by Jonathan Tucker

This is the third in a series of articles about MacIntyres in general and the life of Micum McIntire in particular. This article and the next (fourth article) will cover Micum’s life in the colonies. [This article revised October 3, 2018. Revisions in brackets.]

The most definitive and comprehensive current source for information on MacIntyres in general is the newly-published book, “Clan MacIntyre: A Journey Into the Past,” Martin L. MacIntyre, Regent Press, Berkeley, CA, 2018, second edition. Copies may be purchased by contacting Martin at martin.macintyre@juno.com. 

The definitive geneaology is “Descendants of Micum McIntire,” Robert Harry McIntire, revised edition, 1983, Bookcrafters, Chelsea, MI. Used copies can still be obtained from time to time through online booksellers. Those interested in new copies should contact Dan Davis, 1 Stanley Avenue, Kingfield, ME, 04947 (snailmail only). There is an earlier version published in 1940—it is less complete but still useful.

HOW DID MICUM McINTIRE GET TO YORK, MAINE?

We know the outlines of how this story began—how Micum and his brothers Philip and Robert MacIntyre were captured by Cromwell’s forces at the Battle of Dunbar on September 3, 1650. How the Dunbar prisoners were marched down into England and imprisoned in the abandoned Durham cathedral. How thousands of the Scottish prisoners died from malnourishment, disease, and violence along the march and in the cathedral. We know that the three MacIntyre brothers were among the 150 Scots in the cathedral who were selected as still relatively healthy and marched back north to Newcastle, where they were put on a ship and sent down to London to wait on the Thames. We know that in November 11, 1650, Augustine Walker set sail with those men in the hold of his ship the Unity, and that they endured a crossing of the North Atlantic as winter came on. We know that [on December 21, 1650, after an unusually quick crossing], the Unity docked in Boston [–probably in Charlestown, where Augustine Walker usually docked–] and the prisoners were brought “stinking and blinking” out of the hold and up into the pale winter sun.

Okay, the three MacIntyres have survived to reach the New World. They’re standing there on the docks. Then what happened? We have some answers and are forced to conjecture across known points of history to construct the rest of the story.

It’s likely that for a few days after their arrival, the prisoners were cleaned up, fed, and probably given new clothes. [The snows were heavy that year, so transactions and transport of the former prisoners took some time.] Many of the Dunbar prisoners’ indentures were sold almost immediately. Sixty-two (62) had been pre-selected to work at Hammersmith, the iron works at Lynn (now Saugus, MA). [Thirty-six (36) were sent to the iron works itself, 17 to the warehouse in Boston, and 9 others were distributed among iron works officials and contractors.] Between 15 and 25 prisoners were selected to go north with engineer Richard Leader We know that the indentures of other prisoners were sold to merchants and farmers who lived near Hammersmith and they would be involved in activities that supported and profited from the large iron works operation. Other prisoners were sold to any interested party.

The Scots bound for Hammersmith and its surrounding communities were sent north from Boston by boat. On that short trip by water (about 10-12 miles), one of Scots prisoners–a man named Davidson who had been a schoolteacher back in Scotland–died aboard ship. The boat turned west into the mouth of the Saugus River and passed upstream until it reached the site of the iron works. The first shipment of food for the Scots working at Hammersmith arrived in April 1651, so that’s probably close to the time when they arrived[, delayed by heavy snows].

Robert – We assume that Robert McIntire was one of the men on that boat (and Philip might have been on board, too). Robert’s indenture was first [“hired out” to] Thomas Wiggins—a “furnace filler” (provider of charcoal)—located near the iron works. We know that Robert carted coals (charcoal) there and loaded pig iron onto the company boat. We know that he was still living as of November 24, 1653, when, at age 24, he testified at a trial involving a lawsuit about the iron works. We lose track of him after that. He may have died there—some of the Hammersmith Scots did.

Philip – We suspect–but cannot yet prove—that Philip McIntire was also one of the ‘outside indenture’ men. There is no record that he ever labored at the iron works itself. He probably worked for a merchant or farmer who operated nearby. He settled in Reading, MA nearby after his indenture was completed. He has many descendants.

Great Works – Another project undertaken by Puritan entrepreneurs using the labor of indentured Scottish prisoners of war, was the Great Works mill complex. Located up near the northern edge of the frontier in what is now South Berwick, Maine, it was intended to construct a water-powered grist mill and sawmills to generate lumber for colonial construction and English consumption. The project was led by Richard Leader, an engineer who had been involved in the iron works early on.

Departing from Boston, Leader’s boat took 15 to 25 of the Dunbar Scots about 75 nautical miles north to the mouth of the Piscataqua River (where Portsmouth, NH is now located). The boat entered the river and went west upriver to the confluence of the Piscataqua and its tributary the Newichawannock River (named by and for the resident Algonkian-speaking Native Americans, and now called the Salmon Falls River). They traveled north up the tributary to a fortified trading post that was first called Newichawannock, [Quamphegan,] and then the Parish of Unity (the area around the mills where the Scots lived), then interchangeably Salmon Falls and Kittery North Parish, and now South Berwick, Maine. Under Leader’s direction, the Scots built and operated the Great Works mills on the Asbenbedick River (a smaller tributary) and the Salmon Falls mills on the main river.

Micum – Okay, that’s the setting, but where’s Micum? Back in Boston, Micum’s indenture and that of six other Dunbar Scots was purchased by frontier entrepreneur Valentine Hill. Hill was involved with the settlement of the town of Dover, which included the villages of Oyster River and Cocheco, along the corresponding rivers in what is now New Hampshire. Among Hill’s projects was a complex of two mills—a grist mill and a sawmill—set on either side of a dam just upstream of the end of the tidal reach of the Oyster River (Durham, NH). Hill also owned land in the Cocheco settlement (Dover, NH) about 5 miles north of Oyster River where he logged and operated mills on the Cocheco River.

We don’t have a record of exactly when Micum and the other Dunbar Scots arrived in Oyster River. For this reason, some earlier historians asserted that Micum spent time at the Hammersmith iron works, too, but no evidence has been found to support that contention. Micum and the six other Dunbar Scots whose labor Valentine Hill had purchased may even have travelled north on the same boat with Richard Leader’s Scots. Once on the Piscataqua River, the boat would have turned to the west across the inner Great Bay to the tributary Oyster River and then upstream, dropping off Hill’s men at the end of the tidal reach before returning downstream and turning north up the Newichawannock River toward South Berwick.

Oyster River (Durham, NH) & Cocheco (Dover, NH) – When Micum set foot on shore at the Oyster River settlement, he arrived at his first ‘home’ in the New World. The Dunbar Scots with him likely included Henry Brown, Thomas Doughty, Robert Junkins, James Orr, and others. Over time, Valentine Hill purchased the indentures of other Dunbar Scots for his projects in Oyster River and Cocheco, including but not limited to Niven Agnew, Peter Grant, and William Furbish. About a year later, a second group of Scottish prisoners captured at the Battle of Worcester arrived in New England and their indentures were similarly parceled out. Some were purchased by Valentine Hill, and those men, including John Carmichael, joined Micum and the Dunbar Scots at Oyster River.

The work felling, hauling, and milling lumber was hard, but it was not otherwise a difficult life because Valentine Hill was a fair employer. The Scots only worked four days out of seven. Sundays were reserved for compulsory attendance at Puritan church services, which could involve up to four hours of sermonizing. The Scots could keep any money they earned. In October 1652, Hill was granted four acres south of the millpond on which 3-4 cabins were built to help house his indentured Scots. They could plant and tend their own gardens. They could begin to plan for their own futures.

The millpond and a new dam still exist in Durham, NH, as does Valentine Hill’s home. Located downstream of the dam on the north side of the river, it is currently operated as the Three Chimneys Inn.

Micum stayed in Oyster River working for Valentine Hill for his full seven year indenture, which ended in 1658-59. Others bought out their indentures early, but Micum may have wanted to accumulate as much money as he could for starting a new life. After his indenture ended, Micum travelled north.

In November 1659, Micum, John Barber, William Furbish (Forbes), and Niven Agnew were taxed at Dover village (the Cocheco plantation). Valentine Hill owned timber land and mills in Dover, and he was involved in the community’s governance and a captain of its militia. In 1658-59, Micum and other Scots, of whom several were now free (and so taxable), were probably still working for Hill at his mills in Dover on the Cocheco River. 

Salmon Falls (South Berwick, Maine) – By 1662, however, Micum had moved east to Salmon Falls and was working at the Great Works or Salmon Falls mills, among the small community (Parish of Unity) of other former Dunbar and Worcester prisoners there. They included William Furbish, Alexander Maxwell, and others.

On December 11, 1662, Micum obtained his first land grant of record at Salmon Falls. At the time, it was the furthest property north of the village center. [It was described as being “thirty rods in breadth by the riverside (Salmon Falls River) and extended into the wood two hundred and sixty-seven rods.” It was bounded on the north by several marked trees.] [Micum] never lived on the property. Instead, he allowed fellow Dunbar prisoner John Reed to live there, and kept the land as an investment. It was part of Micum’s estate when he died, and was inherited by his middle son Daniel, who never married. [Daniel sold the lot to Philip Hubbard in 1706.]

If you travel north out of South Berwick on Rte. 236, Micum’s land grant was located on the left (west) side of the road just before you reach the intersection with New Dam Road. Micum’s grant ran south from the original road down to the river’s edge. It is currently a farm.

York, Maine – As the 1660s progressed, the former Scottish prisoners completed their indentures, and having accumulated some resources, were finding places to obtain land grants and settle. A number of them, including Robert Junkins, Alexander Maxwell (who had been at Great Works), John Carmichael (a Worcester prisoner), Andrew Rankin, Alexander Machanere (MacNair)—a distant cousin of Micum’s—and others obtained land grants in nearby York, Maine, along the upper reaches of the York River. In 1668, Micum followed them and obtained his first land grant in York on the south side of the river near the properties of his fellow Scots. It soon came to be known, then and now, as the Scotland Parish of York. It had been 18 years since Micum and his brothers had left Scotland in chains as prisoners.

On June 22, 1670, Micum purchased 42 acres of “upland and meadow land” (‘meadow” meaning tidal marsh land capable of growing salt marsh hay—preferred for livestock) on the north side of the York River and built a house there. Micum bought the land from early English settler John Pierce, a fisherman who was friendly with the Scots. It was right next to land owned by Alexander Maxwell. From this property, Micum had access to the uplands and the river, and could travel by boat downriver to York Village and fish or trade as needed. With help from friends, he acquired other land grants as the years passed.

In late summer 1671, Micum married Alexander Mackanere’s widow, Dorothy Pierce. Alexander Machanere had built the cabin in which he and Dorothy lived on land owned by Alexander Maxwell. On September 4, 1671, Maxwell deeded the land to “Michum Mackintire . . . upland whereon the said MacKentyre’s house now standeth, formerly built by his predecessor, Alexander Mackanere, whose relict or Widow hee [Micum] since married.” A handsome wedding present.

Through wars and dislocation, Micum had found a home of his own. As we will see, Micum made a home, a family, and a life in York.