Pre 1600: According to a 19th century historian, the local Native American’s name for Cape Elizabeth was ‘Semiamis’. Alewife Cove was home (probably summer only) to Native Americans who harvested and cured the Alewives for winter, and collected sea grass for making baskets, etc. Native American artifacts found on the beach by my husband and I since 2007 (celt, knife, arrowheads, scrapers) were dated by an archaeologist as being 3,500-4,000 years old. Grandfather Alonzo Soule Murray dug the remains of an Indian skeleton between his Alewife Cove Cottage and Alewife Brook when putting in a clothes line, it was donated to the (now defunct) Museum of Natural History in Portland. Grandmother Emma Peabbles Murray sketched a map of the early homes in Peabbles Cove which included an Indian Burial Ground near the bottom of the Peabbles Cove road. I have read that a group of archaeologists did a dig there, but I have not seen the results. Univ. of Maine Archaeologist Nathan Hamilton conducted a dig around the foundations of Grandmother & Grandfather’s Cottage (c1980s?) when the Ready family lived there. He discovered various artifacts, but I have not seen the results. At one time the Shore Acres hill was called Wigwam Hill and there are local reports as late as 1900 of Indians returning to the area each summer to collect seagrass, including to Alewife Brook.
1631, Dec. 1: As early as 1620, King James had granted a charter to what was called the Northern Company. The patentees included, not only the Earls of Arundel and Warwick and other noblemen, but also Sir Ferdinando Gorges and other private gentlemen who were called “The Council established at Plymouth in the County of Devon, for the planting, governing, &c. of New England in America.” Under this patent Robert Trelawny (& Moses Goodyear who died a few years later) obtained a grant of land on Dec. 1, 1631, including Richmond Island and all of Cape Elizabeth. Trelawny never came to Cape Elizabeth but employed, as his local agent, John Winter who was already in the Casco area. Winter established a very profitable trading post from his base on Richmond Island, employing several large ships, some built on the island, to trade as far afield as Spain & Portugal, and eventually Trelawny gave him a 10% share in the profits.
1639: John Winter’s wife and daughter Sarah arrive from England to Richmond Island.
1641: The Rev. Robert Jordan, Episcopalian Church of England minister arrives on Richmond Island as a replacement to the previous minister.
1644: Rev. Jordan marries John Winter’s daughter Sarah. Robert Trelawny dies a religious/political prisoner in England, leaving a young son (approx. 10 yrs. old) as his heir.
1645: John Winter dies. Changing politics/economics had caused a gradual decline in trade on Richmond Island in the preceding years. Rev. Jordan, as John Winter’s executor, made several attempts to communicate with the Executors for Trelawny’s heir, but they did not respond and took no action with regard to the American property, perhaps thinking it held little future value.
1648: Rev. Jordan petitions the court for payment of debts due to John Winter from the Trelawny estate. The Court awards Rev. Robert Jordan all of the Winter / Trelawny Cape Elizabeth estate with the option for the Trewlany executors to pay Rev. Jordan the £609 debt due to John Winter’s heirs, and thereby regain the estate, but they take no immediate action. Trelawny heirs later make claims against Rev. Jordan for the return of the estate in 1676, 1696,1700,1719, & 1758, but all are denied.
1650s: Rev. Robert Jordan & Wife Sarah build a farm near the Spurwink River.
1675, Feb 29: Rev. Robert Jordan and Sarah grant a Deed of Gift to their second son Robert Jr (perhaps as a wedding gift) for ‘Cape Elizabeth’ consisiting of the whole headland, beginning at small stream coming out from the marsh behind Crescent Beach, running back in a straight line to Great Pond, then at a right angle through Great Pond (including a small island) and down to the sea along Alewife Brook to Alewife Cove, total approx. 1,000 acres. Rev. Jordan’s Portsmouth friend and successful merchant, Nathaniel Fryer, is a witness to the deed.
1675-8: King Phillip’s Indian Wars began in the summer and fall of 1675, with skirmishes along the Maine coast. Sometime in the fall of 1675 the Jordan family farm at Spurwink was burned to the ground and the family fled to Great Island (New Castle), Portsmouth; Rev. Robert & Sarah never returned to Spurwink. Their friends Nathaniel Fryer and Robert Elliot (or Eliot) were also living at Great Island during this time. On Oct. 12, 1676 an Indian war party one hundred strong made an assault on the Black Point Garrison of Henry Jocelyn (Robert Elliot is listed as being present), with most everyone fleeing by boat. The war party then proceeded to Richmond’s Island. A vessel was anchored here belonging to Nathaniel Fryer which had been sent, by request of Walter Gendall, to preserve the property on the island. The crew of 11 were unable to get out of the harbor in time and were attacked and taken prisoner. Among them was James Fryer, son of the owner, who later died of his wounds, and Walter Gendall, who became of service to the enemy as interpreter and messenger. The attack at Richmond’s Island was the last in Falmouth during this war; it was said for the want of victims. Mugg, who had led the Indians in the two last attacks, went to Portsmouth on the first of November, carrying James Fryer, and offered to enter into a treaty. The commanding officer there, not being authorized to negotiate, sent him to Boston, where on the 6th of November, articles of pacification were entered into with the government, by Mugg, on behalf of Madockawando and Cheberrina, Sachems of Penobscot. Mugg, as a pledge of his fidelity, consented to remain a hostage until the property and captives were restored. During this war many settlements in Maine north of York & Kittery were destroyed or abandoned, the inhabitants seeking refuge with family and friends in New Hampshire or Massachusetts.
1677, Jan. 25: Rev. Robert Jordan and Sarah grant a Deed of Gift to their first son John (he was married that year, perhaps as a wedding gift) for Richmond Island and 300 acres near Long Sands (Crescent Beach).
1678, Jan. 28: Rev. Robert Jordan makes his will from Great Island N.H., he confirms his earlier deeds to Robert & John and divides the rest amongst his wife and children. Nathaniel Fryer, Nicholas Shapleigh & William Bickham are appointed overseers of the will.
1678, April 12: The Treaty of Casco officially ending King Phillip’s War. Nathaniel Fryer was one of the commissioners, with Nicholas Shapleigh and Francis Champernoon, who were sent to Falmouth to make peace with the Indians.
1679 end June/early July: Rev. Robert Jordan dies at Great Island, Portsmouth N.H. Our family is directly descended from Rev. Robert & Sarah Jordan; on the Peabbles side from their sons Dominicus & Jedediah, on the Murray side from Dominicus & John (with many shared ancestors in between!), but the Alewife Cove property was owned by their son Robert Jr. for the 4 years 1675-9.
1679, July 16: Immediately after his father’s death, Robert Jordan Jr. sells a half share of all his Cape Elizabeth property for £80 to Nathaniel Fryer, the first member of our ancestry to own Alewife Cove. This includes half of ‘Cape Elizabeth’ (including Alewife Cove) his father & mother gave him as a gift in 1675, as well as half of the land and marsh at Spurwink Robert Jr. was about to inherit, which was still to be divided amongst the siblings according to his father’s will. The deed grants Robert Jr.’s brother John Jordan of Richmond Island access to Alewife Cove to harvest Alewives for bait fish.
1690: Second Indian Wars. “Five of the sons of the Rev. Robert Jordan (John, Robert, Dominicus, Jedediah and Jeremiah), were residing at Spurwink in 1690, the date of the ruthless destruction of Falmouth by the Indians; they were obliged to find new homes in a more secure locality, and for eight years the plantation at Spurwink was left deserted. After the peace of 1698, a few of the old settlers straggled back to their cheerless homes, particularly at Purpooduck and Spurwink. The Jordan family again met on their desolate possession, and began the world anew; they were probably among the first who returned.” (from ‘The Jordan Memorial’).
1695, Dec. 18: Deed from Robert Jordan Jr. selling all his remaining interests in Cape Elizabeth (including Alewife Cove) to Robert Elliot of Portsmouth for £230, 19 shillings, 8 pence. Nathaniel Fryer still owns the other half. Little is heard of Robert Jordan Jr. & wife Elizabeth Dole after this time.
Back to the Index
