Falmouth, Maine Soldiers at Siege of Louisbourg

Hardship Compensated by Grant to Present Standish, Maine

Mar 15, 2009 Rosemary E. Bachelor

Falmouth Soldiers sailed hundreds of miles to do battle at Louisbourg, were gone 16 months and successfully petitioned for land as compensation.

The 1745 siege of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia gave Britain a victory over the French. This military action was known in Europe as the War of the Austrian Succession and this side of the Atlantic as King George’s War.

Maine colonists had their own self interest at stake. Not only was Louisbourg an important port, but it also threatened Maine fishing interests off the Grand Banks. In addition, William Pepperrell from nearby Kittery was commander of the invading colonial force.

Military Force Assembled at Boston

It was a strange conglomeration that gathered as a military force to set sail from Boston on a staggered timetable which began in March of 1745. Some accounts say New Hampshire and Connecticut each furnished about 500 troops, Rhode Island chipped in with a ship, New York donated cannon and New Jersey and Pennsylvania furnished funds.

Since more than 4,000 soldiers and sailors on more than 80 ships embarked from Boston, one wonders if Maine furnished all those extra men.

Petition of Falmouth Soldiers

We can identify the Falmouth soldiers by a petition they signed. It tells how they not only won the battle, but were retained to defend Louisbourg until British forces arrived. The petition cites their fatigue, low wages and states they were “put out of our usual way of Business, it terminated very detrimental to us”. The petition notes that they have no land to settle upon nor money to purchase it.

The petition ends with a request for a township grant of six square miles somewhere in York County. Their wish was granted and the township was first called Pearsontown in honor of their captain. It has long since been known as Standish. Some of the soldiers settled there; others sold their share of the grant. The petition is in the Massachusetts Archives (Vol. 73, Folio 617).

Name and Rank of Falmouth Soldiers

These were the Falmouth soldiers:

Moses Pearson, Captain; George Knight, Lieutenant; James Springer, Ensign; Axel Roberts, Sergeant; Philip Hodgkins, Sergeant; Ebenezer Gustin, Sergeant; Joshua Ilsley, Sergeant; Joseph Emerson, Corporal; David Woodman, Corporal; Gamaliel Pote, Corporal; Samuel Lunt, Corporal; Simon Wheeler, Drummer, and John Roberts, Clerk.

The following were designated as Privates: John Anderson, John Ayer, Penuiel Barton, Samuel Clark, Jacob Clifford, Abiel Crosby, Daniel Douty, Joseph Foster, Andrew Frost, James Gi[l]key, Edward Gilman, Moses Gould (servant to Nathan Winslow), Jacob Graffam, Samuel Graves (son of John and under age), Ebenezer Hall, Moses Hodgkins, Samuel Hodgkins (servant to Philip Hodgkins and under age), Nathaniel Ingersol, Ebenezer Lincoln, Samuel Lowell, Nehemiah Pitman, Abraham Sawyer, Sequent (an Indian), Joshua Simson, Joseph Thorn, Joseph Thorn Jr. (servant to Moses Pearson), and George Williams (son of George and under age).

A Final Irony

The account ends with an ironic twist. The 1748 treaty returned Louisbourg to the French in return for Great Britain receiving Madras, a British enclave in India. In 1758, as part of the French and Indian War, the British and their American colonists had to take Louisbourg all over again. This time the peace treaty was more favorable. Great Britain got all of Canada!

A companion article gives Falmouth marriages, 1750-1753.

SOURCES:

Rawlyk, G.A., Yankees at Louisbourg, (University of Maine Press: 1967).

The original document listing Falmouth soldiers in the Louisbourg Expedition was in the possession of the Hon. Andrew Hawes in the 1890s. Marquis Fayette King, president of the Maine Genealogical Society, had access to it when, in 1898, he prepared material on Falmouth for publication by the society. It was reprinted in 1990 by Heritage Books in the appendix of Records of First Church in Falmouth.

The copyright of the article Falmouth, Maine Soldiers at Siege of Louisbourg in Genealogy is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Falmouth, Maine Soldiers at Siege of Louisbourg in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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