Michael Mitton
Third English owner; Casco Bay's mermaid witness
Cleeves's son-in-law. 'A jovial soul, fond of his cups, his gun, the soul of festive gatherings' — and the man who told John Josselyn about the 'Triton' he met while fowling around a small island in Casco Bay.
Josselyn's Voyages records: while Mitton was fetching a compass around 'a small Island (there being many small Islands in the Bay) for the advantage of a shot, [he] was encountered with a Triton, who laying his hands upon the side of the Canow, had one of them chopt off with a hatchet by Mr. Mittin, which was in all respects like the hand of a man, the Triton presently sunk dying the water with his purple blood and was no more seen.' Sargent notes that the 'small Island' was Cushing itself, which was then a Mitton family possession.
- [1] Josselyn, J. (1674). An Account of Two Voyages to New-England.
- [2] Sargent (1886), pp. 25–26.