The Portland daily press., 1898-02-01

AttE IuaIl, ttiu WAS COMMISSIONER d J1sIiCe
OF the peace; largely employed. by the pro
prletors of the town, and in county busl
ness; representative in the General Cour
OF Massachusetts,. for seven years, ant
was twice delegate to the Provincial Con
gress; delegate to form the Const1tu
ton of Massachusetts,, chairman OF tht
| committee of safety and vigilance IN tne
early days of the Revolution, and after
ward became iudge of the Court of Com
mon Pleas. for Cum berIand county, from
| I776 until he died in 1881. His historians
say, THAT he was an active. industrious,
useful man; a gentleman OF learning,
| talents and sound sense.
The second name on the memorial 1s.
Jacob Hamlen who wasione OF the urst
settlers of Gorham. He was porn Ia
Barnstable, May 2Sth, 1902, and was mar
ried to his cousin, Content Hamlen, Au-
gust 18th, 1871. He and his wife were
| dismissed from the East church. Barns
table, Mass. to the church IN 0ornaM,
Maine, on October 2sth, 1850, and they
had lived sometime previous TO that IN
the town of Gorham.
The actual date Of their settlement 1s
probably somewhere about the year 1853,
as they must have come here at about the
same time as Capt. John Phinney, as the
records show that they both came from
Barnstable to Falmouth land settled to
gether in that wild country. and tna6
his children had Indian children only
for playlnates. He was large Land
owner, as the records say he was the
proprietor of 400 acres. His homestead
was Nos IS and %, which were TWO,
thirty acre lots, and his house was situat-
ed where the store of Mr.. Roscoes Harding
now stands, The land that he owned,
embraced all the territory running north
from South street, and up to the old
Robie store, and far west.to take in the
highlands, where the Rev. MIR. Weston
afterwards built his house.
MIR. Hamlen. and one of the EMcLellans,
were the owners of slaves, but MIR. Ham,
len before he died, went before the au-
thorities of the town. and legally gave his
their freedom. thus we may say that Mr.
Hamlen was an early eboiitlonist. He
died in 1774
The coming to Gorham of ssMr. Hamlen
was probably influenced by the grants of
land which had been made by the GEN
eral Court of Massachusetts,, for the bene-
fit of the soldiers in the Narragansett war.
Two of the Hamlens, Bartholomew and
Eleazer, of Barnstable, having been in
Capt. John Gorham's company, and their
names are expressly given in the Nara
gansett grants Of lands. in Maine. They,
theinselve, did not occupy these lands,
whom was Jacob Hamlen. 1t would
seem that there was quite trade going
on at that time in the eale of these lands.
The ancestry of Mr.. HaInlen is not diff
cult to trace. James Hamlen, the first
emigrant to this country, in 1899, came
from England, where the name was quite
common at that time, and Charles
Worthy, Esq, of Exeter. Devonshire ooun
ty, England, author of the genealogy of
the many families in Devonshire county,
and author of a book on practical Her.
aldry' makes particular mention of the
Hamlyn family, and traces their arrival
in England, to the coming over of Will
liam the Conqueror, from Normandy.
There was "Hamelin', with him in the
famous battle of Hastings, which over
threw the SBxons, and established the
Normans in England, and after the battle
as it is we'll known, he erected what he
called the ''Battel Abbey in memory of
that battle, and in that he deposited what
was called the HBattel Abbey Roll,
which contained the names of his princi
pal followers, and supporters in his suc-
cessful attempt in overrhrowing the Eng.
lish, and establishing himself as the ruler
of the English. and in this roll appears
the name of "Hamelin. The name also
appear in the ancient church of Dives,
France, and in that church is deposited
the roll of what is called the "Compan-
ions of William the Conqueror, I" the
names numbering four hundred and
ScfSllbf -aFc. ~ WOutQ ttppObI uiioV tLlT'
.nampanE were stbose who someNime
had been planning for the expedition te
England, and so important an affair az
that embraced the names of all those
who took an active part in forming the
expedition.
was one of the chief ports of the Duchy
of Normandy. in the eleventh century,
and is the port from which William the
Conqueror set sail for the conques5 Of
England. A..fete was given here in 1862
to place in the old church new and
carefully compiled list of the "Compan
ions of William the Conqueror,' in his
| conquest of England, in 1866 1t is q
! mpanion roll of that of "Battel A b.
bey," the only difference being, that the
| roll of ''Battel Abbey" contained only
| the names of those who actually fought at
Hastings, while the one at Dives, is the
roll of those who Assem- bled and furthered
the expedition. This roll was erected by
the French Society of Archaeology, IN
August 1862, and among this roll of four
hundred and seventy-hve names, Is the
name Of Hamelin de Balon, and which
Mr.. Worthy in his researches, connects as
being the same Hamelin, who actually
fought at the battle of Hastings.
Another record of the name is found in
the Doomsday Book, in England which
was compiled by William the Copqueror,
and completed jim 1886. This Doomsday
Book was the allotment of all the lands
of England into hundreds, and large dis
tribution from this land was made among
his followers, and in this way the Hame-
lins became possessed of quite extensive
holdings. Mr.. Worthy gives history of
the name which goes still farther back
than the Norman Conquest, and his con-
clusion is, that they were originally OF
German origin, having thsir homes or
habitations, on the River Hamel, near
Saxony, and that the name comes from
the word ''ham" and "lynna,' a Saxon
term, which means 'fhome by the water, "
and thus is gotten the German "Hame-
lin" Is is well known that the Con-
qIeror's army was not all his Norman
subjects, but contained many adventurers
from the Continent, and that many from
Germany joined the expedition, and Mr..
Worthy concludes that some of the
Hamelins! from the Valley of the River