Hancock County Maine

      In point of fact, the county of Hancock was a part of the rench Province of Acadia, for a period of 180 years; and France did not fully relinquish her claim until after the War of the Revolution. The first official effort of the Government of France to “enter possession,” was a patent of Acadia, granted to De Monts, which, two years after was surrendered to a Catholic French lady (Madame De Guercheville), who was desirous of making the experiment of converting the natives to the Catholic faith. She immediately sent over her agent (Suassaye), with twenty-five colonists, to take possession of Acadia. Suassaye and colony landed May 16th, 1613, at Mt. Desert, built a fort, erected a cross, celebrated mass, and called the place “ St. Sauveur,” which is supposed to be the locality now known as Ship Harbor, Tremont. About the “pool” at Somes’ Sound, is supposed to be where the French missionaries, Biard and Masse, located themselves in 1609. Frenchman's Bay is supposed to have acquired its, name from a peculiar incident which occurred to a French ecclesiastic who encamped somewhere between the Union and Narraguagus rivers, during the winter of 1603. At Trenton Point is supposed to be where Madam Deville lived.
      The first English possession was a trading post at Pentegoet (Castine), in 1625–6, which soon fell into the hands of the French, and the flag of France floated over it during nearly the whole of the 17th century. The appearances of the old French settlements have been found at Castine, Newbury Neck, Surry, Oak Point, Trenton, East Lamoine, Crabtree's Neck, Hancock, Butler Point, Franklin, Waukeag Neck, Sullivan and upon the “Desert Isle.” Not until after the fall of Quebec, in 1759, were any permanent English settlements made.
     6.. Land Grants. –The first grants of land, were six townships each six miles square, between the Penobscot and Union, then known as the Donaqua River, which were granted to David Marsh et als, by the General Court of Massachusetts, upon certain conditions, one of which was that they should settle each township with sixty Protestant families, within six years. These grants were No. 1, (Bucksport); No. 2, (Orland); No. 3, (Penobscot); No. 4, (Sedgwick); No. 5, (Bluehill); and No. 6, (Surry). Six other townships east of the Donaqua River, were granted upon the same terms. But three of these are in this county, which are No. 1, (Trenton), granted to Eben Thorndike et als; No. 2, (Sullivan), to David Bean et als, and No. 3, (Mt. Desert) to Gov. Bernard. The whole survey was made by Samuel Livermore, and as six of the townships were on one side of the river, and six on the other side, the circumstance gave the present name of “Union River.”
      The onerous conditions imposed on the grantees, in this “forest wild,” could not be fulfilled, which occasioned a deal of uneasiness, as a new claimant might oust the occupant. In 1785, Massachusetts “quieted” the actual settlers in each, a hundred-acre lot. The grant of these several townships was made in 1762. One of the conditions in each grant was, that the grantee “ yield one-fifth part of all the gold and silver ore and precious stones found therein.”
      These grantees individually bound themselves in a penal bond of £50, conditioned to lay out no one of the townships more than six miles in extent, on the banks of the Penobscot, or on the sea coast; to build sixty dwelling-houses, at least 18 feet square ; to fit for tillage 300 acres of land, erect a meeting-house, and settle a minister. There were reserved in each township one lot for parsonage purposes, another for the first settled minister, a third for Harvard College, and a fourth for the use of schools, making 1,200 acres in each township, reserved for public uses.
      7. Gregoire's Claim.—About the year 1688, the King of France gave to one Cadilliac, a grant embracing the whole of Mt. Desert, which Cadilliac held till 1713, styling himself “Lord of Donaqua and Mt. Desert.” After the War of the Revolution, one Gregoire claimed the whole island in right of his wife, Maria T., a grand-daughter of Cadilliac. Gov. Bernard, to whom the island had been granted, had lost his title by confiscation; but to his son John, one-half of it had been restored; and in consideration of a request made in favor of Gregoire's claim, by Gen. Lafayette, Massachusetts recognized it as valid, which is the only French claim ever sustained to lands in Maine.
      To indemnify this heir of Cadilliac for lands included in her claim, and which the Government had disposed of, there were quitclaimed to her 60,000 acres.
      This tract included the present towns of Trenton and Lamoine, with a part of Sullivan, Ellsworth, Hancock, Eden and Mt. Desert, with the islands in front of them. Many of the present settlers hold their lands under old French titles. Many of the original titles to lands are acquired from Province grants and form Indian deeds.
      Gregoire with his family settled in Mt. Desert; there lived and died, and himself and wife were buried outside of the burial-ground at Hull's Cove, Eden. Tradition says they were so buried because they were Catholics. Some of the Gregoire deeds are in the possession of the writer.
      8. Land Lottery.—In 1786, Massachusetts attempted a lottery sale of fifty townships, between the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy. The land intended to be sold, was represented by 2,720 tickets, the price of each ticket $2.00. These "lottery townships,” and those who settled upon them, were to be exempt from taxes for 15 years. Every ticket was a prize ticket; the smallest prize being a half-mile square, and the largest a six mile square. There were five managers, one of the number being Leonard Jarvis, of Surry. On the drawing of the lottery, it was found that but 437 tickets were sold, and only 165,280 acres drawn, and 942,112 acres remained unsold. The average price received for the lands drawn was about 52 cents per acre. The lots not drawn, and also the greater part of the prize lots, were purchased by William Bingham, of Philadelphia, a man of immense wealth. Mr. Bingham died in England in 1803, and left one son and two daughters. One of the daughters married Alexander Baring, of London. At one time the Bingham heirs owned in Maine, outside of the lottery purchase, 2,350,000 acrex.
      The lottery townships in Hancock, sold to Bingham, were Nos. 14, 15 and 16, each containing 23,040 acres. The conveyance was made January 28th, 1793, by Samuel Phillips, Leonard Jarvis and John Reed, a Committee appointed by the General Court of Massachusetts. The consideration,” named in the deed, is “a large and valuable sum of money.” Query—Were not the “up-river” townships north of the tierof townships, sold to Bingham, included in the lottery scheme? In 1796, Bingham purchased the residue of the Gregoire grant. A plan of the 60,000 acre grant to Madame De Gregoire, was made by Nathan Jones and Samuel Thompson, and a survey of the same, by John Peters, was completed on or before January 8th, 1789.
      August 4, 1792, Barthelemy De Gregoire, after “excepting out” certain “lots” and “tracts,” sold the balance of his grant, or 23,121 acres, to Henry Jackson, of Boston, for £1,247, 16 shillings. Jackson, July 9th, 1796, sold his claim to Bingham for $100.
      The outlines of the Gregoire grant are thus defined in the earliest recorded deeds: “A tract of land lying on the main, on each side of the Donaquec river, in the County of Hancock. Beginning near the Sweedeland Mill dam, on the Eastern side of Skillings river, thence due North 550 rods to Taunton bay, there crossing a cove in said bay 432 rods in the same course, and running same course from said bay 460 rods, for the N.E. corner, thence 7 miles and 56 rods to Union river, a due West course, crossing the river and continuing 2 miles, 172 rods, thence South 68 East to Union river, crossing the same, and continuing 176 rods to a stake in Melatiah Jordan's field.”
      In the conveyance from Gregoire to Jackson, or in that from Jackson to Bingham, among the lots “excepted out,” are 100 acres to Mr. Jennison, 100 to James Hopkins, one half of Trenton, and part of No. 8, conveyed to Jean Baptiste De La Roche; Gregoire's farm; a lot at North East Creek, Mt. Desert, lying between lots of Nicholas Thomas and Eliza Higgins; 450 acres intended for the town of Mt. Desert; a lot of Col. Jones, a settler on Great Duck Island, and 8,333 acres of No. 7, granted to the Beverly Cotton Manufactory.
      The islands “lying in front,” granted to Barthelemy DeGregoire, and his wife Maria Theresa De la Motta Cadilace De Gregoire, and which were a part of the Bingham purchase, are Bartlett's island, containing 1,414 acres; Great Cranberry island, 490 acres; Little Cranberry, 73 acres; Sutton's, 74 acres; Bear, 9 acres; Thomas, 64 acres; Green, 44 acres; Great Duck, 182 acres; Little Duck, 59 acres; also, two small islands of 6 acres each. Col. John Black, an English man by birth, who resided at Ellsworth for many years, was the Bingham heirs' agent. Messrs. Hale and Emery now hold that trust. The Bingham lands presented an inviting field for “smugglers,” and the value of timber pilfered there from is immense.