David Thomson and Edward and William Hilton came to Little Harbor on the ship “Providence” of Plymouth in the spring of 1623. It was Thomson’s second trip to the New World. He was in business with three partners from Bristol, England. At first, they settled at Little Harbor (Rye) but the settlement proved a failure.

Thomson eventually moved to Boston while the the Hiltons settled in Dover.

William Hilton brought his wife and son, William b. 1615 over to Plymouth in 1623 and moved up to Dover in 1624.

Alice, b. 1617; came over in 1635 as a passenger on the ship “Ann and Elizabeth,” age 18

John, b. about 1624 or may have been an infant who traveled with his mother from England

Magdaline, b. 1630

Manwaring, b. 1636

Ann

Edward Hilton was a few years younger than his brother, William. Both he and his brothers were “fish mongers” in London. His first wife’s name is not known. She was the mother of his children:

Edward, b. 1626,

William b. 1628

Samuel b. 1630

Sobriety b. Jan. 1632-33

Susanna, b. 1634

Charles, b. 1636 probably died young.

Edward moved to what is now Exeter in about 1640.

Other passengers: Thomas Roberts, an apprentice to Edward Hilton in the fish business. Rumored that he married a Hilton in 1627. Elected Governor or President of the County in 1640 until 1642 when Dover came under MA rule. Later he held various minor town offices. Regular member of the church but inclined to be liberal in his views, so when the Quaker missionaries came to Dover he favored giving them a fair hearing and opposed having the women whipped, as they were by order of the court.

Children: John b. 1929, Thomas b. 1633, Hester, Anna, Elizabeth, Sarah

Captain John Mason founded Portsmouth by sending over Capt. Walter Neal in command of a party, in the ship Warwick in 1630.. That settlement was called “Strawberry Bank.”

Settlement of Dover Point or Hilton Point, 1623

Employments of the first settlers: Edward Hilton’s party landed at Pomeroy’s Cove in the spring of 1623 and commenced building their houses where now stands Hilton House and the village of Dover Point.

The first work was to build houses of logs in which to live and clear land enough on which to “set up their stages” for curing fish, and then engage in fishing which was then the great money-making occupation.

The Isle of Shoals was already an active fishing station for English fishermen having first been visited by Capt. John Smith in 1614 who reported back about the availability of fish. A report of the Shoals in 1623 states there were six fishing vessels; each carried fifty men, as he informs us was the custom, and he says the shores were inconveniently crowded with fishing stages, and the islands were a place of busy activity, surpassed only by Plymouth.

Insert material from written page 41

Initially the fishermen may have gone to the Shoals but at times they had plenty of good fishing withoug going to Ipswich Bay and the ocean beyond the Isle of Shoals. The fish abounded in these rivers until the settlers placed dams at the lower falls, and built saw mills, which destroyed the natural mode of living, so in time the fish ceased to come up the rivers.

The soil about their houses on the Point was excellent for raising garden crops and corn, which the Indians soon taught them ho to plant and use.

Also harvested oysters, clams (fed their hogs on them). Lobsters, wild ducks, and wild fowl of all kinds were abundant in Little Bay and Great Bay, so that they never lacked for food.

The Indians never troubled the settlers. In fact, a thriving trading business was set up on Hilton’s Point, for the beaver skins and other Indian products of the forests. That branch of business may have been as profitable as fishing.

Trouble at Plymouth settlement with Indians

During 1625 a fleet of not less than fifty vessels was trading along the New England coast, but not many of them took the trouble to go out of their way, up the Pascataqua River to Hilton Point; the settlers there, however, kept on fishing and trading with the Indians, in peace and quietness, prosperous and happy.

Settlement of Dover Neck

Lord Say and Lord Brooke from Bristol, England, were financial backers of the “second” settlement in Dover. They did not emigrate; instead they chose to stay and fight for English liberty. England was under the grip of the Stuarts and King Charles I. Both were soldiers.

In 1631 Captain Thomas Wiggans, usually called Wiggin, came over in one of the Puritan ships and came down from Boston to Hilton Point, on the Pascataqua, to look over the settlement; Wiggins had been sent over by those engaged in the new deal (settlement of Hilton Point), to investigate and report plans for sending over some additional settlers to help Mr. Hilton. This visit, later, resulted in a trade with Mr. Hilton and his associates, whereby immigrants came over in 1633 and commenced the settlement on Dover Neck.

Wiggins probably made a complete plan of how he would have the streets and lanes, and may be he engaged Mr. Hilton’s employees to cut a road along the shore from Pomeroy’s Cove to the foot of the hill.

Settlement began in October, 1633. Captain Thomas Wiggins led company over from England on the ship James in 1633. Landed at Salem, Mass., 10th of October, 1633. There were “about thirty “ in the party, nearly all men; they had been eight weeks on the voyage from Gravesend to Salem. Many of the men were of the same class and religious opinions as the Puritans but they came here strictly for business, rather than to have a larger religious liberty. Did not stay long in Salem but came up the coast by water to the Pascataqua River and up to Hilton Point, landing at Pomeroy’s

Cover at the west end of the Point, where the old settlers there cordially greeted them, and gave them the best accommodations their houses afforded. Some stayed on the James until they could build houses. In 1634, more men, with women and children, arrived from England and joined the colony, but those who arrived in October encountered and completed the hardest part of the work, as a dense forest then covered Dover Neck. To make the land ready for a village, such as the colonists came from in Old England, required much hard work, chopping down trees, cutting paths, and constructing log houses, for use during the cold weather of the winter. The winter reportedly was mild so work carried on rapidly.

The settlers kept a “calves pasture” as well as an “ox pasture” and a “sheep pasture” Land grant for these pastures was made in 1652-53

Built a meeting house where all public meetings were held as well as religious meetings. Second meeting house built in 1654.

1. Capt. Wiggins: (Born about 1600) Business manager of the first settlement on Dover Neck until about 1637 when he was displaced by Rev. George Burdett. Continued to dispense land grants. He was styled Governor, just as Walter Neal was called Governor at Strawberry Banke. Became more active in official affairs after Dover came under MA in May, 1642

Two sons: Andrew (B. 1635) on “Captain’s Hill, Dover Neck where the Wiggin log mansion stood on Low Street not far from the log meeting house of 1633-34.

and Thomas (b. 1640)

Daughter:

Wife: Catherine (last name not known). Married probably in 1636

Was one of the leading men of the MA Bay Co.

Thirty passengers for Dover, 40 passengers for Virginia, and 20 for Boston plus 60 cattle. Other passengers:

2. John Damme, b. 1610expert carpenter or “joiner”, one who did the finer part of wood’s work; Undoubtedly, he was the boss joiner in the construction of the garrison house now in the arcade of the Woodman Institute which he built, about 1675, for his youngest son, William Damme.

Married Elizabeth Pomfrett in 1636

Children: John b. 1636-7

` Elizabeth b. May, 1649

Mary b. 1651

William b. 1653

Susannah b. 1661

Rev. William Leverich, a Puritan minister, with them, who commenced to officiate as minister of the First Parish as soon as the log meeting house was completed in the winter of 1633. Stayed for two years.

From Gov. Winthrop’s Journal of 1633 talks about the ship James and who/what was on it.

The historian, Hubbard, writing a half century later, says: “In the interim (1633-1640), several persons of good estate were, by interests of the Lords and other gentlemen, induced to transport themselves thither, so many as sufficed to make a considerable township.” Page 95

3. Richard Pinkham, here in 1642, perhaps earlier. Appears to have been a man of good character, and had his share of public offices.

Children: Richard,

Thomas

John

4. People who arrived during this time:

John Tuttle (1636)

Son, John, born 1646

5. Hatevil Nutter, One of the first elders of First Church and helped organize it in Nov. 1638. and occasional preacher (B. 1603) He received various lots of land, and was largely engaged in running saw mills (part owner of a sawmill on Lamprey River) the lumber business and shipping. His shipyard was on Fore River at the foot of the hill in the rear of his residence, a beautiful location. Beside business he held offices in the town, the church and the colony. He was one of the wealthy men of the colony.

Children: Antony, b. in 1630.

Mary

Another daughter

Abigail

And probably others

8.Edward Starbuck, b. 1604, came to Dover from Derbyshire in England. Received a land grant in 1643.

Nathaniel b. 1636

Dorcas

Sarah

Abigail

Jethro

9. Henry Beck: Started a ferry across to Kittery, now Eliot; at least he used it (Beck’s Slip) as a shipping point. May have begun there as early as 1636.

10. Major Richard Walderne b. 1614. Came to Dover first in 1635. Married a woman in England in 1640 and brought her to Dover. Built the second meeting house in Dover in 1654.

Children: Paul b. 1642 Anna b. 1654

Timothy b. 1646 Esther b. 1660

Richard, b. 1650 Mary b. 1663

Three others

Killed in an Indian attack in 1689.

11.Henry Tibbetts Lived in Dover in 1643

Jeremy b. 1636

Thomas

Daughter

And probably others.

12.Peter Coffin, not sure when he came to Dover; was not here in 1648 but taxed in 1657.

Peter on one point provided masts as a present to the King of England. Town Treasurer for several years.

Children: Abigail, Peter, Joshua, Tristram, Edward, Judith, Elizabeth, Jethro, Pernel.

Captain John Underhill arrived and took the lead in organizing the First Church

Rev. Hanserd Knollys came over in 1638 (stayed two years and returned to England)

13. William Walderne came over with his brother Richard in 1635. His wife emigrated in 1640. (He had returned to England to marry her in the meantime.) Was neighbor to his brother and engaged in business with him, insawmills, shipbuilding and general shipping to the West Indies and to England. Was also town clerk for the village. He died of accidental drowning in 1646. Left no children.

Deacon John Hall

John, Nathaniel, Grace, Ralph

Employments of later settlement under Thomas Wiggin:

14 Thomas Trickey (settled 1636) in Bloody Point section of Dover now Newington.. Son Zachhariah and sisters. Ferryman: ferry boats between Dover Neck and Bloody Point and Everett’s Point for forty years. Son inherited the business.

(Bridge built in 1871 put ferry to Bloody Point out of business.)

In 1643 there were twelve families living in the Bloody Point section of Dover:

James Johnson, Thomas Canning, Thomas Ffursen, William Pray, William Jones, Thomas Trickey, John Godard, Henry Longstaffe, John Fayer, Oliver Trimings, Philip Lewis, Raderic (unreadable). Some of these families at a later period resided at Dover Neck. First tax list was 1648.

In 1702 John Knight, a Huguenot refugee settled in Dover.

15. In 1650, William Henderson came from England to settle in Dover. He married Sarah in 1668. Engaged in ship building and held minor town offices. Constable in 1682. Sons William (1670) and Howard (1672).

Brick Making began at a very early period, as the settlers needed that material for construction of chimneys. Who made the first brick, or when, is not recorded.

Inn keeper or tavern owner: probably since 1633 there has always been an inn or tavern of some description on Dover Point, for the accommodation of the traveling public as well as for the townspeople.

Ship building. There is no record of when the first vessel was built in Dover, but it was certainly at a very early period after the lumbermen began to cut the forests. They had the best of ship timber all about the settlement on Dover Neck; they had good facilities for building ships on Fore River; they had the ship carpenters; and there were men of brains with great business capacity to carry on the work successfully; and they did so. Land grants make mention of the building of a frigate prior to 1650. Probably Richard Walderne built it as he was in the business and had his mills, at the falls here, in full running operation.

The frigate was used to protect ships from pirates as the sailed back and forth to the West Indies and to England.

Lumber manufacture: Dover Neck did not have any sawmills, but some of its leading residents were largely engaged in building mills and running them in the maufacture of various kinds of lumber. In connection with this mill business was conducted the enterprise of making pipe-staves and clapboards, which were a “merchantable commodity” and a legal tender instead of cash which was then not very plenty in the pockets of most of the men in Dover.

The lumber from all of these mills, in one way or another, came to Dover Neck and was there used, or loaded onto vessels and transported to towns along the New England coast, or to the West Indies and England. The parts that were suitable for ship building were used in the yards at the Neck, on Fore River; a good deal was cut up into clapboards and pipe staves which kept crews of men at work in cooper shops, and in buildings where clapboards were split out and shaved to the proper dimensions for the foreign markets, as well as for home use.

Cooper shops where workmen put the pipe-staves into shape, and headed and hoped the casks, then took them apart and packed them for transportation to Barbadoes Island, where the material was put into shape again by the coopers there ready for the use of the sugar planters.

Blacksmith shops

Carpenter shops

School master: schools were kept in private houses. Prior to 1657 the school teaching was done by the ministers, who instructed the public school, free, and received tuition for fitting boys to enter Harvard College.

Brewery:

Doctor (called a chirurgeon): There was no resident doctor until 1656 when Walter Barefoot arrived. He resided there about 20 years. Before he arrived a doctor named Dr. Renald Fernald use to come upriver from Newcastle when he was needed.

Tanner: Job Clement came in 1652

Buildings: First Meeting house, the first building in the settlement, constructed out of logs

Second meeting house 1654, ordered fortified in 1667. Completed before 1675 when hostilities broke out.

Among the school-boys in those early days, it was fashionable to aspire to become mariners; the height of their boyish ambition was to reach the high rank of Captain of a ship, and sail to the West Indies with a cargo of pipe-staves. They had no fear of pirates; but were thrilled with enthusiasm as they heard the stories of the sea captains who had fought them and won victories that were marvels of bravery. (p 145)

Settlement of Back River District, 1642

16. James Nute, came first to Portsmouth then to Dover in the 1640’s, resided on Dover Neck. Was granted land in 1656 in the Back River District. A man of character and influence.