Name/Title
Cony House | 4 Dawson Street, Eastport, MaineDescription
-DAWSON004
CONY-DAWSON-HOUDE HOUSE
Wayne H. M. Wilcox
March 17, 2002
To date Eastport has a total of five houses that still exist from the time when British officers were quartered in them. These five federal style residences are from the period of British occupation of Eastport in the War of 1812.
Three of these structures are located near each other in the south end of town namely the Jabez Mowry house at 11 Franklin street; Lewis Frederick Delesdernier house at 7 Franklin street and the recently discovered William Cony house at 4 Dawson street located around the comer from Custom (House) street.
The other two houses are the Jonathan Weston house in the middle of town at 26 Boynton street and the Oliver Shead house at 130 Water street in the north end of town just below the hill where the fort once stood. These once-prominent homes of Eastport's upper class housed British officers of the 102nd regiment of Foot. The Cony house became the residence of Reverend Roger Aitken, the regiments chaplain. (1.)
William Cony was originally from the Boston area and had come to Eastport before the outbreak of the War of 1812. The land for the house was purchased from Samuel Tuttle, an original grantee of Lot No. 2, on March 11, 1811 by William Cony, a merchant, and Lewis F. Delesdernier the custom agent for Eastport. The top three fifth parts of the lot was bought by Delesdernier and Cony received the lower two fifths sloping towards the water. After acquiring this property, Cony had his two story federal style house built between March 1811 and July 1814.(2.)
During the War of 1812, Eastport was occupied by British troops of the 102nd Regiment of Foot, the former The New South Wales Corps. They took possession of the town on July 11, 1814 and kept control of Eastport until June 30, 1818 when it was handed back to the American government. Not long after the capture of the island, many local merchants fled to Lubec. Among them were William Cony, Jabez Mowry and Lewis F. Delesdernier the custom agent. The British took possession of the best homes that were vacant to quarter their officers. At Bucknam Point, not far from the Cony house, was the large two story federal style mansion house of Benjamin and Seward Bucknam that burned down in 1833. This house was large enough to accommodate both families of these local merchants. For the next two weeks after the capture of the town, Captain Sir Thomas M. Hardy, officer in charge of the British fleet, lived at the Bucknam house and used it as his headquarters. (3.)
In October 1814, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Gubbins became Commandant of Moose Island and stayed until his return to England in May 1816. Gubbins moved his wife and seven children along with a number of servants into the Bucknam house. (4.) On October 26, 1814 the Reverend Roger Aitken was made the chaplain to the 102nd Regiment with a yearly salary of L100. Reverend Aitken made his residence along with his wife and two daughters in the Cony house not far from the Bucknam house where the Commandant lived. (5.)
The Cony house has a connection to the only murder that occurred in Eastport during the occupation. The victim, Jane Evans, was a single woman who worked as a housekeeper in the home of Lieut. Col. Gubbins. John Shea, a private in the 102nd Regiment, was said to have been assigned to Rev. Aitken as a servant. In the evening of December 7, 1815, probably in the vicinity of the Cony and Bucknam houses, Shea raped and then murdered the unfortunate Miss. Evans. Her body was soon discovered and the next morning a coroner's inquest was quickly assembled. For the next three days it took testimony from two surgeons, who examined the body, and other witnesses. After hearing the testimony and considering the evidence the jury found that John Shea raped and murdered the Commandant’s housekeeper. Shea was located and placed under arrest then taken to the fort. He was escorted to the block house, still protesting his innocence. (6.)
Shea languished in the block house jail for the next five months while the authorities made plans for his trial. Officers were finally chosen and it was decided that on or about May 1, 1816, Private Shea was to face general court marshall on the charges of rape and murder to be held at the fort. In the last part of April, just before his court martial, Shea committed suicide by hanging himself in his block house cell. This building later became the Bell Tavern and was said to be haunted. Since the time Shea was placed under arrest he denied he was the one who harmed Miss. Evans. Before he killed himself he confessed to the brutal rape and murder of the commandant's housekeeper.
His body was taken down and dumped into a plain wooden box. It was not allowed to be buried in the English corner of the local cemetery at Little's Cove. Instead the body was ordered to be taken to Broad Cove where it was buried without ceremony at the extreme low tide mark so there would be no more remembrance of him. Sixty-two years later on a Sunday in early September 1878 a group of boys found a plain wooden box at the low tide mark in Broad Cove that contained the bones of Private Shea. The proper authorities were notified and the box with Shea's bones were collected and quietly buried in an unmarked grave probably in the potter's field section of Hillside cemetery. (7)
Toward the end of the British occupation, William Cony was still living in Lubec. It was at this time he was sued by Jabez Mowry, his creditor, for the sum of $2,319 the attorney for Mowry was I. R. Chadbourne of Eastport. In early March 1817, Cony lost the suit and was ordered to pay Mowry in money or property. Seward Bucknam, John Swett and Charles Peavy were named to appraise the value of Cony's real estate in Eastport which amounted to $1,800. Since no personal estate or money was found acceptable to Mowry he agreed to accept Cony's house and land in Eastport to settle the suit.
Cony ignored the findings of the court and refused to hand over his house and land to Mowry. The land deeds show that Mowry's attorney had taken up residence in the house and that Chadbourne had vacated the house just prior to the second lawsuit. In June 1821, Mowry had another court order stating that Cony, now of Eastport, “... had unjustly withheld, put out, or removed the said Mowry from his possession...” and he was ordered to hand over his property to Mowry to satisfy the previous verdict of 1817. Cony finally but reluctantly handed over the disputed house to Mowry. (8.)
Sometime after Mowry had acquired the Cony house, Chadbourne obtained possession of the house from his former client. On April 16, 1834 Chadbourne sold the house to Margaret Dawson, widow, for the sum of $500 “... a certain lot of land situated lying & being in Eastport ... bounded Southerly by land of Seward Bucknarn, Easterly by the Bay, Northerly by land lately owned by James Savage and Westerly, by land of Seward Bucknam, it being a strip of land set off to Jabez Mowry on an execution against William Coney.” (9.)
The widow Dawson died after February 18, 1843 when she wrote her will and left a sizable estate of $8,814. In her lengthy will that was probated on June 17, 1847 she left a number of bequests to her children and grandchddren. To make sure there was money enough for this in clause 12 she “... give and bequeath to my said executor (George A- Peabody) the real estate on which I live in said Eastport and all the furniture in and about the house upon the premises” to hold to him. After he received the rents and profits from this real estate he was to apply the money for the upkeep of the house including taxes and insurance. After he received his share for administering the will, he was to divide the remaining money amongst her children and grandchildren. (10.)
On June 8, 1854 Peabody asked the Probate Court for permission to sell the Dawson house in whole or in part to pay off the legacies in the will. The court gave him one year to complete the sale and to report back to the court (11.) Peabody was unable to sell the house and on June 6, 1867 he sought the courts permission to sell the house and stated “... the goods, chattels and [house?] ...” are not sufficient to pay all the legacies by about two hundred dollars. Again the court gave him the right to sell the property within the normal time limit of one year but there were no buyers. (12.)
On April 1, 1881 Peabody again asked the court for permission to sell the Dawson property stating “... he would like to sell by private sale the homestead lot in Eastport in order to pay one of the legatees which has been delayed because of want of purchases of this property ...” and make final distribution of this estate. (13.)
Peabody finally sold the widow Dawson's house to Robert C. Green of Eastport on March 17, 1882. (14.) Green kept the house until he sold it to Morris Carney on November 30, 1888 and Green sold the mortgage to the Eastport Savings Bank on December 6, 1888. (15.) Carney was unable to meet the conditions of the mortgage and sold the house to Samuel D. Leavitt on December 7, 1892 (16.) After the death of Leavitt his wife, the administrator of his estate, sold the mortgage to the Eastport Savings Bank on September 5, 1901. (17.)
The Eastport Savings Bank foreclosed and acquired the former Dawson house and sold it to Emma Morrell in 1912. (18.) She kept the house for a short time then sold it to Mary Hunt 1915. (19.) For the next six years Hunt lived in the house when in 1921 Sophia Harris purchased it. (20.) For the next 21 years Harris owned the house and then sold it in 1944 to Burpee H. Wilson. Mr. Wilson was the owner of Wilson's sardine factory that was located around the comer from Dawson street. (2 1.) In 1952 he sold the house to Juanita Houde who bought it and lived in the old Cony residence until she sold it sometime in the 1990's. (22.)
(Juanita Houde sold it to Jonathan Bird in 1996).