past, the pulpit has had no incumbent, and one by one the little band of parishioners has passed away from the Islands. .>^'' CHAPTER XVII. THE aversion of the Islanders, as well as of Maine and New Hampshire generally, towards the Puritan form of worship, was, in the early times, tc which we now return, no doubt deepened by their hostility to the political principles of the Massachu- setts. The founders of these Eastern parts were staunch royalists throughout the whole course of the English Rebellion. Many, if not most of them, had emigrated from Bristol, Dartmouth, and other parts of the southwest of Endand, which lono; held out for Prince Rupert, and fell at last struggling stoutly for the Royal cause. Both Mason and Gorges, the patentees of New Hampshire and Maine, were active royalists, and the latter laid down his life in the King's service. The civil and relioious dissensions between the twoint of law, for that he said that said Cutt had spoken treason against the King.'^ The strange plot was, however, betrayed to Cutt and thwarted by the Massachusetts' authorities. The '' Mermaiden," on her leaving the Isles of Shoals, where she had been lying, was seized as a pirate and carried into Boston harbor for adjudication. ^ The character of the New England Puritan, or even of the Separatist of New Plymouth, is painfully sterile to the fancy, and dreary to the feelings. The crushing severity of their social and sumptuary laws, the sanctimonious formality of their daily intercourse, the jading monotony of their religious bigotry, blighted nearly every flower and sweet-scented herb, with which Providence has cheered and adorned human life. The spirit of our islanders, as well as of the early founders of New Hampshire and Maine in general, was in broad contrast, at all points, with that of the Puritans. Their virtues lay in the rugged domain of daring, fortitude, frank honesty and generosity of heart — robust English virtues, which, on Captain Smith's "heape of rocks," enjoyed a free development into lawless and extravagant forms, it may sometimes be but at the same time into a richness and a raciness highly pleasing to the taste. 1 Mass. Maritime llec, Vol. 1, p. 282. CHAPTER XVIII. THE golden age of the Isles of Shoals was the middle of the seventeenth v^entury. Their pop- ulation was at that time larger than at any other point in the Eastern provinces ; trade and commerce were extensive ; the fisheries were pursued with ac- tivity ; the little harbor was filled with shallops and pinnaces ; the neighboring sea was dotted with sails, sweeping in and out ; the rocks, now so silent and deserted, resounded with clamor and bustled with business, — everywhere boisterous hilarity, animal en- joyment, exuberant spirits, cheerful and varied ac- tivity. It was a motley population, with all the reckless and improvident habits of sailors and fishermen, and with till their hardihood, courage and spirit of adventure — a dauntless race, accustomed to contend against the most tremendous and appalling forces of Nature, when to quail or to tremble was to be lost. Their " fear- ful trade " tauo-ht them such lifelono; lessons of self- (171) 172 ISLES OF SHOALS. reliance, as almost to obliterate from their minds tlie very sense of Divine protection and aid. " During the ministry of Rev. Mr. Moody," relates Mr. Morse, " one of the fishing shallops, with all hands un board, was lost in a N. E. storm in Ipswich Bay. Mr. Moody, anxious to improve this melancholy event, for the awakening of those of his hearers, who were exposed to the like disaster, addressed them in the fol- lowing language, adapted to their occupation and un- derstanding : " ' Supposing, my brethren, any of you should be caught in the bay, in a N. E. storm, your hearts trembling with fear, and nothing but death before you, whither would your thoughts turn? What would you do ?' " ' What would I do T replied one of these hardy sons of Neptune,' ' why, I should h'ist the fores'l and scud away for Squam.' " " While Mr. Brock resided at the Shoals," runs another anecdote, " the fishermen came to him, on a day devoted to the worship of God, and requested that they might put by their meeting that day, and go a-fishing, because they had lost many days by the foulness of the weather. He pointed out to them the impropriety of their request, and endeavored to con- vince them that it would be far better for them to stay ISLES OF SHOALS. 173 at home and worship God, than to go a-fishing. Not- withstanding his remonstrance, however, five only consented to stay at home, and thirty determined to go. Upon this, Mr. Brock addressed them thus: 'As for you, who are determined to neglect your duty to God^ and go a-fishing, I say unto you. Catch lish, if yo'i can. But as for you, who will tarry and worship tlie Lord Jesus Christ, I will pray unto him for you, that you may catch fish till you are weary.' Accordingly the thirty who went from the meeting, with all their skill, caught through the day but four fishes ; while the five, who tarried and attended divine service, aftervi^ards went out and caught five hundred. "^ AVhatever faith we may put in this Special Provi- dence, we may safely believe the thirty profane fisher- men to have been guilty of the offence charged. It is not the way of fishermen, the world over, to listen attentively and reverently to tli*e parson's homily, while the fish are schooling around them. We are told by Sir Walter Scott, that in one of the Hebrides islands, it is quite canonical to break up the churcli service at once, on the appearance of a whale blowing in the offing.^ 1 7 Mass. Hist. Coll., p. 251. 2 It is, howeter, a point of honor that none of the parishioners ehould leave the church porch, until the curate has had time to Btrip off his surplice and come down to the door, so that all might Uave a fair start. 174 ISLES OF SHOALS. The deeper mysteries of religion were utterly incom- prehensible to our ignorant fishermen ; the subtle distinctions, between sanctification and justification, between the covenant of works and the covenant of faith, which employed the pulpits of the Puri- tans, were to the people of the Shoals the dreari= est jargon ; while the restraints of the forms and observances of worship were altogether intolerable to their impatient natures. Neither was the shifting, heterogeneous character of the population conducive to sobriety or stability. These barren rocks were the resort of the Letter of Marque, and the pirate, who in early days infested the Gulf of Maine ; of the whaler and seal hunter, and of many a refugee and runagate from the old world. Cavaliers, on the downfall of the Royal cause, may have here found convenient hiding ; and perhaps some ship of Prince Rupert's fleet, scattered and broken in West India waters, may have here, among sympathizing friends, found refuge and means to refit. It must needs have been a picturesque spot in those early times. In the sunny summer days, when the wind failed, great hulking fishermen, in red Monmouth caps, leathern jerkins and clumsy boots, lolling listlessly about the rocks, smoking Brazil tobacco, and waiting patientlv for a bi'eeze — fishwives garrulously mendino ISLES OF SHOALS. 175 nets in tlie sim — ragged urchins at their boisterous games up and down the hmes of the hamlet — groups of idlers hanging around the ordinaries and ale house* — long flakes spread with drying fish — the harbor dotted with ketches and pinnaces at anchor — the smoking cot- tage chimneys — the glittering sea — the distant coast line dozing in a blue haze. By-and-by the blue catspaws are seen on the ocean, the breeze freshens, and within a half hour the whole scene changes. Away to the east and north the vessels scatter and disappear. Hardly an able bodied man is left on the Islands. The settlements are left in guard of women. Silence settles dnvn on the rocks, broken only by shrill voices, or the occasional yelp of some vil- lage cur. The Islands await hi silence the fishermens' return. As the twilight comes on, the fishing boats, one by one, come winging home. The wind has hauled out to the eastward, a fog rolls in behind them, the weather looks threatening. And now many a Bylander, caught creeping along the neighboring coast, shallops, pinnaces, ketches and fleets of fishing craft of every kind, scud into the harbor for a night's refuge ; and It is not long before the silent rocks resound with revelry. Taverns and ale houses abounded on all the Islands, and we may be sure their walls echoed with the hoarse 176 ISLES OF SHOALS. hilarity of tlie outlandish company, as the} quaffed their tankards of beer, tlieir passado or Barbadoes strong waters, or " took off their liberal cups of rhum-bullion ; " while, as they drank and smoked Brazil tobacco, some weather-beaten salt would spin the marvellous yarn, or recount " Sucli wonderful stories of battle and wrack, As are told by tbe men of the watcb." Or else, one of the chanters of the fishermen would pipe up, in a high key, some old forecastle ditty, or some ancient fishing song, that he learned in England : "Oh, the herring he loves the merry moonlight, The mackerel loves the wind, But the grampus he loves the fisherman's song, For he comes of a gentle kind/' Meantime Scozway, the Micmac Indian, who was the best fiddler along the coast, ^ would tune up his strings, and on the bare tavern floor the young men and women would dance the Brantle, the fore-and-aft reel, or the famous country dance of England, called " Cuckolds all awry." And thus, as the jargon grew louder, while the bowl w^ent about, the hours would pass away until the fog lifted or the storm was spent. But now nothing except the tumbled walls of a ruined and abandoned hamlet, so rare to see in New England, remain to attest the former existence upon 1 Josselyn's Voyages, p. 106. ISLES OF SHOALS. 177 these celebrated Islets, of the busy and boisterous settlement we have pictured. With the decline of the fisheries, the population have departed, and the sea-mews, after an absence of two centuries, have re- turned to their ancient haunts. " A heape " of rocks was the first EngHsh descrip- tion of tlie Isles of Shoals — "a heap of crags," strangely enough, is also the last. In the fine Ian* guage of Lowell : — " A heap of bare and splintery crags, Tumbled about by lightning and frost, With rifts, and chasms, and storm-bleached jags, That wait and growl for a ship to be lost. No islands ; but rather the skeleton Of a wrecked and veno-eance-smitten one." APPENDIX. We have thought proper to append to the foregoing pages a Cew o£ the documents, letters, etc., which have, in the course of research, fallen under our observation. These papers, too lengthy for insertion in the body of the text, and perhaps too minute and detailed to interest a general reader, may be found useful to the antiquary, — and will, at all events, serve as pieces fustijicatiues for the views, some of them novel, presented in the preceding sketch. No. I. Extracts from the Brief for a general collection in favor of Capt. Christopher Levett. Charles R. Charles, by the grace of God of England &c., to all to whom these p'^*'' shall come, Greeting: whereas we have been enformed that in respect of the differences betweene us & the Kings of Spaine and ffraunce, o"" loving subiects as well such as are Ad- ventvirers in the plantacon of Newe England in America, as such as are well enclyned to become Adventurers there, are soe much deterred and discouraged both from proceeding w"^ what is begun & what is by them intended, that except some spiall care be now taken, and some p^'sent meanes raysed for ye securing of the ffi' and S*" Ferdinando Gorges Kn* & Cap* John ^Nlason of Lon- don Esq and their associates John Cotton, Henry Gardner, Geo Griffith Edwin Guy Thomas Wannerton, Thomas Eyre and Eliezer Eyre on y" other p'^ WITNESSETH, that whereas . . . (recitino- the Patent granted, 1G20, by King James to the APPENDIX. 183 Presid*^ & CoimccU of New England). And whereas the s March 1691 Gent°, It was not a little Surprising to understand by a Letter from Cap°® Willey that he meets with any difficulty with you for the Entertainment of himself e and souldiers, when upon yo': own application, earnest desire and free Engagement to maintain them, they were not without trouble and charge raysed and sent unto you^ aid and succour, at a time when you seemed to be under a deep sense and apprehension of danger; And howeuer that sense may be now in some sort worn off; yet its rationally thought that Alike (if not greater) danger dos still continue, Nor is it without just fears least this Country be invaded this Spring or in ye Sumer advancing with a fforreign fforce by Sea; yC Selves lying more open to such Invasion than some others, and what a reproch would it be that their Ma^'^^ Subjects and Interests should be . . ., and not onely all their Estates but their lives too be lost, thro a base covetuous humor in witholding of what is necessary for their own just defence your Selves hitherto haue ^hared but little in y« comon calamity with others of yo"" neigh- bours and fellow Subjects; nor have you contributed towards the charge of the War, the Support of the Souhliers now with you for yo*" Enforcemt and defence, will not surmount yo"" proportion 206 APPENDIX. of the publick diarize upon a just Acco'.' to be made thereof ; Neither has anything in that kind been imposed upon you, it was yo^" own voluntary offer to provide them with all necessarys and to pay them their wages; which is accordingly expected from you, And that you take effectual care by such proper methods as you shall thinke advisable to see the same faithfully performed: It was not any private advantage or our mens want of imploy- ment at home that induced the sendeing of them abroad, their own particular Occasions in the mean while Suffering; but their Ma''^^ Service is to be prefer'd; and should the unwillingness & refractoriness of any among you to contribute to their support, obhge y^ calling of them home, it may occasion no small sorrow- full Reflections, when yo'' Selves and Estates become a prey to the Enemy, that you rejected the Assistances readily offered you upon yo^ desire. And Order is noAV sent unto Cap"^ Willey that unless he be forthw^^ sufficiently Secured his own and Companys wages, and comfortably provided of Quarters, that he accord- ingly draw off, receiving first Satisfaction for the time they have already been on yt service. To Mess's Roger Kelley, John Fabes To be communicated to the In- & James Blagdon habbitants of Isles of Sholes. — Mass, Arc, Vol. 37, p. 320. No. XVIII. CApNE Willey gr Yo's of y^ 11th currt. is lying before the Gov^ and Countdl, who are glad of y® Safe arrival of yoT Selfe and Company, Ex- pecting you would have met with a more kind reception than yc'-' intimate from some who have no small Interest and concerns upon the place ; you have with you a Copy of the Pet*=°" Signed by the principal persons in the name of themselves and with the general consent of the dwellers there that a Cap".^ with a Comp*? of 40 souldicrs might be sent unto their aid and defeace, and that good Order might be maintained among them, promiseiug to be at y*" whole cliarge thereof themselves ; which is not irra- APPENDIX. 207 tional to Expect, considering they have hitherto contributed nothing towards the general defence which has been very ex- pensive and Avhereof they have received benefit, haveing also been providentially exempted from those common calamity a which haue befaln others of their neighbo'^^ and fellow Subjects, this charge upon a just computation will not exceed their proportion of what has been necessarily expended for the com- mon Safety. You may peruse the inclosed directed unto the Shoalers and Seal up and deliver the same ; And take the first opportunity to advise what Effect it hath upon the people, and wliither they will answer their Engagem! of bearing yo^ and Company'; whole charges ; which you are to take care be effec- tually Secured And if you find by them that they apprehend the charge will he, too heavy, and it be thought that fewer men may Serve the Occasion you may discharge some of those you mention that are not of y® hired men but were impres't for themselves or went volunteers, Seeing that they be duely paid for their time according to y^ accustomed allowance before they come away or secured the same; And finally if they will not per- forme their own Engagement to maintain you there, you must be satisfied by them for time you have already Served and draw off, and leave them to stand upon their own defence whil'st you remain Endeavour that the place be put into the best posture for defence it's capable of, and let yo^ souldiers be kept upon duty, not doubting of yo'" prudent Conduct of this whole Af- fayre ; In which heavens blessing attend you. — Mass. Arc, Vol. 37, p. 321. No. XIX. To his Excellency Sam'l Shute, Esq., Captain Generall, Governni'r and Commander in Chief in and over his Magesties Province of New Hamp.,, Sfc. To the Honourable the Councill and Representatives Conve7i'd in Gen'll Assemh'f/, now settling in Portsm'o in sd Province. The Petition of Richard Yeaton, one of the Selectmen of 208 APPENDIX. Starr Island upon the Isles of Shoales in behalfe of the Inhabi- tants thereof most humbly sheweth — That the Selectmen of the sd Island have not expressed any contempt to the Authority by their omitting to make an assess- ment on the people thereof pursuant to the Treasurers Warrant, aud therefore humbly prays that your Excellency and the Hon- ourable Assembly would pass a favorable construction thereon, and also prays that your Excellency and this Honourable Assem- bly would be pleased to consider the following pleas In favour of their being excused from the Province Tax. The people are very few in number and most of them are men of no substance, live only by their daily fishing, and near one third of them are single men and threaten to remove and leave us, if the tax be laid, which will prove our utter ruin if our ffish- ermen leave us. The charge and expence which they are at in the support of the ministry is as great as the people can bear at present, it hav- ing cost them but lately the sum of Two Hundred pounds for that end in building a Meeting House — which is not yet all paid. The Government have heretofore encouraged them that they should be exempted from paying Province Taxes, whilst they exprest their forwardness in so good a service. Though the Inhabitants have been very much richer and more numerous and their Trade greater than at present, yet they were not then rated, nor the Inhabitants on the Islands in the Massa- chusetts Government, They live on a Rock in the Sea, and have not any Privilege of right in Common Lands as other Inhabitants in the resi:)ective Towns have. They have defended themselves in the time of Warr ag'st the publick enemy at their own expence both for forts and souldiers whose wages they have paid; and finally all other Towns in their Province have been larger and more numerous before they were taxed to the Province rate. I do with a humble confidence assure your Excellency and the Honouraole Assembly that we shall ever express a loyalty to hi? APPENDIX. 209 Majesty and a ready obedience to the commands of the Govern- ment, but considering our poverty with the foregoing pleas in our favour, I do humbly pray that you will please to excuse us from the present Tax, and when we shall be better capable shall read- ily bear our proportion of the publick charge — and so your Petitioner shall ever pray, as in duty bound, &c., and subscribe RICH'D YEATON. 22d April 1721. No. XX. Province of ) To Ms Excellency Benning Wentivorth, Esq. New Hampshire ) Captain General, Governour and Commander in Chief in and over the said Province, the Hon'Ue His Majes- tys Council and House of Representatives in General As.^emUy convened, January 4th, 1760. Humbly Shew— Henry Carter, Pdchard Talfrey and Charles Miller all of Gosport within said Province in behalf of themselves and the other inhabitants of said Gosport, that the said Inhabi- tants have allways chearfully paid theu- Province Tax with great willingness and pleasure so long as they were of ability and until the fonr last years when their circumstances in life became so low (being a few poor fishermen) and the necessaries for living being excessively dearer at the place of their abode one hall more than at any other part of the Province with the great diffi- culty of Transporting the same there, together with their other great charge supporting the Gospel ministry among them, the few- ness of the Inhabitants and their poverty, and theu- few within four years last past being Greatly Reduced, they having had Tliirty-Two Ratable poles within that time left them to serve the King or Removed to other places, Six of which had familys, and diere is but few very few young men among them and the neigh- boring Islands in the Mass. Ba.y altho very short of our number 14 210 APPENDIX. have on account of their poverty been exempted from Tax for Twenty years last, and altlio Warrants from the Treasurer have come to the selectmen of said Gosport to assess tlie Inhabitants for their part year after year yet the selectmen did only the first year assess them and on finding that was not paid the poverty of the Inhabitants and some Great Encouragement from Some of the Honble General Court that on shewing forth the Difficulties afore- said the same might be Remited and since they have not made any assesment for Province Tax, and that that was made was never colected and now the same amounts to a very considerable Sum, and if their very few and remaining Inhabitants should be oblidged to pay the same it would greatly tend to their Ruin, for the few remaining young men w^ould Remove from them Rather than pay any part of such back taxes as were due before some of them were oblidged by law to pay any, and their would be none but a few old helpless persons left, and we would here beg leave to observe to this Honble Court that had we had a representative in Court at the time the proportion was made, Gosport might not have been Taxe'd. But altho we were always informed that we were allow'd the Liberty of sending one member to Represent us in said Court yet we never asked it, knowing it would be a great cost to the Province more than any advantage of Tax that cou'd possibly be expected from the Inhabitants, for which Reason we never made any Enquiry intb the matter. AVherefore We Humbly pray the consideration of this Honble Court on the premises, and that you will be p'eas'd to pass such an Act or Resolve to take of the said Back Tax's and that we may be exempt for the time to come, or grant such other Relief therein as in your Great Wisdom shall Beem meet unto you, and then we from such Incouragement shall have Great Reason to hope that instead of our few becoming fewer we shall increase in our numbers and be able to pay Province Taxes with great will- ingness when we shall have it in our ability — and, by being heard in this our Request we shal as in Duty Bound ever pray Henry Carter ^ Richard Talfrey > Selectmen, Charles Miller S APPENDIX. 211 In Council, Jan'ry 4th, 1760, read and order'd to be sent down to the Hon'ble Assembly. THEODORE ATKINSON, Sec'y. > In the house of Representatives, June 5th > 17G1. This Petition being read Province of New Hampshire Voted, That the prayer thereof be granted, and that the sum of five hundred and Twelve pounds Eight shillings and one penny new Tenor, that appearing to be the sum due from Gos- port for the province Tax be Remitted, and that the Treasurer he hereby Intitled to charge the said sum to the Province. A. CLARKSON, Clerk. £512 8 1 new Tenor. In Council June the 16 — 1761. Read and Concurred. THEODORE ATKINSON, Sec% Consented to B. WENTWORTH. No. XXI. To his Excellency Benning Wentworth Esq'r. Lieut General, Gov- ernor and Commander in Chief in and over fiis Majesty's Province of Neio Hampshire, the Hon'ble his Majesty's Council and House of Representatives for said Province in General Assembly Convened the 25th day of June, Anno Domini 1766. The Humble Petition of the Inhabitants of Gosport in the Province of New Hampshire and others whose Interest is con- I'erned — shews — That the situation of the Road and harbour at Gos- port aforesaid is well known to be exposed to the violence of Winds and Seas in many cases and Events which frequently Dccur by which they often sustain much Loss and Damage which they wou'd gladly Prevent if by any means feasible. That it has been Judo-'d a Pier or Bason misfht be so contrived and built as to be in a Great measure a security in this case and 212 APPENDIX, a means of great saving to your Petitioners and Preservation of their Property. That to make such a work effectual a Larger sum would be demanded than your Petitioners by any means cou'd raise, but as it wou'd be of very General Utility in its consequence, they flat- ter themselves the scheme for carrying on such a Building wou'd meet with suitable Encouragement from many other Persons be- sides your Petitioners and those who have connections with them. Wherefore your Petitioners Humbly Pray that they may have leave to set up and carry on a Public Lottery to raise money for the End aforesaid and for that Purpose to bring in a bill contain- ing such Limitations and Restrictions as shall be tho't necessary but with such extent and authority as shall be sufficient to Effect the Design and your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever Pray, &c. Jno. Tucke. Henry Carter. Richard Talfrey. John Varrell(V) William Mickamore. William Holbrook. Samuel Varrell, Jun'r. John Down. John Down, Jun'r. Samuel Downe. Jeremiah Lord. Jos. Damrell. Peter Robinson. John Walfrey. Ambrose Perkins. John Barter. Wm. Sanderson. George WaKrey. Josiah Sanderson. Henry Shapley, Jun'r. Joseph Muchamore. Henry Shapley. Richard Talfrey, Jun'r. Henry Talfrey. Daniel Rindle. James Hickey. Samuel Yarrell. Sam'l Muchmore. Gregory Purcell(?) Sam'l Cutts. Daniel Rindge. Geo. Boyd. Nath'l Adams. Jonathan Warner. Thomas Wentworth. John Sherburne. D. Sherburne. Sam'l Warner. Titus Salter. Abraham Trefethen. Hugh Hall Wentworth. Wm. Kniffht. APPENDIX. 213 Elamuel Muchamore. Benj'n Muchamore. Sam'l Muchamore. Arthur Rendle. Arthur Rendle, Jun'r. George Rendle. John Rendle. Edward Bondey. Henry W. Andrews. S. Mathews. Jno. JSI'ewton. Stephen Pierce. Jas. Ward. Rich'd Langford. Wm. Bickam(?) Sam'l Healy. John Parrell. Sam'l Currier. Temple Knight. Samuel Sherburne. Geo. Janvrin. Sam'l Dalling. John Flagg. Joseph Whipple. James Stoodly. Rich'd Hart. Wm. Whipple, Jno. Parker. H. Wentworth. ■John Penhallow. Thos. Bell. Samuel Moffatt. D. Peirce. Paul March(?) John Moffatt. Province of New HA.MPSE1IRE In Council June 28, 1766, Read and Or- dered to he sent doton to the Hon'ble Assembly* T. ATKINSON, Jun\, Sec'y. Province of > In tlte House of Representatives, July 3rf New Hampshire > 1766. Voted, That the Petitioners be heard on this Petition the sec- ond Day of the siting of the General Assembly after the first of September next, and that the Petitioners at their own cost cause the substance of this Petition and Order of Court to be Published three weeks successively in the New Hampshire Gazett that any Person may appeal and shew cause why the Prayer thereof should not be granted. M. WEARE, Clr. In Council Eod'm Die read and Concurred T. ATKINSON Jun., Sec'y. 214 APPENDIX PiiovixcE OF 7 In the House of Representatives Aug'st New Hampshire ) 28^7i 1767. The foregoing Petition being Read and Considered, appearing Beasonable and no objection made, Voted, That the Prayer of the Petition be Granted and thai the Petitioners have Liberty to bring in a Bill accordingly. M. WEARE, Clr, In Council Eod'm Die Read and Concurr'd T. ATKINSON, Jun., Sec'ij. In the House of Representatives, Sept. 17, 1767, P. M. An act for granting a Lottery for building a Pier or Bason at the Isle of Shoals having been three times Read Voted, That it pass to be Enacted. Sent on by Mr. Bailey. Sept. 24, 1767. Mr. Sec'y bro't from the Board the Act for granting a Lottery for building a Pier or bason at the Isles of Shoals, and said the Councill tbo't the managers appointed by the i^ct ought to be under Oath, which by the Act they were not obliged to ; and Proposed that amendment to be made. The House considering the amendment proposed agreed that it be made, which being made, the Act was sent to the Board again. Journal of Council and Assembly, Sept. 24, 1767. A Bill Intituted An Act for granting liberty to carry on a Lot- tery to raise money for building a Pier and forming a Bason in the Harbour at Gosport. Read a 3d time and past to be Enacted, and assented to by the Governor. THEODORE ATKINSON, Jun., Sec'y. This scheme of raising funds, by lottery, for the construction of a pier or basin at the Shoales, having proved impracticable was shortly after abandoned.