now be known, as the records of New Somersetshire, if any were kept after 1637, have been lost. There is one trait of his character so marked that it deserves particular notice; it is his constant watchfulness over his proper rights and privileges. The records of some of the early provincial courts occasionally show how careful he was of his own rights, while they never bear evidence of his neglect of the rights of others. In an action brought before the first general court, of the Province in 1640, Richard Foxwell of Blue Point complains of Cammock for preventing him and others from fishing for bass and lobsters in Black Point River. To this complaint Cammock answered: "that by virtue of his Patent the Royaltie of fishing and fowling belongeth to him, and (is) not to be violently trespassed by force, and hath sustained greate damage by their fishing and cominge on his ground and otherwise. Though he never denyed any that came with leave or in a fayre way with acknowledgement, but thinketh it intrusion to be disfringed of his grant wch all Pattentees enjoy: for redresse referreth himselfe to the bench."* At the same Court Cammock enters a complaint against John Winter of Richmond's Island for sending "some of his servants to cut hay in the limitts of the plaintiffer's Patent without his consent or knowledge." These slight notices afford a clue by which one may discover something of Cammock's character. It may seem at first that he was somewhat overbearing in his conduct towards his neighbors, who after all may not have intended to trespass upon his lawful rights; but a second thought will convince one that a proprietor in those days could not be too carefully on his guard against trespassers, knowing by how slight a tenure men then held their possessions in this country. It is to be regretted that fuller accounts of Cammock are not to be found. To those interested in the history of the *York Records. settlement which he founded it would be pleasing to know more of the life and character of the founder. Of the planters who settled around Cammock at this time, a few names have escaped oblivion. One Stephen Lapthorne was a tenant of Cammock in 1640; and, as appears from Cammock's complaint against Winter, he had then begun to build himself a house on the lot hired of Cammock; and it appears from the same source that there were "others to whom the Plaintiff had appointed lotts of land for wch he was to have fees and rents." It seems that Winter claimed land on the eastern side of the Spurwink, though there is no evidence that he had any right there. Cammock's delivery of possession given in 1633, expressly declares the eastern bound of his grant to be the Spurwink; and according to Winter's own declaration in another action that was the eastern boundary of Cammock's Patent, and the western boundary of the Trelawney Patent in which Winter was lawfully interested. Winter was hardly the man for a peaceable neighbor; and it is not surprising that he should at the same time be in trouble with his next neighbor on either side of the Trelawney Patent, Cammock at Black Point and Cleeves on Falmouth Neck. While Lapthorne was building on the land hired of Cammock near the Spurwink, Winter went to the place one day and warned him off the ground, assuring him that he would pull down his house as soon as finished if he persisted in building there. There is no evidence that such neighborly interference deterred Cammock in the least from occupying his lands with such tenants as chose to settle upon them; for within a short time afterwards their houses were to be seen for a mile along the eastern side of the Spurwink. Ambrose Boaden was another of the early settlers under Cammock at Black Point. He had been captain and owner of the vessel in which Cammock came over from England, and had received Cleeves vs. Winter 1640. from him, in part payment for the passage of himself and wife, a lot of land near the month of the Spurwink upon which he resided until 1675 the year of his death. He was for many years the Spurwink ferryman, and was first appointed such by an order of the Court held at Spurwink at the house of Robert Jordan, July 12th 1658. The following from the records of that Court is the appointment showing the price of ferriage in those days. "Ordered yt Mr. Ambrose Boaden shall keepe the Ferry over Spurwink River to Mr. Robt. Jordan, to ferry passengers from thence as occasion serveth. In consideration whereof the said Boaden is to have 2 pence for every person he ferryeth or carrieth over in prsent pay and 3d for every such pson as hee bookes downe. Ambrose Boaden willingly attempts of this Ferry on ye Tearmes by the Court appoynted." He was also one of the Coroner's jury in the case of Charles Frost who was tried in 1646 for the murder of Warwick Head. This was the second trial for murder within the Province of Maine, and for twenty years the only one recorded. There is nothing further recorded of Boaden's public services. In 1670 he became blind and remained so until his death in the Spring of 1675. For three years after Cammock's settlement at Black Point there was no other part of the town occupied by any but Indians. The majority of those who then came to settle here were men of small means, who being unable to become proprietors themselves were willing to settle as the tenants of Cammock; This lot is now the Higgins farm at Black Point. The names of its several occupants from the time of Boaden to the present have been fortunately preserved. They are in the order of their succession. Ambrose Boaden, Ambrose Boaden, Jr, Nathan Bedford, Mr. Cauley, Robert Elliot, Roger Perry, David Young, Wm. Watson: The last two were only lessees of the farm, and the ownership passed from the heirs of Perry to Mr. Fergus Higgins, the great grandfather of the present occupant. The first was that of a woman who was tried and executed at Gorgeana (York) in 1644. and thus for a few years the population of the town was entirely confined to his plantation. The Council of Plym- The next principal settlement within the limits of Scarborough, was that of Blue Point, in 1636. outh granted Thomas Lewis and Capt. tract of land extending four miles by the sea on the eastern sine of Saco River, and eight miles into the main land. This grant, which was made February 12, 1630, includes the present side of Saco village, and that part of Scarborough which was lately set over to Saco. It was one of the principal considerations moving the Council to bestow this patent, that the patentees had agreed to transport fifty persons within seven years, and settle them upon it. Amongst those brought over in fulfilment of this agreement, were Richard Foxwell and Henry Watts. The date of Foxwell's settlement at Blue Point is fixed at about 1636, by his declaration against Cammock before the General Court of 1640, in which he says, "yt he hath for these foure yeares or thereabouts lived at Blacke-poynt in the right of Capt. Rich: Bonython, his father-in-law, who settled him there and gave him as much freedome and priviledge as by virtue of his Pattent he could, either for planting, fishing, fowleing or the like, wch was the maine cause of (his) settling there."* It will be noticed that Foxwell here speaks of himself as living at Black Point. A word here upon the names of the two earliest settlements will not be out of place. At that time, and for several years afterwards, all the country between Saco and Spurwink was styled Black Point. And for a long while after the name Blue Point had been applied to the western settlement, we occasionally find in the old records, persons mentioned as belonging to Black Point, whom we know to have belonged to, Blue Point. If we bear in mind that Black Point is there • spoken of as including Blue Point, such records will occasion * York Records. us no confusion. The origin of these names is not certainly known. It has been well conjectured that Black Point was first so called by the voyagers along this coast, from the color of its heavy forests of evergreen; and Jocelyn the traveller says that Blue Point was so named, not from any peculiar appearance, but merely to distinguish it from the opposite point." Foxwell and Watts settled upon what is now known as Blue Point, suaposing themselves to be within the limits of the Lewis and Bonython Patent; but when the bounds of that Patent were accurately measured, both these planters were found to be outside of it, and within the limits of what was then called Black Point. They both enjoyed the quiet possession of their lands for many years, taking no small part in the affairs of the town, and in those of the Province. On one occasion only does Foxwell appear to have been disturbed in his possession: that was in 1654, when John Bonython, his brother-in-law, who pretended to hold a claim to Foxwell's estate, went so far as to put down one of his buildings. Foxwell appealed to the Court; and the Judges, so far from supporting Bonython in his alleged claim, only adjudged him to pay for the damage done Mr. Foxwell, and for their own trouble in trying him. John Bonython was the only son of Capt. Richard, the Patentee, and was known throughout the length and breadth of this and the Massachusetts Province as an invincible rebel. None of their laws could be made to reach him. He thought nothing of being outlawed * Hubbard in noticing the conflicting Patents and land titles of the Province, (Indian Wars p. 8) gives a curious explanation of the origin of these names. He says there were conflicting titles " enough to have maintained a greater number of lawyers than ever were the inhabitants, if the Grantees had been furnished with monies proportionable to their suits and controversies and their bounds and juridictions, which sometimes they have been ready to decide with their swords. Witness those fatal names imposed on such accounts upon some places belonging to those parts as Bloody Point, Black and Blue Point." |