The winter of 1718-1719 in Dracut, Andover, and in Casco Bay
We have seen that many Scotch Irish immigrants passed the winter of 1718-19 in Boston, much to the discomfort of the town officers and citizens there. These immigrants were possibly from the territory around Belfast, comprising southern Antrim and the northern part of the County of Down. They must have treasured some memories of the sailing of the Eagle Wing nearly a century before, for many of their towns had sent out inhabitants on that fated expedition.
The Worcester company left Boston early in Au gust, 1718. Other families and groups of immigrants struck out for themselves. James Smith, who had come from Ballykelly, a town between the Foyle and the Bann, near Newton Limavady, wandered about for a few months and settled down in Needham, where his third son Matthew was born in April, 1720. The Rev. Jonathan Townsend, writing there in February, 1723-4, states that a year earlier he had had to plead with his people not to ill-treat the new settlers, from which we may infer that the Smiths soon must have had Scotch Irish neighbors. The church reference to Mr. Smith is an interesting record :
"Jan: 9, 1726. James Smith & Mary his Wife admitted into the Church, came from Ireland A. D. 1718, & Brought a Testimonial with them from Mr. John Stirling Minister of the Congregation of Bellykelly in the County of Londonderry."
The leaders of the Bann Valley settlers, finding that their agent, the Eev. William Boyd, had ob tained no definite grant of land, determined to spend the winter in or near Boston until affairs were more to their satisfaction. Boyd, as we have seen, re mained in Boston, but the Eev. Mr. McGregor s means were not sufficient to allow him to pass the winter in idleness, and he appealed to the Eev. Cotton Mather for influence in obtaining a position as teacher or minister. Mather in his diary under October 3d writes: "Encourage ye people of Draycot unto ye Inviting of a worthy Scotch minister lately arrived here, to settle among ym.
Mather s letter, written on the previous day, is printed below from the somewhat illegible rough draft at the American Antiquarian Society s library in Worcester :
Dear Brethren
Being informed that you are desirous to hear from
us, the character of or Friend and Brother Mr McGregore, we do, with great Alacrity and satisfaction
give you to understant that we look upon him, as a
person of a very excellent Character : and consider
ably qualified for the work of ye ministry as well for
his ministerial abilities as his Christian [?] piety:
[serious gravity and as far as we have heard every
way unexceptionable Behaviour.] And we have
also had it credibly Eeported unto us, that from a
singular goodness in his Temper, he was usually
called The peace-maker, in ye countrey from whence
he came. On these Accounts we cannot but hope that
if you should obtain him, to become your pastor, you
will enjoy in him a very precious gift of your as
cended Saviour, To whose Blessing you are now
commended by Your hearty Friend
In writing of Mr. McGregor it must be evident that Cotton Mather expressed himself after two months of intercourse with the Scotch minister. We may assume also from McGregor s marriage to a sister of the wives of James McKeen and Captain James Gregg that he must himself have been a man of ability, for they were leaders among men wher ever they chanced to be.
The village of Dracut had built a little meeting house three years earlier on the river road, now Varnum Avenue. It was thirty feet long and twenty feet wide, and to this house of worship after listen ing to some fifteen candidates the people decided to summon Mr. McGregor, i i the peace-maker. The town evidently hoped that he would, if acceptable, settle down after the admirable custom of the time to be the father of his flock through life. The record of the town (there are no church records until 1788) reads :
"Mad choice of Mr. Mackgreggor to settel in Dracutt to prech the Gospel and to do the Whole Work of a Settled minister ; and likewise Voted to give to Mr Macgreger Sixty five pounds a year for his salary for the first four years, and then Seaventy pound a year till there Be fifty families in the town of Dracutt, and then it Shall Be eighty pounds a yeare; and likewise voted for a settlement sixty pounds the one half the Next June ins eying, and the other half the next June, in the year 1720"
The Eev. James McGregor spent the winter of 1718-19 in Dracut on the banks of Beaver Brook, a little north of the present city of Lowell, and south of the future Nutfield ; but there is no evidence that the Scotch Irish people followed him to Dracut. In addition to his work as the village pastor he taught the school.
Parker in his History of Londonderry refers to a winter settlement of Scotch Irish at Andover, a village five or ten miles east of Dracut. "On tak ing their departure, " lie writes, "from one of the families with whom they had resided, they left a few potatoes for seed. The potatoes were accordingly planted; came up and flourished well; blossomed and produced balls, which the family supposed were the fruit to be eaten. They cooked the balls in vari ous ways, but could not make them palatable, and pronounced them unfit for food. The next spring, while ploughing their garden the plough passed through where the potatoes had grown, and turned out some of great size, by which means they discov ered their mistake."
This incident is said to have occurred on the farm of Nathaniel Walker, father of the Eev. Timothy Walker, first minister of Concord. The farm was near the boundary line between North Andover and Bradford, and several families probably spent the winter of 1718-19 there, the single men and girls finding shelter and employment in the neighboring villages. 1 The Andover taxpayers were assessed forty shillings in 1719 to provide funds to aid the poor, and part of the money thus collected was no doubt spent for provisions for the Scotch Irish. Ob viously the settlers of a single winter left few rec ords of their stay; but Miss C. H. Abbott, the inde fatigable investigator, has found traces of them.
Thomas Grow, probably the same man who signed the petition to Governor Shute in 1718, was one of those who remained in Andover after his compan ions had moved to Nutfield. An order was issued the next winter for his relief, and at about the same time, with man s improvidence, he was married. His wife, Eebecca Holt came of a well known local family.
Two other men from Ireland are mentioned upon the records at an early date, Eobert Stuart and Wil liam Bolton, who were recorded January 30, 1718-19, as living in the town. They had come up from Bos ton the preceding summer or autumn, Stuart bring ing a family with him. Very unreliable tradition2 states that Eobert Stuart of Edinburgh (1655-1719) was the father of Eobert of Andover and of John (1682-1741), the proprietor of Londonderry, New Hampshire. Samuel Stuart of Andover, called a third son of the first Eobert, was executor of the will of John in 1741. A Walter Stewart or Stuart of Londonderry married in 1722 Giziell Crumey of Boxford, and a little later John Stuart of London derry owned land in Boxford. These men may have been kinsmen, but there were so many early immi grants by the name of Stuart, some on Cape Cod, others in Connecticut, in Charlestown, Lunenburg and elsewhere that only the family historian could trace their relationship.
William Bolton, called "Scotch" by his descend ants, came from the vicinity of Coleraine. He mar ried at Andover in 1719-20, and died soon after in the adjoining town of Reading, leaving two sons William and John.
Of these immigrants Miss Abbott says: "I find many were tenants on farms held partly by dower widows and worked on shares." Land was difficult of purchase in an old town like Andover, and most of the Scotch Irish were transients only. On the Andover town records are the names of:
John Cofferin or Cochran . . 1725/6
John Telford ... 1725/6
John Cromme or Crombie ... 1726/7
Hugh Riddle ... 1726/7
William Crumney ... 1727
T
homas Richardson, "Irishman," his son John baptized ... 1730
Joseph Waugh and wife Margaret,
before ... 1732
Alexander Macartney, ... Irish
man," and Margaret his wife ...
about 1742
James, John and Samuel Seaton ... 1748
Other members of the Scotch Irish migration may have tarried at Haverhill, Bradford and Dracut, but the record of them is meagre.
While the Andover colonists were spending the winter in moderate comfort, the " Irish " at Casco Bay suffered great hardship. Parker writes : The party that left Boston for Casco Bay, arrived there late in the season ; and it proving to be a very early and cold winter, the vessel was frozen in. Many of the families, not being able to find accommodations on shore, were obliged to pass the whole winter on board the ship, suffering severely from the want of food, as well as of convenience of situation."
The village of Falmouth on the site of the present city of Portland, Maine, had suffered from Indian raids, from intense cold in winter, and from the pov erty of its fishing population. In the Acts and re solves of the province of the Massachusetts Bay it is recorded July 16, 1718, that a committee of five was appointed to view Falmouth, give advice as to laying out of streets, placing the meeting house, and organ ization. The appointment of this committee prob ably drew the attention of Governor Shute to the lands about Casco Bay between Cape Elizabeth and the mouth of the Kennebec, roughly the land between Portland and Bath. He, it is said, spoke to Mc Gregor and McKeen, and the latter with the Eev. Mr. McGregor s congregation, relatives, and friends, de termined to go at once in the ship in which they had crossed the ocean, to explore the coast of the bay.
Meanwhile the Committee recommended that the inhabitants already there be given powers of selfgovernment since there was i a Fair Prospect of its being in a little time a flourishing town." On November 12th the Legislature approved the sugges tion on condition that fifty families more be admit ted as soon as possible and settled in a compact and defensible manner. On the 19th the Legislature ap proved a project for a town to be laid out near Falmouth for the Scotch Irish, evidently having no thought that the Scotch Irish emigrants would settle in Falmouth.
Those who sailed into Casco Bay in the " Robert " went ashore probably between Falmouth Village and the Point on Cape Elizabeth, where they began about the month of November to build rough shelters for the winter.1 It seems difficult to believe that the fam ilies which were on the ship could not provide rough huts before winter set in. Evidently the autumn was extremely cold and the vessel, if tradition is to be believed, was caught in the ice, so that those who did not immediately get their huts well under way were forced by the bitter weather to settle down on the "Robert" for the winter. John Armstrong and others at once sent a petition to the government at Boston.
This John Armstrong is no doubt the indigent voyager on the "Robert"; in the wild life on Cape Elizabeth his ability brought him forward. The official reference to the petition reads: "A Petition of John Armstrong & divers others, Setting forth that there are about thirty Families arrived from the North of Ireland, at Falmouth, in Casco Bay, that they are building Cottages to shelter themselves from the weather, that their good Success in these Parts will encourage many of their Brethren to transport themselves & Families into this countrey ; And therefore Praying that they may have Portions of Land allotted to them near Falmouth; & seeing they are scarce of Provisions, that they may have some thing to subsist them this Winter." There are several petitions of this period, and in reply the Council stated that Armstrong s petition could not be granted as Falmouth was anciently inhabited, and the lands were already owned.
Meanwhile the development of Falmouth lan guished. Samuel Moody and John Smith wrote to the government that notwithstanding the favorable report of the Committee, and the powers given to Falmouth, yet claimers and proprietors of lands could not agree upon their bounds. The petitioners asked that a constable and other officers be ap pointed to regulate affairs and provide for the sup port of a minister. They stated that the population was about three hundred, 2 most of them from Ire land, and one half so poor that they had neither pro vision nor money for them. They conclude by ask ing "that this Honble Court would be pleased to con sider the deplorable Circumstances of the said Place by reason of the great Number of poor Strangers arrived amongst them and take some speedy & Ef fectual Care for their supply."
This petition was ordered to be referred to the session in May, and one hundred bushels of Indian meal were to be forwarded to the Irish people.
The Eev. William Cornwall had gone with the "Bobert" in place of the Eev. Mr. McGregor. Mr. Cornwall was from Clogher, in County Tyrone, a day s journey south of Londonderry. He was not well, and on account of the distance of his dwelling house in Clogher from the church, and the arrears of his salary, he resigned his pastorate and joined the McGregor colony. One winter at Casco Bay seems to have chilled his ardor for pioneering and he returned to become minister at Taughboyne in 1722. The pri vations which threatened the "BobertV company at Porpooduc, as the Cape Elizabeth land was called, brought from Mr. Cornwall a letter of distress. Cot ton Mather, January 8, 1718T19, wrote in his Diary : "Some Letters unto ye Scotch ministers arrived in o[u]r East Countrey, may have a Tendency to hearten them in that work of God, which they have to do, in those New Plantations ; and more particu larly for ye Christianizing of the Indians there/ 2 The following draft of a letter by Mather gives an intimation of his labors in behalf of the struggling colony "at Porpooduc, Casco Bay, Falmouth town ship. He writes :
"Whereas, the New Settlement at Casco-bay, is as yett in its feeble infancy, But Yett there is usual (besides ye Families that have began as inhabitants) on ye Lords-day a Considerable Resort of people that are from divers places on their Fishing voyages: which renders ye Condition of these places a little pe culiar, and Considerably calls for our care that the Lords-days may not pass without public Exercise of Religion there: Whereas also there is now a very worthy, pious & Peaceful Minister whose name is Mr. Cornwal much desired and invited by the people there: who are willing to do something toward the subsistence of him ; which something is much too lit tle in any tolerable measure to insure ye Instruction.
" Tis humbly moved That ye General Assembly would express ye goodness usual wth ye government on such occasions and allow for one year from ye public Treasury some. agreeable accession to what ye people there can do, towards ye support of such a minister."
With the approach of warmer weather in the spring of 1719 most of the McGregor colony looked about for a more promising place. Those who re mained at Falmouth led a miserable existence. The Rev. Thomas Smith, "pastor of the first church of Christ in Falmouth," came to his desolate field of labor in 1720. There were less than sixty families, very poor because they were so often forced through fear of the Indians to abandon their farms and live in garrison houses, and some of them, says Smith, " soldiers that had found wives on the place, and were mean animals. " But the fighting in 1722 did away with the worst of them.
In 1735 there were only twenty families at Porpooduc, and the Presbyterians there, at Falmouth, and at the settlement in Brunswick, to be noticed later, were ministered to by the Eev. James Woodside for several years. He was followed by the Eev. William McClenathan, who removed to Blandford in Massachusetts in 1744. During the next score of years only the aged gathered to hear a passing Presbyterian minister, to renew their faith and their memories of old Ireland.
History and tradition have left some record of those who remained in Falmouth after the winter sojourners had gone on to Nutfield. John Arm strong, signer of the petition, with Eobert Means, who had married his daughter, were certainly there, and Means settled at Stroudwater, a village near Falmouth. The descendants of Means became very prominent later in Massachusetts. Armstrong is said to have had brothers Simeon, James and Thomas, who had grants in or near Falmouth before 1721.
John Barbour came with his family, a son John having come to York, it is said, as early as 1717.
Randal McDonald is also mentioned as of the company which spent the winter of 1718-19 in Falmouth, and with him William Jameson. A man named Slemons is said to have settled at Stroudwater with Means.
This list is no doubt wholly inadequate, but the establishment of settlers a few miles away at Bruns wick in 1718, supposed to be the passengers by the Maccallum, and additions in great numbers there in 1719 under Captain Eobert Temple, make it ex tremely difficult to name those who spent the winter of 1718-19 in or near Falmouth, and remained long enough to find a place on the records.
Trouble with the Indians drove many farmers out of the country during the next five years, and from the lists of persons reaching Boston a few names of early dwellers in Casco Bay can be added. These names were incorporated into the Boston Select men s records.
Eecorded at a meeting of the selectmen, April 27, 1719:
Anne Hanson who came from Casco into this Town ab* a week before was on ye 23th of march, 1718 [-19] warned to depart.
Eobert Holmes & wife, William Holmes & child who came from Casco into this Town abt 12 dayes before was on the 15th of Aprill curt warned to depart.
Recorded July 25, 1719
Joan Maccoullah widd came from Casco bay who had been then here ab1 5 dayes was on the 5th of June, warned to depart.
Recorded October 28, 1720
Noah Peck from Casco 2 moneths warned 26th of August.
Recorded July 28, 1722
Thomas Longworth, Lame, from Casco [warned] June 3.
Longworth was a settler long before 1718. The same may perhaps be said of Peck.
The Scotch Irish settlers at Casco Bay between 1718 and 1722, that is, at Falmouth and along the shore of Cape Elizabeth, were more numerous than these records show, but some of the earliest were :
James Armstrong.
John Armstrong.
Simeon Armstrong.
Thomas Armstrong.
John Barbour.
Thomas Bolton.
Rev. William Cornwall.
Joshua Gray.
Anne Hanson.
Robert Holmes and wife.
William Holmes and child.
William Jameson.
Joan Maccoullah.
Randal McDonald.
Bryce McLellan.
Robert Means.
Andrew Simonton.
William Simonton.
William Slemons or Slemmons.
Bryce McLellan, who appears in the above list, built a house in Falmouth in 1731. Through the vicissitudes of fortune this house survived fire and storm, Mowat s attack in 1775, and the ruthless hand of progress, t standing on York Street after every other house of its period had disappeared from the present city of Portland.
Among the later Scotch Irish settlers at Falmouth was John Motley, from Belfast in Ireland, who married in 1738 Mary Roberts. A son settled in Boston, where he became prominent; his descendant, John Lothrop Motley, was the historian of the Netherlands.