Henry Watts

     Henry Watts was baptized on 28 June 1602 in Cockfield, Durham, England.¹ He was the son of Ralph Watt and Jane (—?—) (Watt).¹ He married Cecily (—?—) Barlow widow of George Barlow after 1653.²
     
     Henry Watts was mentioned in his father Ralph Watt's will dated 19 March 1614 in Cockfield, Durham.³

     Henry Watts was fourteen years old when his father died, and he may then have gone with his oldest brother George to London, where on 5 October 1618, "Henrye Watts sonne of Raff Watts late of Cockfield in the Countie of Yorks [sic] yeoman deceased" was "putt apprentice to Wm. Haylock for VII years from all Saints 1618." Mr. Haylock was a member of the Fishmongers Company, and on 12 December 1625, to that Company "Henrie Watts late apprentice of Wm. Haylock clayminge his freedome by service is admitted and sworne accordingly."⁴ In a subsidy roll of the London Livery Companies, taken in 1641, "In New England" is noted against his name.

     It is highly probable that Watts decided to emigrate through the influence of Edward Hilton, a fellow Fishmonger, and that both of them accompanied Mr. Thomas Lewis when he came over to take possession of the patent at Saco which had been granted him 12 February 1629/30, in London. They arrived at Saco by 29 June 1631, when Hilton delivered seisin to Mr. Lewis, Henry Watts being one of the four witnesses. Temporarily he remained with the Saco River planters, a late Saco record (1660) showing that he had land on the west bank of the river, next to John West's, in Mr. Vines' patent, but doubtless he explored the neighboring coastline in search of a permanent location."⁵

     In 1636 Mr. Watts, as he is consistently called in the records, and Mr. Richard Foxwell decided to settle on the high land at Blue Point sloping down to the marshes and streams which lie to the west of Black Point, and about a mile from the sea, in the present town of Scarborough. Mr. Lewis and Capt. Bonython, believing Blue Point to be within their Saco patent, gave him a deed covering fifty acres of upland and ten acres of marsh, on an annual ground rental of nine pence and two days' work, on 25 March 1636."⁶ Although their nearest neighbors were Capt. Cammock and Mr. Jocelyn across the marshes, the two men kept up a Saco connection, Watts paying a Saco minister's rate of £1 in 1636.

     Watts, although he denied that he had given George Cleeve authority to sign his name to the petition which Cleeve prepared for Parliament when he was in England reviving the Plough patent to Lygonia with Col. Rigby in 1643-1644, seems nevertheless to have adhered to Cleeve when he returned to Maine as Deputy President of that patent. Rev. Thomas Jenner, a Puritan minister at Saco, whose letters to Gov. Winthrop read like intelligence reports from a hostile land, wrote on 28 March 1645, "they (the Gorges government) sent 4 or 5 armed men & fetched before them Mr. Henrie Wats & bound him with his surety to make his appearance here at their Court at Saco, the 25 of the 1 m., the which he did, and produced your worship's letter for his excuse: notwithstanding they either would force him to submit to their government, or pay a fine, who rather than he would pay his fine, submitted for the present but is forthwith departing the province."⁷

     His Blue Point land having been proved to be outside of the eastern boundary of the Saco patent, he took from Cleeve, as agent for Col. Rigby, a deed covering one hundred acres adjoining his house "which he hath built for fifteen years past," in July 1648, at a ground rent of 2s. 6d. a year. On the following September 30, he bought from Cleeve, as agent, a neck of land at Black Point containing 500 acres, commonly called Cook's Point, at a rental of one farthing an acre to be paid at the feast of St. Michael the Archangel each year.⁸

     On 21 October 1645, not long after his difficulties with the Gorges government, he had a bad day in court, being fined for swearing several oaths, for swearing again, for breach of the Sabbath, for contempt of authority and for taking goods under execution away from the marshal, the fines amounting to 70 s., of which 30 s. was abated upon his petition to the court. The local church found him indifferent and he was presented for not going to meeting in court after court. With Rev. Robert Jordan, who maintained the English form of worship at Spurwink, he had serious differences in 1665. On 4 July 1659, he was in trouble for abuse and contempt toward "the Honoured Governor" (John Endicott) in saying he thanked him for his letter of advice and "I have seen him do this," while making a sign with his hand. So much for free speech in early Maine! On the civil side he had several suits with Mr. Foxwell in 1645, 1659 and 1675, sued William Gibbins and John Lander and was sued by Thomas Sanders in 1640.⁹ In Foxwell v. Alger, in 1669, he made a deposition stating his age to be sixty-seven.

     While not a consistent office-holder, Watts gave some service to the public beside the usual jury and appraisal duties. When Rev. Robert Jordan took his first step before the Lygonia government to obtain the Trelawney patent for himself, in 1648, Mr. Cleeve, Mr. William Royal, Mr. Foxwell and Mr. Watts, all members of the Assembly, constituted the committee to which the matter was referred, and Watts was one of those who appraised the property at Richmond Island and Spurwink.¹⁰ He submitted to Massachusetts at Mr. Jordan's house on 13 July 1658, and during the Bay ascendency he was a Commissioner (to try cases without a jury wherein small amounts were involved) for Scarborough from 1658 to 1664, when he was chosen but disallowed. He was constable in 1659 and town clerk in 1660. In 1664, when the Province of Maine was taken from Massachusetts and returned to the Gorges regime by the decision of the restored Stuart government, Ferdinando Gorges granted a commission to rule the province as his deputies to his brother-in-law, John Archdale, and twelve "loving friends—Gentlemen all Inhabitants & Residents within the said Province," of whom Henry Watts of "Blew Point" was one, but apparently he, Mr. Frances Neale of Casco Bay and Mr. Purchase of Pejepscot refused the honor.¹¹

     The early wife whom Henry Watts most probably had was completely successful in avoiding the records. Some time after 1653 he was married to Cecily Barlow, widow of George Barlow, a quarrelsome and unordained preacher who had fled from Massachusetts disapproval to Maine. The marriage was not happy and by 1665 they separated, Watts charging Rev. Robert Jordan with influencing his wife and keeping her from him, and declaring in court that "such men as Jordan do much mischief, as I conceive," a statement with which later commentators have been willing to agree. Soon afterward his sister, Mrs. Dixon, accompanied by her daughter, son-in-law, grandchildren and possibly county Durham neighbors, came to Scarborough to keep his house and provide him with heirs. With Cecily Barlow he gained her former husband's Dunstan farm of two hundred and thirty acres, which he sold to Robert Nicholson 20 May 1670.¹²

     Having attained the age of seventy in 1672, Watts began to think about settling his affairs. Describing himself as of "Black Point alias Scarborough, in the village we call Cockell," Henry Watts conveyed on 10 April 1673, to Ralph Allison one-half of the Cook's Point plantation and half of the mill which they maintaind at equal cost, and, "if the said Watts & the said Allison should part, then the said Watts doth reserve to himself the land that was formerly in tillage, & when Watts shall die the said Allison is to have the whole plantation to himself and his heirs forever." The deed was witnessed by Anne Dixon and her grandson, Matthew Allison.¹³ The fate of Scarborough during King Philip's war resulted in Mr. Watt's retirement to Portsmouth, where, calling himself a fishmonger, he deeded his first plantation, that at Blue Point, to Nathan Bedford on 26 June 1680.¹⁴

     He survived Ralph Allison, whom he had expected to leave as his heir, and probably his siter Mrs. Dixon and his niece Mrs. Allison as well. His nearest relatives in New England were the two Allison girls, his grandnieces Jane and Anne, and to Andrew Brown, the husband of Anne Allison, he deeded the Cook's Point plantation on 12 November 1687, for life support, being then eighty-five years old.¹⁵ In 1697 his nephew Thomas Bowes came over from England to take administration on his estate.¹⁶