Robert Leslie Pike Salisbury Massachusetts Modern Apollo Belvidere

  Robert Lee Pike (1905-1994) son of Winifred Leslie Pike and Sarah Eliza James; his line is Charles Mace Pike, True Pike JR, True Pike SR., Moses Pike JR, Moses Pike SR, Captain Elias Pike, Robert Pike JR, Major Robert Pike, and John Pike.

The Women of Dover John Greenleaf Whittier

Photo From "History of Salisbury" Complied by Carolyn Sargent the 1976 re-enactment

Robert Pike (1616-1706)

                                                  
The following is a copy of the warrant issued by Major Waldron of Dover in 1662 The Quakers as was their wont prophesied against him and saw as they supposed the fulfillment of their prophesy when many years after he was killed by the Indians To the constables of Denier Hampton Salisbury Newbury Rowley Ipswich Wenham Lynn Roxbury Dedham and until these vagabond Quakers are carried out of this jurisdiction

You and every one of you are required in the King's Majesty's name to take these vagabond Quakers Anne Colman Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose and make them fast to the cart's tail and driving the cart through your several towns to whip them upon their naked backs not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each of them in each town and so to convey them from constable to constable till they are out of this jurisdiction as you will answer it at your peril and this shall be your warrant Richard Waldron          Dated at Dover December 22d 1662.

This warrant was executed only in Dover and Hampton At Salisbury the constable refused to obey it He was sustained by the town's people who were under the influence of Major Robert Pike (picture above) the leading man in the lower valley of the Merrimac who stood far in advance of his time as an advocate of religious freedom and an opponent of ecclesiastical authority He had the moral courage to address an able and manly letter to the court at Salem remonstrating against the witchcraft trial.
See  Genealogy Magazine Lydia Perkins Wardwell 

Poem by John Greenleaf Whittier 

The tossing spray of Cocheco's fall
Hardened to ice on its rocky wall,
As through Dover town in the chill, gray dawn,
Three women passed, at the cart-tail drawn!
Bared to the waist, for the north wind's grip
And keener sting of the constable's whip,
The blood that followed each hissing blow
Froze as it sprinkled the winter snow.
Priest and ruler, boy and maid
Followed the dismal cavalcade;
And from door and window, open thrown,
Looked and wondered gaffer and crone.
"God is our witness," the victims cried,
"We suffer for Him who for all men died;
The wrong ye do has been done before,
We bear the stripes that the Master bore !
"And thou, O Richard Waldron, for whom
We hear the feet of a coming doom,
On thy cruel heart and thy hand of wrong
Vengeance is sure, though it tarry long.
"In the light of the Lord, a flame we see
Climb and kindle a proud roof-tree;
And beneath it an old man lying dead,
With stains of blood on his hoary head."
"Smite, Goodman Hate - Evil!-harder still!"
The magistrate cried, "lay on with a will !
Drive out of their bodies the Father of Lies,
Who through them preaches and prophesies!"
So into the forest they held their way,
By winding river and frost-rimmed bay,
Over wind-swept hills that felt the beat
Of the winter sea at their icy feet.
The Indian hunter, searching his traps,
Peered stealthily through the forest gaps;
And the outlying settler shook his head,
"They're witches going to jail," he said.
At last a meeting-house came in view;
A blast on his horn the constable blew;
And the boys of Hampton cried up and down
"The Quakers have come !" to the wondering town.
From barn and woodpile the goodman came;
The goodwife quitted her quilting frame,
With her child at her breast ; and, hobbling slow,
The grandam followed to see the show.
Once more the torturing whip was swung,
Once more keen lashes the bare flesh stung.
"Oh, spare ! they are bleeding !" a little maid cried,
And covered her face the sight to hide.
A murmur ran round the crowd : "Good folks,"
Quoth the constable, busy counting the strokes,
"No pity to wretches like these is due,
They have beaten the gospel black and blue!"
Then a pallid woman, in wild-eyed fear,
With her wooden noggin of milk drew near.
"Drink, poor hearts !" a rude hand smote
Her draught away from a parching throat.
"Take heed," one whispered, "they'll take your cow
For fines, as they took your horse and plough,
And the bed from under you." "Even so,"
She said ;"they are cruel as death, I know."
Then on they passed, in the waning day,
Through Seabrook woods, a weariful way;
By great salt meadows and sand-hills bare,
And glimpses of blue sea here and there.
By the meeting-house in Salisbury town,
The sufferers stood, in the red sundown
Bare for the lash ! O pitying Night,
Drop swift thy curtain and hide the sight !
With shame in his eye and wrath on his lip
The Salisbury constable dropped his whip.
"This warrant means murder foul and red;
Cursed is he who serves it," he said.
"Show me the order, and meanwhile strike
A blow to your peril !" said Justice Pike.
Of all the rulers the land possessed,
Wisest and boldest was he and best.
He scoffed at witchcraft ; the priest he met
As man meets man ; his feet he set
Beyond his dark age, standing upright,
Soul-free, with his face to the morning light.
He read the warrant : "These convey
From our precincts ; at every town on the way
Give each ten lashes." "God judge the brute!
I tread his order under my foot!
"Cut loose these poor ones and let them go;
Come what will of it, all men shall know
No warrant is good, though backed by the Crown,
For whipping women in Salisbury town!"
The hearts of the villagers, half released
From creed of terror and rule of priest,
By a primal instinct owned the right
Of human pity in law's despite.
For ruth and chivalry only slept,
His Saxon manhood the yeoman kept;
Quicker or slower, the same blood ran
In the Cavalier and the Puritan.
The Quakers sank on their knees in praise
And thanks. A last, low sunset blaze
Flashed out from under a cloud, and shed
A golden glory on each bowed head.
The tale is one of an evil time,
When souls were fettered and thought was crime,
And heresy's whisper above its breath
Meant shameful scouring and bonds and death!
What marvel, that hunted and sorely tried,
Even woman rebuked and prophesied,
And soft words rarely answered back
The grim persuasion of whip and rack!
If her cry from the whipping-post and jail
Pierced sharp as the Kenite's driven nail,
O woman, at ease in these happier days,
Forbear to judge of thy sister's ways!
How much thy beautiful life may owe
To her faith and courage thou canst not know,
Nor how from the paths of thy calm retreat
She smoothed the thorns with her bleeding feet.

A letter from Robert Pike to Judge Curwin Salem Witch Trials 1692

In 1892 John Nurse, a descendant of Rebecca Nurse who was executed for witchcraft in the Salem Witch Hysteria 1692 gave an address on the Salem Witchcraft Trials to the Nurse Family Association. Rebecca Nurse was the  daughter of William Towne and Joanna Blessing of Topsfield, Massachusetts. Rebecca’s two sisters, Mary Towne Esty/Easty and Sarah Towne Cloyse were also tried for witchcraft in 1692. Mary was executed and Sarah was released. See Three Sovereigns for Sarah Also See Post on Bible of Esty/Easty Family and What Ghost Hunters Found in Topsfield Hangers and Symbolism

Nurse Family Association, dedication of the Rebecca Nurse Memorial, erected July 1885. The tall granite memorial is located in the cemetery of Rebecca Nurse Homestead, Danvers, Massachusetts. Photograph housed at Danvers Public Library part of the Archive Collection. see also History of Massachusetts

One topic which John Nurse spoke on was the letter written in August of 1692 to Judge Jonathan Curwin (Photo below) singed with the initials “R P” which is agreed by most scholars to be Robert Pike, of Salisbury, Massachusetts. (Some believe this letter was written by Robert Payne).

I was intrigued by this article* published in The Springfield Republican 1879 entitled Our Boston Literary Letter. Puritans, Witches and Quakers The Life of Robert Pike The letter delivered to Judge Curwin was dated in Salisbury, Massachusetts and in the handwriting of Captain Thomas Bradbury, Recorder of old Norfolk County. Bradbury’s wife, Mary Perkins Bradbury, was arrested for witchcraft and was jailed at the time as Rebecca Nurse. Charles Wentworth Upham in his book Salem witchcraft; with an account of Salem Village, and a history of opinions on witchcraft and kindred subjects, Volume I and II provides a copy of the letter and is available on line University of Virginia site.

Pike was speaking for the victims, although many examples he refers to are his defense was gearing toward Mary Perkins Bradbury is probably correct. Pike was close with her family and he served in many civil positions with her husband Captain Bradbury.
It is certain that Justice Curwin took great stock in this letter as James Shepherd Pike points out, "the fact that Jonathan Curwin preserved this document, and placed it in the lilies of his family papers, is pretty good proof that he appreciated the weight of its arguments. It is not improbable that he expressed himself to that effect to his brethren on the bench, and perhaps to others.”
What is important to note is that Pike was extremely progressive and was under constant scrutiny despite his high position. (with exception of Rev Dane in Andover and Rev Hale in Beverly) he was a voice of reason and logic. Pike advocated for many including Thomas Macy, James Peaslee, and the three Quaker women of Dover made famous by John Greenleaf Whittier in The Three Women of Dover. Mary Perkins Bradbury was not the only one in the family tree under on the hit list, Lydia Perkins Wardwell was whipped in public for her Quaker belief. More on that below.
In a well written letter Pike brings into question the conduct of the judges, the validity of the hearings, and “controverts and demolishes the principles on which the Court was proceeding in reference to the “spectral evidence,” and the credibility of the “afflicted children” generally.
However, Rebecca Nurse’s case was definitely of interest. Her brother Joseph Towne married Phebe Perkins, daughter of Deacon Thomas Perkins and Pheobe Gould. Thomas Bradbury was the sister of Mary Perkins Bradbury.
One of the motivations to target Rebecca was her connection with Quaker families. Douglas Bowerman, a direct descendant utilized the research Margo Burns compiled to trace his family line. The archival records  from Burns work reveal  that on April 26 1677 “a guardianship decision by the court allowing John Southwick to chose Frances Nurse (husband to Rebecca Nurse) to be guardian of his son Samuel and Thomas Fuller to be Guardian to his son John.” Lawrence Southwick and his wife Cassandra were banished from Salem for their Quaker beliefs
Emerson Baker in A Storm of Witchcraft proposes that, “Suspicion may even have fallen on respected Puritan saint Rebecca Nurse because of Quaker ties,” when she assumed guardianship role for the Southwick children. In his earlier book, The Devil of Great Island: Witchcraft and Conflict in Early New England, Baker also notes that many scholars have uncovered evidence that several accused of witchcraft in the Salem 1692 Witch trials were associated with Quakers. Bakers asserts, household members, neighbors, , that were Quakers.”
There were connections and definite conflicts with families that were tied to Quakers.  I have published two articles in Genealogy Magazine on the PERKINS line. The first is “The Witchcraft Trial of Mary Perkins Bradbury” and second, her relative Lydia Perkins Wardwell, daughter of Issac Perkins, brother of Jacob Perkin, Mary’s father. Lydia suffered from the Quaker persecutions and was targeted by families who provided testimony that lead to her conviction. Lydia’s story  “Seventeenth Century Quaker Sought Redress by Undressing” describes the ordeal. I plan to publish a third article on how these families lines continue to intertwine. Most of the feuds can be traced back to early settlements all through New England.

Our Boston Literary Letter. Puritans, Witches and Quakers. The Life of Robert Pike - New Hampshire Wednesday, April 23, 1879 Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts)

Documents from The Salem Witch Trial Rebecca Nurse  The Petition Friends of Rebecca Nurse writing a letter on her behalf that all charges be dismissed against her, and Examination Document, 1692

• The New Puritan: New England Two Hundred Years Ago: Some Account of the Life of Robert Pike, the Puritan who Defended the Quakers James Shepherd Pike
• “Our Boston Literary Letter. Puritans, Witches and Quakers. The Life of Robert Pike – New Hampshire”  Springfield Republican Massachusetts Wednesday April 23, 1879
• The Trial of Rebbeca Nurse History of Massachusetts
• The Corwin genealogy : (Curwin, Curwen, Corwine) in the United States Edward Tanjore Corwin, 1834-1914
• Letter of Robert Pike, 1692 written at Salisbury, Mass., August 9, 1692 Peabody Essex Museum
• Full Account with transcribed documents Murder in Salem
• “Our Boston Literary Letter. Puritans, Witches and Quakers. The Life of Robert Pike” article published
• “The Broomstick Trail” Sarah Comstock Harper’s Magazine Volume 40
• The Petition for Rebecca Nurse  History of Massachusetts
• “Old Nurse House to be Bought by Historical Society ” December 11, 1905
• A Storm of Witchcraft Emerson Baker

Settlers including Quakers recalled by Sanborn Family Member and Others with Photos

Some notes from New Hampshire State Magazine, Volume 23 article by F B Sanborn and added news clips and photos from various sources Also Added additional PDF Files on my Facebook Page Ancestor Photos and Files

This is an article published many years ago some of the information on genealogy may have been updated, but the old records and court documents have not nor will they. I have included pictures, news clippings and links. Please note spelling on names, places and other words are not correct, but I tried edit some of the content. 

The historical details of the Puritans from Victor C. Sanborn’s genealogy of the Sanborn family, to be published next year, space will be given to an important document for the early history of Hampton, and of the Sambornes (as they then wrote the name) in America. Joshua Coffin, in his “History of Newbury," and Miss Lucy Dow, in her “History of Hampton," have briefly touched on the resistance to arbitrary government, by the early planters of Hampton, in the year 1653, when the persecution of the Quakers was about to begin, preceded, as it was, by severe measures against the Baptists. But neither of these chroniclers seems to have quite understood the importance of the act in question, or the significance of the protest made against it. Mr. Coffin had seen the petition of the Hampton planters, but did not print it in full; and naturally be paid more attention to the remonstrances from Newbury, the town of which he was writing the history. The course of events ran something like this:

Robert Pike (1616-1706)  Picture from Bryan Pike

                       

Robert Pike, one of the founders of Salisbury, and, in 1653, a lieutenant, petty magistrate, and active citizen there, at the age of thirty-six, was informed that the General Court of the Massachusetts colony, of which John Endicott was then governor,

We have passed a law making it penal for certain persons to teach religion,— aimed particularly, it was said, at Thomas Macy and Joseph Peasley, of Salisbury, his neighbors,—and was properly indignant at such inter meddling with the conscience of Englishmen. Being accustomed to speak his mind, Lieutenant Pike declared that “such persons as did act in making that law, did break their oath to the country” for, said he, “ It is against the liberty of the country, both civil and ecclesiastical.” In this he was but echoing the words of Vane and of Cromwell, then in power in England, who had said, “Liberty of conscience is a natural right, and he that would have it ought to give it.” But the Massachusetts bigots held no such liberal doctrine; and they soon sent an officer from Boston to the other side of the Merrimack, to bring Pike before them. Once there, the general court ordered him to pay a fine of twenty marks (about thirteen pounds sterling) and to be disfranchised, disqualified from ever holding office, and bound over to good behavior, like a criminal.

Hussey Memorial Stone from Founder's Park, Hampton N.H.

Lieutenant Pike was personally known to every man in Hampton, the next town beyond Salisbury, and much sorrow and wrath was felt at his unjust sentence. Then, and for years after, he was intimate with

Christopher Hussey. a leading citizen of Hampton, and the uncle by marriage of Nathaniel Batchelder, grandson of Rev. Stephen Batchelder, who had founded the plantation in 1638, and of the three brothers Samborne, John, \William, and Stephen, from whom all the American Sanborns are descended. Mr. Hussey seems to have been the man who advised a petition to the court, asking to have Pike‘s sentence revoked; from the handwriting it was probably drafted by John Sanborne. They and their kinsmen signed it, and they were joined in this by the two Daltons, brother and nephew of the successor of Batchilder in the ministry, by Robert Tucker, the “ chirurgeon ” of the town, by Jasper Blake, Abraham Perkins, Humphrey Humber, the Marstons, Moultons, and other substantial citizens, to the number of thirty-eight in all. A larger number of signers added their names in Salisbury and Newbury, and a few in Andover and Haverhill; but the first page of the rare old paper is given up wholly to Hampton, and the autographs of its planters. It is still very legible, as will be seen,—and nowhere else is there extant a fuller list of the actual signatures.
This moderate and numerously signed petition made the Lord Brethren at Boston (if possible) still more angry than they had before been. They had the prudence, however, to repeal the obnoxious order “concerning public preaching without allowance; which order, we understand, is dissatisfactory to divers of the brethren whom we have cause to respect and tender." But they also proceeded to punish the petitioners in these words:

The Court cannot but deeply resent that so many persons, of several towns, conditions and relations, should combine together to present such an unjust and unreasonable request as the revoking the sentence passed the last court against Lieutenant Pike and the restoring him to his proper liberty, without any petition of his own, or at least acknowledgement of his offense, fully proved against him; which was no less than detaining this Court and charging them with breach of oath; etc.—which the petitioners call some words let fall by occasion. The Court doth therefore order, in this extraordinary case, that commissioners be appointed in the several towns,—naine1y, [here those for the other towns] and Captain Wiggan for Hampton,—-who shall have power to call the said petitioners together, or so many of them at a time as they think meet, and require a reason of their unjust request, and how they came to be induced to subscribe to said petition, and so to make return to the next session, that the court may consider further how to proceed herein.

This was the preliminary step. After Captain Wiggin had made his report for Hampton, as given below, and it appeared that Christopher Hussey and his nephew, John Sanborne, would not give up their right to petition, in any manner and for any cause they saw fit, the Lords Brethren then voted (October, 1654,) that those persons “who have not given satisfaction, and whose names are herein written, shall be summoned to give bond, in £10 for each man, to give answers for their offense before the county court.” It does not appear whether my ancestor actually gave bonds or not,—probably only in name, if at all, for he continued to serve the town of Hampton in various capacities, civil and military, till his death in 1692, at the age of seventy-two. He was even recommended by Sir William Warren to the Lords of Trade, in 1679, as one of the persons in Hampton best qualified for his majesty’s council,~—to which, in fact, his uncle Hussey was

appointed. And it is worth remarking that of the four so named by Sir William (Samuel Dalton, Captain Hussey, John Samborne, and Nathaniel Weare) all who were living in Hampton in 1653 had signed the censured petition.

It may be further remarked that Thomas Wiggin, who made the report, was not strictly a resident of Hampton at any time; but had taken up a large farm in Stratham, not yet made into a town. and was rated and paid taxes at Hampton for convenience, rather than at Exeter; his son Andrew afterwards (1659) married Hannah Bradstreet, daughter of Simon Bradstreet, afterwards governor of Massachusetts, and his wife, the poetess, Anne Bradstreet, whose father was Governor Dudley, one of the strictest of the Lords Brethren.

The Wiggin report, in 1654, was brief and suggestive: For Hampton, Captain Wiggin returns that those persons that gave their hands to that petition do acknowledge their offense and humbly desire the court to pass it by; except two persons, who refused to make answer, to any satisfaction; whose names (Christopher Hussey and John Samborne) are here underwritten.

It is probable that the uncle and nephew, as heads of the two families of Hussey and Samborne, took upon themselves the reproach that might attach to disobedience, and allowed the younger members to shield themselves from further censure.It is extremely doubtful if either William or Stephen Samborne (the latter had special charge of his aged grandfather, Rev. Stephen Bachiler, then ninety-three years old, and went to England with him not long after), “humbly desired” to be pardoned; but they were probably so reported by Captain Wiggin, who wished to bring the matter to a peaceful issue. Still less is it likely that another of my ancestors, Edward Gove, then registered in Salisbury, but afterwards a citizen of Hampton (in that part which is now Seabrook), made many apologies for his boldness in petitioning; for he was the person who, in 1683, headed a small rebellion against the tyranny of Cranfield and Mason in New Hampshire, and was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered for that offense. 

Gove was taken to England, but there pardoned and returned to Hampton, where he died in his bed. John Samborne's son Joseph married Edward Gove‘s daughter. and established himself, about 1680, on the Sanborn estate in Hampton Falls. where I was born, and which has never since been out of the family. John Samborne himself was arrested in October, 1684, at his house in Old Hampton, for not admitting the title of Mason to his property there; the next year he was chosen, with his cousin, Nathaniel Bachiler, to represent Hampton in the general assembly at Portsmouth. He died in 1692, as before said, and his brother William (who was drawn a juryman for the trial of Gove, in 1683, but did not sit) died the same year. From these two brothers are descended all the Sanborns in the United States. and Canada. Major Pike (he rose to that grade after 1653, when he was only lieutenant,) paid his fine for exercising the privilege of free speech, but was not long disfranchised; his pastor, Mr. Worcester, who preceded the pugna’ cious John Wheelwright as minister of Salisbury, petitioned the general court in Pike’s favor, and the court voted October 23, 16 57, to revoke his sentence.

He was soon after elected representative from Salisbury, and took his seat at Boston, May 10, 1658. At the same session, but without Pike’s vote, a second severe law was passed against the Quakers, of which sect by this time were Thomas Macy and Joseph Peasley, at whom the law of 1653 was aimed. Macy soon went away to Nantucket, of which he and a son of Christopher Hussey were founders, and where Pike was one of the landowners. King Charles II. in 1661 revoked the law against the Quakers, after several of the sect had been hanged in Boston, and others flogged in other towns,—two women, in particular, having been sentenced by Major Waldron of Dover to be flogged, in 1656, all the way from Dover to Ipswich, at the cart‘s tail. When they reached Salisbury, Major Pike, through Walter Barefoot, released them, and forbade their whipping in his jurisdiction, as the tradition goes. In 1682, notwithstanding his liberal opinions, he was made an assistant, that is, a councillor, of the governor of Massachusetts, and continued in that office till he was eighty years old. In the New England Magazine (Nathan N. Withington, “Robert Pike, A Forgotten Champion of Freedom,” New England Magazine, n.s. 17 September, 1897) for September last, is a portrait of this old worthy, with a sketch of his life, and an account of the petition here copied; but Mr. Withington, the writer, had apparently never seen the original petition. In the only form now preserved, none but the Hampton petitioners and some of those from Salisbury signed in autograph; the other names are copied on the back of the Hampton petition, which makes the first page with its signers, thirty-eight in number. Only seven of these were unable to write their own names; and the list includes nearly all the principal citizens of Hampton, Hampton Falls, and Seabrook, at that date. Transcribed into legible English, but preserving the antique spelling, this interesting document reads as follows:To the Honuered General] Court
Nowe assembled at Boston, The humble petition of the inhabitants of Hampton, Salisbury, Newbery, Haveral, Andover, Sheweth: That Whereas our Loving friend Leaftenant Robert Pike of Salsbery hath by occasion, as it is witnessed Against him, Let fall 50111 words for w‘h this hon'rd Court hath bine pleased to censuer him,Wee haveing had Experiance that he hath beene A peaceable man and a usefull instrument amongst us, Doe thearefor humbly desier this honnered Court that the sd. Sentance maye be Revoaked and that the sd. Leaftenant Pike bee Againe restored unto his former Libertye. Soe shall wee still praie, etc.
Christopher Husse, Robart Tucke, Richard Swaine,]ohn Samborne, Francis Swaine, Williem Samborne, Stephen Samborne, Moses Cox, William Fifield, John Redman, Thomas Fletcher [T], Jeffery Miugay, Eliakim Wardell, John Wedgwood, Thomas Marston, The T Mark of Willim Maston, Philemon Dalton, Samuel] Dalton, Robert Page, Will. Moulton, Samuell Fogge, Nathaniell Bachiler, Jisper Blake, Christopher Palmer, John Marston, The V Mark of Josiah Meren, The Mark of Antoni Talier, The V Mark of John Cass, The TMark of John Merin [Marian], Thomas Coullman, Thomas Philbrock, Abraham Perkins, Henry Roby, The 7‘ Mark of William Cole, Nathaniell Boulter, Humphrie Humber, The Mark X of John Clifoord.
Along the lower margin of the page is written by the clerk of the deputies:
The deputies deser the honer’d Magistrates to declare their Apprehentions in this Case in the first place. WILLIAM Tommy Cleric.
No date appears on this petition, but it was signed in the years 1653-54, and presented in the spring of the latter year, I think. This was at the time the Quakers began to be troublesome to the Puritans, although the first English Quakers did not land in Boston till the summer of 1656; and the first law against them in Massachusetts (which still held jurisdiction in the four New Hampshire towns of Hampton, Exeter, Dover, and Portsmouth), was published by beat of drum, October 21, 1656. Its savage preamble ran thus:
Whereas there is a cursed sect of heretics lately risen up in the world, which are commonly called Quakers, who take upon them to be. immediately sent of God, and infallibly assisted by the Spirit to speak and write blasphemous opinions, despisinz government and the order of God in church and commonwealth, speaking evil of dignities, reproaching and reviling magistrates and ministers, seeking to turn the people from the faith, and gain proselytes to their pernicious ways, etc.

See Founder's Park Some Family Names from Nutfield Genealogy 
During this short persecution of the Quakers, Christopher Hussey and his family seem to have joined the sect, which became numerous in Seabrook and Salisbury, numbering many of the names of Chase, Hussey, Page, Philbrick, Gove, etc. But John Samborne, my immediate ancestor, and his family seem to have remained in the orthodox church; they were friendly to liberty and stout in resisting aggression, but not given to fanatical ways or strange doctrine. Edward Gove may have been tinctured with fanaticism; some of his sayings and doings look like it, and he was the progenitor of many Quakers, as well as of one race of Sanborns. Both he and his daughter Mary’s father in-law, John Samborne, were of the class described by Gray as Some village Hampden who, with dauntless breast, The little tyrant of his fields withstood; and both Samborne and Hussey had no hesitation in withstanding the more formidable tyranny of the bigots who then bore sway in Boston. The right of petition has seldom been more haughtily denied than by these petty rulers who fined Pike, and threatened his neighbors for raising a respectful voice in his behalf.
An examination of the autograph signatures discloses some odd facts. See Hampton's Gove -- Ahead Of His Time By Doug Gove
While many of the Hampton planters use a chirography resembling Shakespeare's peculiar signature, others, as the three Sambornes, have a more clerkly hand, of the early seventeenth century; and still others, like Abraham Perkins, Humphry Humber, and Nathaniel Bachiler, write as do men of the present age. The latter's signature resembles his grandfather's, Rev. Stephen, as preserved in his letters to Governor Winthrop, and given in the GRANITE MONTHLY, by Victor Sanborn contributing his researches in England on the Bachiler and Samborne families. He is soon to publish the copious genealogy, on which he and other New Hampshire Sanborns have been working for more than half a century, and has been fortunate in finding, at the oflice of the secretary of state of Massachusetts, this list which preserves the unquestioned autograph of three brothers who came to Hampton, :50 years ago, to plant there the sturdy race now branching into almost every state of the Union and every province of Canada.

                                                 
See Winnacunnet Mike in New Hampshire
From F B Sanborn article on Charles Henry Sanborn The Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire Magazine Volumes 26-27

Some Pictures from New Hampshire Biography and Autobiography Franklin Benjamin Sanborn

 

Picture of Chief Justice Shaw and a few words from F B Sanborn: "In the morning I was taken to Boston by Sheriff Moore and carried to the old court house, near the present City Hall, where the justices of the Supreme Court were holding a law term. My counsel, who volunteered for the case, were Joh n A. Andrew, soon afterwards governor; Samuel Sewall, a cousin of Mrs. Alcott, and my college classmate, Robert Treat Paine. The case was argued by Andrew and Sewall in my behalf, and by C. L- Woodbury, son of the distinguished Justice Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire, who had been dead for some years, but whose son was the Democratic district attorney.

The court room was filled with my Concord and Boston friends, among them Wendell Phillips and Walt Whitman; and in the afternoon Chief Justice Shaw, the most eminent jurist in New England, delivered the following decision, setting me free."

 

Victor Channing Sanborn

                                                        

 

Sanborn Drug Store at Old Fellows Block Hampton NH

Some pictures from Hampton Public Library Digital Site

John N. Sanborn of Hampton Falls, N.H. Biography from A History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire (1915)

                       Amanda Sanborn, daughter of V C Sanborn Seabrook NH

A snapshot of Frank B. Sanborn standing in the door of the old house where he was born. Taken on his last visit to this town, September, 1916. fom History of town of Hamton Falls NH

George Berry Sanborn. 1833-1893. Son of Levi and Mary (Berry) Sanborn.

       

John Chandler Sanborn. 1834-1916. Son of John P. and Sally (Cram) Sanborn.

        

Hon. John Newell Sanborn. Son of Levi and Mary (Berry) Sanborn

              

Benjamin Franklin Weare. Son of John and Lydia (Buzzell) Weare.

                

John Harrison Gove was a lineal descendant of the eighth generation from Edward Gove of pre-revolutionary fame; born in Weare, N. H., May 29, 1813, the fourth and youngest child of John and Hannah (Chase) Gove.

Joseph Blake Cram. Son of John S. and Lucy Ellen (Blake) Cram.

              

Moses Emery Batchelder. 1822-1911. Son of Moses and Abigail (Drake) Batchelder.

Samuel Batchelder. 1839-1896. Son of Simeon and Adeline (Farnham) Batchelder.

 
 

 

• The Hard Case of the Founder of Old Hampton: Wrongs of Rev. Stephen Bachiller, Read at the Reunion of the Bachelder Family, Seabrook, N.H., August 9, 1900
• DEBORAH BLAKE IN HAMPTON.
• A few memories and traditions of Sandorton By Hanna Sanborn Philbrook
• Stephen Bachiler's Coat of Arms
• The New Puritan: New England Two Hundred Years Ago: Some Account of the Life of Robert Pike, the Puritan who Defended the Quakers, Resisted Clerical Domination, and Opposed the Witchcraft Prosecution  James Shepperd Pike 
• The National Magazine; A Monthly Journal of American History, Volume 3--Curtis G Hussey
• Robert Pike A Forgotten Champion of Freedom by Nathan N. Withington
• A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers: For the Testimony of a Good Conscience from the Time of Their Being First Distinguished by that Name in the Year 1650 to the Time of the Act Commonly Called the Act of Toleration Granted to Protestant Dissenters in the First Year of the Reign of King William the Third and Queen Mary in the Year 1689, Volume 1 
• Puritans v. Quakers – Trials & Tribulations
• Nantucket Founders
• Records of the Pike Family Association of America
• Whittier News Letter 2012
• Quakers in Exeter
• The old families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts with some related families of Newbury, Haverhill, Ipswich and Hampton by David W. Hoyt.
• Excerpts on the Rev. Stephen Bachiler from the History of Lynn by Alonzo Lewis (1829)
• A Historic New England Town Thursday, September 6, 1883 Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana)