[podcast]http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/scimport\/files\/2011\/05\/LT1109.mp3[\/podcast]<\/p>\n
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In those early days when communication was so slow, we can well understand that owners more than 200 miles away in Massachusetts had trouble keeping track of their Winslow lands. Last week we told you about their reluctance to depend upon local agents and their insistence that some one of the proprietors or his trusted representative make a personal trip to Fort Halifax.<\/p>\n
How confusing the situation was three years after the six Massachusetts men obtained the grant is shown in a letter written by Ezekiel Pattee to the proprietors on September 4, 1769. Pattee wrote:<\/p>\n
“Your letter of July 5 is the first I have ever had from your honors, nor did I know you expected any information from me concerning your affairs here. I always \u00b7understood that Timothy Heald had power to carry on your affairs here as he thought proper.<\/em><\/p>\n “The number of settlers is now 24 who have taken up lots and are working on them. Some take lots and work only a few days, then sell the lot to another man, who sometimes has two or three lots and can hardly settle one.”<\/em><\/p>\n Then Pattee added a surprising statement:<\/p>\n “None of us know anything about conditions of settlement; only we hear we are to have 150 acres of land in two lots, 100 acres front and 50 back, but what duty we are to do I cannot tell, nor what security we all have we don’t know.”<\/em><\/p>\n In face of the specific conditions laid down in the Proprietors’ records that statement is amazing. It seems inconceivable that each ~rchaser of a lot was not specifically told just what he had to do within five’years to obtain, a warranty deed. The actual dimensions of the house he must build were specified, just how much land he must clear the first year, and what must be accomplished at the end of five years — all this was definitely established by the Proprietors’ votes. Perhaps these were not given to some of the settlers in writing, because many of them could not read and write. But that certainly was not true of Ezekiel Pattee or at least a dozen others. Yet in this letter Pattee clearly stated no settler in Winslow knew the specific terms of his settlement.<\/p>\n The American Revolution interrupted meetings of the Winslow Proprietors. Just eight days before the skirmishes with British troops at Lexington and Concord in April 1774, the proprietors met in Plymouth, but adjourned without doing any business. They did not meet again until four years later in August 1779. But meanwhile there was activity in the town of Winslow and many settlers had obtained permanent posess ion of their lots. They opened a cemete.ry on Fort Hill by acquiring land owned by the great patroon of the Kennebec, Dr. Sylvester Gardiner. On the west side of the river they laid out the first three roads, what are now Main Street, Silver Street and Western Avenue in Waterville. Main Street was then called the road to Fairfield Meetinghouse at what is now Fairfield Center. Western Avenue was the route to McKechnie’s Mills. There was yet no settled minister but in July 1773, an itinerant preacher from Boothbay came to Winslow and baptized three of John McKechnie’s children.<\/p>\n Also during the period when the proprietors held no meeting, Benedict Arnold had made his famous expedition up the Kennebec and had himself stopped overnight at Fort Halifax.<\/p>\n Aware of the Revolution, the town of Winslow set up a Connnittee of Safety, as did most other towns in New England. In 1776 the town voted to borrow from Ezekiel Pattee 100,000 shingles, and 80,000 from John Taylor, 40,000 from Timothy Heald, and 3,000 from Ambrose Davis; also 1,000 clapboards from Lawrence Costigan and 5,000 from Nathaniel Carter, all to be sold to purchase ammunition for the town, and the lenders to be paid by a tax on the inhabitants. In 1777 they voted to have three men to go up the Kennebec and see if any British force was approaching, and at the same time they petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for defense against the Canadians. Though doing the best they could in this pioneer settlement, the people of Winslow were never able to fulfill the requirements of beef and clothing for the army, laid upon them by the government in Boston.<\/p>\n In September 1780, the Proprietors became active again. At a meeting in Plymouth they voted to send Seth Bradford to Winslow to secure an exact list of actual settlers, the number of the lot or lots each had taken, carefully distinguishing the river lots from the back lots, just how much land was encompassed in each lot, and inform the settlers that deeds will be given to each of them who has fully met the conditions of settlement. Bradford was also to ascertain the expense of surveying into lots the remainder of the Company’s land. Confirming their earlier decision, the proprietors authorized Bradford to see that each settler who was there before 1775 had his promised 150 acres, and that the\u00a0 96 lots of land within three tiers be numbered for further settlement. Isaac Winslow and Seth Bradford were named the committee to issue. deeds. In March 1781 the proprietors warned Winslow and Bradford to be sure to issue no deeds that would interfere with the 400 acres granted permanently to Timothy Heald or with mill lots held by Ezekiel Pattee and Ebenezer Heald.<\/p>\n Notice how payments were often made in the 1780’s. In 1782 the proprietors voted to pay James Warren ten pounds in silver money for his services as company clerk. At\u00a0the same meeting they voted that Seth Bradford, who was going to Winslow on private business, be asked to find out what lots, if any, lying directly on the Sebasticook or the Kennebec, do not extend back the required 100 acres, and to determine what grievances settlers had against the Heald and Pattee holdings, and especially determine if a new survey is necessary to settle these disputes.<\/p>\n They were also greatly concerned about those six big lots of 500 acres each that had been allotted to the proprietors themselves. So in the fall of 1782 they voted:<\/p>\n “Whereas in the further division of the connnon or undivided land belonging to the proprietors, it will be most advantageous to have the land laid out\u00b7 so that the six rights adjoin in one body, the result will be a differing number of acres for each proprietor; in order that equal justice be done, adjustments shall be made so that each shall have an equal number of acres, as originally intended. Seth Bradford is authorized then to layout the several individual rights, taking for the purpose of making up differences, land east of Pattee Pond, bounded on the west by the pond .and on the east by the west line of the three tiers of the 96 50-acre lots. “<\/em><\/p>\n In the record for April 9, 1783, first appears the name of a man who was to become a prominent citizen of both Winslow and Waterville. The record said:<\/p>\n “Col. Josiah Hayden was requested to go to Winslow, there to act for the proprietors on all matters at their request. The treasurer to pay Hayden twelve pounds to enable” him to proceed on said business.”<\/em><\/p>\n No sooner had Hayden arrived in Winslow than he found another man was already in such control that it would not be wise to interfere with him. So on June 1783, the minutes of the proprietors recorded:<\/p>\n “Upon the representation of Josiah Hayden that he considers Ezekiel Pattee, by his being an inhabitant of Winslow, . able to perform the services entrusted to Hayden more advantageously to the Proprietors than could Hayden himself, it was voted that Hayden and James Warren be a committee to treat with Pattee and, if they think it proper, to empower him to do the services entrusted to Hayden; also to empower Pattee to guard the proprietors’ lands against trespass and inform the Proprietors of all trespasses.”<\/em><\/p>\n Throughout almost the whole duration of the proprietorship tre.spassing continued to be a menace, at least in the opinion of those absentee owners down in Massachusetts. In December 1785, after they had possessed the grant for nearly twenty years, the proprietors voted that their long-time leader, Gamaliel Bradford, should again go to Winslow, to secure the lands belonging to the proprietors, both the part still held in common and the area already divided into six big lots, one for each proprietor, and take vigorous legal action against the trepassers.<\/p>\n The old surveys frequently mention gores. A gore was a corner-piece in some large area of surveyed land, left over when lots were laid out. These gores were usually caused by waterways intervening in the surveys. A typical example is the Ten Lots area at the southwest corner of the town of Fairfield where it adjoins Oakland. It was a left-over part of the Nye-Dimmock survey, that lotted the Town of Fairfield. Winslow also had a gore, as shown by the proprietors’ record for March 9, 1786.<\/p>\n “Whereas there is a gore of land abutting on the Kennebec and adjoining the Fort Lot, supposed to contain about 50 acres extending back as far as the settlers’ lots on the Kennebec, which it is our wish now to sell, it is voted that Gamaliel Bradford be empowered to sell the same for the most it will fetch, if he considers that price reasonable.”<\/em><\/p>\n An interesting item was entered in the record on November 18, 1789:<\/p>\n “The island in the Sebasticook is hereby granted to Ezekiel Pattee in full payment for services done for the proprietors.”<\/em><\/p>\n After that ten years elapsed before the propr~etors met again. Then in November 1799, it was voted that Dr. Winslow and Simeon Keith be a committee to examine the treasurer’s accounts; also that Josiah Hayden and James Warren be a committee to ascertain the true south boundary line. of the Town of Winslow on the east side of the Kennebec and place a stone to fix the southwest corner on the river.<\/p>\n The final item in the old record book was recorded by Josiah Hayden in 1832, twelve years after Maine had become a separate state and 66 years after the proprietorship was originally formed. It said:<\/p>\n “I have the following information from the family of Peter Bradford; namely, that Captain William Bradford, formerly of Winslow, who deeded an undivided 1\/6 of 42 acres east of Pattee Pond to Ephraim Wilson a number of years ago, was the so.n of Samuel Bradford. Samuel was son of Gamaliel Bradford, one of t~e original proprietors. Whether Gamaliel ever gave Samuel any part of his Winslow property is now unknown. It is thus uncertain whether Captain William Bradford ever owned any part of his grandfather Gamaliel’s Winslow estate. If he did, it could not have exceeded more than ten acres on Pattee Pond.”<\/em><\/p>\n And there ends our story of the early ownership of Winslow land. Suffice it to say, that most present owners of land in’ th~ present town of Winslow derive their titles from one of those six men who got the big grant from the Plymouth Company in 1766. ,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1109, Broadcast on January 16, 1977<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35314],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}