NH's FIST CITIZEN IN 1623  (continued)

-- David Thomson came to fish off the Isles of Shoals and to trade with the Indians. He was a scholar, a clerk, an apothecary, a traveler, a capitalist and a Scot. Thomson had married Amias Cole 10 years earlier in Plymouth, England. Their son John was the first European born in what is now New Hampshire. They left a daughter behind and never saw her again.

-- Unlike the Pilgrims, Thomson knew where he was going. He had been here a least once before, maybe a number of times, and had selected the Piscataqua River ("where he liketh well") as the cradle of America. The Pilgrims were headed to "Virginia" and, as the story goes were "blown off course." There is evidence that Thomson was making land deals in this area as early as 1619.

-- Thomson had likely been to Plymouth, Massachusetts too even before the Pilgrims arrived. In fact, there is speculation that he influenced the captain of the Mayflower by telling him of that location in advance. Did Thomson therefore save the entire Plymouth Colony from a stormy death at sea? No one knows, but it makes a nice story.

-- Unlike most of the Pilgrims, Thomson got along quite well with the Indians. As a capitalist, he had little choice. His financial backers wanted a return on their investment, and the Indians had top grade furs for sale. Some historians believe Thomson's friendship with the Native Americans in Maine may have saved a trading ship from being attacked. It is also reported that the local Indians complained to Thomson when hey were mistreated by the Pilgrims. Yet Pannaway was built with a high palisade mounted with fearsome guns. It is known that Thomson had at least one Indian servant (read "slave"). A local Indian chief reportedly presented Thomson with his own son as a welcoming gift.

-- Thomson, instead of the Pilgrims, may have been "friends" with the famous Squanto. One privately published Thomson history called "The First Yankee" theorizes that -- while under house arrest in Plymouth, England -- the captured Squanto was cared for by a 14-year old ward of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Gorges with John Mason owned land title to New England. At that exact time, in the same town, in the same household lived 14-year old David Thomson. Coincidence? There is even speculation that the young Thomson may have taught the captured Native American Squanto to speak the King's English, then been inspired by his captor to travel to the New World. Sure it is wild stuff, almost as wild as Plymouth Rock.

-- Before founding NH, Thomson had wintered in nearby Maine. After returning with his wife and wintering three years as NH's first whites, they packed up in 1626 and became the first white residents of Boston. Thomson built a new house in Boston Harbor on what is now called Thomson Island. His son John later made claim to the land.

-- David Thomson mysteriously disappeared in 1628. His wife Amias remarried, and since the Pilgrims considered marriage a "civil" ceremony, her Church of England wedding goes on the books as the first nuptials in New England. She moved from Thomson Island and joined her new husband in Chelsea. MA. Some historians hint at foul play in Thomson’s sudden death. We do not know.

-- Although isolated in New Hampshire, the Thomson's had quite a few house guests. One was a shipwrecked sailor who had been robbed by the Indians of everything including his clothes. Explorer Christopher Levett wrote that he stopped with Thomson for a month in 1623. Another visitor was the infamous Miles Standish, military commander of the Plymouth settlers. Standish arranged for Thomson to supply food to the starving Pilgrims. Thomson personally took a load of salted codfish to Plymouth. According to a Pilgrim journal, Thomson's errand of mercy initiated a second thanksgiving celebration. The diarist also complained that Thomson had charged too much. Thomson was the first New Hampshire capitalist, but far from the last, to see Massachusetts as a colony of potential customers.

Copyright © 2005 by J. Dennis Robinson. Dennis Robinson is editor and owner of SeacoastNH.com, an award-winning regional web site. He is currently proofreading a juvenile history of colonial Maryland and writing a history of outlaw Jesse James.

SEE: Turkkeygate, the Thanksgiving Scandal