Anthony Nutter and the Attack on Colonial Tax Officials
Anthony Nutter: 1630-1685 (Maternal 9th
Great-Grandfather)
When I first saw the engraving pictured below, I was amused.
The man depicted laughing uproariously at the two other men scuffling in the
fireplace was my ninth-great-grandfather, Anthony Nutter. The violence depicted
looked like a bar brawl to me. I assumed the men had drunk too much and had
gotten into a scuffle. The description accompanying the illustration referred
to Anthony as a “tall big man” who accompanied his friend Wiggin when they “visited
Mason when the latter got his wig burned.” That description trivializes the
incident, which was far more serious than I’d surmised. Rather than a scuffle
amongst friends, the fight was political—an act of resistance by colonial
settlers against British overreach. I had to drastically change my thinking
about the meaning of the illustration.
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Anthony Nutter was the son of Hatevil Nutter and his wife
Ann Ayers Nutter. Anthony was born in England around 1630, and traveled to what
is now Stratford County, New Hampshire with his parents and siblings sometime prior
to 1640. In 1662, at the age of 32, he
married Sarah Langstaff. They had at least eight children, perhaps more than
ten.
Anthony first lived in Dover Neck, New Hampshire, but eventually
moved across the Piscataqua River to what is now Newington, New Hampshire, but
was then called Welshman’s Cove on Bloody Point. He inherited the property from
his father in 1674, and fortified the house into a garrison. Anthony became a
freeman in 1662, and was a “corporall” in 1667, and was called a “leftenant” by
1683. These titles probably referred to militia positions—the colonists needed
to protect themselves from raids by native tribes and the French. He served as
a selectman in 1666 and 1667, as a Representative to the colonial General Court
for six years between 1674 and 1684, and was named to the Provincial Council in
1679. He was obviously a respected citizen.
 |
| Historical Marker in the Bloody Point area of New Hampshire |
So what led him to participate in a brawl with colonial
bigwig Robert Mason and the Lieutenant Governor of New Hampshire Walter Barefoot?
In the 1680s, there was conflict in the colonies over the
control of land in what is now New Hampshire. The area had originally been part
of the Massachusetts Colony, but was eventually separated into a separate entity
called a “royal province”. At that time, a man named Rober Mason asserted a
claim that his family owned all the land in the province, and he arrived in the
area with a warrant from the king and the expectation that all the colonists
would begin paying him to lease their lands. As might be expected, the colonists objected.
They believed they had clear title to their lands and refused to pay rents,
taxes or any other fees to any government entity connected to Mason.
Mason curried favor with the Provincial Governor, Edward
Cranfield, so Cranfield attempted to enforce the lease arrangement. He was
unsuccessful; his officers were unable to enforce his orders. Cranfield
returned to England, turning over his duties to his Lietuenant Governor, Walter
Barefoot.
The book Colonial Life in New Hampshire describes
what led to the Nutter/Wiggin incident:
“Barefoot was not an improvement over his predecessor and
used every means in his power to annoy the colonists. During his short stay an
incident occurred which shows the contempt with which the government was held
by the settlers. Thomas Wiggin and Anthony Nutter, who had formerly been
members of the assembly, called one day at the house of Barefoot to remonstrate
with him concerning the injustice of his proceedings. Mason, who was his guest
at the time, was also present. During the discussion, the visitors told Mason
very plainly and forcibly that his claim to the land amounted to nothing. This
so enraged him that he took hold of Wiggin to force him from the house.
Wiggin, who was a powerful man, seized Mason by the
collar and threw him with great violence across the room and into the
fireplace, where his clothing and legs were severely burned. Barefoot upon
coming to his assistance was treated even more severely. Several of his teeth
were knocked out and two of his ribs were broken. Mason meantime called loudly
upon his servants to bring his sword, but upon its being brought, Nutter
quickly took it from him, and mocked the discomfiture of the highest officer of
the state.”
Another description of the incident said that the fight was
broken up by neighbors who were alerted by the screams of Barefoot’s maid.
Neither Nutter nor Wiggin faced any criminal charges for their
altercation with two powerful men, even though both of those men were left with
fairly serious injuries. Nutter and Wiggin had walked into the meeting with
confidence, unafraid of Mason and Barefoot. While they were both big, strong
men, I believe they felt more emboldened by the support of their fellow colonists.
They knew that powerful titles and rank meant little so far from England and
the king. The outcome proved them right. Barefoot soon lost his position and
was replaced, while Mason was never able to assert his claim of ownership over
the province’s land.
The fight at Barefoot’s house seems to have occurred in the
early to mid 1680s when Anthony Nutter was in his early fifties. In 1685, he
contracted smallpox. The journal of Rev. Pike noted:
“Feb 19. Lt. Anthony Nutter of Welch-Cove deceased of the smal-pox
bef: it came out.”
I’m not sure what the reference to “before it came out”
means. Before the rash appeared? Anthony Nutter died from the disease at the
age of fifty-five. I have been unable to find his probate or burial records.
While I first looked at the story of Anthony Nutter and
Thomas Wiggin’s fight with Mason and Barefoot as a humorous incident of drunken
machismo, I changed my thinking when I read what led up to the incident. This
is an example of the necessity of searching for information that can provide
important context. Without context, we can misconstrue our ancestors’ actions
and motivations. Where I once saw a drunken brawl, I now see political
resistance by colonists against greed and an out-of-touch king.
Sources:
New England Historical Society. New Hampshire. “Edward Gove
and this One-Man Revolution of 1683”. https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/edward-gove-and-his-one-man-revolution-of-1683/#google_vignette
Colonial Life in New Hampshire. James H. Fassett. Chapter
4. Ginn & Company, Publishers. Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 1899.
Photo of Newington Historical Marker. Wikimedia Commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/NewingtonNH_sign.JPG
https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LZ1W-4ND/lt.-anthony-nutter-1630-1685
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