Scarborough: They Called It Owascoag

Indian Jane

Uphannum was the daughter of Wackwarreska, Sagamore of Owascoag, and his wife Nagasqua. To early settlers she was familiarly known as Indian Jane, Jane the Indian or Jane Hannup. In 1651, Jane and her brother, as heirs of Wackwarreska, sold about 1,000 acres of land in what is now the Dunstan area of Scarborough to brothers Andrew and Arthur Alger. The purchase price of the land was traditionally believed to be a bushel of beans down and a bushel of corn yearly. One of the conditions of the sale was that Jane and her mother be allowed to live on the land for the remainder of their lives. Jane and her mother settled on the north side of Blue Point near the mouth of Mill Creek. Jane’s fireplace with its blackened hearthstone could be seen for many years until it was purchased and built into the chimney of a cottage at Prouts Neck. Her unmarked grave is near where her cottage was and further beyond is Jane’s Spring, a never-failing spring of pure water. Jane survived her family; and even through the Indian hostilities, she quietly remained in her lonely home until she died there at the age of more than 100 years.

Sources

Libbey, Dorothy Shaw. Scarborough Becomes a Town. Freeport, ME: The Bond Wheelwright Co., 1955.

Moulton, Augustus. Grandfather Tales of Scarborough. Portland, ME: Katahdin Publishing Co., 1925.

Southgate, William. The History of Scarborough from 1633-1783. Portland, ME, 1853.

Dr. Robert Southgate

Robert Southgate: doctor, lawyer, judge, gentleman farmer, and businessman. According to family tradition, in 1771 Dr. Robert Southgate rode into Dunstan on horseback with all his worldly goods packed in his saddlebags. He had come from Leicester, Massachusetts where he was born 26 October 1741. In 1773, Southgate married Mary King, daughter of Richard King, a successful merchant, landholder, farmer and shipbuilder. The Southgate’s first home was at Dunstan Landing. They later built a large brick home on what is now Route 1. Eleven of their twelve children died before reaching middle age.

One of the first doctors in the area, Southgate gave up his medical practice after becoming interested in the law and being appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He was a justice of the peace for 40 years and no case decided by him went to a higher court. As a gentleman farmer, he sold surplus marsh hay and leased marsh lots to farmers to raise hay for winter fodder. To increase marsh salt hay production, he initiated one of the first diking experiments in Maine. His experiments attracted the attention of farmer Seth Scamman who introduced large-scale diking to the marsh in the 1800s. As a businessman, along with William and Cyrus King, he headed the Scarborough Turnpike Corporation, which built the Cumberland Turnpike. A toll road across the marsh between Dunstan and Oak Hill, the Cumberland Turnpike was the first turnpike in New England. Dr. Southgate passed away 2 November 1833 at the age of 92.

Sources

Chapman, Leonard. Monograph on the Southgate Family of Scarborough, Maine. Portland, ME: Hubbard W. Bryant, 1907.

Libbey, Dorothy Shaw. Scarborough Becomes a Town. Freeport, ME: The Bond Wheelwright Co, 1955.

Henry Jocelyn

Henry Jocelyn, son of Sir Thomas Jocelyn and his second wife Theodora Cooke, was born in England in 1606. He was educated at Cambridge, receiving his degree in 1623; and by 1630, he was living in New England. Probably at the request of Gorges, Jocelyn joined his friend Cammock and wife Margaret at Black Point in 1635. Cammock and Jocelyn had known each other at Piscataqua where Cammock had been an agent of Gorges and Mason until he assumed proprietorship of his 1500-acre Black Point Patent in 1633. On a voyage to the West Indies in 1643, Cammock died, leaving his estate to his wife for her lifetime and then to his friend Jocelyn. In the same year, Jocelyn married the widow Margaret and came into possession of Cammock’s property. For nearly forty years Jocelyn was a prominent leader in the area. By 1671 Jocelyn found his business interests less profitable than in the early days of his proprietorship and he mortgaged his holdings to Joshua Scottow. Jocelyn remained at Black Point as a manager and supervised the construction of a garrison on the west side of Black Point. In 1676 Mogg Heigon and his men led an unsuccessful attack on the Black Point garrison. Mogg suggested to Jocelyn that the settlers in the garrison could safely leave the garrison if it were surrendered to him. When Jocelyn returned to the garrison, all had left but his family. Jocelyn then surrendered the garrison and was briefly held captive, but he never returned to Black Point. He died before May 1683.

Sources

Moulton, Augustus. Grandfather Tales of Scarborough. Portland, ME: Katahdin Publishing Co., 1925.

Moulton, Augustus. Old Prouts Neck. Portland, ME: Marks Printing House, 1924.