This reason, as well as his sense of justice, induced Mr. Gyles to procure from Darumquin,* a sagamore of the Anasagunticooks, a formal conveyance of the farm, in the presence of Thomas Watkins, Thomas Stevens, William Davis, Cornelius Paine, John Paine, and several others, both English and natives. The land was bounded by marked trees, distinguishable fifty years afterwards. In the Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Vol. III., p. 314, there are several errors, which it is desirable now to correct. 1. Thomas Gyles, it is there said, settled near Merry-meeting Bay, some years prior to 1666. The deed from Thomas Watkins, which conveyed to him his estate in that vicinity, and of which I have printed an exact copy in my GYLES MEMORIAL, is dated May 8, 1669. That Thomas Gyles was then recently from England is rendered extremely probable by three circumstances. (1) The residence of Thomas Watkins is given, but not the residence of Thomas Gyles. (2) The consideration for which the land was sold, £27, was paid in English goods, no doubt just brought from London. (3) James Gyles, who was doubtless a brother of Thomas Gyles, came to Merry-meeting Bay from England in May, 1669. 2. It is said that Thomas Gyles lived on the right bank of the Pejepscot or Androscoggin river. This would place him on the south side of that river, in the present town of Brunswick; whereas nothing is more certain than that he lived on the north side, in Topsham. This is proved not only by the deed from Watkins, which locates his farm between Muddy river on the north, and Pejepscot river on the south, but by several quitclaim deeds given by the heirs of Thomas Gyles to the Pejepscot Proprietors in 1727, 1758, and 1760, of which I have full and exact copies. 3. It is said that Thomas Gyles, at the commencement of the Indian war of 1675, was taken prisoner by the Indians, and his wife killed while in the garden picking beans. This statement is repeated by Rev. Rufus King Sewall, in his "Ancient Dominions of Maine." Neither branch of this statement is correct. Thomas Gyles left his farm on Merry-meeting Bay in the autumn of 1674, called home to England on urgent business. His father had died there, and he went to receive his share of the paternal estate. He took his family with him, and was absent from this country until some time in 1676. To his farm on the Pejepscot he never returned. The land of Thomas Gyles was bounded on the south and east by Merry-meeting Bay, where the Androscoggin unites with the broad Kennebec; north by Muddy River, which is merely an arm of the sea, four or five miles long, for a while collateral with this Bay, and then falling into it; and west by land of Capt. Reynolds. Reynolds, however, did not live there when Mr. Gyles made the purchase. The farm ran up two miles in length on Muddy River to a fresh-water brook, he sold to John Richards, the island of Jeremisquam, now constituting the town of West port; and in 1654 he conveyed to Edward Bateman and John Brown, all the easterly part of Woolwich. The present village of Wiscasset was in 1663 purchased by George Davie, who then lived at Wiscasset, and was brother of Humphrey Davie, of Boston, who bought Swan Island, below Gardiner, of the Indians in 1669, and afterwards lived there. Indeed, it appears that most of the land in that vicinity, and on the Kennebec River, was purchased of the Indins, and is now held under Indian deeds, and not under charters. See Williamson, i. 53, 330, 671, 683 Sullivan's Maine, pp. 144-149. Darumquin is called Tarumkin in Williamson's History of Maine, and in Drake's Book of the Indians. He lived on the Androscoggin river. and then extended one mile across (and south) to Pejepscot River. Projecting into Merry-meeting Bay was a point of land of considerable elevation, on which Mr. Gyles erected a house, where during four or five years he resided. What neighbors had Thomas Gyles at that time? They were not so many, as not to be easily counted. The farm of Capt. Reynolds joined on the west; James Thomas and Samuel York were his neighbors on the south-west; Thomas Purchas and Thomas Stevens were still on the other side of the Pejepscot, in Brunswick, near the line of Bath, not more than four miles from Mr. Gyles on the south; perhaps George Way,* also, was still there; Humphrey Davie, a merchant of Boston, son of Sir John Davie, bought Swan Island of the Indians in 1669, and was now living there, five miles to the north-east; Thomas Watkins lived at Nequasset, in the present town of Woolwich; Richard Hammond, Samuel Smith, Joshua Grant, John Barnes, John White, John Brown, Edward Bateman, and some others, were also in Woolwich, 8 or 10 miles to the east; George Davie and John Mason were in Wiscasset; Sylvanus Davis and Nicholas Raynal† were on Arrowsic Island, where Thomas Clark and Thomas Lake of Boston, the owners, spent a portion of their time every year; John Parker may still have been on Parker's Island. According to Sullivan, p. 170, there were, in 1670, 20 families on the west, and 30 on the east bank of the Kennebec. More remotely, William Dyer was at Sheepscot, now Newcastle; Walter Phillips and others were at Damariscotta; Thomas Gardiner, Henry Joscelyn, Thomas Elbridge, and others, at Pemaquid. Besides these was James Gyles, on Muddy River, of whom more hereafter. It is well known that the colonization of Maine, though begun earlier, proceeded with much less rapidity than that of the other portions of New England. The causes are found, partly in the insecurity of the land-titles, the grants frequently overlapping each other, but chiefly in the different motives which governed the early colonists. Those who first settled in Maine were drawn thither for worldly purposes, to catch fish, and to trade with the Indians; while the more western colonies were founded under the higher and stronger impulses of religion. When Thomas Gyles settled in Maine, nearly fifty years had elapsed since the first permanent occupation of its shores by white Yet there were, on all its extended coast line of more than three hundred miles, only seven incorporated towns; while Massachusetts men. * James Thomas and Samuel York bought of Darumquin and Robinhood, July 22, 1670, a tract of land two miles long, fronting on Merry-meeting Bay, and extending back to Muddy River, and having the farm of Mr. Gyles on the North-east. Purchas settled on Stevens River in what is now Brunswick, about 1624, and Stevens and Way came not long after. + Are Raynal and Reynolds the same name? and is Nicholas Raynal the same man as Capt. Reynolds whose farm lay immediately west of the farm of Thomas Gyles? We think so. We find Nicholas Raynal at Arrowsick in 1665, being then appointed a magistrate or justice by the Royal Commissioners. Capt. Reynolds, not long after 1669, owned a farm west of Mr. Gyles, but it does not appear that he lived there. These were-Kittery, including Kittery, Elliot, and the two Berwicks, incorporated 1647; York, 1652; Wells, including Kennebunk, 1653; Saco, including Biddeford, 1653; Cape Porpoise, afterwards called Arundel, and now Kennebunk-port, 1653; Scarborough, 1658; Falmouth, including Cape Elizabeth, Westbrook, Portland, and the islands in Casco Bay, 1658. Kittery was incorporated under the patent of Gorges; the others under the government of Massachusetts. For the names of the towns in Massachusetts, see Barry, ii. 4, note. had fifty or more, Plymouth twelve, and Connecticut twenty-two. Maine, with an area equal to all the rest of New England, had a population of only 3000 souls; while Massachusetts had 30,000, Plymouth 5000, and Connecticut 10,000.* The Royal Commissioners, in 1666, say, in Maine "there are but few towns, and those much scattered, .. they are rather farms than towns.' Most of the settlements east of Falmouth, were little better than fishing stations. At the same time, the Commissioners were profoundly impressed with the rapid growth, the greatness and the prosperity of Massachusetts. The earliest permanent settlement on the Kennebec was made by Thomas Purchas, about the year 1624. We derive this date from a deed to Richard Wharton, a merchant of Boston, executed July 7, 1684, by Warumbee and five other Indian Sagamores, of land on both sides of the Pejepscot or Lower Androscoggin. This deed says that * These are the estimates of the careful and judicious Palfrey. Hist. of N. England, iii. pp. 35, 36. The less accurate Williamson, i. 447, thinks that Maine had from 5000 to 6000 at this time. + I annex a statement made in 1701, by Capt. Sylvanus Davis, who had excellent opportunities to know the condition of things in Maine about this time. He was of Damariscotta in 1659 and some years subsequent. When Clarke and Lake became owners of Arrowsie, about 1665, he removed to that island, where he was their general agent. At the Indian massacre there, Aug. 14, 1676, he was severely wounded, and hardly escaped with his life. After this he settled at Falmouth (he was there in 1684), and finally in Boston, where he died in 1703, without issue. He was a landholder in Maine, and a Councillor of Massachusetts under the charter of 1692. The statement which follows has hitherto existed, I believe, only in manuscript. It is in the handwriting of Dr. Belcher Noyes, of Boston, who was one of the Pejepscot Proprietors in 1758. It may safely be accepted as a true statement of the progress of colonization in Maine, east of Casco Bay, previous to 1660. "March, 1701. Capt. Silvanns Davis gives this account of ye several English settlements that he hath known to be formerly at and to the Eastward of Kennebec or Sagadahoc along the Sea Coast to Montonicus. "Sundry English Fishing places some 70 some 40 years since, at Sagadahoc many Familys & ten Boats sometimes more, at Cape Norwagan many Familys & 15 Boats. East side of Sagadahoc to Merrymeeting, 31. [This seems to mean that on or near the west bank of the Lower Kennebec there were 20 families, and 31 on or near its east bank, in Woolwich, Arrowsic, &c.] From Cape Newagan to Pemaquid, 6 Farmers. At Pemaquid, 15; at New Harbor, 10. On the East side of Sisquamego, 1. Phillip Swades, 50 years agone, besides Fishermen, 60 or 70 years, 84 within Land. At St. Georges, 84 Familys. [This item repeats the preceding. Compare with this the statement of Sullivan, that 84 families occupied, in 1631, Pemaquid and the shores adjacent.] Between Kennebec and Georges River, 12. At Sheepscott town besides Farmers. Between Sheepscott and Damariscotty River, 10. At Damariscotty, 7 or 8. Between Damariscotty, Muscongus, Pemaquid & Round Pond, 12 Familys. "Many more had begun to settle, many taken Lotts with intent speedily to settle, but were disappointed by ye warr. Beside the great Improvements, Houses, Mills, Stores, Maulting, Building of ships & vessels, the Inhabitants daily increasing." about sixty years before, Thomas Purchas took possession of the tract, and settled near the centre of it. [Williamson, i. 573.] Purchas was a trader with the Indians for furs. He lived in the present township of Brunswick, about five miles east of the college, and near the head of Stevens's or New Meadows river. [Ibid, i. 33, note.] Not far from the same time, George Way and Thomas Stevens settled in the same neighborhood. Purchas and Way claimed the land on both sides of the Androscoggin, and from the Falls in Brunswick down to the sea. [Ibid, i. 266.] The foundation of this claim is said to have been a patent from the Council of Plymouth in England, dated in 1632-3. [Ibid., i. 690.] This is alleged in a deed to Richard Wharton, made 1683, by Eleazar Way, relinquishing his right as son and heir of George Way. [Willis, Hist. of Portland, p. 41.] It is said also that they purchased the same tract of the natives. [Williamson, i. 90.] These deeds to Wharton constituted what was called "The Pejepscot Purchase," a fruitful source of controversy for eighty years afterwards. It was terminated in 1768, by a decree of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Thomas Watkins, already mentioned, died before 1674, and his widow Margaret married Thomas Stevens, who is also mentioned above. We hear nothing of Purchas after Sept. 1675, when his house was plundered by the Indians, and himself driven away.* Thomas Gyles appears to have left a good home, a plentiful estate, and a desirable social rank, in Old England. His son John introduces his Personal Narrative, written in 1736, thus: "I have been advised to give a particular account of my father, which I am not very fond of, having no dependence on the virtues or honors of my ancestors to recommend me to the favor of God or men." It is a plain inference from this language that Thomas Gyles was not only a good man, but a man of honorable lineage. Again he says-" He laid out no inconsiderable income, which he had annually from England, on the place." He must therefore have been the possessor of a handsome estate in the old country, as well as in the new. When Mr. Gyles setled on the Kennebec, 1669, that region was in a flourishing and hopeful state. Massachusetts had successfully asserted her chartered rights over the eastern country as far as the Penobscot; there was now a prospect of a well-ordered civil government, such as had yielded the happiest results on the banks of the Merrimac and the Charles; and the Indians were quiet and peaceable, far and near. Those disturbers, the Royal Commissioners, had returned to England utterly baffled. Mr. Gyles, accordingly, dwelt happily in his New England home between five and six years. Receiving notice of the death of his parents in England, he returned to that country with his family in the autumn of 1674, as his son says, "to settle his affairs." This of course took up considerable time. He probably did not return to New England till the spring or summer of 1676. "On his arrival at Boston, the Eastern Indians had begun their hostilities.". Their hostilities in Maine began in September, 1675; were prosecuted with great fury during the summer of 1676; the whole coast east of Falmouth, and many places west of it, being made desolate; and the work of massacre and ravage went on till April, 1677. Since writing the above, I have been informed that his grave-stone has been found in Brunswick, from which it appears that he died in 1679, or about that time. Mr. Gyles came back with the desire of returning to his farm; but this being impracticable, "he began," says his son, a settlement on Long Island." This was probably at Southold, near the eastern end of that Island, where James Gyles, presumed to be his brother, was abiding at this time. Southold was settled from New England. "The air of that place," continues the Narrative, "not so well agreeing with his constitution, and the Indians having become peaceable, he again proposed to resettle his lands in Merry-meeting Bay; but finding that place deserted "-the settlements for many scores of miles around being utterly blotted out of existence*-" and finding that plantations were going on at Pemaquid, he purchased several tracts of land of the inhabitants there." In June, 1677, Major Edmund Andros, who was governor at New York, anxious to secure for the Duke of York the territory in Maine which Charles II. had given to that prince in 1665, but which had hitherto been neglected by him, sent a military force to Pemaquid, with orders to rebuild the fort there, and take possession of the country. Confiding in the protection of the fort, now called fort Charles, and manned with fifty soldiers, the settlers who had been driven away by the Indians now returned, but were obliged to take new deeds from the New York authorities, and pay considerable sums into the pockets of the ducal officers. Mr. Gyles took up his residence in 1678 within a quarter of a mile from fort Charles, in the settlement which soon grew up in the neighborhood, which received the name of Jamestown, in honor of the Duke of York.t When Pemaquid, with the line of coast of which it was the principal settlement, was constituted a judicial district, under the name of the County of Cornwall in the Province of New York, Thomas Gyles was made Chief Justice of the same, by Gov. Thomas Dongan, who succeeded Andros, Sept. 30, 1682, as the ducal governor of New York. His name appears, with the names of eighteen others, attached to a petition addressed to Governor Dongan, dated in 1683, and entitled, "The Humble Petition of the inhabitants of the extreme partes of his Riall Hiness Territory Between the River Kenybeke and St. Croix." The petitioners complain of the ducal government as "allto gether arbytrary," and speak of its "Grand abusses as not to be endured any longer." Thomas Gyles was a man of wealth, and, as his son informs us, employed a large income, which he annually derived from property be longing to him in Englaud, in improving and cultivating his lands at Pemaquid. He was also a gentleman of great personal worth; of high religious character; a careful observer of the Sabbath; faithful and fearless in the discharge of all his duties. As a magistrate and ruler, who must be "a terror to evil doers," he met with much diffi "Between Casco Bay and the Penobscot not an English settlement remained." Palfrey, iii. 208. The fort stood on the site where fort William Henry was built under the orders of Sir William Phips in 1692. This fort, destroyed by the French in 1696, was restored as Fort Frederic by Col. David Dunbar in 1729. The massive ruins still seen there, attest its former strength and durability. Proceeding northward from the fort was a handsome paved street, still in being, extending nearly a quarter of a mile. The old cellars and the ancient cemetery are still seen, although only one house is still in being in the former Jamestown, For a history and description of" Pemaquid, Ancient and Modern"-the modern derived from personal observation-see "The Gyles Memorial," by the present writer, pp. 540-548. See also the same work, pp. 103–120. |