Radio Script #1155

Little Talks on Common Things
March 5, 1978

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, when a wealthy Maine landowner and merchant died, his will often left the major part of his fortune to a grandson with a different family name, because he was a child of the testator’s daughter rather than of a son. Sometimes this happened when the testator had a living son, as was the case with Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, who chose his daughter’s son rather than his own living son as his principal heir. Dr. Gardiner left the major control of his vast estate to his grandson, Robert Hallowell on the condition that the young man change his name to Robert Hallowell Gardiner, and that was duly done.

Not long ago one of these broadcasts dealt with Sir William Pepperell, who had reached wealth and fame in Kittery half a century before Dr. Gardiner occupied his lands on the Kennebec. I now want to tell you how the Pepperell will carried out provisions similar to the will .of Dr. Gardiner. Sir William Pepperell did have a son, Andrew, who had died before Sir William’s own death, but who had anyhow gravely disappointed his father. Even before Andrew died of scarlet fever in 1751 at the age of 26, Sir William had decided that Andrew would not be his principal heir. Of course the death of Andrew, who never married, made consideration of him in Sir William’s final will unnecessary.

A close friend and military associate of Sir William Pepperell was General Samuel Waldo, who had become a fellow commander with Pepperell in the capture of Louisburg from the French – the victory that caused King George II to grant knighthood to Pepperell. Although Waldo made his home in Boston, he owned property near Pepperell’s in Kittery, and after the general’s death his widow made her home there. In 1748 Andrew Pepperell, Sir William’s son, became engaged to Hannah, the daughter of Samuel Waldo. Their marriage intentions were published, but the wedding was deferred because of Andrew’s illness. His father urged him to set an early date for the marriage as soon as he recovered, and Sir William informed General Waldo that his son would act accordingly. Andrew did recover, but still made no move to marry the girl. Somewhat earlier Andrew’s older sister Elizabeth had married Nathaniel Sparhawk, a prosperous young merchant of Boston. In 1750, two years after the publication of Andrew’s marriage intentions, Sparhawk persuaded his brother-in-law to set a wedding date. Andrew consented, but a few days before the new date he informed Hannah that circumstances necessitated another postponement. That was too much for the girl. Saying that she had been repeatedly humiliated, she broke the engagement. In less than six weeks she married the secretary of the Province of Massachusetts, Thomas Flucker.

Andrew Pepperell was then of age and his father had no control over the young man’s actions. But one thing he could do – cut Andrew out of a major inheritance. So, in his will, he made his daughter’s oldest son, William Pepperell Sparhawk, heir to most of his Maine estate, extending from the Piscataqua River, in various pieces of land, to Casco Bay and to holdings in England besides. But Sir William, like the later Dr. Gardiner, made a provision. The grandson must change his name to William Pepperell.

After Sir William’s death, William Sparhawk carried out the provision and secured his inheritance. But Sir William was to be disappointed in thus carrying on the Pepperell family line. Like Dr. Gardiner, the new William Pepperell became an ardent Tory when the American Revolution broke out. He did the same as Gardiner – fled to England in 1775, and his Kittery property was confiscated, just as was Gardiner’s on the Kennebec. Pepperell’s attempt to regain the property did not have the same success as did that of Robert Hallowell Gardiner. Sir William’s heir died in London in 1818, the Kittery property still widely dispersed. His only son, Walter had died nine years earlier. So with William Pepperell Sparhawk, renamed William Pepperell, died the particular family line old Sir William had intended. As for the knighthood, the Crown did extend it to Sir William’s heir, so that Maine had indeed two Sir William Pepperells, but of course that baronetcy also died with the second Sir William.

In early Maine the great families were often related by marriage. Although the intended union of the Papperell and Waldo families fell through when Hannah Waldo finally broke her disappointing engagement to Andrew Pepperell, that very broken engagement was the cause of another historic union. Hannah Waldo and her husband Thomas Fluckerhad had a daughter who, against their wishes, married not into the Boston aristocracy, but an impoverished Boston bookseller Henry Knox. That bookseller was the man who, in the Revolution, became General Washington’s chief artillery officer, and when Washington was elected president, became the United States’ first Secretary of War.

General Knox’s wife inherited one-fifth of the vast estate the Waldos had established in eastern Maine, and her share covered the settlements around Muscongus Bay. The town of Waldoboro and the county of Waldo were named for the family. General Knox was there able to develop huge landed interests in the area, built the mansion Montpelier, and became the grand patroon of Muscongus Bay.

So when you visit Montpelier down in Thomaston in this last quarter of the 20th century, be reminded that it wouldn’t be there if, more than 200 years ago, Andrew Pepperell had fulfilled his promise to marry Hannah Waldo.

Probably one reason that prompted Sir William Pepperell to make his Sparhawk grandson his principal heir was the old man’s deep satisfaction with the man his daughter had married. Nathaniel Sparhawk had belonged to a distinguished colonial family. The first Nathaniel had come from England in 1636 and settled in Cambridge. His son, and every first son in successive generations, graduated from Harvard. In 1715 there was born in Rhode Island, to the Reverend John Sparhawk, a son to whom was given the common family name Nathaniel. In 1742 Nathaniel married William Pepperell’s daughter Elizabeth.

When William Pepperell accepted the command of the Louisburg expedition in 1744, the management of much of the Pepperell shipping business fell upon Nathaniel Sparhawk, and he performed those duties admirably. In 1749 Sir William made an extended visit to England, and the personal correspondence between him and Sparhawk during that time shows that the son-in-law was a diligent guardian of the Pepperell interests. Sparhawk was especially active in political attempts to have Sir William appointed the royal governor of New Hampshire. Although the attempts did not succeed, it further cemented the close relationship between the two men.

A short extract from a letter written by Sparhawk to Sir William in London in 1750 reveals something of the Kittery business.
“I am now embarking on my own business, freed from the partnership of Mr. Cutts of Boston, but my Boston interests will not prevent my devoting much time to yours in Kittery. So any business you may be able to negotiate in England for your or my interests in New England, I will gladly attend to here. There is no prospect of any masts being got out this winter, but you might secure an order from the commissioners for a number of shiploads to be placed here on the King’s ships and charged to the King’s account. Those ships might pick up the masts at Kittery as they sail here from Virginia or the West Indies.

“There is now no contract for our supplying the yards in the West Indies, and you may be able to get that renewed. We can easily procure the masts and it would give needed employment here.

“Your attention to these matters I shall take as token of your parental regard and affection.

“Mr. Gulston has refused to pay our bill of 1,200 pounds. He claims we have charged him twice for the same cargo of masts. We have proved to him that this is not true. We also advanced him money for two years and charged him no interest. We shall continue in our efforts to make him pay.

“Pay my compliments to Brigadier Waldo to whom I intend now to write. Milliken has a large contract with Wentworth, the Gov. of N. H. for masts, and I expect this will finish being eventually to our advantage. The General Court in Boston is about to choose an agent to get the paper money of New Hampshire and Rhode Island suppressed by Act of Parliament, and to get authority to transact in Boston rather than in London certain affairs of correspondence.”

In a letter early in 1750, Sparhawk mentioned to Sir William the engagement of Andrew Pepperell. “The love affair of Andrew and Miss Waldo, now of four years duration, is still pending, much to the annoyance of both families, as well as trying to the patience of the young lady.”

A letter from Sparhawk in Boston to his manager in Kittery reveals more about business. “When my shipment from Boston arrives in Kittery, you will weigh the cordage and everything else that ought to be weighed, and take it to the house, except the bread, pork, ducks, and cordage. Put it into my room. Don’t deliver the ducks to Holbrook until you hear from me. See that Capt. Tuckerman obeys my order to sail to the eastward for a load of wood for Salem. Deliver to him rum and sugar sufficient for his voyage, as well as other provisions from the goods. I have just sent you. What of the beef and mutton he does not need you will send to the family at my house. Put the bread in the shop, or the rats will eat it.

“I shall send back two Negro girls. Find somebody in Kittery to take them for their victuals, and see that they have cloaks, shoes and shifts. Be sure they don’t suffer.”

And with that reference to Negro slaves in Maine 275 years ago, we say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1978