nutfield

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Windham Life and Times – June 7, 2019

Nutfield 300

A blind man plays the fiddle to a family audience. Coloured engraving by J. Burnet after D. Wilkie, 1806. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY.

Reverend MacGregor’s Fiddle

Scots-Irish Influence on American Music

E.H. Derby in his address to the Londonderry Celebration of 1869 says, “..and, if tradition may be trusted, even their clergy introduced musical instruments into New Hampshire. I do not refer to the ear-piercing fife alone, or the spirit-stirring drum, whose ‘toot’ so engrossed the ear that Matthew Clark, when presiding over the Session, that he could do no business,— I allude to a stringed instrument of music. The pastor of whom the tale is told had served as a chaplain in the army, and while in camp had learned to play the violin. He brought one to America — doubtless at the bottom of his chest — and in his log cabin, in the dreary winter nights, found solace in the music. But, late one night, an elder heard the ‘linked sweetness drawn out,’ and peeping through the crevice in the cabin, liked the elders who watched Susanna, decried his pastor in the very act of drawing the bow, and reported him to the session; and the elders decreed that he should ‘hang up the fiddle and bow’ for three successive Sundays, in front of the pulpit. And this, I presume, was the first display of stringed instruments of music in New Hampshire. Derry must not, therefore, be forgotten at the great Musical Festival, for which Mr. Gilmore is rearing a structure that reminds of the Coliseum.”

Well if fiddle playing was frowned upon by the early elders of Nutfield, it soon took on a prominence within the community. In Old Portraits and Modern Sketches, 1850, John Greenleaf Whittier reports the following about the fairs held in early Londonderry. “Their moral acclimation in Ireland had not been without its effect upon their character. Side by side with a Presbyterian as austere as that of John Knox, had grown up something of the wild Milesian humor, love of convivial excitement and merry-making, Their long prayers and fierce zeal in behalf of orthodox tenants, only served, in the eyes of their Puritan neighbors, to make more glaring still the scandal of their marked social irregularities. It became a common saying in the region round about, that, ‘the Derry Presbyterians would never give up a pint of doctrine or a pint of rum.’ …Ere long the celebrated Derry Fair was established in imitation of those with which they had been familiar in Ireland. Thither annually came  all manners of horse-jockeys and peddlers, gentlemen and beggars, fortune-tellers, wrestlers, dancers and fiddlers, gay young farmers and buxom maidens. Strong drink abounded… A wild, frolicking, drinking, fiddling, courting, horse-racing, riotous merry-making— a sort of Protestant carnival, relaxing the grimness of Puritanism for leagues around.” The Scots-Irish seem to be characterized by an uneasy dichotomy,  the side by side need for both religious revival and the “hooting and hollering” of a jolly good time!

The same Scots-Irish people who settled in Nutfield were also the dominant cultural force in the settlement of the Appalachian Mountain areas of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.  And these Scots-Irish settlers certainly brought the fiddle with them and used it plenty, in the mountains and valleys where American country music had its roots. There is a great New York Times best seller, called Wayfaring Strangers, written by Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr, with a forward by Dolly Parton, that traces this “musical voyage” from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia. These settlers, “brought with them a wealth of traditional ballads and tunes from the British Isles and Ireland, a carrying stream that merged with the sounds and songs of English, German, Welsh, African American, French, and Cherokee origin.”

I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
There is no sickness, no toil, nor danger
In that bright land to which I go

I’m going there to see my Father
And all my loved ones who’ve gone on
I’m just going over Jordan
I’m just going over home

I know dark clouds will gather ’round me
I know my way is hard and steep
But beauteous fields arise before me
Where God’s redeemed, their vigils keep
I’m going there to see my Mother
She said she’d meet me when I come

So, I’m just going over Jordan
I’m just going over home
I’m just going over Jordan
I’m just going over home

     Getting back to Pastor MacGregor and his fiddle, Wayfaring Strangers in explaining the origin of the Scottish fiddle states, “Throughout the long history of migrations from Scottish Lowlands and Highlands, the fiddle was the ideal traveling companion, whether for sailors, journeymen, merchants, or emigrants. It was portable, adaptable to new playing styles, the instrument of choice for dances, and perfect both for soloists and playing partners. So it is not surprising that the fiddle eventually followed the Scottish emigration trail all the way to the southern Appalachians. Beginning in the seventeenth century, it took its place as the most popular dance instrument on both sides of the Atlantic. Hanover County, Virginia, hosted the first fiddling contest of colonial times in 1736, held on November 30 in honor of the holiday of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland.” In Scotland “…the music of the classical violin was the initial attraction, folk-style fiddle playing soon followed. These adaptions of the instrument were no doubt related to the widespread interest in dancing at community gatherings, weddings, funerals, and local festivals and fairs, as well as the ballrooms and drawing rooms of the landed gentry…”

Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage From Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia. On Amazon

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Windham Life and Times – May 3, 2019

Nutfield 300

Drawing from Wiley’s Book of Nutfield of the “English Range.”

The  English Range | Wiley’s Book of Nutfield

The influential New Hampshire officials who helped secure the land grant from the Crown for the Scotch-Irish, being of the political class, expected and received their quid pro quo as land grants in Londonderry, in what became known as the English Range.  Again from Wiley’s Book of Nutfield: “Within 12 months after the arrival of the first sixteen families, the population of Nutfield, afterward the incorporated township of Londonderry, numbered several hundred, and simultaneously the allotments of homesteads were made to the proprietors under the charter to the number of one hundred and twenty-four and a half shares, exclusive of large awards in land given to some particularly influential persons who had assisted the immigrants in securing a grant of land. About Seven Thousand Five Hundred acres were laid out in homesteads under the schedule as recorded with the charter, June 1, 1722, and on the same day one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six acres were allowed as rewards for special services to thirteen persons directly connected with the procuring of clear titles to the land. The largest grants of land for special services were made to the officers of the crown, who acted as mediators between the colonists and the king. These loyalists were the Lieutenant Governor of His Majesty’s Province of New Hampshire in New England, and that body of followers commonly designated as the governor’s suite, with colonels and men of military insignia in the service of the king. These persons received grants of land in proportion to the supposed importance of their rank and services, not alone in Nutfield but in various other settlements over a wide area of land not very clearly defined in early records.”

“Without controversy the section of the township which was called the English Range embraced the most pronounced Tory faction, and as Englishmen in sentiment, spirit and religious opinions the settlers there had a profound contempt for the zeal, piety, and learning of the fugitive Covenanters by whose pestiferous preaching the whole of Great Britain was shaken.”

“The series of parallel homesteads that may properly be designated the English Range began at the most easterly corner of Beaver pond and extended in the form of a rectangle whose longer side lay in a due northwest line to a point near Sheild’s upper pond, and the shorter line lay in a due northeast line along the course of the stream above Beaver pond to the limit of the Haverhill False Line, so called by reason of a claim that the people of Haverhill made to the part of town then lying east of the meridional line through that corner of the English Range.…”

“…The English Range embraced a beautiful tract of land, with fine glimpses of Beaver pond from almost ever part, and some of the farms running down to the firm shores were selected for the more noted persons of the community…The following agreement will explain the laying out of some of these lots. It was made at the time when the people of Nutfield had secured a deed of land, on which they settled, from Col. John Wheelwright of Wells, Me.: “These presents witnessed that the Rev. James McGregor and Samuel Graves do in the name of the people of Nutfield and by virtue of being a committee from them agree that the Honorable Governor John Wentworth of Portsmouth and Col Wheelwright of Wells and their heirs forever should have and possess two lots with them in Nutfield lying to the northward of and butting upon Beaver pond, to wit:  Lt.-Gov. Wentworth to have the third and Col. Wheelwright the fourth in order upon the range, together with what second divisions will fall to the said lots throughout the said town, and each of these gentlemen and their heirs to have besides the said lots five hundred acres apiece forever laid out in farms where they shall think fit in said town, Record this 9th day of January, 1720.”

“The governors of the various provinces in New England were generally of good birth and highly respected by the colonies…The resolution passed by the town of Nutfield, in meeting assembled in 1719, is not without interest: The people of Nutfield do acknowledge with gratitude the obligation they are under to the above mentioned gentlemen, particularly to the Honorable Col. John Wentworth, Esq., Lieutenant Governor of New Hampshire. They remember with pleasure that his Honor, on all occasions, shewed a great deal of civility and real kindness to them, being strangers in the country, and cherished small beginnings of their settlement and defended them from the encroachment of violence of such as upon unjust ground would disturb their settlement and always gave them a favorable ear and easy access to the government and procured justice for them…”

“It appears from contemporary evidence that there was scarcely a resident of the English Range in 1719 who was not titled and serving the government in some capacity. Their descendants of the next generation were conspicuous leaders in the French and Indian wars. Very familiar are the names of Colonel Thornton, Colonel Barr, Sir James Leslie, Captain Blair, Ensign Blair, Captain Cargill, Colonel Wainwright, Colonel Wheelwright, and Lieutenant Goffe.”

 

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Windham Life and Times – April 12, 2019

Nutfield 300

The First Settlement: By Land or River?

“…The company followed a trail from Haverhill about fifteen miles through the woods.” (But did they come by land? Not according the John Greenleaf Whittier who was intimately acquainted with the Scots-Irish in southern New Hampshire. In his book, Old Portraits and Modern Sketches Whittier describes the pioneer’s journey as follows: “In the early part of the eighteenth century, a considerable number of Presbyterians of Scotch descent, from the north of Ireland, emigrated to the new world. In the spring of 1719, the inhabitants of Haverhill, on the Merrimack, saw them passing up the river in several canoes, one of which unfortunately upset in the rapids above the village. The following fragment of a ballad celebrating this event, has been handed down to the present time, and may serve to show the feelings even then of the old English settlers toward the Irish emigrants:

 

‘They began to scream and bawl,

As out they tumbled one and all,

And, if the Devil had spread his net,

He could have made a glorious haul!’

 

     “The new comers proceeded up the river, and landing opposite the Uncanoonuc Hills, on the present site of Manchester, proceeded inland to Beaver Pond. Charmed by the appearance of the country, they resolved here to terminate their wanderings. Under a venerable oak on the margin of the lake, they knelt down with their minister, Jamie McGregor, and laid, in prayer and thanksgiving, the foundation of their settlement. In a few years they had cleared large fields, built substantial stone and frame dwellings, and a large and commodious meeting-house; wealth had accumulated around them, and they had every where the reputation of a shrewd and thriving community. They were the first in New England to cultivate the potato, which their neighbors for a long time regarded as a pernicious root, altogether unfit for a Christian stomach. Every lover of that invaluable esculent has reason to remember with gratitude the settlers of Londonderry.”

It’s probably true that both the trails and river provided access for the Scotch-Irish to their new settlement in southern New Hampshire. If they truly did take the river in April it would have been roaring with spring snow melt.

Rev. MacMurphy continues, “The men and boys, perhaps no women or small children as they were to stay with their friends a month while preparations were  being made to shelter them; sixteen men, their pastor and the boys, trailing up from Haverhill through the woods, with a few packs on horses, a few oxen and cows, and other live stock. What could they bring? Axes and hammers, saws, iron bars and shovels, hoes and plows, seed corn, potatoes, onions and beans, some garden seeds, some provisions, flour, meal, tea and molasses, pots and kettles, tins and dishes, knives, forks and spoons, their clothing, etc. (Also, undoubtably, rum.) And then where should they unpack? They came to a little west running brook, in a sheltered valley, and decided to camp down there. The horses and cattle were soon staked  to good low land grass. By the aid of steel and flint and tinder and dry wood a fine warm fire was kindled and the pots and kettles hung above and necessary arrangements quickly made to prepare supper in the open field. With axes, rude shelters were provided under which men and boys could sleep at night. The number that listened to that sermon on Sunday might have been seventy-five persons, perhaps even a hundred or more, for note that the pastor had six boys and sixteen other men with one exception are quite certain to have had average families for those years.”

The names of the sixteen should be of interest, they may be found in several places: In the Town Records, in Parker’s Centenary Sermon, in Book of Nutfield, and on the map of the Double Range. These sixteen or seventeen men selected their homes on both sides of this little brook and located their huts with reference to frontage on the brook and land a mile long stretching away north and south, but only 30 perches in width; bringing their families near together.” (The rod or perch or pole is a surveyor’s tool and unit of length exactly equal to ​5 1⁄2 yards…)

     In a month’s time the woman folks were anxious to join the menfolk and come to Nutfield and by that time sufficient accommodations had been erected of hewn timbers, split shingles, and stone chimneys with open fireplaces to make a cheerful place to live in. Rude furniture, tables and chairs, benches and bedsteads, cut and fashioned from the living forest gave an impression of comparative comfort. This colony had not been on the premises a month before they called a meeting and were duly organized. They ordered the construction of a mill dam and saw mill and in six months they had a saw mill in operation on Beaver Brook less than a mile away from their cozy valley, and in less than two years they had a gristmill there and a second saw mill on Aiken brook. So the log shanties began to be replaced and supplemented with framed houses with real boards, clapboards, and shingles. Of course a church was built the first year of Nutfield and just about where the First Church now stands. Four months had brought more families and in September of 1719, they voted twenty more homesteads to the first new comers, to that number who should make immediate settlement in Nutfield. By the time the territory had been surveyed and laid out in ranges and homesteads of sixty acres the number of inhabitants had increased to that degree that the first so called Schedule named one hundred and five heads of families to receive allotments of homesteads; and others rewarded for services rendered the colony, up to the number of homestead rights of 122 1/2.”

“The Wheelwright Deed, given to Nutfield Colony as an Indian title to the ten miles square territory was not signed until October 29, 1719, and consequently the surveying and settling of bounds to the homesteads did not progress much in the first six months of occupation. The colonists working together cleared a few acres of forest around their camps at West Running Brook, with difficulty plowed among the stumps and in common raised and harvested their first crops and thus originated the name ‘common field’ as applied to a section well known to this day. The winter was not particularly severe, their mill was kept running, the timber around prospective houses and homes felled and drawn to the mill yard. In March of 1720 the homesteads were surveyed, laid out, butted and bounded, as we find in the Town Records and may trace on the map drawn for the purpose by the writer of this address and published in sections in Willey’s Book of Nutfield, with the provision that all rights to use these maps are reserved by the original draftsman.”

 

 

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Windham Life and Times – April 5, 2019

Nutfield 300

Introduction: April 11, 1719

This year, 2019, will mark the 300th Anniversary of the founding of Nutfield. This grant of land came through the Wheelwright deed for a ten square mile parcel that he had acquired from the Indians. Nutfield consisted of the towns of Windham, Derry, Londonderry and parts of Manchester and Salem.  Beginning below is the historical address by the Rev. J.G. MacMurphy  at the Nutfield Celebration of 1919.

The Derry News, September 12, 1919

“Following is part one of the ‘Historical Address’ delivered by the Rev. J.G. MacMurphy at the 200th anniversary celebration of this township.”

Anticipation of the Important Celebration

“For many years it has been in the minds of the lineal descendants of the pioneers that a large gathering should be held in 1919 to properly commemorate the achievements of two hundred years. Curiously enough it is generally claimed one person in his last will left a small legacy to be held in trust, for the purchase of apples, cider and nuts, to be liberally dispensed to all the guests and attendants of the town’s 200th anniversary celebration.”

“On many public occasions speakers have referenced to the probability that this date would be observed by an extraordinary effort, to duly memorialize the more conspicuous events of the town’s history, and to cherish with fond recollection the names of worthy men and women who have contributed most to the welfare, prosperity and honorable reputation of the community.”

“As a growing community it is quite impossible to conceive the amount of material necessary  to any historic account of the principal events and personal notices of the chief actors. There is no adequate work in existence to supply the need of the present generation. The History of Londonderry, N.H., is yet to be written and published in the rich abundance of the town’s inception, development and present conditions. The sources of information are numerous and sufficiently reliable and varied. The records of the town from its earliest beginnings to the latest transactions have been carefully preserved. There are details of the settlement, the laying out of homesteads and other subsequent allotments of land; the privileges of saw mills, gristmills, and water flowage; the names of the inhabitants as they arrived; the marriages, the births, the deaths, and all these records are accessible to the public at any time.”

“The New Hampshire Gazetteer is a series of published volumes in which to find a condensed account of the settlement of Londonderry and all the affiliated interest of adjacent towns in course of time taken off the original possession of this pioneer colony. There have been several large Rockingham County volumes published in which due space has been allotted to the history of this and neighboring towns closely allied together. At the end of the first hundred years of history the Rev. Edward L. Parker delivered a centenary sermon on the history of the town to a large and appreciative congregation in the First Church. The sermon was printed and copies are in existence, although rare and not easily found. About 1850 he wrote and his son published the History of Londonderry. It contained valuable copies of records, among them a list of names of those who in 1718 petitioned for land in America to settle upon; a list of those who did settle Londonderry under the Royal Charter of 1722; a list of the selectmen for a hundred and twenty-five years; a list of the Revolutionary War soldiers from this town; a list of lawyers, doctors, and prominent men who originated in this town.”

At the end of one hundred and fifty years there was held on the sand plains of West Derry an immense gathering of the inhabitants and descendants of Londonderry. There was due preparation and distinguished men were present to tell the experiences of their sturdy ancestors in opening up the wilderness to make comfortable homes; and after this big celebration, Robert C. Mack gathered material from the speeches, personnel and occasion to make a book and a committee provided for its printing, binding and distribution. This book is also rare now and not readily found. About twenty five years later was published a book that more than all others combined in the one universal reference book, Willey’s Book of Nutfield, to point out exactly where every head of family had a homestead, and the location of every allotment of land to him. It has aided materially in answering inquires genealogists usually seek to answer by consulting the Register of Deeds in Exeter. Again, it is particularly valuable in giving names, dates of death, kinship, and ages of all persons buried in Derry and Londonderry, so far as their graves had stones and inscriptions, Index with more than 700 names.”

The First Settlement

“There has been considerable emphasis laid on the fact that sixteen families and their pastor, the Rev. James MacGregor, are reported as the first to arrive on the site selected for the town. (The other Scots-Irish which had arrived on the five ships from northern Ireland in 1718 were spread around New England from Andover, Worcester, Boston and the coast of Maine.) They arrived early in the season for this climate and in a wilderness of wood and timber. (Although there were many Indian meadows where Native Americans had grown their crops and were much coveted by settlers since they had been cleared of trees and used for farming.) This was a country of many beeches, walnuts, oil nuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, in the season of gathering; and so they had chosen the name of Nutfield for their territory and they had the promise of an Indian deed to this land, briefly described as ten miles square and bounded by Chester, easterly by Haverhill, southerly by Dracut and Dunstable (Nashua) and westerly by the Merrimack River.”

“Why did those sixteen families and their pastor emigrate from Ireland and come here and settle in the wildness? It has been said they emigrated to obtain freedom of action and liberty of personal conscience. When did they arrive and how? They were here on Saturday the 11th and their pastor preached to them on Sunday the 12th day of April, 1719, on the Blessings of Christ’s Kingdom taking for his text Isaiah XXXII;2  ‘A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry ground, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.’  Imagine the conditions of this season of the year. The company had followed a trail from Haverhill about fifteen miles through the woods. The men and boys, perhaps no women of small children as they were to stay with their friends a month while preparations were being made to shelter them…”