1718 McFadden FAMILY/ Somersett Dig

The Maine Ulster Scots Project, under the leadership and supervision of Pamela Crane, historical archaeologist, with the help and co-operation of the McFadden family, researched, investigated, and documented this "first footprint" homestead of a 1718 Ulster-Scot family at the former Somersett Colony on the westerly shore of Merrymeeting Bay. Andrew McFadden, with his wife Jane Lindsey and family, carved their home from the forest and established themselves in a wood-frame home dug into a knoll upon their arrival in 1718, only to be burned out during the summer raids of Lovewell's War in 1722. Discovering and studying this unique site presented a rare opportunity to examine the transition from an Ulster environment and culture to life in America's "Eastern Frontier." We were pleased to work with a group of dedicated volunteers, several of whom are descendants of those first 1718 Ulster pioneers.

The following pages are reproduced from: “1718-2018, Reflections on 300 years of the Scots Irish in Maine”
printed following the academic conference held at Bowdoin College, Maine in August 2018.
© 2019 Maine Ulster-Scots Project and the Ulster-Scots Agency

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright holder

THE 1718 JOURNEY OF THE ANDREW McFADDEN FAMILY

AND MY PERSONAL JOURNEY

BRADFORD A. McFADDEN

This is a personal reflection about how I came to be part of an archaeological excavation at Somersett on Merrymeeting Bay, Bowdoinham, Maine, and discovered my Ulster-Scot connections to Somersett on the Bann River in Northern Ireland.

I was born and raised in Maine, as were my parents, McFadden grandparents, and great grandparents. My great-grandfather, Nelson McFadden, grew up in Topsham, Maine. As a young boy, he had heard stories about our ancestor, Andrew McFadden, who with his children and wife, Jane, were one of the first families to emigrate from County Londonderry, North of Ireland to settle and build a home on Merrymeeting Bay in the early 1700’s.

The Bay is an unusual confluence of seven rivers in mid-coast Maine that mingle and then flow to the Atlantic Ocean through the mouth of the Kennebec River. It is close to Topsham, Bowdoinham, Brunswick, and Bath. To navigate from the mouth of the Kennebec upriver past Georgetown and Bath and into the Bay is a challenging trip even today. Nelson was fascinated by the story of his ancestors’ emigration to Maine and Merrymeeting Bay. He dreamt about the possibility of owning the land that was once the site of the family’s original homestead.

Throughout his life, Nelson researched his ancestral roots and discovered a legal deposition dictated by my 7th great-grandmother, Jane McFadden, in 1766.(1) From her description of the Bay, he suspected that the original homestead had been situated on the crest of a small hill on a point overlooking the bay. In 1950, when Nelson was 71, he had the opportunity to purchase a 148-acre parcel of land that included the area where the homestead might have been situated.(2) He was thrilled to have the land “back in the family!” He bought the parcel from the Reverend Frank Sanford, a self-proclaimed religious leader and founder of the “Kingdom of Shiloh” in Brunswick. Followers in the Kingdom gave up all their personal possessions to Sanford when they joined, and the story goes that Sanford had been deeded the land by one of his followers, the last member of the Center family; hence, its present-day name of Center’s Point.

When my great-grandfather died in 1972, the land was deeded to my grandfather, Danforth McFadden. He was an avid hunter and built a small two-room hunting camp. The wild rice on the shore of the bay was a great feeding ground for an assortment of ducks and geese as they migrated on the North American flyway. When my brother and I were kids, the Bay was considered the “Chesapeake Bay of the Northeast” for its duck hunting.

We would make our way to the point of land jutting into the bay to dig for arrowheads using spoons from our grandmother’s silverware tray. We imagined that the Indians would have sat under the trees, a perfect vantage point to look up and down the bay while shaping arrowheads. We never found a complete arrowhead, but we collected tons of little flint chips and flakes, remnants left behind when the Indians were shaping the points. We were thrilled to have these “souvenirs” from the Indians, and we kept them in a glass jar on the window sill in camp.

I have spent hours with my children doing the same thing – crouching on our hands and knees, digging with spoons still taken from the camp silverware tray, adding to the collection.

A couple of years ago our family spent an afternoon taking a walk out to the Point. Ambling along the shoreline on our way back, my son looked down at the gravel beach and exclaimed, “No way…!” and he picked up an arrowhead. Although the point had broken off, I couldn’t help but wonder if the arrow had hit a tree? a rock? or even worse, a bone?

When my grandfather died, he bequeathed a portion of the property purchased by my great-grandfather in 1950 to my father, my brother and me. I am very fortunate to be the fourth generation, 7th from Andrew, to now own this beautiful land on the bay.

Andrew and Jane

I am still sorting out my genealogical line, but I believe Andrew McFadden was my 7th great-grandfather. His birth year has been recorded as 1675 in the Scottish Highlands. Some records indicate his birthplace as Inverness. Other sources indicate that the McFadden clan was a sept of the McLean Clan with origins on the Isle of Mull. I have not been able to find out anything about his youth except that he immigrated to Garvagh, County Londonderry, Ireland in 1693 and married Mercy Mallory. They had four sons: William (b. 1695), Thomas (b. 1697), John (b. 1700), and James (b. 1701). Mercy died in1702. In 1704 Andrew married Jane Lindsey, and they had a son, Andrew, in 1715. In June 1718, the family left Londonderry to come to the New World with their Presbyterian minister, James Woodside, aboard the ship MacCallum.

The MacCallum was “warned” away and the passengers were prevented from putting into port in Boston. Perhaps Reverend Woodside had prior knowledge of property being offered by the Pejepscot Proprietors in the Eastern Country (present day New Hampshire and Maine). So rather than settling as others had in Nutfield and Londonderry NH, and other points throughout Massachusetts, the MacCallum continued sailing Downeast to the mouth of the Kennebec River, the northeastern boundary between French and English territories.

On September 8th, after several weeks traveling by water, Andrew and Jane McFadden made their way to their new home. “They found a suitable spot that gave them a clear view of the Bay, and what seemed to be fertile ground.”(3)

Having lived all of my life in Maine, it is mind-boggling to consider how the McFadden’s and their children, unfamiliar with the harsh, long winters of New England, made it through the first winter after arriving in September 1718. What kind of structure did they build to protect themselves from several feet of snow, the prevailing winds off the bay, and dangerous and unfamiliar wildlife including moose, deer, wolves, and black bears? There also were fishers, bobcats, fox, raccoons, skunks, and beavers to fend off. These animals were not only a threat to the humans, but also to any family livestock.

The Deposition

In 1766, there were legal disputes about local land boundaries and Colonel David Dunning deposed several settlers from Ulster who came to the New World at the same time as Andrew McFadden including his wife, Jane; his son, Andrew; and fellow passenger on the MacCallum, John McPhetre. Jane’s deposition in the public record was so descriptive that it gave my Grandfather the impetus to purchase the Center’s Point property almost 200 years later.

In Jane’s deposition of June 19th, 1766, she was about 82 years of age(4), and she stated that: “she and her late husband, Andrew McFadden, removed from the town of Garvo in the County of Derry in Ireland…to Boston, and from Boston to Merrymeeting Bay. [They] … set down on a Point of land laying between the Cathance River and the Abagadusett River, & opposite and a little to the Northward of Brick Island So called, And Said was then called Cathance Point by every Body at that day.”

Jane recalled: “as my husband was a clearing away the Trees to Merrymeeting Bay, he said it was a very pleasant place, and he thought it was like a place called Summersett, on the Ban Water in Ireland, where they lived.”(5)

So, Jane and Andrew gave the name of Sumersett to their new home after the one they left behind.

Thanks to the generosity of new friends in Northern Ireland, I have had the good fortune to travel to the Bann River at Somersett Park near Garvagh. I absolutely could see how Merrymeeting Bay would have reminded them of Ireland, and how they would have felt at home. We have the same types of deciduous and coniferous trees, similar climates with temperatures moderated by bodies of water.

Jane’s deposition also mentioned that, at that time: “…there were no families on the Kennebec north of Arrowsic Island excepting our family and two more that she knew of.”

She continued to say: “There is a large fish in the Kennebec River called sturgeon that jumps ‘plentifully’ in the summer time, and there are a number of vessels which yearly come to catch these fish called Sturgeon.”(6)

On or about August 14, 1722, the Norridgewock Indians attacked the settlements of the Pejepscot Proprietors. These included, but weren’t limited to the Cork Settlement in Dresden, Somersett on Merrymeeting Bay, and Small Point in Phippsburg. Although suffering significant damage, the nearby towns of Topsham and Brunswick survived the attacks.(7)

Andrew and Jane may have been forewarned of the attacks, or because of the location of their home, they would have been able to see smoke and hear gunfire from the Norridgewock’s approach up the Bay. They abandoned their home and fled in their canoe with little more than their children and the clothes on their backs. In Jane’s deposition she also stated that: “as they pulled hard to get to a communal Blockhouse for safety, they watched as the Indians set fire to their Log Cabin.” (8)

Andrew and Jane retreated to Arrowsic Island where they lived the remainder of their lives.

Brad and the Archaeological Dig

In the late summer of 2012, John Mann, a land surveyor from Bowdoin, Maine, contacted me about the possibility of conducting an archaeological dig on the McFadden property on the Bay. An Ulster-Scot himself, he was interested in his own family’s history and that of other families who immigrated to the new world, specifically Maine. He was hoping to make our State more aware of how the Ulster-Scots played a part in and influenced Maine’s history. He, too, had discovered Jane’s deposition. He was already working with Pamela Crane, an archaeologist from Freeport and they were keen to see if they could excavate and examine any remnants of an Ulster-Scot dwelling that dated to the period of 1718 – 1730. I agreed on one condition: I wanted to be an integral part of the dig. The first week of November 2012, Pam and John and I excavated our first square meter unit. We sifted every spoonful of soil, documenting the location of rocks, root, and artifacts including nails, window glass and bits of brick and wood.

On the third day of digging, we uncovered a burnt timber in the unit. The burnt timber provided reasonable proof that this location could be the site of my family’s first home, and that there had been a fire here many years ago. In the spring of 2013, with the help of many interested, dedicated volunteers from the Maine Ulster Scots Project (MUSP) and St. Andrew’s Society of Maine, the Somersett dig began in earnest and continues to this day.

I will leave the technical details and possible conclusions from the archaeological dig to others, but I would like to share some of the artifacts that we found that are of significance to me personally.

After finding dozens of nails and bits of clay pipes, in 2013, I uncovered the most intact clay pipe artifact I had ever found. The bowl was almost complete with a significant portion of the stem. Even though clay pipe pieces were as plentiful as present-day cigarette butts, finding this pipe was really emotional for me – as I held it for a couple of minutes, I couldn’t help but think that possibly Andrew had set this pipe down, or thrown it in the haste of the Indian attack, only to have it picked up by me almost 300 years later.

In 2015, we found six pieces of a cast iron kettle. The kettle is not dissimilar to kettles from the  same time period on display at the Hezlett House which was built in 1690 (National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, Articlave, Co. Londonderry, NI).

We also discovered a large pottery shard in a nearby unit. Digging approximately 10 centimeters (4”) deeper revealed a larger cluster of shards amongst a large area of brick rubble. We found hundreds of pieces and they were cleaned and grouped. My wife and I spent the better part of one winter attempting to piece it back together. It was like putting together a 3D puzzle without a picture to go by. Pam’s research determined that this vessel is a piece of North Devon pottery measuring about 13” high which was glazed inside, probably for storing liquids.

Future Plans

Even when I am not at the site, I am still thinking about Andrew and Jane, their incredible voyage, how they lived, where they died, planning the next season of discovery.

During the winter of 2016, Pam, staunch dig volunteer Judy Lindsey (a relative of Jane’s? Another future research project?), and I spent time at the Georgetown Historical Society and Knox County Registry of Deeds researching where Andrew and Jane might have lived after escaping the Somersett raid. Through our research and talking with historians in Georgetown, we located the foundation of a building known by locals as the “McFadden Farm.” There are existing stone walls containing an orchard with fruit trees, and a small  cemetery containing several McFadden headstones located between the foundation and the shore on Georgetown Island. It is believed that both Andrew and Jane are buried on Arrowsic Island but, unfortunately, the location of their graves is unknown. The McFadden Farm property is now maintained by the Nature Conservancy of Maine, and we are grateful that they have given us written permission to do archaeological test holes at the site in the near future.

I conclude with this aerial view of the point at Somersett on Merrymeeting Bay. This Google Earth image taken at low tide has the appearance of a family tree, rooted across the Bay, down the Kennebec. Since 2012, when I became involved in this archaeological dig, I have truly become a branch of this “tree.” To own a pristine piece of the property where your ancestors built their first homestead in a new world three hundred years ago is an incredible honor. My McFadden family story is personal to me. But, I believe many Ulster-Scot families have a parallel story about overcoming great struggles and adversity to become “evenly distributed” across the Eastern seaboard and the United States – a testament to their strength, courage, and work ethic.

During the weeks that we dig, I look forward to staying in the rustic camp my grandfather built near the site. I still “rough” it with no running water or electricity and in many ways, it doesn’t seem much different than it might have been 300 years ago.

I look forward to accompanying my grandchildren when they grab spoons from the silverware drawer and head to the point to dig for “souvenirs” from the Indians. You can be sure that we will add them to the jar on the windowsill.

Thank you for allowing me to share the story of my family’s and my journey. It has been my pleasure to be a part of this Commemoration of the 1718 Ulster-Scot emigration.

FOOTNOTES

1 Colonel David Dunning deposition of Jane McFadden, 1766, June 16, Andrew McFadden’s Transplant From Garvagh In the County of Derry to Merrymeeting Bay in 1718, Supreme Court Files, Suffolk County, Massachusetts (Vol. 825) p. 71

2 Todd, Margaret, Nelson McFadden Buys Property That His Ancestors Settled 232 Years Ago, The Brunswick Record, November 23, 1950, p. 3 (Courtesy of Brunswick Times Record, Brunswick, ME).

3 Deposition of Jane McFadden, (1766).

4 Deposition of Jane McFadden, (1766).

5 Deposition of Jane McFadden, (1766).

6 Deposition of Jane McFadden, (1766).

7 Wheeler, G. A., History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpwell, Maine Including the Ancient Territory Known as Pejepscot, (1878) pp. 49 – 70.

8 Deposition of Jane McFadden, (1766).

REFERENCES

Supreme Court Files, Suffolk County, Massachusetts (Vol. 825, p. 71), Colonel David Dunning deposition of Jane McFadden, Andrew McFadden’s Transplanting From Garvagh In the County of Derry to Merrymeeting Bay in 1718.

The Brunswick Record, November 23, 1950, feature article about Nelson McFadden’s purchase of Center Point, Bowdoinham, p. 3.

Wheeler, George Augustus and Henry Warren, The History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, Maine, Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son (1878), pp. 49 – 70.

McFadden family photographs and records.

The pages above are reproduced from: “1718-2018, Reflections on 300 years of the Scots- Irish in Maine”
printed following the academic conference held at Bowdoin College, Maine in August 2018.
© 2019 Maine Ulster-Scots Project and the Ulster-Scots Agency

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright holder.

Read more and order the 256 page book at: https://www.maineulsterscots.com/reflections