by Jonathan Tucker

This chapter summarizes much of what is known about the lives of the women who married the Scottish prisoners of war (SPOW) who settled primarily in Scotland District in York, Maine, as well as one who settled in Cape Neddick village in York on the coast, and one who settled close to York Village center on the York River.

Who Married Whom

So far as we can tell, all of the women that former Scottish prisoners married in York came from the families of local English settlers.  None of the York Scots appear to have married any of the Irish bondwomen transported to the New England colonies for the specific purpose of providing mates to Scottish prisoners of war from the battles of Dunbar and Worcester, and to other early settlers.

York was a small coastal harbor settlement populated by English immigrants, most of whom were fishermen and farmers by trade.  Eligible English women were simply there, and our Scots were more likely to meet them on a daily basis.  It is also the case that English fishermen were disproportionately Royalist (loyal to the king and opposed to the Puritan Parliament) in their allegiance, as had been the Scots.

Two pairs of sisters are among the women we will review, and two families—the Pierces and the Smyths—appear to have been particularly close to the Scots.  Like the settlements of Wells and Saco further up the coast, York was out on the frontier.  The rules of caste and social standing that applied in larger port cities like Boston did not survive the dictates of practical necessity that the frontier imposed.

The Women’s Lives

Most of these women would have known one another well.  All but two lived close together in Scotland District, and one of those, living in Cape Neddick, was the younger sister of one of the women living in Scotland District.  It is likely they would have visited one another as often as their lives allowed. 

Six (6) of the women married their Scottish husbands between 1660 and 1667—fairly early in the period of arrival of our Scots in York.  The other six (6) married between 1671 and 1707.  Most of those later marriages were actually second marriages.  Two involved situations where the first Scottish husband had died and the woman then married another Scot.  Two were second marriages between a woman whose first Scottish husband had died and she then married an English settler.   A fifth married a Scot after her first English husband died.  There doesn’t seem to have been a pattern to it.  There was instead a strong component of necessity—economic need, physical security, etc.—that encouraged women in frontier Maine to marry, and the hard-working Scots were there.

These women would have seen one another almost daily—working kitchen and herb gardens or nearby farm fields together, raising children and sharing child care responsibilities, travelling (in groups with their men for safety) the four miles downriver to market in York village center, and meeting many of the same frontier challenges and risks in York as did their husbands.  

Life Amid Violent Conflict

It is important to understand that the risks of frontier life in York for these women was not confined to injury or disease or death in childbirth or the threat of large predators.  As previously noted, in 1675, about a decade after most of these marriages occurred, King Philip’s War began, igniting a series of nearly continuous region-wide conflicts with Native Americans that made life in Scotland District and York in general precarious and dangerous.  In these women’s lives, the periods of open conflict and large scale attacks were King Philip’s War (1675-1677), King William’s War (1689-1697), and Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713).  All of the women whose death dates we know died between 1676 and 1718.

During larger raids and attacks, Abenaki warriors operated in league with French Jesuit priests and soldiers, having become proxies in a larger global conflict between England and France.  But small, random raids were common. Throughout this period, the women of Scotland District lived with the knowledge that displaced Abenaki could appear at any time in numbers or in small raiding parties, and try to kill them or to kidnap them—taking them north to Canada to be held for ransom or to be incorporated into their tribes.  And in between major attacks or raids on York and nearby communities (1675, 1676, 1677, 1689, 1690, 1692, 1694, 1703, 1711, etc.), there were sporadic incursions by raiding parties and attacks on individual settlers travelling within or between communities.

From 1675 on the constant possibility of attack framed the daily lives of these women, essentially for the rest of their lives.  The Scots these women married may have been some reassurance and help in coping with this atmosphere of the constant threat of violence.  They had grown up in a setting of sporadic conflict and war, and many of them had been trained, experienced soldiers before the battles of Dunbar and Worcester.  But the reality of the threat did not go away because the men were used to it, and it defined life in York.

The Women

Here are the women involved:

Dorothy Pierce – Wife of Alexander Machanere (MacNair) and Micum McIntire.

Dorothy Pierce was born in the settlement of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, the younger of two daughters of English fisherman John Pierce and Mary (unknown).  Her parents parted, or mother Mary died.  Soon after moving his family to York, in 1653-54, John Pierce remarried to Phebe Nash and obtained a land grant there.  He fished and farmed.  He interacted with and was supportive of several of the Scots by preferentially selling them property, standing up for them in court, and in other ways.  John Pierce was an ally.

Dorothy Pierce first married Dunbar Scot Alexander Machanere (McNair) between 1662 and 1666.  McNair was ill and lame, probably as a result of experiences associated with the battle of Dunbar and/or his capture, incarceration, and transportation.  Alexander and Dorothy lived on Alexander Maxwell’s property in a house that Maxwell later stated that MacNair had built (presumably with help from his friends and community).

In 1666, Alexander MacNair and Dorothy were charged for not attending church in York Village for a period of 5 weeks, but they were subsequently acquitted by the court on account of MacNair’s lameness and his promise to try harder to attend.

In January 1667, MacNair lodged a complaint against Maxwell (who was known to have a temper) for beating him up and drawing blood.  Both men and other fellow Scots were present at the hearing before the magistrates.  Maxwell admitted to starting the fight and drawing blood.  Both men were fined.

Alexander Machanere died in 1670.  He and Dorothy had no known children. 

Dorothy married Dunbar Scot Micum McIntire in summer 1671.  She and Micum subsequently had three sons together—John, Daniel, and Micum Jr., all of whom survived to adulthood and two of whom (John and Micum Jr.) had children.  On January 23, 1692, Dorothy’s parents John and Phebe Pierce were killed during the Candlemas Massacre.  Dorothy died about 1700, and it is her death that likely prompted Micum to write his will in April 1700.  She is not mentioned in it, so it is assumed that she was gone by that time.

Sarah Smyth – Wife of Robert Junkins.

Sarah Smyth was born in 1645 in Cape Neddick, a northeastern coastal village of York, one of at least two daughters of English settlers John Smith and Joanna Ormsby.  Sarah and Dunbar Scot Robert Junkins were married before 1672.  They had three sons—Joseph, Alexander, and Daniel.

On April 6, 1711, during Queen Anne’s War, Joseph Junkins (age 39) and Daniel Dill Jr. (see Martha Merry) were attacked and scalped by a raiding party in Scotland District while fishing on the York River.  Daniel died at the scene.  Joseph managed to get up after the Native American raiding party had gone and to make his way back to the Junkins Garrison to report the attack.  He died 10 hours later.

Sarah died March 20, 1718, in Scotland District.  The Junkins family’s cradle is preserved in the Old York museum. 

Annis (Agnes) Frost – First wife of Alexander Maxwell.

Annis Frost was born after 1635, the daughter and third child of English settlers John Frost and Rose Cruze, who had married in Brixham, Devonshire, England in 1643.  Her older brothers were John and Philip Frost.

Annis married Dunbar Scot Alexander Maxwell before September 6, 1671, when they sold land together.  Annis’s father John Frost, a fisherman and farmer, was killed together with Scots John Carmichael, Andrew Rankin, and four others on April 7, 1677 by a raiding party of Indians, shortly after King Philip’s War (1675-76).  They were out preparing their fields for spring planting.  John’s estate was divided among his three children, with his sons as administrators, on November 4, 1678, and Annis received a portion.  Annis and Alexander Maxwell had no known children.  Annis died between August 3, 1704 and May 7, 1707.

Sarah Pennewell – Second wife of Alexander Maxwell.

Sarah was born 16(unknown), the daughter of English settlers (unknown).  Her 1707 wedding to Alexander Maxwell was officiated by Captain Preble.  There were no known children.   On June 27, 1707, Sarah and Alexander together sold a property to John McIntire, eldest son of Micum McIntire, on which the Maxwell (now McIntire) Garrison stood.  Alexander’s will dated May 15, 1707 bequeathed his properties to his wife Sarah, and after her death to and Mr. Moody and the church.  Alexander died before October 8, 1707, when his will was probated.  Sarah died after 1707 (unknown).

Martha Meery/Merry – Wife of Andrew Rankin.

Martha was born about 1647 in the coastal settlement of Hampton (now NH), south of Portsmouth.  She was the daughter of English settlers Joseph Merry and Mary (unknown).  Martha married Dunbar Scot Andrew Rankin on December 4, 1667, in York.  They had five children between 1668 and 1677, including a son Joseph who was apprenticed to Reverend Shubael Drummer.

Andrew was killed by a raiding party on April 4, 1677 with a group of six other men while out preparing their fields for spring planting.  The men included fellow Scot John Carmichael (see Anne Pierce), Lewis Bean, John Frost (see Annis Frost), John Palmer, William Roans, and Isaac Smith (visiting from Chelsea, MA). 

After Andrew was killed, Martha remarried to Philip Frost (Annis Frost’s older brother).  They had no children.  Martha died in 1678 in York.

Dorothy Moore – Wife of Daniel Dill (MacDill).

Dorothy was the daughter of English fisherman William Moore and his wife (unknown).  She and Worcester Scot Daniel Dill were married before 1666.  They had five children between 1666 through the 1680s—John, Daniel Jr., William, Joseph, and Elizabeth.  Daniel indentured himself to Dunbar Scot Alexander Maxwell for a time.  He was fined for public intoxication in 1666, the same year he obtained two land grants in York.

In 1678, while drunk, Daniel threatened to kill Dorothy.  Dorothy died before March 17, 1693-94, and was not mentioned in Daniel’s will.  In 1711, their adult son Daniel (age 32) was killed by a small raiding party of five Abenaki while fishing in one of the ponds in Scotland District with Joseph Junkins (see Sarah Smyth). 

Anne Pierce – Wife of John Carmichael and John Bracey

Anne Pierce was the older sister of Dorothy Pierce.  She was likewise born in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1639, the daughter of English fisherman John Pierce and Mary (unknown).  She married Worcester Scot John Carmichael before 1675.  John was killed April 7, 1677 by Indians in the same group with Andrew Rankin.  Micum McIntire administered John’s estate that fall.

Anne remarried to John Bracey, a tailor and a “turbulent” fellow who was frequently in trouble with the law.   John had been born in the New Haven (CT) colony in 1639.  Between 1673 and 1698, he was accused before Puritan authorities of, in order—stealing nails, shooting someone else’s hog, “casting several reflecting speeches on the Reverend Mr. Drummer,” being a “common liar”, and cursing in public.  For that last offense, Bracey spent three hours in the stocks in York Village center.

Anne’s parents John and Phebe Pierce were killed during the 1692 Candlemas Massacre in York, which created a need to probate their estate for the benefit of their daughters Anne and Dorothy.  In April 1697—five years after the 1694 Candlemas Massacre and the deaths of John and Phoebe Pierce, and one year after Anne’s death–Micum McIntire and John Bracey finally reached an agreement to divide the Pierces’ estate evenly.

Anne and John Bracey had one child, William Bracey, born 1678 in York.  Anne died 1696 (age 57) in York.  John Bracey died 1700 in Wethersfield, CT.

Hannah (Unknown) – Wife of James “the Drummer” Grant.

We do not know Hannah’s last name.  She probably married James Grant in the 1660s in Newichawannock (Berwick).   A Dunbar prisoner, James first appeared in Dover, NH obtaining a land grant in 1657—probably while he was still under indenture.  Some sources have James as the elder Grant of several Grants among the prisoners, and the father of two other Dunbar prisoners (James “the Scotchman” Grant and Peter Grant).  Others say that he was related to them but not their father, or that he was a Scottish Grant from Wales and not related at all.  This article will assume a relation.

The likelihood that Hannah and James married in Berwick raises the question of Hannah’s origins, bearing in mind the known presence of Irish bondwomen there.  Hannah can be an Irish first name, as well as English.  “O hAnnaigh” translates as “descendant of Annach” and the Irish certainly also used Biblical first names for girls.  So it is possible that Hannah is an outlier among the English women who married York’s Scots.

Like both of his presumed sons, James had had a wife (Agnes) back in Scotland, and as many as three adult children, two of whom (ostensibly James and Peter) had been captured with him at Dunbar.  James and Hannah owned land together in Scotland District, and they had one son (another James).  James died in 1693.  Hannah died (unknown).

Joan/Joanna Ingersoll – Wife of James “the Scotchman” Grant.

Some sources have Joanna born March 7, 1644, in Salem, MA, the daughter of English settlers George Ingersoll and Joana Lunt of Salem, MA.

Dunbar James Grant Jr. (“the Scotchman”) was Joanna’s first husband.  They may have met in the Salem, MA area, because James worked at the nearby Lynn (Saugus) iron works.  James and his brother Peter were among the founders of the Scots Charitable Society in Boston, which operates to this day.

Joanna and James married about 1660-62 in York or Upper Kittery.  In 1661, James Jr. and his brother Peter were indicted (“presented”) at court for not returning to their wives in Scotland.  That court appearance notwithstanding, neither of them went home to Scotland.

James, Joanna, and Peter shared a household.  James and Joanna had one daughter, Elizabeth.

James died in late 1663.  Joanna, pregnant with Elizabeth, continued to live in the same home in York with James’ brother Peter.  In July 1664, they were taken to court for living together without benefit of marriage.  Joanna claimed that the child was that of her former husband James.  Peter said the child was not his, but promised to care for it.  The Puritan court was still concerned that he was living with Joanna in an unmarried state while married to a woman in Scotland.   Peter paid a fine of 10 pounds (as an alternative to 10 lashes).

Dunbar Scot Peter Grant was Joanna’s second husband.  Under pressure from the court, Joanna and Peter married four months later on November 28, 1664 in Upper Kittery, where they resided thereafter.  After six years (about 1700), word came from Scotland that Peter’s wife there had died.  Joanna and Peter subsequently had seven children, who are all named in his will.  Both Joanna died in April 3, 1712, in Berwick, age 68.  Peter died there on October 30, 1718, age 84.

James’ daughter Elizabeth Grant was not named in Peter’s will.  She lived until her majority with others in the community, and later married William Earl, Sr. of Upper Kittery (Berwick).  Interestingly, fellow Scot Niven Agnew, who died childless, bequeathed funds from his estate to Elizabeth and a daughter of John Taylor (Taylor and Peter Grant were Agnew’s next door neighbors).

Elizabeth Smyth – Wife of James Jackson.

Elizabeth Smyth was born 1647, another daughter of John Smyth and Joanna Ormsby of Cape Neddick, York, Maine, and younger sister to Sarah Smyth, wife of Robert Junkins.  Elizabeth and Dunbar Scot James Jackson were married by October 10, 1666.  They had three children, only one of whom, a daughter Elizabeth, survived to adulthood.  Elizabeth and James resided in Cape Neddick, where in 1667 he had a land grant of 28 acres next to land of his father-in-law John Smyth.

James died before October 25, 1676, when his estate was probated.  It is probable that James was killed a few weeks prior during a September 25, 1676 Abenaki raid that burned “Cape Nettick” and killed several settlers.  It is likely that Elizabeth and both of their younger children (one was six years old, the other an infant) were killed in the same attack—they are all noted as having died in 1676.  The known toll of settlers killed during that attack was “6 or 7 persons.”

Joanna Dowham – Wife of Daniel Livingstone

Joanna Dowham was born 1636 in Braintree, MA of English settlers John Dow(n)ham and Dorothy (unknown).  Joanna was the oldest of five children.   She first married English settler John Pray on May 7, 1657 in Braintree, MA.  John and his father Quenton Pray were specialized iron works subcontractors–foundrymen—at the iron works in Braintree (not Sauugus).  The family was given to “rumbustiousness” and was frequently in trouble with the Puritan authorities for fighting, marital troubles, selling liquor to the local Indians, and so forth.  John died youngish (age 39) on October 31, 1676 in Braintree, MA.  John and Joanna had ten children, of which six survived to adulthood.

Joanna subsequently met and married Dunbar Scot Daniel Livingstone in Braintree, and they later moved to York, along with her three youngest children by John Pray.  While in Braintree, Joanna continued the family tradition and was convicted in Suffolk County Court of “striking and abusing” Daniel.  In 1683, she was acquitted of a charge of selling liquor to the Indians.

Daniel Livingstone was literate—he legibly signed his full name to official documents, whereas many of the other Scots and their wives simply made a mark or symbol next to where the clerk had printed their name.

On August 20, 1694—Two years and six months after the Candlemas Massacre, during King William’s War—Daniel Livingstone “and a boy” (possibly one of Joanna’s sons—all three of her youngest with John Pray were boys) were killed by a small raiding party in Scotland District near the Maxwell (now McIntire) Garrison, where Daniel was living with Joanna and her children.  Joanna and her children subsequently moved south to Kittery.  Joanna died September 1699 in York.

Joanna Freathy – Wife of Thomas Holmes

Joanna Freathy was born in 1648-49 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to English fisherman William Freathy/Treathy and Elizabeth Barker.   It was her brother Sam Freathy who came out worse in a drunken brawl with Micum McIntire.  Joanna married Dunbar Scot Thomas Holmes about 1671 in Kittery, ME (probably Berwick).  They had three children—Mary, Thomas, and John, all born in the 1670s.

Thomas’s indenture had been purchased by York millwright Henry Sayward, and Thomas worked it off at Sayward’s mills in York and Berwick.  Thomas was one of the few who did not live in Scotland District.  His father-in-law William gave him a lot next door to his own near the north bank of the river close to York Village.  (It was next to where the 19^thcentury Norton and Leavitt brickyard was later established.)  In the 1670s, Thomas and Joanna moved to Berwick, where Thomas managed a sawmill at Quamphegan (the site of the old Newichawannock settlement of sagamore Rowle and his people).

Joanna died January 16, 1690 in Berwick (age 42-43).  Two months later, on March 18, 1690, there was a large, organized attack on Berwick by 150 Abenaki warriors aided by French officers.  In his home next to the mill in Quamphegan, Thomas saw about 30 warriors assembling and took shelter with several others in a small garrison that had been built near the mill.  A rescue party of nine militia sent from South Berwick was driven back by the Abenaki, and several of the militia were forced to join Thomas and the others in the garrison.  Thomas survived the attack but died the next year on January 16, 1691.

The Cost of War

Here is the toll of conflicts with Native Americans in these women’s lives:

Dorothy Pierce/McIntire – Father John Pierce and stepmother Phebe Nash killed Jan. 23, 1692.

Sarah Smyth/Junkins – Son Robert Junkins killed 1711.

Annis Frost/Maxwell – Father John Frost killed April 7, 1677.

Sarah Pennewell/Maxwell – No loss known.

Martha Merry/Rankin – Husband Andrew Rankin killed April 7, 1677.

Dorothy Moore/Dill – Son Daniel killed 1711.

Anne Pierce/Carmichael – Husband John Carmichael killed April 7, 1677.

Hannah (unknown)/Grant – No loss known.

Joanna Ingersoll/Grant – No loss known.

Elizabeth Smyth/Jackson – Elizabeth along with her husband James Jackson and two young children were killed Sept. 26, 1676.

Joanna Dowham/Livingstone – Husband Daniel Livingstone and one son (unknown) killed, Aug. 20, 1694.    

Joanna Freathy/Holmes – No loss known.

Of the twelve (12) women we have identified as spouses of Scottish prisoners of war who settled in Scotland District or elsewhere in York, eight (8)—or three quarters of all of them—lost husbands, children, parents, or siblings to Native American raids.

And yet, except for Elizabeth Smyth/Jackson, they endured, and those who had children saw most of them survive to adulthood.  And here we all are.  We need to acknowledge our debt to these women, and to the McIntire women who followed them.