Source: The Bangor Historical Magazine, vol. 3 (Bangor, Me.: J. W. Porter, 1888).
[p. 104]
PETITION FROM INHABITANTS OF MAGABAGWADUCE, NOW PENOBSCOT AND CASTINE, TO GOVERNOR FRANCIS BERNARD, 1763.
FROM THE ARCHIVES OF MASSACHUSETTS. CONTRIBUTED BV DR. JOHN F. PRATT, OF CHELSEA, MASS.
"To his Excellency Francis Bernard, Esq., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
The Petition of Thomas Westgatt and others, inhabitants of a Tract of Land known by the name of Maja Bagadoose, in the said Province, Humbly Sheweth That Most of your petitioners were Soldiers in his majestie's Service In the pay of this Province, and were dismissed from the Service after the peace was settled, and being Humbly of Opinion that some of the lands they had conquered would be as likely to fall to their share as to others, they settled upon the aforesaid Tract of Land, a place where no English Inhabitants had ever before settled, and at great peril, Labour and Expence they cleared and cultivated some small spots of Land, and have got themselves comfortable houses. Suffering beyond expression the Last Winter, and after having grappled through these Difficulties they have been able this Summer to Raise Sauce and a few necessaries to support their families, and have been In hopes to have had their settlements confirmed to them, and accordingly Petitioned to the general Court for this purpose long before the Said land was granted to others, but your petitioners being poor and not able to attend and further their petition, they are Informed it never reached the General Court, and that now the fruit of their heavy toil and labour is like to be reapt by others unless your petitioners will submit to very hard terms offered them by the new proprietors. Your Petitioners are glad of an opportunity to lay their distress Before your Excellency, and Humbly pray you wo'd take it Into your wise consideration and Lay the Same Before your assembly for their consideration, and grant them such relief as your Excellency and their Honours shall think just and reasonable, and your Petitioners shall ever Pray.
Dated at Mja Bagadoose, Oct. ye 3rd, 1763. [signed]
Thomas Wasgatt
Samuel Tivott
S____? Cowsell
Thomas Wasgatt, Jr. | John Tivott
Mathew Toben
Ichabod Courson |
Note. Magorbigwaduce was the ancient name of the Bay or River now known as Bagaduce, and of the territory on both sides. The first settlement there was at the head of the Bay, now in the town of Penobscot. The peninsula was settled by Loyalists during the Revolutionary War, who fled, and after the war by others, who were the first permanent settlers. These petitioners did not all become settlers. Some went up the river, others to Mount Desert and along the coast.—EDITOR.
[p. 105]
We Whose names are underwritten Do sign to the Within petition.
John Moor
Samuel Matthews
Jacob Dri___?
Joshua Gray
Andrew Gray X his mark
Andrew Westcot
John Daly
John Daly
T_____? White
Jonathan Sweet
Ebenezer Low
Thomas Sim___?
Thomas Laighton
Samuel Laighton
Hativo Laighton
Tristran Gluckhan
Ralph Stovers
Stephen Goodwin
Benjamin Howard
Joseph Sessions
John Grindal
William Westcot | John Coeson
Stephen Littlefield
Samuel Westcot
John Rea
James Gray
Joseph Lowell
David Daly
Jonathan Stovers
John Dame
Joshua Eayr
Nathan Lankester
John Smart
Thomas Laighton, Jr.
S_____? Laighton
G_____? Laughton
Josiah Parker
John Hanson
Edward Howard
A_____? Chibelhany?
Jeremiah Springer
Jeremiah Veasey." |
Maine Genealogy
