Gazetteer of the State of Maine With Numerous Illustrations, by Geo. J. Varney

BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 57 CORNHILL. 1882. Public domain image from

GAZETTEER OF MAINE.

and Gorges’ right. The province was taken from the control of Mass-
achusetts by the commissioners sent by Charles II., in 1664, and placed
under the protection of the king; but in 1668, by the desire of a large
portion of the inhabitants, it was again placed under Massachusetts.
In 1674, the king ordered Massachusetts to relinquish her control in
Maine, and restored the province to the heirs of Gorges. Upon- this,
Massachusetts, in 1677-, purchased the whole province of Maine of its
proprietors ; and in 1716, York was made the shire town of the county
of Yorkshire, which was now extended over the Sagadahoc region.

In each of the three first Indian w^ars, great efforts were made by
the savages to destroy the place, but without success. The most dis-
astrous of their attacks was in February, 1692, when an unexpected
assault was made early in the morning by two or three hundred Indians
under the command of Frenchmen. In half an hour, more than 150
of the inhabitants were either killed or captured. After burning all
the undefended houses on the north side of the river, the Indians
retired quickly into the wilderness with about 100 prisoners, and all
the booty they could carry. The effect of this affair was to make
relentless Indian fighters o: many of the children who returned
from captivity, who remembered the cruelties and indignities inflicted

upon their parents. Two garrison houses, Mclntire’s and Junkin’s,
built in this period were standing in the town, at a recent date.

Many men from York joined the Louisburg expedition in 1745,
among whom was Rev. Samuel Moody, who was a chaplain. The first
soldiers to enter the continental army from Maine are said to have
been from York. One Benjamin Simpson from this town, nineteen
years of age, apprentice to a bricklayer in Boston, helped destroy the
tea in the harbor. Among the military men of the town was Johnson
Moulton, who reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel. The news of
the battle of Lexington reached York at evening. The inhabitants