the inhabitants came a second time under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, that colony by no means enjoyed undisturbed possession of the Province. A spirit of discontent, at first confined to few, soon became general. Some of the old offenders renewed their opposition to her authority, or rather continued to exercise their former rights. Jordan persisted in acting as an Episcopal clergyman, although forbidden to do so by the laws of Massachusetts. For this he was called to account, and judged in that intolerant spirit which characterized the religious code of the Bay Colonists; a spirit which happily disappeared as the circumstances which induced it faded from memory, and one the frequent exercise of which by those ardent christians none more sincerely regret than the candid amongst their decendants of the present day. Bonython too, proved himself anything but an obedient subject of the resumed authority. Yet the inhabitants were generally favored with a season of unusual prosperity. All who were satisfied with the result of the controversy at York, returned with fresh zeal to their various employments as farmers or fishermen; while the others, or most of them, made a virtue of necessity, and turned their attention also to matters of more profit than political disputes. There was nothing in the government they were under, opposed to their healthful growth as a people. During the few years of this jurisdiction the settle. ments in Maine increased in importance; nor was Scarborough behind the others. The friends of Gorges' government informed the King of the manner in which Massachusetts had disregarded his commands respecting the Province of Maine, and urged him to interpose his authority, and restore their jurisdiction. In 1676 his maj report of this affair is to be accepted without proper allowance for their different prejudices. esty sent letters to the Bay Colonists, requiring them to send over agents within six months, who should be authorized to receive the final decision of the case. Two agents were accordingly sent, who waited upon the King at Whitehall, and presented the claims of Massachusetts for his determination. After a full hearing of the parties, the King gave the decision that Massachusetts should restrict herself to her original bounds, and leave the soil and government of Maine to the heirs of Gorges.† Upon hearing this decision Massachusetts dispatched a private agent to England for the purpose of negotiating with Gorges for the purchase of the Province. This agent purchased Maine in his own name, and apparently for himself, and then made it over by deed to Massachusetts.‡ The consideration for the coveted prize was twelve hundred and fifty pounds sterling.§ This transfer of the Province so displeased the King, and many of the inhabitants that measures were taken to return the purchase money to Massachusetts and so recover the Province; but all proved ineffectual, Massachusetts retained Maine until the final separation in 1820. The political career of Jocelyn may be affirmed to have ceased with the contest at York in 1668. It is said by Williamson (History of Maine) that soon after that event, Jocelyn removed to Pemaquid, where he resided until 1675. We have no other proof of this removal than the historian's assertion of it. He was here in 1675, and the next year he removed to the Plymouth Colony; farther we have not been able to trace him. In *They were Wm. Stoughton of Dorchester afterwards Lieutenant Gov. and Chief Justice, and Peter Bulkley of Concord. + Hubbard's New England. Hutchinson's Massachusetts. Deed Usher to Massachusetts. York Records. § Sullivan and others say £1200. In Dr. Webster's "Letters to a Young Gentleman" the sum is £1400. The deed from Usher as recorded in the York Records, has it £1250, which was undoubtedly the sum given. 1668 he had been for more than thirty years actively engaged in the political affairs of the Province, and was growing weary of the cares of government. These many years had been to him one long day of business, and now came the evening when his tired spirit longed for repose. We shall have occasion to introduce him hereafter, and therefore will now but briefly review his course in connection with the events just narrated. To every candid person acquainted with these scenes in our early history, and aware of the grounds upon which he based his conduct, Jocelyn's course will appear to need no defence. That the principles by which he was governed rendered him, from the first, somewhat obnoxious to the Massachusetts Colonists, was the misfortune of his situation; that he was ever firm in those principles and honorable in all his actions, his whole history proves. The occasion upon which he came most directly in contact with his opponents was that of the contest at York, in 1668. We have never heard any objection made to his conduct at that time, excepting this, that he yielded too soon; to which we must assent. With justice on his side, the contest appears to have been too short. But as we have before remarked, his may have been the proper course to prevent a more humiliating defeat. After this event he appears no more in political life, but is engaged in preparing the means of defending himself and neighbors against the threatened violence of the common foe of all the New England Colonists. Dreadful as were the results of Indian hostility, it was not without its good effect in drawing off the attention of the settlers from their political differences, and fixing it upon a subject of greater importance to them all-the safety of themselves and their families. Jocelyn retired from the scene of his political honors and cares possessed of warm friends, whose presence was cheering to his old age; and of a clean conscience, the most pleasant companion of all. CHAPTER IV. OTHER EARLY SETTLERS. Soon after Cammock's settlement at Black Point, the number of inhabitants increased quite rapidly, until, as we have seen, in 1671 it had come to be nearly three hundred. Of these the majority of the men were undoubtedly engaged in the then profitable fisheries along the coast, while a few were left to cultivate the plantations. Few of the descendants of these early settlers are residing amongst us. The breaking up of this settlement by the Indians, as will hereafter appear, scattered the early inhabitants of the town in almost every direction. Scarcely any of them returned, and few left any record of themselves which we can discover. The names of many have come down to us; these we shall now present, with as many facts respecting them as we have been able to collect. Besides those already noticed, there were other respectable men among the early settlers. Abraham Jocelyn, a brother of Henry, was admitted an inhabitant of the town while under Rigby's government in 1652. The same year Henry Jocelyn, Robert Jordan and Henry Williams, as Assistants under Rigby, put him in possession of two hundred acres of land, including the hill now known as "Scottow's." This tract Jocelyn afterwards sold to Joshua Scot. tow, from whom the hill derives its name. Previously to 1660 it was called "Jocelyn's Hill." It is worthy of note that the tract of land at present known as the "Scottow's Hill Farm" contains two hundred acres, the number granted to Mr. Jocelyn two hundred years ago; the farm having neither increased nor diminished in size since first laid out in 1652. In a deed to one Thomas Beard, of a strip of land not connected with his grant from the assistants, Jocelyn speaks of the "creek that goeth by my house from the Hot Spring." It appears from this that his house was at the foot of the hill near the edge of the marsh. The creek still remains, but the hot spring has disappeared. In 1657 George Cleeves regranted the tract given him by the assistants, together with forty acres near Dunstan Falls, with liberty to build a sawmill on those falls, or the falls next above, and to cut any timber growing within ten miles. Jocelyn was to pay one farthing an acre rent for the land, and two-pence for every tree one foot square. He does not appear to have improved this grant. In 1660 he removed to Boston, having sold his estates here to Capt. Joshua Scottow." John Libby, the first of the name who settled in Scarborough, and probably the first in New England, came to this country from Broadstairs, in the county of Kent, England, a small seaport fifteen miles distant from Canterbury. The precise year of his settlement here is not known, though there is good reason for supposing it to have been either 1659 or 60. In 1663 he was living here in his own house, as the following extract from Henry Jocelyn's deed to him will show: "Two hundred and thirteen acres to begin at the creek to the east of said Libby's common landing place, thence to his dwelling house, thence west and north-west." There was also included in this deed "the marsh half of that neck his (Libby's) dwelling house stands upon, to the creek called pine creek over against Godfrey Shelden's house." Libby's house stood on the westerly side of the road to Black Point Neck, near where it crosses the little stream known as Libby's River. Shelden's house was * Henry Jocelyn who settled in Scituate 1669 was probably the son of Abraham Jocelyn. He was married to Abigail Stockbridge of Scituate, and their children born between 1677 and 1702 were, Abigail, Abraham, Anna, Charles, Mary, Nathaniel, Rebecca, Jabez, Jemima, Keziah, Henry, Joseph, and Thomas. Abraham Jocelyn was living in Hingham 1647 (Rev. S. Deane to Wm. Willis.) Jocelyn to Libby 1663. Original Manuscript. |