89-9306 – “Henry Jocelyn”

Posted on September 11, 2022 by Don Taylor

Henry Jocelyn

Henry Jocelyn son of sir Thomas Jocelyn of Kent,Eng. was sent over by ’Capt. Mason to make “a more complete discovery” and examination of bis grant.

He arrived at Piscataqua in the summer of 1634  but did not long remain. Aft the death of Mason, in 1635, he became a member of the new government established by Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Following the death of Capt. Thomas Cammock, in 1663, Jocelyn married his widow, Margaret, and succeeded to the Cammock Patent at Black Point. Upon the departure of Sir Richard Vines for Barbados, in 1665, Jocelyn became Deputy Governor. Later on, 165$, when the jurisdiction of Mass, had extended over the people east of the Saco River, “Our right trusty Henry Jocelyn Esq.” was appointed a commissioner with full power “for the trial of all causes without a jury within the liberties of Scarborough and Falmouth no exceeding the value of £50,” and with Jordan and Shapleigh, Rishworth and Abraham Preble was invested with “magistratical powers throughout the whole county of York.”

The situation of the garrison at the neck, overlooking the bay as well as Blue Point, made it one of the strongest on the coast. During the summer and fall of 1676 disaster followed disaster. Many of the settlers were killed and others were captured, while others were homeless. At this time the Indians killed several people among them was Ambrose Boaden. Henry Jocelyn was in command of the garrison at Black Point and now he was an elderly man and he felt he had seen enough fighting so he agreed to meet the Indian chief Mugg, outside the garrison and talk over peace terms. Mugg told Jocelyn that if he would surrender the garrison he and his friends would be allowed to depart in safety and take their things with them. Jocelyn said he would talk it over with his people and then would tell Mugg what they decided.

Returning to the garrison Jocelyn found, to his great surprise, that all except his own family and servants had taken their belongings and food and put off in boats for Richmond’s Island. Jocelyn surrendered and was kept with his family as captives all that winter. The surrender of this garrison was

—– The apparent next page is missing from the file —–

Although unauthored, this article was likely written by Dorothy Shaw Libby.

Posted in Surname Files | Tagged , , | Comments Off on 89-9306 – “Henry Jocelyn”

History Walk at Pleasant Hill Preserve

Posted on September 10, 2022 by Don Taylor

September 29 @ 4:oo Pm – 5:30 pm

Join SHS past president Rodney Laughton for a history walk at Pleasant Hill Preserve sponsored by the Scarborough Land Trust.

Learn about the general history of the area and what the people who lived on farms in Scarborough would have been doing at this time of year.

Rodney Laughton is a Scarborough native who for over 40 years has collected, studied, and documented Scarborough history. He is the author of two books in the Images of America Series: Scarborough and Scarborough in the Twentieth Century. [Both are available at the museum.]

Registration Required: See the Scarborough Land Trust website for details and to register.

Posted in Temporary | Comments Off on History Walk at Pleasant Hill Preserve

Men of Scarborough – 89-9305

Posted on September 8, 2022 by Don Taylor

Henry Jocelyn, gentleman-this name in our records for a half-century typifies shat English character in its best light. Most of the records of the Province of New Somersetshire are in his hand. Derived of ancient lineage, the fifth surviving son of Sir Thomas Josselyn, Knight, of Willingale Doe, Essex, by his second wife, Theodora, daughter of Edmund Cooke of Lessness Abbey, Erith, and Mount Mascall, Bexley, county of Kent, he got his first degree in 1623 at Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, at about the age of 17. He probably served his time at one of the Inns of Court. Coming over in 1630 as one of the young men in Capt. Walter Nealers party under the Laconia Company,he spent three years on the Piscataqua River, ranking as Capt. Neale’s lieutenant. On their return in 1633, after the breaking up of that company and the separation between Gorges and Mason, he was selected by the latter to come over as his personal agent; but he had not been in charge much over a year when the proprietor sickened and died, leaving the New Hampshire enterprise without support.

By March 1636, Jocelyn had removed to Black Point(Scarborough), where he lived with his friends, the Cammocks, and linked his fortunes to the Gorges’s interests. After removing to Maine, his father, “an ancyent old Knight” came in 1636 to try the country, but soon returned and his brother, John Josselyn the traveler, paid him two visits.^ther kinsmen attracted across were doubtless Francis Neale and probably Peyton Cooke, who both served as recorder or secretary of Lygonia province. Indifference to his own affairs resulted in the loss of his estate (the Cammock patent left to him by Capt.Cammock1s will), but he continued to live on it until King Philip1s War. Left behind among the Indians when Scarborough was abandoned, they would not harm him; long life of kind and liberal dealing had made them his friends. Going in an open boat to the Piscataqua, he was soon selected by the New York government as head of the civil government at Pemaquid, where the remaining years of his old age ‘—– were spent in high respect. He died shortly before 10 May 1683, when news of

—– Sheet 2 —–

his death had reached the Council in New York. His life lends a fragrance to our knowledge of those rough times, but the interests he favored doubtless suffered somewhat from his predominant fair-mindedness and judicial temperament. At one period he was acting as judge both in his own province of Lygonia and in the neighboring province of Maine, continuing the latter service probably longer than he could afford to. In 1657 the court under Mass. ordered “that the foureteene pounds formerly due from the Countrey to Mr. Joelein is now to be paid him.” This must have been for charges incurred many years before. (Page xiii, Vol.I.Maine Province And Court Records, State Lib.)

Posted in Black Point, People, Surname Files | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Men of Scarborough – 89-9305

Alice Jocelyn’s Thimble

Posted on September 5, 2022 by Don Taylor

In 1653 Alice Jocelyn sailed from Richman’s Island in the Fellowship, bound for Boston, as ’twas forecast to fetch her marriage gear.’ On her second day of shopping who should she come face to face with, but her good old friend, Christopher Page, who lived solitary on “Stratton’s Island.” A certain matter, quoth he, had furthered his going to Kittery immediate, and thence to Boston town. Whereupon he related how he did chance upon a lady’s pretty pocket in the wood at Black Point, and on adventuring within, he did espy a thimble of no great size, a little reel of silver, and a flimsy kerchief laced about, and a letter. That letter had he sped to Kittery to deliver into the hands of its owner- Nicholas Shapleigh.

Alice and Nicholas had been in love, and one day after Alice had walked to Black Point ferry with her lover she had found this letter beside the path on the way back to the Jocelyn home. It had been torn but Alice saw the words “The tender tie which binds us,” and thinking that Nicholas had left a faithful English mayde behind in England she broke their engagement. In time she promised to marry her uncle Henry’s (Jocelyn) friend Mr.Edgecombe.

After Alice meet Christopher Page and heard how he found her thimble, kerchief and the letter, which he said was from Nicholas’s mother, Alice realizing her great mistake became very ill. For many weeks she hardly knew her own family, but as time went on she gradually grew stronger and one of her first visitors was young Nicholas.

On Christmas Day 1655, at noontide, Alice and Nicholas were wed. Henry Jocelyn gave the bride away, and Alice wore her Aunt Margaret’s first wedding gown and pearls.

Alice used her thimble, or as it was then often called thumble, for many years, and this story has been told many times.

Posted in Black Point, Stratton's Island, Surname Files | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Alice Jocelyn’s Thimble

Thank You, Again – August Farmer’s Market

Posted on August 30, 2022 by Don Taylor

We thank Karlene Osborne, Joyce Alden, Don Taylor, and Tom Osborne for setting up, tending, and dismantling the displays at the Scarborough Farmer’s Market on the last Sunday of August. We also thank ScarboroughHelps.org for supporting nonprofit organizations and providing the tent, tables, and chairs. Finally, thanks to the many people who stopped by to learn about the Society, purchased items from the store, and became members of the Society.

(Left to right) Don Taylor, Joyce Alden, & Karlene Osborne at the August Farmer’s Market. Photo by Phil von Stade.

Posted in Events | Tagged | Comments Off on Thank You, Again – August Farmer’s Market