Witch Island is an approximately wildlife sanctuary off the coast of South Bristol, Maine, United States.
Witch Island received its name from Anna Chittenden. She was an actress, lecturer, clairvoyant and palmist. Her stage name was Grace Courtland. She claimed unusual powers to predict the future. So many of her predictions of Wall Street stocks came true that James R. Keene nicknamed her the "Witch of Wall Street." She was well-known in the United States and England in the late 19th century. When the Anna and her husband, Dan, purchased the island in 1886 from the Davis family, they began calling it Witch Island.
It had been known as Davis Island from prior owner Captain Samuel H. Davis, but "Witch Island" is now the name of record on maps, in books and journals, and documented in government records.
History
The Gamage family (pre-1830) One of the earliest documented names for the island was Stewart's Island.
The Gamage family of South Bristol were the earliest identified proprietors. How it attained the name Stewart's remains unknown.
Gamage History Gamage began as Gamache of Norwegian origins. Rolla the Dane, a pirate, travelled from the north in search of lands and spoils. He arrived in France in 912 with another man named Inczar. They terrorized the people such that Charles the Simple relinquished part of Neustria to Rolla the Dane. Rolla granted landed estates to his accomplices, which included Inczar. These men dubbed the area, Normandy. Inczar received lands known as the Gamache Marshes. Over time, family members began bearing de Gamache as part of their names.
Several generations later, two de Gamache brothers, came with William the Conqueror to England. By the 1300s, Sir William de Gamage of Royiade attained Coity Castle upon the death of Sir Laurence of Berkerolles of New Orchard. Sir Thomas Gamage, several generations later in, was the first to drop the "de" from his surname. From Sir Thomas, the Gamage family became known as "of Coity".
Sir Robert Gamage and his wife, Joan, had two sons and 4 daughters. His eldest son, Sir John, married Wenlien, an heiress. They bore a single daughter, Barbara. Barbara was of considerable fortune with many suitors and a popular lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I, so much so, that the queen married her to Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester. When older his brother, Philip Sidney, died from injuries at the Battle of Zutphen, Robert became the heir to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Barbara Sidney, Countess of Leicester and her husband had eleven children, all of whom survived. She lived and died in Penshurst Place; however, her death marked the end of the titled lineage of Gamage.
Sir Robert Gamage's second son, Thomas, produced two children. Of their many great-grandchildren, three pairs of brothers, each named John and Thomas, existed. Which of these pairs landed in Massachusetts, no one knows. For certain, one Thomas was a rebel, potentially of the Monmouth Rebellion. He was convicted and sold to Ann Salop of Barbados. After serving his sentence, he joined his brother, John, in Massachusetts.
Along with the one Thomas Gamage, there was one brother John Gamage. The end of the 17th century in England was a tumultuous one with religious differences at the centerpiece. John's participation is unknown, but he escaped for America before he could be exiled and became an early settler of Ipswich, Massachusetts, in the late 1600s. The family settled and grew in Massachusetts. John had five children: John, Nathaniel, Mary, Joshua and Sarah.
John's fourth child, Joshua was a weaver in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was born prior to 1700 and died after 1744. He married Deborah Wyeth and she gave him 10 children: Mary, Nathaniel, William, Ruth, Sarah, John, Martha, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Daniel. Mary perished an infant, making Nathaniel the eldest child.
Dr. Nathaniel Gamage (b 1712), married Mary Norwood. He travelled to England for settle an estate left to the family by their ancestors. Rumored to get press-ganged into the English Navy, Dr. Gamage vanished and was never heard from again. After his disappearance, Mary Norwood Gamage returned with her children to Rockport, Massachusetts. In 1795, she removed to Bristol, Maine to live on the family farm. They were noted early settlers of South Bristol and the first of the Gamage family in Maine. She lived until the ripe age of 104, sharp of mind to the end.
William Gamage (1714-1783), Joshua's next oldest behind Nathaniel, married Abigail Cook in 1746. The settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, and had eight children: William, Abigail (died young), Samuel, Joshua, Daniel (died young), Abigail, Daniel and John.
Now, William's fourth child, Joshua (1753-1843), was a drummer in Thomas Gardner's regiment at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Born in Cambridge, Joshua became the second known of the Gamage family to settle in Maine. He married Mary Beaton of Cambridge, and together they raised their family in Fryeburg, Maine. Their children were: Joshua, Mary, Anna (died at 4 years old), Abigail (died at 2 years old), Anna (born a week after Anna died), Amelia, Abigail, Martha, Rebecca, John, Sarah, William, Susan and Caleb. William remarried after Mary died in 1825; however, he had no children with Hannah Gordon.
Joshua (1778-1855) of his father's namesake and eldest child was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts prior to his parents moving the family to Fryeburg, Maine. He married Priscilla Farrington in 1802 in Fryeburg before moving to Sweden, Maine. They raised their family and lived out their lives there.
Hamilton's Island George F. Sproule (1741-1817) was an Irish surveyor. He served as the Surveyor general for the Colony of New Hampshire pre-Revolutionary War and mostly remembered as the first Surveyor general of New Brunswick. He was hired by Samuel Holland in 1770 to survey and map out the mid-coast of Maine. Sproule's 1772 map of the area had the island documented as Hamilton's Island. Sproule's map retain the reputation for great accuracy. If a name was placed on a location, someone lived there. This means a Hamilton occupied the island and a dwelling did occupy the southwest corner. Who Hamilton was remains unknown. How it became or transferred to Stewart (Stuart) or the identity of Stewart (Stuart) remains unknown; however, the island's name was Stewart's (Stuart's) Island when the Gamages owned it.
Stewart's (Stuart's) Island Between John Gamage's arrival in Ipswich and Joshua's settling in Sweden, Maine, the Gamage family came into ownership of Stewarts's Island. The island comprised approximately 16 acres per old reports. Today, records indicate 18 acres.
Near nothing is known of Stewart except he was the prior owner. All that remained of his ownership was two cellars and a stone wall.
French and Indian War A French and Indian War story from 1744 involved a British sloop and French corvette. The corvette pursued the sloop, but the British captain knew the waters and that his boat would move quicker than the corvette. Astutely, he lured the French into the ledges just east of Stewart's Island. While the sloop sailed through with little difficulty and escaped, the corvette got stuck in the mud. In order to reduce weight and wake, the French tossed brass cannon overboard. Divers, more than once, have attempted to recover the cannon without success. Since the incident, that area of Johns Bay has been known as the Corvette Ledges.
American Revolution The sale of the island in 1916 evoked an American Revolutionary War story, more on the order of folklore. A British frigate attempted to get passed the cannon of an old fort at Pemaquid. Pemaquid had three known forts over time. Which fort remains a mystery. They failed. The ship sank just off the coast of the island. Over time, a number of bronze cannon and other treasures were recovered from the shipwreck.
Dixey Bull, the Dread Pirate Some other traditional folklore involved pirate, Dixie Bull or Dixey Bull, "The Dread Pirate". Dixie Bull arrived in Boston in 1631 and is considered the first pirate in New England. He originally worked as a fur trader, but some Frenchmen in a pinnace raided his boat and inventory. He put together about fifteen men of questionable origin and set out to recover his goods. The Frenchmen evaded him, so desperate for goods, he began raiding small vessels. From this, he headed to the trading stations at Pemaquid. His attacks and raids over the next couple years there earned him the title of Dread Pirate. One story had him killed in the bay. Others had him escaping with his winnings back to England. No one knows the truth. It was rumored he made his headquarters on Stewart's Island.
Griffin family (1803-at least 1815)
Stewart's Island sold Records document that Dr. Nathaniel and Mary's grandson, Nathaniel Gamage, sold the island as well as 30 acres on Rutherford Island to Nathaniel Griffin, of Bristol himself, on May 1, 1803, for $1,150. The large amount certainly represented the land and buildings on Rutherford as Stewart's (Stuart's) Island was small with no recorded buildings. An 1815 Bristol town plan depicts the Griffin family in possession of the island.
The sale of the island may not have been final or ownership by the Griffins came into question. Between 1815 and 1830, the Gamage family came back into ownership of Stewart's (Stuart's) Island.
Davis Island and the Davis family (1830–1887)
Davis buys Stewart's Island It was documented Griffin's heirs supposedly sold the island 27 years later to Captain Samuel H Davis (1807-1884), a fisherman and farmer, on July 27, 1830. Davis' 1880 last will and testament debunked this account.
Quoting directly from the will, "...the Island lying north of Rutherford's Island in said Bristol known as Stewart's Island, being the same island conveyed to me by Joshua Gamage and Priscilla Gamage by their deed bearing date November 10th, 1830 and recorded in Lincoln County, Maine Registry of Deeds Book 156, Page 286 to have and to hold to him and his heirs and assigns forever."
This evidence resolves that Davis attained the island from Joshua and Priscilla Gamage and not Nathaniel Griffin. No distinction exists whether he purchased the island or the Gamage family imparted it to him. He still took ownership 1830.
Up through at least 1837, the island was still referenced it as Stewart's (Stuart's) Island. By 1860, charts began representing it as Davis Island. Henceforth, the island became known as Davis Island.
During 1860, Atlantic menhaden or more commonly pogies, porgies and bunkers became a cheap alternative for whale oil. Porgy oil found its way into dressing leather and paint oil formulas. Originally, fisherman caught porgies for bait. They came in great shoals, and fishermen used seines to gather them in great abundance. In addition to oil, porgy scrap became a popular fertilizer for farms. Within ten years, porgy fishing grew into a major industry. The waters surrounding Davis Island reigned among the better known locations to haul in large numbers of porgies. In fact, an opinion emerged regarding overfishing. Laws limiting porgy harvesting passed, but the industry was already large. By the early twentieth century, most of the Maine menhaden fisheries went defunct. Under the guise of icebergs and cold water driving the stock southward as opposed to overfishing depleting the waters, some fisherman followed the menhaden down the Atlantic coast.
Captain Davis died on November 9, 1884, and his family interred him at Island Cemetery in South Bristol next to his first wife, Mary.
Davis family feud A lawsuit arose in 1886 between his heirs with his first wife and Davis' second wife, also Mary. Freeman, his second son, and his attorneys laid claim to his father's real estate, but Mary still lived in their house. As her defense, she claimed the real estate under the will. Of note, Davis' will was signed July 13, 1880.