Radio Script #1277

Little Talks on Common Things
May 24, 1981

For many years after a group of Boston merchants had made the great Kennebec Purchase in 1749, there were many bitter disputes over the boundaries of their land. In fact, for a long time, no one could be sure about exactly what lands were in the Province of Maine.

In 1783 the Mass. Governor James Bowdoin appointed a commission to make a thorough investigation of the unappropriated lands in Maine. Bowdoin’s family had been one of the leading investors in the Kennebec Purchase. At that time all the unappropriated lands were located in the ‘huge county of Lincoln, which encompassed all of Maine except what was in the western counties of York and Cumberland.

The commission made its report in 1785, the year when Mass. adopted its state constitution, two years before adoption of the U.S. Constitution. Their perplexing problem was to identify valid private claims to land in the eastern part of Cumberland County adjoining the county of Lincoln, and that necessitated special attention to the claims of the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase. The commission recognized the north line of the Purchase as six miles upstream from the mouth of the Wesserunsett, and the south line as the mouth of the Cobbossee. The General Court (i.e., the Legislature) concurred. The commission found that ownership was further complicated by Indian deeds.

In 1648 Monoqueme, a sachem of the Kennebec, had sold to the Plymouth Colony, then headed by William Bradford, all the lands on both sides of the river from Cushnoc (now Augusta) to the Wessersunsett at Skowhegan. When dispute about this deed arose five years, ,later in 1653, another Indian chief testified that he had seen Monoqueme sign the deed, and that the testifying chief, as the Indian leader at Ticonic Falls (now Waterville) had agreed to that deed. The chief said: “We did not approve of Mr. Lawson, for Clark and Lake, building a trading post at Ticonic Falls. We would not sell land to Lawson. Another chief, Baggaducet did sell to Mr. Lake, but the truth is that Baggaducet did not own that land. It properly belonged to me. Lawson still wants to buy it, but I refuse to sell.”

Then in 1661 came the purchase from the Plymouth Colony by four Boston merchants of the entire tract that Plymouth had received as a grant from the King in 1629. That grant was not clearly defined, but extended from somewhere above Merrymeeting Bay at least as far north as Skowhegan Falls, and it extended fifteen miles on each side of the river. In 1665 the chief Baggaducet sold the very same land to a group headed by John Winslow, for two skins of liquor and one skin of bread. In 1688 the situation became further complicated by the charter of William and Mary, which incorporated into Massachusetts Bay the old colony of Plymouth, including in that enlarged province all of Maine east of the Kennebec as far as the St. Croix, though admitting that the French claimed much of the same land.

Below Merrymeeting Bay were also two conflicting claims, those of Clark and Lake and those of the Pejepscot Purchase. While the Pejepscot claim was undisputed concerning lands along the Androscoggin at Brunswick, some of the west side land between Bath and Brunswick was in dispute. Meanwhile, by additional purchases, the Kennebec Proprietors had obtained lands on the east side of the Kennebec between Merrymeeting Bay and the Clark. and Lake lands at the mouth of the river. Especially in dispute was land along the Sheepscot in the vicinity of the present Wiscasset. In the whole muddle the Kennebec Proprietors got a rather dubious claim to Arrowsic Island, right in the middle of the Clark and Lake lands.

Governor Bowdoin’s commission found that in 1758 the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase had made a settlement with the Pejepscot Proprietors whereby the former released all claim to lands within the Pejepscot claim, namely their lands on the west side of the Kennebec from Merrymeeting Bay to the ocean. Then in 1761 the Kennebec Proprietors made a similar settlement with the Wiscasset Company, whereby were released certain Kennebec claimed lands at the narrows of the Sheepscot River.

Some of the confusion found by the Governor’s commission is shown by the following statement in their report: “As the claims of the Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase now include numerous matters of controversy which have existed at least since 1700, the committee finds it difficult to establish the validity of any claims on the basis of any evidence that now exists.”

The commission further said: “It is clear to us that the land conveyed by the Indian Monoqueme did extend from the Cobbossee to the Wesserunsett and included what were ca,lled the Norridgewock lands, the Ticonic lands, and the islands above Cushnoc, indeed all the land on both sides of the Kennebec from the Cobbossee to the Wesserunsett, on which lived the Norridgewock Indians and probably some other tribes.”

The commission confirmed that the Charter of William and Mary validated all deeds of land purchased from the Indians after 1633, but even that left in some doubt the purchases made from the Indian Monoqueme. Having thus given their opinion, but no proof, that the Kennebec Proprietors owned land on both sides of the river from Cobbossee to Wesserunsett, the commission then turned to claims of the Kennebec Proprietors to lands down the river from the Cobbossee. They said: “There is a tract of land lying south of the Kennebec Patent land on the east side of the claim of Lawson, between the Sheepscot and the Damariscotta rivers, a tract 15 miles long and 3 miles wide, the greater part of which lies within the township of Boothbay. To this land we find that the Kennebec Proprietors have no valid claim.”

The commission finally held that the Kennebec Proprietors should release to the Commonwealth of Mass. all land above the Wesserunsett, and all lands between the lower line at the Cobbossee and the ocean. That ruling was accepted by the Kennebec Proprietors in 1785, and their long quarrel with the Pejepscot and the Clark and Lake interests came to an end.

Now we turn to another subject that aroused heated controversy in the early years of our nation. Before the acceptance of the U.S. Constitution of 1787, all effective government was by the individual states and sometimes even individual municipalities. All of those governments had trouble collecting taxes. In the 1780’s most Maine towns were small, and some of them were located far from the site of state government in Boston. Communication between Boston and the towns was slow, and payment of state taxes by a town was often long delayed. In 1785 the State Treasurer called a number of Maine towns to task for their delinquency. Being nearer Boston, the York County towns had all paid up except Limerick, but Cumberland had a number of debtor towns. Some of them had paid no state taxes since 1780. They included Cape Elizabeth, Windham, Gray, Raymond and Bridgton. In Lincoln County were even more delinquent towns. In all of Maine there were a total of 25 such towns.

Today the names of several of those towns may strike us as strange. That is because, long ago, their original names were changed to their present designations. In the delinquent list were Pearsontown, Ballstown, Sylvester, Massabesec, Little Falls, Royalsborough and Haywardstown. In 1785 what is now the town of Standish was Pearsonstown. Balls town then included what are now the towns of Whitefield and Jefferson. Sylvester was the present town of Turner. Today’s Waterboro was then Massabesec. Little Falls became Cumberland County’s present large town of Gorham. Royalsborough became the town of Durham, and Haywardstown was at first turned into Old Canaan, then at last Skowhegan. In fact what is now Skowhegan probably had in its history more different names than any other Maine town. At various times it has been called Haywardstown, Canaan, Wesserunsett, Bloomfield and Milburn.

Now let us have a bit about Maine canals. Before the coming of the railroads, there was agitation to construct, with state assistance financially, a number of canals in Maine to provide communication with points on rivers and lakes. One petition for such a canal that was never built was presented to the Mass. Legislature in 1786. Inhabitants of Cumberland and Lincoln counties asked for a canal to connect the New Meadows River with Merrymeeting Bay. The petition said: “By cutting this canal many advantages will accrue, not only to the inhabitants of the vicinity, but to towns west of the New Meadows River and to the public in general. Merrymeeting Bay is the place where two great rivers join, and is just above dangerous narrows called the Rips or Chops. Through such a canal could be brought lumber and masts from any part of the Kennebec directly into Casco Bay and to the port of Falmouth, and thus avoid the risk of running down the more rapid Kennebec. New Meadows River empties into Casco Bay about two leagues west of Small River and there presents safe and convenient anchorage for ships of all sizes. From the head of New Meadows River to Merrymeeting Bay is little more than a mile, and is all the way through low, swampy land. Owners of the land are ready to grant rights to a canal company.”

That canal petition was signed by 98 men. It is interesting to me that four of them had the surname Marriner: John, John Jr., William and Nabor. At least two of them lived in the original Maine home of the Marriner family, Cape Elizabeth. And with that account of disputed land titles, delinquent state taxes, and an unbuilt canal, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1981