Radio Script #1074

Little Talks on Common Things
January 25, 1976

In all that our recent broadcasts have had to say about the Kennebec Purchase, the rise and fall of the corporation of proprietors, their political and religious dissension, their successes and their failures, we have told you almost nothing about the men who carried on that venture. So today let us hear a bit about the people who were actually shareholders in the 24 shares of the Kennebec Purchase.

The leader and most enterprising promoter of the company officially titled “The Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase from the Late Colony of New Plymouth” was Dr. Sylvester Gardiner. He was born to wealth in the Bay Colony, his father owning at least 20,000 acres and having other property valued at more than 5,000 pounds. As a boy he attended the Boston Latin School, then was sent to England to study medicine. After an absence of eight years, he returned to set up practice as a physician and surgeon, and became noted for some unusual surgery.

The average colonial doctor had an annual income not much more than that of a clergyman, about 100 pounds a year, equivalent of about $450 at the time, but worth about $5,000 in present currency. He carefully nurtured his share of his father’s estate, and in a few years had doubled its value. But he also made money in an area connected with his profession. He became an importer of drugs, selling them at large profits to other physicians and apothecaries. By 1750, Sylvester Gardiner was a very rich man. So wealthy was he at the time of the Revolution that he was not bankrupted by confiscating of his New Engiand property. He also had safe investments in London. At one time his stock of drugs alone was worth 2,000 pounds.

Among the Kennebec settlers, Dr. Gardiner gained the reputation of being a hard man. That was because, when a debtor failed to pay according to agreed terms, Gardiner did not hesitate to foreclose, thereby becoming owner of many pieces of improved property. What his critics overlooked was his devotion to his settlement on the Cobbossee, that is now the City of Gardiner. At considerable risk he built mills, stores, Wharves and houses for tenants. Without his strenuous efforts and his willingness to risk considerable capital, the Gardiner settlers would have been much worse off. He was the acknowledged leader of the Proprietors.

Another prominent proprietor was William Bowdoin. He had wealth, political influence and important family ties. His ancestor, Huguenot refugee Pierre Baudouin, had fled France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and had first settled on Casco Bay in Maine. Driven out by the Indians, he had resettled at Boston. He became a modest trader, but developed such a business that his son, James Bowdoin, pyramided it into a fortune. When James died in 1747, he had what was then a vast estate of 80,000 pounds. It was left 2/7 for each of his sons William and James, 1/7 each for his sons-in-law James Pitts and Thomas Flucker and the remaining 1/7 in trust for the children of his daughter.

Parenthetically, let it be noted that James Pitts was the man who eventually owned Lot 105 in Waterville’s business section, and that Thomas Flueker became the father-in-law of General Henry Knox, who built the mansion Montpelier at Thomaston. William Bowdoin was an active promoter of the Pownalborough settlement, and he faithfully attended every meeting of the Proprietors until he closed out his interest. Even more active in company affairs was William Bowdoin’s brother James. He became second only to Dr. Gardiner in proprietary influence. Younger than his brother William, James Bowdoin was only 26 years old in 1752, when the settlement at Pownalborough was established. Yet the very next year he was made treasurer of the company and a member of its Standing Committee. He continued to manage the company’s funds. He was the author of many pamphlets published to induce settlers. For many years he carried on a scientific correspondence with Benjamin Franklin. James and William Bowdoin together established the settlement that, upon incorporation, became the town of Bowdoinham, and the family also gave their name to Bowdoin College.

Benjamin Hallowell, close friend of Sylvester Gardiner, and whose son was to marry Gardiner’s daughter, became a proprietor in 1752. He was a self-made man. Unlike Gardiner and the Bowdoins he did not have a wealthy father. Starting as a carpenter, by zeal and thrift, he soon owned a shipyard, a rope walk, and a Boston mansion. Stirred by Dr. Gardiner into the belief that glorious opportunities were open in Kennebec lands, Benjamin Hallowell became a double shareholder in the Kennebec Proprietors. That meant that he owned 1/12 of the whole vast property.

Florentius Vassall was a proprietor who never saw his Maine lands, nor did his son William, who inherited those lands. Nor did they regularly attend company meetings. Dr. Gardiner held the Vassall proxy in company votes. Their chief significance in the proprietary was that one of the towns was named Vassalboro.

One of the proprietors Who did finally come to the Kennebec and had considerable influence on the region’s development was contractor and builder Gershom Flagg. Though he owned only one-half share, he did more for the region than many of the larger shareholders. The term “contractor and builder” for Flagg is a bit of misnomer. It was a phrase unknown in colonial times. What he was in those times was called a housewright, a man able both to design and construct a handsome dwelling.

Flagg took the contract to shingle the tower of Boston’s first Episcopal Church, King’s Chapel, in 1762. He contracted to do several projects for John Hancock. On the Maine frontier he built several major structures, and worked on the construction of both Fort Western and Fort Halifax. Perhaps his outstanding Maine work was the Pownalborough Courthouse, which still proudly stands, fully restored in this century, on the bank of the Kennebec in what is now the town of Dresden. In 1759, Gershom Flagg accompanied Gov. Pownall on his Penobscot Expedition and erected, at Pownall’s command, the Penobscot blockhouse at Prospect. So far as is known, Flagg was the only Kennebec Proprietor who was a Baptist.

The Hancock interests in the Kennebec Purchase began with John Hancock’s uncle, Thomas Hancock, who in 1749 held the position of Commissary of the British Naval forces in Boston, and was a member of the Governor’s Council. He too was very active in the founding of Pownalboro. He became a double shareholder in the Company. On his death, most of his estate, including his Maine lands, went to the nephew John Hancock, who became renowned as the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. During the Revolution and the years that immediately followed, John Hancock was the leading proprietor. The old leader, Sylvester Gardiner, a loyalist who opposed the Revolution, had fled to England.

Some of the proprietors got their shares in the Company through inheritance from one of the four men who had bought the huge Kennebec tract from the Pilgrims in 1661. Such was William Brattle, descendent of Thomas Brattle, one of the four purchasers. William was a graduate of Harvard in 1722. He tried his hand at three learned professions, medicine, law, and ministry, but had little success at any of them. As a speculator in land he found his true career. He owned property allover New England. Brattleboro, Vermont was named for him. A close friend of Gov. Shirley, he was an early liaison between the Proprietors and the Governor’s office, and had much to do with persuading Shirley to approve the plans for Fort Western and Fort Halifax.

Like Gershom Flagg, Samuel Goodwin was a proprietor who personally settled on Kennebec lands at Pownalborough. He was most influential in putting through the plans for that community. Like Dr. Gardiner, he was an Episcopalian and a Tory, causing him plenty of trouble during the Revolution. He stubbornly continued to live in Pownalborough Courthouse, despite many attempts to evict him, until finally he left in frustration and disgust.

Always prominent in the proprietary was the Temple family. Sir William Temple, knighted by the King before he came to America, stayed in New England barely long enough to develop colonial property that had come into his hands before he left England. It was long enough, however, for him to become a shareholder in the Kennebec Proprietors. Temple’s son Robert decided to stay in Boston after his father returned to England, never again to step foot on American soil. Robert Temple became a member of the Standing Committee and personally drew the plans for Fort Western. After his death, his sons Robert Jr. and John both became Kennebec Proprietors.

Like William Brattle, Edward Tyng was a proprietor who had inherited from one of those four buyers of 1661, a Tyng also named Edward. The 1750, Tyng lived at Falmouth, Maine, now Portland. He was a shipowner and had advanced his social status by marrying the sister of Samuel Waldo, promoter of the German settlement at Waldoboro. Tyng was commander of the provincial fleet in the attack on Louisburg under Sir William Pepperell.

The way marriage ties got into Kennebec affairs is exemplified by a lesser known proprietor, William Tailer. Robert Temple married Tailer’s niece. Like Sylvester Gardiner, Tailer was on the wrong side in the Revolution, and was banished in 1778.

Prominent for some time in the proprietary was the Apthorp family of Boston merchants. Charles Apthorp was a partner with Thomas Hancock in many business ventures, and it was probably Hancock who interested Apthorp in the Kennebec lands, although the man was also related to Robert Temple. Apthorp was an Episcopalian, but was one of the few leaders of that faith who supported the Revolution. Apthorp’s large estate was dispersed among his fifteen children. Since it amounted to more than 50,000 pounds, none of them left penniless.

Of course in the Kennebec proprietary there were many minor shareholders whose names have been all but forgotten. This broadcast has given only a brief account of the leaders.

Year: 1976