The Devil’s Invention

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This is the tragic story of a kidnapping in Colonial York, Maine. The below can be found in Cider Hill Annals and Miscellaneous Sketches, by Angevine W. Gowen. He hand wrote what appears to be a court document. The source of this document is currently unknown. A copy of Gowen’s book can be seen at Old York Historical Society’s Archive.

Several members of York History Group joined together to transcribe the above account, as follows…

“If history affords evidence of a crime of deeper [dye?] than this we have not yet met with it, and this wicked and infamous man receives only the punishment thus summoned by the court. James Adams: the court has considered your infamous and barbarous offenses against the life of the children before the court, and great disturbance to the county, and so sentences you to have thirty stripes well laid on; £ pay the father of the children, Henry Simpson, five pounds in money; to the treasurer of the county ten pounds, and remain close prisoner during the courts pleasure.” The thirty stripes were laid on by the brawny arm of John Smith, the executioner and let us hope they were well laid on. Bourne again comments: “Any punishment which human ingenuity could have devised would not have exceeded the merits of this barbarity, thirty stripes, well laid on, a fine of fifteen pounds, and imprisonment, during the pleasure of the court, from which he might at any moment escape, or from which the court might at any moment release him, were no punishment for his iniquity. For very small offences in this age men were brought to the gallows, and this man should have been added to his home in the earth, on which, he was unworthy to walk.” A crowd draws up on Jail Hill, where now the old common peacefully rests, its broad [?] [?] deeply wreathed with ivy and woodline covering the spot where in 1680 stood its implements of punishment, of that day, the whipping past, and stocks. And here amid the howls and jeers of his townsmen, withers the body of James Adams, as the [?] lash “well laid on” out and stacked, amid his howls and cries and shrieks for mercy, and here let us leave him hoping that from that time on, he was both a sadder and wiser man.” 

Thanks to Juanita Trafton Reed, Kathy Cawrse, Racheal Bottino, Danny Bottino, Joanne Weiss Curran, for assisting with this transcription. Juanita commented on the Facebook post…My transposition matches most of what you have here (above), with these few exceptions… I believe it is “strikes” not stripes./ Whipping post. (instead of “past”) Instead of common — I think it is “cannon”. / lash “well laid on” cut and slashed ( rather than cut and stacked) and where you have the £ sign I read it as “to”…”to the father”

Contributed to York History Group by Karl Hanson. Unknown Newspaper and unknown date.

York in American History: Fate of Ensign Henry Simpson

Notes: During the late 17th Century, life in early colonial York was daunting, short, often brutish, terrifying and unpredictable. Based on research from original documents, such as court records, James Kences paints just such a portrait in this essay.

This story is published on Seacoast Online and provides additional information on the Simpson Family of York.

By James Kences

One of the final events in the life of Ensign Henry Simpson was his participation at a court of sessions of the peace on Dec. 29, 1691. Within a month, he would be among the victims of a Native American raid upon the town. Simpson and his wife were presumed to have been killed, and two of their sons, Henry and Jabez, were taken into captivity.

Simpson was married to Abigail Moulton, sister to Joseph Moulton, who on the day of the attack also perished with his wife. Their son Joseph was captured. Jeremiah Moulton, who was only three or four years of age in 1692, was to become one of the military and political leaders of 18th Century York.

The reconstructed list of casualties from the raid, included in total number, three other married couples: in addition to Simpson and Moulton, Nathaniel Masterson and his wife, Elizabeth; Philip Cooper, and his wife, Anne; Thomas Paine and his wife, Elizabeth. In each of the three instances, some of their children were taken prisoners and accompanied the raiding party upon its return to Canada

And what of the fates of those children? Masterson’s daughter Abiel, Mary Cooper, and Bethiah Paine, eventually returned, but only after a period of years. Mary Cooper was redeemed in 1695, together with Henry Simpson and seven other persons. Three years later, Bethia Paine was brought back. A decade had passed, Jabez Simpson was apparently still inside French Canada.

The documentary sources are quite spare, and often only names have survived, but with effort a deeper dimension to the slight details is possible. Ensign Henry Simpson can be profiled more richly than the others. The story begins with his childhood. He was about four when his father, afflicted by illness drafted his will in March of 1647. An only child at the time, a portion of the estate was apportioned to him.

Shortly after his father’s death in the summer of 1648, Simpson’s mother remarried, and became the wife of Nicholas Bond. In May of 1650, Henry Simpson, only six years old, testified at the trial of Robert Collins, who was charged with assault upon his mother. The man he knew as “fat Robert,” had attacked her at night inside their house.

“She being in her house, her children in bed, she was making a cake for them against the next day to leave them,” she recounted at the trial. It was midnight, and she required some firewood, and was at the door when Collins forced his way in. The testimony is somewhat confusing, but it described multiple incidents that involved Collins. In one confrontation, she declared to him, “leave my company and meddle not with me, if not I will make you a shame to all New England!”

Jane Bond acknowledged, “she could not save herself,” her husband at the moment, was absent “to the East.”  The jury found Collins guilty of the crime. He was “to receive forty stripes save one, and fined ten pounds,” as punishment. As a glimpse into life here in the early period, the trial is of considerable value. The five witnesses had included Henry Norton, who was not only a close neighbor, but also a relative. Norton had heard Henry Simpson’s mother call for him, “Cousin Norton!” “Cousin Norton!” but he failed to respond.

The Norton family were prominent and well connected. Henry Simpson’s grandfather was the veteran soldier Walter Norton who was killed by the Native Americans in Connecticut in 1634. His grandmother upon his death married William Hooke, who belonged to a family of merchants at Bristol, a city in the southwest of England. This town for a brief period was named Bristol, and the influence of the Hookes was expressed through the choice of the name.

Henry Simpson could claim high social standing as kindred to the two families. He was elected to various town offices, constable, and served as a selectman. He held a military rank, and was frequently a member of juries, and as mentioned, was part of the grand jury only weeks before the raid in 1692.

Whatever provoked James Adams to kidnap and imprison Simpson’s children inside an improvised enclosure that was to be known henceforth as “The Devil’s Invention,” is unfortunately lost to history. But the record has survived for the court session of July 1679. For the “barbarous offense against the life of the children,” Adams received a sentence of a severe whipping, “thirty stripes well laid on,” and was also to pay Simpson, “the father of the said children,” five pounds in damages.

The site of the notorious structure, was according to Charles Banks, “in the region of Scituate, easterly from the main highway through that settlement.” Philip and Nathaniel Adams, the father and brother of James, appear to have been among the victims of the 1692 raid.

Kevin Freeman
Devil‘s Invention article in the Biddeford Saco Journal July 18, 1893

The Cannon Foundations Found

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by Michael Dow

Two cannon foundations found

Cannon Foundation at the York Town Hall offices
Todd Frederick photo – used with permission

A number of years ago when I started to research York’s war monuments, Old York Historic Librarian Emeritus Ginny Spiller (RIP) told me that somewhere she had seen a picture of two large canons, sitting left and right of the Town Hall’s south facing front walk. She explained that these cannons looked like the cannon on Gaol Hill. Much time had passed and Ginny could not remember where she had seen that picture and its whereabouts remains a mystery to this day. 

I learned never to discount anything Ginny said and so eyes have always been open for evidence concerning any mention of old artillery mounted by the town hall. Others were informed about this nagging interest, with Selectman and First Parish Cemetery Director Todd Frederick being one. 

In the midst of last week’s excavations in the front of the old town hall, I received a picture from Todd of an old, large masonry block made from what the on-site archeologist referred to as loose stone held together by a “lime-based mortar.” Todd said two of these blocks had just been dug up! I quickly drove down and sure enough, there were the foundation blocks for two granite cannon mounts or “carriages” as they were called and another big score for Ginny Spiller’s memory!    

A September 5th, 1942 Portland Press article explains how three big Civil War cannons came to York;

“Before the erection of the building on the Kittery Navy Yard where in 1905 the famous treaty between Russia and Japan was signed there were several of these old cannon that had mounted the place in strategic points around the Navy Yard. The room they took up was needed. Members of the Grand Army of the Republic in adjacent towns were notified that these cannon might be theirs for the asking. The Town of York, through it’s post fell heir to three of the cannon. One was placed on a triangle in the center of the square in York Village, where it remained until GAR veterans wished to use that particular spot on which to erect a Civil War memorial. The other two mounted on granite carriages, were placed either side of the entrance to the town Hall, where they the delight of small boys on the glorious fourth as they attempted to shoot off crackers through the mouth of the cannon, until the holes were cemented.” 

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary lists both “cannon” and “cannons” as the plural forms of the noun “cannon,” which is a good point to remember when researching artillery.

The building referred to in the article was known as the General Stores Building and it was built in 1903. This building is now known as the Main Administration Building. We have two newspaper articles from two different papers and a very credible book published by Old York Historic indicating these three cannons were in York by 1899. The former custodian of the National Registry of Known Surviving Civil War Artillery had recorded that three 100-pdr Navy Parrot Rifles were donated in 1897 to “village selectmen” in York, Maine. 

For York and other towns that did not have enough Civil War veterans to warrant a Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) post, an alternative was employed. The York Village Veterans and Sons of Veterans Association was the group the article speaks of. The Soldiers’ Monument was erected and dedicated on Memorial Day, June 30, 1906 with none other than Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain being the key note speaker. Chamberlain was the officer leading the 20th Maine in their pivotal victory on Little Round Top at the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, the same year our one remaining cannon was made. General Chamberlain was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, a four-time governor of the state of Maine, president of Bowdoin College and a not infrequent visitor to York. 

Although we do not know the exact date when the two cannons were mounted in front of the town hall, evidence indicates by 1900 both were in place. We also do not know when they were taken down and moved to the pine knoll, just to the left rear of the brick Receiving Tomb in back of the First Parish Cemetery. There they sat until the 1942 scrap drive when they were taken to be melted down for use in another war. 

The two granite mounts or carriages were later sold (without permission) to Fort McClary. However, they proved to be unsuitable for that facilities’ different styled cannons so they were used as ends for a rough pine bench. Found by this researcher in July of 2016, they were repurchased by the First Parish Cemetery and now rest on Ceremonial Circle. 

In the spring of 1905, the single 6.4” Parrott Rifle Naval cannon #206 and its granite carriage were moved to the side of that ever-shrinking grass triangle and the Soldiers’ Monument was erected on the same spot the cannon formerly occupied. In all likelihood, #206 had a similar loose stone and lime-based mortar foundation which was most likely broadened to accommodate the larger footprint of the Soldiers’ Monument. This would explain the observed degradation of that Monument’s lower base and the necessity to move the monument onto a more stable foundation.

Later in 1906, our one remaining cannon was moved to its present location on Gaol Hill. Where #206 served during the Civil War remains a mystery as are the serial numbers of the two, town hall/scrap drive cannons.   

c. Michael Dow July 15, 2023

The Outer Commons and the Alexander Thompson Homestead

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Kevin Freeman and Ronald Nowell

Mount Agamenticus in York, Maine, is rich in history. Not only does it serve as a landmark for mariners past and present but it was once inhabited by York’s early residents. The forefathers of the Town decided to sell parcels of this area to York residents who were over twenty one years of age and willing to pay the cost of administration. The dividing and selling was documented in a book titled the Book of Proprietors that is currently kept at the York Town Hall.

Today, it is difficult to imagine the attraction for early settlers in this area and yet, without a doubt, owning a piece of the Outer Commons elevated a persons social status, among other things. We assume that a lot of these shares were bought and sold for profit. But many of these lots were inhabited by families whose names are significant in York History. Among the families in this area listed on the highway tax maps for 1831 are Ramsdell, Welch, Fitzgerald, Lewis, Thompson, Dixon, Jellison and others. 

In the spring of 2022, with Ron serving as a guide, we began extensive hikes in the First (Mount Agamenticus), Second and Third Hill area. Ron’s knowledge of botany, landmarks, monuments and history around the mountain is exceptional. Ron noted numerous points of interest and we discovered some new ones. Eventually we both became guided by curiosity as one discovery led to another. From caves that we walked through, to spring holes, to old foundations, to a mammoth White Pine tree, to burial sites that could have easily been passed by – it all became a wonder and puzzle. 

Our curiosity took us to land surveys and old deeds in a mission to find out more about those who lived there and why. Ron pointed out some unusually substantial stonewalls on the Northwest side of Second Hill. We instinctively began to follow them down hill. Ron had a survey plan titled, Plan of Lands of Alex.Thompson’s Lying on the North West Side of the Middle Agamenticus Hill Including Abram Thompson place and other Lands, 1874, in original possession of Carroll Trafton. Initially, regardless of orientation the plan made little sense. One feature on the plan compelled us both to discover more—an unusual shaped stonewall near an “old barn yard.”

In contrast to rough terrain found elsewhere on the mountain, the land was much more flat with a gentle slope. It was uncharacteristic of a first or second growth forest, rather it was smooth, perhaps made so by plowing. There are numerous piles of stones, varying from ten to fifteen feet in diameter and several feet high serving as collection sites when the fields were picked clean of rocks. Some of these piles are very close to the stonewalls. One wonders how it was decided for some of the rocks to have been turned into stonewalls rather than piles. 

The area was too vast to be conclusive about how to find the exact location of the barn yard, though we tried during one afternoon of exhaustive hiking. A few days later Kevin hiked out to the area with a GPS trail mapping app on his phone and walked along the stonewalls creating a graphic route that was nearly identical to the stonewalls on the property plan. Ron was called and we met at the Cedar Trail head. After reaching our destination we also discovered a cellar hole for a home, At the deepest point the cellar hole was about 8 feet from top to bottom and made us more curious. Shortly thereafter, we pinpointed the location of a barn and an out building.

According to the survey plans we were at the Thompson homestead. Checking deeds at the York County Registry of Deeds further confirmed our assumption. Book 140, Page 221, dated September 21, 1831, describes brothers Abraham and Isaac Thompson dividing the property previously owned by their father, “Alexander Thompson late of York, deceased, the land lying a little bit to the North of Agamenticus.”

The deed describes marked trees, bearings and rods to secure boundaries. Most curiously the deed states, “said Abraham is to have the old barn and the south room in the house, or one half of the house and the said Isaac to have the new barn and the north part of the house as far as one room extends, and the said Abraham gives Isaac nine months from this date to occupy his part of the house, and take it off from his land; and both parties agree that there shall be a privilege for each party to pass and repass from their premises…”

We spent some time conversing about the significance of such an operation way out here in the woods. Though there were some neighbors on the mountain, unlike the community of York Village, the homes were spread far apart, evoking a feeling of isolation. The paths were steep and rough. Transportation would have been by foot or a springless horse or ox cart with steel rimmed wheels. Sheep farming became a craze with the introduction of Marino sheep in 1802 and at great cost to New England forests. The endless stonewalls that we see today were created to contain the lucrative commodity. We speculated that sheep farming would have provided enough income to support this homestead.

In many families the given names of members are repeated for many generations, Alexander Thompson is no exception. William Thompson was living in Kittery when he died at 43 years of age in 1676. George Ernst wrote that William’s younger children, one being Alexander (1671-1720), were left to the Selectmen of Kittery to provide for. Ernst speculates the children went to various families and their names may have became that of their foster parents, confusing a clear genealogy. None-the-less, we see that the above Alexander had two sons, referred to in the above noted deed as Isaac and Abraham.

We are unclear as to the progression of who owned exactly what but have begun to unravel a web of information that inspires us to look farther. Ron is quite sure there were Abrams as well as Abrahams in this area though a survey report done for Land For Maine’s Future by Titcomb Associates refers to Abraham as “aka Abram.”

We have found at least three recorded tracts of land owned by Thomson family members on the North side of Mount Agamenticus.

 

Map of York, Maine Outer Commons
  1. York County Registry of Deeds, Book 43, Page 182, February 28, 1775

Joseph Linscot to Joseph and Curtis Thompson for about 55 acres, 13 acres and one

third of an acre.

2. York County Registry of Deeds, Book 42, Page 110, August 1, 1772

James Junkins to Alexander Thompson containing eight shares of lot one in the fourth

range.

3. York County Registry of Deeds, Book 58, Page 30A, November 29, 1781

James Junkins sells remaining shares of lot one in the fourth range to Alexander Thompson.

The plan of the Outer Commons copied by Angevine Gowen from Daniel Sewall, W. Junkins Survey Map of 1874 and a York Town Map are included as attachments to this document.

It may be of interest for the reader to notice the contrast of the rectilinear format of the division of the Outer Commons versus the wandering boundaries in the Junkins Survey.