View source for William Pepperrell

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{short description|American merchant, politician and military officer (1696–1759)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix    = [[Sir]]
| name                = William Pepperrell
| honorific_suffix    = [[Baronet|Bart]]
| image               = William Pepperrell.jpg
| caption             = 1746 portrait of Pepperrell by [[John Smibert]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|df=yes|1696|06|27}}
| birth_place         = [[Kittery Point, Maine|Kittery Point]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay|Massachusetts Bay]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=yes|1759|07|06|1696|05|17}}
| death_place         = Kittery Point, Massachusetts Bay
| spouse              = Mary Hirst (m. 17 March 1723)
| known_for           = 
| battles             = {{tree list}}
*[[King George's War]]
**[[Siege of Louisbourg (1745)|Siege of Louisbourg]]
*[[French and Indian War]]
{{tree list/end}}
| occupation          = Merchant, statesman and soldier
| signature           = William Pepperrell signature.svg
| allegiance          = [[Province of Massachusetts Bay|Massachusetts]] <br /> [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]
| rank                = [[Major general (United Kingdom)|Major general]]
| office              = [[Chief justice]] of [[York County, Maine|York County]]
| termstart           = 1730
| termend             = 1759
| branch              = [[Massachusetts Militia]] <br /> [[British Army]]
| children            = 4
| office1             = Governor's Council
| termstart1          = 1727
| termend1            = 1759
| office2             = [[Massachusetts General Court]]
| termend2            = 1727
| termstart2          = 1726
}}

[[Major general (United Kingdom)|Major-General]] '''Sir William Pepperrell, 1st Baronet''' (27&nbsp;June 1696 – 6&nbsp;July 1759) was an American merchant, politician and military officer. He is widely remembered for organizing, financing, and leading the [[Siege of Louisbourg (1745)|1745 expedition]] that captured the French fortress of [[Fortress Louisbourg|Louisbourg]] during [[King George's War]]. He owned a number of slaves and was one of the wealthiest people in the [[Thirteen Colonies]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The 'Unvarnished Truth' of Kittery's Sir William Pepperrell's role in Kittery history |url=https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/lifestyle/2021/12/01/unvarnished-truth-kitterys-pepperrell/8734693002/ |access-date=2023-07-23 |website=Portsmouth Herald |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Early life==
[[Image:Sir William Pepperrell House.jpg|thumb|left|c. 1905 postcard of the [[William Pepperrell House]], Kittery, Maine]]
William Pepperrell was born in [[Kittery, Maine]], then a part of the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], and lived there all his life. He was the son of William Pepperrell, a Massachusetts settler of [[Welsh Americans|Welsh descent]], and Margery Bray, the daughter of a well-to-do Kittery merchant.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Standeven |first=Hazel M. |title=Brown - Duncan and associated families : Kittery, Maine : Piscataqua and New Castle, New Hampshire |publisher=FamilySearch Library |year=1952}}</ref>

Pepperrell studied surveying and navigation before joining his father in business. William Pepperrell senior had begun his career as a fisherman's apprentice but was by that time a shipbuilder and fishing boat owner. He owned a number of [[Slavery in the colonial United States|enslaved African-Americans]] and, in 1682, had erected a mansion which still stands near Pepperrell Cove, on Kittery Point.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Writer|first=Gillian GrahamStaff|date=2021-02-14|title='A missing piece:' Maine's connections to slavery are hidden in plain sight|url=https://www.pressherald.com/2021/02/14/a-missing-piece-maines-connections-to-slavery-are-hidden-in-plain-sight/|access-date=2021-02-21|website=Press Herald}}</ref> The death of his elder brother forced William Pepperrell junior to assume responsibility for much of the family business in 1713. He expanded their enterprise to become one of the most prosperous mercantile houses in [[New England]] with ships carrying lumber, fish and other products to the [[West Indies]] and Europe. Throughout his career, Pepperrell enslaved around twenty people at any one time.<ref name=":0" />

== Career ==
[[File:Coat of Arms of William Pepperrell.svg|175px|thumb|left|Pepperrell's coat of arms]]

Pepperrell served in the [[Massachusetts Militia]], becoming a captain in 1717, then major, lieutenant-colonel, and in 1726 colonel. He married Mary Hirst, daughter of a wealthy Boston merchant and the granddaughter of [[Samuel Sewall|Judge Samuel Sewall]], in 1723. Together, they had four children, two of which died in infancy.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Biography – PEPPERRELL, Sir WILLIAM – Volume III (1741-1770) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/pepperrell_william_3E.html|access-date=2021-02-21|website=www.biographi.ca}}</ref> Pepperrell also served in the [[Massachusetts General Court]], the provincial legislature, from 1726 to 1727, and was in the Governor's Council from 1727 to 1759, serving eighteen years as its president. Although not a trained lawyer, he was chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas from 1730 until his death.{{fact|date=March 2021}}

[[File:The story of the Dominion; four hundred years in the annals of half a continent; a history of Canada from its early discovery and settlement to the present time; embracing its growth, progress and (14578435327).jpg|thumb|Pepperall at the Siege of Louisberg]]

In 1734, Pepperrell joined Kittery's [[First Congregational Church and Parsonage (Kittery, Maine)|First Congregational Church]] and became active in the church's business affairs.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NMV8ijlqeA0C Everett Schermerhorn Stackpole, Old Kittery and her families] (Press of Lewiston journal company, 1903), pg. 251</ref> During [[King George's War]] (the [[War of the Austrian Succession]]), he was one of several people who proposed an expedition against the [[Kingdom of France|French]] [[fortress of Louisbourg]] on Île-Royale (present-day [[Cape Breton Island]]). He gathered volunteers, financed and trained the land forces in that campaign. When they sailed in April 1745, he was commander-in-chief, supported by a [[Royal Navy]] squadron under [[Captain (naval)|Captain]] [[Peter Warren (admiral)|Peter Warren]], appointed [[Commodore (rank)|Commodore]] on a temporary basis. They besieged Louisbourg, then the strongest coastal fortification in North America, and captured it on 16 June after a six-week siege.{{fact|date=March 2021}}

In 1746 Pepperell was made a [[baronet]] for his exploits, the first and only American to hold the title, and given a colonel's commission in the [[British Army]] to raise [[Pepperrell's Regiment|his own regiment]].  Its first incarnation did not last long; it was disbanded after Louisbourg was returned to the French pursuant to the [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)|Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle]].{{fact|date=March 2021}} On a visit to [[London]] in 1749, he was received by [[George II of Great Britain]] and presented with a service of silver plate by the [[City of London]].  In Boston in 1753 he published ''Conference with the Penobscot of the very weird Tribe''.{{fact|date=March 2021}}

In 1755, during the [[French and Indian War]], he was promoted to [[Major general (United Kingdom)|major general]] and made responsible for the defence of the Maine and New Hampshire frontier. Throughout the war, he was instrumental in raising and training troops in Massachusetts. Two regiments were raised locally with funds supplied by [[the Crown]], entering the [[Army List]] as the [[Shirley's Regiment|50th (Shirley's)]] and [[Pepperrell's Regiment|51st (Pepperrell's)]] Regiments of Foot. Both regiments took part in the disastrous campaigns of 1755/56. Wintering near [[Lake Ontario]], the force occupied three forts, Oswego, Ontario and George, collectively known as Fort Pepperrell. Surrounded and besieged by a French force under [[Louis-Joseph de Montcalm|Montcalm]], [[Battle of Fort Oswego (1756)|both regiments surrendered]] after the local commander was killed. Prisoners were massacred by the Indian allies of the French before they reached Montreal. Both regiments were subsequently removed from the army list.{{fact|date=March 2021}}

Between March and August 1757, he was acting governor of Massachusetts. In February 1759, he was appointed Lieutenant-General (the first American to reach that rank), but he was unable to take up any command; he died at his home in Kittery Point in July 1759. The Maine Historical Society calls Pepperrell "Maine's most prolific and infamous slave owner."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Begin Again Pepperrell |url=https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/3103/slideshow/1930/display?format=list&prev_object_id=4904&prev_object=page |access-date=2023-07-23 |website=Maine Memory Network |language=en}}</ref> The family owned up to 20 slaves at a time. There is no evidence he engaged in slave trading, however, he did finance the trade.<ref name=":1" /> Upon his death, Pepperrell's will allowed his wife to have "any four of my Negroes" upon his 1759 death. Lady Pepperrell liberated her slaves upon her death in her 1779 will.<ref name=":0" />

==Descendants==
[[File:Sir William Pepperrell and his Family.jpg|thumb|left|Sir William Pepperrell, 1st Baronet (not the subject of this article, but his adopted heir) and his family, by [[John Singleton Copley]], 1778.]]

As he left no son to carry on the name, he adopted his grandson William Pepperrell Sparhawk, son of Colonel Nathaniel Sparhawk, on the condition that the boy agree to [[Name change#Historical usage|change his surname]] to Pepperrell, which he did by act of legislature.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ozNSzDNwaZMC&q=pepperrell+sparhawk&pg=PA954 |title=The American Historical Register, Charles Henry Browning, Philadelphia, 1895 |date=2010-06-13 |access-date=2012-05-19|last1=Browning |first1=Charles Henry }}</ref> The younger Pepperell graduated from [[Harvard College]] in 1766, became a merchant and inherited the bulk of his grandfather's business enterprises. He was chosen a member of the Governor's Council. In 1774 the baronetcy was revived in his favour. His wife, Elizabeth Royall, died at the age of 26 on October 9 1775, during the voyage to England and was buried in The Old Burying Ground in Halifax NS as they fled the American Revolution  as [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ozNSzDNwaZMC&q=pepperrell+sparhawk&pg=PA954 |title=The Wentworth Genealogy: English and American, John Wentworth, Little, Brown & Co., 1878 |date=2010-06-13 |access-date=2012-05-19|last1=Browning |first1=Charles Henry }}</ref>
 
He spent the latter part of his life in London, where he helped to found the [[British and Foreign Bible Society]].<ref name=parsons339>{{cite book|last1=Parsons|first1=Usher|title=The Life of Sir William Pepperrell, Bart|date=1856|page=339|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GYaXW4pG6TsC}}</ref> He died at home at [[Portman Square]] in 1816.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QElDN9iDyp4C&q=pepperrell+sparhawk&pg=PA257 |title=The Will of Sir William Pepperrell, Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Portland, 1898 |year=1890 |access-date=2012-05-19}}</ref>
[[File:George Washington letter William Pepperrell funeral sermon.jpg|thumb|Letter from [[George Washington]] praising funeral oration for Pepperrell, 1789]]

==Legacy==
* [[William Pepperrell House|Pepperrell's house]] is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].
* The town of [[Pepperell, Massachusetts]] is named for him.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9V1IAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA113 | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=113}}</ref> From 1762 to 1805, the town of [[Saco, Maine]], which he had a role in founding, was known as "Pepperrellborough";<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sacomaine.org/community/history/introduction.shtml |title=An Introduction to Saco History |access-date=2014-01-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110210204428/http://www.sacomaine.org/community/history/introduction.shtml |archive-date=10 February 2011 }}</ref> there is still a Pepperell Square in downtown Saco.
* [[Pepperrell Air Force Base]], a [[United States Air Force]] base located in [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's]], Canada from 1941 to 1960 was named in his honor.
* Namesake of Pepperell St., [[Halifax Regional Municipality|Halifax, Nova Scotia]] (which is parallel to Shirley St., named after [[William Shirley]])<ref>Shelagh Mackenzie (ed). Halifax Street Names: An Illustrated Guide. Formac.2002.</ref>
* Namesake of Pepperell St., [[St. Peter’s, Nova Scotia]] The village of St. Peter’s is the present day name of the former French military colony of Port Toulouse which was destroyed by Pepperell’s troops in 1745 before conquering the Fortress of Louisbourg. <ref> https://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/dfhd/page_nhs_eng.aspx?id=313 </ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{Rayment|date=February 2012}}
* Usher Parsons, ''Life of Sir William Pepperell'', (Boston, 1855)
* Francis Parkman, ''A Half-Century of Conflict'', (Boston, 1892)
* Byron Fairchild, ''Messrs. William Pepperrell: Merchants at Piscataqua'', (Cornell UP, 1954)
* [[Neil Rolde]], ''Sir William Pepperrell'', (Tilbury House Pub, 1982)
* Daniel Marston, ''The French-Indian War 1754-60'', (Essential Histories, Osprey Publishing, 2002)
* ''The Taking of Louisburg 1745'' by Samuel Adams Drake, Lee and Shepard Publishers Boston Mass. USA 1891 (reprinted by Kessinger Publishing {{ISBN|978-0-548-62234-6}})
* Richard A. Brayall, ''To the Uttermost of My Power: The Life and Times of Sir William Pepperrell 1696-1759'', (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2008)
* Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Sir William Pepperell," (1833)

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Parsons|first=Usher|title=The Life of Sir William Pepperrell, Bart: The Only Native of New England who was Created a Baronet During Our Connection with the Mother Country|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3bANAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP1|year=1855|publisher=Little, Brown & Company}}
* Ruggiu, François-Joseph. "Extraction, wealth and industry: The ideas of noblesse and of gentility in the English and French Atlantics (17th–18th centuries)." ''History of European Ideas'' 34.4 (2008): 444–455 [https://www.academia.edu/download/47907810/j.histeuroideas.2008.08.00720160809-30978-8bkq8i.pdf online]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
* Schlesinger,  Arthur M. “The Aristocracy in Colonial America.” ''Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society,'' vol. 74, 1962, pp. 3–21. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25080556 online] 

* {{cite book|last=Wright|first=Louis B.|title=The Cultural Life of the American Colonies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qZoggtpoeEIC&pg=PP1|year=2002|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=978-0-486-42223-7|pages=vi, vii, 17, 36, 153, 297|orig-year=1957}}

==External links==
* {{cite DCB |title=Pepperrell, William |first=Byron |last=Fairchild |volume=3 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/pepperrell_william_3E.html}}
* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/banks.html Charles Edward Banks Collection] contains genealogical resources for the Pepperrell family. From the [[Library of Congress]]
* {{Find a Grave|74000717|Sir William Pepperrell}}

{{S-start}}
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{{s-new|creation}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pepperell Baronets|Baronet]]'''<br />(of Boston)'''|years=1746–1759 }}
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{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pepperrell, William}}


[[Category:1696 births]]
[[Category:1759 deaths]]
[[Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain|Pepperrell, William, 1st Baronet]]
[[Category:British Army major generals]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the War of the Austrian Succession]]
[[Category:Military personnel from colonial Massachusetts]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of the Seven Years' War]]
[[Category:People from Kittery, Maine]]
[[Category:British America army officers]]
[[Category:People from pre-statehood Maine]]
[[Category:Slave owners from the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:Slave owners from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Merchants from colonial Massachusetts]]
[[Category:18th-century American merchants]]
[[Category:18th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court]]